South Africa: IMMT meets #AlexShutdown leaders, protest halted The Alexandra Total Shutdown Committee has undertaken to temporarily suspend service delivery protests in the area following engagements with senior government officials on Wednesday. The committee on Wednesday met with the President Cyril Ramaphosa-appointed Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) on Service Delivery to discuss the townships challenges. The President, following a visit to Alex, this week directed that the IMTT should within one week meet with the Alexandra Total Shutdown Committee and ensure the concerns raised by the community are addressed. The IMTT comprises various ministries such as Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Environmental Affairs, Police, Small Business Development, Home Affairs, Police as well as Rural Development and Land Reform. The provincial government, represented by the Premier and MECs, was invited to give the IMTT an account of their meeting with the Alexandra Community following the visit to Alexandra by Gauteng Premier David Makhura. During the meeting, which the IMTT said was calm, cordial and conducted in a respectful manner, characterized by frankness, the Alexandra Total Shutdown presented its memorandum of grievances and challenges faced by the community. The document detailed service delivery challenges and the long term issues of reviving the town of Alexandra. Amongst the issues raised were: Unresolved land issues and release of title deeds to unlock future development and court orders prohibiting building on the land; High demand for housing, illegal occupation of houses and other premises for unscrupulous money making schemes; Lack of refuse removal and illegal dumping of litter, resulting in intolerable stench and unhygienic conditions; Poorly kept parks, cemeteries and overgrown vegetation on the side of the roads. Poor service delivery, including challenges of sewerage spillage onto the streets, illegal connection of water, electricity and dangerous electric connections; Proliferation of illegal shacks and other structures in contravention of bylaws and failure of city officials to enforce bylaws. Failure to remove illegal structures and the mushrooming of shacks located under high voltage lines, river banks and flood plains, school premises and unused empty old factories; High crime rate and proliferation of large illegal weapons used in robbery and murder, making Alex too dangerous to raise families; Rapid increase in illegal and undocumented immigrants associated with crime, who are untraceable by law enforcement agents, and Need for economic upliftment and investment promotion for income generation and eradication of poverty unemployment and inequality. It was agreed that the committee will receive a report back next week after the proposed intergovernmental meeting, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Ministry spokesperson, Musa Zondi, said in a statement. During the meeting, the IMTT directed that the City of Johannesburg be urged to urgently attend to the serious issues of service delivery falling under the responsibility of the municipality. These include sewerage spillage, illegal water and electricity connections, refuse removal, cutting of grass and overgrown vegetation, and the clearing of cemeteries. The City of Johannesburg is further urged to give urgent attention to the removal of illegal structures and halt the mushrooming of shacks and land invasion, in line with the city bylaws using existing capacity, Zondi said. He said the IMTT directed that the Ministry of Police visit Alexandra police stations and work with the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) and the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster to enforce crime prevention measures with immediate effect. The IMTT encouraged all departments and spheres of government to undertake their own sectoral work and participate in the preparation for the intergovernmental meeting that will be held on 24 April, including the Gauteng province and the City of Johannesburg, said Zondi. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center announces $200K Challenge winners BOSTON -- Entrepreneurs developing new technologies to treat blood clots, congestive heart failure, incontinence and more were the big winners at the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center $200,000 Challenge, an annual pitch competition that showcases cutting-edge innovations in the medical-device and biotech fields. The center, known as M2D2, is a partnership between UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School that assists inventors and startups with all aspects of the process behind moving new products and technologies from concept to commercialization. Now in its eighth year, the challenge drew entrants from around the world and recognized winners on Wednesday, April 10 at an event held at the Boston offices of Mintz law firm. Nineteen finalists, chosen from a field of 143 entrants, had competed in the challenge's pitch-off on Wednesday, March 27 at UMass Lowell; two weeks later, 12 of them were awarded shares of a $200,000 purse of sponsor-provided, in-kind services, including lab and office space, and engineering, product development, legal, regulatory, clinical and business assistance. In a change from previous years, the winners were grouped into tiers for first, second and third places. "The judges agreed that this year's finalist field was the strongest ever, making it nearly impossible for them to rank the winners one through 12. By grouping them in tiers, we feel we're recognizing every winning innovation in the most appropriate manner - and acknowledging that the difference between two great ideas may be by just a small degree," said Mary Ann Picard, M2D2's director of operations. The winners are: First Place UroMonitor, from Cleveland, received the Hologic Award for a device to simplify and improve diagnosis and treatment of stress urinary incontinence; Respirix, from San Francisco, received the Boston Scientific Award for a non-invasive cardiac monitor for congestive heart failure patients; Endovascular Engineering, from Ann Arbor, Mich., received the Johnson & Johnson Award for a novel platform for mechanical thrombectomy in stroke; EnClear Therapies, from Cambridge, received the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Award for a treatment device to stop progress of neurodegenerative diseases; ARO Medical, from North Andover, received the MPR Award for a minimally invasive treatment device for orthopedic surgery. Second Place Neurovascular Diagnostics, from Buffalo, N.Y., received the Ashai Intecc Award for an RNA expression diagnostic to detect biomarkers of unruptured intercranial aneurysms; EnLiSense, from Allen, Texas, received the Amgen Award for a clinically relevant wearable electrochemical biosensor system; BuzzArk Simulations, from Chennai, India, received the Deshpande Award for a virtual reality simulation of natural orifice surgery procedures. Third Place UroRelief, from San Francisco, with a non-invasive device for treatment of overactive bladder; NPT Rapid Testing, from Lowell, with a novel diagnostic for accurate and early detection of bloodstream infections; Kinnos, from Brooklyn, N.Y., with an innovative infection control device; Dynocardia, from Lowell, with a wearable cNIBP (continuous non-invasive blood pressure) monitor for outpatient monitoring and hypertension management. "The quality of the medical devices and technologies presented in this year's competition was exceptional and inspiring. We are grateful to our sponsors for their support in helping these early-stage medical device, diagnostic and biotech startups bring their ideas from concept to commercialization," said M2D2 Founder and Director Stephen McCarthy, who also serves as director of UMass Lowell's Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology Program. "The innovations presented at this pitch contest are reshaping the quality of care as they transform the medical and biotech marketplace. Over the past eight years, the M2D2 $200,000 Challenge has become a vital showcase for the pioneering work being pursued all over the globe. I can't wait to see what's next," said M2D2 Co-Director Nate Hafer, director of operations at the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science at UMass Medical School. ### Challenge Sponsors The M2D2 $200K Challenge is made possible by the generous support of these sponsors: Amgen Asahi Intecc Boston Scientific Deshpande Foundation Hologic Johnson & Johnson Innovation Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Mintz MPR Product Development R&Q Regulatory & Quality Solutions About M2D2 M2D2 is a lifeline for the state's smaller medical device companies, offering inventors and executives easy, affordable, and coordinated access to world-class researchers and resources at the Lowell and Worcester campuses of the University of Massachusetts. M2D2 leverages the engineering, business and clinical strengths of the UMass campuses in Lowell and Worcester to provide fee-based services in the areas of business planning, product prototype development, and clinical pathway assistance. M2D2 is proud to be the only BARDA DRIVe accelerator in New England. BARDA's DRIVe aims to empower people and give them a greater role in their health outcomes. The initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is seeking better ways to detect threats, point-of-use indicators, biological and physiological sensing technologies. Thanks to a recent $7.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), M2D2 is also playing a large role in the development of CAPCaT, a new Center for Advancing Point-of-Care Technologies focused on heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders. Contact for M2D2 business information: Mary Ann Picard, M2D2 Operations Director MaryAnn_Picard@uml.edu Contact for media inquiries: Nancy Cicco, UMass Lowell media relations Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu or 978-934-4944 Twitter: @UMassM2D2 Facebook: UMassM2D2 LinkedIn: UMassM2D2 This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. He made the request at a meeting with the group on April 18, adding that the VRG must become a leading enterprise in agriculture and set an example for other agricultural businesses. The group was equitised in June last year and its state-owned stake is currently managed by the Committee for Management of State Capital after being transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). Although the initial public offering failed to meet the target as less than 25% of the state stake were sold, the group continued to record decent performance. Last year, the VRGs profits reached VND4.536 trillion (US$195 million), up 25.53% compared with the target set by the MARD. Appreciating the groups efforts, Deputy PM Hue stated that the VRG needs to diversify its products, especially rubberwood, in order to gain a larger share in the wood processing industry. He noted that the VRG should focus on wood processing and industrial rubber products, which have yet to be fully tapped, instead of putting its resources into planting rubber trees, harvesting latex and manufacturing MDF wood. Such an approach would reduce the VRGs reliance on global rubber prices. The Deputy PM also suggested that the VRG should attract secondary investors to support its wood-processing business, in addition to the development of industrial parks. At the meeting, Deputy PM Hue requested that the group formulates a master plan to restructure its business, re-organise its land after equitisation and report on a number of rubber planting projects. The victim reported that an unknown person entered her home in the 120 block of North Duke Drive around 11:30 p.m. on April 9 and sexually assaulted her, the Sheriffs Office said. The man fled after the attack. Authorities began investigating Corado Corado in February after receiving a tip about him, police said. An investigation revealed that Corado Corado targeted male and female victims who appeared to be between the ages of 10 and 13 and were active on social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Tik Tok, police said. Detectives are investigating the incident that happened in the 5100 block of Southern Avenue about 4:30 p.m., said D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham. The victims identity was not immediately released, but Newsham said he was a contract worker for road crew working in the area. Over the next hour, close to two dozen squirrels flew in for a meal. I was giddy by the end, gripped by the same feeling I get when a pod of dolphins surfaces when Im at the beach: Nature can be big, and nature can be little. But whatever the size, nature is wonderful. He was the first in line to be honored before that crowd because the War Department decided he was the most heroic of them all, even among the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the Harlem Hellfighters, none of whom were ever captured. After the way he fought in World War I, William Butlers race shouldnt have mattered. But it did. Now, after more than one congressional deadline has slipped away or been postponed, there are signs that by the end of 2020 much of the network will be in place. Progress has been made, with the Virginia Railway Express among the commuter lines fully operational, but other commuter lines have fallen behind. Commuter lines rely on passengers, not freight shipping rates, to raise revenue, and Congress has not fully subsidized PTC for their lines. And most other than Amtrak in the Northeast Corridor run on track owned by freight railroads with which their PTC systems may not be compatible yet. Reigrut oversaw the states eight toll facilities and the E-ZPass Maryland system. Under his leadership, the authority eliminated the $7.50 fee imposed on new customers of the states E-ZPass program, a move Reigrut said was meant to boost electronic toll payments as the state explored a cashless system for its toll facilities. PLTP has said the Purple Line cant carry passengers until March 2023 a year behind the contracts opening date and then only if the state pays an additional $300 million. However, a top Maryland transit official said recently that the state still believes the light-rail line can open by late 2022 and that the two sides are still far apart on any agreement about schedule changes or cost overruns. Del. Charniele L. Herring (D-Alexandria), chairwoman of the House Democratic Caucus and no relation to the attorney general, said McAuliffe, a prolific fundraiser with close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, could provide a range of help to Democrats. It can be anything from just helping candidates on the ground, firing up people before they knock on doors, our fundraising efforts, she said. When he says hes all in, believe it. Aerial photo of the different energy system components on KITs Campus North. (Photo: Sebastian Mang, KIT) Flexible interconnection of power, heat, and gas promises to make the future energy system more sustainable. This so-called sector coupling will now be tested under close-to-practice conditions at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Within the SEKO research project, a large-scale real-world laboratory including the corresponding properties and energy grids of KIT will be established. The new research infrastructure for sector coupling will be funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with more than EUR 6.5 million. Climate-friendly transformation of the energy system is one of the big technological challenges of our time: fluctuating energy supply from decentralized wind or solar facilities will have to be managed, as will the consumption peaks to be expected when e.g. millions of electric vehicles are charged simultaneously. Smart interconnection of the different sectors, such as electric power, heat, mobility, or energy carrier materials may help solve this problem. Excessive heat from industrial processes may be converted into power for electric mobility, excessive wind energy may be used for the production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) that is then fed into the natural gas grid for later consumption. The aim of sector coupling is to shift energy as efficiently as possible between the different sectors, depending on demand and supply, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and costs., explains Professor Joachim Knebel, who coordinates the new sector coupling research project (SEKO). In the past years, we developed a number of technologies for energy storage and energy conversion as well as strategies for the control of such processes at KIT. Within the SEKO research project, we now plan to test them in a large-scale real-world lab under close-to-practice conditions. Seven institutes of KIT are involved in SEKO. Within the project, these institutes cooperate across disciplines in various constellations. Research is funded by the BMBF with more than EUR 6.5 million for four years. Some parts of the infrastructure of the SEKO real-world lab at KIT already exist, project manager Dr. Isabelle Sudmeyer says. With funding by the Helmholtz Association, a suited technology platform is being built on KITs Campus North at the moment. It consists of the Energy Lab 2.0 and Living Lab Energy Campus and will enable sector coupling both physically as well as with the help of information and communication technologies. By late 2019, construction of major components is planned to be completed. Then, it will be possible to study system integration of various technologies and to develop and validate methods for dynamic coupling of the sectors, Sudmeyer continues. The SEKO research project consists of four subprojects. The Power subproject headed by Professor Mathias Noe of the Institute for Technical Physics (ITEP) focuses on coupling of heat pumps and electric vehicles with photovoltaic facilities and power stores. The Gas subproject headed by Professor Thomas Kolb of the Institute for Technical Chemistry (ITC) studies the interaction of gas and heat grids taking into consideration an energy-intensive industrial process and the dynamics of power-to-gas processes. The Heat/Cold subproject headed by Professor Veit Hagenmeyer of the Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics (IAI) will cover the development of methods to automatically generate heat load curves for buildings and experimental studies of efficient power-to-heat conversion for domestic application. Within the framework of an overarching sector coupling subproject also headed by Hagenmeyer, interconnection of the different facilities by information and communication technologies for flexible management is studied. Particular attention will be paid to IT security to prevent interference, attacks, and manipulation. Within the SEKO research project, scientists plan to test the sector coupling concept and the interaction of various energy technologies on the megawatt scale. In the opinion of project coordinator Knebel, this will not only strengthen Germany as a location of research. Against the background of the debate on climate goals, this also is of global signal character: We demonstrate our ability to act. And as we directly apply research results in a real-world lab, we will be able to accelerate practical implementation. Click here for the project website: http://www.sci.kit.edu/547.php More about the KIT Energy Center: http://www.energy.kit.edu Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence. But even now, it remains difficult for users to find medically assisted treatment with buprenorphine, methadone or naltrexone, which control cravings and are the accepted standard of care. The National Academy of Sciences concluded last month that most people with an opioid use disorder receive no treatment at all, and only a fraction of those who do have access to those drugs. N.H. panel denies pardon for man set to be deported: A New Hampshire auto shop owner facing deportation to Lebanon for crimes committed 14 years ago has been denied a pardon that would have allowed him to remain in the country. Alain Ata, 34, came to the United States with his family at age 10. He spent several years in prison for a pair of burglaries in December 2004. Since then he has opened an auto shop in Manchester. He takes care of his elderly parents and is engaged to be married. Gov. Chris Sununu's (R) Executive Council on Wednesday denied his request for a pardon by a vote of 3 to 1. Those who have assessed the problem say the water district may be able to clean pipes to some homes later this year, but it will take two years and up to $300 million before all hillside residents can safely drink, cook or bathe with the water from their taps. Meanwhile, Hindu chauvinism has grown steadily during Mr. Modis term there have been scores of hate attacks on Muslims, most of which have gone unpunished and the election campaign of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, has leaned heavily on crude sectarian appeals. Mr. Modi has derided Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the rival Congress party, for allegedly running away from Hindu districts to those where the majority is a minority. Journalists critical of the government have been pressured and intimidated. Through both active and passive investment funds, Americans also hold stock or bonds in many other questionable or dangerous Chinese companies, including subsidiaries of firms affiliated with the Chinese military. According to RWR Advisory Group, U.S. investment funds rarely conduct due diligence to identify and avoid companies complicit in human rights abuses or connected to Chinas defense industry. The Financial Times reports that public attention to their investments in Hikvision has prompted at least seven U.S. equity funds to divest from the company, but the better path is to be proactive, not reactive. Instead, the answer lies in whether the Venezuelan officer corps supports Juan Guaido and the radical wing of the opposition he comes from which organized the violent guarimbero vigilantes who have stabbed, burned and killed suspected supporters of President Nicolas Maduro in protests; which has shoved away opposition moderates; which has failed to articulate a political program other than rejection of everything the late president Hugo Chavez and Mr. Maduro have done in the past 20 years. Or whether the officers believe that, while Chavez and Mr. Maduro have certainly engaged in excesses, a U.S.-backed political neophyte will be any better. Or whether they welcome U.S. military action coordinated with their historic enemy, Colombia. Or whether Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who attended a U.S. Army advanced training course at Fort Benning, Ga., in the 1990s, is impervious to what a military coup would look like in the 21st century. Not just a few name-change advocates believe that having fought for the Confederacy is a disqualifier unworthy of public recognition, whether on a school or a street sign. Many believe the seminal act of changing Washington-Lee High School to Washington-Liberty was the beginning of a rational shift in moving public personages and places that celebrated the Old South out of the public eye to better reflect the multicultural metropolis the Washington area has become in the past half-century. Ive served in public office since 2005. I do my best to contribute to the success of my community, of my state and, now, of my country, ORourke said in responding to the student on Tuesday night. Im doing everything that I can right now, spending this time with you not with our kiddos, not back home in El Paso because I want to sacrifice everything to make sure that we meet this moment of truth with everything that weve got. 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. Biden, the former vice president who is expected to soon join the Democratic race for president, was the featured speaker at a rally for striking workers at the grocery store chain Stop & Shop who walked off the job earlier this month after saying the companys offer for a new contract would increase health-care costs and slash retirement benefits. The members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, tens of thousands of which are employed by the chain in New England, have been picketing for more than a week outside the Dorchester-area store where Biden spoke. Cohen stated that the presidents personal counsel responded that it was not necessary to elaborate or include those details because the project did not progress and that Cohen should keep his statement short and tight and the matter would soon come to an end. Cohen recalled that the presidents personal counsel said his client [Trump] appreciated Cohen, that Cohen should stay on message and not contradict the President, that there was no need to muddy the water, and that it was time to move on. Cohen said he agreed because it was what he was expected to do. Barr also said that the president was justifiably angry and frustrated because he was being investigated for something he believed he had not done and that things he said or did should be weighed with that in mind. Trump, the attorney general said, was also irritated by all the public speculation and discussion about what might come of that investigation. Trumps allies have often questioned whether someone can be guilty of obstruction of an investigation into a crime he or she did not commit. Criminal justice reform is a staple of Harriss stump speeches and platform. She casts herself as a truth-teller willing to talk about the problems of implicit racial bias in the criminal justice system, and as someone with the means to root it out. She talks about rejecting the choice between soft on crime and tough on crime, casting herself as smart on crime, and supporting the point with policies from her state and local prosecutorial tenures. She says she considers herself a progressive prosecutor. The level of detail in those charges was achieved through highly sensitive intelligence sources, current and former officials have said. The final report is no different and contains several blacked-out passages marked investigative technique, indicating that U.S. officials are not prepared to tell the world and the Russians how they know what they know about the Kremlins actions. Chairman Burr does not recall this specific conversation with Mr. McGahn in March of 2017; however, any conversations between the two would have been in reference to the need for White House personnel to voluntarily comply with the Senate Intelligence Committees Russia investigation, Intelligence Committee spokeswoman Caitlin Carroll said in a statement. If specific individuals were discussed, they would have been those known to the Committee, the White House, and the media. The Chairmans stewardship over the Committees bipartisan and fact-based investigation over the last two years speaks for itself. In August, Smith wrote to Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis, among others, about his efforts. Parties with varying interests, are circling to release [the emails] ahead of the election, Smith said. And as Smith raised thousands of dollars for his efforts, he told potential donors he was doing his work in coordination with the Trump campaign, the special counsel found. The investigation only found that Smith communicated directly with Flynn and Clovis. The condo also has a den off the side of the dining area, a space Canada was not enamored with. I knew I would never sit in there, Canada says. Vincent drew up this amazing concept with a bar area with wine fridge and cabinets for wine glasses that was lit from within. On the opposite wall, we did a place for more storage and another counter. The bar cabinetry, also by Poliform, is rendered in matte mocha finish. There were conflicting reports Thursday that officials in Kabul were working to cut down the list, which grew from about 50 to 250 as more and more political and civic leaders demanded to be included. Several sources said the list has now been cut in half, but a senior government aide said that only a few people have dropped out on their own. The eventual reconstruction of Notre Dame is now a foregone conclusion. Within hours of the fire that destroyed much of the cathedral on Monday, donors pledged more than $1 billion to restore the Parisian icon to its former glory. Even before the smoke had cleared, luxury goods magnate Francois-Henri Pinault announced his family would donate 100 million euros ($112 million) to the effort. Not to remain on the sidelines, his rival Bernard Arnault the chief executive of LVMH and the richest man in Europe pledged twice that amount on Tuesday morning. The Bettencourt Meyers family, which controls LOreal, quickly matched that pledge. And Patrick Pouyanne, chief of executive of French oil giant Total, offered another $112 million. Francois-Henri Pinault and his wife, actress Salma Hayek, pose for photographers at the Cannes film festival in 2015. (Thibault Camus/AP) Officials are still assessing the extent of the damage, so the cost of Notre Dames reconstruction remains unknown, but these and the many other donations coming in should pretty well cover it. [Graphic: Rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral] In the meantime, the cascade of cash that materialized overnight to save the cathedral has raised eyebrows in France, still in the throes of a crippling protest over rising social inequality and whose leader is regularly decried as the president of the rich. Of course, I find it nice, this solidarity, said Ingrid Levavasseur, a leader of the yellow vest movement that has protested inequality in a series of often violent Saturday demonstrations since mid-November. The stream of donations essentially confirmed the movements broader social critique, Levavasseur said. If they can give tens of millions to rebuild Notre Dame, then they should stop telling us there is no money to help with the social emergency, Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT trade union, said on Wednesday. The cash flow has also furrowed brows abroad, with critics emphasizing that destroyed landmarks in non-Western locales like the ancient sites destroyed by the Islamic State in Syria have hardly inspired such a global groundswell. In just a few hours today, 650 million euros was donated to rebuild Notre Dame, South Africa-based journalist Simon Allison tweeted. In six months, just 15 million euros has been pledged to restore Brazils National Museum. I think this is what they call white privilege. Rio de Janeiros National Museum was incinerated in a fire in September. [Before and after: Iconic Notre Dame scorched by blaze] Inside and outside of France, the unease has centered on a perceived disparity between concern for the fate of beautiful monuments and concern for the struggles of real people, which can be more difficult to sell to donors. In February, for instance, the United Nations launched a record call for $4 billion in aid for Yemen, in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. Almost 10 million are just one step away from famine, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his pitch at a donor conference in Geneva. In the hours after his call, roughly $2.6 billion in pledges came in a feat in itself. But still well short of the goal. Notre Dame offers a striking contrast: No one was killed, no one is starving, but philanthropists probably provided the full amount if not more instantaneously and unprompted. There was initial speculation that billionaire donors were contributing to Notre Dame to receive a generous tax break from the state. Typically, the French government allows corporations a 60 percent tax deduction on donations made in the realm of culture. Billionaires should pay taxes, tweeted economist Julia Cage, not give when they feel like it, benefiting from enormous tax breaks. Amid mounting criticism, some of the big donors defended their contributions. Both Arnault and Pinault said they were not looking for tax benefits. LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault and his wife, Helene Mercier-Arnault, arrive at a state dinner for the Chinese president at the Elysee Palace last month. (Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images) Arnault told shareholders that his family holding company had already hit its ceiling on tax deductions for charitable donations. Its an empty controversy, Arnault said. Its pretty dismaying to see that in France you are criticized even for doing something for the general interest. The Pinault family similarly released a statement saying: The donation for Notre-Dame de Paris will not be subject to any tax deduction. The Pinault family considers that it is out of the question to burden French taxpayers. Pinaults wife, actress Salma Hayek, praised on Instagram the familys personal and heart felt participation in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris. My husband and father in law are two generous french citizens, who sincerely understand the importance of this spiritual, cultural and historical treasure from Paris to the world, Hayek wrote. [Washington Post readers share their memories of Notre Dame] Fire hoses are lined along the pavement at the Notre Dame Cathedral as the sun rises in Paris on Thursday. (Christophe Ena/AP) Caroline Fourest, a French feminist and writer, said she thinks she understands the collective outpouring over Notre Dame, even though the nations mourning is different than after major terrorist attacks at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and the Bataclan concert hall in 2015, at the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice in 2016 and at a Christmas market in Strasbourg last December. There are similarities, mostly in the sense that we found a real communion, which was the case in Paris after the attacks, Fourest said. Its not the same loss or the same anguish, because no one died, she said. But with Notre Dame, we were afraid of losing a part of the beauty that makes living in Paris so sweet. Theres a sadness there. Read more France begins debate over how to rebuild Notre Dame, starting with a spire design contest Notre Dame fire came at a difficult time for French Catholics The Notre Dame fire ignites the Wests far right The fall of Notre Dame is a body blow to Paris and all it represents Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news Russian outreach ramped up in May 2018 with the visit of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Pyongyang in the first high-level visit by a Russian official to North Korea since 2009. Over the past month, the Russian parliament has sent two delegations and Russian diplomats have been in daily consultations with North Korean officials. A 50-year-old former navy officer, Caio Mussolini is the grandson of Vittorio, the second of Benito Mussolinis five acknowledged children. (Il Duce is rumored to have fathered others outside of marriage.) Like some other descendants of the former Italian dictator, Caio maintained an ambivalent relationship with family history. In a recent interview with Il Corriere della Sera, he claimed that he is not a fascist, but on April 16 he was scheduled to hold a lecture about fascist doctrine at a Fratelli DItalia event in Padua. The lecture was canceled after the local news outlet, Il Gazzettino, reported that Caio Mussolini was the guest of honor for the after-dinner lecture. I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled, he told KCNA. Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the U.S., I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but a person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us. Despite its small size and soft domestic demand, Woodside is confident its trucked-LNG venture in Western Australia's diesel-reliant Pilbara region will pay off in the long term. With WA Premier Mark McGowan in tow, the company launched an LNG truck-loading facility at its Pluto plant to much fanfare last week. Woodside, run by Peter Coleman, said total production for the quarter came in at 21.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), down from 22.2 MMboe a year earlier. Credit:Jessica Hromas It is aimed at muscling in on the domestic market and taking market share from diesel as companies look for cleaner energy alternatives. About 3 billion litres of diesel are used by industry and remote communities in the Pilbara every year. The new facility will initially be able to deliver seven LNG truck loadings a day, or about 100,000 tonnes of the fuel every year. Woodside estimated one truck load was the equivalent of more than 80,000 litres of diesel. Not long before the release of her hugely successful comeback film, her mother died and just a few years later her father followed. She was grief-stricken. "It made me rethink my whole life and what I was doing with my life. When your parents die you realise that lives have a beginning, a middle and an end, because youre there at the end I was in a way writing a story about the people I loved and the people that mean the most to me," she says. "My heart was just filled with memories and also the heartbreaking loss of both my mother and father sort of resurrected the loss of all the things that hadnt quite healed my dreams for my autistic kids, and the loss of Eucalyptus. It was like every bloody loss I'd ever experienced, they just bubbled to the surface. I kind of wanted to resurrect my parents in a way and all those things that had meant so much to me, in a real narrative, bring them back to life." She has done so with aplomb. It's a heartfelt account you'll want to finish in one sitting. When Lily and later Jack were diagnosed as autistic, Moorhouse was told, "These kids will never love you". It was a heartbreaking thought, an assumption made by a specialist who wanted to manage her expectations. In retrospect, she says it was an outrageous assertion. "I know my kids love me, they just show me in unusual ways. I've been their mother for a long time, I recognise the gestures, they're wanting to do things for me, the comfort they get by being around me. Ill take that!" Moorhouse, left, with Kate Winslet on the set of The Dressmaker. Credit:Broad Green Studios/Amazon Studios The point she reaches is one of understanding and acceptance; her conclusion is that we shouldnt be trying to change these children. Difference doesnt mean right or wrong, it just means different. "And it doesnt mean these people are any less valuable to society. In fact, it teaches us so much about empathy and compassion if we can open ourselves up to people who are different." She hopes the book will be helpful for people going through that process of diagnosis, feeling scared and isolated. I felt that I was the only person in the world that this was happening to. I was desperate to read anything that might give me hope. The material available in the early '90s was all about people who hoped to cure their children. And there was nothing on what happens if your child is not cured. What happens to you as a family if your child never becomes neurotypical? she says. You can survive and you will survive, you just go on a learning curve. You cant rush it. With time and experience then you will eventually become a good parent to that child, you start to understand its all about the child, the condition. Once youre understanding why theyre behaving as they are In 1991, Moorhouse directed the acclaimed Proof, starring Hugo Weaving. Credit: Her professional work as a writer equipped her well for the role. I had to become my own investigator and researcher, thats how I coped with it. And then just love them all I can do is be there and love them. Being based in Los Angeles, where they'd moved to make films, was helpful as it was not far from UCLA, where significant research into autism was under way. A Hollywood contact helped bump Moorhouse and her daughter to the top of the list to see one of the foremost authorities on the condition. She wonders how people going through the same experience without access to those resources fare. Because it took all of my mental strength and education to navigate. Not only finding out the truth and the various treatments available but also navigating the bureaucracy and the government system. I always think what about all those single mothers, who have English as a second language. Its very hard to find support even I struggled and felt quite frightened in the very beginning and I was someone who was pretty smart and had enough money to get support. But a lot of people dont, and they just have to watch their child get worse and worse. Towards the end of the book, Moorhouse talks of setting up a farm for her kids and others with autism. The idea represents life coming full circle, recreating the magical world in which she grew up, surrounded by nature, animals and love. In the States, many such places exist, in Australia, just a handful. Its about thinking creatively about how we care for each other. Can we actually make this more like a village, like it should be in society, where there are different age groups and we look after each other. Moorhouse writes eloquently about the conflict between being a mother and an ambitious filmmaker and writer. I was raised to believe that once you become a mother, you have to give up everything else. Even though [my Mum] never said that, and she was a working mum, I think I put that on myself. For a long time, she figured that by returning to work, she was somehow failing her kids. I know my children those who can talk to me, my eldest and my youngest they repeatedly tell me how proud they are of me, and how creative I am, and how much they love that I can do what I do. So very late in life I had this epiphany that I can be creative and fulfilled and a good mum, I dont have to change one for the other. Jocelyn Moorhouse and PJ Hogan with their children Lily and Spike in Santa Monica in 1996. Credit:Courtesy of Jocelyn Moorhouse As for whats next, watch this space. Moorhouse is open to anything, as long as its good! Now firmly back in the directors chair, she is revelling in it and keen to continue, regardless of genre. Much as she would love to revisit Eucalyptus, she doesnt own the rights; they belong to Fox Studios. Every now and then I send a little message asking my agent and she says This is not the right time. Murray Bail mentioned to her that Opera Australia is interested in doing something with his novel. While she has never thought of directing an opera, she is open to the idea. Her musical background would hold her in good stead she learnt the cello and the piano as a child and still plays piano, though not very well!. Can she imagine her memoir being made into a film? The idea makes her laugh heartily. Wouldnt that be ironic? It would have to stay as truthful as I hope the book is. Im still surprised at myself that I was determined to do this. Labor and the Greens represent 25 of the 30 youngest seats ranked by median age while 22 of the 30 oldest seats by median age are held by Liberal or Nationals MPs. Labor and the Greens represent 25 of the 30 youngest electorates ranked by median age. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Regional seats, many held by the Nationals, tend to have a much higher median age than those in capital cities. As well as having Australia's highest median age, the seat of Lyne, held by the Nationals, also had the highest proportion of people aged 65 or more 27.2 per cent compared with a national average of 15.8 per cent. The seat of Gilmore on the NSW south coast had both the second highest median age of 49 and the second largest share of people aged 65 or more (26.2 per cent). Australia's median age was 38 years at the 2016 census. The seat of Melbourne, held by the Greens, had a median age of just 30 while the ALP-held seats of Sydney, Blaxland in western Sydney, Lalor in Melbourne's west and Lingiari in the Northern Territory all had a median age of 32 years. In Lingiari only 6.5 per cent of the electorate is aged over 65, the lowest share in the country. Income trends Electorates with older age profiles often have relatively low median household incomes, in part because they tend to have a high share of retirees on fixed incomes. Lyne, for instance, the seat with the highest median age had the second lowest median household income. And of the 30 lowest-income seats, only two had a median age below 40. Scott Morrison and Nationals leader Michael McCormack campaign in Braddon, Tasmania, which is one of the lowest-income electorates in Australia. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer The National Party holds six of the seven lowest-income seats in federal parliament and three of Tasmania's five federal seats Braddon, Lyons and Bass are among the lowest ranked for household income. At the other end of the earnings spectrum, eight of the ten electorates with the highest median household incomes are in one city Sydney. While Warringah had the highest earnings, the harbourside electorates of Wentworth and North Sydney were not far behind. The Liberal Party holds the biggest share of electorates at the top of the income spectrum although Labor represents seven of the top 20 and 23 of the top 50 seats ranked by median weekly household income. Homeowners, landlords and renters Tenants are most likely to have a Labor MP as they hold 19 of the 30 seats where renting is at its highest rate. The taxation of housing investments is a key election issue. Credit:Peter Braig The inner city seats of Melbourne and Sydney have the highest share of renters at about 62 per cent, double the average across Australia. The outer metro Liberal-held electorates of Casey in Victoria and Berowra in NSW have the fewest renters - 14.5 per cent - and the highest share of homeowners. In those two seats about 82 per cent of residents either own or are paying off property. Loading Labor's proposed changes to negative gearing have made the taxation of housing investments a key election issue. In the Liberal-held seat of Durack in Western Australia 15 per cent of taxpayers are negatively geared, the highest share in the country. The average across all 151 federal electorates is 9.4 per cent of taxpayers. The ALP holds 12 of the top 30 negative gearing seats, the Liberals 13 and the Nationals three. The proportion of voters who negatively gear their investment properties is least prevalent in Tasmania's largest electorate Lyons held by the ALP where less than six per cent of people make a loss renting a property. Labor holds 11 of the 30 seats with the lowest rate of negative gearing, the Nationals ten and Liberals six. An inattentive bus driver crashes his vehicle into a notoriously low-slung bridge, injuring passengers. He gets five years and three months' jail. A young man kills a surgeon he doesn't know in a one-punch attack, during an argument over smoking at a hospital, he gets a mandatory decade behind bars. Borce Ristevski was sentenced today over the 2016 killing of his wife Karen. Credit:ninevms Yet at the cost of a measly six years minimum, you can, it transpires, confess to killing your wife, without revealing why or how you did it, and having lied to police for months and even having indulged in the charade of carrying her coffin at her funeral. You can dump her body in bushland, where, by the time it is found, her cause of death cannot be established. "You have finally accepted responsibility for killing Karen [but] you have not revealed how or why you have killed your wife," Justice Beale said. "You have not taken the high road of full and frank disclosure consistent with true remorse." Borce Ristevski arrives at the Supreme Court on Thursday to be sentenced for manslaughter over his wife's death. Credit:AAP Ristevski could have been jailed for up to 20 years for manslaughter. Justice Beale said the possibility of closure for her family was complicated, if not cruelled, as they will never know how Karen died. He quoted from the victim impact statement of Karen's aunt Patricia Gray: "If Borce could do anything for Karen it would be for him to take away the constant stream of images of Karen struggling for her last breath ... the not knowing is worse than knowing." Justice Beale said Sarah Ristevski was the principal victim of Karen's death. He said that out of love she did not submit a victim impact statement and instead provided a character reference for her father. Sarah Ristevski arrives at the Supreme Court on Thursday to learn her father's fate. Credit:Jason South "I mean no criticism of Sarah anyone with a modicum of compassion would understand her predicament is an agonising one," he said. Police believe Ristevski killed his wife between 8.58am and 10.43am on the day she went missing and drove her body in her black Mercedes-Benz to Mount Macedon, more than 50 kilometres away, and dumped her remains between two logs. Loading Karen's remains were not found until a bushwalker stumbled upon her shallow grave in Macedon Regional Park on February 20, 2017, eight months after she went missing. An autopsy could not determine the cause of death. Investigators believe the couple argued about the financial plight of their clothing business, Bella Bleu, beforehand. Ristevski was charged with murder in December 2017 after a lengthy police investigation, involving listening devices and analysis of CCTV footage. Borce Ristevski will be sentenced today over the 2016 killing of his wife Karen. Credit:ninevms In March, Justice Beale ruled that evidence about Ristevski's behaviour after Karen's death could not prove murderous intent. Ristevski instead pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter after months of repeatedly lying to his daughter, family members and the police about what he did that day and denying having any involvement. In a glowing character reference she wrote for her father five days after he pleaded guilty Sarah said he was a "good dad and husband". "Nothing was going to bring Karen back, but today was about justice," he said. "We didn't get justice today, at all." One of the critical reasons for Justice Beale's sentence was he could not determine whether the offence was in the mid or upper range of manslaughter. Though manslaughter carries a maximum 20 years, latest figures from the Sentencing Advisory Council showed the average sentence ranged from a minimum seven years and three months in 2015-16 to nine years and two months in 2017-18. The average length of non-parole periods in the last financial year was six years and two months. Justice Beale said the Ristevski case was clearly not low-range manslaughter because of the aggravating domestic violence aspect. "Without knowing the level and duration of the violence perpetrated by you, which caused your wife's death, I simply cannot say whether your offending was mid or upper range," he said. Justice Beale said the fact Ristevski kept silent on how his wife died did not mean the court could assume that the killing was in the most serious category of manslaughter. The judge took in account a number of other factors in the sentence. A major factor was the guilty plea to manslaughter, first offered in September last year, a month after Ristevski faced a committal hearing on a murder charge. Borce Ristevski arrives at the Supreme Court on Thursday to be sentenced for manslaughter over his wife's death. Credit:AAP Justice Beale also found Ristevski's prospects for rehabilitation were good, citing his lack of criminal history and character references, which included a "striking" reference from his daughter Sarah. Sarah described her father as "loving, caring, sympathetic, protective and charismatic". "I have so many amazing memories with my dad that I will forever cherish, especially those memories of my parents together," she wrote. "The love they had for each other and the marriage that they shared is something I hope to one day experience myself. Sarah Ristevski arrives at the Supreme Court on Thursday to learn her father's fate. Credit:Jason South Justice Beale told Ristevski that after Karen, Sarah was his principal victim and her refusal to provide a victim impact statement and instead support her father was "out of love for you, no doubt." "I mean no criticism of Sarah. Anyone with a modicum of compassion must understand that her predicament is an agonising one. Regrettably the sentence I must pass on you will add to her grief," he said. Justice Beale said the most aggravating feature of Ristevski's act was his conduct after he killed Karen. He dumped and hid her body in bushland at Macedon before he spun a web of lies to his daughter, the extended family, friends, police and the public. Her remains were so decomposed an autopsy could not determine how she died. Loading "When Karen's body was eventually discovered after eight months, and she was finally given a proper funeral and burial, you acted as a pallbearer, playing the part of the innocent, grieving widower," Justice Beale said. "The pretence - the rank deceit - only ended a few weeks ago when you pleaded guilty to manslaughter." Justice Beale said Ristevski's refusal to say how or why Karen died in their Avondale Heights home has complicated, if not cruelled, the possibility of closure for her family. In her victim impact statement, Karen's cousin Lisa Gray said "if Borce could do anything for Karen and her side of the family, it would be for him to take away the constant stream of images I experience almost daily, of Karen struggling for her last breath. The not knowing is worse than knowing." Justice Beale said he could not find Ristevski was remorseful because of his continued silence. Investigators believe Karen was killed in the bathroom of the Avondale Heights home. It was scrubbed "hospital grade" clean, they said. They believe the couple argued about the financial plight of their clothing business, Bella Bleu, beforehand. A Kelmscott man has been arrested after firing a homemade pen gun at a tree in his backyard, sparking a massive police response. The south-eastern suburb was put into lockdown on Thursday April 11 amid reports of a gun being fired. The TRG and police dog squad responded. Credit:9 News Perth A member of the public reported what they thought was a gunshot noise to police just after 2pm on Slee Avenue, near Kelmscott Senior High School. The school was put in lockdown and a resident told 6PR radio, "our street was just chaos, there were cars everywhere and people wondering what was going on." "In August 2017, a Kimberley Aboriginal man with an intellectual impairment was strip searched three times within just two hours even though he had never left secure conditions, the report said. Loading "He was moved from Broome Regional Prison to Hakea Prison and then to Casuarina Prison. On entering Hakea just before 4pm, he was strip-searched. He was strip-searched again as he left Hakea at approximately 5.20pm. When he arrived at Casuarina he was subject to another routine strip search [at 5.51 pm]. "It is also likely he was strip-searched in the morning before he left Broome, but this is not recorded. By the last strip-search he had had enough. "He refused the search and became non-compliant. In the ensuing restraint by eight officers, his clothes were cut from him, completing the last strip search. He was then charged with resisting staff and received seven days loss of gratuities as punishment. "All these searches were in line with policy. Mr Morgan recommended intelligence-based strip searches as an alternative; a method that relied on whether there was a reasonable suspicion a person was carrying contraband or not. The report also said the department needed to consider using technology to reduce reliance on strip-searches. "In July 2018, a prisoner was received into Hakea Prison from court, the report said. "During the day, while in the custody of police and custodial contractors, he was subject to at least two strip searches and multiple pat searches. He was also strip-searched on arrival at Hakea. But it was only later that staff located a live 9mm bullet in a washing machine. In other words, multiple strip searches had failed to find the bullet. "Alternative methods, like a hand-held or walk-through metal detector, or a full-body scanner would likely have detected it. Mr Morgan said while he acknowledged the Department of Corrective Services had come under recent scrutiny due to contraband entering prisons, it would be "naive to think strip searches worked without complications. Hakea mostly houses male prisoners who have been remanded in custody. Credit:Fairfax "It will be difficult to change the current culture of frequent strip-searching, belief in its effectiveness, inconsistency between prisons, and poor recording, he said. "To be effective, the department will need to implement a program of cultural change, and monitor practices at the various prisons. The department supported six out of the 10 recommendations, and said it was currently working on a new strip searching policy which is being developed under the Custodial Operational Policies and Procedures Project, which will consider relevant legislation, international standards, the Womens Standard and safety and security impacts of the practice. The department said it would not phase out the routine strip searching of prisoners in favour of an intelligence-based model, and it would not commit to using new technology at this stage. "The department has previously committed to exploring new technologies, however, [it] is acutely aware of the limitations experienced in the custodial setting, the departments response read. "Until such technology is available and financially affordable, the department is unable to commit to this recommendation. The new strip searching policy was expected to be completed this month. In a statement, Corrective Services Commissioner Tony Hassall challenged Mr Morgan's findings. "Corrective Services disputes the Inspectors claims that most of the 571 items detected during strip searches were not weapons or drugs related," the statement said. "Corrective Services also disputes claims that just three per cent of searches are based on intelligence." The department is reviewing relevant policies to determine its strip searching practices. Credit:Cathryn Tremain Commissioner Hassell said it was important routine strip searches continued in WA prisons. "Routine strip searching of prisoners supports the continuing safety and security of our staff, prisoners and facilities. We will continue to use strip searching as a deterrent to stop contraband entering our prisons," he said. He said 11 per cent of the items that were identified in strip searches were weapons or other items that may cause serious harm. Just under 30 per cent were identified as drugs or drug paraphernalia. "These items have the potential to result in the death of or cause serious injury to prisoners, prison officers or other staff. "We are monitoring the recent introduction of new X-Ray screening technology in NSW, a technology that is relatively unproven in the Australian prison environment. "However the use of technology is one risk control that compliments a range of other controls to deter, detect and deny the trafficking of drugs and other contraband into prison facilities." Loading We want jobs in our local communities. We want to know that our children are learning at school what will equip them for the future we are not around to see. We are head over heels with the possibilities of what our nation could be. It's the leaders who need to step up. Take Perth, for example. It's a long way from Canberra; outgoing Liberal star Julie Bishop would attest to that. But now, with a federal election date looming, both parties know they have to court voters on the other side of the country. Perth will be home to the first-ever WA election debate. Scott Morrison believes that gives him the great opportunity he needs to show the clear choice between prospective prime ministers. Prime Minister Scott Morrison gets on the media bus after visiting Premium Fresh carrot farm near Forth, Tasmania. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer "West Australians know they can trust the Liberals," he says. No, they can't, retorts Bill Shorten, from on the ground in Perth. "You're being ripped off by Canberra," he tells anyone who will listen. That's why he's decided, were he to become prime minister, he would choose someone from WA to be in his Labor cabinet. That's why he's hell-bent on doing something about jobs in the west. Matt Canavan, the LNP resources minister who also happens to be in Perth this week, has a different take on Labor and jobs. Labor's 45 per cent emissions reduction target would have a direct impact on WA, he says. And local headlines hint the cost could be as high as 10,000 WA jobs. Kerry Stokes, the chair of Seven West Media, thinks this debate is just what WA needs. "At last Perth and WA are being treated with respect from our leaders,'' he announced on the front page of The West Australian (which happens to be published by Seven West Media). No, they're not. It's more akin to a one-night stand. Voters are being courted in WA - as they will be in Queensland and NSW and Victoria and everywhere else in coming days - because they could help Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten. That's all. Promises. A bit like an ex-boyfriend I knew. What the major parties don't understand is that voters are onto them. They know, from experience, that many of the promises will amount to no more than sweet nothings. They know that the motivation on both sides is driven by one date, and it's not the date of the election debate. It's May 18; the date voters in WA and every other state and territory will go to the polls to decide on who should lead our nation. Voters know the three-year cycle of big promises and protestations of undying love. And they're used to breaking up with their government, when they are dumped shortly after the polls. That's why they've looked for love elsewhere - in the arms of Pauline Hanson's One Nation or Clive Palmer's United Australia Party, for example. But after repeated disappointments, their hopes have been dashed there, too. Voters have turned off politicians, even in Perth where both leaders are arriving with their pockets full of giveaways. Don't worry Queensland; our turn will come. But here's a tip for Mr Morrison and Mr Shorten. Cottesloe and Fremantle don't make up Perth, just as there's more to Brisbane than Clayfield and Norman Park, and more to Sydney than Manly and Kirribilli. Take a trip down millionaire's row. Even catch up with Kerry Stokes. By all reports, he's a nice bloke. Sydney's Catholic leader believes Christians around the world are "under siege" and hopes the fire at Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral was not a deliberate attack. Investigators believe the blaze, which destroyed most of the roof of the 850-year-old architectural icon, was an accident possibly linked to renovation works. Archbishop Anthony Fisher. Credit:AAP But Archbishop Anthony Fisher said after hearing of a recent "catalogue of fires" at churches in France, "it really struck me that we are, in some ways, under siege". "Particularly at this time, we know there are those in the world who are opposed to all religion or opposed to our religion and it looks like some of them are determined to make that clear by burning down our buildings," he told 2GB radio on Thursday. "Oh my God. This is terrible," Trump responded, according to notes written by Jody Hunt, then Attorney-General Jeff Sessions chief-of-staff. "This is the end of my presidency. Im f---ed... This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me." US President Donald Trump thought the appointment of a special counsel would end his presidency. Credit:AP The probe would take "years and years" and he wouldn't be able to accomplish anything, Trump said. In his report, Mueller evaluated 11 separate episodes for possible obstruction of justice, including Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey, directives to subordinates to fire Mueller and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the probe. Mueller found that Trump launched "public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation". "The Presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," Mueller writes. Attorney-General William Barr speaks about the release of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report. Credit:AP Mueller did not recommend that Trump be charged with obstruction of justice but emphasised that he was not clearing him of committing a crime. "The evidence we obtained about the Presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment," Muellers report states. "At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment." Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was told by Trump to deliver a message to Attorney-General Jeff Sessions. Credit:AP Mueller makes clear he was heavily influenced by Justice Department guidelines stating that a sitting president should not be indicted; he also states it would be a distracting burden for a president to face prosecution while in office. One of the most significant revelations in Muellers report is a June 2017 meeting between Trump and his former campaign chief Corey Lewandowski. According to the report, Trump dictated a message for Lewandowski to give to Sessions, who had recused himself from any involvement in the Russia probe. If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Mueller report The message told the Attorney-General to publicly announce that the Mueller probe was "very unfair" to the President, that Trump had done nothing wrong, and that Sessions planned to meet with Mueller to "let [him] move forward with investigating election meddling for future elections". This would effectively have killed the Mueller probe by limiting his investigation to future election interference. Robert Mueller's full 448-page report is less flattering than Attorney-General William Barr's summary of it. Credit:AP Lewandowski did not deliver the Presidents message and a White House official, Rick Dearborn, also felt too uncomfortable to do so. In a separate episode, Mueller describes Trump calling White House counsel Don McGahn at home in June 2017 and directing him to order Sessions to fire Mueller because of a supposed conflict of interest. McGahn did not carry out the direction. Mueller writes that, when the incident was later reported by The New York Times, Trump pressured McGahn to lie by denying that the meeting had occurred. Again, he refused to do so. White House counsel Don McGahn refused to order Sessions to fire Mueller or to lie about press coverage on the investigation. Credit:AP On the issue that sparked the probe in the first place - potential collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia - the report contains several unflattering details that indicate smoke but nothing that ultimately passed the threshold of evidence for a criminal case. For instance, the report reveals that then campaign manager Paul Manafort shared internal polling data with Russian intelligence operatives, and that Trumps former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, witnessed a conversation between Trump and his son, Donald Trump jnr, about the now-infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which Russian operatives had promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. Loading "From the tenor of the conversation, Cohen believed that Trump jnr had previously discussed the meeting with his father," the report states, a contrast to Trump's repeated claims he didn't know about the meeting. The report offers new detail on Trump campaign adviser George Papadopolous meeting with then Australian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Downer, which Downer later reported to the FBI. It says that Papadopoulos met with Downer in May 2016 and appeared to suggest that the Russian government was explicitly offering to work with the Trump campaign in order to damage opponent Hillary Clinton. This goes a step further than previous reports that Papadopoulos mentioned to Downer that the Russian government had dirt on Clinton. The report makes clear that Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign, and the campaign was highly interested in, even excited about, receiving some of that help. The report provides new details on the meeting between George Papadopoulos (right) and Alexander Downer (left) that sparked the Russia probe. But ultimately, Mueller concluded that, despite "numerous" communications and links between the Trump campaign and Russia, there was no evidence likely to prove beyond reasonable doubt that campaign officials like Manafort, Papadopoulos and Carter Page acted as agents of the Russian government or in coordination with Russia. Following the release of the report, Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called for Mueller to testify publicly before Congress due to Barr's "regrettably partisan handling" of the report, including his "slanted" summary letter and "his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference" before the full report was released. Trump told a group of wounded veterans gathered at a White House event on Thursday that he was having "a good day". "Its called 'no collusion, no obstruction'. There never was, by the way, and there never will be. This should never happen to another president again, this hoax," he said. He also tweeted a Game of Thrones meme that said, "NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION". The report also states that the Republican who ran the Senate Intelligence Committees investigation into Russian election interference passed information regarding the status of the relevant FBI probe the White House in early 2017. According to the notes of McGahn's chief-of-staff, Senator Richard Burr told the White House counsel's office about the existence of four to five top FBI "targets" in its Russia investigation. Burr said he did not recall any such conversation taking place on Thursday. PM Phuc asked the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic to maintain efforts to help boost the European Unions signing and ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). He suggested both sides step up the exchange of experience in legislative affairs, strengthen cooperation between the Vietnam-Czech Republic, and Czech Republic-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians Groups, and bolster collaboration in education-training, science-technology, environment, agriculture, labour and between their localities. The Vietnamese Government leader requested the lower house to continue creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in the country. He also forwarded National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngans invitation to visit Vietnam on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties in 2020 to Radek Vondracek. The host spoke highly of PM Phucs visit, saying that it demonstrates an important development step in bilateral relations. He affirmed the Chamber of Deputies attaches importance to Czech Republic-Vietnam traditional friendship, and totally supports the early signing and ratification of the EVFTA and the EVIPA. He voiced his belief that the early opening of a direct air route connecting Prague and Hanoi will contribute to fostering bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and tourism. He also affirmed to continue facilitating the lives of over 65,000 Vietnamese people in his country, and said he will arrange to visit Vietnam at his convenience. Netiquette Die Kommentare auf weltwoche-daily.ch dienen als Diskussionsplattform und sollen den offenen Meinungsaustausch unter den Lesern ermoglichen. Es ist uns ein wichtiges Anliegen, dass in allen Kommentarspalten fair und sachlich debattiert wird. Scharfe, sachbezogene Kritik am Inhalt des Artikels oder wo angebracht an Beitragen anderer Forumsteilnehmer ist erwunscht, solange sie hoflich vorgetragen wird. Personlichkeitsverletzende und diskriminierende Ausserungen hingegen verstossen gegen unsere Richtlinien. Sie werden ebenso geloscht wie Kommentare, die eine sexistische, beleidigende oder anstossige Ausdrucksweise verwenden. Beitrage kommerzieller Natur werden nicht freigegeben. Zu verzichten ist grundsatzlich auch auf Kommentarserien (zwei oder mehrere Kommentare hintereinander um die Zeichenbeschrankung zu umgehen), wobei die Online-Redaktion mit Augenmass Ausnahmen zulassen kann. Die Kommentarspalten sind artikelbezogen, die thematische Ausrichtung ist damit vorgegeben. Wir bitten Sie deshalb auf Beitrage zu verzichten, die nichts mit dem Inhalt des Artikels zu tun haben. Das Nutzen der Kommentarfunktion bedeutet ein Einverstandnis mit unseren Richtlinien. Unzulassig sind Wortmeldungen, die Nichts mit dem Thema des Artikels zu tun haben Kommerzieller Natur sind andere Forumsteilnehmer personlich beleidigen einzelne Personen oder Gruppen aufgrund von Rasse, Ethnie oder Religion herabsetzen in Rechtschreibung und Interpunktion mangelhaft sind verachtliche Abanderungen von Namen oder Umschreibungen von Personen enthalten mehr als einen externen Link enthalten einen Link zu dubiosen Seiten enthalten Nur einen Link enthalten ohne beschreibenden Kontext dazu Als Medium, das der freien Meinungsausserung verpflichtet ist, handhabt die Weltwoche Verlags AG die Veroffentlichung von Kommentaren liberal. Die Online-Redaktion behalt sich jedoch vor, Kommentare nach eigenem Gutdunken und ohne Angabe von Grunden nicht freizugeben. Es besteht grundsatzlich kein Recht darauf, dass ein Kommentar veroffentlich wird. Weiter behalt sich die Redaktion das Recht vor, Kurzungen vorzunehmen. Dr. Bill Wyatt and Krista Sarchet of Scottsbluff discuss her ongoing wrist pain after an auto accident about two years ago. "One slice of a pizza." That's how Dr. Bill Wyatt, the newest doctor at Kimball Health Services, refers to the industry of plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is cosmetic in many minds across the country. As Wyatt explained the numbers, there are 5,600 plastic surgeons in the United States and 90 percent of those doctors focus and work in the cosmetic industry. The remaining 10 percent of surgeons work in different areas of plastic surgery - as does Wyatt. However, when plastic surgery is a want instead of a need, Wyatt said he is willing to take on that clientele as well. Kimball Health Services is introducing Wyatt and welcoming him to the community as he begins another stretch in his outstanding career in the medical profession. "I will primarily be working from Kimball Health Services and will have clinics in Pine Bluffs and Kimball as time evolves," he said. With many years of experience, Wyatt recently retired from Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, where he began his career in 1998. He found the retirement was not suited for him just yet and decided that it was time for a slight change. He wanted to stay in the practice of medicine, and he wanted to stay near Cheyenne. A man of many talents when it comes to the operating table, Wyatt is ready and willing to tackle nearly any procedure from head to foot. During a presentation to the KHS staff last Friday, April 12, Wyatt expressed the different aspects of his career and many operations he has successfully completed. Operations include cleft pallet procedures, smaller joint orthopedic operations, facial surgeries, wounds, infections, snake and spider bites and much more. Wyatt is board-certified plastic, reconstruction and aesthetic surgeon - as well as being board-certified in general surgery and surgical wound care. He also is a certified hand surgeon. "If these occasions arise, we will be able to take care of most patients here in Kimball," Wyatt said. With many different medical professionals needed in surgery instances - including nurses, billing and coding staff, physical therapists and others - Wyatt reassured the KHS staff that this is a team sport. "Being able to provide these procedures to the community will make the hospital better," he said. "We need to instill confidence in the community that these types of operations can be done here in town and that there is not as large of a need to send our patients to out of town to specialists." More details are emerging regarding a 23-year-old Kimball man who faces class 1B felony charges after an infant died at Denver Childrens Hospital. Alexander J. Romero, the father, was initially arrested April 2 on lesser charges, but additional charges were dependant on the fate of the victim. On March 31, at approximately 5:50 p.m., officer Mike Winget of the Kimball Police Department responded to the Kimball Health Services emergency room in response to an ambulance call regarding a 7-month-old unresponsive infant girl. According to the arrest affidavit, during the initial interview Officer Winget spoke with Romero, who was watching the infant at the time of the incident. Romero first told police the child had waken from a nap. He stated that he sat her on the couch while he was gathering some of her things, and she rolled off the couch. He also told police she was crying but it wasnt a normal cry. He then said her body went limp and that she had a stare like nothing was there. He then stated he called the babys mother to inform her of what had happened. Officer Winget interviewed the childs mother at KHS. She had told police during her relationship with Romero that he had a short temper. According to the affidavit, Winget received the KHS waiver for the medical records on the infant. Medical records revealed bruising on both the left and right temples near the midline of the skull. Winget asked the doctor if a fall could cause these injuries. The doctor replied absolutely not. The injuries were consistent with being intentionally traumatic rather than accidentally traumatic. According to the affidavit, Winget had received instruction from KPD Chief Andy Bremer to call the Nebraska State Patrol for assistance. At this point, Romero was detained at the Kimball Police Department until Lt. Brian Eads of the NPS arrived to interview Romero. According to Winget, Bremer stated that Romero had came in to the police department to admit to what really happened. Bremer stated that Romero told him he was playfully running around the house with the baby in his arms when he tripped in his bedroom, falling onto the bed, then onto the floor. According to the affidavit, Bremer said Romero had continued on to say he sat the baby up on the couch to find his phone and when he came back she was laying on her back on the fllor in front of the couch. According to the affidavit, on April 2, Winget received a phone call that would lead him to believe Romero was headed down to Colorado. There were additional injuries on the infants liver and spleen that were observed at Childrens Hospital when she was being treated. She was placed on life support with no brain function. The infant was then taken off life support on April 3 and later passed away, resulting in an update in charges to a class 1B felony -- child abuse-resulting in death -- which carries a minimum sentence of 25 years with a maximum sentence of life in prison. Romero is being held on a $100,000 bond. Romero is scheduled to make his next court appearance April 24 in Kimball County Court, with Doug Warner of the Attorney Generals Office appointed as the special deputy county attorney for this case. STAMFORD Members of the team behind the new parking garage at the Stamford Transportation Center were at the station on Wednesday to present their latest design of the garage, but few visitors seemed interested in discussing visuals. Nobody is talking about the aesthetic, said Jeff Parker, senior project manager with CHA Consulting. Which is good, because if they didnt like the aesthetic, we would certainly hear about it. And they did hear about it in previous meetings, in which residents and officials described the former design as cold, unwelcoming and boxy. The latest renderings, shown during an open house on the ground level of the Stamford Train Station on Wednesday, introduce a wavy perforated-steel exterior for the garage, as well as a colorful light display along the facade at night. James H. Hemmerly, senior architect for STV, a New York-based architectural and engineering firm that specializes in transportation systems and redesigned the Cortlandt Street subway station in New York, said the previous design was trying to match the corporate aesthetic of the buildings around the area, but that didnt go over well. The reaction from the people in the mayors office and the design commission in Stamford was that they wanted something that would be more of a signature building, he said Wednesday. The latest design, he said, was a hit with Mayor David Martin and got good reviews from other officials during meetings in February and March. Nonetheless, residents and officials who visited the meeting room inside the station on Wednesday had a number of questions and concerns, most of which had nothing to do with the design. Some common worries were the length of the proposed walkway to the station, as well as traffic implications around the area. The planned 960-space garage would be built on state-owned land on South State Street. The eight-story structure will be in a spot surrounded by the station, railroad tracks, catenary wires, Washington Boulevard, Interstate 95 and Mill River. To be connected to the station, a 350-foot walkway will be built across Washington Boulevard for commuters to walk to and from the garage. The roughly $100 million project will also require the re-alignment of South State Street so that it will run under the garage. Currently, there is one planned exit for the garage onto South State Street. Stamford Rep. Bob Lion, D-19, showed up to the open house. His main concern is traffic, and he thinks the singular exit will cause problems for drivers. Hes worried the garage will add to a giant bottleneck around the station, which is where Washington Boulevard converges with traffic from Exit 7 off I-95, as well as development in Harbor Point. There will be more cars because youll have only one exit onto South State Street, which then will have impact on cars exiting on Exit 7 onto South State as well, he said. Im concerned about the volume of traffic and how its going to impact the area. Dianne Walker, co-founder of Strawberry Hill Neighborhood Association, stopped by at the open house to see the progress. She uses the station frequently, not as a commuter, but to go into New York. I feel like this is long overdue, she said. Walker said she likes the design of the proposed building. I think the design is amazing, she said. Much better than I expected. She said the current parking situation is untenable. Theres not enough (parking) and its dangerous given that the cement is falling from the ceiling and there are cracks and its old and its dark, she said. Shes also concerned about the citys capacity to accommodate increased traffic. The city is growing so fast, Walker said. I really feel that weve outgrown ourselves and the infrastructure just cant keep up with the development. All of these new apartment buildings going in are bringing more and more people and yet the roadways arent being widened. Therefore, youve got a lot more congestion. The next step for the garage project is to go out for a request for proposals. Once a contractor and designer are chosen, they will present plans to the public in the form of meetings. As far as the price tag for the project with the renewed design, those figures are still being hammered out. It may creep up a little, Hemmerly said Parker said the price remains unknown and would not say whether it would likely go up or down. Were working through that, he said. Work could start as early as this year. Parker said the plan is for the garage to be completed by 2022. Mike Young, a Cove resident, agreed that the new garage is needed. He said his biggest concern is getting in and out and wondered if there is a way to create direct access onto the highway from the garage for Amtrak passengers so theyre not clogging our streets. When looking at the new design, Young said he liked the Welcome to Stamford sign that goes across the proposed walkway since it blends with the color and font of Metro-North Railroad. Its a long walkway though, he said. Before leaving the meeting room, Young turned to a Connecticut Department of Transportation engineer and asked, Youre not validating parking are you? The answer was no. ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com WESTPORT A business adjacent to the Westport Stop & Shop says the eight-day workers strike has harmed their store. Weve definitely seen an impact on our sales and the amount of people walking in the door in general, said Lori Brower, general manager of Kindred Spirits & Wine, which sits in the same Post Road plaza as the supermarket. In total, Brower estimates her shop has seen 30 to 50 percent less sales since April 11, the day a strike over a contract dispute between Stop & Shop employees and the Massachusetts grocery giant began. We support the workers and want the strike to get resolved, but my concern is were affected. Hopefully people remember theres a small, locally owned store in the same plaza, Brower said. There are only three other Kindred stores, one in Monroe, Shelton, and Fairfield, Brower noted. The Westport Kindred is not alone in the financial difficulties it faces due to proximity to Stop & Shop. With more than 240 locations in Connecticut, Stop & Shop represents the states most important anchor retailer, a term used to describe the dominant tenant that helps generate business for smaller stores in the same plaza. They complement our business. Thats why were here, said Dan Weaver, wine manager for the Westport Kindred. People are avoiding the plaza altogether. The customers are now going to another store. The ones who tried to come were afraid because the picketers were intimidating. The protests have been mostly peaceful although one customer was arrested in Wilton Tuesday after an alleged confrontation with a picketer but they have also taken a toll on neighboring businesses. Now were coming up on a holiday weekend and its a little stressful, Brower said. Despite the parking lot and vacant store, two customers Jesse and Rosie Cabrera walked in to buy a bottle of wine. I really like this store, Jesse said, adding she went to Stop & Shop before to buy a specific bag for her vacuum and then went to Kindred. The only two other shops in the Post Road Plaza Westport French Cleaners and Westport Orthopedic Urgent Care said the strike has not affected their businesses drastically. Were OK, said Jinny Moon, owner of the dry cleaners. Her store has been slower the past week, but Moon said this may be because Westport schools are on spring break. The impact of the strike may take a while to set in, Moon said. Employees at the urgent care facility, meanwhile, said they havent been affected by the strike, aside from the occasional person who walks in from Stop & Shop, which receptionist Katie Cioppa said accounts for very few of the Urgent Cares patients. Includes previous reporting by Alexander Soule svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 WESTPORT The lineup for Connecticuts largest single-day event and Westports own has been announced. The eighth annual Westport Maker Faire, described by the events organizers as part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, is set to feature over 100 makers on April 27 in downtown Westport. Im excited that we continue growing and have a huge impact on the community and our state, Maker Faire founder and Westporter Mark Mathias said. Highlights include Game of Drones, a series workshops on flight simulators and drone building sponsored by Sacred Heart University Engineering, and The Future is Now, a showcase of home automation projects and electric vehicles. The most anticipated part of the day is undoubtedly The Great Duck Project, an attempt to build the worlds largest 3D-printed duck. The whole duck project has literally put the worlds spotlight on this event in a very favorable way, Mathias said, noting people from India, Poland and Australia, among other countries, have contributed some of the 467 pieces that will make up the duck. People signed up to contribute all 467 pieces of the duck within two weeks of the projects announcement, so the organizers are making ducklings to allow even more people to partake in the project, Mathias said. This is a real demonstration and testament to the creativity and innovation that can go on here in Connecticut. What a great way to shine the spotlight on Connecticut, Mathias said. Organizers expect between 15,000 an 20,000 attendees at the free event, set to take place on Veterans Green and the Baldwin parking lot between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Food trucks, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs will all be on site. When asked his favorite aspect of the Faire, Mathias said, Frankly, it celebrates creativity, nerdiness, geekiness, fun, and doing this just because you want to see it can be done. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 WESTPORT The downtown Japanese restaurant that closed at the beginning of the month amid labor abuses is set to reopen in a few weeks. I dont know the exact date but it will be very soon, Matsu Sushis lawyer Benjamin Xue said Wednesday, adding the restaurant is doing minor renovations. A sign posted on its door April 1 said the shop is currently closed for renovation. Around 2 p.m. Wednesday, Matsu was quiet, with the doors locked and no sign of renovation work inside or outside the shop. After over 15 years in Westport, Matsu was not doing well and the restaurants owners, who were not available for comment, are planning to adjust the restaurants hours and may only serve dinner upon reopening, Xue said. The same owners will still run the restaurant when it reopens, Xue said. In the past year, Matsu has been charged with several labor abuses, including firing two employees for refusing to complete a 36-hour shift. In October, National Labor Relations Board Judge Kenneth W. Chu said Matsus owners Ziqiao Cao and Kim Ming Cheng discriminatorily fired the two workers, and ordered they be reinstated and provided with backpay and other expenses related to their loss of employment. The two workers Jiang and Liguo Ding who submitted the complaint to the labor relations board, have not been reinstated to their positions or compensated. Jiang and Ding filed a lawsuit against the restaurant, along with two of their former Matsu co-workers, for failure to pay minimum and overtime wages that is still making its way through the U.S. District Court of Connecticut. James Bhandary-Alexander, of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Inc., is representing the workers in court and said many restaurants attempt to close to avoid liability for labor violations by closing shop. But Matsus owners could still be held responsible for any labor violations even if they close because of a $250,000 lien against the restaurant and a court decision that prevents them from selling the restaurant until it compensates the workers, Bhandary-Alexander said. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 Despite the redactions made by the Department of Justice, there was plenty of information to be gleaned when the 448-page report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller dropped on Thursday morning. Among the most eye-catching tidbits was a description of President Trump's reaction when he learned of the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, an event that appears to have set the stage for the firing of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It was colorful. MORE: Trump tried to seize control of Mueller probe, report says Mueller was appointed by then-Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on May 17, 2017 and authorized to conduct the Russia investigation. According to the report, Rod Rosenstein called then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to tell him about the appointment; Sessions, who was with Trump, conducting interviews for a new head of the FBI, stepped out of the Oval Office to take the call. When he returned and delivered the news that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the report says, Trump slumped into his chair and reacted with intense, expletive-laced dismay. ALSO: Twitter clowns on Barr releasing Mueller report on CD-ROM "Oh my God. This is terrible," he said. "This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fd." It wasn't long before that dismay turned into anger, however, and the president quickly rounded on Sessions, laying into the then-Attorney General. "How could you let this happen, Jeff?" he's alleged to have asked. The president said Sessions had let him down and implied he'd done a worse job than former Attorneys General Eric Holder and Robert Kennedy. READ: Mueller report available online here "Sessions recalled that the President said to him, 'you were supposed to protect me,' or words to that effect," the report says. A short time later, Trump told Sessions to resign. "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything," said Trump. "This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me." Hope Hicks told the Special Counsel's office she had only seen the president so upset at one other time: After the release of the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape, in which the president described sexual assault. Dutch TV producer Ewout Genemans asks Seoryoung, a member of K-pop girl band GWSN, whether she has had plastic surgery. Capture from Twitter By Dong Sun-hwa Dutch documentary "'Ewout & de Keiharde K-pop Wereld (Ewout & Tough K-pop World)" has sparked controversy for being rude to K-pop girl band GWSN. The controversial episode aired Tuesday (local time) on RTL 5 channel. Ewout Genemans, a Dutch TV producer, attended the seven-piece group's fan signing event and suddenly asked member Seoryoung, "Did you also do plastic surgery? No? Yes?" Dutch TV producer Ewout Genemans asks Lena, a member of K-pop girl band GWSN, her opinion on recent K-pop scandals. Capture from Twitter Members of BLACKPINK, Woori Bank brand ambassadors, pose in the Woori Bank commercial, "It's ME, It's WE," in this photo provided by the lender, Thursday. The bank said the ad would be released on its social media platforms Friday. It will be released on TV and radio from Saturday. The four-member girl group released its latest album "Kill This Love" earlier this year. / Courtesy of Woori Bank Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer, New York, United States Organization: OCHA - Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Country: United States City: New York, USA Office: OCHA New York, USA Grade: P-5 Closing date: Wednesday, 24 April 2019 Posting Title: SENIOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS OFFICER [TJO], P5 (Temporary Job Opening) Job Code Title: SENIOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS OFFICER Department/Office: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Duty Station: NEW YORK Posting Period: 11 April 2019 - 24 April 2019 Job Opening Number: 19-Humanitarian Affairs-OCHA-115136-J-New York (X) United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity Organisational Setting and Reporting This position is located in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York. OCHA is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response efforts. OCHAs mission is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies; advocate the rights of people in need; promote preparedness and prevention and facilitate sustainable solutions. The Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer heads the Humanitarian Financing Strategy and Analysis (HFSA) unit, and reports to the Director of the Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division (HFRMD). Responsibilities Within delegated authority, the Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer will be responsible for the following duties: Provides authoritative technical and policy advice to senior management in OCHA and other agencies in the UN system, Member State officials, international and regional organizations on programmes, projects and issues of significant impact on humanitarian, emergency relief and disaster response/management efforts. Leads internal and external knowledge management services and partnerships, and fosters visionary policy, analysis, best practices and innovations in humanitarian financing that support the systems ability to scale up the application of early action and anticipatory approaches in humanitarian response. Monitors the performance of the institutions humanitarian mandate; influences the development and evolution of the UN approach to humanitarian affairs; designs and implements significant policy and programme changes to address country, regional, global humanitarian affairs issues, including gender considerations; conceptualizes the linkages with the political and peacekeeping functions in the Secretariat. The Prince Waikiki Hotel's all 563 rooms have oceanfront views. / Courtesy of Prince Waikiki Hotel Japanese-owned hotel in Hawaii eying Korean market By Kang Seung-woo Despite its reputation in Hawaii, the Prince Waikiki Hotel may not be the first lodging option for Koreans planning to travel to the Aloha State. Jo Ki-san, president of Prince Resorts Hawaii, speaks during a recent interview with The Korea Times in Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Kang Seung-woo Hottest elderly model _ Kim Chil-doo / Courtesy of TSP Model By Park Jin-hai Kim Chil-doo's dream has come true after four decades. The tall man who has been interested in fashion from a young age had to compromise his dreams due to economic difficulties. As a father and the main breadwinner of the household, he had forgotten about the goals of his youth. It was only last year when he finally made his dream come true and became a professional model, at age 63. Kim says he always had a unique fashion sense as a young man. "I loved fahion and liked to try clothes that others wouldn't wear. I worked briefly for a small boutique and once entered a modeling contest to win a prize at 21," he said. But as he grew older and life became more serious, he had to let go of his dream. "I couldn't afford to continue. Modeling was a low-paying job. Unlike today, there were not enough channels for me to promote myself like the internet and social media." Kim, who used to sell clothes he designed, spent the better days of his life working different jobs selling groceries, fish and sundaeguk (stuffed sausage soup). In late 2017, the sundaeguk restaurant he owned for 27 years in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, went out of business. At a crossroads of his life, his daughter urged him to reflect and find what he really wanted to do. Then he found his old passion for modeling and belatedly gave it a try last year at age 62. After three months of training, he debuted as a fashion model, walking on the opening runway for fashion brand Kimmy J during the S/S Seoul Fashion Week last year. Walking the runway side by side with young models, Kim's lean physique, trademark grey bread and rich wavy hair made him a runway star. Young people shared his fashion photos through social media, shooting him to fame. Kim currently has more than 53,000 Instagram followers. Model Kim Chil-doo / Courtesy of TSP Model This spring/summer season, Kim walked the runway for four fashion brands during Seoul Fashion Week. "Young people looking at foreign actors like Sean Connery have this fantasy of growing old in style. But in real life, senior citizens who groom beards are a rarity. I think that is why the young generation has a strong response to me," he said. While fashion is a pure joy for him, he said fashion is also important for other older people. "With the same clothes, adding small accessories like a scarf or hat makes the wearer's style different and more valuable. It can make senior citizens more confident and enjoy their life." Now that he's entered the industry, he wants to become the first Korean senior model on the catwalk for world-famous fashion weeks. "London, Milan and New York Fashion Weeks are my dream stages. I want to walk the runway for brands like Chanel in those fashion show stages in my life. That dream keeps me going and keeps me challenged as a model." Oldest acting model Choi Soon-hwa, 75, is the oldest acting professional fashion model in Korea. / Courtesy of TSP Model. Choi Soon-hwa, 75, is the oldest acting professional fashion model in Korea. Having unique silver hair, Choi debuted last year through the Seoul Fashion Week, walking the finale of the Kimmy J show at Seoul Fashion Week. Choi, from Masan (now part of Changwon), worked as a nurse before she married. After becoming a mother and grandmother, her sole concern was her children. "When I was young and raising children, the only moment that I felt happy was when my children were happy. Now with my grandson is in his 20s, I wanted to find something that makes me feel happy," Choi said. She started to attend a walking class for fun and soon she felt she wanted make it her second career. "I thought that I wanted to try what I really like before I die. Looking back, I think it was really a great decision. When I grew older I used to feel so alone, realizing how sad and lonely aged people can be. Living a monotonous daily life, I felt depressed. After learning modeling and meeting with younger generations outside the neighborhood made me socially active and healthy both physically and mentally," Choi said. Model Choi Soon-hwa / Courtesy of TSP Model At the event, delegates highlighted the role of political parties in Asia-Europe cooperation, affirming that the parties expansion of relations has contributed to tightening ties between countries and kick-starting initiatives to improve regional connectivity. Participants signed a memorandum of understanding in which they agreed to intensify cooperation among political parties, develop inter-parliamentary collaboration, and increase the efficiency of the Asia-Europe connectivity process. Speaking at the seminar, Quan said that the Asia-Europe partnership has become the worlds largest inter-regional cooperation model. To ensure that cooperation results match the two continents full potential, he suggested that both sides maintain efforts and diversify cooperative methods to lift the ties to a new height, with attention paid to collaboration between political parties. The CPV believes that cooperation between political parties will contribute to stability and development in each country, as well as to peace and prosperity in the two continents and the wider world, he added. On the sidelines of the seminar, the Vietnamese official held meetings with representatives of participating parties. He also had working sessions with representatives from the Prosperous Armenia Party and other political parties in Armenia, during which he affirmed that the Vietnamese Party, State, and people always attach great importance to consolidating friendship with traditional friends, including Armenia. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un smiles while overseeing an air force exercise byUnit 1017 of the Air and Anti-Aircraft Force of the Korean People's Army, Tuesday. Yonhap NK demands US remove Pompeo for 'mature dialogue' By Lee Min-hyung North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watched the test-firing of his regime's "new tactical guided weapon," the country's state-run media reported Thursday. The launch was an apparent move to raise the pressure on Washington amid deadlocked nuclear negotiations between the two sides. On Wednesday, Kim visited the Academy of Defense Science to oversee the testing of the new type of weapon, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). However, it did not specify what kind of a weapon it was "(We) have perfectly verified the design indices of the weapon during the test-fire carried out in various firing modes at different targets," the KCNA said, referring to the different modes of guided flight and the variable load of the warhead of the weapon. The military exercise is widely seen as a means to ramp up diplomatic pressureon the U.S. in the wake of the failed Hanoi summit in February.With the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim ending up in a fiasco, North Korea has shown signs of returning to its bellicose nature of the past. The "supervision" of the test-firing also came a day after Kim conducted an inspection of an exercise by an air force unit, Tuesday. Such recent repeated military activities can be interpreted as Kim's message to Washington that the North will continue upgrading its military readiness and act independently, regardless of whether the U.S. offers to lift sanctions. Washington, for its part, is also maintaining its strong determination to keep up the sanctions-driven pressure on the North, even after the breakdown of the Hanoi summit complicated denuclearization negotiations between the two. U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said Wednesday Washington would only hold a third summit with Pyongyang if Washingtonsaw clear evidence that the North was ready to give up its nuclear weapons. When asked what prerequisites were needed before holding another summit between Trump and Kim, Bolton said in an interview with Bloomberg News: "I think a real indication from North Korea that they've made the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons." He added, "The president is fully prepared to have a third summit if he can get a real deal." The possibility of another summit between Trump and Kim started surfacing last week when both leaders exchanged their willingness to haveone. But with both sides continuing to make their own unilateral demands, chances remain slim for any meeting in the near future. The U.S. reaffirmed that it would never offer any partial lifting of sanctions on the North unless it took more verifiable steps for complete denuclearization. North Korea has also expressed post-Hanoi discontent that the U.S. had declined to accept the North's demand for a phased denuclearization. Washington has urged Pyongyang to sign a one-shot "big deal" to make rapid progress in their nuclear dialogue. On Thursday, Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean propaganda website, denounced Seoul and Washington for carrying out a joint military exercise, calling it "a rash act aimed at destroying peace and stability and creating a mood for war on the peninsula." The exercise refers to one that took place last month when the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, deployed planes from Hawaii to South Korea for joint exercises with the South Korean Marine Corps. The North also went on to criticize the South for showing "any willingness" to fulfill an inter-Korean military agreement signed last year. "The joint military exercise shows the South Korean military authority does not have any willingness to carry out the military agreement at all," the propaganda outlet said. The two Koreas reached the Comprehensive Military Agreement during the last inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last September. The agreement included pledges to ease military tension on the peninsula. Meanwhile, North Korea also demanded Thursday that the U.S. replace Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with another figure who can handle nuclear dialogues in a "more careful and mature way." "We expect an official other than Pompeo to become a counterpart for dialogue with North Korea," the KCNA quoted Kwon Jong-gun, a senior official handling U.S. affairs at the North's Foreign Ministry, as saying. "Whenever Pompeo engages in dialogue, things get screwed up," Kwon said. "If Pompeo continues to take part in the talks, the dialogue momentum will go awry again." But he said the relationship between Trump and Kim remains "very good." Kwon said the two leaders maintain a great personal relationship with each other, and Kim is pleased about being on very close terms with Trump. A slowing global economy, little government capacity for financial stimulus and an increasing regulatory burden may be conspiring to tamp down enthusiasm for the provincial economy among business leaders. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A slowing global economy, little government capacity for financial stimulus and an increasing regulatory burden may be conspiring to tamp down enthusiasm for the provincial economy among business leaders. The Manitoba Business Leaders Index, which is produced every other year by Winnipegs Probe Research, found that optimism about Manitobas economic future took a significant step back compared with the last survey, in 2017. 'It is unsettling but it's not doom and gloom' Don Leitch, CEO of the Business Council of Manitoba This year, 61 per cent said they were optimistic or very optimistic about Manitobas economic future, compared with 73 per cent who said that in 2017. Scott MacKay, the CEO of Probe Research, said, "Enthusiasm is muted. But its not like theyre saying things are going to hell in a hand basket. Theyre just saying they really dont know... But clearly, theres less buoyancy." Probe surveyed 203 CEOs, presidents, business owners and designated senior corporate officers from small, mid-sized and large businesses in mid-March. The margin of error is plus or minus 6.9 per cent In addition to the decline in optimism in the provincial economy there is also a lower level of confidence among respondents when asked if their company would be performing better financially a year from now 36 per cent this year compared with 42 per cent in 2017. In keeping with the historically moderate nature of the Manitoba economy, which avoids booms and busts, the survey results do not foreshadow anything too traumatic. For instance, there was little intention expressed by respondents to reduce workforces: only 10 per cent said they intend to lay off or cut their workforce over the next six months. That indicator was at the lowest level in 12 years. As well, the difference between staff reduction and additional hiring intentions netted out to an above-average number. "On the one hand, people are not sure of the future, and things are maybe not getting better, but theyre not laying off staff," MacKay said. In 2014, the intention to lay off workers was twice the level it was this year. As well, concerns about finding qualified new employees with relevant skills has levelled out, which MacKay says may just be a proxy for the relative rate of economic growth. Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, acknowledges there is a little less enthusiasm out there and he points to the gloomy economic news globally as the culprit for most of that. He said there are several factors that bring down business optimism: the unease with Chinese trade issues, which are highlighted by the problems with canola, uncertainty about the future of NAFTA, high levels of household and government debt and the increasing difficulty for business to attract and retain highly skilled staff. "Then you add in across the board... a sense in the business community that we are heading into difficult economic times," Remillard said. "Governments historically have used these times for deficit financing to stimulate the economy. But there is no elasticity any more because governments used decent-to-good times to continue to use deficit financing. Now, federally, there is zero flexibility." Don Leitch, CEO of the Business Council of Manitoba, which represents the largest employers in the province, said the lower optimism probably reflects the anticipated lower economic growth around the world in the coming year or two. "Central bankers have been worried about a global slowdown in 2019 and 2020, and thats why some wanted to inch up overnight prime rates in their countries in order to give them room to cut rates and juice the economy should they need it at some point in the next couple of years," he said. Leitch said Manitoba business owners, many of who are exporting out of the province and outside the country, get a sense of what is happening. "It is unsettling but its not doom and gloom," he said. Remillard said the atmosphere of "muted optimism" is not surprising considering the level of uncertainty that lies ahead. "On top of that, there are increasing costs being imposed on business... at the very time when the economy is not looking to be able to sustain a positive momentum," he said. There is a sentiment in the Probe survey that the federal Liberal government will be frightened about. In response to a question about how the three levels of government have been performing in terms of creating a good climate for business, there was a tacit endorsement for the provincial governments performance. Thirty-eight per cent said it was doing a good or excellent job, but only a paltry nine per cent felt that way about the federal government "As far as the business community is concerned, these Liberals have to go," MacKay said. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca 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 this April 10 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang. AP North Korea on Thursday demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, accusing him of derailing discussions. "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of American Affairs at North Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry said, according to the official KCNA news agency. HONOLULU - All Nippon Airways has completed a test flight of a new wide-body aircraft with its arrival in Hawaii. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. HONOLULU - All Nippon Airways has completed a test flight of a new wide-body aircraft with its arrival in Hawaii. The Japanese airline completed the first of two tests when the Airbus A380 "Flying Honu" touched down Wednesday at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, according to news reports. 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 four-engine jet arrived from Tokyo's Narita International Airport around 7:45 a.m., followed by a blessing ceremony for the aircraft that was painted to look like a giant turtle. The test flight carried two pilots, three airline employees and three passengers from the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, an equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration. The state Department of Transportation says it is "very happy" Hawaii's largest airport is the 11th in the U.S. that is able to accommodate the double-decker planes, which will seat about 520 passengers. "It is double-decker, you have to be able to have a jet bridge on the second and third levels of the plane, so two gates here in Honolulu are able to accommodate the A380," said Tim Sakahara, a transportation department spokesman. The test was another step toward All Nippon Airways' 2020 goal of doubling the number of seats on flights connecting Honolulu and Tokyo. The airline currently offers three daily flights between the cities on Boeing 787 aircraft, which carry 200 to 250 passengers. Honu Hawaii's green sea turtle was chosen for the aircraft's name to symbolize "good fortune and prosperity" and the company's support of Hawaii conservation efforts, the airline said. EDMONTON - Jason Kenney, Alberta's incoming premier, said he cordially talked pipelines Wednesday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Kenney's political nemesis and his election campaign pinata and said the plan is to meet soon for a one-on-one. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Kenney, Alberta's incoming premier, said he cordially talked pipelines Wednesday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - Kenney's political nemesis and his election campaign pinata - and said the plan is to meet soon for a one-on-one. Premier-Designate Jason Kenney addresses the media the day his after his election victory in Edmonton on Wednesday April 17, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson EDMONTON - Jason Kenney, Alberta's incoming premier, said he cordially talked pipelines Wednesday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Kenney's political nemesis and his election campaign pinata and said the plan is to meet soon for a one-on-one. "He called to offer his congratulations. We spoke for about 15 minutes," Kenney said outside Alberta's legislature building. "We had a respectful conversation about a number of issues, including the need to get Canadian energy to foreign markets." Kenney said he and Trudeau will try to meet shortly after Kenney and his new United Conservative government are sworn in on April 30. It was a much anticipated conversation, given that Kenney successfully leveraged voter dissatisfaction with Trudeau in Alberta's election, painting NDP Premier Rachel Notley as a weak enabler of federal energy policies he says are undermining its oil and gas sector. On Tuesday, Kenney's United Conservatives won a strong majority government over Notley's NDP, reducing core NDP support to mainly the city of Edmonton. Kenney and Notley have attacked the federal Liberals on proposed legislation, including a tanker ban on the northern B.C. coast and Bill C-69. Bill C-69, now before the Senate, creates new approval rules for energy projects, which Kenney calls an unconstitutional power grab on areas of provincial authority. The Kenney-Trudeau nexus is expected to play a pivotal role as the UCP work to implement its core campaign promise to create more jobs and grow the oil and gas sector. Kenney has promised to fight Bill C-69 in court. He will also go to court to try to stop the federal government from imposing a carbon tax on Alberta once his UCP follows through next month on its promise to repeal the Alberta-made carbon levy. Kenney, a former federal cabinet minister under Stephen Harper, has said the mere existence of Trudeau in power threatens Alberta's economic prospects and has said he will do whatever he can to see Trudeau defeated in the fall election. The fight is also personal. Almost a year ago, Kenney, in a newspaper interview, dismissed Trudeau as a dilettante and a lightweight. "I know Justin. He doesn't have a clue what hes doing. This guy is an empty trust-fund millionaire who has the political depth of a finger bowl, Kenney said at the time. Kenney said Wednesday that the plan, for now, is to be positive. "We will begin with the path of diplomacy and try to find common ground," 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. "We hope that we don't need to use more forceful measures to assert Alberta's vital economic interests." Kenney also won the election on a promise to be more forceful with other provinces, saying that Albertans feel its neighbours are happy to share in the bounty of Alberta's oil wealth while opposing measures like pipelines to help it grow. In Quebec, Premier Francois Legault congratulated Kenney on his electoral victory Wednesday but said all parties in Quebec's legislature still oppose any new oil pipelines. Kenney said he also wants to start on a positive note with Legault, but added: "We don't think it's reasonable for other provinces, like Quebec, to take our equalization money while opposing pipeline projects that can help us pay the bills." Kenney has said that the first day of his government will see him proclaim into law a bill passed by Notley's legislature allowing Alberta to reduce oil flows to B.C. if B.C. continues to thwart the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline to take more Alberta oil to the West Coast. He said he plans to recall the legislature in the third week of May. BOSTON - As thousands of Stop & Shop workers remain on strike in New England, some Jewish families are preparing for Passover without the region's largest supermarket chain, which has deep roots in the local Jewish community. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Striking workers walk a picket line outside a Stop & Shop supermarket in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. Some Jewish families in southern New England are preparing for Passover without the region's largest supermarket chain. Thousands of workers remain on strike and rabbis in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island are advising their congregations not to cross the picket lines. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) BOSTON - As thousands of Stop & Shop workers remain on strike in New England, some Jewish families are preparing for Passover without the region's largest supermarket chain, which has deep roots in the local Jewish community. A number of rabbis in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have been advising their congregations not to cross picket lines to buy Jewish holiday essentials at the store that one analyst says has the highest sales of kosher products among New England grocery stores. More than 30,000 Stop & Shop workers walked off the job April 11 over what they say is an unfair contract offer, a claim the company disputes. "The food that you're buying is the product of oppressed labour and that's not kosher," said Rabbi Barbara Penzner, of Temple Hillel B'nai Torah, a reconstructionist synagogue in Boston. "Especially during Passover, when we're celebrating freedom from slavery, that's particularly egregious." Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen, of Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel, a conservative synagogue in New Haven, Connecticut, cited ancient Jewish law prohibiting artisans from taking the livelihood of fellow artisans. Tilsen said that ban is akin to the use of replacement workers by companies during labour strikes, which Stop & Shop has employed. "I am not making any judgment about the current strike," he stressed. "I am stating that we, local Jews, must respect the workers' action." But at Temple Shalom, a reform synagogue in the Boston suburb of Newton, Rabbis Allison Berry and Laura Abrasley said it's ultimately a personal decision, though one they suggest should be framed within the American Jewish community's long history of supporting organized labour. "Jewish law is interpreted in different ways," they said via email. "We encourage our members to celebrate the upcoming holiday in a manner that honours both the Jewish value of freedom and workers' dignity." Penzner and other rabbis acknowledge their call to avoid the ubiquitous grocer can be challenging for some, especially in more remote communities where Stop & Shop is the most affordable and sometime the only place Jews can get matzo meal, for making matzo balls, gefilte fish, coconut macaroons and more for Passover Seder. New Haven resident Rachel Bashevkin said she stocked up on Passover essentials before the strike. And for anything else, she won't be turning to Stop & Shop, which she said stocks harder to find items that make the meal extra special, like specialty baked goods, desserts, sweets and teas. "The message of Passover is to me totally (that) you don't celebrate your holiday at the expense of other people," she told the New Haven Register earlier this week. The dilemma isn't unique to Jews, either. Rev. Laura Goodwin, of Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, in Sutton, Massachusetts, said she had ordered the church's Easter flower arrangements from the nearby Stop & Shop weeks ago. But when it became clear the strike wasn't going to end before the holiday, she scrambled to purchase enough tulips, hyacinths and daffodils from other stores. "I just personally wasn't comfortable crossing the picket line," Goodwin said. "Flowers are nice, but they're not as important as people's livelihood." The religious protests could have significant consequences for the bottom line of the Quincy, Massachusetts-based chain, said Burt Flickinger, a grocery industry analyst for the Strategic Research Group, a New York-based retail consulting firm. 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. Stop & Shop, which operates about 400 stores in New England, New York and New Jersey, is owned by the Dutch supermarket operator Ahold Delhaize but was founded in the 1900s by a Boston Jewish family whose descendants remain major philanthropists and civic leaders in New England. Flickinger estimates the company has been losing about $2 million a day since the strike started, a financial hit that will only magnify in the coming days. Passover and the Christian holiday of Easter typically represent about 3% of the company's annual sales. "They'll see big inventory loses, especially on profitable products like produce, flowers, meat and seafood that will go unsold," he said, projecting the losses for the company could be as much as $20 million for the time period. Flickinger said competitors are already reaping the windfall, as can be seen in packed parking lots and long lines at many of Stop & Shop's regional rivals, including Shaw's and Market Basket, in recent days. He estimates competitors could see as much as a 20 per cent bump in sales during the holiday season with the market leader largely sidelined. Stop & Shop declined to comment on Flickinger's projections but apologized to customers for the inconvenience. The company has kept most of its 240 stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut open, but bakery, deli and seafood counters have been shuttered. The company's New York and New Jersey locations aren't affected by the strikes. "We are grateful for members of the Jewish community who rely on our stores for kosher and Passover products," the company said in an emailed statement. "We're doing everything we can to minimize disruptions ahead of the holiday." NEW YORK - Love them or hate them, electric scooters are everywhere zipping along city streets and littered on sidewalks, to the dismay of pedestrians and drivers who must share the road. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. NEW YORK - Love them or hate them, electric scooters are everywhere zipping along city streets and littered on sidewalks, to the dismay of pedestrians and drivers who must share the road. And now they have overtaken station-based bicycles as the most popular form of shared transportation outside transit and cars in the U.S. According to a new report released Wednesday by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, riders took 38.5 million trips on shared electric scooters in 2018, eclipsing the 36.5 million trips on shared, docked bicycles. Riders also took trips on 3 million dockless pedal bikes, which can be picked up and dropped off anywhere, and 6.5 million dockless electric bikes in 2018, but the report notes those numbers are declining. One reason for electric scooters' fast growth: companies are jockeying for strategic position in the so-called micromobility revolution, where consumers are embracing shared scooters and bikes for short trips and exploring alternatives to car ownership buoyed by the ubiquity of smartphones. Riders took 84 million trips on micromobility services in 2018, more than double the number from the year before, according to the report. Electric scooters helped drive that trend, with more than 85,000 of them available for public use in the U.S. compared with 57,000 station-based bikes. To be sure, scooter companies face challenges from every direction, including vandalism, theft, rider injuries, intense competition and aggressive regulations in cities across the country. Yet the industry persists and venture capitalists, ride-hailing companies and traditional auto manufacturers have poured millions of dollars into the fledgling business. The original bike-share systems in the U.S. developed after cities invited them in, said Kate Fillin-Yeh, director of strategy for the National Association for City Transportation Officials. "In the last year-and-a-half, it's a very different animal," she said. "The companies are in some cases trying to beat each other to the market." Bird, a Santa Monica-based scooter company launched in late 2017, raised $418 million and rang up more than 10 million rides in its first year. Lime, which offers shared bikes and scooters, clocked more than 12 million rides and $467 million in investment in its first 15 months. Car manufacturers and ride-hailing companies are taking notice, and some have made their own plays in the space with larger ambitions than scooters alone. Uber bought Jump Bikes, an electric bike and scooter company that operates in about two dozen cities, and last year it invested $30 million in Lime, which is in more than 100 cities worldwide. Ford, which bought scooter company Spin in November, said deploying electric scooters will help the company eventually roll out autonomous vehicles by building critical relationships with U.S. cities as they work together to craft regulations and build out infrastructure. "In this next revolution of micromobility, the cities are taking a more active stance in how they're going to participate," Sunny Madra, vice-president of Ford's mobility businesses, told The Associated Press late last year. "By doing this now in advance of autonomous programs and other forms of mobility that will come up, this is a great way for us to make sure that we're a part of the transformation of mobility." If it seems like electric scooters popped up overnight, that's because they did. Several companies distributed them throughout cities without permission or permits, reminding local officials of when ride-hailing companies such as Uber launched in their markets years ago without warning. But cities learned from that experience and have been more aggressive about regulating scooters. San Francisco, for instance, kicked out Bird, Lime and Spin and instituted a competition for permits, ultimately awarding them to relative underdogs Scoot and Skip and capping the number of scooters they could deploy. New York City does not allow shared electric scooters, although legislation has been introduce to change the rule. As a condition for operating there, many cities are requiring scooter companies to share their troves of location data, which show where the scooters are and the routes they take. That can be valuable to plan bike routes and docking stations or to understand traffic patterns. It also raises questions about user privacy. The location data provided to cities is not linked to names, emails or other directly identifiable information, but "if you take enough GPS data points and begin attaching other data sets, it can be used to identify specific individuals," said Regina Clewlow, CEO of Populus, a company that helps cities securely access data for policy and planning while protecting privacy. Another consequence of electric scooters is head injuries. Dr. Vishal Bansal, director of trauma surgery at Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, noticed many riders were getting on scooters at night intoxicated, without wearing a helmet, taking "30, 40 years of what we've learned about injury prevention and has just thrown it out the window," 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. "If your head hits concrete at 20 miles an hour, you are not going to get up," said Christopher Ziebell, emergency room medical director at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin. "These have little tiny wheels on them, so it doesn't take much for a rider to go flying off." Some industry watchers wonder how long the electric scooter phenomenon will last. Veteran auto analyst Maryann Keller calls the billion-dollar valuations that have been reported for some scooter companies nonsensical. Scooters are a capital-intensive business, and there are few ways to differentiate from competitors' models, making it hard for companies to stand out, she said. "These little fads come and go," Keller said. For those wishing for the scooter fad to go, they might have to wait a little longer. ___ Follow Cathy Bussewitz on Twitter: @cbussewitz The company that owns the Winnipeg Free Press, Brandon Sun and eight community newspapers in Manitoba saw revenues decline in 2018 but projects a more stable picture in 2019. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The company that owns the Winnipeg Free Press, Brandon Sun and eight community newspapers in Manitoba saw revenues decline in 2018 but projects a more stable picture in 2019. FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership (FPLP) revenues for the year ended Dec. 31, 2018, were $67 million, a drop of $4.9 million or 6.9 per cent from the previous 12 months. While print advertising revenue declined by 9.3 per cent, that was an improvement from declines of 14.2 per cent and 13.7 per cent in 2017 and 2016 respectively. The situation improved as the year went on, with a lower year-over-year decline of 5.9 per cent for the last six months versus 12.5 per cent for the first six. 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. Print and digital circulation revenues in 2019 are expected to be near 2018 levels as print subscription-rate increases are expected to offset the long-term trend of slowly declining print circulation unit sales. There have been continued increases in Winnipeg Free Press "All Access" digital subscribers who pay $16.99 per month for digital access to the Winnipeg platforms across both desktop and mobile sites and apps. The number of digital subscribers surpassed 9,000 in February 2019, an increase of 46 per cent from Dec. 31, 2017. While digital advertising revenues declined slightly in 2018, the first two months of 2019 showed a 24 per cent increase. Employee compensation accounted for 49 per cent of operating expenses before depreciation and amortization. The Winnipeg collective bargaining agreement ends June 30, and the Brandon Sun contract expires on Dec. 31. For 2019, FPLP plans for compensation costs to be slightly lower due to non-replacement of retiring employees. The March 19 federal budget introduced details on a new measure aimed at providing financial assistance to support Canadian journalism. The journalism tax credit is a 25 per cent refundable tax credit on salaries paid to eligible newsroom employees. This measure will apply to eligible salaries earned in respect of a period on or after Jan. 1. While the 2019 budget still needs to be formally approved, its estimated that the financial assistance FPLP would receive under this program is approximately $1.1 million. Saturday will mark the first 4/20 celebration of the legal cannabis era, but the annual smokefest on the front lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building could be a slow burn compared to previous years. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Saturday will mark the first 4/20 celebration of the legal cannabis era, but the annual smokefest on the front lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building could be a slow burn compared to previous years. Last year's April 20 event for marijuana enthusiasts featured a DJ and booths offering everything from cannabis accessories to free hits of concentrated cannabis. Those attractions will be gone this year, according to event organizer Steven Stairs. The provincial government denied the 4/20 event request because smoking marijuana in public is illegal. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files) Stairs said legislature authorities didn't formally approve his event plan for 2019, and told him they wouldn't provide portable toilets. A government spokesperson confirmed the event request was denied, but noted "Manitobans have the ability to hold rallies on the legislature grounds." "They have concerns about the fact that now public (cannabis) consumption is illegal and it's not like it wasn't before but now there are rules written around it, so therefore they have concerns about allowing an event like that to be held," Stairs said. Ottawa legalized cannabis six months ago, but Manitoba law makes it illegal to smoke or vaporize the drug in public, which is what cannabis aficionados tend to do on April 20. Public cannabis consumption is punishable by a $672 provincial fine, but Stairs expects people will spend Saturday lighting up on the legislature grounds regardless. "It'll be a peaceful gathering of civil disobedience, regarding and protesting the current cannabis legislation. I'm sure you'll see people sitting around, gathered up on blankets or chairs there'll be bongs and pipes and weed smoke all over the place." From left: Gavin Wolf, Brayden Chartrand, Dylan Johnson and Joseph Lajoie hang out during last year's 4/20 celebrations at the Manitoba Legislative Building. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files) The Winnipeg Police Service is aware of the 4/20 event, and doesn't plan to interfere. "Based on the legalization of cannabis, we would look at this as a very low-risk public demonstration where we will, essentially, know that that activity is taking place, but (we) are not going to be taking enforcement action relative to anyone smoking cannabis in public," said Insp. Max Waddell of the organized crime unit, adding police will take action if they observe more serious crimes. "But as far as just individuals consuming cannabis, just minding their own business and not causing harm to anyone else, we're just going to watch from a distance." Although inspectors from the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba have the power to issue tickets, the retail cannabis regulator said those inspectors only enforce those laws in licensed spaces, such cannabis stores or events with a liquor permit. As the legislature grounds aren't a licensed space, LGCA inspectors won't show up, said a spokeswoman. Stairs said the Winnipeg 420 Organizing Committee's planning efforts were less effective this year due to internal political turmoil. Plus, businesses that used to support the event have been hesitant this year, citing concerns over Canada's new cannabis laws. "Even big supporters that have been involved in years past, like Delta 9 (Cannabis), had to take a hands-off approach this year," he said. Police will observe Saturday's rally, but won't take any action if they see people smoking. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files) April 20 cannabis events in Canada tend to be part counterculture festival and part political demonstration. Stairs said cannabis advocates can still "acknowledge the fact that there's still so much more to be fixed," citing issues such as provincial laws that leave some cannabis users no place to legally use the drug. "There's all these little things that there is definitely (a) need to protest still." Stairs estimates about 1,500 people showed up to last year's 4/20 event at the legislature. He expects anywhere between 1,000 and 2,500 on Saturday, depending on the weather. solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @sol_israel Winnipeg is facing a measles "disaster," says an expert who fears low vaccination rates in the city are putting people at risk of the virus that can have devastating effects. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg is facing a measles "disaster," says an expert who fears low vaccination rates in the city are putting people at risk of the virus that can have devastating effects. Only 67 per cent of Winnipeg children born in 2008 have had the recommended two doses of measles vaccine, an analysis of vaccination data last year by Manitoba public health officials found. The number is even lower in one pocket of north St. Vital, where only 55 per cent of children have been vaccinated for measles. "If those data are correct, I would characterize it as a disaster," said Dr. Brian Ward, professor of medicine and microbiology at McGill University in Montreal. CYNTHIA GOLDSMIT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS / CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION This undated image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Feb. 4, 2015 shows an electron microscope image of a measles virus particle. Measles is considered one of the most infectious diseases known. The virus is spread through the air when someone infected coughs or sneezes. "Those have got to be some of the lowest vaccine coverage rates in the country," said Ward, co-director of the McGill Vaccine Study Centre and deputy director of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. "The target is 95 per cent" to have herd immunity protecting the population, said Ward. "In the 50s and 60s is really horrible." Measles is an acute, highly communicable viral infection, also known as rubeola. It causes a rash, high fever and cough, and can lead to a number of health problems, including sore throat, ear infection, diarrhea, or pneumonia. Sometimes, it can lead to inflammation of the brain and seizures. It's one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths in children worldwide, according to Health Canada. "Measles is one of if not the most infectious viruses known to humans. Exposure in a big city that has a lot of travellers and tourists is inevitable," said Ward, who saw children in Philadelphia die from measles during an outbreak in 1990. "Measles is a really, really bad disease whether you get it at two years of age or 50." Measles vaccination rates Percentage of 2008 birth cohort receiving 2 of 2 doses 0 % 50 60 70 80 100 Seven Oaks Inkster Transcona St. James Downtown Assiniboine South St. Vital St. Vital North 55% Fort Garry South 58% Source: Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Measles vaccination rates Percentage of 2008 birth cohort receiving 2 of 2 doses 0 % 50 60 70 80 100 Seven Oaks Inkster Transcona St. James Downtown Assiniboine South St. Vital St. Vital North 55% Fort Garry South 58% Source: Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Seven Oaks Inkster Measles vaccination rates Percentage of 2008 birth cohort receiving 2 of 2 doses Transcona St. James Downtown Assiniboine South 0 % 50 60 70 80 100 St. Vital St. Vital North 55% Fort Garry South 58% Source: Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Winnipeg has been "lucky" to see just a few cases reported over the last few years, medical officer of health Dr. Bunmi Fatoye said in a column penned for the Free Press for National Immunization Awareness Week. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said its last confirmed case of the measles was in October 2018. Now, with the data gathered late last year, Fatoye warned as many as one in three Winnipeg children born in 2008 may be at risk. Public health officials have long-stressed the importance of widespread vaccination to create "herd immunity" the protection provided when 90 to 95 per cent of the population is vaccinated. In Manitoba, the average for children born in 2008 is 73 per cent. In Ontario and New Brunswick, where vaccines are mandatory for children before they can enter school, the vaccination rates are from 81 to 96 per cent, says the Canadian Paediatric Society. But neither Ward nor the society's Dr. Joan Robinson, an infectious diseases physician at the Stollery Childrens Hospital in Edmonton, support mandatory vaccinations. SETH WENIG / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Measles are so contagious that 90 percent of people who aren't immunized are infected if exposed to the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They both fear some parents would see legislated immunization as an infringement on their rights, leading to fury and increasing mistrust of the medical profession. The goal should be parents immunize their children because they understand the benefits, the doctors say. "I think that we give too much publicity to the small percentage of parents who are truly anti-immunization," said Robinson who has been researching ways to improve vaccination rates. "There are way more parents who either: one, just didn't get around to it; or two, are uncertain so just avoid the issue," she said. "I think that our best strategy is to work harder at encouraging parents to have their children immunized by extending clinic hours and pouring more resources into school immunization programs. If we tried harder to get consent to immunize kids in schools, I think that we could update immunizations for most of them." Manitoba's Health Minister Cameron Friesen said, "While we strongly encourage Manitobans to protect themselves and their children with immunizations, we have confidence in our current approaches, which are consistent with those in most other jurisdictions. "Manitoba was the first province in Canada to create a province-wide immunization registry in 1988. To this day, we continue to have a robust method of reporting vaccines, allowing public health officials to access the most accurate data possible on vaccine coverage. "We engage in many initiatives to provide the opportunity for Manitobans to be immunized as part of the Routine Immunization Schedule while continuously examining ways of increasing coverage among all segments of the population, including school-aged children. We are continuing to look at ways to increase uptake of immunizations through education of the public and health-care providers and creating resources that allow parents to make the best evidence-informed decision for their family." Measles was once common in Canada Click to Expand Before vaccinations, more than 300,000 Canadians caught the measles every year. Some recovered completely; many did not. In 1926, almost 900 Canadians died because of the measles. Survivors risked living with lifelong complications such as permanent brain damage or deafness. In the 1960s, the first measles vaccine was introduced to Canadians. Cases decreased by 99 per cent. Measles had been eliminated in Canada as a direct result of successful universal vaccination programs. However, measles is still common in other parts of the world and easy to contract. For that reason, it is possible for cases and outbreaks in Canada. As of March 31, 33 cases of measles have been reported in 2019 in Quebec, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Ontario and Alberta. sources: Government of Canada; Canadian Institutes of Health Research The "anti-vaxer" movement, which tells parents vaccines are worse than the diseases they prevent, isn't helping, Robinson said. "Providing parents with information is a double-edged sword, as some find a way to turn the information around and use it as a reason not to immunize," said Robinson. "Some mix up side-effects from the disease with side-effects from immunizations." Ward said it's time for parents whose children weren't vaccinated and suffered to speak out. "We need people to stand up whose children were damaged by one these diseases and say 'I got bad advice.'" Canada has a national immunization strategy aiming for an 80 per cent vaccination coverage among adults, and 80 to 95 per cent for infants and children by 2021. layer "Everybody should be checking to make sure their vaccinations are up to date," said Ward, who's studied measles for 30 years in Canada and the U.S. "Everyone born in this country after 1970 should have received two doses of the vaccine, and even that's not a 100 per cent guarantee," said Ward, who fears a measles outbreak in North America and Europe is inevitable due to low vaccinations rates. "Unfortunately, in a situation like this, a large number of children will get hurt because of bad decisions made by their parents. Only then will there be a community memory of how bad these diseases are." carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca 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. Recent reports of measles outbreaks on Vancouver Island, Montreal, Ottawa and New York may have many Winnipeg parents and health-care providers wondering: could the same thing happen here? Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Recent reports of measles outbreaks on Vancouver Island, Montreal, Ottawa and New York may have many Winnipeg parents and health-care providers wondering: could the same thing happen here? The answer: yes. Manitoba has been relatively lucky when it comes to measles, with only a handful of cases reported over the last few years. But a recent research project carried out by Manitoba Public Health suggests the risk of an outbreak may be greater than most people realize. According to the data analyzed last year by public health, only 67 per cent of Winnipeg children born in 2008 have received the recommended two doses of measles vaccine. Thats well below the Manitoba average of 73 per cent. The numbers represents a serious erosion of "herd immunity," which is the term used to describe the protection afforded when a sizable proportion of a given population say 90 to 95 per cent are vaccinated against various infections such as measles The relatively low immunization rate means as many as one in three Winnipeg children born in 2008 may be at risk for measles and the risk may higher depending on which part of the city a child lives. The numbers show rates in the city range from a low of 55 per cent in St. Vital North to a high of 76 per cent in St. James-Assiniboia West and River East North. Meanwhile, the recent surge in outbreaks of measles in Canada and United States is concerning. Public officials are often caught between a rock and hard place when it comes to raising awareness about potential health issues such as measles. (I dont want panic, but I dont want to underplay the potential for a serious outbreak, either.) In this case, the facts speak for themselves: measles is a serious public health threat. And while most children will recover from the infectious disease, children with measles are at risk for serious complications that can affect the lungs and brain, and may even cause death. Reducing the risk of a measles outbreak in our city is both an individual and community responsibility. First and foremost, make sure you and your childrens immunizations are up to date. It is recommended children receive two doses of the measles vaccine, the first at 12 to 15 months of age, and the second at four to six years. The effectiveness of a single dose is estimated to be 85 to 95 per cent. With a second dose, efficacy is almost 100 per cent. If you are travelling, talk to your health-care provider and ask whether your child is properly immunized. (If you arent sure about which immunizations are due when, check the schedule online at Manitoba Healths website.) 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. Second, make an effort to learn more about the measles vaccine. Misinformation campaigns, particularly on social media, have been one of the attempted measures to erode trust in vaccines. Fortunately, social media platforms are beginning to take action to correct the dissemination of misinformation but we must all do more to build trust. It is now more important than ever people address their concerns and educate themselves about the role immunization plays in preventing disease. Health professionals can also do more. It is important health-care providers assess the vaccination needs of their practice populations and develop strategies to address the immunization gap. Public health officials across the country are doing their part by supporting National Immunization Awareness Week, which starts Saturday (April 20). Its the perfect time to talk to your health-care provider to address any concerns you may have about immunization. In addition, people looking for information online can visit Immunize Canadas website, which offers numerous resources, including detailed information on various infectious diseases and a parents guide to immunization. Dr. Bunmi Fatoye is a medical officer of health with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. In days gone by, when our economy was dominated by agriculture and manufacturing, an employees value was gauged by their inputs. If they slacked off by not placing a bumper on a car fast enough they were unproductive, and if they slept on the job they were stealing time from their employers and could be fired. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion In days gone by, when our economy was dominated by agriculture and manufacturing, an employees value was gauged by their inputs. If they slacked off by not placing a bumper on a car fast enough they were unproductive, and if they slept on the job they were stealing time from their employers and could be fired. Today, however, we live in what is largely a knowledge economy in which an employees value is based on their outputs, not their inputs. This means their performance is often more about ultimate results and less about the hours clocked. In the knowledge economy we want employees to be alert, not just active; engaged, not just present. We want them to be focused on producing the highest quality outputs possible. Sleeping on the job can make this happen. An epidemic of exhaustion According to the National Safety Council in the United States, almost 70 per cent of employees are tired at work. This level of fatigue is estimated to cost US$410 billion annually in societal expenses. As I discuss in my latest book Boost: The Science of Recharging Yourself in an Age of Unrelenting Demands, healthy adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep a night, but many of us dont get enough shut eye. Thirty-five per cent of the population gets less than seven hours of sleep per night. Between 1985 and 2012 the percentage of adults in the U.S. who sleep less than six hours a night increased by over 30 per cent. And, compared to 60 years ago, today people get one and a half to two hoursless sleep every night. The ensuing sleepiness results in potential dangers both on and off the job. For example, about one in 25 drivers report having fallen asleep at the wheel in the last 30 days! The problem is so bad that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers inadequate sleep to be a public health epidemic. Workplaces should provide nap spaces Part of the explanation for this level of fatigue is that the boundary between work and home is blurring. Ninety-five per cent of U.S. adults now own a cellphone and 77 per cent own a smartphone. As a result of the ubiquity of communication technologies, employees can now be contacted any time of the day or night, on or off the job. Research shows that 84 per cent of employees report having to be available after hours at least some of the time. This essentially puts employees "on call." And guess what happens when people are on call? They dont sleep as well. So not only do societal trends reveal an overall reduction in sleep duration, technological trends that blur the boundary between work and home are intensifying our inability to get adequate sleep. This is tragic because work tires us out and sleep is one of the most important recovery mechanisms that exist. To combat the epidemic of sleepiness, we should allow the blurring of the line between work and home to go both ways. If employees are going to be required to be available after hours, they should also be allowed to sleep on the job. If employers are going to interfere with employees leisure time and their ability to recover from their daily job demands, organizations should then provide opportunities for the needed recovery to occur at work. Naps improve performance There is a strong business case for this. Naps as short as 10 to 30 minutes can increase alertness, reduce fatigue and improve performance. Not only that, but recent research suggests that napping may be as effective as drugs at reducing blood pressure, so organizations that implement napping policies may save on health-care costs. 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. Many companies, such as Ben & Jerrys, Zappos and Nike, allow employees to nap at work. I believe this trend represents the workplace of the future. The idea that employees should not be allowed to sleep on the job is an outdated taboo from a bygone era. It is a holdover from the days when an employees value depended solely on his or her manual inputs. In the modern economy, however, your value as an employee, manager or executive often rests on your ability to produce desirable outputs. Progressive organizations recognize that fatigued employees cant perform at their best. In essence, a tired employee is stealing performance from their employer. In the modern economy, if you are tired and not sleeping on the job, you should be fired. Jamie Gruman is a professor of organizational behaviour at the University of Guelph. This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca. WASHINGTON - Public at last, special counsel Robert Mueller's report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. Trump was largely thwarted by those around him who refused to go along. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Special counsel Robert Mueller drives away from his Washington home on Wednesday, April 17, 2019. Outstanding questions about the special counsel's Russia investigation have not stopped President Donald Trump and his allies from declaring victory. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) WASHINGTON - Public at last, special counsel Robert Mueller's report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. Trump was largely thwarted by those around him who refused to go along. Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which Trump directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsel's appointment in May 2017. Those efforts "were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," Mueller wrote. After nearly two years, the two-volume, 448-page redacted report made for riveting reading. The White House at sunrise in Washington, Thursday, April 18, 2019, as the Mueller report is expected to be released later this morning. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) In one particularly dramatic moment, Mueller reported that Trump was so agitated at the special counsel's appointment on May 17, 2017, that he slumped back in his chair and declared: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm f---ed." With that, Trump set out to save himself. In June of that year, Mueller wrote, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the probe, and say that Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. McGahn refused deciding he would sooner resign than trigger a potential crisis akin to the Saturday Night Massacre of firings during the Watergate era. Two days later, the president made another attempt to alter the course of the investigation, meeting with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and dictating a message for him to relay to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The message: Sessions would publicly call the investigation "very unfair" to the president, declare Trump did nothing wrong and say Mueller should limit his probe to "investigating election meddling for future elections." The message was never delivered. Attorney General William Barr speaks about the release of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report during a news conference, Thursday, April 18, 2019, at the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) The report's bottom line largely tracked the findings revealed in Attorney General William Barr's four-page memo released a month ago no collusion with Russia but no clear verdict on obstruction but it added new layers of detail about Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation. Looking ahead, both sides were already using the findings to amplify well-rehearsed arguments about Trump's conduct, Republicans casting him as a victim of harassment and Democrats depicting the president as stepping far over the line to derail the investigation. The Justice Department released its redacted version of the report about 90 minutes after Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings at a testy news conference. The nation, Congress and Trump's White House consumed it voraciously online, via a compact disc delivered to legislators and in loose-leaf binders distributed to reporters. The release represented a moment of closure nearly two years in the making but also the starting bell for a new round of partisan warfare. A defiant Trump pronounced it "a good day" and tweeted "Game Over" in a typeface mimicking the "Game of Thrones" logo. By late afternoon, he was airborne for his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida with wife Melania for the holiday weekend. Attorney General William Barr speaks alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, right, and acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O'Callaghan, left, about the release of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report during a news conference, Thursday, April 18, 2019, at the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Top Republicans in Congress saw vindication, too. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said it was time to move on from Democrats' effort to "vilify a political opponent." The California lawmaker said the report failed to deliver the "imaginary evidence" incriminating Trump that Democrats had sought. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said Republicans should turn the tables and "investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation." But Democrats cried foul over Barr's preemptive press conference and said the report revealed troubling details about Trump's conduct in the White House. Attorney General William Barr speaks alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about the release of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report during a news conference, Thursday, April 18, 2019, at the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) In a joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote that "one thing is clear: Attorney General Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Mueller's report appears to undercut that finding." House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler added that the report "outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct." He sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting that Mueller himself testify before his panel "no later than May 23" and said he'd be issuing a subpoena for the full special counsel report and the underlying materials. Signalling battles ahead, Nadler earlier called the investigation "incredibly thorough" work that would preserve evidence for future probes. Barr said he wouldn't object to Mueller testifying. Special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election as released on Thursday, April 18, 2019, is photographed in Washington. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick) Trump himself was never questioned in person, but the report's appendix includes 12 pages of his written responses to queries from Mueller's team. Mueller deemed Trump's written answers rife with iterations of "I don't recall" to be "inadequate." He considered issuing a subpoena to force the president to appear in person but decided against it after weighing the likelihood of a long legal battle. In his written answers, Trump said his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Hillary Clinton's private server was made "in jest and sarcastically" and said he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. But Mueller said that within five hours of Trump's comment, Russian military intelligence officers were targeting email accounts connected to Clinton's office. Special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is photographed Thursday, April 18, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick) Mueller evaluated nearly a dozen episodes for possible obstruction of justice, and said he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed criminal obstruction. The episodes included Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president's directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to co-operate. Sessions was so affected by Trump's frequent criticism of him for recusing himself from the investigation that he kept a resignation letter "with him in his pocket every time he went to the White House," Mueller said. The president's lawyers have said Trump's conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mueller's team deemed the episodes deserving of scrutiny for potential criminal acts. As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote that the campaign "expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." President Donald Trump gives a 'thumbs-up' as he prepares to board Air Force One, Thursday, April 18, 2019, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President Trump is traveling to his Mar-a-lago estate to spend the Easter weekend in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) But Mueller said investigators concluded, "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges." Workers at a Russian troll farm contacted Trump's campaign, claiming to be political activists for conservative grassroots organizations, and asked for signs and other campaign materials to use at rallies. While volunteers provided some of those materials and set aside a number of signs investigators don't believe any Trump campaign officials knew the requests were coming from foreign nationals, Mueller wrote. Mueller wrote that investigators "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or co-ordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, stressed that Mueller didn't think the president's obligations to run the executive branch entitled him to absolute immunity from prosecution. But to find that the president obstructed justice, he said, Mueller would have needed much clearer evidence that the president acted solely with "corrupt intent." "The evidence was sort of muddled," Blackman said, adding that the president's actions had multiple motivations. The report laid out some of Mueller's reasoning for drawing no conclusion on the question of obstruction. Mueller wrote that he would have exonerated Trump if he could, but he wasn't able to do that given the evidence he uncovered. And he said the Justice Department's standing opinion that a sitting president couldn't be indicted meant he also couldn't recommend Trump be criminally charged, even in secret. Trump's written responses addressed no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trump's legal team. He told Mueller he had "no recollection" of learning in advance about the much-scrutinized Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Clinton's Democratic campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made "complimentary statements" about him. 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 wasn't just Trump under the microscope. But Mueller wrote that he believed prosecutors would be unlikely to meet the burden of proof to show that Donald Trump Jr. and other participants in the Trump Tower meeting "had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful." Nor did Mueller's probe develop evidence that they knew that foreign contributions to campaigns were illegal or other particulars of federal law. Barr's contention that the report contained only "limited redactions" applied more to the obstruction of justice section than its look at Russian election meddling. Overall, about 40 per cent of the pages contained at least something that was blocked out, mostly to protect ongoing investigations. Barr had said that he would redact grand jury information and material related to investigations, privacy and intelligence. ___ AP writers Zeke Miller, Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro, Dustin Weaver, Deb Riechmann, Susannah George, Michael R. Sisak, Stephen Braun, Jill Colvin, Jonathan Lemire, Darlene Superville, Jessica Gresko, Mark Sherman, Julie Pace and Elizabeth Kennedy contributed to this report. ___ For complete coverage of the Mueller report, go tohttps://www.apnews.com/TrumpInvestigations South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo arrives for work at his office in Changwon, Thursday, a day after being released on bail after 77 days of detention for online opinion-rigging charges. He was sentenced to two years in prison in January for colluding with a blogger to carry out an illicit operation to sway online public opinion in favor of then-presidential candidate Moon Jae-in before the 2017 presidential election. The appeals court approved bail, saying he was unlikely to flee or destroy evidence. /Yonhap South Korea's press freedom has risen for two years straight to rank 41st in the latest index, a press advocacy group said Thursday. The 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders showed that the country climbed two places from the previous year's list due to positive changes brought about in the industry following the inauguration of President Moon Jae-in, a former human rights activist. It is the second consecutive year that South Korea's ranking has risen, after dropping to 70th place in 2016. Some 180 nations were judged on their level of media freedom. The agency also said the Korean media played a role in the 2014-2016 period in opposing then President Park Geun-hye and revealing corruption scandals surrounding her that led to her impeachment. North Korea, which was the country with the least press freedom in the world last year, climbed a notch to 179th thanks to its gestures of opening up, including last year's summit with the United States. China and Vietnam fell one rank to 177th and 176th, respectively, while Taiwan was 42nd and Japan stayed at 67th. Northern European countries topped the list, with Norway in the top spot for the third year in a row, followed by Finland and Sweden. (Yonhap) Lawyer Song Ki-ho speaks to reporters after an appeals court rejected a request to disclose diplomatic documents related to Korea's 2015 deal with Japan over Tokyo's wartime sex slaves. Yonhap Overturning a lower court decision, an appellate court rejected a request Thursday to make public diplomatic documents related to South Korea's 2015 deal with Japan over Tokyo's wartime sex slaves. The Seoul High Court judged that keeping the relevant documents confidential was proper, saying a possible disclosure of the behind-the-door negotiation process leading to the deal could negatively affect Seoul-Tokyo ties. The lower court earlier ordered the revelation of the documents for the purpose of "guaranteeing the people's right to know and securing transparency in running state affairs." In December 2015, the government of President Park Geun-hye and Japan clinched an agreement to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the issue of Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II. "If the relevant information is made public, details about Japan's stance will be revealed without its consent, dealing a serious blow to the bilateral relations. It could also spark conflicts of interests between the two nations or diplomatic tensions," the court said. It also said the possible disclosure could hurt the Korean government's credibility and its diplomatic capacity to negotiate. "The sex slave issue is a sensitive one between Seoul and Tokyo. So if only part of negotiations is made public, there are concerns that it could distort the overall purpose of the consultations." Thursday's decision came as Seoul and Tokyo have seen their ties sink to one of the lowest points amid heightened tensions over a South Korea court ruling on Tokyo's wartime forced labor. In 2016, Song Ki-ho, a lawyer, requested the foreign minister to make public the documents amid public criticism about the accord. In 2017, an administrative court accepted his request, ordering the government to unveil them. The 2015 deal calls for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's indirect apology and the launch of a foundation dedicated to supporting the surviving victims. Tokyo contributed 1 billion yen (US$8.9 million) to the foundation. But the accord has come under fire here as Seoul failed to obtain Japan's acknowledgment of legal responsibility for atrocities and reached the deal without consulting the victims. The liberal Moon Jae-in government defied the deal as "seriously flawed" and dissolved the foundation last year. Tokyo saw the dissolution as a breach of the agreement. The lawyer said he will decide whether to lodge an appeal after consulting with sex slave victims. "The court appears to have given weight to diplomatic ties," Song said. "I will do my best until Japan acknowledges its wrongdoing, apologizes and compensates for it." (Yonhap) A photo shows the burned-out hallway of the apartment building in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. Yonhap The arson and murder suspect, who set his house aflame and stabbed five evacuating residents at an apartment building in Jinju, southeastern South Korea, reportedly committed the crimes out of his personal resentment toward society, investigators said Thursday. The 42-year-old suspect, identified only by his family name Ahn, was detained soon after his arson and stabbing rampage left five residents dead and 15 others injured in Jinju, about 435 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Wednesday. According to investigators at the Jinju Police Station on Thursday, Ahn said he committed the crimes out of anger after having been disadvantaged socially and by his former employers and hospitals. The suspect also claimed that some people spied on him through illegally installed surveillance cameras and dumped garbage and insects into his house, while every apartment resident provoked him. Pointing to Ahn's unfounded claims of damage inflicted by his neighbors, a police investigator speculated he may have gone on the deadly rampage after suffering from a persistent persecution complex. At one moment during police questioning, Ahn reportedly offered an apology for the "serious problem" he caused. Police earlier said they have secured testimonies from his neighbors and others that the suspect has a history of schizophrenia. But police said Ahn's crimes appear to be premeditated, as he bought two big knives used in Wednesday's murders 34 centimeters and 24 centimeters, respectively, in length about two to three months ago. He also bought a bottle of gasoline from a neighborhood gas station about four hours before setting his apartment on fire. Police said they have requested an arrest warrant for Ahn and a district court in Jinju is to start reviewing his case Thursday. According to Ahn's neighbors, the suspect had in the past year gone on several rampages, including throwing human excrement in front of other houses and in elevators, and hurling expletives at other residents. Some residents had previously reported Ahn's bizarre and violent behavior to the police, but no countermeasures were taken. (Yonhap) 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. 50 minutes ago Will These 3 Dogs of the Dow Leave the Doghouse in 2022? As the year winds down, new diets, gym memberships, and other good habits swirl in our minds. For investors, its a time to consider altering stock picking strategies to slim down on losses and bulk up on gains. A simplistic but sometimes effective approach is to buy the so-called Dogs of the Dow. Read Article Aphria, Inc. engages in the production and supply of medical cannabis. It operates through the following segments: Cannabis Operations, Distribution Operations, and Business Under Development. The Cannabis Operations segment produces, distributes, and sells both medical and adult-use cannabis. The Distribution Operations segment are carried out through its wholly owned subsidiaries ABP, FL Group, and CC Pharma. The Distribution Under Development segment includes operations in which the firm has not received final licensing or has not commenced commercial sales from operations. The company was founded by Cole Cacciavillani and John Cervini on June 22, 2011 and is headquartered in Leamington, Canada. Read More A memorial statue for "comfort women" sits amid citizens calling for a proper resolution to the wartime sexual slavery issue in front of the former Japanese Embassy building in central Seoul, Apr. 10. / Yonhap By Lee Suh-yoon The Seoul High Court overturned a lower court ruling that ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to disclose details of its 2015 settlement with Japan over the issue of wartime sexual slavery, Thursday. Taking the side of the ministry, the appeals court ruled the undisclosed records of the closed-door negotiations behind the 2015 deal should remain sealed for reasons of diplomatic protocol. "Disclosing details of this deal will be a big blow to the credibility of our government, weakening our diplomatic bargaining power in future dealings with Japan," the court said in its ruling. "The reason why diplomatic negotiations take place behind closed doors is because it allows parties to freely exchange opinions and take each other's positions into consideration to include some 'formalities' in the agreement. Such content, when disclosed, can easily become the subject of a diplomatic or political conflict." Thursday's ruling significantly deviated from the lower court ruling in 2017, which said the Japanese government had already broken diplomatic protocol while making the 2015 deal by disclosing the details of previous deals between the two countries. "If the Dec. 28 (2015) deal is a final and irreversible resolution to the Japanese military comfort women issue, victims as well as the Korean people must know under what conditions the Japanese government is offering an apology and funding, and how that negotiation process was carried out," the Seoul Administrative Court said Jan. 6, 2017. Song Ki-ho, a lawyer from Lawyers for a Democratic Society, who brought the information disclosure suit to court on behalf of the victims, said he will appeal to the Supreme Court. "Despite the distinct rules and protocol of diplomatic relations, issues like these cannot be separated from the realm of human rights," Song told The Korea Times after the ruling. "The ruling does not live up to the gravity of the subject." The 2015 deal was supposed to be a "final and irreversible" resolution to the two countries' longstanding dispute over Japan's refusal to recognize and apologize for forcing Korean women, euphemistically known as "comfort women," to work in frontline brothels set up for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. Under the agreement, the Japanese government offered a vaguely phrased apology that recognized the issue as "a matter of grave injury to the honor and dignity of many women under the involvement of (Japanese) military authorities at the time" and provided funds to set up the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation. But the agreement made under the now-ousted conservative President Park Geun-hye was rejected by many Koreans, including a handful of surviving victims who say the deal freed Japan of legal responsibility for the wartime crime in exchange for a half-drafted apology. After President Park's impeachment, public activism mounted against the 2015 deal. More than seven in 10 Koreans replied the 2015 bilateral agreement should be renegotiated, according to a poll published by The Korea Times' sister paper the Hankook Ilbo in July last year. In November last year, the Moon Jae-in government effectively voided the agreement with a decision to shut down the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation. 6 Wall Street research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Cineworld Group in the last twelve months. There are currently 1 sell rating and 5 hold ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should "hold" Cineworld Group stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in CINE, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares. View analyst ratings for Cineworld Group or view top-rated stocks. The following companies are subsidiares of 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. Bunzl plc operates as a distribution and services company in the North America, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and internationally. The company offers food packaging, films, labels, counter-service packaging, foodservice disposables, take-out food packaging, first aid products, point of purchase displays, stationery, bags, and cleaning and hygiene supplies to grocery stores, supermarkets, retail chains, convenience stores, food wholesalers, ethnic grocers, and organic food outlets. It also provides food packaging, napkins, disposable tableware, food service disposables, guest amenities, light and heavy catering equipment, cleaning and hygiene products, and safety items to hotels, restaurants, caterers, the leisure sector, and food processors and packers; and footwear, gloves, safety helmets, workwear, harness equipment, tools, safety signs, traffic management, and ancillary site equipment, as well as ear, eye, respiratory, and face protection products to customers in the industrial and construction markets. In addition, the company offers cleaning systems, floorcare items, hand cleansing products, hygiene paper, janitorial products, cleaning machines, mops, polishes, and protective clothing and washroom chemicals to facilities management companies, contract cleaners, and other industrial and healthcare customers; and counter service packaging, point of purchase display items, stationery, and cleaning and hygiene products to department stores, boutiques, office supply companies, retail chains, and home improvement chains. Further, it provides gloves, aprons, bandages, facemasks, gowns, headwear, mattress covers, overshoes, procedure packs, tapes, wipes, incontinence products, and swabs to the healthcare sector, including hospitals, retirement and nursing homes, and doctors' surgeries and clinics; and various products to government and education establishments. Bunzl plc was founded in 1854 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. De C.V., Laboratoire Service International - L.S.I, Laboratory Management Systems Inc., Laboratory Specialties Proprietary Ltd., LambTrack Limited, Laser Analytical Systems Inc., Liberty Lane Investment LLC, Liberty Lane Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Life Sciences International (Poland) SP z O.O, Life Sciences International Holdings BV, Life Sciences International LLC, Life Sciences International Limited, Life Technologies AS, Life Technologies Australia PTY Ltd., Life Technologies BPD AB, Life Technologies BPD UK Limited, Life Technologies Brasil Comercio e Industria de Produtos para Biotecnologia Ltda, Life Technologies Chile SpA, Life Technologies Clinical Services Lab Inc., Life Technologies Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Life Technologies DaAn Diagnostic (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Europe B.V., Life Technologies Finance Ltd., Life Technologies Finland Oy, Life Technologies GmbH, Life Technologies Holdings PTE Ltd., Life Technologies Inc., Life Technologies International B.V., Life Technologies Japan Ltd., Life Technologies Korea LLC, Life Technologies Limited, Life Technologies Magyarorszag Kft, Life Technologies New Zealand Ltd., Life Technologies Norway Investments US LLC, Life Technologies Polska Sp z.o.o., Life Technologies SA, Life Technologies SAS, Life Technologies s.r.o, Linkage Biosciences Inc., Linkage Biosciences S.a.r.l., Loftus Furnace Company, Lomb Scientific, Lomb Scientific (Aust) Pty Limited, MTI-GlobalStem, Marketbase International Limited, Matrix MicroScience Inc., Matrix MicroScience Ltd., Matrix Technologies Corporation Limited, Matrix Technologies LLC, Maybridge Chemical Company Limited, Maybridge Chemical Holdings Limited, Maybridge Limited, Medical Analysis Systems Inc., Medical Analysis Systems International Inc., Medical Diagnostics Systems Inc., Metavac LLC, Microgenics Corporation, Microgenics Diagnostics Pty Limited, Microgenics GmbH, Microm International GmbH, Microm Laborgerate S.L.U, Molecular BioProducts Inc., Molecular Probes Inc., Molecular Transfer Inc., NAPCO Inc., NERL Diagnostics LLC, NOVODIRECT GmbH Labor- und Industrie- Megerate, Nalge (Europe) Limited, Nalge Nunc International (Monterrey) LLC, Nalge Nunc International Corporation, Nanjing WeiKangLe Trading Industrial Co Ltd, NanoDrop Technologies LLC, National Scientific Company, Navaho Acquisition Corp., Neomarkers Inc., New FS Holdings Inc., NewcoGen PE LLC, Nihon Dynal K.K., Niton Asia Limited, NovaWave Technologies Inc., Nunc A/S, ONIX Systems Inc., OXOID CZ s.r.o., Odyssey Holdings Corporation, Odyssey Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 1 S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 2 S.a r.l., Odyssey Venture Corporation, Omega Data Systems, One Lambda Inc, Onix Holdings Limited, Orme Scientific Limited, Owl Separation Systems LLC, Oxoid (ELY) Limited, Oxoid 2000 Limited, Oxoid AS, Oxoid Australia Pty. Limited, Oxoid Company, Oxoid Deutschland GmbH, Oxoid Holding SAS, Oxoid Holdings Limited, Oxoid Inc., Oxoid International Limited, Oxoid Investments GmbH, Oxoid Limited, Oxoid N.V., Oxoid New Zealand Limited, Oxoid Pension Trustees Limited, Oxoid Senior Holdings Limited, Oxoid UKH LLC, PAX - DSI Acquisition LLC, PE AG, Pacific Rim Far East Industries LLC, Pacific Rim Investment LLC, Panomics L.L.C., Panomics S.R.L., Patheon, Patheon API Inc., Patheon API Manufacturing Inc., Patheon API Services Inc., Patheon Austria GmbH & Co KG, Patheon B.V., Patheon Banner U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon Biologics (NJ) LLC, Patheon Biologics Australia Pty Ltd, Patheon Biologics B.V., Patheon Biologics LLC, Patheon Calculus Merger LLC, Patheon Cooperatief U.A., Patheon Development Services Inc., Patheon Finance LLC, Patheon France SAS, Patheon Holdings B.V., Patheon Holdings I B.V., Patheon Holdings II B.V., Patheon Holdings SAS, Patheon I B.V., Patheon I Holding GmbH, Patheon Inc., Patheon International AG, Patheon Italia S.p.A., Patheon KK, Patheon Life Science Products International GmbH, Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Patheon Pharmaceuticals Services Inc., Patheon Puerto Rico Acquisitions Corporation, Patheon Puerto Rico Inc., Patheon Regensburg GmbH, Patheon Softgels B.V., Patheon Softgels Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings LLC, Patheon UK Limited, Patheon UK Pension Trustees Limited, Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Perbio Science (Canada) Company, Perbio Science AB, Perbio Science BVBA, Perbio Science France SAS, Perbio Science Inc., Perbio Science International Netherlands B.V., Perbio Science Invest AB, Perbio Science Nederland B.V., Perbio Science Projekt AB, Perbio Science Sweden Holdings AB, Perbio Science Switzerland SA, Perbio Science UK Limited, Phadia AB, Phadia Diagnosticos Ltda, Phadia GmbH, Phadia Holding AB, Phadia International Holdings C.V., Phadia Korea Co. Ltd, Phadia Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Phadia Malta Holdings Limited, Phadia Oy, Phadia Real Property AB, Phadia Sweden AB, Phadia Taiwan Inc., Phadia US Inc., Phadia s.r.o., Pharmacaps Mexicana SA de CV, Phenom-World B.V., Phenom-World Holding B.V, Phenom-World Innovations B.V., Phinotex, Pierce Biotechnology Inc., Pierce Milwaukee Holding Corp., Pierce Milwaukee Inc., Polychromix, Power Sweden Holdings I AB, Power Sweden Holdings II AB, Power Sweden Holdings III Aktiebolag, Princeton Gamma-Tech Instruments LLC, Princeton Security Technologies, Prionics AG, Prionics Asia Ltd., Prionics Deutschland GmbH, Prionics France SAS, Prionics Italia S.r.l., Prionics Lelystad B.V., Prionics USA Inc., Priority Air Express LLC, Priority Air Express Pte. Ltd., Priority Air Express UK Limited, Priority Air Holdings Corp, Priority Solutions International, Promedica Pty Limited, Proxeon, Proxeon Biosystems ApS, Qiagen, REP GBP I-B Blocker Inc., Raymond A Lamb Limited, Remel Europe Limited, Remel Inc., Richard-Allan Scientific Company, Robbins Scientific LLC, Robocon Labor- und Industrieroboter Gesellschaft m.b.H, Rupprecht and Patashnick, Rupprecht and Patashnick (R&P), Russell pH Limited, S.C.I. du 10 rue Dugay Trouin, SCI Inno 92, STC Bio Manufacturing Inc., Samco Scientific (Monterrey) LLC, Samco Scientific LLC, Saroph Sweden AB, Schantz Road LLC, Seradyn Inc., Shanghai Life Technologies Biotechnology Co. Limited, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (C-I) Trading Co. Ltd, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (S) Trading Co. Ltd, Southern Trials (Pty) Ltd., Specialty (SMI) Inc., Spectra-Physics AB, Spectra-Physics Holdings Limited, Spectra-Physics Holdings USA LLC, Spectronex, Staten Island Cogeneration Corporation, Sterilin Limited, Stokes Bio Ltd., Sweden DIA (Sweden) AB, SwissAnalytic Group GmbH, Systems Manufacturing Corporation, TFLP LLC, TFS Breda B.V., TFS LLC, TFS Singapore HK Limited, TFSL Financing GP LLC, TFSL Senior GP Holdings 2 LLC, TK Partnership, TKA Wasseraufbereitungssysteme, TMOI Inc., TPI Real Estate Holdings LLC, TSP Holdings I LLC, TWX LLC, Technology Design Solutions Pty Ltd, Thermedics Detection de Argentina S.R.L, Thermo Allen Coding Limited, Thermo Asset Management Services Inc., Thermo BioAnalysis LLC, Thermo BioAnalysis Limited, Thermo BioSciences Holdings LLC, Thermo CIDTEC, Thermo CRS Holdings Ltd., Thermo CRS Ltd., Thermo Cambridge Limited, Thermo Cayman Holdings Ltd., Thermo Corporation, Thermo DMA Inc., Thermo Detection de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Dutch Holdings Limited Partnership, Thermo EGS Gauging LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings I LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings II LLC, Thermo Eberline LLC, Thermo Electron (Calgary) Limited, Thermo Electron (Chile) S.p.A., Thermo Electron (Karlsruhe) GmbH, Thermo Electron (Management Services) Limited, Thermo Electron (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Electron A/S, Thermo Electron Australia Pty Limited, Thermo Electron Export Inc., Thermo Electron Holdings SAS, Thermo Electron Industries, Thermo Electron LED GmbH, Thermo Electron LED S.A.S., Thermo Electron Limited, Thermo Electron Manufacturing Limited, Thermo Electron Metallurgical Services Inc., Thermo Electron North America LLC, Thermo Electron Pension Trust GmbH, Thermo Electron Puerto Rico Inc., Thermo Electron SAS, Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC, Thermo Electron Sweden AB, Thermo Electron Sweden Forvaltning AB, Thermo Electron Weighing & Inspection Limited, Thermo Elemental Limited, Thermo Environmental Instruments LLC, Thermo Fast U.K. Limited, Thermo Finland Holdings LLC, Thermo Finland Holdings MT1 B.V., Thermo Finland Holdings MT2 B.V., Thermo Finnigan LLC, Thermo Finnigan Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Malta Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN-I) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (CN-II) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings I Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings II Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings 2) LLC, Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) II Limited, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Heysham) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Kandel) GmbH, Thermo Fisher CHK Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust II, Thermo Fisher Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Thermo Fisher Cyprus Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Detection Mexico LLC, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics (Ireland) Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AB, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AG, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Aps, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Austria GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics B.V., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics K.K., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics NV, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.L.U., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.p.A. , Thermo Fisher Diagnostics SAS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Thermo Fisher Eurobonds Ltd., Thermo Fisher Financial Services Inc., Thermo Fisher GP LLC, Thermo Fisher German Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Germany B.V., Thermo Fisher India Divestco Private Limited, Thermo Fisher India Holding B.V., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Thermo Fisher Israel Ltd., Thermo Fisher Production et Services SAS, Thermo Fisher Project Cyprus LLC, Thermo Fisher Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Asheville) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Australia) C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Barbados) Holdings Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Breda) Holding BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Bremen) GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (CN) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China-HK) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (DE) Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Ecublens) SARL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance II) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Fuji) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Holding II) B.V. & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Johannesburg) (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mexico City) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Milwaukee) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mississauga) Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Monterrey) S. De R.L. De C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (NK) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) Austria Holding GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-I) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-II) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN1) UK Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) Dutch LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Praha) s.r.o., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) GmbH & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Schweiz) AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Instruments Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Suzhou) Instruments Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific AL-1 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific AU II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Aquasensors LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V.B.A., Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (I) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (II) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics UAB, Thermo Fisher Scientific Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brahms LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Instrumentos de Processo Ltda., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Servicos de Logistica Ltda, Thermo Fisher Scientific C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cayman Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chemicals Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific China (C-I) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China (S) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings IV B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings Aps, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus IV C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus V C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Denmark Senior Holdings ApS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie 1 Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Europe GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC Finance C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSUKHCO Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Falcon Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Finance Company BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific GENEART GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Germany BV & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific HR Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) I, Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) II , Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings Europe Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific IT Services GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Pvt Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Malta) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments Malta (Sweden Financing) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Invitrogen Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific K.K., Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific LSI Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments III S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments IV S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life NL Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Netherlands Holding C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Switzerland Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Tech Korea Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Enterprise Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investments Holding LP, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Luxembourg Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Enterprise Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg German Holdings S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Life Technologies UK Holding S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings I S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings II S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malta Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Messtechnik GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Mexico City S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Middle East Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Milano Srl, Thermo Fisher Scientific NHK Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Holdings, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway Holdings AS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway US Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Operating Company LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 C.V, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Panama I Cayman Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Peru S.R.L., Thermo Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific SL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Financing LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Holdings Australia LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific South Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific SpA, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg I S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Investments Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Switzerland Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific TR Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Taiwan Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific West Palm Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Wissenschaftliche Gerate GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Worldwide Investments (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific eCommerce Solutions LLC , Thermo Fisher Senior Canada Holdings LLC, Thermo Foundation Inc., Thermo Gamma-Metrics Holdings Pty Ltd., Thermo Gamma-Metrics LLC, Thermo Gamma-Metrics Pty Ltd, Thermo Holding European Operations LLC, Thermo Hypersil Ltd, Thermo Hypersil-Keystone LLC, Thermo Informatics Asia Pacific Pty Ltd., Thermo Instrument Controls de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Thermo Kevex X-Ray LLC, Thermo Keytek LLC, Thermo LabSystems Inc., Thermo LabSystems S.A., Thermo Life Science International Trading (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Thermo Life Sciences AB, Thermo Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo MF Physics LLC, Thermo Measurement Ltd, Thermo Measuretech Canada Inc., Thermo Neslab LLC, Thermo Nicolet Limited, Thermo Onix Limited, Thermo Optek (Australia) Pty Ltd., Thermo Optek Limited, Thermo Optek S.A., Thermo Orion Inc., Thermo Portable Holdings LLC, Thermo Power Corporation, Thermo Process Instruments GP LLC, Thermo Process Instruments L.P., Thermo Projects Limited, Thermo Quest S.A., Thermo Radiometrie Limited, Thermo Ramsey Italia S.r.l., Thermo Ramsey LLC, Thermo Ramsey S.A., Thermo Re Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Pte Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Sdn Bhd, Thermo Scientific Portable Analytical Instruments Inc., Thermo Scientific Services Inc., Thermo Securities Corporation, Thermo Sentron Canada Inc., Thermo Sentron Limited, Thermo Shandon Inc., Thermo Shandon Limited, Thermo Suomi Holding B.V., Thermo TLH (UK) Limited, Thermo TLH L.P., Thermo Trace Pty Ltd., Thermo-Fisher Biochemical Product (Beijing) Co. Ltd., ThermoLase LLC, ThermoSpectra Limited, Trek Diagnostic Systems LLC, Trek Diagnostic Systems Ltd., Trek Holding Company II Ltd., Trek Holding Company Ltd., Trex Medical Corporation, USB Corporation, Union Lab Supplies Limited, United Diagnostics Inc., VG Systems Limited, Westover Scientific Inc., ZAO PE Biosystems, eBioscience GmbH, eBioscience Ltd, eBioscience SAS, and picoSpin LLC. Hong Ji-ho, former president of SK Chemicals, enters the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Wednesday, to attend a court review on issuing an arrest warrant for him over the company's alleged hiding of evidence for toxicity of its humidifier disinfectant products. The court issue the warrant later in the day. /Yonhap By Bahk Eun-ji The Ministry of Environment has filed a complaint with the prosecution against SK Chemicals, an SK Group subsidiary now named SK Discovery, for allegedly hiding evidence on the toxicity of its raw materials for humidifier sterilizers. The complaint came a day after Hong Ji-ho, the company's former president, was arrested on charges of professional negligence resulting in injuries and deaths as part of a reopened investigation into the toxic detergents that were linked to hundreds of deaths. According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, the ministry requested its investigation into the company and some of its officials last week, accusing them of hiding research data indicating the toxicity of its raw materials used for humidifier disinfectants, during the ministry's field inspection last year. Under the special law on the humidifier sterilizer case established in 2017, those who make false testimony, hand over false evidence or hide evidence from the ministry's investigation are subject to imprisonment of up to one year or up to 10 million won ($8,800) in fines. SK Chemicals is the first company to be accused of this. During the ministry's inspection last year, the company said it did not have any data about methylchloroisothiazolinone (CMIT) and methylisothiazolinone (MIT), two chemicals used in humidifier disinfectant products the company made and sold through another company Aekyung. But the prosecution later found results of a study on the safety of CMIT and MIT, which the company had requested Seoul National University to conduct in 1994. In the study, the research team suspected possible harmful effects of the materials on humans and suggested additional studies. The prosecution suspects the study report is the key evidence that the company sold the disinfectants without verifying the toxicity properly. SK Chemicals has been the supplier of chemicals used for humidifier disinfectants to several companies besides Aekyung. It also offered other chemicals for Reckitt Benckiser's Oxy products. Earlier this month, Park Cheol, a senior vice president of SK Chemicals, was arrested on charges of concealing evidence. Hong was also arrested late Wednesday night, on charges of "professional negligence resulting in deaths and injuries," the first such accusation among former and incumbent SK Chemicals executives, indicating the authorities believe the company's products were toxic despite its denial. While Oxy was slapped with fines in 2016 for mislabeling its disinfectants as safe for the human body, SK Chemicals has avoided punishment because the harmfulness of CMIT and MIT has not been proven clearly. According to government data released last month, 6,309 people have been affected by the disinfectants and 1,386 of them died. Civic groups and victims' groups claim the actual number is much higher, saying more diseases should be recognized as caused by the products than the current government criteria. Civic groups claim 128 consumers of Aekyung's product suffered from illnesses and 27 of them died. North American Construction Group Ltd. provides mining and heavy construction services to the resource development and industrial construction sectors in Canada and the United States The company's Heavy Construction & Mining division offers constructability reviews, budgetary cost estimates, design-build construction, project management, contract mining, pre-stripping/pit pioneering, overburden removal and stockpile, muskeg removal and stockpile, site preparation, air strip construction, site dewatering/perimeter ditching, tailings and process pipelines, haulage and access road construction, tailings dam construction and densification, mechanically stabilized earth walls, dyke construction, and reclamation services. Its Equipment Maintenance Services division provides fuel and lube servicing, portable steaming, equipment inspections, parts and component supply, major overhauls and equipment refurbishment, onsite haul truck brake testing, onsite maintenance support, under carriage rebuild, machining, hose manufacturing, and technical support services, as well as welding, fabrication/repairs, weld certification, and inspection services. As of December 31, 2020, the company had a heavy equipment fleet of 626 units. The company was formerly known as North American Energy Partners Inc. and changed its name to North American Construction Group Ltd. in April 2018. The company was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Acheson, Canada. Read More IQE plc develops, manufactures, and sells advanced semiconductor materials. The company operates in three segments: Wireless, Photonics, and CMOS++. It manufactures compound semiconductor wafers or epiwafers using epitaxy process; offers wireless products, including GaAs, GaN, and InP-based technologies, as well as Si and Ge-based epitaxial wafer structures; and supplies GaAs HBTs, pHEMTs, and BiFETs/BiHEMTs for use in consumer mobile handsets, connected devices, 5G network infrastructure, WiFi 6, Bluetooth, and satellite communications. The company also provides photonics products, which include vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, a 3D sensing technology that enables facial recognition, gesture control, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), and other advanced sensing applications; indium phosphide (InP) laser and detector wafers that powers high speed, 5G telecommunication, and data communication fiber optic networks; Gallium Nitride (GaN) and gallium arsenide (GaSb) for multicolor uLED displays; and a range of gallium antimonide (GaSb) and InP materials that enables high definition infrared imaging and sensing in security, health monitoring, and environmental applications. In addition, it offers substrate products, such as GaSb, InP, InAs, InSb, GaSb, CZT, custom size or geometry wafers, polycrystalline materials, high purity group iii/v source materials, and bespoke orientation substrates. Further, the company provides nanoimprint lithography services. The company serves in the United States, rest of the Americas, France, Germany, Israel, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the People's Republic of China, Japan, Taiwan, and rest of the Asia-Pacific. IQE plc was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Cardiff, the United Kingdom. Read More A missile launched by an Israeli jet flies near Damascus, the Syrian capital, in this Dec. 25 file photo. / Korea Times file By Park Ji-won North Korean missile experts who worked on Syrian weapons development were killed and wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Syria, according to an Israeli media report. Debka File, an Israeli defense media outlet, reported the airstrike, which hit the Scientific Studies and Research Center in the Syrian town of Masyaf on Saturday, killed and wounded weapons experts from North Korea and Belarus as well as Iranian and Syrian military officers. It said the missile technicians were hired to upgrade Syrian missiles, citing Western intelligence sources. It did not state the exact number of casualties. AFP, meanwhile, wrote the attack was carried out early Saturday and killed several Iranian military personnel and wounded 17 Syrian troops and their allies. "North Korean engineers were working on the production of solid fuel, while Belarusians were in the pay of Syria's Organization of Technological Industries," Debka File reported. "Especially targeted were the sections working on the upgrade of Syrian and Hezbollah surface missiles, the production of solid fuel for those missiles and the departments focusing on installing new guidance instruments to enhance their precision." The media added those sources disclosed that similar raids have occurred before, but Saturday's attack was massive and gutted most of the region's installations. An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment on the foreign media report, AFP added. The revelations came amid concerns about North Korea's possible moves to sell its nuclear weapons technology to foreign clients after failing to strike a deal on denuclearization with the U.S. Since the breakdown of the Hanoi summit in February, the denuclearization negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington remain stalled due to their differences on the denuclearization process. Citing a U.N. confidential report from February last year, media reports said North Korea has been giving technical aid to Syria and looking for ways to sell weapons to Yemen's Houthis. Meanwhile, the Israeli military admitted recently that it had bombed the Al-Kubar facility near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria in 2007, which was constructed with help from North Korea, according to media reports. The following companies are subsidiares of TransUnion: Accupost Corporation, AppLock Limited, Auditz, Autolocator (Pty) Ltd., Beheer en Beleggingsmaatchapij Stivaco B.V., CIFIN S.A.S, [email protected] plc, Callcredit Data Solutions Limited, Callcredit Information, Callcredit Lead Generation Limited, Callcredit Marketing Ltd., Callcredit Public Sector Limited, Callcredit Spain S.L.U, Centro de Informacion y Estudios Estrategicos Empresariales S.A., Centro de Operaciones Servicios de Informacion Estrategica S.A., CheckMend Ltd., Coactiva Limited, Collection Africa Ltd., Confirma Sistemas de Informacion S.L., Credit Bureau of Carmel & Pebble Beach Inc., Credit Information Services Limited, Credit Information Systems Company Limited, Credit Reference Bureau (Holdings) Limited, Credit Reference Bureau Africa (Pty) Ltd., Credit Reference Bureau Africa Ltd., Credit Reporting Services Limited, Credit Retriever LLC, Crivo, Crown Acquisition BidCo Ltd., Crown Acquisition Consumer Ltd., Crown Acquisition MidCo Ltd., Crown Acquisition MidCo. 2 Ltd., Crown Acquisition TopCo. Ltd., DMWSL 617 Ltd., DMWSL 618 Ltd., DMWSL 619 Ltd., DMWSL 620 Ltd., DataLink Services, Datalink Services Inc., Decision Systems Inc., DecisionMetrics Limited, Diversified Data Development Corporation, Drivers History Inc., Drivers History Information Sales LLC, FT Holdings Inc., FactorTrust, FactorTrust Inc., GMAP Japan KK, GMAP Marketing Consulting Shangahi Co. Ltd, Healthcare Payment Specialists, INSDEC LLC, IS Resources Inc., Immobilise.com Limited, L2C Inc., L2C Inc., Link Marketing Inc., Link2credit Inc., Moussoro Participacoes Ltda., RTech, RTech Healthcare Revenue Technologies Inc., Recipero, Recipero Inc., Recipero Limited, Regional Data Systems Limited, RentPort, Rubixis, Rubixis Inc., Rubixis Technologies Private Limited, STS Vail Beheeren Administracion S. DE. R.L. DE C.V., Servicios y Asesoria S CO BC SA de CV, Signal, Soluciones de Informatica de Centroamerica (SICE) S.A., Source USA Insurance Agency Inc., Tenant ID Limited, Title Insurance Services Corporation, Trans Union Central America S.A., Trans Union Chile S.A., Trans Union Content Solutions LLC, Trans Union Costa Rica S.A., Trans Union Guatemala S.A., Trans Union Honduras-Buro de Credito S.A., Trans Union International Inc., Trans Union LLC, Trans Union Nicaragua S.A., Trans Union Real Estate Services Inc., Trans Union Software Services Private Limited, Trans Union de Puerto Rico Inc., Trans Union of Canada Inc., TransUnion (Mauritius) Limited, TransUnion (Proprietary) Ltd., TransUnion Africa (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Africa Holdings (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Analytic and Decision Services (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Asia Ltd., TransUnion Auto Information Solutions (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Baltics UAB, TransUnion Brasil Sistemas em Informatica Ltda., TransUnion CIBIL Limited, TransUnion Colombia Ltda., TransUnion Consumer Solutions LLC, TransUnion Credit Bureau (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Credit Bureau Namibia (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Data Solutions LLC, TransUnion Digital LLC, TransUnion El Salvador S.A. de C.V., TransUnion Exchange LLC, TransUnion Financing Corporation, TransUnion Global Holdings LLC, TransUnion Global Holdings LP, TransUnion Global Technology Center LLP, TransUnion Healthcare Inc., TransUnion Holding Cyprus Ltd., TransUnion ITC (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Information Group Limited, TransUnion Information Services Limited, TransUnion Information Solutions Inc., TransUnion Information Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., TransUnion Intelligence LLC, TransUnion Interactive Inc., TransUnion Intermediate Holdings Inc., TransUnion International Holdings LLC, TransUnion International UK Limited, TransUnion Kenya Limited, TransUnion Limited, TransUnion Ltd., TransUnion Marketing Solutions Inc., TransUnion Netherlands I B.V., TransUnion Netherlands II B.V., TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions Inc., TransUnion Reverse Exchange S de R.L. de C.V., TransUnion Risk Advisory Inc., TransUnion Risk and Alternative Data Solutions Inc., TransUnion Rwanda Limited, TransUnion S.A., TransUnion Soluciones de Informacion Chile SA, TransUnion Soluciones de Informacion S de R.L de C.V., TransUnion Teledata LLC, TransUnion UK Holdings Ltd., Tru Optik, TruSignal, TruSignal Inc., TrueLink, Trustev, Trustev Limited, Vail Holdings UK Ltd., Vail Systemen Groep B.V., Verifacts LLC, Visionary Systems Inc., Worthknowing Inc., eBureau, eBureau LLC, iovation Inc., iovation Ltd., and process benchmarking limited. Dolphin Capital Investors Limited (the A'Company') was incorporated and registered in the British Virgin Islands (A'BVIs') on 7 June 2005. The Company is a real estate investment company focused on the early-stage, large-scale leisure-integrated residential resorts in south-east Europe and managed by Dolphin Capital Partners Limited (the A'Investment Manager'), an independent private equity management firm that specializes in real estate investments, primarily in south-east Europe. The shares of the Company were admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (A'AIM') on 8 December 2005. Read More Embraer SA engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of aircraft and its parts for commercial, defense, and executive aviation sectors. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Aviation, Defense and Security, Executive Jet Business, Service & Support and Others. The Commercial Aviation segment is involved in the development, production, and sale of commercial jets; and the provision of support services to regional aviation and aircraft leasing. The Defense and Security segment engages in research, development, production, modification, and support for defense and security aircrafts, as well as other integrated products and solutions including satellites and information and communication systems. The Executive Jet Business segment deals with the development, manufacture, and sale of executive jets. The Service & Support segment provides after-service solutions and support to its customers through a comprehensive portfolio of innovative and competitive solutions to ensure operational efficiency of products manufactured by Embraer and by other aircraft manufacturers, extending the useful life of commercial, executive and defense aircraft. The Others segment refers to Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Fidelity National Information Services: 11601 Roosevelt Boulevard Realty LLC, AFSF II AIV Investors D-LP, AGES Participacoes Ltda., AKC Insurance Company LLC, Advanced Portfolio Technologies Ltd., Alphakinetic Ltd., Armed Forces Financial Network LLC, AssetExchange, Automated Securities Clearance LLC, Best Payment Solutions Inc., Bibit Spain S.L., Bitpay Payments KK, C&E Holdings Luxembourg S.a.r.l., CPRS Holdings Inc., Canadian Envoy Technology Services Ltd., Capco, Central Credit Services Limited, Certegy Canada Company, Certegy Card Services B.V., Certegy Dutch Holdings B.V., Certegy France Limited, Certegy SAS, Certegy UK Holdings B.V., Chex Systems Inc., Clear2Pay, Clear2Pay (Shenzhen) Company Limited, Clear2Pay APAC Pte. Ltd., Clear2Pay APAC Pty Ltd., Clear2Pay BV, Clear2Pay Belgium BV, Clear2Pay China Limited, Clear2Pay France SAS, Clear2Pay Germany GmbH, Clear2Pay Limited, Clear2Pay Nanjing Co. Limited, Clear2Pay Nederland BV, Clear2Pay Poland Sp. z o.o., Clear2Pay Scotland Holdings Limited, Clear2Pay Scotland Limited, Clear2Pay Spain S.l., ClearTwoPay Chile SpA, Complete Payment Recovery Services Inc., Compliance Coach, Credit Management Solutions, Decalog (UK) Limited, Decalog N.V., Envoy Services Bulgaria Limited, Envoy Services Ltd. (Asia) SDn BHD, Envoy Services Pty Ltd., Envoy Services South Africa (Pty) Limited, F.I.S. Systems (Middle East) Limited, FIS (Switzerland) SA, FIS (Tunisia) I SARL, FIS (Tunisia) II SARL, FIS Ambit Holdings Pty Ltd, FIS Apex (International) Limited, FIS Apex (UK) Limited, FIS Asia Pacific Inc., FIS AsiaPacRim Holdings Ltd., FIS Australasia Pty Ltd., FIS AvantGard LLC, FIS Banking Solutions UK Limited, FIS Bilgisayar Hizmetleri Ticaret Limited Sirketi, FIS Brokerage & Securities Services LLC, FIS Business Integration (UK) Limited, FIS Capital Markets UK Limited, FIS Capital Markets US LLC, FIS Card Services (Caribbean) Ltd., FIS Card Services (Thailand) Co. Ltd., FIS Consulting Services (Ireland) Limited, FIS Consulting Services (UK) Limited, FIS Denmark ApS, FIS Derivatives Utility Services (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., FIS Derivatives Utility Services (UK) Limited, FIS Derivatives Utility Services LLC, FIS Energy Solutions Limited, FIS Financial Solutions Canada Inc., FIS Financial Systems (France) SAS, FIS Foundation Inc., FIS GCS LLC, FIS Global Business Solutions India Private Ltd., FIS Global Execution Services (Ireland) Limited, FIS Global Execution Services Limited, FIS Global Holdings S.a.r.l, FIS Global Recovery Services India Private Limited, FIS Global Solutions Philippines Inc., FIS Global Trading (Deutschland) GmbH, FIS Global Trading (Hong Kong) Limited, FIS Global Trading (Iberica) S.L. Unipersonal, FIS Global Trading (Nederland) B.V., FIS Global Trading (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, FIS Global Trading (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., FIS Global Trading (Suisse) SA, FIS Global Trading (UK) Limited, FIS Healthcare Trustee Limited, FIS Holdings (Germany) GmbH i.L., FIS Holdings Limited, FIS Holdings Mauritius, FIS Insurance Services Limited, FIS International Subsidiaries Holdings Inc., FIS Investment Systems (UK) Limited, FIS Investment Ventures LLC, FIS Investor Services LLC, FIS Japan KK, FIS Kingstar Cayman Islands Limited, FIS Korea Ltd., FIS Management Services LLC, FIS Management Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., FIS Pakistan (Private) Limited, FIS Payment Solutions & Services India Private Limited, FIS Payments (Ireland) Limited, FIS Payments (UK) Limited, FIS Pensions Limited, FIS Romania SRL, FIS SG (Italia) S.r.l., FIS SG International Holdings LLC, FIS SG Systems Philippines Inc., FIS Sherwood Systems Limited, FIS Solutions (India) Private Limited, FIS Solutions LLC, FIS Solutions Software (India) Private Limited, FIS Systeme GmbH, FIS Systems (Hong Kong) Limited, FIS Systems (Luxembourg) S.A., FIS Systems (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., FIS Systems (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., FIS Systems Canada Inc., FIS Systems International LLC, FIS Systems Kenya Limited, FIS Systems Limited, FIS Systems NZ Limited, FIS Systems Pty Ltd, FIS Systems South Africa (Pty) Limited, FIS Systems de Colombia S.A.S., FIS Technology (Beijing) Co. Limited, FIS Technology Services (Poland) Sp. z o.o., FIS Technology Services (Tunisia) SARL, FIS Technology Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., FIS Treasury Systems (Europe) Limited, FIS Treasury Systems (UK) Limited, FIS UK Holdings Limited, FIS Vietnam LLC, FIS Worldpay (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, FIS Worldpay Jersey Limited, FIS-SG Holding Corp., FNIS Istanbul Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, FV General Partner LLC, Fidelity Holding Ltda., Fidelity Information Services (Hong Kong) Limited, Fidelity Information Services (Iberia) S.L.U., Fidelity Information Services (Israel) Ltd., Fidelity Information Services (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., Fidelity Information Services (Thailand) Limited, Fidelity Information Services Front Arena AB, Fidelity Information Services GmbH, Fidelity Information Services Holdings B.V., Fidelity Information Services India Private Limited, Fidelity Information Services International Holdings Inc., Fidelity Information Services LLC, Fidelity Information Services Limited, Fidelity Information Services Operations GmbH, Fidelity Information Services SARL, Fidelity Information Services Slovakia s.r.o., Fidelity Information Services de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fidelity International Resource Management Inc., Fidelity National Card Services Inc., Fidelity National Global Card Services Inc., Fidelity National Information Services (Netherlands) B.V., Fidelity National Information Services C.V., Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Fidelity National Participacoes e Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Fidelity National Servicos de Tratamento de Documentos e Informatica Ltda., Fidelity National Servicos e Contact Center Ltda., Fidelity Participacoes e Servicos Ltda., Financial Insurance Marketing Group Inc., GL Settle Limited, GL Trade (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, GL Trade CMS (Thailand) Limited, GL Trade Software DOO, GL Trade Solutions CMS (Thailand) Limited, Glesia S.r.l., GoCart LLC, Information Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Integrity Treasury Solutions Europe Limited, Integrity Treasury Solutions Inc., Integrity Treasury Solutions Limited, Integrity Treasury Solutions Pty Limited, Link2Gov Corp., Memento, Metavante Corporation, Metavante Payment Services LLC, Metavante Technologies Inc, Metavante Technologies Limited, Minorca Corporation NV, Monis Management Limited, Monis Software Limited, NYCE Payments Network LLC, Oshap Software Industries Ltd., Oshap Technologies Ltd., PT FIS Systems Indonesia, PT Fidelity Information Services Indonesia, Panther Holdco 2 Inc., Panther Holdco Inc., Payment Brasil Holdings Ltda., Payment Chile S.A., Payment Trust Limited, Paymetric Inc., Pazien Inc., People's United Merchant Services LLC, Platform Securities Holdings Limited, Platform Securities International Limited, Platform Securities International Nominees Limited, Platform Securities LLP, Platform Securities Nominees Limited, Platform Securities Services Limited, Reech Capital Limited, Reliance Financial Corporation, Reliance Integrated Solutions LLC, Reliance Trust Company, Rocket Partners Holdings LLC, Sanchez Computer Associates Pty Limited, Secondco Limited, Ship Holdco Limited, Ship Luxco 2 S.a.r.l., Ship Luxco 3 S.a.r.l., Ship Midco Limited, Solutions Plus Consulting Services Limited, SunGard, SunGard Data Systems Beijing Co. Ltd., SunGard Global Services (Tunisia) III, SunGard Global Trading (Australia) Pty. Ltd., SunGard India Sales Private Limited, TP Technologies N.V., Tayvin 346 Limited, Transax Limited, Trax BV, Valuelink Information Services Limited, Valutec Card Solutions LLC, Virtus Fund Services, Virtus Group LP, Virtus LP Holdings LLC, Virtus Partners Fund Services Cayman Ltd., Virtus Partners Fund Services Holdings Company, Virtus Partners Fund Services Ireland Limited, Virtus Partners Fund Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Virtus Partners Ireland Ltd., Virtus Partners Ltd., Virtus Trade Settlement LLC, WebTone Technologies, Worldpay, Worldpay (HK) Limited, Worldpay (NZ) Limited, Worldpay (UK) Limited, Worldpay AP Ltd., Worldpay Argentina SRL, Worldpay B.V., Worldpay Canada Corporation, Worldpay Cayman Holdings Limited, Worldpay Company LLC, Worldpay Do Brasil Processamento De Pagamentos Ltda., Worldpay Finance Limited, Worldpay Gaming Solutions LLC, Worldpay Governance Limited, Worldpay Group Limited, Worldpay Holdings (Barbados) SRL, Worldpay Holdings Brasil Participacoes Ltda., Worldpay ISO Inc., Worldpay India Private Limited, Worldpay Integrated Payments Canada LLC, Worldpay Integrated Payments LLC., Worldpay Integrated Payments Solutions Inc., Worldpay International Group Limited, Worldpay International Holdings Limited, Worldpay International Limited, Worldpay International Payments Limited, Worldpay International Solutions Limited, Worldpay K.K., Worldpay LLC, Worldpay Latin America Limited, Worldpay Limited, Worldpay Marketing Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Limited, Worldpay Payments (Barbados) SRL, Worldpay Processing Services SRL, Worldpay Pte Ltd., Worldpay Pty Ltd., Worldpay S.a.r.l., Worldpay Services Company, Worldpay Services SRL, Worldpay Solutions SRL, Worldpay Technology Bucharest S.R.L., Worldpay Treasury Solutions SRL, Worldpay US Inc., Worldpay eCommerce LLC, Worldpay eCommerce Limited, Xpede, YES-Secure.com Limited, YESpay International Limited, Zenmonics Inc., Zenmonics Software Private Limited, eFunds Corporation, eFunds Holdings Limited, eFunds International Limited, i DLX International B.V., and mFoundry Inc.. The following companies are subsidiares of Kellogg: 545 LLC, AQFTM Inc., Afical - Industria e Comercio de Alimentos Ltda, Afical Holding LLC, Alimentos Gollek S.A., Alimentos Kellogg S.A., Alimentos Kellogg de Panama SRL, Argkel Inc., Austin Quality Foods Inc., BDH Inc., Bear Naked Inc., Bisco Misr, CC Real Estate Holdings LLC, Canada Holding LLC, Cary Land Corporation, Eighteen94 Capital LLC, Favorite Food Products Limited, Gardenburger LLC, Gollek Argentina S.R.L., Gollek B.V., Gollek Inc., Gollek Interamericas S. de R.L. de C.V., Gollek Servicios S.C., Gollek UK Limited, Illinois Baking Corporation, Instituto De Nutricion y Salud Kellogg A.C., Insurgent Brands LLC, K (China) Limited, K Europe Holding Company Limited, K India Private Limited, K-One Inc., K-Two Inc., KBAR SRL, KECL LLC, KELF Limited, KJAL Limited, KPAR Limited, KT International Finance SRL, KTRY Limited, Kashi Company, Kashi Company Pty Ltd, Kashi Sales L.L.C., Keebler Company, Keebler Foods Company, Keebler Holding Corp., Keebler USA Inc., Kelarg Inc., Kelcone Limited, Kelcorn Limited, Kellman S. de R.L. de C.V., Kellogg (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., Kellogg (Deutschland) GmbH, Kellogg (Japan) G.K., Kellogg (Osterreich) Gesellschaft GmbH, Kellogg (Schweiz) GmbH, Kellogg (Thailand) Limited, Kellogg Activation Services Company, Kellogg Argentina S.R.L., Kellogg Asia Inc., Kellogg Asia Marketing Inc., Kellogg Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Kellogg Asia Products Sdn.. Bhd., Kellogg Asia Sdn. Bhd., Kellogg Australia Holdings Pty. Ltd., Kellogg Belgium Services Company BVBA, Kellogg Brasil Inc., Kellogg Brasil Ltda., Kellogg Business Services Company, Kellogg Canada Inc., Kellogg Caribbean Inc., Kellogg Caribbean Services Company Inc., Kellogg Chile Inc., Kellogg Company East Africa Limited, Kellogg Company Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Kellogg Company Subsidiaries, Kellogg Company of Great Britain Limited, Kellogg Company of Ireland Limited, Kellogg Company of South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Kellogg Costa Rica S. de R.L., Kellogg Ecuador C. LTDA., Kellogg El Salvador Ltda. de C.V., Kellogg Espana S.L., Kellogg Europe Company Limited, Kellogg Europe Finance Limited, Kellogg Europe Services Limited, Kellogg Europe Trading Limited, Kellogg Europe Treasury Services Limited, Kellogg European Logistics Services Company Limited, Kellogg European Support Services SRL, Kellogg Fearn Inc., Kellogg Funding Company LLC, Kellogg Group LLC, Kellogg Group Limited, Kellogg Group S.a.r.l., Kellogg Hellas Single Member Limited Liability Company, Kellogg Holding Company Limited, Kellogg Holding LLC, Kellogg Hong Kong Holding Company Limited, Kellogg Hong Kong Private Limited, Kellogg India Private Limited, Kellogg International Holding Company, Kellogg Irish Holding Limited, Kellogg Italia S.p.A., Kellogg Kayco, Kellogg Latin America Holding Company (One) Limited, Kellogg Latin America Holding Company (Two) Limited, Kellogg Latvia Inc., Kellogg Lux I S.ar.l., Kellogg Lux III S. ar L., Kellogg Lux V S.a.r.l., Kellogg Lux VI S.ar.l., Kellogg Management Services (Europe) Limited, Kellogg Manchester Limited, Kellogg Manufacturing Espana S.L., Kellogg Marketing and Sales Company (UK) Limited, Kellogg Med Gida Ticaret Limited SirketiI, Kellogg Netherlands Holding B.V., Kellogg North America Company, Kellogg Northern Europe GmbH, Kellogg Pakistan (Private) Limted, Kellogg Rus LLC, Kellogg Sales Company, Kellogg Services GmbH, Kellogg Servicios S.C., Kellogg Snacks Financing Limited, Kellogg Snacks Holding Company Europe Limited, Kellogg Superannuation Pty. Ltd., Kellogg Supply Services (Europe) Limited, Kellogg Talbot LLC, Kellogg Transition MA&P L.L.C., Kellogg Treasury Services Company, Kellogg U.K. Holding Company Limited, Kellogg UK Minor Limited, Kellogg USA LLC, Kellogg de Centro America S.A., Kellogg de Colombia S.A., Kellogg de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Kellogg de Peru S.R.L., Kellogg's Produits Alimentaires S.A.S., Kelmill Limited, Kelpac Limited, Klux A Sarl, Klux B Sarl, Mass Food, Mass Food International SAE, Mass Food SAE, Mass Trade for Trade and Distribution SAE, McCamly Plaza Hotel Inc., Multipro Consumer Products Limited*, Multipro Private Limited*, Multipro Singapore Pte. Ltd*, Nhong Shim Kellogg Co. Ltd.*, Nikko Industries*, Nordisk Kellogg's ApS, PRUX S.a r.l., Padua Ltda, Parati Group, Parati Industria e Comercio de Alimentos Ltda, Portable Foods Manufacturing Company Limited, Prime Bond Cyprus Holding Company Limited, Prime Bond Holdings Limited, Pringles, Pringles (Shanghai) Food Co. Ltd., Pringles Australia Pty Ltd, Pringles Hong Kong Limited, Pringles International Operations Sarl, Pringles Japan G.K., Pringles LLC, Pringles Manufacturing Company, Pringles Overseas Holdings Sarl, Pringles S.a r.l., Pronumex S de R.L. de C.V., RX Bar UK Limited, RXBRANDS Canada ULC, Ritmo Investimentos, Rondo Food Manufacturing S.A.E., RxBar, Saragusa Frozen Foods Limited, Servicios Argkel S.C., Shaffer Clarke & Co. Inc., Specialty Cereals Pty Limited, Specialty Foods L.L.C., Stretch Fibres*, Stretch Island Fruit Sales L.L.C., Sunshine Biscuits L.L.C., The Eggo Company, The Healthy Snack People Pty Limited, Trafford Park Insurance Limited, Uma Investments sp. z o.o., Vita+ Naturprodukte GmbH*, Wimble Manufacturing Belgium BVBA, Wimble Services Belgium BVBA, and Worthington Foods Inc.. The following companies are subsidiares of Cigna: Accredo Health Group, Accredo Health Incorporated, Alegis Care, Allegiance Life & Health Insurance Company, Allegiance Re, American Retirement Life Insurance Company, Benefits Management Corp., Bravo Health Mid-Atlantic, Bravo Health Pennsylvania, Brighter, CareAllies, CareCore National LLC, Central Reserve Life Insurance Company, Ceres Sales of Ohio, Choicelinx, Cigna & CMB Life Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Apac Holdings Limited, Cigna Arbor Life Insurance Company, Cigna Beechwood Holdings, Cigna Behavioral Health, Cigna Behavioral Health of California, Cigna Behavioral Health of Texas, Cigna Bellevue Alpha, Cigna Benefits Financing, Cigna Brokerage & Marketing (Thailand) Limited, Cigna Cedar Holdings, Cigna Chestnut Holdings, Cigna Corporate Services, Cigna Data Services (Shanghai) Company Limited, Cigna Dental Health, Cigna Dental Health Plan of Arizona, Cigna Dental Health of California, Cigna Dental Health of Colorado, Cigna Dental Health of Delaware, Cigna Dental Health of Florida, Cigna Dental Health of Illinois, Cigna Dental Health of Kansas, Cigna Dental Health of Kentucky, Cigna Dental Health of Maryland, Cigna Dental Health of Missouri, Cigna Dental Health of New Jersey, Cigna Dental Health of North Carolina, Cigna Dental Health of Ohio, Cigna Dental Health of Pennsylvania, Cigna Dental Health of Texas, Cigna Dental Health of Virginia, Cigna Elmwood Holdings, Cigna Europe Insurance Company S.A.-N.V., Cigna European Services (UK) Limited, Cigna Finans Emeklilik ve Hayat A.S., Cigna Global Holdings, Cigna Global Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Global Reinsurance Company, Cigna Global Wellbeing Holdings Limited, Cigna Global Wellbeing Solutions Limited, Cigna HLA Technology Services Company Limited, Cigna Health Corporation, Cigna Health Management, Cigna Health Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Cigna HealthSpring, Cigna Healthcare Holdings, Cigna Healthcare Mid-Atlantic, Cigna Healthcare of Arizona, Cigna Healthcare of California, Cigna Healthcare of Colorado, Cigna Healthcare of Connecticut, Cigna Healthcare of Florida, Cigna Healthcare of Georgia, Cigna Healthcare of Illinois, Cigna Healthcare of Indiana, Cigna Healthcare of Maine, Cigna Healthcare of Massachusetts, Cigna Healthcare of New Hampshire, Cigna Healthcare of New Jersey, Cigna Healthcare of North Carolina, Cigna Healthcare of Pennsylvania, Cigna Healthcare of South Carolina, Cigna Healthcare of St. Louis, Cigna Healthcare of Tennessee, Cigna Healthcare of Texas, Cigna Healthcare of Utah, Cigna Holding Company, Cigna Holdings, Cigna Holdings Overseas, Cigna Hong Kong Holdings Company Limited, Cigna Insurance Middle East S.A., Cigna Insurance Public Company Limited, Cigna Insurance Services (Europe) Limited, Cigna Intellectual Property, Cigna International Corporation, Cigna International Health Services, Cigna International Health Services BVBA, Cigna International Health Services Kenya Limited, Cigna International Health Services SDN BHD, Cigna International Services, Cigna International Services Australia Pty. Ltd., Cigna Investment Group, Cigna Investments, Cigna Korean Chusik Hoesa, Cigna Laurel Holdings, Cigna Legal Protection UK Ltd., Cigna Life Insurance Company of Canada, Cigna Life Insurance Company of Europe S.A.- N.V., Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, Cigna Life Insurance New Zealand Limited, Cigna Linden Holdings, Cigna Magnolia Holdings, Cigna Myrtle Holdings, Cigna Nederland Alpha Cooperatief U.A., Cigna Nederland Beta B.V., Cigna Nederland Gamma B.V., Cigna Oak Holdings, Cigna Palmetto Holdings, Cigna Poplar Holdings, Cigna Sequoia Holdings, Cigna Spruce Holdings GmbH, Cigna Taiwan Life Assurance Company Limited, Cigna Walnut Holdings, Cigna Willow Holdings, Cigna Worldwide General Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Worldwide Insurance Company, Cigna Worldwide Life Insurance Company Limited, CignaTTK Health Insurance Company Limited, Connecticut General Corporation, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, CuraScript Inc., E-2 CIGNA CORPORATION - 2018 Form 10-K, ESI Mail Pharmacy Service Inc., ESI Partnership, ESI Resources Inc., Express Scripts Holding Company, Express Scripts Inc., Express Scripts Pharmaceutical LLC, Express Scripts Pharmacy Inc., Express Scripts Strategic Development Inc., FirstAssist Administration Limited, Firstassist Insurance Services Ltd, Great-West Healthcare of Illinois, Grown Ups New Zealand Limited, Health-Lynx LLC, HealthSource, HealthSpring, HealthSpring Life & Health Insurance Company, HealthSpring of Alabama, HealthSpring of Florida, HealthSpring of Tennessee, KDM Thailand Limited, LINA Financial Services, LINA Life Insurance Company of Korea, Life Insurance Company of North America, Loyal American Life Insurance Company, MCC Independent Practice Association of New York, Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Company Limited, Medco Containment Life Insurance Company, Medco Health Services Inc., Medco Health Solutions Inc., NewQuest, NewQuest Management Northeast, Olympic Health Management Services, Oz Parent, PT Asuransi Cigna, Provident American Life and Health Insurance Company, Qualcare, Qualcare Alliance Networks, Qualcare Captive Insurance Company Inc. PCC, Qualcare Management Resources Limited Liability Company, RHP (Thailand) Limited, Scibal Associates, Sterling Life Insurance Company, Tel-Drug, Tel-Drug of Pennsylvania, Temple Insurance Company Limited, United Benefit Life Insurance Company, Verity Solutions Group, Zurich Insurance Middle East, and eviCore 1 LLC. Hannover RAck SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance products and services worldwide. It operates through Property & Casualty Reinsurance, and Life & Health Reinsurance segments. The Property & Casualty Reinsurance segment offers specialty lines comprising marine, aviation, facultative and direct business, credit, surety, and political risks reinsurance products; and treaty, catastrophe XL, and structured reinsurance, as well as insurance-linked securities. This segment also provides risk solutions for agricultural, livestock, and bloodstock businesses; aviation and space business; and marine and offshore energy business. The Life & Health Reinsurance segment offers group and individual credit life, enhanced annuities, group life and health, and Sharia-compliant Takaful reinsurance products. This segment also provides risk solutions in the areas of critical illness, disability, health, longevity, long term care, and mortality and morbidity, as well as underwriting services. In addition, it offers various financial solutions, including new-business financing; monetization of embedded value; reserve and solvency relief; and divestiture of non-core businesses. The company was formerly known as Hannover RAckversicherung AG and changed its name to Hannover RAck SE in March 2013. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Hanover, Germany. Hannover RAck SE is a subsidiary of Talanx AG. Read More People bow as they pay their respects before the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, as part of celebrations marking the anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung. AFP-Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin are likely to hold a summit either on April 24 or 25, according to foreign media reports, Thursday. Accordingly, South Korea's National Security Office (NSO) held a meeting to discuss the possible impact of the summit, and how to prepare for a possible meeting between President Moon Jae-in and Kim, a presidential aide said. NSO chief Chung Eui-yong presided over the meeting. Another presidential aide said the NSO meeting also touched on the possibility of sending a special envoy to North Korea for working-level dialogue on holding another summit between the leaders of the Koreas. The aide didn't elaborate. Expectations were that Seoul may send an envoy to Pyongyang sometime later next week. Citing a recent visit by Kim's confidant Kim Chang-son to Vladivostok, reports and North Korean analysts said Kim Jong-un may head to Russia next week for a bilateral summit with Putin in the Russian port city, days before the two leaders travel to Beijing for China's Belt and Road Conference to be held between April 26 and 27. Japanese broadcaster Fuji News Network reported Kim Chang-son was captured on camera near the main train station in the Russian city, raising speculations the North Korean leader Kim may use his signature green and yellow train to travel to the country for his in-person meeting with Putin. An official from the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok had confirmed Putin and Kim would meet on the university's premises "sometime in the second half of this month." Neither Russian nor North Korean officials have confirmed a specific date or place for the possible summit, though Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said "preparations for the meeting are underway." The Kim-Putin summit, if it happens, could be interpreted as an opportunity for North Korea to press the United States for an easing of economic sanctions after Washington didn't accept the North's request for limited sanctions relief in Hanoi. U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun plans to meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov during his hurriedly-arranged trip to Moscow ahead of the Kim-Putin summit. Political analysts in Seoul said the North Korea-Russia summit will be a concern to President Moon Jae-in as Pyongyang has yet to notify Seoul of its decision regarding Moon's suggestion for another inter-Korean summit, a key goal for President Moon to keep the momentum of nuclear diplomacy going between the United States and North Korea. "When you say China is the North's most crucial backer on all fronts, Russia has long been playing a second role as a key economic partner. The North Korean leader may appeal for Putin to support his idea of getting economic concessions from the U.S. in order to advance denuclearization talks. Both China and Russia have permanent seats within the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)," said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. Russia accepts lots of North Korean laborers, who are widely regarded as a key financial resource for North Korea. A recent report released by the U.N. Panel of Experts criticized the Kremlin for continuing ship-to-ship transfers of oil and other fuels, in addition to joint ventures based in Russia, which are prohibited by the United States-led UNSC sanctions against North Korea. The following companies are subsidiares of Prudential Financial: 210-220 E. 22nd Street SSGA Owner LLC, AIG Edison, AIG Star, AREF Cayman Co Ltd., AREF GP II Pte. Ltd., AREF GP Ltd., ASPF II - Feeder Fund GmbH, ASPF II - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, ASPF II Management GmbH, ASPF III (Scots) L.P., ASSURANCE, AST Investment Services Inc., Adlerwerke CB Investment LLC, Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Habitat S.A., Administradora de Inversiones Previsionales SpA, Aoba Life Insurance Company, Asia Property Fund III GP S.a.r.l., Assurance IQ LLC, Assurance Intelligence LLC, BSC CP LP, Braeloch Holdings Inc., Braeloch Successor Corporation, Brazilian Capital Fund GP Limited, Broad Street Global Advisors LLC, Broome Street Holdings LLC, CB German Retail LLC, CLIS Co. Ltd., COLICO INC., Campus Drive LLC, Capital Agricultural Property Services Inc., Chadwick Boulevard Investment Holdings Co. LLC, Cibecue LLC, Coconino LLC, Colico II Inc., Columbus Drive Partners L.P., Commerce Street Holdings LLC, Commerce Street Investments LLC, Coolidge LLC, Coral Reef GP, Coral Reef L.P., Coral Reef Unit Trust, Cottage Street Investments LLC, Cottage Street Orbit Acquisition LLC, DHFL PRAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, DICKENS AVENUE HOLDINGS VI LLC, DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI (Ireland) L.P., DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI (US) L.P., Don Cesar Investor LLC, Dryden Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Dryden Finance II LLC, EVP II GP S.a r.l., EVP II Sweden Resi I GP S.a r.l., Edison Place Senior Note LLC, Essex LLC, EuroCore GP S.a r.l., European Value Partners GP S.a.r.l., Everbright PGIM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Flagstaff LLC, GA 1600 Commons LLC, GA 333 Hennepin Investor LLC, GA BV LLC, GA Bay Area GP LLC, GA Bay Area Investor LLC, GA Belden LLC, GA CLARENDON LLC, GA Cal Crossings LLC, GA Collins LLC, GA E. 22nd Street Apartments Holdings LLC, GA East 86 Street LLC, GA JHCII LLC, GA MENLO PARK INVESTOR LLC, GA Manor at Harbour Island LLC, GA Metro LLC, GA Mission LLC, GA TRITON INVESTOR LLC, GA W Paces LLC, GA/MDI 333 Hennepin Associates LLC, GIBRALTAR BSN HOLDINGS SDN BHD, GIBRALTAR INDIA SOLUTIONS LLP, Gateway Holdings II LLC, Gateway Holdings LLC, German Retail Income CP LP, Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad, Gibraltar International Insurance Services Company Inc., Gibraltar International Service LLC, Gibraltar Reinsurance Company Ltd., Gibraltar Universal Life Reinsurance Company, Glenealy International Limited, Global Portfolio Strategies Inc., Gold GP Limited, Gold II L.P., Gold L.P., Graham Resources Inc., Graham Royalty Ltd., Green Tree GP, Green Tree L.P., Greenlee LLC, Halsey Street Investments LLC, Hirakata LLC, IVP Fund GP LLC, Impact Investments Bridges UK S.a.r.l, Inter-Atlantic G Fund L.P., Inversiones Previsionales Chile SpA, Inversiones Previsionales Dos SpA, Ironbound Fund LLC, Jennison Associates LLC, Kyarra S.a r.l., Kyoei Annuity Home Co. Ltd., LINEUP LLC, Lake Street Partners IV L.P., MC GA COLLINS HOLDINGS LLC, MC GA COLLINS REALTY LLC, MC Insurance Agency Services LLC, Manor at Harbour Island LLC, Marble Canyon LLC, Maricopa LLC, Market Street Holdings IV LLC, Morenci LLC, Mulberry Street Holdings LLC, Mulberry Street Investment L.P., Mulberry Street Partners LLC, Mullin TBG Insurance Agency Services LLC, MullinTBG Insurance Agency Services, National Family Assurance Group LLC, New Savanna, Orchard Street Acres Inc., PAI Bay Farm LLC, PAI Bayrock Groves LLC, PAI Belvidere Farms LLC, PAI Big Cypress Farm LLC, PAI Corcoran 640 Ranch LLC, PAI DeKalb Farm LLC, PAI Delano 1500 Ranches LLC, PAI Flicker Orchard LLC, PAI Good Hope Farm LLC, PAI Hawk Creek Ranch LLC, PAI Hills Valley Ranches LLC, PAI Holly Hill Groves LLC, PAI Hunt Farm LLC, PAI Jackson Bayou Farm LLC, PAI Lake Placid Groves LLC, PAI Wallula Gap Vineyard LLC, PCP V Cayman AIV GP L.P., PEREF II Co-Invest 1 GP S.a r.l., PEREF II GP S.a r.l., PEREF II PV S.r.l, PFI EM-Tech Fund I LLC, PG Business Service Co. Ltd, PG Collection Service Co. Ltd., PGA Asian Retail Limited, PGA European Limited, PGI Co. Ltd, PGIM (Australia) Pty Ltd, PGIM (Hong Kong) Ltd., PGIM (Scots) Limited, PGIM (Shanghai) Company Ltd., PGIM (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., PGIM AVP IV GP S.a r.l., PGIM Advisory (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PGIM Agricultural Investments GP LLC, PGIM Agricultural Investors LP, PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Fund L.P., PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Partners LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management (Feeder) VI LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Fund VI L.P., PGIM European Financing Limited, PGIM European Services Limited, PGIM Financial Limited, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund II L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives GP LLC, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives II GP LLC, PGIM Foreign Investments Inc., PGIM Holding Company LLC, PGIM INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM INDIA TRUSTEES PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM Inc., PGIM International Financing Inc., PGIM Investments LLC, PGIM Japan Co. Ltd., PGIM Korea Inc., PGIM LTIF Berlin GP S.a r.l., PGIM LTIF Berlin MLP S.ar.l., PGIM LTIF GP S.a.r.l., PGIM Limited, PGIM Loan Originator Manager Limited, PGIM M Campus GP S.a r.l., PGIM Management Partner Limited, PGIM MetaProp Investor LP LLC, PGIM Netherlands B.V., PGIM Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Company Ltd, PGIM Private Capital (Ireland) Limited, PGIM Private Capital Limited, PGIM Private Placement Investors Inc., PGIM Private Placement Investors L.P., PGIM REF EUROPE SCSp, PGIM REF Europe GP S.a r.l., PGIM REF Europe Member LLC, PGIM REF Intermediary Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate (Japan) Ltd., PGIM Real Estate (UK) Limited, PGIM Real Estate CD S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Capital VII GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest L.P., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest SCSp, PGIM Real Estate Co-Invest Holdings LLC, PGIM Real Estate Debt GmbH, PGIM Real Estate Finance Holding Company, PGIM Real Estate Finance LLC, PGIM Real Estate France SAS, PGIM Real Estate Germany AG, PGIM Real Estate Global Debt GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles S. de R.L. de C.V, PGIM Real Estate Italy S.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Loan Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate Luxembourg S.A., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Management Luxembourg S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Mexico S.C., PGIM Real Estate S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate U.S. Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management (Feeder) I LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management Fund I L.P., PGIM Strategic Financing LLC, PGIM Strategic Investments Inc., PGIM USPF VI Manager LLC, PGIM Warehouse Inc., PGLH of Delaware Inc., PIFM Holdco LLC, PIIC Limited, PIISC Holdings (UK) Limited, PIM KF Blocker Holdings LLC, PIM KF Blocker V Holdings LLC, PIM USPF V Manager LLC, PLA Administradora Industrial SRL, PLA Administradora LLC, PLA Administradora S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional II S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional S.de R.L. de C.V., PLA Co-Investor LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager I LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager II LLC, PLA Mexico Residential Manager I LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Limited Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund IV Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund IV Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Blue LP, PLA Retail Fund I LP, PLA Retail Fund I Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Red LP, PLA Retail Fund II Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LP, PLA Retail Fund II Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II U.S. Carry/Co-Invest LP, PLA Services Manager Mexico LLC, PLAI Limited, PMCF Holdings LLC, PMCF Properties LLC, PPPF General Partner LLP, PR GA SCP Apartments LLC, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP (SCOTS FEEDER) LLP, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP LLP, PRECO ACCOUNT III LLC, PRECO ACCOUNT PARTNERSHIP III LP, PRECO Account IV LLC, PRECO Account Partnership IV LP, PRECO III GP LLP, PREFG Hanwha Manager LLC, PREI Acquisition I Inc., PREI Acquisition II Inc., PREI Acquisition LLC, PREI HYDG LLC, PREI International Inc., PRIAC Property Acquisitions LLC, PRICOA Management Partner Limited, PRISA Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Pooled Manager LLC, PRISA III Fund GP LLC, PRISA III Fund PIM LLC, PRREF II Fund Manager LLC, PRU 3XSquare LLC, PRUCO LLC, PRUDENTIAL CAPITAL ENERGY PARTNERS MANAGEMENT (FEEDER) LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP MEMBER LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP REIT LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE 2 LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE LLC, PT PFI Mega Life Insurance, Passaic Fund LLC, Pine Tree GP, Pine Tree L.P., Platinum GP Limited, Platinum II L.P., Platinum L.P., Pramerica (Hong Kong) Holdings Limited, Pramerica (Luxembourg) CP GP S.a.r.l., Pramerica (Scots) CP GP LLP, Pramerica Business Consulting (Shanghai) Company Limited, Pramerica EVP CP LP, Pramerica Financial Asia Headquarters Pte. Ltd., Pramerica Financial Asia Limited, Pramerica Fixed Income Funds Management Limited, Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Pramerica General Partner LLP, Pramerica Holdings Ltd, Pramerica Insurance Agency (China) Company Ltd., Pramerica PRECAP I GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP II GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP III GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP IV GP LLP, Pramerica Pan European Real Estate (Scots) LP, Pramerica Property Partners Fund (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I GP (Scots Feeder) LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital II (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital III (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP (Scots Feeder) LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Limited, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V (Netherlands) GP LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital VI (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica SGR S.p.A, Pramerica Systems Ireland Limited, Preco III (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pru 101 Wood LLC, Pru Alpha Partners I LLC, Pru Fixed Income Emerging Markets Partners I LLC, PruVen Capital Partners Fund I L.P., Pruco Assignment Corporation, Pruco Life Insurance Company, Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey, Pruco Securities LLC, Prudential 900 Aviation Boulevard LLC, Prudential Affordable Mortgage Company LLC, Prudential Agricultural Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Annuities Distributors Inc., Prudential Annuities Holding Company Inc., Prudential Annuities Inc., Prudential Annuities Information Services & Technology Corporation, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Captive Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Universal Company, Prudential Bank & Trust FSB, Prudential Capital Energy Opportunity Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners Management Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Partners Management Fund IV L.P., Prudential Capital and Investment Services LLC, Prudential Chile II SpA, Prudential Chile SpA, Prudential Commercial Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Customer Solutions LLC, Prudential Equity Group LLC, Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise, Prudential Fixed Income Global Liquidity Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Fixed Income U.S. Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Funding LLC, Prudential General Services of Japan Y.K., Prudential Gibraltar Agency Co. Ltd., Prudential Global Funding LLC, Prudential Holdings of Japan Inc., Prudential Huntoon Paige Associates LLC, Prudential IBH Holdco Inc., Prudential Impact Investments Mortgage Loans LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Debt LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Equity LLC, Prudential Industrial Properties LLC, Prudential Insurance Agency LLC, Prudential International Insurance Holdings Ltd., Prudential International Insurance Service Company L.L.C., Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC, Prudential International Investments Company LLC, Prudential International Investments LLC, Prudential Investment Management Services LLC, Prudential Japan Holdings LLC, Prudential Legacy Insurance Company of New Jersey, Prudential Life Insurance Company of Taiwan Inc., Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 1 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 2 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Capital Asset Holding Company LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Funding LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Holdings LLC, Prudential Multifamily Mortgage LLC, Prudential Mutual Fund Services LLC, Prudential Newark Realty LLC, Prudential QOZ Investment Fund 1 LLC, Prudential Realty Securities Inc., Prudential Retirement Financial Services Holding LLC, Prudential Retirement Holdings LLC, Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company, Prudential Securities Secured Financing Corporation, Prudential Securities Structured Assets Inc., Prudential Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., Prudential Seguros S.A., Prudential Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Prudential Structured Settlement Company, Prudential Systems Japan Limited, Prudential Term Reinsurance Company, Prudential Trust Co. Ltd., Prudential Trust Company, Prudential Universal Reinsurance Company, Prudential Workplace Solutions Group Services LLC, Prudential do Brasil Seguros de Vida S.A., Prudential do Brasil Vida em Grupo S.A., Prudential/TMW Real Estate Group LLC, Pruservicos Participacoes Ltda., QMA JP EM All Cap Equity Partners LLC, QMA LLC, QMA Wadhwani LLP, Quartzsite LLC, Residential Services Corporation of America LLC, Rio CP LP, Rock European Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock Global Real Estate LLC, Rock Kensington Limited, Rock Marty GP S.a r.l., Rock Oxford S.a r.l., Rock UK Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock UK Real Estate II S.a.r.l., Rockstone Co. Ltd., Rosado Grande LLC, Ross Avenue Energy Fund Holdings LLC, Ross Avenue Minerals 2012 LLC, SCP Apartments LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERS VI GP LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERSHIP FUND VI GP LLC, SHP IV Carried Interest LP, SHP V Carried Interest L.P., SMP Holdings Inc., SVIIT Holdings Inc., Sanei Collection Service Co. Ltd. (Kabushiki Kaisha Sanei Shuuno Service), Senior Housing Partners IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partners V LLC, Senior Housing Partnership Fund IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partnership Fund V LLC, Sterling Private Placement Management LLP, Stetson Street Partners L.P., Strand Investments Limited, TBG Insurance Services Corporation, TENSATOR HOLDINGS LTD, TF Proveedora S.C., TMW ASPF I Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, TMW ASPF Management GmbH, TMW Management LLC, TMW Real Estate Group LLC, TMW Realty Advisors LLC, TMW USPF Verwaltungs GmbH, TRGOAG Company Inc., The Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Keynes Dynamic Beta Strategy (US) Fund GP LLC, The Prudential Assigned Settlement Services Corp., The Prudential Brazilian Capital Fund LP, The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Prudential Home Mortgage Company Inc., The Prudential Insurance Company of America, The Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd., The Prudential Real Estate Financial Services of America Inc., The WMF Group, Thurloe Commercial Guernsey Limited, Times Square Center Associates, USPF V - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, USPF V Carry LLC, USPF V Co-Invest LLC, USPF V Investment LP, United States Property Fund VI GP S.a r.l., Vailsburg Fund LLC, Vantage Casualty Insurance Company, Wabash Avenue Holdings V LLC, Wabash Avenue Partners V L.P., Wadhwani Capital Limited, Waveland Avenue Holdings I LLC, Waveland Avenue Partners I (Ireland) L.P., Waveland Avenue Partners I (US) L.P., Wellness Services Ecossistema De Bem Estar Ltda., Wellness Services SRL, Yamato Life, and Yavapai LLC. The Howard Hughes Corp. engages in the development and management of commercial, residential, and mixed-use real estate. It operates through the following segments: Operating Assets, Master Planned Communities; Seaport District; and Strategic Developments. The Operating Assets segment consists retail, office, hospitality, and multi-family properties along with other real estate investments. The Master Planned Communities segment focuses in the development and sale of land in large-scale, long-term community development projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Columbia, Maryland. The Seaport District operates an approximately 453,000 square feet of restaurant, retail, and entertainment properties situated in three primary locations in New York, New York: Pier 17, Historic Area/Uplands, and Tin Building. The Strategic Developments segment involves in the other real estate assets in the form of entitled and unentitled land and residential condominium developments. The company was founded on November 9, 2010 and is headquartered in Woodlands, TX. Read More 11 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Hugo Boss in the last twelve months. There are currently 6 hold ratings and 5 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street analysts is that investors should "hold" Hugo Boss stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in BOSS, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares. View analyst ratings for Hugo Boss or view top-rated stocks. There is not enough analysis data for Invesco Senior Income Trust. 4.4 Community Rank Outperform Votes Invesco Senior Income Trust has received 144 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Invesco Senior Income Trust has received 75 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Invesco Senior Income Trust has received 65.75% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Invesco Senior Income Trust and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe VVR will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe VVR will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next During his stay in Romania from April 14-16 and in the Czech Republic from April 16-18, PM Phuc had a busy working agenda including nearly 30 activities. In Romania, Phuc held talks with host PM Viorica Dancila, and met President Klaus Iohannis, President of the Senate Calin Popescu Tariceanu and President of the Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea. He attended and delivered a speech at the Vietnam-Romania Business Forum, and talked with representatives of Romanian localities that are cooperating with Vietnam. At the talks, the two PMs agreed to step up delegation exchanges and continue effectively implementing existing cooperation mechanisms, especially the joint committee on economic cooperation. PM Viorica Dancila affirmed that Romania, with its role as the Chair of the European Union in the first six months of 2019, will do its utmost to boost the early signing and ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). In the Czech Republic, PM Phuc held talks with his host counterpart Andrej Babis, during which they agreed to foster bilateral collaboration in numerous fields, especially education-training, agriculture, science-technology, environment, culture and tourism, and support the early opening of a direct air route linking Hanoi and Prague. The Vietnamese Government leader also met representatives of the Vietnamese community living in Romania and the Czech Republic. On the occasion, a number of cooperation agreements between Vietnam and the two countries and between their enterprises were signed. The success of the official visits not only contributes to consolidating and tightening Vietnams traditional friendship with the Central European nations, but also helps accelerate the signing and ratification of the EVFTA and the EVIPA in order to open up new cooperative opportunities for Vietnam and the EU in general, and Romania and the Czech Republic in particular. By Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu The Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) announced that a memorandum of understanding was signed on March 11 with the Namangan regional government of Uzbekistan for developments of its free economic zone. This initiative signals a new emergence in bilateral relations in which Korea and Uzbekistan show a good partnership model to the world. Along with the recent step, both sides have signed four memorandum of understanding from the last year. According to this, new investments and projects are awaiting to be completed in the near future. On the other side, Uzbekistan announced that Korea is ready to help the country's accession to the World Trade Organization after a meeting between Paik Ji-ah, ambassador of the Korean Mission in Geneva and First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Ilkhom Nematov on March 12. Korea and Uzbekistan have a dynamic and productive relationship which covers mostly the economy, energy and cultural spheres. The countries have a totally different historical background and political past but they found a proper way for a strong partnership which implements large regional and international projects. When we compare other cooperation attempts among countries, Korea-Uzbekistan relations include a very specific example. The countries established the diplomatic ties in 1992. As a former Soviet country, Uzbekistan didn't have any experience in cooperation with a country that had a close relationship with the U.S. On the other side, Korea was a good model with its unique development history. Between 1992 and 2017, 16 high-level meetings were held. At this point, it is important to add other middle-level meetings took place to understand the general scope of the relations. Uzbekistan became home to the largest Korean diaspora which is called "Goryeo-in," or "Goryeo-saram," around 200,000 people. These Koreans were deported to Central Asia from the Korean peninsula during the Stalin period. In the following decades, all Koreans successfully adapted to the local culture and kept important positions in society. Therefore, Uzbekistan has a special place in Korean foreign policy. Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu (oztarsu@gmail.com) is a Turkish analyst in Seoul. The following companies are subsidiares of Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc.. iShares MSCI France ETF's stock was trading at $25.23 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EWQ shares have increased by 49.9% and is now trading at $37.82. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. KBR, Inc. engages in the provision of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life-cycle within the government services and hydrocarbons industries. It operates through the following segments: Government Solutions, Technology Solutions, Energy Solutions, Non-strategic Business, and Other. The Government Solutions segment provides full life-cycle support solutions to defense, space, aviation, and other programs and missions for military and other government agencies. The Technology Solutions segment combines KBR's proprietary technologies, equipment, and catalyst supply and associated knowledge-based services into a global business for refining, petrochemicals, inorganic, and specialty chemicals as well as gasification, syngas, ammonia, nitric acid, and fertilizers. The Energy Solutions segment provides full life-cycle support solutions across the upstream, midstream and downstream hydrocarbons markets. The Non-strategic Business segment represents the operations or activities which the company intends to exit upon completion of existing contracts. The Other segment includes corporate expenses and general and administrative expenses not all Read More Magna International Inc. designs, engineers, and manufactures components, assemblies, systems, subsystems, and modules for original equipment manufacturers of vehicles and light trucks worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Body Exteriors & Structures, Power & Vision, Seating Systems, and Complete Vehicles. Its Body Exteriors & Structures segment provides body and chassis systems, as well as engineering and testing services; exterior systems, including fascia and trims, front end modules, front integration panels, liftgate modules, active aerodynamics, engineered glass, running boards, truck bed access products, and side doors; and roof systems, such as modular and textile folding roofs, and hard and soft tops. The company's Power & Vision segment offers dedicated hybrid, dual and e-clutch, and manual transmissions; engine drive plates and accessories; AWD/4WD products, rear drive modules, and hybrid and battery electric drive systems; transmission, engine, and driveline components; advanced driver assistance systems, camera systems, ultrasonic sensors, and electronic controllers; interior and exterior mirrors, actuators, door handles, overhead consoles, and camera monitoring systems; head, tail, and fog lamps; signal and other lighting products; and latching systems, door modules, window systems, power closure systems, hinges and wire forming, and handle assemblies. Its Seating Systems segment provides seat structures, mechanism and hardware solutions, and foam and trim products. The company's Complete Vehicles segment offers vehicle manufacturing and engineering services. It also designs, engineers, and manufactures tooling products. Magna International Inc. was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Aurora, Canada. Read More National Bank of Canada engages in the provision of commercial banking and financial services. It operates through the following segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, US Specialty Finance and International (USSF&I), and Other. The Personal and Commercial segment involves in banking, financing, and investing services offered to individuals and businesses as well as insurance operations. The Wealth Management segment focuses on the investment solutions, trust and lending services, and other wealth management solutions offered through internal and third-party distribution networks. The Financial Markets segment includes banking and investment banking services and financial solutions for large and mid-size corporations, public sector organizations, and institutional investors. The USSF&I segment comprises specialty finance expertise activities of subsidiary ABA Bank, which offers financial products and services to individuals and businesses; and activities of targeted investments in certain emerging markets. The Other segment encompasses treasury activities such as asset and liability management, liquidity management and funding operations, certain no Read More New Jersey Resources Corp. is a holding company. The firm provides safe and reliable natural gas and clean energy services, including transportation, distribution, asset management and home services. It operates through the following segments: New Jersey Natural Gas, NJR Clean Energy Ventures, NJR Energy Services, NJR Midstream, and NJR Home Services. The New Jersey Natural Gas segment provides regulated retail natural gas service to residential and commercial customers in central and northern New Jersey. The NJR Clean Energy Ventures segment invests in, owns and operates solar projects. The NJR Energy Services segment manages a diversified portfolio of natural gas transportation and storage assets and provides physical natural gas services in the U.S. and Canada. The NJR Midstream segment serves customers from local distributors and producers to electric generators and wholesale marketers. The NJR Home Services segment provides heating, ventilation and cooling service, sales and installation of appliances services to its customers, as well as solar installation projects, and is the primary contributor to home services. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Wall, Read More The story wasn't subtle: A poacher attempting to hunt endangered rhinoceroses in South Africa's Kruger National Park last week was instead trampled to death by an elephant and eaten by a pride of lions. Rangers alerted by his companions sought to recover his body and eventually found a skull and a pair of pants. It was a comeuppance made for social media. Poetic justice, the natural order at work, a win for the animals all were common themes, as they've been in other, similar incidents. Karma aside, the would-be poacher also left behind a grieving family his name and nationality were not immediately released, but reports say he had daughters. The details speak not to a rich man's pleasure hunt gone bad but to a low-level actor in the global trade in rhino horn and elephant ivory. "Killing poachers will not stop poaching. Poachers are just the foot soldiers of international criminal syndicates," said Julian Rademeyer, a project leader for Traffic, which monitors the international trade in wildlife, according to the Associated Press. "The rage and anger of many people at the rampant poaching that is endangering rhinos and elephants is understandable," he said. "But the joy and gloating over the death of a poacher is crass and misguided." Animal lovers feel a sense of impotence at trophy hunting and other abuses. A wildlife camera recently captured a horrific illegal killing in Alaska of a mother bear and her two screaming cubs. These incidents shouldn't happen, and when they do there should be consequences. At stake is humankind's responsibility to act as steward for the planet's natural environment as well as individual animals. Without protections, entire species may be wiped out in the wild. As for the rhinos, they die horribly and senselessly. Poachers kill 1,000 African rhinos a year, hacking off their horns with machetes and leaving the animal to bleed to death, to cash in on the lucrative trade in horns in Asia. Yet these coveted horns are merely keratin, no more remarkable than human hair. The ongoing demand for them values myth over science and life, with disastrous results. The answer globally is a stronger commitment to making and enforcing anti-poaching laws, plus investing in education. In places where these magnificent creatures remain, communities can reap economic benefits through tourism because living wildlife can be worth much more than butchered specimens. One poacher stopped in his tracks might briefly feel like natural justice. Really, it's a reminder of the world's continued failure to do better by its fading species. The above editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. New Zealand Energy Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas in New Zealand. The company holds interests in three petroleum mining licenses, one petroleum mining permit, and one petroleum exploration permit. It has interests in TWN Petroleum Mining Licenses comprising Waihapa/Ngaere, and Tariki; Copper Moki petroleum mining permit; and Eltham Petroleum exploration permit. It also operates midstream assets. As of December 31, 2020, the company had proved and probable reserves of 696,500 barrels of oil. New Zealand Energy Corp. was incorporated in 2010 and is based in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Valero Energy: AIR BP-PBF DEL PERU SAC, BELFAST STORAGE LTD, CANADIAN ULTRAMAR COMPANY, COLONNADE TEXAS INSURANCE COMPANY LLC, COLONNADE VERMONT INSURANCE COMPANY, DIAMOND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY LLC, DIAMOND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY OF CANADA INC., DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL HOLDINGS LLC, DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL LLC, DIAMOND K RANCH LLC, DIAMOND OMEGA COMPANY L.L.C., DIAMOND SHAMROCK REFINING COMPANY L.P., DIAMOND UNIT INVESTMENTS L.L.C., DSRM NATIONAL BANK, ENTERPRISE CLAIMS MANAGEMENT INC., GCP LOGISTICS COMPANY LLC, GOLDEN EAGLE ASSURANCE LIMITED, HAMMOND MAINLINE PIPELINE LLC, HUNTWAY REFINING COMPANY, MAINLINE PIPELINES LIMITED, MAPLE ETHANOL LTD., MICHIGAN REDEVELOPMENT GP LLC, MICHIGAN REDEVELOPMENT L.P., MRP PROPERTIES COMPANY LLC, NECHES RIVER HOLDING CORP., NORCO METHANOL LLC, OCEANIC TANKERS AGENCY LIMITED, PARKWAY PIPELINE LLC, PENTA TANKS TERMINALS S.A., PI DOCK FACILITIES LLC, PICKARD PLACE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, PORT ARTHUR COKER COMPANY L.P., PREMCOR USA INC., PROPERTY RESTORATION L.P., PURE BIOFUELS DEL PERU S.A.C., PURE BIOFUELS HOLDINGS L.P., Parkway Pipeline, Premcor, Pure Biofuels Del Peru, SABINE RIVER HOLDING CORP., SABINE RIVER LLC, SAINT BERNARD PROPERTIES COMPANY LLC, SUNBELT REFINING COMPANY L.P., THE PREMCOR PIPELINE CO., THE PREMCOR REFINING GROUP INC., THE SHAMROCK PIPE LINE CORPORATION, TRANSPORT MARITIME ST. LAURENT INC., ULTRAMAR ACCEPTANCE INC., ULTRAMAR ENERGY INC., ULTRAMAR INC., Ultramar Diamond Shamrock, V-TEX LOGISTICS LLC, VALERO (BARBADOS) SRL, VALERO (PERU) HOLDINGS GP LLC, VALERO (PERU) HOLDINGS LIMITED, VALERO ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO ARUBA ACQUISITION COMPANY I LTD., VALERO ARUBA FINANCE INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO ARUBA HOLDING COMPANY N.V., VALERO ARUBA HOLDINGS INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO ARUBA MAINTENANCE/OPERATIONS COMPANY N.V., VALERO BROWNSVILLE TERMINAL LLC, VALERO CANADA FINANCE INC., VALERO CANADA L.P., VALERO CAPITAL CORPORATION, VALERO CARIBBEAN SERVICES COMPANY, VALERO COKER CORPORATION ARUBA N.V., VALERO CUSTOMS & TRADE SERVICES INC., VALERO EAST BAY LLC, VALERO ENERGY (IRELAND) LIMITED, VALERO ENERGY ARUBA II COMPANY, VALERO ENERGY INC., VALERO ENERGY LTD, VALERO ENERGY PARTNERS GP LLC, VALERO ENERGY PARTNERS LP, VALERO ENERGY UK LTD, VALERO ENTERPRISES INC., VALERO EQUITY SERVICES LTD, VALERO FINANCE L.P. I, VALERO FINANCE L.P. II, VALERO FINANCE L.P. III, VALERO FOREST CONTRIBUTION LLC, VALERO GRAIN MARKETING LLC, VALERO H2 PIPELINE COMPANY LLC, VALERO HOLDCO UK LTD, VALERO HOLDINGS INC., VALERO INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS INC., VALERO LIVE OAK LLC, VALERO LOGISTICS UK LTD, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY (PANAMA) LLC, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY COMPANY, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPY INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO MARKETING IRELAND LIMITED, VALERO MKS LOGISTICS L.L.C., VALERO NEDERLAND COOPERATIEF U.A., VALERO NEDERLAND COOPERATIEF U.A., VALERO NEW AMSTERDAM B.V., VALERO OMEGA COMPANY L.L.C., VALERO OPERATIONAL SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO OPERATIONAL SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO OPERATIONS SUPPORT LTD, VALERO PARTNERS CCTS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS CORPUS EAST LLC, VALERO PARTNERS CORPUS WEST LLC, VALERO PARTNERS EP LLC, VALERO PARTNERS HOUSTON LLC, VALERO PARTNERS LOUISIANA LLC, VALERO PARTNERS LUCAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MCKEE LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MEMPHIS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MERAUX LLC, VALERO PARTNERS NORTH TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS OPERATING CO. LLC, VALERO PARTNERS PAPS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS PORT ARTHUR LLC, VALERO PARTNERS SOUTH TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS TEXAS CITY LLC, VALERO PARTNERS THREE RIVERS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WEST MEMPHIS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WEST TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WYNNEWOOD LLC, VALERO PAYMENT SERVICES COMPANY, VALERO PEMBROKESHIRE LLC, VALERO PEMBROKESHIRE OIL TERMINAL LTD, VALERO PLAINS COMPANY LLC, VALERO POWER MARKETING LLC, VALERO RAIL OPERATIONS DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO RAIL OPERATIONS DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO RAIL PARTNERS LLC, VALERO REFINING AND MARKETING COMPANY, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-ARUBA N.V., VALERO REFINING COMPANY-CALIFORNIA, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-OKLAHOMA, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-TENNESSEE L.L.C., VALERO REFINING-MERAUX LLC, VALERO REFINING-NEW ORLEANS L.L.C., VALERO REFINING-TEXAS L.P., VALERO RENEWABLE FUELS COMPANY LLC, VALERO SECURITY SYSTEMS INC., VALERO SERVICES INC., VALERO SKELLYTOWN PIPELINE LLC, VALERO TEJAS COMPANY LLC, VALERO TERMINAL HOLDCO LTD, VALERO TERMINALING AND DISTRIBUTION COMPANY, VALERO TERMINALING AND DISTRIBUTION DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO TEXAS POWER MARKETING INC., VALERO ULTRAMAR HOLDINGS INC., VALERO UNIT INVESTMENTS L.L.C., VALERO WEST WALES LLC, VRG PROPERTIES COMPANY, VTD PROPERTIES COMPANY, WARSHALL COMPANY LLC, and ZELIG COMMERCIAL INC.. The following companies are subsidiares of Quaker Chemical: AC Products Inc., Applied Surface Concepts Holdings Ltd. , Binol AB, Binol Biosafe OY, Commonwealth Oil Corporation, DA Stuart India Private Limited, DA Stuart Shanghai Co, ECLI Products LLC, EFHCO LLC, Engineered Custom Lubricants, Engineered Custom Lubricants GmbH, Epmar Corporation, G.W. Smith and Sons, GH Holdings Inc., GHG Lubricants Holdings Limited, GHGL London Ltd., GHI Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Global Houghton Ltd., Houghton (Shanghai) Specialty Industrial Fluids Co. Ltd, Houghton Argentina S.A., Houghton Asia Pacific Co. Limited, Houghton Australia Pty. Ltd., Houghton Benelux BV, Houghton CZ s.r.o, Houghton Canada Inc., Houghton Denmark AS, Houghton Deutschland GmbH, Houghton Europe BV, Houghton Holdings Limited, Houghton Iberica S.A. , Houghton International, Houghton International Inc., Houghton Italia S.p.A., Houghton Japan Co. Ltd., Houghton Kimya Sanayi AS, Houghton Magyarorszag Kft, Houghton Mexico S.A. de C.V., Houghton Oil (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd., Houghton Polska Sp. Zo.o., Houghton Romania S.R.L., Houghton S.A.S., Houghton Sverige AB, Houghton Taiwan Co. Limited, Houghton Technical Corp., Houghton Ukraine ToV, Houghton do Brazil Ltda., Houghton plc, Internationale Metall Impragnier GmbH, Lubricor Inc, Lubricor Inc., Lubricor Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Lubricor USA Inc., MIH Acquisition Company LLC, MX Systems International Ltd, Maldaner GmbH, NP Coil Dexter Industries, New Houghton Brazil Inc., Norman Hay Engineering Ltd., QH Chemical Limited, QH Europe BV, QH Holdings Limited, QH International Limited, Quaker (Thailand) Ltd., Quaker Australia Holdings Pty. Limited, Quaker Chemical (Australasia) Pty. Limited, Quaker Chemical (China) Co. Ltd., Quaker Chemical B.V., Quaker Chemical CV, Quaker Chemical Canada Holdings Inc., Quaker Chemical Canada Limited, Quaker Chemical Europe B.V., Quaker Chemical Holdings South Africa (Pty) Limited, Quaker Chemical India Private Limited, Quaker Chemical Industria e Comercio Ltda., Quaker Chemical Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Quaker Chemical Limited, Quaker Chemical MEA FZE, Quaker Chemical Operacoes Ltda., Quaker Chemical Participacoes Ltda., Quaker Chemical S.A., Quaker Chemical S.r.l., Quaker Chemical Services EURL, Quaker Chemical South Africa (Pty.) Limited, Quaker China Holdings B.V., Quaker Denmark ApS, Quaker Houghton (Finco) Ltd., Quaker Houghton Holdings Limited, Quaker Houghton Holdings Ltd., Quaker Houghton International LP, Quaker Houghton Ltd., Quaker International Holdings LLC, Quaker Italia S.r.l., Quaker Russia B.V., Quaker Sales Europe BV, Quaker Shanghai Trading Company Limited, Quaker Spain Holding SLU, Quaker Specialty Chemicals (UK) Limited, SB Decking Inc., SIFCO Applied Surface Concepts (UK) Ltd, SIFCO Applied Surface Concepts LLC, SIFCO Concepts Sarl, SIFCO Concepts Sweden, Sterr & Eder Industrieservice GmbH, Summit Lubricants Inc, Summit Lubricants Inc., Surface Technology (Coventry) Ltd, Surface Technology (Dalian) Co Ltd, Surface Technology (East Kilbride) Ltd., Surface Technology (Leeds) Ltd, Surface Technology Aberdeen Ltd, Surface Technology Australia, Surface Technology Holdings Ltd., TecniQuimia Mexicana, Tecniquimia Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Thai Houghton 1993 Co. Ltd., Ultraseal Asia Limited, Ultraseal Chongqing Limited, Ultraseal Germany GmbH, Ultraseal International Group Ltd, Ultraseal Machinery Dongguan Ltd, Ultraseal Shanghai Limited, Ultraseal USA Inc., Unitek Servicios De Asesoria Especializad S.A de C.V., Verkol S.A.U., Verkol SAU, Wallover Enterprises Inc., Wallover Oil Company Incorporated, Wallover Oil Hamilton Inc., and Wuhan Quaker Technology Co. Ltd. Brookfield Business Partners LP engages in owning and operating business services and industrial operations. It operates though the following segments: Business Services, Infrastructure Services, Industrial Operations, and Corporate and Other. The Business Services segment includes services such as residential mortgage insurance, healthcare, road fuel distribution and marketing, real estate and construction, entertainment, financing, and other businesses. The Infrastructure Services segment consists of services to the nuclear power generation industry and offshore oil production industry: and access, forming, and shoring solutions and specialized services. The Industrial Operations segment deals with automotive batteries, graphite electrode, and other manufacturing; water and wastewater services: natural gas production and well servicing; and a variety of other industrial operations. The Corporate and Other segment comprises cash and liquidity management, and activities related to the management of the partnership's relationship with Brookfield. The company was founded on October 1, 2015 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Read More Government should prevent fall of national credibility The Jeju provincial government has revoked the business license of a Chinese-owned medical institution, dashing the hopes for the nation's first for-profit hospital. "The Greenland International Medical Center failed to open without justifiable reasons after three months had passed since it won conditional approval for launch," Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong said at a news conference Wednesday. "Nor had it made any substantive efforts to begin operations after that." The cancellation of the license was due in large part to the opposition of civic groups concerned about the possible collapse of the public healthcare system. The opponents said the launch of a for-profit hospital on the resort island could lead to the appearance of similar institutions in seven other free economic zones, including Songdo in Incheon, resulting in a medical divide and damaging the public nature of Korea's healthcare system. Their assertions are not without reason. More than a few people are also worried the first for-profit hospital could shake up the public healthcare system, which some say is better than in many advanced countries. It could prove to be the Trojan horse that topples Korea's excellent public healthcare system, as a civic activist put it. That said, the authorities concerned can hardly be free from blame for their flip-flopping on this issue. The Chinese investor has built its hospital at the cost of 77.8 billion won ($68.6 million) and hired several medical professionals. However, the provincial government, conscious of adverse public opinion, held a public hearing commissioned by a group of experts. After the hearing came up with a negative conclusion, officials gave the go-ahead on the condition of restricting treatment to foreign patients, and has now nullified the license. With the decision, both the central and provincial governments could face adverse effects of losing trust among foreign investors. The Chinese group may file a suit against the Korean government, using the investor-state dispute settlement system. Related officials should actively prepare for the expected legal battles and conduct a consistent policy to prevent the recurrence of such confusion as this. Only then will foreigners feel able to invest in Korea free from anxiety. 1 Wall Street research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Premier Oil in the last twelve months. There are currently 1 hold rating for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should "hold" Premier Oil stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in PMO, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares. View analyst ratings for Premier Oil or view top-rated stocks. Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and creditor and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its field sales force, advice centers, and online, as well as through independent insurance advisors and affinity relationships. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset, cash management, transaction banking, and treasury services to institutional clients; correspondent banking and trade finance services for financial institutions; and short-term funding and liquidity management services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, governments, and central banks. Royal Bank of Canada has a strategic partnership with Royal College Of Physicians & Surgeons Of Canada to support the needs of Canada's medical specialists. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More 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. The following companies are subsidiares of Teledyne Technologies: Alia Corporation Inc, Bolt Technology Corp, Bowtech Products, CARIS, CDL do Brasil Equipamentos e Servicos Submarinos Sociedade Empresaria Ltda., CETAC Technologies, DALSA, Demo Systems, Detcon Holdco Inc., Ensambles de Precision S.A. de C.V., Falcon Analytical, Frontline Test Equipment, GMI Group Holdings Limited, Hafmynd ehf, Hanson Research Corp, IST Oldham Instruments India Private Limited, Industrial Control Machines, Intelek, Intelek Limited, Intelek Pension Trustees Limited, Intelek Properties Limited, LeCroy (Beijing) Trading Co. Ltd., LeCroy Corporation, Lidar Aviation Services Inc., Maple Imaging LLC, Micralyne Inc, Ocean Design Ltda., Oldham Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Oldham Simtronics SAS, Oldham-Winter GmbH, PDM Neptec, Reynolds Industries Limited, Rhombi Canada LP, Rhombi Holdings Limited, Rhombi Netherlands B.V., Rockwell Scientific Company, Simtronics AS, TDY Jersey Limited, Teledyne Advanced Pollution Instrumentation, Teledyne Australia Pty Ltd, Teledyne BlueView, Teledyne Bogatin Enterprises LLC, Teledyne Bowtech Limited, Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., Teledyne C.M.L. Group Limited, Teledyne CARIS B.V., Teledyne CARIS Inc., Teledyne CARIS UK Ltd., Teledyne CARIS USA Inc., Teledyne CDL Inc., Teledyne CDL Limited, Teledyne Catalyst Enterprises Inc., Teledyne Computer Access Technology Corporation, Teledyne Controls LLC, Teledyne Cougar, Teledyne Czech s.r.o., Teledyne DALSA (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Teledyne DALSA Asia-Pacific Ltd., Teledyne DALSA B.V., Teledyne DALSA GmbH, Teledyne DALSA Inc., Teledyne DALSA Industrial Products Inc., Teledyne DALSA K.K., Teledyne DALSA Semiconductor Inc., Teledyne Dalsa, Teledyne Defense Electronics LLC, Teledyne Denmark A/S, Teledyne Detcon Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging US Inc., Teledyne Energy Systems Inc., Teledyne Europe Holdings C.V., Teledyne France, Teledyne France SAS, Teledyne Gas Measurement Instruments Limited, Teledyne Gavia ehf., Teledyne Germany GmbH, Teledyne Hanson Research Inc., Teledyne ICM SA, Teledyne ICM SPRL, Teledyne Innovaciones Microelectronics S.L.U., Teledyne Instruments Inc., Teledyne Instruments Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Teledyne Japan Corporation, Teledyne Korea Ltd., Teledyne Labtech Limited, Teledyne LeCroy AB, Teledyne LeCroy Delaware LLC, Teledyne LeCroy GmbH, Teledyne LeCroy Inc., Teledyne LeCroy India Trading Private Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy Japan Corporation, Teledyne LeCroy Korea Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy OakGate Inc., Teledyne LeCroy S.A.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy S.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy SA, Teledyne LeCroy Singapore Pte. Ltd., Teledyne Limited, Teledyne Micralyne Inc., Teledyne Monitor Labs, Teledyne Monitor Labs P.R. Inc., Teledyne Netherlands B.V., Teledyne ODI, Teledyne Optech Inc., Teledyne Paradise Datacom Limited, Teledyne RD Instruments, Teledyne RD Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne RESON, Teledyne RESON A/S, Teledyne RESON B.V., Teledyne RESON GmbH, Teledyne RESON Holding B.V., Teledyne RESON Inc., Teledyne RESON Pte. Ltd., Teledyne RESON UK Limited, Teledyne RISI Inc., Teledyne Rad-icon Imaging Corp., Teledyne Redlake MASD LLC, Teledyne Reynolds Inc., Teledyne SG Brown Limited, Teledyne Scientific & Imaging LLC, Teledyne Scientific Imaging GmbH, Teledyne Scientific Imaging Limited, Teledyne Signal Processing Devices Sweden AB, Teledyne Singapore Private Limited, Teledyne TSS Limited, Teledyne Taiwan Company, Teledyne Technologies (Bermuda) Limited, Teledyne Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne Technologies International Corp., Teledyne Technologies Israel Ltd., Teledyne Tekmar Company, Teledyne UK Limited, Teledyne VariSystems, Teledyne VariSystems Inc., Teledyne Wireless LLC, Teledyne e2v, Teledyne e2v (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Teledyne e2v (Overseas) Holdings Limited, Teledyne e2v Asia Pacific Limited, Teledyne e2v Limited, Teledyne e2v Semiconductors SAS, and The Oceanscience Group Ltd.. By Park Moo-jong Spring has sprung into full swing with the temperatures rising day by day to a more bearable degree, freeing the people of the last few months of cold surroundings. The naked street trees are wearing new clothes with the leaves budding into lush, green and picturesque plants in this spring season full of transformations. In defiance of the ongoing climate change on this planet that is shortening this fresh season for an early summer of hot days, people still greet the change of nature in lighter clothes, going out to enjoy the blooming flowers here, there and everywhere. Nonetheless, spring may be cruel as American-British poet T.S. Elliot (1888-1965) described in "The Burial of the Dead" in "The Waste Land." The 1948 Nobel Literature Prize winner stated: "April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." As far as air is concerned, April is cruel. The annual attack of thick yellow haze from China's raging sandstorms will cruelly ravage the peninsula, setting aside the hitherto chocking fine dust, for which China is also largely responsible. The yellow sand blowing from the continent will force people again to wear surgical-style masks on the streets to make the fine spring days look gloomy. Adding fuel to the fire is the helplessness of the government in helping people breathe clean air. However, we can still enjoy this bright season, often compared to youth and a new commencement, thanks to spring music heard across the nation. Here is some enchanted music for spring such as Johann Strauss Junior's (1825-1899) "Voices of Spring," Robert Schumann's (1810-1856) Symphony No. 1, "Spring," Benjamin Britten's (1913-1976) "Spring Symphony" and Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 5 "Spring," to name a few. Few don't know the "Spring," the first piece of the "Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). In particular, symphonies can be a good lesson to our society. A symphony, needless to say, is an extended piece of orchestral music in three or more movements with its backbone being the harmony. It is also something characterized by a harmonious combination of elements. The basis of any orchestra is also harmony of diverse instruments and their players. Under the conductor's baton, they have to play in a perfect manner, which shows the listeners the virtues of cooperation and harmony. Nothing is more painful than listening to the dissonance of a symphony orchestra. The annual Symphony Festival is taking place under the theme of "Generation" at the Seoul Arts Center, following the opening performance on April 2 by the Jeju Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" better known as "Destiny Symphony." The theme of the this year's festival marking the 30th anniversary is meaningful in that the generational gap is ever widening amid the rising unemployment rate of young people and increasing number of aged citizens. The festival closes its curtain on April 21 (Sunday) with Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 1" by China's National Center for Performing Arts Orchestra. Here is one definite reason for us to listen to the symphonies, particularly related to spring: namely how to realize harmony in our society like that of orchestras performing symphonies. Contrary to the harmonious sound of the orchestras, politicians who are supposed to contribute to building a stronger nation and a better society for the people to live in are only producing dissonance, annoying the citizens. The rival lawmakers never hesitate to make April a cruel month for the people by paralyzing the extraordinary National Assembly session of April due to a vicious tug-of-war over pending issues like President Moon Jae-in's controversial nomination of a candidate for the Constitutional Court justice, among others. In dealing with crucial tasks the nation faces now such as the sagging economy, uncertainty in negotiations with North Korea for its complete denuclearization and estranged Seoul-Washington relations, the politicians are never showing signs of solving the problems in a perfect harmony like orchestras playing symphonies. The national leaders, both social and political ones, have been emphasizing the need of cooperation and harmony in respective spectrums of society. But few translate them into action. I hope that those in power and their opponents will listen to the symphonies of spring to have an opportunity to learn the virtues of cooperation and harmony. Spring has come. Yet, spring is not around us due to the deepening conflicts between the progressives and conservatives. Is there any chance for them to get together in harmony? Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974. Cellcom Israel Ltd. operates and maintains a cellular mobile telephone system in Israel. It operates in two segments, Cellular and Fixed-line. The company offers cellular communications services, such as basic cellular telephony services comprising voice mail, cellular fax, call waiting, call forwarding, caller identification, and conference calling; text and multimedia messaging; and cellular content and data services. It also provides international roaming services; value-added services, such as short message and multimedia messaging; cloud backup; and content services, including Cellcom Volume music, Cellcom TV, and other applications. In addition, the company sells handsets, tablets, streamers, smart watches, and home security cameras, as well as offers repair services. Further, it provides internet infrastructure and connectivity services, over-the-top TV services, international long distance services, and landline telephony and transmission services; transmission and data services through fiber-optic infrastructure and complementary microwave links; IP switchboard services; and cloud services and data protection products, as well as operates and manages business telecommunication systems to selected business customers and telecommunications operators. As of December 31, 2019, the company had approximately 10.6 million cellular subscribers. Cellcom Israel Ltd. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Netanya, Israel. Read More Toachi Mining Inc. engages in the mineral exploration activities. It holds an option to acquire 60% to 75% interest in the La Plata gold-rich copper-zinc-silver-lead volcanogenic massive sulphide project located to the southwest of Quito, Ecuador. The company was formerly known as Ferrum Americas Mining Inc. and changed its name to Toachi Mining Inc. in March 2016. Toachi Mining Inc. was founded in 2010 and is based in Toronto, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Textron: AAI Corporation, AAI Services Corporation, ALSTOM Gears, Able Aerospace, Able Aerospace Services Inc., Able Engineering & Component Services, Aeronautical Accessories LLC, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company LLC, Arctic Cat, Arctic Cat ACE Holding GmbH, Arctic Cat France SARL, Arctic Cat GmbH, Arctic Cat Inc., Arctic Cat Production LLC, Arctic Cat Production Support LLC, Arctic Cat Sales Inc., Arctic Cat Shared Services LLC, Arctic Cat UK Ltd., Arkansas Aerospace Inc., Avco Corporation, Aviation Service servis letal doo Ljubljana, Aylesbury Automation, B/K Navigational Equipment sro, Beech Aircraft Corporation, Beech Holdings, Beechcraft Defense Support Holding LLC, Beechcraft Domestic Service Company, Beechcraft Germany GmbH, Beechcraft International Holding LLC, Beechcraft International Service Company, Beechcraft New Zealand, Beechcraft Service Company UK Limited, Bell Helicopter GK, Bell Helicopter KK, Bell Textron Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Bell Textron Canada International Inc., Bell Textron Canada Limited/Limitee, Bell Textron Inc., Bell Textron Korea Inc., Bell Textron Miami Inc, Bell Textron Prague a.s., Bell Textron Rhode Island Inc., Bell Textron Services Inc, Bell Textron Supply Center BV, Bell Textron Technical Services Inc., Benzlers, Brazaco Mapri Industrias, Burkland, Cessna Aircraft Company, Cessna Citation European Service Center SAS, Cessna Dusseldorf Citation Service Center GmbH, Cessna Finance Corporation, Cessna Finance Export Corporation, Cessna Mexico S de RL de CV, Cessna Spanish Citation Service Center SLU, Cessna Zurich Citation Service Center GmbH, Citation Parts Distribution International Inc., Cushman Inc., Datacom Technologies, David Brown Group, Doncaster Citation Service Centre Limited, E-Z-GO Canada Limited, Energy Manufacturing, Flexalloy, HBC LLC, Hawker Beech de Mexico S de RL de CV, Hawker Beechcraft Argentina SA, Howe & Howe Inc., Howe and Howe Technologies, Industrial Technology Inc., InteSys Technologies, International Product Support Inc., KSB Annecy SAS, Kautex (Changchun) Plastics Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Chongqing) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Guangzhou) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Pinghu) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Shanghai) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Wuhan) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex Corporation, Kautex Craiova srl, Kautex Germany Holding GmbH, Kautex Inc., Kautex Japan KK, Kautex Shanghai GmbH, Kautex Textron (UK) Limited, Kautex Textron Benelux BVBA, Kautex Textron Bohemia spol sro, Kautex Textron CVS Limited, Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG, Kautex Textron Iberica SL, Kautex Textron Italia Srl, Kautex Textron Management Services Company de Puebla S. de RL de CV, Kautex Textron Portugal Produtos Plasticos Sociedade Unipessoal Lda., Kautex Textron de Mexico S de RL de CV, Kautex Textron do Brasil Ltda., Kautex of Georgia Inc., Kaywood Products Corp., Klauke, LCI Corporation International, LLC Textron RUS, Maag, McCord Corporation, Mechtronix, Medical Numerics Inc., Midland Industrial Plastics, MillenWorks, MillenWorks Themed Technologies, MotorFist LLC, OPINICUS Simulation and Training Services LLC, OmniQuip International, Opinicus, Optical Boring Co., Opto-Electronics, Opto-Electronics Inc., Overwatch Systems Ltd., PEINER Umformtechnik, Pirelli Tyres - General Rubber Goods (GRG) division, Premiair Aviation Maintenance Pty Ltd, Progressive Electronics, Ransomes, Ransomes Inc., Ransomes Investment LLC, Ransomes Jacobsen France SAS, Ransomes Jacobsen Limited, Ransomes Limited, Ransomes Pensions Trustee Company Limited, Replacement Part Solutions LLC, Response Technologies LLC, Rotor Blades Limited, Sukosim Verbindungselemente, TRU Simulation & Training Spain SL, TRU Simulation + Training Inc., TRU Simulation + Training LLC, TekGPS Engineering Srl, Textron Airland LLC, Textron Atlantic LLC, Textron Aviation Australia Pty. Ltd., Textron Aviation Canada Ltd., Textron Aviation Defense LLC, Textron Aviation Finance Corporation, Textron Aviation Inc., Textron Aviation Prague Service Center sro, Textron Aviation Rhode Island Inc., Textron Aviation Services de Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Capital BV, Textron Communications Inc., Textron Far East Pte. Ltd., Textron Finance Holding Company, Textron Financial Corporation, Textron Financial Corporation Receivables Trust 2002-CP-2, Textron Fluid and Power Inc., Textron France Holding SAS, Textron France SAS, Textron Global Services Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment UK Limited, Textron IPMP Inc., Textron India Private Limited, Textron Innovations Inc., Textron International Inc., Textron International Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Limited, Textron Management Services Inc., Textron Motors GmbH, Textron Motors North America Inc., Textron Outdoor Power Equipment Inc., Textron Realty Corporation, Textron Shared Service Centre (Canada) Inc., Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., Textron Sweden AB, Textron Systems Australia Holding Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Canada Inc., Textron Systems Corporation, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK (Holdings) Limited, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK Limited, Textron Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Textron UK Pension Trustee Limited, Textron Verwaltungs-GmbH, Turbine Engine Components Textron (Newington Operations) Inc., United Industrial Corporation, Westminster Insurance Company, Williams Machine & Tool, Wuxi Textron Specialized Vehicles Co. Ltd., and Zhenjiang Bell Textron Aviation Services Limited. Allergan plc, a pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, and commercializes branded pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical, and regenerative medicine products worldwide. The company operates in three segments: US Specialized Therapeutics, US General Medicine, and International. It offers a portfolio of products in various therapeutic areas, including medical aesthetics and dermatology, eye care, neuroscience, urology, gastrointestinal, women's health, and anti-infective therapeutic products. The company also offers breast implants and tissue expanders; and RM-131 (relamorelin), a peptide ghrelin agonist for the treatment of diabetic gastroparesis. In addition, it develops medical and cosmetic treatments; therapies for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and other liver diseases; inhibitor for the treatment of psoriasis and other autoimmune disorders; atopic dermatitis drug candidate; peri-ocular rings for extended drug delivery and reducing elevated intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients; and treatments for neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Further, the company develops RST-001, a novel gene therapy for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa; small molecule therapeutics for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases; topical medicines for fat reduction; and delivery system and botulinum toxin-based prescription products. It has collaboration, option, and license agreement with Lyndra, Inc.; and strategic alliance and option agreement with Editas Medicine, Inc. Allergan plc also has licensing agreements with Assembly Biosciences, Inc.; MedImmune; and Heptares Therapeutics, Ltd. The company was formerly known as Actavis plc and changed its name to Allergan plc in June 2015. Allergan plc was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Read More United States Oil Fund's stock reverse split on the morning of Wednesday, April 29th 2020. The 1-8 reverse split was announced on Wednesday, April 22nd 2020. The number of shares owned by shareholders was adjusted after the market closes on Tuesday, April 28th 2020. An investor that had 100 shares of United States Oil Fund stock prior to the reverse split would have 13 shares after the split. By Donald Kirk The sinking of the Sewol ferry five years ago was one of the greatest tragedies in Korean history. The memory for me, along with many others, is especially poignant since I spent hours in the great school gymnasium where families of the 304 victims, most of them middle school students, were waiting endlessly for the terrible news they never wanted to hear. I remember the prolonged silence that hung over the room, then the outbursts of shrieks, of tears, of bodily contortions, as the news was broken to one family or another that the remains of their precious child had been recovered. The longer the wait, the less chance there would be more survivors. Finally, there were none. Faint hope sprang eternal, however, as families prayed that maybe their sons or daughters had found safety in an air pocket, maybe hidden in small corners of the vessel that had not been flooded, or that some child had actually escaped but had yet to find his or her family. As chances of a reprieve from the awful news diminished to zero, however, families gradually lost the slender hopes to which they were clinging. Several of the bodies would never be found, at least until the boat was raised from the swirling currents much later, but the dimensions of the tragedy were clear within two or three days after the ship had sunk. In the midst of these deeply saddening memories, it seems unbelievable to think that political forces, on both the right and the left, should have hijacked the tragedy for their own purposes. Quite often, after visiting the tents set up by bereaved relatives in Gwanghwamun, in front of the great statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the 16th century naval hero, I would pick up the yellow-ribbon pin that family members offered to visitors as symbols of the tragedy. The setting for their rows of tents seemed appropriate considering that Admiral Yi had died fighting off a marauding Japanese fleet not far from where the Sewol went down. Imagine, then, my chagrin when quite quickly the yellow ribbon came to represent the pressure of leftists to castigate the government and the system that had enabled the owner of the Sewol to overload a vessel that should never have been allowed to set sail on its final voyage. Sometimes, as I walked on down the broad avenue toward the statue of King Sejong, people asked why I would stick the yellow pin into the lapel of my jacket when it was identified with leftists exploiting the tragedy. When I explained that I wore it not as a political symbol but as a tiny way of memorializing the lives that were lost, no one seemed to believe me. In fact, leftists did seize upon the Sewol tragedy to promote their agenda. That was understandable considering the links between the owner of the Sewol and corrupt officials. Rightists, however, have charged that the left has abused the tragedy, taking advantage of grieving parents about whom they care little. That was also understandable. The tents of the family members had been there long before the Candlelit Revolution swirled up and down the same avenue, but it was difficult to separate that protest from the much larger outcry against the government whose president, Park Geun-hye, had been out of sight for hours a mystery never explained as images of the Sewol slowly sinking filled TV screens. Whatever the politics, though, the sinking of the Sewol, with its teenage students on board, has an enduring place in South Korean history. Until the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and then the summits between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in swept the headlines, the sinking of the Sewol was about the biggest story to emanate from Korea in years. It's not quite clear to me how government officials persuaded the Sewol parents and relatives to fold up their tents and leave, but that's exactly what happened. Probably an overwhelming factor was the promise that the Sewol victims would never be forgotten, that their story would endure in history while their families would be compensated fairly. The government, moreover would build a special memorial for Sewol victims where parents had taken turns handing out leaflets and pins and attending religious services under Admiral Yi's watchful eyes. That would seem like a fair resolution, one that both left and right should think was good enough if not exactly ideal. The memorial should occupy the same space as had the tents, an enduring reminder of what had happened, a protest against high-level indifference to the needs and concerns of humble people, many of whom would never otherwise find the time and money to look around Jeju. Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) has been covering events in Korea and the region for decades. Zalando SE operates as an online fashion and lifestyle retailer. It offers a range of products, including shoes, apparel, accessories, and beauty products for women, men, and children, as well as free delivery and returns services. The company also sells its products through its Zalando Lounge; and brick-and-mortar stores in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig, Hamburg, Hanover, MAnster, Stuttgart, Mannheim, and Ulm. It serves in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The company has a strategic partnership with Sephora SAS to create the online prestige beauty destination. Zalando SE was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Read More Two Central New York Psych Center employees are facing fraud charges. Shelby Ferguson, of Rome, is accused of forging doctors notes to get unearned time off from work. The state inspector general says the fake notes were submitted during a six month span in 2016. Karl Hellinger, of Clinton, is accused of stealing workers comp benefits, claiming to have a shoulder injury, but actually operated a food truck last summer. The IG says he stole nearly $6,000 in benefits. ILION, N.Y. - A ceremony was held at the Labor Monument in Ilion to honor those who went to work and never came home. This ceremony is held every year before Workers' Memorial Day. Workers' Memorial Day is on April 28, the day The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, also known as OSHA, was created. Workers' Memorial Day is an international day of remembrance for workers killed or injured on the job. Dozens came out to remember and honor the men and women who have lost their lives. Congressman Anthony Brindisi was there, along with many local veterans and labor council members. The ceremony included a 21 gun salute and 12 prayers were read to memorialize lost members. Each speaker also laid a rose on the memorial. This ceremony in Ilion is organized by the Central New York Labor Council, and the vice president of the organization, Norma Chrisman, says the most recent date from 2017 proves there is still work that needs to be done to create safer working conditions for workers. "Unfortunately in 2017, there were close to 500 preventable deaths, that had procedures been followed and things done properly their lives would've been saved," Chrisman said. "It's something to memorialize, all of those workers to keep their memory alive and to continue to fight to keep those protections and improve the working conditions of our members." Organizers say ceremonies like this one are held all over the country, and the day is observed all over the world. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - New Census Bureau data shows Puerto Rico lost nearly 4% of its population after Hurricane Maria - what one demographer says is the greatest population drop in the recorded history of the island. Data released Thursday shows the U.S. territory's population dropped by 129,848 people between July 2017 and July 2018. The hurricane struck two months into that period, in September 2017. The population loss was due to both deaths and people moving away, although emigration accounted for most of the decrease. The heaviest population drops occurred in metropolitan areas such as the capital of San Juan, the city of Ponce and surrounding areas. Many Puerto Ricans left for Florida and New York, home to communities of people from the territory. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. UTICA- The Red Cross is assisting eight people after a fire on Whitesboro Street in Utica on Wednesday night. Crews were called to 1804 Whitesboro Street for reports of a fire. Officials with the Utica Fire Department said the fire started in the basement. Four adults, four children and some pets were inside, but all of them made it out safely. Firefighters said there is a lot of smoke damage in the residence, so the Red Cross will assisting the victims. A Schenectady police detective is facing charges in the city of Utica for allegedly getting into a fight at the Celtic Harp on Varick Street. Utica police say 33-year-old Steven Nelson hita bar employee. Nelson, an active sworn member of the Schenectady Police Department, was charged with harassment. The Utica Police Department says the incident happened just after midnight. Visitors to the AWS Summit look around a showroom that displays Amazon's smart home devices at COEX, southern Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul By Baek Byung-yeul Scores of people formed a long line at the COEX convention center in southern Seoul Wednesday to see the latest trends and services using cloud computing technology of Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is a cloud computing business unit of the U.S. retail giant Amazon, and has dominated around one-third of the global cloud computing market. To promote its services, AWS has held its annual cloud computing exhibition called AWS Summit throughout the world. The cloud giant also launched its Seoul event in 2015 and the two-day event has grown into one of the largest exhibitions in the IT industry here as more than 22,000 people pre-registered for this year's show. AWS Korea said about 70 partner companies also joined. Meanwhile Korean firms have remained mere spectators, struggling to get a bigger chunk of the country's emerging cloud computing market. Korea's cloud computing market is expected to grow as more and more companies are accelerating their migration process to cloud computing to reduce costs and launch enhanced services based on the latest technologies. According to January data from the Korea Development Bank, the local public cloud computing market is projected to grow to 2.44 trillion won ($2.2 billion) in 2019, a 22 percent increase year-on-year, but domestic operators such as KT, Naver, SK C&C, LG CNS and Samsung SDS have occupied only about 30 percent, leaving the rest to foreign operators such as AWS, Microsoft and IBM. Given Google recently announced it will establish a region a set of data centers in Seoul in early 2020, the domestic operators are expected to face even tougher competition in the near future. Among those top players, AWS has dominated the country's cloud computing market. Though its Korean unit didn't reveal the exact figure, industry officials presume AWS logged more than 800 billion won in sales in 2018. AWS Korea, which has been operating here since 2012, has secured more than 600 corporate clients. It said the number has increased by 30 percent year-on-year. The partner firms include not only startups but also IT service arms of large-sized companies such as LG CNS, Nongshim Data System (NDS) and Hyundai Movex. Officials from partner firms at the AWS Summit said they couldn't expand their business further without using AWS cloud computing services that enables firms to develop, run and manage applications without the complexity of purchasing and maintaining the IT infrastructure. They added they didn't consider using local operators' services because there is no reason not to choose the cloud computing service provided by the market leader. Domestic operators are seeking a breakthrough in the financial sector as the government has loosened regulations that prevented the adoption of cloud computing technology. The Financial Service Commission (FSC) announced a revision to regulations supervising electronic finance to allow financial firms to store sensitive customer information on the cloud starting January. Also, they are trying to form partnerships with the foreign companies to focus more on providing a cloud system integration market. LG CNS recently said it will offer management services for cloud computing platforms provided by the global cloud platforms such as AWS. However, an industry official said it will be difficult for local cloud service providers to expand their footprint because of lack of competitiveness. "Our company used both Microsoft's Azure and AWS cloud computing services and decided to use only AWS because it has better business tools and support programs. As an IT engineer, I think it is difficult not to use the market leader's service," the official said. An expert said Korea still has a long way to go to get the country ready to play against foreign players in the cloud computing market because it lacks not only the IT infrastructure but also talented engineers who can manage operations. "To become a competitive cloud computing player, there should be more computer engineers that can deal with system management but Korea has neglected to train talented individuals in the sector," said Park Sang-oh, a professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Chung-Ang University. "Those engineers are needed when developing cloud computing related systems and managing these systems, but Korea has deemed them less important." To attract more engineers to their cloud computing services, the professor pointed out companies are required to offer entry-level education for their services. "Even in many universities, students majoring in computer science are learning AWS skills simply because these skills are more useful when they apply for jobs," he said. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) The co-founder of Apple stopped by Purdue Tuesday evening. Thousands of students and community members listened to Steve Wozniak answer the question of what if we lose control of technology? The computer pioneer spoke in Elliott Hall of Music with his two Apple II series computers on stage about artificial intelligence, automation and of course Apple. He talked about the creation of what is now the billion dollar company he started with the late Steve Jobs. This is all part of Purdue's Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign. Wozniak is an inventor, engineer, and technology entrepreneur and because of that some West Lafayette community members wanted to hear what he had to say. "I think there is a lot of resiliency that he probably had to show and I think that is something that is really important especially living in a university town with very high standards." said Elina Gorenstein. "I kind of want to see how he got the idea of doing this because it became such a big company and it just seems kind of interesting to see how he came up with the idea," said Julia Gorenstein. The event started at 6 p.m. and was open to the public. Kim Ji-young, the founder of Facebook community Startup Women in Korea / Courtesy of Startup Women in Korea By Jun Ji-hye Kim Ji-young believes that community is the most important factor for the success of female entrepreneurs in Korea. She noted the oftentimes insufficient support systems and the huge burden of a woman's role in traditional Korean society as obstacles faced by women who run businesses. Based on these beliefs, she created a Facebook group, "Startup Women in Korea," in November 2017, aiming to bring together female founders of startups as well as those working for them. "I thought the community was necessary as female entrepreneurs appeared to lack interaction between juniors and seniors," she said in an interview with The Korea Times. "I wanted to help young female entrepreneurs share the knowhow and experiences of other businesswomen to reduce the amount of trial and error." Kim said Startup Women in Korea is operated with a vision of "We are empowering women in startups to improve the Korean startup ecosystem. "We welcome any female workers in startups regardless of their positions and locations," she said. In a bid to help female entrepreneurs develop human networks more effectively, the community holds a lunch meeting once a month. "During the meeting, community members talk about the difficulties they faced while setting up or working for startups," she said. "They mostly said systems or manuals in operating startups are insufficient, in addition to the lack of a welfare system." Kim said the community has now become a venue in which various startups form collaborations in promoting their content. The community sometimes becomes an online job site as well. "I feel rewarded helping startups at an early stage," she said. "I also feel great responsibility for offering a venue in which the information exchanged can change the direction of a person's life." Among the roughly 100 Facebook communities worldwide financially supported by the company under the Facebook Community Leadership Program, Startup Women in Korea is the only Korean group to have made the cut. Facebook runs the program in a bid to nurture various online communities that can drive meaningful changes and positively contribute to the global village. Kim said the number of members of Startup Women in Korea has reached 2,000 as of April. "The community operates various small meetings to discuss a variety of subjects such as marketing, planning and organizational culture," she said. "We will continue to actively form alliances with startups and hold offline events and conferences to further boost communication between female entrepreneurs." James Huang, chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), speaks during a press conference at the Lotte Hotel Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Hill+Knowlton Strategies By Baek Byung-yeul Taiwan wants to expand cooperation with Korea in the ICT sector, recognizing the latter's recent introduction of the world's first commercial fifth-generation (5G) mobile network, the chief of Taiwan's trade and investment promotion agency said Thursday. "Korea became the world's first country to commercialize 5G mobile network (in April) and successfully entered the 5G era. Taiwan is also playing a pivotal role in the 5G era as it recently hosted an international conference for standardization of 5G. As both are forefront leaders in the ICT sector, I expect to see collaborations between Taiwan and Korea not only in 5G but also in other ICT sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT)," James Huang, chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), said during a press conference in Seoul. Huang visited Korea to promote the upcoming COMPUTEX tech fair, which will take place in Taipei for five days from May 28 to June 1. Stating that Korea is his only destination for promotion, the chairman said the tech fair will offer an opportunity to get a glimpse of the latest technology, services and products. Inaugurated in 1981, COMPUTEX is one of the largest IT fairs in Asia. This year's COMPUTEX event will take place at Taipei World Trade Center and Taipei International Convention Center for five days from May 28 to June 1. A TAITRA official said this year's COMPUTEX fair will shed light on AI, IoT, 5G, blockchain, innovative startups, games, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). "The COMPUTEX fair has enabled visitors to see the latest IT trends over the past 39 years. In the 2018 event, we had more than 1,700 buyers from Korea, which is the fifth-largest among the participating countries. More than 20 Korean companies also featured last year," he said adding some 1,700 companies from across the world will showcase their products and technology. Diann-wen Tang, representative of Taipei Mission in Korea, said the COMPUTEX tech fair will become a chance to expand exchanges and cooperation in ICT. "The trade volume between Taiwan and Korea was $35.5 billion in 2018, a 12.28 percent increase compared to the previous year. Taiwan is Korea's sixth-largest export market and Korea is the fifth-largest export market of Taiwan. These figures show the relationship between the two will become closer and more powerful," he said. "The COMPUTEX event is one of the representative tech fairs in Asia and it will work as the best place to upgrade the relationship between the two." Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) will install a Korea pavilion booth at the fair featuring Korean startups. Blackstone Police Chief Ross A. Atstupenas has been placed on administrative leave with pay. The vote to place Atstupenas on leave comes two weeks after the selectmen unanimously voted at a meeting on April 2 to conduct an investigation of the entire police department. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. The United States Virgin Islands are a group of islands situated in the Caribbean. They are unincorporated and organized territories of the US. The main islands making up the United States Virgin Islands include Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, and Saint John. The Virgin Islands cover an estimated area of 133 square miles and have a population of over 104,000 people. History The initial inhabitants of the region were the Ciboney, Carib, and Arawaks. Over the years, these islands have been in the control of various European powers such as France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, and Denmark-Norway. Initially, these islands were called the Danish West Indies. The Kingdom of Denmark was in charge of the islands before the US bought them. The United States resumed full ownership of these islands after signing the Treaty of the Danish West Indies in 1916. Today, the region is an unincorporated United States territory. Challenges Facing the Virgin Islands The development and growth of the Virgin Islands have been affected by many factors over the years. However, the region has also enjoyed economic development over the years due to the availability of natural resources. For instance, the discovery and exploration of oil on St. Croix Island made in 1966 contributed significantly to the economic growth of the islands. Petroleum exports accounted for more than 20% of the GDP of this island. However, oil exploration came to an end in 2014, leading to an economic crisis. In 1989, the Virgin Islands experienced a catastrophic hurricane that disrupted the economy of the region. In 1995, the area was affected by yet another storm, hurricane Marilyn. Hurricane Marilyn led to the destruction of property worth more than $2 billion. The occurrence of such catastrophes has contributed to the slow development of this region. Features of the Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands are known for their white sand beaches that are a significant tourist attraction. The majority of the islands are well developed to accommodate a wide range of visitors, St. Thomas is particularly known for its resorts and water sports. A farmer at a farm in Bani, Dominican Republic, raises peppers grown from NW Golden seeds, which were exported by Korea's Nongwoo Bio in this August 2017 photo. Courtesy of Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs This article is a joint project by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and The Korea Times. _ Ed. By Nam Hyun-woo The government is making every effort to nurture the domestic seed industry, to catch up with advanced countries' growing efforts for food security. To overcome Korea's limit in its market size, which accounts for only 1 percent of the international market, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is investing 400 billion won ($352.4 million) to help seed firms here to log $200 million in exports and become the world's No. 15 seed-exporting country by 2021. According to the ministry, the global seed market was valued at $37.2 billion in 2016, and that of Korea accounted for $500 million, which is 1.34 percent of the total. Of Korean private seed firms' sales in 2016, 88.4 percent was for domestic use, and 96 percent of those seeds were vegetable seeds. To break through this domestic confinement, the ministry has been carrying out the 10-year Golden Seed Project since 2012. For the project, the government earmarked 398.5 billion won to organize five industrial groups carrying out 89 projects on 20 products. The private sector also pitched in 92.6 billion won. Ten of those products are for exports including pepper, Napa cabbage, white radish, watermelon, rice, potato, corn, halibut, abalone and Serranidae. Ten other products are to replace the need for importing seeds. The ministry said it focused on nurturing the infrastructure of the domestic seed industry in the first five years of the project by setting up research institutes and an industrial complex in Gimje, North Jeolla Province, and firms have been coming up with industrial outcomes since 2017. From 2013 to 2016, domestic seed firms posted $30.57 million in exports, which fell short of the ministry's goal of $41.09 million. However, the exports quickly grew to log $24.47 million in 2017 alone, surpassing the target of $23.29 million. Exports continued to increase in 2018 to reach $38.73 million, which also tops the ministry's target of $38.68 million. The number of registered seed brands also grew from 93 in 2017 to 132 in 2018. An overseas agent of domestic seed firm Seedon raises onions grown from the firm's Shingi 2 seed at a farm in Ukraine in this June 2018 photo. Courtesy of Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, announced on Tuesday that communities across Alaska will soon receive a total of $10,990,708 to fund schools and local budget priorities. The payments are being provided through the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, which Murkowski successfully reauthorized and funded through Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 in the FY2018 omnibus appropriations bill. "Local communities in Alaska and across the country rely on the Secure Rural Schools program to pay for essential services such as schools and roads due to a decline in timber receipts and a lack of access to... The Wrangell School Board reviewed the school district's "report card to the public" in their recent meeting on Monday, April 15. The report card, released by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, collected and presented data on the performance of school districts across the state for the 2017-2018 school year. The report card examined items such as attendance and graduation rates, academic progress, teacher quality, and many other factors. According to the report card. Evergreen Elementary has an attendance rate of 93.09 percent. Stikine Middle School and Wrangell High... A Starbucks Coffee location / Korea Times file By Kwak Yeon-soo Starbucks has solidified its dominance over Korea's coffee industry, widening its gap with A Twosome Place, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Ediya Coffee and other smaller rivals, according to industry analysts Thursday. According to audit reports released by the Financial Supervisory Service, Starbucks Coffee Korea, which opened its first shop near Ewha Womans University in Seoul in 1999, saw its sales increase 20.5 percent to 1.52 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in 2018 from the previous year. Its operating profit also jumped 24.9 percent to 142 billion won. Starbucks continues to focus on its cold beverages, which include cold brew and cold foam, as customers have been craving iced drinks more than hot ones. The coffee chain has also introduced new concepts such as its luxury Reserve store, Teavana and morning box to accelerate growth in Korea. "Growing partnerships with local farmers and small businesses here has bolstered sales and improved the image of the Starbucks brand," a Starbucks Korea official said. "We have also rolled out innovative IT services and expanded community service programs to attract customers." Graphics by Cho Sang-won The company opened 121 new stores last year, and now operates more than 1,280 stores across the nation. Other major coffee brands in Korea leaped in annual sales, but fell short behind Starbucks. A Twosome Place, which was spun off from CJ Foodville last year, posted 274.3 billion won in sales and 29.2 billion won in operating profit. Due to its separation from the CJ subsidiary, the coffee chain's financial statements were released for the first time. Its actual sales, however, are expected to be higher as the sales revealed only showed results from February to December. "Unlike Starbucks, which is operated directly by its Korea headquarters, we operate under a franchise system. So the annual sales are estimated to be about 900 billion won," an official from A Twosome Place said. "We are unable to provide the annual sales of 2017 for confidentiality reasons, but the numbers have definitely increased." Starbucks' Korea headquarters collects all sales, while A Twosome Place franchise owners receive money from sales and send a certain amount to the head office. He was speaking at the Vietnam Security Summit 2019, which took place in Hanoi on April 17. Hung stated that the digital revolution in the world is accelerating with the advent of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and the Internet of Things, requiring countries to embrace the digital transformation. He informed those present that Vietnam would announce its national digital transformation strategy to build a digital economy and digital society in 2019. According to the minister, security in the cyberspace is critical to successful digital transformation, adding that the need for a safe and secure cyberspace will drive Vietnam to create world-class products and solutions. As a cybersecurity power, Vietnam would be able to defend itself and world peace, Hung said. He told the summit that Vietnam will develop its own cybersecurity enterprises and products, monitor the cyberspace closely, and ensure network security for government agencies and critical national infrastructure, which would be able to be restored to the pre-attack state. BKAV Vice President Ngo Tuan Anh agreed with Minister Hung that Vietnam can be a cybersecurity power but noted that its manpower is not sufficient in terms of quantity to meet the nationwide demand for cybersecurity. The Vietnam Security Summit 2019 was held under the theme Cyber Security in the Age of Digital Transformation by the Department of Information Security, the Cybersecurity and Counter High-tech Crime Department, the Vietnam Internet Association and IEC Group. Invossa-K By Nam Hyun-woo Kolon Life Science CEO Lee Woo-sok Algerias military regime is responding to the escalation of mass anti-government protests against its fraudulent political transition with a turn to ever more violent police repression. In a nationally televised speech on Tuesday afternoon, General Ahmed Gaed Salah issued threats against protesting workers and youth. Declaring that the armys decision to protect the people was irreversible, he continued, Nonetheless, we expect on the part of the people to avoid recourse to violence, to preserve public and private property, and to avoid impinging the interests of citizens. Salah also referred to unnamed suspicious meetings taking place in the shadows to conspire behind the demands of the people and inhibit the solutions of the National Popular Army and the proposals for a way out of the crisis. These statements are a warning that the military is preparing to vastly escalate the repression unleashed at protests last Friday. While the government had thus far sought to limit police confrontation with protesters over the previous eight weeks, fearful that such actions would only intensify popular anger, police were ordered to fire tear gas and rubber bullets upon peaceful protesters, including women and children, in Algiers. There were tear gas shots on the marchers who were inside the tunnel or who were leaving it, one protester told El Watan, referring to the Tunnel of the Facultes in the capital. The newspaper reported: Suddenly a tear gas canister landed right in the middle of Audin Square. It would be followed by dozens of others. Then the panic began among thousands of protesters who were leaving the Tunnel des Facultes Old women, children, fell over. Some were made sick, particularly asthmatics. Tout sur lAlgerie reported that heavily-armed anti-terror police were stationed throughout the city in an attempt to intimidate protesters. On Saturday morning, a group of female protesters were arrested by police while in a cafe outside the national post office and detained at the Baraki police station. There they were forced to strip naked and were physically searched. Salahs reference to respecting property is particularly ominous given the widespread reports that government-hired thugs were used to carry out a provocation against police and provide a pretext to attack the peaceful protests on Friday. A single police vehicle, stationed without any officers nearby, was set on fire in the course of the day. The armys turn to more open repression is its response to the continued escalation of protests following the announcement of the military-backed transition process announced at the beginning of the month. Salahs speech occurred the same day as tens of thousands of university students protested in the capital, Algiers. It was the largest demonstration not occurring on a Friday. In an attempt to pre-empt a growing strike movement in the working class and demonstrations of millions of workers and young people since February 22, the military demanded the resignation of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and called for new elections, in order to preserve the rule of the regime minus its figurehead. On Tuesday, the regime announced the resignation of the chairman of the Constitutional Council, Tayib Belaiz, a longtime Bouteflika ally who had been in charge of overseeing the elections set for July 4. The continuing movement in the Algerian working class and students is part of a growing movement of strikes and working class opposition internationally. In neighboring Morocco, tens of thousands of contract teachers have been on a strike since March 3. On Monday, the education unions shut down the strike and ordered 55,000 contract teachers back to work without winning their demand for permanent positions, claiming that the return to work was only temporary. Teachers rebelled on Monday when they returned to work and were told to complete and sign documents explaining their absences during the strike. In Poland, hundreds of thousands of teachers have been on a national strike since April 8, the first since 1993, in opposition to decades of austerity imposed since the restoration of capitalism in 1989. In Sudan, the army ousted President Omar al-Bashir last Thursday in a pre-emptive coup aimed at putting an end to months of escalating strikes and protests demanding the bringing down of the regime. Within less than 48 hours, the regime announced the resignation of Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf, the military chief who had led Bashirs ouster, in an effort to end continuing mass protests. A series of other regime officials have since been removed in a bid to bring the protest movement to an end. The growing signs that the Algerian military is preparing a bloody crackdown underscore the treacherous and disastrous policies advocated by the pseudo-left Workers Party of Louise Hanoune and the Socialist Workers Party, affiliated to Frances pro-imperialist New Anti-capitalist Party. While issuing empty appeals for the military to refrain from intervention into political affairs, Hanoune, who has functioned as a loyal opposition for Bouteflika for decades, has sought to promote illusions that the military can function as a tool for democracy. Hanoune made a statement last week declaring that the army must not be political, before adding, it is the responsibility of the army to protect our national security, our borders, and also, to respond with all possible vigilance to foreign interference. The PST published a statement on April 5 declaring that the armys role is to defend the people, its social rights and welfare, its national sovereignty, its borders and its political sovereignty. These parties fight to suppress the Marxist conception that the military and the state apparatus are the instruments of the capitalist class and will respond ruthlessly to protect their property and interests against a movement in the working class. Underlying these statements is the nationalist and anti-socialist perspective through which the pseudo-left have promoted the National Liberation Front regime for decades. Rejecting the fight to build independent socialist parties based in the working class, based on the Trotskyist theory of Permanent Revolution, the Pabloite organizations which broke from Trotskyism declared that the FLN and other bourgeois nationalist movements internationally represented a new path to socialism. Today, the PT and the PST speak on behalf of privileged sections of the middle class tied to the regime, including through their positions in the leadership of several national trade unions. They are hostile to any struggle by the working class against capitalism and crushing levels of social inequality and poverty. They promote the illusion that the regime will be pressured to make concessions and democratize itself. The way forward for the working class in Algeria lies not in appeals to the military dictatorship for democratic reforms, which will never be granted, but in the struggle to overthrow the capitalist system itself and establish socialism, through the taking of power into its own hands and the extension of its revolutionary struggle internationally. The illegal arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside Ecuadors London embassy, and the attempt by the US to extradite him on concocted conspiracy charges, are a frontal assault on freedom of the press. The Trump administration, with the support of the Democrats, and US allies including Britain and Australia, is seeking to establish a precedent that criminalises genuine investigative journalism, including the publication of classified material exposing government illegality. This is nothing less than an attempt to abolish the function of a genuine free press, established over centuries of struggle against despotism. The attacks on Assange are opposed by masses of workers, students and young people around the world. Corporate media outlets, however, have responded to Assanges arrest by escalating their protracted campaign of slanders and lies against him. They have adapted themselves to the bogus US charges against Assange, with many alleging that he is not a journalist and that WikiLeaks merely dumps material it receives online. Australian journalist Peter Greste, for instance, wrote within hours of Assanges arrest: To be clear, Julian Assange is not a journalist, and WikiLeaks is not a news organisation. Such individuals and media organisations only demonstrate that they are the servile mouthpieces of governments, intelligence agencies and the corporate elite. Speaking for the most affluent layers of the upper-middle class, they are no less hostile than Assanges persecutors to the publication of material that threatens the status quo. In reality, Assanges record as a journalist is unparalleled in the contemporary period. As world-renowned investigative journalist John Pilger told a Socialist Equality Party rally in June, 2018: No investigative journalism in my lifetime can equal the importance of what WikiLeaks has done in calling rapacious power to account. When a full record of WikiLeaks investigative exposures is published, it will span volumes. Julian Assange in 2006 In a 2006 essay, written shortly after the founding of WikiLeaks, Assange, then the publishers editor-in-chief, explained some of the conceptions underlying the project. He wrote: Authoritarian regimes create forces which oppose them by pushing against a peoples will to truth, love and self-realization. Plans which assist authoritarian rule, once discovered, induce further resistance. Hence such schemes are concealed by successful authoritarian powers until resistance is futile or outweighed by the efficiencies of naked power. In August, 2007, WikiLeaks published the secret report of a Kenyan government investigation into official corruption. The document, produced in 2004, revealed that previous US-backed President Daniel Arap Moi and his closest associates had looted the impoverished countrys economy to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Its publication sparked mass anger and impacted on the Kenyan national election held in late 2007. In November 2007, WikiLeaks published a 2003 copy of Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta, outlining official US army policy at its brutal Guantanamo Bay prison, where individuals have been illegally detained after rendition operations. The document indicated that the US was preventing the Red Cross from accessing some of the prisoners, a claim the government had previously denied. In February 2008, WikiLeaks released records of the Cayman Islands branch of Swiss bank Julius Baer. The material, detailing the accounts of 2,000 corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals, including 40 politicians, resulted in allegations of tax avoidance on a vast scale. The bank responded by suing WikiLeaks and securing an injunction in the US which took down its main website. The decision was subsequently overturned on appeal by a judge, who cited the freedom of the press provisions in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Swiss prosecutors charged and jailed Rolf Elmer, a bank manager who was the source of the material. During 2008, WikiLeaks also published exposures of the extreme right-wing British National Party, and material on the Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The US response to WikiLeaks early publications was swift and brutal. A secret memo, issued by the Cyber Counter-intelligence Assessments Branch of the US Defence Department on March 8, 2008, detailed a plan to destroy the organisation. It was headlined: Wikileaks.orgAn Online Reference to Foreign, Intelligence Services, Insurgents, or Terrorist Groups? The document called for measures to undermine the feeling of trust that is WikiLeaks centre of gravity, including through threats of exposure [and] criminal prosecution. In 2009, the number of WikiLeaks publications expanded dramatically. In January, the organisation published intercepts of the phone conversations of Peruvian businessmen and politicians implicated in a corruption scandal relating to oil contracts the previous year. In the middle of that year, it released official Iranian reports into a major nuclear accident at the countrys Natanz nuclear facility the previous year. The details of the disaster, which occurred amid stepped-up US and Israeli war threats against Iran, led some to suspect that the accident may have been caused by a malicious computer virus originating from Western intelligence agencies. Other publications exposed the transfer of vast sums of money from Icelandic banks to their executives and the writing off of major debts on the eve of the countrys 2008 financial crisis; a British Ministry of Defence document outlining measures to prevent leaks; evidence of corporate dumping of toxic material in the Ivory Coast; documents relating to the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the list of websites banned by the Australian government. The latter included news and political sites, exposing the fraudulent character of government claims that the blacklist only targeted child pornography and other illicit content. In February 2010, the year that WikiLeaks came to the attention of millions of people around the world, the organisation published a US diplomatic cable dubbed Reykjavik 13. It was the first material released, which had been leaked by the courageous US army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. The document detailed previously hidden information about the diplomatic dispute, known as Icesave, that followed Icelands financial crisis. Landsbanki, one of the countrys three largest banks, went bankrupt in 2008. With the national financial authorities rejecting a bailout, over 340,000 retail deposits from the UK and other European nations lost an estimated 6.7 billion in saving, triggering diplomatic recriminations, and a coordinated attempt to mitigate public anger. In April, WikiLeaks published the infamous Collateral Murder video, showing a July 2007 US army helicopter airstrike in Baghdad. It documented US soldiers firing on unarmed civilians. The brutal attack resulted in up to 18 deaths, including two Reuters journalists. After their initial attack, the US forces shot at a group of people who had come to collect the bodies and tend to the wounded. Collateral Murder The footage, which included the murderous comments of the US soldiers, shocked masses of people, revealing, in graphic detail the criminal character of the US neo-colonial occupation. It was an indictment, not only of the US and its allies, but also of the corporate press, which had promoted the lies about weapons of mass destruction used as the pretext for the illegal invasion, before embedding themselves with the US and allied military, and presenting the brutal occupation as a liberation. The US government responded by launching a witch-hunt throughout the military, culminating in the May 2010 arrest of Manning, after she was entrapped by an FBI informant named Adrian Lamo. In June, WikiLeaks began publication of the Afghan war logs, comprising over 90,000 incident and intelligence reports from the US military, from January 2004 to December 2009. The organisation partnered with the New York Times, the Guardian and other prominent corporate outlets in the release. The documents detailed at least 195 civilian deaths at the hands of NATO troops, which had previously been hidden from the public. They exposed the existence of a secret black unit within the US military, tasked with illegally assassinating suspected Taliban leaders and opponents of the occupation. The Guardian drew attention to other horrific incidents, including a 2007 strafing of a bus of children by French troops, which wounded eight; a US patrol machine-gun attack on civilians in a bus which killed 15 passengers the same year; and a 2007 revenge mortar attack on a village by Polish troops that decimated a wedding party. Many other similar events were documented. The logs exposed the fraudulent character of claims that the US was winning, pointing to the mass opposition of Afghan people to the occupation. In October 2010, WikiLeaks began publishing more than 400,000 war logs from Iraq, covering the same period as the Afghan documents. The Iraq logs documented the deaths of almost 110,000 people, including more than 66,000 people labelled by the US military as civilians. This included 15,000 civilian deaths, which were known to the US authorities, but publicly suppressed. They detailed brutal US military attacks on unarmed civilians at checkpoints and elsewhere. The publication established that the US army was actively cultivating sectarian Iraqi militias that functioned as death squads for the US-led occupation. The logs record incidents of torture by US troops, and their Iraqi proxies, and the refusal of military high command to even investigate such war crimes. In November 2010, WikiLeaks, again partnering with prominent media outlets, began publishing more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables, which had been leaked by Manning. The documents provided an unprecedented exposure of the daily criminality, intrigues and conspiracies that dominate official politics within each country and on a global scale. A WSWS perspective on November 30, cited some of the initial revelations contained in the documents, including: * A January 2010 cable describing a conversation between General David Petraeus and the corrupt dictator of Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh in which a deal was hatched for the Yemeni regime to take responsibility for air strikes secretly being carried out by the US military. Just weeks earlier a US cruise missile had devastated a Yemeni hamlet, leaving 55 people dead, at least 41 of them women and children. * State Department cables instructing US diplomats to gather personal information ranging from credit card and frequent flyer account numbers to Internet passwords, work schedules and even DNA samples on officials of foreign governments and the United Nations. * A cable describing how the US government worked to intimidate Germany into dropping arrest warrants against CIA agents involved in the kidnapping, detention and torture of an innocent German citizen. * An October 2009 cable from the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa recognising that the overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup. The cable documents Washingtons support and cover-up for that coup and the repression that followed. The cables uncovered political conspiracies and Washingtons illegal intrigues in countries all over the world. In Australia, for instance, they established that a cabal within the Labor Party, which had removed sitting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in June 2010 had been composed of protected sources of the US embassy. The cables documented the intense hostility of US officials to Rudds proposals that Washington make a limited accommodation to Chinas rise in the Asia-Pacific to head off a full scale war. They made plain that his removal was aimed at integrating Australia, ever more directly, into a massive US military build-up directed against Beijing. Other cables exposed neo-colonial operations in Asia, Africa and throughout the Middle East. Cables in the tranche have been submitted as evidence in hundreds of court cases, including those in which oppressed peoples have sought to challenge their persecutors. Cables from Tunisia documented intimate US knowledge of the gross corruption of the Washington-backed regime of President Ben Ali. They demonstrated that Ali had the support of the US, as he and his family were looting the countrys wealth, and that the two countries had collaborated in abrogating the rights of Tunisian citizens detained in Guantanamo Bay. In January 2011, less than two months after the documents were released, a mass movement of Tunisian workers and youth toppled the dictatorship, which had been in power for decades. Foreign Affairs magazine, which has close ties to the US state apparatus, summed up the fears of the ruling elite, with a featured article titled The First WikiLeaks Revolution? It stated: we might also count Tunisia as the first time that WikiLeaks pushed people over the brink. Within weeks, the Egyptian revolution, involving millions of workers, had broken out. It had been directly inspired by the Tunisian uprising. The US-backed dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak also featured in diplomatic cables, documenting its corruption and collaboration with the CIA in the torture and illegal interrogation of political prisoners. The US response to the publication of the diplomatic cables was hysterical. Senior US politicians denounced Assange as a terrorist and called for his assassination. The Obama administration prosecuted Chelsea Manning on counts carrying an unprecedented sentence and impaneled a secret Grand Jury to concoct charges against WikiLeaks. The Swedish authorities, undoubtedly acting in concert with the US, launched a bogus investigation into sexual misconduct against Assange. The immense persecution, aided by the Labor government in Australia, eventually compelled him to seek political asylum in Londons Ecuador embassy in June, 2012. Assange speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 Despite the restrictions imposed upon him, Assange continued to lead the work of WikiLeaks. In April 2011, WikiLeaks had published the Guantanamo Files, documenting the illegal imprisonment of at least 150 Afghan and Pakistani civilians, who the US authorities knew had no connection to terrorism. They included a 14-year-old boy and an 89-year-old man. Beginning in February 2012, WikiLeaks released over 5.5 million internal documents from Stratfor, a US-based company. The documents showed that the corporation operated as a private intelligence agency, including by spying on Occupy Wall Street protesters and environmental activists. Between 2012 and 2015, WikiLeaks releases included the Syria files; 1.7 million US diplomatic files from the 1970s; documents exposing the activities of 90 major surveillance companies; the hidden negotiations surrounding the establishment of the US-dominated Trans-Pacific Partnership; and more than 500,000 cables from Saudi Arabian embassies around the world. In June and July 2015, WikiLeaks published a series of documents showing that the US National Security Agency had spied on French President Francois Hollande and his two predecessors, along with the German and Brazilian governments. The revelations were yet another exposure of the repeated violations of international law by the US government. In July 2016, WikiLeaks began publishing leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee, demonstrating a plot, in contravention of the organisations own rules, to rig the Democratic Party presidential primary against self-declared socialist Bernie Sanders and in favour of Hillary Clinton. On October 7, 2016, WikiLeaks published a trove of emails sent by John Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign. As with the DNC leaks, the information was highly newsworthy. The emails included transcripts of speeches given by Hillary Clinton to various bank and corporate forums, where she boasted of her support for Wall Street, commitment to the interests of the financial oligarchy and willingness to launch further illegal wars. The response was to accuse Assange and WikiLeaks, without any evidence, of acting as stooges of the Russian regime of President Vladimir Putin. Media outlets suppressed the fact that WikiLeaks had published hundreds of thousands of documents from Russia, and sought to downplay or ignore the exposure of Clinton as a militarist representative of the ruling elite. The hysterical anti-Russian campaign has been used to justify the censorship of anti-war and progressive websites, including WikiLeaks, the World Socialist Web Site and many others, and to push for an escalation of militarism and war. In March, 2017, WikiLeaks began publishing Vault 7, the most extensive exposure of the criminal methods of the CIA in more than 30 years. The documents detailed the activities of a division within the agency, involved in hacking computers all over the world. They branded the CIA as the biggest purveyor of malicious computer viruses in the world. They also demonstrated that the division had developed techniques to hack into computer systems and leave tell-tale markers, attributing the attacks to other countries, including Russia and Iran, Vault 7 revealed that the agency was spying on people through smart televisions and other household devices. The CIA was also seeking to develop capabilities to remotely take control of the computer systems in modern cars. Such abilities could be used in assassination operations. The publication of the Vault 7 documents, led to a major escalation of Washingtons pursuit of Assange, culminating in his illegal expulsion from the Ecuadorian embassy and arrest by British police, aimed at facilitating his extradition to the US. Assange illegally arrested by the British police on April 11 Assange and WikiLeaks are publishers with a unique and unparalleled record. As Nick Beams, a longstanding leader of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), declared at the SEPs Sydney rally to defend Assange on April 12: Julian Assange has performed his duty as a journalist to workers, to youth, to the mass of ordinary people around the world. Now, we are obliged to repay that debt which we owe him. To rally, to organise, to agitate, to develop a movement in his defence. And not just because of whats hes done, but because of what it means for us. Because that defence of democratic rights is integral to the defence of the rights of the working class as a whole, the world over. His cause is our cause. His defence is our defence. Authorised by James Cogan for the Socialist Equality Party, Suite 906, 185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000 The following statement in defense of Julian Assange was issued by the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Rank-and-File Committees. We call on all workers to demand and fight for the immediate freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has been brutally seized from the Ecuadorean embassy in the UK, where he has sought refuge for more than seven years. He now faces the danger of being transferred to the US, where he could be jailed indefinitely, tortured in solitary confinement or even given the death penalty on bogus charges of espionage. The attack on Assange is an attack the entire working class! He needs our support! Assange is not a criminal, but a hero. He has been hunted down and persecuted for exposing war crimes, including the slaughter of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan by US military forces. The real criminals are those who launched these wars, including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and leading political figures in both the Democratic and Republican parties. No one has been held accountable for wars that have led to the deaths of at least one million Iraqis and Afghans. Yet it is Julian Assange and former US Army analyst Chelsea Manning who are in jail for telling the truth! The targets of the government vendetta are not just Assange, Manning and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Also in the crosshairs are the hundreds of millions of workers and young people in the US and around the world who have been awakened by WikiLeaks exposures and are determined to know the truth. Assange is a class war prisoner. The capitalist ruling elite is facing a rising tide of social unrest, from the teachers strikes in the US and Poland and the upheaval of maquiladora sweatshop workers in Mexico, to the Yellow Vest protests in France and the revolutionary upheavals in Algeria and Sudan. The rich are trembling in their boots. They know their demands for endless givebacks, greater social inequality and more war are opposed by the vast majority. They know their media outlets are discredited. They know that their politicians are hated. So they are responding with increasingly authoritarian methods to defend their wealth and power. Freedom of speech, of expression, of the press, of assembly, are under attack everywhere. President Macron of France has dispatched troops against protesters. In Sri Lanka, the government is implementing anti-terrorist laws against its political opponents. In the US, Germany and other countries, the military and fascistic forces are being mobilized against immigrants and refugees. This has always been the purpose of frameups and state repression of political opponents. One hundred years ago, on April 13, 1919, the famous socialist and labor organizer Eugene Debs was thrown in prison for violating the Espionage Act of 1917, the same anti-democratic law that Trump and the Democrats now plan to use against Assange. Debs sin was giving a speech in Canton, Ohio opposing President Wilsons plans to enter World War I. While the war would serve the interests of the Wall Street gentry, Debs said, it would be the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, while never having a voice in either declaring war or making peace. These autocrats, these tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, Debs said, were called patriots, while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victimsthey are the disloyalists and traitors. All workers have an immense stake in defending Assange. The attempt to railroad him to jail or worse coincides with the efforts to censor oppositional voices on the internet, including the World Socialist Web Site, and promote only government-backed news sources like the New York Times and Washington Post. The Democrats have peddled the lie that Assange colluded with the Russians to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 president elections. This is being done to label all opponents of the US government as Russian agents and to crack down on social media, which workers rely on to communicate and coordinate their struggles, including the wave of teacher strikes over the last 14 months. By making a brutal example of Assange, the Trump administration and the Democrats think they can silence all opponents of war, dictatorship and social inequality. They want to deprive workers of the knowledge they need to organize resistance and end their subjugation. Well, the workers will have their own say in the matter! The Steering Committee of the Coalition of Rank-and-File Committees, which is made up of autoworkers, teachers, logistics and other workers from around the country, was established last year to spearhead the fight to build new organizations of class struggle, independent of the corrupt unions. We are fighting to unite all workers against the attacks on jobs and living standards and to oppose the austerity and social inequality produced by capitalism. Democracy is not only important for workers to fight for their social rights, but the vigilance of workers, in the end, is the most decisive factor in the survival of democracy. Workers must say with one voice that democratic rights are non-negotiable! We call on workers to take a stand and join the international campaign demanding the immediate release of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. Around 400 peaceful climate change protesters have been arrested in the UK over the past three days. According to the Metropolitan Police Service, 290 protesters at Oxford Circus, Marble Arch, Piccadilly Circus and Parliament Square were taken into custody in London on Monday and Tuesday. Protests in the Scottish capital Edinburgh led to 29 arrests. Activists have said they are willing to be arrested and go to prison, acting in the non-violent pacifist tradition of the Suffragettes, Gandhis independence movement in India, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1960s and Martin Luther King in the U.S. civil rights movement. On Wednesday, police switched off some of Londons publicly available webcams and the London Undergrounds wi-fi system and flooded stations with officers in response to announcements that Participants will peacefully break the law in order to stop the Tube and then will wait to be arrested. Superintendent Matt Allingham from British Transport Police said, We have robust plans in place to help us respond to any potential protest activity targeting Londons rail network, including the London Underground. In the event, just a couple of protesters glued themselves to the top of a train in the Canary Wharf financial district. But the protests led to road closures and the shutdown of 55 bus routes, affecting half a million people. A group of protesters chained themselves to the fence outside of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyns house. On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police said a designated senior police officer had declared that all protests had to be confined to the traffic island at Marble Arch in west London and all other protests ended, under Section 14 of the 1986 Public Order Act. The Public Order Act was introduced by the Margaret Thatcher-led Conservative government in response to the year-long miners strike (1984-1985). As well as creating many anti-democratic public order offences, it allows the police to restrict or prohibit protests and marches if they think serious public disorder will result. This week, there have been no serious incidents of public disorder except when the police arrived in large numbers and swooped in to arrest people. Despite police surrounding their targets, sticking video cameras in their face and dragging them to police vans, there has been no violence from the demonstrators. No one was spared from the arrogant demands of the police. At Oxford Circus, police officers threatened anyone whom they suspected of participating in unauthorised protests with arrest. One shop worker who had stepped out to see the demonstration during his lunch break was warned, If you stay in this area you risk being arrested. When he asked why he couldnt listen to what the speakers were saying, he was asked, Are you refusing to leave and go to Marble Arch? The officer then said, I believe you are participating and I am asking you to leave. Other local workers, journalists and tourists were treated in a similar manner. Scores more were arrested yesterday, creating a situation where the police were running out of vans and holding cells in London. More and more demonstrators turned up to take the place of those who had been arrested. The UK protests were part of global protests held by the Extinction Rebellion (XR) group in more than 80 cities across 33 countries this week, according to the organisers. XR was launched in October last year by a small group of environmentalists called Rising Up. The launch was supported by an open letter from 100 academics, NGO leaders, authors and politicians from the UK, US, Australia, France, New Zealand, Ghana and Benin, including Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Rowan Williams, a former archbishop of Canterbury, former Ecology Party leader Sir Jonathan Porrit, Labour Party MP David Drew and Green Party MP and former Green leader Caroline Lucas. Since then, XR has carried out various civil disobedience campaigns, occupations and media events, including pickets of this years London Fashion Week and naked demonstrators gluing themselves to the perspex barrier in the House of Commons public gallery during a Brexit debate. The same pressure politics strategy is evident in this weeks XR leaflets, which are devoted to three demands, pleading with the Government to: * 1. Tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change. * 2. Act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025. * 3. Create and be led by a national Citizens Assembly on climate and ecological justice. XR was supported by the Guardian newspaper and its columnists, including George Monbiot and Owen Jones. Labour Party Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, reacting to a speech by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney in which Carney said the banks faced an existential risk from global warming, tweeted, Mark Carneys intervention is breakthrough moment. In addition to rewriting government spending criteria, well now consult on changing the Bank of Englands mandate to reflect the climate change emergency highlighted by #ExtinctionRebellion demo. On the days events, protester Finbarr told a World Socialist Web Site reporter: I agree climate change is probably the worst catastrophe facing mankind. People are showing they are fed up with capitalism and want to do something about it. But I am worried about the tactics being used by Extinction Rebellion. They are talking about assemblies, but how are they going to operate? I was involved with the Occupy London movement in 2011 and we had a lot of stuff from self-appointed people who came from nowhere to spout on about grass roots democracy, horizontalism and assemblies. But what happened? People should ask themselves what happened to Occupy. Despite ever more urgent scientific warnings, international emissions agreements, global warming targets and protocols are ignored by governments and corporations alike. Yet XR continues to claim that local and national governments and business leaders can be pressured into making piecemeal changes that will alleviate environmental collapse. In regard to XR, the WSWS has stated: Only the most extraordinary, rationally planned mobilisation of humanitys immense productive, technical and scientific capacities can hope to overcome the challenges of rapidly rising sea levels, accelerating CO2 emissions, loss of biodiversity, collapse of food chains and desertification. But production under capitalism is directed solely to expand the private wealth of billionaires, regardless of the social or environmental cost. Moreover, climate change by its very nature demands a global response in which production is subordinated to the needs of the worlds working population. But the world is divided into competing nation states, each dominated by the selfish interests of rival groups of super-rich profiteers. Each continually seeks strategic trade and military advantage over its rivals in the struggle to dominate the worlds market and resources, and each continually seeks new means of extracting more from the working class. As it has twice in the 20th century, this ferocious conflict ends ultimately in world war, threatening the nuclear destruction of the planet. Climate change, therefore, confronts humanity with the need for the socialist reorganisation of society on a world scale and the abolition of the nation-state system. Chinese authorities intensified their crackdown on labour activists and leftist students last month, arresting journalists sympathetic to the plight of workers and critical of the government. This followed the detention of students and workers, 44 of whom are still in custody, for their involvement in a struggle by Jasic Technology workers last year to form an independent trade union. On March 20, Wei Zhili and Ke Chengbing were taken into custody. They are editors of New Generation, which reported on the conditions of the millions of internal migrant workers in China. Weis laptop and mobile phone were confiscated. Yang Zhengjun, the publications editor-in-chief, had been detained already on January 8. Amnesty International reported that a police officer had told Weis father, who was present when the arrest was made, that his son would be sent to a detention centre for re-education. The officer accused Wei of not having a proper job although graduating from a good school, and being brainwashed to engage in anti-communist and counter-revolutionary activities that disturb the social order. Weis wife, Zheng Churan, an activist for womens rights, told the Financial Times: My husband just wants to help workers, he hasnt done anything wrong but still he has been detained and lost his freedom, its devastating. She said she was worried the police would use abusive methods to force him to admit that he did something wrong. A Guangdong-based activist told Newsgram.com that the New Generation editors were likely detained for assisting migrant workers suffering pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease, who were seeking compensation. Seven hundred pneumoconiosis sufferers from Hunan launched a complaint last November in Shenzhen, the activist said. Their treatment hadnt worked, and they had spent a lot of money on it. If each person was awarded 100,000 yuan ($US14,840) that would be 30 million yuan in total, so thats why the Shenzhen authorities detained [the editors] in a hurry. Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement: The arrest of Wei Zhili is just the latest example of how frightened Chinas leadership is of journalists who expose the truth about labor conditions in China. Wei and his colleagues should be released and hailed as heroes who expose the truth about labor conditions in China. Authorities confirmed on March 26 that Wei was being held in detention at Guangzhou, the provincial capital. He has no access to legal support. The China Labour Bulletin (CLB) reported that on March 27 the police barred a group of nearly 100 workers at the Sangzhi railway station who tried to travel to Shenzhen to stage a protest to express their solidarity with Wei. Gu Fuxiang, 52, a father of two, who was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis in 2009, told CLB: In 2017, I was stage 2 patient. Earlier this year I was found to have reached stage 3 I only have one lifetime, and even if I fear reprisals, I just simply cannot stop fighting for a fair deal. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) organised a small protest outside Beijings liaison office on March 26 and marched through the city to demand the release of all Jasic workers and detained labour activists. On the same day, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) picketed the Chinese embassy in Seoul to oppose the detentions. On March 28, the Philippine trade union organization SENTRO demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy in Manila. SENTRO general secretary Josua Mata condemned the steadily widening repression of Chinese workers and demanded their immediate release. In a separate arrest on March 21, Chai Xiaoming, a former editor of Red Reference and a former Peking University lecturer, was detained for subversion of the state and held under residential surveillance at a designated location. According to Radio Free Asia, the reason for the arrest appears to be the publication of a recent lecture by Jin Canrong, a former lecturer in international relations at Renmin University, suggesting that China could take a different path to modernisationa veiled criticism of the Chinese government. Red Reference was forced to shut down last year, after police raided its office and the office of another labour news outlet, Epoch Pioneer. The raid was carried out simultaneously with the crack down on Jasic Solidarity Group supporters on August 24. These web sites had given media coverage of the Jasic struggle. Their documents and computers were confiscated. Seven editors of Epoch Pioneer and Shang Kai of Red Reference were arrested and detained in an unknown location. Later Shang was granted bail under condition that he not appear in public. According to the CPJ, at least 47 journalists were in detention in China at the end of 2018. The Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) stated that the figure was at least 60. The actual number could be far higher. Amid a slowing economy and growing signs of working-class unrest, the Chinese regime is using its police-state apparatus to clamp down on any opposition. It fears that the isolated strikes and protests over wages, conditions and jobs could transform into a broader political movement against the government. As a result, its crackdown is directed particularly at left-leaning students and journalists. At the same time, under conditions of heavy state censorship, the sources of information about the arrests are limited. The above reports are from publications and organisations that in one way or another follow the line from Washington and must be treated with caution. In the case of Radio Free Asia, it is a propaganda arm of the US State Department. Washington has no interest in defending the rights of journalists in China, other than to provide further fuel for anti-China propaganda as it intensifies its confrontation with Beijing and prepares for war. The Trump administration is currently seeking the extradition of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, to face imprisonment and potentially the death penalty for exposing the crimes of American imperialism. Chinese workers, students and journalists should certainly be released. However, organisations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, which describes the Chinese editors as heroes and calls for them to be immediately freed, do not apply the same standard to Assange. On Assanges arrest, CPJ issued a mealy-mouthed statement declaring it was deeply concerned, but did not call for his immediate release and certainly did not hail him as a hero. Three construction workers died in separate on-the-job accidents at building sites in New York City last week. Headlines in the local media referred to a rash of accidents. Whatever term one uses, the fact is construction deaths in New Yorks ultra-lucrative real estate industry have been trending upward over the past two decades, along with the enormous fortunes of developers and speculators. In the early morning hours of Saturday, April 13, 34-year-old Gregory Echevarria was killed as a massive 7.5-ton counterweight on a crane fell and crushed him. The young worker was declared dead at the scene by emergency workers. Echevarria, who survived multiple tours of duty as a US soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaves behind four children, including a three-month-old son. Two other workers suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the accident, which occurred in the Soho section of lower Manhattan. According to the New York Post, the crane company that employed Echevarria, Cranes Express, had a history of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations and one other fatality involving one of its cranes. Three days before, on Wednesday, April 10, Erik Mendoza, 23, fell from the roof of a 13-story building at 1 Pierrepont St in Brooklyn, where he was replacing bricks under the buildings water tower. Mendoza was pronounced dead at the scene. The young worker had been on the job for less than a week, local media reported. On Monday, April 8, 51-year-old Nelson Salinas was killed while working on a construction project repairing a building facade on the eastside of midtown Manhattan. A stone slab struck him in the head while he was working on scaffolding seven stories about the street. Passersby were horrified to see the severely injured worker dangling from the scaffolding, repeatedly shouting in Spanish, Im going to fall. Firefighters climbed ladders to reach Salinas, who was unconscious by the time he was pulled inside the building. He reportedly died in the emergency room. According to one published report, police said they believed the scaffolding at the construction site had failed. The New York Times reported that it was not clear whether Salinas was wearing a hard hat or a harness. The lives of these three workers were cut off prematurely. But the deaths and injuries of construction workers are just part of doing business for the giant real estate developers, construction companies and financial speculators who are cashing in from the building boom in New York City. This is the same gluttonous layer that produced Donald Trump. Construction is New York Citys deadliest industry, according to statistics published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 69 construction deaths in New York state in 2017, the latest figure available from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH). Fatalities in the state have increased 39 percent in the past five years, and hit a 14-year high in 2016. Falls are the largest single cause of construction-related deaths. In New York City and state falls account for nearly 50 percent of construction fatalities. Nationally, a record 887 American workers were killed in fatal falls in 2017, according to a new report from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. This represents a 4.48 percent increase from the 849 fatal falls reported in 2016. One of the key findings of the NYCOSH report is that in 2017, 17 percent of New York worker fatalities were Hispanic or Latino, while these workers only make up an estimated 10 percent of the workforce. This underscores the fact that undocumented immigrants are often fearful of reporting dangerous working conditions or otherwise speaking out against dangerous working conditions which put profit over human life. The NYCOSH report notes that unionized workers have a lower fatality rate than non-union workers, and attributes this to training, without further analysis. But conditions in the unionized construction trades have steadily declined over the past several decades, as the unions have collaborated with employers to extract greater productivity, and thus profits, from workers. The supposed strategy of the unions in response to the increase in workers deaths has been to appeal to the Democrats to pass measures, such as Carlos law which calls for higher fines for employers in instances of worker deaths. To date, the unions have been unsuccessful in getting the bill passed in a state dominated by the Democratic Party machine. Workers should have no illusions that unions or Democrats will defend their interests. On the contrary; local Democrats have deep ties to the real estate industry. Later this month the trade unions will promote the annual Hard Hat Mass at St Patricks Cathedral to honor workers killed on construction sites. This tradition began a number of years ago when construction deaths started rising rapidly. While the sincerity of those who will attend out of respect for their fallen brethren is genuine, and a remembrance of the fallen certainly appropriate, the event serves as a grim reminder of the fact that the unions have abandoned any real struggle against the corporate and financial interests who benefit from this carnage. As the construction-related deaths have risen over the last two decades so have the immense profits generated by the real estate industry. The New York Building Congress has predicted that construction activity in the city hit a record-setting $61.8 billion in 2018, a 25 percent increase from 2017. The organization projected that spending for the three-year period would reach $177 billion, with 2019 and 2020 spending levels at $59.3 billion and $56.4 billion, respectively. At 570 Broome street, the building where Gregory Echevarria was killed, the lowest-priced unit listed in the development is a 723-square-foot one-bedroom apartment with an asking price of $1.4 million. The average price of a unit is $2.7 million. Construction workers have absolutely no hope of living in the buildings they labor to construct under such conditions. Such prices in New York are typical for new construction. As the decade-long speculative building boom in the city continues, so does the growth of the homeless population. More apartments should alleviate homelessness, but under capitalism, as more high-priced apartments are built, more people are left living on the streets. Thousands of Ecuadorian workers and youth marched through Quitos historic colonial center Wednesday demanding the downfall of the countrys President Lenin Moreno and freedom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The demonstration, one of the largest since Moreno took office in 2017, was met with brutal repression. The security forces unleashed mounted police, attack dogs and tear gas against the marchers as they came within two blocks of the Plaza de la Independencia, the site of the Carondelet presidential palace, which was ringed by a heavy cordon of police and armed troops. Several people were wounded in the police attack, including two news photographers, and at least six were arrested. Protesters carried signs demanding Free Assange, and many wore Assange masks. Others carried placards with photos and drawings depicting Assanges cat, mocking the Moreno government, whose ambassador in London had absurdly accused the pet of spying on the embassy staff. The crowds chanted, Moreno, hypocrite and traitor, the people reject you! The trigger for the demonstration, called under the slogan not one less right [#niunderechomenos] was the Moreno governments order to throw open the doors to the London embassy, where Assange had been granted asylum since 2012, to a police snatch squad which dragged him away to a British jail cell. As a result, he now faces the threat of rendition to the US to face trial for daring to publish documents exposing the war crimes and global conspiracies of the US government. Organizers of the march, which included prominently the party Revolucion Ciudadana which supports the former president and Moreno opponent Rafael Correa, said that as many as 20,000 took part in the protest. Inscribed on the banners carried on the march were slogans denouncing Moreno as a traitor and world disgrace for his action against Assange. One prominent banner read, Assange is an Ecuadorian, a reference to the citizenship that was granted to the Australian-born journalist in 2017 and summarily and extra-legally stripped from him by the Moreno government in conjunction with handing him over to the British police. Another warned Moreno that Assange will be your nightmare. Assange was the trigger for the protest, said Edwin Jarrin, the former spokesman for Ecuadors Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control, who participated in the march, which he said was also an expression of collective indignation over the attack on basic rights as well as mass layoffs and neo-liberal policies of the Moreno government. As part of a deal signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for $4.5 billion in credits, the Moreno government is implementing a series of structural adjustment measures that have included the gutting of labor laws, the layoffs of over 10,000 public employees, attacks on pensions and sharp cuts to government services. Moreno served as vice-president under Correa and was his hand-picked successor. While Correa cast himself as part of the Pink Tide and Bolivarian revolution that saw bourgeois populist nationalist governments take office in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and elsewhere, he himself had initiated moves toward rapprochement with Washington as the commodity boom ended. He also took the first measures to silence Assange, cutting off his internet access after the WikiLeaks release of emails exposing the Democratic Party leaderships attempts to rig the primaries against Bernie Sanders and the closed-door speeches given by Hillary Clinton pledging to defend the interests of Wall Street. Once in office, Moreno violently accelerated this turn to the right, with his betrayal of Assange to the British and US authorities culminating an ever closer embrace of Washingtons foreign policy and its military and intelligence apparatus, which has been invited back into Ecuador. This right-wing turn, combined with escalating attacks on the rights and social conditions of the Ecuadorian working class, has inevitably given rise to increasingly repressive measures by the Moreno government that are bound up with the case of Julian Assange. In advance of Tuesdays march, the Moreno government had sought the arrest of two of its principal organizers, the countrys former foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, and Virgilio Hernandez, a former legislator, on trumped-up charges. It has also jailed Ola Bini, a Swedish citizen residing in Ecuador, who was arrested on charges of hacking public and private phones and social media accounts on the sole evidence that he was a friend of Assange and had visited him on a number of occasions at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Bini, who has resided in Ecuador for five years, was working for a Quito-based center that specialized in internet security, encryption and the expansion of free software. His parents, who arrived in Quito on Monday, issued a public statement insisting that their son is innocent of what they have accused him; our son has not attacked the safety of any system, private or public. They told the media that friends of their son all over the world were concerned over his arrest in Ecuador, and that they had come to bring him home. The frame-up of Bini is bound up with the Moreno governments retaliation against the exposure of the presidents and his familys involvement in a massive corruption scandal involving the funneling of millions of dollars in bribe money from a Chinese construction contractor into an offshore shell company named after the presidents three daughters. The publication of the so-called INA papers exposing this corruption was widely reported and prompted the initiation of a congressional investigation in Ecuador before WikiLeaks called attention to the scandal on its Twitter account last month. The Moreno government seized on the tweet to accuse WikiLeaks and Julian Assange personallydespite the intense surveillance and conditions approaching that of solitary confinement in the London embassyof having hacked the phones and social media accounts of Moreno and his family to secure the evidence of corruption. Moreno cast himself as a victim of an invasion of privacy, expressing his ire over the publication of personal photographs, including one of himself eating a lobster dinner in bed at the same time that his government was ordering massive layoffs and austerity measures. During his trip to Washington this week in the immediate aftermath of the handing over of Assange to the British police, Moreno participated in a public forum at the Inter-American Dialogue, a big-business-controlled Washington think tank, where he repeated his claim that he was justified in inviting the British police to drag Assange out of Ecuadors London embassy because he had turned the diplomatic facility into a center of espionage. This ridiculous claim, under conditions in which Assange was himself subjected to 24/7 surveillance, dovetails with the position of the Trump administration, put forward by former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that WikiLeaks constitutes a non-state hostile intelligence service and is designed to facilitate his prosecution in the US under the Espionage Act. While Moreno is claiming overwhelming popular support for his betrayal of Assange, the mass protest in Quito expressed broad sentiments of support for the courageous journalist and the anger of millions of Ecuadorians that their government has become a pawn of US imperialist interests, prepared to carry out the filthiest betrayal in return for potential debt relief and trade deals. The thousands who marched in Quito on Tuesday speak for millions of workers and youth all over the world who feel disgust and outrage over the jailing of Julian Assange in the UK and the threat that the Trump administration will illegally seize the WikiLeaks founder and subject him to detention, possible torture and even death for exposing the war crimes and diplomatic conspiracies of the US government. The resurgence of the struggles of the working class on a worldwide scale is the foundation for the mobilization of mass support for the defense of democratic rights and the freeing of Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and others jailed for exposing and opposing the crimes of imperialism. In the latest outrage against the human rights of asylum seekers, US Attorney General William Barr ordered immigration judges to deny bond to all asylum seekers who are not part of family groups that include children. These asylum seekers, who have committed no crime and have passed the initial test that they have a credible fear of persecution if returned to their home countries, would potentially face indefinite detention while awaiting a final decision on their asylum requests. The decision takes effect in 90 days, so that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may conduct the necessary operational planning for additional detention and parole decisions, Barr wrote. The order could affect tens of thousands of asylum seekers a month, according to figures released by Customs and Border Protection. Of the more than 100,000 immigrants detained in March, some 60,000 were unaccompanied minors or family groups. Of the remaining 40,000, the majority were asylum seekers without children who are targeted by the attorney generals order. The order also suggests the direction of administration policy for all asylum seekers, including children and families, who under current procedure cannot be held in custody longer than 20 days. The Trump administration is discussing how to overturn this limit, established by the Flores decision, a court-supervised consent agreement that has been in effect for two decades. The Flores case was the basis for court rulings last summer that compelled the administration to abandon its policy of family separation for asylum seekers, imprisoning the parents while sending the children into juvenile detention or foster care. Immigrant rights group said they would make use of the 90-day period to file legal actions challenging Barrs order, which they called grossly illegal because it effectively criminalizes the act of seeking asylum, which is protected under both US and international law. Seeking asylum is a human right, not a crime, and families forced to flee for their lives shouldnt be treated like criminals, said Charanya Krishnaswami, advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA. Jeremy McKinney, treasurer of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) said in a statement: This is a devastating blow to those seeking protection from persecution at the US border, since far more will be held in detention. This decision further expands mandatory and prolonged detention of people who are neither dangerous nor flight risks, practices which are constitutionally suspect and a waste of taxpayer money. This administration is using detention as a sword against both due process and the humanitarian principles our nation was founded upon. Omar Jadwat, director of the Immigrants Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement: This is the Trump administrations latest assault on people fleeing persecution and seeking refuge in the United States. Our Constitution does not allow the government to lock up asylum seekers without basic due process. We'll see the administration in court. Whether the Constitution permits it or not, the US Supreme Court could well back the Trump administrations anti-democratic action. A Supreme Court ruling last year upheld a modified version of the evidently unconstitutional Muslim ban, barring visitors and refugees from seven mainly Muslim countries. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had been the most liberal appeals panel, ruling against the Muslim ban among other decisions, has been shifted to the right by the addition of several Trump nominees. The appeals court issued an order last Friday allowing the administrations policy of forcing asylum seekers who present themselves at ports of entry along the US-Mexico border to wait in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated. More than a thousand asylum seekers from Central America had been sent back to Mexico under this policy, initiated in late January, until it was halted by a federal district judge on April 8. The Ninth Circuit action stayed the lower court order, allowing the Remain in Mexico policy to go back into effect while legal proceedings continue. The order from Attorney General Barr is part of the wholesale reshaping of immigration law enforcement as Trump demands the effective end to the entry of refugees seeking asylum in the United States, defying international law in order to make a fascistic appeal to his core base of anti-immigrant bigots and nationalists. Last week, Trump forced out his Homeland Security secretary and several other officials in the agency. The White House is now reportedly targeting the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services unit of DHS, which is under the direction of a Trump loyalist, Lee Francis Cissna, but which has failed, in the view of Trump and his chief anti-immigrant adviser Stephen Miller, to crack down sufficiently. USCIS officers conduct the interviews of asylum seekers and make the initial determination about whether the applicant has a credible fear of persecution if returned to his or her home country. About 75 percent of applicants pass that initial test. The White House is pressing for a sharp reduction in this rate, but this would require overturning standards set in law by Congress. Congressional Democrats have mounted no serious opposition to the latest crackdown on immigrants. After a two-day conference of House Democrats in Leesburg, Virginia, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi emerged to brush aside Trumps tweet calling the Democrats treasonous on border policy and declaring herself still committed to an overarching immigration deal with Trump. Im not giving up on the president on this, she said. She complained that despite his talk of a national emergency, Trump has not utilized what is in that specifically to the border in the bipartisan spending bill approved in February. The right wing of the House Democrats, the New Democrat Coalition, told reporters they would support additional funding to detain larger numbers of immigrants and hire additional immigration judges to speed hearings and mass deportations. The only significant Democratic objection to Trumps immigration policy has come in response to his talk of shipping undocumented immigrants whose cases are awaiting processing to so-called sanctuary cities, which restrict local police cooperation with federal immigration agencies. Virtually all of these cities are controlled by Democratic officials. Three Democratic committee chairmen sent a joint letter Tuesday to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security seeking information on the proposal and threatening to subpoena Stephen Miller to testify about it. The letter was sent by Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Elijah Cummings, chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee. Not only does the administration lack the legal authority to transfer detainees in this manner, it is shocking that the president and senior administration officials are even considering manipulating release decisions for purely political reasons, they wrote. Such pathetic queries only encourage the vicious anti-democratic policies of the Trump administration, directed at both legal and undocumented immigrants. According to a report Monday in the Wall Street Journal, the White House is now considering collective punishment against countries whose citizens have a high rate of overstaying short-term visitor visas, beginning by reducing the number of such visas and escalating to a complete ban on nationals of the targeted countries, which include the African nations of Nigeria, Chad, Eritrea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The same article reported that the administration is expected to publish a rule pulling work authorization for the spouses of some high skilled H-1B visa holders. It continued: And the administration is considering setting a maximum length of authorized stay for student visas. The moves show the Trump administration is looking to tighten the legal framework around immigration, a core issue for the president, well beyond the much-discussed southern border. The author also recommends: Trump officials discussed using troops to run migrant detention camps [13 April 2019] The dictatorial impulse behind Trumps political purge [9 April 2019] The European election campaign of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGPSocialist Equality Party), the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, is entering a new stage. Election posters have been put on display in a number of cities, information tables are being organised, and the initial election meetings are being prepared. On Wednesday, SGP candidate Saravan Ratnamaheson was interviewed by the television and radio station Sudwestrundfunk (SWR). SWR, which broadcasts to the southwest of the country, is the second largest regional station in Germanys ARD public television network. As part of its coverage of next months European elections, the station posed seven questions to all of the parties participating. Candidates have only one minute to respond to each question and the interview is filmed live. Ratnamaheson, 65, is a member of the national committee of the SGP and works as a network administrator. Born in Sri Lanka, he came to Germany in 1978 as a political refugee. He joined the Trotskyist movement in 1987 during the Sri Lankan civil war. He is one of a group of Tamils, who, when confronted with the bankruptcy of the Tamil nationalist movement, joined the struggle for international socialism and the unity of the working class. Ratnamaheson writes about Sri Lanka and India for the World Socialist Web Site. Some of the questions posed by the SWR dealt with regional and local issues, but Ratnamaheson nevertheless took the opportunity to explain the basic perspectives of the SGP. To the first questionMany cities in southwest Germany have decided to ban diesel fuel autos. What is the solution to this problem on an EU-wide basis?he replied: The SGP is the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International. We participate in the European elections, together with our sister parties in France and the UK, in order to mobilise workers in Europe against the ascendency of right-wing forces, against growing militarism and rapidly growing social inequality. We are opponents of the European Union and fight to unify Europe on a socialist basis. The diesel fraud is the direct result of the criminal activities of the auto industry. Manipulated diesel engines were sold with the full knowledge of the industry heads. As of today, not a single responsible person has been punished, and there has been no compensation for the car owners affected. We fight for the expropriation of the auto concerns and all the major corporations and banks without compensation. Only in this way can production be placed under the democratic control of the population and such criminal activities prevented. The second question was: The euro has made the EU more cohesive, but also more vulnerable to financial crises. To what extent should EU countries support one another financially? In response, Ratnamaheson stressed that the EU is not a community based on social solidarity, but rather an alliance of European corporations and banks against workers in all European countries. The euro is being used to plunder the weaker countries of Europe. Economically strong countries, he said, such as Germany and France have benefited from the European single market at the expense of weaker nations. In 2009, Germany imposed an austerity program on the Greek government. Millions of workers lost their jobs, their health care and other social benefits. He explained that the German government profited from the Greek crisis. From 2010 to 2017, Germany received 2.9 billion in interest on Greek government bondsmoney it used to boost its own budget. The third question was about low-wage jobs and what the EU should do about it. Placing any hope in the EU on this issue is a dangerous illusion, Ratnamaheson replied, adding, The EU introduced all of the rules and laws that make this super-exploitation possible. All of the German automakers, including VW, Audi and Daimler, have cars and parts produced in Eastern European countries, where they exploit workers at low wages. He emphasised that millions of people toil in Germany for the official minimum wage, which is insufficient to pay for rent and the cost of living. Poverty is rising in all EU countries and 15.5 million people in Germany were officially regarded as at risk of poverty in 2017. Ratnamaheson then addressed the role of the trade unions, which play a key role in the expansion of low-wage work. They blackmail workers into accepting low wages with the threat that production will otherwise be transferred to other countries, he said. This is right-wing propaganda aimed at dividing workers across Europe. To a question on EU agricultural policy, he responded: EU agricultural subsidies are tailor-made for the big farming corporations. Many farmers in Eastern European countries have already given up their farms because of ruinous EU regulations. In order to increase profits, the major concerns were destroying the environment and promoting monoculture. It is possible to organise agriculture in an environmentally friendly way and plan in the interests of the population only when the big concerns are placed under democratic control. When asked how Europe should respond to the refugee crisis, Ratnamaheson replied, How has Europe reacted so far? The EU has turned Europe into a huge prison for refugees, with camps, watchtowers and barbed wire. He denounced the Foreigners out! policy of Fortress Europe, which has led to the deaths of 34,000 people in the Mediterranean, calling it a horrendous crime. This nationalist and xenophobic policy, he said, which is backed by all of the establishment parties in Europe, has paved the way for the rise of fascists and far-right elements throughout Europe. In Germany, refugee policy is dictated by the Alternative for Germany (AfD). At the same time, EU countries are supporting NATO wars that have devastated the countries from which people are fleeing, The SGP unconditionally defends the right to asylum. Every worker has the right to live and work in the country of his choice. Asked what should be done to promote unlimited mobile communication, the SGP candidate said that the internet is a highly democratic medium that promotes global cooperation, but it is controlled by a handful of giant corporations. Google and Facebook are working closely with governments around the world to censor the internet in an effort to suppress every form of socialist resistance and silence all voices of opposition. Ratnamaheson stressed that one of the SGP election posters currently being hung in many cities reads, Free Assange, Free ManningDefend Freedom of Speech. The founder of WikiLeaks was confined in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for more than six years, he explained, in complete isolation from the outside world. Now he has been arrested and faces extradition to the United States, where he faces the death penalty. His only crime was to have exposed and published on the internet documents detailing US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. After the interview, Ratnamaheson said he would have liked to have had more time to answer the last question: What is your vision for the EU in 2030? This is his full answer: Europe faces the alternative: socialism or barbarism! All the spectres of the past are back. If the working class does not overthrow the EU and capitalist governments and establish the United Socialist States of Europe, then dictatorship, fascism and war are inevitable. The ruling class is already relying on extreme right-wing movements in every EU state. In Germany, the neo-Nazis are sitting in the Bundestag for the first time since 1945. But this time they will not succeed! This time, we will see to it that the Nuremberg Trials take place before any new war and not afterwards. Resistance is growing everywhere. In France, the yellow vests are protesting. In Poland, teachers are on strike, and also in the US. The working class is engaging in new struggles worldwide. These struggles of the working class necessitate a new party. The SPD, the Left and the Greens are all on the side of the EU and the capitalist governments. Thats why the building of the SGP is so vital. We reject the EU. It is an instrument of the banks and corporations. We fight for the unity of the European working class, for a workers government and the United Socialist States of Europe. Just one day after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was seized by a police snatch squad from the Ecuadorian embassy, the Socialist Workers Party restated its support for efforts to extradite him to Sweden. Charlie Kimber, the partys national secretary and editor of the Socialist Worker, reiterated his partys evasive positionfirst raised by the SWP in 2012that Assange must not be extradited to the United States, but sent instead to Sweden based on trumped-up sex allegations. At 3:05pm on Friday April 12, Kimber wrote that Assange faces the wrath of the US state and possible charges which include treasonthat carries a death penaltyor indefinite detention as an enemy combatant. But having acknowledged that Assange is being targeted by the most powerful imperialist country on earth for his work as WikiLeaks publisher, Kimber quickly moves on, arguing: But it cant be ignored that he has faced allegations of sexual assault and rape in Sweden. Two women made allegations against him in 2010. Assange has not been charged yet over these, but that is because the Swedish criminal process charges only before trial. Contrary to some reports, the allegations were not dismissed but put aside because of his non-availability. Assange first entered the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden on these charges Assange should face trial in Sweden if the woman who made the complaint continues with it. With these lines the SWP is regurgitating the lies and misinformation of the intelligence agencies and corporate and state media agencies. They have joined in the efforts to railroad Assange and blacken his name, justifying a course of action that would end with Assange facing a show trial in the US. For the almost seven years Assange had been incarcerated in the Ecuadorian Embassy, the SWP remained silenta position maintained by the other main pseudo-left organisation in Britain, the Socialist Party (SP). On April 17, the SP also finally broke its silence. It too (although more evasively) lent tacit support to Assange being sent to Sweden, writing, WikiLeaks is not a socialist organisation or on the left, nor even a democratic organisation. Assange has entertained some dodgy politicians in his embassy bolt-hole, including former Ukip leader, Nigel Farage. Moreover, allegations of rape by women in Sweden against Assange--the basis of his 2012 arrest warrant--cannot simply be dismissed as 'fabricated'. The rape allegation should be investigated, but without the threat of deportation to the US. On August 27, 2012, the World Socialist Web Site refuted the claim made by the SWP and SPthat the allegations of sexual assault against Assange have nothing to do with the efforts of the United States, Britain, Sweden and other governments to silence him and destroy WikiLeaks. The SWPs Tom Walker wrote on August 21, 2012, Assange and some of his supporters have refused to take the rape allegations seriously. The WSWS noted Walkers sole transparent effort to conceal the fact that Sweden would only be a staging post for Assange to be extradited to the US to face a secret sealed indictment in the US, and a grand jury was to appeal to the Swedish authorities to guarantee that Assange will not be extradited to the US. The WSWS article concluded: Both [the SWP and SP] have long been in agreement with the extraordinary campaign by the right-wing as well as the nominally liberal press to tar Assange as a sexual criminal but were reluctant to say so publicly. Now the time to procrastinate is over. To do so would risk alienating the upper layers of the petty bourgeoisie to which they are orientedthose who have long promoted the politics of gender and race in opposition to class-based socialismand who are now being whipped up against Assange. The WSWS made clear that the insistence on taking the allegations against Assange seriously in fact meant entirely uncritically and, above all, without reference to the context in which they were made. One of the two women in question was the now publicly identified Anna Ardin, employed by leading Social Democratic party politicians. The other, SW, was introduced to Assange by Ardin. The WSWS continued: The reason why there are still no charges placed against Assange is that the claims made by his accusers are not credible. His relations with the two women were consensual... An initial investigation of August 20, 2010 was dropped and an arrest warrant against Assange cancelled the next day by one of Stockholms chief prosecutors, Eva Finne, who said in a statement to the press: I dont think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape. The reissue of the warrant took place only after the intervention of Swedish Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny on September 1, 2010. The WSWS concluded, Whatever weasel words are employed by his accusers, the levelling of sex allegations against Assange was clearly politically motivated Those journalistic hacks who deny the involvement of Washington in these events know they are lying. They do so because of a shared desire to see Assange silenced. Those such as the SWP and SP who insist that the threat of his being shipped off to the US should not impede a supposed struggle against gender-based violence are more shame-faced but contribute to the same outcome. After this article was published, the SWP, through its student society, made one last public comment on Assange before it again broke silence last week. Amid calls for high profile defenders of Assange, including George Galloway and the late Labour left leader Tony Benn, to be no platformed on university campuses, the Socialist Worker Students Society (SWSS) suggested that we should instead demand these rape apologists retract their statements. In so doing, the SWSS was both falsely accusing Assange of rape and slandering all those defending him against a conspiracy hatched by the US, British and Swedish state apparatus. Contrary to Kimbers assertion that Assange first entered the Ecuadorian assembly to avoid extradition to Sweden on these charges, Assange never faced any charges. A European Arrest Warrant was issued on the pretext that he must be questioned in Sweden. He sought asylum to prevent being sent to the US by the Swedish authorities. To this end, Swedish prosecutors refused all invitations from Assange to question him in London regarding the allegations. It was only in November 2016 that Swedish authorities were forced to reconsider. Under conditions where Ardins allegations were no longer within Swedens statute of limitations and had been dropped in 2015, the interview with Assange by a team led by Swedens deputy chief prosecutor Ingred Isgren at the Ecuadorean embassy on November 14-15 focused on SWs allegations. Assanges written submission makes devastating reading. Sweden had subjected me to six years of unlawful, politicized detention without charge in prison, under house arrest and four and a half years at this embassy. You should have asked me this question six years ago. Your actions in refusing to take my statement for the last six years have been found to be unlawful by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and by the Swedish Court of Appeal. You have been found to have subjected me to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. You have denied me effective legal representation in this process. Assange explained that during his stay in Sweden in August 2010 he had met SW. On the evening of 16 August, 2010 she invited me to her home. During the night and in the morning we had consensual sexual intercourse on several occasions. I therefore could not believe my eyes when five days later I saw a headline in a Swedish tabloid that I was suspected of a crime and arrested in my absence. Far from seeking to avoid answering his accusers, he explained, I immediately made myself available to the Swedish authorities to clarify any questions that might exist, although I had no obligation to do so. That same day (21 August 2010), the Chief Prosecutor of Stockholm, Eva Finne, dropped the arrest warrant against me and within days would close the preliminary investigation with the finding that no crime whatsoever had been committed against the woman SW (who is the subject of this procedure) On 23 August 2010, the Chief Prosecutor of Stockholm, Eva Finne stated she made the assessment that the evidence did not disclose any offence of rape. On 25 August, the Chief Prosecutor found that The conduct alleged disclosed no crime at all and that file (K246314-10) would be closed. It was a week later that Assange learned to my surprise that a different prosecutor by the name of Marianne Ny had reopened the preliminary investigation without any consultation or opportunity for me to be heardafter I had already been cleared and the case had been closed. That prosecutor eventually issued an extradition warrant against me, supposedly to take my statement, even though I left Sweden with her permission and in good faith and had repeatedly tried to see if the prosecutor was ready to accept my statement. I had not and have still not been charged with a crime. Assange continued to call for Ny to accept his statement, including by his Willingly attending a questioning on 30 August 2010 in Stockholm, where no questions were asked about the allegation, as I had already been cleared, and despite having stayed in Sweden for more than five weeks longer than planned, repeatedly asking if or when I could give a statement, before gaining the prosecutor's consent to leave Sweden before doing so on 27 September 2010 in good faith, understanding that I was not required to provide a further statement for the time being. He offered to return to Sweden to give a statement in October 2010. The response from Stockholm was the prosecutor unnecessarily issuing a European Arrest Warrant, attempting to extradite me, without charge, from the UK to Sweden, to take my statement. He further offered to come to Sweden provided Sweden would give a guarantee that I am not extradited to another state over my publishing work. Refuting the SWPs suggestion that Sweden should guarantee not to send Assange to the US, he noted, The state of Sweden has refused to provide me the necessary assurances against extradition or other transport to the United States since 2010 when such was asked by my lawyers and since 2012 when requested to do so by the state of Ecuador. Sweden has also refused to accept that the asylum Ecuador has granted me requires it to protect me from onwards extradition to the United States, despite this being the recognized norm in asylum cases, thus making it impossible for me to go to Sweden without giving up my fundamental right as a political refugee I explicitly offered to accept extradition to Sweden provided it simply guarantee that it will not transfer me to another state. This was declined. Regarding the accusations themselves, Assange noted that he travelled to Sweden in 2010 with the US having already launched an investigation against him preparatory to a Grand Jury, meeting behind closed doors for the past six years under case number 10GJ3793 to explore ways to imprison me and seven others who they have identified as founders, owners or managers of WikiLeaks According to the respected UK newspaper The Independent, the US and Sweden entered informal talks regarding my extradition from Sweden to the United States in early December 2010. Assanges contacts in Sweden had arranged for him to stay in two safe houses, including one belonging to Ardin. Assange met SW on the morning of August 14, when she came to hear a speech he gave. Two days later he went to her home, where they had consensual sex. Assange left after breakfast on good terms She accompanied me to the train station on her bicycle and we kissed each other goodbye. He spoke to her next on Friday 20 August, when she said she was at a hospital and asked me to come down to meet her to test myself for sexually transmitted diseases. This later escalated to threats to go to the police to get advice about STDs and that if I didn't come down to the hospital she would go to the police to ask whether I could be forced to get tested You can imagine my disbelief when I woke the next morning to the news that I had been arrested in my absence for rape and that police were hunting all over Stockholm for me. In May 2017, Sweden dropped its investigation into Assange and the European Arrest Warrant was discharged. However, Ny warned ominously that the statute of limitations on his case expires in 2020 and If he, at a later date, makes himself available, I will be able to decide to resume the investigation immediately. It is entirely in keeping with the pro-imperialist politics of the SWP that they were among the first to endorse plans to do precisely that. Kimbers article appeared amid howls of manufactured outrage by the Labour Partys Blairites against Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Abbott spoke in parliament last Thursday opposing Assanges extradition to the US, with Corbyn tweeting his support later that day. In response, Labours Stella Creasy and Jess Phillips initiated a letter that, by Friday evening, had been signed by over 70 MPs and peers demanding that Abbot and Conservative Home Secretary Sajid Javid champion action that will ensure that Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden. Editorials in Saturdays Guardian, Sundays Observer and numerous opinion columns took up the demandseizing on a means to slander Assange as a rapist while possibly providing a way of extraditing him without having to argue that he might face political persecution and charges that could lead to the death penalty. Corbyn and Abbott fell swiftly into line, with Corbyn telling ITV News, There can be no hiding place from those kind of accusations, and Abbott earning praise from her former detractors for stating that the government should grant such a request for extradition if made by Sweden. The WSWS noted, The Swedish playbook has been made clear. On Saturday, Labours Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry told BBC Radio 4 she was disgusted US extradition proceedings had been allowed to eclipse sexual assault allegations made by the two Swedish women against Assange. I think that what should happen is that he should be extradited to Sweden and then the Americans can make a further application to have him extradited from Sweden, she suggested. The SWP stands exposed as a co-conspirator in a sordid political manoeuvre that threatens the life of a heroic journalist, publisher and opponent of imperialist war and, with it, essential press freedoms and the democratic rights of the working class. Today voters in the southern Indian state of Tamil Naduwhich, with a population of 72 million, is Indias sixth largest statewill vote in the second phase of Indias seven-phase election to determine the make-up of the Lok Sabha, the lower and constitutionally more powerful house of Indias parliament. There is growing opposition to the policies of austerity and militarism carried out by Indias Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, as evidenced by a mounting wave of strikes, farmer protests and popular struggles against industrial pollution and other forms of environmental devastation. But this opposition can find no positive expression in the elections, which are characterized by right-wing anti-Pakistan sabre rattling, competing communalist and caste-ist appeals, phony populist promises and the expenditure of gobs of money. Indias capitalist politicians will reportedly spend more than $6 billion in competing for votes in this years election, or more than two-thirds of what the Indian state spends annually on health care for the countrys 1.37 billion people. In Tamil Nadu the election is dominated by two reactionary alliances, fronted by rival Tamil-nationalist parties and allied respectively with the two national parties, the BJP and the Congress Party. The first includes the BJP and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which currently runs Tamil Nadus state government. The other, the so-called Secular Progressive Alliance, includes the Congress Party, the twin Stalinist parliamentary partiesthe Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)and the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the other party of state government in Tamil Nadu. All these parties are committed to right-wing, pro-investor policies and support the reckless military build-up of the Indian government, as it aligns with US war preparations against China. All are terrified by the growing militancy and opposition among workers in India and internationally. Criticising BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modis failure to create jobs and economic development as he promised in the 2014 elections, the DMK is stumping for a secular and democratic, Congress-led Indian government under Rahul Gandhi, who has succeeded his mother, father, grandmother and great-grandfather as the Congress Partys dynastic head. The DMK is also promising to abolish the National Eligibility and Entrance Exam (NEET) for medical admissions that led to the suicide of a promising female student in Tamil Nadu, S. Anitha; monetary subsidies to the poor; and giving Sri Lankan Tamil refugees Indian citizenship. In the name of social justice, the DMK advocates that reservations or affirmative action be expanded from the public to the private sectora policy aimed at dividing the working class, by inciting workers and youth to fight each other along caste lines over fairer distribution of the misery produced by capitalism. The AIADMK is promising a 1500 rupee (US$21.61) monthly payout to people under the poverty line as a poverty eradication scheme. It is also appealing to Tamil nationalism, promising an amnesty for the seven Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists convicted of the 1991 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, renewing calls for official investigations by the international community of war crimes during Sri Lankas 30-year civil war, and demanding Tamil be made an all-India official language like Hindi. Without exception, all Tamil Nadus political parties, including the local units of the Stalinist CPI and CPM, promote Tamil nationalism to divide the working class and divert growing anger at social inequality and economic oppression along reactionary lines. The Naam Thamilar Katchi (We Tamils Party), running independently under the leadership of Seeman, represents an extreme form of the Tamil chauvinism that is the lifeblood of establishment politics in the state. Seeman has denounced other politicians in Tamil Nadu for speaking other Indian languages besides Tamil, such as Malayalam and Telugu, and in a blatant appeal to ethnic-communalist sentiment is insisting that the states chief minister must be Tamil born. Stalinist CPI and CPM block with big business parties against the working class The Stalinist CPI and CPM aggressively oppose independent political struggle by the working class. In the name of fighting the BJP and the Hindu right, they have systematically subordinated working people to the Congress and a host of right-wing regional and caste-ist parties for decades. The CPM is campaigning for the BJP government to be replaced by an alternative secular government, that is a right-wing, pro-investor, pro-austerity government aligned with US imperialism and akin to the succession of national governmentsmost of them Congress Party ledthat the Stalinists helped stitch together and prop up between 1989 and 2008. In an interview with The Hindu s Tamil edition, leading CPI member D. Pandian criticized his CPM Left Front allies for not joining with the DMK in forming a national electoral alliance with the Congress, the traditional party of the Indian bourgeoisie. Not declaring Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate, proclaimed Pandian, is a big blunder of the Communists. While opposing the Congress in neighboring Kerala, whose state government it runs, the CPM is openly campaigning alongside Congress officials in Tamil Nadu, including former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, one of the principal architects of the Indian bourgeoisies post-1991 neo-liberal reform agenda. The Stalinists, like all the other parties, are silent on the enormous danger of war hanging over India and the world. The Indian bourgeoisies collaboration with Washington has turned India into a front-line state in the US military-strategic offensive to isolate and prepare war with China. This has inflamed tensions between India and Pakistan, which is allied with China, leading to a military clash between the two nuclear-armed states in late February that nearly exploded into war. The alternative to the bourgeoisies agenda of war, immiseration and reaction is the independent political mobilization of the Indian working class, which includes fully 405 million people classified as wage earners in the ILOs latest report on India, as part of an international working class offensive against capitalism. Indias election is taking place as world politics are being transformed by an upsurge of international class struggle. Indian workers, peasants, and youth have come out in struggle against Modis austerity measures and against the cheap-labour operations of the Indian subsidiaries and feeder-companies of the transnational corporations amid strikes and protests by workers in Sri Lanka, America, France, Poland, Algeria and other African countries. In recent months workers in India, including in Tamil Nadu, have launched many strikes, including a two-day general strike last January against Modis attacks on the working class that involved up to 180 million workers nationally. Last fall, 3,000 workers at the Yamaha India and Royal Enfield motorcycle manufacturing plants, and the auto-parts manufacturer Myoung Shin India Automotive (MSI), struck in Oragadam, an industrial hub on the outskirts of Tamil Nadus capital Chennai, for more than six weeks. Teachers and other state government employees walked out on January 22 over nine demands, including the abolition of a Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and reestablishment of the previous government-funded pension system, higher wages, and improved working conditions. The AIADMK government responded by stepping up its attacks, dismissing 700 striking teachers and over 1,200 state employees. The critical question facing politically advanced workers and youth is the building of a new political leadership in the working class. Arguments advanced to browbeat workers into voting for the DMK-Congress-Stalinist alliance are a mixture of hypocrisy and historical lies. First they say, votes for the DMK-Congress alliance are for secularism and against the fascist threat posed by the BJP. But they themselves constantly flirt with ethno-communalist appeals made by forces like Seeman. Moreover, despite its secular pretensions, the Congress Party has a long history of conniving with the Hindu right, including in the reactionary 1947 communal Partition of British India into a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, which it agreed to and implemented. The DMK is claiming a Congress Party-led government would be more favorable to working people and could be pressured into restoring the previous government-funded pension scheme. This is a fraud. It was the Narasimha Rao Congress Party government that, with the shipwreck of the bourgeoisies state-led capitalist development project, spearheaded the implementation of free market policies aimed at turning India into a cheap labour haven for international finance capital. And it was the Congress-led UPA government of 200414 that under the guise of reforms with a human face pushed through a fresh wave of privatizations and other pro-investor policies, while forging a global strategic partnership with Washington. The aftermath of the 2008 financial crash in India and internationally has shown that no progressive change in the interests of working people can arise within the framework of the existing political parties and trade unions. In the absence of a Trotskyist party fighting for the independent interests of the working class, this framework has served for decades to suppress the class struggle and channel the mounting anger among working people over the Congress Partys reactionary, big business policies back behind the BJP, and other caste-ist and communalist parties. To advance the struggle for workers power, workers in India need revolutionary leadership, armed with an international socialist program and strategy. This requires the building of an Indian section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution founded by Leon Trotsky in the struggle against the Stalinist betrayal of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In a major assault on democratic and human rights, the Trudeau government surreptitiously concealed reactionary amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in its 392-page omnibus budget bill, the Budgetary Implementation Act. The amendments will make it significantly more difficult for migrants fleeing war and persecution to find asylum in Canada, and are accompanied by a Liberal pledge to spend an additional $1 billion on border security over the next five years. Under the amendments, asylum seekers who have already made a refugee claim in a country with which Canada has an information-sharing agreement will automatically be refused asylum. They will be denied the right to a full-case hearing and, in most cases, will be quickly sent back to their home countries. The information-sharing countries in questionAustralia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the UScomprise, along with Canada, the US-led Five Eyes spying network that conducts mass surveillance of the worlds population. Given that the US is the only one of these four partners with which Canada shares a border, the practical effect of the legislation is to empower authorities to summarily deport refugee claimants crossing the US-Canada border to escape Trumps anti-immigrant witch hunt. This reactionary legislative change comes amid statements from Minister of Border Security Bill Blair and Canadas US ambassador David McNaughton revealing that the Liberal government has been engaged in behind-the-scenes discussions with Washington on closing the so-called loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA). This 2002 US-Canada agreement allows Canada to return to the US anyone seeking refugee status who crossed into Canada via the US, on the grounds that they should have made their refugee claim there. Even though the Trump administration has attacked and vilified immigrants, especially from predominantly-Muslim countries and Latin America, the Trudeau government has steadfastly refused calls from refugee and human rights organizations to scrap the agreement, insisting that the US continues to be a safe haven for refugees. The STCA applies when migrants cross into Canada at official border checkpoints. This is why in the past two yearsaccording to data from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canadasome 40,000 asylum seekers have attempted to bypass official checkpoints by crossing the Canadian border on foot, sometimes in very hazardous conditions. The Trudeau government has boasted that most of these irregular entrants to Canada are being denied refugee status and systematically deported. However, initially it resisted the demands of the Conservatives and the most right-wing sections of the corporate media and ruling class that it deny them their rights under Canadian and international law to make a claim to refugee status and be accorded the rules and protections of Canadas refugee-determination process. Now, putting the lie to the Liberals pretenses to be pro-refugee, the Trudeau government is effectively implementing the Conservatives demand that the Canada-US border be declared an official checkpoint, so all those crossing irregularly can be subject to the terms of the reactionary Safe Third Country Agreement and summarily expelled. In a clear violation of Canadian law, the Liberals refugee law reform would mean that asylum seekers who previously made a refugee claim in the US, Britain, Australia or New Zealand, whatever the current status of their claim, will no longer be eligible for a full, oral hearing. Moreover, they will not be able to appeal to an independent tribunal with procedural protections, as is currently the case (under the Immigration and Refugee Board). Instead, they will automatically be brought before an immigration officer for fast-track deportation. Their only recourse will be the right to submit a written pre-removal risk assessment, in which they could outline how deportation threatens them with state persecution and violence. According to human rights lawyer Kevin Wiener, those who use this process to halt their imminent deportation are successful in just 3 percent of cases. The Budget Implementation Act also places limitations on when claimants can ask for humanitarian and compassionate consideration of their cases. Many refugee lawyers and advocatesincluding some who supported Trudeau at the last federal electionhave voiced their outrage at the Liberals measures and are already planning to launch legal challenges. Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), an umbrella organization representing more than 100 refugee aid groups, said the proposed changes to asylum laws are a devastating attack on refugee rights in Canada. A CCR statement warned, Numerous refugee claimants, who may need Canadas protection because they are refugees, will be denied access to Canadas refugee determination system. This applies even if the person never had a hearing on their claim in the other country, and came to Canada for compelling reasons (for example, to reunite with family members). The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers harshly criticized what it termed a deeply troubling reform that will strip crucial and hard-won human rights protections from people. Trudeaus push to effectively close the US-Canada border to asylum seekers has been long planned and is being closely coordinated with the Trump administration. Canadas Border Security Minister Bill Blair said that he received a mandate from the prime minister last September to start talks with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on changing the Safe Third Country Agreement. He recently told CBC, I can tell you weve been working very hard over the past several months to significantly reduce the number of people who are crossing our borders irregularly. While Canada and the United States have apparently not yet entered into formal negotiations over the STCA, a spokesman for Blair said that since his appointment as minister last summer he has met with numerous stakeholders including U.S. members of Congress, Customs and Border Protection and Department of Homeland Security officials to discuss modernizing the STCA as soon as possible. The Conservatives and the medias enthusiastic endorsement of the proposed changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act underscores their reactionary character. After spending the last three years demonizing and personally attacking Conservatives over this issue, Justin Trudeau has effectively admitted that he has failed to defend the integrity of our asylum system, gloated Conservative MP Michelle Rempel. For years the Conservatives have whipped up xenophobia and criticized Trudeaus purported refugee-welcoming policies for having created a mess at the border and an influx of illegal aliens into Canada. In fact, the Liberal government has pursued ever more pronounced anti-refugee policies, while closely collaborating with Washington in its crackdown on immigrants and in tightening border surveillance and control. While Trudeau used Syrian refugees as an election prop in 2015, his government has slashed the number it is allowing to settle in Canada and is providing virtually no support to those already here. Many must rely on charities and food banks just to feed and house themselves. Last year, in the name of securing Canadas borders, the Liberal government ordered the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to adopt a new annual target of 10,000 deportations, an increase of 35 percent. Hundreds of those awaiting deportation, including children, are being held under prison-type conditions similar to those facing refugee claimants and migrants who have been thrown into Trumps detention centers by fascistic Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The number of refugees accepted in Canada is a drop in the bucket considering the millions that have been displaced worldwide by wars, economic instability, and state repression. Canadian imperialism has played a leading role in many of the most devastating conflicts, supporting US-led and -fomented wars that have destroyed entire societies, including in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Iraq. The Liberal governments collaboration with Trump and its own anti-immigrant crackdown have strengthened the most right-wing forces within ruling circles. Since coming to power last June, Ontarios right-wing populist premier, Doug Ford, has repeatedly whipped up anti-immigrant chauvinism, blaming refugees for the terrible social conditions produced by decades of austerity imposed by Progressive Conservative, Liberal and NDP governments alike. In Quebec, the right-wing Coalition Avenir Quebec, which campaigned in last years elections on a xenophobic platform, has introduced legislation to slash the number of immigrants accepted into the province, and is using the notwithstanding clause to ban teachers and other public employees in persons of authority from wearing religious signs. The principal targets and victims of this discriminatory ban will be Muslim women. The author also recommends: Quebec introduces a chauvinist bill with Muslim women as its principal target [4 April 2019] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/04/04/caqs-a04.html Canadian ruling elite whips up anti-refugee hysteria to shift politics sharply right [22 August 2018] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/22/refu-a22.html President Donald Trump vetoed a congressional resolution Tuesday that would have required the United States to end direct military support for the Saudi-led slaughter in Yemen, which is now in its fifth year, with air strikes and other combat operations directly causing the deaths of some 80,000 people. Trumps veto reaffirms his administrations support for the war that has resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, leaving 8 million people on the brink of famine and at least 85,000 children dead from starvation. The war began in 2015 with the support of the Obama administration, which provided Saudi jets with midair refueling and established a joint planning center to provide Saudi forces with intelligence and approve military targets. The US has also provided Saudi Arabia with billions of dollars in jet fighters, bombs and other military equipment and training, which has been used to destroy homes, factories, hospitals, schools, markets and critical water and electrical infrastructure. While seven Republicans in the Senate and 16 in the House joined the Democrats in voting in favor of ending US intervention in Yemen, proponents of the measure wont be able to pull together the two-thirds majority required to overturn Trumps veto. The presidents veto statement, delivered to the Senate, is a declaration of the absolute authority of the president to wage war directly and via proxies without the fig-leaf of congressional approval or oversight. "This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future," Trump wrote. The resolution was opposed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trumps national security adviser, John Bolton, who insist that the war is necessary to counter Iran, which Washington has claimed, without evidence, is arming the Houthi rebels who overthrew the US and Saudi puppet regime of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2014. Absurdly, Trumps veto statement declares that the resolution is irrelevant since the US is not actually involved in hostilities against Yemen, as there are no American soldiers inside the country who are directing, assisting or participating in attacks on the Houthi forces. While the bipartisan resolution invoked the War Powers Act of 1973, which requires Congressional approval for US military action, it was presented as a symbolic rebuke of Trumps refusal to denounce Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over his role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul last year. Notably, the bill contained a proviso which would have allowed the Trump administration to continue waging war in Yemen under the cover of the war against Al Qaeda and associated forces. The US has been carrying out its own secret war in Yemen with drone strikes and special operations forces since 2002. Many of the Republicans and Democrats who voted for the War Powers resolution on Yemen did so knowing that it had no chance of being enacted. The White House announced in November of last year after the passage of similar measures in the Senate that Trump would veto the measure if it passed in the House. It was clear at that point that there were not enough votes in Congress to override the veto. Rather than a genuine effort to end the war in Yemen, the bill, introduced in the Senate by nominally independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, was seen as an opportunity to make an empty appeal to broad anti-war sentiment among the American population. A YouGov poll published at the end of last year found that a strong majority of Americans, 75 percent, oppose US support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The same poll found that 82 percent of Americans want Congress to end or limit missile sales to Saudi Arabia. A majority of those identified as both liberal (98 percent) and conservative (63 percent) oppose the war. In addition to Sanders, the other senators running for the 2020 Democratic nomination who signed on as co-sponsors of the bill included Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. If elected president, each of them would continue to arm the bloody monarchs in Saudi Arabia and utilize the broad unilateral war powers claimed by Trump. While this cynical political theater has played out in Washington, DC, the criminal Saudi slaughter in Yemen has continued unabated. A Saudi air strike hit a school in the capital Sanaa on April 7, killing 13 civilians and wounding 100 others. Seven of those killed were young female students. Everyone was hysterical, some were crying and shouting in panic, Fatehiya Kahlani, principal of the Al Raei school told Al Jazeera. The situation was horrible as the school population is 2,100. Some girl students were killed and others were wounded and are in a hospital as a result of the missile strike. The school building was destroyed too. We suddenly heard a fighter jet while we were at school. We then heard the first strike. We remained calm. Then came the second strike and then the third, which was the strongest of them all, Ali Ahmed, a student wounded in the airstrike explained to Al Jazeera. The building was damaged and we were injured by broken glass. As the fourth air strike came in, we panicked and ran home. The attack came less than two weeks after an air strike on a hospital in a rural area outside Saadah in March that killed eight, including five children, and destroyed critical medical supplies and equipment. In addition to supporting this slaughter, the US has continued to carry out its own air war in Yemen under a shroud of secrecy. The US military recently admitted that it carried out six separate drone strikes in the last week of March against alleged Al Qaeda and ISIS targets in Al Bayda Governorate. No figures have been released on the number of those killed or wounded in these attacks. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that nearly 1,400 people, including dozens of children, have been killed by US air strikes in Yemen since 2002. Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Kidnapping suspect faces 3 felony charges in Cheyenne CHEYENNE (WNE) The man accused of kidnapping a 1-year-old child and assaulting the childs pregnant mother Thursday is facing several felony charges in Cheyenne, along with new charges from his arrest in Colorado. Mijito Johnson, 26, was charged Friday with two felony counts of aggravated assault against a pregnant woman and a charge of interference with custody of a child. Johnson currently is in custody in Aurora, Colorado, where he also faces misdemeanor charges of interference with an officer and related to his arrest. According to the charges, Johnson allegedly struck his pregnant girlfriend multiple times before taking the infant from her arms and fleeing to his brothers house in Colorado. An Amber Alert was issued in Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, prompting a multi-state search for the abducted child. Johnson was arrested by the Aurora Police Department late Thursday night. Officers found his vehicle abandoned in a parking lot and located him a short distance away at his brothers residence. He currently is in custody in Aurora on a no-hold bond, and is scheduled for his first court date May 9. Fremont County has highest rate of food stamp use RIVERTON (WNE) Fremont County has the largest percentage of residents receiving food stamp benefits, also called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, among the 23 counties in the state. The statistics are included in the new 2018 Wyoming County Profiles economy report by chief Wyoming economist Wenlin Liu. The report shows that 8.9 percent of Fremont Countys estimated 39,803 residents receive foodstamp benefits, compared with 5.8 percent of 579,315 residents statewide. Crook County, which includes the towns of Hulett and Sundance, had the lowest statistic in this area, with 1.6 percent of its 7,410 residents receiving foodstamp benefits from the federal program. Statewide 13,463 Wyoming residents receive SNAP benefits, and 1,349 of those live in Fremont County. Fremont accounts for 10 percent of the portion of the population that receives food-stamp benefits. Fremont County also is calculated to have a higher poverty rate than the rest of the state, with 5,380 individuals living below the official poverty level income 13.7 percent of the population of the county. Altogether, Lius report says the Wyoming has 63,398 individuals living below the poverty line, or 11.1 percent. Although Fremont County has a higher poverty rate per population than the state total, the ratios between those receiving benefits and those below the poverty line are not symmetrical. The number of SNAP beneficiaries within the county comes to 64.9 percent of the population classified as impoverished. Statewide, the sum of SNAP beneficiaries comes to 52.25 percent of the number of those living in poverty. Alleged conspirator charged in meth ring POWELL (WNE) After putting the leaders of a large drug distribution ring behind bars, authorities are beginning to prosecute those alleged to have played smaller roles in the organization. The Park County Attorneys Office recently filed a pair of felony charges against a 31-year-old Cody woman, Erin J. Clark. Agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation say Clark distributed relatively large quantities of methamphetamine between January and July 2017, working with local ring leader William Bill Lee, also of Cody. The charges specifically allege that, on a near-daily basis, Lee delivered a 3.5-gram eight-ball of meth to Clark at LaVinas bar and liquor store in Powell, where she worked at the time. After accepting the drugs through the establishments drive-through window, Clark would sell them and pay Lee $280, charging documents allege, amounting to about half of the proceeds. The case is based on statements that DCI agents gathered between the fall of 2017 and the summer of 2018 from confidential sources, Lee and Clark herself. Clark was arrested in late March and charged with counts of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession of meth with intent to deliver. She pleaded not guilty in Park County District Court last week, with a trial tentatively set for June. Clarks case stemmed from DCIs multi-year investigation into a drug trafficking organization that was moving meth across Park, Big Horn and Natrona counties. During their work which started in November 2016 DCI agents came to believe that Lee was the areas largest meth dealer. Sublette County takes over grant for Hoback Ranches PINEDALE (WNE) Citing new information, an extended deadline and a desire to help Hoback Ranches residents, Sublette County Commissioners called a special meeting Friday, April 19, and voted to take over and manage a grant. The $562,000 grant, if received, will pay for the costs of installing culverts and other infrastructure needed to mitigate potential flooding and landslides following last Septembers Roosevelt Fire. As part of the grant, the county will be responsible for $144,000 or 25 percent of the funds. Commission Chairman David Burnett and commissioners Doug Vickrey, Tom Noble, Joel Bousman and Mack Rawhouser were all in attendance at the special meeting. Absent from the April 2 meeting, representatives from Hoback Ranches as well as Sen. Dan Dockstader and Reps. Jim Roscoe and Albert Sommers attended the special April 12 meeting. The special meeting was called after commissioners refused to sign assurances demanded by the federal Homeland Security agency during their regular April 2 meeting. At that point, it appeared the grant would fall through. The Hoback Ranches Special Improvement District was not eligible to apply for the grant because the entity has not signed on to the Sublette County Hazardous Mitigation Plan that was approved by the county and all three municipalities about a year ago. When commissioners discussed taking over the grant application and management, they questioned why the district had not signed on to the Hazardous Mitigation Plan when it was offered. Hoback Ranches representative Dave Nemetz said perhaps it was due to the revolving nature of the districts board, but members did not remember being offered the plan. CASPER A state-appointed group tasked with finding sustainable air service for Wyomings far flung communities took a significant step in the process last week, announcing the state had entered into negotiations with a Utah-based airline to provide regular flights to as many as four Wyoming cities. CASPER A state-appointed group tasked with finding sustainable air service for Wyomings far flung communities took a significant step in the process last week, announcing the state had entered into negotiations with a Utah-based airline to provide regular flights to as many as four Wyoming cities. Members of the Commercial Air Service Improvement Council announced Friday that the state would be entering into contract negotiations with St. George-based SkyWest Airlines for its proposal to provide regular, regional flights to cities like Gillette, Riverton, Rock Springs and Sheridan, according to a news release. The service itself would operated under the United Express brand a subsidiary of United Airlines that maintains partnerships with regional airlines similar to SkyWest across the country. SkyWest did not return a phone message requesting comment Monday. The selection of the airline marks a significant milestone in the states Commercial Air Service Improvement Plan, which was finalized by the council last summer to make up for unpredictable federal funding streams and industry shifts that had rendered the states basic air service funding model ineffective in recent years. SkyWests proposal was selected over Denver Air Connection, a private charter flight company that currently maintains flights from Denver International Airport to Riverton and Sheridan. While Denver Air Connections was the cheaper option of the two, according to selection committee member Sen. Michael Von Flatern, R-Gillette, SkyWest offered a multitude of additional benefits that Denver Air Connection could not. These advantages included the ability to offer shorter layover times, an ability for customers to accrue air mileage on regional flights and the capacity to expand to cities like Cody and Laramie in the future. That was a big part of it, Von Flatern said. This would not be SkyWests first foray into Wyoming: The airline already flies to Casper, for example. In August, SkyWest announced it would be adding flights between the Cheyenne and Dallas-Fort Worth airports through its partnership with American Airlines. However, the agreement they will be entering into is unprecedented: while states have contracted with charter airlines in the past, none have done so to the degree Wyoming is, said Shawn Burke, who runs the states Air Service Development Program. This is kind of uncharted waters for us, as far as state support for chartered air service, said Burke. Other states have done something like this to some degree, but not like Wyoming has. A representative for WYDOT declined to comment on the details of the contract. However, the agency is working on an aggressive timeline and hopes to have an agreement with the airline in place by June 30, with operations beginning as early as October. Fridays announcement marks a major step away from the states 15-year-old Air Service Enhancement Program fund, which was established in 2004 to assist the development of commercial air service across the state. Created at a time when airfares in Wyoming were the 5th-highest in the nation, ASEP proved to be an effective amplifier for airline use and revenues over the following decade. With $21 million in spending between 2004 and 2015, ASEP helped drive $370 million in visitor spending and nearly $31 million in new tax revenues, according to a 2016 analysis commissioned by WYDOT, resulting in roughly $523 million of economic impact during that time. While most of the economic benefit was seen in Jackson, the program also improved passenger counts at airports across the state. According to the analysis, airports like Cody and Gillette experienced passenger increases between 31 percent and 62 percent in subsidized years compared with non-subsidized ones. But over the past several years, various factors outside of Wyomings control have made that fund impractical to meet the needs of the state, as the mixture of a lack of qualified pilots, national airline consolidation and small aircraft retirements have made the cost of regional air travel prohibitively expensive. As a result of these shifts, by 2017 Wyomings airfare prices were the second-most expensive in the country and approximately 49 percent higher than the national average, a significant factor behind deflated passenger counts and reduced viability for many flights across the state. Sheridan serviced by Great Lakes Airlines at the time lost commercial air service for more than seven months in 2015 due to low ridership and a shortage of pilots while Worland, which became prohibitively expensive under the federal governments subsidy program, saw Great Lakes pull out of the community in September 2016. With predictability no longer guaranteed under the states model, the council decided to shift to a public/private partnership between the state and an independent airline carrier. Authorized by the signing of Senate Enrolled Act 40during the 2018 budget session, the legislation created a council to study the issue as well as a $15 million fund for the purpose of improving air travel across Wyoming under this new system. While independent from the states Air Service Enhancement Program fund, the new fund is not a replacement, largely because of its inability to serve every community across Wyoming equitably, according to a WYDOT spokesman. However, Von Flatern said the agreement and the funding attached to it serves an important function: providing the kindling needed to stoke the new normal for air transport in Wyoming. With a hodgepodge of service providers across the state, a short-term, state-level subsidy to a single, contracted entity is considered the key to ensuring consistent air service across the state. With an early infusion of cash, the theory goes, quality of service will increase and prices will stabilize, leading to customers returning and once unviable flights becoming profitable once more working in a similar way to how the Air Service Enhancement Program fund had improved air travel. We have a good recipe and good models across the state its applying them to other airports and providing the funding needed to accomplish that, said Burke. As passenger volume takes off, retention increases as well. With stable customer bases, the air company will have the regular ridership needed to maintain consistent levels of service, eliminating the need for the subsidy while creating more dependable air travel infrastructure. We expect this to be heavily loaded at the front-end $5 million to $6 million for the first couple of years but were hoping the enplanements are great enough that were spending next-to-nothing in years four and five, Von Flatern said. After a couple of years of reliable service, enplanements will go up to the point were not spending any state money. The future of the Air Service Enhancement Program, however, is uncertain. While it will likely no longer be the states primary mechanism to fund major air service projects, the fund it operated still served an important function for smaller airports by offering smaller, growth-oriented grants to airports like Jackson, Cody and Cheyenne in recent years. Were unsure where that is going, Burke said. Firstly, briefly about Qatari people, they're genuinely hospitable yet never intrusive, as there's a social conservatism in Qatar which is reassuring for visitors, as you are able to explore without any unwanted attention. The capital has a jam-packed calendar of events, with the annual Qatar Cultural Festival and Qatar International Food Festival both definite highlights at this time of the year in Spring. On the topic of events in Qatar, the 'Jewellery & Watches Expo' held earlier in the year in Doha is a first-class event worth highlighting, since as well as empowering young Qatari innovators it displays the very best gems and watches from around the world for all to see. Top Tip: Spring is an ideal time to visit the countrys UNESCO World Heritage Site the Al Zubarah Fort, and Qatar's other ancient attractions such as the Al Wajba Fort on the outskirts of Doha. So you see, there is a lot of awe-inspiring heritage in this country, equally the capital city has many impressive modern sights to enjoy as well as older wonders. Heres a look at five key places of interest in Doha, followed by a few arty extras, and then a sum-up about why Qatar can easily surprise and delight discerning travellers. 1. Souq Waqif - Doha's Lively Traditional Market This is where commerce, architecture and culture meet in the capital, where intriguing Qatari sights, sounds and aromas converge. An evening stroll through the bustling alleys of Souq Waqif provides an authentic taste of traditional life in Doha. The maze of small shops offer a dazzling array of Middle Eastern merchandise, from spices and seasonal delicacies such as fresh dates and nuts, to perfumes, ornate jewellery, clothing, handicrafts and a treasure trove of souvenir bargains. Traditional music, art and cultural shows add to the ambience of this magical place. Relax and soak up the vitality and atmosphere at one of its eclectic mix of great restaurants and cafes which offer traditional Qatari food, as well as regional dishes and treats from Asia and North Africa. Top Tip: Remember to haggle at Souq Waqif market, and during your time in Qatar - well not in luxury malls of course but almost everywhere else. Haggling is part of the local culture and provides the opportunity to interact with locals. So dont be put off if say, for example, a dhow boat trip sounds out of your budget. 2. Corniche - Doha's Waterfront Promenade The Corniche offers spectacular vistas of the city, from the dramatic high rise towers of the central business district to the bold shapes of the Museum of Islamic Art. The wooden dhows lining the bay here evoke echoes of Qatars great seafaring past, a time long ago before the riches of oil and gas were discovered, transforming the fortunes of country which now has the highest GDP in the world. Top Tip: A pleasure trip on a dhow, one of the traditional Qatari sailing boats used in the past by merchants and fishermen, takes you around Doha Corniche for about 30-45 minutes to enjoy the evening or night view of the capital. This seven-kilometre long waterfront promenade, which stretches for the entire length of Doha Bay, provides a green, vehicle-free pedestrian space in the heart of the capital. There are cafes and restaurants, as well as outdoor exercise facilities and a running track if you really want to build up an appetite before tasting some of the local cuisine. Top Tip: The Orient Pearl Restaurant (situated at the Corniche near Rass Abu Aboud Signal) is the go to restaurant in Doha for Qatari food with a modern twist - as the picture above shows. Its an ideal choice to taste a special take on a local dish or two - Machboos followed by Umm Ali, for example - with a seaview from your dining table. Some of the most talented chefs in Doha work here to provide a fine dining experience in a relaxed Qatari style setting, linking luxurious tastes with the excellent location and service. You can choose between indoor and outdoor seating, in either case youll find a warm ambience abounds at this culinary hive serving impressive Arabic delicacies. 3. Museum of Islamic Art - Dohas World Leading Collection Here you can experience 14 centuries in a few hours via one of the leading collections of Islamic art in the world. Also worth knowing about dhows, most set off from the dock in front this iconic venue. The imaginatively presented displays of the finest art and artefacts from across the Islamic world will have anyone marvelling at the award winning collections, which feature paintings, glassworks, metalwork, ceramics, textiles and manuscripts. No visitor can fail to be impressed by the quality and diversity on offer here in the permanent collections, for free. Also good to know is museum ensures fresh interest through its constantly changing programme of special exhibitions. Top Tip: Currently Syria Matters is the focus of a temporary exhibition, and it demonstrates the effectiveness of a multimedia display to present a theme in a highly compelling and memourable manner. The building itself is exceptional, a modern architectural masterpiece no less, designed by IM Pei the winner of a Pritzker Architecture Prize. The MIA is also home to a world class restaurant run by Alain Ducasse, who holds three Michelin stars. 4. National Museum of Qatar - "An Eye-Popping Creation" This magnificent new institution opened its doors on Dohas Corniche this year at the end of March. The striking new space celebrates the heritage and culture of Qatar, spread over 1.5km in total, incorporating the one-time home of the Qatari royal family. Here you can journey through an exciting mix of all-encompassing environments and compelling storytelling that engage all the senses. For example you can learn more about the good old wooden dhow and how it made trade, fishing and pearling possible. Also many exhibits look to the future. Designed to be both immersive and experiential, visitors can expect to encounter three chapters: Beginnings, Life in Qatar, and The Modern History of Qatar, each presented across eleven highly individual galleries. "The most extraordinary building of the decade," is how The Times decribes this marvel designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, with a desert rose inspired interlocking design. 5. Katara Cultural Village - A World-Leader For Multi-Cultural Activities An innovative interpretation of the Regions architectural heritage, this purpose-built developments impressive theatres, galleries and performance venues stage a lively year-round programme of concerts, shows and exhibitions. Among the most famous of these is the Doha Film Institute, which showcases a programme of indoor and outdoor film screenings throughout the year. Here you can also find top class restaurants offering a variety of cuisines. A key daytime recreational attraction is the spacious and well-maintained public beach, featuring a range of water sports. Visitors will also find much to enjoy during a evening stroll along the promenade, with its expansive views of Dohas skyline, as well as a rich array of seaside food stalls and markets. Art Features Everywhere In Qatar Springtime is perfect to enjoy the impressive outdoor art installations by leading international artists all around Doha, such as the Damien Hirst installation at the Sidra Medical Centre. One of the Qatars most striking outdoor artistic sights is the East-West/West-East installation by American sculptor Richard Serra in the Brouq nature reserve so you'll need a driver to get there. Its worth the journey, as you could also spend some time in the desert since the Qatar weather in Spring enjoys low humidity with temperatures in the mid 20s. Top Tip: In Doha the Arab Museum of Modern Art - pictured above - is the only institution of its type in this region, hosting exhibits and programmes offering an Arab perspective on contemporary art. Qatar is home to a number of other stunning art galleries and public spaces, including the recently redeveloped and creatively called the Doha Fire Station. Despite what you may imagine due to its name, this is actually a community of studios offering residency programmes for artists. Al Riwaq is also worth mentioning here, its a large warehouse style space, which has been home to several ground-breaking exhibitions by artists such as Mohamed Al Mahdi, Damien Hirst and Jaffar Al Oraibi. Doha's A Pearl Of Destination An overview of Doha wouldnt be complete without a mentioning the Grand Mosque, pictured above, and also The Pearl - the man-made island off the West Bay coast, pictured at top. It features Mediterranean-style yacht-lined marinas, upmarket restaurants, internationally renowned hotels, and luxury shopping at top brand name boutiques and showrooms. Top Tip: The Pearl is a popular destination to enjoy wandering around by virtue of its chic ambience, various outdoor attractions, and al fresco dining - hence its inviting description as the Arabian Riviera. Enjoying all of Dohas many sights is actually far more than anyone could comfortably manage during a long weekend visit. Therefore you may well find that after a first visit you will want to return to explore the capital more, and to venture further around Qatar to see the many wonders worth discovering - such as the Dahl Al Misfir Cave, pictured below. Given that Qatar Airways flies to over 160 destinations worldwide from Doha, a stop-over in Qatar as part of another trip is a great way to make the most of your travels. So even if Doha is not currently on top of your must see places, you can quite easily go take a look when visiting other destinations. You may well find you develop a taste for the place, like over one million expats, for a whole range of reasons. Its exotic but easy to get to, from Budapest its only about a 5 hour flight. With only a minimal time difference theres little chance of jet lag hampering a happy holiday in Qatar. To sum up whats on offer in Doha, you can find intriguing Arabic adventures, dazzling modern architecture, sleek Michelin-starred eateries meeting up with delish traditional dishes, awesome events and shopping options, impressive mosques and fab festivals, not to mention the lovely wooden dhows, impressive hotels, clean beaches, and year-round sunshine. Photo credit: VisitQatar.qa The majority of European Union citizens believe that Europes Christian culture and traditions must be preserved, a survey prepared by Szazadveg showed. Szazadveg, in cooperation with Kantar Millward Brown Hungary, polled citizens of 35 countries in the EU, Ukraine and the Western Balkans by phone between January 7 and March 31. Nearly 60% of EU citizens said Europes Christian culture and traditions must be preserved and 31% said it was time to leave behind Christian traditions and progress to a more globalised culture, Szazadveg said. Two-thirds of citizens from the former communist bloc countries and the Visegrad Group said it was important to preserve Christian culture and only slightly more than half of citizens from the founding countries of the EU said the same, the survey showed. Nearly 80% of Hungarians said Christian traditions must be preserved. Next to Hungarians, Bulgarians and Czechs consider it most important to preserve Christian traditions, Szazadveg said. North Carolina firefighters were searching through rubble Wednesday after an explosion at a building in downtown Durham killed one person and left 17 injured, multiple reports say. Authorities were responding to a call about a gas leak around 9:38 a.m. and were evacuating people from the building in the 100 block of N. Duke St. when it exploded just after 10 a.m., according to the Raleigh News & Observer. The leak began when a contractor hit a gas line while digging under a sidewalk. The blast involved five buildings and left one severely damaged, Durham Fire Chief Robert Zoldos said, according to the Associated Press. Half the block is destroyed, one witness, Jim Rogalski, told CNN. 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. Gerry Broome/AP/Shutterstock The Durham Fire Department shared photos of their efforts on Facebook hours after the incident, urging residents to avoid the area as they continued to work. The 17 injured were taken to local hospitals, with six critically wounded, CNN reported. A Dominion Energy employee who responded to the gas leak was injured along with a firefighter. Zoldos said the firefighters injuries are serious but not life-threatening, according to CNN. RELATED: Massachusetts Governor Declares State of Emergency Following Deadly Gas Explosions One witness, Dottie Flake, said she felt the impact from the explosion at her home a block away. I just heard a boom, and didnt know what it was with all the construction around here, she told the News & Observer. I saw the smoke, then fire trucks and first responders, and everyone was rushing out of their buildings. Zoldos said that the person who died was likely trapped in the building and it could take at least two days for rescue teams to search all the rubble, according to the News & Observer. He noted that everyone who worked in the building has been accounted for, but it is unclear if any customers or visitors were inside at the time. Story continues Members of the Raleigh and Chapel Hill fire departments were on the scene, according to the News & Observer, along with a hazardous materials regional team from Raleigh and structural engineers. Durham Mayor Steve Schewel called the explosion a terrible tragedy during a Wednesday news conference. I feel a real sense of loss and of grief. Its a very difficult day in that way, he said. But I feel something else as well, and that is a tremendous sense of gratitude. I saw firefighters with their hoses fighting that fire not knowing if there was another potential gas explosion. One of Mexico's most prevalent myths is getting the Hollywood treatment. This weekend, The Curse of La Llorona is making its way to multiplexes everywhere, offering a fresh take on a chill-inducing piece of folklore. ET's Ash Crossan recently sat down with Venezuelan actress Patricia Velasquez to talk about how she first came to know the legend of La Llorona, or The Weeping Woman. "Well, I grew up with it," she recalled. "I'm Venezuelan but I grew up in Mexico. And La Llorona, this is how Mom got us to make sure we would come back at five, it gets dark, you're inside. Or La Llorona will get you. La Llorona is real for us." In the film, Velasquez plays a mother struggling to protect her children from the vengeful entity when Anna, played by Linda Cardellini, attempts to help her, leading to disastrous consequences. According to the film's version of the legend, La Llorona was once a young bride in a small Mexican town who bore two sons with a dashing husband who won her heart. However, one day she catches her husband with another woman. In a moment of crazed jealousy, she drowns her children. When he realizes what she's done, she also drowns herself and since is doomed to roam the earth looking for children to replace her own. Velasquez went on to explain the number of times she's heard the terrifying personal stories about the frightful bogeywoman. "All of us, either we heard, we touch her, we've seen her," she said, adding, "I had someone the other day tell me that La Llorona touched her shoulder. So there's all kinds of stories. If you start asking around, you will be surprised. She's extremely important for us." Velasquez also discussed her breakout role in 1999's The Mummy, which is about to turn 20 years old in May. "I had no idea The Mummy was going to be such a big film," she admitted. "I literally just went to meet the casting director just to say 'Hi' because I had just arrived in L.A., and the next thing I know, the day after I'm flying to London. I had no idea what it was." Story continues She also added that, to this day, she is regularly stopped by people who recognize her from the action-adventure film. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't get somebody, and it's usually younger kids, you know, because they show it on TV. It's such an honor," she said. The Curse of La Llorona hit theaters on Friday. Check out the interview up above. RELATED CONTENT: Chucky Is Back in Frightening First Trailer for 'Child's Play' -- Watch! 'Dark Phoenix' Final Trailer: Watch Jean Grey's Transformation Star Wars Celebration: Oscar Isaac on 'The Rise of Skywalker' Trailer's Biggest Moment! Related Articles: Director Tom Shankland didnt want his Les Miserables to be anything like the stage-musical version of Victor Hugos sweeping historical novel, nor like the 2012 Tom Hooper feature-film musical. For the BBC limited series a drama starring Olivia Colman, Lily Collins, David Oyelowo and Dominic West, which aired the first of its six episodes in the U.S. on PBS on April 14 Shanklands goal was to get back to the roots of the story, using large portions of what Hugo gave readers in his 1862 book. He worked closely with his crew to impart his vision. Related stories How the 'Little' Production Team Created Look of Marsai Martin-Regina Hall Comedy 'Les Miserables' Team Talks Importance of Victor Hugo's Tale as 'Story for the World' Production designer Richard Bullock, whose credits include Peaky Blinders and McMafia, found a great deal of specificity in the source work. I read the novel, and Tom and I referenced it hugely, he says. There is so much great description, which helped throughout the entire production. Even if the details didnt make it directly into the script, we still put them into the world. In one such sequence, protagonist Jean Valjean (West) drags the character Marius (Josh OConnor) through a network of sewers. The original intention was to shoot in tunnels underneath a citadel in Namur, Belgium, but for safety and logistical reasons, the crew ended up building replicas in the Brussels studio where production was based. It was quite a big build, with effects and a lot of water, says Bullock. Victor Hugo came to the rescue with loads of amazing detail of what the Paris sewers were like at the time what section was made out of what stone, how some of it was dated differently, and which part Valjean was stuck in. Bullocks go-to reference was Charles Marville, who took photographs in the latter half of the 19th century, documenting Paris before the construction of the citys signature boulevards during the reign of Napoleon III. They wiped out whole sections of medieval Paris, and thankfully, Marville documented that, says the production designer. Story continues Hair and makeup designer Jacqueline Fowler, whose vast credits include War & Peace and Jamestown, also hewed closely to the traditional while adding a bit of modern flair. She and costume designer Marianne Agertoft had to deal with a cast of about 100, including just under a dozen main roles. She and her team created lots of little buns for many of the characters and Apollo knots for the elite. Lily Collins Fantine donned a custom-made wig when her luxurious locks got cut off. Agertoft, who had worked with Shankland on the BBC drama The City and the City, says that the director wanted the reality and the struggles of the times to come through, and to make them relevant for a modern audience. We had six hours of storytelling time, which was much more than the film had, she adds. You can go into the depth of the characters a bit more. A musical can slightly remove [you] from reality which is also the beauty and the wonder of a musical but with a drama, you can relate slightly differently. So [my costumes] had to feel more real. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. UPDATED with Rep. Nadlers presser: Im deeply troubled by reports that the WH is being briefed on the Robert Mueller report AHEAD of its release, Rep. Jerry Nadler tweeted, breaking news that is how DOJ intended to roll it out. Now, DOJ is informing us we will not receive the report until around 11/12 tomorrow afternoon AFTER Barrs press conference. This is wrong, Nadler wrote. Related stories Stephen Colbert: Donald Trump Toady Bill Barr Catering To Nadler was referencing NYT reports Barrs DOJ has been consulting with White House for days about Muellers report. Attorney General Barr wrote to me on April 1: I do not believe it would be in the public interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report,' Nadler also tweeted, adding angrily, So why is the AG holding a press conference tomorrow morning to go over the Mueller report? Nadler also blasted Barr again in an evening presser. When asked, a clearly very angry Nadler said that on the assumption the report is heavily redacted and in light of the DOJs scheme with regard to its release, reporters should expect subpoenas to be issued to Special Counsel Mueller and others on his team to testify before the committee about their investigation and report in very short order. TV News outlets were surprised Wednesday afternoon to learn Attorney General Bill Barr will hold a presser Thursday morning at 9:30 AM ET. At the presser, Barr will take questions about his redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report about his nearly two years of investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Except, as House Judiciary chair Nadler says, reporters wont have seen the report when Barr takes questions. DOJ did not break the news, President Donald Trump did, during a Wednesday afternoon interview with Washington D.C. talk radio station WMAL. Story continues Trump said he might hold his own presser after Barr, adding, well see. Trump is scheduled to leave for Mar-a-Lago tomorrow. Given his fondness for pop-up pressers on the White House lawn, some were putting their money on that. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to be at the presser. Mueller will not be there to take questions. When it finally does release the report, DOJ is expected to do so on the special counsels web site. The release of the report is as eagerly anticipated in Washington as Oscar noms are in Hollywood. But in this case, it will trigger a similar mad scramble by staffers to comb through every page for any bombshells about POTUS, famly members, and his inner circle of current and former aides, and family members, and an Oscar morning-like media feeding frenzy. In his radio interview, Trump forecast a lot of very strong things come out when Muellers report is released tomorrow, seeming to confirm NYTs reporting. Former DNC chair Donna Brazile, now a commentator at Fox News Channel, told Politico shes most interested in learning if anyone inside Trumps campaign reported to the FBI any contact with Russian officials promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Brazile became DNC chair when Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down after release of her hacked emails. Other Barr presser questions to expect: would he turn over an un-redacted version of Muellers report to House and Senate intel committees under lock and seal. And many in the media say theyre wondering if Mueller probe results on Jared Kushners alleged effort to to establish backdoor communication with Russia through its embassy has been redacted. Pundits also anticipate a question about Trumps participation in crafting Don Jr.s initial false narrative about the nature of the meeting with Russians in Trump Tower during the campaign. Word Barrs longer version of Mueller report was expected this week sent President Trump into orbit; he declared during a White House lawn pop-up presser that Muellers investigation was illegal, treasonous and a foiled coup. Barr also revealed last week he was assembling a team to investigate the origins of the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election because, while citing no evidence, he had concerns, adding, I think spying did occur by the previous administration against Trumps campaign. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Bob Dylan has had a strict no photos policy at his concerts for years, but thats rarely stopped fans from taking our their cellphones and trying to snap a few images before security swarms. But on Tuesday night at a show in Vienna, Austria, he finally reached his boiling point when he stopped singing Blowin in the Wind after one verse to admonish the audience. Take pictures or dont take pictures, he barked. We can either play or we can pose. Okay? Prior to that, he said something very similar into the microphone thats hard to discern and then stepped backwards in an angry huff, tripped over a guitar monitor and nearly hit the floor. He then stood still near his band, apparently posing, and then went into a truncated rendition of It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry before walking off for the night. The band finished the show with an instrumental version of Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues, which has been the finale throughout this whole tour. Related stories Flashback: Bob Dylan Stumbles His Way Through 'Dancing in the Dark' See Courtney Love Portray a Hollywood Producer in 'J.T. Leroy' The incident marked the first time that Dylan had spoken to the crowd in some time. Audiences used to only hear his speaking voice when he introduced the band, but he stopped doing even that about two years ago. Before most shows, audiences are informed that photographs are not allowed. At New Yorks Beacon Theater last year, ushers roamed the aisles with flashlights and shined them directly at anyone using a phone. Repeat offenders were threatened with ejection. Dylan hasnt, however, gone to the lengths of Jack White and Chris Rock by refusing to let anyone even enter his show with a cellphone outside of a sealed bag. Dylans ongoing European tour warps May 7th in Valencia, Spain. After a six-week break, he heads back over there for another run of dates that wraps up with two co-headlining shows with Neil Young in London and Kilkenny, Ireland. Everyone with tickets to these shows should keep their cellphones firmly in their pockets. An angry Bob Dylan is a scary sight. Story continues Bob Dylan Admonishes Crowd in Vienna Sign up for Rolling Stones Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Six years after a North Carolina mother of two was found fatally stabbed in her home, her boyfriend, who had called 911 to report her death, has been arrested for her murder, according to multiple news reports. Roger Lee Martin, 41, was taken into custody Monday in the 2013 death of 31-year-old aspiring nurse Nova Nikki Robinson, 31, who was found dead at her home on Cherokee Street in Asheboro. Martin is currently being held without bail at the Randolph County Jail with a court date scheduled for April 17, according to the Courier-Tribune. It is unclear if charges have been filed against him. Advanced DNA testing played a role in his arrest. There were many questions surrounding the case that Roger Martin could not give a logical response to, according to a police department press release obtained by MyFox8. Advanced DNA testing enabled our detectives to satisfy all open questions that they had surrounding the investigation. We are completely satisfied without question that Roger Martin killed his then girlfriend Nova Nikki Robinson. Roger Martin Police were sent to Robinsons home around 6 p.m. on Jan. 28 after Martin told a 911 operator that Robinson was dead. According to FOX8, Martin also told the dispatcher that he had no idea who would want to harm his girlfriend. Robinsons body was discovered near the back door of her home, the Courier-Tribune reports. Police found blood on the door and the walls, according to the paper. According to the Courier-Tribune, she had numerous defensive wounds and attempted to fend off her assailant. She died at the scene. I wish I could have been there to save her that day, Robinsons mother Angela Jackson told wxii12. I wish shed never met him. He destroyed me. Robinsons older sister, Lucrissa Lundy, said she felt relief that my sister is going to get some kind of justice, as she told the Courier-Tribune. My sister was just finally getting her life where she wanted. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Story continues Jackson also said she was pleased about Martins arrest. Im happy about it. It needs to happen. Hes walked free for the last six years. Its time for him and his mama to feel what Im feeling because in a way, shes losing a child, she said, according to wxii12. I dont believe in closure because arresting, convicting, if it happens it wont bring her back, but it will give me maybe the start of a healing process. She was a good girl, Jackson said. She didnt deserve it and I hope he fries. I have faith in God. I knew he would avenge it somehow. I just knew it wasnt going to go unpunished. Police in California have issued a plea to the public for help in their continuing search for a missing 15-year-old girl. On Thursday, an AMBER Alert was issued in Los Angeles for Alora Benitez, who was last seen with her mother and an adult male. Her mother and the man are suspects in the murder of a man in Carson on Tuesday. According to police, Aloras mother, 40-year-old Maricela Mercado, and Roman Cerratos, 39, are wanted by police in the death of a man found Tuesday behind the wheel of a suspiciously-parked Audi. Both should be considered armed and dangerous, police said. Police say Alora was last seen leaving Torrance with her mother and Cerratos in a white 2013 BMW, four-door sedan with the Nevada license plate MARIMAR. Alora was last seen with her mom and Cerratos in this car Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Anyone who sees Alora, her mother, or Cerratos is urged to immediately call 911. Maricela Mercado Roman Cerratos | Los Angeles County Sheriff Authorities described Cerratos as a Hispanic male, standing at about 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing about 210 lbs. He is bald and has brown eyes. Mercado is described as a Hispanic female who is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing about 130 lbs., with brown hair and brown eyes. Alora is also Hispanic, standing 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs about 100 lbs. Her hair and eyes are both brown. Other information pertinent to the investigation should be directed to Detective Lawler or Detective Blagg with the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department at (323) 890-5500. TBS talk host Conan OBrien was on a roll against the Democrats on Wednesday, with South Bend Mayor Pete Buttegieg and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in his sights during his Conan monologue. During a campaign event in Iowa, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttegieg was heckled by an anti-gay protestor, OBrien noted. Buttegieg handled it like a pro, saying, Settle down, Mr. Vice President. Related stories Mayor Pete Buttigieg's Presidential Bid Gets Boost From Hollywood Donors Buttigieg, who officially announced duriong the weekend that hes running for president has a special distinction. If he wins, OBrien said, Buttigieg would be our first openly gay president. When I say openly gay Im talking to you, Millard Fillmore. OBrien also skewered another Dem White Hopuse hopeful. In his memoirs, presidential candidate John Hickenlooper gives detailed accounts of his sexual conquests, he said. Apparently, his signature move was giving women the Ol Hickenlooper. Later in the show, OBrien aired the latest installment of his Conan Without Borders visit to Australia, this time wrestling with Ozzie slang. Check out some video above including kind of a threatening video email sent to me by a Mr. Hugh Jackman and more clips from his trip Down Under below. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Corrections officers across the country are under fire for taking Feeling Cute social media posts too far, threatening to harm inmates in posts they say were simply meant to make light of a highly stressful job. Feeling cute, might just gas some inmates today, IDK, one person captioned a selfie of a woman apparently wearing a Texas Department of Criminal Justice uniform, the Houston Chronicle reported. Another person allegedly wrote: Feeling cute, might shoot your baby daddy today . . . idk. Social media posts from corrections officers in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia have made their way across the Internet, sparking outrage among many who have said they do not find the captions funny. Americas Police Problem, a website dedicated to holding the nations police accountable for abuses of power, shared dozens of the posts on the site, writing that the officers took the social media challenge to a dangerous level. Other captions included, Feeling cute, might get suspended for justifiable use of forceidk, Feelin cute..might confiscate some contraband today. Idk yet, and Feelin cute. Might go arrest your drug dealin baby daddy later #feelincutechallenge. The challenge hashtag stems from the original Twitter trend Feelin cute, might delete later in which users post selfies on social media before removing them. Now, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Jeremy Desel tells PEOPLE that a handful of employees are being investigated for the posts. Desel adds that two of the officers have resigned from their positions and the other four have been fired. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is aware of the so-called feeling cute challenge currently on social media impacting dozens of corrections and law enforcement agencies nationwide, Desel says in a statement. Currently six of the more than 25,000 correctional officers employed by this agency are under investigation for on and off-duty conduct violations as a result of the alleged posting of inappropriate photographs on social media. Story continues What those law enforcement officers are doing is disgusting! Ms. Pinky Stanseski (@undergradwoman) April 15, 2019 The statement continues: These officers in no way represent the thousands of TDCJ employees who go to work every day taking public safety seriously in all ways. Officials in Georgia Missouri did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE. A Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson told KOMU that authorities are investigating after a Jefferson City corrections officer allegedly participated in the challenge and wrote Feeling cute. Might take your homeboy to the hole later. Matthew Elliott, a spokesperson with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, says the department is investigating. Weve been monitoring the posts since they began. All employees who participated in the posts you mentioned have been reprimanded for failing to represent the mission of this agency. Were continuing our investigation and may take additional action, Elliott says in a statement. Corrections is a serious matter. Beyond the extremely poor judgment shown by these officers, being flippant about mistreating inmates, even if its intended as a joke, puts these staff and their fellow officers at risk. This is no laughing matter. Officers with Texas Aransas Pass Police Department also took part in the challenge, sharing a photo of one of the departments patrol cars, writing, Feelin cute.. might stop someone later, idk However, authorities with the department said they havent received any complaints over that particular photo. whether you call them Prison Police, Guards, CO's, whatever, when they take their "thoughts" to social media and denigrate those that are incarcerated & their loved ones, we ask- how can they DO THEIR JOBS WITHOUT BIAS? answer, they cant and should be relieved of all duties PrisonReformMovement (@PrisonReformMvt) April 15, 2019 Cases of inmate abuse are common and sometimes extreme. The Washington Post reported three Milwaukee County Jail employees faced charges last year after a mentally ill inmate died after being allegedly denied water for a week. In February, those incarcerated at Brooklyn, New Yorks Metropolitan Detention Center went over a week with no power and very little heat, according to the New York Times. In 2018, at the same jail, three officials were charged for sexually assaulting half-a-dozen incarcerated women, the Times reported. The Walt Disney Company is committing $5 million to aid in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, Bob Iger said on Wednesday.The donation follows the devastating fire that severely damaged the historic landmark earlier this week.Notre-Dame is a beacon of hope and beauty that has defined the heart of Paris and the soul of France for centuries, inspiring awe and reverence for its art and architecture and for its enduring place in human history, the Disney chairman and CEO said. The Walt Disney Company stands with our friends and neighbors in the community, offering our heartfelt support as well as a $5 million donation for the restoration of this irreplaceable masterpiece.Also Read: Here's Everything That Will Be Available on Disney+ at LaunchThe fire caused the cathedrals wooden spire to collapse. It also spread to one of its landmark rectangular towers, causing the structures entire frame to be at risk.No cause for the blaze was initially given, but according to AP, French media quoted Parisian firefighters saying that it may have been linked to a renovation project for the cathedrals spire. There were no deaths, though one firefighter was seriously injured while battling the blaze, per the New York Post.The Notre-Dame Cathedral is a national landmark that is a beloved tourist attraction in the center of the French capital.With its construction dating back to the year 1163, it houses many priceless works of art and pieces of French history, and it has also been the subject of popular films and stories like Disneys animated 1996 hit, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.Read original story Disney Commits $5 Million to Rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral Following Fire At TheWrap The Walt Disney Company is committing $5 million to aid in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, Bob Iger said on Wednesday. The donation follows the devastating fire that severely damaged the historic landmark earlier this week. Notre-Dame is a beacon of hope and beauty that has defined the heart of Paris and the soul of France for centuries, inspiring awe and reverence for its art and architecture and for its enduring place in human history, the Disney chairman and CEO said. The Walt Disney Company stands with our friends and neighbors in the community, offering our heartfelt support as well as a $5 million donation for the restoration of this irreplaceable masterpiece. Also Read: Here's Everything That Will Be Available on Disney+ at Launch The fire caused the cathedrals wooden spire to collapse. It also spread to one of its landmark rectangular towers, causing the structures entire frame to be at risk. No cause for the blaze was initially given, but according to AP, French media quoted Parisian firefighters saying that it may have been linked to a renovation project for the cathedrals spire. There were no deaths, though one firefighter was seriously injured while battling the blaze, per the New York Post. The Notre-Dame Cathedral is a national landmark that is a beloved tourist attraction in the center of the French capital. With its construction dating back to the year 1163, it houses many priceless works of art and pieces of French history, and it has also been the subject of popular films and stories like Disneys animated 1996 hit, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Read original story Disney Commits $5 Million to Rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral Following Fire At TheWrap Emma Stone and Boyfriend Dave McCary Step Out for Dinner in New York City Emma Stone and her boyfriend Dave McCary are stepping out for a date night! The 30-year-old Oscar-winning actress was photographed with McCary, 33, heading to dinner in New York City on Tuesday after rehearsals for Saturday Night Live, which Stone is hosting on Saturday. McCary is a segment director for the long-running NBC comedy show. Stone smiled at fans and took photos with them as she stepped out wearing a black shirt, black pants and a gray coat as McCary walked behind her in a jacket, hat and glasses. A source confirmed to PEOPLE the two were dating in October 2017. Stone and McCary first met at the end of 2016 when she hosted SNL and starred in the sketch Wells for Boys, which McCary directed. Dave McCary (left) and Emma Stone | DIGGZY/SplashNews.com The couple has kept their romance relatively low-key, although they havent shied away from enjoying public outings together such as when Stone showed her support for McCary, a two-time Emmy nominee, when she attended the premiere of his feature directorial debut Brigsby Bear in July 2017. RELATED: Emma Stone Steps Out for Rare Public Date Night with Boyfriend Dave McCary Recently, they attended a Clippers game where they were photographed enjoying themselves in their courtside seats. Prior to McCary, Stone was in a relationship with Andrew Garfield, from whom she split in 2015 after almost four years of dating. Despite the split, Stone and Garfield are supportive exes and friends. In May 2017, Stone visited the actor, 35, in London during a break from filming The Favourite. Garfield had been starring in the 25th-anniversary revival of Angels in America at the National Theatre. There are no boundaries besides imagination in The Twilight Zone. But there are when it comes to The Twilight Zone in the Emmy race. The CBS All Access anthology series will compete in the drama categories, including outstanding drama series, per a ruling by the Television Academy. In making the decision, the Academy turned down a petition by CBS Television Studios (which produces the series and handles its Emmy campaign) for the show to compete as a limited series. Related stories Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen Headline Netflix's Emmy 2019 for Your Consideration Space Donald Glover's 'Guava Island' to Take on Beyonce's 'Homecoming' at the Emmys In recent years, most anthology programs have either competed in the limited series race (like FXs American Horror Story and American Crime Story), or have submitted individual episodes in the TV movie category (such as Netflixs Black Mirror episodes San Junipero and USS Callister). But as previously announced, the Academy is cracking down this year on anthology episodes being submitted as movies. In what might be dubbed the Black Mirror rule, submissions for outstanding TV movie Emmy must now be at least 75 minutes long. (Last years winner, USS Callister, ran for 76 minutes and would have been eligible. But the categorys 2017 winner, San Junipero, was only 61 minutes long.) All of the Twilight Zone episodes have been below 75 minutes, ruling out the TV movie category. Thats why CBS TV Studios wanted to go the limited series route but ran into another roadblock. The studios plans were confined by the legacy of the original Twilight Zone series. The Rod Serling anthology, which ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964, competed in drama categories and won twice, for drama writing (in 1960 and 1961). The show was also nominated for outstanding drama in 1961. Story continues Precedent being set, CBS TV Studios had submit a request to move the show from drama to limited series with the idea that Twilight Zone doesnt offer a continuing storyline or characters from season to season. Its that argument that has allowed other ongoing anthologies like American Crime Story and American Horror Story to submit as limited series. (As recently announced, American Horror Story: Apocalypse will also compete this year as a drama, not a limited series, because it included story elements and characters from previous seasons.) CBS TV Studios request was denied, however, because Twilight Zone has no thru-story; rather, [just] episodic standalone episodes, according to a TV Academy spokesperson. That leaves outstanding drama series. But heres the other rub: CBS TV Studios also cant find a spot to submit executive producer Jordan Peele, who also hosts the series, as a performer. There are spots for unscripted hosts to compete, including the outstanding host for a reality or competition program category. Also, the principal host for variety series and the principal host/performer for variety specials are eligible to be entered with the program categories. But what about someone who hosts, as a version of themself, on a scripted program? Perhaps they could be submitted in the supporting actor or actress categories, as playing a version (host) of themselves. CBS TV Studios is engaged in a conversation with the TV Academy right now about where they might place Peele in that role. At the very least, as executive producer Peele will indeed be submitted, along with the rest of the shows key producers, in that position for Twilight Zone. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. HBO Documentary Films is currently in production on a docuseries about NXIVM, the company accused of being a sex trafficking ring.Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer (The Square, Control Room, Startup.com) are directing the untitled series, which follows a range of people who joined the purported self-improvement group. Per HBO, the show will take a deep, nuanced look at experiences of its members, spotlighting their universal desire for personal growth.The group rose to public attention last year after charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, were brought against its highest members, most notably founder Keith Raniere and former Smallville star Allison Mack.Also Read: 'Smallville' Actress Allison Mack Pleads Guilty in NXIVM CaseMack entered a guilty plea in a New York court regarding her involvement in the sex trafficking case last week after being accused by authorities of recruiting young women and manipulating them into branding their bodies and becoming sex slaves for Keith Raniere. She faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.In March 2018, Raniere was arrested in Mexico, where he fled after the publication last fall of a New York Times report about NXIVMs reported practices. Federal authorities say Raniere and Mack created a secret society within NXIVM in 2015 called DOS, which operated with levels of women slaves headed by masters.'Noujaims interest in the organization began in 2010 when she took NXIVMs introductory Executive Success Program workshop, according to HBO, and her docuseries with Amer will aim to reveal the issues behind the headlines and explore the emotional toll of unfolding events on these individuals.Read original story NXIVM and Sex Trafficking Accusations Will Be Focus of HBO Docuseries At TheWrap HBO Documentary Films is currently in production on a docuseries about NXIVM, the company accused of being a sex trafficking ring. Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer (The Square, Control Room, Startup.com) are directing the untitled series, which follows a range of people who joined the purported self-improvement group. Per HBO, the show will take a deep, nuanced look at experiences of its members, spotlighting their universal desire for personal growth. The group rose to public attention last year after charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, were brought against its highest members, most notably founder Keith Raniere and former Smallville star Allison Mack. Also Read: 'Smallville' Actress Allison Mack Pleads Guilty in NXIVM Case Mack entered a guilty plea in a New York court regarding her involvement in the sex trafficking case last week after being accused by authorities of recruiting young women and manipulating them into branding their bodies and becoming sex slaves for Keith Raniere. She faces a maximum of 40 years in prison. In March 2018, Raniere was arrested in Mexico, where he fled after the publication last fall of a New York Times report about NXIVMs reported practices. Federal authorities say Raniere and Mack created a secret society within NXIVM in 2015 called DOS, which operated with levels of women slaves headed by masters.' Noujaims interest in the organization began in 2010 when she took NXIVMs introductory Executive Success Program workshop, according to HBO, and her docuseries with Amer will aim to reveal the issues behind the headlines and explore the emotional toll of unfolding events on these individuals. Read original story NXIVM and Sex Trafficking Accusations Will Be Focus of HBO Docuseries At TheWrap Hardly a year goes by that legendary French actress Isabelle Hupert isnt prominently featured at Cannes. At least 26 of her movies have been programmed at the festival, shes won the Best Actress prize twice, and shes the rare person to have served on the Competition jury more than once. But the perennial favorite could be serving up something particularly special when the lights go down on the Croisette next month. Co-written and directed by Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange, Keep the Lights on), a major American filmmaker whos making his festival debut in Competition, Frankie will be the first time since Heavens Gate that Huppert has gone to Cannes with a lead role in an English-language film. And when the subject came up in an interview with IndieWire last month, Hupperts eyes lit up as she insisted that her performance in the bucolic family drama is very, very different from anything Ive done before. Related stories Potential Oscar Contenders of Cannes 2019 Include 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' and Isabelle Huppert 20 Shocks and Surprises From the 2019 Cannes Lineup, From Werner Herzog to Xavier Dolan Shot in the gorgeous resort town of Sintra, Portugal, and set over the course of a single tumultuous day, Frankie tells the story of a family vacation that takes a turn for the worse when a dramatic event of some kind pulls at three generations worth of deep-seated tension. If Sachs previous work is any indication, its a safe bet that the film will be a sensitive, humane, and quietly jarring story of strained love. Huppert, who plays the matriarch, had only seen a few snippets of the film last month, but she was already elated with the results. I can tell that its very tender, she said. Nothing really tragic happens in the film, but the situation itself is tragic, even though we shot in the most beautiful environment. Given that Hupperts acting career stretches back for more than 40 years and includes collaborations with master filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, Claire Denis, and Joseph Losey the most exciting thing she said about Frankie is that shes never done anything quite like it before. Story continues Theres something really honest about my work in this she said, before correcting herself. Honest is not the right word, because I think Im honest in my other performances, but theres something very simple about this one because the story speaks for itself. There are none of the usual devices, only a little bit of irony and humor in the way we spoke. Huppert may be known for her unflappable screen image, but Frankie might see her more vulnerable and exposed than shes ever been before, even on stage. However it turns out, Huppert was thrilled for the opportunity to work with yet another of her favorite filmmakers. I love all of Iras movies, she said, citing Love Is Strange as a personal favorite. Perhaps, once she finally gets to see Frankie at Cannes next month, shell feel inspired to revise that opinion. Frankie co-stars Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei, Jeremie Renier, and Greg Kinnear. The film is slated to be released in France on September 25, and is currently seeking U.S. distribution. The poster can be seen below. The 2019 Cannes Film Festival begins May 14 and runs through May 25. Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Jennifer Aniston & Adam Sandler Seen Together in New Netflix Film Murder Mystery for the First Time Its a reunion for the ages! Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler are back together in upcoming Netflix film Murder Mystery and are giving fans the first taste of whats to come. In new stills from the film Sandler, 52, and Aniston, 50, play married couple Nick and Audrey Spitz are dressed to the nines in a black suit and red dress, respectively. Sandlers Nick is a New York City cop who finally takes his wife on a long-promised trip to Europe. On a flight there, they get invited to an intimate family gathering on the superyacht of an elderly billionaire who is later murdered. The unsuspecting couple finds themselves on the run after they get framed for his murder. RELATED: Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler Hold Hands While Filming Netflix Comedy in Italy The longtime friends were photographed filming on set in Milan, Italy in August 2018. The last time the two worked together was in 2011s Just Go With It. Murder Mystery also stars Gemma Arterton, Luke Evans, John Kani and Terence Stamp. Aniston has been keeping busy, making an appearance at the Steve Jobs Theater in California in March for the unveiling of her new TV drama The Morning Show which will premiere on Apple TV+. Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston and Luis Gerardo Mendez in Murder Mystery | Netflix Im really excited about it, Aniston said of returning to television, where she first rose to fame on Friends. Through the prism of those under-slept and over-adrenalined people behind and in front of the camera, we take an honest look at relationships between women and men in the workplace. Murder Mystery debuts on Netflix this June. Lisa Rinnas mom is lucky to be alive after being kidnapped and stabbed by the Trailside Killer. A few years before I was born my mom was attacked by a man that she worked with, Lisa, 55, said of her mother Lois Rinna on Tuesday nights episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. He picked her up at the bus stop and then all of sudden he started to drive her down this really deserted road. He tried to rape her. He tried to kill her. Luckily, a military policeman had seen them drive down this deserted road and he knew no one was supposed to be down there and he followed them down. My mom was saved that day by that military policeman. That was a really bad thing, Lois, 90, explained. I knew him. I thought that was it. Hes straddling me. He had a hammer in one hand and a knife in another, Lois recounted. Lois was stabbed in the hand and hit in the head with the hammer a number of times. The Trailside Killer, whose real name is David Carpenter, was known for stalking and murdering several people on hiking trails in state parks near San Francisco, California in the 1970s and early 1980s. At one point it was even believed he may have been the Zodiac Killer but that has since been disproved. Lois Rinna, Lisa Rinna | Jesse Grant/WireImage I was the first one he went to jail for, Lois explained to Lisa of Carpenters 1960 conviction. They gave him seven and a half years. Lois is believed to be the first of Carpenters adult victims. He had been incarcerated as a teen for molesting two of his young relatives. In 1970, Carpenter was imprisoned once again for kidnapping and rape. After he was freed, Carpenter struck fear around the Bay Area when he shot and killed Richard Stowers, 19, and his fiancee Cynthia Moreland, 18, Anne Alderson, 26, Diane OConnell and Shuana May 25 all within a six-week period in 1980, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. The next year, Carpenter raped and shot 20-year-old Heather Scaggs a coworker at a Hayward print shop, The SF Chronicle reported. Her naked body was found in Big Basin State Park in Santa Cruz County. He then killed UC Davis Student Ellen Marie Hansen, 20. Story continues Lois Rinna | Bravo Carpenters eighth victim, Hansens boyfriend Steven Haertle, was shot in the neck, but survived the attack and was able to identify him, according to The Mercury News. In 1984, Carpenter was convicted of two murders and received the death penalty, according to The Los Angeles Times. The following year he was convicted of five more murders. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison. When you first hear about it youre like that cant be real how [is] that real? Lisa said on the show. It wasnt until Rinna was older that her mother told her what really happened, Lois explaining that the metal plates she had in her head and the fact that she couldnt smell was because some kid hit you in the head with a hammer. When I finally learned the truth, I had such great sadness and empathy for my mom, knowing that not only did this happen to her but that she basically just stuffed those feelings for how many years, Rinna said. She never dealt with it, she never talked about it she never even told her daughter about it. David Carpenter | Nick Ut/AP/REX/Shutterstock RELATED: Lisa Rinna Threatens Legal Action Against RHOBH Costar Lisa Vanderpump Over Rumored Spinoff It takes so much courage to come forward. I think the least we can do is show these victims some compassion. Lois has since received an outpouring of love from viewers everywhere for her courage. What if you could return to a time in your childhood and relive your life from that point knowing what you know now? Thats the fantasy at the core of Universals Little, released April 12, in which Regina Halls Jordan Sanders, a character overwhelmed by the pressures of adulthood, gets the chance to relive the life of her younger self, played by Marsai Martin in an oversize wig. Writer-director Tina Gordon crafted the fluid look of the fantasy comedy in close collaboration with DP Greg Gardiner and editor David Moritz. Gordon and Gardiner spent their weekends walking through sets and locations, discussing blocking and playing roles including Hall and Martins Sanders while acting out the scenes together. Related stories Box Office: 'Shazam!' Remains Victorious as 'Little' Beats 'Hellboy' Box Office: 'Shazam!' to Remain No. 1 as 'Hellboy' Fizzles Greg played everyone in blocking, says Gordon with a laugh. Among the scenes: a striptease with Luke James character, Trevor, and a separate dance atop a bar by Martin. Gardiner recalls their first day of shooting: a classroom scene with Martin and Justin Hartley, who plays her teacher. In her mind, Martins Jordan is still an adult. Shes like a tigress, Gardiner says of Martins movements. We brought her forward, we brought her back, shes kind of prowling. They have a final moment in the back of the room when the kids have their backs to them so its a bit more private. Thats blocking. Our goal is to make it natural. As he edited, Moritz had to be mindful that young Jordan is actually a 38-year-old woman trapped in a teenagers body. Some scenes had to be cut down because theres a point when the visual of a teenager and an adult together crosses the line from comedy into inappropriateness. You can have too much of a good thing, he says. Gordon enjoyed striking a balance between providing the performers with a framework and letting them make their own choices. I like to have a plan of action, and choreographing with them, while leaving that improvisational moment for the actors, she says. Story continues Moritz remembers seeing the initial footage of a classroom scene. I watched those dailies and thought, Holy st, this is perfect, he says. My job was to help that process and make it impactful. Throughout production, Gardiner wanted the cinematography to reflect the movies counterpoint of size differential, leaving nothing off-screen. The idea was to tell the story through the shots and put everything in the frame, he says. It has the feel of a throwback. We didnt use a Steadicam because thats a modern shooting language. The compositions have a tremendous amount of information in them to continuously show that Jordan is either little in a big world or little in a little world. Gardiner cites a scene in a cafeteria as an example. He used a telephoto lens to make her appear smaller, because cinematically it means were stepping back. Were not in front of [Martin]; were not dollying. Its shot more verite style as she crosses the room, and it gives you an uncomfortable feeling until she gets to the safe zone table. Those kids are shot with what I call a personal presence thats more accessible. The lenses are wider, and the camera is sitting right on the table in front of them. All of Gordon and Gardiners prep was apparent to Moritz. What makes it work so well, he says, is the way the film was blocked. Little had so much fluidity in terms of the characters moving around, the camera following them and the way a character entered or exited the scenes. It was easy to realize what they were going for and to serve that as an editor. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Geno Mama June Mama Junes boyfriend is being accused of sexting other women while still dating the reality star as recently as last month following their arrest and Junes family want him gone ASAP. Sources close to the couple tell The Blast it is known among Junes friends and family that Geno Doak has a history of sexting multiple other women while with her. Were told those close to them want Geno out of Junes life immediately, as they believe he doesnt have her best interests at heart. The Blast has obtained Instagram messages sent earlier this year by Geno, including one instance where he sent a photo of his penis to a woman. He went into detail about what he wants to do sexually and, in one instance, told the woman he was chatting with, that June was with him while he was talking to her. Junes family has become aware of the alleged cheating and is furious with him. The Blast spoke to one woman Geno reached out to on social media. Tina Harry tells The Blast that the day after Geno and Mama June got released from jail last month, he hit her up on Instagram, despite them not knowing each other. She is unsure of how he found her. She says they started talking on direct message but she wasnt sure if it was him. He then FaceTimed her and she decided to continue talking because she thought it was cool he was on television. TheBlast.com Tina says the messages kept coming and he started hitting her up every 10 minutes, asking her to come and visit Alabama and offering to pay for it. She claims he kept telling her he was not in love with June and didnt want to be with her. She told him she was busy and had a job and had to request days off and couldnt just come on a whim. According to Tina, he then started sexting her and sent her photos of his penis. He even FaceTimed her with June in the bed of the hotel room where they were staying in Alabama while June was asleep, saying he wished Tina was there instead of June. TheBlast.com Were told everyone around June wants him out of the picture ASAP. As The Blast previously reported, Mama June was charged with a felony for possession of a controlled substance and a misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia. The post Mama Junes Boyfriend Allegedly Sexting Other Women, Her Family Wants Him Gone appeared first on The Blast. Mati Diop, niece of the late, great Senegalese cinema pioneer Djibril Diop Mambety director of African cinema classics Touki Bouki and Hyenes makes her feature film directorial debut with Atlantiques, which will world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. She is the first black woman with a film in the 72-year-old festivals Competition section, and stands to be one of the biggest breakouts at Cannes this year. Previously titled Fire Next Time (although not based on James Baldwins famous essay collection of the same name), the film is in rare company. Currently, Diop and Malian filmmaker Ladj Ly are the only filmmakers of African descent represented in competition at Cannes this year. Related stories Cannes 2019: One Year After Gender Parity Pledge, Female-Directed Competition Titles See Small Increase 2019 Cannes Film Festival Lineup: Terrence Malick, Xavier Dolan, Almodovar Compete for Palme d'Or Diop is the daughter of Senegalese jazz musician Wasis Diop, but cinephiles will likely be more familiar with her filmmaker uncle. She first received attention from international critics and cinema enthusiasts for her work as an actress and writer in Antonio Campos 2012s crime drama Simon Killer, for which she won the AFI FEST Special Mention for Performance award (for writing and acting). Prior to Simon Killer, she starred opposite Alex Descas in celebrated French auteur Claire Denis drama 35 Rhums (35 Shots of Rum), a role that also drew acclaim and awards recognition. In 2013, she directed the 45-minute documentary Mille soleils (A Thousand Suns), which explored the legacy of her uncles seminal 1972 film, Touki Bouki. In her journey, she familiarized herself with her Senegalese heritage as a means to get to know Touki Boukis two lead actors, 35 years later. Story continues A director since the age of 22 (shes now 36), Diops Atlantiques is based on her 2009 documentary short Atlantique, which screened at film festivals around the world and won several trophies, including the Tiger Award for Short Film at Rotterdam. In total, shes directed five short films (fiction and non-), and acted in 11 (shorts and features). Atlantiques tells the story of a young woman from Dakar, whose fast-paced lifestyle is disrupted by the sudden disappearance of her lover. He is soon believed to be dead, especially as bodies of some of his friends start to wash up on a Dakar beach. Its thought that they must have gone to sea in one of the many boats (known locally as pirogues) that leave Senegals shores, crossing the Atlantic to Europe in a treacherous journey as the passengers seeking better prospects. Its a familiar and topical story tackled previously by African filmmakers like fellow Senegalese director Moussa Toure in La Pirogue (2012), which also world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that year, although in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. This is the legend of the bird that rises from the ashes, Diop said in a directors statement about the film. Here, the phoenix is a young woman. After devoting a short film to the men who leave by sea, my current interest is in the women who stay behind, the ones who wait for a brother, a lover, a son to come back. Diop directed from a script she co-wrote with Olivier Demangel. The film was shot in Senegal in 2018, with local actors playing characters who speak Wolof, the dominant local language. Judith Lou Levy and Eve Robin are producers for Les Films du Bal, with Arte France Cinema, Cinekap (Senegal) and Frakas Productions (Belgium) all co-producing. Canal+, TV5 Monde and Cine+ pre-purchased rights to the film, with additional funding support from Senegals FOPICA fund, La Francophonies Image Fund, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and Eurimages. Diops 35 Shots of Rum director Claire Denis recently supported the younger filmmakers ambitions by programming her short in an American screening series. In an interview this week with Barry Jenkins, Denis called the opportunity to support Diop a good thing Ive done in my life. She added that Diop called her when Atlantiques was finished. She doesnt need me, but I felt, this is something that Im proud of, Denis said. Not because Im a woman and shes a young woman, no. Its because I know what she wants to do, and I am proud of that. Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. By now the story of Be More Chill, Michael in the Bathroom and George Salazar has entered Broadway lore, so just a quick recap: Joe Iconis musical about high school theater geeks, teenage angst and a seductive new pill-sized technology that can turn a kid from nobody to popular in one gulp began its road to Broadway in New Jersey. Or on the internet. Or both. After a 2015 production at New Jerseys Two River Theater came and went, its cast album that went viral, with 170 million fans around the world streaming the music. Mostly, at least at first, they streamed Michael in the Bathroom, a cri de coeur performed by actor George Salazar as Michael, best friend of Chills lead character Jeremy. Abandoned by his pal after years of us-against-them in the middle-school trenches, Michael takes refuge in a bathroom at a cool-kids party, hiding from the world and belting a song that gives voice to every self-conscious kid sacrificed at the altar of an old buddys newfound popularity. Related stories Broadway's 'Hadestown' Raises Hell And Musical Stakes For The Tony Season: Review Born and raised in Orlando, Florida, Salazar had his first taste of success at 24 in 2010, when he was cast in the second national tour of Spring Awakening. He made his Broadway debut a year later in Godspell, and stayed more or less busy until someone, somewhere first shared that digital file of a song from a little show in Red Bank, New Jersey from summer 2015. Deadline spoke to Salazar recently about the show, the song and how his life has changed, a change that makes itself known every night on Broadway when Michael in the Bathroom is greeted with the kind of applause an outsider can only imagine. This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. Deadline: Ive seen the show twice now and Im still surprised that youre 33. How do you convince audiences that youre in high school? Story continues George Salazar: The last thing I want to come across as is some geriatric whos trying to pretend to be a teenager. On the inside, Ill have you know, my body is crumbling, but on the outside Im glad that it seems like Im passably a young person. Joe often talks about the alchemy of when an actor and a character just walk in step perfectly. In real life I have a youthful exuberance, I guess I would say. It sounds douchey of me to say that, but I do and it translates. Its actually an Achilles heel for me. I did the Off-Broadway revival of [Jonathan Larsons] Tick, TickBoom! and I played a marketing exec who was over 30 the same exact age I was. When the reviews came out, a lot of them said I was not passably a marketing exec. Like, I didnt have the energy or the maturity blah, blah, blah. But the youthful and, like, explosive energy works in my favor with this role. The show caught on with audiences much younger than Broadway is used to seeing. I imagine you get all sorts of letters well, not letters, but emails, texts, however kids make contact. Burden or privilege? I see it as a really full circle moment. Its going to sound corny, but I genuinely cherish these interactions becauseokay, a little context: Im a first-generation American. I grew up mixed race. My mothers from the Philippines and my fathers from Ecuador and growing up was incredibly difficult. I grew up in a time when like the census didnt include an option for mixed race. When I took the SATs and had to bubble in which ethnicity I was, I raised my hand and asked the teacher, can you help me on this? Before I even flipped a page. Because it says choose one and theres no option for mixed race. The teacher asked, well, whats your dad? I said well hes from Ecuador, and they said okay, well, bubble in Latin and I felt terrible for the whole rest of the exam, like I was completely negating my mothers existence. Im literally half Filipino and half Ecuadorian, and here I was choosing one over the other. So growing up I did not see myself reflected in television, in movies, in theater. And Im also gay, so throw that into the mix and its truly a buffet of confusion. So doing this show I have been meeting young people who at 13 have their shit together in a way that I didnt until I was, honestly, 28, 29 years old. Ive been inspired by meeting them. Seeing that the work I do with my friends and this character that I play and I pour so much of my love and heart into is having such an impact and effect on young people is truly the greatest reward that Ive experienced in my entire life. If this show hadnt come along, what kind of obstacles do you think would have presented themselves to you with regard to your ethnicity? Im thinking of Darren Criss who said, after starring in the Assassination of Gianni Versace series, that he had never really come across any sort of barrier to his career because he presents with Caucasian features [Criss mother is Filipino]. I have been very fortunate to make an impression among people who I respect as artists and those people have been my saving grace both artistically and financially. Ive been able to support myself as an actor and I fully admit its been very difficult, but I am grateful for those people because without those people it wouldve been a very bleak couple of years. If Im going to be completely honest, there have been times when I would sit there and just wish that I wasnt mixed race, that it would be so much easier if I was a white male, and that kind of thinking is really toxic. It starts to infiltrate your spirit and it makes you resent who you are and where you come from, and thats like spoiling yourself from the inside out. So I try to stay away from that kind of thinking and rather than focus on how difficult it is to be mixed race in this business and so visually not Caucasian, I prefer to focus on all of the wonderful artists who have given me opportunities over the years because theyve allowed me to compile a canon of work that I am really proud of regardless of what the reviewers may have thought of me as a marketing exec. The ethnicity and sexuality of Michael, your character in Be More Chill, is not specified. But are you hinting at his sexuality? I have kind of modeled Michael from the beginning on myself in high school. I just made him the better version, like if I was able to do high school over again, I would do it exactly like Michael instead of trying so desperately to fit in and be liked by everyone. Do you play at all that Michael is in love with Jeremy or is it purely platonic? I will tell you that I am playing Michael without an attraction to his friend. When I was that age in high school I was figuring my shit out. I didnt know what I was and I also wasnt trying to rush into it. There was a fear of it. So when Ive been creating Michael every step of the way, I wanted to make sure that his sexuality was not an issue. I dont want to sexualize a 16-year-old. But if people are coming in and seeing something in the character that they believe is him in love with his best friend, great. Draw your own conclusions. Whats exciting is that it feels like Im part of a choose-your-own-adventure experienceI certainly had and still have tons and tons and tons of straight male friends who are just straight male friends, and then in high school there were definitely straight male friends that I had a huge crush on. But I feel I treated each of the friendships the same. As George, I pour the same amount of heart into each of my friendships. My story in the show is about someone who loves his friend and will do anything for his friend. But there are young LGBTQ kids who are seeing the show and who have voiced that they feel represented by Michael, and Im thrilled with that. In version 2.0 [Off Broadway] we threw in a line for Michael where he says my mothers would be thrilled. That one line changed the character kind of entirely because hes now a little more complicated. Meeting young people who love our show this is kind of where that line came from I was meeting young kids who have lesbian mothers and their energy and their essence is completely different and I will tell you why: Because for so long gay people were not able to raise kids and were not able to have a family and so now that gay people can, they and this is my experience gay people love their kids in a way that is so special, in a way that is so unique and that kind of love when youre a child and youre developing and you receive that kind of love and attention from your parents, it makes you a different type of person. So thats another kind of essence thing with Michael hes different from everybody else because hes raised by different people. Is the character still developing in any way? Ive sung Michael in the Bathroom well over 3 hundred times in performance and every single time Ive done it, its felt like a different performance, a different song. Im not trying to chase the feeling or the sensation of one performance that I thought went really well, Im just in the moment, and so if something comes out of my mouth differently, theres no reason to scurry back and lock into a delivery that Ive done a hundred times. But its never in a detrimental, changing-the-story kind of way. And that brings me to my last question. If Michael in the Bathroom hadnt blown up online, if that first person who shared that song on the internet hadnt shared it, do you ever wonder where you would be now? Ive never been one to play the what-ifs kind of game, but all I can tell you is the person who shared the song that first time, I am eternally indebted to. This show and this song in particular changed my life. It gave me a feeling of worth as an artist that I had not felt before 2015 in New Jersey. It opened up a world of collaboration between Joe Iconis and myself. Its delivered a bountiful and fruitful collaboration, a series of collaborations with Stephen Brackett and with Joe Tracz. The person who did that changed my life forever. I meet young people and parents who feel inspired by my story and who feel inspired by my work, and so rather than wonder where I would be, I just like to think about how wonderful it is that it all happened and that I get to share it all with my parents. At opening nights my mother couldnt stop crying. I mean, she literally cried through the entire evening, even at the party. I dont come from a family that is steeped with money or a rich financial history. My parents moved here from the Philippines and Ecuador with literally nothing. My dad was sent up here without his mom when he was 4 and was raised by aunts and uncles, and he barely finished high school. He was able to work his ass off to provide a life for his family that has led me to this point, and my parents, Im ashamed to say but Im also proud to say, have bailed me out of so many financial pickles Nothing to be ashamed of there and theyve never stopped believing in me. When my mom came to the first preview she was, like, Can I come out to the stage, George? I just want to see it. And so she came out with me, my dad came to see the show and he came out as well, and theyre just beside themselves. Every little interview and every little feature and every little segment and every fan interaction theyveI can see them watching and memorizing it in their brains, and its really overwhelmed me. Because, you know, I do it for them. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The redacted version of Robert Muellers report about his investigation into President Donald Trump and Russia was released on Thursday morning and, across 448 pages, the special counsel laid out in detail the work that led him to a complicated truth as best as his team came to understand it. No, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. Nonetheless, the report documents numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign and describes their passively symbiotic relationship ahead of the 2016 presidential election in stark terms. [T]he investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the report states, in part. Most jarringly, the report explains a comprehensive effort by Trump to put an end to the special counsels investigation once he became a target of the probe. Mueller did not make a decision if such conduct was a crime, given the complicated legal and constitutional restraints on such a question. Still, the scenes that Mueller recounts recall Nixonian presidential intrusions and, extraordinarily, the refusal of Trump aides to carry out some of his wishes for fear of the political cost essentially a staff saving Trump from himself. According to one former top aide, Trump viewed the fact that Russia had worked to help elect him, even without his cooperation, as his Achilles heel because it could be used by critics to delegitimize his unexpected victory. He reacted with visible dismay to Muellers appointment, in May 2017, according to the report. When Trump was told, he slumped back in his chair and said, Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im f, the report states. Story continues In a news conference on Thursday ahead of the reports release, Attorney General William Barr made this defense of the presidents state of mind during Muellers work: Trump was frustrated and angered by his sincere believe that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks. The White House cooperated extensively with Mueller, and Trump answered some written questions about Russia but he declined to be interviewed and Mueller did not force him, though his team believed they had legal authority to do so. (Muellers team felt it would not be worth the delay and they already had substantial evidence needed to understand what happened.) The first of the reports two volumes, some 200 pages, exhaustively details Russias efforts to interfere in the 2016 election in order to boost Trumps candidacy and the available contacts between Trump and his associates and Russian nationals, including those in the government. According to Mueller, and as has been previously argued by prosecutors in extensive federal court filings, Russias election interference was essentially two-pronged: A company funded by a Russian oligarch with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin spent years using social media to provoke and amplify political and social discord in the U.S., denigrating Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton and praising Trump; simultaneously, the Russian military stole emails and other documents from Clintons campaign and related officials and then shared them either via fake online personas or in coordination with WikiLeaks. Despite some earlier skepticism of the extent of the redactions in the public Mueller report, most of it is completely un-redacted. Attorney General Barr has said the redactions fall into four general categories: those relating to grand jury matters, which are required to be kept secret by law; those relating to intelligence-gathering sources and methods; those relating to the privacy of irrelevant third parties; and those that could harm ongoing cases. In the lead-up to the election and after, the president and his team repeatedly downplayed, dismissed or lied about their connections to Russia. Muellers report documents how, over time, Trump campaign and administration officials began to act more cautiously regarding Russia aware of the increased public and media scrutiny, in part because of Trumps professed affection for Putin. The Mueller reports first volume, covering the Trump-Russia links, includes several previously known attempts between Trump and Russian intermediaries to establish a relationship between their camps but does not confirm any criminal conspiracy, which Muellers team used to interpret all such behavior. Again and again, according to Muellers report, Russian efforts to interface or work with President Trump and his team were either ignored, rebuffed or stalled for lack of an immediate incentive. This appears to have been the case in the notorious June 2016 meeting between a former Russian prosecutor and several high-level Trump campaign officials, including son Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. According to Muellers report, Don Jr. had agreed to the meeting believing it could yield potentially damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Trumps Democratic challenger. Instead, the report shows, the meeting lasted about 20 minutes and was almost immediately deemed a waste of time by Kushner as the Russians spoke only in vague terms and kept turning back to the Magnitsky Act, a piece of U.S. legislation that Putin found intolerable. (Some of the Trump-Russia contacts remain mysterious, such as why Paul Manafort, then the Trump campaign head, was sharing polling data with a former associate tied to Russia and Ukraine.) Muellers report is more conclusive on another high-profile relationship: between Trump officials and WikiLeaks, especially regarding the release of the stolen Democratic material. The Trump Campaign showed interest in WikiLeakss releases of hacked materials throughout the summer and fall of 2016, according to Muellers report and it later states as fact that there was advance notice of WikiLeakss release of hacked information. Much of this section of the report is redacted because it is connected to grand jury proceedings or an ongoing matter. But it describes one scene in the summer of 2016 when Trump and a top campaign official were heading to the airport and Trump told the official after a phone call that more releases of damaging information would be coming. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser who was arrested earlier this year and accused of obstructing Muellers investigation, remained in touch with the campaign in 2016. According to Stones indictment, After the July 22, 2016 release of stolen DNC emails by [Wikileaks] a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact [Stone] about any additional releases and what other damaging information [Wikileaks] had regarding the Clinton Campaign. (Stone has pleaded not guilty.) Given the redactions, the public version of Muellers report does not provide a full picture of the relationship between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. Nonetheless Attorney General Barr, speaking to reporters on Thursday before the reports release, took care to note that Mueller investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in the dissemination of stolen Democratic material. Tellingly, he said Mueller did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. Barr did not elaborate, but such a statement seemed to point toward the conclusion that Trump officials were only involved or aware of the publication of the material and did not have any connection to the underlying theft committed by the Russians. The second volume of Muellers report another some 200 pages analyzes in similar granular detail the various efforts the president undertook to derail, curb or end Muellers investigation and whether any of those actions amounted to criminal obstruction of justice. Much of the second volume is dense legal analysis which, according to Muellers report, precluded his team from making a decision about whether the president committed a crime. It is the subject of debate on whether a sitting president can be charged with a crime. It is the governments official position that that is not constitutional and instead the correct solution would be impeachment by Congress. The Mueller report lays out the various acts and accompanying evidence of potentially obstructive behavior. For example, the president tried to have Mueller removed as special counsel, tried to have his attorney general resume supervision of the probe and made statements to various other officials aimed at influencing the course of the investigation including telling James Comey, then the FBI director, that he hoped Comey could drop his investigation of Trumps former national security adviser. Muellers report repeatedly underlines that his team did not make a judgement about the presidents guilt or innocence. And without explicitly saying so, the report repeatedly points toward Congress as the ultimate authority in settling such matters. According to the report: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. In a section detailing the presidents proposed defenses of his behavior, Muellers team argues that the Constitution does not categorically and permanently immunize a President for obstructing justice through the use of his Article II powers. According to this view, even though much of the presidents scrutinized behavior was based on his Constitutional powers, it does not permit him license to govern at will. The proper supervision of criminal law does not demand freedom for the President to act with the intention of shielding himself from criminal punishment, avoiding financial liability, or preventing personal embarrassment, the report states. To the contrary, a statute that prohibits official action undertaken for such personal purposes furthers, rather than hinders, the impartial and evenhanded administration of the law. After Mueller submitted his report to the attorney general, Barr and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, found that there was insufficient evidence to prove obstruction against the president. Trump Responds In a statement on Thursday, Trumps lawyers described the Mueller investigation as a total victory for the President, according to CNBC reporter Eamon Javers. The report underscores what we have argued from the very beginning there was no collusion there was no obstruction, the Trump legal team said. While Trump had reportedly been preparing a point-by-point rebuttal of the Mueller report, it was not immediately released. Speaking at an event later Thursday, the president joked that he was having a good day. Its called no collusion, no obstruction. This should never happen to another president again, this hoax. It should never happen to another president again, Trump said, echoing his longstanding accusation that the special counsels investigation was a politically motivated witch hunt. In a characteristic boast on Twitter Thursday, Trump posted a meme with the text No collusion. No obstruction. . Game Over, with the later phrase in the Game of Thrones font. (HBO was not pleased.) Mueller was authorized from the start to pursue matters that arose from his initial investigation of the president and Russia, and the most significant prosecutions from his work were largely unrelated to the 2016 campaign itself. Michael Flynn, the disgraced general and former Trump national security adviser, admitted lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian ambassador after Trump was elected and Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, will spend years in prison for financial crimes and conspiracy. Stone, the longtime Trump adviser, was the last notable associate targeted by Mueller. He was arrested in January on seven charges, all related to efforts to mislead and obstruct Congressional probes into Russia and the Trump campaign. He denied wrongdoing. The disappearance of a 14-year-old boy is now being handled as a criminal investigation and authorities say theres a person of interest in the case. Jonathon E. Minard has been missing since Saturday, the Carroll County Sheriffs Office announced in a news release obtained by PEOPLE. Minard disappeared while helping a 29-year-old man on a farm in New Harrisburg, Fox8, the Free Press Standard and the Canton Repository report. The man, who has a criminal record of mainly drug offenses, is the person of interest. He has not been publicly named. The man told investigators that Minard had been helping him milk cows when he said he had a tooth ache and wanted to call his mom to go home. He and Minard walked back to the mans home to make the call, the man said but Minards mother never received the call and the boy subsequently vanished, the Repository reports. No arrests have been made as of Thursday, the Standard and Repository report. Sheriff Dale Williams told local station WKYC that since the investigation, he has had trouble sleeping. Were talking about a 14 year old, this kid didnt hurt anybody, he isnt a boy who gets into a lot of trouble, Williams said. Its something that really works on you. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Minards aunt Jo Hepner gave an emotional interview to WKYC and pleaded for her nephews safe return. If you seriously know where hes at and what has happened to him, please tell us. Were begging you, I mean, this is our last hope, Hepner said. Just help us please find him. Thats all Im asking, tell us where he is. Minard is described as being 5 feet 7 inches and 145 lbs. He has brown hair, blue eyes and was last seen wearing a blue hoodie with brown pants and boots. He does not have any form of ID on him. Anyone with information is asked to call the Carroll County Sheriffs Office at 330-627-2141. Sea of Stars is a new Image Comics sci-fi series that hits shelves July 3 from writing tandem of Jason Aaron (Southern Bastards) and Dennis Hallum (Cloak & Dagger) along with artist Stephen Green (Hellboy and the BPRD) that weaves two different deep-space adventures into a unified narrative that draws on Jack Kirby, Pixar, Miyazaki and The Neverending Story. Today, below, an exclusive first-look at the artwork from the series. While its plenty common for writing partnerships to end in creative differences but how often do they start with them? The hybrid nature of Sea of Stars is a testament to the inability of its co-creators to see eye-to-eye about any major aspect of the project. As co-writer Hallum explains: Jason and I talked about co-writing a story for years, but our sensibilities are so different it never clicked. He had an adventure story about a little boy swimming through the stars. I wanted to turn it into an ice-truck driver whos kid goes missing in the arctic. Our brains just wouldnt line up. Related stories Netflix And Image Comics: Mark Millar's 'Space Bandits' Brings Howard Chaykin Aboard Hero Nation Logo The only common ground that the writers seemed to share was an urgent enthusiasm to work with artist Stephen Green (a southern-fried genius as Hallum puts it). To overcome their differences the writers decided tostubbornly stick with their differences? Instead of compromising, Hallum explained, we decided Stephen could pull off both stories at the same time. Sea of Stars is the strange stew the three of us cooked-up with all those disparate ingredients. Equal parts Jack Kirby, Finding Nemo, and The Road in space. Jasons half is a bright-eyed kids cosmic adventure. My half is his fathers science fiction nightmare. Its the biggest, weirdest and coolest thing Ive ever been a part of. Aaron added: This is a story about a father and son who get separated. In the wildest reaches of outer space. And from there, it becomes very important that this series has two writers. Because Dennis and I are basically doing two radically different perspectives on the same sort of deep space journey. While the kid finds himself suddenly gifted with a wondrous power that allows him to joyfully swim his way through the stars alongside some talking space animals, the dad is alone and fighting for his life every step of the way against the most dangerous and inhospitable environment imaginable. And then theres the matter of the giant space monster that seems to have a strange interest in both father and son. Story continues A preview of Sea of Stars issue No. 1 from Image Comics Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Lore in my wifes family says that her mother, a beautiful Jewish immigrant fleeing grief in the Ukraine about a century ago, ran into someone named Carl Laemmle on a ship crossing the Atlantic. As the story goes, Laemmle asked her to check in with his still-young Universal film company, as she might have a future in the movies. Once in the United States, friends and relatives advised the young woman against it. This was probably a white slavery racket, they warned. Maybe theyd been watching pictures like Traffic In Souls, Universals first full-length feature, which in 1913 dramatized the trade in immigrant girls who were routed from Ellis Island to the bordellos. Related stories 'Trolls' Franchise To Hit Live Stages For Worldwide Tour At any rate, my late mother-in-law took a pass. And when I once described the episode to Lew Wasserman, then chief executive of Universals MCA Inc. parent corporation, he said: Too bad. You could have been one of us. At the time, that tribal noteone of usseemed strange to me. But I understand it a little better now, having seen Carl Laemmle, director James L. Freedmans new documentary about the grandly familial founder of what used be called the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company. Not for nothing was Laemmle known as Uncle Carl. As Freedman tells it, dozens of relatives, and friends of relatives, and relatives of friends, found a place at his studio. Some of them became famous. William Wyler, the esteemed director, was the son of a mother who claimed Laemmle as a cousin. Another relative helped break the studio. That would be Laemmles son, Carl Jr., who was known for his free-spending ways. Still other relatives and friends of the family, and there were many, escaped Nazi oppression over the years, because Laemmle, a German-born Jew, got jobs and credentials for hundreds of refugees who might otherwise have been stranded in Europe as the Holocaust closed in. Story continues This is all the stuff of Freedmans documentary, which will have a gala screening on May 2, on the opening night of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills. Peter Bogdanovich, who will receive the Marvin Paige Hollywood Legacy award, is expected to attend. Both he and Ron Meyer, vice-chairman of NBC Universal, are featured in the film, which manages, in just under 91 minutes, to remind us how much weve forgotten about the ups, downs, ins, outs, and, mostly, about the sheer humanity of a motion picture business that is after all more entertaining than most of what it projects on the screen. Frankly, I never knew much about Laemmles bitter trust wars with Thomas Edison: But out of them, much of modern Hollywood was born. Universals All Quiet On The Western Front, Id always admired. But its easy to forget that the film, with its pacifist message, told from a German point of view, fueled Goebbels propaganda war against the Jews. And those refugee stories, told against dozens of clips and stills depicting Uncle Carl, with his impossibly engaging, gap-toothed smile, do what can only be done in a film. They make Carl Laemmlethe kind of mogul who could tell a young immigrant to stop by the studio for a shot at a job, and actually mean it (he employed no fewer than 11 female directors in those early days)beautifully real. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Kathleen Pittman has been the clinic administrator at Hope Medical Group in Shreveport, Louisiana, since 2010. Back when she first took the job, there were seven abortion clinics operating in the state. Today, there are three. Earlier this year, after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a law that would have required every doctor who provides abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, that number temporarily fell to two. It could have dwindled to just one if the Supreme Court had not stepped in, temporarily blocking the law from going into effect. On Wednesday, the Center for Reproductive Rights asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Fifth Circuits decision, keeping the three clinics left in Louisiana open. And, in an unusual step, theyre asking for the court to overturn the law without a hearing because of its striking similarities to a law the court already struck down three years ago, in Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt. Related stories Will the Supreme Court Finally End Gerrymandering? Cecile Richards: 'We Have a System That Wasn't Built For Us' The Louisiana law is identical to the Texas law struck down three years ago by the Supreme Court, Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which successfully led the charge to strike down that Texas law, said in a call with reporters on Wednesday. The Louisiana law was modeled on the Texas law specifically in recognition of the Texas laws tremendous success at closing abortion clinics and reducing abortion access. Because none of the circumstances have changed in the three intervening years, lawyers for the Center for Reproductive Rights say there is no reason for the court to hold a hearing on the matter. Thats how clear-cut this case is: There is no need for new argument, Northup says. But it would be unusual for the court to strike down the law without a hearing, acknowledges Northup, especially since the courts motion to temporarily halt the law in February only narrowly passed in a 5-4 vote. Story continues Going forward, there are several ways the Louisiana case could play out. The court could grant the Center for Reproductive Rights request to strike down the law without even a hearing, or the court could hold the hearing and strike down the law; in both of those cases the justices would be upholding the precedent they set three years ago. The other possible scenarios are less rosy for abortion advocates. The court could hear the case and uphold the Fifth Circuits decision that the Louisiana law was constitutional: two new conservative justices have been added to the court since 2016, when Whole Womans Health was decided, and though Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberal wing in February to temporarily block the Louisiana law, he voted against striking down the Texas law in 2016. The final possibility is that the court could decide to not hear the case, leaving the Fifth Circuit ruling in place in which case the Supreme Court would be declining to uphold the precedent it set in Whole Womens Health, overturning it, in effect if not overtly, and all but ensuring the shuttering of two of the last three abortion clinics in Louisiana. That scenario would likely open the floodgates for copy-cat laws around the country. After the Whole Womans Health decision, admitting privileges laws in five other states were either blocked by courts or abandoned by states, Northup says. But if states knew the Supreme Court would no longer stand in the way of such legislation, it would be open season. Anti-abortion forces will see that not just as a road map but as an invitation to enact all manner of abortion restrictions and try to do an end run around womens health, Travis Tu, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Rolling Stone in March. Depending on how long it takes the state of Louisiana to respond to the petition filed Wednesday, the case could potentially end up before the court within the next two months. In the meantime, Louisiana women and the doctors who provide abortions in the state, will have to wait. Literally. The decreasing number of clinics means fewer available appointments. During the brief period in which we were down to just two providers, early on in this case before it was stayed, we were seeing women have to postpone abortions for several weeks, Pittman says. This cannot happen again. At the very least, if the delays mean women having abortions later, which drives up the cost, it may even put abortion beyond reach for some of these women. Lack of financial resources is the most common reason given for women terminating a pregnancy, Pittman says. The state already has a 24-hour waiting period on the books, which means the women who seek abortions at Hope Medical most of whom already have children and live near or below the poverty line need to come at least twice. It isnt uncommon when reviewing charts to see patients noted on the top of the chart that they scheduled and rescheduled multiple times due to issues with having to arrange for transportation, childcare or even time off work. And for the providers, the decreasing number of clinics is directly proportional to an increase in the intensity of anti-abortion protesters outside their doors. At Hope we have seen protester activity become more frequent and nasty, and nasty is the only word I have for it, says Pittman, Its become more personal, with physicians and staff being called out in-person and on social media. Patients are being recorded arriving and leaving and are being subjected to harassment they shouldnt have to endure. All of this is already happening with the three clinics. Sign up for Rolling Stones Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Seated No. 6 has total emotional impact at first viewing, reads the jurors comments about La Jolla resident Marion Mettlers submission to the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies (WFWS) upcoming show. Theres wonderful design, shape, color, line, and impact its very entertaining. It uses all of the tools in our toolbox to make great compositions. Its abstract but, on closer inspection, you find that there are figures. Its not non-objective its truly abstract. There are alternating warm and cool colors. The spot of yellow is repeated just enough to keep us moving through the painting. Mettlers Seated No. 6 was selected as Best of Show at the upcoming WFWS annual exhibition, which is held once every decade in San Diego. This year, it will be on display in the month of May at the San Diego Watercolor Society, 2825 Dewey Road in Liberty Station. A reception will be 5-9 p.m. Friday, May 2 as part of the Friday Night Liberty walk-through. Seated No. 6 by La Jolla artist Marion Mettler Courtesy The WFWS is comprised of 10 watercolor societies west of the Mississippi among them San Diego, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico which rotate hosting the annual show. San Diego Watercolor Society communications director Stephanie Van de Wetering said its a really big deal to have the exhibition here this year. The submissions are judged blind (jurors dont know who produced the works or where they reside), and San Diego Watercolor Society members won many of the top honors this year including Mettlers Best of Show. I was shocked and surprised to win Best of Show; its an honor and unusual thing to achieve, Mettler told La Jolla Light. I was delighted. Calling the San Diego Watercolor Society a nice home, Mettler said shes been a member for years, dedicating more and more of her time to art once she retired from the publishing world. I do a lot of figure drawing, so these days, my watercolor works stem from the drawings Ive done. I was a 12-year member of a group called the Fig Group, short for figure drawing group, which recently ended, so Im going to the San Diego Watercolor Societys drawing session most Thursdays, and that gives me a change to draw my figures. I use that material. I often do drawings on a kind of translucent paper and if I draw on that, I can put it over something else. I use pages from old books and pages as background. From there, Mettler watercolor paints over the whole thing. Of her Best of Show piece, she said: Seated No. 6 is a recent work with two figures put together to make one piece. Van de Wetering opined: (Mettler) brings collages and watercolors together. In her work, there is an abstracted figure, but she doesnt fill in all the blanks; she allows you, the viewer, to bring your own understanding to it. Its a balance. She added that the watercolor medium presents its own challenges creatively and technically which many artists enjoy. If you paint in oil, which is a classic thing to do, and make a mistake, you can cover it with white, or wipe it off and start over. There are canvases where experts have done X-rays and found layers underneath, so oil is an additive medium. Watercolor, not so much. In fact, not at all, Van de Wetering said. The only white you have is the white of the paper, so you have to preserve your whites and be extremely mindful as youre painting because you can never get them back. At the same time, you have to let watercolor do its own thing. You can never recreate the same watercolor twice. In addition to monthly showcases of member works, the San Diego Watercolor Society also offers workshops, three levels of classes, a permanent collection from top watercolor artists, an international show in October (which is open to anyone in the world, not just members), a plein air show in December, a library of resources for members, a small gift shop,and more. The Writers Guild of America on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit against Hollywoods top four talent agencies, escalating its dispute over packaging fees. At a press conference on Wednesday, the guild said it was filing a lawsuit that alleges that packaging fees collected when bundling talent and bringing them as a package to a studio or network for film or TV projects are illegal under California and federal law. The lawsuit claims that packaging fees violate California fiduciary law by severing the relationship between writers compensation and what the agency receives in fees. Also Read: Talent Agents Plan Fight Against WGA, Lay Out Standard of Representation for Agents Lawyers for the WGA also argued during the press conference on Wednesday that packaging fees violate the Taft-Hartley Act, which says that any representative of an employee cannot receive money from the employer. All of the writer plaintiffs have been hurt financially by packaging deals. They are creators and writers of television shows that have shaped a generation, yet their agents have profited at the expense of their own clients, WGAW general counsel Tony Segall said in a statement. The plaintiffs will seek a judicial declaration that packaging fees are unlawful and an injunction prohibiting talent agencies from entering into future packaging deals. The suit will also seek damages and repayment of illegal profits on behalf of writers who have been harmed by these unlawful practices in the past. In a statement, Association of Talent Agents Executive Director Karen Stuart warned that the guild was sending the entertainment industry on a predetermined path to chaos and declared it was proof that the guild never had any intention to negotiate. This development is ironic given that the guild itself has agreed to the legitimacy of packaging for more than 43 years, Stuart said. Even more ironic is the fact that the statute the WGA is suing under prevents abuses of power and authority by labor union leaders, even as the guild has intimidated its own members and repeatedly misled them about their lack of good faith in the negotiating room. Story continues Also Read: 'Thousands' of Members Have Signed Letters Firing Agents, WGA Says In a counter-statement, the WGA said: If the major agencies would abide by existing law antitrust and racketeering law this deal would have been done 11 months ago. The ATAs repeated use of anti-union rhetoric illustrates how much in denial the big agencies are. In addition to the guild, the lawsuit named eight writers as plaintiffs, including The Wire creator David Simon, Madam Secretary creator Barbara Hall and Cold Case creator Meredith Stiehm, who also serves as the co-chair of the negotiating committee for the WGAW and sits on the guilds board. Patti Carr (Reign), Ashley Gable (The Mentalist), Deric Hughes (Arrow), Chip Johannessen (Homeland), Deirdre Mangan (iZombie) and also named as plaintiffs. Stiehm said that her agency, CAA, negotiated a packaging fee on the long-running CBS police procedural Cold Case without her knowledge, and that she didnt become aware of the fee until the show was in its seventh season, when the network asked her to reduce the shows budget. For every dollar that I made, (CAA) made 94 cents. They should make 10 percent, Stiehm said, citing the traditional fee that agencies collect from clients. If an agency is taking $75,000 out of the budget every episode, that is money that can be spent on actors or sets or music. We had to take out music, we had to cut down to 17 episodes and we couldnt shoot in Philadelphia. Season 7 was less of a season than it could have been. Also Read: WGA Rejects Talent Agencies' Offer to Share Package Fees - Writer Exodus Looks Likely Since a 43-year-old agreement between the WGA and the Association of Talent Agents expired last Friday, the guild said thousands of its writer members have severed their relationship with their agencies. The lawsuit comes as thousands of prominent film and TV writers have fired their agents and committed their support for the WGA and the new code of conduct that members approved by an overwhelming majority. The code explicitly forbids agents representing its writer members to collect packaging fees a condition that none of the major talent agencies so far has agreed to honor. According to the WGA, the four major agencies receive more than 80% of the packaging fees paid by Hollywood studios and networks. Packaging fees are not a new practice in Hollywood, but they have always been controversial, Segall said. It is time to put an end to the egregious conflict of interest that they pose. Pamela Chelin contributed to this report. Read original story WGA Sues Hollywoods Top 4 Talent Agencies Over Packaging Fees At TheWrap EXCLUSIVE: Former Rescue Me and Nurse Jackie star Adam Ferrara is set for a recurring role opposite Alicia Coppola, Ginnifer Goodwin, Sam Jaeger in CBS All Access Why Women Kill, a darkly comedic drama from Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, Imagine Television Studios and CBS TV Studios. Created by Cherry, Why Women Kill details the lives of three women living in three different decades: a housewife in the 60s (Goodwin), a socialite in the 80s (Lucy Liu) and a lawyer in 2018 (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), each dealing with infidelity in her marriage. The series will examine how the roles of women have changed but how reactions to betrayal have not. Related stories 'Star Trek' Jean-Luc Picard Series Adds Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway & Isa Briones To Cast Ferrara will play Leo, married to Sheila (Coppola) and owner of a dry-cleaning chain in Brooklyn, set in 1963. Always good-humored and happy to welcome Rob (Jaeger) and Beth Ann (Goodwin) to the neighborhood. Cherry will serve as executive producer alongside Imagines Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, and Acme Productions Michael Hanel and Mindy Schultheis. Marc Webb will direct and also executive produce. Why Women Kill is produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios. Ferrara most recently starred in Lionsgates release of Little Italy opposite Emma Roberts, Hayden Christensen, Alyssa Milano, Danny Aiello and Andrea Martin. Since wrapping his stint as co-host of the U.S. version of Top Gear, Ferrara has been focused on his first love, Stand-Up, releasing his album Unconditional and appearing on CBS The Late Late Show with James Corden. Ferrara is repped by Innovative Artists, manager Peter Rosegarten of PARosegarten Media Group and attorney Isaac Dunham. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Photo credit: Bill Clark - Getty Images From Esquire It may take decades, even centuries, for the state of Wisconsin to recover from the damage done to it in the 21st by its homegrown Republican Party, and that damage was not contained in the state capitol by any means. Wisconsin's voters also managed to send a few of the dimmer bulbs to the congressional chandelier as well. For example, the Democratic Party has decided to hold its convention in Milwaukee next year. This is a big deal and, if it's done right, it will mean a lot to the citizens of that city, which needs a break since the Republicans in Madison seem bound and determined to saw it off and let it float out to the middle of Lake Michigan. Of course, members of the state's congressional delegation decided to make some funnies about it. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil of Janesville and Sean Duffy of Hayward recently discussed Democrats' decision to come to Milwaukee for next year's convention during an episode of Duffy's "Plaidcast" podcast. Their comments about the 2020 DNC came shortly after they criticized the Green New Deal, a broad plan for addressing climate change championed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "In Wisconsin - it's shocking - they want to get rid of our cows," said Duffy, the 7th District congressman from Wausau. "Because cows have too much gas." "I think we've got to talk about this when they bring the national convention to Wisconsin," replied Steil, who succeeded Paul Ryan as the 1st District congressman from Janesville. "Do you find any irony there? They bring the national convention to Wisconsin - the same group that wants to get rid of cows." Duffy is the former Real World contestant whose career in the Congress has been marked largely by success that is not his own; his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, occasionally pops up on The View to talk pullulation and politics. Steil is the guy who sat himself down in Paul Ryan's old seat. Both of them, of course, are lying about the Green New Deal's propensity for bovine genocide. Story continues Photo credit: Tom Williams - Getty Images But what makes them true dipwads in the modern conservative sense is that they have spent their careers in Congress stanning for an incompetent meathead in the White House whose policies are on the way to guaranteeing that there won't be any cows in America's Dairyland pretty soon anyway. Also from the J-S: Wisconsin lost 500 dairy farms in 2017, and about 150 have quit milking cows so far this year, putting the total number of milk-cow herds at around 7,600 - down 20 percent from five years ago. With collapsed prices of milk, grain and other commodities, farmers are losing money no matter how many 16-hour days they put in milking cows, caring for livestock and planting and harvesting crops. Small dairy farms have been disappearing from the rural landscape for decades, but the problem has been compounded by a sharp decline in farm-milk prices that's now in its third year and has spread across the country. Farm cooperatives have urged members to think twice about adding more cows to their operations when the marketplace is awash in milk. Some have even offered incentives for members to quit farming altogether. Federal court data shows the Western District of Wisconsin had the highest number of Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies in the nation in 2017, and that's only a glimpse into the problem since Chapter 12 is a relatively rare tool used in bankruptcies. Farmers say the downturn is worse than one they experienced in 2009 because it has lasted longer and their costs are higher now. Many dairy operations are drowning in debt; in some cases, they have a half-million dollars in unpaid bills. Hardin says many dairy farms dont have much financial staying power left after more than three years of depressed prices. Hes also hearing that rural banks and towns are being hurt by farmers struggling to pay their bills and buy things. Duffy's response was to propose a bill that would give El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago increased power to raise tariffs, something that even Senator Chuck Grassley thought was a terrible idea. Photo credit: Darren Hauck - Getty Images Rural America has been getting clobbered ever since we learned how easy trade wars were to win. (Jane Fleming Kleeb, the formidable Nebraska state Democratic chair, has a book on the politics of that very thing coming out next year.) Whether that ever will translate into an actual political threat is still hard to determine. But the threat to Wisconsin's farmers is very real, and it reaches everywhere in their lives. From the Wisconsin State Journal: But calls to the Wisconsin Farm Center, which helps distressed farmers, were up last year, including a 33 percent increase in November and December compared to the same two months the previous year.We definitely have seen an increase in folks who are closer to being that desperate, said Angie Sullivan, supervisor of the farm center, part of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Theres a major increase in their stress level. Financial struggles led Leon Statz to sell his 50 dairy cows, causing the third-generation farmer to become depressed. Then land next to his 200-acre farm near Loganville went up for sale - land his late father had said he should buy. Statz, who didnt have the money, became hopeless. On Oct. 8, the day the adjacent property hit the market, Statz killed himself on his farm. He was 57. He said, How am I going to afford this? said Brenda Statz, his wife of 34 years. He would panic about everything when it got to finances. Wisconsin, which had a record 915 suicides in 2017, may be seeing a surge in suicides and suicidal thoughts among farmers, who are facing some of the worst economic challenges in years, experts say. Yuck it up, boys. Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here. ('You Might Also Like',) Man arrested after approaching historic St. Patrick's Cathedral with gas cans, light fluid originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A man was arrested in New York City on Wednesday night after he tried to enter a cathedral with gas cans, triggering worries about a possible arson attempt in the wake of a destructive fire at the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Officers with the New York Police Department said they arrested a 37-year-old man outside of the historic St. Patricks Cathedral after he entered the building with two gasoline cans, two bottles of lighter fluid and butane lighters. A cathedral security officer stopped the man, who spilled some gasoline on the floor, and alerted counterterrorism officers who were standing nearby. An officer with the NYPD's Critical Response Command took the man, into custody without incident. PHOTO: A man was arrested trying to enter St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, N.Y., with two gas canisters, lighter fluid and lighters on Wednesday, April 17, 2019. (New York Police Department) The suspect is Marc Lamparello, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, according to two police sources. There were no injuries reported. "His basic story was that he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue, that his car had run out of gas," NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller told reporters at a press conference Wednesday night. "We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas and at that point he was taken into custody." (MORE: Flames cause 'colossal damages' to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Macron says 'we will rebuild') Sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News that the suspect was being treated as an emotionally disturbed person. The mans intentions were not immediately clear though one police source noted the timing is odd, given that we are two days from the fire at Notre Dame. There is no indication the cause of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire was arson. PHOTO: St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York (Getty Images) When asked if terrorism was a possible motive, Miller said, "It's too early to say that. It's hard to say exactly what his intentions were." Story continues (MORE: French President Macron says he wants Notre Dame Cathedral rebuilt in 5 years) Miller said security had been added in the recent days after the Paris fire. "This is an indicator of something that would be very suspicious," he said. The famous cathedral, which opened its doors nearly 200 years ago, serves as seat of the New York Archdiocese. The Archdiocese confirmed the incident in a statement to ABC News. "The individual was stopped as he tried to come into the cathedral. Was turned over to the police," the statement said. "Nothing happened inside the cathedral. Any further info has to come from the NYPD." The suspect had been charged with a crime as of late Wednesday night, but he is expected to be held for a psychiatric evaluation, police sources said. ABC News' Aaron Katersky and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report. After being diagnosed with a rare, incurable cancer, Bailey Jean Matheson decided to forgo chemotherapy and take what was left of her time on Earth into her own hands. That included writing her own obituary, which is now going viral. 35 years may not seem long, but damn it was good! Matheson wrote. She went on to say how much she appreciated her parents supporting her decision not to go through chemo. "I know how hard that must have been watching me stop treatment and letting nature take its course. I love you both even more for this," she wrote. RELATED: I Survived Breast Cancerbut My Treatment Left Me With Permanent Side Effects No One Talks About According to TODAY, Matheson, who lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the smooth muscle tissue, in January 2017. She had been experiencing stomach pain that doctors couldn't explain, and it wasn't until she found a lump in her abdomen that she was diagnosed. Doctors hoped to remove the tumor after a round of radiation, but the treatment failed to shrink it, and it was decided the surgery was too risky. Matheson could have tried chemo, but it likely wouldn't have saved her life, her doctors believed. She was ultimately given two years to live, and she decided to live them to the fullest. She traveled to 13 countries, including Ireland, England, Norway, Mexico, France, Morocco, Greece, and Spain. She also went to two live shows by her favorite band, Coldplay. RELATED: 6 Meaningful Ways to Practice Self-Care After a Scary Medical Diagnosis Matheson passed away on April 5. In her self-written obituary, she thanked her friends for being like the siblings she never had, as she was an only child. "I never thought I could love my friends more than I did but going through this and having your unconditional love and support you have made something that is normally so hard, more bearable and peaceful." Story continues She also wrote about her boyfriend, Brent Andrews, who she met just three months before her cancer diagnosis on a dating app. "You had no idea what you were getting yourself into when you swiped right that day," she joked. "I couldn't have asked for a better man to be by my side for all the adventures, appointments, laughs, cries and breakdowns. You are an amazing person and anyone in your life is so fortunate to know you. I love you beyond words." Matheson's close friend, Julie Carrigan, said in an interview with TODAY, "She said, 'I dont want it to sound like a normal, boring obituary. I want it to be a message to everybody I loved.'" She closed her obituary with a piece of advice for all the loved ones, medical team members, and pets she left behind: Dont take the small stuff so seriously and live a little. RELATED: Doctors Kept Dismissing My Back PainUntil I Was Finally Diagnosed With Terminal Cancer This story was produced in partnership with Michelin North America, Inc. Its a sunny spring day at the 3,500-acre Laurens Proving Grounds in South Carolina, where Michelin has been testing tires since 1976. The cruise control is set at 45 mph, which feels pretty fast when youre barreling between traffic cones down a test track with sprinklers dousing the asphalt, waiting for the signal to hit the brakes. Im not on Michelin tires for this run, but those of a close competitor. Both this and the Michelin sets I was recently driving on are buffed-down nearly to the end of their lifespan. Brake! cries the instructor in the passenger seat, as the front bumper reaches a yellow flag marker at the side of the track. I put my full weight on the pedal, the ABS stutters into action, and I expect the car to stop where it had on the previous run even my reflexes were expecting it but instead I just keep going. And at the spot where the car fitted with Michelin tires had come to dead stop, I am still going 18 mph a speed at which a collision with anything is still a dangerous accident. Feel the difference? asks the instructor. I feel it, I see it, and I wont soon forget it. When we think of child safety in a car, we think about car seats, often to the point of obsession. We install them in our cars with great care, staring at the level with a surveyors precision, and yanking the base back and forth to make sure its as tight as it can be. The car seat absorbs a tremendous amount of parental obsession, and rightly so. But most of us overlook the fact that one of the most fundamental child safety devices isnt in the car at all: It is the set of tires your car is riding on. When you drive, the actual portion of each tire in contact with the road at any given time is an area about the size of your hand. So, youre driving around a few thousand pounds of vehicle with four hands touching the road. Now add a deluge of rain, and you have to trust those four hands to stay in contact with the road. As tires wear out and treads get increasingly shallow, those four hands struggle to continue safely channeling off water. This means when you take a corner in the rain, youre more likely to lose control. If you need to make a sudden stop, even if your brakes do their job perfectly, your tires will not. Story continues We are all driving on worn tires, to varying degrees. So, the question we should ask ourselves as parents is not just how safe our tires are when theyre brand-new, but how safe they are down the stretch. A tire needs grooves and biting edges to channel water away, and both of these tread elements wear away in time with most tires. The MICHELIN Premier A/S tires have gone all in on late-life performance, by embedding the tire with hidden treads that reveal themselves over time, to give them a late-life renaissance of sorts. When the tires are brand new they have horizontal treads that look like laser-cut lines, but these gradually widen to become the biting edges of the tires in their golden years. And the vertical grooves also widen with time, in order to maintain safety in inclement weather over the lifespan of the tire. Most tire companies make tires to perform well when theyre new, because its simpler to make them that way: its easier to pull a tire out of a mold if it has a more straightforward tread pattern. In essence, they turn their manufacturing expediency into a problem for the consumer down the road, rather than taking on the greater cost and effort needed to make a tire that will keep doing its job throughout its life. In practice, this means older Michelin tires that hold corners in the rain, and that stop you and your precious cargo while other tires are still going 18 mph. There is something deeply jarring about a product we rely on every day not doing what its supposed to. You count on your shower to be hot when you turn the knob; you count on your lights to come on when you flip the switch; and you expect your tires to stop when you slam on the brakes. When these things dont happen, it can feel like the modern world itself has betrayed you, even when the truth is something simple, like you blew a fuse, or you bought the wrong set of tires. We buy convertible car seats because they can grow with your child and keep them safe for years to come from infant, to back-facing, to forward-facing. Similarly, Michelin has made a tire that automatically adjusts for the future. Maybe its time for us fathers to adjust accordingly. Related Articles: The post The Car Safety Issue Far Too Many Parents Ignore appeared first on Fatherly. Last month, Danish researchers published a study that showed women are often diagnosed years later than men for the same diseases. According to the report, which factored in hundreds of different diseases across a sample group of 6.9 million Danish people, women were diagnosed when they were about four years older, on average, than the age at which the conditions were recognized in men. There are many factors that may contribute to the delay of diagnoses in women. But researchers acknowledged the potential role of gender bias in this dangerous and prevalent trend. The studys findings were frustrating and concerning, but perhaps not especially surprising to those who have been following research about gender bias in the health care system for years. Anecdotal testimonies by women have shone a light on the higher threshold they often face to prove their pain and illness to doctors. That gender-based double standard extends to medical research, too. For example, aggregate data has shown women suffer from migraines at significantly higher rates than men, due to a proven connection between estrogen and migraines; yet, migraine research remains notoriously underfunded. But arguably the most prevalent and dangerous area of gender bias in health care is maternal and reproductive health care, where we encounter the tangible outcomes of gender and racial bias in steadily rising maternal death rates. While the global maternal death rate has been steadily decreasing in recent years, the United States currently maintains the highest maternal death rate in the industrialized world, at about 26.4 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, as of 2015. And while the aforementioned 26.4 deaths per 100,000 live births is unsettling enough, this rate almost doubles to 44 deaths per 100,000 live births for Black women. There is no one reason for maternal deaths and disparate outcomes for women of color. However, state laws that restrict safe and equitable access to reproductive health care like birth control and abortion are correlated with higher maternal death rates in these states. But the sting of identity-based biases in health care, and especially maternal health care, are felt on a systemic level, even in states with more liberalized reproductive health laws. Story continues Monica McLemore, a registered nurse and researcher on maternal health in the Bay Area, previously worked on a study assessing the health care-seeking experiences of women of color, and specifically, their experiences with prenatal care, birthing, and postpartum. Upon speaking with women of color in Fresno, Oakland, and San Francisco, McLemore repeatedly heard their frustrations with having to repeat themselves to care providers which led them to wonder why they werent being listened to. Many of the individuals talked about not being believed, having to repeat themselves over and over again, to multiple members of a clinical care team. People used the language of, I really felt like folks didnt believe me, or werent listening to me,' McLemore tells Brit + Co. This need to be repetitive, to have to constantly tell their story, and what they were feeling and going through, over and over again, seemed like a symptom of not being heard and believed. McLemore emphasizes the role of racial bias in worsening the phenomenon of pregnant women not being listened to especially when it comes to seeking pain medication. Youll see the incorrect perception that Black people dont experience pain when they seek pain medication, she says. Or youll see some women are perceived as being more likely to have drug-seeking behaviors. And of course, when it comes to pain medication, there are women from communities disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis, who are terrified of being affected by the opioid crisis. As a result of negative experiences with gender and racial bias in health care, McLemore says women of color who have had these experiences may be less likely to seek professional care or may withhold critical information about themselves from doctors and health care workers in the future. Raena Granberry, the maternal health program manager at Black Women for Wellness in Los Angeles, has had her own run-in with medical bias. She tells Brit + Co that doctors were doubtful of the pain she reported during a 2012 pregnancy. Granberry says that she had already been in the hospital for monitored bedrest when she suddenly began to feel such intense pain, she was certain she was in labor. Even though I said that, and I was sure about the pain I was in, [my nurse] checked my monitor, and she said, Nothings wrong, youre not in labor,' Granberry tells us. As it turned out, she was experiencing pain because her sons umbilical cord had begun pushing through her cervix. Granberry says it was only after she insisted her nurse check on her that this potentially life-threatening complication was uncovered, leading to an emergency C-section. If they had trusted me about what I said was happening to my body, we could have avoided that emergency, Granberry says. She adds that there are plenty of other stories like hers. She shared the account of another Black woman she worked with, who similarly faced disbelief and dismissal when she told doctors she was in pain. Eventually, the doctors found that her placenta had been 50 percent calcified and was nonfunctioning, necessitating the immediate removal of her baby. Stories like these closely reflect that of tennis superstar Serena Williams, who quite literally almost died because doctors didnt believe her pain was serious until it was almost too late. Many of these emergency situations start out with non-emergencies, Granberry says, and they become emergencies when were not listened to. Theres an important message to this, Granberry says, beyond that its past time for doctors to start listening to women, and especially women of color: Were not alone, and its not our fault. The more these stories come to light, the harder women are fighting back to address these life-threatening disparities. On April 9, Black women lawmakers announced the formation of the Congressional Black Maternal Health Caucus. And in California, lawmakers under the leadership of state Sen. Holly Mitchell have introduced S.B. 464, the Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act. As the maternal health program manager at Black Women for Wellness, Granberry also played a role in creating and advocating for the bill. S.B. 464, which passed out of committee on April 10, would create and fund implicit bias training for all maternal health care providers, to ensure medical professionals address the pain and needs of Black women and women of color with the same care and sensitivity that they do for white women. McLemore agrees that implicit bias training could be an important step forward. But she thinks there are additional, more comprehensive solutions that address the issues of gender and racial bias in health care at their roots. We should look to address personal and institutional biases, she says. For that, we need diversification of the health care workforce, representation, physicians, and clinical staff who look like the people they serve. To McLemore, this includes new and innovative models, such as the group care model to ensure people representing marginalized groups, such as those at the highest risk of not having health care, are part of medical staffs and serve patients that look like them and share their experiences. Some hospitals, like San Francisco General Hospital, have started developing and implementing the group care model at their facilities, McLemore says. She believes that, with greater awareness about the prevalence of racial and gender biases in health care, even more hospitals and clinics could soon adopt these solutions. Regardless of whether legislation like S.B. 464 can singlehandedly fix all gender and racial bias in health care, that particular bill certainly marks a timely and critical step forward in raising awareness about these biases, and laying the groundwork to finally address them. At the end of the day, Granberry says, not everyone has an extensive background or base of knowledge in biology or medicine. But everyone should have the right to advocate for themselves and be trusted. Weve all lived in our bodies for years, she said, and we all deserve to be heard, believed, and trusted about what were feeling and experiencing. RELATED: Beyond Baby Blues: 6 Maternal Mental Health Issues You Should Know (Photos via Getty Images) You Might Also Like Lifestyle discover/Shutterstock There are a lot of Spring celebrationsreligious and secular. One that's growing in popularity is 4/20: April 20 happens to match a slang term for getting high420. Part protest, part smoke out, part celebration, April 20also known as "Weed Day"is a tribute to all things cannabis. What does 420 meanand who invented it? The origin story is a bit muddy because there are so many myths: 420 has been linked to penal codes, Hitler's birthday, or the numerical references in a Bob Dylan song. Most aficionados stick to the story of 420 as a police code for "marijuana smoking in progress," though police will tell you there is no such code. According to TIME, the best evidence suggests that 420 got its start in 1971 amongst a group of high school buddies in San Rafael, California, who would meet at 4:20when their extracurriculars had typically endedto smoke. (Although pot is now considered relatively safe for adults, its effect on teens can be much more damaging.) They began using "420" as code for smoking at any time. Much later, the Grateful Dead caught wind of the phrase, which had been growing by word of mouth. In the early 1990s, a flier circulated at a Dead Show that urged people to "meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing," and the term hit the public domain. The high holiday of cannabis Gatherings for 420 live on across the country and even globally as a flagrant display of cannabis culture and advocacy, the event runs the gamut from laid back dance party to a fierce fight for human rights. Some of the most iconic 420 rallies are on Hippie Hill in San Francisco, the Mile-High Festival in Denver, and in Hyde Park in London, England. "While it is a cause to celebrate, it's also a call to action," says Justin Strekal, the political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)."We take it seriously as an issue. Despite the increased support, growing and possessing marijuana is still unfairly penalized. In states where it's still not legal, racial bias runs rampant in terms of who gets targeted and arrested by law enforcement." Story continues Is cannabis legal or not? It's both, though from a federal perspective it's not legal anywhere says Strekal. It's still considered a prohibited Schedule 1 drug (grouped with heroin), according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which claims it has "a high potential for abuse." Yet legality laws vary state by state. According to Strekal, almost every state except fourIdaho, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakotaallow for some form of marijuana, with most permitting medical use. Recreational use is allowed in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state, Washington D.C., and Vermont, with New Mexico jumping on the bandwagon in July. According to NORML, in states where marijuana is illegal, merely smoking it can lead to serious repercussions. For adults, marijuana possession convictions can interfere with access to public housing, financial aid for school, loans, and jobs. What do you call it? As big business moves into marijuanaaccording to NBC, in 2019, the combined North American market is expected to exceed $16 billionthe industry has begun to prefer the term cannabis. "People have switched because it doesn't have the baggage of marijuana," says Jane Allen, a marijuana expert at RTI International, an independent, nonprofit institute based in North Carolina. Some other popular names include pot, herb, kush, dope, reefer, weed, and ganja. According to NPR, "marijuana" came into popularity in the early 20th century because anti-cannabis factions wanted to underscore the drug's "Mexican-ness." One theory explains marijuana as a hybrid of the common Spanish girl's names Maria and Juana. (Mary Jane is the Americanized version of Maria Juana.) How does CBD fit in? Even though you can now find cannabidiol (CBD) in everything from coffee to lip balms, few people truly understand CBD. It's a chemical found in hemp and marijuana, and won't get you high, according to the World Health Institute. Here's a clear explanation of CBD. When the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the production of hemp, a form of cannabis that contains less than 0.3 percent THC (the psychoactive chemical that makes smokers high), CBD manufacturers began marketing oils, creams, and other formulations with lots of medical claims. Although research on CBD is slim, people still try it for insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure, inflammation, and chronic pain. Read how this kid relieved his chronic painand then started a businesswith CBD oil. Does 420 day have an anthem? Not exactly, though there is a strong contender: The Beatles song "Come Together." John Lennon originally wrote the song as a political rallying cry for Timothy Leary, a Harvard psychologist and an outspoken proponent for psychoactive drugs. When Leary was running for governor against Ronald Reagan in 1969, his campaign slogan was "Come together, join the party." (Unfortunately for Leary, his campaign ground to a halt in December of 1969 when he was charged with possession of marijuana.) One more point in the song's favor: It's run time is nearly 4 minutes, 20 seconds. LONDON Nearly everything Meghan Markle dons turns into retail gold, and that will soon include baby clothes and furniture and toys, more than any infant could possibly need or want. Retailers and industry analysts alike foresee shopping frenzies similar to those that followed the births of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and little Prince Louis. They also say the new babys retail pulling power could stretch to sustainable baby brands given Markles own eco-conscious style choices. Ever since she became associated with the British royals, pre- and post-marriage, Markle has proven to be a retail hit. Her wedding alone boosted the U.K. fashion industry by an estimated 150 million pounds, according to Brand Finance, a branded business valuation consultancy. Related stories Pat McGrath, Clare Waight Keller, Pierpaolo Piccioli Land on 'Time 100' List Textile Technology Brand Sheertex Created Unbreakable Pantyhose Anna Wintour Gets a Little Personal With Tina Brown The new Duchess of Sussexs influence has been seismic: During her and Prince Harrys Australia tour, Markle wore outfits by Australian designer Dion Lee, who said his web site quickly crashed, and within 24 hours hed sold over 250 units of a navy blue dress worn by her. She also topped Googles 10 most-searched people in 2018. While the influence of the royal family has always had appeal, Robert Burke, chairman and chief executive officer of Robert Burke Associates, says Markle is even more popular than the Duchess of Cambridge because of her background. Meghan represents a less-conforming [person] than the expected perception of a royal and I think she will connect with even more people. Shell dress children pretty tastefully, but it wont be as traditional and prim and proper; it will have more fun and whimsy, he said. There will likely be a strong sustainability angle to the babys wardrobe, too, as the duchess has also been known to wear clothes with a conscience. When she is making choices for her own next generation, we can make a strong assumption that the brands Meghan looks to will have a strong stance on social good, said Rebecca Robins, global chief learning and culture officer from Interbrand, a brand consultancy. Story continues Robins said shed love to see Markle dress her newborn in unsung clothing brands. The Myna Mahila Foundation in India is one of the charities that the royals asked people to donate to for their wedding. It would be a powerful signal and call to action to mums the world over to see Meghan support brands aligned with the causes that are close to her heart, she added. Helen Brocklebank, ceo of the British luxury goods association Walpole, also expects Markle to make sustainable fashion choices for her newborn. The duchess advocacy of brands with sustainability at their core has gone from strength to strength and that is likely to continue following the birth of her child, and the products chosen for the royal baby, she said. Meghan will probably turn to brands that already have a place within her wardrobe. Stella McCartney childrens wear should be a number-one contender as the duchess chose the environmentally conscious designer to create her wedding reception dress. A new royal baby has the chance to highlight how important producing for the next generation is, said Diana Verde Nieto, cofounder and ceo of Positive Luxury, a platform that promotes brands making a positive social and environmental impact. We hope that Meghans little one will shine a light on the mum and baby brands that already stride ahead in the sustainability area, such as Hevea, which makes nontoxic childrens bath toys, or Leggybuddy, a maker of hand-crafted toys, said Nieto. Both of those brands have the Butterfly Mark, an environmental seal of approval from Positive Luxury. The duchess could also look to Veja, the ethically sourced French footwear brand that makes its products in Brazil. She could dress her newborn in colorful Veja high-tops and an organic cotton onesie from Australian label Purebaby, which makes everything from organic cotton. Other observers say Markle will no doubt preserve her international outlook, and her knack for mixing high and low fashion, when dressing the new baby. To wit: shes been spotted in J. Crew, Jigsaw and Canadian retailer Aritzia. Over the past year and a half, Meghan Markle has mastered the art of diplomacy through her clothes, wearing a perfect mix of British and American designers and influencing fashion purchases all around the world. With the birth of the first baby Sussex, we can expect this trend to continue, said Morgane Le Caer, insights reporter at Lyst, a global fashion search platform. I wouldnt be surprised to see the couples bundle of joy dressed in both designer and high-street clothes. Some of the duchess favorite brands like Mackage, Burberry and Ralph Lauren also design clothes for children, which means that were likely to witness adorable mummy-and-me fashion moments, Le Caer added. Sari Sloan, cofounder of Ever After, four upscale specialty stores for school-aged children through 13 years of age, said that increasingly, parents are dressing their children to reflect their own style. As it relates to Meghan Markle, as kids get older, parents are looking to be aspirational, but theyre also being influenced by real people, she said. Given that Markle is probably the most-real of the royals, if there is such a thing, the prospect of the Duchess of Sussex wardrobing a child bodes well for pint-size apparel makers. Markles babywear choices are sure to generate buzz in both the U.K. and the U.S. According to Brand Finances British Luxury report, when Markle has worn British brands, their desirability has rocketed among 35 percent of the U.S. population. For the baby fashion market, this means a considerable uptick in interest for those brands worn by the new royal bundle of joy. We are most certainly expecting a frenzy in this market, both for in-store purchases and online orders, especially as the love affair between the royals and the fashion industry shows no sign of slowing down, said Alex Haigh, director of Brand Finance. Analysts also predict that the duchess baby although he or she is unlikely to get near the throne will have the same impact as his or her cousins. It is likely that the new arrivals wardrobe will cause a similar fashion frenzy that we have seen with all three of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges children, added Haigh, pointing out that Princess Charlottes Little Alice London periwinkle dress was snapped up within days. The royal children are predicted to boost the U.K. economy. According to Brand Finance, Princess Charlotte will inject $5 billion over her lifetime while brothers Prince George and Prince Louis will be responsible for goosing $3.6 billion. The Centre for Retail Research estimates that Markles newborn is predicted to increase spending in childrens wear and infant products by roughly $1.48 billion over a two-year period. Jessica Michault, senior vice president of industry relations at Launchmetrics, an influencer marketing software company, said the British royal family holds power when it comes to the industry. When they wear something out for an official appointment or a casual day with the family, that item disappears off retailer shelves immediately, she said. While the entire U.K. has been brimming with pride and waiting eagerly for word of the birth of the first baby Sussex, WWD asked designers to conjure up presents for the new heir. What do you give a child born with a silver spoon in its mouth? Teddy bears are always a go-to gift. Rebecca Minkoffs are flocked in a tiny floral print and wear crowns, although the tyke will likely never don one, as hell be seventh-removed from the throne. Given the royal familys association with jewels, its not surprising that baby bling was a popular present. The new royal will be the most dazzling baby in the playpen with a Germanier bejeweled rattle, and Messika birth bracelets, and gold and diamond pacifier clip. Theres even a cradles brooch by Antonio Marras, a signature Sardinian jewel called Su Coccu, made from filigree, a black onyx stone and decorative corals. Adam Lippes fantastical crib is topped with an elaborate canopy, inspired by the history of royal English tents or portable palaces, as they were sometimes called. Rebecca Moses turned a cradle into a Royal Tartan Moses Basket, replete with a mobile of oh-so English icons such as a miniature Queens Guard, London phone booth and British flag. For babys outings, Cacharel creative director Pascal Millets charming pram is covered in one of the French houses classic prints, and from Marie-Chantal Children, theres a carriage sprouting angel wings. Read more from WWD: Launch Gallery: Designers Sketch Royal Baby Gifts Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. As it turns out, Jeanne Damas has the same admiration for L.A. style as we do for Paris fashion. The French style icon has just released her new summer collection for Rouje, and the L.A.-shot campaign is aptly dubbed "Hotel California." With a dreamy mix of mini and midi dresses, as well as tops, bags, and shoes, the collection melds together the best parts of L.A. and Paris style. "The California-inspired pieces show the flirty and effortless style of a Parisian girl mixed with Californias cool vibe," the press release reads. Can you think of a better combo? In addition to the brand's signature floral prints, there are some new cherry and strawberry prints that are begging to come along on your next summer vacation. It was tough to narrow down the selection, but we picked our 9 favorite dresses we think you'll lovewhether you're a California girl, a French girl, or simply an admirer of chic dresses. Rouje Ondine Dress ($185) Rouje Lisette Dress ($185) Rouje Daria Dress ($230) Rouje Mathilda Dress in Cream Cherries ($195) Rouje Mathilda Dress in Blue Cherries ($195) Rouje Gabin Dress ($195) Rouje Ondine Dress ($185) Rouje Monique Dress ($230) Rouje Caty Dress ($185) Next, the 4 dress trends every princess, queen, and duchess owns. Read More from Who What Wear Even if youve never been to Phoenix, you know this about the place: Its hot. From June to September, the temperature can easily eclipse the century mark. But that doesnt stop hikers from attempting the 1.3-mile trek to the top of the citys famed Camelback Mountain. Signs warn that the trail is extremely difficult. If you continue, a posted checklist suggests at least a liter of water per person. And if youre still not deterred, another sign farther up declares: If youre halfway through your water, turn around! Unfortunately, many people do not heed the warnings. Fortunately, Scott Cullymore does. When hes not running his carpet-cleaning company in nearby Mesa, the 53-year-old Cullymore can be found hiking up and down Camelback a couple of times a day, doling out cold bottles of water to worn-out hikers. He has helped hydrate so many hikers that he has earned a heavenly nickname: the Water Angel. Id like a more manly name, but, you know, he told azfamily.com. They underestimate the mountain and overestimate what they can do. Cullymore was on Camelback Mountain one day in 2015 when a British tourist died after being lost for nearly six hours in the July heat. That experience inspired him to start helping people caught unaware by Arizonas unforgiving version of Mother Nature. They underestimate the mountain, and they overestimate what they can do, and they get themselves in trouble, he told the Arizona Republic. If a hiker has a flushed face and is not sweating anymore, Cullymore says, he reaches into his insulated orange backpack, pulls out a frosty bottle, and hands it to the person. Its nothing for him to go through eight waterswhich he pays for himselfin one lap up and down the mountain. Its misleading that were in the middle of the city. You can die up here, and no one would know. One hiker who availed himself of the proffered water agrees. You think you know the heat, but then you get out here in the desert and it surrounds you like a blanket, said Austin Hill, who was hiking with a high school friend. They were lucky, he said, pointing to Cullymore. We ran into this Good Samaritan here. And with that, the Water Angel goes in search of another hiker in need. Next: This man risked his life to save his neighbor from a burning building. Image At 39 years old, Brigitte Adams was single and not happy about it. I felt a sense that I had failed, she told me. She wondered where she had gone wrong and asked herself: Why am I single? Why do my friends have families? It was a hard time in her life, Adams recalled, but she decided to do something about her desire to have a family. In 2011, at 39, she froze her eggs. After weeks of blood tests, hormone shots, and doctor visits, Adams had a 25-minute outpatient surgery. Soon after, she got a call from the lab, and they gave her results. The doctor had retrieved 13 eggs and 11 were frozen. Adams hung up, content to have 11 eggs in the bank. It seemed like a lot, since it only takes one egg to make a baby. But when she came back to use them, things didnt go as she expected. The word empowered was something I used after I froze my eggs, and it seems to be thrown around a lot, Adams explained. Well, youre empowered on part-one. While she had 11 eggs in cryostorage, women often need more than that to actually achieve a successful pregnancy through frozen eggs. Once you decide to use frozen eggs to conceive via in-vitro fertilization (IVF), the survival rate for each egg and eventual embryo goes down dramatically. You got some money in the bank, but that doesn't mean you're going to get your dream house. When I finally was ready to use my eggs after six years on ice, only one of them was genetically normal out of the 11 I had frozen, Adams recounted. That embryo implanted, but stopped developing after 72 hours, and she experienced a chemical pregnancy, or early miscarriage. At 45, she had no other options for a biological child. Today, Adams would tell women freezing their eggs this: You got some money in the bank, but that doesn't mean you're going to get your dream house. The Concept of Reproductive Insurance When Adams froze her eggs eight years ago, there was barely any information out there about it. Her doctor gave her an IVF binder and told her to ignore the last 100 pages. As a response, she created Eggsurance, an online resource and support group for women like her. Even though egg freezing wouldnt ultimately work for her, Adams became a sort of poster child for egg freezing as it started to gain in popularity. She thought - and still thinks - women deserve information and access to this powerful tool that could preserve their fertility. Story continues In just the short time since Adams started her journey, egg freezing has boomed following the American Society for Reproductive Medicines 2012 decision to drop the experimental label from the procedure. And in 2018, ASRM issued new guidelines about proactive egg freezing, saying it should not be trivialized with terms like freezing for non-medical reasons. When its used as a form of fertility preservation, egg freezing is often presented as reproductive insurance. Make this investment now, and youll have a backup plan for getting pregnant should you need it. This frees up time to pursue other goals, like advancing your career, finding the right partner, or simply enjoying the freedom of life without kids for a little longer. But perhaps - as Adams learned - reproductive gambling would be a better analogy. When you freeze your eggs, youre betting (a lot of) money on an outcome that has low odds. The truth is we need more data about what happens after women come back to use their eggs to make a baby. And what we do know suggests women need a lot more eggs than they would think to have a successful pregnancy. The bottom line: egg freezing can keep alive the possibility of having a child at an older age, and that is powerful. But its far from a guarantee. Image Egg freezing frees up time to pursue other goals, like advancing your career, finding the right partner, or simply enjoying the freedom of life without kids for a little longer. What Does Egg Freezing Involve? The first child was born from a frozen egg in 1986. The process has been around for decades and was initially offered to women for medical reasons, typically because they needed to undergo chemotherapy. In the past decade, planned egg freezing has gained traction, as more women decide to freeze their eggs in order to effectively pause their biological clock. The idea is based on the fact that the quality of a womans eggs declines as she gets older, while her uterus typically retains its ability to carry a pregnancy long after her eggs become nonviable or nonexistent. Its possible for a woman to carry an embryo conceived with relatively young eggs into her 60s. Just consider this 61-year-old woman who acted as a gestational surrogate and gave birth to her granddaughter. Image The quality of a womans eggs declines as she gets older, while her uterus typically retains its ability to carry a pregnancy. So how does it work? Basically, egg freezing involves the first steps of IVF, as the site FertilityIQ explains. Once you find a clinic thats a good fit, you will undergo diagnostic tests. This can include blood tests and ultrasounds. If youve been taking hormonal birth control or have other issues, you might need a few months to get your body back on track. Once it is, you will order and prepare your medication. When youre ready to begin - which is based on the timing of your period cycle - you will start daily hormone shots for about two weeks. Usually, our bodies produce one mature egg every month. Instead, the hormones will induce the follicles on your ovaries to produce many more mature eggs, usually about 10 to 20. During this period, you will go to the doctor daily to monitor the progress. Once the eggs are mature, you will give yourself a trigger shot to trigger ovulation. About 36 hours later, you will have the eggs surgically retrieved via your vagina while under general anesthesia. This takes less than an hour. After the eggs have been retrieved, they will be stored at your fertility clinic. The process of egg freezing is expensive. Data show that most women will do two or more cycles, at about $15,000 per cycle. The cost of storing your eggs starts at about $500 a year. You will then have to pay anywhere from $7,000 to $20,000 if you decide to use them. What Influences Success? If and when a woman chooses to use eggs, she will complete the IVF process. The eggs will be thawed, and about 80 to 90 percent should survive that. Then, they will be fertilized, with 70 to 80 percent making it to the next step. After that, they will wait to turn into blastocyst embryos, with about 40 to 50 percent doing so. Out of those, 40 to 50 percent will be chromosomally normal. After a chromosomally normal embryo is implanted, it then has a 40 to 70 percent chance of resulting in a live birth. Its helpful to think of it as a funnel. Adams experience pretty much followed the odds. She started with 11 frozen eggs. Nine were defrosted, six fertilized. After five days, she had one genetically normal blastocyst. It implanted, but didnt continue to be viable and she ended up with no baby. When I talked to my doctor after my chemical pregnancy, I said: Based on my results from six years ago, would you have foreseen this? He said, Well yes. I asked: Why didn't you tell me? Adams wished her doctor had been more transparent about what it took to achieve a pregnancy. I wasn't counseled to do a second cycle, which I should have been at age 39 and based on my hormone levels, she said. The age at which a woman decides to freeze her eggs plays a major role in how likely she is to have a baby from them. By freezing your eggs in your 20s or early 30s, youre effectively taking your prime reproductive years with you, regardless of when you decide to actually become pregnant, Dr. Peter Klatsky from the Spring Fertility clinic in the Bay Area explained to me. If she freezes her eggs at a younger age, her success rates with IVF in the future and the health outcomes, like risk of Downs Syndrome, will be tied to the age at which she froze her eggs. Not the age when she is using those eggs. Image By freezing your eggs in your 20s or early 30s, youre effectively taking your prime reproductive years with you. Since there is no guarantee and the success or failure of the process is not visible for many years, Klatsky told me, Spring will share in that risk. The clinic offers a 100 percent refund on the cost of egg freezing if you dont achieve a successful pregnancy with them in the future. The thresholds for this guarantee, however, demonstrate when the clinic feels confident they can achieve success. To quality for the Spring Promise you must freeze more than 20 eggs before youre 35 or more than 30 before youre 38. Considering this, if you want to increase your odds of having a child from your frozen eggs, you will almost certainly have to do more than one round, which will cost tens of thousands of dollars. Another factor that greatly impacts the chances of success with egg freezing is the specific clinic. Jake Anderson-Bialis, who founded FertilityIQ with his wife, Deborah, told me its a misconception that all fertility clinics are good, or even competent, at egg freezing. Most clinics in the US have practically no track record, he said. Anderson-Bialis explained that while many clinics may have frozen plenty of eggs, most clinics have never actually thawed a frozen egg and so are completely unproven. Therefore, he said its crucial that women ask the right questions when evaluating where they will freeze their eggs. Curious, I asked Spring if they could share their stats on freezing and thawing. They told me that their current egg survival rate from egg freezing and thawing is 93 percent. At most centers, they said, women can expect 80 to 90 percent survival rates from the egg thawing process if the center has good experience. And the largest studies from the most experienced centers report 85 percent survival on average. Of course, thawing is just one part of the process. While there aren't many stats on overall success of pregnancy with egg freezing, one study found that women who froze 10 eggs at 36 years old had a 30 percent chance of having a baby with those eggs. Who Is Freezing Their Eggs? As with all fertility treatments, money acts as a gatekeeper. FertilityIQ tracks demographic information on women who freeze their eggs, and reports that the average woman who does egg freezing makes $190,000 per year. Some high-profile tech companies, like Facebook or Uber, will also subsidize the process for women, as will law firms or other competitive employers. In addition, FertilityIQ said that 70 percent of egg freezing in 2018 was done in New York and California. Right now, this option to preserve your fertility is clearly reserved for the more privileged in our society. The average woman who does egg freezing makes $190,000 per year. The less time on her biological clock, the more likely a woman might be to think about fertility preservation. But theres evidence that younger women are starting to be more proactive. According to Spring, elective egg freezing represents 30 to 40 percent of their total practice and has grown proportionally since they opened in 2016. When egg freezing was first offered from 2013 to 2015, the average age of women freezing eggs was between 37-40, Klatsky said. Today at Spring it is down to 33-34. FertilityIQ said that nationally the average age of an egg-freezing patient was down to 36 in 2018. Hoping to get a look beyond the statistics, I surveyed a few women in my network who have frozen their eggs. None of them have gone back to use them yet, but they shared their retrieval experience. One woman did two rounds at age 33 and 34 and was able to retrieve nine eggs total. She paid for one round out of pocket and another was covered by her employer. She would give other women this advice: The earlier the better. The results did not meet her expectations because she was able to freeze far fewer eggs than expected based on her follicle count. Another, who was able to retrieve 14 in one round at age 33, said the results did meet her expectations and she would recommend it if you can afford it. She paid for her round from personal savings. This woman also thought the at-home medicine injections were not that bad and got easier each time. She felt bloated, but had no other significant side effects. The actual retrieval was effortless on my end and the recovery was very quick. I was back at work the next day, she said. Adams site Eggsurance also features egg freezing stories from multiple women. Some of them are cautionary tales about what can go wrong. One woman shared how she lost all of her 18 eggs in an accident when they were shipped from a clinic in San Francisco to Los Angeles. Another opened up about how she developed Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS), a side effect of the injectable medication that happens in about 5 percent of IVF or egg freezing cycles and is more common with younger patients. Symptoms include rapid weight gain, tender ovaries, and nausea or vomiting. It usually resolves on its own. Adams said that a few women she knows have gone back to use their eggs, and some went on to have successful pregnancies with them. One such woman, named Kayla, documented the journey to single motherhood on her blog after she froze 13 eggs at age 37 and used them three years later. Only two of the six eggs she chose to defrost made it past the thawing stage, but one made it to an embryo and successfully implanted and developed. She is now a mom. Image The Growing Business of Egg Freezing Adams joked that egg freezing is the new teeth whitening - at least for those who can afford it. Contributing to the boom is both more visibility about egg freezing in the media and new startup companies trying to spread the word about fertility preservation options. Future Family, for example, will offer fertility testing for women and creative financing for egg freezing (and IVF). You can pay $175 per month with no down payment for five years to cover all the expenses involved with egg freezing, from the initial screening to the first year of cryostorage. You can pay $175 per month with no down payment for five years to cover the expenses involved with egg freezing. Modern Fertility is another such startup. They provide fertility tests like Future Family. For $150, you can measure your levels of AMH (anti-mullerian hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and try to get an understanding of how much time you might have left on your specific biological clock. You can then follow up with a doctor about your results and discuss next steps, which could involve egg freezing. No test can indicate positive or negative fertility, Dr. Nataki Douglas MD, PhD and Chair of the Modern Fertility Medical Advisory Board told me. However, education, combined with the results of hormone tests such as AMH, can help women make informed decisions about family planning and balancing the desire for biologic offspring with other personal and professional goals. Anderson-Bialis of FertilityIQ is skeptical of such tests. According to research, testing AMH can give an idea of the quantity of the eggs, but not the quality. And blood tests cant give you an idea of how easy it will be for you to get pregnant naturally. If a woman has a reading that makes her feel nervous and she freezes her eggs, she may have been needlessly scared and cajoled into freezing her eggs for no purpose. And at $30,000 for two rounds of freezing, plus the pain of a surgical procedure, that's a big deal. The flip-side is true, someone could read these tests, get complacent, think they can wait, and get themselves in big trouble. Image Dr. Klatsky of Spring Fertility clarified the limitations of these tests for me: They do not reveal anything about your ability to get pregnant. FSH is an old test and not very reliable. AMH is very helpful for treatment planning and counseling, as it can give us a general sense of how many follicles are in a womans ovaries and therefore how many eggs we can expect to collect during the ovarian stimulation process as a precursor to egg freezing or IVF, he said. But, as Klatsky explained, AMH does not reflect any information about the health or fertility of those eggs, which is another factor in whether egg freezing will work. The greatest indicator of quality of an egg is the age of the woman at the time the egg is ovulated, he said, another reminder that the earlier you freeze your eggs, the more likely you are to find success. Klatsky also added that he generally recommends that patients come in for an ultrasound for a more exact understanding as to how many follicles they have. Dr. Douglas of Modern Fertility said she takes a similar approach to advising patients based on their personal circumstances. When women bring up the idea of egg freezing with me, I discuss age, overall aspirations for personal and professional life, emotional support from family and friends, and results of ovarian reserve testing. She said all of these areas, and more, factor into whether egg freezing is the best decision. It is always ultimately the womans decision, she added. Its true that access to egg freezing can help women take more control over when they have children. I started to think about it like the birth control pill, another revolution in reproductive medicine that let women delay and control the timing of parenthood. Adams told me that the analogy doesnt quite hold up, though. The pill is an immediate thing. You have your next period or not. Your eggs could be on ice for years. I was lulled into this sense that they'll be fine, she admitted. Image The increased commercialization of egg freezing is also susceptible to preying on womens fears about their biological clock in order to make a profit. Its true that the younger you freeze your eggs the better results youll get. But many of these young women will not experience future fertility problems. The egg-freezing industry is creating a demand for the first part of IVF among women who will never come back to complete the process. It does seem that unlike with Adams experience in 2011, however, new players in the fertility business are more upfront about the possibility of success with egg freezing: If a woman wants to delay childbearing, egg freezing may provide options if she is unable to conceive in the future, Dr. Douglas said, however, we don't have much data on the number of women who actually use their frozen eggs. Dr. Klatsky said something similar. We like to call egg freezing an imperfect insurance plan. There are no guarantees. 90 percent of the women who freeze their eggs never return to use them. Therein lies the issue. Egg freezing might not be experimental anymore, but its still in the beginning stages of widespread use. Right now, 90 percent of the women who freeze their eggs never return to use them. Many get pregnant naturally. I think egg freezing is spectacularly valuable so long as people understand the limitations of the approach, the track record of the clinics, the true costs, and the ultimate odds of use, Anderson-Bialis explained. As for Adams, she achieved her goal of becoming a mom. As we talked on the phone about her journey, she was nursing her 11-month-old daughter. I could hear the baby babbling in the background. I ended up using a donor egg and donor sperm, she told me, noting she carried the baby herself. Adams said that when she found out she only had one embryo, she was adamant that she wasn't going to use an egg donor. But it took her a lot to get pregnant, as she had to have a hip replacement and fibroid surgery before her initial unsuccessful chemical pregnancy. At that point I just really wanted to be a mom, she said. Adams now accepts there are so many different ways to get pregnant or become a mother. I realize I have no opinion of anyone else's way to motherhood after going through what I did. Everyone gets there how they can. Tank Air Photo: Courtesy of Tank Air Photo: Courtesy of Tank Air Photo: Courtesy of Tank Air Photo: Courtesy of Tank Air Photo: Courtesy of Tank Air Photo: Courtesy of Tank Air It all started when Clare Robertson-Macleods visa expired a few years ago. After establishing a life for herself in Los Angeles, the young designer had to pack up and move back to her native Bangkok. When your life gets uprooted, it forces you to reevaluate and think about what you really want in life. What she wanted, she decided, was to start her own fashion label. Shed spent a few years studying at Central Saint Martins in London and always had aspirations to become a designer. Growing up between Bangkok and London, Robertson-Macleod was surrounded by fashion, mainly because of her mothers successful modeling career in Thailand and because she helped her aunt, a local designer, source fabrics and sew some garments. A couple of years ago, Robertson-Macleod returned to L.A. and began work on her brand, Tank Air. Her line of essential tees, skirts, pants, and dresses launched late last year and has since captured the attention, and Instagram feeds, of influencers like Kim Kardashian West and Kylie Jenner. Despite the attention that Tank Air has received from notable personalities, models, and musicians, Robertson-Macleod insists that going viral isnt the point. Her bike-short bodysuits and slinky slip dresses may appear to be in the same family as the hundreds of contemporary, influencer-approved brands carrying the same garments at an approachable price point, but Tank Air, which is an anagram for her cousin and best friend Katrina, offers something slightly different. There is luxury and there is contemporary, and I just wanted something in between, Robertson-Macleod says. My mums hand-me-downs gave me an appreciation for luxury fabrics and quality construction. They also made me realize that I dont have pieces that I really love, treasure, and will save to give to my children because everything feels really ephemeral right now. Tank Airs tightly edited collection is made in downtown L.A. with sueded jersey, four-ply silks, and 100 percent cashmere sourced from Japan and Italy. The price point starts around $195 and tops out at $690. As Robertson-Macleod explains further in her brand statement: Our goal was to recast a version of the feminine identity in a modern society, and in doing so, we found ourselves with one foot in the luxury market and the other in the contemporary market. Story continues Robertson-Macleod is passionate about filling this small niche, but more than that, she is hoping to build a real community around Tank Air, not one focused solely on Instagram influencers, but women in general. In my opinion, this generation wants to be more than just part of an audience, she says. I think they care deeply about finding a part of themselves reflected in their choices and associations with people, brands, products. With Instagram, brands now have a space in which they can imbue identity into their products, giving the consumer the option to actually connect with a brand on a personal level. Robertson-Macleod has no idea how the Kardashian-Jenner teams found Tank Air, nor does she know what the future holds in terms of other celebrities. For now, shes focused on building her brand, her community. Tank Air really came to mind when I realized I didnt have a go-to label, she says. There are so many beautiful womenswear brands in both the luxury and contemporary market, but I never felt like any of them really got me. Its hard to really relate to a brands identity when they dont look like you, speak like you, or think like you. So I decided to be my own representation. Photo credit: Waukesha County Sheriff's Department via AP - AP From Women's Health In the latest episode of Hulu's The Act, Gypsy Rose and Nick Godejohn murdered Gypsy's mother Dee Dee. In real life, Gypsy and Godejohn left behind tons of clues that led investigators to catch them and arrest them five days later. The authorities cracked the case by tracing a suspicious Facebook message back to Godejohn's computer. If you've been watching (read: obsessed with) Hulu's latest show The Act, then you know it stars Patricia Arquette and Joey King as the real-life mother-daughter duo Dee Dee Blanchard and Gypsy Rose Blanchard. While their story is being dramatized for TV now, Gypsy Rose first made headlines in 2015 when she and her ex-boyfriend Nick Godejohn were caught for murdering Dee Dee. Just in case you missed it, the true story leading up to Dee Dee's murder is intense: Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy (recently renamed factitious disorder imposed on another, or FDIA), a mental health disorder where a caregiver fabricates or causes an illness or injury to a person under their care for attention and sympathy, often subjecting the victim to unnecessary medical treatments. That's exactly what she did to Gypsy Rose, telling her-and the rest of the world-that she had a plethora of illnesses, from leukemia, asthma, vision and hearing impairments to muscular dystrophy and epilepsy. Gypsy Rose dealt with her mom's FDIA for most of her life, but eventually decided to ask her then-boyfriend Godejohn to stab Dee Dee to death (she's currently serving a 10-year sentence and recently got engaged to a different man she met through a prison pen pal program). Here's everything you need to know about 'The Act': But Gypsy and Godejohn were not smooth criminals, according to investigators. Apparently, they left a super-obvious trail of receipts, surveillance camera footage, and Greyhound bus tickets. "This is like a crime I call 'Hansel and Gretel,' where you drop the clues along the way as you go," said former FBI agent Brad Garrett in an 20/20 interview. "They couldn't have laid it out better for the police." Story continues In the most recent episode of The Act, Nick murdered Dee Dee (using a fishing knife), and then the two of them stayed in a local hotel room for a few days before taking a Greyhound bus to Wisconsin before getting caught-which only lasted five days IRL. But just last year, Gypsy Rose also opened up about her and Godejohn's exact plan to police, per the Springfield News-Leader. Here's how it went down: The couple planned Dee Dee's murder for a year. Godejohn (who lived in Wisconsin at the time), traveled to Springfield, Missouri where Gypsy Rose and her mom lived on June 8, 2015. He chilled for two days at a nearby Days Inn, and then on June 10, 2015, he stabbed Dee Dee to death while Gypsy Rose was in the bathroom. Before leaving the scene of the crime, the couple had sex in Gypsy's bed, according to 20/20. They then planned to leave for Wisconsin after a couple days. After arriving there on June 13, 2015, Gypsy Rose posted a bizarre message on Dee Dee's Facebook account that read "That Bitch is dead!" Apparently, Gypsy Rose wanted to scare people into thinking that Dee Dee had been killed, and that she had been kidnapped. That was the beginning of the end for this wannabe Bonnie and Clyde. When people saw the post, some of Dee Dee's concerned neighbors alerted authorities, who then found her body on June 14, 2015. Law enforcement traced the Facebook message to Godejohn's home the next day and arrested Gypsy and Godejohn in connection with the murder. Both ultimately confessed to Dee Dee's murder, and Godejohn is now serving life in prison for it. ('You Might Also Like',) Photo credit: Instagram/therealabbylee From Prevention Abby Lee Miller shared a photo of her spinal surgery scar in an emotional post on Instagram. Miller, who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Burkitt Lymphoma, underwent emergency surgery for an infection in her spine one year ago. Miller also criticized the early care she received, sharing that her doctors did not take her symptoms seriously, leading to misdiagnosis. Here, a doctor explains why cancer is often misdiagnosed and what you should do if your physician dismisses your symptoms. Abby Lee Miller has had an intense road to recovery over the last year after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and shes marking it with an emotional Instagram post. One year ago today, I underwent emergency surgery for an infection in my spine. This mass/tumor choking my spinal cord turned out to be Burkitt Lymphoma, Miller captioned an Instagram photo of her spinal surgery scar. I endured ten rounds of chemotherapy (each lasting six days with four 24-hr bags pumping poison into my body ending with a spinal tap in three spots, plus another shot of chemo into my tailbone area up the spinal cord around my brain cavity) Ten times! Miller said shes struggled through months of physical therapy, where shes learning to sit up again and crawl. Maybe with a miracle, someday Ill walk, she added. The Dance Moms star then criticized the early care she received. Why didnt the ER doctors on duty do their jobs? she wrote. I came in twice with the same symptoms? Why didnt somebody listen to me, the patient? Miller says she finally found the right team, thats why I lived to tell my story. Burkitt lymphoma is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects a persons white blood cells, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). Burkitt lymphoma usually starts in a persons abdomen, where it forms a large tumor. From there, it can spread quickly to the brain and spinal fluid. This cancer is very rare, according to the ACS (it makes up just 1 to 2 percent of all lymphomas). Story continues Miller ended her post on this note: For those who missed it, misdiagnosed me, and the so called federal doctor who took me off medication cold turkey and the other ER Doctor Hollywood who told me to go home and take it easy for 10 days-STOP practicing! Please. Millers comments were flooded with people who shared similar stories of misdiagnosis of themselves or of loved ones. How common is it for cancer to be misdiagnosed at first? Millers trouble getting an accurate diagnosis is scary, but unfortunately its not uncommon, says Anton Bilchik, MD, PhD, professor of surgery and chief of medicine at John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Its fairly common because a lot of cancer symptoms are nonspecific, he says. Thats especially true with rarer cancers like Millers that dont have screening recommendations in place, he adds. If someone complained of stomach pain, for example, its common for a doctor to assume that its due to something like acid reflux, which is more common than cancer, Dr. Bilchik points out. Its only when the symptoms are more advanced that tests may be ordered. On the other hand, some doctors will order a battery of unnecessary tests every time a patient has nonspecific symptoms, and thats often not helpful either, he says. The truth is somewhere in between, he says. Clearly, doctors need to listen to a patient and act on symptoms that are out of the ordinary. What should you do if you feel like your doctor is not responding to your symptoms seriously? Its crucial to try to have a good relationship with your primary care physician, Dr. Bilchik says. That way, if you complain of a certain symptom, your doctor knows its out of the ordinary for you and will be more likely to push for additional testing. If you dont already have a primary care physician or dont see them regularly, Dr. Bilchik recommends being very specific about your symptoms and noting that theyre out of the ordinary for you. Also, dont hesitate to get a second or third opinion. A lot of people worry that the physician will be upset, but its absolutely essential that you put your health first, Dr. Bilchik says. If youre not satisfied with the response youre getting, go see someone else. And, he adds, your doctor should encourage you to get a second opinion if youre not getting the results you need. We see this a lot in cancer, Dr. Bilchik says. Luckily, Miller eventually got the right diagnosis and the care she needed-but it hasnt been an easy road for her. 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',) Yesterday, Donald Trump vetoed a bipartisan congressional resolution demanding an end to U.S. involvement in Yemens civil war. Its now official: The president who ran for office pledging to reduce military entanglements abroad is involving American forces in a foreign war in direct defiance of the plain language of the Constitution. First, some background. Beginning in 2015, the Obama administration recklessly inserted itself into Saudi Arabias proxy war with Iran, backing Saudi military action against Yemens Houthi rebels. America has long been an important source of arms for Saudi Arabia, but Obamas support went well beyond merely providing planes and bombs. His administration also authorized other active, indispensable support, including aerial refueling and targeting assistance. This direct involvement represented an act of war by any reasonable measure, and there is no meaningful argument that it was enabled by any existing congressional war authorization. The Authorization for the Use of Military Force enacted after the 9/11 attacks plainly doesnt apply to Iran-backed Shiite rebels fighting in Yemen (though it does apply to al-Qaeda cells active in the country), nor does the subsequent Iraq War authorization. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution grants Congress the exclusive authority to declare war. Yes, Article II declares that the president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but reading the two clauses together, their meaning is plain: The president commands American forces when Congress declares war. Yes, the president has inherent authority to order immediate military actions in times of crisis, but he should also promptly seek congressional approval for such actions. No one should pretend that there arent constitutional gray areas in this structure, of course: How long can a president respond to an emergency before Congress must ratify or reject the conflict? Once Congress has authorized any given action, how far can a president extend or expand a conflict? Does the authorization of force against al-Qaeda extend to, say, al-Qaeda progeny such as ISIS? Does the authorization of war in Iraq extend to actions deemed militarily necessary to stabilize the country, like the use of force in Syria? Story continues These are all good constitutional questions, but theyre beside the point because none of them apply to the conflict in Yemen. President Obama wasnt responding to a true national emergency in backing the Saudis against the Houthis, and President Trump isnt responding to a true national emergency in continuing to back the Saudis. They were (and are) waging a new conflict against a new enemy. Late last year, in the resolution Trump just vetoed, Congress rejected military action in Yemen under the provisions of the War Powers Act, a controversial 1973 statue passed over Richard Nixons veto. The Act attempted to answer the thorny constitutional issues outlined above by requiring a president to consult with Congress within 48 hours of the introduction of American forces into foreign hostilities. Congress can then, by resolution, terminate American involvement. 50 U.S.C. Section 1544(c) states that at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution. (Emphasis added.) Presidents have opposed the War Powers Act ever since its passage, even as theyve frequently complied with its terms. They have historically taken such a broad view of their commander-in-chief powers as to functionally write Congresss war-making power out of the Constitution. If a president can fight when he wants, where he wants, and for as long as he wants, then Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 is meaningless. Moreover, even Trumps veto is an unconstitutional act. A declaration of war requires an affirmative act of Congress. A bipartisan majoritys rejection of American participation in the Yemeni conflict is anything but an affirmation. And when the Constitution requires congressional affirmation, then congressional rejection cant be vetoed by the president. I understand and support the core holding of Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, which ended the practice of so-called legislative vetoes instances where the legislature invalidated executive acts by mere majority vote but Constitution gives war-making powers explicitly to Congress. When it is construed as allowing the president to launch war on his own and then to continue that war in the absence of congressional supermajorities, the constitutional structure is fatally undermined. Debates about different American wars are debates for a different time. There is no longer any constitutional justification for continuing American participation in Saudi Arabias indiscriminate bombing campaign in Yemen. Congress has spoken. Trump doesnt have the choice of vetoing the resolution. Its now his obligation to order American forces to stand down. His refusal to do so further degrades Americas already-shaky constitutional structure. More from National Review Andrea Norton died after taking photos with friends A university student has died after falling off a cliff at a famous hiking spot while taking photos with classmates. Andrea Norton, a 20-year-old university student from South Dakota, died on Saturday after falling 30 metres off a cliff in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest in Arkansas. She had been readjusting herself for a picture with friends from Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa, when she fell. Andrea Norton, a 20-year-old university student from South Dakota, died on Saturday after falling 30 metres off a cliff in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest in Arkansas. Source: Briar Cliff University Ms Norton was at Hawksbill Crag, also known as Whitaker Point, when she fell a popular spot often frequented by couples to taking photos together. A 5km trail dotted with wildflowers and a waterfall leads to the rock formation, which is shaped like a birds beak. The Buffalo Outdoor Center warns on its website of the dangers of the area. Caution: Please be careful in this area. A bluff line can be a pretty thing, but also a dangerous one, their website reads. Whitaker Point is a popular spot for photos. Source: Getty We cannot stress enough the importance of remaining cautious and staying back from sheer drop-offs, as well as keeping a vigilant eye on children, even teenagers. A Briar Cliff spokesperson told Yahoo the student, a popular member in the universitys volleyball team, would be sorely missed. It is with very heavy hearts that we confirm the sudden passing of Briar Cliff Universitys Andrea Norton, the spokesperson said. Andrea embodied BCUs values in everything she did including her compassion for all, a love for the environment and an openness to everyone she met. Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to Andreas family and friends during this very difficult time. Counsellors are currently assisting Briar Cliff students, faculty, staff and all who knew Andrea. The school posted a photo of Ms Nortons memorial, writing on Facebook Ms Norton was a passionate environmental science major, exemplary student, and dedicated athlete. Luanda (AFP) - Angolas President Joao Lourenco has cancelled a mobile phone licence awarded to a little-known startup company due to "non-compliance", his office said Thursday. Local company Telstar was last week awarded a license to operate the countrys fourth mobile network, valued at $120-million-dollars (106 million euros), beating 26 other local and international firms. The tender will be reopened, said a statement from the presidency. Telstar was established only in January 2018. Listed among its shareholders are army general Manuel Joao Carneiro and entrepreneur Antonio Cardoso Mateus. According to Angolan weekly Expansao, the company has links to Mundo Telecomunicacoes, an operator owned by several former ministers or advisers to ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The profitable mobile telecommunications sector is currently shared between two private firms, Movicel and Unitel, the country's leading operator. Isabel dos Santos, the former president's oldest daughter -- believed to be the richest woman in Africa -- holds a controlling stake in Unitel while her half-sister, Welwitschia dos Santos, holds a stake in Movicel. A third operator, the state-owned company Angola Telecom, which is partially privatised, has recently tried to make inroads into the sector. Lourenco swept to power in 2018 after pledging to clean up Angola's endemic graft, tackle nepotism, and revive its listless economy. He is opening up the telecommunications sector as part of plans to boost the economy of sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer, struggling to recover from the impact of a sharp drop in crude prices in 2014. The Sudan situation became tense after successive protests from the end of 2018, as the local people protested the sharp rise in food prices and showed their discontent with the governments weak economic policies. Tensions were escalated to new heights after the army arrested President al-Bashir and more than 100 officials under his administration. After nearly 30 years in power, President al-Bashir was overthrown; the Sudanese troops have stood up to establish the Transitional Military Council (TMC) to run the country while waiting for the establishment and transfer of power to a civilian government over an estimated period of two years. However, the deposition of President al-Bashir and TMCs pledges to transfer power to a civilian government have proved not be enough to ease the anger of the people. The wave of protests continued in the capital city of Khartoum. The sit-in demonstration of thousands of people passed its tenth consecutive day in front of the headquarters of Sudans Defence Ministry. The people continued to demand a wide range of claims to be satisfied, including dissolving the TMC and replacing it with a civilian council. Under pressure from street demonstrations, the head of the TMC, General Abdul Fatah al-Burhan, was forced to pledge to establish a civilian government, but he did not give any specific schedule. The peoples discontent and the heat from protests are in danger of escalating into violent conflict. The developments in Sudan are worrying countries in the region, because if left uncontrolled, political uncertainties may sweep the East African nation into a whirlwind of conflict as that which struck Egypt, Libya and Tunisia in the tornado of the Arab Spring in 2011. The AU, made up of 55 member states, strongly condemned the coup in Sudan, stressing that the army-led transitional government is completely contrary to the aspirations of the Sudanese people. The AUs Peace and Security Council (PSC) clearly stated that if the military government in Sudan does not transfer power to a civilian government within 15 days, the AU will suspend Sudans involvement in all AU activities until the country restores its constitutional order. In its history, the AU once suspended the membership of Egypt and the Republic of Central Africa after coups in these two countries in 2013. However, both countries have already reclaimed their membership status after stabilising their domestic situation. In the latest move to remove stalemate, Lieutenant General Jalal al-Deen al-Sheikh, a member of the TMC, met Ethiopias prime minister in Addis Ababa, where the AU is based, and said that Sudan is already in the process of choosing a prime minister for a civilian government, hailing this as a path towards peace for the country. The head of TMC, General Abdul Fatah al-Burhan, made phone calls with the kings of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the Presidents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Sudan, and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, aiming to call for support for TMC in this sensitive historical period. The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on the international community to support TMC in the process towards democratic transfer in the country, in the context of the United States, the European Union (EU) and many countries urging for a peaceful transitional process that meets the aspirations of the Sudanese people. Although the army currently running Sudan has pledged to quickly transfer power to a civilian government, the majority of Sudanese people dont really believe in this promise after whats happened in the country. The current tensions in Sudan are small unstable sparks risking being blown up into a massive fire if the factions refuse to give in and set aside disagreements to gain a common voice. The lessons from the protests overthrowing the governments that swept the North African countries into a spiral of conflict and uncertainties in 2011 are still hot. The international and regional community calls on factions in Sudan to take necessary steps to reconcile the nation and avoid confrontation, thus preventing the East African nation from following the same path of doom of a number of North African countries that experienced a tragic Arab Spring with many consequences. New York (AFP) - In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders mounted a surprising challenge to veteran Democrat Hillary Clinton in the party's 2016 White House nomination race. Today, he is once again in the hunt for the US presidency, and atop the list of 18 candidates formally vying for the Democratic nomination. But his early lead could prove to be divisive as the party seeks to oust Donald Trump from the Oval Office in 2020. Sanders, a 77-year-old self-described Democratic socialist from Vermont, is so far running from a position of strength, even as fresh new faces like "Mayor Pete" Buttigieg are making headlines. Of course, the Wall Street foe is still running second in opinion polls to 76-year-old former vice president Joe Biden, who hasn't officially thrown his hat in the ring. But fans of Sanders, who favors universal health care and steep taxes on the wealthy, are on board once again, if donations are any indication. He has more than $18 million in his campaign war chest so far, more than any other Democrat in the race. And most of those donations -- 84 percent -- were less than $200. - Bernie gets cheers on Fox News - Sanders seems ready for the fight -- he held a high-energy town hall meeting on Fox News Monday night, which other Democrats have shunned, and earned praise for his efforts. Trump, who is known to spend a fair bit of time watching the channel, even commented on his performance. "I believe it will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two finalists" for the Democrats, Trump tweeted. "I look forward to facing whoever it may be." But for Ester Fuchs, a professor of political science at Columbia University in New York, that outcome is far from being a certainty. "It is so early," Fuchs told AFP. "He has high name recognition, which affects his standing in the polls, which also affects fundraising." But even if Democratic voters are leaning more to the left than before, Fuchs believes the younger, more moderate candidates like former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke, California senator Kamala Harris and Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, are "going to blow him out of the water." Story continues And this time around, the media -- which gave Sanders "a free ride" in 2016, Fuchs says, because "nobody took him seriously" -- are not going to be as forgiving. - 'Never Bernie' ? - While Sanders is well positioned for now, and a win in the primaries would not exactly be a shock, it's too early to talk about a frontrunner, says Kyle Kondik, an analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. For Kondik, the key to Sanders' eventual success will be if he can rally support beyond his traditional support base. "Once the field gets smaller, will he grow his support or stagnate?" Kondik said. "I am just not positive that the party is going to rally around him." Of course, Sanders is not technically a Democrat -- he's an independent who caucuses with Democrats on Capitol Hill and only wears the party's stripes for primary purposes, analysts note. If he remains ahead of the pack, a 'Never Bernie' movement -- similar to one that sprouted up in the Republican Party against Trump in 2016 -- could take root, Kondik says. But on the flip side, if he fails once again to win the nomination, "it is not clear that he will step up and rally to support the standard-bearer," Fuchs says. Indeed, the party's establishment is still bitter about his last run, believing that his supporters failed to sufficiently back Clinton in her battle with Trump. This time around, that could happen again. One thing is for sure: Sanders will try to turn the hostility towards him emanating from the party's upper echelons into a political asset. In a fundraising message Wednesday, he slammed "some of the wealthiest members of the political establishment" for "plotting how to defeat our political revolution." By Joan Faus and Isla Binnie MADRID (Reuters) - A jailed Catalan separatist leader standing in Spain's national election this month said on Thursday he expected Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to consider a possible referendum on the region's independence to help secure a second term in office. In a news conference from the Madrid prison where he is being held, Jordi Sanchez - his party's top candidate in the April 28 ballot - suggested the likely need for coalition deals would spur his namesake to cooperate. Sanchez is standing trial for sedition for his role in a failed independence bid in 2017, and the wealthy region's undimmed ambition to split from Spain is among the most emotive campaign issues in the election. Pedro Sanchez's Socialists are expected to win the most seats, but will need support from one or more other party - possibly including the Catalan separatists - to form a parliamentary majority. He has taken a more conciliatory tone towards political dialogue with Catalonia than his conservative predecessor. But, along with other mainstream leaders in Madrid, he has consistently rejected the idea of an independence referendum or any unilateral secession bid, and hardened his position as the election campaign has heated up. On Thursday, in an interview with radio station Onda Cero given after the Catalan leader's comments, he reiterated that there would be "no referendum, no independence" for the region. Jordi Sanchez, a member of exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont's PDeCAT party, said he thought political circumstances might persuade the outgoing prime minister - to whom he is not related - to have a rethink. The secessionist movement would act on "the will that the citizens express themselves democratically at the ballot box, and we are convinced that sooner or later the Spanish Socialist party will accept this way," Sanchez said. Speaking to reporters via a videoconference organized by national news agency EFE, he said any other decision would "lead either to a permanent blockage (of the Catalonia independence debate) or pave the way for a government of the right." Opposition to Catalan independence has been a core rallying cry for the conservative People's Party, center-right Ciudadanos and far-right Vox, which could potentially win enough seats combined to form a viable coalition. Jordi Sanchez and three other jailed Catalan politicians said last week the separatists should be more flexible about entering negotiations with Madrid, provided a vote on independence remained an option. During Thursday's news conference he spoke mainly Catalan and sat in front of two symbols of Spanish unity: the red and yellow flag and a portrait of King Felipe. (Reporting by Isla Binnie and Joan Faus; Editing by Ingrid Melander and John Stonestreet) WASHINGTON (AP) Public at last, special counsel Robert Mueller's report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. Trump was largely thwarted by those around him who refused to go along. Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which Trump directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsel's appointment in May 2017. Those efforts "were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," Mueller wrote. After nearly two years, the two-volume, 448-page redacted report made for riveting reading. In one particularly dramatic moment, Mueller reported that Trump was so agitated at the special counsel's appointment on May 17, 2017, that he slumped back in his chair and declared: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm f---ed." With that, Trump set out to save himself. In June of that year, Mueller wrote, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the probe, and say that Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. McGahn refused deciding he would sooner resign than trigger a potential crisis akin to the Saturday Night Massacre of firings during the Watergate era. Two days later, the president made another attempt to alter the course of the investigation, meeting with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and dictating a message for him to relay to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The message: Sessions would publicly call the investigation "very unfair" to the president, declare Trump did nothing wrong and say Mueller should limit his probe to "investigating election meddling for future elections." The message was never delivered. Story continues The report's bottom line largely tracked the findings revealed in Attorney General William Barr's four-page memo released a month ago no collusion with Russia but no clear verdict on obstruction but it added new layers of detail about Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation. Looking ahead, both sides were already using the findings to amplify well-rehearsed arguments about Trump's conduct, Republicans casting him as a victim of harassment and Democrats depicting the president as stepping far over the line to derail the investigation. The Justice Department released its redacted version of the report about 90 minutes after Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings at a testy news conference. The nation, Congress and Trump's White House consumed it voraciously online, via a compact disc delivered to legislators and in loose-leaf binders distributed to reporters. The release represented a moment of closure nearly two years in the making but also the starting bell for a new round of partisan warfare. A defiant Trump pronounced it "a good day" and tweeted "Game Over" in a typeface mimicking the "Game of Thrones" logo. By late afternoon, he was airborne for his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida with wife Melania for the holiday weekend. Top Republicans in Congress saw vindication, too. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said it was time to move on from Democrats' effort to "vilify a political opponent." The California lawmaker said the report failed to deliver the "imaginary evidence" incriminating Trump that Democrats had sought. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said Republicans should turn the tables and "investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation." But Democrats cried foul over Barr's preemptive press conference and said the report revealed troubling details about Trump's conduct in the White House. In a joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote that "one thing is clear: Attorney General Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Mueller's report appears to undercut that finding." House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler added that the report "outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct." He sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting that Mueller himself testify before his panel "no later than May 23" and said he'd be issuing a subpoena for the full special counsel report and the underlying materials. Signaling battles ahead, Nadler earlier called the investigation "incredibly thorough" work that would preserve evidence for future probes. Barr said he wouldn't object to Mueller testifying. Trump himself was never questioned in person, but the report's appendix includes 12 pages of his written responses to queries from Mueller's team. Mueller deemed Trump's written answers rife with iterations of "I don't recall" to be "inadequate." He considered issuing a subpoena to force the president to appear in person but decided against it after weighing the likelihood of a long legal battle. In his written answers, Trump said his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Hillary Clinton's private server was made "in jest and sarcastically" and said he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. But Mueller said that within five hours of Trump's comment, Russian military intelligence officers were targeting email accounts connected to Clinton's office. Mueller evaluated nearly a dozen episodes for possible obstruction of justice, and said he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed criminal obstruction. The episodes included Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president's directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. Sessions was so affected by Trump's frequent criticism of him for recusing himself from the investigation that he kept a resignation letter "with him in his pocket every time he went to the White House," Mueller said. The president's lawyers have said Trump's conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mueller's team deemed the episodes deserving of scrutiny for potential criminal acts. As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote that the campaign "expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." But Mueller said investigators concluded, "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges." Workers at a Russian troll farm contacted Trump's campaign, claiming to be political activists for conservative grassroots organizations, and asked for signs and other campaign materials to use at rallies. While volunteers provided some of those materials and set aside a number of signs investigators don't believe any Trump campaign officials knew the requests were coming from foreign nationals, Mueller wrote. Mueller wrote that investigators "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, stressed that Mueller didn't think the president's obligations to run the executive branch entitled him to absolute immunity from prosecution. But to find that the president obstructed justice, he said, Mueller would have needed much clearer evidence that the president acted solely with "corrupt intent." "The evidence was sort of muddled," Blackman said, adding that the president's actions had multiple motivations. The report laid out some of Mueller's reasoning for drawing no conclusion on the question of obstruction. Mueller wrote that he would have exonerated Trump if he could, but he wasn't able to do that given the evidence he uncovered. And he said the Justice Department's standing opinion that a sitting president couldn't be indicted meant he also couldn't recommend Trump be criminally charged, even in secret. Trump's written responses addressed no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trump's legal team. He told Mueller he had "no recollection" of learning in advance about the much-scrutinized Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Clinton's Democratic campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made "complimentary statements" about him. It wasn't just Trump under the microscope. But Mueller wrote that he believed prosecutors would be unlikely to meet the burden of proof to show that Donald Trump Jr. and other participants in the Trump Tower meeting "had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful." Nor did Mueller's probe develop evidence that they knew that foreign contributions to campaigns were illegal or other particulars of federal law. Barr's contention that the report contained only "limited redactions" applied more to the obstruction of justice section than its look at Russian election meddling. Overall, about 40 percent of the pages contained at least something that was blocked out, mostly to protect ongoing investigations. Barr had said that he would redact grand jury information and material related to investigations, privacy and intelligence. ___ AP writers Zeke Miller, Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro, Dustin Weaver, Deb Riechmann, Susannah George, Michael R. Sisak, Stephen Braun, Jill Colvin, Jonathan Lemire, Darlene Superville, Jessica Gresko, Mark Sherman, Julie Pace and Elizabeth Kennedy contributed to this report. ___ For complete coverage of the Mueller report, go to https://www.apnews.com/TrumpInvestigations By Richard Lough and Caroline Pailliez PARIS (Reuters) - France will open the redesign of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral's historic spire to international architects after Monday night's catastrophic blaze that gutted the centuries-old roof and sent the towering spire crashing through the vaulted ceiling. The government's announcement on Wednesday added to a question many are asking as France grieves for its national symbol - whether the familiar outline at the heart of the capital should be restored as it was or given a modern twist. President Emmanuel Macron pledged in a prime-time address to the nation on Tuesday that Notre-Dame would be rebuilt within five years. Tycoons, international firms, local authorities and individuals have promised financial and expert help - with a total of nearly 900 million euros pledged by Wednesday. The cathedral was built over nearly 200 years starting in the middle of the 12th century, although it was only in the mid 1800s that architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc added the lead-covered spire during restoration work. "The international competition will allow us to ask the question of whether we should even recreate the spire as it was conceived by Viollet-le-Duc," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said. "Or whether, as is often the case during the evolution of heritage, we should endow Notre-Dame with a new spire that reflects the techniques and challenges of our era." Monday's inferno devastated a world treasure, prompting an outpouring of collective sorrow and soul-searching in France over whether to recreate the destroyed oak-framed roofing and spire or adapt the cathedral to the 21st century. As Philippe spoke, firefighters were working to stabilize a fire-ravaged pinnacle that houses one of Notre-Dame's 13th-century stained-glass rose windows. There was no immediate danger that the structure would topple but statues were also being removed to reduce the risk of movement, the fire service's spokesman said. "Today, there is no risk of collapse. Our priority is to stabilize the pinnacles which are weakened, since they are no longer held up by the roof and its frame," Lieutenant-Colonel Gabriel Plus told Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump had a phone call with Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, on Wednesday to offer condolences over the fire. Trump said in a tweet he had offered the help of "our great experts on renovation and construction". (Graphic: 3D diagram of Notre-Dame - https://tmsnrt.rs/2DgH76t) (Graphic: The fire at Notre-Dame - https://tmsnrt.rs/2XgGCRi) REPLICATE OR RESHAPE? It was not yet known what caused the blaze. The city's public prosecutor, Remy Heitz, said on Tuesday there was no sign of arson and it was likely to have been the result of an accident. Some 50 people were working on what would be a long and complex investigation, he said. Passers-by laid flowers on bridges crossing the Seine River as Parisians gave thanks to see the bell towers standing valiantly after the fire. Notre-Dame is not the first French cathedral to suffer a devastating fire. Among past catastrophes, a 1972 fire engulfed the roof of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes. Concrete was used in the subsequent reconstruction of gables and roof beams. "What's extraordinary is that Notre-Dame's roof lasted until 2019," Francois Chatillon, a prominent architect and specialist in historic monuments, told Reuters. In a city that has a strong tendency to preserve and initially balked at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum's glass pyramid, before they too became nationally loved, altering the cathedral's outline could prove unpopular. Benjamin Mouton, Notre-Dame's affiliated architect between 2000-2013, said it was pointless to be dogmatic about using the same materials for the restoration of a building that has already been "heavily altered, modified and reinforced". "On the other hand, we must recreate the cathedral's silhouette and rebuild the spire. That to me is indispensable," said Mouton, who logged each of the timber beams in Notre-Dame's attic that was dubbed the "forest". NEW TAX BREAK FOR SMALL DONATIONS Concerns over the cathedral's structural soundness have prevented investigators from entering Notre-Dame's main nave to assess damage at ground level. As the scale of damage was revealed, billionaires and corporate giants lined up to pledge huge donations. Their largesse raised questions among some French people over whether they had hidden motives such as seeking tax breaks. Philippe said his government would draft new legislation to introduce a 75 percent tax deduction on private donations up to 1,000 euros. The deductible will remain at 66 percent for bigger sums. The cathedral has been at the center of a long-running financing dispute and pleas from the Church for more cash. (Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey, Julie Carriat, Richard Lough, Pascale Denis and Marine Pennetier; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Frances Kerry) Paris (AFP) - For their 23rd consecutive Saturday protest, France's yellow vests have been told they will be banned from the area around Paris's fire-damaged Notre-Dame cathedral. The ban will be in place all day Saturday, a police statement said, following Monday's devastating fire at the world famous landmark. "No protest demonstration can be held" in the area due to the fragility of the building, the statement said. The yellow vest protesters, who have been holding weekly Saturday demonstrations to highlight social inequality since mid-November, will also be banned from the Champs-Elysees avenue and the area around the presidential Elysee Palace. The size of many of the donations pledged to restore Notre-Dame has attracted criticism in some quarters. "In one click, 200 million, 100 million. That shows the inequality which we regularly denounce in this country," the head of the CGT trade union, Philippe Martinez, said on Wednesday. Yellow vest demonstrations have frequently ended in rioting and looting in Paris and other big cities throughout France. THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) An appeals court in the northern city of Thessaloniki has upheld the bombing convictions of a monk and the abbot of a 1,000-year-old monastery deemed schismatic by the Greek Orthodox church, and cut their sentences from 20 to 17 years. The decision followed a firebomb attack in 2013 on a court bailiff and his brother trying to evict the monks from a building in Karyes, capital of the Mt. Athos monastic community. Neither man was hurt. The court convicted Antypas, one of the Esphigmenou Monastery's 118 monks, of throwing firebombs and Abbot Methodios of incitement. Another six monks, sentenced to 10 years as accessories, had their terms cut Thursday by seven months. None were present in court. All were free pending the appeal trial, and are being sought by police. Photo credit: Darin Russell - Flickr From Popular Mechanics Heather Wilson is the 24th Secretary of the Air Force. On Wednesday, the Air Force released a report detailing its strategy for developing and deploying science and technology breakthroughs. More often than not, history speaks important truths if we are willing to listen. Back in the last 1940s and 50s, before most Americans were born, the United States military led the way on scientific achievements that kept us safe from a dangerous world. The Air Force, in particular, was an engine of creativity that ushered in an age of jet engines, satellites, intercontinental ballistic missiles and concepts that led to space exploration and global communications networks. The lessons gleaned from how we were able to rapidly develop such critical technologies are important as our country enters a new era of great power competition with Russia and China. This week, the Air Force will release a new Science and Technology Strategy that serves as a blueprint for maintaining our military edge against prospective adversaries who are innovating faster than we are. Our strategy relies on echoes from our past. Elevating basic and applied science to the forefront of technology development in our service; building structural bridges to industry and academia that spark creativity and cross-fertilize scientific inquiry; and, ultimately, delivering capabilities that our adversaries cannot hope to match. This strategy is unique in that it does not simply list those technologies that we believe will be critical for military superiority. Rather, we set out a set of strategic capabilities and characteristics-using and leveraging technologies such as hypersonics and quantum computing-that we foresee as critical to success in the next decade and beyond. In short, our military must have the ability to see what is going on around the world, quickly and without interruption. We need systems that cannot be easily disabled, hacked or spoofed. We must develop technologies and systems that can react faster than our enemies. We need weapons that are too complex for our adversaries to detect and defeat and which can be employed in large numbers. And we need systems and weapons that are very fast and go range great distances. We have named these characteristics Global Persistent Awareness; Resilient Information Sharing; Rapid and Effective Decision Making; Complexity, Unpredictability and Mass; and Speed and Reach of Disruption and Lethality. Story continues By focusing on what we want our military technology to be able to do, we are setting up a competitive environment for researchers to discover and help create this generations X-1 rocket plane or ICBM. This approach is a strong link to our past and a significant departure from our present. As we note in our report, the globalization of technology now allows potential adversaries access to cutting-edge science and technology research and the best science and technology talent. Photo credit: Underwood Archives - Getty Images In response, we are reforming the way science and technology is led and managed to more quickly deliver game-changing technologies and deepen our scientific and technical expertise. These reforms dovetail with our efforts to test and develop weapons on a much shorter timeline and to overhaul and streamline how we maintain them over time. Those efforts have already shown great promise in slashing the time it takes to bring weapons to market and has produced notable efficiencies in cutting maintenance time and costs. Future advantage will go to those who create the best technologies and who integrate and field them in creative operational ways that provide military advantages. Urgency is key to staying ahead of the competition and for that reason we are introducing both new approaches and a new structure to transform our scientific enterprise. At the top will be an Air Force Chief Technology Officer, who will provide a strong voice within Air Force Headquarters and prioritize and coordinate science and technology across the service. This role would be analogous to most large companies Chief Technology Officer. To ensure urgency remains a hallmark of our scientific efforts, we will advance future concepts with research programs we call vanguards. These programs will develop leap-ahead technologies over a limited period of prototyping and experimentation and will draw on the past legacies of such programs as the X-1 and the Century Series jet fighters, which were developed rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s to counter threats to American air dominance. History tells us what we can do. And do this, we must. Heather Wilson is the 24th Secretary of the Air Force. ('You Might Also Like',) Indonesia's Joko Widodo said Thursday his reelection as head of the world's third-biggest democracy was all but assured, calling for calm as his firebrand ex-general rival insisted he had in fact won the nation's top job. Widodo, 57, said he had received phone calls from world leaders to congratulate him on his country's biggest-ever election, but added he would await the final results before formally declaring victory. He cited a series of so-called "quick counts" by pollsters, which are based on samples, that showed him as much as 11 percentage points ahead of Subianto. Quick counts have been reliable indicators in past elections. But "we still have to wait for the numbers from the KPU (General Elections Commission)", Widodo told a crush of reporters. "Let's continue to work and maintain our unity and harmony as a nation," he added. However, Subianto insisted that he and running mate Sandiaga Uno, a wealthy financier, had prevailed, citing voter fraud but without supplying concrete evidence. "Sandiaga Uno and I are declaring victory as the president and vice president," he told cheering supporters in Jakarta, ending his speech with shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest)" and "Merdeka" (freedom). The retired general -- who had close ties to the Suharto dictatorship, which collapsed in 1998 -- earlier warned he would challenge the results in court if he lost, and stage street protests. Some supporters of Subianto called for a march near Jakarta's biggest mosque after prayers on Friday, Islam's holy day. The 67-year-old, who has long had his eye on the country's top job, lost to Widodo in 2014 and then mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to that election. - 'Smooth and safe' - The competing claims came as authorities warned against unrest over Wednesdays "smooth and safe" polls, and warned of arrests. "If there are any illegal or unconstitutional actions that threaten public stability and security, (authorities) will take firm action," National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said Thursday. Story continues "We won't tolerate it. "I urge everyone against mass demonstrations, whether it's to celebrate or to express dissatisfaction" at the results, Karnavian added. This year's campaign was punctuated by bitter mudslinging and a slew of fake news online -- much of it directed at the presidential contenders. Authorities said Thursday they had seen a spike in false reports and hoaxes, with some calling for chaos in the streets and for Indonesians to commit violence in response to the results. However, the capital Jakarta was quiet Thursday after as many as 190 million voters in the Muslim-majority country cast ballots in the one-day poll -- which featured a record 245,000 candidates -- to elect a new president, parliamentarians and local legislators. Online, Subianto was pilloried by social media users who poked fun at his repudiation of the unofficial results and for kissing the ground as he declared himself president. "We honestly feel sorry for Prabowo, not because he's lost the election (again) but because he is surrounded by people who made him a zombie who can't differentiate between reality and illusion," said one Twitter user with 165,000 followers. National newspapers called for reconciliation, with top-selling Kompas saying "Let's Unite", while Tempo declared it "One More Time" for Widodo. Financial markets cheered, with the Jakarta composite stock index and the Indonesian rupiah both higher. Millions of voters across India cast ballots in the second round of the world's biggest election Thursday amid violence and protests that highlighted the intensity of animosity in the campaign. With more than a month to go before the marathon ends, Prime Minister Narendra Modi kept up a punishing schedule of rallies as he seeks a second term, while opposition leader Rahul Gandhi maintained attacks on the right wing Hindu nationalist government. Voting went ahead in 95 of India's 543 constituencies, most of it peacefully, but with noticeable blackspots. Security forces fired shotgun pellets and live bullets on protesters in Indian-Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, injuring three people, a police officer told AFP. Police in West Bengal fired tear gas and baton-charged groups in Darjeeling district protesting because they said they had been prevented from voting. A woman poll worker was killed by suspected Maoist rebels in the eastern state of Odisha hours before polling opened. And in central Chhattisgarh state, security forces raided a Maoist jungle camp, killing two insurgents allegedly involved in an attack on an election convoy before the first round of voting that left five dead, police said. More than 157 million of India's 900 million electorate were eligible to vote on the second of the seven rounds of voting. The last is on May 19 and final results will be released on May 23. Polls in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu could prove decisive in choosing the next prime minister and long lines formed outside polling stations. But voting was cancelled in one Tamil Nadu constituency after about $1.5 million in cash -- believed to be intended as bribes -- was seized by police. At some polling stations in tense Kashmir state, security forces outnumbered voters with tens of thousands of troops, paramilitaries and police deployed to the region for the vote. Authorities closed down mobile internet services and set up barricades to block roads to thwart any attack. Groups of youths still hurled stones at them. Story continues Outside one polling station, a 55-year-old man said he would not vote. "Our leaders have called for the boycott of all Indian elections," he said. Kashmir surged into Modi's campaign after a February suicide bomb attack that killed 40 paramilitaries and brought India and Pakistan -- which each control part of Kashmir -- to the brink of war. - Helicopter search storm - Modi is seen as the favourite but faces an increasingly tough challenge from opposition Congress party leader Gandhi. He was also caught up in a firestorm Thursday over an election official who was suspended after he insisted on searching Modi's helicopter. The election commission said the search violated their rules on VIPs, but the Congress party slammed the decision on their official Twitter account. "What is Modi carrying in his helicopter that he doesn't want India to see?" Congress asked in a Twitter statement. In New Delhi, the spokesman for Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) narrowly dodged a shoe thrown at him by a protester at a press conference at the party's headquarters. Modi swept to power in a 2014 landslide with a promise of "achhe din" ("good days"), and as prime minister he has simplified the tax code and made doing business easier. But despite growth of about seven percent a year, Asia's third-biggest economy has not provided enough jobs for the roughly one million Indians entering the labour market each month. And in rural areas, thousands of indebted farmers have killed themselves in recent years. Modi sought to counter critics of his campaign in a television interview this week when he said: "If farmers die, then it is an election issue, but when soldiers die then it is not an election issue? How can that be?" Gandhi fired back in an interview with The Hindu daily, published Thursday, saying Modi's party was deliberately ignoring economic problems. "The fact is that the biggest national security issue is unemployment," he said. Gandhi, seeking to become the fourth member of his family to take the prime minister's office, has pledged to end abject poverty by 2030 and give cash transfers to 50 million families. The BJP has promised a $1.4-trillion infrastructure blitz to create jobs. Wreckage is piled at the crash scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 11, 2019. The crash killed 157 people. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) Wreckage is piled at the crash scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 11, 2019. The crash killed 157 people. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) A lead attorney in the Philadelphia Salvation Army building collapse litigation filed suit against Boeing on behalf of a woman who died during the March crash of a 737 Max 8 plane in Ethiopia. Andrew Stern of Kline & Specter in Philadelphia filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of the estate of Manisha Nukavarapu, an Indian citizen who was a legal resident of Tennessee at the time of the crash. The suit alleges product liability, negligence, breach of warrant and civil conspiracy. In a footnote, the complaint said the plaintiff also intended to sue the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration under the Federal Tort Claims Act for alleged negligence in improperly certifying the plane. Nukavarapu, who was a medical resident at East Tennessee State University, was killed along with 156 others when a Boeing 737 Max 8 that had been set to fly from Ethiopia to Kenya crashed on March 10. The circumstances of the Ethiopian Air flights crash bore resemblances to that of another 737 Max 8 aircraft owned by Lion Air that crashed Oct. 29, killing 189 people. Along with Stern and Elizabeth Crawford of Kline & Specter, Joseph Power of Power Rogers & Smith in Chicago, and R. Wayne Culbertson in Kingsport, Tennessee, are representing Nukavarapu. Stern, who focuses on representing plaintiffs in complex litigation, was a lead attorney in the high-profile lawsuit against the Salvation Army stemming from a building collapse that left seven dead and 12 injured. That litigation ended with a $227 million settlement, and Stern's client, Mariya Plekan, was awarded $95.6 million from that amount. Stern said at the time that her award was the largest recovery for an injured individual in Pennsylvania history. When reached for comment Wednesday, Stern said he did not want to comment about Nukavarapu's case beyond the complaint, but added that he looks forward to prosecuting this case on behalf of the victims of this otherwise preventable catastrophe. A spokesman for Boeing declined to comment about the lawsuit directly, but said, "Boeing extends our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families and loved ones of those onboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. As the investigation continues, Boeing is cooperating fully with the investigating authorities." The complaint in Kondaveeti v. Boeing focuses on alleged problems with the plane's automated flight control system, which is called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. The system is meant to help stabilize an airplane to stop it from stalling. But, the complaint alleges, the system on the 737 Max 8 improperly forced planes into unwarranted dives at low altitudes. Specifically, the complaint said the system relied on only one sensor and failed to properly account for the flight characteristic changes that occurred with the plane's more powerful engines. The complaint, which was filed by Paul Kondaveeti as administrator of Nukavarapu's estate, also contended that Boeing did not tell the airlines that additional training was needed about the MCAS, and failed to take adequate steps once problems with the aircraft began to arise. "Defendant Boeing's conduct was outrageous and was the direct cause of this disaster, which otherwise would not have occurred had there been compliance with basic principles of safe aircraft design and pilot training," the complaint said. The lawsuit also seeks punitive damages. Robert Mueller arrives to speak to employees at FBI headquarters in Washington in April 2009. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Bloomberg Special Counsel Robert Mueller III found evidence suggesting President Donald Trumps public comments during the prosecution of Paul Manafort were intended to encourage his former campaign chairman to not cooperate with the governmentand possibly to also sway the jury that would find Manafort guilty of financial fraud, according to a 448-page report released Thursday summarizing the Russia investigation. Muellers team closely examined Trumps public statements, whether uttered aloud to reporters or typed on Twitter, as part of its investigation into whether the president obstructed justice. In the report, Muellers team identified numerous instances in which Trump offered praise not only for Manafort but also his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and in some cases raised the possibility of a pardon as they faced prosecution on charges arising from Muellers investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. With respect to Manafort, Muellers team wrote, there is evidence that the presidents actions had the potential to influence Manaforts decision whether to cooperate with the government. The president and his personal counsel made repeated statements suggesting that a pardon was a possibility for Manafort, while also making it clear that the president did not want Manafort to flip and cooperate with the government. Mueller ultimately declined to make a recommendation whether Trump tried to obstruct the Russia investigation. U.S. Attorney General William Barr, in concert with Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, said the evidence Mueller marshaled did not amount to obstruction. The results of the investigation are a total victory for the President ... it is clear there was no criminal wrongdoing, Trump's defense lawyers said in a statement Thursday. Muellers report highlighted, among other things, statements Trump made during Manaforts trial in Alexandria, Virginia. Trump called the prosecution a terrible situation and hoax that continues to stain our country. Trump also described Manafort as a Reagan/Dole darling who had been convicted of nothing but was nonetheless serving solitary confinement. According to Mueller's report: Story continues Some evidence supports a conclusion that the president intended, at least in part, to influence the jury. The trial generated widespread publicity, and as the jury began to deliberate, commentators suggested that an acquittal would add to pressure to end the special counsels investigation. By publicly stating on the second day of deliberations that Manafort happens to be a very good person and that its very sad what theyve done to Paul Manafort right after calling the special counsels investigation a rigged witch hunt, the presidents statements could, if they reached jurors, have the natural tendency to engender sympathy for Manafort among jurors, and a factfinder could infer that the president intended that result. The report acknowledged alternative explanations for Trumps statements, including that he genuinely felt sorry for Manafort. Mueller also noted that Trump might have intended not to sway the jury but rather to influence public opinion. But, the report said, the presidents comments could have also been intended to continue sending a message to Manafort that a pardon was possible. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, center, arrives for sentencing at federal court in Washington, with attorney Robert Kelner, right, Dec. 18, 2018. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ NLJ Regarding Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to authorities during the Russia investigation, the special counsel noted statements in which Trump praised his former national security adviser as a wonderful man and fine person. Trump, after Flynn resigned, also privately asked advisers to pass messages conveying that he still cared about him and urging him to stay strong. The special counsel scrutinized conversations between a personal lawyer for Trump and Flynnns defense counsel at Covington & Burling. Neither lawyer is identified in the report, but Covington & Burling partner Robert Kelner has led Flynns defense. Muellers team scrutinized conversations between the lawyers after Flynn withdrew from a joint defense agreement with Trump, signaling a possible pivot to cooperate with the government. Trumps personal lawyer responded to the move by reminding Flynns defense lawyer of what the Mueller described as the presidents warm feelings for his former national security adviser. That still remains, Trumps lawyer said, according to the report. When Flynns defense lawyer reiterated that he could no longer share information under a joint defense agreement, the presidents personal counsel stated that the decision would be interpreted as reflecting Flynns hostility toward the president, the report states. Trumps lawyer said he planned to inform his client of that interpretation, the report adds, with a footnote attributing that information to Flynns defense counsel. Citing attorney-client privilege issues, the special counsels office said it did not seek to interview Trumps lawyer about the extent to which he discussed his comments to Flynns attorney with the president. Kelner declined to comment Thursday. In evaluating the dialogue between Trumps and Flynns lawyers, the special counsels office appeared to run into an obstacle. That sequence of events could have had the potential to affect Flynns decision to cooperate, as well as the extent of that cooperation, Muellers office wrote. Because of privilege issues, however, we could not determine whether the president was personally involved in or knew about the specific message his counsel delivered to Fynns counsel. Read more: Barr Defends Trump at Pre-Report Press Conference, Sans Robert Mueller Here Is the 448-Page Mueller Report DC Judge Dismisses 'Plea for Leniency' While Imposing Manafort Sentence Judge Emmet Sullivan Delays Flynn Sentencing After Threatening Prison Seoul (AFP) - North Korea's Kim Jong Un has supervised the test-firing of a new tactical weapon with a "powerful warhead", state media reported Thursday, in the first test of its kind since nuclear negotiations with Washington stalled. The test marks a ratcheting up of tensions weeks after a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump collapsed without agreement. It also comes after satellite imagery suggested heightened activity at a nuclear test site. Wednesday's test was "conducted in various modes of firing at different targets" the Korean Central News Agency reported, adding that Kim "guided the test-fire". The report said Kim described its development as one "of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army". The "advantages" of the weapon were "the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead", KCNA said. Its report gave no details of the weapon. South Korea had not detected anything on radar so it was unlikely to have been a missile, a military official told AFP. "When North Korea launches a missile, our radar catches it. But no missile was detected," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Seoul' presidential office said it had no comment. "The description makes whatever was tested sound like a missile, but that could be everything from a small anti-tank guided missile to a surface-to-air missile to a rocket artillery system," said North Korea analyst Ankit Panda. Earlier in the week, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US monitor, said activity had been detected at Yongbyon, the North's main nuclear testing facility. The think tank said evidence suggested Pyongyang may be reprocessing radioactive material into bomb fuel. Kim's Hanoi summit with Trump, the second between the two men, ended abruptly, with North Korea later protesting that the US was being unreasonable in its demands. Story continues Since then, North Korea has said it is mulling options for its diplomacy with the US, and Kim said last week he was open to talks with Trump only if Washington came with the "proper attitude". "Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day," said Harry Kazianis, an analyst at the Washington-based Center for the National Interest. "His regime is becoming frustrated with Washington's lack of flexibility in recent negotiations." Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, agreed the test was a message to the US showing its displeasure over the stalled nuclear talks. But the fact that it was not a long-range missile or nuclear test "underscores Pyongyang wants to keep alive dialogue with Washington", he added. "Pyongyang cannot conduct a nuclear or long-range missile launch at this point unless it wants to totally shatter what remains of the US-North talks," he continued. Pentagon officials said they were aware of the test report but declined to comment further. - Moon overture - Last November, KCNA reported that Kim oversaw the testing of a "newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon" months after his first meeting with Trump. It was the first official report of a weapons test by North Korea since Kim and Trump's historic summit in Singapore over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programme. The North's latest weapon test report comes after South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday he wanted a fresh meeting with Kim "regardless of venue and form". Pyongyang has yet to respond to Moon's overture. Moon, who has long backed engagement with the nuclear-armed North, has been pushing for the resumption of inter-Korean economic projects, but doing so would fall foul of international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang. Moscow (AFP) - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin this month, the Kremlin said Thursday, as tensions between Washington and Pyongyang spiked higher. The Kremlin announced the talks just hours after North Korea launched a blistering attack on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, demanding he be removed from negotiations over its banned nuclear programme. Pyongyang also claimed to have tested a new kind of weapon with a "powerful warhead". The Kim-Putin meeting would be the first between the two leaders, as Moscow seeks to play a role in another global flashpoint. The Kremlin said Putin had invited Kim and that the meeting would take place "in the second half of April" but provided no further details. Russia, South Korean and Japanese media had reported this week that preparations were underway for a summit in Russia's Far East. Russia has relatively warm ties with Pyongyang and provides some food aid, and Putin has long expressed his readiness to meet with the regime leader. Quoting diplomatic sources, Russian newspaper Izvestia said the meeting would take place in Vladivostok next week before the Russian leader heads to China for an April 26-27 summit. Meanwhile, two senior US officials -- presidential advisor Fiona Hill and special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun -- were in Moscow this week for talks with Russian officials. The US embassy in Moscow said Biegun had met with a Russian deputy foreign minister to discuss "respective bilateral engagements with North Korea and efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea." Pyongyang and Washington have been at loggerheads since the collapse of a summit between Kim and President Donald Trump earlier this year. - Pompeo 'reckless' - Upping the ante in the diplomatic standoff, North Korea's foreign ministry described Pompeo as "reckless" and immature and said it wanted him replaced. Story continues "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," the official KCNA news agency quoted Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the ministry's Department of American Affairs, as saying. "I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but... (another) person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us." Kwon said Kim had made clear that the US attitude has to change and that Pompeo was standing in the way of a resumption of talks. A State Department spokeswoman said Washington "remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation". Pyongyang has been far happier to deal directly with Trump, who critics fear is too soft on the regime and is not sufficiently versed in diplomacy. The US president has made much of his personal relationship with Kim, musing even about their "love" for each other. The February summit between Kim and Trump ended abruptly, with North Korea later protesting that the US was being unreasonable. North Korea has since said it is mulling options for its diplomacy with the US, and Kim said last week he was open to talks with Trump only if Washington came with the "proper attitude". - 'Powerful warhead' tested - Adding to tensions, KCNA reported Thursday that Kim had supervised the test-firing of a new tactical weapon. Wednesday's test was "conducted in various modes of firing at different targets" KCNA reported, adding that Kim described its development as one "of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army". The report gave no details of the weapon. South Korea had not detected anything on radar so it was unlikely to have been a missile, a military official told AFP. A rapid diplomatic thaw on the Korean peninsula last year saw Kim meet not only Trump but also his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Little concrete progress has been achieved, however, and UN sanctions over the North's nuclear programme remain in place. Putin has previously expressed positions sympathetic to Kim's regime, saying last year that Pyongyang must be given guarantees in exchange for de-nuclearisation. The US has accused Russia of trying to help North Korea evade some international sanctions, though Moscow denies this. The last summit between a Russian and North Korean head of state came in 2011, when Kim's father Kim Jong Il travelled to Siberia to meet Dmitry Medvedev, then Russian president. burs-mm/tm/wai Iakov Kalinin via Shutterstock While flames engulfed Notre Dame on the evening of April 15 and the world watched in despair, French president Emmanuel Macron told news cameras that the Paris cathedral was part of the history of all French people: It is our history, our literature, our imagination, the place where we have lived our great moments it is the epicentre of our life. Macron hit the mark in more ways than one. Certainly, since its first stone was laid in 1163, Notre Dame has witnessed a great many of Frances iconic moments. It was, after all, the church of the countrys medieval kings long before the royal court moved out to Versailles in the 17th century. In 1558, it witnessed the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin, soon to be King Francois II. In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor there. And, on August 26 1944, the towering frame of general Charles de Gaulle strode triumphantly down the aisle for a thanksgiving service on the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation having braved snipers on the way. Jacques-Louis David and Georges Rouget Notre Dame is one of the countrys lieux de memoire, a realm of memory, to use historian Pierre Noras term; a place where historical memory is embedded and commemorated. Secret lives All buildings have their secret lives a topic that Edward Hollis explores in his brilliant book with that very title. One of the cathedrals secret lives was its part in the culture war that bitterly divided France after the Revolution of 1789. The Revolution was not only a frontal assault on hereditary privilege, seigneurialism and the monarchy it also developed into an attack on the Catholic church, and Notre Dame was one of the most important sites of this conflict. In the autumn of 1793, as the Terror gathered pace, the firebrands who dominated Paris municipal government ordered the removal of the statues that lined Notre Dames facade above its great doors. These, it was proclaimed, were the gothic simulacra of the Kings of France (in fact, they represented the Kings of Judea). As the iconoclasm swept through the city, the interior of the cathedral was gutted: all religious images, statues, effigies, reliquaries and symbols were stripped out until all that remained was a bare shell of masonry and timber. The cathedrals bells and spire were melted down for their metal. Story continues This was the most serious damage sustained by the cathedral in modern times, until the recent fire, and yet (and here we might take heart) Notre Dame would be restored in the 19th century by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, whose work included the replacement spire that fell so tragically in flames on April 15. The crescendo of the revolutionary campaign of dechristianisation came on November 10, 1793 when Notre Dame renamed the Temple of Reason played host to a secular, atheist festival to the triumph of human reason over religion and superstition. The French Revolution left a legacy of cultural and political division between, on the one hand, the Republic, the secular and visions of a democratic, rights-based order, and, on the other hand, the Church, the sacred and memories of the old monarchy. Crisis of faith Napoleon Bonaparte papered over the chasm in 1801 by signing a Concordat an agreement with the Pope, whereby he pragmatically recognised Catholicism as the religion of the great majority of French citizens. This was a clever formula that was both a statement of fact and left room for other faiths. In return, the Pope accepted many of the reforms of the Revolution and Notre Dame was returned to the Church in April 1802. Despite this compromise, friction continued between the church and the state as the political pendulum swung back and forth over the course of the 19th century. Education was a particularly contentious battleground, as both sides fought to win the hearts and minds of the younger generations. From this conflict sprang the republican principle of laicite. While French people of all races and creeds were free to practice their beliefs as private individuals, in their contacts with the state, particularly in schools, they were meant to be equal citizens abiding by the same laws and adhering to the same, universal, republican values. Notre-Dame was given a role in this if only in opposition to laicite. When the Eiffel Tower was opened in 1889 for the Universal Exposition, itself commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution, it was heralded by republicans as a triumph of human reason, science and progress over faith and superstition. Neirfy via Shutterstock The French diplomat and travel-writer Eugene Melchior de Vogue imagined an argument between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, between the old and the new, between faith and science. The cathedrals two towers mock Eiffels creation: You are ugly and empty; we are beautiful and replete with God Fantasy for a day, you will not last, because you have no soul. The iron structure retorts: Old abandoned towers, no one listens to you anymore You were ignorance; I am knowledge. You keep man enslaved; I free him I have no more need of your God, invented to explain a creation whose laws I know. In 1905, the republicans finally triumphed, formally separating church and state, thereby tearing up Napoleons Concordat. Notre Dame itself, along with other ecclesiastical property, was taken over by the government. Sacred union So Notre Dame is certainly a symbol of Frances past, but not only because of its longevity, its royal associations, its undeniably stunning architecture and its location on the Ile de la Cite the ancient legal, political and ecclesiastical heart of the former kingdom. It also stood as a site and a symbol of the culture war: the Franco-French conflict between, on the one hand, the countrys monarchist and Catholic traditions and, on the other hand, its revolutionary and republican heritage. These frictions have periodically torn the country apart since 1789. This is its hidden history. This alone is reason to mourn the damage, because its secret life carries lessons for all of us about the relationship between church and state, faith and reason, the secular and the sacred, about tolerance and intolerance, about the use and abuse of religion and culture. But happily this is not the full story. In times of national crisis, the French have shown an inspiring capacity to rally together, evoking the union sacree, the unity of wartime in 1914, just as they mobilised around the democratic, republican values in response to the terrorist attacks in 2015. And Notre Dame has historically played a part in these moments of reconciliation and union. When France emerged from the brutal, sectarian 16th-century strife between Catholics and the Protestant Huguenots remembered as the Wars of Religion the Protestant Henri de Navarre, who took the crown as Henri IV, pragmatically decided that: Paris is well worth a Mass and converted to Catholicism. When he rode into the capital in 1594, he immediately took communion in Notre Dame: it was a moment that promised peace between Catholics and Protestants (and four years later, the new king issued the Edict of Nantes, which declared toleration for both faiths). It was in Notre Dame, too, that the official celebrations of Napoleons compromise with the Church, the Concordat, came to a climax on Easter Sunday 1802, with a Mass attended by the entire government of a republic once deemed Godless. In 1944, de Gaulles triumphant march to Notre Dame through liberated Paris was a moment of catharsis for French people humiliated by four years of Nazi occupation. And in 1996, the then president Jacques Chirac (also the first French president to make a state visit to the Vatican) helped to arrange a Requiem Mass for his agnostic predecessor, Francois Mitterand. Imperial War Museum , CC BY The gesture and the subsequent papal visit that same year certainly elicited protests from people, particularly on the left, who defended a pure form of laicite. Yet that Chirac, who in other contexts steadfastly defended the Republics secularism, could as president do these things suggests how far the boundaries between republicanism and Catholicism have softened. Notre Dame is certainly an appropriate site to reflect on this because it is both state property and officially designated a monument historique as long ago as 1862 and a fully-functioning church. Bridges to build This is not to say that there are no bridges still to build, or frictions to resolve far from it. Recently, controversies over laicite have revolved around attempts to ban the hijab, the burka and the burkini, which have stoked fears of racism and of the exclusion of Frances substantial Muslim population. And while there is certainly a dark side to les gilet jaunes, they are no less a symptom of deep economic distress and social malaise. So when Macron, on first learning of the terrible fire consuming Notre Dame, could tweet that his thoughts were with all Catholics and for all French people and that tonight I am sad to see this part of us burn, he was perhaps intentionally almost using the Napoleonic language of the Concordat. His tweet recognised that not all French people are Catholic, while at the same time stating that the iconic cathedral is the heritage of all citizens regardless of belief. And indeed the rector of the Paris Grand Mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, issued a press release as the fire still blazed, saying: We pray that God might safeguard this monument so precious to our hearts. Read more: Japan's PM has frog in throat as ecological crisis looms When the reconstruction of Notre Dame begins, the country will be restoring not only a site of its history, but also a symbol of the complexities of that history, complexities that, hopefully, remind us of a capacity for healing, inclusion and unity. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The Conversation Michael Rapport receives funding from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust for his work on Revolutionary Paris. He is a member of Stirling4Europe. Paris (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday hailed as "exemplary" hundreds of firefighters who saved Notre-Dame in the devastating blaze, as efforts intensified to shore up the still fragile cathedral. Some 600 firefighters worked throughout the night Monday to put out the fire at the Paris landmark and prevent an even worse disaster, in a blaze that felled the spire and destroyed two-thirds of its roof. A prayer vigil was held at another of Paris's landmark churches, the Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart), on Thursday which was due to remain open all night. One woman, Tanuja Saint Andre, 46, called Notre-Dame her "second home" and said she had prayed for "the Virgin Mary, for Notre-Dame and that the foundations hold". Sixty firefighters are still maintaining a presence at Notre-Dame to ensure no further fire erupts while France's culture minister warned that two gables and figurines perched high up in the building were still at risk of collapse inside. "The country and the entire world were watching us and you were exemplary," Macron told some 250 of the firefighters at the Elysee Palace. "You were the perfect example of what we should be," he added. He said the firefighters would be awarded France's golden medal of honour in recognition of their "courage and devotion". - 'Saved part of ourselves' - Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo also paid tribute to the firefighters and others who helped rescue the 850-year-old gothic masterpiece, in a public ceremony outside Paris city hall. "You saved part of ourselves," she said, hailing the "boundless courage" of the firefighters who were loudly cheered by the assembled public as they took to the stage. "It was 9:30 pm. The wind was blowing... There were flames around the northern bell tower with a temperature of 800 degrees," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said in his tribute. Story continues "Waiting even seconds more could have meant the tower and the facade fell. But they continued... risking their lives to save Notre-Dame. Only their mission counted," he said. Culture Minister Franck Riester said on Thursday that even three days after the fire there remained concerns that parts of the building could collapse. He said one gable in the north transept and another between the two great bell towers were at risk. He also said that figures in the southern bell tower still risked falling and, if they did, this would damage the organs below. An operation will be undertaken to remove them. But he added that "thanks to the exceptional work of the fire brigade, their courage, the strategy for attacking the fire adopted by the two officers in charge, we can say that the worst was avoided". Macron had on Tuesday in an address to the nation outlined an ambitious strategy to rebuild Notre Dame within just five years, hailing the French as a nation of "builders". The goal was warmly applauded by some but greeted with scepticism by some experts who warned of the painstaking work and expertise needed to make the cathedral anew. Macron named former French chief of staff General Jean-Louis Georgelin his special representative for the reconstruction effort, who described his task as a "combat mission". The president "has set an objective -- five years. I need to make sure that everyone engaged in this battle mobilises to reach the objective," Georgelin told AFP. Investigators trying to determine the cause of the blaze are questioning workers who were renovating the steeple, an operation suspected of accidentally triggering the blaze. For the toppled spire, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday that an international contest of architects would determine one of three options: not replacing the spire, rebuilding it as it was or creating a wholly new edifice. - 'Extraordinary generosity' - Pledges of donations for rebuilding from France's biggest family companies, listed firms as well as foreign giants like Apple and Walt Disney have rolled in. More than 850 million euros ($960 million) has now been pledged but there has been controversy over why the money has been so quick to come when France is beset by social problems. "In one click, 200 million, 100 million. That shows the inequality which we regularly denounce in this country," the head of the CGT trade union, Philippe Martinez, said on Wednesday. Riester however called the debate "pointless" and urged people to let this "extraordinary show of generosity to run is course". Diplomatic sources said Thursday a former French ambassador to Russia and the Vatican, Stanislas de Laboulaye, 72, would be named as coordinator of the international aid effort. Police in Paris said late Thursday that yellow vest protesters would be banned from the area around Notre-Dame on Saturday during their 23rd consecutive weekly protest against social inequality Business 5G: The Challenge and Opportunity for Cable | Digital modulator from Soukacatv.com Household Universal Encoding & Modulation Modulator from Soukacatv.com 18.04.2019 07:30:44 - In the lead-up to Mobile World Congress, 5G continues to receive a lot of hype and media coverage, promised as the be-all/end-all for a customers connectivity needs. (live-PR.com) - In the lead-up to Mobile World Congress, 5G continues to receive a lot of hype and media coverage, promised as the be-all/end-all for a customers connectivity needs. What does this mean for the cable operator? As with many competitive threats, there will be both challenges and opportunities with this new wireless technology. Before we go into those challenges and opportunities, lets - In the lead-up to Mobile World Congress, 5G continues to receive a lot of hype and media coverage, promised as the be-all/end-all for a customers connectivity needs. What does this mean for the cable operator? As with many competitive threats, there will be both challenges and opportunities with this new wireless technology.Before we go into those challenges and opportunities, lets review what 5G is promising to bring to the wireless landscape (as outlined by Verizons Eight Currencies of 5G keynote at CES): Speed with peak data rates of up to 20 Gbps on the downlink and 10 Gbps on the uplink Throughput with data volumes up to 10 terabits per second per square kilometer Mobility with devices staying connected while moving up to 500 kilometers per hour 1 million devices per square kilometer density Energy efficiency with significant reduction compared with 4G Rapid service deployment, both network and device 5 ms latency to network edge 999% (five 9s) reliability HDMI Encoder Modulator,16in1 Digital Headend, HD RF Modulator at Soukacatv.com SKD3013 3 Channel HD Encode Modulator SKD19 Series 1U Rack 12CH Encode Modulator SKD121X Encoding & Multiplexing Modulator Household Universal Encoding & Modulation Modulator The faster speeds, greater capacities, and lower latencies of 5G are attained through dedicating additional frequency spectrum to 5G, and through greater spectral efficiency. Spectral efficiency is a measure of how well a given access technology can transmit bits over a limited frequency spectrum. The 5G efficiency improvements are achieved by using advanced modulation techniques, including sparse code multiple access (SCMA), polar codes, and filtered orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), as well as utilizing massive MIMOeach of which could command its own article for explanation. These greater performance capabilities are poised to support existing customer services like high-resolution video and gaming, as well as emerging IoT services such as remote healthcare, education manufacturing, and agriculture. 5G has two distinct topologies: traditional cellular service and fixed wireless access (FWA). 5G cellular will utilize the wireless carriers existing cell tower infrastructure. FWA, as the name implies, is designed to provide fixed broadband service to a home or business. FWA will bring the 5G small cells much closer to the customer and will occupy millimeter wave (30 to 300 GHz) frequencies. The challenge with providing reliable broadband service over FWA is that the customer site needs to be line of sight to the small cell antenna, and terrain, foliage and weather can impact link performance. This increased cell density is an excellent backhaul opportunity for the cable operator. Cable operators may choose to offer 5G services directly. Operators of both cable and wireless networks outside of the US, such as Rogers and Shaw in Canada, have announced 5G trials. In the US, cable operators have more frequently opted to partner with cellular carriers through a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement. For these cases, 5G backhaul is a huge opportunity. In some markets, more than 80% of the cellular backhaul is carried by the cable operator. There has been something of a kerfuffle recently over the definition of providing 5G service to a wireless customer. One wireless carrier recently started broadcasting the 5G logo over the air to customers who were on the faster portions of their network, a clear effort to begin promoting the new 5G branding. Their rival wireless carrier maintained that they would only use the 5G logo when their customers are using new 5G devices and connecting to the network over new 5G radio technology. Events such as these lead to 5G brand confusion. 5G will easily be the most talked about topic at this years Mobile World Congress, and in the next couple of years, it will be offered globally by the wireless carriers. Global 5G deployments are expected to start in late 2019 and become the predominant coverage technology within three to 10 years. So, is 5G friend or foe to the cable operators? The cable industry has many options to both compete with and leverage 5G technologies: Offer traditional cellular coverage, or establish an MVNO to do so Offer FWA coverage, or establish an MVNO to do so Provide backhaul connectivity to wireless network operators for both of the above options Continue to expand their Wi-Fi networks in the home, business, and public hot spots, especially in light of advanced 802.11ax technology (which will be the subject of another article) At the end of the day, a network operators business objective is to offer complete mobility to the customer, so that they can receive all of todays and future services while on the go. The customer really doesnt care what wireless technology their services traverse as long as they can access these services quickly and reliably. By embracing 5G technology where appropriate, the cable industry is poised to do just that. Established in 2000, the Soukacatv.com main products are modulators both in analog and digital ones, amplifier and combiner. We are the very first one in manufacturing the headend system in China. Our 16 in 1 and 24 in 1 now are the most popular products all over the world. For more, please access to CONTACT US Company: Dingshengwei Electronics Co., Ltd Address: Bldg A, the first industry park of Guanlong, Xili Town, Nanshan, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China Tel: +86 0755 26909863 Fax: +86 0755 26984949 Mobile: 13410066011 Email: Source: cablefax review what 5G is promising to bring to the wireless landscape (as outlined by Verizons Eight Currencies of 5G keynote at CES):Speed with peak data rates of up to 20 Gbps on the downlink and 10 Gbps on the uplinkThroughput with data volumes up to 10 terabits per second per square kilometerMobility with devices staying connected while moving up to 500 kilometers per hour1 million devices per square kilometer densityEnergy efficiency with significant reduction compared with 4GRapid service deployment, both network and device5 ms latency to network edge999% (five 9s) reliabilityHDMI Encoder Modulator,16in1 Digital Headend, HD RF Modulator at Soukacatv.comSKD3013 3 Channel HD Encode ModulatorSKD19 Series 1U Rack 12CH Encode ModulatorSKD121X Encoding & Multiplexing ModulatorHousehold Universal Encoding & Modulation ModulatorThe faster speeds, greater capacities, and lower latencies of 5G are attained through dedicating additional frequency spectrum to 5G, and through greater spectral efficiency. Spectral efficiency is a measure of how well a given access technology can transmit bits over a limited frequency spectrum. The 5G efficiency improvements are achieved by using advanced modulation techniques, including sparse code multiple access (SCMA), polar codes, and filtered orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), as well as utilizing massive MIMOeach of which could command its own article for explanation.These greater performance capabilities are poised to support existing customer services like high-resolution video and gaming, as well as emerging IoT services such as remote healthcare, education manufacturing, and agriculture.5G has two distinct topologies: traditional cellular service and fixed wireless access (FWA). 5G cellular will utilize the wireless carriers existing cell tower infrastructure. FWA, as the name implies, is designed to provide fixed broadband service to a home or business. FWA will bring the 5G small cells much closer to the customer and will occupy millimeter wave (30 to 300 GHz) frequencies. The challenge with providing reliable broadband service over FWA is that the customer site needs to be line of sight to the small cell antenna, and terrain, foliage and weather can impact link performance. This increased cell density is an excellent backhaul opportunity for the cable operator.Cable operators may choose to offer 5G services directly. Operators of both cable and wireless networks outside of the US, such as Rogers and Shaw in Canada, have announced 5G trials. In the US, cable operators have more frequently opted to partner with cellular carriers through a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement. For these cases, 5G backhaul is a huge opportunity. In some markets, more than 80% of the cellular backhaul is carried by the cable operator.There has been something of a kerfuffle recently over the definition of providing 5G service to a wireless customer. One wireless carrier recently started broadcasting the 5G logo over the air to customers who were on the faster portions of their network, a clear effort to begin promoting the new 5G branding. Their rival wireless carrier maintained that they would only use the 5G logo when their customers are using new 5G devices and connecting to the network over new 5G radio technology. Events such as these lead to 5G brand confusion.5G will easily be the most talked about topic at this years Mobile World Congress, and in the next couple of years, it will be offered globally by the wireless carriers. Global 5G deployments are expected to start in late 2019 and become the predominant coverage technology within three to 10 years.So, is 5G friend or foe to the cable operators? The cable industry has many options to both compete with and leverage 5G technologies:Offer traditional cellular coverage, or establish an MVNO to do soOffer FWA coverage, or establish an MVNO to do soProvide backhaul connectivity to wireless network operators for both of the above optionsContinue to expand their Wi-Fi networks in the home, business, and public hot spots, especially in light of advanced 802.11ax technology (which will be the subject of another article)At the end of the day, a network operators business objective is to offer complete mobility to the customer, so that they can receive all of todays and future services while on the go. The customer really doesnt care what wireless technology their services traverse as long as they can access these services quickly and reliably. By embracing 5G technology where appropriate, the cable industry is poised to do just that.Established in 2000, the Soukacatv.com main products are modulators both in analog and digital ones, amplifier and combiner. We are the very first one in manufacturing the headend system in China. Our 16 in 1 and 24 in 1 now are the most popular products all over the world.For more, please access to www.soukacatv.com CONTACT USCompany: Dingshengwei Electronics Co., LtdAddress: Bldg A, the first industry park of Guanlong, Xili Town, Nanshan, Shenzhen, Guangdong, ChinaTel: +86 0755 26909863Fax: +86 0755 26984949Mobile: 13410066011Email: ken@soukacatv.com Source: cablefax Press Information: Dingshengwei Electronics Co., Ltd Contact Person: Phone: 13410066011 eMail: eMail Web: http://https://www.soukacatv.com 18.04.2019 07:30:44 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. Paris (AFP) - France's culture minister pleaded Thursday for an end to the controversy over the 850 million euros (950 million dollars) pledged to restore Notre-Dame cathedral, which critics have suggested would be better spent on the poor. Some of France's biggest companies and billionaires, including luxury goods tycoons Francois-Henri Pinault and Bernard Arnault, have pledged amounts of 100 million euros or more to rebuild the landmark after it was gutted by fire on Monday evening. The vast sums have drawn fire in a country where wealth inequality and the plight of the low-income households have been highlighted during five months of demonstrations by "yellow vest" protesters. "This pointless debate consists of saying 'it's too much money for Notre-Dame even though there are needs elsewhere' -- of course there's a need for money for the social system, for health, the fight against climate change," Culture Minister Franck Riester told RMC radio. "But let's leave this extraordinary show of generosity to run its course," he pleaded. He said Notre-Dame was "not only old stones. It's a part of our identity, it's our nation, European culture." The controversy has undercut hopes expressed by President Emmanuel Macron for the divided country to "come together" in the wake of the fire, which is widely suspected to have been caused by renovation work underway on its steeple. "It's very disturbing to see how in France you get criticised even when you do something," Arnault said on Thursday at a shareholder's meeting when asked about the row. Some leftist politicians have argued that the ultra-rich donors could best help protect the country's cultural heritage by fully paying their taxes -- or helping the "human cathedral" of people in need. "In one click, 200 million, 100 million. That shows the inequality which we regularly denounce in this country," the head of the CGT trade union, Philippe Martinez, said on Wednesday. Story continues "If they can give tens of millions to rebuild Notre-Dame, then they should stop telling us there is no money to help with the social emergency (in France)," he added. The huge tax breaks available on the donations also caused some unease, prompting Pinault to announce he would forfeit the rebate on his contribution. - Other priorities - Sweden's teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg also used the drama at Notre-Dame to underline her message that the environment should be the biggest priority. "Notre Dame will be rebuilt, I hope its foundations are strong, I hope that our foundations are even stronger, but I fear they are not," she told the European parliament on Tuesday, referring to the fight against climate change. Writer and historian Mike Stuchbery, writing on the Huffington Post, reminded donors of their responsibility to the poor. "It's important for some to remember that such a wonderful edifice was built to celebrate a faith that emphasises giving aid and comfort to the poor, regardless of who they are," he said. In Britain, a satirical online article went viral after it compared the reaction to the Notre-Dame disaster and the fatal fire at London's Grenfell towerblock in 2017 in which 71 people lost their lives. "Former Grenfell residents have expressed regret that they didn't splash out on pretty stained glass windows before their tower burned down," said the post on newsthump.com. Photo credit: U.S. Navy/HHI photo. From Popular Mechanics The missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald has left drydock and is floating on its own, nearly two years after the ship collided with a civilian merchant vessel. The June 2017 incident killed ten sailors and badly damaged the ship, forcing the Navy to bring it back to the United States for repairs. The ship has been under repair for more than a year and still has some ways to go before it can return to the fleet. USS Fitzgerald collided with the tanker ACX Crystal, a Philippine-flagged container ship off the cost of Japan on the night of June 16, 2017. Fitzgerald suffered a huge gash on the starboard side, underneath the bridge and the SPY-1 radar system, as well as large hole in the hull underneath the waterline. The gash damaged or destroyed much of the ships electronics and the hole induced flooding below decks that drowned seven sailors in their berths. Photo credit: U.S. Navy photo by David L. Stoltz After the incident Fitzgerald returned to Japan under its own power, then was shipped via barge back to Pascagoula, Mississippi for repairs. Repairs, at times reconstruction, as some elements of the ship were rebuilt rather than repaired, began in January 2018. USNI News has a breakdown of the work done so far , which includes replacement of the radar and electronic warfare suit. The ship was refloated on April 16th at Huntington Ingalls Industries where repairs will continue. According to Stars and Stripes, the Navy has previously announced the ship will return to service in January 2020. It seems likely that once the ship is ready for action it will return to the Japan-based U.S. Seventh Fleet. Fitzgerald was the first of three NATO warships seriously damaged in collisions with commercial shipping over an eighteen month long period. The USS McCain collided with a merchant ship in the South China Sea in August 2017, and in November 2018, the Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad ran into a tanker off the coast of Norway. ('You Might Also Like',) Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Ahead of the scheduled Thursday morning release of special counsel Robert Muellers report, allies of President Trump have a simple message: Move along, nothing to see here. Bolstered by the knowledge that Attorney General William Barr has already declared he would not charge Trump with obstruction of justice and that Muellers investigation found no evidence of collusion with Russia, multiple sources close to the president said they were confident the report wouldnt damage the White House. However, their dismissal of the report comes as critics of the president and legal experts suggested damaging revelations from Muellers investigation may have been swept under the rug. One source close to the White House told Yahoo News on Thursday that they were not worried about Muellers report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential cooperation from Trumps campaign with those efforts. The source pointed to Barrs summary, which was released last month and quoted Mueller as saying his investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. The conclusion is already out there, so it doesnt take a rocket scientist to realize theres nothing too damaging in there, the source said of Muellers report. The source further said the administration scuttlebutt was that some officials had seen the report and concluded that its going to be less bad than even what people today have expected in the wake of Barrs summary. Based on Barrs summary, there is the potential that Muellers full report could include descriptions of unseemly behavior that the attorney general did not feel rose to the level of a crime. However, without criminal charges, the source said they were confident that any controversy over information in the report would blow over. Trumps allies are also betting on the timing of the reports release just before two major religious holidays leading into the weekend will help dampen any potential media storm. Story continues The reality is this is a 24-hour to 72-hour news cycle and nothing more, the source said, after noting the reports Thursday release would be coming just ahead of the Easter and Passover holidays. If theres no collusion or obstruction charge, theres probably nothing in there that people will be talking about past the weekend, said the source. While Barrs summary indicated Mueller did not find evidence anyone on Trumps campaign cooperated with Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, it was less clear cut on the question of whether Trump obstructed justice. Barr wrote that Mueller did not draw a conclusion one way or the other about whether Trumps conduct constituted obstruction and instead left it to the attorney general to decide whether the actions uncovered by the investigation were criminal. Barr decided the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Attorney General William Barr, President Donald Trump and former FBI Director Robert Mueller. (Photos: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images; Michael Reynolds/Pool/Getty Images; Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images) Trumps team is also clearly prepared to fight back against any unflattering elements of the report. Tim Murtaugh, communications director for Trumps re-election campaign, responded to questions about the report on Tuesday with a brief, blistering statement that simultaneously predicted the document would exonerate the president and also went on the offensive. We know that President Trump will once again be vindicated: no collusion and no obstruction. The tables should turn now, as it is time to investigate the liars who instigated the sham investigation in the first place, Murtaugh said. Murtaughs comments echoed arguments Trump has made repeatedly since Mueller launched his probe in mid-2017. The president regularly blasted the investigation as a partisan witch hunt. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is a member of the presidents personal legal team, also said he was not concerned about the Mueller report. Giuliani described how Trumps attorneys will attempt to issue their own rebuttal after the report is released on Thursday. We will issue a shorter and then later a more detailed analysis in 40 pages or less, Giuliani wrote in a text message to Yahoo News. But as Trumps inner circle projected a confident front, Democrats raised concerns that Barr could be covering for the president by redacting key portions of Muellers report. In a tweet posted Wednesday evening, Democratic presidential candidate and California Rep. Eric Swalwell called for the release of Muellers complete report and dismissed Barr as an advocate for Trump. Newsflash: no one wants to hear from Barr. Show us the full report. You should never have been confirmed and at best should be recused. We dont need a statement from the Presidents legal team, Swalwell wrote. Democrats have expressed doubts about Barr since his appointment as attorney general in February. Some of their concerns stem from the fact Barr sent the White House an unsolicited memo criticizing Muellers probe before he was nominated by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, also suggested Barrs release of a redacted version of the report was an effort to protect the president in a tweet Wednesday evening. Total exoneration is obviously whats happening tomorrow, which is why they arent just uploading the thing and letting the public read it and decide for themselves, Schatz wrote. The source close to the White House rejected the notion Barr would attempt to excessively redact Muellers report. They pointed to the fact Barr has indicated his redactions will be color-coded to indicate the reasons behind them. This goes beyond what is required by law and the source described it as proof the attorney general is being fully transparent. What it really comes down to is that people are upset for political reasons, the source said of concerns about redactions. They want to see the president and those close to him embarrassed, regardless of whether they committed any crime. The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story. Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney who was fired by Trump in early 2017, discussed the release of the Mueller report at an event on Wednesday in New York City, at which he provided a barometer for judging Barrs redactions. Bharara theorized that Muellers examination of obstruction would touch much less on ongoing investigations one of the justifications for withholding specific information and, therefore, should include far less redactions than the elements of the report about Russia. Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara poses for a photograph during an interview in New York City, New York, U.S. March 13, 2019. (Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters) It is the part of the report that is much more worrisome to the president, potentially much more damaging to the president, and simultaneously it should lend itself to fewer redactions, he said. Bharara also noted that the amount of redactions in the portion of Muellers report dealing with obstruction would be one of the first things hell examine to evaluate Barrs handling of the report. If we dont see a lot of the obstruction side, then that would make me worry about the good faith of the redactions, said Bharara. However Barr handled the redactions, a recent court filing indicated some members of Congress could see a more complete version of Muellers report than the one that will be publicly released tomorrow. Justice Department attorneys on Wednesday filed a document in the case of former Trump adviser Roger Stone, who is being tried on charges that originated from Muellers probe, outlining a plan to provide Congress with a more detailed copy of the report. Once the redacted version of the report has been released to the public, the Justice Department plans to make available for review by a limited number of Members of Congress and their staff a copy of the Special Counsels report without certain redactions, the prosecutors wrote. And while Muellers probe is finished, there appear to be separate ongoing investigations that have been developed based on the special counsels work. In his summary of the Mueller report, Barr wrote that the special counsel also referred several matters to other offices for further action. But Trumps inner circle is insisting they are unfazed by the ongoing investigations generated by Muellers work. The source close to the White House brushed off the possibility that the other probes could create a risk for the president. No one actually in the orbit that Ive spoken to is very concerned by it, the source said. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: ISTANBUL (AP) Turkey's ruling party on Tuesday asked that a recent municipal election it lost in Istanbul be invalidated, as partial vote recounts in the city and the fight for the country's commercial hub continued. The Justice and Development Party, or AKP, filed its "extraordinary objection" to the March 31 election results for Istanbul metropolitan mayor with Turkey's electoral board. Citing alleged irregularities, the party previously pushed for a recount of votes, and that process is still underway in one Istanbul district. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP and its nationalist ally won a majority of local election votes across Turkey but lost in the capital, Ankara. In Istanbul, unofficial contested results give the main opposition party's mayoral candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, a 13,827-vote lead over AKP candidate Binali Yildirim. That difference has dropped from some 25,000 votes with the partial recount. Speaking to reporters after filing the objection, Ali Ihsan Yavuz, the AKP's deputy chairman, said their previous request for a total recount was not granted. He asserted that had all votes been recounted "this election would have resulted in our benefit." He said the elections were marred by "organized irregularity" and submitted three suitcases of documents purportedly documenting fraud to the electoral board. The board is expected to rule on the ruling party's request after all recounts are complete. If it accepts the AKP's objection, Istanbul could repeat the election on June 2. Both Ankara and Istanbul had been held by Erdogan's conservative, religious-based party and its predecessor for 25 years. Istanbul, with its 15 million residents and strategic location straddling Europe and Asia, is Turkey's financial and cultural heart. It made up 31% of Turkey's GDP of $851 billion in 2017 and draws millions of tourists. The Istanbul metropolitan mayorship and its subsidiaries had a total budget of $8.8 billion last year. The municipality has awarded lucrative contracts to businesses close to the government over the years and offers huge financial resources and employment opportunities. Story continues Erdogan's rise to power began as Istanbul mayor in 1994 and he has repeated numerous times in pre-election rallies: "Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey" and "Whoever loses Istanbul, loses Turkey." On Monday, ruling party candidate Yildirim said the elections were tarnished with "irregularities, mistakes, stains, vote thievery, among others." Prior to the elections, his party had said the safety of ballot boxes was guaranteed. Opposition candidate Imamoglu has demanded that he be given the mandate to begin his job as Istanbul mayor. His party has said the AKP's objections lacked credible evidence and asserted that the ruling party aimed to drag out the process to push for new elections. The AKP still holds 24 of Istanbul's 39 municipal districts. Washington (AFP) - The origins of the measles outbreak in the United States are not a mystery. Persons infected with the virus brought it to the United States from Israel and Ukraine and passed it on to members of their communities, many of whom had not been vaccinated. The challenge for US health authorities is stopping the outbreak from spreading further. A total of 555 cases of measles have been recorded in the United States since January 1, most of them in New York and Clark County in Washington state. In New York, an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn has been hardest hit. They were infected by visitors from Israel, where a measles outbreak began a year ago. Last year, the disease spread through Brooklyn schools and synagogues among children who had never been vaccinated or had not had the recommended followup shot between the ages of four and six years old. In addition to Brooklyn, another Orthodox Jewish community in upstate New York's Rockland County, has also been affected. About 200 cases have been reported there. An outbreak in the state of Michigan -- where 39 cases have been reported -- has been traced to a single person, according to The Washington Post. The Orthodox Jewish man arrived in the United States from Israel, spent time in Brooklyn and then drove to Detroit, where he spread the disease through visits to synagogues and markets. - Child from Ukraine - In Clark County, Washington, the measles outbreak is concentrated among a Russian-speaking community. A child brought the virus back from Ukraine in December and it spread to 74 other people, mostly children, through schools, supermarkets and a bowling alley. "This kid was in a pocket of kids that weren't immunized by choice," said Scott Lindquist, epidemiologist for the Washington State Department of Health. "And that's how it started out. "What we know about this cluster is they all match each other," Lindquist said. "We did DNA fingerprinting, or genetic sequencing, essentially. Story continues "And they all match each other identically. And they all match the Ukraine strain," he said. One theory links the outbreaks in Israel and Ukraine to an annual pilgrimage to the Ukrainian city of Uman by tens of thousands of Orthodox Jewish men to visit the grave of a revered rabbi. Patrick O'Connor of the World Health Organization told The New York Times the major Ukraine outbreak may have supercharged a modest one in Israel. Nancy Messonnier, acting director of the Center for Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said all the US measles cases have come from other countries. The number of cases in the United States are relatively few compared to other places but the second most since the turn of the century, when the disease was declared eliminated. "We certainly are concerned that it will be the largest number of cases since elimination in 2000," Messonnier said Tens of thousands of cases of measles have been reported in Africa and Europe. Ukraine alone has more than 30,000 cases and 11 deaths since January. In the United States, the outbreaks have mostly been confined to tight-knit communities where vaccination rates are lower than the national average of more than 90 percent. There have been outbreaks previously, for example, among the Amish community in Ohio in 2014 and Somali immigrants in Minnesota in 2017. Health authorities have moved aggressively to prevent the disease from spreading. In Clark County, 849 non-vaccinated students were barred from 15 schools where children had come down with measles. "We were very aggressive about isolating any cases, quarantining anybody who was exposed to those cases, and excluding kids from school if they were unimmunized," said Lindquist, the Washington state health official. "And that is what's slowed this outbreak down," he said. "Currently, we have not had a case in almost 42 days." In New York, the mayor has ordered the vaccination of all residents of Williamsburg, a Brooklyn neighborhood, and threatened to impose fines of $1,000 for those who don't follow the order. Rockland County, meanwhile, announced new measures to combat the disease, including fines of up to $2,000 a day. "It is unacceptable to sit back and do nothing as more of our residents fall ill," county executive Ed Day said. Anyone with measles or exposed to someone with measles was banned from public places. Schools were ordered to keep out children who could not show proof of immunization or a valid medical or religious exemption. Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump has said he's in love with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But if there's someone with whom the US president is even more smitten, it's Mike Pompeo. North Korea on Thursday demanded that the United States remove the secretary of state from future negotiations after Pompeo apparently encouraged Trump to stand firm and walk away from a summit with Kim in Hanoi in February. The State Department offered a low-key initial response, with a spokesman saying the United States "remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation" but not commenting directly. Trump is famously fond of flattery and dismissive of aides. But even though he is eager to strike a potentially historic deal, North Korea is likely misreading US domestic politics by attacking Pompeo. The top US diplomat is one of Trump's few senior aides who has managed to avoid public ruptures with him, amenably rallying to the defense of the president's every move even after pushing different policies. Pompeo was instrumental in the secret diplomacy that eased soaring tensions with North Korea and set the stage for two summits between Kim and Trump, with Pompeo traveling four times last year to Pyongyang, first as CIA director and then as secretary of state. "It would be very difficult for the US to make a move after the statement to change the negotiating team without making it look like Kim Jong Un is dictating the terms," said Jenny Town, a fellow at the Stimson Center and managing editor of the North Korea analytical website 38 North. "I don't think it's going to gain them anything," she said of the North Koreans. "It only makes it more difficult to get back to negotiations." - Seeking to 'wean' Trump from aides - Senior North Korean foreign ministry official Kwon Jong Gun, in a statement carried by state media, called Pompeo "reckless" and immature. Story continues He also denounced Pompeo's testimony to Congress earlier this month in which, pressed by a senator concerned over what human rights groups say are rampant abuses in North Korea, agreed that Kim was a "tyrant." Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that North Korea believed it could achieve its goals through Trump and was "trying to wean the president away from his advisers." "I think they're trying to get another summit," he said. "They feel that is where they can make more traction by appealing to Trump's sense of wanting to have a success, or maintaining the success they have already claimed." North Korea has already shut out Stephen Biegun, the State Department pointman on North Korea, who has failed for months to arrange a meeting on anything other than the logistics of the Hanoi summit. But North Korea also denounced Pompeo in July last year for his "gangster-like" insistence on disarmament -- and welcomed him back to Pyongyang several months later. - Mixed messages from Washington - Trump has quipped that he and Kim are "in love" and spoken of his "beautiful" letters -- and his affection has not dimmed after the Hanoi summit. In an extraordinary intervention last month, Trump -- who has hailed his punishing pressure campaigns on Iran and Venezuela -- blocked the imposition of tough new sanctions on North Korea. Trump said he intervened because he and Kim get along "very well" and that he wanted to maintain the relationship. His move came despite the insistence by Pompeo and John Bolton, Trump's hawkish national security advisor, that the United States will not relent on pressure until North Korea's full denuclearization. Just a day before Trump reversed the sanctions, the Treasury Department had announced action against two Chinese shipping companies over deliveries to North Korea. Town said the administration's messaging on North Korea has been inconsistent from the start. She noted that Bolton -- who before entering the White House mused about attacking North Korea -- took the lead in public statements after the Hanoi summit. "What message does that send the North Koreans, and how much of it is for a domestic audience?" she asked. "It certainly wasn't helpful to the diplomatic process of getting back to negotiations if that's what the US really wants to do." Tripoli (AFP) - Dozens of "yellow vest" protesters rallied Tuesday in the Libyan capital to denounce what they said was France's support for military strongman Khalifa Haftar who has launched an offensive on Tripoli. The demonstrators donned yellow vests in a nod to the jackets worn by anti-government protesters who have been rallying across France since November. "France must stop backing the rebel Haftar," read one sign held up by the demonstrators gathered in central Tripoli's Algiers Square. Another sign read: "France supplies weapons to the rebels (in exchange) for petrol." Fierce fighting between forces loyal to Haftar and those backing the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) has rocked Libya since the offensive on Tripoli was launched earlier this month. At least 174 people have been killed and 758 wounded in the battle for control over the Libyan capital, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. Pro-government forces and Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) accuse each other of targeting civilians, with each launching daily air raids in addition to clashes on the ground. Haftar is seen by his allies -- Egypt and the United Arab Emirates -- as a bulwark against Islamists who have gained a foothold in Libya after the 2011 uprising that ousted and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi. But many also consider France as a key backer of the military strongman, a charge denied by French authorities. Tuesday's protesters called for diplomatic ties to be severed with countries that "back aggression" on Tripoli. "Supporting Haftar by other governments is a declaration of war" against Libya, read another sign held by protesters. Last week, a French diplomatic source said authorities in Paris have "no hidden plans" concerning Hafter and would not recognise his legitimacy should he overrun Tripoli. But supporters of the UN-backed GNA say France has blocked resolutions at the UN Security Council, the European Union and other international bodies denouncing Haftar's offensive. Story continues A British-drafted resolution obtained Tuesday by AFP at UN headquarters in New York has been presented to the Security Council and demands an immediate ceasefire in Libya. The proposed measure said the offensive by the LNA "threatens the stability of Libya and prospects for a United Nations-facilitated political dialogue and a comprehensive political solution to the crisis". The GNA on Tuesday called for Europe's support against Haftar. SEOUL, April 18 North Korea announced it had tested a new tactical guided weapons. The official state news agency, KCNA, reported, chairman Kim oversaw the testing of what was described as a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" and "a powerful warhead". The Pentagon had no immediate response to the report though un-named officials say no missile launch was detected. It may not be the kind of company one immediately associates with Israeli startups, but Eatwith.com is certainly one of the countrys success stories. From humble beginnings in Tel Aviv and San Francisco just seven years ago, Eatwith has become the worlds largest community of food experiences with locals, spanning more than 130 countries. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter In Israel alone, Eatwiths culinary platform for immersive dining now offers some 300 gastronomic experiences, in all of the countrys major cities. In addition to meals served by chefs in their homes, there are food tours of neighborhoods and markets, and even cooking classes. They will even cater your private event. Eatwith chef Nadia (Photo: Igor Luvinski) One of my early Eatwith experiences was with Nadia (Eatwith is not big on last names: even bios on the website do not reveal them), who was determined to prove that the concepts gourmet and vegan are not mutually exclusive -- not even in the cuisine of her native land, which is known as being heavily reliant on its outstanding cheeses. I certainly had my doubts, but Nadia won us all over with a meal built around the theme, Memories of My Italian Childhood. Fast forward several years, and Nadia has added another menu to her repertoire: Back to My Italian Roots. She hosts in a simple apartment in the heart of downtown Tel Aviv, and sets a table with a most unusual tablecloth: one that is indistinguishable from artificial grass. The preprandial cocktail is equally distinctive: frozen Bellini popsicles, made with Lambrusco sparkling wine and studded with pomegranate seeds. A very refreshing choice. On the table were decanters of israeli bottled water, and bottles of Psagot Sinai red wine, a pleasant blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. The food service was plated, so there were no traditional place settings: the cutlery was in metal canisters in the center of table. Photo: Igor Luvinski The meal started with a north Italy-style pizza: a fluffy focaccia topped with homemade cashew cheese and fresh tomato. According to Nadia, north Italy has a different take on pizza than the more famous versions from the south (Rome and Naples); think of it as the original New York thin crust vs. Chicago deep dish rivalry. In any event, Nadias Spontini pizza dough was like cake, while it was hard to believe that the vegan cheese was not dairy. Next came soup, which was served in small jars with screw tops. It was a satisfying, velvety broth of cauliflower with Jerusalem artichoke, perked up by lemon zest and studded with warm, soft croutons. The pasta course was polenta, in the form of a grilled triangle on a bed of leek and chestnut cream. The superb cornmeal fritter was laced with grated cheese and topped with a pat of melting truffle butter -- and once again, the vegan versions were indistinguishable from the real thing. This was followed by crespelle filled with almond ricotta and spinach, and topped with grated Sicilian tomatoes. The savory crepe, enhanced by a vegan bechamel sauce, was a worthy main course. Sicily was reprised in the salad course, which consisted of razor-thin slices of fennel and red onion dressed in an orange-and-mustard vinaigrette and served on a bed of creamy, lemony cashew cheese. This combination was novel and refreshing. Photo: Igor Luvinski Dessert was a rich, espresso-flavored coffee cream enriched with vegan meringue and accompanied by freshly baked cookies. Naturally, coffee in its traditional liquid form was also served. By this time, there was a steady flow of conversations among new friends, as another Eatwith evening of bringing strangers together over good food drew to a close. A first-time Eatwith participant was a culinary guide for the Ministry of Tourism, who pronounced herself impressed with the dinner and said she would recommend the experience to her clients. With veganism on the rise in Israel, Nadia and Eatwith are successfully meeting the rising demand in this challenging gastronomic niche. What do we really know about the horrors in Yemen? And who actually cares? Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Yemen is one of the poorest countries on earth and is trapped in a conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Tribes loyal to Houthis (Photo: Associated Press) On one side stand the supporters of President Abed Mansor Hadi, who is mostly based in Riad and rarely visits Aden, and on the other stand the Houthi rebels who maintain control of the capital Sanaa and have pronounced, Ali Abdullah Salehas as leader. Broadly speaking this is a war for control of the region. Millions of suffering Yemeni are of no interest to the Saudis as well as to the Iranian leadership. Drone attack on Yemeni troops (Photo: AFP) This week three journalists received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for their persistent coverage of the situation in Yemen: Maggie Michael, a Cairo based journalist, Maad al-Zikry a video journalist and Nariman Ayman El-Mofty, a Canadian Egyptian, all working for the Associated Press which insisted on covering one of the most dangerous conflicts. We in the Israeli media, have often relied on their reporting. I remember the heart breaking stories of mothers struggling to feed their children; I also remember images of a father carrying his son around the city after he found nowhere to be safe. Their home is shelled, the kindergarten subject to raids and the neighborhood shelters rampant with disease. Or the mother who's two sick daughters are beyond help as she struggles with the dilemma of letting them go and try to save her remaining healthy kids. starvation in Yemen (Photo: Reuters) At least 100,000 people have been killed in three years of fighting many others succumbed to cholera. Yemen is the only place where Cholera spreads uncontrollably due to lack of medicine. Pharmacies have been closed for over a year and UN assistance is left untouched at the ports, or is stolen and sold to whoever can still afford to pay. If none are found, it is thrown into the sea. Reports of suffering children break our hearts for a moment before we turn the page to other news. But some journalists insist on reporting, despite readers' indifference, so that we can learn about the terrible abuse in Yemen's prisons, the torturer, the war crimes and the rampant corruption of officials who are blind to the suffering of their people. As Yemenites are trapped, unable to leave, these three journalists are praised for their persistence but they too will be forgotten soon. President Hassan Rouhani says ranian armed forces were not a threat against any regional country, as Tehran holds an Army Day military parade to unveil its latest military equipment. "I want to tell the regional countries that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not against you and your national interests," he says at ceremony in Tehran broadcast live on state television. "They stand against invaders... The roots of our problems are the Zionist regime and American imperialism." Egyptian elections officials vowed on Wednesday that voting in next weeks snap referendum on a series of constitutional amendments that could extend President Abdel al-Fattah el-Sisis time in office until 2030 would be fair and transparent. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The referendum on constitutional amendments will be completely supervised by the judiciary, said Judge Lasheen Ibrahim, head of the National Election Authority, at a press conference held at the headquarters of the State Information Service in Cairos Nasser City district. There will be a judge at every ballot box. The media and civil society will be able to follow the process. A Sisi election poster in Cairo (Photo: Associated Press) Polls will be open Saturday through Monday with 55 million Egyptians eligible to vote on new and revised constitutional articles that increase the presidential term from four to six years, allocate 25 percent of parliamentary seats to women, re-introduces an upper Senate chamber, and reinstates the post of vice president. The measures approved by the parliament Tuesday include provisions giving the president power to appoint pre-nominated judges, the head of the constitutional court, and the state prosecutor general. I agree with all the amendments, especially the womens quota for the House of Representatives and measures to make sure that the Copts have an honorable representation in the parliaments, said Manal El Absy, president of the Arab Academy for Leadership Development, a Cairo nonprofit that provides executive skills training. Ms. El Absy was a leader in the effort to bring women to the polls during elections held last March when el-Sisi ran for a second four-year term which he said would be his final one as president. But now there is consensus that the president needs a longer period to complete the development process that he started and reap the benefits of what he planted, El Absy told The Media Line. The ballot measure stipulates that Egypts head of state will now serve in six-year terms, with a transition clause that extends el-Sisis current term in office by two years ending in 2024 and makes him eligible for a final six-year term that would see him in the presidential palace until 2030 should he run and win. Protests in Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2011 (Photo: Reuters) I expect that the turnout rate will be higher than the percentage of participation in the previous presidential elections, added El Absy, a leader in the campaign to mobilize voters to ratify the new amendments which also include provisions describing Egypts army as the guardian of the land, the constitution, democratic and personal rights, the civil state, and the gains of the people. It also gives the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces authority to approve the appointment of the nations defense minister the post el Sisi held before he first ran as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election. I will vote no on these constitutional amendments, Abdel Moneim Imam, Vice-President of the Justice Party, said The big problem in Egypt is not a problem of leadership, as much as the policy question of how to cultivate a society that ensures continuous political stability with a clear mechanism for the rotation of power, said Imam, who added that the quandary of Egypt since Nasser is the question of the circulation of power. While the Yes campaign has continuous access to government-controlled media and shopkeepers say they have been encouraged by local police officers to hang banners supporting the measure, only a handful of parliamentary opponents of the amendments have been given airtime on state TV and column inches in the four main state-run newspapers. A total of 531 parliamentarians voted in favor of new amendments, 22 voted against, and one abstained. The constitutional amendments are malignant and deceitful, and they are aimed at exempting the current president from facing voters for another two years, said lawmaker Ahmad Tantawi, a founding member of the Nasserist Karama Party which opposes normalization of relations with Israel and privatization of state-owned enterprises. The postponement of the upcoming presidential elections to 2024 coincides with the abolition of judicial supervision of executive decisions, Tantawi added. In recent years, independent judges have been one of the few checks on presidential power for instance ruling illegal a 2017 decision by el-Sisi to cede Egyptian sovereignty over the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia. Opponents to the amendments are divided into two camps: liberal leaders who support voting no and participating in the referendum and more radical figures urging a boycott of what they insist is an unconstitutional exercise from the get-go. The Reform and Development Party chaired by Mohamed Anwar El Sadat has urged citizens to turn out to vote no. Boycotting is not a solution because it will only help smoothly pass the amendments, and smash the Egyptian revolution and reversing all our gains in full open view, said El Sadat, a nephew of the former Egyptian president. Both No and Boycott campaigns face significant hurdles in reaching the Egyptian public. Internet providers in Egypt have blocked access to an estimated 34,000 online domains in an effort by authorities to stamp out opposition according to NetBlocks, a non-governmental organization that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance. I will boycott because the amendments themselves are contrary to the Constitution specifically Article 224, said Sayed Abu El-Ela, a 35-year-old Cairo attorney. Article 224 states the basic law may not be amended or cancelled except pursuant to the rules and procedures stated by the Constitution, which was ratified by a 2014 referendum held five months after Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi was removed from power during the popular uprising and military intervention of June 2013. These amendments violate the constitutional requirements of the state which declared that power is ultimately vested in the people and these changes hand that authority over to the armed forces, El-Ela said. Article written by Mina Nader. Reprinted with permission from The Media Line An IDF officer who was seriously wounded in Gaza in 2014 will light a torch in the Jerusalem ceremony to mark the start of Israel's Independence Day celebrations. Colonel Shai Siman-Tov was gravely hurt when a terrorist tunnel he was inspecting collapsed on him during the fighting in Gaza, but returned to service in 2015. When President Reuven Rivlin tasked Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night with forming the next government, one could almost hear the prime minister's words from last October, in which he claimed that Rivlin and his Likud rival Gideon Sa'ar were cooking up a "plan of the century" to overthrow him. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter But there was no conspiracy. The only thing that Rivlin did Wednesday night was to direct two sentences of implicit criticism in Netanyahu's direction. "'Us and them' is over. From now on, it's just 'us,'" Rivlin said, turning to Netanyahu, who seemed to be hopping on hot coals in his impatience for the president to finish talking. Benjamin Netanyahu and Reuven Rivlin at the president's residence in Jerusalem (Photo: GPO) Rivlin made the same case in a series of tweets in English after the meeting. 'Us and them' is over. From now on, it's just 'us'. Now is the time to stop fighting 'them' and to regain belief in 'us'. To fight for our home, a place where secular, religious and ultra-Orthodox, Jews and Arabs, left and right can find their place - as equal partners. Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) April 17, 2019 But the "us and them" ploy is far from over. Those intimately familiar with Netanyahu maintain that he does not say anything by chance. His comments on Tuesday at the Likud victory celebration hinted that he intends to appoint Yariv Levin as justice minister, a senior Likud official said. It was almost a commitment. Of the two options facing Netanyahu Bezalel Smotrich and Yariv Levin - it is natural for the ministry to go to the latter. He is high on the party's Knesset list and closer than anyone else to Netanyahu. And what about Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu? Likud officials are convinced that he is trying to extort Likud membership from Netanyahu, which under ordinary circumstances Netanyahu would never be able to get past the party's central committee, given their history with the veteran politician. But while Kahlon would be met with open arms in the Likud, Lieberman is a completely different story. So he presents the only threat that Netanyahu could take to the committee - without Lieberman, I have no government. Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) Anyone who depends on Lieberman and makes him into a Kahlon B - the watcher on the walls for Likud's liberal, secular bloc - should have a reality check, a senior party official told me this week. What Liberman wants is a senior portfolio, perhaps two, and integration into the Likud. He is trying to achieve these aims through threats and ultimatums that he must be met in order for him to join the government. It won't happen, says the senior official. The Likud remembers how after the 2013 elections, Lieberman chose to go into opposition despite the guarantees he received. Even during his last term, he resigned from the government. And the more the media hails him as someone who could torpedo the establishment of the government, the greater his bargaining power will be. Will a solution be found to Lieberman's demands, including the legislation to draft the ultra-Orthodox, which Netanyahu's other potential partners have ruled out? Another senior Likud member is skeptical. He is not sure that the mess surrounding the draft law can be resolved. "Remember my words," he says. "I won't faint from shock if no solution can be found." Israel will win the next conflict with those who pose a threat from the north, says the outgoing head of the IDF Northern Command, General Yoel Strick, as he marks the end of a two-year stint in the position. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Strick says it would be a mistake separating Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah from the rest of Lebanon since it is a political player and part of the establishment. It would be wise, in his view, to declare war on Lebanon to demonstrate the price they will have to pay, should Hezbollah attack. Outgoing Northern Command Chief General Yoel Strick (Photo: Avihu Shapira) Regarding Syria, General Strick said Israel's actions against Iranian entrenchment in Southern Syria, including on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, succeeded in moving them away from the border with Israel, though their presence in the rest of the country continues. Hezbollah fighters on the Lebanon Israel border (Photo: AP) Will Israel's freedom to act be impeded when the new Russian S-300 missile defense batteries become operational for the Syrian military? Will relations with Russia be challenged? Strick: "We will introduce advanced weapons systems into the area but Israel has an excellent air force. I will not go into detail of our options, but if the Syrians employ Russian S-300s against our planes, and we take them out, it will be seen as a legitimate move on our part. I see that happening though I hope we don't get to that. But if our freedom of movement is threatened we will remove the threat. We know how to do that. Benjamin Netanyahu meeting Vladimir Putin (Photo: EPA) And will that challenge our relations with Russia? It might. Has the discovery of Hezbollah's attack tunnels, destroyed by Israel, ended the organizations plan to infiltrate across the border? No. Hezbollah still holds on to those plans. We, of course, will not let that happen. We will foil those plans. This is not only a threat to us but also an opportunity, since they have diverted their best fighters to the South. We will face them and I have no doubt of the outcome. Have you destroyed all of the tunnels? Are there none left? In my profession, there is no certainty, so I will say as far as I am aware - with the means available to us I can say with a high degree of confidence that the threat from attack tunnels has been removed. Can they be developed again? I hope not. The fall of the man who ran the Sudan with an iron fist for three decades, President Omar Bashir, appears to be having little or no effect on the plight of that nations refugees who sought safety in the Jewish state. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Experts say the primary reason is the absence of diplomatic relations between the two nations. Sudanese refugees in Tel Aviv celebrating Bashri's ouster Emanuel Navon, senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, explains that refugees are not at risk for deportation to Sudan from Israel because the two countries lack formal ties. The fact that Omar Bashir is toppled doesnt change anything in the absence of diplomatic relations, Navon says. If there is a new regime that is willing to have diplomatic ties, which is unlikely, that would be a game changer. Shira Abbo, spokesperson for Hotline for Refugees and Migrants a Tel Aviv-based non-profit, non-partisan organization that defends migrants and refugees rights agrees. Until there are new diplomatic relations, there is no threat of their deportation, she says. But adds that they do face major obstacles They have very basic rights, and neither social nor health rights. Their visas do not permit them to work but the state has committed not to enforce this because many of them have been here for such a long time. "The Israeli immigration system is all about not making decisions. The state operates on how long we can delay making decisions, how long we can exhaust these people so that they give up and leave on their own. Abbo said. Celebrations in Sudan after Bashir is ousted (Photo: Reuters) The High Court of Justice is now considering how long Sudanese refugees, from Darfur and South Sudan, must wait for their asylum requests to be answered. While there have been several hearings, the latest, taking place last month, Abbo does not expect them to make a decision anytime soon. Our experience with the Israeli court system suggests it will take a while. Abbo says, while Bashirs ouster might even delay the decision further. The state has a more valid excuse now to say they need more time to consider their asylum as the situation in Sudan is unclear. Few believe anything will change citing a decade of inactivity. Monim Haroon, a Sudanese refugee living in Jerusalem, is stuck in bureaucratic limbo. I submitted my asylum request in 2013 and I havent heard back yet, he says. Emanuel Navon explains that while the government has not always been expedient in processing asylum requests, deciding individual asylum cases is even more difficult because refugees cannot always prove they are indeed refugees. "We use the word refugees but it hasnt been established. Physically, they reached Israel by crossing through Egypt," he says. "But in order to be considered refugees, their lives would have to be in danger in Egypt. This raises serious questions about their claim about whether they are actually refugees," he adds. It is unknown why many Sudanese are stuck in a 'grey zone,' whether it is a mixture of legal fuzziness and maybe a lack of efficiency, Navon says, in an apparent attempt to help unravel the knots of bureaucracy. Refugees demonstrate in Tel Aviv Monim Haroon actually was shot at by Egyptian forces while crossing the Israel-Egyptian border. Blaming the State of Israel for his mistreatment, including imprisoning him for two and a half years, Haroon nevertheless differentiates between the Israeli government and the rest of Israel. The government has called us infiltrators saying that we are a cancer in the body of Israel, but Israeli society accepted me and never treated me in a racist way. I have a real respect for Israeli country and society, also for the military as wellThe Israeli army saved my life and treated me with dignity. Haroon explained that the military welcomed him and other refugees into Israel after running from Egyptian army fire, which killed some in his group. The Israeli army came and said welcome and brought us in army trucks to their bases. They gave us food and medical care; I could not forget their treatment It was a very emotional moment for me because I thought we were going to die. Anat Ben-Dor, clinical instructor at the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University, explains that repatriating refugees to their homeland is a process which takes time. In refugee law, in order to return people, you have to ensure their return will be done safely. A coup does not qualify as such, Ben-Dor says. Monim Haroon says his first and main goal is to go home. When there (is) real change in the government, people will leave voluntarily, and the (Israeli) government will not need to deport us, he says. These people are worse than Bashir. Maybe he ordered us killed, but they are the ones that killed us. The chairperson of Sudans transitional military council, Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, killed my family and burned down my village in Darfour. Now a student at Jerusalems Hebrew University studying politics and business administration, Haroon wants to use his degree to help the Sudanese people, once it is safe to return. I want to go back to my country and help build a new democratic liberal country. Public at last, special counsel Robert Mueller's report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump had tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The report said that in June 2017, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call the acting attorney general and say that Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. Trump, Barr, Mueller McGahn refused -- deciding he would rather resign than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate firings fame. For all of that, Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed criminal obstruction of justice. The Justice Department posted a redacted version of the report online Thursday morning, 90 minutes after Attorney General William Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings. The two-volume, 448-page report recounts how Trump repeatedly sought to take control of the Russia probe. President Trump Mueller evaluated 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice, including Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president's directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. The president's lawyers have said Trump's conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mueller's team deemed the episodes deserving of criminal scrutiny. Mueller reported that Trump had been agitated at the special counsel probe from its earliest days, reacting to Mueller's appointment by saying it was the "end of his presidency." As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges." Special Counsel Mueller Mueller also said there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge any campaign officials with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. The report included an appendix that contained 12 pages of Trump's written responses to the special counsel. They included no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trump's legal team. Trump told Mueller he had "no recollection" of learning in advance about the much-scrutinized Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Hillary Clinton's campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made "complimentary statements" about him. Trump said that his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Clinton's private server was made "in jest and sarcastically" and that he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. Trump's legal team called the results "a total victory for the president." The Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv says that a one-year-old who died at the hospital this week was killed by a rare infection. The Center identified the bacterium as pseudomonas aeruginosa, known for its resistance to a range of antibiotics and for triggering organ failure. Some 200 Israelis who planned to spend Passover in Aqaba, Jordan are stranded at the border and not being allowed in. the Jordanians are demanding that a local guide meet them at the border before being allowed in. BERLIN - Poland should follow Greece in stepping up pressure on Germany to pay billions of euros in damages for Nazi occupation during World War Two, a lawmaker in charge of Warsaw's reparations campaign said on Thursday. Greece's parliament voted a day earlier to launch a diplomatic push to press its case - and Berlin responded by reiterating its position that all such claims by invaded countries had long been settled. Arkadiusz Mularczyk, who heads the Polish parliamentary committee on reparations, said in a tweet that the Greek vote showed WW2 compensation had become an international issue. "It is time for a decision from the Polish Sejm (lower house of Parliament)," added the lawmaker from the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party. The campaigns highlight the challenge faced by Germany whose role as Europe's economic titan is burdened by the resentment many still feel about the crimes of Adolf Hitler's regime. A Greek commission estimated in 2016 that Athens was owed 300 billion euros ($337.26 billion) for the atrocities it suffered and a forced loan to Hitler's Reich. Tel Aviv is seeking residents interested in hosting tourists, visiting Israel for the Eurovision song contest, in their homes for a Shabbat dinner experience. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The Shabbat dinners are scheduled to take place May 17, the night before the Eurovision final. Registration will be carried out via the social dining platform, Eatwith and will cost NIS 50, to be collected by the host, who can have up to six tourists each. Eatwith illustration The hosts will cook a meal according to their liking, but in order to have a semblance of uniformity, hosts are being asked that the meal include challah bread and wine traditional Shabbat staples. Social dinner Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said that the city is preparing non-stop for the Eurovision event in order to create a quality experiencer for fans, local and international. ""The Welcoming Shabbat initiative is one method to connect the thousands of tourists to Tel Aviv families and expose them to the festive atmosphere of Shabbat eve in Israel," said Huldai. "By the way, I told my wife to save the date so that we can cook then as well." Several famous personalities, including comedians, chefs, artists, musicians and journalists will also be participating in the initiative. The project will consist of three tracks: Individuals hosting between two and six guests; members of the LGBT community hosting visitors in their home; and communal Shabbat eve dinners that will be held in various locations around the city. Moe information can be found here The Prime Minister's Office denied reports that the body of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who was hanged in Damascus in 1965, was found by Russian forces and will be returned to Israel. The World Bank is calling for an urgent solution to the Palestinian economic crisis, which it blames in large part on Israels withholding of the tax and tariff revenue it collects monthly on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Transfer of the funding is often withheld by Israel as a punishment for a Palestinian policy or action, thus inflicting a severe blow to the PAs public finances. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The crisis was detailed in a report released on Wednesday, that will be submitted to the Coordination of Assistance to the Palestinian People Committee at its next meeting in Brussels on April 30. Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: Reuters) World Bank acting director Anna Bjerde, who serves as the organizations Resident Representative in the West Bank and Gaza and director of Strategy and Operations for the Middle East and North Africa, was quoted in the report, explaining the status of the Palestinian economy. The economy, which did not see real growth in 2018, now faces a severe fiscal shock, Bjerde said, so its necessary to find a solution urgently to prevent further deterioration of economic activity and living standards. In addition, she affirmed that the clearance revenues are a major source of the PAs public budget income. In that regard, all sectors of the population feel the effects of the crisis. In July, the Israeli cabinet approved a law that slashes funds to the PA in the amount equivalent to what the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) the dominant umbrella group that speaks for the Palestinian people pays to Palestinian security prisoners and the families of those who died in clashes with Israeli soldiers often in an act of violence. In February, Israel deducted some $138 million from the tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA. The rationale behind the move is to reduce attacks carried out by Palestinians. Illustration (Photo: AFP) These amounts form 65 percent of the PAs total monthly revenues. Azmi Abdul Rahman, the spokesperson for the PAs Economy Ministry, told The Media Line that based on the Paris Protocol an economic agreement providing implementation for the 1993 Oslo Accords between the PA and Israel the collection of these amounts was to be independent of politics. Israel charges 3% of the funds to collect this money on behalf of the PA; but it has absolutely no right to deduct from the funds for any reason, Abdul Rahman said. Now, with the Israeli government hijacking these amounts illegally, there is a shrinking in the Palestinian economy, he said. He explained that the Palestinian leadership could not pay more than half of its workers salaries for the past two months. In addition, he said, the PA cannot pay its commitments to the private sector or its operating costs. Palestinian prisoners (Photo: EPA) More than 50% of the Palestinian people are committed to monthly payments for loans. After that, whatever the PA sends them, goes to the bank, Rahman elaborated. He stressed that what is really dangerous is that the average Palestinian citizen doesnt dare to plan for the near future, which has a negative effect on the political, social and security arenas. The social situation is bad; accordingly, the security situation will be affected, he said. By contrast, both Israeli and American officials are holding the PA responsible for the crisis, highlighting numerous warnings that the actions of the West-Bank based government of Mahmoud Abbas could result in punitive measures. In this respect, the PA president imposed a blanket boycott on the Trump Administration following its recognition in December 2017 of Jerusalem as Israels capital. Moreover, the Palestinian leader has repeatedly rejected out of hand the White Houses two-years-in-the-making peace proposal. Meanwhile, in Israel there is near-across-the-board support for suspending the transfer of funds that the PA would otherwise disburse to security offenders. Irrespective, the circumstances have forced the PA to reduce spending on social assistance, while increasing borrowing. The World Bank report affirms that if this crisis is not resolved, the budgetary deficit will increase from $400 million in 2018 to more than $1 billion in 2019. Samer Abdullah, a Palestinian economic analyst, asserted that the Palestinian economy is in the worst position ever and attributed the decline since 2012 to a lack of natural and financial resources. The Oslo Agreement gives the Palestinian side a very small percentage of the resources, which is now depleted, he said. Abdullah told The Media Line that the Palestinian economy shifted from being a prosperous and growing entity in the 1990s to one that is merely surviving. The new setback is Israels taking a deduction from the tax money, he said. He then stated that Palestinians consider the Israeli move a form of collective punishment that increases their suffering. Greater Hobart is set to benefit from the opportunities the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean present through a City Deal supported by both the federal and Tasmanian governments. The Hobart City Deal will encompass several major development and infrastructure projects, including an investment into border services to support international flights at Hobart Airport; the replacement of Bridgewater Bridge; investment into a range of measures to reduce congestion; increasing supply of affordable housing; and the realisation of Macquarie Point as a world-class science, tourism, culture and arts hub. Property Council of Tasmania Executive Director Brian Wightman said the City Deal would open a lot of opportunities for Tasmanian businesses. The power of a City Deal comes when the policies and actions of each level of government are aligned. It is encouraging to see all levels of government coming together to drive and support the growth of Hobart, said Wightman. The deal highlights Hobarts role as a port city to the Southern Ocean, with a significant investment to be made in the ports and waterfront areas over the lifetime of the deal. There is also a plan to build a proposed Antarctic and Science precinct at Macquarie Point on the existing investment in Antarctic infrastructure. The investment includes a partnership with TasPorts to ensure the port facilities can support the $1.9 billion icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, due to be delivered in 2020 and other international Antarctic missions. Over $450 million in additional capital expenditure will be spent on Antarctic research stations over the life of the City Deal. The investment in port infrastructure will [undoubtedly] drive employment opportunities and support a broader investment in infrastructure, said Wightman. Redeveloping Macquarie Point will unlock the broader potential of the Hobart waterfront and city centre making Hobart not only a gateway to Antarctica but also the leading cultural, scientific and educational precinct for Antarctica in Australia. The Clarence, Glenorchy, Hobart and Kingborough councils also expressed their support for this project. Giving property investors a an average capital gain of 15.49% for the last year, Mount Morgan, 4714 is the 2263th highest performer in Australia in this respect. While Mount Morgan,4714 ranked number 684th in QLD for increase in median house value (annualised) increase, it is ranked 725th over the last 5 years. At number 30th of QLDs most discounted properties, Mount Morgan is in the bottom 10% of the state/territory when listing in order of most discounted to least. Mount Morgan, 4714s gross rental yield is 10.57% News Washington, DC - "When Venezuela is free, and Cuba is free, and Nicaragua is free, this will become the first free hemisphere in all of human history." ~ President Donald J. Trump HOLDING THE CUBAN DICTATORSHIP ACCOUNTABLE: President Donald J. Trump is holding the Cuban regime accountable for its repression of the Cuban people. President Trump is enabling Americans to file lawsuits against persons and entities that traffic in property confiscated by the Cuban regime. This marks the first time that these kind of claims have been available for Americans under the Helms-Burton Act. Pursuant to Helms-Burton, the Administration is ensuring that anyone who has trafficked in property confiscated by Cuba from an American is not issued a visa to the United States. The Administration is adding five entities owned by the Cuban military to its restricted list, which now has over 215 entities, prohibiting Americans from transacting with them. The Administration will be placing a cap on remittances to Cuba, prohibiting dollar transactions through third-party financial institutions, and restricting non-family travel. President Trump is continuing his efforts to hold the Cuban regime accountable for its abuses and to reverse previous policies that enriched the regime. The President announced a policy in 2017 aimed at diverting economic activity away from the Cuban military, enhancing travel restrictions, and reaffirming the embargo. STANDING WITH THE PEOPLE OF VENEZUELA: President Trump is standing with the Venezuelan people and has imposed tough sanctions targeting the corrupt, former regime. President Trump has issued multiple executive orders imposing sanctions to pressure the illegitimate former dictator Nicolas Maduro to accept a peaceful democratic transition. These actions have targeted Maduro and his corrupt cronies for undermining Venezuelas democracy and looting Venezuelas resources. The United States has designated over 150 individuals and entities connected to Venezuela for sanctions, cutting off a significant stream of resources to the Maduro regime Among these entities are the state oil company PdVSA and the Central Bank. President Trump was the first head of state to officially recognize Juan Guaido as the Interim President of Venezuela. Leaders from over 50 nations have since joined him. The United States has provided hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid for the Venezuelan people, who have suffered horribly under Maduro. PROMOTING DEMOCRACY IN NICARAGUA: President Trump is committed to restoring liberty, democracy, and the rule of law in Nicaragua. Latest News Washington, DC - A strong republic requires a people abounding in knowledge, which forges the character of the citizenry and its chosen representatives. Through study of the thoughts and discoveries of others, citizens enhance their shared understanding of who they are and who they want to be. Education and Sharing Day affords an important opportunity to reaffirm our belief that educational freedom is essential to our society and to the growth of individuals. On this day, we recognize Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose very name signifies a spirit of comfort and compassion and a commitment to the betterment of America and the world. In the face of unspeakable tragedy, Rabbi Schneerson championed the teaching of principles of scholarship, justice, charity, and unity, launching an international movement that continues to contribute to the progress of humanity. The Rebbe believed that education is not only about the transmission of knowledge but that it is also integral to the formation of character. He sought to expand freedom in education while finding common ground with those of differing beliefs and backgrounds. His unfailing example offered those around him an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the inherent connections between knowledge, character, and freedom. We must encourage institutions of higher learning to resist calls to stifle the open debate that is crucial to fostering freedom and social understanding. Genuine education depends on the free sharing of thought. That is why I recently signed an Executive Order to improve free inquiry, transparency, and accountability at colleges and universities. Today, we honor the Rebbes legacy by recommitting ourselves to embracing lifelong learning, defending freedom of expression, and upholding virtue. As Americans, let us strive to listen to each others perspectives, learn from one anothers experiences, and gain a deeper appreciation for the exchange of competing views to develop our character as citizens of a great republic. NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 16, 2019, as Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A. I call upon government officials, educators, volunteers, and all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-third. DONALD J. TRUMP Spanish Health Jackson, Missippi - The Department of Justice Friday announced that Louie Bernard Revette pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his commission of a crossburning on October 24, 2017, in Seminary, Mississippi. Specifically, Revette, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of interference with housing rights, a federal civil rights violation, and one count of using fire during the commission of a federal felony. The defendants racially motivated actions sought to threaten and intimidate the peaceful residents of this community, said Assistant Attorney Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division. The Department of Justice will not tolerate abhorrent and hateful acts of intimidation, and we will continue to prosecute anyone who commits a hate crime to the fullest extent of the law. "Terrorizing our neighbors and entire communities based on race is a federal crime that will be vigorously prosecuted by this office. I applaud our law enforcement for quickly investigating and bringing this defendant to justice. There is no place in our state or our country for this type of hatred, and we will not tolerate individuals making others live in fear because of the color of their skin," said U. S. Attorney Mike Hurst for the Southern District of Mississippi. While wounds are still healing from Mississippis past, incidents such as this only serve as setbacks and should be fully condemned in every community, said Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Mississippi Christopher Freeze. The FBI stands firm that those who commit these reprehensible crimes will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted. In his plea, Revette admitted that he traveled to what he knew to be a predominantly African-American residential area of Seminary, Mississippi. Revette admitted that he left the area, later recruiting a co-conspirator to build a cross to burn near the home of a juvenile victim identified as M.H. Revette and the co-conspirator constructed the cross using materials from in and around Revettes residence, placed the cross near M.H.s home, and lit it on fire. Revette further admitted that he built and burned the cross to threaten, frighten, and intimidate M.H. and other African-American residents because of their race and color, and because those individuals lived in and occupied residences in that area of Seminary, Mississippi. Revette acknowledged that he knew burning crosses have historically been used to threaten, frighten, and intimidate African-Americans. Revette faces a maximum total sentence of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine on the two charges. Sentencing has been scheduled for Aug. 20. This case was investigated by the FBI Jackson Divisions Hattiesburg Resident Agency. Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Gregory Mayberry for the Southern District of Mississippi and Trial Attorney Julia Gegenheimer from the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case. 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. - Rice has become the staple food for many people - About 18,000 tonnes was declared unfit for consumption About 18,000 tonnes of rice declared unfit for consumption has been destroyed by authorities in Ivory Coast. Ghanas Ministry of Agriculture had earlier assured that plans were in place to reduce the importation of rice by at least 50 percent this year. This was to enhance the growth and consumption of local rice in Ghana. Unwholesome rice prevented from entering Ghanaian market Source: BBC.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: 29-year-old national service person remanded over alleged fraud According to BBC reports, the said rice from Myanmar (also known as Burma) had been rejected by countries including Ghana. The shipment of rice, from Myanmar (also known as Burma), had been refused entry at several West African ports in recent weeks, including Lome, Conakry and Accra. The goods were finally unloaded in Abidjan and then tests were done, which showed there was a problem with the rice, BBC added. READ ALSO: Sammy Gyamfi claims charges against National Chairman do not make sense Speaking to Citi Business News, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, George Oduro said measures such as the planting for food and jobs as well as the newly-introduced Irrigation land facility system should help reduce the importation of rice by half. This year alone, our target to stop the importation of rice by 50 percent, maybe we can achieve that or more, he said. Currently, Ghana imports 331 million dollars of rice annually, a development stakeholders had described as worrying. READ ALSO: 5 reasons why government's plan to build 190,000 houses is a bad idea Ghana News Today: Full Economic Management Town Hall Meeting by Bawumia | #Yencomgh Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook page and we could feature your story. Source: Yen Sharing is caring! 51 shares Share 39 Tweet Pin 12 Its that time of year again in New Zealand. As we slowly make our way through April, nighttime temperatures plummet, the frost begins, and the days become shorter. Winter is coming and so are the white walkers. Wait, never mind. Autumn is here! My most favorite time of year! Usually in sync with the first frosts, a row of trees near my house in Wanaka always turn red first and I know that fall is coming. Squee! Time to bring out the cozy sweaters, wooly socks and mugs of coffee and tea. I dont really know why Im so obsessed with autumn, but I can speak to the fact that it evokes great nostalgia for me, and probably for many of you too. It reminds my of my childhood growing up in Virginia, playing in leave piles meticulously raked by my dad. Going to pick pumpkins and for turkey roasts around Thanksgiving and maple pancakes on the weekend. Nothing beats an East Coast autumn. In college I went to university in Massachusetts, where fall is quite perfect in every way. But then I swapped hemispheres and moved to New Zealand, eventually arriving in Wanaka just before the beginning of autumn 5 years ago. I had to grow accustomed to seeing lambs in October and colorful leaves in April. Mid to late April is usually the best time for autumn colors around Central Otago where I live. Of course, I am not a god (wish I was) so I cant tell you EXACTLY when the leaves will change, but usually mid to late April is when they look the best! One main difference here is that here Im surrounded by vineyards as far as I can see, and I love when the harvest begins around autumn time and when the leaves on the vines change color. It makes me so happy! I dont believe New Zealand has any native deciduous trees (i.e. trees whose leaves change color), you can find them around many of the South Island regions and towns, especially where there are/were lots of farms. And places like Christchurch also have lovely colorful trees. New Zealand autumn rocks. Many farm driveways and roads are planted with poplar trees that turn the most beautiful golden yellow in autumn. Im not sure why wind blocking? Shade for the sheep? If anyone knows why, please update me. For that reason, Central Otago and the Queenstown Lakes District, like Wanaka, Arrowtown and Queenstown have beautiful autumn colors, though they come with tourists. I tend to head deep into the heart of Central Otago for autumn, around places like Clyde, Alexandra and out towards Naseby and Ophir. Here is the heart of the gold rush history, and a place that makes me heart soar. I always make a point to be here this time of year and to take it all in. April is also a great month to travel in New Zealand since its usually mild and windless, before the snows have arrived but after the summer crowds have gone home. Here are some of my favorite shots of autumn in New Zealand over the years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and be sure to subscribe to my blog for when I start sharing new adventures from this autumn. Are you a fan of autumn too? Can you relate to my nostalgia? Have you been around New Zealand in April? Spill! Mumbai: Choreographer Bosco Leslie Martis is set to make his feature directorial debut with a dance-based horror-comedy in 3D. The film will be Zee Studios' in-house production and the choreographer said he wanted to explore his skills in the dancing world without trying to attempt a film on the lines of "Step Up". "So I came up with the concept of a dance-based horror-comedy. It sets the platform to create something magical," Bosco said in a statement. The choreographer said he is currently working on the screenplay with a team of writers. "We are super excited to make the film with this unique, never-done-before genre in India. It's a delight to partner with Bosco, not only to direct the film, but also as a judge on our iconic show Dance India Dance," Shariq Patel, CEO, Zee Studios said in a statement. Bosco will also be giving a few participants from the show an opportunity to feature in his upcoming film. The film will be cast soon and Bosco said it will feature an A-lister. The film is scheduled to go on floors in the second half of the year. New Delhi: Air India wants to take 4-5 wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft of the now-grounded Jet Airways and may hold discussions for it with the airline`s lead lender State Bank of India (SBI). The move is aimed at catering the peak demand on various international routes such as India-Gulf and India-UK. Jet Airways has 10 Boeing 777 in its fleet which it used to serve various popular destinations in Europe and North America before halting the entire international operations. "Air India has expressed its interest to take some of the B777s on lease. The initial proposal is there," an industry source told IANS. A SBI spokesperson could not be reached for comment on the development. After Jet Airways suspended its international operations the airfare on most of the foreign routes have jumped sharply with tickets on routes like Mumbai-London becoming prohibitively expensive. Air India wants to capture the traffic on these routes by deploying additional capacity. Last week, low-cost carrier SpiceJet had announced to induct 16 B737 into its fleet which were earlier operated by Jet Airways. The airline would take another six aircraft and operate them on domestic routes in few weeks. While many domestic carriers have grabbed the opportunity created by suspension of Jet Airways` operations and launched new flights on domestic routes, additional capacity is yet to be mounted on international routes to fill the gap. Facing severe liquidity crisis, Jet Airways on Wednesday night suspended its operations indefinitely. The airline`s revival now depends on successful stake sale initiated by the lenders led by SBI. Gandhinagar: Unseasonal rain and severe dust storm in different parts of Gujarat over the last two days claimed 13 lives even as authorities Thursday predicted that temperatures that had fallen to less than 3 to 7 degrees below normal would rise from next week to mark a normal summer. Officials at the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) in Gandhinagar said the deaths occurred due to different reasons ranging from electrocution, lightning strikes and uprooting of trees. The worst affected districts were in North Gujarat and the western Saurashtra regions. As on Wednesday evening, as many as 13 deaths were reported while many people sustained injuries. Mehsana district reported the maximum five deaths followed by Banaskantha (2) and one each in Patan, Sabarkantha and Ahmedabad in North Gujarat region. One person each was killed in Rajkot, Morbi and Surendranagar in Saurashtra, according to Gopal Bhayani at the SEOC. Bhayani told IANS that there were no reports of dust storm or rain from any part of the state on Wednesday evening onwards. He said heavy rains were preceded by dust storms in most parts of Gujarat. The central and state governments announced Rs 2 lakh compensation to each of the kin of those killed. First, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the compensation from the PM Relief Fund, followed by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who also announced Rs 2 lakh relief. In all, every family of those who died would receive compensation of Rs 4 lakh. New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Thursday said that Shakti Bhargava, the man who hurled a shoe at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP GVL Narasimha Rao at a press conference earlier today, wanted to 'gain media attention' and 'nothing incriminating was found from him.' Bhargava attacked Rao when the latter was addressing a press conference about Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur joining the BJP. The shoe narrowly missed the BJP leader and hit a mic. The man who hurled a shoe at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao during a press conference at BJP HQs has been let off by Delhi Police after joint interrogation. Police say,'nothing incriminating found from him. No complaint was received against him.His motive was to gain media's attention' https://t.co/sMnGnVDV08 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Soon after the incident, BJP workers caught hold of him and he was then handed over to the police. After a joint interrogation, the Delhi Police let him off and said that "nothing incriminating found from him and no complaint against him was received. His motive was to gain media's attention," ANI reports. Bhargava is a surgeon by profession and as per his visiting card that was accessed after he was taken away from the press conference, he is a resident of Kanpur. A look at his Facebook page shows him to be a whistleblower. Through his posts, he has repeatedly launched attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government's stand on corruption-related issues. Mumbai: Actor Vivek Oberoi said on Thursday that he is happy with the response of the Election Commission of India after several of its officials watched a special screening of his film 'PM Narendra Modi.' The Supreme Court had directed EC to watch the film and submit its response on it in a sealed envelope. The special screening had taken place on Wednesday. Speaking to media persons a day later, Vivek - who is in the lead role - said that he was satisfied with the response of those who watched the film. "Everybody in the EC saw the film yesterday. We asked them 'how did you like the film?' Can't tell you their response but we were happy with their answer. Only request is that the film should be allowed to release," he said. The film - based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's life - ran into controversy after it was alleged that its release was timed with the Lok Sabha election and could influence voters in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The film was slated to release on April 11 -the day of voting in the first phase of election, before EC chose to delay the release. The filmmakers had approached the Supreme Court challenging the EC order and a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna asked EC officials to watch the film and submit a report to it. The next date of hearing in the case is on April 22. The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) declared the inter first and second year exam results on Thursday. The result was released by in a press conference at the TSBIE office in Hyderabad. Candidates can check their results on official websites tsbie.cgg.gov.in, results.cgg.gov.in and bie.telangana.gov.in or third party sites manabadi.com, schools9.com and examresults.net. Over 9 lakh candidates appeared for the Telangana intermediate first and second year exams this year. Out of this 59.5 per cent passed in the first year and 65 per cent passed in the second year. Here's a step-by-step guide to check your results. 1: Visit one of the following websites: manabadi.com tsbie.cgg.gov.in results.cgg.gov.in schools9.com bie.telangana.gov.in examresults.net 2: Next, click on TS Inter 1st Year Vocational Results 2019 LIVE or TS Inter 2nd Year Results 2019 LIVE 3: On the new page, enter the Hall Ticket No. 4: Manabadi TS Inter 1st, 2nd Year Result 2019 will be displayed on the screen. 5: Candidates can also check their scores on the official Telangana results app 'T App Folio. The scorecard will consist of Hall Ticket No, Name, Course, CGPA, Result, Subject, Grade, Internal Grade and Grade Point. TSBIE Intermediate examination for the first year began on February 27 and continued till March 16 while the second year exams were conducted between February 28 and March 18. Chandigarh: Condemning as "totally barbaric and inhuman" the recent beheading of two Punjabis by the authorities in Saudi Arabia, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said he would seek a detailed report from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the matter. The two men -- Satwinder Kumar of Safdarpur Kallian village in Hoshiarpur district and Harjit Singh of Ludhiana district -- were executed by Saudi authorities on February 28 this year without any prior information regarding their execution being shared with the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Prakash Chand, Director (Consular), MEA stated in a written communication dated April 10, 2019. Chand said in the communication, sent to Satwinder`s wife Seema Rani through the counsel at the Punjab and Haryana High court as she had petitioned before the court regarding her husband, that the Embassy had no information about the mortal remains of both men and was awaiting the same from the Saudi authorities. Both men were arrested on December 9, 2015 in connection with the murder of another Indian national, Arif Imamuddin. All three (Satwinder, Harjit and Arif) had committed robbery and due to a dispute in sharing the loot money, Arif was killed by the other two. Satwinder and Harjit were arrested over a case drunken brawl. During deportation formalities and finger-printing for final exit from Saudi Arabia, they were found to be involved in Arif`s murder. They were sent to the Riyadh prison where they allegedly confessed to killing Arif, the communication pointed out. The embassy officials were following the case against the two Punjabi men and they even used to visit them in prison. The jail list regarding their case was collected till February 18, 2019. Expressing shock and grief over the vicious act, which has been confirmed by the MEA to have taken place on February 28, Amarinder said: "It is atrocious that such incidents continue to happen in civilised nations in this day and age." The Chief Minister also flayed the MEA for failing to prevent, and then not disclosing the execution of the two men till it was forced to do so by a petition filed by Satwinder`s wife. Amarinder said he would approach Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to secure more details about the execution of the two men. "He would seek from the MEA information regarding the charges and would also question them on whether due legal representation was provided to the two men," a spokesperson for the Chief Minister`s Office said. "If the executions were undertaken without prior information even to the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, with the victims not provided legal counsel, it amounted to a grave violation of the international human rights," the Chief Minister said. He called upon the United Nations and other global human rights organisations to take serious cognizance of the incident and put pressure on Saudi Arabia to end its ancient and blatantly illegal practices, which are against all norms of humanity. Referring to media reports that the families of the victims would not get their bodies due to restrictions in place in Saudi Arabia, the Chief Minister said he would seek Sushma`s personal intervention to take up the matter with the Saudi authorities at the highest level on this count. "That the families should be deprived of the chance even to see their deceased kin and perform the last rites makes the whole affair even more appalling and shocking," he added. Pointing out that just days before the reported beheadings, India had hosted the Saudi Crown Prince, whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi had received personally, in a break from protocol, the Chief Minister said. "Given the friendly relations between the two leaders, getting the bodies of the two men back to India should not be difficult for the MEA. If needed, the Prime Minister himself should intervene to ensure the return of their mortal remains," he added. The Indian government should also take steps to ensure that such incidents are not repeated and no Indian is denied justice or his/her legitimate right in any manner in the future, Amarinder said. NEW DELHI: Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the latter recently claimed that the government has recovered more money than former owes to banks. In a tweet, Mallya questioned Modi's claims asking: "None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe? One or the other is lying." PM Modi had in an interview reportedly said that Mallya's extradition process was in the last stage and the government has recovered money from him. "We brought in a law that enabled the Indian government to confiscate the property of fugitives in any part of the world. You must've seen in the case of Vijay Mallya. He owed banks Rs 9000 crore but the government has confiscated his properties worth Rs 14,000 crore from across the world. Now, he is in trouble because we are taking double the amount," the Prime Minister had said. Mallya had on Wednesday expressed solidarity with cash-strapped Jet Airways. Questioning government's decision to use Rs 35,000 crore of public funds to bail out Air India, he said: "Even though Jet was a major competitor to Kingfisher at the time I feel sorry to see such a large private airline on the brink of failure when Government used 35K crores of public funds to bail out Air India. Just being a PSU is no excuse for discrimination." Mallya is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. He is currently facing trial at a London court. A United Kingdom court had on April 8 denied him the permission to appeal against his extradition order to India to face trial for alleged fraud and money laundering. Srinagar: Normal life was affected in poll-bound districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday due to a strike called by separatists against the Lok Sabha elections in the state. Polling is being held in the Srinagar parliamentary constituency spread over three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal. Shops, business establishments and fuel stations remained closed in these districts due to the strike, officials said. Public transport remained off the roads, but some private vehicles could be seen plying the roads in these areas, they said. The separatists -- under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) -- had called for a shutdown in poll-bound areas on the day of voting. Appealing to people to stay away from the Lok Sabha polls, the JRL -- consisting Syed Ali shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik -- also asked them to observe the shutdown, in the areas going to polls in the Valley, against the "so-called Indian parliamentary elections". Meanwhile, authorities snapped mobile internet services in these districts as a precautionary measure. "The mobile internet service has been suspended as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order, the officials said. They said while the BSNL's broadband service was working, its speed was throttled. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hit out at the Congress for questioning the airstrikes by the Indian Air Force in Balakot. Lashing out at the party, he said that the Congress is not ready to accept surgical strike and Balakot air strike as a victory. "Congress and its allies think about self and not national interest," Modi alleged while addressing an election rally in Bagalkot in Karnataka. He also alleged that after the Mumbai attacks, Congress-led government at the centre did not take any effective action and instead "went crying around". He, however, claimed that "now, wherever Pakistan goes, you hear its cries that Modi is hitting them." He added that Congress is facing an existential crisis and is trying to divide the society. The PM also trained guns at the Janata Dal Secular-Congress government in Karnataka calling it 'helpless'. "You want to see a strong government, look at the Central government. If you want to see a helpless government, look at Karnataka,: he said. He also drubbed Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's frequent emotional outbursts as "natak" (drama). "The drama unfolding here in the state for the past one year is refusing to end. This drama has everything including emotions and revenge. The situation is such that we get to see the overflow of emotions regularly in rallies and press conferences," he said. Earlier in the day at a BJP poll rally at Amreli in Gujarat also, he had said that his government managed to contain terrorism to only "two and a half" districts in Jammu and Kashmir and that no bomb blast took place elsewhere in the country in last five years. Modi added that what he learnt in Gujarat helped him during the long Doklam standoff with China in 2017. "In the last five years no bomb blast took place in any other part of the country. We managed to contain terrorism to just two and a half districts in Jammu and Kashmir," he said. On Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's statement of trying to approach India after the Balakot air strike, Modi said the leader "had to make a public plea to us to pick up the phone". New Delhi: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)' decision to name Malegaon accused Pragya Singh Thakur as its candidate for the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat. "Prime Minister of India, you are the king of liars. You don't want to fight terrorism. If you wanted to fight terrorists, if you had class and sincerity, then you would not have made a person with terrorism charges a candidate," PM Modi said. Pragya Singh Thakur is contesting on BJP ticket from Bhopal against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Surprisingly, Digvijaya had welcomed Pragya Singh to contest from Bhopal, by sharing a video message on Twitter. "I hope that you like the peaceful, educated and civilised atmosphere in this city. I ask Maa Narmada to bless her, and I pray that we all practice the path of truth, non-violence and dharma." Sadhvi Pragya also said that she is looking forward to the electoral contest at hand. "I have already started my work," she said. A day earlier - before her party had named her as its candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, she had told Zee News that she is a nationalist while Digvijaya is not. "This is why if chosen, I would look forward to the election and defeating him." While Sadhvi Pragya may be elated at the opportunity of battling Digvijaya, her selection has raised many eyebrows because of the alleged connection to Malegaon blast. While charges against her under MCOCA have been dropped by an NIA court, Sadhvi Pragya continues to face other charges. In her defence, she maintains that it is because of a controversy that she had to spend six years in jail and in reality, people in Bhopal have been wanting to see her contest the election. Bhopal goes to polls in the sixth phase on May 12 and the counting of votes will take place on May 23. Kolkata: Bangladesh actor Ghazi Abdul Noor has been told to leave India after it was found that his visa has expired. He had been seen at a Trinamool Congress rally in Dumdun which had generated controversy earlier this week. Noor, a Bangladesh national, was in India on an entry visa and was part of TMC candidate Saugata Roy's campaign in Dumdum. On Thursday, he was told by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to immediately leave the country. It has also been reported that 'appropriate action' would be taken against him for staying in India beyond what was permitted on his visa. The BJP had previously complained to the Election Commission regarding Bangladesh actors being part of TMC candidates' campaigning. Besides Noor, Ferdous Ahmed too had taken part in campaigning for TMC's Raiganj candidate Kanhaiyalal Agarwal. His visa had been cancelled and he was told to leave the country. While TMC has defended its candidates for including Bangladesh actors in their respective campaigns, the charge against them is that foreign nationals ought not to be part of any electoral process- even if it is campaigning. Some of TMC's political rivals have even said that Mamata Banerjee would next invite Pakistanis to campaign for her candidates. "Tomorrow, they will invite Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to campaign for the TMC," BJP West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh had said. (With inputs from Manish Shukla/Zee Media) NEW DELHI: A shoe was on Thursday hurled at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao while he was addressing a press conference at the party office in Delhi. The attacker was immediately nabbed after which the Rajya Sabha member continued with the press conference. Rao lashed out at the Congress blaming the party for the incident. "This is a condemnable act by the Congress. This is yet another attempt by a Congress-inspired person who comes here to show the same kind of mentality," Rao said after the attack. Thursday's incident has brought back the memories of the past incidents when shoes were hurled at politicians. Here is a recap of some of them: Shivraj Singh Chouhan A shoe was hurled at former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan during a public meeting during campaigning in Sidhi district in September 2018. Chouhan had then blamed the Congress for the attack claiming that there was a plan to assassinate the former CM. Parkash Singh Badal In 2017, a shoe was thrown at the then Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal during an election campaign. The incident took place when he was campaigning for Assembly polls in the state. The man behind the attack was later sentenced to two years in jail. Nitish Kumar: A person threw a slipper at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in October 2018 while he speaking at a conference of the youth wing of Janata Dal United in Patna. The man behind the attack said that he took the extreme measure as he was angry and was protesting against reservation in the state. He was reportedly unable to get a job. He was arrested for the attack. Arvind Kejriwal: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal faced a shoe attack in 2017 while addressing a public meeting Tijori Tod Bhanda Fod in Rohtak against demonetisation. Kejriwal was addressing rally against the demonetisation move. Kejriwal had then blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the attack claiming that the incident was reflective of the PM's 'cowardice'. Jitan Ram Manjhi: Former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi also became a victim of a shoe attack in 2015 during his weekly public interaction programme 'Janata Durbar' at his residence in Patna. The youth while throwing the shoe complained that the then state government was dividing the society on caste lines. Bhopal: A day after being named as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the Bhopal parliamentary constituency, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on Thursday alleged police torture while she was in jail in connection with the Malegaon blast of 2008. Speaking to members of the press, Sadhvi Pragya alleged that she had had to face extreme torture during the time she spent in jail. "Police kept me in illegal custody for 13 days. Right from the first day, without asking me anything, they hit me with belts. It was not easy to handle the torture. The whole body gets swollen, gets numb," she said. "I am not recounting my pain to you but what I am trying to say is that no woman should have to go through what I did. While hitting me, they used to abuse me." Stating that the cops wanted her to admit that she had a role in the Malegaon blast which killed many members of the Muslim community, Sadhvi Pragya said no effort was spared to get a forced confession from her. "They used to hit me all night. People who beat me used to change but the person being hit, me, remained the same," she said before breaking down. With tears rolling down her eyes, Sadhvi Pragya went on to say that the brutality of the police force was inhumane. This is not the first time that Sadhvi Pragya has lashed out against police forces. In 2014, she had made similar allegations while recounting torture at the hands of Maharashtra ATS and state police. She had also complained to the National Human Rights Commission at the time. An accused in the Malegaon Blast case, Sadhvi Pragya faces a number of charges although the charge under MCOCA has been dropped by an NIA court. She joined BJP earlier this week and has been named as the party candidate to fight Congress' Digvijaya Singh. Her selection has been widely seen as controversial with political rivals raising concerns aplenty. Lucknow: A BJP MLA in Amroha district has alleged that "burqa-clad women" are indulging in fake voting in his constituency, a charge denied by the district magistrate. The party's Hasanpur legislator Mahendra Singh Khargvanshi claimed that he had reports of such bogus voting from at least three polling booths in his constituency. "In Hasanpur, on three polling booths (85, 86 and 87) our booth-level party workers have informed me that Burqa-clad women are indulging in fake voting," he told PTI. He said he has informed the district magistrate and the superintendent of police about this. "And, I have been told that they are looking into this." When contacted, Amroha District Magistrate Umesh Mishra denied any "fake voting" was taking place. "There is no fake voting. Only genuine voters are allowed to cast their votes, after their identity is thoroughly checked. We are continuously on the move, and there are no such complaints," he said. He added that women security personnel have also been deployed and the polling parties are keeping a close watch on the voting process. New Delhi: There appears no end to the bickering between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress as both look at ways to stitch together an alliance for Lok Sabha election 2019. After nearly a month of frantic negotiations, AAP leader Gopal Rai on Thursday said that Congress had stepped back after the finer details had been almost worked out. "We had made one last effort. Sanjay Singh ji held talks, but can't understand that after almost finalizing the matter and seat sharing, why the Congress stepped back last evening," he told news agency ANI. Both AAP and Congress have gone back and forth on the issue of forming an alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi. While AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has said he is ready to do all that it would take to defeat BJP, the Delhi CM also said that AAP can be successful on its own. Kejriwal and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi have also taken potshots at each other on Twitter. While Rahul said earlier this week that Kejriwal has taken a U-turn on the question of alliance, Kejriwal hit back almost immediately and said that Congress is working to help BJP by dividing anti-Modi votes in UP and other states. It is reported that the two parties thus far have been unable to reach a consensus over the seat-sharing arrangement in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Goa. Both parties claim they have made enough leeways for the other but also blame each other for not letting an alliance take a final shape. Each time it appears that the talks have broken down completely, however, both AAP and Congress leaders hand each other an olive branch. New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has warned Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi over his 'Modi ki sena (Modis army)' remark, which he made during an election rally in Rampur. The poll body has asked him to refrain from using references to security forces for political propaganda and to be careful in the future. State election authorities had issued him a show cause notice earlier. In his response, the minister had agreed that he had used the phrase. "The Commission, hereby warns Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to desist from using the references to defence forces for political propaganda and to be careful in future," the order read. Election Commission of India warns Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi over his 'Modi ki Sena' comment, asks him to desist from using references to security forces for political propaganda and to be careful in future (file pic) pic.twitter.com/o7kDCAWzDb ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 A similar remark was also made by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during an election campaign after which he was also asked to be careful in future. On Monday, the EC banned Adityanath from taking part in election campaign for 48 hours. New Delhi: The Election Commission will on April 19 submit its decision to the Supreme Court on whether the ban on the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi should continue, a senior poll body official said Thursday. The EC, on the apex court's directions, had watched the film on Wednesday. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said the EC will on Friday submit to the Supreme Court its view on banning the film's pan-India release in a sealed cover. Earlier on Thursday, the film's producers had visited the Nirvachan Sadan, the EC's headquarters here, to present their view. The Supreme Court had on Monday directed the EC to watch the full biopic on Modi and take an informed decision on banning its release. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had said it will consider the EC report and hear the matter on April 22. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for film producers who challenged the EC's ban, said the poll panel had taken the decision after watching just the promo and it did not watch the entire movie. The EC had on April 10 stalled the release of the film until the Lok Sabha polls end, saying any such film that subserves the purpose of any political entity or individual should not be displayed in electronic media. Acting on the complaints of political parties, including the Congress, the poll panel had asserted that any biopic material with the potential to disturb the level-playing field should not be displayed in areas where the model code of conduct was in force. The Modi biopic, starring Vivek Oberoi in the lead, has been the most-talked about movie in this election season. Directed by Omung Kumar, it tells the story of Modi's rise to power from his humble beginnings. New Delhi: The Election Commission on Wednesday imposed a ban on 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' advertisement run by Congress party in Madhya Pradesh and ordered an end to its broadcast. In a letter to Congress, Madhya Pradesh Joint Chief Election Officer Rajesh Kaul directed the party to immediately stop the broadcast of the ad campaign. Joint Chief Election Officer also informed all the state district officers to immediately discontinue the Congress ad campaign saying that the media certification and inspection committee has cancelled the ad certification. The BJP had complained to the Chief Election Officer against the ad run by the Congress party saying it was offensive and defamatory in nature. The party also claimed that Congress, with the ad, was trying to carry out a personal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has often referred to himself as a 'Chowkidar' during rallies. Chief Election Officer VL Kantarao has directed that action should be initiated against the Congress, besides issuing a notice to the party, news agency IANS said. The election season is known for party leaders and politician making controversial defamatory remarks and using a language that clearly violates the model code of conduct. Only recently, the polll panel acted tough on some leader - Yogi Adityanath, Mayawati, Azam Khan and Maneka Gandhi and temporarily banned them from campaigning over their speeches. Srinagar: National Conference (NC) chairman Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah cast their votes in Srinagar parliamentary constituency in the second phase of polling on Thursday. Farooq is seeking a re-election from the prestigious Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, where he is up against Peoples Democratic Party`s Aga Syed Mohsin, People`s Conference`s Irfan Raza Ansari and Khalid Jehnagir of the Bharatiya Janata Party. After casting his vote in Munshi Bagh area in the constituency, Omar said he hoped that the Centre and the Election Commission (EC) would soon conduct Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The former Chief Minister said, "Now that Lok Sabha polls are due to conclude, we can only hope that Centre with the EC gives people of Jammu and Kashmir an elected government which is their right. "Underlining a difference between this election and the 2017 Lok Sabha by-election, he said that the people of the constituency were more receptive in this election."These elections are significantly different from the by-elections that Farooq Sahab won in 2017. In that elections, we barely managed to conduct 2 public meetings outdoors. All election activities were confined to closed rooms. In this election, the electorate is far more receptive than it was in 2017."Omar also asked how BJP`s Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya is being allowed to contest polls when she is out on bail on medical grounds. "BJP has given ticket (from Bhopal) to a candidate who is not only an accused in a terror case but is also out on bail on health grounds. If her health condition doesn`t permit her to be in jail, how does it permit her to contest polls?" he asked. Two out of six Lok Sabha seats, Srinagar and Udhampur, of the state are voting today in the second phase of elections. Over 54 per cent voter turn out was recorded in Jammu and Baramulla parliamentary seats that went to polls in the first phase of elections on April 11.The counting of votes will take place on May 23. As India awaits the second phase of Lok Sabha Election 2019 next week, several top political leaders are out in the field wooing voters and leading crucial election campaigns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already addressed a rally in Tamil Nadu's Theni and will hold another rally at Ramanathapuram on Saturday, seeking votes for the AIADMK-led alliance. The BJP is part of the AIADMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, BJP national president Amit Shah will address poll meetings in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun, Shahjahanpur and Kanpur. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Samajwadi supremo Akhilesh and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh will also hold a joint rally Baduan later in the day. Mayawati is scheduled to hold another rally along with RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary in UP's Bulandshahr. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's will participate in a public rally in Maharashtra's Nanded at 5 pm. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav will also address two rallies in Bihar's Banka district. Thanks for joining us. Please do come again on Sunday (April 14) for Lok Sabha live updates Here are the highlights of Lok Sabha Election 2019: * The BJP in Maharashtra wrote to state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) seeking to know which Lok Sabha candidate would incur the cost of MNS president Raj Thackeray's ongoing political rallies. Senior BJP minister Vinod Tawde, on behalf of the Lok Sabha election committee of the party, said Thackeray has been holding political rallies across the state, despite the MNS not contesting the Lok Sabha elections. "The commission should clarify for whom the rallies are being conducted and which candidate will bear the expenses for his rallies," Tawde said in the letter. * Congress and JDS are inspired by dynasty and we are inspired by nationalism. They find ways to benefit their family but we work hard to bring the marginalized to the mainstream. Their philosophy is a dynasty and our is Antyodya: PM Narendra Modi addressing a public meeting in Mangaluru, Karnataka. * When I was coming here from the airport which was a long journey, I saw that not a human chain but a human wall is there on both the sides of the road. I thought if so many people are here,who will be there (at the rally). But the same number of people are here as well: PM Modi * Mayawati on UP CM remark,"Agar Congress,SP,BSP ko 'Ali' par vishwaas hai toh humein 'Bajrangbali' par vishwaas hai": Hamare Ali aur Bajrangbali dono hain. Bajrangbali isliye bhi chaiye kyunki ye meri dalit jaati se jude hain, inki jaati ki khoj maine nahi ki, khud UP CM ne ki hai pic.twitter.com/LSfI07KJs0 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 13, 2019 * , ' ' : #ModiAgainSaysIndia pic.twitter.com/tdJlS1uI0k * People of the country want to see Narendra Modi as their prime minister once again: Amit Shah in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. * Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu visited the Election Commission (EC) office in the national capital to complain the malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during polling in the state on Thursday. * PM Modi will hold a rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district on Sunday to canvass for Union Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh, who is seeking re-election from Udhampur Lok Sabha seat where polling will be held in the second phase on April 18. Jitendra Singh is in direct contest with Congress' Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of last ruler of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh and the son of Congress leader Karan Singh, in the seat. Read more. * Who will do Nyay to governments of the great MGR Ji, which were dismissed by Congress just because one family didn't like those leaders? Who will do Nyay to victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy, among the worst environment disasters in India. That too happened under Congress: PM Modi * Some days ago DMK Supremo projected the 'naamdar' as the PM candidate when no one was ready to accept it, not even their 'mahamilawati' friends, Why? Because they all are in the line to be PM and dream of the pos: PM Modi in Tamil Nadu * Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Theni, Tamil Nadu: Some days ago DMK Supremo projected the 'naamdar' as the PM candidate when no one was ready to accept it, not even their 'mahamilawati' friends, Why? Because they all are in the line to be PM and dream of the post. pic.twitter.com/8qptPjtZi6 * PM Modi in Theni: We observe today, the solemn occasion, of the completion of 100 years since the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. I pay my respects to the martyrs of this incident. * Tamil Nadu CM in Theni: Congress which is a part of DMK led alliance here has announced Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate but its allies have not come out in open supporting his candidature. In our alliance all parties have accepted PM Modi as the PM candidate, this shows our unity. * The BJP leadership demanded repoll at several booths in West Bengal's Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, alleging that the ruling Trinamool Congress indulged in malpractices during polling there Thursday including rigging poll booths. "There should be repoll in Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat. Several booths were rigged by the TMC as the security in these booths were provided by the state police. We wanted central forces to provide security cover," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said. Senior BJP leader Mukul Roy Friday visited the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Kolkata staged a sit-in demonstration along with other BJP leaders to press for demands of repoll. The BJP candidate of Cooch Behar seat Nishit Pramanik has claimed that at least 350 polling stations were rigged by the TMC. *Concealing the identity of the beneficiary to conceal donors to the BJP? This is like Electoral Bonds: Legalising political corruption. #LootOfIndia https://t.co/NlBi0YbDIl Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) April 13, 2019 * Priyanka Gandhi hits out at BJP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) April 13, 2019 * Jallianwala Bagh remains a deep inspiration for all those who want a better and bright tomorrow for all Indians. The sacrifice of the martyrs of April 13, 1919 will never be forgotten. #JallianwalaBaghMassacre https://t.co/YjgHxj0TQW Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) April 13, 2019 *Those convicted or facing charges of abuse of public office and misappropriation of funds are claiming to be the custodians of truth.@laluprasadrjd , , Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) April 13, 2019 * Congress President Rahul Gandhi lays wreath at Jallianwala Bagh memorial on the commemoration of 100 years of the massacre. Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu also present. * Security personnel on Friday exercised their democratic franchise by voting through postal ballot for Tripura East parliamentary constituency. These security personnel, who will be on duty on the poll day, cast their votes in advance. * Congress President Rahul Gandhi will visit the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial on Saturday morning to pay homage to hundreds of people, who were massacred by British forces on April 13, 1919. Rahul arrived in Amritsar on Friday night. After arriving here, Rahul, accompanied by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, paid a visit to Golden Temple complex where he offered prayers at the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikh religion. April 13 (Saturday) marks the 100th anniversary of the massacre, in which British forces led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer opened fire on hundreds of unarmed, innocent Indians, including women and children, who were protesting peacefully against the oppressive Rowlatt Act of the British government. * A delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) knocked the doors of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) twice in last 24 hours alleging that Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supporters attacked the BJP workers in the state. "CM Patnaik has a fear to lose the election, BJD activists thrashed our leaders. We have filled the complaint but no action has been taken against these goons. We have demanded the EC to intervene in this matter," said Samir Mohanty, state Vice President, BJP. Mohanty further claimed that Patnaik and his party have become habitual in violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). On Thursday, a BJP delegation met the CEO and filed a complaint alleging the violation of Model Code of Conduct by Patnaik. * BJP President Amit Shah leaves after midnight after attending a party meeting in Varanasi. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister J P Nadda, and BJP UP President Mahendra Nath Pandey also attended the meeting. * "A former Jammu and Kashmir CM said there should be two PMs in India, one for J&K and other for rest of the country. I've given a warning, if a demand for 2 PMs is made in India then we have no other option but to repeal article 370 & 35A. If someone tries to break India, should they be forgiven? They say they will end the sedition law, to whom are they giving a signal? If our government comes to power we will make the sedition law even more stringent," Union Minister Rajnath Singh in Botad, Gujarat. * Total voter turnout in Uttarakhand for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 at 61.5%. Tehri Garhwal - 58.3%, Garhwal - 54.47%, Almora - 51.82%, Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar - 68.69%, Haridwar - 68.92%. * Robert Vadra sure of Rahul, Sonia Gandhi's victory from Amethi and Raebareli: "I think people of Amethi and Rae Bareli feel very happy that the family is with them and have been with them forever and the development is always on our minds. We always reach out and meet everyone. We will do all we can to further develop both Amethi and Rae Bareli." * Rajasthan man whose wedding got cancelled in wake of Pulwama terror attack, finally to get married. Read more * A day after the Election Commission directed that all recorded programmes displayed on NaMo TV be pre-certified, the Delhi poll body has directed the BJP not to air any content on the platform without its certification, officials said. Read more * The Congress party has accused the Trinamool Congress and its supremo West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for resorting to cheap and unconstitutional methods against opponents. The Darjeeling district administration on Friday denied permission for landing of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's helicopter in Siliguri, who was scheduled to address a public meeting in the area on April 14. Read more It has been quite a week so far for Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. From joining the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday to being named as the party candidate from Bhopal parliamentary seat on Wednesday to facing the start of possible legal challenges on Thursday, the 48-year-old has had a rollercoaster-like past few days. Till just a few days back, the saffron-clad Sadhvi Pragya's name was mostly always taken in reference to the Malegaon blast in 2008. An accused in the case, she still faces a number of charges even though the main charge under MCOCA was previously dropped by an NIA court. That, however, did not stop BJP from naming Sadhvi Pragya - currently out on bail - as the party candidate from Bhopal seat for Lok Sabha election 2019. Facing-off against her would be Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh whom the BJP accuses of coining the term 'saffron terror.' The electoral battle at hand between Sadhvi Pragya and Digvijaya is for the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat. It could well be about a whole lot more. On Wednesday, Sadhvi Pragya said that the election is dharma-yuddh for her. Digvijaya repsonded by welcoming her to 'peaceful' Bhopal. A day later, Sadhvi Pragya recounted her days in prison and accused cops of torturing her. She even broke down while levelling allegations. Tears, however, may not clear the path ahead. The main charge against Sadhvi Pragya being named as a candidate for election is that she has yet to clear her name from the Malegaon blast case. She has been arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad shortly after six people were killed and more than 100 injured when a bomb went off in Malegaon on September 29 of 2008. In the subsequent years, Sadhvi Pragya spent some time behind bars before being given a clean chit by NIA, although it did not discharge her. She still faces trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code sections. Now, her electoral debut has been challenged by the father of one of the victims in the Malegaon blast. Nisar Sayeed, who lost his son, filed an application in NIA. He argues in the application that Sadhvi Pragya should be told to attend court proceedings in Mumbai and that she be barred from contesting in the election at hand. The application also points out that she had been granted bail on health grounds and is now 'contesting election in the summer heat.' The matter will be heard on Monday. And that's not all. Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla also approached the Election Commission and argued that Sadhvi Pragya ought to be barred from contesting in Lok Sabha election as she faces terror charges. "I would humbly request the Election Commission of India to take further necessary steps to uphold the Model Code of Conduct 2019 and take appropriate action against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and debar her from contesting elections," he wrote. And then there are political adversaries. From Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference to AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Congress spokesperson Ratnakar Mahajan, verbal attacks have flown thick and fast - directed at both Sadhvi Pragya and her political party. Under such a charged-up political climate, Sadhvi Pragya is scheduled to file her nomination on April 23. Will she be permitted to contest in Lok Sabha election 2019? If so, would she be able to ensure that BJP's nearly-flawless record in Bhopal constituency remains intact? If so, what could be the manifold repercussions? Time will tell. Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati Thursday accused UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of blatantly violating the 72-hr EC ban on canvassing and the poll body with turning a blind eye to the violations. The former chief minister also claimed that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were "nervous and jittery" about their poll prospects. Hitting out at Adityanath, Mayawati charged that the UP chief minister was deriving political mileage by visiting temples and having food outside the house of a Dalit. In a tweet, Mayawati said, "By blatantly violating the ban imposed by the Election Commission, UP Chief Minister Yogi (Adityanath) is visiting temples in various cities and doing a drama of having food outside the house of a Dalit. He is deriving electoral mileage by broadcasting them on media, but the Election Commission is lenient (meharbaan) on him. Why?" The EC on Monday imposed a 72-hour campaigning ban on Adityanath for making communal remarks at a recent election meeting in Meerut. The ban came into force from Tuesday morning. Mayawati said, "If the Election Commission continues its leniency (meharbaani) and turns a blind eye, then it will be impossible to have this elections free and fair...The BJP leadership is hell bent on forcing itself (manmaani), as it had been doing till now." The BSP chief also flayed the BJP leadership. "Today, voting is being held for the second phase of elections, and the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are nervous and jittery like the Congress was feeling in the last Lok Sabha elections. The real reason for this is the mindset, which is against the poor, labourers, farmers, Dalits, backwards and Muslims," she said. Garcia, 69, underwent emergency surgery at the Casimiro Ulloa hospital and suffered three cardiac arrests, Health Minister Zulema Tomas said in broadcast comments. Tomas said he was in "very critical" condition. A doctor who spoke to journalists alongside Tomas at the hospital said the bullet entered and left his head. Garcia was one of nine people a judge ordered to be arrested on April 17 in connection with an investigation into bribes distributed by Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction company that triggered Latin America's biggest graft scandal when it admitted publicly in late 2016 that it had secured lucrative contracts across the region with bribes. Local TV channel America reported Garcia was in a coma and showed images of his son, supporters and lawmakers arriving at the hospital, where police in riot gear stood by. "Let's pray to God to give him strength," Erasmo Reyna, Garcia's lawyer, told journalists at the hospital, as Garcia's supporters chanted slogans in support. A skilled orator who led Peru's once-powerful Apra party for decades, Garcia governed as a nationalist from 1985 to 1990 before remaking himself as a free-market proponent and winning another five-year term in 2006. He had denied wrongdoing involving Odebrecht and blamed his legal troubles on political persecution. "Others might sell out, not me," Garcia said in broadcast comments on April 16, repeating a phrase he has used frequently as his political foes became ensnared in the Odebrecht investigation. Interior Minister Carlos Moran said at a news conference that Garcia had told police he needed to call his attorney after they arrived at his home in Lima to arrest him. "He entered his room and closed the door behind him," Moran said. "Within a few minutes, a shot from a firearm was heard, and police forcibly entered the room and found Mr. Garcia sitting with a wound in his head." Last year, Garcia asked Uruguay for political asylum after he was banned from leaving the country to keep him from fleeing or obstructing the investigation. Uruguay rejected the request. Garcia would have been the third former president in Peru to have been jailed in the Odebrecht case. Ollanta Humala spent nine months in pre-trial detention in 2017-2018 and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was arrested without charges last week. A fourth former president, Alejandro Toledo, is fighting extradition from California after a judge in Peru ordered him jailed for 18 months in connection with Odebrecht in 2017. All have denied wrongdoing in connection with Odebrecht. In Peru, criminal suspects can be ordered to spend up to three years in jail before trial if prosecutors can show they have evidence that likely would lead to a conviction and the suspect would likely flee or try to interfere in the investigation. New Delhi: Sam Pitroda, a confidant of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday said that he is not satisfied with the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. "As an engineer, a technical expert, I am not satisfied with Electronic Voting Machines but I have not been able to pinpoint because we do not have EVM. If someone gives us EVM to study for one year, we'll be able to tell you something," Pitroda said while addressing a press conference here. "You will have to understand the design, its software. Every little signal will have to be analysed. Then only you can say something. But one thing is clear that there is some problem, what is the problem we don't know," he added. In reference to Congress party`s manifesto, Pitroda said, "People`s opinion was heard for Congress manifesto. We spent five-six months listening to people, spoke to villagers. We went from countries to countries, met domain experts, held a huge meeting in Dubai where members from 12 countries came." He added, "In total, 52 things have been listed in the manifesto. If and when we come to power, I assure you this manifesto will be implemented. It will not be a false promise. When we say something, we deliver." Pitroda also criticised the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said, "You can openly and shamelessly lie to people of India and people take that as truth. Young people have no idea of what went on in building a nation of this size and magnitude with the kind of diversity we have. We have created millions of jobs. We know how to create jobs. Congress party created jobs in agriculture, IT, space, atomic energy, auto industry, pharmaceuticals." "As an engineer, a technical expert, I am not satisfied with EVM, but I have not been able to pinpoint because we do not have EVM. If someone gives us EVM to study for one year, we`ll be able to tell you something," Pitroda said while addressing a press conference here. "You will have to understand the design, its software. Every little signal will have to be analysed. Then only you can say something. But one thing is clear that there is some problem, what is the problem we don`t know," he added. In reference to Congress party`s manifesto, Pitroda said, "People`s opinion was heard for Congress manifesto. We spent five-six months listening to people, spoke to villagers. We went from countries to countries, met domain experts, held a huge meeting in Dubai where members from 12 countries came." He added, "In total, 52 things have been listed in the manifesto. If and when we come to power, I assure you this manifesto will be implemented. It will not be a false promise. When we say something, we deliver." Pitroda also criticised the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said, "You can openly and shamelessly lie to people of India and people take that as truth. Young people have no idea of what went on in building a nation of this size and magnitude with the kind of diversity we have. We have created millions of jobs. We know how to create jobs. Congress party created jobs in agriculture, IT, space, atomic energy, auto industry, pharmaceuticals." NEW DELHI: A shoe was hurled at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao on Thursday while he was addressing a press conference at the party headquarter in Delhi. The man behind the attack has been identified as Shakti Bhargava, a surgeon by profession. As per his visiting card that was accessed after he was taken away from the press conference, he is a resident of Kanpur. He is a doctor at Bhargava hospital in Kanpur. On his Facebook page, he also refers to himself as a whistleblower. In a Facebook post on April 16, he has written a note titled '14 Suicides committed by the employees of this PSU in the last 3 years'. He posted another note on the same day titled - 'How the Whistle Blowers were treated in the last 5 years'. Four notes have been posted in this series which has been named - 'My efforts as a Whistle Blower'. Through his posts, he has repeatedly launched attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government's stand on corruption-related issues. Bhargava was immediately held after the attack and handed over to the police. It was not immediately clear why the person, flung shoe at the BJP leader. After he was rushed out of the venue, Rao continued his address and pinned the blamed on Congress for the attack. At the time of the incident, Rao was hitting out at the Congress for defaming Hindus by foisting "false cases" on Hindutva activists, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. Along with Rao, BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav was also present at the media briefing. LUCKNOW: Days after joining the Samajwadi Party, Poonam Sinha, wife of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, filed her nomination from Lucknow Lok Sabha seat on Thursday. Poonam is Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate from Lucknow. The three parties are fighting the election in an alliance in Uttar Pradesh with 37 seats for SP, 38 for BSP and 3 for RLD. Fresh into active politics, Poonam is fighting her first election against Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the constituency which is considered to be a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Lucknow: SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow parliamentary constituency, Poonam Sinha, holds a road show after filing nomination; Shatrughan Sinha & Dimple Yadav also present #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/gxXojges3d ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 If the Congress supports Poonam's candidature and does not field a candidate from the state capital, the seat will witness a direct battle between the Home Minister and Poonam. The BJP first bagged the seat in 1991 when former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee won from Lucknow. He held the seat for five consecutive terms from 1991-2009 before he stepped out of the electoral race for the 2009 election. Even after Vajpayee, the BJP retained the seat with Lalji Tandon winning in 2009 and Rajnath Singh winning in the 2014 election. In the 2014 election, Rajnath had won the seat with a massive margin of 2,72,749 votes defeating Congress candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is now a BJP minister in Uttar Pradesh government. Rajnath, who filed his nomination in Lucknow on Tuesday, reacted to Poonam entering the poll race and said: "Somebody must contest, that is the beauty of democracy. We will fight elections with full dignity." Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh are being held in all seven phases. Lucknow will go to polls in the sixth phase on May 6. Lucknow: Back from an Election Commission ban for campaigning for 48 hours, BSP chief Mayawati on Thursday lashed out at BJP and its leaders for levelling "unfounded" charges on opposition parties, including allegations that they were abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Besides levelling unfounded allegations in these elections, BJP leaders, including PM Modi, have had no control over their tongue...Like the charge that Opposition abuses them. This is most indecent and unrestrained," Mayawati said in a statement issued here in Hindi. At the same time, she cautioned, opposition leaders too should not cross the line of decency and not give BJP an excuse to exploit public sentiment to hide its weaknesses. Mayawati was among four leaders, including BJP's Yogi Adityanath, who were banned by EC for varying periods for violating the moral code of conduct during election campaign. Mayawati's 48-hour ban has ended while Adityanath has one more day left before his 72-hour ban ends. Returning to the poll campaign, she has also accused the UP chief minister of "blatantly" violating the ban imposed on him, after Adityanath tried to canvass by visiting temples. She also accused the EC of ignoring the violations. As the second phase of polling was underway on eight seats in UP, the BSP chief urged electors to elect a government which works "dedicatedly" to bring "achhe din". She said the Election Commission has yet to establish it was acting independently and impartially and has not bowed its head before the central government. Mayawati said people's confidence will be restored only when the commission acts firmly and also against the ruling party. Tension was reported in the first few hours of voting in North Dinajpur's Chopra, which falls under Darjeeling constituency in West Bengal. Locals alleged that bike-borne youths prevented them from casting their votes. The women of the village also claimed that they were attacked by these bike-borne miscreants. Locals have alleged that a lack of security forces led to the situation of unrest near the polling booth. "Since morning, we tried to go to the polling booth to cast our votes. Each time we were prevented from casting our votes. These miscreants attacked the women of the village. They beat us up so that we get afraid and go back home without casting our votes. The booth has been manned by the state police officials but there are no central forces. Had they been deployed there, we could have been able to cast our vote," said an agitating local. WB: Security personnel lob tear gas shells and lathi charge locals as they block NH-34 in protest after unknown miscreants allegedly prevented them from casting their votes at Digirpar polling booth in Chopra, in Islampur subdivision of North Dinajpur. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/XukT8B8Aol ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 The tension increased after the agitating locals blocked the National Highway 31. Police had to resort to lathicharge and fire tear gas shells to disperse the agitating locals. A contingent of state police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) has been deployed at the spot to prevent any further agitation or a road blockade. Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) office has sought a report from the district magistrate of North Dinajpur in connection with the incident. Google on Thursday yet again marked the ongoing Lok Sabha election in India with a doodle that featured an inked finger. Google had used a similar doodle in the first phase of voting on April 11. The doodle's reach is only in India. Voting on Thursday is being held in 95 constituencies across 11 states and 1 union territory. By clicking on the doodle, users are redirected to a page explaining the process of how voting takes place. It also gives details about how voters can find out how to take part in the voting process. Through the page, voters can also find information on polling booths, contesting candidates, election dates and timings, identity cards and Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). Voting for the 543 Lok Sabha seats is being held in seven phases: April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting would take place on May 23. Other details given by Google included important information like: *First polling official will check your name on the voter list and check your ID proof *Second polling official will ink your finger, give you a slip and take your signature on a register (Form 17A) *You will have to deposit the slip at the third polling official and show your inked finger and then proceed to the polling booth *Record your vote by pressing the ballot button opposite the symbol of the candidate of your choice on the EVM; You will hear a beep sound *Check the slip that appears in the transparent window of the VVPAT machine. The slip with the Candidate serial No., Name and Symbol shall be visible for 7 seconds before it drops in the sealed VVPAT box *You can press NOTA, None of the Above, if you don`t like any candidate; it`s the last button on the EVM At least 14 passengers were on Thursday offloaded from a bus and shot dead on the spot by terrorists on the Makran coastal highway at Ormara in Balochistan. Most of those killed belong were labourers or workers and belonged to Punjab. After stopping the bus, the terrorists checked the ID cards of the passengers on the basis of which they separated the victims and then shot them. Three passengers on the ill-fated bus managed to escape. Reports say that there were around 15-20 unidentified gunman in camouflage uniform who stopped at least five to six buses. These buses were reportedly travelling between Karachi and Gwadar. The motive behind the killings is yet to be ascertained. An investigation into the incident has been launched. The identity of the victims is yet to be known. Asad Umar had been fighting fire for several months now even as Pakistan's economy went from bad to worse to absolute tatters. In recent weeks, the country's finance minister had been targeted by opposition parties for being ineffective in tackling the spiralling state of the economy and on Thursday, Umar resigned. While Umar hinted that his decision to step down as finance minister of the country had nothing to do with the Pakistani economy's current state, not many are buying his explanation. ""As part of a cabinet reshuffle, prime minister desired that I take the energy minister portfolio instead of finance," he tweeted. "However, I have obtained his consent to not take any cabinet position." Dawn reported that while Umar has tendered his resignation, there is no clarity yet on whether it has been accepted. The Imran Khan government is finding the going tough since it was voted to power in August of last year. Umar, in particular, has been accused of not being able to help resurrect the economy at a time when the local currency has fallen dramatically against the US dollar. 1 US dollar can bring in 141 Pakistani rupees - as on April 18. On August 18, when Imran Khan took oath as the PM, 1 USD was equal to 123 PNR which was still much worse than around 115 PNR just months earlier. Umar had previously said that judging the health of the economy solely based on how the Pakistani currency was performing was not fair. He had also advised local media channels which were critical of the economic policies of the Imran government that they need to bring in recognised economists for panel discussions. Now, critics of Umar and the PTI government are saying that the finance minister had no choice but to resign because of his inabilities. SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of a new tactical guided weapon, state media said on Thursday, the North`s first public weapons test since a second summit with the United States ended without agreement in February. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not describe exactly what weapon was tested on Wednesday, including whether it was a missile or another type of weapon. "Tactical" implies a short-range weapon rather than the long-range ballistic missiles that have been seen as a threat to the United States. The weapon has a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" and "a powerful warhead", KCNA said. Kim said "the completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power" of the North Korean army, according to KCNA. A second summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February failed to make any progress towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Sanctions against the North over its nuclear and missiles programmes remain in place. Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University`s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the description that the test was "conducted in various modes of firing at different targets" likely meant that it could be launched from the ground, sea and air. "It`s highly likely that it`s a short-range cruise missile that can be transformed into a surface, an air-to-surface, an air-to-ship, a ship-to-ship, as well as a surface-to-surface cruise missile," Kim Dong-yub said. Kim Jong Un also oversaw the test of an unidentified tactical weapon in November that could protect North Korea like a "steel wall", according to state media. It was not clear whether it was the same weapon tested this week. Experts said in November it was part of Kim`s initiative to shift the mainstay of the North`s conventional military power from a nearly 1.3 million-strong army to high-tech weapons. Kim Jong Un said in April 2018 North Korea would stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) because Pyongyang`s nuclear capabilities had been "verified". `USEFUL REMINDER` "This does serve as a useful reminder of one critical fact: Chairman Kim Jong Un never promised to stop testing all weapons in his military arsenal, just nuclear weapons and ICBMs that have the potential to hit the US homeland," said Harry Kazianis of the Washington-based Centre for the National Interest. A US official said that, according initial information, US Northern Command and Strategic Command did not detect a missile launch from North Korea. Further checks were underway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A White House official said: "We are aware of the report and have no further comment." Spokesman Army Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn said the Pentagon was also aware of the report. There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the US State Department. Kim Jong Un`s visit to the tactical weapon testing site came after he visited the North Korean Air and Anti-aircraft Force on Tuesday, according to KCNA, where he inspected a flight drill and expressed "great satisfaction" at their combat readiness. Kyungnam University`s Kim Dong-yub said the latest test appeared to be a message to the United States that North Korea would not bow to sanctions and go its own way. "That`s part of it, but it`s also an internal message to the North Korean people and to the military" to instil trust in their own security by reinforcing conventional weapons, Kim Dong-yub said. Satellite images from last week showed movement at Yongbyon, North Korea`s main nuclear site, that could be associated with the reprocessing of radioactive material into bomb fuel, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in the United States said on Tuesday. US national security adviser John Bolton said in a Bloomberg News interview on Wednesday the United States needed to see "a real indication from North Korea that they`ve made the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons" before a third summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un. Washington: Special Counsel Robert Mueller`s report on his inquiry into Russia`s role in the 2016 US election detailed a series of actions by President Donald Trump to impede the probe, raising questions about whether he committed the crime of obstruction of justice. The release on Thursday of the 448-page report that disclosed the findings of a 22-month investigation represented a watershed moment in Trump`s tumultuous presidency. Mueller did not make a conclusion on whether Trump, whose presidency has been overshadowed by the Russia investigation, had committed obstruction of justice but did not exonerate him either. The report provided fresh details of how the Republican president tried to force Mueller`s ouster, directed members of his administration to publicly vouch for his innocence and dangled a pardon to a former aide to try to prevent him from cooperating with the special counsel. It also concluded, as Barr announced last month, that Trump and his campaign had not engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia during the election. Barr in March concluded that Trump had not broken the law, but told a news conference on Thursday that Mueller had detailed "10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense." Trump appeared to be in a celebratory mood, saying at a White House event with wounded US troops that he was "having a good day" following the report`s release, adding, "It`s called no collusion, no obstruction." The report`s disclosure, with portions blacked out by Barr to protect some sensitive information, is certain to launch a new political fight in Congress and on the 2020 presidential campaign trail, as Trump seeks re-election in a deeply divided country. Trump has long described Mueller`s inquiry as a "witch hunt." The report stated that when Jeff Sessions, Barr`s predecessor as attorney general, told Trump in May 2017 that a special counsel was being appointed by the Justice Department to look into allegations that the Republican`s campaign colluded with Russia, Trump slumped back in his chair and said, "Oh my god. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I`m f**ed." Some Democrats in the House of Representatives have spoken of launching impeachment proceedings against Trump in Congress but top Democrats have been notably cautious. Any such effort would be unlikely to be successful because Trump fellow Republicans controls the Senate, which would decide the president`s fate. RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN The inquiry laid bare what the special counsel and US intelligence agencies have described as a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, denigrate 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump, the Kremlin`s preferred candidate. Russia has denied election interference. In analyzing whether Trump obstructed justice, Mueller looked at a series of actions by Trump, including his attempts to remove Mueller and limit the scope of his probe and efforts to prevent the public from knowing about a June, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York between senior campaign officials and Russians. In June 2017, Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to tell the then-acting attorney general that Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed, the report said. It also said there was "substantial evidence" that Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017 due to his "unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation." Mueller cited "some evidence" suggesting Trump knew about former national security adviser Michael Flynn`s controversial calls with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office, but evidence was "inconclusive" and could not be used to establish intent to obstruct. The report said Trump directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to ask former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to say the Russia investigation was "very unfair." Before the report`s release, Barr gave a news conference at the Justice Department as he sought to shape the narrative on the document`s findings. One of a handful of people to have seen the report before its release, Barr emphasized, as he had said last month, that Mueller did not conclude there was collusion between Trump`s campaign and Moscow. "President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates," Barr said. Barr seemed to offer cover for Trump`s actions by saying the report acknowledges that "there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks." Mueller`s team did not issue a subpoena to force Trump to give an interview to the special counsel because it would have created a "substantial delay" at a late stage in the investigation, the report said. It said Mueller accepted the longstanding Justice Department view that a sitting president cannot be indicted on criminal charges, while still recognizing that a president can be criminally investigated. The report also cited Mueller`s repeated efforts to convince Sessions to resume oversight of the probe after he had recused himself because of his own prior contacts with Russia`s ambassador to the United States. Mueller said evidence he collected indicates that Trump intended to encourage his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, not to cooperate with the investigation and that the evidence supports the idea that Trump wanted Manafort to believe that he could receive a presidential pardon. The report said the special counsel`s team determined there was a "reasonable argument" that the president`s son, Donald Trump Jr., violated campaign finance laws, but did not believe they could obtain a conviction. US Stock Markets Setting Up For Increased Volatility The US stock markets took a nosedive early in the regular trading session after the QQQ briefly advanced to new All-Time Highs this morning. With the QQQ and other symbols nearing fresh new highs, traders should expect volatility to increase as trading systems and traders to look for any signs of a top to set up. As we start to cross into new high territory, some fear starts to come back into the markets and volatility is sure to increase. The Russell 2000 took a pretty big hit today as you can see from the chart below. This move lower is still well within our proprietary Fibonacci modeling systems bullish parameters and weve highlighted a Support Zone for our followers to understand where real price support is located. Any downside move below $152 would cause us to reconsider our bullish trend position, but right now this is nothing more than price rotation. Wait it out and look for opportunities when it bottoms. The YM (Dow Futures) Daily chart, below, highlights just how fractured the US stock market really is today. While the Russell 2000 is rotating lower quite hard, the DOW futures are relatively FLAT and still trading near the recent highs. This fracturing of the major indexes suggests money may be moving away from sectors/symbols that traders may interpret as risky at the moment and into symbols that are more stable. For example, we might find that Financials and the Russell 2000 symbols may present a relatively high level of fear that a downside rotation in these sectors may be bigger and more dramatic than in the NQ, ES or YM. Still, our advice is to watch this move and wait it out a bit. Our Support Zone for the YM is clearly highlighted with the Green Box on the chart. Lastly, we want to highlight the Transportation Index for all of our followers to understand what is going on behind the scenes today. The Transportation Index is a fairly strong measure of future economic activity and output. It typically leads the US stock market by at least 20~30 days. The price advance, today, in the Transports would indicate that many traders believe the US economy is still improving and will still continue to perform well. If the Transports break to new highs, then we should see more continued upside price levels in many of the US stock market sectors. Again, the markets are a bit fractured today with price action. And that leads us to believe we could see a spike in the VIX and volatility over the next few days/weeks while this rotation plays out. Eventually, we believe a continued upside price leg will resume and we want to urge traders to play it safe for right now. Follow our Support Zones as a key indicator for when the price has fallen into a potentially risky level below support. If this happens, then we would begin to become concerned that price may be initiating a bigger move to the downside. Get my daily analysis and swing trade alerts at my Wealth Trading Newsletter and become a technical trader today! Chris Vermeulen www.TheTechnicalTraders.com Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better. His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility. He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect. Chris Vermeulen Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. (Photo/Xinhua) BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- China will promote aerospace development, strengthen international cooperation and contribute Chinese wisdom, plans and strength in man's peaceful utilization of outer space, said an official with China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Wednesday. Zhao Jian, deputy director of the Department of System Engineering of CNSA, said at a press conference that "Forum on Space Solutions: Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals" will be held in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, from April 24 to 27. The forum, co-organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and CNSA, aims to bring together space application users and solution providers to forge new partnerships, enhance international space cooperation and contribute to the attainment of the sustainable development goals, according to Zhao. Since 2016, China has set April 24 as the country's Space Day to mark the launch of its first satellite into space on April 24, 1970. About 200 space officials, engineers and scientists from nearly 50 countries will participate in activities for Space Day in China this year. During the same period, the CNSA and the European Space Agency will jointly organize a forum on Earth observation while a Sino-Russian Moon observation forum will also be held. President Xi Jinping addresses a symposium on poverty alleviation problems on April 16 in Chongqing. [Photo/Xinhua] President emphasizes meeting people's basic needs during his Chongqing visit President Xi Jinping urged all-out efforts to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty in China within two years in his three-day inspection tour of Chongqing, which ended on Wednesday. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presided over a meeting on Tuesday on guaranteeing the people's basic needs in food and clothing as well as access to education, medical care and safe housing. Xi said food and clothing have been mostly guaranteed, while there remain some difficulties in access to education, medical care and safe housing. Adding that poverty reduction work has entered a decisive stage, Xi instructed all departments to focus on the prominent problems of poverty alleviation and to make more contributions to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. According to China's plan, all of the country's rural impoverished people will be lifted out of poverty by 2020. While talking with students and teachers on Monday at a primary school in Zhongyi, a township in the Shizhu Tujia autonomous county, Xi said compulsory education is an important part of poverty reduction. Children in impoverished mountainous regions must be guaranteed access to education, and they should have a happy childhood, Xi said. He encouraged teachers to settle down in such regions, dedicate themselves to education in rural areas and contribute to poverty reduction. At the home of poverty-stricken villager Tan Dengzhou, Xi asked about the life and health conditions of Tan and his wife, both of whom have had difficulties making a living due to injury and chronic diseases. Xi said local authorities must pay great attention to people who are still poor and those who become poor due to illness. Authorities should improve measures on pensions, healthcare and medical alleviation to ensure people can escape poverty, Xi said. Upon learning that Party member Ma Peiqing had helped villagers earn money through planting traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, Xi said he was relieved to see the people lead a better life. Xi told villagers that poverty reduction is his biggest concern and that his tour is to learn about remaining problems in poverty reduction. Rural people should not be left behind while pursuing a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Xi said. The poor people's basic needs must be guaranteed along with the country's development, he said at Tuesday's meeting, adding that the poverty alleviation measures must reach every single person. After getting out of poverty, rural people should still receive a lot of attention from the local government to make sure they stay out of poverty, Xi said, which he called important work. Poverty reduction measures, such as building industries and offering training, should be used to ensure that people in impoverished areas have jobs, he said. Party committee secretaries and heads in poverty-stricken counties should remain steadfast in their posts to guarantee that poverty alleviation policies are stable and sustainable, Xi said. Xi said that officials should practice clean governance and those found to cheat in poverty reduction work should be held accountable. On Wednesday morning, Xi was briefed by the Party committee and municipal government of Chongqing. He encouraged local authorities to play a model role in jointly building the Belt and Road and promoting the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The CPC Central Committee's decision to develop the western region is very significant, Xi said. He added that Chongqing should give manufacturing a more prominent place and take a leading role in boosting opening-up in the country's western areas. Xi also highlighted the importance of the Party's political building, saying strong measures to fight corruption must be maintained. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. The first light rail train made in China for export to Israel rolled off the production line of the CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles plant in Changchun on Tuesday. The low-floor train made by CRRC Changchun for the Tel Aviv light rail. [Photo: Xinhua] Built for the Tel Aviv Red Line Light Rail Project, it is the first low-floor train made in China for export to a developed country. Inside the low-floor train made by CRRC Changchun for the Tel Aviv light rail. [Photo: Xinhua] CRRC Changchun signed a contract with Tel Aviv in December 2015 to deliver 90 trains and provide maintenance services for 16 years, according to Wang Run, the chairman of the company's board. The company is scheduled to deliver all of the vehicles by the end of 2021. Lightweight materials including carbon fiber, aluminium composite board, and paper honeycomb were used in the construction of the train in order to keep the weight down and improve its efficiency. Mount Sinai researchers discover that diabetes drug may reverse heart failure Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated that the recently developed antidiabetic drug empagliflozin can treat and reverse the progression of heart failure in non-diabetic animal models. Their study also shows that this drug can make the heart produce more energy and function more efficiently. The results were published in the April 23 issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology. "This drug could be a promising treatment for heart failure in both non-diabetic and diabetic patients," said lead author Juan Badimon, MD, Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Atherothrombosis Research Unit at the Cardiovascular Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Our research can lead to a potential application in humans, save lives, and improve quality of life." Empagliflozin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2014. It limits renal sugar resorption and is the first drug in the history of type 2 diabetes proven to prolong survival. While diabetes patients are typically at higher risk of heart failure, past studies have suggested that those who take empagliflozin don't commonly develop heart failure. Those observations led a team of researchers to question if the drug contains a mechanism, independent of anti-diabetic activity that is linked to heart failure prevention, and whether it could have the same impact on non-diabetics. Investigators from the Atherothrombosis Research Unit tested the hypothesis by inducing heart failure in 14 non-diabetic pigs. For two months, they treated half of the animals with empagliflozin and the other group with a placebo. The team evaluated the pigs with cardiac magnetic resonance, 3D-echocardiography, and invasive catheterization at three different points in the study (before inducing, one day after inducing, and at the two-month mark). At two months, all animals in the group treated with empagliflozin experienced improved heart function. Specifically, those pigs had less water accumulation in the lungs (less pulmonary congestion, which is responsible for causing shortness of breath) and lower levels of biomarkers of heart failure. Importantly, the left ventricles had stronger contractions (enhanced systolic function), got smaller (less dilated), and were less thick (less hypertrophy), and the heart was a normal shape (less architectural remodeling). The researchers also found that the drug addressed heart failure by improving cardiac metabolism. The hearts of pigs on the medication were consuming more fatty acids and ketone bodies (three related compounds--acetone, acetoacetic acid, and beta-hydroxybutyric acid--produced during the metabolism of fats) and less glucose, as contrasted with heart failure patients (diabetic and non-diabetic), whose hearts consume more glucose and almost no fatty acids and produces less energy. This boost in metabolism helped the hearts produce more energy and function more strongly and efficiently. "This study confirmed our hypothesis that empagliflozin is an incredibly effective treatment for heart failure and not only an antidiabetic drug. Moreover, this study demonstrated that empagliflozin is useful for heart failure independently of a patient's diabetic status. Importantly, empagliflozin switches cardiac metabolism toward fatty acid and ketone body consumption, thus allowing the production of more energy in the heart," explained co-lead author Carlos Santos-Gallego, MD, postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Empagliflozin may be a potentially effective treatment for heart failure patients. This is extremely important because heart failure is a disease with a mortality above 50 percent at 5 years. This study offers a new therapeutic strategy in heart failure, something badly needed given that there have not been new effective drugs for heart failure since the 1990s." The authors are currently studying whether empagliflozin is an effective heart failure treatment in non-diabetic human patients in the EMPATROPISM clinical trial. ### Mount Sinai Heart is one of the nation's top 10 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in six other specialties in the 2018-2019 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology and 44th for Ear, Nose, and Throat. Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, Mount Sinai West, and South Nassau Communities Hospital are ranked regionally. About the Mount Sinai Health System The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system encompassing (with the addition of South Nassau Communities Hospital) eight hospital campuses, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in six other specialties in the 2018-2019 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology and 44th for Ear, Nose, and Throat. Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, Mount Sinai West, and South Nassau Communities Hospital are ranked regionally. For more information, visit http://www. mountsinai. org/ , or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for greater efforts to win the battle against poverty on time and realize the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects as scheduled. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the statement during an inspection tour to southwest China's Chongqing Municipality from Monday to Wednesday. During the inspection, Xi also presided over and delivered a speech at a symposium to address the problems concerning the basic living needs of rural poor populations and their access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. VISITS TO THE POOR After arriving in Chongqing, the president took an over-three-hour trip, by train and then by road, to a mountainous village in Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County on Monday. When visiting a primary school there, Xi promised to ensure children in poor mountainous regions go to school and have a happy childhood. Stopping by the house of Tan Dengzhou, an impoverished villager, Xi learned that Tan and his wife were unable to work due to illness and thus faced financial difficulties. People who still live under the poverty line or slip back into poverty due to illness should be the priority of poverty alleviation projects, Xi said, adding that they should receive support such as minimum-living allowances, medical insurance and medical aid. At the home of Ma Peiqing, a veteran CPC member who has shaken off poverty, Xi sat in the yard, chatting with the villagers, primary-level officials and village doctors. "Not a single person should be left behind in the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Xi said. "Socialism means development. Development must serve the common prosperity for everyone." He told the CPC members and cadres to work on the frontline in fighting poverty. POVERTY RELIEF PRIORITIES At the symposium Tuesday afternoon, Xi said that the basic requirement and key indicator for the poverty alleviation goal by 2020 are that rural poor people have no worry about food and clothing and have access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. At the crucial stage in winning the battle against poverty, heads of Party committees and governments at the provincial level should take up their responsibilities, he said. Efforts should be made to work out detailed and concrete measures, target genuinely poor households, and prevent the reoccurrence of poverty to those who had been lifted out, according to Xi. In addition to deepening the campaign against corruption and improper conduct in poverty alleviation, Xi also called for timely compensation and long-term support to families of officials who have sacrificed their lives to the cause. DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN REGION After hearing the work reports from Chongqing's Party and government officials Wednesday morning, Xi hoped that Chongqing will act as a major drive in boosting the development of China's western region in the new era, play a leading role in promoting the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and become a model in advancing green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Xi asked Chongqing to take the lead in the western region to firmly promote the reform and opening-up and meticulously prepare for and carry out the events celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China. The officials were told to address issues closely related to people's lives, such as education, employment, social security, healthcare, housing, environmental protection, and public security. They were also instructed to foster high-caliber officials that are loyal, clean and responsible, and crack down on the practice of formalities for formalities' sake and bureaucratism. It was a good chance to visit the great nation-China. I visited China in 2011 and 2013 respectively for about ten days each, which is a very short time to explore such a big nation. However, in addition to Beijing I had an opportunity to visit Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou. Due to my professional background, I visited also the Three Gorges Dam which is the world largest hydroelectric power station with 34 generators each with a capacity of 700 MW and in total 22,500 MW. In 2013 Three Gorges Dam visit was special for me because Ethiopia in 2011 has started to construct the 7th largest dam in the world called Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The visit was aimed to get skill and knowledge to utilize for the construction management and operation of GRED. GERD have 16 generators and each planned to generate a capacity of 375 MW and in total 6000MW which is about one fourth of Three Gorges hydroelectric plant. The cost of GERD is estimated $4.5 billion. The project has been planned to construct completely by financial contribution and bond purchasing of the citizens and the government budget allocation. There is no any external body that is financing this huge project. As Renaissance denotes that to reviving again, and the country chooses this name because Ethiopia was among one of the great ancient civilized nations similar to China before many years ago. Now the country is registering a rapid economic growth indicating that renaissance would be realized, which can be seen as symbol for other developing nations especially for African nations. This shows how things could be improved and achieved when government determine to intervene selectively in the market failure whenever required as China did in past several years. Here, as usual and everywhere anyone can understand how the People Republic of China allows the developing nations to share its experience similar to visiting the Three Gorges hydroelectric dam construction management and operation. The impacts of the Three Gorges hydropower electricity supply and other forms of energy infrastructure development are the results of Chinas determination to wards growth and development. Currently and fortunately, I have also got another chance to explore this great nation-China for third time due to long term study. From the previous observation and current opportunity it might be possible to explain the realty of Chinas remarkable economic growth and development as well as its significant to African nations in general and to Ethiopia in particular. Infrastructures development helps as an engine for the development of the advanced economic nations. Even if China is still on a transition and emerging economy its infrastructural development contributes a lot for industrialization progress. As to my understanding and of course others are also shearing me that within only four decades China has transformed itself from a poor centrally planned economy to a middle-income and emerging market economy. This growth and development can be observed wherever anybody visits in the country except some very remote rural areas of China. China is also currently involving on global cooperation on infrastructure development through the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI), which aims to connect the world for development and prosperity. The BRIlikely to advance infrastructure construction plans and technical standard systems, pave for advancing the construction of global corridors, and form an infrastructure network phase bay phase linking all sub-regions in Asia, Africa and Europe. This initiative is more important for the African nations including Ethiopia for their vision of economic development and integration. African-Union envisages a long-term transport vision in its agenda 2063, which is in line with the objective ofthe BRI. To mention some of the objective as reducing transport logistic costs for all modes of transport; improve and extend the connectivity of regions; promote transport infrastructure and services that are sustainable and friendly to the environment and communities. Hence, the BRIhas significance on AUs 2063 agenda and development strategy of African nations. As per China vision and action plan for the BRI it goes beyond infrastructure construction including: countries along the Belt and Road to fully coordinate their economic development; endeavor to expand investment and trade facilitation, and eliminate investment and trade obstacles for the formation of a sound business environment within the region and in all related nations; promote cultural and academic exchanges, people to people exchanges and cooperation. Africa has good potential of natural and human resources that needs to exploit and train to utilize as economic resources. During low stage of development it is obvious that most of the resource potential couldnt be utilized. Therefore, first building infrastructure to increase existing resource utilization has an impact for economic development. Second, when development bounces to the upper stage it necessities new economic growth drivers, advanced infrastructure investments are required to prime the appearance of new industries and sectors that will further increase an economy. Even though most African nations now exist at low stage of development there are some nations that are indicating the possibility of economic development including Ethiopia. If they could strictly follow proper utilization of their potential economic resources with their economic strategies and policies they can achieve economic development. In 2002, the industrial development strategy of Ethiopia was approved and its principle has been mainly emphasis on expansion of labor intensive industries, export led development, and promotion of agricultural-led industrialization. As per the government goal this industrial strategy refers to those which are primarily involved in the production of manufacturing goods. Even if the industrial strategy was put in place in the country it was very challenging to start the implementation phases. Off course, similar to other African nations Ethiopia has also some natural and human potential economic resources but there has been shortage of physical capital such as infrastructures. As it was seen from China experience at the first stages of economic zone establishment the country assessed foreign direct investment around the globe and utilized for its infrastructure development. Before ten years ago Ethiopia was also searching investors around the globe to utilize the opportunities of private sectors participation on the industrial process. Due to long term relation the Chinese government through the Ministry of Commerce and Trade of China, Eastern Industry Zone (EIZ) was successfully established in 2007. The EIZ became a positive symbol of Chinese Government support to Ethiopias Industrial Development. Inside the industrial zone there are many manufactures from China such as Huajian shoes and Lifan motors. In addition to its revenue contribution, it creates a lot of job opportunities for the local people. Ethiopias EIZ is can be taken as the prime mover of countrys ambition to establish additional new industrial parks. Hence Bole-Lemi, Kilinto, Hawassa, Mekele, Compolcha, Adama, and Jimma industrial parks are established and start operation. Other industrial and agro-processing parks are also under-constructions. Several investors from China, India, and South Korea etc. are involving in sectors such as textile, garment and shoe production. As per the agreement between the government and the investors, almost 95 percent of the products are supplied to foreign market, and thereby enhance the nations currency earning capacity. Moreover, the firms use local raw materials such as animal skin as an input for their products. Therefore, from Chinas foreign direct investment and technology transfer by establishing the first in its kind Easter Industrial Zone, Ethiopia benefited a lot. In addition to that from China and other Asian countries experience industrialization to be realized, it needs to create enabling environment by providing infrastructure for the investors such as telecommunication, road, electricity, air transport, water supply service, and railway to facilitate their logistics management during importation and exportation as well as production process. Even if the current infrastructures are not sufficient and efficient, most of the industrial parks are located along key economic corridors but needs additional infrastructures especially for export facilities. Through the Belt and Road Initiative Chinas Government has been also playing a major role for the development of Ethiopias infrastructure which have a direct influence for industrial development. Because of this intension China Government supports for the construction of Ethio-Djibouti Railway about 750km which connect to the sea port of Djibouti. Moreover, Bole international Airport Expansion which recently inaugurated, Addis Ababa-Adama Express High Way, Addis Ababa light Rail Ways, Adama I & II wind farm with total electric power generation capacity of 204MW and many other infrastructures development has been supported by Chinas government. China supports infrastructure development of Ethiopia through financial loan provision and involving on construction as well as management contract for operation on some of the infrastructures due to local skill limitation such as railway operation management until the locals could handle. This could be seen as technology spillover to Ethiopia and the supports are not only aims for Ethiopias local infrastructure development but also for regional integration Therefore, these show that China has been supporting Ethiopia before and after the BRI in the industrialization process and infrastructure development of the country. In Africa in general and in East Africa in particular there are also many infrastructure projectsimplemented by Chinese government through the BRI. For example, the 470km Nairobi-Mombasa railway line which supposed to ultimately link the land-locked Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan and Burundi to the Indian Ocean. In summary, the BRI could help nations to jointly contribute and share benefits for promoting economic globalization and building human prosperity. Each nation should work hand in hand through belt and road initiative for better connectivity between regions and nations to capture opportunities that each locations comparative advantage can offer. As China is taking a more active role on the global stage, it is an ideal position to partner with China for the developing nations to get lessons for their development. Infrastructure is always an essential part to increase nations growth potential. As the aim of the Belt and Road is believed to create markets, facilitate the flows of products, resources, and ideas active collaboration between each regions, nations and different stakeholders are should be considered as critical path. Sometimes the BRI has been seen as a treat and criticized by some developed nations. As we can see by our naked eyes in most developing nations including Ethiopia, the inadequacy of basic infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, roads, and ITC etc. are huge and this market failure should be fulfilled by different mechanisms. One option is to utilize the global initiative such as the Belt and Road which could facilitate financial resources as success solution for all parties participating in the intervention. Whatsoever or by whomever said the reality of the Belt and Road and other intervention of China in Africa is a goodwill and it is generating important economic development for the continent. To judge effect it is better to see the industrial zones and the infrastructure development supported by China in Africa in general and in Ethiopia in particular, which would speak more about the positive sign of the BRI. Therefore, the African countries engagement with China through the Belt and Road is about productivity, economic growth and development which are also in line with the AUs vision in its agenda 2063 to integrate its nations. (The author Wondimu Tekle is a PhD candidate in Peking University, China and Former State Minister of FDRE, Ministry of Water, Irrigation & Energy) Education Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu. Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu. Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events: International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu. EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu. Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets June Homecoming: Participant $18 per person; Sustainer $25 per person; Benefactor $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events: SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available for information call 610-275-1960 Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above) SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m. Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. 4 p.m. computers are available during those hours. Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m. Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863. Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376. Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com. The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes: Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020. CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313. The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events: Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m. Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m. Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m. Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30. Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m. The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301. For Kids & Families The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443. Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950. Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required. The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950. Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus. Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage. Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun. Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train. Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world! Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class. Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org. Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583. Community Events at the Ambler Y: -YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register. Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org. Health Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot. The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net. The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863. The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information. Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245. Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net. Spring Aquatic Programs UDHS Pool: -Summer is just around the corner Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required. Shallow Water Aerobics Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR. Adult Swim Instructions Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR -Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21. -Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m. -Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons. -Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates. Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994. SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com. Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org. Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs: FITNESS CLASSES Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month. Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30 9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly. SUPPORT GROUPS Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000. Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30 7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047. New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. 12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30 4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931. Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325. Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes. Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com. Librarytalk Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744 www.upperdublinlibrary.org APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS: Storytimes: Please register in the library. o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m. o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m. o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6. APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS: North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS: NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org. One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register contact info above. Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744. o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register. Meetings: Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m. Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m. Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org. For children and teens at Blue Bell: * Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian. * Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages. * Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m. * May 14 Despicable Me * June 11 Alpha and Omega * Special Events * April watch for date of spring/Easter events * April 14 at 4:30 p.m. Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children. * April 14 at 7 p.m. Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided. * April 16 at 1 p.m. Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King. * April 16 at 1:30 p.m. Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes? * April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button. * April 30 through May 3 Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults. * May sign up for Science in the Summer * June sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children * June sign up for Summer Reading, all ages For adults at Blue Bell: * Daytime Book Discussion Group fourth Tuesday, Jan April at 1:30 p.m. * April 26 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester * Night-time Book Discussion Group third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. o April 19 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester * Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked? *Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs * Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class. * Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class. * Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m. * Giant Book Sale, April 29 May 3 o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults! o Held during library hours. o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m. o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join. * Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series o May 11 at 1 p.m. Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society * Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room. * Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read. * Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome. * Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome. *Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older. * Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours * Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours * Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday! Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library. * Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian. * Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages. * For adults: * Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn. * Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net * Special Events: * April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. * April 19 at 7 p.m. Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m. * April 21 at 7 p.m. Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades. *May 2 at 6:30 p.m. Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time. *May 10 Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m. *May 12 at 1:30p.m. Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. *May 17 Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m. *June 13 at 6:30 p.m. Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time. Meetings and Lectures The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833. The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313. Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200. The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/. LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings. Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment. The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org. Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org. The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org) -Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them. The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter. For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps. Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin. Special Events The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County. The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065. Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org. The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members. Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex. The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com. The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348. The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org. Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163. The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu. The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com. The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net. Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd. The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages. 13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries. Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family. The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler. JPRN Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike. Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies. Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately. Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways. Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table. Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443. Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday Friday from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday Friday from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374 Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall: -Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store. Music and Theater The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html. Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free. The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org Religious News The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276. Reunions St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net. Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572. Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779. Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411. Support New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149. PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931. The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296. Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656. Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group every other Wednesday, 7 8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information. CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7 8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided. The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich, China is reinforcing cooperation on environment-friendly investment and green financing with financial institutions from multiple countries and regions, in an effort to curb carbon emission generated from infrastructure construction, and secure low-carbon and sustainable growth of countries along the Belt and Road. A Silk Road-themed rally for natural gas vehicles (NGVs) commenced in Rudong, east Chinas Jiangsu province on September 4, 2018. It was an event jointly organized by the largest energy companies in China, Russia and Kazakhstan as an active response to the Belt and Road Initiative. It aimed to strengthen cooperation of natural gas terminal utilization among the three countries. All the vehicles participating in the event were powered by liquefied natural gas, setting an example of clean energy consumption for the road transportation along the Silk Road Economic Belt. During the event, the capability of NGVs to cross the Eurasia transport corridor was also assessed. (Photo by Peoples Daily Online) The Global Infrastructure Hub (GIH) predicted that by 2040, most of the investment demands on infrastructure would come from developing countries, especially the Belt and Road countries. Under such circumstances, China and its partners are now devoting to establishing a network for green investors under the Belt and Road framework, and offer more support for green industries. Last November, a set of green finance guidelines for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was jointly issued by Chinas Green Finance Committee (GFC) and the City of London Corporation, and has been greeted by a number of global financial institutes since then. By mid-March this year, nearly 20 commercial banks, stock exchanges and industrial associations from the UK, France, Singapore and Pakistan have signed up to the principles. Many multilateral development banks, consulting firms and accounting firms also voiced their support. The principles incorporate low-carbon and sustainable development into the BRI, with an aim to enhance environmental and social risk management and encourage green investment under the Belt and Road framework. The Green Investment Principles include seven fundamental philosophies in corporate governance, strategy-making, project management, communication with stakeholders, and the application of green financial instruments, covering three different levels from strategy to operation and innovation. Global financial organizations and enterprises participating in the Belt and Road construction and investment are welcomed to adopt and implement these proposals on voluntary basis. Green, low-carbon and sustainable development is an inherent nature of the BRI, and to achieve this goal needs greener investments, said an official from the GFC. The construction and operation of infrastructure and buildings release massive greenhouse gases, the official noted, adding that the global pressure of climate change will be effectively alleviated if environment and sustainability are given more weight in this process. The GIH estimates that the world will need $94 trillion on infrastructure in 2040, most of which will come from developing countries, especially BRI participants. In addition, many Belt and Road countries and regions are still relying on extensive economic growth and suffering from severe air and water pollution, posing serious challenges for their sustainable development. To reverse the situation, we need not only effective measures of environmental treatment, but also green financing instruments that change the incentive mechanism of resource allocation from the start of financing and investment, and make investment decision and implementation environment-oriented, said the GFC official. Green finance will guarantee more capital flow into the green industries, as well as strict control of high-pollution and high-carbon investment, he added. To be specific, projects possible impacts on local ecosystem, environment and climate must be taken into full consideration before investment decisions are made. Effective measures must be taken to reduce pollution, control greenhouse gas emission and protect biodiversity. In addition, environmental risk analysis and green finance tools, such as green credit and loan, green bonds and insurance, should be given full play to facilitate green development, prevent the potential risks of environmental and climate factors, and improve return on investment. China will stay open and give full play to its role as an international finance center, and attract more international capital to join the Belt and Road construction in a green and sustainable manner. The initiators of the Green Investment Principles will establish a secretariat that offers services for the signatories, including a base for green projects under the Belt and Road framework, a carbon emission calculator for development and investment projects, and a knowledge sharing platform. Ma Jun, director of the GFC said that more financial institutes and enterprises are welcomed to support and sign the principles. A network for green investors will be set up by the secretariat to bolster their communication, improve risk control capability of member organizations, and create cooperation opportunities of green investment for member institutions, Ma vowed. Despite the presence of a big economic report like Retail Sales (which came out much higher than expected) or the unique event risk presented by the Barr report, the defining moment of the trading day will turn out to be the 3:30am release of just-slightly-weaker manufacturing data in Germany. Case in point: As seen in the chart, the 8:30am Retail Sales data pushed back on the 3:30am rally, but not enough to break into higher yields. Since then, European bonds have continued to slump and US bonds have continued following. Why do we care so much about a piddly little manufacturing headline in Germany? Keep in mind that, in terms of the domestic economy, it's hard to make a case for any imminent recession or significant contraction in economic growth. For such conclusions, we must turn to Europe and China--which is exactly what the Fed did on March 20th when it released a very bond friendly announcement. As such, the focus on European and Chinese economic data has been much higher than normal. Over the past 5 business days, Chinese economic resilience pushed yields higher. Now today, European economic missteps are pushing back in the other direction. In the bigger picture, any additional resilience will make a case for a bounce at 2.62% yesterday, which is both an important technical level and also the current quarterly moving average. Breaking below 2.55% (and holding it) would be a more impressive and more meaningful victory for bond bulls. All that having been said, I would hesitate to count any such victories if they look like they're happening today considering we're heading into a 3 day weekend and may well see a different trading landscape on the other side of the weekend. The China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved $7.5 billion in loans to support infrastructure projects in 13 countries of six regions, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia and Africa, driving almost $40 billion of capital into infrastructure projects over the past three years since its opening on Jan. 16, 2016. Photo taken on Dec. 21, 2015 shows the sign of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Li Xin) To date, the new-type multilateral development bank, with a mission to promote infrastructure connectivity, has expanded its membership from 57 founders to 93 approved members. In the past three years, the AIIB demonstrated internationalism, normative operation and high standards in its governance structure, policy standards and operation mode, winning wide recognition in the international society. It received the top-level rating by three major credit rating agencies in the world, and assigned a zero-risk weighting by the Basle Committee on Bank Supervision (BCBS), a body that serves as an influential arbiter for the best standards in financial regulation worldwide. As an important platform that promotes the building of a community of shared future for mankind, the AIIB will continue to inject new vitality to regional and common development of the world. In December 2018, the AIIB approved a loan of $400 million for a water supply program in Andhra Pradesh, India, aiming to provide safe drinking water through piped water supply to 3.3 million people in the region, where severe water pollution and poor water purifying equipment affected peoples health. The AIIB has approved nine loan projects in India including the water supply program, totaling over $2 billion. Most of these loans were used to improve the transportation, electricity supply, water supply and other infrastructure-related areas, according to the AIIB. India is the largest borrower of the AIIB, and the loans have improved the infrastructure in the country, said Jagannath Panda, a researcher from Indias Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). He told Peoples Daily that the Mumbai metro line 4, a project that received AIIB funding, will reduce 35-percent amount of traffic in downtown, thus greatly improving the citys traffic. Bangladesh is another country that suffers from outdated infrastructure, especially power shortages. The first loan granted by the AIIB to Bangladesh was aimed to improve power supply for the country - a $60-million capital that went to a greenfield 220-megawatt combined cycle power plant in Bhola island in the Barisal district of Bangladesh. Upon completion, the project will increase power generation by around 1,300 megawatt hours annually. The AIIB-funded power upgrade project will increase power supply and improve local industrial development and peoples livelihood in Bangladesh, where the severe power shortage is curbing the economic growth and the progress of poverty reduction, said Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI). Among the AIIB-financed projects in Indonesia, the National Slum Upgrading Project had the most remarkable achievements, improving the livelihood for tens of millions of impoverished residents. The project was officially launched by the Indonesian government in April 2016, aiming to improve the living conditions in targeted slums via upgrading urban infrastructure such as water supply, power supply and roads. Two months later, the AIIB, forming a team with the World Bank, announced $433 million of financing for the project. Half of the capital was contributed by the China-sponsored organization. There are over 29 million Indonesians living in slums, according to the estimate of George Soraya from the World Bank who is in charge of the project. More than 9.7 million impoverished people across the country will directly benefit from the slum upgrading project, and millions of other residents in Indonesia will also share the benefits. AIIBs first loan project to the Philippines aims to improve flood management in selected areas of Metro Manila. The aging drainage system in the Philippine capital was built in the 1970s, and there always are traffic paralysis and casualties during the typhoon season between June and October each year when floods hit the city frequently. According to the plan of the AIIB, the project will upgrade 36 pumping stations and construct 20 new ones, rebuild urban waterways, and repair garbage treatment facilities and drainage pipelines. It will also house the relocated people. AIIB documents show that the project will cover 2,900 hectares, benefiting about 970,000 people from 210,000 households. With AIIBs loans, Tajikistan in Central Asia has boosted key projects including a city roads and flyovers project in its capital Duschanbe, the Dushanbe-Uzbekistan Border Road Improvement Project and the Nurek Hydropower Rehabilitation Project. These projects have directly changed the lives of local people and facilitated national development, said Sayfullo Safarov, first deputy director of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan. In recent years, Tajikistan has significantly improved its infrastructure by making use of AIIBs loans. The AIIB has played an important role in Asias development, Safarov said, adding that the AIIB's projects improving the poor infrastructure are conducive to stimulating the local development vitality. Berlin Reporter Welding class prepares students for future careers by Kyle Lurvey Berlin High School welding students pose for a photo with their teacher, Dennis Carrier. (Photo by Kyleh Lurvey) (click for larger version) BERLIN Dennis Carrier has been teaching Welding Technology for the last 13 years at the Regional Career & Technical Center at Berlin High School. Under his leadership, this two-year program has produced many accomplished trades workers. Carrier credits the quality of his students' work to the small class size which allows for one-on-one attention, keeping himself informed of the current industry needs and providing the students to obtain high standards so they may be competitive for the state competition with SkillsUSA. Carrier said, "Towards the end of the year, like right now, I start getting emails from construction people, and they say, 'Hey, send them my way!'" At the competitions, Carrier is often handed business cards, opening their door for graduating students. None of the nine Career & Technical Education courses are required at the high school. Students looking to enter the Welding Technology program are chosen by lottery to fill the fourteen seats. There are ten seats held for Berlin High School students and four for Gorham High School students. "Every year my class fills up. I can only keep fourteen and I've always had more than enough that sign up. So, some don't get in," Carrier added, "Every year, I get a waiting list, one year it was eighteen kids." He values the small class size, saying if it were larger, "They wouldn't get what they get. They get one-on-one, they have their own station, they don't have to wait in line to use a machine; they've got their own machine. You get better success out of the kids." In May, the students receive American Welding Society Certification and an OSHA 10 card upon graduation. A Certified Welding Instructor comes into the class once each year to oversee the students work and guide them as to what is needed for their AWS Structural Unlimited certificate. Another way Carrier makes sure his students are performing at current industry levels, is by inviting his advisory committee into the classroom. The Industry Partners discuss curriculum and new trainings. Carrier discovered that SkillsUSA held competitions in New Hampshire during his first year of teaching, and said he jumped onboard. In the thirteen years that he has been bringing students to the competition, they have won medals eleven times. Five times, including the last two years, they've swept the competition, taking home the gold, silver and bronze. This year's sweep was made by gold medalist Sawyer Sanchagrin (BHS), silver medalist Declan Blair (GHS) and bronze medalist Jeffrey Harrington (GHS). From his class of fourteen students, Carrier decides who will go to the Manchester Community College to compete in the SkillsUSA welding competition for the state title. The students are chosen by the highest three scores of two in-house competitions put together by Carrier and some of his Alumni. The Alumni have included former students working at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, including one former gold medalist who is a nuclear pipe welder. Ten of his former students are currently working at Bath Iron Works in Brunswick, Maine. Former students also work for Cianbro Construction, Milan Lumber Company and Cross Machine. A "Wall of Fame" behind his desk is where Carrier hangs newspaper articles celebrating accomplishments of his past and present students. This year's state gold medalist, Sanchagrin, is raising money right now to go with Carrier to compete in the SkillsUSA National Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. He will compete against fifty two of the best high school welders in the country, some of which have come from four and six-year welding programs. Out of the eleven years his students have made it to Nationals, they've finished in the top-ten seven times. "Every CTE program you can think of is out there competing. It's pretty amazing," Carrier said about the SkillsUSA National Conference, where he has met Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs." "The whole idea is career-readiness," Carrier said regarding the entirety of the programs and resources he provides to his students. He believes that each student in his class learns differently and knows that they all have different plans for their careers. He encourages them to follow their own path and to keep this welding experience "in their back pocket." Josh Poulin is a senior who plans to enter the barbering trade after high school, and noted that this class has taught him good work ethic that he'll take with him. Senior Connor Brown, said, "Ever since I've been here it's taught me a lot of things about work ethic. Mr. Carrier's taught me a lot about just life in general, even outside of welding. Just good things that have to do with no matter what you're going to do when you graduate high school." Sanchagrin explains how he began his welding journey: "My brother took this program, and as a little brother you always look up to your older brother, so I wanted to take it. I tried out the weld tech and all the trade programs that had the nine-week course and I knew welding was the thing I wanted to do. I didn't get in at first. I came into this program nine weeks late, and Mr. Carrier put in the extra effort to catch me up to speed with all these guys, which was really awesome and I appreciated that a lot. Now I have a part-time job welding at Milan Lumber and after high school I'll have a full time job there." Sanchagrin is also going to White Mountains Community College in the fall for the Industrial Mechanic Millwright program. By winning the gold medal at the SkillsUSA state competition, Sawyer received a $5,000 scholarship to use at one of New Hampshire's community colleges. Silver medalist, Declan Blair, is interning at Capone Iron and was offered a full-time job there after graduation. Senior Sam Styles wants our readers to know, "I don't think people realize what a good career any type of trade is. They can get looked down on, like you're not good enough to go to college, all you can do is this. That's not true. Some people are meant to go to college, and some people are meant to do this. I think our community, coming from an industrial town where we support trades pretty well, but I think people need to realize it's a good thing to get into. You shouldn't be disappointed if someone you know goes into it, it's something to be proud of. They're putting in work to make an honest living, and keep places running, really. I think if I could tell them anything just keep supporting trades." Carrier has brought 48 years of industrial experience to the program, as well as resources and challenges for students. "My career started right after high school, age 18, and I've been in it ever since. I worked 26 years in the pulp mill and when it shut down for bankruptcy I got a call right off. I mean, you build yourself a good reputation, people are going to want you. I never collected [unemployment] once. I started working at a local fab shop, Cross Machines on Glen Avenue where I worked there for six years and then this job was posted in the paper. My wife, if it wasn't for my wife I wouldn't be here today because she's the one that encouraged me to apply," he said. Carrier plans to make this coming school year his last year of teaching. "To the community, I would say, I'm very proud of what I do and my achievements throughout the years being the instructor here at the Berlin High School. I take my program very seriously. I'm very passionate about my program and very lucky to have great students, because we have a great rapport, great relationships with the students. Respect goes both ways. When it comes time to retire it's going to be a tough day," he said. BERLIN Dennis Carrier has been teaching Welding Technology for the last 13 years at the Regional Career & Technical Center at Berlin High School. Under his leadership, this two-year program has produced many accomplished trades workers.Carrier credits the quality of his students' work to the small class size which allows for one-on-one attention, keeping himself informed of the current industry needs and providing the students to obtain high standards so they may be competitive for the state competition with SkillsUSA.Carrier said, "Towards the end of the year, like right now, I start getting emails from construction people, and they say, 'Hey, send them my way!'"At the competitions, Carrier is often handed business cards, opening their door for graduating students.None of the nine Career & Technical Education courses are required at the high school. Students looking to enter the Welding Technology program are chosen by lottery to fill the fourteen seats. There are ten seats held for Berlin High School students and four for Gorham High School students."Every year my class fills up. I can only keep fourteen and I've always had more than enough that sign up. So, some don't get in," Carrier added, "Every year, I get a waiting list, one year it was eighteen kids."He values the small class size, saying if it were larger, "They wouldn't get what they get. They get one-on-one, they have their own station, they don't have to wait in line to use a machine; they've got their own machine. You get better success out of the kids."In May, the students receive American Welding Society Certification and an OSHA 10 card upon graduation. A Certified Welding Instructor comes into the class once each year to oversee the students work and guide them as to what is needed for their AWS Structural Unlimited certificate. Another way Carrier makes sure his students are performing at current industry levels, is by inviting his advisory committee into the classroom. The Industry Partners discuss curriculum and new trainings.Carrier discovered that SkillsUSA held competitions in New Hampshire during his first year of teaching, and said he jumped onboard. In the thirteen years that he has been bringing students to the competition, they have won medals eleven times. Five times, including the last two years, they've swept the competition, taking home the gold, silver and bronze. This year's sweep was made by gold medalist Sawyer Sanchagrin (BHS), silver medalist Declan Blair (GHS) and bronze medalist Jeffrey Harrington (GHS).From his class of fourteen students, Carrier decides who will go to the Manchester Community College to compete in the SkillsUSA welding competition for the state title. The students are chosen by the highest three scores of two in-house competitions put together by Carrier and some of his Alumni. The Alumni have included former students working at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, including one former gold medalist who is a nuclear pipe welder. Ten of his former students are currently working at Bath Iron Works in Brunswick, Maine. Former students also work for Cianbro Construction, Milan Lumber Company and Cross Machine. A "Wall of Fame" behind his desk is where Carrier hangs newspaper articles celebrating accomplishments of his past and present students.This year's state gold medalist, Sanchagrin, is raising money right now to go with Carrier to compete in the SkillsUSA National Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. He will compete against fifty two of the best high school welders in the country, some of which have come from four and six-year welding programs. Out of the eleven years his students have made it to Nationals, they've finished in the top-ten seven times."Every CTE program you can think of is out there competing. It's pretty amazing," Carrier said about the SkillsUSA National Conference, where he has met Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs.""The whole idea is career-readiness," Carrier said regarding the entirety of the programs and resources he provides to his students.He believes that each student in his class learns differently and knows that they all have different plans for their careers. He encourages them to follow their own path and to keep this welding experience "in their back pocket." Josh Poulin is a senior who plans to enter the barbering trade after high school, and noted that this class has taught him good work ethic that he'll take with him.Senior Connor Brown, said, "Ever since I've been here it's taught me a lot of things about work ethic. Mr. Carrier's taught me a lot about just life in general, even outside of welding. Just good things that have to do with no matter what you're going to do when you graduate high school."Sanchagrin explains how he began his welding journey: "My brother took this program, and as a little brother you always look up to your older brother, so I wanted to take it. I tried out the weld tech and all the trade programs that had the nine-week course and I knew welding was the thing I wanted to do. I didn't get in at first. I came into this program nine weeks late, and Mr. Carrier put in the extra effort to catch me up to speed with all these guys, which was really awesome and I appreciated that a lot. Now I have a part-time job welding at Milan Lumber and after high school I'll have a full time job there."Sanchagrin is also going to White Mountains Community College in the fall for the Industrial Mechanic Millwright program. By winning the gold medal at the SkillsUSA state competition, Sawyer received a $5,000 scholarship to use at one of New Hampshire's community colleges. Silver medalist, Declan Blair, is interning at Capone Iron and was offered a full-time job there after graduation.Senior Sam Styles wants our readers to know, "I don't think people realize what a good career any type of trade is. They can get looked down on, like you're not good enough to go to college, all you can do is this. That's not true. Some people are meant to go to college, and some people are meant to do this. I think our community, coming from an industrial town where we support trades pretty well, but I think people need to realize it's a good thing to get into. You shouldn't be disappointed if someone you know goes into it, it's something to be proud of. They're putting in work to make an honest living, and keep places running, really. I think if I could tell them anything just keep supporting trades."Carrier has brought 48 years of industrial experience to the program, as well as resources and challenges for students."My career started right after high school, age 18, and I've been in it ever since. I worked 26 years in the pulp mill and when it shut down for bankruptcy I got a call right off. I mean, you build yourself a good reputation, people are going to want you. I never collected [unemployment] once. I started working at a local fab shop, Cross Machines on Glen Avenue where I worked there for six years and then this job was posted in the paper. My wife, if it wasn't for my wife I wouldn't be here today because she's the one that encouraged me to apply," he said.Carrier plans to make this coming school year his last year of teaching."To the community, I would say, I'm very proud of what I do and my achievements throughout the years being the instructor here at the Berlin High School. I take my program very seriously. I'm very passionate about my program and very lucky to have great students, because we have a great rapport, great relationships with the students. Respect goes both ways. When it comes time to retire it's going to be a tough day," he said. Berlin Reporter City Manager attends last work session Low Lily and Matt Flinner to perform at Medallion Opera House Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Coos County Democrat Recycled Percussion take over LES by Tara Giles Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter write the author Justin Spence and Ryan Vezina of Recycled Percussion take over the Principal's office at the Lancaster Elementary School on April 9. (Photo by Tara Giles) (click for larger version) LANCASTER It's never a bad day when rock stars take over your school. The guys from the famous band Recycled Percussion, with their spiked hair, tattoos, brightly colored clothing and confident personalities took over the Lancaster Elementary School last Monday afternoon. This appearance was a surprise for the students. At around 1 p.m., Justin Spence, the band's lead percussionist, and Ryan Vezina, co-lead, took to Interim Principal Kerry Sheehan's office and announced over the loud speaker that the band was 'in the house' and that an Easter egg hunt would soon ensue. Moments later students could be heard throughout the hallways having a blast with smiles on their faces in search of colored eggs. While the younger kids were egg hunting, Spence sat with the older students in a conference room where they discussed issues facing students their age. The perfect role models, the band makes success, empathy, healthy living and philanthropy look 'cool.' After the egg hunts were completed, the entire school body, including faculty congregated in the gymnasium for a percussion session like never seen before. The duo banged on their drums in a sort of 'Simon Says' way to get the crowd laughing. Sticks were thrown up in the air and out into the audience and claps and 'hoorahs' were heard all around. The band was brought in to uplift the students to improve and enhance the culture and climate of the school in collaboration between the Lancaster School administration and Kelly Dussault, the System of Care Grant Manager. The band formed in Goffstown in 1995. In 1999, the group was featured in USA Today, then began touring just two years later. Currently, they have a regular show in Vegas. While in their off time they like to give back darting around the globe spreading 'Chaos and Kindness.' In December the group attempted a world record, to play in 25 countries in one week, to raise money for the bands seventh annual toy drive. They were successful and raised over $75,000. While the band is known for its positive message, some parents were confused as to why some profanity was used during the assembly which no doubt came as a shock to staff and faculty as well. LANCASTER It's never a bad day when rock stars take over your school. The guys from the famous band Recycled Percussion, with their spiked hair, tattoos, brightly colored clothing and confident personalities took over the Lancaster Elementary School last Monday afternoon.This appearance was a surprise for the students. At around 1 p.m., Justin Spence, the band's lead percussionist, and Ryan Vezina, co-lead, took to Interim Principal Kerry Sheehan's office and announced over the loud speaker that the band was 'in the house' and that an Easter egg hunt would soon ensue.Moments later students could be heard throughout the hallways having a blast with smiles on their faces in search of colored eggs.While the younger kids were egg hunting, Spence sat with the older students in a conference room where they discussed issues facing students their age. The perfect role models, the band makes success, empathy, healthy living and philanthropy look 'cool.'After the egg hunts were completed, the entire school body, including faculty congregated in the gymnasium for a percussion session like never seen before. The duo banged on their drums in a sort of 'Simon Says' way to get the crowd laughing. Sticks were thrown up in the air and out into the audience and claps and 'hoorahs' were heard all around.The band was brought in to uplift the students to improve and enhance the culture and climate of the school in collaboration between the Lancaster School administration and Kelly Dussault, the System of Care Grant Manager.The band formed in Goffstown in 1995. In 1999, the group was featured in USA Today, then began touring just two years later. Currently, they have a regular show in Vegas. While in their off time they like to give back darting around the globe spreading 'Chaos and Kindness.' In December the group attempted a world record, to play in 25 countries in one week, to raise money for the bands seventh annual toy drive. They were successful and raised over $75,000.While the band is known for its positive message, some parents were confused as to why some profanity was used during the assembly which no doubt came as a shock to staff and faculty as well. Coos County Democrat Stakeholders confront Yale over role in Northern Pass by Tara Giles Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter write the author REGION The movement against Northern Pass is still at the forefront of many minds throughout the state. In 2017, residents from Coos County discovered that Yale University owned parts of land in New Hampshire that fall into the path of the proposed transmission line. Also discovered was the fact that Yale had plans to lease the property to Northern Pass for said project. For those not in the know, Northern Pass is a $1.2 billion project that seeks to run power lines from Canada and into southern New Hampshire. Yale owns about 125,000 acres in the state and roughly 500,000 acres over the border in Maine. New Hampshire residents, including those from Coos County, traveled to the university to speak with those in power over the past two years. When this coalition called on Yale to stop Northern Pass, the university issued a public statement that read, "The Northern Pass project is undergoing rigorous review in the State of New Hampshire, under the purview of the Site Evaluation Committee." The SEC has since denied to grant Northern Pass a permit. Eversource, in response has appealed that decision to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. In a letter to this paper, Co-President of Local 33, Robin Dawson said, "After the SEC decision to deny a permit for Northern Pass, the New Hampshire legislature passed a bill that gives Governor Sununu more appointments to the SEC. These actions prompted Dolly McPhaul, resident of Sugar Hill in New Hampshire, to argue, 'There is a saying that goes, 'If you can't win using the current rules, change the rules.' And so they [Eversource and Gov. Sununu] did." Despite Yale's original praise for the rigorous review of the SEC, they are currently still enabling the project. Dawson added, "Neither Yale nor Wagner Forest Management (Yale's hired forest management company) has publicly responded to the SEC decision or the SEC's finding that Northern Pass "would have a large and negative impact on land uses in many communities that make up the region affected by the project." A collaborative letter was sent to decision-makers at Yale from the following people, Dawson, John D. Harrigan (Veteran Statewide Outdoor Columnist and Feature Writer, Colebrook), John Petrofsky (Coos County Stakeholder), Richard Samson (Coos County Commissioner District Three), and Elizabeth Wyman (Coos County Stakeholder and Yale FES Alum '04). The gist of the letter according to Dawson is as follows, "We are calling on Yale and Wagner to finally take an ethical, albeit a modest, stand by calling on Eversource to drop its appeal in the Supreme Court." The start of the letter reads, "Communities in Northern New Hampshire view the Northern Pass project as a threat to their landscape, culture, and way of life. This perception motivated an extraordinary grassroots movement, in which working dairy farmers refused multi-million dollar offers for their land. This left Northern Pass dependent upon Yale University and Wagner Forest Management, which leased land to Northern Pass for a viable route. Despite Wagner's willingness to undermine a firewall that residents created, citizens mastered thousands of pages of planning and zoning documents to defeat one of the largest utility companies in the United States." The letter went on to state, "An indigenous group also viewed Northern Pass as a threat to their culture and livelihood. Members of the Pessamit Innu traveled thousands of miles on multiple occasions to testify that Hydro-Quebec, the entity that would provide power to Northern Pass, "has violated principles enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples." In an open letter to the University, Chief Simon wrote, "Yale University's financial managers are on the verge of a decision with respect to the Northern Pass Project that will have an indirect, albeit major, effect on our Aboriginal rights. After student, community, and indigenous leaders called on Yale to stop Northern Pass, Yale emphasized its limited control "from both a legal and best practices perspective." The letter also made mention of the Rainforest Alliance, stating "When the alliance conducted an audit of Wagner's management practices on the land it manages in New Hampshire, the auditors disputed stakeholders who talked about a negative impact on their communities. A primary reason for disputing the stakeholders was that 'The Northern Pass Project was not approved and will not proceed as originally laid out.' However, with Eversource's continued efforts to seek approvals for the project and the changed composition of the SEC, this conclusion no longer holds true." As for ethics, the letter writers stated that Yale and Wagner should be 'holding themselves accountable to the standard of ethics articulated by Aldo Leopold. Leopold, as pointed out in the letter is a famous Yale alumni who graduated from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in the early 1900's. A well known quote from Leopold was included in the letter: "Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching even when doing the wrong thing is legal." In the final paragraphs of a lengthy letter, writers stated, "We are requesting that Yale University and Wagner Forestry Management honor Yale's original public statement by recognizing the rigorous process that the SEC undertook and their commitment to the FSC principles. We urge Yale and Wagner to terminate the lease that facilitates this project. At a minimum, we urge that Yale and Wagner respect the communities affected by this project by publicly disavowing their support for Northern Pass. We also urge Yale and Wagner to publicly ask Eversource to drop its current appeal in the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Given Mr. Colgan's testimony in favor of this project20 and the ongoing lease to Northern Pass, silence implicates Yale and Wagner in the harm that this project would cause. No response to the letter has been given by Yale. REGION The movement against Northern Pass is still at the forefront of many minds throughout the state. In 2017, residents from Coos County discovered that Yale University owned parts of land in New Hampshire that fall into the path of the proposed transmission line. Also discovered was the fact that Yale had plans to lease the property to Northern Pass for said project.For those not in the know, Northern Pass is a $1.2 billion project that seeks to run power lines from Canada and into southern New Hampshire. Yale owns about 125,000 acres in the state and roughly 500,000 acres over the border in Maine.New Hampshire residents, including those from Coos County, traveled to the university to speak with those in power over the past two years.When this coalition called on Yale to stop Northern Pass, the university issued a public statement that read, "The Northern Pass project is undergoing rigorous review in the State of New Hampshire, under the purview of the Site Evaluation Committee."The SEC has since denied to grant Northern Pass a permit. Eversource, in response has appealed that decision to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.In a letter to this paper, Co-President of Local 33, Robin Dawson said, "After the SEC decision to deny a permit for Northern Pass, the New Hampshire legislature passed a bill that gives Governor Sununu more appointments to the SEC. These actions prompted Dolly McPhaul, resident of Sugar Hill in New Hampshire, to argue, 'There is a saying that goes, 'If you can't win using the current rules, change the rules.' And so they [Eversource and Gov. Sununu] did."Despite Yale's original praise for the rigorous review of the SEC, they are currently still enabling the project.Dawson added, "Neither Yale nor Wagner Forest Management (Yale's hired forest management company) has publicly responded to the SEC decision or the SEC's finding that Northern Pass "would have a large and negative impact on land uses in many communities that make up the region affected by the project."A collaborative letter was sent to decision-makers at Yale from the following people, Dawson, John D. Harrigan (Veteran Statewide Outdoor Columnist and Feature Writer, Colebrook), John Petrofsky (Coos County Stakeholder), Richard Samson (Coos County Commissioner District Three), and Elizabeth Wyman (Coos County Stakeholder and Yale FES Alum '04).The gist of the letter according to Dawson is as follows, "We are calling on Yale and Wagner to finally take an ethical, albeit a modest, stand by calling on Eversource to drop its appeal in the Supreme Court."The start of the letter reads, "Communities in Northern New Hampshire view the Northern Pass project as a threat to their landscape, culture, and way of life. This perception motivated an extraordinary grassroots movement, in which working dairy farmers refused multi-million dollar offers for their land. This left Northern Pass dependent upon Yale University and Wagner Forest Management, which leased land to Northern Pass for a viable route. Despite Wagner's willingness to undermine a firewall that residents created, citizens mastered thousands of pages of planning and zoning documents to defeat one of the largest utility companies in the United States."The letter went on to state, "An indigenous group also viewed Northern Pass as a threat to their culture and livelihood. Members of the Pessamit Innu traveled thousands of miles on multiple occasions to testify that Hydro-Quebec, the entity that would provide power to Northern Pass, "has violated principles enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."In an open letter to the University, Chief Simon wrote, "Yale University's financial managers are on the verge of a decision with respect to the Northern Pass Project that will have an indirect, albeit major, effect on our Aboriginal rights. After student, community, and indigenous leaders called on Yale to stop Northern Pass, Yale emphasized its limited control "from both a legal and best practices perspective."The letter also made mention of the Rainforest Alliance, stating "When the alliance conducted an audit of Wagner's management practices on the land it manages in New Hampshire, the auditors disputed stakeholders who talked about a negative impact on their communities. A primary reason for disputing the stakeholders was that 'The Northern Pass Project was not approved and will not proceed as originally laid out.' However, with Eversource's continued efforts to seek approvals for the project and the changed composition of the SEC, this conclusion no longer holds true."As for ethics, the letter writers stated that Yale and Wagner should be 'holding themselves accountable to the standard of ethics articulated by Aldo Leopold. Leopold, as pointed out in the letter is a famous Yale alumni who graduated from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in the early 1900's.A well known quote from Leopold was included in the letter: "Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching even when doing the wrong thing is legal."In the final paragraphs of a lengthy letter, writers stated, "We are requesting that Yale University and Wagner Forestry Management honor Yale's original public statement by recognizing the rigorous process that the SEC undertook and their commitment to the FSC principles. We urge Yale and Wagner to terminate the lease that facilitates this project. At a minimum, we urge that Yale and Wagner respect the communities affected by this project by publicly disavowing their support for Northern Pass. We also urge Yale and Wagner to publicly ask Eversource to drop its current appeal in the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Given Mr. Colgan's testimony in favor of this project20 and the ongoing lease to Northern Pass, silence implicates Yale and Wagner in the harm that this project would cause.No response to the letter has been given by Yale. Coos County Democrat Spartan hoop boys hope to be top contender in Division III Fire destroys home in Dalton Recent Tara Giles City Manager attends last work session 2021-Dec-09 Spartan hoop boys hope to be top contender in Division III 2021-Dec-09 Fire destroys home in Dalton 2021-Dec-09 Northumberland police arrest fugitive from justice 2021-Dec-09 City Council discusses mask ordinance 2021-Dec-02 Lancaster Fire seeing long distance transfers increase due to lack of beds 2021-Dec-02 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Gilford Steamer Rotary spends "An Evening in Paradise" by Erin Plummer Gilford Rotary president John Beland recognizes Megan Beinoras for designing the cover of the program every year. (Photo by Erin Plummer) (click for larger version) Partiers enjoyed some tropical-themed fun to round out the winter months during the annual "An Evening in Paradise" fundraiser for the Gilford Rotary. Guests in leis, Hawaiian shirts, and other tropical and summer themed attire came out to Contigiani's Conference and Event Center on Saturday night to dance, sample from a buffet, hear some live music, and take their chances at a silent auction and raffles. "An Evening in Paradise" is a major fundraiser for the Gilford Rotary. Committee member Don Clarke said the focus was on having a good time and alleviating cabin fever from the winter. The party had a tropical theme with a live music from Hot Tamales, buffet dinner, silent auction, and raffles. In years past, the party took place at the Gilford Youth Center, but moved to Contigiani's Conference Center this year, which Clarke said was a bit more convenient for the event with better acoustics and set up provided by the venue. Contigiani's Catering set up the event and provided food and service. "Contigiani's does a great job with that," Clarke said. Clarke said many different businesses contributed to the event: 38 different sponsors provided everything from small amounts to large amounts. Gilford Rotary president John Beland said the interest and support this event has received is "phenomenal." "We're so blessed to have this support in the community, with the Gilford Rotary Club that supports the work that we do to help those in need," Beland said During the event, Beland thanked all of the guests and those who supported the event. "We could not do this without the support of all of you who have bought tickets to be here tonight," Beland said to the audience. Beland recognized the committee for its work organizing this event. Special recognition went to Megan Beinoras, who has done the art for the program's cover for the past five years. Beinoras was presented with a certificate of recognition. Funds from the event will to different nonprofit organizations the Rotary supports including the Gilford Youth Center, the Circle Program, Camp Mayhew, and many others. Other fundraisers include the Christmas tree sale, the Old Home Day pancake breakfast, and a food booth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. "We have a really great group off committed people in the Lakes Region to support us," Clarke said. Partiers enjoyed some tropical-themed fun to round out the winter months during the annual "An Evening in Paradise" fundraiser for the Gilford Rotary.Guests in leis, Hawaiian shirts, and other tropical and summer themed attire came out to Contigiani's Conference and Event Center on Saturday night to dance, sample from a buffet, hear some live music, and take their chances at a silent auction and raffles."An Evening in Paradise" is a major fundraiser for the Gilford Rotary. Committee member Don Clarke said the focus was on having a good time and alleviating cabin fever from the winter. The party had a tropical theme with a live music from Hot Tamales, buffet dinner, silent auction, and raffles.In years past, the party took place at the Gilford Youth Center, but moved to Contigiani's Conference Center this year, which Clarke said was a bit more convenient for the event with better acoustics and set up provided by the venue. Contigiani's Catering set up the event and provided food and service."Contigiani's does a great job with that," Clarke said.Clarke said many different businesses contributed to the event: 38 different sponsors provided everything from small amounts to large amounts.Gilford Rotary president John Beland said the interest and support this event has received is "phenomenal.""We're so blessed to have this support in the community, with the Gilford Rotary Club that supports the work that we do to help those in need," Beland saidDuring the event, Beland thanked all of the guests and those who supported the event."We could not do this without the support of all of you who have bought tickets to be here tonight," Beland said to the audience.Beland recognized the committee for its work organizing this event. Special recognition went to Megan Beinoras, who has done the art for the program's cover for the past five years. Beinoras was presented with a certificate of recognition.Funds from the event will to different nonprofit organizations the Rotary supports including the Gilford Youth Center, the Circle Program, Camp Mayhew, and many others. Other fundraisers include the Christmas tree sale, the Old Home Day pancake breakfast, and a food booth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway."We have a really great group off committed people in the Lakes Region to support us," Clarke said. Gilford Steamer Additional terrain, lodging in proposed plan for Gunstock SantaLand brings out families for holiday fun Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Meredith News Proposed grading changes have students concerned by Erin Plummer MEREDITH The Inter-Lakes School District is moving towards more competency based grades, which has raised concerns among the student body on how this could impact their achievements and futures. A number of Inter-Lakes High School students attended Tuesday's Inter-Lakes School Board meeting to express concerns over the proposed new grading system that will be implemented over time. Superintendent Mary Moriarty presented a rundown of the proposed changes in the grading system. She said next month there will be ongoing sessions for students and parents to discuss these changes. Moriarty said the new system will more reflect the switch to competency based learning. She said whereas the current system are more arbitrary standards, the new system will be based on specific criteria. The aim will be to get students to "Proficient" and the new system has standards for what that exactly means. Under the current system students receive letter grades with pluses or minuses. With the new system there will still be letter grades people are already familiar with that will reflect competencies. A would be "proficient with distinction," B would be "beyond proficient," and C would be "proficient." Two new grades will be added to replace D and F. DP is "developing proficiency" and IE is "insufficient evidence" of proficiency. Moriarty said that C under this system would be harder to get than the usual C grade. "We are asking kids to demonstrate a higher degree of performance than a 70," Moriarty said. She said in order to get that C students have to show a sufficient amount of evidence that they have reached that level of proficient. The system would still have grade point averages and an honor role. There will still be no valedictorian or salutatorian, though high school diplomas will have Latin grade honors (cum, magna, summa). Student board representative Ian McCabe also spoke about the concern, saying the general feeling among the student population is this doesn't meet their needs. "We feel as if the standards and the expectations are being lowered," McCabe said. "There's no way to differentiate yourself. That's the overall feeling I've been getting so far." Students expressed concern about what the classic grades will mean under the new system, saying the current system is something that has become ingrained in the 13 years they have been in school. There was concern that students who usually strive for A's could end up getting B's under the new system, which could be demoralizing. "I'm used to getting A's and thats really unsettling, (it) feels like my work is being diminished," said senior Willow Strother. A number of students were opposed to getting rid of the number grades and the pluses and minuses in the grades. "I feel like especially taking away the number grades and the pluses and minuses on the As and Bs feels to me that would invalidate my work," said Maya Weil-Cooley. "I work really hard in school and I want my grades to reflect that." Emerson Moore said there is concern that the new grades won't reflect what would be required for college or even the real world and won't prepare them well for either. Another major concern is how the new system could put students who normally do not make high achievements on the honor role or in National Honor Society. A number of students said they work hard to get high grades and make these honors, whereas under a new system students who don't make that high a level of achievement could be part of this and it would diminish the importance of this goal. Board member Lisa Merrill asked how colleges would look at the new grading system, saying her concern as a parent would be that her child can still get into the best college possible. Moriarty said competency based systems are now a requirement by the Department of Education and how that is implemented looks different from school to school. Each high school has a guidebook describing the school and its grading system. Weil-Cooley expressed concern that the new grading system might make it difficult to get into higher level schools, such as ivy league schools. "We knew 10 years ago that the hardest part of moving to a competency based (system) is on the assessing side and it's going to take time," said board member Mark Billings. Billings said maybe it would be better to bring the pluses and minuses back. Moriarty said they will take this feedback into consideration when looking at the system and they are still trying to figure out the best way to align the new grades with the grade point averages. MEREDITH The Inter-Lakes School District is moving towards more competency based grades, which has raised concerns among the student body on how this could impact their achievements and futures.A number of Inter-Lakes High School students attended Tuesday's Inter-Lakes School Board meeting to express concerns over the proposed new grading system that will be implemented over time.Superintendent Mary Moriarty presented a rundown of the proposed changes in the grading system. She said next month there will be ongoing sessions for students and parents to discuss these changes.Moriarty said the new system will more reflect the switch to competency based learning. She said whereas the current system are more arbitrary standards, the new system will be based on specific criteria. The aim will be to get students to "Proficient" and the new system has standards for what that exactly means.Under the current system students receive letter grades with pluses or minuses. With the new system there will still be letter grades people are already familiar with that will reflect competencies. A would be "proficient with distinction," B would be "beyond proficient," and C would be "proficient." Two new grades will be added to replace D and F. DP is "developing proficiency" and IE is "insufficient evidence" of proficiency. Moriarty said that C under this system would be harder to get than the usual C grade."We are asking kids to demonstrate a higher degree of performance than a 70," Moriarty said.She said in order to get that C students have to show a sufficient amount of evidence that they have reached that level of proficient.The system would still have grade point averages and an honor role. There will still be no valedictorian or salutatorian, though high school diplomas will have Latin grade honors (cum, magna, summa).Student board representative Ian McCabe also spoke about the concern, saying the general feeling among the student population is this doesn't meet their needs."We feel as if the standards and the expectations are being lowered," McCabe said. "There's no way to differentiate yourself. That's the overall feeling I've been getting so far."Students expressed concern about what the classic grades will mean under the new system, saying the current system is something that has become ingrained in the 13 years they have been in school. There was concern that students who usually strive for A's could end up getting B's under the new system, which could be demoralizing."I'm used to getting A's and thats really unsettling, (it) feels like my work is being diminished," said senior Willow Strother.A number of students were opposed to getting rid of the number grades and the pluses and minuses in the grades."I feel like especially taking away the number grades and the pluses and minuses on the As and Bs feels to me that would invalidate my work," said Maya Weil-Cooley. "I work really hard in school and I want my grades to reflect that."Emerson Moore said there is concern that the new grades won't reflect what would be required for college or even the real world and won't prepare them well for either.Another major concern is how the new system could put students who normally do not make high achievements on the honor role or in National Honor Society. A number of students said they work hard to get high grades and make these honors, whereas under a new system students who don't make that high a level of achievement could be part of this and it would diminish the importance of this goal.Board member Lisa Merrill asked how colleges would look at the new grading system, saying her concern as a parent would be that her child can still get into the best college possible. Moriarty said competency based systems are now a requirement by the Department of Education and how that is implemented looks different from school to school. Each high school has a guidebook describing the school and its grading system. Weil-Cooley expressed concern that the new grading system might make it difficult to get into higher level schools, such as ivy league schools."We knew 10 years ago that the hardest part of moving to a competency based (system) is on the assessing side and it's going to take time," said board member Mark Billings.Billings said maybe it would be better to bring the pluses and minuses back.Moriarty said they will take this feedback into consideration when looking at the system and they are still trying to figure out the best way to align the new grades with the grade point averages. Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Newfound Landing Police K9 visits Story Time at Minot-Sleeper by Donna Rhodes write the author Three-year-old Kendall from Bridgewater gave Arro a hug as her five-year-old brother Cayden waited his turn to meet the K9 during story time at Minot-Sleeper Library. (Photo by Donna Rhodes) (click for larger version) BRISTOL Nearly 40 people of all ages attended story time at Minot-Sleeper Library last Friday afternoon to listen to the book "Officer Buckle and Gloria" with special guests Officer Nick Kelley of the Bristol Police Department and his K9 partner, Arro. After leading the boys and girls in some fun warm-up songs, Librarian Azra Karabegovic began reading the adventures of Officer Buckle and his K9 partner Gloria. Throughout the story, they learned many safety tips an entertaining fashion. One tip was to never stand on a swivel chair. They heard not to swim during an electrical storm and to make sure their shoelaces were always tied. The most important lesson of all though was to always stick with a buddy, like Gloria and Officer Buckle stick together. Arro listened closely to the story, too. At one point, he even put his front paws on Officer Kelley's lap and leaned forward to look at the pictures in the book. When Karabegovic finished reading the children and adults alike were asked if they had any questions for Arro and Kelley. They learned that Arro is not a German Shepherd but a Belgian Malinois and will be four years old next month. He has been with Kelley and the Bristol Police Department since he was a year old. One child asked what Arro does as a police K9. Kelley said that through the extensive training he and Arro go through, he can help the officers find not only criminals but missing children and more. "He even finds my keys for me when I lose them," he said with a grin. Kelley was proud to add that just last week Arro was able to discover some illegal drugs and help the police make an arrest. "He has a very good nose. He can smell all kinds of things. He doesn't just smell a pizza like we do, he smells all the ingredients, the tomato sauce, the crust, the cheese, separately," Kelley explained. Before they headed back to the police station, Arro greeted all his new friends one by one, and even posed for photos with many of them. Karabegovic said story time is held every Friday at the library with snacks from Friends of Minot-Sleeper Library, sing-a-longs and other fun activities. Throughout the year she is also pleased to have special guests join the children, like Arro, members of the fire department and even Mrs. Claus who dropped by in December. For more information, please visit the library online at minotsleeperlibrary.org or stop by their location at 35 Pleasant St. in downtown Bristol. BRISTOL Nearly 40 people of all ages attended story time at Minot-Sleeper Library last Friday afternoon to listen to the book "Officer Buckle and Gloria" with special guests Officer Nick Kelley of the Bristol Police Department and his K9 partner, Arro.After leading the boys and girls in some fun warm-up songs, Librarian Azra Karabegovic began reading the adventures of Officer Buckle and his K9 partner Gloria. Throughout the story, they learned many safety tips an entertaining fashion. One tip was to never stand on a swivel chair. They heard not to swim during an electrical storm and to make sure their shoelaces were always tied. The most important lesson of all though was to always stick with a buddy, like Gloria and Officer Buckle stick together.Arro listened closely to the story, too. At one point, he even put his front paws on Officer Kelley's lap and leaned forward to look at the pictures in the book.When Karabegovic finished reading the children and adults alike were asked if they had any questions for Arro and Kelley. They learned that Arro is not a German Shepherd but a Belgian Malinois and will be four years old next month. He has been with Kelley and the Bristol Police Department since he was a year old.One child asked what Arro does as a police K9. Kelley said that through the extensive training he and Arro go through, he can help the officers find not only criminals but missing children and more."He even finds my keys for me when I lose them," he said with a grin.Kelley was proud to add that just last week Arro was able to discover some illegal drugs and help the police make an arrest."He has a very good nose. He can smell all kinds of things. He doesn't just smell a pizza like we do, he smells all the ingredients, the tomato sauce, the crust, the cheese, separately," Kelley explained.Before they headed back to the police station, Arro greeted all his new friends one by one, and even posed for photos with many of them.Karabegovic said story time is held every Friday at the library with snacks from Friends of Minot-Sleeper Library, sing-a-longs and other fun activities. Throughout the year she is also pleased to have special guests join the children, like Arro, members of the fire department and even Mrs. Claus who dropped by in December. For more information, please visit the library online at minotsleeperlibrary.org or stop by their location at 35 Pleasant St. in downtown Bristol. Plymouth Record Enterprise Local students featured in fire safety calendar by Donna Rhodes write the author PLYMOUTH For seven years, the Department of Safety, Office of the State Fire Marshal and the New Hampshire Fire Prevention Society has held a poster and calendar competition for approximately 600 third grade students across the state. This year, Plymouth Elementary School Principal Julie Flynn and Annmarie Holloran of New Hampton Community School were thrilled to learn that Reese Querry (PES) and Hunter LaRoche (NHCS) were selected as winners. "Every year, I look at the calendar and hope one of our students will be in it. For the first time, PES will be represented in it, and Reese is the perfect artist to have been chosen," said Flynn. State officials believe fire safety should be a part of daily life in New Hampshire households; therefore, they sponsor the competition to serve as a reminder for some very important safety tips. Boys and girls learn about the program in October during Fire Safety Week and are provided with a list of topics they can select from for their poster. In February teachers submit them for review by the District Chiefs and Fire Investigators at the Fire Marshal's office where the top 13 are chosen for the calendar. Each year, 10,000 of the calendars are printed and distributed throughout the state. Poster topics can range from General Fire Safety for the cover of the calendar to Fireworks Safety, Electrical Safety and Home Fire Sprinkler Protection. Reese said she chose Home Escape Planning, which will now be the featured illustration for the month of June next year. "I looked at a calendar from the year before, and there wasn't anything on home escape planning, so I decided to chose that," she said. Her poster showed a house with people gathered at a designated outside meeting spot where they would be safe and accounted for while waiting for the fire department. "Always have a meeting spot if there's a fire," she wrote across the top. Reese said her family has a meeting place but she knows of some who do not so she hopes her calendar page will encourage more families to have that discussion. The third grader said she was excited to take part in the competition and even more excited to learn she was selected for one of the 13 coveted spots. "I think fire safety is really important. I go to the fire station about three times a year with the Girl Scouts and the fire fighters come here, too," said Reese. Plymouth Fire Chief Tom Morrison and Deputy Chief Jeremy Bonan were among the many family, school and public safety officials that attended an awards banquet for the winners last week and the chief said he was very proud of Reese. "I think it's awesome. It's pretty impressive that she was chosen out of 600 submissions. We like to target the Kindergarten through fourth grade students for fire safety, and this calendar contest is an important part of our fire prevention activities with them," Morrison said. At New Hampton Community School, they were equally excited to learn Hunter LaRoche's poster was selected for the March 2020 page. Reese said he almost didn't enter the contest but a few days before the deadline he decided to give it a try. "It was kind of surprising to me when I heard I won. I usually don't win things like this, which is why I almost didn't do it. I'm really glad I did though," said Reese. For his poster he chose Kitchen & Cooking Safety. His drawing showed a mom at the stove placing a lid on a pan with a grease fire, while the father was moving the children away from the area. His poster reminds adults to always keep a lid handy when cooking and that children should always stay at least three-feet from a stove. "I chose that topic because I want to follow how my dad is working. He encouraged me to do this," said Hunter. Hunter's dad is Bristol Fire Chief Ben LaRoche, so fire safety is a definite part of their daily lives. Other than encouraging Hunter to draw a poster, he left it up to him to determine the message he wanted to send with his entry. "He did give me one tip though- it's easier to draw people from the back then to try to draw their face," Hunter said. Chief LaRoche, who teaches fire safety to students in Bristol, said he was very proud of his son and had praise for all the calendar contest does to educate children and families. "It gives them a project to do. They have to take an important subject and do their own research for it. I think they absorb more about fire safety that way then just listening to someone talk about it," said LaRoche. He also likes the way in which the program involves more than just the students. The boys and girls are encouraged to take part in the contest through their local fire safety personnel who stop in to explain what it's all about. The teachers then help them develop their ideas and students draw their families into the topic as they work on their posters at home. "It really is a community project on fire safety," he said. During last week's ceremony, the 13 winners were called on stage one by one where they were presented with a plaque and had their photos taken with Sparky the Fire Dog. They also heard from people who work in fire prevention and learned even more safety information that they could take back to their class. Both Reese and Hunter said they encourage all the third grade students in their school next year to enter the contest and offered some advice. Hunter said the students should do their best and at least take a shot at it because they just might win. Reese advised that they take a good look at calendars from past years then pick a topic that people need to know and that they themselves consider to be important. PLYMOUTH For seven years, the Department of Safety, Office of the State Fire Marshal and the New Hampshire Fire Prevention Society has held a poster and calendar competition for approximately 600 third grade students across the state. This year, Plymouth Elementary School Principal Julie Flynn and Annmarie Holloran of New Hampton Community School were thrilled to learn that Reese Querry (PES) and Hunter LaRoche (NHCS) were selected as winners."Every year, I look at the calendar and hope one of our students will be in it. For the first time, PES will be represented in it, and Reese is the perfect artist to have been chosen," said Flynn.State officials believe fire safety should be a part of daily life in New Hampshire households; therefore, they sponsor the competition to serve as a reminder for some very important safety tips.Boys and girls learn about the program in October during Fire Safety Week and are provided with a list of topics they can select from for their poster. In February teachers submit them for review by the District Chiefs and Fire Investigators at the Fire Marshal's office where the top 13 are chosen for the calendar. Each year, 10,000 of the calendars are printed and distributed throughout the state.Poster topics can range from General Fire Safety for the cover of the calendar to Fireworks Safety, Electrical Safety and Home Fire Sprinkler Protection.Reese said she chose Home Escape Planning, which will now be the featured illustration for the month of June next year."I looked at a calendar from the year before, and there wasn't anything on home escape planning, so I decided to chose that," she said.Her poster showed a house with people gathered at a designated outside meeting spot where they would be safe and accounted for while waiting for the fire department."Always have a meeting spot if there's a fire," she wrote across the top.Reese said her family has a meeting place but she knows of some who do not so she hopes her calendar page will encourage more families to have that discussion. The third grader said she was excited to take part in the competition and even more excited to learn she was selected for one of the 13 coveted spots."I think fire safety is really important. I go to the fire station about three times a year with the Girl Scouts and the fire fighters come here, too," said Reese.Plymouth Fire Chief Tom Morrison and Deputy Chief Jeremy Bonan were among the many family, school and public safety officials that attended an awards banquet for the winners last week and the chief said he was very proud of Reese."I think it's awesome. It's pretty impressive that she was chosen out of 600 submissions. We like to target the Kindergarten through fourth grade students for fire safety, and this calendar contest is an important part of our fire prevention activities with them," Morrison said.At New Hampton Community School, they were equally excited to learn Hunter LaRoche's poster was selected for the March 2020 page. Reese said he almost didn't enter the contest but a few days before the deadline he decided to give it a try."It was kind of surprising to me when I heard I won. I usually don't win things like this, which is why I almost didn't do it. I'm really glad I did though," said Reese.For his poster he chose Kitchen & Cooking Safety. His drawing showed a mom at the stove placing a lid on a pan with a grease fire, while the father was moving the children away from the area. His poster reminds adults to always keep a lid handy when cooking and that children should always stay at least three-feet from a stove."I chose that topic because I want to follow how my dad is working. He encouraged me to do this," said Hunter.Hunter's dad is Bristol Fire Chief Ben LaRoche, so fire safety is a definite part of their daily lives. Other than encouraging Hunter to draw a poster, he left it up to him to determine the message he wanted to send with his entry."He did give me one tip though- it's easier to draw people from the back then to try to draw their face," Hunter said.Chief LaRoche, who teaches fire safety to students in Bristol, said he was very proud of his son and had praise for all the calendar contest does to educate children and families."It gives them a project to do. They have to take an important subject and do their own research for it. I think they absorb more about fire safety that way then just listening to someone talk about it," said LaRoche.He also likes the way in which the program involves more than just the students. The boys and girls are encouraged to take part in the contest through their local fire safety personnel who stop in to explain what it's all about. The teachers then help them develop their ideas and students draw their families into the topic as they work on their posters at home."It really is a community project on fire safety," he said.During last week's ceremony, the 13 winners were called on stage one by one where they were presented with a plaque and had their photos taken with Sparky the Fire Dog. They also heard from people who work in fire prevention and learned even more safety information that they could take back to their class.Both Reese and Hunter said they encourage all the third grade students in their school next year to enter the contest and offered some advice. Hunter said the students should do their best and at least take a shot at it because they just might win. Reese advised that they take a good look at calendars from past years then pick a topic that people need to know and that they themselves consider to be important. Plymouth Record Enterprise Plymouth Holiday Parade kicks off the season Ashland selectmen discuss use of old school for town library Recent Donna Rhodes Winners of Alexandria Cons. Comm. Calendar Photo Contest announced 2021-Dec-09 Plymouth Holiday Parade kicks off the season 2021-Dec-09 Christmas Parade returns to Tilton this weekend 2021-Dec-02 Public input sought on renaming of local cemetery 2021-Dec-02 Founders reflect on Turkey Trots 40-year history 2021-Nov-24 PRHS students, staff organize fundraiser for student in need 2021-Nov-24 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Plymouth Record Enterprise Plymouth State Earth Jam enjoyed by all by Leigh Sharps Angel Buckley and Jesse Maviki enjoyed their fourth year at Plymouth State University's Earth Jam last weekend. (Photo by Leigh Sharps) (click for larger version) PLYMOUTHNow nearing its 10th anniversary, last Saturday's Earth Jam set on the University's central campus (HUB lawn) on High Street provided live music from noon to 10:15 p.m. non-stop for the dancers and lawn loungers alike. Age was no boundary, as self-proclaimed 'older hippies' mingled with the student population enjoying the music of six bands: Kachow, Starnose, Squatch, The Trichromes, Swimmer, and Hayley Jane and the Primates. Speakers and a raffle took up the intermission between Trichromes and Swimmer with the last on stage being' Hayley Jane and the Primates' which brought the house and the night down as well. This year's Earth Jam brought in about 30 vendors who offered everything from botanical creams, jewelry, crystals and fragrances, aromatherapy items and many tee shirts proclaiming everything from 'Clean Power', "Here's Plymouth's Earth Jam' to 'It's Our Freedom of Speech Right.' There was a myriad of tie-dye clothing items as well as art-work and pottery made by PSU students and town businesses were also well represented. Student representatives also urged folks to attend the town's Farmer's Market (Thursdays 3-6 p.m. May 30-late August) at the Senior Center with all local foods. The event was joy-filled with an obvious lack of any governmental politicking except for the 'Clean Power' booth asking students to urge their state officials to support and encourage restorative energy initiatives and the creation of jobs due to such endeavors. Clean Power' volunteers Seth Sacks and Laura Sotak, representing the 'League of Conservation Voters,' remarked they have been to many college rallies and festivals this past year but found the PSU one the 'most fun and enjoyable'. There may have been a few million festival-goers short than those 50 years ago who attended the Woodstock phenomenon, but the mood, nonetheless, was similar and a welcoming break from any controversial spring breaks people heard about at colleges and universities around the country in the past! Not so last weekend at PSU. Even 'Woodstock-era' festival goers, Sarah Connolly and 'Whitewolf,' enjoyed all the bands. "We've been coming for about six years," said Connolly. Younger 'hippies' Angel Buckley, Jesse Maviki, Michael Chesley and Anthony Gasper attended to support their 'groupie' band 'The Trichromes.' PSU Juniors Joshlyn Rinaldi, Jennifer Stellato and Johnny Corbett, spent the day at their third year of the festival. Not all attendees were students or 'townies', some folks traveling from out-of-state when they heard about the festival on-line or by word-of-mouth, and even one youngster, Birch Jablonski, one and a half years old, happily jumped in knee-high puddles while listening to the music, under the watchful eyes of mom Lindsey! Probably just his first of many life-long festivals and a future student! PLYMOUTHNow nearing its 10th anniversary, last Saturday's Earth Jam set on the University's central campus (HUB lawn) on High Street provided live music from noon to 10:15 p.m. non-stop for the dancers and lawn loungers alike.Age was no boundary, as self-proclaimed 'older hippies' mingled with the student population enjoying the music of six bands: Kachow, Starnose, Squatch, The Trichromes, Swimmer, and Hayley Jane and the Primates. Speakers and a raffle took up the intermission between Trichromes and Swimmerwith the last on stage being' Hayley Jane and the Primates' which brought the house and the night down as well.This year's Earth Jam brought in about 30 vendors who offered everything from botanical creams, jewelry, crystals and fragrances, aromatherapy items and many tee shirts proclaiming everything from 'Clean Power', "Here's Plymouth's Earth Jam' to 'It's Our Freedom of Speech Right.' There was a myriad of tie-dye clothing items as well as art-work and pottery made by PSU students and town businesses were also well represented. Student representatives also urged folks to attend the town's Farmer's Market (Thursdays 3-6 p.m. May 30-late August) at the Senior Center with all local foods.The event was joy-filled with an obvious lack of any governmental politicking except for the 'Clean Power' booth asking students to urge their state officials to support and encourage restorative energy initiatives and the creation of jobs due to such endeavors. Clean Power' volunteers Seth Sacks and Laura Sotak, representing the 'League of Conservation Voters,' remarked they have been to many college rallies and festivals this past year but found the PSU one the 'most fun and enjoyable'.There may have been a few million festival-goers short than those 50 years ago who attended the Woodstock phenomenon, but the mood, nonetheless, was similar and a welcoming break from any controversial spring breaks people heard about at colleges and universities around the country in the past! Not so last weekend at PSU.Even 'Woodstock-era' festival goers, Sarah Connolly and 'Whitewolf,' enjoyed all the bands."We've been coming for about six years," said Connolly.Younger 'hippies' Angel Buckley, Jesse Maviki, Michael Chesley and Anthony Gasper attended to support their 'groupie' band 'The Trichromes.'PSU Juniors Joshlyn Rinaldi, Jennifer Stellato and Johnny Corbett, spent the day at their third year of the festival.Not all attendees were students or 'townies', some folks traveling from out-of-state when they heard about the festival on-line or by word-of-mouth, and even one youngster, Birch Jablonski, one and a half years old, happily jumped in knee-high puddles while listening to the music, under the watchful eyes of mom Lindsey!Probably just his first of many life-long festivals and a future student! Plymouth Record Enterprise Plymouth Holiday Parade kicks off the season Ashland selectmen discuss use of old school for town library Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Intellectual property (IP) has been among Chinas priorities when it implements the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), given its importance in the cooperation among en-route countries. Asias largest dredging vessel Tiankun starts maiden voyage, after completing the customs clearance procedures on March 12, 2019. The dredger is independently developed and built by China. (Photo by Peoples Daily Online) According to recent data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China filed 48,882 applications under the WIPOs Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), ranking the second in the world. It indicated that the country is beefing up IP cooperation with its global partners when it steps towards an IP powerhouse. Among the top 15 origins for PCT filings, only China and India are middle-income countries, and China is the only one that recorded double-digit annual growth filing 13.4 percent more applications from a year before. China has posted double-digit annual growth rates in PCT applications since 2003. In 2017, its export of IP royalties exceeded $4 billion for the first time. China upgraded the protection of intellectual property right (IPR) to a national strategy after it released the National Intellectual Property Strategy in 2008, effectively pushing the country a step closer to a business environment that is more fair, transparent and predicable. In order to optimize management efficiency, the country restructured its intellectual property administration last August to centralize the management of patents, appearance designs, trademarks, geographical indications, and layout designs of integrated circuit. Given the fundamental role IP plays in the process of building Belt and Road, China has devoted proactive efforts on such cooperation when implementing the initiate. A joint initiative to intensify IP cooperation among en-route countries was released by the first High-level Conference on Intellectual Property for Countries along the Belt and Road held in Beijing in July 2016, during which a mechanism on IP cooperation was established as well. During the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) held in 2017, an agreement on enhancing Belt and Road intellectual property cooperation between China and the WIPO was inked, endowing more international significance to IP cooperation along the route. Commissioner Shen Changyu of China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) noted at the second High-level Conference on Intellectual Property for Countries along the Belt and Road last August that all the IP cooperation projects within the framework has been put into implementation under joint efforts. Chinas rise to the worlds second largest source of PCT applications, as well as its high annual growth illustrate that its IP royalties now have more weight in international society. Fuxing bullet trains are exhibited at the China Railway Science and Technology Innovation Achievement Exhibition, December 25, 2018. The exhibition was opened at the China National Railway Track Test Centre, Beijing on December 24, 2018. The exhibition, hosted by China Railway Corporation, displayed a batch of advanced railway technologies and equipment independently developed by China, including the 17-carriage Fuxing bullet train running at 350-KPH, 8-carriage Fuxing bullet train running at 250-KPH, and a Fuxing model with a centralized power system that runs at 160 KPH. In addition, the new coatings for the high speed trains running on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway were also unveiled for the first time at the exhibition. (Photo by Peoples Daily Online) WIPOs director general Francis Gurry, also as signatory of the agreement on enhancing Belt and Road intellectual property cooperation between the WIPO and China, said in a recent interview with Chinese media that different from traditional trade pacts and cooperation models, the Belt and Road is more about strengthening the capacity of the Belt and Road countries in trade and business cooperation, and intellectual property plays a vital role in such capacity building. Chinese leadership lays great emphasis on the role of intellectual property in an innovation-driven contemporary economy, and all other economic spheres, said the WIPO head, who signed the deal when attending the first BRF. The deal also marks the first agreement between the Chinese government and an international organization regarding the IP cooperation among Belt and Road countries. Gurry believes that Chinese experiences also indicated the countrys long-term commitment to intellectual property, which is an important reference for other countries. As the chief of the UN institution to protect IP registration and encourage innovation, Gurry also pledged an active engagement of WIPO in the China-proposed BRI. The head, who will soon kick off his journey to Beijing to attend the second BRF, also hoped China can share more of its experiences in intellectual property with the Belt and Road countries, so as to propel intellectual property undertakings and economic prosperity of these countries. Winnisquam Echo Tilton loses town planner to Belmont by Donna Rhodes write the author Tilton Town Planner Dari Sassan gave selectmen a final update on current and future projects in his department last Thursday before heading off to his new job as the town planner in Belmont. (Photo by Donna Rhodes) (click for larger version) TILTON At the April 11 selectmen's meeting in Tilton, Town Planner Dari Sassan presented the board with a summary of ongoing projects and upcoming activity in the Tilton Land Use department before bidding them farewell as he prepared for his new position with the Town of Belmont. "I just wanted to let you know about things to keep an eye on in the future," Sassan said as he wrapped up his advisory report. Town Administrator Jeanie Forrester thanked Sasson for the information and told the board that since he first gave notice about his move to Belmont, he had done an outstanding job in bringing both she and other town officials informed about things should be aware of in the future. Selectmen also gave their praise and thanks to Sassan. Selectman Joe Jesseman not only thanked Sassan for sharing his expertise in town planning over the years, but told him, "The town is much better off than we were before you came here." Sassan him thanked him in return by saying it had been a very enjoyable and productive five years spent as a full time employee in Tilton. As he moves now to Belmont, with a start date scheduled for this past Monday, Sassan said later that he has always been interested in environmental protection issues since he was an undergraduate student in Indiana. He followed wildlife organizations while in school but soon came to realize that the way land is developed and how resources are protected also has a big impact on the environment. And that, he learned, all starts at the local planning level. He then furthered his education by doing graduate work at Plymouth State University where he was able to take part in research projects through the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. "I worked with some top notch planners at PSU and caught the planning bug," he admitted. Since his graduation from PSU, Sassan has worked with the North Country Council, the Office of Energy and Planning, the former Commission on Wetlands, and ARA funding projects developed under Pres. Barak Obama. He also served on the Lakes Region Planning Commission. When he came to Tilton nearly eight years ago he began as a part time employee helping with their town planning visions. Every year though, Sassan said, the town saw more of a need for more planning. After approximately three years, they increased his position to full time job as they came to realize the full economic impact that proper town planning could have on a community. However, when an opening for Town Planner in Belmont came about earlier this year, Sassan saw it as an opportunity to perhaps make an even bigger impact on a town. With a bigger land use staff and a larger commission to work with, he believes he will find different and exciting new challenges ahead of him now in Belmont. Sassan said he is confident that he is leaving Tilton in a good place though. He feels they have competent land use staff on board and has no worries about their ability to carry on with all that lies before the town. "I don't doubt that I'll be reading about all the great things that will be happening in Tilton in the years to come," said Sassan. His new role for the Town of Belmont began this Monday, April 15. TILTON At the April 11 selectmen's meeting in Tilton, Town Planner Dari Sassan presented the board with a summary of ongoing projects and upcoming activity in the Tilton Land Use department before bidding them farewell as he prepared for his new position with the Town of Belmont."I just wanted to let you know about things to keep an eye on in the future," Sassan said as he wrapped up his advisory report.Town Administrator Jeanie Forrester thanked Sasson for the information and told the board that since he first gave notice about his move to Belmont, he had done an outstanding job in bringing both she and other town officials informed about things should be aware of in the future.Selectmen also gave their praise and thanks to Sassan.Selectman Joe Jesseman not only thanked Sassan for sharing his expertise in town planning over the years, but told him, "The town is much better off than we were before you came here."Sassan him thanked him in return by saying it had been a very enjoyable and productive five years spent as a full time employee in Tilton.As he moves now to Belmont, with a start date scheduled for this past Monday, Sassan said later that he has always been interested in environmental protection issues since he was an undergraduate student in Indiana. He followed wildlife organizations while in school but soon came to realize that the way land is developed and how resources are protected also has a big impact on the environment. And that, he learned, all starts at the local planning level.He then furthered his education by doing graduate work at Plymouth State University where he was able to take part in research projects through the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services."I worked with some top notch planners at PSU and caught the planning bug," he admitted.Since his graduation from PSU, Sassan has worked with the North Country Council, the Office of Energy and Planning, the former Commission on Wetlands, and ARA funding projects developed under Pres. Barak Obama. He also served on the Lakes Region Planning Commission.When he came to Tilton nearly eight years ago he began as a part time employee helping with their town planning visions. Every year though, Sassan said, the town saw more of a need for more planning. After approximately three years, they increased his position to full time job as they came to realize the full economic impact that proper town planning could have on a community.However, when an opening for Town Planner in Belmont came about earlier this year, Sassan saw it as an opportunity to perhaps make an even bigger impact on a town. With a bigger land use staff and a larger commission to work with, he believes he will find different and exciting new challenges ahead of him now in Belmont.Sassan said he is confident that he is leaving Tilton in a good place though. He feels they have competent land use staff on board and has no worries about their ability to carry on with all that lies before the town."I don't doubt that I'll be reading about all the great things that will be happening in Tilton in the years to come," said Sassan.His new role for the Town of Belmont began this Monday, April 15. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Faced with a lackluster response from bidders, the Central government is planning to overhaul the whole coal mining auction process. The current auction process is not attracting any bidders. In the past, we had cancelled bidding several times as there were no takers. Last year, we had tweaked some norms to make it more business-friendly, but there is still no interest. So, there is a need to overhaul the process, a senior official from the coal ministry told this publication. He said they have consulted the finance ministry, which would help them in setting the new terms and conditions.The move was initiated after the government had to cancel the sixth and seventh rounds of coal mine auctions in March, under which it was planning to put on sale 19 blocks. Under the sixth round, the government had earlier announced the auction of 13 blocks for the regulated sectors, including iron and steel, cement and aluminium. In the seventh tranche, the coal ministry had said it would auction six coking coal blocks for iron and steel sector.The tender process was initiated on October 25, 2018, also included the recent proposal from the coal ministry to allow private companies to sell up to 25 per cent of production in the open market. However, despite this, the auction attracted no bidder. By Express News Service State-run power producer NHPC is hoping to tap lending institutions based abroad in order to raise funds for its hydel power capacity expansion projects, in an effort to beef up its hydel power production capacity by nearly a third to ten gigawatt by 2022. NHPCs current generation capacity stands at around 7.1 GW, and the company is looking to shell out a capital expenditure of up to Rs 3,800 crore for the financial year ending March 2020. The company has spent a capex of around Rs 2,000 crore in the previous financial year ended March 2019. The government has recognised large hydropower as renewable energy which might help us access cheaper funding from multilateral lending institutions, said Balraj Joshi, chairman and managing director at NHPC. Currently, the state-owned hydropower developer is in initial discussions with AFD (Agence Francaise de Developpement) and KfW in order to lend around Rs 2,800 crore for its Teesta-IV project for a tenure of 18 years. They have also shown interest. We have requested World Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency too for the same project and are trying to tap Canadian Pensions Funds and Australian fund, said Joshi, adding that the company would fix the deal as and when it gets the best deal. NHPC is also eyeing renewable energy investors from across the world. We will be conducting a roadshow soon in Singapore where we will float these requirements. Besides Teesta-VI and Teesta-IV, we also need funding for the Ratle project which is in Jammu and Kashmir, he said. Meanwhile, NHPC is looking at taking over some of the countrys stressed hydel power projects to expand its generation capacity. For instance, it says it is interested in bidding for Athena Energys Demwe project in Arunachal Pradesh. After successfully winning the bid for Lanco Teesta-VI, we are eyeing the 1,750-MW capacity Demwe hydro project as the tariff is cheaper and the cost of the project is also lesser, said Joshi. Ranjani Madhavan By Express News Service BENGALURU: IITs time for school students in the city to envy those in Tamil Nadu. The government in the neighbouring state recently banned schools from conducting special classes during summer vacation. Several students in Bengaluru are, however, not so lucky. Many private schools are cutting down on vacation time, giving the youngsters only a little over a month of summer holidays, as opposed to two months. Students of Class 10 and 12 are the ones most affected. My son has entered Class 12, and they have been given only 12 days of vacation. The school says if children get into a holiday mood, it will be difficult for them to concentrate on studies, Deepti (name changed) said. In a year from now, if he moves elsewhere for studies, we will not get to see him much. Vacation is important for them to get rejuvenated before Board exams, she added. Parents also complain about exams being scheduled right after the school reopens. My son is getting only a little over a month of vacation from May to June. He got a 10-day break after the annual exams. We plan to travel in May, but he will have to carry books to prepare for exams in June, said Suresh AB, whose son studies in Class 7. Since not all schools follow this vacation pattern, the students also feel left out. While everyone else is outside playing, they are forced to attend school. This time is important for them to pick up social skills, said S Narendra, father of a Class 8 student. As per UNs child rights convention, children need time for leisure activities, according to Nagasimha Rao, director, Child Rights Trust, an NGO that partners with UNICEF. There is no regulation in Karnataka over vacation time. We observe that schools give vacation for just one month, starting the next academic year early. This is an indirect way of scaring the child about board exams and getting good results, he said, adding, The education department must consult with educators, children, psychologists and other experts to frame rules on vacation time. The education department recommends April 10 to May 28 for the vacation, Shashi Kumar D, general secretary, Associated Management of Private Unaided English Medium Schools in Karnataka, said. He added, Some schools give 10-15 days off, which is not good for holistic development. Fifty days is ideal. Re-opening schools early may cause dehydration. The schools involved, however, say the step is for the students good. For Class 10, parents, teachers and children need to pull their socks up, said G Nagaraju, principal of Sri Chaitanya Techno School, which has given vacation to Class 10 students from April 13 to May 16. Eventually it is the Board exam results that we have to look at. One month is enough time to relax. Parents are also keen on special classes, he added. Sahaya Novinston Lobo By Express News Service CHENNAI: A woman has approached city police claiming she was cheated of Rs 5 lakh by a person who sent her messages from the verified Twitter handle of a Prince of Dubai. Police officers said the woman had shown to police the private conversation she had with the Twitter account of Dubai prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Police suspect that a hacker had cheated the woman by using the Twitter account. Hemalathas* (name changed) complaint says that the sequence of incidents started when she received a private message in January from the Princes Twitter account (@HamdanMohammed). A Chennai native, Hemalatha is a psychologist and had lived in Dubai for a few years. Because of this, she was following the verified Twitter and Instagram handles of the King of Dubai and Vice president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and one of his sons, the prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Overwhelmed by the attention she got from the Prince, the woman was conversing for few days and felt that they had a very good rapport, said a police officer who registered a case and is now transferred to a different wing. A person, who is suspected to have posed as the King, soon offered Hemalatha a job in the palace of the prince since she was a psychologist and she was invited to meet him for royal lunch. Hemalatha informed the prince that she will be visiting him by the end of January. The person then said she has to pay Rs 5 lakh to get the entry card for the palace. She transferred money through Western Union. Soon after this, there was no more message from the account, said a police officer who handled the case. Only when she went to Dubai in person and was denied entry to the palace she realised that she had been cheated. The palace security staff told her that several people had approached them with similar messages. Hemalatha later complained to the Indian embassy in Dubai as directed by Dubai police. As per the advice of Indian embassy officials, she lodged a complaint with Central Crime Branch (CCB). To support her claim, the woman has submitted her conversation with the verified Twitter handle. The case was initially handled by the cyber crime wing and now with the job racket wing of the crime branch. Since the Twitter account of the Prince had been active, police suspect whether his direct messages alone were hacked and utilised to con people. The victim had told police that when she posted her ordeal in social media, many replied saying that they too were similarly cheated. Chennai police officials said they have also sought clarifications from Twitter. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP of toying with the sentiments of Sikhs, who were seeking justice even after three decades of the 1984 riots. BJP national secretary RP Singh said the AAP had promised to send the Congress leaders involved in the anti-Sikh riots to jail after coming to power but it is now entreating the party for an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. He also urged Sikh AAP legislators Jagdeep, Jarnail and Avtar Singh to resign with immediate effect. The silence of three Sikh MLAs is hurting the community and we demand that these Sikh MLAs should resign. The AAP is toying with our sentiments, the BJP leader said at a press meet, adding that the effort of alliance with the Congress is adding insult to the injury of the Sikhs. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE Delhi BJP vice-president Rajiv Babbar, its Sikh cell convener Sardar Kuldeep Singh, media co-incharge Neelkant Bakshi and spokesperson Ashok Goel Devraha was present at the event. The AAP had, in its 2013 election manifesto, promised that it will ensure punishment to the Congress leaders guilty of the massacre of Sikhs and to ensure justice to the Sikh community besides reinvestigating the cases which were closed. , Singh said. It also promised employment to the victims. The AAP has misled and betrayed the Sikhs and the community will give them a befitting reply. Babbar said it was the BJP, which had formed an SIT for an impartial inquiry into the riot cases. SIT formed by the BJP led to the conviction and life imprisonment of a former Congress MP. None of the guilty will escape from the clutches of the Modi government. The Sikhs of Delhi will never forgive the Kejriwal government for betraying them, the BJP leader asserted. Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have sealed a deal for seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital and an official announcement is likely on Thursday, senior Congress leaders, privy to the development, said. A senior Congress functionary said both parties have agreed on a 4:3 seat sharing formula (4 for AAP and 3 for Congress) in Delhi and negotiations for 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana are on the way and an arrangement would be in place soon. We are 99% sure of clinching a seat deal in Haryana. Talks are on at different levels. They have realized that our demand isnt unreasonable. We, too, acknowledge that they are right in pitching for an alliance in the state. Its (seat deal in Delhi and Haryana) is in the best interests of both parties. The talks are more in favour of a deal and not otherwise, a Congress leader said. PC Chacko, AICC in charge of Delhi, confirmed that a seat-sharing deal for Delhi has been reached and talks are at an advanced stage for a similar poll arrangement in Haryana. Chacko and AAPs Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh have been leading the negotiations for the two parties. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE While the Congress claimed a seat arrangement was already in place, Singh denied a deal had been reached and the blamed the former for the delay. We are ready to ally with the Congress to stop the BJP. However, Congress isnt willing to join hands with us. Its unfortunate that even after so much effort (to clinch a seat deal), the Congress isnt ready for a compromise, Singh said. Earlier on Wednesday, Singh met CM Arvind Kejriwal at his residence and a seat-sharing arrangement for Haryana was discussed. In Haryana, we offered six seats to the Congress. However, the statements made by Ghulam Nabi Azad clearly show that they are not serious about stopping Modi from returning for a second term as PM. They are not ready to compromise, Singh said. Azad, the Congress in-charge of Haryana, claimed there had been no talks with AAP for a seat deal in the state. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: At a time of widespread agricultural distress caused by successive droughts, unremunerative farming and debt-trapped rural economies, a young man with his mobile app is showing how change can be brought in the life of farmers at the grassroot level. In 2016, V. Naveen Kumar, who had no personal knowledge of agriculture, was so moved by the suicide of a farmer in a village in his native Warangal district of Telangana that for the next three months he ran around like a man possessed, meeting farmers to understand their problems. He interacted with agri-entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to find if there is a way he can bring some change in the lives of the financially besieged farmers. Today, over 1.24 lakh farmers in Telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh use his mobile app NaPanta to avail a host of services, all free of cost. And this MBA degree holder is satisfied that he is contributing his mite to bring some change in the way they practise agriculture. NaPanta, which was started in June 2017, saw, surprisingly, thousands of farmers download the app. The launch of the pocket-friendly Reliance Jio and the boom in use of WhatsApp brought more people on the platform. The app, which provides all farming-related information and communication in Telugu on a single platform, is significantly reducing the time and cost of cultivation for a farmer in real time. I am confident that if farmers follow my platform, they will be able to save 20 per cent on expenditure and get 10 per cent extra yield. We can make 30 per cent difference, V. Naveen Kumar, Founder and Managing Director, NaPanta said. While the country has many apps to help farmers, there is no single app covering the entire gamut of agriculture activity ranging from the selection of crops to locate the market offering the highest price for their produce. From advisory services and weather information to market prices and e-commerce, the digital platform offers comprehensive agri eco-system. The app has tools like crop expenditure (which helps farmers track their expenses in an organized manner), crop protection, weekly agro advisory, agri forum, market price, agri e-commerce, crop insurance, weather, food processing technologies, and soil testing information. A farmer can also buy or rent an agri-equipment as per the requirements of his crop cycle and can also sell his produce for the highest price without any middleman. The app also allows farmers to access real-time and dynamic information pertaining to daily market prices of 300 agri-commodities across over 3,500 markets, along with three-year price trend. Currently available in Telugu and English, NaPanta App provides complete pest and disease management details, covering 90 crops and with suggestions about 3,000 pesticide products. According to him, for all their requirements, small and marginal farmers depend on third parties like distributors of the companies. With no knowledge of agriculture practices and requirements of a particular farmer, they try to push their products for some extra profit and as a result the farmers either suffer crop losses or end up incurring huge expenditure. With agriculture extension officers of the government more focused on clerical related activities rather than extending actual help, he believes there is a huge gap between farmers and the government initiated activity. Farming is not depending on a single advisory. It is a combination of various services. We identified all that a farmer needs in day to day life and ensured that he has easy access to the advisory so that whenever hes in doubt, he can get it cleared right then, he said. Naveen said several states including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were showing interest in the platform. The app will be available in Hindi and Tamil in June-July this year. If everything goes well in next three to five years, we will have our presence in seven to nine states, said Naveen, who heads a five-member team. While the information on app will clear regular doubts of farmers, for specific doubts a farmer can ask questions to a panel which includes agriculture scientist and experts. NaPanta, an incubator of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) also gets the institutes help in business activity, reaching the farmers and engagement with agri-input companies. The startup, which can sustain for the next six months on its own, is receiving proposals from different investment companies and Naveen says hell go with anyone is close to his idea. With a huge amount of data being generated on the digital platform, Naveen embarked on building big-data architecture with crowd-sourcing information. It is building a database with information on major crops in a particular area, major insects which affect a crop, cropping system, sequential cropping model, pesticides and where the farmers sell their produce. This kind of crowd-sourcing information is not available in the agriculture sector in India. We are getting information from actual farmers and not third parties. Nithya Gnanapandithan By Express News Service About a third of the way into Yeo Siew Huas A Land Imagined, one of the characters, Mindy (Luna Kwok), a girl who works at a cybercafe, says to Wang (Liu Xiaoyi), a migrant Chinese construction worker: There is no need for visas. There are no borders. Thats true freedom. Shes talking about swimming across the ocean to catch a boat and leave Singapore (where the film is set, and where both these characters feel trapped). As someone whos been a migrant in a land not my own, I could strongly relate to the sentiment. However, I was a privileged white-collar migrant, unlike those this film speaks about. So, while I can empathise with the sense of insecurity, of your life being at the mercy of forces outside your own control, the kind of struggles faced by the migrants in this film are a far cry from any Ive known. They are like Wang largely Chinese and Bangladeshi construction workers employed by a shady company that is in the land reclamation business. These are people we wouldnt normally associate with Singapore, but theyre essential to the countrys infrastructure. Singapore is known for its land reclamation projects, and thanks to this process of creating new land from the ocean (by filling it with sand), its land area has been increased by 23 per cent since the countrys founding, with plans for further growth. And migrant workers, according to the director, form the overwhelming majority of the workforce for these projects. In fact, in interviews, hes said that the films title is a reference to both the land of Singapore Wang tells Mindy the sand for the reclamation comes from other South East Asian countries, with the one they are lying on being from Malaysia, to which Mindy replies, Doesnt that mean we are no longer in Singapore? I dont need a boat or a plane. and to the demographic of the city-state, since the majority of Singaporeans today are descendants of immigrants Yeo himself is a second-generation Singaporean. Also, like most Singaporeans, Yeo, with his privileged background, is quite removed from the reality of these migrant workers. So the character of Lok (Peter Yu), the cop who investigates the disappearance of Wang, acts as the directors (and our) surrogate. We see the lives, living conditions, the practical slavery of a work situation Wangs foreman inadvertently lets slip that they hold the workers passport, before quickly adding that its so the workers dont lose them and even the hopes and fears of the migrants through his eyes at first, before moving on to Wangs perspective. It doesnt take long for Yeo to set the scene for us either. For instance, though Lok quickly turns his focus to find out what happened to Wang, and his Bangladeshi friend, Ajit, its telling that the cops are initially called in to investigate the disappearance of the company truck that was with Wang, not the man himself. Wangs boss even expresses indignation when the cop points out that hes not been to work for a week. Thats how much a migrant life is worth. All of this might make A Land Imagined sound like a dry documentary, but its anything but. The film won the highest prize at the Locarno Film Festival (one of the longest-running and most prestigious of film festivals) as well as several other awards around the world. And its easy to see why. Its basic structure is that of a neo-noir mystery, framed around the disappearance and investigation, but theres a very dream-like quality to the film sleep and dreams are a major theme as well. Theres a touch of Haruki Murakami in the screenplay and the way the narrative switches between the two protagonists, Lok and Wang (the first such switch is particularly impressive). Theres also a touch of Blade Runner about the film, especially the synth-heavy soundtrack, and the way the landscapes are filled with construction sites, machinery, and other paraphernalia, suggests a current-day equivalent of the dystopian cyberpunk backdrop of that classic film. Even on a small screen, this film is a treat to the senses, though I do wish it either gets a theatrical release or comes to a film festival nearby, because this film almost demands a big screen. Yeos film also demands repeat viewings, and for this reason, Im glad its available on Netflix. But cinematic merits aside, this is an important film that needed to be made. In one of the most striking sequences of the film, where Wang is playing an FPS video game, he tells a fellow player about how he dreamed of his own death. He says, It was like being swallowed. Slowly sinking downwards. It was as if I was being forgotten by a kind of ignorance. A Land Imagined needed to be made so that all the Wangs of this world are not forgotten by our ignorance. (A Land Imagined is streaming on Netflix.) By Express News Service TikTok cannot be downloaded anymore in India. The hugely popular has been pulled out from Google and Apple app stores after the Madras High Court banned it. The judgment on April 3 had directed the government to ban the app since it allegedly showed pornographic and 'shady' content. We spoke to some of the people whom the app turned it into stars to gauge their reaction: Merin Mariya It was a heartbreaking news for the Tik Tok stars in the state as the Chinese app of creating and sharing videos has been banned. The ban came in the light of the problems it created including sexual exploitation. When the Madras High Court banned the app recently, Android has removed it from the play store blocking new users from downloading the app. For Tik Tok stars, the ban was unfortunate and unacceptable as it once gave them a platform to be recognised and acceptable among the general public and even helped a few to achieve their lifetime goal of fame and exposure. Sruthi Thampi One of the most common names heard among the Tik Tok followers, she has done more than eight hundred videos in the last year. "Tik Tok gave me a life and it helped me achieve my goals. People from all over the world recognise me and even my identity has been associated with Tik Tok. It is heartbreaking and hapless. My acting dream was fulfilled through the Tik Tok platform and I have been invited to inaugurate shows in Kerala and in UAE just because of the reach I got through the app," she said. Sruthi added that even though the app is banned she is happy about the achievements and recognition it has contributed to building a career in the film industry. Anchal V Dominic For Anchal, Tik Tok was an addiction. The second-year degree student began creating videos in Tik Tok nine months ago and are generally known as miss cuteness among her followers. "Even though it's been banned, the only solace is that I can still make videos and is available on Apple phones. Tik Tok as a social media platform has the highest reach among youngsters as most of them see videos to pass their free time. Comments and likes and shares are going to be missed. I have been invited to reality shows and inaugural functions on the tag line 'Tik Tok' star," she said. Anchal is currently doing a Web series which also came to her through Tik Tok. Along with Tik Tok followers, she also got invites from companies to promote their products on her Instagram platform which in a way helped her financially too. Krishna Jeev TR A Polymer engineering student known to TikTokian's as 'Fukru' says that Tik Tok platform gave him the confidence to start a Web series scripted and directed by himself on YouTube. "Unlike other Tik Tokian's, I became famous through comedy voice overs created by myself on Tik Tok. I owned a series called 'Psychopath' on Tik Tok, comedy videos of 15 to 1 minute scripted and acted by myself were presented through the platform and it gave me immense confidence to start a new venture on You Tube," he said. Krishna also added that when trolling became unbearable he decided to quit a day before the ban actually happened which made it easy for him to cope with it. Pranav P When Pranav created a video using the background song from the movie 'Thattathin Marayathu', it was a sudden hit among youngsters and gave him the title of a 'romantic hero'. "Finding content for Tik Tok became a habit and I was always looking for fascinating content generation. Travel, food and everyday activities became a trend in my Tik Tok profile and it also got me movie offers," he said. BRUSSELS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission published on Wednesday for public consultation a list of U.S. goods worth 20 billion U.S. dollars that it might target for additional tariffs, as counter measures against what Brussels says are American subsidies to Boeing. There has been a decade-long fight in the World Trade Organization between Brussels and Washington over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing, the world's two leading large aircraft makers. On March 28, the WTO's Appellate Body made a ruling regarding the European Union's complaint that the U.S. illegally subsidized Boeing. Washington called the ruling at the time a "major win" for the United States, saying the ruling rejected "28 of 29 EU claims" and rejected "arguments by the EU that the U.S. federal and state programs gave more than 10 billion U.S. dollars in subsidies to Boeing large civil aircraft. But the European Commission said "EU scores final victory in the WTO Boeing dispute", saying it vindicates "the EU's long held position that the United States has taken no steps to comply with WTO rules on support to Boeing." The European Commission added at the time that "the ruling concludes definitively that the U.S. has continued to subsidise the company illegally despite previous rulings condemning this behaviour. This has caused significant harm to its European competitor Airbus." At an earlier stage of this dispute in 2012, the EU made a request to the WTO to authorise the adoption of countermeasures against the estimated damage caused to Airbus by the U.S. support to Boeing. "Based on this request, it is however for a WTO appointed arbitrator to determine the exact appropriate level of countermeasures. The EU is taking steps towards requesting the arbitrator to resume its work," the European Commission said on Wednesday. The list published Wednesday serves as a benchmark as how the EU would retaliate against the U.S. subsidies to Boeing. "A final list, based on the products included in today's list, will be drawn up by the EU taking into account the arbitrator's decision in the near future," the European Commission said. The list published covers a range of items, that overall represent around 20 billion U.S. dollars of United States exports into the European Union, from aircraft to chemicals and notably agri-food products such as frozen fish, citrus fruits and ketchup. On the other side of the Atlantic, Washington is requesting to impose approximately 11 billion U.S. dollars in annual countermeasures in response to what it says are the damaging trade effects of the EU subsidies to Airbus. A WTO arbitrator is currently evaluating the U.S request. POSSIBLE DIALOGUE? "Our ultimate goal is to reach an agreement with the EU to end all WTO-inconsistent subsidies to large civil aircraft. When the EU ends these harmful subsidies, the additional U.S. duties imposed in response can be lifted," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement on April 8. Whether additional tariffs will actually come into effect remains to be seen, but Brussels is clearly seeking to resolve the issue through dialogue. Brussels doesn't want a "tit-for-tat," the European Commissioner for trade Cecilia Malmstrom said in a Wednesday statement, "while we need to be ready with countermeasures in case there is no other way out, I still believe that dialogue is what should prevail between important partners such as the EU and the U.S., including in bringing an end to this long-standing dispute. The EU remains open for discussions with the U.S., provided these are without preconditions and aim at a fair outcome." But the transatlantic trade ties have been under pressure for some time, especially since the Trump administration slapped tariffs on EU's metal exports in the name of national security, where Brussels hit back with tariffs of its own. U.S. President Donald Trump also threatened the EU with fresh levies on cars made in the EU. By Online Desk Tamil Nadu registered 70.9 per cent polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats Thursday even as paramilitary forces fired in the air near Arakkonam in Vellore district to disperse a restive crowd. The bypoll to 18 assembly constituencies held along the Lok Sabha polls saw 67.08 per cent voting percentage. The polling percentages are as of 7 PM. Voting drew to a close in the state at 6 PM, except in Madurai, where polling has been allowed till 8 PM in view of the local temple festival. All voters who had turned up at polling stations ahead of 6 PM were allowed to vote. A senior police official told PTI that paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam to disperse crowds and more details were awaited. FOLLOW LIVE COVERAGE OF LOK SABHA PHASE II HERE Arani Lok Sabha seat registered 76.49 per cent turnout and the voting percentage in other Parliamentary seats ranged between 55.07 (lowest in Kanyakumari) and Chidambaram 70.73 per cent. The assembly polls saw Harur in Dharmapuri district recording a turnout of 79.91 per cent while that in other seats were between 51.44 (lowest in Periyakulam) and 78.12 per cent (Nilakkottai). Perambur in the city recorded 59.45 per cent votes. Earlier, the DMK had charged the ruling AIADMK with planning to do "booth-capturing" towards the close of voting. Tamil Nadu has a total of 67,720 polling stations and 7,780 booths have been categorised as critical and vulnerable where more Central Armed Police Forces personnel, and micro-observers were deployed. DMK member hacked to death A DMK member was hacked to death allegedly by supporters of an AIADMK functionary in full public view here Thursday, police said. M S Pandian, in his late 30s, was attacked by the group with sickles on the busy Keezhavali road in the morning. He was rushed to a hospital where he died without responding to treatment, they said. He was nephew of former DMK zonal chairman V K Gurusamy and the attack by supporters of local AIADMK leader Rajapandian was due to previous enmity, police said adding it was not related to election. By IANS PATNA: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday filed a defamation case against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his reported statement that "all thieves have Modi in their surnames". The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader told the media here that his lawyer filed the case in the Chief Judicial Magistrate's (CJM) court in Patna under Section 500 of the IPC. He added that the court was likely to hear the case on April 22. Sushil Modi had announced on Tuesday that he would be filing the case against Gandhi as it "it defames and hurts the sentiments of everyone who has the Modi surname". He has also objected to Gandhi's 'chowkidar chor hai' jibe. Nidhi Tiwari By Online Desk April which is celebrated as National Child Abuse Prevention Month has ironically put the spotlight on how poorly India fares on the child protection index. The brutal murder of a seven-year-old boy in Kerala at the hands of his mother's lover is a stark reminder that we as a country have failed in protecting our children. In India where a staggering 53 per cent of children the highest in the world- admitted to being sexually harassed, according to the 2017 NCPCR report, child abuse still remains a taboo topic that is brushed under the carpet. It is reported that around 174 children go missing every day in India out of which only 50 per cent are found. Many of these children are kidnapped, trafficked or murdered. In some cases, they run away to escape violence or marry their lovers. In a situation where crimes against children are rampant, why are so few offenders brought to book? Being unaware is the most common reason for child abuse going unchecked. In many cases, the kids are too young to understand or comprehend the abuse or the parents are not able to identify something unusual in their behaviour. ALSO READ: System fails to stop child abuse Although the act of abusing a child in any form- neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, cyber-bullying or sending and receiving explicit content, emotional abuse or exploitation- is a crime, parents often refrain from filing a police complaint even if the child has brought the incident to their attention. The main reason is the social stigma and isolation which follows in the wake of a complaint. 93 per cent of abuse victims personally know their abuser, who might be a family member, family friend, teacher, parent of another kid or someone in a position of power. In such cases, many parents desire to avoid embarrassment or confrontation. The harassment and intimidation of those who complain also serve as a deterrent to others. In October 2018, the sexual abuse of children in a Chennai school was reported and what followed was nothing less than a nightmare for the two families who filed the complaint. They were harassed and intimidated by the school, with no help from the police. "The investigating officials in the case are unnecessarily harassing us by showing the children at least 40 to 50 photos and confusing them by telling them that they would have seen sexual activities of their parents and told imaginary stories," said one complainant. What can parents do to prevent or identify child abuse? Be aware of children's surroundings and be an integral part of their lives to establish a strong trustworthy bond with them. This will help alert parents to any change in their behavioural patterns in case anything goes wrong. Be attentive to kids and dont brush off their talk as childish banter. In several instances, the statements of young kids have helped nab abusers or form a case against them. In the case of the Kerala boys murder, it was the victim's four-year-old brother who disclosed to the authorities that his brother was abused. ALSO READ: Government asks Google, Apple to comply with Madras HC order prohibiting TikTok download Keep a check on children's mobile phones and internet usage. Having the internet at ones fingertips has made it very easy for sexual predators to trap innocent kids and exploit them. The Madras High Court's order to ban TikTokfollowed by its removal from the Google and Apple app stores can be seen as a stepping stone towards regulating the use of the internet by kids. Teach kids the concept of good touch and bad touch at an early age. How can schools and the government help? All institutions must install CCTV cameras on their premises. Schools must go through a screening process to flag any unusual behaviour. Staff must be sensitized to equip them to handle complaints responsibly. Undue delays in investigation and trial processes must be avoided. By PTI DHAKA: Popular Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed, who was expelled by the Indian government, has apologised for campaigning for a candidate in West Bengal, terming it as an "inadvertent mistake" and a step taken out of love of the people of the state. The Indian government on Tuesday issued a 'Leave India' notice to Ahmed and cancelled the business visa given to him for allegedly campaigning for a Trinamool Congress candidate in the state. The actor has also been "blacklisted" by the Union Home Ministry, jeopardising the chances of his future travel to India. "I apologise for my inadvertent mistake. I hope everyone will forgive me," he was quoted as saying by bdnews24 news portal. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE Ferdous said he understood that it was a 'mistake' to take part in election campaign of another country, he said in his statement to the news website on Wednesday after returning home the previous night. He said he had been 'driven by emotion from the love of the people of West Bengal' when he had joined the campaign along with his Indian co-actors. Ahmed, along with a few Indian actors, allegedly took part in campaigning for TMC's Raiganj candidae Kahaiyalal Agarwal. The Bangladeshi film star was reportedly seen seeking votes for Aarwal at campaign rallies across Hemtabad and Karandighi near the Indo-Bangladesh border. Ahmed won Bangladesh National Film Award for best actor four times for his roles in the films Hothat Brishti (1998), Gangajatra (2009), Kusum Kusum Prem (2011), Ek Cup Cha (2014). Another Bangladeshi actor Ghazi Abdul Noor was on Thursday asked to leave India immediately after he attended a political rally in West Bengal. "Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his overstay in contravention of visa rules," a home ministry official said. Sana Shakil By Express News Service Claiming that the BJP would get a clear majority in the ongoing elections, Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh told Sana Shakil his party would repeat its 2014 performance in UP while gaining ground in other states. He called the Congress' promise of Nyay a fraud and blamed it for politicising the Balakot airstrikes. BJP chief Amit Shah has said the party will make big gains in Odisha, West Bengal and the east to offset the possible losses in big states such as Uttar Pradesh. There wont be any loss in UP but Amit Shah is correct, we will do very well in West Bengal and Odisha. We will do well across the country, in many other states. Our performance will be excellent in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and the Northeast too. Your party recently lost the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh. Will the farmers anger and the Assembly poll setback impact your prospects in the Lok Sabha battle? During the assembly elections, the public sentiment was clear that whatever the result in the Vidhan Sabha (Assembly), they would vote for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoys huge credibility and the people trust him. As for the anger among farmers, there may have been some displeasure with the government but farm distress was not the reason why we lost the three states. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE Congress leaders like Rajeev Gowda have alleged that the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi is a cash-for-votes scam. How do you respond to that and what do you have to say about the Nyay scheme? The PM Kisan is an income support scheme, not a dole. It is meant to double their income. On the other hand, there is no clarity on Nyay. Nyay is a lie, a fraud. Congress knows they will not be able to form the government so they are talking in the air. What do you think are the BJPs prospects in UP? What are the challenges from the SP-BSP-RLD gathbandhan? People know that the alliance wont work. To win elections it is important for a political party or an alliance to have credibility. The BJP has a lot of credibilities which the gathbandhan lacks. The SP-BSP-RLD alliance is not credible and the public will never accept them. They have always spoken about sending each other to jail. They are rivals. They have come together just to defeat the BJP. The people can see through all this and they will not vote for the alliance. This alliance will not have any impact on our votes. It is not necessary that their traditional vote-bank will get combined because they have come together. We are dead sure that even 70% of their votes will not get transferred. We will get the same number of seats in UP as the last time. Some armed forces veterans have written a letter to the President objecting to slogans like Modiji ki sena. What do you have to say to that? This is a politically-motivated letter. Our party is not doing this but if our armed forces are doing great work, should we not highlight it or appreciate them? The (Balakot) airstrikes were politicised by the Congress and some other political parties, which kept asking how many terrorists were killed. In 1971, Bangladesh was carved out of Pakistan because of our armed forces and Indira Gandhi won accolades for that. Similarly, Modiji is being praised for the airstrikes. Whats the issue? The Congress has promised to scrap the sedition law, what are your views on this? No one can be allowed to break the country. We will not allow this. We will strengthen the law but at the same time we will ensure that the people who misuse the law are punished. Opposition leaders claim that the situation is going from bad to worse in Kashmir. While more terrorists are being killed, more security personnel have also lost their lives compared to 2009-2014. Our security forces, paramilitary and intelligence agencies are doing very well in Kashmir and this is why we have been able to eliminate a record number of terrorists. To our bravehearts who have lost their lives while fighting terrorists, I assure you that their martyrdom will not go in vain. I would like to ask the people who are questioning our government what did they do about curbing terrorism? They did not do anything. It is alleged that the appointment of interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma has not yielded the desired results. We tried everything to resolve the Kashmir issue but what do we do if no one is interested in talks? From giving amnesty to first-time stone-throwers to declaring a ceasefire during Ramzan, we tried everything. I even said we are ready to talk to all stakeholders. You had not taken any explicit position on Articles 370 and 35A. Yet the abrogation of Article 370 and the annulment of Article 35A were included in the BJP manifesto. What changed? My stand cannot be different from my partys stand. If some leader says Kashmir should have a separate Prime Minister, why should we not have a clear stand on these issues? We have been left with no option but to declare that these Articles should be done away with. Yes, the situation has changed. Articles 370 and 35A were not given to promote statements like these or call for a separate Prime Minister for Kashmir. Also, the local politicians who are outraged with our stand should spell out how Articles 35A and 370 have helped and benefited the people of Kashmir. Has it solved the problem of unemployment? Local leaders need to answer as they are the ones who have been ruling Kashmir for so many years. The central government has always given maximum assistance to Jammu & Kashmir but where does all that money go? Local political parties need to introspect. The Naga framework agreement announced with much fanfare is yet to reach its logical conclusion. Why do you think its taking this long? These things take time but things are moving in the right direction. These problems are old, from the pre-independence era. We have been able to reach a consensus on most of the issues. You claimed to have reduced the influence of Maoists to small pockets but they still managed to carry out multiple attacks before and during elections. Most recently your own MLA was killed. What are your views? Earlier, more security personnel used to get killed in Naxal areas as compared to Naxals. Now, this has reversed. The situation has improved to a great extent. The number of districts affected by left-wing extremism has come down. The number of incidents has also come down. This incident (the MLAs killing) is very unfortunate but even in this case, intelligence agencies had warned the state government that there could be a big incident. On Sabarimala, your party says the bar on entry of women is a matter of faith which should not be tinkered with. If that is so, why is a Uniform Civil Code being promised? Is that not interfering with the personal laws of some communities? What about instant triple talaq? I personally believe no one should interfere with faith and traditions. As for a Uniform Civil Code, Goa has a common civil code. Who is facing problems there? Muslims and Christians in Goa are fine with it. We will make all efforts to build a consensus on the Uniform Civil Code. We will take all precautions to ensure no ones faith, beliefs and traditions are interfered with while bringing it in. Instant triple talaq is not about faith, that cannot be compared with the Sabarimala issue. Do you think your party could have a post-poll-alliance with YS Jaganmohan Reddy and K Chandrashekhar Rao? This is a hypothetical question. The BJP will attain a clear majority but still the government that we will form will include our alliance partners. At the end of five years as the Home Minister, what will you count as your achievements in Kashmir and the Northeast? What were the biggest challenges? Kashmir issue is an old problem. It needs to be resolved. It will take time but we are confident that we will be able to resolve it. We might change the policy. We may take more steps, new steps if required. We will do whatever it takes to resolve the problem. It is the separatists who are creating problems in Kashmir, not the Kashmiris. I am not talking about leaders but I am talking about separatists who toe Pakistans line. Coming to the Northeast, after 1997 these five years have been the best for the Northeastern states. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act was removed from several parts in the Northeast. But your government has faced a lot of opposition on the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Bill. What will you do with foreigners staying illegally? Every country should know the number of citizens and foreigners on its soil. Something will have to be done. After the NRC list is finalised, we will talk to our neighbouring countries and then decide what needs to be done. We will not have an inhuman approach. What do you make of Imran Khans statement that peace has a better chance if the BJP returns to power? He need not say all this. He need not to talk on Indian politics. Pakistan should deal with terrorists first. They should not let terrorism grow on their soil. Everything else can be discussed later. Ritwika Mitra By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Seventy-five human rights defenders will be on vigil across states during elections in identified sensitive constituencies across 20 states to monitor any form of violence against Dalits during the voting process. The National Dalit Movement for Justice (NDMJ) a coalition of Dalit rights organisations is coordinating with volunteers the move. If the volunteers notice any violence during the voting, they will immediately inform the electoral officer and the police. These defenders are trained and to spot any form of atrocity against Dalits. During the first phase, it was elementary. It would be intensified from the next phase, said V A Ramesh Nathan, general secretary, NDMJ. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE The focus would be on Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat. The list, however, is not comprehensive. The coalition recently monitored the situation in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar during the first phase of the polling season. In Andhra Pradesh, there were cases where Dalits were not being allowed to vote, which were taken up by the volunteers and the issue was resolved, said Kamalchand Kispott, policy and advocacy officer, NDMJ. Coordinated The volunteers will report on any atrocities to a control room, which will then initiate action needed Sana Shakil By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh distanced himself from communal speeches by various political leaders, including his partys own UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Maneka Gandhi, during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. I believe no one should make appeals on caste, creed, religion and communal lines. I am strictly against politics being done on a communal basis, Singh said in an interview. A five-time MP and a former BJP president, he said he would never endorse communal politics by anyone, even if it be from his own party members. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE The Election Commission recently took action against Adityanath and Gandhi for their remarks against Muslims at campaign rallies. BSP supremo Mayawati also faced the poll panels music for seeking votes in the name of religion during a public meeting in Deoband on April 7. The EC also barred Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan from campaigning for 72 hours for his alleged sexist remarks against BJP candidate from Rampur, Jaya Prada. All parties, organisations and individuals should try to evoke a sense of confidence among the people. No one should try to spread fear among people of a certain faith or community, said Singh, who is seeking a sixth term in the Lok Sabha. By PTI NEW DELHI: High voter turnout marked polling in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday covering 95 constituencies in 11 states and Puducherry, with both the Union territory and Manipur clocking a percentage of 80. The Srinagar seat in Jammu and Kashmir recorded a percentage of only 14.8. Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 while in Puducherry it was 80.47. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said in Delhi that the overall turnout in the second phase was 66.63 per cent. Officials said the figures are likely to go up as there are many people in queues even after the scheduled timing for voting elapsed. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE Except for a few sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal and Manipur and EVM glitches in some seats, polling was by and large peaceful. Two violence-related deaths were reported since yesterday, including that of a woman polling personnel who was killed by extremists on Wednesday in Odisha. Another death was reported Thursday. Two other people, including a voter and a polling officer, died of an apparent heart attack. Referring to the issue of glitches in EVMs, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain said a total of 1000 ballot units, 769 control units 2,766 paper trail machines were replaced. Tamil Nadu registered 63.73 per cent polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 67.08 per cent in bypolls to 18 assembly constituencies. In Madurai, polling took place till 8 PM in view of the local temple festival. Paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam to disperse crowds. An estimated 61.84 per cent turnout was reported in the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which is witnessing a direct contest between the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the BJP. ALSO READ | Lok Sabha polls goes off by and large peacefully in Tamil Nadu: Poll percentage may touch 72 per cent Puducherry registered 80.5 per cent polling in the lone Lok Sabha seat while in the by-election to the Thattanchavady assembly segment, 76 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. Srinagar had also witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country in 2014 at 25.86 per cent. No untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 70 per cent polling. Polling was also held in 10 seats in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat in Manipur besides 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha. Polling in Tamil Nadu's Vellore LS seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Isolated incidents of violence, road blockades, bombings and police firing marred polling in the three Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal with 76 per cent of voter turnout recorded. Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control a mob, who threw stones at them in Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra area, an EC official said. A reporter and a camera person of a local news channel were allegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in Raiganj constituency. CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj, Md Salim, claimed his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur. Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, however, described the voting as "more or less peaceful" with a few isolated incidents reported from places in the three seats. ALSO READ | Lok Sabha elections 2019: Bengal polls more or less peaceful, says Vivek Dube In Manipur, voting was stalled in two polling booths of the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency after violence broke out over alleged proxy voting and dispute among election agents. In one of the booths at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality in Imphal East district, unidentified men stormed into a polling station around 11. 30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that "proxy voting" was being carried out in the station, officials said. In the other booth in the same area, a scuffle broke out between the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3pm, derailing the voting process. Sources in the election office said that re-polling was likely in the two booths. An average 57.22 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in 10 constituencies of Maharashtra. Around 69 per cent polling was recorded in Chhattisgarh's three Lok Sabha seats, all having Naxal presence, amid tight security. According to police, except for an IED blast triggered by Maoists in Mohla-Manipur assembly segment of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, no other untoward incident was reported in the poll-bound areas. About 64 per cent voters exercised their franchise in five Odisha Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats, some of them in Naxal-affected areas. In Assam, Nowgong recorded the state's highest polling of 75.71 per cent, followed by Mangaldoi and Silchar with 75.07 per cent and 71.79 per cent respectively. In Karimganj, the figure was 71.41 per cent and Autonomous District witnessed the lowest voting at 69.51 per cent. The five seats in Bihar saw an estimated 62.52 per cent voting. The Election Commission put the overall voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh at 62.30 per cent. Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. Abhijit Muley By Express News Service MUMBAI: Ace industrialist Mukesh Ambani and billionaire banker Uday Kotak have endorsed city Congress chief and party candidate from the South Mumbai Lok Sabha constituency, Milind Deora. Milind is the man for South Mumbai. Having represented South Mumbai for ten years - I believe that Milind has in-depth knowledge of social, economic and cultural ecosystem of South Mumbai, Ambani is seen saying in a video released by Deoras election team here on Thursday. In his support for Deora Kotak said, Milind is truly Mumbai ka Connection. I genuinely believe Milind understand South Mumbai. His family is associated with Mumbai for a long time. The video also has testimonies of several other entrepreneur and traders, who have vouched support for Deora. Under Milinds leadership small and big enterprises will flourish in south Mumbai, they have said. From small shopkeepers to large industrialists - for everyone, South Mumbai means business. We need to bring businesses back to Mumbai and make job creation for our youth a top priority.#MumbaiKaConnection pic.twitter.com/d4xJnvhyKr Milind Deora (@milinddeora) April 17, 2019 We need to bring businesses back to Mumbai and make job creation for our youth a top priority, Deora said in his tweet with campaign tagline of Mumbai Ka Connection. Thanking all the industry captains and trade bodies for their overwhelming support Deora said, In the last five years industry and trade that is an integral part of the spirit of Mumbai lost its voice in the Parliament. I have humbled the support given by stalwarts like Shri Ambani and Shri Kotak. On my election to the Parliament, I will strive for the creation of a business-friendly environment that facilitate jobs and brings prosperity. Ambanis support to the city Congress chief has raised eyebrows on the backdrop of allegations levelled by Congress president Rahul Gandhi against Anil Ambani in the Rafael deal. Sitting MP Shiv Senas Arvind Sawant is seeking reelection from the constituency. Holistic development ensuring the growth at all the levels of our society. That's what our constitution upholds 'equality of status and of opportunity' and that's what Congress believes!#AbHogaNyay https://t.co/jYKXjqjCKp Raksha Ramaiah By PTI AHMEDABAD: Technocrat-turned-politician Sam Pitroda said Thursday that he feels there is something wrong with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). He can not pinpoint the flaw immediately and would need to study the machine for that, the Congress leader said. "As an engineer, as a technical expert, I am not satisfied with EVM," Pitroda said at a press conference here. "But I have not been able to pinpoint it because I do not have an EVM. If someone gives me an EVM to study for a year, then I can say something," he said. "You will have to understand the design, the software .... But one thing is for sure, there is something wrong with it. We do not know what is wrong with it," said Pitroda, who had served as adviser to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Opposition parties recently demanded counting of at least 50 per cent of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips during the Lok Sabha elections, claiming that EVM's reliability was doubtful. On the feasibility of the Nyay scheme announced by the Congress in its manifesto, he said it was framed after consulting experts from across the world, and makes economic sense. "Time has come for our country to think about 50 million poorest families. It is our moral responsibility to uplift them," he said, adding that for a three trillion dollars economy, funding the scheme will not be difficult as the country's economy was growing at 8 per cent annually. "The money will go into economy, will create jobs in rural areas," he said, adding that it will help the economy just as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) did. FOLLOW OUR FULL ELECTION COVERAGE HERE On Prime Minister Narendra Modi's allegation that the Congress neglected and did injustice to Gujarat, Pitroda said nobody could humiliate the state. "Many chief ministers came and went, but Gujarat has always done well because Gujaratis do well. And they do well not just in Gujarat but also in London, America... They do well everywhere. Nobody can humiliate Gujarat," he said. On Modi's barb that the Congress was "speaking the language of Pakistan" over surgical and air strikes carried out by the Indian forces inside Pakistan, Pitroda said, "Whatever you say, the prime minister and (BJP president) Amit Shah tag you as anti-national. "(That) The Congress party at the right time cut Pakistan into two pieces (in 1971) should tell you enough," he added. The fact that the Belt and Road project was initiated by China, but serves development interests of other countries is a confirmation of President Xi Jinpings belief that the world can work together for the betterment of humanity, with shared prosperity, and that poverty elimination is possible and can be speeded up within developing countries. President Xi looks at the benefits of the Belt and Road initiative in the lens of the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit, with a view to realizing common development and prosperity and building a community of shared future for mankind. According to the African Economic Outlook Report (AEO, 2018), poor infrastructure is highlighted as a key challenge to Africas inclusive growth. The report mentions that the problem is created by lack of investment in infrastructure, and Africa needs an estimate of $130170bn annually to overcome the problem. The building of roads, railways and waterways will increase continental connectivity to ease import and export. The One Belt One Road Initiative has significantly invested in improving infrastrure in Africa, for example, in Kenya where China has invested $14billion to build a Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) that stretches 485kms. The One Belt One Road initiative gives developing countries an opportunity to have space in the global economy, create jobs and guarantee prosperity. The Belt and Road initiative creates solutions to Africas continental development agenda 2063, and promotes The China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), started in October 2000, with the aim of strengthening cooperation between China and African countries. The Ethiopia-Djibouti 756km electric railway project enabled land-locked Ethiopia to be connected to the Mediterranean sea, hence making it easy to promote trade and movement of people not only with Djibouti, but also playing a significant role in continental integration and connecting to the outside world. At the time of inaugurating the Ethiopia- Djibouti Chinese built railway, the African |Union Advisor on Regional Integration, Rossette Nyirinkindi observed that, the project demonstrated Chinas commitment to supporting Africa in realizing the continent's aspirations for development. She further said that, "They (the Chinese) have demonstrated that they can stand by us to achieve our aspirations; and especially on infrastructure, this is a very good example of that very good cooperation." China and Africa, have opportunities of cooperation and have always been a community of shared interests. According to the statistics by China Customs, in January 2018, the import and export value of China-Africa trade amounted to US$16.5 billion, with Chinas exports to Africa amounting to US$8.31 billion, while Chinas imports from Africa stood at US$8.19 billion. China has remained Africas largest trading partner for nine consecutive years as major cooperation programs that deepened bilateral economic and trade exchanges, have been on the increase. During the FOCAC meeting that took place in December 2015, in Johannesburg, South Africa, President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion in form of aid and loans to the African continent. In July 2018, President Xi, visited Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa where he signed a number of cooperation agreements. In Senegal, President Macky Sall, noted that, "Senegal takes a positive view of China's role in Africa, for its contribution to peace and stability and equally ... for the financing of budgets." During the September 2018 Summit of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation held in Beijing, the Rwandan President Paul Kagame, noted in his speech that, Africas wish is to be a full and integral part of the Belt and Road Initiative. Kagame who also served as the African Union Chairman, further said, Chinas engagement in Africa has been deeply transformational, both internally, and with respect to Africas global position. That is why we now want to reinforce and scale up the Forum, in order to maximize the benefits. These statements from African leaders, is a great testimony that Chinas Belt and Road initiative is a great opportunity for Africas development. However, it is important to note that although African countries realize the benefits of partnering with China in promoting the Belt and Road projects, Western critics try to paint another picture of Africa being choked with Chinese debts that could leave African nations with no choice but to hand over controlling stakes in strategic assets to the Chinese government, and the re-colonization of Africa. This is not the case. The real fact is that China has challenged the decades long dominance of both US and EU in Africa and the above view is meant to bias African countries against China. African countries that struggle to pay their loans may have problems related bad negotiations skills, bad utilization of the loans or even high appetite for loans that may prove difficult to pay. In such cases, the problem is not attributed to the lender. Secondly, China loans have no strings attached unlike those given by Western financial institutions. In a study conducted in 2016, in thirty six countries by Afrobarometer, a Pan-African research network, an average of 63 percent of Africans are highly impressed by Chinas economic and political relationship with Africa. Former Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, once put it that, China which has fought its own battles to modernize, has a much greater sense of the personal urgency of development in Africa than many Western nations. As China prepares to host the second Belt and Road forum in April 2019, the writing is on the wall that the initiative connects world countries and promotes mutually beneficial projects for the improvement of the wellbeing of world populations and achievement of sustainable development goals. The author is a journalist based in Kigali, Rwanda, and is a commentator on political issues in Africa and editor of an upcoming book on China and Rwanda. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: Serving the 72-hour gag order imposed on him by the Election Commission of India, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is using the time visiting temples, including a revered shrine of Lord Hanuman, as if to reiterate that Bajrangbali is a matter of faith for him and not an issue of political discourse, which he is believed to have conveyed to the election commission while responding to its notice. The CM visited the temple town of Ayodhya to have darshan of Lord Ram at the makeshift temple at Ram Janmabhoomi and offered prayers to Lord Hanuman at Hanumangarhi temple, one of the most revered shrines of Lord Hanuman, on Wednesday. During his stay in the town, the CM met saints and seers and discussed the progress on mediation for the temple with them. FOLLOW OUR FULL ELECTION COVERAGE HERE The highlight of CM Yogis Ayodhya trip was his visit to a Dalit family. The CM shared a roti and a vegetable dish with the family of Mahavir. He enquired about our well-being and what we needed other than the house we got under the PMs housing scheme, said Mahavirs mother. Yogi to visit Kashi Vishwanath On the last day of the EC gag order, Yogi Adityanath will visit Kashi. He will not only visit Kashi Vishwanath temple but would also offer prayers and Sankat Mochan temple to seek blessings of Lord Hanuman. By PTI MUMBAI: The famous 'dabbawalas' (tiffin-box carriers) in Mumbai have announced their support for the Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha elections. "It is only the Shiv Sena, which always stood behind us for our welfare. It has also promised to construct a 'Dabbawala Bhavan' for us. Only the Sena has included Mumbai's dabbawalas in its 'Vision Mumbai' campaign and it has been taking several initiatives for our betterment," Subhash Talekar, president of Mumbai Dabbawala Association said on Thursday. Election to the six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai is scheduled to be held on April 29. Around 5,000 dabbawalas have been rendering their services to office-goers working in different parts of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane up to Virar in Palghar district. The dabbawalas' efficient system of delivering home-cooked meals to more than two lakh office-goers on time every day has drawn praise from across the world. Avay Shukla By The odds are stacked against the non-NDA opposition in the Lok Sabha polls. I am not speaking about the preferences of the voter, but about the electoral processes, which have been customised to suit the ruling party. Consider first the fact that the actual polling has been stretched out over an interminable seven phases lasting 40 days as if there is a total collapse of law and order in the country. The argument that this ensures a free and fair polling is specious because in fact it does just the opposite. Such an extended campaigning period stretches the resourcesmen, material and moneyof political parties but eminently suits the BJP and the government. The latter is flush with fundsit received Rs 1,200 crore in donations last year, as against Rs 200 crore for the Congress, and 95 per cent of all electoral bondsand can therefore sustain a longer campaign much better than the others. It is also interesting to note that the four states where the BJPs stakes are the highest, both in terms of retaining seats and gaining new ones, are the ones where the maximum number of phases have been notifiedUP, West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. Now, if indeed security was such a concern, surely it made more sense to saturate them with security personnel at one go and have the polling over within just one or two phases? The only party which gains with this absurd scheduling is the BJP because it will now allow PM Narendra Modi to campaign in each clutch of constituencies and states one after the other. Secondly, the electoral process has been vitiated, and the playing field distorted, by electoral bonds, which were introduced in 2017. This has ensured the financial superiority and resource advantage of the BJP over the others. Earlier, Big Business spread its donations over a number of political parties in order to hedge their bets because the contributions were public knowledge. The opacity built into the Electoral Bonds now ensures that only the government knows (through the banks). And this is a government with a track record of using enforcement agencies for political objectives. It would be a stupid industrialist who would now have the temerity to contribute to any party but the ruling party.To encourage even greater magnanimity from them, Union Minister Arun Jaitley removed the 7.5 per cent cap on political donations by companies and even permitted foreign companies to contribute. Is it therefore any surprise that of the Rs 215 crore worth of Electoral Bonds purchased in 2017-18, as much as Rs 210 crore went to the BJP? Electoral Bonds have been the most damaging perversion of Indias democratic process for they have put an unhealthy premium on money as the arbiter of elections. The ECI has to share a large part of the blame for allowing this, for in 2016-17 it did nothing substantial to stop their introduction, apart from mumbling its reservations about it to the government. The ECI is not subservient to the government; it is a constitutional body tasked with protecting the countrys electoral landscape. It was its duty to have immediately challenged the matter in the Supreme Court and obtained a stay. It lacked the courage to do so; it was left to a voluntary election watchdog and an RTI activist to do so. The SC has now asked all parties to submit the list of donors (unfortunately again in a sealed cover) to the ECI and shall finally decide on the matter soon, but the damage has been done. Unfortunately, its the same with the Model Code of Conduct which is no longer worth the paper it is written on. Minor infractions are noted and invite the usual notices, but no worthwhile action is ever taken on the more major violations, usually committed by the ruling party or its supporters within the government. The public speech of Kalyan Singh, the Rajasthan governor, seeking votes for the BJP was ignored by the ECI till a complaint was lodged. The ECI should have asked the President to sack the governor, or at least to censure him and send him on leave for the duration of the polling period. Instead, it forwarded a report to the president who has also forwarded it to the government. Rest assured nothing more will happen. The Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, a government employee, openly criticised Congress minimum income guarantee scheme; he should have been immediately removed from his post but the ECI was content to simply administer a tender rap on the knuckles. There have been other instances where an impartial ECI would have taken exemplary action: the announcement of the ASAT launch; UP Chief Minister Yogi Adithyanath calling the Army Modis Army. Yogi has been belatedly barred from campaigning for 72 hours, as have Mayawati and Azam Khan, but only after a public outcry and a stern notice by the SC. The ECI has redeemed itself somewhat by banning the release of the PMs biopic and asking Namo TV to pre-certify its programmes. But questions of its registration, funding and ownership still remain and the government is in no hurry to investigate them. And all this while chief secretaries and DGPs of opposition-ruled states are being shifted without assigning any cogent reasons. One wishes the ECI would stop just barking and bite more often. Its reluctance to take stern action does not live up to the Commissions glorious past when it had ensured the resignation of a Himachal governor for campaigning for his son and had debarred Bal Thackeray from contesting elections because he had indulged in hate speech. Of what use is a watchdog if it has no fight in it? By Express News Service BENGALURU: The High Court has set a deadline of eight weeks for payment of unpaid wages to workers, while upholding the minimum wages fixed by the labour department. The court has also said that the payment should be made with an interest at the rate of six per cent per annum from the date on which the same was otherwise payable. Justice Krishna S Dixit issued the directive while upholding the minimum wages notifications issued by the labour department. The court clarified that the interim orders granted earlier in this matters stand dissolved. The court also directed the labour department to accomplish the fixation/revision of minimum wages in respect of sectors falling within those notifications within six months. The directions were issued while disposing of the writ petitions filed by the employees/trade unions which had challenged the withdrawal of three Minimum Wages notifications and one draft notification. The court asked the labour department to issue the minimum wages notifications with retrospective effect from the respective dates on which minimum wages would have become payable. By Express News Service BENGALURU: The Income Tax department in a rare development, summoned and questioned two JDS supporters Chetan Gowda, son of Member of Parliament L R Shivarame Gowda, and P Ramesh with regards to a costly conversation. The two had a phone conversation recently, where Chetan told Ramesh that Rs 150 crore would be spent in Mandya for Nikhils election. The Income Tax said, in an official statement, said, With reference to their Rs 150 crore conversation, both of them were summoned by the Income Tax department. They have accepted that the conversation did take place. Further action is in progress. Over a casual phone conversation which went viral, Chetan had told Ramesh that the JDS was spending Rs 5 lakh per booth (there are a total of 2,800 booths), and about Rs 150 crore for the entire constituency. Chetan also mentioned that booth workers would be fed non-vegetarian meals. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE When the two men arrived at the Income Tax office, they were asked if the conversation took place or not. Both said the conversation did take place. Chetan Gowda also maintained that local contractors would spend the money now and recover the money later. The IT could draw a list of the contractors who were approached and seek details of how much has been spent, he said. It may be recalled that candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh had complained about this tape to the Election Commission. Chetan Gowda had initially claimed it was not his voice and that the recording was not factual. Chief Election Officer Sanjiv Kumar said, As it is the silent period now, it wont be fair for us to comment on the issue. The Election Commission will look into it on May 19. Ajay Kanth By Express News Service KOCHI: Eight months have passed since the floods devastated the state, claiming 433 lives and causing damage of more than Rs 40,000 crore. Still, the state has not readied a comprehensive Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for its dams, despite it being mandatory as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for dealing with a crisis situation. The Amicus Curiae, appointed by the High Court to assist it in flood-related petitions, had said in its report that none of the states dams had an EAP in place despite the NDMAs directive to do so by 2009. Senior government officers blame the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) for this. They said the Board, which manages 33 dams in the state, has been dilly-dallying with the process of completing the EAP despite complaints that the floods were caused due to its poor dam management. Whats an EAP? The Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Projects portal (damsafety.in) says EAP is a formal plan that identifies potential emergency conditions at a dam and prescribes the procedures to be followed to minimise loss of life and property damage. It adds: An emergency in terms of dam operation is defined as a condition which develops unexpectedly, endangers the structural integrity of the dam and safety of lives and properties at the dam site as well as in areas downstream of the dam, and requires immediate responsive action. It says EAP is the document to be used in case of emergencies generated by either a dam break or to a significantly high release of water from gated or ungated spillways. It identifies the roles and responsibility of the dams owner and of authorities in charge of managing emergency situations and evacuating people from low-lying areas downstream. It also specifies actions to be implemented in different emergency conditions, says the portal. KSEBs version KSEB chief engineer (DRIP and Dam Safety) Bibin Joseph said KSEB is in the process of finishing the EAP for all major dams and has conducted meetings with various stakeholders for the same. Though KSEB has been working for the same since 2017, there has been some delay in completing it because the Central Water Commission (CWC) didnt accept the one prepared initially with the help of government engineering institutes like NIT-C, he said. In fact, CWC came out with modified guidelines for EAP in February last year. Shibu BS By Express News Service KOCHI: Veteran actor Charuhasan was recently quoted as saying Kerala was educated enough not to elevate Prem Nazir, one of Malayalam cinemas biggest superstars, to the Chief Ministers Office. In the 1980s and 90s, the Prem Nazir story was a staple pointer in newspaper reports to establish how Kerala stood out in the South when it came to the endorsement of matinee idols as political leaders. When M G Ramachandran and N T Rama Rao, both backed by legions of fans, emerged as invincible leaders and Chief Ministers, Keralas own screen icon was a non-starter in politics. It hasnt been long since celebrities entered the mix in Keralas electoral politics. Charuhasan, probably, intended to say personality cult doesnt ensure big political gains in the state. But with K B Ganesh Kumar, Mukesh and Innocent winning elections (all, of course, backed by prominent political parties), with Suresh Gopi contesting in Thrissur and, with more actors announcing political affiliations, is it time to revisit the sweeping stars dont belong here argument? FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE We cannot say Kerala is following the Tamil Nadu trend. Here, the situation is totally different. The film stars/actors who successfully fought elections from Kerala were backed by major political parties. When the LDF fielded Innocent for the first time from the Chalakudy seat, the CPM-led alliance took into account various factors. Likewise, the BJP is trying out a combination of Suresh Gopi and Sabarimala plus his image as a Raja Sabha MP along with the star power, in Thrissur. In Keralas context, the star value will only give an incremental advantage, said film critic C S Venkateswaran. The television channels came into their own in the late 1990s and early 2000. This, according to the political observers, helped increase the stars popularity. Till the early 90s, politics and cinema were considered two different streams. The reaction of stars/actors to certain issues are considered as their stance and also show their political inclinations, they said. There was a talk of Mohanlals entry into electoral politics ahead of the poll notification. However, the actor scotched the rumours in this regard. Mammoottys name also pops up as a candidate during elections. Prem Nazir did not take the plunge despite joining the Congress. By Online Desk KOCHI: The Kerala police on Wednesday filed a case against BJP state chief P S Sreedharan Pillai for making anti-Islam remarks during an election campaign meeting in Attingal Lok Sabha constituency on April 14. The Kerala Chief Electoral Officer recommended "appropriate action" against Pillai who had said that Muslims can be identified by "removing their clothes." ALSO READ | Male officials should check burqa-clad women's identity: BJP MP "The dead bodies...if they are Islam then there will be a few signs... if only you remove the dresses only then it can be found out... so after doing all that, we should come back is what they say," Pillai had said, according to Meena's report to the poll body. The lawyer-turned-politician made these remarks during the poll campaign meeting organised for BJP candidate Sobha Surendran. In his report to the Election Commission, Kerala Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Teeka Ram Meena said Pillai made the remarks while countering the comments of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the number of people killed during the Balakot air strike. A petition seeking a directive to the Election Commission to take action against Pillai was filed by CPM leader V Sivankutty, who is in charge of the LDF's election campaign in the constituency. Attingal police has booked the leader under Section 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc) and 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). ALSO READ | Case filed against Congress' K Sudhakaran over 'anti-women' poll video CEO Teeka Ram Meena, in his report dated April 16, also said that no permission was taken for the BJP meeting and a complaint has been registered in the Attingal police station in Thiruvananthapuram district. "It appears prima facie a case of violation of Section 123(3A) and Section 125 of the Representations of People Act, 1951. Accordingly, appropriate action may be taken in the matter," Meena said in his report sent to Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain. FOLLOW OUR FULL ELECTION COVERAGE HERE On Wednesday, the CEO had informed the High Court that strong action would be taken against Pillai in the case. The court disposed of the petition in the light of the submissions made by the Election Commission. (With PTI inputs) Dileep V Kumar By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the state slowly recovering from the scars left by the deluge, much is expected from the Chief Ministers scheduled visit to the Netherlands. The delegation team led by the Chief Minister will visit the country for understanding its much-acclaimed Room for the River Project and site visits for understanding modern agricultural practices in low lying areas, coastal area protection, canal navigation and others. The three-day visit, to commence on May 9, also aims at holding talks with Netherlands Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management and interaction with experts on the Dutch Risk Reduction Programme. The scheduled visit of the Chief Minister to the Netherlands is expected to bolster the states post-flood rebuilding exercise. As the Netherlands had one of the best water management systems in place in the world and is the proponent of the Room for the River Project, the visit will help the state in multiple ways in its rebuilding efforts, said a senior government officer. Between 1993 and 1995, Netherlands three main rivers swelled to unprecedented levels inundating large tracts of lands, causing mass destruction to life and property. Then the government come out with the Room for the River Project, said the officer. After the visit to the Netherlands, the Chief Minister will participate in the fourth edition of World Reconstruction Conference in Geneva in Switzerland and attend the function of the listing of Masala Bond on London Stock Exchange Groups International Securities Market. The participation of the state in the fourth edition of World Reconstruction Conference is itself an acknowledgement for its interventions during the floods. It gets further established when a special session based on the theme Ecosystem based-recovery: the case of Kerala floods 2018 was included by the organisers, said Sekhar L Kuriakose, member secretary, Kerala State Disaster Management Authority. According to Sekhar, the conference will help bring a perspective change among those who point fingers at the state government alleging wait and watch approach during the floods. Apart from the Chief Minister and the KSDMA member secretary, Tom Jose and Revenue principal secretary V Venu will attend the conference. Visit facilitated by UNEP An officer said the visit, facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme, will be carried out by the Chief Minister, chief secretary Tom Jose and additional chief secretary Water Resources Department Vishwas Mehta. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All options from court to Parliament will be explored to protect faith and belief, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared at a mammoth gathering of party workers here on Thursday. He was hinting at a Constitution amendment if his government returned to power. Flaying the state government, the Prime Minister said devotees are being jailed and mercilessly thrashed in Kerala for evoking the name of God. He cautioned the BJP will not allow such attack on faith and belief and added each and every child will come out to protect them. He did not mention Sabarimala during his entire speech. On Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad, Modi asked why the Congress president opted for that particular constituency and not Thiruvananthapuram or Pathanamthita to convey a message to south India as stated by his party.On Congress fighting the Left in Kerala, Modi accused the party of being duplicitous in its political position. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE In Kerala, Congress and Communists fight each other, but are together in Delhi. Keral me Kusti aur Dilli me Dosti, he said.He also asked Rahul as to why he had openly stated that he will not speak against the CPM in the state. Evoking SNC Lavalin case, Modi said that the CPM government in Kerala is mired in corruption and added that even Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is allegedly involved in the scam. He said several corruption charges have come out against ministers in the state. Modi said only a strong government can protect 125 crore people of the country and with the scientists being given full protection, our country has advanced even in protecting the space. Modi said technology from mobile to missiles can be controlled from space and added that protecting the space was very important which the NDA government at the Centre had done during its tenure. He said the Congress government had ill treated noted scientist from Kerala, Nambi Narayanan in several aspects and added that under his government scientists were given full protection. PM also said Congress and CPM were abusing and rebuking the armed forces while the NDA government had always stood with the forces which have given fitting reply to the terror forces by destroying their hideouts inside Pakistan through surgical strikes. Narendra Modi said that the Congress manifesto does not have anything for the middle-class people of the country while the NDA government has not increased the income tax for the past five years and have even brought people who have annual income of 5 lakhs out of the income tax bracket. He said the fishermen community of the state is the prestige of Kerala who risked their lives to save hundreds of people during the floods and added that the BJP and NDA government has taken special care for the welfare of fishermen community. Modi said that in the previous budget, funds have been allotted for a separate fisheries department at the centre which will take care of all the needs and requirements of the fishing community. The PM was campaigning for the NDA candidates for Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal . BJP National executive member V Muraleedharan MP translated Modis speech. O Rajagopal MLA, Kummanam Rajashekharan, Sreedharan Pillai, Shobha Surendran, M T Ramesh, T P Senkumar, Richard Hey MP, Tom Vadakkan, T P Sreenivasan Satyakumar, S Suresh and others were present on the dais. (Photo/People's Daily Online) ULAN BATOR, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A photo exhibition celebrating the long-standing friendship between China and Mongolia kicked off here on Wednesday. The exhibition entitled "Friendship-70 years" is organized by the Chinese Cultural Center in Ulan Bator and Mongolia's Choijin Lama Temple Museum. "This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Mongolia. The exhibition is part of a series of activities to celebrate the friendship between the two countries," Khasbagana, deputy director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Ulan Bator, said at the opening ceremony. Within the framework of cultural cooperation between the two countries, Chinese workers renovated the Choijin Lama Temple Museum in 1961, said Dugarsuren Otgonsuren, director of the temple museum, adding that this is the most extensive renovation work in the history of the temple museum. "So, we are organizing the photo exhibition to remember the historic work done by Chinese workers and celebrate 70 years of solid friendship between Mongolia and China," she said. The three-day exhibition at the Chinese Cultural Center features more than 50 photos, showcasing the temple museum's history and the renovation work done by Chinese workers. By Express News Service DHENKANAL/ATHAGARH/CUTTACK: National BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday urged people to change the BJD Government in Odisha by voting BJP to power both in the State and at the Centre. Addressing public meetings at Dhenkanal and Narsinghpur in Cuttack district, he said, You (people) have voted Congress and BJD to power in Odisha for the last so many decades. Give at least one chance to BJP to see a model Odisha. He stressed the double engine theory for Odishas development and stated that the growth and progress of the State would be accelerated if BJP is elected both to the Assembly and Parliament.Lashing out at BJD, he said the ruling party in the State was resorting to violence as it was realising its downfall. Accusing the BJD for the murder of BJP leader Manguli Jena in Khurda and attack on party workers in Bijepur, Shah said the saffron party will not be terrorised by the anti-social activities of the ruling outfit in the State. People will give a befitting reply by voting in favour of BJP candidates in the elections, the BJP chief said. He also accused the BJD Government of failing to provide drinking water to people of the State. Around 35 per cent people are deprived of drinking water in Odisha. If BJP is voted to power, we will ensure drinking water for all by 2022, he said.Lambasting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for depriving people of Odisha of benefits of the Centres Ayusman Bharat scheme, he said despite Odisha having huge deposits of minerals and natural resources, the State is lagging behind in development. Shah also assured women SHG members that if they vote for BJP, interest-free loan will be provided to them for their empowerment. If BJP is voted to power, all the accused in chit fund scam will be put behind bars in three months, he added. Urging the people to vote for a strong Government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he drew attention to the air strikes in Pakistan to avenge the Pulwama terror attack. If Rahul Gandhi was the PM, it would not have been possible on his part to give Pakistan such a befitting answer, he said. The BJP president ended his day-long campaigning in Odisha by holding a massive roadshow in Cuttack City. He offered prayers to the presiding deity of the millennium city at the Maa Chandi temple. By Express News Service THENI/CHENNAI : A case was registered against 154 AMMK cadre and four men, including a party functionary, were arrested following a search carried out in a building in Andipatti in the district. Officials said that unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 1.48 crore was seized during the search carried out by police and flying squad personnel on the premises that belonged to an AMMK functionary. The building houses the party office in the ground floor. The search that began on Tuesday night ended at 5.30 am on Wednesday. The cash was neatly packed in 94 envelops, and ward number, number of voters and the amount Rs 300 per voter were written on the envelop, they said, adding that all the wards are within Andipatti assembly segment which is heading for bypoll on Friday. A person present on the premises during the search told the officials that Rs 2 crore in cash was brought there on April 16 for distributing to the voters in Andipatti panchayat union. When the officials reached the spot, a group of party workers, allegedly, overpowered the flying squad personnel standing guard outside the premises, broke open the door and snatched some cash packets. Inspector Balaguru and police jeep driver Nagaraj sustained minor injuries in the attack.When the situation turned worst, police fired in the air following the order of District Revenue Officer S Kandasamy. Dropping some packets, the miscreants fled with a few cash packets. All the remaining cash found in 94 bundles was seized along with the envelopes. A postal ballot paper for Andipatti assembly by-election which was already marked for AMMK candidate was also found on the premises. It was also seized. Police also had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse a group of people who assembled in front of the building in protest. SP V Baskaran, Inspector General of Police (south zone) KP Shunmuga Rajeswaran, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Dindigul Range K Joshi Nirmal Kumar, inspected the spot. Meanwhile, AMMK leader and independent candidate Thanga Tamilselvan told media that the incident that happened on the rented premises was a well-planned conspiracy. He claimed that the income tax officials had created an approver against them purposefully. Filing false cases against 150 cadre of AMMK apart, they are planning to arrest more persons when they are in the polling booths, he said. By Express News Service Voters from across Chennai are unable to cast their vote as they have allegedly not received the booth slips yet. Before voters could exercise their franchise, they must check if their names have appeared in the voters' list. The booth slip is a proof that their name is in the list and it will contain all the necessary information such as - which booth the voter has to go to, the serial number of the voter etc. corporation staff will have to deliver these slips to the voters. However, Chennai voters complain that no one visited their homes to give the slip. Hence, people are now queuing outside polling stations to get their booth slips. Tamil Nadu Elections 2019 live: Stars, old and the young turnout to vote; AIADMK functionary hacked to death In several localities near Adambakkam, Madipakkam and Nanganallur people who gathered in large numbers to cast their votes in the morning returned dejected. Since most of them were not issued booth slips the Election Website was their only way to find out which booth they should vote from. Speaking to Express, M Santhosh said that the The election website showed that my booth centre was a school, however, while going to the booth I was told to go a different booth, which is 2 kilometres away. With no booth slips and proper communication from the officials, several of the people went searching for their respective booths to cast their vote. People say that though this issue was brought to the notice of CEO a couple of days ago, it was allegedly not resolved. Although there are helpline numbers, mobile app to find out the location of the booth etc., for a common man the booth slips would be of great help. Despite EC's clear message that booth slips only serve an informational purpose and that voters can vote even without it by showing any one of the 12 ID cards, Election officials are turning away the voters who come Without booth slips. FOLLOW OUR FULL ELECTION COVERAGE HERE The election officials ask the voters to come to the queue only after getting the booth slips. In booth No 251, at Thiruvallur Advent Christian school polling station in Chennai voters engaged in a verbal spat with the polling personnel. On the other side, Zonal level corporation officials blame the voters for not getting booth slips. They say that they have not been able to hand over the voter slips to the respective voter as their houses remained locked most of the day for various reasons. In many cases, people have gone out of town or to work and neighbours refused to accept the booth slips of those who are not in the house. Those who received the booth slips of their neighbours have not handed it over to them, says officials in Central Chennai Constituency. By Online Desk Polling for Tamil Nadu's 38 Lok Sabha constituencies and bypolls in 18 assembly segments kickstarted today morning. Many enthusiastic voters turned up despite the summer heat to cast their vote. TN Elections CEO took to Twitter and put out a special message, urging the singles and committed people in the state to vote. The tweet reads, "Singles, committed, nu oruthar vidama elarum vandhu vote podunga! (each and every one of you, go and cast your vote) #MakeYourMarkTN #GoVoteTN #ECI." Meanwhile, voters from across Chennai were unable to cast their vote as they have allegedly not received their booth slips yet. Before voters could exercise their franchise, they must check if their names have appeared in the voters' list. The booth slip is a proof that their name is in the list and it will contain all the necessary information such as - which booth the voter has to go to, the serial number of the voter etc. corporation staff will have to deliver these slips to the voters. However, Chennai voters complain that no one visited their homes to give the slip. Hence, people are now queuing outside polling stations to get their booth slips. In several localities near Adambakkam, Madipakkam and Nanganallur people who gathered in large numbers to cast their votes in the morning returned dejected. Since most of them were not issued booth slips the Election Website was their only way to find out which booth they should vote from. CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW OUR LIVE ELECTION COVERAGE (With inputs from ENS) By Express News Service VELLORE: Beleaguered over the countermanding of polls to Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, where his son DM Kathir Anand was fielded, DMK treasurer Durai Murugan on Thursday accused the Modi government of 'unleashing' the central agencies like Income Tax (I-T) department to 'hunt' the Opposition during the run-up to the general elections to the Lok Sabha. Talking to reporters, after casting his vote at Gandhi Nagar in Katpadi, he said such actions were construed as a beginning of dictatorship. When there is a caretaker government, the Prime Minister and his subordinates should not operate independent bodies like CBI and Income Tax department. Hunting the Opposition by unleashing IT had not happened in the past. It is happening for the first time in India, Durai Murugan said. Pointing out that the Constitution ensures independent functioning of the executive, judiciary and legislature, he said, Bringing the control of these bodies in the hands of the ruling party to suppress the Opposition is construed the first step for the reign of dictatorship. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE This trend should be checked, the DMK treasurer emphasised. Taking exception to the Income Tax barging into the premises of the leaders and candidates even when electioneering was going on, Durai Murugan said it was unbecoming of democracy. Replying to a question on whether he saw any contradictions in the claims of Election Commission of India (ECI) to rescind the polls, the belligerent leader said such things would be raised at the appropriate fora. It may be noted that the polls to Vellore Lok Sabha constituency was countermanded on Tuesday, just after the electioneering was wound up, citing the huge cash haul made during the IT raids held at Durai Murugan's residence and premise of DMK men linked to his family. The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed two petitions, filed by AIADMK alliance candidate AC Shanmugam and an Independent, challenging the order of the ECI. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The State of Working India 2019 report noted that Telanganas rural population has a higher percentage of out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare assessed against monthly per capita expenditure than people living in urban areas. Out-of-pocket expenditure includes medical or non-medical expenses that an individual or family pays a healthcare provider directly, with no third party (and insurer or state) involved. The rural population spends 0.97 per cent of its monthly per capita expenditure on public healthcare and 6.42 per cent on private healthcare. The urban population, meanwhile, spends 0.74 per cent on public healthcare and 3.69 per cent on private healthcare. TN is the only south-Indian state where the urban population spends more than their rural counterparts on healthcare. By AFP JAKARTA: Indonesia's Joko Widodo said on Thursday his reelection as head of the world's third-biggest democracy was all but assured, calling for calm as his firebrand ex-general rival insisted he had in fact won the nation's top job. Widodo, 57, said he had received phone calls from world leaders to congratulate him on his country's biggest-ever election, but added he would await the final results before formally declaring victory. He cited a series of so-called "quick counts" by pollsters, which are based on samples, that showed him as much as 11 percentage points ahead of Subianto. Quick counts have been reliable indicators in past elections. But "we still have to wait for the numbers from the KPU (General Elections Commission)", Widodo told a crush of reporters. "Let's continue to work and maintain our unity and harmony as a nation," he added. However, Subianto insisted that he and running mate Sandiaga Uno, a wealthy financier, had prevailed, citing voter fraud but without supplying concrete evidence. "Sandiaga Uno and I are declaring victory as the president and vice president," he told cheering supporters in Jakarta, ending his speech with shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest)" and "Merdeka" (freedom). The retired general - who had close ties to the Suharto dictatorship, which collapsed in 1998 - earlier warned he would challenge the results in court if he lost, and stage street protests. Some supporters of Subianto called for a march near Jakarta's biggest mosque after prayers on Friday, Islam's holy day. The 67-year-old, who has long had his eye on the country's top job, lost to Widodo in 2014 and then mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to that election. The competing claims came as authorities warned against unrest over Wednesday's "smooth and safe" polls, and warned of arrests. "If there are any illegal or unconstitutional actions that threaten public stability and security, (authorities) will take firm action," National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said Thursday. "We won't tolerate it. I urge everyone against mass demonstrations, whether it's to celebrate or to express dissatisfaction" at the results, Karnavian added. This year's campaign was punctuated by bitter mudslinging and a slew of fake news online -- much of it directed at the presidential contenders. Authorities said Thursday they had seen a spike in false reports and hoaxes, with some calling for chaos in the streets and for Indonesians to commit violence in response to the results. However, the capital Jakarta was quiet Thursday after as many as 190 million voters in the Muslim-majority country cast ballots in the one-day poll -- which featured a record 245,000 candidates -- to elect a new president, parliamentarians and local legislators. Online, Subianto was pilloried by social media users who poked fun at his repudiation of the unofficial results and for kissing the ground as he declared himself president. "We honestly feel sorry for Prabowo, not because he's lost the election (again) but because he is surrounded by people who made him a zombie who can't differentiate between reality and illusion," said one Twitter user with 165,000 followers. National newspapers called for reconciliation, with top-selling Kompas saying "Let's Unite", while Tempo declared it "One More Time" for Widodo. Financial markets cheered, with the Jakarta composite stock index and the Indonesian rupiah both higher. By PTI WASHINGTON: The nearly two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller found "no evidence" of a "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 US elections, Attorney General William Barr Thursday announced Thursday, in a major relief to President Donald Trump. Addressing the media at the Department of Justice here on the release of Mueller's redacted report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller was chosen to head the investigation in 2017 following concerns from US intelligence agencies that Russia had tried to tip the election in Trump's favour. The businessman-turned-politician defeated former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Barr said Mueller investigated a number of links or contacts between Trump Campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government. "After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate US law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign," Barr said on the 400-page report. He, however, said the Russian government sought to interfere in US election process. Barr emphasised that the primary purposes of the Special Counsel's investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. The Special Counsel's report states that his "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." "I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the Special Counsel's report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. "But thanks to the Special Counsel's thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign -- or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter," he said. "That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed," Barr said. He said the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and e-mails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicising those e-mails. Again, the Special Counsel's report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations, Barr said. "In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign "collusion" with the Russian government's hacking," the Attorney General said. "So that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government-sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes," he said. He also said President Trump did not commit an obstruction-of-justice offence. Barr said there were 10 episodes involving Trump that were scrutinised for possible obstruction of justice. "As I said several times, the report contains limited redactions relating to four categories of information. To ensure as much transparency as possible, these redactions have been clearly labelled and color-coded so that readers can tell which redactions correspond to which categories," Barr said. Most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, he said. These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the Special Counsel's Office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases. The redactions are their work product. The President's personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request any redactions, Barr said. Earlier on Thursday, President Trump said the Mueller probe was "Greatest Political Hoax of all time!" "Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats," tweeted Trump, who refers his election rival and former secretary of state Clinton as "Crooked". Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler said he has sent a letter to Mueller - requiring his testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee by May 23. "We cannot take Attorney General Barr's word for it. We must read the full Mueller report, and the underlying evidence. This is about transparency and ensuring accountability," Nadler said. Democrats in Congress have demanded a full unredacted report, and want Mueller to testify to Congress. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Finance Minister Asad Umar abruptly quit the Cabinet on Thursday before securing a crucial multi-billion dollar IMF bailout package for the cash-strapped country, amid mounting criticism by the opposition and business community over the handling of the economic crisis. Umar, who recently returned from a trip to the US in which the details of Pakistan's next International Monetary Fund bailout were finalised, said he has obtained Prime Minister Imran Khan's consent "to not take any cabinet position". "As part of a cabinet reshuffle, prime minister desired that I take the energy minister portfolio instead of finance," said Umar, one of the close aides of the prime minister. "However, I have obtained his consent to not take any cabinet position." Later, addressing a press conference here, Umar said that it was time to make some "difficult decisions" to stabilise the economy and that he hopes his replacement would be supported in their efforts. "I don't know if there has been a conspiracy or not (to remove me) but all I know is that my 'captain' (Imran Khan) wanted to see me in the role of the energy minister. I did not think that would be a great idea so I refused," a visibly upset Umar said. Prime Minister Khan-led government and Finance Minister Umar in particular have faced mounting criticism by opposition parties, members of the business community and citizens over the handling of the economic crisis. Cash-strapped Pakistan is seeking USD 8 billion from the IMF to bail itself out from a severe balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple the country's economy. Pakistan has so far received a total of USD 9.1 billion in financial aid packages from friendly countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE during the current fiscal year. "We have finalised the IMF agreement on much better terms than before. It is the time to take difficult decisions; I have made these decisions, I refused to take the decisions that would have crushed the nation," Umar said. Responding to a question, the finance minister defended his performance and said "Who says that I have failed in achieving what I wanted to achieve?" He said the new team will look at things with fresh eyes and they can come up with better decisions. "I believe that this decision should be made as soon as possible . We are about to go to the IMF, we are about to present the budget. This is already too late, the next person should have come in earlier, at least a month ago," Umar told reporters in response to a question on his replacement. It was immediately not clear who will replace Umar. The new finance minister's first priority would be to finalise the much-needed bailout package with the IMF to overcome the financial crisis. Finance Minister Umar said earlier this month that a mission of the IMF would visit Islamabad soon after the spring meetings of the World Bank Group, which includes the IMF, and an agreement should be signed by the end of this month. On Monday, the Pakistani media reported that a major reshuffle was on the cards in the Finance Ministry. However, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry denied the reports of the reshuffle. "There is no truth in reports regarding changes in posts of federal ministers. The prime minister has the power to change ministers and the media should play a responsible role on this subject," he tweeted. Aerial photo taken on April 8, 2019 shows a view of Medog County, Nyingchi City of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Medog, meaning "Secret Lotus" in the Tibetan language, is located in Nyingchi of southeast Tibet. Being on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River and the south of the Himalayas, Medog County boasts of amazing natural landscapes due to its unique geographical position. Before the traffic opened, people could not arrive in Medog except for walking. Getting in and out of Medog was a dangerous journey. Frequent natural disasters such as avalanches, landslides, and mudslides blocked visitors from the outside world. The construction of roads to Medog is a tough task because of the complicated geological conditions and disastrous weather. With several attempts thwarted in the last decades, a 117-kilometer highway connecting Medog with neighboring Bomi County finally opened on Oct. 31, 2013. The completion of the Medog highway not only promoted the communication between Medog and the outside world, but also benefited the poverty relief of border ethnic minorities. Crude stilted houses have been replaced with modern houses consisting of complete facilities. Commodity prices have been lowered to a level similar with the outside world. The local economy especially tourism develops fast in recent years, unfolding to the world a new Medog with its mysterious beauty. (Xinhua/Li Xin) Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). HONG KONG, April 17 (Xinhua) -- New deputy chief of China's national anti-drug commission Tsang Wai Hung promised to launch a drug control campaign with Chinese characteristics. "You will know why China has zero tolerance for drug offenses if you know our history well," Tsang, the former head of the Hong Kong Police Force, said in a recent interview with Xinhua. With rich experience in handling with drug offenses, Tsang was recently appointed as the deputy director of China National Narcotic Control Committee. He became the second person from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) to hold a senior vice-ministerial position in the Chinese government. "Our people had been greatly harmed by drugs in the past. It was a painful experience," Tsang said, noting that this year marks the 180th anniversary of Lin Zexu destroying opium at Humen in south China's Guangdong province in 1839. Lin was a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) official, who led the fight against opium smuggling. He ordered the destruction of more than 1,000 tons of smuggled opium confiscated from British dealers at Humen. Tsang, 61, had served the police force for 38 years before he retired in 2015 from the top post -- Commissioner of Police. In the 1980s, he mainly engaged in criminal investigations and took up one of the most dangerous tasks which was fighting against drug trafficking. "At that time, Hong Kong was plagued with drug offenses when tens of thousands of drug addicts were recorded," Tsang recalled, adding that most drug dealers in Hong Kong belonged to transnational criminal groups. "Law and order in Hong Kong was poor and we dealt with several serious violent cases every year," Tsang said. Tsang described the fight against drugs as an "extremely hard yet satisfying" mission. Thanks to joint efforts of different circles in the society, drug offenses dropped substantially with law and order largely improved by the time he retired. In 2015, less than 9,000 drug abusers in Hong Kong were registered and the number of criminal cases continued to decline. Hong Kong is now ranked as one of the safest places in the world, Tsang said with pride. Talking about his responsibilities in the new position, Tsang agreed that the Chinese government should fight against drugs with Chinese characteristics. With regard to the current situation of drug control in China, Tsang said it was rather grave. According to National Narcotics Control Commission, there were 2.55 million drug abusers nationwide by the end of 2017. Although the ratio was relatively low, Tsang said that drug offenses were a pressing matter to be solved immediately. "The problem of drug abuse will lead to serious consequences as China is a big country with a large population," he said. China has seen a rapid economic development in past decades with increasing exchanges between China and the rest of the world, which has put more pressure on drug control. The production of new drugs also poses a serious challenge, which, Tsang said, has become a new trend of drug cases and should not be neglected. "We have the obligation and ability to join hands with our neighboring countries to fight drugs," Tsang said, emphasizing the importance of international collaboration in drug control. Tsang said Hong Kong has achieved results in combating drugs and the key was source control, which could be achieved by pushing ahead with international collaboration. Social cooperation was another important factor, he said, adding that the Action Committee Against Narcotics in Hong Kong includes community workers, teachers, doctors and businessmen who can help mobilize people from all walks of life to enhance awareness of drug control. Tsang, however, agreed that the situation of the mainland is not the same as that of the Hong Kong SAR, so he would suggest the mainland not to simply copy from Hong Kong. "The mainland has been doing quite well in some aspects in regard of drug control and we can further enhance them," he said. Reporter Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey). Reporter Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee). (Photo/Chinanews.com) BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- China's National Cultural Heritage Administration has vowed to strengthen protection of the Great Wall, which has a total length of more than 21,000 km. The protection and restoration work should ensure that the Great Wall relics remain where they originally existed and maintain their original look, said Song Xinchao, deputy head of the administration, at a press event on the Great Wall protection and restoration Tuesday. Noting the importance of both routine maintenance in general and urgent repair of some endangered sites on the Great Wall, Song said his administration would urge local authorities to check and find sites in need of repair and improve their protection work. "Some key sites suitable for visits can be opened to the public on a moderate scale," Song said. (Photo/Chinanews.com) The Great Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, consists of many interconnected walls, some of which date back 2,000 years. There are currently more than 43,000 sites on the Great Wall, including wall sections, trench sections and fortresses, which are scattered in 15 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, including Beijing, Hebei and Gansu. In January, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Cultural Heritage Administration jointly released a comprehensive conservation plan to establish a long-term mechanism for the conservation and utilization of the Great Wall. The South African Police have not called off their search for Elliot Brighton Moyo because they still need proof of death. Elliot Moyo, who is also known as Thabiso Mlanje died and was buried in Zimbabwe. However, despite his alleged second death, the SAPS have confirmed they would not drop their investigation against him. The Sowetan reported it was believed Moyo fled to Zimbabwe after the 'resurrection miracle' in February. Cops have since revealed they need proof that he is in fact dead for real this time before they drop the charges and if no proof of death can be provided, they would continue their search for him. "We dont have any evidence that he is indeed dead. We cant make any conclusions until we have certainty about his death, Police spokesperson Cpt Mavela Masondo. Moyo was pushed into the spotlight after a video emerged which appeared to show Pastor Alph Lukau raising him from the dead. It has since been reported two men were arrested over the 'resurrection' saga. The suspects were set to appear in court on Wednesday. President Mnangagwa has expressed satisfaction with progress so far in setting up operations at Karo Resources $4,2 billion platinum mine project in Mhondoro-Ngezi. The President said this after a technical tour of the mining site yesterday. The process is still in its first phase of exploration and the company has so far completed aeromagnetic survey, digital terrain mapping, aeromagnetic and geophysics study of the area while the drilling that will allow them to quantify the platinum resources on their special grant is expected to be completed by year-end. Government and Karo Resources signed the large scale integrated platinum investment agreement in March last year while the ground breaking ceremony was held in July. Yesterdays tour was also attended by Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando, various senior Government officials and Karo Resources chairman Mr Loucas Pouroulis and other company executives. He said the developments at the site put paid to scepticism that had been expressed by some sections of the media. A few months after we had our ground breaking, the media began saying these mega deals are fantasy, a pie in the sky but now I am sure you know that the pie is never in the sky but on the ground here in Ngezi, he said. The timelines set by Karo Resources in terms of implementation of this project have been fulfilled and in many areas they have been ahead of the timelines that they had given us but I felt it was necessary to come and satisfy myself that what I am being told by the Minister is what is on the ground. This process, the first phase of exploration, has taken on board in terms of employment, I am told about 200 people and this only within a period of less than five months. more than 25 000 people and many others in downstream industries. He added that when fully operational, the mine was set to employmore than 25 000 people and many others in downstream industries. At the height and full employment of this company I am told that direct employment will be in the region of 25 000 and the majority of the employees will come from Mashonaland West except the specialised skills which may not be in the area and will come from elsewhere in the country. Construction of houses will take place, technology, skills will come to this area as a result of this development in this area, he added. President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe had a vision to be a middle income economy by 2030 with mining and other economic sectors expected to make contributions. Our vision is for Zimbabwes economy to be a middle income by 2030 and to do so we have various sub-sectors that need to contribute to that and the mining sector is one. The Minister of Mines and Mining Development (Winston Chitando) has put his neck on the block to say by 2030 the mining sector will contribute $12 billion. If things do not change, I see him surpassing that by 2030, the President said. He added that there was a need to mechanise agriculture and boost tourism through aggressive marketing of the tourism sites in the country among other initiatives to grow the economy. The President also narrated how the project had been sabotaged during former President Mugabes administration. I first took Mr Pouroulis to the former President (Mugabe) in 2005 and he informed him that he wanted to get permission from him as the President to begin this project. This was 2005 and the President granted him that permission but this did not happen until last year. He was coming every single year perhaps three or four times a year trying to have this project but he did not facilitate. We can only speculate why perhaps Minister Chitando did not ask what they asked. President Mnangagwa said the project was now back on its feet because of the thrust taken by the new administration in the Second Republic. However, since last year when I took over, I took the same position that my former President took and that is to allow the project to be implemented. It has taken off and from 2005 up to now, its 14 years. This project could have been by now fully operational and production could have been at its highest. The infrastructure envisaged by this project could have been in place. Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Snow showers. Low 3F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 60%. About one inch of snow expected.. Tonight Snow showers. Low 3F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 60%. About one inch of snow expected. Chinese ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua (center) and Chen Siqing (third from right), chairman of the Bank of China, attend the opening ceremony of the renminbi clearing business of the bank's Tokyo branch on Wednesday. [Photo by Wang Xu/China Daily] Bank of China Ltd's Tokyo branch launched its renminbi clearing business on Wednesday in Tokyo, bringing the global financial center a step closer to become an offshore RMB trading hub. "The establishment of the RMB clearing mechanism in Japan will provide new impetus for Tokyo to consolidate its position as an international financial center," said Chen Siqing, chairman of Bank of China, at the launch ceremony held at the Hotel New Otani Tokyo. "It will also help Chinese and Japanese companies and financial institutions to use the RMB for cross-border transactions and facilitate trade and investment between the two countries," Chen added. Data from the Japanese Ministry of Finance showed that China is Japan's largest trading partner, the second-largest foreign investment destination and the largest source of overseas tourists, with bilateral trade surpassing $317.5 billion in 2018. Meanwhile, the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, said that around 8 percent of the bilateral goods trade was settled in RMB in 2017 and China's crossborder RMB payment with Japan was over 450 billion yuan ($67.3 billion) in 2017. Cheng Yonghua, Chinese ambassador to Japan, said the establishment of an RMB clearing bank in Tokyo will encourage the use of local currency in trade settlements and investment between China and Japan, which can "reduce exchange costs for companies, effectively avoiding rate risks and playing a positive role in developing the economy of the two countries and the Asia-Pacific region". "I think that with the continuous advancement of China's financial reform and the improvement of China's level of opening-up, financial cooperation between China and Japan will have a promising future," Cheng added. Yasuo Fukuda, former prime minister of Japan, said at the ceremony that he was committed to promoting trade between Japan and China and he believes that with the setting up of the clearing bank, "the efforts had been pushed a step further". BOC had so far opened 52 interbank RMB clearing accounts for Japanese counterparts in six of its branches in Japan and over 1,100 RMB accounts for Japanese companies, and the average daily RMB settlement amount exceeded 1.8 billion yuan, said Wang Zhe, director of general affairs department of BOC Tokyo Branch. "We are ready to provide the most experienced and professional services to our Japanese customers," Wang added. The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574. Community Perspective Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer. Letters to the editor Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer. Last year, the government passed a law covering minpaku, which is when people rent out space on their properties to travelers (a la Airbnb). The law is part of an effort to regulate accommodations amid a tourism boom ahead of the 2020 Olympics. One issue for non-Japanese travelers, though, has been whether they must show ID such as a passports at check-in. For hotels, which fall under the Hotel Business Law, the regulation has always been this: For any adult, Japanese or non-Japanese, who has an address in Japan, ID is not required. You just write your contact details in the guest registry. However, for guests who donat reside in this country, displaying ID (i.e., your passport) is required. Seems straightforward so far, right? But as has been reported several times over more than 10 years of this column, the police (and occasionally the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare) have confused things. Some hotels have been instructed that all aforeign guestsa must show ID, specifically their passports. There have even been cases in which police have demanded hotels photocopy those passports and keep them on record for later inspection. This is a deliberate misinterpretation of the law, however, and I say adeliberatea because it has been repeated despite official clarifications and corrections. Nowhere does the law require that passports be photocopied. Moreover, in this age of identity theft, surrendering that information beyond mere inspection can be dangerous. Since all aforeign guestsa are not required to carry passports (thatas why non-Japanese residents have residence cards instead), this has caused many a disruption in good customer service, as well as the threat of being turned away at check-in. A senior manager with Japan Airlines Co. was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of committing an indecent act with a female junior high school student in exchange for money, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Tatsuya Yokozeki, the 57-year-old head of the companyas operation control department, was arrested by police officers in Tokyoas Itabashi Ward for alleged violation of the law against child prostitution and pornography. Yokozeki, a resident of Hachioji, western Tokyo, has denied the allegations, saying that he didnat know how old she was. On Sept. 15 last year, Yokozeki allegedly paid A30,000 to the girl, then a junior high school student, and carried out the indecent act with her at a hotel in Tokyoas Taito Ward, while knowing that she was under 18, the police said. According to the police, Yokozeki contacted her after reading a Twitter post by her soliciting a compensated dating partner. Airbnb and other home-sharing services are recovering in Japan in the wake of strict regulations introduced almost a year ago, and some industry experts say there is more room to flourish, especially in rural areas. According to the Japan Tourism Agency, 14,701 minpaku, or private lodgings, were registered with local authorities as of March 15, 2019 -- a hefty increase from the 2,210 listed as of June 15, 2018, when the new rules were implemented. The number of rooms currently registered with the JTA is still only about 20% of the 62,000 homes listed on Airbnb just before the new law hit the market. Airbnb was forced to remove nearly 80% of its listings because hosts had not registered with the local government; thousands of users saw their existing bookings canceled. But new projections from Fuji Keizai Networks, a leading information provider, show the home-share market almost doubling by 2020 from 2018, suggesting a full recovery. Chris Lehane, global head of policy and public affairs for Airbnb, confirms its listings are on a recovery track and says the tone of its discussions with the government has changed. Last June, he says, the government was "pushing for us to respect legal structure," whereas now they are "talking about moving forward." The strict rules were designed to protect Japan's hotel industry, says Takayuki Miyajima, a senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute. The regulations cap the time owners can rent out their homes to 180 days a year. The private lodgings are also subject to local regulations, which can vary from place to place. In the city of Kyoto, for example, hosts can operate only from mid-January to mid-March. The Airbnb "shock" rattled travelers, most of whom were foreign tourists. According to data from the JTA, some 80% of guests at Airbnb and its rivals are from overseas. (Photo/Xinhua) YINCHUAN, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The first batch of rechargeable electric taxis has hit the road in the city of Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, according to the Ningxia branch of China's State Grid. A total of 50 new energy taxis were put into operation Tuesday, which is expected to save 38,000 liters of petrol every year, said Ji Hongliang, chief engineer with the company. He said the electric cars were zero emission vehicles, more environmentally-friendly and economical compared with traditional fuel and gas ones. "The new energy auto could save me more than half of the cost every month compared with my phased-out gas car," said taxi driver Wang Tianwu. Facial recognition and real-time monitoring will be added to electric taxis in the future, Ji said. Ningxia will gradually replace traditional cabs with new energy vehicles to help meet the region's environment protection goals, he added. A total of 280 charging piles have been installed in Ningxia so far and the number will reach 5,000 by the end of 2020. Troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force MNJTF, killed 39 Boko Haram terrorists, captured many pieces of equipment from them, wh... Troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force MNJTF, killed 39 Boko Haram terrorists, captured many pieces of equipment from them, while 20 soldiers were wounded. The spokesman of the task force, Col. Timothy Antigha, confirmed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday. Antigha said the terrorists were killed when they attacked troops position at Cross Kaura on Tuesday. The wounded soldiers had been evacuated from the area of operation and now receiving adequate medical attention, Antigha said. Meanwhile, Recall that MNJTF had few days ago denied any recent attack on its troops and killing of 18 soldiers in its area of responsibility. Meanwhile, Recall that MNJTF had few days ago denied any recent attack on its troops and killing of 18 soldiers in its area of responsibility. According to Antigha, the reported attack and killing were falsehood being orchestrated by the media arm of ISWAP in its desperate attempt to revamp its parlous and deplorable image. It has been widely reported and it is now common knowledge that sustained offensive actions by MNJTF troops and national forces have resulted in over 200 ISWAP personnel casualties and defections as well as numerous equipment seizures and destruction. The claim of killing 18 MNJTF personnel in an unnamed location is, therefore, very strange and completely untrue. The Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Thursday in its judgment over alleged non-asset declaration against the Chief Justice of Nigeria,... The Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Thursday in its judgment over alleged non-asset declaration against the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, banned him from holding public office for 10 years. It also removed Onnoghen from office as the Chief Justice of Nigeria and chairman, National Judicial Council, NJC, and, confiscated, seized and forfeited all his monies deposited in his Standard Chartered Bank accounts located in Wuse 2, Abuja. In his judgment, chairman of the tribunal, Danladi Umar said the monies in the affected five bank accounts were acquired illegally, particularly as Onnoghen was said to have not proved his source of income for the seized monies beyond all reasonable doubts. He also ordered that the money in the five bank accounts of Onnoghen that he did not declare be confiscated. It would be recalled that this trial lasted about three months within which period, Onnoghen has been in defence of the allegations of non-asset declaration and maintenance of domiciliary accounts contrary to the provision of the law regarding public officers. President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, took a swipe at his closest rival in the 2019 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of... President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, took a swipe at his closest rival in the 2019 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), describing him as a serial loser. In a preliminary objection he filed to challenge the competence of a petition that Atiku lodged against his re-election on February 23, President Buhari boasted the electorate always chose him ahead of Atiku, in both inter-party or intra-party contests, using the 2014 presidential primaries the All Progressives Congress (APC), as an instance. The respondent further averred that at every previous instance, whether at intra-party or inter-party contests, where he and the 1st petitioner had vied, he has always been the preference of the electorate and/or delegates. In particular, at the primary election conducted by the 3rd respondent (APC) in 2014, to pick its presidential candidate for the 2015 election, the 1st petitioner and respondent, amongst others, were the candidates; and while the respondent polled 3,430 votes, 1st petitioner came a distant third with 954 votes, the president stated in the process he filed before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja. Buhari also questioned the powers of the tribunal to nullify his election victory at the poll, contending that the joint petition Atiku and the PDP entered against him was incompetent as it was based on conjectures. Insisting that reliefs the petitioners are seeking from the tribunal were vague, nebulous and lacking in specificity, argued that most of the issues and grounds of the petition were not only mutually exclusive, but also outside the jurisdiction of the tribunal. He contended that by virtue of section 31(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended, only the Federal High Court or High Court of a State has jurisdiction to adjudicate on some the issues, among which included the allegation that he was bereft of the requisite educational qualification. Buhari told the tribunal that contrary to Atikus allegation, that he submitted false academic qualifications in the Form CF001 he used to secure clearance from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), he said he was at the time of the election, eminently qualified to contest the election, having not only the minimum qualification of reading up to secondary school level, but rose to the peak of his career as a General in the Nigerian Army with cognate experience and training. All information in the affidavit submitted by the respondent for the purpose of his election to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is true and correct, to the best of his information and knowledge, he added. Consequently, he maintained that all paragraphs of the petition relating to or touching on his alleged non possession of requisite educational qualification, are liable to be struck out. More so, he argued that the alternative relief in the petition seeking a fresh election, was inconsistent with relief 409(a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) of the same petition, saying, thus, all the reliefs in the petition are liable to be struck out. The entire reliefs are not justiciable, as the petitioners who claim to have scored majority of lawful votes in substantial number of States, are also questioning their own return in those States; the petitioners cannot act as petitioners and respondents in the same petition. By the petitioners pleadings, they claim to have majority of votes cast at the election in Rivers State, Bayelsa State, Akwa lbom State. Enugu State. Ebonyi State. Abin State Imo State. Delta State. Cross River State, Edo State, Anambra State, 0ndo State, Oyo State, Benue State, Plateau State, Adamawa State, Taraba State, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; yet, they seek an alternative and incongruous relief that the presidential election of 23rd February, 2019, be nullified and a fresh election ordered, without first praying for the nullification of election in the States where they claim to have won. Similarly, he argued that all portions of the petition relating to the use of Card Reader Device are liable to be struck out, same being incompetent and not rooted in any existing legislation. He equally argued that every aspect of the petition grounded on or relating to electronic data purportedly retrieved or downloaded from INECs server, are also liable to be struck out, same being incompetent and not rooted in any existing legislation. That there were no incidences of corrupt practices at the election of 23rd February, 20l9, as alleged by the Petitioners; and that the declaration and return of the respondent President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is valid and in compliance with the provisions of the Constitution, the Electoral Act, and all other Laws, Rules, Guidelines and Regulations, regulating the election. That the election of the respondent as the elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is valid and was conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act. Contrary to paragraph 17 of the petition, the respondent states that the petitioners scored a total of 11,262,978 votes, trailing far behind the respondent who scored a total of 15,191,847 votes, with a margin of 3.328.869 votes. The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) says it has jurisdiction to try Walter Onnoghen, suspended chief justice of Nigeria (CJN). Da... The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) says it has jurisdiction to try Walter Onnoghen, suspended chief justice of Nigeria (CJN). Danladi Umar, CCT chairman, gave the ruling on Thursday, saying Onnoghen is not being charged as a judicial officer but a public officer. He also refused to recuse himself from the case. Without the chairman there is no CCT, he ruled. The suspended CJN had earlier filed two applications to challenge the jurisdiction of the tribunal to try him. Onnoghen is standing trial for alleged false declaration of assets. Femi Oboro, counsel to Mohammed Adoke, says his client cannot be held responsible for carrying out presidential directives while he wa... Femi Oboro, counsel to Mohammed Adoke, says his client cannot be held responsible for carrying out presidential directives while he was a minister. Adoke was the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. On Wednesday, a federal capital territory (FCT) high court in Abuja listed him among those to be arrested over the controversial OPL 245 deal executed by the federal government in 2011. But in a statement on Wednesday, Oboro described the warrant of arrest issued by the court as unlawful. He said a court had earlier ruled that Adoke could not answer for carrying out directives of Jonathan. The order came as a surprise to our client considering the fact that the Federal High Court Abuja presided over by Honourable Justice B.F.M Nyako had in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/446/2017 given a reasoned judgment granting to our client the following declaratory reliefs, Oboro said. The involvement of the plaintiff in the negotiations leading to the implementation of a Settlement Agreement dated 30th November 2006 between Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and the Federal Government of Nigeria and the eventual execution of Bloc 245 Malabu Resolution Agreement dated 29th April 2011 between the Federal Government of Nigeria and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited was in furtherance of the lawful directives/approval of the President in the exercise of his executive powers. The involvement of the plaintiff in the negotiation and eventual execution of the Block 245 Resolution Agreement dated 29th April 2011 between the Federal Government of Nigeria and Shell Nigerian Ultra Deep Limited; and Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited; and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited was in furtherance of the lawful directives/approval of the President in the exercise of his executive powers. Any correspondence/instruction to JP Morgan or any other entity and ancillary actions and processes taken by the Plaintiff in furtherance of the implementation of the Settlement Agreement dated 30th November 2006; Block 245 Malabu Agreement dated 29th April 2011; Block 245 SNUD Resolution Agreement date 29th April 2011and Block 245 resolution dated 29th April 2011were in furtherance of the lawful directives/approvals of the President in the exercise of his executive powers. The Plaintiff cannot be held personally liable for carrying out the lawful /approvals of the President while he served as a Minister of the Government of the Federation. Oboro accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of concealing the existence of the judgement of the federal high court, Abuja, exonerating his client from all criminal allegations concerning the OPL 245. Since the criminal charges filed by the EFCC before the Federal Capital Territory High Court of Justice, Abuja are based on the same facts before the Federal High Court, Abuja, our client expected that in line with the time tested traditions of prosecutorial agencies all over the world, the EFCC and or, the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation who was a party to the suit before the Federal High Court Abuja, would take immediate steps after the judgment of the Federal High Court to withdraw the criminal charges or apply to court to strike out the name of our client from the charges, Adokes lawyer said. It is even more worrisome that the EFCC concealed this vital information of the existence of the Judgement of the Federal High Court Abuja exonerating our client from all the criminal allegations made in respect of the OPL 245 Settlement Agreement of 2011 from the Court in their application for the warrant of arrest especially the declaration that our client bears no liability for obeying the lawful directives/approvals of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Li Zhanshu (R), chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, holds talks with Radhames Camacho Cuevas, president of the Dominican Republic's Chamber of Deputies, in Beijing, capital of China, April 17, 2019. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, held talks with Radhames Camacho Cuevas, president of the Dominican Republic's Chamber of Deputies, in Beijing on Wednesday. The Latin-American country forged diplomatic ties with China on May 1, 2018, joining the mainstream international community of more than 170 countries that adhere to the one-China policy. Li said it was a significant historic decision made by Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of the Dominican Republic Danilo Medina. China stands ready to enhance cooperation with the Dominican Republic in all areas under the guidance of the two presidents and consolidate the foundation of friendship so as to usher bilateral ties into a brighter future, Li said. In the face of the rise of unilateralism, protectionism and populism, President Xi has stated in many international occasions that China firmly upholds multilateralism and liberalization of trade and investment, and takes an active part in global governance, according to Li. The second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be held in Beijing next week. Li said the forum will provide more opportunities for countries to realize common development and help to build a community with a shared future for humanity. He welcomed the Dominican Republic to participate in the forum. The NPC is willing to enhance cooperation with the Dominican Republic's Chamber of Deputies on affairs concerning legislation and governance, Li added. The government, the congress, all political parties and the people of the Dominican Republic supported the establishment of diplomatic ties with China, Camacho said, calling the decision "conducive to both countries and the peace and stability of the world." He said his country will firmly adhere to the one-China policy and be committed to mutually beneficial cooperation with China. Camacho is paying a five-day visit to China from Sunday at the invitation of Li. The North East Consultative Forum (NECF) and five other groups in the geopolitical zone have endorsed Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje for... The North East Consultative Forum (NECF) and five other groups in the geopolitical zone have endorsed Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje for the position of Senate President in the coming 9th Assembly. The NECF, after rising from an emergency meeting held at Zaranda Hotel, Bauchi on Wednesday, urged Goje to immediately declare for the position. The five other groups include North East Elders Mobilisation Forum, APC National Youth Caucus, Borno Discussion Circle, Gombe Political Associations and North East Youth Awareness for Good Governance. They said after a thorough assessment of the three contenders for the Senate Presidency from the North East, they settled on endorsed Goje, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. Consequently, they wrote a letter dated April 17 to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on their endorsement of Goje. It will be recalled that the APC had endorsed current Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe) for the position of Senate President. In their letter titled: North East stakeholders endorse Goje, the conveners, Barrister Mustapha Saidu and Alhaji Bello Ambo, commended APC for zoning the Senate Presidency to the North East. They said the zoning of the position to the geopolitical zone was a confirmation of the partys commitment to reward hard work, following the zones contribution to the partys victory in the just concluded general elections. Following very wide consultations among stakeholders, party members and North East Consultative Forum and after careful assessment of his contribution to the party and Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, we hereby present to you, Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje as the choice of the people of the North East for the Senate President of the 9th Assembly, they said in the letter. Describing Goje as the candidate of the North East, they asked Oshiomhole to immediately review his position on Senator Ahmad Lawan who he had earlier recommended for the position. Senator Goje is eminently respected among members of the National Assembly and the country for his immense contribution to the success of the APC in 2015 and 2019 general elections. The landslide victory of the APC in Gombe state in the just concluded general elections is a sure testimony of is gallantry loyalty and commitment to APC. It will serve the best interest of the party if Your Excellency and the party review your stance on the choice of Sen. Ahmad Lawan and allow for a level playing field for all aspiring candidates from the North East zone to showcase themselves to their colleagues. A Sharia Court in Minna on Thursday sentenced a labourer, Hamisu Umar, to 20 strokes of cane for stealing a mobile phone. The pre... A Sharia Court in Minna on Thursday sentenced a labourer, Hamisu Umar, to 20 strokes of cane for stealing a mobile phone. The presiding judge, Ahmed Bima, also sentenced Umar to six months in prison, with an option to pay a fine of N10,000. Umar, who was charged with theft, pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency. The Police Prosecutor, Insp. Cletus Ibrahim, told the court that Mallam Mamman Wakili, a vigilante, arrested and brought Umar to the Kpakungu Police Station on April 13. Ibrahim said Umar illegally entered the house of one Ahmadu Abdulrasheed at Kpakungu and stole his phone. He said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 143 of the Sharia Penal Code of Niger State. The prosecutor thereafter prayed the court to try him summarily in line with Section 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code. On Wednesday, the senate passed a bill seeking to reform the Nigeria police force. The bill was passed on the floor of the upper l... On Wednesday, the senate passed a bill seeking to reform the Nigeria police force. The bill was passed on the floor of the upper legislative chamber on Wednesday after Tijjani Kaura, chairman of the police affairs committee, presented a report. While moving for the bill to be passed, Kaura said during a public hearing, stakeholders were divided over the appointment of inspector-general of the police (IGP) subject to approval of the senate. The police committee chairman said stakeholders made a strong case for community policing. [It was recommended] that the establishment of community police is strongly recommended, the lawmaker said. That the tenure of the office of the inspector-general of police should be a single four-year term which will make for a second tenure. Here are highlights of the police reform bill: The police in Ibadan on Thursday arraigned three persons in an Iyaganku Magistrates Court for alleged double registration in 2019 Unif... The police in Ibadan on Thursday arraigned three persons in an Iyaganku Magistrates Court for alleged double registration in 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. It was gathered that Lateef Adegbite, 18, Agbo Okaku, 18, and Olajuwon Awosika , 33 were arraigned on a two-count charge of double registration and examination malpractice. The Prosecutor, Insp James Oriola, told the court that Adegbite, Okaku and Awosika conspired to commit the offences with others at large. Oriola alleged that the trio and others at large conspired to commit the offences on Feb.21 at about 12 noon at Excellers International School, Olodi area, Ibadan. The prosecutor said the offences were contrary to Section 3 (c) and 10 (b) and punishable under Section 2 of Examination Malpractice Act, Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. The Defence Counsel, Mrs Omoladun Aina, pleaded for bail for the defendants in the most liberal terms. The Magistrate, Mrs O. I .Osho, granted the defendants bail in the sum of N100, 000 each, with two sureties each in like sum and adjourned the case till May 21 for mention. Without a doubt, veteran actress, Shola Sobowale is one of the most talented role interpreters in Nigeria. The revered actress who rece... Without a doubt, veteran actress, Shola Sobowale is one of the most talented role interpreters in Nigeria. The revered actress who recently featured in Kemi Adetibas blockbuster movie, King of boys has revealed that she rejects some movie scripts. Many would remember her as Toyin Tomato in Wale Adenugas hit TV series, Super Story. Shola brings her roles to life, making it believable and relatable. In a recent chat on E-Splash on TVC, she explained her reason for rejecting movie scripts. I have rejected a lot of scripts. I have to do things that people will take home. Any script I do must change peoples lives, it must turn peoples lives around, she said. When asked the secret of her relevance and consistency, she alluded it to Gods grace. Luck and Gods grace has been the secret of my success and relevance. Sobowale who played the role of Alhaja Eniola Salami, a businesswoman and philanthropist with a checkered past in King of Boys also stated that Kemi Adetiba took a chance on her despite doubting her own ability. (Photo/Xinhua) ZHENGZHOU, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Long afflicted with gripping poverty, Qianhe Village in central China's Henan Province was once left empty as residents moved out, but ceramic arts light the hamlet up. Arts and crafts including colorful enamel paintings of door gods and wall art using thousands of ceramic bowls to depict the cosmos shine, giving the village's old bungalow residences a due facelift. The once worn-out countryside in Luoling County now attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to its exhibition hall of ceramic arts and tranquility of life, all because of an artist. Four years ago, senior ceramic artist Guo Aihe, 51, came to the village for inspiration as it is located in the core area of the origin of Chinese ceramics. About 62 km away from the Yangshao ruins renowned for its painted pottery, the Qianhe Village is also not far off from two of five famous ancient Chinese kilns. Guo decided to revitalize the village's history of ceramic arts by using a total of 9,999 big pottery vats. CARVE NATURE AT ITS JOINTS Flowerpots, guardrails, garbage cans, benches, booths, signposts and trails were all decorated with ceramics in the village. The shabby cave dwellings and crooked wheat straw piles that seem useless and burdensome in the eyes of the villagers are Guo's inspiration. The ceramic artist believes that the countryside itself can provide inspiration for art. In harmony with the village's over 85 percent forest coverage rate, Guo also planted flowers such as orchids, sunflowers and chrysanths in the valley. The village is veiled in shades of purple, yellow, pink and evergreen throughout the year. "The aesthetic appreciation of nature rewards the artists with a bigger stage to create," said Guo. CARVE ARTS IN SOULS The ceramic arts breathe new life into the unadorned village. Every winter, Guo holds exhibitions to invite artists from home and abroad to create, exhibit and auction their artwork. The revenue from such auctions will be used for the aesthetic education of school-age children in the nearby villages. Since 2015, the number of artists that have participated in the exhibitions has grown from 23 to 100, raising a total of about 648,000 yuan (96,536 U.S. dollars). Six classrooms where music and fine arts classes are taught by art majors and professionals have been set up, benefiting around 1,200 local students. Students' works created in the art classes, after being beautifully decorated by the artists, are given to them as surprise gifts on Children's Day. Guo believes that art can inspire students. "Art education should be given the same attention as math, physics and chemistry lessons," said Guo. Guo's efforts are also making a difference among the villagers. Ji Jingtao from the Qianhe Village recently invited Guo to design an art piece for his newly furnished house -- a wooden artwork made out of a tree root. "I would have burned it as firewood before, but now they see it as materials for art pieces," Ji said. "Only by understanding and learning about beauty can we create and discover the beauty," Guo said. DAR ES SALAAM, April 17 (Xinhua) -- China and Tanzania on Wednesday opened a new door of communication aimed at enhancing economic and trade cooperation, especially on investment and financing. The new door of communication was opened at a one-day 2019 Tanzania-China High-level Investment and Business Environment Dialogue jointly organized by the Prime Minister's Office for Policy and Investment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania. Representatives from more than 20 Tanzanian government agencies in various fields, including lands, immigration, taxation and labor, attended the dialogue and explained the latest guiding policies in the east African nation. "China is willing to work together with Tanzania in opening the door of communication...so as to jointly push for breakthroughs in China-Tanzania economic and trade cooperation, especially in the field of investment and financing," said Wang Ke, the Chinese Ambassador in Tanzania. Speaking at the conclusion of the dialogue in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Wang said the dialogue was a powerful demonstration of the Tanzanian government's devotion to improving the local investment and business environment. Wang said the dialogue was also an excellent opportunity for Chinese enterprises to get a comprehensive understanding of Tanzania's policies in various fields. Wang noted that there have been certain adjustments in taxation, investment and labor policies in Tanzania over the years, which has made it difficult for Chinese enterprises to adapt to. "Today's dialogue points out the solution for Chinese enterprises to overcome their struggle in business operation in Tanzania and the direction for us to tackle difficulties in the China-Tanzanian economic and trade cooperation," said Wang. Angellah Kairuki, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office responsible for Investment, said the government was strongly committed to addressing existing gaps in the investment regime, starting by working on many recommendations that have been raised at the dialogue. "I also commit to report to you on the progress the government should be able to make in this respect at the soonest possible opportunity, " she said. She said Tanzania will continue to value investment as an essential driver to the growth of the economy. Stella Manyanya, the Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade, said the government will work on business challenges raised by the Chinese investors. Damas Ndumbaro, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, said China remained a good friend of Tanzania, saying the Asian country has more enterprises in the country than any other countries. "With President John Magufuli in charge of the economic reforms, China's contribution is very vital," said Ndumbaro. BAKU, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) can help expand economic cooperation across the globe and ensure stability and security in the countries and regions along its routes, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said here. As Beijing is gearing up for the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation later this month during which the Azerbaijani leader will be one of the dignitaries in attendance, Aliyev voiced his optimism and support for the BRI in a recent written interview with Xinhua. He said the BRI reflects many noble ideas such as strengthening communication between different civilizations and cultures, promoting economic development and prosperity in various countries, and enhancing people-to-people exchanges. "I hope that the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be a step forward in this direction and will create a good opportunity to conduct effective and productive discussions," said the president. Proposed by China in 2013, the BRI aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road trade routes in a bid to seek common development and prosperity. Aliyev noted that the BRI improves connectivity and makes countries become more interdependent and will bring positive influences on regional stability and security. He also reaffirmed Azerbaijan's full support for the BRI, hailing prospects for cooperation between the two countries in the transportation sector as "very good." "The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad that connects Asia and Europe is the shortest transportation route to bring goods from China to Europe and vice versa," he said. Aliyev spoke highly of Sino-Azerbaijani relations and commended the fruitful bilateral cooperations in areas of politics, the economy, trade and culture. "Azerbaijan and China have maintained a traditional friendship and frequent political exchanges. My official visit in 2005 and state visit in 2015 to China once again proved our mutual will to further develop and deepen bilateral relations," he said. "Azerbaijan joined the Chinese initiative and became a co-founder of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. A number of Chinese companies have successful activities in Azerbaijan and we want to see more Chinese firms as investors, traders and contractors in our country," Aliyev added. Bilateral trade between Azerbaijan and China has topped 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, according to Aliyev. Azerbaijan has also simplified the visa process for Chinese visitors in a bid to boost tourism flows from China. China is a diplomatic priority for Azerbaijan, and the further development of bilateral relations is in the interests of both countries and peoples, Aliyev said. SOFIA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation between China and Central and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) is among the foreign policy priorities of Bulgaria, the country's deputy foreign minister Georg Georgiev said here on Wednesday. "I must point out here that cooperation between the CEEC and China" is one of the priority axes in the foreign policy of Bulgaria, Georgiev said while addressing the experts roundtable themed "Bulgaria and China: Development in the New Age and New Spheres of Cooperation". For Bulgaria, it was a great responsibility to be an active part of the China-CEEC cooperation mechanism and contribute to the initiative with its geopolitical and geostrategic location in the Balkan region, and as a country linking Asia to Europe, Georgiev said. Meanwhile, Bulgarian participation in the initiative reflected the country's willingness to make better use of the opportunities provided by the cooperation mechanism, he said. Bulgaria had the pleasure of hosting the last year's China-CEEC leaders' meeting, and he believed that the arrangements achieved at the meeting "showed the practical dimensions of the cooperation". The China-CEEC mechanism corresponded largely to Bulgaria's policy in the Balkans and across Central and Eastern Europe, namely a policy of infrastructure, transport and energy connectivity, leading to acceleration and further intensification of trade and economic relations, Georgiev said. The eighth China-CEEC leaders' meeting in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik several days ago, which he attended as part of Bulgaria's delegation led by the Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, "is also very encouraging with regard to the way and methodologies on which we develop our relationships," Georgiev said. He also recalled the launch of the Global Partnership Center of CEECs and China during the summit in Dubrovnik. The Global Partnership Center of CEECs and China is an important outcome made at last year's China-CEEC leaders' meeting in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. It is also an initiative of innovation within the China-CEEC cooperation framework. It demonstrated the seriousness of the intentions of the CEECs and China to cooperate in all areas of mutual interest, while respecting their national legislation, Georgiev said. Gao Peiyong, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said the China-CEEC cooperation mechanism provides conditions for better development of the BRI for both sides. Jointly organized by the Diplomatic Institute to the Bulgarian Foreign Minister and the CASS, the one-day roundtable was held as part of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bulgaria. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, visits a place of religious activity in Xihua County, during an inspection and research tour to central China's Henan Province, April 16, 2019. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) ZHENGZHOU, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) leader Wang Yang has called for better work to unite religious figures and believers around the Party and the government. Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks during an inspection and research tour to central China's Henan Province. The three-day tour ended on Wednesday. Highlighting the special significance of religious work to the overall development of the Party and the country, Wang urged CPC committees at various levels to comprehensively enhance the political and service functions of primary-level Party organizations. He called for greater efforts to help the public solve practical difficulties, enrich their spiritual and cultural life, guide them to view religious beliefs in a rational way and enable them to consciously resist all kinds of illegal activities under the guise of religions. It is also necessary to actively explore effective ways of localizing religions and guide religions to better adapt to China's social system, morality and culture, said Wang, adding that various measures should be taken to support the healthy and orderly development of religions. During the tour, he also stressed efforts in winning the battle against poverty. (Photo/Xinhua) LOS ANGELES, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Walt Disney Company announced Wednesday that it will donate 5 million U.S. dollars to help rebuild the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. "Notre-Dame is a beacon of hope and beauty that has defined the heart of Paris and the soul of France for centuries, inspiring awe and reverence for its art and architecture and for its enduring place in human history," said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Walt Disney Company, in a statement. "The Walt Disney Company stands with our friends and neighbors in the community, offering our heartfelt support as well as a 5 million dollars donation for the restoration of this irreplaceable masterpiece," he announced. Notre Dame is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture which receives about 12 million visitors every year. The 850-year-old historic landmark was severely damaged by a devastating fire on Monday. French President, Emmanuel Macron, vowed to rebuild the cathedral after the inferno. In two days following the devastating blaze, nearly a billion dollars have been reportedly pledged by donors from across the world, including some major companies. busracavus/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee, on Wednesday accused his Republican colleagues of obstructing the committees sweeping investigation into rising drug prices, after they sent letters sent to 12 drug companies urging them not to participate in the probe. Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows sent letters to a dozen top drug company CEOs earlier this month warning them not to participate in Cummings' investigation, arguing the probe is strictly partisan and suggesting Cummings is likely to leak information drug companies turn over to the committee. You personally may have no interest in bringing down drug prices for your constituents, you honestly may believe it is more important to protect drug company profits and stock prices than the budgets of American families, and you may even disagree with President Trump that drug companies are getting away with murder, but your efforts to interfere with this investigation represent a new low for a Member of this Committee, Cummings wrote in a letter to Ranking Member Jordan. It is one thing to have an honest disagreement about the Committees policy or approachwhich would command respectbut it is quite another to actively obstruct an investigation in the service of placing corporate interests over those of the American people, Cummings wrote. In their letter to the companies, Meadows and Jordan argue that Cummings released sensitive information as it relates to the closed-door interview of Tricia Newbold, the White House whistleblower who brought concerns over the security clearance process to the committee, attempting to make the companies fearful Cummings will do the same to them. To the contrary, the information released during the security clearance investigation was carefully vetted to remove sensitive information, and it accurately set forth the concerns of a career whistleblower who exhausted all other avenues to address these concerns internally, Cummings wrote. Jordan tweeted Wednesday that Cummings was "trying to divert attention from the classic Washington gaffe of telling the truth. He bragged about affecting stock prices with regard to drugs. The issue is a top priority for Cummings. In January, he sent letters to the 12 drug companies asking for information and communications regarding price increases, investments in research and development, and corporate strategies to preserve market share and pricing power. It's an effort that also has traction with President Donald Trump and thereby has the pharmaceutical industry on edge. The administration has taken steps to crack down on this very issue. Trump said during a 2017 Cabinet meeting that drug companies are getting away with murder and pledged to lower drug prices. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. (Photo/Global Times) ADDIS ABABA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde Gebremariam on Wednesday said the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an important impetus to boost the airline's global presence. Ethiopia's national carrier, which aspires to enhance air connectivity between China and the African continent, has envisaged to utilize the BRI to drive its ambition, Gebremariam said in an interview with Xinhua. "The BRI is expected to boost trade, investment, tourism relations between China and Africa," Gebremariam said, adding that Ethiopian airlines will play its part in ensuring greater economic connectivity between the two sides. The CEO said the BRI is an opportunity for Ethiopia's flag carrier to pursue new destinations in China. "We are working to make Ethiopia a hub for Chinese aviation in Africa, a key part of our BRI economic integration plan," Gebremariam said. Also, the upcoming Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation would be an "ideal platform," he said, stressing the airline's aspiration to use the BRI to augment its flight networks. Ethiopian airlines expects to establish partnership agreements with two Chinese airports on the sidelines of the forum, slated to be held later this month in Beijing, he said. "ET will sign cooperation agreements with Chongqing and Zhengzhou airports to start cargo flights between Ethiopia and China," Gebremariam added. Proposed in 2013, the BRI aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Ethiopia's national carrier currently operates daily passenger flights from Addis Ababa to Guangzhou and Beijing, and three-times-a-week passenger flights to Chengdu, as well as daily passenger and cargo flights to Hong Kong and Shanghai. Gebremariam said Ethiopian airline, which started flight services to China in 1973, has developed a "unique opportunity" to observe the economic transformation of China in the last four decades, which helped China lift hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty. "Ethiopia, with its own economic development program, is already aiming to emulate China's unprecedented economic development over the last several decades," the CEO said. The East African country, one of the countries cooperating with China in implementing the BRI, has accomplished various achievements, including the 500-million-U.S. dollar Addis Ababa-Adama expressway, the first expressway in Ethiopia and East Africa. (Photo/Xinhua) Lan Caisheng, an illustrator of Dong ethnic group in Zhaoxing, southwest Chinas Guizhou province, has injected ethnic elements into his products, expressing the charm of local cultural through these delicate souvenirs. After graduation as an art student in 2014, Lan returned back to his hometown and found his niche in creative cultural products under the booming tourism industry in the scenic spot nearby. With the support of his family, he set up a workshop to sell souvenirs with Dong ethnic characteristics, including postcards, mirrors, refrigerator magnets, and notebooks. After give years, these exquisite and unique handicrafts have gradually become must-buy presents for domestic and foreign travelers. In peak season, Lan can sign cooperative contracts with over 50 travel agencies and experience groups. Lans creative products fill the market gap of Dong ethnic group and spread across the local culture. More importantly, the success of Lans workshop stimulates the development of related industries. With the increasing sales volume of cultural products, the value of orders paid to farmers reached about 1.1 million yuan ($164,399), which provided employment for 60 villagers, and achieved about 2,600 yuan average annual income per person in 2017, according to local media Dongxiangwang.cn. (Photo/Xinhua) Chinese experts and scholars hail the newly established China-Africa Institute, which is expected to offer an important platform for the development of bilateral ties. The China-Africa Institute was established on April 9 by the China Academy of Social Sciences in response to President Xi Jinpings call to build a closer China-Africa community of shared future and implement eight major initiatives at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in 2018. Speaking at a seminar on Monday in Beijing, Xu Weizhong, director of the Institute for African Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said China-Africa cooperation, as a vital part of South-South cooperation, has great significance in stimulating equal cooperation and enhancing the concept of building a shared future for mankind, which is expected to the prevail over unilateralism and anti-globalization across world. The intimate China-Africa relationship will provide precious experience for global governance in this continent, he added. I hope the establishment of the China-Africa Institute will be an opportunity to deepen the exchanges and interactions between think tank scholars from China and Africa, to strengthen construction of China-Africa soft power and discourse rights, and to play an important role in jointly building a community with a shared future for all humankind, as well as aligning the Belt and Road Initiative with the African Union Agenda 2063, said Li Chong, counselor of the African Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. The establishment of the China-Africa Institute offers a crucial platform for talent training, said Ai Ping, vice president of Chinese Association for International Understanding, also former vice minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee. African experts and scholars believe that the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries could be largely improved through this platform, and joint endeavor from government, academic circles, and people are called for strengthening friendship, commented Li Dan, director of the African Research Center, China Foreign Affairs University. Similarly, Ai pointed out that cultural exchanges and think tank cooperation between the two countries should play an important role in boosting the bilateral ties. Upon the inauguration of the China-Africa Institute on April 9, President Xi talked about the time-honored friendship between their peoples and the global significance of bilateral ties in his congratulatory letter. Jiuhuashan (Photo/People's Daily Online) Two more Chinese sites received the label of Global Geopark from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN body announced on April 17. "UNESCO's Executive Board today approved the designation of eight new sites demonstrating the diversity of the planet's geology as new Geoparks and also approved the extension of three existing Geoparks," the organization said in a statement. The first of the newly designated Geoparks, Jiuhuashan Geopark, is located in Qingyang County in east Chinas Anhui province. Beyond its religious and cultural significance, the site is also home to stunning granite landscapes. The second new site is Yimengshan Geopark in east Chinas Shandong province. The site, dotted with castle-shaped land formations called Daigu, is home to the first primary kimberlite-type diamond ever discovered in China. UNESCO also approved the extension of Funiushan, Sanqingshan and Taishan Geoparks in China. The Global Geoparks Network was created with UNESCOs support in 2004 to encourage cooperation between geological heritage experts and practitioners. It also seeks to promote awareness of geological hazards, disaster mitigation strategies and climate change. There are currently 147 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 41 countries and regions. Vietnams newest airline, Bamboo Airways, is working with authorities of the Czech Republic to complete relevant procedures to launch Hanoi-Prague direct flights, according to a representative of the carrier. Bamboo Airways and Pragues international airport inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the matter on April 17. Under the MoU, the Prague airport will apply various incentives for the Vietnamese carrier in approval of flight schedule, market research and promotion, policies on take off and landing, and cost of passenger services. Upon the operation of the Hanoi-Prague direct route, travelling time from Vietnam to the Czech Republic is expected to be reduced down to just 12 hours. In addition, the Czech Republics Ministry of Transport has voiced its attention to and support for the carriers plan to launch direct flights linking the two nations. It also vowed to work with relevant agencies of the European country and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to help Bamboo Airways complete procedures for flight permission as regulated. Vice President of Bamboo Airways Duong Thi Mai Hoa said that the airlines new direct flights are hoped to serve as a bridge, fostering bilateral economic cooperation as well as travel and trade activities of people of the two countries. The direct route linking the two nations will be an important step for Bamboo Airways plan to expand to Eastern Europe in particular and the European market in the future, she added. Bamboo Airways also announced its first charter flights to the Republic of Korea and Japan earlier this month. By the end of this year, its fleet is estimated to rise to 40, including Airbus A320, A321 Neo, and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. VNA Cascades Officially Inaugurates Its New Corrugated Packaging Plant in New Jersey Located in Piscataway, New Jersey, Cascades new corrugated packaging plant is 450,000 sq. ft. and employs 170 people. The plant has an annual production capacity of 2.4 billion square feet. April 18, 2019 - Cascades today inaugurated its newest and most modern containerboard packaging plant, a US$76 million investment in state-of-the-art equipment. Elected officials, members of the community and Cascades partners, clients, suppliers and employees attended the official opening. Located in Piscataway, New Jersey, the new plant is 450,000 sq. ft. With 170 employees, the facility makes corrugated packaging using some of the fastest, most modern equipment in the world. With an annual production capacity of 2.4 billion square feet, the operation will allow Cascades to increase its internal integration of parent roll production. The inauguration of this significant investment highlights our commitment to both the modernization of our asset base, and the consolidation of our containerboard and packaging activities in the Northeastern U.S., said Mario Plourde, President and CEO of Cascades. It also represents a continuation of the important projects that we have carried out in recent years, including the Greenpac Mill in New York State and the Oregon tissue converting facility. Located in Piscataway, New Jersey, the new plant is 450,000 sq. ft. With 170 employees, the facility makes corrugated packaging using some of the fastest, most modern equipment in the world. With an annual production capacity of 2.4 billion square feet, the operation will allow Cascades to increase its internal integration of parent roll production. With a strategic location in the heart of the markets we serve, the plant will allow us to pursue our growth strategy in the U.S., Plourde added. Founded in 1964, Cascades produces, converts and markets packaging and tissue products that are composed mainly of recycled fibres. To learn more, please visit: www.cascades.com . SOURCE: Cascades, Inc. Gypsy Rose Blanchard's story has touched many viewers and garnered her a contingent of vocal supporters and now, she's asking them to help reduce her prison sentence. The 27-year-old whose mother, Dee Dee, believed Gypsy was terminally ill due to a rare disorder known as Munchausen-by-proxy is in the process of serving a 10-year sentence for the second-degree murder of Dee Dee. As such, Gypsy's now asking people to write letters on her behalf petitioning for an early release. Related | Gypsy Rose Blanchard Is Engaged In a letter shared by In Touch, Gypsy began by expressing appreciation for her supporters' "continued encouragement throughout my prison sentence." Mentioning the support the Free Gypsy Blanchard Petition has received thusfar, Gypsy went on to ask people to "please aid my father in his efforts for my freedom and write a letter expressing support for my early release." Explaining that supporters can send letters to either the Missouri State Governor, Michael L. Parson and/or the Division of the Missouri State Board of Probation and Parole, Gypsy also provided an address to send them to. She is currently scheduled for a parole hearing in December 2021. Gypsy plans to marry her fiance once she is released from prison. Read Gypsy's entire letter via In Touch. Fans watched in shock as Jason Momoa shaved off his iconic beard in an Instagram video yesterday. Since 2012, the actor has sported his long facial tresses, which became his definitive look after playing Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones. Momoa said he was inspired to take the step for purely environmental reasons: "It's time to make a change. A change for the better... for my kids, your kids, the world. Let's make a positive change for the health of our planet. Let's clean up our oceans, our land. Join me on this journey. Let's make the switch to infinitely recyclable aluminum. Water in cans, not plastic." The video is promotion for a new line of recyclable canned water and sees the actor using a razor to shave while in the middle of a polluted desert in Jordan. He's later seen holding a small plastic bottle while confessing that he "hates going on planes," and that there's only one thing that can "really help our planet and save our planet, as long as we recycle... that's aluminum." He further revealed he has created his own brand of aluminum cans filled with flat, sparkling and alkaline water. Although there's no confirmation of his exact role at the brand, the clip was produced by Ball Corporation. According to National Geographic, if plastic consumption and pollution continues at its current pace, there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills by 2050. United Nations cites that over one million marine birds and 100,000 marine animals are killed every year because of ingestion of plastic. Related | Rose McGowan Spotlights Climate Change at Vivienne Westwood If you're inspired by Momoa's dramatic transformation, you too can shave off your beard with the Braun Multi-Grooming Kit, which was instrumental in crafting his new look. To find out more about replacing plastic with aluminum or to learn about Momoa's initiative, click here. Tehran's Amirkabir University to host 11th aerospace competition 04/18/19 Source: Tehran Times TEHRAN - The 11th national aerospace competition will be held on May 2 and 3 at the Amirkabir University of Technology. The competition will be held in five leagues including avionics simulators, drone speeding, hovercraft, glider and water rocket. Visit the event's website: aerocomp.ir The competition has also the junior section. The compressed water rocket and hovercraft will be held for junior competitors. Aerospace is the human effort in science, engineering and business to fly in the atmosphere of Earth (aeronautics) and surrounding space (astronautics). Aerospace organizations research, design, manufacture, operate, or maintain aircraft or spacecraft. Aerospace manufacturing is a high-technology industry that produces aircraft, guided missiles, space vehicles, aircraft engines, propulsion units, and related parts. Instant Ban For Iran's IRGC On Instagram: Social-Media Giant Blocks Commanders' Sites 04/18/19 By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL With some 800,000 followers, the Instagram page of the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force was among the most popular pages of Iranian officials on the photo-sharing website. The Instagram comments, public appearances, travels, and promotional posters of Qassem Soleimani -- who as head of Quds commands the vaunted Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) outside of Iran -- were shared on the Instagram page, which is one of the only major social-media sites that has not been blocked by Iran. General Qassem Soleimani On April 16, a day after Washington's designation of the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) came into effect, Soleimani's page, along with the Instagram pages of several other IRGC commanders, were blocked. "Sorry, this page isn't available," a message on the page reads. "The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed." An Instagram spokesman said it was operating "under the constraints of U.S. sanctions laws." "We work with the appropriate government authorities to ensure we meet our legal obligations, including those relating to the recent designation of the IRGC," the spokesman said. Iranian media reported that the English-language Instagram page of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the page of judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi were also blocked. Khamenei's Persian-language Instagram page, with 2.5 million followers, remains available. Khamenei's English-language page was back up on April 17. 'Take Reciprocal Actions' The blockages were condemned in Tehran while prompting renewed calls from hard-liners for a blocking of Instagram, the second-most-popular social-media platform in Iran after the communications app Telegram, which was blocked last year. "When you tear out a man's tongue, you aren't proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you FEAR what he might say," Communications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahrom wrote on Twitter, blocked in Iran since 2019, quoting the cult TV series Games Of Thrones. When you tear out a man's tongue, you aren't proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you FEAR what he might say #GameOfThrones #TheRegionRemembers https://t.co/B6XeynRdnp MJ Azari Jahromi (@azarijahromi) April 16, 2019 Other hard-liners, including Hossein Allah Karam, a leader of the paramilitary Ansar-e Hezbollah group, blacklisted by the U.S. for human rights abuses, also agreed that the time had come for the Islamic republic to block Instagram. "Social-media sites use any opportunity to harm national interests, we need to be ready to confront these plots and take reciprocal actions," Allah Karam was quoted as saying by Iranian media. "Under the current conditions it is needed more than ever to filter these social-media sites in support of the IRGC," he said, adding that "the blocking of hostile social-media sites such as Instagram will [prevent] them from doing what they want." The conservative chairman of the parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Alaeddin Borujerdi, said he will stop posting on Instagram to protest the blocking of the pages of Khamenei and the IRGC commanders. In a video posted on Instagram, Borujerdi said the "unwise move" reflected "the depth of America's hostility" toward the Islamic establishment. To Block Or Not To Block? Iranian hard-liners have long called for tighter Internet censorship, including the blocking of Instagram. Earlier this year Javad Javidnia, secretary of Iran's state committee on online censorship and deputy state prosecutor in charge of cyberaffairs, was quoted by domestic media as saying that the country was ready to block Instagram once the authorities agreed. The move has been opposed by the government of President Hassan Rohani, who came to power in 2013 promising people more freedom and less censorship. Iran blocks tens of thousands of websites, including news sites and social-media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but many Iranians access banned sites through virtual private networks (VPNs) and other anti-filtering tools. About the author: Golnaz Esfandiari is a senior correspondent with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She can be reached at esfandiarig@rferl.org President Rouhani: Floods in Iran proved 'worst historic test' for U.S. 04/18/19 Source: Tehran Times TEHRAN - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the recent devastating floods in Iran have proven the "worst historic test" for the Trump administration. "The U.S. regime's rulers have revealed their nature. If they were wise, they would announce suspension of sanctions because of the flood incident. In that case, the Iranian people may have believed that they [the U.S. officials] are not against them (people) when 25 provinces of the country were hit by flood," Rouhani said during a cabinet meeting. Rouhani said that the U.S. move in blocking aid to flood-stricken people in Iran proved the "inhuman" nature of officials in Washington. Since March 19, large parts of Iran have been inundated with flash floods. So far, about 76 people have lost their lives and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Almost all provinces have been affected by the flood. The Trump administration has been blocking the accounts of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, actually impeding transfer of money to the Iranian flood victims. 'Recent floods show the need for unity' Rouhani also said that the recent floods and the U.S. behavior showed that it is necessary to maintain unity. The president said joint efforts by the government and armed forces to help the flood victims "showed us that we should stand on our feet and join hands to solve problems and turn the problems into opportunity." People in Khuzestan province fighthing the rising waters (source: Etemad daily) Elsewhere, he thanked Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's response to a letter about withdrawing money from the National Development Fund to compensate for damages caused by floods. "The government will use budget resources to compensate for the damages as far as possible and will report to the Leader about that and will use (resources from) the National Development Fund to the extent that is needed," the president explained. Rouhani said the Leader had told him that withdrawing money from the National Development Fund for the purpose is necessary. "In a meeting with the Leader, he said that he believed money should be withdrawn from the fund in line with compensating for the damages." In a letter published on Monday, the Leader asked the government to use the available financial resources to compensate for flood damages. The Leader suggested the administration can withdraw money from the National Development Fund only if it is absolutely necessary. Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has said that floods have left nearly $2.5 billion in damages. Reportedly, flooding has damaged 110,000 houses in the provinces of Lorestan, Golestan and Mazandaran. The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo says jailing Chinese illegal mining "queen," En Huang aka Aisha for engaging in illegal mining was not important as it was not going to solve Ghana's economic problems. Mr Osaafo-Maafo made the comments when he addressed a recent town hall meeting held by the government. In a now viral video, he is heard justifying the decision to deport Aisha last December. She was arraigned before the court on May 9, 2017, for engaging in illegal small-scale mining at Bepotenten in the Amansie Central District in the Ashanti Region. Read a transcript of what Mr Osafo Maafo said below; We have a very good relationship with China. Today, the main company that is helping develop the infrastructure system in Ghana is Sinohydro, it is a Chinese Company. It is the one that is going to help process our bauxite and provide about two billion dollars to us. "So when there are these kind of arrangements there are other things behind the scenes. Putting that lady in jail in Ghana is not going to solve your economic problems. It is not going to make you happy or me happy, that's not important, the most important thing is that she has deported from Ghana... " . . I am saying that there are many other things beyond what we see in these matters and everybody is wide awake, the most important thing is that we have banned this, we have established regulations and we are protecting our environment. That is far more important than one Chinese woman who has been deported out of the country". Deportation Aisha and four other Chinese nationals who were arrested for their involvement in illegal mining (galamsey) in Ghana, were deported after the state filed a nolle prosequi to discontinue the trial. A State Attorney, Ms Mercy Arthur, presented the application for nolle prosequi to the Accra High Court, presided over by Mr Justice Charles Ekow Baiden. Based on the application, the court discharged the five accused persons. She was charged with three counts of undertaking small-scale mining operations, contrary to Section 99 (1) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703); providing mining support services without valid registration with the Minerals Commission, contrary to the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), and the illegal employment of foreign nationals, contrary to the Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573). The other four accused persons were charged with disobedience of directives given by or under the Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573). According to the prosecution, Aisha had a mining concession at Bepotenten and also operated a mining support services company. The four other accused persons, it said, were employed by Aisha to work at the mining site. The prosecution claimed checks at the Minerals Commission, however, revealed that Aisha had no licence to operate either a mine or a mining support services company. They also contended that the visas issued to all the five Chinese by the Ghana Embassy in Beijing, China, did not allow them to work in Ghana. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video April 18 is annually observed as the International Day for Monuments and Sites [IDMS]. It aims to bring global attention to the need to conserve monuments and sites as our cultural heritage and to celebrate the diversity of this heritage. The Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of Ghana Museums and Monuments, Kingsley Ofosu Ntiamoah in a statement to mark the day said his outfit Is in the process of updating and compiling a National Heritage Register of Sites and will include mapping of Rural Landscapes for incorporation into the National Heritage Register Below is the full statement This years International Day for Monuments and Sites (IMDS) offers another opportunity for the global community of heritage Conservators and heritage Mangers to raise awareness about the relevance of rural landscapes, the challenges that encompass their conservation, the benefits that these landscapes provide, and how rural landscapes are fundamentally related to sustainable development. The Day again, represents an unmatched opportunity to foster communication and build links with communities while acknowledging their involvement in the creation, existence, evolution and richness of these rural landscapes, and no doubt, in their conservation In 1982, International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) established 18 April as the International Day for Monuments and Sites. UNESCO approved it the following year during its 22nd General Conference. Since then, 18 April has been a day to celebrate and promote cultural heritage. Every year on 18 April, ICOMOS celebrates the International Day for Monuments and Sites, whose establishment was approved by the 22nd UNESCO General Conference in 1983 under different themes. IMDS 2019 is observed under the theme Rural Landscapes which refers to heritage places both the tangible and intangible in of rural areas. Rural Landscapes encompasses physical attributes such as productive land ,water ,infrastructure vegetation ,settlements ,vernacular architecture as well as wider physical ,cultural ,environmental linkages and settings . Some Rural Landscape Sites in Ghana are as follows: Kakum National Park, the Ashanti Traditional Building, the Mole National Park, the Ada-Keta Songhor Lagoon Settlers, Kwahu Mountain range farm settlers etc. Benefits of Rural Landscapes Rural Landscapes provide diverse economic and tourism benefits when closely linked with the communication and enhancement of their heritage values Threats to Rural Landscapes in Ghana include the following: Demographic and cultural (Population growth in Urban areas and depopulation in rural areas ,urban expansion ,development pressures ,loss of traditional practices techniques ,local knowledge and culture . Environmental (Climate change ,pollution and environmental degradation including non-sustainable resource mining . Heritage should play a significant role in the recognition ,protection and promotion of rural landscapes and bio cultural diversity due to the significant values it represents . Action criteria /strategies for preserving Rural Landscapes in Ghana : Specific measures are: To protect ,sustainably manage the transformation ,communicate and transmit Rural Landscapes and their heritage values through: Documentation of the Heritage Values of Rural Landscapes in Ghana Inventory and cataloguing Rural Landscapes Promote extensive and ongoing cooperation among public institutions ,non-governmental organizations and Universities for research ,information sharing ,technical assistance and coordination of a wide variety of knowledge building activities . The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board is in the process of updating and compiling a National Heritage Register of Sites and will include mapping of Rural Landscapes for incorporation into the National Heritage Register . We (GMMB) are through this medium calling on all stakeholders to support us in the conservation of heritage for posterity. For without it, we have no identity as a people. Long live Ghana, long live GMMB Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev. Dr. Opuni Frimpong has asked Ghanaians to learn to have a forgiving spirit. He says just as Christ died on the cross, it should be symbolic for Christians this festive season to replicate the love Christ shown on the cross and be agents for Christ this Easter. Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he added that the Easter is not a period for people to wine and dine, but rather learning to forgive will make the country a better place to live. We should also work and be committed to developing our country. "Drivers should also be extra careful as they transport passengers to their various destinations to celebrate this Easter. The country has recorded enough careless deaths within this short period," he said. Easter, or Resurrection Sunday as it is also called, is a holiday which celebrates the Lord Jesus resurrection that occurred three days after He was crucified on the cross. Its exact time falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox every year. In order to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus and to remember the salvation and hope Jesus brought to mankind, each year from March to April, Christians all over the world hold celebrations on the day of Easter. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ministry of Aviation has denied reports that the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) is being handed into private hands. A statement signed by the Public Affairs Unit, indicated that the Ministry has no plans whatsoever to recommend or approve the privatization or sale of the KIA." According to them, what was leaked was a possible management model for KIA to enhance its value, performance and international competitiveness. Read below full statement by the Aviation Ministry The Ministry of Aviation has taken note that initial internal considerations of a possible management model for the Kotoka International Airport to enhance its value, performance and international competitiveness, has been leaked and misconstrued to the general public as a plan by the Government of Ghana to privatize or sell the Kotoka International Airport. For the avoidance of doubt, the Ministry of Aviation wishes to inform the general public that: 1. The Ministry has no plans whatsoever to recommend, neither does the Government of Ghana have plans to approve a privatization or sale of the Kotoka International Airport. 2. Cabinet has not been requested, neither has the Ministry of Aviation submitted a Cabinet Memorandum recommending approval for the privatization or sale of the Kotoka International Airport. 3. What indeed the Ministry is considering is an offer to partner with Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) to provide management services to manage the financial and operational functions for the development of the GACL. 4. The Honorable Sector Minister is yet to be appropriately advised on best available options in response to the offer being made, after which Cabinet may be requested to approve a recommended option if one is agreed upon. 5. A broader consultation with key stakeholders in the sector will be part of the internal considerations in due course if an appropriate option is agreed upon. The general public is hereby entreated to disregard news of privatization or sale of the Kotoka International Airport. The Ministry is committed to protecting the assets of all institutions under its purview including the GACL whilst enhancing their value for the betterment of the aviation sector. The Ministry wishes to reiterate that the best practices for the management of the Industry will be the focus of all its decisions and actions at all times. END. Public Affairs Unit Attached is the full statement also in pdf. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A mobile currency exchange vendor who outwitted two suspected robbers by giving them a bag stuffed with rags instead of one with $60,000 received gunshots in his leg and the back of his head in the precincts of the Fiesta Royale Hotel at Dzorwulu in Accra last Friday. The victim (name withheld) was taken to the Police Hospital in Accra by some Good Samaritans. The Accra Regional Police Command has mounted a search for the suspected robbers who bolted on a motorbike after shooting the victim. What happened Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mrs Effia Tenge, said the victim told the police that he received a call on Thursday, April 11, 2019 from an unknown caller who requested $60,000 in exchange for Ghana cedis. The victim, who claimed he was suspicious of the caller because he knew all his clients and also because the amount involved was huge, said he ignored the call. The victims decision to ignore the caller was also because the caller refused to disclose where he got his (victims) contact from. The same caller followed up with another call the next day requesting the same amount of money. Mrs Tenge said the victim then asked the caller to meet him at the Airport Police Station or any other police station, to which the caller agreed that they meet at the Airport Police Station. She said the victim got to the Airport Police Station at the agreed time and after a while when the caller was not showing up, he called the number that had called him to request the money. The person who responded at the other end is said to have told the victim that he was lodging at the Fiesta Royale Hotel and that the money was too bulky to be carried around. Shooting He, therefore, asked the victim to meet him instead at the Fiesta Royale Hotel since it was closer to his bank, where he would withdraw the cedi equivalent. When Ansah arrived at the Fiesta Royale Hotel and called the unknown number, the recipient asked the victim to give a brief description of himself, including the colour of the shirt he was wearing, to which the victim obliged. The victim said a man approached him and identified himself as the one who had been calling him and suddenly pulled a gun and ordered the victim to hand over the bag he was carrying at his back. When Ansah refused, the suspected robber fired gunshots indiscriminately into the air. The victim, who told the police he was gripped with fear, said he attempted to run into the reception area of the hotel but was shot by the suspected robber. After shooting Ansah, the suspected robber snatched the bag he thought was full of money and jumped onto a waiting motorbike which sped off. Some police officers on duty at a traffic intersection close to the Fiesta Royale Hotel who heard the gunshot joined some persons close to the scene and arranged for the victim to be taken to the Police Hospital while they put distress calls through to the police control room. Mrs Tenge said the victim, who was admitted to the Police Hospital, had since been discharged. Source: Graphic.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Abdul Rashid Maizango, the 29-year-old mistaken suspect in the murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale, a member of the Anas Aremeyaw Anas Tiger Eye PI Team member, is home now but without the GH20,000 the law enforcement agents took from him. There is even a contention over how much the police reportedly took from him, as the exonerated man continues to claim it was GH25,000 instead of GH20,000. The family was told that the money is in the possession of the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department herself but who has traveled outside the country. We have been told to wait until her return so the money and the phone which was also seized would be returned, Abdul Nasir, senior brother of Maizango told DAILY GUIDE yesterday. When COP Tiwas Addo-Danquah, the Director General of the CID, returns from her foreign trip and hands over the wad of money to the exonerated suspect, he could dispute the exact amount of money the police collected from him. While the Greater Accra Regional Police Command claims the suspect tried bribing them with GH20,000, the young man has said otherwise, pointing at GH25,000 as the total amount in his car when he was arrested. If the former suspects story is the truth then an amount of GH5,000 is missing. The Police, during their engagement with the media when Abdul Rashid was arrested, announced that the suspect attempted bribing them with GH20,000. His brother Abdul Nasir, a graduate of the Islamic University College, Ghana and a staff of a state institution, told DAILY GUIDE that his brother was bombarded with calls before his arrest by some cops. The cop callers created a high level of fear in him over a certain criminality. It was one of such calls which directed him to show up at the West Hills Shopping Mall area for an interaction with the police officers, which he obliged. He had been lured and that was when he was arrested, the brother claimed. The relief in Abdul Nasirs voice said it all when he told DAILY GUIDE about thanksgiving activities being organized to herald the return of Maizango. Having been detained at the Nima Police Station for close to a week, he was accorded a warm reception after his release last Tuesday. Female well-wishers clutching containers of talcum powder showered him with the stuff as a sign of relief and joy upon his regained freedom. Lawyer Seidu Nasigri partook in the joyous mood, as he posed for a memorable photograph with the family and other well-wishers. Members of the Zongo communities in both Accra and Kumasi have showed maximum interest in the case, having juxtaposed it against the fatal shooting of some Zongo youth in the Ashanti Regional capital over which the state paid compensation to the bereaved families recently. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Judges from the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice will meet in Abuja, Nigeria to enhance judicial co-operation and share experiences between the two Courts. The visit is slated for 29 April to 4 May 2019 in Abuja, Nigeria. President of the African Court, Justice Sylvain Ore explained that the one-week working visit would also serve as reciprocal engagement following the inaugural visit by the ECOWAS Court of Justice to the Arusha-based Court in February 2018. Justice Ore, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the Continental Court officials would pay a courtesy call on the President, Muhammadu Buhari and meet key officials in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice. The team would also visit the Nigerian Human Rights Commission, the Nigerian Bar Association and meet Non-Governmental and Civil Society Organisations. The African Court President said the visit also forms part of the Courts on-going efforts to strengthen ties with Regional Courts on the continent. He said at the end of the meeting a memorandum of understanding would be signed, and that the African Court signed similar MOU with the East African Court of Justice last month in Arusha. The African Court delegation, included three Judges and senior Registry staff. The Continental Court was established by virtue of Article 1 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. It was to complement the protective mandate of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, with a view to enhancing the protection of human rights on the Continent. The ECOWAS Court of Justice on the other hand is an organ of ECOWAS, a regional integration community of 15 member states in West Africa. Although ECOWAS was founded in 1975 by the Treaty of Lagos, the Court of Justice was not created until the adoption of the Protocol on the Community Court of Justice in 1991. Additionally, the ECOWAS Revised Treaty of 1993 established the Court of Justice as an institution of ECOWAS. The Protocol has been amended twice; in 2005, and again in 2006. The 2005 Supplementary Protocol expanded the Court's jurisdiction to include human rights claims by individuals. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi says if dared, he will organize a press conference to tell it all about the 'corrupt' persona of the late father of former President John Dramani Mahama, Mr. Emmanuel Adama Mahama. Chairman Wontumi, who had earlier described the late E. A. Mahama as corrupt, was given a double dose of his own medication by some NDC Communicators who said; "If you had a father like E.A Mahama, you will not be the social misfit and foolish that you are today. Not enthused, the NPP stalwart has called on former President John Mahama to call his Communicators to order and apologize to him, or he will retaliate with a press conference to shed light on some of the crude dealings of his 'corrupt' late father. I give them(NDC) seven days to apologize or I will tell it all about his corrupt father, he warned. Listen to interview Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The former First Vice Chairman of the Brong Ahafo Region of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe a.k.a Abronye DC has been elected as the substantive Chairman of the newly created Bono Region. The General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu in a press conference explained that the Special Regional Executive Committee Meetings shall be held in strict compliance with Article 9(24) of the Party Constitution, which provides clear GUIDELINES in respect of how to fill vacant positions in the regional executive committee. Therefore in pursuant to Article 9(24) of the NPPs Constitution, Abronye DC automatically becomes the Bono Regional Chairman. Article 9(24) states that: any vacancy, which may occur for whatever reason in the membership of the Regional Executive Committee, shall be filled in the case of the Regional Chairperson by the 1st Regional Vice Chairperson; in the case of the 1st Vice Chairperson by the Regional, by the 2nd Regional chairperson, and in the case of the Regional Secretary and the Treasurer, by election of the Regional Executive Committee of another officer to hold such office. In the case of any other officer, the Regional Executive Committee shall appoint someone to act. Any person elected or appointed to fill a vacancy shall vacate his or her office at the same time as the other Regional officers at the end of the term of four (4) years. The party is however expected to hold their Special Regional Executive Committee Meeting of Bono Region on Friday, 3rd May, 2019. Speaking to Abronye DC about the development which has promoted him to the Regional Chairman position, he thanked the NEC of party for using the constitution to operate effectively. He, therefore, promised to work particularly with the grass roots to increase the NPPs votes in the Region in 2020 and also continue to project the image of the party in the area. In view of the outstanding law in the ruling party's constitution, the NPP Youth Wing in Bono region has congratulated Abronye DC on his new appointment. In a statement by the NPP Youth Wing, the youth extended their heartiest congratulations to you on your appointment as the new Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. The Party in the region is lucky to have the right man at the right place at the right time. We have an excellent choice based on expertise, experience and talent. Read Full statement below: Congratulations to Kwame Baffo (Abronye D.C) as the N.P.P, Bono Regional Chairman.* We extend our heartiest congratulations to you on your appointment as the new Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. Certainly your willingness to volunteer your time and effort, as well as express your opinions, has contributed to your being the best man for the slot. The Party in the region is lucky to have the right man at the right place at the right time. We have an excellent choice based on expertise, experience and talent. We are sure that under your great leadership, wisdom and guidance will strive to much greater heights and achievements. Let us once again reiterate our sincere congratulations on your success! Thank You. Team Abronye. PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY JOHN BOADU, THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE NPP ON THE PARTYS UPCOMING EXTRAORDINARY REGIONAL DELEGATES CONFERENCES AND SPECIAL REGIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press We have invited you here primarily to officially spell out the GUIDELINES and MODALITIES for the conduct of the party's forthcoming Extraordinary Regional Delegates Conferences and special Regional Executive Committee Meetings which are being held in pursuance to Article 18 and Article 9 respectively, of the Partys Constitution. The essence of these conferences and meetings is to elect or appoint (as the case may be) persons to occupy vacant regional executive positions in accordance with the partys constitution and guidelines of the National Executive Committee and National Council. The decision to hold these extraordinary regional delegates conferences and special regional executive meetings have been necessitated by the need to fill vacant regional executive positions, occasioned by the recent regional reorganisation witnessed in the country. In light of this, these regional conferences and special regional executive committee meetings shall be held ONLY in regions affected by the regional reorganization. For the avoidance of doubt, the extraordinary regional delegates conferences shall be held in the newly created regions comprising the Oti Region, Western North Region, Bono East Region, Ahafo Region, Savanna Region and North East Region, whereas the traditional regions from which these new regions were carved, comprising the Volta Region, Western Region, Bono Region and Northern Region, shall hold special Regional Executive Committee Meetings. SPECIAL REGIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS TO FILL VACANT POSITIONS IN THE TRADITIONAL REGIONS The Special Regional Executive Committee Meetings shall be held in strict compliance with Article 9(24) of the Party Constitution, which provides clear GUIDELINES in respect of how to fill vacant positions in the regional executive committee. Article 9(24) states that: any vacancy, which may occur for whatever reason in the membership of the Regional Executive Committee, shall be filled in the case of the Regional Chairperson by the 1st Regional Vice Chairperson; in the case of the 1st Vice Chairperson by the Regional, by the 2nd Regional chairperson, and in the case of the Regional Secretary and the Treasurer, by election of the Regional Executive Committee of another officer to hold such office. In the case of any other officer, the Regional Executive Committee shall appoint someone to act. Any person elected or appointed to fill a vacancy shall vacate his or her office at the same time as the other Regional officers at the end of the term of four (4) years. The special regional executive committee meetings shall be held under the supervision of a National Representative, and shall come off on the following dates: Bono Region 3rd May 2019 Northern Region 4th May 2019 Western Region 5th May 2019 Volta Region 5th May 2019 EXTRAORDINARY REGIONAL DELEGATES CONFERENCE TO ELECT OFFICERS FOR THE NEWLY CREATED REGIONS As indicated, the extraordinary regional delegates conference shall be held in all the six newly created regions comprising Oti Region, Western North Region, Bono East Region, Ahafo Region, Savannah Region and North East Region, to ELECT persons to occupy vacant regional executive positions subject to the following Rules and Regulations or GUIDELINES: 1) The extraordinary regional delegates conference shall be held on Saturday, May 18, 2019, in all the newly created regions 2) The conference shall be attended by the following delegates as provided for in Article 9(25) of the Party Constitution a. All Members of the Regional Executive Committee in the Region; b. All Members of Parliament in the Region; c. All Members of the Constituency Executive Committee in the Region; d. All Regional Representative on the National Council from the Region; e. One TESCON member from each of the recognised tertiary institution in the Region f. All Founding Members from the Region who were signatories to the registration documents of the Party at the Electoral Commission. 3) The presence of at least one-third (1/3rd) of the delegates shall be necessary to constitute a quorum for the Extraordinary Regional Delegates Conference 4) There shall be constituted, the Regional Elections Committee (REC), which shall conduct the Regional Executives elections on May 18, 2019, at a Venue as the REC may determine. 5) The Regional Elections Committee (REC) shall be constituted as follows; a. A National Representative, appointed by the National Steering Committee who shall be the Chairperson; b. One (1) Regional Representative c. One (1) Representative appointed from the Regional Council of Elders 6) The composition of the Regional Elections Committee for all the six newly created regions is as follows: Oti Region Omari Wadie (Chairman) Isaac Attah Anane (Member) Abunyaa Magdalene (Member) Western North Region Kwesi Nkrumah (Chairman) Captain Aidoo (Member) Dr Isaac Segoh (Member) Bono East Region Nana Obiri Boahene (Chairman) Prince Donyinah (Member) Judith Agyei (Member) Ahafo Region Sammi Awuku (Chairman) Owusu Bempong (Member) Cecelia Amoah Gyan (Member) Savannah Region Rita Asobayire (Chairperson) Dr. Clifford Braimah (Member) Alhaji Adam Zakari (Member) North East Region Evans Nimako Seth Boyoyo (Member) Amidu Abdul Karim (Member) 7) A member of the Regional Elections Committee shall not be eligible to contest for any position in the Regional elections. Only delegates to the Extraordinary Regional Delegates Conference shall have the right to vote by proxy. 9) Applicants who wish to contest in the Regional Executive Elections shall pay to the Chairperson of the Regional Elections Committee a non-refundable nomination fee of One Thousand Ghana cedis (GHS1,000.00) for the Chairperson position and Five Hundred Ghana cedis only (GHS500.00) for other positions. 10) Only prospective aspirants are entitled to purchase Application Form from the Regional Elections Committee. 11) Prospective aspirants shall NOT be denied access to procure the Application Form. 12) If for any reason, an applicant is unable to procure Application Form from the REC, he/she may petition the General Secretary, for an Application Form at the National Secretariat. 13) The nomination shall open on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, and close on Friday, April 26, 2019, from their respective Regional Elections Committees. 14) Vetting shall be held between April 29 and 30, 2019, and the Vetting Report should be ready on Thursday, May 2, 2019. 15) Disqualified aspirants may petition the National Secretariat for redress by Friday, May 3, 2019, and decision on such petition shall be communicated by Monday, May 6, 2019, which decision shall be final. 16) An aspirant for any of the Regional Executive position shall be nominated by one (1) member and seconded by ten (10) registered members of the party who are known, active and reside in that Region, all of whom shall be in good standing. 17) Three (3) quarto-sized photographs with red background shall accompany each Application Form. 18) The Constituency Albums within the Region shall be used as the Register for the conduct of the election. 19) The delegates to the conference shall vote with their party Membership Identity (ID) Cards but where same is unavailable, the National Voters ID card may be admitted by the REC for the purpose of voting. 20) The term of office of the officers shall be coterminous with all regional executives. 21) No member shall be eligible to apply for nomination as a Regional Officer unless such a member is a known and active member for at least two (2) years and in good standing [Article 9(6)]. 22) No member shall be eligible to contest an election or to be appointed to the position of a Regional Officer if such a member is a Polling Station, Electoral Area Coordinator, Constituency Officer, Regional Officer, National Officer, MMDCE, MP, Minister or Deputy Minister of State. THE VACANT ELECTIVE POSITIONS TO BE CONTESTED FOR AT THE EXTRAORDINARY REGIONAL DELEGATES CONFERENCE IN THE NEWLY CREATED REGIONS INCLUDE: Oti Region Regional Chairman, Regional Second Vice Chairman, Regional Secretary, Regional Organiser, Regional Youth Organiser and Regional Women Organiser. Western North Region Regional Chairman, 1st Vice Chairperson, 2nd Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, Organiser, Youth Organiser and Nasara Coordinator. Bono East Region Regional 1st Vice Chairperson, Regional 2nd Vice Chairperson, Regional Treasurer, Regional Secretary, Regional Assistant Secretary, Regional Organiser, Regional Youth Organiser and Regional Women Organiser. Ahafo Region Regional Chairman, Regional 1st Vice Chairman, Regional 2nd Vice Chairperson, Regional Secretary, Regional Assistant Secretary, Regional Treasurer, Regional Organiser, Regional Women Organiser and Regional Nasara Coordinator. Savannah Region Regional Chairman, Regional 1st Vice Chairperson, Regional 2nd Vice Chairperson, Regional Secretary, Regional Treasurer, Regional Organiser, Regional Youth Organiser, Regional Women Organiser and Regional Nasara Coordinator. North East Region Regional Chairman, Regional 1st Vice Chairperson, Regional 2nd Vice Chairperson, Regional Treasurer, Regional Assistant Secretary, Regional Organiser, Regional Youth Organizer, Regional Women Organiser and Regional Nasara Coordinator. INAUGURATION OF NATIONAL COUNCIL STANDING AND AD HOC COMMITTEES OF THE PARTY The party wishes to use this opportunity to once again announce that all standing committees of the National Council and Ad-hoc Committees have been duly formed and approved at the last National Council meeting which was held on March 12, 2019. The committees include Finance Committee, Constitutional and Legal Committee, Vetting Committee. Others include Organisational Committee, Research Committee, National Disciplinary Committee, Dispute Resolution Committee, ICT Committee, Welfare Committee, Elections Committee, Events Committee, and Communications Committee. These committees would be inaugurated on Wednesday, May 24, 2019. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the party wishes to appeal to all stakeholders especially the would-be candidates for the various positions in the extraordinary delegates conference and their supporters to respect the rules of engagement and conduct this exercise with the necessary candour. We wish all the aspiring candidates the best of luck in the elections. God Bless the New Patriotic Party and thank you all for coming. Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/Peacefmonline/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Director of Elections of the New Patriotic Party [NPP], Evans Nimako says the Electoral Commissions idea to conduct a new limited voters' registration is laudable despite the opposition NDCs objection. To him, there is nothing wrong with the decision, but said his party will not hesitate to seek the court for further clarification if the need arise. For now, theres nothing wrong, they are on the right path, he said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie. The Electoral Commission has served notice a new voters register will be compiled ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections. The Commission noted it is currently inspecting offices of political parties, according to a press statement after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting. But, the National Democratic Congress [NDC] is considering filing a suit to stop the Electoral Commission from creating a new voters' register for the 2020 elections, a member of the NDCs legal team Abraham Amaliba has revealed. Listen to interview Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007 Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Constituency Chairman for Affigya Kwabre South, has proposed military training for District Chief Executives (DCEs). DCEs are key agents for development at the grassroots level so there is the need for them to be active at all times, hence the need for military training for them, he said. There should be a law that stipulates that people that are appointed as DCEs must go for military training for two months before they take office. This will make them efficient and active. Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, who is outspoken, insisted that assembly members, who are also crucial to development in the various localities, should also undergo military training as well. With the military training, DCEs and assemblymen would be punctual to work and this would eventually lead to the transformation of our country, he said. Odeneho Kwaku Appiah made the disclosure while addressing the DCE, assemblymen, NPP executives and coordinators at Affigya Kwabre South in the Ashanti Region on Sunday. The meeting, a brainchild of Mr Appiah, was geared towards enhancing peace and unity among the assembly members, DCEs and NPP executives and coordinators to boost development. Odeneho Kwaku Appiah said the current Akufo-Addo administration is committed to transforming Ghana and urged assembly members to partner the NPP executives. The Affigya Kwabre South NPP Chairman also admonished assembly members to be disciplined at all times to help promote development. Development cannot take place in an indiscipline society and so I urge the various assemblies to formulate laws that would boost development. Source: Dailyguideafrica.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Bantama constituency Member of Parliament [MP], Lawyer Henry Kwabena Kokofu has said it is a serious indictment on the judiciary for members of the NDC to say that Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo and Kweku Boahens court case is a deliberate political intimidation on their party. According to him, the Judiciary is one that needs to be respected and not politicized in any manner like the NDC wants to create the impression, even to the extent of rubbishing the case before proceedings begin in court. I am very glad the rule of law is working on matters of such nature to check the words we bring out of our mouth and as well our daily activities, he said. Indeed I am very glad that the rule of law binding the state is working appropriately in recent days to keep the nation in shape, he stressed on Adom FMs Mpensenpensenmu programme. Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Henry Nana Boakye, National Youth Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Mr Sammy Gyamfi has reunited in friendship after a near brawl that split the two apart during a radio interview at an Accra based radio station. The National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC),Sammy Gyamfi, was assaulted during a panel broadcast by Henry Nana Boakye (aka Nana B) for calling NPP panelists stupid on Accra-based Asempa FM. But Nana B has since apologized to the listeners of Asempa FM and Ghanaians for the manner in which he responded to the issue. The two took the opportunity during the birthday of Omanhene Kwabena Asante, host of Adom TVs morning show where they were both invited to Asempa FM studios to celebrate his day with him. It was at that moment that Nana B met his brother Sammy Gyamfi and gave him a hug to rekindle their friendship. In a video which has gone viral Nana B was heard saying I want a hug from my brother SammySammy Gyamfi who was also ready to smoke the peace talk also hug Nana B in return. Mr. Allotey Jacobs who was also in the studio admonishing the two added that Nana B this is what politics is all aboutnot to be fighting one anotherpolitics should unite us because Ghana should be first in all that we do. Watch the video below; Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/Peacefmonline/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form For her humanitarian work at home and abroad, Pen High vice-principal Sanda Richard is the latest recipient of the Unsung Citizen Award from the Rotary Club of Penticton Sunrise. Egypt's Mufti Shawqi Allam has called on citizens on Tursday to take part in the constitutional amendments due to be held across the country within days. In statements to MENA, the mufti highlighted the importance for every citizen to exercise his/her political and constitutional rights through the participation in the referendum in to serve the best interests of the homeland. Speaking about terrorism, the mufti said terror groups spread destruction and devastation in the name of religion, pointing out that the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood is the most errant group the country has ever known. He said the support of the armed forces and police in the war on terror is a religious duty as the terrorist groups seek to destabilise the security of the nation. Allam said Islam has never known the clash of civilisations but knew coexistence among peoples, adding that Prophet Muhammed had appealed to his companions to integrate themselves among others and avoid a clash of civilisations. Search Keywords: Short link: NAIROBI, Kenya Merck foundation First Ladies Initiative (MFFLI) Summit 2019 was attended by as many as Fifteen African First Ladies to discuss the strategy to break the stigma of infertility and empower women and girls in Education. Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany conducted Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative (MFFLI) Summit in on 30th -31st March and 1st of April 2019. The MFFLI Summit 2019 was attended by 15 African First Ladies. Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees emphasized, Merck through its foundation is committed to support the social and economic development of Africa, Asia and developing countries by building healthcare capacity. Our aim is to improve access to quality & equitable healthcare solutions across African continent. Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and President, Merck More Than a Mother explained, I am very proud to partner with the African First ladies to become Merck more than a Mother ambassadors and partner with them to build healthcare capacity, break the stigma of infertility and empower women and girls in education with special focus on STEM . During our strategy meeting, we shared experiences, discussed challenges and defined solutions to ensure continuous improvement and exchange variable aspects of different cultures in order to localize specific messages that can raise health awareness and create a culture shift to empower women and girls across Africa. The Summit was attended by: H.E. Neo Jane Masisi, the First Lady of Botswana; H.E Denise Nkurunziza, the First Lady of Burundi H.E. Brigitte Touadera, the First Lady of Central African Republic H.E. Antoinette Sassou-Nguesso, the First Lady of Congo; H.E. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the First Lady of Ghana; H.E. Fatoumatta Bah-Barrow, the First Lady of Gambia; H.E. Conde Djene, the First Lady of Guinea Conakry; H.E. Clar Weah, the First Lady of Republic of Liberia; H.E. Professor Gertrude Mutharika, the First Lady of Malawi; H.E. Mariam Mint Ahmad Tekber, the First lady of the Mauritania; H.E. DR. Isaura Ferrao Nyusi, the First Lady of Mozambique; H.E. Madam Monica Geingos, the First Lady of Namibia; H.E Aissata Issoufou Mahamado, the First Lady of Niger; H.E Fatima Maada, the First Lady of Sierra Leone; H.E. Auxillia Mnangagw, the First Lady of Zimbabwe A special training program was organized for the First Ladies technical teams to enable them to achieve the agreed objectives and follow up on Merck Foundations programs of building capacity in different sectors. MS. Nkurunziza said, Thanks to Merck Foundation for inviting me. We recently launched their programs in my country, and they are proving to be very substantial. They will be proving clinical training on fertility and oncology to our doctors. We also provided together the Health Media Training to the journalists to understand the infertility issues and to break the stigma attached to infertility MS. Touadera explained, I am very proud to work closely to advance healthcare sector and empower infertile women in my country. MS. Antoinette emphasized, I am happy to know that Merck Foundation will help train our doctors and media to raise awareness about health issues and improve patient care in my country. This will prove to be very beneficial for our citizens. MS. Rebecca explained, Through Rebecca Foundation, we have been working closely with Merck Foundation to empower women and youth. Also, we have also launched together unique initiatives like media recognition, Film and Fashion Awards in our country to break stigma around infertility. I am sure that our partnership will go a long way towards benefitting the people of my country. MS. Fatoumatta emphasized, Merck Foundation has provided training to first fertility specialists and first oncologists in The Gambia. We are making history together. We will continue this program in partnership with my foundation and Ministry of Health to improve access to cost-effective and quality fertility and cancer care in the country. MS. Djene said, I am proud of our association with Merck Foundation. They supported the establishment of First IVF Centre in our country by providing expert. They also trained the first fertility specialists and specialized oncologists in Guinea. This is a great milestone. Together we will change the landscape of Fertility and cancer care in the country. MS. Weah emphasized, I am happy to partner with Merck Foundation. They will provide specialized training to our doctors in the field of Fertility, Oncology and Diabetes Management. They will also train media to break the infertility stigma and will launch initiatives to empower women and girls in education. We hope that our partnership will continue to benefit the people of our country. Prof. Mutharika said, I am very proud and happy to be a part of MFFLI Summit and look forward to a long term partnership with Merck Foundation. We will closely work together on all their initiatives to build healthcare capacity and train our media to sensitize our communities on sensitive issues like infertility stigma. MS. Nyusi, emphasized, I am excited to be a part of MFFLI Summit. I welcome all the initiatives of Merck Foundation in my country. MS. Mahamado emphasized, I am the Ambassador of Merck more than a Mother in my country to help raise awareness about infertility prevention, management, male infertility and to break the stigma around infertile women to empower them, as they are not just child bearers. Merck Foundation has provided clinical training to our doctors in the field of Fertility, Oncology and Diabetes. I would like to thank them for this and hope they continue to support us. MS. Mnangagw, said, I am very excited to be the ambassador of Merck more than a Mother Ambassador and welcome Merck foundation to our country. We hope that we will soon launch their programs together so that the people of Zimbabwe can also benefit like other African Countries. About Merck Foundation: The Merck Foundation, established in 2017, is the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through science and technology. Our efforts are primarily focused on improving access to innovative healthcare solutions in underserved communities, building healthcare and scientific research capacity and empowering people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with a special focus on women and youth. Related Vodafone Hungary Chairman Gyorgy Back to retire Gyorgy Beck, Chairman of Vodafone Hungary, is to withdraw from his position upon the expiry of his mandate on 30 April 2019. Current Chief Executive Officer Amanda Nelson will be taking over as Chairman-CEO as of 1 May, and Deputy CEO Gergo Budai J. will be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Board while retaining his current position. Gyorgy Beck Amanda Nelson Gergo Budai J. Beck joined mobile carrier Vodafone 12 years ago in 2007 as Chief Executive and he occupied this post until 2011. Between 2009 and 2011 he acted as Chairman-CEO and from 2011 he was only Chairman of Vodafone Hungarys Board of Directors.Ive just turned 65 and I feel that after 40 years of work I need to take it easy," he said. As of May, Id like to focus on my voluntary activities and spend more time with my three children and two grandchildren," added Beck.Even after his retirement from Chairman of Vodafones BoD, Beck will remain Chairman of the John von Neumann Computer Society (NJSZT), contributing to the preparation of the Hungarian population to digitalisation and the use of new technological solutions. He will also continue his Management and Leadership in Practice course for the students of the FAKT College for Advanced Studies at the Corvinus University of Budapest. He will keep teaching and mentoring at the School for Executive Education and Development (SEED), of which he is also a founder and member of its Board. Beck will also remain Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Day One Capital Financial Investment Fund, as well as Co-President of the National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers (VOSZ), Co-President of the Hungarian Water Polo Federation (MVLSZ) and member of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB).Beck spent 24 of his 40-year professional career in executive positions on the IT market. He served as CEO of Hewlett-Packard Hungary since 2002. From 1998 to 2002, he worked for Compaq (later acquired by HP), first as Hungary Chief Executive Officer then as Chief Executive Officer for the CEE region. From 1994 to 1998, Beck served as Chief Executive Officer of Digital Hungary before its acquisition by Compaq. He has been the Chairman of the Board of Vodafone Hungary Mobile Telecommunications Company Ltd since March 2010. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Gamal Essam El-Din reviews the concluding discussion in parliament on the final draft of the proposed constitutional amendments After a 10-week debate, parliaments Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee on Sunday approved the final draft of proposed amendments to Egypts 2014 constitution The draft, formulated by a seven-member subcommittee, was finalised on Sunday morning and approved by parliament on Tuesday. Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal said the constitutional amendments will not be the last in Egypt. I think we will need to write a completely new constitution within the next 10 years, said Abdel-Aal, also indicating that the subcommittee responsible for releasing the final draft was keen that it was in line with internationally recognised constitutional principles and world conventions which Egypt signed in this respect. Al-Ahram Weekly obtained a copy of the final draft of the proposed constitutional amendments. House of Representatives Article 102 (first paragraph): The change aims to reduce the number of elected MPs in the House of Representatives (Egypts lower house of parliament) from 596 to 450 MPs, with at least 25 per cent of seats (112 seats) to be reserved for women representatives. This change was objected to by many MPs who argued that it violates the principle of equality and that it could be ruled unconstitutional. Other MPs said that only 10 per cent of seats should be reserved for women. In response, Abdel-Aal said the rules of the Inter-Parliamentary Union state that women should be allocated 30 per cent of seats in world parliaments. But we think that this quota will be too much and that 25 per cent is very reasonable and logical, Abdel-Aal said. There are currently 90 female MPs (12 per cent) in parliament, the highest in Egypts history. Article 102 (third paragraph): The law regulating the performance and election of the House of Representatives is to be changed to be in line with the above article.The law should observe the equitable distribution of population and governorates and allows that either the individual candidacy or the party list system be adopted, or a combination of the two. President of the Republic Article 140 (first paragraph): The president of the republic shall be elected for six (instead of four) years, beginning on the day next to the end of his predecessors term, and he/she cannot remain in office for more than two consecutive terms. Transitional Article 241: The term of the sitting president (Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi) will end following the date of declaring him an elected president of the republic, and he can be re-elected for another six-year term. Abdel-Aal also indicated that he and several MPs affiliated with parliaments Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee had rejected a proposal that would allow President Al-Sisi to run for office until 2034. There was much division among MPs on this point, and we rejected a proposal by some that the sitting president be allowed an additional 12 years [in office] until 2034. We chose a middle-of-the-road option that will allow the sitting president to remain in office until 2024, and then he will be allowed to run for another six years, said Abdel-Aal, indicating that this way, I can say that the amended constitution still does not lead to any kind of inheritance of power or perpetuation of rule. Vice president Article 150: The president of the republic shall be authorised to name one or more than one vice president, underline his/her roles, exempt them from their post, and accept their resignation. The constitutions articles 141, 144, 145, 148 and 173 will govern this respect. Article 160 (first paragraph): If a temporary obstacle makes the elected president unable to perform his duties, he will be replaced by a vice president or prime minister if there is no vice president. Article 160 (last paragraph): If a caretaker president takes office, he shall not be entitled to amend the constitution, dissolve the House of Representatives or Senate, or dismiss the government. The caretaker president will also not be allowed to run for president. Judiciary Article 185: Each judicial authority will take charge of running its own affairs, and it will be consulted on laws regulating its own business. The president of the republic shall appoint heads of judicial authorities from among five who will be nominated by its higher councils, and their term of office will be four years. A higher council for judicial authorities will be created and the president of the republic will be its head. The council will take charge of discussing the affairs of judicial authorities. In case of the presidents absence, a head of a judicial authority will be delegated by the president to consider the conditions of appointing members of judicial authorities and their promotion, and he will be consulted on laws regulating their business. Judicial authorities will also have their own independent budget. A law to be issued to regulate the roles of the higher council for judicial authorities and its decisions are to be taken by consensus of its members. Article 189 (second paragraph): A prosecutor-general who will be responsible for the body of prosecution-general will be named by the president of the republic from among three candidates to be nominated by the higher council for judicial authorities. The prosecutor-generals term in office will be four years. Article 190: The State Council will be exclusively authorised with settling administrative disputes, disciplinary cases and appeals, and revising draft laws and decrees. A law in this respect shall be issued to describe the roles of the State Council in detail. Article 193 (third paragraph): A chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court will be named by the president of the republic from among the courts most senior deputy heads. The panel of the courts commissioners will also be named by the president only upon a recommendation from the courts chairman and after taking the opinion of the courts general assembly, and in line with the law regulating this respect. Commenting on the above four articles, Abdel-Aal said they do not violate the independence of the judiciary or infringe upon its powers. It gives the president the right to appoint heads of judicial authority only upon nomination of its members and their general assemblies, Abdel-Aal said. Armed Forces Article 200 (first paragraph): The Armed Forces are the peoples arm, and its job is to protect the country, safeguard its security and the integrity of its land, preserve the constitution and democracy, and maintain the basic pillars of the state and its civilian nature, and the gains of the people, and the rights and freedoms of individuals. The state will be exclusively authorised to create such a force, and any other individuals, authorities, or groups will be banned from forming military or paramilitary organisations and militias. Article 204 (second paragraph): Civilians can face trial before military courts only in cases of assaulting military establishments, military camps, military zones and borders, military equipment, vehicles, weapons, ammunition, documents, secrets, funds and army factories. Trials also cover crimes related to recruitment and drafting, and assaulting officers and personnel affiliated with the Armed Forces and while they are performing their duties. Article 234: The minister of defence will be named upon the approval of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). According to Speaker Abdel-Aal, the amendments do not in any way push the Armed Forces into politics. The articles only state that the main role of the Armed Forces is to protect the state and its authorities, and that civilians will face trial before military courts only in crimes related to assaulting its establishments, and that this is the norm in all countries of the world, Abdel-Aal said. Adequate representation Article 243: The state shall guarantee that workers and farmers are adequately represented, and in line with the law regulating this aspect. Article 244: The state shall guarantee that youth, Christians, the physically challenged and Egyptian expatriates are fairly represented in line with laws regulating this aspect. The Senate Article 248: The Senate has the authority to study and propose what it deems to be the basis of democracy, the promotion of social peace, the basic elements of society and its supreme values, rights, freedoms and public duties, and the deepening and expansion of the democratic system. Article 249: The opinion of the Senate shall be taken on the following: - Proposals for the amendment of one or more articles of the constitution. - Drafting general plans for social and economic development. - Treaties of reconciliation and alliance and all treaties relating to the rights of sovereignty. - Drafting laws supplementing the constitution referred to the Senate by the president of the republic or the House of Representatives. - Matters referred to the Senate by the president regarding the general policy of the state or its policy in Arab or foreign affairs. Article 250: The Senate shall be elected within the 60 days preceding the expiry of its term. The Senate shall comprise 180 members at least, and its term will be five years. Two thirds of the Senate members shall be elected in a secret ballot, and a third will be appointed by the president. Article 251: A Senate member should be Egyptian, not less than 35 years old, have a university degree and legally allowed to exercise his/her civilian and political rights. The law shall specify the conditions of the other candidates, the electoral system and the division of the constituencies to take into consideration the equitable representation of the population and the governorates. The individual or existing electoral system may be introduced or combined in any proportion between them. Article 252: A Senate member cannot be a member of the House of Representatives at the same time. Article 253: The prime minister, his deputies, ministers and other members of the government shall not be held accountable to the Senate. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 April, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: The final draft Search Keywords: Short link: Welcome Guest! You Are Here: RomanOkopny/iStock(NEW YORK) -- Granted, he's a cybersecurity expert, but it only took Chad Loder a couple of hours to funnel hundreds of death threats to freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar into a Twitter "Moment". "Please help report this collection of threats to Ilhan Omar's safety. It is a felony under 18 U.S.C. 871-875 to threaten US government officials. Any tweets which illegally call for violence, murder, or lynching of Ilhan Omar should be reported," Loder wrote on the curation of menacing posts. He did this to prove a point: that Twitter's ill-equipped to deal with the hate speech and threatened violence on its platform, Loder told ABC News on Wednesday. Last month, Omar's remarks to the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) immediately following the mosque attacks in New Zealand were taken out of context by conservative outlets to seem as if she was dismissive of the Sept. 11 attacks. In the speech, she had said CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties." The coverage has resulted in an uptick in threats of violence aimed at Omar online. "I just decided I wanted to highlight everything that's been going on and put it all into one place for people to see because I don't think people realize quite how bad it gets," Loder, CEO and founder of cybersecurity firm Habitu8, said. Because algorithms are trained to introduce content to users based on what they engage with, those likely to be offended by such threats might not see them. Over the weekend, Loder used search terms like "to the head" coupled with "Ilhan" or "string up" or "string her up" or "highest tree" or "Muslim pic and Ilhan" to find death threats to the freshman representative from Minnesota, who is Somali-American and Muslim, and collect them in one "Moment" so that users could see them, and for Twitter to take action. "Watching the discourse around how Twitter will admit, 'Hey we need to do more, we realize what a problem harassment is,' it gets really frustrating because when they say it's a hard problem they mostly mean expensive, not hard," Loder said. "A lot of this stuff we need to do to police hate speech and death threats and online radicalization, is fairly simple to do if you have the will to spend the money on it. It's not really about AI (artificial intelligence) and it' s not really about machine learning. It's really about making decision on policies," Loder said. "For example, if someone threatens to lynch a black Muslim woman politician then why would you ban them and then let them back on the platform 24 hours later? Those sorts of policies don't seem to make sense." On Tuesday, Twitter released an update to its online safety policies, stating the company now has a system to flag hate speech or offensive comments before it's reported by victims which it did not have as recently as this time last year. The company also said 100,000 accounts were suspended for creating new accounts after a suspension in the first three months of this year -- a 45 percent increase from the same time last year. CEO and founder Jack Dorsey also gave a TED Talk in which he addressed the abuse on the platform A Twitter spokesperson wrote ABC News in an emailed statement: "Death threats, incitement to violence, and hateful conduct are absolutely unacceptable on Twitter. Accounts spreading this type of material will be removed and coupled with our proactive engagement, we continue to encourage people to report this content to us. This behavior undermines freedom of expression and the values our service is based on." Still, many of the threats Loder pointed out stayed up all weekend. "Due to the nature of concrete threats that we're seeing, some of this content which would have otherwise been immediately removed was temporarily maintained to enable potential law enforcement coordination. Capitol Hill police are working on this issue," a source familiar with the situation told ABC News. Rep. Omar retweeted one of Loder's tweets about the threats to her. Her office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ABC News. Loder said he understands that the humans who police the content for Twitter and other platforms are "overwhelmed" from watching child pornography, actual violence and online radicalization. But, he added, "the trust and safety work human beings have to do is very, very expensive. When Twitter says, 'we need more AI machine learning' they're saying, 'we want to invest as little as possible in these expensive human beings.' In the meantime there's a huge gap between what the machines can do and what humans can do and in that gap is where the abuse happens. It's very expensive to invest in that." Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Khalifa Haftars march on Tripoli could cost the country its unity, as the death toll rises amid ongoing infighting After more than two weeks, violent fighting continues in the southern suburbs of the Libyan capital Tripoli between the Libyan National Army led by General Khalifa Haftar and troops of the internationally-recognised consensus government led by Fayez Al-Sarraj. Although the latter deployed a security cordon around the capital and international efforts continue to end battles that have killed many and displaced thousands of families on the frontlines, the war continues. Fighting has pulverised the countrys dilapidated infrastructure and compounded grave humanitarian conditions, according to the UN and international humanitarian groups. Last week, Haftar visited Paris, Rome, Moscow and Cairo to garner support for his military campaign on Tripoli, but it is not yet clear if warring factions can definitively win the battle since the country has returned to square one of civil war. On Haftars last visit to Cairo, he met with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi who told him that Egypt is keen on Libyas unity and stability, and reiterated Cairos support of efforts to combat terrorism and radical militias in order to achieve security and stability for all citizens across Libya, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency issued after the meeting. In an interview with senior BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet, UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame said the government of national accord in Tripoli, which is recognised by the world community, wants certain preconditions for negotiations. First, a ceasefire, and second, for Haftar to return to his positions before fighting began on 4 April. Salame said that Haftar agreed to the first condition, and refused the second. He continued: I believe we are still in the mobilisation phase by both sides, not the negotiations phase. First, both camps must realise they are in military limbo so talks can begin once again, but if one side is convinced that they can win single-handedly, then we will never reach negotiations. Salame expected foreign allies to continue supporting Haftar and was concerned that the war by proxy in Libya will expand and more advanced weaponry will reach the multitude of combat zones in southern Tripoli. A new player has entered the fray: Saudi Arabia promised to fund Haftars war to take control of Tripoli, according to The Wall Street Journal. Libyan sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million to Haftar to continue fighting, after the presidential council pledged one billion dinars for combat operations. Although major and regional powers constantly issue statements condemning military operations, the fighting continues to expand to new areas in western Libya. War tactics practiced across Libya have so far failed in Tripoli, which means humanitarian conditions will worsen. On Monday, the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani called on the government of Italy and France to end the arm twisting between them and reach a solution to achieve stability in Libya. Tajani warned that if conditions continue the way they are, all that will be left are the dead and refugees trying to flee to our European shores. He further warned there is a pressing need for immediate intervention in Libya, noting that the EUs duty is to bring the French and Italians together to reach an agreement. The French have made mistakes, but Italys presence is very weak and ineffective, he was quoted by Italys news agency ANSA as saying. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told a news conference with Qatars foreign minister in Rome Monday that Haftar must withdraw his troops, and military operations by all sides must end so the UN humanitarian truce can be implemented to ease the suffering of civilians and comply by international law. He hoped for an immediate return to the negotiating table to restart the political dialogue for a comprehensive and permanent solution under UN auspices, according to a statement on the government website. Until Al-Ahram Weekly went to print, the US had not changed its position and reiterated through statements by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and its embassy in western Tripoli that fighting must stop, urging all sides to return to their previous positions and restart the UN-sponsored political dialogue. Haftars eagerness to take Tripoli blindsided his regional and international backers after he rushed a power grab in a fragmented country. The crisis will worsen as mobilisation for the war continues and young fighters are recruited by provoking regional and tribal prejudices. This means the conflict will become an extended social one that will be difficult to negotiate, especially since it affects the structure of domestic values. The attack on Tripoli delayed holding the National Conference that could have resulted in a new political agreement. It could have also guaranteed Haftar a senior position in power, overseeing security and defence issues, and a substantial share of oil revenues, according to Salames report to the UN Security Council. What is certain, so far, is that Libya has gone past the point of no return, and during this prolonged war each side and its foreign allies will try to deplete the other through fierce combat. The danger is that a chaotic Libya will become an arena for an arms race that threatens the Mediterranean, North Africa and the entire coast, especially as regional and international forces that support local factions continue to assist their partners to the end. Already, there is a steady flow of arms and military equipment to battlefields. While Sarrajs government relies on Italy to pressure the White House to urge Haftar to end his military campaign on Tripoli, Haftar depends on his allies not to abandon him following all his achievements in past years when he was generously supported. The UN cannot begin a new dialogue process since its efforts were upended by the war on Tripoli, and one can only wait and see how international and regional positions align towards the parties in the Libyan crisis. This will be decided by the battle for Tripoli that will lead to a major shift in the balance of power, and domestic and foreign players. Intelligence Online website expects the first one to leave the fray will by Salame, whose mandate ends in July, after growing criticism by local and foreign parties to the crisis. Haftar or Sarraj may also exit the scene, depending on who wins the war that is costing Libya its unity. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 April, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: What next for Libya? Search Keywords: Short link: Posted by Jay on at 01:01 PM CST Marvel has sent out solicitations for their July 2019 titles, including 9comics and 5 trades!TOM TAYLOR (W) RAMON ROSANAS (A) Cover by PHIL NOTOPuzzle Piece Variant COVER by MIKE MCKONEMovie Variant COVER ALSO AVAILABLEARTIST Concept VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLEPromo Variant COVER by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI & ELIA BONETTIA LITTLE REBELLION! Before he was a rebel hero, FINN had another calling. He was...a janitor. But how could this lead FN-2187 to question everything? How much action can someone see mopping floors and dealing with a pest problem? It turns out, a whole lot.32 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T $3.99(of 6)ROBBIE THOMPSON (W) MARC LAMING (A) Cover by NIC KLEINDESIGN VARIANT COVER BY CARMEN CARNEROVARIANT COVER By MARCO CHECCHETTOMovie Variant Also AvailableTHE HUNTER!DARTH VADER is on the hunt for a mysterious criminal syndicate operating outside of THE EMPIREs rule. But little does he know hes being hunted by a group of the galaxys deadliest bounty hunters, hired by the syndicate to take out Vader once and for all. Led by fallen Imperial Officer BEILERT VALANCE, this ragtag group of assassins will stop at nothing to kill the biggest bounty of their lives.32 PGS./Rated T $3.99GREG PAK (W) PHIL NOTO (A/C)Greatest Moments Variant Cover by KAARE ANDREWSAction Figure Variant Cover by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHERREBELS AND ROGUES!The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space...Thats right you remember the opening titles of The Empire Strikes Back. Now find out what happened just before, as Luke and his friends launch a desperate, three-pronged mission of deception to keep the Empire from finding their new rebel base in a brand-new epic from the new ongoing team of Greg PLANET HULK Pak and Phil POE DAMERON Noto! Featuring Han and Leia undercover in a noir world of romance and danger! Luke and R2 facing off against the Executor in a single X-Wing! And Chewie and Threepio, the greatest team-up you never knew you always needed!32 PGS./Rated T $3.99TOM TAYLOR (W) LEONARD KIRK (A) Cover by PHIL NOTOPuzzle Piece Variant COVER by MIKE MCKONEMovie Variant COVER ALSO AVAILABLEARTIST Concept VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLEANOTHER GUN! STORMTROOPERS dont get a name. They are simply a tool of the EMPIRE. But PHASMA has a name, and one young soldier wants what she has. One stormtrooper has ambition. And this ambition is on a collision course with CAPTAIN PHASMA.32 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T $3.99(of 5)JODY HOUSER (W)ROGE ANTONIO & IG GUARA (A)Cover by TOMMY LEE EDWARDSVariant Cover by Leonard KirkA NEW MISSION! A betrayal from one of their own. Is the squadron even ready to fly again after so many losses? And who are these new pilots who think theyre good enough to join the ranks of SHADOW WING?32 PGS./Rated T $3.99SI SPURRIER (W)WILTON SANTOS & CASPAR WIJNGAARD (A)COVER BY ASHLEY WITTERGreatest Moments Variant Coverby CASPAR WIJNGAARDUNSPEAKABLE REBEL SUPERWEAPON CONTINUES! Hiding out on the world where she grew up, everyones favorite scoundreless, DOCTOR APHRA, takes a trip down memory. NB: Turns out memory lane is a hellhole covered in the agonizing thermal landmines of emotional honesty and family dysfunction. NB (2): Also bounty hunters. Lots and lots of bounty hunters.32 PGS./Rated T $3.99GREG PAK (W) PHIL NOTO (A/C)Action Figure Variant Cover by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHERTRICKS AND TRAPS! The REBELS AND ROGUES epic continues as our heroes deploy their plans to trick their Imperial pursuers... and everything falls apart! CHEWIE and THREEPIO face moral quandaries and mortal danger when they learn the uninhabited planet theyre supposed to destroy isnt quite so uninhabited. Will the FORCE be with LUKE in a bar fight? And who is DAR CHAMPION... and what does he have to do with Leias past?32 PGS./Rated T $3.99G. WILLOW WILSON, TOM TAYLOR AND CHRIS ELIOPOULOS (W)ELSA CHARRATIER & OTHERS (A) COVER BY PHIL NOTOGREATEST MOMENTS VARIANT COVER BY PATCH ZIRCHERA ONE-SHOT SPECIAL FEATURING YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS FROM THE NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY! Star Wars fans first met Resistance leader and confidante of Leia Organa VICE ADMIRAL AMILYN HOLDO at the end of her story in 2017s The Last Jedinow, witness her triumphant beginning! This July, Hugo Award-winning writer G. Willow Wilson (MS. MARVEL) explores a pivotal conflict in Holdos early career that will start the young woman down the path to heroic infamy for the rebellion! With her ship at the mercy of a dangerous enemy, its up to Holdo to outsmart their foe and win the confidence of her compatriots in the process. With art by Elsa Charratier! The infamous pirate queen of Takodana, MAZ KANATA, thought shed seen everything in her thousand-plus years of running a bar and hiring smugglers. But it turns out that the criminal underworld is always full of new surprises especially when she hires HAN SOLO and CHEWBACCA for a job! Story by Tom Taylor (AGE OF RESISTANCE)! And Poe Damerons loyal companion, the astromech droid BB-8, just cant seem to stay out of trouble. His missions always seem to escalate into a full-blown adventures! And if it means a win for his friends and the heroic Resistance freedom-fighters the little droid will stop at nothing to get the job done! Story by CHRIS ELIOPOULOS!40 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T $4.99(of 5)ETHAN SACKS (W) WILL SLINEY (A) Cover by TOMMY LEE EDWARDSVariant Cover by STACEY LEETHE GREATER OF TWO EVILS! As the elite RED FURY stormtroopers of THE FIRST ORDER edge closer, KENDOH and her crew are running out of time to run their heist. But what does the mysterious score have to do with a DOCTOR APHRA mission 30 years in the past? Only Dok-Ondar knows the secret, and he may have to kill to keep it!32 PGS./Rated T $3.99Written by WALTER SIMONSON, DAVID MICHELINIE, JO DUFFY & MOREPenciled by WALTER SIMONSON, TOM PALMER, JOE BROZOWSKI, RON FRENZ, GENE DAY, KERRY GAMMILL & CARMINE INFANTINOCover by GENE DAYThe search for Solo! The lovable rogue, frozen in carbonite, has been taken to Jabba the Hutt and our favorite rebels want Han back! But as Lando Calrissian returns to find Cloud City a death trap, R2-D2 and C-3PO face a dangerous spacewalk! Elsewhere, Luke Skywalker braves a beast on Bazarre and joins Chewbacca inside a Mind Spider! Leia undertakes an explosive mission! Shira Brie shares the story of her people! And in the wake of tragedy, Luke becomes a pariah! Screams in the void and threats like the Darker unsettle our heroes, but the hunt for Han soon leads the crew to bounty hunters Dengar, Bossk and IG-88! And the bizarre discovery of a golden statue of their lost friend leads to revelations from Han and Chewies past! Collecting STAR WARS (1977) #56-73 and STAR WARS ANNUAL (1979) #2.464 PGS./Rated T $39.99ISBN: 978-1-302-91849-1Written by GREG PAK, MARC GUGGENHEIM & JON ADAMSPenciled by CHRIS SPROUSE, ANDREA BROCCARDO, MATTEO BUFFAGNI & JON ADAMSCover by GERALD PARELThe Age of Star Wars an epic series of adventures uniting your favorite characters from all eras reaches the heroic icons of the Original Trilogy! Han Solo is ready to take his reward and return to life as a scoundrel until a certain kid he knows asks for one last favor! Former smuggler Lando Calrissians dream of a life of leisure and luxury depends on one final scam! Luke Skywalker faces his first temptation will he give in to the dark side? Leia takes on the identity of bounty hunter Boushh to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt but first, she must prove herself to Bossk! Plus: Jedi Master Yoda! And ace pilots Biggs Darklighter and Jek Porkins! Collecting STAR WARS: AGE OF REBELLION HAN SOLO, LANDO CALRISSIAN, LUKE SKYWALKER and PRINCESS LEIA, and material from STAR WARS: AGE OF REBELLION SPECIAL.128 PGS./Rated T $17.99ISBN: 978-1-302-91708-1Written by GREG PAK & SI SPURRIERPenciled by MARC LAMING & CASPAR WIJNGAARDCover by GERALD PARELThe Age of Star Wars an epic series of adventures uniting your favorite characters from all eras reaches the iconic villains of the Original Trilogy! Boba Fett has earned his reputation as one of the galaxys greatest bounty hunters, but what heart if any beats under that Mandalorian armor? Fury burns deep inside Darth Vader when a mere moff dares command him but at what point does Vader show his true mettle? Discover what makes the name of Jabba the Hutt so feared across the galaxy! Behold the secret story of Grand Moff Tarkin! And get to know the cold, calculating assassin droid known as IG-88! Collecting STAR WARS: AGE OF REBELLION BOBA FETT, DARTH VADER, JABBA THE HUTT and GRAND MOFF TARKIN, and material from STAR WARS: AGE OF REBELLION SPECIAL.128 PGS./Rated T $17.99ISBN: 978-1-302-91728-9Written by KIERON GILLENPenciled by ANDREA BROCCARDO & ANGEL UNZUETACover by GERALD PARELKieron Gillens run reaches its cataclysmic end! With her planet under threat, a brave royal battles to save it! No, not Princess Leia this time its Queen Trios of Shu-Torun, ally to Darth Vader and the Empire! And Leia is the one on the attack, with an all-star team and a plan her enemy wont see coming! But some members of Leias squad have schemes of their own. Meanwhile, Kanchar returns with his amazing cybernetic arm. And Luke Skywalker must hold out against the overwhelming force of his own allies?! Plus: Just when you think things couldnt get worse for the rebels, they must find a way to survive an orbital bombardment! Will anyone escape Shu-Torun alive? Collecting STAR WARS (2015) #62-67.144 PGS./Rated T $17.99ISBN: 978-1-302-91450-9Written by DENNIS HOPELESS HALLUMPenciled by PAOLO VILLANELLI, BRIAN LEVEL, DAVID LOPEZ, STEPHEN MOONEY & GERALDO BORGESCover by GREG SMALLWOODWho is Darth Vader? He has been many things: enforcer, commander, destroyer. He is, to many throughout the Galactic Empire, the ultimate symbol of power and fear. But there are those who have seen the Dark Lord in a different light. Some corners of the galaxy are so desperate that even Vader can be a knight in shining armor while for certain Imperial Commanders, Vaders anger is the price of failure. But what is it like to lose your heart to a Sith Lord and what fate awaits the star-crossed lover who has fallen for a man so unattainable? Plus, learn how it feels to be an X-wing pilot going head-to-head with Vaders TIE Fighter and discover more of the many sides of the galaxys greatest villain! Collecting STAR WARS: VADER DARK VISIONS #1-5.112 PGS./Rated T $15.99ISBN: 978-1-302-91900-9 Posted by Adam on at 08:13 PM CST The first day of panels atCelebration Chicago 2019 took place on Friday in W474. Read on to find out what was covered and which Star Tots were given out!Presenters: Matt Erickson, Ken TarletonThe first panel of Star Wars Celebration 2019 was forTiki mashups, and after looking at licensed products, and the progression of Tiki mugs and their Polynesian origins, Matt and Ken briefly covered fan-produced items. These included shirts, 501st patches and challenge coins, as well as signature coins, pins and mugs, among them a Vader dole-whip pin, a Tiki Diablo Darth Vader and a "Coco" Fett, along with variations of a Tiki Hut featuring a mermaid Leia. Also discussed were tattoos, events and artwork, with slides showing a commission called "R2-D2's Hula", a totem featuring characters from The Force Awakens, a velvet Admiral Ackbar and LEGO Tiki bar. The last section covered carvings, with Ken showing a paddle and Regal Robot's Mythosaur plaque that were both tiki-fied (it's a real word, look it up), Darth Vader, First Order and original Stormtrooper helmets and finally recommended Trader Brandon's Guide to enable you to make your owntiki items.Oola was the Star Tot given out at this panel.Presenters: Gus Lopez, Pete Vilmur, Scott Kirkwood, Scott HorneIf you've been acollector for a long time, there's a chance that you have morecollectibles than you realised. Starting with 7" and 12" versions of Jefferson Starship's "Light the Sky on Fire", the next item shown was the red Snaggletooth which featured a picture from theon the card, followed by a Boba Fett mailaway sheet that references 'A Wookie (sic) Holiday' which Pete Vilmur suggested was a working a title. After "The Wookiee Storybook" that came out in 1979, there was a big gap between then and 1993 when Topps released the Galaxy Series trading cards, Royal Animation Art offered seri-cels and the red Snaggletooth, now named Zutton (although the actual name is Zutmore), joined Hasbro's Power of the Jedi action figure line. There were further cards from Topps, as well as Decipher, and more red Snaggletooths (Snaggleteeth?) from the likes of Medicom Toy and Gentle Giant in the form of a Kubrick figure and a Bust-Ups! mini-bust. There was an explosion in 2007, which included the luggage tag atCelebration IV, 30th anniversary cards from Topps and Hasbro released the animated Boba Fett 3.75" figure. Included in thewas info and photos, reproduced script pages and an audio CD that featured Carrie Fisher singing the Life Day song. There was a further Snaggletooth in Hasbro's Galactic Heroes line, an animated Boba Fett bobble-head from Funko and a character key from ACME Animation for the bounty hunter, while Tomy also released a carded and boxed animated Kubrick of the Mandalorian. Topps released a Galactic Files Ponda Baba card that featured images from the, and when it came to Celebration VI, David Rabbitte's exclusive print entitled "Ally or Enemy" was a depiction of the animation segment and a question mark over Boba Fett's loyalty. Gentle Giant returned to Snaggletooth with the Jumbo figure, as well as an animated Maquette of Boba Fett, while Disney got in on the action with a vinylmation figure of the same character along with a Disney Parks mystery box Greedo pin, again featuring image from the. Matt Busch was another artist who created an exclusive print, "Encounter on Panna Prime" which was available atCelebration VII. In addition to a Dorbz three-pack which comprised Snaggletooth, Greedo and Walrus Man, Funko also produced a Snaggletooth Pop! while the same character was created as an Itty Bitty and featured on a promotional pin by Hallmark. Hot Toys joined in the fun with the release of an animated Boba Fett in both their Cosbaby and 1/6th scale lines. The most recent releases are Gentle Giant's animated Boba Fett mini-bust and atCelebration Chicago 2019, alunch box was available in the Celebration store.Promotional items was the next section and the first item shown was a press kit for the, which included a mylar poster, 4 photos and press info sheets. This was followed by CBS promotional photos and official press photos with info sheets, as well as black and white photos originating from the CTV Television Network where the Theaired in Canada on the same day as the U.S. The Fetties cereal box that was the giveaway for the "30 Years ofTrading Cards" Collecting Track panel at Celebration VI featured the animated Boba Fett, while the 501st Legion bash at Celebration Orlando 2017 offered a "Showdown at the Cantina" cup and badge that featured red Snaggletooth.The next topic covered production items that included scripts, costumes, props and masks and also animation artwork.Finally, items were shown from the collections of a number of "Holiday Specialists", namely the panelists as well as Vic Wertz and Lisa Stevens, with the latter having prototypes of Chewbacca's family, including Lumpy, a figure that was based off a figure from Fisher Price's Adventure People line.The Star Tot given away at the end of the panel was Han Solo (Imperial Stormtrooper Outfit).Presenters: Bill Cable, Todd Chamberlain, Yehuda Kleinman, Joe YglesiasAs the name suggests, this panel covered the whole gamut ofcollectibles, and among the first items to be discussed were personal hygiene items featuring R2-D2 and C-3PO, who featured prominently throughout the panel due to the presence of focus collector Bill Cable. Among the other items that included the protocol droid were an official Polishposter and oil lamps along with his astromech counterpart, while Poland was also the source of a first-generation articulated Leia with a red cape and chrome hair! Yehuda spoke at length on Mardi Gras doubloons, which are premiums thrown throughout the parade, and typically appear in five different colors. Among the designs featured were an X-wing and the Death Star, Yoda, R2-D2 and the Starship Enterprise as well as Optimus Prime, Yoda and the Starship Enterprise. Unlicensed ceramic lamp kits were up next, and while they were labeled Monkey, Robot and Knight, they were clearly based on Chewbacca, R2-D2 and Darth Vader. Fans ofandwould enjoy the Mexican Ultra Nave Alpha, given that it was a mash-up of an X-wing and the Eagle One, while a bootleg C-3PO with spear and holographic Poe Dameron trading card did raise a few laughs, as did the Sigma's ceramic C-3PO picture frame that featured the droid in pieces and the tape dispenser from the same company never fails to amuse. C-3PO also featured, albeit in a somewhat buffed-up state, manning a Hoth turret, as well as an unlicensed ceramic lamp, while Kenner fans got to see a kit-bashed 3.75" Bespin playset and further laughs were had with the Darth Vader motorcycle cop.Yupis from Colombia, South America, are a set of 40 plastic unarticulated monochrome figures, each created in multiple colours as a snack food premium and modeled after Kenner figures, while a gameboard is also known to exist, suggesting that they are actually game pieces. Bill introduced a rather dangerous collectible in the form of the C-3PO Sommelier foil knife from Character UK, while Greedo got some love from Airgam, albeit as a Greek bootleg with the body of He-Man! An Ewok bean chair was up next, as well as a Darth Vader and Superman two-pack, an unlicensed disco purse with C-3PO pin and Marzon, who is a Stormtrooper/Darth Vader hybrid inflatable robot. It was back to Greece and their Olympiada cards from, a set which also includes Captain Kirk and the Starship Enterprise, while Spain offered up Las Galaxias, which is a knock-off target game that includes R2-D2 and a dalek and a X-wing artwork. An inflatable C-3PO lawn decoration, which may or may not be a prototype was shown next, as was a Japanese vinyl/plush TIE fighter, and Imai "Star Command" mini model kits, which feature Darth Vader and R2-D2 in the background art.Rounding out the panel were a Canadian Oh Henry! candy bar pack which featured a mask offer and finally, the ultimate bootleg, the Uzay Imperial Gunner!For this panel, Imperial Spy was the Star Tot given away.Presenters: Gus Lopez, Stephen P. Danley, Ron Salvatore, Pete Fitzke, Chris Georgoulias, Skye PaineIn the quarter-century since the TheCollectors Archive (SWCA) was launched, collecting resources now offer books, websites and Facebook, while things were very different in 1994. Back then, collectors had to rely on the likes of Steve Sansweet's, magazines like Tomart's Price Guide and Action Figure Digest and a single website, www.theswca.com , which Skye Paine described as the Yoda ofcollecting, providing knowledge, language, leadership and wisdom within the community.Starting with the front page back in 1994, Gus pointed out that the site originally covered more categories, including customized figures and prop replicas, stating that these sections were removed when other sites began covering them in more detail. The first significant personnel changes happened in 1997, with Chris and Ron being brought onboard, both of them having met Gus on newsgroups and subsequently talking via email. Having initially been a static site, it was made more dynamic over time, switching to PHP with a MySQL backend. Between 2006 and 2010, there was no change to the appearance of the front page, while 2010 saw the introduction of The Vintage Pod and the Chivecast.Between 1994 and 2001, www.theswca.com was it in terms of sites that were offering the type of information collectors were after, while that changed over the next 10 years with the emergence of sites like Rebel Scum, Swf.uk, Galactic Hunter and Imperial Gunnery. The landscape has shifted significantly since then, with the pervasive nature of social media such that now, a lot of the conversation is happening in Facebook groups and during that time, we have also seen vintage values explode. Looking forward to the next 25 years, the expectation is that there will be new channels opening up over time as technology develops and it will certainly be interesting to see where that takes collectors.Throughout the panel, to demonstrate how things have changed since 1994, Skye showed a chart to show vintage values back then, in 2005 and where they are now, for the following items:1) A mint condition Luke Skywalker 12-back: 1994 = $150 | 2005 = $750 | 2019 = $2,5002) Collect All 41! store display header from 1981: 1994 = $300 | 2005 = $3,000 | 2019 = $10,0003) Return of the Jedi Chewbacca 65-back pre-production proof card: 1994 = $100 | 2005 = $500 | 2019 = $4,5004) An unpainted rocket-firing Boba Fett L-slot: 1994 = $2,000 | 2005 = $8,000 | 2019 = $65,0005) A beat-up Return of the Jedi B-wing Pilot: 1994 = $20 | 2005 = $20 | 2019 = $25Justice was finally served, with Chewbacca getting his ceremonial medal for the Star Tot given out at this panel.Presenters: Duncan Jenkins, Jeremy Beckett, Graham Hancock, James BurnsWhile we may be celebrating 20 years of LEGO sets, the actual deal was struck in 1998, with Toy Fair 1999 seeing an exclusive set issued to select members of the press, with the first sets being offered in March, followed by Midnight Madness on May 2nd. Among the items available were Episode I sets, Developer sets and a Darth Vader keyring, with the first convention item being offered atCelebration later that month in the form of a LEGO DUPLO brick, followed by the first printed LEGO t-shirt later that year.2000 saw the release of the TIE Interceptor and the X-wing as the first Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) sets, the Podrace bucket, Droids Technic sets and a dispute between LEGO and Hasbro due to the former's minifigure sets being considered an infringement on Hasbro's license. The Darth Maul bust was the only thing of note in 2001, while 2002 saw support of, the release of LEGO pens and the first re-released sets. The release of the Cloud City playset in 2003 was significant, as it marked the first time that aminifigure was made available with natural skin tones, and also coming out that year were the first redesigned vehicle and the mini-line was also launched commercially. 2004 was the year of the Millennium Falcon, with 2005 seeing the release of sets based on, as well as light-up minifigures, video games and magnets.Light-up figures were retired the following year, with the license also being renewed in 2006. Another UCS set was released in 2007, this time a redesigned Millennium Falcon, while that year also saw the firstCelebration exclusive, a Kit Fisto minifigure that didn't use ABS plastic for the head and a gold C-3PO that was added to 10,000 LEGO sets! There was still more to come, with a motorized walking AT-AT, LEGO minifigure maquettes from Gentle Giant, battle packs, bag charms and watches, as well as the firstdays at Legoland in California. By comparison, 2008 was a relatively quiet year aside from being notable for a series of firsts, seeing the release of the Rogue Shadow fromvideo game, the first original sets and an inaugural San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) exclusive.For the ten-year anniversary of the license, DK publishing released their first, featuring contributions from Rebel Scum's Jeremy Beckett, and British tabloid the Daily Mirror ran a promotion offering giveaways of LEGO polybag sets. There were more firsts in 2009, with the release of fans' choice set, midi-scale sets and a poster given away for that year's May the Fourth event, as well as more SDCC exclusives, while the deal with Lucasfilm was once again renewed.-themed sets were released in 2010 to mark the 30th anniversary of Episode V, as was a prototype Boba Fett minifigure, while fans attending that year'sCelebration in Orlando were able to help complete a huge mural. The following year, Miniland figures were given out at select members of the press at New York Toy Fair to promote the opening ofMiniland in California, and 2011 also saw the release of the first advent calendar and a Darth Vader minifigure to launch the Hallmark ornament line. In 2012, the Planetary series was introduced, as were sets from, and a precursor to the Microfighters line was offered as an exclusive at that year's San Diego Comic-Con in the form of the Sith Infiltrator. 2013 was all about Yoda and the X-wing, with the Jedi Master featured in that year's New York Toy Fair press set, and starring in, with accompanying sets, while a life-size X-wing, which was an up-scaled version of the LEGO set was constructed in Times Square and a redesigned version was released as part of the UCS line-up.got its own sets in 2014, with the Ghost proving to be a fan favourite, and in addition, that year also saw the introduction of the Microfighters line.In 2015, sets fromwere released, as was the LEGOmagazine in the UK and also Buildable figures, while 2016 saw the release of sets fromandin 2017 was accompanied by multiple sets, including a BB-8 droid-building kit, while the Millennium Falcon got a UCS upgrade, and promptly sold-out in less than 4 hours, with LEGO Store offering its members a Black VIP card when ordering the set. That year also saw the debut of BrickHeadz and R3-M2 was the first polybag figure to be released with a brickstand. More movie-themed sets were released in 2018, this time to support the release of, while the first Master Builder sets and LEGOtrading cards also came out that year. Which brings us to 2019, with LEGO releasing sets to celebrate the 20th anniversary, launching their first 4+ sets and the Bounty Hunter series, as well as a new Stormtrooper helmet which was supported with a Guinness World Record for the largest display ofminifigures that featured more than 36,000 tiny Stormtroopers!The process of prototyping and designing using 3D-printing was the next subject, as well as describing the production process that begins with raw plastic pellets being molded into bricks, having been ratioed to ensure colour consistency. Much to the dismay of the audience, any contaminated bricks, which includes those that are deemed to be off-colour or have had skin contact, are destroyed! In the storage facility, robots collect the bricks, which are then sorted into boxes, with the molds repeatedly being injected with red plastic, as this helps to check for stresses. With the original UCS Millennium Falcon being LEGO Designer Jens Frederiksen's favourite set of all time, the panelists covered the history of the YT-1300 freighter sets next, before moving on to talk about LEGOanimation, spanning, and finallyand LEGOThe presentation was concluded with the panelists sharing their favourite sets, with Jabba's Sail Barge and the AT-OT Dropship, the TIE Fighter and Y-Wing set (7150) and Yoda (7194), Tantive IV (10019) and LEGO multipacks, and Flash Speeder (7124) and Republic Cruiser (7665) being the choices of James, Graham, Duncan and Jeremy respectively.Biggs Darklighter in Tatooine garb was the Star Tot given to those attending the final panel of the day.Check out the audio for these panels at the Collecting Track's - Celebration Chicago 2019 YouTube channel , with video to follow. This article originally appeared in RECOIL Issue 42 The Thing About Slings Any question regarding sling use on a home-defense long-gun used to be simple to answer. Conventional wisdom was thoroughly against it. They just tangled up on things, and who needed to sling up for improved accuracy at the sort of ranges you find in the typical suburban dwelling anyway? Some people even invoked the experiences of various elite units in the brushfire guerrilla wars of the 60s and 70s. The 27th Elite Regiment didnt allow slings while patrolling for Peoples Army terrorists in the jungles of Backwoodistan! How exactly this factoid related to defending Fort Livingroom from J. Random Crackhead was left as an exercise for the imagination. By the mid 90s, opinions on slings began to shift, largely due to the influence of early firearms training schools like Gunsite and Thunder Ranch, that taught slings were to a long-gun what a holster was to a handgun. In an article reprinted in the Guns & Ammo 1995 Annual, the late Gary Sitton touted the Scattergun Technologies (now absorbed into Wilson Combat) upgrades to his Remington 870 for home defense, and those included sling swivels and a simple two-point sling. Slings Bad Theres a certain amount of validity to the anti-sling POV, here, even decades later. Karl Rehn, of KR Training in Texas, discourages clients from putting slings on home defense long-guns. He notes, Anytime we do armed movement in structures inside the classroom building, where there is real furniture and doorknobs, slings get in the way. In his opinion, if one is to have a sling on a long-gun intended for in-home use, a single-point works better than a two-point, which bucks the current industry trend. He also notes that to work well without a sling, a home-defense long-gun must be light and well balanced enough to be kept at the ready with one hand while the support hand operates doors, light switches, or phones. As he sums it up, A gun set up for 15-yard hallway shots may not need all the stuff a three-gun competition gun needs. Slings Good On the other end of the sling desirability spectrum is Ashton Ray, an instructor with 360 Performance Shooting. A home defense gun never needs to leave the house until it does, Ray says, For instance, defending your animal from another aggressive animal. Context matters, in his view, and not everyone lives in a suburban house or city apartment, which changes the likely chores of a dedicated home-defense long-gun. For this reason, Ray advocates keeping a sling on the gun with all the slack taken up by a rubber band. The band keeps the sling taut and minimizes the chances of fouling on obstacles. This stowing of the sling also minimizes another source of fouling that has nothing to do with moving through a structure. Namely, while many people have a home-defense long-gun stowed someplace by itself, probably a majority are stored in a safe or locker with multiple guns. Responding swiftly and decisively to a suspected home invader is going to be tough if the first step is disentangling the gun from the pile of deer rifles and three-gun shotguns that clatter from your safe, dragged by the draping folds of the Blue Force Gear two-point sling on your household AR-15. Mike Doyle, co-proprietor of the Tactical Tangents podcast, also places himself firmly in the pro-sling camp. He bolsters his position by throwing out a couple of hypothetical, yet, entirely plausible scenarios for the defensive use of a long-gun. You go out there and nothing is there. You peek around. Your neighbors motion light is on when you go outside, and you decide to peek over the wall, but you gotta climb onto a planter or something, says Doyle. Or you go find that dude rummaging through your car in the driveway, he continues, plenty of possibilities to make it worth having the option to let it hang. If you ever have to go hands on for some reason, having the option is nice I say it helps more than it hurts. It Depends While the sling issue can be a polarizing one, quite a few trainers and SMEs polled were willing to admit a fair amount of ambivalence on the matter. We reached out to an active duty SOF trainer, who laid out his viewpoint pretty succinctly. Theres benefit to a snag-free carbine, and theres no real downside to just setting/dropping a carbine on the carpet if you need hands free to treat or comply, he says. Ive moved in structures enough in my life to have sling awareness and, aside from difficulty of compliance with drop the weapon commands, theres not really a downside for me, personally. Taking hard stances either way is tough without a lot of contextual information. Indeed, the word context was one that came up many a time in the discussion. What exactly is your expected use case for a home-defense long-gun? If your home is set up with a perimeter that cannot be easily breached without alerting you, no loved ones elsewhere in the house to move to and secure, and the carbine or shotgun staged in some manner of quick access storage in the bedroom, then a sling hardly seems necessary. The alarm, dog, or breaking glass alerts you to the intrusion; you wake up, grab the boomstick, aim in on the bedroom door from behind some sort of rudimentary cover or concealment, and as sure as youre positive its a real intrusion, you call the cops. No real need for a sling there. Magpul Sling Paraclip Adapter $15.99 brownells.com Magpul Sling $59.99sportsmans.com The other scenario is the opposite. Suppose you have loved ones elsewhere in the house, children or elderly parents, meaning you have to move out and ensure their safety rather than just fort up in the bedroom and wait for the cavalry. In most carbine classes, students get used to throwing the sling over their head and shoulder pretty much as they lift the carbine from the rack. Some of the benefits of a sling in this situation, such as improved marksmanship, arent going to matter at the length of a hallway, but there are other benefits as well. One of them is in weapons retention. Naysayers point out, if youre maneuvering through a residence and a bad guy grabs your slung gun and yanks it into the room, youre coming with it because its effectively a handle on you. Conversely, non-slingers claim, if a bad guy grabs your unslung gun, you have the option to just let it go. Let it go? And then what? Press Y on the X-Box controller to switch to your secondary? This is one of those areas where what makes sense in an environment where youre moving through a house as a team in a law enforcement or military operation doesnt translate well to the lone private citizen home defender. Youre not likely able to just let go of that long-gun and switch to your secondary when youre in your pajamas and bedroom slippers assuming youre even that well-dressed. Heres the Thing If youre unlikely to have to move through the house with a long-gun, entertain the idea of a Magpul convertible sling setup as single-point sling and rolled into a tiny little ball, then secured with a rubber band. This way its out of the way for the most likely usage scenario for a long-gun. On the off-chance that you wind up needing a sling, say due to having to stand watch against looters after a natural disaster or just because the cops are taking a while to get there after a 911 call, you can just unroll the sling and pop the alligator clip to turn it into a two-point sling. This latter hypothetical brings up one last important point: When the police do arrive, theyre likely to be amped up on both caffeine and reports of somebody getting shot. If they say, Drop the gun! and youre slung up, just let go of it and let it fall on its sling. Circling back to advice from the SOF trainer, he points out, Though its harder to drop the gun with it slung than without, with practice you can drop a slung carbine while simultaneously and (most importantly) non-threateningly sweeping it to your hip or rear. The important thing, though, is to let it drop and not let your hands move toward it in an attempt to be helpful. On balance, the benefits seem to outweigh the downsides, and the downsides can be mitigated by proper training. Unidentified gunmen killed 14 people in southwestern Pakistan after pulling them from several passenger buses, sifting through their identity cards and kidnapping them, a Pakistani official said on Thursday. A Baluch insurgent group claimed responsibility in a statement emailed to reporters and newspaper offices. Fighters of Baloch Raji Aajoi Saangar carried out the killings, said the group, which described itself as an umbrella body of three Baluch separatist movements in the region, but denied that ordinary passengers had been targeted. "Those who were targeted carried cards of the Pakistan Navy and Coast Guards, and they were only killed after they were identified," the group's spokesman, Baluch Khan, said in the statement. The passengers were travelling on a coastal highway from the financial hub of Karachi towards Gwadar, the Arabian Sea port town where China is building a deep-water port. Southwestern Baluchistan province has long been plagued by violence and a stubborn insurgency, with several separatist groups and Islamist militants operating in a region that boasts vast gas and mineral resources. Security has improved considerably across much of Pakistan in recent years but Baluchistan is still plagued by attacks, a major source of concern for Pakistani and Chinese officials who fear it will disrupt plans for a transport corridor through the province as part of China's Belt and Road initiative. Baluchistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove said the dead passengers had their legs and hands tied and were found close to the town of Ormara, about halfway between Karachi and Gwadar. "Terrorists offloaded 14 persons from different buses after checking their NICs. They took them and killed them," Langove said, referring to Pakistani national identity cards. Langove did not specify how the passengers were selected to be kidnapped and killed or their identities. Ethnic Baloch separatist groups say outsiders are exploiting the region's natural wealth at the expense of local people and have previously targeted foreigners and Pakistanis from other regions. Islamist militants have also singled out minority Shi'ite Muslims. Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the attack and asked for an urgent report. "PM has directed the authorities to make every possible effort to identify and to bring the perpetrators of the barbaric act to justice," Khan's office said in a statement. Pakistani media reported earlier that the militants had kidnapped the passengers from a single bus, although Langove said it was from six or seven different vehicles. Search Keywords: Short link: Profile: The Parker 51 (This page revised August 26, 2021) [ Reference Info Index | Glossopedia ] This April 1942 Parker 51 ad proclaims, YEARS AHEAD OF ITS TIME. For 11 years past, chemists and engineers have been collaborating to produce the writing masterpiece a pen made for a high velocity ink the high velocity ink made for the pen. The Fabulous 51: When it introduced the 51 in 1941, the George S. Parker Company knew it had a winner. The pen was stylish but not flashy, durable but not clunky, and reliable but not overengineered. Over the next 31 years, the pen proved itself immensely popular. Tales are told of people who, unable to afford a whole pen, would purchase only a cap to clip in a pocket, giving the appearance of a complete pen. Parker discontinued the 51 in 1972, but unofficial production continued into the 1980s in Argentina, using machinery that Parker had abandoned. Parker is believed to have sold between 20 and 50 million 51s; the exact number is not known because the company apparently stopped counting after the first 12 million. This pen is a first-year model in Blue Cedar, with a Wedding Band cap. Compared to many fountain pens, both its contemporaries and more recent models, the 51, with its monochrome plastics and its tiny nib that lies hooded within a shell, might be considered a Plain Jane. But the 51 was not designed to be an eyecatching display piece. It was designed to be an everyday, hardworking, trouble-free, reliable writer. Good engineering discipline dictates that form should follow function, and Parkers engineers and stylists apparently followed that dictum. They applied the best available technology in the most effective way possible to perform the very difficult task of writing under virtually any conceivable conditions, and the result was U.S. Patent No 2,223,541, filed by Marlin S. Baker on January 6, 1939, and issued to him on December 3, 1940. The fact that so many Vacumatic-filling 51s are still in use more than 60 years since the last one was produced is a testament to their success. 3D cutaway illustrations of the design of the 51 are given in Anatomy of a Fountain Pen IV: The Parker 51 (Aero-metric Version). Bakers patent, on the surface, reveals an ingenious approach to dealing with the problems confronting the pens design team. However, as brilliant as the design is, it was not entirely original. On June 7, 1937, an independent inventor named Russell T. Wing filed for protection on a design that covered the basic concepts of the hooded nib and ink collector, and on January 16, 1940, he received U.S. Patent No 2,187,528. Shown here are the key drawings from Wings (upper) and Bakers (lower) patents. In early 1938, Wing sold exclusive manufacturing rights to Parker for a 0.27% royalty (27 for every $100 of wholesale goods sold) on all future 51 sales, with a minimum payment of $5,000 for the first year and $8,000 per year after the first. During the 1940s, Wing developed further improvements. In 1943, he and Parker signed an agreement with Sheaffer, forestalling pending litigation for patent infringement, under which Sheaffer, for a payment of $25,000 and royalties, was granted a license to use the collector concept that it had embodied in the conical feed used with the TRIUMPH point and was excused from penalties for the pens it had already sold that used the concept. (Coincidently with the execution of this agreement, Wing and Parker added a rider to their original agreement reducing the minimum annual payment to $6,000 in consideration of the additional 0.27% royalty payments to come from Sheaffer.) In 1945, the agreement was extended to Sheaffer Canada, and in 1947 Wing and Parker entered into a similar agreement with Waterman, with Wing to receive 0.27% royalties from Waterman as well. This illustration shows a 1948 black 51 with a Lustraloy Stacked Coin Band cap. This and a matte Lustraloy cap with a single narrow raised band were the only cap variations that had chrome-plated Blue Diamond clips. Conceived to write with Parkers innovative super-fast-drying ink, which was also dubbed 51, the pen was styled to accommodate its necessary innards while at the same time having a pleasing appearance. It accomplishes that marriage with exquisite success. Unlike other pens of its time, including the Vacumatics that preceded it, it isnt marbled, mottled, striated, or pearlescent. Also unlike other pens of the time, it was never offered in an imposing oversize version. The 51 is smoothly streamlined and sized not to impress onlookers but rather for its ability to serve a broad spectrum of writers who could, would, and did use it, day in and day out, without having the luxury of changing pens three or four times a day on a whim. For the first six years of its existence, it came in one size only; not until 1947 did Parker make a model of a different size and then only a shorter version, called the Demi: Here is a Vacumatic-filling 51 Demi, with a standard 51 for comparison. The Demi is shorter, but its diameter is the same as that of the standard pen, giving it a noticeably stubby appearance. The metal cap exemplifies the pens advanced engineering. Embodying Parkers proven and very attractive design for mounting a sturdy (and replaceable) clip, it slips smoothly and reliably over the shell to seat on the clutch ring (U.S. Patent No 2,278,907, by Marlin S. Baker) and then stays put in a way that was inconceivable to the makers of earlier hard-rubber slip caps. Unlike the celluloid caps of the pens 1940s competitors, it is split-proof, even when too forcibly installed, and it doesnt gouge the surface of the shell. The cap is also attractive as well as practical: Parker offered it in several polished, brushed, and matte (Lustraloy) versions of stainless steel, as well as a bewildering array of precious-metal designs. Silver alone appeared in four different versions: polished sterling, lined sterling, hammered sterling, and coin silver. (Sterling is .925 fine, coin silver is .900 fine.) On Vacumatic-filling 51 pens with gold or gold-filled caps, the recessed area of the clutch ring is gold washed, giving an elegant two-tone appearance that complements the cap. Most gold-capped Aero-metric pens have plain stainless-steel clutch rings. This illustration shows a 1944 Cordovan Brown 51 with a 16K gold-filled cap with a Feather, or Chevron band. Where did the name 51 come from? Parker completed the development of its new pen in 1939, the 51st year of the companys existence. Rather than give the pen a name that might prove less than felicitous when translated into other languages, Parker began a decades-long tradition by choosing a number. Numbers do not require translation. At its introduction, the 51 was placed at the top of Parkers line, ousting the eight-year-old Vacumatic from that honored position, and it bore price tags beginning at $12.50. Like all other Parker pens priced at $8.75 and higher, the 51 was warranted for the purchasers lifetime and bore Parkers Blue Diamond, the visible indication of that warranty. The first version used the Speedline version of Parkers reliable Vacumatic filling system, with a jeweled blind cap (the double-jewel version of the 51). Within the year, however, the United States entered World War II. The U.S. government designated certain materials, including aluminum and brass, as critical war resources. Parker redesigned the filler and the blind cap to save those metals for the war effort. Although Parker continued to produce double-jewel pens, those pens were the premier models in the 51 line, and they were made in far smaller numbers than the single-jewel version. Thus, the most common Vacumatic-filling 51s today do not have the jeweled blind cap. (Certain colors, however, such as Nassau Green, are more common in the double-jewel version.) This illustration shows a 1946 Blue Cedar 51 with a lined sterling cap and an undated Navy Gray single-jewel model with a matte Lustraloy cap. The Blue Cedar pen bears the expected Blue Diamond clip, while the Navy Gray pen has a 1939/1940 pre-production clip with no Blue Diamond. 1946 saw the introduction of Parkers first attempt to retire the by-then ancient Vacumatic filler. In that year, along with the button-filling VS, the company brought out a new 51 that featured a spoon filler operated by a long-stroke button similar in appearance and action to the multistroke Vacumatic pump. One of the ways Parker reduced cost was to make the threaded collar that secures the filler of plastic, in a red color to distinguish it visually from the black-anodized metal collar of the Vacumatic version. When the plastic proved too fragile in real-world use, engineers replaced it with red-anodized aluminum. Because of the collars color, Parker designated this 51 model as the Red Band version, while the Vacumatic-filling 51 was called the Black Band version. For various reasons, the Red Band 51 was retired in 1947, making it one of Parkers shortest lived pens. When Parkers engineers finally did retire the Vacumatic filler, they did so only in favor of a more reliable one. Beginning in 1948 with the reduced-scale Slender (renamed the Demi after a couple of years), the 51 sported Parkers new Foto-Fill system (U.S. Patent No 2,612,867), which provided improved performance at high altitude and was also easier to use. The original 51 sported a Blue Diamond clip that identified it as the rightful successor to the great Vacumatic. (After the U.S. Federal Trade Commission prohibited the offering of a warranty if a fee was charged unless the fee was decribed in type the same size as, and in close proximity to, the warranty statement itself, Parker stopped painting the clips diamond blue. ) With the changeover to the Foto-Fill system (soon renamed Aero-metric), the clip changed, too, to an arrow reminiscent of the one used on Vacumatics before the Blue Diamond made its appearance in 1939. There is more information on 51 clip variations later in this article. Here is an Aero-metric 51 Demi, with a standard 51 for comparison. In order to improve the Demis asethetics, Parkers designers made the new version a little longer than the Vacumatic-filling Demi and a little thinner than the standard pen. Kenneth G. Parker, son of company founder George S. Parker and longtime CEO, was fascinated by aircraft and flying. The 1946 purchase of a new corporate plane, a shiny aluminum Beechcraft D-18S, inspired Kenneth to ask his designers for an airplane-like pen design. The result, an otherwise standard Aero-metric pen, was the famous stainless-steel Flighter, introduced in October 1949: In 1961, Parker tried to extend its new cartridge/converter technology to the 51. The resulting pen was withdrawn after only two model years. Thus, not very many cartridge/converter 51s were made, and the model is something of a rara avis in the 51 world. Most collectors today think that the pen failed because Parker cheaped out by replacing the all-important ink collector with a solid block that didnt produce the desired writing qualities, but in my experience this is not so. I suspect that the real problem may have been high assembly costs due to the lack of any internal provision for automatically aligning the nib and feed with the shell, such as was present in the 61. The 51 may not be every collectors cup of tea, but it is anything but ugly. Ugly does not sell more than 20 million pens over a span of more than 40 years, and ugly does not inspire a manufacturer to reprise a design that should, by the standards of most other industries, be dead and gone. Aesthetically speaking, the 51 (U.S. Patents Nos D116,097 and D116,098, by Kenneth S. Parker and Marlin S. Baker) is in fact one of the most elegantly beautiful fountain pens ever made and, with its hooded nib and collector, quite probably the most revolutionary since Lewis Watermans discovery of the channeled feed. Certainly there has been no more truly remarkable pen since its inception. Dating a 51 Pens made before Parker stopped date-coding its pens have a date code on the barrel. For instructions on reading this code, refer to Parkers Date Coding Systems. Pens made after Parker stopped using date codes (early to mid-1950s) cannot be dated to a particular year, but you can at least narrow the possible range of years. Except for a small number of cartridge/converter pens produced from 1961 to 1963, all of these undated pens are Aero-metric fillers, and Parkers service manual describes three distinct models: The most common Aero-metric 51 is the Mark I. Externally, this pen is identical to the Vacumatic-filling version except that the barrel no longer ends in a blind cap and that the Split Arrow clip is gone, replaced by the plainer Arrow clip: The filler in a Mark I pen has a plastic end cap: A subtlety to watch for, however, is the filler of the 51 Demi. Early Slender pens, before the model was renamed the Demi, have fillers like that of the standard model; but later Demis, beginning probably in mid-1950, use the less costly hoop filler design introduced in 1948 on the 21. As noted later, this filler design also appeared on the 51 Special: At some point, probably in the late 1950s, Parker introduced a slight variation on the Mark I design. In this apparently undocumented Mark Ia version, the Aero-metric vent hole is moved from the end of the barrel to the side of the barrel, about of the way from the clutch ring to the end. In about 1962, Parker began producing the Mark II 51. This version, redesigned to update its look, bears a noticeable resemblance to the 61. Its cap has a 61-style clutch, with fingers bearing on the shell instead of on the clutch ring, but the standard 51 clip is still present. The end of the barrel is squared off to a shallow conical shape that mimics the cone of the cap jewel: Internally there are significant differences, as Parker redesigned the internal parts to simplify the sac guard and replace the costly machined collector and feed with molded plastic parts. The most noticeable internal change is in the sac guard, now a single piece of metal with its end formed closed instead of being capped by plastic: The Mark III 51 appeared in about 1969. This pen looks similar to the Mark II. The cap shows the most visible external change. The clip, a new 61-style long Arrow clip, is no longer part of the caps decorative trim ring; it is a separate part. The trim ring and jewel are combined into a decorative clip screw that holds the clip in place as on the Parker 75. The clutch ring, which is not functional, is now reduced to a narrow trim ring. The most significant changes are not visible to the user: No longer does the pen have the Aero-metric filling system. Instead, it has a short breather tube and is thus an ordinary squeeze filler like the 51 Special and the 21. The Mark III, unlike its predecessors, is made of an injection-moldable plastic, not Lucite. The new plastic is softer and will take scratches more readily; and it also can shrink over time. The Mark IIIs sac guard looks like that on the Mark II, but the trim ring identifies the later pen. You can also see on closer examination that the threads on the Mark IIIs connector are rather coarser than those on earlier pens and that they have an Acme profile (flat on the crown and at the root). Note that not all of the differences may be identifiable on any given pen; Parker phased some of the changes in rather than making a sudden 100% switch. The clip design of the Mark III is one example of this; there exist Mark III pens with the older design having a separate celluloid jewel. The 51 Special In 1950, Parker introduced a reduced-cost version of the 51. This 51 Special looks outwardly very much like a standard 51, but it has a stainless-steel nib (called Octanium, from the total number of eight metals used in its manufacture) and the hoop filler found in the 21 and the 51 Demi (illustrated above). The filler in the 51 Special, however, is larger than that in a Demi. Other cost-saving measures were a limited choice of colors (indicated in the table below), a bright-polished stainless-steel cap, and a black cap jewel. More on Clips When Parker introduced the 51 in the U.S.A. in 1941, the pen bore a Split Arrow clip. Because all Parker pens priced at $8.75 and higher were Blue Diamond models, it follows that the 51, introduced at a price range beginning at $12.50, was also a Blue Diamond pen. All Split Arrow pens appear originally to have been Vacumatic fillers. (But the converse is not necessarily true, as we shall see later.) I have seen Blue Diamond clips with three different placements of the Blue Diamond itself: Most Split Arrow clips are gold filled. Another uncommon but not rare variant, however, is a chrome-plated Blue Diamond clip. This clip is found on coin silver caps, on brushed stainless steel Stacked Coin Band caps, and on matte Lustraloy caps with a single narrow raised band. Here is a chrome Blue Diamond clip, on a 1947 51 with a Stacked Coin cap: An uncommon variant of the Split Arrow clip bears no Blue Diamond. Parker test-marketed the 51 between 1939 and 1941, and these pre-release pens bore this clip: At various times, Parker applied the Blue Diamond either as opaque paint or as translucent enamel. Either form of the color could, and did, wear away. But there are almost always traces to indicate that it was there. Some 51s appear from time to time with no trace of blue on their Blue Diamond clips; it is likely that Parker sold 51s with the diamond not colored blue after the FTCs 1945 ruling regarding lifetime warranties: In 1947, with the introduction of the Vacumatic-filling 51 Demi and continuing into 1948 and the transition of all 51 models to the new Aero-metric filling system, Parker reintroduced a slightly updated version of the old Art Deco clip. The redesigned clip was a virtual duplicate of the Art Deco Arrow clip that had first appeared on the Vacumatic from 1933 to 1938. (The essential difference is that the mounting ring on the 51 version has a smooth curve without the ridges of the Vacumatic version.) The new Arrow clip was made in gold filled and chrome plated versions. Color aside, there are two variants of the Arrow clip, as shown in this picture: When Parker reintroduced the Arrow clip, it was the longer version shown to the right above. The company may have begun using the long Arrow clip sometime around the end of 1946; this means that Vacumatic-filling full-size 51s with long Arrow clips are therefore not necessarily the product of cap swapping. Very early in the 1950s, the clip lost some length (left, above). In the mid-1960s, Parker restyled the 51 to create the Mark II variant, giving it a new cap like that on the 61, but still with the short 51 clip. In about 1969, the 51 Mark III appeared with a new 61-style clip, longer even than the older long 51 clips and attached in the same fashion as the clip on the 75, and the venerable 51 bore this clip until it was discontinued. The image below shows Mark II (left) and Mark III (right) clips: Afterword The 51 is today one of the most popular collectible fountain pens, and its popularity led Parker in 2002 to produce a new pen, called the 51 Special Edition (SE), which looks outwardly like a double-jewel Vacumatic-filling 51 with an Empire State cap but is internally different, with a cartridge/converter filling system and an ink delivery system identical to that of the Parker 45. The best testament to the greatness of the original 51 design comes from China, where the Shanghai Hero Pen Company produces several models whose internal construction is virtually identical to that of an Aero-metric 51. The pen shown below is a Hero 616, a 51 copy. A Note on Punctuation Parkers trademark for the original 51 includes quotation marks, as you see them throughout this page. As registered, the trademark for the modern 51 SE does not include the quotation marks, although Parker did include them in the pens barrel imprint. A Coat of Many Colors, One by One The 51 Mark I and Mark II versions are made of DuPont Lucite, an acrylic plastic that is remarkably tough and was in 1941 the very latest leap in materials technology as well as being the only plastic then available that could withstand the corrosive effects of 51 ink (which was itself a market requirement). The plastic isnt marbled, striated, or otherwise variegated because in 1941 nobody knew how to do those things with acrylics. Although the 51 had no interestingly patterned plastics, the model was made in a great many colors. The colors on this page are divided into four groups: those of the Vacumatic-filling 51 from 1941 to 1948, those of the Aero-metric-filling 51 from 1948 to the 1969 introduction of the Mark III, those of the Mark III from 1969 to the end of the model run in 1972, and the metals that appeared on Aero-metric pens. Most of the Vacumatic colors varied from lot to lot, and some pens are now showing discoloration due to age; thus, any two pens or even the several parts of any given pen can have markedly different hues or shades. The pen shown here, in the highly desirable Nassau Green, shows a rare perfect color match between its shell, barrel, and blind cap: The Rage Red and Vista Blue colors were used primarily on the Parker 61, but the Mark III 51 was test marketed in these colors. The 51 SE was offered only in Vista Blue or black. Rumors persist of a different purple and another blue/green color. There were also the stainless-steel Flighter; a gold-filled model called the Signet; and a solid gold version, the Presidential. Parker also made demonstrators for use by dealers in explaining the pens internal construction. The first-year 51 demonstrator, made in 1941, had a clear shell and a red collector, with a black barrel; this color choice emphasized the important features that set the 51 apart from all other fountain pens of the time. The black barrel de-emphasized the Vacumatic filler, which had been on the market for eight years and was certainly not considered novel. Later demonstrators, as shown here, were entirely clear: The top pen here is a 1941 (first year) demonstrator. Note the red collector. (The gold-filled cap is not original to this pen.) The middle pen, with a clear barrel, was made in 1948. The bottom pen is an Aero-metric demonstrator with no date code, made probably after 1952. Colors for the Vacumatic Filling 51 (1941-1948) Color Name (Code) India Black (11) Dove Gray (01) Burgundy (14) extremely rare; appears on a very small number of U.S.-made pens Cordovan Brown (03) Buckskin Beige (Tan) (97) Yellowstone (Mustard) (96) Nassau Green (98) Navy Gray (13) official color in Australia; appears on a small number of U.S.-made pens Blue Cedar (02) Colors for the Aero-metric Filling 51 Mk I and Mk II (1948-1969) Color Name (Code) Black (11) Burgundy (14) Blood Red appears on pens made in the U.K. Cocoa (09) Forest Green (12) Navy Gray (13) Teal Blue (26) Midnight Blue (15) Plum (08) Mk I only Colors for the Squeeze Filling 51 Mk III (1969-1972) Color Name (Code) Black (11) Charcoal (21) Burgundy (14) Rage Red (23) Navy Gray (13) Olive (49) Vista Blue (35) Dark Blue (16) 51 Metals (not used on Vacumatic models) Finish Name Brushed Stainless Steel (Flighter) Gold Filled, with Grouped Lines (Signet) Gold, Plain (Presidential) Notes: The information regarding the percentage of the royalty came from Wing himself, in a personal conversation with a person known to me. The remainder of the information in this paragraph is drawn from court documents in the case of Russell T. Wing and Zoe E. Wing, Petitioners, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent (United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, Case Number 278 F.2d 656, June 2, 1960). For the technically minded, 51 ink (U.S. Patent No 1,932,248) did not actually dry rapidly. Its chemistry, which included metallic salts and sodium hydroxide (lye), caused the ink to sink into the paper so rapidly that the ink would appear to have dried in about one-half the usual drying time of contemporaneous inks. The FTCs original 1945 ruling forbade unconditional warranties altogether if there was a fee. L. E. Waterman and Parker challenged the ruling, but Waterman withdrew its petition in 1946. Parker fought on, and the resulting 1948 court judgment softened the ruling as described here. (The prohibition remained on the use of the word unconditional.) Color codes are taken from wall-mounted cards used by the Parker factory repair department in Janesville, Wisconsin. Olive and Charcoal appear on the card for the Mark III pen, but I have personally seen pens in neither of these colors. Although Burgundy and Navy Gray are not commonly thought to be official U.S. production colors, they are listed on the factory card from which the color codes are taken. It is possible that they were produced in small quantities as a test run as Parker prepared to introduce the Aero-metric 51. I have seen no pens in these colors that bear date codes. This color was advertised as Blue Cedar before and during World War II; I have seen advertising from the postwar years that calls it Cedar Blue. The 51 Special was offered initially in the four noted colors. Later, Forest Green was added to the range. Notes: The information in this article is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative or complete. If you have additions or corrections to this page, please consider sharing them with us to improve the accuracy of our information. Color code information provided by Susan Wirth. Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah discusses the present situation in Afghanistan and his position on this years elections in remarks from an interview with Kamal Gaballa in Kabul How do you evaluate the peace process that is currently underway in Afghanistan? The reality is that the war is unfortunately continuing. There have been 40 years of war in this country, and there is no doubt that the majority of people want peace. At the same time, they do not want the Talibanisation of the country. The US has started negotiations with the Taliban, and we welcome those, though there are issues with the Taliban including their relations with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations that will need to be discussed with the US. The second main point is the Talibans demand for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and their view that the next step should be negotiations between all Afghans. However, what is going on at the moment are not negotiations: what we are seeing are people from two sides catching up with each other and exchanging ideas and so on. I suggest that we appoint delegations from inside government and outside government and set up a Reconciliation Council. A first meeting of such a council took place recently, and though I was not able to attend, it was at my suggestion. The idea was that we should all meet, government and non-government, former president and everyone, in order to define the things we can accept and the things we cannot accept and the procedures to be followed. We need to present a unified position towards the Taliban so the Taliban will not have the excuse that its interlocutors are not representative. Another tricky development is that we have elections soon, and there are only a few months left for this government, so we have to act in the way that is needed. This makes it all the more important that we have an inclusive approach through this Reconciliation Council. To start the negotiations with the Taliban, which we havent started yet, we need an inclusive team to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. The main thing for us is of course peace, though we emphasise that we should not lose sight of the elections. Do you think that the elections will still take place in September? I hope they are not delayed. If there is an agreement, a sort of package agreed between us and the Taliban, before September this would be the main thing because the negotiations have not started yet, and it will be difficult to reach an agreement before September. But the point is that we should work on the elections even before the negotiations start. The Taliban are suffering more causalities than government forces at the moment. Do you have figures that you can share with us? There is serious fighting underway even as we speak. The Taliban are hoping that they can come back to Kabul and fight and also hope that they can take other cities in Afghanistan. People say that we havent succeeded in defeating the Taliban, but that is not the case. There is a sort of stalemate at the moment, and the ideology of the Taliban is being defeated. Thats why I am not concerned if tomorrow there is an arrangement and at the end of it we have elections and the Taliban also participate in the elections. I have no worries about that because they will not have the support of the people in them. There is absolutely no chance of that. How do you see your own chances? The 2009 and 2014 elections were difficult, and in our part of the world if you are not satisfied with a result you have to take action. I didnt do that because I didnt want to put the country at risk. This time I have a stronger coalition behind me than in 2014. I thought at one time that I would not stand this time round, because it would be three times the first in 2009, the second in 2014, and now this year. But three days before the registration of the candidates the first party came to me, and then two others, asking me to run. I decided on the last day of registration to be a candidate and I believe I will win, though regardless of who gets the numbers to do so the elections will serve as the foundation for stability in our country. What about neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Iran and Russia? What efforts are they making to achieve peace in Afghanistan? When it comes to Pakistan, its different from the other countries since the Taliban have influence in that country, and we expect Pakistan to put pressure on the Taliban to come to the negotiating table to solve the crisis. Pakistan has a closer relation with the Taliban than any other. The Taliban are talking to the Americans, which was likely to happen from the beginning, and we expect them to seriously and genuinely support the peace process. If they dont talk, if they dont negotiate, and if they dont come to an understanding, they wont have any support. Search Keywords: Short link: By SA Commercial Prop News Texton CEO Marius Muller says the PIC is a long-standing shareholder of Texton and we look forward to continuing to work closely with them and all shareholders on our journey towards positive performance The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Africa's largest fund manager, has boosted its stake in the troubled Texton Property Fund (JSE: TEX) after a black empowerment investor defaulted its loan. PIC has become the largest shareholder in embattled Texton Property Fund, as it looks to turn around the struggling company. The real estate investment trust (Reit), announced yesterday that PIC had grown its stake from 5.2% to 18.9%. Marius Muller, CEO of Texton, says, The PIC is a long-standing shareholder of Texton and we look forward to continuing to work closely with them and all shareholders on our journey towards positive performance. The PICs increased holding in Texton follows the transfer of shares formerly held by Texton Broad-Based Empowerment (RF) Proprietary Limited to the PIC, after the empowerment entity defaulted on its loan with the PIC. The companys share price has plummeted from a high of R12.15 in 2014 to R4.25 at the end of trade on Wednesday. The company has been unable to provide dividend growth forecasts for the year to June. With its accountability to shareholders being an imperative for Texton, Muller notes that in recent months the company has made pleasing advances with several initiatives that place it on a better footing for the future. He adds, We know the road ahead isnt going to be easy given the amount of work that needs to be done around entrenching both sound business practices and critical property basics within the company. Were constantly challenging ourselves to find the best solutions to move Texton forward, and remain firmly committed to turning the ship around despite the economic environment being unsupportive and weak property fundamentals. Texton held assets valued at R5.2 billion at the end of last year in offices, industrial and logistics facilities and retail properties, with 62% by value in large South African cities and 38% in UK secondary nodes. By SA Commercial Prop News An artist impression showing the entrance of the R850 million Mall of Tembisa on Gautengs East Rand. Tembisa residents will soon no-longer have the need to travel as far as Midrand and Kempton Park in search of quality retail therapy as construction of Mall of Tembisa commenced early April. The Mall is set to be built in the township's most densely populated area as retail boom continues. McCormick Property Development (MPD) confirmed yesterday that they are currently developing a new 42 889sqm shopping centre in Tembisa on Gautengs East Rand. Speaking to SA Commercial Prop News, the company said the R850 million mall is scheduled to open in the last quarter of 2020. ALSO READ: The Global Lift & Escalator Expo comes to South Africa The initial dolomite assessments undertaken in 2018 indicated pockets of dolomite which resulted in further assessments and pre-drilling of the site to assess and strategiseon the way forward. The centre will be located in the under-serviced north-western quadrant of the sprawling township of Tembisa, on the main thoroughfare of Olifantsfontein road. The project is being undertaken in conjunction with KJA Developments. As specialists in low cost housing, KJA will add the high-density residential components to what will ultimately be a mixed-use development, including logistic and commercial developments. ALSO READ: Click here if you need reasonable modern Office Space The Mall of Tembisa has been designed to take full advantage of its excellent visibility off the main road, without turning its back on the residential suburbs which surround it. Rainwater harvesting and solar photovoltaic panels will be contributing factors in developing the mall to world class standards. The mall will bring quality retail facilities to an area which currently has little in the way of shopping amenities and the rights exist to expand the retail portion to 80,000m 2 as demand dictates. We are excited to get going on this phase of the project as it takes us one step closer in our goal of delivering top class retail to previously under serviced areas, says Managing Director of MPD, Jason McCormick. Meanwhile, McCormick and bus company Putcos property arm, Putprop, have agreed to develop and co-own a shopping centre in Mamelodi, Tshwane and another in Dobsonville, Soweto. The properties are Portion 111 of Farm Mamelodi 608 and Portion 21 of Farm Vogelstruisfonten 233. The Mamelodi property measures 4.2178ha, while the Dobsonville property measures 5.0064ha. There are no structures on the Mamelodi property. ALSO READ: Sandton grows apace with R3bn Skyscraper McCormick, which builds malls in semi-urban areas and townships, was founded in 1983 by John McCormick. His son, Jason, is an executive at the group and in 2018 listed Exemplar REIT, a real estate investment trust with R5.5bn worth of retail assets, acquired from McCormick Development. Putprop was listed by Putco in 1988. About Tembisa Tembisa is a large township situated to the north of Kempton Park on the East Rand, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1957 when black people were resettled from Alexandra and other areas in Edenvale, Kempton Park, Midrand and Germiston. The name Thembisa is a Nguni word meaning promise and hope was later misspelled as Tembisa. The settlement when it was founded carried with it a lot of hope and promise for a brighter future for its inhabitants. Though its initial residents were forcefully removed from parts of Kempton Park and Edenvale, for the purpose of clearing blacks from "white areas", settling in Tembisa also marked the end of years of harassment by apartheid authorities, and a reprieve from a life of squalor in their previous settlements. As many as 50 people were reportedly killed and scores others injured in thunderstorms, hail and dust-storm and rain that lashed Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana since Tuesday evening. Maximum number of deaths were reported from Rajasthan where 25 people were reported to have lost their lives in a severe thunderstorm that struck the state. Active western disturbance over eastern Iran and neighbourhood had been moving eastward since Monday, which caused cyclonic circulation over southwest Rajasthan and its neighbourhood at lower tropospheric levels, said the Met department. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the families of those killed in the natural calamity. Rajasthan Relief and Disaster Management Secretary Ashutosh A.T. Pednekar said five people died in Udaipur, four each in Jhalawad and Jaipur, two each in Bundi, Jalore and Rajsamand, and one each in Baran, Bhilwara, Alwar, Hanumangarh, Pali and Pratapgarh districts. Winds blowing at 60 kmph blew away roofs of many houses and uprooted trees and electric poles in many parts of the state, officials said. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has announced Rs 4 lakh ex gratia for the families of deceased. In Madhya Pradesh, 15 people died in the untimely rain and accompanying lightning on Tuesday evening. "Three persons each died in Indore, Dhar and Shajapur, two in Ratlam, and one each in Chhindwara, Rajgarh, Sehore and Alirajpur areas," an official statement said. Officials said pouring rain damaged properties in Bhopal, Indore, Dhar, Shajapur, Sehore, Ujjain, Ratlam, Khargone, Badwani, Chhindwara, Alirajpur and Rajgarh areas. Extensive damage to crops has also been reported from many parts of the state. Expressing grief over the deaths, Chief Minister Kamal Nath in a tweet assured all support to the affected families and farmers whose crop has been destroyed in the hailstorm. In Maharashtra, 11 people were killed over the past 72 hours, besides four others last week, in thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and rain, officials said. Among the victims were nine killed by lightning between Sunday and Tuesday, and four by thunder bolts on April 4-5. Parts of Mumbai and suburbs, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Palghar received showers on Sunday-Monday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday forecast thunderstorms with lightning and strong winds at various places in Nanded, Latur and Osmanabad. In Gujarat, according to unofficial reports, 12 people died in the rain, hailstorm and dust-storm that hit the state towards Tuesday evening. Maximum loss of life and property was reported from the Saurashtra and north Gujarat regions. Meanwhile, a report from Chandigarh said standing wheat crop was damaged after rain, dust-storm and strong winds lashed Punjab and Haryana on Tuesday-Wednesday. Harvesting of wheat is on for the past 10 days in most parts of the two states. The Punjab government has ordered special survey to assess the crop damage. According to the Met department on Wednesday evening, the Western Disturbance, which caused severe weather over major parts of northwest India and adjoining central India on Wednesday, has further moved eastwards. The resultant reduction in moisture incursion from the Arabian Sea is likely to weaken the intensity of the system from Thursday. However, fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds (speed reaching 40-50 kmph) are likely over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh & Delhi, northeast Rajasthan, UP, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during next 24 hours. Isolated thunder-squall and hail-storms are likely over East MP and north Chhattisgarh during next 24 hours. Thundersqualls are also likely over Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram & Tripura during the period. Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has declared Friday a day of mourning with 114 people still missing days after a boat capsized on Lake Kivu, killing 13, the presidency said. He has also decided to make it mandatory for passengers on the lake, the site of regular drownings, to have lifebuoys, Tshisekedi's office said in a statement. The motorised boat, known locally as a pirogue, had left the city of Goma on Lake Kivu's northern shore, and was headed for the town of Kalehe to the west when it capsized Monday night. "I was sitting in the bow. A big wave hit the pirogue, which capsized and we fell into the water," Alice Uwezo Ruchiga, 18, told AFP. With three others she clung to a plastic mattress until they were rescued by fishermen. Isaac Ngeriyo, who also survived, added: "A woman and her child could not find a place on the mattress, and they drowned." According to the passenger manifest, which does not list stowaways, there were 49 adults and seven children on board the vessel, laden with goods. "In my family we lost Delphine (26) and Rebecca (15), their bodies have not been found yet," said Shuturu Kayerani, their sister. Apollinaire Bulindi, an honorary provincial minister and engineer urged Tshisekedi on Tuesday to make good on a campaign pledge to repair the Goma-Bukavu highway that many of the drowned passengers may have taken but is currently unusable. River transport is one of the most used in DR Congo with its numerous waterways. Boat mishaps are common on the lakes and rivers of the resource-rich but impoverished former Belgian colony. Accidents are typically caused by overloading of passengers and cargo on rickety vessels. The toll is often heavy because there are no life jackets and many Congolese do not know how to swim. Twenty-seven people were reported drowned in a boat sinking in September last year, 26 last July, another 50 last May, and 40 people in April whose boats sank while they fled fighting. Sub-Saharan Africa's biggest country, the DR Congo is struggling with local conflicts, and in remote areas the control of the central government in Kinshasa is weak. On Wednesday, the presidency had tweeted that 150 people were missing in the latest boat disaster, a figure it later withdrew. Search Keywords: Short link: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Wednesday slammed the Congress saying the party had tried to defame the country across the world by linking Hindus with terror. "Can Rahul Gandhi protect the country? They can only defame the country across the world by raising the bogey of Hindu terror," Shah said addressing a rally at Baramba in the Cuttack district. Referring to 2008 Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, fielded by the BJP from Bhopal, Shah said, "After the Samjhauta Express blast, the Congress said Hindu terrorists were behind it. The sadhus were put in jail. Now, the BJP decided that Sadhvi should contest from Bhopal against Digvijaya Singh, the person who coined the term saffron terror." Thakur, one of the accused in the blast case, is currently out on bail and joined the BJP recently. Earlier addressing a rally at Dhenkanal, Shah said the BJP would end the "babu raj" in Odisha if it came to power in the state. "Democracy has collapsed in Odisha. Under (Chief Minister) Naveen Babu, MPs and MLAs stand as servants, while the babus (bureaucrats) run the state," Shah said at an election rally in Dhenkanal. "Bring the BJP government in the state if you want to end this babu raj," he said. Claiming that 35 per cent people in Odisha were yet to get safe drinking water despite Naveen Patnaik being in power for 20 years, the BJP chief promised to provide piped drinking water, pucca houses and elctricity to every household by 2022. He also criticised the BJD government for not implementing the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. "The BJP government has launched Ayushman Bharat scheme to give 50 crore people free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh. But Naveen Babu did not implement the scheme due to the fear of Modi," said Shah. The BJP chief also accused the BJD leaders of protecting scamsters who had looted the hard-earned money of the poor via the chit fund scam. The accused of chit fund scam and those involved in the mining scam would be jailed after the BJP forms the government in Odisha, said Shah. Referring to recent attacks on BJP workers, he said, "I want to tell the BJD if they think they can intimidate us by attacking our workers, the BJP knows very well how to reply without resorting to violence." "The Congress ruled Odisha for years. You have given 20 years to the BJD. Give the BJP just five years and we will make Odisha the number one state in the country with double-engine growth," said Shah. The Dhenkanal and Cuttack parliamentary seats will go to polls in the third phase on April 23. Elections for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats are being held in the state in four phases. As 95 Lok Sabha constituencies go to the polls in the second phase of elections today, AIADMK has the maximum number of 35 seats to defend, followed by the BJP, which has 26 at stake. In the second phase, which will cover 13 states, Congress has 11 seats at stake while Shiv Sena has to defend 4, BJD 3, RJD, JD(S) 2 each, CPI(M), JD(U), TMC, NCP, National Conference, AIUDF, PMK and AINRC one each. Of the 95 seats going to polls Thursday, 38 are in Tamil Nadu, 14 in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, two in Jammu and Kashmir, one each in Manipur, and Puducherry. The first phase on April 11 saw voting in 91 constituencies spread across 20 states. In Tamil Nadu, where all the 38 Lok Sabha seats will see balloting tomorrow, it is the first major election without the stalwarts and former Chief Ministers -- late AIADMK leader J. Jayalaithaa and late DMK leader M. Karunanidhi. The 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the state were swept by the AIDMK under Jayalalithaa's leadership, winning 37 of the total 39 seats. In the by polls later, the party lost one seat and now has 36 seats to defend in a changed political situation after Jayalalithaa's death. The party faces a strong challenge from the DMK-led alliance. The BJP, which had won one seat in the state in the last elections, is trying to emerge as a player in the southern state. It has sought to forge a "formidable alliance" led by AIADMK and is contesting five seats in the state. Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan's party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) is also in the fray for the first time. Congress, which drew a blank in 2014, is contesting nine seats as part of the front led by DMK. Among the state's constituencies going to the polls is Pollcahi, where sexual abuse-cum-blackmail case had created a political furore. DMK has been raking up the issue in the hope that it will hit the ruling AIADMK. After Tamil Nadu, the biggest chunk of 14 seats going to polls tomorrow is Karnataka. In the state, key constituencies to be watched out for include Tumkur from where former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda is in the fray. He has left his traditional Hasaan seat for his grandson Prajwal Revanna, where BJP has fielded A. Madhu. His other grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy is contesting from Mandya where he is locked in a tough contest with Sumalatha, actor and wife of late Kannada actor and former Union Minister M.H. Ambareesh. The Congress, which used to be a strong rival of JD-S in southern Karnataka, is now its ally. In the last elections, the BJP had won six of the 14 seats going to the polls in the second phase. In Maharashtra, where polling will be held in 10 seats tomorrow, the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena will have to defend four seats each, which they won last time. This time, the NCP-Congress combine is giving them a tough fight by highlighting issues like farmers' distress and unemployment. Eight seats of politically-crucial Uttar Pradesh will also go the polls in the second phase. Of the total 80 seats, balloting has already been held on eight seats in the first phase in the state. The BJP, which had won all the eight seats in the last elections, this time has to face a formidable challenge from the coalition of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal. The BJP is hoping for a repeat of its performance, relying on popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the impact of schemes such as Ujjawala, Ayushman Bharat on the ground as also the houses and toilets built in rural areas in the last five years. Of the five seats of Assam going to the polls in the second phase, the BJP and Congress had won two seats each in 2014 and one had been won by AIUDF. The BJP's promise of Citizenship Amendment Bill has traction in Barak Valley seats of Silichar and Karimganj and the party will be hoping to improve its performance. In Bihar, the BJP, in the last elections, had not won any of the five seats going to the polls tomorrow. Most of these seats are in Seemanchal region of the state which is a difficult territory for BJP due to high Muslim population. However, in the last Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was contesting alone in Bihar while this time it has an alliance with JD(U). In Chhattisgarh, where the BJP had last time won all the three seats going to polls tomorrow, has changed its candidates this time to beat the perceived anti-incumbency. In West Bengal, the three seats going to the polls in the second phase are Jalpaiguri, Raiganj and Darjeeling. Raigarh seat was among reasons for the CPI-M and Congress not being able to forge an alliance in the state as both wanted to contest from there. It is held by CPI-M's Mohammad Salim. In Darjeeling, where the BJP fielded Jaswant Singh and S.S. Ahluwalia in the previous two elections, the contest this time appears triangular. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has struck an alliance with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) faction led by Binay Tamang while the GNLF and the GJM led by Bimal Gurung are supporting the BJP. Congress candidate Shankar Malakar is an MLA from an assembly segment in the constituency. In Odisha, the only seat BJP won in 2014 elections was Sundargarh, which will go to the polls in the second phase along with four other seats. The ruling BJD had won 20 of 21 seats in 2014 and the BJP is hoping to turn the tide in this election. It had 21.5 per cent votes in 2014. In Jammu and Kashmir, union minister Jitendra Singh had emerged as a giant killer in 2014 by defeating senior Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad. He is facing Vikramaditya Singh, son of former union minister Karan Singh in this election. Former state Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah is in fray from Srinagar as National Conference candidate, with tacit support of the Congress. Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- The approximately US$ 7.8 billion market for security screening is highly likely to approach the revenues worth US$ 10 billion in the next two years. As indicated by a newly launched research report by Future Market Insights (FMI), more than half of the total demand for security screening is being accounted by the developed regional markets. East Asia however is cited as the most lucrative market for investors in security screening systems and solutions. Rapid growth in the economy, necessitating increasing expenditure on the national and infrastructural security, will continue to push deployment of reliable and advanced technology enabled security screening systems. While FMI's analysis identifies an impressive rate of adoption within emerging economies, China, India, and Russia are more likely to be at the forefront of this growth, in the security screening market. Airports Generate Maximum Demand for Security Screening, Explosive Trace Detectors Bestselling Over 2/5th of the global security screening demand is accounted by airports, which will remain the dominant application area for security screening systems manufacturers and suppliers. As government buildings are highly vulnerable owing to the voluminous sensitive information that they procure, public recreation areas such as malls are also cited as the next sensitive area for implementation of effective security screening. Border check points are also expected to emerge lucrative through coming years, in the security screening market. Request to Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2673 Explosive trace detectors, currently accounting for nearly 1/4th share of the total sales of security screening systems, will reportedly witness strong growth in demand through the coming years. According to the report, X-Ray screening systems and biometric systems are also highly popular among the end-use application areas in security screening market. The collective market value share of the aforementioned security screening systems is just-under 50% and the report expects attractiveness of the latter to surge - with growing adoption of fingerprint and face recognition technologies. Smart Security Screening Trending in the Global Market Looking at the loopholes in current security screening models in terms of efficiency and sustainability, airports have been accelerating the industry's shift to smart security screening solutions, over the recent past. A combined initiative of Airports Council International (ACI) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), smart security is emerging as a streamlined solution for airlines, passengers, and their belongings. Recently, Australia's first-ever smart security screening checkpoint was unveiled at the Melbourne Airport. Key Vendor Insights: Global Security Screening Market Westminster Group PLC, one of the key players competing in security screening market, recently completed the acquisition of Keyguard UK Ltd. The latter is a leading company in the security screening space, providing the blend of manned security and the latest technology enabled security screening systems. The former will now offer packages combining technology and guarding particularly to the infrastructure security domain. This deal is expected to benefit both the business bases, in form of multiple cross-selling opportunities. Besides Westminster, FMI's report covers detailed strategic profiles of some of the most prominent companies operating in security screening market landscape, including American Science and Engineering, Inc., Analogic Corporation, Argus TrueID, Aware Incorporation, Digital Barriers, Mangal Security Systems Ltd., OSI Systems, Inc., Smiths Group plc, LAXTON GROUP, NEXT Biometric, Aratek, NEC Corporation, and Cognitec Systems GmbH. Request information about Report Methodology @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-2673 Latest Report: Hardware Security Module Market Neurovascular Guidewires Market Industrial Battery Charger Market New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- Global Architectural Membrane Market: Definition and Introduction Technological advancements in the construction industry and increasing innovative projects worldwide will generate significant demand for architectural membranes. Architectural membranes are classified into various types on the basis of materials, such as tensile membranes, fabric membranes, ETFE sheeting membranes, polyester membranes and glass fabric membranes, among others. Architectural membranes are being preferred these days as they provide a better-aerated frame structure and unique mechanical characteristics. Moreover, these membranes in permanent structures provide better stability in terms of dimensions. Architectural membranes have low maintenance cost and have the ability to resist with UV rays, weathering agents, staining and aging. Architectural membranes find a wide range applications in various end-use areas, such as commercial construction, roads and public construction, performance building construction, residential construction, etc. Global Architectural Membrane Market: Dynamic The global architectural membrane market is primarily being driven by the growth in the construction industry in developing as well as developed economies. For instance, rising demand for architectural membranes is being registered from malls, universities, lodges, bridges, restaurants and healthcare institutions, etc. Newly developed constructions and housing recovery are expected to drive residential and commercial construction sectors, which in turn, will fuel the demand for architectural membranes during the forecast period. Exterior as well as interior decoration is becoming a worldwide trend. A wide array of architectural membranes provide resistance against external environmental conditions and are thus, used for these purposes. Moreover, architectural membranes are translucent, water repellent and fire retardant. Due to this, they are a favorable choice for residential applications. These superior properties make architectural membranes quite effective in construction activities. Government initiatives towards increasing infrastructural investments will be a key trend that will give a boost to the global architectural membrane market in the next few years. However, the availability of substitutes will restrain the growth of the global architectural membrane market during the forecast period. A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/27346 Global Architectural Membrane Market: Segmentation The global architectural membrane market is segmented on the basis of product type, end-use areas, applications and regions. On the basis of product type, the global architectural membrane market can be segmented as: ETFE Sheeting Polyester Fabric Glass Fabric Others On the basis of application areas, the global architectural membrane market can be segmented as: Exteriors Lightframe ETFE foil cushion Interiors On the basis of end-use areas, the global architectural membrane market can be segmented as: Commercial Construction Roads and Public construction Performance building construction Residential construction Global Architectural Membrane Market: Regional outlook Global Architectural Membrane Market: Regional outlook The global architectural membrane market is segmented into seven key regions: Middle East & Africa, North America, Latin America, Europe, China, South East Asia & Pacific and Japan. Developed economies, such as Europe and North America, hold a significant share in the market owing to the growing construction industry and growing demand for innovative constructions in the regions. To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/27346 The demand for architectural membranes in Latin America and South East Asia Pacific is in a growing phase. South East Asia Pacific is estimated to be a high growth region due to the current macroeconomic environment, which is anticipated to create lucrative opportunities for architectural membrane manufacturers in the SEA region in the coming years. China and India are the leading economies in the construction industry, in turn, these countries are projected to grow with significant growth rate in global architectural membrane market Global Architectural Membrane Market: Key Players The global architectural membrane market is expected to be fragmented due to the high presence of international and local market players. Some of the architectural membrane market participants identified across the value chain of the global architectural membrane market are FabriTec Structures, Dupont Building and Construction, ACS Production, Architen Landrell Associates Limited, ArTech, Atex, Atlas Greenhouse, Cosella-Dorken Products, Inc., Birdair, Inc., Facade Textile Internationa, Innovative Tensile Pvt. Ltd., MakMax Australia, Mehler Texnologies, Sefar AG, VERSEIDAG-INDUTEX and many more. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/17/2019 -- The global Dental X-Ray Systems Market is anticipated to see an increase their requirement, owing to the advancement in medical image technology. Cone-beam computed topography or CBCT systems and dental X-ray systems are devised to nurse oral problems. Major factors contributing to the growth of the dental x-ray systems market are the growing geriatric population and their increase in age-old problems, one of them being dental issues, and technological advancements. There are a number of dental disorders registered on a regular basis and this keeps increasing by the day, thus increasing the chances of dental x-ray systems in order to treat it. Furthermore, digital systems nowadays have the ability to reduce time of diagnosis and also to improve the quality of image, captured in the X-ray machines, thus boosting the overall market growth in the long run. There are different variations in the dental x-ray systems like intraoral and extraoral x-ray systems. Extraoral systems use the x-ray film outside the buccal cavity and are basically used to inspect facial bones. While intraoral x-ray systems place the x-ray film inside the buccal cavity in order to allow dentists to check the state of the yet to develop teeth and detect possible cavity. It also allows dentists t check tooth surrounding bony region and observe the roots of the teeth. The intraoral and extraoral x-ray systems further categorize panoramic x-ray systems, cephalometric projections systems, hand-held intraoral x-ray systems, and floor mounted intraoral x-ray systems. Cephalometric projections systems and panoramic x-ray systems fall under the category of extraoral X-ray systems while intraoral x-ray systems include hand-held intraoral x-ray systems and floor mounted intraoral x-ray systems. The report presented here is a complete evaluation of global dental x-ray systems market with large focus on market dynamics that also includes the market drivers, restraints, and trends and opportunities. It also offers geographical and other segmentation studies of the market. Request to View Brochure of Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=50868 A major factor contributing to the growth of the dental x-ray systems market globally is the rising number of incidences of oral cancer that is followed by a list of dental procedures. Moreover, there is also an increase in demand for dental x-ray systems that have been modified with advanced technology. This will treat oral problems better and will also increase demand for x-ray in dental clinics and hospitals. Besides, socio-economic factors like rising number of dental disorders are also presumed to uplift the growth of the market in upcoming years. The government is also taking initiatives and decreasing the overall cost and expenditure of the dental surgeries and other dental treatments so that it can be easily accessible for middle and low income families to adopt these treatment procedures for its cost efficiency. The global dental x-ray systems market may be classified into the regions of Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, North America, and Middle East and Africa. North America is prophesied to be the dominant region contributing large shares into the overall market. Europe is also seen to be catching up soon and may be the second most dominating region in the dental x-ray systems market. Apart from that, Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the feasted growing region because of the developing nations of Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand where oral problems are increasing, and so is the need to treat such problems, especially among the geriatric population. Request to View ToC of the report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=50868 Major companies in the dental x-ray systems market are Owandy Radiology, Carestream Dental, LLC., Dentsply Sirona, J. MORITA CORP., and PLANMECA OY. Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- Electric Vehicle Transmission Market: Introduction The automotive industry has reached at a crossroad where decisions has to be made with regards to moving forward with electric vehicles or conventional IC engine vehicles. In the present scenario, innovations in the automotive industry are more focused towards the electric vehicles than the conventional vehicle implying a future where electric vehicles will eventually phase out the other types. This factor bodes well for the growth of the electric vehicles ancillaries market that include electric vehicle transmissions as well. Early transmission systems utilized in electric vehicles were usually equipped with single gears so as to cater the low power output, however, manufacturers are venturing into developing multi-gear transmissions on account of higher powered electric vehicles. Rise in sales and production of electric vehicles coupled with government regulations on automobile emissions are some of the key factors attributing to the growth of electric vehicle transmission market in the upcoming years. Electric Vehicle Transmission Market: Dynamics The electric vehicle transmission market depends upon the performance of electric vehicle's sales within the automotive industry. Though the sales of electric vehicles in the current market is largely outperformed by conventional vehicles, the trend is poised for a shift towards electric vehicles in the near future, which can benefit the electric vehicles transmission market in the forecast period. Manufacturers of such electric vehicle transmissions are always on a constant lookout for developing materials that can reduce the overall weight of the system without compromising performance. Efficient utilization of power stored within the electric vehicle batteries is also of utmost importance prompting the manufacturers to design the transmission system to close tolerances. Stringent regulations on vehicular emissions has greatly helped in marketing electric vehicles as the transportation mode of the future hence, aiding the growth of the electric vehicles transmission market. Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5636 The restraints associated with electric vehicle market are plenty and many which can have a domino effect on the electric vehicles transmissions market as well. It is a clear fact that the sale of electric vehicles determines the strength of the electric vehicles transmission market. Hence, the problems associated with electric vehicles such as high price, subpar performance, travel range anxiety, and lack of charging infrastructure, among others, can hamper the growth of the electric vehicles transmission market. Electric Vehicle Transmission Market: Segmentation The electric vehicle transmission market can be segmented by material type, vehicle type and application mainly. By type, the electric vehicle transmission market can be segmented as: Single Gear Mechanism Multi Gear Mechanism By vehicle type, the electric vehicle transmission market can be segmented as: Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) By sales channel, the electric vehicle transmission market can be segmented as: Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) Aftermarket Electric Vehicle Transmission Market: Regional Outlook From the regional perspective, the electric vehicles transmission market is anticipated for a steady growth in North America owing to aggressive promotion of electric vehicles by major players. The European region is also posed for a healthy growth due to various subsidies and incentives offered by the economies in the region on purchase of an electric vehicle, hence attracting more customers. The market in Asia Pacific is also expected to flourish well in the upcoming years especially in the Japan and China owing to push by the respective governments to place more emphasis on electric vehicles. The market in both Latin America and Middle East & Europe regions may grow on a stagnant phase, this is due to availability of low-cost fuels such as flex fuel in Brazil and abundance of petroleum in the Middle East. Request to View TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5636 Electric Vehicle Transmission Market: Key Participants Examples of some of the participants involved in the manufacture of the global electric vehicle transmission are: Oerlikon Graziano SpA ZF Friedrichshafen AG Allison Transmission Inc. Eaton Corporation Plc Magna International (Getrag) GKN Plc BorgWarner Inc. Xtrac Ltd. Drive System Design Ltd. Continental AG Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd. Pune, Maharashtra -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/17/2019 -- Growing imperativeness of information and data protection in light of increased concerns regarding cyber-crimes and leak of personal data has supported the initiation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) assessment tools. Superseding the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, GDPR facilitates harmonizing of data privacy laws across European countries in order to empower and streamline processes in organizations that are involved with personal information. That said, GDPR assessment tools support organizations in Europe to maintain standards of information security as per GDPR compliance. Albeit a situation of anxiety among IT and related sectors owing to GDPR, high penalties associated with avoidance of the regulation has compelled organizations to adopt GDPR assessment tools. With an ultimate focus to reduce a penalty worth 20 million, organizations across the European Union are adopting GDPR assessment tools to comply with GDPR. Moreover, the GDPR is also applicable to non-EU organizations that operate under the EU premises or if they are concerned with handling an EU client. This aspect has significantly pushed the use of GDPR assessment tools in the European Union during the forecast period. Request Sample Report @ https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=989 Fact.MR, understanding the need for GDPR as a vital regulation act for enhancing security of personal data, has compiled various valuable insights in its recent publication focusing on acceptance of GDPR assessment tools across the European Union. The report on GDPR assessment tools market is projected to expand at a meteoric CAGR of 35.6% in terms of value throughout the period of forecast, 2018-2028. GDPR Assessment Tools Market: Surging Adoption Among Large Enterprises Albeit a comparatively lower count of large enterprises in European Union, the market for GDPR assessment tools is expected to witness a surging demand from large enterprises that are anticipated to chiefly contribute to the growth of the GDPR assessment tools market in the region. That said, sales of GDPR assessment tools among large enterprises in EU are expected to sky-rocket as compared to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the coming years, given their higher spending capacity as compared to SMEs. However, SMEs being larger in number are expected to pave potential growth opportunities for GDPR assessment tools market. That said, given the mandatory compliance regulations for adopting GDPR standards for organizations under the EU regulatory framework, future of GDPR assessment tools is expected to remain optimistic in the forthcoming years. Browse Full Report @ https://www.factmr.com/report/989/europe-gdpr-assessment-tools-market GDPR Assessment Tools Market: Germany to Reign Supreme; UK to Follow the Suit Since the implementation of GDPR across EU, the adoption of GDPR assessment tools in Germany is expected to remain high in the coming years. Being the first EU member state to sanction the new Data Protection Act in order be in alignment with the EU GDPR, the demand and adoption of GDPR assessment tools continue to witness a significant boost in the country, making it the most attractive among other EU member states. On the contrary, United Kingdom has reported few of the larger and serious data breaches in the past two years. That said, GDPR assessment tools have never been more vital to organizations in the UK, with an ultimate goal to eliminate the possibilities of server hacks and data breaches across a multitude of IT firms and related industries in the country, be it a coordinated attack or a bunch of concentrated attacks on a specific industry. This factor has tremendously boosted the demand for GDPR assessment tools in the UK that is expected to showcase a higher level of lucrativeness in the forthcoming years with respect to incorporation of GDPR assessment tools. You can Buy This Report from Here @ https://www.factmr.com/checkout/989/S GDPR Assessment Tools Market: Cloud-Based Deployment Platform to Speed Up GDPR has witnessed a humongous proliferation across the EU, albeit a level of complexity associated with GDPR. That said, deployment of GDPR assessment tools using cloud platform has gained significant traction. Companies relying on cloud technology such as Salesforce and Dropbox are bound to ensure data practices that are in compliance with GDPR. Pervasiveness of cloud platform has led to the introduction of GDPR assessment tools that deliver solutions for cloud services. Consequently, increasing reliance on cloud platform has boosted the demand for cloud-based deployment of GDPR assessment tools. About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports. Contact Us Rohit Bhisey Fact.MR 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Email: sales@factmr.com Web: https://www.factmr.com/ Read Industry News at - https://theswisstimes.com Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- QY Research has lately published a new report on "Global Mask Inspection Equipment Market: Industrial Chain Market Insights, Growth Trends and Competitive Analysis 2025," for the forecasted period 6-years, i.e. between 2019 and 2025. 2019 is expected to be a challenging year for the semiconductor industry mainly due to macroeconomic factors such as a slowdown in the Chinese economy, falling average selling prices of smartphones, and declining tablets and PC segments. However, the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), automation in automobiles, and the concept of a connected environment are expected to create substantial demand for semiconductor devices during the forecast period. Click to view the full report TOC, figure and tables: https://www.qyresearch.com/index/detail/1057162/global-mask-inspection-equipment-market Intense market competition, rapid technological advances, and cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry pose significant challenges to market vendors. The market has significant entry barriers such as high capital investments which challenge the entry of new players in the market. The competition among the vendors is expected to intensify due to the emergence of new technology milestones like IoT and wearable technology. In terms of geography, the APAC region led the global mask inspection equipment and the four countries including China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, have reached close to $400.82 million in 2018, due to the existence of manufacturing industries in Asian countries. China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea have a very rich environment for manufacturing companies. The economic growth in China and India is also driving the strong demand for electronic products in the semiconductor inspection system market. The global Mask Inspection Equipment market was 540 million US$ in 2018 and is expected to 870 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 7.0% between 2019 and 2025. Get PDF sample copy of this report: https://www.qyresearch.com/sample-form/form/1057162/global-mask-inspection-equipment-market This report studies the Mask Inspection Equipment market size (value and volume) by players, regions, product types and end industries, history data 2014-2018 and forecast data 2019-2025; This report also studies the global market competition landscape, market drivers and trends, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis. Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Mask Inspection Equipment in these regions, from 2014 to 2025, covering North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Turkey etc.) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam) South America (Brazil etc.) Middle East and Africa (Egypt and GCC Countries) The various contributors involved in the value chain of the product include manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, intermediaries, and customers. The key manufacturers in this market include KLA-Tencor Applied Materials Lasertec Carl Zeiss ASML(HMI) Vision Technology By the product type, the market is primarily split into Die to Die (DD) Method Die to Database (DB) Method By the end users/application, this report covers the following segments Semiconductor Device Manufacturers Mask Shops Buy Full Mask Inspection Equipment Market Report Now, Report delivery time within 24 hours @ https://www.qyresearch.com/settlement/pre/9fc998b6d97ae49c4af5ba973a372f20,0,1,Global%20Mask%20Inspection%20Equipment%20Market%20Report,%20History%20and%20Forecast%202014-2025,%20Breakdown%20Data%20by%20Manufacturers,%20Key%20Regions,%20Types%20and%20Application About QYResearch QYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), expert's resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc. The World Bank has announced a new $200 million project for Egypt, aimed at helping young people and women launch businesses. The project will focus on "expanding the amount and access to credit for small and medium enterprises, which have proven to be a major source of growth and job creation," the bank said in a Thursday statement. The project will offer $145 million mainly to non-bank financial institutions offering loans to small businesses, with lending targets including women and youth-led businesses, first-time borrowers, and small businesses in underdeveloped parts of Egypt, the bank said. The bank will allocate another $50 million to privately managed risk capital intermediaries in Egypt to "build up the early-stage investment ecosystem." These include angel funds, accelerators, VC funds, and investment companies. "Egypt has shown strong commitment to reforming its economy, said Marina Wes, World Bank country director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti. While the reforms are beginning to bear fruit, enabling the private sector to create jobs is integral for achieving sustainable and inclusive growth. The project, titled Catalyzing Entrepreneurship for Job Creation, will also offer training opportunities for new businesses, to help beneficiaries develop necessary skills to become successful entrepreneurs. "This is an investment that offers many opportunities to improve the livelihoods of Egyptians through job creation and contributing a solid foundation for the countrys economy," Egypt's Investment Minister Sahar Nasr was quoted in the statement as saying. The bank says a five-year, $300 million project it launched in mid-2014 has to date created 300,000 jobs by improving access to finance for micro and small enterprises. The World Bank currently has 16 projects in Egypt, worth a total of $6.69 billion. Search Keywords: Short link: New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research titled "Global Market Study on Hearing Protection Devices: Stringent Safety Regulations and Increasing Demand for Reusable Earplugs to Drive the Market", the hearing protection devices market is estimated to be valued at US$ 951.3 Mn by the end of 2015, and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 12.4% during the forecast period (20152021) to account for US$ 1,943.8 Mn by 2021. A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3036 Global demand for hearing protection devices is increasing mainly driven by rapid growth of the construction, manufacturing and military weapons industries. An increasing number of regulations to reduce noise-induced hearing loss across various industries along with a rise in employment in manufacturing and construction sectors is expected to further drive overall growth of the hearing protection devices market over the forecast period. Moreover, some other factors that help to drive the growth of the market are increasing demand for next-generation HPD in military sectors, increasing urbanization and development activities, low-cost earplugs to boost demand in developing regions. However, lack of awareness and improper hearing attenuation are some of the major factors that restrict the growth of the market. Rising emphasis on custom-tailored hearing protection devices, mergers, and acquisitions, technology shift towards ear plugs with acoustic filters, increasing demand for uniform attenuation earplugs, growing market share of regional players and increasing investment in North America HPD market are some of the trends observed in the global HPD market. By region, North America is estimated to dominate the hearing protection devices market with over 34.4% share by 2015 end and is expected to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. Earplug is the largest segment in global hearing protection devices market. The global earplug segment is expected to increase at a CAGR of 13.6% in terms of value during the forecast period. Earmuffs is the second-largest segment in the global hearing protection devices market and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 10.2% in terms of value during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific represents the most lucrative market, followed by Europe for hearing protection devices. This is primarily due to rise demand for hearing protection devices in India, China, Bangladesh, Philippines and Indonesia. Asia-Pacific is expected to account for 20.4% market share in the global hearing protection devices market by 2015 end, which is expected to increase to 20.9% market share by 2021. To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/3036 Key market players covered in this report are 3M, Honeywell International Inc., Amplifon, Hellberg Safety AB, Dynamic Ear Company, Centurion Safety Products Ltd, Sonomax Technologies Inc, Siemens Healthcare GmbH, ADCO Hearing Products Inc., Elvex Corporation and Moldex-Metric Inc. These players have been profiled on the basis of various attributes such as company overview, recent developments, growth strategies, SWOT analysis and sustainability. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- Global Ostomy Drainage Bags Market: Snapshot The rising prevalence of bladder, colorectal, and urinary tract cancer is the foremost factor stoking the growth of the global ostomy drainage bags market. The widening pool of aged population across the globe is also working in favor of the market, since aged people are more susceptible to different types of cancers. Besides this, the increasing incidence of lifestyle-related disorders is augmenting the demand for ostomy drainage bags. Moreover, the governments and market participants are organizing ostomy programs to create awareness and educate people about ostomy and ostomy procedures. Such initiatives are providing a significant boost to the global market. View Report- https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ostomy-drainage-bags-market.html As per a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global market for ostomy drainage bags is anticipated to post a 4.70% CAGR between 2014 and 2022, reaching a valuation of US$2.75 bn by 2022. The upward climb of the market is, however, marred by the medical risks pertaining to the usage of ostomy bags. Nevertheless, rapid technological advancements are likely to mitigate these risks, thereby shaping the future of the market. Colostomy to Maintain Leading Position Due to Rising Geriatric Population On the basis of type, the global market for ostomy drainage bags is classified into ileostomy bags, colostomy bags, and urostomy bags. Colostomy bags will continue to dominate the market until 2022. The large-scale adoption of these bags can be attributed to the rapidly growing global geriatric population and rising awareness regarding colostomy, particularly in developing economies in Latin America and Asia Pacific. Moreover, the availability of different channels of distribution of colostomy bags is fuelling the growth of the segment. Due to these factors, the segment is estimated to be the most-promising segment during the forecast period. Request A Sample- https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=325 In terms of use, the market is divided into multi-use ostomy drainage bags and single-use ostomy drainage bags. The multi-use ostomy drainage bags segment will continue to account for the lion's share in the global arena until 2022. The rising prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and ulcerative colitis and consequently, increasing of urostomy and ileostomy surgical procedures are supplementing the dominance of the segment. The growing popularity of multi-use ostomy drainage bags is largely driven by the liberty of repeated use after irrigation. This renders their usage cost effective, boosting their preference to single-use ostomy drainage bags in cost-sensitive markets in Africa and Asia Pacific. Europe to Remain Frontrunner Owing to Presence of Favorable Reimbursement Framework From the geographical standpoint, the report divides the global ostomy drainage bags market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Rest of the World (RoW). Europe will continue to be at the forefront of growth until 2022. High disposable income of the populace is resulting in the greater affordability to undergo expensive ostomy procedure. Furthermore, the presence of favorable government reimbursement policies is propelling the growth of the region. Request Brochure- https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=325 Asia Pacific, on the other hand, is poised to register a CAGR higher than any other region. The growth of the region can be attributed to the growing prevalence of colorectal cancer in emerging economies such as Turkey, South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The increasing investments in the medical devices sector and presence of favorable reimbursement policies in developed nations such as Japan and Australia are stimulating the growth of the ostomy drainage bags market in APAC. Some of the prominent participants in the global market are Salts Healthcare Ltd., B. Braun Melsungen AG, ALCARE Co. Ltd., Pelcin Healthcare Ltd., Flexicare Medical Limited, and Welland Medical Ltd. Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- According to a new market research report "Ransomware Protection Market by Solution (Anti-Ransomware Software, Secure Web Gateways, Application Control, IDS/IPS, Threat Intelligence), Service, Application, Deployment, Organization Size, Vertical, Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the ransomware protection market size is expected to grow from USD 8.16 Billion in 2016 to USD 17.36 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.3%. There has been a notable spike in the phishing attacks in Q1, 2016. Phishing attacks are used by cybercriminal and fraudsters, employing both social engineering and technical maneuver to steal customer's personal identity data and other sensitive information via deceptive emails and texts. The innovation in market is driven by the development and upgradation of new security products to protect end users from ransomware and other advanced threats. Browse and in-depth TOC on "Ransomware Protection Market" 83 Tables 53 - Figures 179 - Pages https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/ransomware-protection-market-84263725.html Ransomware is a predominant cyber threat that installs on the victim's computer either encrypting the files or locking the entire system, until a ransom is paid. The organizations have increased investments in securing the data, network, and endpoints from crypto-malwares such as ransomware and other advanced cyber threats. Threat intelligence solution is expected to grow the fastest in the ransomware protection market Threat intelligence solution is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the ransomware protection market, during the forecast period. Organizations are increasingly adopting threat intelligence solutions to combat ransomware and other advanced cyber threats, as these solution provide effective and reliable threat detection to alleviate cyber threats based on security events and security intelligence feeds to manage business risks. Furthermore, security web gateways solution is expected to have the largest market share in the ransomware protection market, during the forecast period. Email protection segment is expected to gain high traction in the ransomware protection market The email protection segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016-2021. The emails are number one source of ransomware distribution and cybercriminals target victims with emails having malicious attachments. Hence, email protection is of utmost importance due to the rise in instances of Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams, globally. The network protection segment is estimated to contribute the largest market size to the ransomware protection market, due to rise in the number of security breaches targeting enterprise networks. Healthcare vertical is the prime target for ransomware attacks and would grow the fastest The healthcare vertical is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the ransomware protection market. Due to the push for rapid digitization of medical records such as electronic patient health information, healthcare sector is falling victim to large number of ransomware attacks, more than any other vertical. The BFSI vertical is expected to dominate the ransomware protection market, contributing largest market share, during the forecast period, due to the growing usage of web and mobile applications for banking transactions and payments. North America is expected to contribute the largest market share, whereas APAC is expected to grow the fastest North America is expected to have the largest market share and dominate the ransomware protection market from 2016 to 2021, due to the presence of large number of cybersecurity vendors across this region offering highly innovative ransomware protection solutions. On the other hand, APAC offers potential growth opportunities in the ransomware protection market, due to increasing spending on cybersecurity solutions in the emerging economies of the region such as China, Australia, and India. The major vendors in the ransomware protection market include Intel Security, Symantec Corporation, Trend Micro, FireEye, Sophos, Bitdefender, Kaspersky Lab, Malwarebytes, Zscaler, SentinelOne, and others. About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledgestore" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Shelly Singh MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA : 1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Rockville, MD -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- Wearable Exoskeletons Market Introduction Wearable exoskeletons are mobile machines that are powered using electric motors, hydraulics, levers, and pneumatics, which underpin the body movement with endurance and enhanced strength. Wearable exoskeletons can ensure the overall health of a patient and assist them in the restoration of their motor controls. Sales of wearable exoskeletons reached a value of US$ 90 Mn in 2017 and are estimated to grow incessantly in the forthcoming years. With the increased dissemination of information apropos of their medical applications, numerous hospitals and therapists have begun capitalizing on the technology to stay at the top of the survival game in the healthcare vicinity. This has further expanded the scope of wearable exoskeletons in the healthcare industry to help the nurses lift patients and carry them. Elderly care and rehab centers are some of the surplus areas where wearable exoskeletons find emerging applications, which will further add value to the growing size of the wearable exoskeletons market in the upcoming years. Request Free Sample Report@ https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=3436 Wearable Exoskeletons Market Novel Developments Recognizing the rising popularity of the units, manufacturers of the wearable exoskeletons have been striving to enhance the functionalities of their products to increase their desirability among the end-users. This has fueled the trends of hefty investments in the research and development activities. As a part of the expansion, strategic mergers and acquisitions, productive collaborations, and partnerships are witnessed in the wearable exoskeletons market. Key partakers devising innovation in the wearable exoskeletons market consist of ATOUN Co., Ltd., Bionik Laboratories Corp., B-Temia Inc., Cyberdyne Inc., Hocoma AG, Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc., Rex Bionics Plc, ReWalk Robotics Ltd., Parker Hannifin Corporation, Myomo Inc., Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Sarcos/Raytheon, Honda, Panasonic, Daewoo, Revision Military, Noonee, ExoAtlet, O.O.O., Gogoa Mobility Robots SL, Wearable Robotics SRL, Daiya Industry Co., Focal Meditech BV, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., P&S Mechanics Co. Ltd., China North Industries Group Corporation, Sarcos, Rostec, and AlterG. In June 2018, Parker Hannifin received an FDA OK from the Department of Veteran Affairs to market the Indego. Under the agreement, the company will now be able to commercialize motorized leg braces for the handicapped people. In addition, the company is endeavoring to convince the health benefits of the braces to the insurance company, which will further offer a financial cushion to the consumers and increase the desirability of the products. In January 2019, BIONIK Laboratories announced the launch of the next-gen robotic system, InMotion ARM robotic system, for improving the rehab of the stroke survivors. The robotic unit leverages artificial intelligence and data to offer personalized therapy to each patient. The modernistic unit will help upgrade the treatment programs for the patients suffering from strokes. In June 2018, B-Temia joined forces with Wistron for the seamless launch of Keeogo in Asia. The product is a wearable walking assistant developed for the people suffering from degenerative and motion-impeding diseases. These forces will collectively work towards touching people's disabilities through technology and capture the Asian wearable exoskeletons market. In September 2016, HOCOMA AG entered into a strategic merger with DIH International to rethink the rehab vicinity by leveraging advanced technologies and upgrading the patients' lives across the world. Request/View TOC@ https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=3436 Wearable Exoskeletons Market Dynamics Growing Number of Physically Challenged Individuals to Propel the Demand for Wearable Exoskeletons Prevalence of stroke, injuries from trauma, and the rising number of road hazards have resulted in a number of physical disabilities among people, which is expected to sustain the demand for wearable exoskeletons in the near future. In addition, the surging number of the geriatric population across the world have made them prone to severe conditions such as musculoskeletal injuries and strokes, which ultimately results in poor motor skills. Increasing number of aged people implies that the number of caretakers will decrease, which has further provided the required boost to the growth of the wearable exoskeletons market. Reliable Insurance Policies to Increase the Affinity of Consumers Towards Wearable Exoskeletons Assistive devices are gradually gaining a crucial stance as an integral part of the healthcare industry. With the recognition of growing disabled population across the world, governments of numerous countries have been funding the healthcare expenditures of the individuals, which is predicted to amplify the adoption rate of these units. Rise in the domestic income and an imperative inclination towards enhanced lifestyle have boosted the spending capacity of the individuals, which is expected to deliver promising growth opportunities to the wearable exoskeletons market in the coming years. Financial cushion provided by healthcare insurances of consumers is yet another growth propeller of the wearable exoskeletons market. Wearable Exoskeletons Market Segmentation The wearable exoskeletons market can be bifurcated on the basis of: Component Type Mobility Extremity Region Wearable Exoskeletons Market Segmentation By Component Type Depending on the component type, the wearable exoskeletons market can be fragmented into: Hardware Sensors Actuators Power Sources Control Systems Other Hardware Components Software Wearable Exoskeletons Market Segmentation By Type Based on the type, the wearable exoskeletons market can be segmented into: Powered Exoskeleton Passive Exoskeleton Wearable Exoskeletons Market Segmentation By Mobility On the basis of the mobility, the wearable exoskeletons market can be classified into: Stationary Medical Exoskeletons Mobile Medical Exoskeletons Wearable Exoskeletons Market Segmentation By Extremity Based on the extremity, the wearable exoskeletons market can be bifurcated into: Lower Extremity Medical Exoskeletons Upper Extremity Medical Exoskeletons The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the wearable exoskeletons market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, and historical data and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to wearable exoskeletons market segments such as geographies, application and industry. Wearable exoskeletons market report covers exhaustive analysis on: Wearable Exoskeletons Market Segments Wearable Exoskeletons Market Dynamics Wearable Exoskeletons Market Size Supply & Demand Current Trends/Issues/Challenges Competition & Companies involved Technology Value Chain Wearable exoskeletons market regional analysis includes: North America (U.S., Canada) Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru) Western Europe (Germany, Italy, France, U.K, Spain, BENELUX, Nordic, Eastern Europe) CIS and Russia Asia-Pacific (China, India, ASEAN, South Korea) Japan Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries, South Africa, Turkey, Iran, Israel) The wearable exoskeletons market report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with wearable exoskeletons market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on wearable exoskeletons market segments and geographies. Wearable Exoskeletons Market Report Highlights: Detailed overview of parent market Changing wearable exoskeletons market dynamics in the industry In-depth wearable exoskeletons market segmentation Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value Recent industry trends and developments Competitive landscape Strategies of key players and Products offered Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective on wearable exoskeletons market performance Must-have information for wearable exoskeletons market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint Report Analysis@ https://www.factmr.com/report/3436/wearable-exoskeletons-market About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports. Contact Us Rohit Bhisey Fact.MR 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Email: sales@factmr.com Web: https://www.factmr.com/ Blog: https://factmrblog.com/ Read Industry News at - http://theguardiantribune.com Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- According to the new market research report "Safety Valves Market by Size (Up to 1 inch, 16 inch, 6 25 inch, 25 50-inch, 50 inch, and Above), Material (Stainless Steel, Cast Iron, Alloy, Cryogenic), Industry (Oil & Gas, Energy & Power, Water & Wastewater), and Region - Global Forecast to 2024", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Safety Valve Market is expected to be worth USD 4.5 billion in 2019 and reach USD 5.5 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 4.30% from 2019 to 2024. The growth of this market can be attributed to the high demand for safety valve from various industries such as oil & gas, energy & power, and water & wastewater, especially from APAC and North America. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=121512658 Oil & gas industry to hold the largest share of the safety valve market in 2019 By industry, the oil & gas leads the safety valve market. Recent uptrend in the oil & gas industry, the latest discovery of shale gas in North America, and increasing demand for cleaner fuels are the major factors that are likely to drive the safety valve market growth in the next few years. In addition, Demand for oil and gas is supported by a large population in emerging economies, such as India and China. Population growth in APAC is likely to support increasing demand for oil, and the transportation sector is likely to account for a larger share of worldwide energy consumption in the coming years. Market for cryogenic material to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period The safety valve market for cryogenic material is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. Uptrend in the oil & gas industry and increased focus on cleaner fuels will boost the market for natural gas production and transportation, which, in turn, will boost the demand for cryogenic safety valve during the forecast period. This demand generates the need for cryogenic material to handle cryogenic temperature safely. APAC expected to hold largest share of safety valve market in 2019 APAC is expected to hold the largest share of the safety valve market in 2019. The growth is mainly attributed to Rapid urbanization and population growth in developing and emerging economies, such as China, Japan, and India, has prompted speedy development in the region, which will, in turn, boost demand for safety valves from several industries, such as energy & power, water & wastewater treatment, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and oil & gas. Browse in-depth TOC on "Safety Valves Market" 65 Tables 40 Figures 130 Pages Request Sample pages of the Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=121512658 A few key players operating in the safety valve market are Emerson (US), Alfa Laval (Sweden), Cameron Schlumberger (US), LESER (Germany), and IMI PLC (UK). About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Shelly Singh MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- A Screen Protective Film is a layer of protective film to avoid scratches, wear, or contamination on the screen surface of an electronic product. Now Screen Protective Films are widely used for mobile phones, tablets. Especially after the emergence of intelligent mobile phone, Screen Protective Film has been widely used. In terms of brands vendors, OtterBox, ZAGG and 3M captured the top three revenue share spots in the Screen Protective Film market in 2016. OtterBox dominated with 10.341 percent revenue share, followed by ZAGG with 10.127 percent revenue share and 3M with 4.918 percent revenue share. The prices of Screen Protective Film will continue to decline. Screen Protective Film's business competition and the gradually falling prices of Screen Protective Film raw materials prompted the Screen Protective Film prices to continue to decline. The market is not only influenced by the price, but also influenced by the product performance. The leading companies own the advantages on better performance, more abundant product's types, better technical and impeccable after-sales service. Consequently, they take the majority of the market share of high-end market Despite the presence of competition problems, due to the clear global recovery trend, investors are still optimistic about this area, in future still more new investment will enter into the field. Technology and cost are two major problems. Get PDF template of this report: https://www.qyresearch.com/sample-form/form/1091359/global-screen-protective-film-market The global Screen Protective Film market was 3800 million US$ in 2018 and is expected to 4770 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 3.3% between 2019 and 2025. This report studies the Screen Protective Film market size (value and volume) by players, regions, product types and end industries, history data 2014-2018 and forecast data 2019-2025; This report also studies the global market competition landscape, market drivers and trends, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis. Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Screen Protective Film in these regions, from 2014 to 2025, covering North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Turkey etc.) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam) South America (Brazil etc.) Middle East and Africa (Egypt and GCC Countries) The various contributors involved in the value chain of the product include manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, intermediaries, and customers. The key manufacturers in this market include OtterBox ZAGG 3M BELKIN Tech Armor MOSHI XtremeGuard Halo Screen Protector Film PowerSupport intelliARMOR Crystal Armor Spigen By the product type, the market is primarily split into PET Tempered Glass Other By the end users/application, this report covers the following segments Mobile Phones Tablets Get Complete Report in your Inbox within 24 hours: https://www.qyresearch.com/settlement/pre/79618ced0ec9bea7e6aeade7e8b96131,0,1,Global%20Screen%20Protective%20Film%20Market%20Report,%20History%20and%20Forecast%202014-2025,%20Breakdown%20Data%20by%20Manufacturers,%20Key%20Regions,%20Types%20and%20Application About QYResearch QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry. Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2019 -- Smartphone Cover Glass is usually aluminum silicate material. With screen sizes increasing, smartphones continue to lead total area demand in the cover glass market; however, as the markets for smartphones and tablets mature, cover glass industry revenue growth is declining from 39 percent year over year in 2013 to around 10 percent in 2017. While the overall cover glass market growth is falling, increasing popularity of the Apple Watch is leading to growth in smart watch cover glass shipments. In 2017, total shipments of smartphone cover glass was 35241 k sqm, The global market for smartphone cover glass will grow at a steady rate during the forecast period and will post an impressive CAGR of over 2.55% by 2023. The recent increase in the shipment of cover glass due to the growing population of mobile devices across the globe is a noteworthy factor that will impel the prospect for market growth until the end of the forecast period. Furthermore, factors such as the rapid growth of high-performance displays will also result in the high growth of this market over the forecast period. In terms of consumption, the APAC region is predicted to be the largest downstream market for smartphone cover glass. The prospects for growth in this market segment will be driven by the rising demand for smartphones, especially from regions like China and Southeast Asia. It was reported that over 80% smartphones are manufactured and assembled in China. Also, the augmented utilization of e-commerce portals coupled with greater internet penetration will aid in the growth of this market in APAC. The global Smartphone Cover Glass market was 1410 million US$ in 2018 and is expected to 1560 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 1.3% between 2019 and 2025. Get PDF template of this report: https://www.qyresearch.com/sample-form/form/1092124/global-smartphone-cover-glass-market This report studies the Smartphone Cover Glass market size (value and volume) by players, regions, product types and end industries, history data 2014-2018 and forecast data 2019-2025; This report also studies the global market competition landscape, market drivers and trends, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis. Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Smartphone Cover Glass in these regions, from 2014 to 2025, covering North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Turkey etc.) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam) South America (Brazil etc.) Middle East and Africa (Egypt and GCC Countries) The various contributors involved in the value chain of the product include manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, intermediaries, and customers. The key manufacturers in this market include Corning AGC Avanstrate Schott NEG Tunghsu Group KMTC By the product type, the market is primarily split into Gorilla Glass Draggontrail Glass Others By the end users/application, this report covers the following segments iOS Smartphones Android Smartphones Others Get Complete Report in your Inbox within 24 hours: https://www.qyresearch.com/settlement/pre/7894a6998014ada5040143dbd75024e1,0,1,Global%20Smartphone%20Cover%20Glass%20Market%20Report,%20History%20and%20Forecast%202014-2025,%20Breakdown%20Data%20by%20Manufacturers,%20Key%20Regions,%20Types%20and%20Application About QYResearch QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry. Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/17/2019 -- The utility communication market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.55%, from 2016 to 2021, to reach a market size of USD 15.45 billion by 2021. Asia-Pacific is estimated to be the largest market for utility communication, followed by North America in 2016. This trend is expected to continue till 2021. The growth of the utility communication market is driven by the increasing use of smart grids and mobile devices, modification in billing practices in power utility companies, and stringent regulatory requirements for power utilities. In addition, several government initiatives focusing on building smart cities, data centers, and cyber cites are expected to boost the market for utility communication technologies. Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=79991490 Target Audience: - Government and industry associations - Investment and consulting firms - Power distribution utilities - State and national regulatory authorities - State- or government-owned corporations - Utility communication equipment manufacturing companies - Utility communication service providers The report segments the utility communication market, based on utility type, into private and public utility. Although public utility is the largest market for utility communication, the private utility segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. Public utilities are state-owned or municipal-owned and are publicly listed companies. They are subject to public control and regulations. On the other hand, private utilities are business organizations managed as private enterprises without any interference by governments. Market Ecosystem: The utility communication ecosystem comprises power and automation technology companies such ABB, Ltd. (Switzerland), Schneider Electric (France), and Ericsson (Sweden), among others; industry and energy companies such as Motorola Solutions, Inc. (U.S.) and Black & Veatch Holding Company (U.S.), among others; manufacturing and engineering companies such as Siemens AG (Germany) and General Electric (U.S.), among others; developers, manufacturers, and marketers of network access companies such as RAD Data Communications, Ltd. (Israel), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), and Fujitsu (Japan), among others, who integrate the utility communication technologies and sell them to end-use utilities to cater to their unique requirements. Request Sample Pages of the Report @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=79991490 Asia-Pacific: The largest market for utility communication Asia-Pacific is currently the largest market for utility communication, closely followed by North America. The Asia-Pacific market is primarily driven by countries such as China, India, Japan, and Australia where there are high demands for utility communication technologies due to the many smart grids coming up. The market in this region is projected to grow at a high rate, with China expected to dominate the market. Increasing domestic demand for efficient power infrastructure would drive the market for power utility communication. China is expected to invest around USD 31 billion in smart grid projects by 2020; this will likely boost the demand for utility communication. About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Shelly Singh MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA : 1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com The Libyan National Army was forced to march on Tripoli to wrest the state from the hands of militias. Regional and international powers that blindly refuse to see this should reassess I couldnt resist writing about the military operation carried out by the Libyan National Army in Tripoli. I was appalled at the amount of fallacies propagated by some politicians so as to keep afloat the militias and attempt to legitimise them. They thought that defending terrorists and putting them against a regular military institution will preserve their interests in the future. The messages sent by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis during his meeting with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army last Sunday, hit their targets directly. They confirmed the necessity of getting rid of the militias because they hamper building a civil state and represent a threat to regional security. Moreover, the fact that some of their elements are hunkering down in Tripoli will attract their peers in neighbouring countries whose leaders want to get rid of hard-liners. Deliberate disregard for the purposes for which the extremists are engaged in their battles, and directing criticism at Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, aims at covering the real role played by those favoured by some regional and international parties. Moreover, it gives terrorists the opportunity to regain the initiative following the recent arrival of arms shipments from Turkey and Qatar, including American banned Stinger missiles and a ship full of landmines in order to be planted on main roads to hinder the advance of the Libyan Army. The Tripoli operation was carried out due to urgent security circumstances. If the national forces were late in confronting the terrorists, Libyans would have faced a far fiercer reality. For the capital was transformed into a Mecca for many leaders coming from Syria in the hope that it would be an alternative center for assembling the remnants of the Islamic State group. This project lost some of its lustre among international powers that embraced it and provided it with safe havens. Politics is taking twisted forms in Libya. Making matters appear as if there is a military operation in Tripoli going on between forces affiliated to Haftar and other forces associated with the Government of National Accord is done to divert attention from the pivotal role played by armed gangs. The Libyan Armed Forces advanced on many fronts and began to enjoy international legitimacy. Its head is welcomed openly by heads and leaders of several states. It has a known institutional structure, a general command and commanders for different branches and includes a wide spectrum of Libyan nationals under which stand officers and soldiers from all parts of Libya. It doesnt want to waste the favourable opportunity at hand for defending the countrys national security and repelling dangers brought by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda. Details of military developments confirm that the extremists and the countries backing them know quite well that they are engaged in their last battle in the region. It is either victory or the guillotine. They are fighting ferociously and are standing on the frontlines because their loss in Tripoli means their end for decades to come. Thus, the Libyan Army needs time to liberate the capital from the terrorists grip and their financiers. Slackness in implementing security arrangements endorsed last September led to an escalating danger of the armed gangs, for they understood that the financial allocations needed for the Ministry of Interior to dissolve their bases werent designated, meaning that they would continue to be relied upon. Slackness in changing the Central Bank governor and the head of the Libyan Oil Corporation meant that funds were rolling their way incessantly. The focus turned to the now frozen National Conference as if it were a personal project of UN special envoy Ghassan Salame, who succeeded with distinction in making it null of national content and attractive to Islamist components. Insistence on the conference without providing objective conditions for holding it was a strong motivation for the National Army to march decisively, aiming to halt momentum towards legitimising the status of the militias. A state cant be built on the shoulders of terrorists, highwaymen, drug dealers and those with personal interests. The Abu-Dhabi understandings between Haftar and Al-Sarraj in February were a gift for exiting the bottleneck. However, delays by some parties prevented their materialisation. Those responsible for missing this chance are now crying over it, so as to cover up their inaction. The Libyan Army is performing a serious move now to pull the country away from chaos. Political matters wont be resolved while civil authorities are subordinate to instructions dictated by leaders of armed battalions and ideoligised groups. Libya wont attain peace and stability without a unified military institution capable of controlling the security situation on all fronts. Whats interesting is that some figures are speaking now about a humanitarian truce, or more accurately a truce following huge losses inflicted on the terrorist gangs. Where were those figures when the militias detained great numbers of people? Why were they silent while violations were committed across recent years? Reports of neutral international human rights organisations mentioned systematic violence and widescale massacres that many citizens fell victim to. Simplifying the crisis and attempting to confine it to the human element only is manipulating the international communitys feelings, deviating from the right path, and dragging Libya into new labyrinths and giving culprits time to rearrange their positions. Whats needed from all international parties is to stand at the same distance from all forces and reconsider their confused approaches. Because whats happening may be the beginning of a civil war that will hurt their interests later, and they must join forces in helping the Libyan Armed Forces get rid of a horrible nightmare that threatens the entire region. Search Keywords: Short link: Though no official announcements have been made about the meetings in Brussels and Piraeus it is understood Bulc agrees there is a need for global solutions and not regional ones when it comes to serious shipping issues. This emerged after an April 4 meeting in Brussels between Commissioner Bulc and European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) president, Panos Laskaridis, and was re-enforced a week later when Bulc was in Piraeus for separate talks with Greek Shipping and Island Policy minister, Fotis Kouvelis and Union of Greek Shipowners president, Theodore Veniamis. According to reports, during her meeting with Laskaridis, Bulc spoke of the strategic worth of the European fleet. She reiterated her solid belief of the strategic importance of the EU fleet and said she would like to capitalise on her meeting by starting a dialogue with ECSA on the development of future policy. She reportedly referred to a report being prepared on EU flag states and what should be done to ensure European flags become more competitive and suggested it's possible the new European Commission would review the issue of State Aid Guidelines (SAG). Bulc agreed with Laskaridis of the importance of international regulations for shipping, and that shipping regulations and decisions should be made at the IMO level. Laskaridis underlined SAG should not be changed and reasoned for the need to restructure the EC and its shipping services towards the centralisation of authorities under one roof. A week after her meeting with Laskaridis, Bulc was in Greece. April 12, the need to support European shipping in the context of international competitiveness and enhancing its environmental sustainability topped the agenda when Bulc visited the Piraeus-based Shipping Ministry, to meet with Minister Fotis Kouvelis. Bulc was in Greece as IMO's MEPC prepared to further discuss the reduction of GHG emissions at its 74th session, May 13 - 17. Kouvelis reportedly stressed that Greece sees European shipping as a key driver of economic growth in Europe, has a social role and contributes to quality employment through upgraded levels of maritime labour and education and its promotion as the most environmentally friendly means of conducting EU and global trade. The meeting also highlighted the need to align with the established principles of trade liberalisation in the EU's bilateral agreements. Initiatives aimed at the use of advanced technologies for the facilitation and efficiency of maritime traffic, such as the single maritime window, and issues related to the preservation of European maritime know-how, as factors for strengthening European shipping were also discussed. Reference was made to ongoing developments in connection with Brexit. Kouvelis underlined Greece's priority for the implementation of international standards through Imo and the country's practical support of IMO in all matters, including environmental issues. Kouvelis spoke of the need for the adequate number of properly certified officers to man the EU fleet. The following day, Bulc met with UGS president, Theodore Veniamis. Again there was no official announcement about the meeting, but Veniamis described it as "very constructive" while Bulc said on her twitter account: "Always dynamic and engaging discussions with the Union of #Greek #ship owners on how to decarbonise and modernise maritime #shipping". Rifino Valentine wants to know when companies stopped putting their products before their profits. Its what inspired him to start Valentine Distilling Co. in 2007. Though the Ferndale-based spirits-maker has benefited from the relatively recent trend of local craft distillers and brewers, Valentine says that what has always motivated him is quality. Valentine has since garnered an additional motivator: Sustainability. It all started about five years ago when the company opened its 20,000 sq. ft. production facility. It takes a lot of resources to make spirits like vodka and gin. When the company significantly increased production, Valentine saw just how many more resources his company was using. Hes since announced a 10-Year Climate Sustainability Initiative that will result in Valentine investing approximately $500,000 in their sustainability efforts. "Lets make things the right way and lets be responsible in manufacturing. Lets prove we can do this responsibly," Valentine says. "Some of these things that were doing will benefit us in the longer run and some might not. But that doesnt mean we cant invest in it and make it a priority." Valentine has purchased a cooling tower for the spirits still, an approximately $50,000 piece of equipment. As the still uses about 2,000 gallons of processed water per day, the cooling tower allows the company to recirculate that water, rather than waste it. The company is also working on installing LED lights and a more energy efficient boiler. A farm-to-bottle-to-farm policy has Valentine purchasing grains from Midwestern farmers, using what they need, and returning the remnants to farmers for cattle feed. Future plans include harnessing wind and solar power to offset energy usage, with the goal of becoming as close to a net-zero energy building as possible. "Maybe were not going to be as profitable as other companies--we are still profitable, but were not going to engorge ourselves on our profits," Valentine says. "I dont need a 150 ft. yacht. Lets get back to whats really important." Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith. Everywhere you look at Bow in the Clouds, nature has something interesting to say. Photo by Eric Hennig, VAGUE Photography There is always something new to see on a nature walk at Bow in the Clouds. Photo by Eric Hennig, VAGUE photography Volunteers built an osprey stand last year hoping to lure an osprey to nest. Photo by Eric Hennig, VAGUE photography Off well-traveled Gull Road and behind the majestic motherhouse of the former Nazareth College, now home of the Sisters of St. Joseph, sits a 60-acre pristine nature preserve and wetland known as Bow in the Clouds.This urban oasis may be little known to those who arent seeking it, but as a place of learning and retreat, it is being embraced as the Eastsides wild backyard.Well-used by neighborhood youth programs, the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC), which now owns it, is also designing its boardwalks and paths for greater accessibility for wheelchairs, walkers, and eventually even for the blind through a designated acoustic trail.Youth from Eastside Youth Strong (EYS), Peace House, and the EYS summer program Eastside Arts and Experiential Learning program (EASEL), are frequent visitors to the preserve.We hoped the Eastside would take ownership of Bow in the Clouds as their own natural area, says Nate Fuller, director of conservation and stewardship of the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, which has been the custodian of the preserve since 2007. For SWMLC, Fuller says Bow in the Clouds, as a natural area within the city limits, provides new opportunities for an urban conversation.Nature is nature and you just need to be in it, but how to share it is different, says Fuller, who has been working with local organizations, such as Disability Network and Western Michigan University, to increase the preserves usability and access. Were early on the journey.Fuller recalls a visit to the preserve by EASEL youth that illustrated the importance of natural places in urban landscapes.She found a box turtle and was so excited to look at it. She said, I cant believe its here in my own neighborhood and I dont have to go out to the Nature Center to see it! That was the first time she had found a wild turtle on her own, says Fuller. That experience has always stood out for me.Rebecca Joyce, an EASEL instructor, brings youth to Bow in the Clouds each summer. We want the children to feel that they have a hidden treasure in their neighborhood, says Joyce. We hike and picnic there. The children love to look for eggshells from turtles hatching. Their favorite thing is cooling off their feet in the stream.Visits to Bow in the Clouds have served as inspiration for riddles about plants and animals, says Joyce, and have also helped youth develop leadership skills by becoming ambassadors to their parents and other visitors to the preserve.Kalamazoo Eastside Neighborhood Association Director Pat Taylor, who grew up on the South side of Kalamazoo with neighborhood access to the Kleinstuck Preserve, says she feels fortunate that the Eastside has its own wild place. Bow in the Clouds is a similar opportunity on our side of town (to Kleinstuck), says Taylor. I love it over there. Its very open. Its very inviting. Were blessed to have this opportunity to spend time in nature so close to home.Despite its urban home, much of Bow in the Clouds is wild and untouched. Accessible by 1,000 feet of boardwalk that traverses a clear stream, spring-fed ponds, and wetlands, the preserve features abundant flora, fauna, and wildlife. An osprey stand, constructed last year, awaits the preserves first nesting pair.Many features in the preserve have names and stories, like Swan Lake, Bethany Hill, Quiet Bridge, and Babbling Brook. Officially 46 years old this spring as a nature area, the preserve has a unique history grounded in its caretakers, the Sisters of St. Joseph, a Catholic congregation who are active in justice, peace, and environmental issues. Transformations Spirituality Center, run by the sisters at the motherhouse, offers retreats and workshops focused on spiritual growth.This embracing of Bow in the Clouds by Eastside residents couldnt make the preserves longtime lead caretaker, Sister Virginia Ginny Jones, any happier.That is really what I wanted, that the neighborhood would embrace it, says Sister Ginny, adding she hoped that the preserve encourages residents to become invested stewards of the area. I wanted this to be a place where people could come and experience a close connection with the natural world.People will preserve what they love, and they wont love it unless they experience it, she says.This is your neighborhood. This is your community, says Fuller of the Eastside preserve. You dont have to so go somewhere else to find nature. Its right here.The land behind the former Nazareth College, a small liberal arts college that closed in the 1990s, has seen many incarnations. Long ago, it was likely a Native American hunting ground, and possibly even a Native American residence, as many arrowheads have been found. Later it was farmland. But as it naturalized, the Sisters of St. Joseph used the land as a place of retreat.When sisters wore their habits, they marched out here for picnics in the '70s. They called it The Land of Vision, says Sister Ginny.They would go out there to re-energize. It was a place for meditation and recovery and thought and so I think there is still a lot of value of having that for our community whether people need to go for a trail run or just a quiet place to go and be, says Fuller.In 1968, Sister Ginny arrived at Nazareth as an environmental science teacher. As part of their broadening mission, the Sisters of St. Joseph became advocates for the environment, attending to their own carbon footprint even before it was a well-known concept. In 1972, Sister Ginny helped host Kalamazoos first Earth Day Celebration, held on the campus. Her students helped her build trails and plant trees.Dedicated as Bow in the Clouds Natural Area in St. Josephs Day, March 1974, which was also the golden anniversary of Nazareth College, the preserve has seen a few changes over the years, including an addition of Bethany Hill (put in place with 1,000 woman hours of labor to stop the dumping of trash into the marsh), and various types of paths, many created by the nuns themselves and with the help of Eagle Scouts.The name Bow in the Clouds has biblical origins, coming from Genesis 9:13 in which God set a rainbow as a sign of a covenant between Him and the earth.The sisters saw it as their own covenant with the earth, says Fuller.The whole point of Bow in the Clouds is that we wanted people to experience being one with their whole earthly community through Gods relationship with all of creationand were a part of that, says Sister Ginny. You dont have to belong to the Christian tradition to appreciate this interconnectedness. You can be a Buddhist. You can be a Hindu. All major religious groups have a sense of contact with the holy through the natural world.Thirty years later, and as an aging religious order dwindling in numbers, the Sisters of St. Joseph found they no longer had the resources to care for the land in the way they had envisioned. As it was important to them to retain their covenant, they transferred ownership, after several years of discussion, to SWMLC in 2007.They gave it to us with the hope we would steward it, care for it, and make it available to the community to enjoy it for the long term, says Fuller.Out of that collaboration, a special friendship between Fuller and Sister Ginny arose, one that was shared with listeners in a StoryCorps interview, sponsored by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, in 2013 during which Sister Ginny shared stories and history about the preserve.Shes a special, special woman, says Fuller. Its really powerful to think about the scientific and spiritual blending that shes brought to that place, and we really hope to convey something of that spirit out there.What did I do to the Land of Vision? Sister Ginny asks. I extended the vision.The fondness between the two is evident, as is their mutual appreciation of the land.I think of this as a very sacred place, says Sister Ginny to Fuller. So Im glad youre taking care of my sacred place.Im honored to do so, says Fuller. I consider it my church.Through Transformations Spirituality Center, the Sisters of St. Joseph, a progressive congregation, hosts many programs that promote eco-spirituality, a philosophy that combines ecology with spirituality and advocates environmental activism.The first scriptures were written in nature before we had written scripture, says Sister Ginny. One of the things I was trying to do through my teaching was to share that recognizing that creation is also Gods world incarnated in a different way and how we could use(hearing God's word through reading).Sister Ginnys own connection with the land is as deep as the taproot on one of her special trees, a Pignut Hickory. She recalls many experiences over the years, such as watching an unusual geese formation or the hatching out of thousands of snapping turtles, that inspired spiritual and personal insights.She shared a very personal one that influenced her own journey to become an avid protector of trees.Father died on Earth Day 25 years ago this year, she recalls. The following year was difficult because it required the care of her mother, losing their dog and selling her parents belongings. She was walking down the woodland trail in December a few days before her fathers birthday. It was a hard time emotionally, she says, and so cold I had heavy gloves on.She walked past the marsh and Swan Pond, up by the cemetery, and came to a nice big tree, a Pignut Hickory. I had noticed in the past that the tree had some scars on it, she says. It knew something about healing.By the time I got there, I was so frozen inside emotionally. I put both gloved hands on the tree and laid my forehead against it.It was bitter, bitter cold. Sap doesnt run in the middle of December, but this energy from that tree ran through me. The mighty word leapt down and helped heal my grief and my frozen, cracked heart.That profound experience inspired Sister Ginny to start working with the trees on the Nazareth campus with gypsy moth issues by seeking biological controls.That protective energy that I felt from the Pignut Hickory I had to take to every other tree, especially the oaks. I monitored that whole campus for many years because that was part of my effort of healing.In 2007, when Sister Ginny and Fuller met at Bow in the Clouds following the transfer of the land, a miracle occurred: a rainbow appeared over the preserve.We were both almost in tears, says Fuller.That rainbow, witnessed together, was a fitting and synchronous symbol to what has become a new covenant, a gift to the community inspired by the generous spirit of forward-thinking sisters and their passionate ecological spirit.If you enter the preserve paths from the south, you will pass the Sisters of St. Joseph stoic cemetery. Small, unadorned stones mark the graves of those from this faith community who walked and tended and meditated on the land.As Sister Ginny, like the other Sisters of St. Joseph, advances in age, she says she is excited about the Land Conservancy's plans to increase accessibility on the trail . Now that I feel more limited, its exciting to me, she saysWhile sadly, the motherhouse may not be in existence much longer as the sisters move to a newer building located behind it, the congregations presence remains an indelible part of the landscape.For directions to Bow in the Clouds, which is accessed off Nazareth Road, please see (LINK).https://swmlc.org/project/bow-in-the-clouds-preserve/ A property at 26 Fremont Street in Battle Creek may eventually be known as the house that love built.This project is a labor of love for the Land Bank team and for many of our community partners, says Krista Trout-Edwards, executive director of the Calhoun County Land Bank Authority.The historic home has already undergone some major restoration work, but leadership with the Calhoun County Land Bank Authority say there is more work to be done and they are looking to members of the community in order to continue their efforts. Last week, the Land Bank announced its first-ever MAYDAY fundraiser with a goal of raising $50,000 to finance ongoing repair and restoration work on the house.The fundraiser is scheduled to take place on May 1 at the 26 Fremont Street. Tickets are $50 apiece and can be purchased by clicking Get Tickets here Trout-Edwards says the fundraiser, is an effort to continue building upon the momentum created at this site last year. We and our partners have already made an investment in this house and we want to support that work.Donations will help the Land Bank accomplish the next critical stage of rehabilitation -- stabilizing the exterior of the house. Money raised through this effort will help offset the cost of repairing the exterior millwork, encapsulating the lead-based paint and painting the house in a historically accurate color palette.This would be a significant visual boost to this important intersection, and would also address the hazardous lead-based paint, Trout-Edwards says. In addition, it would support all of the investment to date and would further assist in stabilizing the structure.She says its important to engage the wider community in this effort for several reasons, including very limited funding for historic preservation. It also is difficult to raise funds without widespread community support.Owning a historic home can often be overwhelming due to the cost of repairs, she says. Through our preservation workshops, we connected local property owners with knowledgeable tradespeople to learn skills that they could then take back and use on their own properties. We also see value in saving these properties because they increase property values when they are cared for and maintained.The house at 26 Fremont was vacant long before it came through the local property tax foreclosure process in 2015. The Land Banks original goal was to rehabilitate it through a rehabilitation grant that was available at that time. However, the overall costs were very high and the Land Bank was unable to find funding to complete the rehabilitation.In 2017, they started working with the Battle Creek Community Foundation and the Michigan Historic Preservation Network (MHPN) to come up with some different ways of stabilizing the structure.The most immediate issue was the failing roof, which needed to be replaced to save the structure. Through a mix of funds, we were able to replace that last year, Trout-Edwards says. We then made some other repairs so that we could use the structure as a learning lab last summer for a series of preservation workshops sponsored by MHPN.The home was built by prominent pioneer John Carlos Barber in 1870. Barber was a local businessman, operating a Livery on Canal St. He was also a local sheriff and U.S. Marshall. His descendants lived in the house for almost 100 years, and his granddaughter operated the What Not Shop out of the house for 20 years in the early part of the last century.When deciding which properties they will put money into, Trout-Edwards says thorough reviews are made based on available data. She says the staff frequently works with local code and building officials to get a better understanding of their properties.We also often ask the citys building official to review our properties and prepare a safety report that we can then use, she says. In addition to the condition and type of structure, we also consider location, available resources, and occasionally get additional input from professionals if we need more information.It is our hope that the community rallies around this important project and sees the value of restoring historic assets such as 26 Fremont before its too late, Trout-Edwards said. Your donation, however big or small, will help retain a significant piece of Battle Creeks history.Tax deductible donations can be made online here Press Release April 16, 2019 Sen. JV: UHC requires new doctors to serve in far-flung communities REELECTIONIST Senator JV Ejercito has assured that the dilemma of lack of doctors and medical staff in far-flung communities, towns, and provinces would finally be addressed once the Universal Health Care (UHC) law is implemented. Ejercito, now popularly known as "Mr. Healthcare" for spearheading the UHC law, said almost 6 out of 10 deaths in the Philippines are not medically attended, or six out of 10 Filipinos die without seeing a doctor or health professional. He said that now, because of the law, the doctor to population ratio in underserved areas, mostly geographically isolated and disadvantaged communities, would narrow down as the UHC required new doctors and graduate of other medical courses from State Universities and Colleges to serve for at least three (3) full years in far-flung areas that "rarely see doctors." "All graduates of allied and health-related courses who are recipients of government-funded scholarship programs shall be required to serve in priority areas in the public sector for at least three (3) full years, with compensation, and under the supervision of the DOH (Department of Health)," Ejercito said, citing section 26 of the law's chapter 5. The law also provides that even graduates of allied and health-related courses from private schools would be encouraged to serve. "These doctors and medical personnel will have compensation. Kaya iyung dati na hindi nararating ng mga doctor at nurse, o kulang sa doktor o nurse na mga komunidad, bayan, o probinsiya, sa UHC, kapag ipinatupad na ang UHC law, malalagyan na sila para maserbisyuhan ang pangangailangang pangkalusugan ng ating mga kababayan," he said. The UHC also allows additional incentives for health professionals who want to serve longer than their required 3-year "tour of duty." Ejercito said the law tasked the DOH to coordinate with the Commission on Higher Education to ensure effective implementation of the Human Resource for Health provisions of UHC. Press Release April 16, 2019 Lacson: High Time Gov't Went Beyond Joma in Talking to Communist Rebs More at: https://pinglacson.net/2019/04/16/lacson-high-time-govt-went-beyond-joma-in-talking-to-communist-rebs/ It is high time the government focused its peace efforts with communist rebels on those who do not listen to Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson said Tuesday. Lacson said such efforts, coupled with localized peace talks, is the better way to end the five-decade-old insurgency problem as the strength of New People's Army rebels varies in various localities. "Such a move is long in coming. I have always believed that this is the better way to deal with the five-decade insurgency problem," said Lacson, who has dealt with the communist New People's Army as a member of the now-Philippine National Police which he headed from 1999 to 2001. "I have been batting for localized peace talks and in fact strongly suggested the same to former Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III in one committee hearing of the Senate Committee on Peace and Unification chaired and presided by Sen. Gregorio Honasan II," he added. Earlier reports indicated the government is planning to form a panel to resume talks with the communist rebels, particularly those not listening to Sison. The government is also moving toward localized peace talks with communist rebels, regardless of whether Sison approves. Military officials had noted the CPP under Sison may have used legal fronts to amass at least P7.3 billion in past years from non-government organizations. Lacson said that while governors and mayors can deal with guerrilla leaders in areas where the NPA is not that influential, the military can focus on areas where the NPAs are a threat. "So it is better that governors and mayors and other LGU officials be the ones to talk to local communist guerrillas, under the guidance and direction of a government peace panel that will provide the parameters for such localized peace talks but with enough flexibility in handling such peace initiatives," he said. Lacson added it is useless to deal with Sison, as he does not have control over the NPA despite making outrageous demands, including those that would make the CPP part of a coalition government - a possible prelude to a communist takeover. "Experience has shown that while Sison asks for a ceasefire and government accommodates his request, NPAs continue conducting ambushes and raids. This shows Sison no longer has control over the NPA's armed regulars," Lacson noted. Press Release April 17, 2019 ANGARA: MORE 'MALASAKIT' OFFICERS TO BE DEPLOYED IN PH EMBASSIES SOON Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara is looking forward to having more social welfare attaches (SWAs) in Philippine embassies and consulates, especially in countries with high concentration of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), once the bill seeking to institutionalize their deployment abroad is signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte. The enrolled copy of the measure establishing the Office for Social Welfare Attache has already been transmitted to Malacanang for the President's signature. Angara is one of the bill's authors in the Senate. Angara said the deployment of more SWAs abroad is expected to fill the gap when it comes to comforting OFWs in distress and needing psychological services, such as victims of trafficking, illegal recruitment, sexual abuse and maltreatment. "Having 'malasakit officers' in Philippine embassies and consulates is a reassurance that the government truly cares for our modern-day heroes, who sacrifice a lot to create better lives for their families and help the Philippine economy to stay afloat through their remittances," said Angara, who is scheduled to campaign today in Batangas province, which belongs to the region with the highest number of OFWs. In 2017, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that 2.34 million Filipinos left the country to work abroad, around 20.7 percent or roughly 484,000 of them are from Region 4-A or Calabarzon. Unofficial estimates, however, showed that there are 10 million Filipinos living and working overseas. But despite the huge number of OFWs scattered globally, Angara lamented that the country has only 7 SWAs who are currently deployed in Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Even if the government plans to deploy SWAs in Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Lebanon, Italy and South Korea this year, their number is not enough to attend to all OFWs who are vulnerable to extreme physical, emotional and psychological stress. "In the division of labor inside what is basically a multi-agency embassy, there are assigned personnel that can handle legal cases, liaise with local police, as well as military, trade, agriculture attaches," Angara said. He pointed out that what is lacking is a trained professional who can provide the three essential C's-care, comfort and counseling-to Filipinos in crisis situation and in need of special protection. "Kahit meron tayong magagaling na abogado sa mga embahada at batikang eksperto sa lokal na regulasyon, ang isang kakulangan ay 'yung magbibigay ng psychosocial care doon sa mga biktima ng trafficking or violence," Angara said. "Traumatized Filipinos require the services of a trained professional. Kung ang isang OFW ay biktima ng sexual abuse, 'yung pagtulong sa kanila ay nangangailangan ng isang specialist and this is the kind of skill-set that might not be found in the organizational setup of an embassy," he added. Once the bill creating the Office for Social Welfare Attache is enacted, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will formulate and issue the implementing rules and regulations, in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Health, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas. The DSWD is also tasked to provide criteria for determining the selection of diplomatic posts to which SWAs will be deployed and the minimum qualifications and attributes of the SWA. Under the 2018 and 2019 national budget, a total of P90 million is allocated for the Office of the Social Welfare Attache. Press Release April 17, 2019 De Lima maintains there is 'global consensus' vs her unjust detention Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has expressed dismay over the refusal by some of her Senate colleagues to recognize the global consensus about her unjust detention and political persecution she is subjected to under the current regime. De Lima also chided Senate President Vicente Sotto III for falsely comparing her case to that of former senators and detainees who were all charged of pocketing pork barrel funds, notably, Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada. "I'm disappointed that SP Sotto doesn't seem to get the point," she said in her recent Dispatch from Crame No. 505. "Those US lawmakers, just like the many other parliamentarians [w]ho earlier issued separate statements expressing concern about my continued detention and called for my release, only choose or dare to act in solidarity with, and fight for the causes, of those they regard as true victims of injustice and political persecution," she added. Last April 4, Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA), along with Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Chris Coons (D-DE) filed a bipartisan resolution, logged as Senate Resolution 142, calling on the Philippine government "to immediately release Senator De Lima, drop all charges against her, [and] remove restrictions on her personal and work conditions." Refusing to recognize the calls by the US Senators as an expression of international solidarity, Sotto took to Twitter saying, "Solidarity my foot! Did they do that to former SP Enrile and Sens. Revilla and Estrada?" Instead of taking heed of the persistent calls by the US Congress, Senators Sotto, Gregorio B. Honasan II and Panfilo M. Lacson even filed a Senate resolution slamming the US senators for allegedly interfering in Philippine internal affairs. "Verily, with many other reputable organizations [c]onsistently standing by me, it will not be presumptuous to assert that there is a global consensus about the unjustness of my situation, something that eludes the lens of some of my very own colleagues in the Philippine Senate," she said. The organizations and groups that earlier expressed solidarity with De Lima vouched and called for her immediate release include, among others, the Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Liberal International (LI), Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the Australian and Canadian Parliaments. Meanwhile, in disputing Sotto's comparison of her case to that of Enrile, Revilla and Estrade, De Lima explained that unlike her, the three former senators did not experience a vicious campaign of personal vilification, character assassination and slut-shaming from the government. "I hope SP Sotto and others stop comparing my situation with that of the three (3) PDAF senators. Malayo po. Malayong malayo po," she said. The former justice secretary asked: "Naranasan ba ng tatlong dating Senador yung mga ginawa sakin ni Duterte at mga kampon nito? Mismo ang Pangulo ang naghusga bago pa man nagkaroon ng imbestigasyon sa mga akusasyon laban sa akin. May nambastos ba at yumurak sa mga pagkatao nila habang dinidinig ng Senado noon yung usapin ng Napoles PDAF Scam, kagaya ng matinding pambabastos na naranasan ko sa House inquiry at sa Pangulo mismo? "May mga testigo ba sa mga kaso nila na tinakot, pinilit o pinangakuan ng kung ano ano para magsinungaling, gaya ng mga testigo laban sa akin? Maituturing ba na patas, makatao at makatarungan ang trato sa akin ng gobyernong ito?" It may be recalled that during the Aquino administration, De Lima led the government's investigation of the multi-million pork barrel scam and filed plunder charges against Enrile, Revilla and Estrada and other lawmakers. De Lima, who is considered by many as a prisoner of conscience, has been currently detained for more than two years now on trumped-up and politically-motivated drug trade charges fabricated by the Duterte administration due to personal and political vendetta. Press Release April 17, 2019 De Lima calls Guevarra's remark vs US senators 'absurd' Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has lashed out at Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra for erroneously claiming that the five US senators were "misinformed" in their latest call for the Duterte administration to drop the trumped-up drug charges against her. De Lima, the first prominent political prisoner under the Duterte regime, called Guevarra's remark as "absurd" as she maintained that she was illegally detained over politically-motivated charges for speaking out against the government's twisted policies. "Secretary Guevarra might have been hiding under a rock for a good part in the early months of this administration to be unaware of the daily character assassination, slut-shaming, and trial by publicity that Duterte and his officials subjected me to, but definitely the US Senators were not," she said in her Dispatch from Crame No. 504. The former justice secretary said she is confident that this latest set of US lawmakers calling for her immediate release are better informed than Guevarra about her cases and that they are "neither pushovers nor lacking in intelligence or discernment." "These Senators know, while Guevarra apparently did not, that the whole government machinery, first and foremost the House of Representatives and the DOJ, was mobilized by his boss to malign my reputation and fabricate criminal charges against me on the basis of the statements of convicted criminals and other perjured witnesses," she said. Guevarra recently claimed that the five US senators who filed a bipartisan resolution, logged as Senate Resolution 142, calling for, among others, the immediate release of De Lima from unjust detention, were "fed with wrong information." The said resolution was introduced Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and supported by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Chris Coons (D-DE). De Lima also criticized Guevarra for continuing the legal persecution against her which was started by his predecessor, former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, who illegally used 13 convicted felons as state witnesses in the drug trade cases against her. "No self-respecting DOJ Secretary would allow criminal convicts to be under the DOJ's Witness Protection Program as state witnesses. The fact that Guevarra did means that he either has not familiarized himself with my cases, or that he himself has chosen to take part in my persecution by continuing the trial of my cases despite the clear violation of the WPP Law on the use of disqualified criminal convicts as state witnesses," she said. "That the DOJ has railroaded the cases against me from day one of the preliminary investigation up to the trial with the utilization of disqualified criminal convicts as state witnesses, instead of filing cases against them as the admitted drug lords in the Bilibid drug trade, and the filing of a patently defective Information (both the original and the amended), are palpable proofs of the targeted legal persecution of dissenters under the Duterte Administration," she added. In 2018, De Lima filed with the Office of the Ombudsman administrative and criminal complaints against Aguirre and Guevarra for illegally admitting and continuing the unlawful admission, respectively, of 13 convicted felons as state witnesses against her. De Lima further charged Guevarra with gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct for continuing the failure of the DOJ to prosecute the convicts despite their public admission of their links in the illegal drug trading inside the New Bilibid Prison. "It is high time Guevarra comes out of the rock he is hiding under, lest he becomes just another one of the maggots of a rotting administration, a legacy he certainly would not wish upon himself," said the lady Senator from Bicol. Under Section 10 (f) of RA 6981, criminal convicts previously convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude - such as murder and illegal drug trading - are disqualified from becoming state witnesses. Press Release April 17, 2019 GORDON PRESSES NEED FOR IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION OF MOTORCYCLE CRIME PREVENTION ACT Citing the unabated killings across the nation perpetrated by riding-in-tandem shooters, Senator Richard J. Gordon has called for the immediate implementation of Republic Act 11235 or the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act of 2019 to deter the commission of such acts. Gordon, principal author and sponsor of RA 11235, made the call following the latest killings in the Visayas in the past few days. "We really have to do something to stop these killings with impunity. That is why I am calling on the LTO (Land Transportation Office) to craft the IRR (Implementing Rules and Regulations) of RA 11235 as soon as possible so we could immediately implement it. Because this law is meant to obviate crimes perpetrated by criminals using motorcycles as get-away vehicles," he stressed. Last Friday, award-winning homegrown barista John Michael Hermoso, 29, and Kis Tryvl Ramos, 21, who was set to graduate with a degree in psychology from the University of the Philippines-Cebu this June, were killed in a shooting incident at the coffee shop in Cebu City where they both worked. Two assailants wearing helmets entered the shop and opened fire after it closed for the night, killing the two victims and injuring two other employees. The assailants fled on board a motorcycle. Meanwhile last Sunday, Fraldine Kate Ramayla Canes, 24, and her husband, Michael Canes, 27, who were on a motorcycle, were shot dead by two men on another motorcycle at the corner of SB Cabahug Street and AC Cortes Avenue in Barangay Ibabao in Mandaue City at past 11 p.m. Their eight-year-old daughter, who was with couple on the motorcycle, survived the attack. The couple, who were into the RTW (ready to wear) clothes business, were on their way home after coming from the North Bus terminal to send some of their products to Bantayan Island in northern Cebu when they were attacked. Gordon pointed out that while the use of motor vehicle is an aggravating circumstance under the Revised Penal Code, the current plate number of motorcycles is too small that witnesses can hardly take note of it. "Ngayon, madaling makatakas ang mga salarain gamit ang motorsiklo dahil either tinatanggalan nila ng plaka o di kaya napakaliit nito para makita ng mga witnesses. Kapag inimplement na natin ang RA 11235, huhulihin na ang mga motorsiklo na tumatakbo ng walang plaka at madali na ding mabasa at matandaan ang mga plaka. Kaya this law will give protection to the public, pati rin sa mga may-ari ng motor na ninakawan ng motorsiklo," he stressed. Press Release April 17, 2019 Nancy renews call for the creation of arbitration commission Cases and disputes arising from, or connected with medical malpractice, insurance laws, maritime laws, intellectual property law and intra-corporate matters should be settled by another body to decongest court dockets, Sen. Nancy Binay today said. Binay, a re-electionist senator, has been pushing for the creation of Philippine Arbitration Commission since her first election in 2013 for the speedy disposition of cases. According to former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, there were about 160,000 cases pending in the 1,200 first-level courts (city and municipal courts) and 640,000 in the 1,100 second-level courts or the regional trial courts as of 2017. Panganiban said there was no statistics yet for 2018. The vast majority of litigations end in the trial courts. The Court of Appeals (CA) has about 18,500 pending cases; the Sandiganbayan, 5,500; the Court of Tax Appeals, 1,200; and the Supreme Court, 8,500, Panganiban said. "About 80 percent of the cases are criminal in nature, of which about 50 percent are drugs-related. The remaining 20 percent noncriminal cases can be mediated, compromised and ended sans laborious written judgments," Panganiban said. It is in this context that Binay wanted the creation of a governmental body that would settle "areas of dispute." "It is appropriate and timely to introduce mandatory arbitration to disputes involving medical malpractice, insurance laws, maritime laws, intellectual property law and intra-corporate matters, or collectively known as the 'areas of dispute,'" Binay said. The senator has filed Senate Bill 2033 to be known as the "Philippine Arbitration Commission Act of 2017" to address the recurring problem of congested cases pending in courts and the prolonged period of case resolutions. Excluded from her proposed measure are disputes arising from employer-employee relationships; territorial disputes in the high seas with neighboring countries; and construction disputes which are governed by Executive Order No. 1008, or the "Construction Industry Arbitration Law." "The mandatory arbitration before the Philippine Arbitration Commission would definitely alleviate the recurring problem of clogged dockets in our courts. Decongestion of cases will soon be realized as a number of cases could be taken out of the jurisdiction of the judiciary," she said. Under the measure, a sole arbitrator or three arbitrators, called the Arbitral Tribunal are mandated to settle a dispute. The arbitrators are accredited by the Commission. The commission will be chaired by the University of the Philippines (UP) College of law dean, with seven members to be appointed by the President. Ex-officio members of the commission will be the secretaries of the Department of Health (DoH) and the Department of Transportation (DoTr); the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); the Insurance Commission chair; and the director general of the Intellectual Property Office. Binay said arbitration over the areas of disputes will allow involved parties the flexibility and autonomy to resolve conflicts, compared to the courts which are bound to strict rules of evidence. "With the greater transparency and high comfort of level doing business in the country, foreign investors are more inclined to invest here in our country. Accordingly, this bill will definitely augment their decision to shift here as it affords them greater democracy in settling disputes," Binay said. The names of the auditors of Fuji Xeroxs New Zealand subsidiary remain suppressed after an appeal hearing against a decision by an accountants disciplinary tribunal. The disciplinary tribunal of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants had censured the accountant who led Fuji Xeroxs audit team, suspended him from practicing for 12 months and ordered him to pay the tribunals costs. NZICAs Appeals Council has reserved its decision on whether to lift name suppression of both the accountant and his firm, but has said that if it does decide to lift suppression, it will give the accountant a 14-day grace period in which to tell his family about the proceedings. However, the council has lifted suppression of the name of the company concerned. The accountant, who had been in charge of a team which audited Fuji Xeroxs New Zealand subsidiary between 2002 and 2016, had pleaded guilty to negligence or incompetence in a professional capacity and that has been of such a degree it tends to bring the profession into disrepute after a hearing last November. Much of the appeal hearing, which was open to the media, hinged on whether the accountant had made an error of judgement and on whether his offence was sufficiently serious as to warrant both a 12-month suspension and publication of his name. The accountants barrister, Harry Waalkens, QC, said repeatedly that an error of professional judgement was at the root of the case. The disciplinary tribunal had been completely wrong to order publication of the names of the accountant and his firm because the accountants offending had not been as serious as, say, theft, Waalkens had argued. He cited observations in their own decision that make it as clear as anything that this isnt at that level, he said. That decision, which hasnt been made public, described the case as immensely sad because the accountant had otherwise had a blameless 25-year career. He argued that it should be sufficient for NZICA to publish the details of the case without naming the accountant to demonstrate that justice had been done. The big difference in this case to all the others is the corruption and skulduggery that went on within that client, Waalkens said. A series of stories published in National Business Review from September 2016 had revealed that the Fuji Xerox subsidiary had been using creative accounting methods such as incorrectly reporting third party settlements, recording unearned income and juggling figures between the main subsidiary and its finance arm. An audit the parent company reported on in April 2017 found the New Zealand subsidiary had actually chalked up more than $300 million in losses while reporting profits. The accounts for the year ended March 2016 had eliminated $126 million of sales to third parties that had been recorded in the 2015 accounts but the 2016 accounts failed to explain why this had happened. Waalkens argued that his client and his family didnt deserve the blaze of publicity that would result if the council lifted name suppression and that he would never be able to practice as an auditor again. Nevertheless, later in the hearing Waalkens said his client would voluntarily relinquish his auditors licence if the council permanently suppressed his name. The client would also willingly undertake an obligation to inform any future employers of the case. Terry Sessions, representing NZICA, said during questioning by the council chair, Les Taylor, QC, that it was the accountants failure to act, and not an error of judgement, that led to the findings against him. No audit procedures were documented. Its not a matter of him shouldering responsibility for others, its a matter of him failing to do what he was required to do, Sessions said. The accountant had a responsibility to assure himself that sufficient and appropriate evidence had been obtained to support the audit opinion reached but he failed to do so, he said. Sessions argued that there had to be a high threshold for continuing name suppression. The accountant has since left the firm he worked for, which Waalkens described as a massive penalty. John Hagen, one of the panel of three hearing the appeal, asked why the firms name should continue to be suppressed since anybody could find out which firm it was by searching Companies Office records. Waalkens replied that there have been cases in which a firms name had previously been published but was subsequently suppressed. The accountant is also appealing the costs awarded against him. All details of his family circumstances were permanently suppressed at last Novembers hearing. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Rua Bioscience Limited (NZX: RUA) Rua given green light to distribute first product in NZ NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) Share Buyback to Commence in February 2022 17th December 2021 Morning Report Evolve Education Group Limited (NZX: EVO) Guidance and Trading Update Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) $600m Bank Refinancing Completed Vital Healthcare Property Trust (NZX: VHP) Vital expects ~$140m property revaluation gain for 1H FY22 16th December 2021 Morning Report Sky Network Television Limited (NZX: SKT) Confirms Sale of Mt Wellington Properties for $56m Gentrack Group Limited (NZX: GTK) Facility Loan Agreement Goodman Property Trust (NZX: GMT) Prices $200 million Wholesale Bond Issue Tourism Holdings shares fell 24 percent when trading opened after the company lowered its full-year earnings guidance by as much as 22 percent and said a decisive operation and capital review of its US operations is now under way. The company, which rents and sells campervans, expects net profit of $25 million to $28 million for the year ending June 30. When reporting first-half earnings in February, Tourism Holdings signalled annual profit would be around $32 million, already lower than its previous guidance of $32 million to $34 million. The stock fell to $3.85, the lowest since June 2017. It recently traded at $4.05 as bargain hunters moved in after the initial tumble, said Grant Williamson, a director at Hamilton Hindin Greene. He noted it was the second downgrade in a "relatively short period of time," and as a result investors had "treated it harshly." "I think investors are concerned," he said, noting the company has recently expanded aggressively which creates some risk. Tourism Holdings said the main reason for the downgrade was the ongoing deterioration in US vehicle sales. "THLs expectations for the financial year are now substantially below previous forecasts," it said. According to the Financial Times, US auto sales rose in 2018 but Ford and General Motors reported a drop in domestic sales that pointed to a slowdown in 2019. Tourism Holdings' US operations include Road Bear, Britz and El Monte RVs rentals, which they also sell. It also has a 50/50 joint venture with Thor Industries, a motorhome manufacturer in the United States. The TH2 JV runs the Cosmos digital platform to RV owners and operators, and the Mighway and Roadtrippers businesses. Earlier this month, TH2 merged its trans-Tasman CamperMate and Roadtrippers businesses with Australia's GoSeeAustralia and Outdoria to create one entity. In the six months to Dec. 31, Tourism Holdings posted a 23 percent decline in first-half profit as the rental RV operator continued to invest in its joint venture with Thor but reiterated its expectation for TH2 to be a "significant earnings contributor in the future." That's one of several strategies underpinning Tourism Holdings' stated aim of doubling the value of the business within three years. Performance in the New Zealand and Australian markets remained on track with a solid outlook, Tourism Holdings said. The company said it will provide an update on the review before the end of May. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Rua Bioscience Limited (NZX: RUA) Rua given green light to distribute first product in NZ NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) Share Buyback to Commence in February 2022 17th December 2021 Morning Report Evolve Education Group Limited (NZX: EVO) Guidance and Trading Update Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) $600m Bank Refinancing Completed Vital Healthcare Property Trust (NZX: VHP) Vital expects ~$140m property revaluation gain for 1H FY22 16th December 2021 Morning Report Sky Network Television Limited (NZX: SKT) Confirms Sale of Mt Wellington Properties for $56m Gentrack Group Limited (NZX: GTK) Facility Loan Agreement Goodman Property Trust (NZX: GMT) Prices $200 million Wholesale Bond Issue Fulton County Sheriffs OfficeG Herbo has been arrested and charged with battery in Atlanta. The Atlanta Police Department confirms to ABC Radio that Ariana Fletcher, the mother of the Chicago rapper's child, claims he assaulted her in the midst of a verbal altercation on Wednesday morning. Authorities confirm that Fletcher sustained minor scratches following the ordeal. Herbo, born Herbert Wright III, initially fled the scene of the incident with his son but later returned, at which point he was questioned by police, arrested and charged with simple battery. TMZ reports that Herbo's bond has been set at $2,000. Following news of the rapper's arrest, Fletcher took to her Instagram story to share graphic details about the assault. "He kicked my door down to get in my house because I wouldn't let him in," she began her lengthy post. "[Herbo] beat the f*** out of me [in] front of my son then he took my son to his friends." Fletcher alleges that during the altercation Herbo choked her, punched her in the face and dragged her by her hair after the rapper's friends drove away with their child. She continued, "After his friends drove off with my son, [Herbo] took me in the house and continued beating me. I have a black eye, my body scraped up from being dragged outside, bruises and cuts all over my body." The news of the "Swervo" rapper's domestic dispute arrives just a few days after he and Fletcher celebrated their son's first birthday. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. According to an EC order, Karnataka cadre IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin was suspended for "actions contrary to the instructions of the Commission concerning SPG protectees" on April 16 -- the day SPG-protectee Prime Minister Modi visited Sambalpur to address an election rally. New Delhi : The Election Commission has suspended a high-ranking poll observer deputed to Odisha on charges of "dereliction of duty" with regard to " Special Protection Group protectees" -- in a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The EC took the action against the general observer of Sambalpur on the basis of a report submitted by the district collector and the deputy inspector general of police. Modi was stated to have been held up at the place for nearly 15 minutes because of Mohsin's "actions". The officer allegedly checked PM's chopper in violation of norms. "Checking of the prime minister's chopper, undertaken at Sambalpur, was not in accordance with the EC guidelines as SPG protectees are exempt from such checking," said an official in Bhubaneswar without elaborating. The Congress on Thursday questioned the Election Commission order suspending a high-ranking poll official deputed to Odisha for allegedly checking the prime minister's chopper and said EC rules "do not exempt" PM's vehicle from being checked. The opposition party accused the EC of "bias" after it suspended Karnataka cadre IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin. The Congress also wondered what Modi was carrying in his helicopter that he did not want India to see. "An official was suspended by ECI for doing his job of inspecting vehicles. The rule cited governs the use of official vehicles for campaigning. It does not exempt PM's vehicle from being searched," the Congress said on its official Twitter handle. "What is Modi carrying in the helicopter that he doesn't want India to see?" it added. The Congress said instead of checking all flights of leaders, the EC was acting against its officials. "After the case of the mysterious box being moved from Modi's chopper, we'd have expected the Election Commission of India to investigate every flight. "But suspending an official who did this reeks of bias," the party said in another tweet. "There have been instances where during polls EC was allowed to check convoys of both current and the former Congress president. SPG protectees can't be frisked personally. Why suspend an officer for checking PM's chopper? What message is being sent? Law is special for some?" senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel tweeted. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's helicopter was also checked by EC flying squad personnel in Rourkela on Tuesday. A similar check was carried out on Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's chopper at Sambalpur Tuesday by a flying squad, sources said. "None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe? One or the other is lying" he tweeted. Fugitive Businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday cited a statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while taking a dig at him as well as banks over contradictory statements made in British courts regarding recovery of money he owed PSUs. In an interview to Republic Bharat news channel on March 29, Modi had expressed satisfaction over the fact that Mallya's extradition process was in the last stage and the government has recovered money from him. "We brought in a law that enabled the Indian government to confiscate the property of fugitives in any part of the world. You must've seen in the case of Vijay Mallya. He owed banks Rs 9000 crore but the government has confiscated his properties worth Rs 14,000 crore from across the world. Now, he is in trouble because we are taking double the amount," the Prime Minister had said in an exclusive interview to Republic Bharat news channel's Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. Mallya, who is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore, is currently facing trial at a London court. On April 8, a United Kingdom court had denied permission to the liquor baron to appeal against his extradition order to India to face trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. by Anna Merlan In January 2015, I spent the longest, queasiest week of my life on a cruise ship filled with conspiracy theorists. As our boat rattled toward Mexico and back, I heard about every wild plot, secret plan, and dark cover-up imaginable. It was mostly fascinating, occasionally exasperating, and the cause of a headache that took months to fade. To my pleasant surprise, given that I was a reporter traveling among a group of deeply suspicious people, I was accused only once of working for the CIA. The unshakable certainty that many of the conspiracy theorists possessed sometimes made me want to tear my hair out, how tightly they clung to the strangest and most far-fetched ideas. I was pretty sure they had lost their hold on reality as a result of being permanently and immovably on the fringes of American life. I felt bad for them and, to be honest, a little superior. The things that everyone thinks are crazy now, Sean David Morton proclaimed early in the trip, the mainstream will pick up on them. Twenty-sixteen is going to be one of those pivotal years, not just in human history, but in American history as well. Morton is a self-proclaimed psychic and UFO expert, and someone who has made a lot of dubious claims about how to beat government agencies such as the IRS in court. I dismissed his predictions about 2016 the way I dismissed a lot of his prophecies and basic insistence about how the world works. Morton and the other conspiracy theorists on the boat were confident of a whole lot of things I found unbelievable but which have plenty of adherents in the United States and abroad. Some of them asserted that mass shootings like Sandy Hook are staged by our own government with the help of crisis actors as part of a sinister (and evidently delayed) gun-grab. The moon landing was obviously fake (that one didnt even merit much discussion). The government was covering up not just the link between vaccines and autism but also the cures for cancer and AIDS. Everywhere they looked, there was a hidden plot, a secret cabal, and as the Gospel of Matthew teaches about salvation, only a narrow gate that leads to the truth. I chronicled my stressful, occasionally hilarious, unexpectedly enlightening experience onboard the Conspira-Sea Cruise as a reporter for the feminist website Jezebel, and then I tried to forget about it. I had done a kooky trip on a boat, the kind of stunt journalism project every features writer loves, and it was over. Conspiracy theorists, after all, were a sideshow. Yet I began to notice that they were increasingly encroaching on my usual beats, like politics. In July 2016, I was walking down a clogged, chaotic narrow street in Cleveland, Ohio, where thousands of reporters, pundits, politicians, and Donald Trump fans had massed to attend the Republican National Convention. I was there for Jezebel again and was busy taking pictures of particularly sexist antiHillary Clinton merchandise. There was a lot of it around, for sale on the street and proudly displayed on peoples bodies: trump that bitch buttons, white T-shirts reading hillary sucks, but not like monica. I stopped a guy in his twenties, dark-haired, built, and jaunty, walking past wearing an eye-catching black hitlery shirt: a photo of Hillary Clinton adorned with a Hitler mustache, smirking slightly. Can I take your photo? I asked. He agreed, and then I noticed a bizarre sight: the guys walking with him. There were maybe eight of them, and they were enormous, muscle-bound, and heavily bearded. A couple were wearing camo pants and dusty boots. They looked like members of a militia, fresh from a training exercise in the desert, set loose in urban Ohio. Where are you guys . . . from? I asked as delicately as I could. One of them grinned at me. Were reporters, he said merrily. No, youre not, I blurted, without thinking. The biggest guy winked and showed me his press badge: they were from InfoWars, the mega-empire of suspiciona radio show, website, and vastly profitable store of lifestyle productsfounded by Austin, Texasbased host Alex Jones. Later that night, I saw the enormous men again in a Mexican restaurant, quietly shoveling chips into their mouths with their bear-paw hands. After a few minutes, with a huge amount of bustling and self-important murmuring, a couple of them ushered in Alex Jones himself, installing him on a bar stool and pouring him shots of tequila. I went over to say hello. The men looked concerned. One of them held up a hand: You can have two minutes, he told me. Jones was red-faced and effusive. Wed never met before and I was interrupting his dinner, but he greeted me warmly. We had a brief, scattershot conversation: we talked about Trump, whom he was there to support. I asked whether he thought vaccines cause autism. I think they contribute to it, he said, nodding. (They dont.) I asked whether he considered himself woke, the slang for a politically conscious, socially aware person. What? he asked. I explained what it meant. Im one hundred percent woke, Jones replied in his signature growl. He beamed at me. I am woke, he repeated. Everyone smiled at one another: the InfoWars guys, Jones, and me. One of them signaled that it was time for me to take my leave. I did. As on the Conspira-Sea, my first reaction was to treat the exchange as a lark. It was the kind of interaction you might have with a harmless, nutty radio shock jock, because thats what Alex Jones was, for many years: a guy shouting into a microphone, warning that the government was trying to make everyone gay through covert chemical warfare, the homosexuality agents leaching into our water supply and from our plastic bottles. (Theyre turning the freaking frogs gay! he famously shouted. The clip quickly went viral and provoked mass hilarity on Twitter.) Jones also made less adorably kooky claims: that a number of mass shootings and acts of terrorism, like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, were faked by the government; that the CEO of Chobani, the yogurt company, was busy importing migrant rapists to work at its Idaho plant; that Hillary Clinton is an actual demon who smells of sulfur, hails from Hell itself, and has personally murdered and chopped up and raped little children. Jones was closer to the mainstreams attention than most people on the conspiracy fringe, largely thanks to the seminal 2001 book Them by British journalist Jon Ronson, one chapter of which chronicled the pairs extremely weird adventure of trying to get into a top-secret meeting of world leaders at Bohemian Grove in Northern California. (They made it inside; memorably, Ronson beheld a bunch of those world leaders putting on childish skits and peeing on trees as a sort of boys-cutting-loose weekend. Jones, meanwhile, has always maintained that the whole thing was an occult playground for the elites and that an effigy burned during the weekend was nothing less than a bizarre pagan ritual and that the worlds most powerful people engage in ancient Canaanite Luciferian Babylon mystery religion ceremonies, as a film he made about it declared.) But while I was joking around with Jones, he was at the RNC on important business, it turned out: he was there to meet with Roger Stone, former Richard Nixon advisor turned dirty-tricks specialist and trusted ally of the Trump campaign. Jones and Trump were in fact longtime mutual fans. After announcing his run, candidate Trump made one of his first media appearances on Joness show, appearing via Skype from Trump Tower. Jones endorsed him early and often and, in turn, many of the radio hosts favorite talking points started turning up in Trumps speeches. Jones began darkly predicting that the elections would be rigged in Clintons favor, a claim that Trump quickly made a central tenet of the latter days of his campaign. At the end of September, Jones began predicting that Clinton would be on performance-enhancing drugs of some kind during the presidential debates; by October, Trump was implying that, too, and demanding that Clinton be drug tested. Soon after, the United States narrowly elected a conspiracy enthusiast as its president, a man who wrongly believes that vaccines cause autism, that global warming is a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive, as he tweeted in 2012, and who claimed, for attention and political gain, that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. And one of the first people President-elect Trump called after his thunderous upset victory was Alex Jones. In fact, Trump found time to call Jones along with a fewoddly prioritizedworld leaders before he or any member of his transition team had contacted anyone at the Pentagon or the State or Justice Departments. Then, in a very short time, some of the most wild-eyed conspiracymongers in the country were influencing federal policy and taking meetings at the White House. Heres the thing: the conspiracy theorists aboard the cruise and in the streets of Cleveland could have warned me that Trumps election was coming, had I only been willing to listen. Many of the hard-core conspiracy theorists I sailed with werent very engaged in politics, given that they believe its a fake system designed to give us the illusion of control by our real overlords: the Illuminati, the international bankers, or perhaps the twelve-foot lizard people. But when they did consider the subject, they loved Trump, even the left-leaning among them who might have once preferred Bernie Sanders. They recognized the future president as a truth teller in a style that spoke to them and many other Americans. They liked his thoughts about a rigged system and a government working against them, the way it spoke to what they had always believed, and the neat way he was able to peg the enemy with sound bites: the lying media, crooked Hillary, the bottomless abyss of the Washington swamp. They were confident of his victoryif the globalists and the New World Order didnt get in the way, and they certainly would try. Just as Sean David Morton said, they were sure that 2016 was going to change everything. (Although they perhaps didnt imagine that Trump would win as a result of the Electoral College while losing the popular vote by one of the biggest margins in American history.) Trumps fondness for conspiracy continued apace into his presidency: his Twitter account became a megaphone for every dark suspicion he has about the biased media and the rigged government working against him, even, at one particularly low point, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of inflating the number of deaths in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria. His supporters became consumed by the concept of the deep state, seized by a conviction that a shadow regime is working hard to undermine the White House. At the same time, Trump brought a raft of conspiracy theorists into his cabinet: among them was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, who suggested that President Barack Obama would declare martial law and cancel the 2016 elections to remain in power. There was also National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (who was quickly fired), notorious for retweeting stories linking Hillary Clinton to child sex trafficking. Other conspiracy enthusiasts soon occupied positions in such staid government offices as the Department of Health and Human Serviceswhere a Trump appointee named Ximena Barreto was hired despite her also claiming that Clinton was linked to a pedophile ringand the National Security Council, where a senior aide and former Pentagon official named Rich Higgins sent out a furious, lengthy email on the various leftist conspiracies seeking to undermine the president. With the candidacy and then election of a conspiracy peddler, conspiratorial thinking leaked from its traditional confines to spread in new, more visible ways across the country. As a result, a fresh wave of conspiracy theories and an obsession with their negative effects engulfed America. We all worried late in the election season about fake news, a term for disinformation that quickly lost all meaning as it was gleefully seized on by the Trump administration to describe any media attention they didnt like. We fixated on a conspiracy theorist taking the White House, and then we fretted over whether he was a true believer or just a cynical opportunist. And as left-leaning people found themselves unrepresented in government, with the judicial, executive, and legislative branches held by the right, they too started to engage more in conspiracy theorizing. But beneath the new conspiracy furortalking heads worrying about it on CNN, Clintons campaign sending out media blasts to decry Alex Jonesthe reality is that weve been a nation gripped by conspiracy for a long time. The Kennedy assassination has been hotly debated for years. The feminist and antiwar movements of the 1960s were, for a time, believed by a not-inconsiderable number of Americans to be part of a communist plot to weaken the country. A majority of us have believed for decades that the government is hiding what it knows about extraterrestrials. Since the early 1990s, suspicions that the Clintons were running a drug cartel and/or having their enemies murdered were a persistent part of the discourse on the right. And the website WorldNetDaily was pushing birther theories and death panels (the idea, first articulated by Sarah Palin in 2009, that under Obamacare bureaucrats would decide whether the elderly deserved medical care) long before fake news became a talking point. Many black Americans have, for years, believed that the CIA flooded poor neighborhoods with drugs such as crack in order to destroy them. The Trump era has merely focused our attention back onto something that has reappeared with reliable persistence: the conspiratorial thinking and dark suspicions that have never fully left us. Conspiracy theorizing has been part of the American system of governance and culture and thought since its beginnings: as journalist Jesse Walker writes in his book The United States of Paranoia, early white settlers, including history textbook favorite Cotton Mather, openly speculated that Native Americans were controlled by the Devil and conspiring with him and a horde of related demons to drive them out. Walker also points to the work of historian Jeffrey Pasley, who found what he called the myth of the superchief: the colonist idea that every Native-led resistance or attack was directed by an Indian mastermind or monarch in control of tens of thousands of warriors. The elements of suspicion were present long before the 2016 election, quietly shaping the way large numbers of people see the government, the media, and the nature of whats true and trustworthy. Sometimes, too, conspiracy theories are the official story, the cause of real and far-reaching state action, as with the Red Scare, where a fear of Communists undermining the country led to life-ruining hearings and blacklists. And for all of our bogus suspicions, there are those that have been given credence by the government itself. We have seen a sizable number of real conspiracies revealed over the past half century, from Watergate to recently declassified evidence of secret CIA programs, to the fact that elements within the Russian government really did conspire to interfere with U.S. elections. Theres a perpetual tug between conspiracy theorists and actual conspiracies, between things that are genuinely not believable and truths that are so outlandish they can be hard, at first, to believe. But while conspiracy theories are as old as the country itself, there is something new at work: people who peddle lies and half-truths have come to prominence, fame, and power as never before. If our conspiratorial world is a vast ocean, 2016 was, clearly, the year that Alex Jonesalong with other groups, like anti-immigration extremists, anti-Muslim think tanks, and open neo-Nazis and white supremacistswere able to catch the wave of the Trump presidency and surf to the mainstream shore. It seemed that something new could be learned by riding the conspiracy wave back out: from the stormy center of Trumpland to the farthest reaches of the conspiracy world, into the subcultures that most people never see. Traveling through the ecosphere of suspicion, I found a multiverse of alternate societies, humming below the surface of American life the way some people imagine an alien military base is doing just under Antarctica. I found decades-old belief systems that have never disappeared, new ones that are just starting to form, and strange, unlikely alliances coalescing among deeply improbable groups. To understand why people believe things that are at odds with all provable truths is to understand how we form our views about the world and the resultant world we have made together. The riotous profusion of conspiracy theories in America shows us something about being American, even about being humanabout the decisions we make in interpreting the complexities of our surroundings. Over and over, I found that the people involved in conspiracy communities werent necessarily some mysterious other. Were all prone to believing half-truths, forming connections where there are none to be found, finding importance in political and social events that may not have much significance at all. Thats part of how human beings work, how we make meaning, particularly in the United States today, now, at the start of a strange and unlikely century. I was interested, too, in understanding why this new surge of conspiracism has appeared, knowing that historically, times of tumult and social upheaval tend to lead to a parallel surge in conspiracy thinking. I found some of my answer in our increasingly rigid class structure, one that leaves many people feeling locked into their circumstancesin contrast with what weve been taught is the American dreamand desperate to find someone to blame. I found it in rising disenfranchisement, a feeling many people have that they are shut out of systems of power, pounding furiously at iron doors that will never open to admit them. I found it in a frustratingly opaque healthcare system, a vanishing social safety net, a political environment that seizes cynically on a renewed distrust of the news media. Together, these elements helped create a society in which many Americans see millions of snares, laid by a menacing group of enemies, all the more alarming for how difficult they are to identify and pin down. I saw a disturbing thirst for vengeance, a willingness to punish enemies and vanquish evildoers that is then easily twisted by opportunists. These things were in the country around me, in my own lifeshadows that seemed to grow longer and longer, even as people became increasingly aware of the destructive power of conspiracy theories and began doing their best to fight them. Still: we are the suspicious and the conspiracists are us, and there are more of us all the time. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fea1a9f98)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fea2776b8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fea1a9f98)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fea2776b8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fea197a30)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fea2776b8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fea2776b8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe99b1a10)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fea1a0b08)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fea1a0b08)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 N.Korea's Kim oversees new 'guided weapon' test: state media Seoul, April 17 (AFP) Apr 17, 2019 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supervised the test-firing of a new type of "tactical guided weapon," the country's state media reported on Thursday. It said the "advantages" of the weapon were "the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead". The KCNA report did not provide further details about the weapon, but said Kim described its development as one "of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army". KCNA added that Wednesday's test was "conducted in various modes of firing at different targets" and that Kim "guided the test-fire". Thursday's announcement came the day after a US monitor, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said activity had been detected at North Korea's main nuclear site. It suggested Pyongyang may be reprocessing radioactive material into bomb fuel since the collapse of a February summit with Washington. That meeting, the second between US President Donald Trump and Kim, ended abruptly without agreement on Pyongyang's nuclear programme. Since then, North Korea has said it is mulling options for its diplomacy with the US, and Kim said last week he was open to talks with Trump only if Washington came with the "proper attitude". "Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day," said Center for the National Interest analyst Harry Kazianis. "His regime is becoming frustrated with Washington's lack of flexibility in recent negotiations." Last November, KCNA reported that Kim oversaw the testing of a "newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon" months after his first meeting with Trump. It was the first official report of a weapons test by North Korea since it began negotiations with Washington over its nuclear and missile programme. Iran's Rouhani urges Mideast states to "drive back Zionism" Tehran, April 18 (AFP) Apr 18, 2019 Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called on Middle East states on Thursday to "drive back Zionism", saying Israel and its US ally were the root causes of the region's problems. "The region's nations have lived alongside each other for centuries and never had a problem... If there is a problem, it is caused by others," Rouhani said in an Army Day address. "Let us stand together, be together and rid the region of the aggressor's presence," he added in the speech shown live on state television. Flanked by top generals, Rouhani told Iran's neighbours and countries across the region that its armed forces are "never against you or your national interests" but are "standing against the aggressors." "If we have a problem in the region today, its roots are either with Zionism or America's arrogance," Rouhani said. He called on Muslim nations to band together and "restore the historical right of the nation of Palestine," saying that "Zionism ... has been committing crimes in the region for the past 70 years." "The final victory will surely be with the righteous," he said. Iran's annual Army Day celebrations are an opportunity for the military to show off its latest weaponry but also for its political leaders to try to reassure neighbouring countries that they are for defensive purposes only. CORRECTED: South Sudan opposition urges delay to unity government Juba, April 18 (AFP) Apr 18, 2019 South Sudan opposition leader Riek Machar is not ready to return to Juba and wants to postpone the formation of a unity government until security issues are resolved, an official from his party said Wednesday. Machar was meant to return to South Sudan in May and join a power-sharing government as vice president with President Salva Kiir after the signing of a peace deal in September last year. The deal is the latest effort to end almost six years of conflict which erupted due to a fallout between the two men in 2013. Observers, though, have been warning that implementation of the deal has stalled. "We are saying extend the period for more months, say six," said Puot Kang Chol, representing Machar's SPLM-IO rebel group at the National Pre-transitional Committee (NPTC), the body charged with implementing the peace agreement. Machar "will not come to Juba without security arrangements," he said. Machar fled Juba in a hail of gunfire in 2016 after the collapse of a previous peace agreement saw his troops clash with Kiir's. The latest deal has largely stopped fighting in the country. However, crucial steps such as establishing a unified army and discussing security control of the capital have yet to take place. "We have not done even training of few people, and it is a pre-requisite for forming the government," said Chol. The independent radio station Eye Radio reported Wednesday that 3,000 opposition and government troops were being trained together, although Chol denied this. The other key issue yet to be addressed is the contentious matter of internal boundaries. "You cannot form a government without knowing the number of states," said Chol. "Basically what we are saying is extend the time, provide the resources ... and we will have the government in place." The government has asked foreign donors to fund much of its $285-million (252-million-euro) budget to implement the deal. But diplomats argue they have yet to take important budgetary steps and improve transparency. Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Eye Radio that other opposition figures were already in Juba, and this should tell Machar "that his security will be taken care of while the government is formed." US State Department still 'ready to engage' N.Korea Washington, April 18 (AFP) Apr 18, 2019 The US State Department said Thursday it remained ready to negotiate with North Korea after the regime called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to be excluded from future nuclear talks. "The United States remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation," a State Department spokesman said. The spokesman said the United States was aware of the North Korean foreign ministry's demand regarding Pompeo but did not comment directly on it. In a statement carried by state media, North Korean officials called Pompeo "reckless" and warned that future talks would be "lousy" if he returns to the table. Pompeo, one of Trump's most trusted aides, was instrumental in encouraging him to walk away from a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February in Hanoi. Pompeo, who traveled four times to North Korea last year, has voiced hope for a deal with North Korea but has stood firm on full denuclearization before the United States eases sanctions. Iraq frees Frenchman, says entered Syria to 'support Yazidis' Baghdad, April 18 (AFP) Apr 18, 2019 An Iraqi court said Thursday it had released a French national who spent two months in detention after being transferred from war-ravaged Syria as it found no proof he fought there. Instead, the Baghdad court said, their interrogations had found the unnamed Frenchman travelled to Syria "in support of the Yazidi cause". In February, the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group handed to Iraqi authorities 13 French nationals caught in IS's dwindling "caliphate" in east Syria. All 13 were thought to be members of IS's feared contingent of foreign fighters, and Iraqi President Barham Saleh pledged they would be tried "according to Iraqi law". But as Iraqi prosecutors began investigating, "terrorism" cases were only prepared against 12 nationals. On Thursday, the Karkh Special Investigations Court for Terrorism Issues in Baghdad announced it "let go one of the 13 accused French nationals due to a lack of evidence". After months of investigations, the court said, "there was no proof of his involvement in any military activities, and his entry (to Syria) was in support of the Yazidi cause". During IS's rampage across northern Iraq in 2014, it slaughtered thousands of members of the Yazidi community and seized its women and girls as sex slaves. The atrocities prompted the US-led coalition to begin a military intervention against IS in Iraq, which it then expanded into Syria by backing a Kurdish-led fighting force. That force, the Syrian Democratic Forces, attracted hundreds of foreign fighters who wanted to join the fight against IS. The court found that the French national entered Syria "legally," but did not say which border crossing he used or what exactly he was doing there. It also remains unclear why the SDF or the US-led coalition handed him over to Iraqi authorities along with suspected jihadists if he had been supporting Yazidis, which would have put him on the other side of the front line against IS. With the collapse of IS's self-styled "caliphate" last month, dozens of kidnapped Yazidi women and children have been freed. Passerby in Rio military shooting dies from wounds Rio de Janeiro, April 18 (AFP) Apr 18, 2019 A man who was shot as he tried to help a family under fire from Brazilian soldiers in Rio de Janeiro died from his wounds Thursday, health officials said, taking the death toll to two. Luciano Macedo happened to be on the street April 7 when a military patrol opened fire on a vehicle they thought was carrying criminals but in fact was a family on their way to a baby shower. The driver of the vehicle, Evaldo dos Santos Rosa, was killed in the hail of gunfire and two others were wounded, including Macedo and a male relative of dos Santos. But miraculously dos Santos wife, seven-year-old son and a friend escaped unharmed. Nine soldiers have been detained over the shooting, which the military has described as a "sad incident." Mourners at dos Santos' funeral last Wednesday blamed Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and the military. But Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper and strong supporter of the army, has denied the military killed anyone in the incident. "The army did not kill anyone," he was quoted as saying. "The army belongs to the people and you can't accuse the people of being a murderer." "There was an incident, a death." US says N.Korean test not a ballistic missile Washington, April 18 (AFP) Apr 18, 2019 A weapons test announced by North Korea was not of a ballistic missile, the US defense chief said Thursday, adding that US forces have not changed their posture in response. "There was a test," Patrick Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, told reporters as he met his Albanian counterpart at the Pentagon. He declined to elaborate on the findings of US intelligence but said, "It's not a ballistic missile." "Also there's no change to our posture or to our operations," he said. North Korean state media earlier announced that leader Kim Jong Un had supervised the test-firing of a new tactical weapon with a "powerful warhead," hailing what it called a contribution of "very weighty significance" to its arsenal. Analysts have speculated that the test could have involved anything from a small anti-tank missile to relatively routine artillery, with a South Korean official also saying that the country saw no sign of a ballistic missile. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly boasted that North Korea has suspended both missile and nuclear tests since he embarked on diplomacy a year ago to ease soaring tensions. Trump has met twice with Kim but their second summit, held in Hanoi in February, ended in deadlock with the United States insisting on full denuclearization before it eases sanctions. Amid a standstill in talks, North Korea on Thursday both announced the test and demanded that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be excluded from negotiations after he apparently encouraged Trump to stand firm in Hanoi. The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena attended the special pooja at the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara near in Tirupati, India, a temple official said. Accompanied by his wife Jayanthi Pushpa Kumari and other family members and Lankan officials, Sirisena landed at Renigunta airport, 20 km from here, at noon on Tuesday. Amid tight security, he reached the hills by road, the official told the news agencies. The president has taken a part in the 'Suprabhatha' ritual (recitation of Sanskrit hymns by priests to wake the Lord) and offer prayers to the presiding deity of Lord Venkateswara in the early hours Wednesday, the official added. The Trump regime has branded the democratically twice-elected Maduro an illegitimate president. by Paul Craig Roberts The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. William Butler Yeats Today (April 17) I heard a NPR news report that described the democratically elected president of Venezuela as the Venezuelan dictator Maduro. By repeating over and over that a democratically elected president is a dictator, the presstitutes create that image of Maduro in the minds of vast numbers of peoples who know nothing about Venezuela and had never heard of Maduro until he is dropped on them as dictator. Nicolas Maduro Moros was elected president of Venezuela in 2013 and again in 2018. Previously he served as vice president and foreign minister, and he was elected to the National Assembly in 2000. Despite Washingtons propaganda campaign against him and Washingtons attempt to instigate violent street protests and Maduros overthrow by the Venezuelan military, whose leaders have been offered large sums of money, Maduro has the overwhelming support of the people, and the military has not moved against him. What is going on is that American oil companies want to recover their control over the revenue streams from Venezuelas vast oil reserves. Under the Bolivarian Revolution of Chavez, continued by Maduro, the oil revenues instead of departing the country have been used to reduce poverty and raise literacy inside Venezuela. The opposition to Maduro inside Venezuela comes from the elites who have been traditionally allied with Washington in the looting of the country. These corrupt elites, with the CIAs help, temporarily overthrew Chavez, but the people and the Venezuelan military secured his release and return to the presidency. Washington has a long record of refusing to accept any reformist governments in Latin America. Reformers get in the way of North Americas exploitation of Latin American countries and are overthrown. With the exceptions of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua, Latin America consists of Washingtons vassal states. In recent years Washington destroyed reform governments in Honduras, Argentina and Brazil and put gangsters in charge. According to US national security adviser John Bolton, a neoconservative war monger, the governments in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua will soon be overthrown. New sanctions have now been placed on the three countries. Washington in the typical display of its pettiness targeted sanctions against the son of the Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. Ortega has been the leader of Nicaragua since for 40 years. He was president 1985-1990 and has been elected and reelected as president since 2006. Ortega was the opponent of Somoza, Washingtons dictator in Nicaragua. Consequently he and his movement were attacked by the neoconservative operation known as Iran-Contra during the Reagan years. Ortega was a reformer. His government focused on literacy, land reform, and nationalization, which was at the expense of the wealthy ruling class. He was labeled a Marxist-Leninist, and Washington attempted to discredit his reforms as controversial leftist policies. Somehow Castro and Ortega survived Washingtons plots against them. By the skin of his teeth so did Chavez unless you believe it was the CIA that gave him cancer. Castro and Chavez are dead. Ortega is 74. Maduro is in trouble, because Washington has stolen Venezuelas bank deposits and cut Venezuela off the international financial system, and the British have stolen Venezuelas gold. This makes it hard for Venezuela to pay its debts. The Trump regime has branded the democratically twice-elected Maduro an illegitimate president. Washington has found a willing puppet, Juan Guaido to take Maduros place and has announced that the puppet is now the president of Venezuela. No one among the Western presstitutes or among the vassals of Washingtons empire finds it strange that an elected president is illegitimate but one picked by Washington is not. Russia and China have given Maduro diplomatic support. Both have substantial investments in Venezuela that would be lost if Washington seizes the country. Russias support for Maduro was declared by Bolton today to be a provocation that is a threat to international peace and security. Bolton said his sanctions should be seen by Russia as a warning against providing any help for the Venezuelan government. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo and vice president Pence have added their big mouths to the propaganda against the few independent governments in Latin America. Where is the shame when the highest American government officials stand up in front of the world and openly proclaim that it is official US government policy to overthrow democratically elected governments simply because those governments dont let Americans plunder their countries. How is it possible that Pompeo can announce that the days are numbered of the elected president of Nicaragua, who has been elected president 3 or 4 times, and the world not see the US as a rogue state that must be isolated and shunned? How can Pompeo describe Washingtons overthrow of an elected government as setting the Nicaraguan people free? The top officials of the US government have announced that they intend to overthrow the governments of 3 countries and this is not seen as a threat to international peace and security? How much peace and security did Washingtons overthrow of governments in Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, and the attempted overthrow of Syria bring? Washington is once again openly violating international law and the rest of the world has nothing to say? There is only one way to describe this: The Triumph of Evil. English17/04/2019 THEY FIRST GOT IMPRISONED, THEIR EMPLOYMENT WAS TERMINATED AFTERWARDS ODZAK, April 17 /SRNA/ - The Odzak Crisis Management Committee terminated employment of 445 workers from 23 companies and institutions at the end of May 1992, the most of whom were Serbs, who had been taken to the Odzak prison camps 20 days earlier. The most people were fired from the Novogradnja Company, which terminated the employment of 132 persons. 87 workers of the Posavina Company lost their jobs, 30 people were fired from the Health Center, 25 workers from the Municipal Assembly, 24 employees from the Bratstvo i Jedinstvo Primary School, 23 from Plastika, 21 employees from the Transport Tourist, 13 from the post office ... In total, there were 23 enterprises and institutions which terminated employments of their employees upon the decision made by the Crisis Management Committee on May 30, 1992. In the beginning of May, 1,300 Serbs were captured and locked up in prison camps in the Primary School and the Strolit Factory, while Serb women were detained in private homes and apartments and where sexually harassed by HVO members, says the Association of Prison Camp Detainess "Odzak `92". The employment termination decision read that it was made on the grounds of these workers failing to report to work on 18 May, ten days after they had been detained in the camps. According to the decision, it was about the people who were called to report to work via a local radio station, excluding mothers with children under the age of seven and the HVO members. Members of the Crisis Management Committee took into consideration the impossibility to serve the decisions on employment termination to all workers, and said the decision would be posted on the company's notice board and will be considered as served. The prison camps in Odzak were under the command of the 102nd Odzak Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council. The Association of Odzak prison camp detained reminds that 132 methods of torture were used against the Serb prisoners in Odzak prison camps, while 62 persons were killed. Serb women and girls were raped. The youngest victim was ten, and the oldest was 60 years old. /end/vos English17/04/2019 ARMED FORCES WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN PREVENTION OF MIGRANT ENTRY AT BORDERS SARAJEVO, April 17 /SRNA/ - BiH Presidency Chair Milorad Dodik says the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina will not take part in banning illegal migrants from entering the country at the borders. "The military cannot go out to the border just like that, especially not to the border with Serbia, Dodik told the press after a Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency session on Wednesday. The problem of illegal migrants should be tackled much more seriously, he emphasised. "There is no comprehensive plan, thats what the Presidency concluded during the session; it is necessary to draft a comprehensive plan, predict and define who has what powers and define certain obligations within those powers, explained Dodik. According to him, it is impossible for one Entitys police to go to the territory of anothers. "The Border Police have to increase their capacities, and there is also civil defence and other forms of engagement, said Dodik. /end/ds Published: 18 April 2019 General government deficit 0.7 per cent and debt 58.9 per cent relative to GDP in 2018 According to the revised preliminary data reported by Statistics Finland to Eurostat, general government deficit was 0.7 per cent relative to gross domestic product in 2018. The deficit was clearly below the reference value of the European Unions Stability and Growth Pact, which is three per cent relative to gross domestic product. General government EDP debt, or consolidated gross debt, was 58.9 per cent at the end of 2018 relative to gross domestic product. The ratio of debt to GDP is now below the reference value of 60 per cent. General government EDP deficit (-), relative to GDP In 2018, general government deficit, or net borrowing according to national accounts, was EUR 1.6 billion. The financial position of general government improved by EUR 0.3 billion from the previous year. The central government's financial position improved most, by EUR 1.3 billion compared with 2017, and it was particularly due to the significant growth in tax revenue. However, the central government remained clearly in deficit, its deficit being EUR 2.7 billion in 2018. The local government sectors deficit, or net borrowing was EUR 1.9 billion in 2018, which is EUR 1.5 billion more than one year earlier. Social security funds are divided into employment pension schemes and other social security funds. The sectors surplus was EUR 3.1 billion in 2018, or EUR 0.4 billion more than in the previous year. Compared to the preliminary data released in mid-March, the deficit of general government was revised to EUR 207 million higher. Of general government subsectors, the biggest updates concerned employment pension schemes where surplus decreased compared to March by EUR 115 million to EUR 2,372 million. General government EDP debt relative to GDP Consolidated general government gross debt (EDP debt) amounted to EUR 137.5 billion at the end of 2018. The debt grew by EUR 0.3 billion in 2018. Central government debt decreased by EUR 1.2 billion and local government debt grew by EUR 0.9 billion. The debt of social security funds decreased by EUR 0.6 billion. The decrease in consolidated items between general government by EUR 1.2 per cent contributed to the debt of the entire general government sector growing by said EUR 0.3 billion in 2018. The EDP debt describes general governments debt to the other sectors of the economy and to the rest of the world, and its development is influenced by changes in both the unconsolidated gross debt and the internal general government debt. Compared with the preliminary data published in March, the ratio of debt to GDP remained the same. Eurostat will publish preliminary data on Members States on 23 April 2019. About the content and concepts of the statistics General government surplus/deficit refers to net lending/borrowing according to the sector accounts of national accounts, which is the difference between the total revenue and expenditure. For instance, in the case of local government, the concept differs from the surplus/deficit of the accounting period according to the profit and loss accounts of municipalities and joint municipal authorities included in the sector. The key difference concerns investments, which are recorded in national accounts as expenditure as such. In general government accounts, the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF is, based on Eurostat's decision, handled so that the EFSF's borrowing is recorded as part of the gross government debt of the countries that have provided guarantees. The loan received by the beneficiary country from the EFSF is recorded as if it had been received from the countries in the euro area that have provided guarantees and these countries in turn owe the corresponding amount to the EFSF. As a result, the EDP gross debt of the countries that provided guarantees grows but the net debt remains unchanged because the countries have a similar receivable from the beneficiary country. The gross government debt to be recorded for each country on the loans granted by the EFSF is calculated by dividing the loan granted to the beneficiary country by the contribution key (based on the share in the ECB's capital of each country participating in the support operations). At the end of 2018, Finland's general government debt includes EUR 3,401 million of debt granted by the EFSF to beneficiary countries. At the end of 2017, the amount was the same. Corresponding treatment does not apply to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Central government's EDP debt differs as a concept from the central government debt published by the State Treasury. Central government's EDP debt includes loans granted to beneficiary counties by the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF, received cash collateral related to derivative contracts, the capital of the Nuclear Waste Management Fund, debts generated from investments in central government's PPP (public-private partnership) projects, and coins that are in circulation. In national accounts, central government is also a broader concept than the budget and financial economy, in addition to which it includes, for example, universities, Solidium, the Finnish Broadcasting Company and Senate Properties. When these differences are taken into consideration, we reach the central government non-consolidated gross debt in accordance with the EDP concept (Appendix table 2). In 2018, the State Treasury's central government debt EUR 105.0 billion + conceptual differences of the debt EUR 6.9 billion + differences caused by the sector delimitation EUR 3.9 billion = central government gross debt EUR 115.8 billion. The valuation principle for both debt concepts is the nominal value, where the effect of interest-rate contracts and currency swaps is taken into account. A list of units belonging to general government (only in Finnish) can be found at http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/julkisyhteisot.html. Decisions on major sector classification cases (only in Finnish) are available at http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/soveltamisp.html. Source: General government deficit and debt. Statistics Finland Inquiries: Lotta Sjoblom 029 551 3342, Atte Virtanen 029 551 3685, financial.accounts@stat.fi Director in charge: Ville Vertanen Publication in pdf-format (251.5 kB) Updated 18.4.2019 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): General government deficit and debt [e-publication]. ISSN=1799-5914. 2018. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 17.12.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/jali/2018/jali_2018_2019-04-18_tie_001_en.html A propaganda campaign for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent Kim Jong-un has been in full swing nationwide since May last year, a witness said Thursday. That month the party distributed schools materials hailing "Captain Kim," as Jung-un apparently likes to be known, as leader of a "150-day struggle." The testimony comes from a 25-year-old North Korean middle school teacher who defected to the South last December. She made the remarks at a press conference at Hanawon, the institute supporting the resettlement of North Korean defectors, to mark its 11th anniversary. She said that was when "Footsteps," a song praising Kim junior, was first sung. The 150-day struggle from April to September last year was a widely unpopular attempt to revive the regime's collapsing economy that pressed huge numbers of people into farm work. That the Kim Jong-un personality cult was underway at the time is confirmed in a film released in the North in February that records Kim Jong-il's so-called on-the-spot guidance trips and the 150-day struggle. It has a scene where a man looking like an instructor teaches a song to farmers in a village. Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. A couple times each week well post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of buy, hold, or sell. To date, Ive reviewed two cigars from the new Joya de Nicaragua Clasico series: Numero 6 and Toro. Generally speaking, while I enjoy mild cigars and think they have a place in any proper cigar rotation, these vitolas scored just OK, both falling short in the flavor department. The smaller Senorita (5.5 x 34), however, seems to hit all the right notes. Its Cuban-seed Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, combined with Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos, yields a smooth, creamy profile thats subtle and balanced yet tasty. Flavors include cream, white pepper, dry oak, and toasted nuts. So far, this is my favorite size in the line, which launched last summer. Verdict = Buy. Patrick A photo credit: Stogie Guys Indonesians voted in national and regional elections Wednesday with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo widely expected to win a second term. However, late reports suggest his winning margin could be much smaller than anticipated. Security was tight but friendly around Tamon Suropati, a leafy park in the plush suburb of Menteng, home to former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, as voting began under clear blue skies. "Today, the election, I feel like Hari Raya, it means a big, big day for us," said 69-year-old Enny, who voted alongside her twin sister for the incumbent, Widodo. Paul Mirully a 43-year-old taxi driver, added: "For my choice in a president, No. 1 is good. Royally, religiously and for the prospects of Indonesia it's very good, sir." Turnout a Factor For many it was a family day out. Adhi Rasjid, a 48-year-old mining executive, said voting was smooth despite concerns over "golput," a term used to describe deliberately spoiled ballots and voters who abstain, particularly among millennials. "I think the turnout for the younger voters are increasing now, compared to say 10 years ago. I think the issues are more relevant. So I hope they take a bigger part in our democracy," Rasjid said. There are 60 million voters younger than 30, and surveys have indicated that many could abstain and skew the final result. But retired three-star general Ian Santoso Perdanakusuma told VOA voting had gone well. "I am happy, everything is very good for Indonesians," he said. "I haven't seen any, any movements against the security. I'm happy that it will be good in the next year and the next five years, I hope." Voting numbers peaked around 11 a.m. local time, and counting got underway at 1 p.m. after polling stations closed, with a clearer picture of the results expected to emerge later in the evening. Official results were not expected to be known for several weeks. North Korea has tested a new "tactical guided weapon," the latest display of Pyongyang's military capabilities, state media reported Thursday. Kim Jong-un supervised and guided the test, calling it an operation of "very weighty significance," the official [North] Korean Central News Agency said. The report did elaborate on the type of weapon, but the phrase "tactical" suggests it is not a long-range ballistic missile. U.S. officials have not commented on the test. "The design indexes of the tactical guided weapon, whose advantages are appreciated for the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead, were perfectly verified at the test-fire conducted in various modes of firing at different targets," KCNA said. North Korea has not carried out a major provocation such as a nuclear or long-range missile test for well over a year, since Kim began talks with the United States and South Korea. Instead, the North has carried out smaller provocations. In November, Kim oversaw the test of what KCNA also referred to as a newly developed "high-tech tactical weapon." U.S. officials later played down the significance of that test. It is now ten years since the death of Inmaculada Echevarria, the woman from Granada who demanded to be disconnected from the machines which were keeping her alive, and once again the subject of euthanasia, the right to die with dignity, has become a matter of debate. At that time, Inmaculadas case resulted in changes being put into effect in Andalucia about one specific aspect, the Law of Dignified Death, which included the concept of a Living Will. Now, once again, something has happened which has brought the subject back into the public eye: the suicide, filmed himself, of Jose Antonio Arrabal on 6 April, who expressed his anger at having to die in secret. The impact of this recording was so strong that the Ciudadanos political party has now proposed a new law to the Spanish parliament, but its wording sidesteps the subject of euthanasia. The Unidos Podemos party has presented an alternative text, and several regional MPs have urged parliament to approve it. In Andalucia, the case of Inmaculada Echevarria marked a before and after in patients rights Jose Antonio Arrabal filmed himself committing suicide and was angry at having to die in secret Maturity Dr Angel Salvatierra, the head of the thoracic surgery unit at the Reina Sofia hospital in Cordoba and a member of the Bioethics Committee of Andalucia, believes that society is now sufficiently mature to tackle the debate. Thats my opinion, he says, but it is supported by a recent survey by the CIS which shows that only 10 per cent of the population is not in favour of opening the debate, 50.4 are in favour and 15.2 per cent think it is a good idea but are not completely certain. This means that a majority of the population agrees that it should be looked at, he says. It is, however, a sensitive subject which only about two per cent of the worlds population has considered, says Dr Salvatierra. At present, euthanasia is prohibited under Spanish law. It is only authorised in five countries in the world, and the Netherlands was the first to do so, 15 years ago. In most places, the subject is still out of bounds, although as Dr Salvatierra points out, in Spain in general and in Andalucia in particular, the idea of the right to a dignified death was quickly accepted, and I think the time has come for euthanasia to be discussed once again. He also regrets that although ten years have passed since the new regulations were introduced in Andalucia, few people are aware of them. There has been little publicity about the Living Will, and few people have signed one. Doctors here always inform patients about this possibility, because it is their right. It is very useful when the patient loses consciousness, and if medical staff are subject to rigid regulations, he says. He also points out that there are differences between Andalucia and other regions, such as Galicia. Here, some things are normal, but not elsewhere, he explains. He recalls the case of Andrea, a 12-year-old girl with a terminal neurological condition. Doctors in Santiago de Compostela refused to remove the tubes which were keeping her alive and her parents had to fight a very hard battle until the authorities finally agreed in October 2015. In Andalucia, it is almost normal now for medical support to be withdrawn in cases such as that, and for treatment to be rejected, he says. As the president of the Ethics Committee of Cordoba, Dr Salvatierra explains that there are three ways in which these cases are considered. Either a relative of a patient who is unconscious or restricted in making decisions comes to us, or the patients themselves do so, or the doctors. The doctors consult the ethics committees most often, to resolve doubts. The procedure then is for a meeting to be held and the situation analysed in detail before making a decision. These committees are normally only for consultation purposes, although in cases of donations between living people, for example if somebody donates an organ to a relative, the committee has to issue a report and authorise the donation before it can go ahead. There are very few, if any, cases of consultations about dignified death in Andalucia, says Dr Salvatierra, because the doctors are perfectly aware of how to restrict life support. The law has proven useful for patients, relatives and professionals. I ask him if it is true that Andalucia is ahead of the rest of the country in this field. In this case we are pioneers and we are quite a long way ahead of the country as a whole. Its fair to say it, he confirms. Echevarria, a pioneer The case of Inmaculada Echevarria changed a great deal. She was 51 when she died, and for nine years she had been fighting for the respirator which kept her alive to be turned off. She had spent 20 years bedridden with muscular dystrophy. She had had a very difficult life: at the age of 11 she was diagnosed with a condition which would leave her tetraplegic; her husband died in a traffic accident, and as a result she was forced to give her eight-month-old son up for adoption. Her battle for the right to a dignified death resulted in tremendous controversy and the opposition of the Church, but she was finally transferred from the hospital in which she had spent so much time, after a pioneering decision by the Junta de Andalucias Ethics Committee to authorise it. The decision made it clear that restricting her treatment was in accordance with the law, and that no action could be taken against the medical professionals who disconnected the respirator. Dr Salvatierra says that nowadays mechanical ventilation is often stopped without causing any ethical problems. It means not keeping a person in a situation where they have no possibility of maintaining even a half-dignified life situation. In Andalucia, the case of Inmaculada Echevarria marked a before and after and inspired the pioneer law, Law 2/2010 of Rights and Guarantees of the Dignity of People in the Process of Death. Living Will One of the main features of this law is the Living Will and the Andalusian Register of Anticipated Final Wishes. This is a document, which has to comply with certain requirements, and can now be done online, in which the person, whilst in full possession of their faculties, consciously and freely states their options and instructions regarding health care which have to be respected in the case of clinical circumstances in which they cannot express their wishes. It cannot include instructions which contravene the law. Registration centres A persons living will includes their medical history in case the medical personnel need to consult it. The will can be rejected, modified or cancelled at any time. There are 56 places in which Anticipated Final Wishes can be registered; eight are in the provincial Equality, Health and Social Policies departments, 28 in hospitals, 14 in municipal health centres, four in regional health centres and two in specialist centres. Holy Week, or Semana Santa, is the week before Easter in the Christian calendar, and is celebrated in a wide variety of ways across Spain. It is particularly popular in Andalucia, where it is observed in different ways across the region. Almeria During Holy Week in Almeria thousands of people take part in or watch the processions which the religious brotherhoods hold around the city, and many of those who carry the floats or walk behind them are dressed in Nazarene costume. The processions in Almeria resemble those of the Levante area rather than the rest of Andalucia, because they are not as old. In this area the first Christian manifestations didn't begin until the 16th century. Some of the highlights of the week are the Gatherings of the Brotherhoods and Resurrection Sunday. Music also plays an important role, especially the Gregorian chants on Good Friday. The oldest religious brotherhood in Almeria is La Soledad, which was founded in the 16th century and holds its procession on Good Friday. Some of the brotherhoods were not created until the 20th century, such as La Macarena, which goes out in procession on Holy Monday. Thursday is an especially popular day, because three of the processions meet in the Plaza Emilio Perez, and the Cristo de la Escucha procession begins at the cathedral in the early hours of the morning. Elsewhere in the province, the processions are recommended in the towns of Cuevas de Almanzora and Huercal-Overa. Cadiz In Cadiz, Holy Week is a major festi val and the city dresses up for the occasion. Its numerous processions pass through the Plaza de Candelaria, Calle Montanes, Plaza del Palillero, Calle Novena, Calle Ancha and Calle Compania. The processions include moments of silent prayer, 'saetas' sung from balconies, the sound of chains on ankles and the drums, trumpets and cornets marking the pace for those carrying the heavy floats. Some of these processions are extremely historic, such as La Veracruz, which began in 1566 and takes place on Holy Monday. La Palma, on the same day, is one of the most popular: it starts in La Vina district. Nobody should miss the procession of El Nazareno on Thursday and El Cristo de la Buena Muerte on Friday, which takes place almost completely in the dark. Elsewhere in Cadiz province the Easter processions are especially recommended in Alcala del Valle, Arcos de la Frontera, Jerez de la Frontera, San Fernando, Sanlucar de Barrameda, San Roque and Setenil de las Bodegas. Cordoba The Easter processions in Cordoba are particularly atmospheric, and the air is fragrant with candle wax, incense and orange blossom. The first is on Palm Sunday, when El Rescatado begins in the Plaza Cristo de la Concordia. Every procession through Cordoba's ancient streets is spectacular, but those of Las Animas and Las Angustias (one of the oldest brotherhoods) are especially recommended. The procession of Las Angustias starts and ends in Capitulares, and passes through the San Agustin district. Other recommended places to experience Holy Week in Cordoba province are Aguilar de la Frontera, Bujalance, Cabra, Castro del Rio, Hinojosa del Duque, Lucena, Montoro, Moriles, Pozoblanco, Priego de Cordoba and Puente Genil. Granada All the Holy Week processions in Granada are beautiful, but perhaps the most unusual and moving takes place on Wednesday, when the images of El Cristo del Consuelo and Maria Santisima del Sacromonte are taken out in procession, and the predominant colours are purple, red and gold. Another is the Cristo de los Gitanos, on the Sacromonte hill, where huge bonfires are lit among the gypsy houses. Thursday night is also magical in the Albaycin district where the images of its three Virgins are carried in procession: La Concha, La Estrella and La Aurora. The procession of Cristo del Silencio whichtakes place in almost total silence, also sends shivers down the spine. At nightfall on Good Friday another unusual event takes place at the Convento de los Jeronimos: 'Las Chias' were officials of the Inquisition and they appear dressed in costume to lead the procession of the oldest brotherhood, La Soledad de San Jeronimo. Elsewhere in the province, the Holy Week processions are also very special in Almunecar and Loja. The council in Mijas was coming to terms this week with the possibility of having to pay compensation to some 100 homeowners for wrongfully taking possession and auctioning off their properties. The Andalusian High Court has ruled against the town hall in an appeal against the first judgement in a scandal involving the forced sale of peoples property for not paying local tax debts. The auctions took place under the previous mayor of Mijas, Angel Nozal, and in a separate line of inquiry, he has been facing a criminal investigation, along with the head of Treasury and chief local tax collection officer at the town hall. This recent, first judgement is a civil case against the council brought after a complaint by a British couple who, in January 2015, found out that a company was trying to make a forced entry into the holiday home they owned. The company gave them the surprising news that it had bought the property off the council. Despite not having received any notification, the Britons learned that the council had taken possession of their home, worth just under 250,000 euros, in compensation for unpaid local taxes of just 4,000 euros. They said that, not only was there always enough money in a Spanish bank to pay the debt, but that they werent aware of the debt nor of the proceedings against them. The council was accused of not trying hard enough to contact them and ignoring other contact addresses it had for them and their lawyer. Without their knowledge, the council had then sold on the home at a below-market price of 80,000 euros to new owners, and it is this undervaluing that is the centre of a separate criminal inquiry. Investigators are looking at the supposed rapid speed with which the council took over homes then sold them again to trusted third parties. Now, with this first civil court finding against the council and the company that bought the property afterwards, the fear is that all the other civil cases will go against them and compensation will need to be paid. Cruise line Royal Caribbean chose Malaga this week to unveil its first ship dedicated to the lucrative Asian market. Spectrum of the Seas will be based in Shanghai and recently left a German shipbuilders for the long journey to China. The cruise line has chosen Malaga in previous years to unveil new ships to world press and travel agents. The new liner has space for 4,246 passengers and has a crew of 1,551 made up of 55 different nationalities. Unveiling the vessel were head of Sales in Spain for Royal Caribbean, Sergio Arevalo, and the head of Malaga port, Carlos Rubio. Both the port and the city of Malaga are key for Royal Caribbean, which is why weve decided to unveil our new ships to the world here, as we did last year with Symphony of the Seas, said Arevalo. He added that the company plans 11 scheduled stops for six of its ships in Malaga port this year, bringing 40,000 passengers to the city. In terms of the new Spectrum of the Seas, this will start an inaugural cruise from Barcelona to Shanghai. The ship is the first to have an area set aside for full suites and will have restaurants serving Asian food. A&M/UMe Newly minted Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Janet Jackson is giving fans another way to listen to her breakthrough album. On June 7, you'll be able to buy her 1986 classic Control on vinyl, in your choice of either black or translucent red. It marks the first time that the album has been available on vinyl since its initial release. Fans attending Janet's upcoming Las Vegas show, Metamorphosis, will get the first crack at purchasing the disc at the merch store that will open at the Park Theater at Park MGM. You can also pre-order a copy online. Control, Janet's third album, marked the first of the star's many collaborations with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. It featured five hit singles -- "What Have You Done for Me Lately," "Nasty," "Control," "When I Think of You and "Let's Wait Awhile" -- and was her first #1 album on the pop chart. To date, it's sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Janet's Metamorphosis residency will kick off May 17 and will include 15 performances through an August 10 show. As previously reported, Janet also will headline the U.K. 's Glastonbury Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival this summer. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. President Moon Jae-in and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow on Wednesday agreed to boost cooperation on energy and other sectors. Meeting in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat on Wednesday, the two leaders agreed to further improve the relationship between their two countries. Markets - VLCCs on a soft rebound As expected, the VLCC market bottomed before starting a soft rebound, particularly from West Africa and in the East. With Suezmaxes, demand remained strong particularly in the Med and Black Sea, with rates firming up to WS77.5 for West Africa/Med and to WS95 for BlackSea/Med, Banchero Costa reported. In addition, healthier numbers were seen eastbound. The MEG/West market remained between high thirties and low forties, waiting for May stems to be announced/worked next week. The Aframax Med market remained very soft, and we noticed a number of ships heading to the area, also with Urals cargoes from the Baltic. Otherwise, rates were pretty much steady in Northwest Europe, in the Americas and in the East, the broker said. A few newbuilding reports trickled in. For example, the Tristar Group signed firm contracts for six 25,000 dwt, IMO Type II oil and chemical tankers with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard. The vessels will be delivered between the middle of May 2020 and the first week of January, 2021. They were ordered on the back of long-term charter contracts with Shell. Okeanis Eco Tankers has ordered two Suezmaxes at Hyundai for delivery in the third quarter of 2020. The orders were placed as the result of an option, which secured the right for the company, at no cost, to acquire the option vessels at the sponsor (Ioannis Alafouzos) acquisition price. This option was given by Alafouzos following a unanimous decision by the board of the directors of Okeanis Eco Tankers not to exercise its right of first refusal to step into tanker transactions sourced by the sponsor. The option is exercisable at any time on or before 1st November, 2019. In the event that the company does not exercise the option, it will receive a daily fee of $600 per vessel from the sponsor for the commercial management of the vessels upon their delivery. Alafouzos explained: After careful evaluation of the opportunity, its entailed capital requirements and impact on the companys forecasted per-share financial metrics relative to the companys current potential, the Board decided to forego the opportunity to grow the company." "The Board is of the unanimous view that the companys fleet is already well-positioned - in terms of size, composition, age and growing spot market exposure - to capitalise on the strengthening tanker market, and that further growth is thus not warranted at this time. "Nonetheless, as the sponsor of the company, I have granted the company the option to acquire these vessels from my private vehicle at the price I contracted them, further enhancing the companys already considerable exposure to rising tanker asset value upside at no cost. The main drivers of the decision by the company to exercise or not exercise the option will be the prevailing market conditions, asset values and the companys cost of capital (of which the share price discount or premium to Net Asset Value is a key metric) at the relevant time," Ioannis concluded. In the charter market, TOP Ships announced that the recently delivered scrubber fitted Suezmax Eco Bel Air, built by Hyundai Samho, commenced its previously announced timecharter employment with BP on 11th April, 2019. The revenue backlog expected to be generated by this fixture, assuming all options are exercised, is about $47.5 mill. For 2019 alone, this charter is expected to increase revenue by $6.6 mill, the company said. Remaining in the charter market, brokers reported that the 2010-built Aframax Eserk had been fixed to OSG for six months at a firm $26,500 per day, while BP took the 2017-built MR Coral Express for two years at $16,250 per day. Recent Aframax fixtures were reported at around $19,500 - $21,000 per day, while MRs were concluded for about $14,500 per day, illustrated by Clearlakes fixture of an MR for 15 to 21 months at $14,550 per day. The S&P sector was reasonably active in the past few weeks with several deals reported. These included Zodiac purchasing the 2007-built VLCC Tamagawa for $36 mill. The veteran 1998-built Suezmax Maran Capella was thought to have been committed for storage duties at an undisclosed price, while Vitol was said to have bought the 2018-built LR2 sisters Sea Pecos and Sea Tanana for around $48.9 mill each in an en bloc deal. Celsius Shipping was reported to have snapped up three 2009-2010-built MRs for $53 mill en bloc, while Cyprus-based M Sea Capital was said to have purchased two 2008-built NORDEN handies for $13 mill, including a two year charter back. In a sale and leaseback deal, Navios Maritime Acquisition Corp confirmed that it had completed a $103.2 mill sale and leaseback transaction for three MR2 and two LR1s. The proceeds have been used to refinance $82.4 mill of bank debt. This transaction provides for 28 quarterly payments of $2.3 mill each, plus interest at LIBOR plus 350 bps per annum. Navios Acquisition said it had an obligation to purchase the vessels at the end of the seventh year for $39.7 mill. Panama Canal issues tanker cooling order Effective from the beginning of April, and until further notice, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) will require transiting crude oil tankers, product carriers, and chemical tankers carrying cargoes with flash points of less than 18 deg C, to cool their main decks. This can be accomplished by using water provided by on-deck water sprinkler systems, or any other means available. This is required in order to prevent automatic activation of their pressure relief valves during transit, the ACP explained. The cooling of the main deck shall be performed between 1000 and 1600 hours while the vessel is underway at Gatun Lake or Gaillard Cut, or at anchor in Canal waters. However, this procedure should be stopped while the vessel is transiting through the locks or is in the vicinity of the locks, and when Canal deckhands are on board. If this fails to prevent automatic activation of pressure relief valves, it may be necessary to reduce the pressure by manually opening pressure relief valves. This shall be undertaken only after the Master has ascertained the following: *The situation has been reported to the ACPs Canal Port Captain on duty through the pilot on board or to the Canal Signal Stations at Flamenco or Cristobal when there is no pilot on board. *All necessary actions have been implemented to prevent exposing ACP personnel to vapours. *Shipboard and nearby ignition sources have been controlled. Compliance with the measures described above will enhance the safety of Canal operations, as well as Canal customers, and reduce or eliminate possible disruptions in transit scheduling, the ACP explained. PB Tankers takes issue with US blacklisting Italian-based PB Tankers has expressed concern at being included on the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (FAC) blacklist for allegedly trading with Venezuela. FAC recently issued its latest list of tanker companies and vessels to be blacklisted for trading with Venezuela. The following companies were added to the list - Jennifer Navigation Ltd, Large Range Ltd, Lima Shipping Corp, and PB Tankers. As for the ships involved, they were named as Alba Marina, a floating storage tanker claimed to be attached to PB Tankers; Gold Point, Ice Point,Indian Point, Iron Point and Silver Point, all attached to PB Tankers; Nedas attached to Jennifer Navigation; New Hellas attached to Lima Shipping and S-Trotter, attached to Large Range. In response, PB Tankers said it was shocked and concerned by the action taken by OFAC in adding the company and a number of the its vessels to the current SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list in relation to trade with Venezuela. This was done without any notification or contact with the company, who only became aware through the media. As a consequence, we will be taking immediate steps to ensure that both are de-listed as a matter of urgency, the company said. PB Tankers, also said that as an Italian shipping company with more than 100 years of service to the international community, has been taking regular advice from both its UK and US lawyers and has been diligent in taking all possible steps to ensure compliance with current US sanctions including, but not limited to, possible restriction of trade under a single timecharter contract, which pre-dates the current sanctions regime. The company further claimed that it does not have any ships in Venezuela, nor will be trading into or out of Venezuela. PB Tankers will continue to meet its obligations as a matter of international law, the company stressed. WinGD and ExxonMobil to co-operate on complex challenges WinGD and ExxonMobil have announced a new collaboration project. This will involve WinGDs Integrated Digital Expert (WiDE) predictive maintenance technology join forces with the patented Mobil Serv cylinder condition monitoring service. The IMOs impending 0.5% fuel sulfur limit will create complex operational challenges for the marine industry. Gaining insights into how a ships engine is functioning is more important than ever to ensure safe and efficient engine operation, the companies said. Todays more technologically advanced engines and support systems require enhanced levels of monitoring with clear accuracy to ensure engine optimisation. Uniting our next generation cylinder condition monitoring service with WinGDs data collection and analytics tools creates unrivalled insights into vessel operations, said Steve Walker, Global Marine Equipment Builder Manager, ExxonMobil. This will give peace of mind to shipowners during the transition to compliant solutions. By combining the output from WinGDs Integrated Digital Expert with ExxonMobils Mobil Serv cylinder condition monitoring lubricant analysis, we create an enhanced, bespoke, proactive maintenance programme. Combining these innovations will help shipowners reduce unplanned stoppages, save costs through engine performance optimisation and extend engine overhaul intervals, said Rolf Stiefel, WinGDs Vice President of Sales and Marketing. This co-operation underlines the operational benefits and savings available by adopting smart vessel technology during a time of unprecedented change, said Pamela Skaufel, Director, Aviation and Marine Lubricants, ExxonMobil. The integration of these state-of-the-art systems is at the heart of our long-standing and continued collaboration with WinGD to offer vessel operators an invaluable advantage, now and into the future. Mobil Serv cylinder condition monitoring can also help vessel operators ensure IMO compliance by measuring the sulfur content of marine fuel throughout the fuelling system and as it enters the engine. This is achieved by using the on board test unit, which employs XRF technology to analyse the fuels formulation, compliant to ISO 8754 standard. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will visit Vladivostok next week and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian daily Izvestia on Wednesday quoted a Russian Foreign Ministry source as saying "actual plans" are being made for Kim's visit and that the meeting is expected to take place sometime next week before Putin heads to Beijing on April 26. But the source added that a sudden change in plans cannot be ruled out due to their "extemporaneous" nature. A 17-year effort to open Korea's first for-profit hospital on Jeju Island has ended in failure after the operator failed to open on time. The Jeju provincial government said Wednesday that it has canceled the license of Greenland International Hospital, which was granted on Dec. 5, 2018 with a proviso to open within 90 days, because the operator failed to meet the deadline. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it will no longer license for-profit hospitals. Saudi, UAE send relief aid to flood-stricken Iran Riyadh, April 18 (AFP) Apr 18, 2019 Saudi Arabia and the UAE have sent 95 tons of humanitarian aid to their rival Iran as it reels from deadly floods, officials said Thursday, after Tehran complained US sanctions were obstructing relief. "The Saudi Red Crescent, as part of a joint Saudi-UAE initiative to alleviate the suffering of Iranian citizens, has dispatched a relief plane to Tehran with 95 tons of humanitarian aid to support those affected by floods," the official Saudi Press Agency said. The aid, which includes food and shelter material, was authorised by Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince, it added. The Emirates Red Crescent was also involved in the relief operation, the UAE's official WAM news agency said. At least 76 people have died in Iran after torrential rainfall, which has also caused billions of dollars worth of damage since March 19. Iran's Red Crescent has repeatedly complained that US banking sanctions re-imposed last year make it impossible to receive donations from outside the country. US President Donald Trump last year withdrew Washington from a multilateral agreement on Iran's nuclear programme, later re-imposing sanctions focusing on oil exports and financial transactions. Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran have a longstanding rivalry based as much on geostrategic interests as religious differences. Facing off across the Gulf, the two major oil producers have taken opposing sides for decades in conflicts across the Middle East. Riyadh broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2016 in protest at the torching of its diplomatic missions by Iranian protesters angry over its execution of a leading Shiite cleric. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday made a surprise visit to the an Air Force unit in Sunchon, South Pyongan Province, where he watched flight training, state media reported Wednesday. The visit, his first to a military unit in five months, came after he snubbed U.S. demands for denuclearization and pledged to sit out international sanctions. Kim claimed he "spontaneously dropped by" the Air Force unit to watch their flight training as he was passing nearby. But a South Korean military spokesman said the visit was clearly "staged." "Footage and photos show that all MiG-29 jets were unarmed," the spokesman said. "Any fighter jets on standby are supposed to be fully armed, but none were, which suggests that only well-maintained fighter jets were chosen for the show." The Trump Administration may have a particularly difficult time reconciling its plan to end the HIV epidemic with some of its own policies on the ground. In fact, the people most likely to have HIV in the United States are frequent targets of Trump's derision, culture-war fights, and policy agendas to deprive them of resources or legal and administrative status as protected classes. One such group is trans people, whom the administration has tried to undermine by removing protections in public schools as well as banning from serving in the military. These issues have many trans activists wondering how they fit in a plan to end the HIV epidemic in the United States. The HIV.gov website declares, "Today we have the right data, right tools, and right leadership to end the HIV epidemic." On one level, this is true. Once-a-day pills are easy to take and can extend life expectancy to near normal levels, and if one becomes undetectable, one cannot transmit the virus to others. With federal programs like Ryan White to provide care to those without other forms of insurance, getting access to care would seem easy. And yet, people are still dying of HIV-related causes in 2019. Coming from an administration that has made it clear in public policy that it does not intend to extend civil rights protections to transgender people, trans activists are wondering how this plan will benefit their communities. I spoke with transgender activist Arianna Inurritegui-Lint and her colleague, Natalia Pabon at the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, where officials from all the federal agencies involved in implementing the national "Ending the HIV Epidemic" plan discussed their strategies to implement this plan, which will focus resources (that have yet to be allocated) in 48 counties and five states that represent over half of all HIV diagnoses nationwide. It seems as though much of that funding will be granted to health departments, centers for AIDS research, and, potentially, community-based organizations. Inurritegui-Lint and Pabon, who attended the conference as representatives of Arianna's Center -- a nonprofit organization that serves the trans community of South Florida -- expressed doubts that the resources will go to support trans people having access to prevention, treatment, and care, given some of the administration's recent policies. "In order to eradicate the virus, we have to be realistic and understand that [Trump administration officials] don't even grasp what the transgender community is all about," said Inurritegui-Lint, a migrant from Peru who attended law school in her home country before migrating to the U.S., where she is now pursuing a Master of Social Work degree. She is the organization's founder and namesake. In 2017, a "banned words list" circulated from the Department of Health and Human Services, which censored terms like "diversity," "fetus," and even "transgender" in the budget documents for the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention. What's more, in March 2017, this administration removed questions about gender and sexuality from the 2020 census, and just recently Trump banned trans people from serving in the military. Last year, due to Trump's policy of caging immigrants at the U.S./Mexico border, Roxsana Hernandez, a transgender Honduran immigrant, died of HIV-related causes in custody due to border patrol officials not providing her with antiretroviral therapy. Studies show that trans people are still one of the most vulnerable minority groups to contracting HIV. According to a meta-analysis published in early 2019, 14% of all trans women are living with HIV, and 26% of Latina trans women and 44% of black trans women have HIV. Violence against trans women is well documented, and there has been some community advocacy to end violence against and homicides of trans women. But there is little to no national attention on issues that impact trans women of color's access to housing and health care, and these are often critical. For example, 19% of transgender people living in Washington, D.C. reported being denied medical care at least once in their lives due to being perceived as transgender. And that discrimination in health care settings and employment has implications for the lives of trans women, quite literally. In the first three months of 2019 alone, three of Inurritegui-Lint's clients have died -- not from transphobic violence, but from HIV-related causes, which ultimately were linked to a lack of access to quality and culturally affirmative care. One of those women was Nyomi Giselle Taylor, who recently died of HIV-related causes due to lack of linkage to care in South Florida, according to Inurritegui-Lint. Velma Poe -- Taylor's mother -- also believes that resources for trans women like her daughter are scarce. "I was planning to visit my daughter in July of 2019," shares Poe. "I am saddened that she didn't get the help she deserved." Poe told me her daughter moved to Fort Lauderdale in 2012 after graduating high school in Omaha, Nebraska. Poe described her Nyomi as "very courageous and creative. She knew who she was at a young age." Taylor's mother still keeps in touch with her friends and chosen family, including Inurritegui-Lint. Inurritegui-Lint believes that the lack of resources (e.g., housing, employment, health care, etc.) kills as many people in her community as do homicides. "This does not get headline news, because transgender deaths rarely get news -- especially if it's not tied to a horrendous murder," she said. "These deaths are a close look at the broken system in this country." To make matters worse, Inurritegui-Lint and Pabon believe that organizations that are led by men that tend to serve more gay and bisexual men aren't interested in serving the trans community, when they are often the first places trans women will go for testing, prevention, or treatment services. "These cis-maleled orgs are not supporting the trans community, and they are essentially the problem," said Pabon. "We need to call them out." Diana Feliz Oliva, now a community liaison with Gilead Sciences, has been advocating for the trans community for over 20 years. She recognizes that if we want to stop HIV in 2030, it is going to take a comprehensive strategy: "In an ideal world, we would have access to health care," said Oliva. "We also need to address education, housing, employment to really set up trans HIV poz people for success. When I finally transitioned and changed my legal name, it was the first time that I paid attention to my HIV status. After I took my first shot of hormones and changed my name legally, I became more coherent to my health, but it wasn't until my transition." Any plan to end the HIV epidemic has to include trans women. Housing, employment, and their health care needs outside of HIV are all well documented issues that have to be addressed to engage trans women in HIV testing, prevention, treatment, and care. It seems unlikely that an administration can strip away the few protections trans people have and, at the same time, address HIV adequately. In theory, HIV treatment was available for Taylor, but without her other needs being met, it seems to not have been as easy as taking a daily pill. Get News Updates Enter your e-mail address below to join our mailing list and receive e-mail notice with each new edition along with breaking news updates right in your inbox! Park has been incarcerated in a remand prison since March 2017 while standing trial in the massive corruption scandal that led to her being removed from office. She has since been sentenced to decades of consecutive jail terms but remains in the remand prison because one appeal is pending. Ex-President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday filed a petition asking to be let out of jail because she is seriously ill. Park's lawyer Yoo Yeong-ha said, "The symptoms of her spinal ailments have not improved. She can't sleep because of burning and lacerating pain and numbness." The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office will decide whether Park can be treated in a hospital under police guard. Park has refused to see any visitors other than her lawyers, but even politicians on her own side were divided at the prospect of her being seen in public. "If she's spotted in public, it could agitate our main support base," one official at her old Liberty Korea Party said. But die-hard supporters say she should be set free. LKP lawmaker Choi Gyo-il claimed that under the law on criminal procedures, time served should be counted towards her two-year sentence last November for meddling in party nominations that has not been appealed, so it would have ended last month. At the same time, the six-month period she can be detained before judgment is passed in the appeal against her 25-year sentence for corruption, extortion and other criminal charges expired this week, so Choi argued she should be free to go home. "The principle of innocence until proven guilty demands that Park be tried without detention" in the drawn-out appeal, he added. Park waived her right of appeal, but prosecutors may have shot themselves in the foot by appealing the 25-year sentence as too lenient. "We all know that the [quick count] calculation is a scientific calculation method. From the country's experiences of past elections the accuracy is 99.9 percent, almost the same as real count results," Widodo said. The vote estimate is based on so-called quick counts of a sample of polling stations by a dozen reputable survey organizations. Widodo said that 100 percent of sample polling stations have now been counted or close to that. The quick counts have been accurate in previous elections. Widodo, after meeting with parties in his coalition, told reporters that the leaders of Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and numerous other nations have congratulated him on securing a second term. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Thursday he was won re-election after receiving an estimated 54 percent of the vote, backtracking on an earlier vow to wait for official results after his challenger made improbable claims of victory. Widodo's rival, former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, has claimed he won 62 percent of the vote in Wednesday's election based on his campaign's own counts, repeating a similar claim when he lost to Widodo in 2014. The Election Commission is required to release official results by May 22. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, is an outpost of democracy in a Southeast Asian neighborhood of authoritarian governments and is forecast to be among the world's biggest economies by 2030. A second term for Widodo, the first Indonesian president from outside the Jakarta elite, could further cement the country's two decades of democratization. Subianto, a strident nationalist, ran a fear-based campaign, highlighting what he sees as Indonesia's weakness and the risk of exploitation by foreign powers or disintegration. Widodo said he had sent a representative to talk to Subianto and his camp. "This afternoon I have sent an envoy to meet Prabowo to set a meeting, and if people see our meeting, we will be able to show how the elections have ended smoothly, safely and peacefully," he said. The country's security minister and its military and police chiefs said earlier Thursday that they will crack down on any attempts to disrupt public order while official results from presidential and legislative elections are tabulated. Security minister Wiranto, who uses a single name, told a news conference with the chiefs of police and all military branches that security forces will "act decisively" against any threats to order and security. He said the voter turnout of 80.5 percent gives the winner of the presidential election "high legitimacy." National police chief Tito Karnavian said the Election Commission and courts are the appropriate institutions for resolving complaints about the election. Subianto's hard-line Muslim supporters plan mass prayers in central Jakarta on Friday but it was unclear if the event will be allowed to go ahead. "I appeal to everybody not to mobilize, both mobilization to celebrate victory or mobilization about dissatisfaction," Karnavian said. The election was a huge logistical exercise with 193 million people eligible to vote, more than 800,000 polling stations and 17 million people involved in ensuring the polls ran smoothly. Helicopters, boats and horses were used to get ballots to remote and inaccessible corners of the archipelago. Voting ran smoothly, apart from a few districts where logistical problems caused delays, and was peaceful, a remarkable achievement for a country steeped in political violence. Widodo's campaign highlighted his progress in poverty reduction and improving Indonesia's inadequate infrastructure with new ports, toll roads, airports and mass rapid transit. The latter became a reality last month in chronically congested Jakarta with the opening of a subway. The last few days have seen an extraordinary organisation of protests by Extinction Rebellion. These peaceful protests have been happening in storm across London as the people say enough is enough to the governments who are slowly destroying our planet and showing no sign of changing their policies. I spoke to York Extinction Rebellion (XR) member and student Merry Dickinson who has been campaigning in London this week, who was arrested for peacefully protesting on Tuesday. Merry protesting in York/ Image Credit: Veda Kohli I asked Merry how long she has been an advocate for the Environment. She said that she had "always been aware of climate change, but started being more seriously aware at the age of 17", when she "started making individual changes, and talking more about climate breakdown to anyone who would listen. "However its only in the last 6 months that Ive been actively involved in environmental organising and activism, and now I spend pretty much all my time organising around climate justice! I am now a coordinator of Extinction Rebellion York, co-environment and ethics students union officer, involved with the youth strikes and organise with Reclaim The Power as well!" Reclaim the Power is a 'UK based direct action network fighting for social, environmental and economic justice'. Merry Dickinson Image Credit: What has the mood been like on the ground? "It has been one of community, love and solidarity. Everyone I meet has been absolutely lovely and very welcoming and supportive. There is of course the sense of urgency, and fear about the lack of action over climate breakdown. However seeing so many people come out and be willing to take action and risk their liberty to try and prevent climate catastrophe is incredibly inspiring and created a real sense of hope and community. " To me, it is obvious that the fate of the planet is something that is in the interest of everybody, it unites continents, religions, and generations. Governments who ignore the issue are signing the earth's death sentence. It is amazing to see how much awareness has been raised for the environment in the last six months. No one thought that when school girl Greta Thunberg went on school strike last August that it would lead to a such a vast global movement. Merry said that since being set up in November, York XR has "400 members and are growing every week!" I asked Merry where York XR has been based over the last fews days. She answered that they had "been in Parliament Square for a large part of it, although a large amount of York XR (including myself) were arrested on Waterloo Bridge as that has been most heavily targeted we wanted to support them." 290 people I was especially interested to find out more about Merry's arrest. Overhave been arrested in London so far and I wanted to know how these arrests were carried out, especially for peaceful protestors like Merry. Mark Matthews Image Credit: Merry's Arrest "I was sat on Waterloo Bridge, peacefully protesting the lack of action over climate breakdown. However the police had been removing people throughout the night and day, in an attempt to clear the bridge. "Shortly after I sat down they began trying to arrest me, and when I would not stand up I was forcefully removed and carried to the van. I refused to leave because although I wish we did not have to cause disruption, traditional organising methods have not had enough of an impact and we need to do everything within our power in order to avert the worst impacts of climate catastrophe." Merry Protesting in York/ Image Credit: Golam Rabbani How do you feel about the polices reactions? "My experience of arrest, while not pleasant, was vastly different as I am a white middle class woman on a protest, and is incomparable to the vast majority of peoples experience with the police. They have been increasingly rough with XR protestors, although I stress again that this far less severe than most people and in terms of environmental protestors those on fracking sites. "That being said, while in jail I had many police officers offer their support and encouragement, and many of them are forced to follow orders regarding XR that they do not personally agree with." I asked Merry what the plan was for the next few days, given the lack of reaction from the government so far. She said that they " will be escalating [their] actions as the government still refuses to listen to our demands and recognise the climate emergency we are currently living in. We intend on continuing to hold all the sites, and engage in creative and disruptive action as the week continues. " What do you hope to achieve this week? "We hope for the government to listen to our demands, to tell the truth about the climate emergency and act accordingly. That being said, if the government refuses to listen we will still have engaged with thousands of people and continue to grow the movement until we can no longer be ignored." Keep strong Rebels - We refuse to bequeath a dying planet to future generations by failing to act now. We act in peace, with ferocious love of these lands in our hearts. We act on behalf of life. https://t.co/54RWTHCwkw Extinction Rebellion (@ExtinctionR) April 16, 2019 "I would like to send my love and solidarity to all of those on the frontline communities, fighting extractive industries and environmental degradation in order just to survive. I urge people to remember that this isnt an issue of the future, climate breakdown is happening right now and millions of people all around the world are being forced into suffering and even death due to the entirely destructive actions of those who have willingly destroyed our planet in the pursuit of profit. These are the people least responsible for climate breakdown, and yet they are the most to suffer. I believe we in the West have a responsibility to do everything within our power to minimise the destruction of climate breakdown and prevent further suffering." Tommi Boom on Flickr Image Credit: "Change is never just handed to you, rights have never just been given away, they come from people actively organising and taking collective action to demand these rights and force change to happen." The government has so far hardly commented on the protests which for me shows not only a complete lack of care over this issue, but also the fact that they just don't know what to do. I am so heartened that students across the country are striving for change. People like Merry make me proud to be a part of my generation. People who call us snowflakes are wrong, they're just scared of how right we are. Home Just In Experts coming to Nepal for organ transplant conference this weekend Kathmandu, April 18 A conference on human organ transplant is set to take place in Kathmandu this Saturday and Sunday. The conference, the first of its kind in Nepal, aims to exchange experiences, knowledge and skills about new technology in the field of human organ transplant and donation, and also on the issue of brain death, says senior organ transplant specialist Prof Dr Pukar Chandra Shrestha, also coordinator of the organising committee. It will be organised by the Sahid Dharma Bhakta National Transplant Centre, Bhaktapur, with support from the Organ Transplant Society Nepal and the Government of India, The conference will be attended by organ transplant specialists from the SAARC countries and the United Kingdom, Thailand, Japan and the United States of America and hospital chiefs and nurses of all districts of Nepal, he says. Preparations have been almost over. The conference will discuss latest technology in the field of human organ transplant. The slogan for the conference is Bridging the Gap. RSS Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 16C. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 3C. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Laval_news Russian Ballet comes to the Big Screen in Laval Capture the soul of Russian Ballet without leaving Centropolis with Carmen Suite Petrushka, a special double-bill cinema event relayed from the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow to the Cineplex Laval in Centropolis. Carmen is as sensual and free-spirited as ever with the music of Georges Bizet based on the classic story by Prospero Merimee, as she finds herself caught in a love triangle. The passionate one-act Carmen Suite ballet by Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso will captivate audiences alongside Petrushka, a new creation for the Bolshoi by contemporary choreographer Edward Clug. The May 19 broadcast runs 140 minutes and features Bolshoi principal dancers, soloists and the corps de ballet. Gunmen killed at least 14 people after forcing them to disembark from buses in Pakistan\s Balochistan, officials said Thursday, in the latest attack claimed by separatists in the restive southwestern province. The attackers, who numbered around two dozen, were wearing uniforms of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, provincial home secretary Haider Ali told AFP. They "stopped buses on the Makran Coastal Highway and gunned down 14 people", he said, adding that the four vehicles were travelling to the port megacity of Karachi from the coastal town of Ormara. The gunmen identified non-Baloch passengers by their identity cards and shot them, he said. All the victims are believed to be Pakistani, with a naval official and a coast guard member among the dead. The attack was claimed by a Baloch separatist group. A militant spokesman denied that any civilian passengers had been killed and said the group had only targeted coast guard and navy service members. Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan\s poorest province and the largest by landmass, with Islamist as well as ethnic Baloch separatists active there. Pakistani security forces have been targeting insurgents in the province since 2004, and have also been repeatedly accused by international rights groups of abuses there. The military denies the allegations. Provincial home minister Mir Zia Langov told AFP a full-scale investigation had been launched into the attack, and authorities are trying to track down the gunmen, who he said had fled the scene. "Such incidents are intolerable and we will not spare the terrorists who carried out this dastardly attack," he said. Prime Minster Imran Khan also condemned the killings in a statement from his office. Poorest province The attack came less than a week after a suicide blast claimed by the Islamic State group in provincial capital Quetta killed 20 people. Balochistan is also host to a number of major projects under the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The massive infrastructure project seeks to connect the western Chinese province of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan. But it has also drawn its share of attacks, particularly by separatists who have long complained that residents do not receive a fair share of profits from the province\s resources. Violence in Pakistan has dropped significantly since the country\s deadliest-ever militant attack, an assault on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 150 people most of them children. But militants still retain the ability to carry out attacks, and analysts have long warned that Pakistan is yet to tackle the root causes of extremism. SOURCE: AFP A study has provided evidence of the presence of the endangered Kashmir musk deer(KMD) from Nepal, with the identification extending the fanged deer species range from India, Pakistan, and eastern Afghanistan to now the rugged mountains of western Nepal. The study by Nepali and Chinese researchers identified and probed three musk deer lineages from different geographic realms: Mustang in the west, Manang in the east and Kaski (most of the mountains above 7000 metres) in the south of Annapurna Himalayas range in Nepal. Researchers genetically validated the Mustang lineage as a distinct species, the Kashmir musk deer (Moschus cupreus) and in doing so established it as a new species recorded in Nepal. Before this study, KMD had only been described from Kashmir and the associated region of India, Pakistan, and eastern Afghanistan. The western distribution of KMD is up to Nuristan, northeast Afghanistan while the eastern distribution was assumed to be the Kashmir region in India, explained study author Paras Bikram Singh. Singh is a conservation officer with the National Trust for Nature Conservation, Annapurna Conservation Area Project, Nepal and is also associated with Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. Singh studied the musk deer under the supervision of professor Jiang Zhigang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. Investigations using molecular tools and camera trap methods also established the Manang and Kaski lineages from central Nepal as Himalayan musk deer (HMD), Moschus leucogaster. Our study confirms that the eastern limit of this KMD is Mustang within the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA), Nepal, Singh said. The Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) is located in the western region of Nepal encompassing the five districts, Myagdi, Lamjung, Kaski, Manang, and Mustang, and is the largest protected area in the country. It suggests that the species of musk deer found between the two extreme limits in the northern Himalayas of India, Pakistan, and west Nepal (west of Mustang) must be KMD, though previously they have been identified as alpine musk deer (M. chrysogaster), he added. The Kashmir musk deer, the Himalayan musk deer and the alpine musk deer are three of seven similar species found in Asias montane forests and alpine scrublands. The other four are Anhui musk deer (M. anhuiensis), forest musk deer (M. berezovskii), black musk deer (M. fuscus) and Siberian musk deer (M. moschiferus). The researchers have called for a review of the geographical distribution of the small and shy deer from the Himalayas and China with a simultaneous review of their IUCN Red List status. As the species are present across multinational boundaries, there is scope for transboundary conservation, said Singh. The species are targeted by poachers and are in high demand in illegal trade due to their coveted scent glands for use in perfumes and traditional medicines. Musk deer scent glands are considered more valuable in weight than gold, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. Active at twilight or at night the musk deer (Moschus spp.) are hard to detect directly. Its a blink-and-miss situation when they are spotted in their natural habitats: they are generally only seen for a few seconds, or only the sound of them leaping to their escape amid bushes can be heard. The male musk deers distinct sabre-like tusks are used during the rutting season to compete with other males. Pinning the musk deer down to their exact taxonomic category has remained controversial and as yet unresolved for four decades because these highly cryptic species are extremely difficult to identify reliably from only their external form and structure (morphology). For instance, the Anhui musk deer, forest musk deer, and black musk deer species can easily be confused with each other because of their similar morphology and pelage colour. Their pelage colour (fur) also changes with seasons, making identification a challenge, said Singh who took up the challenge in 2010 to navigate the murky world of musk deer classification in the Annapurna Himalayas, where mountains, rivers, and gorges cut off gene flow and lead to genetic differentiation of naturally isolated populations. A trail of photos and poop It was a photograph clicked by Singh in 2010 during a field trip in Mustang that bolstered his interest in untangling the classification dilemma pertaining to the musk deer. By the look of it, the Mustang deer in the photograph was very unique from the other species said to be distributed in Nepal. Though senior researchers who I had contacted considered it to be the alpine musk deer, I was not convinced in my heart, remarked Singh. In 2015-2016 I started my Ph.D. work on the musk deer and installed camera traps in Manang and Mustang (east to west of the Annapurna range). The images indicated likely different species so that spurred us to investigate deeper, said Singh. The researcher used the musk deers latrine habits to their advantage in collecting pellet samples (faeces) for mitochondrial DNA analysis. Musk deer have dedicated sites where they defecate to mark territory. These sites can be used to detect the presence and abundance of musk deer in the field and correlate their habitat preference. Latrine sites were found in forest habitats where musk deer were photographed, said Singh. After we gathered all the preliminary evidence, our team started following the deer and setting up camera traps in the latrine sites and collecting fresh pellets samples, said Singh. Pellet samples from the Manang, Mustang, and Kaski regions of the ACA were collected during November-December 2016. Additionally, deerskin samples (from Manang and Mustang) also came in handy for genetic analysis. These were obtained from dry skins of musk deer that had died from predation and other natural causes and were collected by the ACA staff during forest patrolling from 2009 to 2015. There were some bumps along the road. Even the U.S.-based National Center for Biotechnology Information did not have the genetic sequence of the KMD. So I contacted WCSs Stephane Ostrowski, who had led a survey team in Nuristan, north-east Afghanistan in 2009, and he sent a dry skin sample of KMD from that region, said Singh. The entire effort was challenging but we made major progress in terms of taxonomic classification of the musk deer in Nepal Himalayas, said Singh. So far, alpine musk deer, Himalayan musk deer, and black musk deer have been reported from Nepal. However, these records are primarily based on earlier observations from neighbouring Uttarakhand, India and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China from presence-only surveys or from anecdotal information. But based on our molecular analysis and the geographical location of KMD and HMD, we have concluded that alpine musk deer do not exist in the Himalayas of Nepal or in northwest India and Pakistan, Singh said. So what we have in Nepal Himalayas is the Kashmir musk deer and the Himalayan musk deer, not the alpine musk deer, he said. It is doubtful that the alpine musk deer inhabit Bhutan. Further molecular study of musk deer from Bhutan is warranted to verify the existence of alpine musk deer. It is now apparent that alpine musk deer is found only in central China and HMD is endemic to the eastern Himalayas and KMD in the western Himalayas (which includes central Nepal), Singh concluded. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close HFW, a leading global law firm in the construction, energy and resources, aerospace, commodities, insurance and shipping sectors, has continued to expand its fast-growing Middle East practice, launching an insurance offering in Abu Dhabi with the hire of partner Justin Whelan. He joins the company from leading international law firm Ince Gordon Dadds, which boasts global offices in key cities including Beijing, Cologne, Dubai, Hamburg, Hong Kong and London. With the arrival of Whelan, HFW now has specialist insurance teams in each of its four Middle East offices. HFW established an insurance offering in Kuwait City in January with the hire of consultant Sandra Ortiz, and relocated insurance partner John Barlow from Dubai to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2018. The firm's Middle East insurance practice is led by Dubai-based Sam Wakerley. On the appointment, Wakerley, the head of insurance, Middle East, HFW, said: "Whelan is one of the top insurance lawyers in the Middle East and has an outstanding reputation with clients, so I'm very pleased to welcome him to the team." "We are the only international law firm with specialist insurance lawyers in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Kuwait City, meaning that we are uniquely positioned to offer clients expert advice across the region," he stated. In his new role, Whelan advises global insurers, reinsurers and insureds on insurance and reinsurance claims, policy coverage, subrogated recoveries, public and employer's liability and property damage claims, with a particular focus on the real estate, construction, travel and professional indemnity sectors. Justin is also a leading expert in cyber security and cyber insurance. Justin has significant experience litigating in the UAE and English Courts, and also in various forms of alternative dispute resolution, including mediation. On the new role, Whelan said: "I am absolutely delighted to be joining HFW. The firm has significantly enhanced its Middle East practice in recent years and has established itself as one of the clear market leaders." "I am very excited at the opportunity to build on and develop HFW's practice in Abu Dhabi, and to work alongside the firm's first-rate insurance lawyers across its extensive international network," he noted. HFW has now added eight new partners in the Middle East since April 2018, and developed its regional network by opening in an office Abu Dhabi in October 2018 and entering into a new association in Saudi Arabia in January 2019. The firm now has 17 partners and more than 50 lawyers including 31 Arabic speakers across its four Middle East offices, making it one of the largest practices of any international law firm in the region. Richard Crump, Global Senior Partner, HFW, said: "This is another significant milestone for our Middle East offering and underlines our longstanding commitment to the region." "At a time when many international law firms are downsizing in the Middle East - particularly in Abu Dhabi - we continue to invest and remain focused on our goal of building the leading international practice in the market," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) is holding its first Committees Annual Conference from April 21 and 22. The BCCI Committees Annual Conference is an ideal platform for business community members to share their views and to make effective decisions that will lead to meaningful changes, said Sameer Abdulla Nass, chairman of BCCI, in a statement. The conference aims to create a roadmap for a modern business community that can cope with the current economic climate and fulfill expectations of all sectors, he said. The sectorial business committees will be headed by top business leaders and a group of experts. The same will present unique working papers that will address various economic topics in order to develop a unified vision, he said. Live sessions will be conducted over the course of two days addressing various issues and to strive towards improvements. Committees include: Finance, insurance, and tax committee; Technology committee; Health committee; Industry and energy committee; Transport and logistics committee; Real-estate and construction committee; Commercial markets committee; Food wealth committee; Education committee; and Hospitality and tourism committee. These committees will cover various working paper addressing the issues that fall under each of them respectively, the statement said. Interested individuals are invited to participate and express their remarks and opinions for the enhancement of Bahrains economy, it said.-TradeArabia News Service Huawei launched its first 5G & ICT Roadshow in Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the ongoing Sixth Forum of Scientific Societies in Riyadh. Huawei, a strategic partner of the forum, will conduct the roadshow tour in the Kingdom connecting with local representatives from government, business, universities and the public. The roadshow was officially inaugurated by Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Governor of Riyadh. The Huawei roadshow truck is designed specifically to showcase the benefits of 5G networks, incorporating demonstrations like artificial intelligence (AI) applications of 5G, and its uses in the latest technologies including intelligent video surveillance, robotics, augmented reality and more. Members of the public are welcome to visit the truck to learn 5G knowledge for themselves and to better understand the important role that 5G will play in supporting the goals of Saudi Arabias National Digital Transformation Plan 2020. Dennis Zhang, CEO of Huawei Saudi Arabia, said: Saudi Arabia is one of the most advanced countries in the region when it comes to 5G planning, and we are privileged to work alongside telecommunications companies in the Kingdom to help realize the deployment of next-generation services across the nation. Our 5G & ICT Roadshow will demonstrate to citizens and organizations across Saudi Arabia that the benefits of 5G are immense; they will empower the progression of our connected society and contribute to achieving digital transformation in line with Saudi Vision 2030. Dr Mohammed Alobaida, general supervisor of the management of scientific societies, thanked Huawei for participating as a strategic sponsor for the event. Huawei launched the 5G roadshow technology exhibition and the IT roadshow exhibition to highlight the importance of the 5G, and is open for the forums visitors to expand their 5G knowledge and experience the demo of 5G in the truck, which will be the first time in the Middle East and the Kingdom. Huawei has been a partner of choice for telecom carriers globally in 5G network development, in part because of its broad range of end-to-end 5G solutions covering network sites, architecture, protocols and network operations & maintenance. TradeArabia News Service Tech giant Google took the number one spot as the most influential brand in Saudi Arabia in a survey carried out by Ipsos, an independent market research company. Google is driven mainly by its ability to shape consumer behaviour, and introducing people to something important which they never knew they needed, according to the survey titled Most Influential Brands, conducted for the first time in Saudi Arabia. The study measured consumer perceptions towards120 leading national, regional, and global brands in terms of their influence on people, based on a comprehensive list of attributes. This survey is part of an annual global effort conducted by Ipsos across 17 markets around the world. In total, the top 10 most influential brands list had 7 tech or digital brands, showcasing the important role that this sector plays today in consumers lives. Apple, YouTube (another Google Brand), Microsoft, and Samsung complete the Top 5, with these brands characterized by their leading edge, trustworthiness, and strong salience. The survey results show that these brands were consistently able to deliver something new to the market which drove their influence. The strong showing of tech and digital brands in the top 10 is not unique to Saudi Arabia. Similar results are seen in many other markets, such as Canada, the UK, and the US, where digital brands managed to trigger a strong emotional response that most of us can no longer imagine our lives without them. Amongst the 120 brands assessed in the study, two local brands made into to the top 10 list, and six into the top 20. In comparison, only 5 other markets had more local brands in their top 10 than Saudi Arabia, showcasing that in fact local brands are quite influential in Saudi Arabia. Continuous presence and the ability to project a local identity in a competitive market allowed Al Rajhi Bank (7) and STC (9) to break into the list. Both brands have generated a high level of trust amongst consumers in the Kingdom, showcasing significant influence on the community. Top 10 Most Influential Brands in Saudi Arabia 1. Google 2. Apple 3. YouTube 4. Microsoft 5. Samsung 6. Souq.com an Amazon Company 7. Al Rajhi Bank 8. Visa 9. Saudi Telecom 10. Facebook TradeArabia News Service Business France jointly with Evolen and the French Business Group recently hosted the 4th annual UAE France Oil and Gas Connecting Days focusing on digitalization, energy efficiency, new technologies for gas processing and plant operations. Launched in Abu Dhabi under the patronage of Ludovic Pouille, Ambassador of France to the United Arab Emirates, the two-day forum featured presentations of new solutions by the French innovative companies participating, towards Adnoc Groups key decision makers. Since 2015, the UAE France Oil and Gas Connecting Days has become an essential rendezvous between UAE and France in the Oil & Gas sector. This year with the support of Total in the UAE as gold sponsor and Schneider Electric as silver sponsor, over 10 companies were represented to showcase the latest technology and industry innovations. The forum took place in two distinct locations bridging the topics with live demonstrations. On the first day of the event took place at Sofitel Abu Dhabi Corniche, next to the Sheikh Khalifa Energy Complex where Adnoc subsidiaries are located. On the second day, French companies met Adnoc operational teams in the Ruwais Industrial Area where hydrocarbons are processed. The historical ties between the United Arab Emirates and France having served as a strong base in bilateral cooperation in an important number of domains, are particularly prevalent in Oil & Gas field. The strong innovative capabilities of the French industry in Energy, Oil and Gas sectors will help to strengthen business relationships between Emirati and French organizations. With Digitalization as the overarching theme, the forum covered Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analytics/Maintenance. Sessions on Energy Efficiency included details on Waste Heat Recovery, Energy Management software and tools, Energy optimization in Gas Processing and the Best Available Techniques (BAT). The sessions focused on new technologies for Plant Operations delved deeper into the technical aspects of the technology and management side of the industry. TradeArabia News Service The International Show for Electricity, Alternative Energy, Lighting, Power Generation, and Water Technology (Saudi Elenex 2019) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will highlight promising opportunities in the renewable and clean energy sector. The 22nd edition of the event will take place from April 29 to May 1 at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Centre (RICEC). The exhibition will be held concurrently with the Saudi Sustainable Energy and Technology Forum (Saudi SETF 2019), with support from Sabic and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as research partner. The Saudi government has recently pledged to invest $109 billion to produce 41 gigawatts of solar power, in line with a comprehensive plan to produce 54 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2032. Saudi SETF 2019 is set to host discussions regarding current policies and regulatory laws related to renewable energy and electricity generation projects, the challenges facing localization of the solar and wind technology industry locally and explore investment opportunities within the renewable energy sector in the Kingdom. The exhibition will also serve as an exclusive platform for alternative and renewable energy suppliers to showcase their products. Mohammed Bin Suleiman Al Al-Sheikh, head of Marketing, Riyadh Exhibition Company, explained: Saudi Elenex 2019 will provide an important strategic platform to introduce the successive developments in the Saudi energy sector to the international community, especially in the field of clean and sustainable energy; which is a cornerstone of achieving the goals of the National Transformation Program 2020 and Saudi Vision 2030. The prospects are promising for domestic and international investors to contribute to the process of sustainable development as the Kingdom looks to operate more than 17 GW of solar energy and 6 GW of clean energy from wind and geothermal energy and waste conversion to energy by next year. Al Al-Sheikh added: The upcoming event is receiving significant national and international attention, offering tremendous opportunities to establish effective partnerships among leading manufacturers, distributors, national companies and global leaders to employ emerging opportunities in the Kingdom, which is the largest regional solar market. This follows the announcement by His Royal Highness Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense; of the Solar Power Project Plan 2030 which is the largest in the world in the field of solar energy production. It aims to manufacture and develop solar panels in Saudi Arabia to generate solar power capacity between 150 and 200 GW by 2030. The 22nd edition of the event promotes the transmission channels of the most successful experiences and the exchange of best practices related to the development of the infrastructure of electric vehicles. The Saudi government views these as an integral part of efforts to achieve sustainable transport, in line with the Kingdom's aim to support the global sustainable development goals 2030. We look forward to supporting the national efforts to establish solid foundations for sustainable development, which take into consideration the integration of social, economic and environmental dimensions. We also seek to activate effective communication between leaders, decision and policy makers to promote the implementation of specific projects that serve the objectives of national strategies related to the water, environment and energy as the cornerstone to realize the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030, he concluded. Saudi Elenex 2019 and Saudi Aircon, the 22nd International Show for Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC), represent a strong push towards harnessing the vast potential available in the Kingdom as the largest heating, ventilation and air conditioning market in the Middle East. TradeArabia News Service Award-winning performer Jonathan Roxmouth will play the lead role of The Phantom in the Middle East debut of the worlds most popular musical, The Phantom of the Opera, taking place in Dubai this October. Roxmouth is currently appearing in the global tour of The Phantom of the Opera in Singapore, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and more. Roxmouth, who is also one of the youngest people to ever portray the role of The Phantom, is looking forward to reprising the role that holds a deep connection with his grandfather, who taught him how to conduct to the cassette of the original London Cast Album. Based on the classic novel Le Fantome de LOpera by Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera tells the tale of a disfigured musical genius, known as the Phantom, who haunts the Paris Opera House. Mesmerised by the talent and beauty of a young soprano, Christine, the Phantom lures her as his protege and falls fiercely in love with her. Unaware of Christines love for Raoul, the Phantoms obsession sets the scene for a dramatic turn of events where jealousy, madness and passions collide. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a Master Development Agreement with Valor Hospitality Partners Africa to roll out multiple franchise hotels over the next 10 years, across IHGs portfolio of brands in midscale, upscale and luxury segments. The agreement will see IHG expand its presence in Sub-Saharan Africa, including key countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius, Ethiopia, Zambia and Kenya. The development adds to IHGs growing pipeline in the Middle East and Africa and cements its position as one of the leading operators in the region. Valor Hospitality Partners Africa is a subsidiary of Valor Hospitality Partners Global that manages and asset manages projects across America, the UK, Middle East, South Africa and South East Asia. IHG currently operates hotels with Valor Hospitality Partners in America and the UK. Speaking on the announcement, Pascal Gauvin, managing director, India, Middle East and Africa, IHG, said: Valor has been our long-term partner in America and the UK for many years and we are pleased to be building our network with an experienced existing operating partner in new markets. This signing is in line with our growth ambition in the region and will add approximately 1,000 rooms to our portfolio in the African continent, primarily in the midscale segment and select hotels in upscale and luxury segments. This will allow us to cater to the increasing number of diverse domestic and international travellers looking for quality branded accommodation in Africa. He added: We currently have 26 operating hotels across eight countries in Africa, and we are looking at expanding our presence further by close to 40 per cent in 3-5 years. Graham Wood, managing director of Valor Hospitality Partners Africa added: We are thrilled to further strengthen our partnership with a global hospitality leader such as IHG and expand our portfolio in Africa with their well-established brands that are loved by travellers across the world. We have consistently benefitted from IHGs global distribution system in the Americas and the UK, best in class revenue management tools, and their commitment to deliver commercial success in partnership with their owners. With the new brands IHG has added in recent months, this agreement presents us with a unique opportunity to provide a range of high-quality branded accommodation options to suit the evolving needs of guests travelling to Africa. - TradeArabia News Service The capital city of Turkmenistan hosted an OSCE high-level regional conference on countering terrorism financing and organized crime. The event was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat. The conference brought together representatives of the OSCE, the UN, other international organizations accredited in Ashgabat, as well as ministries and departments of Turkmenistan. At the conference, foreign experts shared experiences in countering the financing of terrorism, noting the importance of developing a relevant legislative framework, conducting a national risk assessment on this issue and international cooperation in identifying cross-border financial flows. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021 President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov held talks with President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in, who arrived in Turkmenistan on a state visit. As part of the one-on-one meeting followed by the talks with participation of the two delegations, the heads of state discussed the pace of development of the Turkmen-Korean cooperation in the political sphere, in the framework of international organizations, as well as in the trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian spheres. The talks focused on cooperation in the energy and transport-communications sectors. In this regard, the Turkmen leader noted that Turkmenistan has an abundance of natural resources, growing industrial and transport infrastructure and an agricultural sector, while the Republic of Korea has modern technologies and production facilities. According to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Turkmenistan is counting on mutually beneficial cooperation with the Korean businesses that includes construction of new industrial facilities using advanced and environmentally friendly technologies. The leading Korean companies implementing projects on construction and modernization of oil refining and gas chemical complexes were cited as an example of the efficient joint work. Such projects include the construction of a gas processing plant at the Galkynysh (Revival) field and a gas chemical complex for production of polymers in the village of Kiyanly on the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea. In this regard, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov suggested that the sides should look into the possibility of implementing joint energy projects in Turkmenistan in the near future. The talks between the two delegations concluded with the ceremony of signing bilateral documents. The sides signed an Agreement on abolition of the visa regime for holders of diplomatic, official and special passports and an Agreement on cooperation in the cultural and humanitarian sphere. The sides also signed a Program of Economic Cooperation between the two countries for 2019-2022, a Plan for implementation of cooperation in exchanging medical workers, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, a Protocol on amendments to the Convention on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of information and communication technologies. To the applause of the signing ceremony participants, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President Moon Moon Jae-in signed a Joint Statement of Turkmenistan and the Republic of Korea. After the signing ceremony, the Presidents of Turkmenistan and the Republic of Korea made statements for press. In the afternoon, the President of the Republic of Korea visited the village of Kipchak near Ashgabat, where he paid tribute to the memory of the first President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurad Niyazov. He laid flowers at the Mausoleum and viewed the Turkmenbashi Spiritual Mosque. Then, the distinguished guest laid flowers at the Monument to Independence of Turkmenistan and planted a tree in the alley of honored guests. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021 The Hobby School of Public Affairs will use a structured process to determine how best to drive consensus on the divisive topic of immigration. PHOTO: Getty Images President Trumps declaration of a national emergency at the border has divided the public along partisan lines. A multi-part poll by the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston will seek to determine how best to drive a constructive public debate on the topic. Greater Houston Deliberates: The UH Hobby School Deliberative Poll on Current and Future Immigration Policy kicks off this month with a telephone poll of residents across the metropolitan Houston region, selected to reflect a representative sample of registered voters in the greater-Houston area. From that group, about 250 people will be invited to an in-depth session June 15, participating in moderated small group discussions with the opportunity to pose questions to balanced panels of experts. The poll will be re-administered at the end, allowing researchers to determine the impact of discussion and balanced information. Briefing materials for the discussions will be vetted by an advisory committee representing different viewpoints on the issue. Immigration policy is a polarizing issue, but previous research shows that attitudes can change when people who have fundamental disagreements meet each other and are given the opportunity to really delve into a topic, said Jim Granato, executive director of the Hobby School. This has the potential to show policymakers a way forward. An informed public is a powerful force. The Hobby School conducts polling on topics ranging from political elections to the regions recovery from Hurricane Harvey. It will work with the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University for this project, using a process developed 30 years ago by center director Jim Fishkin. We take random samples of a population, do an initial opinion survey and then bring them together to talk with each other, ask questions of experts and see how their opinions change, Fishkin said. Opinions usually do change, even on controversial topics, he said, providing lawmakers a potential consensus on which policies are likely to gain broad support. Fishkin said the process has been tried across the United States and in 28 countries. In the late 1990s he oversaw a series of eight Deliberative Polls in Texas to track how many residents would be willing to pay more for electricity generated by wind and solar power. The percentage increased from 52 percent to 84 percent; Texas is now the No. 1 state for producing and using wind energy. Granato said all materials used in the small-group deliberations will be nonpartisan, with the expert panel selected by an advisory committee headed by Houston immigration lawyer Charles Foster and Gordon Dilmore, a Hobby research associate with a background in law enforcement and security issues. Mobile phone services suspended in Islamabad for three days during OIC conference 17 Dec 2021 | 10:15 AM Islamabad, Dec 17(UNI) Pakistan's Federal government on Friday announced that it had decided to suspend all mobile phone services in the federal capital for three days starting from Friday in the wake of the meeting of Council for Foreign Ministers of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on Afghanistan. see more.. 27 dead as fire breaks out in building in Japan's Osaka: Media 17 Dec 2021 | 9:51 AM Tokyo, Dec 17 (UNI/Xinhua) Twenty-seven people were dead as a fire broke out in a building in Japan's Osaka prefecture Friday, local media reported. see more.. New Zealand reports 76 new community cases of Covid-19 Delta variant 17 Dec 2021 | 9:36 AM Wellington, Dec 17 (UNI/Xinhua) New Zealand reported 76 new Delta variant cases of Covid-19 in the community on Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country's current community outbreak to 10,129. see more.. Biden says Omicron variant spreading in US, 'going to increase' 17 Dec 2021 | 8:44 AM Washington, Dec 17 (UNI/Sputnik) US President Joe Biden warned on Thursday that the coronavirus Omicron variant has begun spreading in the United States. see more.. Credit: Jill JarrettDoors guitarist Robby Krieger will be heading east in early June for a trio of concerts with his solo band. The recently announced shows are scheduled for June 6 in Glendale, Pennsylvania; June 7 in Riverhead, New York; and June 9 in Albany, New York. Tickets for all three gigs are available for purchase now. Visit RobbyKrieger.com for more details. The Robby Krieger Band focuses mainly on classic Doors material, and features Krieger's son Waylon on lead vocals. As previously reported, Robby will also be performing at The Hidden Hills Magazine Hootenanny Food + Spirits + Music Festival on May 18 in Calabasas, California. The event will raise money for the charity Kevin Cordasco Foundation: Something Yellow, which is working to find a cure for childhood cancer. Krieger will be jamming with as-yet-unnamed musical friends at the benefit. The event's lineup also includes The Dirty Knobs, which features founding Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist and current Fleetwood Mac member Mike Campbell. Here are all of Krieger's confirmed upcoming concerts: 5/18 -- Calabasas, CA, The Hidden Hills Magazine Hootenanny - King Gillette Ranch 6/6 -- Glendale, PA, Keswick Theater 6/7 -- Riverhead, NY, The Suffolk Theater 6/9 -- Albany, NY, Skyloft Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Two UW College of Business Teams Place Third at Daniels Fund Competition UW College of Business undergraduates who placed third in the recent Daniels Fund Ethics Initiatives Consortium Case Competition were, from left, Fritz Ogden and Michael Blaney, both from Laramie; Amanda Smith, of Thornton, Colo.; Melissa Riley, of Centennial, Colo.; Grant Asay, from Laramie; and Shelby Bell, of Cheyenne. (Daniels Fund Photo) Two teams from the University of Wyomings College of Business both placed third in the 2019 Daniels Fund Ethics Initiatives Consortium Case Competition. The competition, held last week in Denver, exposes college students to a thought-provoking business ethics case, similar to situations they might face in their professional careers. It is designed to challenge students ethical reasoning; give students tools for ethical decision making; and raise awareness of the importance of principle-based ethics. The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program was established in 2010 to foster a high standard of ethics in students and to strengthen the teaching of principle-based ethics in young people. The five-year pilot was launched with eight business schools at universities in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. With its success, the initiative was renewed for another five years (2015-19) and expanded to include two more business schools and one law school. More than 400,000 students, faculty and business people have been impacted by the program, according to the competitions organizers. The UW undergraduate team was mentored by Kent Noble, UW College of Business Bill Daniels Chair of Business Ethics. Undergraduate team members, listed by hometowns and majors, are: Placing third in the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiatives Consortium Case Competitions graduate division were UW students, from left, James Francis, of Gillette; Samuel Cox, from Longmont, Colo.; Benjamin Northrup, of Powell; Heather Allen, from Gillette; and Jennica Fournier, of Cheyenne. (Daniels Fund Photo) Centennial, Colo. -- Melissa Riley, management. Cheyenne -- Shelby Bell, management. Laramie -- Grant Asay and Michael Blaney, both management; and Fritz Ogden, chemical engineering. Thornton, Colo. -- Amanda Smith, management. The UW graduate team was mentored by Dick McGinity, UW president emeritus and College of Business professor of management. Graduate team members, listed by hometowns and majors, are: Cheyenne -- Jennica Fournier, PharmD and Master of Business Administration (MBA). Gillette -- Heather Allen, finance track MBA; and James Francis, masters student in engineering/MBA. Longmont, Colo. -- Samuel Cox, finance track MBA. Powell -- Benjamin Northrup, masters student in engineering/MBA. The Daniels Fund, established by cable television pioneer Bill Daniels, is a private charitable foundation dedicated to making life better for the people of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming through its grants program, scholarship program and ethics initiative. For more information about the Daniels Fund, visit www.danielsfund.org. Wyoming Business Tips for April 22-28 A weekly look at issues facing Wyoming business owners and entrepreneurs from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming. By Jim Drever, regional director, Wyoming SBDC Network SIM (subscriber identity module) swapping is a major cellphone industry-wide problem and is growing. Simply put, a criminal calls a wireless company claiming to be the owner of your number and that he or she has purchased a new cellphone. The caller asks the company to activate the new phone, thus transferring the SIM. The cellphone companies usually oblige the callers request and the new phone now has all your accounts, plus the telephone number. Have you ever reset your bank or other password, and they send you a PIN by text to verify it is you? Exactly. For most people, cellphones are the master keys to their online identities. By the time you realize your phone isnt making calls or sending texts because someone stole your number, the criminals have already made off with what they wanted. So, what can you do? First, stop giving out your cellphone number to websites, and treat it more like your social security number. Second, watch what you post on social media. For a targeted attack, hackers will look through your accounts to find out personal information. Next, instead of using SMS (short message service) for 2-factor, use a security app that requires a separate password login not associated with your phone number. Duo, Authenticator (Googles and Microsofts) and Authy are some popular options many companies use. Finally, wireless companies now offer a little extra security for which you may have to opt in. Usually, it is adding an extra PIN, spoken password or other way to verify the account before transferring SIMs to a different phone. If you have any questions about cybersecurity for your business, contact your local Wyoming SBDC Network adviser today for no-cost advising at www.wyomingsbdc.org. The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by UW with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922. After eight years, Kate del Castillo returns to her role as the drug trafficker who disappeared into the Witness Protection program in La Reina del Sur, premiering next Monday with English subtitles on Telemundo. Ex-Peru president kills himself as police try to arrest him 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. Fort Polk, LA (71446) Today Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low around 65F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low around 65F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Image: Airbus The NTSB announced on Wednesday that it is investigating an accident involving an American Airlines A321 that hit a runway distance marker during its takeoff roll at New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) on April 10, 2019. One of the pilots reported experiencing an uncontrolled 45-degree bank as the aircraft rotated. The uncommanded bank caused the aircrafts left wingtip to strike the sign, a light and the ground. The pilots were able to continue the takeoff and the aircraft landed back at JFK approximately 30 minutes later. 102 passengers and eight crew members were on board the flight, which was headed to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). No injuries were reported. The accident occurred at about 8:40 p.m. local time. Weather reports at the time indicate winds from 360 degrees at 17 knots. The flight was departing Runway 31L. According to the NTSB, it has assigned a six-person team to the investigation including technical subject matter experts in vehicle recorders, flight ops, aircraft systems and performance. At this time, it will not be sending investigators to the scene. By WestKyStar & MCHS Staff Apr. 18, 2019 | 05:04 AM | PADUCAH The MCHS sophomores selected for The Gatton Academy are Josiah Baumer - son of David and Tricia Baumer; and Evelyn Dukes- daughter of Mischelle Dukes. "We are very excited to welcome such a remarkable group of students to the Gatton Class of 2021! These students are coming from all across the Commonwealth to pursue their wide-ranging interests and engage in rigorous scholarship, said Director of The Gatton Academy, Dr. Lynette Breedlove. Each year admissions decisions are difficult, as there are more exceptional students interested in STEM topics and advanced learning opportunities than we can serve. We appreciate the hard work in which public schools are engaging to find innovative ways to meet the needs of their students. Applicants were evaluated based on ACT/SAT scores, high school grades, awards, extracurricular activities, responses to essay and short answer questions, and letters of recommendation. In addition to these criteria, earlier this month, 189 candidates were invited to interview with WKU faculty members, community leaders from across the Commonwealth, and Gatton Academy alumni. The selected students scored an average composite of 31.66 on the ACT and 31.18 on the mathematics portion of the exam. The highest possible score is a 36. Both of these scores represent the highest for an incoming class in the schools history. I am thrilled that each one of the 96 students has agreed to be a part of our community for the next two years, states Assistant Director for Admissions and Public Relations Zack Ryle. The ability to offer this opportunity to these 96 bright students, which brings The Gatton Academy to our funded capacity, is truly exciting. I look forward to seeing each student grow in immeasurable ways over their next two years and beyond! Students from 54 counties represent the Class of 2021. Among those students accepted include the second students accepted in The Gatton Academys eleven-year history from the following counties: Clinton, Cumberland, and Powell. All told, The Gatton Academy has had students attend from 117 of the 120 counties in Kentucky. This year, we not only saw a high number of total applications started and completed, but we saw students from 85 counties start the application, states Ryle. Our goal is always to represent the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky, and I can honestly say that we have never seen a pool of applicants as strong and diverse as the Class of 2021, which consequently has led to one of our strongest classes to date. The goal of The Gatton Academy is to enable Kentuckys exceptional young scientists and mathematicians to learn in an environment that offers advanced educational opportunities, preparing them for leadership roles in Kentucky. Moreover, The Gatton Academy assists in preparing Kentucky to compete in a knowledge-based economy by increasing the number of scientists and engineers who live and work in the state. What a pleasure it is to welcome the 2021 class of The Gatton Academy, stated Dr. Julia Roberts, Executive Director of The Gatton Academy and Mahurin Professor of Gifted Education. These young people represent Kentucky geographically as well as in other characteristics, carrying out the goal of The Gatton Academy to enable Kentuckys exceptional young scientists and mathematicians to learn in an environment that offers advanced educational opportunities and develop as future leaders for the Commonwealth. Students will complete their junior and senior years of high school living in Florence Schneider Hall. At the end of their two-year course of study, students will graduate from high school with a minimum of 60 college credit hours. The Gatton Academy provides a rich living and learning environment designed specifically for academically talented adolescent students that features clubs, organizations and community service. Additionally, students are able to participate in advanced research with WKU faculty members. Research conducted during students time at The Gatton Academy has been honored in the nationally competitive Regeneron Science Talent Search, Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program, and Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The majority of Gatton Academy students also participate in a study abroad or global learning experience in locations such as Costa Rica, Italy, Greece, England and China. The Gatton Academy is Kentuckys first state-supported, two-year residential program for high school students with interests in advanced science and math careers and is one of only 15 such programs in the nation. The Gatton Academy has been named to The Washington Posts list of top-performing schools with elite students for nine consecutive years. Established in 2007, The Gatton Academy is Kentuckys first residential two-year program for gifted and talented junior and seniors. The Gatton Academys students enroll as juniors and are full-time WKU students pursuing their interests in advanced science, technology, engineering and mathematical careers. The Gatton Academy has been named to The Washington Posts list of top-performing schools with elite students for nine consecutive years. The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky has selected 96 Kentucky sophomores for the Class of 2021 including two from McCracken County High School. By WestKyStar & McCracken County Schools Staff Apr. 18, 2019 | 11:48 AM | PADUCAH The academic rigor of the Craft Academy challenges students to excel at their highest level. Study is focused on a core of math and science courses and supplemented by electives in the arts and humanities. Additionally, we offer unique, project-based STEM+X courses that enrich our students educational experiences and help them develop competencies in entrepreneurship and innovation, design and creativity, and civic and regional engagement. The Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics at Morehead State University announced the members of the 2021 class. Mason Hancock, a sophomore at McCracken County High School (MCHS), has been selected to attend. He is the son of Skip and Dena Hancock.Sixty students from across the Commonwealth were chosen to attend the Craft Academy, located on the campus of Morehead State University.The Academy opened in August 2015, with the goal of meeting the unique educational needs of academically gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors in the Commonwealth. A college-level curriculum allows students to finish high school while also completing up to two years of university coursework. Advertisement By WestKyStar & MSU Staff Apr. 18, 2019 | MURRAY By WestKyStar & MSU Staff Apr. 18, 2019 | 02:57 PM | MURRAY Dr. Stephen Lacewell, a Murray State University faculty member, was honored with the 2019 Distinguished Professor Award on April 4. Lacewell is a professor of finance at Murray State, where he has taught since 1999. Lacewell also serves as director of the Universitys Center for Banking and Finance. The Distinguished Professor Award is a student-nominated honor and was established in 1964 to recognize an outstanding faculty member who has had a profound and positive influence on students, both inside and outside of the classroom. Lacewell was presented with the prestigious Golden Apple award in a surprise ceremony at the Arthur J. Bauernfeind College of Business led by University administration, including Murray State President Dr. Bob Jackson. This award is a huge honor, considering all of the fantastic faculty members here at Murray State University, Lacewell said. I tell my students constantly to find a profession they absolutely love, because it makes all other areas of their lives more enjoyable. I have been doing what I love for the last 20 years and have been blessed to work with some of the finest students anywhere right here in Murray, Kentucky. Jacie Trimm, a finance/commercial banking major, was one of the students that nominated Lacewell. She said his personalized approach to teaching made him an easy choice for the award. I felt Dr. Lacewell deserved this award after seeing all the behind-the-scenes work he does to get his students jobs after graduation, Trimm said. He brings in different speakers to give students insight on different career options while notifying them when a business is looking to hire. He cares for his students success and it shows. Lacewell created the area in finance with a commercial bank management option at the University in the spring of 2016 and additionally serves on the faculty of the Barret Graduate School of Banking, the Louisiana State University Graduate School of Banking and the Southeastern School of Banking. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Tennessee at Martin, his MBA with a finance concentration from Murray State University and an M.S. in finance and a Ph.D. in finance with minors in economics and statistics from Mississippi State University. He has also taught classes and published research internationally. Other honors Lacewell has received include the Universitys Max Carman Outstanding Teacher Award, Sigma Phi Epsilons Professor of the Year, Alpha Phi Alpha Outstanding Faculty Award and much more. "Dr. Lacewell epitomizes excellence in his professorial role, said Dr. Tim Todd, dean of the Bauernfeind College of Business. He engages students in his courses with real-world, applied examples in the banking and financial world. I'm proud to have him as a colleague and friend, and I thank the Murray State University Alumni Association for bestowing this high honor on Steve." Murray State University affords opportunities for students through a high-quality education with experiential learning, academic and personal growth and the ability to secure a lifetime of success. Since 1922, the true value of higher education has been found at Murray State University, where our commitment is to afford endless opportunities for developing leaders in the community, the country and the world. The Universitys main campus is located in Murray and includes five regional campuses. For more information about Murray State University, visit murraystate.edu. Advertisement By Tim Brockwell Apr. 18, 2019 | PADUCAH By Tim Brockwell Apr. 18, 2019 | 01:52 PM | PADUCAH U.S. Congressman James Comer visited Paducah Thursday morning to talk with local business and industry leaders about local economic development issues. Comer spoke to a large crowd at West Kentucky Community and Technical College's Emerging Technology Center as part of the school's Regional Economic Development Symposium. Other speakers at the event included Bob Quick, President and CEO of Commerce Lexington, Inc.; and University of Kentucky College of Law Assistant Dean Danny Murphy, Jr. WKCTC President Dr. Anton Reece said one of the biggest problems facing the local economy is the number of area jobs that go unfilled because of a lack of suitable candidates. Comer spent much of his time addressing this issue, and explained how technical schools play a vital role in training students to have the marketable skills needed to go directly into the workforce. Comer said the traditional path of a four-year degree has left many graduates saddled with debt and unable to find jobs that pay a living wage. He said more and more young people are choosing to go into trades like welding and carpentry, which are in high demand. "We obviously have a shortage of skilled labor. We have a shortage of workers in every field. In my congressional district there are 2000 advertised openings for welders right now. If you live in poverty, and you get a certification to be a welder, you will get out of poverty pretty quickly," He said. "We're trying to get more young people in school to focus on a career, to focus on being career ready when they graduate, and I just can't say enough good things about West Kentucky Community and Technical College." Comer said the availability of skilled labor is one of the main things companies look for when considering where to locate factories and other facilities. "If you have a community today and you can demonstrate to a prospect that you have a readily available skilled workforce that can pass a drug test, you can recruit industry." He said. "I think that as we move forward to try to grow the economy and focus on economic development in this region, we need to rely heavily on the infrastructure here to be able to train the next generation of workers, and be able to update the skills for the existing industries that we have." Comer also talked about how the ongoing trade war with China has hurt some local businesses, but said it's something he thinks is necessary to help level the playing field with the world's largest economic power. "We had hoped this trade war would be ended by March, obviously it's April and getting really close to Derby, which is in May, so that's not what we wanted to see. I think even though we're all experiencing short term pain, I think there will be a long term gain as we move forward because this is a battle that needed to happen." Comer said, adding that China's policy of currency manipulation has put American companies at a competitive disadvantage for decades. In the end, it's well-paying manufacturing jobs that Comer says will be most instrumental in revitalizing local rural communities. Those types of jobs have all but vanished in some areas, but he said an agreement that is more favorable to the United States may help bring some of those positions back. "We have to make things in the United States. We can't just outsource everything," Comer said. "We have to make some of the goods and supplies that we consume in the United States, or we're gonna be in trouble. I believe that if we don't get a free fair trade agreement with China, that it was going to be more difficult for good paying manufacturing jobs to happen in the United States." By WestKyStar & MCHS Staff Apr. 18, 2019 | 05:28 AM | PADUCAH Seeing the need at their school for students to better understand future employers expectations, MCHS FCCLA members organized the CTE Roundtable event. Students in CTE courses at MCHS earn career readiness status by completing courses, taking assessments and serving in internships and co-ops; the CTE Roundtable was a chance to round out those experiences by hearing directly from local leaders about what it takes to succeed in their respective industries. MCHS FCCLA members helped recruit and invite industry experts to speak with students in small group assemblies, and gathered their fellow students questions for the panelists. They also helped school administrators keep the event running smoothly day-of, and guided their fellow students in writing and sending handwritten thank you notes to panelists. The project involved all 91 MCHS FCCLA members, and over 350 students total participated in the event. As the national winner at the high school level, MCHS FCCLA will attend the 2019 FCCLA National Leadership Conference in June 30 to July 4 in Anaheim, CA. There theyll receive a $1,000 High School Career Connection Award and showcase their winning project during the conferences Spotlight on Projects session. Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a dynamic and effective national student organization that helps young men and women become leaders and address important personal, family, work, and societal issues through Family and Consumer Sciences education. FCCLA has more than 164,000 members and more than 5,300 chapters from 49 state associations, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Goodheart-Willcox Publisher, Award Sponsor: Experts in Career and Technical Education, Goodheart-Willcox was established in 1921 and has continually published the highest quality content for CTE. Goodheart-Willcox titles are available in print and digital formats, and include a full portfolio of student and instructor resources. For more information, please visit www.g-w.com. The Family, Career and Community Leaders of America has named McCracken County High Schools FCCLA chapter as its 2019 National Career Connection high school winner. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 17, 2019 | 08:22 PM | DRAFFENVILLE U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, alongside Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, announced on Wednesday that Marshall County School District has been awarded a second Project School Emergency Response to Violence grant totaling more than $460,000. The grant will assist the school district in its continued recovery efforts following the 2018 shooting that took the lives of two students and injured 14 others. The grant will be used to hire additional school resource officers, hall monitors and a school nurse. The funds will also be used to allow students who are not yet ready to return to school to continue their studies through an at-home, online program. The Marshall County School District was also awarded $138,200 in a previous Project SERV grant. Marshall County traffic stop leads to search of home; drug trafficking charges for two By The Associated Press Apr. 18, 2019 | 07:34 AM | NEW YORK The percentage of U.S. adults who belong to a church or other religious institution has plunged by 20 percentage points over the past two decades, hitting a low of 50% last year, according to a new Gallup poll. Among major demographic groups, the biggest drops were recorded among Democrats and Hispanics. Gallup said church membership was 70% in 1999 and close to or higher than that figure for most of the 20th century. Since 1999, the figure has fallen steadily, while the percentage of U.S. adults with no religious affiliation has jumped from 8% to 19%. Among Americans identifying with a particular religion, there was a sharp drop in church membership among Catholics dropping from 76% to 63% over the past two decades as the church was buffeted by clergy sex-abuse scandals. Membership among Protestants dropped from 73% to 67% percent over the same period. Among Hispanic Americans, church membership dropped from 68% to 45% since 2000, a much bigger decline than for non-Hispanic white and black Americans. There was a big discrepancy over that 20-year period in regard to political affiliation: Church membership among Democrats fell from 71% to 48%, compared to a more modest drop from 77% to 69% among Republicans. David Campbell, a University of Notre Dame political science professor who studies religion's role in U.S. civic life, attributed the partisan divide to "the allergic reaction many Americans have to the mixture of religion and conservative politics." "Increasingly, Americans associate religion with the Republican Party and if they are not Republicans themselves, they turn away from religion," he said. Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology, religion and divinity at Duke University, said that as recently as the 1970s, it was difficult to predict someone's political party by the regularity with which they went to church. "Now it's one of the best predictors," he said. "The correlation between religiosity and being Republican has increased over the years." The overall decline in church membership is driven by cultural and generational factors, said Nancy Ammerman, a professor of the sociology of religion at Boston University. "Culturally, we are seeing significant erosion in the trust people have for institutions in general and churches in particular," she said. "We are also seeing a generational shift as the 'joiner' older generation dies off and a generation of non-joiners comes on the scene." The new Gallup findings underscore that generational dynamic. Among Americans 65 and older, church membership in 2016-2018 averaged 64% percent, compared to 41% among those aged 18-29. "The challenge is clear for churches, which depend on loyal and active members to keep them open and thriving," wrote Gallup poll analyst Jeffrey Jones. "How do they find ways to convince some of the unaffiliated religious adults in society to make a commitment to a particular house of worship of their chosen faith?" "These trends are not just numbers, but play out in the reality that thousands of U.S. churches are closing each year," Jones added. "Religious Americans in the future will likely be faced with fewer options for places of worship, and likely less convenient ones, which could accelerate the decline in membership even more." Professor Scott Thumma, who teaches sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary, suggested several likely factors behind the decline. Among them, he said religious young adults are delaying marriage, postponing having children, and, when they do, having fewer children. He also suggested there was diminished social pressure to formally join organizations. "I've encountered many persons in churches that have attended for several years but did not officially join or become a member," he said by email. "This is also evident in persons switching from one congregation to another without joining any." The findings are based on Gallup surveys conducted over the last 20 years, with most surveys including at least 2,000 U.S. adults and having a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Some findings are based on aggregated interviews from 1998-2000 and 2016-2018, with each period including interviews with more than 7,000 adults. A few months ago, I was at the virtual airport watching the aviation world go by through the picture window of the pilots lounge when a sharp-looking Grumman Tiger taxied in and shut down. The canopy slid back and two old friends, Jayne and Dan, based at an airport a couple of hundred miles away, stood up, stretched and stepped out of the cabin. I shot out of the lounge, down the hallway and out onto the ramp before they had descended from the airplane. I had been talking with Jayne and Dan over the last year as they were guiding their flying clubs Tiger through a pretty involved refurb. I walked over to them and have to admit that my greeting was kind of perfunctoryI was taken by the superb paint scheme and was eager to see the new interior and panel. I was impressed. My friends flying club has a practice of keeping the airplanes that prove to be member favorites and they regularly invested serious coin to update them. It had proved to be a good way to attract new membersboth established pilots and new studentsand retain old ones. Even with regular refurbs, the hourly rates were less than what was availablein less attractive airplanesat nearby FBOs. Dan and Jayne tied down the Tiger as I was looking over the interior. We walked into the lounge, poured ourselves cups of the lousy coffee and sat down to spend some quality time talking airplanes. Over the next several minutes I got the full brief on the refurbthis was one of the first flights since it had been completed and, so far, they were pleased at the way things were operating. Disturbing Thoughts However, as we talked, I got the impression that Dan and Jayne were thinking about something other than the refurb and that the thoughts werent particularly good. I looked at Dan and said, All right. Youve got yet another excellent refurb, the parts and pieces are getting to know each other and the avionics workso why do you two look like its time for a root canal? Jayne was first off the mark. Yeah, I suppose it shows. Weve got a club member who is doing stupid stuff with the airplanes and were going to have to throw him out of the club. Weve been talking with him and hoping that hell get his act together but its not happening. I hate this sort of thing. Weve got to get rid of him, but weve been procrastinatingsort of justifying it by saying that were giving him the benefit of the doubt when theres really no doubt any longer. Its been so long since weve had to 86 someone that were not acting as definitively as we should. Dan and I are two of the four officers of the club and Im the chief instructor. We decided to make this flight and do some serious talking about whats going on and what to do. Wait a minute. I looked at Jayne, Your club covers discipline of club members in its operating rules; Ive seen them. You have a serious problem child, you set up a meeting of the members or the Board of Directors, give the member 10-day notice of the meeting, hash things out in the meeting and then hold a votethe majority of those present make the decision. Whats so tough? Dan stepped in. One of the good things about a flying club is the chance to socialize with other pilots and make new friends. Its tough to pass judgement on a guy you see every time youre at the airport. All of the club officers are volunteers and having to discipline a member just plain stinks. I think thats why we know what we need to do, but weve been dragging our feet. Plus, part of the problem is that this guy is really aggressive. He will never admit hes made a mistake; everything that goes wrong is always somebody elses fault. Plus, the times our chief instructorJaynetried to discuss matters with him, he personally attacked her and her qualifications. Good grief, this guy is a 250-hour private pilot with an instrument rating and Jayne flies for the airlines. Jayne commented, I think theres also a fear that the guy is so volatile that if we expel him, hell sue us and we cant afford that. I looked at them. I cant help but wonder if hed sue you if he wrecks one of the club airplanes, survives and you dont act as a cheerleader for him during the NTSB investigation. We talked for about 45 minutes before Dan looked at his watch and announced that they needed to get going. I walked out to the airplane with them and continued talking with Dan as Jayne did the walk aroundit was her leg to fly. Before they started up, I asked that they let me know what the club decided to do. The Wheel Turns A month later Dan called me and let me know that before the Board had done anything, theyd made sure that they had directors and officers (D and O) insurance so if someone sued the club officers over a decision there would be insurance to defend them. They wouldnt risk going broke for decisions they made as volunteer officers for something that they joined to have funa flying club. He went on to tell me that they followed the club rules by calendaring a Board meeting for the purpose of addressing specific actions of the memberlong delays in paying his bill, not cleaning up airplanes after hed flown them and making some IFR and VFR flights in weather that was below the clubs published minimums. They gave the member a two-week notice of the meeting by arming all of the Board members with written copies of the notice and one gave it to the member when she saw him at the airport. The member did bring a lawyer to the Board meetingwhich was held in executive session. The members defense consisted essentially of You have no right to question anything I do. His arrogance got so bad a couple of times that his lawyer tried to calm him down. The Board voted to terminate his membership and informed him in writing. Thus far nobody has seen the former member at the airport. After I talked with Dan, I thought about some of the flying clubs and group ownerships I knew and how they handled membership. Prospective Members The good ones required that a prospective member spend some time with the club members to see if there was a good fit. Clubs develop personalities and it seems to me that a prospective member needs to learn that personality and determine whether he or she will fit. By the same token, the club members have to try to get a feel for the prospective member. Do they have the same goals for a club? For some its building time as cheaply as possible, for others its getting ratings, while for most, in my observation, its having access to reasonably priced, well-maintained, clean airplanes for recreational flying, travel and skill level-up. Ive seen big fights in clubs where there was not care taken to assure there was a fitmost often it was between those who recognized that flying isnt cheap and were willing to pay what it cost to maintain the airplanes in good condition versus those who were constantly complaining that the club was wasting money on the airplanes, that it needed to cut rental prices and it wasnt worth the cost to fix little things that broke or wore out such as a turn coordinator, number two navcomm or a pilots side window that had a hole punched in it. Some of the best clubs Ive observed have a formal get-acquainted procedure for potential new members. The prospect has to give the club a check for the membership fee right awaybut the club doesnt cash it until the prospect actually becomes a member. Its returned immediately if the prospect isnt voted into membership. Monthly membership meetings are mandatory and are socialso members can stay acquainted and can meet prospective members. In one club there is a monthly day to wash some or all of the airplanes. If you dont show, your monthly dues are a bit higher. A prospect gets the idea that this clubs members like clean airplanesand is willing to follow the club rule requiring that the windshield is cleaned and bugs scrubbed off the leading edges after every flight. What About the Deadwood? No matter how careful a club is, some of its members will become a problem. There are those who never fly but pay their dues like clockwork. We claim to like them because they arent going to be competing with us for getting access to a club airplane. However, the fact that they dont fly means that they may be a menace when and if they do. They have a tendency to suddenly show up and go flying on short notice. They also have a tendency to land on nosewheels or lose control on landing in a crosswind. In my experience, good clubs haveand enforcerules that require dual instruction if a member hasnt flown as PIC within a certain period time. The opposite problem is the member who flies a lot but doesnt pay the billor takes months to do so. To my knowledge, there are no flying clubs in the U.S. that are licensed as banksthey should not be in the position of making loans to members to finance their flying time. In my observation of flying clubs, Ive noticed that the successful ones have procedures in their rules for dealing with members who are slow in paying their bills. (And every new club member has to sign a statement that she or he agrees to and will comply with the terms of the club rules and future changes.) Most have an escalating series of late feeseither a specific number of dollars or an increasing percentage of the outstanding balance. They also cut off the offending members ability to schedule, or fly, any club aircraft. Thats become easier as computerized scheduling has become the rule at more and more clubs. Having said that, there are times that members simply stop paying their bills and cannot be persuaded to do so. I was in a club in which a member stopped paying his bills and had to be prohibited from scheduling and flying, even as he blithely explained that he certainly had paidthere must be some mistake. Under increasing pressure his excuses mounted, and we watched what we later learned was the classic behavior of an extortionistsmooth, charming, glib and utterly unwilling to admit that he owed the club any money. The club had to sue him in small claims court and then garnish his wages when he still didnt pay. Thats when we found out that he owed money all over town and that we werent the only ones garnishing his wages. For members who exhibit a general lack of respect for club airplanes, club members and/or club rules/FARs, my observation of successful clubs shows a common thread: The club has reasonable rulesnot anal-retentive marching ordersand a person designated to counsel members on compliance. The person is usually the club president, chief instructor or a safety officer who is an experienced pilot (usually a CFI). The club, and the designated counselor, keep a written record of observed or reported transgressions by the offending member. It may be as small as a hangar door left open or failing to clean the windshield after a flightthe sort of small matter that can be the subject of counseling the first time and a $20 additional fee on the members monthly invoice each successive time. Most of the time, small matters such as that are because the member was in a hurry or got distracted. A chat with the offender often means the problem never happens again. Nightmares Then there are the true nightmares. I was in a club in which an instrument student filed IFR so he and two friends could make a trip in a club airplane on an IMC day. He was a few hours of dual away from his instrument checkride. He went up to the control tower to copy down his instrument clearancetelling the controllers that he wanted to make sure he got it right. The tower chief sensed that something was amiss and called the flying club (it had an office on the airport). The chief instructor was there and waited for the member at the airplane the member had reserved for the trip. The chief instructor informed the member that his membership was terminated immediately. Ive been told of a club member who would fill in some other club members name and club number on the paperwork after a flight in an attempt to have someone else pay for his flying time. There was no second chance for that member; he was gone. I was told by the member of a good-sized club that he was walking back from putting an airplane into its hangar after a flight when he looked into an open hangar he was passing. He saw another club member in the hangar, hitting his girlfriend. Shocked, the observer immediately called the club president. The club president called the offender who didnt deny his actionsbut said they were his business, not that of the club. The offender was kicked out of the club. Some years later the club president told me that he wished hed been smart enough to go to the police a file a complaint and had been mentally kicking himself over not handling the situation even more aggressively. Problematic More problematic are the members who simply dont like rules and are constantly pushing them. If the club VFR minimums are a 3000-foot ceiling and five miles visibility, the member will insist on going when its 1000 and three. When called on it, hell point out that he was legal under the FARs and is so experienced that he doesnt have to comply with the conservative club regulations. In talking with people who have run flying clubs, Ive come to be of the opinion that for those rule pushers its wise to address the problem the first time it comes upusually with a directed conversation by the club designate for that sort of thing. Its also important to document the event and the conversation. If the pilot does anything but admit that he screwed up and will make sure it doesnt happen again, its time to start keeping an eye on the pilot. If his response is to try and deflect blame, claim that hes so good that its OK for him to fly below club minimums and/or attack the club representative, do one of two things: Tell the pilot that hes had his one warning and a second major disregard of club rules such as this will get him tossed out of the club so hard that hell bounce or immediately start the clubs internal procedure to expel the member. There are those cases where the pilot can show that she or he got a forecast for weather that was above club minimums and the forecast didnt hold up and the pilot completed the trip safely for the last 20 miles in WX that was well above FAR minimums but below club minimums. The pilot shows a good attitude about club rules, everyone goes away happy and the problem probably never repeats itself. Flying Clubs are for Fun Flying We join flying clubs to help cut down the cost of flying and socialize with other pilotsits fun. We volunteer to take on a lot of work without pay to make sure that the flying club runs smoothlythe airplanes are maintained, club finances are kept healthy, tax returns are filed, and members get guidance to help them fly safely. Ive held Board positions in flying clubs and burned the midnight oil as a volunteer to make sure flying club business got done. Its all been worth it. Ive made the closest friendships of my life because of flying club memberships. Ive been able to afford flying in some cool airplanes that never could have happened had I been limited to what was on the line at local FBOs. At the same time, I recognize that there is an unpleasant side to flying club membership. Members have to self-police their club. While an individual member may not be on the Board of Directors and have the unpleasant task of dealing with rogue members, each member has an individual obligation to help make sure that club rules are set up to allow getting rid of the true deadwood in the cluband not those who are just unpopular or differentso as to maintain a high level of safety among the club pilots. While a club member may not be legally liable following the crash of a club airplane flown by another club member, there is always going to be the question in the members mind: Was there something I could have done to have prevented he accident? Ninety-nine percent of the time flying club membership is a pleasant experience. The one percent of the time its not pleasant is when you have an obligation to the future success of the club and the safety of your fellow members, and you have to get involved with the process of dealing with a member who is unsafe or disrespectful of the clubs airplanes and/or members. It may be the price you pay for less expensive flying. It also requires that you step up and deal with your obligation to assess the behavior of the member alleged to be a problem in a fair, unbiased manner, using the club rules for guidance and take the steps you objectively believe are right. Losing a pilot friend to a crash and thinking to yourself that I saw this coming and not having done all that you could to prevent the crash is one of the most horrible feelings youll ever have in aviation. I know. Ive been there. Alternatively, kicking a friend out of a flying club is a tough decision to make, but it may just keep him or her alive. Rick Durden is a CFII, holds an ATP with type ratings in the Douglas DC-3 and Cessna Citation and is the author ofThe Thinking Pilots Flight Manual or, How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing it, Vols. 1 & 2. Advertisement By The Associated Press Apr. 17, 2019 | LITTLETON, CO By The Associated Press Apr. 17, 2019 | 07:01 AM | LITTLETON, CO A Florida teenager who authorities say was obsessed with the Columbine school shooting and may have been planning an attack in Colorado just ahead of the 20th anniversary was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide after a nearly 24-hour manhunt. The body of 18-year-old high schooler Sol Pais was discovered in the mountains outside Denver with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound after investigators got a tip from the driver who took her there, the FBI said. During the manhunt, Denver-area schools closed as a precaution, with classes and extracurricular activities canceled for a half-million students. Police and the FBI were tipped off about Pais after the Miami Beach high school student made troubling remarks to others about her infatuation with the 1999 bloodbath at Columbine High and this weekends anniversary of the 13 killings, said Dean Phillips, FBI agent in charge in Denver. He did not elaborate on what she said. Pais purchased three one-way tickets to Denver on three consecutive days, then flew in on Monday night and went directly to a gun store, where she bought a shotgun, authorities said. By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 17, 2019 | 10:03 PM | PADUCAH; KNOXVILLE A doctor from Paducah is among eight people indicted in Tennessee and dozens nationwide, as federal officials fight illegal prescribing and distribution of opioids and other drugs.According to US Attorney General William Barr, on Tuesday a federal grand jury indicted 58-year-old Dr. Henry Babenco of Paducah, who is associated with the LaFollette Wellness Center in Lafollette, Tennessee. Three other associates at Lafollette were also indicted; 53-year-old Sharon Naylor, 29-year-old Alicia Taylor, and 54-year-old Gregory Madron. All were indicted on the charge of conspiracy to distribute Schedule II controlled drugs. Naylor and Babenco were also charged with money laundering in the investigation.Three other doctors from Knoxville, Maryville and Manchester were also indicted Tuesday. Another Maryville doctor was indicted April 2.In total, 60 defendants have been charged in 11 federal districts. They include 31 doctors, 7 pharmacists, 8 nurse practitioners, and 7 other licensed medical professionals."The opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region," Attorney General William P. Barr said. "But the Department of Justice is doing its part to help end this crisis." On the Net: Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presides over a symposium about solving prominent problems including meeting the basic needs of food and clothing and guaranteeing compulsory education, basic medical care and housing in southwest China's Chongqing, April 16, 2019. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for greater efforts to win the battle against poverty on time and realize the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects as scheduled. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the statement during an inspection tour to southwest China's Chongqing Municipality from Monday to Wednesday. During the inspection, Xi also presided over and delivered a speech at a symposium to address the problems concerning the basic living needs of rural poor populations and their access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. VISITS TO THE POOR After arriving in Chongqing, the president took an over-three-hour trip, by train and then by road, to a mountainous village in Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County on Monday. When visiting a primary school there, Xi promised to ensure children in poor mountainous regions go to school and have a happy childhood. Stopping by the house of Tan Dengzhou, an impoverished villager, Xi learned that Tan and his wife were unable to work due to illness and thus faced financial difficulties. People who still live under the poverty line or slip back into poverty due to illness should be the priority of poverty alleviation projects, Xi said, adding that they should receive support such as minimum-living allowances, medical insurance and medical aid. At the home of Ma Peiqing, a veteran CPC member who has shaken off poverty, Xi sat in the yard, chatting with the villagers, primary-level officials and village doctors. "Not a single person should be left behind in the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Xi said. "Socialism means development. Development must serve the common prosperity for everyone." He told the CPC members and cadres to work on the frontline in fighting poverty. POVERTY RELIEF PRIORITIES At the symposium Tuesday afternoon, Xi said that the basic requirement and key indicator for the poverty alleviation goal by 2020 are that rural poor people have no worry about food and clothing and have access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. At the crucial stage in winning the battle against poverty, heads of Party committees and governments at the provincial level should take up their responsibilities, he said. Efforts should be made to work out detailed and concrete measures, target genuinely poor households, and prevent the reoccurrence of poverty to those who had been lifted out, according to Xi. In addition to deepening the campaign against corruption and improper conduct in poverty alleviation, Xi also called for timely compensation and long-term support to families of officials who have sacrificed their lives to the cause. DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN REGION After hearing the work reports from Chongqing's Party and government officials Wednesday morning, Xi hoped that Chongqing will act as a major drive in boosting the development of China's western region in the new era, play a leading role in promoting the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and become a model in advancing green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Xi asked Chongqing to take the lead in the western region to firmly promote the reform and opening-up and meticulously prepare for and carry out the events celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China. The officials were told to address issues closely related to people's lives, such as education, employment, social security, healthcare, housing, environmental protection, and public security. They were also instructed to foster high-caliber officials that are loyal, clean and responsible, and crack down on the practice of formalities for formalities' sake and bureaucratism. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with students at a primary school in Zhongyi Township of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. From April 15 to 17, Xi made an inspection tour to Chongqing. He also presided over and delivered a speech at a symposium to address the problems concerning the basic living needs of rural poor populations and their access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with students at a primary school in Zhongyi Township of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. Xi went on an inspection tour in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Monday. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits poverty-stricken villager Tan Dengzhou's home in Huaxi Village of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. Xi went on an inspection tour in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Monday. [Xinhua/Liu Bin] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with villagers, primary-level officials, cadres in charge of poverty alleviation work and village doctors in Huaxi Village of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. From April 15 to 17, Xi made an inspection tour to Chongqing. He also presided over and delivered a speech at a symposium to address the problems concerning the basic living needs of rural poor populations and their access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with villagers to learn about the progress of poverty alleviation and in solving prominent problems including meeting the basic need of food and clothing and guaranteeing compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing, in Huaxi Village of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. Xi went on an inspection tour in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Monday. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with canteen staff members at a primary school in Zhongyi Township of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. Xi went on an inspection tour in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Monday. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, walks to a villager's home to learn about the progress of poverty alleviation and in solving prominent problems including meeting the basic need of food and clothing and guaranteeing compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing, in Huaxi Village of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. Xi went on an inspection tour in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Monday. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with a villager to learn about the progress of poverty alleviation and in solving prominent problems including meeting the basic need of food and clothing and guaranteeing compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing, in Huaxi Village of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. Xi went on an inspection tour in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Monday. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with villagers in Huaxi Village of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. Xi went on an inspection tour in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Monday. [Xinhua/Ding Haitao] (Source: Xinhua) Pupils of Baisha Primary School read books donated to them in Yexi Town, Yuexi County of east China's Anhui Province, April 17, 2019. More than 600 books were donated to pupils at the Baisha Primary School and a "bus library" was set up here, which offers convenience for pupils in the mountainous area to read books. [Xinhua/Zhang Duan] [China Daily/ Jiang Dong] Traditional paper cutting craft varies from place to place in China; and in Jingle county, Shanxi Province, this folk art on paper which has been passed down for centuries is known for depicting subjects in an unsophisticated style and transmitting a simple, primitive touch. More than 100 paper cutting pieces by Jingle artisans, dated to the early 20th century, are on display through April 20 at the Prince Kung's Mansion in Beijing. The exhibition also celebrates the joint efforts by artisans and researchers of traditional crafts to assemble and categorize patterns found on Jingle's paper cutting works. The exhibition will further travel to other cities including Fuzhou, Fujian Province and Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. [China Daily/ Jiang Dong] [China Daily/ Jiang Dong] [China Daily/ Jiang Dong] (Source: China Daily) As a flurry of animated "thumbs-up" and "like" icons popped up on her mobile phone, 24-year-old fruit farmer Han Mei attracted over 5,000 viewers on her livestream during one recent afternoon. Unlike other "cyber stars" doing livestreams of musical performances or of themselves playing games, Han attracted 90,000 followers by selling fruit, such as peaches and persimmons, and sharing her country life in her hometown of Difang town in East China's Shandong province. Over the past nine months, the turnover of her online store has exceeded 1.1 million yuan ($163,800), with the highest single-day turnover reaching 50,000 yuan. Difang, located in the Yimeng Mountain area, used to be a major poverty region. It is just one of the many areas benefiting from e-commerce and livestreaming. On Taobao, a large online shopping website run by Alibaba, over 100,000 farmers are doing the same thing as Han, holding a total of more than 60,000 livestreaming broadcasts every month. "Selling products online is not only a change in sales method, but it also shows the improving quality of Chinese agricultural products and an upgrading of the agricultural industry," said Zhang Qingjin, director of the Institute of Agricultural Development at the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences. The government has been encouraging the use of e-commerce to alleviate poverty in recent years. The country has pledged to deepen agricultural supply-side structural reform and win the tough battle against poverty, according to the No 1 Central Document released by the central authorities in February. In recent years, Difang has committed to developing new varieties of fruits, such as peaches and plums, and to moving up the value chain. It is now known as China's "town of canned fruit". "Almost every household has one member working in the canned fruit industry," said Zhang Guanlin, deputy head of Difang. With 120 companies in the industry, the town produces 750,000 metric tons of canned fruit every year, with an annual turnover of 7 billion yuan. Companies such as Taobao have advanced government efforts in introducing special poverty alleviation programs to train farmer livestreamers and help countryside sellers promote their products. "Farmer internet celebrities have set a good example for farmers to mobilize themselves in fighting poverty," said Zhang, the institute director. "They also help advance the country's rural revitalization by earning their hometowns a reputation and creating a 'cyber star economy'." (Source: China Daily) Easy money can make life sweet, but borrowers may experience stress and suffering. While their parents scrimp and save, putting every possible penny in the bank, the younger generation are more at ease with adopting luxurious lifestyles and spending as they wish, even with borrowed money. In May last year, Xu Na hired a personal trainer for two months at a cost of about 5,000 yuan ($744), which was almost equivalent to her monthly salary as an office assistant in Fuzhou, Fujian province. The cost didn't deter the 26-year-old, though. She borrowed the money through Jiebei, an online provider of small loans operated by Alibaba's Ant Financial Services Group. Under the terms of the loan, she was allowed to repay the debt in installments over six months. More loans followed through Jiebei. In June, she borrowed 3,000 yuan to pay for an English course, and in August she obtained a further 5,000 yuan for plastic surgery to give her double-fold eyelids, which she considers more beautiful. In total, she owed 13,000 yuan. According to a report by Zhaopin, an online recruitment platform in Beijing, about 22 percent of 16,000 white-collar workers it surveyed last year were in debt, while about 20 percent had savings ranging from 10,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan. "In addition to their salary, which determines how much they can borrow, more young people are using credit services, which directly affects the amount they are able to save," the report said. Overspending "I never hesitate when I want to buy something I like, because I want to live in the present and treat myself well," said Xu, who has worked for four years but doesn't have much money left each month after paying her rent and buying daily necessities. A report by Ant Financial, which is best-known as an online payment platform, underlines that tendency, noting that last year about 56 percent of people age 35 or younger had no savings. For the 44 percent who have started saving, the average amount they can put away per month is just 1,389 yuan, according to the report, based on 280,000 responses. Moreover, a report released by Haier Consumer Finance Co, a provider of financial services, showed that those with an annual income of 80,000 yuan or less accounted for about 80 percent of the 4.5 million people in more than 300 cities who used credit services last year. Those born in the 1990s accounted for about 43.5 percent of the total, while the proportion of those born in the 1980s was 36.7 percent, according to Haier. After graduating in July, Deng Yu started work as a lawyer's assistant in Shanghai, earning 5,500 yuan a month. His basic living costs are between 3,000 and 3,500 yuan a month, including rent of 1,800 yuan for a bedroom of about 8 square meters and a small, shared living space, and buying three meals a day - often takeout fast-food. "My living expenses can't get any lower. I live near my office in downtown Shanghai, so the rent is a little high, and I don't have time to cook because I usually work overtime and feel exhausted afterward," the 27-year-old said. Deng usually spends the rest of his income on hanging out with friends at weekends or buying tickets for the theater. In January, he flew to Dubai for a weeklong vacation. "I don't want to lower my standard of living, and spending is a good way to relax. However, because I don't have any savings, I sometimes worry about emergencies that could arise in the future," he said, adding that he believes his salary will rise. Easy Money In recent years, many e-commerce companies such as Alibaba and JD have started offering consumer credit services, making it much easier for people to satisfy their desire to consume. For example, people windowshopping on Taobao or JD can not only see the basic price of the goods, but also the options for payment by installments and the extra cost of doing so. "This method tempts me to make a decision when I am hesitating about buying something out of my reach. When you visit e-commerce websites, it's easy to see promotions for shopping on credit," said Wang Guobo, a Beijing resident. Wang made his first credit-based purchase in 2015, when he bought a set of headphones from Taobao for 2,700 yuan. At the time, he was a graduate student with a monthly income of about 2,000 yuan from part-time jobs. Wang got the headphones by borrowing money from the Ant Check Later service offered by Ant Financial, and repaid 250 yuan a month for 12 months, bringing the total cost to 3,000 yuan. "It was convenient and easy to get the money, despite my low credit rating. The interest was a little high, but I didn't need to ask my parents for money or borrow from friends," he said. "After all, it was just a couple of thousand yuan. If I had turned to my parents, maybe they would have complained that the headphones were too expensive. The monthly installments were easily affordable, and I could enjoy the headphones earlier (than if he had saved for them)." A little later, he borrowed more money to buy a smartphone, again paying in monthly installments over a year. The 30-year-old, who now earns about 10,000 yuan a month in Beijing, still uses credit frequently. "If you plan carefully and are sensible about the amount you borrow, the 'buy now, pay later' experience is a good one," he said. Problems Despite the relative ease of borrowing, there is a downside. People who spend more than their salary to satisfy their hunger for consumption may experience stress-related problems and even leave themselves open to long-term debt. Zou Jianjie, 25, does not have a stable salary. He usually earns a few thousand yuan a month as a salesman in Jinan, Shandong province, but he never balks at prices in the restaurants he takes his girlfriend to or the gifts he buys for her. As a result of this unplanned spending and his unstable income, he often struggles to make it through to payday at the end of the month. He occasionally borrows money from an older cousin to relieve his straitened finances. Sometimes he asks for just a few hundred yuan, but last month the figure was 2,000 yuan. Xu Na said she learned her lesson from the debt she incurred last year. "The money comes quickly, after just a few clicks on your phone," she said. "After you borrow the first time, you try again and may even become addicted." The second half of last year was touch-and-go for her because she had to repay 2,000 to 2,500 yuan a month from June to January. The monthly installments crippled her financially, given that she earns about 5,000 yuan a month and her rent accounts for 1,500 yuan of that sum. "I reduced my other expenses to the lowest possible level. I didn't take taxis, have my hair styled or drink coffee. I even filled my stomach by eating the free cakes and fruit at my company's afternoon tea parties so I could skip dinner," she said. In January, when Xu finally paid off all her debts, she felt an overwhelming sense of relief. "I really got to know about pinching and scraping from that experience," she said. "I didn't tell my parents or ask friends for help; after all, it was my choice to borrow the money, so I had to deal with the fallout on my own." [China Daily] (Source: China Daily) . . , 10 , ... Life-saving defibrillators fitted in Roads Policing vehicles across North Wales This article is old - Published: Thursday, Apr 18th, 2019 Life-saving defibrillators have been fitted in Roads Policing Unit vehicles and GoSafe vans across the region. Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) will allow officers and staff to provide potentially life-saving care in emergencies. The Minister for Health and Social Services has made Welsh Government funding available to enable the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust to purchase the AED for use by North Wales Police. As part of the initiative, police officers equipped with defibrillators, who are available to respond, will be alerted to a potential cardiac arrest at the same time as ambulance crews, which means that if they reach the patient first, or are already on scene, they can begin providing life-saving treatment until a skilled clinician arrives. Armed Alliance Officers already carry defibrillators in all of their vehicles. Superintendent Jane Banham of the Roads Policing Unit said: The new devices mean the difference between life and death, because if someone is in cardiac arrest time is of the essence. A number of our officers have been trained in the use of the defibrillators and this will allow them to provide enhanced medical aid if required when they are first on the scene of serious incidents. We are delighted to be working with the Welsh Ambulance Service to help save lives across North Wales. Equipping our Roads Policing officers with this essential life-saving equipment will enable the team to respond to these critical life or death emergency calls. The equipment has been fitted into some Roads Policing Vehicles and GoSafe vans and will be deployed in cases of out of hospital cardiac arrests in support of Ambulance Service colleagues. Defibrillators have also been installed in other police vehicles in the Gwynedd South area due to their rural location. Carl Powell from the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust said: We are delighted to work in partnership with North Wales Police as part of Save A life Cymru which supports the installation of public access defibrillators. This is a great step forward in supporting the communities of North Wales in improving early access to a defibrillator which is an essential part of the chain of survival. The defibrillators can be used at a cardiac arrest by any member of the public, no formal training is required. The devices are designed to give clear instructions to the user to ensure the safety of both the rescuer and the patient without any prior knowledge or experience. (Click for large) Suspended sentence for man who preyed on elderly in attempt to gain 28k for roof that did not need fixing This article is old - Published: Thursday, Apr 18th, 2019 A cold caller who tried to carry out unnecessary work on an elderly couples property to the tune of 28,000 has been sentenced. Laurence Newberry was found guilty last month to three offences under Consumer Protection laws In July 2017 he approached an 80-year-old householder and offered to do minor repairs on the roof of his home. Once on the property the minor repairs quickly became a claim by the defendant that the entire roof required urgent replacement at a cost of 28,000. Under pressure because of the threat of failure of the existing roof the householder agreed to work being done which started the same day. However, Public Protections Trading Standards officers intervened and prevented the work from being completed and revealed that there was nothing wrong with the existing roof and that price quoted was more than double the reasonable cost of replacement. Mr Newberry was given 12 months per offence (three in total) suspended for 18 months. He was also ordered to pay 1000 compensation to the elderly couple, carry out 300 hours community service, given a Criminal Behaviour Order for five years to prevent him from cold calling by phone/in person across the UK and 2500 costs awarded. Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities, Partnerships, Public Protection and Community Safety, said: This sentence sends a clear message to those who prey on elderly people that this sort of behaviour will not be accepted and Trading Standards and the courts will do everything in their power to ensure they are brought to justice and punished. It is also great to see the court using its powers to impose a criminal behaviour order and control future conduct. If this offender is caught knocking on doors, regardless of his motive, anywhere in the UK in the next five years he risks a prison sentence for contempt of court Advice from from Trading Standards, adds: If you think you might need work doing, find reputable traders and obtain a few quotes before agreeing to get work done. Check when and how payment will be made. Use recommendations and make sure you have the full details of any business before you commit to work. If you are unsure get help from friends or family. Never agree to work offered by cold callers on the doorstep. If you see anything suspicious or you want to report an incident call police on 101 or Citizens Advice Consumer Services on 03454 040506. (Click for large) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-17 23:33:44|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Gabriel Felbermayr (rear), President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), addresses a workshop titled "Global Challenges and Global Solutions" in Kiel, Germany, April 16, 2019. The workshop entitled "Global Challenges and Global Solutions" was held on Tuesday at Kiel, a famous harbor city in northern Germany. About 40 scholars from Chinese and German think tanks shared their research and opinions on a variety of topics such as the new industrialization process, the Belt and Road Initiative, global governance and 5G policy. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi) BERLIN, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Relying on the Belt and Road Initiative, we can promote the application of appropriate technologies in developing countries, and promote inclusive global development, said Xie Fuzhan, President of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), during a workshop held by high-ranking think tanks of China and Germany. The workshop entitled "Global Challenges and Global Solutions" was held on Tuesday at Kiel, a famous harbor city in northern Germany. About 40 scholars from Chinese and German think tanks shared their research and opinions on a variety of topics such as the new industrialization process, the Belt and Road Initiative, global governance and 5G policy. "Key technologies such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and 5G are making breakthroughs and being commercialized at a faster pace, heralding a new era of industrial revolution," Xie said. Gabriel Felbermayr, President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), said the Belt and Road Initiative brings big opportunity for Germany to trade with China and Central Asia with lower transportation costs and higher efficiency. And in order to make these things work, what we need is honest and friendly cooperation. Dirk Dohse, a senior economist at Ifw, pointed out that the increased speed of technological change, the digital revolution and the rise of artificial intelligence challenged existing economic structures and the competitive position of traditional technology and industry leaders like Germany. "There are big challenges ahead, but opportunities of new world order are clearly much bigger. Therefore our two countries Germany and China should work together to defend free trade and international exchange, and to reform the current world trade order in a transparent way," Dohse stressed. "We have calculated that the trade cost in this economic area could fall by 3 percent, due to an upgrade of infrastructure. We look at the project with a lot of hope and it could increase trade imports and exports and also help us bring economic dynamism to the Central Asian," said Felbermayr. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is the largest and social science research institution and a high-ranking think tank in China. And the Kiel Institute for the World Economy was founded in 1914, and it is the oldest and one of the most prestigious economic research institutes in Germany. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 01:05:35|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BRUSSELS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Gruyere cheese, cuckoo clocks and jumbo jets may not appear to have much in common, but as the United States prepares countermeasures in a growing trade dispute with the European Union, tit-for-tat over subsidies to aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing loom over the future of customs duties for products as various as French wine and German electronics. And on Wednesday, Brussels flexes its own muscles, adding coal, cod and handbags to a list of goods worth 20 billion U.S. dollars that it plans to levy as retaliation against U.S. subsidies to Boeing. At the heart of the dispute are dueling claims by Washington over European support for Airbus, and on the part of Brussels, for U.S. aid for Boeing, that have led to both sides claiming victory in a series of litigation procedures at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The more than 14-year dispute, however, reveals the persistent tensions in what is anything but a win-win situation. The dispute began in 2004 when the United States requested a WTO consultation, which is an official complaint procedure, over European aid to Airbus, giving the European manufacturer an unfair advantage in the Large Civil Aircraft (LCA) marketplace. Washington specifically contested financing for design and development in the form of "launch aid", governmental grants and goods for development, preferential loans, debt-forgiveness, and other measures which directly supported the development of Airbus products, aircraft ranging from the A300 to the A380. The following year, in 2005, the European Union lodged its own WTO consultation request against the U.S. for subsidies it claimed having been provided to American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, leading to unfair prejudice and cost-suppression in the LCA sector. The complaint from Brussels targeted local support in the form of tax programs and business incentives for Boeing facilities in several U.S. states, such as Washington and South Carolina; payments and access to facilities, equipment and employees provided by NASA in relation to multiple R&D contracts; as well as through 23 Department of Defense (DOD) contracts; intellectual property "waivers" and "transfers" from NASA/DOD programs; and other U.S. programs the EU claimed to be in fact subsidies. Both disputes have gone through a lengthy series of panel investigations and subsequent appeals, with the WTO finding in May 2018 that the EU had provided subsidies to Airbus that were not compliant with WTO rules. Following the ruling, Brussels focused on the WTO finding that many of the subsidies in question had expired in 2011, while Washington made a request for WTO authorization to impose retaliatory tariffs of 11 billion U.S. dollars per year. The EU's complaint, meanwhile, was also partially upheld, with the WTO finding on March 28, 2019 that the U.S. had continued to provide a range of subsidies to Boeing that had earlier been judged out of compliance with WTO rules. Now the EU has a list of U.S. exports worth 20 billion dollars that it wants to levy, pending on the approval of the WTO. WTO decisions on the amount of acceptable levies in both cases are expected later. With both parties arguing that illegal subsidies helped displace aircraft sales in markets such as China and India, while both claiming victory and preparing retaliatory measures, the dispute appears far from over, despite Brussels' call for dialogue on Wednesday. This seems particularly true as the trade dispute melds with other transatlantic trade tensions, such as those brought on by U.S. tariffs introduced in 2018 on European steel and aluminum and EU's countermeasures. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 01:20:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi parliament on Wednesday passed a draft requesting the federal government to ban electronic games that incite violence for their negative impact on the Iraqi society. The parliament resolution banned what it considered most addictive online video games such as PUBG, Fortnite and Blue Whale, as they are threatening social, moral and educational security," a parliament statement said. These games have a negative impact on children, youths and students, specifically regarding their education, the statement added. Iraqi media reports recently said a number of Iraqi provinces, including the capital Baghdad, have witnessed many cases of divorce because of the wide spread of the PUBG game among Iraqis. Meanwhile, several Iraqi religious leaders, including the prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, also warned Iraqi people to be wary of getting addicted to PUBG which turned its players aggressive. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 01:25:44|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Chinese Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Ji Ping (L) and Deputy Minister of Communications and Transport of BiH Sasa Dalipagic sign memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), on April 17, 2019. Sasa Dalipagic and Ji Ping signed here Wednesday two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on media cooperation and the establishment of think tank cooperation between the two countries. (Xinhua/Nedim Grabovica) SARAJEVO, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH's) Deputy Minister of Communication and Transport Sasa Dalipagic and Chinese Ambassador to BiH Ji Ping signed here Wednesday two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on media cooperation and the establishment of think tank cooperation between the two countries. The signing of the memorandums is done in "the desire to further strengthen the cooperation between the two friendly countries", Dalipagic said after the signing ceremony. When it comes to joint cooperation, Dalipagic said that both countries will organize forums, seminars and roundtables, with a mutual exchange of experiences and attitudes on issues of common interest. He emphasized that the MoU on media cooperation, envisaged to "establish a mechanism that will foster cooperation between the field of publishing, broadcasting, film, television and print", includes news exchange, joint coverage of programs, mutual visits, as well as fostering wider coverage of economic, cultural and social news. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 02:16:07|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Photo taken on March 18, 2019 shows the Nile floating hospital cruise ship in Qena, Egypt. In early March, Rotary Egypt, a branch of the International Rotary Club, launched the Egypt's first ever Nile floating hospital cruise ship on a 90-day journey on the Nile River to sail to Egypt's different cities and provinces between Aswan and Cairo. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) by Ahmed Shafiq QENA, Egypt, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Romany Sayed, a 35-year-old taxi driver from Upper Egypt's Qena Province, has spent large amounts of money on the treatment of his four-year-old sick daughter Jillian, but with no tangible results. Jillian, who suffers from nerves and hearing problems, is finally receiving free treatment at Egypt's first ever Nile floating hospital cruise ship, a solidarity project that aims at providing medical treatment to children and mothers in Upper Egypt. In early March, Rotary Egypt, a branch of the International Rotary Club, launched the giant medical ship on a 90-day journey on the Nile River to sail to Egypt's different cities and provinces between Aswan and Cairo. The ship, the first of its kind in the Middle East, has been transformed into a travelling hospital equipped with clinics, laboratories and a pharmacy. The project, which targets the poorest areas of Upper and Lower Egypt, has also seen massive collaboration from different governmental and non-governmental institutions in Egypt, including the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Solidarity and a big number of nongovernmental organizations and companies. "My daughter has been suffering since she was born," Sayed told Xinhua as one of the doctors at the floating hospital checked his child. "I have spent money and efforts to treat her, but nothing has worked out." After visiting large numbers of physicians in various Egyptian cities, including the capital Cairo, Sayed learnt from his neighbors that the floating hospital will visit his city, Qena, to offer free treatment for children in need. "I did not think twice after I knew it provides services for free," Sayed said, adding his income is not enough to afford treatment of his daughter. "I spent huge sums of money in treating her, but I cannot afford this anymore," he said sadly. Nevine Nakhla, a representative of Rotary Egypt on the floating hospital, said her organization, which has 103 clubs in the North African country, launched this project to mark the 90th anniversary of Rotary's presence in Egypt. Doctors, nurses, specialists, and pharmacists are all working voluntarily "to make this dream come true," she added. "The hospital has 20 clinics covering almost all majors," Nakhla told Xinhua, adding the hospital provides medical screenings and medicines for free. She pointed out that the ship will stay for one week in each province, noting the hospital aims to treat 1,000 children each day. "In Aswan, our volunteer doctors diagnosed and treated more than 11,000 children in one week," she revealed, adding children came from various areas in Aswan, Kom Ombo and Esna as well as the Nubian villages nearby. Nakhla also said partners of Rotary Egypt, including health ministry, will provide the needed medicines, glasses, hearing aids, wheelchairs and artificial limbs for children. "University hospitals of each province will also do surgeries for children for free," Nakhla proudly said. "This is the best example of solidarity among Egyptians." According to her, Rotary plans to launch this project once every year in order to help people in remote and poor areas receive free medical care. At the hearing clinic, the doctor Waleed Mohammed was busy screening children, using high-tech medical equipment. "We receive large numbers of children every day ... Many of them have hearing problems," Mohammed said as he diagnosed a child. The physician noted that the clinic doctors do their best to identify the health problems, adding the hospital has so far offered dozens of hearing aids to sick children. "This is project is of great value and it should continue," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 03:27:03|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Albanian President Ilir Meta (R) meets with Zhang Qingli, vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, who heads a visiting delegation of the CPPCC National Committee, in Tirana, Albania, April 16, 2019. (Xinhua/Chinese Embassy in Albania) TIRANA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Albanian President Ilir Meta has met with a delegation of Chinese political advisors here in the country's capital. The delegation was led by Zhang Qingli, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). During the meeting on Tuesday, Zhang conveyed to Meta the cordial greetings and best wishes from Chinese President Xi Jinping. Zhang said this year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Albania. He sincerely hoped that the traditional friendship between the two countries will last forever. China cherishes the political mutual trust with Albania and is willing to work with the Albanian side to continue implementing the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and take the opportunity of jointly building the Belt and Road to push for more achievements in China-Albanian friendly cooperation, said the vice chairman. Meta spoke highly of the friendly relations between the two countries and extended his congratulations on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. He thanked China for its valuable support to Albania, and expressed the wish to further strengthen high-level exchanges between the two countries, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and inject new impetus into the relations between Central and Eastern European Countries and China. Zhang also met with Deputy Speaker of Albanian Parliament Vasilika Hysi and members of the Albania-China Parliamentary Group of Friendship. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 04:07:25|Editor: zh Video Player Close Wu Haitao (C, front), China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, addresses a Security Council meeting on the situation in Sudan and South Sudan, at the UN headquarters in New York, April 17, 2019. A Chinese envoy said Wednesday that it is imperative to continue to advance the political and peace processes in Darfur of Sudan. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said Wednesday that it is imperative to continue to advance the political and peace processes in Darfur of Sudan. "At present, Darfur is at a key juncture, transitioning from peacekeeping to peacebuilding. The international community should continue to advance relevant political and peace processes in a bid to achieve steady and smooth transition," Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council meeting on the situation in Sudan and South Sudan. "All parties should continue to exercise restraint, avoid use of force, and jointly safeguard peace and stability in Darfur," he said. "Some opposition and armed groups should abandon military solution in real earnest, actively participate in the peace process, resolve their tensions and differences politically through dialogue and consultation," the Chinese envoy said. Speaking of the humanitarian situation, the Chinese ambassador said, "It is necessary to continue to provide humanitarian assistance and economic support, as the humanitarian situation in Darfur is still challenging." "The foundation for economic and social development is still weak," he added. "These factors will affect the long-term peace and stability of Darfur. The international community should continue to honor its commitment by actively providing humanitarian assistance and economic support." "The current focus should be on helping with the return and settlement of Sudanese internally-displaced persons (IDPs), building and improving local infrastructure, and improving the agricultural development," he added. Wu expressed China's appreciation of the necessary support of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and other relevant bodies for Sudan's reconstruction and development. "China commends UNAMID's (AU/UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur) contribution to the maintenance of peace and stability in Darfur and supports its continued activities according to the mandate, to ensure the implementation of the mandated priorities," the Chinese envoy said. "China hopes the UN Secretariat and African Union can keep in close contact and conduct full and objective assessment of issues such as the implementation of UNAMID's transitional plan and Darfur's transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding, so as to provide timely and feasible suggestions to the Security Council," he added. The Chinese envoy stressed that the international community should respect the decisions made by the Sudanese people themselves and adhere to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs. "Along with the wide international community, China stands ready to jointly play a constructive role in promoting stability and development of Sudan and Darfur. The briefing took place less than one week after the ousting of President Omar al-Bashir on April 11 by the Sudanese military following protests in many parts of the country calling for al-Bashir, who had ruled Sudan for nearly three decades, to step down. On April 11, Sudan's Defense Minister, General Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, appeared on state television and announced the military's detention of al-Bashir, the suspension of the constitution, and the start of a two-year transitional period to be overseen by the military and followed by elections. A three-month state of emergency was also declared in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 04:47:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GENEVA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Switzerland's largest telecoms company Swisscom said Wednesday that its 5G mobile communications network was made available on the day, after competitor Sunrise launched its 5G service earlier this month, but still four cantons suspended authorizations for new 5G mobile antennae due to safety concerns. Swisscom said the fast technology was made available across more than 100 locations in 54 cities and towns in the early hours of Wednesday. It had been given the right to use the new frequencies by the telecoms regulator for 15 years, and plans to cover 90 percent of the country with 5G by the end of the year. The majority state-owned company said the networks were put in place in partnership with Swedish telecoms company Ericsson, and it named Chinese companies, Oppo and Huawei along with South Korea's LG and Samsung among the brands it will ship. Earlier this month, Swisscom competitor Sunrise launched its 5G service in 150 Swiss municipalities. However, four Swiss cantons in western Switzerland, Vaud, Geneva, Neuchatel and Jura, had earlier moved to suspend authorizations for new 5G mobile antennae, pending a government report on their safety. A working group is to present the results of a study to the Swiss government by the end of June. Fifth-generation wireless technology offers much faster data speeds for mobile communications than previous generations, up to ten gigabits per second, which is fast enough to download a high-definition movie in seconds, and up to 100 times faster than current 4G technology. While some people say 5G is divisive in Switzerland and indispensable for economic development, others are afraid of the increased radiation coming from the antennas. The result is that antenna construction projects are running into petitions, political interference and opposition. Swisscom had said that the frequencies are the same as what has been used for years and have been analyzed in thousands of studies, not one of which managed to prove scientifically that there's a serious risk to health. However, Swiss researchers have confirmed the potentially damaging impact of the frequent use of mobile phones among adolescents. A study found that the so called figural memory performance -- the ability to remember abstract forms -- can deteriorate if the brain is often subjected to high frequency electromagnetic fields, according to the Tropical and Public Health Institute. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 04:52:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GENEVA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Switzerland plans to launch a major promotion campaign in China ahead of and during the 2022 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympic Games, according to a government statement on Wednesday. As part of a 12-month tour across China, the House of Switzerland, a cultural center set up by the Swiss Foreign Ministry since 2004, will showcase the diversity of Switzerland along with partners from business, tourism, science and culture. The campaign in China will offer the opportunity to further deepen bilateral relations, the statement said, as major sporting events provide great emotional potential, attracting significant attention from the public and the media alike, both at the venue and internationally. The Swiss government plans to provide 7 million Swiss francs (about 7 million U.S. dollars) for the project, which is due to start in 2021, with about one third to be financed through sponsorship. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 05:02:52|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LISBON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- At least 28 tourists were confirmed dead on Wednesday in a bus accident on the Portuguese island of Madeira, with three others seriously injured, local media SIC TV reported. The 28 people are 11 men and 17 women of German nationality, Mayor of the municipality Filipe Sousa said, quoted by SIC. The driver and guide are both Portuguese and they are injured. The tourist bus, carrying 55 German tourists, overturned and fell on the roof of roadside residence. Speaking outside the Palace of Belem in Lisbon, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters that it was his intention to travel immediately to Funchal, the capital of Madeira, in a plane of the Portuguese Air Force, "but a priority emerged" that led him to postpone the trip. "I was very sensitive to this priority, which is the need for airplanes, namely the airplane that was to be used by the Portuguese Air Force to transport the injured people," he said. "So I will, but I will not go immediately, because there is this priority," added Rebelo de Sousa. On behalf of the Portuguese government, Prime Minister Antonio Costa conveyed "deep condolences" to the families of the victims of the tourist bus accident in Madeira and expressed his regret and condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "At learning of the tragic accident in Madeira, I feel deeply regret. To all the families involved, I convey on behalf of the Portuguese government the deepest condolences," Costa wrote on Twitter. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 05:08:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close RABAT, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan King Mohammed VI decided to give a grant as Morocco's contribution to the restoration of some areas in Al-Aqsa Mosque, Morocco's foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The ministry did not mention the amount of the grant. The grant is part of the continued efforts that the Moroccan king is making for the benefits of the city of Jerusalem, the statement said. It is also in favor of the promotion of its civilizational identity and religious symbolism as an open space for coexistence and tolerance between the different religions, the statement said. Moroccan architects and craftsmen will be sent to preserve the centuries-old architectural authenticity of the mosque, it added. The Moroccan monarch ordered that this operation be conducted in coordination with the administration of the Islamic Awqaf of Jordan, it said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 05:33:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TORONTO, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A movie named "Iron Road", which dramatizes a chapter in Chinese-Canadian history, will be screened at the cinema of Xinflix Media Inc. in Toronto Wednesday evening. "Iron Road" is one of the movies to be screened during the National Canadian Film Day, which kicked off Wednesday. It is based on the story that one woman traveled among 265 migrants to Canada's British Columbia in the 1860s, a time when Chinese women were not allowed in Canada. "Iron Road" is a China-Canada movie written by Barry Pearson and Raymond Storey, and directed by David Wu, starring Sun Li, Luke Macfarlane, Peter O'Toole, Sam Neill, and Charlotte Sullivan. It depicts a love story between a Chinese girl named Little Tiger and a Canadian boy James. Little Tiger, disguised as a boy, goes in search of her long-lost railroad worker father in British Columbia in western Canada. James' father runs a company that builds the railroad. It also chronicles the untold story of Chinese workers who traveled to Canada by the thousands to do the back-breaking work of blasting through the mountains to build the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s. The film's principal photography was shot in Hengdian World Studios in China and in British Columbia, Canada. The Canadian filming locations were selected in the Kamloops area of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and Kelowna. Authentic wood trestle bridges built by the Canadian Pacific Railway during the Gold Rush of the early 1900s were used for film locations. A wood-fired, steam-driven locomotive was brought in, and a section of actual railway was used, which was discontinued from service during the shoot. The background performers cast as immigrant laborers in the Canadian shoot were mostly Asians from Vancouver, Canada. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 05:33:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BERLIN, April 17 (Xinhua) -- German chemical giant BASF Group is among a group of investors in quantum computing start-up company Zapata Computing, the company's venture capital arm announced on Wednesday. BASF joined a financing series led by Comcast Ventures and Prelude Ventures, together with new and existing investors including Pitango Ventures, Pillar Venture Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and The Engine. Zapata Computing announced to have raised 21 million U.S. dollars in the round of financing. According to Zapata CEO and co-founder Christopher Savoie, Zapata's quantum software platform was successfully "delivering real world advances in computational power for applications particularly in chemistry, machine learning, and optimization". "We are happy to support this promising start-up. Zapata is positioned to add value to a wide variety of industries, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, automotive, aerospace, and finance," said Markus Solibieda, Managing Director at BASF Venture Capital. With Zapata's quantum computing, BASF is hoping to better investigate complex questions and to further shorten the time it takes to launch new products. Quantum computing is a next generation approach to computation that utilizes the laws of quantum mechanics to increase the speed of certain calculations. While quantum computing has great potential, it is currently limited by the pace of hardware development. "Quantum computers will solve problems that classical computers haven't been able to. But as it is still early, the best and brightest minds are needed to drive algorithms and software vital to fuel commercial applications," commented Gil Beyda, Managing Director of Comcast Ventures. Zapata, which was spun-out of Harvard University in 2017, and announced to use the funds raised to expand its scientific team and further develop its software platform to meet growing customer demand. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 06:38:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Head of the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that violence is on the rise in the region after the Sudanese army ousted President Omar al-Bashir. "Security across the volatile Darfur region of Sudan has deteriorated since last week's military takeover in Khartoum," Jeremiah Mamabolo, joint special representative for the UN-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) said. The peacekeeping mission in Darfur has "remained vigilant" in the face of rising violence, he stressed. Mamabolo said that with one army general already forced out of office in the face of continuing protests, the daily curfew has now been lifted, and political detainees are due to be released, with a nationwide ceasefire now in place. "Yesterday, the Chief Justice and the Attorney General were replaced," he said, adding that the new military leader, Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, had announced a "military transitional phase," which would last two years at most, before a handover to civilian control. But protests are continuing, he said, noting that some internally-displaced people in Darfur, where military action by the former president against civilians led to war crimes charges against him by the International Criminal Court a decade ago, had "engaged in violent acts" targeting government locations, and those seen as collaborators with the former regime. "Let me assure the Council that in the midst of all these developments, UNAMID has remained vigilant, maintaining a robust posture, particularly in the Jebel Marra area of responsibility, which is where we have peacekeeping troops," he added. Mamabolo told Council members that the international community now "has an opportunity to initiate and sustain dialogue with the new authorities in Sudan. This would help create a conducive environment for UNAMID's departure, and the international community's follow-on engagement in Darfur." The briefing took place less than one week after the ousting of President al-Bashir by the Sudanese military following protests in many parts of the country calling for al-Bashir, who had ruled Sudan for nearly three decades, to step down. On April 11, Sudan's Defense Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf appeared on state television and announced the military's detention of al-Bashir, the suspension of the constitution, and the start of a two-year transitional period to be overseen by the military and followed by elections. A three-month state of emergency was also declared in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 07:36:58|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Protesters participate in a rally outside the UN office in Sanaa, Yemen, April 17, 2019. Yemenis held a rally Wednesday outside the UN office in Sanaa demanding to end the war, lift the blockade, and allow the oil ships to enter the Hodeidah port in order to end the fuel crisis in Yemen. Yemen is facing severe fuel shortage and rising food prices, and the crisis is crushing the starving population. Frustration is growing in the rebel-held capital Sanaa as the crisis is deepening pains of the residents. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 07:28:56|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close File photo taken on April 10, 2016 shows Alan Garcia casting his ballot at a polling station in Lima, Peru. Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia died on April 17, 2019, in a hospital in Lima, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra confirmed on Twitter. (Xinhua/ANDINA/Vidal Tarqui) LIMA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia died on Wednesday in a hospital in Lima, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra confirmed on Twitter. Vizcarra said that he was "consternated" by Garcia's death, and sent his condolences to his family and loved ones. Garcia, 69, shot himself in the head on Wednesday to avoid a preliminary arrest ordered by the justice authorities for his alleged links to the corruption scandal of Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, his lawyer confirmed earlier to local media. The attempted suicide occurred when police officers tried to apprehend him to complete a preliminary detention of 10 days in his house, where he locked himself in a room and shot himself. The former president asked to make a phone call to his attorney, then entered a bedroom and closed the door behind him. A few minutes later a gunshot was heard. Police forced entry into the room, and found him in a seated position with a wound on his head, said Interior Minister Carlos Moran. Garcia was taken to the Casimiro Ulloa Hospital where he underwent surgery. Thirty doctors took part in the surgery, but unfortunately he died. Garcia served as president of Peru from 1985 to 1990 and again from 2006 to 2011. The preliminary detention order against Garcia, issued by Jose Domingo Perez, who is in charge of the corruption probe, also applies to Garcia's chief of staff Luis Nava and former vice president of Petroperu, Miguel Atala. Domingo Perez is investigating the alleged payment of 24 million U.S. dollars in bribes to the former president's officials for the construction of Line 1 of Lima's Metro during Garcia's second term. On Tuesday, Garcia made statements to local media in the context of the investigation against him, saying that he was not born to steal, and that the accusation was "a way of criminalizing a politician." Jorge Barata, Odebrecht's representative in Lima, confessed his company contributed bribes to several Peruvian politicians after a plea deal was reached between Peruvian prosecutors and Odebrecht in 2018. In addition to Garcia, the Peruvian authorities are investigating former presidents Alejandro Toledo, Ollanta Humala and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for alleged money laundering involving illicit funds from Odebrecht. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 07:54:00|Editor: zh Video Player Close Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, addresses the UN Economic and Social Council forum on financing for development, at the UN headquarters in New York, April 17, 2019. A Chinese envoy on Wednesday called for an open world economy and refined global economic governance for the sake of growth of developing countries. At a UN Economic and Social Council forum on financing for development, Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said there is a need to work toward an open global economy and a community of shared future for mankind. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Wednesday called for an open world economy and refined global economic governance for the sake of growth of developing countries. At a UN Economic and Social Council forum on financing for development, Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said there is a need to work toward an open global economy and a community of shared future for mankind. "It is necessary to follow the idea of wide consultations, joint contribution and shared benefits, firmly uphold multilateralism and a multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, reject unilateralism and trade protectionism, refine global economic governance, so as to create an enabling external environment for the growth of developing countries." China has always been an active advocate of, participant in and contributor to the global development cause, said Ma. The China-UN peace and development trust fund, its South-South cooperation assistance fund, and the intensified alignment of China's Belt and Road Initiative with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development have played a significant role in promoting the sustainable development of developing countries, he said. In the past six years since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has signed cooperation agreements with over 150 countries and international organizations, and has directly invested more than 80 billion U.S. dollars in countries along the Belt and Road routes, said Ma. Later this month, a second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be held in Beijing. This forum is set to open greater space for international development cooperation and make new important contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 09:14:19|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close by Zhang Jianhua, Wang Shan VIENTIANE, April 18 (Xinhua) -- "It was in the second week I came to Laos. It was hot, and even when I stood under an electric fan, I sweated. Seeing this, my students stood in a circle around me and fanned me using their notebooks," said 24-year-old Lin Jieyu, a volunteer Chinese language teacher at Nongping Primary School. She came from Jilin province in northeastern China. It is not easy for her to adapt to the hot weather in Laos when she just came here but was greatly touched by their warm hearts. " A boy wanted to give me two handkerchiefs for wiping away sweat. I did not accept that at the beginning as I was shy but he insisted and followed me anywhere I went," Lin Jieyu wrote in her diary. "At that moment, I felt cool but my heart felt warm. And my tears were about to fall." Nongping Primary School in Laos, funded by the China Foundation for Peace and Development, was built in May, 2013. The foundation sent volunteers to schools to teach Chinese since October 2013. Chinese language classes are offered from the first grade to the fifth grade, ranging from two class hours to six. There are currently two Chinese volunteers in the school. The other, named Yao changhua, 25, from Guangxi province in southern China, is more adaptive to the weather and living conditions in Laos. "Whenever we call them (teachers and students' parents), they help us," said Yao Changhua. "When Lin Jieyu just came here, we went shopping for food, and our bikes broke down, so we had to call another teacher for help. The husband of the teacher came to help in a pickup truck. It was almost evening. We felt warm because of the timely help." Yao Changhua has been in Laos for one and a half years, "As long as we have any problems, they will try their best to help us. Care from other teachers and students' parents made us feel at ease in Laos." Yao Changhua added. Volunteers sowed seeds of love in the school and harvested heart-warming feedback from students, which makes volunteers moved and proud. "What moved me most was what happened on the Valentine's Day last year. Early in that morning, I opened my door and found a second-grade student standing outside, holding a rose in his hand. He stumbled and handed over the flower to me, and then he happily ran away after I expressed my thanks to him," Yao Changhua recalled. "After class, students often interact with us. For example, if we learn new words such as 'elder sister' and 'younger sister' in class, students will bring their sisters and brothers to us after class to show their understanding of the words," said Yao Changhua who could not help laughing. The simply stories actually reflects students' trust and respect for Chinese volunteer teachers. Bounmy Vilaisan, 56, the principal of Nongping Primary School, was satisfied with the performance of Chinese volunteer teachers. "All Chinese teachers performed well in terms of their personality and interpersonal relationship. For example, students like to play with and learn Chinese from them. Students' parents often greet them with smiles whenever they meet in the village. The number of students in our school exceeds that in other schools because we teach Chinese language." As these young Chinese teachers wholeheartedly cultivate Lao students, they are treasured by the school. "They are warmly received. For example, the school gives them clothes as gifts on the Teachers' Day or the Women's Day. And if there are any activities, they are invited to participate in," said Bounmy Vilaisan. As said by Chinese teachers, on every major holiday, other teachers will lead them to go to That Luang Temple to worship Buddha and participate in the morning alms giving activities, which enriches the Chinese teachers' life in Laos, and gives them a more thorough understanding of the Lao culture. Soon, principal Bounmy Vilaisan, the two Chinese volunteer teachers and other two Lao teachers will take six students from the school to Beijing to participate in related activities of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. This will be the first time that Yao Changhua and Lin Jieyu travel to Beijing. Yao Changhua thought that this travel would be valuable to students, "Usually, I can only tell students about Beijing through pictures and textbooks. But this time I will take them to see what Beijing is really like. As a Chinese teacher, I feel proud. And I feel happy for them as well." "I will take them to watch the national flag-raising ceremony at Tian'anmen Square, climb the Great Wall, and walk around to have a look at Beijing," said Lin Jieyu. "Although we teach students words such as 'China' and 'Beijing', they do not have a clear understanding of these words. Therefore, this travel is an opportunity for them to see what China is really like." The nine-year-old Phomvihane is a student of the fourth grade. She firstly expressed her views on her Chinese teacher like this, "I like her. She teaches very well. Although sometimes she is strict with us, but she has a good attitude." Knowing that she is going to Beijing with her teacher, Phomvihane said "I am looking forward to this day, and I hope it will come soon, because I expect it so much!" Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 09:49:42|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close by Xinhua writers Yang Chenglin, Zhou Xiaozheng, Yang Shilong FORSYTH, the United States, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Proud of their natural flavored, fully traceable beef, the U.S. cattle farmers are eager to compete for the promising Chinese market and send more of their product halfway across the globe. "It's a very high quality product, our product consistently grades high choice and prime, which is the best grade of beef," James Vaughn told Xinhua , "we think it's the best product in the world by far, and we would like the Chinese public to be able to enjoy it like we do." With 35 years of farming experience and more than 5,000 acres of land, Vaughn is a cowboy, an attorney, as well as the 2018 Georgia farmer of the year. In his eyes, China market is a great opportunity not only for him, but also for all his fellow U.S. farmers. NEW MARKET MATTERS FOR CATTLE FARMERS As an upstream supplier of U.S. beef exporter, Vaughn recalled a memory of hope in late 2017. In early November of that year, Xinhua reported the first export of U.S. beef to China in more than 13 years, after China banned U.S. beef in December 2003 when the mad cow disease spread across U.S. cattle farms. "I think that was the first American beef that had gone into China in a very long time," Vaughn said in his iconic American cowboy hat, jeans and boots, "and so we're hopeful." However, that hope was clouded by the trade tensions between the United States and China, which already took toll on some of the U.S. farmers and ranchers. "Our product is not moving in that direction," said Vaughn, "and I would like to see that change because we need an increased market for our product." In Vaughn's eyes, a new market for American beef is not only critical for today's cattle farming business in Georgia, but also for the new generation of U.S. farmers. "I think the feedlot industry has been shrinking, and I think that the production industry on my end has been shrinking over the last few years," said Vaughn, "some because of weather events, some because farmers like me are getting older." "But I think there is a large group of young people like my sons that would very much like to be able to join farming," said Vaughn, "and having better markets is the way to assure them to be able to do that." WAYS TO ENSURE QUALITY AND SAFETY Like many cattle farmers in Georgia, the Vaughn family worked for generations to bring the best beef they could produce out of their farms. To ensure the best quality, Vaughn said his cattle must go through verifications conducted by a third party before it could be exported to European or Chinese market. These verifications require cattle farmers like Vaughn to keep accurate age record, maintain a reliable source of its cattles, and avoid using growth hormones. Even as growth hormone is considered safe to treat the cattle in the United States, it is the primary concern for European and Chinese beef consumers. "So we have a third party verification company," said Vaughn, "and they are approved by the United States Department of Agriculture to verify." "They come on site to each of our participating farms once a year and ordered our records. Look at all of our medicine cabinets and check everything to be sure that our claim of non-hormone treated can be verified by them as a third party," said Vaughn. Additionally, even if the beef was exported to thousands of miles away, Vaughn said it is completely traceable. "The way that tracing is done, is that we put a small electronic device in the cattle's ear," said Vaughn, adding that the electronics would stay in the cattle through harvest. "So if our beef were to arrive at a destination in a foreign country and be tested and found that I had made a false claim, they could trace that straight back to me," he said. WISH FOR A WIN-WIN TRADE DEAL Speaking of the ongoing trade talks between China and the United States, Vaughn would like "the negotiators on the American side" to "listen to the industry experts." "We just need to be allowed to show the world how to do it without a bunch of unrelated issues getting in our way," said Vaughn. "Let us compete on our merits," said Vaughn, "let the cattle industry that can produce the best, safest beef in the world compete on the world stage." If the United States and China could reach a trade deal that gives more market access for cattle farmers like him, Vaughn believes he could further expand their farms' capacity. "I have two sons that you've met, and we're trying to take our farm to at least five hundred head," said Vaughn, "If we had better market access, which would be a price driver, would drive the price up, it would be easier for us to expand." For the even bigger picture, Vaughn sees a good trade deal as a great opportunity for all his fellow cattle farmers, since "there is a serious amount of capacity available for expansion in the United States." (Xinhua reporters in New York Zhou Sa'ang, Wang Ying contributed to the story.) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 10:14:17|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Pupils of Baisha Primary School read books donated to them in Yexi Town, Yuexi County of east China's Anhui Province, April 17, 2019. More than 600 books were donated to pupils at the Baisha Primary School and a "bus library" was set up here, which offers convenience for pupils in the mountainous area to read books. (Xinhua/Zhang Duan) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 10:10:02|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close by Raimundo Urrechaga HAVANA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A new wave of measures announced by Washington on Wednesday targeting Cuba is part of the U.S. "failed policy" toward the island, said Hassan Perez, a renowned Cuban academic. "Trump's policy towards Cuba has a Cold War era vision that obstructs the normal course of relations between the two countries and also affects economic links and people-to-people contacts," Perez, a professor at the University of Havana's Center for Hemispheric and U.S. studies, told Xinhua. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Washington was ending a 22-year waiver of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act which will allow U.S. citizens starting on May 2 to establish lawsuits against foreign firms operating on property in Cuba nationalized after 1959. Hours later speaking to an audience of Cuban exiles in Miami, John Bolton, U.S. national security adviser said the administration was also regulating remittances to the Caribbean nation by allowing only 1,000 U.S. dollars every three months per person. The senior official added the Treasury Department would also implement further regulatory changes to restrict U.S. citizens' non-family travel to Cuba, a move that could affect American cruise companies and airlines that operate in the island. The U.S. has for decades banned its citizens from traveling to Cuba for tourism purposes and currently can only do so under 12 licenses that include educational, cultural and religious purposes, among others. "The White House is applying a failed policy towards Cuba. The announcements made by Bolton in Miami will definitely have an economic impact but also affect other sectors in the U.S. that wanted a cultural, academic, scientific and even commercial rapprochement," said Perez. The decision by President Donald Trump's administration to fully implement Title III was met with wide opposition from the European Union (EU) and Canada, whose companies have billions of dollars of investments in Cuba. Hours before the announcement, Stefano Manservisi, the EU director-general for International Cooperation and Development, told reporters in the Cuban capital that Brussels will fully protect the interests of European companies and businesses in the island. "The reaction of the European Union and Canada is very important because the Helms-Burton Act is an extraterritorial legislation in a world where trade is globalized. The U.S. doesn't have the economic or political power of 30 years ago," said Perez. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted a defiant message shortly after Pompeo's remarks. "Activating Title III will not change the attitude towards those who hold the sword against us. We Cubans do not surrender, nor do we accept laws about our destinies that are outside the Constitution," he said. Every president since Bill Clinton, including Trump, had suspended this section of this law which aims to cut Havana's trade with other nations. "These measures don't lead to anything, history has enough examples that these punitive mechanisms just further rollback ties and cut short any sort of dialogue and possible progress between the two countries," added Perez. The Cuban academic said Trump is surrounded by hardliners like Bolton, Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Mauricio Claver-Carone, head of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council. "These figures bet on hard power, punishing measures that ultimately seek to topple the Cuban government," he said. Washington's move marked an intensification of U.S. pressure on Cuba and also appeared aimed at punishing Havana over its support for Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro who the White House is openly seeking to oust from power. "The U.S. seeks to subordinate Latin America to its interests and other countries like Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are a stone in their shoe. The Trump administration has said their policy is marked by the Monroe Doctrine that promotes retaliatory and punitive measures," said Perez. U.S.-Cuban relations have plummeted since Trump took office, partially rolling back the detente initiated by his predecessor Barack Obama and reverting to Cold War rhetoric, while maintaining re-established diplomatic ties. Relations were also hampered by alleged "health incidents" on over 20 U.S. diplomats in the island, an issue that is still unresolved and Havana said it has been politicized to roll back bilateral relations. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 10:15:07|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close by Yu Chen, Levi J Parsons SYDNEY, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Although Australia has never historically viewed itself as being an Asia-Pacific nation, this perception may be starting to change in the continent, according to New South Wales State Member of Parliament for the Labor Party Shaoquett Moselmane. "Australians continue to see themselves as part of the democratic, western world," he told Xinhua recently. "Part of the Commonwealth of States and under the British Monarchy (and) bound by the ANZUS (The Australia, New Zealand and United States Security) treaty." "Institutions of state operate with such a frame of mind and so do many Australians." While it can be difficult for some Aussies to view the globe outside of this prism, Moselmane said it is also true that a significant proportion of Australians do not see the world in this simple black and white framework. "They understand and appreciate their surroundings and many accept that we're in the Asia-Pacific region and must live with, accept and deal with Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China, all as regional players and international players," he said. "China today is on the rise. That's a fact. Some Australians have not as yet come to terms with this fact." "Like all people they (Chinese) have hopes and aspirations for good health, wealth and prosperity and a successful future for their people." "The reality is, China is a global economic engine which has served Australia well in the past century." When it comes to the future, Moselmane believed that China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) could also provide Australia with an array of potential economic opportunities in the 21st century. Although the infrastructure project aimed at strengthening global trade networks across the world remains a topic of division in Australian political circles, the Labor Party has not rejected the BRI. In fact, in the Labor-held state of Victoria, the government signed off on an MoU supporting the potential for cooperation on future BRI development projects. "So, one must not pigeon hole Australians as somehow anti-Chinese," Moselmane said. "I for one welcome China and welcome the Chinese people." "Who in their right mind would not want to do business with a nation that has not only helped our economy grow but also in recent times helped us out of the Global Financial Crisis and lifted hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty and into the middle class." While Moselmane admitted, the portrayal of China across a range of Australian media outlets is often largely negative and in others sensationalized, he added that a growing number of Australians are actually looking for greater engagement with China. "Today China's policies are about a broader engagement with all," Moselmane said. "To me, China is a great nation. It has a considerable history and wonderful culture, highly creative and novel in its progress." Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 10:15:09|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is planning to leave the Trump administration and is finalizing the terms and timing of his departure, Bloomberg reported Wednesday night. Perry, 69, has been seriously considering his departure for weeks but the exit isn't imminent, according to the report. As President Donald Trump's energy secretary, Perry has played a leading role in the administration's policy of boosting energy production. Perry has reportedly been preparing the agency's deputy secretary, Dan Brouillette, for the transition. It is unclear whether Trump would tap Brouillette for the position. Prior to his cabinet position, Perry, a former U.S. Air Force officer, served as the 47th governor of Texas. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 10:20:11|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NEW DELHI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The second phase of India's 17th general elections began on Thursday morning. As many as 95 parliamentary constituencies are witnessing the polling, which started at 7:00 a.m. local time. Fate of around 1,600 candidates would be sealed in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Thursday's phase of elections. There are as many as 157 million people who are registered as eligible voters to cast their votes during the day. Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and four ministers in the current government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi are in the fray in this phase of polling. General elections are to be held in seven different phases for the 543 constituencies in the lower house of parliament or the Lok Sabha. The first phase was held on April 11. The last phase would be held on May 19 and the results would be announced on May 23. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 10:25:15|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration on Wednesday undertook a series of measures against Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba by sanctions and restrictions. U.S. Department of the Treasury said its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Wednesday imposed sanctions against the Central Bank of Venezuela and its director Iliana Josefa Ruzza Teran. The OFAC on the same day blacklisted Laureano Ortega Murillo, the son of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, as well as a Nicaraguan bank Banco Corporativo SA. All property and interests belonging to the individuals and entities that were subject to U.S. jurisdiction would be blocked, and U.S. persons were generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. The Trump administration also added five entities owned by the Cuban military to its restricted list. In a parallel move, the U.S. government vowed to place a cap on remittances to Cuba, prohibiting dollar transactions through third-party financial institutions, and restricting non-family travel, according to the White House. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday that the Trump administration on May 2 would no longer suspend Title III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act, allowing U.S. lawsuits against foreign firms operating on the property in Cuba seized from Americans. The LIBERTAD Act, also known as the Helms-Burton Act, is a U.S. federal law became effective in 1996 aiming to strengthen the embargo against Cuba. In response, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez tweeted that the U.S. move "is an attack against International Law and the sovereignty of Cuba & third states," adding that aggressive escalation of the United States against Cuba will fail. The European Union quickly issued a statement saying it "reiterates its strong opposition to the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures that are contrary to international law." Speaking to a Cuban exile group in Miami on the 58th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said these new sanctions should be a strong warning to all external actors, including Russia, against deploying military assets to Venezuela to prop up President Nicholas Maduro's government. The Russian Foreign Ministry had said that the existence of Russian troops in Venezuela is in line with their bilateral agreement on military-technical cooperation. Moscow also repeatedly warned Washington against further interfering in Venezuela's domestic affairs, calling for dialogues to reach solutions. The United States has been pursuing a policy of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation against the Venezuelan government in support of the opposition leader Juan Guaido. The Trump administration recognized Guaido as the nation's "interim president" on Jan. 23, days after Maduro was inaugurated for a second term. In response to Washington's support for Guaido, Maduro announced that he was severing "diplomatic and political" ties with the United States. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 10:25:17|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SYDNEY, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Illegal tobacco worth more than 13 million U.S. dollars has been seized and destroyed in Australia following raids by the country's tax office (ATO), authorities revealed on Thursday. With assistance from state police forces, the ATO disrupted two major grow operations with a combined crop area of 33.95 hectares and tobacco leaves weighing more than 16 tonnes. Australia loses around 430 million U.S. dollars in evaded tax revenue from the illegal tobacco trade per year, making the targeting and dismantling of such enterprises an operational priority for the ATO. "The illegal tobacco trade is lucrative and is primarily supplied by organised criminal syndicates," ATO assistant commissioner Peter Vujanic said. "Engaging in the illicit tobacco trade is not victimless. It significantly deprives the community of taxes that are required to fund essential community services such as roads, school and hospitals." In May 2016, the Australian government announced that it would implement an annual increase in tobacco excise of 12.5 percent, up to and including 2020. The measures will take the average cost for a packet of cigarettes to around 28 U.S. dollars, among the highest prices in the world. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 10:45:35|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Japan will hold a Security Consultative Committee meeting here this Friday, the State Department said Wednesday. Known as "2+2" meeting, the talks will be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, State Department said in a statement. The senior officials of the two allies will discuss U.S.-Japan coordination on the evolving regional security environment including the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and enhancement of the alliance's capabilities and the continued realignment of U.S. armed forces in Japan. Chinese volunteer teacher Lin Jieyu looks on during a language class to local students at Nongping Primary School in Vientiane, Laos, March 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Jingqiang) by Zhang Jianhua, Wang Shan VIENTIANE, April 18 (Xinhua) -- "It was in the second week I came to Laos. It was hot, and even when I stood under an electric fan, I sweated. Seeing this, my students stood in a circle around me and fanned me using their notebooks," said 24-year-old Lin Jieyu, a volunteer Chinese language teacher at Nongping Primary School. She came from Jilin province in northeastern China. It is not easy for her to adapt to the hot weather in Laos when she just came here but was greatly touched by their warm hearts. " A boy wanted to give me two handkerchiefs for wiping away sweat. I did not accept that at the beginning as I was shy but he insisted and followed me anywhere I went," Lin Jieyu wrote in her diary. "At that moment, I felt cool but my heart felt warm. And my tears were about to fall." Nongping Primary School in Laos, funded by the China Foundation for Peace and Development, was built in May, 2013. The foundation sent volunteers to schools to teach Chinese since October 2013. Chinese language classes are offered from the first grade to the fifth grade, ranging from two class hours to six. There are currently two Chinese volunteers in the school. The other, named Yao changhua, 25, from Guangxi province in southern China, is more adaptive to the weather and living conditions in Laos. "Whenever we call them (teachers and students' parents), they help us," said Yao Changhua. "When Lin Jieyu just came here, we went shopping for food, and our bikes broke down, so we had to call another teacher for help. The husband of the teacher came to help in a pickup truck. It was almost evening. We felt warm because of the timely help." Yao Changhua has been in Laos for one and a half years, "As long as we have any problems, they will try their best to help us. Care from other teachers and students' parents made us feel at ease in Laos." Yao Changhua added. Volunteers sowed seeds of love in the school and harvested heart-warming feedback from students, which makes volunteers moved and proud. "What moved me most was what happened on the Valentine's Day last year. Early in that morning, I opened my door and found a second-grade student standing outside, holding a rose in his hand. He stumbled and handed over the flower to me, and then he happily ran away after I expressed my thanks to him," Yao Changhua recalled. "After class, students often interact with us. For example, if we learn new words such as 'elder sister' and 'younger sister' in class, students will bring their sisters and brothers to us after class to show their understanding of the words," said Yao Changhua who could not help laughing. Chinese volunteer teacher Lin Jieyu interacts with local students at Nongping Primary School in Vientiane, Laos, March 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Jingqiang) The simply stories actually reflects students' trust and respect for Chinese volunteer teachers. Bounmy Vilaisan, 56, the principal of Nongping Primary School, was satisfied with the performance of Chinese volunteer teachers. "All Chinese teachers performed well in terms of their personality and interpersonal relationship. For example, students like to play with and learn Chinese from them. Students' parents often greet them with smiles whenever they meet in the village. The number of students in our school exceeds that in other schools because we teach Chinese language." As these young Chinese teachers wholeheartedly cultivate Lao students, they are treasured by the school. "They are warmly received. For example, the school gives them clothes as gifts on the Teachers' Day or the Women's Day. And if there are any activities, they are invited to participate in," said Bounmy Vilaisan. As said by Chinese teachers, on every major holiday, other teachers will lead them to go to That Luang Temple to worship Buddha and participate in the morning alms giving activities, which enriches the Chinese teachers' life in Laos, and gives them a more thorough understanding of the Lao culture. Soon, principal Bounmy Vilaisan, the two Chinese volunteer teachers and other two Lao teachers will take six students from the school to Beijing to participate in related activities of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. This will be the first time that Yao Changhua and Lin Jieyu travel to Beijing. Yao Changhua thought that this travel would be valuable to students, "Usually, I can only tell students about Beijing through pictures and textbooks. But this time I will take them to see what Beijing is really like. As a Chinese teacher, I feel proud. And I feel happy for them as well." "I will take them to watch the national flag-raising ceremony at Tian'anmen Square, climb the Great Wall, and walk around to have a look at Beijing," said Lin Jieyu. "Although we teach students words such as 'China' and 'Beijing', they do not have a clear understanding of these words. Therefore, this travel is an opportunity for them to see what China is really like." The nine-year-old Phomvihane is a student of the fourth grade. She firstly expressed her views on her Chinese teacher like this, "I like her. She teaches very well. Although sometimes she is strict with us, but she has a good attitude." Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 11:40:59|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Thursday exchanged congratulatory messages to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between their countries. In his message, Xi said that over the past 30 years, China and Bahrain have rendered each other respect and support, and forged a profound friendship, with bilateral ties steadily moving forward and their cooperation bearing rich fruit in various fields. Noting that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Bahrain ties, Xi said he is willing to join efforts with King Hamad, seize the opportunities presented by the 30th anniversary of ties and the joint development of the Belt and Road, and lift bilateral cooperation in various fields to a new level, so as to bring benefits to both countries and peoples. Hamad said in his message that the Bahraini side cherishes the strong friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields with China. Bahrain will continue to commit to deepening and developing Bahrain-China relations, and wishes the Chinese people greater progress and achievements, Hamad said. Also on Thursday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Bahraini Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa exchanged congratulatory messages. Li said China is willing to enhance pragmatic cooperation with Bahrain within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, and promote bilateral relations for greater development. For his part, Khalifa said he is looking forward to making joint efforts with the Chinese side to continuously deepen Bahrain-China relations. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 11:41:01|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The following is a summary of recent science and technology news briefs. INTERNATIONAL SPACE COOPERATION China will promote aerospace development, strengthen international cooperation and contribute Chinese wisdom, plans and strength in man's peaceful utilization of outer space, said China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Wednesday. According to CNSA, "Forum on Space Solutions: Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals" will be held in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, from April 24 to 27. INNOVATION 2.0 Chinese tech giant Huawei has announced it will invest 300 million U.S. dollars every year over the next five to ten years for funding research in basic science and technology. Huawei is moving into the era of "Innovation 2.0," in which the company will overcome bottlenecks in theories and basic technologies hindering the development of information and communication technology, said William Xu, director of the Huawei Board, at the annual global analyst summit at its headquarters in Shenzhen in southern China. AI STOMACH CHECK Chinese researchers have developed a medical system to reduce blind spots in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGE) including the esophagus and stomach. The ENDOANGEL monitoring system uses artificial intelligence to identify blind spots during UGE to avoid missing the diagnosis of digestive diseases. It draws images of people's digestive tracts and labels the spots which need to be checked. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 11:56:11|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close HAVANA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Wednesday lashed out at the U.S. government for stepping up its trade sanctions by activating Title III of the Helms-Burton Act. Title III would allow U.S. citizens to establish lawsuits against foreign companies operating in Cuba in properties nationalized or confiscated after 1959. "I strongly reject" U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's announcement of the "activation of Title III ... It is an attack against International Law and the sovereignty of Cuba and third states," Rodriguez tweeted. Rodriguez added that aggressive escalation of the United States against Cuba would fail. "We Cubans don't surrender nor do we accept laws over our destiny that are not in the Constitution. In Cuba, Cubans are in charge." tweeted Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Earlier Wednesday, Pompeo confirmed that the White House would lift the ban on Title III starting May 2, potentially opening the door to thousands of lawsuits from Cuban exiles living in the United States who fled the island after the 1959 revolution, leaving businesses behind. Most of those businesses were taken over by the state, and today many are operated by foreign enterprises, especially European companies running hotels. The threat of litigation could dampen foreign investment in Cuba. "U.S. citizens will be able to bring lawsuits against persons trafficking in property that was confiscated by the Cuban regime," Pompeo tweeted. The Helms-Burton Act came into force in 1996, but most U.S. administrations didn't apply Title III. Pompeo said U.S. President Donald Trump decided to change that policy because Cuba has not realized a transition to democracy and "has exported its oppression to Venezuela." The European Union (EU) warned Washington on Tuesday it might resort to the World Trade Organization (WTO) if the White House punishes European companies in Cuba. The EU also warned the United States of repercussions, including the possibility of confiscating U.S. companies in Europe to compensate for losses suffered by European investors in Cuba. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 11:56:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close MANILA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines started evacuating its citizens from Tripoli on Thursday almost two weeks after intense fighting broke out in the Libyan capital, the government said Thursday. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the first batch of seven Filipinos, including three hospital workers and four students, were evacuated by the Philippine embassy to Tunisia from where they will leave for the Philippines. The Philippine embassy to Tunisia charge d'affaires Elmer Cato said 13 more Filipinos who requested assistance in getting repatriated are expected to be evacuated to Tunis in the next few days. Cato appealed anew to Filipinos in Libya estimated at 1,000 to "seriously consider (the government's) offer to bring them or their children home" to avoid getting caught in the middle of ongoing clashes between rival factions. The Philippine government has imposed a total ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Tripoli and areas within the 100-km radius of the Libyan capital. News reports said the escalation of violence in and around Tripoli has caused the displacement of thousands of people fleeing fighting, and blocked emergency services from reaching casualties and civilians, and damaged electricity lines. Clashes with heavy weapons have been affecting residential areas, and an unknown additional number of civilians are unable to flee these locations, the reports added. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 12:16:27|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close GABORONE, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Angola, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, which together host the largest population of elephants in Africa, have thrown their weight behind Botswana's plan to lift hunting ban. In a joint communique released Wednesday following a Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area (KAZA-TFCA) meeting in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, the four countries said they support Botswana's new policies and programs on elephant population management. The KAZA-TFCA was established in August 2011 to sustainably manage the Kavango-Zambezi ecosystem, its heritage and cultural resources based on best conservation and tourism models for the socio-economic wellbeing of the communities and other stakeholders. The communique signed by environment ministers from the countries after the meeting said they recognize that the KAZA-TFCA is inhabited by humans. Kitso Mokaila, Botswana's environment minister, appreciated the support the southern African country received from the other KAZA-TFCA members, saying residents in the northwestern Botswana have been reeling from the human-wildlife conflict for years now. "Our people staying in the pristine Chobe National Park and surrounding villages were no longer harvesting reeds and sedges while growing of crops was being destroyed by the roaming elephants," said Mokaila. It is estimated that over 250,000 elephants are hosted by KAZA-TFCA members. A ministerial committee, set up by President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi last year, recently submitted a report recommending the lifting of the hunting ban introduced in 2014 to deal with elephant overpopulation. It sparked intense local and international debate as some countries from the West referred it as "blood law." Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 12:26:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WELLINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker announced Thursday that he will lead a delegation of business representatives to China next Monday to boost the economic relationship between China and New Zealand and attend the Belt and Road Forum. The 2nd Belt and Road Forum will be held in late April in Beijing. China-New Zealand trade continues to grow, and is now valued at more than 30 billion New Zealand dollars (20 billion U.S. dollars), Parker said in a statement. "New Zealand's trade relationship with China is important and I am pleased to be leading a trade delegation and supporting New Zealand businesses with interests in China," Parker said, adding that the visit will build on the success of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's state visit to Beijing earlier this month. During his six-day visit, Parker and the business delegation will spend time in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, before traveling on to Beijing, the minister said. "We look forward to identifying opportunities for mutually beneficial and transparent cooperation between our two countries," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 12:26:31|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close LONDON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Global institutions based in Britain's capital have been participating in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Catherine McGuinness, chair of the Policy and Resources Committee of the City of London Corporation, has said in a recent interview with Xinhua. The BRI is an opportunity for businesses and countries to work together with China on developing important projects, and international businesses such as HSBC and Standard Chartered are already participating in it, McGuinness said. Data from HSBC show it has participated in nearly 100 projects under the BRI, and HSBC is committed to being the leading financial partner to clients engaged in BRI projects. The appointment of Douglas Flint, former group chairman of HSBC Holdings, as the UK Treasury's BRI envoy and the establishment of a BRI expert board shows the great commitment from the government to developing the BRI, McGuinness said. "We certainly see a huge interest from the private sector, from the businesses based here in participating in the project. We always say the UK is at the natural west end of the BRI," she said. The city of London has a wide range of services to offer to the BRI, from advisory services in establishing projects, over financing to risk management, she said. London is the foreign exchange capital of the world and the BRI projects may have foreign exchange needs, she noted. "The fact that China is such a significant economy makes RMB a really critical currency. I suppose the BRI does increase the importance of RMB," she said, stressing that London will continue to support the internationalization of RMB. As more partners are involved in the BRI projects, the sustainability of these projects needs to be considered, she said, describing the green investment principles announced last year as "the start of the journey." The Green Finance Committee of the China Society for Finance and Banking and the City of London's Green Finance Initiative published last November the green investment principles to incorporate low-carbon and sustainable development into the BRI. McGuinness praised the BRI's signature freight train services between China and Europe that connect nearly 100 cities to form an international trade route, taking garments, auto parts, chemicals and other Chinese goods to European consumers, while bringing back European food, machinery, equipment and timber. On some routes, the journeys bound for China have outnumbered these bound for Europe. McGuinness called the freight train services "absolutely welcome." "China's buying power is huge. Clearly the great economies in the world are all interested in selling to and trading with China." She said that over the past five years, the initiative has evolved from a concept to real projects, and helps tackle some of the infrastructure challenges in some countries and create jobs. She also said she looked forward to attending the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing and hearing China's ideas for further promoting the initiative. "We will be more enthusiastic to participate in the BRI after Brexit, because it becomes more important to us," McGuinness said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 12:31:33|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia probe will be released Thursday, set to trigger a new round of feud between the White House and Congressional Democrats. U.S. Attorney General William Barr will hold a press conference at the Justice Department on Thursday morning to discuss Mueller's report, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. The press conference will start at 9:30 a.m. local time (1330 GMT), according to spokeswoman Kerri Kupec. Barr will be joined by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017, but the special counsel and members of his prosecutorial team will not be present. The attorney general is expected to provide an overview of the report, explaining his thinking and address process questions, according to CNN. The Justice Department has said it will release a redacted version of Mueller's report Thursday, nearly a month after the special counsel concluded his investigation into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Mueller submitted a nearly 400-page report to Barr, whose 4-page summary of the report's "principal conclusions" states that there was no evidence of collusion between the Donald Trump's campaign and the Russian government. The special counsel, meanwhile, did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump had obstructed justice, said Barr's synopsis. The attorney general concluded Mueller's findings are "not sufficient" to support a charge. President Trump, who claimed "total exoneration" from Barr's summary, said Wednesday he might hold a news conference as well. "You'll see a lot of strong things come out tomorrow," Trump told WMAL radio's Larry O'Connor show. "Attorney General Barr is going to be doing a press conference. Maybe I'll do one after that, we'll see." Trump is scheduled to leave for Florida Thursday afternoon, and he may speak with reporters upon departure. Democrats have demanded the full, unredacted report be made public to get a clearer picture of Mueller's investigation and conduct Congressional oversight. Barr has promised to be as transparent as possible but told lawmakers that parts of Mueller's report will be redacted to protect grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations and damage to the privacy rights of third parties. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Wednesday that he had learned from the Justice Department that his panel will not receive the report until around Thursday noon after Barr's press conference. "This is wrong," tweeted Nadler, a New York Democrat who has repeatedly criticized Barr's handling of the release of Mueller's report. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, accused Barr, a Trump appointee who was sworn in as attorney general in February, of trying to "shape the public's perception of the report" by hold a press conference ahead of its release. Nadler also said he's "deeply troubled" by reports that the White House is being briefed on the Mueller report ahead of its release. The New York Times reported earlier Wednesday that the Justice Department had discussed the report with the White House on several occasions in the lead-up to Thursday. Congressional panels will reportedly be sent the redacted report on discs in the 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) hour. A copy of the report will be posted on the special counsel website after the document has been delivered to Congress. Mueller took over the Russia investigation after Trump abruptly fired former FBI Director James Comey, a move that raised questions about his potential obstruction of justice. The wide-ranging inquiry led to felony charges against 34 people, including six Trump associates and advisers, and three entities. Russia has denied any meddling in the U.S. election. Trump has repeatedly slammed Mueller's probe as a "hoax" or a "witch hunt." Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 12:51:39|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close KAMPALA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China donated an assortment of medicines and medical equipment on Wednesday to the China-Uganda Friendship Hospital in the capital Kampala, which have progressively improved local health care service. China has been donating medical supplies to Uganda over the past 36 years since the first Chinese medical team arrived in the African country. The supplies worth 100,000 U.S. dollars will be used to cure patients who have different diseases and go to the Chinese-donated hospital for help. Chen Huixin, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Uganda, while handing over the supplies to Uganda's minister of health Ruth Aceng, said China has donated medicines and equipment to Uganda worth more than 8 million dollars over the past 36 years. China has also sent 19 batches of medical teams, totaling up to about 200 doctors to Uganda over the years. "Public health cooperation is an important component of the friendly China-Uganda and China-Africa relations. We have provided necessary assistance to Uganda to the best of our capability, helping to improve the health care service," Chen said. He said China has provided free training opportunities to more than 600 Ugandans annually, some in the field of health. The Chinese medical teams have also trained some Ugandan specialists, junior doctors and nurses with new medical technologies, such as laparoscopy, which was rarely practiced in the east African country. Facing a possible spread of the deadly Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever from neighboring eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the disease is raving communities, Uganda has got assistance from a Chinese mediacal team to shore up efforts in preventing the virus transmission and handling a possible outbreak. "The experts came here to work with their Ugandan counterparts in the esteemed ministry of health, to jointly develop an Ebola emergency prevention and control program," Chen said. All these efforts fell into the realm of the eight initiatives that Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the opening session of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit held in Beijing last September, according to Chen. Aceng said the medical aid from China is critical in filling in the gaps that cannot be addressed by local supplies. "These medicines go a long way in supporting our allocation for medicines and medical supplies to this facility. This facility is a national referral hospital. This means whatever we are giving this hospital is not enough for its functions," she said. Aceng said China has also been supportive to Uganda in addressing emerging and re-emerging infections, for example, the building of Uganda's Center for Disease Control. "They have already made the commitment, discussions are underway. We are drawing designs, we have acquired the land and in the near future we shall have a Ugandan Center for Disease Control," she said. A team of Chinese experts have also been working with their Ugandan counterparts in disease surveillance especially in Uganda's border areas. The minister said health situation at the border is crucial because it ensures monitoring of disease transmission with people's entry and departure. "China has committed to support us to strengthen border health. They have carried out a survey, we have a report that they have shared with us, we have had numbers of discussions with the ambassador and the process is ongoing," Aceng added. Emmanuel Batibwe, Director of China Uganda Friendship Hospital said plans are underway to operate the 100-bed hospital. He also said Uganda's ministry of finance and ministry of health are making efforts to complete the designs. The hospital would be upgraded a trauma and orthopedics center, Aceng said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 12:56:43|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close NEW YORK, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A man was taken into custody Wednesday night after trying to bring gasoline into St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, local authorities said. The 37-year-old man from the U.S. state of New Jersey walked into the cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan with two gas canisters at around 9 p.m. (0200 GMT on Thursday), but was stopped at the entrance by securities, according to the New York Police Department. Police have surrounded the cathedral and investigation is underway as to the man's intentions and whether he is emotionally disturbed. The incident comes just two days after a fire devastated the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Built in 1878 and located in the most prosperous part of New York, St. Patrick's Cathedral attracts millions of visitors from across the world every year. It is equipped with a water-mist system and its wooden ceiling is fire retardant-coated. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 13:06:47|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Some unknown militants gunned down 14 passengers after off-loading them from their bus on gunpoint in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province in the wee hours of Thursday morning, local media reported. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 13:16:52|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close HANOI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Police of Vietnam's central Nghe An province have cracked down on a transnational drug trafficking ring, confiscating 700 kg of crystal methamphetamine, local media reported on Thursday. The police arrested three members of the ring on Wednesday while they were dumping the drug on roadside in Nghe An's Quynh Luu district in a move to escape, detained another member later, and are hunting down the ringleader who is a foreigner, Vietnam News Agency reported. Also on Wednesday, police of northern Son La province detained a 38-year-old man for trafficking 20 cakes of heroin weighing nearly 6.5 kg and 198 pills of lab-made drug, daily newspaper Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Police) reported. According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 13:52:10|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CANBERRA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Australia's opposition leader has promised to invest 115 million Australian dollars (82.48 million U.S. dollars) in resolving indigenous health issues if he wins May's general election. Bill Shorten, leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), announced the funding while on a campaign trail in Darwin on Thursday, saying that Australia's indigenous people "have the right to grow old," according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Included in the proposed package is 13 million Australian dollars (9.3 million U.S. dollars) to prevent vision loss and 25 million Australian dollars (17.9 million U.S. dollars) to address rheumatic heart disease, a condition that kills 100 indigenous children annually. Shorten said that the funding would "ensure that First Australians experience the most fundamental right of all: the right to grow old." "Improving the health status of First Australians is critical to our journey towards reconciliation," he said. "This country has to be the best we can be in the way that we offer the same opportunities to all Australians. When First Australians have lesser health outcomes then all of Australia is diminished. "Every Australian, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, should have access to the health services they need, where and when they need them. "Wholly preventable eye diseases and blindness should be unacceptable in a developed nation like Australia." Rheumatic heart disease is entirely preventable but children in remote indigenous communities in the Northern Territory have the highest rates of the disease in the world. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 13:52:12|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NEW YORK, April 17 (Xinhua) -- After settling a lawsuit with iPhone maker Apple, U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm has added about 26 billion U.S. dollars to its market value over the course of two days. Shares of Qualcomm on Wednesday jumped 12.25 percent following a 23.21-percent surge in the previous session, fueled by the news that the company and Apple have settled a lawsuit regarding royalty disputes. Apple stock also closed 1.95 percent higher. The settlement, announced on Tuesday, includes an unspecified payment from Apple to Qualcomm. The two companies also have reached a six-year license agreement, effective as of April 1, 2019, including a two-year option to extend, and a multiyear chipset supply agreement. Qualcomm's rival Intel had announced its plan to exit the 5G smartphone modem business following Qualcomm's settlement with Apple. Wall Street analysts believed the Qualcomm-Apple settlement would help Qualcomm strengthen its position in 5G network and expand revenue accordingly. A number of brokerages upgraded their ratings of Qualcomm stock and raised their price targets. JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee upgraded Qualcomm to "overweight" from "neutral" with a price target of 88 dollars as 5G technology leadership will be appealing to investors, especially in the absence of litigation overhang. Stifel's Kevin Cassidy set a 100-dollar price target based on his confidence in Qualcomm as the "clear leader" in 5G modem technology. Over the past two years, the two companies have sued one another in courts, each asking for billions in damages. According to media reports, Apple previously accused Qualcomm of engaging in illegal patent licensing practices, and was seeking up to 27 billion dollars in damages. Qualcomm, for its part, argued Apple and its business partners had stopped paying royalties and was seeking up to 15 billion dollars in damages. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 14:07:18|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) has announced it will support 100 outstanding AI scientists each year till 2021 to serve the city's AI development, Beijing Daily reported on Thursday. Each scholar will receive more than 500,000 yuan (about 74,800 U.S. dollars) each year, said the newspaper. Established in November 2018, the BAAI aims to absorb and cultivate top talents, build joint laboratories with enterprises and universities, push forward cooperation among industries, universities and research institutes, as well as constructing open service platforms for the public and the AI community. A joint laboratory of intelligent model design and image perception under the BAAI was unveiled on Wednesday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 14:07:20|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CANBERRA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chefs at more than 40 Australia's top restaurants have signed a commitment to only serve sustainably-sourced seafood. The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) on Thursday announced its GoodFish program -- an initiative whereby signees pledge not to serve seafood that is red-listed in the society's Sustainable Seafood Guide. Ben Shewry, the chef and owner of Melbourne's Attica restaurant -- which was the only Australian restaurant to make the top 50 in The World's 50 Best Restaurants awards for 2018, coming in at number 20 -- was revealed as the project's official ambassador. He said that he was "absolutely thrilled and honoured" to take on the role as ambassador having used the Sustainable Seafood Guide for a decade to guide his own sourcing. "We have a moral responsibility. We need to understand the ingredients that we are cooking with, and no more so than what comes from the oceans," he said in a media release on Thursday. Popular menu items red-listed by the AMCS include farmed Atlantic salmon, wild prawns caught on Australia's east coast and wild barramundi caught in Queensland. "Chefs have an incredible ability to talk to people through food. We are trusted guides for society on how we eat and what we eat," chef and GoodFish manager Sascha Rust said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 14:17:26|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Some unknown militants gunned down 14 passengers after off-loading them from their bus on gunpoint in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province in the wee hours of Thursday morning, local media reported. The militants, disguised as security personnel, stopped the bus in the wee hours of morning to check identity cards of the passengers, and off-loaded 16 of them after scanning their identities, local media reported. The militants, which are said to be 10 to 15 in number, opened fire at the off-loaded passengers, killing 14 of them right at the spot while two others managed to sneak away, taking advantage of the darkness of the night. The escaping passengers reported the incident to a nearby security forces' check post, who rushed to the incident site for investigation. Identities of the killed passengers have not been determined yet. The militants fled the scene after the incident, and a search operation has been launched to hunt them down. Chief Minister of Balochistan Jam Kamal condemned the attack and said they will make all-out efforts to defeat militancy. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 14:42:41|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close by Chevige Gonzalez Marco CARACAS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S.-led economic sanctions against Venezuela are damaging the country's potable water system, Venezuelan engineer Alejandro Hitcher warned on Wednesday. Hitcher, who served as environment minister between 2010 and 2012, said the sanctions block access to imported parts and equipment needed to maintain the network. "They have been progressively undermining the water production and distribution system in Venezuela since 2014," when the financial and economic warfare against the South American country first began, Hitcher told Xinhua. Up to 2013, the water network was "stable" in delivering water "to the great majority of the Venezuelan people," Hitcher said. Recent nationwide blackouts that led to water shortages in parts of the country have spotlighted the shortcomings in the system that supplies drinking water, he said. Some 90 percent of Venezuelan cities receive water through a pumping system "that was paralyzed when electricity service went out," said Hitcher. The situation is especially "critical" in the capital Caracas, home to 25 million residents. Caracas "needs 24,000 liters of water per second for its greater metropolitan area." Up to 23,500 liters are pumped into Caracas and "just 500 liters per second are supplied by sources transported by gravity," he explained. Most of the country's major cities are in the same situation, heavily reliant on the electricity system to supply water. The government blamed the blackouts on sabotage by far-right opponents of the ruling socialist party, mainly via attacks on the central Guri hydroelectric plant. To strengthen the water supply system and make it less vulnerable to disruption, Venezuela should pursue thermoelectric energy, Hitcher recommended. "So if they attack the hydroelectric system ... the thermoelectric plants go into operation, which would in turn activate the water pumping systems," said Hitcher. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 15:12:54|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Salesforce, a leading global company in customer relations management (CRM) based in San Francisco, announced Wednesday an acquisition of a startup that provides location-based intelligence software and services. Salesforce said it has signed a definitive agreement to buy the 10-year-old North Carolina startup MapAnything, which it called "a pioneer in location-based intelligence software built natively on the Salesforce Platform." The world's leading CRM firm, which did not disclose the amount of the deal, said the acquisition of MapAnything will improve field sales and service by providing better location-based intelligence solutions. "The addition of MapAnything to Salesforce will help the world's leading brands accurately plan: how many people they need, where to put them, how to make them as productive as possible, how to track what's being done in real time and what they can learn to improve going forward," Salesforce said. Founded in 2009, MapAnything has maintained close cooperation with Salesforce and released its first applications on the Salesforce platform, including its major product MapAnything in 2012. Media reports said the startup has raised 84 million U.S. dollars in its latest funding round. MapAnything has been Salesforce's Systems Integrator Partner and Independent Software Vendor Premier Partner over the past nine-odd years. John Stewart, MapAnything CEO and co-Founder, said his company is now powering over 1,900 customers ranging from small businesses to the largest global enterprises. Big Machine Riley Greens debut single, There Was This Girl, is number one this week, and the Alabama native is wasting no time capitalizing on his momentum: his second release, In Love By Now, is already out, along with its accompanying music video. While the song finds Riley lamenting the loss of a girlfriend, he didnt have to do too much suffering for the video: It was shot in the beautiful Central American country of Belize. The clip starts with Riley playing guitar on the beach under a palm tree, before doing some shirtless deep sea fishing and a little swimming. Eventually, Riley spots his ex at an oceanfront bar, and takes the stage to sing -- perhaps changing the direction of their relationship. The bar scenes were shot at the Belize incarnation of Losers, a popular Nashville bar that now has a tropical outpost. A buddy of mine runs the bar and he invited me down, Riley tells Billboard. It seemed like a great place to shoot a music video. We might have saved a little money too, filming in his bar. As for the song itself, it may strike a familiar chord if youre a fan of countrys current fascination with the music of the nineties. I wrote In Love By Now with Rhett Akins, Ben Hayslip and Marv Green in Nashville, Riley explains. We sat down, and I think I said something about writing a song that sounded like Shenandoah -- a 90s country sounding song. They all jumped at the opportunity, Riley continues, because thats kind of their bread and butter too. When it came time to film a video, I somehow talked the label into filming it in Belize, so that wasnt too horrible. You can check out the In Love By Now video at Billboard.com. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 15:12:55|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Brazil will receive an investment of 621 million U.S. dollars from the New Development Bank (NDB), the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) released on Wednesday. The bank approved four Brazilian projects on renewable energy, road building, railway construction, sanitation, telecommunications and oil refinery, according to a survey of the institute, BRICS Joint Financial Architecture: The NDB. The bank has approved 30 projects from 2016 to 2018, amounting to 8.1 billion dollars. Almost a third of the amount is allocated to the transportation sector, and 26 percent at renewable energy projects, according to Ipea. As one of NDB's five founding members, Brazil has thus far invested 1 billion dollars in the bank and should double its contribution by 2022. The NDB, known as the BRICS Development Bank, was established in 2015 by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to be a new source of financing in infrastructure and sustainable development projects, for both BRICS members and other developing countries. The bank is headquartered in Shanghai, China. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 15:48:04|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Iranian military units held a parade and showcased military achievements to celebrate Army Day on Thursday. Units from Iran Army's Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force and Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base joined the parade. Beside missiles, radars technology, submarines, armored vehicles, and electronic warfare systems, the celebrations this year featured the aerial performance of domestically-built Kowsar and Saeqeh bombers. According to the state TV, MiG-29, F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat warplanes also took part in the parade. Moreover, the maneuvers saw KC-747 and KC-707 aerial refueling tankers flying from bases situated in the Iranian cities of Tabriz, Tehran, Hamedan and Isfahan. In the capital Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani and top military commanders of the army and Islamic Revolution Guards Corps attended the parade. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 16:08:12|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close MUMBAI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- India's SpiceJet is set to induct six more Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft on dry lease, according to a company release on Thursday. The six aircraft were in addition to the 16 Boeing 737s and five Q400s that the airline will soon induct in the immediate future, the release said. The announcement came a day after India's beleaguered airline Jet Airways temporarily suspended its operations. Commenting on the development, Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director of SpiceJet said "we are taking all possible proactive measures to deal with the sudden reduction of aviation capacity in the Indian market. SpiceJet continues to work closely with the government and regulatory authorities to help minimize passenger inconvenience." The airline has applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to import the planes, the release said. SpiceJet operates 516 average daily flights to 60 destinations, including 51 domestic and nine international ones. The airline has a fleet of 48 Boeing 737, 27 Bombardier Q400s and one Boeing 737 freighter. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 16:13:16|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close KATHMANDU, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's first ever satellite was launched into space on Thursday morning, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli confirmed here. Nepali Prime Minister Oli expressed happiness over Nepal's entry into the global space age while thanking all those involved in developing the first ever Nepali satellite. The research satellite, which has been named NepaliSat-1, was launched at 2:31 am on Thursday from the Virginia-based station of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States, according to authorities at the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). "Though a humble beginning, with the launching of NepaliSat-1 Nepal has entered the Space-Era. I wish to congratulate all those scientists and institutions that were involved right from the development to its launching thereby enhancing the prestige of our country," Oli said on Twitter. The satellite was designed and built at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan by two Nepali students, a senior official of the NAST told Xinhua on Thursday morning. Meanwhile, NAST Spokesperson Suresh Dhungel said that the NAST is setting up the ground station in Nepal for receiving data sent by the satellite soon. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 16:13:17|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Photo taken on April 18, 2019 shows military vehicles during a military operation in Ghazni province, eastern Afghanistan, April 18, 2019. Up to 17 militants have been killed and 20 others have been captured in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, provincial government spokesman Aref Nuri said Thursday. (Xinhua/Sayed Mominzadah ) GHAZNI, Afghanistan, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Up to 17 militants have been killed and 20 others have been captured in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, provincial government spokesman Aref Nuri said Thursday. According to the official, the security forces have been targeting Taliban hideouts and positions in Gilan, Gero and Andar districts since Wednesday afternoon leaving 17 insurgents dead and injuring three others. In the ongoing operations backed by fighting aircraft, 20 more insurgents have been captured, the official said. However, the official avoided commenting on the possible casualties of security personnel, saying the operation is going on. The Taliban militant group has not made a comment on the report yet. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 16:23:20|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close NEW DELHI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A female election officer was killed by Naxals in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, officials said Thursday. The election officer was killed at village Balandapada-Gochhapad in Kandhamal district, about 253 km west of Bhubaneswar, capital city of Odisha. "A polling supervisor Sanjukta Digal was killed after Naxals yesterday fired upon her at Balandapada in Gochhapad tehsil here," a police official said in Kandhamal. "She along with her staff was on their way to attend the election duty. The incident occurred when Digal's staff was retreating following a landmine blast. She was standing on road after parking the vehicle when she was hit by a bullet in head," the police said. According to the police, the staff accompanying her escaped unhurt. Earlier, Naxals set ablaze a vehicle which was ferrying polling officials to Mungunipadar booth under Phiringia police limits in the district. Officials said Digal along with her staff were on their way to reach the polling station, where elections were held on Thursday. "Deeply anguished by the sad demise of polling supervisor Sanjukta Digal in Naxal attack in Kandhamal district of Odisha on her way to polling booth. Heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family and prayer for the departed soul," Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in a statement. The second phase of the seven-phase Indian general elections began Thursday morning. The first phase was held last week. In the ongoing elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is seeking to regain power under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is facing tough competition from Rahul Gandhi, the fourth generation scion of India's powerful Nehru-Gandhi family and regional parties that have forged coalition in several states. The last phase of the elections will be held on May 19 and counting of votes is scheduled on May 23. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 17:36:54|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close Photo taken on April 17, 2019 shows a street view in Yemen's port city of Hodeidah. The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths said on Monday that the warring parties in Yemen have finally accepted the terms for a redeployment of forces in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah. (Xinhua) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 17:23:44|Editor: Liu Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia summoned the U.S. ambassador to the country to protest the country's eastern state of Sabah being listed in its Travel Advisory as an area with a high risk of kidnapping, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. The meeting, which took place on Wednesday at the ministry's headquarters in Putrajaya, was between U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir and the ministry's acting Secretary-General Nushirwan Zainal Abidin, who handed a protest note to Lakhdhir, the ministry said in a statement. Ambassador Lakhdhir explained while Malaysia as a whole has been placed in Tier 1, reserved for the safest countries and which is the lowest risk, eastern Sabah is subject to the "K" indicator due to the U.S. concerns of potential kidnappings and hostage taking. "Both parties agreed that it would be useful if, in the future, the Malaysian government is informed prior to similar announcements being made. The U.S. Ambassador took note of the Malaysian government's protest and concerns and would duly convey them to Washington," the statement said. The ministry added that security for tourists throughout the country was a top priority and the government was actively taking steps to ensure the security of eastern Sabah, noting also that the number of U.S. tourists to the country grew by nearly 30 percent last year. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 17:28:48|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday urged Yemeni parties concerned to implement the Stockholm Agreement without delay. "The members of the Security Council expressed their grave concern that four months after the agreements reached by the Government of Yemen and the Houthis in Stockholm, those agreements have not yet been implemented," according to a Security Council press statement. "They reiterated their endorsement of the Stockholm Agreement, circulated as document S/2018/1134, and reiterated their call for it to be implemented without delay." "The members of the Security Council underlined their full support for the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen and the Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) and welcomed their tireless efforts to support implementation of the Stockholm Agreement," it said. They called on the Yemeni government and the Houthis "to implement the redeployment plans as soon as possible and not seek to exploit the redeployment process." They also expressed concern about the recent escalation in violence elsewhere in Yemen, notably in Hajjah and on the Yemeni-Saudi border. "The members of the Security Council noted that the agreements reached in Stockholm are an important step in the process to end the conflict in Yemen," according to the statement. They reaffirmed their strong commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen. According to the deal reached in Stockholm in December 2018, the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels should withdraw troops from the city of Hodeidah and ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa. Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi rebels overtook the capital Sana'a and ousted the internationally-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis since 2015. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 17:44:05|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close PRAGUE, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Ma Biao, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, visited Czech Republic from Saturday to Tuesday at the invitation of the Czech Chamber of Deputies. Ma, who is also the president of the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament, met with Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Radek Vondracek, Vice Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and Chairman of the Group for Friendship with China Vojtech Filip, Vice President of Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Petr Simunek, and Governor of the South Bohemian Region Ivana Straska. The two sides held in-depth exchanges of views on the bilateral relations, parliamentary and people-to-people exchanges, and joint construction of the Belt and Road, among other issues. The Chinese delegation also had conversations with the representatives from the Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University and Czech Institute of International Relations, among other organizations. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 17:49:09|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close NAIROBI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for private-public partnership to spur infrastructure development in Africa. Kenyatta also urged African governments to create an enabling environment to help the private sector participate more in the development of critical infrastructure in the continent. High quality infrastructure reduces transactional and other costs, enabling efficient use of labor and capital, and enhancing connectivity between production points and market points, he said on Wednesday evening when he officially closed the inaugural AfroChampions Boma forum on African Infrastructure Financing and Delivery in Nairobi. The two-day conference brought together key public and private sector players from across the continent. Kenyatta said AfroChampions Initiative presents an exceptional opportunity for government agencies, private financiers and other stakeholders to come together and share their knowledge, expertise and experience leading to innovative solutions to the challenges in financing and implementing world class infrastructure systems in Africa. The president said he was convinced that public private partnerships supported by robust national institutions to ensure accountability and transparency hold the key to closing the prevailing infrastructure gap on the continent. He pointed out that Africa must work to address the insufficient stock of functional and quality infrastructure in energy, water and transport services to enable companies to produce competitively for both domestic and international markets. He said, good infrastructure is the backbone upon which African nations will achieve economic growth that will in-turn create the much needed jobs for the youth as well as generate wealth to deal with the challenge of poverty. The AfroChampions Initiative is a set of innovative public-private partnerships and flagship programs designed to galvanize African resources and institutions to support the emergence and success of African private sector in the regional and global spheres. The initiative is driven by prominent private and public sector players in Africa. Raila Odinga, African Union's High Representative for Infrastructure Development, expressed optimism that Africa is capable of addressing its infrastructure needs. Odinga called on African countries to remove barriers that hinder the free movement of people, goods and services by abolishing policies that curtail the involvement of the private sector in infrastructure development. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:04:26|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close Journalists and some chosen citizens wait to take the first ride of the light rail at the station of Gungahlin Place in Canberra, Australia, April 18, 2019. The long-awaited light rail in Australia's capital Canberra will be open to public on Saturday. Linking Gungahlin Place in the north and Alinga Street in the city center, the route stretches about 12 km, with 13 stops. The ride takes 24 minutes. (Xinhua/Zhang Xinxin) CANBERRA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The long-awaited light rail in Australia's capital Canberra will be open to public on Saturday. Linking Gungahlin Place in the north and Alinga Street in the city center, the route stretches about 12 km, with 13 stops. The ride takes 24 minutes. "It is a very very exciting day," Andrew Barr, chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), told Xinhua on Thursday. "People have been looking forward to the opening of light rail for some time." "It will make a big difference to the fastest-growing area of Canberra to be able to transport thousands of people into our city center each day," he said. Minister for Transport in the ACT government Meegan Fitzharris said "this is the biggest change to public transport since our city was founded... The passenger experience will keep getting better as drivers get used to taking passengers and journey times and frequency continue to improve." Media in Canberra and some lucky citizens were invited on Thursday for the first ride. Large crowd waited at the terminus of Gungahlin Place, taking photos while waiting for the train. Wally Bell, a Ngunawal elder, welcomed the first ride with aboriginal ritual. "It is beneficial for people from Gungahlin down to the city," he said. Sitting on the train, Megan Whittle's four-year-old daughter looked out of the window attentively, while her younger kid, one year old, enjoyed the ride quietly. "We simply entered the ballot and put our details in," Whittle told Xinhua. She was among the 150 chosen for the first ride out of thousands of entries. "So we are really very lucky. My daughter is excited all week." She said that it was a lovely vehicle. "Lovely and comfortable, with lots of big windows for the kids to see outside. Nice travel experience." Talking about the benefit of the light rail, Whittle believed it is useful for people living close to the route. "It seems a much faster way to get between one terminus and another," she said. Andrew Barr said the next stage proposed for the light rail project is to continue southward into the parliamentary crescent and then to Woden in the south of Canberra city. Construction of Canberra light rail started in July 2016, and testing of light rail vehicles on the track commenced in June 2018. According to information on the ACT government website, every week the light rail vehicles will complete 1,494 trips of alignment, travelling almost 18,000 km which is more than a full trip around Australia. People in Canberra are encouraged to try the light rail by local government, as the new public transport network kicks off a month of free travel for anyone with local transportation card from April 29. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:14:39|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close LUSAKA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's cabinet has approved a policy aimed at promoting decent work in all sectors, according to a release on Thursday. The approved National Employment and Labor Market Policy was aimed at supporting inclusive economic growth and development through promotion of gainful and decent work in all sectors. The statement noted that the policy, which was a revision of the 2015 policy, provides mechanisms to formalize the informal sector and enhance national productivity. The policy will also promote respect for fundamental principles and rights at work as well as strengthen the labor administration and labor market information systems, it adds. "The policy further provides strategies for enhancing social security system for all Zambians. It is envisaged, therefore, that with the implementation of the policy objectives this will contribute to inclusive growth and poverty reduction in the country," the statement said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:14:41|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's exports of copper concentrates increased 7 percent year on year in the first quarter of this year, local media reported Thursday. Mongolia exported a total of 361,400 tons of copper concentrates in the January-March period, the daily newspaper Zasgiin Gazriin Medee quoted the country's Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry as saying. The resource-rich country earned 503.7 million U.S. dollars from the export of copper concentrates in the period, up 9 percent from the same period last year, the ministry added. Mining is the most important sector of Mongolia's economy as the Asian country is rich in natural resources such as gold, silver, iron, coal, copper, molybdenum, tungsten, phosphates, tin, nickel, zinc, and fluorspar. The mining industry made up 72 percent of the industrial output, 87 percent of total exports, 24 percent of the gross domestic product and 75 percent of foreign investment in 2018, according to the country's Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:29:57|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, April 17 (Xinhua) -- More details of Apple-Qualcomm deal might come out though its quarterly earnings conference call scheduled in May, Qualcomm told Xinhua on Wednesday. Qualcomm and Apple announced an agreement on Tuesday to dismiss all litigation between the two companies worldwide. Qualcomm told Xinhua no further details are available at the moment and more information might become available in the earnings call on May 1. According to release from the two companies, their settlement includes an unspecified payment from Apple to Qualcomm. The two companies also have reached a six-year license agreement, effective as of April 1, 2019, including a two-year option to extend and a multi-year chipset supply agreement. All worldwide litigation will be dismissed and withdrawn, including claims involving Apple's contract manufacturers, according to current deal between the two companies. Shares of Qualcomm on Wednesday jumped 12.25 percent following a 23.21-percent surge in the previous session. Apple stock also closed 1.95 percent higher. Qualcomm has added about 26 billion U.S. dollars to its market value over the course of two days. Wall Street analysts believed the Apple-Qualcomm settlement would help Qualcomm strengthen its 5G network position and expand revenue accordingly. Analysts had previously said that the dispute between Qualcomm and Apple could slow down Apple's plans to support next-generation 5G networks. Qualcomm is one of the top suppliers of chips that can connect to 5G networks. The agreement opens up the possibility that Apple could release a 5G iPhone sooner than expected with Qualcomm's modems, analysts said. New iPhone models released in 2018 used Intel modem chips instead of Qualcomm's technology. On Tuesday, Intel announced its decision to withdraw from 5G smartphone modem business following the Apple-Qualcomm settlement. Apple and Qualcomm started proceedings on Monday in a multi-billion-U.S.-dollar patent trial in federal court in San Diego, which were expected to last until May. The settlement was announced after Apple lawyers made their opening argument. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:29:59|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close ATHENS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Greek police detained 70 persons and arrested one on Thursday during an operation to clear squatters in central Athens, Greek national news agency AMNA reported. In the same neighborhood of Exarchia in downtown Athens a week ago, over 100 individuals, most of whom are migrants, were detained and three were arrested for drug possession. Two buildings that had been occupied by anarchist groups for several months were evacuated on Thursday. Another two buildings were evacuated last week. The district in recent years has become a stronghold of illegally-resided anarchists who often clash with police, leaving behind smashed windows and torched cars. For the first time in a decade local residents and store owners staged a protest requesting more measures to tackle the "lawlessness" in the area. The police operations came a few days after a group of about 40 hooded people armed with clubs, knives and pistols attacked and slightly injured two Coast Guard officers who were escorting a prosecutor investigating a drug case in the area, according to eye witnesses. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:40:02|Editor: zh Video Player Close ANKARA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The head of a leading business group here said the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will accelerate commercial ties between Turkey and China. "The initiative lies at the heart of Turkey's longer-term vision for a more productive economic relationship not only with China but also with a rising Asia," the president of Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD) Simone Kaslowski told Xinhua in an interview. Kaslowski, who will attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, said the China-proposed initiative creates huge opportunities for participant member countries. The second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is scheduled for late April. Representatives from over 100 countries, including about 40 government leaders, have confirmed their attendance. Proposed in 2013, the BRI aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. With great interest and enthusiasm, Kaslowski is closely following changes in China's economy and society, with Beijing carrying out a comprehensive and ambitious reform agenda. "Every time I visit China, I've always been deeply impressed with the rapid change in her economy and society," he said. "The country is transforming in the digital area so rapidly that sometimes you feel as though you can see the change in real time." He hailed China's significant achievement in the fields of artificial intelligence, cloud technology, mobile payment transactions and big data analysis. China, declared as one of the four priority export markets by the Turkish Ministry of Trade, is currently Turkey's third largest trading partner, after Germany and Russia. According to the Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Board, the trade volume between Turkey and China reached 23 billion U.S. dollar at the end of 2018. The president of TUSIAD welcomed more Chinese heavyweight companies to invest in Turkey when the country's economy fell into recession last year, requiring new momentum for recovery. Kaslowski believes that China, under the frame of BRI, is not only a source of short-term finance for Turkey, but also a major stakeholder in its long-term economic development. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:40:03|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday unveiled its plan to explore an asteroid and a comet and invited scientists around the world to participate in the program. The mission will involve exploring a near-Earth asteroid, named 2016HO3, and a main-belt comet, named 133P, said Liu Jizhong, director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration. China offers to carry scientific instruments developed by other countries on the mission, according to Liu. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:45:09|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close LONDON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- As firms prepare for the prospect of a looming no-deal Brexit, recent business activities in the UK have been unusual, most evident in economic data which is out of the normal and surprisingly good. However, Brexit uncertainty will harm the long-term prospects for the British economy, experts told Xinhua in recent interviews. UNEXPECTED BOOST Data released last week by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed three-monthly GDP growth up to the end of February at 0.3 percent. Though a lackluster performance, it exceeded expectations by some economists and commentators, who had expected Brexit-related uncertainty would plunge the UK economy into stagnation or even recession during the first quarter. This out-turn was also higher than the 0.1 percent growth rate that the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), one of UK's longest established independent research institutes, forecast last month. Garry Young, head of macroeconomic modelling and forecasting at the NIESR, said: "The latest ONS data was better than we had expected, but recent survey evidence suggests that economic growth is likely to continue at a fairly modest pace for the first half of this year ... The near-term outlook for the UK economy continues to depend on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations." Howard Archer, chief economic adviser at EY ITEM Club, an economics forecasting group, told Xinhua that the better-than-expected GDP figures were partly helped by the revised-up December's GDP monthly figure. "GDP growth of 0.2 percent month-on-month in February was led by manufacturing output spiking 0.9 percent month-on-month. This is a very high figure," he said. According to a recent research by IHS Markit, UK manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) stood at a 13-month high of 55.1 in March, mainly boosted by businesses' stockpiling of raw material and finished goods for fear of a disruptive Brexit. EMPLOYMENT MYTH Recent figures from ONS showed that the number of employed in the UK has risen between November and January to a record high of 32.7 million. "The surprising thing is that the overall economy is slowing down and investment is also slowing down in the UK, but the job market has not stopped growing," said Pawel Adrjan, UK economist at Indeed Hiring Lab. The uncertainty around Brexit probably contributed to the recent employment data, Adrjan said. "Businesses are reluctant to invest in long-term projects because of the uncertainties, and the only way they can meet demand is to continue hiring people, which results in growing employment," he explained. "The second trend is that it becomes harder and harder for businesses to hire more staff, because there are fewer and fewer people unemployed thanks to the record-high employment rate," he added. Furthermore, he said, migration flows, especially from European Union (EU) countries, have slowed down. PROLONGED UNCERTAINTY After a new deadline of Oct. 31 was set for Brexit last week, analysts believe the UK economy will continue to be plagued by uncertainty, and a disruptive exit could still happen. The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, the flagship barometer of the global economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), last week cut the outlook for UK economic growth in 2019 to 1.2 percent, citing the negative effect of prolonged uncertainty about the Brexit outcome. "The uncertainty up to this point has been damaging to the UK economy. Several studies have pointed to a loss of GDP of between 500 million pounds (654 million U.S. dollars) and 900 million pounds (1.178 billion dollars) per week since the referendum," said Johnes. "In large part this is due to a collapse of business investment. This was growing at over 3 percent per year before the EU referendum (2016), but it has grown by less than 1 percent a year since - and it turned negative part way through last year," the professor explained. The latest data by ONS showed that UK business investment fell by 0.4 percent in 2018, the worst performance since the economic downturn of 2008 to 2009. The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) predicted last month that business investment would decline by 1.0 percent in 2019. Adam Marshall, BCC director general, said: "It is clear that political inaction has already had economic consequences, with many firms hitting the brakes on investment and recruitment decisions as a result of ongoing uncertainty." "Worse still, some companies have moved investment and growth plans as part of their contingency preparations. Some of this investment may never come back to the UK," he added. At the same time, the service sector, which accounts for nearly 80 percent of the UK economy, continues to be timid. The UK Services PMI fell to 48.9 in March, below the benchmark of 50, indicating a contraction in the largest economic sector, IHS Markit research showed. Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said: "A drop in service sector activity indicates that UK GDP contracted in March, with the economy stalling over the first quarter as a whole and at risk of sliding into a deepening downturn in coming months." Despite the recent Brexit extension, the deal is still at an impasse, and the risk of no deal remains high. "A no-deal Brexit that severely disrupts supply chains and raises trade costs could potentially have large and long-lasting negative impacts on the economies of the UK and the EU," the IMF said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 18:50:13|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, April 18 (Xinhua) -- One civilian was injured as a blast rocked Pul-e-Khumri, capital of Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province on Thursday, an official said on condition of anonymity. Provincial police spokesman Jawed Basharat confirmed the incident with Xinhua, saying it was a sticky bomb blast which destroyed a vehicle on Thursday afternoon. An investigation has been initiated. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 19:10:31|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 18 (Xinhua) -- President Hassan Rouhani said here Thursday that the achievements of Iran's Armed Forces do not pose any threat to the regional states. Iran's Armed Forces is the "protector of regional interests and will stand by the regional nations against the invaders," Rouhani made the remarks here in a ceremony marking Iran's Army Day. The Iranian Armed Forces have become more powerful, he said, adding that Iran's territorial waters as well as those of its neighbors are safer than ever thanks to the Iranian Armed Forces' efforts. He also slammed that Israel and the United States have never sought peace and security of the regional nations. Besides, the U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, using its "proxy terrorist groups," has even resulted in "destruction, carnage and displacement of regional people." Under such circumstances, it is necessary for regional nations to stand together. "Problems among the regional nations are caused by others," particularly the United States, Rouhani stressed. He came up with examples in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, saying that the U.S. "crimes" in these countries have brought nothing to save misery and pain. Faced with such threats and the U.S. "ominous role" in the region, the Iranian Armed Force, and particularly the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), have helped the regional nations, Rouhani said. The Iranian president further touched upon the recent blacklisting of the IRGC by the United States and said designation of the IRGC as a "foreign terrorist organization" runs counter to international regulations. Such a move by Washington is an insult to the Iranian nation and the Iranians will remain united with the IRGC since it has protected the nation's interests, he said. "The U.S. path is wrong and the U.S. leaders are in delusions" over their move on the IRGC, President Rouhani added. On Thursday, Iranian military units held a parade and showcased military achievements to celebrate Army Day. Units from Iran Army's Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force and Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base joined the parade. Besides offensive missiles, S-300 anti-missile air defense systems, radars, submarines, armored vehicles, electronic warfare systems, and pilotless aircraft, the celebrations this year featured the aerial performance of domestically-built Kowsar and Saeqeh bombers. According to the state TV, MiG-29, F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat warplanes also took part in the parade. Moreover, the maneuvers saw KC-747 and KC-707 aerial refueling tankers flying from bases situated in the Iranian cities of Tabriz, Tehran, Hamedan and Isfahan. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 19:31:06|Editor: zh Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian and Chinese entrepreneurs meeting was held here on Thursday, aiming at exploring opportunities for trade and investment, officials said. The meeting brought together nearly 20 entrepreneurs from southwest China's Sichuan province and about 20 Cambodian business executives. Ek Sam Ol, president of the Cambodia-China Friendship Association, said that currently, many enterprises from Sichuan have been doing businesses in various sectors in Cambodia. "The forum is a good opportunity for the entrepreneurs from both sides to exchange experiences and to explore opportunities for investments or business partnerships," he said. Sam Ol said China is currently the top foreign investor in Cambodia and Chinese investments have importantly contributed to socio-economic development in the country. He said Chinese investments have focused on a variety of sectors including transport infrastructure, hydropower plants, industrial zones, garment and footwear factories, banking and finance, real estate and construction, agriculture, tourism, and airlines. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:01:19|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun met on Thursday with British Army Chief Nicholas Carter who assured British continuous support for the Lebanese government and army, said Lebanon's presidency website. Aoun told Carter that Lebanon is committed to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 despite the Israeli continuous violations of Lebanon's sovereignty by air, land and sea. He thanked Carter for his country's support to Lebanon in building watchtowers along the Lebanese-Syrian borders in addition to helping train the Lebanese army in monitoring smuggling activities across the borders and fighting against terrorism. The Lebanese president assured also that Lebanon will start its oil and gas exploration activities in the exclusive economic zone even if the dispute with Israel over maritime borders is not solved. Lebanon has an unresolved maritime border with Israel that involves a triangular sea area of about 860 square km extending along the edge of three of its 10 offshore energy blocks. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:01:23|Editor: zh Video Player Close CHENGDU, April 18 (Xinhua) -- In a lantern-making factory in the city of Zigong in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Zhou Xian introduces pieces of wires interwoven into a human figure. "This is the framework of a color lantern based on the image of a Terracotta warrior," says Zhou, vice president of Lantern Group, the biggest lantern-making company in Zigong. Zhou adjusts the bending parts of the wires frame, the face and armor of the soldier, and after adding colorful silk on the wires, a warrior-shaped lantern will be completed. "This is a quite demanding process, and if the wires are not welded properly, once the light is on, you will see the defects from the outside," Zhou said. In Zigong, making colorful lanterns is a big industry, generating an annual revenue of 5 billion yuan (747 million U.S. dollars). The lanterns are so popular that they have even caught the attention of foreigners, with the lanterns on display in the United States, Lithuania and France. Zigong lanterns have been displayed in more than 500 cities of 74 countries and regions, attracting more than 400 million viewers, according to official figures "We hope to further expand the markets overseas in the future," Zhou said. The lantern-making tradition goes way back. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), locals in Zigong loved lighting oil candles to pray for health and prosperity during the first full-moon of the lunar calendar, or the "Lantern Festival" as it is known today. As the handicraft art evolved, simple oil candles were replaced by more complicated lanterns. Craftsmen used bamboo shoots and silk to create lanterns in the shape of shining palaces, fairies and giant dragons. But the most significant change came within the last century. During the planned economy period after the new China was founded, the government in Zigong called on factories, schools, hospitals and companies to "contribute to the annual lantern shows." People from different walks of life used the materials they were most familiar with and managed to create a host of novel lanterns. Things like silkworm cocoons, glass medicine bottles, teacups and even flashlight shades were introduced into the making of lanterns. The unique lanterns in Zigong gradually became distinctive from other parts of China, and their reputation even expanded to other parts of the world. These days, making a Zigong lantern involves many craftsmen, including art designers, bench workers, mechanics, electricians and paperhanging workers. The complete process can hardly be found in other places in China. Another important craftsmanship is about binding. At a lantern show held in early 2019 in Zigong, workers bound plates, spoons, teacups and goblets into lanterns in the shape of chime bells. The lanterns were 30 meters tall and weighed several tonnes. "Western viewers really love handmade work instead of industrialized stuff," said Liu Cheng, also vice president of Lantern Group. "Our company experienced explosive growth thanks to our performance in the European markets." Liu said that last year lantern shows in overseas markets brought more than 200 million yuan in revenue for the company. With the fast development of China's economy, more and more people are interested in the Chinese culture, and many are intrigued by the traditional lanterns, said Luo Rui, with Haitian Lantern, also a lantern-maker in Zigong. At the end of last year, the company entered the markets in Eastern Europe for the first time, with lantern shows held in Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine. "Many people in Lithuania came to see the 40-meter-long dragon lantern we created," Luo said. "The dragon could 'move' its head, and smoke as high as six meters billowed out of its mouth." The company was even invited to attend the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Economic and Trade Forum. "Colorful lanterns have lit up the global stage," Luo said. "I believe the future for traditional lanterns will be glittering." Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:01:24|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close KABUL, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces in operations against Taliban fighters launched a major offensive in Gul Tipa district of the northern Kunduz province Thursday morning, overrunning main bastion of the armed group, army spokesman in the restive province Ghulam Hazrat Karimi said. The government forces recaptured Zar Kharid, Bagh-e-Shirkat and Chalchinar villages forcing the militants to flee, according to Karimi. Gul Tipa district, located 15 km northwest of Kunduz city, the capital of Kunduz province, has been regarded as Taliban hotbed in the beleaguered province. "Taliban rebels have fled away without resistance and our security forces are advancing to recapture more areas in Gul Tipa to restore law and order there," Karimi said. Taliban outfit have not commented on the situation in Gul Tipa district. It launched its so-called annual spring offensive on April 12 and conducted major offensive over the weekend to capture Kunduz city. According to Karimi, Taliban's attempt to overrun Kunduz city has been foiled and the militants have retreated to their hideouts in far-flanged areas in the mountains after suffering defeat and losing more than 40 fighters. Meanwhile, the government forces in crackdown against militants have killed 17 armed insurgents in the eastern Ghazni province since Wednesday, provincial government spokesman Aref Nuri said. Militancy and counter-militancy have gained momentum since April 12 when the Taliban outfit launched its annual offensive in the conflict-plagued Afghanistan. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:06:30|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close WUHAN, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Wuhan's Public Security Bureau is setting up a brand-new police team to serve the thousands of foreign nationals expected to descend on the city for the 2019 Military World Games this October. Hu Yiwen, a local policewoman working in the Exit and Entry Administration Department of Wuhan's Public Security Bureau, was appointed to this special branch after being voted one of the city's top 10 performing police officers last month. Since then, her duties have included writing information and training manuals for police officers in five languages, and opening visa-free passages for foreign athletes at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. Hu also gave training to receptionists in hotels assigned for foreign athletes to ensure quality service and accommodation. She also helped set up a coordinated mechanism to provide temporary assistance and medical treatment for foreign visitors. Hu is just one member of a brand-new police team created to assist the tens of thousands of overseas athletes attending the 7th Military World Games to be held in Wuhan this October. This all-new team consists of 100 police officers who have mastered more than two languages, and are said to have plenty of experience in dealing with foreign affairs, with some having conducted overseas peacekeeping operations. Members of this special police team will be easily identifiable by their distinctive blue armbands, and are currently in the middle of an 18-week language training course. According to event organizers, over 10,000 athletes from 105 countries and regions are expected to feature at the 2019 Military World Games this October. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:21:49|Editor: zh Video Player Close ZHUHAI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Liu Jieyi, head of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, Thursday met here with People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong Chu-yu from Taiwan. Welcoming Soong's visit, Liu said the mainland will unite with Taiwan compatriots and jointly promote the development of cross-strait relations in the right direction. On the common political basis of upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing "Taiwan independence," the mainland is willing to join hands with all political parties, organizations and personages in Taiwan, including the PFP, to promote peaceful development of cross-strait relations, advance the process of peaceful reunification of the motherland and jointly create a bright future for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, said Liu. Soong said the PFP has always advocated that both sides across the Taiwan Strait belong to one China and one family while opposing "Taiwan independence." He expressed support to the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and called on compatriots on both sides to contribute to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:26:52|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China announced the cooperation plan for its future Chang'e-6 mission, offering to carry a total of 20 kg of solicited payloads, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Thursday. The orbiter and lander of the Chang'e-6 mission will each reserve 10 kg for payloads, which will be selected from both domestic colleges, universities, private enterprises and foreign scientific research institutions, said Liu Jizhong, director of the China Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the CNSA, at a press conference. China is expected to launch the Chang'e-5 probe by the end of this year to bring moon samples back to Earth. As the backup of the Chang'e-5 mission, the Chang'e-6 mission will also collect lunar samples automatically for comprehensive analysis and research, Liu said. Its launch time and landing site will depend on the performance of the Chang'e-5 mission, he explained. According to Liu, the Chang'e-6 probe will be comprised of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a return capsule. It will enter the Earth-moon transfer orbit, slow near the moon to enter the lunar orbit and descend and land on a preset area on the moon. After collecting lunar samples, the ascender will rise from the lunar surface for rendezvous and docking with the orbiter flying around the moon. Then the return capsule will fly back to Earth via the moon-Earth transfer orbit, reenter the atmosphere, land and be retrieved. At the conference, Liu pointed out the specific positions reserved on the lander and orbiter for scientific payloads. The deadline for applying to join the cooperation plan is Aug. 31, 2019. "China has always valued exchanges and cooperation with its international counterparts while promoting deep space exploration and scientific and technological innovation," said Zhang Kejian, head of the CNSA. China has signed cooperation framework agreements with multiple international space agencies, including the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos and the European Space Agency. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:26:55|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The goods trade volume between China and countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) surpassed 6 trillion U.S. dollars from 2013 to 2018, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). In the past six years, China has signed 173 cooperative documents with 125 countries, including the developed and developing countries, and 29 international organizations, Yuan Da, spokesperson with the NDRC, told a press briefing Thursday. Many firms and financial institutions in developed countries also partnered with China to explore opportunities in the third-party markets, Yuan said. As for infrastructure connectivity, projects including the China-Laos Railway, China-Thailand Railway and Port of Piraeus are smoothly progressing, he said. The China-Europe freight trains, connecting China with 50 cities in 15 European countries, had made more than 14,000 trips by the end of March, he said. In terms of financial connectivity, China has signed currency swap agreements with 20 countries along the Belt and Road and formed RMB clearing arrangements with seven countries, Yuan said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:26:57|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Nabil Shaath, international relations advisor to the Palestinian president, said on Thursday that the Palestinians will launch a campaign to counter the U.S. Middle East peace plan, known as the "Deal of the Century." The campaign will target "the crime and conspiracy that aim at liquidating the Palestinian cause under the so-called century deal," said Shaath in a statement to the official Palestinian radio station Voice of Palestine. He said that "we've seen this plan advancing through the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, disregarding the Palestinian refugees issue, and recognizing Israeli settlements and Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights." Shaath said that "all steps taken by U.S. President Donald Trump proved that the deal is nothing but a conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian cause." The comment came after U.S. president's senior advisor Jared Kushner said that the Mideast peace plan will be unraveled after the month of Ramadan and the formation of the new Israeli government, most likely in June. Israeli public radio reported earlier that the European Union is considering presenting its principles for peace in the Middle East in case Trump's plan does not build on the two-state solution principle. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:42:11|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close ROME, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A warning from the Bank of Italy that the government's 2020 budget deficit might be far larger than expected sent financial markets reeling this week and prompted the country's minister of finance to assuage worries -- with limited success. HIGHER-THAN-EXPECTED DEFICITS The Bank of Italy, the country's central reserve bank, on Tuesday said the country's deficit next year could swell to as much as 3.4 percent of gross domestic product if the government refuses to raise the value-added tax. That is far above the 2.1-percent goal laid out in the guidance for the 2020 budget the government released three weeks ago. The bank also predicted a deficit of 3.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2021, barring unexpected economic growth or higher tax rates. The bank's estimates for 2020 and 2021 are both far above the 3.0-percent fiscal cap for any three-year period in European Union member states that use the euro currency. The news unnerved markets Tuesday, sending the yield on the benchmark ten-year government bonds to as high as 2.65 percent on secondary markets, their highest levels this month, and reversing a gradual decline in yields heading into Tuesday's trading. Higher yields raise the country's cost for borrowing money, further adding to the deficit. "It was just a warning, but the statement from the bank of Italy worried investors who remember last year's budget fight," Francesco Daveri, a macroeconomist and the head of the business administration program at the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, told Xinhua. STRUCTURAL REFORMS NEEDED In 2018, Italy locked horns with the European Commission over deficit levels in this year's budget. Commissioners called on Italy to keep the deficit within 0.8 percent of gross domestic product, while Italy wanted a deficit of 2.4 percent of gross domestic product. After ten weeks of contentious negotiations the two sides agreed to a deficit of 2.04 percent of the country's gross domestic product, though lowered economic growth estimates mean the deficit will likely be at least 2.4 percent of the gross domestic product, as Italy originally asked for. European media has speculated that the higher-than-expected deficit levels this year mean commissioners will take a harder line with Italy when negotiations for the 2020 budget get underway in a few months. "A higher deficit would be a big problem, but the cause of the problem is the lack of economic growth," said Lucio Poma, an economist with the University of Ferrara and the scientific director of the Industry and Innovation section at the economic studies firm Nomisma. Italy's economy shrunk during the second half of 2018, and reviews are mixed on whether it will show even modest growth when figures for the first quarter of 2019 are released this month. "If the economy were growing, then the deficit would be smaller as a percentage of the economy," Poma said in an interview. "This isn't a question of the effects of trade or tax rates. The budget can't be cut any more than it has been; there's hardly anything left to cut. Italy needs structural reforms that can spark economic growth." GOV'T TO STAND BY PLEDGE Giovanni Tria, Italy's minister of finance, spoke Wednesday in part to tamp down fears sparked by the Bank of Italy comments. Tria said the government would look for ways to stand by its pledge to avoid an unpopular increase in the country's value-added tax "while waiting for alternatives" to replace the revenue the tax would provide. "We will evaluate alternative measures," Tria said in parliament. "Everything we do will have to confirm the compatibility of the budget objectives." "Basically, Tria was saying 'We want to find a way to avoid the 3.4-percent deficit without raising the value-added tax,' but he didn't provide details," Daveri said. Markets had a lukewarm response to Tria's remarks: yields on the ten-year bonds started lower but again touched the 2.65-percent threshold before ending the day slightly lower. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:52:25|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania said on Thursday plans were afoot to produce tactile ballot papers to enable persons with visual impairment to vote in all elections. Anthony Mavunde, the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office responsible for Parliamentary Affairs, Labor, Employment and Disabled, told parliament that the move was aimed at enhancing democratic rights in the east African nation. Mavunde was responding to a question by a Special Seats Member of Parliament Suzan Mgonukulima who had wanted to know the government's plans to cater for the needs of the disabled during voting. "Is the government ready to prepare special papers for people who are visually impaired to enable them exercise their constitutional right of voting without help from others who can mislead them?" asked Mgonukulima. Mavunde told the house in the capital Dodoma that special papers for visually impaired voters were first used in the 2015 presidential elections but the plan was to have such papers in all elections. "During the 2015 general elections, tactile ballot papers for people with visual impairment were used for presidential elections only," said Mavunde. Tanzania will hold civic polls later this year, and presidential and parliamentary elections in October 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:52:28|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close ANKARA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Turkey seeks to ease disputes with the United States over its decision to purchase Russian S-400 missile systems with fears that a standoff between the two NATO countries could exacerbate the economy in the country. Turkey's ministers, including Finance and Treasury Minister Berat Albayrak, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, and presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin, paid a visit to Washington this week to attend a three-day business event. The event was organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey, Turkey-U.S. Business Council, and American-Turkish Council. Albayrak also met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday in order to deliver the messages of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan particularly on the issue of the purchase of Russian made S-400 anti-ballistic missile systems. The United States threatens to suspend the delivery of the F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and impose additional sanctions if Ankara continues ahead with the purchase of the S-400 systems. "I conveyed the messages of Erdogan and we had a positive and constructive meeting," Albayrak, also the Turkish president's son-in-law, told reporters. Erdogan several times publicly stated that Turkey would go ahead with the S-400 deal, and accused the United States of "coaxing Ankara into abandoning the S-400 deal." The delivery of the defense system will begin in June and the batteries will be deployed in Turkey in July, which is expected to trigger crucial crisis between Ankara and Washington. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu repeatedly said it was a "done deal" and noted there was no option of delivering these systems to a third country in order to avoid U.S. sanctions. However, the Turkish media recently circulates the scenario of Turkey's deployment of S-400 systems to another country. Most recently, columnist of pro-government daily Sabah Okan Muderrisoglu indicated this scenario, naming Azerbaijan and Qatar as options. He said that Turkey mulls formulas to address dispute with the United States. "Although Turkey sees the S-400 deal as a done business and even though it declared that it will not compromise on its sovereignty rights, Turkey mulls some formulas that can overcome the crisis with the United States," Muderrisoglu wrote on Tuesday, when the Turkish delegation was still in talks in Washington. "The option of finalizing the delivery of the S-400s but keeping them in Azerbaijan or Qatar is on the table," he added. Given the stormy state of bilateral affairs with the United States, Turkey seeks financial support from American business circles and wants to avoid currency fluctuations over its vulnerable Turkish lira. Albayrak also met with international investors and executives of funds on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank spring meeting in Washington. In the event hosted by JP Morgan, Albayrak briefed the investors on his new economic reform package in order to convince them that the government will be able to restore the country's economy. Turkey's lira has seen a crisis last year, sparked by strained U.S. diplomatic ties over a jailed American pastor, tumbling some 30 percent. The lira has again seen volatility after March 31 elections when the ruing party saw major losses in polls. Turkey's economy "has no strength left" to cope with any possible turbulence over U.S. sanctions, according to Turkish economist Murat Muratoglu. He reminded that the United States has several sticks to use against Ankara, such us a waiver by Washington granted for six months on Turkey's import of Iranian oil after U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran in November. The waiver will last till May and Ankara seeks to extend it, an issue discussed during the Turkish delegation's visit to Washington. Muratoglu noted possible sanctions over Turkey's gold trade with Venezuela, and a pending case of state-owned Halk Bank which can be a subject of penalty over a scheme to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions. "The U.S. can propose one of them at any time," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:57:38|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Indian paramilitary troopers stand guard as Kashmiri women voters come out from a polling station after casting their votes during the second phase of India's general elections, in the outskirts of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 18, 2019. (Xinhua/Javed Dar) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 20:57:36|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING/SHANGHAI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's extended May Day holiday this year will see another "tourism craze" with an estimated total of 160 million trips, the country's biggest online travel agency Ctrip said Thursday. The figure is about 50 percent higher than that of the Tomb-sweeping holiday which was from April 5 to 7, according to Ctrip's prediction. Ctrip had made an earlier forecast of 150 million trips after authorities' decision to extend the vacation boosted online searches and orders for trips. The State Council, China's cabinet, announced last month that this year's May Day holiday would be extended to four days, from May 1 to 4. Ctrip data showed some 49 percent of users opted for journeys lasting four to six days thanks to the extension. Visitors from more than 610 cities from home and abroad have booked tours through the leading travel agency to over 900 destinations across 90 countries and regions. The number of young travelers - born between 1980 to 1999 - accounted for about half of the total, Ctrip said. Eastern Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are the most popular overseas destinations, and American and European countries will also see an increase of Chinese visitors, it added. Domestically, Sanya, Xiamen, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai, Xi'an and Chongqing are expected to be among the most popular choices, according to the agency. To meet the demand of growing travelers, the China Railway Corporation is preparing more trains. The railway operator expects some 68.2 million railway passenger trips from April 30 to May 4, a growth of 10.9 percent year on year. Chinese tourists made 147 million domestic trips during the three-day long May Day holiday last year, up 9.3 percent year-on-year. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:02:40|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, April 18 (Xinhua) -- State-owned Tanzania National Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Coordination Board has deregistered six NGOs working in the east African nation for breaching regulations, the board said in a statement on Thursday. The statement said the six NGOs also conducted their businesses in contrary to their constitutions that they submitted during registration of the organizations. The statement mentioned the deregistered organizations as Community Health Education Services and Advocacy, Kazi Busara na Hekima Sisters, AHA Development Organization Tanzania, Pathfinder Green City, Hope and Others and HAMASA Poverty Reduction. On March 28, this year, the government warned NGOs operating in the country to stop engaging in immoral deeds, including money laundering and threats to national security. Opening a two-day annual meeting of the National Council of NGOs Tanzania in the capital Dodoma, Faustine Ndungulile, the Deputy Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, said the government has completed collection of an electronic data for all NGOs working in the country aimed at receiving information about their activities on time. He urged the NGOs to maintain transparency and accountability in their efforts to help build the nation. He said their goals and objectives should also be in line with the government development agenda, adding that the authorities will not tolerate rogue NGOs who were not working on their own direction in the pretense of helping people. "Much as you come with financial resources but if your purported activities are not in line with the government development agenda, you will not be allowed in the country," said Ndungulile. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:12:48|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China announced the cooperation plan for its future Chang'e-6 mission, offering to carry a total of 20 kg of solicited payloads, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Thursday. The orbiter and lander of the Chang'e-6 mission will each reserve 10 kg for payloads, which will be selected from both domestic colleges, universities, private enterprises and foreign scientific research institutions, said Liu Jizhong, director of the China Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the CNSA, at a press conference. China is expected to launch the Chang'e-5 probe by the end of this year to bring moon samples back to Earth. As the backup of the Chang'e-5 mission, the Chang'e-6 mission will also collect lunar samples automatically for comprehensive analysis and research, Liu said. Its launch time and landing site will depend on the performance of the Chang'e-5 mission, he explained. According to Liu, the Chang'e-6 probe will be comprised of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a return capsule. It will enter the Earth-moon transfer orbit, slow near the moon to enter the lunar orbit and descend and land on a preset area on the moon. After collecting lunar samples, the ascender will rise from the lunar surface for rendezvous and docking with the orbiter flying around the moon. Then the return capsule will fly back to Earth via the moon-Earth transfer orbit, reenter the atmosphere, land and be retrieved. At the conference, Liu pointed out the specific positions reserved on the lander and orbiter for scientific payloads. The deadline for applying to join the cooperation plan is Aug. 31, 2019. "China has always valued exchanges and cooperation with its international counterparts while promoting deep space exploration and scientific and technological innovation," said Zhang Kejian, head of the CNSA. China has signed cooperation framework agreements with multiple international space agencies, including the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos and the European Space Agency. The Chang'e-4 mission, which accomplished the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, carries four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. The CNSA also delivered the data collected by the neutral atom detector aboard the Chang'e-4 rover to Sweden, the data from the neutron radiation detector aboard the Chang'e-4 lander to Germany and the data from the low-frequency radio astronomical instrument aboard the Chang'e-4 relay satellite Queqiao to the Netherlands at the conference. "The scientific data has deepened human understanding of the lunar and space environment as well as solar activities," Zhang said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:22:58|Editor: zh Video Player Close XINING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are opening doors, and their minds too, to a group of curious visitors -- science fiction writers. Five state-owned industrial heavyweights, including electricity giants, nuclear firms and construction conglomerates, have invited sci-fi writers to visit their factories, megaprojects and laboratories and, hopefully, find clues for their new stories. "It has never happened before -- we sci-fi writers visit SOEs to collect material for our works," said writer Ling Chen, who prefers to be identified by her pen name. "China's technology development has been so fast that sometimes I feel I lag behind. This is a rare opportunity for me to get in touch with the SOEs' advanced technology." With the support of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), the regulator of SOEs in China, the event is designed to give the public a better idea of SOEs' technology feats through sci-fi works. The SOEs' tech achievements provide "a solid foundation" for science fiction, as state firms are important players in China's pursuit of innovation-driven development, said Liu Fuguang, deputy head of the SASAC's publicity bureau. "We hope there could be more elements of Chinese enterprises and technology embedded in the sci-fi writers' works after their visits," Liu said. On the other hand, sci-fi writers' bold imagination could also be an inspiration for the SOEs' future tech explorations, said Lin Mingzhao, director of the press center of the State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC). Signature projects of SPIC, one of China's largest electricity generators and a Fortune Global 500 company, were the destinations of the writers' just-concluded first trip, which brought them to the far-flung canyons and plateaus of northwestern province of Qinghai. ALIENS & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) During the trip, the eight sci-fi writers and one popular science writer, mostly in their 20s and 30s, were amazed by the striking scenes of high dams wedged into steep valleys, a sea of photovoltaic (PV) panels spanning the sun-bathed wilderness, and red-hot high-purity polysilicon rods quietly developed in the furnaces of a Chinese factory that broke a foreign technology monopoly. At certain moments of the trip, the boundary between reality and science fiction seemed to blur. Standing at the bottom of the 250 meter-tall dam of Laxiwa hydropower station, the largest on the Yellow River, Zhang Mengyuan, a 28-year-old sci-fi cartoon playwright, marveled at the engineering skills. The imposing cement hulk, with nothing on its wall but seven dark water outlets, reminded her of "a base for aliens to hide in," she said. China outrivals most countries in the hydropower field, with the world's largest installed capacity. On a sightseeing tower in a local PV industrial park, designed to cover 609 square km, writer Liu Huiying was overwhelmed by the view of vast arrays of PV panels installed by SPIC stretching to the horizon. "Objects placed in such large quantities provide strong sensory stimulation," Liu said. "Perhaps I could write about similar scenes in my future stories." Writer Lu Bingwen described the hydro-solar power hybrid generation technology, a world-leading innovation by a SPIC subsidiary that converts volatile PV power into stable, high-quality electricity, as "magic." "If I could control the alternating current sent from the PV power station and apply machine learning to it in a way that simulates the human brain wave, maybe I would be able to create an AI system in the power grid someday," Lu said. After visiting the polysilicon manufacturer, the only one in China able to mass produce and sell electronic-grade polysilicon, cyberpunk writer Zhao Lei was impressed by the strenuous efforts made by researchers and engineers undaunted by decades of foreign monopoly over the technology. "Making technological breakthroughs is like fighting a war against aliens equipped with high-tech weapons. Only with this kind of spirit demonstrated by these researchers could victory be attained," he said. Lin from SPIC believes any elements of SOEs or their technology appearing in sci-fi works would help rebuild the public images of these companies. "SOEs should have more connections with people's lives, instead of being a mysterious and distant existence in the eyes of the public," she said. SPARKLES OF INTERACTION China's SOEs used to be deemed as torpid, lacking innovation and inefficient. However, with the government push for innovation-driven development and supply-side structural reform, they have made strides in corporate reforms, sharpened their competitive edges and improved their technology strength in recent years. On the 2018 Fortune Global 500 list, 83 of 120 Chinese firms making the list were SOEs, of which 48 were centrally administered. Central SOEs' investment in research and development account for around a quarter of the national total. Their goal is to become world-class modern enterprises. The imagination of sci-fi writers, to some extent, could contribute to the innovation drive of SOEs, said Lin from SPIC, who plans to collect the sci-fi writers' ideas on related technology subjects for discussions among the company's tech staff. During their tour, the writers provided alternative approaches to technical problems. "Maybe you can use robots to clean the panels," writer Ling Chen told a SPIC tech expert at the PV industrial park, after learning that it takes a huge amount of labor and money every month to clean the PV panels to prevent dust from affecting their efficiency. Writer Sun Wanglu proposed another solution -- making the panels vibrate at a certain frequency and movement range so the dust could be shaken off automatically. After discussions with writers on a tour of Laxiwa hydropower station, Sangje Cering, a hydropower expert at SPIC's local subsidiary, said he had never associated the dam with anything surreal but now realized it looked exactly like a robot and could become a real robot in future. "Hydropower stations may become as intelligent as robots, smart enough to adjust power generations, irrigate and discharge floods on its own," he said. "Now some of our small stations are already able to operate without workers on duty." Shen Youguo, a PV expert, said the idea of meeting sci-fi writers at his workplace had never occurred to him. "They are curious and eager to learn, and more down-to-earth than expected," he said. "Maybe some ideas in our discussions could make a difference in the real world, and turn science fiction into reality." Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:33:12|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China is screening the fourth batch of pilot state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for mixed ownership reform, an official from the country's economic planner said Thursday. "The keynote for this batch is scale and field expansion, given that the previous three batches centered merely on a few key areas and a handful of companies," according to Yuan Da, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission. Over 100 SOEs will be included in the fourth batch. Since 2016, China has selected 50 SOEs in three batches to conduct the pilot reform in fields including power, energy, civil aviation, telecommunications and defense. Besides SOEs in key areas, the fourth batch will include pilot companies in competitive fields that have strong demonstration significance, especially influential mixed ownership enterprises. A shortlist of companies for the fourth batch have been submitted to the Leading Group for State-owned Enterprises Reform under the State Council, Yuan said. Upon approval, the pilot work for the fourth batch will come into force, according to Yuan. Peng Huagang, a spokesperson for the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said on Tuesday that many achievements have been made in the mixed-ownership reform of companies. "In recent years, with efforts of pushing the reform in an active and steady manner, we have seen some evident progress," Peng said. According to Peng, about 70 percent of centrally-administered SOEs and their subsidiaries now have mixed equity ownership. China has been pushing the reform to diversify the ownership structure of SOEs in an effort to encourage operating efficiency and improve services of SOEs. The pilot reform has paid off with improving competitiveness and dropping leverage levels. Central SOEs reported a year-on-year growth of 13.1-percent in combined profits in the first quarter of 2019, official data showed Tuesday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:43:25|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close TOKYO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Thursday it will accept foreigners to work under Japan's new visa system on jobs including those related to the plant's decommissioning. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) said it has told dozens of companies it has subcontracted to carry out decommissioning work that foreign employees will now be able to engage in such work. The utility said that foreign laborers under the new visa program could be engaged in work including construction, maintaining equipment, cleaning and catering services, among others. In areas where exposure to radiation might be an issue, TEPCO said that foreign workers will have to be able to understand commands given to them in Japanese and adhere to the utility's rules and guidelines. It also said that in some areas the workers will be required to wear dosimeters to monitor the levels of radiation they may be exposed to. TEPCO said that it has instructed its contractors to hire foreign workers legally, but said it has not decided on how many foreign workers it will take on, in addition to the 4,000 personnel already working at the stricken plant through subcontractors. "The decision to hire foreign workers under the new visa system is up to our subcontractors and we have not set a target figure for such employees. We will manage the situation as a company that placed orders for laborers," a TEPCO official was quoted by local media as saying Thursday. Japan started accepting more blue-collar workers from April this year under a revised immigration law, which followed the successful passage of new legislation aimed at solidifying Japan's labor force that is steadily being hollowed out by a rapidly aging and shrinking population. The new visa system in Japan has been set up to attract more blue-collar workers to work in sectors here such as construction, farming and nursing care, to help deal with Japan's demographic crisis and the increasingly negative impact it is having on the economy. The new immigration law has been the focus of some controversy, however, with labor unions, advocacy groups and opposition parties voicing concern about rising instances of the mistreatment of foreign workers under a technical intern training program, supervised by the Justice Ministry, and introduced here in 1993. Such mistreatment has involved interns being forced to work outside of their jobs' specific remits, made to work inordinate amounts of overtime, being denied adequate vacation time, and working for rates well below minimum wage. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:43:30|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close DAMASCUS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- As Syria is suffering from lack of diesel, people in the capital Damascus and elsewhere in the country are spending long hours waiting to fill their cars. People are now waiting between six and 12 hours to get 20 liters of diesel with long lines of cars seen around the gas stations in Damascus. Some people are even sleeping in their cars while waiting for their turn amid a severe shortage of the material in the country, which is blamed on the U.S. sanctions. In al-Mazzeh area west of Damascus, three gas stations are jam-packed with hundreds of cars. Those who are waiting to have their cars refilled are now seen talking and chatting with each other. Just like developing a friendship in a school or university, people make friends at gas stations. "This fuel crisis is so harsh. I have been waiting for 12 hours to fill my car with 20 liters of fuel according to a new regulation," said Muhammad, a taxi driver. The 40-year-old man said the long time waiting in line made him meet other taxi drivers. "We chat and exchange stories to kill time. Despite this negative situation, the positive thing is that I am having new friends every day," he said. Naji, a 50-year-old engineer, was also waiting. This time, he brought playing card decks and he and three other car owners were playing while in line. "If I was to remain in my car and wait for eight or 12 hours, I would surely lose my mind. But this way, I can turn this negative situation into a less annoying one," he said. With this steep fuel crisis in the country, the rush hour in the capital has disappeared with few cars are seen here and there. A day earlier, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper said in a report that no fuel tanker has entered the country over the past six months, adding that the monthly fee to secure the fuel needs is estimated at 200 million U.S. dollars. It said that at present, Syria needs 4.5 million liters of gasoline, 6 million liters of diesel, 7,000 tons of fuel, and 1,200 tons of gas a month. In the areas that have been liberated by the rebels, the production of fuel is only 24,000 barrels per day while the country needs 136,000 barrels a day. The fuel crisis is the result of the renewed U.S. sanctions on Syria, which were tightened through the latest set of sanctions imposed on the country in March of 2019. The sanctions covered the ships that were bringing fuel to Syria since 2016 in a bid to further suffocate the country economically. Moreover, the halt of the Iranian credit line to Syria six months ago was a main cause to the fuel shortage, according to the newspaper. Since that time, the country has become in need of massive liquidity to cover for halting the Iranian credit line. As a result, the country has suffered over the past six months to secure fuel as the costs are a huge challenge. As part of the efforts to resolve the crisis, the government has resorted to importers to strike deals and secure the oil derivatives, but such contracts were hindered due to "logistic reasons," according to al-Watan. The newspaper said that the U.S. intervention has hindered a number of deals with Jordan. Now, the work is ongoing to cover 50 percent of the country's needs of fuel, said the newspaper, adding that bringing fuel from Iraq is also hard, as the neighboring country is also subject to sanctions. The work in the next phase is to resume the Iranian credit line, find solutions to deliver the oil derivatives to Syria, secure the needed liquidity, and boost the oil importation by land. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:43:32|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday unveiled its plan to explore an asteroid and a comet, inviting scientists around the world to participate in the program. The mission will involve exploring a near-Earth asteroid, named 2016HO3, and a main-belt comet, named 133P, said Liu Jizhong, director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA). China has offered to carry scientific instruments developed by other countries on the mission, according to Liu. He said the mission is still under discussion. According to the current plan, a probe will be sent to fly around asteroid 2016HO3 and then land on it to collect samples. Then the probe will fly back to the proximity of Earth, and a return capsule will be released to bring the samples back to Earth. After that, the probe will continue its journey. With the assistance of the gravity of Earth and Mars, it will finally arrive at the main asteroid belt and orbit the comet 133P to explore it. The whole mission will last about 10 years, according to Liu. Scientists aim to measure the physical parameters of the asteroid and the comet to get an understanding about their orbit, rotation, shape, size and thermal radiation. They also want to study their morphology, surface composition and internal structure. When the asteroid samples are returned, scientists will conduct lab analysis on its physical properties, chemical and mineral components, isotopic composition, structure and age. They will compare the samples with meteorites, as well as ground-based observation, remote-sensing and in-situ analysis. Scientists are also interested in the environment of the comet 133P and the potential water and organic materials on it. Liu said China began to solicit proposals on eight types of scientific instruments to be used in the mission among universities, research organizations and private enterprises both at home and abroad. Chinese and foreign institutions and scientists are encouraged to jointly propose the schemes and develop the detectors, Liu said. The instruments include a color camera with an intermediate field of view, thermal emission spectrometer, visible and infrared imaging spectrometer, multispectral camera, detection radar, magnetometer, charged and neutral particle analyzer and dust analyzer, according to Liu. He said there might be two forms of onboard schemes. One possible scheme is to carry an independent detector on the rocket. After China's main probe enters the orbit, the onboard detector will separate from the rocket and then perform independent tasks. Its mass should not exceed 200 kg. The other possible option is to let China's main probe carry the onboard detector to the near-Earth asteroid or the main-belt comet and then release it. The detector could either perform independent scientific exploration or coordinate with the main probe. If the onboard detector does not separate with the main probe, its mass should not exceed 20 kg. If the detector separates from the main probe near the asteroid, its mass should be no more than 80 kg. If it separates from the main probe near the comet, its mass should not exceed 20 kg. Liu said those interested in participating in the mission could contact the CNSA, and the deadline for the proposals will be August 31, 2019. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:48:34|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua (R) meets with a delegation led by Yohei Kono, head of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade, in Beijing, capital of China, April 18, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua here on Thursday met with a delegation led by Yohei Kono, head of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade. The two sides exchanged views on expanding economic and trade cooperation, and strengthening communication and exchanges between local governments and organizations for international trade promotion. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 21:58:47|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close By Ejidiah Wangui NAIROBI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Under the scorching sun in Kenya's Turkana located about 700 km from Nairobi, a group of women have slowly been leading a green revolution amid a biting drought that has affected both animals and civilians. The 10 women are determined to change the region's hunger narrative that has been told for decades on end. Even as the county, which is said to be hard hit by ongoing drought, continues to rely on food donations for survival, the women have defied all the prevailing conditions to grow vegetables and fruits. Pauline Lemlemichoi, women's group chairperson said the journey traces back 20 years ago when they thought of experimenting with farming. They thought they would fail as soon as they started as the region is generally dry in a good part of the year. They were wrong, since their experiment has now been their source of livelihood since then. "It is amazing how this whole idea turned out. We now know for this as we supply vegetables, fruits and beans to most hotels and restaurants in Lodwar," said Lemlemichoi. With the proceeds, the women have been able to sustain their families. Most members are widows who did not have sources of income when their husbands died. Their farm, known as Aragae is located Namorkinonok village, barely five kilometers away from Lodwar. The farm's proximity to the town which happens to be the county's economic hub means there is a ready market for their produce. The vegetables they grow include collard greens, African night shade as well as cowpeas. Under the scorching sun whose effects have spread across many homes in the region, you can not miss Aragae farm from a distance. Apart from vegetables, they also grow butternuts and pawpaw. The women do not rely on rainfall to farm, they installed a drip irrigation system which Lemlemichoi credits to their success. The water that keeps Aragae farm green and productive is sourced from a borehole in the farm and to water the crops, they have installed a solar-powered pump which also lowers the cost of operation since the sun is plenty. "We were weaving handbags initially but we opted to venture into farming after we realized as much as we needed money, we also needed food to feed our children. The soils here are fertile and really good for farming, the only problem is water," said Lemlemichoi. However, every time the country goes through a drought like now, their production is affected significantly, which means their income also goes down. They also recently ventured into growing coriander and watermelon. Rebecca Lokilai, one of the farmers, said thanks to the venture, she has been able to feed her family and conquer malnutrition in her family which she had been unable to deal with before. The women's technical advisor Lucia Lebasha, an agronomist working for Caritas Kenya, the development and humanitarian arm of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops lauded the women for venturing into vegetable farming saying from the farm, they had been able to feed their families and also meet other personal needs. According to Lebasha, Turkana soil has an immense potential for crop production but there is need to educate farmers on the gains that come with crop farming as the area is focused on livestock keeping. "With the agronomic support from both the county government, Turkana can produce more than enough food to feed its people," said Lebasha. She urged charities based in Turkana County to gradually move away from distribution of relief food and start engaging in food production through investing in technology-based farming. Kenya experienced below-average short rains in 2018 that increased the food insecure population from 655,800 in the month of August to 1.2 million currently, with the 12 most affected counties having a total of 865,300 food insecure people. Notably, the Kenyan government has provided assistance for drought mitigation during this dry season. Turkana County has in the past financial years been among the top three counties with hefty budget allocation. The region, owing to its commercially viable oil and water underground, is capable of sustaining Kenya for 60 years but every time the country experiences a drought, it usually suffers the worst impacts. This file photo shows the Democratic People's Republic of Korea top leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin MOSCOW, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un will pay a visit to Russia and meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the second half of April, the Kremlin said Thursday. The visit of the DPRK's leader was initiated by the Russian side, the Kremlin said in a statement, without giving further details. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov extended Putin's invitation to Kim to visit Russia during his trip to the DPRK on May 31 last year. It will be the first official meeting between Kim and Putin. The time and venue of the meeting will be made public once finalized, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said previously. Speculation has grown recently that the meeting could take place in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok. Kim has met U.S. President Donald Trump twice. They ended the latest summit in Vietnam's Hanoi on Feb. 28 without an agreement. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 22:13:59|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close JAKARTA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday declared his victory in Wednesday's presidential race on basis of preliminary results, while the official result is due next month. Widodo made the declaration at a news conference in south Jakarta after the total votes counted in quick count surveys carried out by 12 pollsters nearly touched 100 percent. "Since yesterday (Wednesday) we have waited the quick counts surveys will give a clear result. But today the total votes counted is almost 100 percent." "The result of 12 surveys showed Joko Widodo and Ma'aruf Amin secured 54.5 percent votes, and Prabowo and Sandi got 45.5 percent," said Widodo, referring to his rival Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno. "As we know that the quick count survey is conducted scientifically. Based on experience in the past the results were accurate and nearly similar with that resulted by the real count," he said. The president also said that he had received congratulations from a number of leaders of foreign nations. Meanwhile, Widodo's rival Prabowo rejected unofficial results released by the five pollsters and claimed himself the winner with 62 percent votes based on results of his camp's internal polling body. Official result of the election is scheduled to be announced on May 22. Widodo, 57, a former furniture businessman who started his political career as mayor of Surakarta in Central Java and then as governor of Jakarta, defeated Prabowo in the 2014 polls. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 22:19:04|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Fouad Zmekhol, president of the Lebanese Businessmen Association, said Thursday that Lebanon and Tunisia agreed to organize a meeting for businessmen of both countries to cooperate in rebuilding Libya and Syria, local media reported. Rebuilding Libya needs the participation of Tunisia and Tunisian companies, while the reconstruction of Syria requires Lebanese businessmen and the Lebanese companies, Zmekhol was quoted as saying by the National News Agency. Zmekhol's remarks came during his meeting with Tunisian Ambassador to Lebanon Karim Boudali to discuss the importance of economic cooperation between the two countries in the coming period. Meanwhile, Boudali said that Zmekhol will visit Tunisia soon to meet with a number of ministers and officials to draw a roadmap for the cooperation between the two countries. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 22:49:15|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's white goods (including components) export reached a record high last year, according to a report issued by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products Thursday. The report shows that white goods export recorded 75.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, a year-on-year rise of 9.6 percent. The export of large electrical goods used domestically such as refrigerators and washing machines continued to increase, and the export of small household appliances began to see growth last year. European countries remained the strong buyers of China's white goods, accounting for around 45 percent of China's total export, said Shi Yonghe, vice director of the chamber. Shi added that more buyers in emerging markets such as the ASEAN countries also contributed to the growth. Chinese white goods companies are expanding their global service network and enhance the protection of intellectual property rights to cope with the growing demand, said Shi. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 22:54:26|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Yemenis shout slogans during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on April 19, 2019. Thousands of Yemenis participated in a rally here on Friday against the continuing war and blockade imposed on Yemen. Yemeni political analysts said that U.S. President Donald Trump's veto over a congressional resolution that sought to end the U.S. involvement in Yemen proves the key American role in the war. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed) by Murad Abdo ADEN, Yemen, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni political analysts said that U.S. President Donald Trump's veto over a congressional resolution that sought to end the U.S. involvement in Yemen proves the key American role in the war. Trump's veto proves the key American role in the Saudi-led military campaign and might work to prolong the country's war, experts said. They said that the Trump administration has the upper hand in deciding whether to stop the ongoing military operations in Yemen or extending the war despite the humanitarian crisis. On Tuesday, Trump sent a statement to the senate and called the resolution "an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, and endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members." The resolution, which was approved by the Senate last month in a vote of 54 to 46 and the House in early April in a vote of 247 to 175, directs the president to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities in or affecting Yemen within 30 days unless they are fighting al-Qaida. Ahmed Nasser Asharif, a political analyst and writer based in the capital Sanaa, told Xinhua that "Trump's veto is just a clear evidence that the current American administration is leading the war against Yemen through its tools in the region." The Sanaa-based analyst believes that "the decision to end this devastating war will come from Washington one day as the launching of the military campaign was declared from there four years ago." He said that "the U.S. administration will continue to use the war in Yemen as a means of blackmailing the rich Gulf countries particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and plundering their wealth." According to Asharif, the ongoing civil war will not see an end in the near future because "Trump wants to achieve his goal and doesn't have a real desire to end the years-long war in Yemen, despite the destruction of Yemen's infrastructure and the killing of Yemeni civilians." Asharif said that Trump's veto will lead to a continuing debate and "might cause some repercussions between the Congress and the American presidential administration that may leave a positive impact for the interest of Yemen." On the other hand, some Yemeni observers said that Trump's veto will not have an impact on the ongoing fighting between the Yemeni government forces and the Houthi fighters. Yaseen Al-Tamimi, a Yemeni political writer and analyst, told Xinhua that "Trump's veto will not have a direct and rapid impact on changing the events or the conflict that is going on in Yemen. It will unlikely affect the UN-sponsored peace process." Al-Tamimi said that "Trump used the veto just to protect his country's huge interests gained through the relations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It is also linked to the arrangements of his overall management for the region." He added that "it can be said that the shifting in the American administration's attitude toward Iran and the Houthis has nothing to do with the priorities of the Yemeni people, who are keen to defeat the coup and restore their state." On Wednesday, Yemen's Saudi-backed government welcomed Trump's veto and described it as a confirmation that the United States will continue to provide cooperation and be a partner working side by side with the people of Yemen to restore peace and security. The statement revealed by the Saudi-backed government said that Yemen is now a frontline battleground against the spread of Iranian aggression and global terrorism. Yemen's Houthi rebels on Wednesday strongly criticized Trump's veto, saying that "it proved the U.S. complicity in the massacre against the Yemeni people and unjust siege." The Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said on Twitter the veto "approves that the United States was not only involved in the aggression on Yemen, but also the decision maker of the war while the others follow its decision." Notably, the UAE, main partner of the Saudi-led coalition, welcomed on Wednesday Trump's veto. Frustration is growing in Yemen's rebel-held north as the prolonged war and commercial blockade are deepening pains of the residents. The military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa. The United Nations is struggling to save a peace deal between Hadi's government and the Houthi rebels, seen as a hope to end the country's four-year civil war, which has pushed more than 20 million Yemenis to the brink of famine. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 22:59:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ZAGREB, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday Croatia is ready to offer the help of Croatian experts in the reconstruction of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Croatia sends a strong message of friendship and solidarity to France by offering to provide the experience of Croatian restorers and conservators in the reconstruction of the cathedral, Plenkovic said at a session of the Croatian government. He announced that if the French authorities would be interested, Croatia would offer the expertise of experts who have experiences in the reconstruction of church facilities that had been damaged in the 1990s. "Then Croatian restorers and conservators gained invaluable experience in reconstruction," the prime minister said. The Croatian conservationists and restorers themselves are also interested in the restoration of the cathedral, and they have been working in Croatia for the past 20 years on the restoration of many churches and historic buildings throughout the country. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 22:59:30|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli exports to China decreased by 36 percent in the first quarter of 2019, compared with the same period in 2018, according to a report released Thursday by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the data, Israeli exports to China totaled about 1.81 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter, down from 2.84 billion dollars a year ago. Meanwhile, Israeli imports from China rose by 1.8 percent from 2.19 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2018 to 2.23 billion dollars. The data also showed that Israeli exports to the United States declined by 1.2 percent, while imports from the United States rose by 15 percent in the same period. Total Israeli exports worldwide reached 16.4 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2019, down 4 percent year on year, while imports gained 1.5 percent to 19.8 billion dollars. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:04:36|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China announced the cooperation plan for its future Chang'e-6 mission, offering to carry a total of 20 kg of solicited payloads, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Thursday. The orbiter and lander of the Chang'e-6 mission will each reserve 10 kg for payloads, which will be selected from both domestic colleges, universities, private enterprises and foreign scientific research institutions, said Liu Jizhong, director of the China Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the CNSA, at a press conference. China is expected to launch the Chang'e-5 probe by the end of this year to bring moon samples back to Earth. As the backup of the Chang'e-5 mission, the Chang'e-6 mission will also collect lunar samples automatically for comprehensive analysis and research, Liu said. Its launch time and landing site will depend on the performance of the Chang'e-5 mission, he explained. According to Liu, the Chang'e-6 probe will be comprised of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a return capsule. It will enter the Earth-moon transfer orbit, slow near the moon to enter the lunar orbit and descend and land on a preset area on the moon. After collecting lunar samples, the ascender will rise from the lunar surface for rendezvous and docking with the orbiter flying around the moon. Then the return capsule will fly back to Earth via the moon-Earth transfer orbit, reenter the atmosphere, land and be retrieved. At the conference, Liu pointed out the specific positions reserved on the lander and orbiter for scientific payloads. The deadline for applying to join the cooperation plan is Aug. 31, 2019. "China has always valued exchanges and cooperation with its international counterparts while promoting deep space exploration and scientific and technological innovation," said Zhang Kejian, head of the CNSA. China has signed cooperation framework agreements with multiple international space agencies, including the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos and the European Space Agency. The Chang'e-4 mission, which accomplished the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, carries four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. The CNSA also delivered the data collected by the neutral atom detector aboard the Chang'e-4 rover to Sweden, the data from the neutron radiation detector aboard the Chang'e-4 lander to Germany and the data from the low-frequency radio astronomical instrument aboard the Chang'e-4 relay satellite Queqiao to the Netherlands at the conference. "The scientific data has deepened human understanding of the lunar and space environment as well as solar activities," Zhang said. Sonke Burmeister, who participated in the development of the German payload, depicted the collaboration as "very effective." "It's really good experience to work with Chinese partners because they are very effective. We build a nice instrument within a very short timeframe," said Burmeister, a researcher with the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of the Kiel University in Germany. "The instrument has switched on every lunar day. It works properly on the moon's surface, which proves the collaboration is very fruitful," he said. According to Burmeister, one interesting discovery so far is that the secondary radiation produced by the lunar surface soil is different from the dose previously measured by other probes in lunar orbit. "It is very important for astronauts who will travel to the moon." He is also looking forward to participating in the collaboration provided by the Chang'e-6 mission. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:24:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Russia has banned exports of oil and some oil products to Ukraine and Ukrainian engineering products imports in response to recent import bans imposed by Kiev, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday. "A few days ago, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine took another unfriendly step towards our country, expanding the list of Russian goods prohibited for import into Ukraine," Medvedev said at a government meeting broadcast live by the TASS news agency. "Under these conditions, we have to defend our interests and take retaliatory measures: I signed a government decree on this," he said. The decree published on the Russian government web site bans oil and some oil product exports, as well as imports of a number of Ukrainian goods, primarily engineering, light industry and metalworking products with immediate effect. From June 1, a restriction would apply to coal, gasoline, diesel fuel and liquefied gases, which can be exported to Ukraine only on the basis of individual permits. On April 10, Ukraine imposed a ban on imports of some Russian products, including electrical equipment, some car parts, chemicals and glass containers for food and beverages. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:24:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- During an inspection tour to southwest China's Chongqing Municipality this week, President Xi Jinping called for greater efforts to win the battle against poverty and realize the goal of building "a moderately prosperous society in all respects" as scheduled. As the deadline to eradicate absolute poverty approaches, the country is gathering strength to focus on the nation's poorest people, who mainly dwell in deep mountains with adverse natural environments and backward infrastructure, or have special needs. It was China's solemn promise to let poor people and poor areas enter the moderately prosperous society together with the rest of the country, Xi said in a letter to the International Forum on Reform and Opening Up and Poverty Reduction in China, which was held in Beijing last November. The country's poverty-reduction drive has been widely recognized as the largest such campaign in history, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointing out that China had contributed the most to world poverty alleviation in the past decade. Here are some facts on poverty reduction in China. PEOPLE FIRST With the world's largest population, China has been boosting its economic development on one major theme: improving people's livelihoods. This has become a fundamental goal and a consistent priority in policy-making. A typical example is the development blueprint for building a moderately prosperous society. -- Under that blueprint, China will eradicate absolute poverty by 2020 and double per capita income from 2010 level. -- More than 700 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty over the past 40 years. The country's proportion of people living below the Chinese poverty line fell from 97.5 percent in 1978 to 3.1 percent among the rural population at the end of 2017. --In the past six years, China lifted 82.39 million rural poor out of poverty, with the rural poor population down from 98.99 million in 2012 to 16.6 million in 2018. -- By the end of 2018, more than half of the 832 poverty-stricken counties had escaped poverty. -- Per capita income of Chinese people increased by nearly 25 times from 1978 to 2018. In 2018, per capita disposable income of rural residents in poverty-stricken areas stood at 10,371 yuan, a 10.6-percent year-on-year rise. STRONG ROLE OF GOVERNMENT With Xi Jinping in charge, China's poverty-relief battle has made decisive progress and provided global poverty relief with Chinese solutions. --Last June, Xi presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee to review a plan on efforts in poverty alleviation, stressing that the battle against poverty was one of the "three tough battles" that the country must win to build a moderately prosperous society. --Last October, the CPC Central Committee arranged a new round of disciplinary inspections targeting poverty alleviation, the first of its kind, to intensify local governments' poverty-reduction efforts. -- To wipe out absolute poverty, governments at all levels have established anti-poverty special departments or leading groups, increased poverty-reduction budgets and ensured eastern economically developed regions to help underdeveloped regions in central and western China. -- State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have taken the lead to support the country's poverty relief campaign. Ninety-six centrally-administered SOEs have offered targeted support to 246 poverty-stricken counties, or 41.6 percent of the key counties under the national poverty-relief program. They have also set up poverty alleviation funds of 18.18 billion yuan (about 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) and invested 14 billion yuan in nearly 100 aid projects. TARGETED APPROACH China has adopted a targeted approach, which requires officials to identify actual impoverished people and the factors that caused their poverty. -- A large legion of capable officials have been selected to guide poverty relief work. For example, officials with business savvy were sent to poverty-stricken villages, while officials with specialized industrial knowledge were sent to villages with an industrial base. As a result, each household or even family member has been given a bespoke poverty relief plan. -- Apart from setting a multi-year timetable, China also targeted different policies to different regions, including developing business, relocating the poor, compensating farmers in ecologically fragile areas, encouraging education and improving social security. -- The independent development of needy residents has been enhanced using areas including e-commerce, financing, tourism and infrastructure improvements. -- During his inspection tour in Chongqing, Xi said that people who still live under the poverty line or slip back into poverty due to illness should be the priority of poverty alleviation projects, and should receive support such as minimum-living allowances, medical insurance and medical aid. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:29:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Attorney General William Barr said he will give Congress a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigative report on the Russia investigation at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) on Thursday. Barr told reporters at the Justice Department that the report will be released to the chairman and ranking members of the Senate and House judiciary committees. The report will also be posted on the department's website for the public after it is delivered to Congress. The release would come nearly a month after Mueller concluded his investigation into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Mueller submitted a nearly 400-page report to Barr, whose 4-page summary of the report's "principal conclusions" states that there was no evidence of collusion between the Donald Trump's election campaign and the Russian government. The special counsel, meanwhile, did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump had obstructed justice, said Barr's synopsis. The attorney general concluded Mueller's findings are "not sufficient" to support a charge. Barr said Thursday that, while the special counsel and his team "investigated a number of links or contacts between Trump campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government," they found no evidence of collusion. The attorney general also said Mueller did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgement" regarding allegations that Trump had obstructed justice. Instead, the special recounts in his report 10 episodes involving the president and "discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense," according to Barr. Barr added that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017, disagreed with some of Mueller's "legal theories" about obstruction of justice and concluded that the special counsel did not have "sufficient" evidence to establish that Trump committed an obstruction of justice offense. Democrats have demanded the full, unredacted report be made public to get a clearer picture of Mueller's investigation and conduct Congressional oversight. Barr has promised to be as transparent as possible but told lawmakers that parts of Mueller's report will be redacted to protect grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations and damage to the privacy rights of third parties. During the press conference, Barr said a group of bipartisan congressional lawmakers will see a version of report with no redactions, except for grand jury information, while other categories of information also were redacted in the publicly released report. The attorney general, meanwhile, said the White House counsel reviewed a redacted version of the report before Trump decided not to invoke executive privilege. He also said he has "no objection" to Mueller testifying before Congress about his investigation. Trump tweeted or retweeted several posts Thursday morning related to the Mueller report. He has repeatedly slammed the special counsel's inquiry as a "hoax" or a "witch hunt." Mueller took over the investigation after Trump abruptly fired former FBI Director James Comey, a move that raised questions about his potential obstruction of justice. The wide-ranging inquiry led to felony charges against 34 people, including six Trump associates and advisers, and three entities. Russia has denied any meddling in the U.S. election. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:35:07|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany announces the discovery of a large 3,500-year-old tomb on the Nile River's west bank near the Valley of Kings in Upper Egypt's monumental province of Luxor, April 18, 2019. The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on Thursday the discovery of a large 3,500-year-old tomb on the Nile River's west bank near the Valley of Kings in Upper Egypt's monumental province of Luxor. (Xinhua/Meng Tao) LUXOR, Egypt, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on Thursday the discovery of a large 3,500-year-old tomb on the Nile River's west bank near the Valley of Kings in Upper Egypt's monumental province of Luxor. Located on a hill at Draa Abu el-Naga necropolis, the rock-cut tomb, or "saff" tomb as known in Egypt, has 18 entrances. It belonged to a man called Shed Sou Djehuty, who was a prince, a mayor and a royal seal holder in ancient Egypt. He might have served under King Thutmose I who ruled Egypt about 3,500 years ago. "We celebrate the World Heritage Day by the announcement of this unique discovery. We have a very active excavation season this year as we have made several discoveries over the past few weeks," Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany told Xinhua at the site, noting such discoveries boost cultural tourism in Egypt. The announcement marks the World Heritage Day 2019, an international day for monuments and sites celebrated on April 18 each year since it was approved by the UNESCO in 1983. The event was attended by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Tourism Minister Rania al-Mashat, Luxor Governor Mostafa Alham, several senior parliamentarians and about 20 foreign ambassadors. The saff tomb was discovered after eight months of excavation by a team from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities led by its secretary general Mostafa Waziri. "This is the largest saff tomb with the largest number of entrances in the west bank necropolis. It is 55 meters wide with a total size of 550 square meters," Waziri told Xinhua outside the tomb, noting the tomb has two shafts with each about 11 meters deep. He explained that the drawings on the entrance columns showed several ancient crafts such as making boats of papyrus, leather tanning, fish and bird hunting and others, adding six other smaller tombs were discovered beneath as an extension of Shed Sou Djehuty's tomb. During the ceremony, the Egyptian ministry displayed in glass showcases some artifacts found inside the tombs, including a collection of ushabti statues, 50 funerary seals, a cartonnage funerary mask and other small objects. A couple of wooden coffins recently discovered in nearby Assasif necropolis were also displayed during the event. Later in the evening at Luxor Temple on the east bank, a large colossus of Ramses II is scheduled to be unveiled after its restoration and re-erection as part of the World Heritage Day activities. Luxor, the ancient city of Thebes, was the pharaohs' capital at the height of their power during the New Kingdom from the 16th century BC to the 11th century BC. Seen by many as the world's largest open-air museum, it is home to famous Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings and the ruins of the huge Karnak Temple Complex and Luxor Temple. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:40:16|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday unveiled its plan to explore an asteroid and a comet, inviting scientists around the world to participate in the program. The mission will involve exploring a near-Earth asteroid, named 2016HO3, and a main-belt comet, named 133P, said Liu Jizhong, director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA). China has offered to carry scientific instruments developed by other countries on the mission, according to Liu. He said the mission is still under discussion. According to the current plan, a probe will be sent to fly around asteroid 2016HO3 and then land on it to collect samples. Then the probe will fly back to the proximity of Earth, and a return capsule will be released to bring the samples back to Earth. After that, the probe will continue its journey. With the assistance of the gravity of Earth and Mars, it will finally arrive at the main asteroid belt and orbit the comet 133P to explore it. The whole mission will last about 10 years, according to Liu. Scientists aim to measure the physical parameters of the asteroid and the comet to get an understanding about their orbit, rotation, shape, size and thermal radiation. They also want to study their morphology, surface composition and internal structure. When the asteroid samples are returned, scientists will conduct lab analysis on its physical properties, chemical and mineral components, isotopic composition, structure and age. They will compare the samples with meteorites, as well as ground-based observation, remote-sensing and in-situ analysis. Scientists are also interested in the environment of the comet 133P and the potential water and organic materials on it. Liu said China began to solicit proposals on eight types of scientific instruments to be used in the mission among universities, research organizations and private enterprises both at home and abroad. Chinese and foreign institutions and scientists are encouraged to jointly propose the schemes and develop the detectors, Liu said. The instruments include a color camera with an intermediate field of view, thermal emission spectrometer, visible and infrared imaging spectrometer, multispectral camera, detection radar, magnetometer, charged and neutral particle analyzer and dust analyzer, according to Liu. He said there might be two forms of onboard schemes. One possible scheme is to carry an independent detector on the rocket. After China's main probe enters the orbit, the onboard detector will separate from the rocket and then perform independent tasks. Its mass should not exceed 200 kg. The other possible option is to let China's main probe carry the onboard detector to the near-Earth asteroid or the main-belt comet and then release it. The detector could either perform independent scientific exploration or coordinate with the main probe. If the onboard detector does not separate with the main probe, its mass should not exceed 20 kg. If the detector separates from the main probe near the asteroid, its mass should be no more than 80 kg. If it separates from the main probe near the comet, its mass should not exceed 20 kg. Liu said those interested in participating in the mission could contact the CNSA, and the deadline for the proposals will be August 31, 2019. On Dec. 13, 2012, China's second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, after successfully completing its mission, rendezvoused with an asteroid named Toutatis at a distance of 770 meters, as the space rock, bigger than a city block, swept by Earth at a distance of around 7 million kilometers. It was the world's first close fly-by observation of Toutatis. The probe took high-resolution images providing a number of discoveries. So far, China has achieved five continuous successes in its lunar exploration program, including Chang'e-1, Chang'e-2, Chang'e-3, a test craft for Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-4. China's Chang'e-4 probe made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon at the beginning of this year. Chang'e-5 is scheduled to be launched at the end of this year to return lunar samples back to Earth. China plans to launch a probe to explore Mars in 2020, which is expected to arrive at the red planet in 2021. China is also drawing up plans on its future lunar and deep space explorations. "China has always valued exchanges and cooperation with its international counterparts while promoting deep space exploration and scientific and technological innovation," said Zhang Kejian, head of the CNSA. China will contribute its wisdom, plans and strength in humankind's peaceful utilization of outer space, said Zhao Jian, deputy director of the Department of System Engineering of CNSA. The Chang'e-4 mission embodies China's hope to combine wisdom in space exploration with four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. The first batch of scientific data has been delivered to scientists or officials from those countries. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:45:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HAIKOU, April 18 (Xinhua) -- McQiu Lawyers, a law firm headquartered in Australia, opened its representative office in South China's Hainan province Thursday, the first foreign law firm office in the resort island. McQiu seeks to enhance the cooperation and exchanges with its Chinese counterparts in areas of corporations law, commercial law, property law, contract law and family law, said Qiu Xiaolin, founder and CEO of McQiu Lawyers. By far, the office, located in Haikou, the capital city of Hainan, has signed cooperation agreements with six local law firms. Qiu said the office will also contribute to improving the legal services of the Hainan pilot free trade zone. China rolled out a plan for establishing Hainan as a pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) on Oct. 2018, the 12th and largest among its peers. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:50:24|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Cabinet on Thursday called on millers not to take advantage of prolonged dry weather situation to hike the price of maize flour as this will further increase the cost of living. The cabinet in a meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta warned that stern actions will be taken against those who will be tempted to hoard maize and other essential food items. "The Cabinet noted that the drought situation in a number of Counties among them Turkana, Mandera, Garissa, Marsabit and Wajir has worsened from the Alert Stage to the Alarm Stage and assured that the Government has the situation under control," it said in a statement issued after the cabinet meeting. The Cabinet also assured that the government will take all necessary measures to ensure that prices of basic food commodities remain stable. Due to the delayed onset of 2019 long rains, the maize market prices in the country have started showing an upward trend ranging from 2,200-2,800 shillings (22-28 U.S. dollars) since April 1. The warning comes a day afer the government said it will release 1.5 million bags of maize to millers this month to help cushion consumers against high prices of maize flour which are currently between a dollar to 1.2 dollars for a 2kg packet. Mwangi Kiunjuri, agriculture cabinet secretary, met with millers to discuss the current maize prices in the country, and the scarcity of maize as pointed out by millers last month. During the meeting, the millers proposed that the government should release at least 3 million bags of maize from the Strategic Food Reserve to last the country for one month. The government has warned that the price hike is set to have an impact on the cost of food items as producers factor in the price increase to their cost of production. As a step to further mitigate the drought situation, Cabinet urged pastoralist communities to start destocking while their animals are still in good condition and gave an assurance that the Government will help in restocking when the weather situation improves. The Cabinet also formed a committee charged with the responsibility of putting into place mitigation measures for the remainder of the year through to December to ensure the response to the drought situation in the country is well coordinated. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:55:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TUNIS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Foreign Minister Khamaies Jhinaoui on Wednesday highlighted the need to put an end to the fighting in Libya. In separate telephone conversations with UN Special Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame and Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Taher Siala, Jhinaoui called for a peaceful solution to the conflict in the war-torn country. According to a note sent to Xinhua by the Tunisian foreign ministry, Jhinaoui reiterated that priority should be given to dialogue and the political process among conflicting Libyan factions under the umbrella of the United Nations. The Tunisian top diplomat voiced support for the UN efforts to stop the bloody fighting and the military escalation in Libya in order to preserve the safety and security of innocent civilians. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 23:55:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ROME, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of Italy said Thursday that Italy has pulled out of its short technical economic recession, registering slight positive growth in the first quarter of the year. The country's central reserve bank said the economy grew modest 0.1 percent growth over the first three months of 2019. Positive growth rates in February and March were enough to balance out an economic contraction in January, the bank said in its quarterly economic bulletin. That is enough to end the technical recession that started after data showed Italy's economy shrank over the second half of 2018. The bank said industrial production, which grew over the first part of the year, was the main driver to the stronger gross domestic product. The development will be good news for Italian government. Economists had feared negative economic growth up to the second half of 2019, when the most observers predicted as slight rebound. The Bank of Italy mentioned a survey of analysts conducted by Consensus Economics, which still predicted that over all of 2019, the economy will see growth of between negative 0.1 percent and positive 0.2 percent. The same figures predicted 0.7 percent growth for the year as recently as December. The data from the Bank of Italy is not connected to the country's National Statistics Institute, or ISTAT, which is expected to release its data on first quarter economic growth later this month. The two figures usually move in step, though the ISTAT figures are generally more detailed. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-19 00:10:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, slated to be held later this month in Beijing, is a vital platform to spur Ethiopia's economy and infrastructure, Ethiopian officials and scholars told Xinhua. Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who served as an economic advisor to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said on Thursday that more than any other nation in Africa, Ethiopia is the first beneficiary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through the Addis Ababa-Djibouti rail link, as well as various other infrastructure projects across the nation. The East African country, which is one of the countries cooperating with China in implementing the BRI, has made various achievements, which also included the 500-million-U.S. dollar Addis Ababa-Adama expressway, the first expressway in Ethiopia and East Africa, as well as the Addis Ababa Light Rail, a 475-million-U.S.-dollar project built with Chinese technology and expertise. Costantinos, also a professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, said that Ethiopia "can still harness various other achievements from the Belt and Road by fostering its positive relations with China." According to the expert, the upcoming forum in Beijing is "an important platform to foster the ties," with particular emphasis given to strengthening cooperation on the BRI. Proposed in 2013, the BRI aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Costantinos's remarks came amid the Ethiopian government's recent announcement that it will send a strong delegation to the forum, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and various other high-level officials. Nebiat Getachew, spokesperson of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also told Xinhua recently that Ethiopia and China already enjoy multifaceted ties, which are expected to be further strengthened at the upcoming forum. "Ethiopia is a strong partner of China in the African continent. Ethiopia's expected attendance at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is a further testament to the strong bilateral ties," said Getachew. As Beijing is presently gearing up for the success of the forum, Costantinos also outlined various other areas of cooperation with the potential to be further developed during the upcoming forum. "The various industrial parks that are active across Ethiopia, the new airports and potentially the Eritrean ports that are now available to Ethiopia's growing economy have all the potential to further benefit from the Belt and Road," the expert argued. Ethiopian enterprises, such as the Ethiopian Airlines Group, have also expressed their keen interest in harnessing various opportunities that are available during the forum. Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said the approaching forum would be an "ideal platform" to boost the airline's global presence. The CEO stressed the airline's aspiration to use the BRI to augment its flight networks. Ethiopian Airlines, which is considered as Africa's largest airline, expects to establish partnership agreements with two Chinese airports on the sidelines of the forum, Gebremariam said. He revealed that the airline looks forward to signing cooperation agreements with Chinese Chongqing and Zhengzhou airports to start cargo flights between Ethiopia and China," Gebremariam added. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-19 01:21:46|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with villagers, primary-level officials, cadres in charge of poverty alleviation work and village doctors in Huaxi Village of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing, April 15, 2019. From April 15 to 17, Xi made an inspection tour to Chongqing. He also presided over and delivered a speech at a symposium to address the problems concerning the basic living needs of rural poor populations and their access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) CHONGQING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Eliminating absolute poverty in China has been an aspiration of the Communist Party of China (CPC) throughout its 98-year history and a goal for the 70-year-old People's Republic of China and the 40 years of reform and opening-up. It is a major concern for Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. During an inspection tour to southwest China's Chongqing Municipality from Monday to Wednesday, he pledged to address this issue like "a hammer driving a nail." Since the 18th CPC National Congress held in late 2012, China has made incredible progress in fighting poverty. The number of rural residents living below the current poverty line has been reduced from 98.99 million in 2012 to 16.6 million in 2018. "The battle against poverty has entered a decisive and critical stage. We must press ahead with our full strength and strongest resolve and never stop until securing a complete victory," he said. CONFIDENCE When Xi walked into the home of Ma Peiqing, a resident of Huaxi Village, located deep in the mountains of Chongqing, it was around 6 p.m. Monday. After flying from Beijing in the morning to Chongqing, he spent another three hours, first by train and then by road, to reach Huaxi Village, home to 85 households and 302 villagers who were registered as living below the current poverty line. Today, only eight households and 19 villagers remain on the list. Huaxi Village is a typical case of China's impoverished regions. The basic needs for food and clothing have been met, but more efforts are needed for compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing. "I was diagnosed with nasopharynx cancer in 2017," said Zhang Jianfeng, an impoverished villager. "About 80,000 yuan (11,900 U.S. dollars) of my medical expenses were reimbursed by medical insurance. It was indeed a timely help." "After visiting the village, I feel reassured," said Xi. "We may have about 6 million impoverished people and 60 impoverished counties left at the beginning of 2020. If we make sure this year's work is well-implemented and push ahead next year, we will eliminate poverty." "We are confident about accomplishing the mission," he added. NO LAXITY "Less than two years are left before fulfilling the objective of poverty alleviation. This year is particularly crucial," Xi said at a symposium held Tuesday afternoon in Chongqing. "The most important thing at this stage is to prevent laxity and backsliding." Xi stressed that people need to be aware of the difficulties and problems and clearly define priorities. What needs to be solved and can be solved must be tackled urgently, he said, adding that as for the long-term problems, plans should be made and solutions developed step by step. Of the country's 832 poverty-stricken counties, 153 have been removed from the state list while another 284 are under assessment. "To get rid of poverty, we must consider both quantity and quality. We must strictly enforce the standards and procedures for evaluating whether people are poor or not, so as to ensure that genuinely poor people really get rid of poverty." SOLIDARITY Tan Xuefeng, Party chief of the Zhongyi Township, shared with Xi his seven-year experience in the forefront of the fight against poverty. "Last year, my colleagues and I only took three full weekends off, spending the rest on household surveys and implementing the policies," said Tan. Throughout the years, more than three million officials from governments above the county level, state-owned enterprises and public institutions have stayed in impoverished villages to offer assistance. Reaffirming the Party's commitment to poverty reduction, Xi said that no one should be left behind as the country marches toward building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and the assistance must be offered to everyone in need because "that makes a Communist party." Related: Backgrounder: Xi Jinping and China's remarkable progress in poverty reduction BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- During an inspection tour to southwest China's Chongqing Municipality this week, President Xi Jinping called for greater efforts to win the battle against poverty and realize the goal of building "a moderately prosperous society in all respects" as scheduled. Full story File Photo: U.S. Attorney General William Barr testifies before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, in Washington D.C., the United States, on April 9, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday released a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative report on the Russia probe. The 448-page report is the culmination of Mueller's nearly two-year inquiry into whether Donald Trump's campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether the president had obstructed justice. The release came nearly a month after Attorney General William Barr penned a four-page summary of the report's "principal conclusions," which stated there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. According to the redacted report, Mueller said his team was unable to clear Trump on obstruction. "The evidence we obtained about the President's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred," the report said. "Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," it added. Barr, who held a press conference at the Justice Department shortly before the report's public release, said Mueller did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgement" regarding allegations that Trump had obstructed justice. Instead, the special counsel recounts in his report 10 episodes involving the president and "discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense," according to Barr. Barr said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein disagreed with some of Mueller's "legal theories" about obstruction of justice and concluded that the special counsel did not have "sufficient" evidence to establish that Trump committed an obstruction of justice offense. File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before departing from the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, March 22, 2019. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) Trump told an event at the White House on Thursday that he's "having a good day." "It's called no collusion, no obstruction," he said. "This should never happen to another president again." Trump's re-election campaign claimed in a statement on Thursday that the president "has been fully and completely exonerated yet again." "Now the tables have turned, and it's time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump," said campaign manager Brad Parscale. Mueller, whom Rosenstein appointed in May 2017, took over the investigation after Trump abruptly fired former FBI Director James Comey, a move that raised questions about his potential obstruction of justice. According to the report, Trump was frustrated by the special counsel's appointment. "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it runs your presidency," Trump said, cited by the report. "It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me." Trump also had tried to seize control of Mueller's investigation and force his removal after media reports indicated that the special counsel was looking into whether the president had obstructed justice, the report revealed. In June 2017, Trump reportedly directed then White House Counsel Don McGahn to call a Justice Department official and say that Mueller "had conflicts of interest and must be removed," which McGahn refused and threatened to resign. "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," Mueller wrote in the report. Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer, defended the president when speaking to Fox News on Thursday, saying that he "did not have a guilty motive." The special counsel also wrote that he had the authority to issue a grand jury subpoena in order to interview Trump but decided against doing so because it would delay the investigation. He said his team "had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the president's testimony." Trump did provide written testimony on "certain" Russia-related topics, but not on "obstruction topics," said the report. Democrats have demanded the full report, which Barr has said is redacted to protect grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations and damage to the privacy rights of third parties, be made public to get a clearer picture of Mueller's investigation and conduct Congressional oversight. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that his panel has formally invited Mueller to testify on the investigation. "The public deserve the facts, not Attorney General's political spin," the California Democrat tweeted. Barr said Thursday that he has "no objection" to Mueller testifying before Congress about his investigation. Mueller took over the investigation after Trump abruptly fired former FBI Director James Comey, a move that raised questions about his potential obstruction of justice. The wide-ranging inquiry led to felony charges against 34 people, including six Trump associates and advisers, and three entities. According to Mueller's report, the special counsel referred 14 investigations to other U.S. attorney's offices. Russia has denied any meddling in the U.S. election. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-19 03:32:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GENEVA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Switzerland has called on all parties to the Libyan conflict to put an end to military operations and guarantee a truce to allow humanitarian operations to proceed and for universal support of a political solution. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement released Wednesday and posted on its website that it is "gravely concerned" about the military escalation following an attack launched by the Libyan National Army on April 4 and the subsequent fighting around Tripoli. "Switzerland is also particularly concerned about the situation of the migrants held in detention centers near to combat zones and calls for every effort to be made on all sides to ensure their safety and protection," said the statement. More than 100 people have lost their lives, and thousands more have been forced to flee. The center of the Libyan capital came under rocket fire last night. At least six civilians died as a result of the attack. Switzerland also called on all parties to meet their obligations under international humanitarian law and to ensure the protection of the civilian population. The foreign ministry condemned the use of heavy artillery by all parties, and particularly the bombardments that have hit medical and educational facilities in recent days. It reiterated that targeting civilian facilities is a severe violation of international humanitarian law. "Switzerland is also particularly concerned about the situation of the migrants held in detention centers near to combat zones and calls for every effort to be made on all sides to ensure their safety and protection," said the statement. "A peaceful transition in Libya can only be achieved through dialogue and an inclusive political solution," said the statement. The Swiss foreign ministry said, therefore, it calls on all parties to support the efforts of the United Nations and the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in Libya Ghassan Salame to seek a political solution. It called on all members of the international community to join in unified, consistent support for the political process and to reject a military solution. Switzerland said it remains active in Libya through peacebuilding and humanitarian aid efforts, in addition to migration-related projects it has humanitarian commitments, and supports the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross and organizations active around the country. A man works on a well drilling field of the Udmurtia Petroleum Corp project in Udmurtia, a republic in western Russia, on June 2, 2017. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi) MOSCOW, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Russia has banned exports of oil and some oil products to Ukraine and Ukrainian engineering products imports in response to recent import bans imposed by Kiev, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday. "A few days ago, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine took another unfriendly step towards our country, expanding the list of Russian goods prohibited for import into Ukraine," Medvedev said at a government meeting broadcast live by the TASS news agency. "Under these conditions, we have to defend our interests and take retaliatory measures: I signed a government decree on this," he said. The decree published on the Russian government web site bans oil and some oil product exports, as well as imports of a number of Ukrainian goods, primarily engineering, light industry and metalworking products with immediate effect. From June 1, a restriction would apply to coal, gasoline, diesel fuel and liquefied gases, which can be exported to Ukraine only on the basis of individual permits. On April 10, Ukraine imposed a ban on imports of some Russian products, including electrical equipment, some car parts, chemicals and glass containers for food and beverages. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-19 06:09:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close LONDON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Experts funded by Britain's Arts & Humanities Research Council have found the remains of Britain's earliest rabbit - a discovery which reveals bunnies arrived in the country 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, the council announced Thursday. Rabbits are native to Spain and France. It had been thought they were a medieval introduction to Britain, but this fresh discovery has pushed that timing back by more than a millennium. Radiocarbon dating of the bone, which was unearthed at Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex, show the rabbit was alive in the 1st century AD. The 4cm segment of a tibia bone was found during excavations in 1964 but it remained in a box, not recognised, until 2017, when Dr Fay Worley, zooarchaeologist at Historic England realised the bone was from a rabbit, and genetic analyses have proved Fay was right. Britain's earliest rabbit doesn't bear any butchery marks, and another analysis suggests it was kept in confinement. The inhabitants at Fishbourne Palace were known to be wealthy and kept a varied menagerie, so the rabbit could have been an exotic pet. Academics from the University of Exeter, Universities of Oxford and Leicester, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, carried out the analyses, together with Historic England and Sussex Archaeological Society. Further research is ongoing that will reveal where the rabbit came from and whether it is related to modern bunnies. Professor Naomi Sykes, from the University of Exeter, who is leading the work, said: "This is a tremendously exciting discovery and this very early rabbit is already revealing new insights into the history of the Easter traditions we are all enjoying this week. The bone fragment was very small meaning it was overlooked for decades, and modern research techniques mean we can learn about its date and genetic background as well. "We are looking forward to telling people about our ongoing research this week. There's a lot we don't know about the origins of Easter, and we're learning more every day," he added. Dr Fay Worley, zooarchaeologist at Historic England said: "I was excited to find a rabbit bone from a Roman deposit, and thrilled when the radiocarbon date confirmed that it isn't from a modern rabbit that had burrowed in. This find will change how we interpret Roman remains and highlights that new information awaits discovery in museum collections!" Easter is the most important event in the Christian calendar, yet very little is known about when it first appeared in Britain. Although there is an abundance of popular belief and folklore, we also know next to nothing about the origins of Easter customs, such as the gifting of eggs purportedly delivered by the Easter 'bunny'. The research team is using evidence from anthropology, (zoo)archaeology, (art) history, evolutionary biology, law, historical linguistics, natural history and religious studies to try to work out where and when modern Easter traditions first began and when they arrived in Britain. The English word Easter was first documented in the eighth century AD by the Venerable Bede, whose treatise On the Reckoning of Time refers to spring celebrations in honour of the pagan goddess Eostre, from whom Easter takes its English and German name. The first historical mention of an "Easter Bunny" is in fact an Easter hare, and is found in a German text from 1682. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-19 06:09:16|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Photo taken on April 9, 2019 shows U.S. Attorney General William Barr testifying before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, in Washington D.C., the United States. The U.S. Justice Department on April 18 released a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative report on the Russia probe. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative report on the Russia probe was made public Thursday, adding new fuel to bitter partisan wrangling that has been dividing Washington. The 448-page report, released by the Justice Department, is the culmination of Mueller's nearly two-year inquiry into whether Donald Trump's campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether the president had obstructed justice. CONCLUSIONS The investigation found no evidence that Trump's campaign team engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia, while Mueller was unable to draw a conclusion on whether the president committed obstruction of justice, according to the report. "The evidence we obtained about the President's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred," the report said. "Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," it added. Attorney General William Barr, who held a press conference at the Justice Department shortly before the report's public release, said Mueller did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgement" regarding allegations that Trump had obstructed justice. Instead, the special counsel recounts 10 episodes in his report involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense. Barr said that, though he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein disagreed with some of Mueller's "legal theories" about obstruction of justice, they concluded that the special counsel did not have "sufficient" evidence to establish that Trump committed an obstruction of justice. The report also claimed that there is a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, boost Trump, and denigrate his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Russia has repeatedly denied any meddling in the U.S. elections. The release of report came nearly a month after Mueller concluded his wide-ranging inquiry, which had led to felony charges against 34 people, including six Trump associates and advisers, and three entities, and has shadowed the White House. According to Mueller's report, the special counsel referred 14 investigations to other U.S. attorney's offices. REVELATIONS Mueller, whom Rosenstein appointed in May 2017, took over the investigation after Trump abruptly fired former FBI Director James Comey, a move that raised questions about his potential obstruction of justice. According to the report, Trump was frustrated by the special counsel's appointment. "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it runs your presidency," Trump said, cited by the report. "It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me." Trump also had tried to seize control of Mueller's investigation and force his removal after media reports indicated that the special counsel was looking into whether he had obstructed justice, the report revealed. In June 2017, Trump reportedly directed then White House Counsel Don McGahn to call a Justice Department official and say that Mueller "had conflicts of interest and must be removed," which McGahn refused and threatened to resign. "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," Mueller wrote in the report. Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer, defended the president when speaking to Fox News on Thursday, saying that he "did not have a guilty motive." The special counsel also wrote that he had the authority to issue a grand jury subpoena in order to interview Trump but decided against doing so because it would delay the investigation. He said his team "had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the president's testimony." Trump did provide written testimony on "certain" Russia-related topics, but not on "obstruction topics," said the report. REACTIONS Trump told an event at the White House on Thursday that he's "having a good day." "It's called no collusion, no obstruction," the president said. "This should never happen to another president again." Trump's re-election campaign claimed in a statement on Thursday that the president "has been fully and completely exonerated yet again." "Now the tables have turned, and it's time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump," said campaign manager Brad Parscale. Democrats have demanded the full report, which Barr has said is redacted to protect grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations and damage to the privacy rights of third parties, be made public to get a clearer picture of Mueller's investigation and conduct Congressional oversight. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Thursday that he'll be issuing a subpoena for the full special counsel report and the underlying materials. "Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct," the New York Democrat said in a statement. "The responsibility now falls to Congress to hold the President accountable for his actions," he added. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the Kremlin does not follow the development with the release of the Mueller report. "The release of the report is highly awaited in the United States, but not here. For us, this is not a topic and not an object of our interest, fears or concerns," Peskov said. NEXT Speaking to a press conference Thursday afternoon, Nadler accused Barr, a Trump appointee who was sworn in as attorney general in February, of protecting the president and willfully ignoring key findings. "The attorney general's decision to withhold the full report from Congress is regrettable but no longer surprising," said Nadler. Barr is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on May 2. Nadler has asked Mueller to testify before the panel by May 23. Barr said Thursday that he has "no objection" to the special counsel testifying before Congress about his investigation. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, also a New York Democrat, told CNN that there is nothing he has seen so far in Mueller's report that would change the lower chamber leadership's strategy to avoid impeachment proceedings. "Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgement," Hoyer said. In a letter to Congress on Thursday, Barr said a less-redacted version of Mueller's report will be made available to the top-ranking House and Senate lawmakers from both parties. All redactions, Barr said, would be removed from that version of the report except those relating to grand-jury information. "I do not believe that I have discretion to disclose grand-jury information to Congress. Nevertheless, this accommodation will allow you to review the bulk of the redacted material for yourselves," the attorney general added. Giuliani has said his team is preparing a document that runs "30 or so" pages "without appendix" as a rebuttal to Mueller's report. Asked about the White House legal team's progress on the counter-report, Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Thursday that Trump "doesn't need a point by point rebuttal." The fact that the president remains in office is "his greatest rebuttal," Conway told reporters at the White House. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-19 06:54:24|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A spiraling epidemic with mass morbidity and death is feared in war-torn Yemen where nearly 223,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported so far this year, a UN spokesman said Thursday. This is three times the number of cases reported during the same period last year and nearly a quarter of cases are children under five years old, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Dujarric warned of the possibility of "a spiraling epidemic with mass morbidity and death if current trends are not quickly brought under control." "Agencies are particularly concerned because this increase has come months before the usual spike in cases during the rainy season which takes place in August in Yemen," he said. Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world and the World Food Programme says it intends to provide 12 million people with monthly food assistance through direct food distributions or vouchers that people can use at retailers in areas where the markets are functioning. The total population of Yemen is nearly 30 million. Fighting in Yemen between government and rebel forces already had threatened the country with famine. A partial, shaky cease-fire recently was agreed on to allow humanitarian aid in through key Red Sea ports. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-18 06:28:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Attorney General William Barr will hold a press conference at the Justice Department on Thursday morning to discuss special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia probe, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. The press conference will start at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, according to spokeswoman Kerri Kupec. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017, will be in attendance as well. Barr said he planned to release a redacted version of Mueller's report to both Congress and the public Thursday morning, which would come weeks after the special counsel concluded his nearly two-year investigation into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by submitting a confidential report, described as nearly 400 pages long, to Barr. President Donald Trump, who claimed "total exoneration" from a four-page summary of the report's "principal conclusions" issued by Barr, said Wednesday he might hold a news conference as well. "You'll see a lot of strong things come out tomorrow," Trump told WMAL radio's Larry O'Connor show. "Attorney General Barr is going to be doing a press conference. Maybe I'll do one after that, we'll see." Trump is scheduled to leave for Florida Thursday afternoon, and he may speak with reporters upon departure. According to Barr's summary, Mueller's investigation found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election. The special counsel, meanwhile, did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump had obstructed justice, said Barr's synopsis. The attorney general concluded Mueller's findings are "not sufficient" to support a charge. Democrats have demanded the full, unredacted report be made public to get a clearer picture of the special counsel's investigation. Barr has promised to be as transparent as possible but told lawmakers that parts of Mueller's report will be redacted to protect grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations and damage to the privacy rights of third parties. Stiri pe aceeasi tema - Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca and the Government he runs, as well as the political leaders that compose the current governing coalition are decided to take the measures proposed to stop tax evasion, considering "that living like this in Romania can't continue," said the leader of the Social Democratic - Romania is firmly committed to supporting joint efforts meant to strengthen the resilience of Eastern partners, with the common strategic interest being to facilitate a climate of security and democratic stability in the immediate vicinity and in the Black Sea region, said Foreign Minister Bogdan - Romania stays committed to the strategic partnership for the European integration of the Republic of Moldova, President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday. "The Republic of Moldova enjoys overwhelming, sustainable and cross-party support in Bucharest. We are all dedicated to strengthening the bilateral - The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) announced that Ocean Credit which offers non-banking financial products in Romania listed bonds worth E1.86mln on BVBs Multilateral Trading System under the symbol OCIFN26E, according to a press release. Ocean Credit stated on Wednesday that the funds will finance - US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the United States is considering adding four countries to its Visa Waiver Program that allows citizens to come to America without a visa for a stay of up to 90 days, according to Reuters. We have four candidates in the pipeline: Israel, Cyprus, - Security and stability in the Black Sea region are in the national interest of the United States and are critical in terms of the security of the Eastern Flank, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said on Wednesday in a press conference with his Romanian counterpart Nicolae Ciuca, agerpres - Actrita Catherine Zeta Jones se afla in Romania unde filmeaza pentru cel mai serial al sau. Este vorba despre Wednesday, un serial-continuare al Familiei Addams. Catherine Zeta-Jones se afla in Romania. Ce a impresionat-o profund in Bucuresti Catherine Zeta Jones va juca rolul personajului Morticia, - Nuclearelectrica, the operator of Romanias sole nuclear power plant (NPP) Cernavoda said on Thursday that one of the plants 700 MW units automatically disconnected from the national electricity grid, according to See News. The automatic disconnection of Unit 2 was on Wednesday morning and subsequent Surpriza: Cand vine Maluma in Romania Artistul columbian Maluma revine in Romania la patru ani de la ultimul sau show in tara noastra. Noul concert Maluma va avea loc la Romexpo, Bucuresti, in aprilie 2022. Maluma revine in Romania pe 8 aprilie 2022. Concertul este programat sa aiba loc in Bucuresti, la Romexpo, Pavilion Central A, si este inclus in Papi [citeste mai departe] Despite statements of the Ukrainian authorities regarding the improvement of the countrys business climate, the attitude of the investors towards Ukraine is reflected in the low international ratings and plummeting investments flows Open source Despite statements of the Ukrainian authorities regarding the improvement of the countrys business climate, the attitude of the investors towards Ukraine is reflected in the low international ratings and plummeting investments flows. According to numerous admittible agencies, ratings of some individual companies are higher than the countrys ratings itself, which allows them to make profitable borrowings in the foreign markets. For example, Fitch Ratings has raised the long-term issuer default rating of the Metinvest mining and smelting group (major shareholder of Metinvest Group is SCM Holdings, controlled by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, - ed.) from B to B +, although for several years Ukraines general rating has been maintained at B- level. This is an extraordinary observable fact, taking into account the accuracy of the international rating agencies, experts say. According to the Fitch rating agency, for several years, Ukraines long-term credit rating has been maintained at the B- level. At the same time, in November 2015 November 2016, Ukraine rating was even lower CCC rating with substantial risks. Countrys low rating is one of the main reasons that, amid reports of improvements in the business climate in Ukraine, causes lowering investment, experts assure. According to the forecast, this year the inflow of foreign investments will amount to 1.5 billion USD compared to last years 1.7 billion USD. For example, in 2013, which was rather repellent in terms of attracting investment a year, 4.5 billion dollars of foreign investment came to Ukraine, Oleh Ustenko, executive director of the Bleizer International Foundation, notes. The ratings of the worlds largest agencies like Fitch, Moodys, Standard & Poors are the most prestigious ones. They give the investors confidence that the higher the credit rating of those instruments of the eminent, the lower the risks of an investor. Non-professional investors, who cannot evaluate the company or obtain in-depth information to make an assessment of the issuer's reliability, pay attention to these ratings. However, not all companies can afford the assessment of an international rating agency. In particular, the ratings of international agencies were assigned to Eurobonds of such companies as DTEK (the holding company that develops business streams in the energy sector, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, - ed.), Metinvest, and large banks that entered the foreign borrowing market (Ukreximbank, Oschadbank). The rating not only allows to assess the degree of confidence but also to compare the quality of its investment climate with other countries. The investor compares the risks and the level of profitability on invested capital. The higher the risk level, the higher the return should be received by the investor. From this point of view, any investor looks at the countrys rate first, and only after that examines individual sectors and companies. This is why these three largest rating agencies, as a rule, never assign an individual company rating higher than in the whole country. Taking this into account, Ukraine is one of the few countries, where ratings to individual companies are higher than the countrys ratings as a whole. For example, Fitch Ratings has published a long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of the Metinvest, Ukrainian mining and metals group, (Metinvest BV) in national and foreign currency and its Eurobonds it has changed from B to B + with a constant rated recovery RR4. The fact that the rating of Metinvest is above Ukraines overall position (B-) could be explained by a steady improvement in the ratio of hard currency to the foreign debt service. In addition, the rating upgrade reflects the improved capital structure of Metinvest, a smoother redemption profile, groups obligations in prioritizing capital expenditures, debt repayment and working capital financing over dividends, the international agency said. In 2018, Metinvests deal to refinance its debt ($ 2.271 billion) was recognized as the deal of the year among issuers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to the IFR magazine, whose awards are considered the most prestigious in the global financial community. Metinvest was forced to begin negotiations on debt restructuring in early 2015, in mid-2014 the group got into the perfect storm. The prices of steel and iron ore at that period of time fell to the lowest level in the last 10 years. The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine led to a decrease in production, as well as a significant reduction in the limits of Western banks to finance Ukrainian borrowers. Due to these reasons, the group was unable to service its debt portfolio under the conditions and was forced to start restructuring negotiations. Despite the success of individual companies, the overall situation in the country requires significant changes, experts emphasize. Ukraines low ratings are one of the reasons why Ukrainian, even progressive companies get so little investment. After all, the rating reflects, in particular, a countrys quality-derived business climate. American Chamber of Commerce reports that by the level of corruption, our country has already slipped to the pre-Maidan level, and the optimism regarding large-scale improvements in large business diminished. Speaking about the Ukrainian rating, the circle of potential lenders is hundreds of times smaller than for countries with a rating of Russias or Kazakhstans level, and hundreds of thousands of times smaller than for the Western countries. That is why Russian or Kazakh issuers can afford international loans at a rate of 3-5%, while our borrowers hardly get loans at the rate of 9%. Among other things, in 2019, substantial payments on the sovereign debt are expected. Taking into consideration Ukraines high debt burden, the IMF program is currently the only resource for the countrys economic survival. The agencies are not optimistic about the ongoing conflict in Donbas, which, according to Fitch, continues to bear risks for the countrys overall macroeconomic activity and stability. Ukraine loses not because we do not have interesting business projects, but because the country as a whole has a high level of risk and investors understand this. Read the original text at 112.ua. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, bone of contention between Europeans, Russians, and Americans, faced a new obstacle. This 1,200 km pipeline should provide for the delivery of Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, while completion is scheduled for the end of 2019. Anyway, the small Danish island located on its way changes the situation. At the same time, the delay in sales might affect the gas supply in Europe. Denmark has not issued a permit for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 section, which should pass near Bornholm Island (located south of Sweden), that is, through the country's territorial waters. Back in March, the Danish Energy Agency officially requested the Nord Stream consortium to consider a new route, the third since launching the approval procedure two years ago. We want to be sure that we approve the optimal route from the point of view of ecology and navigation in this zone," said Morten Christensen, an official representative of the agency. The consortium, however, has a different opinion. The new requirement can be considered only as a deliberate attempt to delay the implementation of the project, according to a company press release, released on April 15, in parallel with the submission of the third request for permission. The company condemns the betrayal of investor confidence and believes that each day of delay would cost 20 million EUR for European families and industries who would have to pay bills. The first route was introduced on April 3, 2017, and repeated the geography of the first Nord Stream, launched in 2011. The previous project was easily approved by the Danish government, which was already headed by the liberal Lars Lykke Rasmussen. Since then, the geopolitical situation in the region has changed, and Rasmussen, re-elected in 2014, believes that the political side of the gas pipeline can no longer be ignored. The Danish authorities could only object to the environmental consequences of the project, but on December 1, 2018, deputies accepted an amendment that allows the foreign minister to veto any project on the continental shelf of Denmark if he believes that this threatens the country's interests in the diplomatic and defense sphere. Since then, the case has been in the office of the head of Danish diplomacy that does not bother to answer, which is completely incomprehensible to the Nord Stream consortium. In February, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen emphasized that "nothing of what Russia is doing now can be an argument in favor of approval." Is Denmark stalling? During an official visit to Berlin in April 2018, the prime minister stressed that the kingdom has no legal opportunity to stop the project, but it can delay it to put pressure on Moscow and provide guarantees to Ukraine. A number of European countries, primarily Poland and the Baltic states, believe that this is the crux of the matter. They accuse Russia of trying to realize the Nord Stream 2 in order to stop the transit of gas through Ukraine and thereby deprive Kyiv of revenues of several billion EUR a year. Similar were the arguments of the European Commission, which has put a lot of effort to hinder the progress of the project. The new gas directive adopted by the EU tightened the regulation for Nord Stream 2, although it was unable to stop the construction of the pipeline. The project also has another influential enemy the United States, primarily Donald Trump, who criticized Angela Merkel at the NATO summit in the fall of 2018, in particular accusing Germany of depending on Russian gas. Officially, Washington claims that it defends the interests of Ukraine and is struggling with Russian influence. The Congress even voted for the package of sanctions associated with the pipeline. Nevertheless, the Americans almost do not hide the fact that they have a different goal: they hope to supply shale gas to Europe and compete with Moscow in this area. Supporters of the Nord Stream 2 explain the position of Denmark economic and diplomatic war. The Danes are the lackeys of Americans in this matter, says source, close to the Nord Stream 2 project.They are fooling around and dragging things down to harm the project. In any case, the new delay might directly affect Europe, whose gas needs are growing more and more: the agreement between Russia and Ukraine expires on January 1, 2020. Thus, Gazprom was counting on Nord Stream 2 to ensure the supplies. But how would Moscow ensure supplies if there is no gas pipeline, and the situation with Ukraine remains tensed? European Commission hopes that the delay of the project can force Russia and Ukraine to gather at the negotiating table. Nabil Wakim and Anne-Francoise Hivert Read the original text at Le Monde He dreams of changing borders in Europe, just like Russian leader Putin does, lawmaker Slavomir Nitras said Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary offered Poland to capture some of the Ukrainian territories. Slavomir Nitras, the member of Polish Sejm said this in his interview with net.pl. Orban urges us to capture the lands during the Ukrainian crisis and share them. He dreams of changing the borders in Europe, just like Vladimir Putin... Orban is extremely dangerous and a very smart man,' Nitras warned. The politician added that Hungary is a 'very dangerous country with huge historical complex, which emerged after it lost part of its territory', but Poland does not want to destabilize Europe. Previously, Orban stated that Hungary supports Ukraine in conflict with Russia - in spite of the fact that the Ukrainian government took an anti-Hungarian position. On another occasion, he said that Ukraine has no prospects of entering the EU and NATO unless it gets back onto the path of friendship and strategic partnership with Hungary. Ukraine-Hungary relations worsened when the Ukrainian Parliament approved the education law, which stipulates that the kids representing the national minorities in Ukraine will be gradually transferred to education based on the use of Ukrainian language, and they will be able to learn their mother language optionally. The MP, charged with state treason and coup d'etat attempt just got released from behind the bars Open source The judicial system in Ukraine is ill because of the people like Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian MP who recently got out of the detention facility said this on air of 112 Ukraine TV channel. 'The judicial system is sich thanks to the non-educated Prosecutor General, which is the way Lutsenko is. All this pressure remains the way it was before - the absence of professionalism, and it's a dirty job, actually. Thus, it's something all lawyers know very well - the judicial system is sick, but people want to finally recover, get better, feel the freedom', Savchenko said. Savchenko is the former Air Force officer and Ukrainian MP who previously fought alongside Ukrainian troops in Donbas. She was captured by Russian militants and then sent to Russia. She survived several rounds of severe hunger strike and was released in 2017. She returned to Ukraine and was granted the status of the MP. Last year, Savchenko and former officer Volodymyr Ruban were detained and charged with state treason and coup d'etat attempt. According to Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, the investigation found out that Savchenko planned to go for a massacre at the session hall in the Ukrainian parliament, using hand grenades and a machine gun. He added that Savchenko and Ruban were going to shoot at Petro Poroshenko's presidential cortege. On April 16, Savchenko and Ruban were released from the detention facility; the reason is that the restriction measure was over, and the new one was not chosen yet. However, it is unknown whether President of Russia Vladimir Putin would watch the broadcasting of the debates Spokesperson of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov does not know whether Vladimir Putin is going to watch the debates of the candidate for the presidency in Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky on April 19. However, Peskov intends to watch them as TASS news agency reported. As far as I know, tomorrow 7 p.m. (the time of the beginning of the debates of the candidates for the Ukrainian presidency) will be 8 p.m. here. I cannot say whether President of Russia Vladimir Putin will watch the broadcasting of the debates. I am going to figure out, where it is possible to watch them. Possibly, it will be an interesting scene, Peskov said. On April 3, Zelensky replied to Poroshenko's invitation to participate in debates and put forward his conditions. He wanted to hold debates at Olympiysky Stadium. Poroshenkos team said, the President does not perform at stadiums. A few hours later Poroshenko changed his mind and agreed to participate in the debates. On April 7, Poroshenko stated that he waits for Volodymyr Zelensky on April 14 at Olympiysky Stadium. In his turn, Zelensky stated he wanted to hold the debates with Poroshenko on April 19 at Olympiysky Stadium. On April 10, Olympiysky Stadium reported that it got two applications for holding debates from two presidential candidates Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko. Presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky reported that free tickets for the fan zone at NSC Olimpiysky stadium are now available. Thus, some viewers will be able to watch the debates between Zelensky and the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko on the stadium for free. The debates are to take place on Friday, April 19. The Russian Federation places a ban for export of petroleum and petroleum products to Ukraine, as TASS news agency reported citing Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The ban on the export of the petroleum and petroleum products to Ukraine is established, Medvedev said. He also reported about the extension of the ban for the import of some Ukrainian products. I have signed the regulation of the government on this topic. We extend the ban for the import of particular kinds of the production to Russia; this measure will concern the Ukrainian products of the machinery, light industry, metalworking, which cost made almost $250 million last year, Medvedev said. At the same time, the Russian Prime Minister noted that some domestic products will be exported to Ukraine only after special permission. The list of the products, which can be exported to Ukraine on the basis of particular permissions from June 1, 2019, is to be established. The energy industry products, including coal, petroleum, and petroleum products, are in this category, he noted. According to the State Fiscal Service, in 2018, Ukraine imported petroleum products for $5,54 billion. The import from Belarus made $2,21 billion (38,1%), from Russia - $2,07 billion (37,3%), from Lithuania - $570,5 million (10,3%). The petroleum products for $787,3 million were exported from other countries. The supplies of the Russian coal to Ukraine increased by 29% or up to 12,4 million tons, in 2018 as Russian Energy Ministry reported. The department predicted that the volume of the export will remain on the same level in 2019. On April 10, Ukraine's Cabinet of Minister expanded the list of goods banned to import from Russia. The embargo is now extended to formalin and carbamide-formaldehyde concentrate, springs for freight wagons, electrical equipment for railway automation and communication devices, and electric conductors for voltage above 1000V. Earlier the Russian cement clinkers were included into the list of goods banned to be imported to Ukraine. Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky Unian District Administrative Court of Kyiv granted the claim of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky against the National Bank of Ukraine and Ukraines Government on nationalization of PrivatBank, as the press office of the Central Bank reported. On April 18, 2019, District Administrative Court of Kyiv ruled to terminate the procedure of withdrawal of insolvent PrivatBank from the market with the participation of the state which violates the norms of the current legislation, the message reads. It was also noted that the respective decision of the court would be appealed. The courts decision did not come into force and will be appealed by the National Bank. We will continue proving the legitimacy of the actions and decision made by the regulator in the appeal court. We emphasize that the legal uncertainty created by the courts decisions undermines the financial stability, Viktor Hryhorchuk, the Head of claim-related work of National Bank legal department, said. The decision to withdraw the insolvent PrivatBank with the participation of the state was made in compliance with the norms of the current legislation. It was supported by the National Security and Defence Council and Ukraines Government to provide financial stability and to save citizens money. The legitimacy of the decisions is obvious, the reverse procedure is impossible, as there are no legal or economic reasons for that, Kateryna Rozhkova, Deputy Chairman of the National Bank, said. Earlier, Kolomoysky, the Ukrainian oligarch and former owner of Privatbank, demanded to give him back two billion U.S. dollars of the bank's assets. He might, in turn, give up this financial institution. Alasania also assured that both of the candidates would come to the stadium between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Zurab Alasaniya, the Chairman of the Executive Board of National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine Central Election Comission press office The Chairman of the Board of Ukraines National Public Broadcasting Company Zurab Alasania told about the order of debates of the presidential candidates at NSC Olimpiyskiy. He published the relevant statement on his Facebook page. The Internal Ministry as an assembly point of the representatives of the candidates headquarters, who cant agree among themselves on the debates at NSC. In the narrow sense the question of the security of the audience and candidates, from a broader perspective the platform for negotiations. Yes, there will be two stages. There will be two signals. Probably, there will be two streams. We planned four concerts: two before and two after the debates, he wrote. The representative of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine noted that the headquarters agreed to: - set the rostrums across; - avoid using parties symbols; - make performances in turns; - divide tickets in half and each distributes his tickets; - start concerts at 4 p.m.; - begin debates at 7 p.m. The headquarters did not agree on: - the number of the questions three or four; - who will be the host; - the number of outside broadcasting; - the broadcasting for all the TV channels or each headquarter carries out its own broadcast and passes to its channels. Denys Semenov (Poroshenkos headquarters) and Kyrylo Tymoshenko (Zelensky headquarters) will continue negotiating on issues on phone. Alasania also assured that both of the candidates would come to the stadium between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. He also noted that Suspilne would not participate in the organization of the debates at the stadium. The company continues adhering to the law and common sense: substantial debates should be held in the studio of Ukraines National Public Broadcasting Company on April 19 between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., Alasania added. Related video: Russia 24, RT Russia and Dozhd promise to hold the broadcast of the debates Petro Poroshenko, debates at NSC Olimpiysky president.gov.ua Russian TV Channels will broadcast the debates between candidates for the presidency in Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky on April 19 as Interfax reported. Russia 24 will broadcast the debates. Besides, Russia Today will hold the broadcast at RT Russia TV channel, as channels chief editor Margarita Simonyan said. Moreover, Ruptly, which enters RT agency, will also hold the broadcast. All of the broadcasts will take place with translation. Svetlana Gulyaeva, the Executive Producer of Dozhd TV Channel, announced the broadcast. She said that a special broadcast will take place on Friday. On April 3, Zelensky replied to Poroshenko's invitation to participate in debates and put forward his conditions. He wanted to hold debates at Olympiysky Stadium. Poroshenkos team said, the President does not perform at stadiums. A few hours later Poroshenko changed his mind and agreed to participate in the debates. On April 7, Poroshenko stated that he waits for Volodymyr Zelensky on April 14 at Olympiysky Stadium. In his turn, Zelensky stated he wanted to hold the debates with Poroshenko on April 19 at Olympiysky Stadium. On April 10, Olympiysky Stadium reported that it got two applications for holding debates from two presidential candidates Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko. Presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky reported that free tickets for the fan zone at NSC Olimpiysky stadium are now available. Thus, some viewers will be able to watch the debates between Zelensky and the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko on the stadium for free. The debates are to take place on Friday, April 19. Later it was reported that Olympisky will not sell tickets for the debates of the presidential candidates Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko. The Security Service of Ukraine exposed the number of the crimes of these organizations committed in the territory of Ukraine The Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Russian Federation should be recognized as the terrorist organizations as Ukraines National Security and Defense Secretary Olexandr Turchynov reported on Facebook. The criminal actions provide the grounds to recognize the special services of the Russian Federation, particularly FSB and GRU, as the terrorist organization and Russia as the state, which spread terrorism in the world, Turchynov said. He reminded that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and Prosecutor Generals Office of Ukraine provided evidence of the participation of Russia in the organization of the terrorist actions in the territory of Ukraine. According to the provided evidence, the responsibility for the organization of the terror and diversions in the territory of Ukraine is held by FSB Director, General Aleksandr Bortnikov, Head of FSB Counterintelligence Department, General Dmitry Minaev and Head of GRU Vice Admiral Igor Kostyukov, Turchynov added. He emphasized that similar crimes of the Russian special services were exposed outside Ukraine, particularly, the use of the toxic substances in the territory of the UK. As we reported, Lieutenant General of Russias FSB Dmitry Minaev is the organizer of the murder of Maksym Shapoval, the officer of Ukraines Intelligence Service and Security Service Colonel Oleksandr Kharaberyush. The car exploded in Solomiansky district of Kyiv in the morning of June 27, 2017. The accident occurred at the intersection of Solomianska and Mekhanizatorov street. The driver died in the car blast. The police opened the criminal investigation upon the article 'Terrorist Attack.' Later it was reported that the victim is the officer of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Defense Ministry Maksym Shapoval. The mass media specified that he was the head of the guard service of the former Russian State Duma Denis Voronenkov citing the source in the Ministry of Defense. On March 31, 2017, Oleksandr Kharaberyush, the SBU Colonel died in the car explosion in Mariupol. The SBU detained the suspect in the murder of Kharaberyush. Suspect Yulia Prasolova admitted that she planted the bomb under the car of the colonel. According to Viktor Muzhenko, the Armed Forces of Ukraine existed as a state institute in 2014, but it could carry out its functions only thanks to the volunteers Chief of the General Staff and the commanding officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko Ministry of Defence of Ukraine Ukraine could have defended Crimea in 2014, as Chief of the General Staff and the commanding officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko said in an interview for Fakty news agency. He has a positive answer to the question of whether Ukraine had chances to defend Crimea. I still think that there were chances. They had to be used, Muzhenko said. According to him, the Armed Forces of Ukraine existed as a state institute in 2014, but it could carry out its functions only thanks to the volunteers. Russia annexed Crimea after the illegal referendum held on the peninsula in March 2014. Earlier, the Russian military captured all strategic military objects and buildings of the key authoritative bodies. Neither Ukraine nor the rest of the civilized countries recognized the results of the referendum. A number of the European and the world countries, including Ukraine, imposed the economic sanctions against Russia. As we reported, Google corporation began to show occupied Crimea as a part of Russia for Russian users. Ex-owner of PrivatBank, former Head of Dnipropetrovsk Region State Administration Igor Kolomoysky noted though that considering the fact that the political fight is rather strong, he does not want to bring chaos so he decided to stay in Israel not to annoy people in Ukraine Open source Ex-owner of PrivatBank, former Head of Dnipropetrovsk Region State Administration Ihor Kolomoysky wants to return to Ukraine if Volodymyr Zelensky wins the presidential elections, as he told the journalist of Schemes program, Radiosvonoda reported. Well, I wanted to come back earlier, Kolomoysky answered the question of the journalist about his return to Ukraine in case of Zelenskys victory. At the same time, he noted that considering the fact that the political fight is rather strong, he does not want to bring chaos so he decided to stay in Israel not to annoy people in Ukraine. On April 15, the Administrative Court of Appeal postponed the case of the basis for the nationalization of PrivatBank until April 22. Earlier, Kolomoysky, the Ukrainian oligarch and former owner of Privatbank, demanded to give him back two billion U.S. dollars of the bank's assets. He might, in turn, give up this financial institution. The decision to nationalize Privatbank was made in December 2017. 100 percent of its shares were handed over to the state. The IMF supported that decision, stating that it's an important step to secure Ukraine's financial stability. Ukraine news on 112.international According to the presidential candidate, all this can be implemented within the territory of one city Ukraines presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky, 2019 RBK-Ukraine Ukraines presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky stated that medical marijuana can be legalized in Ukraine as well as prostitution within one particular city in the country, as he said on the interview for RBK-Ukraine. I think that medical marijuana is normal, it is sold in droplets. Bu the way, I talked about this with Yevhen Komarovsky (pediatrician, a doctor of the highest category and a TV presenter ("The School of Doctor Komarovsky" show), - ed.). I support the legalization of the droplets, he stated. Speaking of legalization of the prostitution in Ukraine, Zelensky said that there should be an opportunity to pay for sex on the territory of one city. Pay for sex? Frankly, guys, I think we have such possibility, and I will answer all the previous questions, we can create Las Vegas. The society would agree, and they would pay taxes. To give such opportunity to one city, one territory and do it all there, Zelensky explained. At the same time, the presidential candidate says that men in Kryvyi Rih, his native town, will not understand that. Also, he believes that gambling can be legalized on the territory of one city. Yes, take it all and move it there, create an opportunity. Please, party there. Its not a closed territory. We can develop some city which nobody visits, he noted. Earlier, Acting Health Minister of Ukraine Ulyana Suprun urged to support the legalization of medical cannabis. Silicon Valleys tech giants have been eagerly taking stock of the growing numbers of motorbikes speeding through the streets of Kenya. When Google launched a Motorbike Mode on its Maps in Kenya last October, the company noted on its Africa blog how over a million Kenyans use motorbikes as their preferred mode of transport. Accordingly, ridesharing apps like Uber and Taxify have also both tailored their products to the Kenyan market offering motorbike pickup options to help commuters weave through traffic or find nifty shortcuts through otherwise barely accessible backstreets. In similar traffic-dodging fashion, motorbikers armed with smartphones are revving-up agri-tech innovation in this swiftly developing East African nation. In particular, the Kenyan startup Sidai Africa has been deploying an expanding fleet of motorbikes as a quick and easy way to dispatch specialist farming products and services to livestock farms in remote areas. Sidais freewheeling approach and its ability to reach areas that have long been underserved and considered unreachable has been generating a wide range of attention from investors, philanthropists and governments. From its founding in 2011, it caught attention and startup funding from Africa-based impact investors such as AHL Venture Partners The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was also an early supporter.) Then came government organizations like USAID and various research institutions and NGOs. This month, it was the turn of Devenish, the UK-headquartered, global agri-tech company specializing in animal nutrition, to inject funds into Sidai to the tune of $2.25 million. From a standing start, weve grown significantly over the past eight years, says Sidai founder Dr Christie Peacock, a former CEO of non-profit Farm Africa. Our mission is to enable every small-scale farmer in Kenya to produce food in a predictable and profitable way, and this investment will help us to achieve our goals. By 2020, Dr Peacock tells AgFunderNews, Sidai will have a near national distribution network and be looking to expand outside Kenya. With $2.25m Cash Helmet From Devenish, International Expansion Beckons According to its 2019 Company Profile, Sidai currently has 11 stores, 87 franchisees, and sells through a further 1,500 stockists. It directly employs over 120 people and reaches over 300,000 farmers. Due to infrastructure problems and logistical difficulties, the farms Sidai now services have traditionally struggled for access to quality farming products like vaccines, fertilizers or diagnostic equipment; the farmers themselves find it hard to attain or acquire sound veterinary or technical expertise. Sidais riders aim to fill these knowledge and product voids. Rather than resorting to remote access via smartphones, or dispatches of drones, the company has trained some of its staff to be motorbike capable, so they can get to the scene and offer hands-on business, veterinary or technical help to farmers from the moment they dismount. Packed on the back of their bikes are a widening range of farming products for crops or livestock. Orders, payment systems and real-time delivery routes are coordinated and tracked via the companys in-house MioApp. The Sidai management team call this their unique last mile delivery model. Though it may one day involve drones and they have recently established the Sidai Academy to offer online courses remotely Dr Peacock sees good reasons for steering clear of drones for the time being; not least that their use for such purposes in Kenya remains outlawed. We distribute knowledge through the extension staff who ride the bikes, as well as heavy products like mineral supplements or liquid dewormers in the boxes on the back of the bikes, she says. No drone can do that! Bikes Versus Drones For the work Sidai is doing, Dr Peacock adds, there is no drone that can carry any seriously useful weight of product a useful distance at an affordable price yet. For now, she says: We mostly use cheap Bajaj motorbikes, sometimes Yamahas. Much work still needs to be done. There remains a significant yield gap between actual and potential production and significant losses from pests and diseases, which urgently need to be addressed, reads the company profile. Maize yields are 25%-35% of what they could be, while 25% of livestock die from preventable diseases every year. Greater efficiency is vital for a country like Kenya, where roughly a quarter of its GDP is agriculture. There is also a demographic challenge that needs to be met. According to UN estimates, the Kenyan population boomed from less than 7 million in 1955 to almost 52 million in 2019. Such profound growth, which continues apace, has geared up pressure on the countrys farming communities to deliver ever higher yields. To help prevent losing livestock needlessly, Sidai has been offering 30 veterinary internships per year, alongside its recently launched online training platform, the Sidai Academy. So far, according to its 2019 Company profile, 700 poultry professionals have been trained through a joint Sidai and Elanco/Lohmann Animal Health poultry course. Kickstarting Scientific Innovation, Disease Prevention Elsewhere on the disease prevention front, Sidai is working with the UKs Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Livestock and the Edinburgh-based company Biotangents to develop a diagnostic tool to test for the bacteria causing Contagious Pleuropneumonia. Sidai is working with EIO Diagnostics to test a device in Kenya called the FirstLook Mastitis system. This combines advanced sensor and machine learning to detect infection signs days before there are physical indications in the udder or milk. Results, the team say, are provided in less than a second without the need for samples from the milk or the cow, and a signal is provided instantly that integrates with the workflow of the farm. Sidai has also worked with Global Good to field test its new plastic Mazzican milk container now manufactured in Kenya and distributed through the Sidai network. Finally, Sidai has helped the Michigan Biotechnology Institute deploy its AFEXa an approach converting low digestibility biomass into much more digestible animal feeds, equivalent to alfalfa pellets. Sidai is helping to test AFEX pellets in feeding trials of beef cattle in Kenya, work supported by USAID. Loud Sound Story Being overdressed when the cops show up is rare in Albuquerque, but opening this Friday, April 19, you can find just that on stage in Albuquerque Little Theaters production of the Neil Simon farce Rumors. Directed by Henry Avery, this play is filled with jokey stuff surrounding a well-to-do anniversary party in New York thats marred by inadvertent gunplay. Rumors runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm April 19 through May 5, with Sunday matinees at 2pm. General admission tickets are $23. Albuquerque Little Theater (244 San Pasquale SW) has labeled the show PG-13, which is fine because kids probably arent going to get the jokes anyway. For more information and tickets, see albuquerquelittletheatre. org. View in Alibi calendar Moor Than Youd Expect The Bards tragic, cautionary tale of poor promotional decisions takes on a new dimension in Othello: The Remix for one night only at Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts (4121 Cutler Ave NE) on Saturday, April 20 at 6:30pm. Brought to you by Scaffolding Theatre Company and the International District Economic Development Center, join Othello, Iago, Roderigo and all your favorites as they rap their way through this classic without caring a fig for those stuck on traditional approaches to Shakespeare. Tickets are $20 for this all-ages presentation. For more information see scaffoldingtheatrecompany. com. Easter Candy If you dont know the poetry of Rich Boucher, you are missing out. Remedy that on Easter Sunday, April 21 at 10:30am as Boucher reads at Sunday Chatter from his newly released book All of This Candy Belongs to Me. Chatter is held at Las Puertas (1512 First St NW). Tickets range from $5 to $15 for this all-ages event. For more information see chatterabq.org. View in Alibi calendar Weekly Alibi sat down with Robert Stokowy, who came from Berlin to install Structures (Albuquerque) , near one of his pieces opening this weekend at the Rio Grande Nature Center to get a better idea about land art, soundscapes and how Stokowys work empowers each of us to make our own art. illustration by Corey Yazzie We do indeed live in interesting times, dear readera curse if ever I heard one. It's becoming harder and harder to keep track of the days as they whiz past on their way to the eschaton. Maybe the transhumanists are right, and time is speeding up as we near the singularity, or apocalypse, or whatever. Maybe it's just what happens when you get old. If you haven't noticed, someone came in while you were sleeping and replaced the world you knew with the set from The Outer Limits. Out there, quantum computing is a reality, rogue Chinese scientists are creating gene-edited babies and an alien object named after the Hawaiian word for visitor from afar arriving first went cruising through our solar system. And marijuana is still illegal. Welcome to the spring edition of the Cannabis Manual, where we can all huddle around the fire and share stories with like-minded folks while the rest of the world goes to Hell in a tote bag. We're experiencing a time of high weirdness in America, and the best plan is probably just to duck and cover until that madness passes. In the meantime, we can use this space to educate ourselves about this wonderful plant we love so much. The well-respected General Social Survey, which has been analyzing cannabis trends since the '70s, found that support for legalizing recreational cannabis reached an all-time high across all ages, regions and political affiliations during 2018. According to the poll, 61 percent of Americans are now in favor of legalization. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and General Social Survey staff said 76 percent of Democrats support legalization, as do 54 percent of republicans. It was the first year that the majority of Republicans surveyed were in support. And as the inevitability of legalization looms, the enemies of marijuana have redoubled their efforts. Accusations that cannabis use can cause psychopathy have become fashionable again for the first time in years (we'll get into that later) and concerns over teenage use have risen to a squealing pitch. That means you've probably been fielding some touchy questions from friends and family members that make you uncomfortable. Is marijuana actually dangerous? Will it make you mentally unstable? Can you lose your job if you use it? Can you lose your kids? This time around, as we hide in our shelter from the storm, we're going to look at some of these more sensitive subjects surrounding cannabis. Instead of dodging the uncomfortable questions, we'll be facing them head on. (Don't worry. We have some fun stuff, too.) If that makes you nervous, then turn away now, dear reader. This is no place for the weak of will or soft of character. As always, our goal is to shine a light on subjects that have remained hidden for too long in obscurity and give you a solid base of knowledge to work with. Let's all agree now to put aside our biases and face the factswhatever they might be. Go ahead. Be brave. Turn the page. Despite the growing acceptance of marijuana across the nation (and especially in California), tech companies seem to have it out for the plant. You might have noticed that several cannabis companies have been quietly banned by YouTube, Facebook and Instagram over the last year. While the online giants technically allow dispensaries and producers to have a voice on the platforms, both have rules against promotion of the use and sale of drugs. This means that dispensaries can have profiles, but they can't advertise sales or sell directly through the apps. Let's take a look at the policies as they stand. Facebook's advertising policy states: Ads must not promote the sale or use of illegal, prescription, or recreational drugs. Examples of content that violates the policy is anything that advertises drug-related paraphernalia, such as bongs, rolling papers, and vaporized delivery devices. Under their commerce guidelines, business owners are told that posts made to the site may not promote the sale of illegal, prescription or recreational drugs. Marijuana is specifically mentioned in the section. Instagram's policies state that offering sexual services, buying or selling firearms and illegal or prescription drugs (even if its legal in your region) is not allowed. That parenthetical comment seems to target legal cannabis. YouTube, while not strictly a social media site, is another place where cannabis business owners and enthusiasts are being deplatformed. According to its Policies on harmful or dangerous Content, videos that aim to encourage dangerous or illegal activities that risk serious physical harm or death [are] not allowed on YouTube. The rule is clarified with a list of content that is considered dangerous, including anything that depicts people abusing controlled substances such as cocaine or opioids, or content providing instructions on how to create drugs. For years, the platform was known as a friendly place for cannabis content until creators started receiving nebulous warnings of policy violations from the company and the subsequent removal of channels without explanation. And YouTube's parent company Google seems to be just as wary of working with cannabis companies. Services like Google's AdWords and social media tracking are vital in today's world of online business, but are inaccessible to dispensaries because the company's policy considers substances that alter mental state for the purpose of recreation or otherwise induce 'highs' to be dangerous products. Google does not allow marijuana ads on either the display or search side [via our AdWords policies] because the product is illegal on the federal level, Google spokesman Alex Krasov told CNET. "This policy is the same on the publisher side [AdSense]. But enforcement of these policies has seemed inconsistent and questions about their value have been raised among the growing number of businesses becoming involved with the cannabis industry. Being locked out of social media means missed opportunities for companies to find reach for their brands and products, and they're understandably upset. By far, Facebook has reportedly been the worst at shutting down dispensary pages and even activist pages that have nothing to do with a business. Some owners have even seen their personal accounts allegedly removed just for being associated with a store. But for some reason, many cannabis-centric profiles and pages remain in operation on these platforms, seemingly without any problems. So how can you avoid having your cannabis business banned? On Instagram, one thing you can do is turn your profile to private. This will keep your posts off of the explore page, making it less likely that they will be seen by minors or uninterested users who could potentially flag them. Every time a post is flagged, Instagram is notified. If you want to keep your head down, it's best to minimize flags. For all the other sites and apps, there are a few ways to make yourself less of a target. Do Not Sell Products Advertising cannabis products (listing sales, prices or menus) or selling them directly through the app is absolutely off the table. It's also illegal. This extends to private messages as well, so make sure to redirect any questions to a private email or your company's website and never discuss sales. Avoid Depictions of Consumption Posting a video or photo of someone taking a hit off the bong is a surefire way to get your posts yanked. Never ever do it, no matter how much you might be tempted. Be Conservative with Hashtags Although hashtags make it easier for new followers to find out about you, it also makes it easier for the screws. Be considerate when choosing them (if using them at all), and keep in mind who's watching. Share Articles and Resources Instead of only posting about your business, share articles about the culture and science of cannabis. News sources are almost never considered dangerous. If you do find yourself stranded and without a page, take the time to properly follow the company's appeal process. Sometimes you can get lucky and they'll reactivate your account. If not, try, try again. Make a new profile and change the name slightly with abbreviations or additional words. It's frustrating, sure, but in the current climate, you unfortunately have no say in the matter. The good news is that change might be on the horizon as Facebook is reportedly reconsidering its policies in light of Canadian legalization and might start allowing companies to list pricing information, although it would still bar advertising and direct sales. Is Marijuana as Safe as We Think? That was the title of a New Yorker article published earlier this year that threw many of us cannabis advocates into a monumental tizzy. The piece, written by Malcolm Gladwell, starts off reasonably enough, citing a 2017 report released by the National Academy of Medicinewhich found few conclusive answers to health questions surrounding marijuanaand bemoaning the lack of research available on the effects of cannabis, but quickly turns barbed when it begins to reference Alex Berensons forthcoming book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. Berenson correlates marijuana use with a supposed rise in what he says is a new kind of mental illness that seems similar to schizophrenia. He also connects a rise in cannabis use with a rise in violent crimes, presumably due to psychotic episodes that could allegedly be caused by the drug. In a subsequent Seattle Times article, a number of cannabis scientists criticized Gladwell's research. Beatriz Carlini, senior research scientist at the University of Washingtons Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute, said the violent crime statistics reported by Gladwell are misleading. He cites a 17 percent increase in violent crime in Washington between 2013 and 2017. Carlini pointed out that there was a large dip in the number of violent crimes committed in 2012, meaning that the statistic wasn't risingit was just returning to where it was before 2013. The Seattle Times article also points to FBI statistics that show that between 2007 and 2017, Washington's violent crime rates were still below the national average. A New York Times piece by Benedict Carey compares Berenson's book to Reefer Madness, taking aim at its claims that marijuana use can lead to psychosis and schizophrenia. As it points out, while there is evidence that biological mechanisms might lie behind psychotic disorders, determining whether one caused the other is hard to do. Carey also mentions a 2015 study conducted by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University that found smoking nicotine cigarettes was a predictor for later development of schizophrenia. The number of marijuana users who developed schizophrenia later in life who were also cigarette smokers remains unclear and unaddressed. However, most experts seem to agree that marijuana, like any psychoactive substance (including nicotine and caffeine), can trigger a psychotic episode in someone who is already prone to one. That's because cannabisand all psychoactive compoundscan be a source of stress, and stressors are the number one cause of psychotic episodes, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Bouts of schizophrenia are generally marked by these episodes, but it isnt believed that theyre caused by them. While the jury's still out, it's commonly accepted that schizophrenia is caused by genetic abnormalities combined with environmental factors. If this is the case, then someone who suffers a psychotic break brought on by cannabis use and leading to a diagnosis of schizophrenia almost certainly would have had said break regardless of the stressor. So what does this all mean? Well it seems marijuana probably won't cause you to develop psychosis unless you were already prone to develop psychosis. This is good news for most of us, but it also means that the general consensus of cannabis being completely safe isn't exactly accurate. This is why bringing the subject up with your healthcare provider is a good idea before experimenting on your own. It's also a good reason to keep this drug out of the hands of teenagers, since symptoms of psychosis and schizophrenia generally show up between the ages of 18 and 24, according to Early Psychosis Intervention Advanced Practice Project. YinYang/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- Democrats criticized the Justice Department's handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's 400-page report on the eve of its release, slamming plans to deliver it to Capitol Hill Thursday morning following a news conference from Attorney General William Barr. "This is wrong," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a news conference Wednesday evening. A Justice Department official told ABC News that the redacted copies of the report will be delivered to Capitol Hill between 11 a.m. and noon on CDs, after Barr's scheduled news conference at 9:30 a.m. Democrats fumed at the timing of the Mueller report release, and the planned rollout as an effort to spin the special counsel's findings. Washington has waited for the highly-anticipated report for weeks, with everyone from members of Congress to press assistants on Capitol Hill planning to dissect the report into Russias efforts to interference in the 2016 election and whether or not President Donald Trump obstructed justice. Its going to be like Anna Karenana, gripping, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a constitutional law professor and member of the House Judiciary Committee, told ABC News. Mueller did not find evidence that the Trumps campaign "conspired or coordinated with Russia in 2016 but made no conclusions on whether or not he obstructed justice, Attorney General William Barr wrote in a letter to lawmakers in late March, which also contained Barr's own conclusion that the president did not obstruct the probe. That characterization of the special counsels work infuriated Democrats and prompted celebration from the White House. Both Democrats and many Republicans have clamored for the release of the unredacted report to move beyond Barrs bottom line summary, though one Trump ally -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. -- has said he is fine with whatever DOJ releases to the public. Nadler fumed Wednesday that Barr's planned news conference was another attempt to present the report "through his own words" instead of Mueller's. Barr has said he plans to release a redacted version of the report, limiting information pertaining to grand jury material, classified information, details that could impact ongoing law enforcement activities and damage the reputation and privacy of "peripheral third parties." Democrats, led by the House Judiciary Committee and Nadler, are prepared to subpoena the Justice Department for the full document and underlying materials and fight for them in court, depending on what Barr releases on Thursday. That subpoena could be served as early as Friday, even as Nadlers staff continues negotiations with the Justice Department about Muellers findings and turning the materials over. Some lawmakers will get an earlier look than others: the Justice Department intends to give some members of Congress a version of special counsel Robert Muellers report "without certain redactions" that will be in the publicly released version of the report, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Government lawyers from the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington, D.C., and an attorney for the special counsels office, filed Wednesdays court document in response to a request by former Trump adviser Roger Stones defense team for a complete, unredacted version of Muellers report. Once the redacted version of the report has been released to the public, prosecutors wrote, "the Justice Department plans to make available for review by a limited number of Members of Congress and their staff a copy of the Special Counsels report without certain redactions, including removing the redaction of information related to the charges set forth in the indictment in this case. In the House and Senate, lawmakers and committee staff plan to do speed reading of their own, to understand more about the investigation that has overshadowed Washington and the Trump administration for two years. House Democrats will defer to their subject matter experts on the staff of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on the substance of Mueller's report, while looking to the House speaker's office to help shape messaging and guide the caucus' response to Mueller's findings, according to a senior Democratic aide. In addition to the congressional efforts, the Democratic and Republican National Committees are deploying scores of researchers to comb through Muellers work and flag highlights to reporters and on social media, as well as preparing talking points for lawmakers and surrogates. The RNC has set up a war room to monitor media coverage and statements from Democrats and push back. The House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Justice Department as well as impeachment, is particularly focused on any elaboration on Muellers decision not to reach a legal conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice, Raskin told ABC News. That section of Muellers investigation could also inform Democrats wide-ranging inquiry into allegations of corruption, abuses of power and obstruction of justice. The language of the report may give us the answer, but it may not, in which case we may want to hear from special counsel Mueller himself, Raskin said. Barr is expected to testify before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees in early May, which is expected to be a key moment in the looming battle between lawmakers and the Justice Department over the report and its contents. Democrats also hope to question Mueller at a later date: Nadler said Wednesday that lawmakers would "probably find it useful" for the special counsel and members of his team to testify. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., have requested a full briefing from the special counsel, and all materials "regardless of form and classification, according to their recent letter to the Justice Department. While Democrats in control of the House plan to use Muellers findings to aid their ongoing investigations into the Trump administration across six congressional committees, they have no plans to change course or stop their larger oversight activities -- from investigating the fallout of the family separation policy and disaster recovery efforts, to prescription drug prices and the presidents potential violation of the Constitutions emoluments clause. "Congress has a Constitutional obligation to exercise oversight of the Executive Branch and to ensure that the government works for the American people," Ashley Etienne, a spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement to ABC News. "Democrats will continue to probe President Trump and his Administrations misconduct, corruption and incompetence as well as issues that matter most in the lives of the American people from the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs to the Trumps sabotage of families affordable health care, and the Administrations inhumane family separation policy. The American people deserve answers and were not going to back down from getting them." Democrats have pointed to recent polling to support their continued oversight work. Sixty-four percent of Americans believe Trump committed crimes before becoming president, according to a March Quinnipiac poll conducted after Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen testified before Congress. Voters split 45 percent to 43 percent on whether Trump has committed any crimes as president. Republicans, for their part, are focused on learning more about the genesis of the Mueller probe. The attorney general confirmed to a Senate panel recently that he is looking into the matter, thats in addition to a DOJ Inspector General investigation with the same focus that is nearing its conclusion. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. After years of growth, the medical and recreational cannabis markets have become a major economic force in our nation, but these business owners still face the problem of finding a bank that will take their money. This translates to an irritation for patients who have to pay for cannabis with cash in what is mostly a digital society and an outright danger for dispensaries that must sit on piles of cashpainting targets on their backs for criminals. It also causes headaches for business owners in areas the layman might not consider, like figuring out how to pay employees and keep track of your finances, or having to pay more for in-store security and armored cash delivery services. For the IRS and state tax and revenue department it means trusting dispensaries to honestly report their earnings. And according to Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada, it makes the US Treasury a money launderer. Speaking to a panel of Treasury officials last month, Amodei broke it down: Why are all the private sector people being told, 'find a way to launder your money,' but you have the government political subdivisions are [told], 'pay the IRS in cash?' As a matter of fact, some of them are overpaying them and getting Treasury checks back, so weve essentially laundered the money for them. He also pointed out that government entities are able to take cash from dispensaries for taxes and deposit that cash into federally-protected banks without scrutinyessentially the same drug money that would be rejected by those institutions if it had come from the dispensaries themselves. In this light, the policy seems ludicrous. It's the result of old laws against money laundering that don't quite work for the situation we find ourselves in today. Since cannabis is still illegal under federal law, risk-averse banks aren't willing to accept cannabis businesses as clients, even in states like New Mexico, where it's been legalized for medical use. Anti-money laundering laws hold financial institutions accountable if they knowingly service businesses involved in criminal activity, which places them in a weird spot. These institutions actually want a piece of the pie, though, and have been pushing for years at lawmakers to introduce regulations that will allow them to accept marijuana money. Last February, they finally made some headway when the House Financial Services subcommittee took up the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019 (SAFE Banking Act). If passed into law, it would protect banks and their employees from being prosecuted for providing financial services to cannabis businesses. It was formally filed in March and is cosponsored by over a quarter of the House of Representatives, meaning it actually has some legs. While it might not be the sexiest topic to discuss from the world of cannabusiness, it's certainly one of its most important aspects. The passing of a law like the SAFE Banking Act would be a huge milestone for the marijuana movement in general. (Also: You could start using your credit cards at dispensaries. What a luxury!) If you've applied for a job in the last 20 years, you've probably had the pleasure of peeing into a cup and delivering the warm receptacle to a friendly person in a lab coat. It never makes for a fun morning. A 2011 poll from the Society for Human Resource Management said 57 percent of US employers required pre-employment drug screening. This might sound like a good ideanobody wants planes flown by high pilots or steamrollers driven by high construction workersbut imperfect technology and the broad testing of those applying for positions where safety doesn't seem to be an issue is beginning to raise concerns for both employers and applicants. The process is actually quite expensive for companies with a high turnover ratelike those in the retail or service industriesand for positions where no heavy machinery is operated and safety is less of an issue. In these cases, the price seems less than cost effective. With cultural acceptance of marijuana and its legalization in different areas of the country, the number of applicants who test positive for drugs unsurprisingly reached an all-time high in 2017, according to Quest Diagnostics. Companies are having a tough time finding quality employees who can pass the screening. And the tests themselves do little in the way of predicting performance and are terrible at spotting on-the-job cannabis impairment (THC shows up in tests up to 90 days and maybe even longer). So why do these companies do it in the first place? State University of New York's Michael Frone, in his book Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use in the Workforce and Workplace, says many companies conduct drug tests to project a clean image for the public, or because they are still under the impression that the policy works. Frone believes that the practice is propped up and promoted by an industry comprised of testing labs, test manufacturers and consulting and law firms specializing in workplace drug policies. The real issue is that insurance companies offer discounts to companies that enact drug-free policies. In 2016 a survey conducted by the Mountain States Employers Council in Colorado found that 77 percent of the state's employers used pre-employment screening to test for THC. Last year that figure dropped to 66 percent. According to The Morning Call, The Denver Post ended its use of drug tests for non-safety sensitive jobs in 2016. Las Vegas health care company Excellence Health Inc. stopped drug testing employees working in their pharmaceutical labs in 2017. And last year, AutoNation Inc., the largest US auto dealer, said it would no longer turn away applicants who test positive for THC. Experts say that many other companies nationwide are also reversing their policies without much fanfare. If this becomes a trend, it could theoretically improve numerous corners of our society. The unemployment rate might lower drastically, cannabis users would have less trouble finding jobs and employers should have access to a larger pool of more talented prospective workers. Positions that are safety-sensitivethe operation of vehicles or heavy machineryshould always remain drug-free, but ending the practice for all other jobs would relieve a pressing tax on our nation's economy. By now most of us have heard of Rastafarianism and the role that marijuana plays as a sacrament to its adherents. Even without a cultural context, the iconic rastacap and dreadlocks sported by Rastas have become synonymous with cannabis culture. There are plenty of other religions that pay tribute to the sweet leaf, too, of course. In our Winter 2019 edition of the Cannabis Manual, we talked about the deep ties marijuana has to Hinduism. The legendary Assassins of Alamutan infamous esoteric group of Islamic hereticswere given their epithet (Hashashin) presumably from the Arabic hashishi, meaning hashish eaters or hashish users. Its use as a religious sacrament can even be found as far back as far as the ninth century BCE by the Scythiansan ancient nomadic culture that lived in the central Eurasian steppes. Last month High Times published a piece profiling Chris Conrad, cannabis activist, career expert witness and founder of Cantheism, a modern religion that regards marijuana not only as a sacrament, but as an object of devotion. Conrad was raised as a religious Catholic and entered seminary as a young man. He told reporters that learning of the Catholic church's history of persecution made him turn away from the organization, but that his first encounter with cannabis renewed his interest in spirituality. The first time I smoked cannabis, I felt more of a religious and spiritual connection than I had gotten out of all that seminary work, he said. Conrad would go on to become a cannabis activist, testifying in court on a number of cases in defense of those accused of possessing the drug. He began actively practicing what he called Kantheism (the spelling changed later), attempting to establish a religious practice surrounding the use of cannabis, allegedly to support claims of religious freedom for those caught with the illicit substance. He went on to write the Cantheist Creed but refrained from publicly moving forward with the religion over concerns about how it would affect his professional life. In 2016, however, Conrad and his wife Mikki Norris decided that with the changing cannabis laws and climate, his role as a spiritual leader was more important than his role as an activist. They began holding meetings for Cantheists and have even begun developing rituals. There seems to be little dogma attached to the religion, and adherents are accepting of all faiths and traditions. Cantheists meet on Sundays. Members bring marijuana to contribute to a community stash and some bring items to place on an altar. After reciting the creed, they pass around sacramental joints in a ritualistic way. This is followed by a guided yoga session. Lectures on cannabis are sometimes given and members share stories of how the plant has affected their spiritual lives in a positive way. Afterward, a potluck is held before members depart. While many of us might find this sort of behavior cheeky, Conrad and his followers are completely serious. To cement his faith's validity, he draws upon ancient cultures and their use of cannabislike the Egyptians, Scythians and Hindu peopleand compares his religion to theirs. I think this could theoretically be one of the fastest growing religions around, Conrad told reporters. Rob M. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a number of pro-cannabis bills into law earlier this month. One of the most notable was SB 406, Medical Marijuana Changes, which should improve many of the issues patients and producers have been complaining about for years (and might raise a few new ones, as was reported in our most recent issue of the Leaflet newslettersubscribe now, ya' so-and-sos). It's the first major statutory change that's been made to the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act since its inception in 2007. The law incorporates changes that were called for from a number of other bills that were considered this year. Under SB 406, the renewal period for registration in the medical program has been extended from one year to three. Students enrolled in the program and attending public schools are now allowed to be administered medical cannabis at school. THC concentration in cannabis products will no longer be limited by the Department of Health. It also allows patients enrolled in another state's medical cannabis program to be immune from arrest for consuming or possessing cannabis if the quantity of cannabis does not exceed the limit identified by department rule. There are a few more changes being instituted, and it behooves any patient to give it a thorough reading. What especially excited me was the protections given to employees and job applicants enrolled in the program. Under the new law, employers are not allowed to take an adverse employment action against an applicant or an employee based on conduct allowed under the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act. This rule doesn't apply to jobs deemed safety-sensitive or in cases where an employer would lose a monetary or licensing-related benefit under federal law or federal regulations. Employers are still protected when disciplining or firing an employee who is found to be impaired or under the influence of marijuana on the job, however. This is a huge deal, and I'm surprised there isn't more being said about it. In my personal life, the rampant use of preemployment THC drug testing has been a massive barrier that has restricted my employment options significantly over the last two decades. This change is bound to positively impact the employment market in New Mexico, since employers will have a larger and potentially better workforce to select from, and job-seekers will have more employment opportunities. It's also been noted by professional analysts at Mondaq that employees enrolled in the medical cannabis program are likely entitled to the disability anti-discrimination provisions of the New Mexico Human Rights Act and federal Americans with Disabilities Act. According to The New York Times, the New York City Council just approved a measure that incredibly bars employers from drug screening applicants in any form. They are still allowed to ask an employee to submit a drug test if they appear to be under the influence on the job, though. And specific safety-sensitive industries like emergency services and construction will continue drug screening. The law will not apply to state or federal employees working in the city, either. If it's signed into law, the bill will take effect in one year. While not directly regulating drug testing policy like New York, our new law's provisions echo the sentiment, as do those enacted in Maine. But companies are apparently jumping ahead in the script and reforming their policies early, prompting the Los Angeles Times to carry this headline last week: In the age of legal marijuana, many employers drop zero tolerance drug tests. The article claims that retailers are either not testing applicants or choosing to look the other way on cannabis use. Will wonders never cease? If this becomes a fad, the effects will be incredible. Retail and service industry giants tend to make standardized employment policies to avoid headaches when employees transfer from state to state. And according to personal finance publication The Balance, the retail market made up two-thirds of the US gross domestic product in 2016. Think about that for a hot minute. Strain Corner Last week I paid a visit to Southwest Wellness Center (9132 Montgomery Blvd. NE Ste. D). This dispensary has some of the freshest, stickiest and most potent flower in town, so I treated myself to a handful of strains. A budtender by the name of Brandon indulged my weed nerdiness and allowed me to take a whiff of every strain on the shelf. We also had a pretty fruitful conversation in which he told me how to enhance edibles by consuming fatty foods prior to dosing. It left me feeling very optimistic about the industry in general. I picked out a couple of rank strains by smell and let Brandon choose the last one. He suggested Unicorn Poop (THC: 26.34%$14/gram) and I pretended I wasn't agreeing just because of the name. Back home, I loaded a bowl. The trichomes stuck to my fingers, leaving them tacky and smelling like lawn clippings. This hybrid tastes sour and tangy, with a sharp throat hit. The first noticeable effect hit me behind the eyes, and I experienced a sensation akin to relaxation in my faceparticularly around my eyes and sinuses. It was a novel and pleasant feeling, so it absorbed much of my attention during the moments immediately following my first hit. Later, I noticed a deep sense of well-being and a certain level of pleasurable numbness had spread throughout my body. I'd been too distracted to register it earlier. Seconds were passing like drifting glaciers and my every movement was slow and measured. I turned on the TV and watched two mindless talking heads on CNN. I tried to ignore the words coming out of their mouths and read the secret intentions behind their mannerisms. They were inscrutable. The joy of telling people I smoked poop should not be understated. Five panelists lead this fascinating discussion with a moderated Q&A. Join us and five panelists (Bill Gilbert, Erika Osborne, Kaitlin Bryson, David Naranjo and Brionna Garcia) at the University of New Mexicos Art Museum as we explore ecopedagogy and how it relates to art, teaching, and learning within our community and beyond. Learn about ecopedagogy, the innovative scholarship and practice of these panelists, and critical perspectives engaging art in ecological issues. The panel discussion will include a moderated Q&A and audience conversation. We will conclude the night with a reception, book sale, and signing of UNM Emeritus Professor Bill Gilberts recently published book, Arts Programming for the Anthropocene. This book investigates the origin and evolution of five academic field programs on three continents, (including UNMs Land Arts of the American West) mapping developments in field pedagogy in the arts over the past twenty years. This panel discussion is part of Global Futures Initiative Speaker Series Spring 2019. Global Futures is an interdisciplinary arts and humanities initiative for critical inquiry, pedagogical innovation, and social justice. The manifold and accelerating crisis of the current historical moment presents unique challenges that require creative new forms of research and collective action. The Global Futures Initiative brings together artists, activists, organizers, and scholars to creatively envision new social possibilities that connect community-based engagement and global movements for social transformation and planetary futurity. UNM Art Museum can be reached at (505) 277-4001 Runs through 05/18/2019. Named after the wounded Fisher King of Arthurian Legend, A Prairie Fisher King espouses the notion of home as both a site of idealization and a locus for wounding. Drawing from memory, a narrative is woven in the form of photographs and text of the rural Iowa countryside where my family has lived for generations. A Prairie Fisher King is an ongoing body of work reflecting on the nature of familial hardship and generational connection through the lens of place. An undertone of violence embodies the emotional distress accumulated with age as well as a looming threat posed upon the landscape. Initially conceived as a bittersweet love letter to home, A Prairie Fisher King considers the various myths we construct in order to survive in the face of inevitable change. Through the accumulation of intimately described detail a search for reconciliation becomes palpable. I assume the role of reluctant hero and return to seek the damaged king, to seal old wounds and to salve the land. __________________________________________ Chelsea Darter received her MFA at Columbia College Chicago in 2018 and her BFA from The University of Iowa in 2013. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and featured online by Light Leaked, Aint-Bad, and Fraction Magazine. Her personal work explores themes of place attachment, class, familial connection and local mythologies. She lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 5. Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Spaces in Between: Following the Route of Keystone XL featuring a selection of photographs from the series of the same name by Mary Peck. Peck has been working with photography for over forty years. Her photographs are held in many collections, including the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal; the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe; the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; the National Museum of American Art, Washington DC; the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She is the principal author of Bhutan: Between Heaven and Earth (Merlin Press and Phoenix Art Museum, 2011), Away Out Over Everything: The Olympic Peninsula and the Elwha River (Stanford University Press, 2004), and Chaco Canyon: A Center and Its World (Museum of New Mexico Press, 1994)" Speaking on the Florida Everglades, an earlier project, Mary Peck explains that, More than an introduction to a once wild place, it was an exponential enlargement of the world as I had known it. Those days in the Everglades determined much of the course of my life because there the living world became so much more than human. Mary Pecks photography communicates the world as such - as larger than human and as encompassing the human - as a once wild place. Her work speaks to the sacred and silent in land and place. To stand in front of one of her pieces inevitably fills the viewer with a sense for those spaces, the taste of the air, the feel of the wind - her work rarely includes the human figure, but the human is always present as participant - affected and effector. In one essay Tim McNulty explains that, "If there is a current that unites Mary Peck's photographs, it is the sense - for the photographer and viewer - of being a part of what is seen: The clean, fluid, and untamed beauty of the natural world, as well as its heartbreaking abuse. The line that runs through Pecks work between beauty and abuse, between serenity and responsibility, between sensuality and protection, is as strong as ever in Spaces in Between: Following the Route of Keystone XL. Because the pipeline is a buried, hidden thing, Peck began her journey in Alberta, to see what goes on abovegroundhow the land where the oil comes from is treated. Two metric tons of sand are removed to produce each barrel of oil. Peck speaks to how the land here reminded her of the clear cut forests of the Olympic Peninsula, The visible land scars engendering, an ominous sense of danger. "As in the Washington clear-cuts, birds and wildlife in the boreal forest are driven out or killed. This violence to the land seems contagious, and its reach finds its extension to human life in a long legacy of sex trafficking and rape endemic in the mining industries. It continues in the oil field man-camps, and it plagued communities where Keystone I workers bunked. Sexual violence looms as one more significant threat of the Keystone XL." Spaces in Between: Following the Route of Keystone XL follows Mary Peck through the spaces in between the Alberta Refinery and the Steele City Pumping Station. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline crosses a number of large named rivers: Red Deer, Saskatchewan, Cheyenne, Yellowstone, Missouri, Niobrara, North Platte. Peck continues, What I was not prepared for was the multitude of small rivers and tributaries this pipeline would need to cross. In the United States that number is well over 1,000, including intermittent, perennial, and ephemeral streams; small tributary creeks; and major rivers. Peck traveled the 1,100 mile range of the proposed pipeline. The images in this series are always within range and always downstream of the path of the Keystone XL pipeline. The spaces are majestic and beautiful. They call to the viewer, reminding them that they are of these spaces; connected to them deeply and responsible to them. More information can be found: Mary Peck Profile / website: http://www.marypeckstudio.com/profile/#! Space in Between writing and images: http://www.marypeckstudio.com/projects/spaces-in-between/ On Thursday, April 11, Disney held its annual Investor Day. Thats when the studio tries to impress the people who give it money with all the cool things theyre working on. No. 1 on that list of impressive stuff is the studios long-gestating plan for Disney+, a rival streaming service to Netflix. And with Investor Day out of the way, we have our clearest picture yet of what Disney+ will look like. For starters, Disneys entire Signature Collection (consisting of animated classics including Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Beauty and the Beast) will be available on the services first day of launch. This isnt a particularly surprising announcement as those cartoon classics are the backbone of the Disney brand. Having announced plans to pull them (along with all Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar content) from Netflix late last year, its only natural that Disney+ would start by highlighting the companys long history. All of Pixars animated shorts will be available on the service to start, with Pixars features (The Incredibles, Up, Toy Story and the like) being added within the first year of operation. Disney will also hype future theatrical releases with a behind-the-scenes documentary charting the making of Frozen 2 (hitting theaters in November) and a string of shorts spotlighting characters from the upcoming Pixar film Toy Story 4 (slated for release on June 21). The company is also working on a string of live-action features, such as the live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp (featuring the voices of Tessa Thomson and Justin Theroux). Disney will exploit its Marvel properties, of course, with several shows that spin off from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are attached to star in WandaVision, which Marvel head Kevin Feig told investors would tell a story that is unexpected and surprising (a vague but intriguing tease for a show about a witch and an android). Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan will also be reprising their Marvel superhero characters in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Disney+ is preparing an as-yet-untilted Loki series as well, concentrating on Thors nefarious half-brother. Tom Hiddleston is locked for that one. Feig also teased plans for an animated What If? seriesan adaptation of Marvels popular exploration of what would have happened if crucial moments in Marvel history had played out differently. According to Feig, the first episode examines What if Peggy Carter was the one who became a super soldier? (which gives Hayley Atwell another chance to play the role of the popular super spy). Disney didnt give any date when these series might premiere, but it probably wont be on launch. Day one, however, will be the date when viewers can check out the first-ever live-action Star Wars series. The Mandalorian, produced and directed by Jon Favreau, will be a space Western focusing on a lone gunman in Mandalorian armoralthough it will not be fan favorite Boba Fett, as some folks were hoping. Some time after that, well get a look at a still-untitled Cassian Andor spy series starring Diego Luna and featuring Alan Tudyk as the voice of reprogrammed Imperial security droid K-2SO. (Well assume that series takes place before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which doesnt exactly set those characters up for a sequel.) A new season of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars will also be hitting Disney+ sometime in the future, bringing the shows unfinished storyline to a long-awaited ending. The Disney+ service becomes available to the public on November 12, 2019. The cost is slated to be a reasonable $6.99 a month or $69.99 for a one-year subscription. Thursday 18 SuperMansion: World War Tree (Sony Crackle streaming anytime) Sonys snarky stop-motion-animated superhero series unleashes an Earth Day special. (Sure, why not?) Seems The League is faced with saving the world from nature itself when tree-hugging scientists accidentally let loose a pack of sentient killer redwood trees. Only Mother Earth herself (Lauren Weedman) can save the day! Friday 19 Lunatics (Netflix steaming antyime) Australian comedian Chris Lilley (Angry Boys, Summer Heights High) presents another crazed series in which he plays six characters coming to terms with themselves and the world around them. Ramy (Hulu streaming anytime) Comedian Ramy Youssef is the creator and star of this semi- autobiographical comedy about a first-generation American Muslim who is on a spiritual journey in his politically divided New Jersey neighborhood. Saturday 20 Easter Under Wraps (Hallmark 6pm) Hallmark celebrates the holiday withwhat else?a romantic comedy about a tough businesswoman (Fiona Gubelmann) who goes undercover at her familys chocolate plant only to meet a passionate chocolatier (Brendan Penny). How High 2 (MTV 7pm) MTV celebrates 4/20 with this belated sequel to the 2001 stoner comedy starring Redman and Method Man. This one stars Lil Yachty and DC Young Fly as a couple of pot-smoking entrepreneurs seeking funds for their on-demand munchies delivery service. Sunday 21 Motown 60: A Grammy Celebration (KRQE-13 7pm) Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men, Ciara, John Legend, Martha Reeves and Pentatonix (do these people have to be on every TV concert?) show up to celebrate the birthday of the iconic record label. Monday 22 Live Rescue (A&E 7pm) Live PD, A&Es broadcast of police video cameras coast-to-coast, is evidently enough of a hit to merit Live Rescue, a broadcast of firefighter, paramedic and EMT video cameras coast-to-coast. Im no psychic, but based on the Chicago PD/Chicago Fire/Chicago Med model, I predict Live ER is right around the corner. Gentleman Jack (HBO 8pm) Suranne Jones (Coronation Street) stars in this historical drama based on the life of noted industrialist Anne Lister, who returned to West Yorkshire, circa 1830, to rebuild her ancestral home, transform her family business and find herself a respectable wife. Tuesday 23 1969 (KOAT-7 9pm) ABC launches a new historical docu-series by starting with the famous moon landing. Future topics for the year in question: the Manson murders, Chappaquiddick, Woodstock, John Lennons Bed-In and the Stonewall Uprising. Wednesday 24 Bonding (Netflix streaming anytime) Described as a seven-episode, short-form dark comedy series from actor-turned-creator Rightor Doyle (HBOs Barry), this show originally aired online and captured Best Episodic Series at Outfest last summer. It centers on a recently out gay man (Brendan Scannell) who reconnects with an old high school friend (Zoe Levin) who is now one of New York Citys top dominatrixes. The films of British writer-director Mike Leigh fall most firmly into the subgenre known as kitchen sink realism. Pioneered by such noted British filmmakers as Tony Richardson (Look Back in Anger, A Taste of Honey) and Ken Loach (Poor Cow, Kes), these stories generally take a gritty and unvarnished look at the domestic lives of working class families. Leighs resume (Life is Sweet, Naked, Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky) is packed with iconic examples. Though Leighs newest film trades obsessive modern-day realism for detailed historical accuracy, it falls right in line with those previous, generally downbeat dramas. Peterloo is set in 1819, in the immediate aftermath of Napoleons defeat at Waterloo. Though the Battle of Waterloo was a major victory for the English army and marked an end to the Napoleonic Wars, it had enormous repercussions back home in England. The film starts by introducing us to Joseph (David Moorst), a PTSD-stricken soldier living wide-eyed and slack-jawed through the closing moments of the war. He survives, only to return to his impoverished, mill-working family back in Manchester. Dont mistake poor Joseph as our main point of perspective, however. Over the course of a looong two hours and 32 minutes, Leigh introduces us to a confusing panoply of characters, hailing from what the press notes identify as 11 different social substrata. (Yowch.) On the opposite end of the spectrum, by way of example, we get Sir John Byng (Alastair Mackenzie), a certified, upper-crust hero of the Napoleonic Wars who is appointed Northern District commanderdespite coveting a post in Ireland. (That particular posting will eventually come to bite him on the ass, trust me.) In between those two extremes, weve got Henry Hunt (Rory Kinnear), a celebrated orator with distinct democratic leanings and a gift for gab. It seems that these and countless other characters are swept up in the complicated legacy of Englands war with France. Cash-strapped from fighting a decade-plus war on the continent, England did what most countries always did and still dopass the cost of conflict on to those least able to pay for it. After recruiting countless sons of farmers, miners and mill workers to serves as cannon fodder during the war, the English Crown now piles on various economic burdens (like the infamous bread tax), which have a disproportionate effect on the poor. (Its worth noting that the English Crown is here embodied by a cartoonishly uncaring Prince Regent played by Tim McInnernywho had some practice playing the foppish fool Lord Percy on Rowan Atkinsons Blackadder.) These cruel economic/political policies get the general rabble talking. And most of that talk centers on the general idea of: When has the government ever done anything to help us? (as Josephs perpetually beaten-down-by-life mother succinctly puts it). Soon the people are discussing such seditious behavior as unionizing labor and democratizing the government. Naturally, the Crown doesnt take too kindly to such whisperings. Its not long before the British government respondsbadly. Of course, this general outline of events barely scratches the surface. Leighs explication of the various dissents and discontents of the era is nothing if not exhaustive. The majority of Peterloo consists of parliamentary debates, public speeches, talkative rallies, lengthy monologues and spirited dinner table conversations among family members. As we learn more about the various grievances on the streets of England, Peterloo starts to feel more like a lengthy political history lecture than a cinematic drama. (Dont know anything about, for example, the Manchester Female Reform Society?You will!) If Leigh werent building up to something, Peterloo would be a righteous but ultimately inert exercise in early 19th century political activism. History (and this film) will record, however, that all of that talk on the street eventually led to something called the Peterloo Massacrein which some 70,000 Brits gathered on St. Peters Field in Waterloo to demand reform of parliamentary representation. Still stinging from a certain, rather famous demand for no taxation without representation, local Tory magistrates and a bunch of Kings Cavalry soldiers turned on the political radicals. A number of people were killed and a lot of folks were injured in the ensuing chaos. Leigh stages his film with a certain sense of predestination and doom. The Peterloo Massacre, he seems to be saying, is the natural and inescapable conclusion of the conflict between oppressed people and an uncaring government. His sympathies are unwaveringly with the protesters, the marchers and the suffragists. It takes very little leap of logic to see just what Leighs driving at here. Increasingly conservative governments in conflict with increasingly enlightened citizens, angry over economic austerity plans and the hypocritical entitlements that the rich always seem to enjoy? Thats something that sounds as familiar in 21st century England (America, etc.) as it did in 19th century England. Its this final riotous destination, staffed with hundreds of actors and choreographed with a gripping energy, that gives Peterloo the punch that it both wants and needs. If the ensuing two hours feel like cramming for a last-minute English History test, the final 30 minutes feel like getting caught smack dab in the middle of a shockingly realistic historical reenactment. With all its blood and panic and waves of armed law enforcement beating down citizens, it becomes blisteringly clear that everything from the Peterloo Massacre to the Kent State shootings to the 1999 Seattle WTO protests to Frances recent Yellow Vest movement share a similar thread of DNA. Over the course of Peterloo, Leigh applies as much kitchen sink realism to 1819 as he does to 2019. This isnt some glossy, well-manicured BBC look at history. The candlelit cinematography (courtesy of Dick Pope, who shot Leighs historical biopic Mr. Turner), is alternately beautiful and gritty. The overall look hovers somewhere between the seedy, black and white reality of William Hogarth prints and the glowing romanticism of Edmund Blair Leightons paintings. Only the broad, epic nature of the story being told robs Leighs narrative of the intimate impact his other films hold. With so many damn characters competing for the spotlight, its hard to find a well-rounded one in the bunch. Rory Kinnears orator, caught between upper-class upbringing and true democratic sympathies, comes the closest. The rest are mostly around to mouthpiece various political stances, often loudly and with raised fists. As a righteously indignant piece of agitpropfired by a famed artist on behalf of the working class and aimed squarely at the 1 percentPeterloo is pointed, immersive, unyielding and purposefully timely. But it demands a great deal of sympathy and patience from its audiences, who must endure an awful lot of lip-flap before arriving at the explosive heart of the story. PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Reel World Environmental Celluloid Timed nicely to dovetail with Earth Day 2019, the Fifth Annual Taos Environmental Film Festival hits northern New Mexico this Thursday, April 18, though Monday, April 22. This year organizers are presenting 22 award-winning films that explore various natural ecosystems and their complex beauty, as well as forces damaging the balances of life on our planet. Among the short films being screened are the Ewan McGregor-narrated nature documentary Humpback Whales, the IMAX-lensed adventure documentary Journey Into Amazing Caves and the locally produced portraint of New Mexican folklorist Nasario Garcia, Nasario Remembers the Rio Puerco. Among the feature offerings are Silent Forests (about conservationists fighting to stop elephant poaching in Africas Congo River Basin), Blue Heart of Europe (which depicts the battle to protect Europes last wild rivers) and A Bold Peace (a historical chronicle of Costa Ricas efforts to disband its military and redirect national resources toward education, health and the environment). The festival takes place at the Taos Center for the Arts (133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte). Admission to this multi-day festival is free, but a $5 donation-by-choice is accepted and appreciated. For a complete listing of films and events, go to taosenvironmentalfilmfestival. com. View in Alibi calendar Elephant in My Pajamas The East Mountain Classic Film Series returns to the East Mountain Library (487 NM 333 in Tijeras) this Saturday, April 20, at 2pm. This months film is the anarchic Marx brothers smash Animal Crackers from 1930. Among the classic bits are the song Hooray for Captain Spaulding, an absurd game of bridge and a running gag stolen from Eugene ONeills Strange Interlude. As always, film historian and founder of the American Vaudeville Museum, Frank Cullen, hosts the event. Admission is free and open to the public. View in Alibi calendar Wall-E + Eve 4 Ever In honor of Earth Day, Albuquerque Film & Music Experience and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History Foundation present the environmentally conscious Pixar classic Wall-E on the NMMNHs DynaTheater screen. The film screens on Sunday, March 21 starting at 1pm. Tickets are $10 general admission or $7.50 for Museum Foundation members and AFME sponsors. For more info or to get tickets in advance, go to naturalhistoryfoundation. org/ afmx- movie- series. View in Alibi calendar Eric Williams Photography Pollito Con Papas II popped up rather quickly in a very iconic location in Nob Hill. The II in their name comes from the fact that this is their second location, with the original being on Gibson and Dakota, right across from the VA hospital. Having previously worked with many veterans, I was no stranger to hearing about the original location and how incredible its food was, and that you could guarantee that youd be in and out as fast as needed to get to your appointment. I dont know much about Peruvian cuisine, and to be fair, it appears that neither does Albuquerque. A quick search shows just six restaurant listings under Peruvian, with two being Pollito Con Papas, and the other four being Columbian or Latin American. I wasnt sure what to expect going in, and in a way, that was exciting; going in fresh to new tastes and experience comes with the job but also tends to be a bit rarer when trying a whole countrys cuisine for the first time. In terms of design and feel, Pollito Con Papas II is a stripped-down experience, offering you a more contained dining experience. The goal here is to focus on the food and the company youre with and not necessarily the restaurant around you. There was some light guitar playing that helped add a little ambience, but ultimately this is a place to engage with those around you. The look and feel worked great for the location, because it feels like a local place which is a strength they should play to. Albuquerque is a foodie city, and as a rule, rejects big flashy national chains in favor of local flavors and experiences. I started with the yuca fries, which came with an aji (Ill get to this a little later) dipping sauce and were enormous. It should be noted that yuca and yucca are two completely separate entities, which led to confusion when they initially showed up. For those who have never had it (myself included), yuca is a tuber that is fairly starchy and a fantastic potato replacement. Theyre more commonly referred to as cassava and are a thick-cut delight. Here there was enough for a table of four to get down on before the meal. The yuca had a delicious crunch on the outside, with the interior being softer, similar to a traditional French fry. The sauce that came with it was an aji, which I had never heard of before. Rene Coronado, the owner, explained to me that aji isnt necessarily a specific recipe, much like salsa. Everyone has a different style and way to make their own aji, which on the surface is a similar concept but can be executed very differently from person to person. This aji was creamy and rich but had a good kick of heat on it that Burquenos will fall in love with. I was given a second sauce, which Coronado explained they give out to first timers to help them try a wider range of tastes and flavors but it comes from a very expensive pepper so its typically more of a request only for seasoned Pollito Con Papas guests. The second sauce was also exceptionally good but definitely a bit kickier in the heat department. For the main dish, I grabbed the Lomo Saltado with cilantro rice. This plate was piled high with food, starting with a gorgeous pyramid of the cilantro rice, as well as a generous helping of marinated beef strips, tomatoes, onions and fries. Added on to the dish were two more sides of sauces, which I wasnt complaining about. The beef was exceptional with the marinade having really gotten into the meats core. The strips were thin enough to allow that flavor to be evenly dispersed and cooked properly throughout and it paired amazingly well with the rice. Each bite was a small celebration of taste, a slightly salty and tangy jubilation in each mouthful. Add some aji to it, and you get an exceptional medley of savoriness on your tongue. The choice to stir fry all these ingredients adds that flavor profile to the whole dish and makes it a culinary experience worth noting. Ending with the Peruvian flan proved a great finish to the meal. It was rich, sweet and exactly what you want from a flan. The love of food is clearly here, with every dish being a standout option. The new location is sure to give people access to something unique and different for Albuquerque, helping bring more choice to the Nob Hill dining community. If this is your first chance to try authentic Peruvian food, it isnt going to let you down; Pollito Con Papas II is absolutely a worthwhile encounter with food that you shouldnt pass up. Eric Williams Photography Albuquerque city political leaders have been busy this April, passing a more effective police oversight ordinance, saying no to some single-use plastics, and pondering the mayors proposed $1.1 billion budget. The Real Plastic Earth A gutted version of the proposed Clean and Green Ordinance barely passed on a 5 to 3 vote by City Councilors at their April 15 meeting. The highly revised legislation only bans plastic bags at most retail businesses, exempting restaurants and dry cleaners. In a rather untoward, community-eschewing move, the Council did not hear this item, which happened to be the most popular agenda item, until after 8pm when they returned from their dinner break. They should have taken into consideration the dozens of citizens who came to address the Council at this meeting. However, the number of young people who showed up to speak out in support of saving our planet was impressive. Many citizens who gathered to have their voices heard could not stay until after the Council chowed down. But once they returned, some of the remarkable young peoplewho stuck around until late in the eveninglaid out some sharp, simple truths. I see trash everywhere I walk. I see plastic in the Rio Grande, one future voter told councilors. Invest in us and our future, said another. Two articulate young citizens gave a presentation on the harm that plastics are doing to the world environment. They showed the Council photos of plastics in the stomach of the albatrosses that live on Midway Island. The young activists educated the council in a mic-dropping presentation about the harm of roadrunner- suffocating plastics blowing around our desert home. You may not regret it now but you will when the plastic takes over the Earth, they gravely intoned. All you have to do is pass the Albuquerque Clean and Green ordinance, the youths that gathered all said. In a city-released study, the cost of an average Styrofoam to-go container is about 8 cents while the cost of an eco-friendly one is about 20 cents. It also says the proposed ban could keep at least 120 million shopping bags out of our landfill and another 20 million out of our Rio Grande. Most of those signed up to speak were in support of the ban. Just about all the citizens said they support the ban and would gladly pay more for eco-friendly take-out containers, paper straws and bags that dont get stuck in animals stomachs. The city study said it would cost the average family an extra $146 a year to pay 10 cents for every single-use plastic bag it uses. The ordinance gives folks the option of using a reusable bag or paying the business 10 cents per bag. You are what you eat, and I choose not to be plastic, one citizen said emphatically. The owners of several enchilada and breakfast burrito dynasties said the proposed ordinance would cost them in excess of $250,000 a year, which they would have to pass on to their customers. These leaders in the Burque food scene and the New Mexico Restaurant Association complained so much about not being able to afford environmentally friendly carry-out containers for red chile thatin the final version of the billCouncilors exempted restaurants from the plastic bag, Styrofoam container and straw ban. Other amendments included exempting dry cleaners from the plastic bag ban. While supporters said the approved business friendly but environmentally truncated ordinance is a disappointment, it is also a step in the right direction. The limited ban impacting grocery and other retail stores will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020. Eyes on the Police Amendments to the citys 2014 civilian police oversight ordinance were unanimously approved at the Councils April Fools Day meeting. The ordinance is part of the citys settlement agreement with the US Department of Justice after the police department was found to have a pattern and practice of excessive force. The Civilian Police Oversight Agency and the Police Oversight Board will now be known as the Civilian Police Oversight Agency Board. It is an independent agency, not part of city government. One controversial change is that the CPOA will now have to ask for a specific amount of funding each year that it anticipates it will need instead of getting half of one percent of the citys police department operating budget. Three councilors were not in favor of this and said this puts the agency in jeopardy of being under funded and therefore ineffective. The big ticket item is the subpoena power the oversight board will now have to gather up witnesses, documents and information while investigating claims of excessive force and other misbehaviors by city police officers. Key groups such as the ACLU and the police watchdog group APD Forward were on board with and worked with the city on the amendments. Mind on the Money Mayor Tim Keller released a $1.1 billion fiscal year 2020 budget. This is an 11.3 percent increase over the current years $997 million budget. Fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30. Just about half of the Mayors proposed budget goes to public safety with generous increases for Family and Community Services, Municipal Development, employee raises and much more. The Council will tweak the budget and hold public hearings, but needs to approve the budget by the end of May. Stay tuned to see where your tax dollars will be going. Dateline: Switzerland The Swiss government has declared that coffee is not essential for survival. According to USA Today, Switzerland began storing reserves of coffee before World War II in preparation of a possible shortage and has continued the practice ever since. Last week the Swiss Federal Council ruled that coffee is not necessary for the survival of human beings. The finding followed discussion of a proposed amendment to the Ordinance on the Compulsory Storage of Foodstuff and Animal Feed, which would end storage obligations for coffee. In a statement, the council said the Federal Office for National Economic Supply found that coffee contains almost no calories and therefore does not make any contribution to food security from a nutritional point of view. In the office's report, it was noted that coffee was initially included in the list of goods that were being stockpiled for psychological reasons. According to BBC News, however, Reservesuisse, the agency that oversees Switzerland's food stockpiles, says 12 of 15 companies that currently stockpile coffee are against the proposed amendment. The plan is now open for public comment, and a final decision will be made by the council in November. Switzerland currently has 15,300 tons of coffee in reserve. Dateline: Papua New Guinea Doctors in Papua New Guinea claim the country is facing a national crisis as thousands of men are receiving botched penis enlargement surgeries. The Guardian reports that health workers across the country are taking advantage of insecurities and convincing men to have foreign substances injected into their genitalia. The alleged perpetrators are presumably practicing off-license. The injections are made with the expectation that a person's penis will become larger, but doctors say the treatment causes penile disfigurement requiring surgical intervention. The substances injected reportedly include coconut oil, baby oil, silicone and cooking oil. Most cases of adverse reaction result in abnormal, lumpy masses growing over the penis or scrotum, which can make urination difficult. Many cases, according to doctors, result in ulcers that burst over time. Some of the men are unable to have an erection following surgical procedures, according to doctors. Akule Danlop, a surgeon at Port Moresby General Hospital, told reporters his clinic has treated at least 500 men with penile disfigurement and dysfunction over the last two years. He says he has treated men between the ages of 16 and 55. Its a bit frustrating to see these cases when you have other people who deserve [help] and then these people do it to themselves, he said. Dateline: Mississippi Residents of a neighborhood in Jackson, Miss., say bowls of mashed potatoes are appearing on their porches, and they want to know why. According to WJTV in Mississippi, some neighbors living in the Belhaven neighborhood are concerned over the mysterious deliveries while others are amused. Attention was first brought to the bowls of potatoes last week when resident Jordan Lewis found a bowl of mashed potatoes left on her car and published a post about it on Facebook. Many of her neighbors came forward with similar stories. The side dish was found in various places, including inside mailboxes or on front porches. While some expressed concern that the food might have been poisoned to harm any animals who ate it, there have not been any reports of the potatoes being tainted in any way. The intention behind the deliveries remains a mystery and residents have not reported the incident to the police. Lewis told reporters that finding the mashed potatoes was in line with other experiences she's had living in Belhaven. This neighborhood does a lot of quirky things, we decorate road signs, we put Christmas trees in our potholes, so it's not surprising at all, that's why I love this neighborhood, she said. Dateline: Florida A man was arrested last week after threatening to unleash an army of turtles to destroy a Florida town. CBS Miami reports that Thomas Devaney Lane is facing multiple charges of breaching the peace, misusing 911 and resisting an officer without violence. According to Indialantic, Fl., police, authorities received at least seven calls last week claiming a man was disturbing the peace at three different locations. Police reports say he even entered the police department and threatened the dispatch officer while pounding on the walls and glass. He allegedly left the building, but proceeded to call 911 and again threaten the dispatch officer. According to arrest reports, Lane was yelling out obscenities constantly, calling himself the saint, saying his turtle army will destroy them and stating they would all see what would happen in an hour. Officers finally found Lane sitting in his car, but he refused to come out. He allegedly continued to shout obscenities and refer to his turtle army, which he claimed would destroy the town and everyone living there. He was forcibly removed from his vehicle and arrested by officers. Dateline: Malaysia Authorities in Malaysia say delinquent crows are harassing the residents of Melaka and stealing women's undergarments. According to The Straits Times, Melaka Historic City Councilor Tan Chin Gwan told reporters that it's unclear why the birds have been targeting underwear left on clotheslines, but that the problem is getting worse. I am still baffled by why these crows are snatching panties, and where they go to hide them, he said. The crows are also reportedly stealing food from local hotels, schools and restaurants. Tan said the problem is having a negative impact on tourism, and the government has already begun culling the crow population. City of Albuquerque This is hard to write. Words would fail me if only they could fail me. But instead of giving up, they have decided to parade through my head while The Doors sing about death and deliverance in the next room, coming out of the loudspeakers just like Jim Morrison was still alive and bellowing like a cornered, bearded bear. The Doors of Perception Everything must be this way, the madman croons. Welcome to the soft parade ... there are still a few animals left out in the yard ... But its getting hard, the dark idol of yesteryear yells, imploring those still listening to chart the darkness falling in pieces all around us. Meanwhile out on the streets that pass by my home, in my neighborhood and beyond, in the city of Albuquerquea place mythologized as both enchanting and forebodingviolence rules the day. This past week, our city by the river suffered because of that horror, even as spring blossomed everywhere. Enough with poetics I had a chance encounter with one of the victims of all that rage a day or so before she died. A human being with dreams and a heart and a set of footprints apparently passed away because a gun became involved in a domestic violence situation that she encountered. Cecily Corazon stopped by Weekly Alibi twice on Friday, April 5. When told she was early for a meeting with our editorial board, she laughed and left, returning dutifully a few hours later to talk about the school that her son attends. When she was done, she fixed a huge pink hat upon her head and smiling, said that she was happy that the newspaper took the time to hear the voice of its readers. Now Ms. Corazon figures prominently in the letter sent by our city at the end of the day on Friday. The missive, sent directly from the mayors office to my inboxto the inbox of most of the press outlets in these here partsaddresses a week of violent human behavior and tells of her death. While details are scarce, the heinous act perpetrated upon Ms. Corazon (a shooting that may have been the result of domestic violence) was not the only darkly enacted ritual to take place within our city in the course of those seven days. All told, eight members of the human tribe in Burque allegedly died through violent acts within the referenced time frame, a week in April that started out warm but quickly grew cold. Kellers epistle In fact according to the missive from the mayors office, there was a deadly uptick in senseless violence this week. Of the humans who died, five of them met their end from the discharge of a firearm; one, Eric Trujillo, was stabbed to death in the middle of Downtown; one was beaten to death and another victims demise (Erica Nilson) is still under investigation. While it is clear from the city transmission that much has been done to combat violent crime in our city, people continue to die because the root problems that lead to violent misadventure among the group of highly specialized and sometimes noble hairless apes inhabiting the middle of the middle Rio Grande Valley have yet to be confronted and controlled, have sometimes been ignored and dismissed even as their consequences continue to wreak havoc through Burque. Kellers epistle mentions many issues influencing criminal violence in our city and includes an apt conclusion from the chief of police, Mike Geier: We are hiring more officers and making progress toward fighting crime, but this weeks violence points to the larger issues of gun violence, child abuse and domestic violence that we are taking on as our top priorities. He is correct and we believe that these three issues are intertwined. Coming to this conclusion and working out a widely applicable set of solutions is where this city and its citizens must begin if we are serious about banishing the specter of violence from our living, growing city. Gun violence There are too many guns in the hands of the public. An overabundance of guns has plainly led to an epidemic of gun violence. Last week, one of our contributors wrote about efforts among some county law enforcement officers to put the kibosh on gun regulation efforts recently made law by our legislature and Governor. His entreaty was met with disgust and derision by some, who see any attempt to regulate the ownership of any type of firearm as a threat to the republic. The fact is that widespread gun ownership is a new relatively new cultural phenomena, even in America, but it is still a part of a culture that has not yet fully embraced the rule of law. In summary, a broadly interpreted, aggressively defended Second Amendment has resulted in a culture that glorifies guns and domination over law and reason. It is certainly a predominately male, patriarchal culture that calls for the glorification of such killing tools. That culture, burdened by the same violence that it has nurtured, includes those who seek second amendment sanctuaries while implicitly insisting that not-so-random citizen shootings are just part of the package. Does this sort of blood sacrifice, carried out against children and women, guarantee our freedom any better than the absence of guns among the citizenry might? Such violent incidents involving guns often arise in the heat of human passion. For a populace that has been conditioned by teevee, films and video games to believe that abrupt, aggressive physical action solves problems, the emotional forces that govern interpersonal interactions are rendered moot by the omnipresence of real men with real guns. Guns are designed for killing. Having easy access to killing machines can make the unthinkable homicide into a quick, definitive and convenient act for emotionally overwhelmed minds. The presence of a firearm in a household raises the chances of death in such situations to astronomical levels. The state has taken initial steps to curb gun violence by requiring background checks for all sales and denying guns to those convicted of domestic violence-related crimes. But our leaders need to go further. While we acknowledge that the Second Amendment to the Constitution gives US citizens the right to bear arms, owners of guns should be required to undergo regular renewal testing for licenses, testing that is commensurate with the gravity of owning a deadly weapon. Automobile drivers are regularly tested to make sure they are capable of driving. So should gun owners be subject to tests that measure their emotional and physical fitnessif they desire to possess a gun in an otherwise civil, peaceful and truly democratic society. Domestic abuse Its a well known fact that endemic poverty, hunger and shelter insecurity lead to stressful existential situations for at-risk individuals and families. Unmitigated, that sort of stress often ends in abuse. The results of such well-known but unsolved social conditions were demonstrated in the details of the deaths of two of our citys children this week. Diamond Williams, an 8 year old, was allegedly killed by a gun on Sunday. A couple of days later, in a separate incident, Kalahaya Johnson was allegedly killed by her father. The two lived in a motel room near the interstate. Mr. Johnson told authorities that he struck his child repeatedly because she refused to do her homework. Similarly, domestic violence, perpetuated by the patriarchy and given continued shelter through perpetually poor living conditions that seethe just under the surface of this city. Its chaotic presence, living on the streets as machismo, is not an unpredictable factor in this culture. It is often an insidious thing though, carefully disguised by innumerable factors as victims seek respite from their tormenters. A truly progressive methodology for lowering the incidence of domestic violence against women and children should include wide-ranging plans to begin education at an early age and to provide the resources necessary to provide adequate, livable existences to families in need. That includes expanding behavioral health services, creating opportunities for affordable housing, initiating extensive drug treatment and occupational rehabilitation programs and encouraging community activism and awareness. While we are at it, teaching compassion and limiting the corrosive reach of corporate capitalism among our young may also help engender an advanced nonviolent human society. A progressive plan Communication is the key to ending gun violence and domestic abuse, tumors that feed on fear and silence and precious lives. Recent initiatives by the city and county to strengthen outreach and community policing services are just a beginning. Citizens can and should be taught to trust their government, but distrust of the man and the systemwhether thats a cop with a gun or a social worker with a helping handis deeply ingrained in the citizens of Dirt City. Untying that Gordian knot and using the resulting rope to raise ourselves up will take years of sustained effort but we are sure that Keller and Co. are up to the task. I know and you know that this wont bring back the dead. Here in what is now, we can only remember their lives and keep moving forward as a community determined to find peace at home and abroad. PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Newscity Los Alamos Lab Ships Waste Again An indoor facility for storing and shipping radioactive waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory is operating for the first time in five years. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, authorities at the lab announced last week that the Radioassay and Nondestructive Testing (RANT) shipping facility has passed safety inspections and will reopen after being plagued by problems for the last five years. New upgrades including steel reinforcement panels and a new concrete roof and walls have reportedly made the structure sounder and authorities say it will be better protected in case of a major seismic events. Last week a press release from the lab announced that the first shipment of Transuranic (TRU) waste from the RANT facility to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad in five years had been successfully completed. Los Alamos is reportedly the largest producer of TRU waste in the nuclear security industry. Officials say plutonium manufacturing will continue to increase in the US, and a properly functioning waste disposition program will grow alongside it. NM Methane Emissions Higher than Reported Last week an environmental group released evidence that New Mexico's methane emissions are climbing thanks to increased oil and gas production in the Permian Basin. The Environmental Defense Fund reportedly conducted tests at about 90 well facilities in the Permian Basin of New Mexico and Texas in 2018 to measure methane emissions and find leaks. It released the findings last week, claiming the state's methane emission levels were five times higher than the federal Environmental Protection Agency reported. EDF estimates the state is wasting $275 million worth of natural gas from leaks. It also claims $43 million in tax and royalty revenue is being lost by the state every year due to methane waste. Robert McEntyre, a spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, told reporters at The Durango Herald that the announcement was made to promote a political agenda and is not based in fact. South Africa: Sibanye-Stillwater labour dispute comes to amicable resolution Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant has commended the parties to the Sibanye-Stillwater labour dispute for reaching an amicable resolution to the strike. "No-doubt these four months have been the most difficult period for all parties involved," Oliphant said. This follows an end to the almost five-month strike by members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) at Kloof and Driefontein mines in Carletonville and the Beatrix mine in the Free State. Amcu signed an agreement on Wednesday in terms of which employees will receive an increase in the basic wages of category 4-8 surface and underground employees at the gold mines Kloof, Driefontein and Beatrix of R700 in year one, R700 in year two, and, R825 in year three. The agreement also says that miners, artisans and officials would receive increases of 5.5% in year one and 5.5% or CPI (whichever is the greater) in years two and three of the wage agreement. Oliphant also congratulated the leadership of the union, led by its President Joseph Mathunjwa and Sibanye leadership team for finally leading the process to a happy conclusion, after exceedingly a long period of time. "This is victory for all involved, the sector, the economy and the country as a whole. This once again is testimony that through social dialogue, all-be-it, it takes time and effort, nothing is impossible. I wish all the parties all the best as they begin to make up the lost production time that our economy so desperately need," the Minister said. The intervention by Oliphant through the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and the high level engagements with the leadership of the union led by Mathunjwa, acted as the building blocks to the outcome announced on Wednesday. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Drew Angerer/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- With the public release of special counsel Robert Muellers highly anticipated and redacted report on Thursday, pundits and politicians were parsing its findings on the question of "obstruction of justice." Obstruction of justice accounts for a federal crime in which someone "corruptly" attempts to influence, obstruct or impede the due and proper administration of the law in a pending proceeding, according to federal code. The presidents critics have pointed to his dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey and subsequent explanations for that decision as evidence that Trump obstructed justice. In his letter to Congress describing the principal conclusions of Muellers report, Attorney General William Barr indicated that while Mueller did find at least some evidence suggesting Trump tried to obstruct the investigation, the evidence did not amount to a criminal offense. Here's what the report suggests about obstruction of justice. Here's the issue: The 11 possible instances of Obstruction of Justice investigated Here's where you can find it in the report: Volume 2, pages 3-6 Here's the summary: These are the 11 potential actions of obstruction of justice investigated by the special counsels office as described in the report. During his news conference Thursday morning before the report' release, Barr mentioned 10 such instances. Each of these examples is extrapolated upon in both the executive summary and in the report. Here's what the report says: 1. The Campaign's response to reports about Russian support for Trump 2. Conduct involving FBI Director Comey and Michael Flynn 3. The President's reaction to the continuing Russia investigation 4. The President's termination of Comey 5. The appointment of a Special Counsel and efforts to remove him 6. Efforts to curtail the Special Counsel's investigation 7. Efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence 8. Further efforts to have the Attorney General take control of the investigation 9. Efforts to have McGahn deny that the President had ordered him to have the Special Counsel removed 10. Conduct towards Flynn, Manafort, [REDACTED HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] 11. Conduct involving Michael Cohen Here's the issue: "Overarching Factual Issues" Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol. 2, pages 156-158 Here's the summary: The report outlines general conclusions concerning the Presidents course of conduct. Here's what the report says: PART 1: The Special Counsel offers three features that render this case atypical from traditional obstruction of justice prosecutions PART 1: The Special Counsel offers three features that render this case atypical from traditional obstruction of justice prosecutions 1) As head of the Executive Branch provides him with unique and powerful means of influence 2) Obstruction cases involve attempted or actual cover up of an underlying crime, proof of such a crime is not an element as obstruction of justice can be motivated by a desire to protect non-criminal personal interests, like avoiding personal embarrassment. PAGE 157 - PARAGRAPH 2: "The evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the President's conduct. These include concerns that continued investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his election and potential uncertainty about whether certain events-such as advance notice of WikiLeaks's release of hacked information or the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians could be seen as criminal activity by the President, his campaign, or his family." 3) Many of the Presidents acts directed at witnesses occurred in public view. PART 2: This second section deals with the Presidents discrete acts. It is important to view the Presidents pattern of conduct as a whole. 1) Investigators found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, however they conclude the Presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. 2) The Presidents actions can be divided into TWO distinct phases reflecting a possible shift in the Presidents motives. The first phase involved the firing of Comey, and the Special Counsels conclusion that "the President deemed it critically important to make public that he was not under investigation." After Comeys firing, the second phase began when the President became aware that investigators were conducting an obstruction of justice inquiry into his own conduct. The President then began launching public attacks on the investigation and individuals involved in it. Here's the issue: The Presidents Efforts to Prevent Disclosure of Emails about the June 9, 2016 Meeting between Russians and Senior Campaign Officials Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol. 2, pages 98 - 107 Here's the summary: This section is divided into four subsections: (1) The President Learns about the Existence of Emails Concerning June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting, (2) President Directs Communications Staff Not to Publicly Disclose Information About the June 9 Meeting, (3) President Directs Trump Jr.s Response to Press Inquiries About the June 9 Meeting, and (4) The Media Reports on the June 9, 2016 Meeting. Muellers team cites at least three occasions between June 29, 2017 and July 9, 2017- when the President directed Hope Hicks and others not to publicly disclose information about the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and a Russian attorney. The OSC concludes that these efforts by the President were directed at the press, adding that these acts would amount to obstructive acts only if the President sought to withhold information or mislead congressional investigations or the SC. On May 17, 2017, the Presidents campaign received a document request from SSCI that clearly covered the June 9 meeting. In the analysis section, the Special Counsel specifically addresses the phrase attributed to Hope Hicks, it will never get outin reference to the emails setting up the June 9 meeting. Hicks said she had no memory of making that comment and always believed the emails would eventually be leaked. The Special Counsel writes that the Hicks statement can be explained as reflecting a belief that the emails would not be made public if the Presidents press strategy were followed, even if the emails were provided to Congress and the Special Counsel. Here's what the report says: The report adds that the only evidence we have of the President discussing the production of documents to Congress or the Special Counsel is the conversation on June 29, 2017, when Hicks recalled the President acknowledging that Kushners attorney should provide emails related to the June 9 meeting to whomever he needed to give them to. We do not have evidence of what the President discussed with his own lawyers at that time. The Special Counsel also addresses intent writing about the Presidents desire to minimize public disclosures about those connections. [campaigns connections to Russia]. The report states the evidence does not establish the President intended to prevent the Special Counsels Office or Congress from obtaining the emails setting up the June 9 meeting or other information about that meeting. Here's the issue: "The President Orders McGahn to Deny that the President Tried to Fire the Special Counsel" Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol. 2, page 113 Here's the summary: SUMMARY: After news broke that Trump ordered McGahn to fire the Special Counsel, Trump pressured McGahn deny that he had been directed to do so, even suggesting to aides that he would fire him unless he complied. Mueller concludes that there is evidence to suggest Trump acted this way to impede his investigation. Here's what the report says: The President then directed [staff secretary Rob] Porter to tell McGahn to create a record to make clear that the President never directed McGahn to fire the Special Counsel. Porter thought the matter should be handled by the White House communications office, but the President said he wanted McGahn to write a letter to the file "for our records" and wanted something beyond a press statement to demonstrate that the reporting was inaccurate. The President referred to McGahn as a "lying bastard" and said that he wanted a record from him. Porter recalled the President saying something to the effect of, "If he doesn't write a letter, then maybe I'll have to get rid of him." Porter told McGahn that he had to write a letter to dispute that he was ever ordered to terminate the Special Counsel. McGahn shrugged off the request, explaining that the media reports were true. McGahn told Porter that the President had been insistent on firing the Special Counsel and that McGahn had planned to resign rather than carry out the order, although he had not personally told the President he intended to quit.804 Porter told McGahn that the President suggested that McGahn would be fired if he did not write the letter. McGahn dismissed the threat, saying that the optics would be terrible if the President followed through with firing him on that basis. McGahn said he would not write the letter the President had requested. But the President's efforts to have McGahn write a letter "for our records" approximately ten days after the stories had come out- well past the typical time to issue a correction for a news story-indicates the President was not focused solely on a press strategy, but instead likely contemplated the ongoing investigation and any proceedings arising from itSubstantial evidence indicates that in repeatedly urging McGahn to dispute that he was ordered to have the Special Counsel terminated, the President acted for the purpose of influencing McGahn's account in order to deflect or prevent further scrutiny of the President's conduct towards the investigation. Here's the issue: The President's conduct involving Michael Cohen Here's where you can find it in the report: Page 134 Here's the summary: The Mueller report states that while working on his statements to Congress, President Donald Trump's then-personal attorney Michael Cohen had "extensive" discussions with the president's personal counsel. The report also states Trump passed messages of support to Cohen and Cohen discussed pardons with the president's legal team. Cohen believed if he cooperated he would get a pardon, according to the report. Here's what the report says: "While working on the congressional statement, Cohen had extensive discussions with the President's personal counsel, who, according to Cohen, said that Cohen should not contradict the President and should keep the statement short and 'tight.' "Cohen also discussed pardons with the President's personal counsel and believed that if he stayed on message, he would get a pardon or the President would do 'something else' to make the investigation end." Here's the issue: The President's conduct involving Michael Cohen Here's where you can find it in the report: Pages 134-144 Here's the summary: Cohen had numerous brief conversations with Trump about the Trump Tower Moscow project from Sept. 2015 onward, as well as conversations with Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. In Dec. 2015, Felix Sater asked Cohen for a copy of his and Trump's passports to facilitate travel to Russia. By Jan 2016, growing frustrated with Sater, Cohen reached out directly to Dmitry Peskov and later had a conversation with Peskov's assistant that he recounted to Trump. The day after Cohen's conversation with Peskov's assistant, Sater texted Cohen saying that the Russian government liked the project and invited Cohen to come visit Moscow. Cohen continued to brief Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on the project through the spring. Cohen and Sater worked to determine a time for a potential visit from then candidate Trump to Russia. The visit never happened. Cohen also decided not to visit. Cohen recounts telling trump that the project was "going nowhere" sometime during the summer of 2016. In January 2017, Cohen received press inquiries about Trump Tower Moscow, and told President-Elect Trump about the inquiries. He was concerned being honest about the project would not be consistent with the president's previous comments about his relationship with Russia. o To stay on message Cohen told a NYT reporter that the Trump Tower Moscow deal ended in January 2016. Cohen said he discussed this talking point with Trump. Cohen entered into a joint defense agreement with the president and others after Congress requested he testify. Cohen assumed he would be asked about allegations in the Steele Dossier. Cohen spoke with the president's personal counsel "frequently" leading up to his congressional testimony. Cohen was told by the president's personal counsel that the joint defense agreement was working well. His bills were being paid by the Trump Org. Cohen said the president's personal counsel told him he was protected by the JDA, and he wouldn't be if he "went rogue" Cohen prepared a draft letter to congress which included several false statements. That letter was circulated around and edited by members of the JDA. The president's personal counsel also told Cohen not to make reference to an attempt to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin during the 2015 United Nations general Assembly. Cohen submitted his statement. He recalled speaking to the president "more generally" about his plans to stay on message during his testimony Here's what the report says: Page 137: "Cohen remembered that Trump said that he would be willing to travel to Russia if Cohen could "lock and load" on the deal. Page 137: "During the summer of 2016, Cohen recalled that candidate Trump publicly claimed that he had nothing to do with Russia and then shortly afterwards privately checked with Cohen about the status of the Trump Tower Moscow project, which Cohen found "interesting." Page 139: "Cohen said that he discussed the talking points with Trump but that he did not explicitly tell Trump he thought they were untrue because Trump already knew they were untrue." Page 140: "At the time, Cohen's legal bills were being paid by the Trump Organization, and Cohen was told not to worry because the investigations would be over by summer of fall of 2017. Cohen said that the President's personal counsel also conveyed that, as part of the JDA, Cohen was protected, which he would not be if he "went rogue". Cohen recalled that the President's personal counsel reminded him that "the President loves you" and told him that if he stayed on message, the President had his back. Page 142: "He was not concerned that the story would be contradicted by individuals who knew it was false because he was sticking to the party line adhered to by the whole group." Page 143: "Cohen recalled that the President's personal counsel said "his client" appreciated Cohen, that Cohen should stay on message and not contradict the President, that there was no need to muddy the water, and that it was time to move on." Here's the issue: The President's conduct involving Michael Cohen Here's where you can find it in the report: Pages 144-152 Here's the summary: The special counsel did not look into payments to women during the campaign period. On Feb. 19, the day after the NY Times wrote a story attributing the payment to Cohen, Cohen got a text from the President's personal counsel that stated "client says thanks for what you do." The president called Cohen a few days after the FBI raid on his home, hotel and office and encouraging him to "hang in there" and "stay strong" On or about April 17, Cohen starts speaking with Robert Costello, who told Cohen he had a "back channel of communication" to Giuliani and that Giuliani said the "channel" was "crucial" and "must be maintained." Costello had conversations with Cohen that made him feel that he would be taken care of as long as he stuck to party lines. After the raids on his home and office, Cohen spoke with the president's personal counsel about pardons. Cohen wanted to know "what was in it for him" and was told if he stayed on message everything would be fine. Beginning in July, Cohen signaled his willingness to flip on the president, first in an ABC News exclusive interview. He pleaded guilty in the SDNY. The president tweeted contrasting Cohen with Manafort The special counsel's office asked Trump about the timing of the Trump Tower Moscow project in written questions. The president "did not provide any information" about the timing of his discussions with Cohen related to the project. After the president made public statements that he "decided not to do the project" (see full public statement by the president below) the special counsel went back to the president to seek information about whether he participated in any discussions about the project being abandoned and about "what period of the campaign" he was involved in during discussions of the project. The president's personal counsel declined to answer and states that "the President has fully answered the question at issue." Here's what the report says: Page 144-145: In January 2018, the media reported that Cohen had arranged a $130,00 payment during the campaign to prevent a woman from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter she had with the President before he ran for office. This office did not investigate Cohen's campaign-period payments to women." Page 146: "Cohen recalled that REDACTED, a friend of the President's, reached out to say that he was with "the Boss" in Mar-a-Lago and the Prsident had said "he loves you" and not to worry. Cohen recalled that REDACTED for the Trump Organization, told him "the boss loves you." And Cohen said that REDACTED, a friend of the President's, told him, "everyone knows the boss has your back." Page 147 "In an email that day to Cohen, Costello wrote that he had spoken with Giuliani. Costello told Cohen the conversation was "Very Very Positive [.] You are 'loved'... they are in our corner... Sleep well tonight [], you have friends in high places." Page 147: "Cohen understood based on his conversations and previous conversations about pardons with the President's personal counsel that as long as he stayed on message, he would be taken care of by the President, either through a pardon or through the investigation being shutdown." Page 150: "I had few conversations with Mr. Cohen on this subject. As I recall, they were brief, and they were not memorable. i was not enthused about the proposal, and I do not recall any discussion of travel to Russia in connection with it. I do not remember discussing it with anyone else at the Trump organization, although it is possible." Here's the issue: President again seeks to have Sessions reverse his recusal Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol.2, page 107 Here's the summary: President Trump wants to explore options to who at the Department of Justice can lead the investigation. In an effort to remove Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein / the President asked then staff secretary Rob Porter about the number three in line - Deputy AG Rachel Brand. President Trump asked Porter if she was "good, tough, and 'on the team." Here's what the report says: "After returning Sessions's resignation letter at the end of May 2017, but before the President[s July 19, 2017 New York Times interview in which he publicly criticized Sessions for recusing from the Russia investigation, the President took additional steps to have Sessions reverse his recusal. In particular, Session recalled, the President called him at home and asked if Session could "unrecuse" himself. According to Sessions, the President asked him to reverse his recusal so that Sessions could direct the Department of Justice to inverstigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton, and the "gist" of the conversation was that the President wanted Sessions to unrecuse from "all of it," including the Special Counsel's Russia investigation. Sessions listened but did not respond, and he did not reverse his recusal or order an investigation of Clinton." Here's the issue: The Presidents Further Efforts to Have the AG Jeff Sessions Take Over the Investigation Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol. 2, pages 111-112 Here's the summary: Mueller appears to conclude that President Trumps actions with regard to Jeff Sessions could constitute as obstruction Here's what the report says: On multiple occasions in 2017, the President spoke with Sessions about reversing his recusal so that he could take over the Russia investigation and begin an investigation of Hillary ClintonThere is evidence that at least one purpose of the Presidents conduct toward Sessions was to have Sessions assume control over the Russia investigation and supervise it in a way that could restrict its scopeA reasonable inference from those statements and the Presidents action is that an unrecused Attorney General would play a protective role and could shield the President from the ongoing Russia investigation. Here's the issue: The campaign's response to reports about Russian support for Trump Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol. 2. pages 15- 23 Here's the summary: Trump publicly expressed skepticism that Russia had hacked the Democratic National Committee emails at the same time as he and other campaign advisers privately sought information about any further planned WikiLeaks releases (PAGE 15) Inside the Trump campaign, aides "reacted with enthusiasm to reports of the hacks". Some witnesses said Trump discussed the possibility of upcoming releases. The following section is heavily redacted, but what's available tells us that Manafort spoke to Trump shortly after the WikiLeaks July 22, 2016 release and that Trump told Rick Gates that more releases of damaging information were coming. (PAGE 17-18) After the July 22, 2016 release the campaign publicly rejected assertions that Russia was trying to aid candidate Trump. Trump publicly denied any ties to Russia even though he had been pursuing the Trump Tower Moscow project from Sept 2015 to June 2016. (PAGE 18) After Trump denied business dealings in Russia, Cohen approached him about his assertions being untrue. "Why mention it if it is not a deal?" Trump responded. After that his advisers established the position that Trump had no business connections to Russia. (PAGE 19) The Trump campaign actively sought to distance itself from Russia: J.D. Gordon declined an invitation to Sergey Kislyaks residence, Manafort was asked to resign after coverage of his lobbying work in Ukraine, and Page was terminated after stories were published connecting him to Russia. (PAGE 20) After the election, Trump and his staff continued to deny any connection to Russia. Hope Hicks and Reince Priebus make public statements denying Russian ties. The Steele Dossier is released shortly after and President-elect Trump calls it an "absolute disgrace" (PAGE 21-23) Top aides said that the president viewed stories about the Russia connection as a "threat to the legitimacy of his electoral victory" Hope Hicks said that president viewed the intelligence community assessment as his "Achilles hill" because even if Russia didn't impact the election, it impacted public opinion. (PAGE 23) Here's what the report says: Page 17 "Within the Trump Campaign, aides reacted with enthusiasm to reports of the hacks. REDACTED discussed with Campaign officials that WikiLeaks would release the hacked material. Some witnesses said that Trump himself discussed the possibility of upcoming releases. " Page 19-20: "Trump told Cohen that trump Tower Moscow as not a deal yet and said, "Why mention it if it is not a deal?" According to Cohen, at around this time, in response to trump's disavowal of connections to Russia, campaign advisors had developed a "party line" that Trump had no business with Russia and no connections to Russia." Page 23: "Hicks, for example, said the President_Elect viewed the intelligence community assessment as his "Achilles heel" because, even if Russia had no impact on the election, people would think Russia helped him win, taking away from what he had accomplished. Sean Spicer, the first White House communications director, recalled that the President thought the Russia story was developed to undermine the legitimacy of his election. Gates said the President viewed the Russia investigation as an attack on the legitimacy of his win. And Priebus recalled that when the intelligence asssment came out, the President-Elect was concerned people would question the legitimacy of his win.:" Here's the issue: Obstruction Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol.2, pages 90-93 Here's the summary: 2nd time Trump tried to affect Special Counsel investigation -- Trump dictated message to former campaign manager Corey Lewanandowski to give to AG Sessions to limit the scope of the SC investigation to election interference only. Here's what the report says: Two days after Trump directed Don McGhan to remove Special Counsel, Trump on June 19, 2017 met one-one-one w/ Corey Lewandowski in the Oval Office to dictate a message to Sessions that would have limited the scope of the investigation to ELECTION INTERFERENCE ONLY Trump met one-one-one w/ Corey Lewandowski in the Oval Office and dictated a message to be delivered to attorney general Sessions that would have had the effect of limiting the Russia investigation to election interference only. President dictated this note for Lewandowski to deliver to Sessions: The president directed that Sessions should give a speech publicly announcing: I know that I recused myself from certain things having to do with specific areas. But our POTUS Is being treated very unfairly. He shouldnt have a special prosecutor/Counsel b/c he hasnt done anything wrong I was on the campaign w/ him for nine months, there were no Russians involved with him. I know it for a fact b/c I was there. He didnt do anything wrong except he ran the greatest campaign in an American history. The dictated message went on to state that Sessions would meet with the Special Counsel to limit his jurisdiction to future election interference: DICTATION OF PRESIDENT TRUMP PER THE REPORT VIA LEWANDOWSKI : "Now a group of people want to subvert the Constitution of the United States. I am going to meet with the Special Prosecutor to explain this is very unfair and let the Special Prosecutor move forward with investigating election meddling for future elections so that nothing can happen in future elections. Lewandowski wanted to pass the message to Sessions in person rather than over the phone. He did not want to meet at the department of justice because he did not want to public log of his visit and did not want Sessions to have an advantage over him by meeting about Lewandowski described as Sessions turf. BUT -- Lewandowski left DC w/o being able to meet Sessions. He later decided Rick Dearborn should deliver message. The message raised an eyebrow w/ Dearborn & he didnt deliver the message, though he told Lewandowski he did. Lewandowski met again in Oval alone w/ POTUS. POTUS asked if message had been delivered to Trump. Lewandowki said it would be delivered soon. THEN: Lewandowski recalled the president told him that if Sessions did not meet with him, he should tell Sessions he was fired. Here's the issue: The President's Conduct Towards Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol. 2, pages 120-121 and 131-132 Here's the summary: The report raises red flags about President Trumps actions (principally through his attorneys) toward his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, but ultimately said they could not make a full assessment because of attorney client privilege / as part of the then joint defense agreement. Basically, they do not know whether Trump was aware of his counsels actions. Here's what the report says: Page 131 - With regard to Flynn, the President sent private and public messages to Flynn encouraging him to stay strong and conveying that the President still cared about him before he began to cooperate with the government. When Flynn's attorneys withdrew him from a joint defense agreement with the President, signaling that Flynn was potentially cooperating with the government, the President's personal counsel initially reminded Flynn's counsel of the President's warm feelings towards Flynn and said "that still remains." But when Flynn's counsel reiterated that Flynn could no longer share information under a joint defense agreement, the President's personal counsel stated that the decision would be interpreted as reflecting Flynn's hostility towards the President. That sequence of events could have had the potential to affect Flynn's decision to cooperate, as well as the extent of that cooperation. Because of [attorney client] privilege issues, however, we could not determine whether the President was personally involved in or knew about the specific message his counsel delivered to Flynn's counsel. Evidence concerning the President's intent related to Flynn as a potential witness is inconclusive. As previously noted, because of privilege issues we do not have evidence establishing whether the President knew about or was involved in his counsel's communications with Flynn's counsel stating that Flynn's decision to withdraw from the joint defense agreement and cooperate with the government would be viewed as reflecting "hostility" towards the President. Voicemail from President's personal counsel to Flynns counsel, framing the situation as a national security issue. QUOTE: Flynn's counsel told the President's personal counsel and counsel for the White House that Flynn could no longer have confidential communications with the White House or the President. Later that night, the President's personal counsel left a voicemail for Flynn's counsel that said: I understand your situation, but let me see if I can't state it in starker terms. . . . [T]t wouldn't surprise me if you've gone on to make a deal with ... the government. ... [I]f ... there's information that implicates the President, then we've got a national security issue, . . . so, you know, . . . we need some kind of heads up. Um, just for the sake of protecting all our interests if we can . ... [R]emember what we' ve always said about the ' President and his feelings toward Flynn and, that still remains .. .. Here's the issue: The President's Conduct Towards Former Campaign Chairman Manafort Here's where you can find it in the report: Vol. 2, pages 120-132 Here's the summary: Following their felony indictments in October 2017, Manafort told Gates he was given assurances by Trumps personal counsel. The report highlights public statements by Trump that could be interpreted as dangling a pardon for Manafort. Here's what the report says: In January 2018, Manafort told Gates that he had talked to the President's personal counsel and they were "going to take care of us." Manafort told Gates it was stupid to plead, saying that he had been in touch with the President's personal counsel and repeating that they should "sit tight" and "we'll be taken care of." Gates asked Manafort outright if anyone mentioned pardons and Manafort said no one used that word. MUELLERS ANALYSIS: With respect to Manafort, there is evidence that the President's actions had the potential to influence Manafort's decision whether to cooperate with the government. The President and his personal counsel made repeated statements suggesting that a pardon was a possibility for Mana fort, while also making it clear that the President did not want Manafort to "flip" and cooperate with the government Evidence concerning the President's conduct towards Manafort indicates that the President intended to encourage Manafort to not cooperate with the government. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Moments after Attorney General William Barr concluded a news conference Thursday morning laying out his interpretation of special counsel Robert Mueller's report ahead of its expected release to Congress and the public, President Donald Trump took to Twitter with a Game of Thrones reference to declare: "Game Over." A White House official said the president watched the attorney general's news conference from the White House residence. Not long after, at a event honoring Wounded Warriors at the White House, Trump said "I'm having a good day, too. It was called no collusion no obstruction. "There never was by the way and there never will be," he continued. The president went on to reiterate his call for an investigation into the origins of the probe, which he maintains was started unethically. "We do have to get to the bottom of these things," he told the audience gathered in the East Room. "This should never happen to another president again, this hoax." Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president and one of his fiercest defenders, claimed that Thursday "really is the best day" since Trump was elected. "I call this a political proctology exam," Conway said. "And we emerged with a clean bill of health." "The Department of Justice made very clear that every request that was issued was responded to and fulfilled," Conway said. "That should make people feel good about democracy and it should make them feel really great that a campaign that I managed to a successful end did not collude with any Russians. Were accepting apologies today, too, for anybody who feels the grace in offering them." Conway said that she spent much of the day with the president and said he is "in a great mood." Conway said Trump spoke with his lawyers, watched the press conference, and met with wounded vets at the White House this morning. Conway did not directly answer whether she thinks special counsel Mueller should testify before Congress but she noted that the attorney general said: "Sure. You want to call Mr. Mueller to testify, call him to testify." The president is not expected to hold a formal press conference Thursday but is expected to make remarks to reporters as he departs the White House on his way to his Florida estate for the Easter weekend later Thursday. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Yaounde "Cameroon will ratify the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement," the country's Prime Minister - Joseph Dion Ngute assured UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Commission - Ms. Vera Songwe, Wednesday. Mr. Dion Ngute gave the assurance on the first day of Ms. Songwe's official visit to Cameroon, at the 'Star Building' that hosts the Office of the Prime Minister in Yaounde, during a charged audience. Ms. Songwe's maiden visit to Cameroon is intended to improve cooperation ties with the country on development issues with focus on macroeconomic policies for poverty reduction, job creation and economic diversification, the African Continental Free Trade Area and programs of the African Union's Agenda 2063. "The African Continental Free Trade Area is more than just a trade agreement - it is a recipe for engendering domestic growth," Ms. Songwe iterated to Cameroon's Head of Government. ECA's Executive Secretary catalogued further advantages of ratifying the continental common market agreement, saying it would be a lever of investments, job creation and tax revenue. "The big party for ratification of the AfCFTA will be in July so we keep our fingers crossed that Cameroon becomes one of the founding members by then," she went on. "We stand to gain from the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement," Prime Minister Ngute concurred, while clarifying that his Government was getting all stakeholders to appropriate the agreement, and adapt Cameroon's national laws and other legal instruments on trade with the spirit of the AfCFTA. This process, he said, would be completed before Cameroon's two houses of parliament meet in session in June, just in time to conclude the process ahead of the July African Union meetings. Both personalities also explored the role of the digital economy in driving economic growth, job creation and in serving as anchorage for the continental common market itself. Ms. Songwe argued that Cameroon was a gifted country but needed to further develop the right telecommunications infrastructure on which the digital economy would thrive. The country could become a hub for world-class digital service provision given its important English-French bilingualism, which other countries on the continent do not have. "The digital economy is very important for us and we are hoping with can leapfrog from 3G to 5G" in good time, Prime Minister Dion Ngute posited, in response. After Ms. Songwe made the case for economic diversification and industrialization, the Prime Minister was quick to point out that "industrialization is the hallmark of my leadership in the Government." He said Cameroon was going to overhaul its industrialization masterplan in order to reduce imports while increasing exports. "We have the capacity and will put some energy into that," he concluded. His guest from ECA followed up on the question of the importance of beefing up the provision of energy to leverage industrialization. Ms. Songwe also underlined the importance for Cameroon to get aboard the digital identification revolution, taking place elsewhere in Africa, in other to give its less advantaged citizens opportunities to access especially formal education that holds the key to poverty reduction. The Resident Coordinator of the UN system in Cameroon, Ms. Allegra Baiocchi, who accompanied the head of ECA to the audience with the Prime Minister said the UN Country Team in Cameroon would pick up on the digital ID campaign and work with government to bring it to fruition in the country. She said the UN was actively supporting the Cameroon in pursuing the attainment of the SDGs and that creating jobs to stimulate growth was of prime importance. The first day of Ms. Songwe's visit to Cameroon also featured meetings with the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations in Charge of Relations with the Islamic World - Mr. Adoum Gargoum and the Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Finance - Mr. Yaouba Abdoulaye. They discussed governance, the linkage between peace, security and development, improving the climate for doing business as well regional integration, with particular focus again on the AfCFTA. Before returning to ECA's headquarters at Addis Ababa, the visiting Executive Secretary would have met with Cameroon's members of Government, civil society leaders and members of the private sector. -ENDS- Media Contacts FOR ECA Abel Akara Ticha - Communication Officer UN Economic Commission for Africa No 637 Rue 3.069, Quartier du Lac, Yaounde Tel: 237 222504348 Email: akara@un.org FOR THE REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON Christiana Namondo Monoke Service Head, Communication and Press Relations Ministry of External Relations 703 Rue 1025 Hippodrome, Yaounde Tel: +237 677682381 Email: iyahna2000@yahoo.co.uk Al Jazeera has reported that Sudan's military rulers arrested two brothers of deposed President Omar al-Bashir as hundreds of people marched in the capital, Khartoum, calling for a swift handover of power to civilian leadership. Abdullah and Abbas Hassan al-Bashir were taken into custody as part of a continuing campaign of arrests against "symbols and leaders of the previous regime". Media reports on April 17, 2019, indicated that Al-Bashir was being held in Kobar prison, in Khartoum. Protesters who are demanding civilian leadership, instead of the transitional military council, are however skeptical about the arrest. The transitional military council has said they would not hand Al-Bashir over to face justice at the ICC but could try him at home or a forthcoming civilian government could do so. Human Right Watch wants the transitional military council to uphold their commitments to human rights and justice for past crimes by transferring Al-Bashir and other Sudanese fugitives to the International Criminal Court. The African Union had earlier threatened to suspend the country's membership if they do not return to civilian rule within two weeks. The European Union echoed that it refused to recognize Sudan's military council and called for a return to civilian rule. Sudan's protests started in December over fuel and food shortages then quickly escalated to massive street protests that have brought to an end Al-Bashir's thirty-year rule. press release Corporate Council on Africa's (CCA) President and CEO, Ms. Florizelle Liser met with key stakeholders in the public and private sector during her recent visit to Kenya and Nigeria. This was part of the ongoing effort to promote the upcoming U.S.-Africa Business Summit from June 18 21, 2019 in Maputo, Mozambique and advance trade, investment and business engagement between the United States and Kenya. H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya is confirmed to attend the Summit. CCA, a Washington D.C. based organization, is the leading U.S. business association focused solely on connecting business interests between the United States and Africa. Ms. Liser kicked off her round of meetings in Kenya with Ms. Carol Karuiki, CEO of Kenya Private Sector Alliance to discuss areas of mutual interest where both organizations could work together. The CCA president then met with Mr. Kiprono Kittony, National Chairman of the Kenya Chamber of Commerce and Industry to finalize an MOU discussion they had started in 2018. The signing of the MOU will take place on the sidelines of CCA's Flagship U.S.-Africa Business Summit taking place June 18-21 in Maputo, Mozambique. Ms. Liser also met with Dr. Amit Thakker, Chairman of Africa Healthcare Federation to discuss areas CCA and AHF could collaborate on in the health sector and to promote more investments in the health sector. The CCA president invited all business associations and their respective members to Summit. She explained that CCA's working relationship with the Government of Mozambique around this period is also a sign of the commitment of CCA objective on US- Africa relations. Ms. Liser and Ms. Sonia Mfasoni, East Africa Director, CCA met with several Kenya-based CCA members, General Electric, Kountable, KCB to discuss their current business objectives and expansion efforts across Africa. Ms. Liser also hosted a private CCA Member Dinner to recognize current members, existing partners and potential members in Kenya. Guests of honor of the dinner included Ambassador Kyle McCarter, US Embassy Nairobi and Ms. Betty Maina, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives. Other honored guests included Joyce-Ann Wainaina, CEO, Kenya and East Africa, Citi Bank; Philippe Dongier, Managing Director, Government Affairs & Policy, GE Africa; Vincent Aberi, Head of Diaspora Banking, KCB Group Limited; Bramuel Mwalo, Director, SSA, Kountable; Nora Petty, MITG Lead, SSA, Medtronic; Anthony Nganga, Brand and Commercial Director, P&G; Mary Kamari, Executive, Corporate Affairs & Investor Relations, Trade and Development Bank (TDB); Edwin Temu, Director, Visa, Inc.; John Lentaigne, Chief Underwriting Officer, Africa Trade Insurance Agency; Munene Mathenge, General Manager, DLR Group; Dan Awendo, Managing Director; Home Afrika; Florence Sugut, Managing Director, ikapamedia East Africa; Amrote Abdalla, Regional Director for Africa, Microsoft and other business and government leaders. Since its inception in 1997, the U.S.-Africa Business Summit has been considered an essential conference for U.S. and African private sector executives, government officials and multilateral stakeholders interested in doing business in Africa. Learn more and Register HERE ABOUT CORPORATE COUNCIL ON AFRICA Corporate Council on Africa is the leading U.S. business association focused solely on connecting business interests between the United States and Africa. CCA uniquely represents a broad cross section of member companies from small and medium size businesses to multinationals as well as U.S. and African firms. Learn more at www.corporatecouncilonafrica.com Media Contact: Olaotan Awoyomi oawoyomi@corporatecouncilonafrica.com AllAfrica publishes around 700 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us. A French citizen with an extensive criminal history who has lived in Australia for more than 40 years has had his visa revoked and will be deported to France after his appeal to the federal court was dismissed. Gilles Roger Pallas came to Australia aged 11 with his parents in 1973 under a permanent entry visa. The French citizen had never applied for Australian citizenship despite living in the country for almost all his life. Louie Douvis The federal court in Brisbane heard that, while he lived in Australia on a later Class BF transitional permanent visa, Pallas didnt obtain Australian citizenship. As an adult he racked up years of jail time for drug, wounding and receiving tainted property charges. Between 1981 and 2017 he was imprisoned on five occasions, the last in Queensland, and is now in immigration detention in Western Australia. In 1999, Pallas put a gun to a police officers head and tried to drown the officer. That year he was imprisoned until July 2012. In early 2017, while Pallas was in prison in Queensland, the then-department of Immigration and Border Protection notified Pallas that his visa was being cancelled because of his criminal record. Pallas appealed to the department for a review, arguing he didnt know anything about his birth country, and had lived almost his entire life in Australia. [I] feel it would be wrong to be sent away from my family, and to be made to live alone in a foreign country, he said. This country is all I have known as a home, and although I have struggled with the law at times, I feel I am at the age now where my responsibility to my family comes first, and I intend to do only the right thing by them, myself, and the community in the future. Pallas said he was close to his extensive family in Australia, including six children, three grandchildren, five stepchildren, his parents and two brothers. He asked the Home Affairs Minister to show leniency to his case, as being deported would mean he would never see his parents again, not even for their funerals, and place his family under significant hardship. We all have a close family unit and have had for 40 years, and to split this family now would be so sad and final as I would never get to see them again, Pallas wrote. He also argued he had recently started a business to support his family and was seeking to live a quiet life in the community and be a good father figure to his minor stepchildren. The Home Affairs Minister decided to uphold the original decision, saying he was not satisfied Mr Pallas passes the character test, despite the impacts on Pallas family, the longevity of his time in Australia, and his positive contributions to the community. Pallas appealed against the decision in the federal court, but Justice Berna Collier dismissed his appeal on April 16. Justice Collier said she considered the nature of his offending very serious, including the 1999 incident in which he pointed a pistol at a police officer. While struggling, the officer was shot in the leg and Pallas forced his head underwater, attacked him with a piece of wood or rock, and left him injured in the creek. In other instances, Pallas was sentenced for receiving tainted property, unlawful possession of weapons, and possessing explosives. Mr Pallas has received many sentences of imprisonment, with a number of them being for 12 months or more, up to a maximum of 13 years, Justice Collier said. While in immigration detention, Pallas case was delayed after he asked for an extension due to being beaten in the Christmas Island Detention Centre in May 2018 and was flown to Perth for treatment. He was later transferred to the Perth Immigration Detention Centre. A final attempt to receive pro bono legal assistance with his appeal was unsuccessful and Justice Collier gave orders to dismiss his application. In reaching my decision I concluded that Mr Pallas represents an unacceptable risk of harm to the Australian community and that the protection of the Australian community outweighed the best interests of his son, minor stepsons and grandchildren, Justice Collier concluded. I am satisfied that the Minister had due regard to the interests of Mr Pallas minor children and other family members and to the extent required, there was no absence of procedural fairness in the reasoning process of the Minister. According to the Prosecutor's Office, during his tenure as Minister part of former President Alejandro Toledo's administration (2001-2006), he had approved regulations to favor the Brazilian corporation Likewise, Kuczynski is accused of money laundering offenses , acting within the framework of a criminal organization, due to the events that took place when he was Economy-Finance Minister and Prime Minister between 2002 and 2006. YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. North Korea says it has test-fired a new "tactical guided weapon" with a "powerful warhead", state media reported. The test is the first since the US-North Korea summit ended without agreement. Last week North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said US President Donald Trump needed the right attitude for the talks to continue. According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the test was overseen by Kim himself. KCNA reported that the test was "conducted in various modes of firing at different targets", which analysts believe mean the weapon could be launched from land, sea or air. Kim said the development was "of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army". Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The bill on changing the structure of the Cabinet of Armenia has been adopted by first hearing with 71 lawmakers voting in favor and 40 lawmakers voting it down today at the 132-seat parliament. We seek to achieve more results with fewer resources through optimization, said Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan. Zeynalyan also addressed the campaigning suggestions of incumbent PM Nikol Pashinyan who was in favor of transforming the National Security Service and the National Police Force into ministries, something the governmental structural changes do not envisage now. We, lawyers and human rights activistst, know that the right of freedom of opinion includes also the right of freely changing an opinion. A new opinion can be developed because of changes in circumstances. With this we are stating our democracy and readiness to be guided by collegial management, Zeynalyan said. The two opposition factions Lusavor Hayastan (Luminous Armenia) and Bargavatch Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia), voted down the bill, but it still passed by exceeding the required 53 votes. The bill envisages the Cabinet being comprised of the following ministries: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Defense Ministry of Emergency Situations Ministry of Justice Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Ministry of Nature Protection Ministry of Healthcare Ministry of Finance Ministry of Economy Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Ministry of High Tech Industry Instead of the Diaspora Ministry there will be High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs within the PMs office. Below is a list of the current composition of the Cabinet: Ministry of Agriculture Ministry of Culture Ministry of Defense Ministry of Diaspora Ministry of Economic Development and Investments Ministry of Education and Science Ministry of Emergency Situations Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources Ministry of Finance Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Health Ministry of Justice Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Ministry of Nature Protection Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, who is in Paris on a working visit, on April 17 visited the French Institute of International Relations (Institut francais des relations) where a discussion titled Armenias foreign policy after the velvet revolution was held with the French leading experts with the rules of the Chatham House, the Armenian MFA told Armenpress. In his remarks the foreign minister introduced Armenias foreign policy priorities, as well as the ongoing reforms of the government which received a broad mandate by the people. The velvet revolution of Armenia was exclusively a domestic process. I am confident you remember the flow of the people in the streets of Armenia who were demanding change and also the Armenian flag on their hands: there wasnt any other flag. The velvet revolution of Armenia had no geopolitical subtext. It relates to us, our country and our people, the Armenian FM said. The minister noted that Armenias foreign policy is based on the deep understanding of security which is linked with several factors: those are the historical context, the regional policy and the current global challenges. According to the FM, in the past 27 years Armenia has built its securitys architecture which is based on the principle of comprehensive and cooperative security. This principle includes the military-political security, as well as the security of Armenias state and public structures, economic and social development. In order to ensure comprehensive security Armenia cooperates with its allies and international partners, by always having the point that its foreign policy is exclusively pro-Armenian, and Armenia is not building relations with any country at the expense of another. During the Q&A session minister Mnatsakanyan also introduced Armenias stance on a number of urgent regional and international issues. Touching upon Armenias foreign policy priorities, the FM reaffirmed the countrys approaches and principled position on the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, stating that the settlement of the conflict must be based on respecting the Artsakh peoples inalienable right to live free and safe. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Members of the U.S. Congress on April 17 visited the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on April 17. The Congressmen were accompanied by members of the Armenia-U.S. parliamentary friendship group, MPs Gayane Abrahamyan and Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, the Armenian Parliament told Armenpress. The Congressmen laid flowers at the Eternal Flame and paid tribute to the memory of the Genocide victims with a moment of silence. They also visited the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, got acquainted with the exhibits and left a note in the Honorary Guest Book. The Museum-Institutes leadership handed over English-language books about the Armenian Genocide to the Congressmen. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. A group of gunmen stopped a bus on a highway in southwestern Pakistan before forcing passengers off and executing 14 of them, RT reported citing local officials. The assailants appear to have selectively targeted their victims since there were nearly three dozen people on the bust. The gunmen initially demanded the passengers to hand over ID cards. It is still unclear if a specific ethnic or religious group was sought out. The attackers were wearing uniforms of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, the provincial home secretary, Haider Ali, told AFP. The Frontier Corps is a provincial auxiliary force of the Pakistani government that maintains security on the borders with Iran and Afghanistan. Authorities have launched a manhunt to identify and apprehend the gunmen. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. A military serviceman has sustained a gunshot wound in Yerevan, Investigative Committee spokesperson Naira Harutyunyan told ARMENPRESS. She said the circumstances surrounding the incident are being clarified. According to Harutyunyan, the victim is a 24-year-old contractual serviceman of the Armenian military. Investigators are currently in hospital, they are working and additional information will be provided, she said, adding that soon the investigation will determine where exactly the incident took place. It wasnt immediately clear whether the serviceman was on-duty or not at the time of the shooting. Defense Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan told ARMENPRESS the serviceman is currently undergoing surgery at the Mikayelyan Surgical Institute of Yerevan. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS. The exporting process and all procedures into EU countries will be facilitated for Armenian businessmen as the European Union will create a single platform. Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments Avag Avanesyan told ARMENPRESS in an interview that an agreement was reached on the matter at the April 9-11 Economic Development and Market Opportunities platform session of the Eastern Partnership multilateral cooperation in Brussels. The Government of Armenia and the EU have active cooperation. We can say this was a summarizing conference where various issues were discussed, mostly economic issues, ranging from improvement of trade ties up to assistance to SMEs. In trading issues we mostly discussed how to create opportunities for Armenian businessmen to be better informed on required procedures for exports to EU, market regulations and opportunities. From this perspective the EU has initiated to create a single platform where all these procedures will be presented, Avanesyan said. What does this single platform imply and what opportunities will it give to Armenian businesses? I believe this is a rather significant information distribution tool. For example, if an Armenian business is willing to export apple to France, where must they obtain all required documents from, in what time, what standards must it comply with? It implies that all information will be collected in a single place, and it will gradually be presented to businessmen in a simplified way. This is the first step for an exporter, explaining the entire process will be very difficult. There are also private standards in addition to governmental standards. We are also trying to work in this direction. But the main primary information for exporters will be available. In addition to the single platform, Avanesyan says theyve discussed other ways to promote commercial ties, such as the possibility of enabling Armenia to benefit from the financial assistance tools for boosting exports, which is currently only available for countries that have an Enhanced and Comprehensive Free Trade Zone agreement with the EU. Weve raised the issue whether or not it is possible for a country which doesnt have the agreement to have the chance to benefit from this tool. The EU accepted this rather positively. And we already began work in this direction. Weve discussed how our businesses can meet technical requirements. For this, the infrastructures must be improved in Armenia, so that our producers can show that their production meets the market standards, he said. Avanesyan said a preliminary agreement has been reached on exchange of experience over business community support between Eastern Partnership countries. Our SME support organizations will work together and carry out exchange of experience. For example, the Swedish model has rather interested Armenia, he said. Interview by Anna Grigoryan Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Soldier of Armenias defense ministry Narek Safaryan, who received a gunshot wound, has died in hospital on April 18, at 11:35, the Investigative Committee told Armenpress. The contractual soldier has been admitted to hospital earlier today. Criminal case has been filed over the incident. Investigation continues to clarify all the details of the incident. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The office of former MP and former Director of the Compulsory Enforcement Service Mihran Poghosyan claims the latters home and former office has been raided by National Security Service agents in Armenia. The NSS hasnt yet confirmed the report. Poghosyan is charged with embezzlement and abuse of power and is wanted by Armenian authorities. He denies wrongdoing. In a news release issued earlier through his office he claimed to be currently residing in Russia. Poghosyan resigned as Director of the Compulsory Enforcement Service, a governmental agency taksed with executing judicial orders, in 2016 when his name was linked with the Panama Papers scandal. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenia doesnt and cannot collect debts on gas price, acting minister of energy infrastructures and natural resources Garegin Baghramyan told reporters in the Parliament on April 18. The discussions on the gas tariff are in process. There are some proposals, and we should discuss them with the Russian Gazprom. But I cannot tell the exact dates when this discussion will be held. As long as the tariffs for consumers do not increase, that difference is paid by the company. I wish that all the doubts, according to which debts are being collected, would eliminate. No debt is collected and can be collected by the state on the gas price, he said. Garegin Baghramyan added that recently an agreement was reached during the session of the Armenian-Russian inter-governmental commission in Moscow according to which a draft defining mechanisms for gas price on the border should be submitted before July 1. This agreement will be beneficial for us in a sense that we will have certain predictability for the five-year period, he added. Gazprom CJSC increased the gas price supplied to Armenia from 150 USD to 165 USD starting from January 1, 2019. Following this Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the gas tariff for the domestic consumer will not increase, noting that the Armenian government will continue the talks with the Gazprom Armenia CJSC to reach a final agreement. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government has provided 124 million drams from the reserve fund for the holding of events on the occasion of the Day of the Citizen, reports Armenpress. The funds will be used for properly holding events on this day in Yerevan and all provinces of Armenia. The Citizens Day in Armenia will be celebrated on the last Saturday of April. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan today spoke about the situation around waste management in the capital city. Marutyan told government officials at a Cabinet meeting that initially the waste management operator, Sanitek, was carrying out normal work in the initial period, however the companys incorrect work led to the existing situation. Marutyan side Sanitek has been fined nearly 13,000,000 drams. Prime Miniter Nikol Pashinyan weighed in, noting that there are numerous complaints over waste management in Yeevan. Is the situation critical he asked. Its not critical, 2012 in Naples was critical, I have made photos there, I will send you the photos after the session, youll see whats critical, we hope we wont reach critical, Marutyan responded, referring to the 2012 Naples waste management crisis. Pashinyan said the Government must in all ways support the Yerevan City Hall in order for Sanitek to work duly. You said youve fined Sanitek with 13 million drams, but this wont Improve the situation, on the contrary it will make it worse because next time they will say you fined us 13 million, and we dont have money to renovate our vehicles, the PM said. According to the PM the problem emerged when factually there was only one operator. Because if we had a second operator there would be a different competitive situation, he said. Mayor Marutyan said they studied international practice and today all European companies are returning to the model when the community and government are assuming management of transportation and waste management on themselves. Take all necessary measures in order for the problem not to get worse, Pashinyan told Marutyan. Pashinyan also called on private companies who are willing to support to contact the City Hall. Since a procurement process would take a lot of time, the government approved the Yerevan City Halls proposal to buy 15 new garbage trucks without tender. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Russian government has banned the export of oil and petroleum products to Ukraine, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said during todays Cabinet meeting, speaking about the Ukrainian restrictions against Russia, TASS reports. [The Russian government] bans exports of Russian oil and petroleum products to Ukraine, the head of the cabinet said. Medvedev has also declared extension of the ban on imports of certain Ukrainian goods. We are forced to protect our interests and strike back, he said. I have signed a government decree on that. We are expanding the ban on imports of certain types of goods to Russia, which will be applied to Ukrainian engineering products, consumer goods, metal products, the cost of which totaled almost $250 mln last year, he said. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenia has recorded an unprecedented progress in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, improving positions by 19 points and capturing the 61st place in the ranking, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said on Facebook, reports Armenpress. The ranking is prepared by the Reporters Without Border leading international organization. In fact, this is the international recording of my claim that media has never been more free in Armenia than today. Of course, we will consider the issues, concerns and recommendations voiced by the organization, and there is no doubt that Armenia will continue its progress both in press freedom and other fields, the PM said. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian met with chair of the parliamentary standing committee on protection of human rights and public affairs Naira Zohrabyan, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. During the meeting issues relating to human rights and freedoms were discussed. In particular, Mrs. Zohrabyan introduced the President on some problems connected with granting citizenship of Armenia which are faced by Armenians who apply for citizenship. The sides also touched upon a number of issues relating to the culture sector during the meeting. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Anna Naghdalyan, spokeswoman of Armenias foreign ministry, commented on the statements made by Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov after the recent meeting with the Armenian foreign minister in Moscow. ARMENPRESS presents the comment of the MFA spokesperson. Question: Talking about the meeting held in Moscow on April 15, the Azerbaijani FM stated that a discussion was held based on the program presented by Russia in 2016. What program the talk is about? Answer: First of all, I would to state that a joint statement of the parties participating to the meeting has been released based on the meeting results which mentions the topics discussed. Joint statements are made for this purpose so that the agreed upon formulations between all participants of the meeting are summed up there. Beyond the agreed upon formulations, the statements contradicting them do not contribute to strengthening the mutual trust, especially if they are fictitious and have nothing to do with the reality. Currently no talks are being held based on any program. Moreover, the content part of the discussions continues within the domain of getting acquainted with and clarifying each others positions. Question: The Azerbaijani FM announced the proposal of the American side to hold meeting in Washington D.C. in the future. Do you confirm this information? Answer: As you know, after the approval of each meeting on the NK conflict, a respective statement is being made in an agreed upon manner. Indeed, the possibility of holding the future meeting in one of the co-chair countries is being considered, taking into account the geography of such previous meetings. As this issue is still at the discussion stage, we must refrain from one-sided announcements and the manner of public negotiations. Moreover, making an announcement in advance on the future meeting in one of the co-chair countries is disrespectful to the participants of the process, but first of all to that co-chair. Striving to become the announcer of the agreements, which have not been made yet, doesnt contribute to forming a normal working atmosphere based on mutual trust. On 15 April, the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia Sergey Lavrov, Elmar Mammadyarov, and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan held a working meeting in Moscow at the initiative of the Russian side. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Andrew Schofer of the United States of America, and Stephane Visconti of France), as well as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, joined the meeting. A joint statement was adopted following the meeting. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Foreign minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan gave an interview to the Le Figaro French daily morning newspaper during his working visit in Paris. ARMENPRESS presents the full interview: -What is the main purpose of your visit to Paris? -We have unique, as it is called to say, brotherly relations with France. The agenda of our relations covers a wide range of issues relating to political, economic, cultural and educational fields. This is my third meeting with Jean-Yves Le Drian. Of course, French President Emmanuel Macron attended the 17th La Francophonie summit in Yerevan in October 2018. Moreover, France is one of the most important member states of the European Union with which Armenia has signed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2017. This visit is an additional investment in the firm architecture of our bilateral relations. -Can you state that there is any progress on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process? -On Monday I met with my Azerbaijani counterpart in Moscow. The meeting was also attended by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (France, Russia and US). This meeting was held after the March 29 summit of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. From our point of view, the subject of the matter is the security of 150.000 people living in Artsakh. These people are under constant threat, taking into account the existing hatred atmosphere that has been sown against Armenians. The settlement can be only political, and the Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship is the only format for achieving this. But at the same time, an atmosphere contributing to peace and contacts between the people are needed here. We cannot hold negotiations on the one hand and have hatred demonstrations on the other hand. The security of the people, the status of Artsakh are priority issues. 150.000 people living there should participate in this process. They are the guarantors of the Armenian identity, an identity which still faces the denialism of the genocide. -More specifically, there is almost no progress in this memory issue -France has recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2001, and recently President Macron announced that April 24 will be marked in France as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. This decision has deeply touched the Armenian people. There was a desire to completely eliminate us. But we survived, strengthened and developed: this is victory. But, unfortunately, we still face the consequences of the Turkish denialist policy. This denialism not only relates to Armenians, but also the whole humanity. The Turkish President just threw out of the window the Zurich protocols on establishment of diplomatic relations and opening of the borders between Armenia and Turkey which were signed in 2009. We were committed to these protocols and were ready to normalize the relations with Turkey without preconditions. -What are your priorities a year later from the velvet revolution of Armenia held in spring 2018? -Among them are the cooperation with Europe, the rule of law, justice, anti-corruption fight, all the reforms for which the people gave a mandate to us. I would also mention the tax reforms and the economy. Armenia has a huge potential. The causes of our velvet revolution were domestic, not geopolitical: we are pro-Armenian, not a pro-European, pro-American or pro-Russian, even if we have close cooperation with Russia. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian held a meeting on April 18 with Armenias Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan. During the meeting Sarkissian and Tatoyan discussed the activities of the Ombudsmans Office, cooperation with international organizations, as well as the fate of the Armenian nationals who are currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan and the processes aimed at returning them to Armenia, Sarkissians office said in a readout. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, 18 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 18 April, USD exchange rate down by 0.55 drams to 482.85 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.33 drams to 543.25 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.02 drams to 7.54 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.26 drams to 628.24 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price down by 30.33 drams to 19806.28 drams. Silver price up by 0.59 drams to 232.86 drams. Platinum price down by 46.75 drams to 13754.25 drams. Abt, which has supported the contest in previous years, has committed a total of K20,000 to the 2019 prize which will also cover publication of the anthology of the best writing, expenses for the awards ceremony and bringing winners to Port Moresby for the event. PORT MORESBY - The Crocodile Prize, Papua New Guineas national literary contest, has announced that entries are now open for the Abt Associates Award for Womens Literature. Geoff Scahill, Abts vice president program delivery, said the award for womens literature will be given for the most outstanding piece of writing that reflects the distinct experiences of women in PNG. We are pleased to support this great initiative, which gives a voice to the diverse perspectives of Papua New Guineans, he said. Abt is a strong advocate for empowerment and equity for all women and this goal is at the heart of our activities in PNG and around the world. The award for womens literature fits our PNG-grown vision, Skelim Pawa, Stretim Pasin (Shared Power, Aligned Actions). We are committed to supporting PNG organisations and individuals, be it through the Crocodile Prize, the Medical Society or the Lik Lik Skul Foundation. The generous support from Abt will see the eventual winner receive K5,000 prize money and most importantly outstanding entries will be immortalised in the Crocodile Prize anthology, which is published and distributed throughout PNG and beyond. Abt has a deep association with PNG that began two decades ago with the specialist delivery of health services. Today, its works covers health, leadership development, decentralisation, citizen engagement, economic governance and inclusive growth. This supports security, stability and basic service delivery for all Papua New Guineans. Entries to the award for womens literature are open to all Papua New Guinean women and the writing may cover short stories, essays, journalism and poetry. For entry information visit www.crocodile-prize.com or www.facebook.com/thecrocodileprize At least not until late last year when I managed to pin Sean down and suggest that I should speak to the Walkley Foundation about setting up something that would promote the value of Pacific journalism by the Australian media and that it should be established in his name. There have been some small wins and some notable losses on that front. But I hadnt really thought about the money side of things. Ive been working for a long time on getting the Australian media to care about the Pacific, and I think that will be a work in progress for some time to come. He told me that there were two deciding factors: the journalists and editors had to care, and there has to be some money. Covering the Pacific is expensive and budgets are tight. BRISBANE - Last year, when I interviewed Sean Dorney for the Pacific Conversations series, I asked him what the elements were that contributed to whether or not Pacific issues got adequate coverage in the Australian mainstream media. Tess Newton Cain - "Now, more than for some time, the attention of the Australian media and policy community is focused on what is happening in the Pacific islands" This would dovetail well with Sean having recently been given a Walkley Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism. Having been introduced to the right people at the Walkley Foundation by Sue Ahearn, things began to fall into place. If I could find the money, the Walkley Foundation would administer a grant to be awarded for a significant piece of journalism on the Pacific further to a competitive process. Not only that, they were happy to work with a very tight timetable to allow for Sean (who is living with motor neurone disease) to be able to participate as fully as possible in the events associated with the grant. Why establish this grant? Now, more than has been the case for some time, the attention of the Australian media and policy community is focused on what is happening in the Pacific islands region. The Australian public has a right to journalism that tells stories from the countries that are nearest to them, and in which significant public resources for which they pay are deployed. The establishment of this grant allows for: (a) an incentive for more and better reporting of Pacific issues by the Australian media in all formats (b) increased opportunities for Australian journalists who cover the Pacific to develop their practice further (c) support for Australian journalists and media outlets who want to embark on Pacific journalism for the first time (d) greater exposure and publicity for journalism that brings the stories of the Pacific island region to Australian audiences. There were two aspects to making this happen and happen quickly. One was working with the Walkley Foundation to determine the terms and conditions, the judging criteria and who should be on the judging panel. This part was led by the Walkley team, with Sue Ahearn, Jemima Garrett, Sean and I contributing what was needed to make it fit for purpose. The other part was finding donors prepared to contribute to the funding of the grant, and this is what I have been working on for the last few months. All of those who have donated to the grant so far were more than happy to do so. They see it as a fitting way to honour the work of a man who has devoted more than 40 years to covering Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. Not only that, they understand how important it is that the Australian media spends more time and effort being in the Pacific, understanding what is going on, and working hard to inform, educate, and entertain their audiences about the countries that are their nearest neighbours. This forms part of a wider strategic conversation about how Australia engages with the Pacific islands region, in this era of stepping up. The diminishment of Australian broadcasting to the region is a matter of ongoing concern. Australia needs to be back in the conversation when it comes to the Pacific, and this requires appropriate understanding of what is needed and wanted in the region. More and better coverage of Pacific stories and issues by the Australian media can go some way to building a domestic constituency to support increased allocations of resources to the region, whether in the form of development assistance, increased diplomatic presence, or otherwise. Not only that, more coverage of what is happening in the Pacific by public and commercial outlets will go some way to rectifying the fact that Pacific island communities in Australia are vastly under-served, when it comes to knowing what is going on in their home countries. And so, on the back of conversations big and small, the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism was announced on 5 April and applications are now open until 7 May. The first grant will be awarded at the Walkleys mid-year event on 26 June. Thanks to the vision and generosity of the lead donors, this grant will be available for a number of years to come. Over to the Australian media to see what they make of it. Dr Tess Newton Cain is principal of TNC Pacific Consulting. You can link here to read her latest discussion paper, Walking the Talk: is Australia's engagement with the Pacific a step-up or a stumble? Job advertisements for Australian property workers have fallen sharply over the past year, according to data from SEEK. 12 job categories recorded declines of more than 10% over the past year, partially offset by higher advertisements in government-related sectors. Total job advertisements on SEEK fell 4.7% over the year. Australian home prices have been falling for 18 months, contributing to a sharp decline in building approvals and the number of homes being built. As seen in the table below from employment website SEEK, job advertisements for property workers are now also falling fast. Image: SEEK Seek has recorded the percentage change in advertisements on its platform in the year to March. The downturn in the housing market has had a major impact on demand for workers with ads for design and architecture, real estate and property, and construction workers all falling by 19.8% or more over the past 12 months. Along with advertisements in those categories, a further nine professions recorded annual declines of more than 10%, including retail workers. Behind healthcare, retail and construction are the largest employers in Australia, so these declines, if replicated in official jobs data, point to downside risks for hiring in the months ahead. More broadly, SEEK said total advertisements on its platform fell by 4.7% over the year. Without a strong increase in advertisements in government-related sectors, that decrease would have been significantly larger. The thoughts running through our minds in the lead up to a holiday are pretty mixed. Have I packed my favourite linen shirt? Do I have enough SPF? Will the hotel lobby bar have happy hour? What will my first Instagram pic be? But what about being mindful of the traditional owners of the land? How many of us stop and think about indigenous protocol when exploring an ancient and spiritual land like Australia? According to the recent Help or Harmful study by Kathmandu, 17% of Millennials have knowingly breached a local law or culturally sensitive custom. The sacred Ellery Creek Big Hole in Northern Territory. Photo: Getty I have indigenous heritage and was raised to respect sacred sites but I must admit, I had to recently polish up on on-country customs when asked by a colleague about travelling on indigenous land. I realised protocol might not be widely known by travellers, which is why it is so important for big travel companies to create a better understanding and appreciation for culture and community. This is exactly what Contiki is doing with its Make Travel Matter program in partnership with KARIs aboriginal cultural unit. The travel company launched the initiative with aboriginal dancer Darren Compton and indigenous Canadian activist Sarain Fox, who explained Contiki want to ensure travellers not only connect with locals and indigenous culture in an authentic way but also be conscious of traditional protocol while on tour. Sarain during an acknowledgement of country and smoking ceremony with Darren and the Muggera Dancers at Kari. Photo: Sarain Fox Weve taken some of the learnings from our successful Canadian program to our Indigenous brothers and sisters in Australia to see how it can benefit their communities, Sarain said. By partnering with the KARI Foundation, we have the opportunity to directly impact the ways in which travellers see and interact with the Indigenous population. Welcome to country, Sarain. Photo: Sarain Fox Creating a program where local artisans and cultural practitioners can share their own stories and art form. Visiting the Australian outback is a stunning experience, but the proper understanding of our culture may get lost on visitors. I spoke to Sarain about how to be an ethical traveller when visiting Aboriginal land Story continues Sarain shares her knowledge on being mindful while travelling on indigenous land. Photo: Sarain Fox Permission to enter People think theyre the expert, but none of us are the expert when travelling outside of our territories so its about travelling with humility and knowing that you dont have the right to enter into sacred space without permission. So, slowing down and asking those permissions is important or travel with someone who is doing that for you, whether its a guide or a community member who can make sure youre acting in an appropriate way and following protocol. Dont do it for the gram With this idea of social media, so many people end up in the middle of a really sacred place and they dont know where they are. Back home, were always seeing the aftermath on Instagram and we dont get to be on the ground preventing it from happening because a lot of these places are remote. One big mistake visitors can make it not slowing down to ask questions and gain proper permission. A place of deep cultural significance should not be treated like a theme park. From October 2019 visitors will be banned from climbing Uluru. Photo: Getty Be inquisitive In Canada, we have over 500 nations but for my people, in sacred spaces women wear skirts. But if you dont ask then how would you know? So its always important to slow down and ask questions. Pics and video We dont take video or photos in sacred spaces in Canada. Before you take out your camera and start filming, ask yourself do I have permission to be recording this content. Speaking of the dead I know this is an aboriginal custom in Australia there are many similarities with Canadian Aboriginal culture. For us, we wait one year after someone passes to speak their name. You also dont look at their photos or have any of their stuff around. When people pass, we put away all of their belongings and dont speak their name for one year so they can make their way to the spirit world. Treat the outback like you would The Vatican (and dont appropriate sacred artefacts for your festival outfit!) The same rights that you would give anyone from The Vatican needs to be given to our sacred space. We dont have churches, our churches are the wilderness. Our churches are our territory, the bush. Those are just as important as a sacred monument so if you think its wrong to spray paint a national monument then people should consider the native headdresses the same as an artefact in The Vatican. A headdress is a direct connection to creator or god, the disrespect in terms of appropriation is just as serious as disrespecting the bible. Always ask before taking pics of sacred sites and artwork. Photo: Getty Contiki offers multiple outback tours where travellers are taught by indigenous artists, take part in traditional art experiences and learn about the meanings entwined in aboriginal culture, all while giving back to the communities. Contiki is literally creating a space for travellers to learn, thats reconcili-action. It might sounds like a small thing but its a massive step in changing the narrative, Sarain explained. Check out more on Contikis Make Travel Matters campaign here. Got a story tip? Send it to lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com Want more lifestyle and celebrity news? Follow Yahoo Lifestyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or sign up to our daily newsletter here. An Italian chef has revealed the perfect way to cook pasta [Image: Getty] The most scientific pasta cooking gets for most people is to throw a string of spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks. But an expert has revealed theres no need to fret over whether its al dente when serving up the popular Italian dish. Antonella Rana, a Verona-based pasta specialist and the daughter-in-law of famous pasta maker Giovanni Rana, has revealed that the formula for perfectly-cooked pasta is much simpler than you think. Firstly, she has revealed that opting for fresh rather than dry pasta is always better and will get your meal ready pronto. Fresh pasta is the quickest. Were talking about just two minutes, she told Femail. Rana recommended following the guide on the back of the pasta packet but revealed her genius trick for ensuring its never overcooked. Trust the instructions on the bag, wait for big bubbles, then add salt, start the timer, check every two minutes, then drain and serve, she explained. I personally love to drain the pasta 15 seconds before the full cooking time. Knock 15 seconds off the time on the instructions to ensure you dont overcook the pasta [Image: Pixabay] If its written two minutes, I drain at 1:50 and in the very last 10 seconds I use a mixing bowl to mix the sauce in. This way you dont overcook your pasta. However, the chef added that how well-cooked you find your pasta is a matter of preference. In northern Italy she said they like it softer, while in the south of the country they make it almost raw. Rana also advised adding just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmigiana Reggiano to allow the flavour of the pasta to be enjoyed. But if you want to add sauce, ensure its just a small spoonful. Got a story tip? Send it to lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com Want more lifestyle and celebrity news? Follow Yahoo Lifestyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or sign up to our daily newsletter here. Compared to previous independent prosecutor investigations, Special Counsel Robert Mueller moved with uncommon speed in the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. Over 22 months he issued charges against 34 individuals, including six Trump associates, and three companies. Here are key dates in the probe: 2017 - May 17: Four months after Trump took office, Mueller, now 74, is named to lead the Russia meddling and collusion investigation. The appointment follows Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey. Trump was angry that Comey would not reel back the investigation. Mueller, also a former FBI director, assembles a team of seasoned investigators and is given broad latitude to examine anything that arises in the investigation, prompting Trump to call it a "witch hunt." Within weeks, the investigation begins examining Trump for possible obstruction of justice. - October 30: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and deputy chairman Rick Gates are indicted on financial charges mostly related to work they did years before for Russia-backed politicians in Ukraine. Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos is charged with lying to investigators about his dealings with Russians in 2016. Papadopoulos pleads guilty and pledges to cooperate. He eventually receives a sentence of 14 days in prison. - December 1: Former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn is charged with lying to investigators over his secret discussions with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak after the November 2016 election. He agrees to plead guilty in a deal that requires him to cooperate with investigators. - 2018 - - February 16: Mueller outlines a Russian "conspiracy" to meddle in the 2016 election, charging Evgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, and 12 others tied to the Internet Research Agency troll farm over their social media disinformation campaign. Richard Pinedo, a small-time California internet fraudster with no links to the Trump campaign, pleads guilty to selling false online identities to people from the Internet Research Agency. February 20: Alex van der Zwaan, a London-based Dutch lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to investigators about his work with Manafort and Gates on behalf of Ukraine. In April, van der Zwaan will be sentenced to 30 days in prison. - February 23: Gates avoids stiff charges in a plea deal with investigators. He pleads guilty to lying to investigators and conspiring to defraud the government in relation to his Ukraine work, while agreeing to cooperate with the Mueller team. - April 9, 2018: In a Mueller spinoff case, New York prosecutors raid the residence and offices of Michael Cohen, Trump's then personal lawyer and fixer. They focus on Cohen's arranging hush payments to women claiming affairs with Trump, as well as financial wrongdoings. Cohen later implicates Trump in the hush money payments. - June 8: Mueller expands charges against Manafort in a second case filed in Washington DC, and adds Manafort confidant Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian with intelligence links, to the indictment. Charges include obstruction of justice and money laundering, but nothing tied to Russian election meddling. - July 13: Mueller charges 12 members of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, with conspiracy to hack the Clinton presidential campaign in 2016. - August 21: A Virginia jury finds Manafort guilty on eight counts of financial fraud in the first case against him. Weeks later, he pleads guilty to reduced charges in the second case as part of a cooperation deal. - November 29: Cohen admits to lying to Congress about Trump negotiations in 2016 to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Two weeks later he is sentenced to three years in prison. December 4: Flynn gets a recommendation of no jail time after Mueller notes his "substantial assistance" to the investigation. - 2019 - - January 25: Longtime Republican operative Roger Stone is arrested for lying to investigators about his communications with WikiLeaks in 2016. - March 7-13: Paul Manafort is sentenced to a total of 90 months in prison in his two cases. - March 22: Mueller completes his investigation. Neither Trump nor any of his associates are charged with criminal conspiracy in the Russia interference case, and Mueller leaves unanswered the question of whether Trump tried to obstructed the Mueller probe. In a four-page summary of the report, Attorney General Bill Barr says that the evidence does not support obstruction charges. Trump declares the Mueller report is "a complete and total exoneration." - April 18: A redacted version of the Mueller report is made public. Special Counsel Robert Mueller (2nd L) worked quickly on one of the most disturbing investigations in US history: did President Donald Trump and his campaign collude with Russia? Mueller was named to lead the Russia meddling investigation days after President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey (L), frustrated that Comey would not reel in the investigation Trump national security advisor and former Defense Intelligence Agency director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was one of the first charged in the Mueller investigation, in relation to his secret contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, was charged in a spinoff investigation from the Mueller probe. He pleaded guilty and was given three years in prison for financial and campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced in March to 90 months in prison A Plurality of Americans Accept that the FBI "Spied" on Trump | Main | Maryland Men Beat Up a Legal Immigrant for... Wearing a MAGA Hat The Father of Neoconservatism, Norman Podhoretz, On Trump and NeverTrump Over at Claremont Review of Books (paywalled and I don't think you can get around it), Norman Podhoretz gives a rare interview and expresses his opinion on Trump, NeverTrump, and, indirectly but unavoidably, his fat, soft-handed, lap-of-luxury decrepit soyspawn Jon Podhoretz. I think a very key distinction between them is elucidated here: Norman Podhoretz grew up as a poor blue-collar kid. He became a famous intellectual, but he was and is a blue-collar kid. His son, on the other hand, grew up a dapper cosmopolitan princeling. Norman Podhoretz praises Trump for being a -- yes -- fighter, while the soft-handed crew of the S.S. Cuck all counsel surrender. One disagreement I have: NeverTrumpers are, in fact, willing to fight. They're willing to fight viciously and bitterly -- so long as the opponents are conservatives. Then the knives come out, then the eye-gouges and low-blows begin raining, then the shivs start getting sharpened. But they won't fight this way against their neighbors -- physical neighbors -- in the leftwing cities and tony suburbs. For them, the seek compromise and understanding. Have they ever tried to seek compromise with Trump supporters? No, them they brand as Nazis and Deplorables. They are among the most tribal people on earth -- it's just that their real tribe is, and has always been, the cosmopolitan intellectual class of the left. They share most of their political, cultural, and social DNA with the left. By the way, if you really want to read the article in full, without stealing it, you might consider a one year subscription (four quarterly issues) for $19.95. I might subscribe, actually. Half the people I talk to talk about it a lot. CRB: Some people say that Trump has a blue collar sensibility. Do you see that? NP: I do see it and even before Trump--long before Trump--actually going back to when I was in the army in the 1950s, I got to know blue-collar Americans. I'm "blue collar" myself, I suppose. Im from the working class--my father was a milk man. But in the army I got to know people from all over the country and I fell in love with Americans--they were just great! ... That's one of the things--it may be the main thing--that explains his political success. It doesn't explain his success in general, but his political success, yes. Also--I often explain this to people--when I was a kid, you would rather be beaten up than back away from a fight. The worst thing in the world you could be called was a sissy. And I was beaten up many times. Trump fights back. The people who say: "Oh, he shouldn't lower himself," "He should ignore this," and "Why is he demeaning himself by arguing with some dopey reporter?" I think on the contrary--if you hit him, he hits back; and he is an equal opportunity counter puncher. It doesnt matter who you are. And actually Obama, oddly enough, made the same statement: "He pulls a knife, you pull a gun." After reaffirming his support for the Iraq War and his initial opposition to Trump for saying that Bush "lied" us into war, Podhoretz turns to the NeverTrumpers: ... So for a while I was supporting Marco Rubio and I was enthusiastic about him. As time went on, and I looked around me, however, I began to be bothered by the hatred that was building up against Trump from my soon to be new set of ex-friends. It really disgusted me. I just thought it had no objective correlative. You could think that he was unfit for office--I could understand that--but my ex-friends' revulsion was always accompanied by attacks on the people who supported him. They called them dishonorable, or opportunists, or cowards--and this was done by people like Bret Stephens, Bill Kristol, and various others. And I took offense at that. So that inclined me to what I then became: anti-anti-Trump. By the time he finally won the nomination, I was sliding into a pro-Trump position, which has grown stronger and more passionate as time has gone on. ... CRB: But many of your new set of ex-friends, as you call them, were with you on Iraq and democratization, which explains partly at least, why they are against Trump. You deviated from them, or they deviated from you. NP: Well some of them have gone so far as to make me wonder whether theyve lost their minds altogether. I didn't object to their opposition to Trump. There was a case to be made, and they made it--okay. Of course, they had no reasonable alternative. A couple of them voted for Hillary, which I think would have been far worse for the country than anything Trump could have done. But, basically, I think we're all in a state of confusion as to what's going on. Tom Klingenstein has made a brilliant effort to explain it, in terms that havent really been used before. He says that our domestic politics has erupted into a kind of war between patriotism and multiculturalism, and he draws out the implications of that war very well. I might put it in different terms--love of America versus hatred of America. But it's the same idea. We find ourselves in a domestic, or civil, war almost At this point, Podhoretz talks a while about the Long March Through the Institutions -- the Marxist takeover of the schools and universities -- and how a nation of patriots and warriors has sent its children for two or three generations to be educated by pacifists and America-haters, and how that has had precisely the effect on American culture and politics that the Marxists planned. But I can't quote the whole thing. So returning back to Trump: CRB: What are his virtues, if you had to enumerate them? NP: His virtues are the virtues of the street kids of Brooklyn. You don't back away from a fight and you fight to win. Thats one of the things that the Americans who love him, love him for--that he's willing to fight, not willing but eager to fight. And that's the main virtue and all the rest stem from, as Klingenstein says, his love of America.... On the snobbery of the NeverTrump rump: There's snobbery in it and there's genuine, you might say, aesthetic revulsion. It's more than disagreements about policy, because the fact of the matter is they have few grounds for disagreement about policy. I mean, I've known Bill Kristol all his life, and I like him. But I must say I'm shocked by his saying that if it comes to the deep state versus Trump, he'll take the deep state. You know, I was raised to believe that the last thing in the world you defend is your own, and I am proud to have overcome that education. I think the first thing in the world you defend is your own, especially when it's under siege both from without and within. So the conservative elite has allowed its worst features--its sense of superiority--to overcome its intellectual powers, let's put it that way. I don't know how else to explain this. posted by Ace of Spades at | Access Comments posted by Ace of Spades at 05:30 PM Recent Comments Recent Entries Search Polls! Polls! Polls! Frequently Asked Questions The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick Top Top Tens Greatest Hitjobs These are some of the main points from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The 400-page document deals primarily with whether any members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to get him elected and whether the president sought to obstruct justice. - Russian interference - "The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion. "The Special Counsel's investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election principally through two operations. "First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. "Second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton campaign and then released stolen documents." - Conspiracy - The report said there were numerous contacts between members of Trump's circle and Russia and that the campaign "expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." But it said the efforts did not amount to criminal conspiracy. "The Russian contacts consisted of business connections, offers of assistance to the campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin to meet in person, invitations for campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet, and policy positions seeking improved U.S.-Russian relations. "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. "The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." - Obstruction - The report said the special counsel investigated numerous actions by Trump "that raised questions about whether he had obstructed justice." These included "public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation. "The president's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. "Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the president's conduct. "At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. "Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." - Efforts to remove special counsel - The report detailed an effort by Trump to have the special counsel removed. "On June 17, 2017, the president called (White House counsel Don) McGahn at home and directed him to call the acting attorney general and say that the special counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. "McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre." - Congress - While declining to prosecute Trump for obstruction, the special counsel said such a determination could be left to the US Congress. "Under applicable Supreme Court precedent, the Constitution does not categorically and permanently immunize a President for obstructing justice. "The separation-of-powers doctrine authorizes Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regardless of their source. "The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the president's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law." - Michael Cohen - The report details the president's interactions with his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who is facing three years in prison for financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. "In analyzing the president's intent in his actions towards Cohen as a potential witness, there is evidence that could support the inference that the president intended to discourage Cohen from cooperating with the government because Cohen's information would shed adverse light on the president's campaign-period conduct and statements." - Trump dismay - Trump reacted with dismay when told by then-attorney general Jeff Sessions on May 17, 2017 that a special counsel had been appointed, according to the report. "The president slumped back in his chair and said, 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked,'" the report said. "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency," Trump was quoted as saying. "It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. "This is the worst thing that ever happened to me." US President Donald Trump speaks following the release of the Mueller report A 29-year-old man has been charged with the rape of a 10-year-old girl at a park in Adelaide. The incident at suburban Blair Athol followed reports the man had approached and allegedly assaulted the girl on April 3 but left the area before the police arrived. It allegedly happened in a public toilet at a reserve which forms part of the Blair Athol Sport Community Club, off Leslie Avenue, between 5pm and 5.30pm. He has been charged with two counts of rape, aggravated indecent assault, gross indecency and unlawful detention. Police released images of a man pushing a pram in their search for the alleged attacker. Source: SA Police The man has been refused police bail and was expected to appear in court late on Thursday. Police had previously called on the help of the public in identifying the alleged attacker, releasing CCTV stills of a man pushing a pram in the area during their investigations. The man was understood to be with two young girls at the time of the attack. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES A backpacker injured in a terrible car accident before renewing her travel insurance has pleaded for financial help as she struggles to get on top of her expensive medical bills. Andra Nickerson, from Olympia in Washington State, had just commenced her second year working holiday visa in Australia when she was involved in a life-changing head-on collision in Queensland. The 27-year-old required two surgeries to fix her mangled knee and foot which were crushed in the accident on Doonan Bridge Road, Doonan, on the Sunshine Coast on April 12. The 27-year-old required two surgeries to her injured knee and foot. Source: Facebook The car Ms Nickerson was traveling in was completely destroyed in the crash. Source: Facebook Pleading to a Facebook community group for help, Ms Nickerson, who was discharged from Sunshine Coast University Hospital on April 16, said she needed assistance with the most basic things. Going to the bathroom or reaching for a glass of water is a major ordeal, she said, adding she was normally a do it myself person, however her situation forced her to rely on others for help with daily tasks. I must swallow my pride and accept the fact that this is one of those situations in life when you cant do it alone. This accident is beyond my capacity to fix, Ms Nickerson said. Ms Nickerson shared graphic photos of her injuries to Facebook. Source: Facebook The doctors say I may not have the ability to run or jump again, and my risk of developing early onset arthritis is extremely high due to the severity of my injuries. A Go Fund Me page established on Monday has already raised more than $10,000 towards Ms Nickersons $20,000 goal. If you are able to donate any amount whatsoever to help with my medical bills, I would be forever grateful and humbled by your generosity, she said. I will pay it forward in the future once I am able to return the favour. Thank you for all the love, positive vibes, prayers, and well wishes. This is just a bump in the road of my many adventures. Her right foot was horribly disfigured in the accident. Source: Facebook Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here. France's culture minister pleaded Thursday for an end to the controversy over the 850 million euros (950 million dollars) pledged to restore Notre-Dame cathedral, which critics have suggested would be better spent on the poor. Some of France's biggest companies and billionaires, including luxury goods tycoons Francois-Henri Pinault and Bernard Arnault, have pledged amounts of 100 million euros or more to rebuild the landmark after it was gutted by fire on Monday evening. The vast sums have drawn fire in a country where wealth inequality and the plight of the low-income households have been highlighted during five months of demonstrations by "yellow vest" protesters. "This pointless debate consists of saying 'it's too much money for Notre-Dame even though there are needs elsewhere' -- of course there's a need for money for the social system, for health, the fight against climate change," Culture Minister Franck Riester told RMC radio. "But let's leave this extraordinary show of generosity to run its course," he pleaded. He said Notre-Dame was "not only old stones. It's a part of our identity, it's our nation, European culture." The controversy has undercut hopes expressed by President Emmanuel Macron for the divided country to "come together" in the wake of the fire, which is widely suspected to have been caused by renovation work underway on its steeple. "It's very disturbing to see how in France you get criticised even when you do something," Arnault said on Thursday at a shareholder's meeting when asked about the row. Some leftist politicians have argued that the ultra-rich donors could best help protect the country's cultural heritage by fully paying their taxes -- or helping the "human cathedral" of people in need. "In one click, 200 million, 100 million. That shows the inequality which we regularly denounce in this country," the head of the CGT trade union, Philippe Martinez, said on Wednesday. "If they can give tens of millions to rebuild Notre-Dame, then they should stop telling us there is no money to help with the social emergency (in France)," he added. The huge tax breaks available on the donations also caused some unease, prompting Pinault to announce he would forfeit the rebate on his contribution. - Other priorities - Sweden's teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg also used the drama at Notre-Dame to underline her message that the environment should be the biggest priority. "Notre Dame will be rebuilt, I hope its foundations are strong, I hope that our foundations are even stronger, but I fear they are not," she told the European parliament on Tuesday, referring to the fight against climate change. Writer and historian Mike Stuchbery, writing on the Huffington Post, reminded donors of their responsibility to the poor. "It's important for some to remember that such a wonderful edifice was built to celebrate a faith that emphasises giving aid and comfort to the poor, regardless of who they are," he said. In Britain, a satirical online article went viral after it compared the reaction to the Notre-Dame disaster and the fatal fire at London's Grenfell towerblock in 2017 in which 71 people lost their lives. "Former Grenfell residents have expressed regret that they didn't splash out on pretty stained glass windows before their tower burned down," said the post on newsthump.com. The vast sums pledged by billionaires to rebuild the Notre-Dame cathedral have drawn fire in France French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, left, pledged 100 million euros to rebuild Notre-Dame while LVMH tycoon Bernard Arnault, right, pledged 200 million euros Sweden's teenage activist Greta Thunberg referred to the largess spent on rebuilding Notre-Dame to underline her message about climate change "When we arrived here, there were TV crews and photographers, but now nobody comes," said Abdallah, amazed to see a journalist turn up at his Sudanese refugee camp in Chad. He fled over the border from Sudan's western Darfur region in 2004, a year after the armed forces and their allies, the Janjaweed horseback militia, began their murderous assault on non-Arab people. Taking reprisals against rebels fighting Omar al-Bashir's Arab-dominated government, they raped, tortured and massacred civilians, razed their villages and poisoned their wells across arid territory the size of France. Abdallah was 14 when he arrived in Chad. Today he is 29 and still living in the Treguine refugee camp, one of 12 sites for 340,123 registered Sudanese jointly run by the United Nations and Chadian authorities. The young Darfuri has only hazy memories of events that claimed at least 300,000 lives in violence, hunger and disease, according to UN figures. "Gunshots, people on horses and camels," he recalled, unable to go on. The teenager's mother sat him astride the family donkey to abandon their village of Terbeba and trek towards the border with Chad, escaping a conflict that persists to this day. - 'Crises blow over, refugees stay' - In shimmering heat, the camp for some 25,000 people at Treguine buzzed with activity. Health centres are functioning, schools are open and tents are gradually being replaced by houses crafted from any available materials. The visit preceded the April 11 ouster of President Bashir, whose regime long battled a mixed bag of rebel groups in Darfur. Three rounds of peace talks between 2006 and 2011 were inconclusive, with agreements torn apart by discord among signatories. Since 2012-13, Darfur has endured ongoing low-level conflict. International donors have pledged more than $3.5 billion (3.1 billion euros) to help rebuild the region, but nothing substantial can be done while clashes go on and until the military regime that replaced Bashir spells out its intentions. The number two in the military council, Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, widely known as Himeidti, is none other than the field commander of the Rapid Support Force (RSF) that emerged from the infamous Janjaweed. - 'Victims of atrocities' - "Yes, we're settled, yes, I grew up here, but I'm still Sudanese. One day, we have to go back," said Abdallah, who has given Arabic lessons since he got his high school diploma in 2014. Smiling in his neatly ironed shirt, he spoke of "big ambitions", including going to university to study law "to be able at last to reclaim what is ours, our land and our lives." "We Darfuris have no-one to speak on our behalf," he adds. Chad has taken Sudanese youths into its educational system since 2014. At Treguine, 60 fortunate people have obtained grants to go to the Adam Barka University in Abeche, the provincial capital. Looking intellectual in his glasses and with a student's satchel over his shoulder, Zacharia, 32, is one of them. "We were victims of atrocities, but nobody sees it that way. People need to understand that this isn't normal," he added. On the wide streets of the camp, which has turned the adjoining village of Hadjer Hadid into a town, nothing distinguishes the refugees from their Chadian hosts. "They're the same Masalit population," said Adoum Mahamat Ahmat, head of the local office of the National Commission for the Welcome and Reinsertion of Refugees (CNARR). He says that government strategy has three aspects: "local integration, voluntary repatriation and reinstallation in a third country." A law on asylum has been under discussion by Chad's parliament in N'Djamena since 2013, but it has yet to be passed. The road to voluntary repatriation opened in 2017 when Khartoum, N'Djamena and the UN signed an accord. So far, 3,824 people have benefitted, but at Treguine, returning home looks like a remote prospect. - 'Justice for the crimes' - Seated on a mat, the camp chairman lists demands to be met before a mass return. First and foremost, he insisted that Bashir -- who has been transferred to prison, a member of his family said on Wednesday -- go on trial and "be brought to book for the crimes committed". The toppled leader, held to have presided over the deaths in Darfur and the uprooting of 2.5 million more people, is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged war crimes and genocide. He has denied the accusations. The troops who brought him down after 30 years in power have vowed to hand over to a civilian government, but military ranks include other soldiers blamed for atrocities in Darfur. The camp chief had a long list of requirements, but particularly insisted that "those who are installed in our villages" should be compelled to leave. Trader Ibrahim Hassan, 42, said that he once felt that his life in Darfur had been "mapped" -- he followed his father into selling electronics. As a refugee, he has started the same business and is going well, acquiring a pickup truck and a gilded watch. "Thanks be to God, things are fine. But I need to be able to open a business at home, that would be better." Heat and dust: Treguine camp in eastern Chad houses 25,000 refugees from Darfur, in neighbouring Sudan. Some have languished there for 15 years Treguine refugee camp is one of 12 sites for 340,123 registered Sudanese jointly run by the United Nations and Chadian authorities Zacharia, a refugee who has won a grant to study at a local university, says that as time passes, one of the biggest tasks is to remind people of the atrocities of Darfur Ibrahim Hassan, a 42-year-old Sudanese trader and refugee in Treguine, poses in front of his shop in the adjoining town of Hadjer Hadid Map of Sudan and its neighbouring countries. OSWEGO Federal, state and local officials gathered on Thursday to mark a new development in the process of designating a portion of Lake Ontario as a national marine sanctuary. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the launch of a public comment period this week. The agency will accept comments by mail or online until July 31. Public hearings are planned in the four counties Cayuga, Jefferson, Oswego and Wayne adjacent to the proposed sanctuary. The first of the hearings will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday, June 10, at Fair Haven Fire Hall, 14447 Fair Haven Road, Sterling. Oswego County's congressional delegation, U.S. Reps. Anthony Brindisi and John Katko, and representatives from the four counties that are part of the sanctuary proposal held a press conference Thursday at the H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego to explain the next steps in finalizing the designation. Oswego County Administrator Phil Church emphasized that it's been a collaborative effort. While it was an idea raised by Oswego County lawmakers, they partnered with leaders from Cayuga, Jefferson and Wayne counties to submit an application to establish the section of Lake Ontario as a national marine sanctuary. Church noted how difficult it is to reach this phase. The Lake Ontario was one of two selected by NOAA for consideration. Since the national marine sanctuary program was created in 1972, there have been 14 sanctuaries designated across the U.S. The existing sanctuaries include the Florida Keys off Florida and Monterey Bay off California's coast. Katko, R-Camillus, believes the proposed sanctuary for Lake Ontario will build on some of the recent developments in Oswego. He mentioned the construction in the city and the push he's led to designate Fort Ontario as a national park. Having the eastern end of the lake designated as a national marine sanctuary, he argued, could boost the economy and tourism. "This gives Oswego a different vibe," Katko said. Church highlighted a focal point of the sanctuary application the nearly 70 shipwrecks either known or suspected to be within the proposed boundary. He dubbed it the "shipwreck sanctuary." There also could be as many as three military planes in the designated area. The proposed sanctuary covers 1,700 square miles of the lake. Brindisi, D-Utica, committed to working with local officials to ensure the process moves forward. He echoed Katko's remarks that they would provide assistance if more information is needed or if there are gaps in communication with NOAA. The potential sanctuary, Brindisi said, is a "total win-win." Church also sought to clarify what a national marine sanctuary would mean for anglers, boaters and others who use the lake for recreational purposes. The name of the designation, he said, implies that the section of the lake would be off limits. That won't be the case. The goal of the sanctuary, he continued, is to promote access and understanding of the water body. "This is all about the heritage," he said. Church cautioned attendees that it's not a quick process. It could take at least two or three years before the national marine sanctuary is established. Once the public comment period and hearings are completed, NOAA will prepare a draft sanctuary proposal. It will include potential boundaries and regulations for the proposed sanctuary. NOAA could form an advisory council to help with the drafting of the proposal. NOAA will gather more feedback as it makes a final decision on whether to designate the area as a national marine sanctuary. "We got a long way to go," he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 U.S. Rep. John Katko will hold a veterans resource fair from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 27, at Onondaga Community College's Coulter Hall and Library, 4585 W. Seneca Turnpike, Onondaga. Parking will be available in lots 18 and 19 behind Coulter Hall and the library. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and central New York organizations will have a presence at the fair. Katko's office will have caseworkers available to assist veterans at the event. A man doing work for a rail company was struck and killed by a train car Thursday in Seneca County. The Seneca County Sheriffs Department said that Thomas J. Horn, 46, of Romulus, an employee of the Andersons Rail Group, had been attempting to move rail cars on the former Seneca Army Depot property in the Town of Romulus when he was struck by a moving train. Police said that Horn and another employee were the only ones present at the time of the accident, and it appears that Horn may have fallen into the path of the train car. He was pronounced dead at the scene by coroner Paul MacPherson. The second employee was uninjured. The Fayette Fire Department, Varick Fire Department, South Seneca Ambulance, and New York State Police responded to the scene along with county sheriff's deputies. The case remains under investigation, and sheriffs investigators will continue to work closely with the Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board on the incident, police said. Sheriff Tim Luce said in a news release that the Seneca County E-911 Center was a valuable resource during the event as they worked hard to coordinate the many different resources needed to respond to an event such as this one. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 " " The "Resto-Mod" of the 1968 Jeep M-715 Gladiator-based military vehicle is a true 4x4 showpiece featuring a blend of vintage and modern chassis and drivetrain components. FCA Group Moab, Utah is the ultimate destination for off-roaders. It has epic trails, challenging obstacles and unbelievable scenery, which is what draws thousands for hiking, biking and four-wheeling. And spring is the ideal time to dust off those four-wheelers (just to get them all dusty again), and for Jeep owners, the annual Easter Jeep Safari event is considered the "opening day" of the off-roading season. The event traditionally takes place the week before Easter (hence the name), and this year's Easter Jeep Safari marks the 53rd in its history. It was started in 1967 by the Moab Chamber of Commerce and has turned into a full-blown event that lasts nine days. But the main attraction this year could be the long-awaited launch of the Jeep Gladiator. Advertisement The 2020 Gladiator is a beast of a hybrid Jeep/truck. It features a truck bed, putting it squarely into the super competitive compact/midsize pickup category. That definitely makes the Gladiator a niche vehicle for sure, with a price that starts at nearly $6,000 more than a base Wrangler. But Jeep is long accustomed to catering to its clientele's unique demands and expectations. That's why Jeep sends an official company delegation to the Easter Jeep Safari each year, along with special, never-before-seen concept vehicles tailored specifically for event attendees, those hard-core off-roaders who live and breathe the Jeep brand. " " Jeep has created six new, custom-built concept vehicles for the annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. FCA Group This year is no different, and as usual, the concept cars being unveiled at the Jeep Safari are combinations of restored vintage awesomeness and modern features and accessories. The biggest difference, is, this year's concept vehicles are different spin-offs of the new Gladiator (see image above). The Jeep J6 is a four-door Wrangler Unlimited converted into a two-door pickup with a custom cab and bed and looks more like a "Wrangler pickup" than the actual Gladiator. The Jeep JT Scrambler is a Gladiator concept with retro decals inspired by the 1980s CJ8 Scrambler, plus coordinating accents and a slick two-tone interior. The Jeep Wayout is a Gladiator pickup fitted with a roof-mounted tent for two and an awning, perfect for impromptu camping trips. The Jeep Gladiator Gravity was designed for mountain climbers, with specially configured storage accessories and tubular "gates" instead of doors. The Jeep Flatbill is perfect for motocross riders, since this Gladiator concept is modified to haul two dirt bikes. The Jeep Five-Quarter isn't based on a current or upcoming Jeep vehicle, but instead is an homage to the 1968 Jeep M715 military truck. The new Jeep Gladiator delivers a solid theme for the 2019 Easter Jeep Safari concepts, and it'll be hard to top these for 2020. No doubt Jeep's talented team of designers is already brainstorming for next year. Now That's Interesting Although the Easter Jeep Safari is an event primarily for Jeep fans, select members of the media get to attend and a few lucky ones actually get to drive some of the concepts. Most concept cars are designed for auto shows and travel around to various events for a year or so, but it's rare for an automaker to dedicate those kinds of resources for an enthusiast event like the Jeep Safari. NEW YORKJake Jaxson knows a good thing when he sees it. The CockyBoys owner and director just announced his newest CockyBoys exclusive, and its 2019 GayVN Award-winning Best Newcomer Alam Wernik. Currently residing in NYC, the Brazilian stud will work with the New York-based studio on various projects showcasing his magnetic personality and striking physique. Wernik burst onto the scene a little over a year ago as a social media phenom with self-produced content, which led him to a contract with Falcon Studios, where he captured the fans hearts (and other body parts) in such movies as Zack and Jack Make a Porno (Falcon) and The Chosen Few (NakedSword). Werniks charismatic appeal has drawn more than 1 million followers on social media, so hell fit in right in with the CockyBoys brand. Says Wernik,I am so excited to be the newest addition to the CockyBoys family. I am all about change and climbing to the next level in my career. I know CockyBoys will provide me with an amazing final year in this industry and together we will create projects that give people an inside look at the real me, and my passion in life as a DJ, and much more!" Wernik will be paired with some of the biggest CockyBoys stars and featured in special projects by Jake Jaxson beyond the scene pairings and releases that are already planned. Jaxson says of his newest star, His energy, attitude, focus, personality, and sex appeal make him an ideal CockyBoy, we couldn't be happier that he decided to join our team. In one short year, he has burst on to the scene and created a body of work that is to be admired, and Im sure he will agree, in big part thanks to the team at Falcon and NakedSword. We look forward to helping Alam continue to follow his ambitions and reach his goals here at CockyBoys. His debut with the studio will be coming soon to CockyBoys.com. Last year, India began blocking porn sites nationwide, and the crackdown continued earlier this month when a high court in that country ordered the government to ban not a porn site, but the wildly popular China-based app TikTok, in part for encouraging porn, as AVN.com reported. As of Wednesday, the appused to shoot and share short videosdisappeared in India from the major app stores, Google Play and the Apple online store, according to NBC News. The removals from the Google and Apple download stores apparently came a a result of a letter sent by the governments Information Technology Ministry. A source inside Google acknowledged that the app was blocked as a result of the government order, NBC reported. Apple had not commented as of Thursday as to why the wildly popular app was suddenly unavailable in their store in the worlds second-most populous country. TikTok exceeded one billion total downloads as of last month, according to The Next Web, with about 25 percent of those, approximately 250 million, coming in India alone. According to data published by Statista, so far in 2019 India accounts for TikToks largest market, and its not even close. Indian consumers accounted for 41.7 million downloads in the first three months of 2019 alone, more than twice as many as the second-largest market, the United States, where the app was downloaded 16 million times. ByteDance, the Chinese software company that makes TikTok, filed an appeal against the ban, but that appeal was rejected. However, the appeal will get a second hearing of April 22, according to a report by the Guardian. The controversy over the app began in India in October of last year, according to a timeline published by the site Quartz.com, when a 24-year-old man committed suicide after a campaign of online harassment against him over a TikTok video showing him in womens clothing. Politicians then began to publicly call for the app to be banned, saying that TikTok encourages pornography and leads to sexual perversity in children. In February, the top government IT official in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu called on the countrys central government to ban TikTok for degrading culture and encouraging pornography. On April 1, the high court in the state of Madras ordered a ban on TikTokand prohibited media from showing any videos created using the TikTok app. The efforts culminated on Monday, when Indias Supreme Court refused to strike down the Madras courts ban, leading the government to order the app to come off of the Google and Apple stores. Photo By Toutiao / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain SAN FRANCISCONakedSword Originals has debuted the first episode of their its new two-part mini-series called Five Brothers: Family Values, a dark, intense, and sexy thriller about a group of misfits brought together by a life of crime, sex, and drugs. The first episode stars Alam Wernik and Sean Duran, and was shot and directed by NakedSword's acclaimed director mr. Pam on location in both Miami and Las Vegas. NakedSword has long been known for helping invent the web series genre, all the way back in 2004, with the groundbreaking release of Wet Palms (which was ranked Number 1 in the Top 25 Gay Porn Web Series ever). Todays release of Five Brothers sees NakedSword Originals taking the gay porn series genre to another level with this one-of-kind, two-part mini-series. The Five Brothers full cast includes Nic Sahara, Sean Duran, Alam Wernik, Woody Fox, Aaron Savvy, Blake Ryder, Jay Dymel, JJ Knight, Trevor Northman, and trans star Danni Daniels in her return to porn. As they say, "a family that plays together, stays together," and the Five Brothers family plays rough and dirty. After Nic Sahara loses his dad, he finds himself lost and drunk in Las Vegas. Once his estranged family get word that he's in trouble, his Aunt Danni, played by Danni Daniels, sends for him. Jay Dymel, who was just released after five years in a Vegas prison, is instructed to bring Nic home to Miami by any means necessary. Nic finally arrives in Florida but he's torn: does he spend the rest of his days a lush like his father or join his family in their life of crime? Will he or wont he sacrifice everything for his brothers? President of Falcon Studio Group and The NakedSword Network Tim Valenti says of the new mini-series, "This is a big deal for us as it's our first two-part mini-series, and it's beautifully filmed with a perfectly cast group of guys who bring this thriller to life. This is NakedSword Originals at our best!" In the first episode Sean Duran wins a fight with Blake Ryder by head-butting him into the pool and collects his winnings, a bubble butt blonde, Alam Wernik. Sean leads Alam away from the pack to a secluded poolside location to test out the new family "employee." With Alams wrists tied, Sean feeds Alam every inch and Alam, wanting to prove hes the best escort the family has every hired, willingly takes it all. Sean wastes no time diving into Alam, pushing him over the edge of the pool and pounds the power bottom into submission in a chemistry laden stand-out start to the series. NakedSword director, mr. Pam says of the new mini-series, "This episode is an awesome way to kick off the movie! Sean Duran is the ultimate bad ass and is so perfect for the role, not to mention he looks better than ever. Sean really came to life with Alam Wernik, who gets tied up for the first time ever and delivers one of his best performances to date." Those interested may watch the first episode of Five Brothers: Family Values starring Sean Duran and Alam Wernik starting today, only on NakedSword.com. Al-Ahram Weekly, by Azza Radwan Sedky (Link: Egypt's leadership in Africa) Egypt is forging ahead in order to regain its just regional role in Africa, writes Azza [Radwan] Sedky In his recent whirlwind tour of West Africa where he travelled to Guinea, Cote dIvoire and Senegal, interspersed with a visit to the US, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi visited the Gamal Abdel-Nasser University in Guinea where he unveiled a statue of the late Egyptian president. Since the 1970s, when the university was named in Nassers honour, and even before, Egypt has played a fundamental role in Africa. Today, it is bolstering its leadership role in Africa once more. Egypt is destined to take on this role, and the reasons for it are manifold. Not only is Egypt the axis of stability in the region, it is also endowed with a majestic history, a mighty military establishment, a kaleidoscope of experienced professionals, and a cultural wealth like no other on the African continent. This leadership role also stems from the realisation that Africa is key to Egypt and vice versa. The Nile, Egypts backbone, joins Egypt to its fellow African nations for one thing. As other countries such as China, Israel, India and Brazil eye Africas prospects and venture onto the continent with their full weight behind them, Egypt must intensify its presence in Africa through collaboration, investment and diplomacy. Over recent years, the Egyptian role in Africa has become somewhat blurred. This occurred after late president Anwar Al-Sadats peace treaty with Israel, during former president Hosni Mubaraks tenure, especially after the assassination attempt in Ethiopia, and more importantly after the 25 January Revolution, when the focus was on domestic challenges in Egypt more than anything else. In 2013, after the ousting of ex-president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt was suspended from the African Union (AU). So where is Egypt now and what will it take to revive Egypts leadership in Africa? As influential as Egypt is, it neither interferes in other countries business nor plays a partisan role in their affairs. Egypt aids in ending conflicts rather than in instigating them. It has no ulterior motive to overthrow a given regime, nor does it side with one faction against another. It can, however, be a catalyst that dampens crises and negotiates between adversaries. It stands firm in its belief in right and wrong, and it guides countries and steers them towards the right path. Today, the important role that Egypt plays in support of the African countries is more pronounced than ever. The Africa 2018 Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh where over 1,000 African businessmen and policy-makers convened recently attests to that. It was the perfect platform to foster new partnerships and encourage joint ventures between Egypt and other African nations. At the forum, President Al-Sisi called for urgency in tackling Africas needs. According to the magazine New Africas reporting on the forum, Egypt will establish a risk insurance fund to encourage Egyptian entrepreneurs to invest in other African countries A guarantee fund dedicated to investing in infrastructure, information technology and high-end digitisation of African economies, was also announced. In March this year, Egypt also assumed the chairmanship of the AU, and it is expected that it will use this responsibility in curbing illegal immigration and human trafficking and in concentrating on security and peacekeeping, all key factors towards ensuring Africas security and development. According to the website Xinuanet.com, Egypt has undertaken a number of important initiatives to restore its role in Africa, including training for peacekeepers and military personnel, increasing security and intelligence cooperation. President Al-Sisi is earnestly taking on such responsibilities as his latest visits prove. In his efforts to strengthen Egypts role in Africa and cement ties with other African nations during his tenure as AU chairman, he has travelled to Africa more than any previous Egyptian leader. His trips to Africa account for 35 per cent of all his travels abroad, all of them intended to develop better relations and more solid ties. Egypt is also opening new doors to trade and business with Africa. The Egyptian Arab Contractors Company has acquired seven road projects in Uganda and Cameroon with an estimated value of $400 million. Tanzania has awarded the Stieglers Gorge Dam project to Arab Contractors at a value of $3.6 billion. As they are given the green light to proceed, Arab Contractors and other Egyptian businesses will continue to compete on further infrastructure projects mutually benefiting Africa and Egypt. In a further attempt to communicate with fellow Africans, the Egyptian State Information Serviced (SIS) has also launched a new portal in six languages, three of them African and including Swahili, Hausa and Amharic. Egypt has been chosen to host the Africa Cup of Nations for 2019, another opportunity for it to shine. The last time Egypt hosted the event was in 2006, while in 2010 no African country voted for Egypts bid despite the late actor Omar Sharifs moving speech in support of Egypt. In 2019, 16 of the 17 delegates voted in favour of Egypts hosting the 2019 African Cup of Nations. Even after 2019 when it passes the AU leadership torch to another African country, Egypt will continue to capitalise on its involvement in Africa and lead the continent towards the safe haven it so justly deserves. The writer is a political analyst. In North Carolina, political power is divided. Republicans control the state legislature, although without the supermajorities they once enjoyed. Democrats occupy such jobs as governor and attorney general, but Republicans control six of the 10 statewide elected offices that form North Carolina's executive branch. Democrats form a strong 6-1 majority on the state supreme court, but the state court of appeals is roughly balanced. Republicans have majorities on 56 of North Carolina's 100 county commissions, but six of the 10 most-populous counties have Democratic boards.Do you find divided government frustrating or exhilarating? Either way, you might as well get used to it. North Carolina is likely to be a political battleground for many years to come.It will be a top prize in the 2020 presidential race, for example. Right now, the share of North Carolina voters who approve of Donald Trump's performance and the share who disapprove are within a few points of each other, according to several polls . We are also likely to witness highly competitive reelection bids by Gov. Roy Cooper and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, among others.That our state's elections have been and will continue to be so hotly contested should come as no surprise. It reflects voter preferences. Few state electorates are closer to the national average in partisanship and ideology than North Carolina's electorate is.On this point, don't be misled by party registration. Some North Carolinians, disproportionately older and residing in rural areas, may be registered Democrats but actually vote Republican most of the time. Moreover, most "unaffiliated" voters are not truly neutral. They vote fairly consistently for their favored party. They just aren't joiners in the way their parents were (many attend but never become full members of religious congregations, for much the same reason).According to polling by the Gallup organization , 42 percent of North Carolinians are Republicans or lean that way, while 41 percent are Democrats or lean that way. The remainder are either true swing voters or don't vote much at all. Other states where the two party bases are either tied or differ by a single point include Georgia, Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, and Nebraska.Another Gallup question probes self-reported ideology . I think this procedure is less illustrative than clustering voters based on issues, but it does have the value of consistency across time and geography. About 39 percent of Gallup's North Carolina respondents describe themselves as conservative, while 33 percent say they are moderates, 21 percent say they are liberals, and the remainder say something else or decline to answer. These results place North Carolina close to the median, at 23rd most-conservative in the nation.Other polls produce somewhat-different results, thanks to differences in sampling and word choice. But they generally confirm the political competitiveness of the state.The Civitas Institute's last two monthly surveys of North Carolina voters , conducted in February and March by Harper Polling, asked "generic ballot" questions about 2020 races for the state legislature, Congress, and the state supreme court. That is, voters were asked which party's not-yet-determined candidates they favored at the present time. For all three sets of races, the numbers of voters favoring Democrats and Republicans were statistically indistinguishable. That wasn't the case just before the 2018 midterms, when Civitas surveys found sizable Democratic leads.To say North Carolina's electorate is closely divided is not to say there can't be definitive electoral outcomes in a given year. Just don't expect them to result in permanent realignments. In 2010, 2012, and 2014, the electorate swung Republican. In 2018, it swung Democratic. The 2016 cycle was more of a mixed bag, with Trump, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, and Lt. Gov. Dan Forest winning statewide even as Democrats took key races for governor (Roy Cooper) and attorney general (Josh Stein).Voters willing to split their tickets are much rarer than they used to be, representing only a few percentage points of the total vote. But in a closely divided state, they still matter - a lot. Almost everyone there at this period seemed a poster-child of some sort, representing a fragment of our culture-the closet gay, the civil rights activist, the communist, the avant- garde painter, the urgent truth-seeker, the parent-escaper. My poster was being about the only student from the West Coast (most were from the Northeast, particularly New York City); about being the only one without parents and siblings who had attended college (most students, but certainly not all, were from a well-educated upper middle class, or intellectual elite class). BMC embraced the utopian ideals of the progressive education movement, stating that the arts should be the centrepiece of the curriculum, whether it be weaving and knitting, painting and sculpting, or music and photography. The lofty-if rather fuzzy-ideal: to "better educate citizens for participation in a democratic society." North Carolina is widely respected for institutions such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, both research-intensive and high-prestige schools. But it's less known for a radically experimental college that was tucked away in the Appalachian mountains more than half a century ago.Just east of Asheville, Black Mountain College (BMC) was founded in 1933 and survived for 24 years until closing due to funding issues and a lack of students. But before it did, it had a strong core of teachers to attract students, attracting artists like Josef and Anni Albers from Germany after the Nazis rose to power and, in its later years, architect Buckminster Fuller and poet Charles Olson, among others. A liberal arts school, president John A. Rice emphasized the importance of the arts in every student's education.The education it offered was extremely atypical. Black Mountain didn't have a standard grading system or set of classes; professors and students determined the curriculum together. It was unaccredited. It didn't have a board of directors. During its existence, BMC only graduated about 60 students of the 1,200 who attended. Yet, despite this lack of standardization (or because of it), its students enrolled in graduate school at elite institutions and looked back fondly upon their time at Black Mountain.said Joseph Bathani, an expert on Black Mountain College and the McFarlane family distinguished professor in interdisciplinary education at Appalachian State University.That myth serves as something unimaginable in today's higher education environment. Higher ed has many roadblocks that prevent any sort of Black Mountain 2.0: Many students think of college as the first credential necessary for a good job; most colleges are too bureaucratized and regulated to allow such campus experimentation; and campus officials are too resistant to change for a decentralized education approach to take hold. Though various college programs and academics have been influenced by Black Mountain College, it's questionable whether any college working within traditional higher ed today could recreate something like BMC.While chaotic and sometimes questionable in its approach, the disappearance of experimental colleges like Black Mountain has left American higher education more uniform and rigid. Such oddball schools would be regulated out of existence today; the curriculum would be seen as too individualized or low-quality because it doesn't meet the requirements of an accreditor.Bathani said. A college today can't operate without a master plan directing it.Such a school would also have no chance of getting approved for federal aid. Accessing federal aid wasn't a problem in the 1940s, though. During its existence, veteran students could pay for BMC with their GI Bill benefits. Rules about federal student aid were much less strict then.Black Mountain had a niche; its chaotic style attracted a certain type of student. Bathani described them asCharles Perrow, a sociologist at Yale University who attended BMC in the late 1940s, wrote of the student body that:Perhaps due to attracting nontraditional and well-off students, the college's expectations for them were different. Black Mountain didn't sell itself as the key to a good job or its professors as all-knowing sages who would shape and monitor students.Bathani said.The independence and drive that BMC students had is rarely found today, partially because colleges do not encourage such self-driven learning. Students arrive on campus and the college tells them what classes to take, or what classes they can choose from to fulfill a major's requirements. The students today who can avoid being shepherded have to jump through hoops to do so, or belong to an honors college or honors program that offers more flexibility. Academic independence is a privilege for a few, not an expectation for all.The focus on the arts and expectation for self-disciplined students led to a certain amount of cultural influence: the American poet Burt Kimmelman wrote thatIf Black Mountain didn't give students a diploma, it made up for this oversight by giving them a community and a network that was important for their success. Those connections might explain why students were so loyal to the institution in a way that's hard for most colleges to develop. Students will sacrifice for and invest in a community-but they won't sacrifice for a bureaucracy or a job training program.The advantages Black Mountain College had doesn't mean it didn't have flaws, of course. With few grades and graduates, the college resisted measurement and a diploma was economically worthless. Without a laborious on-campus evaluation from accreditors, discerning whether the school wasn't defrauding taxpayers for financial aid would be impossible by today's standards. A decentralized order can be both a benefit and a cost, and BMC doesn't nicely fit into today's higher ed regulatory environment. Its utopian ideals, too, left something to be desired. As the journalist Daniel Scheffler wrote in a 2015article about an art show focused on BMC:If the campus climate on self-styled progressive institutions like Evergreen State College is any indication, an experimental progressive college today may become a threat to free expression and academic inquiry. Instead of an antidote to a corporatized and uniform college education, a similar approach might result in the suppression of individualized thought and art. A 1952 college bulletin that Scheffler noted, for instance, stated,A loyalty to a political conception of "progress" can undermine the value of an experimental approach today. Black Mountain College may have been lucky to exist in the 1950s that allowed it to avoid present concerns and preserve its mythical status.Reflecting on Black Mountain, Jonathan Palmer of Mendocino College and Maria Trombetta of San Francisco State University asked College access has expanded greatly since Black Mountain College closed its doors. But so has the influence of state and federal governments. The direct and indirect government funds have also brought standards, regulations, and a bevy of strings attached to the money. Many students can now get a rigorous college education at an affordable price, and employers don't question the quality of their diplomas. But Black Mountain College serves as a reminder that American higher ed has also lost a certain freewheeling, experimental approach that served students who didn't find a place in the traditional system. by Ramona Crasto and Donovan Ferrao To deepen the Lenten spiritual experience, Salmiya Parish Youth (SPY) from St. Therese of the Child Jesus Church, Kuwait, organised an overnight Youth Pasch at Don Bosco school from 8 pm to 8 am on April 14. Around 70 youth from the four parishes of Kuwait attended the Lenten youth retreat titled Youth Pasch 2019 that took the participants through Christs Passion, Death, and Resurrection. It is very heartwarming to see weeks of preparation come to fruition in the smiles and tears of the participants. This is one of the most important events of the year. One that calls every young adult during the most important time of our Christian calendar Lent, to renew their friendship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Paloma Dsa, SPY animator, said. The event started off with an introduction, signing of the commitment and welcome by SPYs Spiritual Director Father Lionel Braganza. Participants were then divided into different groups. Various group discussions based on Bible verses of the three iconic days brought each group closer, as they shared their personal experiences and thoughts with each other. Father Franco Pereira explained the importance of the liturgy of the Paschal Triduum. Maundy Thursday session began with the youth conducting a skit on one of the most iconic paintings of our time, The Last Supper. The night then proceeded to the most awaited part where Father Braganza and Father Pereira, with the help of Salesian Cooperators, recreated the Jewish Passover meal as a Catholic resemblance of what Jesus performed at the Last Supper with his disciples. Each plate had the seven food items of the Seder meal, along with four glasses of wine, each representing an important part of the meal. The participants then washed and kissed each others feet just like Jesus did after the Last Supper. Staying awake with Jesus was like being one of the apostles who was told to stay awake at Gethsemane. During the washing of the feet, I was least expecting to have to kiss the feet of my group mates. But in fact, it was the most humbling experience one can go through, as it helped me understand a completely different aspect of humility. Overall the experience was beautiful and really helped me better understand the events that took place during the Holy Week, Roseandro Dcosta, said. Good Friday dawned with a eulogy with different characters that met Jesus on His way to Calvary. Being a part of something so emotional and heartfelt was beyond words. The idea of a eulogy for Jesus was very new and playing such an important role of Mary changed my perspective towards the Holy Week entirely. It was like standing in her shoes and feeling what she felt at the foot of the Cross, Freya Saldanha, who played the role of Mother Mary, said. The youth then set on their way to Calvary by carrying their own crosses and partaking in the Stations of the Cross. Members from each group enacted the importance of carrying crosses by relating it to problems faced by the youth of today. After experiencing the Passion and Death of Christ, many engaged in the Sacrament of Reconciliation through Confession. Holy Saturday brought about the message of waiting in solemn silence for Christs Resurrection. As day broke, pictures of Jesus depicting different emotions in His lifes journey were placed before the crowd and they choose a face of Jesus that spoke to them and shared the reason behind choosing that picture with the group. The retreat was brought to a close with Holy Mass celebrated by Father Braganza and Father Pereira. SPY continues to inspire the youth through such events and encourages them to participate and be a part of the Church through the youth group. BLACK REPUBLICAN BLOG - The Republican Party is the party of civil rights and the four Fs: faith, family, freedom and fairness. The Democratic Party is the party of the four Ss: slavery, secession, segregation and socialism (Quote By Author Michael Scheuer). Earlier this week two presidential candidates made comments that how nationalism is dominating American politics. The first came when South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg told Rachel Maddow national service will become one of the themes of [my] 2020 campaign. He said he hopes to make it, if not legally obligatory, then a social norm. This in itself is not all that surprising since promoting national service is part of the Democrat Party platform: We believe in the power of national service to solve problems and break down barriers by bringing people of all backgrounds together in common purpose. National service expands opportunity for people across America, strengthening our communities and our country. And those who serve earn education awards that they can use for college while building valuable work skills. We will support and strengthen AmeriCorps with the goal that every American who wants to participate in full-time national service will have the opportunity to do so. (NB: Buttigieg seems to differ from his partys platform in that he would include military service under the rubric of national service.) The second example came when Beto ORourke, another presidential candidate, released his tax returns and revealed that in 2017 he had donated $1,166 to charity, or about 0.3 percent of his adjusted gross yearly income of $366,455. When asked by a voter about his apparent stinginess, he replied that his public service is his real contribution. Ive served in public office since 2005, I do my best to contribute to the success of my community, of my state, and now of my country, ORourke said. He also added, But Ill tell you Im doing everything I can right now, spending this time with you, not with our kiddos, not back home in El Paso, because I want to sacrifice everything to make sure that meet this moment of truth with everything that weve got. We shouldnt judge ORourke unfairly. What a person gives to charity should be between them and God (and maybe their tax accountant). Also, hes not completely wrong: giving ones time and energy to help those in need is often as valid as making a financial contribution. Where ORourke errs is in thinking that his serving in public office is a special form of service to the nation. Government work can certainly contribute to the common good, and should not be discounted. But the idea that we can best serve our neighbor through serving the governmentwhether in Congress as ORourke suggests or through something like Americorp, which Buttigieg impliesis a terrible idea rooted in misguided nationalism. Unfortunately, they are not alone. Suggestions that we implement full-time national service for the young are frequently made by honorable people, such as former Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the late William F. Buckley, Jr. (who wrote a book outlining his proposal). What such people often miss is the way that in a free society there are better ways for us to serve our country and our neighbors. For example, Chad W. Seagren, who earned a PhD in economics from George Mason University and holds the rank of major in the Marine Corps, explains why participation in the division of labor serves society: The market so readily provides us with products we desire that we often overlook the crucial role that service plays in our lives. The fact that the shelves of your local grocery store are consistently stocked with milk surprises no one. But the process that brings milk from the dairy to your local retailer is incredibly complex and requires the cooperation of millions of individuals. This process not only succeeds in bringing milk and myriad other products to the masses, but also, in the last 300 years, has raised the standard of living to heights that were unimaginable only a few generations ago. In industrialized countries, it has eliminated abject poverty and starvation. It has greatly increased the availability and quality of medical care, vastly extending life spans. Don Boudreaux, an economics professor at George Mason University, regularly points out the seemingly mundane, but ultimately remarkable, ways in which the capitalist market has improved the environment for humans. The free market is responsible for the wide availability of housing structures to protect people from the elements; climate control such as heating and air conditioning; indoor plumbing; personal hygiene items such as soap and shampoo; and appliances that allow for the safe and clean storage of food, to name just a few. And contrary to popular belief, the market actually enables people to care for the environment, a luxury that becomes attainable only when societies become sufficiently wealthy. The market is so integral to our relationships with other individuals in society and so effectively provides both necessities and luxuries that it is easy to overlook the extent to which people depend on it. Similarly, few realize the contributions that millions of people make every day to this essential social institution. On the surface it may seem like Seagren is referring to something completely different from national service. And in a sense, he is. Seagren is talking about how the markets provide ways to serve the needs and interests of our neighbors in a direct manner by, as Adam Smith would say, serving our own self-interest. What supporters of national service are saying is that we should be coerced or required to subsume our self-interest (at least for a year) in order, as Buttigieg says, to strengthen our nations social cohesion. The implication is that the best, and perhaps only, way to accomplish this goal is through a policy of government-directed volunteerism. While the Democrats would shrink from the label, what they are promoting is just another form of nationalism. Nationalism requires that the individuals trade some of their liberties not for order or freedom but for the good of the nation. And this alwaysalwaysrequires the coercive use of state power. What America needs is not more nationalism or a government-led national service. What we need is a stronger commitment to the patriotic ideal that we serve America best by putting God and neighbor ahead of government and nation. Note: I am not against volunteering in a way that serves ones community or against serving in the armed forces. I myself served for 15 years in the Marines and have volunteered for various charities. What I oppose is using national service primarily to achieve nationalistic social goals (e.g., social cohesion) rather than for the sake of protecting our nation or serving those in need. Im also against the idea that serving in Americorp or the Peace Corps is a similar form of national service as serving in the Army or Marine Corps. While all are worthy, they are not remotely equivalent. Heather Martin knows what she will be doing on Valentines Day, the first anniversary of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. She will plans to text and call some of the students who survived to let them know shes thinking of them as they remember the 17 people who died and contemplate how the attack changed their own lives. Martin understands what theyre going through. She was a senior at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., two decades ago when two students shot and killed 12 students and a teacher. She survived by hiding in a small office with dozens of others. It took years for Martin to come to grips with her experience. After a 2012 shooting in an Aurora, Colo., theater, she and another Columbine survivor started The Rebels Project, a support group for victims of mass shootings. Martin, who works in Aurora as a high school English teacher, says survivors share some common reactions to their traumaanger, guilt, even embarrassment. She told Education Week, I want survivors to know that it gets better and better. And she has advice for Parkland students and educators who will be marking the first anniversary of the shooting. Dont be hard on yourself, says Martin, Whatever you decide to do that day, thats right for you in the moment. Columbine survivors have connected with Parkland survivors in many ways. Stoneman Douglas journalism teacher Sarah Lerner says educators who were in the building that day have offered support to her and her colleagues as they teach students who are processing trauma. Some former Columbine students have joined Parkland students in advocacy for new gun laws. And last year, survivor Jami Amo told Education Week of her work to build to connect survivors of the two attacks in penpal relationships . Related reading on the Parkland school shooting anniversary: Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox. Yahoo! JAPAN Yahoo! JAPAN On April 20 (4/20, duh), Carl's Jr. will sell a cannabidiol (CBD)-infused burger at one of their Denver, Colorado locations. It's called the Rocky Mountain High: CheeseBurger Delight. Of course, CBD actually doesn't get you high but can provide other benefits as an analgesic, to reduce inflammation, alleviate anxiety, etc. Anyway, the fast food chain insists this isn't a publicity stunt but the beginning of an actual market test. From CNN: "It is something that feels right for the brand," (Carl's Jr. senior vice president of brand marketing Patty Trevino) told CNN Business. "We are all about innovation" The chain first decided to explore CBD in January, after introducing a product based on another trend. Earlier this year, the chain announced a plant-based alternative to its signature burger in partnership with Beyond Meat. "I was sitting down with our head chef Owen Klein, and we were talking about trends," Trevino said. After the Beyond Meat launch, they came up with a wish list that included a CBD product. "We looked at ourselves and said, you know what, let's try." Starting small, in a market where cannabis regulation is "really strong," will allow Carl's Jr. to figure out how to move forward. Testing CBD could give the company an edge over competitors, because most of its locations are in Western states, where recreational cannabis is legal. Dentistry has always been medicine's poor cousin, lower in prestige and funding, with much less definitive research; this means that it's harder for someone to point at a procedure and definitively say, "That was unnecessary." At the same time, better oral hygiene and fluoridation has increased our overall dental health; and as that was happening, dental school tuition was mounting alongside all other forms of student debt. You can see where this is going: dentists are graduating from university buried by punishing debt; dental patients need a lot fewer money-generating procedures, and it's easy to get away with performing unnecessary procedures. What coul possibly go wrong? Though this is something of a perfect storm of grifty, late-stage capitalism, the lack of evidence-based standards is a huge piece of the problem. While we're pretty sure that dental sealants are really useful for kids (though few dentists use them because they take a long time and don't generate a lot in billings), and that fluoridation is also good for kids, there just isn't enough evidence to say whether fluoridation benefits adults, whether flossing combats plaque (it is good for your gums though), whether you should have your wisdom teeth removed, etc. And the evidence for other common procedures is really poor or even nonexistent: everything from seeing your dentist twice a year (most people can go once every 12 or 18 months, assuming good oral hygiene); replacing metal fillings with resins, etc. Incredibly, some of the most invasive, painful and expensive procedures have not been studied in any depth, including whether root-canaled teeth should be repaired with fillings or crowns. What is increasingly being studied is whether dentists engage in "overtreatment" (a euphemism for unnecessary procedures). For example, 50 out of 180 Zurich dentists in one secret trial recommended totally unnecessary fillings for minor cavities. The Atlantic's Ferris Jabr's 7,500-word longread about the problems of denistry are hung on a truly ghastly news-peg: in 2012, dentist Brendon Zeidler bought a San Jose, California practice from John Roger Lund, who was retiring. As Zeidler began to see Lund's patients, he realized that Lund had performed a shocking amount of dental surgery on his patients, at enormous expense. Lund was arrested in 2016 and is facing criminal prosecution, though he maintains his innocence. Jabr is at pains to point out that most dentists are honorable and compassionate, which is undoubtably true. I've had very few bad expenses with dentists (though I was shocked by US dentists' aggressive attempts to sell me tooth-whitening services, often during a medical exam, blending a sales-pitch with the medical advice they were giving me). On the other hand, my mother and her family had most of their teeth drilled out in the 50s and 60s by a dentist who is widely believed to have been a butcher who lined his pockets by mutilating his patients' mouths. Among other problems, dentistry's struggle to embrace scientific inquiry has left dentists with considerable latitude to advise unnecessary procedureswhether intentionally or not. The standard euphemism for this proclivity is overtreatment. Favored procedures, many of which are elaborate and steeply priced, include root canals, the application of crowns and veneers, teeth whitening and filing, deep cleaning, gum grafts, fillings for "microcavities"incipient lesions that do not require immediate treatmentand superfluous restorations and replacements, such as swapping old metal fillings for modern resin ones. Whereas medicine has made progress in reckoning with at least some of its own tendencies toward excessive and misguided treatment, dentistry is lagging behind. It remains "largely focused upon surgical procedures to treat the symptoms of disease," Mary Otto writes. "America's dental care system continues to reward those surgical procedures far more than it does prevention." "Excessive diagnosis and treatment are endemic," says Jeffrey H. Camm, a dentist of more than 35 years who wryly described his peers' penchant for "creative diagnosis" in a 2013 commentary published by the American Dental Association. "I don't want to be damning. I think the majority of dentists are pretty good." But many have "this attitude of 'Oh, here's a spot, I've got to do something.' I've been contacted by all kinds of practitioners who are upset because patients come in and they already have three crowns, or 12 fillings, or another dentist told them that their 2-year-old child has several cavities and needs to be sedated for the procedure." Trish Walraven, who worked as a dental hygienist for 25 years and now manages a dental-software company with her husband in Texas, recalls many troubling cases: "We would see patients seeking a second opinion, and they had treatment plans telling them they need eight fillings in virgin teeth. We would look at X-rays and say, 'You've got to be kidding me.' It was blatantly overtreatmentdrilling into teeth that did not need it whatsoever." The Truth About Dentistry [Ferris Jabr/The Atlantic] (via Naked Capitalism) Growing up in Britain, one of my favorite folk fascinations/media obsessions was the alleged presence of big cats in the countryside. Fueled by blurry photos and living at the margins on possibility, the phenomena helped tabloids move on slow days and sometimes shaded into cryptozoology, ufology and other more delicious myths. But they're out there! Aren't they? There have been 155 big cat sightings reported to UK police forces in the past three years, according to forces responding to FOI requests. There are likely many more never recorded. Local newspapers publish dozens of eyewitness reports every year, and have helped to firmly establish certain creatures the Surrey Puma, the Beast of Exmoor in local legend. Where might these cats have come from? One theory suggests they were released by their owners in the months leading up to the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act. Exotic animals had been sold in Harrods; cheetahs could occasionally be seen being walked in Hyde Park. Given the choice of acquiring a costly licence or relinquishing their pets to animal sanctuaries, at least some owners chose a third option: sending cats out into the wild. And yet they are never capturedbut for a few escapees and abandonments granted no mythic fanfare, such as an elderly and arthritic puma so chill she could be petted. UPDATE: There's a whole wikipedia article just about British big cats News / Local by Staff Writer How to Become a Welder Qualifications/Training Skills Certification Do you like creating, designing, and fixing stuff? If you are good with your hands, welding could be the career you are looking for. One of the best things about welding as a profession is that it does not require a degree. You do, however, need to have a very specific set of skills to excel as a welder. Unlike many other professions that do not require a degree, welding pays very well. Additionally, welding is now a safer career than it was in the old days.Today, there are modern helmets and welding jackets to keep you safe . Welding professionals are metal joiners who work with a variety of tools and machinery. These skilled technical workers shape and join pieces of metal such as aluminum and steel using heat generated by lasers or torches. Welders use their skills to create items that we depend on every day. Maintaining welding equipment and putting finishing touches by polishing and smoothing metal surfaces is also part of a welder's job.Welders are almost always in demand. That's because welding features in most aspects of construction and maintenance. Mining, gas, and oil industries provide plenty of career opportunities for welders. Anyone can take up welding as a profession. All you need is the ability to effectively use your hands and a willingness to work. However, you need a certain set of skills to make welding the foundation of your career. Looking to build a career in welding? Here's what you need to become a welder.While you don't need to have a college degree to build a career in welding, you need to have some form of basic training. Typically, you need to undergo specialized training at a private welding school, community college, or vocational school to become a welder. Some high schools offer optional welding classes for interested students. You can also join the US armed forces and complete the training program. The armed forces provide on-the-job training in welding.Another route is to enroll in an internship or apprentice program. The training duration depends on the level of skill needed for a particular work or specialty. The education requirements for a career in welding mostly varies depending on the employer. Some employers look for an undergraduate degree or a certificate from a community college, vocational school, or technical school. Others just need welders to have a high school diploma and pass the employer's welding tests.On top of the formal training from your high school, community college, or vocational training welding program, you'll need certain skills to become a welder. You need to take courses in chemistry, physics, mechanical drawing, and metallurgy to understand shop mechanics and blueprint reading. Computer knowledge is of growing importance when it comes to jobs involving the use of lasers and automated welding machines.You may be awarded a diploma or an associate degree after completing your formal training. Your employer may also need you to earn one or more certifications. Organizations such as the American Welding Society offer general certifications as well as in specialties such as inspection. While not all welding jobs require certification, some do. In certain areas, one may be required to pass a skills test to become a licensed welder. welder is a professional who specializes in fabricating products by joining together metals such as aluminum, brass, and steel. The job of a welder is to fuse metal components to form a final product that meets the client's requirements. A welder needs skill and physical strength to manage the heavy and sometimes hazardous welding equipment. Depending on the level of expertise, a welder can work in industries such as aerospace, construction, and steel manufacturing. News / National by Staff reporter THE Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) has deplored deep-seated self-hate and mutual dislike among Zimbabweans, which is causing polarisation.The ZCC also complained that Zimbabwe is now a country where differences are emphasised.In a message to commemorate Palm Sunday - the Sunday before Easter, ZCC general-secretary Kenneth Mtata blamed this on a culture of "sweeping conflicts and tensions under the carpet".Mtata argued that the "Zimbabwe we want" with proud "patriotic people at peace with each other living in a united, peaceful, just and prosperous land" will not be possible unless "we truthfully confront the ugly past cases of violence and hurt"."A cloud of mutual dislike and self-hate seems to hover over us. We find it increasingly difficult to agree with each other. Those who belong to one political party despise and hate those from another political party." In extreme cases, these divisions have resulted in violent conflict. We seem to have lost sight of the brighter future we all long to see in a united, peaceful, just and prosperous Zimbabwe home of the continent's brightest minds, the bread basket and indestructible house of stone," Mtata said in the message."We need to truthfully confront the ugly past cases of violence and hurt. Many Zimbabweans are living in fear of other Zimbabweans. This fear limits their ability to confront the future with confidence and contribute their best to the nation's shared progress."Post-independence Zimbabwe has been marked by violent episodes and conflicts that have caused death, displaced thousands and left thousands others nursing deep scars, mostly linked to politics."This is not to say that we have not made significant progress in our quest to be the Zimbabweans we want a proud patriotic people at peace with each other living in a united, peaceful, just and prosperous land," Mtata added. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu The controversial Zimbabwe bird is carved with a crocodile crawling towards it. The bird stole social media limelight on Wednesday after MDC leader Nelson Chamisa condemned it as an object of idol worship.The crocodile is the nick name for President Emmerson Mnangagwa.Black Hebrew teacher Lovemore Mkwakwami says the so-called Zimbabwe bird sculpture combines human, reptile and bird features.Mkwakwami says the chevron pattern on the so-called Zimbabwe bird signifies two great ideas meaning the spiritual frequencies.He further reveals that due to its spiritual power Cecil John Rhodes regarded it as his personal totem and made major decisions in its presence.Watch Mkwakwami explaining the Zimbabwe bird below: News / National by Mandla Ndlovu President Emmerson Mnangagwa has directed all workers dealing with Cyclone Idai related works which include construction, relief and rehabilitation must remain at work during the Easter holidays.The country is going for Independence and Easter holidays which commence on Thursday.Mnangagwa further said the workers must not take leave during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair period so that there is uninterrupted attention towards the affected areas and victims.In a statement issued on Wednesday Mnangagwa said this applies to Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, officials and Aid agencies cooperating with government.Cyclone Idai killed at least 300 people during its strike.Aid agencies and embassies have been working tirelessly to proving necessary relief funding. News / National by Staff reporter A CHIPINGE white commercial farmer, who allegedly shot his employee after allegedly mistaking him for a stray dog has applied for inspection in loco after blaming the victim for the incident.Joubert Francois Johannes (36) of Lushof Farm, pleaded not guilty to negligently causing serious bodily harm to his employee when his trial started before Chipinge magistrate, Joshua Nembaware.In his defence, Johannes said he did not intend to shoot the complainant, Frank Fuyana, but mistook him for a stray dog.Yesterday, he was back in court blaming Fuyana for the shooting mishap."The complainant is the one who made a mistake by not being at his usual workplace at the time of the shooting. I was not negligent at all; it's the complainant who is to blame. Had the complainant not moved away from his usual workplace, he wouldn't have been shot," Johannes said.After testifying, Johannes' defence counsel then applied to the court for an inspection in loco to which Nembaware acceded to and scheduled it for next week before he delivers his judgment.Prosecutor Gift Bikita told the court that on October 5 last year, Johannes and his employee, Fuyana were under a dairy shed at around 6am.Johannes then saw stray dogs which had entered his kraal and took his shotgun.At the same time, Fuyana also left the shed going to the guardroom, where he wanted to prepare a meal.When the farmer returned, he fired at the stray dogs, killing one instantly and another bullet reportedly strayed and hit Fuyana on the stomach and he suffered serious injuries.He was rushed to hospital, where he was admitted and the bullet removed.A report was made to the police, leading to Johannes' arrest. News / National by Staff reporter A HARARE murder suspect is on the run after fatally shooting his wife and brother-in-law at their Gletywin home last month following a protracted marital dispute.Petros Pomborokani (50), alias Adrenne Teresai-Phiri, a former Ministry of Health and Child Care officer is accused of shooting his wife, Olivia Zenda and brother-in-law Robert Zenda with a CZ pistol in front of his three children, mother-in-law, a relative and housemaid.Witnesses who refused to be named for security reasons said Pomborokani sent a message on his mobile phone threatening to shoot his wife and children over extra-marital affair allegations.The sources said Pomborokani is using South African and United Kingdom-registered mobile numbers to threaten several people whom he was suspecting of having had extra-marital affairs with his deceased wife.When he allegedly committed the offence, Pomborokani was on a warrant of arrest for attempted murder after a failed attempt to kill his wife in October last year.The police have been asking the public to help with information that can lead to the arrest of the suspect by reporting to a nearby police station.According to police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, investigations of the matter are still in progress.The couple had been married for 20 years and have four children aged 19, 12, 10 and eight.Police recovered two loaded magazines at the crime scene. Investigations have so far revealed that Pomborokani and his wife had a long-standing marital dispute. He was in the habit of assaulting the deceased and had since moved out of their matrimonial home. News / National by Staff reporter DNA tests results have confirmed that the remains found at a farm in Beatrice, in January were that of MDC activist Blessing Toronga, who was reportedly abducted and tortured during the State-led clampdown in the aftermath of the anti-government protests, the family has said.Toronga was a known MDC activist in Glen Norah, Harare, and his body was found in a state of decomposition more than a month after he was allegedly abducted on January 24.The body was found dumped near Beatrice and was then ferried to Chitungwiza General Hospital by the police. His family only knew about it on March 10 when he was about to be given a pauper's burial.DNA tests were then instituted and confirmed that the remains were that of Toronga.His sister Norah, confirmed that the tests were positive and burial arrangements were underway."We received the DNA results last Friday and we are in the process of organising the burial," she said.Meanwhile, the family of the late Kelvin Choto, who was shot by police in Chitungwiza in January said they will be holding a memorial service on Friday where pro-democracy campaigners are expected to speak against State brutality.Kelvin's father, Julius, said the memorial service will be graced by officials from the main opposition MDC Alliance, some embassies and human rights defenders."They have shown sympathy to us throughout our grieving time," he said. News / National by Staff reporter A group of four Zimbabweans has won $20 000 in the Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge for a technology platform they designed to provide easy access to quality educational materials with a mission to provide affordable materials to every student, especially those with visual impairment.Blessing-Mau Maunze, Brighton Mahatchi, Simbarashe Duane Andre and Farayi Goronga better known as Team Amigo are one of the four teams that got this seed funding to take their ideas to the next level and make a bigger impact for their communities.Mahatchi, 23, said his vision was just to equip the disadvantaged peers that could not proceed with school for different reasons."We want to bring education to people's homes people who aren't in school, people who dropped out, people who are in the rural areas," he said.Maunze said the idea was developed with the Zimbabwean student in mind and the student in SubSahara.His team developed the Amigo app to give every student in Zimbabwe equal access to textbooks, tutorials and other learning materials."The Online hub has over 2million educational books, 1million journals and a thousand videos," said Maunze."We are trying to bring everything educational to one central place and leverage technology so that it becomes accessible to everyone no matter how remote they are," Bright explains. "This platform is a tremendous opportunity for us."As global winners of the Youth Challenge, the team is elated to receive support and put their plans into action."We can't believe this," says Farayi, 23. "We just think we're dreaming."Among the winners is Fantastic Four from Thailand, Muntjatna from Sudan, The Red Code from Pakistan and Andrometa Speakout from the Republic of North Macedonia.Generation Unlimited brings together young women and men seeking opportunities for a bright future throughout the world with the private sector, governments, international and local organisations .They are connecting secondary-age education and training to a complex and fast-changing world of work. News / National by Staff reporter MDC Alliance leaders Trevor Saruwaka and David Chimhini have been summoned to the Mutare Magistrates' Courts over a 2016 charge of promoting public violence.Saruwaka, Mutasa Central MP, and Chimhini - the opposition party's outgoing Manicaland provincial chairperson - are wanted in court for trial over the September 2016 protest over Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) conduct. Saruwaka and Chimhini spent three days behind bars when they were initially arrested.They were arrested in the eastern border city's central business district for mobilising people and participating in an unsanctioned demonstration. Their matter was removed from the court roll before they were sanctioned to reappear in court to answer to the charges in June last year but their trial was again halted and again removed from the roll.Their lawyer, Chris Ndlovu, told journalists then that prosecutors said they were not ready to proceed with trial. The current summons wants the duo to appear in court next week Friday. It is the State's case that Saruwaka and Chimhini mobilised a group of about 30 opposition supporters and staged an unsanctioned demonstration in Mutare.According to State papers, the MDC wanted to demonstrate against what they called the slow pace by Zec in implementing electoral reforms.Their actions, according to the State, had the potential to disturb the peace, security and public order. News / National by Staff reporter MDC leader Nelson Chamisa heaved a sigh of relief yesterday after the High Court dismissed an urgent chamber application by a Gokwe-based man who had sought to stop the party congress slated for May 24 to 26.Elias Mashavire had argued that in terms of the MDC's constitution, an extraordinary congress should have been held to replace the late founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai. He therefore challenged the legitimacy of interim party leader, Nelson Chamisa. The matter was heard in chambers before High Court Judge Esther Muremba.Alec Muchadehama, Jeremiah Bamu, Innocent Gonese and Thabitha Khumalo represented the MDC. They argued strongly yesterday that there was nothing urgent about Mashavire's application before it was thrown out. "There is nothing urgent and that was noted after we argued that it was incompetent for the applicant (Mashavire) to seek a final order in an interim application," Muchadehama said."He was simply supposed to follow up on the ruling of the other matter he filed before (Justice) Mushure. He is awaiting a judgment of the High Court in that matter and filed an urgent chamber application again. "Seeking to stop the congress was misplaced and Mashavire had other remedies to his grievances. He could still challenge the outcome of the congress."On September 24 last year, Mashavire approached the High Court seeking a declaration that Chamisa was not the party's legitimate leader as he had not been endorsed by an extra-ordinary congress.Mushore reserved judgment on the matter on March 14, a week after Chamisa had issued a notice convening the party congress between May 24 and 26.Chamisa is tipped to retain the MDC presidency, with all the provinces that have completed their nominations so far, rooting for him. While MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora has expressed his desire to challenge Chamisa for the top post, he is yet to receive a single nomination for the post.In another case pending before the High Court, five MDC members are challenging Chamisa's presidency on the same basis.Wirimayi Chemubvumo, Tererai Muteve, Mbekezeli Ndlovu, David Samapenda and Abraham Mwadzura are the applicants, while Mwonzora, vice president Morgen Komichi, Chamisa and the MDC, are cited as respondents.In his founding affidavit, Chemubvumo said in terms of Section 64 of the MDC constitution, in the event of death or resignation of the president, "the deputy president assumes the role of acting president pending the holding of an extra-ordinary congress that shall be held not later than a year to elect a new leader".He said in the circumstances, the extra-ordinary congress should have been held in February, exactly a year after his death."My freedom of association has been violated in the sense that after the death of my party president in 2018, I am as of the 15th of February 2019 being affectively forced to associate myself with the third respondent (Chamisa) who has usurped the role of president albeit unlawfully and unconstitutionally without receiving either my or other party members' endorsement at the extra-ordinary congress," Chemubvumo said.He said as it stands the respondents are busy campaigning and conducting mini congresses at ward and district levels as well as provincial levels ahead of the national congress. "With respect this conduct cannot be allowed to go on for any day longer whilst the constitution of the party remains unfulfilled as it presently does.The third respondent (Chamisa) is parading himself as the president' of the party and purporting to discharge functions as such, even as he is unsanctioned to do so in terms of the key constitutional provision," Chemubvumo said. He accused Mwonzora and Komichi of working in complicit in the violation of the party's constitution."The first and second (Mwonzora and Komichi), are likewise discharging other official functions but turning a blind eye on the ongoing constitutional violation. In so doing they are effectively violating my constitutional right to freedom of assembly and political participation in a bid to secure the third respondent's place," he said.In the application, Chemubvumo and his colleagues attached a copy with 200 signatures of people whom he claims are in support of the holding of an extra-ordinary congress. He also attached a letter that he wrote to Mwonzora last month pushing for the conducting of an extra-ordinary congress in terms of the party's constitution.According to court papers, Chemubvumo and his colleagues want Chamisa to revert to his position that he held before Tsvangirai's death. Opinion / Columnist It may be surprising that the said to be architectures of Democracy are fully behind the suffering endured by Mthwakazi citizens, but that is the truth. The British Conservative Party has been behind the suffering of our people since the Colonial times and it seems not willing to back off. It is the British Conservative Party that was in power in 1893-4 when the combined army of Shonas and the Conservative party that dethroned Lobengula and destroyed uMthwakazi nation and country.When the Mthwakazi Revolted against the British South African Company in 1896-7, the same Party together with their Zimbabwe friends helped crush us.Yet again after Mthwakazi fighters under the tutelage of Zipra defeated the Rhodesians, the Conservative Party helped its blue-eyed tyranny, Robert Mugabe and his evil ZANU-PF party to rig elections in 1980 in their counterparts favour.The same Conservative Party funded Gukurahundi and provided Land Rover vehicles to the regime and also other logistical support including putting a curtain around the massacres to hide the atrocities to the world. Up to date, the British have never criticized Mugabe and Zimbabwe for butchering Mthwakazi.As if it is not enough, we now witness the same Party helping clean up Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the genocide they committed in partnership, through the so-called Matabeleland Collective. As MLF, we challenge the British Prime Minister, Teresa May to come out clean over her party's hate and discriminatory policy of Mthwakazi and its evil connections with Zanu.What a shame! Opinion / Columnist It has been brought to my attention that the villagers of Chakohwa all the way to Mutambara will soon be moved to pave the way for the new diamond field that have been identified during the recent explorations for diamonds. There has to be some truth following the publication of the herald of 17 March 2017 http://www.herald.co.zw/govt-explores-new-diamond-fields/.When it was first announced that the diamonds in Chiadzwa were going to benefit the community . The impression was that we would have the Manicaland University, Manica diamond and processing plant, etc.The shock was to be advised that the grading, processing and even the polishing was going to be done in Mount Hampden in the Zvimba district after a large chuck had been smuggled to India and the middle east. The last nail of the coffin was when the President of Zimbabwe, His Excellence Cde R.G. Mugabe said US$15 billion worth of diamonds were stolen and up to now not a penny has been recovered.Following the failure of the Zimbabwe's community share ownership trusts, set up by government to benefit poor communities in resource-rich areas of the Zimbabwe. A new approach has to be adopted by creating a sustainable urban development plan through a collaborative community development initiative. This initiative should involve the local government, companies operating in the area, and the high quality participation of the entire community of the area. Its purpose will be to address the shortcomings in the area and to propose an integrated, forward-looking approach to make the mining area attractive to its people and increase investment.This community initiative should consider projects in the areas of infrastructure and urban development, environmental protection, local heritage, provision of water, power supply provision, educational improvement and employing only the local people. All the projects should stimulate a more sustainable community. In order to develop the project portfolio, there has to be initiative sponsored direct participation through an open house, technical tables, forums, and open committees. Opinion / Columnist The 18th of April is a monumentally historic date in the history of our country. It is the date our country achieved a hard-fought political independence. Zimbabwe's gallant sons and daughters sacrificed for the political liberation of our country. We are all grateful for their sacrifice. We at Zim EFF accord the highest respect for the veterans of the liberation war. The evil face of colonialism, imperialism, racism and injustice was defeated by the revolutionary gallant fighters of our country. We salute them, all in their entirety.Today, it's the 18th of April. Zimbabwe is not in a celebratory mood. The political independence which brought so much joy and hopes to our citizens has turned out to have been just a mirage, a fraud - simply because this was a meaningless political independence which did not bring economic independence for our people. Those who were heroes of independence years ago have turned out to be protagonists of oppression for our people, they are now the barons of corruption and murderous warlords. We as Zim EFF speak truth to power without fear or favour. Zim EFF asserts that the current political leaders in our country have collectively failed the ordinary people of Zimbabwe. Our people are facing ever worsening economic hardship. The dignity of our people is compromised to an extent that for many, daily existence is a state of humiliation. Many are unable to maintain their dignity and pride as parents.There is no dignity or honour if you are a parent failing to provide food and clothing for your own children. It is perpetually painful to see our people struggling to feed themselves, failing to send their children to school, failing to provide good health care for their children. The honest truth is that it is the government that is failing the people. Our political leaders have failed to prioritise providing basic health care, basic education, basic food and basic safety for its own citizens.The fact that bread prices shot up on the eve of our Independence Day says it all. Our political rulers have lost the economy. We at Zim EFF have said all the time and now that it is all about ECONOMIC FREEDOM. ECONOMIC FREEDOM is key for the success of any nation and for the betterment of the people's lives. We can do better as a country however we have powerful political mafias in the midst of us who masquerade as smooth technocrats and professionals yet they are ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing. These are the kind of people running our political and other national institutions.Zim EFF advocates for a peaceful revolutionary change. We believe that political freedom without economic freedom is meaningless. It is, therefore, our understanding that the government must declare the economic collapse in our country a national disaster. Our people are hurting. We need radical change.We call upon all Zimbabweans this Independence Day to extend a hand of compassion to one another and make this day a day of compassionate giving. Think of that elderly lady next door who has no food to eat, think of that undernourished child a few houses down the street, think of that old frail man who has no relatives - it's a day to give in cash or kind, emotional or practical support. Zim EFF fighters will be on the streets to provide support and compassion to our people. It is time, we get our country working again. It is time to fight for ECONOMIC FREEDOMIssued by Zim EFF CIC Innocent Ndibali.www.zeffighters.com Opinion / Columnist Celebrating a birthday used to be THE big as we grew up. The anxiety was enormous and yes growing in a tiny village made it even more fascinating. My mum would make sure we enjoy such days just like she would make sure we enjoy Christmas and new year. Even in the tough times, she would make a slaughter of one of her free range chickens.Tough times have seen Zimbabwe and its citizens struggle to find that little joy. Can she celebrate her freedom birth from colonial rule? Yes she can but to what extent is her joy in the midst of the suffering majority. Many questions arise about the success of our motherland. How humane have we been upon one another? Where is our true freedom and happiness? ..Independence day should be a day to celebrate and enjoy the fruits of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Sad to say little did they know that our leaders shall proclaim ownership of our resources and maneuver towards a one part dictatorial-led state. Did we really end this era with the departure of Mugabe or its just the replacement of his face by another.This year marks the second independence day celebrations officiated by Mr. Mnangagwa, since the coup. It also comes eight months after he was declared winner of the controversial presidential elections. His "moto" of the new Zimbabwe - the new dispensation is still yet to yield fruits particularly for the suffering Zimbabweans. We have seen radical changes in monetary policies remarkably marked by changing from bollars to RTGS in a bid to wave off the black market. I have never seen such a leadership that fails to contain simple matters of giving people confidence. It is simple confidence the people need and that they can trust the government and the banks, but what do they do- they clearly seal this path by this change. We feel we are being robbed of our money in the bank as it erodes so easily by their word of mouth. His government has failed to tackle corruption. I don't see the zero tolerance and the bringing in to book of the culprits. In fact, I wonder whether we really elected a leader of the civilian kind or a camouflaged one.What can we do? This is simply not easy. We have stubborn leaders who think they can play with the lives of people- one says I won the elections and I can single handedly deliver Zimbabwe into prosperity through the open for business mantra, while the other continues to call for stiff sanctions and no talks to collaborate and rebuild a Zimbabwe we can all be proud of. On the other hand, we have business who dictator the price of commodities irrespective of how much the ordinary consumer is suffering. An era of one man for himself and God for us all. This is unZimbabwean. My warning to our leaders is servant leadership calls for respect of those whom you lead and not the cronies around you with no idea of what is happening at grass roots level. If you continue to push people towards that very corner we said no to Mugabe be warned that another revolt is brewing. This time no man from the military shall be allowed to take any seat in the helm of Zimbabwe and neither will Mr Chamisa and his boat. They are equally responsible for this mishap.We must, however, take this opportunity to thank every Zimbabwean for their prayers and donations in cash or kind to the victims of cyclone Idai. It was an unexpected incident, horrific in its nature and devastating to say the least. As united as we stood during the peak of the disaster, I encourage everyone to continue with this love of one another. Lets us continue to assist each other particularly the victims of cyclone idai in rebuilding their lives.Viva Zimbabwe and happy independence our motherland.God bless Zimbabwe.Dr. Takesure Tazvishaya. Opinion / Columnist As Zimbabweans remember the end of colonialism and the advent of independent rule on 18 April 1980, it is saddening to note that what every citizen celebrated as a new chapter has in actual fact been an incubation of a failed state and a poverty stricken society. All hope for a prosperous society under majority government have turned into a nightmare with corruption, tribalism, looting and violations of human rights becoming authors of continued and constant episodes of agony and grief on the ordinary Zimbabwean.The economy has become the most visible symptom of a system that was designed to loot the country's resources by the elite in government since 1980. Only a few have been benefiting from the economy with millions wallowing in abject poverty thanks to nepotistic cronyism, outright tribalism and patronage that has characterised our governance since the Zimbabwean flag was raised on this land. Today we have cries of marginalization from different sessions of our greater society, with Manicaland and Matebelelanad being the loudest owing to deep rooted tribalism in our systems as a country.These societal deficiencies are as a result of failure by the Zimbabwean authorities post 1980 to invest energies in nation building. Today, instead of a nation celebrating independence, we are merely a country that is defined by nothing more than the Berlin Conference boarder lines. Even this day of triumph against colonialism has over the years failed to bring Zimbabweans together as the governing party has turned it into its party recruitment and propaganda platform.This day has become nothing but a celebration of a cosmetic independence where only flags and national anthems were replaced without addressing fundamental elements of freedom and nation building. The day marks transfer of oppressive power from a white racist to a black tribalist where the country failed to create home grown societies based on our diverse cultures, values and norms.Instead, divisions and hatred was sown among the people by the government of Zimbabwe with serious societal damage being done in the process. We saw a genocide being committed by them simply to eliminate a political opinion and ideology that was divergent to theirs. Tens of thousands lost lives, with Matobo and Tsholotsho districts accounting for 20 000 deaths. We also saw the government unleashing Murambatsvina on predominantly opposition strongholds. Thousands lost livelihoods. We saw many politically related deaths at every election turn as the government of independent Zimbabwe worked round the clock to eliminate dissent. All these atrocities and human rights violations have not been addressed and the government of independent Zimbabwe is not only complicity responsible but is determined to evade accountability.This is evidence that as a country we have lost all aims and values of the liberation struggle that culminated in independence in 1980 and as such, celebrating this day has become vanity and an insult to those who paid the ultimate price for our independence.Many today erroneously think 18 April 1980 was the destination in our quest for freedom. In actual fact, it marked the beginning of a journey in search of freedom, self determination and nationhood and these could only have been achieved by a people whose development was premised on respect of the constitutional , human rights and who are tolerant to diversity. This became a very difficult task for the pretenders who found themselves in power in 1980. Just like every fool with an erection who can make a woman conceive, these pretenders found themselves responsible for raising a baby that was expected to grow into a strong nation with robes of prosperity wrapped around it.Instead, the pretenders are almost done squeezing life out of the baby Zimbabwe and this they have achieved through corruption, looting, thuggery, nepotism, tribalism, rights violations and outright disregard of the land's constitution and laws. Because nothing matters to these pretenders except political power, we witnessed a coup de tat in November 2017, a total disregard of the constitution and values and aims of the liberation struggle and its tenets. These have seen total collapse of the economy, social services delivery and that very societal fabric that should have brought us together into a nation. It indeed is a celebration of poverty that has come in capsules from those whose initial responsibility was to build the country and its economy.ZAPU invites all Zimbabweans to a self introspection exercise today where we should all interrogate the meaning of independence without freedom and self determination. Let us all interrogate the meaning of an independent country that knows no nation. Let us all cone together and redefine our independence and direct all our efforts towards building a nation of equality, prosperity, freedom and self determination. Let us reinvent our independence and make it celebrated and commemorated by all despite our diversity in appearance, talk or opinion. May all Zimbabweans take time to reflect and self correct. While at it, may we all be safe on the country's dilapidated roads, let's drive to arrive alive and also be our brothers/sisters keepers in face of this biting economic melt down.We wish we could say Happy independence Zimbabwe..! Australian star designer Greg Natale is a perfectionist. Its how he built his firm, designed his 18,000-square-foot Sydney studio, and how hes producing his latest collection of home accessories, which were swiftly picked up by Bergdorf Goodman and landed on shelves this month. I wanted the objects to be heavy, Natale tells Business of Home. I wanted everything to be precise. If he held, say, a vase, and the weight didnt feel right in his hand, the team would start over. And over. Until it was complete. When you know its right, its right, says Natale. Greg Natale's objets Courtesy of Greg Natale It took three different manufacturers, a handful of prototypes, and years of development before Natale was ready to show Bergdorf his debut assortment of objets. His persistence paid off: They bought the entire collection on the spot. I was able to get an intro and I showed them a couple of concepts I was doing, and they loved it, the designer says. I wanted the quality to be the best. The collection of 50 boxes, vases, trays, bookends, bowls and catchalls is already selling well, and buyers basically formed a line outside the door. Natales next collection of objets is slated to release in August, featuring Italian ceramics and French crystalnew materials that will complement the marble, brass, travertine, pen shell and stone that make up this collection. The collection comprises marble, brass, travertine, pen shell and stone. Courtesy of Greg Natale When it comes to product design versus project design, the designers firm still focuses on residential projectsbut inspiration comes from that as well. Everything starts from the studio, says Natale. When Im designing product, Im looking at it from a designers point of view. That usually means theres someone else out there thinking like me. He describes his aesthetic as tailored and precise. The word tailored is precise, but its also tailored to my clients dreams and personal style. Its their house, not mine. Being too specific, he explains, comes with the risk of a client disliking the final product. Though his attention and coverage is still growing in the U.S., its worth noting that Natale is a well-established star in Australia, his home. Born, raised and still based in Sydney, Natale is the only designer whos been twice featured as Australian design magazine Belles interior designer of the year. Like many large cities, Sydney is a cultural hub with its own style, one Natale has ingrained in his studio and work. But there have always been aspirations directed toward America. Natales anthology, The Patterned Interior, was published by Rizzoli in September; the book tour for it has led to him breaking in a few markets. Since it came out, hes done two American interiors hereone in New Yorks Midtown, and one in Oklahoma. He appreciates the opportunities. I came to New York in 1997 and just fell in love with it; at the moment, Im really happy with Bergdorf Goodman, says Natale. It was probably really film and television that led me to decide I wanted to be an interior designer. Films like The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired me. - T. S. Eliot Thoughts After Lambeth "The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide." Military Vets on What You Can Learn From Their Service Military Skills Youll Want to Bring to Your Personal and Professional Life Those of us who havent served in the military might never fully understand the weight of what serving ones country means. Still, its fascinating to hear the stories and the wisdom that veterans have gained from their time in the service and how those experiences impact their everyday lives. RELATED: Executives Share Their Best Career Advice It turns out there are countless lessons and skills that veterans have taken from their military service that translate into everyday lives, no matter your personal or professional status. With that in mind we asked veterans, from a range of backgrounds, to share the most important lessons they learned in the military and how those skills can help anyone tackle real life. Always Be Situationally Aware Deadly attacks dont just happen in far off places such as Iraq or Gaza. Sadly, in a day and age when women at a Tallahassee yoga studio are randomly shot, we know that no place can be considered unequivocally safe. One of the takeaways from my military training that I believe should be applied to all facets of life is the importance of maintaining situational awareness, says former Army Captain and co-founder of Operation Heal Our Heroes, Everett Weston. (You might also recognize Weston from Bravos Summer House.) This means knowing whos at your front, your six, and your flanks, he says. While this clearly applies to physical safety, Weston says it also goes beyond that. This concept can be applied to anything from a business climate to navigating a foreign country, or a New York City subway system. GettyImages This point was echoed by former Navy Fighter Pilot and founder/CEO of Top Gun Options, Matthew Whiz Buckley. Soldiers tend to be hyper-aware of their surroundings because when youre out in the field, theres no room for distractions, he says. Businessmen and women should also know whats going on around them at all times. Figure out what your competition looks like, research them, and stay up-to-date on their current events. Are they doing something differently? You dont want to miss out on critical revelations, he says. If you dont know where to start, Buckley suggests subscribing to newsletters, e-newsletters, magazines, and other publications relevant to your business so you can stay well-informed. Matthew Buckley Every Problem Has a Solution Mental state is everything. Problems are always happening when youre in the military and as a soldier you have to have the right way of thinking in order to solve them, says former Staff Sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces, Guy Hadad. Every problem has a solution is more than just a sentence its a mindset! Once you internalize this mindset, you can start acting upon it, he adds. When this happens, instead of saying theres no solution and giving up, you start saying, I will find a solution, and eventually you do. This mental technique goes hand-in-hand with improvisation, which is an incredibly important skill to have in everyday life. No matter how prepared you are, you cant prepare for everything, says Hadad. The Army teaches you how to think quickly on your feet and make the best of a situation. Think: finding a creative way to fix a problem or changing certain aspects in order to accomplish the overall goal, he explains. In entrepreneur speak, its the ability to pivot. RELATED: Miltary Men on Stress Reduction Techniques Develop a Routine to Tackle Your Day Small things, such as making your bed every morning, can have a huge impact on your life. The idea is that if you make your bed, you will have accomplished your first task of the day, setting the tone for the rest of your day. This concept is something that came up repeatedly in our conversations with veterans. Having a good routine in all walks of life is incredibly important to be and feel accomplished, says former Sergeant First Class in the Israel Defense Forces, Yaakov Edri. It means waking up early, making your bed, working out, and making to-do lists. Since military service is often a very physical endeavor, its not surprising that exercise was mentioned. In the military, soldiers learn that there arent only physical benefits to be gained from working out there are major mental ones as well. While I never really became a morning person amidst all of the early morning wakeups, I did notice that I was typically more productive and focused at work after getting my heart and metabolism pumping after a pushup workout or a two-mile run early in the morning, says Weston. Theres nothing like a little physical exertion to help clear your mind of stressors and prepare you to tackle the day. Developing a solid routine also means taking pride in how you look, and that has nothing to do with vanity. A good soldier takes pride in their physical appearance because it reflects that individuals professionalism and attention to detail, says Weston. Thats why he carried over that concept into his business career, making sure to wear clean and pressed clothes and keeping his hair well-groomed. I am a firm believer in the importance of first impressions, especially because these days your network is such a crucial component of business. RELATED: CEOs on Their Morning Routines Time Is Valuable You cant buy time, but you can control how you use it. The army emphasizes the importance of optimizing time management so you can work more effectively because there are high stakes situations where a second could be the difference between life and death, says Hadad. In the real world, its just as important to focus on working effectively and finding ways to optimize to-dos, he says. One of the ways Hadad optimizes his time is by waking up at 5 a.m. When you start adopting this habit, you will notice that by 8 a.m. youve already accomplished a lot, while other people are only starting their day. Let Your Endgame Be Your Drive To use a fighter pilot term: most Americans are very tactical and not strategic, says Buckley. The average American doesn't know what they're doing for lunch today, let alone what their objectives are a year from now. Planning allows us to project our thoughts forward in space and time, so we can influence events rather than react to them, he explains. Buckleys navy training taught him the value of both long- and short-term goals. Most decisions should be dictated by long-term goals dont cut corners to get ahead; keeping your future picture in mind will help you make better business decisions, rather than quick decisions that could hurt you in the long run. Russell Benes, who served in the Navy for eight years and is now the owner of PuroClean Emergency Restoration Services also underlines the importance of taking a macro approach to planning. During my time in the service, we often went months without having a day off. In life, I believe its important to see the bigger picture and I know that if I work hard, I will achieve my long-term goals. Pain Is Just a Feeling No matter how intense, pain is temporary, says Hadad, whether its physical pain from workouts, Krav Maga, or in the field. A thought that helped me during these times was remembering that pain is only a feeling. Its easy to stop once you start feeling pain, but your body can go through much more than you think, he says. The military teaches you how to separate yourself from the feeling of pain and objectively look at a situation. This translates into my everyday life in many ways such as when I work out I can always push past the pain of muscle soreness knowing that the mind always wants to give up before the body. Fuel Properly Not only will hydrating with water help to keep you trim (people often confuse dehydration with hunger), its crucial for energy and mental sharpness. Drinking plenty of water is a daily habit I picked up in the army because its something thats consistently emphasized, says Hadad. If you dont drink enough, you will tire and this will affect your overall performance both physically and mentally. Seeing firsthand the effects of fueling properly is what motivated Joe Lopez-Gallego, a former Army Captain and now CEO of Kettlebell Kitchen, to start his own business. Being a part of the military is a test of mental and physical strength, and you cant expect to perform your best in either of those categories if youre not fueling your body properly. His experience inspired him to start Kettlebell Kitchen to make quality nutrition more readily available. Joe Lopez-Gallego RELATED: Sensible Career Advice to Become Successful Cold Showers Have Value There are many benefits to cold showers, as unpleasant as they may be. Tim Ferriss put them in the spotlight for helping to burn fat, but Hadad found that the effects go far beyond the physical. I remember one winter post-workout getting in the shower only to realize the boiler was broken and the water was freezing, says Hadad. He didnt want to go to bed dirty so after a second of contemplation he decided to shower in the freezing cold. I remember screaming for the first few seconds, but after a few more seconds of controlled breathing I got used to the water. After finishing the shower, I felt more awake and focused than I had in a long time, he says. Now, Hadad regularly incorporates cold showers into his routine and recommends trying them if you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, want to be more focused, or if you want to train yourself to get out of your comfort zone. RELATED: The Weird Habits of Successful CEOS and Business Leaders Camaraderie Is Key for Success Ive been competitive and independent my entire life, says former United States Marine Corp Sergeant and founder of the Kirstie Ennis Foundation, Kirstie Ennis. But the Marine Corps taught her to think two steps ahead and consider the wellbeing of everyone around her. Now, I always put peoples needs ahead of my own, especially when it comes to mission accomplishment, because without good morale, the process to completion always takes longer. The values of camaraderie also translate into team building. In the military, our squadron was structured with people that complemented each other based on their abilities, says Benes. This holds true in my PuroClean business today as I understand the importance of hiring people with qualities that work well together. By maximizing each of the team members abilities and potential, hes able to build a solid team. While your average day might look vastly different from that of a soldier, there are many military-inspired skills and lessons that can be applied across the board. From the importance of routine to maintaining awareness, you can easily incorporate these lessons into your personal and professional life. Be Responsible for Your Own Actions A good leader does not just tell everyone what to do, they lead by example, says Buckley. Rather than leaning on the work of others, you should set out to be as self-sufficient as possible, he says, so that you hold yourself accountable for your own actions. As a leader, however, you are often responsible for building a team and when that is the case, Buckley says trust and reliability are key no matter the industry. Debrief, Debrief, Debrief Buckley explains that post-combat, soldiers are required to debrief their mission, analyzing the strategy and all of the moving parts. What worked? What didnt? Incorporate this same debriefing technique into your business strategy or even your personal life, says Buckley. After each product launch, event, or marketing campaign, take time with your team to review your successes, failures, and oversights, he says. Doing so may shed light on things you didnt notice or realize. Then, you can use your learnings as a stepping stone for future ventures. Establish and Implement a Red Team In the military, the Red Team is a group of soldiers who assume the position of the enemy in order to seek out vulnerabilities in a mission or strategy, explains Buckley. In business, your Red Team can play a similar role, taking on an adversary position to seek out weaknesses and limitations in your plans. Buckley sees having a Red Team as a key way to making critical thinking and evaluation part of the planning process in which they break down your plan, piece by piece. This helps identify everything that can go wrong, ultimately giving you the opportunity to make a bulletproof plan, he says. You Might Also Dig: Becky Lynch has completed a lot of firsts throughout her rise to stardom. The red-headed fighter from Ireland claimed two belts in one night when she beat Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair at WWEs WrestleMania 35 in New Jersey on April 7, making her both the Smackdown and Raw womens champion. It was the first time that an all-female main event had been billed for the annual gathering, leading to the second-highest grossing WrestleMania in history (only behind only WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium in 2016). While Rousey and Flair come from established backgrounds Rousey is a former UFC champion, while Charlotte is the daughter of wrestling legend Ric Flair Lynch made her way through the industry from her beginnings as a teenage wrestling fan who signed up for a clinic held by Irish wrestler Finn Balor as soon as she got the chance. I went along the very first day and then that was it I fell in love with it, I was stoked, Lynch, 32, tells PEOPLE. I left home that year and went over to England and trained over there. Then I would do little tours all around and at 18 I moved off to Canada. I wrestled around America, Japan, around Europe, and that was how I got my start in this. While she had her heart set on making it to the WWE, the next few years would threaten to derail everything Lynch had worked to build. According to ESPN, Lynch suffered a concussion during a match that left her with headaches, buzzing in the ear, vision problems and potential nerve damage. The injury was enough to force her to take a break from wrestling and test a new path. WWE Superstars Bobby Lashley, Becky Lynch and Daniel Bryan | Santiago Felipe/Getty Images She took up gigs as a flight attendant, stunt woman and even earned a degree in acting. But in the end, the thrill of the ring and a battle with depression drew her back to her craft. When I stepped away from it I just, I suffered from depression and always felt like I turned my back on this thing that I loved and this thing that has given me a purpose, she recalls. I always felt like there was a part of me would fix it, and that part of me was this. Story continues Im really grateful for those years, Lynch adds to PEOPLE. At the time it was hard to see where it was going to go. Looking back Im so grateful because I wouldnt be where I am without having stepped away. And I also, want to have the appreciation that I do without it. RELATED: Becky Lynch Defeats Ronda Rousey to Win First-Ever Womens Main Event at WWEs WrestleMania 35 After completing stunt work on a single episode of Historys Vikings in 2012, Lynch felt the rush for wrestling once again and contacted WWE for a tryout. Shed eventually sign with the company in 2013. In the years since, Lynch has grown to become a defining force in the companys Womens Evolution movement, which has placed female wrestlers in high-stakes storylines and in prominent matches at WWE pay-per-view events. Fans have also embraced Lynchs trash-talking persona, and her tough attitude and charisma have earned her comparisons to Stone Cold Steve Austin and Conor McGregor, two of the biggest male superstars in their industries. Shes even adopted a nickname that plays on those comparisons: The Man. When we look at different sports, we look at this in the industry here, any industry, you need a top person, the person of exceptional ability who is usually referred to as The Man, she explains of the name. Theyre the man, and up until now, the man has usually been a man. But when I rolled up, when I took that top spot, when I said, Im the top dog, Im the top star, Im the face of this company, I am now The Man, and thats how it came about, she says. For now, Lynch is a double champion and the biggest name in the WWE. Its taken a long time to get to this point, and she knows its going to be even tougher to stay there. Now I have two giant targets on my back, and I know that everybodys going to be trying to take me down and pay your due. The goal now is to make these titles the most talked about ones in all of WWE, Lynch says. Its to make these [womens titles] the most relevant titles in all of WWE. So thats double duty, and its one thing to get to the mountain top, but its a whole another thing to stay there. And now Im going to have a lot of people trying to knock me off. RELATED VIDEO: WWEs Roman Reigns Announces Hes in Remission 4 Months After Revealing His Leukemia Returned Still, Lynch is ready for the challenge and proud of what WrestleMania 35 meant for the bigger picture. I think now that weve proven that anything is possible, it just doesnt matter about gender anymore, it just matters about ability, it matters about heart, it matters about caring about this business, and being passionate, and being good, she says. Now anyone can be the main event of WrestleMania its not necessarily just have to be a man. The main event is up for grabs by everybody now. I think that gives you a lot of hope for not just the women we have here at WWE and the roster but also the fans and the future female stars of WWE. By Helena Soderpalm and Johannes Hellstrom STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Ericsson posted a first-quarter profit on Wednesday that swept past forecasts due to strong growth in North America and cost cuts, spurring the telecom equipment maker to boost its full-year outlook for the global networks market. Its shares rose more than 3 percent to a four-year high. Profit beat expectations for a fifth straight quarter, as the Swedish company slashes costs following an industry-wide downturn in the middle of the decade, and as a new cycle of network upgrades kicks in for next-generation 5G equipment. The company counts Huawei as one of its main rivals and some analysts see potential benefits from Western suspicions of the Chinese group after Washington alleged its gear could be used by Beijing for spying. Ericsson Chief Financial Officer Carl Mellander said the Huawei situation had not yet affected orders but acknowledged security concerns could play a role in customer decisions. "We said earlier that we don't see it in the order books, but generally speaking the competitiveness we now have in our radio portfolio, through all technology investment we have done, matters," Mellander told Reuters. Huawei has rejected the allegations and launched a lawsuit against the U.S. government. Excluding restructuring charges related to a revamp of its Business Support System unit and one-off items, the operating margin was 7.2 percent. The company has pledged to hit an underlying target of more than 10 percent in 2020. Sales of 5G equipment in North America, the company's biggest market, drove growth, while Europe lagged due partly to a lack of spectrum access, a poor investment climate, and uncertainties related to future vendor market access. Ericsson said it now expects the Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment market to grow by 3 percent this year, up from a previous forecast for 2 percent growth. Ericsson also warned that probes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) could result in "material financial and other measures". It previously said it had initially received questions from U.S. authorities in March 2013. The company has not commented on media reports that U.S. authorities were investigating its business practices in Romania and China, but said in October it had dismissed 50 people due to the probe. "We can see now that it is out of the question that we will come out of this with no consequences," Mellander said. "How much and of which nature and when, we really cannot say." Ericsson swung to a quarterly operating profit of 4.9 billion crowns from a 312 million loss a year ago, well above a mean forecast for a 2.8 billion profit in a Reuters poll. Sales rose to 48.9 billion versus a forecast of 48.2 billion. (Reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Johannes Hellstrom; Editing by Michael Kahn and David Holmes) Kids on Stoney Nakoda First Nation are looking to the stars for their future careers, after a series of workshops with NASA engineers. After Skyping with a Costa Rican engineer during a NASA-themed class, students at Stoney Nakoda Elementary gave thanks to the presenter in their native language. They had the opportunity meet the author of the book, To the Stars: Costa Rica in NASA, and some of the engineers it features. Bruce Callow is from Calgary but is now based in Central America. He arranged for some of the engineers featured in his book to speak with the students about pursuing future careers in the field of space. "They're pretty young right now, but I think within a few years they'll have something to look back on," Callow said. "We'd like to see more opportunities for Indigenous people in space and science." Callow does space education work on behalf of NASA and organized the First Nations outreach project. The students are working on a space-themed play to honour Canadian retired astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Callow offered to help with his NASA workshops. The workshops aim to encourage Indigenous youth and open doors for opportunity while reaching for the stars. "The kids just jumped in with all their questions, and it was really amazing how excited they were. I've never seen a workshop so dynamic and rambunctious," Callow said. "We couldn't stop the questions because they prepared so much, and that's really a credit to their teacher." The presentations introduce kids to 12 people who come from a different country. They get to learn a bit about Costa Rica, and then hear directly from one of the NASA engineers from the book, he said. The presenters shared their journey to becoming NASA engineers, with students getting the opportunity to ask questions. "The presentation is to outline how the people in this book overcame really serious poverty and cases of abuse while growing up on the wrong side," Callow said. "But despite all of that, they managed to get where they are." Story continues Karl Harter Alfredo Valverde, guidance and control analyst at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was one of the presenters. "Definitely, if you have exciting goals, there's methods or ways of getting there, and I think that's kind of the message I like spreading," he said. Valverde met Callow in Costa Rica through a common friend to collaborate on the book. He offered to help carry out a First Nations outreach project to spread a universal message. "The message is a feeling of empowerment, that no matter where you come from, no matter what your background is, you can work for it." "The idea is to focus on captivating a child's mind and shape their futures," the engineer said. The next workshop has been set for May 3 at the Stoney Nakoda Elementary in Morley. By Joyce Lee and David Brunnstrom SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it no longer wanted to deal with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and that he should be replaced in talks by someone more mature, hours after it announced its first weapons test since nuclear talks broke down. North Korea's state news agency said Kwon Jong Gun, in charge of U.S. affairs at the foreign ministry, had warned that no one could predict what would happen if Washington did not abandon the "root cause" that compelled Pyongyang to develop nuclear weapons. The statement came shortly after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test of a new tactical guided weapon, North Korea's first weapon test since a summit between him and Trump broke down in late February. U.S. officials appeared to play down both developments, with acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan telling reporters at the Pentagon that while there had been a test, it was "not a ballistic missile." A spokeswoman for the State Department said it was aware of the report about Pompeo and added: "The United States remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation." Despite the summit breakdown, North Korea had maintained a freeze in nuclear and ballistic missile testing in place since 2017,and Trump has repeatedly pointed to that as an important outcome from a year of engagement with Pyongyang. Experts said the North Korean moves appeared aimed at dividing Trump from senior officials in the hope of exacting concessions, particularly relief from punishing sanctions. "Just as this weeks 'tactical weapon' test was a signal to warn Trump that his much-vaunted 'freeze' is in jeopardy, the verbal attack on Pompeo is meant to encourage Trump to ignore his hardline advisers and make a deal with his 'friend' Kim Jong Un," said Daniel Russel, the top U.S diplomat for East Asia until early in Trump's administration. "As long as the North Koreans believe they can flatter and dupe the U.S. president into making important concessions ... they will resist dealing with less gullible and more demanding subordinate U.S. officials." KCNA gave no details on the weapon that was tested, but "tactical" implied a short-range weapon rather than the ballistic missiles seen as a threat to the United States. Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Seoul's Kyungnam University, said it was likely a short-range cruise missile. KCNA quoted Kwon as saying that the February summit in Hanoi, the second between the two leaders, showed talks could go wrong "whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in." "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," Kwon said. 'MORE CAREFUL AND MATURE' "Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the United States, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us," Kwon added. Joseph Yun, who served as U.S. special representative for North Korea until last year, said North Korea had long been dubious about Pompeo, seeing him as a hardline conservative skeptical of engagement with North Korea. He said that while Kwon would have been acting on the highest authority, he was only a mid-level official, so his statements should be "taken with a pinch of salt." "Pompeo is not frozen out as long as Trump wants him to do the job, and the North Koreans have to live with that," Yun added. Kim warned last week that the Hanoi breakdown risked reviving tensions and said he was only interested in meeting Trump again if Washington showed more flexibility. He gave a year-end deadline for a change in attitude. [nL3N21U4FK] Trump has said he is open to another summit with Kim, but his national security adviser, John Bolton, told Bloomberg News on Wednesday there first needed to be "a real indication from North Korea that they've made the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons." Despite the summit failure, Kim and Trump have both stressed their good personal relationship, and Adam Mount of the Federation of American Scientists saw North Korea's recent statements as "its latest play .. to sideline U.S. officials to try to speak directly to the president." "The Trump administration has generally chosen to ignore Pyongyangs public signals, including escalating signals of displeasure with the negotiations," he said. "So far, North Korea has not walked away from the table, but they also have resisted pressure to make substantive progress on the nuclear question." Kwon also said the two leaders were on good terms, even as he castigated Pompeo for "fabricated" stories as part of a "publicity stunt." He did not elaborate. Kwon said Pompeo had made "reckless remarks hurting the dignity of our supreme leadership," apparently referring to his agreeing to the characterization of Kim as a "tyrant" at a U.S. congressional hearing last week. Kim oversaw the test of an unidentified tactical weapon in November. He said last April he would stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles because North Korea's nuclear capabilities had been verified, but he has never promised to stop testing all weapons. Kim's visit to the testing site came after he visited the North Korean Air and Anti-aircraft Force on Tuesday. (Reporting by Joyce Lee, Josh Smith and Hyonhee Shin and David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Jeff Mason and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Robert Birsel, Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney) KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's security service SBU said on Wednesday it had captured a Russian military intelligence hit squad responsible for the attempted murder of a Ukrainian military spy in the run-up to a presidential election on Sunday. The issue of how to deal with Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014 and backs pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, is prominent ahead of the vote, with incumbent Petro Poroshenko casting himself as the commander-in-chief Ukraine needs to defend the country. Vasyl Hrytsak, the head of the SBU, the main intelligence agency, told a news conference in Kiev that seven members of the Russian group had been detained and charged and that an eighth person had been detained on Wednesday morning. Two of the group's members were Russian citizens, said Anatoly Matios, Ukraine's military prosecutor, describing them as staff officers of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency. The other six were Ukrainians. There was no immediate reaction from Russia's GRU. The SBU has reported before that it captured groups belonging to Russian special agencies. "Those detained were involved in the attempted murder of an employee of the Ukrainian defense ministry's intelligence service...in Kiev in April," said Matios, adding the group had planted a bomb beneath the man's car which had gone off prematurely, badly injuring one of the accused. The SBU released a video of the same incident which showed a man placing the bomb under a car before a big explosion. The video showed a man lying in a hospital bed with part of his right arm missing saying he was Russian and born in Moscow. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Can leftover spaghetti really kill you? Can you actually cough up a blood clot in the shape of your lung? In Yahoo Lifestyle Canadas newest series, What The Health?!, we ask doctors to weigh in on odd health news stories and set the record straight. Be sure to check back every Friday for the latest. A woman in Taiwan garnered international headlines after her doctor claimed to have found four sweat bees inside one of her eyes. The woman, identified in the media as both Ms. Ho and Ms. He, was apparently pulling weeds around her relatives graves when a gust of wind came up and she felt something get into her eye, according to the BBC. Thinking it was dust, the woman rinsed her eye out with water before things got worse. By the time she got home, her eye had become severely swollen and painful. She went to Fooyin University Hospital in southern Taiwan, where ophthalmologist Hong Chi Ting was shocked by what he found. She couldn't completely close her eyes, Hong told BBC. I looked into the gap with a microscope and saw something black that looked like an insect leg. I grabbed the leg and very slowly took one out, then I saw another one, and another and another. They were still intact and all alive. ALSO SEE: What The Health?! Mom with rare double uterus gives birth twice in one month but how? He also told reporters that the woman, who was in her 20s, was fortunate not to have any lasting effects. This small sweat bee busily forages away in the orange flowers. She was wearing contact lenses so she didn't dare to rub her eyes in case she broke the lens, Hong said. If she did she could have induced the bees to produce venom... she could have gone blind. Hong claimed that those three-millimetre-long creatures were sweat bees, members of the bee family Halictidae that get their common name from their attraction to human sweat. They sometimes land on people to drink their perspiration, which contains water and salts. (When speaking to reporters, Hong said the bees were being sent off for analysis.) Story continues According to the non-profit Bee Informed Partnership, these small bees can have bright, dark or metallic colouring, most commonly green. They exist all over the world and nest in various habitats, including sidewalk cracks, soil, and rotting wood. Important pollinators, theyre nonaggressive, but if they do sting, its usually not painful. The Taiwanese woman made a full recovery. But did the media get it right? And do Canadians need to worry about their own eyeballs being sucked on by bees? One of Canadas top bee experts doesnt think so, on either front. ALSO SEE: What the Health?! Teen dies from rare brain infection Cory S. Sheffield, curator of invertebrate zoology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina, says hes dubious about what type of bee apparently entered the womans eye, for a few reasons. For starters, one of the main photos that has been circulating of four small bees around an eye is not that of the woman but rather of Swiss entomologist Hans Banziger, who published a paper on stingless bees that will drink human tears in a 2009 issue of the Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. The photo widely circulated with the sweat bees story was actually from a 2009 study. Visiting 10 different sites in Thailand, Banziger allowed more than 260 bees to sip from his eyes, finding that the relatively gentle visitors mostly landed on the lower eyelashes and fed on tears for anywhere from 30 seconds to two and a half minutes, often alone but occasionally in groups of five to seven. Less typically, they also drank sweat. Banziger concluded that although its often assumed the bees seek salt, theyre more likely in search of proteins. I have not actually seen a photo of the woman, her eyes, or more importantly the bees that were in them, Sheffield told Yahoo Canada. Media coverage that I have seen has shown photos of honey bees, larger sweat bees, and a range of other things that would be very large to even fit in the eyes of a person. So it is hard to validate those claims. Sheffield says the bees in question could have been stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponinae), not sweat bees. ALSO SEE: What The Health?! Man contracts nasty fungal infection while gardening but whats the risk? Stingless bees are found in tropical areas of the world and can live in large colonies, Sheffield says. Though they do not sting, they do bite, and unlike the sweat bees, stingless bees will aggressively defend their nests when disturbed. I have had them get into my hair and bite my hair and my scalpan interesting sensation. Some of my Australian colleagues have commented on the aggressive nest defense and indicated that they will get in your eyes while on the attack, he adds, noting that if in fact the woman was pulling weeds, she could have well stirred up a nest. If the small bees that were found alive in the womans eyes were drinking tears or defending their nest by biting around her eyes, she may have wiped her eyes, causing the bees to become stuck under her eyelids, Sheffield explains. (He points out too that its more accurate to say bees were found alive in the womans eyes, rather than actually living in them.) The womans experience is not one that should raise alarm among Canadians, even if theyre travelling abroad, Sheffield says. I think the chances of getting a bug under your eye is much greater, and maybe more painful, when running, riding a bike, sticking your head out the window of a moving vehicle, and the like, he says. The almost universal comment of not messing around the nests of bees and wasps is also good advice. Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA!Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Check out Yahoo Canada's podcast, Make It Reign our hot takes on all things royals in a non-stuffy way on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. Photo - Tronson du Coudray art Depth colours on finances The News Daily some time ago ran a fascinating article on how Norfolk Island's tax laws are being utilised by on-line gambling syndicates for tax advantage. This is nothing new as the off-shore tax industry commonly referred to as tax havens have been around for years. The tax haven industry benefits everyone as strange as it might seem. It is a ready source of money when natural disasters strike and nations need to find quick money to meet the costs associated with disaster management and repair. These are places where countries, business, corporations and individuals can park money securely without the unnecessary burden of tax where the same monies under national taxation law can in effect be taxed several times. But there has been a mammoth publicity effort to have these tax havens come under severe restriction but to date, nothing much has been achieved, nor is it in the interest of national governments. So many people are engaged in self interest and ultimately the buck stops there. But Swiss Banks for Australians have now come under scrutiny. I have on file an article from the 1990's with the headline that Telstra had parked money in a Caribbean tax haven and not an eye lid was battered. At that time a Senate Enquiry has been running into large companies placing profits into such tax havens. A more restrictive approach took place after 9/11 with the passing of the Patriot Act where all monies passing through the US system had to be verified. This was to place a heavy burden on terrorist income streams, and it had an effect. Such monies were transferred through Europe and we know about the protests of the Islamtisation of Europe. Greece might be going under, but not the big European banks with so much being transferred hither and thither. In the case of Norfolk Island, a community founded by descendants of the 18th Century Bounty mutiny, has some unique attributes that have managed to capture corporate attention. For example, it has cheap bookmaking licenses. There's also the remarkable lack of a requirement for individuals and companies to pay income tax, despite the fact they enjoy the many benefits of Australian citizenship. Someone in the Federal and NSW Governments have been jumping on the bandwagon and shouting from the roof tops to "cough up" tax dollars. Britain had a similar display of chasing the tax dollar from companies using the Gibraltar tax haven situation. Were still waiting to see what happens. Photo - Tronson du Coudray art Wild Flora on finances Missionaries For many years missionaries had to undertake an uniform study on overseas banking and monies were required to be transferred from home nations to where ever the missionary was situated. Today there are a little easier methodologies as long as there are ATMs at banks and the missionary's card has the international banking symbol. But not everyone is near a bank that has such a facility but there are other quite handy ways to have monies transferred such as, an example being, Western Union transfers there are a host of companies in this ilk. There are off-shore banking seminars for missionaries as well, and these too can be very handy to understand how their systems work and how to get money from off-shore accounts. It's not by any means illegal to operate an off-shore account as long as you follow international rules and exercise a legitimate international business. Governments recognise missions societies in this way. International Aid societies function similarly, they need to and no one disputes any of this. Governments pour millions of dollars annually into AID societies under specific contracts to fulfill approved projects. This is the way it works. We held an Around the Tables missionary function in Sydney where some of these issues came up. A helping attorney at law attended one of the sessions with the missionaries and it turned out they were more aware of how it all worked out in practical terms than he, as they were using these systems month after month when serving on the mission field. Photo - Tronson du Coudray art Scenarios on finances Scenarios Whether in the future Governments place restrictions where missionaries get caught up in such scenarios we are yet to see. We know that in Australia the Government has tracked down huge amount of money transfers supporting ISIS but whether they would chase a $200 donation to an overseas missionary is an unknown at this time. What is known is that the bad guys know how the systems work too, and they seem to keep one step ahead by having monies moved from one jurisdiction to another. So the merry-go-round happens. But sometimes, just sometimes the good-guys get in first. The Government now has the legislation to read encrypted messages, Our prayer is that the few dollars that missionaries get are not caught up in this necessary labyrinth of security. Government Oversees Charity Bank One suggestion might be for the Government to open a national charity bank (one account system for Christian missions, a separate one for NGO's, again one for other religious charities, and the like. This may be a better way to keep a check for all such legitimate and vetted overseas missions, NGOs, and other religious charities - all registered - their monies to overseas aid and mission work is channelled. Perhaps the ACNC (Australian Charities Not-For-Profit Commission) might consider a wing to engage in such an overseas funds Charity Bank. Photo - Tronson du Coudray art Science mystery on finances Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand. Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html The recent Christchurch tragedy has brought out the best in New Zealanders. Kiwis have responded defiantly to this horror with a determination to see that this never happen again in our land. It was also very humbling to witness the local Muslim response, filled with grace, forgiveness and love. This raises some important questions as we move forward as a nation. How do we want to live? What is our identity as a nation? What are the values we wish to uphold? What kind of multi-cultural society do we want? Is it possible to create a society where everyone feels loved and valued? I wont attempt to answer these big questions, but instead speak from my own personal experience. Appreciating New Zealand My life has certainly been enriched from travelling overseas and associating with people from different cultures. I have had the privilege of travelling to many parts of the world including North and Central America, United Kingdom, Western Europe, Turkey, Morocco, Uganda, South Africa, China, India, Cambodia, Japan, Pacific Islands and Australia. In the vast majority of those countries I was warmly received as a New Zealander. I felt honoured and respected, and there was a sense of favour in these relationships. Visiting these countries has opened my eyes to different ways of life. It has also made me realise how fortunate I am to live in New Zealand. Whenever I return to New Zealand the grass seems greener, the leaves more vibrant, the air cleaner, water purer, and there is a lot more space to enjoy our countrys natural beauty. Experiencing other cultures When my children turned 18 I decided to treat each one of them to an overseas trip for their birthday. This was a way for them to spendone on one time with their Dad and learn from an experience in a foreign country. When my eldest daughter turned18, I told her that I had bought her something very, very special for her birthday. She looked at me excitedly and asked if I had bought her a car. No, I responded,I have bought you something much better. An overseas trip. Thats great,she said, are we going to Europe? No, I am taking you to India for three weeks I replied. Her face dropped, but over the next few months she became increasingly excited about the prospect of going. During those three weeks in India we experienced many highs and lows. I know that this experience opened her eyes to a whole new way of life. It made her appreciate how others live and to value what she has. She has gone on to forge a very successful career in the travel business. Honouring each other In our western society we honour people with presents on their birthday. The more you spend on someone, the more they may feel honoured. A visit to Tonga seven years ago changed my perception of this. It was my friends birthday and it was being held at his fathers home in Nukualofa. Around 30 people were present and there was an abundance of food. Before we sat down to eat, we all gathered in the main living room,on the floor,and my friend thanked us for coming to his birthday. He then went around the roomand spoke to each one of us to tell us what we meant to him. There were tears as he shared his thoughts with us and we were all truly honoured and made to feel special. After he had finished speaking, we all got a chance to share back with him. There was humour and there were more tears and we all bonded as one big family. This demonstrated to me how Tongan people respect their family and friends. Our western culture has much to learn from this. Final reflections Perhaps building a better society starts with us as individuals? Firstly, lets appreciate what we have and be thankful. Secondly, lets respect and honour each other as people. We can respect and value each other as human beings.It doesnt matter how old or what size and skin colour we are. Thirdly, lets encourage and bring out the best ineach other. Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness. W ayne worked in the media for more than 30 years before leaving to follow a call to set up The Daily Encourager, a values based media showcasing the best of New Zealand society. He has a passion for Jesus, enjoys walking, ball sports, the arts and song writing. National Security Advisor John Bolton gave a speech this past Friday where he announced a series of restrictions and crackdowns against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, three countries he has referred to as the the troika of tyranny. Most prominent are plans to further roll back some of the Obama directives loosened on travel and conducting business on Cuba. The speech was given on the 58th anniversary of the U.S.s failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Bolton says the Trump Administration will direct the Treasury department to implement further regulations and restrictions around non-family travel to Cuba. While details have not been announced, it is expected to have an impact on how Americans are currently able to travel in and out of Cuba. These travel restrictions build on top of an initial set of restrictions announced by the Trump Administration in June 2017. In addition, Bolton announced a new cap on the amount of money families in the United States can send to their relatives in Cuba. The Obama Administration had lifted these limits when they lifted some sanctions against Cuba. The new cap will be $1,000.00 per person per quarter. There was no indication if or how this would affect bringing back cigars from Cuba. Currently U.S. visitors to Cuba May bring back cigars subject to the usual duties. Boltons announcement came hours after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a new policy that allows lawsuits against foreign firms operating on properties Cuba seized from Americans after the 1959 revolution. This decision gives Americans the right to sue companies that operate hotels, tobacco factories, distilleries and other properties Cuba nationalized after Fidel Castro took power. In particular, those Cubans who became U.S. citizens many years after their properties were taken can now sue. Bolton cited Cubas support of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as the reasons for further sanctions. At the same time, Bolton announced sanctions against the Central Bank of Venezuela whom the Trump Administration feels has played a role in supporting the Maduro government in Venezuela. These sanctions would freeze the Banks assets in the U.S. Meanwhile, sanctions will also be implemented against Corporative Bank of Nicaragua, used by Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega as his slush fund. It will also impose sanctions on his son, Laureano Ortega Murillo, accused by U.S. officials of corruption in a Nicaraguan investment company. Last year, the Treasury Department levied sanctions against Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Maria Murillo De Ortega (wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega) and Nestor Moncada Lau, who has served as a national security adviser under the Ortega regime. Similar to the sanctions levied last year, Ortega Murillo will now be prevented from doing business in the U.S., but also will have any assets in the U.S. frozen. The sanctions against Nicaragua are the latest step in the U.S. after Nicaragua imposed a heavy-handed response to a series of protests against the Ortega regime. Photo Credit: U.S. White House, Public Domain Paolo Sorrentino announced himself on the international stage with the sterling Il Divo, a study of Italys perennial mover and fixer Giulio Andreotti and in the process an evisceration of the Italian political class, with a style that oscillated between Quentin Tarantino and Federico Fellini. Since then Sorrentinos career has been fireworks and squibs in almost equal measure. His first foray into English language cinema saw Sean Penn in Robert Smith cosplay misstepping his way through a languorous road movie in This Must Be the Place, before returning to Rome with the bloated but impressive The Great Beauty. His reputation as a great visual stylist and sardonic wit seemed established but in Youth and his HBO show The Young Pope, striking visuals soon became their own justification and character and story played very much second fiddle to the glories of music, colour and light. Some looked to his latest, Loro, as a potential return to the world of Il Divo and his early glory days, but the fact is the film has all the flaws of its subject. Just like Berlusconi, it is misogynistic, tacky, morally and politically vacuous. Again, like Silvio, it thinks its funny, but it most assuredly isnt. The disaster can partly be seen in its release history with Cannes allegedly turning it down and Italians getting the film divided into two separate parts, each clocking in at over 100 minutes, and the UK getting a cobbled-together 150-minute version. The tone is set when a sheep enters Berlusconis villa and, distracted by a garish game show, is frozen to death by the air conditioning. Its not a frog in a pan being brought to the boil but you get the metaphorical picture with all the subtlety of Mussolini shouting in your ear. Berlusconi (Toni Servillo) is in the twilight of his power. Foisted from government, he wanders his Sardinian villa and its air-conditioned interiors and emerald lawns a man at a loss. His wife Veronica (Elena Sofia Ricci) no longer loves him and the permanent smile creaks on the perma-tanned face like a mask. Still, he manages to quip and sing his favourite crooning hits with the accompaniment of an old friend on guitar and its obvious who Sorrentino sympathises with. Berlusconi is another example of the species aged roue which Servillo played in The Great Beauty, the same smarm and weary charm. Meanwhile, the Italy that Berlusconi has guided and formed in his own image goes to pieces literally in the case of a final act earthquake in Abruzzo. A young drug dealer Sergio (Riccardo Scamarcio) seeks to get himself a harem of young party-going women with the aid of one of Berlusconis former lovers (Kasia Smutniak), as a way of fashioning his own entrance into the Berlusconis orbit and the power held by loro them. In one of the final scenes a stone statue of Christ is hoisted from the ruins of a church destroyed by the earthquake. It is an obvious and unearned quotation of the beginning of Fellinis masterpiece La Dolce Vita, when a helicopter carries a crucifix over Rome. But Sorrentino sees only the panache of the visual. Theres no morality here in the midst of the corruption. Theres nothing but a nihilistic disdain. Drugs are an infomercial. Sex even rape is transactional. All politics is dishonest and venal. Innocence is a girl in a silver bikini. Where the film might be expected to say something there is a bestiary of obvious metaphorical intent (add to the sheep a giant rat) and another track from the shuffle of Sorrentinos soundtrack/playlist. At least Berlusconi is entertaining. He has a merry-go-round and a model volcano, he surely cant be all bad, can he? Ultimately, Sorrentinos sympathies lie with Berlusconi because in their vacuity and their need to impress they have something in common. John Bleasdale | @drjonty The contents of Cockroach Catcher Blog (text and photos) are strictly the copyright of Dr Am Ang Zhang and all rights are reserved. Other bloggers are welcome to quote and use any of the content of the articles on the internet or in their own blogs as long as it is acknowledged. Anyone wishing to use substantial parts or all of any of the articles is asked to contact Dr Am Ang Zhang (cockroachcatcher (at)gmail (dot)com) in advance. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram New York, April 18, 2019 Saudi authorities must immediately stop persecuting journalists and release those swept up in their recent detention campaign, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Saudi authorities arrested blogger Naif al-Hindas on April 4 or 5 and bloggers and columnists Ali al-Saffar and Redha al-Boori on April 9, according to a statement and Twitter posts by the London-based Saudi rights organization Al-Qst and a statement by the Beirut-based rights organization Gulf Center for Human Rights. Saudi authorities have not publicly stated any reasons for the arrests, which come as part of a larger wave of detentions since the beginning of April, which have included at least four other journalists, according to CPJ reporting. Al-Saffar and al-Boori have not published in recent years, and al-Hindass blog has been dormant since 2018, according to a CPJ review of their writings. The Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to CPJs email requesting comment. Saudi authorities seem intent on locking up any journalist who might potentially have something critical to say about the current leadership, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said from Washington, D.C. The kingdoms neighbors and partners must meet this flagrant display of contempt for international law and human rights with an appropriately strong response. Al-Saffar and al-Boori are connected with Saudi writer Thumar al-Marzouqi, who was arrested on April 4, as CPJ reported at the time. In 2015, al-Saffar published an article on Israeli ties to militant groups in Syria on al-Marzouqis blog, and al-Boori uploaded an academic report on the same topic there. Both also wrote op-eds on regional security issues for Lebanese daily al-Akhbar in 2014, according to the newspapers author pages. CPJ was unable to find any examples of their work after 2015. Al-Hindas wrote about philosophy, film, feminism, and other cultural and political topics, according to a CPJ review of his contributions to the Saudi culture blogs Arab Renewal and Saqya, and his personal blog. CPJ was unable to find any of his writings after a July 2018 post on his blog. Saudi Arabia held at least 16 journalists behind bars as of December 1, 2018, according to CPJs most recent annual prison census. A recent report from The Guardian said that Saudi detainees, including at least four journalists, are subject to torture and abusive conditions. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Its been over eight years since Jonathan Ellis, an investigative reporter at the Argus Leader, filed what he thought was a routine Freedom of Information Act request. He wanted five years of reimbursement data from the Agriculture Department (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)a program that helps people with low incomes buy food from grocery stores. USDA refused to release the information on the grounds that it was confidential business information exempt from records requests. To me it was pretty standard government expenditure information, Ellis told CPJ. I didnt understand what the big deal was. The Leader, a daily based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, sued and has been fighting its way through the court system ever since. On April 22, the Supreme Court will finally hear oral arguments in the case, which is known as Food Marketing Institute (FMI) v. Argus Leader, after the USDA stopped fighting the request when it lost a lower court ruling in January 2017 and the retail industry group FMI took over. The stakes are high, not only for journalists who report on the relationship between businesses and the government, but also for local reporters who often brush up against similar exemptions in local and state-level records laws. If the newspaper loses and the FOIA exemptions expands, press freedom advocates and reporters told CPJ, crucial accountability reporting could become more difficult. The issue hinges on an exemption that can be used to redact parts of a FOIA request. When journalists ask the federal government to turn over information, either the government or another party to the information can block its release if they argue the information is confidentialinvoking a FOIA exemption known as Exemption 4. Thats exactly what FMI did. Ellis told CPJ that the data hes afterdetailed records of how much individual grocery stores are paid-out by the SNAP programwould help his reporting on issues from potential benefit fraud to food deserts (areas that lack access to nutritious food and grocery stores) in South Dakota. But FMI argues in court documents that those details are confidential, and not for public consumption. As it stands, the FOIA statute does not provide an exact definition of confidential. Most courts defer to a 1974 Eighth Circuit ruling, National Parks & Conservation Assn v. Morton. The Eighth Circuit favored the disclosure of the information, unless the government or the third party was able to show the release of the information would harm the ability of the government to collect information in the future, or if it would harm the competitive position of the third party, often a business. When these cases have gone to court, Adam Marshall, the Knight litigation attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told CPJ, an argument must be made that disclosure of the information actually will do some harm. Until now, it hasnt been enough for the government or the private entity to merely assert that they dont want the information public. (In the lower court arguments for the FMI case, for example, expert witnesses were called to argue about the precise commercial value of the data Ellis requested). Although the National Parks test does tend toward disclosure, the status quo hasnt always led to outcomes that favor reporters. Back in 2010, the San Jose Mercury News described how its 18-month Freedom of Information battle to obtain diversity statistics that Silicon Valley companies had filed with the U.S. Labor Department was met with an Exemption 4 argument. A number of the firms successfully argued that releasing the information would do the businesses competitive harm, and the Mercury News was unable to report out the story. To me, it was most ridiculous argument Ive ever heard a private company make, Mike Swift, a then-reporter for the Mercury News who filed the request, told CPJ. But the newspaper, Swift said, made the hard decision to not engage in a costly court battle. In 2011, CNN also ran into exemption 4 roadblocks in its reporting on diversity. Journalists at the Center for Investigative Reporting faced a similar block, and last year successfully sued to obtain the same type of Department of Labor filings that the Mercury News sought. In the case pending before the Supreme Court, FMI, an industry group representing over 40,000 retail food stores, is trying to win a major change in how these cases are decided by giving the word confidential a broader meaning. FMI is proposing the court adopt a plain dictionary definition that would apply to anything companies try to keep from public view. They want to keep secret anything that a third party submitting information to the government says is secret, Marshall said. Its a very troubling argument. FMI is joined in the suit by a number of pro-business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Attorneys for FMI did not respond to emails from CPJ. An FMI spokesperson directed CPJ to a blog post written by the groups chief executive, Leslie Sarasin, about the case, in which she argues that FMI has not attacked FOIA or transparency at all. John F. Zabriskie, a partner at the firm Foley & Lardner LLP, who often represents business clients wanting to keep records confidential, told CPJ that the FMI has a strong case. Although the case appears to pit journalistic interests against a companys commercial proprietary interests, he said, businesses are genuinely motivated by not having their competitively valued information disclosed. A Columbia Journalism Review breakdown of FOIA shows businesses predominantly file the most requests. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, along with other press freedom groups, submitted an amicus brief to the court in March, arguing that it should keep the existing National Parks test in place. They contend that FMIs argument contradicts 2016 FOIA amendments Congress passed that instructed agencies to release all information unless there was foreseeable harm in doing so. The Argus Leader, for its part, is arguing that a win for FMI effectively eviscerates FOIA of its purpose. Claire Brown, a staff writer for the non-profit website, The New Food Economy, said if the industry groups were to win, it would mean less and less information for reporters. Brown often covers federal regulatory agencies and said she relies heavily on this kind of data for her work. She can quickly tick off examples where shes brushed up against private business information in the hands of the government. Shes reported on Occupational Safety and Health Administration data on corporate workplace injuries, menus offered by private contractors at the federal prisons, and USDA inspections at hog slaughtering plants. Often, agencies invoke Exemption 4, she told CPJ, to block her reporting. Even if local reporters dont tangle with Exemption 4 directly, the Supreme Court weighing in on the topic could trickle into their work, said Sam Jones, an attorney in Iowa who does open records litigation for the Iowa Gazette. The Iowa public hospital association, for example, recently blocked the Gazettes request for release of pricing information for a report into the costs associated with its contracts with outside vendors. Although the Supreme Court case wouldnt directly hold sway over Iowas own records laws, it would have an impact, Jones told CPJ. We dont have the benefit of a huge cannon of case law here, we often look to other jurisdiction and federal statutes that are similar, he said. The Argus Leader case comes at a particularly portentous moment: as private industry and government are increasingly entwined, Aaron Mackey, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CPJ. News outlets across the U.S. have reported recently on how companies that do business with the government have asked officials to sign non-disclosure agreements and to give them a heads-up on FOIA requests that may involve business records. In that climate, a court ruling that would block journalistic access to the kinds of records at issue in the FMI case may strike a significant blow to press freedom. Its a growing threat, Mackey said. It could start getting in the way of basic reporting. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Sozcu journalists on trial At a hearing for journalists from the opposition daily Sozcu, in Istanbul, on April 18, the prosecutor asked that seven staff members be found guilty for willingly and knowingly helping a [terrorist] organization without being in its hierarchical structure, the news website Diken reported. The prosecutors argued that Sozcu was aiding FETO as a part of the failed 2016 attempted coup. CPJ previously documented how the indictment, viewed by CPJ, accused Sozcu of being pro-FETO because both Hizmet and the paper made similar criticisms of the ruling AKP party. Sozcu is a newspaper that strongly opposes the leading Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Hizmet Movementa former ally of the AKP that the ruling party refers to as FETO and blames for the attempted coup. CPJ has documented the legal action against Sozcu since May 2017, when reporter Gokmen Ulu, online editor Mediha Olgun, and finance manager Yonca Yuceli were taken into custody. Later that month, authorities issued an arrest warrant for owner Burak Akbay. In 2018, more Sozcu staff were prosecuted and the indictments were merged into one case that includes chief editor Metin Ylmaz, online chief editor Mustafa Cetin, online news coordinator Yucel Ar, and columnists Emin Colasan and Necati Dogru. In the April 18 hearing, the prosecutor asked that all defendants, except for Olgun, who became a government witness, be found guilty. Prosecutors asked that Olgun be exempt from prosecution under Turkeys effective remorse law. The court approved a request for Interpol to arrest Akbay, who is not in Turkey. The next hearing was scheduled for July 14. Turkish journalists in court Hasan Cemal, a veteran journalist and a columnist for the news website T24, was back in court in Istanbul on April 16 as part of a case over a 2015 column, Deutsche Welle reported in Turkish. The prosecution asked that Cemal be found guilty for making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization. The charge relates to a column based on Cemals travels to southeastern Turkey during an intense period of clashes between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces. CPJ has previously documented how Cemal was found guilty of the same charge in two separate cases in April 2018 and February 2017. In both of those trials he was handed a suspended sentence. On April 15, a court in the western city Denizli sentenced Gokhan Oner, a former reporter for the shuttered pro-Kurdish Dicle News agency (DIHA), to a suspended 10-month prison sentence after being found guilty of making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization (PKK), the leftist daily Evrensel reported. Oner was arrested in May and released under probation in July, CPJ documented. Oner was acquitted of a second charge of being member of a [terrorist] organization. Trial shows pressures on journalists RSF representative tells court At his latest hearing in Istanbul on April 15, Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders and editor of the independent news website Bianet, asked to be acquitted, Bianet reported. Onderoglu, who is on trial for his participation in the solidarity campaign with the shuttered daily Ozgur Gundem, told the court, I think that this case is an example of the pressures exerted on human rights defenders and journalists, which have become prevalent in Turkey. Our concern is not personal. We are concerned that the understanding of democracy and justice in society will come to harm in this way. The trial is due to continue on July 17. Police question columnist over tweets Police went to the Istanbul home of Mustafa Sonmez, a columnist and economist, at around 3:50 a.m. local time on April 14, to take the journalist to the station for questioning, Bloomberg reported in English. Sonmez was questioned about his tweets and then released, the report said. They took my deposition at the police headquarters and then put me under custody. They had a file of about 20 of my recent tweets. I told them what I did constituted criticism, not insult, Sonmez told Bloomberg. They couldve invited me to testify, and Id have obeyed. Erdogan lashes out at Financial Times In a speech on April 18, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at an article in the British daily, the Financial Times, about the Treasurys foreign currency reserves, The Associated Press reported. Erdogan argued that the economy was strong and said, Oh Financial Times! What do you know about Turkey, which hosts 4 million refugees? How many refugees are there in your country? Check concentrate feeder accuracy WITH the cost of dairy cow concentrates rising farmers have been urged to check the accuracy of their feeders to ensure they are not overfeeding, or indeed underfeeding, their livestock. President Donald Trump has vetoed the resolution from the US Congress which directed him to end U.S. support for the civil war in Yemen. Why the President has vetoed the Congress Resolution? President trump has stated the following reasons for vetoing the US Congress resolution: Yemen is at a breaking point as 10 million people on the brink of famine. There are more than 100 civilian casualties per week, and Yemenis are more likely to be killed at home than in any other structure. U.S. support for the war between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Iran-aligned Houthi rebels was necessary to protect the safety of the more than 80,000 Americans who reside in certain coalition countries. President Trump has called the resolution as an unnecessary and a dangerous attempt to weaken his constitutional authorities. He further stressed that the resolution endangers the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future. It was the second veto during his presidency, earlier he had vetoed a congressional resolution which was aimed to reverse the border emergency President Trump had declared in order to secure more funding for his wall between the United States and Mexico. April 18 was observed as the World Heritage Day 2019 with the theme Rural Landscapes. The theme Rural Landscapes is related to the theme of the 2019 International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Scientific Symposium on Rural heritage to be held at Marrakesh, Morocco in October. Contents World Heritage Site Genesis of the World Heritage Day World Heritage Site UNESCO defines a World Heritage Site as a natural or man-made area or a structure that is of international importance, and space which requires special protection. Genesis of the World Heritage Day On 18 April 1982 on the occasion of a symposium organised by ICOMOS in Tunisia, it was suggested to observe the International Day for Monuments and Sites simultaneously throughout the world. UNESCO passed a resolution at its 22nd session on November 1983 approving the idea and recommended the member states to examine the possibility of declaring 18 April each year International Monuments and Sites Day. This has been referred to as the World Heritage Day. World Heritage Day offers an opportunity to raise the publics awareness about the diversity of cultural heritage and the efforts that are required to protect and conserve it, as well as draw attention to its vulnerability. FCA Canada officials confirmed their commitment to the Windsor Assembly Plant April 17, informing Unifor officials it will invest US$355 million in the plant for future product in the next 12 months.'There's no question Fiat Chrysler is committed to Windsor,' said Unifor national president Jerry Dias after meeting with Mark Stewart, FCA's Head of NAFTA Manufacturing, for 90 minutes at Toronto's Royal York Hotel.'The bottom line is they're investing for future product. It doesn't mean it'll save the third shift, but that's what we'll work on now.'It was the first formal sit-down the two sides have held since FCA announced three weeks ago it was eliminating the third shift and 1,500 jobs at the Windsor Assembly Plant as of September 30.The company has blamed softening sales of the Pacifica and Grand Caravan for the decision.In Canada, FCA has only sold 816 Pacificas through the end of March this year. That represents a drop of 59 percent over last year, when Canadians bought 2,012 Pacificas in the first three months of 2018.Caravan sales were up 13 percent last month (3,370 vehicles), but are down nine percent for the year compared to a year ago. FCA has sold 8,206 Caravans this year.In the U.S., Pacifica sales in 2019 are down 29 percent to 23,274 vehicles while the Caravan has declined by 18 percent to 35,4340 minivans.Dias said the conversation was detailed about the future of the plant, but couldn't divulge what that future product might entail.RELATEDFiat Chrysler cuts 1,500 jobs as Windsor plant reduces minivan outputAll-wheel-drive Chrysler Pacifica minivan could be comingIt's been heavily rumoured that FCA will introduce an all-wheel version of the Pacifica and revive the Voyager nameplate as a new lower-cost minivan to replace the Caravan. The Caravan is currently due to be phased out after 2020.'Ultimately it's a good news message today. They know what they want to do, but they're finalizing a few things,' Dias said. 'They want to maximize their investment in Windsor. The Pacifica platform gives them all kinds of options. Prosecutors investigating the causes of the inferno that tore through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris have interviewed construction workers and security staff, as more details emerged about the effort to contain the blaze.Ten people were interviewed by criminal investigators on Wednesday (local time), the Paris Prosecutor's Office said, adding that interviews would continue the following day. On Tuesday, the prosecutor's office had said 30 employees at the Paris landmark had been questioned.'Tomorrow new witnesses will be heard as well as people already interviewed for further information,' the prosecutor's office said.The prosecutor's office said that in addition to interviews, forensics teams and the central laboratory for the police department had been able to access some areas of the site and begin inspections.Officials are continuing to pursue the theory that the cause of the fire was accidental but have not ruled out other scenarios at this stage, the prosecutor's office added.'While the prosecutor's office does not rule out any hypothesis, we remind that at this stage, nothing in the investigations highlights a criminal origin. Accidental causes remain our privileged lead,' the prosecutor's office said.The Paris fire service, meanwhile, said the nine-hour battle to save the building was one of the most complex it had ever undertaken. At one point, it was feared that the entire structure might be lost.'If the flames had actually got to the timber frames of the belfries then we would have lost the cathedral completely because it would have led to a chain reaction of collapse,' said Gabriel Plus, a spokesman for the fire service.Philippe Demay, deputy chief of the Paris Fire Brigade, told reporters that the operation to put out the flames was 'complex', and the 'most complicated' he had ever encountered.On Wednesday evening, cathedrals across France rang their bells in honor of Notre Dame, marking two days since the fire. Bells tolled at 6.50pm across the country acknowledging what the French Bishops Conference described as 'a shock that affects far beyond just the Catholics of our country'.The French government said it was committed to rebuilding the cathedral. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced an international architects' competition to replace the building's fallen spire.As the scale of the damage became clear, investigators said they were determined to get to the bottom of how the blaze started.'Investigations continue to search for the truth and identify the origins and causes of the fire,' the Paris Prosecutor's Office said.Scrutiny has fallen on the firms undertaking the renovation of the 150-year-old spire, which collapsed Monday as the flames raged around it.Of the four companies contracted to carry out renovations at Notre Dame, two companies, scaffolding firm Europe Echafaudage and art conservationists Socra, had work in progress there at the time of the fire. Neither company had workers on site when the fire broke out, CNN has been told.According to centraledesmarches.com, a website where private companies can bid for public projects, Europe Echafaudage and its parent company, Le Bras Freres, were awarded contracts worth 3,493,766 (A$5,499,851) for scaffolding and other services.Julien Le Bras, CEO of Europe Echafaudage, which received a contract to renovate the spire in 2017, told reporters Tuesday that 12 of his employees were working on the project, but that 'there were absolutely no workers on site when the fire broke out, and there hadn't been for quite a while before the fire'.Mark Eskenazi, a PR representative for Le Bras Freres, said the company is speaking to experts about how to take down the scaffolding and 'absolutely' denies responsibility for what happened, saying that its workers had left the cathedral one hour before the fire began. He called the fire a 'crisis' for the small business of 20 workers.'They are artisans, it is a very small enterprise.'Patrick Palen, a spokesman for Socra, which was brought in to refurbish statuettes from the cathedral, said workers from the company removed 12 statues of the apostles and four of evangelists from the cathedral last week. Those statues were being held safely in an off-site workshop at the time of the fire. Palen said Socra employees were not at Notre Dame during the fire.Questions have been raised about why the blaze was not tackled sooner. Security guards at the 850-year-old cathedral first heard the fire alarm at 6.20pm local time on Monday, and evacuated the cathedral even though they didn't see any sign of fire, a spokesman for the Paris Fire Brigade said.The alarm sounded again some 20 minutes later, at which point the cathedral's security officers noticed the fire, Paris Prosecutor Remy Heitz said.Fire chiefs denied that they were slow to react to the initial reports of the blaze.Despite the intensity of the fire, authorities have said that some of the cathedral's major relics, artifacts and artwork had been rescued. Some of the most valuable artworks are being held at City Hall, while a number of other pieces are being transferred to the Louvre museum.The Crown of Thorns, believed by many to be a relic of the passion of Christ, and the Tunic of Saint Louis were saved. A copper rooster that sat atop the collapsed spire has been recovered intact.Le Parisien newspaper, citing a source from the Ministry of Culture, said it was not yet known if relics contained in the rooster had survived the blaze. Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging think tanker, aspiring novelist, hanger on of academia, parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, Speedboat, proudly banned from Twitter so officially more dangerous than the Taliban, eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me. A reporter who witnessed the execution in 2017 of Arkansas death-row inmate Kenneth Williams filed a motion Wednesday asking a federal judge to quash a subpoena directing him to testify at a trial starting next week on the constitutionality of the state's lethal-injection protocol. Kelly Kissel, then a news editor for The Associated Press and now a metro editor at The Advocate in Baton Rouge, was one of three media witnesses at Williams' April 27, 2017, execution. In an AP article that followed, he gave his minute-by-minute account of the process, including comments Williams made when asked if he had any "last words," and observations of Williams' visible response to the injection of a lethal three-drug cocktail. Last week, attorneys who are challenging the state's use of the three drugs -- particularly, the ability of the first-administered drug, midazolam, to render an inmate pain-free before the other two injections -- served Kissel with a subpoena commanding him to testify in the expected two-week non-jury trial before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker. The attorneys are representing numerous Arkansas death-row inmates who contend that the current protocol will result in painful executions, in violation of their 8th Amendment rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. They say Williams, who was the last of four Arkansas inmates executed in April 2017, "lurched so violently that he caused bruising to his scalp," indicating that he felt pain that the midazolam injection was supposed to prevent. Under the protocol, an injection of 500 milligrams of the sedative is to be followed by the administration of vercuronium bromide, a paralytic that causes suffocation, and potassium chloride, which causes extreme burning and stops the heart. Kissel's motion, filed by attorney Vincent Chadick of the Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull firm in Little Rock, asks the judge to recognize the "reporter's privilege that protects journalists from compelled disclosure in judicial proceedings." He argued that the information that would come from Kissel's testimony can be easily obtained less intrusively from other sources, such as the article itself, which is available on Web-based archives. "Compelling journalists ... to testify about their observations made while acting in a newsgathering capacity would undermine their and their news organizations' ability to gather and disseminate news to the public," Chadick argued. "Courts from other jurisdictions, including numerous federal courts, state courts, and circuit courts in Arkansas, have recognized that the First Amendment and analogous state constitutional provisions create a qualified privilege for news reporters and editors that immunizes them from having to respond to subpoenas such as the one issued in this case, except when certain stringent requirements are met," he wrote. He also said that following a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case, Branzburg v. Hayes, that focused on the privilege, it has been "overwhelmingly" recognized by federal and state courts. In a pretrial hearing Tuesday, attorney John Williams of the federal public defender's office said he wants to call several people who have witnessed executions in Arkansas and other states to testify about what they saw. Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Merritt objected to testimony from some of those witnesses, including Kissel, who she said weren't identified as potential witnesses by a court deadline. Baker said she would allow testimony from witnesses who testified in a 2017 hearing in the same case, and she will allow all proposed witnesses who watched executions in other states to proffer their testimony before she decides if it's admissible. As for Kissel and Jacob Rosenberg, who was a reporter for the Arkansas Times and witnessed the execution of another inmate, Marcel Williams, Baker said that because they witnessed executions in Arkansas, "I'm not as inclined to strike them." She said that because both men had written about what they witnessed, "I don't think there are any surprises that would be in their testimony." She also said she would consider allowing each to be quickly deposed before the trial, to appease the state. "There is no overriding need for the information in this case so as to justify impairment of Mr. Kissel's First Amendment interests or of the reporter's privilege, and this court should uphold the privilege in order to protect the media from unwarranted intrusion into its profession and to uphold the liberty of the press," Chadick argued in the motion to quash. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has charged three men with being involved in a dark web-enabled drug scheme, confiscating hundreds of thousands of illicit pills in New Jersey's biggest-ever drug seizure. In a Tuesday press release, the D.A.'s office confirmed that following a joint investigation with the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Homeland Security Investigations, it had indicted Chester Anderson, Ronald MacCarty, and Jarrette Codd with first-degree money laundering and conspiracy in the fourth and fifth degrees. The three are accused of laundering $2.3 million in cryptocurrency (apparently by loading up prepaid debit cards and withdrawing cash across Manhattan and New Jersey) that they allegedly obtained by operating an online drug marketplace on the dark weba shadowy part of the Internet where transactions are made, often using cryptocurrencies, in an underground ecosystem that lives parallel to most of the public's Internet experience. Prosecutors say that under the screen name Sinmed, Anderson helmed two online storefronts that hawked ketamine, heroin laced with fentanyl, LSD, methamphetamine, and bootleg Xanax, among other illicit substances, then shipped them to people in 43 states. Anderson, who officials have described as the operation's head honcho, was also charged with multiple counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the fourth and fifth degrees, as well as first-degree identity theft. The investigation began when authorities received a tip two years ago about suspicious amounts of cash being withdrawn from Manhattan ATMs, as well as at a teller machine that could turn cryptocurrency into dollar bills, as the Times reports. At a press conference, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said that the three men had withdrawn an estimated $1 millionin $700 incrementsover roughly two years. Vance's investigators then used cryptocurrency to buy thousands of Xanax pills, GHB, and ketamine and other illicit substances from a dark web marketplace, Dream Market. They also intercepted packages meant for buyers, which contained many such illegal pills. When officials searched the men's rproperties in New Jersey a few weeks ago, they found a staggering amount of substances: All told, they uncovered 420,000 to 620,000 tablets of alprazolam (the anti-anxiety medicine better known as Xanax), GHB (otherwise known as roofies, the date rape drug), and much more. Buckets on buckets of pills the operation shipped out to buyers all around the U.S. (Manhattan District Attorney's Office) As the New York Times reports, The Wireless Spot, a cellphone store in Asbury Park that MacCarty owned, became a "drug factory." There, authorities found tools that could stamp tablets with names, and presses that could spit out a whopping 16,000 pills an hour. Two weeks ago, we took down their operation and recovered: 450,000+ fake Xanax 500 glassines of fentanyl-laced heroin, hidden inside a 4 pill presses, industrial mixers, and punch dies "cookbook" with drug recipes pic.twitter.com/4TPOCXeHWq Cyrus Vance, Jr. (@ManhattanDA) April 16, 2019 The Sinmed bust is particularly significant, given that its success placed it in the top three percent of vendors selling on Dream Market, according to Wired. If you are engaging in illicit activity on the dark web, you are on notice: we know how to find you, we know how to put you out of business, and we know how to hold you criminally accountable," Vance said in a statement. I am a retired newspaperman. I live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 44 years, Lou Ann. I grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather. Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com "Hell hath no fury," wrote Michael Corcoran at Truthout on Tuesday, "like a coalition of health care lobbyists scorned." The insurance industry, Big Pharma and other stakeholders in the status quo of "healthcare" spend immense amounts of money annually on lobbying and on legalistic bribes to politicians. To stop Medicare-For-All... it's a fight to the death and they amounts they spend to protect their profit flows to wealthy shareholders (and highly paid top management will be virtually unlimited. It may be dysfunctional for patients but, hey, the healthcare system wasn't built for them anyway. As Corcoran noted, "It bankrupts and kills the poor while widening profit margins for the wealthy. It is a national embarrassment and a brazen moral abdication of one of the most basic functions a government can serve... [T]he industrys privileged status and hefty profits nevertheless allow it to shape the national debate and politicians in Washington. Our electoral system allows the most powerful industries so much influence that invariably, the people shaping the debate are doing so on behalf of commercial interests-- not for patients, taxpayers or citizens. This election cycle the hub of the single-payer opposition has come mostly in the form of the Partnership for Americas Health Care Future (PAHCF), a coalition of nearly every major powerful lobby in the private health industry. Among the powerful entities in the coalition are the largest drug, insurance and hospital lobbies in the country, among many others (all large spending lobbyists in their own right). The coalition has one goal: to prevent support for single-payer from emerging into a consensus position for Democrats, despite being so popular with Democratic voters. The battle is accelerating quickly as the 2020 presidential campaign has been filled with Medicare for All discussions (and just as many distortions) in the press. Recently, Bernie Sanders released his Senate version of Medicare for All (S.R.1129), now with 14 co-sponsors. The Partnership wasted no time in responding to Sanders, calling the bill one that destroys our system. PAHCF failed to mention that countries with single-payer systems spend about half of what the U.S. pays, have in most cases better health outcomes, and provide coverage to every citizen. The PAHCFs power plays are being made at the regional level as well, not just in the media circus of the presidential primary. In Massachusetts, for instance, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) recently co-sponsored single-payer legislation. Interestingly, Trahan was previously courted by the coalition to be a surrogate of its views. Leaked slides revealed strategic plans from the group, such as earned media and visits to Congress. Earned media is positive press, essentially, as opposed to a paid ad. The slides highlighted several favorable, earned, articles. They also gave briefings with several members of Congress and their staffs. PAHCF provided talking points, data and other arguments against Medicare for All. They provided a note about their courting of Trahan in the documents. She expressed concerns about single-payer rhetoric but otherwise did not discuss the issue. Trahans campaign site has a health care section that very much toes the establishment line. There is no reference to Medicare for All or single-payer-- advocated by DCCC and Third Way that cycle-- but rather her plans to build on the success of the Affordable Care Act and make sure no American is left uninsured. This lack of support for Medicare for All may have been what prompted the Partnerships decision to approach her. In the face of this pressure Rep. Trahan went another way. Rather than become a surrogate for the private health industry in fighting the policy, she became the 107th co-sponsor of the House version of Medicare for All in the current Congress. (There are now 108, as Elijah Cummings has since co-sponsored as well.) Trahans decision, however, might cost her. Now, the private health interests whose advances she resisted are on the warpath. Less than two weeks after Trahan co-sponsored the legislation on March 27, she became the target of the first individual attack ad from the Partnership for Americas Health Care Future on April 8, according to Facebook advertising data. As of April 11, there were 1,800 ads total on Facebook paid for by the PAHCF, according to Facebooks ad library. The life span of the ads is short by design so most of the ads are inactive. But they all reflect the recent use of social media by the organization. Other ads include general messages such as videos telling voters to "stop Medicare for All." The tactic sends a message to other Democrats that there are consequences for spurning some of the most powerful interests in the country, some of which see this as an existential battle to justify their existence. This large group went after Trahan by running attack ads in her district. Big pharma, health insurers and for-profit hospitals are now using our health care premiums to publicly attack legislators who defend our right to health care, said Benjamin Day, director of Healthcare-NOW, a pro-single-payer organization. Its an unbelievable testament to where health care politics are at these days. Advocates have called this tactic the lover spurned situation and are starting to prepare counterstrategies. We face a formidable opponent with a lot of money and a lot of success at keeping the truth about Medicare for All from the public, said Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program. We have to be prepared, we have to work, and we have to just tell the truth about the benefits of this program in solving our terrible crises. If they're doing this to freshman Congresswoman Lori Trahan, what do you think they have in store for Bernie. Think. Think bigger. Bigger than that. Here's how CNBC covered Medicare-For-All on a typical day. UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann warned investors on Tuesday that Medicare for All proposals pushed by Democratic lawmakers and presidential candidates would destabilize the nations health system. A number of Democratic proposals call for eliminating private health insurance and replacing it with a universal Medicare plan, claiming it would help reduce administrative inefficiencies in the health-care system. Most recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont unveiled a bill that would create a government-run system to provide health insurance for all Americans. Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pushing a similar plan. Wichmann, who rarely discusses politics, told investors on a post-earnings conference call Tuesday such measures would surely jeopardize the relationship people have with their doctors, destabilize the nations health system and limit the ability of clinicians to practice medicine at their best. And the inherent cost burden would surely have a severe impact on the economy and jobs-- all without fundamentally increasing access to care, he added. Rolling Stone essay this week, Matt Taibbi, explained That's the kind of crap Bernie, and other progressives, will be up against, as the Partnership for Americas Health Care Future unites with Republicans and conservative Democrats to... protect their profits and screw the country. In aessay this week, Matt Taibbi, explained the science of smears and how the defenders of the status quo are using that against progressives, particularly Bernie. "The Brahmins of today," he wrote, "dont battle with ideas, because... their belief systems are usually regressive and unpopular, only they dont know it yet. The battle is almost always waged instead over personality, because while certain 'radical' ideas may be unstoppable, individual politicians are easily villainized, delaying change-- a little." Terrible when someone like Nancy Pelosi-- who has recently said she's a progressive (poor, used up old thing)-- throws her lot in with them. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders made headlines this week by taking on the Center for American Progress, long known as a messaging arm of the mainstream Democratic Party. Sanders wrote a letter criticizing the CAP board for playing a destructive role in the critical mission to defeat Donald Trump, a critique seemingly crafted in response to recent efforts by ThinkProgress, a news site founded by CAP, to paint Sanders as a hypocrite for being a millionaire author. The Sanders letter to CAP formalized the rift between the Democratic establishment and the labor-based movement of millions Sanders represents. That were talking about a petty PR battle and not the hardcore disagreement about policy and (especially) campaign funding sources that created this divide is Exhibit A proving the old propaganda method is still working. The practice of painting dissident challenges as selfish, hypocritical acts-- as opposed to the selfless altruism of corporate-funded candidates-- has been going on forever. Long before Sanders was framed as a thin-skinned, cranky narcissist whos all about himself, Dennis Kucinich went through the same thing... [H]e was routinely denounced as something worse than a radical: a kook, nut and egomaniac. I covered both of the Kucinich runs for the presidency and saw how frustrated he became over time as his ideas were ignored and his campaigns were denounced as indulgences. What little coverage he got tended to be stuffed below the fold, and focused on him as a lower-tier eccentric, a vegan who dabbled in ventriloquism, wore wing-tips and was too short (the standard modifier attached to him was elfin, as in the elfin peace candidate)... By 2010, when he was opposing the Affordable Care Act for many of the same reasons driving todays Medicare-for-All movement, even would-be liberal commentators like Markos Moulitsas [ROTFLMAO] were denouncing him. He was a modern Nader, pushing unrealistic and self-defeating politics, someone whod never accomplished anything. The treatment of Kucinich was pure high school. I used to get an unpleasant pang of recognition listening to the cool kids on the press plane laughing at the lefty elf who refused to get the hint he wasnt wanted on the debate stage. Back when Sanders didnt seem like a threat to win anything, he got much of the same. He was dismissed as a geek and a wallflower whod be defined by whether he chose to be a help or a hindrance to the real candidate, Clinton. The New Yorkers John Cassidy in early 2015 mock-welcomed Bernie to the race, insisting the entrance of the loner would be a plus for the Clinton campaign, since he would occupy the space to the left of Clinton, thus denying it to more plausible candidates, such as Martin OMalley. It wasnt until Sanders started piling up delegates that he began to take on the villainous characteristics for which he is now infamous. After he won primaries in 2016, suddenly reporters ripped him as a divisive narcissist with three houses who was the ideological mirror of Donald Trump, boasting racist, sexist and violent followers. This was all part of the age-old technique of focusing on the person instead of the ideas or the movement behind them. Sanders wasnt winning in 2016 because Bernie Sanders is some great stump act-- he isnt. A fair portion of his support was coming from people who were fed up with both parties even before he decided to run. The easiest way to avoid dealing with uncomfortable truths is to create an ick factor around the politician benefiting from them. That was Sanders in 2016 and its still him, mainly. However, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii have also been pre-emptively dipped in the ick this cycle, cast as crippled politicians whose mere presence in the race will undermine Democrats in the end. ...Sanders was described as the Kremlin candidate in the Washington Post just a few days ago. This was unsurprising since the Post was asking as far back as the fall of 2017 how Democrats would respond to Putin playing dirty tricks for Sanders in 2020. There are people who will protest that descriptions of such Russian activity boosting Sanders are rooted in fact, as efforts to reach his supports are described in Special Counsel Robert Muellers indictment of the Internet Research Agency. Thats fine. I would counsel anyone who thinks Russia is responsible for the rise of Sanders or people like Gabbard or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should go out and interview voters around the country, especially in remote areas. The anger toward the political establishment that drives support for such politicians began to be visible over a decade ago, long before Sanders or Gabbard were factors in any kind in national politics. Those voters arent selfish, or hypocrites, or Kremlin favorites, and theyre not going anywhere. What a lot of DC-based reporters and analysts dont grasp is that if you remove Bernie Sanders from the scene, there will still be millions of people out there mad about income inequality. Remove Gabbard, and discontent about the human and financial costs of our military commitments will still be rampant. Removing Warren wont cancel out anger about Wall Street corruption. Covering personalities instead of political movements only delays things for a while. Sooner or later, the conservatism of tomorrow arrives. You can only delay the inevitable for so long. Stay strong. Stay hydrated. Remember who 'not your friend. Contribute what you can to Bernie and to other candidates who are running on progressive issues and who will help move his platform through Congress once he beats Trump in 2020. The idea of charging drivers to drive on Manhattans busiest streets to ease traffic congestion has been talked about by politicians going back to the Lindsay administration in the 1960s. But it was Governor Andrew Cuomo who managed to get a plan approved in the state budget earlier this month. Now, New York City is poised to become the first city in the country to get congestion pricing, but the plan is already being attacked. New Jersey politicians are threatening to withhold funding from New York. The police union wants tens of thousands of NYPD officers exempt from it. And at least one Queens Senator thinks more should be done to give those drivers a break. But the governors congestion pricing plan is still being hashed out. Heres what we know, dont know, and need to know before it goes into effect. Where will you have to pay to drive? The tolling zone will be everything in Manhattan below 60th Street, excluding the FDR Drive and the West Side Highway. How much will it cost? We dont know, yet. But if the plan is expected to generate $1 billion a year, then the charge could be as low as $11 for cars, and as high as $25 for trucks. Drivers in the zone would be charged just once a day. And the toll is expected to be variablehigher during peak commuting time, and less during off hours. Why are we doing this again? Money, mostly. The MTA desperately needs cash for its $40 billion plan to modernize the signals, improve buses, and make the system almost fully accessible. Congestion pricing is expected to generate $1 billion a year, which the MTA would use to secure $15 billion in bonds. Vehicular congestion also costs the local economy $9 billion every year, so in some ways, reducing traffic through congestion pricing could save New Yorkers money. (Clarisa Diaz, WNYC/Gothamist) Will congestion pricing have any other effects on pollution? The entire state report outlining the vision for congestion pricing barely mentions the environmental impacts, other than to note that trucks wear down the roads faster than cars, and to quote an environmentalist that notes NYC already has, the smallest carbon footprint of any city in the United States and one of the smallest in the world. So, the short answer is, probably. (Transportation economist Charles Komanoff has a good look at the environmental benefits here.) But thats not really the argument anyone is making. How will drivers be chargedlike an E-Z Pass? That is one idea. Its still not clear what technology the MTA will go with, but Singapore, which has had congestion pricing since 1975, is exploring using satellites and GPS to collect tolls. The MTA already uses license plate readers to collect tolls, so it may just use that. When will it start? December 2020 or early 2021. (Yes, the timingafter the November electionsis intentional.) Whos in charge? The MTAs Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA or just Bridges and Tunnels) department will run the program and make the final decisions. There will also be a six member unpaid board that advises the TBTA on everything from prices of tolls, to who gets exempt. Whos on that board you ask? One member will be appointed by the mayor of New York, one will be from Long Island, and one from the Hudson Valley. The other three will presumably come from the MTA or the governor. Dont taxis and for hire vehicles already pay a congestion pricing toll? Hows that going? True, in February of this year taxis began charging riders an extra $2.50, and for-hire vehicles $2.75 for a congestion pricing fee. This fee alone is expected to generate $1 million a day, which goes to the MTA. While yellow cab drivers have complained that the fee has resulted in fewer rides, the monthly data from the city didnt show any major change in ridership in the first month. The Daily News reports that Uber and Lyft rides have continued to grow even after the fees were instituted. It remains unclear whether taxis and for-hire vehicles will continue to pay the congestion charge they currently pay, or whether theyll be subject to the same fee as everyone else. That will be up to the MTA now. Wait, is there a good audio version of all this, that I could just listen to? Yes! Will anyone be exempt from congestion pricing? Currently, emergency vehicles and drivers transporting disabled passengers are exempt. Manhattan residents making less than $60,000 a year would receive a tax credit. But car-owning Manhattan residents who live below 60th Street are clamoring for exemptions, as are outer-borough politicians looking to score points with their constituents. I am sensitive to the fact that folks who live in that zone, we have to accommodate them in whatever way is appropriate while keeping the integrity of the whole notion of congestion pricing, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters recently, seemingly opening the door to more exemptions. We are going to have to strike that balance. In a statement, Staten Island Borough President Jimmy Oddo and Rep. Max Rose said they agree that New York City needs timely and significant investments to our transportation system. However, our constituents are angry and frustrated to see plans to generate revenues for these investments go forward without assurances that we will be spared additional financial hardship, the statement continues. Queens State Senator James Sanders Jr. told his constituents after the budget was passed that he would continue to fight for exemptions. "More work needs to be done to lessen the impact on Queens' motorists commuting into Manhattan, south of 60th Street," he said in a statement. Also, the NYPDs biggest police union wants every officer to be exempt. Will drivers who already pay a toll coming into the city on, say, the George Washington Bridge, Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel, etc. get a break? Right now, the answer is no. The six member panel will decide all that. But New Jersey politicians arent waiting around for them to decide. Speaking on WNYC, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, expressed concern about drivers switching to his states badly underfunded public transportation system. Systems that we are desperately, giving what we've inherited, working on getting back on our feet. The last thing we needs is that kind of shock to the system...for all those reasons we cant let that stand. Two NJ congressman announced this week that they plan to introduce a bill that would deny federal transportation funding to New York state if Jersey drivers arent exempt. That sounds like a threat. What does the MTA say about that? MTA Chairman Pat Foye: "If people from New York state are using facilities and entering the cordon and paying it, surely people from Missouri and Illinois and New Jersey should pay it as well. That seems to me a common sense answer." New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica told the New York Times that New Jersey commuters arent being treated any differently. Theyre being treated the same as everyone else driving into the Central Business District. What other cities outside of the U.S. have congestion pricing? London, Stockholm, Singapore, Milan. Who came up with the idea of congestion pricing in the first place? It was a New Yorker! Sorta. Canadian-born, but Columbia University professor William Vickery. He won the Nobel Prize in 1996 for economics. He and had the idea for variable tolling. It was also New York traffic planner Sam Schwartz who came up the term gridlock. So, New Yorkers invented congestion pricing, coined the term for what happens when traffic goes unchecked. And now, in 2019 New York is becoming the first U.S. city to do something about it. How do I know when politicians and the MTA are talking about congestion pricing? They probably wont call it congestion pricing, but may refer to it as Central Business District Tolling. What's left? The biggest questions remaining are: How much will the tolls be? Who will get carve-outs? But we wont know until the MTAs six-member congestion pricing panel is created next year, and even then, theyll likely punt the hardest decisions 'til the 11th hour, after the November election. Stephen Nessen is the transportation reporter for WNYC. You can follow him on Twitter @s_nessen. We the Commuters is a weekly newsletter about transportation from WNYC and Gothamist. Sign up below for essential commuting coverage delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Loading... AirAsia has canceled plants to launch a venture in Vietnam. Photo by Reuters/Lai Seng Sin Malaysias AirAsia has called off plans for a joint venture in Vietnam but remains positive about launching its own carrier in the country. The budget carrier said in a statement Wednesday it has ended its agreement with Gumin Company Ltd and Hai Au Aviation to set up an airline. But it "nonetheless remains interested in operating a low-cost airline in Vietnam due to its favorable geographical location, expanding aviation market and overall growth potential." In a tweet on Thursday, AirAsia Group chief executive Tony Fernandes said Vietnam remains "very much in the plan." "I am still optimistic of AirAsia being in Vietnam by end of the year. Watch this space. Picking the right one." The airline had planned to start flying by August this year. The entry of Bamboo Airways in January, the countrys fifth airline, has intensified competition in the booming market where state-owned Vietnam Airlines, its low-cost arm Jetstar Pacific and budget carrier Vietjet are all seeking an increased share of the pie. Philipp Roeslers main task will be to consult with and support domestic startups. Photo by Reuters/Michael Dalder Dr. Philipp Roesler, former vice chancellor of Germany, said his experience has prepared him for his new role in Vietnam supporting startups. Speaking to the Vietnamese media a month after being named chairman of the advisory board of VinaCapital Ventures, one of the largest investment and asset management firms in Vietnam, he called the move a step forward in his career. Roesler highlighted the similarities between leading a country and leading a business, saying both require a collective spirit and for the leader to understand the root of the issues. His past experiences and relationships have therefore prepared him for his return to Vietnam, he said. As VinaCapital Venture's executive responsible for consulting with and supporting startups, Roesler said his aim is to attract the largest possible number of foreign investors to Vietnam and take as many Vietnamese businesses overseas as possible. He added that the firm prioritizes the quality of a start-up's staff and its leader's vision for the business model when choosing which ones to invest in. Roesler is a German of Vietnamese origin. He was born in southern Soc Trang Province in 1973 and adopted by a German couple at nine months from a Christian orphange. Before entering politics, he was a cardiothoracic surgeon. He was the youngest chairman of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) when he took office in May 2011, and served as vice chancellor and federal minister of economics and technology in Angela Merkels government until December 2013. He resigned and quit politics after his Party lost in the 2013 elections. Roesler's appointment at VinaCapital came after he became acquainted with its CEO and co-founder Don Lam at the World Economic Forum five years ago. Roesler said he accepted the job because he felt the passion and burning enthusiasm of young Vietnamese startup founders. Martin Yan (L) of cooking show Yan Can Cook came to Vietnam this week. Photo acquired by VnExpress American celebrity chef Martin Yan of cooking show Yan Can Cook came to Vietnam this week to raise funds for a childrens charity project. He made an appearance at a charity fund raising banquet in Ho Chi Minh city on Tuesday. His participation is part of "Journey to connect love", a charity campaign to help children living in remote areas go to school. Yan contributed three books about his culinary career for an auction, and they fetched VND45 million ($1,942). In the next few days he will stay in the city and take part in a local food tour. He will also attend activities related to the charity. Martin Yan was born in Guangzhou, China. The 70-year old started his career at the age of 13, when he worked in a restaurant in Hong Kong belonging to one of his relatives. He acquired a masters degree in food science from the University of California in the U.S. He first appeared on television in a culinary show in 1978 and has since hosted more than 3000 shows. He has traveled all around Vietnam for a 26-episode documentary called "Discover Vietnam with Martin Yan". He has written more than 30 cookbooks including "Martin Yan's Feast: The Best of Yan Can Cook", "Martin Yan's Asian Favorites" and "Martin Yan's Quick and Easy." Children and parents wait to see doctors at Children's Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City, April 17, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Cam Anh With temperatures soaring to 37 degrees Celsius, Saigon hospitals are seeing a rise in children and elderly patients. "HCMC is getting hotter these days. Both adults and little children in my family are sick," said Nguyen Khoai Em, whod brought her five-year-old grandchild to the Childrens Hospital 2 in District 1 on Wednesday. The girl suffered high fever, coughing and vomiting. Between 3,500 and 7,000 children were seen by the Childrens Hospital 2 in the third week of April, said doctor Huynh Minh Thu with the hospitals Planning Department. Most of them suffered from respiratory and gastrointestinal problems. About 7 percent of the children had to be admitted, she added. The number of hand, foot and mouth disease patients at the hospital, one of the two largest pediatrics facilities in the city, has surged 47 percent from last month, while the number of patients with digestion conditions has been up 15 percent. Searing sunlight and high ultraviolet levels are factors that weaken childrens immune system, Thu said. She said high heat leads to dehydration and spoils food more quickly, which correlate with the increase in patients suffering respiratory and gastrointestinal problems. At the Thong Nhat Hospital in Tan Binh District, 2,500 patients were seen Wednesday, an increase of 1,000 from Monday. Most of the patients seen were the elderly. "Its too hot and Im old, I cant take it. Ive been coughing and feeling fatigue these last few days; even the food does not taste good," said Nguyen Thi Nga, 78, who was waiting for her turn to see a doctor. The Saigon General Hospital in District 1 has received 20 percent plus more patients this month compared to March. Most of them are elderly patients who suffer strokes or problems with respiration, joints and heart, among others, said Nguyen Khac Vui, the hospitals vice director. "If someone has high temperature, increased perspiration and/or quick heartbeats... go immediately go to the nearest medical institution for help," Vui said. HCMC has been hit by a severe heat wave, with temperatures soaring to 34-37 degrees Celsius. But the RealFeel temperature, which indicates how hot it feels outdoors, was around 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The dry season is expected to last at least until mid May. The ultraviolet index in the city has risen to extreme levels, posing skin cancer threats to people exposed to the sun, according to U.K.-based meteorological services firm Weather Online. The index climbed to a very high level of 10 Thursday and is expected to rise to 12 for several days from Friday. A UV Index of between 0 and 3 is considered low, and above 11 is deemed extreme, with radiation that could burn skin and damage eyes within 30 minutes. A Vietnamese soldier stands guard near a Danger site at Bien Hoa airbase, where the U.S. Army stored the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam, October 17, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Kham When I became a senator for Vermont in 1975, one of the first votes I cast was for a law to stop funding the war in Vietnam. That law passed by one vote. Many of us know people who served in the war. Some lost their lives. Others were grievously wounded. Words cannot adequately describe the magnitude of the catastrophe of that war for the people of both countries. Forty-four years later, we still struggle in our country with the remnants of the divisions in our society caused by the war, as do the people of Vietnam. My involvement with post-war Vietnam began in 1989, when former President George H.W. Bush and I talked about the need for reconciliation with Vietnam something that many Americans, including veterans, were calling for. President Bush agreed to use what was later named the Leahy War Victims Fund to provide prosthetics and wheelchairs to Vietnamese who were disabled from landmines and other unexploded bombs. That assistance, which continues today, has enabled thousands of Vietnamese to regain their mobility, and their dignity. Of course, others had been working on the MIA issue even earlier. That work helped bring closure to hundreds of American families. It was possible thanks to the help of the government of Vietnam, at a time when Vietnam was struggling to recover from the wars devastation. For many years the United States has also helped locate and destroy the millions of landmines and other unexploded bombs that continue to maim and kill innocent Vietnamese. Fortunately, thanks to that effort, the number of casualties is far fewer today than it used to be. But more remains to be done. Over the years I had many conversations with Vietnamese officials, before and after diplomatic relations were reestablished in 1995. No matter what the subject of those conversations was, the Vietnamese always brought up Agent Orange, and its effects on their people. At the same time, American veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and were suffering from cancers and other illnesses, were also seeking help from our government. In 1991 the Department of Veterans Affairs recognized those claims, but it wasnt until another 15 years later that we began to address this issue in Vietnam. We started at the Da Nang Airport, a former U.S. military base where Agent Orange, contaminated with dioxin, had been stockpiled. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) deserves great credit for undertaking and completing such a complex, difficult, and ultimately successful project to decontaminate 100,000 cubic meters of soil and sediment. The Vietnamese Ministry of Defense worked closely with USAID to overcome many obstacles to complete the project, and in doing so they helped advance relations between our two countries to a higher level. Like the MIA and UXO issues before it, Agent Orange evolved from a subject of anger and resentment, to one of cooperation and appreciation. For four decades, the Da Nang Airport was a health hazard to thousands of people living nearby. A little over a year ago, the APEC Summit was held there. Soon after that, a U.S. aircraft carrier docked at Da Nang, and sailors visited an orphanage for children who may have inherited their disabilities from parents or grandparents who were exposed to Agent Orange. None of this would have happened were it not for the perseverance and cooperation of our two governments. Throughout this period, USAID also expanded health and disability programs to seven Vietnamese provinces. They provide medical, rehabilitation, infrastructure and social assistance to severely disabled Vietnamese in areas that were heavily sprayed with Agent Orange or contaminated with dioxin. On April 17, I will arrive in Vietnam for the third time, accompanied by eight senators of both political parties. This time we will travel to the Bien Hoa Air Base near Ho Chi Minh City, which was the largest U.S. military base in Vietnam during the war. Along with U.S. Embassy and Vietnamese officials, we will inaugurate the remediation project at Bien Hoa, the largest remaining hotspot of dioxin contamination. This will be one of the largest environmental remediation projects in the world. At the same time, we will witness the signing of an agreement between the United States and Vietnam, spelling out a new five-year commitment to support health and disabilities programs for persons with disabilities in provinces that were heavily sprayed with Agent Orange. The benefits of this humanitarian cooperation have been far-reaching: It has reunited the remains of U.S. soldiers with their loved ones; It has enabled many people in Vietnam who lost their mobility to become mobile again; It has helped Vietnamese families and communities to care for the disabled; We are getting rid of the dioxin; and we have begun to help Vietnam identify the remains of Vietnamese MIAs. Just as important, this cooperation has been the foundation of a growing partnership. While our two governments have disagreements on important issues, we share many interests: from increasing student exchanges, to expanding trade relations, to combating climate change. Our partnership with the Ministry of Defense, and the active support and engagement of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of State in these humanitarian efforts, have opened up new opportunities for cooperation on regional security issues, today and in the future. We cannot escape the fact that the war was a disaster for generations of Vietnamese and Americans. Each of us who lived through that period has our own memories, our own emotions, our own opinions. For me, there can be no excusing the folly of that war, nor diminishing of the immense destruction and suffering that it caused. But we can all be proud of the way our two countries have worked to overcome that tragic legacy. We have come a long way, and we have further to go. *Patrick Leahy, a senior United States Senator, is heading the official bipartisan delegation of nine senators that this week is visiting Vietnam and the DMZ in South Korea. The opinions were published on www.leahy.senate.gov. The altar of Chu Van An at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Trang UNESCO will commemorate Vietnamese teacher Chu Van An on the occasion of his 650th death anniversary next year. The decision was made Tuesday by its executive board, which will issue a resolution in November for UNESCO to join Vietnam in the commemoration. Chu Van An was a high-ranking mandarin of the Tran Dynasty (1,225-1,400 CE). He was born in 1292 in Thanh Tri District of Hanoi and was praised by people for his ethical lifestyle from a very young age. Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu, or Complete Annals of Dai Viet, a 15-volume work published in the 15th and 16th centuries chronicling the history of the Vietnamese from 2879 BCE to 1697 CE, describes him as "straightforward, clean, truthful, and not bothered about benefits." During his time, schools were rare and meant only for the children of the rich and royalty. Ordinary people would send their children to small, private classes organized by local scholars in their village. After he passed an examination considered the equivalent of a modern doctoral degree, An chose not to work for the court. Instead, he opened his own school to teach local children. In 1314 two of his students passed the doctoral examination, spreading his and the schools fame across the nation. King Tran Minh Tong appointed him principal of Quoc Tu Giam, or the Temple of Literature, in Hanoi, Vietnams first university. An contributed much to its development and created the curriculum himself. He also had the task of tutoring Crown Prince Tran Vuong. After Tran Minh Tong passed away, Tran Vuong took the throne as Tran Hien Tong in 1329, but passed away two years later. The new young king, Tran Du Tong, then five years old, was more interested in the pursuit of pleasure than ruling, leaving the country in a mess and the government full of corrupt mandarins. An tried to advise the king in a last-ditch effort to save the country, submitting a petition to behead seven mandarins he believed had subverted the system for their own benefit. Though his suggestion was ignored by the king, it shocked the public since the rules did not allow a mandarin like An to act like that. Following his failure An gave up his title and position, retreated to a mountainous area in Chi Linh District, Hai Duong Province, not from his hometown, to become a teacher again. He was said to have lived "happily in poverty" for the rest of his life, teaching and writing. Thanks to him, many people became excellent students, including Nguyen Thi Due, the only woman to pass the doctoral exam in Vietnams feudal era. Later Tran kings invited An back to the court several times, but he always declined. In 1370 he passed away in Hai Duong. An altar was erected in his honor at the Temple of Literature, where he is still venerated. An will become the fourth Vietnamese to be honored by UNESCO after Nguyen Trai, a Confucian scholar, poet, politician, and master strategist, President Ho Chi Minh and poet Nguyen Du. US to bolster maritime support for Vietnam, with possible warship visit this summer The USS Carl Vinson docks at a port in Da Nang, Vietnam on March 5, 2018. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong The U.S. Navy is planning two major port calls in central Vietnam this year as it seeks to strengthen maritime relations, a U.S. admiral said. One of the security priorities the U.S. wants to focus on in 2019 is enhancing Vietnams military capabilities and pursuing opportunities for military training and cooperation consistent with Vietnams priorities and capacity, Admiral Philip Davidson, Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said. The key areas that the U.S. wants to support Vietnam are maritime security and maritime domain awareness, defined by the International Maritime Organization as the effective understanding of anything associated with the maritime domain that could impact the security, safety, economy, or environment. This will help Vietnam protect its sovereignty, deter aggression, and promote regional and global security, he said at a Thursday press meeting in Ho Chi Minh City. He stressed that U.S.-Vietnam defense cooperation was based on common strategic interests in upholding Vietnams sovereignty and independence and promoting a rules-based international order. "I commend Vietnam for taking a vocal stand against the malign influence that seeks to constrain international access to the East Sea," he said, using the Vietnamese name for the South China Sea. The admiral of Americas oldest and largest military combatant command based in Hawaii expressed specific concerns about Chinas recent moves. "The militarization by China of the East Sea is concerning not only because of the global economic implications, but for what it suggests about the nations broader intent to reshape the international rules-based order that has enabled the astonishing economic rise of this region," he said. He said China seeks to weaken regional order and the sovereignty of countries, international rights to the global commons as well as the flourishing network of allies, partners and friends who seek a free and open Indo-Pacific. It also seeks to undermine institutions such as Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its member states. Such actions affect the security and the right of all nations to trade, to communicate, to develop their natural resources, and to send their financial information and communications through cables under the sea, he said. Davidson also said Thursday that the U.S. "would welcome the opportunity for another aircraft carrier visit to Vietnam this year," saying he thinks it "shows the mutual respect that each nation has for each other and the depth of our growing partnership." A day earlier in the central province of Khanh Hoa, home to major military bay Cam Ranh, he told the press that the U.S. Navy wants to send a vessel and crew to Khanh Hoa for an official visit this September and before that, a U.S. aircraft carrier might pay a visit to the province in the summer. In March last year, the USS Carl Vinson docked in Vietnam, marking the first visit by a U.S. military vessel since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, underscoring the growing strategic ties between the former foes. The U.S. early this month gave six fast-response Metal Shark patrol boats to Vietnam Coast Guard Region 3, which oversees the country's waters along the southeastern and south central coast, and offshore waters in the East Sea. An official from Boeing revealed in late March that the U.S. company is close to sealing a deal to sell unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Boeing Insitu ScanEagle, to Vietnam. Last August, a local newspaper quoted an unnamed U.S. State Department official as saying that Vietnam had signed contracts to buy U.S. military equipment worth $94.7 million. Vietnams Foreign Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied the information. Six Metal Shark patrol boats were also delivered in March last year. National defense cooperation between the U.S. and Vietnam accelerated in 2017, when the U.S. transferred a U.S. Coast Guard cutter to Vietnam and the first aircraft carrier visited the country. The countries will mark 25 years of bilateral relationship next year. Indonesia's President Joko Widodo reacts after a quick count result during the Indonesian elections in Jakarta, Indonesia April 17, 2019. Photo by Reuters/Edgar Su The prospect of another five years in office for President Joko Widodo cheered Indonesias financial markets on Thursday. The results from private pollsters based on counts of vote samples were in line with opinion polls that predicted a victory for Widodo, raising expectations for a splurge of reforms in his second term. The "quick counts" showed Widodo winning the popular vote with at least 54 percent, giving him a lead of around eight percentage points over former general Prabowo Subianto, who was narrowly defeated by Widodo in last election five years ago. The counts from reputable pollsters have proved to be accurate in previous elections, though the official result will not be announced until May. Prabowo, a former son-in-law of military strongman Suharto who was overthrown in 1998, told a news conference on Wednesday that he is not trailing Widodo and believed his share of the vote was in a 52-54 percent range. Prabowo later said the real count gave him 62 percent, though the election commissions website put him at about 45 percent on Thursday morning based on results from 808 of more than 800,000 polling stations "We have noted several incidents that have harmed the supporters of this ticket," Prabowo said, without giving detail. In 2014, Prabowo had also claimed victory on election day, before contesting the results at the Constitutional Court, which confirmed Widodos win. Widodo said on Wednesday the results indicated he had regained the presidency of the worlds fourth-most-populous nation, but urged supporters to wait for the election commission to announce official results. The front page of Indonesias English-language Jakarta Post newspaper carried the headline: "Five More Years" next to a picture of the president. Financial markets rose with the rupiah opening at 14,000 per dollar, up 0.57 percent from the previous close. The benchmark 10-year government bond yields edged down to 7.598 percent. The Jakarta stock index rose 1.5 percent. Analysts are trying to assess whether Widodo will accelerate the cautious reform agenda of his first term and open up more areas to foreign investors, or even try to free up restrictive labor laws. This will partly hinge on his ability to get laws through a newly elected parliament and to take on nationalist forces. Thomas Rookmaaker, director at Fitch Ratings, noted the next batch of reforms could include improvements to education, more flexible labor laws and smoother land acquisitions. "The governments appetite for pressing such far-reaching reforms remains uncertain, but early results in the vote counts point to sufficient support to deliver, given a small majority in parliament for the coalition that supported Jokowi going into these elections," Rookmaaker said in a statement, referring to the presidents nickname. On Wednesday afternoon, members of the Economic Development Corporationthe quasi-public agency that runs NYC Ferry alongside private operator Hornblowerwere called to testify in front of the City Council. For about two hours, the officials attempted to answer basic questions about the ridership and governance of the ferry system, which is set to receive a whopping $600 million in taxpayer funds in the next three years. Answers were not always forthcoming. "We don't have information on who precisely is riding the boats today," admitted EDC Chief of Staff James Katz, in response to one of several requests for demographic information on the ferry's users. "Most of our ridership, particularly in the commuting hour, are commuting into work in Manhattan or Lower Manhattan." The question of equitywho exactly is benefiting from the luxurious, heavily-subsidized boats which offer $8 cups of rose on taphas become a sticking point for transit advocates and some elected officials since the citywide ferry system launched three years ago. On Wednesday, several councilmembers pointed out that the city's beleaguered subways and buses carry exponentially more riders than the ferry, but receive just a fraction of the per-rider subsidy. (The newest model of NYC ferry boats holds a maximum of 350 riders, while a single A train can carry roughly 2,000 people.) Others wondered whether the system was catering to high-income New Yorkers, who are more likely to live next to the waterfront and, anecdotally at least, seem to be the group most often taking advantage of the service. James Wong, of EDC, says during their NYC Ferry rider surveys the corp does not ask about rider incomes. They also don't know how many NYCHA residents use it. So the city just throws the word "equity" around with no proof that this is serving lower-income commuters. Vincent Barone (@vinbarone) April 17, 2019 "We need to have a conversation about where this is going," said Council Member Antonio Reynoso, pointing to a recent report that found the per-rider subsidy keeping ferry service afloat was more than $10 per-rider, and could soon be as high as $24.75 per customer on the forthcoming Coney Island to Wall Street route. Despite the growing public investment, Reynoso noted, the ferries carry just 4 million people annually; by comparison, Citi Bike had served 50 million riders in its first three years, without receiving a cent in taxpayer money. Faced with these numbers, Mayor Bill de Blasio has consistently accused critics of missing the bigger picture about his "whole new form of mass transit," which he says is making a significant impact in transit deserts such as the Rockaways and Red Hook. The point was echoed on Wednesday by Katz, who added that the EDC's two surveys of ferry riders had showed that more than 80 percent are New York City residents. But the councilmembers quickly explained that they were more interested in the average income of ferry users, how many of them lived in public housing, and what the racial breakdown of ridership looks like. The EDC either didn't know, or wasn't sharing. By my count from reporters tweeting about it on here, at least a half dozen of us filed FOILs with @NYCEDC for NYC Ferry ridership demographic data. None of us have gotten responses. It's almost like there's something they don't want to tell us.... Aaron W. Gordon (@A_W_Gordon) April 17, 2019 Beyond attempting to wrangle information from the city's economic development arm, the explicit purpose of the hearing was to explore the possibility of transferring control of NYC Ferry to a city agency with greater accountability. Under a new City Council bill, the system could be overseen by a Director of Ferry Operations (a Water Mayor?) housed within the Department of Transportation. While the DOT has long operated the Staten Island Ferry, a representative for the agency expressed reservations about taking over the citywide ferry system. The EDC's Katz, meanwhile, said he was "open to the conversation about finding a new home, or a permanent home, in whatever place policymakers see fit." Still, he cautioned that no change should be allowed until NYC Ferry completes a planned expansion, which will bring routes to Coney Island, the Bronx's Ferry Point Park, and the North Shore of Staten Island over the next few years. Changing the system's operating structure before then, he said, would be like "trying to drop on a horse in a motion." The officials did not address reporting earlier in the day revealing a member of EDC's board of directors also served as a senior advisor in a private equity firm with a substantial stake in Hornblower. As it stands, the city is attempting to purchase the fleet of boats from Hornblower for $82 million. That effort was blocked last month by Comptroller Scott Stringer, after his office found that the deal suffered from "profoundly poor levels of disclosure, as well as a series of seemingly inexplicable decisions that are proving to be needlessly expensive to taxpayers." The city's representatives did not share any new information about that procurement deal on Wednesday, and had few additional details about the ferry's overall economic picture. Katz did say that he was skeptical the system would pay for itself anytime soon. "We need to have a serious discussion about how we're prioritizing the subsidies the city is giving to transportation," responded Reynoso. "Getting demographic information would be extremely valuable for my advocacy of expanded ferry service." Loading... This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going. Voith has been awarded a contract to equip the Australian pumped storage power station Snowy 2.0, one of the largest pumped storage basins worldwide, with electrical and mechanical power plant components. The Future Generation Joint Venture (a Joint Venture between Salini Impregilo, Clough and Lane) and the Heidenheim-based technology group signed the contract at beginning of April. Operator of the plant is Snowy Hydro Ltd. The order includes the supply of six reversible pump turbines, each with a rated output of 333 megawatts, three of which are variable-speed. In addition, the order includes six motor generators, the auxiliary systems and the complete power plant automation. With the six units, Snowy 2.0 will achieve a total output of 2,000 megawatts and provide the national electricity market with 175 hours of continuous large-scale storage. The project can thus make a significant contribution, both to grid stabilization and to the further expansion of power generation from renewable energy. Attractive overall package In the almost two-year tendering process, Voith Hydro successfully prevailed thanks to its know-how in pumped storage technology. At the heart of the innovative pumped storage technology is a special asynchronous motor-generator, the doubly fed induction machine. Compared to a conventional synchronous machine, it decouples the mechanical speed from the constant frequency and can vary. As a result, the system reacts faster and more flexibly to active and reactive demands from the power grid. It also offers additional stability in the event of a voltage drop. Australia's great renewable energy potential Australia is not only fully self-sufficient; the country has the opportunity to meet 100 percent of its energy needs with renewable energy. Currently, wind, solar and hydropower represent 17 percent of Australia's total electricity generation. To further increase energy production from regenerative sources and at the same time to ensure grid stabilization, the country relies heavily on pumped storage technology. Pumped storage systems are currently the most economically viable and technically proven form of storing electrical energy on a large scale. The Snowy 2.0 project marks an important milestone for Australia. And Voith is making a major contribution with its experience and hydropower components. "Voith is very proud to be a part of this exciting and important hydropower project and to continue to contribute to Australia's renewable energy development," said Uwe Wehnhardt, President and CEO of Voith Hydro. About Snowy 2.0 Snowy 2.0 will connect the two existing dams of the Snowy Scheme, Tantangara Dam and Talbingo Dam, through underground tunnels and an underground power station with pumping and generating capacity. The underground power house will house six reversible Francis-type pump turbines. The capacity of the plant is designed for 2,000 megawatts and allows 175 hours of storage. The first power out of Snowy 2.0 is expected early as 2024. About the Voith Group The Voith Group is a global technology company. With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services and digital applications, Voith sets standards in the markets of energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive. Founded in 1867, the company today has more than 19,000 employees, sales of 4.2 billion and locations in over 60 countries worldwide and is thus one of the large family-owned companies in Europe. The Group Division Voith Hydro is part of the Voith Group and a leading full-line supplier as well as trusted partner for equipping hydropower plants. Voith develops customized, long-term solutions and services for large and small hydro plants all over the world. Its portfolio of products and services covers the entire life cycle and all major components for large and small hydro plants, from generators, turbines, pumps and automation systems, right through to spare parts, maintenance and training services, and digital solutions for intelligent hydropower. Read the full press release. The Department of Public Utilities has issued an Order approving long-term contracts for 800MW of offshore wind between Vineyard Wind and the Commonwealth's Electric Distribution Companies. These contracts result from An Act Relative to Energy Diversity, signed by Governor Baker in 2016, and will ultimately spur economic development along the coast, ensure a resilient energy future for the Commonwealth and secure progress toward greenhouse gas reduction requirements. Additionally, Vineyard Wind has committed in these contracts to contribute $15 million to a fund that will invest in projects designed to promote the use of battery storage in low-income communities and support the Commonwealth's goal to further the development of energy storage systems across the state. "The approval of these contracts is an important step toward the completion of the largest offshore wind project in the country, which will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide Massachusetts residents and businesses with cost-effective clean energy and promote economic development," said Governor Charlie Baker. Vineyard Wind's bid was selected for contract negotiation in May 2018 based on criteria established under a Request for Proposals (RFP) previously subject to public comment, and submitted to the DPU for review and approval on July 31, 2018. Criteria used in the evaluation of the bids included an economic evaluation of the benefits for ratepayers, the project's ability to foster employment and economic development in the Commonwealth, and the project's environmental impacts and the extent to which a project demonstrates that it avoids or mitigates impacts to natural resources and tourism. As a result of a stringent review, Vineyard Wind was determined to provide the greatest overall value to Massachusetts customers by delivering approximately 800 MW of offshore wind capacity per year while providing substantial ratepayer benefits. The DPU's Order approved the selection and found that these contracts are cost-effective as well as in the public interest. "This approval by the Department of Public Utilities ensures that this project offering competitively priced and locally produced offshore wind energy to the Commonwealth can move forward," said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton. "The administration looks forward to continuing to grow its emerging offshore wind industry while leading the nation in in combating climate change." "Massachusetts is committed to being a leader in the U.S. offshore wind industry," said Department of Public Utilities Chairman Matt Nelson. "These contracts will provide fuel diversification in the Commonwealth and enhance reliability of the regional system, continuing the Commonwealth's practice of leading the nation in innovation and renewable energy." On March 27, 2019, Massachusetts reinforced its commitment to offshore wind and clean energy when the Commonwealth's Electric Distribution Companies submitted their second RFP to the DPU for up to 800MW of additional offshore wind. This Order continues the Baker-Polito Administration's ongoing efforts to grow the Commonwealth's clean energy economy and meet our greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. In August 2016, Governor Baker signed into law bipartisan comprehensive energy diversification legislation requiring utilities to competitively solicit and contract for approximately 1,600MW of offshore wind and approximately 1,200MW of clean energy. The administration's new solar incentive program, Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART), will support an additional 1,600 MW of solar in Massachusetts, nearly doubling the amount installed as of today (4/16) at half the estimated pricing of existing programs. DNV GL's Head of Technical Centre China Falk Rothe handed over the two certificates to Dr. Lixin Xu from China Merchants Offshore Technology and Research Center (CM-OTRC). The management team and project members from CM-OTRC also joined the ceremony. "CMHI and DNV GL have been partners in strategic cooperation for many years. Together, we both aim to not only set industry standards in ship and offshore unit designs, but contribute to safer and more environmental-friendly operation," said Norbert Kray, DNV GL's Regional Manager Greater China. "We are very grateful that CMHI have made us their first choice for classification services for these two projects and we look forward to strengthening our cooperation in the future." The arctic single column drilling unit (SCDU) consists of a round floater with an upper and a lower hull, an enclosed deckhouse, and a round footing. It is designed for well work-over, exploration, and development drilling operations in water depths up to 700m in moderate environments, including Arctic and sub-Arctic areas (open water and up to 1.5m ice thickness), moored by a 16-point mooring system. The round conical shape of the strengthened hull structure is designed to deflect and break the ice, protecting the drilling riser and other equipment in the moonpool against level ice. DNV GL assessed the design according to a high-spec class notation string: 1A Cylindrical Drilling Unit(N) Crane-offshore(N) DRILL(N) E0 POSMOOR Non-self-propelled HELDK (S, H, N) DAT (-40) Ice(L) PC(5) Winterized(Polar, -45C) BIS BWM(T) Clean(Design). Read the full story. The Arkona offshore wind farm of E.ON and Equinor went into operation with a festive event in the port of Sassnitz-Mukran on the island of Rugen. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig and Norway's Minister of Energy and Petroleum Kjell-Brge Freiberg launched power generation together with E.ON CEO Johannes Teyssen and other guests of honor. Arkona is the largest wind farm in the entire Baltic Sea. Chancellor Angela Merkel: "Arkona sets a standard for the transition of the energy system. We will discuss how we achieve the climate goals. It is not sufficient to convert energy production. We see great potential in the heating sector. We are also facing a major change in the transport sector." Johannes Teyssen: "The task now is to expand renewable energies vigorously and at the same time make them cheaper. Green energy must be delivered to people and businesses much more efficiently than before. This is a Herculean task that requires all the strength of large companies. E.ON will focus on better integration and utilization of renewables for our customers and society." Prime minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Manuela Schwesig: "Today we are sending out a strong signal: we are making progress with the energy revolution. Offshore wind power is a crucial element here. This is a path with a future. It is a path we are taking together with strong partners like E.ON and Equinor. I congratulate the Arkona project on its completion," said Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig on the occasion of the commissioning of the Arkona offshore wind farm today in Sassnitz. Norway's Energy Minister Kjell-Brge Freiberg: "Today, we are not only celebrating the opening of the Arkona wind farm and the productive cooperation between E.ON and Equinor. The event is also a symbol of the close relations between Norway and Germany in the energy field." Furthermore: "Technological advancements and cost reductions has given offshore wind a momentum in Europe, and I am glad to see Equinor and a number of other Norwegian companies entering this market in cooperation with companies like E.ON." Jon Erik Reinhardsen, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Equinor: "The Arkona opening is a key milestone for Equinor. The wind farm has the capacity to supply renewable energy to 400,000 German homes. Equinor is already meeting 25 percent of Germany's need for natural gas. Arkona is Equinor's fourth wind farm coming online since 2012 and is a key contribution to developing Equinor into a broad energy company. We would also like to thank E.ON for its excellent work on the development and operations of Arkona." Chris Peeters, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of 50Hertz: "50Hertz was able to connect the Arkona offshore wind farm to the grid on time and at a lower cost to the grid customer than originally calculated. We are just as proud of this as we are of the very cooperative European cooperation in this major project with our two partners E.ON and Equinor. The joint offshore platform is clear proof of this and has also set a new standard for the implementation of such projects. Today is a really good day for the energy revolution in Germany and Europe and for the development of offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea." The Arkona wind farm is located 35 kilometers northeast of the island of Rugen. The wind farm has a capacity of 385 megawatts and can supply approximately 400,000 households with renewable energy. The investment volume amounts to 1.2 billion. Compared to conventionally generated electricity, Arkona saves up to 1.2 million tons of CO2 annually. 60 turbines of the six-megawatt class from Siemens were installed. Arkona is a joint venture between E.ON and the Norwegian energy company Equinor. This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by E.ON Group Management and other information currently available to E.ON. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. E.ON SE does not intend, and does not assume any liability whatsoever, to update these forward-looking statements or to align them to future events or developments. Postal voting in Bilbao. JON RODRIGUEZ BILBAO (EFE) Elections are one of those defining moments in the history of a country. Spain is viewing the general election of April 28 as some sort of second democratic Transition, following a decade of recession that left lingering scars in the form of unemployment and inequality. There is also the biggest political crisis in 40 years to contend with Catalonia as well as a new and imperfect five-way party system that is going to turn parliament on its head. Spains young leaders (they were all born after 1972) have opted for a confrontational tone that complicates post-election alliances. This ulcerous atmosphere also makes it hard to hold far-reaching debates: besides the headline-grabbing sound bites, hardly anyone is taking a clear stand on the main issues driving Europes agenda, from Brexit to immigration or the future of the euro. Fiscal policy is out of control. Spain has no leeway if there is a new recession Daniel Gros, CEPS Some EU sources are warning about the negative consequences of prolonging political instability in Spain. Brussels is hoping for a government with a stable parliamentary majority that will be able to push the budget through and put an end to all the wavering that has been the rule since 2015, said a high-ranking European official in a conversation with EL PAIS. The economys performance has been the best news out of Spain in recent years, but Spanish politics cannot continue to stumble along, said the same source. Viewed in perspective, Spain is not a problem for Brussels, which is dealing with Brexit, EU elections, and has Italy as its main source of headaches in southern Europe. Vox leader Santiago Abascal greeting supporters. Europa Press But there is some dismay over issues such as the high numbers of migrant arrivals via the Western Mediterranean, and Spains weak contribution to the main debates on the future of the euro a key summit is coming up in May in Sibiu (Romania). And there is some degree of concern about the emergence of the hard-right party Vox in a country that had so far resisted the temptation of national-populism. The ideal situation, according to Brussels, would be a coalition of pro-European parties. In this sense, Vox a potential ally of Polish ultraconservative Catholics and even Hungarys Viktor Orban does not pose the same potential threat as similar parties in other European countries. Spain, one of the biggest economies in Europe, continues to box under its weight division in Brussels, yet it remains one of the only member states able to keep up with the Franco-German axis. But to do that, it will have to learn the noble art of coalition-building, either the Dutch way (with several parties) or the way theyve done it in Portugal, where there is a conservative president heading a leftist executive. The economys performance has been the best news out of Spain in recent years, but Spanish politics cannot continue to stumble along High-ranking EU official Oblivious to these demands, Spanish candidates continue with their confrontational campaign race. On Wednesday, Ciudadanos (Citizens) leader Albert Rivera accused those who organize tributes to killers of stigmatizing the democrats. And Pablo Casado of the Popular Party (PP) raised his own bar by talking about apartheids in separatist areas of Catalonia. But for all the fear-mongering, the campaign has yet to really gel. The governing Socialist Party (PSOE) is keeping a low profile, while the PP and Ciudadanos are saving their big guns for the last week of the campaign and for the televised debate of April 23, which could have an effect on undecided voters and change the balance of the blocs. Taxes Brussels has taken some distance from these daily exchanges of cataclysmic statements, but it is concerned about one particular point on the Spanish campaign agenda: taxes. Fiscal policy is out of control. Spain has no leeway if there is a new recession, warns Daniel Gros, of the liberal think tank CEPS. A similar institution, Bruegel, also fails to see any financial cushion that might justify the campaign pledges of lower taxes. And the economic analysis group Eurointelligence noted on Wednesday that there are few chances of Spain becoming a bigger player on the European scene post-Brexit. Far from heeding these warnings, Podemos is promising a utopian debt restructuring, the PSOE is avoiding taking a stand on messy issues, and the right-of-center parties are pledging all kinds of tax cuts, constantly citing the Laffer curve, a theory that holds that revenues will actually increase with tax cuts despite empirical evidence to the contrary. English version by Susana Urra. Recent polls suggest the political landscape of Spain could shift dramatically at the upcoming general election on April 28 with the far-right party Vox gaining congressional representation for the first time, the conservative Popular Party (PP) set to lose up to half its seats, and the Socialist Party (PSOE) gaining up to 30% of the vote. But how did Spain vote at the 2016 general election? We know that the PP won the highest number of seats and that the anti-austerity Podemos triumphed in the Basque Country and Catalonia but how did each neighborhood vote? Here are some of the most striking results from the last election, according to each census section. Each neighborhood is colored according to the party which won there blue represents the PP, red is the PSOE, purple is Podemos, yellow is the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCat), which supports Catalan independence, and green is the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV). Salamanca neighborhood in Madrid. The PP was the most-voted party in many areas of Madrid but its victory in upscale Salamanca was overwhelming. In many blocks, it won more than 80% of the vote. It missed out on some areas near the center of the Spanish capital, where Podemos received the highest number of votes. Barcelona Podemos wave. Podemos swept to victory in what used to be known as the red belt of the Catalan capital because of traditional voter preference for the PSOE. The PP held on only in the upper part of the city, where residents have the highest income, where people also voted for PDeCat. Gran Canaria. The Canaries Coalition may have made gains in the Canary Islands, but in Gran Canaria, the PP was the big winner at the 2016 election. Asturias the mining basin. The PP was the most-voted party in most municipalities in Asturias, with the exception of Gijon. In this mining basin south of Oviedo, the vote was shared between PSOE and Podemos. Lugo PP stronghold. The founder of the PP, Manuel Fraga, was a very popular politician in Galicia, but it is in his home province of Lugo where he really left a mark. At the general election in 2016, the PP won in every neighborhood. Almeria the first signs of Vox. At the regional elections in Andalusia, Vox won 15% of the vote in Almeria. It achieved its best results in the census areas shown in this map as a deepest blue. Bilbao. In the Basque Country, Podemos received the highest number of votes. In Bilbao, the vote in the city was largely shared out between Podemos and the PNV. Catalonia the border with Aragon. This map shows the contrast between votes in Aragon on the left and Catalonia on the right. Left of the border, most areas voted for the PP and the PSOE, while to its right, Podemos and two pro-Catalan independence parties Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) were the winners. Girona. In this Catalan city, the ERC and PDeCat had most success in the areas near the Onyar river. On the outskirts, in areas like Font de la Polvora, PSOE and Podemos received the highest number of votes. Pozuelo 16 votes for Podemos. Just outside Madrid, in Pozuelo de Alarcon, one of the wealthiest municipalities in Spain, there is only one census section where the PP did not win. In the exclusive area of La Finca, which is home to more than 1,500 people, only 16 people voted for Podemos. Alicante a neighborhood that did not vote. The neighborhood Mil Viviendas in Alicante had one of the highest levels of voter abstention. Only 26% of residents in the area voted and almost half voted for the PSOE. English version by Melissa Kitson. An Israeli flight attendant who contracted measles has been comatose for over a week following a flight from New York City to Tel Aviv in late March. The 43-year-old woman reportedly developed encephalitisswelling of the braina potentially deadly, severe complication of a virus that was once thought to be eradicated in North America, but is now experiencing a national resurgence. "She's been in a deep coma for 10 days, and we're now just hoping for the best," Dr. Itamar Grotto, associate director general of Israel's Ministry of Health, told CNN. She has reportedly been placed on a respirator in an intensive care unit at Meir Medical Center, after checking herself into the hospital with a fever on March 31st. An infected passenger likely exposed the woman to measles while she worked an El Al flight on March 26th. It's believed that she did actually get the vaccine as a child, but while vaccination is highly effective at preventing the virus (93 to 97 percent, depending on whether or not a patient gets one or two doses of the vaccine), there's still a small chance that even inoculated people will get sick anyway. In 2000, health officials declared measles eliminated in the United States, thanks to the widespread introduction of a vaccine developed in 1968 and still used today. Yet measles persists in close-knit and insular communitiesthe Amish in Ohio, for example, Minnesota's Somali populations, and Eastern European enclaves in Washington statethat don't commonly vaccinate children. The current outbreak can be traced to Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish communities, where anti-vaxxers have waged targeted misinformation campaigns: Between January 1st and April 11th, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 555 cases of the virus in 20 states, the diagnosis rate rising nearly 20 percent in the week after April 4th. According to the Washington Post, a man responsible for spreading measles from NYC to other parts of the country seems to have been exposed to the virus in Israel, before traveling to Brooklyn in November. In March, he drove to Michigan on a fundraising trip, staying with members of Detroit's Orthodox community throughout his travels. He reportedly felt sick upon arrival, and saw a doctor, who misdiagnosed his symptomsa cough and a feveras bronchitis and prescribed antibiotics. The man then developed a rash, which the doctor initially chalked up to an allergic reaction before putting the pieces together and tipping off the health department. Officials worked with the local Hatzalah members to track down patient zero, who reportedly believed himself to be immune to the disease because he'd had it before. Since arriving in Detroit, the man came into contact with hundreds of people in the Orthodox communitynot only in their homes, but also at synagogues, yeshivas, kosher markets, and a pizza parlor. As a result, 39 people came down with the highly contagious virus. Health officials in Brooklyn, Rockland County, and Westchester County have been working to counteract the spread of the disease. Rockland County declared a state of emergency in late March, banning unvaccinated people from public spaces including schools, houses of worship, shopping centers, and restaurants. (Parents of unvaccinated children subsequently sued.) Earlier this month, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public health emergency in NYC, compelling four zip codes in Brooklyn (11205 in Clinton Hill; 11206, which encompasses parts of East Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Bed Stuy; 11211 in Williamsburg; and 11249, which stretches from the Williamsburg/Greenpoint border down to the Brooklyn Navy Yard) to either vaccinate, or face fines. This, too, prompted a lawsuit, but the city is moving forward (while also walking back an initial threat of jailing violators). On Monday, it shuttered a Williamsburg yeshiva that refused to furnish vaccination records for its students. The situation is serious: As of April 15th, the city health department had confirmed 329 measles cases, 44 of which cropped up in the last week. According to Health Department Commissioner Oxiris Barbot, at least two children at the yeshiva had measles. "We don't take this measure lightly," Barbot said at a press conference. "We recognize that school closure can potentially present hardships for families and that's not our intent; but if a school is unable and unwilling we will definitely close them ... in this situation it's critical that schools play their part in excluding students who are unvaccinated." Russia is banning exports of crude oil, petroleum products and coal to Ukraine. "A few days ago the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers took the latest unfriendly step with respect to our country and expanded the list of Russian goods which cannot be imported to Ukrainian territory. In these conditions we are forced to protect our interests and take response measures," Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting of the Russian cabinet. Medvedev said he had signed a resolution "banning the export of Russian crude oil and petroleum products to Ukraine." The document "determines a list of those goods that it will be possible to export to Ukraine only on the basis of separate decisions from June 1." "This category includes fuel and energy products, including coal as well as the oil and petroleum products," he said. he Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has permitted Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest Group, to acquire private joint-stock company Dniprovsky Coke Chemical Plant (earlier Evraz-Dniprodzerzhynsky Coke Chemical Plant located in Kamianske, the town earlier named Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dnipropetrovsk region). Spokesperson of the committee Oleksiy Tkachuk told Interfax-Ukraine that the decision was made at a meeting on Thursday. "The deal was approved with additional obligations of the company for a long period. The obligations will be officially announced," the spokesperson said. As reported, in September 2017, the committee officially announced that the committee is collecting information about the concentration on the coke and coke chemical products markets. Earlier the Metinvest Group was permitted in other countries to acquire the enterprise. However, it was not officially reported on the completion of the deal. The transfer of the plant to the group is not confirmed. Businessman Ihor Kolomoisky has promised to return to Ukraine if showman Volodymyr Zelensky is elected president of Ukraine. In an interview with journalists from the Schemes: Corruption in Detail program (a project of U.S.-government funded Radio Free Europe /Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and UA:First), Kolomoisky said, "Of course I will [return to Ukraine]. I intended to do so earlier, but there is a lot happening there [But I decided not to] to avoid election-related controversies" The interview was aired as part of an investigative report, titled "The Beneficiary." "I had plans to return to Ukraine between the first and second rounds of voting, even before the first round. But because of the fierce political battle, in order not to exacerbate the situation, I decided to stay here and not make anyone nervous in Ukraine," the businessman said. RFE/RL's Schemes said Kolomoisky has resided in Herzliya, Israel, since September 2018. Kolomoisky said he traveled there "because of reasons involving his family," adding, "I am here waiting for what my lawyers will tell me about the latest reports in the media." He said the reports mentioned "alleged investigations in the United States, because no one has commented on them. Nothing is clear, and that's why [my] lawyers have advised me to stay here until the situation is clarified." The U.S.-based ezine The Daily Beast published an article, titled "Billionaire Ukrainian Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky Under Investigation by FBI." The subtitle of the article said Kolomoisky was being investigated for financial crimes, RFE/RL's Schemes said. The areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions uncontrolled by Kyiv should not be given any special status, Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky said. "In my opinion, this is a big deal and we will spend much time getting out of this criminal situation," Zelensky said on Thursday. "Information warfare can help us in this case. I very much hope to use information for bringing those people to a situation, in which they will need Ukraine as much as Ukraine needs them, and for showing that they are Ukrainians, just like anyone else. Many humanitarian steps will have to be made. A lot of anything," Zelensky said. There is an information wall between people living on Donbas territories uncontrolled by Kyiv and the rest of Ukraine, Zelensky said, adding that his team planned to create a major European media portal to broadcast its programs in Russian. It "will be aired throughout Europe, [...] tell the truth, and report Ukrainian events they want to hear about," Zelensky said. "We will send this impulse and tell them: we are waiting for you, see, you are being held hostage. This is what should be said. Our hostages are being kept there," Zelensky told RBC Ukraine in an interview. He also opposed the adoption of a law to guarantee amnesty for the enemy. CEC reschedules debate on Public TV from 20:00 to 21:00 on April 19 The Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC) has postponed the start of the televised debate for presidential candidates at the Public Television studio from 20:00 to 21:00 on Friday, April 19. The relevant decision was made at a meeting of the commission on Thursday. On Thursday, April 18, at 15.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference over unauthorized support of public initiative #ProtectingUkraine by Chairman of the Kyivbased Association of War Veterans, AntiTerrorist Operation (ATO) Participants, Members of the Families of the Killed and Disabled Veterans Oleksandr Ushynsky. Participants include: Deputy Chairman of the Association Ihor Pavlenko; Chairman of the Ukraine SOS Charitable Fund Kyrylo Shtamburg; Chairwoman of the Charitable Fund "Spilka Materi Myru" ("Union of the Mothers of Peace") Vira Shvets; Chairman of the Public Union "Muzhnist" ("Courage") Valentyn Lyholit (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. Detailed information by phone: +38 (050) 718 4667. KYIV. April 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) One of the main challenges for the next president of Ukraine will be to preserve the existing international support of the country and increase it in conditions where there is a certain "fatigue" with dealing with conflicts, Chairman of the board of Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting Ihor Burakovsky has said. "It is very important that whoever becomes president maintains the level of international support for Ukraine that exists today and go further. The world is also changing. There is a certain fatigue from conflicts, not only from Ukraine, but also from other conflicts in the world today. From my point of view, this is an extremely difficult challenge. This is a difficult exam that any future president must take," he said during a conference hosted by UA:First TV at the initiative of the Vyborcha Rada UA public initiative at Interfax Ukraine on Thursday. Burakovsky said protecting Ukraine's national political and economic interests today is impossible without the formation of international "pro-Ukrainian coalitions" on a bilateral basis or in cooperation with organizations such as the European Union, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. The expert also believes that it is necessary to quickly and adequately take into account the lessons of what has been done and not been done and very important that, in the process of correcting and restarting certain Ukrainian institutions, not to create the basis for the emergence of "new-old private, corrupt schemes and mechanisms serving other interests." The Islamic Republics Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has sent a letter to his counterparts around the world warning against U.S. intentions to directly confront Iran. Arguing that Washingtons decision to designate the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, is supported and triggered by some ideological elements within the current US administration, Zarif says that the move will leave no peaceful way out of tensions except direct confrontation. President Donald Trump, after years of deliberations by U.S. administrations, announced April 8 its decision to blacklist Irans Guards. Iranian leaders have been reacting bitterly about the U.S. since the decision was made public. The U.S. insists that Iran must give up its malign behavior and interference in the affairs of regional countries. Zarif also claims in his letter that Washingtons latest move is meant to prepare U.S. public opinion for a new adventure in the region. Zarif concludes his letter by saying, "the Islamic Republic of Iran has strongly condemned the US illegal and provocative measures and warned against their short-term and long-term consequences. Egypt has prevented oil tankers heading to Syria to pass through the Suez Canal in past six months, Al Saudia Al-Aan news outlet cited Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis as saying last week. Syrian sources have not yet denied the report. Referring to Prime Minister Khamis' comments, a number of Arabic media outlets have speculated on the reasons behind Egypt's decision. Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar says the "highly unprecedented remarks" by Khamis could either mean a fuel crisis in Syria or Damascus' failure in convincing Cairo to change its position. Others speculated that the current oil shortage in Syria is due to its unpaid bills to Iran, which has stopped shipping oil. Quoting Maytham Sadeqi, presented as a consultant to the Iranian Minister of Economy, Al-Akhbar denied reports that Tehran has suspended its oil exports to Syria for overdue debts. Preventing Iranian oil reaching Syria has been going for months, Maytham Sadeqi has maintained. Nevertheless, based on Al-Aan's report, the Syrian Prime Minster says that the blockage started few days ago. Al-Akhbar has also cited an "Iranian expert" as saying that the Islamic Republic's oil tankers turned back after the Egypt blocked their way toward Syria. However, the Egyptian authorities have repeatedly denied such reports. In the meantime, Al- Iraqia news agency says that Iranian oil tanker trucks are passing through Iraq, and their number will be increased in coming days. "1200 Iranian tankers loaded with oil products reached Syria through Iraq in the past week," Al- Iraqia reports, adding, "The number of Iranian oil tankers are expected to reach 1500 per week, and after providing current Syrian needs, they will be fixed at 500 tankers per week." Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, April 14, that the U.S. sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran have led to rationing gas in Syria. Furthermore, Syria adopted new measures April 14 to curb fuel shortages that the regime has blamed on strangling Western sanctions on the war-torn country. On Sunday, the Syrian government blamed fuel shortages on "economic sanctions" that are targeting the energy sector and "preventing the arrival of oil tankers in Syria", in comments on the ministry's Facebook page. Moreover, Bloomberg reported las Sunday that U.S. sanctions on Iran are also hitting some of the Islamic Republics closest allies. Based on a Bloomberg report, drivers in Damascus are queuing up for miles to get just a few gallons of gasoline after Iranian oil shipments to the war-ravaged country ended. Syria consumes 100,000 barrels of oil a day and produces about 24,000 barrels, Mustapha Hammouriyyeh, head of the Syrian fuel distribution company, told Al-Ikhbariyya TV. The country used to rely on two million to three million barrels of oil it imported from Iran each month, but it hasnt received a single shipment since October due to U.S. sanctions, he said. The economic war on Syria is huge, said Hammouriyyeh. Damascus under Basha al-Assad, backed by Tehran and Moscow, controls almost two-thirds of Syria after a series of victories against rebels and jihadists since 2015, but the country's main oil and gas fields in the northeast still remain out of government control. Iranian authorities have not yet reacted to the news concerning Egypt's decision. Washington withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Tehran nuclear deal with Iran, and reimposed two batches of sanctions on Iran, including its shipping and oil exports. Judith Clark, the getaway driver in a 1981 botched Brinks truck robbery in Nyack, New York that left two police officers and a Brink's security guard dead, was granted parole on Wednesday. Clark, 69, has served 37 years at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. She was originally sentenced to 75 years-to-life for her role in the robbery, but, in 2016, Governor Andrew Cuomo commuted her sentence to 35 years-to-life, citing her "exceptional strides in self-development," enabling her to appear before the state parole board in 2017. The board said in 2017, "We do find that your release at this time is incompatible with the welfare of society....You are still a symbol of violent and terroristic crime." Clark, a former member of the Weathermen and the Black Liberation Army, was 31 when she joined a group that tried to rob a Brink's truck at a Rockland County shopping mall. The NY Times reports, "The heist was part of a scheme by the Black Liberation Army and the May 19th Communist Organization an radical offshoot of the left-wing Weather Underground to steal $1.6 million for financing a guerrilla uprising. Two Nyack police officers, Sgt. Edward OGrady and Officer Waverly Brown, and a Brinks security guard, Peter Paige, were shot and killed during the robbery, and though Ms. Clark was not at the scene of the shooting, she was charged with second-degree murder and robbery." Representing herself defiantly in court, Clark was convicted, and the judge remarked at the time that she seemed unlikely to be rehabilitated. However, while in prison, Clark earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Mercy College and led initiatives like pre-natal parenting classes in the prison's nursery; founding an HIV/AIDS education program; training service dogs through Puppies Behind Bars; and serving as a college tutor. She also wrote a letter of apology, published in the Journal News in 2002, noting, "However unsure I am of the adequacy of my words, I must take this moment to say publicly to the families and survivors how deeply sorry I am for my actions on Oct 20, 1981, which contributed to so much death and destruction..." Judith Clark participating in Puppies Behind Bars (AP) The letter continues, "[M]y shame and remorse do not diminish my responsibility to examine the long, knotted thread that connects my actions with the recent attacks. Our actions were self-centered and self-serving. My anger at injustice and desire for change may have motivated my involvement in radical movements, but my attraction to groups that identified violence as the source of power was driven by my own needs." Earlier this month, dozens of local, state, and federal lawmakers, sent a letter (PDF) to the parole board, urging them to parole Clark. It reads in part: Our correctional system no longer exists solely for retribution but also for rehabilitation. While parole can cause great pain to victims and their families, it is your role to hold open the door of mercy in appropriate circumstance -- meaning where there has been ample punishment, overwhelming proof of rehabilitation, acceptance of responsibility and genuine remorse. That is precisely Judith Clarks situation: she is the second- longest serving female prisoner in New York, is considered the model example of rehabilitation, accepts full responsibility for her crime and has expressed her profound remorse for the last 25 years. If she is again denied parole, New York will have sent a profound message to all the other women and men in prison who strive to become better and transformed human beings: that they neednt have bothered. People gather in front of the Rockland County Courthouse to express their objection to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo commuting the sentence of Judith Clark in New City, N.Y. in 2017 (Seth Wenig/AP/Shutterstock) Police groups have protested against the possibility of Clark's parole, and Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch issued a statement yesterday saying, Judith Clark is a murderer and a terrorist. Because of her actions, three families have been permanently deprived of husbands, father and sons. Those families cannot escape their loss, but Judith Clark will be allowed to escape accountability for her crimes. That is not justice. The New York State Parole Board has proven once again that it does not value the rule of law or the sacrifices of the police officers who uphold those laws. The families of murdered police officers and New Yorkers across the state are crying out for sane and responsible parole decisions, but it is clear that the Parole Board is not listening." The parole board vote was 2-1 and the board wrote in a letter to Clark, "You were wrong. Your behavior was criminal. Your callous disregard for the wellbeing of some, in favor of others, is a disgrace. However, this release decision is granted in keeping with applicable factors" including her age, the length of time served, her apologies to victims, her disavowal of radical principles and her accomplishments in prison." Clark's daughter Harriet, who was 11 months when her mother was arrested, said, "Im so grateful to everyone who has helped take care of my mother and me ... and who has helped to bring my mother home." Clark will live with a friend in NYC and will work for Hour Children, a non-profit group that helps incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children, according to her lawyers who spoke to the Associated Press. Her release is scheduled for May 15th, but her lawyer Steve Zeidman said, "We hope it's much sooner." An airliner caught fire on landing at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, but all 100 passengers were evacuated without injury, officials say. The fire broke out in the evening on March 19 after the aircraft's landing gear did not open properly, the head of the countrys emergency department, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state television. However, the general director of Iran Air denied that the plane caught fire and said the it was being moved from the location of its final stop. He said that the blaze was later brought under control. The airplane was reportedly a Fokker 100 belonging to the countrys national airline, Iran Air and was carrying 24 passengers including two infants. The semiofficial news agency Fars reported that the pilot was not able to open the back wheels of the plane and circled the airport attempting to open all the wheels before landing the plane on its body. Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years. Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, has responded to Irans President Hassan Rouhani who told the Iranian people to put a curse on those who caused the current economic crisis in Iran. Tweeting in Persian, Hook said: In response to the paralyzed economy, Rouhani asked the Iranian people to put a curse on United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia! By resorting to curses and magic he is after blaming others for his economic record. Hook who sometimes responds to similar statements by senior Iranian officials added, The people of Iran would like to have jobs, instead of putting curses. On March 17, Rouhani also asked Irans Judiciary to pursue legal action against American officials on the grounds of crimes against humanity. The Iranian economy has nosedived in the last 12 months, with a steep devaluation of its currency, skyrocketing prices for essential goods and frequent protests and strikes. After the U.S. withdrawal form the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran in May 2018 and reimposition of tough economic sanctions, U.S. officials have repeatedly said that their aim is not to hurt the Iranian people, but to force the Islamic Republic to renegotiate the agreement; guaranteeing a no-return to a nuclear program and change its behavior in the region. Washington should have suspended its sanctions against Tehran for one year because of the flood disaster, the Islamic Republic President Hassan Rouhani bemoaned on Wednesday, April 17. Although Tehran has repeatedly insisted that it could single-handedly tackle the dire consequences of the recent devastating floods in Iran, Rouhani lamented, "The heads of the U.S. regime showed their true nature. If they were wise, they would have announced that they suspend sanctions because of the floods. Then Iranians may have believed that they were not against the people." The recent floods in north and south of Iran that started on March 19 have so far left at least 76 people dead, and nearly 400 trillion rials (approximately $9.5 billion) of damages. Meanwhile, despite continuous denials by the U.S., Tehran still insists that Washington has blocked foreign aid reaching Iran. Speaking at a cabinet session, Rouhani repeated the accusation, asserting, "Washington has always claimed that it is on very good terms with the people of Iran, (and) it is the Iranian government that it has a problem with, but by blocking aid to the Red Crescent, they showed otherwise." Rouhani went further by insisting the heads of the American regime have revealed their "true vicious and inhumane nature," by not suspending the sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic. Iranian authorities claim that the U.S. has blocked the bank accounts of the country's Red Crescent Society (IRC) and preventing foreign aids reaching Iran. However, earlier on April 2, U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, had countered suggestions that Washington's sanctions are hurting relief efforts amid deadly flooding in Iran, accusing Iranian authorities of mismanaging the current crisis. "The regime blames outside entities when, in fact, it is their mismanagement that has led to this disaster," Pompeo said. Moreover, in an interview with Radio Farda, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) denied remarks attributed to its president by Irans Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, about U.S. sanctions impeding flood relief assistance. Irans Plan and Budget Organization (PBO) says that during the current year, the countrys hidden and direct subsidies is estimated to reach 8,900 trillion rials, or $63.7 billion, based on the current USD rate in open market which stands at around 140,000 rials. If the subsidy is calculated based on the official government exchange rate, the amount will be at least three times higher in dollars. The current Iranian fiscal year is from March 21, 2019 March 20, 2020. Nevertheless, total subsidies constitute 2.2 times of governments budget. About one third of subsidies is directly paid from the government budget and state-run financial entities. These are cash subsidies, financial aid to farmers and the industrial sector, etc. But the hidden subsidies stand at around 6,490 trillion rials ($46.35 billion). Hidden subsidies mainly mean subsidized cheap products, from food to drugs and energy carriers (gasoline, gas, etc.). If the Iranian government sold these products abroad or if it charged people for the true value of imported goods, then there would be no hidden or indirect subsidies. In other words, Iranian government would earn or save $46.35 billion if it charges the consumers for the real value of many goods and services. For instance, a liter of gasoline in Iran is 10,000 rials or about 7 cents, while the regional prices are 6-10 times higher. The daily gasoline consumption in Iran is expected to reach 85-93 million liters in 2019. Therefore, subsidized gasoline alone costs the government at least $40 million daily. PBO says the gasoline subsidy is estimated to reach 1,235 trillion rials, or $8.8 billion in the current year, which might be an underestimation. The total diesel subsidy is even higher. Hidden subsidies for selected products in Iran during 2019 Fossil fuels Trillion rial Bn US dollar** Share of whole subsidies*** Food products* 399 2.85 4.5% Drugs 102.6 0.73 1.15% Gasoline 1,235 8.82 13.84% Kerosene 104.5 0.75 1.1% Diesel 1,297 9.26 14.53% Fuel oil 142.5 1 1.57% LPG 124.2 0.89 1.4% Jet fuel 86.1 0.61 0.95% Natural gas 2,791 19.94 31.3% Electricity 100 0.71 1.11% Total 638.2 45.58 71.7% * Iranian government allocates cheap dollars for fuel, essential food products and drug imports at 42,000/USD rate * converted based on 140,000 rials/USD ** Whole subsidies would stand at 8,900 trillion rial or $63.7 billion. According to the International Energy Agency, the fossil-fuels subsidies in Iran during 2017 stood at $45.1 billion, the highest in the world. Since 2017, Iranian rial has lost 70% of its value. The most worrying issue is that crucial growth sectors share a tiny share of the subsidies. Industrial and agriculture sectors share only 3.4% of total subsidies and education shares only 1.6%. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 Trend: At the invitation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Guangzhou, AZAL President Jahangir Asgarov took part at the opening of the Canton Fair - trade and industry fair in Guangzhou, China. Founded in 1957, the Canton Fair (also known as the China Import and Export Fair) is a world-known multi-profile fair, also called the main showcase of Chinese industry. It takes place twice a year - in spring and autumn. This year, the 125th fair is being held from April 15 to May 5 and its total area of exhibition halls is 1200000 square meters. Manufacturers and suppliers from around the world and from almost all the provinces and cities of China present hundreds of thousands of items. In total, more than 25,000 companies participate at this fair. At the Canton Fair, the largest amounts and turnovers of transactions are carried out, which constitute one-tenth of the annual volume of all Chinese exports. The Canton Fair attracts a growing number of entrepreneurs, including from Azerbaijan. The fast-growing Chinese market is very attractive for entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan, and therefore in prospect, we plan to make China even more accessible and open new flights to this country, Jahangir Asgarov said. Currently, Azerbaijan's national airline AZAL operates direct flights to Beijing, and Silk Way cargo airline operates direct flights to the Chinese cities of Zhengzhou and Shanghai. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 24 times, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said April 18, Trend reports. The Armenian armed forces were using heavy machine guns. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: The US offered to hold the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in Washington on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a press conference in Poland, Trend reports. Mammadyarov spoke about his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan with the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk in Moscow. I briefed about our aspiration to the conflict resolution which is almost 30 years old and noted that we need to reach a breakthrough, he said. Yesterday we got invitation of the US to visit Washington where the Secretary of State will also put his own way to reach a breakthrough on the conflict resolution." The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 Trend: Pakistan will continue to develop friendly and fraternal relations with Azerbaijan, Shafqat Mahmood, Pakistans Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, and Federal Minister for National History and Literary Heritage, said during a meeting with Azerbaijani ambassador to Pakistan Ali Alizade, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Pakistan. Recalling his visit to Azerbaijan, Shafqat Mahmood emphasized the country's rapid advancement, and pointed out the importance of further developing friendly and fraternal relations with Azerbaijan and strengthening the existing trust between the countries. In his turn, Ali Alizade said that Azerbaijan has been facing the aggressive policy of Armenia for more than 30 years. He added that Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 adjacent districts of Azerbaijan are still under occupation and that, despite these hardships, the country manages to develop all spheres including science, education and culture. He noted that Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, is taught at Baku State University and that the number of Pakistani students studying in Azerbaijan is growing. He went on to say that Azerbaijani students are also interested in obtaining higher education at universities in Pakistan and informed that students and specialists from both countries are periodically involved in exchange programs. The ambassador pointed out that more efforts would be taken to strengthen bilateral relations. The meeting participants emphasized the importance of the support provided by Azerbaijan and Pakistan to each other within the framework of regional and international organizations and the need to increase the number of joint projects and reciprocal visits. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 Trend: In accordance with the combat training plan for 2019 approved by Azerbaijans defense minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, the rocket and artillery units of the Azerbaijani army stationed in the frontline zone have conducted live-fire training, Trend reports with reference to Azerbaijans Defense Ministry. In the course of training, the units worked out actions to make a march and reach concentration areas, and performed other tasks. The rocket and artillery units carried out combat firing by striking at the targets in the depth of the defense of the imaginary enemy. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 Trend: The Director General of NATOs International Military Staff Lieutenant General Jan Broeks who is on a visit to Azerbaijan started it with attendance of the Alley of Martyrs. He paid tribute to the memory of Azerbaijani citizens who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and independence of their motherland and laid flowers on their graves, Trade reports referring to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. Then the distinguished guest visited the War College of the Armed Forces and held a series of meetings. Lieutenant-General Jan Broeks addressed the military personnel with a speech on the NATO projects and programs, and areas of NATO-Azerbaijan cooperation. He also answered questions of the meeting participants. Highly appreciating the Azerbaijan-NATO relations, the Director General of NATOs International Military Staff spoke about the contribution made by Azerbaijani peacekeepers to international security within the framework of the missions conducted in Afghanistan, the active participation of Azerbaijani servicemen in the events of the Alliance and highly praised the level of training of Azerbaijani officers. When WNYC and Gothamist put out a survey a few weeks ago asking people to describe their commuting experiences, one question that several people posed boiled down to this: Can I sue the MTA for unreliable service? People have certainly tried. But because our We the Commuters project is fueled largely by you, dear reader, we wanted a better answer. Fordham Law Professor Nestor Davidson talked with us about the nuances of what we, the commuters, are legally owed. Whats the contract that I enter into, every time I swipe my Metrocard? There are obligations that go both ways. Every day, we passengers agree to abide by the rules of conduct. The MTA, as a carrier, agrees to comply with the rules that dictate things like ticket prices. But if you poke around the MTAs website, you wont find any explicit terms of service. What you will find is a legally-squishy, relatively vague Pledge to Our Customers that includes promises like: We will endeavor to maintain a clean environment, and We strive to provide accurate, timely and useful information. Those are not very specific obligations, said Davidson. Theyre great aspirations. And you definitely cant sue the MTA for not living up to its aspirations. But can you sue the MTA for unreliable service? Heres how Davidson puts it: If youre trying to sue for spotty service, the courts in New York have been pretty clear that what youre really saying is you dont like the decision-making process and allocation of resources that have led to the conditions that created bad service. Which means, you have a beef with the political system around the MTA, not with the courts. This reasoning has a lot to do with the fact that the MTA is a public benefit corporation, and not a private company like an airline (most of which have detailed terms for recourse due to cancellations and delays). When you're dealing with any public entity that is providing serviceswhether it's the subway or it's police or fire or education[questions about service] are deeply political questions, in a good sense, explained Davidson. Those are things that the democratic system needs to work out, because there are tradeoffs. If you say we need more police officers but fewer teachers, that's not something courts are really going to generally second-guess. Listen to Shumita Basus report on WNYC: So if its a question of the politics of the transit agencies and who runs them, does that mean I can sue my elected officials for the current state of the MTA? That's a really complicated question. The general answer is no. Has anyone tried to sue the MTA for bad service in the past? Absolutely. In fact, as recently as 2017, two LIRR customers were trying to sue the LIRR and NYCT. But the case that really set the legal precedent for how New York handles this issue was brought in 1983: Disgruntled GG train (yep, that was once a thing) rider Oliver Leeds vs. the MTA. The complaint in that suit was that the subways were a wreck, there was too much graffiti and trash everywhere, and the MTA needed to do its job better. In other words, it was questioning the way in which the MTA was (and wasnt) tackling these problems. The, court was very clear in that caseand that case has been cited a number of timesthat those are questions that the MTA is not amenable to suit on, explained Davidson. That doesnt mean the MTA cant be sued at all, of course. The MTA can be held liable in court for physical injuries in certain cases, like if you slip and fall in the subway and can prove that the transit agencys negligence (i.e. failure to de-ice stairs or clear litter) led to your injury. Switching tactics here: What if I tried suing for emotional damages? Who among the daily subway riders hasnt felt frustration, right? said Davidson, who rides some combination of the B/Q/R/2/3 every day. Davidson said, you can tally up all of the tangible and intangible things that are lost with every delay or cancellationlost wages, pain and sufferingand you can even round up thousands of people to file a class-action lawsuit...but it wont go far. Again, it comes back to the point that your pain and suffering is caused by a series of decisions about resource allocation and prioritization at the transit agency, which is a public benefit corporation. You might like to back into the sense that, Ive been harmed and therefore I must have a remedy, said Davidson. But it turns out there are harms that there is no legal remedy for. To be honest, this desire to sue the MTA isnt just about getting our money back. Its about putting pressure on the right people to improve the system, as quickly as possible. How do we do that? Remember those aspirations we laughed off earlier? The right way to channel frustration, according to Davidson, is to hold the MTA to those aspirations. I also thinkand of course, we've seen this in the city and in the state in the last couple of yearsthat if you make a political issue out of this, whether through advocacy organizations or just as an ordinary citizen, politicians will eventually respond, said Davidson. We're now beginning a process of institutional reform, of rethinking oversight and rethinking the structure of the MTA and who it's accountable to, he continued. I think that's a really important conversation. It's a conversation every subway rider, every bus rider, every commuter...people should pay attention to that. Because at the end of the day that really matters. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Shumita Basu is a host, producer and reporter in the newsroom. You can follow her on Twitter @shubasu. We the Commuters is a weekly newsletter about transportation from WNYC and Gothamist. Sign up below for essential commuting coverage delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Loading... Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 Trend: Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) hosted a meeting with the third group of the students graduating from Business education for engineers course, a joint project of BHOS and BP company. It was attended by the Higher School top managers, students, lecturers and other key staff members, and representatives of BP management. Before the ceremony, BP Communications, external affairs, strategy and region vice president Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli made a presentation on the issues related to geopolitics in the region, and LEAD Field Engineer of Baker Hughes, a GE company in Azerbaijan, BHOS graduate Emilya Mammadova conducted a master-class for the course graduates. Opening the gathering, Higher School Rector Elmar Gasimov emphasized that this initiative was launched for fifth-year students of national universities to help them gain knowledge and practical skills in management and business. In his words, the Business Education for Engineers program equips the targeted students with business management tools and techniques, and develops managerial skills they need to solve problems and make decisions, thus facilitating their more efficient integration into business environment. Rector Elmar Gasimov extended his congratulations to the course graduates on the successful completion of the study and presented them joint Certificates of Attainment from BP and the Higher School. More than 110 students of national technical universities including the Baku Higher Oil School, Azerbaijan state university of oil and industry, UFAZ University, Baku Engineering University, ADA University, Khazar University and Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction were selected for participation in the project on a competitive basis. The curriculum of two-month Business education for engineers course developed by professional experts includes eight core modules: presentation and communication skills; project management; time management and efficiency; leadership; risk management; introduction to finance, budget and cost control; HR management fundamentals; and negotiation skills. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Azad Hasanli Trend: A new office of Friends of Small and Medium Enterprises network opened in Azerbaijans Sumgayit on April 18, 2019, Trend reports referring to the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan. Addressing the gathering, Orkhan Mammadov, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), spoke about the concept of Friends of SMEs and the services provided to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs by this structure. It was stressed that the Friends of SMEs network, which was formed by the Agency in accordance with the strategic motto of the president of Azerbaijan stating that "The state is the best partner of the entrepreneur", is an important project implemented on the basis of cooperation of the state with entrepreneurs. Currently, Friends of SMEs are operating in 11 districts and cities around the country. Friends of SMEs is a mechanism that helps to identify and implement initiatives of small and medium-sized enterprises, realize their potential, provide them with support at all stages of their development and protect the rights of entrepreneurs. Orkhan Mammadov invited entrepreneurs to actively cooperate with the Friends of SMEs. He informed the event participants about activities of the network, which will expand its operations in the country, and about other mechanisms for supporting the agency. Zakir Farajov, Head of the Sumgayit Executive Power, spoke about the measures being taken to develop the private sector in Sumgayit. In his words, Friends of SMEs, like other state support mechanisms, will play a significant role in developing existing enterprises and creating new ones. During the event, a presentation covering activities and services of the Friends of SMEs was held. It was followed by Q&A session. The event attendants were familiarized with the office of the Friends of SMEs, located at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Sumgayit. The office has all the conditions for the provision of the agencys numerous services to entrepreneurs, and is equipped with necessary equipment and training materials. As noted in the ministrys report, the team of Volunteers of SMEs will operate in the same office. The businessmen participating in the event expressed their gratitude to the Head of State for the continuous support provided to the private sector, especially in the field of the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 18 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Turkmenistan and France signed an intergovernmental agreement on granting work permits to family members of staff of diplomatic missions and consular offices, Trend reports referring to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry. The document was signed in Ashgabat following a political consultation. From the Turkmen side, the talks were headed by Rashit Meredow, Turkmen deputy prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. The French delegation was headed by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France. Special attention was paid to the development of trade and economic relations, including the evaluation of promising areas of their development. The parties also discussed regional issues during the talks, including the situation in Afghanistan. The positive cooperation of Turkmenistan and France within the framework of international organizations, in particular the UN, the EU and the OSCE, was noted. The sides also noted the importance of the Turkmen-French Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, a meeting of which was held the day before in Ashgabat. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Sara Israfilbayova Trend: Production in the automotive industry of Azerbaijan will reach $20 million this year, Trend reports referring to Market Analysis Azerbaijan 2019, presented by the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (AHK Azerbaijan). According to the publication, this figure will reach $70 million by 2022. In 2017, the automotive industry experienced a decline. As such, 30 cars were produced in 2017, while the identical figures for 2016 and 2015 were 300 and 700, respectively. "However, there was a jump in 2018, and 969 cars were produced in the country," the publication says. In recent years, Azerbaijan has been paying attention to the development of the automotive industry. The Khazar car plant, built by AzerMash, is located in southeast Azerbaijan in the Neftchala Industrial Site. All cars produced there comply with Euro 5 standards. Cars have been sold since summer 2018. On Aug. 6, 2016, big Iranian automaker Iran Khodro and Azerbaijani company AzEuroCar, a subsidiary of AzerMash, signed an agreement to establish a joint automobile plant in Neftchala. The Azerbaijani side invested 75 percent in the plant, while the Iranian side invested 25 percent. The groundbreaking ceremony of assembly plant for GAZ cars was held in Azerbaijan's Hajigabul industrial area on February 9. The enterprise will assemble GAZel NEXT and GAZel BUSINESS light commercial vehicles, as well as GAZon NEXT medium trucks. AzEurocar, a AzerMash subsidiary, will deal with the distribution and maintenance of GAZ vehicles in Azerbaijan. Follow the author on Twitter: @IsrafilbekovaS Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18 By Fakhri Vakilov Trend: Officials of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan discussed developments of efficiency of Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor on the 4th Meeting of the Ministers of Transport of the Turkic Council on 17 April 2019 in capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, Trend reports with reference to the press-release of Turkic Council. Secretary General of the Turkic Council Baghdad Amreyev moderated the ministerial meeting, which was hosted by Minister of Transport and Roads of the Kyrgyz Republic Zhanat Beishenov. Deputy Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development of Kazakhstan Berik Kamaliev, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Turkey Selim Dursun, Head of Department for Regulation of Transport at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan Javid Najafov and State Secretary responsible for Transport Policy at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary Laszlo Mosoczi also attended the ministerial meeting. In his opening speech, Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev emphasized the important role that transport plays in the socio-economic development of the Member States. He told that transport is one of the core areas of interest for the ongoing cooperation among the Member States. Secretary General underscored the significant developments in the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor taking place in the last couple of years, particularly the reduction of logistical expenses along the corridor, facilitation of customs procedures in Aktau Port due to Single Window System and reduction of port charges, which made the transport operations faster and cheaper, opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. He also noted the completion of projects such as the Marmaray Rail Tunnel, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and Eurasia Tunnel, reconstruction of Bishkek-Naryn-Torugart Road and ongoing development of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project. Highlighting that the Trans-Caspian Corridor is the common future of all Turkic Council Member States Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Turkey Selim Dursun called on the Parties to take necessary steps to phase out administrative and bureaucratic obstacles hampering the efficiency of the corridor. The deputy minister asked the parties to work together in overcoming the practical difficulties encountered in road transport operations, border crossing points and Caspian Sea crossing to render the corridor seamless and sustainable route. Deputy Minister Dursun also informed the Parties that Turkey, in cooperation with Azerbaijan and Georgia, has conducted for the first time a rail shipment from Mersin, Turkey to Baku by means of a single consignment note under the Unified Railway Law (URL) efforts of the UNECE. Reflecting the instructions of the Kazakhstan's First President Nursultan Nazarbayev during the Summit in Cholpon-Ata where he pointed out the necessity to work intensely to simplify the tariff policies and administrative procedures, Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development of Kazakhstan Berik Kamaliev informed that the government has already optimized the transport tariffs along the Trans-Caspian Corridor. He also said that the development of logistic centers is one of the main components of foreign economic and trade relations of Kazakhstan with Turkic Council Member States and stressed the necessity of providing efficient transport logistic infrastructure for the competitively of the corridor. Head of the Department for Regulation of Transport, Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan Javid Najafov updated the participants on the ongoing transport projects and modernization of transport-logistic infrastructure of Azerbaijan. He mentioned that Government of Azerbaijan attaches particular importance to the optimization and facilitation of the measures for increasing the efficiency of Trans Caspian Corridor. State Secretary responsible for Transport Policy, Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary Laszlo Mosoczi emphasized that the Government of Hungary is open for cooperation with Turkic Council Member States. Highlighting the Turkic States transit potential, State Secretary stated that Hungary with its close EU relations may work as a collecting and distributing point at the western end of the Trans-Turkic route. He also stressed that Hungary welcomes the developments of bilateral collaboration and exchanges in the field of international road transport with the Turkic Council Member States. During the meeting Deputy Director General of the Baku International Sea Trade Port Akbar Karimov made a presentation on the current state of cooperation among the Turkic Council Sister Ports, as well as on their potential to attract freight flow in China-Europe axis, in his capacity as the host of the last Sister Ports meeting. At the end of the meeting the representatives of seaports of the Turkic Council Member States signed the Additional Protocol allowing Port Kuryk LLP to become a party to the Turkic Council Sister Ports process. Parties agreed to convene the 5th meeting of Ministers of Transport of the Turkic Council in Budapest, Hungary in 2020. After the ministerial meeting, Secretary General and the Heads of Delegations held a joint press conference on the outcomes of the meeting and their joint future projections. --- Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 Trend: A feed processing plant has been commissioned in the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijans Fizuli district, Trend reports April 18. The plant was commissioned as part of the project Socio-Economic Development Activity (SEDA), jointly implemented by the government of Azerbaijan and the US Agency for International Development. Speaking at an event held in connection with the opening of the plant by the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) under the Ministry of Economy, Deputy Chairman of the Agency Nadir Adilov, Deputy Head of the Executive Power of the Fizuli district Suleyman Aliyev and representatives of the SEDA project noted the importance of implementing community projects in the districts, commissioning a feed processing plant in the development of SMEs in the agriculture sector, expansion of work in the livestock and crop production areas in the agriculture sector, meeting the needs in forage and increasing employment. A production site and a warehouse have been built at the plant and the appropriate equipment has been installed. Along with residents of the Alkhanli village, residents of the nearby villages can also use the plant. As part of the joint project, 25 feed processing plants in 14 districts were commissioned. At the event, village residents expressed their gratitude to the Azerbaijani president for the conditions created. As part of the above mentioned cooperation, on the same day, a first-aid post began to operate in the Godekgobu village of the Zardab district, and a kindergarten was commissioned in the Huseynkhanli village. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Matanat Nasibova - Trend: The company Sahliyali, which is engaged in the manufacture of sausages and dairy products, plans to start exporting them to other countries, a source in the company told Trend. Initially, the company plans to export sausage products to neighboring Georgia, according to the source. We plan to carry out the first supplies to the Georgian market in the second half of this year, and with this purpose we hold negotiations with our Georgian partners, the source noted. We expect to work on the basis of one-time orders, so that every supply will be negotiated individually. The companys products, competitive in the domestic market, are well sold in Baku and other cities of Azerbaijan. The company Sahliyali has been operating in Azerbaijan since 2009. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Matanat Nasibova - Trend: Ismayilli Sharab, an Azerbaijani manufacturer of alcoholic beverages, located in the Ismayilli district of the country, plans to increase the volume of wine exports to the Russian market, a source in the company told Trend. The company plans to increase the manufacture volume of wine products until the end of this year, according to the source. The companys wine products are in great demand in the Russian market, therefore, as part of our opportunities, we plan to increase exports, said the source. The manufactured products have a certificate of conformity issued by the State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents and a hygienic certificate issued by the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Ministry of Healthcare of Azerbaijan. The company has equipment of Italian and French production. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibova Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 18 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov offered South Korea to consider the possibility of implementing joint energy projects, Trend reports with reference to the Turkmenistan State News Agency. The offer was made on April 17 during negotiations with President of South Korea Moon Jae-in, who arrived in the Turkmen capital on a state visit. It is expected that the following negotiations will take place in May-June this year. Representatives of the South Korean delegation expressed intentions of their countrys business circles to expand presence in the rapidly developing Turkmen market, the news said. The most important projects to be implemented in this area include processing of oil and gas, manufacture of gas and chemical products and the training of personnel for the petrochemical complex. South Korean companies participate in petrochemical, gas processing, road transport and other industries of Turkmenistan. In particular, they are taking part in the construction of a natural gas refinery at the Galkynysh gas field, the second biggest field in the world, a polymer plant in Kiyanly settlement, and high-octane gasoline production units at an oil refinery in Turkmenbashi city. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Heydar Aliyev semi-submersible drilling rig has drilled the deepest well in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijans Caspian Drilling Company (CDC) told Trend. The 6th generation Heydar Aliyev semi-submersible drilling rig under Azerbaijans Caspian Drilling Companys (CDC) management sat Caspian Sea record while drilling ABD-001 well on Absheron field where JOCAP (Joint Operating Company of Absheron Petroleum - a JV of SOCAR Absheron 50 percent - TOTAL EP Absheron 50 percent) is operator, said the company. Reportedly, on April 15 at 13:00 the well has reached 7411m TMD (total measured depth), it is the deepest well ever drilled on Caspian Sea. This is the first well in progress ever drilled by semi-submersible rig Heydar Aliyev, said CDC. SOCAR and Total signed a framework agreement in 2016 on the main contractual and commercial principles regulating the first phase of development of the Absheron field. The first phase of the fields development envisaged drilling one well at a sea depth of 450 meters. The production will stand at 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas and 700,000 tons of condensate per year and these volumes will be used in Azerbaijans domestic market. It is planned to produce up to 4 billion cubic meters of gas at the second stage. Absherons reserves are estimated at 326 billion cubic meters of gas and 108 million tons of condensate, according to estimations of the Total specialists. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn The racy disco scene a dentist constructed on his office lawn has polarized the Clifton, New Jersey community. Advocates for freedom of home decor find themselves energized by this sea of bare plastic flesh, while critics have scoffed that it "is disgusting" and its creator "has ZERO respect for women and the young girls of our town." Well, you can check your negative attitude at the door because Dr. Wayne Gangi doesn't need it. Turns out, this sexy lawn display is actually philanthropic. So, who's the asshole now? According to NorthJersey.com, Gangi was in the process of taking down his army of divisive, negligee-clad dolls when someone stopped him to air their grievances. The tableaufive voluptuous mannequins wearing underwear, fishnets, and rabbit ears; one (1) mannequin outfitted for some kind of adult Wizard of Oz cosplay; and two macho shirtless mannequins, all standing frozen amid scattered disco balls and jumbo Easter eggswas nothing short of "abhorrent," this detractor scolded. Why didn't the dentist do something "positive" with all the media attention, hm? Why not use his new-found platform to raise money for a good cause, like say the restoration of Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral, which a fire ravaged on Monday? Gangi reportedly agreed, and told his angry neighbor that if they brought him a donation bin and a sign, he'd take care of the rest. So now the display boasts yet another new addition: Gangi set up the sign on Tuesday evening, according to NorthJersey.com, and collected $30 within the hour. He hesitates to leave the donation bucket outside during the nighttimes, though, given what happened last week. As you know, an enraged Clifton resident hacked apart Gangi's mannequins on April 9ththe late Hugh Hefner's birthday, the very occasion Gangi allegedly intended to celebrate. The perp, one Desiree Shepstone, has since been charged with criminal mischief for her rampage, while Gangi rebuilt his display into something bigger and sexier than ever before. Gangi was not available for comment on Wednesday morning, so we can't currently say how long he plans to keep his suggestive exhibit intact. Sunday is Easter, though, so if I had to guess, I'd say your viewing window is closing fast. Head over to Clifton, New Jersey and make your charitable donation while you still can. And please, let us know how it is: Pics or it didn't happen, as they say. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) plans to start lending in Azerbaijans national currency in the second half of 2019, a source in the fund told Trend. Azerbaijan, along with other countries of the Eastern Partnership program, has become one of the countries covered by financing in national currency, according to the source. EFSE plans to allocate a total of 61 million euros for the Eastern Partnership countries, and 44 million euros of this amount were provided by the EU under the EU4Business initiative, while 12 million euros were provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Financing in national currency will help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and low-income households protect themselves from currency fluctuations and contribute to sustainable economic development in the region. The EFSE was initiated by KfW Development Bank (KfW) with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Commission. It aims to foster economic development and prosperity in the countries of Southeast Europe and the South Caucasus region. As access to finance is a key success factor in developing the micro, small and medium enterprise segments, the EFSE focuses on assisting local financial sectors in strengthening their ability to ensure adequate and sustainable financing. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Fakhri Vakilov Trend: Micro, small and medium-sized companies in Kazakhstan will benefit from a syndicated loan of up to $ 50 million arranged by the EBRD for the countrys largest micro-finance organization, KMF, Trend reports with reference to EBRD. Up to $10 million to be provided by EBRD while the remaining $40 million will be syndicated to microfinance investment funds: IIV Mikrofinanzfonds; BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund; Microvest Short Duration Fund, LP; Incofin CVSO; Triple Jump B.V.; Monega Multi-Sector Microfinance & Impact Loan Fund; Microfinance Enhancement Facility S.A., SICAV-SIF; funds managed by responsAbility Investments AG; and Bank im Bistum Essen eG. While the funds will be committed in US dollars, the EBRD will be providing the loan to KMF in Kazakhstan tenge using a cross-currency swap. This will help protect KMF, the participating investment funds and sub-borrowers from FX-related risks. KMF, which operates 14 branches and 100 outlets across Kazakhstan, provides financial services to over 220,000 customers across the country. It has been a partner of the EBRD since 2005. Under the new loan KMF will continue benefit from the EU-funded Regional Small Business Programme (RSBP) for Central Asia managed by the EBRD. It will receive access to know-how in MSME finance as well as training on a variety of topics relevant for financial institutions providing services to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. To date, the EBRD has invested a total of over $8.85 billion in the economy of Kazakhstan through 254 projects. Over the years, KMF has become one of the leaders in the microfinance sector among the post-Soviet countries of the Central Asian region. Today KMF is the largest microfinance organization in Kazakhstan. The company is focused on building long-term partnerships with customers based on mutual trust, understanding and respect. KMF provides customers with individual and group loans for the following activities: business, arable and livestock farming, production of goods, provision of services and customer credit. --- Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Sara Israfilbayova - Trend: Islamic Financial Advisory Services (IFAS) company will complete studies on exploring the possibility of introducing Islamic financing principles in Azerbaijan by the end of this year, a source in Islamic Development Bank (IDB) told Trend. The Islamic financing project is carried out jointly with the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Azerbaijan. "IFAS is actively working on this," the source said. "Experts are studying local legislation and in the near future will come up with proposals on how to apply Islamic financing in Azerbaijan." In January 2017, the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Development Bank signed an agreement on the possibility of introducing Islamic financing in the country. The preparation of an action plan began in June. IDB provided technical assistance in the amount of $200,000 in order to develop the legal framework for Islamic financing. Azerbaijan joined the Islamic Development Bank in 1992. Energy, irrigation, road construction and agriculture are among the main areas of interest of IDB in Azerbaijan. Follow the author on Twitter: @IsrafilbekovaS Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 18 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is holding a high-level regional conference on countering terrorist financing and organized crime in Ashgabat on April 17-18, Trend reports with reference to OSCE and Turkmenistani media. The conference is attended by high-level and senior representatives of Central Asian countries and other OSCE participating States, experts from international organizations including United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED), INTERPOL and specialists from Western Union (WU), Facebook and other interested organizations. The two-day conference is organized by the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA), in co-operation with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Finance and Economy Ministry of Turkmenistan. Attacks around the world demonstrate that terrorist groups are still in a position to access financial resources, said OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger. He said that building the capacity of financial oversight and regulatory systems, as well as of prosecutorial and judicial authorities, is tremendously important. The conference is aimed at fostering regional co-operation among Central Asian States in addressing this serious challenge to security and exploring potential links with organized crime through discussions and exchange of good practices related to countering terrorist financing and misuse of new internet technologies by organized crime. We must do more to detect and suppress terrorist financing channels, Lukas Parizek, Slovak OSCE Chairmanship Special Representative and State Secretary, said. Terrorist groups are proven adepts at exploiting the Internet and social media platforms for networking and raising funds. We need to develop more effective ways to prevent and counter the misuse of the Internet by terrorists, while respecting fundamental rights and freedoms. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 18 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Turkmenistan has applied for membership in the Egmont Group, which facilitates the rapid exchange of information with financial intelligence services of other countries, Turkmen Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy Silap Velbegov said. Velbegov made the remarks at the OSCE Regional Conference on Countering Terrorist Financing and Organized Crime in Ashgabat. "Turkmenistan pays special attention to the international cooperation and actively interacts with the UN, OSCE, CIS, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and other organizations in the field of combating the financing of terrorism," Velbegov added, Trend reports referring to the OSCE. The Egmont international group was created at the initiative of Belgium and the US in 1995 to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. The Egmont international group includes financial intelligence services of more than 100 countries. As for the Ashgabat forum, representatives of the Central Asian countries and other OSCE member-states, experts from international organizations, the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), Western Union, Facebook and others take part in it. The conference has been organized by the OSCE with the assistance of the Turkmen Ministry of Finance and Economy. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: Iran and Turkey have agreed to establish a mechanism similar to the INSTEX financial mechanism, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters before leaving Ankara, Trend reports referring to Tasnim News Agency. According to Zarif, Iran and Turkey have come to an agreement on 5 areas, namely the introduction of preferential tariffs, energy cooperation, banking cooperation, usage of national currencies in bilateral transactions, and the creation of a mechanism similar to INSTEX in bilateral relations. The Iranian minister said that the foreign ministers of the two countries will supervise the implementation of these agreements. "Iran's current relations with Turkey have not been at this level in the past decades. Iran has similarly great relations with neighboring countries, such as Iraq, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asian countries," he said. Zarif added that the relations with neighboring countries are a priority for the Iranian government. The US declared its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018 and imposed sanctions on Iran in November of the same year. European signatories of the JCPOA the UK, France and Germany have announced the establishment of INSTEX, a financial mechanism for trade with Iran, in late January 2019. Tehran, Iran, April 18 Trend: German ambassador to Iran Michael Klor-Berchtold has recently noted the need to strengthen the cooperation between the two countries said. "Iran's economic situation is potentially strong. The Small Industries Organization and other Iranian organizations continue to be a valuable asset in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises since 2016," he said referring to German federal government's training program for small industries in Iran, Trend reports citing ILNA. Referring to the dispatch of five groups from Iran to receive the necessary training in the field of industry in Germany, he said that Germany appreciates Iran's willingness and the success of the project. The ambassador referred to cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade of Iran, as well as the Organization of Small Industries of Iran in the energy and industry sectors during last year. Germany is working to promote this cooperation bilaterally. Naturally, the cooperation between various Iranian and German companies can make good partners, he said. Klor-Berchtold described the Tehran-Berlin political and economic relations as "widespread. Today, Germany is the largest EU exporter to Iran, he noted. Pointing to the withdrawal of the United States from Iran Deal he said that this unilateral withdrawal created a new situation for Iran. But I promise you that the German government is committed to JCPOA, because both countries benefit from the deal, said the ambassador. We fully adhere to the agreements with Iran, which is why we are here today. Referring to the Special Financial Channel (Known as INSTEX) he said that this financial channel was designed to facilitate more business exchange with Iran, which means the sides can trade through a specific banking system. At least 29 people, most of them German tourists, were killed and 27 others injured on Wednesday when their bus veered off a steep narrow road on the Portuguese island of Madeira, reports Trend citing to Reuters The white tourist bus which was carrying 55 passengers and a tour guide in addition to the driver overturned in a residential area in the coastal town of Canico at around 6:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), its mayor, Filipe Sousa, told reporters. TV images showed the vehicle on its side on a bank next to a small road and surrounded by rescuers. The driver reportedly lost control of the bus on a sloping road and the vehicle plunged down, overturning next to a house, according Portuguese news agency Lusa. I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people, Sousa told SIC TV. He said the tourists on the bus were all German but some pedestrians might have been hit by the bus. Germanys Bild daily reported that many of the tourists were retirees, and those killed included 18 women and 11 men. The German foreign ministry had set up a hotline and embassy staff were in close touch with local officials about the accident, a spokeswoman said. Other members of the same group of German tourists were traveling on another bus, which was not involved in the accident, a regional civil protection spokesman told a news conference. Those injured were taken to a hospital in Funchal, the capital city of Madeira. From the 28 injured initially taken to the hospital, one German tourist did not survive the injuries, bringing the death toll to 29, a hospital spokesman told a news conference on Wednesday evening. Three of the injured underwent surgery, 23 were under observation and two were discharged. There were no children among the victims, the hospital confirmed, adding that two of the injured are from Portugal while the others are foreign nationals. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told SIC TV that some of the victims were from Madeira but most were German. A regional civil protection official said the tourists involved in the accident were aged between 40 and 50 years old. Portugals public prosecutors office plans to open an investigation into the accident, said Lusa. Madeira is a popular tourist destination. The peak season is during the summer but it also gets many visitors around Easter. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa sent a message of condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was with deep regret that I learned about the tragic accident in Madeira, Costa said on Twitter. To all families involved I send the deepest condolences. Other members of the same group of German tourists were traveling on another bus, which was not involved in the accident, a regional civil protection spokesman told a news conference. Those injured were taken to a hospital in Funchal, the capital city of Madeira. From the 28 injured initially taken to the hospital, one German tourist did not survive the injuries, bringing the death toll to 29, a hospital spokesman told a news conference on Wednesday evening. Three of the injured underwent surgery, 23 were under observation and two were discharged. There were no children among the victims, the hospital confirmed, adding that two of the injured are from Portugal while the others are foreign nationals. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told SIC TV that some of the victims were from Madeira but most were German. A regional civil protection official said the tourists involved in the accident were aged between 40 and 50 years old. Portugals public prosecutors office plans to open an investigation into the accident, said Lusa. Madeira is a popular tourist destination. The peak season is during the summer but it also gets many visitors around Easter. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa sent a message of condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was with deep regret that I learned about the tragic accident in Madeira, Costa said on Twitter. To all families involved I send the deepest condolences. A senior United Nations relief official called on governments on Thursday to help resolve the fate of 2,500 foreign children being held among 75,000 people at al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria after fleeing Islamic States last stronghold, reports Trend citing to Reuters Children should be treated first and foremost as victims. Any solutions must be decided on the basis of the best interest of the child, Panos Moumtzis, U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, told a Geneva briefing. Solutions must be found irrespective of childrens age, sex or any perceived family affiliation, he said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will travel to Russia in the second half of this month and meet President Vladimir Putin, reports Trend with reference to Reuters The announcement coincided with a moment of discord in efforts by U.S. President Donald Trumps administration to reach a deal with Kim to end nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea said on Thursday it no longer wanted to deal with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and called for him to be replaced in talks by somebody more mature. That demand came hours after Pyongyang announced its first weapons test since the last summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February broke down with no agreement. The pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper cited a diplomatic source on Wednesday as saying the Putin-Kim meeting would likely take place next week in Russias Far Eastern city of Vladivostok before Putin flies on to an April 26-27 summit in China. It added though that a sudden change of plan by the leader of the secretive North Korean state could not be ruled out. The Kremlin gave no further details in a statement on its website, but Moscow has been saying for months that it was working on such a meeting. It was not clear how Kim might travel to the summit. A North Korean official, Kim Chang Son, traveled to Vladivostok this week and was seen on Wednesday inspecting the Pacific citys train station and making security checks, Russias RIA news agency reported on Thursday. U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun was due in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday to meet Russian officials to discuss ways to advance a final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea, Washington said on Tuesday. The Trump-Kim meeting in Vietnam, the second summit between the two leaders, broke down over conflicting demands by North Korea for sanctions relief and by the United States for North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. The following month Washington imposed a new round of sanctions on Pyongyang. Trump administration officials have floated the possibility of a third summit. A man was arrested last night in Midtown Manhattan after he tried to bring two gallon cans of gasoline, lighter fluid, and extended butane lighters into St. Patrick's Cathedral on Wednesday night. Police say the man, whom the NY Post identified as a CUNY student named Marc Lamparello, claimed he was trying to bring gas to his car parked on Fifth Avenue. "His basic story was that he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue, that his car had run out of gas," Deputy NYPD Commissioner of Intelligence John Miller told reporters. "We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas, and at that point he was taken into custody." The incident unfolded just before 8 p.m. when Lamparello was stopped by a St. Patrick's Cathedral security guard. Some gasoline spilled on the floor, and Lamparello left. Then, according to Miller, the security guard alerted counterterrorism officers outside the church, who caught up with Lamparello on Fifth Avenue near 50th Street. UPDATE: Around 7:55pm, a man walked into St. Patricks Cathedral in Manhattan with gas cans and lighter fluid, and was subsequently apprehended by @NYPDCT without incident. We thank our partners for their help, and remember - if you see something, say something. pic.twitter.com/bJDXrR6e8q NYPD Midtown North (@NYPDMTN) April 18, 2019 Police say his statements were "inconsistent and evasive," but he remained "cooperative" while talking to the officers. The Post reports that Lamparello resides in New Jersey and is "seeking his Ph.D. in philosophy, and has done stints as an adjunct lecturer at Lehman College, a police source said... Lamparello is 'known to police,' according to Miller. He has two prior arrests in New Jersey for criminal trespass and public drunkenness, sources added." "Its hard exactly to say what his intentions were. But I think the totality of circumstances, of an individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patricks Cathedral, carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters, is something that we would have great concern over," Miller said. Fox 5 reports that Lamparello had purchased a one-way ticket from Newark to Rome leaving tonight. In the wake of the fire that devastated Notre Dame in Paris, there has been heightened concern about the potential for arson in similar institutions. According to the Daily News, "The cathedral, which was built in 1878, installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations and its wooden roof is coated with fire retardant." The Walt Disney Company announced Wednesday that it will donate 5 million U.S. dollars to help rebuild the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, Trend reported citing Xinhua. "Notre-Dame is a beacon of hope and beauty that has defined the heart of Paris and the soul of France for centuries, inspiring awe and reverence for its art and architecture and for its enduring place in human history," said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Walt Disney Company, in a statement. "The Walt Disney Company stands with our friends and neighbors in the community, offering our heartfelt support as well as a 5 million dollars donation for the restoration of this irreplaceable masterpiece," he announced. Notre Dame is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture which receives about 12 million visitors every year. The 850-year-old historic landmark was severely damaged by a devastating fire on Monday. French President, Emmanuel Macron, vowed to rebuild the cathedral after the inferno. In two days following the devastating blaze, nearly a billion dollars have been reportedly pledged by donors from across the world, including some major companies. The worlds biggest smartphone maker, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, on Thursday said it had received a few reports of damage to the main display of samples of its upcoming foldable handset, Trend reported citing Reuters. We will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter, Samsung said in a statement, noting that a limited number of early Galaxy Fold samples were provided to media for review. It added that removal of a protective layer on the handsets display might cause damage and that the company would deliver such information to customers clearly. Samsungs comments followed reviews by some U.S. journalists who reported their Galaxy Fold samples malfunctioned. South Korea plans to work with North Korea to prevent the outbreak of African swine fever, a unification ministry official said Thursday, amid worries that the contagious animal disease could hurt the livestock sector of the impoverished state, Trend reported citing Yonhap. "The government is closely monitoring developments related to African swine fever, an outbreak of which is being reported in China, Mongolia and other neighboring countries," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "We have yet to confirm whether a case has been reported in North Korea," he added. "We will convey our stance (to the North) that it is necessary to cooperate against the disease," he added. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that outbreaks of the disease in China may spread to other parts of Asia. Experts say that the disease, if it breaks out in the North, could devastate the country's livestock sector and eventually hurt its food supply system. African swine fever is not harmful to humans. Heavily-armed assailants have shot dead at least 14 people after pulling them from several passenger buses in a remote area of Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials say, Trend reports citing Press TV. The attack took place on the Makran coastal highway between Karachi and the Gwadar port in the troubled region early Thursday morning, they said. Ziaullah Langove, home minister for Balochistan, said the passengers were killed after the attackers checked their identity cards and forced them out on the highway. "Terrorists offloaded 14 persons from different buses after checking their NICs. They took them and killed them," Langove said, referring to Pakistani national identity cards. The dead passengers had their legs and hands tied and were found close to the town of Ormara, about halfway between Karachi and Gwadar, he added. Hours after the ambush, the little-known separatist group Baloch Raji Aajoi Sangar claimed responsibility for the latest assault. At least 104 people were killed after a boat capsized on Monday night on Lake Kivu in South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), authorities confirmed on Thursday, Trend reports citing Xinhua. During Thursday's visit to the disaster zone, President Felix Tshisekedi met with the local authorities and families of victims that died during the boat sinking tragedy. According to the information given by the Kalehe territory administrator on the spot to the President, the boat from Goma initially transported 49 people and several goods. It was during the several stops made by the canoe in some villages that the boat became overloaded with goods and people, according to Muamba Cibwabwa, the administrator of the territory of Kalehe. The administrator has confirmed the death of 104 people out of 150 that boarded the canoe, adding about thirty people were rescued during the sinking. In the same report given to the president, the local authorities pointed out that the overweight and poor sailing conditions caused the tragedy. President Felix Tshisekedi also decreed a day of national mourning commemorating the victims, and several other safety measures and rules around the navigation on Lake Kivu including the wearing of vests for passengers. Indias Defense Ministry has moved to buy 240 Spike guided anti-tank missiles and 12 launchers from Israels Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, part of an emergency purchase authorized by New Delhi following the February showdown on the Pakistani border, Trend reports citing Sputnik. Under a special emergency provision, Indian Army Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Devraj Anbu has the authority to buy up to $71.8 million worth of goods and war materiel without seeking Ministry of Defense (MOD) approval, and he's using that to stock up on guided anti-tank missiles in the wake of a tense showdown with Pakistan earlier this year. It's unknown what the cost of the deal is, but sources told the Israeli business journal Globes it was worth "tens of millions of dollars." Rafael hasn't commented on the deal. While India once passed on a deal that would've made the Spike medium-range (MR) anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) its primary anti-tank weapon, the army was still interested in obtaining some of the weapons systems for tests this summer. The decision to make the emergency purchase prior to that testing was made during the five-day biannual Army Commanders' Conference in New Delhi that ended on April 13, IHS Jane's reported, during which the military leaders made frank and damning assessments of their current situation. India has repeatedly toyed with buying the Spike missile. In 2011, New Delhi elected to sign a $500 million deal to buy thousands of the weapons, but a dispute between the Defense Ministry and India's Defense Research and Development Organization, the government agency in charge of R&D, caused the formal scrapping of the deal by November 2017, Sputnik reported. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make-in-India" policy, the DRDO pushed for the service to adopt the domestically made NAG-190 missile instead, also known as the man-portable anti-tank guided missile (MPATGM). It was a valuable deal, too: MOD says it needs 68,000 anti-tank missiles in the next 20 years and about 850 launchers, and the deal would've had Rafael supply 8,356 of them, Sputnik reported. However, the MPATGM won't be ready for years, even as successful tests of the weapon continue to push the program forward. A source inside the Indian government told Sputnik last September that mass production was expected to begin in 2021. Until then, the Indian Army still needs lots of anti-tank missiles. A larger deal is still in the works for India to buy 2,500 Spike missiles as a stopgap measure until the MPATGMs come into full service, but that deal has yet to be finalized, according to The Diplomat. However, on January 31, the Indian Defense Acquisition Council did approve the purchase of 5,000 French-made, second-generation MILAN ATGMs, The Diplomat noted. Spike is a versatile weapon. It can be fired from land, sea or even from a helicopter, and it has a fire-and-forget mode that locks onto its target before it fires, instead of acquiring it once the missile is in the air. The missile has a range of four kilometers, and it beat out tough competitors in the contest for the now-cancelled deal, such as the United States' FGM-148 Javelin, which is built jointly by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. South Korean President Moon Jae-in was set to hold a summit with his Uzbek counterpart, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Friday on ways to further improve the countries' bilateral ties and expand economic cooperation, Trend reports citing Yonhap. The South Korean leader arrived here Thursday on a four-day state visit. It marks his first trip to the Central Asian country, although his meeting with Mirziyoyev will be his second. The two met in November 2017 when the Uzbek president made a state visit to Seoul. In their second bilateral summit, the leaders will seek ways to further improve their countries' relationship, Moon's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said earlier. The two sides established diplomatic ties in 1992 and upgraded them to a strategic partnership in 2008. The leaders will discuss ways to expand the countries' cooperation, currently focused on energy and industrial plants, to new areas, including health and medicine, ICT and public administration, Cheong Wa Dae said. Moon will also seek Uzbekistan's support for the Korea peace process, which seeks to completely denuclearize the peninsula and establish lasting peace. The South Korean president is on a three-nation tour that began in Turkmenistan and will end in Kazakhstan. The three Central Asian countries are considered South Korea's key partners under Seoul's New Northern Policy, which calls for efforts to boost the country's economic and diplomatic relations with countries in the region, including Russia and China. Moon will also address the Uzbek parliament before heading to Samarkand on Saturday for a two-day visit to the one of oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia. He will conclude his visit to Uzbekistan on Sunday and head for Kazakhstan. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Binali Yildirim, ex-speaker of the Turkish Parliament and candidate for the position of Head of the Istanbul municipality, congratulated Ekrem Imamoglu, who beat him in the municipal elections in Istanbul, Trend reports referring to the Turkish media. Yildirim also expressed hope that the victory of Imamoglu, who was a candidate from the opposition Republican Peoples Republican Party (CHP), would benefit the residents of Istanbul. Earlier, Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) officially announced the results of the municipal elections in Istanbul. According to the YSK, the candidate for the head of the Istanbul municipality from the opposition Republican Peoples Party Ekrem Imamoglu received 4.169 million votes, while the candidate from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Binali Yildirim received 4.156 million votes. Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council issued a mandate to Ekrem Imamoglu for the position of the Head of the Istanbul municipality, while the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) recently officially appealed to the YSK to hold the repeat elections in Istanbul. Shortly after the elections, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the results of the municipal elections in Istanbul may be annulled. Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of AKP Ali Ihsan Yavuz said that the ruling party demanded to hold new municipal elections in Istanbul. He added that the ruling party had all the evidence of falsification of the election results. The ruling party will present all the facts of falsification of the election results in Istanbul soon, he said. The municipal election results in Istanbul were almost completely rigged, President Erdogan said earlier. He noted that the ruling Justice and Development Party appealed to YSK to identify the perpetrators. Meanwhile, the Justice and Development Party presented facts of falsification of 11,000 votes in Istanbul in favour of the candidate of the opposition Republican Peoples Party Ekrem Imamoglu. Thirteen political parties took part in the municipal elections held on March 31. These included the Felicity Party (SP), the Independent Turkey Party (Bagmsz Turkiye Partisi), the Communist Party of Turkey (Turkiye Komunist Partisi), the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi), the Great Unity Party (Buyuk Birlik Partisi), Free Cause Party (Hur Dava Partisi), Republican Peoples Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalknma Partisi), Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti), Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetci Hareket Partisi), Iyi Party (IYI Parti), Peoples Democratic Party (Halklarn Demokratik Partisi) and Democratic Left Party (Demokratik Sol Parti). It was reported that Imamoglu was leading the race with 4.159 million votes, while the candidate from the ruling party Binali Yildirim had 4.131 million votes in Istanbul. The coalition of the ruling party and the Nationalist Movement Party gained 51.67 percent of votes in the municipal elections throughout the country. Following the elections, candidate of the Republican Peoples Party Mansur Yavas became Mayor of Ankara. Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nominated ex-Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci for the post of the Head of the Izmir municipality and Binali Yildirim for the post of the Head of the Istanbul municipality. Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: During three months of 2019, 9,600 illegal immigrants were detained in Turkey, Trend reports referring to the Turkish media on April 18. Reportedly, 5,780 illegal immigrants were detained by the Turkish Coast Guard. During the reporting period, 82 people who participated in sending illegal immigrants from Turkey to Greece were also detained. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Chandigarh: On Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said Condemning as "totally barbaric and inhuman" the recent beheading of two Punjabis by the authorities in Saudi Arabia, he would seek a detailed report from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the matter. Here it is to be noted that the two men -- Satwinder Kumar of Safdarpur Kallian village in Hoshiarpur district and Harjit Singh of Ludhiana district -- were executed by Saudi authorities on February 28 this year without any prior information regarding their execution being shared with the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Prakash Chand, Director (Consular), MEA stated in a written communication dated April 10, 2019. also read Jammu- Srinagar National Highway close, over 3000 vehicles stranded To be noted that Chand said in the communication, sent to Satwinder`s wife Seema Rani through the counsel at the Punjab and Haryana High court as she had petitioned before the court regarding her husband, that the Embassy had no information about the mortal remains of both men and was awaiting the same from the Saudi authorities. Both men were arrested on December 9, 2015 in connection with the murder of another Indian national, Arif Imamuddin. All three (Satwinder, Harjit and Arif) had committed robbery and due to a dispute in sharing the loot money, Arif was killed by the other two. However it is worth mention that Satwinder and Harjit were arrested over a case drunken brawl. During deportation formalities and finger-printing for final exit from Saudi Arabia, they were found to be involved in Arif`s murder. They were sent to the Riyadh prison where they allegedly confessed to killing Arif, the communication pointed out. The embassy officials were following the case against the two Punjabi men and they even used to visit them in prison. The jail list regarding their case was collected till February 18, 2019. also read TMC and BJP workers clashes in polling booth vandalized polling station completely To be noted that expressing shock and grief over the vicious act, which has been confirmed by the MEA to have taken place on February 28, Amarinder said: "It is atrocious that such incidents continue to happen in civilised nations in this day and age." The Chief Minister also flayed the MEA for failing to prevent, and then not disclosing the execution of the two men till it was forced to do so by a petition filed by Satwinder`s wife. Amarinder said he would approach Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to secure more details about the execution of the two men. In addition to the fact that limousine travel is very glamorous, it is also the most comfortable trip you can... A New York Supreme Court Judge has struck down recent state guidelines meant to improve the quality of secular education in yeshivas and other private schools. The decision concerns a set of State Education Department directives issued in November that mandated a district-led review of the curricula across New York's private schools. The move was fiercely opposed by local yeshivas, which have long faced scrutiny into the level of non-religious education offered to students. If the schools were to be found in violation of "substantial equivalency" requirements, the state said, they could lose funding and potentially be shuttered. In response to the state guidelines, the pro-yeshiva group Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools [PEARLS] sued the education department, claiming infringement on their religious freedoms. They were joined in the suit by an association of Catholic schools, as well an organization representing secular private schools. Together, the groups argued that the "new inspection regime" violated the State Administrative Procedure Act, and was therefore illegal. Judge Christina Ryba agreed, and on Thursday declared the state's guidelines "hereby nullified." While the ruling did not directly address the constitutionality of the guidelines, it found that the education department was not authorized to mandate such a sprawling review. In a statement, PEARLS immediately celebrated the news. "This stops in its tracks SED's effort to radically transform the relationship between the state and its private schools," the group said. But the decision marks a major setback for the movement to reform New York's ultra-Orthodox schools. For years, the Orthodox-led group Young Advocates For A Fair Education [YAFFED] has raised concerns about yeshivas, which they say provide high school boys with an education exclusively focused on Talmudic studies, leaving them unprepared for adulthood. Recent efforts to investigate the schools have repeatedly come up against political roadblocks. In a letter sent to the state this summer, NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza acknowledged that a city-led probe had made little progress over three years. A month later, Governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly promised the Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg that he "would not interfere in yeshiva education." On Thursday, Naftuli Moster, the executive director of YAFFED, called the court's decision a "tragedy for all children." "Removing the revised oversight signals to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas that they can continue business as usual and fail to provide basic instruction in math, English, science, history, civics and other subjects that are keys to a sound basic education," he said. Susan Lerner, leader of the good government group Common Cause, also decried the decision: "Yeshivas have been taking public money while skirting state education standards to the detriment of their students for decades." "As political leaders kowtow to rabbis across the city, thousands of Hasidic children are caught in the middle without simple skills, like english and math," Lerner continued. "The New York State Education Department (NYSED) guidelines are minimal, and it's a Shonda yeshivas are getting away scotch free. We urge the state to appeal." A spokesperson for the education department told Gothamist that the agency was "reviewing the courts decision and will determine the appropriate next steps." New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who has a reputation of being a troubleshooter for Indian nationals facing issues abroad, once again came to rescue of a man stranded in Saudi Arabia. The man, who identified himself as Ali on Twitter, said he would commit suicide if he was unable to return to India from Saudi Arabia. Responding to his tweets, Sushma Swaraj asked the Indian embassy in Riyadh to help him. also read CM Amarinder Singh condemns "totally barbaric and inhuman" act of Saudi Arabia beheaded two Punjabis To be noted that earlier, Ali tweeted "Sir, tell me one thing, can you help me or should I kill myself? It has been about 12 months that I have been pleading for help from the embassy. It would be a huge help if you can send me to India. I have four children,". Swaraj replied: "Don't think about suicide. We are there for you. Our embassy will help you." The minister also asked for a report on Ali's complaint from the Indian embassy in Riyadh. Mother of Hyderabad Woman Stranded in Kuwait Seeks Sushma Swaraj's Help. Here it is worth mention that following Swaraj's intervention, the embassy asked Ali to send a copy of his visa page and mobile phone number, but he said he doesn't have a copy of the visa but has an 'iqama' - a residence permit issued to expatriates who arrive in Saudi Arabia on an employment visa. Narrating his ordeal, the man further wrote that he couldn't return to India since he came to Saudi Arabia 21 months back. His tweet to which Swaraj replied was deleted later. Modi Govt Worked for National Security, Devp, Public Welfare: Sushma Swaraj. also read TMC and BJP workers clashes in polling booth vandalized polling station completely Sushma Swaraj, who routinely replies to Indians abroad who seek her ministry's help, once again earned praise on social media for her response to Ali. Abdirahman Abdullahi Mohamed (pictured), 42, from Northolt, west London has today been jailed for 15 months after he was found with a stash of Islamic State propaganda A Somali man who downloaded a terror tactics manual about vehicle and knife attacks and wrote 'I like ISIS ' on a file has been jailed for 15 months. Abdirahman Abdullahi Mohamed, 42, from Northolt, west London , was in 2017 found with documents 'useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.' And had become 'addicted' to terrorist propaganda, downloading videos of beheadings and executions onto his mobile phone. Despite claiming it was all for research, an Old Bailey jury convicted him of eight counts of possession of a document or record for terrorist purposes. Judge Philip Katz, QC, explained that his interest in Islamic States activities in Somalia meant he was considered a risk. He said: This had become an obsession or fixation for you. I suggest you may have become desensitised to it all. The word has not been used but addiction may be apt. Abdirahman Mohamed, I have to sentence you now for eight offences of possessing documents likely to be useful for a person preparing an act of terrorism. You committed these offences by downloading an retaining digital material over a period of nearly two years. Mohamed was today jailed for 15 months as a result, but will be eligible for automatic parole after half of his jail term. He was cleared of one charge of disseminating terrorist propaganda. Judge Katz explained that much of the material had been in the form of magazines, including ISIS publication Rumiyah magazine and Al-Qaeda distributed Inspire. The magazines and ebooks were professional, sleek looking publications. All the publications had front covers with graphic images. It was all blatant propaganda for Islamic State. It certainly makes for tedious reading - it could be of no legitimate interest to anyone. It can only be described as extremist material. I accept that your case was that you had moved from a position of support for IS and you came to reject its activities due to its barbarism across Europe and elsewhere. The father-of-two claimed he was researching how terrorism had affected his community, but a jury found him guilty of terror offences The judge explained that Mohameds case was that he had taken an interest in Islamic States activities in Somalia. I heard you give this evidence and I didnt believe you. I didnt think you had been truthful with the jury about your mindset. You said you had come to realise that you were spending too much time looking at this material. I wanted to believe you. The problem is that you began downloading extremist material a long time ago. You didnt stop the downloads, you were still downloading terrifying videos onto your phone in May and June 2017. You are an educated man who is capable of working hard and looking after your family. You have lost your job and you will find it difficult now to support your family. The court heard how Mohamed kept a laptop under his bed containing copies of the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire and one of his files featured a thumbs up image with the slogan I like ISIS. The father-of-two claimed it was just for research and that he was trying to understand the issues involved but prosecutors said the collection showed he clearly had terrorist sympathies at the very least. The court heard that Mohamed had download a prolific amount of material. Earlier Kelly Brocklehurst, prosecuting, said: The so-called Islamic State is of course now a familiar name and does feature heavily in the documents found in the defendants possession. He knowingly possessed documents of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and that he provided a service to others. Police officers searched the home Mohamed shares with his wife and two small children in Northolt, west London, on 21 July 2017. Police located two laptops, one Samsung Galaxy smart phone and a USB memory stick, said Mr Brocklehurst. When officers examined those devices what they found was a very large number of worrying documents. Several videos and files were also found on his Samsung Galaxy mobile phone. Mr Brocklehurst said: Some of these videos contain graphic scenes of public beheadings, dead bodies and executions by gunfire. Details of files found on a second Lenovo brand laptop, including e-books glorifying IS and a photo of an IS-style execution. Found on this laptop was two particular photographic images, the first depicting two young males dressed in orange overalls with two young children dressed in black standing behind them, said the prosecutor. The children appear to be holding weapons and is reminiscent of IS-style executions. In a statement to police, Mohamed wrote: I am a Somali Muslim, my community had been affected by terrorism. The document was to help me understand the issues involved and for my own general interest and for me to form a view on what is happening. Mr Brocklehurst added: It beggars belief that the defendant possessed such material in order to maintain his knowledge of regional affairs or for any other good reason. Such a collection by its content and quantity shows someone with terrorist sympathies at the very least. Alex Rose, defending Mohamed, said: He was looking at it in the context of the Arab world and the Arab Spring. He did have sympathy for these groups and it was not a fleeting sympathy. He is coming at it all from a war torn country in Somalia, with that particular background and that particular view of countries where Muslims are subject to oppression and dictatorial rule. Mohamed, of Shadwell Drive, Northolt, denied but was convicted of eight counts of possession of a document or record for terrorist purposes. He was cleared of one count of dissemination of terrorist publications. The judge ordered forfeiture and destruction of the laptop and phone but allowed Mohameds legal team to remove images of his family before they were destroyed. Mohamed was also told after serving his 15 month jail term he will be required to to notify the authorities if he changed address. TWEET ME DISCLAIMER *COMMENTS, LINKS, AND CUT AND PASTE ARTICLES, ARE NOT ALL ENDORSED BY THE PUBLISHER. THIS BLOG claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed. MORE DISCLAIMERS This is a commercial free blog. Money is nice, but being able to speak my mind is better. "Real talk: Daniel Rubin has a great little piece up wherein he chats with The Field Negro, the Philly-based blogger who sharply ponders all things black on a daily basis. (Seriously, if youve never checked in with TFN, you should: Its author, Wayne Bennett, is a fantastic read who can cut through bullshit like a hot knife through butter, which is a far grosser analogy than I wanted to make, but there you have it.)" ~Philebrity~ "One of the most precocious and hilarious Black political minds on the net. Ive been a long-time fan!" ~Asad Malik~ "..While most of what he writes is tongue-in-cheek, his space is a safe house for candid discussions about race, especially in the comments section, where people of all colors meet." ~~Daniel Rubin, "The Philadelphia Inquirer"~~ "To white people, Bennett's musings are like kitchen-table talk from a kitchen they may otherwise never set foot in. To African Americans, he is part of a growing army of black Internet amateurs who have taken up the work once reserved for ministers and professional activists: the work of setting a black agenda, shaping black opinion and calling attention to the state of the nation's racial affairs." ~~Richard Fausset, "L.A. Times"~~~ ~Erik Hare, "The Twin Cities Daily Planet"~ "That's why I love the blog " Field Negro " so much. Field, as he's known to his fans, has the sense of reality that it takes to call out the ( CowPuckey ) of blame beating by those who are in positions of power and their lackeys. Because of his handle and his unabashed way of writing about racial issues, Field is often cited as a "Black blogger." What he is, however, is a first-class detector of blame deflection and an excellent student of history. If you want to write about the past and future of repression there's really no other perspective to take - which is why everyone should read Field."~Erik Hare, "The Twin Cities Daily Planet"~ 411 On The Field field negro Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Raised in the house, but field certified. Jamaica is the land of my birth, but I consider myself a citizen of the world. I currently practice law in the city of "brotherly love". View my complete profile "Half a century after Little Rock, the Montgomery bus boycott and the tumultuous dawn of the modern civil rights era, the new face of the movement is Facebook, MySpace and some 150 black blogs united in an Internet alliance they call the AfroSpear. Older, familiar leaders such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, are under challenge by a younger generation of bloggers known by such provocative screen names as Field Negro, thefreeslave and African American Political Pundit. And many of the newest struggles are being waged online." ~Howard Witt-The Chicago Tribune~ "I had no idea, for example, of the extent of the African-American blogging world out there and its collective powers of dissemination.But now, after reading thousands of anguished, thoughtful comments posted on these blogs reflecting on issues of persistent racial discrimination in the nation's schools and courtrooms, what's clear to me is that there's a new, "virtual" civil rights movement out there on the Internet that can reach more people in a few hours than all the protest marches, sit-ins and boycotts of the 1950s and 60s put together." ~Chicago Tribune Reporter, Howard Witt~ IF YOU ARE BRAVE ENOUGH TO FLAUNT IT. Come visit my store on CafePress! The U.S. energy sector has recovered immensely from its dip in late December, registering impressive gains through the first three months of this year. Chinas reviving economy, optimism over the U.S.-China trade deal, President Trumps sanctions against Iran and Venezuelas oil exports are some of the factors contributing to oils new-found strength. Certain geopolitical issues in Libya and the energy industry preparing forInternational Maritime Organizations 2020 regulations also helped boost oil prices. Energy Sectors Q1 Journey The energy sectors benchmark index the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) gained a remarkable 13.1% in Q1. Brent crude oil and U.S. oil price benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, also jumped significantly from their late December lows of $50.47 and $52.62 a barrel, respectively. Catalysts Driving Oil Prices Higher Oil has benefitted significantly this year from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) supply cuts and Donald Trumps sanctions against oil producers. OPECs supply cuts will remain in place till June at least, after it extended the supply cuts that have been in effect since January. OPEC and its partners decision to curb oil production along with Russias support of the same has resulted in a 1.2 million barrels per day cut, which will be the norm till the organization decides otherwise in its June meeting. President Trumps sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, which are members of OPEC, are also pushing oil prices higher. Both these sanctions are highly driven by the aim to change the political scenario in these countries, thereby slashing their main source of revenues, which are oil exports. Secondly, a major market-driver, the U.S.-China trade deal, has influenced oil markets very well this year. Oil prices started recovering after the United States and China decided to go for a 90-day truce effective Jan 1. Story continues The development in trade talks and the growing optimism around a favorable trade agreement between the two countries so far have been beneficial for oil prices. In addition, the ongoing civil war and renewed violence in Libya are threatening the countrys oil output and exports. This is a particularly a bullish factor for oil prices as well. Finally, the IMOs regulation that goes into effect in January 2020 demands that fuel low on sulphur content be used by seagoing vessels to reduce pollution. This regulation could boost the U.S. energy industry greatly, since it has been fulfilling the federal low-sulphur fuel standards for a long time. Therefore, given the encouraging factors pushing the energy sector, it would be prudent to invest in a few energy mutual funds at present. But why invest in mutual funds and not stocks? This is because reduced transaction costs and diversification of portfolio without several commission charges that are associated with stock purchases are primarily why one should be parking money in mutual funds (read more: Mutual Funds: Advantages, Disadvantages, and How They Make Investors Money). Our Choices We have selected three mutual funds from the energy sector that carry a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2 (Buy). Moreover, these funds have encouraging three-year returns. Additionally, the minimum initial investment is within $5000. We expect these funds to outperform their peers in the future. Remember, the goal of the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank is to guide investors to identify potential winners and losers. Unlike most of the fund-rating systems, the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank is not just focused on past performance, but also on the likely future success of the fund. Vanguard Energy Fund Investor Shares VGENX invests the majority of its assets in common stocks of companies that operate in the energy industry. The fund aims to provide capital appreciation over the long term. VGENX has a minimum initial investment of $3000. This Zacks sector Energy product has a history of positive total returns for more than 10 years. To see how this fund performed compared in its category, and other 1 and 2 Ranked Mutual Funds, please click here. VGENX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2. The fund has an annual expense ratio of 0.38%, which is below the category average of 1.37%. VGENX has three-year annualized returns of 6.7%. T. Rowe Price New Era Fund PRNEX aims for capital growth over a long period of time. The fund usually invests the maximum part of its net assets in common stocks of natural resources companies. The non-diversified fund may also invest in other growth companies that its managers believe have great potential for earnings growth but may not own or develop natural resources. The fund has a minimum initial investment of $2500. This Zacks sector Energy product has a history of positive total returns for more than 10 years. To see how this fund performed compared in its category, and other 1 and 2 Ranked Mutual Funds, please click here. PRNEX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2. The fund has an annual expense ratio of 0.69%, which is below the category average of 1.39%. PRNEX has three-year annualized returns of 6.3%. Putnam Global Natural Resources Trust Class Y PGRYX fund aims for capital growth. The fund mostly invests in common stocks of mid- and large-capitalization companies that its manager thinks has good investment potential. The fund invests most of its assets in securities of companies in the energy sector or other natural resources industries. The non-diversified fund has no minimum initial investment. This Zacks sector Energy product has a history of positive total returns for more than 10 years. To see how this fund performed compared in its category, and other 1 and 2 Ranked Mutual Funds, please click here. PGRYX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2. The fund has an annual expense ratio of 1.05%, which is below the category average of 1.39%. PGRYX has three-year annualized returns of 2.3%. Want key mutual fund info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks' free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing mutual funds, each week. Get it free >> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. Get Your Free (PGRYX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (VGENX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (PRNEX): Fund Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. It may be techs biggest gender gap: Fewer than 10% of leadership roles in venture capital are held by women, and only 2.2% of VC funding went to female-founded companies in 2018. All Raise, a coalition of women in the VC field, launched last year (sparked by a group email from Cowboy Ventures partner Aileen Lee) with the aim of boosting both those numbers. All Raise gives female founders intensive one-on-one mentoring, while its VC Champions program pairs promising investors with senior partners at established venture firms. Geographical diversity is another hurdle in tech: Steve Case (below, center), the AOL founder turned investor, says 75% of venture funding goes to firms in California, New York, or Massachusetts. With his partner, author J.D. Vance, Case runs Rise of the Rest, a $150 million fund devoted to companies in less heavily saturated markets. Through a process that includes buzzy bus tours and pitch competitions, Rise of the Rest has invested in about 100 companies in more than 30 states so farreminding the startup world that a San Francisco Bay view is not a prerequisite for success. Former Tennessee congressman Zach Wamp said Congress needs to come together to address immigration and pass a bill for wall funding. "Both sides have a lot of dysfunction right now," he told FOX Business' Liz MacDonald on "The Evening Edit" on Wednesday. "And the American people are kind of tired of Congress not addressing big issues like immigration." During the government shutdown there was agreement from Democrats to work with Republicans on solutions for the border. However there have been no concessions from either side yet. In Wamp's opinion, Democrats have an obligation to work with the President on immigration. Related Articles Jonathan Eady, Arnall Golden Gregory, Atlanta. (Photo: John Disney/ALM) Jonathan Eady, Arnall Golden Gregory, Atlanta. (Photo: John Disney/ALM) In another year of solid growth, Arnall Golden Gregory reported its sixth consecutive year of increases in revenue and profitand marked a couple of financial milestones. Revenue increased 6.9 percentand broke the $100 million markto $106 million, following a 5.5 percent increase in 2017. Net income increased 6.1 percent to $45.8 million for the Atlanta-based firm. That pushed profit per equity partner (PEP) over the $1 million mark for the first timeto $1,066,000, a 13.5 percent jump. Revenue per lawyer grew 8.3 percent to $716,000. Those are nice milestones, but I focus more on consistent year-over-year improvement, said Arnall Goldens managing partner, Jonathan Eady. It was a very strong year across the whole firm, he said. We were up in every major practice area. As to predictions by some of an economic downturn, Eady said he has not seen any signs so far at Arnall Golden, and he noted that the national data continues to be mixed, citing low unemployment and continued economic growth nationally. But, as a real estate lawyer, he said, I know that everything cycles. Id be somewhat surprised if were not really near the end of the cycle. Our approach to growth and hiring is so stable that we wouldnt expect a major disruption, regardless, he added. The firms average lawyer head count remained stable last year, decreasing by a net of two lawyers to 148. The equity partner count dipped from 46 to 43, as the firm marked the retirements of partners Warren Kingsley and Marc Peterzell. Arnall Golden added three lateral partners in 2018. Rebekah Plowman, who has a health care litigation and regulatory practice, joined from Jones Day. Corporate and securities partner Brian Teras joined from Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough. Corporate partner Adam Skorecki returned to the firm after a stint as the general counsel of Sysco, one of Arnall Goldens major clients. In March, the firm added two former SEC lawyers, Adriaen Morse as a partner and Troy Brown as counsel, in its litigation and government investigations practice in Washington. Both came from Morses firm, Morse Law Office. The Work On the corporate front, Arnall Golden advised fiber-optic provider Horizon Telcom on its $220 million acquisition by Canadian private equity firm Novacap. Eady said more than 25 lawyers at Arnall Golden worked on the deal. The firm handled several acquisitions for Sysco, including the purchase of HFM FoodService in Hawaii, as Sysco expanded into new markets. In a big Georgia health care deal, Arnall Golden represented the Chatham County Hospital Authority in its $710 million sale of Memorial Health in Savannah to Hospital Corporation of America. The HCA acquisition turned the public hospital into a for-profit, but as part of the deal created a $25 million trust overseen by the Chatham County Hospital Authority to continue providing indigent care to county residents. Arnall Golden continues to represent the Integral Group in the massive mixed-use project, Assembly, which Integral is redeveloping on the site of the former General Motors plant in Doraville. Eady, who represents Integral, said the developer has several pending deals under contract that are not yet public, which it hopes to close in the next few months. They will add to the critical mass of activity, he said, spurred by the openings of Serta Simmons Beddings headquarters this year and Third Rail Studios in 2016, which kicked off the first phase of development in the Assembly Yards zone. In March, Integral announced its plans for a free, self-driving shuttle to connect users to MARTA and other transit points. In another mixed-use deal, Arnall Golden represented developer Trammell Crow on a new hotel and office project adjacent to Perimeter Mall with direct access to the Dunwoody MARTA station. In litigation, the firm defended two clients in potential class actions: Worldpay US over claims of hidden credit card fees and First Advantage Background Screening Services over claims of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Worldpay cases, Alghadeer Bakery v. Worldpay US and Acebedo & Johnson v. Worldpay US, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, have been stayed and the parties are in mediation with an eye to a settlement, according to court documents. First Advantage has agreed to settle with the plaintiffs in Bankhead v. First Advantage, also filed in the Northern District of Georgia, for $1.98 million, which covers a settlement class of almost 25,000, according to a proposed settlement agreement filed in April. The way clients define success in litigation is when we make it go away, Eady said. Arnall Goldens health care practice stayed busy advising hospice and nursing home clients on regulatory matters, Eady said. The firm advised hospice operator Curo Health Services on matters related to its $1.4 billion acquisition by Humana and two private equity firms, which announced the deal just after buying Kindred Healthcare, which also has a hospice business. The firm also advised Formation Capital, an Atlanta-based investor in nursing homes, on regulatory issues, Eady said, as the nursing home industry continued to struggle with levels of reimbursement and other regulatory challenges. (Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. As Swedish prosecutors consider re-opening a probe into rape allegations against Julian Assange, it sets up a test of just how tangled the post-Brexit legal system is about to become. British police arrested the 47-year-old Assange last week, ending his seven-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. American authorities promptly asked the U.K. to extradite Assange to face charges related to the disclosure of secret government documents. An extradition request from Sweden could delay that case if British authorities decide to prioritize a nine-year-old rape allegation that originally sent Assange into hiding. Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange in 2010. He fought the extradition up to the U.K. Supreme Court, where he lost in 2012. While he was out on bail in that case, Assange sought asylum in Ecuadors embassy. As the years dragged on, Swedish prosecutors dropped the investigation because it had become impossible to pursue the probe in his absence. After Assanges arrest last week, a lawyer for one victim asked the Swedish prosecutor to re-open the investigation. I will of course continue to fight for my client to receive justice and reparation, the lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, said by email. Not many people think about the issue that theres a plaintiff, a woman, who has lived with trauma now for many years. Lawyers for Assange didnt reply to emails seeking comment. The rape case relates to a woman who said Assange had sex with her while she was asleep, according to a 2011 London court ruling. Assange has always maintained the relationship was consensual. If Sweden does seek Assange, U.K. Home Secretary Sajid Javid would choose which request to address first. The secretary would have to weigh factors including the seriousness of the offenses and the date each warrant was issued, according to U.K. extradition law. Story continues Last week, more than 70 U.K. lawmakers, mostly from the opposition Labour party, signed a letter urging Javid to prioritize any Swedish request over the U.S. We must send a strong message of the priority the U.K. has in tackling sexual violence, according to the letter, written by Labour MP Stella Creasy and signed by lawmakers including the Independent Groups Anna Soubry and Jo Swinson of the Liberal Democrats. Diane Abbott, Labours shadow home secretary, later replied to the letter to say the British government should extradite Assange to Sweden to face rape charges if the country makes a request. Assange previously fought going to Sweden because he feared proceedings there would lead to a U.S. extradition request. Since the Americans have made a request in the U.K., he may no longer have a motivation to stay away from Sweden. The risk of being extradited from Sweden to the U.S. isnt larger than from the U.K. said Sven-Erik Alhem, a former chief public prosecutor in Sweden. The U.K. may find the Swedish option compelling. A rape charge would be serious and would have a deadline in August 2020 when the statue of limitation will limit prosecution. Extradition to Sweden could also be much speedier if Assange is processed under current European Union rules, according to Thomas Garner, an extradition lawyer at Gherson. Brexit Battle Still, no matter how fast the process goes, it could collide with the U.K.s exit from the European Union. If the British Parliament approves the current withdrawal agreement, then the U.K. will maintain the status quo through the end of 2020. Thats likely enough time to deal with any Swedish request even if it were drawn out in court. But if theres a no-deal Brexit, all bets are off. The political confusion would open up a litany of opportunities for Assanges lawyers to challenge the legal standing of Swedens extradition request, according to Rebecca Niblock, a partner who specializes in extradition at Kingsley Napley. The whole Brexit thing is bad for lawyers in the long term, but in the short term were quite excited about all the things well be able to argue, Niblock said. Delay, Delay, Delay Once in Sweden, Assange would have multiple legal avenues to challenge his extradition to the U.S., all of which would take time, according to Nick Vamos, a partner at law firm Peters & Peters who was previously head of extradition at the U.K.s Crown Prosecution Service. In order for Sweden to extradite Assange to the U.S., the country would need consent from the U.K. Assange could fight both Swedens attempt to extradite him, as well as the U.K.s consent. It would just create legal complexity, which creates legal delay, which may be to his advantage, Vamos said in a phone interview. The longer Assange delays, the more likely it is that U.K. politics could shift in his favor. If Sweden tried to extradite Assange to the U.S. it would need consent from the secretary of state. For now, thats Javid, an Assange critic. Any extradition to the U.S. would also need to be approved by the Swedish government. By the time Assange makes his way through the Swedish courts, that could change. Javids replacement could be the Labour Partys Abbott, who spoke out against the American pursuit of whistle blowers. To contact the reporters on this story: William Mathis in London at wmathis2@bloomberg.net;Amanda Billner in Stockholm at abillner@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Niklas Magnusson For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Our portfolio was relatively quiet on the news front over the first quarter of the year, the exceptions being Barrick Gold and Graftech. Our investment in Barrick Gold was made late last year before the announced merger with Randgold. Overall, we are pleased with the merger and are very positive on the reshuffle of management and the corporate structure. We believe both will help the business unlock significant value over time. There are concerns about the growing political risk embedded in the new Barrick Gold portfolio because of the heavy African exposure added to the company through the merger. We do not foresee this being a problem. As we outlined in a recent white paper focused on political risk, we believe the key to success in difficult locations is a management team with a proven ability to manage political risk as an ongoing operational concern. The Randgold team has a successful track record and proven capability of doing just that. We will admit to having been concerned when management launched a hostile takeover effort of Newmont, the worlds largest gold miner. Barrick, having just absorbed a near-peer, was not, in our estimation, positioned to integrate another larger peer intelligently. The hostile bid was little more than a tactic though and brought the Newmont management team to the negotiating table to strike a deal to rationalize the operation of assets both companies have in Nevada, all of which are within driving distance of each other. The new Nevada joint venture (JV) offers significant opportunities to benefit from the reduction of duplicated ore processing activities resulting in long term cost savings and real synergies. As with all JVs, there is the potential for leadership issues and a failure to live up to the potential value outlined on paper. As such, we await news of progress before penciling the proposed cost savings into our core valuation.7 [caption id="attachment_564121" align="aligncenter" width="750"] Mark Agnor/Shutterstock.com[/caption] TORONTO, April 12, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blueberries Medical Corp. (BBM.CN) (BBRRF) (1OA.F) (the Company or "Blueberries") a Latin American licensed producer of medicinal cannabis and cannabis-derived products, is pleased to announce that the Companys executive management team will attend and present at GMP Securities 2019 Global Cannabis Conference on April 16, 2019 at The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto. The GMP Securities Global Cannabis Conference will explore current investing trends, industry perspectives on consumer trends and key developments. This full day event includes company presentations, panel discussions and one-on-one meetings with senior management teams. The conference will also provide the opportunity for key industry participants and institutional investors to network and interact with a diverse group of highly regarded experts, leaders and visionaries from leading public and private cannabis companies. Details of the Companys presentation are below: Presenter: Dr. Patricio Stocker, Chief Executive Officer Date: Tuesday April 16, 2019 Time: 2:10 PM Location: Presentation Room B (The Wellington Ballroom, 4th Floor), The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto Dr. Stocker will discuss his extensive experience in cannabis cultivation in Colombia, his vision as well as the Companys recent operational developments including the Companys Colombian operations, entry into Argentina, extraction facility build-out and their strategic global relationships. Having recently completed our public listing, we are keen to increase market awareness and this conference will provide us an excellent platform for a formal introduction to the institutional investment community, stated Dr. Patricio Stocker, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. As we continue to execute on our operational plans and position ourselves as leaders in Latin America, we believe there is a great opportunity for investors to participate in the growth of our company. Story continues About Blueberries Medical Corp. Blueberries is a Colombia-based licensed producer of naturally grown, premium quality cannabis with operations located in the Bogota savannah of central Colombia and is also in the process of developing a Joint Venture with an Argentinian state-owned company for the development of a medicinal cannabis in Argentina. Led by a specialized team with proprietary expertise in agriculture, genetics, extraction, medicine, pharmacology and marketing, Blueberries has received all licenses required for the cultivation, production, domestic distribution, and international export of CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol)-based medical cannabis in Colombia. Blueberries combination of leading scientific expertise, agricultural advantages, and distribution arrangements has positioned the Company to become a leading international supplier of naturally grown, processed, and standardized medicinal-grade cannabis oil extracts and related products. Additional information about the Company is available at blueberriesmed.com. For more information, please contact: Camilo Villalba, Chief Operating Officer Tel: +57.313.483.0131 Email: cvillalba@blueberriesmed.com Jessika Angarita, Pacta Relations angarita@pactarelations.com Tel: +1 (305) 877 4710 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward looking statements relate, among other things, to: the timing and receipt of the final stock exchange approval for the commencement of trading of the Blueberries Shares on the CSE, and future expansion plans. These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; expectations regarding the size of the Colombian and international medical cannabis market and changing consumer habits; the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business objectives; plans for expansion; political and social uncertainties; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; and the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on cultivation, production, distribution and sale of cannabis and cannabis related products in Colombia or internationally; and employee relations. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. (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. Brown & Brown, Inc. BRO announced that Brown & Brown of Oregon, LLC has acquired substantially all of the assets of ALMEA Insurances Vancouver, WA location. Founded in 1949, ALMEA Insurance offers an array of personal and business insurance products and services in Washington and Oregon and generates about $2 million in annual revenues. Brown & Brown and its subsidiaries continuously make strategic acquisitions to expand globally, add capabilities and boost operations. Also, these strategic buyouts help Brown & Brown to increase commissions and fees, which, in turn, drive revenues. The recent acquisition is the companys first buyout in the ongoing quarter. The company made seven acquisitions in the first quarter of 2019. Year 2018 was the biggest ever for Brown and Brown in terms of acquisition activity with Hays Companies being the most significant buyout. Brown & Brown estimates Hays to deliver $210 million to $220 million of annual revenues, $47 million to $53 million of EBITDAC and net income per share of 2 cents to 3 cents in 2019. Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) insurance broker have rallied 11.5% year to date, underperforming its industrys increase of 19%. We expect the companys sustained operational performance, higher commissions and fees plus a solid capital position to push the stock higher in the near term. Brown & Brown is set to report first-quarter results on Apr 22. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at 36 cents, indicating year-over-year increase of 9.1%. Our proven conclusively shows that the company is likely to beat on earnings this time. This is because it has the right combination of Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and an Earnings ESP of +4.02%. Other Insurers on an Acquisition Spree There have been a number of significant acquisitions in the insurance domain of late. Recently, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG acquired specialist UK insurance broker Stackhouse Poland Group Limited. Earlier this month, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.s MMC subsidiary Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC (MMA) reached an agreement to buy Centurion, which is located in Plymouth Meeting, PA. A Stock to Consider A better-ranked stock from the insurance industry is Hallmark Financial Services, Inc. HALL, sporting Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Hallmark Financial underwrites, markets, distributes and services property/casualty insurance products to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company delivered four-quarter average positive earnings surprise of 91.28%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Radical New Technology Creates $12.3 Trillion Opportunity Imagine buying Microsoft stock in the early days of personal computers or Motorola after it released the worlds first cell phone. These technologies changed our lives and created massive profits for investors. Today, were on the brink of the next quantum leap in technology. 7 innovative companies are leading this 4th Industrial Revolution - and early investors stand to earn the biggest profits. Story continues See the 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (MMC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Hallmark Financial Services, Inc. (HALL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research In a major development, CNH Industrial N.V. CNHI has collaborated with seven companies to develop ConectarAGRO, with the intention to bring open connectivity solutions to all of Brazils agricultural regions. This initiative will enable Brazils rural producers to take advantage of precision farming, and digital and automated technological resources. Also, this will provide access to a range of new products and services enabled by connectivity, which will in turn result in business optimization. CNH Industrial collaborated with AGCO, Bayer, Jacto, Nokia, Solinftec, TIM and Trimble. The combination of these diverse and competent companies created the environment for understanding the connectivity issue faced by the Brazil agricultural sector in a better way. This also sets up the ideal platform for finding solutions and improving domestic agribusinesses. ConectarAGRO initiative offers uniform and open technologies, thereby ensuring more freedom and flexibility for farmers. This program will bring people, equipment and other devices under a single platform. In other words, ConectarAGRO will be vital for augmenting the productivity and competitiveness of Brazils agribusinesses. Shares of CNH Industrial have outperformed the industry it belongs to in the past three months. Over this time frame, it has gained 10% against the industrys decline of 2.6%. Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider Currently CNH Industrial carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). A few better-ranked stocks in the broader auto sector are Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. GELYY, Ferrari N.V. RACE and Fox Factory Holding Corp. FOXF. While Geely and Ferrari currently sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Fox Factory carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Geely long-term growth rate is projected at 7%. Over the past three months, shares of the company have gained 35.3%. Ferrari has an expected long-term growth rate of 18.5%. Shares of the company have gained 21.9% over the past three months. Fox Factory has an expected long-term growth rate of 15.1%. Shares of the company have gained 23.6% over the past three months. Radical New Technology Creates $12.3 Trillion Opportunity Imagine buying Microsoft stock in the early days of personal computers or Motorola after it released the worlds first cell phone. These technologies changed our lives and created massive profits for investors. Today, were on the brink of the next quantum leap in technology. 7 innovative companies are leading this 4th Industrial Revolution - and early investors stand to earn the biggest profits. See the 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. Fox Factory Holding Corp. (FOXF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. (GELYY) : Free Stock Analysis Report CNH Industrial N.V. (CNHI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ferrari N.V. (RACE) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Computer Peripheral Equipment industry comprises companies offering computer input, output and storage devices. These include keyboards, mouse, LCD panels, smart glass, analog to digital imaging solutions, touch sensors, 3D printers & additive manufacturing and transaction-based printer products, among others. The industry is to some extent recession-resistant due to the nature of products of the companies operating in it. Products like printers, headphones, gaming accessories and others are less likely to run out of demand. Moreover, the highly competitive nature of the industry is encouraging the participants to come up with innovative and relevant products to meet the current demand trend. This is strengthening their product portfolio. Here are the three major themes in the industry: The gradual shift in consumer preference from mobile gaming to a more professional gaming experience is a major growth driver. Launch of advanced gaming devices and growing popularity of e-sports leagues are expected to boost this industry further. Further, the 3D printing market presents a favorable long-term investment opportunity as a large number of engineers, designers, architects and entrepreneurs are resorting to 3Dsolutions for primary designing and product modeling. A recent report by Gartner revealed that the global 3D printing industry is expected to reach $17.7 billion by 2020. Moreover, expanding total addressable market bodes well for the industry participants. Improving penetration into price sensitive regions like Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa through low cost quality products enhances growth prospects. Additionally, recent talks of a truce between the United States and China related to the trade war boost the industry participants near-term prospects. Sluggish PC demand, which persisted through the last few quarters, continues to hurt the companies in this industry. Per preliminary data released by Gartner, PC shipments in the first quarter of 2019 fell 4.6% year over year to 58.5 million units. Intels CPU shortages coupled with soft consumer demand remained an overhang. However, Gartner is optimistic about long- term demand, which spells good news for the computer peripheral industry participants. Also, with the global IT spending projected to reach $3.8 trillion in 2019 by Gartner, prospects of the industry look promising. This is because higher spending on IT instruments is expected to lead to higher sales of computer peripheral equipment. Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Bright Prospects The Zacks Computer Peripheral Equipment Industry is housed within the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector. It carries a Zacks Industry Rank #76, which places it at the top 30% of 256 Zacks industries. The groups Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates solid near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. The industrys positioning in the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is a result of positive earnings outlook for the constituent companies in aggregate. Before we present a few stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio, lets take a look at the industrys recent stock-market performance and valuation picture. Industry Outperforms Sector, S&P 500 The Zacks Computer Peripheral Equipment industry has surpassed the Zacks S&P 500 composite as well as its own sector in the past year. The stocks in this industry have collectively gained 8% compared with the Zacks Computer and Technology sectors rally of 6.3%, and the S&P 500s rise of 6.9%. One Year Price Performance Story continues Industrys Current Valuation Comparing the industry with the Zacks S&P 500 composite on the basis of price-to-sales ratio (P/S), which is a commonly used multiple for valuing computer peripheral stocks, we see that the industrys ratio of 0.11 is lower than the S&P 500s 3.32 and the sectors 3.78. Over the last five years, the industry has traded as high as 0.69X, as low as 0.08X and recorded a median of 0.52X, as the charts below show. Price-to-Sales Ratio (TTM) Price-to-Sales Ratio (TTM) Bottom Line Cooling off of the U.S.-China trade war and growing demand for professional gaming equipment and 3D printing and additive manufacturing instruments should drive the industry. Moreover, stable long-term prospect of the PC market is also a positive. Here, we present a stock that has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). This stock is well positioned to grow in the near term. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here. Switzerland-based Logitech International S.A. (LOGI) designs, manufactures and markets innovative peripherals like Internet video cameras, mice and trackballs, keyboards, audio and telephony products, interactive gaming devices and 3D controllers. This stock has gained 10.1% in the past year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current fiscal-year earnings has remained stable at $1.95 over the past 30 days. We are also presenting two stocks with a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) that investors may currently retain in their portfolio. Andover, MA-based Mercury Systems Inc. (MRCY) is a commercial provider of secure sensor and mission processing subsystems for defense and intelligence programs. This stock has gained 40.9% in the past year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current fiscal-year earnings has remained stable at $1.78 over the past 30 days. Based in Silicon Valley, CA, Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (EFII) develops technologies for manufacturing of signage, packaging, textiles, ceramic tiles and personalized documents, with a wide range of printers, inks, digital front ends, and a comprehensive business and production workflow suite. This stock has gained 51.8% in the past year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current fiscal-year earnings has remained stable at $1.56 over the past 30 days. Radical New Technology Creates $12.3 Trillion Opportunity Imagine buying Microsoft stock in the early days of personal computers or Motorola after it released the worlds first cell phone. These technologies changed our lives and created massive profits for investors. Today, were on the brink of the next quantum leap in technology. 7 innovative companies are leading this 4th Industrial Revolution - and early investors stand to earn the biggest profits. See the 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. Mercury Systems Inc (MRCY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Logitech International S.A. (LOGI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (EFII) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. By Sudip Kar-Gupta PARIS (Reuters) - France's Credit Agricole and Spain's Santander plan to combine their custody and asset servicing operations, in a deal that could point the way for European banks to achieve scale without the complexity of a full merger. The new business will have around $3.8 trillion (2.9 trillion) of assets under custody, closing the gap on European leaders and providing scope for savings and cost reductions. Banks' custodian services departments look after assets for clients in return for fees. But it is often a low margin business and growing competition is making scale more important. Credit Agricole will own 69.5 percent of the merged unit, which will keep the brand name of Agricole's existing asset management arm - Caceis. Santander will hold 30.5 percent. Santander's 'S3' Securities Services arm in Spain and Latin America will also be combined with Caceis. Low profitability among European banks has sparked calls from officials at the European Central Bank and investors for cross-border consolidation, but regulatory issues and political opposition to foreign takeovers have stymied deals so far. Joint ventures in areas such as fund management can thus provide an easier option, allowing banks to benefit from scale by collaborating on business lines without having to go into any full-blown takeovers. Credit Suisse advised Santander on the deal, while Morgan Stanley worked with Credit Agricole, and one source involved in the deal said he expected similar collaboration deals between European banks in areas where they could make cost savings. The new entity will have about 3,340 billion euros ($3.8 trillion) in assets under custody and about 1,833 billion euros in assets under administration. CATCHING UP ON RIVALS That will make the new unit one of the largest European custody players behind BNP Paribas, HSBC and SocGen, while also creating a stronger competitor to U.S. leaders such as State Street and BNY Mellon. Story continues Credit Agricole shares were up 0.8 percent in early trading, while Santander's were steady. "I welcome any consolidation in the European banking sector," said Clairinvest fund manager Ion-Marc Valahu, who owns a position in the European banking index. "We use Caceis for our funds and it makes sense for CA to take over the custody and asset-servicing operations from Santander. In addition, Credit Agricole is increasing its foot print in Spain and Latin America," added Valahu. Santander said it would see a capital gain of around 700 million euros from the deal. "S3 and CACEIS are highly complementary businesses, and by working together we can create a custody and asset servicing platform that leverages our collective scale and global presence, and offers clients a comprehensive service that can support their ambitions and help them to prosper," said Santander Chairman Ana Botin. The tie-up comes amid other potential European bank deals. Germany's Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank are in merger talks, while Italy's Unicredit has also said it could explore a deal with Commerzbank. A German magazine said ING had also approached Commerzbank. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Additional reporting by Pamela Barbaglia, Rachel Armstrong and Jose Elias Rodriguez; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Mark Potter) Corene Nero, right, and her daughter Gloria Rolle speak at their attorneys office next to an urn with cremated remains, in Boca Raton, Florida, April 16, 2019. Robert Nero Sr. passed away in 2013 and was cremated by Taylor Smith funeral home. In March, West Palm Beach police found a box with Robert Nero's name on it filled with ashes. Now the family is demanding answers from the funeral home and want to return the remains they have to the right family. (AP Photo/Josh Repogle) Corene Nero, right, and her daughter Gloria Nero Rolle speak at their attorneys office next to an urn with cremated remains, in Boca Raton, Florida, April 16, 2019. Robert Nero Sr. passed away in 2013 and was cremated. In March, West Palm Beach police found a box with Robert Nero's name on it filled with ashes. Now the family is demanding answers from the funeral home and want to return the remains they have to the right family. (AP Photo/Josh Repogle) For six years, the family of Robert Nero Sr. thought his ashes sat in an urn on his widow's mantle. But the family recently learned that ashes and a metal disk identifying them as his were found dumped in bushes at a West Palm Beach YWCA and now they don't know what to believe. Sitting beside the bronze urn in their lawyer's office Tuesday, Nero's widow, Corene, and his daughter, Gloria Nero Rolle, demanded to know if the ashes inside are Nero's or someone else's. They say they haven't gotten answers from Stevens Brothers Funeral Home, which handled the cremation. "I am sitting here with someone else's ashes and my father's were in the bushes," Rolle said crying, her mother sitting quietly but stoically next to her. "All I want is my father's ashes back and make it so whoever these belong to can get their remains." A man who answered the phone at Stevens Brothers told the Associated Press the Neroes have the proper ashes. He declined to give his name or make further comment. The state's Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services said in a statement Tuesday that it has just learned of the allegations, but added, "they are horrifying and we take this very seriously." Rolle and the family's attorney, Greg Francis, said after Nero, a farmworker, died at 73 in 2013, his son, Robert Nero Jr., hired Stevens Brothers to arrange his cremation. Rolle said her brother then spent weeks getting the ashes back from the mortuary, going there almost daily before he finally received them. They were placed in Corene Nero's home. The son died the following year and was buried by Stevens Brothers, his sister said. The mystery began March 25 when a West Palm Beach YWCA worker, Scott Manochi, found piles of ashes and two metal identification discs from a crematorium as he cleared brush along a fence. He called police. According to a police report, officers contacted the crematorium, which said its records showed one set of ashes belonged to Nero and the other to Mary Brown, who died in 2009. Her family has not been located. The crematorium told officers it had handled their bodies for Stevens Brothers, which had picked up the ashes shortly after the deaths. Officers called Stevens Brothers, which sent employee Willie Watts to collect the ashes from the bushes. Police learned Watts also does grounds work for the YWCA. When an AP reporter asked Watts by phone Tuesday about the ashes, he replied, "I don't know nothing about it." When read the police report, Watts laughed and declined to comment. Miami Dade College mortuary science professor Joseph Finocchiaro said it's unlikely the ashes could have been outdoors for long because rain and wind would have scattered them. West Palm Beach Sgt. David Lefont said investigators don't believe a crime was committed. Florida law doesn't prohibit the dumping of ashes on private property. The Neros learned about the ashes' discovery when contacted by local television stations. Rolle said she at first refused to believe that the YWCA ashes could be her father's. But as the likely reality set in, she broke down. "I went and sat down for a couple hours until I could get myself together," Rolle said. Finocchiaro said when a funeral home picks up a body, a wristband is attached and every time the body changes hands the accompanying paperwork is supposed to be checked to make sure the identification matches. Redundant identification is often also attached to the coffin or other container. At the crematorium, a metal disk like the one found with the ashes is created, he said. That disk accompanies the ashes through every step from the crematorium to the mortuary to the family, he said. "From start to finish, you should be able to draw a line all the way back," he said. He said the cremation process almost always destroys the body's DNA, so attempting to identify the cremains in the Nero family's urn is an extreme long shot. Rolle said she understands she'll probably never know for sure what happened to her father, but she needs to try. "We all love him and we are doing everything we can to get him back," Rolle said. Terry Spencer and Joshua Replogle report for the Associated Press. The Trump administration is tightening restrictions on Cuba with new sanctions and a crackdown on tourism to the island disguised as family visits or other official business. What Happened President Donald Trumps national security advisor John Bolton announced the move during a speech Wednesday in Miami, according to PBS. Bolton said the U.S. also will tighten policies toward Venezuela and Nicaragua, dubbing the three countries a troika of tyranny. Why It's Important The new rules, which rescind the Obama administrations efforts to open up commerce and relations with Cuba, may mean the end of U.S. cruise ships calling on Cuban ports. Americans technically arent allowed to visit as tourists, but if they fill out an affidavit saying they have certain kinds of business there including support for the Cuban people theyre allowed to go. Several cruise lines that call at Cuban ports could be affected, including Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE: RCL), Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NCLH). It's unclear whether those ships will still be able to dock in Cuba under the new rules. What's Next The new rules also will make it harder for Cuban-Americans to send money to their families still on the island, putting a $4,000 annual limit on the practice. Cubans received about $3 billion in this manner in 2016, according to State Department figures, PBS said. Bolton also said the U.S. will sanction the Central Bank of Venezuela, which Trump claims backs Nicolas Maduro, who is holding on to the presidency despite international support for Maduro opponent Juan Guaido. Shares of Royal Caribbean were down 0.68 percent at $123.25 at last check Wednesday. Shares of Carnival were off 0.31 percent at $54.63 and Norwegian Cruise shares were falling 3.04 percent to $57.75. Related Links: Cuba's Economy Is Doing Better, But Still Has A Long Way To Go Trump Restrictions On Business With Cubans: Possible Blow To President's Future Hotel Competitors? Story continues See more from Benzinga 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. President Trump is promising to make his threats of sending illegal immigrants that the United States can no longer house in detention centers to sanctuary cities a reality, arguing that he believes he does have a legal right to do so. The Presidents move comes despite the Lefts insistence that the proposal is illegal. Several Democrats have in effect called the proposal despicable and that Trump is attempting to use people as pawns. That being said, more than 100,000 people attempted to cross our border illegally last month. That number could swell to 150,000 this month. Our government has to release thousands of migrants into border communities in Texas and Arizona communities that are already stretched by the influx of illegals. Those communities can no longer support or handle the surge of those migrants. But so many Democratic-led cities and states in the recent past have extolled the virtues of protecting illegal immigrants inside their own communities. If they feel so strongly about this, those same leaders need to put their money where their mouths are. Yet the Left has slammed President Trump for even the suggestion of sending illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities. You cannot have your cake and eat it, too. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Its somehow okay for Texas to deal with them -- just so long as New York doesnt? As for whether this is legal or not -- I have a suggestion: offer migrants the option of moving to House Speaker Nancy Pelosis district. Im sure those immigrants would rather relocate to a community that says they want them, than a community that says it does not. Related Articles Elizabeth Warren stopped in a former airport hanger in Aurora, Colorado, part of the fast-growing Denver outskirts, yesterday (April 16) to talk climate change, healthcare, and inequality in America. Warren, the Democratic presidential candidate with the most extensive policy platform, joked about being told to stop concentrating so much policy and to smile more. She also delivered her signature message about Americas lost promise, through a tale of her own mother taking her first-ever job outside of the home. Warrens mother answered phones at Sears for minimum wage, to help keep the family home in Oklahoma from being repossessed after her father fell ill. But now a minimum-wage job will not keep a momma and her baby out of poverty, and that is wrong, and that is why I am in this fight, Warren said. Warren called out big banks, big pharma, and big oil, and also the billionaire conservative-activist Koch brothers for rigging Washington DC politics to benefit their bottom line. Why this stop is important Colorado is considered one of the few 2020 battleground states in the western half of the US, and any serious presidential candidate is expected to make it part of their campaign trail. The state has voted for the Democratic candidate in the past three presidential election and Democrats were triumphant here in the midterms. Yet Colorado has a solid, powerful bank of Republicans voters. Once proudly #NeverTrump, the state GOP organization has been seized by Trump enthusiasts. The rest of the US is also looking towards Colorado for lessons to be learned from marijuana legalization and the new governors plans to expunge weed convictions from criminal records. Woo-hoo! The crowd in Denver is fired up. Im grateful to have all of you in this grassroots movement. See you soon. pic.twitter.com/eDRZezhMFc Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 17, 2019 Who was in the crowd? Story continues An estimated 1,500 people. Everyone from the grey-haired to the purple-haired: parents, grandparents, and plenty of babies-in-arms. Kids rambled outside the open airport hanger door when they got antsy. Lots of jeans, practical layered outdoor gear and an occasional pair of cowboy boots. Walk-on music Dolly Parton belting the chorus of 9 to 5 (Its enough to drive you crazy if you let it). Most popular lines Warren got applause for calling out corruption, for her pledges to fix a system that benefits big companies over everyday Americans, and for her promise to protect the national parks. Her declaring what a Warren administration would do when Im in the White House earned the biggest spontaneous cheers. One surprise Warren indicated to reporters that shed consider a Fox News campaign appearance. She noted that only of one of her three brothers is a Democrat. A second watches Fox news 24 hours a day and a third thinks maybe thats too far left. After she urged attendees to reach out to people they know to change their minds, a reporter asked later whether shed do a Fox town hall. Talk to my communications director, Warren said. What voters say Drawn by Warrens policies, many young parents said they came to suss out whether she could actually take the White House. I do not want Trump to win another election. Its early yet, and Im trying to get a sense of who stands the best chance of making sure he doesnt, said Molly Wink, 40, who works at a Denver art museum. She came with her two daughters. She said its unfortunate that the question Who can beat him' is so important, but thats where we are in the Democratic race. Warrens platform and presence did give me more confidence in her and made me glad she is in fact running, said Casey Rizzo, 31, who brought her 17-month old daughter. Are her childcare and tuition ideas enough to get my vote? Jury is still out, but Im more on-board with her than I was before seeing her today. Signature merch A PERSIST shirt will soon be available in an infant onesie, by crowd request. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: ISTANBUL, April 18 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday his AK Party would fight until the High Election Board (YSK) gives a final ruling on March 31 local elections, a day after the main opposition candidate took the Istanbul mayor's office. After 17 days of objections and recounts, Ekrem Imamoglu took office on Wednesday, despite a pending request by the AKP to annul and repeat mayoral elections in Istanbul. Speaking to union members, Erdogan also said that Turkey needs to use the next 4-1/2 years until scheduled elections effectively and tackle economic and security problems. (Reporting by Daren Butler Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen Editing by Dominic Evans) Cuba The EU and Canada both said Wednesday they will use all available means to defend their interests in Cuba, including a possible challenge in the World Trade Organization, after the U.S. government announced it would allow lawsuits to go forward against companies using property confiscated by the Cuban government after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The U.S. announced that it would not renew a waiver that exempted European and other companies from the effects of measures designed to deter companies from doing business in Cuba. The US administration has applied the waiver, which is related to the 1996 Helms-Burton act, for over twenty years. The EU will consider all options at its disposal to protect its legitimate interests, including in relation to its WTO rights and through the use of the EU Blocking Statute, the European Commission, which is responsible for the EU's international trade policy, said in a statement. The Blocking Statute prohibits the enforcement of U.S. court judgements relating to Title III of the Helms-Burton Act within the EU, and allows EU companies sued in the U.S. to recover damages through legal proceedings against U.S. claimants before EU courts. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement that Canada would also seek to use the WTO dispute-resolution process to protect Canadian companies. "The EU and Canada consider the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures contrary to international law," the two countries said in a joint statement. The Helms-Burton Act was designed to help former owners of property in Cuba whose assets were seized by the Communist government. It also was designed to deter foreign companies from investing in and doing business in Cuba because the ownership of assets would be uncertain. The EU argued that Helms-Burton was illegal under World Trade Organization rules because it affected entities outside U.S. territory. Following negotiations with the EU, the U.S. agreed to a waiver to avoid the act affecting European businesses. In return, the EU dropped a challenge in the WTO to the US legislation. Since the signing of the Helm-Burton Act by President Bill Clinton, every U.S. President has extended the waiver -- until now. U.S. officials said the move was made in part because of Cubas policies supporting the authoritarian Maduro government in Venezuela. The waiver ends May 1 and the policy change to allow suits begins on May 2, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. The EU is the largest foreign investor in Cuba and the countrys top export market. One of the companies that could be affected by the U.S. decision to end the waiver is beverage company Pernod Ricard, which owns the Havana Club rum brand. The right to use the brand name is disputed by Bacardi, a Cuban family that left the country in the 1960s when the Communists took control and nationalized the rum-maker. Another is the Spanish hotel chain Melia Hotels International SA, which has made substantial investments in Cuba. The U.S. decision not to renew the waiver comes amid worsening trade relations between the EU and the U.S. On Wednesday, the EU published a list of U.S. exports worth $20 billion year that could be hit with penalty tariffs in a dispute over government subsidies to Boeing. The WTO ruled last week that the U.S. should have removed the illegal tax breaks and other programs that favoured the U.S. aircraft maker. By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Francesco Guarascio COPENHAGEN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - National banking supervisors who control the European Union banking watchdog effectively forced it to clear financial regulators in Estonia and Denmark, who were investigated in relation to suspected money laundering activities by Danske Bank, a member of the European parliament said on Wednesday. The European Banking Authority (EBA) said in a statement on Wednesday it was closing its investigation. "At a vote at its meeting on 16 April 2019 the EBA's Board of Supervisors rejected a proposal for a breach of Union law recommendation," it added. The rejection blocked any further legal action by the EBA against the Estonian and Danish supervisors and signalled EU states' reluctance to let the bloc's authorities investigate the exposure of their banking systems to financial crime. Danish and Estonian financial regulators have publicly blamed each other for the Danske Bank money laundering scandal, after Denmark's largest bank last year admitted that 200 billion euros ($226 billion) of suspicious transactions flowed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015. The EBA in February opened a formal investigation into a possible breach of EU law by the two regulators over the Danske case, which is considered by many Europe's largest money-laundering scandal. All 28 national supervisors but one who sit on the watchdog's board rejected the EBA's recommendation, German MEP Sven Giegold told Reuters after talking to a person familiar with how the decision was taken. The EBA declined to elaborate on the decision of the board. The Danish and Estonian financial regulators were not immediately available for comment. Giegold, who sits in the EU parliament's committee on financial crime, called the decision "scandalous" and urged the EU Commission to continue the inquiry into a possible breach of EU laws by the Danish and Estonian authorities. "We cannot accept the biggest money laundering scandal in Europe not being properly investigated," he said. Story continues EU states have halted a reform of the powers of EU financial supervisors which was intended to make it more difficult for states to block EU probes into a national supervisor. A watered-down overhaul was definitively adopted on Tuesday. BALTIC WOES Earlier on Wednesday the Director General of the Danish FSA Jesper Berg said he was satisfied with the closure of the EBA investigation. He said he was strengthening efforts to curb money laundering and financial crime. The Estonian FSA also said it would continue its fight against money laundering. The Danske scandal has reinforced calls by EU lawmakers for stronger European oversight of the union's banking sector and tighter scrutiny of the often close relationships between regulators and the banks they oversee. "Even if no laws were formally breached, this still leaves unanswered whether regulators lived up to their responsibility and reacted to any suspicions," said Jeppe Kofod, a Dane who heads the European Parliament's Special Committee on Tax Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance. Danish lawmakers have increased penalties for money laundering eight-fold, and the government says it plans to create a "more aggressive financial regulator". Adding to the pressure on European lawmakers is an investigation into Swedish lender Swedbank by Swedish and Baltic financial watchdogs after broadcaster SVT reported it processed gross transactions worth up to 20 billion euros ($22.6 billion) a year from high-risk, non-resident clients, mostly Russians, through its Estonian branch between 2010 and 2016. ($1 = 0.8840 euros) (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels, additional reporting by Huw Jones in London; editing by Louise Heavens and Alexandra Hudson) FILE PHOTO: The corporate logo of Repsol is seen in their office in Caracas, Venezuela April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo By Collin Eaton and Marianna Parraga HOUSTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Spain's Repsol suspended its swaps of refining products for crude with Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA, people familiar with the matter said, as U.S. officials weighed penalties for foreign firms doing business with Venezuela. The Spanish oil company has been swapping fuel and waiving payments due from a joint venture with PDVSA in exchange for crude, even as the United States rolled out new sanctions aimed at ousting Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro. The arrangement made Repsol one of the OPEC-member nation's main fuel suppliers, alongside Russia's Rosneft and India's Reliance Industries, according to three sources and vessel-tracking data. Repsol declined to comment on the matter on Wednesday. On Thursday, a day after the United States decided not to take new actions against foreign companies doing business with Venezuela, Repsol said it had not suspended its programme. "The operations are continuing normally," spokesman Kristian Rix said. "There has been no change from last week, the prior week to now." The Trump administration blames Maduro for a severe economic crisis that has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee. The United States and dozens of other countries recognise Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the nation's interim president. Maduro considers Guaido a U.S. puppet. A final decision on whether Repsol will cancel the Venezuelan swap deal altogether, after it was first arranged in late 2018, has not yet been made, the sources said. One of the sources said the company had been communicating with the Trump administration through the U.S. embassy in Spain, which declined to comment. Repsol has said previously that it was complying with U.S. sanctions on PDVSA, which bar any use of the U.S. financial system or subsidiaries based in the United States for oil deals with Venezuela. Story continues Companies have been given until April 28 to wind down their existing transactions. Repsol's most recent shipment of gasoline arrived in Venezuela on March 25 aboard the Torm Laura, according to vessel-tracking data from Refinitiv Eikon and consulting firm Kpler. As of Wednesday, the Achilleas, a Suezmax tanker chartered by Repsol, remained anchored off Venezuela's Jose oil port, after loading about 1 million barrels of heavy crude on April 6, the Refinitiv data showed. Repsol's Rix said the Achilleas was not chartered by Repsol. Another Suezmax chartered by Repsol has been anchored off Jose for at least a week after loading Venezuelan oil, according to shipping sources and the Refinitiv data. The tankers are awaiting directions from Repsol before they set sail, according to one of the sources. A separate group of 11 loaded tankers, chartered by U.S. firms Chevron Corp, Valero Energy and Citgo Petroleum have been anchored off Jose for over two months following payment complications from sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton told Reuters last month the administration was considering imposing sanctions on any companies outside the United States that do business with Venezuela. On Wednesday in Miami, Bolton announced a series of new sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela, ratcheting up pressure on Maduro and the countries that support him. In February, Spain imported some 75,920 barrels per day (bpd) of Venezuelan oil, down from 84,650 bpd the month before, when arrivals were boosted by the Repsol-PDVSA swap. The European country imported an average of 12,630 bpd of the crude during 2018. (Reporting by Collin Eaton in Houston, Marianna Parraga in Mexico City and Isla Binnie in Madrid; Editing by Tom Brown) Norfolk Southern Corporation NSC is scheduled to release first-quarter 2019 results on Apr 24, before market open. In the last reported, the company delivered impressive results, with earnings and revenues beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Results were aided by volume growth among other factors. In fact, Norfolk Southern has an impressive earnings surprise history. The companys earnings surpassed the consensus mark in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 8.1%. Lets delve deep to unearth the factors likely to influence this Norfolk, VA-based railroad companys results in the soon-to-be-reported quarter. We expect Norfolk Southerns first-quarter results to be hurt by sluggish freight shipments. The downbeat freight scenario is quite evident from the fact that North American freight shipments have declined in each of the three months of first-quarter 2019, according to the latest Cass Freight Shipments Indexreport. Additionally, the automotive division is likely to perform disappointingly in the soon-to-be-reported quarter similar to the past few quarters, thereby hurting results. Sluggish vehicle production in the United States is contributing to the below-par performance of the segment lately. However, Norfolk Southern is likely to see an improvement in its operating ratio (operating expenses as a percentage of revenues) in this reporting cycle mainly owing to efforts toward reducing costs. The company recently implemented the precision scheduled railroading model to improve efficiencies. Additionally, intermodal revenues are likely to be strong, thereby aiding its top line and mitigating the negative impact of sluggish freight revenues. The consensus mark for intermodal revenues is pegged at $732 million, indicating a rise from $678 million registered in the year-ago quarter. Norfolk Southern Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Norfolk Southern Corporation Price and EPS Surprise | Norfolk Southern Corporation Quote Story continues What Does the Zacks Model Say? Our proven model does not indicate earnings beat for Norfolk Southern in first-quarter 2019. This is because a stock needs to have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. However, that is not the case here as elaborated below. Earnings ESP: Norfolk Southern has an Earnings ESP of -0.18%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Zacks Rank: Norfolk Southern carries a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, the companys negative ESP in the combination complicates its surprise prediction this reporting cycle. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 and 5 (Sell rated) going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions. Stocks to Consider Investors interested in the Zacks Transportation sector may consider SkyWest SKYW, Ryder System R and Werner Enterprises WERN as these stocks possess the right mix of elements to beat on earnings in the next releases. SkyWest has an Earnings ESP of +0.83% and a Zacks Rank of 2. The company will report first-quarter 2019 results on Apr 25. Ryder has an Earnings ESP of +4.04% and is a Zacks #3 Ranked player. The company is scheduled to release first-quarter 2019 earnings on Apr 30. Werner Enterprises has an Earnings ESP of +2.06% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company will announce first-quarter 2019 financial numbers on Apr 25. Radical New Technology Creates $12.3 Trillion Opportunity Imagine buying Microsoft stock in the early days of personal computers or Motorola after it released the worlds first cell phone. These technologies changed our lives and created massive profits for investors. Today, were on the brink of the next quantum leap in technology. 7 innovative companies are leading this 4th Industrial Revolution - and early investors stand to earn the biggest profits. See the 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ryder System, Inc. (R) : Free Stock Analysis Report Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Werner Enterprises, Inc. (WERN) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research New Haven Police headquarters. New Haven Police Department headquarters. Photo: Google A 42-year-old New Haven man has filed a federal lawsuit against eight of that city's police officers, claiming he was beaten for no reason after his vehicle was stopped. In his lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, Danny Robles, who is black, claims he was the victim of racial profiling. The lawsuit says Robles was "obeying all traffic laws when he was stopped, searched and brutally assaulted by several New Haven police officers." The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, alleges officers followed him closely for several blocks in April 2017 before demanding he get out of his vehicle for allegedly running a stop sign near his apartment complex. "How does someone drive down a road on a beautiful night in April, end up on the ground, pepper sprayed and arrested for doing nothing? How does that happen?" asked New Haven solo practitioner Glenn Conway, Robles' attorney. According to the lawsuit, Robles asked officers why he was being told to get out of his car. One officer allegedly responded by telling Robles to "get the f--- out." When Robles, who is disabled and walks with a cane, did not comply fast enough, the lawsuit says he was "dragged from his vehicle." At one point, the lawsuit says, Robles' face was pushed into the roadway and he was pepper sprayed. The lawsuit also alleges officers falsified reports about the sequence of events leading up to Robles' arrest. Robles was charged with interfering with police, breach of peace and failure to obey a stop sign. But Conway said prosecutors who evaluated the case reduced those criminal charges to an infraction. As of Wednesday, the New Haven Police Department had not assigned an attorney to the case. New Haven police referred all comment to Police Chief Otoniel Reyes, who did not respond to a request for comment. New Haven Corporation Counsel John Rose Jr. said Wednesday his office will review the case and make a determination on whether to take it in-house or refer it to outside counsel. Rose told the Connecticut Law Tribune he had not seen the lawsuit and would have no comment. Conway said Robles has a history of drug-related offenses in New York, but has had no run-ins with the law in his approximately 10 years of living in Connecticut. "They treated him like he had drugs on him, which he did not," Conway said. "The police searched everything top to bottom and there was no drugs. I just do not understand why it's OK that this happened. I'm outraged." Robles' injuries are not permanent, but Conway said, "Danny is just looking for vindication first and foremost. We will leave it to a jury of his peers to put an appropriate money value to this case. I expect substantial punitive damages if a jury finds this as wrong as I found it." Judge Victor Bolden is scheduled to hear the case. First Mid-Illinois Bancshares (FMBH) is expected to deliver a year-over-year increase in earnings on higher revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended March 2019. This widely-known consensus outlook gives a good sense of the company's earnings picture, but how the actual results compare to these estimates is a powerful factor that could impact its near-term stock price. The earnings report might help the stock move higher if these key numbers are better than expectations. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower. While the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call, it's worth handicapping the probability of a positive EPS surprise. Zacks Consensus Estimate This bank holding company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.71 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +7.6%. Revenues are expected to be $45.97 million, up 49.8% from the year-ago quarter. Estimate Revisions Trend The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period. Investors should keep in mind that an aggregate change may not always reflect the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Earnings Whisper Estimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. Our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) -- has this insight at its core. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Story continues Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. However, the model's predictive power is significant for positive ESP readings only. A positive Earnings ESP is a strong predictor of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). Our research shows that stocks with this combination produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and a solid Zacks Rank actually increases the predictive power of Earnings ESP. Please note that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss. Our research shows that it is difficult to predict an earnings beat with any degree of confidence for stocks with negative Earnings ESP readings and/or Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell) or 5 (Strong Sell). How Have the Numbers Shaped Up for First Mid-Illinois? For First Mid-Illinois, the Most Accurate Estimate is higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate, suggesting that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This has resulted in an Earnings ESP of +3.74%. On the other hand, the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank of #3. So, this combination indicates that First Mid-Illinois will most likely beat the consensus EPS estimate. Does Earnings Surprise History Hold Any Clue? Analysts often consider to what extent a company has been able to match consensus estimates in the past while calculating their estimates for its future earnings. So, it's worth taking a look at the surprise history for gauging its influence on the upcoming number. For the last reported quarter, it was expected that First Mid-Illinois would post earnings of $0.73 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.62, delivering a surprise of -15.07%. Over the last four quarters, the company has beaten consensus EPS estimates three times. Bottom Line An earnings beat or miss may not be the sole basis for a stock moving higher or lower. Many stocks end up losing ground despite an earnings beat due to other factors that disappoint investors. Similarly, unforeseen catalysts help a number of stocks gain despite an earnings miss. That said, betting on stocks that are expected to beat earnings expectations does increase the odds of success. This is why it's worth checking a company's Earnings ESP and Zacks Rank ahead of its quarterly release. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. First Mid-Illinois appears a compelling earnings-beat candidate. However, investors should pay attention to other factors too for betting on this stock or staying away from it ahead of its earnings release. Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. First Mid-Illinois Bancshares, Inc. (FMBH) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Fluor Corporation FLR has won a Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) V contract from the U.S. Army Sustainment Command. The company will offer regional forward planning support to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). This contract includes a one-year base period and four single-year options. As part of this multiple award task order contract, Fluor will help the U.S. Armed Forces to complete missions in difficult and remote locations across the world. Fluor was one of the four companies to receive this contract through a competitive bidding process. Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, AFRICOM and its partners protect personnel, prevent conflict and build defense capability to encourage security, stability and prosperity in the region. The companys Government segment has been providing high-quality rapid response to contingency construction, humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery support for more than a decade in the most severe and remote environments. Specifically, it has been providing its services to the U.S. Army under LOGCAP since 2008. Fluors Government Business Bodes Well The companys Government business has a solid track record of deal wins and the trend is expected to continue in the near term as well. The company remains confident about the segments performance in 2019 as it has won multiyear Department of Energy (DOE) contracts, including participation in the DOE National Laboratory Complex and ongoing Departmental of Defense contracts. At the end of 2018, the companys consolidated backlog totaled $40 billion, up 29.4% from the comparable year-ago period. Particularly, in the Government segment, backlog was $4.6 billion as of Dec 31, 2018, compared with $3.8 billion as of Dec 31, 2017. Notably, in 2018, new awards in the segment recorded an increase of 57.7% year over year, primarily attributable to five-year extension of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve contract, a thirty-month extension at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site, a contract extension for the LOGCAP IV program and a one-year extension at the Savannah River site. Recent Contract Wins On Ap 8, 2019, the company was selected as one of the six companies by Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic to provide construction, design-build construction and associated engineering services for up to 60 months. Total value of the Global Contingency Construction Multiple Award Contract is nearly $975 million. The contract will help the Navy, Department of Defense and other U.S. federal agencies to cope with natural disasters, humanitarian assistance, conflicts and other urgent requirements. Story continues Notably, shares of Fluor have gained 8% in the past month, comparing favorably with its industry and the S&P 500 composites growth of 5% and 2%, respectively. Ongoing contract wins and strong backlog are helping the stock to gain further. Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider Currently, Fluor carries a Zacks Rank #3 (hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the Zacks Construction sector include Apergy Corporation APY, Quanta Services, Inc. PWR and AECOM ACM. While Apergy and Quanta Services sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), AECOM carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Apergy, Quanta Services and AECOMs earnings for the current year are expected to increase 2.8%, 25.3% and 2.6%, respectively. 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 >> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. Quanta Services, Inc. (PWR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fluor Corporation (FLR) : Free Stock Analysis Report AECOM (ACM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Apergy Corporation (APY) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Investors need to pay close attention to Anadarko Petroleum (APC) stock based on the movements in the options market lately. With conventional oil and gas discoveries on the rise, 2019 is likely to be the best year for oil and gas exploration since the oil market slump. Global oil and gas finds are on a remarkable recovery track since 2018, reversing the declining trend during the 2014-2017 period, and yielded around 9.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (Boe) by the end of the year. Markedly, Guyana, Russia and the United States topped the list of the countries with significant finds. The discovery trend continues in 2019, with many promising high-impact finds. Notably, the global finds yielded around 3.2 billion Boe at the end of the first quarter, with the majority of volumes recorded in February. Various energy biggies are focused on bolstering their resource base and Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company is leading the way, per latest reports by Rystad Energy. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Lets take a detailed look at the important oil and gas discoveries so far this year. ExxonMobil accounted for 1.2 billion Boe or around 40% of the total volumes in the first quarter, courtesy of three major offshore discoveries. The super major was credited with this years biggest find in the Glaucus-1 well, located off the coast of Cyprus, yielding 682 million Boe (90% gas). The initial interpretation of well data suggested that the discovery comprised 5-8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas resource. After a string of 10 discoveries offshore Guyana in the past two years, the U.S. oil major announced two more discoveries in the region, namely Tilapia-1 and Haimara-1. Tilapia-1, located 5.5 kilometers west of the Longtail-1 well, encountered 93 meters of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone. Haimara-1, located 31 kilometers east of the companys Pluma-1 discovery, encountered 63 meters of high-quality, gas-condensate bearing sandstone reservoir. Story continues French energy giant TOTAL S.A. TOT registered the second largest find in the Brulpadda prospects, offshore South Africa, which could contain 1 billion barrels of total resources. The company produced 558 million Boe, comprising 40% liquids. Brulpadda is one of the high-profile gas-condensate prospects and the company plans to acquire 3D seismic this year, post which it intends to drill up to four exploration wells on the license. Riding on the clean energy wave, TOTAL and CNOOC Limited discovered natural gas and condensate field in the North Sea. While CNOOC is the operator of the Glengorm prospect (located offshore North Sea) with 50% stake, TOTAL has 25% interest. Another European biggie Eni S.p.A E also reported finds offshore Angola and Egypt. The company made important oil find in Block 15/06 in the Agogo exploration prospect, which is estimated to hold light oil in place in the range of 450-650 million barrels, with expectation of further upside potential. Enis advanced and complicated proprietary seismic imaging technologies have significantly helped in the planning and drilling of the Agogo prospect. It also made a gas discovery in the Nour exploration prospect located in Eastern Egyptian Mediterranean. Repsol SA REPYY made the largest onshore discovery of the quarter with its Kali Berau Dalam gas find in Indonesia. The prospect, located onshore Central Sumatra, is expected to hold natural gas of around 1.5 trillion cubic feet, which will translate to more than 250 million Boe. Other relevant discoveries included Aker BPs subsidiary of BP plc BPFroskelar oil & gas find offshore Norway, and Murphy Oils MUR first discovery offshore Mexico in the Cholula prospect. Notably, 35 more high impact exploration prospects are likely to be drilled this year, of which three are underway. These include Royal Dutch Shell plcs RDS.A Peroba well (with estimated recoverable resources of 5.3 billion Boe) located offshore Brazil, Enis Kekra well (with estimated recoverable resources of 1.5 billion Boe) and TOTALs Etzil well (with estimated recoverable resources of 2.7 billion Boe) offshore Mexico. One thing worth noticing is that the offshore discoveries are likely to constitute the bulk of volumes this time around as well, similar to last year. The push for new oil and gas finds is showing no signs of abatement and if this continues at the same pace, volumes are likely to rise 30% from last year, which will mark the highest levels since the crude downturn. Radical New Technology Creates $12.3 Trillion Opportunity Imagine buying Microsoft stock in the early days of personal computers or Motorola after it released the worlds first cell phone. These technologies changed our lives and created massive profits for investors. Today, were on the brink of the next quantum leap in technology. 7 innovative companies are leading this 4th Industrial Revolution - and early investors stand to earn the biggest profits. See the 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) : Free Stock Analysis Report Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report BP p.l.c. (BP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Eni SpA (E) : Free Stock Analysis Report TOTAL S.A. (TOT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Repsol SA (REPYY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Murphy Oil Corporation (MUR) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. GOP Sen. Rick Scott: 'If you like Bernie Sanders, why don't you go ahead and move to Caracas?' Republican Sen. Rick Scott takes a shot at Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, "If you like Bernie Sanders, why don't you go ahead and move to Caracas?" Scott says. Sanders is a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Sen. Rick Scott , R-Fla., on Wednesday took a shot at Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt., saying people who intend vote for the Vermont independent in 2020 should just move to Venezuela instead. The comment came as Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who is proposing a "Medicare for All" health care system, attempts to appeal to voters in states that President Donald Trump won in the 2016 presidential election. Sanders scored big ratings and positive reactions from the crowd during a Fox News a town hall Monday night in Pennsylvania, a state that Trump won by some 44,000 votes. Along with former Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to declare whether he is running, Sanders is a favorite among Democratic primary voters, according to polls. Sanders also led the crowded Democratic 2020 field in fundraising during the first quarter, when he pulled in $18 million. Scott, who predicted that Trump would win his reelection bid next year, told CNBC's " Squawk Box " that Sanders has a "legitimate shot" at winning the Democratic presidential nomination. Scott also acknowledged that anything can happen, arguing that a Sanders win would mean a risk to the free market. "I'm going to the Venezuelan border next week. I'm going to Colombia. I'll be at the Venezuelan border. If you like Bernie Sanders, why don't you go ahead and move to Caracas?" said Scott, who has been an outspoken critic of Venezuela and its socialist policies. Caracas is the capital of Venezuela. A spokesperson for Sanders did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Scott's remarks. Scott's state is home to more than 100,000 Venezuelans and Venezuelan-Americans, the largest concentration in the country. Story continues The Republican Party has used once-wealthy Venezuela, which is now in the midst of an economic and humanitarian crisis, as a cautionary tale about socialism. Trump has said that " Socialism has so completely ravaged " Venezuela "that even the world's largest reserves of oil are not enough to keep the lights on." He added: "This will never happen to us." The Associated Press contributed to this report. More From CNBC GUADALAJARA, Mexico, April 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: PAC; BMV: GAP) (the Company or GAP) today announced the filing of its annual report, corresponding to the year ended December 31, 2018, with the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) as well as on Form 20-F with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These documents can be accessed on the websites maintained by the BMV (www.bmv.com.mx) or SEC (www.sec.gov), respectively, or on GAPs corporate website at www.aeropuertosgap.com.mx under Investors. In addition, shareholders of the Company may receive a hard copy of these reports, which include GAPs audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge by contacting i-advize Corporate Communications, Inc. at +1-212-406-3691 or via email at gap@i-advize.com. Company Description Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) operates 12 airports throughout Mexicos Pacific region, including the major cities of Guadalajara and Tijuana, the four tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, La Paz and Manzanillo, and six other mid-sized cities: Hermosillo, Guanajuato, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali and Los Mochis. In February 2006, GAPs shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PAC and on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GAP. In April 2015, GAP acquired 100% of Desarrollo de Concesiones Aeroportuarias, S.L., which owns a majority stake in MBJ Airports Limited, a company operating Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are statements that are not historical facts, and are based on managements current view and estimates of future economic circumstances, industry conditions, company performance and financial results. The words anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, plans and similar expressions, as they relate to the company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Statements regarding the declaration or payment of dividends, the implementation of principal operating and financing strategies and capital expenditure plans, the direction of future operations and the factors or trends affecting financial condition, liquidity or results of operations are examples of forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. There is no guarantee that the expected events, trends or results will actually occur. The statements are based on many assumptions and factors, including general economic and market conditions, industry conditions, and operating factors. Any changes in such assumptions or factors could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. In accordance with Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and article 42 of the Ley del Mercado de Valores, GAP has implemented a whistleblower program, which allows complainants to anonymously and confidentially report suspected activities that may involve criminal conduct or violations. The telephone number in Mexico, facilitated by a third party that is in charge of collecting these complaints, is 01 800 563 00 47. The web site is www.lineadedenuncia.com/gap . GAPs Audit Committee will be notified of all complaints for immediate investigation. China Communications Services Corporation Limited (HKG:552), which is in the telecom business, and is based in China, received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the SEHK over the last few months, increasing to HK$8.45 at one point, and dropping to the lows of HK$6.42. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether China Communications Services's current trading price of HK$7.05 reflective of the actual value of the mid-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at China Communications Servicess outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change. See our latest analysis for China Communications Services Is China Communications Services still cheap? The stock seems fairly valued at the moment according to my relative valuation model. In this instance, Ive used the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio given that there is not enough information to reliably forecast the stocks cash flows. I find that China Communications Servicess ratio of 14.4x is trading slightly below its industry peers ratio of 15.12x, which means if you buy China Communications Services today, youd be paying a fair price for it. And if you believe China Communications Services should be trading in this range, then there isnt much room for the share price grow beyond where its currently trading. Furthermore, it seems like China Communications Servicess share price is quite stable, which means there may be less chances to buy low in the future now that its fairly valued. This is because the stock is less volatile than the wider market given its low beta. What does the future of China Communications Services look like? SEHK:552 Past and Future Earnings, April 17th 2019 Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the company's future expectations. China Communications Servicess earnings over the next few years are expected to increase by 49%, indicating a highly optimistic future ahead. This should lead to more robust cash flows, feeding into a higher share value. Story continues What this means for you: Are you a shareholder? It seems like the market has already priced in 552s positive outlook, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we havent considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at 552? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuate below the true value? Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping tabs on 552, now may not be the most advantageous time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for 552, which means its worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters the fundamentals before you make a decision on China Communications Services. You can find everything you need to know about China Communications Services in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in China Communications Services, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Several Republican congressmen on Wednesday visited the U.S.-Mexico border at Yuma, Arizona, a day after Mayor Douglas Nicholls declared an emergency in the city due the imminent threat that waves of migrants pose to the community. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., who was among those visiting the border, sympathized with Nicholls during an interview on Fox Business. You have hundreds of people who are coming across the border every single night and the Mayor of Yuma is right, his community cant take the influx of people, Duffy told Kennedy on Wednesday. Duffy called on his colleagues across the aisle to help alleviate the problem. I think if more Democrats came [to the border], they would see the light and say This is less about Donald Trump and more about American Security, he said. Weve got to work with Republicans and find a solution to this massive problem. Duffy also praised Attorney General Bill Barrs decision on Tuesday to deny bail to those migrants seeking asylum who cross the border illegally rather than through a port of entry. Duffy said that the policy takes away the incentive for the migrants to come to our border. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP When pressed on how border patrol agents can do a better job of assessing asylum claims, Duffy said they struggle because some migrants dont have legitimate claims for asylum. Their lives arent threatened, theyre coming for the American dream, he said. They want a better opportunity in America as opposed to Guatemala or El Salvador or Honduras. Thats why theyre coming. Related Articles By Alex Lawler LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's crude oil exports have dropped in April to their lowest daily level this year, tanker data showed and industry sources said, suggesting buyers are curbing purchases before Washington clamps down further on Iranian shipments as expected next month. The United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in November after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and six world powers. Those sanctions have already more than halved Iranian oil exports, the country's main source of revenue. Shipments are averaging below 1 million barrels per day (bpd) so far this month, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and two other companies that track such exports and declined to be identified. That's lower than at least 1.1 million bpd as estimated for March. The latest drop deepens supply losses resulting from an OPEC-led global agreement to cut oil production and U.S. sanctions on another OPEC member, Venezuela. Supported by those moves, oil prices have risen 30 percent this year to $71 a barrel. "Collapsing Venezuelan oil output and sanctioned Iranian exports have put a big question mark over supply," Norbert Ruecker of Swiss bank Julius Baer said. While exports could rise later in the month, the drop so far suggests Washington is making progress towards its goal of curtailing shipments to below 1 million bpd from May. The United States, seeking to avoid an increase in oil prices, granted sanctions waivers to China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey and South Korea that allowed them to keep buying some Iranian crude. Those exemptions expire in May and analysts expect a new round to be less generous. The U.S. government is considering more sanctions against Iran and has the ability not to give waivers at all, a senior Trump administration official said this month. "We think there are very high chances that China and India and perhaps Turkey will receive (fresh) waivers, but with further cuts," said Sara Vakhshouri of energy consultant SVB Energy International. There is no definitive figure on how much oil Iran exported in March. Shipments have become more opaque since sanctions returned, and Iran no longer reports its production figures to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Story continues One of the two companies that tracks shipments estimated Iran exported 1.1 million bpd of crude last month, while the other company put the number at 1.3 million bpd. Kpler, another company that tracks Iranian exports, estimated March shipments of crude and condensate at 1.29 million bpd. Still, there is general agreement that crude shipments have dropped from at least 2.5 million bpd in April 2018, the month before U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran. Tehran has vowed to keep exporting oil despite U.S. efforts to reduce its shipments eventually to zero. (Editing by Dale Hudson) FILE PHOTO: A worker walks near a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, Japan, March 8, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government left its assessment of the economy unchanged in April, after a rare downgrade in March, saying the U.S.-China trade war remained a threat to exports and economic growth. The Cabinet Office, which helps coordinate government policy, last month blamed the bruising trade war for the first downgrade of its overall assessment in three years. In its latest review, the office said the economy remained in a gradual recovery, but exports and output showed signs of weakness. The risks to Japan's economic outlook could fuel calls for the government to delay a nationwide sales tax hike scheduled for October, analysts say, and speculation that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will take some steps to bolster economic growth. The government is scheduled to raise the nationwide sales tax to 10 percent from 8 percent in October, but there are concerns this will weaken consumer spending and harm growth. The April view that exports remained weak was unchanged from March, the office said, but there is a chance of a downgrade if economic data showed a further decline in exports. Exports fell for a fourth straight month in March as China-bound shipments slumped again, data showed on Wednesday, reinforcing concerns that weak external demand may have knocked the economy into contraction in the first quarter. The Cabinet Office left unchanged its assessment that consumer spending is recovering, but some economists worry that consumer sentiment will take a hit if the China-U.S. trade dispute drags on. Japan's manufacturing sector is exposed to the trade war because it sends electronic parts and capital goods to China, where they are used to make finished products destined for the United States. Japan's trade talks with the United States pose another risk, the office said, though Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi offered some hope on Tuesday for a good result "at an early stage." U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed last September to start trade talks in an arrangement that protects Japanese automakers from further tariffs while negotiations are underway. (Reporting by Stanley White) Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) is planning to force cryptocurrency exchanges to tighten their security, particularly by strengthening internal oversight over cold wallets, a source told Reuters.The post Japan requires cryptocurrency exchanges to tighten cold wallet security, source claims appeared first on The Block. Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) is planning to force cryptocurrency exchanges to tighten their security, particularly by strengthening internal oversight over cold wallets, a source told Reuters. Although last year the FSA restricted the use of hot wallets in favour of cold storage, it seems crypto asset security is still not strong enough. Now, the FSA requires strengthening internal regulations that govern cold storage safety, fearing internal theft. According to the source, some exchanges did not require rotation of people in charge of the storage. There are currently 19 registered crypto exchanges in Japan, some of them not yet operational. Those lacking sufficient security measures will be asked by the FSA to amend that. * Abe vows to proceed with tax hike, some speculate another delay * 79 pct of firms want tax rise, with 61 pct seeking more stimulus * Sales tax hike vital to pay for cost of ageing population * Heavily-indebted govt needs to juggle growth and fiscal reform By Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) - More than 60 percent of Japanese companies want authorities to go ahead with a sales tax hike in October, but feel that additional government spending is needed to cushion the blow on the economy, a Reuters monthly poll showed. Speculation lingers that Japan will once again delay raising the tax to 10 percent from 8 percent, even though Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly said he will proceed with the increase unless there's a major economic shock. Abe has twice postponed the planned tax hike -- needed to meet rising social welfare costs as the population ages -- since the last increase to 8 percent from 5 percent in April 2014 hit consumer spending and triggered an economic slump. To avoid a repeat of that, Abe's government has earmarked 2 trillion yen ($17.9 billion) in various spending measures to try to temper any economic downturn. About 80 percent of companies surveyed say authorities should go ahead with the hike, the poll showed. Some 18 percent said no extra stimulus was needed, but 61 percent said additional steps are necessary. "To prevent consumption from slumping after the tax hike, further tax breaks will be needed, such as increasing items subjected to lower tax rates," a manager of a construction firm wrote in the survey. Just 21 percent said the planned tax increase should be scrapped altogether, according to the April 3-15 survey. GROWTH OR REFORM? Some respondents said boosting government spending defeats the point of the tax hike. "Raising the tax is meaningless if it involves stimulus to boost spending," a service firm manager wrote in the survey. Others expressed concern that the tax hike would undermine Japan's economic growth, which is already weak. Story continues "Even with higher taxes, government revenue won't increase because consumer spending will decline and corporate profits will deteriorate," a manager of an electric machinery maker wrote. Some economists have warned that Japan could slide into a recession as companies are feeling the impact of the Sino-U.S. trade war and global slowdown, chilling business investment and demand. Yet Japan needs to shore up its finances as its population rapidly greys. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) urged Japan on Monday to raise the sales tax to as high as 26 percent. The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted monthly for Reuters by Nikkei Research, polled 478 large and mid-sized firms with managers responding on condition of anonymity. About 230 firms answered the questions on the sales tax issue. LONG HOLIDAY Asked about their operational plans for the unprecedented 10-day holiday in late April and early May to mark the ascension of the new emperor, 47 percent of companies said they would partially halt operations and 38 percent said they would suspend business completely. The remaining 15 percent said they don't plan to stop operations at all. Nearly half, or 47 percent, said they didn't expect the long break to impact their business. Some 28 percent said they expected to see a drop in output or sales compared to a year earlier, while a quarter projected an increase. Some reported seeing a bump up in demand as customers stock up on products to cope with the 10-day break as well as due to uncertainty about Brexit, the survey showed. ($1 = 111.8600 yen) (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto Additional reporting by Izumi Nakagawa Editing by Malcolm Foster & Shri Navaratnam) LyondellBasell Industries N.V. LYB announced that its Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process (ACP) technology will be used by PetroChina for 1100KTA of high density polyethylene (HDPE) capacity in China. The selection of licensor was undertaken by China HuanQiu Contracting & Engineering Co., Ltd. a fully-owned subsidiary of PetroChina. The technology will be used for a 300KTA HDPE unit that will be built in Korla City, Xinjiang Province; a 400KTA plant in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province; and a 400KTA plant in Jieyang City, Guangdong Province. These new capacity additions highlight more than 7700KTA of benchmark multi-modal HDPE resins licensed by LyondellBasell. PetroChina stated that the market demands high-performance HDPE products and LyondellBasells multi-modal technology effectively addresses these needs. Moreover, LyondellBasells low-pressure slurry process for petrochemical growth projects will enable PetroChina to produce high-quality products economically, sustainably and reliably. The technology produces high-performance, multi-modal HDPE resins, which have industry-leading stiffness balance, high stress cracking resistance and processing advantages, blow molding, impact resistance as well as pipe applications. The PetroChina HDPE plants will start operations using Avant Z509-1 and Avant Z 501 catalysts for producing a complete range of multi-modal HDPE products. New licensees can also benefit from LyondellBasells in-house expertise of sustainable product development, consistent production improvement and catalyst knowhow. LyondellBasells shares have lost 13.1% in the past year compared with the industrys 22.5% decline. The company expects growth to accelerate this year, courtesy of the planned startup of its Hyperzone polyethylene facility and construction of the new PO/TBA plant. Per LyondellBasell, global polyethylene capacity additions are likely to be moderate in 2019 and 2020. This is expected to provide support for high industry operating rates and ethylene chain profitability. Zacks Rank & Key Picks LyondellBasell currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. KL, AngloGold Ashanti Limited AU and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. FSUGY, each currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Kirkland has an expected earnings growth rate of 8.8% for 2019. The companys shares have surged 81.5% in the past year. AngloGold Ashanti has an expected earnings growth rate of 66% for the current year. The companys shares have gained 43.9% in a years time. Fortescue Metals has an expected earnings growth rate of 101.5% for 2019. Its shares have rallied 59% in a years time. Radical New Technology Creates $12.3 Trillion Opportunity Imagine buying Microsoft stock in the early days of personal computers or Motorola after it released the worlds first cell phone. These technologies changed our lives and created massive profits for investors. Today, were on the brink of the next quantum leap in technology. 7 innovative companies are leading this 4th Industrial Revolution - and early investors stand to earn the biggest profits. See the 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (LYB) : Free Stock Analysis Report AngloGold Ashanti Limited (AU) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (FSUGY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (KL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research White House An intelligence branch of the Russian government used bitcoin to fund its cyberwarfare efforts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Mueller Report claims. The culmination of a two-year investigation, the Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election details the findings that Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team uncovered during their inquiry into whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to hamper Hillary Clintons 2016 run for the presidency. United States Attorney General William Barr claimed in late March that the investigation found no evidence of such collusion, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a redacted version of the full report on April 18, 2019. Within the mammoth write-up, a small section details bitcoins role in bankrolling the Russian governments cyberwarfare endeavors. ... cyber intrusions (hacking) and releases of hacked materials [were] damaging to the Clinton Campaign, the report reads on its fourth page. The Russian intelligence service known as the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Army (GRU) carried out these operations. Two military units of the GRU, the report continues some 30 pages later, hacked into computer hardware belonging to Clintons campaign, the Democartic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), leading to email leaks that revealed the DNC gave Clinton preferential treatment during the 2016 Democratic primaries. A subunit of one of these two subdivisions ran a bitcoin mining operation to secure bitcoins used to purchase computer infrastructure used in hacking operations, the report states. Others ran spearphishing campaigns or developed specified malware to gain access to DNC hardware and data. According to the report, this IT unit stored these bitcoin on the U.K.-based CEX.io, a cryptocurrency cloud mining service and exchange. They also used a portion of the mined bitcoin to anonymously purchase the domain name dcleaks.com on April 19, 2016. Story continues Some of these findings were previously noted in a 2018 indictment from the DOJ. But with its report, the Mueller investigation corroborated suspicions that autocratic regimes like North Korea and Russia are using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to bypass U.S. and international sanctions. This shadow economy, in effect, allows these regimes to fund illicit activities without immediately alerting international governments, precisely the role bitcoin filled for Russia during its interference in the 2016 election. While Russia extracted its reserves from mining, North Korea has orchestrated numerous South Korean crypto exchange hacks to fill its own coffers. When asked at the Economic Club of Washington in January 2018 whether or not such activity is a cause for concern, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin affirmed, I dont think thats a concern, adding that cryptocurrency exchanges are held to the same KYC regulations as banks. While CEX.io employs a strict KYC/AML policy, this didnt impede Russian government agents from maintaining an account. But Muellers team eventually discovered Russias activity, even if it evaded CEX.io and the regulations that are meant to keep tabs on such exchanges. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday largely affirmed a district court ruling that denied the Trump administration's request to block California laws limiting cooperation with federal enforcement officials. The decision leaves intact almost all the provisions in three statutesAB 103, and AB 450 and SB 54enacted by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to thwart the federal government's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The laws authorize the attorney general to inspect immigrant detention facilities, require employers to notify workers of an upcoming inspection of their work-eligibility documents and limit the information jails and prisons share with immigration agents about undocumented inmates. The U.S. Department of Justice, under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, argued that the laws violated the Supremacy Clause and asked U.S. District Judge John Mendez of the Eastern District of California to issue a preliminary injunction. Mendez refused, and the DOJ appealed. "The district court did not abuse its discretion when it concluded that AB 450s employee-notice provisions neither burden the federal government nor conflict with federal activities, and that any obstruction caused by SB 54 is consistent with Californias prerogatives under the Tenth Amendment and the anticommandeering rule," U.S. Circuit Judge Milan Smith wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. Smith was joined by Judges Paul Watford and Andrew Hurwitz. "We therefore affirm the district courts denial of a preliminary injunction as to these laws," Smith said. The panel also upheld Mendez's decision not to block state inspection of federal detention facilities. But the three judges reversed the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction for a provision of AB 103 that requires the attorney general to investigate "the circumstances" of why and how a detainee was apprehended and transferred to a holding facility. That section of law "both discriminates against and impermissibly burdens the federal government," Smith wrote. In a statement, Attorney General Xavier Becerra applauded the ruling, which came on the same day the U.S. Justice Department released Robert Mueller III's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. As much as all the attention is on whether Donald Trump obstructed justice, we continue to prove in California that the rule of law not only stands for something but that people cannot act outside of it," Becerra said. "The Ninth circuit ruled in our favor today, demonstrating that the rights of states and the 10th amendment continue to thrive. A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Becerra's office in February issued its first report on immigrant detention facilities under the new law. The report found that conditions "vary drastically within and across facilities throughout the state," although there were common themes of prolonged periods of confinement, language barriers, difficulties accessing health care and troubles finding legal help. Story continues The Ninth Circuit's ruling is posted here: falcon-embed src="embed_1" Read more: Trump's Big Law Pick for Mexico Ambassador Discloses $11M From Kirkland 9th Circuit Stays Order Blocking Trump Asylum Policy Meet Judge Who Blocked Policy Forcing Asylum-Seekers to Wait in Mexico Judge Tigar Again Blocks Trump's Changes to Asylum Rules Sacramento Judge Checks DOJ's Bid to Enjoin California's Immigration Laws US speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi in Dublin on Wednesday. Photo: PA A delegation of high-ranking US politicians, including speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, will visit the Northern Ireland border between the counties of Derry and Donegal on Thursday. The visit comes after days of repeated warnings about how any undermining of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which ushered in a seamless border with Ireland and 20 years of peace would prevent the US from signing a trade agreement with the UK. Speaking to Irish parliament on Wednesday, Pelosi once again said that there would be no chance of a trade agreement if a Brexit deal risked the imposition of a hard border. We must ensure that nothing happens in the Brexit discussions that imperils the Good Friday accord, including but not limited to the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, Pelosi said. Later on Thursday, the delegation will travel to Belfast. The citys Stormont Assembly currently lies dormant, thanks to a domestic political stalemate between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, which has left Northern Ireland without an executive since January 2017. Pelosi explained this week that the US had a vested interest in the Good Friday Agreement. At a reception for Pelosi in Dublin Castle on Wednesday evening, Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar noted that the agreement was only made possible by Americans of good faith. They helped pave the way for prosperity and gave young people their own future, Varadkar said. The arduous process that led to its signing was chaired by former US senator George Mitchell. We must not and we will not allow that progress to be undermined, Pelosi warned on Wednesday, calling the agreement a beacon to the world. In the 30 years before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, clashes known simply as the Troubles took the lives of more than 3,600 people. DENVER, CO, April 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited (PLSI) (Phoenix Life or the Company), an adaptive healthcare solutions company, today announced that John Taleo has been appointed as the Companys Global Head of Security. In advance of his retirement in February 2018, Taleo served as Acting Commissioner of the Vanuatu Police Service and dedicated 40 years of his career to the forces service. Prior to that role, he held several positions with the Maritime Security in the Pacific in New Zealand with his most prominent position being Deputy Commissioner of Police. Additionally, Taleo was the Director of Vanuatu Police College, Chief of Staff to the Office of the Police Commissioner, and Assistant Superintendent of Vanuatu Prison Services. Throughout his extensive career in security, John has worked with international leaders and government changes and has proven his dedication to security, said Martin Tindall, Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Life. As we plan to expand our international operations, Johns tailored skillset will help drive success and security compliance as we transform global healthcare. Taleo has received several prestigious awards throughout his career recognizing his commitment to global safety and security. In 2006, the U.S. Coast Guard recognized him for his outstanding performance and he was awarded the Commissioners Commendation Award for Excellent Police Work. Taleo was also awarded the Vanuatu Service Medal, U.N. Marshall Recognition, 20th Anniversary Independence Medal, National Medal of Merit, Long Service & Good Conduct Medal, Overseas Service Medal, Vanuatu Silva Jubili Medal, and Commissioner's Commendation Advance Stage Award. Phoenix Life intends to apply Taleos comprehensive security experience to remaining fully compliant with national security regulations and legislation, as well as path the way for global distribution in full compliance with treaties and controls regarding cannabis for medical and research purposes. Story continues When working internationally and within the cannabis industry, security proves to be an extremely important part of company success, said John Taleo, Global Head of Security of Phoenix Life. I look forward to utilizing and strengthening my expertise as I work to keep Phoenix Life a secure and stable operation. To learn more about Phoenix Life Sciences International, please visit https://phoenixlife.co/. To learn more about Phoenix Life in Vanuatu and how to register for blood sugar screenings, please visit https://phoenixlife.vu. About Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited is an adaptive healthcare solutions company. Our business is to advance research and integrate programs and manufacturing of products that target and treat diabetes, pain, cancer, and address psychological, gastrointestinal, autoimmune, neurological and sleep disorders. We strive to create partnerships and integrate these programs for human health into communities worldwide as part of our Global Health Initiative. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Information contained in this press release regarding Phoenix Life Sciences International, Limited and its subsidiaries, (the Companies) may constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements. The words plan, forecast, anticipates, estimate, project, intend, expect, should, believe, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve, and are subject to, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements to differ from the future results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors are more fully discussed in the Companys filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Companies herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by the above-mentioned cautionary statement. The Companies disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release, except as may be required by law. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA) DISCLOSURE These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and therefore the products sold by Phoenix Life Sciences International are not available in the U.S. LEGAL DISCLOSURE Phoenix Life Sciences International does not sell or distribute any products in the United States that are in violation of the United States Controlled Substances Act (US.CSA). This company does not grow, sell, and distribute cannabis-based products in the United States and is solely involved with the legal distribution of medical cannabis-based products within certain international markets outside of the United States. Investor Contact: Phone: 1.888.717.5655 or international +1.720.699.7222 E-mail: investor.relations@phoenixlife.co Media Contact: Kathryn Reinhardt CMW Media Kathryn@cmwmedia.com 619-972-3089 (Bloomberg) -- Porsche AG is exploring joint projects with Chinese technology giants including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. to expand digital offerings in its largest market and bolster sales. Country-specific features for voice recognition, navigation and integration of the ubiquitous WeChat messaging service will be developed locally, Porsche Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume said in an interview in Shanghai this week. The manufacturer also signed an agreement to expand its research cooperation with Tongji University on Wednesday. We want to have the right partnerships in place in each individual region, Blume said. Its a misconception to believe all this can be developed in Germany. The move builds on efforts by Volkswagen AGs most profitable brand to cater to the Chinese, who overwhelmingly use Alibaba-backed AutoNavi and Tencents WeChat instead of Google Maps and Whatsapp. Chinas emergence as the worlds largest electric-car market also gives it a key role for Porsches plan to boost its lineup of fully and partly battery-powered vehicles. The companys first all-electric model, the Taycan, is due to come out later this year and will be followed by a more spacious Cross Turismo version. Local Tastes Other China-specific features in the works include interior illumination or softer suspension to meet local tastes. But despite the countrys growing importance, Porsche seeks to maintain a balanced global sales footprint to avoid becoming too dependent on one market, Blume said. North America, China and Europe currently each account for roughly a third of global deliveries. The Stuttgart, Germany-based manufacturer faced a bumpy start to the year as worldwide sales fell 12 percent in the first quarter, triggered by production bottlenecks in the wake of more complex emissions tests in Europe, the brands decision to cull diesel engines and model changeovers. Still, Porsche expects full-year sales to rise to a record this year, even as the economic outlook weakens in some key markets. The luxury brand is particularly exposed to trade tariffs as it produces all its vehicles in Europe. But it has more leeway to adjust prices for its well-heeled buyers than mass-market manufacturers. Story continues Porsche predicts a slight rise in revenue this year, helped by the introduction of the latest iteration of its iconic 911 sportscar. The 911 shaped the brands cachet for decades and has a loyal fan base in the U.S. and Europe. Customers in China have mainly opted for its Macan and Cayenne SUVs, but Porsches efforts to promote its sportscars in China, including building a race track outside Shanghai, are making steady progress, Blume said. The country has become the biggest sales region for the two-seater 718 Boxster and Cayman, he said, which are less expensive than the 911. To contact the reporter on this story: Christoph Rauwald in Frankfurt at crauwald@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Young-Sam Cho, Iain Rogers For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. LA caught between straits of labor and capital; group looks for ocean freight's Esperanto; and digital-first forwarder gets $20m funding. European container consortium gets okay to talk tech A group of the world's biggest container ship companies aims to end the Tower of Babel built over the last half century in ocean freight. The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), comprised of Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Hapag-Lloyd, and Ocean Network Express (ONE) said it is officially open after the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission gave its permission to allow the carriers to talk amongst themselves. The DCSA is the official name of an initiative announced last year to help spur digital standards in the ocean freight industry. The earlier project included CMA CGM, which is not listed as a member of the DCSA. But Thomas Bagge, the Chief Executive of DCSA, said the group is open to anyone. Thomas Bagge Thomas Bagge "We have 50 percent of the world's container trade represented in the group currently and we have sufficient size to move on," Bagge said. "But anybody is welcome to join, whether they are in Asia or France." There is no shortage of new technology initiatives in ocean freight, including Maersk and IBM's TradeLens blockchain platform and the Ocean Alliance-backed Global Shipping Business Network's blockchain platform. Outside of the carriers, Dutch bank ABN Amro (Euronext: ABN) is in a joint venture with the software group of Samsung and the Port of Rotterdam for a blockchain project. Freight forwarder Kuehne + Nagel is also in another blockchain project with Accenture and CMA CGM's APL subsidiary. Bagge said the group does not aim to pick the winners and losers from these projects. Instead, it wants to help create standards that allow them to work in a uniform way across any carrier or shipper. In the blockchain realm, that can mean something as simple as defining a European or U.S. date standard when transmitting information. Story continues "Blockchain, in general, has tremendous potential in the container shipping industry in terms of physical container and documentation visibility," Bagge said. "What we would like to work on is the underlying standards for the blockchains to work on." Bagge, who was employed for 12 years at Maersk before moving to DCSA, said the electronic data interchange (EDI) standard that underlies most of the container shipping industry suffers from differing formats among the carriers, along with differing formats in how customers themselves receive data. Even simple information such as vessel arrivals, departures, bookings, and customs clearance for containers can be transmitted in different formats. "That creates enormous complexity on the side of the ocean carriers," Bagge said. "The message formats can differ tremendously." Bagge said better standards aim to address the biggest question for shippers -- where is my container. The global container ship alliances mean freight booked through one carrier can end up on a ship belonging to another carrier in the alliance. That happens up to 50 percent of time in busy trade lanes such as Asia-to-Europe, Bagge said. The upshot is that customers can lose track of where their container is. "MSC has an Internet-of-Things functionality on some of its containers, which is great, as long as it's loaded on an MSC ship," Bagge said. "When MSC loads a container on a partner's ship, then because the communications protocols are not the same, the customer loses their visibility." Bagge compares the DCSA's efforts to what's been done in international banking through the use of Swift Codes and telecommunications through international roaming. "I remember going to the U.S. fifteen years ago and I had to have a different cell phone back then because of different networks," Bagge said. "It's the same with ocean carriers," he added. "If they can agree of different standards, they will be able to apply a lot of technology that is hard to deploy today." U.K. digital first freight forwarder gets funding Zencargo's recent capital raise adds to the haul going to start-ups in the logistics and freight forwarding industry. The U.K.-based start-up announced it completed a funding round that included German venture capital firm HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, DST Global managing director and Goldman Sachs alum Tom Stafford, and Pentland Ventures. The latest round brings Zencargo's total funding to $20 million. Chief Executive Alex Hersham said he caught the logistics bug through his prior work at a large private equity firm that helped restructure a European bank's portfolio of soured loans to the container shipping industry. "When you realize how interesting and complex globalization is and how trade works, that fascinated me," Hersham said. Instead of dealing with hard assets as he did at his previous firm, Hersham's new venture is an asset-light freight forwarding and logistics firm. Zencargo helps customers get a better visibility on their supply chains and load planning, all with a view to "minimizing freight spend," Hersham said. Venture capital funding to shipping start-ups (Source: PitchBook) Venture capital funding to shipping start-ups (Source: PitchBook) An optimized supply chain "is becoming a competitive advantage for companies and the forefront of how they succeed," Hersham said. Venture capital interest in the sector has led to a spike in funding forwarding and supply-chain visibility companies, culminating in the billion raised by Flexport earlier this year. Hersham said Zencargo will use its new round to add to its presence in the Far East and Southeast Asia, with a target of overall headcount going from the current level of around 70 to over 100. Most of Zencargo's current customers come from the U.K's consumer goods industry, including apparel, furniture and cosmetics. As for the primary mode, ocean freight makes up about 60 percent of the volumes it's handling with the remainder split between air and road freight. As with the U.S., most of that freight comes from Asia, so the Brexit does not have a direct impact on that trade lane. However the vagaries of the U.K.'s status within the European Union and the resulting impact on England's economy remain risks that many shippers are trying to navigate. L to R: Zencargo's founders Richard Fattal, Alex Hersham, and Jan Riethmayer. L to R: Zencargo's founders Richard Fattal, Alex Hersham, and Jan Riethmayer. As did U.S. shippers, Hersham said U.K. firms are double ordering and overstocking in the event of trade disruptions. Likewise, U.K. firms are seeking warehouse space on the European continent due to the unknowns of Brexit. Hersham said the Brexit issue, while not impacting its business directly, has resulted in a "period of uncertainty" for many U.K. firms on planning their supply chain needs. But the need to reduce freight spend will remain regardless. "Some companies are unwilling to change right now until the dust settles, and what their needs will be under a hard or soft Brexit," Hersham said. "U.K. consumer spending and sentiment is strong, but there has been this pressure on the High Street to be adept and agile in their supply chain due to the Brexit," he added. Los Angeles Mayor asks for another timeout on Pier 400 Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti asked for another 30-day reset in the talks between APM Terminals and the local union representing dock workers at the Port of Los Angeles on how to go forward with APM's request to install electric charging stations at its Pier 400 location. The charging stations are the first step in adding automated straddle carriers to Pier 400 as it seeks to automate the process of moving containers off its wharf and into container stacking yards for delivery outside the Pier's gates. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 13 remains opposed the idea on the fear that it will lower labor demand at the biggest North American marine container terminal. But APM, owned by Danish shipping conglomerate Maersk, sees the project as a way to meet customer demands for container moves that match those of the neighboring automated terminals. Caught between the 8,464 members of the ILWU and Maersk, which pays $70 million per year to lease Pier 400 from the Port of Los Angeles, Garcetti asked for the second delay in a hearing over the ILWU's appeal against APM's permit. Invoking both the ILWU's history in organizing labor at the West Coast ports and its current role alongside Maersk in making Los Angeles "the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere," Garcetti asked the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners for a second delay in deciding on the ILWU's appeal of the permit. Making the Port of Los Angeles into the main gateway for container goods into the U.S. "has not come without occasional challenges," Garcetti said. But "working together we have always found a way forward that has benefitted this port, our city, and our economy." APM Terminals, which hopes to take delivery of the straddle carriers by June, said in a statement: "We appreciate Mayor Garcetti's leadership on this important matter. After months of delay, we look forward to working expeditiously through the process he's outlined to make the port competitive." South Africa has no problem with scrubber equipped ships Open loop, closed loop, it's no worry for ships visiting South Africa. (Shipping and Freight Resource) Southeast Asia says yes to soybeans in a box Containerized imports of U.S. soybeans see major spike to region thanks to low prices. (Maritime Executive) Port of Oakland is hub for new U.S.-to-Vietnam service Pacific International Lines to offer new services on 12,000-TEU container ships. (Marine Insight) ONE Chief warns on empties repositioning Jeremy Nixon said industry needs better way to handle empty boxes. (The Loadstar) Image sourced from Pixabay Want more content like this? Click here to Subscribe Permalink See more from Benzinga 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. (Advisory: Story includes language that might offend some readers.) By Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on his inquiry into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election described in extensive and sometimes unflattering detail how President Donald Trump tried to impede the probe, raising questions about whether he committed the crime of obstruction of justice. The release of the 448-page report on Thursday after a 22-month investigation marked a milestone in Trump's tumultuous presidency and inflamed partisan passions ahead of his 2020 re-election bid. Democrats said the report contained disturbing evidence of wrongdoing by Trump that could fuel congressional investigations, but there was no immediate indication they would try to remove him from office through impeachment. Mueller built an extensive case indicating the Republican president had committed obstruction of justice but stopped short of concluding he had committed a crime, though he did not exonerate the president. Mueller noted that Congress has the power to address whether Trump violated the law. "The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law," the report stated. Mueller also unearthed "numerous links" between the Russian government and Trump's campaign and said the president's team "expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts," referring to hacked Democratic emails. But Mueller, a former FBI director, concluded there was not enough evidence to establish that Trump's campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow. (Graphic: Redactions in the Mueller report - https://tmsnrt.rs/2DnjTvk) Trump appeared to be in a celebratory mood, saying at a White House event with wounded U.S. troops he was "having a good day" following the report's release, adding, "It's called no collusion, no obstruction." Trump, whose legal team called the report "a total victory," has long described Mueller's inquiry as a "witch hunt." Trump headed to his resort in Florida for the weekend, and on landing on Thursday night told a crowd of well wishers at the airport: "Game over folks, now it's back to work." The report, with some portions blacked out to protect sensitive information, provided fresh details of how Trump tried to force Mueller's ouster, directed members of his administration to publicly vouch for his innocence and dangled a pardon to a former aide to try to prevent him from cooperating with the special counsel. "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," the report stated. The report said that when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Trump in May 2017 that the Justice Department was appointing a special counsel to look into allegations that his campaign colluded with Russia, Trump slumped back in his chair and said, "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked." Attorney General William Barr told a news conference Mueller had detailed "10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense." Barr concluded last month after receiving a confidential copy of Mueller's report that Trump had not actually committed a crime. Trump was wary of FBI scrutiny of his campaign and him personally, the report said. "The evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the president personally that the president could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns," the report stated. Any impeachment effort would start in the Democratic-led House of Representatives, but Trump's removal would require the support of the Republican-led Senate - an unlikely outcome. Many Democrats steered clear of impeachment talk on Thursday, although a prominent liberal congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, embraced the idea. "Many know I take no pleasure in discussions of impeachment. I didnt campaign on it, & rarely discuss it unprompted," she said on Twitter. "But the report squarely puts this on our doorstep." The House, when it voted to impeach President Bill Clinton in 1998, included obstruction of justice as one of the charges. The Senate ultimately decided not to remove Clinton from office. The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, said he would issue subpoenas to obtain the unredacted Mueller report and asked Mueller to testify before the panel by May 23. Nadler told reporters in New York Mueller probably wrote the report with the intent of providing Congress a road map for future action, but the congressman said it was too early to talk about impeachment. "Muellers report paints a damning portrait of lies that appear to have materially impaired the investigation, a body of evidence of improper contacts with a foreign adversary, and serious allegations about how President Trump sought to obstruct a legitimate, and deeply important, counterintelligence investigation," the Democratic chairs of six House committees said in a statement. ELECTION MEDDLING The inquiry laid bare what the special counsel and U.S. intelligence agencies have described as a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, denigrate 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump, the Kremlin's preferred candidate. Russia has denied election interference. In analyzing whether Trump obstructed justice, Mueller looked at a series of actions by Trump, including his attempts to remove Mueller and limit the scope of his probe and efforts to prevent the public from knowing about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York between senior campaign officials and Russians. In June 2017, Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to tell the Justice Department's No. 2 official, Rod Rosenstein, that Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed, the report said. McGahn did not carry out the order. McGahn was home on a Saturday that month when Trump called him at least twice. "You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod," McGahn recalled the president as saying, according to the report. House Judiciary Democrat Jamie Raskin pointed to Trump's effort to get McGahn to fire Mueller and then lie about being told to do so as an area of interest for lawmakers, and said McGahn and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions could be valuable witnesses as the committee moves forward. "There are these dramatic episodes of presidential attempts to interfere with the Mueller investigation, and I think people would like to hear from a number of officials involved. White House counsel McGahn jumps out as an important witness," he told Reuters. It also said there was "substantial evidence" Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in May 2017 due to his "unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation." The FBI headed the inquiry at the time. Mueller cited "some evidence" suggesting Trump knew about former national security adviser Michael Flynn's controversial calls with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office, but evidence was "inconclusive" and could not be used to establish intent to obstruct. The report said Trump directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to ask Sessions to say the Russia investigation was "very unfair." Barr, a Trump appointee, seemed to offer cover for Trump's actions by saying the report acknowledges "there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks." "President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates," Barr said. Mueller's team did not issue a subpoena to force Trump to give an interview to the special counsel because it would have created a "substantial delay" at a late stage in the investigation, the report said. Trump refused an interview and eventually provided only written answers. The report said Mueller accepted the longstanding Justice Department view that a sitting president cannot be indicted on criminal charges, while still recognizing that a president can be criminally investigated. The report listed 14 criminal referrals for investigation by U.S. prosecutors but 12 of those were fully blacked out because they are open investigations. Mueller said evidence he collected indicates Trump intended to encourage his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, not to cooperate and that the evidence supports the idea that Trump wanted Manafort to believe he could receive a presidential pardon. The report said the special counsel's team determined there was a "reasonable argument" that the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., violated campaign finance laws, but did not believe they could obtain a conviction. The report cited Trump's repeated efforts to convince Sessions to resume oversight of the probe after he had recused himself because of his own prior contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan; Additional reporting by David Morgan, Doina Chiacu, David Alexander, Susan Cornwell, Richard Cowan, Amanda Becker, Jan Wolfe, Nathan Layne, Karen Freifeld, Steve Holland and Makini Brice; Writing by Will Dunham and John Whitesides, Editing by Alistair Bell and Grant McCool) FILE PHOTO: The logo of Russian gas group Gazprom at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo By Vladimir Soldatkin SALEKHARD, Russia (Reuters) - Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom, expects the global oil deal between OPEC and its allies to end in the first half of the year, a company official said on Tuesday. Vadim Yakovlev, first deputy CEO of Gazprom Neft, said the global oil alliance should still remain in place, at least in the form of coordination between the world's top global oil producers. "In our current-year forecasts, we assume the deal will be effective until the middle of the year. In that case, our oil production will be higher by around 1.5 percent from last year," he told reporters in the Russian Arctic town of Salekhard. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other large oil producers led by Russia agreed to cut their combined oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day from Jan.1 for six months in order to support oil prices and balance the market. The deal's participants will meet in June in Vienna to decide on the future of the deal. Several Russian officials have hinted at the possibility of ending the cuts in June. "As far as the deal's extension is concerned, I think the mechanism for coordinating the actions of the participating countries should stay in place," Yakovlev said. Gazprom Neft is currently taking long-term investment decisions assuming an oil price of $50 per barrel, he said. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Tom Balmforth) IP developments 7 June 2019 Tech-Law World 13 September 2019 Summer School - WIPO-UNIGE 24 June 2019 5 July 2019 Photo credit: WIPO/Berrod Call for papers - IP and IT innovation interface within the South African National Development Plan 2030 1 - 2 July 2019 Pro Bono Trademark Clinic 20 May 2019, Vacancies - Patent examiners Take note of these events, call for papers, summer school and vacancies and dont forget that you can always find a list of IP events on thepage!The 7th International IP Congress: Recent IP developments in Europe will be held onat the School of Business and Economics (SBE) of Maastricht University. The congress will provide a compact and insightful update on the most recent legal developments in the main areas of intellectual property law in Europe. More information and to registerOnBrunel University London will host Disruptive Innovation and Law: An Evolution Toward A Tech-Law World. This conference aims to discuss the legal impact of technologies such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud services. Clickto register.Interested in spanning the IP Globe during two weeks with WIPO-UNIGE Summer School in Geneva? The Summer School gathers each year around 90 participants coming from all continents (in 2018 over 35 different countries were represented) and various backgrounds (from law to biology). The 2019 edition of the Summer School will start onand end on. The first week will be held at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)s Headquarters and the second week at the University of Geneva. Participants to the Summer School will spend two weeks in Geneva, meet scholars from across the globe, as well as senior top-notch practitioners. Registration for the 2019 Summer School is open until 15 May 2019 here ; for more information click. An additional exciting feature of the Summer School will be the Second IP Researchers Europe Conference (IPRE), which is organized by the University of Geneva in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Participants to the Summer School will participate to IPRE and discuss with junior and senior scholars current global hot IP topics. Checkfor more information about the conference.The South African Research Chair: Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development, in collaboration with the IP Unit at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, will host the 3rd Annual Conference of theon. Abstracts (not exceeding 1,000 words) on any aspect of intellectual property law and/or information technology law within the scope of this theme, with a particular welcome for papers that address the IP and IT innovation interface within the South African National Development Plan 2030 are welcome and should be send tono later than 30 April 2019.The International Trademark Association (INTA) will be hosting a Pro Bono Trademark Clinic onduring its upcoming Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, which will take place from 18 to end on 22 May at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC). In addition to the legal services, participants will receive a complimentary one-day pass to INTAs Annual Meeting, allowing them to take advantage of educational programs and networking opportunities. INTA encourages businesses and individuals in the Boston area to apply for the Pro Bono Trademark Clinic by contacting Stacey Sutton at. Applications to participate in the program are due by 10 May. Applicants will be pre-screened for eligibility. More information about the Annual Meeting can be foundThe IPO is recruiting 15 patent examiners to start in September 2019. The closing date for applications is 6 May 2019. For more information and to apply check (Bloomberg) -- Some test models of Samsung Electronics Co.s new foldable phone suffered defects after only days of use, casting a shadow over next weeks introduction of a $1,980 device meant to rejuvenate a flagging market and showcase the Asian companys technology expertise. Several publications, including Bloomberg News, outlined a bevy of problems with test versions of the device, which folds inward like a notebook. Bloombergs review unit experienced issues after a plastic protective layer was removed on Monday. By Tuesday night, a small tear had developed at the top of the hinge, where the gadget opens. Then the display failed to operate properly. pic.twitter.com/G0OHj3DQHw Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 17, 2019 The Korean company suffered a black-eye with a previous major launch in 2016, when it recalled the Galaxy Note 7 after consumers reported issues with batteries that burst into flames. The worlds largest smartphone maker is counting on ground-breaking gadgets to propel growth and excite consumers as demand for mobile devices flattens. Pre-orders began Monday for a marquee device expected to usher in a wave of smartphones that can unfurl into tablets. The Galaxy Folds 7.3-inch screen teased how users can juggle three apps at once and view video with more clarity. We have received a few reports regarding the main display on the samples provided. We will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter, Samsung said in an statement Thursday. The phones commercial launch is still planned for April 26. The companys shares slid 3.1 percent, outpacing a 1.4 percent fall in the countrys benchmark index. In one of the more serious apparent flaws, the inner screen stopped working. First, the left side of the display went dark -- then the right side developed problems before also failing completely. Other reviewers reported similar issues, including flickering visuals and how the area around the central hinge lost viewable pixels. The external display still functioned for Bloombergs review team when the phone is closed. Separately, the demo units screen retained permanent marks wherever a fingernail made contact during the course of use. Story continues Other reviewers however reported no major issues with the gadgets Samsung provided. In an email sent Tuesday -- a day after providing the demo units -- it asked media not to remove a special protective layer. The devices packaging didnt discourage the attempt however, and the sheet seemed similar to the protective films that come with most phones, tablets, and TVs right out of the box. The main display on the Galaxy Fold features a top protective layer, which is part of the display structure designed to protect the screen from unintended scratches, Samsung said in its statement. Removing the protective layer or adding adhesives to the main display may cause damage. We will ensure this information is clearly delivered to our customers. Samsung may need to consider postponing the rollout of the Galaxy Fold because it risks a public relations fiasco if the problems are widespread, Anthea Lai and Anand Srinivasan, analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a report. Delaying the Galaxy Folds expected April 26 launch date -- while not certain to occur -- could save the brands reputation from a repeat of the Note 7 debacle, they wrote. Postponing the rollout would also have minimal impact to earnings, as only about 1 million units are expected to ship this year. While its still too early to gauge how much demand there will be for smartphones with flexible screens, Samsung and other rivals are eager to gain an edge over Apple Inc. in the $495 billion industry. Samsung had forecast it will produce at least 1 million foldable phones this year, a fraction of its overall shipments in 2018. Huawei Technologies Co., Xiaomi Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd.s Motorola are all working on foldable phones. Research firm Gartner expects the overall market to expand to 30 million units by 2023. Delay isnt a good thing, Lai said, but Huawei probably wont start shipping the Mate X until June, so Samsung still has time to claim the number one spot. Samsung -- which spent eight years on the Galaxy Fold -- is also developing a clamshell-like foldable phone and another that folds outward, Bloomberg News reported last month. The company envisions smartphones with rollable and stretchable displays, Samsung Executive Vice President Chung Eui-suk said in February. Even before reports of the review models issues surfaced, there had been questions about the general durability of foldable phones. The company has released footage of machines repeatedly opening and closing the phone in what it dubbed an extremity test. (An earlier version of this story corrected the Note 7 recall timing in the third paragraph.) (Updates with Samsungs shares in the fifth paragraph.) To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Gurman in San Francisco at mgurman1@bloomberg.net;Sam Kim in Seoul at skim609@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan, Peter Elstrom For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. First Quarter 2019 Financial Results to be presented on Tuesday, May 7, 2019 HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2019 / Spark Energy, Inc. ('Spark' or the 'Company') (SPKE), an independent retail energy services company, announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend for the first quarter of 2019 in the amount of $0.18125 per share on its Class A Common Stock. This amount represents an annualized dividend of $0.725 per share. The first quarter dividend will be paid on June 14, 2019 to holders of record of Spark's Class A Common Stock on May 31, 2019. Additionally, in accordance with the terms of the 8.75% Series A Fixed-to-Floating Rate Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock ("Series A Preferred Stock") of the Company, the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend in the amount of $0.546875 per share on the Series A Preferred Stock. This amount represents an annualized dividend of $2.1875 per share. The dividend will be paid on July 15, 2019 to holders of record of Spark's Series A Preferred Stock on July 1, 2019. Conference Call and Webcast The Company has also announced today that it plans to present its first quarter 2019 financial results in a conference call and webcast on Tuesday, May 7, 2019 at 10:00 AM Central (11:00 AM Eastern). A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed from the Events & Presentations page of the Spark Energy Investor Relations website at ir.sparkenergy.com/events-and-presentations. An archived replay of the webcast will be available for twelve months following the live presentation. About Spark Energy, Inc. Spark Energy, Inc. is an established and growing independent retail energy services company founded in 1999 that provides residential and commercial customers in competitive markets across the United States with an alternative choice for their natural gas and electricity. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Spark currently operates in 19 states and serves 94 utility territories. Spark offers its customers a variety of product and service choices, including stable and predictable energy costs and green product alternatives. Story continues We use our website as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Investors should note that new materials, including press releases, updated investor presentations, and financial and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission are posted on the Spark Energy Investor Relations website at ir.sparkenergy.com. Investors are urged to monitor our website regularly for information and updates about the Company. Contact: Spark Energy, Inc. Investors: Christian Hettick, 832-200-3727 Media: Kira Jordan, 832-255-7302 SOURCE: Spark Energy, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/542351/Spark-Energy-Inc-Announces-Dividend-on-Common-and-Preferred-Stock (Corrects Bund yield in 6th paragraph) LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - European stocks and the euro were hit on Thursday after a business survey showed the German manufacturing sector contracted for the fourth month in a row, adding to concerns around the sector and pushing investors into the safety of euro zone government bonds. Activity in Germany's services sector rose to a seven-month high in April, a survey showed on Thursday, but investors focused on the 44.5 reading for the manufacturing sector, well below the 50.0 mark separating growth from contraction even if it was above than the 44.1 reading recorded last month. The euro tumbled a quarter of a percent to the day's low at $1.1265 after the data. It was up as much as 0.1 percent at $1.1304 before the data. The euro-zone stocks index and Germany's DAX fell sharply to their lowest for the day after the German data, which followed shortly after weaker-than-expected French manufacturing PMI reading. At 0735 GMT, the index was down 0.3 percent and Frankfurt stocks were down 0.2 percent. German 10-year bond yields, meanwhile, were three basis points lower at 0.05 percent, dropping further off Wednesday's high of 0.10 percent. (Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee) Benjamin Franklin bridge in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin bridge in Philadelphia. Photo: Shutterstock In yet another case that required the Pennsylvania Superior Court to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2017 decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California, a state appellate panel has ruled that claims over a woman's death allegedly caused by a contaminated endoscope can stay in Pennsylvania despite the fact that the scope manufacturer is based in Japan and the death occurred in North Carolina. In a published April 10 opinion in Vaughan v. Olympus America, a three-judge panel of the Superior Court unanimously reversed a Philadelphia trial judge's rulings that sustained defendant Olympus Medical System Corp.'s (OMSC) preliminary objections seeking dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction and dismissed claims against three remaining defendantsOlympus America (OAI), Olympus Corporation of the Americas (OCA) and Custom Ultrasonics (Custom)for forum non conveniens. "In sum, faced with private and public factors that clearly support Vaughans choice to proceed in Philadelphia, we conclude there were not weighty reasons to disturb Vaughans choice of forum," Judge Maria McLaughlin wrote for the panel, which also included President Judge Jack Panella and Judith Ference Olson. According to the opinion, Freeman Maurice Vaughan Jr. brought the lawsuit on behalf of the estate of his late wife, who died in May 2015 after developing a multidrug-resistant infection allegedly caused by a contaminated Olympus-made duodenoscope used in a procedure at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Vaughan's claims center on the allegation that the defendants' protocol for "reprocessing" the scopessterilizing them so that they could be used over and over on multiple patientswas inadequate, according to the panel's opinion. OMSC, which allegedly designed and manufactured the scope, is a Japanese corporation based in Tokyo, according to McLaughlin. OCA and OAIwhich are allegedly involved in marketing, distribution and post-market safety surveillance of the scopeare New York corporations, with headquarters in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. Custom is a Pennsylvania company headquartered in Ivyland and, relying on OMSC's reprocessing protocol, allegedly designed, manufactured and tested an automated endoscope reprocessor. Laura Storms, OCAs vice president of regulatory and clinical affairs and quality assurance, swore in an affidavit that, for the purposes of meeting U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements, OCA is a United States agent of OMSC, according to McLaughlin. While the trial court had determined that Pennsylvania could not exercise specific jurisdiction over OMSC, the appellate panel agreed with Vaughan's argument that jurisdiction was proper because "'the acts of the corporations which were affiliated with OMSC, and which were acting as its agent in Pennsylvania, engaged in significant conduct that was directly related to the plaintiffs claims here.'" McLaughlin said the panel derived "useful guidance" from Bristol-Myers Squibb, which made clear that defendants cannot be sued in jurisdictions where they havent conducted business directly linked to the claimed injury. In Bristol-Myers, McLaughlin noted, the high court discussed circumstances not present in that case that would have allowed for specific jurisdiction, including allegations that "'Bristol-Myers engaged in relevant acts together with the California company,'" and that "'Bristol-Myers is derivatively liable for the California companys conduct in California.'" McLaughlin said those circumstances were present in the Vaughan case. "Here, OMSC engaged in relevant acts together with OCA, an in-state company, and it is liable for OCAs FDA-related conduct in Pennsylvania," McLaughlin said. "OCAs vice president, Laura Storms, admitted in her affidavit that OCA is OMSCs agent for purposes of OMSCs statutory reporting requirements with the FDA. She also conceded that the agency relationship extends to OMSCs Section 510(k) premarket notifications. Section 510(k) premarket notifications entail submission of proposed directions for use. OMSC itself fashions the reprocessing protocol, through 'instructions,' and all of Vaughans claims relate to adequacy of that protocol. OCAs activities in concert with OMSC, and as OMSCs agent, are sufficiently linked to Vaughans substantive claims to support specific jurisdiction over OMSC in Pennsylvania." As for the dismissal of the remaining defendants for forum non conveniens, McLaughlin said the trial court erred in determining that North Carolina was the more appropriate jurisdiction. "The trial court determined that the majority of relevant evidence in this case is located in North Carolina or Japan and not, as Vaughan asserts, in Pennsylvania," McLaughlin said. "However, we agree with Vaughan that a plaintiff may establish a close connection with a forum based upon 'relevant corporate actions' that take place there." "There is little doubt that OCA and OAI conduct extensive operations in Pennsylvania, in relative proximity to Philadelphia," McLaughlin continued. "Further, Vaughan has identified OCA and OAI employees, as well as numerous Custom employees, all located in the greater Philadelphia area." McLaughlin also took issue with the trial judge factoring into his decision the concern that Vaughans fact witnesses for damages are located in North Carolina. "In our view, any difficulty a plaintiff faces in securing evidence necessary to prove a cause of action is not a valid reason to override the plaintiffs forum preference," McLaughlin said. Vaughan's attorney, Brian Panish of Panish Shea & Boyle in Los Angeles, said, "The court got it right. It was the Japanese corporation's own affidavit that showed they control the operation and that was what the court of appeals based its decision on, at least partly. And now we're traveling to Japan for depositions as we speak. We look forward to trying the case in front of a jury in the Court of Common Pleas." Counsel for the Olympus defendants, Candace Ali Blydenburgh of McGuireWoods in Richmond, Virginia, and counsel for Custom Ultrasonics, David Volk of Cipriani & Werner in Blue Bell, could not be reached for comment. A powerful terrorist group in Syria is reportedly promoting the use of Bitcoin to raise funds due to its anonymity and ease of use. The Independent claims that a powerful jihadi group in Syria known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) a coalition of rebel groups that includes a former affiliate of al-Qaeda is encouraging the use of popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin among its followers, calling it one of the most important inventions of the last decade. The group has been promoting the virtues of crypto in its weekly magazine. Reportedly, the article lists a number of advantages for using Bitcoin, arguing that it is safe because of the anonymity it offers and the lack of restriction on its usage. A powerful terrorist group in Syria is reportedly promoting the use of Bitcoin to raise funds due to its anonymity and ease of use. The Independent claims that a powerful jihadi group in Syria known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) a coalition of rebel groups that includes a former affiliate of al-Qaeda is encouraging the use of popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin among its followers, calling it one of the most important inventions of the last decade. The group has been promoting the virtues of crypto in its weekly magazine. Reportedly, the article lists a number of advantages for using Bitcoin, arguing that it is safe because of the anonymity it offers and the lack of restriction on its usage. HTS currently occupies the majority of Idlib province in northern Syria and remains the most powerful opposition force committed to removing the countrys president, Bashar al-Assad. HTS generates most of its funding through taxes and tariffs imposed on the residents living in areas under its control. However, it also relies on a steady income from private Gulf donors, according to the Counter Extremism Project. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has been under increased pressure over the last year from the Syrian government and its ally Russia, which has long threatened to launch an offensive strike to recapture the territory. Reportedly, as early as 2014, Isis supporters have created tutorials on how to make Bitcoin donations to the terrorist group. In November 2018, a Pakistani-American woman was jailed for using Bitcoin to launder money for Isis. According to reports, last month the Palestinian group Hamas released a video which urged followers to support it by sending Bitcoin as part of a crowdfunding campaign launched in January. Though contradictory to these reports, Rand released a report of its own stipulating that terrorists are more likely to use cash over crypto. Interested in reading more crypto crime-related news? Discover how Malta turned to a US firm to help it fight crime and terror finance risk. The post A terrorist group in Syria is reportedly turning to Bitcoin to raise funds appeared first on Coin Rivet. (Bloomberg) -- Foxconn billionaire founder Terry Gous surprise announcement Wednesday that he plans to run for president of Taiwan after being urged to do so by a sea goddess has raised to fever pitch the debate about the islands fragile relations with China and the U.S. But who is Terry Gou? While the 68-year-old is a star in his own country, hes hardly a household name abroad. Yet his factories employ more than a million people in China and hundreds of thousands more around the world from the U.S. to the Czech Republic and Brazil. Foxconn Technology Group assembles phones and gadgets found in almost every household in the developed world, including most of Apple Inc.s iPhones and scores of devices for other brands. If you own a Sony PlayStation 4 or an Amazon Kindle, chances are it came from one of Gous plants. On Thursday, his bid for the presidency fueled a speculative frenzy in several of the companies that make up the Foxconn empire. Its a business that presents both strengths and drawbacks as Gou seeks to challenge Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, a China critic whose party supports formal independence. While hes admired as one of Taiwans most successful entrepreneurs -- a strong leader who can negotiate with both China and the U.S. -- his vast investments on the mainland could raise questions about Beijings potential influence over the democratically run island. Gou (pronounced Gwor) started his $41 billion empire with a $7,500 loan from his mother in 1974 at the age of 23, during Taiwans export-driven boom. The former shipping clerk used the loan to buy plastic molding machines that made knobs to change channels on black-and-white televisions for American and European brands. U.S. Tour To drum up more business, he went on an 11-month tour of the U.S. in the early 80s, dropping in on companies unannounced, like a door-to-door salesman. In Raleigh, North Carolina, he booked himself into a motel close to an IBM facility. After three days of hanging around, he got an appointment and came away with an order for connectors. Story continues Gous ability to pair American demand for gadgets with cheap Asian labor went into overdrive with the opening up of China. While many Taiwanese manufacturers hesitated to move production across the Taiwan Strait, Gou set up his first mainland plant in Shenzhen in 1988, the year Beijing promised not to nationalize Taiwanese investments. The business boomed. As one plant followed another, Gou became one of the largest private employers in the country. His factories, filled with young migrant workers from Chinas interior, were like mini cities, with housing, canteens, health clinics and recreation. Initially based in the thriving region near Hong Kong, Gous plants began to spread across the country, including to Shanxi province in the north, where his family had come from. But the behind-the scenes maker of iPhones and iPods was about to come under the international spotlight. In 2010, more than a dozen Foxconn workers committed suicide, calling into question the companys constant drive for lower costs and maximum efficiency. Gou was slow to realize the significance of the deaths. The first one, second one, and third one, I did not see this as a serious problem. We had around 800,000 employees, he told Bloomberg News in 2010. At the moment, Im feeling guilty. But at that moment, I didnt think I should be taking full responsibility. Generous, Severe The eldest of his fathers three sons, Gou is known for acts of both severity and generosity. He once forced a senior executive to remain standing for 10 minutes for an unsatisfactory answer at a meeting of several hundred people, according to another former executive present at the meeting. He is known for holding meetings that can last hours and close aides are expected to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On the other hand, he has paid executives and staff large bonuses out of his own pocket, using dividends from his company shares held in trust. Today, Gou is no longer in the shadows. When U.S. President Donald Trump called for more investment in U.S. manufacturing, Gou was one of the first to heed the call, agreeing to build a 13,000-worker facility in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, in exchange for more than $4.5 billion in government incentives. Hailed by Trump as one of the great deals ever, the Wisconsin project has since come under criticism for low-paying jobs, sudden dismissals and a chaotic environment with ever-changing goals. Foxconn says the plant is on track to begin producing LCDs next year. Now the spotlight is full on Gou. The man whose father fought with the Kuomintang -- or Nationalist Party -- army in the civil war against Mao Zedongs Communists and fled along with Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 is now seeking the KMTs nomination for the presidential election in January. The KMT, which shares Beijings belief that both sides belong to one China, has since become Taiwans strongest advocate for closer ties. I will participate in the KMT primary, Gou told reporters today in Taipei, describing his core values as peace, stability, economy and future. His resources could help him stand out among a field of potential KMT challengers that includes former New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu and former legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng. Han Kuo-yu and Ko Wen-je, the outspoken mayors of Kaohsiung and Taipei, respectively, havent ruled out a run. For KMT supporters, no other candidate is better than Gou as Gou is on good terms with both Chinese and American leaders, said Wu Yu-Shan, distinguished research fellow at Academia Sinicas Institute of Political Science in Taipei. Helping his image is the fact that he is not only admired as a businessman, but is one of Taiwans biggest philanthropists. Gou has devoted his considerable wealth to finding a cure for cancer and opened a new cancer hospital in Taipei last year. His first wife died of breast cancer in 2005 and his brother Tony died after a battle with leukemia in 2007. Earlier Wednesday, Gou claimed the Chinese sea goddess Mazu had encouraged him to come forward to support peace across the Taiwan Strait. Mazu told me I should be inspired by her to do good things for people who are suffering, to give young people hope, to support cross-strait peace, Gou said, adding that the goddess had recently spoken to him in a dream. His religious belief extends to his factories, which all have statues of Tudi Gong, the Chinese god of land. The question remains as to how Gou can square decades of making money in China and his billions of dollars of investments there, with his ambition to run an island that still has a precarious relationship with Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested earlier this year that the two sides Taiwan enter into in-depth democratic consultations and work toward unification, the clearest signal yet that he wants to settle the 70-year dispute. Wang Ting-yu, a lawmaker for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, pointed to the pressure Beijing has exerted on international companies such as Delta Air Lines Inc. and clothing brands such as Inditex SA-owned Zara to adhere to its claims over Taiwan. He said Gou would struggle to shake off questions about his business interests in China. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, said Wang, citing a Bible verse. While Chairman Gou wants to become Taiwans head of state, his wealth is in Xi Jinpings hands. I think the 23 million people of Taiwan will be concerned by that. (Updates with stock market frenzy in the third paragraph.) --With assistance from Chinmei Sung and Lee Miller. To contact the reporters on this story: Samson Ellis in Taipei at sellis29@bloomberg.net;Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Adam Majendie For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Texas Capital (TCBI) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.60 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.34 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.38 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 19.40%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this holding company for Texas Capital Bank would post earnings of $1.60 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.38, delivering a surprise of -13.75%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates just once. Texas Capital, which belongs to the Zacks Banks - Southwest industry, posted revenues of $265.63 million for the quarter ended March 2019, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.65%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $230.25 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Texas Capital shares have added about 14.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 16%. What's Next for Texas Capital? While Texas Capital has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Story continues Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Texas Capital was unfavorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to underperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $1.52 on $260.99 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $6.24 on $1.06 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Banks - Southwest is currently in the bottom 34% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. Texas Capital Bancshares, Inc. (TCBI) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Growing calls to investigate the Russia investigation following the release of the Mueller report have some former independent prosecutors urging caution. Former Whitewater independent counsel Robert Ray told FOX Business Thursday that any attempt to inquire about the investigators should be carefully done. "I do think it's important for the Department of Justice, after Inspector General Michael Horowitz issues his report, to take a look at that and find out the origins of what became the Russia collusion investigation, he said. I am not saying we belabor the issue, but I think it is important mostly from the standpoint of the President's that this is not supposed to happen to the President of the United States or any President of the United States." Ray said he thinks the Mueller report seems to vindicate what Attorney General William Barr said would be in the report, and he agrees with President Trumps game over statement about the investigation. The Democrats are not going to be forced into the position of trying to generate momentum toward an impeachment proceeding if they want to see more of the Mueller report, he said on "Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast." More than 2,800 subpoenas and nearly 500 search warrants were issued through the 22 month Russia investigation. Ray said Democrats have the right to call on Mueller to testify in front of Congress or issue more subpoenas related to his staff if they are unsatisfied with the findings, but Democrats may run the risk of beating a dead horse over obstruction charges. Prosecutors deal in evidence about whether or not they have sufficient evidence to bring a case or they don't. This is the determination now. As the result of the Mueller investigation and the Attorney General's findings, we now have the answer. The answer is, it's over in regard to criminal conduct involving the President of the United States, he added. Ray said preliminary indications and an initial review of the report clearly suggests the special counsel and Barr were exhaustive in their investigation and in looking into Trump's conduct during his 2016 presidential campaign. Story continues CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP He also predicts there will be an attempt to relitigate the Mueller report, but questioned whether the American people would stand for it. The Mueller report was released to the public Thursday morning. Grand jury material, classified U.S. intelligence, information regarding ongoing investigations, and privacy rights of unindicted third parties were redacted from the public release. Related Articles (Adds comment from Mexican foreign ministry in paragraph 29) By Zachary Fagenson, Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton MIAMI/WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new sanctions and other punitive measures on Cuba and Venezuela, seeking to ratchet up U.S. pressure on Havana to end its support for Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. Speaking to a Cuban exile group in Miami, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said the United States was targeting Cuba's military and intelligence services, including a military-owned airline, for additional sanctions and was tightening travel and trade restrictions against the island. Bolton's speech followed the State Department's announcement on Wednesday that it was lifting a long-standing ban against U.S. citizens filing lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties seized by Cuba's Communist government since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. President Donald Trump's decision, which the State Department said could unleash hundreds of thousands of legal claims worth tens of billions of dollars, drew swift criticism from European and Canadian allies, whose companies have significant interests in Cuba. The Cuban government, which could be hindered in attracting new foreign investment, denounced it as "an attack on international law." Taking aim at Venezuela, Bolton said the United States was also imposing sanctions on the country's central bank to prohibit access to dollars by an institution he described as crucial to keeping Maduro in power. Bolton also announced new sanctions on Nicaragua. In a state television address, Maduro called the sanctions "totally illegal." "Central banks around the world are sacred, all countries respect them," Maduro said, adding that the central bank would "confront and defeat" the sanctions. "To me the empire looks crazy, desperate." While accusing Cuba of propping up Maduro with thousands of security force members in the country, Bolton also warned "all external actors, including Russia," against deploying military assets to support the Venezuelan leader. Story continues "The United States will consider such provocative actions a threat to international peace and security in the region," Bolton said, noting that Moscow recently sent in military flights carrying 35 tons of cargo and a hundred personnel. However, Cuba appears unlikely to be budged by demands to dump Maduro, a longtime ally of Havana, and Maduro has also shown little sign of losing the loyalty of his military despite tough oil-related U.S. sanctions on the OPEC nation. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded defiantly. "No one will rip the (fatherland) away from us, neither by seduction nor by force," he said on Twitter. "We Cubans do not surrender." ROLLING BACK OBAMA-ERA DETENTE Amid Venezuela's political and economic crisis, opposition leader Juan Guaido invoked the constitution in January to assume the interim presidency. The United States and most Western countries have backed Guaido as head of state. Maduro, backed by Cuba, Russia and China, has denounced Guaido as a U.S. puppet. Bolton, a longtime Cuba hardliner, was frequently interrupted by applause in his address to veterans of the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion on the 58th anniversary of the failed operation to overthrow Castro. His speech was a sequel to one late last year branding Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua a "troika of tyranny." Bolton's announcements included further measures to roll back parts of the historic opening to Cuba, an old Cold War foe, under his predecessor, Barack Obama. The Obama administration's approach, he said, "provided the Cuban regime with the necessary political cover to expand its malign influence." Among the Cuba measures announced by Bolton was reinstatement of limits on U.S. citizens sending remittances to Cuba at $1,000 per person per quarter. Remittances have surged since Obama started easing restrictions, becoming an important part of the economy and fueling growth of the private sector. "Restricting remittances that can be sent to Cubans will directly hurt the Cuban people," said Ben Rhodes, a former Obama adviser who negotiated the 2014 diplomatic breakthrough with Havana. "This is a shameful and mean-spirited policy." Bolton said the United States would also further restrict "non-family" travel to Cuba and cited military-owned Cuban airline Aerogaviota among five entities being added to the U.S. sanctions blacklist. The Trump administration has previously sought to curtail Venezuela's subsidized oil shipments to Cuba. Also on Wednesday, Bolton announced sanctions on Nicaragua's Bancorp, which he called a "slush fund," and on Laureano Ortega, a son of President Daniel Ortega for what he described as "vast corruption." Trump's toughened stance on Cuba as well as Venezuela and Nicaragua has gone down well among Cuban Americans in south Florida, an important voting bloc in a political swing state as he looks toward his re-election campaign in 2020. Trump has added Cuba hawks to top posts. Bolton brought in Mauricio Claver-Carone, known as staunchly anti-Castro and an outspoken critic of Obama's rapprochement with Havana, as his top Latin America adviser. However, the risk, some former U.S. officials say, is that Trump's team will overdo the targeting of Cuba in their anti-Maduro campaign and alienate some European and Latin American allies who have good relations with Havana but are also needed by Washington to maintain pressure on Venezuela. Over the objections of key allies, Trump decided to allow a law that has been suspended since its creation in 1996 to be fully activated, permitting Cuban-Americans and other U.S. citizens to sue companies doing business in Cuba over property seized in decades past by the Cuban government. Until now, Title III of the Helms-Burton Act had been fully waived by every president over the past 23 years. Among the foreign companies heavily invested in Cuba are Canadian mining firm Sherritt International Corp and Spain's Melia Hotels International SA. U.S. companies, including airlines and cruise companies, have forged business deals in Cuba since the easing of restrictions under Obama. Mexico's foreign ministry said in a statement late Wednesday that it "lamented" the U.S. decision, adding that the government will work to protect Mexican companies that have business interests in Cuba. Toronto-based Sherritt said it would not be materially impacted by the Trump administration's Helms-Burton decision and would continue to operate as usual focusing on meeting its nickel/cobalt production targets. It was unclear, however, how Cuba property claims, some of which involve complex legal matters, will fare in U.S. courts. The European Union said it will "consider all options at its disposal to protect its legitimate interests." Chrystia Freeland, minister of foreign affairs for Canada, which has coordinated with Washington on Venezuela, said: "Canada is deeply disappointed with today's (U.S.) announcement." Kim Breier, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said a U.S. government commission has certified nearly 6,000 claims for property confiscated in Cuba with a current value of about $8 billion and that there could be up to 200,000 uncertified claims worth tens of billions of dollars if pursued. (Reporting by Zachary Fagenson in Miami and Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Additional reporting by Makini Brice, David Alexander and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Sarah Marsh and Marc Frank in Havana; Philip Blenkinsop and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Deisy Buitrago and Luc Cohen in Caracas; David Alire Garcia in Mexico City; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker) April 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday approved the construction of two proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals. The two projects are Tellurian Inc's Driftwood in Louisiana and Sempra Energy's Port Arthur in Texas. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) The campaign season has begun, and gun owners are the minority that it is socially acceptable to hate. Without exception, the Democrat candidates for president have demonized US gun owners. According to them, lawful gun owners are the real source of crime and violence in the US. If you watch the news, gun owners are angry, fearful, rural, unsophisticated white men. Gun owners are mentally ill religious bigots who don't care about children being shot. Now that all the right-thinking people on CNN agree, we can finally take steps to control military style automatic firearms in the US (as if the 23 thousand firearms regulations we already have didn't exist.) Those slanders go unquestioned by the mainstream media because those lies fit their bigoted stereotypes. Facts don't matter because gun-owners are the minority we're supposed to hate. ..... On Apr 17, both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported that the United States and China are trying hard to reach a deal to end the prolonged trade-related conflict by early May. President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping could sign the deal later that month or the first week of June. In this regard, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are likely to reach Beijing in the week of April 29 for the final round of discussion. As a follow up to that procedure, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is expected to come to Washington in the week of May 6, for the last round of negotiations. Notably, on Apr 4, President Trump had twitted that a trade deal with China is possible in the next four weeks. Trade-War Upsets Economy Wall Street witnessed extreme volatility throughout 2018 primarily owing to trade-related issues. Imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum by President Trump created a ruckus in the global economy. Notably, the Trump administration has already imposed $250 billion tariffs on Chinese goods while China levied $110 billion of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports. On Apr 9, the International Monetary Fund reduced the global economic growth forecasts for 2019. The new growth projection is 3.3% compared with 3.5% projected in January and 3.7% forecast in October. For the IMF, the prevailing trade conflict between the United States and China is the key concern for the global economy. National Security Concerns Dominate Trumps Decision The Trump administration is gravely concerned about Chinas drive to unseat the United States as the primary developer and supplier in the fields of high-tech sophisticated products. The implementation of tariffs stems from the Trump administrations concern that China is leaving the intellectual property of the American companies vulnerable to theft. On Mar 27, Reuters reported that China has made unprecedented proposals on a range of issues including the protection of U.S. intellectual properties to resolve the trade disputes. On Apr 4, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow claimed that China has acknowledged for the first time that the United States has legitimate and genuine concerns about IP theft, forced technology transfer and cyber hacking by Chinese companies. Story continues Other Likely Gains for US On Jan 18, Bloomberg reported that China has offered to ramp up imports from the United State in the next six years. Total value of the imports will likely be $1.2 trillion, which will bring down the United States massive trade deficit with China to zero in 2025. Notably, the United States had a trade deficit of $323 billion with China in 2018. The U.S. Trade Representative's office said that China has provided assurance of importing "a substantial amount" of agricultural, energy and manufactured goods and services from the United States. The Trump administration wants China to lift tariffs on U.S. agricultural products or at least shift those to other products. If this happens, the trade deal will allow Trump to portrait it as a win for U.S. farmers. Our Top Picks The major gainers of a possible trade deal will be those companies that have a strong international exposure especially in China. We have narrowed our search to five such stocks which have moved higher in 2019 so far and still have upside if a trade deal materializes. All five stocks currently carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The chart below shows price performance of our five picks year to date. Qorvo Inc. QRVO provides radio frequency solutions and technologies for mobile device, infrastructure, and defense and aerospace applications worldwide. A massive 75% of its revenues come from China. The stock has surged 26% year to date. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 17.4% for the current year. Xilinx Inc. XLNX designs and develops programmable devices and associated technologies worldwide. More than 25% of its revenues come from China. The stock has surged 26% year to date. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 59.5% for the current year. KLA-Tencor Corp. KLAC designs, manufactures, and markets process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nanoelectronics industries worldwide. A massive 44% of its revenues come from China. The stock has surged 38.2% year to date. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 5.4% for the current year. Starbucks Corp. SBUX operates as a roaster, marketer, and retailer of specialty coffee worldwide. More than 10% of its revenues come from China. The stock has surged 16.6% year to date. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 12.4% for the current year. YUM! Brands Inc. YUM develops, operates and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. More than 10% of its revenues come from China. The stock has surged 10.4% year to date. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 20.2% for the current year. 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 >> Is your investment advisor fumbling your financial future? See how you can more effectively safeguard your retirement with a new Special Report, 4 Warning Signs Your Investment Advisor Might Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future. Click to get your free report. Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Xilinx, Inc. (XLNX) : Free Stock Analysis Report KLA-Tencor Corporation (KLAC) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research cemetery Cemetery/photo by J. Albert Diaz On the same day the United States sued a tiny Texas town for religious discriminating against an Islamic faith group by denying its bid to build a cemetery, the government announced the town entered a settlement agreement to train its staff about federal law on religious land use. The April 16 lawsuit and settlement brings to close a nasty dispute that started way back in 2015, when people in Farmersville vehemently opposed the idea of the Islamic Association of Collin Countys plans to build a Muslim cemetery outside their town. Townsfolk made derogatory and discriminatory comments that the Islamic Association was trying to build a terrorist training center, that Islam was a violent religion, Muslims would impose Sharia law and residents would pour pig blood and dump pig heads on the land to desecrate it, according to the April 16 complaint in United States v. City of Farmersville, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Sherman. Several residents won election to the city council, and two current council members won reelection after espousing their opposition to the cemetery in their campaigns. The Islamic Associations cemetery plan advanced through the citys normal planning and zoning process, making changes along the way to align with staff requests, and earned early approval along the way. Yet when the city council in July 2017 considered the plans, council members raised concerns with drainage, flooding and public safety. An engineer working for the Islamic Association said an onsite detention pond would contain water flow, and he offered to expand the pond, but the council still unanimously denied the plans. They didnt give time for the association to address any concerns, even though they had granted time for other land-use applications. The federal lawsuit alleged the denial was driven by the city officials responding to the publics anti-Muslim bias, which created political pressure and a fear theyd lose their jobs. The city violated the law by placing a burden on and discriminating against the Islamic Association and its members free exercise of religion, the complaint said. The city has now resolved its controversy with the Islamic Association. In September 2018, the Islamic Association and Farmersville agreed the association would revise its cemetery plan to address the drainage and flooding concerns and the city would approve the plan. In December 2018, the city council approved the plan. As long as Farmersville makes changes, the United States has agreed to dismiss the complaint, according to the settlement agreement in the case. Farmersville must post a notice in city hall that says it complies with the religious land use statute, and also to provide training about the statute to anyone with responsibilities in zoning or land use regulations. There is no place in our community for religious discrimination, U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown of the Eastern District of Texas said in a statement. Our office is committed to protecting religious freedom. Farmersville City Manager Ben White said the city disagreed with the allegations but is cooperating with the United States. We are going forward with the conditions laid out in the settlement agreement, White said. No one with the Islamic Association responded to a call or emails requesting comment. NAIROBI, April 18 (Reuters) - Kenyan, Tanzanian and Zambian currencies are likely to come under pressure against the U.S. dollar next week but Nigeria's is seen stable. KENYA The Kenyan shilling is seen easing against the U.S. dollar in the coming week due to hard currency demand from the manufacturing and energy sector exceeding inflows from offshore investors buying government debt, traders said. Commercial banks quoted the shilling at 101.20/40 per dollar, compared with 100.95/101.15 at last Thursday's close. "Demand is mainly due to importers and corporates increasing their long dollar positions," said a trader from one commercial bank. TANZANIA The Tanzanian Shilling is expected to slightly depreciate versus the U.S. dollar next week due to anticipated hard currency demand from the construction and energy sectors as supply falls. At 0923 GMT on Thursday, commercial banks quoted Tanzania currency at 2,298 per U.S. dollar, up from a close of 2,310 a week ago due to hard currency inflows ahead of Easter holiday. A senior commercial bank trader said dollar supply, mainly from mining firms and corporates would reduce after the Easter holiday and demand would tick up, piling pressure on the shilling. ZAMBIA The kwacha is likely to remain under pressure against the U.S. dollar next week due to reduced hard currency inflows after the end of this week's tax payments. At 1243 GMT on Thursday, commercial banks quoted the currency of Africa's second-largest copper producer at 12.2900 per U.S. dollar, down from a close of 12.1630 a week ago. "Pressure should mount on the kwacha next week because VAT (Value Added Tax) payments, which attracted some dollar inflows end today," one senior commercial bank trader said. NIGERIA The naira is expected to remain stable next week as ample U.S. dollar liquidity from foreign investors buying treasury bills and exporters provides support for the currency, traders said. The naira traded at 360.50 per U.S. dollar this week, a similar level to last week. The currency was quoted at 360 at exchange bureaus and 306.95 on the official market, thanks to central bank support. Traders say foreign investors were still buying treasury bills to lock in yields, which has helped to support the naira. Nigeria's information minister told Reuters that the country's exchange rate policy is working well and the central bank is unlikely to change its multiple exchange rate regime anytime soon. (Reporting by John Ndiso, Nuzulack Dausen, Chris Mfula and Chijioke Ohuocha; Compiled by Chris Mfula; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) It's a blog for foodies around the world. Here you can read about recipes , new ideas and old techniques. You don't have to be a gourmet, just someone who really LOVES food and drink!!!! Fashionable Bigotry Against Gun Owners 2019 By Rob Morse. April 17th, 2019 Original Source The campaign season has begun, and gun owners are the minority that it is socially acceptable to hate. Without exception, the Democrat candidates for president have demonized US gun owners. According to them, lawful gun owners are the real source of crime and violence in the US. If you watch the news, gun owners are angry, fearful, rural, unsophisticated white men. Gun owners are mentally ill religious bigots who don't care about children being shot. Now that all the right-thinking people on CNN agree, we can finally take steps to control military style automatic firearms in the US (as if the 23 thousand firearms regulations we already have didn't exist.) Those slanders go unquestioned by the mainstream media because those lies fit their bigoted stereotypes. Facts don't matter because gun-owners are the minority we're supposed to hate. Why do gun owners receive so much hate from the media when slightly more than 60 percent of us say that gun ownership is looked at favorably in our community? These bigoted confession on the news tell us a great deal about the lives of today's media, but they don't tell us a thing about gun owners in the US. This is what we'd know if facts mattered. 72 percent of adults in the US have fired a gun. 22 percent of women own a gun and 36 percent of gun owners are women. 40 percent of women live in a gun-owning household. 40 percent of the participants at "Friends of the NRA" events are women and 40 percent are minority members. The average age at the Friends of the NRA banquets is between 40 to 45. That isn't what we were told on the news. Two thirds of gun owners own more than one gun so gun ownership is widespread. In addition, 52 percent of non-gun owners said they are open to owning a gun in the future. 20 percent of gun owners identify as democrat or leaning democrat. 72 percent of us think that most people should be able to own a gun. The gun owners we know the most about are those with a permit to carry concealed. These gun owners are more law-abiding than the police. Given these favorable demographics, why do we hear all the hate on gun owners from Democrat politicians? Money talks. Stated more precisely, campaign donations influence political positions. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg promised to spend a hundred million dollars in campaign contributions for anti-gun politicians. Make that two hundred million. That is more than ten times the money spent by the NRA and its affiliates. This anti-gun attitude makes sense once we think about it. The second amendment isn't about pistols, rifles, shotguns, or even about cannons. The second amendment is about limiting government power. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg doesn't like limiting government power, and neither do the other Socialists presidential candidates. Now the slanders against gun owners make sense. Socialism isn't power to the people; socialism gives power to socialist rulers. The people who support socialism view themselves as the rulers, not the ruled. That description fits the anti-gun candidates we've seen, and it fits our mainstream media today. Thanks, but my family will keep our guns..and our freedom. How about you and yours? Sources: Pew Research- Demographics of Gun Ownership Pew Research- Gun Report 2017 SlowFacts blog- More Truth Leaks Out About Gun Control Washington Post- Democrat Candidates Embrace Gun Control 2019 Back to Top The killing of 14 people in a remote corner of Pakistans restive southwestern Balochistan Province shows that the decades-long separatist insurgency in the region is losing steam. Local journalists say the April 18 attack, claimed by a previously unknown militant coalition, indicates that while years of a government crackdown, leadership disagreements, and fatigue have diluted nationalist militant groups fighting against Pakistan, the insurgents are still not ready to abandon violence. This attack took place at a time when Islamabad seems content with defeating the Baluch nationalist insurgents, Kiyya Baloch, a journalist from Balochistans Makran region, told RFE/RLs Gandhara website. He says the attack, claimed by Baloch Rajji Ajoi Sangar or the Baloch People Liberation Coalition, is a sign that two of the largest insurgent organizations, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), are now united after publicly disagreeing for years. In an April 18 statement sent to journalists, the coalition claimed that the attack only targeted military personnel among bus passengers near the town of Ormara along Balochistans southern Arabian Sea coast. "Those who were targeted carried cards of the Pakistan Navy and Coast Guards, and they were only killed after they were identified," the group's spokesman, Baluch Khan, was quoted as saying in the statement. Ormara, home to a Pakistani naval base, is part of the Gwadar district. The regions administrative headquarters and main town, also called Gwadar, is the scene of major Chinese investments. It is slated to be the lynchpin of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which aims to link the western Chinese region of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea through $62 billion worth of investments in energy and infrastructure projects across Pakistan. This attack is a blow to the claims that the government has secured Gwadar district, Baloch noted. In recent years, Pakistani officials have claimed that many members of the BLA, BLF, and other separatist organizations have surrendered while their leadership remains in hiding or in exile. Prime Minister Imran Khan called the April 18 attack an act of terror and ordered authorities "to make every possible effort to identify and to bring the perpetrators of the barbaric act to justice." Ziaullah Langove, Balochistans home minister, said the victims were found with their hands and legs bound close to Ormara, which is midway on a coastal highway linking the southern seaport city of Karachi and Gwadar. "Terrorists offloaded 14 persons from different buses after checking their national identity cards, Langove said. They took them and killed them. Akhtar Mengal, leader of the ethno-nationalist Balochistan National Party, also condemned the killings. Deeply appalled by the scale and intensity of the devastation that took place in Ormara today, he wrote on Twitter. Killing innocent people so brutally will never help achieve anything. The comments were a sharp rebuke to separatist militants who oppose participating in elections and have targeted pro-government Baluch politicians as well as members of Pakistans majority ethnic group, the Punjabis. Most members of the Pakistani security forces are Punjabi. A large Punjabi community, locally called settlers, once formed a sizeable part of the professional classes in many of Balochistans towns and cities. But the community became a major target of separatists during the peak years of the insurgency after 2006, which prompted tens of thousands of Punjabis to leave the province. The ongoing low-intensity Baluch separatist insurgency emerged in 2000 following the arrest of Khair Baksh Marri, a Marxist Baluch leader who championed separatism. Various Baluch nationalist factions and leaders have sought autonomy and a fair share in the regions rich hydrocarbon, mineral, and coastal resources since Pakistans independence in 1947. Some Baluch factions have repeatedly resorted to an armed struggle in the sparsely populated region that comprises more than 40 percent of Pakistans nearly 800,000-square-kilometer territory. Baluch are the largest ethnic groups in Balochistans more than 12 million population. The province also has a large Pashtun population concentrated in its northern districts along the border with Afghanistan. Baloch says that while the separatist insurgency peaked after the killing of senior Baluch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti in 2006, its strength and intensity have gradually declined since 2013. Elections that year resulted in a coalition provincial administration, and Baluch and Pashtun ethno-nationalist political parties headed the regions civilian administration for the next four years. The insurgent movement has substantially weakened in Makran region, Baloch noted, referring to Balochistans large coastal region that is considered a BLF stronghold. The organization gained prominence after the BLA, dominated by members of the large Marri Baluch tribe, weakened in northeastern and central Balochistan following the 2007 killing of its erstwhile leader, Balach Marri. Independent observers and Baluch nationalists say an extensive crackdown by Pakistani security forces relying on anti-nationalist militias, enforced disappearances, and other harsh tactics has weakened the insurgency. In December, Aslam Baloch, the most senior BLA field commander, was killed in a suicide attack in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. In November, BLA had claimed responsibility for a botched attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi that killed four people. Disagreements that sometime escalated into armed clashes among the insurgent groups and attacks on pro-government leaders and politicians willing to participate in elections also contributed to diminishing the insurgents appeal. Life has largely returned to normal in the region, Baloch said of Makran. Most attacks now occur in the remote regions. 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 I know we can climb it. Given time, the tank could go to the top of the world. Cpl. Howard Brewer wasnt simply being macho. After a reconnaissance ride April 11, 1919, Brewer was sure his 14-ton Whippet tank could climb to the 14,115-foot summit of Pikes Peak. Another member of the team, Sgt. A.H. Worrell, told The Gazette that he had driven tanks over trees and trenches on the western front and I am betting we get to the top. The mountain-climbing mission came at the nexus of money and morale the U.S. Treasury Secretary was to announce a final Victory Liberty loan drive, starting April 21, to get Americans to buy $4.5 billion of government bonds to close out the countrys final bills from World War I. The Navy immediately announced a supporting campaign. A Victory Ship would depart from San Francisco, bound for New York, and would travel each day at the reported rate Americans bought the bond. The Navys incentive scheme was speed. The Armys was height. It would send a tank to the top of Americas Mountain. Odds were against success. The Gazette reported local wagers gave the tank a 50 percent chance of reaching treeline (at about 12,000 feet), a 5 percent chance of reaching the summit, and even money the trip would include at least one casualty. Its not hard to see why. The road wasnt paved and had been finished for only three years. The weather was rough. A nearby weather station recorded 4 feet of snow at 10,000 feet. Plus, tanks featured new technology (and new drivers) in those days. Brewer had only been driving tanks for six months and yet would handle the British-made Whippet, slightly larger than todays 15-passenger vans, with a top speed of 8 mph. On April 14, 1919, a crowd of nearly 1,000 watched the chairwoman of the citys Victory Liberty loan committee, W.H.R. Stote, bash a bottle of local artesian Manitou Mineral Water on the tank and she said: I christen thee Little Zeb (after Lt. Zebulon Pike). I charge you with making the trip to the summit. As the Victory Loan shall not fail, you must make it to the top! The tank started strong April 15, leading a 20-car entourage two hours ahead of schedule for most of the day. At the seven-mile mark (9,500 feet) of the 20-mile road, 100 people stood by to watch the battle between the tank and a 10-foot snowdrift. The tank won. Two miles later, the tank punched through 20-foot drifts. There was so much snow that the cars had to stop at mile 11. Then, just before mile 13 (at 11,440 feet), with the first days objective in sight thats when the track-plate snapped and Little Zeb was stuck atop a 10-foot snowdrift. Repairs were difficult. Workers had to clear the snowpack under the tank to get to the engine. The cars carrying spare parts and oil were two miles away, and the temperature was often below freezing. They set up a tent to protect their lead mechanic and his helpers from the weather, and they worked through April 16. We go ahead, the overall mission director declared, and Brewer told the press he wanted to make it even if it means abandonment of the rest of the stops on the loan drives schedule. Once the repairs were complete, Brewer and Worrell climbed back into the tank and started again for the top, and progress came easy. Unfortunately, around midday, the team received orders from the Victory Liberty loan state chairman to discontinue the ascent of Pikes Peak so the tank tour could continue in other Colorado towns and cities. The crew turned around and arrived in Manitou Springs at 7:15 p.m., in time to park the tank for dinner at the Cliff House. Brewer had to stay at the hotel for the night with a light attack of pneumonia, while Worrell drove to a garage in Colorado Springs after dinner to store the tank prior to loading it on a train for its next stops in Buena Vista, Leadville and Denver, among others. Though the tank didnt reach the summit, the assault on Americas Mountain was a successful failure. Economist Richard Sutch notes that 20 million Americans bought bonds, which paid for more than two-thirds of the total war bill. The rest of the war was financed through taxes, an impressive accomplishment of fiscal discipline and patriotic support. More than a stunt, Little Zebs mountain trek tested technology by breaking the elevation record for tanks (astoundingly, climbing higher than most airplanes of the day). It also set the record for continuous tank operation, and Little Zeb ascended higher than any other motorized vehicle at that time of year. Fifty years before we put an American on the moon, we put a tank on Americas Mountain a confident step forward for the country and a part of the interesting and impressive military history of the Pikes Peak region. -- Lt. Col. ML Cavanaugh, PhD, is a non-resident fellow with the Modern War Institute at West Point, and co-edited, with author Max Brooks, Winning Westeros: How Game of Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict, from Potomac Books. The Air Force is investigating claims by anti-fascist groups that a Colorado Springs airman is active in a white-supremacist organization. Colorado Springs Antifa and Unicorn Riot allege in internet postings that Schriever Air Force Base Master Sgt. Cory Reeves is an active member of Identity Evropa, a group that espouses white supremacy and xenophobic views. The Air Force is aware of this allegation and Air Force officials are looking into the information at this time, Schriever Air Force Base said in an email to The Gazette. No further information or details of this allegation can be released until the facts involving the allegation are fully reviewed. Reeves could not be reached for comment. The anti-fascist groups have been increasingly active since a 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., ended in violence. One counterprotester was killed and 19 others were injured when an Ohio man rammed his car into a crowd. One of the groups that took part in the Virginia Rally was Identity Evropa, and its slogan You will not replace us gained infamy. The Colorado Springs Antifa group says on its website that We are committed to the complete destruction of the white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy. The groups claim Reeves goes by the screen name Argument of Perigee CO on an Identity Evropa internet chat site. Posts show pictures of Identity Evropa activities, including displaying the groups flag outside City Hall in Colorado Springs. Argument of perigee is a term used to describe the path of a satellite in orbit, something familiar to airmen in Schrievers 50th Space Wing. While the Air Force does not control the political views of its troops, it does forbid membership in white supremacist and other hate groups. Military personnel must reject participation in organizations that advocate or espouse supremacist, extremist, or criminal gang doctrine, ideology, or causes, including those that advance, encourage, or advocate illegal causes; attempt to create illegal discrimination based on race, color, gender, religion, national origin, or ethnic group; advocate the use of force or violence; or otherwise engage in the effort to deprive individuals of their civil rights, Air Force regulations state. Airmen who join forbidden groups can face court-martial for failure to obey orders, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming. At Schriever, where the Air Force controls most of its satellites, airmen who join supremacist groups also can lose their security clearances. Thats a career-ending step in the secretive space business. Founded by a Marine veteran, Identity Evropa claims it is dedicated to preservation of white culture. While members of the group have claimed it is not racist, non-whites and Jews are forbidden from membership. According to the anti-fascist groups, Reeves took pains to avoid being identified, called doxing in internet parlance. I would challenge those concerned with doxxing with the following: what are you doing to secure your personal identity online? the person with the screen name Argument of Perigee CO wrote. While offering no details on its investigation of Reeves, Schriever leaders say theyre dedicated to stamping out racism in the ranks. Racism, bigotry, hatred, and discrimination have no place in the Air Force, Schriever said. We are committed to maintaining a culture where all Airmen feel welcome and can thrive. Contact Tom Roeder: 636-0240 Twitter: @xroederx Colorado House lawmakers have given a strong bipartisan yes to a bill that adds vaping and e-cigarettes to the list of things that cant be used in most public indoor spaces. House Bill 1076 cleared the House on a 48-17 vote Thursday and now heads to the Senate. Republican state Rep. Colin Larson of Littleton, one of the bills co-sponsors, noted the Clean Indoor Act was passed a decade ago and that it banned indoor smoking of tobacco in a host of businesses, including restaurants, hotels and hospitals. Since then, however, electronic smoking devices, known to some as e-cigarettes and to others as ESDs, have exploded in use, including at schools. This new technology is not included in the Clean Indoor Act, he noted. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, about half of Colorado teens have tried vaping nicotine, and thats double the national average. The National Institutes of Health reported last December that vaping use by teens nationwide jumped dramatically between 2017 and 2018, with 37.3 percent of 12th graders reporting any vaping in the past 12 months, compared to just 27.8 percent in 2017. The bill would add e-cigarettes to the list of things you cant smoke in many businesses. That includes a ban on smoking in indoors areas, except for those places exempted by law (cigar bars, for example), regardless of the number of employees and whether or not the business is open to the public. The bill also would increase the radius between a building and where someone can smoke from 15 to 25 feet. But it would continue to allow use in cigar bars and establishments where smoking is permitted, and that includes those facilities with smoking patios and casinos. HB 1076 was amended by the House on Wednesday to add new signage requirements regarding minors for vaping and tobacco shops. It took more than six weeks for the measure to get from its only committee hearing to the House floor, a delay that allowed sponsors to work on amendments addressing concerns by those who use inhalers and other similar devices for medication, and that includes medical marijuana. During a February committee hearing, Kenny Breeding, who describes himself as a medical marijuana refugee, said the bill would shut down any opportunity for people like him to use vaping to consume medical marijuana anywhere but in the home. Thats important, he said, for those who use medical marijuana for seizures and may need to vape in an emergency situation. Businesses that want to ban vaping on their premises can already do so, Breeding said, and those who consume cannabis can choose to avoid those businesses. We live peaceably with the restrictions already in place, he told the committee. Those concerns also raised the possibility that the law could interfere with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The sponsors addressed those concerns with an amendment Wednesday that says the bill is not intended to inhibit a persons ability to take medicine using an inhaler or similar device, nor to prevent an employer or business from making reasonable accommodations for the medical needs of its employees, customers or others, particularly as with regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act. WASHINGTON Colorados representatives in Congress expressed concerns about Russian influence in the 2016 election described in the redacted Mueller report released Thursday, but disagreed along party lines about whether it vindicated President Donald Trump. The report from special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that the Russian government interfered in the election, largely by disseminating information that favored Trump on social media. The report also confirms what we already know, Russia interfered in our election, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner said in a statement. I will keep up the pressure on the Putin regime and pursue additional sanctions they cannot go unpunished. Gardner, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been critical at times of Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, there was no evidence in the Mueller report that Trump directly colluded with the Russians, only that members of his campaign had links with them. Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet said, The redacted report makes clear that the presidents behavior, and that of his team, should deeply concern every American. The report documents the presidents failure to cooperate with the special counsel, efforts to mislead the American people, and troubling interactions with Russia, a foreign adversary. The report said the evidence was inconclusive on whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation by hiding evidence or intimidating accusers. Mueller suggested that Congress continue to investigate the obstruction of justice allegations. Members of Colorados delegation split on the extent that the Mueller report accused the president of misbehavior. After nearly two years, the Mueller report is now available to the public and it shows no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Colorado Springs Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn said in a statement. It is time to move away from the false collusion allegations that stem from the Democrats and the media. Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Aurora said Attorney General William Barr had gone too far in trying to protect the president during a news conference Thursday before the release of the redacted report. Barr told the media Trump took office under suspicion of cooperating with the Russians to help his election campaign. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability, Barr said. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was, in fact, no collusion. On the allegations that the president had attempted to obstruct the investigation, Barr said there was no evidence of a crime, only that Trump was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency. Crow said Barr had acted improperly in defending Trump. The role of the attorney general is to uphold the rule of law, not to be the personal lawyer for President Trump, Crow said. This mornings press conference was deeply troubling and made clear that Attorney General Barr would rather serve the political agenda of the president than provide the American people with an independent and transparent assessment of the facts. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, echoed Crow, disputing Trumps and Republicans claims that the report exonerated the president. The report released today paints a very different picture than what the president and attorney general had hoped the American people would see, DeGette said. Rep. Ken Buck, a Greeley Republican and recently elected chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, criticized Democrats for continuing their attacks on Trump. For two years, Democrats misled the American people with countless attacks on [Trump], Buck said in a Twitter message. Today, we can confirm there was no collusion and no obstruction of justice. Despite Muellers findings, it seems nothing will stop Democrats from trying to baselessly attack the president. The bill that bans the kind of firefighting foam that has contaminated water supplies in southern El Paso County has cleared the House and is on its way to the Senate. House Bill 1279 is sponsored by a bipartisan quartet of El Paso County lawmakers, including its House sponsors, Democratic Rep. Tony Exum and Republican Rep. Lois Landgraf. In the Senate, the bills sponsors are Democratic Sen. Pete Lee of Colorado Springs and Republican Sen. Dennis Hisey of Fountain. The bill would ban Class B firefighting foams that contain intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS. Such chemicals were used for decades at Peterson Air Force Base and have been found in the contaminated Widefield aquifer, which serves Security, Widefield and Fountain. The foam was sprayed on the ground and used for years in a firefighting training area that was flushed into the Colorado Springs Utilities treatment system, which was ill-equipped to remove the chemicals. The effluent ended up in Fountain Creek, which feeds the Widefield aquifer. The Air Force has since replaced that foam with a new version that the military says is less toxic and more environmentally friendly, though it still contains perfluorinated chemicals. Under the bill, fire departments would be banned from using such foam for training exercises beginning Aug. 2. A first offense would result in a $5,000 fine, with the fine rising to $10,000 for subsequent offenses. Firefighters protective gear would be barred from containing the chemicals. House Bill 1279 was amended by the House on Wednesday to address concerns by the Department of Defense, according to Exum. As amended, the bills restrictions do not apply to circumstances where the foam is allowed by federal law or required for military purposes. The amended bill also allows for its use at gasoline or special fuel storage or distribution facilities that are supplied by pipelines, vessels or refineries, and tank farms. This bill is a start to help clean up some of our bad drinking water, and a start to keeping our firefighters safer, Exum said. But thats not to say these issues wont be found elsewhere, Landgraf added. Everything in our water system ends up running together, said Democratic Rep. Daneya Esgar of Pueblo, who noted that the water from Fountain winds up in the Arkansas River and in the farmlands of her district. Sure, Wayne Williams now sits on the Colorado Springs City Council while his wife, Holly Williams, serves as an El Paso County commissioner, but the newly minted councilman is hard-pressed to see an issue. Spouses, partners and friends aside, conflicts of interest are ever-present, Wayne Williams said. But elected officials are expected to recuse themselves when presented with such a conflict. Wayne Williams pledged to recuse himself if such an occasion arises, but he strained himself trying to think of an example that might arise with his wife. Holly Williams echoed that promise and laughed as she noted that shes not married to a city councilman. Rather, hes married to a county commissioner, she said. Certainly if there are any conflicts, we would both recuse ourselves, Holly Williams said. The couple might cross paths in their official positions, but that wouldnt automatically qualify as a conflict, Wayne Williams said. Both would be expected to represent their respective constituents and neither is afraid of disagreeing with the other, he said. While Wayne Williams represents the entire city, Holly Williams district only touches the northeast portion of the county. Her full district spans north to the Douglas County line, including Monument and straddling Interstate 25 as far south as Dublin Boulevard and Vickers Drive in Colorado Springs. Turf shared by the Williamses includes the Air Force Academy, about 180 acres of which was recently annexed into the city by the council so a new visitors center could be built. Its customary for county commissioners to be consulted before those types of annexations, said Wayne Williams, who served two terms as a commissioner and as county clerk and recorder before becoming Colorado secretary of state. But had the spouses been serving on the city and county at the time of the annexation there still wouldnt have been a problem, he said. Neither of us have a personal stake in the issue, Wayne Williams said. Neither of us are personally gaining anything from it. Its simply governments working cooperatively. One benefit to the community, Holly Williams said, is that she and her husband could double down on mutually beneficial tasks, such as asking the Colorado Department of Transportation for more funds. Asked whether the Williamses relationship would bring any new considerations to the councils actions in the future, City Attorney Wynette Massey merely referred to the citys code of ethics and the City Council Rules and Procedures. The Colorado Springs City Charter prohibits officials from using privileged information for personal gain or to further the financial or personal interest of an immediate family member. The countys code of conduct offers a similar take. If a council member is presented with a conflict of interest they are expected to excuse themselves from any related vote, the councils rules and guidelines stipulate. Such recusals arent considered oddities and theyre carried out with little discussion. Occasionally Council President Richard Skorman will recuse himself from a vote that might affect his downtown businesses. Other times council members will refrain from voting on matters involving those known to them personally. Perhaps a situation could arise where Wayne Williams said he could be hired by the county or Holly Williams could be hired by the city. But I dont foresee that as being even a remote possibility, he said. Williams said while on council hell moonlight as an election consultant. Recently he was contracted by the city of Broomfield and also completed some work in Atlanta. The only thing I can think of would be if the county were hiring me as an election consultant. And that would be something where Holly would recuse herself, he said. The Williamses certainly are not the first political power couple in Colorado. Former U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley held Colorados 5th Congressional District at the same time that his wife, Lynn Hefley, served as a state representative. Similarly, U.S. Rep. Ken Buck and his ex-wife, state Rep. Perry Buck, served concurrent terms. Both Bucks remain in office to this day. If concerns or complaints arise, Wayne Williams said hes happy to address them. But its not as though his marriage should come as a surprise to anybody. Its not like it wasnt open, he said. The voters knew that when they made the decision. The voters knew that Holly was a commissioner and was married to me when they elected her by 41 points and they knew I was married to Holly when they elected me. Grand Old Partisan highlights the nation's first anti-lynching legislation, signed this day of 1921 by Jacob Preus, the Republican Governor of Minnesota. Among its provisions was dismissal of police and local officials who failed to protect someone from being lynched. The law also accorded reparations for victims' families. The bill had been written by Nellie Francis, an African-American Republican civil rights activist. She did it in reaction to the infamous lynching of three African-Americans in Duluth the year before. Francis was president of the Minnesota State Federation of Colored Women. Her husband, another prominent African-American Republican civil rights activist, would be President Coolidge's ambassador to Liberia. Governor Preus was also famous for these words of wisdom: "Socialism is a political cult that would destroy the principles of private property, our religion, and our homes." Amen. Here is a Video Version of this article on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vzC6qa29O90 Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement. Each day, Michael Zak's grandoldpartisan YouTube channel and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than sixteen decades of Republican heritage. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states so far. He also wrote the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision. Buy the book at Amazon "This is the most amazing book about politics that I have ever read. The Overview should be required reading for anyone with even a minor interest in government. The remainder is an enthralling history lesson that I will never forget. For years, we have all been misled about the true nature of the GOP. This is the real deal! Read it and be proud!" "Michael Zak wrote the definitive history of the GOP." "Back to Basics for the Republican Party is the most significant contribution to the Republican Party in the last twenty years apart from Ronald Reagan." "Back to Basics for the Republican Party is more important to our party now than ever before." and "one of the best books I ever read" Blog Archive December (2) November (2) October (2) September (2) August (3) July (3) June (3) May (2) April (2) March (3) February (2) January (2) December (2) November (2) October (2) September (3) August (3) July (4) June (4) May (5) April (4) March (4) February (4) January (4) December (4) November (6) October (2) September (3) August (2) July (10) June (3) May (2) April (8) March (5) February (3) January (4) December (4) November (5) October (5) September (4) August (7) June (4) May (4) April (2) March (5) February (2) January (4) December (3) November (4) October (4) September (3) August (4) July (4) June (5) May (3) April (3) March (4) February (5) January (5) December (2) November (3) October (4) September (4) August (4) July (4) June (5) May (4) April (4) March (5) February (4) January (4) December (5) November (4) October (4) September (4) August (4) July (4) June (4) May (3) April (4) March (3) February (4) January (2) December (5) November (5) October (8) September (7) August (7) July (8) June (8) May (5) April (7) March (6) February (2) January (4) December (3) November (7) October (3) September (3) August (4) July (5) June (8) May (7) April (7) March (5) February (6) January (8) December (6) November (5) October (7) September (4) August (7) July (7) June (6) May (8) April (10) March (12) February (3) January (8) December (9) November (7) October (7) September (8) August (9) July (5) June (7) May (4) April (4) March (5) February (8) January (6) December (5) November (5) October (5) September (2) August (2) July (3) June (2) May (5) April (1) March (3) February (4) January (1) December (3) November (3) October (3) September (2) August (2) July (2) June (4) May (4) April (4) March (4) February (4) January (3) December (5) November (5) October (4) " " Sleeping in on the weekends can be good for your health, says a new study. Yuki Cheung/EyeEm/Getty Images Good news for people who use their days off as they're intended to rest up after a busy week. It turns out those compensatory ZZZ's are far more beneficial than previously thought, according to a Swedish study published in an April 2018 issue of the Journal of Sleep Research. The study looked at more than 43,000 people who participated in the Swedish National March Cohort, which began in 1997. Follow-up for each subject continued until they died, moved away or Dec. 31, 2010, when the study officially closed. The researchers for the sleep study pulled relevant data from the cohort questionnaire about basic sleep habits, like how many hours approximately participants sleep on a weekday/workday night, as well as how many hours they snooze per night on days off work. Response increments ranged from less than five hours to greater than nine hours. Advertisement Previous studies have shown that people who consistently sleep too little (short sleep is defined as five or less hours a night) or too much (long sleep is nine or more hours per night) have higher mortality rates than people who get just the right amount of sleep every night. However, the authors of this study point out that few, if any studies ask participants to differentiate between weekday and weekend sleep, which makes a big difference. "Because there are 5 weekdays and 2 weekend days, it is likely that self-reports of typical sleep duration more strongly reflect weekday sleep. Thus, it is of interest to investigate the relationship between weekend sleep duration and mortality, as well as the different patterns of sleep duration between weekday and weekend sleep," they write in the study. When the researchers looked at all the data, findings were consistent with previous conclusions of increased mortality if both weekday and weekend sleep are short, or when both are long. "However, when weekend sleep is extended after short weekday sleep no association with mortality is seen," they write. "We suggest that this may reflect positive effects of compensatory sleep." Experts have long advised people to get up at the same time each day, even on weekends, as a long-term strategy for getting better sleep each night. The theory is that yo-yo sleep habits disturb the circadian rhythms. So while this new study is great news for those of us who like to sleep in on days off, many sleep experts say more studies need to be done on this subject. "The real question is whether there is, in fact, a build-up of deficit, or biological changes that are gradual over time, even though you get recovery sleep," Dr. David Dinges, chief of the division of sleep and chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine told Time. He was not involved in this sleep study. Now That's Interesting The study authors identified some interesting patterns when looking at all the data. They found that people who consistently log long-sleep hours are less likely to use sleep medications, drink less coffee and never smoked. Those who engage in habitual short-sleep are typically physically active, older and less educated. Disease control office concerned over monsoon epidemics as network of experts remains broken It is well known that the monsoon invites epidemics. Given the possibility of a spread of monsoon diseases, the division earlier used to make preparations and mobilise its staff, including vector control inspectors, accordingly to deal with epidemics. The James Webb Space Telescope is on a mission to look deeper into the Universe - and therefore further back in time. Barbara Burger has led Chevron's innovation efforts for almost a decade and is passing the responsibilities to Jim Gable. Photos courtesy AK AL AS AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA GU HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA PR RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VI VA WA WV WI WY Photos by David Blanchette The DCFS headquarters at Fourth and Monroe in Springfield. With 15 directors in 16 years, court-ordered compliance, government reviews, stormy legislative hearings and several recent highly publicized deaths of children, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has become everyones punching bag. The newly nominated DCFS director, former department employee Marc D. Smith, faces the unenviable task of trying to run the states child welfare agency under intense scrutiny. While public attention will be focused on Smith in the coming months, the departments frontline workers will continue to feel the pressures of their demanding jobs. The stakes couldnt be higher. Photos by David Blanchette DCFS child protection supervisor Arnold Black, Champaign. If you think DCFS workers need to develop a tough hide to do the work, youd be right. But they also consider the job to be a calling, a career to which they feel an emotional attachment.I dont think people comprehend how much we care, said Heidi Creasy, a Peoria area investigator who has been with DCFS for 10 years. When something goes wrong, no one is more distraught and upset than we are. I have one particular case that I will never get over. Ever.A 2008 case still weighs heavily on Stephen Mittons, a 24-year DCFS child protection investigator who works on Chicagos south side.We come into contact with families at their lowest point. You cant help but have a human side and look at a family with an empathetic eye, Mittons said. This is a very high-stress, high-paced job and you really have to be invested in what it is you do in order to stay in this job any length of time. To a person, the staff members that you will encounter on a day-to-day basis at DCFS are dedicated, highly motivated, and their intent is to do the best they can with the information they have. Arnold Black has been with DCFS for 12 years and is a Champaign-area child protection supervisor. He remembers a case where an investigator put in tremendous extra effort to heal a long-standing family rift in a time of crisis. Photo courtesy Stephen Mittons DCFS child protection investigator Stephen Mittons. A child was going to pass away at the hospital, and the investigator was able to broker the relationship between the mother and grandmother so the grandmother could meet the baby before it passed, Black said. Thats something I will never forget.DCFS supervisor Black said there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish what needs to be done, and it causes a tremendous amount of stress.Im blessed to be able to turn off the stress when I go home, but we have a lot younger work force now and we have to remind them to take care of themselves, to do things that interest them outside of the workplace, Black said. Because if not, they wont be able to turn it off.Mittons, the Chicago-based investigator, said there are three response codes that trigger his investigations: normal, where he has 24 hours to initiate the investigation; emergency, where he must respond within two hours; and action needed, where some type of response must be made within 15 minutes.At any given time my day can be interrupted by an emergency or action-needed case where I have to drop what I am doing at that point to turn my attention to that new case, Mittons said. In this job, you can never really rest and think it may be an easier case. You never really know what is going to be behind that door unless you knock on it.Investigator Creasy said she walks away from each situation hoping that she had all of the input she needed to make the right decision. But even a case where an investigator finds nothing wrong can come back to haunt DCFS, and Creasy said thats the result of unrealistic expectations for the agency.Just because I had contact with a family doesnt mean that the kid is a ward of the state, Creasy said. If somebody calls in a report and says a family doesnt have food, I go out and check for food. Theres food, the refrigerator is full, theres milk, theres formula, theres everything, then something happens to that kid later in the year. That goes on the list that we had involvement and failed the family.Black, Mittons, Creasy and most DCFS employees are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31. A DCFS frontline worker was the victim of a homicide recently while on the job, and Council 31 regional director Anne Irving said its a danger that department employees face every day.You have somebody walking into a home where there may well have been violence already, and they are going in with just their notebook and pen, Irving said. Workers will talk about sleepless nights, that constant sense that they are responsible for the safety of all of the kids in their caseload.The constant on-the-job stress faced by DCFS workers can lead to anxiety, depression, substance abuse issues, burnout and even post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to Mary Crisler, a psychiatric unit nurse practitioner at HSHS St. Marys Hospital in Decatur. Any of those issues can affect on-the-job performance, she said.Your judgment could at some point become clouded, which could make things worse, Crisler said. Maybe youre not overseeing the things you should be overseeing, you are not looking at it from the right perspective, maybe you are neglecting to follow through on certain things that need to be done.You can be in the job for a number of years, you love your career and the people you work with, but you can still have something happen, or something builds over time, that can trigger an emotional break, Crisler said. Individuals who supervise these workers need to step back and look at things from the workers perspective. Make sure that signs and symptoms are being noticed, they are not just suddenly hit with these issues.When DCFS investigator Mittons joined the agency 24 years ago there were approximately 4,600 agency staff statewide. Although the agency has made great strides recently in hiring frontline workers, there are now approximately 2,600 DCFS workers in Illinois, he said, a number confirmed by the DCFS Fiscal Year 2020 budget request.I think DCFS is barely handling its mission because of the understaffing, Mittons said. This is a job where you have to pay full attention to what it is youre doing at that point in time. Multitasking can get you into difficulty. The legislators, even though they are well-meaning, continue to add items or issues to the DCFS plate. I should be able to go into a home and assess risk and safety, Mittons said. But at the same time Im also checking to see if a dog is immunized, or if Grandma in the corner is well. click to enlarge Photos by David Blanchette DCFS Investigator Heidi Creasy, Peoria. Supervisor Black acknowledged that staff hiring progress has been made, but said the state needs to play catch-up with family resource funding as well.Because our resources are limited, sometimes services get started much later than they should for families that need domestic violence, drug and alcohol, or mental health services to get rid of some of those risk factors, Black said.Investigator Creasy has seen the recent surge in hiring, which was started by former Gov. Bruce Rauners administration and would continue under the Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The proposal calls for a $1.26 billion DCFS budget, $75 million more than this year, and has been touted by the Pritzker administration as the largest single-year increase the agency has had in more than 20 years.I think DCFS this year has done an absolutely phenomenal job of getting us staffed, Creasy said. Its taken a while to get there, but things are looking better.AFSCME Council 31 has worked closely with the previous and current administrations to hire more DCFS investigators, who start at $52,524 per year, and get caseload numbers reduced per employee. Many people hired as investigators dont make it through training, and AFSCMEs Irving said the union and management came up with a solution to help abate that problem.They are able to hire people as investigators even when they are at head count (fully staffed) knowing that they are going to have a vacancy soon, Irving said. They get them trained, so when a vacancy opens up they can slot somebody in who is already a trained investigator.Staffing levels at DCFS have long been an issue. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class action lawsuit in the 1980s against Illinois that resulted in a 1991 consent decree. That ruling required DCFS to maintain specific staffing, caseload and child service levels. But the ACLU had to go back to court in 2015 and again last year when it was discovered that Illinois was not adhering to the consent decree.Theres one particular group of children who have really high mental and behavioral health needs who have suffered, so we went back to court to address specifically the lack of services and resources the department provides for those children, said ACLU staff attorney Claire Stewart. Childrens lives are at stake here. Its not just the worst possible scenario, which is the death of children, which is happening. Children are suffering in so many other ways as well.Families in poverty are another casualty of the long-term low staffing and resource levels. The Family Defense Center, based in Chicago, is a legal aid nonprofit that only works with DCFS cases.What we are concerned about is getting parents and families help when they reach out to the state, and not criminalizing or punishing them for their difficult life circumstances, said Family Defense Center executive director Rachel Ruttenberg. Because the system is so poorly managed and there are so few resources for prevention and to assist families when they need help, you get more and more families who are being investigated and are getting findings of these low-level child neglect allegations due primarily to poverty.Gov. Pritzkers Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal would add 126 more DCFS direct service staff, including child protection specialists and child welfare specialists, plus an additional $10 million to expand case management and other services to families.DCFS has had 15 directors in the past 16 years. Crisis service agency director and former DCFS employee Marc D. Smith will become the next agency director if his nomination by Gov. Pritzker is approved by the Illinois Senate.Each director wants to put their own stamp on things, they all have their own vision, said DCFS investigator Mittons. Then the agency starts to move in that direction, which may be a 90-degree turn from the director you just had. So sometimes you see this agency kind of jerking one way or the other as it tries to reevaluate or redefine its mission. The ACLU thinks the number of directors with short tenure is at the heart of many recent DCFS issues. Our more recent experience with the department has been very frustrating and disappointing with the revolving door of directors over the past 10 years, said the ACLUs Stewart. We had several years of really positive improvement during a period where we had one director for about 10 years and were able to move thousands of kids out of the system and improve safety.That one director for about 10 years was Jess McDonald, who was the DCFS director from 1994-2003 during the Jim Edgar and George Ryan administrations. McDonald was a DCFS caseworker during the 1970s.There is no such thing as the good old days, McDonald said. We used to refer to this in the department as the tyranny of anecdotes. One case would essentially color the entire department, including the public and private sector. There were always cases that were notorious for doing that.McDonald said that when there isnt consistent leadership, DCFS doesnt have a clear vision or accountability for that vision, and the staff is forced to deal with things on a wing it basis. He said that ideally a DCFS director should come from the ranks, and a kinship needs to be developed at the agency so employees want to stay and leaders can be grown within the system. But McDonald said that, regardless of whos in charge, the safety of children needs to be priority number one.McDonald added some words of advice for the agency as it deals with the latest rounds of tragedy and scrutiny.You cant manage public relations in the middle of a tragedy. Whats missing, more often than not, is a strategy for communicating to the public using the media as a source of that education effort, to make sure everyone knows exactly how the agency is performing, McDonald said. Transparency has to be a major component of your communications strategy.Officials from DCFS and Gov. Pritzkers press office did not respond to a request for an interview with or statement from acting director Smith for this story.Privatizing some services has hurt immenselySupervisor Black said the privatization of many intact family services since 2012, those intended to help keep children and families together when they are part of the DCFS system, hasnt been working as it should.We have had private partners that closed their doors, or there gets to be a long waiting list for those services, Black said. One private agency hired younger staff who didnt have the experience, and they had so much turnover that they had to close their doors after only three years.Investigator Mittons has had similar experiences in the Chicago area.Privatizing some services has hurt immensely, Mittons said. We often find ourselves identifying families that need further services from our agency, but we often have to turn around and farm out the work to some agencies which dont quite have the same level of expertise and education.AFSCMEs Irving said the union has encouraged DCFS to take some of the work away from private agencies and have DCFS staff work on the difficult cases. Thats a suggestion the Pritzker administration has taken to heart.Given the departments intense focus on Intact Family Services, it is our intention to move 10 percent of the high-risk cases back to the department from the private agency providers.... This will allow the agency to more closely focus and monitor the highest risk intact cases and ensure safety for children and families, said an entry in Gov. Pritzkers FY 2020 Budget Briefing.On March 18, two-year-old Jahir Gibbons of Chicago was beaten to death just two days after a caseworker from a private agency conducted a home visit. Seventeen-month-old Semaj Crosby died in 2017 in a highly publicized case involving a private agency in Joliet. This February, two-year-old TaNaja Barnes of Decatur was killed. Her case was also being handled by a private agency working on contract with DCFS.A recent DCFS Inspector Generals report cited understaffing and excessive investigative caseloads as contributing problems in such cases. On March 27 Gov. Pritzker asked the University of Chicagos Chapin Hall policy research center to conduct a comprehensive review of DCFS Intact Family Services Unit, the part of the department that handles the private agency services in question.I felt that we had to do betterThe late TaNaja Barnes lived in State Rep. Sue Scherers district. Scherer called for a special House Adoption and Child Welfare Committee hearing into the childs death.I felt that we had to do better for the children involved in the DCFS system, Scherer said.Scherer is cosponsoring a bill with State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago to improve several areas of the law that pertain to DCFS. The legislation would require another level of review before a private agency could ask a judge to return a child to a home. It would also provide six months of family services from the time a child is returned to his or her mother, rather than measuring those six months of service from the time a child is placed in temporary foster care prior to being returned home.Scherers bill would place investigative priority on all cases brought to the attention of DCFS by those who are required by law to report suspected abuse and neglect. The legislation would also require that all children receive a well-care checkup, whether they are involved directly with DCFS or a private agency, so another set of trained eyes could examine those children for signs of abuse or neglect.Scherer is optimistic the bill will pass, and hopes it will help DCFS employees like Creasy, Mittons and Black to better safeguard Illinois children.Ive been a teacher for 35 years and a number of times I have said to a DCFS worker, Honest to God, you just have a special place in heaven, Scherer said. I dont know how they do their jobs, its got to be so tough. Photo courtesy Karen Witter Pamela Cohen Hirsch, the most recent member of the Springfield High School Hall of Fame, with Rich Berning, fellow SHS classmate who nominated her for the award. The Springfield High School (SHS) Hall of Fame honors graduates who have achieved national eminence. Pamela Cohen Hirsch, class of 1964, is the most recent honoree, inducted March 29 at a ceremony in the Springfield High School auditorium. After a highly successful business career, Hirsch founded the nonprofit Baby Quest Foundation in 2012. The organization provides grants to help people with fertility issues achieve their dream of having a child. She lives in Los Angeles, California. Several of Hirschs high school classmates attended the ceremony. They describe her as quiet and reserved in high school and smart. She double-majored in French and Spanish at the University of Illinois. Fresh out of college, she was the first Caucasian teacher at a high school in Texas. She moved to California and taught at a low-income middle school before launching her successful business career.In 1985 she read a story in Time magazine about the Princeton Review, a new initiative providing tutoring and preparation for college entrance exams. She was intrigued, and her persistence paid off. She became a Princeton Review franchise owner, and her territory extended south of San Francisco through Silicon Valley and down through Monterey. She grew the company from 38 students in 1985 to 2,000 students in 2001. After eight years her business was included in the top 500 fastest growing companies in the U.S., and she was one of only 12 women recognized. When she left the business after 15 years and moved to Los Angeles, she had 300 people working for her. Her business provided courses to prepare students for the SAT, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT and GRE exams.Hirsch then dabbled, unsuccessfully, in other businesses. Her daughters painful experience trying to have a child inspired her to create the Baby Quest Foundation to help others. Hirsch explains that one in eight couples have difficulties with infertility, and the cost of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) often ranges from $10,000 to $15,000 or more, plus medications. She saw the pain and suffering firsthand as her youngest daughter went through several years of IVF that ended in miscarriages and ultimately turned to gestational surrogacy. Hirsch also saw how expensive this was and how little of it insurance covered. She was inspired to help others who want to have a child and cannot afford the expense. The vision of Baby Quest is fulfilling dreams, building families.Baby Quest pays for costs not covered by insurance, including IVF, egg donation, embryo donation and gestational surrogacy. Grants are paid directly to the fertility clinic, and applicants must be under treatment by a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at an accredited fertility facility. The organization is inclusive, providing grants to heterosexual and same-sex couples and singles.Baby Quest has provided grants to people all over the country, including here in Springfield. Given the many challenges associated with infertility, there is no guarantee that every grant will result in a successful pregnancy, but every grant helps people on their journey. Tiffany, of Springfield, received a grant from the Baby Quest Foundation after finding out about the organization from a friend who had received a grant. She and her husband now have 20-month-old twin boys.Baby Quest was very helpful in our journey, says Tiffany. Unfortunately, we werent successful with our cycle involving Baby Quest. However, that failed cycle did convince us it was time to move forward with another doctor from St. Louis. Pamela was super helpful, informative and wonderful to talk to. Im also impressed with her work and motivation for the infertility affecting so many families. Tiffanys twins boys were born at St. Johns Hospital, where Tiffany has worked in labor and delivery for the past 12 years. St. Johns Hospital is also where Hirsch was born.When I started Baby Quest, it was completely dependent upon individual donors, says Hirsch. As we grew, we got the attention of other foundations that contributed. Eventually, we expanded our base and now receive support from all...individuals, other foundations and some corporate partners. Sustaining momentum is a challenge, but our community of support is growing yearly.Baby Quest recently selected nine new recipients, bringing the total number of grants to 106. Sixty-eight babies have been born as a result of help from Baby Quest. The foundation has awarded nearly $1.8 million, including cash and the value of negotiated doctor discounts, waived legal fees and complimentary medications. For more information about Baby Quest, go to https://babyquestfoundation.org/.Richard Berning, a classmate of Hirsch in junior high and high school, nominated Hirsch for this award after learning more about her at a class reunion. Even after being successful, she tried things, found failure and went on to other successes, says Berning. That is a good message for students. Persistence is a quality frequently mentioned by her classmates. Suzy Rechner of Springfield grew up on the same street as Hirsch, and they have remained friends. What Pam wants to do, she does, says Rechner.SHS seniors attended the induction ceremony, and Hirsch offered them some words of wisdom. Baby Quest is the most rewarding of any of my careers, she said. She credits her teachers at Springfield High School and background in English as being influential. Knowing how to write influenced everything, says Hirsch. She also cited luck, patience, persistence and passion. I hope you as graduating seniors can find something you enjoy doing, each and every day.The Springfield High School Hall of Fame was established in 1967 as a gift from Carol C. Hall and Dorothy Sivia Hall, graduates of SHS. The award is presented annually to a graduate of SHS who has achieved national eminence, has been graduated for a minimum of 25 years and who attended SHS during their junior and senior years. Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years. I became active in politics in the late 1950s, got elected to Congress in 1964, and have remained engaged in one way or another every year since then. Ive had a ringside seat for a long time. So I suppose I should not be surprised that I get asked a lot these days how American politics have changed over the last six decades. A few things stand out. When I first arrived in Congress, Americans had faith in the institutions of government. President Lyndon Johnson had actually run on a platform that we could successfully wage a war on poverty and had been elected. It seems inconceivable today that a politician of prominence would be so bold and so naive as to propose such a thing, let alone believe that we could do it. Today, Americans have little confidence in governments ability to deliver. And with reason: Congress cant even pass a budget on time, and even the most routine matters get bottled up. A war successfully waged on anything domestic seems beyond its grasp. We can argue about when this shift began was it catalyzed or merely summarized by President Ronald Reagan when he famously said that government is the problem, not the solution? Regardless, the days of LBJ-style confidence are long gone. The second big difference is the extreme political intensity we see all around us. Almost every facet of politics is more complicated and pursued more vigorously, with a harder edge to it, than when I began. Voters are more demanding and want instant results. Consultants are everywhere you turn. Lobbyists have multiplied and become immeasurably sophisticated and effective at finding ways to get what they want. Interest groups have exploded in number and competency. The media has become more aggressive. And money, of course, has become an avalanche. Politics has shifted from low-intensity conflict to big business and very serious business, at that. With all this, of course, the sharp polarization that marks our politics today has flourished. Weve always had partisanship, but today it penetrates everything: the electorate, the political parties, legislatures, Congress and the White House. Which has led to one of the greater ironies of this era. On the one hand, the political world is flooded with information it used to be that one of the chief tasks of a politician and policy-maker was to gather information; today your problem is sorting through it. On the other hand, in this atmosphere deliberations are often based less on facts, experts and evidence than on partisan beliefs. In a sea of information, were drowning in misinformation. Finally, the audience for politics has changed. When you spoke to the Rotary Club in southern Indiana in the 1960s, you were speaking to Rotary members in southern Indiana. Today, you could very well be speaking to the world. Whatever you say can become available everywhere in a matter of hours, if not minutes. Newsworthy events and statements that once took days to stoke a reaction today get an instantaneous and often hot-blooded response. This has all made the work of politics and governing much more difficult. Organizations intensively scrutinize every tiny step, and can gin up a massive response at a moments notice. The basic building blocks of politics gathering facts, deliberating on next steps, finding common ground have become charged in their own right, subject to partisan attack. Bridging our divisions over health care, taxation, immigration, the debt and deficits, and U.S. intervention abroad seems ever more elusive. Plain and simple, its become harder to make the country work. When I began in politics, elected officials felt a responsibility to find their way through difficult problems together. They believed that compromise and negotiation were core political values, intrinsic to our democracy and crucial to making it work for everyone. There are still plenty of politicians who believe this but also plenty who do not, who have shown they can thrive in a political environment that stacks the deck against the shared work of finding common ground. Weve come a long way as a country over the last six decades. But when it comes to politics as a democratic endeavor to address the nations challenges? Weve lost ground. Lee Hamilton is a senior adviser for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government; a Distinguished Scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; and a Professor of Practice at the IU ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years. Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, spent more than a year holding hearings and overseeing negotiations which eventually produced SB 1829, a massive omnibus bill on sexual harassment. The proposal would do everything from limiting non-disclosure agreements that could prohibit disclosure of sexual harassment, to preventing unions from representing both an accuser and an alleged harasser in disciplinary proceedings, to protecting contract employees from sexual harassment for the first time in state history, to forcing employers to allow victims of sexual harassment to take leaves of absence from work to seek medical help, legal assistance, counseling, safety planning and other assistance. Despite all this, the historically conservative Illinois Chamber Employment Law Council supported the bill and it passed the Senate last week without opposition. A Chamber representative even attended a press conference with Bush to tout the bills success. Almost immediately, however, House Majority Leader Greg Harris, Assistant Majority Leader Natalie Manley and Majority Conference Chair Kathleen Willis released a joint statement that basically said Bushs measure would be placed under review in the chamber and stuck in a special study policy panel thats charged with coming up with the Houses own omnibus bill. The statement didnt contain so much as a thank you to the sponsor or a hint of praise for the massive bill. Indeed, the language used in the release made it seem as though the legislation was inadequate to the task at hand and was no big deal. Bush served on the Democratic Party of Illinois Anti-Harassment, Equality and Access Panel (and intervened to have Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough kicked off the panel because she was too closely aligned with House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is also the state party chairman). She also co-chaired the Senates bipartisan Task Force on Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Awareness and Prevention. This is a life mission for her. Bush has personally poured hundreds of hours into her bill, so to watch the House Democrats blithely shrug while tossing it on a pile with a bunch of other, lesser bills was simply too much to take. She was also furious that Rep. Willis had snatched up sponsorship of her proposal in the House without her consent and then refused to relinquish control. Some House members have also complained about their bills being dumped into the informal sexual harassment and ethics study panel and have also been rebuffed by Harris, Manley and Willis every time theyve asked to move their bills separately from the rest. But the senior Democrats are determined to put their own bill together and thats that. The legislative process is often compared to sausage-making for good reason. But Speaker Madigan and the House Democrats have had some, um, issues with this particular topic for the past couple of years, leaving some folks suspicious about his actual intent. Madigans own chief of staff had to resign after he was accused of sexual harassment. Madigans political operation is being sued for retaliation after a former worker complained of sexual harassment by the brother of Madigans alderman. A former staffer lost his lobbying job after allegations of misconduct while on staff. Another former staffer was accused of misconduct while running some Madigan campaigns. We havent done enough. I take responsibility for that, Madigan wrote to his members in February of last year after one incident. I didnt do enough, Madigan then wrote in September of last year. I have made it a personal mission to take this issue head-on and correct past mistakes, he added in his Chicago Tribune op-ed. So, maybe the House will craft a tough new law. Maybe they just figured that since the Chamber enthusiastically supported it, Bushs bill wasnt strict enough. I guess well find out by May 31, which is the scheduled end of the spring legislative session. But that final product had better be pretty strong and comprehensive or there will be heck to pay. Bush will make sure of that. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ UN pushes Nepal to amend transitional justice act in a strongly worded letter In the 10-page letter, which was sent through Nepals Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, the rapporteurs have said the existing selection procedure lacks impartiality, independence and transparency. One has transformed a desert into a fabled land of prosperity, harmony, and innovation. The other is sitting on a mound of natural resources, just started to come on its own, out of the shadow of previous regimes. Relations between the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan would seem to be a match made in heaven, as was demonstrated recently during the visit of President Shavkat Mirzoyoyev of Uzbekistan to the UAE. The chemistry between him and the UAE leaders whom he met Crown Prince Mohamad bin Zayad al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and UAE Vice President and Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was terrific. And it was not without reason. Both the UAE and Uzbekistan stand to greatly benefit from each other and deepening bilateral ties and mutual confidence and faith in each other is only a matter of course. The UAE has much to teach the world about good governance, ease of doing business, tolerance, religious and ethnic diversity, and managing expatriate populations. Dubai, for instance, embodies the latest achievements in science and technology. Uzbekistan on the other hand is a resource rich state, with enormous reserves of natural gas, uranium, and gold, which is eager to engage the outer world. Having cast off the shadow of the gigantic Soviet Union, under the dynamic leadership of its current president Shavkat Mirziyoyev, it is eager to chart out a new course on its historic destiny. It seeks to embrace the world, even while claiming its rightful place in the international community. With centuries old ties binding one to the other, both sides therefore, and rightly, seem eager to consolidate the ties that already exist, while exploring for expanding them in newer areas. The experience of the UAE and other nation states that have made great strides in exploiting technology and harnessing human potential is vital for Uzbekistan. As President Mirziyoyev pointed out the UAE has created a miracle in the desert within a historically short period of time to become one of the global centers of economy, innovation, trade, finance and tourism. In recent years, bilateral relations between the two countries have risen to a qualitatively new level. The UAE with a sovereign wealth fund of USD 800 billion is a valuable economic partner for the cash strapped and doubly landlocked Central Asian country. The UAE has long been looking to diversify its economy, away from oil, and away from the traditional Western markets. Today, 107 enterprises operate in Uzbekistan with participation of investments from the Emirates, while 28 firms and companies from the UAE have representative offices in Uzbekistan. They specialize mainly in the production of textiles, building materials, canned fruit, in the printing business, wholesale trade, services. The trade turnover between the two countries currently is USD 400 million, but the potential was much higher, as President Morziyoyev pointed out. It was to expand these ties and take them to the logical next step that President Mirziyoyev paid an official visit to the UAE from March 24-26, 2019. Agreements worth a whopping USD 10 billion were signed a far cry from 2007 when the late President Islam Karimov had visited the UAE in the quest for USD 3.5 billion worth of deals. Both countries also have immense potential for cooperation in the tourism sector. Last year, the number of tourists from the UAE to Uzbekistan grew 1.5 times. Apart from the many tourist attractions, what also attracts visitors to Uzbekistan from the Middle East is the numerous shrines of significance to Muslim populations the world over. A recently signed decree of the President of Uzbekistan enables citizens of the United Arab Emirates to enter Uzbekistan visa-free. This would contribute not only to the development of tourism, but also to the further intensification of trade-economic, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation between the two countries. But Uzbekistan also has the potential to be a valuable partner to the UAE in other spheres too. It has a highly trained and skilled human resource pool. Hundreds of Uzbek nationals live and work in the UAE. Both as modern Muslim countries have amply demonstrated religious moderation and tolerance, a respect for diversity, and for ensuring womens rights. They serve as role models for countries like Afghanistan and others in the Muslim world. Uzbekistan has a successful counter terrorism program and its program to counter religious radicalism sets the paradigm for other countries struggling with such threats to follow. It has battled insurgency and extremist movements like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and Hizb-ur-Tehreer. It has had numerous citizens flocking to the Islamic State in Syria and views the threat from it very seriously. Nevertheless, as the center for Muslim learning for centuries, it has adroitly managed to leave healthy space for peoples religious beliefs and traditions, as well as to publicly maintain a healthy space from overt religiosity and harmony and diversity. Hosting the Regional Anti Terrorist Structure (RATS) of the regional Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Uzbekistan thus makes for an important partner for sharing intelligence, cooperation in counter-terrorism and in regional peace. Similarly, the UAE, as a model state for its citizens and the millions of expatriates working there, is particularly invested in battling the scourge of religious radicalism and violent extremism that it can breed. In particular, religious radicalism and terrorism in the region seeks to overthrow the existing order, and therefore targets the very regimes in place there. Countering extremism is synonymous with regime protection in the region and the countries of the Gulf Coordination Council therefore take this threat extremely seriously. Both countries therefore have a major role to play in combating radical Islam and violent extremism in the region. This was also reflected in the joint statement issued by both sides in which the leaders reiterated their determination in the fight against terrorism, violent extremism, illegal migration, drug trafficking, transnational organized crime and other threats and security challenges. This also makes the partnership a valuable factor in the stabilization of Afghanistan another area that both countries are invested in. Both countries want to see a stable and secure Afghanistan in peace with itself and the region. Both the UAE and Uzbekistan have clout in the Muslim world. While UAE was one of the only three countries to have extended legitimacy to the Taliban rule in the 1990s, it more recently hosted the militant group and facilitated talks between it and US officials in December 2018. Its financial and other aid to the country together with the leverage that the UAE has over Pakistan through its financial aid to the latter makes it an indispensable partner for the stabilization of Afghanistan. Moreover, in 2017 UAE officials suffered direct terror attacks in Afghanistan which claimed the life of the UAE ambassador to that country. This makes it even more urgent for them to usher in some kind of stability in the war ravaged country. Further, as a modern prosperous multi-ethnic state, the UAE is wary of regressive regimes like the Taliban and has the leverage to keep it in check, should any future government in Afghanistan include the Taliban. Uzbekistan, as a bordering state with Afghanistan, had directly suffered from the fallout of the Afghan jihad, which has spawned groups like the IMU. Many Uzbek nationals have flocked to join the ISIS and Uzbekistan is wary of ISIS cultivating a base in Afghan, as it is of returning Uzbek recruits to ISIS. In view of all this, Uzbekistan has been playing an extremely positive role in trying to solve the Afghan conundrum. Not only did the country allow its territory to be used as a transit route by US and NATO forces in the immediate aftermath of the war in Afghanistan and overthrow of the Taliban, in recent years it has been facilitating peace talks and mediation between different stakeholders regarding Afghanistan, as was seen in the Tashkent international conference on Afghanistan in March 2018, and in which the UAE had also participated. Finally, both as modern Muslim countries have amply demonstrated religious moderation and tolerance, a respect for diversity, and for ensuring womens rights. They serve as role models for countries like Afghanistan and others in the Muslim world. Which only goes to make the partnership between the UAE and Uzbekistan even more valuable for the region, and beyond. The thing is that the Regime has a viable alternative in the form of the oldest, largest, and most popular resistance organization in Iran, which has fought two separate regimes since it was founded in 1965. That is the Peoples Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK). In order to help you earn more about the MEK, we have created an in-depth series. In this part, we will learn about MEK supporters in Iran and how the Regime tries to discredit them in the eyes of the Iranian public. As weve mentioned previously, the MEK has wide support within Iran. However, it is difficult to estimate the exact numbers because the MEK is banned in Iran, so there are no official membership or supporters lists. Otherwise, everyone on them would be subject to arrest, torture, or even execution. In fact, Article 186 of the Islamic Punishment Act states that MEK members or supporters, or even anyone who is found to be active or effective in advancing its cause whatever that means, will be charged with waging war on God and those found guilty will be executed, face an amputation of the right hand and left foot, or be banished. And the language is vague for a reason. Thats how the Regime justified the 1988 massacre of 30,000 MEK members and supporters, many of whom were just found in possession of MEK leaflets or were merely friends, relatives, or neighbours of MEK members. Given all of this, many Iranians do not publically disclose their MEK affiliation. However, it is possible to estimate the number of MEK members in Iran by looking at the actions taken by MEK members and the Regimes continued attempts to eliminate the MEK. For example, the Iranian peoples uprising that began in December 2017 was led by the MEK. It featured hundreds of thousands of people across many months and across most of Iran calling for regime change, chanting MEK slogans, and putting up pictures of MEK leader Maryam Rajavi. To cause this sort of sustained protest, the MEK would have to have tens of thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of supporters. No one would chant MEK slogans, knowing that it could mean their murder by the Regime, if they did not support the MEK. And if the MEK did not have this kind of support from the Iranian people, why would the Regime be so intent on the destruction of the MEK at any cost? Over the past 40 years, the Iranian Regime has: Labelled the MEK as monafeghin ( a slur meaning hypocrites) Chants Death to the [MEK] at government rallies, school assemblies, and Friday prayer sermons, alongside Death to America Run an anti-MEK propaganda campaign Arrested and killed hundreds of thousands of MEK members and supporters None of this would be necessary unless the Regime believed the MEK was a real threat to the Regime. In our next piece, we will earn about how the MEK uses TV to spread their message to the Iranian people. But the Trump administration made a very tough decision to officially include the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the US list of terrorist organizations. The decision is deeply influential. The reactions of the Iranian regime and its regional proxies show how much impact it has. The US decision will have many implications. The verdict sends a clear message to the mullahs that the US seriously wants to neutralize the sectarian regional plan of the mullahs. The Trump administration does not fear the threats of the regime or the IRGC chiefs who are now subject to the laws on terror. Some analysts argue that IRGC leaders do not visit the United States and Western capitals to worry about the US move. Their analysis, however, is shallow. In the case of a mostly secret organization, the resolution will prohibit further collaboration between any US company, bank or other entity and the heads of the IRGC. By this, the sources of funding from the banks will be dried up systematically, leaving a clear warning to all parties dealing with the Revolutionary Guard or its operatives and vigilantes in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Another American objective is to denounce the practices of the Revolutionary Guard and to associate it with terrorism. The mullahs regime, which constantly speaks of championing security and stability, combating terrorism and claims to be a victim of so-called hostile US policies, will find itself in international isolation. The ban on dealing with the IRGC will limit the movement of an Iranian militia of more than 100,000 terrorist elements outside Iran. It will also affect the Basij elements that repress the Iranian people in the country and suppress popular movements in recent years. The ban also covers IRGC-controlled businesses that account for about one-third of the Iranian economy. The inclusion of the IRGC on the US terrorism list is also a firm decision to control Irans ballistic missile program. The program is managed and supervised by the IRGC. Those in the Qods Force involved in providing militias loyal to the mullahs in Iraq and Syria with weapons and equipment and mobilizing mercenaries will also be prosecuted under the new rule. Hostility between the two sides is mainly due to the losses that the IRGC have inflicted on the US. Since 2003, the IRGC has killed 603 Americans in Iraq since 2003, according to official sources. The number represents about 17% of the total number of Americans killed in Iraq at the time. The IRGC has been subject to various American sanctions for years. Despite the fears of some American security services about the militias reaction to the new measure, the White House seems determined to firmly address the Iranian threat. It goes without saying that the US response to any Iranian reaction threatening US forces in Iraq or Syria will be harsh, so the guards will not be in a position to take any action that could lead to a US military strike. Dealing with the IRGC as a terrorist organization is a start to suffocate the mullahs regime and prevent their militias from undermining regional and global peace and stability. Retired IRGC General Saeed Qassemi, who is described as an outspoken ultraconservative who launched severe attacks on former President Mohammad Khatami and incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, told Regime-run media that during the 1990s he had visited Bosnia to train the fighters for battles against the Serbs while wearing the IRCS uniform. He noted that Al-Qaeda did not use the IRCS uniforms, but did claim to be there for humanitarian reasons. IRGCs spokesman Ramazan Sharif said: Mr Saeed Qassemis remarks, who for a while was in Bosnia voluntarily and has retired a long time ago, are his personal views, devoid of credibility and are not shared by the IRGC. It is strange to how this statement could be considered a personal view as it is either the truth or a lie, but Rouhanis office also dismissed the claim and accused Qassemi of helping the enemy. The IRCS denied Qassemis claims, saying that permission never would have been given for this, and threatened to sue him. However, Qassemi never claimed to have sought permission and may well have impacted an aid worker without telling the IRCS. Qassemis comments came just days after the US State Department listed the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and accused it of supporting militias around the world. It also helps prove that Iran and Al-Queda have been cooperating for years. Qassemi, 59, said: In Bosnia, in the heart of Europe, there were many developments. We were side by side with al-Qaeda. The members of al-Qaeda learned from us. From all over the world, Mujahedin poured into Bosnia, and there was a new development. Muslim Jihadi units were established. He said that he was only revealing it now because CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour, who he called a dishonourable spy of the CNN, had already discovered the ruse and was reporting on it. It is worth noting that during the 1990s, the Iranian Regime vocally supported the Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs and Croats, due to advice from mid-ranking cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who currently presides over Irans Council of Guardians and the Assembly of Experts. Iran even launched a Bosnian speaking radio station and TV channel to assist the Muslim Bosnians. During this time, the IRGCs extraterritorial arm, Qods Force, was able to expand and gain more power. 46 illegal weapons handed over to police in Dhading district After the Ministry of Home Affairs notified local administration to search for illegal weapons, the District Administration Office in Dhading, on March 15, notified people living in the northern part of the district to hand over their illegal weapons to the concerned security agency within 35 days Prahlad Rijal is a business reporter at The Kathmandu Post, focusing on the energy sector. Before joining the Post, Rijal was an online reporter at The Himalayan Times. Nayak Paudel is a crime reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Since joining the Post in 2018, he has also written on health issues. Better change your scene The time has come for the theatre fraternity to act to make the stage safer for all. Just adding interesting stuff to the blog in my spare time, so pardon the miscellany and lack of any organization. If you need to email about something (not hood ornaments) that isn't relevant to the comment section, e mail me at jbohjkl@yahoo.com, which will be responded to pretty fast on weekdays Images used IAW Title 17 U.S. Code 107 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107 This is under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license.See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode - Matteo Guidicelli shared that he had a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte - The meeting happened days after Matteo joined the Philippine Army - The actor recently joined the Armed Forces of the Philippines as a reservist PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Kapamilya actor Matteo Guidicelli was seen having a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte. KAMI learned that the actor had shared some photos from their meeting on Instagram. "I had an interesting meeting this afternoon," Matteo said in his caption. In a report by the ABS-CBN News, Matteo did not share any details on what the meeting was about. Their meeting happened just days after Matteo joined the Philippine Army. As previously reported by KAMI, Matteo became a reservist in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The reservists in the army are trained to prepare them render their services when natural disasters and national emergencies happen. PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! In March, Matteo was named as an officer in the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA), along with celebrities Erwann Heusaff and Nico Bolzico. Born on March 26, 1990, in Cebu City, Gianmatteo Fernan Guidicelli is a Filipino-Italian model and actor. He is also into kart racing and triathlon. His grandfather is the late Senator Marcelo Fernan. POPULAR: Read more news about Matteo Guidicelli! Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Dugtungan Challenge: Who Will Win? DJ and TV producer Fernanne, singer Classica and singer March have joined our Dugtungan challenge. Enjoy their smart approach and beautiful voices! on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: Kami.com.ph - Vice Ganda exposed to public that a Japanese became his benefactor when he was still studying - He said that he never met this foreigner who paid for his tuition - Because of this, the actor expressed a heartwarming message for him on air PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Kapamilya comedian Vice Ganda expressed his heart-stirring message to the Japanese citizen who became his benefactor when he was still studying. KAMI learned that the foreigner paid for the celebritys educational expenses from elementary until college. Vice revealed that he was not able to meet his benefactor but he usually sends letter to him in Japan, expressing his utmost gratitude. As of now, the actor has no idea about the whereabouts of the said Japanese but he emphasized that he is one of the reasons why a lot of blessings came into his life. The Phenomenal Star also stated that since he already has the capability to lend help now, he will also try to provide assistance to the people in need. Ang sarap po talagang makatanggap ng tulong, alam ko yan. Dahil nagdaan ako sa ganyang estado ng buhay yung kailangan na kailangan ko ng tulong PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! Ako po ay nakapag-aral dahil mayroong isang tao na hindi ko nakilala, may isang hapon na nagpa-aral sa akin mula elementary hanggang college Gusto kong magpasalamat sa kaniya. Gusto kong malaman niya na ako yung paslit na pinag-aral niya noon. May nangyaring maganda sa buhay ko dahil sa tulong niya sa akin Kaya ngayon, ako naman ang may kakayahang tumulong, ako naman ang magpapa-aral sa mga deserving na makapag-aral Kasi kailangan natin yun Vice quipped. At the end of his message, the comedian wished for the moment when they will finally meet so that he can also offer whatever kind of help the Japanese would need. Here is the video: In a previous article by , Vice got pranked by Vhong Navarro and a Tawag Ng Tanghalan contestant in the midst of hosting Its Showtime. Vice Ganda is a popular actor and host in the Philippines. He was discovered in a comedy bar and his exceptional talent in making people laugh paved the way for him to star in blockbuster films such as Petrang Kabayo and Praybeyt Benjamin. POPULAR: Read more news about Vice Ganda! Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Which food delivery app is the best? We tested three famous food delivery apps: Panda, GrabFood and Honestbee - to check which of them is the coolest. What is your experience with ordering food using these apps? on HumanMeter! Source: Kami.com.ph Nepal's government is aggressively pursuing journalists and it could get worse under a new legislation The detention of and subsequent charges filed against journalist Arjun Giri earlier this week under the Electronic Transaction Act for publishing a story about a local businessman has reignited the conversation about existing and proposed laws in Nepal, which media advocates say could be used to stifle press freedom. Construction of runway completed at Pokhara international airport The runway at the international airport being constructed in Pokhara has been completed two years after the project launched, raising hopes that the infrastructure will be ready before schedule. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Driving down the freeways of Los Angeles, you're likely to see all sorts of billboards, banners, interesting architecture, and other distractions that hopefully don't make you crash into anything. LAist reader M.J. wanted some answers: "Who hangs the banners with random slogans on the building on the right that you pass at the Grand Avenue exit going east on I-10 towards DTLA?" The signs in question can be seen atop the Vertigo building, which houses events space Casa Vertigo. BILLBOARD CLICKBAIT The Twerk Miley sign atop the Vertigo building. (Courtesy Casa Vertigo) Building owner Shawn Far loves grabbing onto pop culture moments, looking for opportunities to draw attention with catchy or provocative slogans. Pop culture figures who've been named by the sign include Kanye West, Roseanne Barr, Miley Cyrus, and Kendrick Lamar. A tribute to Nipsey Hussle hanging from the Vertigo building. (Courtesy Casa Vertigo) Some of the most memorable have include "TWERK MILEY" (following Miley Cyrus twerking on the MTV Video Music Awards) and "PRAY FOR KANYE" -- as well as political signs like "KANYE 2020?," "OPRAH FOR PRESIDENT," and "TRUMP NOW. One Reddit user called the signs "billboard clickbait." The Vertigo, located just southwest of the 10/110 interchange, has between 300,000 and 400,000 people who see it on a daily basis, according to Far. They get lots of attention with their catchy sayings -- interspersed with advertising. The billboard goes for $25,000 for two weeks. Most recently, they hung a banner on the side of the building for Nipsey Hussle after the rapper/community activist's murder -- with an advertisement for Fashion Nova running on the roof. The building's advertising kit promotes the high visibility of the signs, with images of previous billboards used to promote fundraisers and conventions. But it also includes numerous examples of what it calls "brand awareness billboards," which includes those provocative signs everyone remembers. GETTING POLITICAL A sign speculating around Oprah Winfrey running for president on the Vertigo building. (Courtesy Casa Vertigo) After Bernie Sanders didn't win, Far switched his support to Donald Trump, Far said. They received some threats over the Trump sign, according to Far. "You know what, unfortunately, in this day and age, you cannot be very clear about supporting him," Far said. "But I see positive things off of him, as far as business, and the economy." While the sign was up, someone went up at night and covered the W of he sign, according to Far. "It became 'TRUMP NO,' which was very smart and interesting of the person who did it," Far said. The signs' politics are all over the place -- they've also included a billboard reading "BUILD LOVE, NOT WALLS." A HISTORY IN FASHION & THE MASONS A sketch of the Vertigo building. (Courtesy Casa Vertigo) The building was first built in 1926 by L.A. architects Morgan, Walls and Morgan (better known in another iteration as Morgan, Walls and Clements) -- they designed other L.A. landmarks like the El Capitan, the Music Box, the Mayan Theater, and more. It was originally built for fraternal organization (a la the Freemasons) the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Far rechristened the building as Casa Vertigo in 2010. Far's worked in fashion for more than 30 years, he said. He owns both the Vertigo women's fashion line, as well as a line of unisex clothing targeted at LGBTQ allies called I Am Gay USA. He said that he got his start importing clothing from Europe before later opening retail stores. Far sees his work with the Vertigo building as helping to improve the area. "Before I purchased Casa Vertigo, it used to be an abandoned building," Far said. "My lawyer was recommending not to buy it -- he told me, let me buy you a bridge out of nowhere, but don't buy this business. But I did like it, and I saw potential in it. And fortunately, it's now a very good piece of the community." So next time you're driving down the 10 or the 110, take a look up -- you may see another provocative catchphrase. Or just an ad. If you have any more questions you want us to look into, ask us below: Government to promote value-added gem exports Nepal is losing out on a large amount of export revenue due to lack of value-added gem exports, said officials of the Department of Mines and Geology. ICYMI: Here are our top stories from Thursday, April 18 Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (April 18, 2019). Posted Thursday afternoon, April 18, 2019. Mayor Pete on the porch: South Bend mayor and candidate for the Democratic nominee for President Pete Buttigieg campaigning in Marshalltown, Indiana, Wednesday, April 17, 2019. Photo by Sara Jordan-Heintz/Times-Republican. [Editor's note: I haven't hopped on Mayor Pete's bandwagon and hold no brief for him. I haven't decided on whose bandwagon to hop on, although I'm leaning towards Kamala's.] First lesson I learned watching Pop Mannion supervise during his first go-round as town supervisor when I was in high school and college was that I was not cut out for politics. Too short-tempered. Too shy. Too lazy. Too dumb. Second lesson I learned was this, explicitly stated in various rephrasings by Pop many times during both his tenures as supervisor, usually after he came home from a town board meeting: Dont make the mistake of thinking because you know what the the problem is and know what needs to be done to solve it youve effectively solved it and actually doing the work to get it done is a minor detail that will take care of itself. Knowing what needs to be done is not the same as knowing how to do it. Pop generally knew how to do it. He also knew how to explain how to do it to others so that they then knew how to do it too and could help him do it or, better yet, do it themselves, freeing him to take care of other problems. Those other problems usually required him to explain to more people how to do the work that would solve them. Third lesson is more of a corollary to the second. People dont like being told how to do things, especially if what youre telling them is how to do their jobs, and theyll resent you for telling them and resist adopting your plan over theirs, even if they know in their hearts your plan will work better. It isnt a whole lot to go on, but based on things hes said, the way he talks, what Ive read---most impressively, his book---I think Buttigieg knows how to get things done. I think he does. Dont read Shortest Way Home if you dont want to find yourself on Mayor Petes bandwagon. Atrios has another one of his trenchant posts, this one primly titled The Pigfucker Whisperers , which begins with this trenchant burn of elite political journalists and pundits: The problem with the concept of "coastal elites" is that they are basically a certain segment of elites who happen to work in media/politics on the coasts, and by coasts we mean NYC and DC, who narrate this concept of "coastal elites" as if they were talking about people other than themselves. My whole time "in" politics centrist goobers have been talking about cracking the code to speak in the mysterious languages spoken by people not in their social circles. The Real American has taken various forms in this popular conception, though I will say in the past this mythic creature seemed to bear some relationship to actual people, while the media's creation of The Trump Voter or the (white) Working Class in this latest chapter of their novel seems to be almost wholly fiction. Not that Trump voters don't exist - they obviously do - they just aren't recognizable in any of the portraits painted of them by the Art School graduates at the New York Times. As it happens, though, the particular centrist goobers Atrios had in mind when he was writing work for Slate and the Washington Post, Will Salentan and Aaron Blake. Blake wrote a non-trenchant column that Saletan approvingly and enthusiastically linked to on Twitter with an egregiously non-trenchant tweet, of which Atrios says; If you're thinking about how "we" need to talk to "them" then you've already lost this particular struggle, and coastal elites who imagine we can send an ambassador from Harvard because he picked up some pigfucker at some point in his life and he can use his language to talk to the natives of that strange land known as Real America are as dumb as, well, Will Saletan. Who is always dumb. Heres Blake being as dumb as Saletan: For all their desire to beat President Trump in 2020, the Democratic Party hasnt figured out how to talk about his supporters. Hillary Clinton christened many Trump voters deplorables in 2016, and to this day the liberal base has a strong distaste for suggesting Trump voters were motivated by anything other than fear and bigotry. Claims that they were acting on economic anxiety have become a regular object of ridicule on social media. There is a sense that this glosses over Trumps real, baser appeal and even bestows undue legitimacy on his presidency. Trumps real, baser appeal is to his mobs of hideous men who are motivated by fear and bigotry and deplorable. Thats what the WALL is about. Thats why the government was shut down for for over a month. Thats why Trump declared his national emergency. Thats why there are troops on the border who he laments cant get tough the way they can in other countries. Go back even farther, to the day Trump staged his announcement he was running for President Trump Tower. He began with that unsubtle symbolic declaration that he was rich as Croesus (which is a lie, the lie thats given him the platform to make his thousands of lies since) and immediately, unambiguously stated he was going to run a racist, xenophobic campaign. Most of the political media was dazzled by the golden elevator and in one way or another based their coverage of the election repeating the Trump campaigns line that his being a rich guy was why he had such appeal to working stiffs. They were economically anxious and he knew how to make money, ergo, he would make them money. The Trumps a populist who can speak to the hard-pressed (white) working class of myth and legend narrative was a way for journalists to fawn over his lifestyle of the rich and famous. Whats more, his voters told them what motivated them. In every report from the Real America where Hillary never went (except when she did), the hideous men and women who lived no place else but in diners said it: they hated and feared brown and black people and were rallying around Trump because he was going to make America safe for white Christian people like them again. And the journalists would dutifully write it down and include it in their reports and then ignore it. So youre worried about losing your job? No, Im worried one of Those People will take it from me. Blake doesnt seem to have been there for those parts. But then apparently neither were many of his colleagues in the art schools of the elite liberal media. And they have themselves convinced that what the Democrats need to beat Trump and win back the White House is their own Trump---a big, strong, tough-talking, no-nonsense white guy with (white) working class appeal. Thats why Biden. Thats why Beto. Thats why Brown, momentarily, back before he took himself out of it. Thats why Buttigieg. Thats what theyll look for if Buttigieg falters. The reason its not Bernie is they like him as something else---an irritant. Hes good at and good for making Democrats mad which leads to Democrats in Disarray stories that practically write themselves. The reason its not Booker is obvious. But hes also not all that tough-talking and his way of being no-nonsense is too calm, too reasonable, too charitable, and too steeped in religion. My own feeling is that ORourke is too full of nonsense. I think his nonsense was beginning to worry the pundits. Buttigieg has come along just in time for them. Maybe thats why theyre working so hard to bring him to the fore. Cause and effect are real mixed up here. For the moment, Mayor Pete fits the bill. And hes more than happy to play up how he fits it. Hes calculated that his best chance lies in going after Bernie and Biden voters. A month ago, Bernies campaign was afraid of Beto and directed their efforts at knocking him out of Bernies path. If they know whats good for them now, theyd be terrified of Mayor Pete. But hes also calculated that his chances are improved by his winning over the goobers in the elite media art schools. But heres where Atrios gets less trenchant. Mayor Pete isnt an ambassador from Harvard who picked up some pigfucker at some point in his life and can use his language to talk to the natives of that strange land known as Real America. (I feel like Atrios meant language skills, and meant it as a dig at Buttigiegs over-praised and swooned-over facility at picking up foreign languages, and skills got left out in the typing). Buttigieg is an Indiana native, born and bred. He knows how to talk to people who live in those pigfucking towns (I also suspect Artios knows how sneeringly elitist pigfucker sounds and he intends it as a satire of the media elites true feelings about the Regular Americans they claim to sympathy with.) because he grew up in a state thats dependent on pigfuckery and its attendant occupations and businesses for its economic well-being and he paid attention, as he apparently did to most things. Among the many things he was and is precocious at, he was precociously observant and attentive. And he met and got to know lot of pigfuckers and their families, friends, neighbors, business partners, bosses, and employees around the Hoosier state when he ran for state treasurer. He didnt need to learn to speak their language for that campaign or this one. He already spoke it. Fluently. What hes learned to speak is political journalese. Buttigieg isnt a pigfucker whisperer. Hes a pundit whisperer. End of Part One. Part Two is finally off the assembly line. Follow the link to "He Makes Them Feel Smart". ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Might as well read Blake's whole column: Follow the link to "Pete Buttigieg stresses empathy for Trump voters. Democrats may not want to hear it." at the Washington Post. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future by Pete Buttigieg is available in hardcover and for kindle at Amazon and as an audiobook read by Buttigieg himself from Audible. India bans herb import from Nepal For the past month, India has been strictly enforcing its prohibition of the importing of medicinal herbs from Nepalgunj into its borders, and this has severely affected local businesses. Bill Aimed at Preventing Police Deadly Force Moves Forward The California Act to Save Lives, AB 392, cleared its first hurdle at the State Capitol. The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 5-2 in favor of the legislation which is now headed to the Rules Committee for review. Authored by Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), the legislation aims to restrict the use of deadly force by police officers, which has ended the lives of more African Americans and Latinos in California than any other state in the nation. In 2017 alone, cops in California killed 172 civilians. Of that number, Latinos made up a disproportionate 47.1 percent and Blacks accounted for 15.1 percent. Weber says her goal for introducing the bill, which has drawn wide and vocal opposition from police unions and law enforcement support groups, is to change the culture of policing in California and prioritize the sanctity of human life not to victimize law enforcement. ADVERTISEMENT This bill does not in any way put any officer at harm. That is not the intent, said Weber. It is written to address the critical issues weve faced in this nation for over 400 years: how we treat others who dont look like us. This bill strikes a balance. Advocates of AB 392 from across the state many of them social justice activists along with friends and family members of people injured or killed by police came to Sacramento to witness the process and express their support. They filled the gallery of the Jesse Unruh room in the State Capitol and packed onto the main floor of the Assembly, many eyes full of tears as the moment called up memories of their loved ones. I think AB 392 is a necessary bill that needs to be passed. It will help preserve life, said Ciara Hamilton, whose first cousin, Diante Yarber, was fatally shot in 2018 by four police officers in Barstow. If any officer goes outside of de-escalation tactics, they would face criminal charges. I think that is equal, fair and just plain common sense. Hamilton said she attended the rally on behalf of Yarber and his three daughters. AB 392 calls for redefining the states existing legal measure of reasonable force, replacing it with the word necessary. Officers would only be allowed to use deadly force if there is no other option. It would also amend the California Penal Code regarding justifiable homicides by peace officers, opening cops up to more civil and criminal charges for killing citizens. Weber and the bills co-author, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), say they studied data from other cities that employ similar police de-escalation tactics to prevent homicides and injuries. That information helped to inform the language, spirit and structuring of the bill. If passed, AB-392 would become the first law in the country to regulate police officers use of deadly force. Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the Public Safety Committee, presided over the meeting where Californians from all walks of life stepped up to the microphone to mostly affirm their support for AB 392. Only about a dozen people spoke up publicly against the bill. ADVERTISEMENT I have never met people more hurt than those who are in this audience, Weber said. It has made me keenly aware just how deep and hard the pain is when people dont believe there is fairness and justice. As it makes its way through the legislature, AB 392 will likely face resistance already gathering from civic and political groups. Police unions across the state believe that the bill will put members of law enforcement at a disadvantage and place their lives in harms way. Anything that changes the word reasonable is unreasonable, said Assemblymember Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) who spoke against the bill during the hearing and voted against it in committee. Lackey, a former California Highway Patrol officer for nearly 30 years, posted on Twitter that he believes proponents of AB 392 dont have a malicious intent in crafting the legislation. He insists, however, that it would be harmful to peace officers. If #AB392 becomes law, he tweeted. More cops will unfortunately die. This is an undeniable fact. The committee hearing concluded two days of activities and advocacy ramping up to the big day. A march and rally Monday hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union of California was the highlight. Family members of some of Californias most controversial and widely remembered victims of police violence Oscar Grant, Sahleem Tindle, Mikel McIntyre, David Garcia, Stephon Clark, among many others attended the rally held on the north steps of the State Capitol. Black Administrators Hold Black Child Conference and Scholarship Luncheon Academic excellence for African American youth will take center stage at the 44thAnnual Black Child Conference and Scholarship Luncheon on Saturday, May 4, at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Airport Hotel. The educational symposium, sponsored by the Council of Black Administrators (COBA), will share strategies and resources to aid teachers and parents in ensuring that students perform in their studies at the highest level possible. According to Kandice McLurkin,COBA president, the theme is Power of the Past, Force for the Future: Continuing the Legacy of Academic Excellence for the Next Generation of Black Students. The agenda includes several workshops outlining methods to support children academically, socially, and emotionally. ADVERTISEMENT COBA has a legacy of nurturing culturally responsive practices to all students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, McLurkin said. Through this conference, we aim to assist educators in enhancing their delivery of instruction, aid administrators in utilizing district resources, and help parents to reinforce learning at home. Among the conference highlights is the presentation of 20 scholarships to L.A. Unified School District graduating seniors. The grants will include the Dr. Owen Knox Four-Year Recurring Scholarship, which will be awarded to the student with the highest academic achievement; and the inaugural Dr. Michelle King Trailblazer Scholarship, which will honor a student who made significant accomplishments at their local school community. Also, the Dr. Lawrence H. Moore Humanitarian Scholarships will be awarded to four students for their outstanding charitable efforts at their schools. The youth will be representatives of COBAs Multicultural Humanitarian Coalition partners, the Association of Jewish Educators, the Alliance of Asian Pacific Administrators and the Council of Mexican American Administrators. Dr. George McKenna of the L.A. Board of Education will participate as well as Dr. Francis Gipson, LAUSD chief academic officer, LAUSD staff, parents and community members, added McLurkin. We strongly believe that it takes the efficacy of all stakeholders to ascend students to become competitive and strong candidates to universities across the nation, she said. The conference is open to the public. To register or learn more, call (323) 296-2040 or visit cobalausd.net Black Caucus Chair: Charter School Bills Overlook Too Many Crucial Questions Three charter school bills the Assembly Education Committee cleared recently leave too many unanswered questions, says Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego). She is the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and a member of the Assembly Education Committee. The set of legislation, according to Weber, does not consider the full impact of charter schools in California particularly in disadvantaged communities and the bills do not go far enough to detail how the changes they propose would work. I judge everything that comes in on its merits and whether or not its beneficial to children, said Weber. Clearly, it brings me great concern to see a significant number of Black and Brown people here talking about wanting something different for their children. Its unfortunate that the critical question is not being asked and that is what is best for our children? ADVERTISEMENT The Assembly Education Committee voted 4-1 in favor of AB 1505, AB 1506 and AB 1507. Weber, who is an educator, abstained after stating that four of the six committee members who cast the first votes in favor of the bills were also co-authors of the legislations. I dont feel like there is a whole lot of room for persuasion, Weber told her Education Committee colleagues, accepting that the bills were on track to pass. After listening to the comments from students, teachers and advocates supporting or opposing the bill, Weber says she did not have enough information to cast a yay or nay vote in good conscience. If they pass the legislature, the three bills would set off drastic changes to Californias Charter school law which was signed in 1992. Supporters say the main intentions of the bills are to increase accountability and strengthen oversight of charter schools. Charter school reform is long overdue, says Patrick ODonnell (D-Long Beach), who co-authored AB 1505. These bills will provide school districts the ability to make responsible and informed decisions regarding authorization and renewal of charter schools, which are critical for student success and taxpayer accountability. Important concerns overlooked by the charter school legislation, Weber told the co-authors of the bills, include very little consideration given to the fact that Gov. Gavin Newsom has already commissioned a task force to investigate how charter schools affect communities and budgets. That report is scheduled to be released July 1. ADVERTISEMENT Also, she says, the bills do not ask why parents who live near traditional public schools still opt to send their children to charter schools. On top of that, no formula or guidance is given in the legislation to determine what is a reasonable cap on charter schools in each school district. Neither do they propose or outline penalties for districts that abuse their authority when renewing or repealing charters. The California State National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is also supporting the bills to the surprise of some like Al Sharptons National Action Network California chapters and the Rev. K.W. Tulloss, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Los Angeles and Southern California. Schools across California are profoundly separate and unequal based on race and class, said Julian Vasquez-Heilig, Education Chairperson for the California State NAACP at a press conference before the hearing. These issues are being amplified, in fact, made worse by the privatization and private control movement. Vasquez Heilig said charter schools promote segregation. Opponents say the bills are designed to eventually eliminate charter schools. Today, we could not be more clear: This package of bills sponsored by CTA is poison, Myrna Castrejon, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, told CBM before the hearing. This package of bills doesnt just threaten potential schools that may not yet exist to direct or divert attention to other schools. It actually threatens every single existing charter school. For more than 50 years now, Californias public school districts have largely failed African American students, creating a glaring achievement gap between White and Black students, especially those from disadvantaged neighborhoods. The Department of Education earlier this year released a list of Californias lowest performing schools. Many of the 481 schools cited in the report are located in areas of the state where there are large concentrations of Black and Hispanic residents. Only 34 of them were charter schools. AB 1505, authored by Assemblymembers ODonnell and Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) would eliminate the charter school appeals process and allow school districts broad discretion in denying or approving a new or renewing charter. AB 1506, authored by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), would impose a cap on new charter schools. AB 1507, authored by Assemblywoman Christy Smith (D-Clarita), would prevent any charter school site from being established outside of its authorizing district. Margaret Fortune, CEO and founder of Fortune Schools, a network of six charter schools in Sacramento and one in San Bernardino with a focus on closing the African-American achievement gap, is confident that the bills are a way to eradicate charter schools should school districts have their way. She, Castrejon, a group of students, and other charter school supporters stood in protest outside of Assemblyman McCartys office before the hearing. If traditional public schools can not teach Black kids to the level of excellence which all the data points to that they can not how dare you try to prevent charter schools from doing it? Fortune said. How dare you try to balance your budget on the backs of Black kids? Why are you are trying to corral them back to schools that are failing? Community Build, Inc. Announces Robert M. Sausedo as President And CEO The Board of Directors of Community Build, Inc. (Community Build), a 501c3 nonprofit community development corporation based in South Los Angeles, announced the selection of Robert M. Sausedo as its new president and chief executive officer. A native Angeleno, Sausedo has been engaged and involved with civic matters that impact youth, economic development, social justice and literacy for over 30 years. He, along with several of his colleagues, led a post-1992 Civil Unrest effort to rebuild and expand the Jefferson Vassie D. Wright Memorial Branch Library in the Jefferson Park community of Los Angeles. Most recently, Sausedo served as deputy for Agency and Review for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. His responsibilities included a broad portfolio covering economic development, community engagement, commission appointments and development. Prior to joining Supervisor Ridley-Thomas staff, Sausedo held several local, statewide and national positions in the energy efficiency and financial services sectors. As Community Builds president and CEO, Sausedo will manage a staff of 68 in two, separate locations, the administrative offices in Leimert Park and the Youth and Community Center. One of Sausedos major responsibilities will be leading executive management in identifying new program services and growth opportunities that will enable Community Build to achieve its strategic objectives and ensure long-term viability as a key African-American community development corporation that meets the unique needs of underserved groups in South Los Angeles and adjacent service areas. ADVERTISEMENT Sausedo succeeds Community Build, Inc.s interim president and CEO, Kimberly Ramsey, who held the top position at Community Build after its president and CEO, Brenda Shockley was tapped by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to become Deputy Mayor of Economic Opportunity in 2016. Community Builds Board chairperson, Beverly Davis stated that Sausedo, with his experience and efforts to rebuild South Los Angeles following the 1992 civil unrest, made him uniquely qualified to lead the organization. Community Build was developed in response to the conditions that led to the civil unrest in 1992, and our mission is to revitalize low-income communities in South Los Angeles, said Davis. Roberts experience and success with empowering underserved communities, his work with youth and his track record for economic growth, directly aligns with our mission and where we see the organization going in the future. Community Build was founded in 1992 with the support and assistance of the Honorable Maxine Waters, United States Representative of the 43rd Congressional District. Community Builds programs focus not only on developing marketable skills and providing employability training, but also on providing educational and long-term career counseling to underserved young people in South Los Angeles. Community Build opened the Youth and Community Center in 1994 and provides education, training, employment, and supportive services to over 26,000 youth and young adults with emphasis, over the past twenty-four years, on outreach and programs for at-risk youth, out-of-school youth, foster youth, youth offenders, gang-involved youth, first-generation college bound youth and families. Currently, Community Build is involved in the development of a mixed-use project in South Los Angeles which began construction in April 2018. Located on the corner of 88th Street and Vermont Avenue, the development will include 60 units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless persons and low-income families, and a 9,000-square-foot youth and community center, including a cafe and rooftop terrace. The project is scheduled to be completed in late 2019. ADVERTISEMENT Community Build founding board member, Reverend Clyde W. Oden, Jr. noted that at this critical juncture, Sausedo is the best person to lead the agency. Roberts hire comes at a very crucial time in the history of our organization. South Los Angeles in general and Leimert Park, in particular, are undergoing significant changes in both demographics and commerce, said Reverend Oden. Community Build intends to support those efforts that promote economic empowerment and affordable housing for the residents of this community. Sausedo understands that vision and is committed to helping Community Build remain as a catalyst for good in our community. I am humbled to have been selected as the new president and CEO of Community Build, said Sausedo. In tandem with the board, I look forward to setting the course for the next quarter century of ushering in the latest innovative approaches to building up our youth, community and civic responsibility. Councilmember Harris-Dawson and Mayor Garcetti Break Ground on New Bridge Housing in Council District Eight Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Mayor Garcetti broke ground today on a new emergency bridge housing facility that will provide beds for 100 homeless Angelenos at a time, and offer on-site supportive services to help them transition into permanent housing. The project will be the first of Mayor Garcettis A Bridge Home sites to open in South L.A. We are investing on an unprecedented scale to build the supportive and affordable housing that will end this crisis. But our homeless neighbors cant wait they need a place to sleep right now, and thats why were pushing hard to provide them with A Bridge Home, said Mayor Eric Garcetti. This new facility will add badly needed emergency beds and services for Angelenos in South L.A. I am grateful to Councilmember Harris-Dawson for his leadership, and our county partners for their investment in the supportive services we need to make this initiative successful. The new bridge housing site on St. Andrews Place in South L.A. will continue utilizing the place-based emergency housing model that defines the Mayors A Bridge Home program. The beds will be filled through exhaustive outreach in the area immediately surrounding the facility. ADVERTISEMENT Residents will have access to resources like mental health services and addiction counseling on site, and storage space for their possessions. Chesterfield Square and Hyde Park have long had many families and individuals living in cars and RVs this is the prime location to launch our first Bridge Home facility to provide a safe and secure location to receive services while being connected to permanent housing, said Councilmember Harris-Dawson. Later this year, were slated to break ground on several PSH developments throughout the district as well as a Navigation Center that will act as a one-stop shop in service provision, life skills training, counseling, laundry and restroom facilities. Services at the facility will be provided by the county through funding from Measure H, the landmark homeless services initiative approved by voters in 2017. Thanks to the services provided at this site, about 100 women and men who currently sleep on the streets of South L.A. will be put on a path to stable and supportive housing, said Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas. This is Measure H at work and public-private partnership at its best, bringing everyone in and transforming lives. The is the first of four A Bridge Home sites that will break ground in South L.A. Three sites are already open in locations across the city, with several more expected to open in the coming weeks. The site in L.A.s historic El Pueblo neighborhood, which has been open the longest, has already demonstrated the success of the model. ADVERTISEMENT Since the facility opened in October 2018, crime has dipped in the surrounding area by two thirds, and the number of encampments has diminished from 100 to 37. Dont Mess with Max: Mnuchin Madness Who does Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin think he is? Simmering in his putrid privilege, he seemed to think that he was in charge of the House Financial Services Committee. He was rude and rogue when he snapped back at Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the committee chair, because she checked him on his nonsense. The hapless Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, forgot his place and was publicly and unacceptably disrespectful to Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Waters compelled his presence to testify and then summarily dismissed him (you can leave if you want) when he got testy and disrespectful with her. Mnuchin is really above his Peter Principle as Treasury Secretary in any administration but 45s. And those birds of a feather stick together because they share values and shady self-serving morals. Mr. Mnuchin boldly requested government planes to facilitate his honeymoon, is taking his cues from the man who has turned the Presidency into a profit center, operating government on a pay-to-play basis with possibly Russians, Saudis and who knows who else. No wonder Mnuchin wont release 45s taxes. No wonder he could not answer the direct questions of a congressional committee. No wonder he whined about being the worst treated Treasury secretary in history. Was that comment supposed to impress someone? ADVERTISEMENT It surely didnt impress Maxine Waters who handled Mnuchin the same way one might treat a bag of dog poop abandoned by its careless owner. You wouldnt put your hands on it. You might not even kick it. But youd sniff at it and turn away. Thats just what Congresswoman Maxine Waters did when she told him that he could leave the hearing hed committed to participate in. Then, she icily told him not to presume to instruct her on how to hold a hearing, and how to use a gavel (he said gravel inarticulate). Maxine Waters took the hapless Mnuchin to Liberation School, but since he graduated from the Klux Academy of White Supremacy, he will probably have to subject himself to further detoxification from his racist behavior. Mnuchins behavior toward Congresswoman Waters was his exercise in white supremacy, pure and simple. White supremacy is the belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races, and that white people should have control over people of different races, especially people of African descent. White supremacy manifests itself in public policy that allows white so-called law and order officers to kill unarmed Black people because they think they are superior, and call tell the lie that they are in fear for their lives. White supremacy manifests itself in the ways that African Americans earn unequal pay for the same work and the ways that supremacists justify it. White supremacy occurs when colonizers come into predominately Black communities and then insist that others play by their rules and kowtow to their desires. They want someone to turn down the go-go music, but readily accept other loud noise. Because they are loud noise. Loud, myopic, uncompromising noise. And Munchkin Mnuchin was the noisiest of all when he presumed to instruct an African American icon on how to use a gavel after she has spent nearly 30 years in Congress. Mnuchins performance was a tribute to the racist capitalist patriarchy that is the foundation of white supremacy. He would not have even slightly presumed to tell a white man, or a Black one for that matter, how to close a hearing. He might have told a white woman, possibly adding the term honey in to soften or sharpen the bow. But the only person hed dare get huffy with, just based on the white supremacist belief of his privilege, was a Black woman. Maxine Waters was the wrong Black woman. Excuse my Ebonics, but Max dont play. She takes no tea for the fever. She takes back her time, stands up for her rights, and was not about to have a pathetic 45 lackey disrespect her. The House Judiciary Committee held hearings around the same time the House Financial Services Committee was. So, while the Treasury Secretary was disrespecting Congresswoman Waters, the House Judiciary Committee was holding a hearing about the dangers of white supremacy. White supremacy was displayed at its most privileged, when an elected member of Congress is inappropriately chided by a Cabinet member, who does not have peer status. White supremacy attempts to reinforce the egregious nature of the Dred Scott decision in which the Supreme Court of these United States declared that the Black man had no rights that a white man is bound to respect. For Steven Mnuchin, Congresswoman Maxine Waters had no rights he was bound to respect. For Mnuchin, and too many others in the 45 circle, the Dred Scott decision still stands. Mnuchin may have simmered in his faux white superiority for much of his life, but his simmer turned into a boil when he tangled with the House Judiciary Committee, and his boil was on the hot seat. He learned, I hope, not to mess with Max. I hope he also learned that his white supremacy will not protect him from a band of tenacious Democrats who will continue pushing him for both truths and tax returns. ADVERTISEMENT Heather Hutt Talks About Her New Role as State Director for Senator Harris Longtime L.A. resident and activist Heather Hutt was recently one of three women of color added to Senator Kamala Harris staff as her state director. The Sentinel caught up with Hutt last week to talk about her new role, what it entails, her relationship with the senator and whats on the horizon in her political career. Hutt said she is definitely aware of the significance of this new assignment, as she is currently the only African American female in California holding the position. Its a big responsibility, Hutt said. In this role, I recognize that the senator trusts me, my colleagues trust me and thats really important. That really resonates to me and other women, being in a role where youre there because the work youve done is so important. ADVERTISEMENT A California, particularly a Los Angeles native, Hutt has spent her life and career fighting for the residents here. She grew up in the Leimert Park neighborhood, attending Westchester High School and subsequently graduating from the University of Southern California. I grew up [here]. Leimert Park was the park that I was in as a little girl. This is my neighborhood. Being in this community, I understand whats important, what leadership looks like and what the changes and challenges are. When you love where you are and you love your community you want to share that love in your work as well as your [personal life]. Even in her personal life, Hutt said she still keeps activism and her concerns about community issues in the forefront. I have three sons who are men now and I have done the best that I could to teach them about activism, said Hutt. Ive been an activist my entire life and when issues are important we talk about them. We have dinner [together] every Sunday, not just my [immediate] family but my sister and my brother and their kids and we cook together and we all sit around the table and talk about issues that are important to us. And I think that keeps everybody aware and that keeps us active. ADVERTISEMENT In her new role, Hutt will be managing Harris staff in all five her California offices: Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno, San Diego and Los Angeles. She is making sure, she said, that staff in each office is amplifying Harris priorities as well as her record. She has a close relationship with the Washington DC office in different capacities, to let them know what is actually happening in our state so they can sometimes match it to legislation or at least understand what the current events are so that the boss is abreast of whats important to her constituents in California, Hutt explained, going into some of the new legislation on the horizon for Senator Harris. One of the things that I should share is the maternal care act, said Hutt. She introduced it last year and Im sure shes reintroducing it this year. And this is about, really the percentage of African American women who either die pre, during birth or postpartum. And so, her bill is about implicit bias training for the healthcare professional. Because, you remember what happened to Serena [Williams] she was feeling like something was wrong with her body, and the healthcare professionals told her to take two aspirin and call us in the morning. And they typically do that with African American women because they have biases. And so the senator is saying, no more. We need you to have some training [for specific needs pertaining to African American women]. And so, the training will happen in several sections in health care education in facilities like hospitals and medical centers and then also with non-profits. And so, what were doing is going throughout the state and having roundtables with healthcare professionals who have had experience so that they can have input into the bill that will probably be introduced in June of this year. The next thing is something that is just incredible. I think it will be a surprise to most people but its the rent relief act. Now, most people get some kind of credit or tax relief in their mortgages but theres really no relief for a renter. And so, she has introduced the rent relief act, which will bring about 600 dollars a month back into your household as a renter for folks who are making under a 100,000 dollars a year. So, thats a broad spectrum of renters. And whats important about that is that most of us are just one crisis away from being homeless. And, so this will be a boost. And its important for people to know that she knows that we are just one crisis away. So, she has honed in on issues that are deeply rooted in the Black community. And thats why I like working for her because shes looking into things that can really make a difference. And all my life Ive really wanted to make a difference. Hutt said Harris is also working on things like a bail money bill, an aim at changing the criminal justice system in a way that helps the poor and the preservation of land bill for HBCUs. Hutt describes working with Harris as kind of amazing. I can give you some history. In 2010, my sister was the president of the New Frontier Democratic Club and the senator was running for attorney general. And so, we endorsed and we put manpower We all went in hard for her to become attorney general. That was our first meeting with someone who had an opportunity to take on this role as the first African American female to be attorney general. I thought she was an amazing and very smart woman. And, what she always says is bringing women into government is not just the right thing to do but its the smart thing to do. I worked in the California State Legislature as the district director for Senator Isadore Hall and when he was an assembly member. But when he went for Congress and didnt win I didnt know what was next. I was asked to turn in my resume to see if I could qualify to work for her. I think it was my history that gave me this opportunity. I have really deep roots in Los Angeles. I was born here, my mother was born here. I remember so many things about changes in Los Angeles and I just love California and I think that made her feel comfortable about hiring me. Hutt described her strategy for taking on the momentus task like this: I think Im calm and analytical and proactive. I think when youre managing people you should remember their human and handle it as kindly as possible. I depend on God to get me through most things. And I have a wonderful village (network). Its about say what you do and do what you say. Dont over promise and under perform. People will notice good work. Your work will speak for itself For more information on Senator Harris and her team visit www.harris.senate.gov How data and evidence can help us solve the problem of African American maternal mortality Im a doctor and a scientist. When were looking to solve a problem, were a lot like detectives. We follow the evidence. It stands to reason then that when it comes to the problems we have with racial bias and disparities in American health care, Im interested in solutions that are grounded in data and evidence. Take pregnancy. Data shows us that the U.S. is the only nation in the developed world in which the number of pregnancy-related deaths is risingthe number has more than doubled in the past 20 years. ADVERTISEMENT Data also shows us that California has reversed that trend. While the rest of the countrys outcomes have worsened, California has cut maternal mortality in half. Yet even in California we still havent adequately addressed one shocking statistic: African-American women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy than women of other races. Its one of the widest disparities in womens health. This is a serious public health problem. I believe the most effective way to tackle it is using data and evidence to improve outcomes. Research has already established a set of best practices for maternal care. Data on the causes of maternal mortality can help us pinpoint where those practices will have the most impact on improved outcomes. Data can also help us develop new practices to target causes. Finally, publicly sharing data can motivate providers to change. Reporting outcomes by race in a visible way will help hold them accountable. Im encouraged to hear about the new Maternal Black Health Caucus, created this month by more than 50 Congress members to elevate black maternal health as a national priority and seek culturally competent, evidence-based solutions. Im also glad to see that U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris and California State Senator Holly Mitchell have each introduced bills that emphasize the training of health care professionals on implicit bias. Implicit bias is when a health care provider does not listen, discounts what a patient says, or provides different treatment based on a conscious or unconscious attitude about a characteristic like race. As Ive written before, this is also personal for me; I believe I didnt get the level of prenatal care I should have received when I was pregnant with my sons, and I still have a nagging suspicion that my race might have had something to do with it. Other African-American women have shared similar stories over the past year, including Beyonce and Serena Williams. ADVERTISEMENT Sen. Harriss bill would provide funding for implicit bias training and for a pregnancy home health model. Sen. Mitchells bill does two things: it requires implicit bias training for all hospitals and it requires collection and reporting of data on maternal mortality by race and ethnic group. Theres no question that race plays a role in most aspects of American society and health care is no exception. But for me the most interesting part of Sen. Mitchells bill is the data-reporting requirement; its also why Im encouraged by the Congressional caucus seeking evidence-based solutions. We know this works: Data and evidence-based approaches have helped California reduce its overall maternal mortality rate. The result: maternal deaths in this state have fallen 55% since 2006. The data we have, according to a new report by the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, indicates improving outcomes for African-American women will include heightened vigilance from health care providers about factors that increase risk for this group, including chronic conditions such as obesity and heart disease. It will also include attention to communication, collaboration and quality care at hospitalsincluding a reduction in cesarean sections, which increase the chances of infection and bleeding from deliveries. Many of the recommended obstetrical best practices are now more common in California hospitals and we use them at my hospital, Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital. For example, we have laborists (obstetricians who work full-time treating women in labor) and midwives present in the hospital 24/7 so that problems can be quickly addressed by a team of providers and no mother is pressured to deliver sooner because her doctor wants to go home. And our staff are largely from the surrounding community, culturally attuned to our patients. Its no surprise that MLKCH has one of the lowest Cesarean section rates in the state. I want to see this approach that has worked to reduce overall maternal deaths applied to address disparities in outcomes for African-American mothers. I want to see data-driven quality improvement and evidence-based best practices adopted to improve outcomes for this group. And I want hospitals and providers, including my own, to be held accountable for their performance. The truth is, mindsets are hard to change. But performance less so. If a doctor even a doctor with implicit bias is expected to produce good outcomes for all of his or her patients and has the data and practices to do it, things will get better. Not all health disparities can be solved by changes in how we practice medicine; about 60% of maternal deaths are considered preventable by medical care. There are other factors outside the control of hospitals, such as increasing levels of obesity and heart disease and social disparities. We must use data to drive solutions to those public health challenges in our communities, too. Lets use the evidence we have to change what we can. Generations of new mothers and children are depending on us. Dr. Elaine Batchlor is the chief executive officer of Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in Watts. L.A. Rams and American Airlines Make a School Playground The Los Angeles Rams teamed up with American Airlines to build a playground at Bennett-Kew Elementary school. This is the second playground the airlines built in the Inglewood area, according to Suzanne Boda, senior vice president of Los Angeles for American Airlines. A lot of employees live here, LAX is the neighbor to Inglewood, she said. Were really happy to be able to give back to the kids in the community and theyre our future. The children joyously played on the playground and interacted with the Rams mascot, Rampage, after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Inglewood Unified School district board president Margret Evans is happy to partner with the corporations. ADVERTISEMENT Its all about the kids in the first place, Evans said. Were constantly trying to improve our schools and do more for the kids, not just with playgrounds, but the facilities as a whole. The equipment to create the playground was provided by Carters Kids, non-profit organization that build playgrounds to promote fitness for youth. The organization started in 2006. Im a big believer that parks are needed everywhere and kids need to be kids everywhere, said Carter Oosterhouse, founder of Carters Kids. The idea is to fight childhood obesity, but at the end of the day, its just letting kids be kids. Volunteers from the Rams and American Airlines helped create the playground. The school district is responsible for making sure that the site is all prepped when we get here, said Quay Chilcott, executive director of Carters Kids. We can build the whole thing in a day. Employees from different departments in American Airlines came together to help the Rams staff build the playground. American Airlines flight attendant and playground volunteer Michelle Campbell noted that erecting the playground took the volunteers seven hours. We assembled all the playground equipment, we got to lay out a ton of mulch, which was definitely a tedious project, Campbell said. Everyone worked really well together. As the Rams get closer to moving into their state-of-the-art stadium, they wanted to ensure that the youth in Inglewood have cutting edge facilities as well. ADVERTISEMENT The goal is to make sure that were not just planting roots down on the stadium and on our 300 acres, said Rams COO Kevin Demoff. Were expanding in the community and developing not only that next generation of Rams fans but the next generation of scholars and athletes and musicians and artists and really investing in the Inglewood school system. Nepal government has failed to take steps to ensure full freedom of press: Reporters Without Borders Nepals position in the World Press Freedom Index 2019 has remained unchanged at 106, according to Reporters Without Borders, which says the environment for journalists working for independent media outlets in the country is still extremely difficult. Musicians In Action Sponsor Community Drum Clinic Musicians In Action will sponsor its annual 2019 Drum Clinic on Saturday, April 27, from 8:45 a.m. to 2 p.m., at The Living Room on the Faithful Central Bible Church campus, 400 W. Florence Ave., in Inglewood. Each year, MIA offers the Drum Clinic to assist youth and young adults interested in playing drums. The clinics breakout sessions entails several topics as well as skill and technique development to enhancing the natural gift. Renowned faith and secular drummers often participate, including percussionist Sheila E, who was last years special guest. ADVERTISEMENT The clinicians provide hands-on teaching methods, visual demonstration, mentorships and inspiration that leaves a lasting impression on the young attendees. Many of the young people that attend the clinic learn self-expression through the art of percussions. There is a master-class offered for young people with skill and experience, said Gerald and Jacque Malone, MIA CEO/executive directors,. Also at the clinic, MIA pays tribute to a drummer whose career is a pathway for future drummers to follow. In 2018, the clinic paid tribute to the late Leon (Ndugu) Chancler, a drummer whose crisp grooves and pinpoint fireworks of syncopation were heard on hundreds of albums including Michael Jacksons song Billie Jean. The 2019 Drum Clinic will pay special tribute to the late Victor McElhaney, the promising 21-years-old musician and percussion student at the USC Thornton School of Music, who was recently killed in a liquor store robbery a few weeks ago near the campus. Parents, pastors, churches, music educators are invited to enroll their youth and young adults in the 2019 Drum Clinic. The registration is $15, which covers for supplies and lunch. Gerald and Jacque Malone, MIA CEO/executive directors, said, Over the years, no young person has been turned away. Drum Clinic Scholarships are available on a first come basis for young people that are in need, noted the Malones. Von Parchman, Drum Clinic chairperson, added that much of the expense for the equipment is offset by a variety of drum manufactures and drum merchandise companies. ADVERTISEMENT For information and registration, call Musicians In Action at (323) 777-3213 or visit musicians-in-action.com. Thursday, April 18, 2019 The Nevada Supreme Court declined to interim suspend an attorney convicted of misdemeanor DUI This is a petition under SCR 111 concerning attorney Hera Armenian, based on a conviction for one count of driving under the influence, a misdemeanor. Armenian self-reported the conviction to the State Bar. Although the State Bar is not required to file a petition under SCR 111 upon being advised of an attorney's "first-time conviction for a misdemeanor traffic violation involving alcohol," SCR 111(4), the petition filed in this matter indicates that this is not Armenian's first such offense. Our records confirm that Armenian has been previously convicted of a misdemeanor traffic violation involving alcohol. In re Discipline of Armenian, Docket No. 71741 (Order Declining to Impose Temporary Suspension, Dec. 15, 2016). Accordingly, bar counsel was required under SCR 111(4) to present this matter to a hearing panel before filing this petition. Bar counsel did so. Because misdemeanor driving under the influence is not one of the crimes specifically enumerated in SCR 111(6) as a "serious" crime, temporary suspension and referral to the disciplinary board are discretionary with this court. SCR 111(9). Having considered the petition and supporting documentation, we conclude that Armenian's offense does not warrant the imposition of a temporary suspension at this time. And because bar counsel has presented this matter to a hearing panel as required by SCR 111(4), a separate referral to a disciplinary board is not necessary. The hearing panel shall proceed as proposed in the panel's order entered on March 13, 2019. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/04/the-nevada-supreme-court-declined-to-interim-suspend-an-attorney-convicted-of-misdemeanor-dui-this-is-a-petition-under-scr-1.html Thursday, April 18, 2019 Georgia State University College of Law is looking for qualified candidates for the position of Lecturer in its Lawyering: Foundations program. Applications are invited from individuals who have the expertise to contribute fully at the lecturer level in support of the school's first-year required legal writing program. Applicants must have a baccalaureate degree from a nationally-accredited college, the first professional degree in law from a nationally-accredited American law school, and a specific interest in teaching legal writing at an institution committed to both day and evening educational opportunities. Candidates with several years of legal practice experience are preferred. Although teaching experience is not required, the successful candidate should be prepared to undertake full teaching duties including lecturing, facilitating writing workshop exercises, and providing corrective feedback on weekly homework assignments, letters, memos, and briefs. Lawyering: Foundations faculty work collaboratively from a uniform syllabus, but the successful candidate is encouraged and expected to contribute his or her own ideas, exercises, and innovative approaches to the legal writing classroom experience. This is a one-year, renewable, non-tenure track appointment. The period of appointment is ten months running from August to May. Compensation includes a contract salary commensurate with experience, plus a benefits package. This is a teaching appointment with a service requirement equivalent to one committee assignment. Neither research nor scholarship is required. Applicants wishing to apply should register with http://academicjobsonline.org/ (the registration is free) and upload a resume, cover letter, and writing sample. Cover letters should be directed to Lawyering Foundations Director Maggie Vath, Chair of Lawyering Foundations Faculty Search Committee, Georgia State University College of Law, P.O. Box 4037, Atlanta, Georgia 30302-4037. Applicants invited for interview will be required to submit three written letters of recommendation. For any questions related to the position, please contact Maggie Vath at mvath@gsu.edu. The application deadline is Friday, May 10, 2019. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. An offer of employment will be conditional on criminal and educational background verification. Part of a comprehensive research university, the College of Law is a dynamic urban-centered law school located in the heart of Atlanta with approximately 650 full- and part-time law students. The school encourages applications from candidates who would diversify the faculty. Georgia State University, a unit of the University System of Georgia, is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against applicants due to race, ethnicity, gender, veteran status, or on the basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. Hat tip to Maggie Vath. (mew) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legalwriting/2019/04/georgia-state-university-is-hiring.html Small, independent bookstores in neighborhoods across the United States are places to discover new books and make friends. About 20 years ago, stores like these were closing in large numbers because of competition from large bookstores and online book sales. But about 10 years ago something unusual happened: independent bookstores seemingly came back to life. Many are profitable, and the number of stores is growing. In a Virginia community called Arlington, many people buy their books at a store called One More Page Books. Customer Cheryl Moore says she likes the personal service she receives at small bookstores. Moore told VOA: "I think they pay attention to the kinds of books people like to read. They have book clubs, so I don't think it's a place where people just buy books, but make friends here. In another part of the store, Kate Oberdorfer looks through an unusual mix of books: mysteries, cookbooks, and biographies of famous people. Oberdorfer talks about a few of the books with Lelia Nebeker. "I do think it's a special place for people to come, said Nebeker. She lives nearby and buys books for the store, which opened eight years ago. After almost dying off, small, independent bookstores grew by 35 percent between 2009 and 2015. The American Booksellers Association says sales at the more than 2,400 bookstores across the country rose about 5 percent over the past year. Hooray for Books is an independent store specializing in children's books. It opened 11 years ago in Alexandria, Virginia. Owner Ellen Klein thinks part of her stores success has been providing many different kinds of books. "In this community, we have a lot of mixed race families, she said, and so we're trying to serve them as well. Customer Sarah Reidl looks at all the childrens books and said, "You just can't really browse on the internet. I like to be able to browse and look for thingsthat catch my eye." For people who love reading, independent bookstores sometimes become a home. Kristen Maier lives in Missouri, but often comes to Hooray for Books when she visits the Washington, DC area for work. She does not think electronic devices can replace the feeling of holding a real book. If you dont have a nice book to pass down to your grandkids or their grandkids, you just kind of lose that sense of history and tradition for your family, she said. Independent bookstores know they have to sell more than books. One More Page tries to appeal to people by offering them wine or chocolate they can take home along with a book. "We are a place where you can come for events, you can meet writers, get books signed, and buy books you might not necessarily (find) on your own, said Nebeker. Including books by Ed Aymar, a local writer. He is talking to customers about his latest book, The Unrepentant. Nearby a woman is performing songs related to the story. Angie Kim, another local writer, came to support Aymar. Ive been here for 5 events just in the last couple of months, she said. I think its just a way to show the bookstore that we care about spaces like this and that we want them to continue. Were going to keep doing what we do well, and hope that our community loves having us around enough to support us, Nebeker added. Im Susan Shand. VOAs Deborah Block reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story online adj. connected to a computer, a computer network, or the Internet customer n. someone who buys goods or services from a business club n. a group of people who meet to participate in an activity biography n. the story of a real person's life written by someone other than that person browse v. to look at many things in a store, in a newspaper, etc., to see if there is something interesting or worth buying chocolate n. a food that is made from cacao beans and that is eaten as candy grandkid n. the child of ones child On Monday, the European Council of the European Union, or EU, approved new copyright rules. They aim to give more protection to artists and news organizations. Critics say the new rules will limit freedom of speech and online creativity and punish smaller web companies. Famous artists, performers and tech experts have spoken out both against and in support of the EU directive. The 28 EU members are required to establish the law in their countries. The law will have an influence on everyone, however, as the internet crosses many international borders. Permission required There has been much debate on one part of the directive that affects internet platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The directive asks online platforms to require their users to get permission to upload any material from the creator of such materials. It says the platforms will be responsible for making sure that their users obey the law. Some think that meeting these rules will reduce freedom of expression on the internet and could result in censorship. Another part of the law requires search engines (like Yahoo! or Google News) and social media sites to pay for linking to or showing a few sentences from news articles. Paying for each of those links will increase costs for the companies. Effect on internet platforms Some sites would be forced to get a written agreement to use music or videos. If not, sites would have to make sure they do not include unlawful copyrighted material. Computers will have to look for such material and remove it, since it would be impossible for humans to check the large number of uploads to the internet. That could give large tech companies a major advantage over smaller companies. Google said last year it spent more than $100 million on a system for approving material on YouTube. More than 400 hours of content is uploaded every minute. Will it change internet culture? Critics say the EU directive could act as censorship and change internet culture. That is because the automatic filters may delete some material that should be permitted online. YouTube said that to avoid trouble in some cases, it would have to block videos if they are unsure about the copyright. Some users worry that the new rules would stop creation of parodies and viral internet memes so popular in online culture. Such content is often based on or connected to existing songs or movies or other content. The EU directive permits this kind of use as an exception to its rules. Julia Reda is a lawmaker with the Pirate Party, which campaigns for freedom of information online. The new law makes everyone a loser Artistic diversity has made the Internet colorful, but unfortunately the copyright directive will make the Internet duller, she says. Will it help writers and artists? Some artists think the directive will help them. The music industry and other groups that collect fees say the change will help. It will require big tech companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google to pay artists, writers and creators more for their work. Google estimates it has paid out more than $3 billion to rights holders through its Content ID system, which was created in 2007. Some high-profile artists have supported the change. Former Beatles member Paul McCartney wrote an open letter to EU lawmakers asking them to approve the new rules. Others are afraid they will not earn much more money and that their creativity will be silenced. But many worry it will change the internet as we know it. More than 5.2 million people signed an online appeal to stop the new rules. Internet stars such as Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales are against it. So is Wyclef Jean, the former leader of the music group the Fugees. He has said he is better off financially because fans can freely share his music on internet platforms. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert says Germany wants to avoid upload filters and hopes that user rights freedom of opinion, about which there has been a lot of discussion here be preserved. Last month, tens of thousands of people marched in cities across Germany to protest the directive. Polands leader has said his country will not enforce it, arguing it threatens freedom of speech. Next steps The EUs member countries have two years to follow the directive by changing their own national laws. Six countries Italy, Sweden, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg voted against it, so enforcement is likely to be uneven. There will probably be many arguments in court before the laws have all been changed. Im Jill Robbins. Kelvin Chan and Geir Moulson reported on this story for the Associated Press. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story copyright n. the legal right to be the only one to reproduce, publish, and sell a book, musical recording, or film for a certain period of time censorship - n. the practice of removing things that are considered to be offensive, immoral, or harmful to society from books, movies, letters, and such advantage - n. something (such as a good position or condition) that helps to make someone or something better or more likely to succeed than others parody - n. a piece of writing, music, etc., that imitates the style of someone or something else in an amusing way meme - n. an amusing or interesting picture, video or the like that is spread widely through the Internet diversity - n. the quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas, etc. dull - adj. not exciting or interesting filter - n. software that prevents someone from looking at or receiving particular kinds of material through the Internet preserve - v. to keep (something) safe from harm or loss What do you think of the new EU copyright rules? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. France has promised a worldwide effort to rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the famous Christian church damaged by fire this week. Many people have been sharing pictures of themselves and their families visiting Notre-Dame. For many, the building combines their personal memories with a long-established cultural heritage. Live images of the fire were broadcast and shared as firefighters struggled to contain the flames that destroyed the buildings tall spire and its wooden roof. The fire happened at a time when some social media companies are testing methods for fighting back against false information. But in the case of YouTube, its methods did not help stop false information from spreading. YouTubes algorithm detected the images of the burning cathedral and sent users links about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Links included Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica entries about the 9/11 attack. Observers say the incident demonstrates some of the problems with automatic systems that are meant to correct misleading information. Worldwide calls to rebuild French president Emmanuel Macron sent a message on Twitter expressing sadness at the loss, I am sad tonight to see this part of us burn. He and many French leaders stressed the importance of the cathedral to Frances common culture. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that he offered sympathy to the head of the Catholic Church Pope Francis and offered U.S. experts to help rebuild it. Notre-Dame de Paris is among the most famous Catholic churches in the world and is the seat of Catholic leadership of Paris. It is estimated that 13 million people visit the building every year. The Paris public prosecutor is investigating the cause of the fire, which is suspected to be linked to extensive renovation work. On Wednesday, France announced it would invite architects from around the world to propose designs to replace the spire that was destroyed in the fire. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said a competition would decide whether the cathedral should have a new design or be rebuilt as it was. Im Mario Ritter Jr. Mario Ritter Jr. adapted this story for VOA Learning English from VOA reports and additional sources. Ashley Thompson was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story heritage n. the traditions, achievements and beliefs that are part of the history of a group or nation algorithm n. a set of steps that are followed to solve a mathematical problem or complete a computer process fact-check v. to find out if a claim or statement is true or correct architect n. a person who designs buildings spire n. a tall, narrow, pointed structure on the top of a building We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. LINGUIST List 30.1686 Thu Apr 18 2019 Confs: Applied Linguistics, General Linguistics, Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics/United Kingdom Editor for this issue: Everett Green ***************** LINGUIST List Support ***************** Fund Drive 2019 29 years of LINGUIST List! Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at: https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/ 13-Apr-2019Aurelie Joubert Crossing Boundaries in Language Teaching: Northern Ireland and BeyondCrossing Boundaries in Language Teaching: Northern Ireland and BeyondShort Title: LTNI19Date: 03-May-2019 - 04-May-2019Location: Queen's University Belfast, United KingdomContact: Aurelie JoubertContact Email: < click here to access email > Meeting URL: http://go.qub.ac.uk/ltni19 Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics; Language Acquisition; SociolinguisticsMeeting Description:The aim of the conference is to gather researchers, language specialists and educators from all levels and backgrounds to discuss the theory, practice and the wider context of language teaching. The event will take a cross-cultural approach to involve minority community languages, English as a foreign language and European or international languages. With this broad approach in mind, the event will also work as a community-building exercise in order to create or reinforce the links between the different actors in the field of language education and promoters of multilingualism in the context of Northern Ireland.Reflecting on recent positive developments in advancing linguistic diversity in Northern Ireland, this conference will provide a space for rethinking and re-examining language pedagogy in multilingual and international contexts, including discussion panels focused on gender equality and diversity, graduate language teaching assistants and internationalisation.Program:Please register here before 26th April: https://ecommerce.apps.qub.ac.uk/oscblt/catalog/ and check our website for more information: go.qub.ac.uk/ltni19And email us for further information: ltniconf19gmail.comProvisional programme:Friday 3rd MayLocation: LAN/0G/074/ LAN/0G/0499:30-9:45:Registration (LANYON /0G/074)9:45-10:00:Introduction10:00-11:00:PANEL 1 : Choice and motivationTim S. O. Lee (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University ): Doctoral students perceptions of L2 motivational strategies employed in postgraduate university English coursesLeanne Henderson and Janice Carruthers (QUB) Languages education in NI: learner perspectives of decision-making and choicePANEL 2 : Learning experience and learning supportVanessa Franchetti (QUB): Methodology empowering independent learning in Oral ClassesXimena Arias-Manzano (QUB): Supporting students with dyslexia in the classroom11:00-11:30: Coffee: LAN OG/074 lobby11:30-12:30:PlenaryDr Karen Forbes, University of Cambridge:''Developing a multilingual identity in the languages classroom: from theory to practice''12:30-13:30: Lunch: PFC Lobby13:30-14:30:PANEL 3: PG sessionPANEL 4: Ideologies and attitudesAurelie Joubert (University of Groningen): Which language to teach? Challenges for learners and tutors when teaching a minority language with a contested standard14:30-15:30:Prof Janice Carruthers: AHRC Leadership Fellow in Modern Languages15:30-16:00:Poster session with coffee: Junction lobbyYing Liu (QUB): The use of digital literacy practice in TESOLCara Greene (ADAPT Research Centre, School of Computing, Dublin City University).: All Ireland Linguistics OlympiadPilar Alderete Diez & Cristina Garcia (National University of Ireland, Galway): A proposal for language learning and teaching strategiesAnastasia Karlina (Rostov State University of Economics) School education as one of the factors of Ulster Scots languageDr Clive Earls (Maynooth University) A skills profile for language teachers in higher education16:00-17:00:PANEL 5: Testing and feedbackHui Ma (QUB): Washback effects of IELTS testJinshin Shao (University of Cambridge): Written corrective feedback, learner-internal cognitive processes, and the L2 acquisition of regular past tensePANEL 6 : SubtitlingAnastasia Beltramello (National University of Ireland, Galway): Insights into students foreign language learning through the creation of subtitlesFrancesca Nicora (National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG): Designing a subtitling module for students of Italian for specific purposes17:00 -18:00:Wine receptionDinner organised at: First floor BistroSat 4th MayLocation: Lanyon Building/0G/074 and Lanyon Building/0G/0499:00-10:30:PANEL 7 : Native speakerism/self-identification and cultureKrystyna Kulak (): English speaking Poles or speakers of Polish English? Identity in the expanding circleTomasz Paciorkowsk (Adam Mickiewicz University): Native speakers and native speakerism the perspective of Polish teachers of EnglishXuezi Han (QUB): Influences of Confucianism on English language learningPANEL 8Politics, policy and provisionDaniel Pun (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University / UCL Institute of Education): Celebrity English Tutors: a political economic analysisDr Eugene McKendry (QUB): There is no such language as Foreign. A quandary for language teaching.Barbara Kopac (University of Ljubljana) Comparison of language policy framework and linguistic rights of national minorities in the republic of Slovenia and the kingdom of Sweden10:30-11:00: Coffee: LAN OG/074 lobby11:00-12:00:Workshop: Equality and diversity in the language classroom12:00-13:00: Lunch: PFC lobby13:00 14:00:Dr Emma Riordan, University of Cork:Language for Teaching Purposes: Non-native speaker language teachers and the boundaries of classroom discourse.14:00-15:00:PANEL 9: Creative writing and learners backgroundSarah O'Neill (QUB): Preventing Parrot-Talk Developing Creative Language Production in the MFL ClassroomBeatrice Kane (Stranmillis University College): Little Linguists how learning a Modern Foreign Language impacts children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds?Panel 10: Academic writingJudy Miller (Columbia University): Encouraging critical thinking in academic writingXiao Wang (University of Cambridge): Exploring data-driven learning in academic writing education: the acquisition of hedging devices15:00 16:00: Roundtable: speed-mentoring + expert panel with coffee16:00-16:30:Conclusions That was fast The tunnel builders have shown that where theres a will, theres a way UKs Challenge Fund seeks to create job opportunities The UKs Skills for Employment Programme on Wednesday launched its Challenge Fund, inviting the private sector to present their ideas on skill building with the goal of creating jobs opportunities for women and disadvantage groups and encouraging migrant workers to utilise their experience in the country. John Vlahoplus has posted Foreign-Born Children of Disloyal Parents: Adam Muthana, Mary Arcedeckne and the Natural Born (St. John's Law Review , Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The collapse of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has left thousands of foreign ISIS adherents and their children in refugee camps controlled by irregular forces. The United States faces the question whether its emigrants' disloyalty affected their citizenship and that of their children born in the self-proclaimed caliphate. This article frames the American citizenship issues in light of common and statutory law from which American law developed, with particular regard to the 1730 House of Lords decision in Arcedeckne v. Horan. That case determined whether a British derivative nationality statute deemed the foreign-born child of disloyal subjects to be natural born and therefore capable of inheriting real property in Ireland. This article is the first extended analysis of Arcedeckne and appends transcriptions of previously unpublished primary source materials from the case. The article applies the principles of Arcedeckne, the common law, and American constitutional and statutory law to the case of Hoda Muthana, a New Jersey-born ISIS adherent, and her foreign-born son Adam. It identifies potential challenges to the federal government's argument that neither is a citizen as well as to Adam Muthana's claim to derivative citizenship. In particular it identifies textual and historical issues with the federal government's arguments, including historical controversy over the natural allegiance of children born to foreign diplomats under common law incorporated in the U.S. Constitution. The article suggests that the federal government relies on a consequentialist argument in the case based on the evolving threat of global terrorism rather than on textual or historical methods of legal interpretation that many in the executive branch espouse. Ronald Reagan The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. Albert Einstein If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. Winston Churchill It isnt so much that liberals are ignorant. Its just that they know so many things that arent so. With integrity nothing else counts; Without integrity nothing else counts. Winston Churchill Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself. Harvey S. Firestone It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office. H. L. Menken Referenda insure all have a voice in land use decisions. U.S. Supreme Court Listen carefully to first criticism of your work. Note just what it is about your work the critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping. Jean Cocteau A foreigner has been detained by the Public Security Police Force (PSP) on account of being suspected of dumping plastic foam into Sai Van Lake. The incident was reported yesterday morning, after an abundance of plastic foam was found floating on the surface of the lake. The Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) has already cleaned the lake. According to Macaus law, littering is subject to a fine of 600 patacas. GIT head to be LRT company chairman Ho Cheong Kei, head of the Office for Transport Infrastructure (GIT), has been appointed the chairman of the board of directors of the citys Light Rapid Transit (LRT) company. Ho will not be receiving any salary as the LRT company head until his duties at the GIT have ended. His salary will be decided by the shareholders of the company. Director of the Economic Bureau, Tai Kin Ip, and chairman of Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT), Ma Chi Ngai, have also been appointed as members of the board of directors. Taiwanese politician wants GBA red and professional Taiwanese politician James Soong has expressed hope that the Greater Bay Area (GBA) development may be red and professional. Soong, who is chair of the People First Party of Taiwan, made his remark during his visit to the University of Macau. Red stands for political views that conform with those of the Chinese Communist Party, while professional refers to skills and knowledge. Soong hopes that the GBA can integrate western management concepts with management concepts from Macau and Hong Kong toward the end of becoming red and professional. He also said that the GBA should be primarily loyal to the country, and simultaneously upgrade itself as the world changes. Yesterday, the Executive Council (ExCo) completed its discussion on the amendment of two administrative regulation drafts and one draft law. These drafts are related to drugs, education subsidies, and healthcare coupons. HEALTHCARE COUPONS GO ELECTRONIC The budget for healthcare coupons for 2019 is MOP415.2 million, according to the amendment of the administrative regulation of the subsidy scheme for 2019 healthcare. Every beneficiary will receive 600 Macau patacas as a healthcare subsidy. The coupon distribution will start on May 1 and last until April 30, 2020. This year, the coupons will be issued electronically. Starting from this year, beneficiaries will no longer need to show paper coupons. They will only need to present their permanent resident ID card to the relevant clinic when they wish to use the coupons. The coupons can be fully or partially transferred to a spouse, and to other immediate relatives who are permanent Macau residents. The healthcare coupon scheme was first launched in 2009. For eight consecutive years, more than 80 percent of Macau permanent residents obtained coupons, with 90 percent of the coupons eventually being used. From 2009 until now, the government has registered a total of 697 violations of coupon usage. The concerned parties involved in 69 of these violations were prosecuted. About 48 individuals or organizations had their eligibility for healthcare coupons revoked. In two other cases, the concerned individuals used the coupons of their late relatives. The violators were fined. MORE DRUGS TO BE BANNED The amendment of the regulation banning the illegal production, sale and consumption of anesthetics and psychoactive drugs proposes to ban 21 additional substances. These substances include seven types of Fentanyl and two types of Prodrug. According to ExCo spokesperson Leong Heng Teng, the newly listed substances may cause harm such as dizziness, respiratory depression, rapid heartbeat, epilepsy and hallucinations, among other symptoms. This batch of recently banned drugs was listed by the United Nations in 2017 and 2018 as restricted substances, together with three other types of substances that are already restricted by the citys drug law. EQUAL FOOTING IN GUANGDONG SCHOOLS The government is expecting 4,500 Macau residents to study in non-tertiary schools in Guangdong province in 2019, according to the latest amendment of the administrative draft of the tuition subsidy for local residents who study in Guangdongs non-tertiary schools in the academic year of 2018/2019. The eligible students must have been enrolled in non-tertiary schools in Guangdong before March 31, 2019, and they must not be benefitting from Macaus local free education and tuition subsidy. The maximum subsidy for primary, middle and high schools is MOP6,000. For pre-school, the value is MOP8,000. The subsidy budget for this year is estimated to be MOP30 million. Furthermore, according to Guangdongs most recent policy, the SARs students can enroll in Guangdongs public schools, with the requirement for SAR residents being the same as those for Guangdong residents. According to Chinese law, Guangdong students do not pay tuition fees if they attend a public school. According to the abovementioned policy, the SARs students will be treated the same as the Guangdong students, which means that Macau students will not need to pay tuition fees if they study at a public school. According to local media reports, there are a growing number of voices calling for structural changes at the highest levels of the government. These voices suggest that the current establishment of five secretaries will not be sufficient to handle the changes brought about by the Greater Bay Area plan. According to news service CLBrief, such tasks will demand from Macau a significant boost in its administrative capacity to be able to cope with these directives. Over the past 20 years, the city has made giant leaps on all fronts. The territorys area grew by 29%; GDP shot up by 748%; the population increased by 52%, casino revenue leaped by 2,156%, real estate increased by 463% and government revenue grew by 461%. Despite this boom, the government structure has remained very similar to the one before the handover in 1999, CLBrief notes. Among the secretariats allegedly strained by the increased workload resulting from Macaus development, the Transport and Public Works and Social Affairs and Culture have been highlighted as not having enough staff for the challenges they currently face, let alone those in future. At the same time, legal experts and legislators believe that the appointment of a new Chief Executive and, consequently a new government could be the right opportunity to increase the number of Secretaries. Central government officials who visit Macau frequently mention that the city should not miss the development and modernization train of the Pearl River Delta region, now transformed into an even larger project under the Greater Bay Area initiative. The restructuring of the government, at its highest level, could be seen as a leap forward, with community leaders suggesting to increase the number of Secretaries from five to at least seven. The CLBrief report suggests the government follow the examples of the Secretariats of Security and Administration and Justice, which it says have a structure that works well. As for the previously mentioned, the Secretariat currently led by Raimundo do Rosario will be facing a number of new land reclamation development projects; a complex public transport network; subsidized home-ownership and social housing projects; public tenders for the construction of the fourth bridge and a tunnel linking the peninsula and Taipa; and the management of the Taipas Light Rapid Transit (LRT) and its connection to the peninsula. At the same time, the Secretariat now led by Alexis Tam will face challenges in enhancing the medical facilities of Macau, namely the new Islands Medical Complex construction, which has been delayed several times. In a few months, Macau will have a new Chief Executive chosen by 400 electors representing associations and organizations across several sectors of Macau. So far, two Macau politicians are widely understood to be entering the Chief Executive race as in February, though neither has officially confirmed their candidacy. The candidates, Legislative Assembly Chairman Ho Iat Seng and Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong, both indicated they were considering a bid for Macaus top job when interviewed by the media. Known for his family ties with mainland China, Ho is the CEO of the Ho Tin S.A.R.L. Industrial Society, one of the oldest companies in Macau. As for Leong, he is a leading member of the Macau Industrial, Commercial and Importers and Exporters Association, and a former member of the National Peoples Congress in Beijing. Prior to assuming his duties as Secretary for Economy and Finance in 2014, Lionel Leong was CEO of the industrial laundry company, Smartable Holdings Limited. Leongs family was reportedly linked to the New Democracy Movement of Macau in the 1940-50s, which was the precursor of the founding of the Macao Daily News newspaper. MDT/MacauNews Indonesian President Joko Widodo has won a second five- year term, preliminary election results showed yesterday, in a victory for moderation over the nationalistic rhetoric of his rival, Prabowo Subianto. Vote counts from five independent survey groups showed Widodo with a clear lead over Subianto, a general during the era of the Suharto military dictatorship who warned Indonesia would fall apart without his strongman leadership. The so-called quick counts from reputable survey organizations that use a sample of polling stations have been reliable in past elections. With an average of 80% of sample polling stations counted, the five survey organizations showed Widodo winning 54-56% of the vote, a modest improvement on his 2014 showing. Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority nation, is an outpost of democracy in a Southeast Asian neighborhood of authoritarian governments and is forecast to be among the worlds biggest economies by 2030. A second term for Widodo, the first Indonesian president from outside the Jakarta elite, could further cement the countrys two decades of democratization. Addressing jubilant supporters a few hours after polls closed, Widodo said he was aware of his lead and called for the nation to reunite after the divisions of the campaign. From the indications of the exit poll and also the quick counts, we can see it all, but we must be patient to wait for the official counting from the Election Commission, he said. Subianto, who also lost to Widodo in the 2014 presidential election, had not yet conceded defeat. He said his campaigns exit poll and quick count showed that he had won but urged his supporters not to cause chaos. His campaign team has alleged massive voter list irregularities, but analysts say the claims are absurd and designed to undermine the election. The balloting was a huge logistical exercise with 193 million people eligible to vote, more than 800,000 polling stations and 17 million people involved in ensuring the polls ran smoothly. Helicopters, boats and horses were used to get ballots to remote and inaccessible corners of the archipelago. Conservative opponents had tried to discredit Widodo, a furniture exporter whose political career started as a small city mayor, as insufficiently Islamic. Widodo tried to neutralize the not-a-real-Muslim whispers with the selection of Maruf Amin, the leading Islamic cleric in Indonesia, as his running mate, though he risked alienating progressive and moderate supporters. Pre-election polls consistently gave a lead of as much as 20 percentage points to Widodo, widely known by the nickname Jokowi. Ive voted for Jokowi because five years in office was not enough for him to complete his brilliant programs for infrastructure, health and education, said Eko Cahya Pratama, 43, after voting in Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta. For me, this country is better to be managed by a man with a clean track record rather than a dirty one in the past, he said. After the results became clear, hundreds of Widodo supporters marched through downtown Jakarta, some holding aloft a giant red and white Indonesian flag. Widodos campaign highlighted his progress in poverty reduction and improving Indonesias inadequate infrastructure with new ports, toll roads, airports and mass rapid transit. The latter became a reality last month in chronically congested Jakarta with the opening of a subway. A strident nationalist, Subianto ran a fear-based campaign, highlighting what he sees as Indonesias weakness and the risk of exploitation by foreign powers or disintegration. His ultra-nationalist tactics preceded President Donald Trumps polarizing rhetoric by several years and the party he founded in 2008, Gerinda, is officially known as the Greater Indonesia Movement. He has long been dogged by his dismissal from the military in 1998 after soldiers under his command kidnapped student activists, 13 of whom were never seen again. Niniek Karmini & Stephen Wright, Jakarta, AP 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 More than 9,500 prisoners were ordered released yesterday in Myanmar under a presidential amnesty, but they did not include two Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters reporters. The Facebook page of the Office of President Win Myint said he has signed a pardon for 9,551 prisoners, including 16 foreigners, to be released nationwide on the occasion of the countrys traditional New Year. Official lists of those to be freed are usually not made public, but activists monitor releases, especially at Yangons Insein Prison, where most important detainees are held. Sympathizers waited outside the prison for the possible release of the two Reuters reporters jailed for breaking the Official Secrets Act, but they were not freed by late afternoon. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are serving a seven- year sentence. They say they were framed because of official displeasure over their reporting on the crackdown by security forces on members of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh following the crackdown, which began in August 2017. Critics have described the campaign as ethnic cleansing, or even genocide, on the part of Myanmar security forces. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent human rights organization, said it knew of only two political detainees, imprisoned since 2000, being released yesterday. The group said last month that Myanmar has a total of 364 political prisoners: 45 serving sentences, 94 being held awaiting trial, and 225 awaiting trial but not jailed. Last year 8,490 Myanmar citizens and 51 foreigners received New Years pardons. At least 36 of those freed in 2018 were political prisoners, according to the association. AP Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. is looking for a Chinese firm to team up with on a securities joint venture on the mainland, the latest foreign bank seeking to capitalize on the nations financial-industry loosening. Obtaining a Chinese securities license would allow OCBC to do asset management, investment banking and fund management business in the nation, Chief Executive Officer Samuel Tsien said in an interview in Singapore this week. Southeast Asias second-biggest bank by assets is talking to various firms that have shown an interest in such a partnership, he said. We will prefer to partner with companies that have a larger franchise already so OCBC can sell into its existing client base, Tsien said, adding that the bank hasnt applied for a license yet. Under President Xi Jinping, China is gradually taking steps to give foreign financial firms more access to the worlds second-largest economy. Thats prompted banks from Credit Suisse Group AG to JPMorgan Chase & Co. to seek a piece of the more than USD40 trillion financial industry through controlling stakes in local ventures. For us, what we need is to be able to reach out to as many potential customers as we can through a securities joint venture, Tsien said. Without extensive branch networks or a digital presence in China, its very difficult for foreign banks to be able to reach out to them. UBS in December became the first foreign bank to gain majority control of a Chinese securities joint venture under new rules. JPMorgan and Nomura Holdings Inc. received their approvals last month. Any Chinese joint venture would complement OCBCs existing business in the country, which includes corporate, consumer and wealth banking. Tsien said OCBC is on track to achieve a goal of doubling pretax profit in Chinas Greater Bay Area to SGD1 billion ($740 million) by 2023. Its possible that were able to beat that, he said. China is embarking on a sweeping plan to combine nine cities in the Pearl River Delta with Hong Kong and Macau a region known as the Greater Bay Area to create a financial and technology hub that could rival Californias Silicon Valley. OCBC plans to boost technology spending and staff in the region, Tsien said in June. Still, Singapore will remain the most important market for the lender, even though Greater China has emerged as its second-largest location in the past two years, Tsien said. About 16 percent of OCBCs revenue came from Greater China in 2018, compared with 58 percent from Singapore in the same year, according to its annual report. Speaking on the business outlook, Tsien said the first half of the year will be challenging as market woes from 2018 continue to weigh on sentiment and business decisions. Loan growth is likely to slow and the bank will focus on regional trade finance, he said. In the second half, if those uncertainties were to be removed, then I think the investments will continue, and it will be a more conducive market for the banks to perform. Tsien signaled that stresses persist in Singapores energy industry services sector which triggered bad debts at local banks from 2016 despite the recent rebound in oil prices. Ample U.S. oil supply has discouraged exploration activities and vessels remain underused, hurting the value of collateral held by banks, according to the CEO. The lingering effect of that will continue for the banking industry, Tsien said. OCBCs non-performing loans ratio rose to 1.49 percent in December 2018 from 1.38 percent three months earlier, according to its latest results. Most of the soured assets are in the oil and gas sector. The bank will publish its first-quarter earnings on May 10. Chanyaporn Chanjaroen & Juliette Saly, Bloomberg High on the list of President Donald Trumps priorities as he tries to close a trade deal with counterpart Xi Jinping is making sure China faces consequences if it doesnt live up to its promises. Yet in pursuing that goal Trump may also be giving China a new cudgel to use on American companies and striking another blow to the international rule of law. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the U.S. has made its own commitments to China and agreed that both sides will be subject to an enforcement mechanism. This will be a two-way agreement in enforcement, Mnuchin said Monday, after saying over the weekend that the U.S. would be open to certain repercussions. Details of the U.S. commitments and how the enforcement mechanism will operate remain scant. But Mnuchins comments have caused plenty of raised eyebrows from legal scholars to the business community and Congress. If the U.S. allows China reciprocal enforcement powers, it would make China judge, jury and executioner as to whether we have honored our obligations, said Daniel Price, who served as a senior economic adviser to President George W. Bush and is now at Rock Creek Global Advisors in Washington. I dont think the U.S. business community is sufficiently alert to the risk of constantly being exposed to unilateral enforcement action by China. The Trump administration wants to have a mechanism that would allow it to quickly punish any foot-dragging by Chinese officials by imposing tariffs or other sanctions without having to go through the World Trade Organization or other adjudicators that they argue have been ineffective in the past. But any reciprocal deal would give Chinese leaders another way to quickly apply their own pressure on American companies. The mechanism being contemplated, U.S. officials have said, would require consultations between U.S. and Chinese officials over disputes but ultimately allow either side to impose trade sanctions unilaterally. The deal may also see both sides agree to forego their right to retaliate or challenge any enforcement action by the other at the WTO. Business groups have declined to comment publicly about Mnuchins statements, saying the model of the enforcement system isnt clear yet. Lobbyists nevertheless complain theyre not being consulted by the administration and fret that once a deal is announced American companies will be forced to accept it as a fait accompli. Enforcement Powers Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative who previously indicated the U.S. would insist on unilateral enforcement powers, has said hes not planning to seek approval from Congress for a China deal. The administration is though already facing disquiet in Congress over the impact of tariffs, its authority to impose them and the perception by lawmakers that theyve been largely left in the dark during the deal-making process. Congressional aides say concerns about Trumps trade policies are only likely to grow on Capitol Hill if a deal gives China power to strike American exports as it wishes. At its extreme such a construction would also be a blow to the WTO as the independent arbiter of global trade rules. The Trump administration is already attacking the WTOs dispute settlement system by blocking the appointment of new appellate judges. A U.S.-China deal that sets up a parallel system for the worlds two largest economies would take things a step further. WTO Powerhouses Jennifer Hillman, a former WTO judge who teaches at Georgetown University, said while trade pacts often include dispute mechanisms the brewing U.S.-China pact would be unique if it didnt have a role for third-party arbitrators. It also could see much of the WTO case load go away with the U.S. and China historically two of the biggest users of the dispute system. When it is the two biggest countries that have brought the majority of cases at the WTO, it is a big blow to the system, Hillman said. Administration officials argue that Trump has a more pragmatic approach to trade than previous presidents, one that views prior U.S. commitments such as to the WTO and its rules through the lens of self-interest. The WTO has failed to restrain Chinas rise, they argue, and its dispute system is too slow, which is why they want a nimbler enforcement mechanism in a deal with China. But escaping the grasp of the WTO may still be difficult. Shawn Donnan & Jenny Leonard, Bloomberg President Donald Trump vetoed a resolution passed by Congress to end U.S. military assistance in Saudi Arabias war in Yemen. The veto the second in Trumps presidency was expected, and Congress lacks the votes to override it. But passing the never-before-used war powers resolution was viewed as a milestone for lawmakers, who have shown a renewed willingness to assert their war-making authority after letting it atrophy for decades under presidents from both parties. This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future, Trump wrote in explaining his veto. Congress has grown uneasy with Trumps close relationship with Saudi Arabia as he tries to further isolate Iran, a regional rival. Many lawmakers also criticized the president for not condemning Saudi Arabia for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi who lived in the United States and had written critically about the kingdom. Khashoggi went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October and never came out. Intelligence agencies said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the killing. The U.S. provides billions of dollars of arms to the Saudi-led coalition fighting against Iran- backed rebels in Yemen. Members of Congress have expressed concern about the thousands of civilians killed in coalition airstrikes since the conflict began in 2014. The fighting in the Arab worlds poorest country also has left millions suffering from food and medical care shortages and has pushed the country to the brink of famine. Trump said the measure was unnecessary because except for counterterrorism operations against Islamic State militants and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the United States is not engaged in hostilities in or affecting Yemen. He said there were no U.S. military personnel in Yemen accompanying the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthis, although he acknowledged that the U.S. has provided limited support to the coalition, including intelligence sharing, logistics support, and until recently in-flight refueling of non-U.S. aircraft. The president also said that the measure would harm bilateral relations and interferes with his constitutional power as commander in chief. He said the U.S. is providing the support to protect the safety of more than 80,000 Americans who live in certain areas of the coalition countries subject to Houthi attacks from Yemen. Houthis, supported by Iran, have used missiles, armed drones and explosive boats to attack civilian and military targets in those coalition countries, including areas frequented by American citizens, such as the airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Trump said. In addition, the conflict in Yemen represents a cheap and inexpensive way for Iran to cause trouble for the United States and for our ally, Saudi Arabia. House approval of the resolution came earlier this month on a 247-175 vote. The Senate vote last month was 54-46. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement Tuesday night saying: The conflict in Yemen is a horrific humanitarian crisis that challenges the conscience of the entire world. Yet the President has cynically chosen to contravene a bipartisan, bicameral vote of the Congress and perpetuate Americas shameful involvement in this heartbreaking crisis. Pelosi added: This conflict must end, now. The House of Representatives calls on the President to put peace before politics, and work with us to advance an enduring solution to end this crisis and save lives. Deb Riechmann, Washington, AP The free yacht scheme between Zhongshan and Macau is not operating well, according to Susanna Wong, head of the Macaus Marine and Water Affairs Bureau, who disclosed the information yesterday on the sidelines of an event held by the bureau. The reason behind the suboptimal operation is explained by the tax barrier posed by both regions policies, not by the demand for the yacht service. According to Wong, at the current stage, yachts going from Macau to Zhongshan are required to pay mainland taxes, as well as a relatively high deposit. This situation creates a negative influence over the promotion of the free yacht scheme. The local government is currently seeking a solution for the tax barrier, hoping that the state of the free yacht scheme between the two cities can improve. The mainland government is also said to be looking for solutions for the problem. However, presently, no updates can be announced to the public. The free yacht scheme was first planned in 2013 by both the Macau and Guangdong governments. In 2016, it was proudly launched as a new cooperation mode under the one country, two systems policy. Just one year after its launch, Wong admitted that the scheme was underperforming and had failed to attract much interest, citing high docking fees. JZ By Moses Kyeyune. The Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Hajjat Janat Mukwaya has asked lawmakers on Parliaments Committee of Gender to summon her Finance counterpart Matia Kasaija, to explain the transfer of Youth Livelihood Fund to State House. This is after the fund that has since inception close to a decade ago was allocated no code for the budget. Finance also trimmed the programs budget under institutional support to only shs 3.3b compared to shs 7.7b that had been budgeted for. A total allocation of shs 130b is slated to move to State House, following a presidential directive. While appearing before the committee on Wednesday, Mrs Mukwaya also asked the committee to probe the minister (Kasaija) over failure to provide for funds for a national roll out of the Social Assistant Grant for Empowerment (SAGE.) The committee chaired by Mr Alex Ndeezi (PWDs, NRM)was receiving submissions pertaining the sector (Gender) budget for the next Financial Year (2019/20.) The ministry is allocated shs 194.7b. In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a blacklegged tick, also known as a deer tick, rests on a plant. Non-native ticks, including some with significant veterinary and medical importance, are showing up in Alaska and health officials fear a warmer climate may allow them to become established. A collaborative project between the University of Alaska and state wildlife and veterinary officials is working to understand the risk of non-native ticks such as blacklegged ticks and pathogens they could carry. (CDC via AP, File) Health and wildlife officials are taking steps to prepare for potentially dangerous parasites that could gain a foothold because of Alaska's warming climate. Non-native ticks represent a threat to wildlife and people because they can carry and transmit pathogens, said Micah Hahn, an assistant professor of environmental health with the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage. "Things are changing really rapidly in Alaska," she said. "It's really important for us to establish a baseline. We need to know what ticks are already here, what ticks are established and reproducing, and where they are, so that we can monitor these changes as the environment changes in the future." A $125,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health will help sample ticks and prepare a model to forecast where ticks could thrive, she said Tuesday in a presentation to the Local Environmental Observer network, whose members report unusual animal, environment and weather events. Researchers will look for ticks in the field. Researchers, wildlife officials and the state veterinary office also are encouraging biologists and the public to participate in a "Submit-a-Tick" program, in which they pluck blood-sucking arachnids from people and pets, drop them off at Department of Fish and Game offices and fill out a form with details of their capture. Alaska is largely free of many pests that bedevil people elsewhere, from snakes to creepy-crawly insects. Alaska's handful of native ticks attach themselves to squirrels, snowshoe hares and wild birds and sometimes moose, dogs, or cats, but no one buys bug repellent or tick collars to keep them at bay. However, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game nearly a decade ago began to collect tick samples out of concern that moose ticks, which can kill moose, especially calves, could establish themselves in Alaska. Moose ticks have been found within Alaska's neighbor, Canada's Yukon Territory. "We are nervous that it's very close to our border," Hahn said. The search for moose ticks led to the recovery of a variety of non-native ticks, she said. Most were associated with travel outside the state. Researchers believe they hitch rides on people and pets but also migratory birds. In some cases, non-native brown dog ticks and American dog ticks were found by people who had not left the state in months, Hahn said. "The question is, where did that tick come from?" Officials have created an online Alaska tick information page with instructions on how to collect ticks. Researchers will use data collected to create a model focused on two nonnative ticks of concern, blacklegged ticks and western blacklegged ticks. Both can transmit Lyme disease. Ten Alaskans reported Lyme disease in 2017 but all were exposed in other states. Just because non-native ticks reach Alaska, it doesn't mean they will survive, Hahn said. Some ticks are vulnerable to dry conditions or harsh winters. The models will coordinate tick sampling information with environmental conditions in Alaska, such as humidity, temperature and rainfall, to project where non-native ticks might thrive in future decades as climate conditions change. Alaska doctors and veterinarians don't now automatically consider a connection to ticks if a person or pet shows up for treatment and has not traveled, Hahn said. "If we know what species are here, and where they are in the state, it can help us develop control measures to make sure we stay on top of the problem," Hahn said. 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. U.S. health officials are giving $350 million to researchers in four states hit hardest by the deadly opioid epidemic. The study announced Thursday aims to cut overdose deaths by 40% over three years in local communities grappling with misuse of the addictive drugs. Researchers will study evidence-based techniques for fighting addiction and overdose, such as medication-based treatments like methadone and criminal justice reforms. The grants from the National Institutes of Health will go the University of Kentucky, Boston Medical Center, New York City's Columbia University and Ohio State University. Government officials across the U.S. have been fighting a multi-decade epidemic of opioid addiction, which includes not only prescription painkillers, but also illicit drugs like heroin and fentanyl. Deaths linked to those drugs rose to a record 48,000 in 2017. Explore further Herbal supplement kratom is tied to more US deaths 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Cutting-edge discovery in the lab of Catherine Hunter, MD, from Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago offers a new direction toward treatment of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) - a devastating intestinal emergency that occurs in up to 10 percent of premature infants. NEC is a leading cause of overall infant mortality in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Hunter and colleagues found that a protein that causes pores in the intestine (called claudin 2) is increased in NEC, which makes the intestinal wall more permeable and allows bacteria to enter, which can result in sepsis or possibly death. They also found that they can prevent this process in an animal model by inhibiting a special molecule (called ROCK) that upregulates claudin 2. They used an inhibitor that is currently in adult clinical trials for prevention of cardiac injury, but has never been studied in intestinal disease. Results were published in Scientific Reports. "Now that we have identified a cellular mechanism that causes this life-threatening disease in premature newborns, we are pursuing a new potential treatment strategy to stop NEC in its tracks," says Dr. Hunter, a Manne Research Institute scientist and pediatric surgeon at Lurie Children's, who also is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Our exciting discovery brings us closer to solving the complex jigsaw puzzle that is NEC." One of the theories on why NEC develops holds that in preemies the intestinal barrier is not strong enough to defend against bacteria that lives in the gut. Findings from Dr. Hunter's lab explain what makes the intestinal wall porous and vulnerable to bacteria, which causes inflammation and intestinal tissue damage characteristic of NEC. These insights will help develop treatments to strengthen the intestinal barrier in premature babies. The study used animal models, cell lines and human intestinal samples, which allowed Dr. Hunter and colleagues to confirm that their findings are relevant to patients. "In our lab, we always try to incorporate human tissue in studies, in order to see if our discoveries in animal models apply to people," says Dr. Hunter. "We are very grateful to families who participate in these studies with us. This is one of the important ways we can move forward in understanding NEC and developing treatment." Dr. Hunter will present this research at the NEC Symposium on June 2 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Explore further Study offers promise for preventing necrotizing enterocolitis in preemies More information: Guillermo Ares et al, Caveolin 1 is Associated with Upregulated Claudin 2 in Necrotizing Enterocolitis, Scientific Reports (2019). Journal information: Scientific Reports Guillermo Ares et al, Caveolin 1 is Associated with Upregulated Claudin 2 in Necrotizing Enterocolitis,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41442-4 Provided by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago There's a low-tech problem troubling the high-tech world of digital pathology imaging. The issue: Even as digital pathology makes rapid advances worldwidewith more physicians analyzing tissue images on "smart" computers to diagnose patientsthere are no reliable standards for the preparation and digitization of the tissue slides themselves. That means poor quality slides get mixed in with clear and accurate slides, potentially confusing or misleading a computer program trying to learn what a cancerous cell looks like, for example. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University are trying to change that. Bioengineering researcher Anant Madabhushi and Andrew Janowczyk, a senior research fellow in Madabhushi's Center for Computational Imaging and Personal Diagnostics, have developed a program that they say will ensure the quality of digital images being used for diagnostic and research purposes. The two unveiled their new quality-control tool in the most recent edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology Clinical Informatics and are being supported by a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. The new tool incorporates a series of measurements and classifiers to help users flag corrupted images and help retain those that will aid technicians and physicians in their diagnoses. "The idea is simple: assess digital images and determine which slides are worthy for analysis by a computer and which are not," said Madabhushi, the F. Alex Nason Professor II of biomedical engineering at the Case School of Engineering. "This is important right now as digital pathology is taking off worldwide and laying the groundwork for more use of AI (artificial intelligence) for interrogating tissue images." The application is "open source" or free for anyone to use, modify and extend. It can be accessed through an online repository. It was developed by Janowczyk about 18 months ago after discovering what he believed to be a surprising number of poor-quality slides from the well-known Cancer Genome Atlas, home to more than 30,000 tissue slides of cancer samples. Janowczyk said about 10 percent of the 800 cancer sample slides he reviewed had problems, ranging from a crack in the slide or an air bubble between the slide's layers. 'Knife chatter' among many slide imperfections To appreciate the valueand riskin relying on the highly technical, smart-computer, digital-imaging cancer diagnosis, it's helpful to understand the fundamental steps in getting there. While these high-tech approaches can process thousands of images per second, they're relying on digital images of the same kind of tissue slides that pathologists have been making for generations. And those slides, when viewed through a microscope, have more imperfections than you might think. To create a slide, the pathologist first harvests a block of tissue from an organ dissection, places a small slice of the tissue on a piece of glass that will make up a slide. The tissue is then stained to reveal its cellular patterns. A second smaller piece of glass is then placed on top of the tissue sample to protect it. The quality can be compromised in slide preparation by air bubbles, smears and ragged cuts (called "knife chatter") in the tissue or even during the digitization process which may introduce blurriness and brightness issues. "A microscope can't focus on areas that have distorted quality," said Janowczyk, who is also a bioinformatician at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. (Bioinformatics is the science of collecting and analyzing complex biological data such as genetic codes or, in this case, digitized images of tissue slides.) "And it took me days to go through all of those slides to manually identify and remove the bad ones. It was then that I realized we needed a faster, automated way to make sure we had only the good tissue slide images." The result, Madabhushi said, moves toward a true "democratization of imaging technology" for better diagnoses of cancer and other diseases. Partners on the new projectcalled "Histo-QC," for "histology," the study of the microscopic structure of tissues, and "Quality Control"include researchers from University Hospitals, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. Madabhushi established the CCIPD at Case Western Reserve in 2012. The lab, which now includes about 50 researchers, has become a global leader in the detection, diagnosis and characterization of various cancers and other diseases by meshing medical imaging, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Some of its most recent work, in collaboration with others from New York University and Yale University, has been using AI to predict which lung cancer patients would benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy based off tissue slide images. That advancement was named by by Prevention Magazine as one of the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2018. Explore further Computer accurately identifies and delineates breast cancers on digital tissue slides More information: Andrew Janowczyk et al, HistoQC: An Open-Source Quality Control Tool for Digital Pathology Slides, JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics (2019). Andrew Janowczyk et al, HistoQC: An Open-Source Quality Control Tool for Digital Pathology Slides,(2019). DOI: 10.1200/CCI.18.00157 Credit: CC0 Public Domain A key DNA repair gene known as X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1, or XRCC1, plays a vital role in maintaining genomic stability and is highly expressed in the early stages of sperm cell development (also known as spermatogenesis). To date, however, the exact mechanisms of XRCC1 have been unclear. A recent animal study published in The FASEB Journal examined the role of XRCC1 in the spermatogenesis of mice. To conduct the experiment, a group of researchers observed a control group of wild-type mice, as well as mice with XRCC1 conditionally knocked out in their primordial germ cells. Using these two groups, researchers compared expression of XRCC1 protein in the testes, the size and weight of the testes, body weight, sperm concentration and motility, and more. Overall, the study demonstrated that an XRCC1 deficiency resulted in infertility in male mice due to impaired spermatogenesis. Specifically, researchers found that the XRCC1-knockout mice exhibited smaller testes, as well as lower sperm concentration and motility than the wild-type mice. They also demonstrated that an XRCC1 deficiency in primordial germ cells was linked to stemness disruption, DNA damage, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. The experiment showed that while N-acetylcysteine (NAC) treatment was able to partially reverse several of these conditions, it was unable to restore fertility or reverse the apoptosis caused by XRCC1 deficiency. "Even modest DNA damage in human spermatozoa can reduce fertility and increase the risk of disease in offspring," explained Aihua Gu, a researcher at State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Institute of Toxicology; Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology, Ministry of Education School of Public Health in China. "Now that we know XRCC1 plays a crucial role in maintaining normal spermatogenesis in mice, further study should explore potential treatments that could reverse male infertility caused by XRCC1 deficiency." "XRCC1 has long been known as a guardian of genome integrity in many cell types, and this new study moves its role into the important context of spermatogenesis," said Thoru Pederson, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. Explore further New disease could signal hope for sufferers of brain ageing conditions Exercise is good for you. But for people who have had a heart attack, starting or resuming a workout routine may sound scary, exhausting, complicatedin short, the last thing they'd want to do. Instead, it probably should be one of the first. "We're trying to make it clear that exercise is as much a part of the standard of care as aspirin or statins or beta blockers," said cardiologist Dr. Benjamin D. Levine, director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine and a professor of medicine and cardiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. That hasn't always been the case, said Kate Traynor, director of the cardiac rehabilitation program at Massachusetts General Hospital's Corrigan Minehan Heart Center. "When I was a nurse in the 1970s, I can remember they kept people in bed after heart attacks," said Traynor, who is also president of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. Now, she said, patients are up walking soon after surgery. Research abounds on the benefits. A recent Swedish study found heart attack survivors who identified as "constantly active" had a 71 percent lower risk of death than the "inactive" participants. A 2017 review of research found heart attack survivors who receive cardiac rehab were 53 percent less likely to die from any cause and 57 percent less likely to die from heart-related causes than survivors who did not get cardiac rehab. "Exercise preserves the strength and flexibility of the heart and enables blood vessels to relax," Levine said. "It helps improve lipids and blood pressure and reduces cardiovascular strain during daily activities." A major key to reaping the benefits of exercise is incorporating it into a lifelong habit. "Sometimes people have an epiphany after a heart attack and that makes it easier for them to come around in their lifestyle," Traynor said. "But many people after a heart attack are just not really ready yet." Maybe they're depressed or afraid to make changes, experts say. "What I think is that people are frightened after a heart attack, and they're not sure what they're capable of doing, whether recreational exercise, occupational exercise, even sexual relations," Levine said. That's where cardiac rehabilitation can help, he said. "Everyone who has a heart attack should go through a period of cardiac rehabilitation. It helps people get past that initial fear and get control of all the risk factors within a multidisciplinary approach after a cardiovascular event." In cardiac rehab, cardiologists, cardiac nurses, physical therapists, exercise specialists, mental health counselors and nutritionists team up to support each patient. And thus, Traynor said, reduce the risk of another heart attack. Starting small leads to attainable goals, she said. "We help them have successes being on the treadmill or bike and feeling, 'OK, maybe there's more to this.' It becomes more self-fulfilling and keeps them going." Unfortunately, only about a third of heart attack survivors report receiving cardiac rehab, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Dallas, the cardiac rehab clinic at Parkland Health & Hospital System recently added high-intensity interval training (HIIT)short bursts of activity with short rest periodsfor heart disease patients who meet certain criteria. With HIIT, 15-minute sessions can be as effective as 60 minutes of a lower-intensity workout, according to some studies. HIIT helped Parkland patient Jesus Rodrigo Sanchez feel better and to believe in himself. The 60-year-old, who has a family history of heart disease, had bypass surgery in December. "It was hard at first," said Sanchez, who bought an elliptical machine to use at home, "but the rehab staff promises they won't give you anything you can't do. I didn't believe I could, but now I'm walking 2.8 mph at level 4 incline." For patients whose doctor has not recommended cardiac rehab, Levine suggests they ask for a referral. "Exercise is just really important to aid return to a normal life." Explore further High-intensity interval training helps trim belly fat in cardiac rehab American Heart Association News covers heart and brain health. Not all views expressed in this story reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org. In this March 23, 2019, file photo, origami cranes, a symbol of peace, hang in the Columbine High School library in Littleton, Colo., near where several survivors and family members of the victims gathered to speak about the upcoming 20th anniversary of the April 20, 1999, shooting. In the two decades since the Columbine High School massacre, therapists still struggle with how to help people cope. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, File) Alex Rozenblat can still hear the cries of a wounded boy calling for help as she hid from the gunfire that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year. Talking to therapists at the school in Parkland, Florida, didn't help. Each session had a different counselor, and she found herself rehashing traumas she had already expressed. She would rather turn to her friends, who understand what she went through. "There is slight pressure to get better as quickly as you can, and since it's been a year, everyone thinks that you are better," the 16-year-old said. The mental health resources after a school shooting range from therapy dogs and grief counselors at school to support groups, art therapy and in-home counseling. But there is no blueprint for dealing with the trauma because each tragedy, survivor and community is different. Many survivors don't get counseling right awaysometimes waiting yearsmaking it difficult to understand the full impact. The struggle is getting them to seek help in the first place. In the two decades since the Columbine High School massacre, a network of survivors has emerged, reaching out to the newest victims to offer support that many say they prefer to traditional therapy. As the anguish festers, the danger grows, illustrated by the recent suicides of two Marjory Stoneman Douglas survivors and a father whose young child died in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. "It changes the community," said psychologist Robin Gurwitch, a trauma specialist at Duke University Medical Center. Grief, troubling memories and emotions can bubble up any time for survivors and even community members who didn't see the bullets fly, she said. They can hit on anniversaries of the tragedy, birthdays of victims, graduations and new mass shootings, Gurwitch said. The trauma can even rush back with a song, favorite meal, video game or fire alarms. "There's never a time limit. We don't get 'over it.' We hope we learn to get through it and cope," Gurwitch said. Survivors of the Columbine attack, which killed 12 Colorado students and a teacher on April 20, 1999, started The Rebels Project, which is part of a loose nationwide network of survivors of mass attacks. The groups reach out after each shooting. They held a packed meeting for survivors and parents in Parkland this month, describing how they have learned to cope over the years through therapy, exercise and hobbies and assuring the Florida community that their pain is normal. "We are one family," said meeting organizer Mike Dempsey, a survivor of 9/11 and the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. "What helped me after 9/11 was that Oklahoma City bombing survivors drove all the way up to New York to help us. They weren't mental health professionals, but they were able to offer comfort and outreach and just to let us know: 'We've been through this.'" Rozenblat refuses to talk about the Parkland shooting. If she feels anxious during the school day, she holes up in a TV production classroom because there are no windows for a gunman to shoot through. Her mother worries. Alex had been an honors student but now struggles with schoolwork. She's also started hanging around a new group of friends, said her mother, Lissette Rozenblat. In this March 23, 2019, file photo, Columbine survivor Heather Martin reflects about the upcoming 20th anniversary of the mass shooting at her high school in Littleton, Colo. Martin helped found The Rebels Project, a support group for victims of mass shootings. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, File) She schedules therapy appointments, but Alex often makes excuses to postpone or cancel. The family bought a therapy dog and is trying to get Alex into art therapy. "The common theme among parents ... almost all of our kids don't want to talk about the incident," Lissette Rozenblat said. Some students who were not physically wounded minimize their trauma and don't seek help because they try to convince themselves they were lucky, said Columbine survivor Heather Martin, who co-founded The Rebel Project. "You can't measure trauma in that way," Martin said. Still, she said people need to seek help when they feel ready, not when others think they should. Victims often receive compensation for longer-term care, but many in recovering communities, especially those may have seen horror but avoided injury, say there's still not enough help to go around. Stoneman Douglas math teacher Kimberly Krawczyk said no typical school counselorno matter how well-intentioned or trainedcan fully help students or staff who survived a mass shooting. "These kids have seen as much as soldiers who have been in battle. They survived gunfire. They walked over bodies. They had classmates who were right next to them who got shot," Krawczyk said. Teachers also are dealing with their own trauma and insecurities, she said. "We don't all have our marbles back in our bags yet, but we are in charge of those children. That gravity is a lot of responsibility, and for some teachers, it is too emotionally overwhelming," Krawczyk said. Managing long-term mental health effects poses unique challenges in each town touched by tragedy, but experts agree that isolation is a red flag and keeping victims connected to family, friends and community is critical. Dr. April Foreman, a psychologist on the board of the American Association of Suicidology, called treating mass shootings "a profound lifetime health care issue" but stressed that a majority of those who have suicidal thoughts recover. Marjory Stoneman sophomore Julia Brighton said she's attempted suicide four times in the year since she watched the gunman shoot through the window of her English class, killing three friends. Despite an outpouring of community support and a bevy of mental health services, Brighton said she still felt ashamed to seek help. After months of therapy, she said she realized "there's nothing to be afraid of because it made me a better person in the long run." Explore further The unique vulnerabilities and needs of teen survivors of mass shootings 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. A WhatsApp group for surgical advice is reducing the number of patients needing to be transferred between hospitals in Malawi. Credit: Jakub Gajewski In remote, rural corners of Malawi, hospitals are often faced with life-and-death decisions. Women in need of emergency caesarean sections, older people with hernias, and children with appendicitis need surgery. But should they be rushed to the operating theatre or transferred to specialists in city hospitals? The answer depends on the patient's condition, the distance to the city, and the facilities available at the local hospital. Surgical skill, clinical experience and confidence are also critical factors. Until recently, smaller hospitals, typically with around 200 beds and just two or three qualified general practitioners (GPs), usually recent graduates with a couple of years' experience, often felt it safer to transfer patients for surgery. A handful of clinical officers a grade of health professional without a medical degree is responsible for transfers and sometimes provide routine surgical procedures in rural clinics. While vital to local health systems, their surgical experience and clinical judgment may be limited and many feel professionally isolated from teaching hospitals. "Clinical officers are not surgeons per se and they are not well connected to surgical specialists. But with supervision, there is a lot they can do," said Gerald Mwapasa, a researcher at the College of Medicine, University of Malawi. Mwapasa is the moderator of an invite-only WhatsApp group that allows health workers to ask specialists for advice before or sometimes during surgical operations. "Before the WhatsApp groups, doctors in regional hospital felt specialists were difficult to reach, now they are approachable," he said. The group arose as part of a project called SURG-Africa, of which Mwapasa is the Malawi project coordinator. The aim is to expand access to safe surgery in sub-Saharan Africa through training, supervision and the increased use of the World Health Organization's surgical safety checklist. As part of the project, researchers in Malawi are working to strengthen district-level surgical teams and the links between rural and urban referral hospitals. They considered developing an app to connect health professionals and enable them to share images and videos, but they realised that WhatsApp was a solution right under their nose. Vital support The group has become a vital support for rural hospitals faced with clinical dilemmas. "It gives clinical officers confidence when making decisions," Mwapasa said. "They can get advice on performing hernia surgery, or how best to prepare a patient for transfer rather than attempt a procedure that the hospital might not have the facilities to manage." In 2018, around 200 cases were discussed by the group, all of which would have previously been referred to urban hospitals. Thanks to the advice given, less than two-thirds of these patients had to be transferred. Martin Malunga, a clinical officer who does surgery at Mulanje District Hospital in southern Malawi, says the group is a valuable educational tool. "If one district (hospital) posts a case and a consultant responds, then all of us learn," he said. "The WhatsApp group has improved management by providing advice on how to operate or what to do before to referring a patient to a specialist." This view is echoed by Dr. Tiyamike Kapalamula, a paediatric surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in the financial capital Blantyre who offers advice via WhatsApp. "The cases that are recommended for referral arrive here in better shape because the basic investigations, resuscitation and preparation work is already done at the district level," she said. In 2018, 65% of the cases submitted to the WhatsApp group received a recommendation from a specialist within an hour. Credit: SURG-Africa Strict guidelines apply on what content can be posted. To safeguard privacy, no patient names, faces or identifiable images are shared. Around 40 questions per week are shared, usually by clinicians at one of the nine participating district hospitals. Initially it was a challenge to brief people on the group's purpose, says Mwapasa, but it's now easier to manage. Since starting in March 2018, more than 160 healthcare workers have signed up. Another group has started focusing on obstetrics and gynaecology. Teams of specialists also visit remote areas to provide training and mentorship, according to SURG-Africa project leader Dr. Jakub Gajewski, who is at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Before, rural clinicians had limited contact with specialists between visits, but with the group they now stay in touch. "This helps reduce the sense of isolation for doctors working far from teaching hospitals," he said. Whole system Dr. Gajewski says the project is helping to unlock the potential of health workers and, by cutting out unnecessary referrals, specialists can focus on complex patient cases they are trained for. "The whole system benefits from this," he said. With representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Medical Council and the blood transfusion service in the group, members have been able to flag supply shortages and swiftly receive replacements for tools such as surgical lamps. The initiative has garnered interest in Zambia, Tanzania, and Rwanda where surgeons are keen to explore how a messaging app could bridge the gap between surgical communities and improve the lives of patients and doctors. But for health services in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the biggest challenges remains the limited availability of health professionals. Too few are trained and many leave Africa to develop their skills. Most African nations have fewer than one doctor per 1,000 people the EU average is more than 3.5 per 1,000. The implications of this can be devastating. Take maternity care, for example. While Africa is the continent with the highest birth rate - Malawi's fertility rate is 5 births per woman, for examplematernal mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa are significantly higher than other regions of the world at 920 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. "Without enough health professionals, either the quality or accessibility of care is dramatically affected," said Professor Paul Cunningham of International Information Management Corporation (IIMC), an Irish tech company coordinating mHealth4Afrika, a project focused on improving primary healthcare in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa. Technology is critical for strengthening the delivery and and scaling access to primary healthcare, he says. For local health decision-makers, a key challenge is collecting accurate data from clinics so that they can predict demand and therefore plan future investments. For patients, better use of resources would reduce the long waiting times for high-demand health needs. Primary care While there has been a move towards electronic patient records in urban hospitals in many African countries, Prof. Cunningham says paper-based records remain the default mode for primary care data collection. Working with partners in Africa, Norway and Turkey, IIMC has co-designed a patient-centric health IT system used by health ministries and district offices, clinic managers and nurses in the four African countries. He described it as a 'cradle to grave' approach to patient care, tracking health information throughout their lives and building confidence in healthcare IT in the process. This electronic system can capture and integrate personal health records as well as compare medical data over time. The platform can save time during consultations and gives health professionals up-to-date patient information to help guide decisions. By automating the counting of key health indicator data, such as births, deaths, vaccination rates and illnesses, staff can instead focus on clinical tasks, while health ministries have access to more accurate data to inform policy and service planning. The platform now incorporates key medical programmes including maternal health, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer screening. Support is currently being added for diabetes, malaria and hypertension all major challenges in the region. Explore further What African countries can do about ensuring safer surgery By Jung Min-ho The Korean government has issued the highest-level travel restriction to ban its citizens from visiting the western region of Myanmar. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday that it issued a black warning to Koreans who are staying in or planning to travel to the northern area of Rakhine State that borders Bangladesh. It also issued a yellow warning (the third-highest alert of its four-tier travel warning system) against traveling to much of Kachin and Shan states in the north. The ministry said it made the decision following growing armed conflicts in the country. The new restrictions are expected to hamper Myanmar's effort to attract visitors from Korea. Last October, Myanmar started granting visa-free entry to Korean tourists. "We will keep a watchful eye on Myanmar's political and security situations in order to check whether further travel restrictions are necessary," the ministry said. Home-Connect started in 2016 as a subsidiary of the CipherWave Group of companies as it entered the FTTH market and within 3 years has become known as one of the leading Fibre to the Home (FTTH) providers in South Africa. Having launched its first FTTH packages in May 2016, our companys objective was to provide customers with a truly uncapped and unshaped internet package. This allows customers the freedom to explore the digital world on a superhighway without feeling they are traveling along a single, limited back road. After 3 years of exceptional growth we are today selling our services on over 24 Fibre Network Operators and are still growing. Those located outside of the metros should therefore keep a look out because it wont be long before fibre is in your area. Home-Connect partners with the majority of South Africas leading and most successful Open Access Fibre Infrastructure providers in the market such as Vumatel, MetroFibre, Waterfall Access Networks, SA Digital Villages, Octotel, Openserve and Balwin Fibre. Home Connect, being a young and dynamic company, offers a range of packages that we believe are suited to meet the needs of our customers. All these packages are uncapped, unshaped, month-to-month and offer a free-to-use Smart Dual Band Wi-Fi Router. After listening to our customers feedback, we are pleased to announce the launch of our ULTIMATE package offering free installation & activation which means there are no once-off costs for new customers. Customer can cancel by providing 1 calendar months notice and if this is done within the first 12 months of being activated then the customer will only be liable to pay the monthly pro-rata amount for the installation costs (which varies per fibre provider). With the introduction of the Ultimate packages in April 2019, Home-Connect believes customers will enjoy the freedom of migrating to fibre and being connected to the digital world with an unbeatable offering. Home-Connect believes fibre should be affordable, reliable, unshaped and truly uncapped with no soft cap or Fair Use Policy. One thing for certain is that for Home-Connect, customer service and customer support are the keystones to our business and plays a significant role in making sure customers enjoy the experience of moving over to the digital world. With this being a focus, we are seeing lots of positive feedback about Home-Connect. We might not get it right all the time, but we are always striving to improve as we receive feedback from customers. Customer feedback, whether positive or negative, is what helps us to improve and to ensure we are heading in the right direction. Home-Connect is also rated on a number of social media platforms and we are pleased with our progress over the last 3 years. View our reviews below: Facebook Hello Peter Fibre Tiger Google Home-Connect is rated as one of top-ranked ISPs in South Africa over the last few months in the MyBroadband reviews Giving Back Home-Connect is pleased to be part of the Vumatel school project and has connected nearly 30 schools over the last 2 years to the Digital World. We provide a 1Gbps service free of charge to each school ensuring they have access to the superhighway, so the teachers and students can experience the freedom of the digital world from their classrooms. We have a dedicated team at Home-Connect that assists these schools with digital transformation has and this has been a great success over the years. Mobile App Home Connect are also pleased to announce the launch of their mobile App, which is available on the Apple Store and the Google Play store. We built this app because we have realised the importance of being one step closer to our customers. By launching the mobile app we can provide customers with the functionality of live updates on network status, the ability to log tickets, the upgrading of connection speeds, and much more. The launch of the App provides customer with the same features as the portal, and we are working on the development of additional features to improve our customers experience. We want customers to enjoy being part of the Home-Connect family, said CEO Jonathan Mason. We offer unbeatable uncapped Fibre packages at an affordable price to the consumer while providing exceptional customer service. We believe we have something unique at Home-Connect and our customers experience it from the minute they sign up, up until they are live. We have automated the business entirely and customers are always kept informed on the status of their order. Win A Car Home-Connect is running an exciting competition from 1 March 31 July 2019. The ISP is giving away a brand-new car All you have to do to enter the draw is to sign up to fibre services with the ISP or refer a friend to fibre services. This competition is open to all existing or new clients signing up during the competition period. For more details visit www.home-connect.co.za A former student at The College of Saint Rose in New York has admitted to using a USB device to destroy the circuitry of campus computers, causing $58,471 worth of damages. The former student, Vishwanath Akuthota, could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, reports The Verge. He has also agreed to pay back the full amount of damage he caused to Saint Roses computers. Akuthota inserted the killer USB device into 66 computers on the New York college campus, and reportedly recorded himself doing so which helped the FBI to catch him. USB devices like the one Akuthota used are easily available to purchase online, and seek to overload the surge protection present in many PCs. Akuthota is an Indian citizen who was in the US on a visa after having earned his masters degree in business from the college in 2017. Napa County has created a spending list for money it is receiving from Californias higher fuel and vehicle taxes to smooth out roads. Stretches of Silverado Trail, Soda Canyon Road, Mount Veeder Road, Silverado Trail, Partrick Road and Milton Road are among the unincorporated-area roads targeted for work in 2019 and 2020. Longer-range projects include fixing roads in Berryessa Highlands and Berryessa Estates in 2022. Money is coming from Senate Bill One, which was passed by the state Legislature in 2017 and survived a recall attempt in the November 2018 elections. Californians are paying more at the pump and paying a vehicle fee in return for better roads. The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a Senate Bill One spending list for local unincorporated roads outside of cities. The county will receive $2.75 million in 2019-20, but is looking ahead to future payments as well and has a $15 million, five-year list. County officials expect Senate Bill One income to rise in coming years. Supervisors had questions about the list of road projects submitted by the Public Works Department. I think we need to do a little more to justify why its these projects, Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza said. Because I have folks in my district saying its worse in Gordon Valley, its worse on Monticello Park. Napa County uses a pavement management system to identify priority projects that should yield the best value. Public Works Director Steven Lederer said the mix includes rebuilding some of the worst roads and doing preventative work on better roads so they dont later have to be rebuilt at greater cost. The initial thought of, Why dont you fix the worst roads first?well that doesnt really work from a financial efficiency standpoint, Lederer told supervisors. You have to do a bit of both. This years Silverado Trail project involves repaving the busy north-south Napa Valley road from Oakville Cross Road north to Skellenger Lane and from Yountville Cross Road to Oakville Cross Road. Lederer said the goal is to complete the job before Aug. 15 and crush. Supervisor Diane Dillon said some of her constituents see Caltrans doing Highway 29 road work at night and wonder why the county cant do the same for its repaving on busy roads such as Silverado Trail. The main factor is cost, Lederer said. Essentially, night work is 20 percent, 25 percent, 30 percent more expensive. For one thing, the county must pay overtime. Also, the Syar asphalt plant runs during the day and keeping the plant open at night costs more, Lederer said. Paying more for night work means less money for other road projects. But repaving on Silverado Trail wont be done during evening rush hour between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., he said. Road repairs are to be done along Mount Veeder Road and Dry Creek Road to the west of the city of Napa in 2020. These narrow roads are a bumpy ride in sections and they are popular with cyclists. I want to manage expectations here, Lederer said, adding the county will do $150,000 of patching on Mount Veeder and Dry Creek roads. Road repaving will come later in the countys five-year road plan, he said. Soda Canyon Road northeast of the city of Napa is to see patching done from Loma Vista Drive to the end in 2020. The lower, 1.5-mile section from Silverado Trail to Loma Vista Drive is to be repaved in 2021. Napa County also receives about $7.7 million annually from the local Measure T half-cent sales tax for road maintenance. The county is spending some of this money in 2019 to repave an unincorporated neighborhood near Imola Avenue with such streets as Parrish Road, Mayfair Drive and London Way. Also, the county is using Measure T money to help repair roads damaged in the 2017 storms. The storms caused rural road damage estimated at $30 million to $40 million at 37 sites. Eighteen repair projects remain. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. For two decades, the California Chamber of Commerces annual descriptions of certain legislative bills as job killers have framed the Capitols sharpest economic conflicts. The chamber, working in concert with other business and employer groups, has been remarkably successful in modifying or killing the two or three dozen measures that find their way onto the list each year. Even though most of the bills are carried by the Legislatures dominant Democrats and are sponsored by some of the partys most influential allies, such as labor unions and personal injury lawyers, the chamber has rung up about a 90 percent kill ratio. Only rarely do the targeted bills die in formal legislative votes. Most simply disappear when their sponsors and legislative leaders realize that they dont have the votes. Last year, just one of the designated job killers reached outgoing Gov. Jerry Browns desk and he vetoed it, saying it violated federal law. That measure, which would have prohibited arbitration agreements as a condition of employment, is back this year, one of the 24 bills on the 2019 list released last week. The revived arbitration bill, Assembly Bill 51, is being carried again this year by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat who is one of the few legislators to score wins against the chamber in past years. These bills represent some of the worst policy proposals affecting California employers and our economy currently being considered by the Legislature, the chambers president, Allan Zaremberg, said in a statement that accompanied the release. Some of these bills have been rejected time and again by the Legislature or vetoed by the previous governor. Legislators should, instead, focus on removing impediments to economic growth and creating upward mobility for all Californians. The chambers success, at least in part, has reflected the cultivation of a bloc of moderate Democrats by it and other business groups, and dubbed the mod squad by Capitol insiders. Business lobbyists could also count on sympathetic support from recent governors, including Brown, who would quietly advise legislators not to send them measures that they were unwilling to sign. However, the Capitols ideological ambiance has undergone a shift to the left, not only because Democratic legislative supermajorities became even larger in last years election, but because California voters also elected a new governor, Gavin Newsom, who is outwardly more liberal than Brown. Moreover, theres a big psychological impetus among the Capitols Democrats to reinforce Californias status as the leader of the resistance to President Donald Trump. That attitude is reflected in one of the most contentious of the 2019 job-killer bills, Senate Bill 1, carried by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat. It would give state regulators broad authority to adopt new environmental and worker standards to replace those being weakened by the Trump administration. Finally, a couple of the bills on the chambers new list both relating to protecting private data are being carried by Republicans, which is another new wrinkle in the annual ritual. Those changing conditions seemingly give sponsors of bills on the 2019 list more cause for optimism, and will probably make it tougher for the chamber and other business groups to continue to score wins as they go head-to-head with unions, lawyers, consumer advocates and environmental groups. What happens to these 24 bills, and others that may be added later will reveal much about the practical effect of last years elections. CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary. Yerevan Mayor: I have never met with ex-President Robert Kocharyan Armen Ashotyan: No provision on use of force against Armenia, Artsakh in Eastern Partnership Summit resolution "My Step" faction of Yerevan Council of Elders nominates deputy mayor to replace Hayk Marutyan Stratfor: Normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations will essentially increase Turkey's influence in the region Head of ruling faction of Yerevan Council of Elders: Mayor left Civil Contract Party a year ago Armenia Parliament Speaker announces end of second sitting of 8th convocation of National Assembly Armenia-Russia Interparliamentary Committee holds 33rd session, regional issues touched upon as well US releases about 1,500 John F. Kennedy assassination documents Armenia government to pay salaries and benefits of employees of Nairit Factory Armenia government to provide assistance to citizens having lost property in Shurnukh and Vorotan for 5 more months Armenia Deputy PM Hambardzum Matevosyan receives Russia Ambassador Armenia Parliament Deputy Speaker discusses return of POWs, Artsakh status with Poland Ambassador Armenia citizen tries to approach PM, apprehended Mayoral candidate of Armenia's Vanadzor Mamikon Aslanyan is arrested NEWS.am daily digest: 16.12.21 Armenian MP: Armenia accepts as a basis the map of 1926, but Russia offered the one of 1974 to stabilize situation Armenia PM arrives at Civil Contract Party's headquarters to meet with ruling faction of Yerevan's Council of Elders Armenia President receives Belarus ambassador Armenia representative in ECHR: UN court did not equate Armenia and Azerbaijan Armenia PM congratulates serving, first Kazakhstan presidents Vanadzor residents hold rally in defense of arrested mayor Ameriabank signs $20M loan agreements with responsAbility and Global Climate Partnership Fund Garo Paylan: Armenian-Turkish relations will be normalized more quickly than expected Dollar continues losing value in Armenia Armenia representative: European Court is considering lawsuit against Turkey participation in last year's war Opposition 'Armenia' Faction secretary accuses ruling majority of violating Constitution Armenian army's General Staff deputy chief sacked Armenian NGO head Narek Samsonyan is released Armenia Ombudsman discusses with UNDP Representative return of Armenian POWs, their treatment Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte elected Westbrook City Council president Macron: Armenia, Azerbaijan, together Russia official: Observer status in Eurasian Economic Union will be beneficial for Azerbaijan Wings of Tatev named winner of World Travel Awards in World's Leading Cable Car Ride 2021 category Haberturk: There will be new Armenian-Turkish roadmap, corridor will be key issue Armenia premier receives Artsakh President Azerbaijans Aliyev pleased with absence of criticism from Armenia at Eastern Partnership Summit Armenia PM to meet with members of ruling faction of Yerevan's Council of Elders soon Armenia economy minister: Ruling power has no consensus yet on opening borders with Turkey Armenia official: $1.2bn will be spent on construction of 2 sections of railway with Azerbaijan Overchuk: Active work being done to unblock transport communications in South Caucasus 25 new cases of coronavirus reported in Karabakh Armenia MP released from custody calls on releasing other heads of communities of Syunik Province in parliament Armenia President, China diplomat discuss regional security, stability Deputy of opposition 'Armenia' Faction Mkhitar Zakaryan takes oath after release from custody Russia peacekeepers help deliver 10 tons of humanitarian aid to Artsakh children Armenias Pashinyan: We agreed with Azerbaijans Aliyev to continue contacts Armenia PM: Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadis railway will be built 180 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Macron: We will never abandon Armenians Yerevan mayor signs petitions for purchase of 100 more new public transport buses, 100 elevators Turkey considering airlines bids for Istanbul-Yerevan flights US National Security Adviser expresses concern over tensions between Armenia, Azerbaijan Armen Grigoryan, Jake Sullivan discuss security environment around Armenia Newspaper: Western-funded public sector of Armenia becomes active with new topics Azerbaijans Aliyev calls talks with Armenias Pashinyan in Brussels productive and pragmatic EU to provide 2.3bn to Eastern Partnership countries, including Armenia EU welcomes recent signature of common aviation area agreement with Armenia US embassy in Armenia issues travel update EU remains committed in its support to territorial integrity within their internationally recognised borders EU, Eastern Partnership countries leaders call Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting in Brussels very positive step Armenia PM, Cyprus President exchange views on developments in South Caucasus Pashinyan-Macron-Aliyev trilateral meeting held in Brussels Irakanum.am: Armenia PM to meet with members of ruling faction of Yerevan's Council of Elders tomorrow French Senate to set up group for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia PM attends 6th Eastern Partnership Summit Turkey's ex-Ambassador to US to be appointed special envoy for normalization of relations with Armenia Aliyev on Armenian POWs: We returned them to Armenia, and they were detained there Aliyev claims that Baku has managed to convince Yerevan about 'inevitability of opening of road to Nakhchivan' Zelensky offers to host summit of leaders of Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Turkey in Kyiv Armenia Security Council Secretary to meet with National Security Advisor to US President Jake Sullivan Democratic Party of Artsakh members meet with representatives of Republican Party of Armenia Armenian army generals submit recommendation letter for release of detachment commander Ashot Minasyan Mitsotakis: Turkey's financial crisis presents danger for stability in the whole region Germany declares two officials of Russian Embassy persona non grata Armenia justice minister discusses sector-specific meetings with Croatian, Irish, Greek counterparts Ruling faction of Yerevan's Council of Elders launches procedure to express lack of confidence in mayor Moldova's special services arrest and conduct search against founder of Wargonzo Semyon Pegov Zakharova: Moscow welcomes direct contacts between Yerevan and Baku Russian MFA: Normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations would contribute to recovery of general situation in region NEWS.am daily digest: 15.12.21 Georgia justice minister accepts Armenian counterpart's invitation to visit Armenia during meeting in Venice Candidate for Mayor of Armenia's Vanadzor is detained, charged under 3 articles Armenia Migration Service: Russia has adopted and has yet to adopt new rules for migrants Armenian, Slovenian premiers confer on Armenia-EU relations Candidate for Vanadzor mayor taken to Investigative Committee in Yerevan Armenia's Ambassador Viktor Yengibaryan presents credentials to Germany President Artsakh President chairs Security Council meeting Armenia deputy PM in Brussels, meets with EU Commissioner Court rules to arrest opposition 'Armenia' Alliance member Narek Mantashyan for two months EU heralds Schengen Area reforms Turkish opposition parties have decided to put an end to 'monstrous' presidential system 5.0-magnitude earthquake hits Iran Dollar still falls noticeably in Armenia Turkish opposition member insists that Erdogan has decided to go to snap elections Legislature vice-speaker from opposition: Secret agreements can lead to new capitulation of Armenia Brother of North Korea's founder Kim dies at 101 Artsakh ombudsman: Azerbaijan does not allow Taghavard village residents to visit their community cemetery Armenia opposition MP: People have collective will to not let Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem implement idea of corridor Armenia National Assembly fails to ensure quorum in 4 hours Armenia parliament to convene special session tomorrow What Would They Tell Us Today? Some of us would have loved to be a fly on the wall at the Seder described in the Haggadah: It happened that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarphon were reclining [at a Seder] in Bnei Brak. They were discussing the exodus from Egypt all that night . . . We asked Chabad representatives to tell us which biblical, Talmudic or medieval personality theyd like to have at their Seder table. He Laughed When Everyone Cried Rochel Baila Yaffe Chabad of The Shoreline, Connecticut Many people have passed through our Chabad House over the years, each of them with their own set of challenges. Sometimes, these challenges can become so overwhelming that they skew perspectives and confuse priorities. Sometimes, they consume us, depriving us of the opportunity to enjoy and appreciate lifes gifts, while also stunting our intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth. The great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiva, the host of the famous Bnei Brak seder we mention in the Haggadah, did not lead an easy life. His formal Jewish education didnt begin until age forty. For years, he and his wife lived apart from each other, in extreme poverty. When the Romans discovered that Rabbi Akiva was studying and teaching Torah, they tortured him to death. And yet he is known for his positivityfor seeing the good in everything. Everything that G-d does is for the good, he famously said. After the Second Temples destruction, Rabbi Akiva and some other sages (some of whom had been at the Bnei Brak seder!) traversed the desolate Temple Mount. While the other rabbis wept at the sight of the devastation, Rabbi Akiva laughed. Why do you laugh? they demanded. Rabbi Akiva responded, If the prophecies of destruction came to pass, then surely the prophecies of rebuilding and a joyous future will come to pass. To this, the rabbis replied, Akiva, you have comforted us. I would ask Rabbi Akiva to help us overcome the challenges of life and teach us to see the bigger picture. His joy and faith in a positive future would help us perceive the possibility of a perfected world. With the power of Rabbi Akivas guidance, we could collectively work towards making that vision a reality. Never Say It Cant Be Done . . . Rabbi Meir Kaplan Chabad of Vancouver Island, British Columbia Id love to invite Joseph, the son of Jacob, to be the guest of honor at our 2019 community Seder table here in Vancouver Island on Canadas Pacific Coast. The challenges he confronted back in biblical days were not unlike the ones we struggle with today. Once we get to the dinner part of the Seder, Id want him to tell us how he managed to maintain grace and generosity of spirit towards his brothers who mistreated him so badly. What might he teach us about being kind to family members, regardless of how they behave toward us? Id want to ask him how he managed to stay positive while incarcerated on false charges. What was it like being the Hebrew lad imprisoned in ancient Egypt? How did he rise from the depths of despairthe lowest social stratum in Egypt? And what can we learn from that recovery as we negotiate the low points in our own lives? How was it that while he sat in prison for more than a decade, with no parent or sibling to comfort him, he retained the capacity to be sensitive to othersto feel concern and empathy for his fellow prisoners? And most of all, Id want to ask him how he kept to his Jewish faith in an environment where he was not in the minority, but was the minority. If Joseph sustained his Jewish identity and Jewish practices as the only Jew aroundfirst in prison, and later, as viceroy of Egypthow can any of us ever say that it cant be done? Two Roads Diverged Rabbi Yosef Levin Chabad of Greater South Bay, California Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, who led the Jewish people during the destruction of the Second Temple, was on his deathbed. When his students came to visit him, he began to cry. His students asked: Lamp of Israel, why are you crying? And he said to them: There are two roads before me [in the afterlife], and I do not know which road I will be taken. Should I not cry? Rabbi Yochanan was unsure whether he would be rewarded or punished when he gives his final accounting for his life. Id love to ask Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai how heone of our greatest sagescould have doubted whether he would go straight to the highest levels of paradise. As a young man, I was deeply moved by a talk I heard from the Rebbe on this subject. He said that until that moment, Rabbi Yochanan was focused on bringing light to the world, attending to the needs of the people in very difficult times. He did not have the luxury to think about himselfnot even of his own spiritual state. Only now on his deathbed, when he had finished his life and work, did he start examining the purity of his motives. Examining the self can be a very good thinguntil it becomes an unhealthy preoccupation. Here in Northern California, the center of the self-help universe, its easy to lose sight of this. As much as I value introspection and personal growthand I doI fear that focusing on our shortcomings may distract us from the needs of our communities, which require our attention and action. Passover reminds us that we need to take the leap and act. Indeed, Judaism teaches us that our actions are more important than our thoughts. If we focus on the self too much, we miss opportunities to serve. So Id be honored to welcome Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai to my seder table in Palo Alto. I would ask him how he managed to keep his focus and make a mark every day of his life (and he had a long life), always for the benefit of others, selflessly. A Talmudic Era Grassroots Activist Chanie Zalmanov Chabad of Eastern Queens, New York Rabbi Hiya was a second century sage, but I like to think of him as the original grassroots community activist. In the years after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews who remained in Israel were demoralized by many years of harsh decrees and bloody battles. During this period, the study of Torah had become erratic at best, and Rabbi Hiya realized that the Jewish people were at risk of losing their heritage and identity. What did the sage and scholar do? He planted and reaped flax and used the flax to make nets. He used the nets to catch deer which he slaughtered and fed to hungry children. He then used the deer skin as parchment on which he wrote Torah. And with these scrolls, he traveled from village to village, educating an entire generation of Jewish children. Slowly, our dying people returned to life . . . and to the life-giving Torah. Rabbi Hiyas story comes to mind whenever I perform the mundane work that comes with running a Chabad House, like moving furniture to accommodate more visitors, cooking, and setting tables and buffets. When I am busy hiring teachers for our schools, comforting crying children in our summer camps, and holding the hands of grieving mourners, I am reminded of Rabbi Hiya. When instead of finishing that stimulating book that I am in the middle of reading, my time is consumed with counseling teens and schmoozing with lonely seniors, I am reminded of Rabbi Hiya. He didnt delegate this task to someone on a lower stature. After all, he was one of the most renowned scholars of his time, did he have to oversee this whole project from start to finish? Surely he could have asked someone else, someone less brilliant, to plant the flax or catch the deer. But he didnt. Instead, he did what needed to be done, even when it seemed to come at the expense of his own personal growth. I am sure he would validate the endless daily tasks that consume so much of our energy. How would he guide us to break down our seemingly impossible dreams into short to-do lists and make them a reality? What would he tell us about affecting change in our communities these days? Oh, how I would love to hear his thoughts on how to practically solve the issues that plague us: Poverty. Ignorance. The scarcity of quality Jewish programming. Anti-Semitism. . . . Maybe he would remind us that mundane work has a purpose: to ensure that Judaism continues to thrive. Isnt that the story of the Exodus? Wasnt that Rabbi Hiyas story back in the day? Isnt that our story, today? Go With What Youve Got Rabbi Dov Greenberg Chabad at Stanford University, California Here at Stanford University, Ive noticed that students often lack confidence in their abilities and potential. They underestimate their power. So I think theyd be fascinated to have Moses join us at our Seder. After all, Moses doubted himself too. At the burning bush, G-d appeared to Moses and told him to lead the Jews to freedom. Moses argued with G-d, saying that he had already tried to help the Jews and failed. He felt that neither the Jews nor Pharaoh would take him seriously. And he had a speech impediment that made him self-conscious. He felt unqualified for the task. Then G-d simply said to Moses: What do you have in your hand? G-d shifted Moses attention away from anxiety over the past and the future. Essentially he said, use what you have now. You have a staff in your hand, use it. G-d had already imbued Moses with everything that he would need in order to fulfill his destiny. And the same goes for all of us. We can all make excuses: Im not qualified. Ive made too many mistakes. I dont have the talent, the eloquence, the confidence. G-d says: I know all that. I created you. But whats in your hand? All I ask is that you use it. Before slaying Goliath, David thought, G-d, Im young. Goliath is a powerful warrior. How can I fight him? And G-d said, David, I know you dont have air support backing you up. But whats in your hand? A slingshot? Use it. Esther said, G-d, I cant go in there and speak to the king. Im inexperienced. He wont listen to me. And G-d said, Esther, whats in your hand? Can you throw a wine party? Ive got you covered. Pharaohs daughter heard baby Moses cry. She thought, Its one girl against an empire. And G-d said. Whats in your hand? She said, Nothing. G-d said, Well, if all youve got is your hand, use your hand, for G-ds sake. She extended her hand towards the basket and changed all of human history. I suspect that Moses would ask the students at Stanfords seder, Whats in your hand tonight? It may not seem like much, but G-d wants you to use it. He wants to pour His blessing into the work of your hands so that you can lead the rewarding Jewish lives He has in store for you. This piece was published in the Lubavitch International magazine, Spring 2019 edition. To gain access to previous magazines: lubavitch.com/subscribe I cant talk about the details of the criminal case because it is not my duty. This is what Head of the State Oversight Service of Armenia Davit Sanasaryan told journalists. However, this doesnt mean that I cant provide relevant information so that nobody hurts the good reputation that I have gained through years of struggle. I have gained that reputation by living as an honest person with principles, and no preliminary investigation body or testifier can hurt my reputation. As for my status, you can ask the National Security Service. Yes, I have been questioned, have confronted and have told everything I know, Sanasaryan said. Sanasaryan stated that he couldnt say who had testified against him and what they had testified. I can say that no structure can say Im linked to a corruption case because I reject any corruption case. To those who ironize, I tell them that I will fight against corruption until the day I die, he said. We listen to local police and fire departments scanner traffic, but sometimes miss crimes, wrecks, fires or other incidents, especially if they happen overnight. If you know of something were not covering yet, please let Managing Editor Jeff Pownall know by emailing him at jpownall@lufkindailynews.com, or submit a news tip online by visiting lufkindailynews.com/tips. Martyrs and survivors of the Armenian Genocide were honored under the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House last week during the 104th annual commemoration of the 1915 events, Armenian Weekly reported. We are here to remember, said State Senator William Brownsberger. For the past 34 years, in the days leading up to April 24, state and local elected officials invite Armenians and human rights advocates to the Massachusetts State House for this annual ceremony, designed to highlight the Armenian heritage and stress the importance of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The event was held only a few days after the Commonwealths commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide. As State Representative David Muradian explained, many of his colleagues in that chamber have an R or a D after their names. Truthfully, he said, they should have an A for Armenian, alluding that crimes against humanity, including the Armenian Genocide and the genocides that followed, should not be considered partisan issues. On Friday morning, scouts from Homenetmens Boston chapter stood proudly in the Hall of Representatives, each holding American and Armenian flags on either side of the stately wood podium. Students from Watertowns St. Stephens Armenian Elementary School led guests in the singing of the Star Spangled Banner and the Armenian national anthema rather emotional example of the dual identity of the Armenian Diaspora. Resting peacefully in a wheelchair a few feet from the children was 109 year-old Armenian Genocide survivor, Starry Asdghik Alemian of Weymouth, Mass. As a great-great grandmother, Alemian and her descendants were described by State Representative Jonathan Hecht as a living testimony of the indomitable spirit of the Armenian people. Hecht presented Alemian with the governors proclamation of the Armenian Genocide from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. During his remarks, Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian shared the story of his own grandparents, who escaped the persecutions from Marash and eventually found opportunity and a chance for a new life in America. They became Americans and were not held back for their ethnicity. They were the greatest patriots, said Koutoujian, who also referenced last springs Velvet Revolution in Armenia. This year has seen the most change and hope for Armenians. We are enjoying something very special. Both America and Armenia are a testament to transparency and democracy. The history of the genocide is full of human tragedies, but also human bravery, philanthropy and humanitarian support, said local entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr. Noubar Afeyan in his keynote address. Another proud grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors, Dr. Afeyan compelled guests to think about second chances and the immigrant experience. Armenians have a lot to be thankful for. Every day that I live here, I feel a responsibility to do something about the opportunity that I was given. Afeyan suggested to Armenians to use their storied past as a source for good and express their gratitude by supporting todays refugees. For State Representative Muradian, the only Armenian in the entire Massachusetts legislature, the event served as a reminder to educate those who may not know about the Armenian Genocide, that its the least descendants can do. It is imperative that we continue to honor our ancestors, said Muradian. Those stories make up each and every one of us here today. During a musical interlude, Moscow-born clarinetist Narek Arutyunian captivated guests with the secular hymns of Khosrovidukht, an eighth century Armenian poet and musician. Clergy from the local Armenian community also led the group in an Armenian intercessory prayer. Following the ceremony, guests were invited to the Great Hall of Flags for light refreshments and to meet with Governor Baker. The US has proposed holding a meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers, in Washington, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters in Warsaw. The latest meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers was held in Moscow at the initiative of my colleague Sergey Lavrov. Jointly with Russia, we can hope for the progress in the [Nagorno-Karabakh] conflict settlement, given the efforts are increased twice or three times, Mammadyarov said. A delegation of US congressmen visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims. Members of the delegation laid flowers at the eternal flame, then examined the exposition in the Armenian Genocide Museum. The purpose of the delegations visit is to identify potential opportunities for impactful engagement by HDP with the Armenian National Assembly. In the wake of the fire that broke out at the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris, the Requiem Mass commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide will be served at the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Lebanon in Paris. Since 1979, the Requiem Mass commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide has been served at the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris. This year was going to be the 40th Requiem Mass at the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris, but due to the fire, it was decided to serve the Requiem Mass in another church, that is, the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Lebanon located in the 5th district of Paris, said Treasurer of the Prelacy of the Armenian Diocese of France in Paris Hampartsoum Talatinian. The search in the house and the office of former Armenian MP Mihran Poghosyan, who is involved in the headline-making case of money laundering through offshore company, is over. The search was conducted in the presence of his family members by National Security Service and Special Investigation Service. Officers of the National Security Service of Armenia are only ensuring the natural course of the search being conducted in the mansion belonging to former deputy of the National Assembly Mihran Poghosyan, the head of the press center of the National Security Service Samson Galstyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am. The 24-year-old soldier with a gunshot wound, and who was taken to hospital in capital city Yerevan Thursday morning, has died. The soldier was pronounced dead at around 11:35am. On Thursday at around 8:20am, the Military Police and a military garrison investigation department received a report that a contract soldier of a military unit in Yerevan had caused a gunshot injury to himself at the arsenal of this military unit. Armenia is ranked 61st out of 181 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders on Thursday. The report says the new media served as an echo chamber for the velvet revolution in the spring of 2018 that brought a former journalist to power. The media landscape is diverse but polarized and the editorial policies of the main TV channels coincide with the interests of their owners. In other words, journalistic independence and transparent media ownership continue to be major challenges, the report on Armenia reads. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Insulting the IRGC is equal to insulting the great Iranian nation and Armed Forces, stated Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the parade of the Army forces on the occasion of the National Army day in Tehran, Mehr News reported. Our enemies suppose that the IRGC is merely a part of our Armed Forces but they are wrong and have to know that the IRGC is present all across Iran and the Iranian nation considers it as part of itself and insulting the IRGC is equal to insulting the great Iranian nation and Armed Forces. He condemned interference of the US and the Zionist regime in regional affairs saying that major powers, in particular, the US and the Zionists, do not want stability, unity, security, and fraternity in the region. The US is angry with every force which does not obey it, is not under its control and prevents it from reaching its goals, Rouhani said, The US is angry because it cannot accomplish its planned program for the region due to the resistance of the Iranian nation and Armed Forces, but the way the US has chosen to take is wrong. He also underscored the role of Iranian Armed forces in ensuring security in the region and fighting against terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Syria. Addressing the regional nations, the Iranian President said that Irans Armed Forces are not against you and your national interests but they are to stand against the aggressors. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today received the US congressional delegation consisting of Co-Chairs of the House Democracy Partnership David Price (Democrat) and Vern Buchanan (Republican), as well as Democrat and Republican Congressmen, who are also members of the House Democracy Partnership. The Prime Minister welcomed the congressional delegations visit to Armenia, stating that Armenia attaches importance to the deepening and enhancement of relations with the US. Pashinyan stated that Armenia is in the period of major reforms and is persistently moving forward on the path to democratic development. The Prime Minister touched upon the Velvet Revolution that took place a year ago and the snap parliamentary elections held on December 9, 2018, stating that those elections were the first free, democratic and transparent elections since Armenias declaration of independence. David Price expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister for the reception and warm hospitality, welcomed Armenias reforms for democratic development and stated that the House Democracy Partnership is ready to contribute to the strengthening of US-Armenia ties and inter-parliamentary cooperation. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan answered several questions from the US Congressmen that were related to economic reforms, the situation and developments in the region, youth involvement in the Velvet Revolution and the following reforms, etc. Talking about Armenian democracy, Pashinyan emphasized that democracy is a conviction and creed for Armenia and the Armenian society. As far as the trends for economic growth following the revolution are concerned, the head of government presented the recorded growth indicators and stated that the government has taken and is taking steps to eliminate monopolies, reduce shadow economy and create jobs. The US Congressmen expressed willingness to support the strengthening of democracy and the implementation of economic reforms in Armenia and further deepening of US-Armenia friendship. Britain is concerned about new attempts by the United States to require foreign companies to abide by U.S. sanctions on Cuba, which have been rejected by the UK and other European countries, Reuters reported. The extraterritorial application of ... sanctions, which we consider to be illegal under international law, threaten to harm UK and EU companies doing legitimate business in Cuba by exposing them to liability in U.S. courts, Britains foreign office said in a statement on Thursday. We will work alongside the EU to protect the interests of our companies, the statement added. Earlier, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the US from May 2 will not extend the moratorium on the law, which allows to file claims against Cuba and foreign companies on property seized from US after the revolution on the island; The reason for the introduction of new sanctions were accusations against the Cuban authorities in violation of human rights, as well as due to the support of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the US considers illegitimate. Over the past 23 years, each president has suspended the implementation of the Third Article of the Law due to opposition from the international community and fears that this may lead to chaos in the US judicial system due to the flow of lawsuits. 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. The content of posts on this site, including but not limited to links to other web sites, are the expressed opinion of the original poster and are in no way representative of or endorsed by the owners or administration of this website. The posts on this website are the opinion of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or factual information on behalf of the owner or administration of LunaticOutPost.Com. The owners or administration of this website can't be hold responsible for content hosted on sites that posters link to in; including, but not limited to, posts, signatures, private messages and such. This site may contain content not suitable for minors and if you feel you might be offended by such content, you should log off immediately.This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Users may make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of issues relating to civil rights, economics, individual rights, international affairs, liberty, science & technology, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. 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/ Story Highlights Half of Americans are church members, down from 70% in 1999 Most of the decline attributable to increase in percentage with no religion Membership has fallen nine points among those who are religious Learn more about U.S. church membership with Gallup's 2021 update. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As Christian and Jewish Americans prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, respectively, Gallup finds the percentage of Americans who report belonging to a church, synagogue or mosque at an all-time low, averaging 50% in 2018. U.S. church membership was 70% or higher from 1937 through 1976, falling modestly to an average of 68% in the 1970s through the 1990s. The past 20 years have seen an acceleration in the drop-off, with a 20-percentage-point decline since 1999 and more than half of that change occurring since the start of the current decade. The decline in church membership is consistent with larger societal trends in declining church attendance and an increasing proportion of Americans with no religious preference. This article compares church membership data for the 1998-2000 and 2016-2018 periods, using combined data from multiple years to facilitate subgroup analysis. On average, 69% of U.S. adults were members of a church in 1998-2000, compared with 52% in 2016-2018. The decline in church membership mostly reflects the fact that fewer Americans than in the past now have any religious affiliation. However, even those who do identify with a particular religion are less likely to belong to a church or other place of worship than in the past. Trend Toward No Religious Preference Key Factor in Declining Membership Since the turn of the century, the percentage of U.S. adults with no religious affiliation has more than doubled, from 8% to 19%. Although some of those who do not identify with a religion nevertheless indicate that they belong to a church, the vast majority of nonreligious Americans do not. In 1998 through 2000, one in 10 Americans with no religious preference said they belonged to a church, as did an average of 7% in the past three years. As such, there is an almost one-to-one correspondence between not being religious and not belonging to a church. Consequently, the 11-point increase in no religious affiliation accounts for the majority of the 17-point decline in church membership over the past two decades. Fewer Religious Americans Are Church Members Although there has been a steep increase in the proportion of Americans who do not have a religious attachment, they remain a small minority of the U.S. population. Three-quarters of Americans, 77%, identify with some organized religion, though that is down from 90% in 1998 through 2000. The still-sizable proportion of religious Americans also contribute to declining church membership, as fewer in this group belong to a church than did so two decades ago. At the turn of the century, 73% of U.S. adults with a religious preference belonged to a church, compared with 64% today. Fewer Religious Americans Belong to a Church Figures are the percentage who say they belong to a church, synagogue or mosque 1998-2000 2016-2018 Change % % pct. pts. Have a religious preference 73 64 -9 Do not have a religious preference 10 7 -3 Data for the small proportion of respondents who did not answer the religious preference question are not shown (approximately four in 10 of these respondents indicated they were members of a church in each time period). Gallup It is clear then, that the nature of Americans' orientation to religion is changing, with fewer religious Americans finding membership in a church or other faith institution to be a necessary part of their religious experience. Generational Change Helping Push the Decline in Church Membership Religiosity is strongly related to age, with older Americans far more likely than younger adults to be members of churches. However, church membership has dropped among all generational groups over the past two decades, with declines of roughly 10 percentage points among traditionalists, baby boomers and Generation X. Most millennials were too young to be polled in 1998-2000. Now that they have reached adulthood, their church membership rates are exceedingly low and appear to be a major factor in the drop in overall U.S. church membership. Just 42% of millennials are members of churches, on average. Changes in Church Membership by Generation, Over Time 1998-2000 2016-2018 Change % % pct. pts. Traditionalists (born in 1945 or before) 77 68 -9 Baby boomers (born 1946-1964) 67 57 -10 Generation X (born 1965-1979) 62 54 -8 Millennials (born 1980-2000) n/a 42 n/a Note: Given that Gallup's polls are based on the 18+ U.S. adult population, the 1998-2000 time period would have included only a small proportion of the millennial generation. Gallup By comparison, 20 years ago, 62% of members of Generation X belonged to a church, when they were about the same age as millennials are today. The low rates of church membership among millennials conform with the generation's weaker attachment to religion in general. On average, 68% of millennials identify with a religion in the 2016-2018 church membership surveys, while 29% do not. In all other generations, at least 79% have a religious affiliation, with correspondingly lower percentages expressing no faith preference. The percentage of millennials with no religion may be continuing to grow, as an average of 33% in Gallup surveys conducted in 2019 to date say they have no religious affiliation. Not only are millennials less likely than older Americans to identify with a religion, but millennials who are religious are significantly less likely to belong to a church. Fifty-seven percent of religious millennials belong to a church, compared with 65% or more in older generations. The lower rate of church membership among religious millennials appears to be more a product of generational differences than of life-stage effects. In 1998-2000, 68% of Generation X respondents were church members when they were roughly the same age as today's millennials. Given that church membership, and religiosity in general, is greater among older adults, the emergence of an increasingly secular generation to replace far more religious older generations suggests the decline in U.S. church membership overall will continue. Membership Decline Steeper Among Catholics Gallup has previously reported that church attendance has dropped more among Catholics than among Protestants. Consistent with this, the decline in church membership has been greater among Catholics. Twenty years ago, 76% of Catholics belonged to a church; now, 63% do. Meanwhile, 67% of Protestants, down from 73% in 1998-2000, are members of a church. Much of the decline in Protestant membership is attributable to the increasing percentage of Americans who simply identify their religion as "Christian" rather than as a specific Protestant denomination such as Baptist, Lutheran or Methodist. Gallup classifies "Christian" respondents as Protestants but, as might be expected, nondenominational Christians are less likely to belong to a church (57%) than Americans who identify with a specific Protestant denomination (70%). There are insufficient cases to provide reliable estimates on church membership among other religions, but the data suggest that membership in a place of worship has been stable among Mormons (near 90% in both time periods) and Jews (in the mid- to low 50% range in both time periods) over the past two decades. In contrast to the variable changes in church membership among generational and faith subgroups, the declines have been fairly similar among most other demographic subgroups. However, the rates have differed by party identification, as Republicans show a relatively modest decline in church membership of eight points since 1998-2000 (from 77% to 69%). In contrast, Democrats show one of the largest subgroup declines, of 23 points, from 71% to 48%. Full data for subgroups are shown in a table at the bottom of the article. Implications Although the United States is one of the more religious countries, particularly among Western nations, it is far less religious than it used to be. Barely three-quarters of Americans now identify with a religion and only about half claim membership in a church, synagogue or mosque. The rate of U.S. church membership has declined sharply in the past two decades after being relatively stable in the six decades before that. A sharp increase in the proportion of the population with no religious affiliation, a decline in church membership among those who do have a religious preference, and low levels of church membership among millennials are all contributing to the accelerating trend. The challenge is clear for churches, which depend on loyal and active members to keep them open and thriving. How do they find ways to convince some of the unaffiliated religious adults in society to make a commitment to a particular house of worship of their chosen faith? Roughly one in four U.S. adults are religious but not members of a church, synagogue or mosque. Church leaders must also grapple with the generational slide away from religion. Millennials are much less likely than their elders to indicate a religious preference, and presumably the nearly one-third of millennials without a religious preference are unlikely to ever join a church. But the roughly two-thirds of millennials who do express a religious preference may one day be convinced to join, perhaps as more get established in their lives, including having families, which can be an impetus to becoming a part of a faith community. Another obstacle churches face is Americans' eroding confidence in the institution of organized religion. While organized religion is not the only U.S. institution suffering a loss of confidence, Americans have lost more confidence in it than in most other institutions. In addition to the ongoing trends toward declining religiosity, Americans who are religious may also be changing their relationship to churches. They may not see a need to, or have a desire to, belong to a church and participate in a community of people with similar religious beliefs. These trends are not just numbers, but play out in the reality that thousands of U.S. churches are closing each year. Religious Americans in the future will likely be faced with fewer options for places of worship, and likely less convenient ones, which could accelerate the decline in membership even more. Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. In the first photos broadcast by news outlets and circulated widely on social media of the historic fire that consumed Notre Dame Cathedrals roof and spire, the main sanctuary of Paris famed cathedral still stood. The gold cross at the altar glowed in the evening light. It was a symbol that many commentators across media platforms considered a Holy Week miracle. Logan Connors, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in French and faculty director of the University of Miamis UParis program, said the blaze that ravaged Notre Dame was a lesson in fragilitythe fragility of Frances historic patrimony and of the seemingly timeless cultural markers that we sometimes take for granted. The devastating fire broke out at about 6:50 p.m. local time Monday, spreading quickly along the roof of the cathedral, which was undergoing renovation work. Notre Dame which translates to Our Lady in English is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered a marvel in Gothic architecture. The first cornerstone of Notre Dame was laid in 1163, in the presence of Pope Alexander III. The flying buttresses were installed in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, and construction of the cathedral was completed in 1345. The fire also revealed the cathedrals role as a global site of emotion and connectivity, Connors said. I was surprised to see just how many people among my family members, friends, and colleaguesmany who are in no real way Francophileswere moved by the events. It seemed that everyone had a Notre Dame story to tell and a Notre Dame photo to post on social media. Notre Dame de Paris religious history is just part of its story. The cathedral has been woven into the social and political fabric of France since it was completed in the 14th century. With more than 12 million visitors every year, the cathedral is the most visited tourist site in all of Europea place of both religious and secular pilgrimage for people from around the world, said Connors. The blaze ignited on the second day of Holy Week, the week before Easter as observed in Christianity. Holy Week masses would normally be taking place within the sanctuary of Notre Dame. Easter Sunday masses have been moved to the Church of Saint Eustache. Historic artifacts and works of art, including the crown of thorns and other religious relics, were pulled from the burning building by first responders, while others had already been moved during the renovation process. Many pieces have been transferred to the Louvre Museum for safekeeping. The 18th century pipe organ considered one of the cathedrals many masterpieces is also reported to be intact following the blaze. And while the main sanctuary and the historic bell towers appear to be saved, the Paris Fire Brigade warned it will take time before a full risk assessment of the cathedrals structural integrity is completed. The age, the size, the stunning beauty, and the centrality of this cathedral conveys not only its religious significance for the devout but, as is often the case with other iconic religious structures, identifies the enduring values of a culture and a nation, said David W. Kling, professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies. During a news conference from the Ile de la Cite, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild affected parts of the 850-year-old cathedral, and announced that donations have been pouring in from all over the world. Frances Fondation du patrimoine, a private organization dedicated to protecting French cultural and natural heritage, has created a donation fund to rebuild the cathedral. This lesson in fragility, however, will remain, and what is certain is that one of humankinds most magnificent architectural achievements has been forced to turn a new page, said Connors. But as Victor Hugo said in his magisterial novel, Notre-Dame de Paris,Les grands edifices, comme les grandes montagnes, sont louvrage des siecles(Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries). (Add quotes, details) By Camillus Eboh ABUJA, April 18 (Reuters) - Nigeria's most senior judge was sacked on Thursday by a tribunal that convicted him of falsely declaring his assets. Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen was suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari in January, weeks before a presidential election, in a move that triggered accusations of interference in judicial matters. The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), which rules on allegations of false asset declaration, said it had found Onnoghen guilty of hiding the extent of his wealth and removed him from office. The chief justice holds a key role in determining the outcome of Nigerian elections if the results are appealed by a candidate and a tribunal is formed. Buhari, who has promised to fight corruption in public life, won a second term in February's election. He beat business tycoon and former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party, who is appealing the results. The CCT said it had also banned Onnoghen from holding public office for 10 years and ordered any assets he could not account for to be forfeited to the state. Asked by the CCT chairman if he had anything to say, Onnoghen declined to comment. (Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by John Stonestreet) (Adds detail) By Catarina Demony LISBON, April 18 (Reuters) - Portuguese fuel-tanker drivers have ended a national strike after agreeing to return to negotiations over demands for better pay and conditions, the government said on Thursday, ending the country's worst outbreak of industrial unrest in years. The government made the announcement after a three-day stoppage that prompted it to declare an energy crisis, took airports' fuel reserves to emergency levels, disrupted flights and forced motorists to queue for hours outside petrol stations. "Drivers made their voices heard and they managed to start a negotiation process with the employers' association that will guarantee that their work is valued," Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos told a news conference. The strike ends as Portugal heads into Easter holidays, a busy time for its important tourism industry. It could ease political pressure on the Socialist government, dogged by industrial unrest, as it nears national elections in October. Santos said the agreement to return to negotiations had been reached in talks between the government, the employers' association and the union representing striking drivers. With the government acting as mediator, both parties will return to the negotiating table on April 29 and are committed to reach a final agreement by the end of the year. About 2,000 petrol stations ran low on fuel supplies on Wednesday, according to emergency services platform VOST Portugal. At least one factory halted production and some bus routes around Lisbon were suspended. "It will take some time until normality is restored in its entirety," Santos said. National Union of Dangerous Goods Drivers president Pedro Henriques said people now appreciated the importance of fuel-tanker drivers, thanks to the strike. "From now on everyone will know what a driver of dangerous goods does, working up to 18 hours a day so there is nothing missing in the house of the Portuguese," he told reporters. The strike follows a wave of disputes in a nation that had been lauded by European institutions as an economic model, implementing painful austerity measures after the global financial crisis a decade ago to underpin recovery. Costa's Socialists, backed in parliament by the Left Bloc and the Communists, are expected to win the next election but may struggle to win enough seats to form a majority. (Reporting by Catarina Demony Additional reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Patricia Vicente Rua Editing by Mark Bendeich and Angus MacSwan) (Updates throughout, adds comments, background) By Umberto Bacchi TBILISI, April 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Two Saudi sisters who fled their country and appealed for international protection earlier this week saying their lives would be at risk if they were to return to the conservative kingdom got an offer of help from Georgia on Thursday. Immigration authorities in the former Soviet republic visited the siblings in their temporary apartment in Tbilisi, providing them with information on how to apply for asylum in the country, the Georgian interior ministry said. "The purpose of the visit of law enforcement officers was to offer assistance and security guarantees to the women," the ministry said in a statement. The sisters identified as Maha al-Subaie, 28, and Wafa al-Subaie, 25, were later taken to the interior ministry's immigration office aboard a security van, local media footage showed. They had taken to Twitter on Wednesday saying they had arrived in Georgia and needed help from the international community to find a new country to call home. The case is the latest to draw attention to Saudi Arabia's strict social rules, which force women to obtain the permission of a male "guardian" if they want to work, marry or travel. Rights groups say the system can trap women and girls as prisoners of abusive families, and the sisters are not the first Saudi women to seek urgent refuge outside their homeland. "Women and girls in Saudi Arabia who attempt to flee from the control of their families can face very grave consequences," said Suad Abu-Dayyeh, Middle East consultant for women's rights group Equality Now. "They are in danger of being locked at home for the rest of their lives, severely punished, and may even be killed." Earlier this year, a Saudi teen who had holed up in a Thai airport hotel to escape her family won asylum in Canada. And in 2017, a Saudi woman who had sought asylum in Australia, saying she feared violence from relatives, was stopped on a layover in the Philippines and returned to Riyadh. Story continues The sisters said they had become stranded in Georgia after the Saudi government suspended their passports and they feared for their lives, as members of their family had come looking for them. "We are in danger. We need your support to deliver our voice. We want protection. ... Please help us," Maha said in a Twitter video, where both sisters appeared without the head-covering veil imposed by Saudi social norms. But on Thursday the interior ministry said there were no relatives in the country who posed a danger to them. The Saudi Embassy in Tbilisi did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Georgian authorities to keep the two women safe. "By interviewing the sisters, the Georgian authorities have made a positive first step," Giorgi Gogia, HRW associate director for Europe and Central Asia told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "The rest depends on the sisters' wishes. If they file an asylum request, we hope that this request will be granted quickly." (Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Jason Fields. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org) (Adds measure passed) By Valerie Volcovici April 17 (Reuters) - South Carolina's Republican-majority Senate advanced a measure on Wednesday that would require the state to block new infrastructure to transport or process offshore oil and gas as state lawmakers fear the Interior Department will open the Atlantic coast to offshore drilling. Republican State Senator Chip Campsen introduced a provision to the state budget that prohibits the state from approving any activity that would facilitate drilling offshore. This would effectively kill plans to drill off South Carolina's coastline even if it is included in Interior's Outer Continental Shelf leasing plan, which is due to be released in the coming weeks. "The federal government must respect and not infringe upon state's wishes and authority," Campsen said. "We don't want South Carolina's pristine coastline to be turned into an industrial wasteland." The South Carolina proposal is the latest action taken by a coastal state government against offshore drilling ahead of the release by the Interior Department of the 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing proposal. Since 2018, six states passed legislation or amendments to restrict offshore drilling. Earlier this month, Georgia's House of Representatives passed a bill opposing offshore drilling. Governors, senators and congressmen from coastal states ranging from Maine to Georgia to Florida have urged newly confirmed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to leave their states out of the plan but have not gotten any assurances from him. The states only control their waters up to 3 miles (5 km) out from the coast, leaving areas further out under federal control. The South Carolina measure targets permitting of pipelines, refineries, rigs and other infrastructure needed to process or move oil and gas onshore. With five weeks left in session for the state legislature this year, Campsen said it was necessary to move legislation ahead of the release of the OCS plan and before companies seeking seismic testing permits in the Atlantic from Interior could receive a green light, which may happen in the coming days. Story continues Campsen said the proposal has support from Governor Henry McMaster, an ally of President Donald Trump, the Republican attorney general and has 33 co-sponsors from both parties in the 46-member state Senate. The Senate passed the budget containing this measure 40-4. The House still needs to approve it. "Why would we subject our $23 billion tourism industry... to the industrialization and inevitable oil spills associated with offshore drilling? It makes no sense, Campsen said. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Lisa Shumaker) (Adds details and a comment) CALGARY, Alberta, April 18 (Reuters) - Three renowned professional alpinists are missing and presumed dead after an avalanche in Canada's Rocky Mountains, Parks Canada said on Thursday. Climbing media named the men as American Jess Roskelley, 36, and Austrians David Lama, 28, and Hansjorg Auer, 35, saying they were killed after attempting to climb a challenging route on Howse Peak in Banff National Park. Canadian authorities did not release the names of the three men, but said they were one American and two Europeans and described them as highly experienced professional mountain athletes. Roskelley was best-known for climbing Mount Everest at age 20 in 2003, making him the youngest person at the time to have climbed the world's highest mountain. Lama and Auer were also world-class mountaineers who had climbed some of the toughest routes around the globe. Parks Canada said in a statement the party was attempting the east face of Howse Peak. The three men probably started their ascent on Tuesday, Stephen Holeczi, Parks Canada visitor safety specialist said. They were reported overdue on Wednesday. "Parks Canada visitor safety specialists immediately responded by air and observed signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment," the statement said. Without providing details, Holeczi said there was "strong evidence" that all three climbers were deceased. There currently is no timeline for when search and recovery efforts can begin, Holeczi said, because of bad weather and avalanche risk in the area. (Reporting by Nia Williams; additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa Editing by Bill Berkrot and Sandra Maler) Health care costs in the U.S. have reached astronomical levelsspending hit $3.7 trillion in 2018and they continue to climb, weighing on patients and the employers who help foot the bill. As Americas largest employer, Walmart is all too familiar with these trend lineswhich have led McMillon and Woods to innovate to do health care better. For the companys 1.1 million U.S. employees and their families, Woods launched the Centers of Excellence (COE) program in 2013, enabling workers to travel to top hospitals Walmart contracts with for select procedures. The company foots the bill and has found its worth it. More than half the employees referred by their local doctor to get spine surgery, for example, have learned from a COE that they dont need it. For those who do, an operation at a COE decreases the chance of readmission by 95%. Walmart has found that employees treated at a COE recover faster, too, returning to work three weeks earlier. Walmart has now expanded the COE model to almost a dozen types of care. Its a blueprint that others have started to emulate and one that might shake up the nations dysfunctional health care system. Photo credit: Getty Images From Delish A multi-state outbreak of salmonella infections has been linked to frozen ground tuna, the CDC and FDA report. So far, there have been 13 illnesses and two hospitalizations related to the case. On April 15, Jensen Tuna voluntarily recalled tuna imported from JK Fish of Vietnam that had been shipped to Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, and Washington. The recalled items were packaged in one-pound bags and sold in 20-pound boxes to distributors. They have lot numbers z266, z271, and z272. While the product affected likely was not sold to customers in grocery stores, the tuna could have been sold to local restaurants. Restaurants and retailers have been instructed to not sell or serve the recalled tuna and to wash and sanitize spaces where the recalled tuna was stored or prepared. If you live in one of the seven states listed, you can confirm with local restaurants their product was not part of the recall before ordering things like tuna and spicy tuna rolls. Symptoms of salmonella infection include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. If you have symptoms like this that you think might be salmonella related, contact your doctor immediately. ('You Might Also Like',) 2020 Hyundai Venue Crossover Packs Versatility and Tech Into Tiny Package Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Its fitting that Hyundai took the wraps off the tiny Venue SUV at the New York International Auto Show, because its small enough to park on crowded city streets where few other vehicles would fit. Its the seventh SUV in the automakers lineup, and Hyundai has no qualms about calling the Venue entry level. It is destined to replace the Accent hatchback. Although pricing has yet to be announced, Hyundai says the Venue will start below the $19,990 sticker price of its sibling, the Kona. Despite its small size and low price, the Venue promises fashionable looks and the latest technology. We plan to buy one and test it when it goes on sale late in 2019. Outside At just 158.9 inches long, the Venue is one of the shortest cars on the market. Only a handful of vehiclesincluding the BMW i3, Fiat 500, Mazda MX-5 Miata, and Mini Cooperare shorter. Its about 5 inches shorter than most other compact SUVs, including Hyundais own Kona. The Venue is boxier than the Kona and has a bolder grille pattern. The overall shape is reminiscent of the new Toyota RAV4 or Volvo XC40, and available two-tone paint helps to cement that resemblance. 15-inch wheels come standard; 17-inch wheels are available. Inside Hyundai is known for straightforward interiors, and the Venues is no exception. The controls are simple, featuring buttons and knobs, and theres a traditional gear selector between the front seats. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility come standard, as does an 8-inch touch screen. Navigation, heated front seats, and remote start with Amazon Alexa and Google Voice compatibility are available. Despite its diminutive exterior dimensions, Hyundai claims the Venue will be almost as roomy as the Kona when it comes to space for people, although it has nearly 14 cubic feet less cargo space with the seats folded down. Story continues One unique feature is an available denim-and-leatherette interior. Volkswagen and Volvo both offered denim trim a few years back, but the most famous small car to sport seats made from jean cloth was the AMC Gremlin. What Drives It The Venue is powered by an updated version of the 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine used in many current Hyundai models. The automaker says it has made a ton of engine-efficiency and cooling tweaks to maximize power while also improving fuel economy. We tested a Hyundai Accent with an older version of this engine, and we hope these improvements also address how loud and sluggish that car was. The company says it expects a combined fuel-economy rating of 33 mpg. That would put it on a par with small cars such as the Honda Fit and Nissan Kicks. All-wheel drive is not available, but a six-speed manual transmission isand the ability for drivers to choose their own gears might give the Venue a sportier feel. Safety & Driver-Assist Systems Were impressed by the Venues standard list of advanced safety features, including forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane keeping assist, and rear cross-traffic warning. These features are very often optional on entry-level vehicles. CRs Take If you need to park in small spaces and want hatchbacklike versatility but still enjoy the high-up driving position of an SUV, you might be interested in the Venue. Design aside, were interested in testing one to find out just how much we can fit in such a small car and whether its as enjoyable to drive as it is to look at. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2019, Consumer Reports, Inc. A 29-year-old New Jersey man died in September of a brain-eating parasite after swimming in a wave pool at a Texas resort, and now, seven months later, his mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the resort. Fabrizio Stabile swam at the BSR Cable Park in Waco, Texas during a visit to the area, before returning home to New Jersey. Then on Sept. 16, Stabile was mowing the lawn when he had to stop due to a severe headache. He took medication and slept through the night, but was still dealing with pain the next day, and went back to sleep with more medication. That afternoon, his mother tried to wake him up but Stabile was unable to get out of bed or speak coherently, and he was rushed to the hospital, according to his GoFundMe page. Doctors treated him for bacterial meningitis after seeing that he had brain swelling and a fever, but he didnt respond to the medication and his condition worsened. After four days of testing, they finally determined on Thursday that Stabile had contracted the rare Naegleria fowleri parasite, but it was too late to help. He died the next day, Sept. 21. His mother, Rita Stabile, is seeking $1 million in damages from BSR, which she said could have prevented her sons death had they exercised ordinary care in the operation of their water park, the Houston Chronicle reports. The lawsuit also argues that the parks blue-green dyed waves masked a pathogen soup in which Naegleria fowleri amoeba the brain-eating amoeba could thrive. Stuart E. Parsons Jr., the owner of BSR Cable Park, shared his condolences to the Stabile family and said that only God knows where he got the amoeba, the Waco Tribune-Herald reports. But in the months since, he installed a $2 million state-of-the-art filtration system approved by the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District. The park has since reopened for the 2019 season. Story continues Cases of Naegleria fowleri are extremely rare, with just 34 reported infections in the U.S. between 2008 and 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And surviving it is unlikely of the 143 known cases total, between 1962 and 2017, just 4 people have survived, a 97 percent fatality rate. RELATED VIDEO: Woman Dies From Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Eating Oysters: She Knew She Was Dying, Says Relative The BSR Cable Park closed temporarily the day after Stabiles death so the CDC could test the area, the Associated Press reported. Naegleria fowleri is most likely to be found in warm water temperatures, at 115 degrees or higher. It occurs in freshwater, such as lakes and rivers, or in poorly maintained swimming pools. Stabiles friends and family created The Fabrizio Stabile Foundation for Naegleria Fowleri Awareness, to bring awareness to, and educate as many people as possible about, this rare and preventable infection, they wrote on the GoFundMe page, which raised over $26,000. We aim to do this through an annual fundraiser in Fabrizios memory in hopes that this will not affect another family, they said. Please help us in keeping Fabrizios memory alive. Washington (AFP) - Compared to previous independent prosecutor investigations, Special Counsel Robert Mueller moved with uncommon speed in the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. Over 22 months he issued charges against 34 individuals, including six Trump associates, and three companies. Here are key dates in the probe: 2017 - May 17: Four months after Trump took office, Mueller, now 74, is named to lead the Russia meddling and collusion investigation. The appointment follows Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey. Trump was angry that Comey would not reel back the investigation. Mueller, also a former FBI director, assembles a team of seasoned investigators and is given broad latitude to examine anything that arises in the investigation, prompting Trump to call it a "witch hunt." Within weeks, the investigation begins examining Trump for possible obstruction of justice. - October 30: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and deputy chairman Rick Gates are indicted on financial charges mostly related to work they did years before for Russia-backed politicians in Ukraine. Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos is charged with lying to investigators about his dealings with Russians in 2016. Papadopoulos pleads guilty and pledges to cooperate. He eventually receives a sentence of 14 days in prison. - December 1: Former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn is charged with lying to investigators over his secret discussions with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak after the November 2016 election. He agrees to plead guilty in a deal that requires him to cooperate with investigators. - 2018 - - February 16: Mueller outlines a Russian "conspiracy" to meddle in the 2016 election, charging Evgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, and 12 others tied to the Internet Research Agency troll farm over their social media disinformation campaign. Story continues Richard Pinedo, a small-time California internet fraudster with no links to the Trump campaign, pleads guilty to selling false online identities to people from the Internet Research Agency. February 20: Alex van der Zwaan, a London-based Dutch lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to investigators about his work with Manafort and Gates on behalf of Ukraine. In April, van der Zwaan will be sentenced to 30 days in prison. - February 23: Gates avoids stiff charges in a plea deal with investigators. He pleads guilty to lying to investigators and conspiring to defraud the government in relation to his Ukraine work, while agreeing to cooperate with the Mueller team. - April 9, 2018: In a Mueller spinoff case, New York prosecutors raid the residence and offices of Michael Cohen, Trump's then personal lawyer and fixer. They focus on Cohen's arranging hush payments to women claiming affairs with Trump, as well as financial wrongdoings. Cohen later implicates Trump in the hush money payments. - June 8: Mueller expands charges against Manafort in a second case filed in Washington DC, and adds Manafort confidant Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian with intelligence links, to the indictment. Charges include obstruction of justice and money laundering, but nothing tied to Russian election meddling. - July 13: Mueller charges 12 members of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, with conspiracy to hack the Clinton presidential campaign in 2016. - August 21: A Virginia jury finds Manafort guilty on eight counts of financial fraud in the first case against him. Weeks later, he pleads guilty to reduced charges in the second case as part of a cooperation deal. - November 29: Cohen admits to lying to Congress about Trump negotiations in 2016 to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Two weeks later he is sentenced to three years in prison. December 4: Flynn gets a recommendation of no jail time after Mueller notes his "substantial assistance" to the investigation. - 2019 - - January 25: Longtime Republican operative Roger Stone is arrested for lying to investigators about his communications with WikiLeaks in 2016. - March 7-13: Paul Manafort is sentenced to a total of 90 months in prison in his two cases. - March 22: Mueller completes his investigation. Neither Trump nor any of his associates are charged with criminal conspiracy in the Russia interference case, and Mueller leaves unanswered the question of whether Trump tried to obstructed the Mueller probe. In a four-page summary of the report, Attorney General Bill Barr says that the evidence does not support obstruction charges. Trump declares the Mueller report is "a complete and total exoneration." - April 18: A redacted version of the Mueller report is made public. Admiral Ackbar (Credit: Lucasfilm) Some found the demise of Admiral Ackbar in The Last Jedi just too much to take. Having first met the rebel commander in Return of the Jedi, during which he delivered the immortal line its a trap!, the prawn/squid-like military genius became a firm fan favourite. Rejoining the Rebel Alliance, to battle the First Order with Princess Leia, he participated in the salvo to destroy the Star Killer base in The Last Jedi. Read more: Mark Hamill defends bloggers emotional video That was until he was rather unceremoniously dispatched after the First Order pummelled the Raddus, the star cruiser built by Ackbars people, the Mon Calamari, in an attack that put Leia in a coma. Though Erik Bauersfeld was the original Ackbar in Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, he was voiced by Tom Kane in The Last Jedi. Laura Dern as Amilyn Holdo (Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney) And hes got a few things to say about how it all went down, and particularly about Laura Derns character Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, who ended up saving the day, by ramming her ship into Snokes flagship at lightspeed. Appearing at the Star Wars Live show, as part of the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, he groused: I was not really thrilled with how they blew him out the side of the ship. Read more: J.J. Abrams admits theres more to the story of Reys parents Im like, Who is this Holdo woman? Nobody knows her, no ones invested in her who is she? Why is she saving the fleet? If anyone was gonna save the fleet itd be Ackbar. Admiral Ackbar voice actor DESTROYS The Last Jedi and Admiral Purple Hair at SWCC. Tom Kane gave no f#cks live on stage. pic.twitter.com/TzXm49qDmc Dataracer (@Dataracer117) April 15, 2019 A fair point. Choosing an unknown to deliver a vital victory to the Rebels over a seasoned commander, does seems a bit off. One critic at the time of the movies release called the way Ackbar was dispatched, confirmed with a single line of dialogue, unfathomably rude. Story continues Plus Holdos role in the movie has been widely criticised, many fans thinking precisely the same thing that had Ackbar been the one to sacrifice himself, it would have been a far more fitting send off for a beloved character. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker minus Admiral Ackbar takes off in December. By Tim Hepher TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - Airbus sales chief Christian Scherer said it is selling longer-range versions of its A321, while signaling a shift away from chasing market share at any cost and predicting Boeing will emerge quickly from the grounding of its rival 737 MAX. Scherer, who took on the top sales role in September, told Reuters that Airbus is seeing more demand for longer-range versions of roughly 200-seat planes previously used for medium-haul routes, blurring boundaries with bigger jets. "We are selling increased range on the A321. People are telling us this is a great module, give me more range. (We say) we will give you the maximum range we can on the A321: how many would you like? That is what we are doing," he said in his first substantial interview in his new role. Scherer's remarks are the strongest indication yet that Airbus has quietly launched the A321XLR, a keenly awaited new version of its single-aisle plane that competes with the 737 MAX and could brush up against a proposed new Boeing mid-market jet. Airbus and Boeing compete ferociously for sales of single aisle jets like the MAX and A320 or A321 and the effort to expand Airbus' lead in the market for its cash cow predates last month's grounding of the 737 MAX following two crashes. "I am certainly not encouraging any sort of behavior to try and exploit this situation, because this is out of bounds," he said of Airbus, which has limited potential to increase output. Sources also say Airbus is worried about a regulatory backlash over the 737 MAX crisis. Separately, sources say Airbus has already signed up customers for the A321XLR, which is being developed at a cost of several hundred million dollars although its launch has not yet been formally announced. The two planemakers have been raising production to serve record air travel, though Boeing has dropped back from 52 to 42 such planes a month due to the MAX crisis. Story continues Airbus plans to increase single-aisle output from 57 to 63 a month from next year but recently halted plans to go as high as 70 due to objections from overstretched engine makers. Industrial issues aside, Scherer cited demand beyond 63 jets a month. Asked if the market could absorb 70, he said: "That number has been used before and I see the logic of it." The suggestion is likely to worry leasing companies and engine makers who have urged restraint on jetmakers trying to make good on a seven-year waiting list of unfilled orders. The situation is different in wide-body jets where Airbus has been outsold three to one by Boeing for two years. Scherer pointed toward future sales of the A330neo, a 250-300-seater that has been struggling to make a mark against Boeing's 787. "I'll take a bet that in a year from now there will be no doubts about the A330," he said. NEW CHESSBOARD Scherer, whose father flew in the first ever Airbus test flight as an engineer, became head of sales in September after a career in sales contracts, strategy, defense and turboprops. As head of strategy he was closely associated with the 2010 launch of the re-engined Airbus A320neo, which precipitated Boeing's decision to drop plans for an all-new jet and launch the 737 MAX, as well as with moves to open a U.S. A320 plant. Urbane and multilingual, Scherer's style contrasts with that of long-serving sales chief John Leahy who dominated aviation for 25 years with a dizzying pursuit of higher market share as he dragged Airbus from upstart to Boeing's commercial equal. "We will defend where we are. But as I look into the future it's a different kind of chessboard than when Airbus had to lift itself from a 20 percent market share to 50," Scherer said. Market share is one yardstick but "it is not our business objective," he added. "It is not how I measure if I had a good day, it is do I have the confidence of customers, am I making money, am I controlling costs?" Investors monitor such language because market-share battles have tended in the past to conflict with higher profit margins. Scherer is up against a relentless dealmaker in Boeing sales chief Ihssane Mounir, who snatched the orders crown last year, while Airbus had a negative first quarter on orders due to cancellations. Analysts say Scherer is picking market battles but will come under some pressure to sustain orders. He must also respond to Boeing proposals for a New Mid-sized Airplane (NMA) between the A321neo and A330neo, though he insists Boeing's plan won't work. How that battles plays out could affect choices and timing of the next generation of single-aisle jets like the MAX and A321neo from 2030, which is beginning to influence strategies. Scherer, who keeps a model in his office of a jet code-named A30X, which would have seen the light of day if Boeing had opted for a new jet instead of the MAX, is focused on current business but acknowledges Airbus is shaping its ideas beyond the A320neo. "I would like you to believe that we have more than started to think about it," he said. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Alexander Smith) Post: #5 RE: There has been no lawful money since 1964 This Is The Real Matrix Lisa Guliani, Babel Magazine THE WHOLE THING IS A PACK OF LIES 1. The IRS is not a U.S. Government Agency. It is an Agency of the IMF. (Diversified Metal Products v. IRS et al. CV-93-405E-EJE U.S.D.C.D.I., Public Law 94-564, Senate Report 94-1148 pg. 5967, Reorganization Plan No. 26, Public Law 102-391.) 2. The IMF is an Agency of the UN. (Blacks Law Dictionary 6th Ed. Pg. 816) 3. The U.S. has not had a Treasury since 1921. (41 Stat. Ch.214 pg. 654) 4. The U.S. Treasury is now the IMF. (Presidential Documents Volume 29-No.4 pg. 113, 22 U.S.C. 285-288) 5. The United States does not have any employees because there is no longer a United States. No more reorganization. After over 200 years of operating under bankruptcy it's finally over. (Executive Order 12803) Do not personate one of the creditors or shareholders or you will go to Prison.18 U.S.C.914 6. The FCC, CIA, FBI, NASA and all of the other alphabet gangs were never part of the United States government. Even though the "US Government" held shares of stock in the various Agencies. (U.S. V. Strang, 254 US 491, Lewis v. US, 680 F.2d, 1239) 7. The UN through the IMF issues Social Security Numbers. The Application for a Social Security Number is the SS5 form. The Department of the Treasury (IMF) issues the SS5 - not the Social Security Administration. The new SS5 forms do not state who or what publishes them, the earlier SS5 forms state that they are Department of the Treasury forms. You can get a copy of the SS5 you filled out by sending form SSA-L996 to the SS Administration. (20 CFR chapter 111, subpart B 422.103 (b) (2) (2) Read the cites above) 8. There are no Judicial courts in America and there has not been since 1789. Judges do not enforce Statutes and Codes. Executive Administrators enforce Statutes and Codes. (FRC v. GE 281 US 464, Keller v. PE 261 US 428, 1 Stat. 138-178) 9. There have not been any Judges in America since 1789. There have just been Administrators. (FRC v. GE 281 US 464, Keller v. PE 261 US 428 1Stat. 138-178) 10. According to the GATT you must have a Social Security number. (House Report 103-826) 11. We have a One World Government, One World Law and a One World Monetary System. 12. The UN is a One World Super Government. 13. No one on this planet has ever been free!! This planet is a Slave Colony. There has always been a One World Government. It is just that now it is much better organized and has changed its name as of 1945 to the United Nations. 14. New York City is defined in the Federal Regulations as the United Nations. Rudolph Gulliani stated on C-Span that "New York City was the capital of the World" and he was correct. (20 CFR chapter 111, subpart B 422.103 (b) (2) (2) 15. Social Security is not insurance or a contract, nor is there a Trust Fund. (Helvering v. Davis 301 US 619, Steward Co. V. Davis 301 US 548.) 16. Your Social Security check comes directly from the IMF, which is an Agency of the UN. (Look at it if you receive one. It should have written on the top left United States Treasury.) 17. You own no property, slaves can't own property. Read the Deed to the property that you think is yours. You are listed as a Tenant. (Senate Document 43, 73rd Congress 1st Session) 18. he most powerful court in America is not the United States Supreme Court but the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. (42 Pa.C.S.A. 502) 19. The Revolutionary War was a fraud. See (22, 23 and 24) 20. The King of England financially backed both sides of the Revolutionary war. (Treaty at Versailles July 16, 1782, Treaty of Peace 8 Stat 80) 21. You cannot use the Constitution to defend yourself because you are not a party to it. (Padelford Fay & Co. v. The Mayor and Alderman of The City of Savannah 14 Georgia 438, 520) 22. America is a British Colony. THE UNITED STATES IS A CORPORATION, NOT A LAND MASS AND IT EXISTED BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR - AND THE BRITISH TROOPS DID NOT LEAVE UNTIL 1796. (Respublica v. Sweers 1 Dallas 43, Treaty of Commerce 8 Stat 116, The Society for Propagating the Gospel, & c.V. New Haven 8 Wheat 464, Treaty of Peace 8 Stat 80, IRS Publication 6209, Articles of Association October 20, 1774.) 23. Britain is owned by the Vatican. (Treaty of 1213) 24. The Pope can abolish any law in the United States. (Elements of Ecclesiastical Law Vol.1 53-54) 25. A 1040 form is for tribute paid to Britain. (IRS Publication 6209) 26. The Pope claims to own the entire planet through the laws of conquest and discovery. (Papal Bulls of 1455 and 1493) 27. The Pope has ordered the genocide and enslavement of millions of people. (Papal Bulls of 1455 and 1493) 28. The Popes laws are obligatory on everyone. (Bened. XIV., De Syn. Dioec, lib, ix., c. vii., n. 4. Prati, 1844) (Syllabus, prop 28, 29, 44) 29. We are slaves and own absolutely nothing - not even what we think are our children. (Tillman v. Roberts 108 So. 62, Van Koten v. Van Koten 154 N.E. 146, Senate Document 43 & 73rd Congress 1st Session, Wynehammer v. People 13 N.Y. REP 378, 481) 30. Military Dictator George Washington divided the States (Estates) into Districts. (Messages and papers of the Presidents Vol 1, pg 99. Websters 1828 dictionary for definition of Estate.) 31. "The People" does not include you and me. (Barron v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore. 32 U.S. 243) 32. The United States Government was not founded upon Christianity. (Treaty of Tripoli 8 Stat 154.) 33. It is not the duty of the police to protect you! Their job is to protect the Corporation and arrest code breakers. (Sapp v. Tallahassee, 348 So. 2nd. 363, Reiff v. City of Philadelphia, 477 F.Supp. 1262, Lynch v. N.C. Dept of Justice 376 S.E. 2nd. 247.) 34. Everything in the "United States" is For Sale: roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, water, prisons airports etc. I wonder who bought Klamath Lake? Did anyone take the time to check? (Executive Order 12803) 35. We are Human capital. (Executive Order 13037) 36. The UN has financed the operations of the United States government for over 50 years and now owns every man, women and child in America. The UN also holds all of the Land in America in Fee Simple. 37. The good news is we don't have to fulfil "our" fictitious obligations. You can discharge a fictitious obligation with another's fictitious obligation. 38. The depression and World War II were a total farce. The United States and various other companies were making loans to others all over the World during the Depression. The building of Germany's infrastructure in the 1930's including the Railroads was financed by the United States. That way those who call themselves "Kings," "Prime Ministers," and "Fuhrer" etc. could sit back and play a game of chess using real people. Think of all of the Americans, Germans etc. who gave their lives thinking they were defending their Countries, which didn't even exist. The millions of innocent people who died for nothing. Isn't it obvious why Switzerland is never involved in these fiascos? That is where the "Bank of International Settlements" is located. Wars are manufactured to keep your eye off the ball. You have to have an enemy to keep the illusion of "Government" in place. 39. The "United States" did not declare Independence from Great Britain or King George. 40. Guess who owns the UN? ( Expose on the UNITED NATIONS - THE ILLUMINATI AND THE COUNSEL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, by MYRON C. FAGAN )[/size] The world runs on the initiative of about 5% of the people; the rest need orders. The consensus of the other 95% on the subject of one's relationship with: government - banks - tax agencies - courts and corporations (all separate realms) is defective in that such inert abstractions have been accorded superiority over living beings. Governments are transitory mental contrivances set up by the clever few for the purpose of living off the efforts of the trusting many - a generalization, yes, but also the truth. Lisa Guliani, Babel Magazine1. The IRS is not a U.S. Government Agency. It is an Agency of the IMF. (Diversified Metal Products v. IRS et al. CV-93-405E-EJE U.S.D.C.D.I., Public Law 94-564, Senate Report 94-1148 pg. 5967, Reorganization Plan No. 26, Public Law 102-391.)2. The IMF is an Agency of the UN. (Blacks Law Dictionary 6th Ed. Pg. 816)3. The U.S. has not had a Treasury since 1921. (41 Stat. Ch.214 pg. 654)4. The U.S. Treasury is now the IMF. (Presidential Documents Volume 29-No.4 pg. 113, 22 U.S.C. 285-288)5. The United States does not have any employees because there is no longer a United States. No more reorganization. After over 200 years of operating under bankruptcy it's finally over. (Executive Order 12803) Do not personate one of the creditors or shareholders or you will go to Prison.18 U.S.C.9146. The FCC, CIA, FBI, NASA and all of the other alphabet gangs were never part of the United States government. Even though the "US Government" held shares of stock in the various Agencies. (U.S. V. Strang, 254 US 491, Lewis v. US, 680 F.2d, 1239)7. The UN through the IMF issues Social Security Numbers. The Application for a Social Security Number is the SS5 form. The Department of the Treasury (IMF) issues the SS5 - not the Social Security Administration. The new SS5 forms do not state who or what publishes them, the earlier SS5 forms state that they are Department of the Treasury forms. You can get a copy of the SS5 you filled out by sending form SSA-L996 to the SS Administration. (20 CFR chapter 111, subpart B 422.103 (b) (2) (2) Read the cites above)8. There are no Judicial courts in America and there has not been since 1789. Judges do not enforce Statutes and Codes. Executive Administrators enforce Statutes and Codes. (FRC v. GE 281 US 464, Keller v. PE 261 US 428, 1 Stat. 138-178)9. There have not been any Judges in America since 1789. There have just been Administrators. (FRC v. GE 281 US 464, Keller v. PE 261 US 428 1Stat. 138-178)10. According to the GATT you must have a Social Security number. (House Report 103-826)11. We have a One World Government, One World Law and a One World Monetary System.12. The UN is a One World Super Government.13. No one on this planet has ever been free!! This planet is a Slave Colony. There has always been a One World Government. It is just that now it is much better organized and has changed its name as of 1945 to the United Nations.14. New York City is defined in the Federal Regulations as the United Nations. Rudolph Gulliani stated on C-Span that "New York City was the capital of the World" and he was correct. (20 CFR chapter 111, subpart B 422.103 (b) (2) (2)15. Social Security is not insurance or a contract, nor is there a Trust Fund. (Helvering v. Davis 301 US 619, Steward Co. V. Davis 301 US 548.)16. Your Social Security check comes directly from the IMF, which is an Agency of the UN. (Look at it if you receive one. It should have written on the top left United States Treasury.)17. You own no property, slaves can't own property. Read the Deed to the property that you think is yours. You are listed as a Tenant. (Senate Document 43, 73rd Congress 1st Session)18. he most powerful court in America is not the United States Supreme Court but the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. (42 Pa.C.S.A. 502)19. The Revolutionary War was a fraud. See (22, 23 and 24)20. The King of England financially backed both sides of the Revolutionary war. (Treaty at Versailles July 16, 1782, Treaty of Peace 8 Stat 80)21. You cannot use the Constitution to defend yourself because you are not a party to it. (Padelford Fay & Co. v. The Mayor and Alderman of The City of Savannah 14 Georgia 438, 520)22. America is a British Colony. THE UNITED STATES IS A CORPORATION, NOT A LAND MASS AND IT EXISTED BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR - AND THE BRITISH TROOPS DID NOT LEAVE UNTIL 1796. (Respublica v. Sweers 1 Dallas 43, Treaty of Commerce 8 Stat 116, The Society for Propagating the Gospel, & c.V. New Haven 8 Wheat 464, Treaty of Peace 8 Stat 80, IRS Publication 6209, Articles of Association October 20, 1774.)23. Britain is owned by the Vatican. (Treaty of 1213)24. The Pope can abolish any law in the United States. (Elements of Ecclesiastical Law Vol.1 53-54)25. A 1040 form is for tribute paid to Britain. (IRS Publication 6209)26. The Pope claims to own the entire planet through the laws of conquest and discovery. (Papal Bulls of 1455 and 1493)27. The Pope has ordered the genocide and enslavement of millions of people. (Papal Bulls of 1455 and 1493)28. The Popes laws are obligatory on everyone. (Bened. XIV., De Syn. Dioec, lib, ix., c. vii., n. 4. Prati, 1844) (Syllabus, prop 28, 29, 44)29. We are slaves and own absolutely nothing - not even what we think are our children. (Tillman v. Roberts 108 So. 62, Van Koten v. Van Koten 154 N.E. 146, Senate Document 43 & 73rd Congress 1st Session, Wynehammer v. People 13 N.Y. REP 378, 481)30. Military Dictator George Washington divided the States (Estates) into Districts. (Messages and papers of the Presidents Vol 1, pg 99. Websters 1828 dictionary for definition of Estate.)31. "The People" does not include you and me. (Barron v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore. 32 U.S.243)32. The United States Government was not founded upon Christianity. (Treaty of Tripoli 8 Stat 154.)33. It is not the duty of the police to protect you! Their job is to protect the Corporation and arrest code breakers. (Sapp v. Tallahassee, 348 So. 2nd. 363, Reiff v. City of Philadelphia, 477 F.Supp. 1262, Lynch v. N.C. Dept of Justice 376 S.E. 2nd. 247.)34. Everything in the "United States" is For Sale: roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, water, prisons airports etc. I wonder who bought Klamath Lake? Did anyone take the time to check? (Executive Order 12803)35. We are Human capital. (Executive Order 13037)36. The UN has financed the operations of the United States government for over 50 years and now owns every man, women and child in America. The UN also holds all of the Land in America in Fee Simple.37. The good news is we don't have to fulfil "our" fictitious obligations. You can discharge a fictitious obligation with another's fictitious obligation.38. The depression and World War II were a total farce. The United States and various other companies were making loans to others all over the World during the Depression. The building of Germany's infrastructure in the 1930's including the Railroads was financed by the United States. That way those who call themselves "Kings," "Prime Ministers," and "Fuhrer" etc. could sit back and play a game of chess using real people. Think of all of the Americans, Germans etc. who gave their lives thinking they were defending their Countries, which didn't even exist. The millions of innocent people who died for nothing. Isn't it obvious why Switzerland is never involved in these fiascos? That is where the "Bank of International Settlements" is located. Wars are manufactured to keep your eye off the ball. You have to have an enemy to keep the illusion of "Government" in place.39. The "United States" did not declare Independence from Great Britain or King George.40. Guess who owns the UN?)[/size] The Source by D.M. The Real Secret Word of The Freemasons Oxygen Rosie Essa thought shed catch a last-minute movie with her sister when she hopped into her SUV and headed down the Gates Mills, Ohio streets to the theater. Rosie a nurse married to a successful emergency room doctor had what some might consider the ideal life: financial security, a large family home, two beautiful children, and plans for a third baby. But Rosie would never make it to the movies that day. The 38-year-old mom of two suddenly began driving erratically, hit another car in a mi By Jeffrey Dastin, Cate Cadell and Kane Wu SAN FRANCISCO/BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said it will shut its China online store by July 18, as the U.S. e-commerce giant focuses on the lucrative businesses of selling overseas goods and cloud services in the world's most populous nation. The move underscores how entrenched, home-grown e-commerce rivals have made it difficult for Amazon's marketplace to gain traction in China. Consumer research firm iResearch Global said Alibaba Group Holding's Tmall marketplace and JD.com controlled 82 percent of the Chinese e-commerce market last year. An Amazon spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday that it is notifying sellers that it will no longer operate a marketplace, nor provide seller services on Amazon.cn. Sources familiar with its plans had told Reuters a day before that the company had planned to make such a move. "We are working closely with our sellers to ensure a smooth transition and to continue to deliver the best customer experience possible," the spokeswoman said in a statement. "Sellers interested in continuing to sell on Amazon outside of China are able to do so through Amazon Global Selling." The sources said that Amazon shoppers in China will no longer be able to buy goods from third-party merchants in the country, but they still will be able to order from the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan via the firm's global store. Amazon will wind down support for domestic-selling merchants in China in the next 90 days and review the impact on its fulfilment centers in the country, some of which it may close, one of the people said. "They're pulling out because it's not profitable and not growing," said analyst Michael Pachter at Wedbush Securities. Ker Zheng, marketing specialist at Shenzhen-based e-commerce consultancy Azoya, said Amazon had no major competitive advantage in China over its domestic rivals. Unless someone is searching for a very specific imported good that can't be found elsewhere, "there's no reason for a consumer to pick Amazon because they're not going to be able to ship things as fast as Tmall or JD," he said. The Amazon spokeswoman said that the company would continue to invest and grow in China through its Amazon Global Store, Global Selling, Kindle e-readers and online content. Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing unit that sells data storage and computing power to enterprises, will also remain. U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba and JD.com rose 1 percent on Wednesday after Reuters first reported the move, before paring gains later in the day. Amazon's shares closed flat. E-COMMERCE SLOWDOWN The withdrawal of the world's largest online retailer - founded by Jeff Bezos, who later became the world's richest person - comes amid a broader e-commerce slowdown in China. Alibaba in January reported its slowest quarterly earnings growth since 2016, while JD.com is responding to the changing business environment with staff cuts. It also follows the Chinese e-commerce retreat of other big-name Western retailers. Walmart Inc sold its Chinese online shopping platform to JD.com in 2016 in return for a stake in JD.com to focus on its bricks-and-mortar stores. Similarly, the country appears to factor less in the global aspirations of fellow U.S. tech majors Netflix Inc, Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, Wedbush Securities' Pachter said. Amazon bought Chinese online shopping website Joyo.com in 2004 for $75 million, rebranding the business in 2011 as Amazon China. But in a sign of Tmall's dominance, Amazon opened an online store on the Alibaba site in 2015. Amazon is still expanding aggressively in other countries, notably India, where it is contending with local rival Flipkart. (Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in SAN FRANCISCO, Cate Cadell and Pei Li in BEIJING, Kane Wu in HONG KONG and Josh Horwitz and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Susan Thomas, Christopher Cushing and Muralikumar Anantharaman) Washington (AFP) - At Vassar College in the United States, a university team gathered the week before the devastating fire at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris to plan an ambitious project: inventorying about a terabyte of 3-D modeling data of the famed Gothic masterpiece. The precious data is the work of Andrew Tallon, a Francophile American art professor who loved medieval architecture and was passionate about Gothic cathedrals. He died in November. His technique was nothing new, but his application of the tools was innovative. In 2011 and 2012, funded by a foundation, Tallon used a laser device to accurately measure the interior and exterior of the cathedral, which was ravaged by flames this week. He placed the device in about 50 places to measure the distance between each wall and pillar, recess, statue or other form -- and to record all the imperfections intrinsic to any centuries-old monument. The result is over a billion points in the "point cloud." The final computer-generated images reconstruct the cathedral down to the smallest detail, including its tiny defects, with a precision of about five millimeters (0.1 inches). These images, for example, confirmed how the west side of the cathedral was a "total mess... a train wreck," Tallon told National Geographic in 2015, pointing to the misalignment of the interior columns. He wanted to get "into the mind of the builders," said his former student Lindsay Cook, a Francophile like Tallon who is now a visiting assistant professor of art at Vassar. "He was interested in using laserscan data to find moments like small ruptures in the construction, places where things were not exactly straight or in plumb, where you could see the hand of an individual architect at work, and in that case the hand of individual masons," Cook told AFP. - 'A fitting memorial' - From these measurements were born the images published in a book in 2013 and shown in an exhibition at Notre-Dame in 2014. But the bulk of the data remains untapped in the form of 1s and 0s on some hard drives. Story continues Several French firms have also digitally mapped Notre-Dame bit by bit -- not for historical research but for conservation purposes. Art Graphique et Patrimoine, which assisted Tallon in his work, says that over 25 years, they have collected 30-50 billion data points, notably of the destroyed 19th century spire and the ravaged roof. Tallon "has a complete model, but it is not exhaustive," Gael Hamon, the CEO of Art Graphique et Patrimoine, told AFP. His firm is now trying to piece the data "puzzle" together. Notre-Dame can probably be reconstructed without this data, but laser modeling brings precision to the photographs and drawings held by architects in France. This is particularly useful for elements such as roofing and the spire, which were more difficult to measure physically. The modeling will help restorers to identically recreate the part of the vault that has collapsed inside. "If eventually the authorities wish to use this, then of course it would be shared with them," said Cook. The data is currently on external hard drives at Vassar, with copies at Columbia University, where academics collaborated with Tallon as part of the "Mapping Gothic" project. If architects ask for the data, it would have to be delivered in person, as it is too large to be transmitted over the internet. If Tallon's "scholarly work can somehow inform those who will be taking on the daunting task of restoring a cathedral to its former glory, it will be a fitting memorial for a very wonderful scholar who devoted so much to Notre-Dame," said Vassar dean Jon Chenette. On other hard drives, historians will also find, if they wish one day, another inheritance from Tallon: laser modeling of the cathedrals of Beauvais, Chartres, Canterbury and even the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Washington (AFP) - Fearing that his presidency was doomed, an angry Donald Trump pushed for Robert Mueller to be fired before he could deepen his probe into Russian election meddling, the special counsel's long-awaited report said Thursday. The more than 400-page document, made public in redacted form by the Justice Department, detailed how Trump instructed his then White House counsel, Don McGahn, to tell the acting attorney general that Mueller "must be removed" -- something McGahn refused to do. The report -- which landed as the United States dives into the ferment of a bitter presidential campaign -- does support Trump's repeated assertions that he never colluded with Russian intelligence efforts to tilt the 2016 election in his favor. "As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION!" the president tweeted triumphantly, later declaring that any Russian interference had no impact on the outcome of the vote. However, the report -- based on nearly two years of interviews by Mueller's team with Trump's inner circle -- emphasized that, contrary to the Republican president's claim, he was not cleared of obstruction of justice. And while finding that no Americans deliberately took part in the Russian meddling, Mueller also determined that Trump was happy enough to gain an advantage from the dirty tricks. This included the release by WikiLeaks of emails stolen by Russian agents from the team of Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. "The campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts," the report said. Trump initially celebrated the publication of the report, saying at the White House that he was "having a good day." But later, he left for a long Easter weekend at his Florida golf resort in a more defensive mood, insisting that he had done nothing wrong in pushing for Mueller's dismissal. Story continues "I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted. I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to," Trump tweeted from Air Force One. After arriving in Florida, he again took to Twitter, insisting: "Most importantly, the vote was not affected." Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer called the report "a disturbing picture of a president who has been weaving a web of deceit, lies and improper behavior and acting as if the law doesn't apply to him." "It is imperative that the rest of the report and the underlying documents be made available to Congress and that Special Counsel Mueller testify before both chambers as soon as possible," they said. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, has set a deadline of May 23 for Mueller to testify on his findings to Capitol Hill. - 'This is the end of my presidency' - The secretive Mueller probe has consumed Washington -- and the first half of Trump's first term in office -- over the last two years. Throughout, Trump has blasted the probe as politically motivated, while his Democratic opponents have talked up the extraordinary idea that an American president might have been colluding with Russian agents. The report paints an unflattering picture of Trump in crisis mode as the scandal first hit the White House in 2017. US intelligence services had already been looking into the Russian meddling. But after Trump fired his FBI director, James Comey, Mueller was appointed as an independent prosecutor to handle the highly sensitive probe. On hearing this, "the president slumped back in his chair and said: 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked,'" the Mueller report stated. Top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway rejected that portrayal, telling reporters: "That was not the reaction of the president that day." - Obstruction of justice? - Trump has been proven right regarding collusion, according to Mueller, but a second allegation -- that he might have attempted to obstruct justice by derailing the probe -- remains far from defused. Attorney General Bill Barr made a nationally televised statement just before the report was released to give the administration's spin on the results. He explained Trump's hostile behavior during the drama -- such as the push to fire Mueller -- as the actions of a president who was "frustrated and angered." "And at the same time, the president took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation," Barr said. Mueller's detailing of Trump's actions however leaves a murkier record. Trump's attempts to have Mueller removed, according to the special counsel report, were part of a pattern. "The president's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," the report said. In a passage likely to be welcomed by Trump's Democratic opponents in Congress, Mueller stated that it could be up to lawmakers to determine whether Trump's actions met the legal standards for obstruction of justice. Legislators have "the authority to prohibit a president's corrupt use of his authority," the report said. - Fight not finished - Publication of the report -- minus parts blacked out for legal or security reasons -- will allow everyone to get a more complete picture of a scandal that has been tangled in conspiracy theories. But given the charged political atmosphere in Washington and the left-right chasm across the country as Trump dives into his 2020 re-election bid, the debate over what really happened is likely to rage on. Trump is supremely confident that his opponents have failed in what he claims was high-level "treason" to destroy his presidency. Claiming that Barr has been working to whitewash the Russia report, Democrats will push for more details and testimony in the near future. WASHINGTON Senior Democrats requested Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller appear before Congress to testify on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. "It is clear Congress and the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings," Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter following a press conference by Attorney General William Barr. Nadler requested Mueller appear no later than May 23. Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff also "formally invited" Mueller to appear before his panel to discuss the investigation, sometime next month. Mueller's long-awaited report came out Thursday morning. Democrats have been in an uproar over Barr's decision to hold a press briefing prior to the public release of Mueller's report, saying it would have been better for him to take questions once the public and lawmakers have a chance to see the document for themselves. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Barr's press conference a "campaign press conference" for the president. It is clear Congress and the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings. We are now requesting Mueller to appear before @HouseJudiciary as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/Mmo6PA4KPt (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) April 18, 2019 For weeks, House Democrats have criticized Barr's handling of the report but those critiques have intensified hours before the Justice Department is set to release a redacted version of the 400-page document to the public. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Schumer, D-N.Y., condemned what they said was "Barrs regrettably partisan handling of the Mueller report." Story continues "We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsels investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible," the statement said. "The American people deserve to hear the truth. The House Democratic committee chairmen also voiced frustration with Barr. "Once again, Barr wants to shape the public's perception of the report," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wrote on Twitter. "This is not justice. Just PR." In a joint statement, Democratic House chairs called Barr's news conference "unnecessary and inappropriate" and called for release of the full report. These new actions by the Attorney General reinforce our concern that he is acting to protect President Trump," the statement said. More: AG William Barr to hold news conference Thursday on before Mueller report goes to Congress AG Barr has thrown out his credibility & the DOJs independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else. The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin. https://t.co/fgXwiLuQfr Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 17, 2019 Nadler said the idea to release the report after Barr's news conference was ill-advised. "This is wrong," he wrote in a tweet. He continued, saying he was "deeply troubled" by the Times report about contact between the Justice Department and the White House before the report was released. Im deeply troubled by reports that the WH is being briefed on the Mueller report AHEAD of its release. Now, DOJ is informing us we will not receive the report until around 11/12 tomorrow afternoon AFTER Barrs press conference. This is wrong. #ReleaseTheReport https://t.co/bR50HhGJ0i (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) April 17, 2019 Nadler, D-N.Y., along with four House Democrats, held a last-minute news conference in New York Wednesday to discuss both Barr's delayed release of the report and his handling of the probe as a whole. "The attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump, the very subject of the investigation at the heart of the Mueller report," Nadler said. "Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin Muellers nearly two-year investigation." Alongside Nadler was Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who tweeted that Barr's handling of the report equated to a "dog and pony show" and urged Barr to "keep your mouth shut." So-called Attorney General is presiding over a dog and pony show. Here is a thought. Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut. You have ZERO credibility.https://t.co/fKFeexUKkX Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) April 17, 2019 "So-called Attorney General is presiding over a dog and pony show. Here is a thought. Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut," Jeffries said. "You have ZERO credibility." Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., also questioned Barr's intentions. "Why is William Barr holding a press conference if not to (once again) try and frame the Special Counsels findings," he wrote on Twitter. "Just release the full report and let the American people judge for themselves!" Why is William Barr holding a press conference if not to (once again) try and frame the Special Counsels findings. Just release the full report and let the American people judge for themselves! David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) April 17, 2019 On Twitter, Rep. Doug Collins, R-Georgia, lashed out at Nadler while defending Barr's handling of the report. "The only person trying to spin the report is @RepJerryNadler," Collins tweeted. "The AG has done nothing unilaterally. After partnering with DAG Rosenstein to share principal conclusions, Barr is releasing the report voluntarily, working with Muellers team step by step." A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday found 60% of Americans want to see Congress get full access to the Mueller report, while only 30% said the Justice Department should be able to redact information deemed sensitive. Still, a majority of Americans polled, 54%, said Congress should move on to other issues after the report's release. Just 39% said Congress should continue to look into topics related to the report. Most of the public wants Congress to see everything (Mueller) dug up, but not necessarily do anything about it. This seems to be tied to a pervading sense that they are unlikely to learn anything about the Trump circle that would be all that out of character with what weve come to expect, said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist who worked on Sen. Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign, predicted that Democrats would "light their hair on fire" over the redactions but said that would likely backfire politically. "Critics of the president will look at any black spot on this report and jump to the absolute worst conclusion," she said. She acknowledged the full report likely won't all be positive. However, she said Trump and the administration will be cleared and the country should move on. "Certainly there will be things in the report that the administration would rather not be made public, but that doesnt mean it's illegal or concerning moving forward," she said. Tyler Law, a Democratic strategist who worked for the House Democrats' campaign arm during the 2018 election, said oversight was part of Congress' job and the party took back the House by promising to be a check on Trump. Law said Democrats can both conduct oversight and deliver on issues voters care about. "This is similar to the 2018 midterms. Democrats are remaining focused on the issues that we know are going to drive voters, health care and the economy. What people dont want is a candidate who is focused exclusively on the president," he said. Law dismissed the idea that Democrats could overplay their hand. "People are not stupid. They understand that this is President Trump's scandal and every time its brought up it hurts him," he said. Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats blast Barr press conference on Mueller report, request special counsel testimony By Hani Amara and Ulf Laessing AL-SUANI, Libya/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Mortar bombs crashed down on a suburb of Tripoli on Thursday, almost hitting a clinic and adding to people's suffering after two weeks of an offensive by eastern troops on the Libyan capital, which is held by an internationally recognised government. Shelling could be also heard late at night in parts of Tripoli, residents said. No more details were immediately available. The shelling came a day after seven people were killed when Grad rockets hit a densely populated district of Tripoli, which the eastern Libyan forces of commander Khalifa Haftar have been trying to take, deepening the chaos that has plagued the oil-producing nation since 2011. The Libyan National Army (LNA) of Benghazi-based Haftar has become bogged down in the southern suburbs of the capital. In al-Suani, a southwestern suburb, Reuters reporters saw two mortar bombs almost hitting a clinic. The fighting has killed 205 people, including 18 civilians, and wounded 913 since the start of the campaign, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday. Locals blamed Haftar's forces for the shelling, saying the rockets had been fired from the direction of his positions south of the capital. "We say to the United Nations and the Security Council: listen. Listen to the bombing... Rockets are coming down on us. For this reason, please find a solution for us," said Youssef Salem, a displaced man from al-Suani. The LNA has denied shelling residential areas. The Tripoli government issued arrest warrants for Haftar and other top eastern officials, blaming them for Wednesday's shelling. Eastern officials have already issued arrest warrants for Tripoli premier Fayez al-Serraj and other western officials as there is no sign of a political solution or even of a ceasefire. Foreign powers are worried but unable to present a united front over the latest flare-up in the cycle of anarchy and warfare that has gripped Libya since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011. Story continues The internationally recognised interior ministry accused France of supporting Haftar and said it would halt security cooperation with Paris. "Any dealings with the French side in bilateral security agreements" will halt, the Tripoli-based interior ministry said in a statement. A French presidential source said in response to the accusation that France supported the internationally recognised government in Tripoli and that Emmanuel Macron's legitimate interlocutor was Serraj, with whom he spoke on Monday and reaffirmed that. The French government was not immediately available for comment. France has helped train Serraj's presidential guard and in October 2013 signed a deal between a consultancy of the French interior ministry and the Libyan interior ministry to train 1,000 police. Most recently in February, France provided the Tripoli government with six patrol boats for its coastline. Paris has given Haftar support in the past, however, viewing him as the best bet to end the chaos that has reigned since a NATO-backed rebellion to end Gaddafi's murderous four-decade rule. Italy, with considerable oil interests in the OPEC member, supports the Tripoli government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and was furious with French reluctance to back a recent European Union resolution urging Haftar to halt his advance. The conflict threatens to disrupt oil flows, foment migration across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and allow jihadists to exploit the chaos. Haftar enjoys the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, who view him as an anchor to restore stability and combat Islamist militants. His forces came under attack on Thursday by an armed group at the Tamanhint base near the main southern city of Sabha. The LNA managed to expel the attack, which killed two of its soldiers, an eastern official said. But it exposed a vulnerability as Haftar has moved much of its forces north. The identity of the attackers was not immediately clear. The LNA force seized earlier this year the south and its two oilfields, although tribesmen with flexible loyalties remain strong in the sparsely populated desert region. On the weekend, the LNA dispatched a unit to the eastern oil ports of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider to prepare for a possible attack there. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli, Ahmed Elumami, Ulf Laessing, John Irish and Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Mark Heinrich, Hugh Lawson and Diane Craft) By Hani Amara and Ulf Laessing AL-SUANI, Libya/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Mortar bombs crashed down on a suburb of Tripoli on Thursday, almost hitting a clinic and adding to people's suffering after two weeks of an offensive by eastern troops on the Libyan capital, which is held by an internationally recognized government. Shelling could be also heard late at night in parts of Tripoli where a battle was raging in two southern suburbs, residents and an eastern military official said. The shelling came a day after seven people were killed when Grad rockets hit a densely populated district of Tripoli, which the eastern Libyan forces of commander Khalifa Haftar have been trying to take, deepening the chaos that has plagued the oil-producing nation since 2011. The Libyan National Army (LNA) of Benghazi-based Haftar has become bogged down in the southern suburbs of the capital. In al-Suani, a southwestern suburb, Reuters reporters saw two mortar bombs almost hitting a clinic. The fighting has killed 205 people, including 18 civilians, and wounded 913 since the start of the campaign, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. Locals blamed Haftar's forces for the shelling, saying the rockets had been fired from the direction of his positions south of the capital. "We say to the United Nations and the Security Council: listen. Listen to the bombing... Rockets are coming down on us. For this reason, please find a solution for us," said Youssef Salem, a displaced man from al-Suani. The LNA has denied shelling residential areas. The Tripoli government issued arrest warrants for Haftar and other top eastern officials, blaming them for Wednesday's shelling. Eastern officials have already issued arrest warrants for Tripoli premier Fayez al-Serraj and other western officials as there is no sign of a political solution or even of a ceasefire. Foreign powers are worried but unable to present a united front over the latest flare-up in the cycle of anarchy and warfare that has gripped Libya since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011. The internationally recognized interior ministry accused France of supporting Haftar and said it would halt security cooperation with Paris. "Any dealings with the French side in bilateral security agreements" will halt, the Tripoli-based interior ministry said in a statement. A French presidential source said in response to the accusation that France supported the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and that Emmanuel Macron's legitimate interlocutor was Serraj, with whom he spoke on Monday and reaffirmed that. The French government was not immediately available for comment. France has helped train Serraj's presidential guard and in October 2013 signed a deal between a consultancy of the French interior ministry and the Libyan interior ministry to train 1,000 police. Most recently in February, France provided the Tripoli government with six patrol boats for its coastline. Paris has given Haftar support in the past, however, viewing him as the best bet to end the chaos that has reigned since a NATO-backed rebellion to end Gaddafi's murderous four-decade rule. Italy, with considerable oil interests in the OPEC member, supports the Tripoli government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and was furious with French reluctance to back a recent European Union resolution urging Haftar to halt his advance. The conflict threatens to disrupt oil flows, foment migration across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and allow jihadists to exploit the chaos. Haftar enjoys the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, who view him as an anchor to restore stability and combat Islamist militants. His forces came under attack on Thursday by an armed group at the Tamanhint base near the main southern city of Sabha. The LNA managed to expel the attack, which killed two of its soldiers, an eastern official said. But it exposed a vulnerability as Haftar has moved much of its forces north. The identity of the attackers was not immediately clear. The LNA force seized earlier this year the south and its two oilfields, although tribesmen with flexible loyalties remain strong in the sparsely populated desert region. On the weekend, the LNA dispatched a unit to the eastern oil ports of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider to prepare for a possible attack there. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli, Ahmed Elumami, Ulf Laessing, John Irish and Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Mark Heinrich, Hugh Lawson and Diane Craft) I have been a Chase Bank customer for years. Who knows how much longer itll be? Will the companys thought police come for me next? How about you? If you are a non-leftist who does business with the financial giant owned by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., you need to ask questions and get answers. On Tuesday, investigative journalist James OKeefe and his Project Veritas team released a disturbing new video on the runaround that Chase officials gave Texas conservative entrepreneur Enrique Tarrio about his canceled account. Big business may very well be enabling Americas very own version of the Chinese social-credit system in which political dissent is flagged, shunned, punished, and eradicated. First, some background: Tarrio is a young, peaceful, Afro-Cuban freethinker and chairman of the Proud Boys organization. In February 2019, the Texas Trump supporter received a letter from Chase Bank informing him that after careful consideration, the financial institution could no longer support his banking account. The notice followed a hit piece against minorities who support the president by The Daily Beast, a reliable echo chamber for the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center smear machine. Tarrio was subsequently kicked off Chases payment processor, which he used to sell patriotic and pro-Trump T-shirts. Next, he was deplatformed from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Airbnb, FirstData, Square, Stripe, and PayPal before losing his bank accounts. When I asked on Twitter in February why we cant have just one financial institution that doesnt cave to social-justice warriors, the official Chase Twitter account tweeted me back: Hi Michelle, this article is inaccurate. We did not close his personal account. We do not close accounts based on political affiliation. I pointed out that Chases letter clearly stated that the company had closed his account. So if not for political reasons, I asked, why, after careful consideration, did you close his account? The social-media manager of Chases corporate Twitter account, previously so eager to spill the tea, replied: For privacy reasons, we cant say more. Story continues Thanks to Project Veritas, we now know more. Undercover audio and video exposed how: One Chase employee blamed clerical issues for Tarrios account cancellation. Another stated: I see nothing that indicates any reason why the account should be closed. I dont see any outstanding transactions or anything ridiculous. Another explained: Chase is not involved with any like, you know, alt-right people or anything. Those with no moral character are people that the bank usually doesnt get involved with in any business relationships, period. Several repeated a company line in Tarrios mysterious file: Decision is not reversible. Others who received Chase shutdown notices so far in 2019: conservative Rebel Media contributor Martina Markota and U.S. Army combat vet and vocal Trump supporter Joe Biggs. Were Markotas and Biggss removals clerical errors or unfounded, or were they based on an ideological litmus test disguised as a moral character assessment? More questions arise: How exactly is J.P. Morgan Chases $500,000 donation last year to the SPLC left-wing operatives being put to use? Why did the company embrace a known defamation racket whose stated mission is to destroy its political enemies on the right? What comment does Chase have now that SPLCs top leaders have been purged amid internal accusations of intolerance and discrimination within the walls of the notorious Poverty Palace? Does Chase keep tabs on high-profile conservative customers political speech on social-media platforms? Is Chase operating from the same playbook as Paypal, which is booting off conservatives in consultation with the SPLC? One of its most recent victims: Luke Rohlfing, a young reporter for BigLeaguePolitics.com, who had exposed how the payment processor was allowing Open Borders Inc. heavyweight Pueblo Sin Fronteras to raise money for illegal-immigrant caravans conspiring to break our immigration laws even though Paypals own terms of service state clearly that users may not engage in any activities that violate any law, statute, ordinance, or regulation. Tarrio warns of the speech-squelching pattern emerging across Silicon Valley and on Wall Street: First we get silenced on social media, then Paypal, then I get debanked. Its a very dangerous trend. As for Chase Bank, I sent all my questions to chief communications officer Patricia Wexler, who challenged the authenticity of one of the employees recorded by Veritas (OKeefe showed proof of the Chase New York media relations number dialed and had audio of the employee identifying himself as a Chase rep) and ignored the substance of the report. Evasion and denial are surefire ways to lose business. Is it Chase Bank or Chase Away Bank? Inquiring customers would like to know. 2019 Creators.com Editors Note: This article has been emended since its initial posting. More from National Review Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 6 Vote(s) - 3.67 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 12 Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming We Can Fix This lop guest User ID: 496878 04-18-2019 01:22 PM Post: #1 Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming Advertisement how do we fix global warming in a timely, practical, cost effective manner . Surprisingly no one had previously put together a set of solutions. Hawken was sick of the panic and helpless hand ringing of climate activists and the dishonesty of politicians. As a businessman he just wanted the best affordable solutions that worked , so he approached: "a broad coalition of researchers, scientists, graduate students, PhDs, post-docs, policy makers, business leaders and activists to assemble and present the best available information on climate solutions in order to describe their beneficial financial, social and environmental impact over the next thirty years." What came out of the research became Project Drawdown. https://www.drawdown.org/ With some surprising results. Research indicated that the greatest reduction in future greenhouse gas emissions came from educating girls in the developing world, particularly Africans. Project Drawdown measures effectiveness in billion tonnes of CO2 avoided or removed ( gigatons ). It turns out that combined effect of educating girls and making family planning available to them could avoid 120 gigtons of CO2 emissions before 2050. To put that in perspective all the European Union countries together, over half a billion people, would take 40 years to emit that much CO2 at current rates of production. The effect of making primary and secondary education available to all girls is startling. "According to the Brookings Institute the difference between a girl with no education and one with 12 years of education is four to five extra offspring" You may think that large countries like China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia have runaway population growth and high fertility rates but this is not true. In the developed world the "replacement rate" is just over two children per mother. In the poorest most war torn developing world countries this number can approach 3. Here are those large countries fertility rates: China 1.6 India 2.3 Brazil 1.6 Mexico 2.2 Indonesia 2.1 But the story is very different in sub Saharan Africa Niger 7.2 Chad 6.4 Somalia 6.3 Congo 6.3 Angola 6.2 As this map shows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ferti..._map_2.png Almost all the world's population growth this century will come from sub Saharan Africa. The poorest, most underdeveloped countries with the most fragile infrastructure and least developed agriculture. These population growth rates are unsustainable and will lead to war, famine and mass migration. Those future consumers also have the highest impact on future CO2 emissions growth. The best thing we can do to alleviate future suffering and reduce the impact of global warming is to support charities that help to educate African girls like, Meghan Markle does. "Meghan said: Everyone should be afforded the opportunity to receive the education they want, but more importantly the education they have the right to receive. And for women and girls in developing countries, this is vital. Providing them with access to education is the key to economic and social development." https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/105...ed-charity CAMFED Charity supporting education of girls in Africa. https://camfed.org/ Five years ago environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken asked the question;. Surprisingly no one had previously put together a set of solutions. Hawken was sick of the panic and helpless hand ringing of climate activists and the dishonesty of politicians. As a businessman, so he approached:"a broad coalition of researchers, scientists, graduate students, PhDs, post-docs, policy makers, business leaders and activists to assemble and present the best available information on climate solutions in order to describe their beneficial financial, social and environmental impact over the next thirty years."What came out of the research becameWith some surprising results.Project Drawdown measures effectiveness in billion tonnes of CO2 avoided or removed ( gigatons ). It turns out that combined effect of educating girls and making family planning available to them could avoid 120 gigtons of CO2 emissions before 2050. To put that in perspective all the European Union countries together, over half a billion people, would take 40 years to emit that much CO2 at current rates of production.The effect of making primary and secondary education available to all girls is startling.You may think that large countries like China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia have runaway population growth and high fertility rates but this is not true. In the developed world the "replacement rate" is just over two children per mother. In the poorest most war torn developing world countries this number can approach 3. Here are those large countries fertility rates:China 1.6India 2.3Brazil 1.6Mexico 2.2Indonesia 2.1But the story is very different in sub Saharan AfricaNiger 7.2Chad 6.4Somalia 6.3Congo 6.3Angola 6.2As this map showsAlmost all the world's population growth this century will come from sub Saharan Africa. The poorest, most underdeveloped countries with the most fragile infrastructure and least developed agriculture. These population growth rates are unsustainable and will lead to war, famine and mass migration. Those future consumers also have the highest impact on future CO2 emissions growth.like, Meghan Markle does."Meghan said: Everyone should be afforded the opportunity to receive the education they want, but more importantly the education they have the right to receive. And for women and girls in developing countries, this is vital. Providing them with access to education is the key to economic and social development." LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497979 04-18-2019 01:26 PM Post: #2 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming Global warming deluded pig...stop with your criminal filth LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496878 04-18-2019 01:34 PM Post: #3 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming LoP Guest Wrote: (04-18-2019 01:26 PM) Global warming deluded pig...stop with your criminal filth You have anger issues you need to work out. You have anger issues you need to work out. Looky lop guest User ID: 482139 04-18-2019 01:36 PM Post: #4 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming Another fox digging into the hen house, just sick. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496878 04-18-2019 01:43 PM Post: #5 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming Looky Wrote: (04-18-2019 01:36 PM) Another fox digging into the hen house, just sick. You can't weasel out of action with that red herring, it totally misses the elephant in the room. You can't weasel out of action with that red herring, it totally misses the elephant in the room. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496878 04-18-2019 01:55 PM Post: #6 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming https://africaeducationaltrust.org/girls-and-women/ "A girl in South Sudan is more likely to die in childbirth than to finish primary school. Fewer than 2% of girls in Somalia attend secondary school." Here is a different charity you could support, The African Education Trust."A girl in South Sudan is more likely to die in childbirth than to finish primary school.Fewer than 2% of girls in Somalia attend secondary school." LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496878 04-18-2019 02:11 PM Post: #7 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming It takes all sorts. I can only assume that people who are against this idea are in favour of more suffering, war, overpopulation, oppression of women, climate change, mass migration and starvation in Africa.It takes all sorts. Travel assistant lop guest User ID: 429640 04-18-2019 02:19 PM Post: #8 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming Educating men and boys too. In developed countries personal status is gained primarily through possessions and bling.In third world countries status is determined by the amount of your offspring and livestock. Funny that peoples of low wealth who do not own many possessions value their name and word.Whereas in areas of abundant wealth most people could care less about their word . Looky lop guest User ID: 482139 04-18-2019 02:23 PM Post: #9 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming LoP Guest Wrote: (04-18-2019 01:43 PM) Looky Wrote: (04-18-2019 01:36 PM) Another fox digging into the hen house, just sick. You can't weasel out of action with that red herring, it totally misses the elephant in the room. I can guarantee that I am more environmentally conscientious and active than you are. If you want to change Africa you educate the whole population, not just the little girls. Just sick. I can guarantee that I am more environmentally conscientious and active than you are. If you want to change Africa you educate the whole population, not just the little girls. Just sick. Looky lop guest User ID: 482139 04-18-2019 02:27 PM Post: #10 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming LoP Guest Wrote: (04-18-2019 02:11 PM) I can only assume that people who are against this idea are in favour of more suffering, war, overpopulation, oppression of women, climate change, mass migration and starvation in Africa. It takes all sorts. Maybe you could look into the good works that have been done, only to be kicked out by the U.N.and China. Maybe you could look into the good works that have been done, only to be kicked out by the U.N.and China. Travel assistant lop guest User ID: 429640 04-18-2019 02:30 PM Post: #11 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming It used to be some folks claimed to be "holier than thou" In our new age it appears to be "Greener than thou"! Same same. Travel assistant lop guest User ID: 429640 04-18-2019 02:32 PM Post: #12 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming A friend once told me " it is amazing how far we can go when we are nonjudgmental".I try to follow this axiom but still trip up. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496878 04-18-2019 02:39 PM Post: #13 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming Travel assistant Wrote: (04-18-2019 02:19 PM) Educating men and boys too. In developed countries personal status is gained primarily through possessions and bling.In third world countries status is determined by the amount of your offspring and livestock. Funny that peoples of low wealth who do not own many possessions value their name and word.Whereas in areas of abundant wealth most people could care less about their word . Education for all, really. What tends to happen in poorer counties is that boys get what education is available and girls get little to none. As the African education trust points out: "By grade 5 only half as many girls as boys attend school in Uganda and Kenya. Only one disabled woman is educated for every five disabled men in East Africa. Fewer than 12% of teachers in Uganda are female, and only 3% in Somalia." In many cultures there is a reduced expectation that girls should receive education and that undereducation is a significant factor in the high birth rate and inherent inequality. Cracking the education of girls problem transforms a country's prospects and sets it on the road to prosperity. Just look at the huge success there has been in Sri Lanka. https://borgenproject.org/girls-education-in-sri-lanka/ Sri Lanka fertility rate 2.0, Pakistan 3.5, both in the Indian subcontinent but with very different attitudes to educating girls. Education for all, really. What tends to happen in poorer counties is that boys get what education is available and girls get little to none. As the African education trust points out:"By grade 5 only half as many girls as boys attend school in Uganda and Kenya.Only one disabled woman is educated for every five disabled men in East Africa.Fewer than 12% of teachers in Uganda are female, and only 3% in Somalia."In many cultures there is a reduced expectation that girls should receive education and that undereducation is a significant factor in the high birth rate and inherent inequality. Cracking the education of girls problem transforms a country's prospects and sets it on the road to prosperity. Just look at the huge success there has been in Sri Lanka.Sri Lanka fertility rate 2.0, Pakistan 3.5, both in the Indian subcontinent but with very different attitudes to educating girls. Travel assistant lop guest User ID: 429640 04-18-2019 02:57 PM Post: #14 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming Maybe this is part of it ,Sri Lanka 76% Buddhist , Pakistan 96% Moslem.Burqua,s do more than shield the face. I've never been to Pakistan but have traveled.in many Moslem countries, Allways been impressed by their devoutness and sincerity .. I do not think this has much to do with religion though.More to do with oppression of women . I think of the Amish and Mennonites with their drab clothing and "Bonnets" for "their "women .Same same. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496878 04-18-2019 03:00 PM Post: #15 RE: Educating girls - the greatest action you can take against global warming Looky Wrote: (04-18-2019 02:23 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-18-2019 01:43 PM) You can't weasel out of action with that red herring, it totally misses the elephant in the room. I can guarantee that I am more environmentally conscientious and active than you are. A willy waving competition about how green we all are is a different thread altogether but go on, I will give you a chance to show off. My CO2 emissions from all household energy use, heating, cooling, washing, cooking and all other electricity use is 160kg. Most Americans average around 7,400kg for electricity, tell us how you do. Looky Wrote: (04-18-2019 02:23 PM) If you want to change Africa you educate the whole population, not just the little girls. Just sick. Growing up in a country where both sexes get an equal access to education you have assumed the "educating African girls" means ".. but not boys". What you have to get your head around is that boys get whatever education is going and girls get little to none, remember Malala Yousafzai got shot in the head at point blank range for daring to suggest that girls should get an an education as well as boys. A willy waving competition about how green we all are is a different thread altogether but go on, I will give you a chance to show off. My CO2 emissions from all household energy use, heating, cooling, washing, cooking and all other electricity use is 160kg. Most Americans average around 7,400kg for electricity, tell us how you do.Growing up in a country where both sexes get an equal access to education you have assumed the "educating African girls" means ".. but not boys". What you have to get your head around is that boys get whatever education is going and girls get little to none, remember Malala Yousafzai got shot in the head at point blank range for daring to suggest that girls should get an an education as well as boys. Advertisement Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Attorney General William Barr said that special counsel Robert Muellers 22-month investigation produced no evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during a press conference Thursday held hours before the release of the special counsel report. After two years of investigation the special counsel did confirm Russian meddling in 2016 campaign but no evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Barr said. Barrs categorical description puts to rest the suggestion by many of the presidents critics that, while Barrs summary of the report made clear that Mueller could not prove criminal coordination beyond a reasonable doubt, his report would likely include some evidence of same. The special counsel report, Barr explained, features two sections related to Russian interference: one dealing with the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency (IRA), which worked to disseminate political disinformation on social media, and another addressing the hacking of internal Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails by Russian intelligence. According to Barrs description of Muellers findings, no one associated with the Trump campaign, or any American, coordinated with the Russians to further either operation. The special counsel found no evidence that any Americans including anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme. Barr said. Put another way, the Special Counsel found no collusion by any Americans in the IRAs illegal activity. Barr went on to directly addressed the allegation that someone associated with the Trump campaign, namely political operative Roger Stone, coordinated with Wikileaks to time the release of hacked DNC emails for maximum political effect. The Special Counsels investigation also examined Russian efforts to publish stolen emails and documents on the internet. The Special Counsel found that, after the GRU disseminated some of the stolen materials through its own controlled entities, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the GRU transferred some of the stolen materials to Wikileaks for publication, he said. Story continues Wikileaks then made a series of document dumps. The Special Counsel also investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts, he continued. Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the Special Counsels report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. Stone has long maintained that his communications with Trump campaign officials regarding Wikileaks activities, which were seized upon by critics who believe he coordinated with the operation, were merely speculative and not based on any inside information. More from National Review Cotonou (AFP) - The former president of Benin, Thomas Boni Yayi, said Thursday that controversial parliamentary elections in which opposition parties are unable to take part should be stopped. Benin votes for a new parliament on April 28 but changes to the electoral code, setting down tougher criteria for fielding candidates, have proven to be a de-facto bar for opposition parties. Yayi, who led the country for a decade between 2006 and 2016, held a rare press conference on Thursday demanding his successor, Patrice Talon, halt the polls. "I invite him to take the full measure of the seriousness of the present situation... and stop the electoral process under way," Yayi told reporters. The new electoral laws mean that only two parties -- both allied to Talon -- have been able to meet tougher administrative requirements for candidates. Five other parties have been unable to follow suit, meaning that for the first time in nearly three decades, in a country once held up as a model for democracy in Africa, the opposition will not take part in a legislative poll. In the last elections five years ago, voters could chose candidates from 20 parties to fill the posts of 83 members of parliament. "There can be no legislative elections... without the opposition," Yayi said, urging the public to come together for the sake of the nation and demand "an inclusive parliament to guarantee stability and peace." Critics say they fear the polls will bolster the president's ability to change the country's constitution. Public protests have been broken up by security forces. Talon, elected in 2016, portrays himself as reformer and modernist. He says the changed electoral code will bring together the scores of political parties, enabling them to form simpler and more effective blocs. "There are more than 250 political parties... each of these new parties includes dozens of political movements," Talon said this month. He said he wanted to see parties coalesce into a third and fourth coalition to counterbalance the two main parties in parliament that both back him. Porthselau, Pembrokeshire This intimate, sandy cove is sheltered from south-western winds from the surrounding cliffs, making it a perfect spot for sunbathing. When the tides are low, you can walk straight across to the nearby Whitesands Bay in St Davids. [Photo: Getty] April weather in the UK is unpredictable at best, meaning were never quite sure what to expect from one week to the next. Thats why, blessed with the prospect of a sunnier-than-usual forecast this Easter, many of us will want to take advantage over the long weekend and go in search of sand and sea. So, wheres the best beach to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather? Weve asked the Yahoo UK team to share their favourites among the picturesque sandy locations Britain has to offer. From Camber Sands in Rye to Sandwood Bay in Scotland, we look at the best beaches across the UK to escape to. Attorney General William Barr on Thursday released a moderately redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report, a detailed look at the investigation into Russias attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether President Trumps campaign was involved. The 448-page document matched much of the reporting thats been done over the last two years on Trump associates contacts with Russians. Below are some key takeaways from the report, from Trumps initial reaction to Muellers appointment to lies in the White House Briefing Room. Special counsel Robert Mueller arrives at the Capitol for a meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, June 21, 2017. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images) Im f***ed After calling the investigation into his ties with Russia a witch hunt from the start, Trump was not pleased when Mueller, a former FBI director appointed by President George W. Bush, was selected as the special counsel. That appointment came in the aftermath of Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey. Oh my God. This is terrible, Trump told then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Sessionss chief of staff, Jody Hunt, when he learned about Muellers appointment. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f****ed. The account was contained in a chapter of the redacted report titled The Appointment of the Special Counsel and the Presidents Reaction. The account reads: According to notes written by Hunt, when Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f***ed. (The expletive is spelled out in the report.) The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, How could you let this happen, Jeff? Sessions recalled that the President said to him, You were supposed to protect me, or words to that effect. The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I wont be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me." Story continues Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Doral in Doral, Fla., July 27, 2016. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP) The search for Clintons emails During the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Trump publicly called for Russian hackers to find 30,000 of former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons missing emails, saying, Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Trump later said those comments were a joke, but the special counsels report found he took more serious steps. Throughout 2016, the Trump Campaign expressed interest in Hillary Clinton's private email server and whether approximately 30,000 emails from that server had in fact been permanently destroyed, as reported by the media, the report found. It further states: Trump asked individuals affiliated with his Campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails. While the investigators did not find coordination between Russians and Trump officials in finding the emails, or any evidence of success in uncovering them, the report concludes some of those efforts were pursued to some degree. On orders from Trump, campaign staffer and eventual national security adviser Michael Flynn tasked multiple people with carrying out Trumps wishes, including Barbara Ledeen, wife of former government-security consultant and prominent neoconservative Michael Ledeen, as well as investment adviser and Republican activist Peter Smith. Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Sanders during a daily briefing at the White House, May 10, 2017. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images) Sanders admits to lying about Comey firing The report released Thursday also revealed that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders admitted to lying following Comeys firing. At a May 2017 White House briefing, Sanders said the White House had heard from countless FBI agents who said they had lost confidence in Comey. Those claims were questioned immediately, but Sanders confirmed she had personally heard from FBI agents disappointed in Comey. In interviews with investigators, Sanders acknowledged that her comments were not founded on anything." Regarding Comeys firing, the report found, Substantial evidence indicates that the catalyst for the presidents decision to fire Comey was Comeys unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation, despite the presidents repeated requests that Comey make such an announcement. The investigation began with Papadopoulos Actually, this was common knowledge, but it could come as a surprise to Trump supporters who get their information from his speeches or Trump-friendly news sources. For two years, Trump and his defenders have claimed that the investigation of his campaign was prompted by the fake dossier (also sometimes called by him the phony dossier) compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. The report, which was leaked to the media after the election, first brought to widespread public attention allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence. It was one of Trumps key talking points in making the case that the investigation was a witch hunt, set in motion by Democrats angry over losing the election. The third paragraph of the report, without mentioning the dossier specifically, demolishes this argument: In late July 2016, soon after WikiLeaks's first release of stolen documents, a foreign government contacted the FBI about a May 2016 encounter with Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos had suggested to a representative of that foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. That information prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities. Don Jr. under scrutiny The presidents eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was an active member of the Trump campaign. He was critical in setting up a summer 2016 Trump Tower meeting with an agent of the Russian government who was promising incriminating material on Clinton and her campaign. However, Mueller felt it would be difficult to prove that Trump Jr. knew what he was doing, which would make a prosecution difficult. Taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the Office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting, the report read. The report also found that in the summer of 2017, the president tried on at least three occasions to block the release of emails related to the Trump Tower meeting. The report also revealed for the first time that Ivanka Trump may have been aware of the meeting, which was attended by her brother, husband Jared Kushner and Trump campaign chairman/convicted felon Paul Manafort. White House counsel Don McGahn. (Photo: Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP) McGahn stepped down over crazy s*** White House counsel Don McGahn exited his post after the president asked him to do what McGahn referred to as crazy s***, which included orders to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that Mueller has to go. "McGahn spoke with the President twice and understood the directive the same way both times, making it unlikely that he misheard or misinterpreted the Presidents request, read the report. In response to that request, McGahn decided to quit. He called his lawyer, drove to the White House, packed up his office, prepared to submit a resignation letter with his chief of staff, [and] told [then-White House chief of staff Reince] Priebus that the President had asked him to 'do crazy s***. The report also notes that Trump considered firing McGahn for not denying that there had been any attempts to terminate Mueller, stating substantial evidence indicates that in repeatedly urging McGahn to dispute that he was ordered to have the special counsel terminated, the president acted for the purpose of influencing McGahns account in order to deflect or prevent further scrutiny of the presidents conduct towards the investigation. There are multiple instances in the report of Trump ordering members of his administration to take actions that would interfere with the probe and potentially commit obstruction and those aides ignoring him. Per the report, The incidents were often carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the President sought to use his official power outside of usual channels. These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney Generals recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony. Viewing the acts collectively can help to illuminate their significance. In all, Mueller and his team cited 10 episodes for potential obstruction but did not file charges. Attorney General William Barr. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP) Barrs letter understated Russia findings On March 24, Barr released a letter summarizing Muellers findings. In it, he quoted the report as saying that the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. While the special counsels report contains that language, Barr omitted telling lines that preceded it. In full, the section reads: Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. _____ More coverage of the Mueller report from Yahoo News: By Greg Roumeliotis NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP, the world's largest manager of alternative assets such as private equity and real estate, said on Thursday it would convert from a partnership to a corporation, in a bid to get more investors into its stock. Blackstone is hoping the move, which will take effect July 1, will boost its share price, which has traded at a discount to traditional asset managers such as BlackRock Inc for more than a decade. Under the so-called C-Corp structure, Blackstone will pay corporate taxes on all its revenue, in exchange for enabling investors such as mutual funds and index trackers to buy the stock. The additional tax burden has become less severe after the headline U.S. corporate tax rate was lowered effective last year to 21 percent from 35 percent. Two other private equity firms, KKR & Co Inc and Ares Management Corp, announced last year they would also make the switch. Passive investors such as mutual funds, which are becoming more important as they manage more money, are restricted by their mandates from acquiring the stock of publicly listed partnerships. Private equity firms pay corporate taxes under the partnership structure on the management fees charged to investors, but are mostly shielded from paying these taxes on performance fees. Blackstone said the expanded investor base was worth what it called a "modest" tax hit. "We believe the decision to convert will make it significantly easier for both domestic and international investors to own our stock and should drive greater value for all of our shareholders over time," Blackstone Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement. Blackstone also announced first-quarter earnings on Thursday, reporting distributable earnings - the actual cash available for paying dividends - of $538 million in the first quarter, up from $502 million a year earlier. This translated to distributable earnings per share of 41 cents, lower than the 51 cents analysts had predicted on average based on Refinitiv data. Story continues Nevertheless, the announcement of the switch to a corporation sent Blackstone shares surging about 10 percent in premarket trading to $39.20. "We believe this will unlock value, as the partnership structure made it too difficult for many of our long-only clients, and major indexes, to own," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a research note. Fee-related earnings, the amount Blackstone earns from management fees, were up 11 percent year-on-year at $374 million. Blackstone said its assets under management reached $512 billion at the end of March, up 14 percent from a year ago. Blackstone declared a first-quarter dividend of 37 cents per share. (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum) By David Shepardson and Tracy Rucinski WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Boeing Co is making "steady progress" on the path to certifying a software update to the grounded 737 MAX and has made the final test flight before a certification flight, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Boeing's newest 737 model, the MAX, was grounded worldwide in March following two fatal crashes, one on Lion Air in Indonesia on Oct. 29 and another on Ethiopian Airlines on March 10, which together killed all 346 on board. Battling its biggest crisis in years, the world's largest aircraft manufacturer is under pressure to convince global regulators that the aircraft can be safely recertified to fly again. "We are making steady progress toward certification," Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a video on his Twitter account. Standing in front of a 737 MAX plane at Boeing Field in Seattle, Muilenburg said the company had completed on Tuesday the official engineering flight test with the updated software with technical and engineering leaders on board the airplane. "That was the final test flight prior to the certification flight," he said. Boeing is reprogramming 737 MAX software to prevent erroneous data from triggering an anti-stall system that came under scrutiny following the two deadly nose-down crashes. Muilenburg said he had seen first-hand the new software in its final form operating in a range of flight conditions, adding that his team was committed to making the 737 MAX "one of the safest airplanes ever to fly." Boeing must deliver the fix to international regulators for their review, which is expected to last about 90 days. Deliveries of its fastest-selling aircraft remain frozen and airlines have had to cancel thousands of flights heading into the busy Northern Hemisphere summer travel season. Boeing has orders for about 4,600 of the fuel-efficient, single-aisle MAX models. Of some 50 MAX customers and operators, Muilenburg said more than 85 percent had experienced the new software in simulator sessions and that 120 737 MAX test flights had been held with more than 230 hours of air time with the new software. Story continues In addition to software certification, international regulators must also decide on new pilot training. Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau told Reuters on Wednesday that he thought pilots should receive simulator training rather than computer courses. Boeing shares, which have lost about 11 percent of their value since the March Ethiopian crash, ended 1.1 percent lower at $377.52 on Wednesday. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Writing by Jamie Freed; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Peter Cooney) SARAJEVO, April 17 (Reuters) - Nine Bosnians were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of being part of a gang that smuggled 140 migrants from Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Iran into the European Union, police said. Border officers said they also seized drugs, ammunition and vehicles during raids on 10 locations across Bosnia. State prosecutors ordered the raids after investigations into a group operating in the east and the west of the Balkan country from January to April, police said. Officers had identified citizens "who had smuggled more than 140 migrants and made significant illegal gains," the police added. The overall number of migrants entering Europe has fallen significantly since the height of the crisis in 2015. But Bosnia has seen a rise of people crossing its territory since Croatia, Slovenia and other countries closed their borders. (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Andrew Heavens) RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) Brazil's federal government says it expects to raise $26.9 billion in signing bonuses auctioning off oil fields estimated to contain more than 5 billion barrels. In an official statement released Thursday, the government says that it is authorizing the exploration of four offshore fields following Wednesday's technical approval by Brazil's regulating agency. The government expects the auction to take place on October 28th. The announcement is the latest move by the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro to encourage the development of the country's natural resources. Critics say that his desire to cut red tape has bypassed concerns for the environment. One of Dublins main financial districts. Photo: Reuters Dublin saw a huge 66% surge in the amount of office space taken up in the first three months of 2019 compared to the same period last year, with Brexit being a major factor in the uptick. A new report from real estate agency BNP Paribas reveals that, in total, the first quarter of the year saw deals signed for more than 130,000 square meters in Dublin office space, compared to just under 80,000 square meters in 2018. Since the 2016 Brexit vote, more than 70 firms have announced plans to either move to Dublin or expand their presence in the city. These firms including JP Morgan, Coinbase, and Bank of America have already leased around 28,500 square meters in office space, according to the report. Salesforce signed the biggest office space deal in the first quarter of 2019, when it agreed to let more than 43,000 square meters of office space in one of Dublins main financial districts following its announcement of 1,500 new jobs in the city. Meanwhile, Facebook, which has its European headquarters in the city, signed a deal to let almost 16,000 square meters in Dublins south side. In addition to the moves of multinational companies, there was also an increase in deals signed by state entities and public sector companies. The Irish Central Bank completed its acquisition of nearly 20,000 square meters of land close to its new headquarters in a move that will secure the organisations long-term accommodation needs. Brexit also saw growth in the serviced office sector. Insurance firm Chaucer, law firm DLA Piper, and asset management firm Baillie Gifford are among the firms operating out of serviced offices in the city. This is a trend that is likely to continue with many companies opting to take flexible office space to set up their Irish operations before committing to longer lease terms, the report notes. The findings follow a big jump in Dublin commercial property deals in 2018. For the first time ever, Asian investors accounted for three of the top five investments in office buildings in the city. Madrid (AFP) - A no-deal Brexit would deal a severe blow to the economy of Britain's Falkland Islands which is heavily dependent on squid exports -- and to Galicia in Spain where almost all of the molluscs are sent. Fully 94 percent of the catch, mostly squid, exported from the contested South Atlantic archipelago known to Argentina as the Malvinas and occupied by Britain since 1833, is sent to the port of Vigo in northwestern Spain, some 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) away. There the squid are processed or shipped directly to other European nations. About a third of the squid eaten in continental Europe comes from the Falklands, according to the archipelago's government. Fishing accounts for 40 percent of the economic output of the island group which was at the heart of two-month war between Britain and Argentina in 1982. And Galician trawlers staffed mainly with Spaniards dominate the sector. This trade is profitable because no customs tariffs are slapped on the squid since both Britain and Spain belong to the European Union -- but that would end if Britain leaves the bloc without any agreements in place about what their relationship would be in the future. In that case World Trade Organization (WTO) custom tariff which range from six to 18 percent depending on the nature of the product would apply, according to Richard Hyslop, senior policy advisor to the Falkland Islands government. "It's critical that we retain our tariff-free access (with the EU)," Teslyn Barkman, who is in charge of managing natural resources and Brexit related issues with the archipelago's government, told AFP by telephone, adding it was a "life or death" issue for the Falkland's economy. - Rush shipments - Fearing a no-deal Brexit before an initial March 29 deadline for Britain to leave the EU, fishing firms rushed three ships with 21,000 tonnes of squid to Vigo to try to avoid paying hefty customs duties. Galician trawlers also worry a no-deal Brexit would mean they lose access to Britain's fishing waters. Story continues But British Prime Minister Theresa May last week asked fellow EU leaders to postpone Brexit for a second time, from April 12 to October 31, giving London a chance to negotiate an exit deal -- and the three trawlers loaded with squid more time to reach Galicia. The first trawler to arrive began unloading its cargo in Vigo this weekend. "We create jobs, wealth" but "there is total uncertainty, we don't know what will happen to the Spanish fleet" if there is a no-deal Brexit," said Javier Touza, the president of fishing vessel owners' cooperative Arvi at the port of Vigo. "What we ask is that we can continue to fish. We have the biggest ships in the Galician fleet over there," he added. - 'Frustrating' - Forty-three trawlers which belong to Arvi currently operate in the waters of the Falklands Islands. Twenty-four fly the Spanish flag while the rest use the flag of the Falklands even though "the majority of their crew is Spanish and 100 percent of their cargo ends up in the port of Vigo," said Touza. The regional government of Galicia estimates around 1,700 crew members of fishing trawlers could be affected if Britain crashes out of the EU without a divorce deal. This figure combines crew deployed on ships in the waters of the Falklands as well as those on the 66 trawlers that operate in British waters in Europe. Against this backdrop of uncertainty, fishermen who work in the waters of the Falklands are on track for another record haul of squid this year, after catching 78,913 tonnes in 2018. The archipelago, which is also heavily dependent on sheep farming, is home to just 3,000 people -- which is why it relies on Spanish fishing crews. "Europe wants to buy, eat and enjoy our world quality premium calamari. It's frustrating to be in that position but it makes sense to keep that relationship," said Barkman. A bus crash in Madeira left 29 people dead and 28 injured (Picture: Getty) A bus crash in Madeira has left at least 29 people dead and 28 others injured. The bus, which was carrying 55 German tourists, rolled down a hillside after veering off the road on a bend near the Portuguese islands capital Funchal and hit at least one house. The dead included 18 women and 11 men, one of whom died later at a hospital, local mayor Filipe Sousa told public broadcaster RTP. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash and Madeiras regional government has announced three days of mourning, when flags on public buildings are flown at half-mast. The bus reportedly veered off a bend and rolled down a steep hillside (Picture: Rui Silva/Aspress/Global Imagens via AP) Pedro Calado, vice president of Madeiras regional government, told a news conference that the injured, including the Portuguese driver and a local tour guide, were taken to a hospital. Portuguese foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva said preliminary reports suggested all the dead were German, but Tomasia Alves, head of the Funchal hospital, said not all victims had been identified. READ MORE Solar flare ten times the size of any on our sun is spotted on tiny star She refused to confirm the nationality of the dead but said no children were among those killed in the crash. The German foreign ministry tweeted its great shock at the accident, saying: We must unfortunately assume that victims are from Germany, while Angela Merkels spokesman said: terrible news is reaching us from Madeira. Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa said in a tweet that he had sent condolences to the German chancellor. Ottawa (AFP) - A Syrian refugee who lost seven children in a Halifax house fire has been reunited in Canada with siblings and more family members will join them Thursday, a lawmaker said. The family was among tens of thousands of Syrian refugees welcomed by Canada over the past four years. Kawthar Barho, 30, and her family fled the northern Syrian city of Raqa, where Islamic State militants had established their de facto capital. They settled in the Atlantic port city of Halifax in 2017, but in February a fire ravaged their two-storey home. Her children, aged four months to 15 years old, died in the blaze. Her husband Ebraheim remains in hospital, recovering from severe burns. Ottawa has fast-tracked travel permits as well as security and health screenings to bring over members of her extended family to provide support. "One group of family members arrived in February, and remain by her side," said MP Andy Fillmore in a statement. "We can now share that one additional group of family members is set to arrive in Canada today." Through the refugee aid group, the Heart Society, Kawthar Barho thanked Canadian supporters "in a very dark time." The group said she continues to spend her time "in the hospital by her husband's side supporting him on his long road to recovery." What happened? The report by former FBI boss Robert Mueller looking into whether the Trump camp colluded with Russia to interfere with the result of the presidential election was released today. A heavily redacted version of the Mueller report was made public this afternoon, concluding there was no criminal conspiracy between Donald Trump and Russia to get him into office. The report says Russia hacked into email accounts of Democrats and spread disinformation to influence the outcome of the election in Trumps favour. Does this mean the President didnt do anything wrong? Not quite. The scope of the report reached beyond collusion between the Trump camp and Russia. Mr Mueller also looked into whether the President obstructed justice during his time in office. Due to lack of evidence the report drew no conclusions on this front and could not prove any wrongdoing on the part of Mr Trump. This is not to say the President definitely didnt do anything wrong. The report states: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. No Collusion, No Obstruction! The President responded to the reports release with a number of gleeful Tweets, including a Game of Thrones style meme. Trump tweeted a picture of himself from behind staring into smoke, with the words No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats Game Over. He also tweeted the phrase No Collusion No Obstruction!. The last time Trump shared a tweet using Game Of Thrones imagery was in November 2018, when he riffed on the shows Winter is coming, slogan to write Sanctions are coming. HBO later tweeted: How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki? Read more about this story Mueller report: The full text (Yahoo News US) Trump tweets Game of Thrones-themed poster as Mueller report press conference ends (The Independent) Mueller report examines 10 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump (The Guardian) Story continues A mother has taken to Mumsnet for advice over whether to change the name of her one-year-old baby. She revealed she had long regretted her choice to name her son Ezra, a random name she chose after he was born because no one in her family approved of her original choice, Jarrah. She said: After giving birth, I found out no one in my family approved of the name and in a horrid mixture of pregnancy hormones and anxiety, I instead chose a random name that the doctor suggested. Would you consider changing your babys name after a year? Read the full story and have your say below: 14-year-old arrested after drug-related death of boy, 13 Police have arrested a teenage boy on suspicion of supplying class A drugs after a 13-year-old boy died after he was found unconscious in a park last week. Carson Price was found on Friday evening in a park in Ystrad Mynach, near Caerphilly, South Wales, around a mile from his home in Hengoed. Police believe illegal substances contributed to his death. The 14-year-old boy was arrested on Thursday morning when officers raided an address in Pontllanfraith, Blackwood, Gwent Police said. Read the full story here (Yahoo News UK) Samsungs new foldable phones break after just two days Samsungs new foldable smartphones break after just two days, according to reviewers given early access to the new models. Some journalists said the Galaxy Fold was unusable after 48 hours of testing. The device, which is the size of a regular smartphone when closed but opens up to form a tablet, goes on sale next week for 1,500. Samsung says the phone can be opened and closed 100 times a day for five years without breaking. Read the full story here (Sky News) Theyre the protesters whove succeeded in causing disruption across London all week, but who is Extinction Rebellion? This video explains the origins and aims of the climate change demonstrators. (Sky News) 23C Britain is set to bask in sweltering sunshine over the Easter weekend, with parts of the country likely to be warmer than many popular European holiday spots. The UK usually experiences temperatures of around 10 to 13C at this time of year, but the mercury on Good Friday is set to touch 23C in the south and 20C in Scotland with even warmer temperatures expected over the weekend. An estimated 10 million people are expected to take part in the annual Easter exodus. (The Independent) (HuffPost) In 20 years, the renminbi could be a cryptocurrency. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN: Perhaps no country has tried harder to snuff out bitcoin than China. After putting the kibosh on ICOs, the government banned crypto exchanges and now theyre targeting bitcoin mining. While they may have slowed crypto down, especially in China, this train is moving full-speed ahead. Sooner or later, they might find themselves boarding, too. Blockchain Research Institute Executive Chairman Donald Tapscott suggested that its only a matter of time before the renminbi makes its way onto the blockchain, telling Bloomberg: In 20 years, were not going to be using bitcoin in China. The Chinese people will use the RMB, only the RMB will become a cryptocurrency. The Central Bank of China will turn it into a digital currency. Chinese Government Is Intent on Hurting Crypto During his recent trip to the East Asian country, Tapscott learned that President Xi Jinping believes the blockchain is one of the two most important technologies for the future of China. Funny, he could have fooled us. As for the ban on bitcoin exchanges, Tapscott says its a mistake. The blockchain researcher goes on to explain a dichotomy in China, one in which the government has shunned crypto but deems the blockchain as okay. Commuters make their way home as climate change protesters continue their blockade of Waterloo Bridge, London (PA) The results of a new poll show most UK citizens oppose the ongoing climate change protests bringing parts of London to a standstill. Extinction Rebellion's demonstration entered its fourth day on Thursday, with road and bridge blocking and halting public transport some of the tactics used to bring attention to the group's demands. Extinction Rebellion (XR) says direct action is needed to force governments to act urgently on climate change - and halt a sixth mass extinction. However, a YouGov poll shows that despite the group's calls for humanity, the majority of Brits oppose the disruption caused by the climate change group and its tactics. The group have received criticism for their tactics that have brought parts of London to a standstill (PA) The survey asked: Climate change protesters have been disrupting roads and public transport, aiming to shut down London in order to bring attention the their cause. Do you support or oppose these actions? And the latest figures showed only 13 percent of those surveyed strongly supported the groups cause, while 23 percent said they somewhat support XRs campaign. Meanwhile, 30 percent of people surveyed strongly oppose the demonstrations in the capital, with 29 percent of citizens in that figure based in London. 30 percent of those surveyed strongly oppose the climate change protests in London (PA) 22 percent said they somewhat opposed Extinction Rebellions tactics. 12 percent of those recorded said they didnt know how they felt towards the demonstrations. The XR group is calling for an ecological emergency to be declared, greenhouse gases to be brought to net zero by 2025, and the creation of a citizens assembly to lead action on the environment. Read More Climate change group to send 'thousands more rebels' as 'partying' police officers are investigated More than 200 people arrested in second day of London climate change protests Extinction Rebellion: Protesters climb train to 'disrupt' public transport XR says the systems propping up modern consumer-focused lifestyles will lead to mass water shortages, crop failures, sea level rises and the displacement of millions Story continues A statement read: Only a peaceful planet-wide mobilisation of the scale of the Second World War will give us a chance to avoid the worst-case scenarios. On Thursday, the groups London-based climate change protests entered their fourth consecutive day. A chaotic week has seen Waterloo Bridge closed to traffic by an ongoing blockade, as well as protesters gluing themselves to trains in Canary Wharf and mass demonstrations shutting off large parts of central London. Critics of their latest tactics have emerged from across the political spectrum including Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who asked whether the protestors have questioned if disrupting public transport is consistent with their aims. Police officers removed Extinction Rebellion demonstrators from Waterloo Bridges on Wednesday (PA) LBC radio host Nick Ferrari interviewed one of Extinction Rebellion's organisers, asking: "I thought we were meant to travel on public transport...what are [we] meant to do? Try and make a bicycle out of hemp or something?" The group has since warned thousands more rebels could join the campaign on Easter Bank Holiday weekend if its demands are not met. Speaking of the widespread disruption caused, XR co-founder Dr Gail Bradbrook said: 'Its certainly an option that tactics will be escalated if our demands are not met. By Emily G Roe and David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) - The Extinction Rebellion group of climate change campaigners said it planned to hold a protest at London's Heathrow Airport on Friday, opening a new front in its demonstrations that have caused transport snarl-ups in the British capital. Extinction Rebellion has blocked several locations in central London in recent days after it staged a semi-nude protest in parliament earlier this month. More than 500 people have been arrested this week and 10 charged so far, police said. London's police force said it had canceled some officers' leave and was calling in assistance from other forces to deal with protesters who were causing "unacceptable" disruption. Extinction Rebellion sent a message to media titled "Statement on the Extinction Rebellion Heathrow Action Tomorrow" but the body of the message did not give further protest details. The group has called for non-violent civil disobedience to push the British government to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025 and to stop what it says is a global climate crisis. "If we don't do something now it's going to have a catastrophic effect," said 23-year-old media student Fflur Harman, who had traveled from central England and spent the night at one central London protest site. The pace of reduction in emissions called for by Extinction Rebellion is far faster than that urged by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year recommended they be cut to zero on a global basis by 2050. Britain has lowered net emissions by 42 percent since 1990, and currently aims to cut emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Government advisors will suggest new targets next month. Heathrow said it was working with authorities to address any threat of protests which could disrupt the airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year as the Easter getaway begins. "While we respect the right to peaceful protest and agree with the need to act on climate change, we don't agree that passengers should have their well-earned Easter Break holiday plans with family and friends disrupted," the airport said. London's Metropolitan Police said it had "strong plans in place that would enable it to deploy a significant number of officers to Heathrow and take firm action" if needed. Interior minister Sajid Javid said he wanted police to "take a firm stance and use the full force of the law". However, police said they were limited in the action they could take as the protests were disruptive, rather than violent. "The question really is can we arrest our way out of this issue, given there are several thousand people in London who are willing to be arrested," Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave told broadcaster Sky News. (Additonal reporting by Michael Holden; Writing by William Schomberg and David Milliken; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced it is expanding its crypto-to-crypto support to an additional 11 countries across Latin America and Southeast Asia meaning the service is now available in 53 countries in total spread across four continents. The news was announced in a blog post. The exchange states how one year ago it served customers in 32 countries across two continents, but over the past 12 months one of its main goals has been to expand its services to customers in all corners of the globe. The move will allow residents of the additional 11 countries to store, trade, send, and receive cryptocurrencies on Coinbase Pro and Coinbase.com. Coinbase claims direct trading between cryptos is increasingly the new norm, and in the last year it has overtaken traditional fiat-to-crypto trading across the world. It believes that as crypto moves from the current investment phase into what it calls the utility phase, a host of new use cases will emerge. The exchange speculates that this could come in the shape of a decentralised economy which emulates traditional financial services such as lending or micropayments. Coinbase states that the ability to convert from one crypto to another will be pivotal in formulating the backbone of this new decentralised economy, and so the exchange aims to make crypto easily accessible to everybody. Now, customers in Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Chile, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Zealand can sign up on its website and use its advanced trading platform. Interested in reading more Coinbase-related news? Discover how the exchange recently announced the launch of its new Visa-powered Coinbase card, enabling UK residents to spend crypto effortlessly around the world. The post Coinbase is expanding its crypto-to-crypto support to Latin America and Southeast Asia appeared first on Coin Rivet. A Florida woman said to be obsessed with the 1999 massacre at Colorados Columbine High School has reportedly died after a massive FBI manhunt. Authorities said Sol Pais, 18, made disturbing remarks about Columbine as Saturdays 20th anniversary of the shooting approached and was apparently infatuated with the perpetrators. She flew to Colorado on Monday, purchasing a pump-action shotgun after landing, and was considered armed and dangerous before she was found dead, Denvers local CBS affiliate reported, citing a law enforcement source in Clear Creek County. The FBIs Denver office later wrote on Twitter that the manhunt had ended. Authorities had stressed that while Pais had made no specific threats on area schools, they considered her a threat to the community. Accordingly, many Colorado school districts canceled classes Wednesday, telling staff and students to stay home. Because of her comments and her actions, because of her travel here to the state, because of her procurement of a weapon immediately upon arriving here, we consider her to be a credible threat certainly to the community and potentially to schools, said Special Agent in Charge Dean Phillips of the FBIs Denver office. We have no specific information about any specific threat to any specific school. We dont have that sort of credible information, but we do consider her to be a credible threat to the community. Authorities said Pais took an Uber to the Echo Lake area near the base of Mount Evans, where she was found deceased. Between 20 and 30 armed officers, including a SWAT team, were involved in the search for her near the Echo Lake Campground. The FBI and Jefferson County Sheriffs office are directing the investigation and have promised more information is forthcoming. More from National Review Eight families say a teacher at a Jewish preschool in Washington repeatedly sexually abused their children over the past two years, and they contend the school's leader and a prominent synagogue did nothing about it despite warnings. Claims of sexual abuse against children ages 2 to 4 are outlined in a civil lawsuit filed late Monday against the Washington Hebrew Congregation, which operates the Edlavitch Tyser Early Childhood Center, and its head of schools, Deborah "DJ" Schneider Jensen. The suit, filed in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, alleges the defendants enabled sexual abuse of children by the same man Jordan Silverman, an assistant teacher who arrived at the preschool in 2016 after a long career as a photographer in Vermont. Attorneys for the parents and children say the abuse, which spanned from March 2016 to August 2018 on the preschool's campus, included the "most grievous, demeaning and damaging forms of sexual abuse" and was "systemic and regular." The victims were girls and boys, they say. The lawsuit's 23 plaintiffs children and their parents are pursuing several claims of negligence, arguing the school and Jensen are liable for allowing the abuse to persist. They contend that Silverman was "allowed and encouraged" to be alone with the children with no other adult present. They say that violated a Washington "two-deep" policy that requires at least two adults to be present with children at all times at licensed child development centers. "Essential protection against abuse of this type in a child-caring environment requires visibility and accountability of all adults present at all times," the lawsuit reads. "Defendants provided for neither." The suit, which lists seven children only as Jane and John Does and keeps the parents anonymous as well, seeks an amount of compensation to be determined by a jury for damages, both monetary and non-monetary. Story continues Silverman, who was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, has not been charged with any crimes and denies the allegations in the lawsuit. His lawyer, Shawn Sukumar, told CNN that Silverman contends he did nothing inappropriate. "Mr. Silverman categorically denies engaging in any inappropriate or illegal contact with children at Washington Hebrew Congregation," Sukumar told CNN. In August, The Washington Post reported that District of Columbia police were investigating allegations of sexual abuse at the Washington Hebrew Congregation preschool. A statement on behalf of Washington Hebrew Congregation in response to the lawsuit said the synagogue is "carefully reviewing the complaint." The temple's leaders say they reported the sexual abuse allegations in August as soon as they learned of them and have "continually and fully cooperated" with the criminal investigation. "Child safety has always been our top priority," the statement reads. It rejects allegations that the early childhood center violated the law or state regulations. "Although there has not been any arrest, these allegations are very troubling; as a faith community, Washington Hebrew has supported and will continue to support its entire community as individuals grapple with how these allegations affect them and their families," the statement says. Jensen did not respond for a request to comment. The Washington Hebrew Congregation sent a letter to parents in August that said an employee at its early childhood center was put on administrative leave after allegations that the employee "may have engaged in inappropriate conduct involving one or more children." The school did not disclose the name of the employee at the request of police. Plaintiffs are represented by the Sexual Abuse, Sex Trafficking and Domestic Violence group of the Washington-based law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, which specializes in whistle-blower cases against corporations and antitrust, civil rights and human rights cases. "Silvermans alleged behavior is only a part of this story," Steve Toll, managing partner of the law firm, said in a statement. The preschool and Jensen "not only created an environment that enabled this predatory behavior but failed to act on a myriad of indications that something was wrong." "They must be held accountable so that no child in this program ever suffers again," Toll said. Jensen, who was hired by Washington Hebrew Congregation to lead the early childhood center in 2014, announced in February plans to leave her position after the end of the academic year. In a letter on her departure, she said it's time to pursue other initiatives in early childhood education, finish writing her second book and focus on training teachers. She did not refer to the sexual abuse investigation. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DC synagogue accused in lawsuit of enabling 'systemic and regular' sexual abuse at preschool Rakhine rebels locked in a vicious fight with Myanmar's army will not "get peace by praying", its commander said as he vowed his forces will fight on despite being outnumbered and under aerial assault. The increasingly bloody battle in western Rakhine state is between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), which claims to be fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in one of the country's poorest states. With the region under strict lockdown, it is difficult to get a precise death toll, though the military has confirmed over 20 of its security forces have been killed by the AA since January. Speaking to reporters Wednesday from the safety of the Wa region of eastern Shan State, which borders China, AA chief Tun Myat Naing said his forces have no intention of giving up their armed struggle. "We are not the ones to give up. We have to fight the war," said the bespectacled major-general. "We will not get peace by praying." The rebel leader was speaking in Panghsang, home to the United Wa State Army, a normally reclusive group who this week invited journalists and other ethnic leaders to commemorate 30 years of autonomy. The China-backed Wa have a long-standing ceasefire with Myanmar, which has so far allowed them to operate from a semi-autonomous zone. Experts allege the well-armed Wa, who have a 25,000-strong standing army, offer training and equipment to several other rebel groups as leverage against Myanmar's central state. The presence of the AA leader in Panghsang will do little to dilute that perception -- despite vociferous denials by the Wa. Rakhine in the west -- one of the poorest states in Myanmar -- has long been a tinderbox of complex ethnic and religious divides. A brutal military campaign in 2017 forced out some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh. Myanmar's army said the mass expulsion was justified in a campaign to stamp out Rohingya militants known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). Story continues With many Rohingya gone, the AA has ramped up its own campaign of ambushes and assassinations. Fighting has spread across Rakhine and into neighbouring Chin state, displacing more than 20,000 civilians of various ethnicities, while residents in the temple-studded town of Mrauk U, the ancient Rakhine capital, have reported fighter jets streaking across the skies. Earlier this month a military helicopter attack killed at least six Rohingya, who the army claimed was working with the AA. Tun Myat Naing rejected the accusation as "groundless." However, he conceded that there are Rohingya "who are suffering under the repression" of the Myanmar military as well in Rakhine - a rare note of empathy from ethnic Rakhine towards their Muslim neighbours. Tun Myat Naing said he also met a Chinese official in Wa, a sign the giant neighbour is closely watching events in strategically important parts of Myanmar. "He asked us not to start an offensive... I asked him to negotiate for both sides," said the rebel army chief. On the eve of the long-anticipated release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian tampering in the 2016 election and alleged Trump campaign involvement, Democrats accused the attorney general, William Barr, of trying to cherry-pick and put his own spin on the conclusions of the investigation. Representative Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House judiciary committee, appeared with colleagues at a press conference in New York City late Wednesday to protest against Barrs plan for rolling out a redacted version of the Mueller report. Related: Mueller report: redacted Trump-Russia findings to be released today live Barr is scheduled to hold a 9.30am press conference on Thursday. Nadler tweeted on Wednesday that the justice department informed him that Congress would receive the report around 11am or noon, after which it would be posted online. That plan amounted to an effort by Barr to put up a smokescreen to obscure the true findings of the report, Nadler charged. Now it appears that the attorney general intends to once again put his own spin on the investigative work completed by the special counsel and his team, Nadler said. The fact that the attorney general is not releasing even the redacted report to Congress until after his press conference will again result in the report being presented in his own words, rather than in the words of special counsel Robert Mueller. The central concern here is that Attorney General Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves, but is instead trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House. Related: Mueller's Trump-Russia report to be released on Thursday Nadler said he would subpoena the full report in very short order and said he assumed it would be useful to call Mueller and members of his team to testify before Congress. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, argued Americans deserved to see the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin. Story continues AG Barr has thrown out his credibility, she added. AG Barr has thrown out his credibility & the DOJs independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else. The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin. https://t.co/fgXwiLuQfr Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 17, 2019 Democratic House committee leaders followed by asking Barr to cancel his scheduled morning address. This press conference, which apparently will not include Special Counsel Mueller, is unnecessary and inappropriate, and appears designed to shape public perceptions of the report before anyone can read it, they wrote. [Barr] should let the full report speak for itself. The attorney general should cancel the press conference and provide the full report to Congress, as we have requested, they added. The justice department also plans to provide a limited number of members of Congress and their staff access to a copy of the Mueller report with fewer redactions than the public version, according to a court filing Wednesday. The nearly 400-page report is expected to reveal what Mueller uncovered about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that fell short of criminal conduct. It will also lay out the special counsels conclusions about formative episodes in Trumps presidency, including his firing of the FBI director James Comey and his efforts to undermine the Russia investigation publicly and privately. The report is not expected to place the president in legal jeopardy, as Barr made his own decision that Trump should not be prosecuted for obstruction. But it is likely to contain unflattering details about the presidents efforts to control the Russia investigation that will cloud his ability to credibly claim total exoneration. And it may paint the Trump campaign as eager to exploit Russian aid and emails stolen from Democrats and Hillary Clintons campaign even if no Americans crossed the line into criminal activity. The reports release will be a test of Barrs credibility as the public and Congress judge whether he is using his post to shield the president who appointed him. Trump announced Barrs press conference during a radio interview Wednesday before the justice department did. Trump also said he might take questions about the report after its release. Barr will also face scrutiny over how much of the report he blacks out and whether Muellers document lines up with a letter the attorney general released last month. The letter said Mueller did not find a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government but he found evidence on both sides of the question of whether the president obstructed justice. Barr has said he is withholding grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to continuing investigations and the privacy or reputation of uncharged peripheral people. But how liberally he interprets those categories is yet to be seen. In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But in any portfolio, there will be mixed results between individual stocks. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in A.S. Roma S.P.A. (BIT:ASR), since the last five years saw the share price fall 53%. See our latest analysis for A.S. Roma A.S. Roma isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size. In the last half decade, A.S. Roma saw its revenue increase by 13% per year. That's a pretty good rate for a long time period. The share price return isn't so respectable with an annual loss of 14% over the period. That suggests the market is disappointed with the current growth rate. A pessimistic market can create opportunities. Depicted in the graphic below, you'll see revenue and earnings over time. If you want more detail, you can click on the chart itself. BIT:ASR Income Statement, April 18th 2019 Balance sheet strength is crucual. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time. What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)? We'd be remiss not to mention the difference between A.S. Roma's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price return. The TSR attempts to capture the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested) as well as any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings offered to shareholders. We note that A.S. Roma's TSR, at -19% is higher than its share price return of -53%. When you consider it hasn't been paying a dividend, this data suggests shareholders have benefitted from a spin-off, or had the opportunity to acquire attractively priced shares in a discounted capital raising. Story continues A Different Perspective We regret to report that A.S. Roma shareholders are down 12% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 4.2%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 4.1% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. You could get a better understanding of A.S. Roma's growth by checking out this more detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on IT exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Did Donald Trump obstruct justice? The presidents critics say that he did. The attorney general and deputy attorney general say he did not. Special Counsel Robert Muellers team was reportedly split on the question. And legal experts say its not an easy call either way. Theres little question about some of the basic facts: Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, dictated a misleading statement to the New York Times on behalf of his son and made a series of tweets and public statements attacking prosecutors, threatening potential witnesses and praising allies during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. But the legal debate centers on whether Trump had corrupt intent, a term of art meaning that he intended to impede or thwart the investigation when he took those actions. Legal scholars and experts tell TIME that proving corrupt intent is difficult because prosecutors are required to establish the persons motives beyond a reasonable doubt. Take the firing of Comey, which Trump told NBC News was motivated by his handling of this Russia thing. That may not be enough to establish intent, according to Mimi Rocah, Pace Law Schools distinguished fellow on criminal justice. You can have other possible motivations for firing Comey, she explains. Its what he says all the time that the investigation was a political witch hunt, that he doesnt like it not because he was actually concerned they would find something in the investigation. Read More: The 270 Arguments Trump Made About the Mueller Probe But, Rocah says, that doesnt mean that Trump is off the hook, at least until the Mueller report comes out on Thursday. Were not privy to the other evidence, or what other statements he made in private or public, she says. Rocah adds that Attorney General William Barrs current explanation for why Trump did not obstruct justice may be constructed on flimsy legal grounds. She says Barrs argument appears to hinge on the idea that because Trump made statements and took actions publicly, he did not have corrupt intent because he was not trying to hide anything. But thats not necessarily legally sound reasoning, Rocah says. Story continues If it turns out that Trump dictated a misleading statement from his son, Donald Trump Jr. regarding a 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower, as he allegedly did, and that he did so with the intention of misleading investigators, then that could amount to corrupt intent. The same is true of Trumps robust collection of tweets commending or condemning witnesses involved in the investigation. If Muellers team revealed evidence that Trump used those tweets to intentionally derail the investigation, a prosecutor could potentially prove that he was acting with corrupt intent. Trump doesnt care, Rocah says. He does and says things all the time that certainly people could take great issue with, and could even cross criminal lines, and because there are no consequences to it, he doesnt care. You cant assume the normal interpretive rules apply here. In a summary of Muellers report sent to Congress, Barr said most of the evidence regarding obstruction of justice has been the subject of public reporting. (A senior Justice Department official also corroborated Barrs account, telling TIME in March that much of the evidence is already known from news reports.) At any rate, its unlikely that criminal charges will follow Trump on obstruction of justice, experts say. Beyond the difficulties of proving corrupt intent, Trump likely would not be indicted under long-standing guidelines from the Department of Justice that prevent such actions against sitting Presidents. Where Trump could run into trouble is if Congress decides his actions were grave enough to be impeachable. Philip Bobbitt, a constitutional theorist and professor at Columbia Law School, says pursuing impeachment against Trump on obstruction is a little more forgiving for Congress than it is for everyday prosecutors. When it comes to a criminal case, a prosecutor would have to prove criminal intent. But impeachable offenses dont necessarily constitute a crime, Bobbitt adds, and a prosecutor does not have to show the president had malevolent intent in his actions. Trump could have obstructed justice without intending to to do anything criminal and that could still be an impeachable offense. He could just be feckless or stupid, or may have had another intent, Bobbitt says. Under the Constitution, the standard for impeachment is treason, bribery, other high crimes or misdemeanors, not all of which are well-defined, according to legal analyst Ross Garber, who teaches impeachment law at Tulane University. The release of Muellers full report may provide the evidence lawmakers need to determine whether Trumps actions were egregious enough to require impeachment. But if House Democrats decide to pursue impeachment, they would need to be able to explain why Trumps actions were impeachable, even if they did not amount to a crime, Garber says, and that could be tricky politically. In terms of defining impeachable conduct, people usually feel more secure in defining impeachable conduct with reference to the violation of criminal laws, he says. The further you diverge from the criminal statute, the shakier an impeachment case becomes. Weve never removed a President, but in two of the serious impeachment attempts, the Congress has looked closely at conduct that amounts to obstruction of justice or perjury as potentially impeachable offenses, he adds. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not taken the possibility of impeachment off the table, though she warns that such a decision would not be taken lightly because it would be deeply divisive. The fact is the President has engaged in activities that are unethical, un-American. In every way he is unfit to be the President of the United States, Pelosi told the Associated Press. Is that an impeachable offense? Well it depends on what we see in the report. I set a very high bar for impeachment because I think its very divisive in the country and one of our purposes is to unify. On Friday April 19 I will be attending the DigiByte Global Summit in Amsterdam. My colleague, Darren Parkin, previously attended the DigiByte Summit in London and revealed in March that the conference will be partnered by Californian firm Block 30 Labs. He came back with an extremely positive outlook, so this event is something I am very much looking forward to. My knowledge on DigiByte is admittedly limited. However, this may stand me in good stead as I go into the summit ready to learn and absorb the information they will provide and see how the project is evolving. One thing I do know for certain is that DigiByte has a passionate community judging by their behavior on Twitter! The DigiByte Global Summit The DigiByte Global Summit in Amsterdam will bring together the community and the leaders of the cryptocurrency. Beginning at 2pm, there will be presentations by founder Jared Tate, CEO of Block 30 Labs Brian Foote, and the founders of V-ID Rudy Bouwman and Marnix van den Berg. According to DigiByte: Decentralisation, at its very core, is about empowering individuals and reshaping society; it is about offering solutions to protect people and businesses against digital fraud using a network that everyone can fairly contribute to, so it remains distributed and decentralised without the need for any trusted third party, and building a digital economy that serves users purposes and facilitates transactions worldwide with a high level of security. These new platforms are developed by users just like everyone else, who have the technology expertise to create a new system. Stefania Barbaglio, official PR representative for DigiByte and organiser of the summit, commented: It is very inspiring to see these great minds coming together and sharing their plans and projects with us. Jared started DigiByte with the mission to fix most of the cyber security vulnerabilities the internet is facing today by using blockchain technology. Story continues DigiByte is now a social project that has the potential to change society and its economy. It has grown stronger over the last few years, and while many other blockchains and cryptocurrencies tried to ride the hype, DGB were working hard, paving the way for more innovative ventures to arise. As Jared always says, DigiByte is a family who share the same values, positive energy, and enthusiasm in developing projects that can change the world for the better. The conference ends with a boat trip along the scenic canals in Amsterdam, allowing for further discussions of ideas and the chance to network. Check out Coin Rivet next week for all the latest news, updates, and gossip from the conference. The DigiByte Global Summit takes place on Friday April 19 at De Balie, Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, 1017 RR, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Tickets can be purchased here: http://digibytesummit.io. The post DigiByte Global Summit to take place tomorrow in Amsterdam appeared first on Coin Rivet. Updated 11:55 a.m. The Justice Department on Thursday morning delivered a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers final report to Congress. Attorney General William Barr presented the House and Senate Judiciary Committees with copies of the redacted report, which was also published on the Justice Department website. Barr held a press conference earlier in the morning in which he said President Trump and Trumps lawyers offered no input on any of the redactions. No material has been redacted based on executive privilege, Barr said. The presidents personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions. Muellers team was not able to reach a conclusion that no criminal conduct occurred, according to the report. The evidence we obtained about the Presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred, the report says. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. The report added that Congress still has the authority to find Trump obstructed justice, i.e. to prohibit a Presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice. The special counsels team also said it concluded that it could have subpoenaed Trump to testify, but decided against it in the interest of avoiding the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation. We had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the Presidents testimony, the report says. Prosecutors added that while the investigation confirmed that Trump campaign associates believed they would benefit from information stolen and released through Russian efforts and showed interest in WikiLeaks publishing of damaging emails stolen from the Clinton campaign, no criminal actions on the part of the presidents campaign were uncovered. Story continues Publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy, Barr said during his press conference. President Trump, reacting to the reports release, said there never was and never will be any collusion. Im having a good day, Trump said to applause from the audience during a White House address to the Wounded Warrior Projects Soldier Ride. This should never happen to another president again, this hoax. Many Democrats, including House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, have requested Mueller testify on Capitol Hill about the report. More from National Review WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's lawyers saw a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report prior to its release to the public and Congress, Attorney General William Barr acknowledged Thursday. Speaking at a news conference in Washington, Barr said both the White House counsel's office and the president's personal attorneys requested the chance to review the report and he agreed. "The presidents personal lawyers were not permitted to make and did not request any redactions," Barr said. Barr said the request to review the report in advance was consistent with a federal law that allows permitted individuals named in a report prepared by a special counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. Attorney General William Barr alongside acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O'Callaghan and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at the Justice Department on April 18, 2019. Regardless, the revelation angered congressional Democrats, who have called on Mueller to publicly testify before Congress. "AG Barr has confirmed the staggering partisan effort by the Trump Admin to spin publics view of the #MuellerReport complete with acknowledgment that the Trump team received a sneak preview," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on Twitter. "Its more urgent than ever that Special Counsel Mueller testify before Congress." AG Barr has confirmed the staggering partisan effort by the Trump Admin to spin publics view of the #MuellerReport complete with acknowledgment that the Trump team received a sneak preview. Its more urgent than ever that Special Counsel Mueller testify before Congress. https://t.co/waoGzLntlt Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 18, 2019 This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump's lawyers reviewed Mueller report before its public release, AG Barr says WASHINGTON President Donald Trump quickly claimed vindication Thursday following the release of Robert Mueller's report, even as congressional Democrats pressed for the special counsel to testify about his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. "I'm having a good day," Trump said at a White House event for the Wounded Warrior Project. "Its called no collusion, no obstruction. "This should never happen to another president ever again, he said of Mueller's investigation, which he again called a hoax." The newly released Mueller report revealed that members of Trump's campaign showed interest in benefiting Russian government efforts to sway the election in his favor, but investigators did not find evidence that their conduct amounted to a crime. Investigators found that some of Trumps aides engaged in contacts with people linked to the Russian government, and that they then lied to the special counsel and Congress about those interactions. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference, the report said. Mueller's 448-page report was the culmination of a nearly two-year investigation into Russian election interference and whether anyone from the president's campaign conspired with Moscow. President Donald Trump Swirl of investigations: Trump still separate probes even after end of Mueller probe Mueller probe fatigue? Democrats find voters would rather talk 'kitchen-table' issues The report detailed steps by the president and those around him to thwart the investigation, including 10 instances of possible obstruction by the president. Muellers office did not conclude that Trump's actions were illegal, but also pointedly refused to clear him of wrongdoing, stating "if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Later Thursday, in a tweet from Air Force One, Trump said he could have fired Mueller if he had wanted, but he didnt. Trump also defended himself against obstruction claims by saying he allowed aides to testify and had his attorneys turn over thousands of documents. Story continues I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted, Trump said. I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to. I had the RIGHT to use Executive Privilege. I didnt! After arriving at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where he will be spending the Easter weekend, Trump continued to tweet complaints about the investigation. In one post, he argued there couldn't be obstruction because there was no "underlying crime." Trumps legal team called the Mueller report a total victory for the president. It is clear there was no criminal wrongdoing, attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jay Sekulow, Jane Raskin and Martin Raskin said in a written statement. Nothing withheld; nothing concealed; nothing deleted; nothing destroyed; and nothing bleached. The attorneys said its clear that Trump acted properly in firing former FBI Director James Comey, whom they argued lied and displayed disdain for the values at the core of the FBI. Comey and his lawyers launched a biased, political attack against Trump, they said. Comey, however, told two congressional committees in December the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia originated with four Americans who were thought to be potentially helping the Kremlin in its efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. Trumps firing of Comey in 2017 triggered a chain of events that led to the naming of Mueller as the special counsel for the probe into possible links between Trumps campaign and Russia. Trump's legal team has been working on a "counter-report" to the Mueller report. But it was uncertain when their report would be released. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, congressional Democrats demanded the release of the full Mueller report, including the redacted material, while Trump's GOP allies argued the report's conclusions were a complete vindication of the president. "Its about as definitive as it gets, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, told USA TODAY. Asked if he found anything concerning in the report, Jordan, who is close to the president, responded he was concerned about the reasons the investigation began in the first place. He called for a probe into the investigation now that the Mueller's work is done. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., already has said he plans to look into the FBIs handling of the Russia probe. But it is unlikely the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee will follow suit. Contributing: Eliza Collins This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump reacts to Mueller report: 'Its called no collusion, no obstruction' Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - As donations for the restoration of the Notre-Dame cathedral top $900,000, the director of Brazil's devastated National Museum can only hope for such deep pockets in his own country. Nearly eight months after a faulty air conditioning system sparked a fire that gutted Latin America's main natural history museum and destroyed most of its collection, just $280,000 or so has been raised for its reconstruction. "We are very happy for the extremely positive reaction of French society and we hope that following this example Brazilian businesses and millionaires will start to send us their donations," Alexander Kellner, director of the Rio de Janeiro-based museum, told AFP. "It is not a question of obtaining amounts of this magnitude, but the National Museum really needs donations. "With a million reais ($255,000) more, we can solve a lot of problems, it would help us breathe, because for now it is artificial respiration." Friends of the National Museum Association, which is charged with collecting donations, has so far received the equivalent of $36,000 from individuals and $3,800 from companies. Donations have been "far below our expectations," Kellner admitted, but said the lack of tax reductions for Brazilian donors might be one of the reasons. After the September 2 fire ripped through the four-story former imperial palace, Brazil's education ministry released the equivalent of $2.5 million for emergency works to preserve the building's facade. But other public funds have not yet been disbursed. The total cost of restoring the National Museum will reportedly be around 100 million reais. The blaze wiped out much of the museum's collection, dealing a hard blow to the main showcase of Brazil's anthropological heritage and history. In December 2010, Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore commented on Julian Assange in the Mail on Sunday: Indeed its difficult to get a clear picture of the complaints by two women he had sex with in Sweden in August The sex appears to have been consensual, though his refusal to use condoms was not. His behaviour looks bad rather than illegal but who really knows? The Swedish prosecutors themselves say they believe these womens stories but dont believe these are crimes. Who really knows? The answer, of course, was and is that, in the absence of a trial, nobody except the people directly involved knows what really happened. If Moore was somewhat reasonable in 2010, her stance had changed by June 2012, when Assange sought political asylum in Ecuadors London embassy a time when, still, nobody really knew what had happened. She tweeted: Seems like Assanges supporters did not expect him to skip bail? Really? Who has this guy not let down? She added: I bet Assange is stuffing himself full of flattened guinea pigs. He really is the most massive turd. As discussed in Part 1, the nub of this mainstream scorn was the belief that Assanges concerns about extradition were a cowardly excuse for fleeing possible sex crimes fears of extradition were a nerdish, paranoid fantasy. Moore wrote in 2011: The extradition hearing last week involved massive showboating on both sides. Assange supporters were gathered outside the courts dressed in orange Guantanamo Bay jumpsuits. Does anyone seriously believe this is what will happen to Assange? It is a bitter irony, then, that Assange is currently trapped in the high-security Belmarsh Prison, which has been described as Britains Guantanamo Bay. The fact that Assange has now been arrested at the request of the US seeking his extradition over allegations that he conspired with Chelsea Manning, means that Assanges claimed motive for seeking political asylum now appears very credible indeed he was right about US intentions. Assange can now be depicted as a cowardly fugitive from Swedish justice only by someone finding it outrageous that he should resist extradition by the Trump regime to spend the rest of his life in jail, or worse. In other words, if corporate journalists are responding to the facts, rather than power-serving prejudice, recent events should have moderated their stance towards Assange. It is easy to check. Everyones Least Favourite Squatter Suzanne Moore commented in the New Statesman after the arrest: O frabjous day! We are all bored out of our minds with Brexit when a demented looking gnome is pulled out of the Ecuadorian embassy by the secret police of the deep state. Or the met as normal people call them. In other words, Assange remains the same wretched, risible figure he was before Moore came to know he had been arrested on charges relating to US extradition. She added bizarrely on Twitter: Assange supporters . Cunt soup babbling about on press freedom. In an article for the Sunday Times on April 14, James Ball claimed that: Julian Assange is the architect of his own downfall. Bullish and grandiose yet plagued by paranoia, the WikiLeaks boss is his own worst enemy. Ball briefly worked for WikiLeaks, with Assange as his boss, between late 2010 and early 2011. His departure from the organisation was acrimonious. As we mentioned in Part 1, the Guardian has a shameful record in its treatment of Assange. Ball was always happy to act as chief attack dog for the paper. A piece in January 2018 was titled, The only barrier to Julian Assange leaving Ecuadors embassy is pride. Below it were the words, The WikiLeaks founder is unlikely to face prosecution in the US; an assertion that has clearly not aged well. Ball even made the poisonous assertion that: most of those who still support Assange are hard-right nationalists with many seeing him as a supporter of the style of politics of both Trump and Vladimir Putin. John Pilger described Ball as a despicable journalist; a collaborator with those in power who have been attacking WikiLeaks and Assange. Ball has repeatedly stated that he opposes Assanges extradition to the US. But for years he depicted him extremely unfavourably, and continues to disparage Assange as a dangerous and duplicitous asshole after his arrest. Writing in the Daily Mirror, centrist Labour MP, Jess Phillips, commented: Finally Julian Assange, everyones least favourite squatter, has been kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy and into custody on charges of skipping bail after accusations of sexual violence in Sweden. I am sure we will all miss his speeches from the balcony of the embassy as if he were about to launch into Dont Cry For Me Argentina. Assange, once beloved for leaking the secrets of global governments, has essentially been reduced to a grumpy, stroppy teenager. He never left his room, thought he was the best thing since sliced bread and had his internet taken away when he was naughty. Phillips offered one serious assertion: His arrest ended a seven-year stint in the embassy, which he chose. He didnt have to stay there The obvious fact that the US superpower really was, all the time, out to get him, strongly suggests he did have to stay there and wasnt motivated to avoid facing the far less threatening Swedish accusations. In 2015, Phillips told the Guardian: The difference between me and some of my colleagues not all of them is that I protect myself by shooting things out. So if I see something that I dont like I will say it. I wont sit in some little cabal and whisper about it I will go up to Seumas Milne and say: Why on earth are you friends with George Galloway? Your personal friendships are fine but if I see you are moving in any way to get Galloway nearer to this party, Im going to go for you. Ill just say that to him. Phillips has certainly gone for Assange. Other mainstream reaction was a close copy of comments made when Assange first entered the embassy in 2012 (see our media alert, Incinerating Assange). Despite reports of an alarming decline in his health after seven years trapped in the embassy, journalists mercilessly mocked Assanges appearance. Ashley Cowburn, political correspondent for the Independent tweeted (and then deleted after we noted them) two pictures before and after Assange entered the embassy, commenting: Political journalists pre and post-Brexit. David Aaronovitch of the The Times 101st Chairborne Humanitarian Intervention Division, tweeted with the same compassion that guides his relentless warmongering: I see Tolstoy has just been arrested in central London. Jessica Elgot, political editor of the Guardian, joined the fun: Apparently Julian Assanges internet access has been cut off since March so he probably thinks weve left the EU Journalist Chris Cook, formerly of BBCs Newsnight and the Financial Times, referenced an elderly, bearded character from the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses: Justice for Uncle Albert. ITV Political Editor, Robert Peston, formerly BBC Business Editor, retweeted an image of Christ with his hand raised in blessing paired with a photograph of Assange making a victory sign from inside a prison van. Side-on, Assanges gesture bore a vague resemblance, but Christ was assuredly not signalling V for victory. Like so much mainstream humour, the tweet was embarrassingly unfunny, strangely callous. The Daily Express devoted a whole article to comedy takes of this kind: HILARIOUS Julian Assange memes have swept Twitter in the wake of the Wikileaks founders arrest including one he tried to pass himself off as Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses here are the best ones. As noted in Part 1, in the real world beyond the media creche, a medical doctor who examined Assange in the embassy, commented: Assange does not leave behind the physical and psychological sequelae of his confinement at the embassy. The harms follow him; they are irreparable. The Scotsman supplied more evidence that journalists perceive enemies targeted for destruction by the state as the same Bad Guy regenerating over and over again, like Doctor Who. Dani Garavelli wrote of Assanges arrest: For me, however, the scene brought back memories of Saddam Hussein emerging from his spider hole in Operation Red Dawn No doubt based on impeccable sources, Garavelli added: His dishevelment had more to do with his questionable personal hygiene than his living conditions. The Daily Mail published a deeply totalitarian article titled: Assange inside his fetid lair: Revealed, the full squalid horror that drove embassy staff to finally kick him out EXCLUSIVE: Photos of Julian Assanges dirty protests have been revealed The Exclusive featured pictures of a single unwashed plate, several mugs in a sink and a squeaky-clean toilet. The BBCs Jon Sopel North America Correspondent tweeted: #Ecuador president #LeninMoreno tells me #JulianAssange smeared the walls of the embassy with feces and that is why they revoked his asylum. The #WikiLeaks leader exhausted their tolerance, the president told me @BBCBreaking Among others, the claim has also been reported by CNN, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Vox, ABC News, Reuters, The Associated Press, Daily Mail, Fox News, NBC News,The Independent, The Daily Beast, the Wall Street Journal and Business Insider. Reporter Charles Glass described the surveillance he witnessed in the embassy: He [Assange] made coffee, glancing up at surveillance cameras in the tiny kitchen and every other room in the embassy that recorded his every movement. Alexander Rubinstein of Mint Press News concluded: Assange was under total surveillance while in the embassy. They didnt release the footage of him smearing his poop on the walls because it simply doesnt exist. Its a crock of shit. Ostensibly alternative Novara Medias Ash Sarkar who has published numerous opinion pieces in the Guardian and Independent, and who is a favoured guest on flagship BBC shows like Daily Politics, Question Time, the Andrew Marr Show and Newsnight tweeted: Just sayin its possible to think that Julian Assange is a definite creep, a probable rapist, a conspiracist whackjob *and* that his arrest has incredibly worrying implications for the treatment of those who blow the whistle on gross abuses of state power. Sarkar revealed the depth of her knowledge when she wrote: His arrest today came *after* the investigations into rape and the Swedish arrest warrant were dropped. That doesnt mean hes innocent of those charges. Anyone who knows anything about Assange knows that he has never been charged. But Sarkars damning comments on a leading truth-teller facing the wrath of the US state, play extremely well with the mainstream gatekeepers selecting BBC guests and Guardian contributors. Sarkar deleted the tweet smearing Assange, not because she regretted her appalling comments, but because ugly stuff defending sexual assault itself has been turning up in my work inbox from men. On April 11, we tweeted: Whatever you think of [Assange] means, Dont get me wrong, Im not one of *them*. Im not rejecting the respectable, mainstream narrative. Synchronistically, one day later, Owen Jones wrote in the Guardian under the title: Whatever you think of Julian Assange, his extradition to the US must be opposed The Guardians George Monbiot tweeted: Whether or not you like Assanges politics (I dont), or his character (ditto) At the risk of being annoying, we responded: George, how much time have you spent with Assange and his unpleasant character? We received no reply. Before the arrest, Channel 4 News Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson commented on WikiLeaks complaints about police spying on Assange inside the embassy: WikiLeaks it all adds up to WikiLeaks whining about their privacy being invaded. Cant quite see how this deserves airtime on @Channel4News Am I wrong? One day later, when Thomson found himself reporting Assanges arrest, we asked: Was he whining, Alex? Thomson replied: Yes clearly In fact, Assange was making a political protest, calling on the UK to resist Trumps attempt at extradition that might see him spending the rest of his life in jail. A select few journalists managed to retain their dignity in the face of this callous corporate herdthink. To his credit, Andrew Buncombe of the Independent tweeted: Theres been an oddly mocking tone to much of the reporting about Assange, whose organisation has revealed more US state crimes than most journalists. Arrest sets an appalling precedent. Odd is the word. Buncombes tweet brought to mind a comment made by the BBCs World Affairs Editor, John Cody Fidler-Simpson CBE, about mainstream journalism: Theres something slightly wrong with most of us, dont you feel? Were damaged goods, usually with slightly rumpled private lives and unconventional backgrounds. Outsiders, looking in at others from outside. (Travels with Auntie, Lynn Barber interviewing John Simpson, Observer, 24 February 2002) The Guardians Ewen MacAskill commented: US did not waste any time putting in extradition request for Assange. Terrible precedent if journalist/publisher ends up in US jail for Iraq war logs and state department cables. Remarkably, some supposedly independent, neutral corporate media openly identified with the state. The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal: Julian Assange has done much harm to American interests over the last decade, and on Thursday the WikiLeaks founder moved a large step closer to accountability in a U.S. court. Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times: Assanges publishing of confidential data gravely harmed our interests. In the US he is seen as a terrorist. But a tranche of protesters still believe he is a guardian of truth and that any wickedness in the world always emanates from the West. As Glenn Greenwald commented: If youre cheering Assanges arrest based on a US extradition request, your allies in your celebration are the most extremist elements of the Trump administration, whose primary and explicit goal is to criminalize reporting on classified docs & punish WL for exposing war crimes. To add weight to the media campaign, more than 70 MPs and peers wrote to Home Secretary Sajid Javid and the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, urging them to focus attention on the Swedish investigations that Assange would face should the case be resumed at the alleged victims request. The letter was coordinated by centrist, anti-Corbyn Labour MP Stella Creasy who, appropriately enough, Generally voted for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas. Jonathan Cook commented astutely: The 70 MPs who signed the letter to Javid hope to kill two birds with one stone. First, they are legitimising the discourse of the Trump administration. This is no longer about an illegitimate US extradition request on Assange we should all be loudly protesting. It is a competition between two legal claims, and a debate about which one should find legal remedy first. It weighs a womans sexual assault allegation against Assange and Wikileaks exposure of war crimes committed by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. It suggests that both are in the same category, that they are similar potential crimes. But there should only be one response to the US extradition claim on Assange. That it is entirely illegitimate. No debate. Anything less, any equivocation is to collude in the Trump administrations narrative. As we have documented, Jeremy Corbyn has been subject to a similarly relentless, cross-spectrum political and media campaign attacking him for leading Labour towards electoral disaster, for being a serious threat to UK national security, for conspiring with Putin, and above all, of course, for being a menacing anti-semite. And yet the facts speak for themselves: Corbyn has been a tremendous electoral success; the idea that Trump, let alone Corbyn, colluded with Putin has proved laughable; and the idea that Corbyn and Labour have an anti-semite crisis simply defies the known facts of racist prejudice in the leading political parties and wider society. If the smears are fake, what is driving them? A clue is provided in a tweet by The Intercepts Glenn Greenwald: The only 2 times I can remember establishment liberals like @HillaryClinton uniting with and cheering Trump Admin is when (a) he bombed Syria and (b) they indicted Assange That says a lot about their values. It does indeed. Beyond the relentless fake news, these same values are driving the attempts to destroy both Corbyn and Assange. DE and DC OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Drugmakers that Oklahoma sued over their alleged role in the nation's deadly opioid crisis appear divided over whether they want their case tried before a judge or jury. Johnson & Johnson filed a motion Tuesday seeking a jury trial. The request came after Attorney General Mike Hunter dropped some of the state's claims last week. The move triggered a request to have a judge, not a jury, decide the case. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and Allergan filed a motion indicating they don't object to a trial before a judge if the state agrees to certain conditions. A hearing on the motions is set for Thursday. Oklahoma settled with Purdue Pharma for $270 million in March in the first such agreement following a wave of nearly 2,000 lawsuits against the company that had threatened to push it into bankruptcy. Moscow (AFP) - Estonia's president met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin here Thursday for talks on trade and global relations, during the first such Russian visit in eight years. Kersti Kaljulaid is also the first leader of three ex-Soviet states on the Baltic Sea to hold a high profile meeting with Putin since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea. "Neighbours should talk, even if we have certain disagreements," she told the Russian leader, according to translated comments. "We have not seen each other in a long time," Putin said. "We are happy to see you in Moscow. Welcome!" "The lack of contact between official people, official state institutions and between neighbours is not a normal situation," he added. Putin noted that trade between Estonia, a EU-member of just 1.3 million people, and Russia was cut in half owing to freeze. Kaljulaid agreed that "it is time to renew the partnership programme between the EU and Russia." "Global geopolitical problems" were another issue she planned to discuss with the Russian leader. Kaljulaid has attracted criticism at home over her decision to sit down with Putin. The last visit by an Estonian head of state to Russia was by Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who visited Saint Petersburg in 2011 for the second consecration of St. John's Church. Relations between Moscow and Tallinn have been fraught since Estonia broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991. Estonia joined both the EU and NATO in 2004. Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine rekindled long-standing fears about aggression in Estonia and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania. This month Kaljulaid called for US Patriot missiles and troops to be deployed to Estonia, where NATO already has a nearly 1,000-strong battle group led by Britain. The three Baltic countries, which now have a combined population of just six million people, were occupied and annexed by Moscow during World War II. The EU has condemned the United States after Donald Trump triggered a law that would ramp-up sanctions against European countries doing business in Cuba. The White House announced on Wednesday it would allow US citizens to sue foreign firms that do business deals involving property seized during the 1959 Cuban revolution. The new rule, which will likely open EU businesses up to lawsuits from America, comes amid a backdrop of US-EU trade tensions and a hardening policy in Washington against the Caribbean state. Companies from Europe and other parts of the world have established growing business interests in Cuba in the decades since the end of the Cold War, but the US has maintained a strict embargo on the country since the early 1960s. The new powers, which ban trafficking in property seized during the Cuban revolution, were included in the 1996 Helms Burton Act signed in law by Bill Clinton, but were never actually used until now. Brussels says the move to trigger the sanctions by the US is contrary to international law and a breach of a number of treaties signed by Mr Trumps predecessors. "In the light of the United States Administration's decision to not renew the waiver the European Union reiterates its strong opposition to the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures that are contrary to international law," the EU's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and trade chef Cecilia Malmstrom said in a joint statement. This decision is also a breach of the United States' commitments undertaken in the EU-US agreements of 1997 and 1998, which have been respected by both sides without interruption since then. In those agreements, the US committed to waive Title III of the Helms-Burton Act and the EU, inter alia, suspended its case in the World Trade Organisation against the US. Land and property was redistributed during and after the 1959 Cuban revolution (Getty) The two EU chiefs added that the EU would consider all options at its disposal to protect its legitimate interests, including action against the US at the World Trade Organisation. Story continues Brussels also said any European companies sued in the US would be allowed to recoup any damages through EU courts. Speaking on Wednesday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hailed the new measures, telling reporters: Citizens opportunities for justice have been put out of reach for more than two decades. Any person or company doing business in Cuba should heed this announcement. The latest move by the US mirrors a similar policy of targeting European countries doing business with Iran. In response, the EU updated its blocking statute to help European firms do deals with the middle eastern country. The EU says the lifting of sanctions against Iran is vital so that the country can see the benefits of its cooperation on curtailing its nuclear programme. (Refiles to fix garble in 22nd paragraph) * Venezuela sells oil invoices to Russia at discount * Russia pays Venezuela, collects cash from buyers * Arrangements keep money flowing despite U.S. sanctions * Venezuelan dependence on Russia growing By Marianna Parraga MEXICO CITY, April 18 (Reuters) - President Nicolas Maduro is funneling cashflow from Venezuelan oil sales through Russian state energy giant Rosneft as he seeks to evade U.S. sanctions designed to oust him from power, according to sources and documents reviewed by Reuters. The sales are the latest sign of the growing dependence of Venezuela's cash-strapped government on Russia as the United States tightens a financial noose around Maduro, who it describes as a dictator. With its economy reeling from years of recession and a sharp decline in oil production, Venezuela was already struggling to finance imports and government spending before Washington imposed tough restrictions on state oil company PDVSA in January. Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports from the OPEC nation and the lion's share of government revenues. Maduro has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of waging economic war against Venezuela. Since January, Maduro's administration has been in talks with allies in Moscow about ways to circumvent a ban on clients paying PDVSA in dollars, the sources said. Russia has publicly said the U.S. sanctions are illegal and it would work with Venezuela to weather them. Under the scheme uncovered by Reuters, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has started passing invoices from its oil sales to Rosneft. The Russian energy giant pays PDVSA immediately at a discount to the sale price avoiding the usual 30-to-90 day timeframe for completing oil transactions and collects the full amount later from the buyer, according to the documents and sources. Major energy companies such as India's Reliance Industries Ltd - PDVSA's largest cash-paying client - have been asked to participate in the scheme by paying Rosneft for Venezuelan oil, the documents show. Rosneft, which has heavily invested in Venezuela under President Vladimir Putin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Venezuela's oil ministry, its information ministry - which handles media for the government - and PDVSA did not respond to questions. Russia has loaned Venezuela almost $16 billion since 2006, which is being repaid in oil shipments, and has also taken significant stakes in petroleum projects, meaning it already controls a large slice of the South American country's production. PDVSA's unusual payment agreement with Rosneft is part of a series of schemes by Maduro's government to gain access to cash, including selling Central Bank gold reserves. The schemes have frustrated Washington officials, who have in recent days questioned why sanctions have not had a more dramatic impact on Venezuela's finances. "PDVSA is delivering its accounts receivable to Rosneft," said a source at the Venezuelan state firm with knowledge of the deals, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. "The cash ends up in Russian banks or is used for settling pending payments such as marine services or freight so that oil exports are not interrupted." The sources said some of the money was flowing via Russian-Venezuelan bank Evrofinance Mosnarbank, which was placed under U.S. sanctions last month. A spokesperson for Evrofinance denied such transactions had passed through the bank. RELIANCE It was not immediately clear exactly how much of Venezuela's oil exports of around 900,000 barrels per day was being paid for using the sale of PDVSA's accounts receivable, because deals are being arranged on a case-by-case basis, sources said. An internal PDVSA document reviewed by Reuters, however, indicated shipments in April to Reliance - owner of the world's biggest refining complex would be settled via Rosneft. Reliance imported 390,500 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude in March, equivalent to almost 40 percent of Venezuelas exports that month, according to shipping data compiled by Reuters. The internal document showed that PDVSA and Reliance would pay a fee equivalent to around 3 percent of the sale price, split between them. Rosneft's fees are negotiated on a case by case basis, the sources said. Industry sources familiar with the matter said the Reliance transactions were going ahead but some banks were reluctant to provide financing for the purchases as the invoices stated that the oil came from Venezuela. Srikanth Venkatachari, Reliance's joint chief financial officer, told reporters on Thursday it was buying Venezuelan oil via Russian and also Chinese companies. He did not provide further details. "We are in active dialog with the U.S. Department of State on our dealings on Venezuelan oil to remain compliant with U.S. sanctions," he said. A Reliance spokesman said the payments to Russian and Chinese companies were then deducted from the money owed to those countries by Venezuela. CRISIS While most Western countries have joined Washington in recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president, Russia - together with China and Cuba - has stood by Maduro, defending him at the United Nations and providing military assistance, angering Washington. Even before January's sanctions, Venezuela's oil exports had halved from 2.8 million bpd when the late President Hugo Chavez, Maduro's predecessor, launched his Socialist revolution two decades ago. Rosneft, run by close Putin ally Igor Sechin, has capitalized on the crisis to take an ever-bigger share of the oil industry in Venezuela, which sits on the world's largest crude reserves. In February, Rosneft estimated the book value of stakes in Venezuelan projects at $2.11 billion. Now Rosneft is providing the cash to help keep PDVSA operational, using its large trading division to give it flexibility to collect payment for Venezuelan oil from clients. In one transaction, an executive from Rosneft's Geneva unit offered to take a PDVSA invoice owed by trading firm BB Energy for the purchase of 525,000-barrels of fuel oil in January, according to an offer letter reviewed by Reuters. Rosneft paid a portion of the $26-million bill directly to PDVSA and started talks with BB Energy to collect payment in cash or by receiving an oil cargo, according to the letter and a PDVSA source. A spokesman for BB Energy said that under guidance from legal counsel the company had not yet made any payment for the cargo. He declined to provide further details. Some within PDVSA are concerned Rosneft's trading arm now has been given too significant a role in decisions over cargo destinations in order to facilitate payment to the Russian company, according to one source. They are also frustrated that Venezuela is paying a heavy premium to Rosneft for imported fuel - needed because of the poor condition of domestic refineries - because only a handful of sellers were willing to skirt U.S. sanctions. "Rosneft is buying our oil for cheap and selling us very expensive fuel in exchange," the source said. We always owe them money." (Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in Caracas, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Julia Payne in London Editing by Daniel Flynn, Simon Webb, David Gaffen and Marguerita Choy) By Luc Cohen and Corina Pons CARACAS, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. sanctions on Venezuela have led the New York Federal Reserve to crack down on Puerto Rico's $50 billion offshore banking industry, according to four sources and a document seen by Reuters. The development will prevent the island's offshore banks, several of which are owned by citizens of crisis-stricken Venezuela, from opening accounts with the Fed that give them direct access to the U.S. financial system. Offshore banks in Puerto Rico are able to open accounts with the Fed since the island is a U.S. territory. That gives them a competitive advantage over other offshore banking jurisdictions like the British Virgin Islands, which have to access the U.S. financial system through expensive third-party correspondent banks. But in a previously unreported Feb. 27 letter, the New York Fed said it had halted approval of new accounts for Puerto Rican offshore banks and other financial institutions "in light of recent events, including the expansion of U.S. economic sanctions relating to Venezuela." It plans stricter requirements for the opening of such accounts in the future, it said. It did not give further details on why it was taking that step. But the move follows two Puerto Rican offshore banks that have accounts open with the New York Fed being mentioned in federal investigations into money laundering and sanctions evasion related to Venezuela. "The Fed worries about its reputational exposure, just like anybody else does," said David Murray, a vice president at the Washington-based Financial Integrity Network and a former Treasury Department official. A spokeswoman for the New York Fed did not respond to requests for comment. The decision will only affect Puerto Rican banks that had pending applications with the Fed and will not affect the 17 of Puerto Rico's 80 offshore banks that the Fed's website shows already have Fedwire accounts. Reuters was unable to determine how many banks were awaiting responses on their applications to open accounts. Story continues The move to suspend account approvals shows how U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, which are meant to force socialist President Nicolas Maduro from office amid a political crisis and an economic meltdown, are having a ripple effect in other parts of the global financial system. It could deal a blow to Puerto Rico, which has been using the offshore sector as an economic development strategy as it struggles with a crushing debt load and the impact of natural disasters such as 2017's Hurricane Maria. The island has for years nurtured its offshore banking sector by offering tax incentives to bank owners and promoting direct access to the U.S. financial system through the Fed rather than correspondent banks, which charge for their services and can end the relationship at a moment's notice. Offshore banking lets individuals and companies deposit money outside their countries of residence in order to legally lower tax bills, but criminal investigations and multilateral organizations have alleged it is also used for tax evasion and money laundering. The notice also applies to U.S. Virgin Islands offshore banks. Both territories fall under the jurisdiction of the Fed's New York branch. 'WE SHARE IT ALL' George Joyner, the commissioner of Puerto Rico's banking regulator, declined to say how many of the territory's offshore banks had applications pending with the Fed. He said the island regulator used the same standards as federal authorities including the Fed to supervise financial institutions, and that anti-money laundering was a "high focus." "Our office fully shares everything that we find in our examinations, and we share it with all the federal agencies," Joyner said in a telephone interview. He said "a number" of Puerto Rican offshore banks had been created with Venezuelan capital, without elaborating. The Virgin Islands' director of banking and insurance did not respond to requests for comment. Sixteen of Puerto Rico's 80 offshore banking and financial services firms are owned by Venezuelan individuals or companies, according to a Reuters review of their websites, corporate registry records, and directors' LinkedIn pages and personal websites. Several marketed directly to Venezuelan clients, or had past deals with the Venezuelan government, while twelve of the sixteen had Fedwire accounts, according to the Federal Reserve's website. Fedwire, a funds transfer system controlled by the Fed, allows banks, businesses and government agencies to send and receive payments in real time. VENEZUELA CONNECTIONS In recent years, U.S. prosecutors have examined the role Puerto Rico's offshore banks have played in efforts to launder Venezuelan funds through the United States. It was not clear if the two cases in question contributed to the New York Fed's decision to halt the opening of new accounts, but one source at a Puerto Rican bank and industry consultant David Nissman said they were likely an important factor. Joyner said they "certainly didn't help." Federal prosecutors in a sprawling corruption probe unsealed in July of 2018 charged Uruguayan national Marcelo Gutierrez with allegedly conspiring to launder funds embezzled from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA through a "bank in Puerto Rico" that he owned, according to criminal investigation filings in Florida federal court. The prosecutors' complaint does not identify the bank and says the transaction never took place. Gutierrez's LinkedIn profile lists him as a director at Vestin Bank International, which Puerto Rico banking regulator records show received a license to operate as an offshore operation on the island in 2015. Vestin has since been acquired by Asia-focused Standard International Bank and Gutierrez has not been a shareholder since August of 2018, Standard said in a statement, adding that it had no links to Vestin's prior business, no ties to Venezuela and no plans to enter the Venezuelan market. Bruce Udolf, a Florida-based defense attorney for Gutierrez, said, "We expect to respond with a vigorous defense to those charges. We are hopeful that he will be vindicated at trial." In February, the FBI raided Puerto Rican offshore bank Banco San Juan International (BSJI) as part of a probe of money laundering and evasion of Venezuela-related sanctions, special agent Douglas Leff told reporters at the time. A spokesman for the FBI San Juan field office declined to provide further details. In 2016, BSJI reached a $300 million credit agreement with PDVSA, according to PDVSA's financial statements from that year. BSJI also has an account with the Fed, according to Fed records. In a statement, BSJI said it had complied with all U.S. sanctions and was cooperating with the FBI investigation. The source at the bank in Puerto Rico, along with Joyner and Nissman, said most of the island's offshore banks applied strict scrutiny on customers, and that the decision would punish an entire sector for the actions of a few bad actors. "It just shuts your businesses down, and what did they do?" said Nissman, a former U.S. attorney for the U.S. Virgin Islands who drafted the territory's offshore banking law, and now a Puerto Rico-based consultant. He said the Fed should evaluate applications on a "case-by-case basis." (Reporting by Luc Cohen and Corina Pons, Editing by Brian Ellsworth and Rosalba O'Brien) London (AFP) - Activists climb atop buses, glue themselves to buildings and block traffic as Extinction Rebellion expands its campaign of civil disobedience. The climate change pressure group has become a household name in Britain this week amid protests that have brought key parts of the capital to a standstill and seen hundreds arrested. The organisation, formed by academics in Britain last year alongside off-shoots in dozens of other countries, vows an unrelenting tide of protest until governments act more forcefully over climate change. It wants Britain to declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025, halt biodiversity loss and be led by "citizens' assemblies on climate and ecological justice". Modelled on peaceful protest movements led by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., it espouses non-violent "direct action" to achieve its goals. Protesters aim to get arrested to draw maximum attention to the cause. "I believe that breaking the law is necessary because it shows the population that something is wrong here," Stuart Basden, one of the group's organisers, told AFP. "I want to demonstrate my view that the government as it stands is criminally negligent... by allowing the system to continue." The 36-year-old former web developer spent a week in jail in 2017 for his protest activities and is now training climate activists on how to "mentally prepare" for prison if it comes to that. He said the movement now paralysing parts of central London had attracted people from far and wide in Britain, with hundreds quitting their jobs or university courses to join in. "We didn't have to convince people, we just gave them the information," Basden said. "They want to be involved. They realise how serious the situation is," he told AFP. Manda Brookman, 53, is one such Extinction Rebellion convert along with her 22-year-old daughter Ruby. Story continues They were among those blocking Waterloo Bridge this week, helping to place trees in pots along its length in the shadow of Britain's parliament. "I am ready to be arrested for the great of our children," she said. They were joined by 68-year-old farmer Oliver Paines, who was earlier this month among a dozen activists to stage a naked protest in the House of Commons in one of Extinction Rebellion's most eye-catching events to date. - 'Next stages' - Launched last autumn with a series of traffic-blocking protests in London, Extinction Rebellion has quickly become one of the world's fastest-growing environmental movements. It is now present in 49 countries, and attracted high-profile supporters from US intellectual Noam Chomsky and actress Emma Thompson to young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. On its British website, the group says it receives "small donations" from individuals and "larger sums" from organisations like the Berlin-based Guerilla Foundation, which donated 18,000 euros ($20,000) for its launch. "We have to create a system that actually is accountable, that works for the interests of the people and that listens to them," environmental lawyer Farhana Yamin told an Extinction Rebellion press conference in February. A visiting professor at University College London and associate fellow at Chatham House, she has spent decades advising world leaders on climate change but has grown frustrated at global inaction. On Tuesday, the London-based mother-of-four was among those arrested after gluing her hand to the ground outside oil giant Royal Dutch Shell's headquarters. Extinction Rebellion is now planning to target Heathrow Airport -- Europe's busiest flight hub -- on Friday, and has said it wants to cause disruption in 80 cities in 33 countries before the end of the month. But Basden is already thinking about the movement's "next stages". "We will probably go away for the summer (to) organise and learn from what's happened and come back in the autumn with something bigger and hopefully more global," he said. "But I think we're going to have to block many other countries around the world. And adapt our tactics so that it works in other countries." April 18 (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election has ensnared dozens of people, including several advisers to President Donald Trump and a series of Russian nationals and companies. Rod Rosenstein, the No. 2 U.S. Justice Department official, in May 2017 appointed Mueller to look into Russian interference, whether members of Trump's campaign coordinated with Moscow officials and whether the Republican president had unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Mueller has charged 34 people and three companies. Attorney General William Barr issued a summary of Mueller's report on March 24, saying it did not find any evidence that Trump or his associates broke the law in an election that was marked by extensive interference by Russia. Trump denies collusion and obstruction. Russia denies election interference. The following are those who have pleaded guilty or have been indicted in Mueller's inquiry. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2RwJarW) PAUL MANAFORT Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman was sentenced to a combined 7-1/2 years in prison in two cases brought by Mueller in which he was convicted by a jury in Virginia in August 2018 and pleaded guilty a month later in Washington. In Virginia, he was found guilty of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. Manafort, who prosecutors said tried to conceal from the U.S. government millions of dollars he was paid as a political consultant for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in a separate case in Washington and agreed to cooperate with Mueller. The Washington case had focused on accusations of money laundering and failing to report foreign bank accounts, among other charges. A judge on Feb. 13 ruled that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe, including his interactions with a business partner, Konstantin Kilimnik, who they have said has ties to Russian intelligence. MICHAEL COHEN Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty in August 2018 to crimes including orchestrating "hush money" payments before the 2016 election to women who have said they had sexual encounters with Trump, violating campaign laws. That case was handled by federal prosecutors in New York, not Mueller's office. As part of a separate agreement with Mueller's team, Cohen pleaded guilty in November 2018 to lying to Congress about negotiations concerning a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, a project that never materialized. Cohen is due to report to prison on May 6 to begin serving a three-year prison sentence. Cohen in February 2019 testified at a public hearing before a House of Representatives committee. He accused Trump of approving the "hush money" payments and knowing in advance about the 2016 release by the WikiLeaks website of emails that prosecutors have said were stolen by Russia to harm Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. He said Trump implicitly directed him to lie about the Moscow real estate project. He promised to keep cooperating with prosecutors and made multiple closed-door appearances before congressional panels. MICHAEL FLYNN Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for less than a month in early 2017, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during Trump's presidential transition and agreed to cooperate with Mueller. Trump fired him as national security adviser after it emerged that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI about his dealings with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. His sentencing is pending. ROGER STONE The longtime Trump ally and presidential campaign adviser was charged in January 2019 with seven criminal counts including obstruction of an official proceeding, witness tampering and making false statements. He pleaded not guilty. His trial date has been set for Nov. 5. Prosecutors said Stone shared with members of the Trump campaign team advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' plan to release the stolen Democratic emails. Prosecutors also accused him of trying to interfere with a witness, a radio host who matched the profile of Randy Credico. RICK GATES The former deputy chairman of Trump's campaign, Gates pleaded guilty in February 2018 to conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators. He agreed to cooperate with Mueller and testified as a prosecution witness against Manafort, his former business partner. His sentencing is pending. KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK A Manafort aide in Ukraine and a political operative described by prosecutors as linked to Russian intelligence, Kilimnik was charged in June 2018 with tampering with witnesses about their past lobbying for Ukraine's former pro-Russian government. Prosecutors said in January 2019 that Manafort shared political polling data with Kilimnik in 2016, providing an indication that Trump's campaign may have tried to coordinate with Russians. TWELVE RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS Twelve Russian intelligence officers were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2018, accused of hacking the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations as part of a Russian scheme to release emails damaging to Clinton during the 2016 race. They covertly monitored employee computers and planted malicious code, as well as stealing emails and other documents, according to the indictment. THIRTEEN RUSSIAN NATIONALS, THREE COMPANIES Thirteen Russians and three Russian companies were indicted in Mueller's investigation in February 2018, accused of taking part in an elaborate campaign to sow discord in the United States ahead of the 2016 election and harm Clinton's candidacy in order to boost Trump. The companies included: the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based propaganda arm known for trolling on social media; Concord Management and Consulting; and Concord Catering. GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS The former Trump campaign adviser was sentenced in September 2018 to 14 days in prison after pleading guilty in October 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials, including a professor who told him the Russians had "dirt" on Clinton. ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN A lawyer who once worked closely with Manafort and Gates, Van Der Zwaan pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to Mueller's investigators about contacts with a Trump campaign official. Van Der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia's richest men, was sentenced in April 2018 to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000. RICHARD PINEDO Pinedo was not involved with the Trump campaign but in February 2018 pleaded guilty to identity fraud in a case related to the Mueller investigation for helping Russian conspirators launder money, purchase Facebook ads and pay for supplies. He was sentenced in October 2018 to six months in jail and six months of home detention. SAMUEL PATTEN Patten, a veteran political consultant and business partner of Kilimnik, pleaded guilty in August to unregistered lobbying for a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine and agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe. Patten also admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser for tickets to Trump's inauguration on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, thereby circumventing a law prohibiting foreigners from providing money to the inaugural. The case stemmed from a referral from Mueller to the Justice Department. (Compiled by Susan Heavey, Sarah N. Lynch, Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham, Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis) (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election has ensnared dozens of people, including several advisers to President Donald Trump and a series of Russian nationals and companies. Rod Rosenstein, the No. 2 U.S. Justice Department official, in May 2017 appointed Mueller to look into Russian interference, whether members of Trump's campaign coordinated with Moscow officials and whether the Republican president had unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Mueller has charged 34 people and three companies. Attorney General William Barr issued a summary of Mueller's report on March 24, saying it did not find any evidence that Trump or his associates broke the law in an election that was marked by extensive interference by Russia. Trump denies collusion and obstruction. Russia denies election interference. The following are those who have pleaded guilty or have been indicted in Mueller's inquiry. (RUSSIA INVESTIGATION on reuters.com - https://www.reuters.com/subjects/russia-investigation) PAUL MANAFORT Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman was sentenced to a combined 7-1/2 years in prison in two cases brought by Mueller in which he was convicted by a jury in Virginia in August 2018 and pleaded guilty a month later in Washington. In Virginia, he was found guilty of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. Manafort, who prosecutors said tried to conceal from the U.S. government millions of dollars he was paid as a political consultant for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in a separate case in Washington and agreed to cooperate with Mueller. The Washington case had focused on accusations of money laundering and failing to report foreign bank accounts, among other charges. A judge on Feb. 13 ruled that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe, including his interactions with a business partner, Konstantin Kilimnik, who they have said has ties to Russian intelligence. MICHAEL COHEN Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty in August 2018 to crimes including orchestrating "hush money" payments before the 2016 election to women who have said they had sexual encounters with Trump, violating campaign laws. That case was handled by federal prosecutors in New York, not Mueller's office. As part of a separate agreement with Mueller's team, Cohen pleaded guilty in November 2018 to lying to Congress about negotiations concerning a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, a project that never materialized. Cohen is due to report to prison on May 6 to begin serving a three-year prison sentence. Cohen in February 2019 testified at a public hearing before a House of Representatives committee. He accused Trump of approving the "hush money" payments and knowing in advance about the 2016 release by the WikiLeaks website of emails that prosecutors have said were stolen by Russia to harm Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. He said Trump implicitly directed him to lie about the Moscow real estate project. He promised to keep cooperating with prosecutors and made multiple closed-door appearances before congressional panels. MICHAEL FLYNN Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for less than a month in early 2017, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during Trump's presidential transition and agreed to cooperate with Mueller. Trump fired him as national security adviser after it emerged that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI about his dealings with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. His sentencing is pending. (GRAPHIC: Special counsel indictments and convictions - https://tmsnrt.rs/2RwJarW) ROGER STONE The longtime Trump ally and presidential campaign adviser was charged in January 2019 with seven criminal counts including obstruction of an official proceeding, witness tampering and making false statements. He pleaded not guilty. His trial date has been set for Nov. 5. Prosecutors said Stone shared with members of the Trump campaign team advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' plan to release the stolen Democratic emails. Prosecutors also accused him of trying to interfere with a witness, a radio host who matched the profile of Randy Credico. RICK GATES The former deputy chairman of Trump's campaign, Gates pleaded guilty in February 2018 to conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators. He agreed to cooperate with Mueller and testified as a prosecution witness against Manafort, his former business partner. His sentencing is pending. KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK A Manafort aide in Ukraine and a political operative described by prosecutors as linked to Russian intelligence, Kilimnik was charged in June 2018 with tampering with witnesses about their past lobbying for Ukraine's former pro-Russian government. Prosecutors said in January 2019 that Manafort shared political polling data with Kilimnik in 2016, providing an indication that Trump's campaign may have tried to coordinate with Russians. TWELVE RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS Twelve Russian intelligence officers were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2018, accused of hacking the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations as part of a Russian scheme to release emails damaging to Clinton during the 2016 race. They covertly monitored employee computers and planted malicious code, as well as stealing emails and other documents, according to the indictment. THIRTEEN RUSSIAN NATIONALS, THREE COMPANIES Thirteen Russians and three Russian companies were indicted in Mueller's investigation in February 2018, accused of taking part in an elaborate campaign to sow discord in the United States ahead of the 2016 election and harm Clinton's candidacy in order to boost Trump. The companies included: the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based propaganda arm known for trolling on social media; Concord Management and Consulting; and Concord Catering. GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS The former Trump campaign adviser was sentenced in September 2018 to 14 days in prison after pleading guilty in October 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials, including a professor who told him the Russians had "dirt" on Clinton. ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN A lawyer who once worked closely with Manafort and Gates, Van Der Zwaan pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to Mueller's investigators about contacts with a Trump campaign official. Van Der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia's richest men, was sentenced in April 2018 to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000. RICHARD PINEDO Pinedo was not involved with the Trump campaign but in February 2018 pleaded guilty to identity fraud in a case related to the Mueller investigation for helping Russian conspirators launder money, purchase Facebook ads and pay for supplies. He was sentenced in October 2018 to six months in jail and six months of home detention. SAMUEL PATTEN Patten, a veteran political consultant and business partner of Kilimnik, pleaded guilty in August to unregistered lobbying for a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine and agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe. Patten also admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser for tickets to Trump's inauguration on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, thereby circumventing a law prohibiting foreigners from providing money to the inaugural. The case stemmed from a referral from Mueller to the Justice Department. (Compiled by Susan Heavey, Sarah N. Lynch, Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham, Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis) Ombudsman, NGOs question possible impeachment of Adjara TV director Georgias Public Defender Nino Lomjaria and a part of the non-governmental organizations say the complaint of two members of the advisory board of Adjara TV and Radio Company, requesting impeachment of the Director Natia Kapanadze, raises questions.Lomjaria made a statement regarding the issue, saying she was surprised when the topic of Kapanadzes possible impeachment raised since she had heard only positive assessment about the recent developments in the public broadcaster of Adjara, Georgias Western region.If there are some formal or procedural issues to initiate the impeachment process, this is a terrible and very dangerous signal for any person who, even in the future, decides to become the head of this television, Lomjaria said, adding that local and international organizations assess Adjara TV as impartial and unbiased.The Ombudsman said that in 2018 the Tolerance Center of the Public Defenders Office awarded Natia Kapanadze an award of tolerance because television broadcasted and balanced well the issues of ethnic and religious minorities and promoted diversity.Lomjaria said the two members of the board, who request Kapanadzes impeachment, might have political motives.A complaint requesting Kapanadzes impeachment was filed with the board of advisors on April 10 by two board members Giga Chkhartishvili and Irakli Dartsmelidze.The two men list 17 issues in their complaint, which, according to them, give substantial grounds for starting the impeachment procedures. Among the problems are alleged misappropriation of funds, tenders and procurements and discriminatory and unfair remuneration system.A few days later, Adjara TV and Radio Company responded to the allegations, saying in the last few years the Company has demonstrated being objective and impartial and that it has established itself as a broadcaster that is free from political and commercial bias.The ongoing processes come into contradiction with editorial independence of Adjara TV and Radio Company, and the idea of public broadcasting, the statement reads.The third sector is also observing the issue. The NGOs released a statement on April 13, saying under Natia Kapanadzes management, the Adjara TV and Radio has been evaluated by many international and local reputable organizations as a free, impartial and progressing institution, operating in an extremely polarized and politicized media environment.At the moment it is essential to perceive the negative impact that the directors potential impeachment may have on countrys democratic development and media freedom record. We hope that other members of the Advisory Board will demonstrate pragmatic approach favoring TV channels editorial independence, said the NGOs. (Reuters) - There are several aspects of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election campaign that were not previously known until the release of his report on Thursday. TRUMP'S REACTION TO APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL COUNSEL U.S. President Donald Trump believed the appointment of a special counsel to take over an active federal investigation would spell the end of his presidency, according to Mueller's report. When then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Trump of Mueller's appointment on May 17, 2017, the report said, Trump slumped back in his chair and said: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked." Trump asked Sessions, whom he had berated for months for recusing himself from the investigation of Russian interference in the election: "How could you let this happen, Jeff?" and told Sessions he had let him down. Trump told Sessions he should resign, and Sessions agreed to do so. When Sessions delivered his resignation letter to Trump the following day, Trump put the letter in his pocket but said he wanted Sessions to stay on the job. That alarmed chief of staff Reince Priebus and senior advisor Steve Bannon, who worried Trump would use the letter to control the Department of Justice, and they tried to return it to Sessions. Trump took the letter with him on a trip to the Middle East, where he showed it to several senior advisers and asked them what he should do about it. On May 30, he finally returned the letter to Sessions with a note saying: "Not accepted." THE PRESIDENTIAL INTERVIEW THAT WASN'T Mueller tried for more than a year to interview Trump, but in the end Trump refused. Trump provided written answers on some Russia-related topics, but did not agree to answer questions about possible obstruction of justice or events that took place during the presidential transition. Mueller said he thought he had the legal authority to order Trump to testify before a grand jury, but he decided not to take that course because of the "substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation." Story continues TRUMP'S EFFORTS TO FIRE MUELLER Trump tried to get Mueller fired in June 2017, shortly after he was appointed, according to the 448-page report. Trump called then-White House counsel Don McGahn twice and directed him to order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller on the grounds that he had conflicts of interest. McGahn felt "trapped," but did not carry out the order, deciding that he would rather resign, Mueller said. Other White House advisers later talked McGahn out of resigning, and Trump did not follow up to ask whether McGahn had fulfilled his directive. Trump pressured McGahn to deny that these events took place when they surfaced in news accounts in January 2018, but McGahn refused, according to Mueller's report, some of which was blacked out to protect some sensitive information. TRUMP'S EFFORTS TO LIMIT THE INVESTIGATION Trump also enlisted his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowksi, to try to narrow the investigation's scope. The report said Trump asked Lewandowski in June 2017 to tell Sessions that he should publicly announce that the Russia probe was "very unfair" to the president, say Trump had done nothing wrong, and limit Mueller's probe into interference in future elections, not the one that had put him in the White House. A month later, Trump asked Lewandowski about the status of his request and Lewandowski assured Trump he would deliver the message soon. Trump then publicly criticized Sessions in a New York Times interview and a series of Twitter messages. Mueller says Lewandowski did not want to deliver the message to Sessions, so he asked senior White House official Rick Dearborn to speak to him. Dearborn also did not want to carry out the task. Ultimately, the message never reached Sessions. MANAFORT'S EFFORTS TO MONETIZE THE CAMPAIGN Mueller found that campaign chairman Paul Manafort's efforts to work with his former business partners in Ukraine were greater than previously known, as he tried to use his insider status on the campaign to collect on debts owed for his past work by Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Shortly after he joined the campaign in the spring of 2016, Manafort directed his deputy Rick Gates to share internal polling data and other campaign materials with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former Ukrainian business partner, with the understanding that it would get passed on to Deripaska, the report said. During an August 2016 meeting in New York, Manafort told Kilimnik about the campaign's efforts to win the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the report said. Trump ended up winning three of those states in the November election. Manafort worked with his Ukrainian allies until the spring of 2018, after he had been indicted by Mueller, to promote a peace plan that would have split the country in two. These efforts did not constitute coordination between the campaign and Russian efforts to disrupt the election, Mueller found. Manafort urged Gates not to plead guilty after they were both indicted by Mueller, apparently believing that they would be pardoned by the president if they did not cooperate with investigators. Trump's numerous sympathetic statements before and during Manafort's criminal trial could be interpreted as an effort to sway the outcome, but they also could be interpreted as a sign that he genuinely felt sorry for Manafort, Mueller said. PLAN FOR U.S.-RUSSIA RECONCILIATION Relations between Washington and Moscow had deteriorated under two previous administrations and the United States had imposed sanctions on Russia. Following Trump's election victory, Russian financier Kirill Dmitriev worked on a proposal to improve ties with Rick Gerson, a hedge fund manager who is friends with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. Dmitriev runs Russia's sovereign wealth fund and reports directly to Putin. Gerson gave the plan to Kushner before Trump was sworn in, Mueller's report said, and Kushner gave copies to Bannon and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. After Trump took office in January 2017, Dmitriev told Gerson that his "boss" - an apparent reference to Putin - wanted to know if there was a reaction to the proposal, which called for cooperation on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and economic matters. When Putin and Trump spoke by phone, Dmitriev told Gerson that their plan had "played an important role." Gerson told Mueller's team that he acted as an intermediary between Trump and Russia on his own initiative, not at the request of Trump's aides. (Compiled by Andy Sullivan; editing by Grant McCool) By Andy Sullivan (Reuters) - Attorney General William Barr is due on Thursday to release a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the 22-month investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election and contacts between President Donald Trump's campaign and Moscow. The special counsel and U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia used a campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, denigrate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump's candidacy. Russia has denied election interference. Barr said on March 24 Mueller did not establish that Trump's 2016 campaign team engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia. Here are some key interactions between Trump advisers and Russian figures that have been unearthed by Mueller's probe and investigations in Congress. TRUMP TOWER MEETING Several top Trump aides, including campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr., met in June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York with a Russian lawyer who had offered damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. U.S. prosecutors said the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was an agent for the Kremlin. The meeting was arranged by Rob Goldstone, a British music publicist. Participants in the meeting said nothing improper occurred and that Veselnitskaya discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia and adoption policy, not election issues. The president said he did not know about the meeting beforehand. EFFORTS TO BUILD A SKYSCRAPER IN MOSCOW Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said he pursued a deal to build a Trump-branded skyscraper in Moscow until June 2016, after Trump had clinched the Republican presidential nomination. Cohen said in a guilty plea that he spoke with an assistant to Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary in January of that year and briefed Trump on the project more than three times. Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the Moscow skyscraper talks continued until Trump won the November 2016 election, but later said he misspoke. Trump, who repeatedly said during the campaign that he had no contacts with Russia, said after Cohen's guilty plea in November 2018 there was nothing wrong with pursuing the deal. EFFORTS TO SET UP A MEETING WITH RUSSIAN LEADERS Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos worked between March 2016 and August 2016 to set up a meeting with Russian leadership, according to prosecutors. They said a London-based professor with ties to the Russian government told him in April 2016 that Moscow had compromising information on Clinton. Papadopoulos served 14 days in prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about those efforts. MANAFORT OFFERS CAMPAIGN INSIGHTS Manafort shared election campaign polling data in August 2016 with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former business partner who Mueller has described as having ties to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing inadvertently made public by Manafort's lawyers. The two also discussed a plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, a major Kremlin foreign policy goal as it seeks relief from U.S. economic sanctions, according to court filings. Manafort, a veteran Republican political consultant who earned million of dollars working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, also offered private briefings about the campaign to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who is close to Putin, in an effort to collect past debts, according to the Washington Post. ROGER STONE AND WIKILEAKS Roger Stone, a veteran Republican political consultant who has worked on and off with Trump for decades, shared with Trump campaign officials advance knowledge he had of a plan by the WikiLeaks website to release emails stolen from the Clinton campaign by Russians, prosecutors said. The charging document mentions that a senior Trump campaign official "was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information" WikiLeaks had about the Clinton campaign, raising the possibility Trump himself made the request. Stone pleaded not guilty to lying to Congress and witness tampering. MEETINGS WITH RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR SERGEI KISLYAK Several Trump advisers met with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, before Trump became president. They included: Michael Flynn, who served as Trump's first White House national security advisor. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with Kislyak in December 2016, after Trump won the election but before he took office. During those calls, according to the indictment, Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia and asked Kislyak to help delay a U.N. vote seen as damaging to Israel, a move that ran counter to the policies of then-President Barack Obama. Jeff Sessions, a U.S. senator serving as a campaign adviser who Trump later named attorney general, said he met with Kislyak at least twice in 2016 after initially telling Congress he was unaware of any communications between the campaign and Russia. As attorney general, Sessions recused himself from oversight of the Russia investigation, drawing Trump's ire. The recusal by Sessions left Rod Rosenstein, the No. 2 Justice Department official, with oversight over the probe, which at the time was headed by the FBI. After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel to take over the probe. Kushner said he asked Kislyak if he could set up a secure communications channel at the Russian Embassy after Trump won the election. Kushner also said he met with Sergei Gorkov, the head of Russian state-owned bank, Vnesheconombank, during that period at Kislyak's insistence. Vnesheconombank has been subjected to U.S. economic sanctions since mid-2014. (Compiled by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Will Dunham and Jonathan Oatis) By David Shepardson (Reuters) - Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said on Wednesday he opposes China Mobile Ltd's bid to provide U.S. telecommunications services, citing security risks, and said the commission will vote on whether to deny the company's application in May. China Mobile is seeking approval to provide services for phone calls between the United States and other countries. It is not seeking approval to provide wireless services to U.S. consumers. According to the FCC, China Mobile USA, which filed the application, is indirectly and ultimately owned and controlled by the Chinese government. The five-member FCC is expected to back Pai's draft order, officials said on Wednesday. "It is clear that China Mobiles application to provide telecommunications services in our country raises substantial and serious national security and law enforcement risks," Pai said in a statement. FCC officials said if successful China Mobile would be able to exploit the U.S. "telephone network to increase intelligence collection against U.S. government agencies and other sensitive targets that depend on this network." FCC officials told reporters on a call, "There is a significant risk that the Chinese government would use the grant of authority to China Mobile USA to conduct activities that would seriously jeopardize the national security and law enforcement interests of the United States." China Mobile did not immediately return a request for comment. The comments come amid a broader U.S. campaign to limit the role of Chinese telecommunications firms in the build-out of 5G networks as Western governments grapple with the national security implications of moving to 5G, which promises to be at least 100 times faster than the current 4G networks. The Trump administration said last year that China Mobile wanted to be able to "interconnect and have greater access to telephone lines, fiber-optic cables, cellular networks, and communication satellites throughout the United States telecommunications network." Story continues China Mobile USA, which is a Delaware corporation, first applied for permission in 2011. The company sought FCC approval to provide international facilities-based and resale telecommunications services between the U.S. and foreign destinations. In July 2018, after a lengthy review of the application and consultation with the U.S. intelligence community, a group of executive branch agencies recommended the FCC deny China Mobiles application, citing "substantial national security and law enforcement risks that cannot be resolved through a voluntary mitigation agreement." Pai has circulated a draft order that would deny the request and find that China Mobile "is vulnerable to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government." For more than a year, the White House has been considering an executive order to declare a national emergency that would bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by China's Huawei and ZTE. U.S. prosecutors in February unsealed charges against Huawei that it conspired to steal T-Mobile US Inc trade secrets. They have also charged Huawei and its affiliates with bank and wire fraud on allegations that they violated sanctions against Iran. The FCC has also been considering for more than a year whether to require carriers to remove and replace equipment from firms deemed a national security risk. Pai said on Friday that proposal is still pending. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Susan Thomas and Leslie Adler) Smoking can lead to COPD, an umbrella term used to describe a group of lung diseases that block airflow and make it hard to breathe. (Photo: Getty Images) Most smokers are aware that their habit is likely to cause health problems for them down the road, and David Rich is no exception. So, when he developed a chronic cough and shortness of breath in his early 40s, he simply chalked it up to a side effect of being a smoker. Ive been smoking since I was 13, so I figured it was inevitable, Rich tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Still, he didnt think much of it and didnt see a doctor. Being a typical male, I thought, If you dont get the diagnosis, you aint got it, he says. Not much of anything about my health was going through my head. Just denial. Rich says his doctor would repeatedly point out that his lungs sounded raspy when hed go in for a physical. Id just say, Yeah, I smoke, and leave it at that, he says. But by the time he was 49, Rich came down with pneumonia twice in 30 days. When I first got sick, I refused to stop doing what I was doing because it was too important, he says. I probably lost about half of my lung capacity in those two episodes. After that, he was finally diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an umbrella term used to describe a group of lung diseases that block airflow and make it hard to breathe. From that point on, some type of intervention became necessary for me to be able to continue to breathe, Rich says. But if I had not had pneumonia twice, I probably still would not be diagnosed. Richs doctor attributed his COPD to his smoking habit and other bad habits he did over the years. Ive acid-washed swimming pools with no respirator and have spray painted automobiles for years without anything than a paper face mask, Rich says. I was on a fire department for 10 years and if you put on an air pack, you were just a pansy. Those attitudes dont exist much now, but in the 70s and 80s, you felt like you had to be a macho man. David Rich, who has been smoking since he was 13 years old, has COPD. (Photo: Courtesy of David Rich) Despite his diagnosis, Rich is still a smoker Hes tried to quit, but it just hasnt stuck. Ten years ago, Rich says he stopped smoking for 70 days. I was just absolutely miserable, he says. Now, he smokes between half a pack to three-quarters of a pack a day. Story continues Rich, who is now 57, says he didnt expect to live this long. My grandfather died at 47, and my dad died at 61, he says. I really never expected to get here. He says his doctor would like for him to quit smoking, but hes still able to be fairly active despite his condition and habit. When you look at my chart and see what my breathing capacity is, I should be sitting on the end of the couch, hooked up to oxygen, and doing nothing, Rich says. But I still ride horses, still load hay, and carry bags of feed. Ive never been hooked to oxygen. But his COPD does affect his life. Rich, who owns a horseback riding business with his wife in Florida, says he has to catch his breath a lot during the day. I can carry 50 pound bags of feed, but Ive got to stop between bags to rest up and catch my breath, he says. If Im walking up a steep hill, I might have to stop and catch my breath. My life is tremendously affected by COPD, but its not stopped me. His COPD also prevents him from swimming in the ocean like he once loved to do, but hes found a workaround: He simply takes a float with him. Through my life, I have been the type of person that every time someone tells me I cant do something, I have a hold my beer moment, he says. As a result, he tries to live his life as normally as possible, even with a chronic disease. COPD kills you one inch at a time, he says. You use your lung capacity or lose it. My doctor thinks the activity level Ive done has kind of been my own pulmonary rehab. Rich also takes several types of medications to help him breathe, as well as mood elevators, which he says are a very important part of treating his disease. Im a very positive, upbeat individual, but there are some days that having COPD still gets me down, he says. People of no faith, who are negative by natureI cant imagine how depressed they get. He says hes decided that hes not going to die of COPD. I might die with COPD, but its not going to kill me, he says. Rich urges other people who suspect something is off with their health to see a doctor and not wait like he did. And, if you do have COPD, get off your can and do something, he says. If youre going to die, die with it not from it. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. The company that formerly owned Sears and Kmart has sued its ex-CEO, chairman and investor Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund over accusations that they illegally stripped the retailer of assets in the years leading up to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Lampert faces accusations that while he was leading the company, he directed the transfer of billions of dollars in assets "for grossly inadequate consideration or no consideration at all" for the benefit of himself, his hedge fund ESL Investments and others. The lawsuit, filed by Sears Holdings, targets about two dozen defendants, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was previously an investor and board member of ESL and has been friends with Lampert for decades. Lampert, in February, struck a last-minute deal to buy Sears assets out of bankruptcy and keep about 400 stores open under a new entity called Transform Holdco. Retail woes: More store closings coming: Pier 1 Imports could close up to 145 more stores But the company that sold the assets to him Sears Holdings is still trying to deal with angry creditors who say that Lampert exploited them and profited from the retailer's descent. ESL said in a statement that it "vigorously disputes" the lawsuit, calling them "baseless allegations and fanciful claims" that "are misleading or just flat wrong." Eddie Lampert's history: Hedge fund got hundreds of millions from Sears as it declined Last-minute deal: Sears saved from liquidation as Lampert acquires remaining assets Sears Holdings, of which Lampert was formerly CEO, chairman and the largest investor, alleged that Lampert's moves "were unmistakably intended to hinder, delay and defraud creditors and/or occurred when the Company was insolvent and had insufficient capital to continue its operations and to repay its billions of dollars in debt." Had those things not occurred, "Sears would have had billions of dollars more to pay its third-party creditors today and would not have endured the amount of disruption, expense and job losses resulting from its recent bankruptcy filing," the lawsuit alleges. Story continues The suit also alleges that Lampert "knew the Company had no plan to return to profitability" and worked "to create a false record to cover up their asset stripping, at Lamperts personal direction," including "bad-faith predictions" of a "dramatic turn-around." ESL said that under Lampert's leadership, Sears used more than $2 billion in proceeds from asset sales to reduce the retailer's debt and fund its operations. The hedge fund said it did not receive favorable treatment, adding that the Sears board and independent directors authorized the deals in question. "We are confident that the processes we followed for each of these transactions are unimpeachable," ESL said. Bank of Mom and Dad: Millennials still lean on parents for money, but want financial independence It was not immediately clear whether the lawsuit could disrupt the operations of the so-called New Sears. A representative of Transform Holdco was not immediately available. The Treasury Department's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.. Lampert came under fire over the past several years for his leadership, such a 2015 decision to sell certain valuable stores to a real estate investment trust called Seritage Growth Properties, where he had a significant ownership stake. Seritage is also targeted in the lawsuit. Lampert also faced scrutiny for loading Sears up with debt from his hedge fund. USA TODAY reported in June 2018 that Lampert and ESL were collecting at least $200 million annually in debt payments from Sears and that Lampert had personally directed the company not to reinvest in major store upgrades. Sears closed more than 3,500 stores and cut about 250,000 jobs in roughly the last 15 years as sales cratered, leading to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in October. Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Sears company sues ex-CEO Lampert, Treasury's Steven Mnuchin over 'asset stripping' A fossil hunters attempt to sell a young Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton on eBay for $2.95 million (2.25 million) set off a furore among scientists who warned that it needed to be studied, not sold to the highest bidder. The skeletons owner, Alan Detrich, defended his decision to try to sell the 15-foot fossil to a wealthy private collector, arguing that it could still be subject to research. Its very hard to reach a billionaire, he said Wednesday, noting that he hoped a wealthy bidder from Europe or Asia would emerge. Putting it on eBay is one way to do it. That outlook has angered scientists who have questioned why Mr Detrich lent the skeleton to the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum two years ago, saying that putting it on public view was part of a strategy to sell the specimen to a rich investor. Mr Detrich has tried to capitalise on the museums good faith by using the exhibition and scientific attention as selling points on eBay, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology said in a letter last week. It added: These events undermine the scientific process for studying past life as well as the prospect for future generations to share the natural heritage of our planet. The skeleton, believed to be a four-year-old T-Rex, was displayed at the museum until recently and has been returned to Mr Detrich. The museum asked that Mr Detrich remove all references to the museum from the original eBay listing, which advertises the fossils 21-inch skull and 12 teeth in the lower jaw. The fossil hunter complied. Most Likely the Only BABY T-Rex in the World! the ad reads. Its a RARE opportunity indeed to ever see a baby REX. Mr Detrich, who lives in Overbrook, Kansas, said he hoped the exposure from the eBay sale would attract a billionaire wealthy enough to pay his $2.95 million price tag. He did not inform the museum of the sale, he said, but did offer to give it a cast of the specimen. He said he agreed to lend the fossil to the museum two years ago after he and his brother, Robert, unearthed it in 2013 on property he leased near Jordan, Montana, where he hunts for fossils. Story continues Mr Detrich said it was not the first time he had received pushback from the scientific community for selling fossils. In 1999, he sought to sell a T-Rex skeleton on eBay for $5.8 million (4.5 million) and was unsuccessful after pranksters flooded the auction with fake bids. He said he wanted the juvenile skeleton to be studied even if it ended up with a wealthy collector. Mr Detrich, who said he is in his 70s, began hunting fossils three decades ago. He is also a sculptor who creates religious iconography and other works from dinosaur bones, petrified wood and steel. During the interview, he pointed out that he was voted one of People magazines Top Bachelors in 2001. Leonard Krishtalka, the director of the museum, declined to be interviewed. But Anne Tangeman, a spokeswoman for the museum, said in an email: Our intent was to keep the specimen in the museum sphere to be enjoyed by visitors until it was sold to a museum. She added, We learned early last week that the owner had abruptly listed the specimen for sale on eBay without prior warning or checking with us. Mr Detrich said he had recently tried to find a museum to buy the skeleton but had no luck. That caused a rift with the Kansas museum, he said, because the original eBay listing made it appear as if the museum was promoting the sale to a wealthy investor. It was not. Early this month, Mr Detrich said, he received an email from Krishtalka balking at the eBay sale. He said, What are you doing? Mr Detrich recalled. Well, I own this thing, Mr Detrich said of the T-Rex. It is mine. I can do whatever I want. So far, he has not received any bids. The New York TImes Fox & Friends, the presidents most loyal morning show, on Thursday lauded Attorney General William Barr for opting to hold a press conference hours ahead of releasing the much-anticipated report compiled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Department of Justice has said that Barr will hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday to talk about the findings of the probe, which investigated ties between President Trump and Russians who meddled in the 2016 election. Officials will hand over the color-code redacted report to Congress on compact discs, between 11 a.m. and noon on Thursday. The report will be posted online for the public at an unspecified time afterward. What more can he do? Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked. Transparency at its finest, but still the Democrats arent happy. Shes rightthe Democrats arent happy. Many lawmakers have taken issue with the fact that Barrs press conference will take place before anyone has had the chance to read the reportthus maximizing the administrations ability to spin it in advance, and potentially avoid any tough questions. Bill Barr sent a letter purporting to summarize Muellers conclusions, tweeted Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee. He took it upon himself to reach a conclusion on obstruction. He adopted the Presidents spying smears. Now, he will spin a report no one has read. My advice: Wait to read Muellers words for yourself. Meanwhile Rep. Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, chimed in: Attorney General Barr wrote to me on April 1: I do not believe it would be in the publics interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report. I agree. So why is the AG holding a press conference tomorrow morning to go over the Mueller report? Back on the curvy couch, Judge Andrew Napolitano at first complained about the delay but then said: Its been two years, we can wait a few more hours. Would I like to be at the press conference? Yeah, Napolitano said. Would you like to have read the report before the press conference? This is just his style. I actually give him credit for doing that. Except that Im here at 5 in the morning here to read this thing and now I find out Im not going to get it until like 11 or 11:30. Story continues Ed Henry, filling in for Friends co-host Steve Doocy, added: But hes going to testify probably in the next few weeks anyway after everyones had a chance to read the report. It seems like its just partisanship. Hes putting it out there! Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Paris (AFP) - Thanks to a small yet enduring corps of artisans specialised in traditional stone and woodwork techniques, France's ambitious goal of restoring the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral within five years may be within reach, experts say. But officials in the sector add they will probably need to hire hundreds of new apprentices to carry on the intricate and often arduous work, much of which can't be replicated by modern technology. "It's a niche market. There aren't that many projects but there aren't that many of us either," said Benoit Dulion, who heads a firm in the central Yonne department that restores timber roof frames. For decades the French state has spent heavily on the exacting upkeep of its cultural treasures, ensuring the preservation of artistic and architectural know-how dating back to the Middle Ages. Maintaining the country's 40,000 registered monuments is effectively a full-time job, with schools passing on time-honed techniques to successive generations. But before a hammer or chisel gets anywhere near a registered monument like Notre-Dame, France's culture ministry dispatches an architect with demonstrated expertise in antique and often fragile artwork. Only 40 of the nearly 30,000 architects in France have currently passed the ministry's muster for such work. - 'Lack of young people' - Once the architect has signed off on a project, the government seeks bids from companies accustomed to the painstaking work. A few are subsidiaries of France's major construction firms like Vinci, whose SOCRA unit is restoring 16 copper statues lifted off the roof of Notre-Dame just days before Monday's fire. Most however are small firms, including the roughly 200 in the GMH association of monument restoration companies. "A lot of them are family affairs," said Dulion, who is also the GMH representative in Burgundy. His firm of 18 workers was founded in the late 1940s by his grandfather "who did a bit of everything with wood," before his son began focusing on historical monuments in the 1980s. Story continues "The industry framework exists through the GMH," said Gael Hamon, founder of Art Graphique & Patrimoine. His company has made ultra-precise digital 3-D models of some 30 cathedrals. Notre-Dame is not among them -- but fortunately modelling of the Paris cathedral was done by a Vassar College in the US, led by a francophile American art professor Andrew Tallon who died in November. "Between us and the different artisans like woodworkers, roofers stonemasons and architects, we can restore what's necessary," Hamon said. But to meet the five-year goal set by President Emmanuel Macron, firms may have to move fast to find enough hands for all the work. "As soon as September we'll have to recruit 100 masons, 150 woodworkers and 200 roofers," said Jean-Claude Bellanger, secretary general of France's storied Compagnons du Devoir artisan mentoring network. His guild, which dates back to the Middle Ages, usually takes on a total of 2,000 apprentices each year. "The problem is that these manual crafts are undervalued and don't attract many people," he said. "We have the firms and the expertise, but there's a serious lack of young people for this work." - 'Never get rich' - GMH officials said this week that despite the handful of high-profile projects like Notre-Dame, most artisans make only a modest living off restoration work. The French monuments market represents around 600 million euros ($680 million) of revenue a year, a small fraction of the country's 135-billion-euro construction industry. "I'm not going to whine, but as a colleague told me, 'We're never going to get rich with historical monuments'," Dulion said. "And that's true." Many learned their craft out of a love for art and time-honoured techniques, and the prestige that comes from helping to preserve a cultural treasure. "We need these jobs to have the recognition of excellence they had in the 13th century, when they built the cathedral," Bellanger said. He fears that if France mobilises all its resources for Notre-Dame, "it will come at the expense of other projects". And rushing to meet the five-year goal for finishing the work carries its own risks. "It's going to take time," said Hamon, of the digital modelling firm. "With a restoration, it needs to last for at least 50 to 100 years. You can't rush things." Paris (AFP) - A Paris appeal court on Thursday handed a 30-year jail term to Abdelkader Merah, brother of a French jihadist who shot dead seven people, finding him guilty of being an accomplice in the 2012 murders. The verdict was received in silence in the courtroom, before sobs broke out among the victim's relatives in the public gallery. Merah, 36, had in 2017 been jailed for 20 years being part of a terrorist conspiracy but had been cleared, by the lower court, of having a direct hand in his brother's shooting spree. The appeal court decision, reached after 12 hours of deliberations, the 30-year term falling short of the prosecution's request for a life term for Merah. His brother Mohamed Merah killed three soldiers in March 2012 before turning his sights on a Jewish school in Toulouse, where he gunned down a rabbi, two of the rabbi's children, aged three and five, and an eight-year-old girl. The attack was the deadliest on Jews in France in three decades and marked the advent of a new threat from French-born radicals goaded by foreign terror groups to strike their homeland. Mohamed Merah was killed by police after a 32-hour siege at his home, three days after the school assault. The trial of Merah's older brother and mentor Abdelkader was the first in connection with a string of attacks that have claimed the lives of over 240 people in France in recent years. The appeal court also reduced the sentence of Fettah Malki, a friend of the Merah brothers, from 14 to 10 years, found guilty of associating with known criminals, rather than the greater crime of terrorist conspiracy. It was Malki who supplied Mohamed Merah with a machine gun and a bullet-proof vest was also convicted of a terrorist conspiracy. Does Daesh still pose a threat? By Levan Abramishvili The Islamic State has presented a global threat for the past few years. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is officially known as the Islamic State (IS) and by its Arabic language acronym Daesh. The name has been used by the Georgian Government, as well as several other countries since the organization severely despises it. While "Daesh" has no other meaning in Arabic, it is very similar to the Arabic word Daes, meaning "one who crushes (or tramples down) something underfoot." We shall also refer to the militant group and formerly unrecognized proto-state as Daesh.After gaining global notoriety in 2014, Daesh terrorized much of the Middle East, with their influence and the number of sympathizers spanning all across the globe, including Georgia.On December 19, 2018, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military would withdraw the approximately 2,200 U.S. troops stationed in Syria.American Special Operations forces inside Syria coordinate with local opposition fighters called the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of mostly Kurdish and Arab fighters. U.S. forces train and advise the group. On March 23, 2019, the abovementioned armed forces expelled Daesh from the last remnant of the groups territory in the region - a 3.6-square-kilometers village of Baghuz, Syria.At its peak four years ago, Daesh ruled a chunk of territory the size of Britain and controlled the lives of up to 12 million people.To all of the young people on the internet believing in ISISs propaganda, you will be dead if you join. Think instead about having a great life, said Donald Trump, While on occasion these cowards will resurface, they have lost all prestige and power. They are losers and will always be losers.The world was quick to celebrate the alleged defeat of the Caliphate, but many international organizations and security experts are warning that the celebration might be premature.The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, published his eighth report on Daesh earlier this year. According to the report, Daesh is in a phase of transition, adaptation and consolidation.Even though Daesh doesnt control the territory it once did, its power never lied in the territorial possession, but in its global network of terrorist. Therefore, even with its territory lost, Daesh still poses a paramount threat to international peace and security.The UNSC reports that [if Daesh] regains access to permissive space and reinvests in external operational planning, a resurgence of directed attacks should be anticipated. The same concerned has been addressed in the quarterly report (Oct-Dec 2018) of the US Department of Defense Inspector General. The report reads that without counterterrorism pressure in Syria, Daesh Could Likely Resurge Within Six to Twelve Months.The evolving nature of Daesh is also considered in Georgias National Counterterrorism Strategy.According to the strategy, conducting terrorist acts outside of the conflict zone became the primary tool for Daesh. The organization tries to radicalize and get support from people all across the world using the internet and the social media reads the strategy. It is also noted that in the previous years, Daesh called its sympathizers to join their ranks in Syria and Iraq. Now the terrorist organization, using the internet, urges radicalized people to carry out terrorist attacks on the communities in which they live.According to the annual report published by the State Security Service of Georgia (SSS), there have been significant steps taken towards preventing Georgian citizens from joining the ranks of Daesh. In 2018, several Georgian citizens were killed in the armed conflict in Syria and Iraq. More than 20 were fighting in the ranks of the terrorist organization. According to the report, SSS continued their efforts to reduce risks related to the possible return of the aforementioned citizens to Georgia.It is noteworthy, that thanks to the workings of the SSS and other governmental institutions there had been no recorded instances of Georgian citizens traveling to Syria and Iraq.Even though Daesh doesnt control the vast territory, it once did, and despite the assumed defeat of the terrorist organization, it is evident that it still holds significant tools that are subject of concern for the governmental bodies and international organizations. PARIS (Reuters) - French weapons are not being used against civilians in Yemen, France's armed forces minister Florence Parly told Radio Classique on Thursday. Investigative website Disclose reported this week that French arms, including tanks and laser-guided missile systems sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were being used in the Yemeni war against civilians. "To my knowledge, French weapons are not being used in any offensive in the war in Yemen. I do not have any evidence that would lead me to believe that French arms are behind the origins of civilian victims in Yemen," Parly said. (Reporting by Sophie Louet, Simon Carraud; Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Darren Schuettler) The fund to help rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral has already hit the one billion euro mark. According to reports, TV personality Stephane Bern said on Wednesday that a billion euros has now been pledged to help rebuild the monument after it was ravaged by fire earlier this week. Donors include French billionaires Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods group LVMH, and Francois Pinault, who pledged 200 million euro (173 million) and a reported 100 million euro (86 million) respectively. L'Oreal Group, the Bettencourt Meyers family and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation has also jointly also pledged 200 million euro while oil and gas company Total said it would give 100 million euro towards reconstructing the "architectural jewel". Notre Dame was ravaged by fire, prompting a global outpouring of emotion (Picture: Reuters) French publisher Ubisoft, creator of the Assassins Creed video games, has also pledged 500,000 euros (434,000) and Disney also announced a five million US dollar (3.8 million) contribution. French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a national subscription to help rebuild the monument. Notre Dame; extent of damage. See story FIRE NotreDame. Infographic from PA Graphics An investigation is underway into the cause of the blaze, with 50 investigators reportedly interviewing workers from five companies hired to work on renovations to the cathedral roof. READ MORE Pig brains brought back to life four hours after death The fire at Notre Dame prompted a global outpouring of support, with the Queen saying she was "deeply saddened" and Pope Francis offering his prayers. The bells at Westminster Abbey tolled at 5.43pm on Tuesday afternoon - 24 hours after the fire started - and church bells tolled across Paris exactly 48 hours after the blaze began. An investigation is underway into the cause of the blaze at Notre Dame (Picture: PA) Ubisoft, creator of the Assassin's Creed games which feature Notre Dame, has pledged money to the fund to rebuild the landmark (Picture: PA) Prime Minister Theresa May announced bells at churches and cathedrals across England would ring in a further show of solidarity on Maundy Thursday. She described images of the destruction as "truly heart-rending", adding: "President Macron has pledged to rebuild the cathedral and I have conveyed to him that the UK will support this endeavour however we can." Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) - Remains of seven Gambian soldiers who took part in an attempt to overthrow dictator Yahya Jammeh in November 1994 have been exhumed as part of probe into the country's troubled past. After a nearly two-week search at a barracks at Yundum, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the capital Banjul, investigators "exhumed the skulls of seven military personnel executed 25 years ago," the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) said in a statement late Wednesday. The attempted putsch in the tiny West African state came just a few months after Jammeh had seized power, overthrowing the democratically-elected government. Jammeh himself was forced out of office after losing elections to Adama Barrow in December 2016. He went into exile in Equatorial Guinea in January 2017 after fellow West African states intervened militarily. About two dozen military men were executed in November 1994 following the move against Jammeh. We will continue digging until we see the other skulls," forensic archaeologist and crime scene investigator Thomas Gomez was quoted by the TRRC as saying after Wednesday's exhumation. "We cannot tell who are here, but all we can tell you is that seven people were buried in this grave. Seven pairs of underwear were also recovered and this could attest to the fact that they were almost half-naked when they were being buried." Relatives of the soldiers were present when the skulls were recovered. The TRRC, modelled on South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, seeks to shed light on Jammeh's brutal 22-year reign in the hope of providing justice and closure for victims. It began its work last October, empowered with the right of investigation and recommendation for prosecution or reparations, but not to pass sentence. Perpetrators and witnesses told the TRRC that the execution of the coup soldiers was overseen by the junta's No. 2, Lieutenant Sanna Sabbally, on the command of Jammeh himself. Jammeh fended off several other attempted coups during his long reign, including a bid in December 2014. One of his most feared instruments of power was an ultra-loyal death squad known as the "Junglers," whom the UN and rights groups accuse of murder and torture. Denise Saldate and her mother, Monique Altamirano. [Photo: Facebook] Words: Elizabeth Di Filippo The mother of an 11-year-old girl who died after an allergic reaction to toothpaste is sharing her story. The family of Denise Saldate, who live in California, US, are in mourning after her sudden death caused by a reaction to a milk protein in prescription toothpaste. Denise on April 6, just two days after she received a prescription for MI Paste One brand of medicated toothpaste to help strengthen her tooth enamel. READ MORE: Woman, 23, partially paralysed after clicking neck Saldate was diagnosed with a dairy allergy when she was one. Her mother, Monique Altamirano, said despite being diligent when it came to checking labels and ingredients, she had never seen any milk product present in any previous toothpastes. I did not think to look at the product ingredients, a grieving Altramirano said in an interview with Allergic Living. She was just excited to have her special toothpaste. Contrary to what everyones telling me, I feel like I failed her! On the evening of April 4, Saldate brushed her teeth for the first time with her new toothpaste, with her 15-year-old sister in the bathroom. According to the sister, Saldate immediately began crying and ran to her mother for help. READ MORE: Woman kicked off plane after shocking act She said, I think Im having an allergic reaction to the toothpaste, and her lips were already blue, Altamirano said. I picked her up and put her on my bed. I ran to the living room, told my daughter - Call 911! - and I grabbed the EpiPen. Despite the EpiPen and her asthma inhaler, Saldates condition didnt improve. She was saying, Mommy, I cant breathe. I was saying, I love you, yes, you can Altamirano was performing CPR on her daughter when paramedics arrived. After working on Saldate for several minutes, she was taken by ambulance to hospital with her mother by her side. Denise with her father and two older sisters. [Photo: Facebook] Saldates father, Jose, and her sisters received the news that she had died when they arrived at the hospital. Story continues READ MORE: Boy dies after allergic reaction to fish Allergic Living reports that the toothpaste prescribed to Saldate did contain a small warning that it contained Recaldent, a milk-derived protein, as well as a warning on the back of the small tube. She was my sunshine, she was the light of my life, Altamirano said. In the midst of their tragedy, Altamirano is encouraging parents to never stop checking labels when they have a child with food allergies. Read everything. Dont get comfortable, just because youve been managing for several years, she said. You cant get comfortable or be embarrassed or afraid to ask and ensure that ingredients are OK. Be that advocate for your child. The eulogy for Saldates funeral service also contains a warning written by Altamirano: Her family implores those who are aware to share their knowledge and to inform those who are unfamiliar with anaphylaxis of the seriousness of this condition. They hope that in sharing her story, families, caregivers, school staff, and people in general will take this condition more seriously and that all items will be checked for ingredients, even those that may seem irrelevant. Saldates uncle has set up a GoFundMe page to assist the family in the cost of funeral services. The frosty relationship between Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. thawed a little further. The two tech giants said Thursday they would begin letting each others video services appear on their respective streaming gadgets. YouTube will soon be available on Amazons Fire TV while Amazon Prime Video will show up on Googles Chromecast and Android TV devices, the companies said in a statement. The two companies have feuded before when it comes to businesses they both operate in. Amazon stopped selling Googles home assistant devices, which compete with the retailers Alexa speakers, on its website in 2015 but lifted the boycott at the end of 2017. YouTube hasnt been available on Amazon devices since 2017. Streaming is a crowded field, with companies like Roku Inc. and Apple Inc. competing on the hardware side and tech and media companies alike jumping deeper into the streaming business. Walt Disney Co. joined the fray this month with a $6.99-a-month streaming service carrying popular content like Star Wars and Marvel superhero movies. Reaching a detente might help Amazon and Google continue to grow their user bases and fend off smaller rivls. As Google and Amazon expand, they compete in new and bigger categories. Google is chasing Amazons lead in cloud services and home assistant devices, while Amazon is quickly building an online advertising empire thats beginning to edge into Googles traditional territory. Some Google employees were warned that a worker diagnosed with measles visited the company's Silicon Valley headquarters earlier this month, according to a report. David Kaye, a staff doctor, sent an email last week alerting some employees that the worker had been at the office at 1295 Charleston Rd. on April 4, BuzzFeed News reported. Kaye said the health department wanted the company to share the measles advisory but added that the email is just a precaution, according to BuzzFeed. The email did not go to all Google employees, and the source who provided it to BuzzFeed told the outlet they believed it went only to those who worked in the building on Charleston Road. The County of Santa Clara Public Health Department confirmed that someone with measles visited the Google campus. This case is not connected to previous cases in Santa Clara County, and there is no additional risk to the public, according to a statement from the health department. When alerted to a suspected case of measles, the department conducts an investigation to identify individuals who might have come into contact with the contagious person, trace each place where the individual might have spent time, and then tries to identify people who might have been exposed in those places, the statement explained. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 555 cases have been confirmed in 20 states in 2019, the second-highest total since measles was declared eliminated in the USA in 2000. The surge has been fueled in part by the anti-vaccination movement most people who contract measles have not been vaccinated, the CDC said. Measles is so contagious that if one person has the disease, up to 90% of the people close to that person will become infected if they are not immune, the CDC warned. Googles video streaming platform YouTube has come under fire recently for allowing ads to play during videos on channels that promote anti-vaccine agendas. The ads were removed, but not before angering advertisers who were unaware that their ads ran alongside anti-vaccination videos. Story continues "We have strict policies that govern what videos we allow ads to appear on, and videos that promote anti-vaccination content have been and remain a violation of our longstanding harmful or dangerous advertising policy. We enforce these policies vigorously, and if we find a video that violates them we immediately take action and remove ads," YouTube said in a statement. Contributing: John Bacon and Sonja Haller, USA TODAY Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Google warns some employees of measles exposure at Silicon Valley headquarters, report says PHILADELPHIA (AP) A sprinkler system check at a church that was frequented by George Washington and Benjamin Franklin drew a crowd Wednesday, with dozens of people watching as sheets of water poured from the 196-foot (60-meter) steeple. Christ Church leaders breathed a sigh of relief at the sight: The system check showed that the church has done all it can do to protect itself from a fire similar to the one that tore through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris this week. "One reason we did this was to show symbolic solidarity with Notre Dame," said Barbara Hogue, executive director of the Christ Church preservation fund. "But it's also because we're about to start renovations here, too, and we thought it was really prudent to start by testing our fire system, to be sure that, in the event something happens, we were prepared." The landmark Christ Church was founded in 1695 and has been in continuous use ever since. Besides Washington and Franklin, its notable congregants included other signers of the Declaration of Independence and Betsy Ross. Visitors can sit in their centuries-old pews or marvel at a spire funded by a campaign launched by Franklin in the mid-1700s. The spire was struck by lightning in 1908, but the ensuing fire was quickly quashed by rain. In the 1920s, church leaders installed the first sprinkler system. Because the spire is slanting about 22 inches (56 centimeters) off-center and there are other maintenance needs, the church is in the midst of a $3.1 million capital campaign. It has raised $2.5 million, which includes a $500,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities. "There's always that point where there's the difference between deferred maintenance and tragedy," Hogue said. "We're getting to the end of deferred maintenance and we really need to get this capital campaign going." Checking the church's fire suppression system Wednesday was part of the pre-renovation preparations, but church officials hadn't planned to make it a public event until the blaze at Notre Dame. The fire, which destroyed most of the 850-year-old cathedral's roof and caused its 19th century spire to collapse, occurred while major renovations were underway. There was no sprinkler system in place. Story continues "Many of the press called and asked us, 'What happened at Notre Dame, could that happen here?' said the Rev. Mark Safford, noting this was also a way for the church "to demonstrate how the great buildings of Philadelphia are able to protect themselves from catastrophic fire." Tour guide Joseph Spurlock, of Free Tours By Foot, stopped his group of about 20 to watch the display. "It's a good time to make a show of it: Don't worry. We have this under wraps," Spurlock said of the decision to publicize the test. About 30 students from nearby Old City Day School and their teachers walked three cobblestoned blocks to watch the demonstration. The sight of a waterfall in the city thrilled the younger crowd. "We had to be part of this," said Danielle Kinslow, the school's director. "It was a lot of fun for them. For the teachers, it was a chance to stand with Notre Dame." The children were still excited as they headed back to school. More than one teacher was heard saying, "Don't drink the water" as the group departed. A revolutionary new study has shown that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may hold some positive answers when it comes to treating severe combined immunodeficiency. Also known as SCID or bubble boy disease, the condition, according to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology, is an inherited primary immunodeficiency disease (PIDD) that typically presents in infancy [and] results in profound immune deficiency condition, resulting in a weak immune system that is unable to fight off even mild infections. The AAAAI also notes that the disease is considered to be the most serious PIDD. But doctors have seemingly found a way to cure the disease in babies (most often seen in males) via gene therapy: by inserting a corrective gene into a patients cells via a tweaked version of HIV, in a way that they say it will not lead to development of AIDS or increase the risk of leukemia. The study was conducted on eight infants including now-2-year-old Gael Jesus Pino Alva with the SCID-X1 variation of the disease, by researchers at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Their findings were published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. Gael Jesus Pino Alva | Peter Barta/St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital RELATED: HIV Patient in London Appears to Be Second Person Ever Cured: There Is No Virus There Ahead of the gene therapy, the infants received two days of low-dose busulfan, which was a chemotherapy agent most commonly used in bone marrow transplantation, to make space in the marrow for donor stem cells to grow, the studys first author, Dr. Ewelina Mamcarz, told CNN. The outcome has been truly outstanding for our patients. During the therapy, doctors harvested stem cells from the patients bone marrow before using a virus (a.k.a. a medically modified copy of the HIV virus) as a vector to insert a healthy copy of the previously mutated IL2RG gene into the babies cells, before inserting the collection of cells back into the babies systems for treatment. Story continues It originated as HIV, but its really no longer HIV when its inserted, another of the studys researchers, Dr. Morton Cowan, explained to CNN of the process in which the operative parts of the virus were taken out. Kristin Simpson and son Omarion | Peter Barta/St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital RELATED VIDEO: Parents of Colorado Boy Turning Into Stone Fight for a Cure: We Wont Stop Fighting for Jaiden Doctors are still monitoring the eight initial patients, who each received the treatment between six months and two years ago and are all seeing positive ongoing results with no severe, negative side effects thus far, the Associated Press reports. (One patient needed a second round of the gene therapy, but is now doing well.) For a long time we didnt know what was wrong with him. He just kept getting these infections, Kristin Simpson told AP of her son Omarion, who was the 10th patient treated with the new gene therapy, in December. But now, Simpson added of her almost 1-year-old, Hes like a normal, healthy baby. I think its amazing. By Ankit Ajmera (Reuters) - Honeywell International Inc is evaluating the revenue potential from supplying parts to Boeing's next major aircraft program, which is likely to be finalized by late 2019 or early next year, Chief Financial Officer Greg Lewis told Reuters. Boeing has signaled that the proposed new mid-sized jetliner, known as NMA, will accelerate its drive to diversify beyond airframes and into services such as repairs and maintenance, where parts suppliers make much of their revenue. The trend by Boeing and other planemakers to encroach on the business models of their suppliers has already fueled an industry power battle that analysts say could reach a critical point during supplier negotiations for the NMA. "If Boeing decides to move forward on the NMA ... we feel like we have got some very competitive offerings that we could provide on a platform," Lewis said. "But it would have to be done in a way where it's a good project for Honeywell and we are able to protect our intellectual property, and still be able to have a good economic revenue and income stream come from that." Boeing's proposed jet will serve a niche market falling between narrow- and wide-body aircraft and is expected to reshape competition with arch-rival Airbus SE, which dominates the top end of the medium-haul sector. Honeywell supplies parts such as auxiliary power units, cockpit avionics and flight management systems as well as aircraft wheels and brakes for a range of aircraft. Lewis also said Honeywell remained interested in China's C919 passenger jet program, manufactured by Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd (COMAC), as the company was already supplying parts to the upcoming narrowbody jet. The C919, which will compete directly with Boeing's 737 and Airbus' A320 aircraft, was reportedly having problems with its flight deck design, raising concerns that the new jet would miss its target of entry into service by 2021. "We are bullish on how that's (the C919 program) going. Our equipment has performed well. As far as we can tell, they are on track for that 2021-22 type of entry into service date," Lewis said. (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Anil D'Silva) Special counsel Robert Mueller wrote in his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign that although he lacked sufficient evidence to clear or charge President Trump on possible obstruction of justice, Congress could take up the issue. We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice, Mueller wrote in his 448-page report, a redacted version of which was released by the Justice Department Thursday. Mueller made clear in his report that he did not believe his investigation cleared the president of much. If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, Mueller wrote. Still, Mueller wrote that Trump was, for the most part, unsuccessful in influencing the outcome of the investigation. The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. READ THE FULL REPORT Robert Mueller. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP) The release of the report was the first chance for the public to hear directly from the special counsel himself. Days after Mueller submitted his findings to William Barr, the attorney general wrote a four-page summary of them, portraying the conclusions in a favorable light for Trump. While the president concluded that Barrs summary proved his complete and total exoneration, Muellers report itself is far less definitive. The special counsel wrote that collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. After describing the rationale on whether to charge the president with a crime, Mueller laid out a damning series of events detailing the contacts between the Trump campaign, the presidents family members and former lawyer Michael Cohen and the Russian government. Story continues In approximately Sept 2015, Cohen obtained approval to negotiate with [Russian real estate company] from candidate Trump... Cohen also discussed the Trump Tower Moscow project with Ivanka... and Donald J. Trump Jr. After Trump's election,"the most senior levels of the Russian govt" encouraged efforts to "make inroads" w/ the new administration. Key player: Kirill Dmitriev, chief of Russian sovereign wealth fund, who met with Eric Prince in Seychelles. Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff) April 18, 2019 Mueller was also resolute on the role the Russian government played in helping elect Trump. The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion, the report states. Specifically, Mueller found clear evidence that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russias Internet Research Agency. The investigation identified two different forms of connections between the IRA and members of the Trump Campaign. (The investigation identified no similar connections between the IRA and the Clinton Campaign.) First, on multiple occasions, members and surrogates of the Trump Campaign promotedtypically by linking, retweeting, or similar methods of repostingpro-Trump or anti-Clinton content published by the IRA or through IRA-controlled social media accounts. Additionally, in a few instances, IRA employees represented themselves as U.S. persons to communicate with members of the Trump Campaign in an effort to seek assistance and coordination on IRA-organized political rallies inside the United States, the report states. Mueller also lays out a scene in which Trump directed former White House communications director Hope Hicks to lie about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son Donald Trump Jr., other high ranking campaign officials and Russians who had promised dirt on Clinton. On the flight home from the G20 on July 8, 2017, Hicks obtained a draft statement about the meeting to be released by Trump Jr. and brought it to the President, the report stated. The draft statement began with a reference to the information that was offered by the Russians in setting up the meeting: I was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance I knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign. Hicks again wanted to disclose the entire story, but the president directed that the statement not be issued because it said too much. The president told Hicks that Trump Jr. took a brief meeting and it was about Russian adoption. The report also reveals that Ivanka Trump was briefed ahead of time about the infamous Trump Tower meeting attended by her brother, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian-born lobbyist and others. On the question of obstruction, Trump, Mueller wrote, engaged in efforts to curtail the Special Counsel's investigation and prevent the disclosure of evidence to it, including through public and private contacts with potential witnesses. That contradicts Barrs assertion Thursday that the president fully cooperated with the investigation. Regarding Trumps remark during the 2016 campaign that he hoped Russia would find the 30,000 emails Clinton was said to have deleted from her private server, Mueller said that wish was granted by Moscow. Within approximately five hours of Trump's statement [on July 27, 2016 that Russia find Clinton's emails], GRU officers targeted for the first time Clinton's personal office, the report says. The president realized the appointment of the special counsel spelled trouble for his presidency. According to notes contained in the report, when Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f***ed.'" _____ More coverage of the Mueller report from Yahoo News: Machakos County Governor Dr Alfred Mutua has made a raft of ambitious proposals to the Building Bridges Initiate including the abolishing of the women rep position. Mr Mutua wants the post replaced with a reserved member of parliament position for women in a single constituency per county. This would reduce the number of legislators bloating the government, Mutua said on Wednesday at the KICC, According to Mutua, the system would work through a declaration in the Constitution that a specific constituency in a county was reserved for women. The system could also be rotational and move through constituencies because we need to accommodate women in the political landscape, he said. At the same time, Mutua wants an expanded National Executive to have a President, Deputy President, Prime Minister and two Deputy Prime Ministers with specific mandates. He said presidential candidates be allowed to run or be nominated as MPs so as to lead their party agenda in Parliament. The current situation where very popular leaders are locked out of governance structures is partly responsible for the street demonstrations and violence because thats the only forum left for these leaders to express their views and address their supporters, said Mutua. Speaking on behalf of his party Maendeleo Chap Chap, Mutua also proposed the President, Deputy President, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to run for election on a joint ticket so that whichever political arrangement wins, it has a broad representation of the face of Kenya. In such a system, the President, Deputy President, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister sould come from different communities and not more than two Cabinet Secretaries should come from the same ethnic community. This way, many communities will be part of the core Executive of the National Government, he said. Mutua also wants the Leader of Opposition to be at the same level with the Prime Minister in official protocol and recognition. The Machakos County chief also proposed the installation of CCTV cameras in each polling station with a feed to each political party. The footage is useful in verifying numbers and for real-time monitoring of the electoral process. This will defeat the feeling of rigging in the country as the people can see the counting process live and even tally with the officers, said Mutua. The former government spokesman further called for severe punishment in corruption cases. He proposed the removal of optional fine in corruption convictions and punishment be severe depending on amount stolen with minimum conviction to be jail term of two years up to life imprisonment. By Sanjeev Miglani and Aftab Ahmed NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India suspended cross-border trade with Pakistan-controlled Kashmir because it was being used to funnel weapons and drugs, the government said on Thursday, in a further crackdown in the volatile territory. Trade across the "Line of Control" (LoC), or the heavily militarized de facto border that divides the two parts of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, has served as a confidence-building measure and to help the local population. But tensions between India and Pakistan have been running high ever since a Pakistan-based militant group claimed responsibility for bombing a security convoy in Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the middle of a tightening election race, ordered air strikes on a suspected camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group in northwest Pakistan, prompting a retaliatory air raid by Pakistan. On Thursday, the Indian home ministry said it had been receiving information that militant groups were using the cross border route to send arms, drugs and fake Indian currency. "Unscrupulous and anti-national elements are using the route as a conduit for money, drugs and weapons, under the garb of this trade," the ministry said. It said that inquiries by the National Investigation Agency had shown a significant number of firms engaged in the cross border trade were being operated by people with links to militant groups. It did not name anyone. Trade operates on a barter system, where no money is exchanged. Indian traders export cumin, chilli pepper, cloth, cardamom, bananas, pomegranate, grapes and almonds. Prayer mats, carpets, cloth, oranges, mangos and herbs return from the Pakistani side. Soon after the attack on the Indian security convoy, India withdrew Most Favored Nation status to Pakistan, accusing the neighbor of not doing enough to rein in militant groups operating from its soil. Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack. The Indian government said on Thursday it believed that following the withdrawal of favored status, more goods from Pakistan could be routed through the cross-border channels in Kashmir to avoid the higher duties. "It has, therefore, been decided by the Government of India to suspend the LoC trade at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Jammu and Kashmir with immediate effect," the government said referring to the points from where the trade took place. There was no immediate reaction from Pakistan. (Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) As the nation grapples with a measles outbreak, the number of mumps cases at Indiana University has more than doubled since last week, school officials said, with similar outbreaks occurring at Temple University and Penn State University. As of Thursday morning, there are 17 mumps cases at the Bloomington campus, up from seven last week. More than half of the cases have been linked to a single fraternity, which is where the disease is believed to have originated back in February, a school official said. We feel confident about where a lot of this is coming from which has helped us deal with it, university spokesman Chuck Carney told HuffPost. Its not sweeping broadly around the campus. The universitys students are required to have two MMR vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella by their second semester at the school. There is an exemption for religious reasons. There were 17 known mumps cases at Indiana University in Bloomington on Thursday, a school official said. (Michael Hickey via Getty Images) Of the 16 cases known on Wednesday, Carney said 14 of them had received two doses of the MMR vaccine. One of them had received just one dose, and the other had not had one because of a religious exemption. A health clinic was recently held at the fraternity where the outbreak is believed to have originated and 58 percent of its members received a third MMR vaccine during it, Carney said. What that does is it provides them with a boost of immunity for about a month so it helps them stave off the illness if they are exposed, he said. The university is working to inform students about the diseases spread and things they can do to avoid infection, which Carney said is simply practicing good hygiene. That includes washing hands frequently, not sharing drinks and sneezing in the crook of ones arm and not their hands. The basic things that you would do to avoid any illness, he said. Temple University in Philadelphia had been dealing with a similar outbreak. As of Thursday, there are 155 cases associated with the Temple University outbreak. Twelve of them are from surrounding counties, while the other 143 are in Philadelphia, the citys Department of Public Health said in an email. Story continues A line of mostly students wait to enter a vaccination clinic amid a mumps outbreak on the Temple University campus in Philadelphia on March 27. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) The university on Tuesday said that the number of active cases at the school is now fewer than 10. During the outbreaks peak in early March, there were 46 cases at the school, according to the university, which said it had issued more than 6,000 doses of the MMR vaccine. Penn State University has also been dealing with several mumps cases. Since the start of April, the University Park school said in a release last week that there have been three mumps cases confirmed and two more suspected. Those numbers were current as of Thursday, a university spokesperson told HuffPost in an email. Local station WJAC-TV reported that the states Department of Health considers this an outbreak. Mumps spreads by direct contact with saliva or respiratory droplets from the mouth, nose or throat. This can happen from an infected person sneezing, coughing, talking, kissing or by sharing cups, water bottles or eating utensils. It can also spread from touching objects or surfaces with unwashed hands and then someone else touching it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An infected person can likely spread mumps from a few days before their salivary glands begin to swell to up to five days after the swelling begins, the CDCs website states. A person with mumps should limit their contact with others during this time. For example, stay home from school and do not attend social events. Health officials have urged the public to receive the MMR vaccine. Some people who are vaccinated can still contract mumps if exposed, but its symptoms will be milder, the CDC said. This has been updated with information from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. By Sethuraman N R and Devjyot Ghoshal BENGALURU/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Millions of voters across swathes of southern India cast ballots on Thursday in the second phase of a mammoth, staggered general election, as sporadic violence flared in the east and the insurgency-wracked state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Election Commission said 66 percent of more than 155 million eligible Indians had voted, as per provisional data, in 95 constituencies in 12 states. Results of the election to India's 545-member parliament are expected on May 23. In focus are the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where the main opposition Congress party and its allies need to win big if they hope to stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi from securing a second straight term. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have run an aggressive campaign, playing to their nationalist, Hindu-first base and attacking rivals they accuse of appeasing minorities. Critics say such divisive rhetoric threatens India's secular foundations. "Communal polarization is the biggest issue for me," said Rakesh Mehar, who voted in the technology hub of Bengaluru, capital of Karnataka. "And the growing intolerance in the country is what worries me the most." Sporadic violence was reported in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, where separatists have called for an election boycott, and the eastern state of West Bengal, which has a history of election clashes. Police fired teargas to disperse stone-throwers in Srinagar, the Himalayan region's main city, where thousands of troops had been deployed to guard the vote, although turnout was less than 8 percent, according to provisional election commission data. "There has been stone pelting by protesters in at least 40 places," said a senior police officer who sought anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Police in the West Bengal constituency of Darjeeling also fired tear gas at protesters who complained they had not been allowed to vote, said top district official Arvind Kumar Mina. "They had blocked a highway and had to be dispersed," he added. SWEEPING VICTORIES In the last general election in 2014, the BJP recorded sweeping victories in six northern states that delivered 70 percent of its seats, helping clinch a landslide majority, said academic Neelanjan Sircar. "You can never expect youll do that again," added Sircar, a political science professor at Ashoka University near the capital New Delhi. "Those seats that you lose, youll have to make up somewhere." Eastern and southern India would be where the BJP would look to make up those seats, analysts say. Congress, which is focusing on concerns about growing joblessness and farmers' distress, is staking its chances on a promise of generous handouts to India's poorest families. "People are talking about national issues," said Manjunath Munirathnappa, a voter in Bengaluru, who hoped lawmakers would resolve infrastructure woes, such as traffic congestion and inadequate water supply. "But only when they fix the local issues will there be progress." About 900 million people are eligible to vote in the election that began last week and ends next month. On Thursday morning, the body of a 20-year-old worker for the BJP's youth wing was found hanging from a tree in West Bengal's Purulia district, party officials and local police said. "The night before he died he was seen writing graffiti for BJP for the elections. In the night he was reported missing. His body was found today," said local BJP leader Vidyasagar Chakrabarty. Tensions between the BJP and the regional Trinamool Congressthat governs the state have been rising in the lead-up to the poll, with each accusing the other of killings, beatings, vandalism and making false allegations to the police. Trinamool Congress local leader Shantiram Mahato said the party had asked the police to conduct an impartial investigation into the death of the BJP worker. (Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal and Sethuraman NR; Additional reporting by Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata and Fayaz Bukhari in Srinagar; Editing by Paul Tait and David Holmes) It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Pets at Home Group Plc (LON:PETS). What Is Insider Buying? It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market. We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.' View our latest analysis for at Home Group The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At at Home Group In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Group CEO Peter Pritchard bought UK348k worth of shares at a price of UK1.31 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, at around the current price, which is UK1.45. Of course they may have changed their mind. But this suggests they are optimistic. If someone buys shares at well below current prices, it's a good sign on balance, but keep in mind they may no longer see value. In this case we're pleased to report that the insider purchases were made at close to current prices. Happily, we note that in the last year insiders bought 667k shares for a total of UK864k. In the last twelve months at Home Group insiders were buying shares, but not selling. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! LSE:PETS Recent Insider Trading, April 18th 2019 at Home Group is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Story continues Insider Ownership For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 2.2% of at Home Group shares, worth about UK16m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders. What Might The Insider Transactions At at Home Group Tell Us? There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders do have a stake in at Home Group and their transactions don't cause us concern. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future. If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Up until yesterday, Apple and Qualcomm were on the cusp of what would have undoubtedly been a sensational anti-trust trial. While theres no telling which way the jury would have leaned, theres no denying that the settlement agreement both companies announced yesterday works out well for both sides. Apple, of course, now has a secure pipeline of 5G modems, while Qualcomm doesnt have to worry about the entirety of its business model being put underneath the microscope and potentially being torn to shreds. Apple and Qualcomms settlement, though, doesnt bode well for Intel. For quite some time, it was largely assumed that Apple would tap Intel to supply 5G modems upon the release of its 2020 iPhone lineup. With Qualcomm and Apple now working together again, Intel is out of the picture. That said, its perhaps not surprising that Intel, in the wake of Apple and Qualcomms settlement agreement, announced its intention to exit the 5G modem business as it pertains to smartphones. Related stories Apple insider claims 2019 iPhones will feature a ton of major camera upgrades Apple is still interested in self-driving cars as it explores 'revolutionary' LIDAR sensor design Apple rumored to launch a refreshed iPhone 8 with upgraded specs next March Intel will still develop 5G modems but will instead focus on 5G opportunities involving PCs and internet-connected devices, according to a statement from the company. Consequently, Intel walked back from previous declarations regarding its plan to supply 5G modems to smartphone partners by the end of 2019. We are very excited about the opportunity in 5G and the cloudification of the network, but in the smartphone modem business it has become apparent that there is no clear path to profitability and positive returns, Intel CEO Bob Swan said in a press release. 5G continues to be a strategic priority across Intel, and our team has developed a valuable portfolio of wireless products and intellectual property. We are assessing our options to realize the value we have created, including the opportunities in a wide variety of data-centric platforms and devices in a 5G world. Story continues Its worth noting that Intel was reportedly struggling to meet development targets for its 5G modem. There were also rumblings Intels 5G offering would have paled in comparison to Qualcomms. Taken together, these two factors may have very well forced Apples hand to come to terms with Qualcomm. So, where does that leave us? Well, Apple will not be jumping on the 5G bandwagon when it releases its 2019 iPhone lineup in September. Hardly a surprise, Apple has historically been rather patient when it comes to adopting new networking technologies, as evidenced by the companys relatively slow adoption of both 3G and 4G. Truthfully, this isnt terribly heartbreaking given that its going to take a little bit of time before 5G coverage becomes ubiquitous. When Apple does finally release its iPhone lineup in 2020, most users will be able to take advantage of 5G connectivity immediately. Sign up for BGR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Trending Right Now: See the original version of this article on BGR.com By Sonia Elks LONDON, April 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Children from poor families in sub-Saharan Africa have been able to swap cleaning up cowpats for lessons thanks to a solar power project that rewards parents for sending them to school. South Korean solar firm Yolk has designed a cow-shaped solar power station for schools that can be used to charge power banks for families while their children are in class. The design references the fact that many children are removed from school in order to care for their family's cattle. "The kids could not come to school because of the cows and now they can come to school because of a cow but it's a solar cow," SungUn Chang, the chief executive of Yolk, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. About 262 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 - or one out of every five globally do not attend school, according to data from the United Nations education body UNESCO, which said access to education was largely shaped by wealth. Many poor families require children to stay at home and help with household tasks. "The parent is the key man - so all of this is about how we persuade parents to send their kids to school," said Chang. She began researching how the company could help tackle child labor and said she quickly realized they had to offer a "tangible" incentive to families. "If the value is similar or more, then they're wiling to send their children to school rather than the workplace," she said. As a solar company, energy was an obvious solution and power is also an expensive commodity in developing countries. Many rural homes are not connected to the grid, meaning that households may have to walk several hours to reach a charging shop and pay to charge devices such as phones. 'Solar cow' charging stations are installed in schools and pupils are given a milk-bottle-shaped power bank which they plug into to charge if they attend class and take home at the end of the school day to provide households with electricity. Story continues Each milk bottle contains about a dollar's worth of electricity - a significant asset for the poorest families - and it can also be connected to a bulb fitting to provide up to 10 hours' of light. The first solar cow was set up in Pokot, Kenya, in July 2018, and Chang said it has resulted in children attending classes more regularly. Yolk plans to establish several more in Tanzania with funding from the South Korean International Cooperation Agency, a governmental aid and development agency. "This can create a really big impact," said Chang. "When you solve problems like child labor it requires a lot of money - but because we use solar energy, the power of nature in a creative way, it can be a lot easier." (Reporting by Sonia Elks @soniaelks; Editing by Jason Fields. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org) Investing in stocks inevitably means buying into some companies that perform poorly. Long term New Delhi Television Limited (NSE:NDTV) shareholders know that all too well, since the share price is down considerably over three years. Sadly for them, the share price is down 64% in that time. The silver lining is that the stock is up 3.2% in about a week. See our latest analysis for New Delhi Television Because New Delhi Television is loss-making, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size. In the last three years New Delhi Television saw its revenue shrink by 12% per year. That's not what investors generally want to see. With revenue in decline, and profit but a dream, we can understand why the share price has been declining at 29% per year. Having said that, if growth is coming in the future, now may be the low ebb for the company. We don't generally like to own companies that lose money and can't grow revenues. But any company is worth looking at when it makes a maiden profit. Depicted in the graphic below, you'll see revenue and earnings over time. If you want more detail, you can click on the chart itself. NSEI:NDTV Income Statement, April 18th 2019 If you are thinking of buying or selling New Delhi Television stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet. A Different Perspective While the broader market gained around 1.7% in the last year, New Delhi Television shareholders lost 15%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 14% per year over five years. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality businesses. Shareholders might want to examine this detailed historical graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow. Story continues But note: New Delhi Television may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast). Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on IN exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. LONDON (Reuters) - President Hassan Rouhani said Iran's armed forces did not pose a threat to its neighbors as he addressed a display on Thursday of Iran's latest military equipment, including domestically produced fighter jets and Russian-made missile systems. The parade to mark Army Day came as U.S. President Donald Trump pursues his drive to contain Iran's power in the Middle East by means of sanctions. Thousands of soldiers marched past Rouhani and top military commanders at the parade in Tehran marking Army Day while new Iranian-built fighter jets flew overhead. Iran also showed off missiles, submarines, armored vehicles, radars and its Russian-supplied S-300 defense system that can take down aircraft and missiles in the sky. "I want to tell the regional countries that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not against you and your national interests. They stand against invaders... The roots of our problems are the Zionist regime and American imperialism," Rouhani said. He also said Iran sought "regional security and stability". The parade was held by the national defense force which controls the country's biggest ground force. Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards is in charge of a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles. The head of Iran's air force, Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA that "The enemy knows our military power and I doubt they dare to make a stupid and adventurous move against us; But if they do, we will respond in the strongest way possible." Iran strongly condemned Washington for officially designating the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization on Monday. At Thursday's parade Rouhani called the U.S. move against the Guards "abhorrent" and said it was an insult to all Iran. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) Tehran (AFP) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called on Middle East states on Thursday to "drive back Zionism", in an Army Day tirade against the Islamic republic's archfoe Israel. Speaking flanked by top generals before troops began their annual march-past, Rouhani also sought to reassure the region that the weaponry on display was for defensive purposes and not a threat. "The regions nations have lived alongside each other for centuries and never had a problem... If there is a problem, it is caused by others," he said in the speech broadcast live on state television. "Let us stand together, be together and rid the region of the aggressors presence." Rouhani assured neighbouring countries that Iran's armed forces are "never against you or your national interests" but are "standing against the aggressors." "The power of our armed forces is the power of the regions countries, the Islamic world." he said. "If we have a problem in the region today, its roots are either with Zionism or America's arrogance." Rouhani called on Muslim nations to band together and "restore the historical right of the nation of Palestine," saying that "Zionism ... has been committing crimes in the region for the past 70 years", "The final victory will surely be with the righteous," he said. The military parade was held next to the south Tehran mausoleum of the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It showcased some of Iran's latest weaponry, including the domestically designed and manufactured Kowsar fighter jet, which was first unveiled last year. Iran also displayed its short-range Zelzal missile and an upgraded model of the Russian S-200 air defence system. US-manufactured Bell, Cobra and Chinook helicopters bought before the Islamic revolution of 1979 also took part in the air display. - 'Cancerous tumour' - Story continues Diatribes against Israel are standard fare of official speeches in Iran, although some, such as a call by Rouhani's firebrand predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map", have triggered international condemnation. Iran does not recognise Israel and opposition to the Jewish state has been a central tenet of official policy since the revolution. Iran has supported Palestinian radical groups and has vociferously opposed the now moribund Middle East peace process under which the Palestinians were offered limited autonomy in the territories captured in the Six-Day War of 1967. Rouhani has previously called Israel a "cancerous tumour", and called on Muslim governments to unite against it and its US ally. Iranian officials have warned repeatedly that Israel will soon cease to exist, but have usually been careful to underline that that will come about not through a direct attack by Iran. "In 25 years' time, with the grace of God, no such thing as the Zionist regime will exist in the region," supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 2015. - Syria tensions - The presence of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the eight-year civil war has sharply increased tensions between the regional foes. Israel has said publicly that it has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes targeting the forces of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that he will never allow Iran to establish a long-term military presence in Israel's northeastern neighbour. Netanyahu has been an outspoken opponent of a landmark nuclear deal Iran signed with major powers in 2015 and was the leading supporter of US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from it and reimpose crippling economic sanctions last year. Washington's European allies have refused to follow suit and they, along with China and Russia, continue to support the deal. But the Trump administration has sought to forge an anti-Iran axis within the Middle East bringing together Israel and the Gulf Arab states to make common cause against what they see as Iranian "meddling" in the region. Last week, Washington placed Iran's Revolutionary Guards on its blacklist of "foreign terrorist organisations," the first time it had imposed the sanction on a military arm of a foreign government. Rouhani warned Washington on Thursday that "an insult to the Guards... is an insult to the great nation of Iran." "America's leaders are lost in their delusions," he said, adding that Washington was the real source of "terrorism" in the region. City tycoon Jimi Wanjigi has been sued by businessman Yogesh Patel for allegedly defrauding him of Sh56 million. In his suit, Mr Patel accuses Jimi Wanjigi, his wife and their two firms of using a shell company to defraud him of the amount that was meant to be a deposit for a controversial piece of land in Westlands, Nairobi. According to Mr Patel, Aureum Ltd a company owned by Mr Wanjigi, his wife Irene Nzisa and Augustine Kairo Thuo agreed to sell him the 0.818-acre prime piece of land for Sh260 million in June last year. However, Patel claims Aureum Ltd has since transferred the property to someone else and refused to refund his Sh56 million deposit. Patel has sued through his Kenroid Ltd, which reached the sale agreement. The firm holds that Aureum Ltd was only a shell that received his deposit on behalf of Irene Nzisa Wanjigi, Tyl Ltd Mr Wanjigis firm and Mr Thuo. Kenroid adds that the parcel could be a grabbed public utility contained in the 2006 Ndungu Land Report. But a check of the disputed piece LR Number 1870/II/200 showed it was not among those flagged. Records show the land was transferred to Cissy Kalunde Musembi, a transaction Patel wants reversed in order to get back his money. Mr Patels Kenroid has also filed a complaint with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), which is investigating the transaction. The defendants have until June 17th to file their responses to the suit. Japan's primary financial regulator isn't going easy on legalized crypto exchanges. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN.com: Crypto exchanges are a straightforward place to keep cryptocurrency when trading. Cash out fees accrue less quickly, and trades can be made much faster than having to transfer currencies from another wallet. The downside to keeping your funds on an exchange? More than $500 million was stolen exclusively from Japanese exchanges in 2018 alone. The funds stolen have left governments with a serious need to intervene. Japan was the first country to formalize crypto exchange regulation, and they have taken these breaches very seriously. Previously, storing funds in a cold wallet offline crypto storage wallets that are less vulnerable to hackers was enough, but internal theft has also been pinpointed as a reason for the loss of funds. Exchanges like CoinCheck, Mt. Gox, Zaif, and more have lost fundsboth client and internal fundsdue to hacks. To combat this, the Japanese FSA has is establishing new regulations for cold storage security as well as hot wallet security. Any exchanges who stores client crypto will be affected by the FSAs new exchange regulation. Part of the requirement for operating an exchange in Japan is keeping client crypto in cold storagefailure to do so may result in regulatory backlash. Changes to cold wallet security Several things must change for cold wallet security, but the first changes made by the FSA with their new exchange regulations follow a reasonably straightforward narrative: Dont leave all of the funds with one person on one wallet. Keep the wallet changing hands consistently. To date, one of the largest cold wallet hacks was executed against Trade.io. The company reported $8 million lost, but some sources speculate as much as an $11 million loss. Thieves stole funds from a cold wallet that was present in a bank safety deposit box. Read the full story on CCN.com. A proposal from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to have a presidential debate focused on climate change gained steam on Wednesday with backing from a rival 2020 candidate and a coalition of environmental groups. Inslee on Tuesday called on the Democratic National Committee to host an all-climate debate during the 2020 primary campaign season. The governor, who is centering his presidential campaign around climate change, said in an email to supporters that the Democratic nominee selected to challenge President Donald Trump needed to have a concrete plan to address the phenomenon, and that Americans deserved to hear it in advance of the primaries. Climate change is at the heart of every issue that matters to voters, and voters deserve to hear what 2020 presidential candidates plan to do about it, Inslee wrote in the email, first reported by The Daily Beast. Most Democrats in the crowded field have made climate change a core tenet of their campaigns, in direct opposition to Trumps climate-denying policies. The White House has dramatically rolled back many environmental regulations and moved to withdraw the U.S. from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement as Trump himself has mocked the science around the issue. Inslees debate idea was quickly endorsed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who called climate change the greatest threat to humanity today. A DNC debate focused on climate change would show the world that America intends to lead again on this issue, and would be a smart place to discuss the key tenets of the Green New Deal infrastructure, green jobs and clean air and water and how to put a price on carbon, Gillibrand said in a statement to The Daily Beast. But its unclear how far those conversations will go. The DNCs communications director declined to commit to Inslees proposal, simply saying that the party was eager to put forward solutions to combat climate change and that future debates would absolutely have these discussions during the 2020 primary process. Story continues The DNC is currently ironing out the details for all 12 debates and will work with the networks to ensure that Democrats have a platform to discuss these issues directly with the American people, the spokesperson, Xochitl Hinojosa, told Axios. A coalition of 11 environmental and progressive groups, including Greenpeace USA and 350 Action, released a petition shortly after Inslees proposal, calling on the DNC to back his plan. We need to know that whoever is nominated to take on Trump in 2020 has what it takes to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and fight for bold solutions to the climate crisis, the coalition said in a statement. Thats why we need a full debate focused specifically on climate change, so an informed moderator can press candidates beyond platitudes, seek out specific details, and hold them accountable to what the science says is necessary. Wellington (AFP) - The world's fattest parrot, the critically endangered kakapo, has enjoyed a record breaking breeding season, New Zealand scientists said Thursday, with climate change possibly aiding the species' unique mating spree. Less than 50 years after the flightless nocturnal bird was thought to have been extinct, at least 75 chicks are expected to survive this year, Andrew Digby, a science advisor to New Zealand's kakapo recovery, operation told AFP. Digby oversees a breeding programme so precisely monitored that scientists can state the last of 249 eggs laid will hatch on Friday. It will significantly boost the population which has grown to 147 adults since a small number of the plump green, yellow and black birds was discovered in 1970. Digby described the kakapo as an "unusual" parrot as the females control the breeding process and only mate every two to four years when New Zealand's native rimu trees are full of fruit. "We don't quite know what the trigger is but one of the things we are looking at is that the rimu berry is really high in vitamin D, a super food basically, which is associated with fertility and health," he said. The rimu trees have produced a bumper crop this year with Digby saying one theory was that climate change and temperature fluctuations could be behind the berry bonanza. The surviving kakapo -- whose name means "night parrot" in Maori -- are kept on four predator-free islands off the New Zealand coast. At the start of the breeding season, the males which weigh about 4.0 kilograms (nine pounds), put themselves on display while the females choose a partner. They mate and then end the relationship, shutting the male out of the incubation and rearing processes. The kakapo recovery programme is so tightly monitored that although they remain in the wild, each one has a radio transmitter attached to its body and there are monitoring systems embedded in their nests. Story continues Digby knew that of the 50 adult females, 49 produced 249 eggs, of which 89 have so far hatched and 75 were expected to make it to adulthood. That is more than double the success rate from the last breeding season three years ago. "It's probably one of the most intensively managed species in the world," said Digby, who wants at least 500 birds before any thought is given to easing up the intensity of the recovery operation. This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Amsterdam Commodities N.V.'s (AMS:ACOMO), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research. Based on the last twelve months, Amsterdam Commodities's P/E ratio is 16.2. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 6.2%. View our latest analysis for Amsterdam Commodities How Do You Calculate A P/E Ratio? The formula for price to earnings is: Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Amsterdam Commodities: P/E of 16.2 = 20.45 1.26 (Based on the year to December 2018.) Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good? The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. All else being equal, it's better to pay a low price -- but as Warren Buffett said, 'It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.' How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios Companies that shrink earnings per share quickly will rapidly decrease the 'E' in the equation. Therefore, even if you pay a low multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become higher in the future. So while a stock may look cheap based on past earnings, it could be expensive based on future earnings. Amsterdam Commodities's earnings per share fell by 4.8% in the last twelve months. But EPS is up 1.5% over the last 5 years. And it has shrunk its earnings per share by 2.3% per year over the last three years. This growth rate might warrant a low P/E ratio. So it would be surprising to see a high P/E. How Does Amsterdam Commodities's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers? One good way to get a quick read on what market participants expect of a company is to look at its P/E ratio. If you look at the image below, you can see Amsterdam Commodities has a lower P/E than the average (19.3) in the consumer retailing industry classification. Story continues ENXTAM:ACOMO Price Estimation Relative to Market, April 18th 2019 This suggests that market participants think Amsterdam Commodities will underperform other companies in its industry. Since the market seems unimpressed with Amsterdam Commodities, it's quite possible it could surprise on the upside. It is arguably worth checking if insiders are buying shares, because that might imply they believe the stock is undervalued. A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank The 'Price' in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. So it won't reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth. Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context. Is Debt Impacting Amsterdam Commodities's P/E? Amsterdam Commodities has net debt worth 18% of its market capitalization. This could bring some additional risk, and reduce the number of investment options for management; worth remembering if you compare its P/E to businesses without debt. The Bottom Line On Amsterdam Commodities's P/E Ratio Amsterdam Commodities's P/E is 16.2 which is below average (18) in the NL market. With only modest debt, it's likely the lack of EPS growth at least partially explains the pessimism implied by the P/E ratio. Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.' So this free visual report on analyst forecasts could hold the key to an excellent investment decision. Of course you might be able to find a better stock than Amsterdam Commodities. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House senior adviser Jared Kushner urged a group of ambassadors on Wednesday to keep an "open mind" about President Donald Trump's upcoming Middle East peace proposal and said it will require compromises from both sides, a source familiar with his remarks said. Kushner said the peace plan is to be unveiled after Israel forms a governing coalition in the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's election victory and after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in early June, the source said. "We will all have to look for reasonable compromises that will make peace achievable," Kushner said, according to the source, who asked to remain anonymous. Kushner, one of the main architects of the peace proposal and who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, spoke to about 100 ambassadors from around the world at Blair House, the presidential guest home across the street from the White House. He spoke as part of a State Department series of speeches. The proposal has two major components: A political piece that addresses core political issues such as the status of Jerusalem, and an economic part that aims to help the Palestinians strengthen their economy. Unclear is whether the plan will propose outright the creation of a Palestinian state, the Palestinians core demand. During his remarks, Kushner pushed back on the idea that the Trump peace plan was mostly centered around the economic package, saying the political component is "very detailed," the source said. "He said the plan will require concessions from both sides but won't jeopardize the security of Israel," the source said. "It requires everybody approaching the plan with an open mind." The White House had no comment. Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday that Netanyahu is unlikely to follow through on an election pledge to annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank until after the United States has unveiled its plan. "I think we will respect the efforts of the administration. I don't think we will see any major action done by our government before the peace plan will be presented," Danon told reporters in New York. The Palestinians and many countries consider the settlements illegal under the Geneva conventions that bar settling on land captured in war. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical and political connections to the land. (Reporting by Steve Holland; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Susan Thomas and Dan Grebler) LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) The Latest on lockdowns at Columbine High School and other Denver-area schools (all times local): 10:35 p.m. Investigators say a woman who made undisclosed threats that led to tightened security at Columbine High School bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition shortly after landing in Denver from Miami. Dean Phillips, special agent in charge of the FBI in Denver, says a "massive manhunt" is underway for 18-year-old Sol Pais. She flew into Colorado on Monday night and was last seen in the foothills west of Denver. Phillips says Pais did not specifically threaten Columbine, but investigators were concerned because she has expressed an infatuation with the 1999 shooting. Doors were locked at Columbine and at more than 20 other schools in the Denver area on Tuesday afternoon after the threat. The lockouts come just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting at Columbine that killed 12 students and a teacher. ___ 6 p.m. FBI officials in Colorado say the woman who made undisclosed threats against Columbine High School is "infatuated" with the 1999 school shooting and is considered armed and dangerous. The FBI's Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force issued a notice Tuesday for police to be on the lookout for 18-year-old Sol Pais. It says she tried to buy firearms and that police who come into contact with her should detain her and evaluate her mental health. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the FBI say Pais traveled to Colorado on Monday night and was last seen in the foothills west of Denver. It's not clear where she came from. The threats led school officials locked the doors of Columbine and about 20 other schools in the Denver area before releasing students for the day. ___ 4:50 p.m. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis says the threat that prompted a lockdown at Columbine High School and other Denver-area schools involved someone who was armed and "may be interested in harming our schools or our kids." Story continues Polis said Tuesday the Colorado Department of Public Safety was working with the FBI to protect public safety. He said he had no other information. The Department of Public Safety urged schools urged schools to tighten security, and more than 20 put lockdowns in place. The lockdowns come just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting at Columbine High School that killed 12 students and a teacher. Authorities say they are looking for a woman suspected of making threats. They say she should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. ___ 4:10 p.m. All schools in the Denver area are being urged to tighten security after what appears to be a credible threat caused a lockout at Columbine High School and more than 20 other schools in the area. Patricia Billinger, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, says the agency made the recommendation because Tuesday's threat was deemed "credible and general." At least one school district heeded the advice. Aurora Public Schools tweeted that students were being released in a "controlled manner," and additional security was put in place throughout the district as a precaution. The lockouts come just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting at Columbine High School that killed 12 students and a teacher. Authorities say they are looking for a woman suspected of making threats. They say she should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. ___ 3:45 p.m. Following a lockdown at Columbine High School and other Denver area schools, authorities say they are looking for a woman suspected of making threats. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the FBI says 18-year-old Sol Pais traveled to Colorado on Monday night and made threats but they didn't provide any details about the threats. They say she was last seen in the foothills west of Denver, where some of the schools put on lockdown are located. They didn't say where she traveled from. Authorities said Pais is armed and considered extremely dangerous and should not be approached. Doors were locked at Columbine and at least over 20 other schools in the Denver area as the sheriff's office said it was investigating a possible threat against schools that was related to an FBI investigation. Students were dismissed on time but after school activities were canceled at Columbine. ____ 2:55 p.m. Students are leaving classes after tightened security at Columbine High School and over 20 other Denver-area high schools after a lockdown caused by a possible threat. Students wearing backpacks came out the main door at Columbine on Tuesday afternoon, soon after school officials announced that students in all the schools put on lockdown were safe and would be dismissed at their normal times. The students walked to crosswalks and buses parked near the entrance. Officials said after school activities will be held at all schools except Columbine, but didn't explain why. A spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Mike Taplin, said the lockdowns involved an FBI investigation but he couldn't provide any details. The sheriff's office previously said the lockdowns were prompted by an investigation into what appeared to be a credible threat possibly involving the schools The lockdowns come just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting at the school that killed 12 students and a teacher. ____ 2:30 p.m. Authorities say tightened security at Columbine High School and about a dozen other Denver-area schools is related to an FBI investigation. A spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Mike Taplin, said Tuesday's school lockdowns involved an FBI investigation but he couldn't provide any details. The sheriff's office previously said the lockdowns were prompted by its investigation into what appears to be a credible threat possibly involving the schools A message left for an FBI spokeswoman wasn't immediately returned. School officials say the doors were locked but classes were continuing at Columbine and two other nearby schools and at other schools farther away in the same district. The lockdowns come just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting at the school that killed 12 students and a teacher. There was no immediate indication whether there was any connection to the anniversary. ____ 1:40 p.m. Columbine High School and about a dozen other schools are on lockdown as law enforcement says it is investigating what appears to be a credible threat possibly involving the schools. School officials say the doors were locked but classes were continuing Tuesday at Columbine and two other nearby schools and at other schools farther away in the district. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said deputies were posted at the schools involved. The lockdown comes just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting at the school that killed 12 students and a teacher. There was no immediate indication whether Tuesday's lockdown has any connection to the anniversary. By Rafael Marchante, Catarina Demony and Miguel Pereira CANICO, Portugal (Reuters) - In a show of solidarity, the foreign ministers of Germany and Portugal laid two wreaths near the site where 29 German tourists died on Wednesday after their bus overturned on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The bus - carrying 55 tourists, a guide and a driver - veered off a steep road in the coastal town of Canico, near Madeira's capital city, Funchal, and came to a halt next to a house, which was damaged in the crash, authorities said. Portugal's public prosecutor's office opened an investigation into the accident, the cause of which authorities said they could not yet determine. Local TV channel SIC attributed it to either brake failure or a problem with the accelerator cable. Heiko Maas, Germany's foreign minister, landed in Madeira on Thursday evening with a team of doctors, psychologists and consular officials to meet those affected and thank Portugal for its help. As soon as he touched down, the minister and his team headed to the scene of the crash, where he paid tribute to the victims and, alongside his Portuguese counterpart, held a minute of silence. Shocked residents also laid flowers by the road where the accident took place. "This is a terrible event," Maas told reporters during his visit to the site. "We can't just stay in Germany watching and celebrating Easter." Maas then visited Funchal's hospital, where 28 people were treated for head, abdominal, chest and other injuries, a hospital spokesman said on Thursday morning. A statement released on Thursday evening by Madeira's regional health service confirmed that 17 of the 28 injured remained in hospital and that 10 people were already discharged. None of those injured are currently in a life-threatening condition, Portugal's foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, told reporters after he arrived in Madeira on Thursday afternoon. "We are working flat-out to bring people who are injured and capable of being transported, to identify those who have died and to inform their families." Maas said. "It is very difficult work." MANY VICTIMS WERE RETIREES Authorities on the island confirmed all 29 people killed were German. Madeira's regional health service said 17 were women and 12 were men. Many were retirees, said Germany's best-selling daily, Bild. The 29 victims were members of a bigger holiday group, other members of which were traveling on another bus, a regional civil protection spokesman said. Two of the injured were Portuguese and the rest were foreign nationals, a hospital spokesman said. Santos Silva confirmed the two Portuguese citizens were the driver and the tour guide. Images taken by Reuters photographers on Thursday showed the bulk of the wreckage had been removed, leaving some debris still scattered on the ground. Tributes poured in and three days of mourning were declared in Portugal on Thursday in honor of the victims of the bus crash. "I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," Canico Mayor Filipe Sousa told SIC TV. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa sent his "deepest condolences" to victims' families, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed "sadness and shock" at the scale of the tragedy. (Reporting by Rafael Marchante and Miguel Pereira in Canico and Catarina Demony in Lisbon; Additional reporting by Thomas Escritt and Madeline Chambers in Berlin; Editing by John Stonestreet and Peter Cooney) Adrian Griffin has been the CEO of Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT) since 2011. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels. See our latest analysis for Lithium Australia How Does Adrian Griffin's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? Our data indicates that Lithium Australia NL is worth AU$38m, and total annual CEO compensation is AU$705k. (This is based on the year to June 2018). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at AU$357k. We examined a group of similar sized companies, with market capitalizations of below AU$279m. The median CEO total compensation in that group is AU$354k. It would therefore appear that Lithium Australia NL pays Adrian Griffin more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn't mean the remuneration is too high. A closer look at the performance of the underlying business will give us a better idea about whether the pay is particularly generous. You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Lithium Australia has changed over time. ASX:LIT CEO Compensation, April 18th 2019 Is Lithium Australia NL Growing? On average over the last three years, Lithium Australia NL has shrunk earnings per share by 20% each year (measured with a line of best fit). Its revenue is down -19% over last year. Unfortunately, earnings per share have trended lower over the last three years. And the fact that revenue is down year on year arguably paints an ugly picture. These factors suggest that the business performance wouldn't really justify a high pay packet for the CEO. Although we don't have analyst forecasts, you could get a better understanding of its growth by checking out this more detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow. Story continues Has Lithium Australia NL Been A Good Investment? Since shareholders would have lost about 77% over three years, some Lithium Australia NL shareholders would surely be feeling negative emotions. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously. In Summary... We compared the total CEO remuneration paid by Lithium Australia NL, and compared it to remuneration at a group of similar sized companies. As discussed above, we discovered that the company pays more than the median of that group. Neither earnings per share nor revenue have been growing sufficiently fast to impress us, over the last three years. Just as bad, share price gains for investors have failed to materialize, over the same period. Some might well form the view that the CEO is paid too generously! CEO compensation is one thing, but it is also interesting to check if the CEO is buying or selling Lithium Australia (free visualization of insider trades). If you want to buy a stock that is better than Lithium Australia, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Sophie Gradon hanged herself after drinking alcohol and taking cocaine, an inquest held on Thursday 18 April has confirmed (Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty) Love Island contestant Sophie Gradon hanged herself after drinking alcohol and taking cocaine, an inquest has now revealed. The 32-year-old passed away at her parents home in Medburn, Ponteland on 20 June 2018. At the time, Northumbria Police stated that there did not seem to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding her death with officials stating shortly after that it was likely suicide. Read more: Love Island producers respond to call for more post-show support She was found by her boyfriend, Aaron Armstrong, who travelled to his partners home with his brother when she stopped responding to his messages and he noticed she hadnt posted on social media for a while. Armstrong took his own life 20 days later. During the confirmation, coroner Eric Armstrong spoke out about how combining alcohol with drugs can significantly increase the chance of people harming themselves. He also claimed that the substances may have impeded her ability to think rationally. Sophie Gradon, aged 22 from Newcastle pictured during the Miss England 2008 Grand Final at Troxy in east London. (Photo by Ian West PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images) If Sophies death is to serve any purpose at all, that message should go out far and wide, he said. North Shields Coroners Court had heard that, prior to her death, Gradon had stated that she was struggling with the world and that she cannot do this any more. Read more: Tributes pour in for Love Island star Mike Thalassitis after his body found in woodlands According to the BBC, Det Sgt Neill Jobling of Northumbria Police also revealed that during a text message exchange with a male friend, the former Miss Great Britain detailed how she was finding it difficult to cope with her ADHD everyday and that if [she] could escape [she] would. Mike Thalassitis, who also appeared in the popular ITV2 dating competition, was found dead earlier this year. While the cause of his death is yet to be confirmed, the news led to many recognisable names within reality television such as Love Islands Montana Brown and Made in Chelseas Olivia Bentley to call for more in-depth aftercare. Story continues If youve been affected by this story and want to talk to someone, you can call the Samaritans free on 116 123 or at jo@samaritans.org Washington (AFP) - These are some of the main points from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The 400-page document deals primarily with whether any members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to get him elected and whether the president sought to obstruct justice. - Russian interference - "The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion. "The Special Counsel's investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election principally through two operations. "First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. "Second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton campaign and then released stolen documents." - Conspiracy - The report said there were numerous contacts between members of Trump's circle and Russia and that the campaign "expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." But it said the efforts did not amount to criminal conspiracy. "The Russian contacts consisted of business connections, offers of assistance to the campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin to meet in person, invitations for campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet, and policy positions seeking improved U.S.-Russian relations. "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. "The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." Story continues - Obstruction - The report said the special counsel investigated numerous actions by Trump "that raised questions about whether he had obstructed justice." These included "public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation. "The president's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. "Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the president's conduct. "At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. "Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." - Efforts to remove special counsel - The report detailed an effort by Trump to have the special counsel removed. "On June 17, 2017, the president called (White House counsel Don) McGahn at home and directed him to call the acting attorney general and say that the special counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. "McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre." - Congress - While declining to prosecute Trump for obstruction, the special counsel said such a determination could be left to the US Congress. "Under applicable Supreme Court precedent, the Constitution does not categorically and permanently immunize a President for obstructing justice. "The separation-of-powers doctrine authorizes Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regardless of their source. "The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the president's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law." - Michael Cohen - The report details the president's interactions with his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who is facing three years in prison for financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. "In analyzing the president's intent in his actions towards Cohen as a potential witness, there is evidence that could support the inference that the president intended to discourage Cohen from cooperating with the government because Cohen's information would shed adverse light on the president's campaign-period conduct and statements." - Trump dismay - Trump reacted with dismay when told by then-attorney general Jeff Sessions on May 17, 2017 that a special counsel had been appointed, according to the report. "The president slumped back in his chair and said, 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked,'" the report said. "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency," Trump was quoted as saying. "It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. "This is the worst thing that ever happened to me." An unknown number of burglars on Tuesday night pulled off one of the easiest heists in history when they broke into Kobujoi Police Station, Nandi County and made away with guns and ammunition. According to a Police report seen by this blog, officers on duty had abandoned the post and gone to watch UEFA Champions League matches at a nearby shopping centre. The APs are attached to Kamorwon AP post some 19 kilometres east of Kobujoi Police Station. They reportedly left the post at 7 pm to catch the Uefa Champions League match between Barcelona and Manchester United which started at 10 pm. Upon returning to the post, they found that the commanders room which also serves as the armoury had been broken into. All the officers left the post and went to watch UEFA football match at the nearby trading centre and on returning to the post, they noticed the room of the in-charge which is also used as an armoury in which the steel box is kept was broken, the police report reads. The thugs stole three G3 rifles: G3 FMP 77095029, G3 FMP 7709443 and G3 A3 F91879. They also made away with a magazine of 20 rounds of ammunition. They left behind only two magazines with 17 and 20 rounds. Nandi South OCPD, OCS and AP Commander visited the scene and launched an operation to recover the stolen rifles and ammunition, as well as bring the culprits to book. By Nick Carey and David Shepardson NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major automakers are bullish on the outlook for the U.S. economy and auto sales, but one big question remains - will President Donald Trump throw a grenade into the sector by imposing sweeping tariffs of up to 25 percent on car and auto parts imports? The industry is in "wait-and-see mode," but the tariffs would be a bad idea, Bob Carter, head of U.S. sales at Toyota Motor Corp, told Reuters on Wednesday. "If the tariff happened on the auto industry, quite frankly that's pulling the pin out of the grenade," he said at a conference on Tuesday held in conjunction with the New York International Auto Show. "I don't believe the U.S. economy can run out of the room fast enough if that happens." Carter said in an interview he was optimistic the Trump administration would decide against tariffs, yet "uncomfortable" given the president's decision last year to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Trump ran for office in 2016 on a protectionist platform aimed at shoring up U.S. manufacturing jobs. He has said in the past he was considering tariffs on autos and auto parts of up to 25 percent. In February, the U.S. Commerce Department sent recommendations to Trump, which auto industry officials expect to include at least some tariffs on fully assembled vehicles or on critical technologies and components related to electric, automated, connected and shared vehicles. Such tariffs would have a deeper impact on car prices and consumers than earlier metals tariffs that were imposed. The steel and aluminum tariffs cost Detroit automakers General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co $1 billion each and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said they could add up to $350 million in costs in 2019. HEAVY LOBBYING Trump is supposed to make a decision by mid-May, but some officials think the administration will find a way to delay final action, using the threat as leverage to try to win concessions on autos in trade talks with Japan and the European Union. Story continues Joe Eberhardt, chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover North America, said a 25 percent tariff on all imported vehicles would cost the company "billions." If the tariffs were on parts, it would also hit U.S. automakers hard, he noted. "We just hope that reason will prevail," he said. Toyota and other automakers have been lobbying heavily to block any new tariffs on imported vehicles, arguing the industry's global supply chain is so intertwined that tariffs would raise prices, hurt sales and thus damage the economy. IMPACT ON PRICES At a conference held ahead of the New York auto show this week, IHS Markit's chief U.S. economist, Joel Prakken, forecast 2019 U.S. new vehicle sales of 16.8 million units, down about 500,000 units from 2018 but still high historically. However, tariffs could reduce sales by another 2 million vehicles and shave half to two-thirds of a percentage point off U.S. gross domestic product, he said. "It would be horrible for the automotive industry, it will be horrible for consumers and it will be horrible for the U.S. economy," said Fred Diaz, the U.S. chief executive of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. In one example, Carter said 72 percent of the parts for the Camry sedan that Toyota makes in Kentucky come from U.S. suppliers, but 28 percent are imported. A 25 percent tariff would cause that car's price to rise $1,800 overnight. "There is no such thing as a 100 percent U.S. vehicle," he told Reuters. According to industry estimates, broad tariffs could add an average of $4,000 to a new car's sticker price. Nissan Motor Co Ltd's North American chairman, Jose Valls, said the automaker has "invested very heavily in the U.S. and they (the Trump administration) need to take into account our customers and our employees." "We'll adjust," Valls said. "But we're not taking decisions on things that haven't been finalized yet." Mitsubishi's Diaz said industry groups are lobbying hard against the tariffs. "The feedback is that we're being heard," he said. "But fundamentally, how do you really know?" (Reporting by Nick Carey and David Shepardson in New York; Editing by Ben Klayman and Matthew Lewis) A Malaysian inquiry into the 2015 discovery of suspected human-trafficking camps and graves in the jungle heard Thursday police found one of the sites months before authorities publicly revealed their existence. The public inquiry, which began this week, is examining the conduct of law enforcement agencies with regard to the discovery of almost 150 graves and dozens of camps near the Thai border. Malaysian authorities announced in May 2015 they had uncovered the sites in the north of the country, about a month after neighbouring Thailand said it had found bodies of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshis at a makeshift camp over the border. The discovery prompted Thai authorities to crack down on traditional sea routes for illegal migrants coming to the country, triggering a crisis as people-smugglers dumped hundreds of refugees off the coasts of other countries and fled. On Thursday the Malaysian inquiry heard from M. Joeking, a senior police official charged with guarding the border in part of northern Malaysian, who said authorities found a camp in January 2015. After hearing from a colleague about the camp in the jungle, he sent officers to raid the site in northern Perlis state where they discovered wooden cages and lookout posts, as well as graves and a stretcher to carry dead bodies. His testimony confirmed long-held suspicions that authorities knew about the camps -- where Rohingya and Bangladeshis were held in appalling conditions after arriving by sea -- for months before going public. Razali Ismail, one of the officials overseeing the inquiry, suggested the raid was a failure as many migrants fled and police rescued only 38 of them. But Joeking responded: "We managed to save 38 people.... We saved lives and halted the operations of a syndicate." The establishment of the inquiry was announced in January, several months after a corruption-plagued regime was ejected from power by a reformist alliance. Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar, who complain of persecution in their mainly Buddhist homeland, and Bangladeshis for years made the perilous sea crossing in large numbers to Thailand, from where they usually headed to Muslim-majority Malaysia. Arrivals have fallen sharply since the 2015 crackdown. Michelle Obama has been ranked among this year's top 100 most influential people. [Photo: Getty[ Michelle Obama has made the Time 100 most influential people list this year for the first time. The former First Lady joins model and author Chrissy Teigen, actor Richard Madden and musician turned actress Lady Gaga on the esteemed annual ranking. Director Spike Lee, New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and actress Sandra Oh also made the list. In a piece published in the Time 100 magazine, Beyonce pays homage to Obama. READ MORE: Michelle Obama addresses breaking royal protocol She writes: Loving Michelle Obama wasnt much of a choice. It was something that came naturally, because of how she carried herself. Because she resembled us and was moving in spaces where, as black Americans, we werent exactly meant to be, she seemed so powerful." "She empowers all of us to interrogate our fears and surpass greatness," Beyonce adds. "I am so grateful that my daughters and my son live in a world where Michelle Obama shines as a beacon of hope who inspires all of us to do better and to be better." READ MORE: Michelle Obama breaks internet with 3000 Balenciaga boots Obama may soon have a further honour as her memoir Becoming is set to be the bestselling hardback autobiography of all time. Meanwhile, Michelle Obamas husband, former US President Barack Obama, has made the list a record 11 times. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) The Missouri House passed legislation Thursday that could effectively block one of the nation's largest wind energy projects by prohibiting its developers from using eminent domain to run a high-voltage power line across the Midwest. The House vote targets a $2.3 billion project that would carry electricity generated by Kansas windmills on a 780-mile (1,255-kilometer) path across rural Missouri and Illinois before hooking into a power grid in Indiana serving eastern states. The project's private developers say it has the potential to bring affordable, renewable energy to millions of homes. But the long-delayed power line has faced opposition from some property owners in its path and trouble clearing some regulatory requirements. It appeared to overcome a major hurdle last month when Missouri utility regulators reversed previous denials and granted their approval a step that could allow developers to pursue condemnation cases to acquire easements from unwilling sellers. But legislation intended to block that passed the House 115-35 and now heads to the Senate. On Thursday, Republican Gov. Mike Parson appeared to show support for the legislation. "I am a firm believer in protecting individual freedom and rights of private property owners, especially our farmers and ranchers," Parson said in a written statement to The Associated Press. "We will continue to stay engaged with the legislature to ensure that we are equipped to protect all Missourians from potential threats of government overreach for private gain." Former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, had backed the project and, after leaving office in 2017, successfully argued a case before the Missouri Supreme Court that overturned a prior regulatory rejection of it. If the Missouri legislation against eminent domain becomes law, the Grain Belt Express power line could be zapped or at least forced to zigzag along a new route, if developers can find cooperative landowners. Story continues Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners has been working since 2010 to develop the direct-current line capable of transmitting about 4,000 megawatts of power. Chicago-based Invenergy announced last fall that it was acquiring the project, though the sale still needs regulatory approval. A coalition of municipal utilities already has agreed to buy a portion of the 500 megawatts of power that would be made available in Missouri a deal that helped persuade utility regulators that the project is in the public interest. Invenergy spokeswoman Beth Conley said the company is disappointed that Missouri lawmakers are attempting to stop the project. She said the power line could result in $32 million in payments to Missouri landowners and $7 million in property taxes to local Missouri governments in its first year of operation. The Missouri Public Utility Alliance said the cheaper wind power from the transmission line could save $12.8 million annually for the residents served by 39 municipal utilities. But some lawmakers said discounted electricity rates for certain people shouldn't justify taking property rights away from others. Though most opponents focused on the potential use of eminent domain, Republican Rep. Tim Remole also questioned the wisdom of relying on renewable energy. "The wind does not always blow, and the sun does not always shine," Remole said. "We can depend on upon fossil fuels." One of the project's defenders is Democratic Rep. Deb Lavender, whose suburban St. Louis hometown of Kirkwood plans to purchase some of the wind power. "It's time for us to take our head out of the coal bin and realize there is a future for our children on this planet that we don't seem to be watching out for," Lavender said. ___ Follow David A. Lieb at: http://twitter.com/DavidALieb WASHINGTON The wait for special counsel Robert Mueller's report on his investigation into President Donald Trump and Russia's campaign to influence the 2016 election ends on Thursday. Attorney General William Barr will hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. on the release of a redacted version of Mueller's report. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in 2017 and oversaw much of the special counsel's investigation until Barr was confirmed as attorney general in February, will also be at the press conference. The report is expected to go to Congress between 11 a.m. and noon EDT and likely will be released to the public around the same time. The sprawling investigation, begun in secret months before Trump was elected, did not find that the president or members of his campaign conspired with Russian efforts to sway the election in his favor, Barr wrote in a four-page letter to Congress summarizing Mueller's key findings. But Barr said the special counsel declined to draw a conclusion about whether Trump had sought to obstruct that inquiry. Want news from USA TODAY on WhatsApp? Click this link on your mobile device to get started Mueller's report covers nearly 400 pages; so far, the public has seen fewer than 100 words. What the full document says about the president, his campaign, and how he interacted with the investigation could shape the immediate future of Trump's presidency. Investigators working for Mueller plumbed deeply into Trump's campaign and his administration, and charged six of his closest advisers with federal crimes. While the probe didn't find Trump himself committed a crime, the investigation almost certainly produced a large store of information about the Trump administration, not all of it flattering. The report is expected to detail the evidence Mueller's office gathered, and why it reached the conclusions it did. There will likely be plenty for the public to unpack. Here are six key things to look for: Story continues Links between Trump campaign and Russia Barr said in his letter to lawmakers that Trump's campaign had received "multiple offers" of assistance from Russia-affiliated individuals, but he provided no details about what those offers were or what came of them. The report might describe the offers and how the Trump campaign responded. Mueller's office detailed some of those contacts in court filings, including meetings between a young campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, and someone he thought was linked to the Russian government who boasted of having obtained "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Months later, top campaign officials took a meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer claiming to have damaging information on Clinton. And Paul Manafort passed polling data to a business associate the FBI believed was linked to Russian intelligence while he was managing Trump's campaign. Investigators have never revealed what they made of those contacts. Barr said the special counsel's investigation determined that they did not amount to a criminal conspiracy between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin. But what other conclusions, if any, did they draw about those encounters? Evidence of obstruction Barr wrote in his letter that Mueller and his team looked into "a number of actions" by Trump. He also wrote that "most" of these have been publicly reported, raising an obvious question about episodes that have not yet been revealed. Barr wrote that instead of making a "traditional prosecutorial judgment," Mueller's report "sets out evidence on both sides of the question" on obstruction. This suggests the report could reveal evidence that may be good or bad for the president. More pointedly, Mueller wrote, as quoted by Barr, that the report "does not exonerate" Trump, raising questions about what actions the president took that did not rise to the level of a crime, but may, nevertheless, be concerning. The report could explain why Mueller declined to draw a conclusion on obstruction. And it could reveal in far more detail what went on inside the White House during the special counsel investigation. Trump, Moscow and Michael Cohen Apart from conversations between campaign aides and apparent Russian emissaries, one of the threads connecting Trump to Moscow was an effort by his company to build a high rise there. Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to misleading lawmakers about the timing of that project, saying it ended in early 2016 when it actually continued until Trump had virtually secured the Republican nomination. Cohen testified that he briefed Trump and some of his children about the project, which never went forward, even as Trump was publicly denying any business interests in Russia during the 2016 campaign. Cohen later testified to Congress that Trump had encouraged him to lie to lawmakers about the project. He also said some of the president's lawyers reviewed and edited his false statements before he delivered them to Congress. The lawyers deny the accusations. Mueller's report could shed light on how aggressively investigators dug into Trump's business dealings with Russia, and whether they believed Cohen's account of having been encouraged to lie. Russian efforts to sway the election Mueller had offered extensive evidence already about Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. Through indictments of several Russian nationals, Mueller and his team revealed details of phony social media campaigns meant to target Americans' deep political divisions, and hacking operations by a military intelligence service that targeted Clinton and other Democratic organizations. Prosecutors said Russian intelligence passed troves of stolen emails to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which published them at moments seemingly calculated to damage Clinton's campaign. That evidence largely tracks with an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies in early 2017 that the Russian government had attempted to intervene in the 2016 election, in part to help Trump win the White House. The report could reveal more information about the breadth and purpose of Russia's efforts. And it could offer insights about when Trump's campaign learned the hacking operation, which Trump had repeatedly praised. So many other mysteries Almost every public development in the special counsel investigation has left unanswered questions. Take Roger Stone. The Republican operative and longtime Trump adviser was charged with lying to Congress about the campaign's efforts to learn about the damaging material WikiLeaks had obtained. Mueller's prosecutors alleged that Stone told "senior Trump campaign officials" about stolen materials possessed by WikiLeaks and the publication of those records. They also alleged that a senior campaign official was "directed" to communicate with Stone. Mueller's report could provide more information about what prosecutors believe the campaign knew. Who gave that direction? So far, prosecutors haven't said. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russians during the transition before Trump took office, then agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. So far, none of them has said what information he provided to the special counsel, or why he lied in the first place. And there are other questions, big and small: Who is the unnamed congressional candidate that allegedly sought hacked documents about an opponent in the 2016 election from Russian intelligence officers posing as an online activist? Who is the unnamed member of Congress who, according to former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, met with his former boss Manafort in 2013 as part of the pair's illicit lobbying in Ukraine? What, if any, will the report say about Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide who was the target of secret surveillance in 2016 after the FBI said it had evidence that he was working with Moscow? Mueller's report could finally provide answers to all of those questions. Or none. Redacted information Barr said the Justice Department will conceal information related to grand jury proceedings, which Mueller used extensively during his investigation, as well as material that could compromise intelligence sources and methods and infringe on personal privacy and interests of "peripheral" third parties. The Justice Department also made clear in a court filing on Wednesday that it has redacted information related to pending criminal matters that resulted from Mueller's investigation. That includes the case against Stone. The department, however, said that it plans "to make available for review" a less-redacted version of the report to "a limited number" of lawmakers and their staff. This version, which will not be available to the media and the public, will show information related to the charges against Stone, according to the filing. Findings: Investigation found no evidence of Russia conspiracy, leaves obstruction question open Letter: Read AG William Barr's summary of key findings Contributing: Bart Jansen, Brad Heath and Kevin Johnson This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Mueller report becomes public Thursday. Here are six things to look for. Democratic leadership in Congress has slammed attorney general William Barr for his irresponsible and partisan handling of the Mueller report, and has demanded public testimony regarding the investigation into Donald Trump as soon as possible. In a joint statement ahead of Mr Barrs planned press conference and the reports expected release on Thursday, speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer demanded that the attorney speak truth to the American people. Attorney general Barrs regrettably partisan handling of the Mueller report, including his slanted March 24th summary letter, his irresponsible testimony before Congress last week, and his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference later this morning hours before he allows the public or Congress to see it have resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality, the statement read. The statement continued: We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsels investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible. The American people deserve to hear the truth. Mr Barrs planned press conference comes roughly a month after the Justice Department received the Mueller report from the special counsels office, and after the attorney general released a four page letter to Congress summarising the report. In that letter, Mr Barr wrote that the investigation had found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential campaign. The attorney general also said in that letter that the special counsel had failed to reach a conclusion on the question of Mr Trumps obstruction of justice. The letter was immediately decried by Democrats in Congress, who questioned whether Mr Barr was accurately describing the evidence against the president, or if he was helping to spin the media narrative around the report. Story continues Mr Barr subsequently testified before Congress, where he largely refused to divulge further details about the Mueller report, but offers his opinion that the FBI had spied on the Trump campaign. The attorney generals office also reportedly briefed the White House on the Mueller report before its release to Congress, leading to further concerns that the Justice Department was not acting independently. WASHINGTON President Trump personally directed his advisers and contacts to help find former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons missing 30,000 emails, according to special counsel Robert Muellers report on his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In July 2016, Trump publicly called for Russian hackers to find the emails during a campaign speech, saying, Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Trump, in later written responses to the special counsels questions, said he made those comments in jest and sarcastically. However, according to interviews the special counsel conducted with his associates, then-candidate Trump was taking the prospect of discovering the emails seriously. Throughout 2016, the Trump Campaign expressed interest in Hillary Clinton's private email server and whether approximately 30,000 emails from that server had in fact been permanently destroyed, as reported by the media, wrote the Office of Special Counsel in its report, released Thursday. The report states that Trump asked individuals affiliated with his Campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails. While the investigators did not find coordination between Russians and Trump officials in finding the emails, or any evidence of success in uncovering them, the report concludes that some of those efforts were pursued to some degree. According to Muellers report, Trump privately asked members of his campaign, including Michael Flynn, who would go on to become the presidents first national security adviser, to find the emails. The report references Flynns recollections of interactions with then-candidate Trump. Additionally, former campaign adviser Rick Gates recalled Trump being frustrated that the missing emails had not been found. Presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a press conference at Trump National Doral on July 27, 2016, where he called on Russia to find Hillary Clinton's deleted emails. (Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images) Flynn tasked multiple people with carrying out Trumps wishes, including Barbara Ledeen, wife of former government-security consultant and prominent neoconservative Michael Ledeen, as well as investment adviser and Republican activist Peter Smith. Barbara Ledeen, however, was already on the hunt as early as 2015, according to Muellers report. She even planned to go to foreign intelligence services to investigate whether the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian intelligence services had gotten hold of the sensitive emails, which, she noted, if true, would be catastrophic to the Clinton campaign. Story continues Smith took on the challenge, creating his own company and raising tens of thousands of dollars, according to the report, alleging to associates that he was in contact with Russian hackers who had access to the emails. Those efforts were routinely shared with candidate Trumps fledgling foreign-policy advisory team, including Sam Clovis, a former Air Force officer and politician. According to Muellers report, other prominent Trump-connected officials, including Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, also assisted in the effort to track down the emails. By September 2016, Barbara Ledeen purported to have found potential evidence of the deleted emails on the dark web. Another Trump associate, Erik Prince, the founder of private military-security contractor Blackwater, hired a technical adviser to verify the authenticity of the emails. The adviser claimed they were not authentic, according to the report. Smiths efforts were uncovered by the Wall Street Journal at the time. In May 2017, days after communicating with a Journal reporter, Smith was found dead in his hotel room. Smith, who was reportedly terminally ill at the time, is believed to have committed suicide. While the Mueller report does not mention other efforts made by Trump associates to find the emails on the dark web, another Trump foreign-policy adviser, former Pentagon inspector general Joseph Schmitz, spent considerable time seeking the emails as well going as far as reporting his findings to the intelligence community inspector general, the FBI and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, according to CNN. _____ More coverage of the Mueller report from Yahoo News: Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report has finally been released to the public and we're beginning to get a sense of what's inside. The Department of Justice released a redacted version of the report into Russian interference in the 2016 election Thursday following a press conference held by Attorney General William Barr. The Independent's Chris Riotta, Victoria Gagliardo-Silver and Lily Puckett reviewed the report, finding numerous examples of inappropriate contacts between Russian operatives and members of the Trump campaign throughout the 2016 presidential election, as well as extensive business discussions between Mr Trump and his associates to discuss a major real estate project in Moscow as he was running for the White House. Mr Trumps efforts to influence the Russia investigation were mostly unsuccessful, according to the report, but that was because the people surrounding the president declined to carry out orders to accede to his requests. Mr Muellers report details instances by several officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, former White House counsel Don McGahn and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, ignoring or refusing the president's requests to interfere in the investigation. The most heavily redacted portion of the report appears in its first section, which covers Russias meddling in the 2016 election and examines contacts between Russian representatives and the Trump campaign. The report concludes there was no criminal culpability by Trump aides. Several pages in that first section are almost entirely blacked out. The reports second section, examining possible obstruction by Mr Trump, appeared more lightly redacted. The Justice Departments careful excisions begin as early as the fourth page of the report. Mr Barr said he was withholding grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to ongoing investigation and the privacy or reputation of uncharged peripheral people. In referencing an oligarch who headed up a team of Russian tech experts who used US social media to exploit American political controversies, Justice officials blacked out details about the mans ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Additional reporting by AP. Check out The Independent's initial live-read of the document below. Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load The Mueller report is almost here. The 448-page document will cover the two parts of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation: Russian interference with the 2016 election and possible collusion by President Trumps campaign; and possible obstruction of justice by the president. But before the redacted report is released, following Attorney General William Barrs Thursday-morning press conference, here are the moments that brought us to the Mueller report: Russia, if youre listening and the 2016 election Yahoo News photo illustration; photos: AP, Getty Images Months before election night, Russian hackers worked to steal emails and documents from Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Former FBI Director James Comey, who led the probe into Clintons email use, said the then secretary of state was "extremely careless" in handling classified information. By July, as the Democratic and Republican parties were solidifying their nominations, those stolen emails were published by WikiLeaks. Thousands of emails that Clintons lawyers deemed personal were deleted from her files and have never surfaced. Days after Trump at a July 2016 news conference said, Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, the FBI quietly opened an investigation, Operation Crossfire Hurricane, into connections between Trumps campaign and Russia. After Trump won, President Barack Obama ordered an intelligence-community assessment into Russian meddling. Presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a press conference in July 2016 in Doral, Fla. (Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images) The Steele dossier Before Trump was sworn in to office, a 35-page dossier alleging cooperation between Russia and the Trump campaign was leaked to the media and published by BuzzFeed. The unverified dossier was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and became one of the starting points of Muellers investigation. It was reportedly disseminated by Sen. John McCain. However, recently unsealed court documents showed that an associate of McCains, former State Department diplomat David Kramer, was the one who shared copies of the dossier with BuzzFeed and other media outlets. Story continues Kramer testified he only was briefed on the dossier by a former British diplomat on Nov. 19, 2016, nearly two weeks after Election Day. McCain had also been briefed and then in the following weeks gave the reports alleging conspiracy between Trumps campaign and the Russian government to former FBI Director James Comey. But before this brief and the election, Comey had opened a counterintelligence investigation based on a previous tip about the Russian email hack. It came from Australian officials who, around the time of the first leaks, informed their U.S. counterparts that George Papadopoulos, the foreign policy adviser for Trumps campaign, informally told them that the Russians had political dirt on Clinton. Comey fired... On May 9, 2017, not long after Comey confirmed an investigation into the 2016 election, he was fired by Trump. He later testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that the newly sworn-in president told him, I need loyalty. Trump himself told NBC correspondent Lester Holt that he fired the FBI director because of this Russia thing. Comey said Trump urged him to stop investigations into his national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had been asked about his contacts with Russia and resigned, before becoming one of the first cooperators in the probe. ...and Mueller moves in After Comey, then came Mueller, who started his investigation in May 2017. The former FBI director was chosen to lead the probe into Russian interference and potential collusion with Trump associates. Muellers objective, outlined in a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, was to find connections collusion between Trumps campaign and the Russian government and to investigate related matters including possible obstruction of the investigation. Robert Mueller leaves a meeting with the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 21, 2017. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Trump decried the investigation as a "witch hunt" and a "hoax as it began looking into his business, his associates and his actions while in office. First charges announced... On Oct. 30, 2017, Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his business partner as well former top adviser to Trump Rick Gates were charged: Manafort for conspiracy and money laundering, Gates for financial fraud and lying to the FBI. ...with more to follow After Manafort and Gates, Flynn, whod served less than a month as national security adviser, in December 2017 pleaded guilty to willfully and knowingly making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the FBI about conversations with Russia's ambassador. The Russian troll farm In February 2018, Mueller in a 37-page indictment also brought charges against Russian intelligence agents who engaged in cyberattacks starting in 2014 and continuing through the 2016 election. Thirteen individuals and three companies connected to the Internet Research Agency, also known as the Russian troll farm, were charged with conducting information warfare against the United States. The presidents men In the following months, more Trump associates were swept into the probe. Papadopoulos, Trumps former foreign policy adviser for his presidential campaign, was sentenced to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian government. Michael Cohen, Trumps former attorney, also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about negotiations during the 2016 campaign to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, supporting Trumps claims that he had no business dealings with Russia. Separately, Cohen was indicted by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan on charges related to hush-money payoffs associated with Trumps personal life before he became president. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen leaves federal court after his sentencing hearing in New York City, on Dec. 12, 2018. (Photo: Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) The presidents son and son-in-law Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was questioned by Muellers team about a meeting at Trump Tower, along with Paul Manafort and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, to get dirt on Clinton from a Russian lawyer with connections to Russian intelligence. The White House put out a statement claiming the meeting was about a dispute over Americans being allowed to adopt Russian children. There is no evidence in public that the meeting led to any specific cooperation. Barr confirmed as new AG After Trumps Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whod recused himself from overseeing the probe into Russian interference, resigned at Trumps request, the president nominated William Barr, a former Republican attorney general, to replace him. Michael Cohen breaks Less than a month before the investigation would end, Cohen testified publicly for the first time before the House Oversight Committee. He called his former boss a racist, a conman and a cheat. Mueller ends investigation On March 22, after 23 months by 40 FBI agents, 500 search warrants, 500 witnesses and 2,800 subpoenas, Mueller sent the confidential report to Barr, who two days later released a summary of the report, saying the probe found no conspiracy and that Mueller drew no conclusions about possible obstruction, finding the evidence equivocal. Barr said he decided not to pursue charges. No other indictments have been handed up. However, Barr pointed out that "the Special Counsel states that while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Trumps victory lap Nonetheless, the president took Barrs summary as complete and total exoneration. Barr testimony Democrats, skeptical of Barrs four-page summary of the 448-page report, requested Barr to testify before Congress about his principal conclusions of the report and to deliver the full, unredacted version of it to lawmakers and the American people. During his testimony, Barr said agents engaged in spying on Trumps 2016 campaign during their investigation. He then backed off this claim. Attorney General William Barr listens during a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on April 10. (Anna Moneymaker/Bloomberg) Report to be released A redacted version of the report is expected to be published on the special counsels website. It will not be as comprehensive and detailed as the infamous Starr report on the investigation of then-President Bill Clinton. Material covering four areas will be blacked out, including information that is relevant to a grand jury, that the intelligence community finds will reveal sources and methods, that would interfere with ongoing prosecutions or that would implicate the privacy of "peripheral players who havent been charged. Whats next? The House Judiciary Committee plans to call Mueller to testify, presumably to ask why no obstruction charges were brought against Trump. Meanwhile, Barr has vowed to investigate the origin of the FBIs counterintelligence investigation. As for Trump, he still faces congressional investigations into alleged obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power by his administration. _____ More coverage of the Mueller report from Yahoo News: Nairobi Hospitals Board of Management has sacked suspended CEO Gordon Otieno Odundo. The embattled Chief Executive Officer had been sent on compulsory leave to allow for an audit of the hospitals tendering activities. On Wednesday, Nairobi Hospitals Board Chairman Mr John Simba said Mr Odundos contract had been terminated with immediate effect. The Board of Management, after due consideration of all the relevant factors pertaining to the office of the Chief Executive Officer, unanimously resolved to terminate the service contract of Mr. Gordon Otieno Odundo as the Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital effective immediately, said Mr. Simba in a statement. The board has appointed the Managing Director, Christopher Abeid, as the Acting Chief Executive Officer. The Board will put in motion the process of identifying a suitable replacement. Until this process is finalized, Christopher Abeid, M.D. will continue as the Acting Chief Executive Officer, the statement reads. Odundo was first sent on a three-month compulsory leave in December last year. It was later extended to April 13. Mr Odundos suspension followed leadership wrangles in the hospitals management, with the bone of contention being control of tenders awarded to the hospital. Last year, there was a standoff at the hospital after Odundo reportedly locked himself in his office to avoid being served the suspension letter. His dismissal comes a day after a staff member allegedly succumbed to cholera in the troubled facility. The hospital, however, dismissed claims of a cholera outbreak at the facility. There is no outbreak of Cholera at the Nairobi Hospital. No patient is at risk and we are continuously monitoring. All precautionary measures are in place, a statement read on Tuesday. WASHINGTON The long-awaited report from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian investigation did not find conspiracy between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Moscow, but it painted a vivid picture of chaos inside the White House as the president scrambled to react to those allegations. The report brings to light new details about the frantic first months of Trump's presidency, as senior aides were ordered to carry out presidential instructions that made them uncomfortable. Sometimes senior aides simply ignored his orders, or tried desperately to change his mind. Trump has for two years brushed aside media reports and tell-all books describing West Wing chaos, suggesting those stories were based on disgruntled former aides and anonymous sources. Though most of the anecdotes included in Mueller's report were previously reported, they will now be harder to explain away as politically motivated fictions. Mueller's report suggests that, in some instances, Trump's aides were attempting to protect the president by not carrying out his requests. The murkiness around their motivations and his are a central reason why it was difficult for the special counsel's team to determine whether the president attempted to obstruct justice. The president's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests, Mueller wrote in the report. In some cases, Mueller said, top White House officials consulted their own personal lawyers before deciding whether to carry out an order from the president. The report pulls back a curtain on a president who was frustrated and angry by developments taking place beyond his control, and searching for a way to get a handle on an investigation that threatened to consume his presidency and stymie his agenda. When Attorney General Jeff Sessions informed the president that Mueller was appointed as special counsel, Sessions recalled Trump slouching in his chair and lamenting his fate. "This is the end of my presidency," Trump said. "I'm f---ed." Story continues McGahn under pressure One pivotal moment came on a Saturday in June, 2017. Trump was on his first visit to Camp David for what was ostensibly a family retreat but was really a damage-control session after press reports Mueller was investigating obstruction of justice. Trump called White House Counsel Don McGahn at home twice, asking him to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can't be the Special Counsel, Trump said, according to McGahns statement to Mueller. President Donald Trump reacts at the International Union of Operating Engineers International Training and Education Center, April 10, 2019, in Crosby, Texas. McGahn told Trump he didnt want to be like Saturday Night Massacre Bork, referring to Nixon solicitor general Robert Bork who fired a special prosecutor investigating Watergate. Both the attorney general and deputy attorney general refused Nixons order and resigned. President Ronald Reagan later nominated Bork to the Supreme Court, though he was not confirmed. McGahn told colleagues in the White House that he planned to resign, but wouldnt say why because he didnt want to involve them. He told then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus only that Trump had asked him to "do crazy sh--. Priebus convinced McGahn to stay. When the New York Times reported on the episode months later, Trump called it a typical New York Times fake story. Privately, he pressured McGahn to deny the story in writing. He called his White House counsel a lying bastard and told Staff Secretary Rob Porter, "If he doesn't write a letter, then maybe I'll have to get rid of him. Trump also asked McGahn why he told Mueller that he had threatened to fire the special counsel. "What-about these notes? Why do you take notes? Trump said. Lawyers don't take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes." Trump react: Trump thought Mueller would 'end' his presidency Main story: Mueller report documents links between Trump campaign and Russia 'I called him anyway' As official Washington flipped through the 400-page document, the culmination of a nearly two-year investigation, they were confronted with the details of a president scrambling to deal with a probe he grasped would be politically damaging, even if he believed he had done nothing wrong during the 2016 presidential election. Similar anecdotes have for years popped up in books and media coverage, which Trump has almost always dismissed as politically motivated hit jobs. Veteran reporter Bob Woodward chronicled an episode in his book "Fear" last year in which former economic adviser Gary Cohn removed a draft of a document from the president's desk to prevent the administration from ending a trade agreement with ally South Korea. Cohn resigned last year. Anecdotes in Mueller's report suggest the president's effort to question the investigation often backfired, and occurred over the advice of close aides. White House attorneys had advised the president not to call then FBI director James Comey in 2017 for fear it would create a perception he was attempting to interfere in the initial stages of the Russian investigation. But Trump made those calls anyway, and told his senior aides after the fact that Comey informed him the FBI could say publicly that the president was not personally under investigation. "I know you told me not to, but I called Comey anyway," Trump told his aides in April 2017, according to the report. Less than a month later, Trump fired Comey. Uncomfortable orders The Monday after the Camp David visit, Trump met with his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, in the Oval Office. Lewandowski had no formal role in the administration, but Trump asked him to give Sessions a directive. Write this down, Trump said. Lewandowski wrote it down, and later gave it to Mueller. Trump directed Sessions to give a speech saying Trump didn't do anything wrong except he ran the greatest campaign in American history. He also wanted Lewandowski to tell Sessions to limit the special counsel to only investigating future Russian election meddling and not obstruction. But Lewandowski didnt want to tell Sessions over the phone, and he didnt want to visit the Justice Department because that would create a record. So Lewandowski and Sessions never met. Instead, Lewandowski asked Rick Dearborn, then the White House deputy chief of staff, to do it. But Dearborn said the message made him uncomfortable. He told Lewandowski he would take care of it, but didnt. Aides push back A month later, aboard Marine One, Trump told Priebus that Sessions should resign. "I need a letter of resignation on my desk immediately, he said. Priebus and McGahn agreed that they would refuse to carry out the order. Trump bugged Priebus about it later in the day. "Did you get it? Are you working on it?" Priebus said that if Sessions resigned, his top two deputies would also resign. Instead, Trump stepped up his public criticism of Sessions. For the rest of the year, Sessions had a letter of resignation prepared and carried it with him in his pocket every time he went to the White House. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mueller report lifts curtain on White House chaos as aides ignore, manage Trump The ongoing Democrat-led Congressional investigations into Donald Trump are determined to unravel the conspiracy behind the stealing of Clinton campaign emails and the alleged part played in that incident by WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, according to diplomatic sources. The inquiry by the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee is said to be particularly focused on how the emails, as well as those of the Democratic National Committee, were hacked and made public, gravely damaging Hillary Clintons campaign and helping Donald Trump to the White House. The report into Trump and Russia by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is due to be made public, with redactions by Attorney General William Barr, on Thursday. However, a number of inquiries, by state prosecutors as well as Congressional Committees, will continue into various accusations against the President, including alleged collusion with the Kremlin. Assange, who was arrested last week after Ecuador withdrew his asylum status and he was expelled from the countrys embassy in London, is now facing extradition to the US over the hacking and dissemination of US intelligence and defence documents in 2010. However the Justice Department can add further charges if and when Assange is sent back to America. The WikiLeaks founder may also face an investigation into alleged sexual assault in Sweden, although no request for extradition has come so far from authorities in Stockholm. Last July the US Justice Department charged 12 Russian military intelligence officers, from the GRU, with carrying out the hacking of the emails with the indictment stating that they had been in contact with WikiLeaks. A number of people close to Trump are said to have been in touch with Assange over the emails. The most high profile of this group, Roger Stone, a long-term close advisor to the US president, was arrested in January as part of Muellers investigation. The Special Counsels indictment states that during the election campaign, Stone talked regularly to Trump officials about the information WikiLeaks, called Organisation 1 in the document, possessed which would be damaging to Hillary Clintons campaign. Story continues In August 2016 Stone reportedly emailed Sam Nunberg, another Trump advisor, that he was communicating with Assange through an intermediary, who is a personal friend. He tweeted a few days later Julian Assange is a hero. A few days later he added I actually have communicated with Assange, I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation ... The House Intelligence Committee, according to sources, is looking at attempts made by Stone to secure a presidential pardon for Assange were he to be extradited to the US. In text messages which have emerged, Stone told a friend, Randy Credico, in January: I am working with others to get JA a blanket pardon. Its a very real possibility Stone, in an email to Mother Jones magazine, confirmed: I most definitely advocated a pardon for Assange. Credico, who Stone claims was his contact with Assange, claimed that the WikiLeaks founder asked him to set up a meeting with Schiff to prove there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Schiffs office responded: Our Committee would be willing to interview Julian Assange when he is in US custody, not before. Credico has since retracted his claims about Assange and he and Stone have accused each other of lying. However Michael Cohen, Trumps long-time personal lawyer and confidante, had also claimed that the US president knew that Stone was in communication with Assange. Speaking to a Congressional inquiry, Cohen described a speakerphone conversation in which: Mr Stone told Mr Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr Assange told Mr Stone that within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clintons campaign. Mr Trump responded by stating to the effect Wouldnt that be great. Schiff had said that allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks was a very important investigative thread, his Committee will pursue. WikiLeaks has denied any collusion between itself and Assange with Russia or the Trump campaign. Trump, who praised WikiLeaks dozens of time during the election campaign, saying repeatedly I love WikiLeaks, has since tried to claim, after Assanges arrest, that I know nothing about WikiLeaks. Philip Lacovara, a lawyer on the Watergate prosecution team which investigated Richard Nixon and his associates, told Politico that Assanges arrest has reopened the Russia collusion affair. He added the Department of Justice evidently retains considerable interest in the information Assange can supply. He knows where the hacked DNC emails came from, and he knows when and how the Trump campaign learned about this treasure trove of political dirt. He also knows whether the Trump campaign coordinated the timing of leaks for political advantage. He is also likely to know whether anyone from the Trump campaign actively solicited additional hacking. WASHINGTON Just hours before Robert Mueller's report was finally released on Thursday, President Donald Trump unleashed a volley of tweets denouncing the probe as a historic "hoax" perpetrated by Democrats taunting them in one post that employed a Game of Thrones theme. Minutes after Attorney General William Barr read out a summary of the report to be released later in the day, Trump tweeted a picture of himself staring into the mists of battle with the tagline: "No collusion, no obstruction ... For the haters and the radical left Democrats ... Game Over." Little more than an hour later, Trump repeated the "no collusion, no obstruction" line at a White House event honoring wounded warriors for their annual bike ride. "There never was," the president said, and he suggested he would look into how the investigation began. "This should never happen to another president again this hoax," Trump said. Trump began the morning with a tweet that said "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats." Trump's critics said the barrage of tweets betrayed his anxiety about how the Mueller report will detail his actions with respect to Russia and the investigation. "Hmm. I guess clicking your heels three times and saying 'total exoneration' doesnt make it so," tweeted attorney Michael R. Bromwich, a former Justice Department official. A series of more than ten tweets and re-tweets included a couple of short catchphrases Trump has used to describe the Mueller investigation: "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!" and "No Collusion - No Obstruction!" The latter tweet included videos of Trump repeatedly denying collusion with Russia, and complaining about the investigation. Story continues The Mueller report itself provided more details of the investigation into Trump's presidential campaign and Russians who sought to influence the 2016 election, as well as claims that Trump may have tried to obstruct the investigation. The Mueller report: Public to get first look at long-awaited results of inquiry into Russia, Trump campaign 6 things to look for: The Mueller report becomes public Thursday. Here are six things to look for. Want news from USA TODAY on WhatsApp? Click this link on your mobile device to get started The president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said the entire issue is political. He has also tried to shift the blame to Democrats. On Thursday he re-tweeted Judicial Watch, the conservative educational foundation that has filed lawsuits seeking information from the FBI and the Barack Obama-era Justice Department about the conduct of the Russia investigation. The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 Attorney General William Barr issued a summary of the Mueller report on March 24, saying there was no evidence of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russians who sought to influence the 2016 election by stealing emails from prominent Democrats. After the report: President Trump still facing swirl of investigations even after Robert Mueller's probe has ended There will be 2 versions: Some members of Congress will see a less-redacted version of Mueller report, DOJ says Barr also reported that Mueller did not reach a conclusion on the obstruction of justice question. The attorney general said his office determined there was not sufficient evidence to make a case against Trump. Justice Department attorneys have spent recent weeks reviewing the report, redacting grand jury testimony and classified intelligence information before the report is made public. PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 No Collusion - No Obstruction! pic.twitter.com/diggF8V3hl Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Donald Trump tweets 'Game Over' after Justice Department releases redacted Mueller report WASHINGTON To thwart a federal investigation of Russian efforts to help him win the White House, President Donald Trump fired the FBI director, ordered an aide to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and urged associates to pressure the attorney general to curb the inquiry. From the first months of his administration, Trump pushed repeatedly to limit the inquiry into Russian interference with the 2016 election that began with the FBI and continued under Mueller. His attempts to block or curb the inquiry that he worried could tarnish his presidency are detailed in Mueller's final report on his 22-month investigation, released Thursday by the Justice Department. Four months into his term, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The next day he told Russia's foreign minister that he "faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off.... I'm not under investigation." When Mueller was appointed days later to take over that investigation, Trump feared it would end his presidency. He told then-White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, but McGahn refused and later told another White House aide that the president asked him to "do crazy s---." Trump also erupted at his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for removing himself from managing the Russia investigation because of his work for Trump's campaign. After Mueller was appointed in May 2017, Sessions handed Trump a resignation letter, but Trump pocketed it instead of ousting him. Then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said it would be bad for Trump to keep the letter because it would act like a "shock collar" that would hold "DOJ by the throat." Trump met in June 2017 with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and forced him to take dictation for a message to Sessions. Trump said he felt "treated very unfairly" and told Sessions that the inquiry should be limited to "investigating election meddling for future elections," not the one that had put him in office. Lewandowski never delivered the message. Story continues None of those was sufficient for prosecutors to conclude that Trump had committed a crime by obstructing the Russia investigation, in part because his aides largely refused to carry out his orders. But Mueller's office pointedly declined to say that it had cleared the president of wrongdoing, writing instead that the report "also does not exonerate him." "The president's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that was largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," the report said. "Consistent with that pattern, the evidence we obtained would not support potential obstruction of justice charges against the president's aides and associates beyond those already filed." Trump's personal lawyers said in a statement Thursday that the president's actions were justified. They said he acted correctly in firing Comey for launching a "biased, political attack," though that is not the reason Trump gave at the time for ousting the FBI director. "Instead of protecting the time-honored principle that the president as with any American is innocent until proven guilty, they clearly set up a scheme to derail the President pushing a twisted narrative claiming he was guilty until proven innocent," they said in the statement. Mueller also suggested Congress could make its own judgment about the president's conduct with evidence from the report, one that is not necessarily tethered to criminal law. "With respect to whether the president can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a president's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice," Mueller's report said. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said the report provided substantial evidence that Trump tried to obstruct justice. Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct," Nadler said. The report concluded there was substantial evidence that President Trump attempted to prevent an investigation into his campaign and his own conduct." More about Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's report: Mueller report documents links between Trump campaign and Russia, steps to thwart probe; finds no conspiracy Mueller report: Trump's anger over Russia probe may have saved him from obstruction charge Donald Trump reacts to Mueller report: 'Its called no collusion, no obstruction' The redacted report was released in two volumes on Thursday, one dedicated to answering whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election and the other to whether the president attempted to obstruct the investigation. In the report, Mueller laid out what investigators considered to be key events in which they believed Trump had sought to influence the investigation into his campaign. Most had been revealed publicly already, but the special counsel's report spelled them out in staggering detail. Among the evidence outlined in the report: Trumps reaction to the Russia investigation. Sessions announced his recusal from the investigation March 2, 2017, because he had worked on Trump's campaign. Trump expressed anger, and that weekend Trump took Sessions aside and urged him to "unrecuse." Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017. Trump had earlier asked Comey to go easy on his investigation of then-National Security Adviser Mike Flynn. On March 30, Trump asked Comey to "lift the cloud" of the Russia investigation. The day after firing him, Trump told Russia's foreign minister: "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job." The appointment of Mueller and efforts to remove him. Trump reacted angrily to Muellers appointment. "Oh my God," Trump said, according to the report. "This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency." Efforts to have McGahn deny that Trump ordered him to have Mueller removed. After the media reported on June 14, 2017, that Mueller was investigating possible obstruction, Trump reacted with a series of tweets criticizing the Justice Department and Mueller. Trump called White House counsel Don McGahn at home June 17, 2017, and said Mueller had conflicts and should be removed. McGahn didnt carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre, a reference to former President Richard Nixon firing prosecutors during the Watergate investigation. Trump later met with McGahn in the Oval Office and pressured him again, but McGahn refused to back away. McGahn perceived the president to be testing his mettle, the report said. Efforts to curtail Muellers investigation. Trump met June 19, 2017, in the Oval Office with Lewandowski, his former campaign manager, and dictated the message to Sessions. Lewandowski said he understood. A month later, Trump met with Lewandowski again and the former aide said the message would be delivered soon. Hours later, Trump criticized Sessions in an interview with The New York Times. Lewandowski didnt deliver the message but asked White House official Rick Dearborn to do it. But the request "definitely raised an eyebrow" for Dearborn, who was uncomfortable with the task and didnt follow through. Conduct involving former Comey and former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn. Flynn falsely denied in mid-January to FBI agents and top administration officials that he had talked to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. On Feb. 14, the day after Trump requested Flynns resignation, Trump told an outside adviser: Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over. The adviser disagreed. Later that afternoon, Trump met one-on-one with Comey and said, I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. Former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland declined a Trump request to draft a letter stating Trump hadnt directed Flynn to discuss sanctions with Kislyak because she wasnt sure it was true. A White House counsels office attorney thought the request would look like a quid pro quo for an ambassadorship she was offered. Efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence. When Trump heard of press inquiries about a June 9, 2016, meeting in Trump Tower between a Russian lawyer and members of his campaign, the president edited a press statement for his son Donald Trump Jr., who attended the meeting, by deleting a line that acknowledged the meeting was with "an individual who (Trump Jr.) was told might have information helpful to the campaign" and instead said only the meeting was about adoptions. The president's communications director, Hope Hicks, had warned Trump that email setting up the meeting were "really bad" and the story would be "massive" when it broke. Trump told Hicks on at least three occasions not to disclose information about the meeting. "But the evidence does not establish that the president took steps to prevent the emails or other information about the June 9 meeting from being provided to Congress or the special counsel," Mueller's report said. Further efforts to have Sessions take control of the investigation. Trump met privately with Sessions in the Oval Office in October 2017 and told him to "take (a) look" at investigating Clinton. After Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017, Trump met with Sessions in the Oval Office and suggested if he un-recused himself, he would be viewed a "hero." "Im not going to do anything or direct you to do anything," Trump told Sessions, according to a note-taker. "I just want to be treated fairly." Sessions said he had never seen anything improper during the campaign, but didnt change his decision. Conduct toward Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to influence their testimony. In November 2017, the report says that the presidents personal counsel left a voicemail with Flynns counsel saying the White House needed a heads up about Flynns testimony and cooperation with the government. The president also privately asked advisers to pass messages to Flynn conveying that the president still cared about him and encouraging him to stay strong," Mueller's report said. In January 2018, Manafort told Gates he had talked to the presidents personal counsel and they were going to take care of us. The reports says Gates asked Manafort if anyone mentioned pardons, and Manafort said no one used that word. Some of the material was redacted due to ongoing prosecutions. When Flynn ended his joint defense agreement with Trump, the presidents personal counsel said he would make sure Trump knew of his "hostility." But Trump praised Manafort publicly during his trial and said he was being treated unfairly. Conduct involving former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. After the FBI raided the home and office of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump reached out to Cohen publicly and privately to "hang in there" and "stay strong." Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani set up a "back channel" through another lawyer, Robert Costello, who told Cohen he should "Sleep well tonight ... you have friends in high places." Cohen told Mueller that he understood that as long as he stayed on message, Trump would take care of him either with a pardon or by shutting the investigation down. But Trump called Cohen a rat after he began cooperating with Mueller during the summer of 2018. Mueller said he relied on several factors in weighing potential obstruction charges, including whether there was an act of obstruction, a connection to an official proceeding and criminal or corrupt intent. Such prosecutorial decisions are often reached without interviewing an investigations subject, as Trump declined to be interviewed in this case, Mueller wrote. "The evidence we obtained about the presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment," Mueller's report said. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Because Mueller made no decision on obstruction charges, Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and oversaw much of his work, made their own judgment that the evidence the special counsel gathered is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. There is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks, Barr said Thursday. Trumps personal lawyer argued that the president couldnt be charged with obstruction for using his constitutional authority to close an investigation or terminate an FBI director. While acknowledging that broad authority, Mueller said his authority coexists with Congresss to enact laws that protect investigations. Mueller secured several guilty pleas during his investigation, which could be viewed as obstruction by those participants. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about interactions with Russians ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office. during the transition. Flynn awaits sentencing. But the question legal experts have asked is why he lied to investigators four days after taking office and whether someone told him to lie. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the extent of negotiations during the 2016 election year for a real-estate deal in Moscow. Cohen later testified at a House hearing that Trump had told him indirectly to lie, which the president denied. Mueller's report found that "while there is evidence, described below, that the president knew Cohen provided false testimony to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project, the evidence available to us does not establish that the president directed or aided Cohen's false testimony." But the report said Trump appeared to have tried to influence Cohen's testimony. "In analyzing the president's intent in his actions towards Cohen as a potential witness, there is evidence that could support the inference that the president intended to discourage Cohen from cooperating with the government because Cohen's information would shed adverse light on the President's campaign-period conduct and statements," Mueller's report said. Contributing: John Kelly, Ledyard King, Gregory Korte, Kevin McCoy, Steve Reilly and Deirdre Shesgreen More about special counsel Robert Mueller's report: Mueller report: Investigation found no evidence Trump conspired with Russia, leaves obstruction question open Trump claims 'total exoneration' from Mueller summary despite lack of answers on obstruction Mueller report: Criminal investigation moves to political realm as Barr summarizes for Congress This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mueller report: Trump tried to impede Russia probe. Was it obstruction? Yuri Gripas/Reuters The Mueller report isnt out yet, but the rollout is and its already causing controversy. The Justice Department will hold a press conference Thursday morning about the release of Special Counsel Robert Muellers reportbut Mueller wont be there and the document may not be released until after Attorney General William Barr speaks about the nearly 400 pages he went through to redact. The House Judiciary Committee expects to get the Mueller report from DOJ following Barrs press conference scheduled for 9;30 a.m., one committee member and one aide told The Daily Beast. They are making Al Capone look straight, the member said. House Democrats immediately pounced on the Justice Departments plans. Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, who is prepared to subpoena the department for Muellers evidence, ripped Barr. Attorney General Barr wrote to me on April 1: I do not believe it would be in the publics interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report, the New York Democrat wrote. I agree. So why is the AG holding a press conference tomorrow morning to go over the Mueller report? Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said not to trust what Barr says on Thursday. Bill Barr sent a letter purporting to summarize Muellers conclusions. He took it upon himself to reach a conclusion on obstruction. He adopted the Presidents spying smears. Now, he will spin a report no one has read, he wrote. My advice: Wait to read Muellers words for yourself. Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) was one of the first Democratic lawmakers to voice concerns, tweeting, Pretty convenient of the Attorney General to take questions on the report before anyone has a chance to read the report. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports DOJ officials have briefed the White House on Muellers findings while President Trumps team prepares a public-relations offensive against the investigation that Trump has called an illegal witch hunt for two years. Nadler also tweeted he is deeply troubled by the Times report. With additional reporting by Sam Stein Read more at The Daily Beast. WASHINGTON The long-awaited report from special counsel Robert Mueller provides new details from former national security adviser Michael Flynn about his lies to Vice President Mike Pence. Flynn also lied to President Donald Trump about lying to Pence. Confronted by the president on Air Force One about whether he falsely described to Pence his conversation with Russia's ambassador, Flynn told Trump that he may have forgotten details of his calls, but he did not think he lied, according to the report. "The President responded, 'Okay, That's fine. I got it,'" according to Flynn's testimony to special counsel Robert Mueller. Pence was not asked by Mueller's team for an interview but provided documents, according to a White House official. More: Donald Trump denounces 'Crazy Mueller Report,' calls statements about him 'fabricated' and 'untrue' More: Vladimir Putin's team doesn't like Robert Mueller's report on election interference, Trump Flynn's testimony is part of the report's expanded version of the previously known actions that led to Flynn's firing and Trump urging former FBI director James Comey not to go after Flynn. Trump's pressure on Comey is one of the "key issues and events" that Mueller's team considered when investigating whether Trump tried to illegally thwart the investigation. Muellers office did not conclude that Trump's actions were illegal, but also pointedly refused to clear him of wrongdoing, saying "if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Trump also was not interviewed by Mueller's team. Instead, he provided written answers to submitted questions. "After two years of investigation, conducted with the full cooperation of this administration, that involved hundreds of witness interviews and millions of pages of documents, the American people can see for themselves: no collusion, no obstruction," Pence said in a statement Thursday. Story continues Flynn was one of a half-dozen Trump aides who were charged by Muellers team and pleaded guilty. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents on the fourth day of the administration about communicating with Russians during the transition, when the Obama administration was technically still in charge of foreign affairs. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who also was indicted, mentioned Pence in his interview with investigators. Manafort said the campaign information he shared with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska was public information. As an example, Manafort said he shared the reasons Trump chose Pence to be his running mate. Timeline: Pence, Flynn and the Russia investigation: A timeline of key events President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, Aug. 21, 2017 Pence has been on the periphery of the two-year investigation into Russia's involvement in the 2016 election. His exposure was primarily through statements he'd made that were later contradicted. Pence had publicly announced on Jan. 15, 2017 that Flynn assured him he had not discussed the sanctions that President Barack Obama had recently imposed on Russia before leaving office. Authorities who had monitored communications involving foreign diplomats knew that was not the case and later notified the Trump White House. The Justice Department was concerned that Russia now had leverage over Flynn, since they could prove he had lied. The FBI also thought Flynn's conversation with Russia's ambassador could have violated a law preventing private citizens from engaging in unauthorized correspondence with foreign governments. When White House Counsel Donald McGahn briefed Trump on the Flynn situation on Jan. 26, 2017, he was angry. "Not again, this guy, this stuff," former chief of staff Reince Priebus recalled him saying. Mueller report:: Trump's anger over Russia probe may have saved him from obstruction charge Pence didn't find out about the Justice Department's warnings about Flynn until the Washington Post reported Feb. 9, 2017 that Flynn had in fact discussed sanctions with the Russians. The vice president and others then sought access to and reviewed the government's information about Flynn's contacts with the Russian ambassador, according to the report. McGahn and Priebus recommended to Trump that he fire Flynn. Trump confronted Flynn that weekend on the flight back to Washington from Mar-a-Lago. After Trump appeared to accept Flynn's response that he didn't think he'd lied to Pence, Priebus fired Flynn the next day. "Priebus recalled that the President hugged Flynn, shook his hand, and said, 'We'll give you a good recommendation. You're a good guy. We'll take care of you,'" according to the report. In a private meeting with Comey the next day, Trump said he hoped Comey could "see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Comey testified. Months later, Trump fired Comey, suggesting the reason was Comey's handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server. While it was previously reported that Pence participated in a May 8, 2017 Oval Office meeting at which Trump reviewed the draft of a letter laying out reasons for firing Comey, Pence's involvement is not mentioned in Mueller's report. The next day, after Trump fired Comey, Pence repeated the initial White House explanation that Comey was dismissed based on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. When asked if Comey was fired to impede with the Russia investigation, Pence says "that's not what this was about" https://t.co/Q6vY9PwQyo CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 10, 2017 According to Mueller's report, Rosenstein was upset that his memo was being portrayed as the reason for the firing. In any case, Trump later undercut that explanation, saying he was going to fire Comey regardless of the Justice Department's recommendation, and confirmed in a television interview the Russia investigation was indeed on his mind when he made the decision. Pence is also briefly mentioned in the report for denying during the 2016 race that the Trump campaign was "in cahoots" with WikiLeaks in releasing emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign team. Nothing could be further from the truth, Pence told Fox News that October. Flashback: October 14, 2016. Pence responds to reports that the Trump campaign is in cahoots with WikiLeaks: "Nothing could be further from the truth." pic.twitter.com/J4AjDrtjWF Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 14, 2017 But Mueller's report states Trump's campaign showed interest in WikiLeaks release of damaging documents about Clinton. The report also appears to cast doubt on whether investigators had obtained a complete picture of activities during the Trump campaign, saying some campaign associates offered inadmissible information and deleted relevant communications. Some witnesses, the report said, communicated using phone applications that dont retain data. On the central question of whether the Trump campaign engaged in a conspiracy with Russia, investigators found that a number of campaign aides and advisers engaged in contacts with people linked to the Russian regime even as the Kremlin carried out a wide-ranging effort to intervene in the election. Pence, in a January 2017 appearance on CBSs Face the Nation, dismissed as bizarre rumors the question of whether anyone in the Trump campaign had contact with Russians about the election. "Of course not," Pence said when posed a similar question by Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday. "Why would there be any contacts between the campaign?" Contributing: Kevin Johnson and Bart Jansen. Report: Read special counsel Robert Mueller's report into President Trump, Russian interference This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What the Mueller report on the Russia investigation says about Vice President Mike Pence Donald Trump has flown out of Washington to his resort in Florida, falsely claiming Robert Mueller had totally exonerated him, and with Democrats assessing how best to respond to a report that failed to provide them with a true smoking gun. Five hours after the special counsels lightly redacted report was finally made public, the president waved and grinned as he boarded Air Force One, for a three-day weekend. He did not speak to reporters but earlier said at the White House was having a good day as the report revealed no collusion, no obstruction. Later, apparently tweeting while on his way south, Mr Trump urged people to watch Fox News later and said: It was a really great day for America. In truth, Mr Muellers report did not the represent total exoneration, the president claimed it did. While the investigation did not find evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, it uncovered multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Likewise, the full report, confirmed what had been conceded by attorney general William Barr, who said Mr Mueller wrote while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. The report contained much damaging information about the presidents behaviour, not least his efforts to fire the person who led the investigation. Indeed, after Mr Mueller was appointed in May 2017 to lead the probe after the presidents firing of FBI Director James Comey, he believed his presidency was over and that he was f***ed. He tried to have him fired or the investigation halted, something White House lawyers lawyers pushed back on. Mr Muellers report contained 11 instances that he and his team examined as possible breaches either of protocol of legality. He provided evidence to find both for and against such a finding. For instance, the report noted, in June 2017, Mr Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to tell the then-acting attorney general, Jeff Sessions, that Mr Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed, Reuters noted. Story continues It also said there was substantial evidence the president fired Mr Comey as FBI director in 2017 due to his unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation. It also said there was some some evidence suggesting Mr Trump knew about former national security adviser Michael Flynns controversial calls with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office, but evidence was inconclusive and could not be used to establish intent to obstruct. The report said Mr Trump directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to ask Mr Sessions to reconsider the decision to recuse himself from the probe and say the Russia investigation was very unfair. Indeed, large chunks of Mr Muellers report detail the presidents efforts to halt the investigation into Russias alleged election interference and possible collusion. When Mr Sessions told the president about his appointment in the spring of 2017, an appointment made following Mr Trumps firing of Mr Comey, he was said to have slumped into his chair and declared: Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im ****ed. He then turned to the one time Alabama senator who had joined his cabinet as chief law enforcement and legal officer, and blamed him. How could you let this happen, Jeff, he said. You were supposed to protect me. He added: Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. It was a really great day for America! A special evening tonight on @TuckerCarlson, @seanhannity & @IngrahamAngle Will be very interesting! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 Such was the presidents determination to halt the process, he telephoned Mr McGahn, who left the White House in October 2018, and asked him to intervene. Mr McGahn told Mr Muellers team he was told by the president: Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and cant be special counsel. Mueller has to go and: Call me back when you do it. The White House and supporters of Trump were quick to claim a victory. Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway told reporters: Were taking apologies. Mr Trumps 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale, said Republicans should turn the tables and investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation. Meanwhile, Democrats were struggling to find a way forward. They said Mr Barrs decision to hold preemptive press conference sought to create a false narrative and that the actual report revealed troubling details about Trumps conduct in the White House. In a joint statement, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote: One thing is clear: attorney general Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Muellers report appears to undercut that finding. House judiciary committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said the report outlined disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct. He sent a letter to the justice department requesting that Mr Mueller himself testify before his panel no later than May 23 and said he would be issuing a subpoena for the full special counsel report and the underlying materials. At the same time, Democrats are probably unlikely to pursue Mr Trumps impeachment, jugging that the country is in little mood for another lengthy probe, and that their efforts are better focussed on trying to beat the president in the 2020 presidential election. Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point, Ms Pelosis deputy, Steny Hoyer told CNN. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgement. Attorney General William Barr is set to release a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers final report Thursday, and the document could leave everyone unsatisfied President Donald Trump, lawmakers and the public. The report will provide the fullest portrait yet of Muellers secretive 22-month probe, providing new insights into his findings, analysis and reasons for his conclusions on conspiring with Russia and obstruction of justice, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are holding a news conference Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Washington to discuss the release. The report will be delivered to Congress on compact disc between 11 a.m. and noon, according to a Justice Department official. Democrats quickly blasted Barrs plan to brief reporters ahead of releasing the report, with five House chairmen releasing a joint statement calling on Barr to cancel the news conference and let the full report speak for itself. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the only way to restore public trust after Barrs regrettably partisan handling of the report was for Mueller to testify as soon as possible before Congress. The report itself will be colorful literally. Barr plans to hold back parts of the almost 400-page report, promising a color-coded system to identify the multiple reasons that certain information cant currently be shared with Congress or the public. Those redactions may fuel frustrations on all sides, as well as additional political fights, legal challenges and lingering suspicion about the full extent of Muellers findings. They also could frustrate a public thirsting for answers about Trump, Russia and his 2016 campaign. For Trump, who is ramping up his 2020 re-election bid, the report may cement Americans views of him, either helping to lift the collusion cloud that has shrouded his presidency, or reigniting the push to dig into his affairs and his business. Story continues In an interview Wednesday with WMAL radio in Washington, Trump predicted youll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Mueller spent nearly two years conducting one of the most consequential investigations in recent U.S. history into Russias interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump or any of his associates conspired in the operation. Heres what to look for in the final report: What Will Be Released According to the person familiar with the matter, the report is expected to answer one of the most urgent remaining questions: why Mueller declined to make a decision on whether to charge Trump with obstructing justice, something he spent months investigating. The special counsel found there was evidence on both sides of the question of whether Trump obstructed justice and that his probe didnt exonerate the president, according to a four-page summary that Barr released last month. Nonetheless, Barr and Rosenstein concluded that the evidence on obstruction didnt warrant a criminal charge after Mueller submitted his final report. The document is close to 400 pages long, reflecting an investigation that issued more than 2,800 subpoenas and almost 500 search warrants. About 500 witnesses were interviewed, Barr told lawmakers. Mueller also provided a series of exhibits, including testimony, but its unclear if any of that will be released. Muellers report isnt intended to be a comprehensive narrative that tries to reconstruct all the events of the 2016 campaign, or how Trump handled the investigation. Justice Department regulations say that Mueller should explain in a report to the attorney general the decisions that he made on who to prosecute, and he can choose to discuss additional relevant findings. Barr is going beyond whats required under Justice Department regulations by sharing any of the report. The regulations require only that he inform Congress if the special counsel was prevented from taking a significant action. Barr has said there was no such situation. How Trump Will React Trump and his lawyers are bracing for new revelations that could be damaging to the president, his family members or close associates. Theyve spent months deriding the investigation as a witch hunt, with the president repeatedly accusing Muellers team of being biased against him. The presidents advisers have been preparing for any unfavorable findings by the special counsel, assembling a rebuttal to the chain of events they believe Mueller may describe. Theyre also poised to address the legal arguments for why Trumps actions dont amount to obstruction of justice the main area theyve been concerned about when it came to Trumps legal jeopardy. Trump and his allies have seized on Barrs summary of Muellers findings to declare that the president was completely cleared by the special counsel. Total EXONERATION, Trump tweeted last month. That narrative may get turned on its head by a more detailed version of the report, as every page and paragraph is picked apart looking for any newly disclosed questionable actions by Trump and his associates. What to Look For in the Redacted Report Key findings the report might reveal include examples of potential obstruction that have never been disclosed and whether Mueller indicated that he wanted Congress to decide ultimately whether Trump impeded the investigation. Barr told lawmakers Mueller didnt establish that Trump or people associated with his campaign conspired with Russia in its campaign interference despite multiple efforts by Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign. But the report might reveal additional evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government that didnt rise to the level of charging a criminal conspiracy. The report also might reveal who on the campaign directed long-time Trump associate Roger Stone to communicate with WikiLeaks about releasing information damaging to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the weeks before the election. It could also shed light on the relationship between Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who Mueller prosecuted, and Konstantin Kilimnik, who Mueller has said has ties to Russian intelligence services. Kilimnik was indicted last year on conspiracy to obstruct justice. What Wont Be Made Public The color-coded labels that Barr has said will give his reasons for redactions may include material involving grand jury proceedings, classified programs and ongoing investigations, as well as information that could damage the reputations of people peripheral to the investigation. Barr has said that he wont withhold damaging information about public officials, including Trump, just to protect their reputations. The attorney general also could withhold details of internal White House deliberations, citing executive privilege. He told lawmakers on April 9 that he decided not to seek Trumps input and had no plans to assert the privilege traditionally asserted by presidents who say they need to be able to have private conversations. That type of information could reveal Trumps conversations before he fired FBI director James Comey and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, as well as attempts the president made to fire other top Justice Department officials. A heavily redacted report should not be acceptable to anyone, especially if the report was redacted to protect the president or his associates, Harry Sandick, a former federal prosecutor in New York whos now a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, said. The redactions could be extensive, if a filing on Monday by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia is any clue. Prosecutors used that filing to bat back a request by the Washington Post to unseal redacted material in the criminal case against Manafort, who was sentenced to 90 months in jail in two separate cases. Prosecutors said the redactions were intended to protect the privacy of uncharged third parties and investigations on a number of matters that Mueller referred to other prosecutors - two of the four reasons that Barr has cited for redacting the special counsels report. It is unknown how long some of these investigations may remain ongoing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Kravis wrote. And some of the privacy interests that are being protected may persist indefinitely. Representative Ed Case, a Hawaii Democrat, took issue with Barrs plan to redact information related to peripheral persons during an April 9 hearing. It seems to me thats an exception that you can drive a truck through, Case told Barr. Democrats are prepared to issue subpoenas for the full, unredacted report as well as all of Muellers underlying evidence, setting up a legal clash that could go all the way to the Supreme Court. Washington (AFP) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report Thursday described numerous attempts by President Donald Trump to interfere with the Russian meddling investigation, citing them as the reason why he could not clear the president of allegations of obstruction of justice. Mueller's final report detailed multiple instances in 2017 and 2018 in which Trump desperately sought to derail the probe, including firing FBI director James Comey, demanding that Mueller himself be removed, and publicly dangling pardon offers to witnesses. It cited a furious Trump, just months into his term, swearing over Mueller's appointment and saying his presidency was doomed. "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked," Trump told then attorney general Jeff Sessions, the report recounted. Witnesses to the investigation, including White House counsel Don McGahn, told Mueller's team that they had fended off repeated demands by the president to remove or undermine Mueller. Mueller's report said there was "substantial evidence" in many of the cases, including Comey's firing, showing Trump's intent was to stifle the investigation -- though the president was ultimately not successful. That led Mueller to conclude that he could not exonerate the president from criminal allegations of obstruction of justice. "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state," Mueller's long-awaited report said. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgement." The report outlined numerous instances in which the president sought to interfere with the probe into whether his 2016 election campaign colluded with Russia. It described him suggesting to his intelligence chiefs that they help end it; attempting to have Sessions curtail Mueller's investigatory mandate; attempting to hide evidence about a key meeting his campaign had with Russians; and attempting to influence potential witnesses against him. Story continues It also detailed what it said were Trump's efforts to prevent Paul Manafort from cooperating with investigators by suggesting the former campaign chairman could be pardoned. The evidence "indicates that the president intended to encourage Manafort not to cooperate with the government," the report says. In March, Manafort was sentenced to 90 months in prison for financial crimes, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. Too often it seems we have a surplus of bluster in our national politics and a deficit of action. But then theres Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the 2018 midterms, Nancy was the driving force that brought a Democratic majority back to the House, and opened the door for a Congress thats more diverse than any other in our nations history and has some of its youngest members ever. Never one to back down from a bully, Nancy didnt mince words during a visit to the White House after the elections. Please dont characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting, she said, standing up for herself and millions of Americans. She delivered. Under her leadership, Democrats passed the first major gun-safety bill in a generation and desperately needed voting-rights legislation. As Democrats continue fighting to protect reproductive rights, pass paid family leave, protect Americans right to affordable health care and hold this Administration to account, Nancy is leading the charge. Theres a saying that goes: If you want something done, ask a busy woman to do it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is living proof that when it comes to getting the job done, more often than not, it takes a woman. Clinton, a Democrat, is a former Senator and Secretary of State, and was the first female presidential nominee of a major party See TIME's full list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2019 NEW YORK (AP) The National Enquirer is being sold to the former head of the airport newsstand company Hudson News following a rocky year in which the tabloid was accused of burying stories that could have hurt Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Tabloid owner American Media said Thursday it plans to sell the supermarket weekly to James Cohen. Financial terms were not immediately disclosed for the deal, which included two other American Media tabloids, the Globe and the National Examiner. American Media said last week that it wanted to get out of the tabloid business to focus on its other operations that include its teen brand and broadcast platforms. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan agreed last year not to prosecute American Media in exchange for the company's cooperation in a campaign finance investigation. That probe eventually led to a three-year prison term for Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen for campaign violations among other charges. American Media admitted it had paid $150,000 to keep former Playboy model Karen McDougal quiet about an alleged affair with Trump to help his campaign. Trump has denied an affair. The sale would end a longtime relationship between the National Enquirer and Trump. Under the aegis of American Media CEO David Pecker, the tabloid has for years buried potentially embarrassing stories about Trump and other favored celebrities by buying the rights to them and never publishing in a practice called "catch-and-kill." The Associated Press reported last year that Pecker kept a safe in the Enquirer's office that held documents on buried stories, including those involving Trump. Whether James Cohen has any allegiances to Trump is not clear. While he was a registered Republican as late as 2017, according to Nexis records, he has given to both Republicans and Democrats. That included $17,300 in 2016 to an arm of the Democratic National Committee and $2,500 to the Republican National Committee in 2012. Story continues News of the sale comes two months after Amazon chief Jeff Bezos publicly accused the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him by threatening to publish explicit photos of him. An American Media attorney denied the charge, but it threatened potentially big legal costs by upending American Media's non-prosecution agreement in the hush money case. The AP reported that federal prosecutors were looking into whether the publisher violated terms of the deal, which included a promise not to break any laws in the future. The Bezos accusation comes at a difficult time for American Media. It has financed several recent acquisitions with borrowed money and has been struggling under a heavy debt load. American Media said the Cohen deal would help reduce the amount it needs to pay back, leaving it with $355 million in debt. The Washington Post, which earlier reported the sale, said Cohen will pay $100 million in the deal. Cohen's family had run a magazine and newspaper distributor for decades before his father branched into newsstand stores in 1980s, starting with a single one at LaGuardia Airport. Before he died in 2012, the father had opened more than 600 stores. After the death, James Cohen's niece alleged her uncle had cheated her out of her inheritance. She lost the case. The family sold a majority stake in the chain about a decade ago. The business is now owned by Dufry, an operator of duty-free stores in which James Cohen is a major shareholder. Cohen still owns a magazine and newspaper distributor called Hudson News Distributors. In addition, he runs a real estate developer and a publishing company, which owns Gallerie, an art and design magazine. Cohen has reportedly been involved in American Media deals before. The New York Times reports that, in 2011, Cohen invested in the company's American edition of OK!, a British tabloid. The U.S. Naval Academy will ban transgender people from attending the school starting with the 2020 school year following a Pentagon policy that took effect last week. While the academy currently accepts transgender students and retains midshipmen who transition during their education, the Defense Department on Monday confirmed the change to the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis. The Trump administration's restrictions were implemented Friday after multiple legal challenges. The directive bans transgender troops from serving openly and denies medical care for gender transition, reversing an Obama-era policy. About 14,700 troops identify as transgender. Directive: Pentagon transgender troop policy takes effect, what to know 'Mob violence': Dallas police investigating assault of transgender woman as potential hate crime A U.S. Coast Guard Academy spokesman confirmed the school also follows the Trump administration's ban. Previous medical treatment such as hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgery may disqualify future applicants, according to the Coast Guard website. The nation's other service academies the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy have not announced plans related to the ban. An organization representing transgender service members said several attend each academy, although many are not openly transgender. The policy turns off access to some of our best and brightest, and thats not what our country needs to win future wars, said B Fram, communications director for Service Members, Partners and Allies for Respect and Tolerance for All, or SPARTA. First-year midshipmen carry a log during Sea Trials, a day-long training exercise that caps off their plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., May 16, 2017. The academy on April 15, 2019 confirmed it will not accept transgender students beginning with the 2020 school year. The Pentagon's directive also bars future applicants who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a discomfort or distress caused by a discrepancy between a persons gender identity and sex assigned at birth. Under the policy, troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria will be medically evaluated before they are discharged to see if they qualify for disability. If not, gender dysphoria can be considered a condition that interferes with military service like sleepwalking and motion sickness. Story continues The American Medical Association has blasted the policy, saying the wording mischaracterizes transgender people as having a deficiency. The association recognizes treatment for gender dysphoria as medically necessary. Contributing: The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Naval Academy to ban transgender students beginning in 2020 Washington (AFP) - The North American trade pact signed last year will have a "moderate" positive effect on the US economy, an independent US government report said Thursday, an underwhelming endorsement as it faces an uncertain path to ratification. And the trade deal could actually dent the US auto sector, slightly increasing employment but raising prices while reducing sales and manufacturing output, according the US International Trade Commission. The report was released as President Donald Trump's administration instead unveiled rosy projections that the new trade deal would actually cause a boom in the auto industry, generating tens of billions in new investments and tens of thousands of new jobs within five years. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Thursday that the report showed there was "no doubt" the trade deal was "a big win" for the US economy -- because the predicted gain was bigger than that for Trans-Pacific Partnership, from which Trump withdrew in 2017. After a year of tough negotiations, Washington, Ottawa and Mexico City in November signed a new continent-wide trade deal to replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement and revamp rules on manufacturing, digital commerce and labor rights, among other areas. But the boost to the US economy "is likely to be moderate," given that most tariffs were already dropped region-wide 25 years ago and because the United States economy is much larger than those of Mexico and Canada, according to the ITC report. Under the model used by the US ITC, total US GDP would increase as a result of the agreement by just 0.35 percent, or around $68 billion and the US should gain 176,000 new jobs compared to a scenario in which the current North American trade agreement remains in place, the report said. "The model estimates that the agreement would likely have a positive impact on all broad industry sectors within the US economy," the report found. Story continues - Not a 'huge' impact - Trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada is also likely to increase, according to the report -- with US exports rising by about the same amount as its imports from the two partners. "It's positive," Jack Caporal, a trade policy expert at Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP. "It won't have a huge impact." But in the auto sector, outcomes are not so upbeat. The US auto workforce would rise by a net 28,000 workers yet prices would also rise somewhat -- actually cutting auto sales by 140,000. Automakers would likely cease offering some vehicles as they become more expensive to produce, "which would ultimately decrease consumer choice." Signed by the three North American countries in November, the USMCA makes sweeping changes to how autos must be produced in order to enjoy duty-free access within North America. In particular, the share of a motor vehicle's content that must be produced in North America was raised to 75 percent and between 40 and 45 percent of the content must be produced by workers earning at least $16 per hour -- a rule expected to boost wages in Mexico. Greater domestic production of auto parts would also "draw resources away from other manufacturing sectors and the rest of the US economy," the report found. US imports of autos from outside the region would actually increase, it said. But, in a separate report released hours earlier on Thursday, Lighthizer's office said auto manufacturers would instead invest $34 billion in the United States and add 76,0000 jobs within five years of the date the deal takes effect. A senior USTR official told reporters that USTR's estimates were based on "hard numbers" manufacturers had given to the agency. "We have unique insights as a result of the information that's been provided to us, proprietary business information that has been provided to us by the companies," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to USTR ground rules. Prospects for USMCA's ratification in Congress face what could be an uphill battle, with Washington reportedly reluctant to lift punishing steel and aluminum tariffs so long as Canadian and Mexican authorities object to export quotas. However, influential Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa told The Washington Post last month that the tariffs must come off before any vote on ratifying the trade agreement. Caporal of CSIS said Thursday's ITC report was less likely to shift the balance of voting in Congress than it was to harden positions lawmakers have already taken. "You're not gonna get more votes and you're not gonna lose votes as a result of this report," he said. "You might see people beginning to take more concrete positions." North Korea has called for US secretary of state Mike Pompeo to be removed from nuclear talks because of his reckless and immature behaviour, according to reports. The official KCNA news agency quoted Kwon Jong Gun, a senior foreign ministry official, as accusing Mr Pompeo of fabricating stories like a fiction writer. Whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in, the talks go wrong without any results even from the point close to success, Mr Kwon said. I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled. Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the US, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us. The statement was made shortly after North Korea announced that its supreme leader Kim Jong-un had overseen the testing of a new tactical guided weapon. It was the Norths first weapons test since negotiations over nuclear disarmament and US sanctions broke down at the second summit between Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump in February. Last week the North Korean leader announced that he would only consider a third summit if the US brought the right attitude to talks and changed its hostile policy, including tough sanctions, before the end of the year. On Monday, Mr Pompeo responded by saying that Mr Kim had promised to denuclearise during his first summit with Mr Trump and that officials were trying to chart a path forward so we can get there. The North Korean statement by Mr Kwon accused Mr Pompeo of talking nonsense. We cannot be aware of Pompeos ulterior motive behind his self-indulgence in reckless remarks; whether he is indeed unable to understand words properly or just pretending on purpose, said Mr Kwon. However, it is a very dangerous situation if he really did not grasp the meaning. If his behaviour is intended, I think it is none other than silly calculation to be free from the constraint that the US should make a move until the end of the year, misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement as the finalization of the working level negotiation by the end of the year by help of his talented skill of fabricating stories like a fiction writer. Story continues Mr Pompeo was also accused of spouting reckless remarks hurting the dignity of our supreme leadership believed to be a reference to the secretary of states agreement that Mr Kim was a tyrant. Additional reporting by agencies By Tom Balmforth MOSCOW (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will travel to Russia this month for talks with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Thursday, announcing the first Russia-North Korea summit since Kim came to power in 2011. The announcement coincided with a moment of discord in efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to reach a deal with Kim to end nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea said on Thursday it no longer wanted to deal with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and called for him to be replaced in talks by somebody more mature. That demand came hours after Pyongyang announced its first weapons test since a summit in Vietnam between Trump and Kim broke down in February with no agreement. The pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper cited a diplomatic source on Wednesday as saying the Putin-Kim meeting would likely take place next week in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok before Putin flies on to an April 26-27 summit in China. It added however that a sudden change of plan by the leader of the secretive North Korean state could not be ruled out. The Kremlin gave no further details in a statement on its website, but Moscow has been saying for months that it was working on such a meeting. Kim came to power in 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, who had visited Russia for a summit with then President Dmitry Medvedev earlier that year. It was not clear how Kim might travel to Russia, which shares a border with North Korea. A North Korean official, Kim Chang Son, traveled to Vladivostok this week and was seen on Wednesday inspecting the Pacific port city's train station and making security checks, Russia's RIA news agency reported on Thursday. U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov in Moscow on Thursday and discussed ways to advance a "final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea", the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said on Thursday. The embassy said in a statement that the talks had been "constructive". The Trump-Kim meeting in Vietnam, the second summit between the two leaders, broke down over conflicting demands by North Korea for sanctions relief and by the United States for North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. The following month Washington imposed a new round of sanctions on Pyongyang. Trump administration officials have floated the possibility of a third summit. (Reporting by Tom Balmforth; Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Christian Lowe and Frances Kerry) WASHINGTON North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of a new "tactical guided weapon" on Wednesday, as the country asked that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be pulled from negotiations. And on Thursday the Kremlin announced Kim will visit Russia this month, offering President Vladimir Putin an opportunity to emerge as a broker in the long-running nuclear standoff. North Korea's first publicly announced weapons test since last year comes amid growing signs that Kim has soured on his negotiations with President Donald Trump. Those talks collapsed in Hanoi in February, after Trump and Kim failed to reach an agreement on North Korean denuclearization in exchange for international sanctions relief. The country's state-run news outlet KCNA did not specify what kind of weapon the North Koreans tested but said the event was "of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power" of the country's military. North Korea's director general of its American Affairs Department, Kwon Jong Gun, issued a statement saying Pompeo has been "talking nonsense" while misrepresenting comments from Kim, the Associated Press reported. Pompeo recently said during a speech that Kim promised to denuclearize during his first summit with Trump. He (Kim) said he wanted it done by the end of the year, Pompeo said. Id love to see that done sooner. But North Korea issued a statement saying he was "misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement," which they say call for negotiations to be done by the end of the year, according to AP. The White House did not immediately comment on the development. North Korea stopped its testing of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles at the end of 2017, and Kim declared the country's nuclear weapons program "complete." Trump has touted the testing pause as proof of progress in his negotiations with Kim. Earlier this year, the president said he's not in a hurry to press North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal as long as Kim doesn't resume testing. Story continues "As long as there's no testing, I'm in no rush," Trump told reporters in February as he prepared for a summit with Kim in Hanoi. "If there's testing, that's another deal." Amid news of the tests, North Korea's director general of its American Affairs Department, Kwon Jong Gun, issued a statement saying Pompeo has been "talking nonsense" while misrepresenting comments from Kim, the Associated Press reported. Pompeo recently said during a speech that Kim promised to denuclearize during his first summit with Trump. He (Kim) said he wanted it done by the end of the year, Pompeo said. Id love to see that done sooner. But North Korea issued a statement saying he was "misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement," which they say call for negotiations to be done by the end of the year, according to AP. The North Koreans called for someone "more careful and mature in communicating with us." At the Hanoi summit, Kim offered to dismantle North Korea's main nuclear facility, Yongbyan, in exchange for major sanctions relief. Trump rejected that, instead pushing Kim to give up North Korea's entire stockpile of nuclear bombs, missiles and other capabilities, in exchange for full sanctions relief. The talks ended abruptly, with Trump leaving Vietnam early. In March, a top North Korean official suggested that Kim might quit the talks and restart nuclear and missile tests. Kim's visit to Russia could strengthen relations that have fallen off in recent decades. Moscow maintained close ties with Pyongyang during the Soviet era, building dozens of factories and key infrastructure, sending supplies and providing weapons, according to the AP. But the relationship weakened after the 1991 Soviet collapse. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. Experts said Wednesday's news out of North Korea was worrisome. "Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump Administration that his military potential is growing by the day, and that his regime is becoming frustrated with Washingtons lack of flexibility in recent negotiations," said Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert with Center for the National Interest, a Washington-based foreign policy think tank. "We are only one ICBM test away from another crisis with Pyongyang, and these smaller tests only bring us closer to such a moment, he added, referring to the long-range missiles that could potentially reach the United States. Some experts suggested that Wednesday's test involved a short-range missile, but details were sparse. The KCNA report said Kim "mounted an observation post to learn about a plan of the test-fire of the new-type tactical guided weapon and guided the test-fire." The weapon has a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" and the load of "a powerful warhead" was verified at the test fire, the state-run outlet reported. Contributing: David Jackson, USA TODAY; Associated Press More: South Korean president Moon seeks deal, maybe a new summit, for Trump and Kim Jong Un This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: North Korea wants Pompeo out of talks; Kremlin announces an April visit by Kim Jong Un North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a flight training of Korean People's Army Air Force at undisclosed location, April 16 - REUTERS North Korea has dispatched teams to neighbouring China to track down and kill, if necessary, as many as seven members of the Ministry of State Security who have fled in a snowballing series of defections, according to dissident media. The crisis in the ranks of North Koreas secret police agency can be traced back to immediately after the failure of the Hanoi summit between Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, and US President Donald Trump in late February, reported the Daily NK, citing reports from its network of undercover citizen reporters in North Korea and China. In early March, three MSS officials based in the Chinese city of Shenyang concluded that the secret bank accounts that they were using under fake Chinese names had been compromised and they were under surveillance. The three men emptied the accounts of significant amounts of money that they were reportedly charged with using to procure technology and other items that are banned under United Nations sanctions and disappeared. A number of other agents of the MSS - widely considered the most brutal unit in the North and responsible for ensuring that defectors are caught and punished, as well as operating the regimes network of concentration camps - have also since disappeared in China, according to officials of South Koreas intelligence agencies. North Korea stepped up its search for the men in mid-March after a senior MSS official based in Pyongyang fled with his family through the Chinese border city of Dandong. The official apparently had little choice but to escape out of concern that he would be held responsible for the defections of his subordinates in China. The MSS has put together a team from its headquarters in Pyongyang and dispatched it to Liaoning Province, along with agents from the Reconnaissance General Bureau and operatives already in China. The Reconnaissance General Bureau agents were ordered not to return until the defectors are caught and the agents should kill them if they cant be caught , the media outlet quoted one of its sources in Pyongyang as saying. The disappearance of officials widely considered to be the trusted elite in North Korean society, along with the defection of a number of diplomats in recent months, hints at growing disaffection with those charged with propping up Mr Kims regime. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un observing the flight drill of the combat pilots of Unit 1017, 16 April - AFP North Korea announced on Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon, in its first public weapons test since Februarys failed summit with the US in Hanoi. Shortly after the test, North Korea demanded that Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, be removed from nuclear disarmament talks in another sign of deteriorating diplomatic relations with Washington since the failure of their second summit in Hanoi in February. Pyongyang wanted a replacement for Mr Pompeo who would be more careful and mature, the Norths state media reported on Thursday, accusing the senior US official of undermining negotiations. Adding to the stand-off, the Kremlin yesterday announced that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this month, an apparent attempt to insert Russia into the delicate talks. The firing of the unspecified weapon, which was personally overseen by Kim from an observation post, was a possible attempt to express dissatisfaction with Washingtons refusal to budge over sanctions, without jeopardising the future of the currently deadlocked diplomatic talks. It is not believed to have been a banned ballistic missile test, a provocative move which could have torpedoed negotiations with South Korea and the US over North Koreas disarmament. One South Korean analyst told the AP that the Norths state media report indicated it could have been a test of a new type of cruise missile. Pak Jong-chon, an artillery official, was also reportedly at the site. Kim Jong-un and Mike Pompeo meeting in Pyongyang Credit: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File Vipin Narang, a North Korea expert and associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The Telegraph that it might have been an anti-tank guided missile, a multiple launch rocket system or another system related to coastal or air defence. If it was, it would seem to be consistent with Kim potentially reminding both the US and ROK [South Korea] - in a calibrated way - where things could go if the US especially doesnt moderate its negotiating position, he said. Story continues The test is part of a broader pattern of events since talks collapsed between Kim and Donald Trump, the US President, over mismatched demands from North Korea over sanctions relief and from the US over the speed of Pyongyangs nuclear disarmament. The weapons test followed a visit by Kim to the North Korean Air and Anti-aircraft Force on Tuesday to express great satisfaction at their combat readiness. Pyongyang's request to remove Mr Pompeo from negotiations presents Donald Trump, the US president, with the dilemma of whether to cave in to North Koreas rejection of his lead negotiator or to stand firm and risk the total collapse of talks to persuade Kim to give up his nuclear weapons. The stinging rebuke was conveyed to the state-run Korean Central News Agency by Kwon Jong-gun, a senior foreign ministry official, who claimed that the summit showed that when Mr Pompeo pokes his nose in, talks between the two countries go wrong without any results. "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," Mr Kwon, director general of the ministry's American affairs department, said, in remarks translated by South Koreas Yonhap agency. The Hanoi summit made a promising start but collapsed over a disagreement about sanctions relief Credit: Evan Vucci/AP "Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the US, I wish our dialogue counterpart would not be Pompeo but another person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us," he added. The sudden cold shoulder treatment of Mr Pompeo, who has travelled to Pyongyang several times over the past year to personally meet with the North Korean leader, is being viewed as part of Kims strategy to project his strength to Washington and his domestic audience. The North Koreans have accused Mr Pompeo of playing down the significance of comments by Kim during a meeting of his rubber-stamp parliament last week when he gave Washington an end of year deadline to offer mutually acceptable terms to salvage deadlocked nuclear talks. Meanwhile, recent satellite images obtained by the US-based Centre for Strategic Studies show movement at the Norths main nuclear site of Yongbyon that could be associated with the reprocessing of radioactive material into bomb fuel. Just days after the end of the summit, satellite images also suggested increased activity at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station at Tongchang-ri, which Pyongyang had previously pledged to dismantle. With rebuilding Sohae, continued activity at ballistic missile facilities and Yongbyon, and this, Kim seems to be suggesting Ive loaded my gun, but I am not going to fire... just yet, said Mr Narang. The state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not give an exact description of the new weapon but reported that Kim said "the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the Peoples Army." It added that it had a peculiar mode of guiding flight and a powerful warhead. In November, Kim oversaw the test of another unidentified tactical weapon which could protect North Korea like a steel wall, which experts said was part of his initiative to shift to high-tech weapons. A man watches a TV news programme reporting about North Korea's test-fire of a "new-type tactical guided weapon" Credit: AP However, he has not breached his pledge in April 2018 to stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which he said at the time was because Pyongyangs nuclear capabilities had been verified. Mintaro Oba, a former state department official who focusses on Korea, said North Korea was unlikely to take action that would be perceived as a very serious escalation. During a speech at his rubber-stamp parliament on Friday, Kim set an end of year deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for a deal, suggesting he is willing to continue along a diplomatic route. There are two possibilities here. One, that North Korea did this as a calculated escalation of tension to put pressure on the United States, said Mr Oba. Or two, Kim Jong-un needed to demonstrate strength domestically given the lack of diplomatic progress. It's always tempting to view everything North Korea does as tactical, but we always have to consider whether there are internal factors at play as well. The White House and the Pentagon said they were aware of the report but had no further comment. Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair for the Hudson Institute, said the US might react with tough statements and the tightening of sanctions, but only in a cosmetic way. He suggested that Kim might be trying to tap into the US domestic political agenda as Washington gears up for the Thursday disclosure of Robert Muellers report on Russian election meddling and obstruction of justice. In a strange way you could say that he is maybe reaching out to the president at a time when the Mueller report is going to be released and he is offering the president a mini-crisis to resolve, said Mr Cronin. North Korea has test-fired a new type of "tactical guided weapon", it has announced. Kim Jong Un observed the weapon being fired on Wednesday by the Academy of Defence Science, state-run Korean Central News Agency said. He is reported to have said: "The development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army." The test is North Koreas first such test in nearly six months, but it is not clear exactly what kind of weapon has been tested. Kim Jong Un reportedly watched the weapon being tested (Picture: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) Tests of banned mid or long-range ballistic missiles could jeopardise talks with the US, which are currently deadlocked and have reportedly seen North Korea demand that secretary of state Mike Pompeo is removed from negotiations. At a summit with US President Donald Trump in June 2018, Kim Jong Un agreed to denuclearise, but a second summit between the two leaders earlier this year came to an abrupt end after they failed to reach an agreement. READ MORE Fund to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral reaches one billion euro mark Last week Kim Jong Un said that Washington had until the end of the year to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement amid concerns that North Korea could turn its back on negotiations. Mr Trump said last month that he "would be very disappointed if I saw testing". Talks in Vietnam between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un broke down after they failed to reach an agreement on sanctions (Picture: Reuters) In February, a lunch and signing ceremony were scrapped after talks in Hanoi in Vietnam ended without a deal. After the failure to reach an agreement over sanctions, Donald Trump said sometimes you have to walk. The US President said: Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldnt do that. They were willing to de-nuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldnt give up all of the sanctions for that. So we continue to work and well see, but we had to walk away from that particular suggestion. We had to walk away from that. He added: We had to have more than that. We brought many points up that I think they were surprised we knew, but we had to do more than just the one level, because if we did the one level and gave up all that leverage that has taken a long time to build. Story continues Before the breakdown of talks, Mr Trump had called Kim Jong Un a great leader. At a scheduled media appearance at the start of their meeting, he said: Your country has tremendous economic potential. Unbelievable. Unlimited. I think you will have a tremendous future with your country and great leader. And I look forward to watching it happen and helping it happen. And we will help it happen. Notre-Dame Cathedral seen at sunrise following a major fire on Monday on April 17, 2019 in Paris, France. Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Frances digital minister said that the government would consider backing bitcoin donations to the restoration of the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Im not sure every bitcoin player can do it but, anyway, we are open to the discussion, Cedric O, Frances Minister for the Digital Economy, told a press conference on Wednesday. People should be able to make donations through whatever means they want to use. Paris historic Notre-Dame Cathedral was devastated by a huge fire on Monday evening, the cause of which is still unknown. Gregory Raymond, a journalist with Frances Capital magazine and a crypto advocate, set up a bitcoin fund on Tuesday to try and raise funds to help with the restoration. O was asked on Wednesday whether the government would bless these efforts and allow the bitcoin fund to donate to four official restoration organisations that have been chosen by the state. Ive been meeting with the platforms yesterday, O said. As far as youre able to ensure first that you dont take any money that is transferred to the foundation, second that you collect the information that is needed for tax deduction, and third that youre transferring the funds to the four foundations that have been chosen to rebuild Notre Dame, I think we can have a discussion in order to convey the message that people can make donations on your platform. As of Wednesday, almost $1bn has been pledged toward the restoration of the Notre Dame cathedral. The majority came from French billionaires, as well as other wealthy individuals such as Apple CEO Tim Cook. Le Fondation du Patrimoine, an independent non-profit heritage group, said it is still too early to estimate the cost of the damage to the Paris landmark. French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday pledged to rebuild a more beautiful Notre Dame within 5 years. Os comments about potential bitcoin donations came during a press conference on the sidelines of the Paris Blockchain Week summit, a two-day event showcasing France as a place to do business for blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses. READ MORE: Crypto price crash actually good for business, say entrepreneurs France may accept bitcoin donations for the reconstruction of Notre Dame. | Source: Photo by THOMAS SAMSON / AFP Over a billion dollars have been raised for the reconstruction of Notre Dame. People with deep pockets have seized the opportunity to throw their money around, and Binance refuses to miss a marketing opportunity. The exchange has an ongoing campaign to raise donations from the crypto public and its users either anonymously or not. Unfortunately, the anonymous option doesnt come with the ability to send privacy coins. Only Bitcoin, Binance Coin, and Ethereum are accepted for donations. French government may accept bitcoin donations. CZ is on it The French government is looking into accepting crypto, Bloomberg reports, but the roughly $17,000 raised by press time is probably not that attractive yet. Presumably, the exchange will convert the donations to fiat before sending them on to one of the four organizations who are licensed to collect donations, assuming they dont allow for crypto donations by then. But is this a good use of our crypto? Do we all agree with CZs assessment that bring[ing] crypto to religion is a priority? Reading the comments, please understand Charity is not exclusive, or obligatory. Feel free to choose the program you wish to donate to. If we can push crypto to the last mile of Cathedral building, it's the ultimate #adoption. Bring crypto to religion! https://t.co/3OrvyAEUXW CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 17, 2019 Cui bono? It seems an obvious question here. Binance wants to look like a humanitarian effort. They should probably pledge some of their massive proceeds. If theyre going to make a splash with crypto, they should find a way to donate more than the $1 billion raised by the rest of the parties. But why should everyday crypto people donate to something like this? Cui bono? Read the full story on CCN.com. By Luke Baker and Pascale Denis PARIS (Reuters) - Pledged donations from French billionaires, companies and ordinary citizens for the restoration of fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral are approaching 900 million euros after just two days, a reflection of the landmark's resonance in the national psyche. But the outpouring has prompted questions from charities, politicians and commentators about why some of the business donors have offered so much so quickly, including speculation about how they might benefit from tax breaks on the donations. People on social media, both in France and abroad, have expressed frustration that other disasters - from the Syrian and Iraq refugee crisis to the Grenfell Tower fire in London - have not received anything like the same degree of support. The first major donation to Notre-Dame came from Francois-Henri Pinault, the billionaire head of luxury goods group Kering that owns fashion brands Gucci and Saint Laurent. Pinault, 56, a celebrity figure in part because he is married to actress Salma Hayek, pledged 100 million euros ($113 million) as the blaze was still raging - a decision dictated by emotion, a spokeswoman for his family's holding company said. Hours later, his great rival Bernard Arnault, France's richest man and the head of Louis Vuitton owner LVMH, announced he was donating 200 million euros, moved by the alarming pictures on TV, according to a group spokesman. The Bettencourt-Meyer family, the largest shareholder in L'Oreal, followed suit a while later, pledging a combined 200 million euros alongside the global cosmetics group. Brand and reputation experts said the quick response by some of France's most recognizable corporate titans made sense, especially since the disaster involves a national symbol. Adrian Palmer, the head of the marketing and reputation faculty at the Henley Business School, said all three billionaire families and their companies were closely aligned with the nation, and benefit from reinforcing the link. "These brands stand for France and they sell around the world, so anything that puts the France brand at the center of people's minds is going to help them and how they are regarded," he said. "It creates positive associations in people's minds, that they are generous, caring and good." Online, LVMH's announcement of the donations was met with a host of comments on Twitter, from France and abroad, suggesting the money might be better spent in Africa or combating climate change than rebuilding a cathedral. Others suggested the generosity was little more than smart marketing. Palmer said that even from a non-marketing point of view, early offers of support could be beneficial for a company's political positioning. All three firms are broadly supportive of President Emmanuel Macron and want to be seen as helpful with backing for his calls to rebuild. "Macron has been facing protests," he said, referring to the "yellow vests" street demonstrations against the high cost of living that have rocked France for months. "In a sense the disaster at Notre-Dame has become a unifying issue, so they want to show they are aligned." TAX BREAKS Still, there has been blowback. Charitable donations benefit from a 60 percent tax deduction in France, which prompted immediate suggestions by critics that Pinault, Arnault and the others were being less magnanimous than initially appeared. "It's the public that will end up bearing the cost," said Gilles Carrez, a member of parliament for the center-right Les Republicains party, who sits on the finance committee. The Pinault family, which was at odds with Macron last year on issues of tax and the president's policies toward the poor, said in a statement on Wednesday it was renouncing any tax advantage it might get from its donation. LVMH - which had benefited from large tax breaks to build the Louis Vuitton Foundation in western Paris - dismissed the notion it was merely trying to boost its image. "The only thing at issue here is to try and raise as much funding as possible to address this urgent issue, and that goes beyond any tax or accounting calculations," the LVMH group spokesman said in response to questions from Reuters. The Bettencourt-Meyer family has declined to comment on its donations. All three companies and the families behind them are already closely associated with the arts and cultural giving in France, which makes their rapid collective offer of half a billion euros to support a 12th-century Gothic masterpiece less surprising. "No doubt big brands want to genuinely demonstrate their empathy and show support to the re-building of an artifact that is not just a building but a cultural symbol," said Keith Glanfield, a professor at Aston Business School. "By some this may be seen as no more than a cynical attempt to sell more product." FROM THE GUT On Twitter and Facebook, and in the auditorium of the European Parliament, the question was less about whether they and others should give, and more about why such generosity was going toward an old building hit by a disaster in which no one died. "We are very attached to where Father Pierre's funeral was held," said the Abbe Pierre Foundation, a homelessness charity named after a priest whose 2007 funeral at Notre-Dame was attended by then-President Jacques Chirac. "But we are equally committed to his cause. If you could contribute even one percent of the amount to the homeless, we would be moved," it said on Twitter. Speaking to European lawmakers on Tuesday, teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said she did not want to diminish the Notre-Dame fire, but wished there was an equal outpouring of support to combat issues such as climate change. Markus Renner, a professor of brand management in Switzerland and the founder of the International Brand and Reputation Community, said he was surprised to see Pinault, Arnault and the Bettencourts give so much so quickly. "Why not wait and find out how much is needed and then step forward?" he said, pointing out that the billionaires and companies could have given the money silently, but chose not to. "It seems to be a little bit tactical and very much from the gut," he said, adding he doubted whether German companies would step up so promptly if Cologne cathedral burnt down. If the fire ends up being covered by insurance, the charitable donations may not end up being needed to finance the restoration. (Additional reporting by Sarah White; Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Frances Kerry) Great Canadian Gaming Corporation (TSE:GC), which is in the hospitality business, and is based in Canada, saw significant share price movement during recent months on the TSX, rising to highs of CA$55.77 and falling to the lows of CA$48.63. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Great Canadian Gaming's current trading price of CA$50.78 reflective of the actual value of the mid-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at Great Canadian Gamings outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change. View our latest analysis for Great Canadian Gaming What is Great Canadian Gaming worth? According to my relative valuation model, the stock seems to be currently fairly priced. Ive used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because theres not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stocks ratio of 20.42x is currently trading slightly above its industry peers ratio of 20.2x, which means if you buy Great Canadian Gaming today, youd be paying a relatively reasonable price for it. And if you believe Great Canadian Gaming should be trading in this range, then there isnt really any room for the share price grow beyond what its currently trading. Is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Since Great Canadian Gamings share price is quite volatile, we could potentially see it sink lower (or rise higher) in the future, giving us another chance to buy. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market. What does the future of Great Canadian Gaming look like? TSX:GC Past and Future Earnings, April 18th 2019 Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Although value investors would argue that its the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. Great Canadian Gamings earnings over the next few years are expected to increase by 30%, indicating a highly optimistic future ahead. This should lead to more robust cash flows, feeding into a higher share value. Story continues What this means for you: Are you a shareholder? It seems like the market has already priced in GCs positive outlook, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we havent considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at GC? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuate below the true value? Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping tabs on GC, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for GC, which means its worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters the fundamentals before you make a decision on Great Canadian Gaming. You can find everything you need to know about Great Canadian Gaming in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Great Canadian Gaming, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. An American Airlines Airbus A321 lands at Miami International Airport on Feb. 24, 2019. Federal safety officials are investigating an American Airlines flight that was cut short last week after it took off from New York to Los Angeles and "struck an object." The Associated Press reports the plane tipped in strong wind, and a wingtip hit a runway marker during takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The plane then returned to JFK. American flight 300, an Airbus A321, took off from JFK at 8:40 p.m. April 10 and landed back at the airport 29 minutes later, American spokesman Ross Feinstein said in a statement to USA TODAY. He noted it taxied to the gate "after the aircraft struck an object upon departure." There were 102 passengers on board along with eight crew members. No injuries were reported. The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday it's investigating the incident with help from the Federal Aviation Administration, American and the union for the airline's pilots. "We are fully cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board in its investigation of flight 300, Feinstein noted. On a recording by LiveATC.net, one of the pilots is heard telling air traffic controllers that the plane banked sharply to the left during takeoff, apparently from a strong crosswind. Contributing: The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NTSB investigating American Airlines JFK flight that 'struck an object' at takeoff New York (AFP) - The archbishop of New York on Thursday said he has set up a fund to help rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral, meant to give New Yorkers a way to help. "Almost from the very first moments we heard the awful news that Notre-Dame was ablaze, New Yorkers of all faiths, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, reached out to me to express their sorrow at the devastation, and ask how they could help," Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the New York archbishop, said in a statement. Dolan said billionaire financier Kenneth Langone had phoned him and pledged help to France. "So today we are announcing from Saint Patricks to Notre-Dame, a way for people from New York and around the country to contribute in helping rebuild this magnificent house of faith and monument to western civilization," Dolan said, noting that $110,000 had already been collected. The funds will be sent directly to the archbishop of Paris, he explained. Some of France's biggest companies and richest tycoons, including luxury goods rivals Francois-Henri Pinault and Bernard Arnault, have pledged amounts of 100 million euros or more for Notre-Dame after it was gutted by fire Monday. Donation pledges for rebuilding so far have hit 850 million euros. The vast sums have drawn criticism in a country where wealth inequality and the plight of low-income households have been in the spotlight during five months of demonstrations by "yellow vest" protesters. Philanthropist Langone, 83, urged Americans to donate "even a quarter or a dollar ... this is a way to put behind us a word we have heard too much: 'divisiveness.'" Scores of medical professionals across seven states were charged by federal prosecutors on Wednesday with schemes to illegally distribute millions of pain pills in some cases exchanging opioid prescriptions for sex, in others for cash with an added concierge fee, and in one case routinely prescribing opioids to friends on Facebook. Officials called the case the single largest prescription opioid law enforcement operation in history. The indictments, unsealed in federal court in Cincinnati on Wednesday, accuse 60 people, including 31 doctors, seven pharmacists and eight nurses of involvement in the schemes, which included opioid prescriptions issued for gratuitous medical procedures like unnecessary tooth-pulling. In some cases doctors simply handed out signed blank prescription forms. These cases involve approximately 350,000 opioid prescriptions and more than 32 million pills the equivalent of a dose of opioids for every man, woman and child across the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia combined, Brian Benczkowski, an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Departments criminal division, said at a news conference. Most of the charges were filed against people in those five states; one person was charged in Pennsylvania and one in Louisiana. Nationally, more than 70,000 deaths in 2017 were attributed to drug overdoses, with about one-quarter of them caused by prescription opioids. States wholly or partly in Appalachia recorded some of the highest rates of drug overdose deaths that year: West Virginia was first in the nation, Ohio second and Kentucky fifth. The opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region, Attorney General William Barr said in a statement. Prosecutors accused the medical professionals who were charged on Wednesday of conducting a wide range of schemes. Some involved small leagues of doctors and their office staffs, while in other cases, people acted alone, according to the indictments. Story continues Some doctors performed unneeded medical procedures to justify the pills they prescribed, prosecutors said, while others simply passed out prescriptions without going to the trouble of disguising their purpose. One of the doctors facing charges in Ohio had at one time prescribed more controlled substances than anyone else in the state, prosecutors said. A pharmacy in Dayton, Ohio, was accused of dispensing more than 1.75 million pills. And a doctor in Tennessee who called himself the Rock Doc was accused of prescribing hundreds of thousands of pills in exchange for sex. A doctor in Alabama, federal prosecutors said, allegedly recruited prostitutes and other young women with whom he had sexual relationships to become his patients, and allowed them to use illicit drugs at his home. In some cases, the quantity of drugs prescribed to the same patients at short intervals indicated that they could have been taking as many as 15 pills a day, prosecutors said. The charges announced Wednesday include unlawful distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to obtain controlled substances by fraud. Prosecutors said that the charges could result in sentences of up to 50 years in prison. The indictments stem from four months of investigative work by the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Task Force, a group of prosecutors, federal agents and data analysts that was created in December 2018 to find patterns suggesting that doctors were prescribing inordinately high numbers of pain pills, and then follow up with traditional law enforcement techniques, including the use of informants and undercover investigators. Cases like this have been prosecuted before, including a Justice Department operation in June that resulted in charges against 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, for fraudulently prescribing and distributing opioids. Those cases were handled within the larger health fraud unit at the Justice Department. The Appalachian task force is different, Benczkowski said, because it is exclusively concerned with corrupt medical professionals, and is doing it in a region of the country that is probably the hardest hit. The New York Times Paloma Contrerass first home product collaboration, a 19-piece grouping focused on bedding, pillows, lighting, and decor, will debut this week at Williams Sonoma Home. With the recent release of her book, Dream Design Live, a feted new brick-and-mortar-store in Houston, and a room in this years upcoming Kips Bay Decorator Show House, Contreras certainly has her hands full with a variety of exciting projects. But this collection, which launches on April 18 online and in stores, is a notable feather in her already dazzling cap. The first seedlings for this collaboration trace back to 2016. That year, when Contreras was working on a room for the Southern Style Now show house, Williams Sonoma lent some products to include in her design. After that, the interior designer and San Franciscobased company hit it off. The conversation went on about potentially doing something together for a while," Contreras tells AD PRO. "We started working on product development [for this collection] at the end of 2016, so its been a long process!" Photo: Courtesy of Williams Sonoma Over the course of an almost three-year period, Contreras designed, sketched, and sent over a litany of images of centuries-old antiquesas well as images of her own workto the Williams Sonoma team. The two then collectively poured over that information, and set out to create common signature motifs. Included in the finished collection are references to accessories Contreras has found on her many sourcing trips abroad (like bone inlay obelisksan interpretation of objets she has seen in France) and hexagonal mirrors made to look vintage, offered in two different sizes (inspired by an antique version, originally found in Paris). "Their team was really wonderful," Contreras says of Williams Sonoma. "They are unique in that they have a fantastic product and art departments in-house, so the patterns you see in the collection were all hand-painted and designed exclusively for us. I really felt like they understood the vision and were able to execute it in a wonderful way." There are also a few firsts for Williams Sonoma Home included in this new line. Designer details, like hand-tied knots on bedding pillows, and applique on the duvet and shams, are new offerings for brand. Contreras also developed monograms of her own for the debut. Story continues Photo: Courtesy of Williams Sonoma Home The interior designer says that the collection really is an accurate interpretation of her own aesthetic. You see a lot of references to classic design motifs: chinoiserie, lacquer, stripes, geometric pieces, natural fiber," she says of the products. "I wanted to create pieces based off of things that I love and use repeatedly in my projectsitems that are hallmarks of my individual style, but that are also versatile enough for anyone to use in their home. When asked what her favorite item is, Contreras called out her modern take on Greek key applique, seen on a series of linen pillows, which were inspired by a custom pair she used to own. Speaking of Williams Sonoma in particular, Contreras says, "Its such an amazing American heritage brand known for its craftsmanship and enduring style, and was always a brand I respected. We developed a really nice working relationship very quickly. I realized that we have many of the same ideals and values." That, and a shared sense of style. Photo credit: Getty Images - Getty Images From Popular Mechanics How many nuclear weapons does the United States have? Thats a secret, again, thanks to the Trump administration. The number, which has been declassified every year for nearly a decade, is once again classified and not for public knowledge. Exactly why that number will remain classified for 2018 is a good question. The Department of Energy, responding to a petition to declassify the number of U.S. nukes for Fiscal Year 2018, responded, After careful consideration. . . it was determined that the requested information cannot be declassified at this time. The Department of Energy controls many aspects of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. Both the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense needed to bless declassification of the numbers--according to the Federation of American Scientists, the DoE agreed to declassify but the DoD did not. Photo credit: Al Seib - Getty Images Since 2010, the U.S. government has made annual disclosures of the number of nuclear weapons in Americas arsenal. The practice, begun by the Obama Administration, was a sign of openness and helped arms control groups keep track of the stockpile. The number was not particularly damaging to national security as outside groups were able to make pretty good informed guesses: In 2010, the Federation of American Scientists estimated the number of U.S. nuclear warheads at 5,200--very close to the actual number of 5,113 revealed through declassification that year. Why the sudden turnaround? Hans M. Kristensen is the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, speculates it could be part of the chaos and incompetence of the Trump Administration, Trumps reflexive tendency to reverse any and all Obama policies, the governments embrace of a new Cold War attitude, or just because it can. Steven Aftergood, also at FAS, quotes one government official who said that the openness policy did not lead to a similar openness mindset from Russia--or China for that matter. Story continues The latest U.S. nuclear figures published by the Department of Defense in 2018 , showed 3,822 nuclear weapons in 2017 with 345 nuclear weapons dismantled. Of that number, approximately 1,600 warheads are deployed on Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic heavy bombers, and ballistic missile submarines at sea. A further 2,250 are stockpiled and held in reserve, and another 150 are on short-range delivery systems--likely B61 bombs delivered by fighter jets such as the F-16. Finally, 2,650 warheads were awaiting dismantlement. ('You Might Also Like',) By Dominique Vidalon and Pascale Denis PARIS (Reuters) - Drinks group Pernod Ricard is having regular and "courteous" talks with activist investor Elliott, although it is not necessarily meeting Elliott any more than it would with any other regular shareholder, the head of Pernod told Reuters. "There is a regular dialogue between the teams, but we do not see them more than other shareholders. My ambition remains to deliver on our strategic plan, that's my motto," CEO Alexandre Ricard said in a telephone interview. Pernod, which is the world's second-biggest spirits group behind Diageo, is under pressure from New York hedge fund Elliott Management to improve profit margins and corporate governance. In February, Pernod vowed to lift its margins and shareholder returns under a three-year plan that Elliott described as a first small step. When asked about speculation that Pernod could sell the whole or part of its wine business, Ricard replied: "Pernod Ricard has the firm intention to continue to actively manage its portfolio, in terms of either selling or buying." Last month Bloomberg reported Pernod was considering the sale of its wine division, which includes Australian brand Jacob's Creek and Spain's Campo Viejo and makes roughly 5 percent of group sales. Ricard, whose company makes Havana Club rum in Cuba, added he was "not worried" about Pernod's business in Cuba, despite latest moves by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. The Trump administration is lifting a long-standing ban against U.S. citizens filing lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties seized by Cubas Communist government since Fidel Castros 1959 revolution, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday. The major policy shift, which the State Department said could draw hundreds of thousands of legal claims worth tens of billion of dollars, is intended to intensify pressure on Havana at a time Washington is demanding an end to Cuban support for Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Pascale Denis; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg says President Donald Trump is "kind of like a Chinese finger trap you know, the harder you pull, the more you get stuck" and warns that Democrats shouldn't get bogged down in trying to "knock him flat with some zinger." In Iowa for the first time since officially launching his campaign , Buttigieg discussed how to defeat Trump after drawing an audience of more than 1,600 people at a Des Moines rally Tuesday night. "We've got to acknowledge without giving an inch on the racism or xenophobia that played a role in that campaign we've got to also pay attention to the things that make people susceptible to that message and make sure we're addressing them," said the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. The rally was one of the biggest campaign events yet for a 2020 contender in the Des Moines area, a particularly notable feat for a candidate who just over a month ago was barely registering in the polls. Buttigieg's main task now is turning grassroots energy into a real, sustainable movement. In an interview with The Associated Press, Buttigieg said Iowa its caucuses produce the first votes of the presidential nominating season "will be really central to our strategy." "There's a political style here that rhymes a lot with my home territory in Indiana," he said. "I think that the mechanics of a caucus really favor a style that involves a lot of engagement, which is how I like to practice politics ... of course there's a simple logistical advantage of it being the one early state that's within driving distance of my home." Asked whether Trump leaned on racial animus to win the White House, Buttigieg called the president out for playing "white guy identity politics." "By far the political movement that is most based on identity politics is Trumpism. It's based on white guy identity politics. It uses race to divide the working and middle class," he told the AP. "There are a lot of strategies to blame problems on people who look different or are of a different faith or even of a different sexuality or gender identity. ... It's a cynical political strategy that works in the short term but winds up weakening the whole country in the long term." Story continues Buttigieg has argued that he's uniquely positioned to take on Trump because he can appeal to the white working class voters who left the Democratic Party for the Republican. But in recent days, he's acknowledged he needs to address the lack of racial diversity among supporters at his events. In the AP interview, Buttigieg said he plans to make sure that "our organization and our substance reflect our commitment to diversity." He said he'll do that by hiring a diverse staff and by addressing a range of policies that affect minorities, including but not limited to criminal justice reform, education, homeownership and entrepreneurship. "I think any white candidate needs to show a level of consciousness around issues like white privilege," he said. But when asked whether he had experienced white privilege, he said that "part of privilege is not being very conscious of it, right?" He added: "You're much more conscious when you're at a disadvantage than ... when you are on the beneficial side of a bias. But there's no question that that's a factor that has impacted people in many different ways. And we need to be as alive to it as possible." Buttigieg said that to be able to create a diverse coalition without alienating white working-class voters, issues of racial justice need to be discussed in a unifying way. "I mean being pro-racial justice should not be skin off the back of any white voter," he said. "I think there's certainly an environment where sometimes these ideas are pitted against each other, where it's suggested, for example, that connecting with white working-class voters somehow means that you have to walk away somehow from our commitment to racial justice but our commitment to racial justice is part of the bedrock of the moral authority of the Democratic Party." The South Bend mayor has surged from a relatively unknown candidate in the field to a media darling who's gained support in nationwide polling and posted a stronger-than-expected fundraising number in the first quarter. He's drawn attention for his plainspoken style, and the historic nature of his candidacy, as the first openly gay contender in a same-sex marriage. During the Des Moines rally, an audience member asked what he should tell his friends who say America isn't ready for a gay president. Buttigieg replied, "Tell your friends I said 'hi.'" The impact of his personal life on the campaign was on striking display at both of his Iowa events Tuesday. During a town hall meeting in Fort Dodge, after Buttigieg spoke about the need for marriage equality, a protester stood up and shouted, "You betray your baptism!" He was escorted out. Buttigieg joked to the crowd, "Coffee after church gets a little rowdy sometimes," then added: "We're so dug-in, in such passionate ways, and I respect that, too. That gentleman believes that what he is doing is in line with the will of the creator. I'd do it differently. We ought to be able to do it differently." In Des Moines, another protester shouted "Sodom and Gomorrah!" The crowd drowned him out with chants of "Pete! Pete! Pete!" Asked by the AP how he would win over a protester like the one in Fort Dodge if he could sit down with him, Buttigieg said, "I'm not sure he would want to sit down with me," but that he hoped others who have concerns about his candidacy would come to his events and ask a question, "so we could have a respectful exchange." "There are a lot of positions, there's a wide range, with fringes, in our politics. That's part of how politics works, and you shouldn't be in this if you aren't prepared to deal with that," he said. The turnout at the Des Moines event was unexpected, according to Polk County Democratic Party Chair Sean Bagniewski, who said Buttigieg's team had predicted at most 200 people would show up. The campaign didn't have any volunteers to take down information for enthusiastic supporters who wanted to be a part of the campaign. "It's a very narrow window to capture momentum and energy and attention, and if you miss the opportunity to match your staff and energy with the moment, you can miss your chance," Bagniewski said. Pete Buttigieg has been confronted by anti-gay hecklers along the campaign trail this week, with demonstrations taking a bizarre turn at an Iowa rally. A notorious anti-abortion activist dressed as the Indiana mayor began whipping a man wearing a costume of Jesus Christ near a Marshalltown campaign stop Wednesday morning, a day after that same protestor attempted to interrupt another event held by Mr Buttigieg. That man, Randall Terry, can be seen in a video captured by freelance Getty Images video producer Marcus DiPaola donning a Mayor Pete sign around his neck as he whips the other demonstrator, who is holding a cross on his back. A third protestor dressed as the devil can be heard shouting on a loudspeaker, Yes, more blood, Peter! and Every vote is a lash on the back of Christ. Mr Buttigieg has remained notably calm throughout each of the heckling attempts, receiving attention for his thoughtful responses to the issue of his sexuality and how it plays into voters opinions of him. His audiences have also typically kicked in with support, drowning out the noise with chants and cheers. When Mr Terry began shouting at the mayor's Des Moines rally Tuesday night, Mr Buttigieg responded, The good news is, the condition of my soul is in the hands of God." But the Iowa caucuses are up to you, he added, pointing to the crowd. The mayor also harkened back to his own religious views during a separate heckling event at another Tuesday rally. As a heckler shouted claims about Mr Buttigieg supporting the murder of unborn babies, the 2020 candidate joked that coffee after church gets a little rowdy sometimes. That gentleman believes that what he is doing is in line with the will of the creator, Mr Buttigieg said, as the man was escorted out of the room by security. I view it differently. We ought to be able to view it differently. Mr Terry is a controversial figure, described as an attention seeker who travels cross country to participate in spectacles like the Wednesday morning demonstration. The anti-abortion group he previously founded, called Operation Rescue, reportedly cut all ties with him nearly 18 years ago and considers him too radical to have any sort of relationship. By Jayson Mansaray and Marie-Louise Gumuchian LONDON (Reuters) - In Ryan Hatrick's London kitchen, Prince William and his wife Kate smile from lined up royal-themed mugs, a magnet of Queen Elizabeth sticks to the oven, and a tea towel marking Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle hangs nearby. Books about the British royal family lie on the table around which the 41-year-old's labrador, named Windsor, plays with his favourite toy - a squeaky crown. Hatrick has long been a royal fan - he remembers his mother looking for somewhere to watch Prince Charles marry Diana Spencer while on holiday in a remote seaside cottage in 1981 and avidly read about Tudor monarchs as a teenager. "I think in a day when we are just being inundated with depressing news...the royals have given us something to look forward to," he said. "Will and Kate's wedding...the births of (their children) George, Charlotte, and Louis, the weddings of Harry and (his cousin Princess) Eugenie, as well as the Jubilee and the Queen's 90th...always something to look forward to." Hatrick, who works in security, has hosted royal-themed parties: last May he decorated a pub with balloons and bunting and ordered a cake to celebrate Harry marrying American actress Meghan in a televised wedding watched by millions. From Boston to Karachi, Britain's royal family draws fans around the world, eagerly following special occasions, their outings, and in the cases of Kate and Meghan, their outfits. They collect memorabilia, travel to see the royals in public or follow their news from afar. In an age of social media, new types of fans have created Facebook pages, Instagram accounts and broadcast podcasts to global audiences. When Harry and Meghan, who are expecting their first child, launched their @sussexroyal Instagram handle on April 2, the account broke the record for the fastest time to get one million followers on the platform, hitting the number in five hours and 45 minutes, according to Guinness World Records. Story continues "People are always interested in the news and the fact that Harry and Meghan are going to have a baby...will be of passing interest to most people," royal commentator Claudia Joseph said. "But of course there are royal watchers who are fascinated and other people who just shrug their shoulders in the pub." DIFFERENT TYPES OF FANS William, Kate and their children, Harry and Meghan, have particularly generated social media buzz. Websites, blogs and Instagram accounts have sprouted in their honour. "The reason behind posting is...I love her a lot," said Karachi-based Mah Jabeen, 36, who set up a Meghan Markle Facebook fan page and YouTube channel about the now duchess. "People love to read about her. Her biography, her life...her fashion style." In Amman, Ala Mashharawi, content and social media editor at news website Al Bawaba, follows Kate and Meghan news, but his @meghanmarkle_arabic Instagram account focuses on the latter. "Any new person that enters the royal family will attract a lot of attention...But Meghan...already had three different things about her: she was older than Prince Harry, she is divorced and she was an actress," the 28-year-old said. "What inspired me was her style, I just wanted to keep a personal library of...everything that Meghan wore; then one thing lead to another, people started to like the page and following and asking for news." Other fans want to shine a light on royal work. Boston-based Denese Carpenter started the "My Duke and I" podcast with a friend to discuss Harry and Meghan's work relating to the Commonwealth: he is Youth Ambassador while she patron of The Association of Commonwealth Universities. "I think it's important the focus stays on that and not on their personal lives," she said. British retiree Margaret Tyler has garnered her own press attention for her royal dedication. Her London home is filled with plates, cups, pictures, dolls and life-size cardboard cut-outs of the queen and other royals. The 75-year-old has met the queen, her mother, Harry and Meghan among others: "I'm so excited about baby Sussex...I can't wait." (additional reporting by Sheree Sardar in Karachi and Bushra Shakhshir in Amman; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) The author of what may be the world's most popular book about a cathedral told AFP that watching Notre-Dame being eaten up by flames made him feel like someone was dying. British writer Ken Follett's 1989 historical novel "The Pillars of the Earth" sold tens of millions of copies and spent 18 weeks atop The New York Times best sellers' list. Its story about the construction of a 12th-century cathedral in a fictional English town traces the same era as that in which Notre-Dame assumed its majestic place in the heart of Paris. "It symbolises our connection with history," Follett told AFP as the world mourned Monday's devastation. "Notre-Dame was started in 1163, nearly a 1,000 years ago. It connects us with our past, and we see something like that being destroyed, and we feel as if somebody died." The 69-year-old Welshman studied Notre-Dame's history and architectural construction as he prepared to write his own work. One of the scenes in "The Pillars of Earth" is set in a Parisian cathedral that readers may very well assume is Notre-Dame. Follett said he watched the flames shoot out of the Gothic building on television and "was horrified, like most of the world was horrified. "I had a pretty good idea of what was happening. The only place where a fire can start in a cathedral is in the roof space," he said. "There is a triangular space in the roof which is made of wood -- almost everything else is made of stone." This knowledge did little to lift his sense of dread. "I thought in the morning, there would be nothing left," he said. Follett said the ancient structure's ability to withstand such an inferno was a testament to the builders and engineers of the time. "The medieval builders built better than we thought because, miraculously, much of the cathedral has survived," he said. Donations to rebuild Notre-Dame have topped 600 million euros ($680 million) so far. Story continues Follett expressed no doubt that the French -- and global -- cultural icon would stand proud atop its perch on the River Seine. "I am optimistic about it. The money will be found, the craftsmen will be found," said Follett. "My sense of it is French people are determined about this sort of thing. They have decided to do it and will make this happen." London (AFP) - The author of what may be the world's most popular book about a cathedral told AFP that watching Notre-Dame being eaten up by flames made him feel like someone was dying. British writer Ken Follett's 1989 historical novel "The Pillars of the Earth" sold tens of millions of copies and spent 18 weeks atop The New York Times best sellers' list. Its story about the construction of a 12th-century cathedral in a fictional English town traces the same era as that in which Notre-Dame assumed its majestic place in the heart of Paris. "It symbolises our connection with history," Follett told AFP as the world mourned Monday's devastation. "Notre-Dame was started in 1163, nearly a 1,000 years ago. It connects us with our past, and we see something like that being destroyed, and we feel as if somebody died." The 69-year-old Welshman studied Notre-Dame's history and architectural construction as he prepared to write his own work. One of the scenes in "The Pillars of Earth" is set in a Parisian cathedral that readers may very well assume is Notre-Dame. Follett said he watched the flames shoot out of the Gothic building on television and "was horrified, like most of the world was horrified. "I had a pretty good idea of what was happening. The only place where a fire can start in a cathedral is in the roof space," he said. "There is a triangular space in the roof which is made of wood -- almost everything else is made of stone." This knowledge did little to lift his sense of dread. "I thought in the morning, there would be nothing left," he said. Follett said the ancient structure's ability to withstand such an inferno was a testament to the builders and engineers of the time. "The medieval builders built better than we thought because, miraculously, much of the cathedral has survived," he said. Donations to rebuild Notre-Dame have topped 600 million euros ($680 million) so far. Story continues Follett expressed no doubt that the French -- and global -- cultural icon would stand proud atop its perch on the River Seine. "I am optimistic about it. The money will be found, the craftsmen will be found," said Follett. "My sense of it is French people are determined about this sort of thing. They have decided to do it and will make this happen." As Pinterest shares start trading with a valuation reaching $12.6 billion, plenty of VCs are no doubt thinking: Why didnt we get in that deal early? So we tracked down one who did: Sarah Tavel, then of Bessemer Ventures, and now a General Partner at Benchmark Capital. Back in 2011 the Pinterest team (if you can call it that) was made up of five employees including co-founders Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp. They were based out of a small dark house in Palo Alto, Calif. where a man named Dave was living in the officethough he wasnt an employee, according to a 2012 keynote address by Silbermann. Dave was a pretty late riser, so sometimes wed be talking to investors and this guy would just roll outdont mind me, Im just taking a shower, he said at the time. And investors either loved it or hated it. Tavel and her then colleague Jeremy Levine were intrigued. They saw an opportunity in the then untested, but now lucrative, bet at a time when shares were priced somewhere between 12 cents to 17 cents apiece, per the companys public filing. Tavel had been invited to use Pinterest, then an invite-only platform, in 2011 after a friend on Facebook brought her into the fold. Her Interest was piqued after using the pin board as it found a niche somewhere between social media and commerce in a way Twitter and Facebook had not been able to do. She emailed Pinterest in March of that year. It was roughly a year after the social site had launched. (Tavel says she met with an earlier Silbermann ventureretail app Totein 2009, but missed the Seed round.) I started to compare their traffic to some of their competitors through a web traffic tool using Alexa and I saw they were pulling away from the pack, she said. (She says at the time companies like Svpply and Polyvore would have been considered competitors). Story continues So when the New York-based Levine was in town, Tavel suggested a last-minute afternoon meeting between Pinterest and Bessemerwith just 10 minutes until Levine had to leave for a 4 p.m. flight back home in the rain. The duo pulled up to the small apartment that had been specially vacuumed in preparation for their arrival, and where Tavel suspects she saw a sleeping bag under a desk. But soft-spoken Sibermann gave an articulate presentation of the companys vision. What really impressed her: Though Pinterest, which was invite only at the time with about 30,000 users, these users were obsessivespending long-stretches of time on the platform, and, if she remembers correctly, coming back over 20 times a month. I had been looking for a company that looked like Pinterest for over a year, she said. The only thing Jeremy and I were worried about was how do I get this deal? We thought it was this competitive deal. Levine at the time was on the board of web-hosting firm Wikia. So they called up Wikipedia and Wikia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who was a hero to Silbermann, and convinced the entrepreneur to make time for the Pinterest co-founder and talk about working with Bessemer. Despite that, it was a hard sell to Pinterest, with significant negotiations around pricing. Pinterest later successfully raised $10 million in that Series A round led by Bessemer in 2011. And since the investment, Pinterest has changed substantially. In the early days, Pinterest had relied on Twitters follow model, showing users content only from other Pinners that they had subscribed to. Now the site shows a wider range of images (and, of course, ads) based on similar content and image searches. Tavel, who ended up leaving Bessemer to be Product Manager at Pinterest, discovered just a few years ago that Bessemer in fact had no other VC firms vying for the deal, she says laughing, adding that she hadnt expected it to have been a contrarian bet. Bessemer is now Pinterests largest shareholder with 13.1% of shares now worth roughly $1.1 billion, and it has the most voting power in the company. As for Tavel, she left Pinterest in 2015 to rejoin the VC world but is still invested and has options from her time working at the company. She still pins recipes, wines, books, and Japanese beers she wishes she could drink but as a new mom she says shes doing what any good pinner would do: saving that idea for another day down the road. With a spate of high profile IPOs set to debut including Pinterest and video-conferencing firm Zoom listing Thursday investors may be tempted to dive in. But history suggests a second look for long-term investors. In a study of IPOs between 1980 and 2015, newly public firms on average rose 7.4% in their first year on the market, underperforming companies of a similar size which returned 11.9% in that time frame, according to Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida. That trend persisted into the fifth year of a companys public life. That said, long is the list of investors who wished they had bought Amazon or Google back when they first when public. With that in mind, here are five factors investors should keep in mind as the IPO market keeps rolling. Ignore the first day pop While a pop above the IPO price can be a psychological boost for investors and company insiders, it doesnt necessarily predict the overall health of a company. In 2018 for instance, shares of companies that went public on average rose 15.7% on the first day. At the end of the year, they were together down 16.7%, according to Renaissance Capital. Even the S&P 500 outperformed the group, falling 4.4% in the year. Some observers argue that underpricing an offering to pop doesnt make long-term sense, as the company could have raised more capital for operations had it not been chasing that jump on the first day. When Snap went public, it priced shares at $17, but the stock closed at $25 suggesting greater demand than what had been priced into the initial offering. (Of course, not all buzzed about offerings see a pop at all, as Facebook shareholders certainly know.) Analyst recommendations matterto a degree When Pinterest and Zoom list, expect to see several Wall Street analysts initiate coverage of the stock. The good news: those with early calls work for institutions that have no stake in the IPO, so in theory they have no reason to be overly positive or negative. Its not till roughly 10 days after an IPO that analysts at the banks that underwrote an offering are allowed to go public with their recommendations (though banks have continued to stick with a 25 day waiting period). Heres the thing: research has showed that ratings from underwriting firms tend to favor the company that just went public, which often gooses the stock when the analysis is released. Story continues Beware lockup periods In order to prevent too much market volatility in a stocks early days of trading, executives and top shareholders agree not to sell shares in their firm for a set period following the IPO. For Pinterest and Zoom, that comes 180 days afterwards. Zoom also has a separate agreement with Salesforce Ventures, to which it plans to sell $100 million in Class A shares. Salesforce has agreed to hold onto those shares for 365 days. When the lockup periods expire, its not uncommon to see the stock dip as existing shareholders seek to cash in some of their holdings. Look for earnings The first earnings report is seen as a key moment following a large IPO. Snaps first earnings report for example back in 2017 sent shares tumbling 23%. Quarterly earnings for all companies in the U.S. are listed 45 days following a quarter, with the exact date to be set by the firms following the IPO. For Pinterest, D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte says hes looking for hints that the company will be able to monetize its international audience. Zoom, meanwhile, is already a unicorn among unicorns in that its profitablebut analysts will be looking to see if the company can continue to broaden profit margins. Keep an eye on competitors With Wall Street buzzing about Pinterests IPO, shares of online marketplace Etsy dipped roughly 3% on Wednesday. Part of that slide could be attributed to Pinterest, says Forte, even though the two companies are fairly different. While Pinterest operates on ad dollars, Etsy gets revenue from both ad spending and fees from listing products. But as the IPO boom of 2019 continues, investors could see more of this pricing pressure on tech companies that arent in direct competition, but are of a similar size (Etsy is valued at about $8 billion, and Pinterest at around $12 billion) as investors seek to cycle out of older stocks and into newer offerings. Police believe "illegal substances" contributed to the death of Carson Price Police have arrested a teenage boy on suspicion of supplying class A drugs after a 13-year-old boy died after he was found unconscious in a park last week. Carson Price was found on Friday evening in a park in Ystrad Mynach, near Caerphilly, South Wales, around a mile from his home in Hengoed. Police believe "illegal substances" contributed to his death. A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Thursday morning when officers raided an address in Pontllanfraith, Blackwood, Gwent Police said. Detective Chief Inspector Alun Davies, the senior investigating officer, said: "A 14-year-old boy from the area has now been arrested on suspicion of supplying class A controlled drugs. "He currently remains in police custody at Newport Central Police Station and will be interviewed with an appropriate adult as part of our investigation. "I would encourage anyone with any further information that may assist with our inquiries to make contact with Gwent Police." Carson's family have described him as "kind and loving" and "a cheeky little boy" (Facebook) Superintendent Nick McLain said: "I'd like to thank all members of the community for their continued support during this tragic time. "The information received from the public has been a vital part of the investigation. I would like to emphasise no one has been charged with any offences and the investigation is still continuing." Carson's family have described him as "kind and loving" and "a cheeky little boy". Read more from Yahoo News UK: The Mueller Report is finally being released. But what is it? Deadly piranhas found in Doncaster lake Samsung's 1,500 folding phones 'already breaking' Lewis School, where the teenager attended in nearby Pengam, said pupils and staff were "devastated". The school wrote on Facebook: "At such an awful time I'm sure that everyone in our community will join with us in passing on our deepest condolences and sympathy to everyone touched by this tragic event. "Support will be made available to any pupils or staff in the weeks ahead but in the meantime our thoughts are with the family, we literally have no words..." By Sam Alberti LONDON, April 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The suffering of children sold for their organs and young African girls prostituted on Rome's streets will dominate Pope Francis' Good Friday service, led by an Italian nun who has devoted her life to helping sex trafficking victims. Sister Eugenia Bonetti has won multiple awards for her work with trafficked women and children in Italy, Nigeria and Benin since the 1990s, providing legal services, repatriation and shelter to some of an estimated 40 million trapped in slavery. "Let us think of all those children ... bought and sold by human traffickers for organ harvesting, used and abused on our streets by many, including Christians, who have lost the sense of their own and others' sacredness," she will tell the crowds. "Like the young girl with a slim body we met one evening in Rome while men in luxury cars lined up to exploit her. She might have been the age of their own children." The Church has set its sights on human trafficking in recent years, with Francis branding forcing women into prostitution a "crime against humanity" and urging Catholics to "open their eyes" to victims. As he prepares to lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics in the countdown to Easter Sunday, the pope chose Bonetti to write meditations for the 14 "stations of the cross" which commemorate the last hours of Jesus's life. The prayers will call on Catholics to alleviate the suffering of the poor, homeless, jobless, undocumented migrants and those stuck in transit camps, on boats denied entry to safe ports or shipwrecked in the Mediterranean. Bonetti will describe how she walked the streets of Rome looking for a young woman recently arrived in Italy, where many African migrants wash up, hoping for a fresh start only to be snared in prostitution. "In the darkness, I caught sight of her curled up and half asleep at the edge of the street. When she heard me calling, she awoke and said she couldn't go on," Bonetti will say. "'I can't take it any more', she kept repeating. I thought of her mother. If she knew what had happened to her daughter, she would burst into tears." (Reporting by Sam Alberti; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org) Ottawa (AFP) - The new conservative leader of Canada's oil-rich Alberta province said Wednesday he will nix its carbon tax, opening up a new battlefront with liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of October national elections. The move could put Canada's climate target out of reach, while saddling the federal government with a controversial pipeline project it bought last year as part of a deal with the previous Alberta government to cap its oil sands emissions. The vast oil region in northern Alberta contains the world's third largest oil reserve and is the single largest polluter in the country. "So bill number one in that legislature session will be the carbon tax repeal act," Jason Kenney told a press conference. His United Conservative Party won 63 out of 87 seats in local elections, unseating Trudeau ally Rachel Notley's New Democrats. Scheduled to be sworn in on April 30, Kenney said he had a "respectful conversation" about the need to reverse Alberta's energy slump with Trudeau, who called to congratulate him on his win. He said he particularly pressed the prime minister to get started soon on construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to move Alberta oil to the Pacific coast for shipping to new overseas markets. "I think Prime Minister Trudeau knows that if we can't get coastal access for our energy, that this new government will vigorously stand up for Alberta," he said. Trudeau's government bought the Trans Mountain project last August, effectively nationalizing it, in exchange for Alberta adopting a carbon tax and capping its oil sands emissions. But its construction has continued to be delayed by protests and legal challenges. Meanwhile, without Alberta tackling its emissions, Canada faces a herculean task of meeting its Paris climate target of reducing CO2 emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Added to that, four other Tory-led provinces have lined up against a federal carbon tax imposed on April 1 on provinces that failed to put significant curbs on their CO2 emissions. Queen Elizabeth II with Princess Eugenie leaving St George's Chapel in Windsor after the annual Royal Maundy Service [Photo: PA] Princess Eugenie accompanied the Queen to the Maundy Thursday service at St Georges Chapel in Windsor. She appeared to pay a subtle tribute to her 92-year-old grandmother with her choice of outfit for the annual event. Eugenie, 29, wore Erdems floral-print silk crepe de chine Bernette dress, which was inspired by Her Majestys style in the 1950s. While the 831 frock is now sold out, according to Net-a-Porter, the Canadian-born designer delved deep into Queen Elizabeth II's past for his Spring '18 collection and was particularly drawn to her style in the '50s. The royal first debuted the outfit at Royal Ascot last year. She married long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank at St Georges Chapel last October. Princess Eugenie wore an Erdem dress, inspired by the Queen's 1950s style [Photo: Getty] Erdem has long been a favourite designer of the Royal Family - the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex have also sported his creations. He was one of the frontrunners to design Meghans wedding dress for her and Prince Harrys wedding last May. At the service, the Queen handed out commemorative coins, known as Maundy Money, to senior citizens in recognition for their contribution to community and to the church. The gifts the monarch hands out match her age; she turns 93 on Sunday, so she distributed 93p worth of Maundy money to 93 men and 93 women. READ MORE: How the royals celebrate Easter Each recipient is given two purses. The money in the White Purse includes 1, 2, 3 and 4 silver penny pieces, the sum equals the number of years of the Monarchs age. The Red Purse contains a 5 coin, commemorating the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria's birth & a 50p coin portraying Sherlock Holmes. The Queen wore a buttercup yellow coat for the Maundy Thursday service [Photo: PA] The Queen stood out in a buttercup yellow coat, a matching hat and floral dress for the service. She and her granddaughter were both given nosegays made up of daffodils, primroses, stocks, purple statice, freesias, ivy, hebe and the herbs rosemary and thyme. Her Majesty will attend the Easter Sunday service at St Georges Chapel, with other members of the Royal Family. A pastor at an Ohio private school as allegedly expelled two students, who had been attending the school for years, due to their mother committing "adultery." (Photo: WKYC) A mother said an Ohio private school expelled her daughters because an administrator accused her of committing adultery. Summer Grant, the mother of the second- and fourth-grade students, told Cleveland, Ohio, news station WKYC that Pastor John Wilson, of Chapel Hill Christian School in Cuyahoga Falls informed her on Friday that her children were no longer welcome at the school. According to a Facebook post, the mother had no warning of the expulsion. The students have only thirty days left in the school year, and the school had already accepted their scholarship money for the year. Additionally, enrolling the young girls into public school means they would lose their scholarship. Grants children, Summara and Summaia, attended their last day at Chapel Hill Christian School on the same day she received the news. "[Pastor Wilson] said it was many reasons and the main one was because I was not married and my children had different fathers, Grant told the outlet. Grant has lived with her partner for five years, for the entire time her children attended the school. Grant recorded, in part, her conversation with Pastor Wilson. In the recording, Wilson informs Grant that she violated the school's covenant by having kids with different fathers and living with a man without being married. "There's ten commandments and committing adultery is not part of that, Pastor Wilson is heard saying in the recording. Its not that they should not go to the school, it's that they can't go to the school. According to Grants Facebook post, her daughters received A's and B's throughout their school years and were rarely in trouble. Recently, the girls were part of a misunderstanding with a bus driver the previous week, in which one of the girls was told to sit in the front as she could not hear her name being called. "My child informed [the bus driver] she could not hear him over the other children talking. She did as she was told [and] moved up to the front of the bus. He then refused to open the bus doors not allowing them off at their stop, asking my daughters repeatedly 'do you hear me now' until they responded. My oldest said yes to get off the bus. She got off the bus got into the car crying," Grant wrote. Story continues She said that the next day, she put them on the bus as usual, when the driver flagged her down. She asked her children to sit up front and allegedly told the driver, "I would appreciate if he would stop picking on my child and take them to school." This led to a confrontation between the driver and Grant, in which the police were called; however, Pastor Wilson allegedly informed her the bus situation had little to do with his decision. Chapel Hill Christian School provided a statement to WYKC on the incident. "Chapel Hill Christian School parents sign a written agreement to conduct themselves in accordance with expressed guidelines of conduct. These policies include, but are not limited to, behavior that relates to the physical safety of our students." Pastor Wilson did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyles requests for comment, or to requests to obtain the agreement parents sign, along with the guidelines of conduct expected of a parent. Grant said now, her children have no school to attend. As Christian you are not supposed to judge, Grant said. You shouldnt have affected these kids education over that." Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. By Khalid Abdelaziz KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Huge crowds formed outside Sudan's defence ministry on Thursday, joining a sit-in protest to demand that the country's transitional military council hand power to civilians. Hundreds of thousands packed the streets by early evening - the largest crowds to gather in the centre of the capital since last week, when former President Omar al-Bashir was ousted and the military council took over. Protesters chanted "Freedom and revolution are the choice of the people" and "Civilian rule, civilian rule", and waved national flags. Giant screens showed a film documenting apparent abuses by the security services. "We will remain in the street until power is handed to civilian authority," said 24-year-old protester Samia Abdallah. "We will bring down military rule." The council has said it is ready to meet some of the protesters' demands, including fighting corruption, but has indicated that it would not hand over power to protest leaders. It has said that a transitional period of up to two years will be followed by elections and that it is ready to work with anti-Bashir activists and opposition groups to form an interim civilian government. "We are completely committed to handing over power within a maximum two years," one of the members of the council, Lieutenant General Salah Abdelkhalek, told state TV on Thursday. "Perhaps the most difficult issue facing the military council now through its political committee is getting agreement from the political spectrum and the community forces on the naming of a prime minister," Abdelkhalek said. "The ball is in their court." GULF RIVALRY The head of the 10-man military council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy are known for their ties to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, through Sudan's participation in the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen. Story continues Late on Thursday, the council's spokesman said an undersecretary at Sudan's foreign ministry had been dismissed over a statement from the ministry that had said preparations were under way for the visit of a delegation from Qatar, the regional rival of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Spokesman Shams El Din Kabbashi said the ministry had made the statement without consulting the council, state news agency SUNA reported. The sit-in that began on April 6 outside the defence ministry in Khartoum was the culmination of 16 weeks of protests triggered by a worsening economic crisis in Sudan, leading to Bashir being ousted and arrested after three decades in power. Sudanese have been struggling with sharp price rises and shortages of cash and basic products. Many analysts blame the country's economic troubles on mismanagement, corruption and the impact of U.S. sanctions, as well as loss of oil revenue when South Sudan seceded in 2011. In 2017 the U.S. lifted trade sanctions but kept Sudan on its state sponsors of terrorism list, depriving it of debt relief from international lenders. On Thursday the United States expressed its support for a democratic transition in Sudan, saying it was encouraged by the release of political prisoners and the cancellation of a curfew. It said Washington's policies toward Sudan would be based on "our assessment of events on the ground and the actions of transitional authorities." (Additional reporting by Hesham Hajali; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Rosalba O'Brien) The Mueller report has been released, with 400 pages of slightly redacted material detailing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. While attorney general William Barr has said that the report found no evidence of collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia in that effort, plenty of questions remain. Beyond collusion, the investigation looked into whether the president sought to obstruct justice by firing former FBI James Comey over his investigation into Russian meddling a firing that spurred the creation of the Mueller investigation itself. The report was delivered to Congress on Thursday morning shortly after Mr Barr conducted a press conference in Washington, where he doubled down on his decision to declare that there was insufficient evidence of that obstruction. That decision came even though he said the report found ten potential instances where obstruction occurred. Mueller report by on Scribd After being released to Congress, the report was made available on the special counsel's website. That website, and the report, can be accessed here. The Independent's live blog of the report can be found here. While the Mueller report made available publicly has been redacted for various reasons, Mr Barr said on Thursday that he would make an un-redacted version of the report available to Congress. The redacted version, he said, will have notes indicating why information was kept back. But, he also said that the White House did not assert executive privilege. Littleton (United States) (AFP) - One of them saw the killers, while the other just heard the gun shots, one after another, that killed 13 people at Columbine High School and wounded more than 20 others. Twenty years after that massacre of 12 students and one teacher in Colorado, two survivor have yet to heal their wounds, and these gashes rip open again every time there is another mass shooting in America. Amanda Duran, who was 15 at the time, told AFP that subsequent mass killings, like the one in Las Vegas in 2017 at a country music festival and the school shooting in Parkland, Florida last year, "really get me freaked out." "I spent 19 years before that just being sad and broken-hearted, but now it has just turned to angry," said Duran. "I started to get angry because it's like nothing has changed at all." Duran recalls that nightmarish day of April 20, 1999 vividly. She had an appointment with a school counselor because she was having personal problems at school. She was in the library, waiting for her meeting, when she started hearing "popping noises." Then two heavily armed students burst into the library. They were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, whom she did not know. She scrambled under a table to seek shelter. "I hear this 'boom' right next to me, when they'd shot the girl next to me," she remembers. "I went deaf at that point and I thought for sure that I was going to be next." "So I curled up really, really tight, put my arms above me like this and just kinda held my breath, braced myself to get shot in the ribs. Just waited, waited." At about the same time, Alisha Basore, 17, was walking to her art class. The blasts from the guns sent students scrambling. Coincidentally, Basore had suffered a gunshot wound in an accident four months earlier, so she had trouble running but managed to get away. "I don't have any bullets whizzing past my face or somebody holding a gun to my face, nothing like that," Basore recalled. Story continues "But, unfortunately for me, that doesn't stop the trauma or what was to come over the next few weeks, years, the funerals, the finding out your friends were killed, finding out somebody you just spoke to yesterday was one of the victims, you know." - Toll on survivors - At the time, Columbine was the deadliest school shooting in United States history. It shocked the nation to its core. In the years that followed, the survivors battled all kinds of emotional problems, such as severe anxiety attacks and insomnia. Basore, who went on to become a hairdresser, developed the eating disorder bulimia and still suffers from it. "That is a vicious beast that won't go away. But overall, I have definitely learned to just kind of deal, I guess," said Basore. Duran, who works in a Walmart store, relaxes by watching cat videos on the internet. She says he husband pokes fun at her, but it calms her down. But tragedy struck again in 2007, when Duran's brother Joe -- who had been through a divorce and had been depressed for years -- committed suicide. At Columbine, he had been part of a loose group of marginalized kids who called themselves the "trench coat mafia" because of their garb. Although the shooters were not part of the group, Joe Duran was suspected of being linked to them and received death threats after the mass shooting, his sister said. After her brother killed himself, people on the internet said they were glad. Amanda Duran felt the need to speak out in his defense, publishing a series of videos on YouTube, which she said was cathartic. - Anger over inaction - But subsequent shootings sent her back into deep sadness. She said it was appalling that politicians did nothing to tighten America's gun laws. After the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut that killed 26 people in 2012, "you would have thought someone would have come with more gun laws or require (a) mental health workout before you are allowed to buy a gun," she said. "But nothing of that sort happened. So I have just been angry and pissed off." For Basore, "mental health is in my opinion... a far bigger fight and a far bigger question and a far bigger interest, because no gun ever jumped off of the ground and shot someone. It's who is holding that weapon." Duran said she "admires the Parkland kids for standing up, working to change gun laws," referring to survivors of a school shooting that killed 17 people, who have spent the last year advocating for tighter gun regulations. "We just wanted to go back to normal," said Duran. But that has not yet happened. Iranian president, Hassan Rowhani on Thursday hit back at U.S. President, Donald Trump in response to decision to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a terrorist group. He added that Iran was capable of withstanding conspiracies between the U.S. and Israel, and declared that the Islamic republic will not be intimidated. The air force, ground forces and the navy have never been as powerful as today, dpa quoted Rowhani as saying at an annual military parade in Tehran, he said. Trump announced the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation on April 8 in a White House statement that called the corps the Iranian governments primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign. A week later, the Iranian parliament branded the U.S. a state sponsor of terrorism and designated Centcom, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, as a terrorist organisation. Rowhani argued that the IRGC has been at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, including against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. The IRGC has fought alongside the forces of Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, in Syria since the start of that countrys conflict in 2011. 10/8/2015, McLean, VA. Gannett headquarters building The U.S. Department of Labor reportedly is investigating a prominent hedge fund sponsor over its handling of hundreds of thousands of dollars in pension funds at some of the U.S. newspapers in its control. The investigation focuses on Alden Global Capital, the controlling shareholder of MNG Enterprises, the publisher of more than 100 local news properties, including The Denver Post and the Boston Herald. The properties are run under the brand MediaNews Group and have also operated under the name Digital First Media. As much as 90% of some of MNG newspapers' pension assets were invested in two hedge funds controlled by Alden during the last few years, U.S. Department of Labor records show. An unnamed spokesman for the hedge fund sponsor confirmed that Department of Labor officials are investigating the investments, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. Most of those pension assets have since been transferred out of the funds, MNG said in a separate statement. An Alden representative could not immediately be reached for comment. Megan Sweeney, a Department of Labor spokeswoman, did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment. News of the reported investigation arose amid MNG's hostile takeover attempt for Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY and more than 100 local media outlets nationwide. Since Gannett rejected MNG's offer to buy Gannett for $12 a share, MNG has launched a proxy fight nominating six candidates for Gannett's board of directors. Gannett opposes the slate, which will be voted on at its annual shareholder meeting scheduled for May 16th. Gene Forbes, who works in the pre-press department of The Denver Post, holds up a placard during a rally against the paper's ownership group, Alden Global Capital, May 8, 2018, outside the paper's office and printing plant in north Denver. Members from all guild units were on hand in Denver for the rally at which they urged Alden Capital to invest in the newspapers that it controls or sell the properties. U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, in February sent Alden a letter that asked how the proposed acquisition could affect newspaper pension plans, potential staffing, and other issues. Last week, Schumer also wrote to the Department of Justice and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. requesting information on the impact of a potential combination of MNG and Gannett on the news industry, including antitrust issues, after saying he was "troubled" by MNG's response to his earlier inquiry. Schumer cited what he called the company's failure to make commitments regarding newsroom staffing and to address potential regulatory concerns. Story continues Hugh Burns, a spokesman for MNG, told USA TODAY that the Alden investments complied with provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the federal statute that safeguards private industry pension funds. The law requires individuals or companies that handle pension fund investments or provide advice on investment selections to "act prudently," and says they "also must avoid conflicts of interest." "A portion of MNG's pension plan assets were successfully managed by Alden, for which MNG's pension plans were not charged and paid no management or performance fees, resulting in less expense to the plans," said Burns. "In 2017, consistent with its return of other outside capital, Alden began winding down its management of these pension plan assets, making regular cash distributions to the MNG pension plan investors." Alden currently manages " less than 0.5% of the assets in MNG's sponsored single-employer defined benefit plans," added Burns. "MNG believes that Alden's management of the pension plan assets for which it provided management services has at all times complied with all legal requirements, including ERISA." Department of Labor records show the financial details of MNG pension fund assets that were invested with two Alden-related hedge funds, AGBPI Fund, Limited, and Global CRE Opportunities Fund Diversified Fund, Limited. Roughly $106.7 million in pension assets from the San Jose Mercury News, now called The Mercury News, were invested in the two funds during 2015. That represented nearly 90 percent of the total assets, the records show. More than $45 million in Denver Post pension assets, representing 91 percent of the retirement plan's assets, were invested with the Alden funds during 2015, the records show. Follow USA TODAY reporter Kevin McCoy on Twitter: @kmccoynyc This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Report: Department of Labor investigating hedge fund's handling of retirement plan assets An electrical short-circuit most likely sparked the inferno at the Notre Dame Cathedral, a French police official told the Associated Press on Thursday. The official, who spoke anonymously because of the ongoing probe, said investigators made an initial assessment Wednesday but have not been given the OK to work through the rubble because of safety reasons. Wooden planks were holding up the delicate walls of the cathedral, the official said. Investigators have said they believe the fire was accidental. Within hours of the fire engulfing the Gothic masterpiece on Monday, city prosecutors announced they were opening an inquiry. Arson was ruled out as well as possible terror-related motives. Officials said early on that it was possible the blaze was linked to a $6.8 million renovation project at the 850-year-old landmark. About 40 people construction crews and cathedral staff have been questioned and some are being questioned again Thursday, according to the Paris prosecutors office. 'Raining fire': First hand accounts from the Notre Dame Cathedral blaze The blaze collapsed the cathedral's iconic spire, most of the roof was ravaged, and the damage to the 12th-century building elsewhere was extensive. But its twin bell towers, rose windows, 18-century organ and precious artworks were saved. Engineers are likely to put up a temporary roof to protect the cathedral from the elements. Debris is seen inside the Notre Dame Cathedral on April 16, 2019. Donations to rebuild the cathedral have neared the $1 billion mark. French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants the structure rebuilt in five years, but experts say it could take one or two decades. France will hold a competition among international architects to design a new spire and will determine whether the structure should replicate the one that fell in Monday's blaze or have its own original design. Conspiracy theories: The cause of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire remains unknown. Everything else is a rumor Also Thursday, France was paying a day-long tribute to the Paris firefighters instrumental in saving the structure and rescuing its priceless treasures as flames raced around them. More than 400 firefighters took part in the nine-hour stand against the blaze. Story continues Among the firefighters being honored was fire brigade chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who helped salvage the crown of thorns believed to have been worn by Jesus Christ at his crucifixion. Rebuilding the cathedral: France to hold international competition for redesign of Notre Dame's iconic spire Macron will host the firefighters to share words of thanks, according to his office. Top government ministers will also take part in the event at the presidential palace in Paris. Later, Paris City Hall will hold a ceremony in the firefighters honor, with a Bach violin concert, two giant banners strung from the monumental city headquarters and readings from Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Contributing: The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Report: Likely cause of Notre Dame Cathedral fire an electrical short-circuit A Republican lawmakers invitation for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to meet with coal miners in his home state of Kentucky backfired completely after the progressive Washington newcomer accepted without hesitation. Ms Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to serve in the US House of Representatives, has served as a lightning rod across party lines for her Green New Deal resolution, which seeks to provide a comprehensive response to the global threat of climate change. Andy Barr, the Kentucky Republican who initially invited the 29-year-old congresswoman to his state, said at the time that local coal miners would tell her what the Green New Deal would mean for their families, their paychecks, while suggesting the resolution could destroy their industry. To his apparent surprise, the first-term Democrat from New York immediately accepted his invitation, saying she would be happy to meet the coal miners and noted her resolution provides pension payments for those who have worked in the mining industry. We want a just transition to make sure we are investing in jobs across those swaths of the country, she said in her response to Mr Barrs invitation. Suddenly, that invite appears to include some caveats. In order to accompany her on a trip to meet with local coal miners, Mr Barr demanded an apology from Ms Ocasio-Cortez towards Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican she has criticised for sharing a false tweet that claimed Ilhan Omar denied the attacks on September 11, 2001 were an act of terror. Ms Ocasio-Cortez has defended the Minnesota Democrat after conservatives and Donald Trump spread false and misleading information about her. On Wednesday, it did not appear she was about to back down from that position. Luckily, we still have open borders with Kentucky, Corbin Trent, a spokesperson for Ms Ocasio-Cortez, told The Courier-Journal. We dont need Congressman Barr to meet with coal miners and have a town hall, he added, though wed love his participation if we do. Story continues GOPs getting scared that up close, their constituents will realize Im fighting harder for their healthcare than their own Reps https://t.co/TVSafpJWEd Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 16, 2019 As GQ Magazine reported Wednesday, Kentucky Republicans are now publicly voicing their opposition to Ms Ocasio-Cortez headed to the Bluegrass State. I think we need to be very prepared when we debate her on issues that we're having a hard time with, James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, told local news outlets, warning Republicans are making a mistake picking on her. Responding to his comments on Twitter, the lawmaker wrote, GOPs getting scared that up close, their constituents will realize Im fighting harder for their healthcare than their own Reps. Robert Mueller - AP Key findings from special counsel's Trump investigation Redacted report finds Russians 'did not have cooperation of President' Trump tweets 'GAME OVER' and says 'I'm having a good day' Mueller found Trump's answers 'inadequate' but decided against subpoena Democrats decry 'partisan effort to spin Mueller report' Analysis: Mueller's report shows how Donald Trump was saved from himself Donald Trump ordered the removal of special counsel Robert Mueller after expressing fears the Russia probe would end his presidency, the newly released Mueller report concluded. The US president phoned his White House legal counsel weeks after Mr Mueller had been appointed to lead the Russian election meddling investigation and said he had to go. The order, which ultimately was not acted upon, was one of 11 incidents of alleged obstruction of justice which Mr Mueller recounted in detail in his 448-page report, released with redactions on Thursday. Other controversial episodes included Mr Trump attempting to limit the Russia probes remit and trying to put one of his cabinet members back in charge of the investigation. Mr Mueller did not clear the president over obstruction of justice, instead handing that decision on to Mr Trump's Justice Department who in turn decided not to bring charges. "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, Mr Muellers report concluded. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. The obstruction of justice findings formed only half of Mr Muellers report, with volume one looking at Russian election meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign the original reason for the probe. Story continues Those findings were much more categoric for the president. Mr Mueller concluded that neither Mr Trump nor his campaign advisers conspired with Russia during the 2016 campaign. Mr Mueller found that figures linked to the Russian government made a "systematic" attempt to influence the election, both by hacking Democratic Party emails and spreading disinformation to US voters. Mr Mueller did find that the Trump campaign had "expected" to benefit electorally from "information stolen and released through Russian efforts" and in some instances figures were receptive to offers. However he concluded no crime had been committed, saying that the Trump campaign had not "coordinated or conspired with the Russian government". TOLD YA!!! Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 18, 2019 Mr Trump had proclaimed victory even before the report was published, tweeting an image in the style of TV show Game of Thrones with the words GAME OVER. The presidents lawyers called the report a total victory, adding: This vindication of the President is an important step forward for the country and a strong reminder that this type of abuse must never be permitted to occur again. Leading Democrats criticised the administrations handling of the report which saw Mr Trumps attorney general giving a press conference before publication but remained largely silent on its contents. Findings in volume two of the report, about Mr Trumps actions towards the probe and whether they amounted to obstruction of justice, contained many new details. It recounted how Mr Trump said after Mr Mueller was appointed in May 2017: Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im f-----. In total 11 separate incidents of alleged obstruction were looked at, many of which had been reported before, giving detailed accounts of what happened and whether it could amount to a crime. One involved Mr Trump calling Don McGahn, at the time his White House counsel, and ordering him to remove Mr Mueller. The report says that in June 2017, The Washington Post reported that Mr Mueller was investigating whether the president himself had obstructed justice. The following Saturday, Mr Trump called Mr McGahn twice and urged him to tell the man overseeing the probe Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general that Mr Mueller had conflicts of interest. Mr McGahn recalled Mr Trump telling him in the second call that Mueller had to go. Instead of following the direction Mr McGahn prepared to resign, but was persuaded not to by senior advisers. Another incident recounted in the report described how Mr Trump met with Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign manager, alone in the White House. During the meeting Mr Trump is said to have dictated a message meant for Jeff Sessions, his then attorney general, attempting to limit the probes scope to Russian meddling in future elections only. Robert Mueller Credit: AP In a third instant, Mr Trump ordered Mr McGahn to issue a statement denying he had been ordered to get rid of Mr Mueller by the president after the press got wind of the story. He refused to do so. Mr Mueller ultimately concluded that Mr Trumps attempts to limit the investigation were largely unsuccessful because those people ordered by the president to take certain steps decided not to do so. There were also new details in volume one, which looked at Russia election interference. A key focus of the investigation was a meeting on June 9, 2016 between senior campaign figures, including Donald Trump Jr, and a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower. Mr Mueller said emails setting up the meeting showed "that the campaign anticipated receiving information from Russia that could assist candidate Trump's electoral prospects". However, he concluded the meeting did not rise to the level of a criminal conspiracy to collude with Russia. He said the "evidence was not sufficient to charge any campaign official" with being an unregistered agent of the Russian government, or with campaign finance violations. The Mueller report also found that the Trump campaign had been tipped off before the election about the presence of potentially damaging Russian tapes from when he visited for the Miss Universe Pageant. It is unclear what the tapes were said to show. William Barr, the US attorney general, used a press conference earlier in the day to explain Mr Trumps actions towards the investigation, saying that the president had been frustrated and angered. Attending an event in the White House on Thursday, Mr Trump said: "I'm having a good day. It's called 'No collusion, no obstruction'." 8:38PM Democrats won't pursue impeachment The two most senior Democrats in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer have issued a joint statement criticising the administrations handling of the report. They said there are "stark" differences between what Mr Barr and Mr Mueller have said about obstruction of justice. As we continue to review the report, one thing is clear: AG Barr presented a conclusion that @realDonaldTrump did not obstruct justice while the #MuellerReport appears to undercut that finding. pic.twitter.com/mHCzGc8RGT Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 18, 2019 However, Democrats have indicated they would not pursue impeachment of Mr Trump based on the Mueller report. Steny Hoyer, the Democrat leader in the House of Representatives, said: "Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point. "Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgment." 8:31PM Trump's personal legal team reviewed report The president's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said he was not briefed on the Mueller report but was able to review it in a secure room in the Department of Justice. 8:04PM Democrat: Mueller report a 'road map' for Congress Congressman Jerry Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has just held a press conference. He accused attorney general Bill Barr of undermining "an unsettling willingness to undermine his own department in order to protect President Trump. He said it was disingenuous and misleading of Mr Barr to say Mr Trump is clear of wrongdoing. Mr Nadler told reporters in New York that Mr Mueller probably wrote the report with the intent of providing Congress a road map for future action, but the congressman said it was "too early" to talk about impeachment. 6:20PM HBO unimpressed by Trump tweet HBO responds to Trump's GoT-themed tweet: Though we can understand the enthusiasm for Game of Thrones now that the final season has arrived, we still prefer our intellectual property not be used for political purposes. https://t.co/KOZ17dXhkz Brian Fung (@b_fung) April 18, 2019 6:19PM Russia: 'Mueller investigation is a bad TV series' Alec Luhn in Moscow reports: Russian state television has finally picked up on the Mueller report, covering it in its second story on the six o'clock newsafter Vladimir Putin discussing new road projects with the Moscow governorand comparing the investigation to a "bad television series". "There was no collusion. Prosecutor general William Barr confirmed that neither Trump nor any other Americans had any agreements with Russia," the state television anchor began. "The US press has claimed every day for two years that Trump colluded with Russia, it was as if you could be shot for expressing any other opinion. Russia was of course to blame for everything, but in fact neither Trump nor any other American was involved with Russian. This conclusion cost Americans $25 million. In reality, the Mueller commission didn't find anything." "In the United States they think Russia interfered in the election, but Trump had nothing to do with this," the channel's correspondent in Washington told viewers. A Kremlin spokesman, when asked whether Mr Putin will be told about the Mueller report, said: "First we have to flip through the document to understand if there's anything there worth analysing." 5:40PM Trump campaign says 'investigate' those who started the Russia probe Brad Parscale, Mr Trump's 2020 campaign manager, has issued a statement. He said: "President Trump has been fully and completely exonerated yet again. Now the tables have turned, and its time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump, motivated by political retribution and based on no evidence whatsoever. "Now that the collusion and obstruction conspiracy theories have been exposed for the pathetic hoaxes they always were, the Obama-era department of justice and FBI must answer for their misdeeds, and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people. Justice will be served." 5:33PM Why Mueller decided not to prosecute Trump Jnr The investigation decided not to prosecute the president's son, Donald Jnr, and other members of the campaign for campaign finance violations over their infamous Trump Tower meeting because they couldn't prove their "mental state". "Taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the Office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting." Mr Mueller added: "A prosecution would encounter difficulties proving that Campaign officials or individuals connected to the Campaign willfully violated the law." The report also notes that when journalists learned that a Russian lawyer had proposed the June meeting and offered damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump edited Donald Jnr's response to the reporters admitting those facts. Instead, Donald Jnr's statement claimed the meeting had been about adoptions. He later acknowledged the real reason but described it as "opposition research". Mr Trump's personal lawyer "repeatedly denied the president had played any role" to journalist, the report states. 5:16PM Trump attempted to fire Mueller Mr Trump called then White House counsel Don McGahn in June 2017 and directed him to call the acting attorney general and say Mr Mueller "had conflicts of interest and must be removed". Mr McGahn refused to do so, saying he would "rather resign". 5:05PM Russians targeted Clinton within hours of Trump appeal Mueller says Russian intelligence targeted Clintons personal office within five hours of Trump publicly requesting it on July 27, 2016 John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 18, 2019 5:00PM Trump: 'I'm f----d' after Mueller appointment After Mr Mueller's appointment Donald Trump said: ''I'm f----d'. According to the report, Mr Trump was devastated when Mr Mueller was appointed as special counsel. He told attorney general Jeff Sessions: "Oh my God this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I' m f----d. How could you let this happen Jeff? "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. "This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me." 4:49PM Mueller 'unable' to conclude Donald Trump was 'not guilty of obstruction' Mr Mueller said in his investigation report he was unable to declare Mr Trump not guilty of obstruction of justice based on the evidence. He wrote: "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment." BREAKING: Mueller said he lacked confidence to clear Donald Trump of obstruction of justice but suggested Congress could take action on at least 10 instances where the president sought to interfere with the probe. Mike Dorning (@MikeDorning) April 18, 2019 4:47PM House Democrats call for Mueller to testify before them Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has "formally invited" Mr Mueller to testify before the committee. "After a two year investigation, the public deserves the facts, not Attorney General Barrs political spin," Mr Schiff says. The House Intelligence Committee has formally invited Special Counsel Mueller to testify on the counterintelligence investigation. After a two year investigation, the public deserves the facts, not Attorney General Barrs political spin. pic.twitter.com/PWIXvl7MLv Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 18, 2019 Republicans have hit back, saying it is time to "move on". House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's statement: "It is time to move on." Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) April 18, 2019 4:44PM Russia investigation sparked 14 other probes Mr Mueller referred 14 investigations to other state prosecutors, including one of Mr Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen and one involving President Obama's former White House counsel Greg Craig. The other 12 investigations have been redacted. 4:41PM Mueller found Trump's answers 'inadequate' but decided against subpoena Mr Mueller's team considered Mr Trump's written answers "inadequate", but decided against issuing a subpoena for an in-person interview because it would delay the investigation, the report reveals. The special counsel wrote in the report: "We made the decision in view of the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation". "We had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the President's testimony." The report also states that although the Office of Legal Council has concluded a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, "a criminal investigation during a Presidents term is permissible." The report also highlights that the OLC legal opinion recognises that Mr Trump "does not have immunity" after he leaves office. 4:26PM Mueller report released to public A redacted version of the special counsel's report has been released to the public. You can find all 448 pages here. 4:22PM Trump: I'm having a 'good day' Donald Trump says he is having a 'good day'. Attending an event for Wounded Warriors the president said: "I'm having a good day. Its' called 'No collusion, no obstruction'. "There never was there never will be. This should never happen to another president again, this hoax." President Donald Trump at the White House today Credit: AP 4:05PM Pelosi: 'staggering partisan effort to spin Mueller report' Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat House Speaker, says: "AG Barr has confirmed the staggering partisan effort by the Trump admin to spin the public's view" of the Mueller report. 3:56PM Russia says it is not concerned by Mueller report Alec Luhn in Moscow writes: Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian president is not following the publication of the Mueller report. "For us this isn't an issue, it's not a topic of interest, it's not a topic of fear, it's not a topic of concern. All these reports by Mueller and other reports about this until today have not brought anything besides superficial, unprofessional statements. We have lots of other important, interesting, fruitful and constructive affairs, so we prefer to concentrate on that," Mr Peskov said. Specifically, Mr Putin was shown on state TV meeting with the governor of the Moscow region to discuss the development of the road system today. At the same time, Mr Peskov confirmed that Mr Trump's security council Russia advisor Fiona Hill did indeed visit Moscow, as was reported by a Russian newspaper this morning. She met in the Kremlin with top Putin advisor Sergei Ushakov to discuss "questions of bilateral relations" when she was in Moscow on April 16-17, he said. He said she did not discuss a possible meeting between Trump and Putin. 3:23PM Trump: 'Game over' Mr Barr concludes his 22-minute press conference which was full of positive news for the president. As he took questions Mr Barr was asked to defend himself against accusations that he was spinning the report on Mr Trump's behalf. Mr Barr dismissed the question and brought the q&a session to a close shortly afterwards. Meanwhile Mr Trump, who was watching the conference live from the White House, tweeted "no obstruction, no collusion. Game over" with a Game of Thrones inspired image of himself. 3:12PM Barr says Trump had 'non-corrupt motives' and 'cooperated fully' Mr Barr says: "Evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. "There is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks." He went on to say: "The White House fully cooperated with the special counsel's investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims." He says none of the redactions in the report were made due to executive privilege, a legal doctrine that allows the president to withhold information from other government branches. The White House counsel was given an opportunity to read the report before publication. 3:03PM 10 episodes of Trump obstruction of justice Mr Barr says Mr Mueller examined ten episodes pertaining to President Trump and obstruction of justice. The report "recounts ten episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offence". But he added that he and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, had decided "the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offence." We do not yet know what these episodes relate to but the firing of FBI director James Comey is likely to be one of them. At the time, the Trump administration said they were taking the action because of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. However, Mr Trump later admitted in an NBC interview that "this Russia thing" was on his mind when he fired him. 3:00PM Trump faced 'unprecedented situation' Mr Barr says "in assessing the president's actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation". "As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinising his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the president's personal culpability." 2:42PM Trump campaign did not collude with Russia, AG says Attorney General Bill Barr began by talking about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He said: "I am sure all Americans share my concern about the Russian attempt to interfere in our investigation. Thanks to the special counsel's investigation we now know that the Russians did not have the co-operation of President Trump or the Trump campaign. " 2:39PM Barr and Rosenstein 'disagreed' with Mueller on obstruction of justice Attorney General Bill Barr opens his press conference by stating he is "committed to ensuring the greatest degree of transparency. Mr Barr says he will deliver a redacted copy of the Mueller report to Congress at 11am (4pm UK) and the report will then be posted the departments website. William Barr speaks about the release of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report Credit: AP Volume 1 of Mr Muellers report focuses on the question of Trump-Russia collusion, Mr Barr says. Going on to say it "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government. He went on to thank his deputy Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the Russia investigation, for staying on to see its conclusion. However he went on to say that he and Mr Rosenstein disagreed with some of Mr Mueller's "legal theories" about obstruction of justice. 2:37PM 'No collusion - no obstruction!' President Donald Trump has posted his own video cut of the last two years. No Collusion - No Obstruction! pic.twitter.com/diggF8V3hl Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 2:30PM 5am texts from Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, has been up since the crack of dawn briefing the press on the White House's take on the report. Ready to rumble, Mr Giuliani texted the Washington Post in anticipation of the Mueller report, adding the counter-report his team has been preparing is "30 or so pages without appendix. 2:26PM Robert Mueller may be called to Congress House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said on Wednesday he would "probably find it useful" to call Robert Mueller and members of his team to testify after reading a redacted version of the report. Mr Nadler also criticised the attorney general for trying to "bake in the narrative" of the report to the benefit of the White House. Late Wednesday, Mr Nadler joined the chairs of four other House committees in calling for William Barr to cancel his news conference. But Doug Collins of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, defended Mr Barr and accused Democrats of "trying to spin the report." Mr Collins said Mr Barr had done "nothing unilaterally," saying he had worked with Mr Rosenstein and Mr Muellers team "step by step." Democrats have vowed to fight in court for the disclosure of the additional information from the report and say they have subpoenas ready to go if it is heavily redacted. US Attorney General William Barr - AFP After nearly two years of waiting, America will get some answers straight from Robert Mueller - but not before President Donald Trumps attorney general has his say. The Justice Department on Thursday is expected to release a redacted version of the special counsels report on Russian election interference and Mr Trumps campaign, opening up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country. Even the planned release of the nearly 400-page report quickly spiralled into a political battle on Wednesday over whether Attorney General William Barr is attempting to shield the president who appointed him and spin the reports findings before the American people can read it and come to their own judgments. Mr Barr will hold a 9.30 am (2.30pm UK time) news conference to present his interpretation of the reports findings, before providing redacted copies to Congress and the public. The news conference, first announced by Mr Trump during a radio interview, provoked immediate criticism from congressional Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mr Barr had "thrown out his credibility & the DOJs independence with his single-minded effort to protect" Mr Trump. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: "The process is poisoned before the report is even released." "Barr shouldnt be spinning the report at all, but its doubly outrageous hes doing it before America is given a chance to read it," Mr Schumer said. A Justice Department official confirmed Mr Barrs plan to speak and answer questions about his "process" before the reports public release. He will be accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the investigation after Muellers appointment in May 2017. Mr Mueller and other members of his team will not attend, special counsel spokesman Peter Carr said. After the news conference, the report will be delivered to Congress on CDs between 11 am and noon and then be posted on the special counsels website, said the official. Story continues Mr Barr formulated the reports roll-out and briefed the White House on his plans, according to a White House official. The White House declined to comment on reports that it had been briefed on the contents of Mr Muellers report beyond what Mr Barr has made public. At a later date, the Justice Department also plans to provide a "limited number" of members of Congress and their staff access to a copy of the Mueller report with fewer redactions than the public version, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The report is expected to reveal what Mueller uncovered about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that fell short of criminal conduct. It will also lay out the special counsels conclusions about formative episodes in Trumps presidency, including his firing of FBI Director James Comey and his efforts to undermine the Russia investigation publicly and privately. The report is not expected to place the president in legal jeopardy, as Mr Barr made his own decision that Trump shouldnt be prosecuted for obstruction. But it is likely to contain unflattering details about the presidents efforts to control the Russia investigation that will cloud his ability to credibly claim total exoneration. And it may paint the Trump campaign as eager to exploit Russian aid and emails stolen from Democrats and Hillary Clintons campaign even if no Americans crossed the line into criminal activity. The reports release will be a test of Barrs credibility as the public and Congress judge whether he is using his post to protect Mr Trump. Mr Barr will also face scrutiny over how much of the report he blacks out and whether Mr Muellers document lines up with a letter the attorney general released last month. The letter said Mr Mueller didnt find a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government but he found evidence on "both sides" of the question of whether the president obstructed justice. Mr Barr has said he was withholding grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to ongoing investigation and the privacy or reputation of uncharged "peripheral" people. But how liberally he interprets those categories is yet to be seen. Democrats have vowed to fight in court for the disclosure of the additional information from the report and say they have subpoenas ready to go if it is heavily redacted. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said on Wednesday he would "probably find it useful" to call Mr Mueller and members of his team to testify after reading the version of the report Mr Barr releases. Mr Nadler also criticised the attorney general for trying to "bake in the narrative" of the report to the benefit of the White House. Late Wednesday, Mr Nadler joined the chairs of four other House committees in calling for Mr Barr to cancel his news conference. But Doug Collins of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, defended Mr Barr and accused Democrats of "trying to spin the report." Mr Collins said Mr Barr had done "nothing unilaterally," saying he had worked with Mr Rosenstein and Mr Muellers team "step by step." Sign up for your essential, twice-daily briefing from The Telegraph with our free Front Page newsletter. (Repeats with no changes) * Notre-Dame donations approaching 900 million euros * Pledges by billionaires, companies pour in * Some raise questions over motives, tax breaks * Makes sense for quintessentially French brands - experts By Luke Baker and Pascale Denis PARIS, April 17 (Reuters) - Pledged donations from French billionaires, companies and ordinary citizens for the restoration of fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral are approaching 900 million euros after just two days, a reflection of the landmark's resonance in the national psyche. But the outpouring has prompted questions from charities, politicians and commentators about why some of the business donors have offered so much so quickly, including speculation about how they might benefit from tax breaks on the donations. People on social media, both in France and abroad, have expressed frustration that other disasters - from the Syrian and Iraq refugee crisis to the Grenfell Tower fire in London - have not received anything like the same degree of support. The first major donation to Notre-Dame came from Francois-Henri Pinault, the billionaire head of luxury goods group Kering that owns fashion brands Gucci and Saint Laurent. Pinault, 56, a celebrity figure in part because he is married to actress Salma Hayek, pledged 100 million euros ($113 million) as the blaze was still raging - a decision dictated by emotion, a spokeswoman for his family's holding company said. Hours later, his great rival Bernard Arnault, France's richest man and the head of Louis Vuitton owner LVMH, announced he was donating 200 million euros, moved by the alarming pictures on TV, according to a group spokesman. The Bettencourt-Meyer family, the largest shareholder in L'Oreal, followed suit a while later, pledging a combined 200 million euros alongside the global cosmetics group. Brand and reputation experts said the quick response by some of France's most recognizable corporate titans made sense, especially since the disaster involves a national symbol. Story continues Adrian Palmer, the head of the marketing and reputation faculty at the Henley Business School, said all three billionaire families and their companies were closely aligned with the nation, and benefit from reinforcing the link. "These brands stand for France and they sell around the world, so anything that puts the France brand at the center of people's minds is going to help them and how they are regarded," he said. "It creates positive associations in people's minds, that they are generous, caring and good." Online, LVMH's announcement of the donations was met with a host of comments on Twitter, from France and abroad, suggesting the money might be better spent in Africa or combatting climate change than rebuilding a cathedral. Others suggested the generosity was little more than smart marketing. Palmer said that even from a non-marketing point of view, early offers of support could be beneficial for a company's political positioning. All three firms are broadly supportive of President Emmanuel Macron and want to be seen as helpful with backing for his calls to rebuild. "Macron has been facing protests," he said, referring to the "yellow vests" street demonstrations against the high cost of living that have rocked France for months. "In a sense the disaster at Notre-Dame has become a unifying issue, so they want to show they are aligned." TAX BREAKS Still, there has been blowback. Charitable donations benefit from a 60 percent tax deduction in France, which prompted immediate suggestions by critics that Pinault, Arnault and the others were being less magnanimous than initially appeared. "It's the public that will end up bearing the cost," said Gilles Carrez, a member of parliament for the center-right Les Republicains party, who sits on the finance committee. The Pinault family, which was at odds with Macron last year on issues of tax and the president's policies towards the poor, said in a statement on Wednesday it was renouncing any tax advantage it might get from its donation. LVMH - which had benefited from large tax breaks to build the Louis Vuitton Foundation in western Paris - dismissed the notion it was merely trying to boost its image. "The only thing at issue here is to try and raise as much funding as possible to address this urgent issue, and that goes beyond any tax or accounting calculations," the LVMH group spokesman said in response to questions from Reuters. The Bettencourt-Meyer family has declined to comment on its donations. All three companies and the families behind them are already closely associated with the arts and cultural giving in France, which makes their rapid collective offer of half a billion euros to support a 12th-century Gothic masterpiece less surprising. "No doubt big brands want to genuinely demonstrate their empathy and show support to the re-building of an artifact that is not just a building but a cultural symbol," said Keith Glanfield, a professor at Aston Business School. "By some this may be seen as no more than a cynical attempt to sell more product." FROM THE GUT On Twitter and Facebook, and in the auditorium of the European Parliament, the question was less about whether they and others should give, and more about why such generosity was going towards an old building hit by a disaster in which no one died. "We are very attached to where Father Pierre's funeral was held," said the Abbe Pierre Foundation, a homelessness charity named after a priest whose 2007 funeral at Notre-Dame was attended by then-President Jacques Chirac. "But we are equally committed to his cause. If you could contribute even one percent of the amount to the homeless, we would be moved," it said on Twitter. Speaking to European lawmakers on Tuesday, teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said she did not want to diminish the Notre-Dame fire, but wished there was an equal outpouring of support to combat issues such as climate change. Markus Renner, a professor of brand management in Switzerland and the founder of the International Brand and Reputation Community, said he was surprised to see Pinault, Arnault and the Bettencourts give so much so quickly. "Why not wait and find out how much is needed and then step forward?" he said, pointing out that the billionaires and companies could have given the money silently, but chose not to. "It seems to be a little bit tactical and very much from the gut," he said, adding he doubted whether German companies would step up so promptly if Cologne cathedral burnt down. If the fire ends up being covered by insurance, the charitable donations may not end up being needed to finance the restoration. (Additional reporting by Sarah White Writing by Luke Baker Editing by Frances Kerry) Chick-fil-A has not been cleared for takeoff at the San Antonio International Airport. Nearly a month after the San Antonio City Council voted to ban the fast-food chain from opening a location in the airport, the council narrowly rejected a proposal to reconsider the March 21 decision, Councilman Greg Brockhouse said Thursday. At the March meeting, council members amended plans for a concessions agreement for new restaurants and businesses in Terminal A of the Texas airport to exclude the chicken restaurant, with some citing concerns with its record on LGBTQ issues. Brockhouse, who is running for mayor, said in a statement that he asked the council for a revote and to debate the issue, which he says has sent a message that the city doesnt respect religious freedom and has hurt the citys reputation. We had a chance to fix that today and follow the will of our City, who have spoken clearly that the removal of Chick-fil-A was a mistake," he said. "This Council again rejected religious freedom and voted against people of faith." More store closings coming: Pier 1 Imports could close up to 145 more stores $4.20 burger: Carl's Jr. will have a special CBD burger for 4/20. Here's where to get it. Chick-fil-a has a couple of healthy options The motion was voted down 6-5, Brockhouse said. "Make no mistake, this was never about a chicken sandwich. It was about respecting everyone in our community, honoring faith and being all inclusive, he said in the statement. Chick-fil-A said in a statement to USA TODAY in March that it "would welcome the opportunity to have a thoughtful dialogue with the city council and we invite all of them into our local stores to interact with the more than 2,000 team members who are serving the people of San Antonio." A week after the council's earlier vote, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office was investigating and sent a letter to the council and a second letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao requesting her office "open an investigation of potential religious discrimination." Story continues "The Constitutions protection of religious liberty is somehow even better than Chick-fil-As chicken," Paxton wrote in the March 28 letter to the council. "Unfortunately, I have serious concerns that both are under assault at the San Antonio airport." First Liberty Institute, a religious liberty-focused law firm, also is calling for an investigation and sent a letter to Chao. The fast-food chain was also disinvited from opening a location at the Buffalo airport in New York. Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: San Antonio council rejects proposal to reconsider Chick-fil-A at Texas airport Lies, damned lies and presidential aides' misstatements. The Mueller report on Thursday revealed several instances when aides to President Donald Trump, while under oath, acknowledged that statements they once stood by were based on something other than facts or truth. Take, for instance, the afternoon of May 10, 2017, when White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters that former FBI Director James Comey had been fired because hed lost the confidence of President Trump, the Department of Justice and members of both parties in Congress. And, for good measure: Most importantly, the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in Comey. Sanders went on to say that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had decided on his own to examine Comeys performance and then expressed his concerns to Trump about them on May 8. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders talks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House on April 4, 2019, in Washington. Mueller report: Trump took steps to fire Mueller, stop probe after campaign welcomed Russian dirt on Clinton, Mueller report says The obstruction question: President Trump tried to impede Russia inquiry but aides ignored his orders Collusion: Trump campaign was an eager beneficiary of Russian election help, Mueller report concludes A reporter challenged Sanders, saying Comey, in fact, had enjoyed support from the vast majority of FBI agents. Look, Sanders chided the reporter, weve heard from countless members of the FBI that say very different things." But it was Sanders who said very different things when questioned by Muellers investigators about her comment. Sanders told this Office that her reference to hearing from countless members of the FBI was a slip of the tongue, according to the report. She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey was a comment she made 'in the heat of the moment' that was not founded on anything. Hours after the report was released, Sanders appeared on Fox News but did not apologize, explaining that she merely misspoke when she used the word "countless." Story continues "I acknowledge that I had a slip of the tongue when I used the word 'countless,' but it's not untrue," she said, adding that her point at the time was that "a number of both current and former FBI agents agreed with the president. James Comey was a disgraced leaker who tried to politicize and undermine the very agency he was supposed to run." On Friday, Sanders maintained on ABC News' Good Morning America that she hadn't lied to reporters, parsing her statement to say that it hinged on her use of the word, "countless." "Actually, if you look at what I said, I said the 'slip of the tongue' was in using the word 'countless,' but there were a number of FBI, both former and current, that agreed with the president's decision, and they've continued to speak out and say that and send notice to the White House of that agreement with the president's decision," Sanders said. The same incident found former White House spokesman Sean Spicer spreading misinformation about Comey's firing. The report determined that the decision to fire Comey had originated with Trump, who later pressed Rosenstein to own the decision. VP: What the Mueller report on the Russia investigation says about Mike Pence 'Oh my God. This is terrible':Top quotes from special counsel Robert Mueller's report 'I do not recall':Read Trump's written answers to Mueller on Russian contacts, Trump Tower meeting "The President then called Rosenstein directly and said he was watching Fox News, that the coverage had been great, and that he wanted Rosenstein to do a press conference," the report says. "Rosenstein responded that this was not a good idea because if the press asked him, he would tell the truth that Corney's firing was not his idea." Spicer, at an impromptu news conference, picked up where Rosenstein would not tread, telling reporters: "It was all (Rosenstein). No one from the White House," the report says. President Trump himself is shown elsewhere in the report urging top aides to issue false statements. But that didnt always work. Irate over a report in The New York Times that he had urged White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, Trump directed McGahn to issue a statement denying the story. McGahn refused to do so several times, according the report. The President nevertheless persisted and asked McGahn to repudiate facts that McGahn had repeatedly said were accurate, according to the report. In the end, McGahn held firm. Mueller's investigators unpacked this trunk full of lies from Trump campaign officials. The "investigation established that several individuals affiliated with the Trump campaign lied to (Mueller's office) and to Congress, about their interactions with Russian-affiliated individuals and related matters. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference," the report stated. 'A damning document': Democrats call Mueller report's details disturbing, vow hearings Takeaways: Trump thought Mueller would 'end' his presidency and other takeaways from the Mueller report Some of those who lied, according to the report, violated the federal law: Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about his interactions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition. George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser during the campaign, pleaded guilty to lying about the nature and timing of his interactions with a source who told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the Trump Moscow project. Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort lied to Mueller's investigators and the grand jury concerning his interactions and communications with Konstantin Kilimnik about Trump Campaign polling data and a peace plan for Ukraine. Contributing: Gregory Korte, John Kelly, Deirdre Shesgreen, Ledyard King, Kevin McCoy and Christal Hayes, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sarah Sanders admits she lied about FBI trust in Comey and other false statements revealed in Mueller report Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia and the UAE have sent 95 tons of humanitarian aid to their rival Iran as it reels from deadly floods, officials said Thursday, after Tehran complained US sanctions were obstructing relief. "The Saudi Red Crescent, as part of a joint Saudi-UAE initiative to alleviate the suffering of Iranian citizens, has dispatched a relief plane to Tehran with 95 tons of humanitarian aid to support those affected by floods," the official Saudi Press Agency said. The aid, which includes food and shelter material, was authorised by Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince, it added. The Emirates Red Crescent was also involved in the relief operation, the UAE's official WAM news agency said. At least 76 people have died in Iran after torrential rainfall, which has also caused billions of dollars worth of damage since March 19. Iran's Red Crescent has repeatedly complained that US banking sanctions re-imposed last year make it impossible to receive donations from outside the country. US President Donald Trump last year withdrew Washington from a multilateral agreement on Iran's nuclear programme, later re-imposing sanctions focusing on oil exports and financial transactions. Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran have a longstanding rivalry based as much on geostrategic interests as religious differences. Facing off across the Gulf, the two major oil producers have taken opposing sides for decades in conflicts across the Middle East. Riyadh broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2016 in protest at the torching of its diplomatic missions by Iranian protesters angry over its execution of a leading Shiite cleric. Special Feature BRAND PLANS: A look at successful strategies for building strong retail campaigns for kids shows. The June/July 2019 edition of TV KIDS will be available at the Licensing Expo and NATPE Budapest International. TV KIDS will appear inside WORLD SCREEN and as a completely separate magazine with its own distribution at both markets. When you advertise in TV KIDS, it's like being in TWO magazines at TWO markets for the price of one insertion! Here are all the value-added benefits you will derive from advertising with us. We will place your advertisement in TV KIDS, which appears both inside WORLD SCREEN and as a stand-alone magazine with its own publication bin at the markets, and its own circulation to programming executives worldwide. Your ad will also appear in the digital edition, reaching 35,000 media executives a week before the conventions. Your company will receive a profile (including a color image of a highlighted program and the headshot of the executive interviewed) in the front section of the magazine. Your profile will also appear in our online newsletters TV KIDS DAILY and WORLD SCREEN NEWSFLASH before the markets. You will receive invaluable social media exposure by having your profile tweeted to @worldscreens and @tvkidsdailys followers. We will place your electronic button ad in TVKids.ws for two months. You will have your own Screening Room on our video portal WorldScreenings.com. The Screening Rooms will be extensively promoted during the weeks prior to the events, and will be kept on our portal for two months. Your program listings will be available in the digital edition of TV LISTINGS. The digital edition of TV LISTINGS is sent to 35,000 executives. Your complete program listings will also be featured in the WORLD SCREEN APP, available for iOS and Android devices. As an advertiser you will get priority treatment for your product news items in our 4 daily newsletters, 10 weekly newsletters and 22 websites. DEADLINES: Space Reservations.........May 16 Ad Materials.......................May 20 For more information, please contact Ricardo Guise at: (212) 924-7620 or rguise@worldscreen.com The board of trustees at a school district in California voted 3-1 to remove Dixie from the districts name after a drawn-out debate thats divided the community. There was only one board member who abstained on Tuesday from voting on the controversially named Dixie School District in San Rafael, and the outgoing moniker will be replaced by a name yet to be determined, according to CNN. The new name will be left for the residents of Marin County to decide. Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoos newsletter. To many members of the community, Dixie represented the Antebellum American South and the Confederacy, concepts they didnt feel represented its culture today. But other community members defend the term, with one telling CNN that the school board was anointed with it in the 19th century as a sympathetic nod to the South or a tribute to Mary Dixie, a Native American woman from the Miwok tribe. In February, the board first met to discuss a potential rebranding of the school district, with 13 new names proposed and all of them shot down by the board. In a last bid, one person even started a petition to try to get the name changed to Sojourner Truth School District. Noah Griffin, a Marin County resident and co-founder of the initiative Change the Name, told CNN in February that the name Dixie was too reminiscent of slave-ownership, especially as a descendant of slaves himself. You cant tell any black person that Dixie means anything other than Confederacy, enslavement, terror and death. It needs to change, he said. The confederacy does not need an outpost in Northern California. Marnie Glickman, a board trustee who lives in the Dixie School District, led the charge to change the name after members of the community opened her eyes to its problematic connotation. But her advocacy came at a price. I decided to be brave enough to speak out because I care about our families of color. They started telling me that this name hurts them and I wanted to muster up the courage, Glickman told CNN. I was attacked as a bomb thrower, an arsonist, an outside agitator. There was immediate negative impact. Story continues Mercy Chiu, a mom with children in the school district, aligns herself with a group called We Are Dixie, which argues that Dixie actually predates the Confederacy and does not represent racism or white supremacy. She doesnt really see what the big deal is. Hearing about how [Dixie] hurt people was actually quite new to a lot of folks who had lived here a long time, because they worked really hard to be inclusive and tolerant of all people, Chiu said. Its a very liberal and accepting neighborhood and we were very surprised that this was coming across as our main issue. During the campaign for a new name, Glickman even received what she called a vile anti-Semitic letter that is now being investigated by the FBI. But she stood her ground, and now shes proud to have spearheaded the change. This was about the Confederacy and nothing more. It hurts people, Glickman told CNN. We can choose a name we can all be proud of and thats real inclusion. The Dixie School District board of trustees confirmed on Tuesday that it formed a Naming Advisory Committee to solicit name ideas, discuss and filter names that have been submitted based on criteria that has been approved by the Board, and present names to the Board in late June. The committee includes school district parents, staff and alumni. The new name for Dixie School District will take effect on August 22. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Photo credit: BAE Systems From Popular Mechanics A new vision system for tank crews promises to cure one of the worst problems of armored warfare: poor visibility. The Multifunction Vehicle Protection (MVP) Sensor by BAE systems rings the exterior of a tank with high definition cameras, giving crews an all-around view of their surroundings. This will allow tankers to identify and deal with threats faster than ever before, increasing overall vehicle effectiveness and battling crew fatigue. Tank visibility has been a problem since the invention of the tank in the early 20th century. Soldiers inside tanks need to be able to drive their tanks and shoot at the enemy, but increased visibility makes tanks and tankers more vulnerable. The larger the window or other aperture to increase visibility, the greater the possibility it could be penetrated by incoming tank projectiles, small caliber rounds, or artillery shrapnel. As a result most tankers are restricted to viewing the world through small armored horizontal slits, showing the narrowest view of the vehicles surroundings. Photo credit: TASS - Getty Images The MVP Sensor by BAE Systems is a system of four HD cameras installed on the hull of a tank or armored vehicle. Each camera has a 1920 x 1200 resolution, a 120 degree horizontal field of view, and a 75 degree vertical field of view. Each camera is also tuned to the longwave infrared spectrum, also known as thermal imaging or passive night vision, allowing crew members to see at night and in poor weather, and through dust, fog, and smoke. (Note the forward-facing MVP camera on BAE Systems Mobile Protected Firepower demonstrator vehicle at top, on the front of the vehicle hull.) In the past, different physical positions meant that each crew member has a slightly different view of the world. The MVP Sensor supplements that with the same, HD quality 360 degree view for each and every crew member. This could allow, for example, the tank driver to call out an object for the crews attention based on a common view of the battlefield. It could also allow crew members who typically dont engage scanning for threats, such as the main gun loader, to join in watching the feed from the MVP Sensors unblinking gaze. Story continues Photo credit: BAE Systems The MVP Sensor is meant to be part of BAEs self-protection suite for armored vehicles. MVP can detect and track threats, then cue countermeasures to defeat them. These include hard countermeasures such as Iron Fist , an Israeli-designed active protection system that shoots down incoming rockets and grenades and was fitted to the companys vehicle demonstrator. MVP can also cue soft countermeasures like BAEs RAVEN , a directable infrared laser designed to dazzle and confuse an incoming laser-guided missile into missing its target. RAVEN is scheduled to begin testing on the Bradley fighting vehicle later this year. BAEs approach to armored vehicle defense actually mirrors its approach to aircraft defense. MVP is similar to the companys Common Missile Warning System, a network of electro-optical cameras fitted to U.S. and NATO aircraft. CMWS cameras detect incoming missiles and then attempt to blind their seekers with the Advanced Threat Infrared Counter Measure infrared laser. CMWS could also cue a flare dispenser and the aircraft version of Iron Fist, currently under development. Photo credit: BAE Systems During the Arab-Israeli Wars, Israeli armored doctrine required tank commanders to sit exposed in their turrets to gain maximum situational awareness, despite the fact that commanders who did so faced heavy casualties. On the other side of the coin Russian tankers stuck in their tanks in the early years of World War II had a notoriously poor view of the outside world, an issue that contributed to their inferiority versus German tanks. An HD-quality view of the outside world while safely ensconced in the belly of a tank is almost too good to be true. A system like MVP is so useful to armored vehicle crews it will become standard on new vehicles very quickly, while gradually being fitted to older vehicles already in service. You Might Also Like Quetta (Pakistan) (AFP) - Gunmen killed at least 14 people after forcing them to disembark from buses in Pakistan's Balochistan, officials said Thursday, in the latest attack claimed by separatists in the restive southwestern province. The attackers, who numbered around two dozen, were wearing uniforms of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, provincial home secretary Haider Ali told AFP. They "stopped buses on the Makran Coastal Highway and gunned down 14 people", he said, adding that the four vehicles were travelling to the port megacity of Karachi from the coastal town of Ormara. The gunmen identified non-Baloch passengers by their identity cards and shot them, he said. All the victims are believed to be Pakistani, with a naval official and a coast guard member among the dead. The attack was claimed by a Baloch separatist group. A militant spokesman denied that any civilian passengers had been killed and said the group had only targeted coast guard and navy service members. Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan's poorest province and the largest by landmass, with Islamist as well as ethnic Baloch separatists active there. Pakistani security forces have been targeting insurgents in the province since 2004, and have also been repeatedly accused by international rights groups of abuses there. The military denies the allegations. Provincial home minister Mir Zia Langov told AFP a full-scale investigation had been launched into the attack, and authorities are trying to track down the gunmen, who he said had fled the scene. "Such incidents are intolerable and we will not spare the terrorists who carried out this dastardly attack," he said. Prime Minster Imran Khan also condemned the killings in a statement from his office. - Poorest province - The attack came less than a week after a suicide blast claimed by the Islamic State group in provincial capital Quetta killed 20 people. Balochistan is also host to a number of major projects under the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Story continues The massive infrastructure project seeks to connect the western Chinese province of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan. But it has also drawn its share of attacks, particularly by separatists who have long complained that residents do not receive a fair share of profits from the province's resources. Violence in Pakistan has dropped significantly since the country's deadliest-ever militant attack, an assault on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 150 people -- most of them children. But militants still retain the ability to carry out attacks, and analysts have long warned that Pakistan is yet to tackle the root causes of extremism. Understanding how Shimao Property Holdings Limited (HKG:813) is performing as a company requires looking at more than just a years' earnings. Today I will run you through a basic sense check to gain perspective on how Shimao Property Holdings is doing by comparing its latest earnings with its long-term trend as well as the performance of its real estate industry peers. View our latest analysis for Shimao Property Holdings How Well Did 813 Perform? 813's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 December 2018) of CN8.8b has jumped 13% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has exceeded its 5-year annual growth average of 0.3%, indicating the rate at which 813 is growing has accelerated. What's the driver of this growth? Let's see whether it is merely a result of industry tailwinds, or if Shimao Property Holdings has seen some company-specific growth. SEHK:813 Income Statement, April 18th 2019 In terms of returns from investment, Shimao Property Holdings has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 12% instead. Furthermore, its return on assets (ROA) of 1.9% is below the HK Real Estate industry of 3.3%, indicating Shimao Property Holdings's are utilized less efficiently. However, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Shimao Property Holdingss debt level, has increased over the past 3 years from 8.6% to 11%. This correlates with a decrease in debt holding, with debt-to-equity ratio declining from 107% to 104% over the past 5 years. What does this mean? Shimao Property Holdings's track record can be a valuable insight into its earnings performance, but it certainly doesn't tell the whole story. While Shimao Property Holdings has a good historical track record with positive growth and profitability, there's no certainty that this will extrapolate into the future. I recommend you continue to research Shimao Property Holdings to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: Story continues Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 813s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 813s outlook. Financial Health: Are 813s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why weve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 December 2018. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Blockchain smartphone startup Sirin Labs has recently laid off 15 of its 60 employees, Globes reports. The company, led by CEO Moshe Hogeg, denies not having paid its employees wages; it claims the March wages have been settled and employees will receive their April wages before the Passover holiday. "The company gives some of its work to outsourcing, and plans to focus on development and distribution of the software," the company stated. Sirin Labs also admitted the sales of its blockchain smartphone, launched in November, were not what the company expected. Moshe Hogeg is also facing several lawsuits, both in Israel and in the US. Hogeg stands accused of fraud in a $4.7 million lawsuit by Chinese businessman Zhewen Hu. He, along with his partner Kenges Rakishev and Singulariteam manager Joseph Chen, is also facing a $50 million lawsuit filed by Canadian entrepreneur Adam Perzow who claims they have been defrauding their investors. A police manhunt is over after an armed woman said to be infatuated with the Columbine High School shootings was found dead. Federal investigators said Sol Pais, 18 made threats to commit an act of violence in the Denver metropolitan area just days before the 20th anniversary of the attack that killed 13 people. She was considered extremely dangerous. Around 500,000 pupils missed school on Wednesday, with authorities worried about the actions of Ms Pais. More than a dozen schools were placed on lockout in the Denver area on Tuesday before the call for a full closure. Ms Pais flew from the Miami area to Colorado on Monday night and investigators think she bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition after arriving, Dean Phillips, FBI special agent in charge of the Denver field office, said at a news conference. She has had an infatuation with Columbine and the perpetrators of Columbine, she has made comments to that effect, Mr Philips said. "Because of her comments and her actions, because of her travel here to the state, because of her procurement of a weapon immediately upon arriving here, we considered her to be a credible threat certainly to the community and potentially to schools." Ms Pais was taken to an area near Columbine, in the Jefferson County foothills around Denver and we have been trying to find her ever since, Mr Phillips said. While Ms Pais has not made threats against a specific school, the FBI agent said the search for her was now a massive manhunt, Mr Philips said on Tuesday. She was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, camouflage trousers and black boots. Officer Marian Cruz of Surfside, Florida police confirmed that Ms Pais parents last saw her on Sunday and reported her missing on Monday. A spokeswoman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools confirmed on Wednesday morning that Ms Pais is a student at Miami Beach High School. Jackie Calzadilla said school officials are fully assisting the FBI in their investigation. Story continues The Columbine shootings took place on 20 April 1999, when two teenage gunmen killed killed 12 classmates and a teacher. Associated Press contributed to this report By Denis Dumo JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has offered to help mediate a political transition in Sudan after the fall of autocratic president Omar al-Bashir to weeks of popular protests, Kiir's office said on Wednesday. His move came seven months after Bashir helped mediate a shaky peace deal between Kiir and the main opposition rebel group in South Sudan, which won independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict. Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup, was himself toppled last week by the military, which has vowed free elections within two years, though protesters remain in the streets, demanding an immediate handover to an interim civilian authority. Kiir said he was ready to support the "democratic aspirations" of his former adversary in Khartoum and help bring about a peaceful transition. "The president has offered to mediate the ongoing negotiations among various groups in Sudan with the hope that the new transition will usher in a new day in Sudan...," a statement by Kiir's office said. South Sudan's petroleum minister told Reuters he had traveled to Khartoum to meet the new leadership, alongside a high-level delegation that included Juba's security service chief and a presidential adviser on security. Sudan's south won statehood after almost half a century of civil war, marked by the mass abduction and enslavement of children, scorched earth tactics, ethnic cleansing and famines. The loss of South Sudan cost Sudan much of its oil reserves, a heavy economic blow to the widely impoverished country. While the divorce was acrimonious, the two countries remain closely tied. "Juba is clearly concerned about its vested interests in Sudan. Despite being old foes, the two regimes have grown tightly enmeshed," said Alan Boswell, a senior analyst with Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group. "Sudan needs South Sudan's oil flows, and South Sudan's political deals often run through Khartoum." (Additional reporting and writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Stephen Colbert was still in London on Monday interviewing former first lady Michelle Obama for her Becoming book tour, so Tuesday night was his first opportunity to weigh in on the fire that nearly destroyed the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. But of course, after saying how shocked and horrified he was by the destruction, all Colbert really wanted to talk about was President Trumps tweet. So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Trump wrote as firefighters were trying to contain the blaze on Monday. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly! Does he think every time theres an emergency in France theyre like, The cathedral is on fire, we must check Donald Trumps Twitter feed! the Late Show host joked in his exaggerated French accent. Sacre bleu! He says we must act quickly! Get the hoses! Get the water! Why did we not think of water? Weve been using cheese! President Trumps unsolicited advice prompted the Twitter account of Securite Civile, the French civil security agency, to subtweet him by posting the message below: Hundreds of firemen of the Paris Fire Brigade are doing everything they can to bring the terrible #NotreDame fire under control, they informed their followers. All means are being used, except for water-bombing aircrafts which, if used, could lead to the collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral. For firefighters, they really know how to give a sick burn, Colbert added. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Carlos Acosta is at the top of Strictly Come Dancings list in regards to replacing Darcey Bussell but will the show fork out to get him? (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/WireImage ) Since Strictly Come Dancing judge Darcey Bussell announced she was leaving the show earlier this month, fans have been keen to learn who will replace her on the panel. Now, its been revealed that the BBC dance series is reportedly eyeing her former ballet partner Carlos Acosta for the gig. According to The Sun, the show has set its sights on the Cuban choreographer but considering he has just signed on to be Birmingham Royal Ballets new artistic director from 2020, hes in high demand. Read more: Dame Darcey Bussell steps down as judge from Strictly Come Dancing Acosta knows it too apparently, with the publication claiming that hes requesting a hefty 400,000 pay cheque, which is allegedly 150,000 more than existing judges Craig Revel Horwood, Bruno Tonioli and Shirley Ballas get. Whether the show will cough up remains to be seen. But one things for certain its keen on bagging the 45-year-old. Carlos is a huge name in the dance world and has been on Strictlys radar for a long time, an insider told The Sun. Shirleys popularity as head judge proves that audiences love genuine experts, even if theyre not a household name yet. Carlos is a vibrant character, full of energy, with vast experience in his field. He ticks all the boxes and has the backing of influential producers. If Strictly can strike a deal, it would be an exciting prospect. Read more: Rylan Clark-Neal to co-host Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two with Zoe Ball Bussell opened up about why she was leaving Strictly on her personal Instagram account, saying: I have enjoyed every minute of my time and will miss everyone. I am not leaving because of any upset or disagreement at all, I am just stepping away to give more focus to my many other commitments in dance after seven wonderful years that I cant imagine having gone any better. Hong Kong: CE to visit Beijing Chief Executive Carrie Lam will visit Beijing from April 24 to 29 to attend the second Belt & Road Forum for International Cooperation and the 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition. The forums theme this year is "Belt & Road Cooperation, Shaping a Brighter Shared Future". Mrs Lam will lead a delegation comprising members from the political, business, professional services and innovation and technology sectors, as well as academics and people involved in public and community service. She will deliver opening keynote addresses for thematic forums on financial connectivity and regional co-operation on April 25, and will attend the forums opening ceremony and a high-level meeting on April 26. She will also visit the All-China Women's Federation on April 27 and exchange views with relevant leaders. The Chief Executive will depart for Yanqing district on April 28 to attend the opening ceremony of the 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition. During her absence, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung will be Acting Chief Executive. This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Calls between T-Mobile users and Comcast's Xfinity Voice home subscribers will now be "verified," the latest move in the ongoing fight against robocalls. The two companies announced Wednesday that they have launched cross-network verification, allowing users to know that the calls they are receiving is from an actual person and not a spammer or robocaller. They use a handoff system recommended by the FCC where the caller's network verifies that a legitimate call is being made with a "digital signature." The recipient's network then confirms the signature on its side. Comcast and T-Mobile's rollout is live now with calls incoming to T-Mobile's network being verified as not being spoofed. T-Mobile users will, however, need to have a recent Samsung flagship phone (S8, S8+, Note 8 or later) or LG's new G8 ThinQ phone to see a call verification notification on their screens. The new Samsung Galaxy Fold and Galaxy A6 will also support call verification. Comcast has not yet detailed how it will display the verification but has said that it will offer a notification for its incoming calls later this year. Calls made between Comcast's mobile service, known as Xfinity Mobile, and T-Mobile will not be able to take advantage of the verification system, at least not right away. Comcast's mobile service uses Verizon's wireless network, so it will have to wait for Verizon to enable the functionality to offer the capability with T-Mobile's network. A number of major wireless and traditional home voice providers have pledged support for the verification method, including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Charter, Cox and Vonage, with several announcing plans to roll out or test the feature in 2019. Comcast and T-Mobile say that this is the first time customers can take advantage of call verification across different networks. Comcast previously announced it was working with AT&T on adding the capability to calls between both carriers' digital home phone networks this year. Story continues T-Mobile, meanwhile, has already been fighting robocalls through its Scam Likely feature which alerts users to likely spam calls that it has identified on its network. More robocalls: Verizon adds free 'Call Filter' feature in bid to fight robocalls Progress being made: FTC shuts down 4 groups responsible for 'billions' of calls Protect yourself: How to stop robocalls, block numbers on your iPhone, Android and even landline The company announced in March that it had flagged more than 10 billion scam calls through this system in the two years since it began offering the free feature, alerting users of scam callers regardless of the phone they were using. While Wednesday's announcement represents good progress until all carriers and providers get on board, there is still plenty of work to be done to eradicate this epidemic. "It's similar to a verified Twitter handle," Grant Castle, T-Mobile's vice president of engineering, told USA TODAY. "It's nice to know... that somebody is who they say they are, and they're verified, that helps you. But it doesn't mean you don't follow everybody else on Twitter." "It's one of those things where it's helpful and nice but it doesn't solve the fundamental problem of 'hey is somebody trying to fake something'," continues Castle. Until "everybody is verified it's just less valuable for this problem." Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: T-Mobile, Comcast turn on call verification between networks in latest robocall fight Sol Pais made threats against schools - AFP An armed 18-year-old girl "infatuated" with the Columbine school massacre was found dead after fears she was seeking to replicate the shooting 20 years on. Sol Pais, a high school pupil, made threats online and then flew from her home in Miami Beach, Florida to Denver, Colorado, where Columbine is located. She then bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition and was seen near the school wearing camouflage trousers, black boots and a black T-shirt. Columbine and more than 20 other schools in the Denver area were closed on Wednesday, with 500,000 pupils staying at home as the FBI and police searched for her. She was later found dead from what police called an "apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound" in woodland near a camp ground 60 miles southwest of Denver. Police, including a SWAT team, had flooded into the area after hikers reported seeing a naked woman with a gun running through the woods". An FBI spokesman said: "There is no longer a threat to the community." Police at Columbine high school Credit: AFP On April 20,1999 two heavily armed teenage gunmen - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - killed 12 fellow pupils and a teacher before taking their own lives. It set off an era of mass shootings in American schools and other public venues. Police said Pais had "made threats to commit an act of violence" in the Denver area, and had written "deeply disturbed" posts on the internet. She had been "infatuated with the perpetrators of Columbine". She sought advice online on how to buy a gun in Colorado, which she did at a gun shop near Columbine. Local sheriff Jeff Shrader said: "The firearm was purchased legally. I'm sure there will be some ongoing evaluation in that regard." During the massive search police declared her "armed and extremely dangerous". Jared Polis, the Colorado governor, said there had been "a lot of anxiety". Peter Langman, an expert on the psychology of school shooters, said more than 30 other attacks, from California to Germany, have been inspired in some manner by Columbine. Director Terry Gilliam (Credit: Oscar Gonzalez/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Terry Gilliam has said that he was just playing angry when he made comments about the wave of diversity taking aim at white men. The outspoken Monty Python star spoke out last summer, saying that the show could never get off the ground now, because it was made by white men from Oxbridge. During a press conference at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, he said: It made me cry: the idea that no longer six white Oxbridge men can make a comedy show. Read more: Taika Waititi bringing Time Bandits to TV Now we need one of this, one of that, everybody represented this is bulls**t. I no longer want to be a white male, I dont want to be blamed for everything wrong in the world: I tell the world now Im a black lesbian My name is Loretta and Im a BLT, a black lesbian in transition. Now, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, hes claimed that he wasnt particularly angry, but was just playing angry, and that the Loretta part of the remark was a callback to a line from Eric Idle in Life of Brian. The idea is that were already excluded because the world has changed, he said. I said, Im tired of being, as a white male, blamed for everything thats wrong in the world. So now I want you to call me Loretta. Im a black lesbian in transition. When Eric [Idles character] Stan says, I want you to call me Loretta. I want to be a woman. People now might take offense at that. And when offense becomes so easy, it takes the fun out of offending! Read more: Terry Gilliam gets flack for diversity comments However, its not the first time Gilliam has made comments about current social and political changes, recently criticising the #MeToo movement as mob rule while defending his friend, Johnny Depp. Its crazy how simplified things are becoming. There is no intelligence anymore and people seem to be frightened to say what they really think. Now I am told even by my wife to keep my head a bit low, he AFP. Its like when mob rule takes over, the mob is out there, they are carrying their torches, and they are going to burn down Frankensteins castle. Story continues He also spoke about Harvey Weinstein, saying: It is a world of victims. I think some people did very well out of meeting with Harvey and others didnt. The ones who did knew what they were doing. These are adults, we are talking about adults with a lot of ambition. Harvey opened the door for a few people, a night with Harvey thats the price you pay. Some people paid the price, other people suffered from it. A bitcoin investor who retired into living in the sea with his returns is facing a possible death sentence after accused of building a micronation. | Source: Youtube By CCN.com: A U.S. Bitcoin investor who dreamed of a life free of governments now risks losing not just his freedom but also his life. Michigan native Chad Elwartowski and his Thai girlfriend Supranee Thepdet (AKA Nadia Summergirl) have claimed that Thailand wants them killed. Their crime? Living on a seastead (a floating house built on sea) that was put up in international waters. The bitcoin investors floating house was stationed 14 nautical miles off the coast of Thailand. According to the 1982 UN Conventions on the Law of the Sea, every State has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles. Bitcoin Investor now Accused of Establishing a Micro-nation Though the seastead is two nautical miles away from Thailands territorial sea, this has not stopped Thai officials from accusing him of trying to lay claim to the countrys territory. Fearing for their lives the two are now on the run, according to a Facebook post: Special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence linking President Donald Trump to any crimes involving Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. election. And he declined to prosecute Trump for obstructing justice or interfering with prosecutors investigating the Russian interference. But the 448-page Mueller report contains numerous damning details of Trump asking subordinates to obstruct justice on his behalf, condoning other peoples crimes, covering up facts, telling people to lie and lying himself. Trump may avoid prosecution, but critics will feast for years on the mendacity Mueller revealed. Even some Trump supporters may question their fealty to a president now revealed to operate like a mob boss, except with poorer judgment. Anybody interested in Muellers findings should read the report for themselves. Its a complicated document with threads that partisans can spin almost any way they want. And the overarching narrative is confounding, because Trump repeatedly sought ways to quash an investigation into a crime he apparently didnt commit. Trump acted guilty of something Mueller himself found no evidence of. Its good news that the Trump campaign did not work deliberately with Russia during the 2016 election. Yet, there were numerous contacts between Trump campaign officials and representatives of Russia, with nobody from the campaign ever thinking to tell the FBI about them. Maybe Trump acted guilty because he realized at some point that his campaigns contacts with Russia were fishy, at a minimum, and might look a lot worse than that to a zealous prosecutor. President Donald Trump listens to a question while meeting the media in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Trumps guilty behavior How did Trump act guilty? Some of his paranoia was on public display, through the recurring witch hunt tweets and statements meant to discredit the Mueller investigation before we knew anything about its findings. And Trump seemed to publicly threaten witnesses such as Michael Cohen, who might testify against him. Trump went much further than that, as the Mueller report now reveals. On June 14, 2017, according to the Mueller report, Trump called White House Counsel Donald McGahn and told him to have Justice Department leadership fire Mueller which probably would have been obstruction of justice. McGahn declined to do that, one of several times people around Trump prevented overt crimes from happening. The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, the Mueller report states, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. Story continues After McGahn refused to have Mueller fired, Trump tried to have former campaign aide Corey Lewandowski pass a message to then Attorney General Jeff Sessions about Mueller. Trump wanted Sessions to publicly exonerate him of any crimes, and to limit the Mueller investigation so it excluded investigation into Trumps personal behavior. Lewandowsky didnt want to deliver the message and tried to get a White House advisor to do it. Neither delivered the message to Sessions, who apparently never got it. In this Nov. 16, 2016 photo, Donald Trump Jr., son of President-elect Donald Trump, walks from the elevator at Trump Tower in New York. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) In June 2017, news organizations began to learn of the now-notorious meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, between representatives of the Russian government and Trump campaign officials, including Trumps son Don, Jr. That meeting was about compromising information Russia had obtained on Hillary Clinton, Trumps general-election opponent, which Russia offered to share with the Trump campaign. But once news of that meeting broke a year later, Trump told press aids to lie to news organizations, saying the meeting was really about policies toward adopting Russian babies. Each of these efforts by the President involved his communication team and was directed at the press, the Mueller report found. They would amount to obstructive acts only if the President, by taking those actions, sought to withhold information from or mislead congressional investigators of the Special Counsel. Lying to the media, in other words, isnt a crime, so Trump is off the hook on that one, too. In January 2018, press reports recounted Trumps effort to have McGahn get Mueller fired seven months earlier. That story was accurate, but Trump, through a personal lawyer, asked McGahn to put out a statement denying what had, in fact, taken place. Trump, in other words, asked McGahn to lie, so Trump wouldnt look bad. McGahn refused. President knew Cohen provided false testimony Its also not a crime, evidently, if you knowingly let somebody else commit perjury on your behalf. Cohen, Trumps former lawyer, pled guilty to lying to Congress about Trumps pursuit of a real-estate project in Russia, saying the project ended by January 2016 when in fact it continued until at least June 2016. Cohen told Congress earlier this year that Trump knew Cohen would be lying and did nothing to discourage him. The Mueller report corroborates that. There is evidence that the President knew Cohen provided false testimony to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project, the Mueller report said. But the evidence available to us does not establish that the President directed or aided Cohen's false testimony. Once Cohen began cooperating with prosecutors, Trump publicly called Cohen a rat and made what sounded like veiled threats of government legal action against his family. Obstruction? Heres what Mueller found: The President's statements insinuating that members of Cohen's family committed crimes after Cohen began cooperating with the government could be viewed as an effort to retaliate against Cohen and chill further testimony adverse to the President by Cohen or others. Theres some evidence of a crime, in other words. Yet, Mueller still felt this didnt reach the threshold required for prosecution. There are many more examples in the Mueller report of Trump behaving in ways that might sound illegal to ordinary people, but dont rise to what seems to be a very high Justice Department bar for prosecuting the president. Partisans, pundits, legal experts and historians will debate Muellers findings for a long time, and voters will of course get to render their own judgment once the 2020 election finally rolls around. At a simpler level, however, the Mueller report reveals behavior many Americans would not normally tolerate in business executives, educators, religious leaders, local politicians or their own family members. Trump may not have committed crimes he can be prosecuted for. But he came damn close, and another prosecutor might have been less deferential. No wonder Trump tried to kill the Mueller investigation. Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Encrypted communication available. Click here to get Ricks stories by email. Read more: Winter is coming for big business Why Trump wants to manipulate the Federal Reserve The Mueller probe was money well spent Trumps hidden tax hikes Why voters will reject the "Green New Deal" Voters are souring on Medicare for all 3 problems with Elizabeth Warrens wealth tax Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman Many investors define successful investing as beating the market average over the long term. But its virtually certain that sometimes you will buy stocks that fall short of the market average returns. We regret to report that long term Xinming China Holdings Limited (HKG:2699) shareholders have had that experience, with the share price dropping 19% in three years, versus a market return of about 42%. There was little comfort for shareholders in the last week as the price declined a further 4.6%. Check out our latest analysis for Xinming China Holdings While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement. Xinming China Holdings saw its EPS decline at a compound rate of 53% per year, over the last three years. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 6.8% compound annual share price fall. So, despite the prior disappointment, shareholders must have some confidence the situation will improve, longer term. This positive sentiment is also reflected in the generous P/E ratio of 46.45. You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values). SEHK:2699 Past and Future Earnings, April 18th 2019 Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here.. A Different Perspective We're pleased to report that Xinming China Holdings rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 9.7% over the last year. This recent result is much better than the 6.8% drop suffered by shareholders each year (on average) over the last three. It could well be that the business has turned around -- or else regained the confidence of investors. Before forming an opinion on Xinming China Holdings you might want to consider these 3 valuation metrics. Story continues If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Victoria Komada can now walk after undergoing life-changing surgery [Photo: SWNS] A three-year-old girl born with both legs bent backwards has walked for the first time after the public helped to raise money 180,000 for surgery. Victoria Komoda has tibial hemimelia a condition which causes babies to be born with deformed limbs and missing bones. Two years ago, her parents were told by eight specialists that the only option could be double amputation. The three-year-old was born with bilateral tibial hemimelia [Photo: SWNS] But the Polish family sought help from US surgeon, Dr Paley, who performed two awe-inspiring surgeries. The Florida-based surgeon amputated her right leg and fit a prosthetic to enable her to walk. READ MORE: Your childs vaccination schedule Victoria had her first nine-hour operation on July 14, 2018 where her right leg was amputated above her knee and pins were put into her left leg before a fixator was attached. Over the course of several months, screws were placed into her legs every day to move the bones into the right position. A second operation on November 13, 2018 helped to fuse the bones in her left leg together to strengthen it. The toddler can now walk, run and play thanks to the life-changing surgery [Photo: SWNS] In order to afford the life-changing treatment, her parents raised 180,000 from generous communities in Norwich and Szezcin, Poland. After nine months of treatment, their daughter can now walk, run and even play sport. She was in a lot of pain all day and all night, her mother, Marzena Drusewicz, said: We had all had enough. It was really horrible. Victoria Komoda photographed with her mum Marzena Drusewicz [Photo: SWNS] Of course I was so scared and didnt know what would was going to happen, her mother, Marzena, said. She would cry and scream so much after the operation. READ MORE: How to spot if your child is suffering from mental health issues Every week she got better and better and now she is not in any pain at all and can walk normally and we can all start our life again now we are home, she continued. We were so happy when she took her first steps we started crying. We were on the way to the car and she said: Mummy, can I show you something?' Victoria will start school in September. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo WASHINGTON Democrats reacted with alarm to fresh details in Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, vowing to hold hearings and look further into whether President Donald Trump improperly tried to impede the special counsel's investigation. Intelligence Committee member Rep. Jim Himes, D-Ct., said the section of the report focused on obstruction of justice "reads like The Godfather." "The array of sleazy behavior, of lies, and ordering subordinates to do potentially illegal things is really pretty grim," he told USA TODAY. "Once you start reading the report, it's very clear that Mueller is jumping up and down and saying Congress do what I cant do,'" Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., another member of the Intelligence Committee, told USA TODAY. 'I do not recall': Read Donald Trump's written answers to Mueller Read the report: Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election The newly released Mueller report revealed that members of Trump's campaign showed eagerness to benefit from Russian government efforts to sway the election in his favor, but investigators did not find evidence that their conduct amounted to a crime. The report also detailed steps by Trump to quash the investigation that fell short of criminality in part because aides refused to carry out his orders. Muellers office did not conclude that Trump's actions were illegal, but also pointedly refused to clear him of wrongdoing, saying, "if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. As I continue to read the entire report, it is already evident to me that this is a damning document that outlines a series of misdeeds conducted by the President and his associates," said Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., called on Mueller to come before Congress before May 23 and explain his findings from the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also requested Mueller appear before his panel next month. Story continues There are dozens of things we want to hear," Nadler told reporters. Top Democrats said that the report seems to contradict Attorney General William Barr's assertion that the department's guidance that sitting presidents cannot be indicated was not a factor in Mueller's decision not to indict Trump. "It is crystal clear from the report that the Justice Departments policy against indicting a sitting President played a key role in Special Counsel Muellers analysis in fact, it is the very first point in the obstruction section of his report," said Maryland's Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee. 'Web of deceit' Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in her office at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 10, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) ORG XMIT: DCSA109 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Barr of misrepresenting Mueller's investigation when he issued a four-page summary of the report. Special Counsel Muellers report paints a disturbing picture of a president who has been weaving a web of deceit, lies and improper behavior and acting as if the law doesnt apply to him," Pelosi, D-Calif., and Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a joint statement. "But if you hadnt read the report and listened only to Mr. Barr, you wouldnt have known any of that because Mr. Barr has been so misleading," the statement said. In the summary, Barr acknowledged that Mueller had found evidence on "both sides" of the question of whether Trump obstructed justice. But Barr said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein separately concluded the evidence was "not sufficient to establish" that there was obstruction of justice. The 448-page Mueller report was the culmination of a nearly two-year investigation into Russian election interference and whether anyone from the president's campaign conspired with Moscow. The Mueller report said investigators found that some Trump aides had contacts with people linked to the Russian government, and that they lied to the special counsel and Congress about those interactions. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference, the report said. Investigators found that some of Trumps aides engaged in contacts with people linked to the Russian government, and that they then lied to the special counsel and Congress about those interactions. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference, the report said. Pelosi has, so far, been able to keep her caucus largely united against moving to impeach the president. In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY in March, she said it would be "a gift" to Trump to pursue impeachment unless Republicans got on board. Is it a 'high crime'? But after the release of the redacted report, the issue threatened to return. "It becomes ultimately the responsibility of Congress to determine whether this is a high crime or misdemeanor," Intelligence Committee member Speier said, referring to the guidance for impeaching a president. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the liberal superstar who frequently feuds with Republicans, resurfaced a clip she had tweeted last year in which Republican lawmakers talked about their justification for impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton. The tweet quoted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close ally of Trump, saying during the Clinton era: "'You dont need to have been convicted of a crime. Impeachment isnt about punishment. Its about cleansing the office.'" "Sen. Graham himself established a standard that demands Trumps impeachment," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said Democrats were misinterpreting Mueller's intent for them related to obstruction of Justice. "The report doesnt say Congress should investigate obstruction now. It says Congress can make laws about obstruction under Article I powers," Collins tweeted. There seems to be some confusion about Vol 2, p 8. This isnt a matter of legal interpretation; its reading comprehension. The report doesnt say Congress should investigate obstruction now. It says Congress can make laws about obstruction under Article I powers. See pp 168-80. pic.twitter.com/53AnBXc3if Rep. Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) April 18, 2019 "Today, when Mueller says `no collusion,' Democrats reply, `Thanks, but we'll keep looking,' Collins tweeted. "It is time to move on. Americans deserve better than this partisan quest to vilify a political opponent and I urge our Democratic colleagues in the House to put their emotions and opinions aside, and instead use that passion to come to the table and work on real solutions for all Americans," said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Ahead of the report's release, Democrats hammered Barr for his handling of the report. Thursday morning, Barr held a press conference where he repeatedly said that Trump and his campaign had not colluded with Russia. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the event a "campaign press conference" for the president. Nadler vowed to subpoena the full Mueller report and underlying materials. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., tweeted that the details in the Mueller report coupled with Barr's handling of the process meant he needed to resign as attorney general. Swalwell is running for the party's nomination for president and is a member of both the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. Russia attacked us. The #MuellerReport details a multiplicity of contacts b/w Russia & @realDonaldTrumps team and that Trump & his team materially impaired the investigation. Yet, OUR Attorney General acts as Trumps defense attorney. He cant represent both. Barr must resign. Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 18, 2019 Barr is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee May 1 and House Judiciary Committee May 2. What's next: Congress prepares for a battle over secret grand jury evidence How the Mueller report is playing:Democrats find voters would rather talk 'kitchen-table' issues This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'A damning document': Democrats call Mueller report's details disturbing, vow hearings Donald Trump has taken another step towards reversing Barack Obamas historic rapprochement with Cuba with a measure that earned swift criticism from allies in Canada and Europe. The US announced on Wednesday that it would enable lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties nationalised by the communist government after Fidel Castros 1959 revolution. The policy shift, which could draw hundreds of thousands of legal claims worth tens of billion of dollars, aims to put pressure on Cuba at a moment when the US is demanding an end to Havanas support for Venezuelas socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. Sign up for the US morning briefing It was condemned by Cuba as an attack on international law and by Canada and the European Union as regrettable, since their companies have significant investments in hotels, distilleries, tobacco factories and other properties on the island. Title III of the Helms-Burton Act had been fully waived by every president over the past 23 years due to concerns from the international community and fears that it could overwhelm US courts with lawsuits. But Trump, who has made a habit of breaking from his predecessors, gave the go-ahead for it to be activated. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said that, for the first time, US citizens will be able to bring lawsuits against individuals trafficking in property that was confiscated by the Cuban regime. Pompeo accused the Obama administration of playing a game of footsy with the Castros junta which did not deter it from targeting human rights activists. Detente with the regime has failed, the secretary told reporters. The issue has come to a head now as the US argues that Cubas security and intelligence support is crucial to Maduros grip on power amid Venezuelas economic and political crisis. Pompeo added: Cubas behaviour in the western hemisphere undermines the security and stability of countries throughout the region, which directly threatens United States national security interests. The Cuban regime has for years exported its tactics of intimidation, repression and violence. Story continues Theyve exported this to Venezuela in direct support of the former Maduro regime. Cuban military intelligence and state security services today keep Maduro in power. The decision represents a blow to Cubas efforts to draw foreign investment. The foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, retorted on Twitter: I strongly reject the announcement of State Secretary Pompeo. This is an attack on international law and the sovereignty of Cuba and third states. Aggressive escalation of USA against Cuba will fail. Numerous foreign companies have invested in Cuba since Obama eased restrictions. A joint EU-Canada statement said the US move was regrettable and will have an important impact on legitimate EU and Canadian economic operators in Cuba. James Williams, president of the pressure group Engage Cuba said: President Trump is doing this for one reason, and one reason only: to appease fringe hardliners in South Florida ahead of the 2020 election. The only way to get property claimants what they deserve is through diplomatic negotiations, which President Trump just threw off the table. On Wednesday Trumps national security adviser, John Bolton, also announced a series of new sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela, including a new cap on the amount of money that families in the US can send to relatives in Cuba. Remittances from the United States have surged since Obama started easing restrictions on them in 2009, becoming an important part of the Cuban economy and fueling the growth of the private sector by providing startup capital. He also said the United States would also further restrict non-family travel by Americans to Cuba, though he offered no details. In a speech to an association of veterans of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, Bolton said the US was adding five names linked to Cubas military and intelligence services to its sanctions blacklist. Under this administration, we dont throw dictators lifelines, Bolton said in Miami. We take them away. Associated Press contributed to this report A revised North American Free Trade Agreement would lead to a modest boost in economic growth and U.S. auto jobs, according to a report released Thursday. The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, struck by the three North American countries last year, would increase real U.S. gross domestic product by an estimated $68.2 billion, or 0.35%, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. It would raise employment by about 176,000 jobs, or 0.12%, the report says. The agreement which the countries' legislatures' still need to ratify would boost U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico by 5.9% and 6.7%, respectively. "The model estimates that the agreement would likely have a positive impact on all broad industry sectors within the U.S. economy. Manufacturing would experience the largest percentage gains in output, exports, wages, and employment, while in absolute terms, services would experience the largest gains in output and employment," the ITC said in a news release. The report comes as President Donald Trump pushes Congress to ratify the revised trade deal despite reservations from both Democrats and Republicans. The president has spent his time in office trying to rework trade relationships with major partners, saying changes such as the ones made to NAFTA will encourage American manufacturing and job creation in the U.S. While the ITC study shows the deal would have positive benefits for jobs and economic growth, it underscores that the deal is hardly the "largest" trade agreement ever as Trump has boasted. Even some Republicans in Congress have called the USMCA more of a tweak to NAFTA than a major overhaul. "The miniscule projected gains in this long-awaited official government assessment of the revised NAFTA contradict Donald Trump's grandiose claims that it will lead to 'cash and jobs pouring into the U.S.' and reinforces congressional Democrats' views that absent more improvements, the revised deal won't stop NAFTA's ongoing damage," Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, said in a statement to CNBC. Story continues A separate report from the U.S. Trade Representative, part of the executive branch, projected the deal would have bigger effects on the auto industry specifically. While the ITC estimated 28,000 job gains in the auto sector, the USTR thinks the trade deal would create 76,000 auto jobs in the next five years, a roughly 7.5 percent increase for the industry. Some industries cheered the ITC report both the National Association of Manufacturers and the Computer & Communications Industry Association encouraged Congress to approve USMCA following its release. Democrats who hold the House and the power to slow ratification of the deal have raised concerns about labor and environmental provisions contained in the deal. Some GOP lawmakers have also pushed Trump to drop tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico before moving forward with the agreement. The deal would not come without its downsides for consumers. Under the provisions of the agreement, auto costs would rise and sales would fall, the ITC estimated. CNBC's Mary Catherine Wellons contributed to this report Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Photos Getty/Jenny Dettrick Whatever revelations the redacted version of the Mueller report may hold, they will not be as disturbing as the behavior of President Trump and his team in the days and weeks leading up to its release. That is not a reference to the presidents panic-tweeting, nor does it refer to his other efforts to distract, obfuscate, or shift blame. Instead, it is acknowledgement of something more insidious that is afoot, something that may be hinted at by Robert Muellers findings but which we are now seeing fully realizeda full-scale and disturbingly successful assault on the rule of law in America. Something broke in America in the past week or two. We have been spiraling downward since Trumps election, but in these early days of spring 2019, we have crossed a line. The president and his men began asserting that they were above the lawand effectively no one in our system did anything to stop them. Attorney General Bill Barr sneered at the Congress and placed himself imperiously above its questions. We saw this, of course, in his handling of the Mueller report. He has kept it from America and assertedfar beyond anything contemplated by statute or hinted at by precedentthat he alone could and should determine what portions of the results of the special counsels investigation we would see. This despite the facts that it was paid for by the people and that the release of its complete and unexpurgated findings is essential for Congress to do its duty. In that process, we have also seen him assertagain without basis in statute or precedentthat he was the final arbiter of whether obstruction of justice by the president had taken place. But last week, he went even further, going so far as to imply that law enforcement authorities carrying out their duty to protect America were somehow spying, perhaps illicitly, on the Trump campaign. Barr did this despite knowing full well that there was an urgent and proven national security rationale for the investigation. He did it despite knowing the Mueller team confirmed yet again that reason, the effort by Russias intelligence community to compromise our electoral process and to support the candidacy of Trump. He disregarded the facts to serve the narrative of his boss but also, shockingly, appallingly, to discredit the work of the law enforcement professionals who undertook the investigation and who, ultimately, report to him. It was equally a betrayal of his oath and of his dedicated colleagues at the Department of Justice. Story continues At the same time, also last week, the secretary of the treasury and the head of the IRS determined to violate a law that required in no uncertain terms for them to provide the presidents tax returns to the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Simultaneously, a massive leadership purge at the Department of Homeland Security took place, and it became quickly clear it was because the president and his team were frustrated that officials would not act in violation of the law. We learned that the White House promised pardons to those who break the law, encouraging a crime and abetting it. We learned that they considered an egregious abuse of power that would involve releasing undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities controlled by Democrats. We saw the president complain that our military would not rough up immigrants. We saw him continue the charade of an emergency at our southern border, which was an excuse for him to illegally divert government resources to an unnecessary, racist vanity project. At the same time, echoing his attorney general and going, as he typically does, to even more outrageous extremes, the president repeatedly called law enforcement officers who investigated him traitors, guilty of treasona crime that carries with it the possibility of the death penalty. We also discovered, again, all in the past few days, that the president considered appointing his grossly unqualified daughter to be head of the World Bank. Days before we learned he ignored the advice of career professionals from the intelligence and law enforcement communities to grant access to sensitive secrets to that same daughter and her husband and dozens of others who were seen by trained professionals as security risks. It is the stuff of the world's most dysfunctional tinpot dictatorships or self-dealing monarchies. But rather than generating a response from within our system commensurate with the threat, nothing occurred. The GOP leaders in the Senate circled round the president and supported his abuses. In so doing, they sent a message that they would never challenge him, much less convict him of the myriad crimes he has committed. The checks and balances our system was built upon are gone. Some have been sold off to the highest bidderwell illustrated when Paul Manafort client and Vladimir Putin confidant Oleg Deripaska, who won a favorable ruling from our Treasury Department despite hideous optics and serious policy objections, announced a multimillion-dollar reward for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: an aluminum mill in his home state of Kentucky. Worse, one of the reasons McConnell and the GOP are turning a blind eye to Trumps outrages is that together with him they are achieving the lifelong dream of packing our courts with right-wing operatives. Many of these nominees are unqualified. And some in future cases they may choose party over duty and, from the bench, enable Trumps onslaught against the rule of law. And so another check is eroded away. Agencies are being left to appointed caretakers, some outside the normal chain of succession, many unconfirmed for their current posts by the Senate. And yet, through all these misdeeds, some who are in a position to challenge Team Trumpmany of them well-meaning, experienced opposition leadershave downplayed or slow-walked the response to the administrations crimes because they have been worried that to do otherwise might stir too much controversy or distract from other agenda items. This is how democracies die. The rule of law is slowly strangled. The unthinkable becomes commonplace. The illegal becomes acceptedfrom violations of the emoluments clause to self-dealing to federal election law crimes to serial sexual abuse. What once was black and white blurs into gray. Right and wrong, old principles, enduring values, fade from memory. Authoritarians arrive in our midst not in tanks but in bad suits and worse haircuts. I have long thought our system was better than thismore resilient. But candidly, I'm no longer sure. I remain hopeful... hopeful that the next election cycle can redress these manifold wrongs, hopeful that the courts will do as many have done and block Trumps worst impulses. But it will not be easy. And the next election will be too close. Trump may be with us for six more years. Why? Because we allowed ourselves to become inured to the unthinkable. We are dying the death of a thousand cuts. Right now, these past few weeks the president and his band of thugs have been winning. They have become unabashed in their attacks on the law. If the Mueller report comes and goes, finds wrongdoing but that translates into no price for Trump, they will only be more encouraged. And if in the future courts rule against them but they feel empowered as they seem to be now, it is not unrealistic to imagine they might ignore judicial decisions, daring defenders of democracy to find some way to enforce them. It is not far-fetched any longer. We already must ask: What if the treasury secretary violates a law as he did last week and no one arrests him? What if the president steals from us, lines his own pockets and those of his family, and makes common cause with our enemies and he goes unpunished? Their crimes will only grow more egregious and their ways will only grow more ingrained in our system. Their violations will in fact become the system itself. Corruption will be the normor more properly, greater corruption, since it was corruption that got us here in the first place. Our only hope is recognizing the seriousness of our situation. This is not politics as usual. This is not an erosion of what was. This is a full-blown crisis, the greatest American politics has faced in half a centuryperhaps much longer. It is not a time for equivocation. It is not a time for patience. It is time for those who seek to protect the rule of law to step up to protect it or the chance may not soon again return. It is a time for our political leaders to recognize that the costs of silence and inaction far outweigh the potential divisiveness of launching the impeachment process. It is time for presidential candidates to step up as leaders of the Democratic Party and insist those who would systematically undermine our system and its checks and balances be held to account. It is time for committees on the Hill to demand respect for the law, issue and enforce subpoenas, challenge administration officials who prevaricate and dodge questions at hearings with contempt of Congress rulings. It is time to bring matters to courts and to defend the rule of law there. And it is time for regular citizens to demand action, to pressure elected officials, to take to the streets if that is necessary. We cant let fear of the anticipated intransigence of a corrupt Senate or courts stop us from demanding the remedies our system requires and our founders saw as essential in situations just like these. In addition, it is time for all those who would seek to divide the Democratic Party against itself at this time of national emergency to step aside. The ultimate cure for the disease of Trumpism, this debilitating affliction that threatens what is best and most dear in our system of government, is defeating Trump. We must remove him and replace his defenders in Congress, and then ensure that after 2020 steps are taken to guarantee we never again can sink to the level at which we are now struggling, a level at which a system that has taken 243 years to craft, cultivate, and evolve is in jeopardy because of the greed, corruption, ignorance, racism, and contempt for our values of the few bad men and women who lead the Republican Party, the foreign enemies that support them, and the misguided special interest groups and voters who have empowered them. Read more at The Daily Beast. Bernie Sanders drew big ratings and rave reviews for his Fox News town hall on Monday night. And President Trump apparently isnt happy about his favorite cable network's role in it. Many Trump Fans & Signs were outside of the @FoxNews Studio last night in the now thriving (Thank you President Trump) Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for the interview with Crazy Bernie Sanders, Trump tweeted on Tuesday night. Big complaints about not being let in stuffed with Bernie supporters. Whats with @FoxNews? According to the Bethlehem, Pa., Morning Call newspaper, however, Fox reached out to various political and local groups in the area and mined requests to attend after it publicly announced the event. And there were Trump supporters in the audience. President Trump and Bernie Sanders (Photo illustration: Yahoo News: photos: AP, Matt Rourke/AP) Trump followed up with two more tweets about Sanders, who released his tax returns earlier this week something Trump has refused to do. Bernie Sanders and wife should pay the Pre-Trump Taxes on their almost $600,000 in income, the president wrote. He is always complaining about these big TAX CUTS, except when it benefits him. They made a fortune off of Trump, but so did everyone else and thats a good thing, not a bad thing! He then offered a prediction for the 2020 Democratic primary. I believe it will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two finalists to run against maybe the best Economy in the history of our Country (and MANY other great things)! I look forward to facing whoever it may be, Trump tweeted, adding: May God Rest Their Soul! Sanders responded with a tweet of his own. Looks like President Trump is scared of our campaign. He should be. Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 17, 2019 On Tuesday morning, Trump blasted moderator Bret Baier and the studio audience for their warm welcome of the Vermont independent senator and self-described democratic socialist and Fox News for its hiring of former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile. Story continues So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews, he wrote. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the audience was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile? Its unclear what the president meant by we. Thanks for watching Mr. President, Baier tweeted in response. Wed love to have you on a town hall soon or even an interview on @SpecialReport its been awhile. We cover all sides. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a Fox News town-hall-style event in Bethlehem, Pa., on Monday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) According to Nielsen, Sanderss town hall on Fox News drew more than 2.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched town hall of the 2020 election cycle so far. (Before Monday, the most viewers for a Democratic presidential candidate came in January, when CNN drew 1.95 million viewers for its town hall with Sen. Kamala Harris.) Sanderss appearance came after the Democratic National Committee announced that Fox would be barred from hosting any of the partys 2020 primary debates. And several Democratic candidates may follow Sanderss lead. The Hill reported Tuesday that South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in talks with Fox about appearing in a town hall event on the network. And according to the Daily Beast, three others Eric Swalwell, Tim Ryan and Julian Castro are also interested in a Fox spot. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: White House officials are reportedly suffering breakdown-level anxiety over whether the Mueller report will expose them as a source of damaging information about Donald Trump. More than a dozen current and former administration personnel cooperated with special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia, according to NBC News. The report is expected to be made public in redacted form by attorney general William Barr on Thursday, following pressure from Congress to release the findings in full. Some officials and their lawyers have allegedly asked the Justice Department to clarify if the report will make their identities obvious out of fear over Mr Trump or his allies reaction if it reveals they criticised the president or revealed negative information about him. They got asked questions and told the truth, and now theyre worried the wrath will follow, a former Trump official told NBC. One person close to the White House told NBC News there was breakdown-level anxiety among current and former officials who spoke with Mr Muellers office at the direction of the presidents legal team. The Justice Department has not specified a time and provided no insight into how much of Mr Muellers report will be redacted upon release on 18 April, but the president is already ramping up his attacks on those involved in the probe. The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax, Mr Trump falsely tweeted on Monday. In fact, Mr Mueller is a registered Republican and there is no suggestion his team engaged in a partisan investigation. Mr Trump on Wednesday doubled down on this claims, wrongly claiming the Russia probe was initiated by dirty cops and Hillary Clinton. Mr Barr, in a four-page summary to Congress last month, reported Mr Mueller had cleared Mr Trump and his campaign of colluding with Russia, but said the former FBI director had steered clear of ruling on whether the president obstructed justice. Mr Trump claimed the investigation exonerated him on both counts, something that was not true. He also pressed Mr Barr to launch an investigation into why the FBI began its probe of members of his campaign team, claiming he was the victim of an attempted coup. Donald Trump and his staff in the White House are preparing for the imminent release of the Mueller report, which has reportedly led to "breakdown-level" anxiety in the West Wing. That waiting game comes as Mr Trump has doubled down on his demand for better border security, and follows after attorney general William Barr announced new US policy that asylum seekers who cross illegally between ports of entry would no longer have the right to ask a judge to grant them bond for release. Under the new Justice Department policy, those migrants will have to wait in detention until their case can adjudicated a process that can take a considerable amount of time given America's backlogged immigration courts. Mr Trump has also turned on Fox News after the right-wing news channel hosted a town hall debate with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Trump tweeted that the event had been "stuffed with Bernie supporters," adding: "What's with @FoxNews?" Mr Barr is expected to release his report on Thursday morning, when he will hold a press conference to discuss the issue. Meanwhile, the race for the Democratic nomination to take the president on in 2020 has been heating up just under eight months until the first votes will be cast in that primary season. Currently leading the pack of candidates are Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and at least in recent polls Pete Buttigieg, who has outperformed expectations in the past couple of weeks. Read The Independents updates as they happen in our live blog below. WASHINGTON President Trump committed multiple acts aimed at obstructing the Russia investigation, but was ultimately saved from being charged with a crime in part because his top aides refused to carry out his orders. That, in effect, is a principal conclusion of special counsel Robert Muellers report that, while clearing Trump or his campaign officials of criminally conspiring with the Russians during the 2016 election, documents with damning new details the presidents efforts to impede and shut down the Russia probe after he took office. Our investigation found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, Mueller writes in a key passage of his report, which was released in redacted form Thursday morning by the Justice Department. But when faced with Trumps demands that they protect him and shut down the Russia probe, the presidents minions repeatedly disobeyed him, the report states. The presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests, the report found. Still, the report spells out how an enraged president repeatedly sought to either shut down or curtail an investigation he was convinced from the outset was a witch hunt that was unfairly targeting him. Those new details help explain Muellers conclusion that while the investigation did not establish that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im f***ed, Trump vented to then Attorney General Jeff Sessions after learning that Mueller had been appointed as special counsel, according to notes taken by Sessionss chief of staff, Jody Hunt, that are cited in Muellers report. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. Trumps efforts to improperly influence the probe had begun even before that. After national security adviser Michael Flynn was removed for lying about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak on Feb. 14, 2017, Trump ordered then deputy national security adviser KT McFarland to draft an internal letter stating that he had not directed Flynn to discuss sanctions with Kislyak. McFarland refused to do so because she did not know whether that was true, the report states. Story continues On June 14, 2017, after learning that Mueller was investigating him for obstruction, Trump called then White House counsel Don McGahn at home and directed him to have Mueller fired for supposed conflicts of interest. McGahn refused to do so, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre, Muellers report states. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP On June 19, 2017, Trump met in the Oval Office with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and directed him to give a message to then Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had infuriated Trump when he recused himself from the Russia probe. Sessions should publicly announce that the Russia investigation was very unfair to Trump and that the president had done nothing wrong, he told Lewandowski. Furthermore, Trump wanted Lewandowski to tell Sessions he should meet with Mueller and, notwithstanding his recusal, he should let the probe continue, but be restricted to investigating election meddling for future elections. Trump repeated that request to Lewandowski a month later, on July 19, 2017. Lewandowski did not want to deliver the presidents message personally, so he asked senior White House aide Rick Dearborn to give the directive to Sessions. But Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through. As Muellers probe began to focus on actions by Trumps family and close associates, Trump upped the ante and gave orders apparently aimed at concealing key evidence from the public and thwarting Mueller. Muellers report, for example, sheds new light on what happened when the White House learned about damning emails concerning the notorious June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives offering incriminating information about Hillary Clinton straight from Kremlin files. On several occasions, the President directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails setting up the June 9 meeting, according to Muellers report. Before the emails became public, Trump personally edited a press statement for Donald Trump Jr., who attended the meeting, promulgating a cover story that the meeting was about Russian adoptions. It was Trump himself who deleted a line in the press statement that acknowledged the meeting was with an individual who his son was told might have information helpful to the campaign. Just as problematic was Trumps attempt to influence the testimony of Michael Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer. While Cohen was preparing for congressional testimony, Trumps personal lawyer had extensive discussions with him and directed him to stay on message. After Cohens home and office were searched by the FBI in April 2018, Trump contacted him directly and told him to stay strong. Cohen also discussed pardons with one of Trumps lawyers and believed if he stayed on message he would be taken care of. But ultimately Mueller shrunk from recommending that Trump be charged with obstruction even while rejecting the argument by the presidents lawyers that he was immune from such a charge because many of his actions were covered by his constitutional authority to oversee the executive branch of government. It is clear the president was saved, in large part, by the previously unheralded actions by McGahn, Lewandowski, McFarland and others in refusing to carry out Trumps demands. White House Attorney Donald McGahn. (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP) But Mueller cites other reasons as well: In the introduction to his volume on obstruction, he cites a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion that sitting presidents could not be charged with a crime. Beyond that, Mueller writes, we recognized that a federal criminal accusation against a sitting President would place burdens on the Presidents capacity to govern and potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconducta reference to Congress power to impeach. But in the absence of a clear recommendation from Mueller, Attorney General William Barr took it upon himself to decide the obstruction question. Barr explained his reasoning in a morning press conference that amounted to a vigorous defense brief for Trump, saying that Trump was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that he was being unfairly targeted. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation, Barr said during his press conference. As he entered office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the special counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks. ... Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. In focusing on Trumps lack of corrupt motives in thwarting a criminal investigation, Barr did not address the question of possible political motives in wanting the probe ended. Nonetheless, for all of Trumps unfulfilled orders and demands, the White House fully cooperated with the Mueller probe and allowed his aides to testify, Barr maintained. But that conclusion clearly didnt satisfy Democrats. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, noted Trump refused to be interviewed by Mueller and, after responding to the special counsels questions in writing, refused to provide written answers to follow up questions. Now, Nadler said, he has called Barr to testify before his panel on May 2 and, perhaps even more significantly, intends to call Mueller himself as soon as possible. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: By David Lawder and David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is readying a public relations offensive over the economic impact of its new North American trade deal to counter a crucial report expected on Thursday that economists see as likely to show minimal gains at best. Industry sources familiar with the administration's plans told Reuters the U.S. International Trade Commission's analysis of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement would be met with a rosier forecast from the U.S. Trade Representative's office. The three countries agreed last year to the deal to replace the 25-year old North American Free Trade Agreement after President Donald Trump's relentless criticism of NAFTA, calling it "the worst trade deal ever made" and insisting it be improved or scrapped. The ITC report has been kept under wraps and is being keenly awaited by U.S. lawmakers to help them decide whether to support USMCA. A report showing little or no gain from the changes would be a setback for the administration and give some Democrats an excuse to deny Trump a major political victory. The report will measure USMCA's effects on gross domestic product, income, job creation and specific sectors against a baseline of NAFTA - a trade deal that already has eliminated nearly all tariffs among the three countries. "You wouldn't expect big effects compared to the existing NAFTA," said Laura Baughman, president of Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC, a consulting firm that analyzes the economic impacts of trade actions and policies. Baughman estimated the overall gain in U.S. GDP in the deal's 15th year would be barely perceptible at about 0.01 percent and could be negative if the ITC fails to give enough weight to new provisions on digital trade, increased customs efficiency and services. The ITC report will analyze areas that are more difficult to measure than tariffs, such as new rules of origin, intellectual property protections or elimination of non-scientific food safety barriers. Story continues But people familiar with the matter said the USTR was expected to argue that the ITC analysis fails to adequately capture the full benefits of the trade deal. The USTR is expected to emphasize how the new rules of origin for autos create incentives for companies to invest in research and development and increase production of auto parts, steel, aluminum and textiles. The trade agency also is expected to emphasize new provisions on digital trade and small parcel shipments, stronger intellectual property protections including those for drug makers, as well as increased dairy and poultry access to Canada. The deal already faces an uphill battle among Democrats now in control of the House of Representatives, who have voiced concerns about the enforcement of labor rights provisions in Mexico and USMCA's effect on drug prices. Canada and Mexico are seeking exemption from U.S. tariffs on global metal imports imposed last year. AUTOS RULES A major question mark is whether tighter regional content rules for the automotive sector will be a positive or negative in the report. USMCA requires that 75 percent of a vehicle's value be made in North America, with 40 to 45 percent produced in high-wage areas paying at least $16 an hour, requiring significant automotive production in the United States and Canada. The Trump administration had hailed the provision as a centerpiece of USMCA that would stem the flow of automotive jobs to Mexico and incentivize "billions annually in new U.S. vehicle and auto parts production." Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at one point the deal would bring back "the vast majority" of the 250,000 auto parts jobs lost over the years. But economists from the International Monetary Fund analyzed the deal using the same economic model used by the ITC and found a negligible impact on U.S. GDP over the medium term, but a slight loss of $794 million in consumption, a broader measure of economic benefit, due to reduced activity in autos and textiles. "The results show that the tighter rules of origin in the auto sector and the labor value content requirement would not achieve their desired outcomes," the IMF researchers said in the paper, published in late March. "The new rules lead to a decline in the production of vehicles and parts in all three North-American countries, with shifts toward greater sourcing of both vehicles and parts from outside of the region." A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representatives office declined to comment on a query about plans for an alternative analysis. SMALL GAINS FOR TPP In 2016, the ITC's report on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal showed that by its 15th year, the reduced tariffs and increased trade among the 12 member countries would boost U.S. GDP by 0.15 percent, or $42.3 billion, compared with no deal. Employment in the TPP analysis would be higher by about 128,000 full-time equivalent jobs. While automotive exports would increase over the long term, auto imports from Japan would rise in the near term. Trump withdrew from the TPP in 2017 in one of his first actions as president. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also sought to temper the expected impact of the trade commission's report on USMCA by pointing out that ITC had traditionally focused just on goods tariff reductions. "In this case, the USMCA eliminates some remaining Canadian barriers facing U.S. dairy and poultry exports, but the bottom line is that there just arent many tariffs left to cut," John Murphy, the Chamber's senior vice president for international policy, said in a blog posting on Tuesday. He said members of Congress should keep in mind the bigger picture of NAFTA's importance to the U.S. economy, with $1.4 trillion in trade among the three countries last year. Trump has frequently threatened to withdraw from NAFTA if Congress fails to approve USMCA, a scenario that experts have said would lead to widespread economic damage as tariffs among the three countries snap back to 1994 levels, spiking costs for auto production and crippling U.S. agricultural exports. "Looking at USMCA against a baseline of no NAFTA, its a big gain," said Gary Hufbauer a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. (Reporting by David Lawder and David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney) WASHINGTON For the first time, the public got its chance Thursday to see what special counsel Robert Mueller found after nearly two years of investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and its potential connections to President Donald Trump's campaign. While parts of the 448-page report, which was divided into two volumes, were redacted due to grand jury information and information that could affect other probes that stemmed from Mueller's investigation, it presented an outline of how Russia "interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion." Although the report says investigators "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated" with the Russian government, it identified "numerous links" between them. Trump calls it 'Crazy': Donald Trump denounces 'Crazy Mueller Report,' calls statements about him 'fabricated' and 'untrue' Lies: Sarah Sanders admits she lied about FBI trust in Comey and other false statements revealed in Mueller report The second portion of the report dealt with whether the president attempted to obstruct the investigation, listing out evidence and behind-the-scenes conversations that offered a look into Trump's efforts to derail the probe. Here is a look at some of the most noteworthy sections from the exhaustive work by Mueller's team: No obstruction because aides refused Trump's orders Mueller laid out evidence in support of and against charges that Trump attempted to obstruct justice. The report explained the president's intent was at the heart of the issue. "Our investigation found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations," the report said. But it said those efforts "were mostly unsuccessful ... largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests." Story continues Mueller said he relied on several factors in weighing potential obstruction charges. Obstruction typically relies on someone altering or destroying evidence or impairing an investigation, or urging someone else to do those things. Such cases rely on evidence that the defendant was conscious of wrongdoing. He noted that "based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach" a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. "While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," he wrote. Obstruction: President Trump tried to impede Russia inquiry but aides ignored his orders The report:Trump's anger over Russia probe may have saved him from obstruction charge No Russian conspiracy but campaign expected to 'benefit' Mueller's team did not find evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but the report says in its introduction that "the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." It noted the various contacts Trump aides had with officials tied to the Kremlin, including the notorious meeting in Trump Tower between members Trump's inner circle and a Russian lawyer before the election. The investigation "established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the Campaign. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer," the report notes. Conspiracy: Trump campaign was an eager beneficiary of Russian election help, Mueller report concludes The Mueller report: Report documents links between Trump campaign and Russia, steps to thwart probe; finds no conspiracy Read it: Special counsel Robert Mueller's 448-page report 'This is the end of my presidency' After Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the investigation, Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel and tasked with overseeing the investigation. The president, who repeatedly urged Sessions to not recuse himself, was not pleased. Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im f-----, Trump said, according to written notes from Sessions chief of staff, Jody Hunt. Mueller found Trump's answers 'inadequate' In his written answers to Mueller's questions, Trump said more than 30 times that he did not "recall" or "remember" or have an "independent recollection" of events. Other answers, Mueller said, were "incomplete or imprecise." Mueller expressed frustration with "inadequate" written answers and considered whether to subpoena the president. But he decided the "investigation had made significant progress" and that he had enough evidence from other sources to determine the credibility of Trump's answers. Mueller ultimately concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support a conspiracy charge, despite the vast number of interactions between Trump associates and Russia, leaving unanswered questions that are likely to linger. Even the special counsels exoneration may not be enough to dissolve the suspicion of a Russia connection that has shadowed the Trump administration since its first days. White House: Mueller report lifts curtain on White House chaos as aides ignore, manage Trump 'More damning than all those reports': Watergate, Whitewater officials react to Mueller report Trump said 'Russia, if you're listening' was a joke Trump told Mueller that his "Russia if you're listening" comment in July 2016 in which he asked Russia to hack into Clinton's emails to find the 30,000 that were missing from her home server was made "in jest and sarcastically, as was apparent to any objective observer." Trump said he had no idea Russia was actually trying to do just that. But, according to the report, within about five hours of Trump's request Russian military intelligence agents "targeted Clinton's personal office for the first time" and "sent malicious links targeting 15 email accounts," including one belonging to a Clinton aide whose name was redacted. And the report said that after his "Russia, if you're listening" comment, "Trump asked officials affiliated with his Campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails." Michael Flynn "recalled that Trump made this request repeatedly, and Flynn subsequently contacted multiple people in an effort to obtain the emails." The investigations aren't over The work that Mueller started is not over. An appendix to the report lists cases that will continue even after Mueller has wrapped up his work: 11 of his cases have been transferred since the bulk of Mueller's work was completed and another 14 were referred to other court districts for investigation. Most of those 14 cases were redacted from the report and remain a secret. Conspiracy: Trumps aides were eager to take Russian dirt on Clinton. But it wasnt a conspiracy, Mueller report said More: 'Oh my God. This is terrible.': Top quotes from special counsel Robert Mueller's report Trump Tower meeting crime too tough to prove The special counsels office considered bringing charges against Trump campaign officials based on federal campaign finance laws in connection with a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Trump campaign officials including Donald Trump Jr. and Russians offering "dirt" on Clinton. "There are reasonable arguments that the offered information would constitute a 'thing of value," as defined by federal law, the report states. That weighed whether that could be considered a conspiracy to violate the foreign contributions ban or an attempt to solicit an illegal foreign contribution. But Mueller's team determined they didn't have enough evidence to meet the high burden of proof in such crimes and that it would be difficult to prove that the individuals acted "willfully." Also, Mueller's team concluded it would have a hard time proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the value of the promised information exceeded the threshold for a criminal violation. Clearing up how it all began Trump and many of his supporters in the media suggested the investigation into a possible conspiracy was born out of the dossier compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. But Mueller's report says it began on July 31, 2016 after "a foreign government contacted the FBI" about statements from George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign. Papadopoulos said Russians had offered to help the campaign by releasing "information damaging" to Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, the report says. No one 'is so high that he is above the law' Although the president's attorneys argued that Trump should not be investigated for potential obstruction of justice, Mueller's team concluded it "had a valid basis" for such an investigation based on Supreme Court precedent. It also said "the application of the obstruction statutes would not impermissibly burden the President's performance of his Article II function to supervise prosecutorial conduct or to remove inferior law-enforcement officers." The report continued, saying, "The protection of the criminal justice system from corrupt acts by any person including the President accords with the fundamental principle of our government that '[n]o [person] in this country is so high that he is above the law.'" Trump reacts: 'Its called no collusion, no obstruction,' president says Contributing: Gregory Korte, Ledyard King, Brad Heath, Kevin Johnson, Kristine Phillips, Deirdre Shesgreen, John Kelly, Kevin McCoy, Stephen Reilly and Bart Jansen. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump thought Mueller would 'end' his presidency and other takeaways from the Mueller report Lome (AFP) - Two leaders of an opposition party in Togo, the Pan-African National Party (PNP), have been detained following mass protests calling for a limit on presidential terms, a coalition of opposition parties said Thursday. Gueffe Nouridine and Kezire Azizou, prominent members of the PNP, were interrogated by Togolese intelligence services before being arrested Tuesday and detained at Lome Civil Prison. The leaders were accused of "not taking into account the order of the authorities on the designated routes of the peaceful demonstrations of 13 April", the coalition said in a statement. "This latest arrest comes after a number of regrettable events." A demonstrator died and dozens were wounded, according to the government, at an opposition rally Saturday against President Faure Gnassingbe in Bafilo, northern Togo, which was dispersed by security forces. Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005. On the night of the rally, the home of PNP president Tikpi Atchadam was ransacked by security forces, who also arrested 30 party members. Twenty have been sentenced and imprisoned, according to the opposition. The coalition statement denounced "violent repressions by the defence and security forces on civilians." It demanded that "light be shed by an independent body on the April 13 violence against the civilian population" and that the culprits be "brought to justice". The PNP last week called protests countrywide, but Minister of Territorial Administration, Payadowa Boukpessi, authorised protests only in the capital, Lome, and two other cities -- Afagnan and Sokode -- which are PNP strongholds. Police forces used tear gas on protesters who gathered at unauthorised sites, and in Sokode, clashed with demonstrators who erected pyres of burning tyres. The PNP is demanding constitutional reforms 15 years into the rule of Gnassingbe. He succeeded his father, General Eyadema Gnassingbe, who had led the country with an iron fist for 38 years. For nearly two years, opposition parties have held regular protests. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General William Barr will hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) on Thursday to discuss the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel nearly two years ago, will also attend the news conference, the department said in a statement. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the Mueller investigation as a "witch hunt," said in a radio interview on Wednesday he may hold a news conference after Barr. Mueller on March 22 submitted to Barr a nearly 400-page report on his 22-month investigation into whether the Trump campaign worked with Moscow to sway the election in his favor, and whether Trump committed obstruction of justice with actions to impede the inquiry. In a letter to lawmakers two days later, Barr said Mueller did not find that members of Trump's campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia. Barr also said he determined there was not enough evidence to establish that Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice, though Mueller did not exonerate Trump on obstruction. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by David Alexander and Will Dunham) WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will propose clarifying its debt-collection rule "in coming weeks," the director of the agency said on Wednesday. Kathy Kraninger, in her first major address as director of the CFPB, said she has directed her staff to establish clarity in the number of calls consumers may receive from debt-collectors. She added that the proposal would also encourage market participants to use "other modern technology" in their approach to collect outstanding payments. Debt collection ranks among the highest volume of issues on the agency's consumer complaints portal. (Reporting by Katanga Johnson) By Tom Hals (Reuters) - The Trump administration lost a court bid on Thursday aimed at striking down California's "sanctuary" statutes that prevent local law enforcement from helping the U.S. government's crackdown on illegal immigration. (graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2XmGDDg) The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco largely affirmed a July ruling from a lower court, which had found the California laws do not conflict with federal immigration rules. The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement, "We continue to prove in California that the rule of law not only stands for something but that people cannot act outside of it." Scores of Democrat-controlled cities and counties have adopted policies to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, making them a target for President Donald Trump. He recently suggested he would send an "unlimited supply" of migrants in the country illegally to sanctuary cities. The Trump administration has also tried to deny public safety grants to some sanctuary cities, a policy that has been generally blocked by federal courts. The California laws prohibit private employers in the state from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration officials and bar local law enforcement from sharing information about the release of illegal immigrants from custody. The appeals court reversed the lower court regarding a part of a third law, which empowers the California attorney general to monitor conditions in immigrant detention facilities. The Court of Appeals said the requirement that an inspection of the circumstances surrounding the apprehension and transfer of an immigrant discriminates against the federal government. The Court of Appeals directed the U.S. District Court in Sacramento to review that part of its ruling. The case stems from a March 2018 lawsuit by the Department of Justice, which contended that the laws violated the U.S. Constitution. (Reporting by Tom Hals; Editing by Leslie Adler) By Aziz El Yaakoubi DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen's warring parties could start withdrawing forces from the main port city of Hodeidah within weeks, a move needed to pave the way for political negotiations to end the four-year war, the U.N. special envoy said on Thursday. Martin Griffiths said he had received on Sunday the formal acceptance of the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthi group to implement a first phase of troop redeployments, while discussions were still underway for the second phase. The United Nations has struggled to implement a pact agreed at talks last December in Sweden, the first major breakthrough in peace efforts to end the war that has killed tens of thousands and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. "The two parties agreed formally to the concept of operations for phase one. What we are doing now is ... moving on as planned from there to agree on phase two," Griffiths told Reuters in a telephone interview without elaborating, adding that talks would "intensify" in coming days. "So we dont have an exact date at the moment for the beginning of this physical redeployment," he said. "It's got to be weeks ... hopefully few weeks." Sources have told Reuters the first phase would see the Houthis leave the city's ports and pro-government forces leave some areas on the city's outskirts. In the second phase, both sides would pull troops to 18 km from the city and heavy weapons 30 km away. The Hodeidah deal was a trust building step aimed at averting a full-scale assault on Hodeidah by the Saudi-led coalition trying to restore the internationally recognized government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and paving the way for political talks to set up a transitional government. Danish general Michael Lollesgaard, head of the U.N. observer team in Hodeidah, chairs a Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) tasked with hammering out details not spelled out in the pact. A ceasefire in Houthi-held Hodeidah has largely held but violence has escalated elsewhere in the country. The troop withdrawal was due to have been completed by Jan. 7 but stalled over disagreement on who would control the Red Sea port city. Asked if that issue had been resolved, Griffiths said: "We have ideas on how to bridge the gap on the issue of the local security forces" but it would be up to the parties represented in the RCC headed by Lollesgaard to resolve it. Three sources told Reuters last month that the first phase would see the Houthis pull back 5 km (3 miles) from the ports of Saleef, used for grain, and Ras Isa, for oil. Then the Houthis would quit Hodeidah port while coalition forces would retreat 1 km from the city's "Kilo 8" and Saleh districts. This would restore access cut off since September to the Red Sea Mills, which holds some 50,000 tonnes of World Food Programme grain, enough to feed 3.7 million people, and allow humanitarian corridors to be reopened. FAILURE "NOT AN OPTION" Hodeidah handles the bulk of Yemens commercial and aid supplies and is critical for feeding the population of 30 million people. It became a focus of fighting last year, raising concern that an all-out assault could disrupt supply lines and trigger mass starvation in the poorest Arabian Peninsula nation. "I know were spending an enormous amount of time, and rightly so, on Hodeidah, but its the gateway to the comprehensive settlement and of course failure in Hodeida is not an option," Griffiths said. "The aim ultimately of an agreement which will resolve the conflict and end this war is to return governing of Yemen to politicians, to return to the people of Yemen accountable government." After years of military stalemate, the Sunni Muslim coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates twice launched offensives last year to seize Hodeidah port, seeking to weaken the Houthis by cutting off their main supply line. The coalition says the Houthis use the port to smuggle weapons and they must relinquish it. The Houthis say the government would try to choke them off if it gained control. Griffiths said teams from the U.N. Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM), which would inspect ships docking in the ports, are ready to deploy. Monitors and other U.N. staff would backstop customs, revenue and port authorities, he added. Western states, some of which supply arms and intelligence to the coalition, are pressing for an end to the conflict, seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The alliance intervened in Yemen in 2015 to restore Hadi's government which was ousted from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014. The Houthis deny being puppets of Iran and say their revolution is against corruption. (Writing by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Ghaida Ghantous) Kampala (AFP) - Uganda's top court Thursday upheld a decision to scrap presidential age limits, paving the way for the country's 74-year-old leader, Yoweri Museveni, to seek a sixth term in office. The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge by Museveni's opponents, who had appealed against a ruling by the constitutional court that removed an age cap of 75 for presidential contenders. "This appeal therefore fails," Chief Justice Bart Katureebe declared in handing down the court's majority 4-3 verdict. In December 2017, a bill was signed to abolish age limits for presidential candidates, allowing Museveni -- who has ruled since 1986 -- to seek re-election in polls due in 2021. That decision sparked protests and an outcry from the opposition, which accused the president of seeking to rule for life. The constitutional court upheld the amendment in a ruling in July last year. In January, the Supreme Court began hearing an appeal by opposition petitioners who unsuccessfully argued the earlier ruling was unconstitutional. Museveni once said leaders who "overstayed" were the root of Africa's problems. However, while running for a fifth term in 2016, he said it was not the right time for him to leave, as he still had work to do. In February, the ruling party endorsed Museveni as its candidate for 2021. He is the only president most Ugandans have known in a country where the median age is less than 16. By Polina Ivanova KIEV, April 18 (Reuters) - Ukrainian tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky said on Thursday he expects some "odious individuals" at the central bank could be removed from office if presidential front-runner Volodymyr Zelenskiy wins Sunday's run-off election. The tycoon has been at loggerheads with the central bank over PrivatBank, the country's largest bank, which he co-founded and which the government nationalized in 2016. Critics of Zelenskiy, a comedian with no political experience but who is leading President Petro Poroshenko according to opinion polls, say his many ties to Kolomoisky indicate he will do the tycoon's bidding if he wins office. Zelenskiy, whose shows air on a TV channel controlled by the tycoon, denies this. Kolomoisky has publicly supported Zelenskiy, and he said on Thursday he was friends with him but the relationship would change if he is elected. "When someone becomes president, they stop being your friend," he said. "That all ends when someone gets that kind of role and his level of responsibility rises exponentially." One area at issue is the fate of PrivatBank. Kolomoisky won a major victory on Thursday in his battle with the government over the bank's nationalization as a court ruled the change of ownership was illegal. Asked whether he would be keen to see any changes to the leadership of the central bank, Kolomoisky said he supported its current leader Yakiv Smoliy, but predicted a new president would lead to other changes. "There are a few odious individuals there," Kolomoisky said. "But I think that when there will be a change of guard if, God willing, it happens in the highest office, then this Yakiv Smoliy, he will himself clean up in his Augean stables," Kolomoisky said, referring to one of the tasks set for the Greek mythological character Hercules. Kiev authorities took over PrivatBank in December 2016 and accused Kolomoisky of fraudulently siphoning out millions of dollars during his ownership. Kolomoisky denies any wrongdoing. Story continues "I don't call it a nationalization, I call it an expropriation," Kolomoisky told Reuters. "It wasn't 1917 was it? It was 2017... But they robbed me like a time machine had been switched on and we had returned 100 years," he said, referring to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. PrivatBank was nationalized as part of a clean-up of the banking system backed by the International Monetary Fund, and the authorities have previously warned that any step to reverse the decision could derail Ukraine's $3.9 billion loan program. Kolomoisky compared the clean-up to Soviet leader Josef Stalin's purges in 1937. 'GOOD MATES' Zelenskiy's celebrity was established by a comedy show - in which he played an everyman who accidentally becomes president - broadcast by 1+1, a TV network controlled by Kolomoisky. Reuters has documented a string of other ties between the two, including shared business partners, bodyguards and advisers. "We had a business relationship, yes. And we have friendly relations, yes... I believe that we were good mates who were connected by a shared contract in television," Kolomoisky told Reuters on Thursday. "(But) no one calls (French President Emmanuel) Macron and says 'look, Emmanuel, Vasya's going to come over tomorrow, you need to do such-and-such'... And I want the same for Ukraine," Kolomoisky said. On the question of whether he has supported Zelenskiy's campaign financially, Kolomoisky said no, and that there was no need. "He's a wealthy person, and unlike many in Ukraine his money is clean," he said. Zelenskiy has repeatedly denied he would introduce policies favorable to Kolomoisky's interests if elected. Asked in a Reuters interview whether PrivatBank would be returned to Kolomoisky, Zelenskiy said: "Am I that crazy? Do I want to lose my life, reputation?" (Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets Writing by Polina Ivanova Editing by Christian Lowe and Frances Kerry) Tripoli (AFP) - The UN's Libya envoy warned Thursday of "a widening conflagration" in the North African country, as deadly clashes spread south to a key military base. Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), based in the country's east, launched an offensive on April 4 to take Tripoli, the western seat of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). Envoy Ghassan Salame told AFP that Haftar's push had ground to a bloody stalemate with pro-government forces around the capital. "After the very first successes of the Libyan National Army two weeks ago, we are witnessing a military deadlock," he said. But Haftar's force said clashes had erupted at a military base it holds some 650 kilometres (400 miles) south of Tripoli, killing four people and leaving six wounded. LNA spokesman Ahmad Al-Mesmari accused a "terrorist group" of launching an attack on the Tamenhant air base near Sabha, but said LNA fighters had repulsed the assault. The UN said it was "deeply concerned about reports of clashes between the two parties" around the base and "the potential for widening confrontations in other areas of the country". - 'War crimes' - In a symbolic move, the GNA on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against Haftar for allegedly ordering deadly air strikes against civilian areas. A spokesman said it was seeking an international arrest warrant against Haftar for "war crimes", as two UN experts were expected in Tripoli to investigate the origin of rocket fire that killed six people the previous day. The unity government's interior ministry also lashed out at France, accusing it directly for the first time of supporting Haftar and saying it was cutting security ties with Paris. A French foreign ministry official dismissed the allegation as "completely unfounded". Salame told AFP that "international divisions" prior to the assault on Tripoli had emboldened Haftar, who is backed by Russia and seen by his allies Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as a bulwark against Islamists. Story continues "There are countries that have invested in Mr Haftar as a champion of the fight against terrorism," Salame said, without naming any countries. "They will not drop him now even if they do not agree with his attack on Tripoli." Haftar's offensive forced the UN to postpone a national conference that was to draw up a roadmap to elections in a bid to turn the page on years of turmoil since the 2011 ouster of dictator Moamer Kadhafi. "We worked for a whole year to prepare something that has no precedent," he said, saying the plan had been to "bring the country out of chaos". Instead, the political process was on hold and "these efforts are going up in smoke a little like the attic of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris", he said. - Wrangling at UN - The renewed fighting has killed over 200 people and left more than 900 wounded, the World Health Organization said Thursday. More than 25,000 have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration. World powers have long been divided on how to stabilise Libya, wracked by violence since Kadhafi's fall. Haftar's offensive has again highlighted those divisions. "There are interests in Libya. It's a country rich in oil," Salame said. This "makes companies -- oil companies, construction companies, etc -- salivate". But he added that some countries had supported one camp or another for "reasons that are not necessarily economic". The UN Security Council is split on how to address the latest crisis. Negotiations this week on a draft resolution demanding a ceasefire in Tripoli have failed to yield agreement. The UN said that Salame would brief the Security Council Thursday "in closed consultations on the latest developments on the ground". Britain put forward a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation, but Russia objected to clauses that criticised Haftar's offensive as a threat to Libya's stability. Britain proposed a slightly watered-down version on Wednesday but the three African countries on the council -- Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, South Africa -- insisted it should cover the need to protect civilians, including migrants. Moscow said even the amended version was "still far away from accommodating our concerns", according to a note from the Russian UN mission. Johannesburg (AFP) - A large portrait of a bright-eyed young woman draped in a black graduation robe looms over a spotless, tiled lounge in Protea Glen, a suburb of Johannesburg's Soweto township. It is a constant and gnawing reminder of potential that has gone unrealised for 10 years. "It's like you go to school, you go to school... and then once you are qualified you sit with a whole stack of certificates that you can't actually use," 36-year-old Kgomotso Sebabi said. Armed with qualifications in wealth management, she migrated in 2008 from the small, central city of Kimberley to South Africa's financial hub, Johannesburg, in pursuit of opportunities. To date, the holder of two bachelor's degrees has failed to find a job in her field. She has since acquired three more post-graduate certificates in a bid to enhance her chances, but all she has managed to secure is a part-time job at a call centre. "Initially I wanted to see myself grow within the financial sector, maybe become a manager... a finance chief executive or something. But it didn't go as planned," she told AFP. A quarter of century into democracy, South Africa has an official unemployment rate of 27.1 percent. Among people under 35 the rate is about 53 percent -- among the highest in the world. Causes of unemployment in South Africa are many and complex, the biggest factor being a slow-growing economy which has failed to produce jobs at the pace at which new graduates enter the market. The government repeatedly vows, especially on the elections campaign trail, to create desperately needed jobs. According to chief labour statistician Malerato Mosiane, unemployment remained stubbornly high even as the population grew rapidly. Media graduate Tswelopele Maputla, 22, completed her journalism studies in November 2018 at Rhodes University, but has been nowhere near a newsroom. She mails out job applications whenever she can. "It's been incredibly difficult and demotivating," said Maputla as she finished cleaning her mother's house in Daveyton township east of Johannesburg. Story continues "I have the skills and it's just disheartening that I can't get that one break that I need to prove myself." - Votes for jobs - As South Africa heads to the polls on May 8, the promise of jobs has once again become election bait. President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed that his African National Congress (ANC) will create "many more" jobs. The party has been in power for 25 years and will, according to all polls, win the majority vote yet again. "We will be able to create up to 275,000 additional jobs each year," Ramaphosa said at the ANC's election manifesto launch in January. Mmusi Maimane, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, meanwhile recently told supporters in Johannesburg: "I have a dream of putting a job in every home." And Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has warned that South Africa "cannot postpone the jobs question". But the promises are up against a lacklustre economy. The International Monetary Fund in April lowered South Africa's projected GDP growth rate for 2019 from 1.4 percent to 1.2 percent, citing policy uncertainty which with high levels of corruption and recurrent electricity blackouts, has harmed investor confidence. The massive unemployment rate is seen as fuelling apathy among many young voters. The electoral commission has recorded a 47-percent drop in registered voters aged 18 and 19. About two-thirds of the nine million eligible voters who did not bother to register are under 30 years old. "I'm not voting," said unemployed agriculture graduate Xhanti Ndondela, 26, who qualified in 2016. "Why should I vote for a government that I will never work for?" - 'Tipping point' - With the dawn of democracy, access to higher education has improved, with the number of graduates from public universities more than doubling from 92,874 in 2000 to 203,076 in 2016. But there are just not enough jobs to go around. The government's target is to cut unemployment by half, to about 14 percent by 2020, but this is "unlikely to occur", says the World Bank in a 2018 report. "Overall, since 1994, a growing economy created many jobs in South Africa, but not enough to significantly reduce unemployment," said the bank. The former statistician-general and now Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative consultant, Pali Lehohla, has warned of a self-perpetuating crisis. "We are caught in that process where unemployment, poor education and poverty itself are reinforcing one another. There is going to be a tipping point no doubt," he told eNCA television news network. Washington (AFP) - The US Justice Department announced charges Wednesday against 60 people, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists alleged to have illegally written hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for opioids that have underpinned the country's addiction crisis. Most of the charges involved health professionals in the Appalachia region, where poverty is deep and doctors and pharmacies pumped out millions of highly addictive pills for years without controls. A doctor who was charged in Tennessee called himself the "Roc Doc" and traded prescriptions for sex as he prescribed 800,000 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills and 600,000 benzodiazepine tablets over three years, the Justice Department said. In the same period, an Ohio pharmacy doled out 1.75 million opioid pills, supported by several doctors and pharmacists. And one Alabama doctor charged known drug abusers a $50 a month "concierge fee" to keep prescribing them addictive opioids, while another allowed prostitutes to abuse drugs in his home, according to the Justice Department. In all 31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners, and other licensed medical professionals were charged in an investigation that spanned Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. "The opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region," Attorney General Bill Barr said in a statement. For a decade, the United States has been battered by a massive addiction crisis that was centered mainly on s prescription opioid painkillers but, after a crackdown, has since branched out into heroin and fentanyl, an extremely dangerous synthetic opioid. In 2017, more than 70,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, mostly from opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Interventions and a crackdown on prescription and illegal drugs may have helped cut that back in 2018. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Moscow (AFP) - The US special envoy for North Korea was due in Moscow on Wednesday as the Kremlin said it was preparing for possible talks between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. Media reports said the first summit between the two leaders could come as early as next week. "Active preparations for a potential meeting are underway," Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments reported by news agencies. The US State Department said Stephen Biegun would be in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday "to meet with Russian officials to discuss efforts to advance the final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea." Russian, South Korean and Japanese media reported that Kim and Putin were set to meet in Russia's Far East, though Ushakov would not be drawn on the location or date of a potential summit. Quoting diplomatic sources, Russian newspaper Izvestia reported Wednesday that the meeting would take place in Vladivostok before the Russian leader heads to China for an April 26-27 summit. One of the sources warned that the plans could change, however, noting that Kim was an "impulsive person". South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted diplomats in Seoul this week saying a meeting was being prepared. On Wednesday, the agency reported that North Korea's flagship carrier Air Koryo had scheduled a special flight to Vladivostok on Tuesday next week. Japan's Jiji Press, quoting a Russian diplomatic source, said it was "99 percent" certain that Putin and Kim will meet next Wednesday in Vladivostok. Russia is keen to play a stronger role in international talks over North Korea's nuclear programme, which have seen Kim meet US President Donald Trump for two summits over the last year. The ITCs report analyzing the effects of USMCA found that new requirements in the deal would increase employment in the U.S. auto industry by more than 28,000 full-time jobs. REUTERS/Norihiko Shirouzu The U.S. International Trade Commission says the new North American free trade deal would increase jobs in the U.S. automotive sector but lead to a decrease in consumption due to higher vehicle costs. The ITCs report analyzing the effects of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) found that new requirements in the deal, including increased automotive rules of origin, would increase employment in the U.S. auto industry by more than 28,000 full-time jobs. At the same time, the report found that the changes may increase the costs of new vehicles, leading to a decrease in sales in the U.S. According to the ITC, prices for vehicles in the U.S. would face a modest increase that ranges from 0.37 per cent for pickup trucks to 1.61 per cent for small cars. As a result, vehicle consumption in the U.S. would fall by more than 140,000 vehicles. USMCAs requirements are estimated to increase U.S. production of automotive parts and employment in the sector, but also lead to a small increase in the prices and small decrease in the consumption of vehicles in the United States, the report said. Under USMCA, vehicles must contain at least 75 per cent North American content in order to qualify for duty-free access to the Canadian, American and Mexican markets, up from the current 62.5 per cent requirement under NAFTA. The new agreement also adds wage requirements and a more complicated process for qualifying automotive, steel and aluminium products for duty-free status. The ITC analysis also found that U.S. imports of small cars from Canada will decrease by approximately 7,700, or 2.15 per cent, as a result of the changes under USMCA. However, imports of mid-to-full sized cars from Canada to the U.S. will increase by 3,000, or 1 per cent. While U.S. administration on Thursday estimated that USMCA would create 76,000 jobs in the automotive sector as automakers invest $34 billion in new plants to comply with the new regional content rules, the ITC report disputes that figure. Story continues This estimate is larger than the Commissions estimate, which predicts an increase of 28,000 jobs, the report said. According to the ITC, this discrepancy could be in part due to the fact that the government found an increase in vehicle manufacturer jobs while the ITC found a decline. The administration also included a multiplier to cover supply chain effects, which the commissions estimate did not do. A Scotiabank Economics report from last year found that administrative and higher wage requirements introduced in the deal could raise the price of vehicles in North America. It also said USMCA could reduce competitiveness and lead to some automotive production shifting overseas. Moderate gain to U.S. GDP The report also found that the new trade deal would lead to a moderate real GDP increase in the U.S. of $68.2 billion, or 0.35 per cent, while employment would increase by 175,700, or 0.12 per cent. Imports from the United States into Canada are also expected to increase by nearly $19.1 billion, or 4.8 per cent. The model estimates that the agreement would likely have a positive impact on all broad industry sectors within the U.S. economy, the ITC said. Manufacturing would experience the largest percentage gains in output, exports, wages and employment, while in absolute terms, services would experience the largest gains in output and employment. The report also said the new trade deal would lead to small increases in U.S. exports to Canada of dairy products, poultry, meat, eggs, and egg-containing products, as well as wheat and alcoholic beverages. At the same time, the report notes that U.S. imports of sugar, sugar-containing products and dairy products from Canada would also increase. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Robert Muellers report into Russian election interference and Donald Trumps campaign is finally set to be made public. The US Justice Department is expected to release a redacted version of the special counsels report after a news conference in Attorney General William Barr will reportedly present his own interpretation of the reports findings. But what is the Mueller Report? Attorney General William Barr has said Robert Mueller's investigation did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump associates during the 2016 election campaign (Picture: AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz) The report follows Robert Muellers investigation into allegations of Russian interference in US elections and involvement in Donald Trumps campaign. Put simply, US intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to sway the US Presidential election in favour of Mr Trump. Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel to look into whether anyone from the Trump campaign colluded in the effort. What has it found? Mr Mueller officially concluded his investigation late last month and submitted the confidential report to the Attorney General. Two days later, Mr Barr sent Congress a four-page letter detailing Mr Muellers principal conclusions. Donald Trump called for the origin of the accusations to be investigated (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) In the letter, he said the special counsel did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump associates during the campaign, but had not reached a definitive conclusion on whether Mr Trump obstructed justice, instead presenting evidence on both sides of the obstruction question. Mr Barr said he did not believe the evidence was sufficient to prove that Mr Trump obstructed justice. What has Donald Trump said about it? Mr Trump has made his feelings clear in a series of tweets, writing: The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax. That is, never forget, the crime. he tweeted. The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax. That is, never forget, the crime..... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019 Mr Trump and his allies are also attacking the origins of the Russia investigation, portraying it as an effort by Democrats and career officials in the Justice Department who wanted to bring down a president. Story continues He tweeted: Mueller, and the A.G. based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction, Mr Trump tweeted. These were crimes committed by Crooked Hillary, the DNC, Dirty Cops and others! INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS! Mueller, and the A.G. based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction. These were crimes committed by Crooked Hillary, the DNC, Dirty Cops and others! INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019 So what now? Democrats have already called for Mr Mueller to testify and for his report to be released - which is happening on Thursday. It wont be the whole report, the Attorney General has said, which will be redacted to protect grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations and damage to the privacy rights of third parties. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Justice Department officials had numerous conversations in recent days with White House lawyers about the conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the New York Times and ABC News reported on Wednesday. Mueller on March 22 submitted his report to U.S. Attorney General William Barr on his investigation into whether the campaign of Republican Donald Trump worked with Moscow to sway the election in his favor, and whether President Trump committed obstruction of justice with actions to impede the inquiry. The New York Times, which cited people with knowledge of the discussions between the department and Trump's lawyers, said the talks had assisted the president's legal team as it prepared a rebuttal to a redacted version of the full report scheduled to be released on Thursday morning. The Justice Department declined to comment. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow also declined to comment. Barr so far has sent a letter to Congress describing what he called a summary of the main conclusions of the investigation. In his letter to lawmakers, Barr said Mueller did not find that members of Trump's campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia. Barr said he determined there was not enough evidence to establish that Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice, though Mueller did not exonerate Trump on obstruction. Barr said he would hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) on Thursday to discuss the Mueller report, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel in May 2017. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Sarah N. Lynch; writing by Mohammad Zargham and Grant McCool) Today we'll look at China Chunlai Education Group Co., Ltd. (HKG:1969) and reflect on its potential as an investment. In particular, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that can give us insight into how profitably the company is able to employ capital in its business. First of all, we'll work out how to calculate ROCE. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities affect its ROCE. Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. All else being equal, a better business will have a higher ROCE. Ultimately, it is a useful but imperfect metric. Author Edwin Whiting says to be careful when comparing the ROCE of different businesses, since 'No two businesses are exactly alike.' How Do You Calculate Return On Capital Employed? Analysts use this formula to calculate return on capital employed: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) Or for China Chunlai Education Group: 0.17 = CN214m (CN2.1b - CN794m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to August 2018.) So, China Chunlai Education Group has an ROCE of 17%. Check out our latest analysis for China Chunlai Education Group Is China Chunlai Education Group's ROCE Good? When making comparisons between similar businesses, investors may find ROCE useful. Using our data, we find that China Chunlai Education Group's ROCE is meaningfully better than the 11% average in the Consumer Services industry. I think that's good to see, since it implies the company is better than other companies at making the most of its capital. Regardless of where China Chunlai Education Group sits next to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms appears satisfactory, and this company could be worth a closer look. Story continues SEHK:1969 Past Revenue and Net Income, April 18th 2019 It is important to remember that ROCE shows past performance, and is not necessarily predictive. ROCE can be misleading for companies in cyclical industries, with returns looking impressive during the boom times, but very weak during the busts. ROCE is, after all, simply a snap shot of a single year. Future performance is what matters, and you can see analyst predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company. How China Chunlai Education Group's Current Liabilities Impact Its ROCE Current liabilities include invoices, such as supplier payments, short-term debt, or a tax bill, that need to be paid within 12 months. Due to the way the ROCE equation works, having large bills due in the near term can make it look as though a company has less capital employed, and thus a higher ROCE than usual. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets. China Chunlai Education Group has total assets of CN2.1b and current liabilities of CN794m. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 38% of its total assets. With this level of current liabilities, China Chunlai Education Group's ROCE is boosted somewhat. The Bottom Line On China Chunlai Education Group's ROCE China Chunlai Education Group's ROCE does look good, but the level of current liabilities also contribute to that. China Chunlai Education Group shapes up well under this analysis, but it is far from the only business delivering excellent numbers . You might also want to check this free collection of companies delivering excellent earnings growth. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Pete Buttigieg, Robert Mueller and Elizabeth Warren (Yahoo News photo illustration; photos: AP, Getty Images) Washington is bracing today for the latest, long-awaited chapter in the two-year saga of Russian influence and the Trump campaign. The Mueller report, when at last it comes, may be so heavily redacted that it ends up leading to more intrigue than it puts to rest, along with a raft of lawsuits and subpoenas. What the report wont do, Im betting, is have much impact, one way or the other, on the 2020 presidential campaign. Most Americans seem to have decided already whether they think Donald Trump is culpable in foreign subterfuge or the victim of what he calls a witch hunt (or maybe both), so nothing in Muellers report is likely to change the basic contours of a general election. More surprising, though, is that lingering questions about Trumps campaign, so front of mind for Democrats after the searing 2016 election, seem to have become almost an afterthought in the partys unfolding contest to choose a nominee. Last month, on the weekend after Robert Mueller submitted his report to the attorney general, I happened to be in New Hampshire, following the former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper. I couldnt help noticing that, while the report was almost the only thing playing on the news channels in my car, not a single Democratic voter asked about it. And this may get to why the Democratic field, at least in these very early months, is taking shape a little differently than we might have guessed. A lot of us who chronicled the last several campaigns expected 2020 to play out like a more chaotic version of 2004, which was the last time Democrats ran to unseat an incumbent Republican. That was the year, you may recall, when fury erupted among a Democratic base that lost all tolerance for George W. Bush and his war in Iraq. The immediate beneficiary then was Howard Dean, an unknown governor who gave voice booming and gravelly to liberal frustration. Dean didnt win, ultimately, but his campaign awakened leading Democrats to the uprising in their own party, and they spent most of their time attacking Bush as loudly and venomously as they could. Story continues And so maybe we expected the Democratic debate this year to focus mostly on Russia and impeachment, on Trumps treatment of women, on the issues of personal identity that now seem to define our politics and cleave the country. Why Muellers Report wont matter much in 2020 To this point, though, the Democratic campaign doesnt feel much like 2004 or even like a reverse image of 2012, when Republican candidates, eager to appease the so-called tea party rebellion in their own ranks, went on and on spinning out dark visions of Barack Obamas socialist plan. Whats different now, for one thing, is that Democratic voters arent harboring any real resentment for their own leadership. Its not as if Democrats in Washington have been laying down arms and appeasing Trump, cooperating on legislation or posing for pictures at the White House. Theyve pretty much blocked him at every turn. So liberals dont seem especially focused on sending a message to Congress about Vichy Democrats, like they were 15 years ago. Theres no urgent litmus test for loyalty in a field where pretty much everyone is assumed to disagree with everything the president says. Instead, Democrats seem more interested, this time out, in finding a candidate who can articulate a winning agenda. What they dont want, more than anything else, is a replay of 2016, when the election became a choice between two unpopular candidates speaking to two distinct audiences, and a lot of voters who didnt think much of Trump ended up voting for him anyway, because they never felt they had much choice. In other words, an awful lot of liberal voters right now seem better than their Twitter feeds, and bigger than their partys most fevered voices. Theyre not looking to endlessly litigate and relitigate claims against Trump and his cabal of incompetents. Theyre looking to turn the page on this entire sordid affair. Im always skeptical that polls and especially national polls can tell you very much about where a primary race is this early on. Fundraising totals, as much as my colleagues in the media obsess on them, tell you even less. (Trump raised almost nothing in 2015.) My instinct is that the clear leaders in any Democratic poll right now, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, are mostly reaping the rewards of name recognition and leftover loyalties. Those numbers are like exploding stars in the night sky vivid echoes of things that have already occurred, but not very good predictors of whats next. But in the crossing trajectories so far of two much-talked-about candidates, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, you can see how we may have misjudged where the Democratic electorate is. Why Muellers Report wont matter much in 2020 Warren, the Massachusetts senator and former law professor, has long been a celebrity of the populist left, and shes running on a series of specific and sweeping proposals to punish corporate wealth. As Ive written, shes a better politician than most of her rivals and comes to the race with a strong personal brand. And so her evident lack of appeal in early polls, particularly in neighboring New Hampshire, has puzzled just about everyone. Theories abound that sexism is keeping Warren down, or that voters were turned off by her Native American DNA fiasco, or that they just arent smart enough to grasp the intricacies of her agenda. If Im right about whats happening out there, though, then Warrens candidacy is more likely suffering from her combative tone and familiarity. Warren is the thundering critic of Trump and the American oligarchy that Democrats needed during these difficult years, but shes trapped in the moment because of it. Primary voters agree with Warrens essential indictment of the society. It may just be that theyre looking for someone who can articulate it in a less angry way, and for a broader audience. And thats where you get the 37-year-old Buttigieg, whos risen from nowhere well, South Bend, but thats not so dissimilar into the top echelon of the Democratic field. Buttigieg feels like the starkest departure possible from the era of Trump and his tiresome, perpetually aggrieved generation; Mayor Petes like a human fast-forward button, skipping us past all the parts of the movie that make you stick your fingers in your eyes and squint. If Deans signature shout in 2004 was We want our country back!, Buttigiegs most resonant line so far is Its not about him, its about us. Democrats already know how they feel about Trump. What they want is a nominee who wont become inexorably swallowed up in Trumps all-consuming vortex of personal insults and cultural smears. My guess is that neither of these mini-trends will continue unabated. Warren will get her hearing; shes too powerful a voice not to. Buttigieg will face the scrutiny due a candidate who earned a little more than 8,000 votes in his last general election (which he won in a landslide, by the way). But what all of this means is that the Mueller report and whatever comes of it will likely remain a subtext of the 2020 race, and as the polls inevitably shift, what will matter more is whos got a vision for the next American chapter. Democrats wont be chanting Lock him up! when they face off against Trump a second time. All theyre really asking is to send him home. _____ More coverage of the Mueller report from Yahoo News: The young woman being hunted in Colorado after making threats against Columbine high school just days before the 20th anniversary of the mass shooting there was found dead by police on Thursday, apparently as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, law enforcement officials said. Sol Pais, 18, who authorities said had traveled to the Denver area on Monday from her home in Florida, had been declared armed and dangerous on Tuesday after purchasing a pump-action shotgun and ammunition. She was hunted down in a forested campground in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, west of Denver, late morning on Wednesday. At first the FBI put out a statement on Twitter declaring she was no longer a threat to the community. Then law enforcement later confirmed that she was dead. UPDATE: THERE IS NO LONGER A THREAT TO THE COMMUNITY. More information to follow shortly. #FindSol FBI Denver (@FBIDenver) April 17, 2019 Pais was said to be obsessed with the 1999 school shooting of students and teachers at the high school in Littleton, near Denver, which killed 13. The two students who perpetrated the massacre died, in addition to their victims. Schools in and around Denver were closed on Wednesday after she made unspecified threats. The anniversary of the Columbine high school shooting is on Saturday. The tragedy ushered in the modern era of repeated US school shootings. Just a few minutes before its tweet that Pais was no longer a threat, the FBI had said that it was searching in the area of Mount Evans, west of Denver, and images on television showed investigators in snowy forest, aided by a snowcat vehicle with caterpillar tracks. We can confirm there is investigative activity around the base of Mt. Evans. The investigation is active and ongoing. More information will follow soon. #FindSol FBI Denver (@FBIDenver) April 17, 2019 The Jefferson county sheriff, Jeff Shrader, held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, during which he said it had appeared that Pais had killed herself. Story continues She was found dead as police closed in, but Shrader said: I dont believe they were in active pursuit at the time she died. He said he believed Pais had purchased the weapon legally after arriving in Colorado from Florida, where she lived near Miami, and from where she was reported missing on Monday by her parents. Police were searching her home in Surfside, Florida, on Wednesday, and schools in the Denver area were put into lockdown on Tuesday and then closed on Wednesday while she was still at large in the area, following unspecified threats. Shrader said Paiss body was found not far from Columbine. The school is in Littleton, near Denver, and the woman was in densely wooded snowy hillside terrain, at a campground in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in the Arapahoe national forest. She was said to have had a fascination with the Columbine school shooting and its perpetrators. Looking at school shooters there are some real indicators, the fact that she purchased a plane ticket and made this pilgrimage here. There is no evidence that she was [seen] on the Columbine property, but the fact of her history and the fact that she bought a firearm indicate that she was a threat, said John McDonald, executive director of the Jefferson county department of school safety. The sheriff said it was not clear what, if anything, Pais would have been charged with if she had been captured. She would have been subject to being taken into custody for a mental health check, 72 hours holding and treatment, to assess the threat, Shrader said. Frank DeAngelis, the former principal of Columbine high school who was in charge on the day of the massacre in 1999 and has been there ever since, said that when the alarm was sounded about the threat on Tuesday, the school employed its lockdown system like clockwork. The kids knew exactly what to do. There was help there. It was much more reassuring than it was 20 years ago, he said on Wednesday. (PA) A woman has appeared in court charged with driving while almost seven times over the Scottish drink-drive limit. The 57-year-old was stopped by police near Fyvie in Aberdeenshire on Wednesday evening. Officers were alerted by a member of the public concerned about a vehicle on the New Deer to Fyvie road. The woman was stopped just outside of the village of Fyvie, home to Fyvie Castle. (Getty) The alcohol limit for drivers in Scotland is 50 milligrammes in every 100ml of blood, or 22 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. In England and Wales, the limit is 80 milligrammes in every 100ml of blood, or 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. Inspector Neil Morrison said: The consequences of drink or drug-driving are widely known and it is disappointing that drivers still believe it is acceptable to risk their safety and the safety of others. I would like to thank the public for their continued support and provide assurances that any information passed to us will be actioned appropriately as we endeavour to reduce these offenders from our roads. Kerry Donovan (centre), 29, and Aaron Wilcock (L) received sentences for the death of Leroy Junior Edwards, 66 (SWNS) A woman who savagely murdered her great uncle with a 'zombie' knife has been jailed for life. On Thursday, Kerry Donovan, 29, received a life sentence, with a minimum of 27 years behind bars, for murder. Meanwhile her cousin, Aaron Wilcock, was sentenced to 14 years for manslaughter. The Old Bailey heard how Donovan had previously posed naked for photographs taken by her 66-year-old victim, Leroy Junior Edwards. The court were told how a pair of Donavan's underwear containing 'weak traces' of both Mr Edwards DNA and Ms Donovans DNA were found under his pillow. But Judge Nicholas Michael Heathcote Williams QC rejected claims that Donovan was sexually assaulted by Mr Edwards as 'nasty and false'. Drug addict Donovan was sentenced to life with a minimum of 27 years at the Old Bailey on Friday (SWNS) Sentencing Donovan, Judge Heathcote Williams QC said: 'I accept that she had a difficult upbringing. 'She may have suffered sexual abuse when she was a child, as she had told a probation worker and family support worker before the time of the murder. 'However, I reject her allegations that she had been sexually abused in childhood by Mr Edwards and that Mr Edwards had expressed a sexual interest in her younger brother. 'I am sure this allegations are untrue for the following reasons: in my judgement Ms Donovan is not a person whose word can be relied on unless she is either making an admission contrary to her own interest or what she says is supported by independent evidence. 'She had never made any allegation against Mr Edwards before the murder. Her motive in making these allegations after the murder was plainly to try and justify what she had done. Read more on Yahoo News UK Woman, 57, in court for being 'almost seven times over drink-drive limit' Police arrest 14-year-old boy in drug supply probe after ecstasy death of Carson Price, 13 North Korea test-fires new type of 'tactical guided weapon' He said Donovan, a drug addict, was dependent on crack cocaine and cannabis - and that her finances were 'precarious' as a result. The judge described the evidence she gave during the trial as 'lurid'. Story continues The judge said Donovan had claimed she was raped, but said it was 'unlikely' as she had said 'she wanted two or three men to f**k her' in the taxi later that night. He said: All I can conclude about her visit to Mr Edwards flat that night is that she had a drink with him and that she left the flat without obtaining any or any significant money from him, since she then went and drew her last 50 out of an ATM and then repeatedly tried to draw more money out of a number of ATMs without success. 'I am sure Ms Donovans motive for returning to see Mr Edwards that night was not revenge, because I am sure that she did not have enough of a grievance against him to give her motive for revenge.' The judge said Donovan stabbed Leroy Junior Edwards, 66, several times with the knife (SWNS) 'Ms Donovans evidence was, in my judgement, notable not only for its dishonesty but also for its self-centredness and callousness about her victim. 'The main aggravating factors are that she was under the influence of drugs and alcohol which she had voluntarily consumed. 'She was the leader of a joint attack, the attack was on a man in his 60s, who was on his own, unsuspecting and unarmed. This must have inflicted significant terror and suffering on the victim during the short period he remained conscious. He continued: 'I am entitled to find that the motive of each defendant was robbery. Ms Donovan went to the door armed with the knife provided by Mr Woolcock. Mr Woolcock lurked in the background ready to assist.' He described how Donovan stabbed her great-uncle several times with the knife, while the court heard how both defendants also tried to dispose of their clothes and left Mr Edwards to die. Judge Heathcote-Williams said there was only 20 in Mr Edwards home for the pair to steal, adding: 'It is clear that Ms Donovan and Mr Woolcock left him to bleed to death without seeking to get any help for him.' Aaron Wilcock was jailed for 14 years after being charged with manslaughter (SWNS) The court heard it was possible Mr Edwards and Donovan had been having an adult sexual relationship which may have caused resentment in the defendant. The judge told the court: 'In April 2017, then aged 28, she posed naked for photographs which I am satisfied were taken by Mr Edwards. 'After the murder a pair of ladies knickers with weak traces of both Mr Edwards DNA and Ms Donovans DNA on them were found under the pillow on his bed. 'I am driven to the conclusion that there was some sexual relationship between Mr Edwards and Ms Donovan. No doubt each obtained some advantage from it, he sexual and she financial. 'This was not illegal - they were both adults. But most right thinking people would regard such a relationship between a great uncle in his 60s and a great niece in her late 20s as inappropriate and unwise.' He added: 'I have no doubt that Ms Donovan felt a degree of resentment about it.' Donovan and Woolcock did not react when sentenced. ---Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK--- Bailey Matheson, 35, wrote her own obituary before she died from cancer. Now, people around the world are helping to keep her legacy alive. (Photo courtesy of Julia Carrigan) The legacy of a Canadian woman who passed away from cancer continues to live on through the words of her self-penned obituary, which is being read by people around the world. 35 years may not seem long, but damn it was good! Bailey Matheson started the sentimental missive where she thanked friends and family for their support through her last few years. In January 2017, Matheson was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that affects smooth muscle tissue, and later found out that it was terminal. But when she was told that she only had two years left to live, Matheson decided to make the most of that time, which meant forgoing any treatment. To my parents, thank you for supporting me and my decisions throughout my life, the only child wrote. My parents gave me the greatest gift of supporting my decisions with not going through chemo and just letting me live the rest of my life the way I believed it should be. I know how hard that must have been watching me stop treatment and letting nature take its course. Bailey with her mother, Wendy Foxwell and Sandy Matheson. (Photo courtesy of Julia Carrigan) It wasnt only her parents that were by her side. She gave heartfelt thanks to her friends, who she often refers to as her chosen family, as well as her boyfriend, Brent Andrews, who she had met on a dating app just three months prior to her devastating diagnosis. You had no idea what you were getting yourself into when you swiped right that day, Matheson joked. However, Mathesons best friend, Julie Carrigan, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the people in Mathesons life never felt that their friends diagnosis was a burden. Instead, they all felt lucky to have been a part of her journey. Her deciding not to go through with treatment was completely her decision, because its her body and her life, Carrigan says. She wasnt giving up by not doing treatments, she was creating a better quality of life for herself. Her happiness was the most important thing. According to Carrigan, Mathesons happiness had long come from traveling, which is what she set out to do in the time that she had left. With her loved ones by her side, Matheson went to 13 countries, including Portugal, Spain, Greece, Croatia and Ireland. She even did a group girls trip to Chicago with 13 of her closest friends. Story continues Matheson and 13 of her closest friends took a girls trip to Chicago. (Photo courtesy of Julia Carrigan) We all got heart tattoos while we were there, that Bailey drew, so we would always have her heart with us wherever we go, Carrigan says. For Matheson, these experiences seemed to make her feel at ease when the rest of her life was no longer in her control. I never thought I could love my friends more than I did, she wrote, but going through this and having your unconditional love and support you have made something that is normally so hard, more bearable and peaceful. Just a few days after Mathesons passing on April 5, Andrews posted a sweet tribute to his girlfriend of nearly three years on his Facebook page with a photo from one of their special trips. And although he wrote that Matheson would be cringing at all of the attention, he and Carrigan agree that the viral recognition has been amazing and humbling. Matheson and Andrews share a kiss on one of their last trips to Seville, Spain. (Photo courtesy of Julia Carrigan) She was one of the most caring, genuine, selfless people I had the honour of knowing, Carrigan said. I think I can speak for all that love her when I say we arent surprised that she would touch so many across the world with her words that are straight from her heart. As for how Carrigan and friends will continue to honor Mathesons legacy, her friend said that shell be taking Mathesons advice when she wrote, Dont take the small stuff so seriously and live a little. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Geneva (AFP) - The World Trade Organization on Thursday largely sided with the United States in its Obama-era case against Beijing over Chinese restrictions on imports of American grain. The WTO decision was the second in as many months to favor Washington's position on trade with China in grain. Back in December 2016, Washington filed a complaint with the global trade body over what it claimed were illegal Chinese restrictions on imports of American rice, wheat and corn, describing China's use of the so-called tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system as "opaque and unpredictable". Washington estimated at the time that American farmers could have exported some $3.5 billion more of such crops to China if the system had been used properly, and charged that Beijing had violated its commitments under international trade rules. A panel of experts established by the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body agreed Thursday that China had failed to adhere to the commitments it made when it became a WTO member in 2001 to administer the TRQs on a "transparent, predictable, and fair basis". But the panel said the US had failed to show that China violated its public notice obligation under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in respect to TRQs. US officials hailed the panel's decision on Thursday. "The administration will continue to press China to promptly come into compliance with its WTO obligations," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement, joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. TRQs are two-level tariffs, allowing for a limited volume of imports to come in at a lower "in-quota" tariff level, and all other imports charged at an often much higher "out-of-quota" tariff. Countries like China that joined the WTO after its creation in 1995 have had their TRQ commitments set out in their accession agreements. When China joined the WTO, it agreed to allow 2,660,000 metric tonnes of short and medium-grain rice and the same amount for long-grain rice, as well as 9,636,000 metric tonnes of wheat and 7,200,000 metric tonnes of corn to enter the country at the lower duty rates. Story continues Both sides have up to 60 days to appeal Thursday's ruling. China is the world's largest producer of wheat and rice, holding significant sway over world markets. The news of the WTO ruling comes as Washington and Beijing strive to reach a new trade agreement to avoid escalating their trade war. The two sides have imposed tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade since last year, weighing on both countries' manufacturing sectors and unnerving global stock markets. burs-dg/dw ROCHESTER, N.Y. A New York man who allegedly threatened to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar and another man caught up in online discussions about murdering Muslim-Americans both remained behind bars Wednesday. Patrick W. Carlineo Jr., 55, of Rathbone was charged on April 4 with threatening to shoot the Minnesota Democrat, who is Muslim, in an angry telephone call to her Washington, D.C., office on March 21. Thomas Alonzo Bolin, 22, of Greece was charged on April 3 with lying to FBI agents who were investigating a Facebook conversation in which Bolin and at least one other man allegedly discussed committing mass murder of Muslim-Americans in Baltimore. Both Carlineo and Bolin have been jailed since their arrests. Bolin had been scheduled for a detention hearing Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court in Rochester at which his lawyer could have argued for his release pending a resolution of the charge. Thomas Alonzo Bolin Carlineo had been scheduled for a detention hearing Tuesday afternoon. However, Carlinio's hearing was adjourned until Monday and Bolin's until Wednesday, according to Sonya Zoghlin, the assistant federal public defender who represents both men. Bolin was accused in an FBI agent's affidavit of praising the mass murder of Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, and talking to a man identified as his cousin, Austin Witkowski, about replicating the act in Baltimore. Bolin expressed support for white supremacist groups and ideology in Facebook posts, according to the affidavit. No attack on Muslims is known to have resulted from his Facebook discussion. Bolin was arrested after telling FBI agents he did not possess any firearms, when in fact agents found a loaded shotgun in the closet of the room he rented in a Greece home. In this March 6 file photo, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with fellow Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee during a bill markup, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Carlineo's case drew attention because it was one of a series of threats received by Omar. The first-term House member has drawn criticism for public comments about Israel and the 9/11 hijackers that some found offensive, and she has become a lightning rod for anti-Muslim sentiment. Story continues She said Sunday that the number of death threats against her has escalated since President Donald Trump tweeted an attack on her. The tweet came after Carlineo's arrest. But the Steuben County man told an FBI agent during an interview in his home that "he was a patriot, that he loves the President, and that he hates radical Muslims in our government," according to an agent's affidavit. This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: New York man accused of threatening Rep. Ilhan Omar remains behind bars The Czech Republic supports a peaceful, realistic and lasting resolution of the Sahara issue through UN-led process, said on Wednesday in Rabat Vice-speaker of the Czech Senate Jiri Oberfalzer. Speaking to journalists after his meeting with Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Mounia Boucetta, Mr. Oberfalzer welcomed the autonomy plan offered by Morocco for the settlement of the Sahara issue, saying the Moroccan plan offers a lasting solution to this regional conflict. His talks with Mrs. Boucetta also covered cooperation between the two countries in the political field, particularly within the European Union (EU) and at the United Nations as well as the investment and business opportunities offered in Morocco and the Czech Republic. Jiri Oberfalzer stressed the need to bolster further the Moroccan-Czech economic and commercial relations, paving the way for the building of strategic win-win partnership. For her part, Mrs. Boucetta praised the excellent ties existing between the two countries at the political, economic and parliamentary levels. Morocco is the 2nd major investor in Africa and the gateway for investment in the continent, which opens up important opportunities for the Czech business community to set up a tripartite cooperation, she added. We also discussed Moroccos autonomy plan for the Sahara, which is in line with the UN resolutions, offering a pragmatic, realistic and lasting solution to the Sahara conflict, said Mrs. Boucetta. Hatred of journalists whipped up by populist and authoritarian leaders is degenerating into violence across the world, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned Thursday. And the number of countries where journalists can work safely is plummeting, its annual World Press Freedom Index revealed. Political leaders' hostility towards the media "has incited increasingly frequent acts of violence that have fuelled an unprecedented level of fear and danger for journalists," the report added. "If the political debate slides towards a civil war-style atmosphere, where journalists are treated as scapegoats, then democracy is in great danger," RSF chief Christophe Deloire said. Press freedom was in good health in less than quarter of the 180 countries covered by the index, with the United States sliding to 48th place. The period since President Donald Trump's election in 2016 has been one of the "American journalism community's darkest moments", the report added. It linked the president's "notorious anti-press rhetoric" with "terrifying harassment" aimed particularly at women and journalists of colour. - Murder and threats - "Never before have US journalists been subjected to so many death threats or turned so often to private security firms for protection," it added. "Hatred of the media is now such that a gunman walked into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, in June and killed four journalists and one other staff member," the report added. The Paris-based watchdog fears that the rising tide of strongman leaders "no longer seem to know any limits", citing the gruesome murder of the Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. India, the world's biggest democracy, slid two notches further into the red zone at 140th place. Six reporters were murdered there last year and RSF said critics of the Hindu nationalism espoused by its ruling party "are branded as 'anti-Indian' in online harassment campaigns". Turkey, the world's biggest jailer of journalists, was among the worst countries. RSF said "repression continued to tighten on the few critical outlets that remain", with its biggest media group taken over by a pro-government conglomerate. It has also the dubious honour of being the only country to prosecute a journalist for reporting the Paradise Papers offshore investment leaks. Russia, which the report branded as another "pioneer of repression", continued to slide down the table to 149th place. - Africa's ups and downs - Another former Soviet republic, Turkmenistan, has sunk to the very bottom of the ranking, supplanting North Korea because of its "disgraceful... and relentless" repression of reporters. Its near neighbour Tajikistan, where most of the independent media has been forced to close, fell 12 places, sitting just above Libya, Egypt and Azerbaijan. But the news was not all bad from the old Soviet empire, with Armenia jumping 19 places to 61st after its "Velvet Revolution" and Kyrgyzstan also climbing 15 after it ended travel bans and the threat of levying "astronomical damages" on reporters. The previously dire situation across the border in Uzbekistan has also somewhat improved due to the "thaw that began after dictator Islam Karimov's death in 2016", the report added. But there was little to cheer about in China, which remains rooted to the bottom of the list with the fourth worst record. Totalitarian Eritrea was even worse. Indeed some of the sharpest falls in press freedom were recorded in Africa. "Journalists are being attacked with impunity" in Tanzania since the President John "Bulldozer" Magufuli came to power in 2015, RSF warned, branding him a "press freedom predator". The east African country fell 25 places, three more than Mauritania, which has locked up a blogger for condemning the use of religion to justify the slavery that is still practised in the vast Saharan country. But the continent also saw some spectacular progress. Ethiopia has jumped 40 places under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while Gambia shot up 30, continuing the improvement after the departure of dictator Yahya Jammeh. Angola too has seen steady gains. The best performing countries continue to be in Scandinavia with Norway, Finland and Sweden taking the top three places. The report linked President Donald Trump's 'notorious anti-press rhetoric' with 'terrifying harassment' aimed particularly at women and journalists of colour The Paris-based watchdog said it feared that the rising tide of strongman leaders 'no longer seem to know any limits', citing the gruesome murder of the Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul The report cited last year's shooting at The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, in which four journalists and one other staff member were killed India, the world's biggest democracy, slid two notches further into the red zone at 140th place China remains rooted to the bottom of the list with the fourth worst record Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called on Middle East states on Thursday to "drive back Zionism", in an Army Day tirade against the Islamic republic's archfoe Israel. Speaking flanked by top generals before troops began their annual march-past, Rouhani also sought to reassure the region that the weaponry on display was for defensive purposes and not a threat. "The region?s nations have lived alongside each other for centuries and never had a problem... If there is a problem, it is caused by others," he said in the speech broadcast live on state television. "Let us stand together, be together and rid the region of the aggressor?s presence." Rouhani assured neighbouring countries that Iran's armed forces are "never against you or your national interests" but are "standing against the aggressors." "The power of our armed forces is the power of the region?s countries, the Islamic world." he said. "If we have a problem in the region today, its roots are either with Zionism or America's arrogance." Rouhani called on Muslim nations to band together and "restore the historical right of the nation of Palestine," saying that "Zionism ... has been committing crimes in the region for the past 70 years", "The final victory will surely be with the righteous," he said. The military parade was held next to the south Tehran mausoleum of the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It showcased some of Iran's latest weaponry, including the domestically designed and manufactured Kowsar fighter jet, which was first unveiled last year. Iran also displayed its short-range Zelzal missile and an upgraded model of the Russian S-200 air defence system. US-manufactured Bell, Cobra and Chinook helicopters bought before the Islamic revolution of 1979 also took part in the air display. - 'Cancerous tumour' - Diatribes against Israel are standard fare of official speeches in Iran, although some, such as a call by Rouhani's firebrand predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map", have triggered international condemnation. Iran does not recognise Israel and opposition to the Jewish state has been a central tenet of official policy since the revolution. Iran has supported Palestinian radical groups and has vociferously opposed the now moribund Middle East peace process under which the Palestinians were offered limited autonomy in the territories captured in the Six-Day War of 1967. Rouhani has previously called Israel a "cancerous tumour", and called on Muslim governments to unite against it and its US ally. Iranian officials have warned repeatedly that Israel will soon cease to exist, but have usually been careful to underline that that will come about not through a direct attack by Iran. "In 25 years' time, with the grace of God, no such thing as the Zionist regime will exist in the region," supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 2015. - Syria tensions - The presence of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the eight-year civil war has sharply increased tensions between the regional foes. Israel has said publicly that it has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes targeting the forces of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that he will never allow Iran to establish a long-term military presence in Israel's northeastern neighbour. Netanyahu has been an outspoken opponent of a landmark nuclear deal Iran signed with major powers in 2015 and was the leading supporter of US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from it and reimpose crippling economic sanctions last year. Washington's European allies have refused to follow suit and they, along with China and Russia, continue to support the deal. But the Trump administration has sought to forge an anti-Iran axis within the Middle East bringing together Israel and the Gulf Arab states to make common cause against what they see as Iranian "meddling" in the region. Last week, Washington placed Iran's Revolutionary Guards on its blacklist of "foreign terrorist organisations," the first time it had imposed the sanction on a military arm of a foreign government. Rouhani warned Washington on Thursday that "an insult to the Guards... is an insult to the great nation of Iran." "America's leaders are lost in their delusions," he said, adding that Washington was the real source of "terrorism" in the region. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashes out at arch foe Israel in an Army Day speech in which he also seeks to reassure Arab governments about Tehran's intentions Iran's domestically designed and manufactured Kowsar fighter jet is among the latest weapons systems showcased at the annual Army Day parade in Tehran Iranian troops march past dignitaries including President Hassan Rouhani at the annual Army Day parade The presence of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Syria backing President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the eight-year civil war has sharply increased tensions with archfoe Israel which has repeatedly bombed Iranian targets in its northeastern neighbour Delegates of African countries have voted for Morocco to lead the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) during the 5th meeting of this regional body convening in Marrakech April 16-18 under the theme: Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality. The North African Kingdom will chair ARFSD for one year and will be responsible for submitting the recommendations of the Marrakech meeting to the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) due next July in New York. The 5th African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, convened under the under high patronage of King Mohammed VI, is organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with regional organizations and the United Nations System. It seeks to advance the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and the goals set out in Africas Agenda 2063. During the opening ceremony of the ARFSD meeting, Head of Moroccan Govt. Saad Eddine El Othmani called on Africa to unite and fight its developmental challenges with one voice and determination. El Othmani said the continent urgently needs to formulate a common stand on key global issues it is facing, in particular climate change which, he said, is stalling Africas efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals and Agenda 2063 which carries the continents developmental aspirations. The Head of the Moroccan Govt said: We must leave no stone unturned to ensure we succeed as a continent. We need to step-up our partnerships and rise above our challenges. Empowering our people and populations and bringing greater quality is of utmost importance. We are convinced that we need to combine our efforts to strengthen our endeavor as Africans if we want to move with a vengeance to implement the SDGs and attain them, the Moroccan Head of Government said, adding: We have high hopes that we will be able to build a decent Africa through effective planning, putting in place relevant policies and actions with our young people as our assets, ready to embrace the future. All we need to do is move forward with more determination and resolve. El Othmani voiced Moroccos commitment to work with African countries to come up with an effective plan to address the challenges of climate change and the implementation of the two development Agendas 2030 and 2063. For her part, Economic Commission for Africas Deputy Executive Secretary, Giovanie Biha, said achieving the SDGs and effectively ensuring that no one is left behind requires urgent and concrete measures across the board. She highlighted the need for corrective actions to redesign and calibrate Africas economies, as well as drive and catalyze sustainable development outcomes. She also stressed the need for bold and transformational leadership to capitalize on megatrends of population growth, a growing middle class, rapid urbanization and industrialization, climate change, and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area and called for strategies to create the enabling environment for greater participation of non-state actors, particularly the private sector and civil society. We also need greater investments in national statistics for monitoring, evaluation and reporting of development indicators, said Mrs. Giovanie. Outcomes of ARFSD V will feed into the 2019 session of the High Level Political Forum under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which is the United Nations central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative thinking on sustainable development. The ARFSD outcomes will also be used for policy advocacy, formulation and implementation at regional and national levels. Did an object from beyond our solar system hit Earth five years ago? (Getty) A visitor to our solar system became the subject of headlines around the world last year after the cigar-shaped rock now named `Oumuamua flew past our sun. But it might not have been the first interstellar visitor to our planet, a new study has suggested. A new paper from Harvard astronomers suggests that another meteor that hit Earths atmosphere above Papua New Guinea may also have come from outside oursolar system. Researchers found the meteor which burnt up in 2014 by looking for objects that were too fast to be orbiting the sun. Read more from Yahoo News UK: Bank holiday motorists face travel chaos over Easter break Woman dies after falling off cliff while posing for photo Worlds smallest commercial jet takes flight The Papua New Guinea object travelled towards Earth at around 37 miles per second, a speed so high it suggests it originated outside our solar system. The researchers write that the find implies a possible origin from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy. Kat Volk from the University of Arizona, who was not involved in the research said, I think it is reasonable to conclude that this very high speed impactor came from the population of interstellar object. I expect interstellar objects to be common enough both from theoretical considerations and from the implications of Oumuamua that I think an interstellar origin is the simplest explanation for this bolide. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK [ SCREENSHOTS OF TEXT ] Check out this text message obtained by the @ABC7Chicago I-Team from States Attorney Kim Foxx to Joe Magats the prosecutor running the Jussie Smollett case *after* her recusal. pic.twitter.com/NInWqEfDSC Ross Weidner (@RossWeidner) April 17, 2019 - Kim Foxx, Cook County's State Attorney, the top prosecutor in the city had recused herself from the case because she was in contact with Smollett's family and friends through texts. However, she did not do a formal recusal as under Illinois state law. The case against Smollett had to be handled by somebody outside of the Cook County's State Attorney's office.- Texts showed that she still talked to the her first assistant State's Attorney Joseph Magats after her recusal.- The texts show that Foxx still advised the prosecutor who took over the case, even though she has been recused. She texts Magats that somebody like R. Kelly, he is referenced as something else in the text, with 4 victims only gets 10 counts, but a washed up celebrity, in this context Jussie Smollett, who lied to cops get 16 counts.- The records released still do not paint a picture as to how the State's Attorney's office struck a deal for Jussie Smollett's charges to be dropped.- The prosecutors in the office were stunned by the media response of their decision. For those that forgot what the decision was all 16 counts, performing 16 hours of community service, and forfeiting his bond of $10,000.- Smollett's attorneys had approached the State Attorney's office after the March 8 hearing on how to make the case go away. The day the charges were dropped was March 26.- Michael Avenatti reached out to Foxx directly when he was considering representing two brothers who allegedly helped Smollett stage the hoax attack. Avenatti was already in close contact with the Cook County State's Attorney office in regards to their case against R. Kelly. Facebook Twitter Google RAMBLER&Co ID By logging in to LiveJournal using a third-party service you accept LiveJournal's User agreement Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday that an affiliate of Chinese oil major CNPC, Great Wall Drilling, was drilling for oil off Cubas coast as part of a joint venture with state-owned oil firm Cuba Petroleum Company (CUPET). "Our deposits extend out to sea, so increasingly, wells are longer and to reach them we need cutting-edge technology that we have accessed through the Great Wall Company," Julio Jimenez, CUPET's director of drilling, told Xinhua. The site of the drilling operation is reportedly near the coastal town of Boca de Camarioca, about 75 miles east of Havana, and is a 1,475-meter-deep well extending some 4,692 meters out to sea. Workers hope to reach 6,950 meters where geological studies show a hydrocarbon deposit is located. Great Wall management claims that several new wells have been drilled more effectively using Chinese drilling technology. "We have increased the efficiency of drilling, lowered the cost of building the wells, and drilled several highly productive wells, in addition, we have supported the finding of new deposits," said Meng Fanji, Great Walls deputy manager. The Chinese company, which first signed deals to explore for oil in Cuba in 2005, is also working on another exploration well in Celimar, about nine miles east of Havana. The Celimar well is 2,141 meters deep and, after reaching an angle of 79 degrees, runs for 5,100 meters out to sea. The objective is to reach a crude deposit estimated to lie 6,300 meters offshore, Xinhua added. Related: Could This Be The Next High Profile Permian Takeover? Cuba desperately needs new oil to help meet its energy needs. Unlike many of its other neighbors in the region, the one-party state uses crude oil to meet around half of its energy needs, while it relies on foreign imports, often Venezuelan crude along with generous subsidies, for the rest. Fighting against sanctions together In a statement that shows how oil and geopolitics often intersect, even in the Caribbean, Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on April 9 that his country would fulfill its commitments to Cuba despite U.S. sanctions targeting oil shipments from the South American country to its ideological ally. Arreaza said he would not reveal Venezuelas strategy, but that the sanctions would not stop the shipments. When the conventional power of capitalism attacks you, you have to know how to respond through non-conventional means, always respecting international law, Arreaza told reporters. The Trump Administration hasnt only taken a tougher stance with Venezuela than his predecessors, leveling crippling sanctions against the countrys president Nicolas Maduro in efforts to remove him from power, it has also renewed tensions with Cuba in the aftermath of President Obamas warmer ties with the country. In November, Cuba criticized the Trump administration for putting new sanctions against more than two dozen Cuban companies, in a move that Havana said was a futile attempt to change its policies, which would only isolate Washington further internationally. Though the U.S. coast is less than 100 miles from Cuba, American companies are prohibited from owning any Cuban oil or gas assets due to the decades-long trade embargo put in place against the country by Washington. However, according to the U.S. Energy Administration (EIA) U.S. oil companies are allowed to participate in drilling as well as sending technology and supplies with an executive license in Cuba. Other countries as well as China, including Russia and Australia, have explored for oil in waters off the countrys coast. By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Libyas oil production has yet to suffer disruptions, even as oil prices have climbed on fears of potential outages. However, the longer fighting drags on, the more likely Libyas oil production and export facilities will be impacted, according to global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. The assault on Tripoli by Khalifa Haftar and the Libyan National Army (LNA) has apparently stalled, at least for now. Haftar had been confident of a swift victory, having the superior military force. However, various factions have united around the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), all with a common enemy in Haftar. The fighting, at this point, has been fought to a stalemate. Remarkably, there is little evidence that Libyas oil production or export facilities have been impacted, although they are mostly located away from the capital. Yet, numerous times in the past Libya has seen massive disruptions to its oil flows over seemingly more minor events. But even as Haftars LNA has provided security to oil installations, helping to ensure their continued operation, the longer the fighting drags on in Tripoli, the more likely it is that there will be an outage. The LNA maintains stability at Libyas oil fields by essentially sub-contracting and otherwise paying off local militias. Getting bogged down in a stalemate in Tripoli will sap the LNA of resources and stretch supply lines. It will also likely end the payments that the internationally-recognized GNA in Tripoli had been sending the LNA in exchange for security at the oil fields. All of that means that the LNA will drain itself of funds needed to maintain security. For instance, the outage at the Sharara oil field Libyas largest between December and February came as a result of a salary dispute and grievances over the lack of investment, according to Verisk Maplecroft. A Tuareg militia group had been responsible for the sites security disrupted operations. Related: Oil Could Fall To $40 If OPEC Abandons Its Deal That highlights the fragility of Libyas oil renaissance. The diversion of LNA financial and military resources to the north-west will weaken its ability to maintain the local alliances it relies on to maintain oil site security, Hamish Kinnear, Senior MENA Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, wrote in an analysis on April 12. In the case of the Sharara field earlier this year, the LNA received praise for securing the field and bringing it back online. The LNA did this by installing a separate Tuareg group. If the LNA neglects to maintain its payments to this local group, which is increasingly likely as it commits attention and resources to the Tripoli offensive, Brigade 173 may opt to carry out its own occupation of the oil site, Kinnear of Verisk Maplecroft wrote. Moreover, the government in Tripoli could finance the takeover of the site by some other group in order to deal a blow to the LNA. Again, that could also cause an outage. Verisk Maplecroft says that a larger threat to Libyas oil exports would be a disruption at one of the handful of export terminals on the coast. The GNA-aligned militias or independent groups, emboldened by an LNA setback in Tripoli, may consider a renewed assault on the Oil Crescent ports, Kinnear warned. Related: The 2020 Elections Could Be A Turning Point For Oil & Gas Alternatively, while several of Libyas largest ports are in the east, far from the fighting in Tripoli, there is one port nearby. The Zawiya port is currently under the control of the GNA, but if Haftars LNA continues to expend resources while bogged down on the outskirts of Tripoli, it may shift its focus to the Zawiya port, Verisk Maplecroft says. A failure to successfully take and occupy Tripoli will induce the LNA to seek advances elsewhere in the north-west. Zawiya, which hosts a refinery capable of producing oil products that can ease pressure on stretched LNA supply lines, will be high on the list of targets, Hamish Kinnear wrote. For now, the oil continues to flow. However, for the reasons outlined above, wider contagion from the faltering Tripoli offensive will exacerbate disruption risks at all stages of the supply chain, Kinnear concluded. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved on Thursday two liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects that will add to the growing U.S. export capacity of the super-chilled fuel. FERC approved the project for the Driftwood LNG export terminal and associated pipeline on the west bank of the Calcasieu River, south of Lake Charles, Louisiana, proposed by Tellurian, and the Port Arthur LNG facility in Texas planned by Sempra Energy. We look forward to beginning construction and delivering first LNG in 2023, Tellurians President and CEO Meg Gentle said today, commenting on the Driftwood LNG approval. Tellurians timeline for the Driftwood LNG project includes final investment decision this year, the start of construction this year, and start of operations in 2023. Another 10 proposed LNG export projects are pending FERC approval at the time being, the commission said today. LNG exports can help increase the availability of inexpensive, clean-burning fuel to our global allies who are looking for an efficient, affordable, environmentally friendly source of generation. FERC continues to focus on developing a regulatory ecosystem that allows new technologies to flourish, FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee said in a statement. U.S. LNG export capacity is set to more than double from the end of 2018 to reach 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by the end of 2019, making it the third-largest in the world behind Australia and Qatar, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Companies in the U.S. continue to plan and approve LNG export projects, aiming to seize a larger share of the growing global LNG market. For example, ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum made a final investment decision in February this year to proceed with the development of the Golden Pass LNG export project in Sabine Pass, Texas, with investments of more than US$10 billion. The export terminal is expected to start up in 2024. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Elon Musk was right about one thing: electric passenger cars will be beating hydrogen fuel cell cars. But what about trucking and power plants? Things are looking good for Nikola Motor Co.s hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks. While Tesla CEO Musk brags about his company getting into the non-diesel-powered trucking business, Nikola Motor is already there and is generating a lot more interest. On the power plant side, wind and solar are the leading renewable energy sources but hydrogen is getting more backing. ValueAct Capital Management is betting on Nikola, a closely held hydrogen fuel cell trucking company, which is seeking to raise $1.5 billion to expand in the U.S. The San Francisco-based capital firm had invested up to $40 million prior to the fundraising campaign and will be taking a stake in the company. ValueAct CEO Jeff Ubben has put together a $350 million investment pool, the ValueAct Spring Fund, where the Nikola investment is coming from. Nikola meets the objectives of the Spring Fund and makes good business sense, the chief said. "This idea of a really, truly sustainable business that delivers savings today and has a tremendous social and environmental benefit is the next Facebook," Ubben said. "These are the next mega-plays." On the savings side, Nikola is generating interest from trucking companies with the fuel being 20 to 30 percent cheaper than diesel. That opens to the door to trucking, rail, and the air cargo business, Ubben said. Nikola has already scheduled delivery of about $14 billion in fuel cell trucks to customers. One of them, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, ordered 800 tractor trailers from Nikola last May. The fuel-cell truck maker will also generate revenue from the fuel it will sell to the client from its network of hydrogen fueling stations. Related: Foreign Carmakers Fight Uphill Battle Against Chinese EV Giants Phoenix, Ariz.-based Nikola on Tuesday talked at great length to a crowd of nearly 2,000 suppliers, customers, and potential investors about its future. That will include a vast network of hydrogen fueling stations, an electric personal watercraft, a drone-launching military vehicle, and a list of fuel cell and battery-electric vehicles. Korean automaker Hyundai sees great potential in hydrogen energy and in fuel cell vehicles sold through its Hyundai and Kia brands. On the electric power plant side, Hyundai Motor just signed a memorandum of understanding with Korea East-West Power and Deokyang to build a 1MW hydrogen fuel cell power facility. It will generate 8,000 MWh of electricity annually with zero emissions and can power 2,200 households at 300 kWh per month. The hydrogen power facility is scheduled to break ground later this year in Ulsan, South Korea. It will utilize two container-type 500 kW generator modules, each loaded with multiple power modules from Hyundais Nexo crossover SUV fuel cell vehicle. The Korean-power deal was inked right before Hyundai signed a deal to deliver 1,600 fuel cell heavy-duty trucks through a joint venture with H2 Energy AG. The new agreement will start with hydrogen refueling at H2 Mobility Switzerland Associations network of stations. The JV will also expand its market presence to other European countries beyond Switzerland. Hyundai has been looking for opportunities to lead the way in fuel cell vehicles competing with Toyota and Honda on the passenger vehicle side and with Toyota and Nikola on the commercial truck side. British oil giant BP is traveling a similar route, adding support for hydrogen power along with its alternative energy investments in biofuels, biopower, and wind and solar energy. Related: Scientists Find Oil-Eating Superbacteria On Bottom Of The Ocean BP is funding a joint study looking to create Europes largest renewable-energy-based hydrogen production facility at a refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The oil company is working with Nouryon (formerly known as AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) and the Port of Rotterdam to study the energy potential. The joint study is looking into the feasibility of a 250-megawatt water electrolysis facility that could produce up to 45,000 tons of hydrogen per year. The power would likely come from excess wind and solar power that might not be utilized. An electric utility in the state of Washington also sees the potential of branching out into hydrogen production this time from a water dam along one of Americas largest rivers. The Wells Dam on the Columbia River in Washington generates quite a lot of surplus electricity, especially during spring runoff. Utility managers had been sharing the idea of using surplus electricity to split water molecules to make hydrogen. Douglas County Public Utility District general manager Gary Ivory said one of the advantages here is that the electrolyzer, which is needed to produce the hydrogen, has dramatically fallen in pricing lately. The utility district runs the Wells Dam and sees real cost savings benefits in going the hydrogen route. By Jon LeSage for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Production outages and maintenance are set to push Angolas oil exports to a 13-year low, according to an industry source quoted by Reuters. There are just 38 oil cargoes scheduled in June, a 10-cargo loss from May levels and represents the lowest exports since this data first began to be tracked in 2006. Just 1.2 million barrels per day are scheduled to be exported from Angola in June. Exports averaged 1.58 million barrels per day in 2017. The lower exports are a result of production issues at Angolas Girassol offshore platform this month, along with a shutdown of its Saturno oilfield to conduct necessary maintenance. Angolas oil production has slowly dropped over recent years, averaging 1.63 million bpd in 2017 and 1.51 million bpd in 2018, before falling to 1.45 million in the first quarter of this year, according to secondary sources from OPECs Monthly Oil Market Report, as aging fields struggle to maintain their rates. Its production cut cap under the OPEC agreement is 1.481 million bpdhigher than what Angola is currently producing. Angola has implemented several new measures over the last year to try and increase its oil production. Measures included reducing tax rates on smaller oil discoveries and creating an agency that would handle oil blocks up for auction rather than its poorly reputed state-run oil company, Sonangol. Crude oil represents almost 90 percent of all exports from Angolamost of which makes its way to Chinaand accounts for 80 percent of all government revenues, according to the Republic of Angola website. The most recent development in Angolas oil industry is the Kaombo Sul project by Frances Total, which started up earlier this month, adding 115,000 barrels per day to existing capacity. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Mauritanians will elect a new leader June 22 according to a decree from outgoing President Mohamed Ould Abdelazizs office. The decree set a runoff on July 6 in case no candidate gets an outright win. Candidates have until May 08, midnight to file applications, according to the decree. President Ould Abdelaziz, in power since 2008, is barred from seeking a third term in office by the constitution. The campaign for the election will start June 07 and will close June 20 at midnight. Six presidential hopefuls including former defense minister, Mohamed Ould Cheikh Mohamed Ahmed, have so far announced they are contending the countrys top job. Mohamed Ould Cheikh Mohamed Ahmed, also known as Ghazouni, is tipped as the likely successor to the outgoing president. Russian diplomats have tried to buy riot gear in Malta and allegedly load it on a warship en route to Venezuela, in a move that raises concerns in the EU and the U.S. that Russia wants to increase its military presence in Venezuela, BuzzFeed News reported on Thursday, citing officials. Russia has also asked Malta for permission to dock the Russian anti-submarine ship, the Severomorsk, in Malta for several days at the end of this month, BuzzFeed News Europe Editor Alberto Nardelli reports, quoting a senior government official from Malta. On Tuesday this week, Russia withdrew the request for the ship to dock on the Mediterranean island, but Malta would have denied the request anyway, according to BuzzFeed News sources. This is not the first report of Russia trying to boost its military presence in Venezuela, where Moscow is the staunchest supporter and ally of Nicolas Maduros regime in the political power struggle in the Latin American country sitting on top of the worlds largest oil reserves. The U.S. and many European nations have recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim president. Russia, however, has stood by Maduro for years and has poured billions of U.S. dollars in Venezuela in the form of loans and oil investments. Russias state-controlled oil giant Rosneft has extended US$6 billion of loans to Venezuelas state oil firm PDVSA. As of December 31, 2018, Venezuela still owed Rosneft US$2.3 billion. Two Russian planes with 100 troops landed in Venezuela at the end of March, Reuters reported, citing media reports and flight tracking websites. The move is the latest signal of strengthening ties between Caracas and Moscow amid growing pressure on the Maduro government from Washington. It also comes three months after the Venezuelan and Russian army conducted joint military exercises in Venezuela. At the time, the U.S. government slammed the exercises as Russian encroachment in South America. Meanwhile, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday that the Trump Administration was looking to persuade Russia to ditch support for Maduro. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Saudi Arabia continued to slash its oil exports as this year progressed, with February crude shipments dropping by 227,000 bpd from January to just below 7 million bpd, as the Kingdom is determined to rebalance the market in its effort to support oil prices. According to data released on Thursday by the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) database, which collects self-reported figures from 114 countries, Saudi Arabias crude oil exports stood at 6.977 million bpd in February, compared to 7.254 million bpd in January and to 7.687 million bpd in December 2018, when the Kingdom started to aggressively cut oil supply to prevent another glut. Total Saudi crude oil and oil products exports dropped by 432,000 bpd from January to 8.44 million bpd in February 2019, according to JODIs data. The figures by JODI, as well as OPECs production numbers, show that Saudi Arabia is keeping its pledge to drastically reduce oil supply to the market and to over-deliver in its share of the OPEC+ production cuts. In an interview with the Financial Times in February, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that the Saudis would cut production tos around 9.8 million bpd in March, some 500,000 bpd below the commitment in the OPEC+ deal. Al-Falih also said that Saudi Arabia would be cutting its crude oil exports to near 6.9 million bpd in March, slashed from the November high of 8.2 million bpd. Related: Oil Could Fall To $40 If OPEC Abandons Its Deal In early March, Saudi Arabia signaled that it is determined to do whatever it takes to rebalance the market by keeping its April crude oil exports at below 7 million bpd, despite requests for more than 7.6 million bpd of Saudi oil from its customers. The lower allocations by Saudi Aramco for April will also mean that the Kingdoms oil production will be well below 10 million bpd in April, a Saudi official told Reuters. Saudi Arabia, OPECs largest producer and de facto leader, has been signaling that it would do whatever it takes to rebalance the market (and support oil prices), and followed through on its commitment to cut much deeper than pledged in the pact, as OPECs March production dipped to a four-year low. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Spanish Repsol is suspending fuel shipments to Venezuela due to fears that it could violate the US sanctions against the Latin American nation, according to Reuters. The fuel was provided by Repsol to Venezuela in exchange for crude oil. Repsol and Venezuela began the product swaps since late 2018, and have continued the arrangement until now, despite the sanctions that have been in place for months. Those sanctions ban the use of US financial institutions to conduct oil business with PDVSA. It is unclear whether this suspension will eventually become permanent, according to Reuters sources, pending the outcome of talks between Repsol and Washington. The complicated relationship between Repsol and PDVSA is contributing to the growing stockpile of tankers lingering off the Port of JoseVenezuelas largest port. At least two tankers chartered by Repsolladen with PDVSA crude oilhave been sitting off the Venezuelan coast for more than a week. They join an already mounting problem next to tankers chartered by Chevron, Citgo, and Valero who are also having problems figuring out whether doing business with PDVSA is still in their best interest, and if so, how to go about doing that business, specifically how to pay for the crude. Venezuela is struggling to get its crude oil out of the country, not just because of US sanctions, but because of repeated blackouts that shut the port of Jose. Oil exports fell sharply in February under the weight of the sanctions, and then fell just slightly in March to below 1 million bpd. Exports are likely to fall even further with Repsol suspending its take along with a new round of sanctions set to stop Venezuelas crude oil from getting to its neighbor, Cuba. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A 12-year-old boy from Lupane area of Zimbabwe was convicted of raping his three-year-old neighbor at a school cottage. During his arraignment in court, the boy admitted to raping the 3-year-old and told the magistrate that he had been experimenting after he had watched a porn video on his friends phone. The Sunday News reports that Lupane Regional Magistrate Mr Collet Ncube convicted the minor of the rape charge because of the youths guilty plea. However, the magistrate cautioned and discharged the youth after noting his youthfulness. The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Bwari, Abuja, on Tuesday nullified the nomination of Senator Ademola Adeleke as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the September 2018 governorship election in Osun State. Delivering a judgment in a suit challenging Adelekes qualification to contest for the office of a governor, Justice Othman Musa held that the plaintiffs were able to prove that Adeleke did not possess the minimum qualification of being educated up to the secondary school level as stipulated under Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution , to be eligible to contest governorship poll. The judge said though he found from the evidence placed before the court that Adeleke was admitted into Muslim High School, Ede, Osun State in 1976, there was no record showing that he graduated from the school, as his name was not seen in the schools register in 1980. Musa added that the results, which Adeleke attached to his form CF001 that he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, was fake, as it was found to be different from the one presented to the court by the Principal of Muslim High School, Ede, where he claimed to have graduated. INEC had declared the All Progressives Congress and its candidate Adegboyega Oyetola, as the winner of the September 2018 governorship election in Osun State. But the Osun Governorship Election Petitions, which sat in Abuja, had by its majority judgment nullified Oyetolas victory and declared Adeleke as the valid winner of the polls. Before the September 2018 election, two members of the APC, Wahab Raheem and Adam Habeeb, had instituted the suit against Oyetola, the PDP and INEC, accusing Adeleke of not possessing the requisite educational qualification of a secondary school certificate to contest for the office of governor. Jelani Aliyu is an engineer and automobile designer. He is celebrated for the design of Chevrolet Volt, an auto brand of General Motors. And he is from Sokoto state. He is one of the Nigerians painting the US automobile design industry green-white-green. Seyi Oyesola is a Nigerian from the southwest. He is celebrated for the co-invention of the CompactOR, better known as the hospital in a box a portable medical portmanteau containing anaesthetics and surgical equipment for health emergencies. His invention is a regarded as a breakthrough for medical practice in Africa. Ndubuisi Ekekwe is a Nigerian from the southeast. He is known for the invention of microchips used in minimally invasive surgical robots. He has other inventions in his portfolio, including a patented microchip for iPhone. These Nigerians are celebrated globally for their contributions to science, technology and medicine. And they come from the north, east and west of the country. And there are many other Nigerians around the world achieving great feats and pushing the frontiers of human endeavour. Naturally, the achievements of these individuals are counted for Nigeria and not for their state of origin or region. But why do some Nigerians stereotype an entire ethnic group for a crime committed by an individual or a group? Why is it so easy to assert negative fallacies like, all Igbo are robbers; all Yoruba are fraudsters; all Fulani are terrorists, but it becomes a chore to acknowledge truer realities like, Igbo are good inventors; Yoruba are great scientists, Fulani are exceptional thinkers and planners? Why do we define ourselves by the misdeeds of some stray hounds among us, but not by the great deeds of the lodestars around us? Why must we only seek to denigrate, tear down and abuse one another? No ethnic group is in short supply of misfits, but where there is one prodigal child; there are 10,000 shining examples of obedience, morality and contentment. Ethnic profiling and stereotyping is insidious. It survives long after the incident for which it is deployed. I think, it is a very corrosive form of hate speech. Sadly, some Nigerians, no matter how highly placed, submit themselves to the temptations of this vice. Individuals commit crime, not the ethnic group. The motivations for crimes do not come from the ethos of any tribe, but from personal greed, debauchery and decadence. All ethnic groups in the country have a culture which abhors crime. The Igbo, the Yoruba and the Hausa cosmology extols the virtues of modesty, morality, hard work, fairness and justice. Crime has no ethnic face. Fredrick Nwabufo Head of the UN-backed Libya Presidential Council (PC) Wednesday demanded the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes committed by rival forces of east-based warlord Khalifa Haftar in his quest to overrun Tripoli, while UN Special Representative Ghassan Salame said The use of indiscriminate, explosive weapons in civilian areas constitutes a war crime. Faiez Serraj, in a letter to ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, said he could provide evidence documenting war crimes committed by forces loyal to Haftar, Libya Observer reports. Haftars forces are committing crimes against civilians and against humanity and are destroying the infrastructure with heavy weapons prohibited to be used within the cities, Al-Sarraj said in his letter. Khalifa Haftar, leader of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls much of eastern and southern Libya, has waged a two-week military campaign to take Tripoli from fighters loyal to the UN-recognized Government. Haftar claims he wants to free Tripoli from the hands of terrorists linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Heavy shelling overnight on Tuesday hit a densely-populated neighborhood of Libyas capital, Tripoli. Head of the UN Mission in the North African country, Ghassan Salame condemned in the strongest terms the shelling after scores of civilians were reportedly killed and injured. Horrible night of random shelling of residential areas, tweeted UN Special Representative Ghassan Salame on Wednesday, after the Abu Salim district was hit. For the sake of 3 million civilians living in Greater Tripoli, these attacks should stop. NOW! The use of indiscriminate, explosive weapons in civilian areas constitutes a war crime, said in a statement Mr. Salame, who also heads the UN Support Mission (UNSMIL). As sustained fighting continues in and around Tripoli, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that displacement is currently at its highest level since the current crisis started. With more than 4,500 people newly on the move, the total of number of internally displaced people (IDPs) stands at 25,000 and at least 820,000 people, including some 250,000 children, are currently in dire need of humanitarian assistance, according to OCHA. A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Jabi has ordered the arrest of two former ministers Mohammed Adoke (Justice) and Deazia Louya Etete (aka Dan Elete) (Petroleum Resources). Also to be arrested are Raph Wezels, Casula Roberto, Pujato Stefeno and Burrato Sebastino, who are senior officials of Shell, Agip and Eni SPA. The order for their arrest was issued by Justice Danladi Senchi upon an ex-parte motion argued yesterday by Aliyu Yusuf, a director in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The five men are said to be linked to the alleged $1.2billion fraud associated with the Malabu Oil deal and for which three charges have been filed in three courts against them and their companies. Justice Senchi, after listening to Yusuf, issued the warrant for arrest of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th defendants/respondents. In the motion, Wezels is listed as the 4th defendant, Roberto (fifth), Stefeno (sixth), Sebastino (seventh), Etete (eighth) and Adoke (ninth). The judge also granted the applicant (EFCC) leave to execute the warrant outside the jurisdiction of this honourable court. Other defendants in the motion are four non-natural persons Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited, Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited, Eni SPA and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited. Yusuf, had, while moving the motion, told the court that the EFCC had filed a three-count charge since March 2, 2017 against all the defendants. He said Wetzels, Roberto, Stefeno, Sebatiano, Etete and Adoke are listed in counts one and three of the charge. The second count is directed at Etete and Adoke. Yusuf said: Since the charge was filed, it has been mentioned in court on several occasions, but the defendants have refused to submit themselves before the court for the purpose of their arraignment. He said the arrest warrant was needed to apprehend the fleeing defendants, most of who are outside jurisdiction, for the purpose of bringing them before the court for them to plea to the charge. The EFCC stated, in a supporting affidavit, that the fact that led to this charge was a case bordering on fraudulent allocation of Oil Prospecting Licence OPL 245 and OPL 214, conspiracy, laundering of over $1.2 billion, forgery of bank documents, bribery and corruption against Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep (SNUD), Nigeria Agip Exploration (NAE) and their officials. After dqiscrete investigation, a prima facie case was made, culminating into the charge against the defendants now pending before this honourable court. Apart from the instant charge most of the defendants herein, have two other criminal charges filed against them by the complainant/applicant at the Federal High Court, with charge numbers: FHC/ABJ/CR/39/l7 and FHC/ABJ/CR/268/2016, respectively. The arraignment of the defendants in this case couldnt take place because 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th defendents/respondente are at large and have refused to make themselves available. All efforts to apprehend the fleeing defendants/respondents proved abortive. In furtherance of efforts to apprehend the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th defendants/respondents, the EFCC contacted the Nigeria Police to assist in watch-listing them and facilitating their arrest and apprehension. The Nigeria Police, in response, requested for detailed particulars and processes to enable them liaise with NIERPOL and apprehend the fleeing defendants. The Nigeria Police and the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL) and other relevant sister organisations have insisted that in addition to having a pending charge before a competent court, there must be warrants of arrest to enable the organisation to apprehend the defendants Granting this application will facilitate the required liaison with INTERPOL and ensure that the defendants/respondents are apprehended and produced before the court for their arraignment on the charges filed against them. In swift reaction to the court order, Adoke said the anti-graft agency erred by holding him personally liable for carrying out a lawful directive fromt he President. The former AGF said he will challenge the order citing and earlier order granted by the Federal High COurt, Abuja in 2017. His counsel, Msssrs Gromyko Amedu Solicitors said: In view of this development, and the fact that the EFCC has refused to abide by this time-tested traditions of prosecution agencies, our client is left with no other option to challenge the unlawful order. Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has blamed poor telecom services being experienced by customers on poor power supply by the electricity distribution companies in Nigeria. Mr. Musa Diabu, manager, Technical Department (NCC), stated this in Okene, Kogi State when the commission held a sensitization programme on the need for citizens to collectively protect telecom infrastructure in the country rather than leaving them to security personnel only. Mr. Daibu, who blamed inadequate power supply for being a major factor responsible for poor services provided by the service providers, said Nigeria needs about 158,000 metres of optic fibre to provide adequate broadband across the country, adding that what the country currently has is 38,000 metres. Mrs. Amina Shehu, director Zonal Operations, said that despite the numerous challenges being faced by service providers, Nigeria broadband penetration had continued to increase. Shehu who was represented by Mr. Ekisola Oladisun, principal manager, zonal Operations, NCC, said that though the country had achieved a lot in the telecom industry, there were still huge challenges. ALSO READ: Take advantage of Nigerias FinTechs space, Onyema urges investors these feats would not have been achieved without the active collaboration of all relevant stakeholders and the enabling environment provided by government in the sector, he added. However, much as we aim to sustain the growth and as the industry continues to evolve, we are faced with various challenges that have hampered development in the sector. As it relates to infrastructure deployment with the Commissions pervasive drive to increase Broadband penetration with the set target by government, increase in deployment of robust critical telecom infrastructure is imperative. He lamented the incessant theft of telecom facilities across the country saying that vandalism of telecom infrastructure has continued to be a major challenge in the telecom industry. He said the NCC will continue to collaborate with the relevant agencies to ensure adequate security for telecoms facilities and also engage stakeholders on the need to protect telecommunications infrastructure. The Director, Department of State Service (DSS), the Police, the Nigerian Civil Defence and Security Corp (NCDSC) and District Heads were represented at the event. Post Views: 54 West Africas mobile ecosystem generated more than $50 billion in economic value last year equivalent to 8.7 per cent of the regions GDP1, according to a new GSMA study. The 2019 West Africa edition of the GSMAs Mobile Economy report series is published at the Mobile 360 West Africa event being held in Abidjan this week. The study finds that rising mobile phone ownership and the ongoing migration to mobile broadband networks and services across the region will see the mobile ecosystems economic contribution continue to increase over the coming years, forecast to reach almost $70 billion (9.5 per cent of GDP) by 2023. Todays report underlines the vital role the mobile ecosystem is playing in contributing to economic growth, social development and job creation across West Africa. ALSO READ: Why AIT Abuja structure was demolished FCTA To harness the power of a new generation of mobile users and mobile networks, we urge governments and policymakers in West Africa to develop regulatory frameworks that encourage innovation and investment in the sector, enabling the provision of mobile-powered digital services to citizens across the region, said Akinwale Goodluck, Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at the GSMA. The new report reveals that: The number of unique mobile subscribers2 across West Africa reached 185 million at the end of 2018, equivalent to 48 per cent of the regions population. This number is forecast to rise to 248 million by 2025, 54 per cent of the population. Future subscriber growth will largely be driven by young consumers owning a mobile phone for the first time; more than 40 per cent of the regions population are under 18 years old, according to the report. The report also revealed that local mobile operators are increasing investment in their networks and are expected to spend $8.5 billion (capex) on network infrastructure and services over the next two years (2019/2020). Post Views: 58 After it moved Sudans deposed president Omar al-Bashir to Kobar prison in the capital Khartoum late on Tuesday, the transitional military council announced Wednesday the arrest of two of his brothers as part of a purge of the former regime. Abdullah and Alabas al-Bashir have been taken into custody on corruption charges, the councils spokesman Shams al-Din Kabashi told the media in the Sudanese capital. The army last week ousted Bashir who spent 30 years at the helm of the country, following months of demonstrations. The military council has taken over affairs and promised to restore a civilian rule in two years. The arrest of al-Bachir brothers is part of demands by demonstrators who requested the round-up of all members of the previous regime. Other top officials connected to Omar al-Bachir are also detained at the countrys maximum security Kober prison in Khartoum. The Council has however rejected to hand over any Sudanese, including Bashir, to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The former autocratic leader is wanted by the Hague-based court for war crimes committed in Darfur in 2003. About 60 medical professionals, including 31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurses and seven other licensed medical professionals were on Wednesday charged with participating in the illegal prescribing of pain relievers in exchange for sex and cash. The charges involve more than 350,000 illegal prescriptions written in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia, according to indictments unsealed in federal court in Cincinnati. The charges include unlawful distribution or dispensing of controlled substances by a medical professional and health-care fraud. Each count carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence, and many of the defendants face multiple counts. At least one doctor is charged in connection with a death caused by the opioids, officials said. The opioid indictments come as more than 1,500 cities, counties, Native American tribes and unions are suing drug companies in one of the largest and most complicated civil cases in American history. In a number of cases, according to the indictments, doctors across the region traded prescriptions for oxycodone and hydrocodone for sexual favors. Some physicians instructed their patients to fill multiple prescriptions at different pharmacies. Prosecutors also documented how patients traveled to multiple states to see different doctors so they could collect and then fill numerous prescriptions. ALSO SEE: 7 die, 12 children, others injured in Kwara auto crash A federal judge in Cleveland is overseeing the cases, which accuse some of the biggest names in the industry of fueling the opioid epidemic. The companies have blamed the epidemic on corrupt doctors and pain management clinics and say the epidemic is too complicated to attribute to their actions. Brian Benczkowski, an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Departments criminal division, said he created the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force late last year to target the region, which has been devastated by the epidemic. The department analyzed several databases to identify suspicious prescribing activity and sent 14 prosecutors to 11 federal districts there. The opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region, Attorney General William P. Barr said in a statement. Once they had the data indicating suspicious prescriptions, investigators used confidential informants and undercover agents to infiltrate medical offices across the region. Cameras and tape recorders were rolling as they documented how medical professionals used their licenses to peddle highly addictive opioids in exchange for cash and sex, officials said. Post Views: 59 Federal Government has said it would take another fresh external loan of $247.3million for the development of infrastructure. This is coming few days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expressed worries over Nigerias rising debt profile. The loan which was approved by FEC would add up to the nations existing debt which currently stands at N24.38tn debt. This was disclosed by the Minister for Finance, Ahmed Zainab at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday. According to the Minister who spoke to state house correspondents, $150m would come from the African Development Bank (AfDB); $50m from Africa Grow Together Fund and $20m from French Development Agency, which would be loaned to the Lagos State Government. Pope Francis is ushering in the most solemn period in the Catholic liturgical calendar by celebrating a Holy Thursday Mass, made more poignant this year following the devastation of Paris Notre Dame Cathedral. The Crism Mass celebrates the unity of priests with their bishops. During Thursdays service, Francis blessed the holy oils that will be used over the course of the year in the administration of sacraments. In his homily, Francis stressed that when priests use the oil, they are distributing their vocation and heart to the people of God. We anoint by dirtying our hands in touching the wounds, the sins and the worries of the people, he said. We anoint by perfuming our hands in touching their faith, their hopes, their fidelity and the unconditional generosity of their self-giving. This year, Holy Week which for Catholics commemorates Christs crucifixion, death and resurrection has taken on particular meaning following the fire at Notre Dame, a symbol of French Catholicism. Francis has offered his condolences repeatedly to the French faithful, and on Wednesday, fielded a call from U.S. President Donald Trump offering the sympathy of the American people over the loss, the Vatican spokesman said. Later Thursday, Francis travels outside Rome to Velletri, where he will celebrate the ritual foot-washing ceremony at a prison. Francis has frequently chosen to wash the feet of prisoners during the Holy Thursday ritual, which re-enacts Christs washing the feet of his disciples, in a bid to show his willingness to serve even those on the farthest margins of society. On Friday, he presides over the Way of the Cross procession at Romes Colosseum re-enacting Christs crucifixion, followed by the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. Post Views: 23 Operatives of the Nigerian Navy and their U.S counterparts have arrested 10 suspected pirates within the Nigerian end of the Gulf of Guinea (GoG). The suspects, comprising three Greece, two Americans and five blacks, were arrested on Sunday evening. Among the foreigners were Angelopolous Spyridon, 54, (Greece), Kappis Christos, 57, (Greece), Petropoulos Stylianos, 34, (Greece), Zanski Michael-Anderson, 50, (American) and another unnamed American. Four military assault rifles (Bernelli MR-1) loaded with magazines, about 1,000 live ammunition in a box and other exhibits were recovered from their boat. Prior to the boarding and arrest of the boat, NNS CENTENARY had communicated it, demanding to know where it was from and its destination. . It was gathered that the 10-man crew had given unsatisfactory information to the Navy and was, therefore, compelled to stop for the special forces to board and search her. It was gathered that their data was sent to the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), which established that none of the foreigners had visa to Nigeria, but curiously, they had a pass purportedly from the Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) that has no jurisdiction on the high seas. There is nothing in their passport to show entry into Nigeria. Their passport has South African, Europe, Liberia and US entry and exits. It is obvious they entered our country illegally. From the guns they were found with and the various lies they told, it is clear these are pirates. The blacks among them did not have passport and claimed to be Nigerians. NIS will investigate to ascertain where they are from. It is very likely they are not Nigerians as they claimed to be and even if they are, being a Nigerian isnt a guarantee for anyone to commit maritime crime, said a Naval Share this: About Me Oscar Bartoli Washington, DC, United States Avvocato, giornalista pubblicista, collabora con molti media italiani. Risiede negli Stati Uniti dal 1994 e vive tra Washington D.C., Los Angeles e Bangalore (India). Consigliere comunale per il Partito Liberale a Palazzo Vecchio (Firenze) porta ancora addosso i segni delle percosse che i 'compagni' comunisti di allora gli hanno dato per essere andato a parlare nelle piazze dove comandava solo il PCI. Ha lavorato per molti anni nel gruppo SMI,leader europeo nel settore metalli non ferrosi, successivamente nell'IRI come responsabile dei contatti con i media e in seguito direttore IRI USA. Ha insegnato per dieci anni alla scuola di giornalismo della Luiss e per due anni alla Catholic University di Washington DC. Tiene un corso sulla comunicazione nel Master di Relazioni Internazionali dello IULM di Milano. Rotariano da decenni ha contribuito a creare due Club a Roma, e' stato presidente del Cassia Romana ed attualmente fa parte del Washington Rotary Club. Da giovane, per pagarsi gli studi ma, soprattutto, perche' gli piaceva, ha lavorato come chitarrista - cantante suonando nelle case del popolo, circoli cattolici, night clubs, radio e televisione. View my complete profile Da non perdere "Lei non sa chi sono io" Oscar Bartoli- Prefazione Romano Prodi- Editore Ciuffa "Ed anche questa e' America", di Oscar Bartoli - prefazione Walter Veltroni Editore Luiss University Press "Mezzogiorno di Fuoco: duello all'ultimo spot" di Oscar Bartoli - Editore goWare "W.D.C (sotto traccia)" di Oscar Bartoli, Editore Luca Betti "DC Undercover" (Scarith Books/New Academia Publishing 2013) "Massoneria@FQA-Elogio dell'Informazione e della Comunicazione" di Stefano Bisi e Oscar Bartoli. Editore Luca Betti Potus-Sutop (Leo Rasco-Oscar Bartoli) Kindle Amazon Blog Archive It was late 2017 when the astronomy world was buzzing over what appeared to be the first-ever interstellar visitor observed by mankind. It was a long, cigar-shaped object which its discoverers named Oumuamua, and it swooped around our Sun and back out towards interstellar space so rapidly that scientists had to scramble to study it. Now, after examining records of meteor strikes on Earth from years past, Harvard researchers believe they may have discovered evidence of the first-known interstellar meteor to strike Earth. If true, the rock arrived at our planet years ahead of Oumuamua. Related stories Watch a massive fireball light up the sky over the East Coast China is sending teens to the desert to simulate life on Mars NASA sent mice into space, and the results are unintentionally hilarious As Space.com reports, Harvard scientists Avi Loeb and Amir Siraj studied data from the CNEOS, the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks objects that come close to Earth as well as space rocks that come crashing down. They looked closely at the speed at which the objects were observed moving as well as the angle from which they approach Earth. One particular meteor, which was spotted over the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea in early 2014, immediately caught their eye. The rock was moving at a breakneck speed of over 134,000 miles per hour, and its angle of approach suggests that it may have come from outside of our solar system. The discovery of an object that originated in another planetary system is a big deal, and the fact that it crashed here on Earth is even more dramatic. Loeb even suggests that such events may be responsible for the dispersal of life around the Universe. You can imagine that if these meteors were ejected from the habitable zone of a star, they could help transfer life from one planetary system to another, Loeb told Space.com. Sign up for BGR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Story continues Trending Right Now: See the original version of this article on BGR.com Music legend Johnny Cash will be immortalized with a statue in the US Capitol as his native state of Arkansas replaced divisive figures associated with white supremacy. Each US state sends two sculptures to the Statuary Hall, a grand gallery leading to the Capitol's Rotunda, and the century-old representatives of Arkansas have become increasingly controversial amid a nationwide push to bring down symbols of the racist Confederacy. Arkansas announced that one of its two statues -- traditionally in white marble -- would depict "Man in Black" Cash, whose songs of outlaws, prisoners and his own spiritual journey, sung in a forbidding baritone to a hard-edged country guitar, made him an icon across genres. Cash, who died in 2003 in Nashville, will be joined in the Statuary Hall by Daisy Bates, a crusading African American civil rights journalist, after a vote by the Arkansas Senate. Bates helped guide the Little Rock Nine, black students who defied threats and enrolled in an all-white school in the Arkansas capital in 1957 after president Dwight Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division to enforce a Supreme Court decision. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, a conservative Republican, hailed Bates as an inspiration and called civil rights "an essential part of our story that says much about courage and who are as a state." He did not directly disassociate Arkansas from the two existing figures honored at the Capitol but said in a weekly address, "Most everyone who was involved in the discussion agreed we needed to update the statues with representatives of our more recent history." The statues to be removed depict James Paul Clarke, a US senator and Arkansas governor who strongly pushed segregation a century ago, and Uriah Rose, a lawyer who backed the Confederacy. Morocco calls all Libyan parties to end hostilities and to engage in political dialogue The UN-brokered agreement inked by Libyas warring factions in the Moroccan coastal town of Skhirat remains the framework and the basis of any political settlement in Libya, said on Wednesday Jomaa al-Qamati, personal envoy of the Head of Govt of National Accord, recognized by the international community. In a statement to the press after meeting in Rabat Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, the Libyan envoy thanked Morocco for hosting the historic inter-Libyan dialogue in Skhirat, which was a crucial phase in promoting national reconciliation and political consensus. Mr. Al Qamati stressed the need to end the cycle of violence and resume the peace process on the basis of the Skhirat agreement which sets the foundations of a civil, constitutional and democratic state, based on the rule of law. The solution in Libya is political and not military, he stressed, calling the international community to act to end the cycle of violence in his country. For his part, Moroccos top diplomat Nasser Bourita called on all Libyan parties to cease hostilities and engage in political dialogue to overcome all obstacles, affirming the military option can only further complicate the situation in this Maghreb country. For Morocco, he said, the political process offers the best solution to the Libyan crisis, which is endangering stability in the whole region. Troops of General Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of Eastern Libya, have launched lately military offensive to take control of the Libyan capital city of Tripoli. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had condemned the military escalation and ongoing fighting in and around Tripoli. He urged all parties to engage in immediate dialogue to reach a political solution, affirming that there is no military solution to the Libya conflict. Libyas UN-backed Prime minister, Fayez Sarraj, has called the action by Haftar an attempted coup and on Wednesday demanded the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes committed by Haftars forces. UN Special Representative Ghassan Salame also condemned in the strongest terms the shelling perpetrated on Tripoli overnight Tuesday as scores of civilians were reportedly killed and injured. The use of indiscriminate, explosive weapons in civilian areas constitutes a war crime, the UN envoy said. Washington expressed deep concern about fighting near Tripoli. We oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftars forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital, said a spokesman of the US State department, warning that this unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) pointed out that as sustained fighting continues in and around Tripoli, displacement is currently at its highest level since the current crisis started. With more than 4,500 people newly on the move, the total of number of internally displaced people (IDPs) stands at 25,000 and at least 820,000 people, including some 250,000 children, are currently in dire need of humanitarian assistance, according to OCHA. Visita Iglesia is an annual tradition observed by Catholics during the Lenten season. It is one of the most popular sacred vows during the Holy Week, where devotees spend time to visit at least seven different churches on Maundy Thursday. Beautiful churches come aplenty all over the country, but traveling from one church to the next during this season can become a challenge, especially with the heavy traffic and number of devotees spending time outside their homes. Metro Manila is actually a nest of several churches with rich history and heritage while at the same time boasting stunning architecture and design. Heres a list of seven churches you can visit around the city capital without the long hours of driving: 1. Nuestra Senora de Gracia Church Address: 7440 Bernardino Street, Guadalupe Viejo, Makati City In the middle of Makatis skyscrapers stands this authentic Renaissance-Baroque church founded by the Augustinians in 1599. The Nuestra Senora de Gracia Church is one of the most popular churches in Manila with a simple yet striking vibe because of its features, furnishings, and iconography that gives off an Old World feel. 2. Malate Church Address: 2000 M.H. Del Pilar St. Malate, Manila First built in 1588, the Malate Church is considered as one of Manilas most iconic churches as it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times throughout the years. Overlooking Plaza Rajah Sulayman and the Manila Bay, this church has an interplay of Muslim design and Mexican baroque that most churchgoers adore. 3. San Agustin Church Address: General Luna St., Intramuros, Manila The San Agustin Church is the only church considered as a UNESCO World Heritage site in Manila and was also named as a National Historical Landmark in 1976. Built in 1907, the church has a detailed trompe loeil murals on its walls and ceilings, a two-dimensional art which amazingly gives the illusion of a three-dimensional space. 4. Binondo Church Address: Plaza L. Ruiz, Binondo 1006, Manila Story continues Considered as one of the oldest Catholic churches in Metro Manila, the Binondo Church is known for its octagonal bell tower, reflecting the Chinese culture of its parishioners. It was founded by Dominican priests in 1596 with a facade comparable to those of Italian High Renaissance churches. 5. Sta. Ana Church Address: New Panaderos cor. Pedro Gil St., Santa Ana, Manila Constructed in 1725 under the Franciscans, the Sta. Ana Church has been designated as a Historic Building in 1936. It houses two National Cultural Treasures declared by a presidential decreethe Santa Ana Site Museum and the Camarin de la Virgen (The Dressing Room of the Virgin), a chapel room. It also has a small chapel, the Capillita de la Virgin del Pozo. 6. San Sebastian Church Address: Pasaje del Carmen, Plaza Miranda, Quiapo, Manila Considered as a National Historical Landmark and a National Cultural Treasure, the San Sebastian Church is a Gothic-style Roman Catholic minor basilica located in Quiapo, Manila. It was completed in 1891 and is the only all-steel church in the Philippines. Its 52 tons of prefabricated steel sections were imported from Belgium. 7. Manila Cathedral Address: Beaterio St, Cabildo St, Intramuros, Manila The Manila Cathedral is a 444-year-old historical site with an area of almost 3,000 square meters. It is one of the most beautiful churches in the Philippines, decked with beautiful black marble flooring, beautiful brickwork, and a vaulted ceiling encapsulating classic Spanish architecture elements. Make your Visita Iglesia more meaningful and hassle-free with the Ford Everest, your perfect companion for a safe and secure drive within and outside the city. The Ford Everest raises the bar for mid-sized SUVs with its striking design, outstanding capability, and advanced driver-assistance technologies. It also boasts of an 800 mm water-wading capability, one of the highest and best in the mid-size SUV segment, making every drive easier, safer, and more comfortable. For more information on the Ford Everest, visit your nearest Ford dealership. The post Visita Iglesia 2019: 7 Churches To Visit in Metro Manila appeared first on Carmudi Philippines. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Judging from the proxy statement issued by Facebook last week in advance of its May 30 annual meeting, the company's shareholders are starting to get fed up with its leadership by co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Four shareholder proposals on the proxy ballot call for slicing away at Zuckerberg's authority over Facebook. "Facebook operates essentially as a dictatorship," observes the supporting statement for one of those proposals. "Shareholders cannot call special meetings and have no right to act by written consent. A supermajority vote is required to amend certain bylaws. Our Board is locked into an out-dated governance structure that reduces board accountability to shareholders." One of the four proposals would establish an independent chair, instead of leaving the chair and CEO positions both in Zuckerberg's hands. Another would require majority votes for directors, so they couldn't skate into their board positions purely on Zuckerberg's say-so. The third would call for all shares, whether Class A or Class B, to have a single vote. A fourth calls for the board to consider "strategic alternatives" including a breakup of the company. Here's my prediction of how these votes will go: Every one will be overwhelmingly defeated. This requires not a crystal ball, but merely a working knowledge of arithmetic. Mark Zuckerberg owns or controls 88.1 percent of Facebook's Class B shares, which each have 10 votes at the annual meeting3.98 billion votes overall. There are only 2.4 billion Class A shares, which are the only shares ordinary investors can buy. So any proposal Zuckerberg doesn't like will fail by nearly a 2-1 margin, assuming all Class A investors vote together, which never happens. (Zuckerberg owns 0.5 percent of the Class A shares.) And that's how all previous proposals like these have fared. Facebook observes in its opposition statements to the three proposals that "our stockholders" rejected the voting change at each of the last five annual meetings and the chair/CEO split at last year's. This statement is a model of corporate cynicism, if it's meant to imply that Zuckerberg is loved and admired by the entire shareholder base (as it is) - similar to the claim of a Third World dictator that his citizens adore him because he regularly racks up 90 percent majorities on election day. There are indications that most outside shareholders would like to see a change in the management structure. According to the support statement for the proposal to split the chairman and CEO posts by its sponsor, Trillium Asset Management, a similar proposal received 51 percent of the votes, not counting board members and other insiders such as Zuckerberg. Nevertheless, Facebook gives all the governance proposals the back of its hand, advocating a "no" vote on all four. "We believe that our capital structure is in the best interests of our stockholders and that our current corporate governance structure is sound and effective," the company stated in opposition to the proposal to equalize share votes. "The vision and leadership of our founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has guided us from our inception," the company added, sounding like the officiant at a church service. None of this, of course, can come as a surprise. Zuckerberg's unassailable control of Facebook has been in place since even before its 2012 initial public offering; the IPO merely cemented that control into the by-laws. As I advised investors who managed to snag a few shares during that much-touted IPO, "Congratulations. You're now married to Mark Zuckerberg." That seemed to be an ideal marriage for much of the following few years, but it's hardly unusual for even the most heavenly marriages to burst a seam after a time. In corporate governance, the issue is usually money (as in real-life marriages). Facebook's shares consistently have returned a handsome return to shareholders, which keeps their grousing to a minimum. This year, the shares have gained about 33 percent. But they're also trading at about 18 percent below their 52-week high, which evidently makes some holders wonder if their investment is in the best hands. To justify installing an independent chair, Trillium lists some missteps Zuckerberg has overseen during his monarchical reign. They include facilitating Russian meddling in U.S. elections, allowing the personal data of 87 million users to be accessed by Cambridge Analytica, allowing the proliferation of fake news and "propagating violence in Myanmar, India, and South Sudan," and "allowing advertisers to exclude black, Hispanic, and other 'ethnic affinities' from seeing ads." That's a partial list. Zuckerberg's arrogance, an offshoot of his unassailable position, is palpable. It accounts for Facebook's chronic insensitivity to its users' privacy needs, and the trouble the company has gotten into with the Federal Trade Commission and European regulators. Checks on Zuckerberg's whims almost never arise. One teachable moment came in 2016, when Facebook proposed creating a third class of stock, with no voting rights whatsoever. Zuckerberg pretended that this idea had been cooked up by the board of directors so he and his wife could give away their Facebook shares to charity without his losing voting control, but of course the board of directors is effectively him. The shareholder vote at the 2016 annual meeting came in overwhelmingly in Zuckerberg's favor, but he eventually abandoned the plan anyway, thanks to the furious reaction from outside shareholders and a shareholder lawsuit over the plan that was about to go to trial when Zuckerberg bailed. But that's an outlier. In almost every other particular, Zuckerberg's position wins. One can admire the persistence of the shareholders who fight every year to defeat him at the annual meeting, but their efforts are a modern-day definition of "quixotic." Of course, they knew that when they bought their shares, so what do they really have to complain about? Explore further Public investment funds join call for independent Facebook chair 2019 Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The US tech giant said indiviuals or groups spreading hate "have no place on Facebook" Social media giant Facebook on Thursday banned various far-right British groups including the English Defence League from its network for promoting hate and violence. Other groups kicked off both Facebook or Instagram include Knights Templar International, Britain First, the British National Party (BNP) and the National Front. The tech titan banned the groups for contravening its policy forbidding "terrorist activity, organised hate, mass or serial murder, human trafficking or organised violence or criminal activity". "Individuals and organisations who spread hate, or attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are, have no place on Facebook," a spokeswoman for Facebook said. "We ban those who proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence. "Posts and other content which expresses praise or support for these figures and groups will also be banned." Former BNP leader Nick Griffin and Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen have also been banned in the crackdown. Explore further Facebook to tighten live stream access after mosque attacks 2019 AFP Toward a more gentle agricultural system. Credit: iStock/SimonSkafar The future of farming has to look different from farming today. Tremendously different. Otherwise, we will risk losing even more biodiversity, continue with polluting water bodies, driving erosion and running down soil fertility. And we will never reach the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many of which directly relate to agriculture. How we should transition to sustainable food systems is subject to heated and polarized debates. Proponents of agroecological production systems such as organic agriculture highlight the environmental benefits of these systems and argue that only those can lead to the necessary changes. Proponents of intensive production systems emphasize the need for high yields to spare land and assure food security for an ever increasing population and argue that extensive systems cannot be sustainable due to their higher land use. We need to overcome such polarized debates. Focusing on policy interventions to support the SDGs rather than on farming systems can help. Four groups of policy interventions In a recent Comment in the journal Nature Sustainability, we discuss four groups of policy interventions for a transition to more sustainable food systems (Fig. 1). First, policy makers can support alternative production systems such as organic agriculture. This support can take the form of direct payments, providing training and knowledge transfer, and funding research. The aim is not to achieve full coverage with any one alternative system, but to best utilize their potential and to further develop them as showcases of sustainable agriculture. Second, enhancing consumer awareness of sustainability in agriculture together with retailers' commitment to offer such products could stimulate demand for more sustainable products. Third, certain deterrents could trigger improvements in all types of agriculture, with key levers being reducing pesticide use and nitrogen inputs from outside regional ecosystem boundaries. Taxes on pesticides and taxes on mineral fertilizers, on nitrogen in imported feed and biomass could all contribute to this. Fourth, government and industry could raise legal requirements and industry norms, e.g. by banning particularly hazardous substances and practices. A flexible way to more ecology These approaches are flexible in the sense that they do not exclusively support organic farming, integrated production, precision farming or any other single system. All of these approaches can find their place in such a policy landscape as long as they show decent sustainability performance. For example, any system with low nitrogen inputs would benefit, while even an organic system would be put at a disadvantage if it had high external nitrogen inputs. Organic agriculture as the most prominent alternative farming system can play a special role in this. Its long experience regarding the development of the institutions needed to grow as an alternative system can inspire all four groups of policy interventions, be it related to direct support, consumers, gradual improvements or legal requirements and bans. Organic agriculture as a blueprint When designing their sustainability policies, governments should only support agriculture and food systems that deliver on the SDGs. And they should abandon inconsistent policies such as subsidizing pesticides and fertilizers while also subsidizing biodiversity protection. The ongoing discussion of Switzerland's future agricultural policy AP 22+ offers us precisely such an opportunity3. One of the debate's central points is how to provide consistent and effective support to production systems that are adapted appropriately to their locations and do not exceed the ecosystem's carrying capacities. The policy context is challenging, though, given the powerful vested interests of agribusiness, food companies and commodity-related interest groups. Scientists, farmers, policymakers, businesses and civil society organizations need to align and pull these powerful players along to really make the future of farming look different than farming today. Tremendously different, otherwise in 2030 we'll be facing another type of SDGs: Sustainable Development Gaps. Explore further Identifying common ground for sustainable agriculture in Europe More information: Frank Eyhorn et al. Sustainability in global agriculture driven by organic farming, Nature Sustainability (2019). Journal information: Nature Sustainability Frank Eyhorn et al. Sustainability in global agriculture driven by organic farming,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-019-0266-6 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Scientists have for the first time compared complete genome data of different ethnic groups in Russia. Using a special algorithm, they traced the genetic history for some groups. In the future, such data can be used in other important studies. For example, it can help to identify genetic risk factors in various populations of Russian people. The results are published in Genomics. The Russian Federation is a large country uniting many nationalities and populations. However, their genetic diversity is still understudied. Existing studies have considered either a specific population or a part of the genome. At the same time, a comparison of whole genome data from different populations can reveal information about the spread of diseases and resistance. Therefore, St. Petersburg State University initiated the Russian Genomes project, in which scientists from various organizations have created a database of Russian population genetic data. The scientists analyzed 204 genome datasets of different populations from other papers and added 60 new genomes from Pskov, Novgorod and Yakutia. In all, 264 representatives of 55 ethnic groups were examined during the study. The researchers used a special program written at ITMO University to predict the demographic history for three of these populations. This demographic history describes the population development: How and when they were one ancestral population, how the population size changed, and the rates of their migration. "We developed a program to search for the optimal demographic history according to the genomes of samples of the populations. This required calculation and analysis of the occurrence frequency of different alleles. The program then built many demographic histories to find out which of them is more appropriate for this data," says Ekaterina Noskova from the Laboratory of Computer Technologies at ITMO University. It turned out, for example, that in the past, the current inhabitants of Pskov, Novgorod and Yakutia were one population of about 2000 people. But 7000 years ago, the Yakuts separated from it, and about 1,200 years ago, representatives of Pskov and Novgorod divided. Since then, all three populations began to grow sharply in numbers. According to scientists, comparing the genomes of different populations, as well as their development histories, helps to understand which gene variants cause diseases, and which protect from them. Therefore, for the next step of this study, the researchers plan to carefully analyze the data and look for correlations with diseases. Explore further Genomics study in Africademographic history and deleterious mutations More information: Daria V. Zhernakova et al, Genome-wide sequence analyses of ethnic populations across Russia, Genomics (2019). Daria V. Zhernakova et al, Genome-wide sequence analyses of ethnic populations across Russia,(2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2019.03.007 Android users in Europe will soon be offered more search options Google on Thursday said users of its hugely popular Android devices would be offered a choice of five browsers and search engines as part of the company's effort to meet EU competition concerns. The European Commission last July hit Google with its biggest-ever fine, imposing a 4.34 billion euro ($5 billion) penalty, one of three major EU decisions against the company. Brussels accused Google of using the Android system's dominance of smartphones and tablets to promote the use of its own Google search engine and Chrome browser and shut out rivals. Google has appealed the decision, arguing that the EU's accusations were unfounded, but Thursday's changes were part of the firm's effort to avoid further fines. Users of Android devices in Europe who open the Google Play app store will now be shown screens with options to download different search apps and browsers, Paul Gennai, Google product management director, said in a blog. "These new screens will be displayed the first time a user opens Google Play after receiving an upcoming update," the executive wrote. With the change, "two screens will surface: one for search apps and another for browsers, each containing a total of five apps, including any that are already installed," he said. Apps not already installed on the device will be chosen based on their popularity and shown in a random order, Google said. Crucially, when a user downloads a search engine other than Google, he or she will be asked whether that optionsuch as Qwant or DuckDuckGoshould be become the default search app on the phone. Illegal promotion of Google's hugely profitable search engine was the heart of the case against the Sillicon Valley giant. Android, which is used on around 80 percent of mobile devices both in Europe and worldwide, was accused of shutting out rivals by forcing major phone makers to pre-install the Google search engine and Chrome browser. They were also made to set Google Search as the default, as a condition of licensing other Google apps, the EU said. Explore further Google appeals record EU fine over Android 2019 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain Researchers from the UK and Spain have identified an eco-friendly solid that could replace the inefficient and polluting gases used in most refrigerators and air conditioners. When put under pressure, plastic crystals of neopentylglycol yield huge cooling effectsenough that they are competitive with conventional coolants. In addition, the material is inexpensive, widely available and functions at close to room temperature. Details are published in the journal Nature Communications. The gases currently used in the vast majority of refrigerators and air conditioners hydrofluorocarbons and hydrocarbons (HFCs and HCs)are toxic and flammable. When they leak into the air, they also contribute to global warming. "Refrigerators and air conditioners based on HFCs and HCs are also relatively inefficient," said Dr. Xavier Moya, from the University of Cambridge, who led the research with Professor Josep Lluis Tamarit, from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. "That's important because refrigeration and air conditioning currently devour a fifth of the energy produced worldwide, and demand for cooling is only going up." To solve these problems, materials scientists around the world have sought alternative solid refrigerants. Moya, a Royal Society Research Fellow in Cambridge's Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, is one of the leaders in this field. In their newly published research, Moya and collaborators from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and the Universitat de Barcelona describe the enormous thermal changes under pressure achieved with plastic crystals. Conventional cooling technologies rely on the thermal changes that occur when a compressed fluid expands. Most cooling devices work by compressing and expanding fluids such as HFCs and HCs. As the fluid expands, it decreases in temperature, cooling its surroundings. With solids, cooling is achieved by changing the material's microscopic structure. This change can be achieved by applying a magnetic field, an electric field or through mechanic force. For decades, these caloric effects have fallen behind the thermal changes available in fluids, but the discovery of colossal barocaloric effects in a plastic crystal of neopentylglycol (NPG) and other related organic compounds has levelled the playfield. Due to the nature of their chemical bonds, organic materials are easier to compress, and NPG is widely used in the synthesis of paints, polyesters, plasticisers and lubricants. It's not only widely available but also is inexpensive. NPG's molecules, composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, are nearly spherical and interact with each other only weakly. These loose bonds in its microscopic structure permit the molecules to rotate relatively freely. The word "plastic" in "plastic crystals" refers not to its chemical composition but rather to its malleability. Plastic crystals lie at the boundary between solids and liquids. Compressing NPG yields unprecedentedly large thermal changes due to molecular reconfiguration. The temperature change achieved is comparable with those exploited commercially in HFCs and HCs. The discovery of colossal barocaloric effects in a plastic crystal should bring barocaloric materials to the forefront of research and development to achieve safe environmentally friendly cooling without compromising performance. Moya is now working with Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, to bring this technology to market. Explore further Pressure makes best cooling The Southern Crab Nebula -- Hubble's 29th anniversary image. Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI This incredible image of the hourglass-shaped Southern Crab Nebula was taken to mark the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's 29th anniversary in space. The nebula, created by a binary star system, is one of the many objects that Hubble has demystified throughout its productive life. This new image adds to our understanding of the nebula and demonstrates the telescope's continued capabilities. On 24 April 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the space shuttle Discovery. It has since revolutionised how astronomers and the general public see the Universe. The images it provides are spectacular from both a scientific and a purely aesthetic point of view. Each year the telescope dedicates a small portion of its precious observing time to take a special anniversary image, focused on capturing particularly beautiful and meaningful objects. This year's image is the Southern Crab Nebula, and it is no exception. This peculiar nebula, which exhibits nested hourglass-shaped structures, has been created by the interaction between a pair of stars at its centre. The unequal pair consists of a red giant and a white dwarf. The red giant is shedding its outer layers in the last phase of its life before it too lives out its final years as a white dwarf. Some of the red giant's ejected material is attracted by the gravity of its companion. When enough of this cast-off material is pulled onto the white dwarf, it too ejects the material outwards in an eruption, creating the structures we see in the nebula. Eventually, the red giant will finish throwing off its outer layers, and stop feeding its white dwarf companion. Prior to this, there may also be more eruptions, creating even more intricate structures. Astronomers did not always know this, however. The object was first written about in 1967, but was assumed to be an ordinary star until 1989, when it was observed using telescopes at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory. The resulting image showed a roughly crab-shaped extended nebula, formed by symmetrical bubbles of gas and dust. These observations only showed the outer hourglass emanating from a bright central region that could not be resolved. It was not until Hubble observed the Southern Crab in 1998 that the entire structure came into view. This image revealed the inner nested structures, suggesting that the phenomenon that created the outer bubbles had occurred twice in the (astronomically) recent past. It is fitting that Hubble has returned to this object twenty years after its first observation. This new image adds to the story of an active and evolving object and contributes to the story of Hubble's role in our evolving understanding of the Universe. Explore further Image: the Egg Nebula Credit: University of Michigan Universities and federal laboratories are the cornerstones of American innovation, developing new products that address important societal issues and drive economic growth. The University of Michigan, with support from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology, studied public research universities across North America to identify best practices for bringing new products to market. The findings aim to improve national competitiveness by providing universities with a practical roadmap on how to translate research from the lab to the marketplace. "Universities face increased demands for translating research to innovations that can serve the public good," said Paula Sorrell, director of the U-M Economic Growth Institute, which led the study. "By identifying best practices, researchers created a foundation that can guide universities and labs, as well as policymakers, on how to increase the impact of the nation's research institutions." U-M researchers interviewed and surveyed representatives at 59 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities, as designated by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and together they identified the following best practices for technology commercialization: A university with a strong cultural emphasis on innovation has leadership that promotes its value both internally to the university and its faculty, as well as externally to the surrounding community. Strong technology ecosystems are dependent upon championsexperienced professionals with industry and commercialization backgroundsassisting in the maturation of a technology through expert guidance and mentorship. Research career incentives are vital to motivate and reward new ideas, while resources provide the necessary environment for continued growth. Cross-organization collaborations are necessary throughout the process to foster ideas and improve outcomes. U-M researchers and APLU representatives plan to share these best practices with universities and federal laboratories across the country in an effort to address prevailing gaps in the commercialization process, mentorship and culture. Credit: University of Michigan "This study is an important contribution to a larger NIST initiative to increase the returns from the $150 billion federal investment in research and development," said NIST Director Walter Copan, who also serves as Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology. "We're grateful to the University of Michigan for the insights they have provided through this significant study with APLU of innovation best practices." NIST has a coordinating role in federal technology transfer, leading the Interagency Working Group for Technology Transfer, serving as the Host Agency for the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer, and performing governmentwide analysis of efforts to move the results of federally funded research and development from lab to market. In addition to increasing national competitiveness and accelerating research commercialization, the findings also can help promote the importance of research funding from government, industry and other partners. "Public research universities work hard to ensure that discoveries made in their labs can be translated into technologies that save lives, strengthen our national security and improve our quality of life," said Sheila Martin, APLU vice president for economic development and community engagement. "The institutions designated as IEP universities serve as outstanding models for how other schools can ensure their lab activities translate into technologies that benefit the United States and society overall. We are grateful that the University of Michigan conducted this study to help identify and elevate these successful practices." APLU's IEP universities designation program helps higher education institutions codify, elevate and advance their enterprise supporting economic and community development, while providing national recognition to institutions committed to university economic development. In order to earn the designation, institutions complete a rigorous self-study and stakeholder engagement process. They identify their economic development strengths, and areas of growth and improvement. Explore further Post-millennial entrepreneurs view higher education as vital to their startups More information: Study summary: Maximizing Innovation and Technology Commercialization of Federal Research Investments: Study summary: Maximizing Innovation and Technology Commercialization of Federal Research Investments: economicgrowth.umich.edu/lab-to-market/ Ivanka Trump, daughter and senior advisor to her father, US President Donald Trump, Wednesday committed to back with $2 million the fund for women in Cote dIvoires cocoa industry as she visited a cocoa farm outside the Ivorian capital. Ivanka Trump visited Cayat cooperative based around the towns of Adzope and Yakasse-Attobrou in the South East of Cote dIvoire. She tasted raw cocoa and was informed about the hard work of women in the Western Africans cocoa industry. Thanks for allowing us to highlight a best-in-class example, Ivanka Trump said after touring the farm. The $2 billion aid to be granted by the USAID and private chocolate companies will benefit cooperatives, which constitute the major funding structures for women in the cocoa industry of the world leading cocoa producer. The aid will enable the creation of 300 new cooperatives and boost the existing 500 ones. Before coming to Cote dIvoire, Ivanka Trump visited Ethiopia to promote her fathers $50 million initiative enacted in February and that seeks to encourage womens employment in developing countries. The repeated measurement of randomly selected transformations of individual particles reveals provides information about the degree of entanglement of a system. Credit: IQOQI Innsbruck/M.R.Knabl Through randomly selected measurements, Austrian physicists can now determine the quantum entanglement of many-particle systems. With the newly developed method, quantum simulations can be extended to a larger number of quantum particles. In Science, physicists from Innsbruck, Austria, report on the first successful demonstration of this method. Quantum phenomena are experimentally difficult to deal with. The effort increases dramatically with the size of the system. Scientists can control small quantum systems and investigate quantum properties. Such quantum simulations are considered promising early applications of quantum technologies that could solve problems where simulations on conventional computers fail. However, the quantum systems used as quantum simulators need further development. The entanglement of many particles is still a phenomenon that is difficult to understand. "In order to operate a quantum simulator consisting of 10 or more particles in the laboratory, we must characterize the states of the system as accurately as possible," explains Christian Roos from the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. So far, quantum state tomography has been used for the characterization of quantum states with which the system can be completely described. This method, however, involves a very high measuring and computing effort and is not suitable for systems with more than a half-dozen particles. Two years ago, the researchers led by Christian Roos, together with colleagues from Germany and Great Britain, presented an efficient method for the characterization of complex quantum states. However, only weakly entangled states could be described with this method. This issue has now been circumvented by a new method presented last year by the theorists led by Peter Zoller, which can be used to characterize any entangled state. Together with experimental physicists Rainer Blatt and Christian Roos and their team, they have now demonstrated this method in the laboratory. Quantum simulations on larger systems "The new method is based on the repeated measurement of randomly selected transformations of individual particles. The statistical evaluation of the measurement results then provides information about the degree of entanglement of the system," explains Andreas Elben from Peter Zoller's team. The Austrian physicists demonstrated the process in a quantum simulator consisting of several ions arranged in a row in a vacuum chamber. Starting from a simple state, the researchers let the individual particles interact with the help of laser pulses and thus generate entanglement in the system. "We perform 500 local transformations on each ion and repeat the measurements a total of 150 times in order to then be able to use statistical methods to determine information about the entanglement state from the measurement results," explains Ph.D. student Tiff Brydges from the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information. In the work now published in Science, the Innsbruck physicists characterized the dynamic development of a system consisting of 10 ions as well as a subsystem consisting of ten ions of a 20-ion chain. "In the laboratory, this new method helps us a lot, because it enables us to understand our quantum simulator even better, and, for example, to assess the purity of the entanglement more precisely," says Christian Roos, who assumes that the new method can be successfully applied to quantum systems with up to several dozen particles. Explore further New tool for characterizing quantum simulators More information: "Probing Renyi entanglement entropy via randomized measurements" Science (2019). Journal information: Science "Probing Renyi entanglement entropy via randomized measurements"(2019). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi 1126/science.aau4963 LEFT - Experimental setup. The experiment was carried out on a homebuilt setup, which combined optically detected magnetic resonance microscopy (ODMR) with atomic force microscopy (AFM). DM: dichroic mirror. BP: bandpass filter working at 650775 nm. APD: avalanche photodiode. CCD: charge coupled device. LED: light emitting diode of 470 nm. AL: achromatic lens. PH: pinhole at a size of 30 m. BS: beam splitter. RIGHT - Images of the nanopillars on diamonds. (A) SEM imaging of the fabricated diamond nanopillars just after reactive ion etching (RIE). The top of the nanopillar is covered by the hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) to protect the NV center. (B) A single trapezoidal-cylinder shaped nanopillar to sense cell sections adhered at the AFM tip. Scale bars, 10 m (A); 400 nm (B). Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau8038. In life sciences, the ability to measure the distribution of biomolecules inside a cell in situ is an important investigative goal. Among a variety of techniques, scientists have used magnetic imaging (MI) based on the nitrogen vacancy center (NV) in diamonds as a powerful tool in biomolecular research. However, nanoscale imaging of intracellular proteins has remained a challenge thus far. In a recent study now published in Science Advances, Pengfei Wang and colleagues at the interdisciplinary departments of physics, biomacromolecules, quantum information and life sciences in China, used ferritin proteins to demonstrate the MI realization of endogenous proteins in a single cell, using the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center as the sensor. They imaged intracellular ferritins and ferritin-containing organelles using MI and correlative electron microscopy to pave the way for nanoscale magnetic imaging (MI) of intracellular proteins. Increasing existing spatial resolution of biomedical imaging is required to achieve ongoing demands in medical imaging, and therefore, among a variety of techniques, magnetic imaging is of broad interest at present. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used to quantify the distribution of nuclear spins but conventional MRI can only reach a resolution of 1 m in nuclear spin imaging where the resolution is limited by electrical detection sensitivity. Scientists have developed a series of techniques to break this resolution barrier, including a superconducting quantum interference device and magnetic resonance force microscopy. Nevertheless, these reports require a cryogenic environment and high vacuum for imaging, limiting the experimental implementation and its translation to clinical practice. A recently developed quantum sensing method based on the nitrogen vacancy center in diamond has radically pushed the boundary of MI techniques at the nanoscale to detect organic molecules and proteins in the lab. Scientists have combined quantum sensing with NV centers and scanning probe microscopy to demonstrate nanoscale MRI for single electron spin and small nuclear spin ensemble while using the NV center as a biocompatible magnetometer to noninvasively image ferromagnetic particles within cells at the subcellular scale (0.4 m). For example, depolarization of the NV center can be used as a wideband magnetometer to detect and measure fluctuating noise from metal ions and nuclear spins. However, such imaging of single proteins via MI at the nanoscale has not been reported in the single cell thus far. Schematic of the setup and experimental principle. (A) Schematic view of the experimental setup. The cell embedded in resin is attached to a tuning fork and scans above the diamond nanopillar that contains a shallow NV center. A copper wire is used to deliver the microwave pulse to the NV center. A green laser (532 nm) from the confocal microscope (CFM) is used to address, initialize, and read out the NV center. (B) Left: Crystal lattice and energy level of the NV center. The NV center is a point defect that consists of a substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy in diamond. Right: Schematic view of a ferritin. The black arrows indicate the electron spins of Fe3+. (C) Experimental demonstration of the spin noise detection with and without ferritin in the form of polarization decay for the same NV center. The inset is the pulse sequence for detection and imaging of the ferritin. A 5-s green laser is used to initialize the spin state to ms = 0, followed by a free evolution time to accumulate the magnetic noise, and finally the spin state is read out by detecting the fluorescence intensity. The pulse sequence is repeated about 105 times to acquire a good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The relaxation time is fitted to be 0.1 and 3.3 ms by exponential decay for the case with and without ferritin, respectively, indicating a spin noise of 0.01 mT2. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau8038. In the present work, Wang et al. reported two technical advancements to allow nanoscale MI of intracellular proteins within a single cell. For this, they freeze-fixed the cell to a solid state and intricately segmented it to a cube shape, then placed it on a tuning fork scanning probe of an atomic force microscope (AFM) for imaging, where the flat cross section of the cell was exposed to air. The scientists used the sample placement setup to allow the NV sensor to be positioned within 10 nm of the target proteins and used the AFM to suppress thermal drift during sample positioning. They then engineered trapezoidal cylinder-shaped nanopillars at a bulk diamond surface for image acquisition, technically shortening the time of image acquisition by one order compared to previous methods. In the present study, the scientists used this technique to conduct in situ MI of the magnetic fluctuating noise of intracellular ferritin proteins (a biomarker of iron stores and transferrin saturation in the body) within the experimental setup. Ferritin is a globular protein complex with an outer diameter of 12 nm, containing a cavity spanning 8 nm in diameter that allows up to 4500 iron atoms to be stored within the protein. The magnetic noise of the ferric ions can be detected due to their effects on the T 1 relaxation time of an NV center. In this work, Wang et al. confirmed the observation using fluorescence measurements of time-dependent decay of the population of NV centers (magnetic spin, m S = 0 state), in a diamond surface coated with ferritins. Additionally, the scientists detected the magnetic noise with label-free methods using the NV center via transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The work allowed the development of a correlated MI and TEM scheme to obtain and verify the first nanoscale MI of a protein in situ. The scientists used the hepatic carcinoma cell line (HepG2) for the experiments and studied iron metabolism by treating the cells with ferric ammonium citrate (FAC), which significantly increased the amount of intracellular ferritin. They verified this using confocal microscopy (CFM), western blotting and TEM techniques at first. The results showed the primary localization of ferritins in the intracellular puncta around the nucleus, among the cytoplasm. The scientists used bulk electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to confirm the paramagnetic properties of ferritin in the FAC-treated HepG2 cells and mass spectroscopy to measure the interference due to other paramagnetic metal ions. TOP - The preparation and characterization of ferritin-rich HepG2 cell samples. (A) Schematic view of the treatment to cultured cells. Following iron loading or no treatment, the HepG2 cells were examined for fluorescence images and EPR spectra, respectively. For the MI and TEM imaging, cell samples were treated through high-pressure freezing, freeze substitution, and sectioning. (B) Representative confocal microscopy (CFM) image of ferritin structures (green) in iron-loaded HepG2 cells. The ferritin proteins were immunostained by anti-ferritin light chain antibody. The nuclei are indicated by 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) in the blue channel. Inset displays magnified ferritin structures. The yellow dashed line outlines the contour of a cell. Scale bar, 20 m. (C) EPR spectra of control and iron-loaded HepG2 cells at T = 300 K. BOTTOM - Adjusting the distance between the NV center and the cell section. (A) Interference fringes between the cell cube and the diamond surface. Scale bar, 20 m. (B) The geometric relation and the gap R between cell samples and diamond-pillars for MI. The top surface diameter of the nanopillar is 400 nm. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau8038. Wang et al. then used ultrafast, high-pressure freezing to immobilize all intracellular components of the Fe-loaded cells. The process stabilized the intracellular structures and molecules by minimizing Brownian motion in cells, which typically contributes to random motion of proteins up to 100 nm in vivo. To image the samples, they embedded and polymerized the frozen cells in LR White medium, followed by gluing the embedded cell sample to the AFM tuning fork with a few cells at the tip. Using a diamond knife, the scientists then sectioned the tip surface to nanometer flatness to examine the cuboid cell section under AFM. They acquired MI images of ferritins by scanning the cell cube along the diamond nanopillars and simultaneously measured NV spin repolarization rate using the "leapfrog" scanning mode of the microscope as detailed previously. Correlative MI and TEM images. (A) Schematic view of sectioning for correlative MI and TEM imaging. The last section and the remaining cube were transferred for TEM imaging and MI scanning, respectively. The sectioning resulted in some split ferritin clusters that could be imaged under both microscopes. A transparent blue strip of ~10 nm indicates the imaging depth of the MI, while in the TEM, the imaging depth is ~100 nm. (B) Distribution of ferritins from the last ultrathin section under TEM. Inset: Magnified figure of the part in black dashed box. (C) MI result of the remaining cell cube. The pixel size is 43 nm. (D) The merged MI and TEM micrograph shows ferritins in a membrane-bound organelle. The red arrows in (B) to (D) indicate the same ferritin cluster. Scale bars, 5 m (B) and 1 m [B (inset), C, and D]. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau8038. The scientists measured fluorescence decay at a fixed free evolution time of 50 microseconds ( = 50 s) to reveal the degree of NV sensor spin polarization, which correlated with the amount of ferritin in the sensing volume. They observed the appearance of some clusters via both TEM and MI images, although some details were not observed in MI, the results confirmed that spin noise from intracellular ferritin contributed to depolarize the NV center. In order to obtain details of the ferritin clusters at higher resolution, the scientists minimized the pixel size to 8.3 nm and acquired MI of high resolution of the proteins as expected. In this way, Wang et al. explored the sensitivity of NV centers as an appropriate sensor for biological imaging applications at the level of the single molecule. They used the technique as a sensor in the experimental setup to obtain the first MI of a protein at a resolution of 10 nm in situ. The scientists aim to improve the stability and sensitivity of the technique to speed up the scanning process and image a larger area of interest in the cell and locate ferritin beyond the nucleus in association with additional organelles. (A) Ferritin cluster imaged by the NV sensor with 80 24 pixels and a pixel size of 8.3 nm. Scale bar, 100 nm. (B) Trace data of the scanning line in (A) directed by the red arrow. The platform indicates the ferritin cluster. The red curve fitted by a plateau function serves as a guide to the eye. (C) Magnified figure of the gold dashed box in (B). The sharp transition indicated by the red arrow around x = 283 nm shows the scanning from the blank area to the area with ferritins. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau8038. The work will contribute to clinical diagnostics to determine biomarker-based iron storage and release in cells. This will include studies on the regulatory mechanisms of iron metabolism during the progression of hemochromatosis, anemia, liver cirrhosis and Alzheimer's disease. Wang et al. propose to extend the approach in situ to other cellular components with paramagnetic signals, including magnetic molecules, metalloproteins and special spin-labelled proteins. The scientists envision that further studies will explore additional targets suitable for high-resolution MI and correlated TEM imaging techniques, with optical microscopy detection incorporated to the experimental setup to extend the work and determine protein nuclear spin MRI as well as perform three-dimensional cell tomography. Explore further New method discovered to view proteins inside human cells 2019 Science X Network Samples like these were examined by the chemists from MLU. Credit: Annemarie Kramell Even thousands of years ago, people wore clothing with colourful patterns made from plant and animal-based dyes. Chemists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have created new analytical methods to examine textiles from China and Peru that are several thousand years old. In the scientific journal Scientific Reports, they describe the new method, which can reconstruct the spatial distribution of dyes, and hence the patterns, in textile samples. Chemists Dr. Annemarie Kramell and Professor Rene Csuk from MLU examined two ancient textile samples. One comes from the ancient Chinese city of Niya and was probably once part of a shirt. It is over 2,000 years old. The other sample comes from Peru and dates back to 1100 to 1400 AD. It was produced by the Ichma people who lived in Peru at that time. Today, there is often little evidence of the colourfulness of such ancient clothing. "Time has not treated them well. What was once colourful is now mostly dirty, grey and brown," says Rene Csuk. Over time, the natural dyes have decomposed as a result of the effects of light, air and water, explains the chemist. In the past, only natural dyes were used. "The roots of a genus of plants called Rubia, for example, were used to create the red colours, and ground walnut shells produced the brown tones," says Annemarie Kramell. Even back then, people mixed individual materials to create different shades. The researchers have developed a new analytical method that allows them to detect which materials were used for which colours. With the aid of modern imaging mass spectrometry, they have succeeded in depicting the dye compositions of historical textile samples as isotopic distributions. Previously, the dyes had to be removed from the textiles. However, that previous method also destroyed the pattern. This new approach enables the chemists from MLU to analyse the dyes directly from the surface of the textile samples. To do this, the piece of material under investigation is first embedded in another material. "The piece is placed in a matrix made up of a material called Technovit7100. Slices are produced from this material that are only a few micrometres thick. These are then transferred to special slides," explains Csuk. Similar methods are used, for example, in medical research to examine human tissue. The advantage is that this method can be used to study very complex samples on a micrometre scale. "This enables us to distinguish between two interwoven threads that held originally different colours," says Csuk. With the help their new method the researchers were able to reconstruct the distribution of the dyes. Credit: Annemarie Kramell Chemist Rene Csuk inspecting a textile sample. Credit: MLU / Michael Deutsch As part of the new study, researchers were able to detect indigo dyes in the samples. However, the method can also be applied to many other dye classes and provides insights into the process of textile production in past cultures, the two scientists conclude. The research was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the project "Silk road fashion: Clothing as a means of communication in the 1st millennium BC, Eastern Central Asia". The Hans Knoll Institute in Jena and Dr. Gerd Hause from MLU's Biocentre were also involved in the project. Explore further Chemists report a detailed description of azopyrazolonic dyes More information: Annemarie Elisabeth Kramell et al, Mapping Natural Dyes in Archeological Textiles by Imaging Mass Spectrometry, Scientific Reports (2019). Journal information: Scientific Reports Annemarie Elisabeth Kramell et al, Mapping Natural Dyes in Archeological Textiles by Imaging Mass Spectrometry,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-38706-4 Provided by Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg Gravitational deflection by quasar-hosting dark matter halos. Credit: David Tree, Professor Peter Richardson, Games and Visual Effects Research Lab, University of Hertfordshire Scientists have used the tiny distortions imprinted on the cosmic microwave background by the gravity of matter throughout the universe, recorded by ESA's Planck satellite, to uncover the connection between the luminosity of quasars the bright cores of active galaxies and the mass of the much larger 'halos' of dark matter in which they sit. The result is an important confirmation for our understanding of how galaxies evolve across cosmic history. Most galaxies in the universe are known to host supermassive black holes, with masses of millions to billions of times the Sun's mass, at their cores. The majority of these cosmic monsters are 'dormant', with little or no activity going on near them, but about one percent are classified as 'active', accreting matter from their surroundings at very intense rates. This accretion process causes material in the black hole's vicinity to shine brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum, making these active galaxies, or quasars, some of the brightest sources in the cosmos. While it is still unclear what activates these black holes, switching on and off their phase of intense accretion, it is likely that quasars play an important role in regulating the evolution of galaxies across cosmic history. For this reason, it is crucial to understand the relationship between quasars, their host galaxies, and their environment on even larger scales. In a recent study led by James Geach of the University of Hertfordshire, UK, scientists have combined data from ESA's Planck mission with the largest survey of quasars available to date to shed light on this fascinating topic. According to the leading scenario of structure formation in the universe, galaxies take shape out of ordinary matter in the densest knots of the cosmic web a filamentary network, made up primarily of the invisible dark matter, that pervades the cosmos. In turn, the complex distribution of both ordinary and dark matter originates from tiny fluctuations in the primordial universe, which leave an imprint in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the most ancient light in the history of the universe. The Planck satellite has been scanning the sky between 2009 and 2013 to create the most precise all-sky map of the CMB, enabling scientists to refine our knowledge of the age, expansion, history, and contents of the universe to unprecedented levels of accuracy. Gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background. Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration And there is more: as predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, massive objects bend the fabric of spacetime around them, distorting the path of everything even light that passes nearby. This phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, affects also Planck's measurements of the CMB, which carry an imprint of the large-scale distribution of matter that the most ancient cosmic light encountered along its way to the satellite. "We know that galaxies form and evolve within an invisible 'scaffolding' of dark matter that we cannot directly observe, but we can exploit the gravitational lensing distortions imprinted on the cosmic microwave background to learn about the dark matter structures around galaxies," says James Geach. Gravitational lensing distortions of the CMB are small, rearranging the CMB sky picture on scales of about 10 minutes of arc equivalent to just one third the diameter of the full Moon. But many tiny deflections from across the sky can be combined, with the help of statistical methods, to obtain a stronger signal, piling up the data gathered around many quasars. In their research, Geach and colleagues analysed the latest gravitational lensing map obtained by the Planck team, made public as part of the Planck Legacy Release in 2018, in combination with 200 000 quasars drawn from the largest sample ever compiled, the more than half-a-million quasars that comprise Data Release 14 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalogue. "By combining the Planck data with such a large sample of quasars, we could measure the mass of the dark matter halos in which the quasar host galaxies are embedded, and investigate how this varies for quasars of different luminosity," says Geach. The analysis hints that that the more luminous a quasar is, the more massive its halo of dark matter. Gravitational deflection by quasar-hosting dark matter halos. Credit: David Tree, Professor Peter Richardson, Games and Visual Effects Research Lab, University of Hertfordshire "This is compelling evidence that a correlation exists between the luminosity of a quasar, energy that is released in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole a region spanning perhaps a few light days and the mass of the encompassing halo of dark matter and surrounding environment, which extends for tens of millions of light years around the quasar," Geach explains. "We're using the cosmic microwave background as a kind of 'backlight' to the universe. That backlight has been gravitationally lensed by foreground matter, and so by correlating galaxies with the Planck lensing map, we have a new way to study galaxies and their evolution." The finding supports theoretical models of quasar formation, which predict a correlation between quasar luminosity and halo mass, in particular for the most luminous quasars, where the black holes are accreting matter at close to the maximum rate. The study focused on distant quasars that are observed as they were when the universe was about four billion years old about one third of its current age of nearly 14 billion years. This is close to the peak era of supermassive black hole growth. In combination with deeper quasar surveys in the future, the Planck data could enable scientists to push these investigations to even earlier times in cosmic history, up to the epoch when the first quasars formed. "This result shows the power of Planck's gravitational lensing measurements, which make it possible for us to measure the invisible structures of dark matter in which galaxies form and evolve," says Jan Tauber, Planck project scientist at ESA. "The legacy of Planck is quite astonishing, with data that are being used for a much wider range of scientific applications than originally conceived for." "The halo mass of optically-luminous quasars at z~12 measured via gravitational deflection of the cosmic microwave background" by J. E. Geach et al. is published in The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 874, Number 1. Explore further Active galaxies point to new physics of cosmic expansion More information: J. E. Geach et al. The Halo Mass of Optically Luminous Quasars at z 12 Measured via Gravitational Deflection of the Cosmic Microwave Background, The Astrophysical Journal (2019). Journal information: Astrophysical Journal J. E. Geach et al. The Halo Mass of Optically Luminous Quasars at z 12 Measured via Gravitational Deflection of the Cosmic Microwave Background,(2019). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab0894 Observation of ordered polar structure. a, b, Cross-sectional dark-field TEM images of a (SrTiO3)16/(PbTiO3)16/(SrTiO3)16 trilayer (a) and a [(SrTiO3)16/(PbTiO3)16]8 superlattice (b), revealing a regular in-plane modulation of about 8 nm. c, d, Planar-view dark-field STEM imaging shows the widespread occurrence of nanometre-size round and elongated features in a (SrTiO3)4/(PbTiO3)11/(SrTiO3)11 trilayer (c) and only circular features in a [(SrTiO3)16/(PbTiO3)16]8 superlattice (d) along the [100] and [010] directions. The STEM studies were repeated in a minimum of 10 separate samples and the observations were repeatable. Insets, FFT of the images in c and d show a ring-like distribution with stronger intensities along the cubic directionsthe same feature seen in RSM studies. Credit: Nature (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1092-8 An international team of researchers has discovered a way to create and observe room-temperature polar skyrmions. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes creating the polar skyrmions and their observations. Pavlo Zubko, with the London Centre for Nanotechnology, has published a News and Views piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue. Zubko describes skyrmions as "tiny whorls of magnetic moments," and notes that a lot of research has been done with them because they are very useful in data storage applications. But he also notes that finding electrical versions of skyrmions has been a difficult journey. That may change, however, as the researchers with this new effort report a way to create and observe at least one kind of electrically based skyrmionthe polar skyrmion. Zubko notes that the researchers started with the observation that ferroelectrics and ferromagnetics, despite being very different, have some basic similar propertiesspontaneous magnetization and polarization are just one example. He suggests it is this property that makes both such a draw for data storage applications. He also notes that scientists have been searching for some time for polarization in ferroelectrics that rotate in a way that could lead to the creation of skyrmions. Prior work has shown that when ferroelectrics are confined at the nanoscale, they become more sensitive to stresses and electric fields, which can upset polar orientation and give way to dipoles. In such scenarios, small regions of dipoles with the same orientation can form spontaneously and those regions will have boundary walls separating them from other regions. Simulation of a single polar skyrmion. Red arrows signify that this is a left-handed skyrmion. The other arrows represent the angular distribution of the dipoles. Credit: Xiaoxing Cheng, Pennsylvania State University; C.T. Nelson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Berkeley Lab Army-funded research discovery may allow for development of novel device structures that can be used to improve logic/memory, sensing, communications, and other applications for the Army as well as industry. Image demonstrates simulation of emergent chirality in polar skyrmions for the first time in oxide superlattices. Credit: Xiaoxing Cheng, Pennsylvania State University; C.T. Nelson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Ramamoorthy Ramesh, University of California, Berkeley In their work, the researchers noted that the domain walls had polarization components that were perpendicular to those that resided next to them. They found that all it took was looping a domain wall between regions to force a ring of polarization to develop, which led to the creation of bubblespolar skyrmions. The team then used an electron microscope that was capable of showing atomic displacement to observe the skyrmions. They further report that X-ray diffraction of the skyrmions showed them to have macroscopic chirality. Zubko suggests that much more work will need to be done with the skyrmions to find out if they will work with real-world applications, such as racetrack memory devices. Explore further Physicists show skyrmions can exist in ferroelectrics More information: S. Das et al. Observation of room-temperature polar skyrmions, Nature (2019). S. Das et al. Observation of room-temperature polar skyrmions,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1092-8 Press release Journal information: Nature 2019 Science X Network A new paper outlines a method to directly detect particles from the 'dark world' using the Large Hadron Collider. Until now we've only been able to make indirect measurements and simulations, such as the visualization of dark matter above. Credit: Zarija Lukic/Berkeley Lab Now that they've identified the Higgs boson, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider have set their sights on an even more elusive target. All around us is dark matter and dark energythe invisible stuff that binds the galaxy together, but which no one has been able to directly detect. "We know for sure there's a dark world, and there's more energy in it than there is in ours," said LianTao Wang, a University of Chicago professor of physics who studies how to find signals in large particle accelerators like the LHC. Wang, along with scientists from the University and UChicago-affiliated Fermilab, think they may be able to lead us to its tracks; in a paper published April 3 in Physical Review Letters, they laid out an innovative method for stalking dark matter in the LHC by exploiting a potential particle's slightly slower speed. While the dark world makes up more than 95 percent of the universe, scientists only know it exists from its effectslike a poltergeist you can only see when it pushes something off a shelf. For example, we know there's dark matter because we can see gravity acting on itit helps keep our galaxies from flying apart. Theorists think there's one particular kind of dark particle that only occasionally interacts with normal matter. It would be heavier and longer-lived than other known particles, with a lifetime up to one tenth of a second. A few times in a decade, researchers believe, this particle can get caught up in the collisions of protons that the LHC is constantly creating and measuring. "One particularly interesting possibility is that these long-lived dark particles are coupled to the Higgs boson in some fashionthat the Higgs is actually a portal to the dark world," said Wang, referring to the last holdout particle in physicists' grand theory of how the universe works, discovered at the LHC in 2012. "It's possible that the Higgs could actually decay into these long-lived particles." The only problem is sorting out these events from the rest; there are more than a billion collisions per second in the 27-kilometer LHC, and each one of these sends subatomic chaff spraying in all directions. Wang, UChicago postdoctoral fellow Jia Liu and Fermilab scientist Zhen Liu (now at the University of Maryland) proposed a new way to search by exploiting one particular aspect of such a dark particle. "If it's that heavy, it costs energy to produce, so its momentum would not be largeit would move more slowly than the speed of light," said Liu, the first author on the study. That time delay would set it apart from all the rest of the normal particles. Scientists would only need to tweak the system to look for particles that are produced and then decay a bit more slowly than everything else. The difference is on the order of a nanoseconda billionth of a secondor smaller. But the LHC already has detectors sophisticated enough to catch this difference; a recent study using data collected from the last run and found the method should work, plus the detectors will get even more sensitive as part of the upgrade that is currently underway. "We anticipate this method will increase our sensitivity to long-lived dark particles by more than an order of magnitudewhile using capabilities we already have at the LHC," Liu said. Experimentalists are already working to build the trap: When the LHC turns back on in 2021, after boosting its luminosity by tenfold, all three of the major detectors will be implementing the new system, the scientists said. "We think it has great potential for discovery," Liu said. "If the particle is there, we just have to find a way to dig it out," Wang said. "Usually, the key is finding the question to ask." Explore further CERN lab on the hunt for dark matter More information: Jia Liu et al. Enhancing Long-Lived Particles Searches at the LHC with Precision Timing Information, Physical Review Letters (2019). Journal information: Physical Review Letters Jia Liu et al. Enhancing Long-Lived Particles Searches at the LHC with Precision Timing Information,(2019). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.131801 The team worked with Peruvian brewers to recreate the ancient chicha recipe used at Cerro Baul. Credit: Donna Nash A thousand years ago, the Wari empire stretched across Peru. At its height, it covered an area the size of the Eastern seaboard of the US from New York City to Jacksonville. It lasted for 500 years, from 600 to 1100 AD, before eventually giving rise to the Inca. That's a long time for an empire to remain intact, and archaeologists are studying remnants of the Wari culture to see what kept it ticking. A new study found an important factor that might have helped: a steady supply of beer. "This study helps us understand how beer fed the creation of complex political organizations," says Ryan Williams, an associate curator and Head of Anthropology at the Field Museum and the lead author of the new study in Sustainability. "We were able to apply new technologies to capture information about how ancient beer was produced and what it meant to societies in the past." Nearly twenty years ago, Williams, Nash, and their team discovered an ancient Wari brewery in Cerro Baul in the mountains of southern Peru. "It was like a microbrewery in some respects. It was a production house, but the brewhouses and taverns would have been right next door," explains Williams. And since the beer they brewed, a light, sour beverage called chicha, was only good for about a week after being made, it wasn't shipped offsitepeople had to come to festivals at Cerro Baul to drink it. These festivals were important to Wari societybetween one and two hundred local political elites would attend, and they would drink chicha from three-foot-tall ceramic vessels decorated to look like Wari gods and leaders. "People would have come into this site, in these festive moments, in order to recreate and reaffirm their affiliation with these Wari lords and maybe bring tribute and pledge loyalty to the Wari state," says Williams. In short, beer helped keep the empire together. Lead author Ryan Williams doing excavation work at the brewery site in Cerro Baul. Credit: Field Museum To learn more about the beer that played such an important role in Wari society, Williams and his co-authors Donna Nash (Field Museum and University of North Carolina Greensboro), Josh Henkin (Field Museum and University of Illinois at Chicago) and Ruth Ann Armitage (Eastern Michigan University) analyzed pieces of ceramic beer vessels from Cerro Baul. They used several techniques, including one that involved shooting a laser at a shard of a beer vessel to remove a tiny bit of material, and then heating that dust to the temperature of the surface of the sun to break down the molecules that make it up. From there, the researchers were able to tell what atomic elements make up the sample, and how manyinformation that told researchers exactly where the clay came from and what the beer was made of. "The cool thing about this study is that we're getting down to the atomic level. We're counting atoms in the pores of the ceramics or trying to reconstruct and count the masses of molecules that were in the original drink from a thousand years ago that got embedded into the empty spaces between grains of clay in the ceramic vessels, and that's what's telling us the new information about what the beer was made of and where the ceramic vessels were produced," says Williams. "It's really new information at the molecular level that is giving archaeologists this new insight into the past." To check that the ingredients in chicha could indeed be transferred to the brewing vessels, the researchers worked with Peruvian brewers to recreate the brewing process. "Making chicha is a complicated process that requires experience and expertise. The experiments taught us a lot about what making chicha would look like in the ruins of a building and how much labor and time went into the process," says Donna Nash, an adjunct curator at the Field Museum and professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, who led the brewing recreation. (Incidentally, the Field Museum and Chicago's Off Colour Brewing released a beer based on Nash's work, a pink ale infused with pepper berries, called Wari Ale; it's being re-released in Chicago-area stores and bars in June.) A replica of a chicha vessel used in Cerro Baul. Credit: Field Museum By looking at the chemical makeup of traces of beer left in the vessels and at the chemical makeup of the clay vessels themselves, the team found two important things. One, the vessels were made of clay that came from nearby, and two, the beer was made of pepper berries, an ingredient that can grow even during a drought. Both these things would help make for a steady beer supplyeven if a drought made it hard to grow other chicha ingredients like corn, or if changes in trade made it hard to get clay from far away, vessels of pepper berry chicha would still be readily available. The authors of the study argue that this steady supply of beer could have helped keep Wari society stable. The Wari empire was huge and made up of different groups of people from all over Peru. "We think these institutions of brewing and then serving the beer really formed a unity among these populations, it kept people together," says Williams. The study's implications about how shared identity and cultural practices help to stabilize societies are increasingly relevant today. "This research is important because it helps us understand how institutions create the binds that tie together people from very diverse constituencies and very different backgrounds," says Williams. "Without them, large political entities begin to fragment and break up into much smaller things. Brexit is an example of this fragmentation in the European Union today. We need to understand the social constructs that underpin these unifying features if we want to be able to maintain political unity in society." Explore further Beauties and beer: Another Peruvian tale The new device is compact: it fits into a 10-centimeter box, weighs less than 150 grams and is powered by a 5V battery. Credit: KAUST A tiny, portable radar device could allow visually impaired people, or unmanned moving devices to detect objects in real time. Radar technology has been used for decades in aviation, defense and speed-camera technology. Now, a team at KAUST, in collaboration with scientists at the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, have created a compact, low-cost radar with potential applications in healthcare and personal security. Radar provides detailed information about the size, distance and speed of moving objects. However, for close-range applications, the transmitted radio waves must have short wavelengths to pick up as much detail as possible about its immediate environment. Such sensors could help visually impaired people, and unmanned moving devices, to see by translating radar reflections into useful information. "Current radar modules are large and bulky. They also lose out on key details because they operate using long radio wavelengths," says Seifallah Jardak , who worked on the project under the supervision of Sajid Ahmed and Mohamed-Slim Alouini from KAUST and along with Tero Kiuru and Mikko Metso from VTT. "We wanted to develop a low-power, portable radar. Colleagues at VTT brought the necessary experience in millimeter-wave and hardware design, while I focused on the signal processing side and developed modular radar software," explains Jardak. Seifallah Jardak (left) discusses his radar device with supervisor Mohamed-Slim Alouini. Credit: KAUST The earliest prototype performed a single scan every two seconds, making it difficult to acquire enough input data. Jardak optimized the signal processing modules and improved the performance to eight scans per second, providing better real-time monitoring. The device design incorporates a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar. This means the radar produces continuous pulses of millimeter-wavelength radio waves which have a frequency that varies during each pulse. The small wavelength means that the time taken for pulses to reach an object and reflect back, and therefore the distance to the object, are calculated accurately. "To limit the size of our system, we chose an operating frequency of 24 Gigahertz. This enabled us to reduce the size of the microstrip antenna," says Jardak. "Our design also has one transmitting and two receiving antennae, meaning it can better estimate the angular location of a target." The device fits into a 10-centimeter box, weighs less than 150 grams and is powered by a 5V battery. Initial trials suggest the device is capable of target detection, speed estimation and tracking at ranges of up to 12 meters. The team even used it to detect whether a person was breathing when sitting in a chair. "Our prototype may also be useful for unmanned robotic and quadcopter applications where a collision avoidance system is required," adds Jardak. Explore further Virtual tests for autonomous driving systems More information: Sergio Saponara et al. Low Cost FMCW Radar Design and Implementation for Harbour Surveillance Applications, Applications in Electronics Pervading Industry, Environment and Society (2015). Sergio Saponara et al. Low Cost FMCW Radar Design and Implementation for Harbour Surveillance Applications,(2015). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-20227-3_18 Continuous version of Maxwell's demon is able to extract large amounts of work arbitrarily per cycle through repeated measurements of the state of a system. Credit: M. Ribezzi-Crivellari et al. Maxwell's demon is a machine proposed by James Clerk Maxwell in 1867. The hypothetical machine would use thermal fluctuations to obtain energy, apparently violating the second principle of thermodynamics. Now, researchers at the University of Barcelona have presented the first theoretical and experimental solution of a continuous version of Maxwell's demon in a single molecule system. The results, published in the journal Nature Physics, have applications in other fields, such as biological and quantum systems. "Despite its simplicity and the large amount of work in the field, this new variant of the classical Maxwell demon has remained unexplored until now," notes Felix Ritort, professor from the Department of Fundamental Physics of the UB. "In this study, we introduced a system able to extract large amounts of work arbitrarily per cycle through repeated measurements of the state of a system." Finding the favourable moment Waiting for such a propitious occasion to get benefits is the same behavioural pattern of a speculator waiting for the right moment in stock exchange, or a predator waiting for a prey to come near. "From a thermodynamics point of view, that certain intuitive aspect in trying to look for the right moment is what takes more energy. The answer is whether it is possible to get the same energy from the propitious moment than the inverted one in the searching process, i.e. through a thermodynamically reversible process," notes Marco Ribezzi, researcher at the UB and the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry (ESPCI Paris/CNRS). "Our experiments demonstrate it is possible to find the right moment, and not very common at the same time, and to use it in a reversible way. These results show the underlying thermodynamic structure to a general problem that can find many applications, for instance, in the field of biology," notes Ribezzi. According to the researchers, the new version of Maxwell's demon could have consequences in self-organization and selection processes that occur during biological evolution. For instance, this device could be relevant in the regulation of biological networks in generation, transmission and transduction of signals through cell membranes. The experimental testing has been conducted in a system of optical tweezers, which enables the manipulation of a molecule each time, in this case a DNA molecule. With the right force on this structure, it is possible to unfold it, but if the force is small enough, the unfolded state becomes rare, so it finds the precise moment it was looking for. When the molecule is in a rare state, it has more energy and it is possible to use it. "The rarer the episode, the harder for us to find it, but the more energy we can get from it," notes Ribezzi. "The astonishing complexity of the living matter could be seen as the result, over several evolutionary timescales, of a big process of energy extraction in proper environments to store big amounts of information that are hidden by noise and randomness," concludes Ritort, also member of the Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBER-BBN). More information: M. Ribezzi-Crivellari et al, Large work extraction and the Landauer limit in a continuous Maxwell demon, Nature Physics (2019). Journal information: Nature Physics M. Ribezzi-Crivellari et al, Large work extraction and the Landauer limit in a continuous Maxwell demon,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-019-0481-0 The international Committee for support of the Palestinian people has commended the decision of King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, to allocate a substantial financial grant to restore and upgrade some areas within the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islams holiest sites, in occupied Jerusalem. The committee issued a statement to thank the King of Morocco for his initiative and his commitments as the chairman of the Al Quds Committee, an offshoot of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The Committee lauded the Sovereigns continued interest and concern for Al-Quds Asharif, its sacredness and civilizational heritage, as well as its spiritual dimension for the three monotheistic religions. The Committee also commended the continuous support of the Moroccan Sovereign, government and people for the freedom of the Palestinian people, and hailed their noble stances in support of the resistance of the people of Al-Quds and the establishment of the independent State of Palestine, with Al-Quds Asharif as its capital. On Wednesday, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that King Mohammed VI has decided to grant a substantial financial subvention as a contribution from Morocco to the refurbishment and renovation of some areas of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings. The initiative is part of the Kings commitment to preserving the historical symbol of Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry said, adding that a team of Moroccan architects and engineers will be dispatched to help with restoration works. The Kings initiative came three days after a fire broke out at the Dome of the Rock compound in Jerusalem. The fire affected a guards room near the Marwani Prayer Room, also known as Solomons Stables. The fire broke out in the mosque at the same time Notre Dame Cathedral, the landmark Gothic monument in Paris, caught fire on Monday evening. The initiative also came a couple of weeks after King Mohammed VI and Pope Francis signed in Rabat The Jerusalem / Al-Quds Call urging for the preservation and for promoting and enhancing the specific multi-faith character, spiritual dimension and special identity of the holy city. Based in Rabat, the international Committee for support of the Palestinian people is an offshoot of the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization. Morocco has decided to make a financial contribution to the reconstruction of Notre-Dame cathedral, the landmark Gothic monument in Paris, which caught fire last Monday evening. The announcement was made by Moroccos ambassador to France Chakib Benmoussa at a meeting he held Thursday with Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit. The Ambassador informed the Archbishop of Paris that, at the high instruction of King Mohammed VI, the Commander of the Faithful, the Kingdom of Morocco has decided to make a financial contribution to the reconstruction of Notre-Dame cathedral, says the embassy in a press release. During the meeting, the Ambassador reiterated to the Archbishop of Paris the support, compassion and solidarity expressed by the King, on behalf of all Moroccans, following the fire that devastated the Cathedral, symbol of the city of Paris, the history of France and a place of recollection for millions of faithful, adds the press release. The Archbishop of Paris seized the opportunity to bring up the historic visit Pope Francis paid lately to Morocco at the invitation of King Mohammed VI and the landmark events that took place during this visit. In a message to French President Emmanuel Macron following the incident, King Mohammed VI expressed solidarity and sympathy with the French people, saying that this disaster affects not only one of the most emblematic historical monuments of the city of Paris, but also a site of prayers for millions of worshipers from around the world. A major fire ravaged Monday the French landmark monument, described by many as an architectural jewel of a collective memory, and the location of many great national and private events. The religious site, which dates back to the 12th century, is among one of Europes top relics, attracting some 13 million visitors a year. About Me Scott Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world. View my complete profile Meet Edward OCallaghan. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images At a Thursday morning press conference on the Mueller reports impending release, Attorney General William Barr offered an effusive absolution of President Donald Trump. The entire exercise felt more like public relations than fair-minded legal analysis, and Barrs conclusions will likely contribute to existing perceptions that the Department of Justice is essentially working for Trump. But Barr didnt work alone, and as public scrutiny inevitably fixes on him in the aftermath of todays events, he may share the hot seat with the two individuals who joined him for Thursdays briefing. One, Rod Rosenstein, is somewhat familiar to the public as the departments deputy attorney general. His bearded neighbor is not as well known. Hes Edward OCallaghan, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who joined the Department of Justice earlier this month as a principal associate deputy attorney general. OCallaghans career reveals a firm commitment to the Republican Party. As Newsweek reported, OCallaghan previously worked for the 2008 presidential campaign of the late Senator John McCain. In that capacity, he traveled to Alaska to intervene in a state investigation into Sarah Palin, then the states governor and McCains running mate. Palin faced an ethics probe into her suspicious termination of the states Department of Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan; Monegan had reportedly refused to fire a state trooper who happened to be the ex-husband of Palins sister. According to Newsweek, OCallaghan worked with Palin aide Meghan Stapleton to try to defuse the investigation. Stapleton and this guy did almost daily press conferences to discredit the investigation, Hollis French, an Alaska legislator, told Newsweek. She was the face Alaskans would recognize. Others would have no idea who this attorney was standing next to her. Les Gara, a serving Democratic state legislator, told the magazine that OCallaghan and Stapleton made the investigation look like a Democratic attack against Palin. Sounds familiar! Donald Trump Jr. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images There are many pages in the Mueller report. This is a story about what happens on one of the pages. On page 59 of the report, Mueller describes interactions that Donald Trump Jr., the presidents son, had with WikiLeaks, the organization that helped disseminate the hacked DNC emails. WikiLeaks had been passed the log-in credentials for the website putintrump.org, a website set up by a PAC linking the president to Russia. "Let's bomb Iraq" Progress For America PAC to launch 'https://t.co/xErY9cjkz6' at 9.30am. Oops pw is 'putintrump' https://t.co/F99mLV5YOc pic.twitter.com/IISqmmCGHd WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 21, 2016 According to the report, a few hours after that tweet, WikiLeaks messaged Trump Jr.: A PAC run anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch. The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is putintrump. See About for who is behind it. Any comments? Several hours after that, according to Muellers report, Trump Jr. sent the following message to a variety of senior campaign staff: Guys I got a weird Twitter DM from wikileaks. See below. I tried the password and it works and the about section they reference contains the next pic in terms of who is behind it. Not sure if this is anything but it seems like its really wikileaks asking me as I follow them and it is a DM. Do you know the people mentioned and what the conspiracy they are looking for could be? These are just screen shots but its a fully built out page claiming to be a PAC let me know your thoughts and if we want to look into it. The red flag that sticks out is the part where Trump Jr. writes, I tried the password and it works. As far as my understanding of cybercrime law goes, this act, even on its own, could be construed as criminal. (Not that it really matters or that I care if the guy goes to jail or whatever. In fact, he shouldnt. Im really just trying to convey to you how stupid the laws on this subject are.) Much of U.S. cybercrime law remains governed by an archaic piece of legislation called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which basically makes it illegal to gain unauthorized access to a protected computer system. Thats about as specific as it gets. If you access a computer you werent supposed to, you broke the law. In 2016, for instance, journalist Matthew Keys was sentenced to two years in prison for passing along log-in info for a website, which was lightly vandalized for less than an hour. The law is in serious need of reform. You can see why this is, in 2019, complicated. If someone gives you their Netflix log-in, they might be authorizing your access, but Netflix is not. Theoretically, sharing the log-in with a friend is illegal, even if they dont use it. Another part of the law also concerns damage and loss caused by the unauthorized access. Again, the law is vague, so damage could mean deleting information from the system, and loss might mean costing the hacked party money by making them pay for security audits and upgrades. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that if someone sends you a password, and you try it out just to see if it works, prosecutors can make a very easy case that you broke the law. Some could say that its analogous to someone handing you a key to a house and you breaking in just to see if it works. If you are, I dunno, working on a high-profile presidential campaign and someone from WikiLeaks hands you log-in credentials, maybe dont use them! Just my two cents. Trumps request that Comey go easy on Michael Flynn was one glaring example of what some might call obstruction of justice. Photo: Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images Beyond the bland assertions from William Barr (in his March 24 summary of principal findings letter and his press conference today) that Robert Mueller found no actionable incidents where the president committed a criminal obstruction of justice are the actual incidents the report details and Muellers own findings of fact about what Trump did. In themselves, these findings raise some troubling questions that cannot simply be swept under the rug, much less answered with sweeping assertions of a fictional exoneration. Mueller examined 11 incidents, which I have labeled descriptively; quotes from Muellers summary of the facts follow each heading. 1. Trump campaign denies Russian connections. After WikiLeaks released politically damaging Democratic Party emails that were reported to have been hacked by Russia, Trump publicly expressed skepticism that Russia was responsible for the hacks Trump also denied having any business in or connections to Russia, even though as late as June 2016 the Trump Organization had been pursuing a licensing deal for a skyscraper to be built in Russia called Trump Tower Moscow. After the election, the President expressed concerns to advisors that reports of Russias election interference might lead the public to question the legitimacy of his election. 2. Trump asks Comey for loyalty, and then to go easy on Michael Flynn. On January 27, the day after the President was told that Flynn had lied to the Vice President and had made similar statements to the FBI, the President invited FBI Director Comey to a private dinner at the White House and told Comey that he needed loyalty. On February 14, the day after the President requested Flynns resignation, the President told an outside advisor, Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over Later that afternoon, the President cleared the Oval Office to have a one-on-one meeting with Comey. Referring to the FBIs investigation of Flynn, the President said, I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. 3. Trump rages against Sessionss recusal, and puts even more pressure on Comey. In early March, the President told White House Counsel Donald McGahn to stop Sessions from recusing. And after Sessions announced his recusal on March 2, the President expressed anger at the decision and told advisors that he should have an Attorney General who would protect him. That weekend, the President took Sessions aside at an event and urged him to unrecuse [T]he President reached out to the Director of National Intelligence and the leaders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) to ask them what they could do to publicly dispel the suggestion that the President had any connection to the Russian election-interference effort. The President also twice called Comey directly, notwithstanding guidance from McGahn to avoid direct contacts with the Department of Justice. 4. Trump fires Comey. The day of the firing, the White House maintained that Comeys termination resulted from independent recommendations from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General that Comey should be discharged for mishandling the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But the President had decided to fire Comey before hearing from the Department of Justice. The day after firing Comey, the President told Russian officials that he had faced great pressure because of Russia, which had been taken off by Comeys firing. The next day, the President acknowledged in a television interview that he was going to fire Comey regardless of the Department of Justices recommendation and that when he decided to just do it, he was thinking that this thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. 5. Trump freaks out over Muellers appointment and tries to quash it. The President reacted to news that a Special Counsel had been appointed by telling advisors that it was the end of his presidency and demanding that Sessions resign. Sessions submitted his resignation, but the President ultimately did not accept it. The President told aides that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and suggested that the Special Counsel therefore could not serve. On June 14, 2017, the media reported that the Special Counsels Office was investigating whether the President had obstructed justice The President reacted to this news with a series of tweets criticizing the Department of Justice and the Special Counsels investigation. On June 17, 2017, the President called McGahn at home and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre. 6. Trump tries to stop Muellers investigation. On June 19, 2017, the President met one-on-one in the Oval Office with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a trusted advisor outside the government, and dictated a message for Lewandowski to deliver to Sessions. The message said that Sessions should publicly announce that, notwithstanding his recusal from the Russia investigation, the investigation was very unfair to the President, the President had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the Special Counsel and let [him] move forward with investigating election meddling for future elections. One month later, in another private meeting with Lewandowski on July 19, 2017, the President asked about the status of his message for Sessions to limit the Special Counsel investigation to future election interference. Lewandowski told the President that the message would be delivered soon Lewandowski did not want to deliver the Presidents message personally, so he asked senior White House official Rick Dearborn to deliver it to Sessions. Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through. 7. Trump suppresses information on Trump Tower meeting with a Russian agent. On several occasions, the President directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails setting up the June 9 meeting, suggesting that the emails would not leak and that the number of lawyers with access to them should be limited. Before the emails became public, the President edited a press statement for Trump Jr. by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was with an individual who [Trump Jr.] was told might have information helpful to the campaign and instead said only that the meeting was about adoptions of Russian children. When the press asked questions about the Presidents involvement in Trump Jr.s statement, the Presidents personal lawyer repeatedly denied the President had played any role. 8. Trump again pressures Sessions to un-recuse and get control of Mueller. In early summer 2017, the President called Sessions at home and again asked him to reverse his recusal from the Russia investigation. Sessions did not reverse his recusal. In October 2017, the President met privately with Sessions in the Oval Office and asked him to take [a] look at investigating Clinton. In December 2017, shortly after Flynn pleaded guilty pursuant to a cooperation agreement, the President met with Sessions in the Oval Office and suggested, according to notes taken by a senior advisor, that if Sessions unrecused and took back supervision of the Russia investigation, he would be a hero. 9. Trump orders Don McGahn to lie about earlier efforts to fire Mueller. In early 2018, the press reported that the President had directed McGahn to have the Special Counsel removed in June 2017 and that McGahn had threatened to resign rather than carry out the order. The President reacted to the news stories by directing White House officials to tell McGahn to dispute the story and create a record stating he had not been ordered to have the Special Counsel removed. 10. Trump tries to flatter and perhaps bribe Flynn and Manafort. After Flynn withdrew from a joint defense agreement with the President and began cooperating with the government, the Presidents personal counsel left a message for Flynns attorneys reminding them of the Presidents warm feelings towards Flynn, which he said still remains, and asking for a heads up if Flynn knew information that implicates the President During Manaforts prosecution and when the jury in his criminal trial was deliberating, the President praised Manafort in public, said that Manafort was being treated unfairly, and declined to rule out a pardon. After Manafort was convicted, the President called Manafort a brave man for refusing to break and said that flipping almost ought to be outlawed. 11. Trump tries to intimidate Michael Cohen. The Presidents conduct towards Michael Cohen, a former Trump Organization executive, changed from praise for Cohen when he falsely minimized the Presidents involvement in the Trump Tower Moscow project, to castigation of Cohen when he became a cooperating witness [A]fter Cohen began cooperating with the government in the summer of 2018, the President publicly criticized him, called him a rat, and suggested that his family members had committed crimes. Muellers indecision involving the criminal liability properly attached to these incidents is another matter which of course Barr and Trump and the GOP are frantically spinning as exoneration. But ask yourself if any of these bizarre moments in the Trump campaign and presidency show a man with clean hands and a clear conscience. That should matter to the American people in 2020. Sign Up for the Intelligencer Newsletter Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. Political Incorrectness Paradoxes, and Anything else out of left field. One man's odyssey through the world of books Contact: Mostly, the Rude Pundit doesn't give a shit what you have to say, but, if you have to say it, you can write to Lee Papa here: rudepundit(at)yahoo(dot)com The U.S. flirtation with Cuba was incredibly short-lived, with the Trump Administration unleashing new measures against the country this week for its support of Venezuelas Maduro regime. On Wednesday, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton announced a series of new sanctions and penalties targeting, along with Venezuela and Nicaragua, referring to them as the troika of tyranny in a wonderfully alliterative campaign coup. Bolton also noted that the new measures would end the glamorization of socialism and communism. For Cuba, the measures will hit hard at its tourism sector. When Obama relaxed restrictions on Cuba, the country saw a sudden influx in tourism, which has already been on the wane since the Trump administration started undoing that earlier easing of restrictions. While further details of the new restrictions will come out shortly, Bolton noted that there will be a new cap on remittances of $1,000 per per, per quarter, and that U.S. citizens will be restricted from visiting Cuba with the exception of family-visits. U.S. remittances to Cuba hit $3 billion in 2016, and the country depends quite heavily on these. Another restriction is related to Cuban companies and banking transactions. Under Obama, Cuban companies were allowed to perform transactions through third countries, which passed through the U.S. banking system indirectly, according to the Miami Herald, citing the U.S. Treasury Department. Bolton said this set-up made it possible for the Cuban government to evade sanctions. Five Cuban companies have also been added to the restricted-entities list including a group of tourism companies that happen to be controlled by the Cuban armed forces. For Venezuela, new sanctions target the countrys central bank and its director, and for Nicaragua, sanctions have been slapped on what Washington calls Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortegas slush fund. Hype and alliteration aside, though, the crux of the issue is that Washington is pushing for the international community to recognize opposition, self-declared president-in-charge Juan Juan Guaido as the countrys legitimate interim president. Cuba and Nicaragua arent playing ball here, and Washington has promised additional sanctions, with Bolton saying this is just the beginning. Related: Climbing Stocks Weigh On Gold, But A Turnaround May Be Near As long as the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua stand for freedom, the United States will stand with them, the national security advisor stated. The move has caused uproar in Europe, with the European Union particularly criticizing Washingtons reversal of a 20-year-old policy that prevented U.S. citizens from filing lawsuits against foreign companies doing business in Cuba and trafficking in property confiscated after the Cuban revolution. Europe is threatening to sue the U.S. at the World Trade Organization over this and other sanctions measures, which the bloc fears could harm European companies operating in Cuba. Essentially, what Washington has done is forced companies to either trade with the U.S. or Cuba, and not both. If a U.S. hotel chain with a certified claim sued an EU hotel chain in a U.S. court under Title III for alleged trafficking in U.S. property, the EU hotel chain would be able to counterclaim for damages from the EU-based assets of the same U.S. hotel chain in an EU court, EU officials wrote the secretary of state. There is no indication that Washington plans to backtrack on any of this, either. As Bolton said: In no uncertain terms, the Obama administrations policies toward Cuba have enabled the Cuban colonization of Venezuela today. He added that its time to reverse the disastrous Obama-era policies, and finally end the glamorization of socialism and communism, he added. By Charles Benavidez for Safehaven.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com For all that the Santa Ynez Valley provides, an expansive bucolic lifestyle, prolific vineyards and plenty of room for livestock and horses to roam, it is also home to a less-talked about population of horses that can no longer be ridden for play or sport. Since 2007, Happy Endings Animal Sanctuary in Solvang has become a beacon for animals -- mostly horses -- in need of a place to call home and happily live out the rest of their days. 040319 Happy Endings 02.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 14 040319 Happy Endings 01.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 03.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 04.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 05.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 06.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 07.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 08.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 09.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 10.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 11.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 12.jpg 040319 Happy Endings 13.jpg Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Prior to the release of the Mueller report, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump managed to stay largely out of the conversation regarding alleged campaign collusion with Russia. But the redacted version of the report released Thursday contains 265 references to the presidents son-in-law and 15 to his most politically involved daughter. (Ctrl + F is a beautiful thing.) Below, the reports most important details on the billionaire couple toying around in politics. All quotations are from the Mueller report. Ivanka was involved in talks to build Trump Tower Moscow and other properties in Russia. As early as February 2014, Ivanka Trump had visited Moscow to tour a potential building site in Crocus City. During the fall of 2015, Michael Cohen also discussed the Trump Moscow project with Ivanka Trump as to design elements. In the past, Ivanka has said that she knew almost nothing about Trump Tower Moscow. During the campaign, Ivanka received an email from a Russian whose husband has done Putins political campaign. In November of 2015, Ivanka Trump received an email from a Russian woman named Lana E. Alexander, who offered the support of her husband, Dmitry Klokov: If you ask anyone who knows Russian to google my husband Dmitry Klokov, youll see who he is close to and that he has done Putins political campaigns. At the time, Klokov was working for a Russian utility company, and had been previously employed as an aide and press secretary to Russias energy minister. Ivanka told Michael Cohen about the email, and Cohen looked up Klokov. Cohen conducted an internet search for Klokovs name and concluded (incorrectly) that Klokov was a former Olympic weightlifter. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner attended a conference on Clinton negative information just prior to the Trump Tower meeting. Rick Gates, who was the deputy campaign chairman, stated during interviews with the Office that in the days before June 9, 2016 Trump Jr. announced at a regular morning meeting of senior campaign staff and Trump family members that he had a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation. Gates believed that Trump Jr. said the information was coming from a group in Kyrgyzstan and that he was introduced to the group by a friend. Gates recalled that the meeting was attended by Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Paul Manafort, Hope Hicks, and, joining late, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. According to Gates, Manafort warned the group that the meeting likely would not yield vital information and they should be careful. Hicks denied any knowledge of the June 9 meeting before 2017, and Kushner did not recall if the planned June 9 meeting came up at all earlier that week. Ivanka was involved in Donald Trump Jr.s 2017 decision to release emails related to the Trump Tower meeting. In July 2017, when Donald Trump Jr. surprise released his If its what you say I love it especially later in the summer emails setting up the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Ivanka Trump was present at a meeting that determined the plan to get ahead of a leak by releasing the emails. Jared Kushner was warned by Russian CEO Dimitri Simes that continued contact with Russia would be bad optics. In March of 2016, Kushner got in contact with Dimitri Simes, the Russian CEO of the Center for National Interest. Simes, who helped draft the Trump campaigns position toward Russia, told Kushner in August 2016 that it was bad optics for the Campaign to develop hidden Russian contacts, and told Kushner both that the Campaign should not highlight Russia as an issue and should handle any contacts with Russians with care. Kushner received dirt on Bill Clinton from Simes, which he forwarded to the campaign. Prior to their August 2016 meeting, Simes sent Kushner a memo laying out what Mr. Trump may want to say about Russia. Simes mentioned a well-documented story of highly questionable connections between Bill Clinton and the Russian government, parts of [which] (according to Simes) had even been discussed with the CIA and the FBI in the late 1990s and shared with the [Independent Counsel] at the end of the Clinton presidency. Kushner forwarded the email to senior Trump Campaign officials Stephen Miller, Paul Manafort, and Rick Gates, with the note suggestion only. Manafort subsequently forwarded the email to his assistant and scheduled a meeting with Simes. Kushner emailed assistants during Trump Tower meeting looking for excuse to leave. During the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Kushner texted Paul Manafort telling him it was a waste of time and sent two emails to assistants at Kushner Companies with requests that they call him to give him an excuse to leave. Alas, the detail is not new to the Mueller report. Kushner circulated a reconciliation plan between Russia and the U.S. The report states that Immediately after the November 8 election, Russian government officials and prominent Russian businessmen began trying to make inroads into the new administration. One of these efforts was made by Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russias sovereign wealth fund, who sent a message to a friend of Jared Kushner who had not served on the Campaign or Transition Team. These two collaborated on a short written reconciliation plan for the United States and Russia, which Dmitriev implied had been cleared through Putin. The friend gave that proposal to Kushner before the inauguration, and Kushner later gave copies to Bannon and incoming Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Kushner asked the Russian ambassador if he could use secure facilities at the Russian embassy In November 2016, during a transition-team meeting at Trump Tower involving Kushner, Michael Flynn, and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Kushner asked if they could communicate using secure facilities at the Russian Embassy. Kislyak quickly rejected that idea. " " People watch the large waves at El Porto beach as the strongest storm in six years slams Los Angeles on February 17, 2017. MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images German scientists have determined what many have feared: Climate change has reduced the amount of dissolved oxygen in the world's oceans, a situation that can have dire consequences for marine organisms. Researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtze Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany found that between 1960 and 2010, the oxygen content in the world's oceans declined by 2 percent. The study also notes that because oxygen is not spread out evenly among the world's oceans, the overall 2 percent decline means that some areas have seen a much steeper decline in oxygen than others. Advertisement The Pacific Ocean, the world's largest, lost the most overall volume of oxygen, although the most precipitous decline occurred in the Arctic Ocean where climate change is ravaging the environment. The findings were published in the February edition of the journal Nature. Researchers have assumed that dissolved oxygen levels were on the decline, but those predictions were previously based on regional analyses of ocean waters. The new GEOMAR study is the first global look at ocean oxygen levels, and the first deep-ocean study of its kind. The new study emphasizes that much of the worst effects of climate change are occurring in the oceans. Dissolved oxygen, as its name suggests, is the amount of oxygen dissolved in water. It is also the lifeblood for marine organisms. The problem stems from the physics of the oceans. Cold water holds more oxygen than warm water and fresh water holds more oxygen than sea water. As climate change warms the planet and glacial ice melts, the waters of the oceans freshen and change. As that happens, the amount of oxygen in the sea declines and the currents are impacted. The ocean gets most of its oxygen from the atmosphere. Atmospheric oxygen enters the ocean at its surface. If everything was working as it should, dissolved oxygen would mix its way down to the colder, deeper layers of the sea. However, as the upper layers of the ocean warm, oxygen is less likely to migrate into the deeper layers. That reduces the amount of oxygen marine organisms at those levels need to survive. So what does this mean for the future of the oceans? Well it definitely doesn't paint a rosy picture. The scientists concluded that as oxygen levels decline, it will have a negative effect on marine habitat, specifically ocean nutrient levels, and that could also impact coastal economies. And if climate change continues, and dissolved ocean oxygen levels also rise the authors of the study suggest there could be as much as 7 percent of the ocean's oxygen depleted by 2100. Now That's Interesting Researchers concluded that the lack of oxygen could increase the growth of hypoxic areas, or so-called "dead zones" in shallow water where marine animals suffocate because of the lack of dissolved oxygen. The second largest dead zone in the world is currently located in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Russian financially motivated threat actor TA505 used remote access Trojans (RATs) in attacks on financial entities in the United States and worldwide. Security experts at CyberInt uncovered a new campaign of a Russian financially motivated threat actor tracked as TA505. The hackers used remote access Trojans (RATs) in attacks aimed at financial entities in the United States and worldwide. CyberInt researchers have been tracking various activities following the spear-phishing campaign targeting large US-based retailers detected in December 2018. reads the analysis published by Cyberint. The research focused on scenarios with the same tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) along with the repeated nefarious use of a legitimate remote administration tool Remote Manipulator System (RMS), developed by a Russianbased company TektonIT. The TA505 group was first spotted by Proofpoint back 2017, it has been active at least since 2015 and targets organizations in financial and retail industries. The group carried out a large number of campaigns using weaponized Office and PDF documents to deliver notorious malware, including the Dridex banking trojan, tRAT RAT, FlawedAmmy RAT, Philadelphia ransomware, GlobeImposter and Locky ransomware. Tracked by the research community as TA505, the Russian threat group is known for the use of banking Trojans such as Shifu and Dridex, as well as for the massive Locky ransomware campaigns observed several years ago. In recent attacks the experts observed the group using new backdoors, including the modular tRat and ServHelper. In campaigns carried out between December 2018 and February 2019, the TA505 group leveraged the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) backdoor to target financial institutions in Chile, India, Italy, Malawi, Pakistan and South Korea, and retailers in the United States. In December 2018 also targeted large US retailers and organizations in the food and beverage industry with spear-phishing attacks. The phishing messages used a weaponized Word document containing a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macr . The macro downloads a payload from the command and control (C&C) server, the last stage of the attack chain is the RMS RAT. The investigation conducted by the researchers allowed them to uncover other campaigns conducted between December 2018 and March 2019. Hackers hit targets in many countries worldwide, including Chile, India, Italy, Malawi, Pakistan and South Korea. Researchers believe that other attacks against targets in China, Great Britain, France and the United States could be attributed to the same threat actor. The weaponized documents used in the attacks leverage Microsoft Windows Installer to fetch a payload from the C2 and execute it. This behaviour is consistent with other TA505 campaigns utilising a combination of weaponised Microsoft Office files containing either VBA macros or exploit code to spawn additional processes. continues the analysis published by Cyberint. Of the spreadsheet lures analysed in this campaign, four different C2 servers and payloads were identified, with each likely being unique to a specific target organization or victim cluster. Experts also observed the attackers using the ServHelper RAT since November 2018, it allows them to set up reverse SSH tunnels for remote access to the compromised machine via RDP. The report states that indicators of compromise identified in the campaigns against the US retail campaign are consistent with an attack against the Notary Chamber of Ukraine conducted by the same threat actor in December 2018. At the time, the threat actor was delivering the RMS Trojan in spear-phishing attack. Further technical details on the attacks are included in the report published by Cyberint. Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs hacking, VSDC) The Macker will take a pass on 2020, but may run for a second term as Virginia governor in 2021. Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images So the ever-expanding 2020 Democratic presidential field has lost a potential contender as former Virginia governor and DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe disclosed on CNN that hes going to focus on helping Democrats in the Commonwealth rather than launching a White House run that he allegedly believes he could have won: McAuliffe expressed confidence Wednesday that I could really make a difference and beat Trump like a rented mule. But weve got issues in Virginia and Im concerned about Virginia, and since February weve had a lot of problems there, he added, in an apparent reference to the blackface and alleged sexual assault scandals that engulfed local Virginia Democrats earlier this year. Indeed, McAuliffe gave the impression he had been lured away from the presidential campaign trail by folks back home who begged him to save their struggling party. Characteristically, the ever-ebullient T-Mac didnt acknowledge that despite his Beltway fame and solid record in Richmond, he was largely unknown nationally, except among progressive activists who loath him as the Clintons money man and the symbol of lobbyist influence in the Democratic Party. The most recent Morning Consult tracking poll of actual and potential 2020 candidates ranked McAuliffe 18th, with 47 percent saying theyd never heard of him and another 26 percent having no opinion of him. Aside from that problem, he seemed fundamentally mispositioned for a national party moving left and also moving beyond the turbulent Clinton legacy. McAuliffes decision may also be a leading indicator that former Vice-President Joe Biden is for sure going to announce his own 2020 candidacy soon, occupying most of the moderate lane that might have given the Virginian some running room. Its the sort of information McAuliffe would be in a position to obtain. And yes, its true McAuliffe might have a positive impact focusing on Virginia, where the recent plague of scandals striking the partys statewide elected leadership is threatening what looked to be very good odds of a Democratic legislative takeover this autumn, just in time for the next round of redistricting. The man may have a lot of baggage, but it doesnt (so far as we know, and Im sure Republicans have checked to make sure) include photos of him in blackface (like those afflicting Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring) or any sexual assault allegations (like those being made against Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax). And if McAuliffe can make a claim of saving the Virginia Democratic Party, hed be well-positioned to return to the governorship in 2021, despite earlier assumptions that Herring or Fairfax would be the next Democrat in line. The Associated Press notes this contingency: He demurred on CNN when pressed about whether hed run for governor in 2021, saying hes committed to Virginia Democrats first and foremost to help this year and in federal elections next year. One state lawmaker, Democratic Sen. Dick Saslaw, said that hes been urging McAuliffe to run for governor. He didnt rule it out, Saslaw told The Associated Press before McAuliffes CNN appearance. Perhaps the 2020 Democratic field will hold the line at 18 or 19, or 20 contestants after all. AG Jeff Sessions issues memo to "strongly encourage federal prosecutors ... when appropriate" to pursue "capital punishment in appropriate cases" | Main | "Measuring Change: From Rates of Recidivism to Markers of Desistance" This Marshall Project article, headlined "The DAs Who Want to Set the Guilty Free: Sentence review units would revisit harsh punishments from the past," spotlights ways prosecutors are now reconsidering past prosecutorial punitiveness. Here is an excerpt: None of these conviction review units [created in DA offices] have undertaken the far more ambitious task of examining cases where the conviction might be sound but the punishment doesnt fit the crime. That would mean poking into the sentences sought by a previous generation of prosecutors whose reflexive stance, for decades, was often to seek maximum charges carrying hefty terms behind bars. It might open the floodgates to reviewing thousands of sentences, said Steven A. Drizin, a law professor at Northwestern University and an expert on wrongful convictions who said he supports sentence reviews. Despite the daunting undertaking, the idea is gaining traction. In Philadelphia, where former civil-rights attorney and public defender Larry Krasner was recently sworn in as district attorney, staffers are making plans for a sentence review program, likely the first of its kind in the country. Nationally, nearly two dozen newly elected prosecutors are working with an advocacy organization called Fair and Just Prosecution to implement their own sentencing-review procedures in the coming year, said Miriam Krinsky, the groups executive director and a former longtime federal prosecutor. Such a massive undertaking is, like many of the ambitions of this new breed of prosecutors, far easier said than done. Normally, courts allow a prosecutor to seek re-sentencing only in limited circumstances, such as when new evidence arises or when legislators pass a new sentencing law that needs to be applied retroactively. For example, Maryland in 2016 revised its mandatory minimum sentences, with a clause allowing judges to use those changes to reduce the time that then-current prisoners were serving. Sometimes, a prisoner can be rewarded with a reduced sentence for cooperating in a police investigation. The compassionate release process also lets corrections agencies and courts reduce sentences retroactively, usually when the prisoner is gravely ill. But there is no mechanism in many states for requesting a new sentence for a current inmate simply because a newly elected prosecutor says its in the best interest of justice.... In Philadelphia, Patricia Cummings, head of the conviction integrity unit, already has a workaround in mind. She said a group within the DA's office focused on sentencing which she would likely direct but that still needs staff and funding could start by looking into first- or second-degree murder cases the office prosecuted in the past. In Pennsylvania, a conviction on those charges automatically ends in a sentence of life in prison without parole. More than 5,000 of the states prisoners are currently serving these sentences, the second-highest number in the nation, and about half are from Philadelphia. If the unit identifies a case where they believe the facts did not warrant such a harsh sentence, it would ask the trial court to throw out the original conviction and accept a guilty plea on a lesser charge of third-degree murder or manslaughter. Those charges carry much lighter sentences. Were still kicking this around, said Cummings, who previously ran the conviction integrity unit in Dallas.... Another precedent can be found in Seattle, where prosecuting attorney Dan Satterberg has been giving people in prison second chances for the past decade. He and his staff review old cases in which defendants were banished to life in prison for relatively minor crimes, often under the states three-strikes-youre-out law. They then sign onto clemency petitions for some of those prisoners. Three of the 16 prisoners who were effectively re-sentenced this way have committed new crimes since getting released. But, Satterberg said, theres no way to avoid that other than to leave everyone in prison forever. I think a prosecutor has a continuing obligation to justice, past the sentencing date, said Satterberg. We have to be willing to roll up our sleeves, look through the files of old cases, and really... compare them to our contemporary law and practice. Most states dont have such a robust clemency system that prosecutors can use it as a kind of back-door re-sentencing program. In Pennsylvania, for example, only eight life sentences have been shortened through commutation since 1995. State law requires a pardons board to agree unanimously on any such decision. That means the mechanism will have to differ by state, said Krinsky, the head of the prosecutors group. It may even require lobbying efforts to pass new legislation granting DAs the power to file a special motion for amending a sentence. Reviewing Ohio's (now-suspended) execution realities | Main | Can and will Kentucky's Gov pioneer a (terrific) new institution by creating a "sentencing integrity unit"? April 18, 2019 "Quelling the Silver Tsunami: Compassionate Release of Elderly Offenders" The title of this post is the title of this 2018 article authored by Jalila Jefferson-Bullock recently posted to SSRN. Though authored before the passage of the FIRST STEP Act, the article is still particularly timely in light of that new law's various provisions enabling the moving certain defendants out of prison and into home confinement. Here is the article's abstract: Sentencing reform appears resurrected. Following a brief hiatus and an expectedly unwelcoming recent federal response, sentencing reform is again reemerging as a major initiative. Congress and the several states are poised to immediately accomplish major reform of the United States criminal sentencing structure. Proposals that would, among other initiatives, drastically reduce criminal sentences, restore rehabilitative programs to inmates, generate sentencing parity, normalize probation for low-level offenses, and shrink the overall prison footprint are ambling through various legislative processes throughout the country. Though groundbreaking and certainly welcome, these reforms largely ignore the special needs of the imprisoned elderly. One of the most foreseeable, yet ironically ignored, consequences of 1980's and 1990's harsh sentencing laws, is the dramatic upsurge in prison population through the predictable process of human aging. Coined the prison silver tsunami phenomenon, surging numbers of elderly inmates raises significant moral, health, and fiscal implications deserving keen scrutiny. It is imperative, then, that any overhaul of criminal sentencing focuses on how to meaningfully address the graying of America's prisons. April 18, 2019 at 12:00 AM | Permalink Comments Post a comment Can and will Kentucky's Gov pioneer a (terrific) new institution by creating a "sentencing integrity unit"? | Main | "When in Rome... on Local Norms and Sentencing Decisions" April 18, 2019 Some effective criminal justice coverage amid Reason's "Weed Week" In this new post over at Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform, I have flagged the array of new pieces at Reason in a "Weed Week" series. Though I recommend many of the ten pieces in the series, two in particular should be of particular interest for sentencing fans. Here are full headlines, links and short excerpts (with links from the original): "How Even Legal Marijuana Use Can Land You in Jail: Failed drug tests can send people on probation or parole back into prison cells" by Scott Shackford There are more than 4.5 million people on probation or parole in the U.S., nearly twice the number of people behind bars at any given time. All of these folks are subject to incarceration if they violate the terms of their supervised release, and in most places, a prohibition on using cannabis products may be one of those terms. "Marijuana is a big issue when it comes to parole, but it's just the tip of the iceberg" explains Tyler Nims, the executive director of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform. "Parole is a huge issue in criminal justice reform and in particular in New York. But it's unseen and unknown." According to analysis of probation and parole figures put together by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a little more than half of probation and parole stints end without incident. But nearly 350,000 people get new jail terms annually because they've failed to complete probation or parole with a spotless record. In some states, revocation of supervised release is the main driver of incarceration. In Georgia, for example, 67 percent of new prison admissions in 2015 were due to revoked probation or parole. The same was true in Rhode Island, where 64 percent of new prison admissions in 2016 were due to supervised release revocations. Judges have wide discretion to set the terms for release. That often includes prohibiting behavior that is otherwise perfectly legal. Probation and parole guidelines can limit where people go, who they can consort with, and what they may or may not consume. Earlier this year, a judge in Hawaii told a man arrested for stealing car that he could not consume Pepsi while on probation and put him under supervised release for four years. While incidents like that one are relatively rare, prohibiting the use of marijuana while on supervised release is standard. Whether marijuana use will continue to be deemed a violation is something to watch and weigh in on as state-level legalization continues. "Pot Can Earn You Profits or a Prison Sentence: It all depends on where you happen to be" by Jacob Sullum An estimated 40,000 marijuana offenders are serving time in state or federal prisons for agricultural or commercial activities that are now legal in nine states, earning entrepreneurs profits instead of prison sentences. According to the website lifeforpot.com, more than two dozen marijuana offenders are serving life sentences or prison terms that amount to the same thing. Life sentences for cannabis are rare, and the vast majority of people arrested on marijuana charges about 660,000 in 2017, nine out of 10 for simple possession serve little or no time behind bars (although they may suffer long-lasting ancillary penalties). But some states still come down hard even on minor pot offenses. In ... Georgia, possessing one ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Any more than that is a felony, triggering a one-year mandatory minimum and a maximum of 10 years for amounts up to 10 pounds. Pot penalties are similarly harsh in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming, where the lowest-level marijuana offense can be punished by up to a year behind bars. Even states that are not quite so punitive can have nasty surprises in store for cannabis consumers. In Texas, possessing two ounces or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. But possessing any amount of cannabis concentrate is a felony, and the maximum penalties apply to weights above 400 grams. The entire weight of food or beverages spiked with concentrate counts toward that threshold, which is why a teenager caught with 1.4 pounds of pot cookies and brownies in 2014 initially faced a sentence of 10 years to life. April 18, 2019 at 06:33 PM | Permalink Comments Wow they really need to update the laws on marijuana possession. Posted by: Rookie | Feb 16, 2020 2:06:56 PM Post a comment This well-established Blog is worth visiting on a regular basis for a wealth of information of interest to Armenian nationals and to the Armenian Diaspora world-wide. Although it has a particular role in promoting international recognition of the Genocide, the Blog encompasses much more and includes many articles of general appeal to all those concerned with Armenian affairs. Much of the content is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere and the long list of links provided gives easy access to a plethora of material on social, political, religious, educational and cultural matters, and many news items from around the world. Alsid has achieved this European record for investment in the cybersecurity market thanks to Idinvest Partners with the participation of its long-standing investors: 360 Capital Partners and Axeleo Capital. PARIS, FRANCE - Media OutReach - 18 April 2019 - Alsid, the pioneering Active Directoryprotection solution provider announces a Series A funding record of 13 million($15 million) in investment led by Idinvest Partners, the leading Europeancapital-investment company. This capital will be used to continue andaccelerate the international success they have already achieved in France andHong Kong. Alsid was founded in 2016 by Emmanuel Gras and Luc Delsalle,both experts at the ANSSI (NCSC -- France's National Cyber Security Center). Thecompany rapidly developed its own revolutionary approach to Active Directorysecurity, a vital infrastructure for the security and business continuity ofenterprises. Thanks to their proven platform, Alsid achieved more than 500%growth in 2018, doubled its client portfolio, and has earned the trust andloyalty of a large number of prestigious key accounts such as Lagardere, GroupeAccor, Orange, Saint-Gobain, Sanofi, Sodexo Unibail-Roadmco, VINCI Energies,and HKBN in Hong Kong. Active Directory is the cornerstone of major modern businessIT infrastructures. This software is used by 95% of all businesses with morethan 1000 employees, and is relied upon to organise user access rights toapplications and network and data sharing activities. As a result, ActiveDirectory has become a priority target for cybercriminals. Once they gaincontrol of it, they can grant themselves access to all their victims' assets. In the light of this, securing Active Directory has become auniversal requirement and now represents a global market worth tens of billionsof euros. Alsid has naturally become a leader in this market thanks to theirsignificant technological advances and their proven large-scale solutiondeployment capabilities. This capital investment program comes therefore as anintegral part of the continuation of their ambitions and will ensure commercialcoverage of leading global markets. Beginning in 2019, Alsid will be expandingits business to include the United Kingdom, Singapore, the whole of the Middle East,Germany, Northern Europe, and Benelux, and will be actively preparing its entryinto the US and Japanese markets, planned for 2020. Story continues "We are very proud of the trust that themarket (our clients, share-holders, and peers) have placed in our solution andour capacity to expand our success globally", explains Emmanuel Gras,Alsid's CEO. "This record-breaking investment program will allow us torealise our ambitious expansion plans, further increase our technologicaladvances and therefore maintain our three-digit growth figure over the long term.'' "Alsid teamsuccessfully identified a data security flaw which is huge, critical, andunresolved. The quick adoption of their product by a blue-chip portfolio of clientsis evidence of that. We are very excited to join this exceptional team in itsnew phase of international development", commented Jonathan Userovici,Investment Manager for Idinvest Partners. "Since our seed investment, we have beengreatly impressed by Alsid's ability to make their product an Active Directorysecurity reference, as can be seen in the size of the client portfolio it has beenable to put together in such a short period of time. We are very happy towelcome Idinvest as part of this new phase." - Alexandre Mordacq,Partner 360 Capital. "We are very proud to havecollaborated with the co-founders of Alsid since their beginnings and tocontinue to work with them on this new decisive phase. Their development overthe last 2 years has been exceptional. Alsid has become a leading company whenit comes to AD security; they have managed to dominate their American andIsraeli competition. Their management have vision and commitment, which are twoessential qualities for a credible international reputation." - MathieuViallard, Managing Director, Axeleo Capital. About Alsid Originally founded by two experts who had worked previously for the government, Alsid now protects more than 3 million Active Directory users across the globe with complete transparency, leaving no impact on their normal activities. Alsid's solution detects the appearance or exploitation of vulnerabilities in real-time and then proposes contextualised resolution plans. This entirely transparent solution can be deployed either locally or via the Cloud; it functions without the need for an agent or any particular access privileges and allows Active Directory users to ensure the resistance of their infrastructure against cyber-risks without the need for any specific knowledge of security techniques. See all of Alsid's news on its website, LinkedIn, and Twitter The Alsid name and Alsid are registeredtrademarks owned by Alsid. All other cited trademarks or products are the property of their respectiveowners. About 360 Capital 360 Capital is a risk-capital investment company whichsupports high-growth potential deep tech and digital businesses, frompreparation to launch phases. It currently manages 300M of assets and investsin Europe through its Paris, Milan, and London offices. Amongst others, it hasalready invested in Exotec, Prophesee, Sophia Genetics, Arbe Robotics, Tiller,etc. For more information: http://www.360capitalpartners.com About Axeleo Capital Axeleo is an acceleration platform which specialises inEnterprise Technology; it is supported by the Fonds French Tech Acceleration (FrenchTech Acceleration Fund) and a partnership of over 60 entrepreneurs andexecutives from the international tech industry. Axeleo targets B2B startupsand major group innovation programs, providing founders and "intrapreneurs"with entrepreneurial, operational, and financial support to accelerate theirbusiness growth. An AMF-approved asset management company with a 45 million portfolio,Axeleo Capital invests in seed and Series A programs. About Idinvest Partners With its 8-billion-euro asset management portfolio,Idinvest Partners is a highly reputed European mid-market Private Equitycompany. Idinvest Partners has also developed a number of additionalspecialisations: in capital innovation and growth for new and innovativeEuropean businesses; in mid-market private debt (single rate, senior loans, andsubordinate investments), in primary and secondary investments in unlistedEuropean businesses; and in Private Equity consulting services. Idinvest wasfounded in 1997 and was a part of the Allianz Group until 2010 when it becamean independent company. In 2018, Idinvest Partners became a subsidiary of Eurazeo,an international front-line investment company with a direct / indirect diversifiedasset portfolio of 17 billion, of which almost 11 billion represents thirdparty investments in over 350 businesses. When Warren Buffett acquired Sees Candies in 1972, he called the boxed candy business the prototype of a dream business. You see, retail investors often get distracted by the next big thing, and miss out on opportunities of boring businesses. This inclination often makes retail investors susceptible to the fear of missing out. But from tulips to bitcoins, we have seen how asset bubbles form when the price actions become the main driving force, only to turn into costly investing mistakes when the bubble burst. For the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett made his riches by focusing on businesses that he knew best instead of giving way to the herd mentality. He calls this strategy the circle of competence. Against insiders and deep pockets that often have an advantage in accessing and analysing information, it also seems like common sense that retail investors should keep within their circle of competence and employ the buy-and-hold strategy. In this peak economic environment, with weakening global expansion, we believe the medium term outlook is going to be increasingly risk-off. In such a climate, investors often would put greater emphasis on fundamentals and quality. In this issue, we take a look at Delfi, a chocolate confectionery business similar to Sees Candies, and see if there are similar compelling reasons to buy a stake in the company. Delfi A Defensive Business Originally known as PetraFoods, mainboard-listed Delfi is a manufacturer of chocolate confectionery. Operating in a relatively obsolete-immune industry, Delfi markets and distributes its own brand, as well as other agent brands, of chocolate confectionery in its core markets of Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. With a rich history spanning over 60 years, the groups portfolio of chocolate confectionery brands, include 10 master brands such as SilverQueen, Ceres, Delfi and more than 20 key sub brands. Delfis extensive sales and distribution network across South East Asia is supported by two chocolate manufacturing facilities in Indonesia and the Philippines. In addition, the company also markets chocolate confectionery products in other countries in Asia such as Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and China through the use of sales agents and distributors. Story continues In its key core market of Indonesia, Delfi commands a dominant 50 percent market share. In FY18, the Indonesian market accounted for 71.6 percent of Delfis revenue. As at 08 April 2019, the company has a market capitalisation of $855.6 million. Poised For Recovery Reviewing its financial performance, Delfi seems to be on the verge of recovery. In the past 5 financial years, FY13 to FY17, Delfi experienced a downtrend in revenue from US$509 million to US$381 million. In the face of ailing sales, the company embarked on a rationalisation exercise of underperforming brand products in FY16, which finally bore positive results two years later in the latest FY18. Revenue stabilised and grew 12 percent to US$427 million, kickstart by Delfis own brands which saw contributions grew 16 percent to US$281.3 million in Indonesia during the period. delfi1 Source: Companys announcement Profitability-wise, Delfi managed to maintain a rather healthy gross margin of over 34 percent, since improving from 29.8 percent in FY15. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which exclude exceptional and one-off items also showed significant improvements. In FY18, Delfis EBITDA of US$51.3 million represented an increase of 15 percent from FY17 and an increase of 37 percent from FY15. In terms of net profit, Delfi generated US$20.9 million, a 6 percent gain, which represented a net margin of 4.9 percent and a double-digit return-on-equity (ROE) of 10 percent. delfi2 Source: Companys announcement Riding On Macroeconomic Tailwinds While Delfi records input costs and reports earnings in the US currency, its revenue is derived mainly from the Indonesian followed by the Philippines markets. As such, weaknesses of the regional currencies of the Indonesian Rupiah and Philippines Peso would weigh on revenue when translated back into US Dollar terms. In FY18, the Rupiah and the Peso depreciated six percent and 4.3 percent respectively against the US currency. However, despite that, Delfi still posted growth in the topline. This implied that the positive results and momentum in the companys rationalisation efforts managed to offset the effects of currency headwinds. Going into FY19, the stabilisation of regional currencies should further bode well for Delfi. Meanwhile, the Indonesian economy is expected to grow a solid 5.2 percent in this election year, further bolstering domestic demand. Delfi, given its lion share of chocolate confectionery, is therefore well-positioned to leverage on Indonesias rising purchasing power and middle class. Combining the two macro factors, we believe there is scope for Delfi to grow its revenue as well as boost its gross margin and hence further enhancing profitability. Pristine Financial Health As of FY18, the group held cash of US$54.7 million while total borrowings amounted to US$59 million. This translated to a small net debt of US$4.3 million. Against its book value of US$206.1 million, Delfis total debt-to-equity ratio of 28.6 percent and net debt-to-equity of 2.1 percent showed that the company still maintains a pristine balance sheet. With a current ratio of 1.5 times, there are also little concerns towards Delfis short-term liquidity needs. Alike another reason why Buffett likes Sees Candies, Delfis confectionery business is also cash generative. Net cash flow from operations was positive in the last six years in review, from FY13 to FY18. According to management, Delfi generated US$10.6 million from operations in FY18, sufficiently funded the higher working capital and capital expenditure for the year as well as the dividends paid to shareholders. But Expensive Valuation Despite all the qualities we like about Delfi, the current valuation of the stock is rather unattractive. At the time of writing, stocks of Delfi are changing hands at $1.40 apiece, translating to a price-to-book value of three times and a price-to-earnings of 30.1 times. Dividend-wise, the company declared a final dividend of 1.10 Singapore cents, to bring total dividends for FY18 to 2.57 Singapore cents in FY18. This would also translate to a not-so-attractive yield of just 1.8 percent. Whilst the total dividend of 2.57 Singapore cents in FY18 represented an increase from 2.42 Singapore cents in FY17, Delfi has also not been consistent with its dividend payouts as well. In conclusion, since the right kind of investments are always buying into superior businesses at the right kind of price, we think Delfi at its current valuation does not give investors much potential upside for the risks they would need to undertake. Nonetheless, it is still a counter worthy to stay on the watchlist. Patient investors interested in Delfi may want to wait for more attractive valuation. Sudan's military rulers have transferred ousted president Omar al-Bashir to prison, a family source said Wednesday, as crowds of protesters flocked through Khartoum in vans and buses to join a sit-in at the army complex. Following the dramatic end to Bashir's rule of three decades last week, he was moved late Tuesday to Kober prison in the capital, the source said without revealing his name for security reasons. Witnesses near the prison in north Khartoum said there was a heavy deployment of soldiers and members of a paramilitary group outside. The 75-year-old's whereabouts have been unknown since a military takeover on Thursday, when the country's new rulers said he was being held "in a secure place". Late on Wednesday the military council announced it had detained two of Bashir's five brothers -- Abdallah Hassan al-Bashir and Al-Abbas Hassan al-Bashir. It said the council had also decided to integrate the Popular Defence Force into the army. The PDF is a type of reserve unit frequently used to support units of the regular army. Amnesty International called for Bashir to be "immediately handed over to the International Criminal Court" in The Hague where he faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in Darfur. He denies the charges. "His case must not be hurriedly tried in Sudan's notoriously dysfunctional legal system. Justice must be served," said Amnesty's Joan Nyanyuki. Bashir's detention has failed to pacify protesters, who launched anti-government demonstrations in December and have for days been camped out in front of Khartoum's army headquarters. Scores of doctors in white robes marched from Khartoum's main hospital towards the sit-in, carrying banners and chanting: "freedom, peace, justice." Journalists held a separate rally, along with university students and scores of women from a Facebook group who call themselves "the Information Network of the Revolution". The women -- who include doctors, lawyers and teachers -- are renowned for monitoring security agents who target protesters and publishing their information online in order to hold them to account. - Tension at protest site - Later in the evening crowds of protesters flocked through Khartoum to join the sit-in chanting "revolution, revolution", an AFP correspondent reported. Sudan's military rulers have made some concessions, including the sacking Tuesday of prosecutor general Omer Ahmed Mohamed, but demonstrators fear their uprising could be hijacked. "We faced tear gas, many of us were jailed. We have been shot and many have died. All this because we said what we wanted to," Fadia Khalaf told AFP. Khalid Mohamed, a medic, said: "We got Bashir out, but we still have to get rid of the regime". Officials say at least 65 people have been killed in protest-related violence since December, with some of the dead memorialised in a Khartoum mural. While there have been scenes of celebration -- with demonstrators singing and waving their national flag -- the protest site has grown more tense amid concerns the army will try to clear the sit-in with force. "Now we fear that our revolution could be stolen, which is why we are keeping our ground here. We are staying here until our demands are met," said Khalaf. Earlier this week witnesses said several army vehicles had surrounded the area and that troops were removing the barricades which demonstrators had put up as a security measure. On Wednesday thousands of protesters remained at the site, cheering each other on despite looking fatigued. "I feel those people who are doing the sit-in are like my sons and daughters. I have suffered under this regime," said a woman serving tea at a makeshift checkpoint set up by protesters. On taking power the army said a military council would run Sudan for two years, sparking a backlash from protest leaders. Just a day later former defence minister General Awad Ibn Ouf stepped down as council chief, sparking jubilation on Khartoum's streets. His successor General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan oversaw weekend talks with political parties, which failed to make headway. - EU urges civiiian rule - On Wednesday, a rebel leader ordered a three-month suspension of hostilities in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states where his forces have been fighting government troops. Abdulaziz al-Hilu, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), issued the command as a "goodwill gesture... to give a chance for an immediate transfer of power to civilians". European Union chief Federica Mogherini in a statement called on the military rulers for a "swift and orderly handover to a civilian transitional body" to meet the aspirations of the Sudanese people. Sudan's foreign minister has said Burhan is "committed to having a complete civilian government" and has called on other nations to back the council. While the EU and Western powers have backed the protesters' demands for a civilian administration, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have thrown their weight behind the military. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called Burhan and the two discussed "bilateral relations", SUNA state news agency said Wednesday, adding Burhan also received a letter from South Sudan President Salva Kiir offering support for the council. Huge crowds of protesters on Thursday thronged the Sudanese capital Khartoum a week after the army's ouster of president Omar al-Bashir, determined to complete their revolution seeking civilian rule. Roads leading to a sit-in outside the army headquarters were filled with demonstrators as people converged on the site chanting "power to civilians, power to civilians" and "freedom, peace, justice". On April 11, the army brought Bashir's three-decade rule to an end as tens of thousands of protesters camped by the military complex in central Khartoum to demand its backing. Numbers had dwindled following his departure, but protesters returned in force to keep up pressure for a civilian government to replace the military council now in charge. "We are sending a message that we are not leaving this area until we achieve our goal," said protester Ahmed. "The idea is to keep the fire burning." Thursday's rally was not convened by protest organisers who have led the campaign, but came from widespread calls by activists on social media. As night fell the more and more people poured in to pack the protest camp. Bashir, who took power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, headed a brutal regime that saw conflicts across the country, the secession of South Sudan and regular arrests of opposition leaders, activists and journalists. Protests broke out on December 19 in response to the tripling of bread prices, swiftly turning into nationwide rallies against Bashir. The 75-year-old is accused by the International Criminal Court of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in the western region of Darfur. But despite detaining him, the military has resisted sending him to The Hague, saying that would be a matter for a future civilian government. On Tuesday night, he was moved to the capital's Kober prison, a family source told AFP. - 'Terrorist regime' - Seven days on from his ouster, the huge square outside army headquarters reverberated with demonstrators singing, dancing and demanding the dissolution of the military council. Thousands thronged the area, including teachers who carried pictures of their colleague Ahmed al-Kheir, who died in custody in January after being arrested in connection with protests. He was one of more than 60 people killed before Bashir finally left office. Hundreds more people marched in from a northern suburb carrying banners reading: "Bring Bashir to justice". "Bashir's regime was a terrorist regime, a dictatorship. We are happy that we overthrew him," said protester Mohamed Ali. "All these decades, we have had wars inside the country. Our relations with the world also suffered under Bashir. All that has to change, that's what this revolution is for." Bashir's defence minister General Awad Ibn Ouf initially took power as council chairman, but stepped down within 24 hours following intense pressure from protesters. The council is now headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a career soldier largely unknown outside the army. Protest leaders say they asked for a joint military-civilian council, but got a military council with many regime faces. They have now hardened their demands. "We want the military council to be dissolved and replaced by a civilian council having representatives of the army," said Mohamed Naji, a senior leader of the Sudanese Professionals Association which spearheaded the movement. - 'Dangerous waters' - International Crisis Group analyst Alan Boswell said the revolution was "still unfinished". "The security cabal which still has power in Sudan is clearly resisting demands that would force it to cede its own power," he said. The protesters won the resignation of feared intelligence chief Saleh Ghosh, who oversaw a crackdown on protesters that left dozens dead, hundreds wounded and thousands jailed. But as pressure grows from world powers and the Sudanese street, all eyes are on the military council's next move. "I don't think we are anywhere close to the end of the road yet," Boswell said. "We are hitting pretty dangerous waters." Both Western and African governments have pushed for greater change. The African Union has threatened to suspend Sudan if the military fails to cede power to civilians within 15 days. The council has offered concessions, including sacking the prosecutor general. The United States on Thursday welcomed military orders to free political prisoners and end a curfew, but urged more moves to transition to democracy. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Washington will "calibrate our policies based on our assessment of events". Estonia's president met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin here Thursday for talks on trade and global relations, during the first such Russian visit in eight years. Kersti Kaljulaid is also the first leader of three ex-Soviet states on the Baltic Sea to hold a high profile meeting with Putin since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea. "Neighbours should talk, even if we have certain disagreements," she told the Russian leader, according to translated comments. "We have not seen each other in a long time," Putin said. "We are happy to see you in Moscow. Welcome!" "The lack of contact between official people, official state institutions and between neighbours is not a normal situation," he added. Putin noted that trade between Estonia, a EU-member of just 1.3 million people, and Russia was cut in half owing to freeze. Kaljulaid agreed that "it is time to renew the partnership programme between the EU and Russia." "Global geopolitical problems" were another issue she planned to discuss with the Russian leader. Kaljulaid has attracted criticism at home over her decision to sit down with Putin. The last visit by an Estonian head of state to Russia was by Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who visited Saint Petersburg in 2011 for the second consecration of St. John's Church. Relations between Moscow and Tallinn have been fraught since Estonia broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991. Estonia joined both the EU and NATO in 2004. Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine rekindled long-standing fears about aggression in Estonia and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania. This month Kaljulaid called for US Patriot missiles and troops to be deployed to Estonia, where NATO already has a nearly 1,000-strong battle group led by Britain. The three Baltic countries, which now have a combined population of just six million people, were occupied and annexed by Moscow during World War II. Senator Mitch McConnell. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Lets keep it going is an apt slogan for Mitch McConnells 2020 Senate reelection campaign, given that retaining power is the only principle that anyone seems able to convincingly attribute to him. In an essay published in March by The New Republic, Alex Pareene makes a compelling case that efforts to decipher whatever grander vision motivates the Kentuckian whether it be a commitment to conservative ideology, the survival of the Republican Party, or something else are overthinking the matter. In McConnells case, Pareene argues, principle is a cover, and the GOP a vehicle, for a deceptively simple agenda: His desire to be Senate majority leader, and to enhance the financial benefits for donors and supporters who help him do so. McConnell is the great avatar of the decades-long enclosure of our public life by money, Pareene writes. In Mitchworld, you simply pay and pay, and pay to play. If this is correct, the argument follows that, having accomplished his goal 12 years ago, Leader McConnells conduct thereafter has been unmoored from any obligation to oversee a functioning government, or a government whose actions reflect the will of most Americans, unless doing so served his ambitions. But where some might consider this a liability come election season, the senator has functionally made it the theme of his first 2020 campaign advertisement. The video, released on Wednesday, begins in March 2016, with President Obama pleading with Senate Republicans to hold hearings and vote on the confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. McConnell refused at the time, holding the seat open in the off chance that the November election gifted him a Republican president. Lets let the American people decide, McConnell says in a voiceover in the video. Who will Americans trust to nominate the next Supreme Court justice? Trumps victory and the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy paved the way for not one but two conservative Supreme Court nominees: Neil Gorsuch, who was confirmed with relatively little fanfare; and Brett Kavanaugh, around whom McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans had to stubbornly close ranks amid credible and publicly galvanizing allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when both were in high school. He, too, now sits on the Court. The American people decided they wanted Donald Trump to make the [nominations], not Hillary Clinton, McConnell claims in the ad, which intercuts the drama around his SCOTUS debacles with footage of the president praising him as powerful and rock-ribbed. The entire video is awash in irony. Its first half is dedicated to McConnells various perversions of the Supreme Court confirmation process and record-paced confirmations of district-court judges, while the latter half showcases two pillars of the GOP agenda since 2017: growing the economy and overhauling the tax code. (A brief nod is made also to the passage of a Farm Bill which happens every five years that legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp.) The economic upturn that began during the Obama presidency and continues today is welcomed by many. But the tax bill which disproportionately benefited wealthy Americans and corporations is broadly unpopular, according to recent Gallup polling, which found that 49 percent of Americans disapprove of it compared to 40 percent who approve. This is indicative of a bigger thread that runs throughout McConnells ad: The recasting of maligned and brazenly partisan Republican behavior as the will of the American people, even when it is demonstrably not. Indeed, the majority of Americans dislike the Republican tax overhaul. The majority of Americans did not elect Donald Trump. (He won the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million votes.) Consequently, the majority of Americans did not want Trump selecting a Supreme Court nominee, then or perhaps ever. And even if they had, the same logic that McConnell used to justify the president doing so dictates that having elected and then reelected Obama most Americans actually wanted Trumps Democratic predecessor to nominate a justice who would fill the late Antonin Scalias vacant seat in 2016. That Obama actually did make such a nomination, and McConnell refused to even grant Merrick Garland a single hearing, let alone a confirmation vote, indicates a deep lack of interest on his part in the popular will that he invokes so self-righteously in his ad. That he advertises his 2016 gambit regardless suggests that the people whose will he is purportedly enforcing comprise a much smaller subset of voters that the term American people accurately describes. Not coincidentally, McConnell himself is one of them. None of this is surprising, though its shamelessness is disorienting. But if Pareene is correct that the Kentuckian is a man of pure ambition and little else then it makes a perverse sort of sense. If Kentucky voters want more of the same, it is to their detriment, assuming they value democracy. (McConnells Kentucky approval rating as of February is 33 percent, according to a Public Policy Polling survey; he won his 2014 reelection by 16 points, and no clear Democratic challenger is waiting in the wings.) But it is great news for Mitch McConnell. And really, is that not the point? From a zombie flick starring Iggy Pop to a tale of Chinese gangsters who decide to take over a city, these are the films vying for the top prize at the Cannes film festival next month: - The Dead Don't Die - Jim Jarmusch's zombie comedy will open the festival on May 14 with a starry cast that includes Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop and Tom Waits. The indie American icon, who made his name with "Down by Law" and "Mystery Train" in the 1980s, scored a low-key hit with last film "Paterson" -- also starring Driver -- which also premiered at Cannes. - Sorry We Missed You - Having won the Palme d'Or two years ago with "I, Daniel Blake", which showed the devastation caused by austerity in Britain, veteran director Ken Loach is back with an indictment of the gig economy. Written by his long-time collaborator Paul Laverty, it is the story of another Newcastle family battling debt since the 2008 financial crisis. They hope to turn a corner when the father becomes a self-employed delivery driver, but the e-economy is not all it seems. - A Hidden Life - Two decades after "The Thin Red Line", American master Terrence Malick returns to World War II with a haunting story of a German conscientious objector guillotined by the Nazis in 1943. It also includes the final screen performance of the late actors Michael Nyqvist and Bruno Ganz of "Downfall" and "Wings of Desire" fame. It is the first time Malick has premiered a film at Cannes since he won the Palme d'Or with "The Tree of Life" in 2011. - Parasite - Korean master Bong Joon-ho of "Okja" and "Snowpiercer" fame is another Cannes regular, famous for his dark gripping genre-bending creations. This time he tells a tragicomic tale of a poor family's obsession with a rich one after their son gets a job as a tutor to the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. The tale has echoes of another South Korean movie, "Burning", which became an arthouse hit last year after showing at Cannes. With Bong regular Song Kang-ho ("The Host" and "Snowpiecer") in the lead, it also stars Choi Woo-shik of the cult horror hit "Train to Busan". - Matthias & Maxime - French Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan wrote, directed and plays the lead in his latest drama about a group of late twentysomethings in his native Quebec. Of late, the prolific young auteur -- who made an impact with "Mommy" and "I Killed My Mother" -- has divided critical opinion. Cannes will be hoping this is a return to form. - The Traitor - A biopic of Tommaso Buscetta, the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia's oath of silence, it stars Brazilian actress and model Maria Fernanda Candido as his third wife, who convinces him to spill the beans to US prosectors. Veteran Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio shot the film in Sicily, Rome, London and Rio de Janeiro. - Young Ahmed - Three times Palme d'Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne return to the scene of their greatest triumphs with "Young Ahmed", the story of a teenager who embraces Islamic extremism. The Belgian brothers' gritty slices of working-class life are always set in their native French-speaking Wallonia, an area that served as the base for the terrorist cell responsible for the November 2015 Paris attacks. - Pain & Glory - Cannes usually only shows world premieres, but the festival has made an exception for its former jury head Pedro Almodovar's most personal film. Released in Spain and Mexico last month to almost universal acclaim, it is a psychodrama with a film director looking back on his life as his past catches up with him. With Almodovar stalwarts Antonio Banderas and Nora Navas leading the cast alongside Penelope Cruz, it's no wonder this is the most viewed Spanish film of the year so far. - Nighthawk - Having wowed Cannes in 2016 with "Aquarius", in which the amazing Sonia Braga shone, Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho is back with what has been described as a "sinister genre piece" again starring Braga in a western set in the country's vast interior. - Portrait of a Young Woman on Fire - Celine Sciamma, who won rave reviews for "Girlhood", her 2014 tale of young black girls growing up in the gritty French suburbs, returns with the story of a painter commissioned to do the portrait of a young woman in the 18th century. The film stars Adele Haenel, one of France's most sought-after young actresses. - The Wild Goose Lake - The sole Chinese contender is Diao Yinan, who won the top prize at the Berlin film festival in 2014 for another crime story, "Black Coal, Thin Ice". This movie is in a similar noirish vein with a group of gangsters forming a union to take control of city. - Roubaix, a Light - Arnaud Desplechin, the whimsical director of the 2004 film "Kings & Queens", explores his native northern French town of Roubaix in his latest feature starring Roschdy Zem, Lea Seydoux and Sara Forestier. - Little Joe - Austrian-born director Jessica Hausner delves into the near future in a film about genetic modification featuring rising British star Ben Whishaw and Emily Beecham. - Les Miserables - French actor-director Ladj Ly, who grew up filming his high-rise Paris suburb, makes his Cannes debut with his first feature film set in the deprived neighbourhood where the 2005 Paris riots kicked off. - It Must Be Heaven - Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, who was nominated for the Palme d'Or in 2002 with "Divine Intervention" about a love affair across the Israeli-Palestinian divide, travels to Paris, New York and other cities for a film about wandering and exile. - Sibyl - "Sibyl" by Justine Triet depicts a burnt-out psychotherapist who ditches most of her patients to return to her first love of writing but is short on inspiration until she counsels a distressed young actress played by Adele Exarchopoulos of the Cannes-winning 2013 lesbian drama "Blue is the Warmest Colour". - Frankie - US director Ira Sachs, of "Little Men" and "Love is Strange" fame casts Isabelle Huppert, Brendan Gleeson and Marisa Tomei in a film about three generations coming to terms with a major event during a holiday in Portugal. - The Whistlers - Also known as "The Passenger", Romanian new wave director Corneliu Porumboiu has a detective fly from Bucharest to La Gomera in the Canary Islands to help a criminal escape from prison. - Atlantique - The debut feature of Mati Diop, a young actress-director born in France to Senegalese parents, is set on a building site in Dakar where the workers decide to take to sea to seek a better life beyond Senegal. Hatred of journalists whipped up by populist and authoritarian leaders is degenerating into violence across the world, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned Thursday. And the number of countries where journalists can work safely is plummeting, its annual World Press Freedom Index revealed. Political leaders' hostility towards the media "has incited increasingly frequent acts of violence that have fuelled an unprecedented level of fear and danger for journalists," the report added. "If the political debate slides towards a civil war-style atmosphere, where journalists are treated as scapegoats, then democracy is in great danger," RSF chief Christophe Deloire said. Press freedom was in good health in less than quarter of the 180 countries covered by the index, with the United States sliding to 48th place. The period since President Donald Trump's election in 2016 has been one of the "American journalism community's darkest moments", the report added. It linked the president's "notorious anti-press rhetoric" with "terrifying harassment" aimed particularly at women and journalists of colour. - Murder and threats - "Never before have US journalists been subjected to so many death threats or turned so often to private security firms for protection," it added. "Hatred of the media is now such that a gunman walked into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, in June and killed four journalists and one other staff member," the report added. The Paris-based watchdog fears that the rising tide of strongman leaders "no longer seem to know any limits", citing the gruesome murder of the Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. India, the world's biggest democracy, slid two notches further into the red zone at 140th place. Six reporters were murdered there last year and RSF said critics of the Hindu nationalism espoused by its ruling party "are branded as 'anti-Indian' in online harassment campaigns". Turkey, the world's biggest jailer of journalists, was among the worst countries. RSF said "repression continued to tighten on the few critical outlets that remain", with its biggest media group taken over by a pro-government conglomerate. It has also the dubious honour of being the only country to prosecute a journalist for reporting the Paradise Papers offshore investment leaks. Russia, which the report branded as another "pioneer of repression", continued to slide down the table to 149th place. - Africa's ups and downs - Another former Soviet republic, Turkmenistan, has sunk to the very bottom of the ranking, supplanting North Korea because of its "disgraceful... and relentless" repression of reporters. Its near neighbour Tajikistan, where most of the independent media has been forced to close, fell 12 places, sitting just above Libya, Egypt and Azerbaijan. But the news was not all bad from the old Soviet empire, with Armenia jumping 19 places to 61st after its "Velvet Revolution" and Kyrgyzstan also climbing 15 after it ended travel bans and the threat of levying "astronomical damages" on reporters. The previously dire situation across the border in Uzbekistan has also somewhat improved due to the "thaw that began after dictator Islam Karimov's death in 2016", the report added. But there was little to cheer about in China, which remains rooted to the bottom of the list with the fourth worst record. Totalitarian Eritrea was even worse. Indeed some of the sharpest falls in press freedom were recorded in Africa. "Journalists are being attacked with impunity" in Tanzania since the President John "Bulldozer" Magufuli came to power in 2015, RSF warned, branding him a "press freedom predator". The east African country fell 25 places, three more than Mauritania, which has locked up a blogger for condemning the use of religion to justify the slavery that is still practised in the vast Saharan country. But the continent also saw some spectacular progress. Ethiopia has jumped 40 places under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while Gambia shot up 30, continuing the improvement after the departure of dictator Yahya Jammeh. Angola too has seen steady gains. The best performing countries continue to be in Scandinavia with Norway, Finland and Sweden taking the top three places. A proposed change to extradition law threatens the work of journalists and could drag Hong Kongs press freedom rating to new lows lasting decades, a global media watchdog warned on Thursday. Reporters Without Borders said Hongkongers should do all they could to oppose a government proposal to allow the transfer of fugitives on a case-by-case basis to jurisdictions the city lacks an extradition deal with, including mainland China. The group said the plan posed a threat to the rule of law. It may be the major concern for Hong Kong journalists and bloggers for a very long time, because it will make it legal for China to pick out any residents or foreigners they like, said Cedric Alviani, the organisations East Asia bureau director. Had we opened a bureau in Hong Kong, we would be worried, because there would be a direct threat to our staff and myself. The impact would not be felt overnight but foreign media agencies could be put off setting up in Hong Kong, Alviani said, adding there was no guarantee of a fair trial in mainland China and the rule of law was questionable. He cited the alleged abductions of booksellers Lam Wing-kee and Gui Minhai in 2015. The pair were involved with Hong Kong book companies selling titles critical of state leaders. Gui disappeared from Thailand and later appeared on a televised address in mainland China, admitting to wrongdoing, while Lam claimed he had been put through eight months of mental torture north of the border. Its important Hong Kong residents keep in mind the rule of law does not suffer exceptions, Alviani said. When there is a red line, thats not the rule of law anymore. Especially when the red line is blurry. The government hopes to push through the legal amendment by July but filibustering from the pro-democracy camp has ensured a slow start. The change aims to plug a loophole exposed by a homicide case last year involving Hongkonger Chan Tong-kai, wanted in Taiwan over the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. Story continues Chan faces a prison sentence in Hong Kong for money laundering and is due to be sentenced on April 29, leaving the government racing against time to amend the law. A Security Bureau spokeswoman said the bill was focused on serious crimes and will not affect Hong Kongs press freedom and freedom of speech. An extradition request would require the act to constitute a crime in Hong Kong, she added. The Hong Kong Journalists Association has voiced opposition to the proposal, citing cases in the past in which reporters in mainland China were harassed or prosecuted. Hong Kong dropped three places to 73rd in Reporters Without Borders annual World Press Freedom Index, released on Thursday, which ranks 180 countries and territories. The city remained labelled a problematic situation. Hong Kong has fallen from 18th in 2002 to 58th in 2013, before first hitting its record low of 73rd in 2017. Reporters Without Borders said Beijings increasing political influence was being felt across the region from Taiwan to Singapore. The finding echoed a recent survey by the Journalists Association which also said press freedom was in its worst state in the citys history. Most critics have pointed to the expulsion last year of British journalist Victor Mallet of the Financial Times. The Hong Kong authorities never explained the reason behind the move, but it was widely linked to Mallets role chairing a lunch talk by separatist Andy Chan Ho-tin at the Foreign Correspondents Club in August. Thats problematic. It showed respecting Hong Kong law is not enough to stay out of trouble, you have to guess where this blurry and floating red line is, club president Florence de Changy said. Saying Hong Kong is better than Singapore is no consolation, she said. Singapore remained at 151st place in the 2019 press freedom index. South Korea overtook Taiwan to claim 41st spot, the highest-ranked place in Asia. Mainland China was 177th, falling one place. Reporters Without Borders warned authorities against using new technologies to exert tighter control over news information and surveillance. Norway, Finland and Sweden topped the list, while the United States fell three places to 48th due to President Donald Trumps continued attacks on the media, the group said. It labelled the situation in America problematic for the first time. This article Hong Kongs fugitive law could put press freedom at new low, says Reporters Without Borders first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called on Middle East states on Thursday to "drive back Zionism", in an Army Day tirade against the Islamic republic's archfoe Israel. Speaking flanked by top generals before troops began their annual march-past, Rouhani also sought to reassure the region that the weaponry on display was for defensive purposes and not a threat. "The regions nations have lived alongside each other for centuries and never had a problem... If there is a problem, it is caused by others," he said in the speech broadcast live on state television. "Let us stand together, be together and rid the region of the aggressors presence." Rouhani assured neighbouring countries that Iran's armed forces are "never against you or your national interests" but are "standing against the aggressors." "The power of our armed forces is the power of the regions countries, the Islamic world." he said. "If we have a problem in the region today, its roots are either with Zionism or America's arrogance." Rouhani called on Muslim nations to band together and "restore the historical right of the nation of Palestine," saying that "Zionism ... has been committing crimes in the region for the past 70 years", "The final victory will surely be with the righteous," he said. The military parade was held next to the south Tehran mausoleum of the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It showcased some of Iran's latest weaponry, including the domestically designed and manufactured Kowsar fighter jet, which was first unveiled last year. Iran also displayed its short-range Zelzal missile and an upgraded model of the Russian S-200 air defence system. US-manufactured Bell, Cobra and Chinook helicopters bought before the Islamic revolution of 1979 also took part in the air display. - 'Cancerous tumour' - Diatribes against Israel are standard fare of official speeches in Iran, although some, such as a call by Rouhani's firebrand predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map", have triggered international condemnation. Iran does not recognise Israel and opposition to the Jewish state has been a central tenet of official policy since the revolution. Iran has supported Palestinian radical groups and has vociferously opposed the now moribund Middle East peace process under which the Palestinians were offered limited autonomy in the territories captured in the Six-Day War of 1967. Rouhani has previously called Israel a "cancerous tumour", and called on Muslim governments to unite against it and its US ally. Iranian officials have warned repeatedly that Israel will soon cease to exist, but have usually been careful to underline that that will come about not through a direct attack by Iran. "In 25 years' time, with the grace of God, no such thing as the Zionist regime will exist in the region," supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 2015. - Syria tensions - The presence of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the eight-year civil war has sharply increased tensions between the regional foes. Israel has said publicly that it has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes targeting the forces of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that he will never allow Iran to establish a long-term military presence in Israel's northeastern neighbour. Netanyahu has been an outspoken opponent of a landmark nuclear deal Iran signed with major powers in 2015 and was the leading supporter of US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from it and reimpose crippling economic sanctions last year. Washington's European allies have refused to follow suit and they, along with China and Russia, continue to support the deal. But the Trump administration has sought to forge an anti-Iran axis within the Middle East bringing together Israel and the Gulf Arab states to make common cause against what they see as Iranian "meddling" in the region. Last week, Washington placed Iran's Revolutionary Guards on its blacklist of "foreign terrorist organisations," the first time it had imposed the sanction on a military arm of a foreign government. Rouhani warned Washington on Thursday that "an insult to the Guards... is an insult to the great nation of Iran." "America's leaders are lost in their delusions," he said, adding that Washington was the real source of "terrorism" in the region. By Hesham Hajali CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State (IS) has recorded 69 casualties from the Nigerian Army and troops from an African anti-militant force in attacks over the past week, the Jihadist group said in its weekly paper on Thursday. Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which split from Nigeria-based Boko Haram in 2016, has carried out a series of attacks in the last few months. In its newspaper Al-Nabaa, IS said its fighters killed a number of African coalition soldiers in attacks on a military barracks, a military post and a town in northeastern Borno state and the Lake Chad region. It said its fighters detonated explosives on Saturday on a tank of the African alliance near the town of Tomer in Niger, killing all soldiers on board. ISIS did not specify the number killed. The militants said over the past week troops from Nigerian and Cameroon were either killed or injured, without providing details. A Nigerian military spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. Boko Haram has waged a decade-long insurgency in northeast Nigeria which has killed around 30,000 people and forced about 2 million to leave their homes. (Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Leslie Adler) Nissan Philippines Inc. (NPI) has continued its winning streak after ending its fiscal year (March 2018) in solidifying a strong third place in terms of vehicle sales locally. Based on the latest figures released by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI), NPI closed its fiscal year with 58.5-percent growth in March. With a nearly a six-percent growth, NPI is now at third place, holding an 11.3 percent of the market share amongst members of CAMPI. Last year, NPI already enjoyed a 6.1 percent share. The said figures earned them the highest total sales in the country since 2017. Driving its strong sales figures is the Nissan Navara, which holds 47.4 percent of its total sales and becoming one of the pick-up segments top-selling models. In addition, the Nissan Terra contributed 16.3 percent of the total sales since the brand started delivering the midsize SUV to its customers last August. The Nissan Urvan and Nissan Almera also posted positive growth, contributing 16.9 percent and 14.9 percent of the total sales, respectively. Newly-minted NPI chief Atsushi Najima attributed customer satisfaction to the strong sales growth. Nissans achievements come from putting the customer at the heart of everything we do, and transforming the way people drive and live in the Philippines, the new NPI president and managing director explained. Our success is built upon the strong foundations laid by my predecessors, the people of Nissan, and the dealer network. From here, our goal is to sustain this game-changing growth by focusing on delivering quality service, exceptional customer experience, and exciting products equipped with Nissan Intelligent mobility, he added. As part of its future development plans, the company recently announced that it would be launching the Nissan Leaf in the Philippines by 2020. Nissan also has plans to expand its dealership network to more areas in the country and improve its branches through the global retail visual identity known as the Nissan Retail Concept. The post Nissan PH Solidifies Market Share Hold, Places Third in Automotive Sales appeared first on Carmudi Philippines. PHOTO: Getty Images SINGAPORE Several current and former media practitioners have released a statement expressing their disappointment and concerns over the proposed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) tabled in Parliament on 1 April. The writers who include Yahoo News Singapore contributor PN Balji, Howard Lee, Choo Zheng Xi, Ravi Philemon, Joshua Chiang, Kumaran Pillai and Braema Mathi said in the statement released on Thursday (18 April) that their objections to the Bill are based on three concerns: The excessive infringement on freedom of expression, which will impact the work of media practitioners; The governments inability to appreciate the digital news industry and to work with media practitioners to combat disinformation; and The increasing lack of government accountability to citizens. The above-mentioned concerns have been expressed by various media practitioners, academia and civil society groups since the Bill was first made public, the statement said. But the concerns were either barely addressed by the Law Ministry since, or did not adequately address the concerns raised by these individuals and were quickly rebutted, it added. Statement sent to MPs to encourage more informed debate If left to proceed along these lines, POFMA will cause immediate and long-term harm to freedom of expression, impede the development of an engaged and thinking public, and erode trust in the government. The statement has been sent to all Members of Parliament, which the writers hope will encourage a more informed debate on the Bill in Parliament next month. They have recommended several directions for the MPs to consider when debating the Bill: To reconsider POFMA in light of the original purpose of Singapores fight against disinformation, which was to maintain racial and religious harmony and the integrity of the elections. The writers contend that such issues have a much narrower scope than online falsehoods, and there is a need for the government to craft laws that address these issues surgically. To consider amending relevant laws, such as the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act and Election Acts, to better accommodate the repulsion of disinformation. This would allow for the refinement of laws to specifically cater to the nuances of disinformation related to such situations, and also grant the government more legitimacy in using targeted tools. To consider all media entities, mainstream and online, as valuable partners in the fight against disinformation, rather than as the problem. Doing so affirms the governments sincerity in enhancing freedom of expression and developing a more engaged public. Should it be decided in Parliament that POFMA proceeds, the statement urges the MPs: Story continues To remove the sixth condition of falsehoods mentioned in the Bill, as well as all related clauses, that grant the government excessive jurisdiction over the definition and persecution of perceived falsehoods. The writers contend that state legitimacy is not attained by force of laws, but in demonstrating a willingness to share power with those the government serves. To stipulate in the law conditions for the government to respond in a timely fashion to substantive efforts by media practitioners to clarify information, failing which the government cannot declare a statement false. To consider the formation of an independent body comprising government representatives, community leaders, civil society groups, mainstream and online media practitioners and legal professionals, to serve as the deciders of disinformation, whose decisions would be arbitrated by the courts before any corrective actions are to be taken against said disinformation. Lack of clarity for journalists to practise their craft The statement elaborated on the three concerns raised by the writers on the POFMA. They contend that the Bill gives little clarity on how opinion pieces on government policies can completely avoid running afoul of POFMA, given that such articles would include a combination of diverse, and sometimes contradictory, facts and viewpoints during their analysis. Such ambiguity, they argue, will make it hazardous for journalists to practise their craft in an environment where the Singapore government has demonstrated a low tolerance for even the slightest hint that it made a mistake. This may result in news outfits likely choosing to pre-emptively self-censor or comply with directions without further thought, to avoid more severe legal ramifications such as curtailment of funding or imprisonment, the statement said, adding that the proposed Bill promotes a carpet bombing mentality that pays no heed to nuances between facts, opinions and outright disinformation. The statement also contends that POFMA essentially makes the Government a reactive player in the fight against disinformation, rather than a proactive and engaged partner of serious media outlets. Such an approach leads to a public that will be increasingly distrustful towards both the Government and media outlets. It also argues that the Bill indicates a worrying trend of a government that is eager to implement laws that over-extend its reach into civic discourse and grants it unchecked powers that can be abused by this government or future ones. This is patently unhealthy for public trust in the government, rendering any progress POFMA might make in securing free and fair elections nought, the statement said. Related stories: Virtually anything can be deemed misleading under fake news law: historian Thum Ping Tjin COMMENT Fake news bill: Time for lawyers, MPs to stand up and be counted Fake news bill: Media professionals favour fact-checking body, divided on its role Parliament: Draft bill proposes up to 10 years jail for individuals who deliberately spread fake news Less than a year ago, Foxconns billionaire chairman Terry Gou said he didnt even have the one millionth of intent to run for the presidency of Taiwan. Fast-forward to Wednesday and his announcement that he will vie to be the opposition Kuomintangs candidate for the presidential election next year has shaken the islands political landscape. Vowing to do something for the younger generation, Gou went back on his word, saying the 2020 race will be extremely critical in determining Taiwans future in the next 20 years in terms of politics, defence and the economy. Gou, 68, has a reputation as one of the islands most successful businesspeople and may well have a better chance at challenging the incumbent, President Tsai Ing-wen, than other KMT aspirants, including former legislature speaker Wang Jin-pyng and former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu. But analysts say he still has to pass a series of tests to show that he can do better than Tsai, from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party. Gous rise to the mantle of the richest man on the island with an estimated net worth of US$7.4 billion began in a rented shed on the outskirts of Taipei in 1974. Thats when Gou started Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, with US$7,500 and just 10 staff making plastic parts for television sets. A turning point came in 1980 when he received an order from game company Atari to make a console joystick, starting a decade of expansion that involved an 11-month trip to the United States to doorknock for business. In 1988, soon after Beijing promised not to nationalise investments from the self-ruled island, Taiwan-born Gou opened his first factory on the mainland in Shenzhen, becoming one of the few Taiwanese businesspeople with private investments across the strait. Eight years later, Foxconn started building chassis for Compaq desktop computers, which also won him lucrative contracts from other big-name companies like IBM, HP and Apple. Since then, Foxconn has gradually become the worlds biggest electronics contract manufacturer, with clients including Apple, Nintendo, Dell and Sony. With a staff of more than 1.2 million worldwide, his electronics empire spread to Finland when he bought Nokias mobile phone brand and Japanese displaymaker Sharp in 2016. Story continues Today, Gou is known in Beijing as a mainland-friendly business leaderand even President Xi Jinping has called him his old friend. The Foxconn chief has also gained the approval of US President Donald Trump. As trade tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated last year, Gou agreed to invest US$10 billion in a factory in Wisconsin to assemble liquid crystal display screens, winning praise from Trump trying to revive the areas manufacturing industry. With his wealth and business expertise, Gou is seen by many as a strong contender for the KMTs nomination. As a world-class entrepreneur whose business spans the two sides of the Taiwan Strait as well as Europe and America, he has made great contributions to Taiwans economic development, former president Ma Ying-jeou said on Wednesday, But Foxconn has also been dogged by criticism about its labour and business practices, with some workers on the mainland calling his operations blood and sweat factories. A dozen Foxconn workers committed suicide in 2010 in what reports later said was due to the companys constant demand of maximum efficiency at the lowest cost. Analysts said Gou would have to overcome some of his liabilities to get the top job and deliver on his promise of a better future for young people. His strong business links and his close relations with China will make him a strong target for the DPP, said Hu Yu-wei, head of the journalism department at Chinese Culture University in Taipei. Apart from cutting ties with his business empire, Gou would also have to convince voters that he would not use his power to benefit Foxconn if he became president, Hu said. Political analyst Ku Erh-te said Gou would need to show that he could perform at the top political level. He will need to convince voters that he could do better than Tsai in striking a balance in terms of maintaining US-Taiwan-China relations if he no longer holds the [Foxconn] chairman post and very possibly no longer able to meet US or Chinese leaders directly as Taiwans president, Ku said. This article Foxconn tycoon Terry Gou: Taiwans wealthiest man - and future presidential candidate first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Two more rounds of talks set for May amid hope the US-China trade war is ending Negotiators from China and the United States will hold two more rounds of trade talks by early May as the countries attempts to end their months-old trade battle intensify, US media reported on Thursday. Chinese officials were putting the finishing touches on the language they intend to use in their latest offers, diplomatic observers told the South China Morning Post. But US businesspeople watching the talks cautioned against excessive optimism, saying systemic issues remain to be fixed. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin plan to travel to Beijing the week of April 29, according to Bloomberg. The next week, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He will go to Washington for talks, which officials hope will lead to the announcement of a deal and the details of a signing summit, probably for late May, according to the report. Plans for more talks follow Mnuchins statement last week that the parties had agreed to set up enforcement offices in each others country to monitor the trade deals implementation, resolving a major sticking point in the talks. When US President Donald Trump received Liu in the White House on April 4, he said it would take about four weeks to reach a framework for the agreement and another two weeks to set details. It is not known whether the negotiators will resolve all the outstanding issues within Trumps time frame, but the diplomatic observers said they expected a deal to be reached soon. I think they are entering the final stage, and the discussion will rather focus on the wording of the deal document than principal issues, said Wang Huiyao, president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Chinese non-governmental think tank based in Beijing. China and the US have been locked in a tit-for-tat tariff battle since July 6. Is Donald Trump now about to target the car industry? The sides have engaged in several rounds of talks since negotiating teams led by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump called a truce in their tariff war at the conclusion of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 1. Story continues A major bone of contention remains Americas insistence that Beijing cut the subsidies it hands out to Chinese industries. For its part, Beijing wants the US to lift all tariffs it imposed on billions of dollars of Chinese imports. Tim Stratford, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said that despite a growing belief that an end to the trade war might be near, solutions to deeper issues still needed to be worked out. I dont think it would be easy for China to agree to a one-way enforcement mechanism where the US can enforce but China cannot, he said. I think thats very hard for China to agree to. China economy off to strong 2019 as stimulus offsets trade war But its also true that if its two-way, then if its abused one way or another, the agreement will fall apart. So this is a very delicate situation. US companies could feel pleased and hopeful about Chinas recent promise to buy more American goods to close the US-China trade deficit, Stratford said. But I think more broadly, buying commitments are not really a traditional part of trade policy negotiations. On Wednesday, a chamber white paper said trust between China and the US had plummeted to the extent that US businesses in China could no longer be regarded as a positive anchor in the countries trade relations. That change in sentiment came from years of broken Chinese promises to open up the Chinese market to foreign companies, according to the document. Additional reporting by Sarah Zheng More from South China Morning Post: This article Two more rounds of talks set for May amid hope the US-China trade war is ending first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Mueller implicitly says to Judiciary chairman Nadler: Over to you, Jerry! Photo: Getty Images Anyone carefully parsing the Mueller report today probably figured out at some point that, far from exonerating Donald Trump from obstruction-of-justice allegations, Mueller deemed himself (and, for that matter, William Barr in the hilariously unlikely event he was willing to go there) legally incapable of holding Trump criminally liable because of DOJ policies against charging a sitting president. He suggested indirectly but distinctly that Congress might be the only institution left that could deal with the presidential conduct that he documented but could not pursue with an indictment. As Yoni Applebaum put it bluntly: The Mueller report, in short, is an impeachment referral. And that is why, in the howls of outrage and new determination to get to the bottom of Trumps misconduct that you heard today from Democrats, you might have heard a quiet sigh of exasperation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose troops would be the ones to undertake the articles of impeachment. Yes, of course, Pelosi signed a joint statement with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer pointing out that Mueller had strengthened the case for finding Trump guilty of obstruction of justice. But she has long argued, against considerable sentiment among some of her rank-and-file members and from progressive activists at the grassroots level, that impeachment proceedings were a bad idea until and unless public support for them was so overwhelming that the Senate Republicans who would be expected to save Trumps bacon were convinced to dump him. Mueller likely hasnt changed the political logic of her position. Indeed, since she most clearly articulated it in March, we have gotten that much deeper into the active presidential election cycle, which makes any impeachment effort vulnerable to charges of being a partisan campaign stunt. But make no mistake, the Mueller findings and the disgraceful manner in which Barr and the Justice Department handled them will ratchet up support for using impeachment proceedings to pick up the banner the special counsel handed them. The House leader who would presumably be in charge of impeachment proceedings, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, has been as cool to that extreme measure as Pelosi, as Roll Call reported last month: The New York Democrat has said that while he believes the president may have committed high crimes and obstructed subsequent investigations into them, his assessment of the facts isnt the one that ultimately matters If youre serious about removing a president from office, what youre really doing is overturning the result of the last election, Nadler told Roll Call in November. You dont want to have a situation where you tear this country apart, and for the next 30 years half the countrys saying, We won the election, you stole it. Today Nadler struck a different tone, as Fox News reported: The attorney general deciding to withhold the full report from Congress is regrettable but not surprising, Nadler said during a press conference. Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report shows disturbing evidence that President Trump obstructed justice Nadler would not speculate on whether or not congressional Democrats would file articles of impeachment against Trump, but added that he was not taking the option off the table. Congress must get the full, unredacted report along with all the underlying materials from Special Counsel Mueller, Nadler said. We have to get to the bottom of this and well see what happens. But Pelosis chief lieutenant, Steny Hoyer, was already pouring cold water on newly boiling impeachment sentiment, as The Hill reported: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday that nothing he saw in special counsel Robert Muellers report would make seeking to impeach President Trump a worthwhile effort at this point Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point, Hoyer told CNN. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgment. You can expect this sort of dismissal to rekindle some progressive hostility to the House Democratic leadership, already pretty high over the disrespect many believe is being shown to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. The Intercepts Mehdi Hasan is having none of it: Dear House Democrats, You told us to be patient. You told us to be cautious. You told us to wait for Robert Mueller. Well, the time for waiting is over. And the moment for impeachment hearings has arrived This is your duty your obligation! You must restore some sense of honor and integrity to the office of the presidency. At a minimum, impeachment zealots might want to wait a few days to see how the public is processing the Mueller report and its findings and consider whether there are less drastic (and ultimately futile) avenues for exploring and publicize them. Trump may well deserve impeachment, but ejecting him from office at the ballot box just over 18 months from now might be the more effective, if boringly conventional, way to proceed. Photo credit: TLC From Cosmopolitan Step aside, Game of Thrones! Youre trash! Youre garbage! The best show of 2019, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After season 4, is coming to TLC on Sunday, April 28, and the entire world just creamed their jeans. Lets dive into the bountiful gifts that The Learning Channel has bestowed unto us. Paola and Russ Paola, one of the best human beings alive, and Russ, a lovable pile of dirty Oklahoma State sweatshirts, seem to have a legit bond. And now theyre having a bb. Hooray! This season will follow Paolas pregnancy and how the couples love evolves and opens to welcome a new child-a baby boy named Axel who was born in January 2019. Im into it! Tas tas tas! And again, I must reiterate that Paola is the best person alive-I mean, just gaze upon the majesty that is her pregnancy photo shoot. Girlfriend is LIVING! Colt and Larissa Photo credit: Cosmo COLTYYYYYY is back! Blessed be! Unfortunately, it looks like these two arent gonna make it. I know, its a shocker-they were so well-suited for each other! A match made in hell heaven! Still, Im excited to see that sack of mashed potatoes get yelled out at by the ultimate Brazilian beauty. These two bring the drama and they are the best TV bang for your buck since Countess Luann. Yeah, theyre THAT good. Bow down. Azan and Nicole Fan favorites Azan and Nicole are a major mystery-are they actually engaged yet? Will Azan ever come to America? Will Nicole and her daughter May move to Morocco and give Nicoles mom an actual heart attack? May all these questions and more be answered this season! Story continues Jay and Ashley Its been a bit of a mystery if these two are still together, but it appears they ARE. Ashley told Us Weekly, Im breaking the NDA and surprise: Jay and I have never separated since the day we were married. Breaking the NDA means I wont be paid a dime for future shows. We were made to act as if our relationship was no longer active. Well, there you go. I THINK. Honestly, I wont believe it until God (or TLC) herself tells me. Pedro and Chantel Well, we already know that Pedro and Chantel are getting their own spin-off, The Family Chantel, but these two are clinically addicted to being on television! Ill be honest, I dont think theyre the most interesting couple, but apparently TLC does and theyre the geniuses so Ill spend this season learning just how wrong I am. Andrei and Elizabeth Again, not the most interesting couple in the world, but again, I trust TLC above all else. Even my own mother. Plus, they have a baby now and Im curious to see if Andrei has become less intense. Watch the entire preview below and get ready for the madness to premiere on TLC on Sunday, April 28. ('You Might Also Like',) 18 Apr After the success of his ViuTV travel show "Pick Me Up to Taiwan", Chapman To revealed his plans to start the third season of the show at the end of the year. As reported on Mingpao, the actor, who appeared at the press conference announcing ViuTV's programme line-up, shared that he would like to shoot the third season in Japan and try his hands on the delicacies the country has to offer. Asked if he would be going to Osaka, he smiled and replied, "Isn't it better going to Osaka than the mainland?" On the other hand, the second season, "Pick Me Up to Malaysia" will officially premiere on 29 April. The show will feature guest artistes Moon Chen, Miko Wong, and Cathryn Lee. (Photo Source: Mingpao) [CORRECTION: CORRECTS to remove Le Quai de Ouistreham from Palme d'Or competition /// ] From a zombie flick starring Iggy Pop to a tale of Chinese gangsters who decide to form a union, these are the films vying for the top prize at the Cannes film festival next month: - The Dead Don't Die - Jim Jarmusch's zombie comedy will open the festival on May 14 with a starry cast that includes Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop and Tom Waits. The indie American icon, who made his name with "Down by Law" and "Mystery Train" in the 1980s, scored a low-key hit with last film "Paterson" -- also starring Driver -- which also premiered at Cannes. - Sorry We Missed You - Having won the Palme d'Or two years ago with "I, Daniel Blake", which showed the devastation caused by austerity in Britain, veteran director Ken Loach is back with an indictment of the gig economy. Written by his long-time collaborator Paul Laverty, it is the story of another Newcastle family battling debt since the 2008 financial crisis. They hope to turn a corner when the father becomes a self-employed delivery driver, but the e-economy is not all it seems. - A Hidden Life - Two decades after "The Thin Red Line", American master Terrence Malick returns to World War II with a haunting story of a German conscientious objector guillotined by the Nazis in 1943. It also includes the final screen performance of the late actors Michael Nyqvist and Bruno Ganz of "Downfall" and "Wings of Desire" fame. It is the first time Malick has premiered a film at Cannes since he won the Palme d'Or with "The Tree of Life" in 2011. - Parasite - Korean master Bong Joon-ho of "Okja" and "Snowpiercer" fame is another Cannes regular, famous for his dark gripping genre-bending creations. This time he tells a tragicomic tale of a poor family's obsession with a rich one after their son gets a job as a tutor to the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. Story continues The tale has echoes of another South Korean movie, "Burning", which became an arthouse hit last year after showing at Cannes. With Bong regular Song Kang-ho ("The Host" and "Snowpiecer") in the lead, it also stars Choi Woo-shik of the cult horror hit "Train to Busan". - Matthias & Maxime - French Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan wrote, directed and plays the lead in his latest drama about a group of late twentysomethings in his native Quebec. Of late, the prolific young auteur -- who made an impact with "Mommy" and "I Killed My Mother" -- has divided critical opinion. Cannes will be hoping this is a return to form. - The Traitor - A biopic of Tommaso Buscetta, the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia's oath of silence, it stars Brazilian actress and model Maria Fernanda Candido as his third wife, who convinces him to spill the beans to US prosectors. Veteran Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio shot the film in Sicily, Rome, London and Rio de Janeiro. - Young Ahmed - Three times Palme d'Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne return to the scene of their greatest triumphs with "Young Ahmed", the story of a teenager who embraces Islamic extremism. The Belgian brothers' gritty slices of working-class life are always set in their native French-speaking Wallonia, an area that served as the base for the terrorist cell responsible for the November 2015 Paris attacks. - Pain & Glory - Cannes usually only shows world premieres, but the festival has made an exception for its former jury head Pedro Almodovar's most personal film. Released in Spain and Mexico last month to almost universal acclaim, it is a psychodrama with a film director looking back on his life as his past catches up with him. With Almodovar stalwarts Antonio Banderas and Nora Navas leading the cast alongside Penelope Cruz, it's no wonder this is the most viewed Spanish film of the year so far. - Nighthawk - Having wowed Cannes in 2016 with "Aquarius", in which the amazing Sonia Braga shone, Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho is back with what has been described as a "sinister genre piece" again starring Braga in a western set in the country's vast interior. - Portrait of a Young Woman on Fire - Celine Sciamma, who won rave reviews for "Girlhood", her 2014 tale of young black girls growing up in the gritty French suburbs, returns with the story of a painter commissioned to do the portrait of a young woman in the 18th century. The film stars Adele Haenel, one of France's most sought-after young actresses. - The Wild Goose Lake - The sole Chinese contender is Diao Yinan, who won the top prize at the Berlin film festival in 2014 for another crime story, "Black Coal, Thin Ice". This time round it's a caper about gangsters who form a union. - Roubaix, a Light - Arnaud Desplechin, the whimsical director of the 2004 film "Kings & Queens", explores his native northern French town of Roubaix in his latest feature starring Roschdy Zem, Lea Seydoux and Sara Forestier. - Little Joe - Austrian-born director Jessica Hausner delves into the near future in a film about genetic modification featuring rising British star Ben Whishaw and Emily Beecham. - Les Miserables - French actor-director Ladj Ly, who grew up filming his high-rise Paris suburb, makes his Cannes debut with his first feature film set in the deprived neighbourhood where the 2005 Paris riots kicked off. - It Must Be Heaven - Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, who was nominated for the Palme d'Or in 2002 with "Divine Intervention" about a love affair across the Israeli-Palestinian divide, travels to Paris, New York and other cities for a film about wandering and exile. - Sibyl - "Sibyl" by Justine Triet depicts a burnt-out psychotherapist who ditches most of her patients to return to her first love of writing but is short on inspiration until agreeing to counsel a distressed young actress played by Adele Exarchopoulos of the Cannes-winning 2013 lesbian drama "Blue is the Warmest Colour". - Frankie - US director Ira Sachs, of "Little Men" and "Love is Strange" fame casts Isabelle Huppert, Brendan Gleeson and Marisa Tomei in a film about three generations coming to terms with a major event during a holiday in Portugal. - The Whistlers - Romanian new wave director Corneliu Porumboiu brings a noirish crime story replete with treason and a femme fatale to the Croisette. - Atlantique - The feature debut of Mati Diop, a young actress-director born in France to Senegalese parents, was shot in Senegal. Don Lee is set to make his Hollywood debut. 18 Apr - After starring in several Korean blockbusters, now it's time for Ma Dong-seok a.k.a. Don Lee to take on Hollywood. Even though he's been receiving offers from American productions since gaining international fame with 2016's "Train to Busan", he has yet to accept any. Things might soon change, according to a report from TheWrap, as the actor has been tapped for a role in Marvel's "The Eternals". Even though he grew up in America, his acting career is built in South Korea, so this will mark his debut in an American feature film. He will be joining a cast led by Angelina Jolie, who is in talks to play a female Eternal named Sersi, and Kumail Nanjiani, whose role is still unknown. Don Lee's own role in the movie has yet to be revealed, though there are fans speculation that he might play characters like Zuras and The Forgotten One, no doubt due to his buff physique, or an Asian character. He won't be the only Asian in the cast, however, as The Hashtag Show is reporting that the movie is also currently looking for a young 20-something gay or bisexual actor to fill in the role of James. The gay male lead is described as "intellectual, emotional, and has a strong sense of family." Reportedly, the studio is eyeing "How to Get Away with Murder" actor Conrad Ricamora for the part. While fans wait for further update on who's playing what, they can first see Don Lee in action in this year's "The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil". As donations for the restoration of the Notre-Dame cathedral top $900,000, the director of Brazil's devastated National Museum can only hope for such deep pockets in his own country As donations for the restoration of the Notre-Dame cathedral top $900,000, the director of Brazil's devastated National Museum can only hope for such deep pockets in his own country. Nearly eight months after a faulty air conditioning system sparked a fire that gutted Latin America's main natural history museum and destroyed most of its collection, just $280,000 or so has been raised for its reconstruction. "We are very happy for the extremely positive reaction of French society and we hope that following this example Brazilian businesses and millionaires will start to send us their donations," Alexander Kellner, director of the Rio de Janeiro-based museum, told AFP. "It is not a question of obtaining amounts of this magnitude, but the National Museum really needs donations. "With a million reais ($255,000) more, we can solve a lot of problems, it would help us breathe, because for now it is artificial respiration." Friends of the National Museum Association, which is charged with collecting donations, has so far received the equivalent of $36,000 from individuals and $3,800 from companies. Donations have been "far below our expectations," Kellner admitted, but said the lack of tax reductions for Brazilian donors might be one of the reasons. After the September 2 fire ripped through the four-story former imperial palace, Brazil's education ministry released the equivalent of $2.5 million for emergency works to preserve the building's facade. But other public funds have not yet been disbursed. The total cost of restoring the National Museum will reportedly be around 100 million reais. The blaze wiped out much of the museum's collection, dealing a hard blow to the main showcase of Brazil's anthropological heritage and history. Skipping breakfast isnt good for heart health, new research has revealed [Photo: Getty] Skipping breakfast and eating a late dinner could lead to more serious outcomes after a heart attack, new research suggests. Scientists found people who frequently bypassed brekkie and regularly ate dinner less than two hours before going to bed were far less likely to survive if they suffered a heart attack. The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), found people with these particular two eating habits had a four to five times higher likelihood of death, another heart attack, or angina (chest pain) within 30 days after leaving hospital following a heart attack. Researchers from Sao Paolo State University, Brazil, enrolled 113 patients, 73% of whom were men, with a mean age of 60. All had experienced a particularly serious form of heart attack called ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Participants were asked about eating behaviours on admission to a coronary intensive care unit. Skipping breakfast was defined as nothing before lunch at least three times per week. Late-night dinner eating was defined as a meal within two hours before bedtime at least three times per week. READ MORE: New study recommends a low-carb, high-fat breakfast for weight loss Skipping breakfast was observed in 58%, late-night dinner eating in 51%, and both behaviours in 41%. Following the findings study author Dr Marcos Minicucci, of Sao Paolo State University recommended a minimum two hour interval between dinner and bedtime. It is said that the best way to live is to breakfast like a king, he said. A good breakfast is usually composed of dairy products (fat-free or low fat milk, yogurt and cheese), a carbohydrate (whole wheat bread, bagels, cereals), and whole fruits. It should have 15 to 35% of our total daily calorie intake. Eating dinner less than two hours before bed could contribute to worse outcomes after a heart attack [Photo: Getty] Dr Minicucci went on to say that previous studies have found that people who miss breakfast and have a late dinner are more likely to have other unhealthy habits such as smoking and low levels of physical activity. Story continues Our research shows that the two eating behaviours are independently linked with poorer outcomes after a heart attack, but having a cluster of bad habits will only make things worse, he added. People who work late may be particularly susceptible to having a late supper and then not being hungry in the morning. We also think that the inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and endothelial function could be involved in the association between unhealthy eating behaviours and cardiovascular outcomes. READ MORE: Fizzy drinks can increase risk of heart disease The study results follows further research released last week which revealed that statins are not effective for around half of people taking them. Researchers from Nottingham University analysed 165,000 patients on statins and found that for one in two, the drugs had too little effect on bad cholesterol, which is one of the big risk factors for heart disease. Yesterday morning, Indonesia kicked off the worlds largest-ever election, with over twenty thousand parliamentary and local legislative seats up for grabs. Across the globe, however, all eyes were on the presidential contest between incumbent Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and his opponent, former general Prabowo Subianto. While Mr Prabowo has pledged to review numerous Chinese investment projects initiated under Jokowis term, there has been little else in terms of policy proposals to differentiate the two contestants. Yet both candidates have been vying to showcase their Islamic credentials; Mr Prabowo promising to increase funding for religious schools, and Mr Widodo selecting religious cleric Maruf Amin as his vice presidential candidate. What do these choices mean for the role of Islam in politics, not just in Indonesia, but also in Singapore and the region? Maruf Amin is an ulama (Islamic religious scholar) who serves as the spiritual leader of the nations largest Islamic organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). He also heads the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI). While Jokowi has remained popular in Indonesian polls, his support is lacking amongst a key demographic: conservative Muslims. Coming to power as a moderate religious figure, this image now harms his popularity amongst some members of Indonesias Mulsim community. It was important for Jokowi to be seen as a proper Muslim, says Dr Risa Toha, political science professor and Indonesia expert at Yale-NUS College. The selection of Maruf Amin was supposed to boost his credibility among conservative Muslim voters. While Islam has always played a part in the politics of Indonesia, which is eighty-seven per cent Muslim, Indonesia has a secular government. Recently, however, religion has come to the fore in the countrys political sphere, notably in the 2016 protests, trial and subsequent imprisonment of Jakartas Chinese-Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnamaknown as Ahokfor charges of blasphemy against Islam. Story continues Maruf Amin, as chairman of MUI, has himself been responsible for some intolerant declarations from the religious body. In 2005, when he was head of the MUIs fatwa division, MUI issued fatwas denouncing the minority Ahmadiyah community, as well as secularism, liberalism, and pluralism. (A fatwa is an Islamic legal ruling, issued by a scholar in Islamic law; while influential, fatwas are not legally binding in a secular state like Indonesia.) In 2016, Maruf also testified against Ahok in the former governors blasphemy trial, which saw him sentenced to two years behind bars. On the surface, this trend towards intolerance seems like a relatively recent phenomenon. In reality, this change has been steadily brewing for some time. Increasingly, says Dr Toha, We have seen more illiberal bylaws, and government silence in the face of acts of intolerance. In this manner, the government appears to condone these views. In part, Marufs past actions speak to growing dissatisfaction amongst the religious community with a civic society that seems uncaringirreverent, even, towards religious norms and practices. Its in line with a train of thought across the region thats speaking out against secular ideology, which they view as a threat to their religion. This trend is even reflected by recent events in Singapore, such as the ban on anti-Christian metal band Watain, which ignited debate over the role of religion in public policy. Some members of the religious community felt that it was only fair for the Singapore government to ban such an incendiary group; others, even Christians, thought that since the ban was informed by religion, it should not have been enforced by a secular government. Such small disagreements are a microcosm of the growing tension between groups of differing religiosity. The freedom of Indonesians to practice their own religion (i.e, the freedom to not practice Islam), is enshrined in Indonesias founding principles, known collectively as Pancasila. The first of these five tenets is Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa, or Belief in the One God. While some parties fought to particularise Muslims in this tenetmaking Islam, effectively, the state religionthe countrys founders ultimately committed to a non-religious Indonesian state. But decades later, is Indonesias secularism on the line? Whether Maruf as VP would threaten this principle depends on what he does with his position, says Dr Toha, He has expressed multiple times his commitment to preserving Pancasila as the states ideology, and that he doesnt see Pancasila as contradictory to Islam. So well see. Regardless of the ultimate outcome, there is little doubt that the campaign has brought issues of national identity and religion sharply into focus in Indonesia. In a way, by picking such a prominent religious figure as his running mate, Jokowi has already conceded to electoral pressure from the conservative voting bloc, indicating the burgeoning power that religious and identity politics holds in Indonesia. As Indonesia is the worlds largest Muslim nation, a growing trend of intolerance is something to take notice of, particularly for its neighbours like Malaysia and Singapore. While there are many factors that contribute to the trend of increasing religious intolerance, some analysts caution of a spillover effect on neighbouring countries, due to the spreading of such ideas through online platforms like social media. The danger posed by the spreading of such ideas, in Singapore and elsewhere, is not increasing religiosity, but rather the polarisation of public discourse into opposing sides. While conservative Islam or Christianity has been speaking out against liberal Western ideals, it is important to note that there exist many shades of difference within communities regarding what they consider acceptable or necessary government intervention. Religiosity is not radical; the belief that religion cannot coexist with non-religious, secular policies, however, is a divisive position that should be closely monitored and countered. Have something to say about this story? Write in to us at community@ricemedia.co. The post Why Do the Indonesian Elections Matter To Singaporeans? appeared first on RICE. Erik Prince arrives to testify before the House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on November 30, 2017. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Remember Blackwater Security? Iraqis do. In September 2007, the companys mercenary fighters killed 17 civilians in Baghdads Nisour Square. Blackwater has changed names twice since the Nisour Square murders it was known, briefly, as XE Services and is now called Academi but it endures. The companys founder, Erik Prince, has no official role with Academi, which means that he too must find new ways to remain relevant. A mercenary leader in want of a new source of profit needs allies in government, and for a while, President Donald Trump looked like a sure meal ticket. Princes sister, Betsy DeVos, is Trumps secretary of Education, and Prince himself occupied a murky advisory role with the transition team. The nature of that role just became a bit more clear. Robert Muellers two-year-long investigation into the Russian governments efforts to interfere with the results of the 2016 presidential election swept up Prince, too. In 2017, as the House Intelligence Committee investigated the possibility that the Trump administration sought a communications back channel with the Russian government, Prince testified that he met with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, in the Seychelles. He characterized that meeting as an impromptu encounter that occurred during an unrelated business trip, as Vox reported at the time. I didnt fly there to meet any Russian guy, he told lawmakers. But Muellers report, which was released in redacted form on Thursday, seems to contradict Princes version of events. By the time Prince met with Dmitriev, hed already discussed the Russian businessman with George Nader, a convicted pedophile whod reached out to members of the Trump inner circle as an emissary for Gulf states. Nader told Prince at the time that the Russians were looking to build a link with the incoming Trump administration, as the report put it, and sent Prince the Russian businessmans bio along with a list of his positive quotes about Donald Trump. Prince went to Trump Tower the following day, and cell phone records indicate that he remained there for at least three hours, though he says he could not recall if he discussed Dmitriev with Steve Bannon or other members of the transition team. But on January 7, 2017, Prince purchased a ticket to the Seychelles, where Nader was staying. On the 8th, Nader wrote to Dimitriev to tell him that he had arranged for Dmitriev to meet a member of the Trump transition team, a reference that, according to the report, applied to Prince. According to Nader, Prince had led him to believe that Bannon was aware of Princes upcoming meeting with Dmitriev, and Prince acknowledged that it was fair for Nader to think that Prince would pass information on to the Transition Team, the report continues. Dmitriev traveled to the Seychelles at Naders invitation and, on January 11, Prince met with Dmitriev. As the report describes it, Princes meeting with Dmitriev does not sound like an impromptu encounter. Prince already knew that Dmitriev had been in touch with Nader, already knew that Nader wanted him to meet Dmitriev, and had, according to Nader, mentioned the meeting to other members of the transition team. The revelation will likely direct renewed scrutiny to Princes congressional testimony; there was already some evidence that hed been less than truthful with his interrogators. As Mother Jones noted in March, Prince eventually admitted to attending a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower where the incoming administrations Iran policy was a matter of discussion. Prince had told Congress that his contributions to the transition were limited, and consisted mostly of sending Bannon foreign policy papers. After revealing the discrepancy to Al Jazeeras Mehdi Hasan in an interview, Prince basically shrugged. I dont know if they got the transcript wrong, he said, referring to the official record of his testimony. Erik Prince didnt have a good reputation to tarnish, a fact that is occasionally obscured by the vestiges of mainstream respectability he still enjoys. The New York Times even let him publish an op-ed in 2017 laying out his case for why private contractors who are not mercenaries, he took great pains to insist would rescue Afghanistan from the quagmire we helped inflict on it. In the Mueller report, he is a uniquely buffoonish figure. In Naders telling, Dmitriev doubted that Prince was even important enough to merit a meeting. Nader responded by telling the Russian that Bannon had designated Prince for the meeting, and if that wasnt good enough well, his sister was a Minister of Education, a reference to Betsy DeVos. Dmitrievs opinion of Prince didnt improve after meeting him. According to the report, he told Nader that the Russians needed to be communicating with someone who had more authority within the incoming administration than Prince had. So much for all that. Maybe Prince will finally discover a form of justice he cant evade. Sign Up for the Intelligencer Newsletter Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. Mueller dodged the key legal questions about obstruction of justice. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images As we all sort through the redacted version of the Mueller report, its increasingly apparent that for all his commendably stubborn efforts to pursue the facts, the special counsel evaded his responsibilities in one critical respect. Having assembled a host of deeply incriminating evidence of obstruction of justice by the president, he dumped the question of consequences for these acts into the laps of Congress, and ultimately, the larger public. Mueller lets us know (directly contradicting Barrs repeated assurances that it was lack of evidence, not the legal standard, that prevented criminal accusations) that he decided not to pursue a traditional prosecutorial judgment on possible obstruction of justice in order to comply with the DOJs position against prosecution of sitting presidents: The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has issued an opinion finding that the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions in violation of the constitutional separation of powers. Given the role of the Special Counsel as an attorney in the Department of Justice and the framework of the Special Counsel regulations, see 28 U.S.C. 515; 28 C.F.R. 600.7 (a), this Office accepted OLCs legal conclusion for the purpose of exercising prosecutorial jurisdiction. In a sort of Catch-22, Mueller then concluded that it wouldnt be fair to Trump to accuse him of criminal conduct if he wasnt going to be hauled into court and given an opportunity to properly defend himself. Fairness concerns counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought. The ordinary means for an individual to respond to an accusation is through a speedy and public trial, with all the procedural protections that surround a criminal case. An individual who believes he was wrongly accused can use that process to seek to clear his name. In contrast, a prosecutors judgment that crimes were committed, but that no charges will be brought, affords no such adversarial opportunity for public name-clearing before an impartial adjudicator. And then theres this tantalizing passage: [A]part from OLCs constitutional view, we recognized that a federal criminal accusation against a sitting President would place burdens on the Presidents capacity to govern and potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct [emphasis added]. The footnote to the italicized portion reads: See U.S. CONST. Art. I 2, cl. 5; 3, cl. 6; cf OLC Op. at 257-258 (discussing relationship between impeachment and criminal prosecution of a sitting President). So very carefully Mueller is suggesting: Heres what the president did. I cant do anything about it, so I will not call it criminal. Use my findings to impeach him if you wish, Congress. As Nancy Pelosi could tell you, there are solid practical grounds for the U.S. House of Representatives to eschew impeachment proceedings, beginning with the fact that there is approximately zero chance the Republican-controlled Senate would vote to convict Trump, particularly now that we are in the active phase of a presidential election cycle. So it may well be that the best Democrats, and Trumps other critics, can do is to take Muellers findings and whatever else other prosecutors or House investigators can uncover, and present it clearly as part of the case against the mans reelection. Sign Up for the Intelligencer Newsletter Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. The nave of Notre Dame is, as we all know, currently without a roof. But still standing over it is an enormous block of scaffolding, a reminder that the cathedral was in bad shape before it was devastated by the fire on Monday night. The scaffolding, which now looks like someone dropped a gigantic bowling ball through its center, was completed in the summer of 2018 for what was supposed to be a 30-year renovation of the aging cathedral. That plan was made before the roof burned. Advertisement And after? At a press conference on Tuesday, Frederic Letoffe, one of the presidents of the French organization that represents historic monument restoration companies, said he thought the reconstruction would take 10 to 15 years. Yes, less time than before. The restoration project had been unable to raise any money. Then, in less than 24 hours, it raised nearly a billion dollars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By Tuesday afternoon, French President Emmanuel Macron had declared the cathedral would be rebuilt in just five years.* April 16, 2024, mark it down. Just in time for the Paris Olympics. Turns out, if you want to raise awareness about the state of a decaying historic landmark, inviting reporters to observe the chipped gargoyles is not the most effective strategy. Instead, Slate recommends lighting the whole thing on fire. Just when it looks like the blaze is contained, suggest the structure may not survivebefore concluding a little later that it will. After the world has mourned the vast, resonant nave, open the front doors of the cathedral to reveal the rib-vaulted ceiling largely intact. And once it is assumed that the enormous organ is burned and 13th-century stained-glass rose windows have melted into pools on the ground, prompting a global moan from the hundreds of millions of people who have stood awestruck in their glow, reveal that actually, they survived. Advertisement Advertisement To be clear, I am not doubting that the French firefighters and engineers worried the 850-year-old building might not survive. And Im definitely not suggesting that a desperate priest tiptoed into the forest, as the warren of 13th-century oak beams supporting the pointed roof was known, to set the whole thing on fire, though I encourage you to pick up my thriller Notre Drame, coming soon to a Hudson News near you. Advertisement But I am saying that the thought of a world without Notre Dame just wasnt real until you could smell it. France owns Notre Dame, but the Paris archdiocese is responsible for its daily operations. In 2017, the diocese asked the French state for 150 million euros to restore the church, whose masonry was coming off in chunks. Then-president Francois Hollande offered 4 million euros a year. So the archbishop set up a Friends of Notre Dame charity to raise money from, among others, the churchs many well-pocketed American admirers. Results, as Letoffe emphasized, were mixed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then, the cathedral went up in flames. Before the fire was even out, the floodgates had opened. By Tuesday evening, the French families behind LVMH and LOreal had pledged 200 million euros each; a number of others joined in from France and elsewhere. An insurance company offered 1,300 oak trees for the reconstruction of the roof; grassroots campaigns raised thousands too. The response to this outpouring has been mixed. Gilles Carrez, a deputy from the right-wing party Les Republicains, noted that the French public was really paying for the reconstruction, since those enormous charitable gifts would spare their donors the countrys 65 percent tax rate. Every hundred million euros given to the Notre Dame project means 60 million euros missing from the 2020 budget, he said. There was agreement on the other side of the aislethe economist Julia Cage, who worked for the Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon in 2017, wrote on Twitter that billionaires should pay taxes, not give when they feel like it, benefiting from enormous tax breaks. And on Wednesday, the secretary general of the CGT labor union said on television, If theyre capable of giving dozens of millions to reconstruct Notre Dame, why dont they stop telling us they dont have enough money to address social problems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Obviously, this is not the ideal way to go about restoring the church. The work will be long and onerous, beginning with the rush to stabilize the walls and windows weakened from thermal shock. Europes biggest tourist attraction will be closed for years. Much of the magic of its ancientness and its continuity is lost forever. Numerous 3D scans will ensure the building can be rebuilt as it wasif thats what we want. But why? The warren of ancient beams that upheld the roof, built from 50 acres of oak trees, was a marvel in the middle ages, but one that no visitor then or now ever saw and few even knew existed. After the cathedral at Reims burned under German bombardment in 1914, a roof of reinforced concrete served the same purpose with greater security and lesser cost. The mid-19th century restoration of Notre Dame, undertaken by the architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, caked the cathedral in gothic revival. Whitney Krahn, who recently competed her Ph.D. on Viollet-le-Ducs writing, said the architect viewed his additions not as historicist pastiche but as modern and vital. Shortly after I spoke with her on Tuesday, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced an architectural competition to redesign the spire. Would a jury dare choose something modern, like IM Peis celebrated glass pyramid at the Louvre? Victor Hugo argued the churchs special beauty owed something to its amalgamation of centuries of art and science, each of which had left its traces like sediment from an ebbing flood. Advertisement Advertisement Notre Dame is at least the third priceless historic building to go up in flames during a renovation in the past year, after the Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art and the National Museum of Brazil both caught fire last summer. (Theres no use speculating about what kind of construction site mishap set Mondays first spark in motion. Workers were using flammable solvents and blowtorches as they dismantled elements of the roof for preservation.) Like Notre Dame, the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro had been unable to secure government funding and had resorted to crowdfunding its own restoration. What gets saved and what gets gutted too often depends on the whims of the plutocracy. The Washington Monument? Restored, posthaste, thanks to the donations of the private equity tycoon David Rubinstein. As the tax analyst Victor Fleischer observed in a New Yorker article about Rubinsteins philanthropy and the carried-interest tax loophole that makes it possible, If we had a government that was better funded, it could probably fix its own monuments. The French seem to be on the precipice of similar realization: This money could have and should have been raised years ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why does it always take a crisis? The inferno at Notre Dame belongs not just to the recent spat of historic structure fires, but more broadly represents our inability to give the proper consideration to maintenance and repair. A very literal example of this: Not everyone is sure France currently has enough skilled tradespeople to rebuild a cathedral in five years. In a 2013 essay, Rethinking Repair, the information scientist Steven Jackson argues for a broken world thinking that treats decay, rather than growth, as the default state of the affairs. (It hardly needs to be said anymore that this seems equally true of physical structures, human institutions, and the natural world.) In November, the anthropologist Shannon Mattern issued a call to arms for the caretakers: What we really need to study is how the world gets put back together. Advertisement Our tendency to mortgage the future in favor of the present shows up in everything from the single-use disposable plastics that rain down on the snow-capped Pyrenees to the planned obsolescence of each iPhone to Americas obsession with spending billions more building new roads than maintaining old ones. This sense of care as something to be meted out at intervals, in beach clean-ups and temporary scaffolding set-ups, is at its core a blissful misunderstanding of our broken world, where the falling apart begins before the building is even complete. It shouldnt take a fire to illuminate the glory of good repair. At Notre Dame, the past seemed so firm, no one thought of the future. Beast Mode is Slates pet advice column. Have a question? Send it to beastmode@slate.com. Dear Beast Mode, I have two dogs, both from the same shelter. One is an absolute ham for the camera. She will sit down nicely and wait to hear the click and the ensuing praise. The other is much more fearful when someone points a camera or phone in his general direction. It amazes me that the shelter was even able to get a photo to put on its website for prospective adopters. Any time he notices a camera pointed his way, he walks off with his head and tail down and sits in his crate. Advertisement I dont want him living in fear of something many people have in their pockets or purses. How can I get him used to seeing whats ultimately a harmless object? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pensive Puparazzi Dear Pensive Puparazzi, Dogs are ignorant muses. They may not understand the concept of photography, but that cant stop them from being the mediums greatest subjects. My dog Ruby doesnt know the first thing about shutter speed or aperture, yet she still manages to bring some smoldering looks when its go time. Advertisement Advertisement Cynics will see my selection of your question as an excuse to post a photo of my own dog, to which I say: Heres another picture of Ruby. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Your dog shares this trait with some of Americas finest novelists. There is no shame in being camera-shy, and your dog shares this trait with some of Americas finest novelists. After a CNN crew captured footage of Thomas Pynchon in 1997, the author called the network to complain. Let me be unambiguous: I prefer not to be photographed, he said. Your dog has the same right, and Pynchon would argue that he is perfectly normal in this regard. My belief is that recluse is a code word generated by journalists, he said, meaning, doesnt like to talk to reporters. But, unlike Pynchon, your pooch doesnt feel crushed by the mechanisms of media and fame. Hes simply scared of the camera, though he doesnt have to be. Advertisement Advertisement To help with your issue, I contacted Ellen Shershow, an Oakland, Californiabased photographer who specializes in canine portraiture. It sounds like a small thing, but having patience is the most important thing you can possibly do, she tells me. Its the best tool in your toolkit. Shershow says she always informs her clients that she doesnt charge by the hour, as the process of luring a shy dog out of its shell can drag on. I had a little chihuahua in my studio, and she was terrified of the camera, she recalls. She hid under my desk for 45 minutes. Finally, I took a very soft dog treat and I mushed it all over my camera, put the camera next to her, and just walked away. She was able to walk out on her own time, sniff the camera, and then lick it down. The camera itself became like a giver of treats. After that, she wasnt scared anymore. She was practically posing for the camera. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To photograph something is to act strangely toward it. Your dog reacts to this, and because you have the camera out, you may be exacerbating his sense that something is amiss. Shershow recommends having a friend take the photos while you sit near your dog or have him on your lap. Ill keep experimenting until I find out whats making it easier for them, she says, noting that some dogs prefer to have their humans in their sightlines during photo shoots. He may not turn into a cover model instantaneously, but with a little patience, your dog will learn that the camera wont hurt him. Just dont go publishing those photos all over the place. Like Pynchon, he has a mystique to maintain. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump is running the American government like a business or, if were being precise, like a criminal enterprise. The presidents penchant for asking himself, What would Roy Cohn advise John Gotti to do? has been clear for some time. Last August, Trump said of the possibility that Michael Cohen would cooperate with Robert Muellers investigation, I know all about flipping. It should almost be illegal. Around that same time, the president insisted that his White House counsel, Don McGahn, was not a a John Dean type RAT a reference to President Nixons lawyer, who testified (truthfully) about his bosss attempts to obstruct justice. And Trump has repeatedly argued that the U.S. attorney generals primary responsibility is to demonstrate unflinching loyalty to the president, as though the federal government was the Mafia and Trump its godfather. Thus, Robert Muellers investigation was never going to reveal that the leader of the free world thinks like a mobster, as that was something we already knew. Nevertheless, the special counsels report does confirm that fact by detailing three previously unreported instances in which the presidents behavior was indistinguishable from that of a mafioso: The president berated the White House counsel for keeping records on their interactions because lawyers dont take notes. In June 2017, Trump directed Don McGahn to have Robert Mueller fired. McGahn then let it be known that he would resign before carrying out such an order. By the following January, the New York Times had gotten wind of that conversation. And when the papers story hit newsstands, Trump ordered McGahn to dispute the report. McGahn refused. In a tense Oval Office meeting, Trump further pressured the White House counsel to dispute the Times story and then asked McGahn about his recent conversations with Muellers office. A very mobster-esque exchange ensued: The President also asked McGahn in the meeting why he had told Special Counsels Office investigators that the President had told him to have the Special Counsel removed. McGahn responded that he had to and that his conversations with the President were not protected by attorney-client privilege. The President then asked, What about these notes? Why do you take notes? Lawyers don t take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes. McGahn responded that he keeps notes because he is a real lawyer and explained that notes create a record and are not a bad thing. The President said, Ive had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes. The president once refused to look at evidence of his underlings misdeeds lest he end up knowing too much. In June 2017, Trump learned of the existence of the (now infamous) emails in which his eldest son arranged a meeting with purported Russian operatives at Trump Tower the previous summer (If its what you say I love it). Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner then tried to fill in the president on documents ostensibly related to that meeting. Trump demurred: Communications advisors Hope Hicks and Josh Raffel recalled discussing with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump that the emails were damaging and would inevitably be leaked. Hicks and Raffel advised that the best strategy was to proactively release the emails to the press. On or about June 22, 2017, Hicks attended a meeting in the White House residence with the President, Kushner, and Ivanka Trump. According to Hicks, Kushner said that he wanted to fill the President in on something that had been discovered in the documents he was to provide to the congressional committees involving a meeting with him, Manafort, and Trump Jr. Kushner brought a folder of documents to the meeting and tried to show them to the President, but the President stopped Kushner and said he did not want to know about it, shutting the conversation down. [my emphasis] After Michael Flynn refused to brief Trump on what he had told federal authorities, Trumps personal lawyer informed Flynn that the president would take note of his hostility. In November 2017, Trumps former national security adviser Michael Flynn started cooperating with the special counsel, and withdrew from a joint defense agreement hed struck with the president. Hours after Trump learned of Flynns decision, his personal lawyer left a voice-mail for Flynns counsel: I understand your situation, but let me see if I cant state it in starker terms [I]t wouldnt surprise me if youve gone on to make a deal with the government [I]f theres information that implicates the President, then weve got a national security issue so, you know we need some kind of heads up. Um, just for the sake of protecting all our interests if we can . [R]emember what weve always said about the President and his feelings toward Flynn and that still remains. Flynns counsel then informed the presidents attorney that it could not provide Trump with such a heads up. Trumps counsel responded by warning that he would inform the boss of Flynns hostility. The Presidents personal counsel said that he interpreted what they said to him as a reflection of Flynns hostility towards the President and that he planned to inform his client of that interpretation. Flynns attorneys understood that statement to be an attempt to make them reconsider their position because the Presidents personal counsel believed that Flynn would be disturbed to know that such a message would be conveyed to the President. [my emphasis] These anecdotes do not prove that Trump committed obstruction of justice, much less that he participated in a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government. But, assuming that we all agree the American government should not be run like a criminal business, these excerpts alone establish that Congress should not allow Donald Trump to continue being president. When someones entire function is ceremonial, it can take on big significance if they change up even a small part of that ceremony. And so we turn our gaze to England, where the tabloid press is currently losing its collective mind over the fact that the next royal baby will not be dangled triumphantly in front of hordes of photographers. The trouble started last week, when the Duke and Duchess of SussexHarry and Meghan, that isissued a statement through Buckingham Palace announcing that they have taken a personal decision to keep the plans around the arrival of their baby private. The couples first baby is due sometime this spring, although they have not announced a due date. Their statement said they will share the news of the babys arrival publicly once they have had an opportunity to celebrate privately as a new family. Presumably, the photos will appear on the couples new Instagram feed, which recently referred to Baby Sussex for the first time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blimey! As the British press was quick to point out, this change violates a tradition going back a generation. Yes, just onePrincess Diana started it, and Kate and William have kept it upbut still. The tabloids have grown accustomed to waiting outside the London hospital for the royal parents to make an appearance after the babys birth. The gussied-up family poses gamely for a few minutes so photographers can get their first shots of the new baby, and then the family escapes to a palace. Harry and Meghan are skipping the scrum and releasing news and photos on their own time. The Sun slammed the couple for keeping the nation in the dark, while a columnist for the Daily Mail called it just a little rude to smother this wonderful moment in a layer of exclusion and exclusivity. Advertisement Advertisement Theyre borrowing from the modern playbook of internationaland particularly Americancelebrities, for whom participating in traditional journalism feels increasingly unnecessary. The New York Times calls the ritual silly, but it does serve a certain purpose. Its understandable that taxpayers who support them expect a peek at the next generation. The hospital display gives the tabloids a bit of chum to satisfy them while the family proceeds to nest privately with their newborn. It is a routine so simple and rigid that the slightest variations can be dissected for meaning: Kates visible postpartum belly (brave); her second babys backwards bonnet (the newborn has unfortunately already made a sartorial slip-up); a red, lace-collared dress reminiscent of her mother-in-law (and of Mia Farrow in Rosemarys Baby, whoopsy!). Advertisement The royal familys only real output is their own image, and they have been drifting toward seizing the means of production for years. The 2015 birth of William and Kates daughter, Charlotte, was first announced on Twitter, although the announcement also appeared on the traditional easel outside Buckingham Palace. Kate took the first official photographs of her daughter, rather than hiring a photographer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That didnt take power away from the voracious British tabloids, however. Her photographs were still distributed through the usual official channels, and portrait photography doesnt compete with the paparazzi anyway. Harry and Meghan are doing something different, at least on this occasion: shutting out the press in favor of their own social media accounts, which they can control completely. In other words, theyre borrowing from the modern playbook of normal internationaland perhaps particularly Americancelebrities, for whom participating in traditional journalism feels increasingly unnecessary. Promotion cycles are changing, with albums dropping as overnight surprises instead of being rolled out with months of advance publicity. And above all, social media has given celebrities unprecedented control over their own imagesand forced media outlets to play nice if they want any special access at all. Why pose for someone elses camera when you could take your own photos and distribute only the ones you choose on Instagram? Why speak with a journalist, who will pluck out juicy and surprising and unflattering quotes, if the magazine will publish a gentler, more comfortable conversation with a fellow celebrity? If the less fun part of an actors job is the part where they have to help sell a piece of work or product, Vanity Fair wrote of the celeb-on-celeb format last year, at least they can do it with someone they have a relationship with, who wont push them on harder questions or ask them things theyre sensitive about. At the highest rung of fame, the celebrity need not speak at all. In 2015, Beyonce appeared on the cover of Vogue without granting the magazine an interview; last September, the magazine apparently granted her complete creative control of her cover shootand she still didnt speak with a journalist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The smile-and-wave in front of the hospital in London is not worth mourning for its own sake. Heres the extent of what well miss: Meghan and Harrys baby will have a cute scrunched-up little face, and his or her mothers hair will look great. As a symbol of the royals retreat from any kind of direct tabloid scrutiny, however, its arguably kind of a loss. Tabloids can be rude and invasive and even false; the British tabloids are particularly notorious for their rapaciousness. But theyre also irreverent and curious and reader-serving, and a celebritys approach to them is often a sign of their responsiveness to press and the public more broadly. No one would begrudge Harry and Meghan some protectiveness over their first few hours of parenthood. But if they manage to keep cutting out the tabloids, dont be surprised if the ever-more-curated images were left with turn out to be just plain dull. Youve probably heard of the idea of a queer scene, perhaps most often from people who dont care for it. But what, exactly, is this scene? Whos a part of it? Who isnt? Who decides? Is there more than one? What happens when a scene evolvesor when it doesnt? These are the questions weve gathered a group of writers to consider for an Outward special issue on the Scene in LGBTQ life today. You can read all of the stories in the issue here, and you can listen to a full episode of the Outward podcast covering more of the queer scene by subscribing on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your audio. Advertisement If youve spent any time on Gay Twitter, the subset of the platform populated by queer tweeters who love drama and are terminally unable to log off, youre probably familiar with whats commonly referred to as the cafe discourse. Essentially, it consists of a call for more LGBTQ spaces outside of bars and nightclubs, which typically translates to queer libraries, frozen yogurt shops, and, naturally, cafes. These places, the argument goes, are inherently more inclusive and accessible than their nocturnal alternatives. In a 2018 piece for the Daily Beast titled The Gay Bar Is Dying. Long Live the Queer Cafe, Samantha Allen put it this way: The simple truth is that spaces focused on sex and alcoholas important as they have been and continue to be for queer survivalare always going to be somewhat exclusionary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Can there be like gay cafes, libraries, frozen yogurt shops, etc instead of only gay bars & nightclubs? Theres no reason why our safe spaces should only be surrounded by alcohol, bc thats not a safe space for everyone. Blue Ajax (@ALBlNONATIVE) March 2, 2019 Someone needs to start a queer cafe. Like a gay bar but instead of alcohol and strippers, puns and rainbow themed foods, beanbags in one corner, chill music, just a warm, safe place for lgbt+ minors to hangout and go on dates without paying too much or fearing for their safety. Zoe M (@zoe_dianne) July 8, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement While this argument has enjoyed a recent vogue, its been around for years. Its internet form seems to have gestated in the pages of Tumblr, but the anti-partying, Im a different kind of queer sentiment goes back for as long as contemporary queer communities have existed. Wherever you encounter it, the cafe discourse presents itself in a tone of righteousness, the goal being to save the (queer) minors, the disabled, the older folks, etc. from the soul-deadening, alcohol-soaked, hypersexual thumpa-thumpa orgies that are gay bars and clubsallegedly. Advertisement Advertisement To be clear, Im not against the expansion of queer spaces and queer culture into supposedly greener pastures. The nightlife scene isnt for everyone, and queers whod rather avoid itbecause theyre sober, sleepy, quiet, or whateverdeserve comfortable places to be together too. Allen also notes in her piece that the fact that bars were such a central aspect of queer life and culture for so long is likely part of the reason why LGBTQ people are more likely than the general population to abuse alcohol and other substances. Thats absolutely a valid concern. But what worries me are the more insidious implications of the cafe discourse. Theres wanting more choices for everyone (legit), and then theres using demands for queer cafes et al. as cover for political goals that should concern us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before we dig into that, though, its worth asking if a lack of alternative queer spacesor an overabundance of nightlife venues, for that matteris even a real problem. There are many reasons why bars and clubs used to be some of the few places LGBTQ people could socialize (as well as organize), but thats just not the case anymore, and it hasnt been for decades. Most American cities and towns have LGBTQ centers or social/support groups, which play host to countless (usually free) programs geared toward children, families, teens, sober people, etc. And queer cafes and other businesses of that ilk do existif anything, they are experiencing a renaissance. Considering this, the notion that gay bars and clubs are still the only community spaces where one can meet other LGBTQ people feels strange, even more so when one considers the widely reported death of the gay bar. Even in the coastal cities often lauded as queer havens, such as New York and San Francisco, dedicated queer nightlife spaces have been on a steady decline for the past few decades, seemingly victims of gentrification, lower incomes among millennials, and the sexual privatization facilitated by hookup apps. Advertisement Advertisement Its worth asking who is actually included in this take on inclusivity? So if the cafe discourse people are already gradually getting what they want, why is this still a thing? Whats driving arguments against the supposed hypersexuality, danger, and inebriation of our (remaining) nightlife spacesarguments that sound not unlike those weve long heard from the homophobic religious right? The roots of it arent hard to identify: The main goal of queer activism for two decades was marriage equality, and now weve won it. So much of the public relations that got us to this point (#LoveIsLove, #LoveWins, etc.) were predicated on the idea that queer people, queer love, and queer culture were exactly like the respectable, heterosexual versions of those things. Certainly, there are many queer people for whom that rings true, but its not the case for many othersand certainly not for me. Even so, it sometimes feels like the dignified mood of the marriage equality push has seeped into the broader queer culture, such that forms of queer life that dont conform to it feel suspect, retrograde, or unwelcome. Advertisement Its this impulse to respectability that I think much of the cafe discourse is coming from. But whats interesting about it is that, because outright moral scolding is uncool, arguments are instead made under the banner of inclusivity. The nightlife scene, this logic has it, is bad because it is exclusive of people in problematic ways. Advertisement Advertisement Its worth asking, though, who is actually included in this take on inclusivity? For example, how is opening a cafe, usually done in steadily gentrifying areas, inclusive of the working and middle-class queers of color who are being priced out of the neighborhoods they have historically occupied? Of course, queer nightlife is not exempt from this problem either, but some of its most vibrant manifestations have been created DIY-style and sustained by people of color, which makes the outcry against an already-threatened culture even more suspect. It does not feel coincidental that most, if not all, of the people who Ive seen online calling for these new bougie queer businesses because they dont feel included appear to be white. Moreover, how is it inclusive to assume the desires of disabled people and older people, to make those groups into monoliths who universally dont, and cant, go out? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am allegedly who cafe discourse inclusivity is fighting fora disabled brown lesbian who is not quite yet of legal drinking age. And yet, ironically enough, Ive never felt included in its vision. Where Ive felt included are the unmarked party venues with sticky floors in the outer boroughs of New York City. Ive never felt more seen than while sharing pizza and conversation with queers of all shapes and sizes and colors and orientations as they negotiate the kink scenes theyll orchestrate in the secret, underground dungeon just down the street. Ive actually never interacted with more elder LGBTQ people than in these spaces, and its not at all unusual to see multiple people using mobility aids, my partner included. Its refreshing and radical to be in spaces where queer desire is encouraged in excess, especially at a time that LGBTQ rights in America are more at risk than they have been in a while. Advertisement Advertisement In two months, when I am finally old enough to legally drink, you had better believe I will be getting down on the dance floor with my friends at an official gay bar or club. Ill do this because I like dancing but also because I believe that real queer liberation means reckoning with all of our desires, even the nasty, dirty, filthy ones. In Patrick Califias seminal 1998 essay, The Necessity of Excess, he writes, When we shelter one anothers desires, even those that are strange or degrading, we borrow a little divine grace and provide a smaller version of the shelter of that transcendental love. After all, is this not where life began, in mud and blood, spit and cum? Are they not holy? This was true the year I was born, and its true now. It may be politically convenient to present queer people in the tidy, clean context of a cafeand those who are content living in that flattering light should do so. But its also worth remembering that the grit and shadows of nightlife have long been a source of our strength, and at the end of the day, respectability will not save us. Read more from Outwards special issue on the Scene, and listen to the podcast. To listen to this episode of Trumpcast, use the player below: Get More Trumpcast Slate Plus members get extended, ad-free versions of our podcastsand much more. Sign up today. Join Slate Plus Subscribe to Trumpcast Copy this link and add it in your podcast app. copy link copied! For detailed instructions, see our Slate Plus podcasts page. Listen to Trumpcast via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Virginia Heffernan welcomes back Dahlia Lithwick, host of Slate podcast Amicus, to talk William Barr, Michael Avenatti, Christine Blasey Fords honor in Time magazine, and the strategies by which corrupt actors in the administration slip through our fingers. Follow Trumpcast on Twitter: @realtrumpcast Podcast production by Melissa Kaplan with help from Merritt Jacob. More Trumpcast episodes with Virginia Heffernan and Dahlia Lithwick: How Our Branches of Government Hold Up in 2019 What to Make of the Kavanaugh Hearings How the Law Frames the Trump Problem We Have to Solve On Thursday morning, Attorney General William Barr announced the release of special counsel Robert Muellers report on the Russia investigation. In his press conference, Barr extended his role as President Donald Trumps protector. Following the strategy of his March 24 letter on the Mueller report, Barr constructed loopholes to insulate Trump from charges of collusion and obstruction. Here are four of them. 1. Illegally participated. Barr made the following statement: The special counsels investigation also examined Russian efforts to publish stolen emails and documents on the internet. The Special Counsel found that, after the GRU disseminated some of the stolen materials through its own controlled entities, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the GRU transferred some of the stolen materials to Wikileaks for publication. Wikileaks then made a series of document dumps. The special counsel also investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts. Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the special counsels report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Notice the shift in Barrs language. He starts by talking about whether anyone affiliated with Trump encouraged or otherwise played a role in the dissemination. But Barr doesnt answer that question. Instead, he shifts to a different question: whether any Trump affiliates illegally participated in the dissemination. The answer, he says, is no, because WikiLeaks publication of the hacked material isnt criminal. This distinction protects Roger Stone, a Trump campaign associate who colluded with WikiLeaks to promote the distribution of the hacked emails. 2. Conspiracy to violate U.S. law. Barr continued: The special counsel investigated a number of links or contacts between Trump campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign. Advertisement Advertisement This paragraph covers the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between leaders of the Trump campaign and Russian intermediaries who had explicitly, as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump, offered to give Donald Trump Jr. official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and would be very useful to your father. This meeting meets the laymans definition of collusion. But under Barrs analysis, and ostensibly Muellers, it doesnt constitute a conspiracy to violate U.S. law. Advertisement 3. Illegally interfere. In sum, Barr concluded, the investigation confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes. Here, Barr introduces the word collusion in order to deny that Trump or any of his associates engaged in it. Until this point, Barr carefully used the word conspiracy in order to shield the Trump campaign from culpability for its collusions. But now he shifts to collusion in order to create an appearance that Trump and his associates have been fully exonerated. And to make this claim technically accurate, he inserts the phrase illegally interfere, which excludes the Trump Tower meeting and the Stone-WikiLeaks contacts from consideration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 4. No collusion. Having shuffled between conspiracy and collusion in order generate an impression that no collusion occurred, Barr then used that claim to argue that Trumps attempts to obstruct the investigation werent obstruction of justice. Trump had a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, said Barrnever mind that the same could have been said of President Richard Nixons Watergate cover-upand, as Trump said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. Given the absence of collusion, according to Barr, Trumps efforts to thwart the investigation werent criminal. This sleight of hand insulates Trump against the argument that the offenses whose discovery he tried to prevent were, if not prosecutable, impeachable. Barr auditioned for his job by writing a memo outlining how to protect Trump from the investigation. As attorney general, he has used his position to fulfill that mission. Hes a clever lawyer, and his efforts to shield the president pay close attention to legal distinctions. That does not, however, make them honest. Robert Mueller let Donald Trump Jr. off the hook too easily for potential campaign finance violations that arose from the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Russian operatives. Muellers questionable exercise of prosecutorial discretion is bad news for how campaigns and foreign entities might conduct themselves in the run-up to the 2020 elections. Like many others, I am still poring over Muellers 448-page partially redacted report. My initial general impression of Volume 1the part dealing with Russian interference in the 2016 elections and the connections between Trumpis that Mueller and his team did a thorough and fair job in investigating what happened and in describing the facts. But on the potential campaign finance violations, Mueller fell short in numerous ways. Advertisement I have described the circumstances of that Trump Tower meeting before: During the 2016 presidential campaign, the presidents son Donald Trump Jr. got an email from his friend Rob Goldstone stating that the Crown prosecutor of Russia had offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This high level and sensitive information was being presented as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. Trump Jr. replied almost immediately: If its what you say I love it especially later in the summer. The subsequent meeting, held on June 9, 2016, included Trump Jr.; Trumps campaign manager, Paul Manafort; the presidents son-in-law Jared Kushner; Goldstone; and a number of Russians connected with the Russian government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Federal law makes it a potential crime for any person to solicit (that is, expressly or impliedly ask for) the contribution of anything of value from a foreign citizen. The offer of such opposition research qualifies as something of value for these purposes, a point the special counsel acknowledged based on prior cases and Federal Election Commission rulings. We now know the special counsel considered whether Trump Jr. and Manafort committed such a crime before ultimately declining to prosecute. We also now know that Mueller made some key errors during that decision-making process. To begin with, the special counsels report says that Trump Jr. declined to be voluntarily interviewed about the meeting. The special counsel should have called Trump Jr. before the grand jury, as he did with other witnesses. It seems likely that he declined to do so as not to incur the wrath of the president. Advertisement Trump Jr.s grand jury testimony would have been especially important given one of the key reasons Mueller declined to prosecute the presidents son for this crime: lack of willfulness. In order for a campaign finance violation to constitute a criminal offense (rather than a civil problem handled with fines by the Federal Election Commission), one must act willfully. Willfulness is a question of mental state. Getting Trump Jr. before a grand jury would have been a great way to get at his mental state, because he would have been testifying under the risk of perjury. This was a huge missed opportunity for Mueller. Advertisement Mueller made some other questionable choices. While Trump Jr. could have been charged with illegally coordinating with the Russians to make an illegal foreign expenditure, Mueller describes the law defining coordination as too uncertain. In fact, as Common Causes Paul S. Ryan explains in this thread, there is both a federal statute and case law defining the term, and Trump Jr.s conduct seems to fall within it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mueller also made the ridiculous argument that it is possible Russian dirt on Clinton could have been worth less than $25,000, the threshold to punish Trump Jr.s cooperation as a felony. Really? Further, Mueller said that a Trump Jr. prosecution would have raised First Amendment questions and could have implications beyond the foreign-source ban. To begin with, a First Amendment defense of Trump Jr. is bogus. As I explained in Slate, the main First Amendment argument is that a ban on soliciting foreign political contributions is overly broad and could apply any time a foreign individual gives any information to a political campaign. But Trump Jr. was a major campaign official meeting with representatives from a foreign government that were offering dirt on the campaigns opponent. As I wrote, To let someone off the hook who solicited very high level and sensitive information from a hostile government because there may be cases in which information from a foreign source does not raise the same danger to our national security and right of self-government is to turn the First Amendment into a tool to kill American democracy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Further, even if Mueller believed there were First Amendment questions in play, he should have left that for the courts to decide given the strong national security interests at stake here. Mueller offered no First Amendment argument in his report. He merely flagged the issue and never provided any analysis to back up the First Amendment claim. Im afraid that this flagging of the issue does more harm than good. Mueller has now given campaigns credible reason to believe they can accept help from foreign governments because they may have a constitutional right to do so. Thats even more troubling for what it says about 2020 than what it says about 2016. Reporters and other interested parties are still reading through the 448-page Mueller report for new and revelatory information, but one thing was quickly apparent: Attorney General William Barrs depiction of the report in his written summary last month and his address Thursday morning didnt give the full story. If theres one conclusion you would come away with after Barrs address this morning, its that there was no collusion. Barr conceded that, yes, Mueller found that Russians had unlawfully sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, and yes, Trumps campaign likely benefited from these efforts, but Barr maintained that Mueller had found no evidence of any kind of collusion by anyone. Heres what he said, in a line that he had already quoted in his earlier written report: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As you will see, the special counsels report states that his investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. But heres the full sentence in the report (emphasis ours): Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. Cutting off the beginning of the sentence doesnt change the end result. But on its own, Barrs sentence makes the whole thing seem so simple, when thats far from the reality revealed in the report. Even if there was no proof of coordination, there was still uncomfortable behavior, still a Don Jr. meeting with Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, still campaign officials with murky connections to states with political aims very much at odds with Americas. Thats a sense you get better from the fuller sentence, reminding the reader of just how the Trump campaign stood to gain from Russian meddling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres another example, Barrs next quote from his address Thursday: Indeed, as the report states, [t]he investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRAs interference operation. Put another way, the special counsel found no collusion by any Americans in the IRAs illegal activity. But heres the full version from the report: By early to mid-2016, [Internet Research Agency] operations included supporting the Trump Campaign and disparaging candidate Hillary Clinton. The IRA made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Some IRA employees, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated electronically with individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities, including the staging of political rallies. The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRAs interference operation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Again, the full passage shows that there was nothing cut and dry about the situation. And a third example, in Barrs written summary from March, shows the attorney generals cherry-picking at its most brazen: Advertisement Advertisement In making this determination [that there was no obstruction-of-justice offense], we noted that the special counsel recognized that the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference, and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the presidents intent with respect to obstruction. Here, the full context: In this investigation, the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. But the evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the Presidents conduct. These include concerns that continued investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his election and potential uncertainty about whether certain eventssuch as advance notice of WikiLeakss release of hacked information or the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russianscould be seen as criminal activity by the President, his campaign, or his family. Advertisement Advertisement While Barr didnt misquote the Mueller report, he did pluck out lines that failed to give the full, nuanced picture of the reports analysis. Theres a reason critics have been condemning Barr for seeming to abandon his objectivity in order to defend Trump. As Jeremy Stahl pointed out for Slate, the report does refute coordination between Trumps campaign and Russian agents to some extent, but it also seemed to include evidence of a lot of collusion-adjacent activities by those in Trumps orbit. And as Mark Joseph Stern argued in Slate, the report did make a case for obstructionas much as Mueller realistically could, given the limits of his power. But you wouldnt know that from Barrs comments, clipped as they are. President Donald Trump has committed so many brazen acts of cruelty, dishonesty, and stupidity in full view of the public that its not really a surprise to hear about the cruel, dishonest, and stupid things he does behind closed doors. But the lightly redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report that was released on Thursday morning is still a revelatory document. Read as a profile of the presidenta piece of reporting informed by interviews with sources under oaththe Mueller report shades in the portrait of Trump thats already imprinted on our brains. It also makes it clearer than its ever been that the president drives everyone around him absolutely mad. Advertisement The Donald Trump that readers encounter in the report takes great pains to avoid information that will cause him any emotional discomfort, even if hell eventually have to confront it when it blows up into a P.R. disaster. Former White House communications director Hope Hicks told the special counsel that she tried to tell the president about emails documenting how Donald Trump Jr. organized the June 2016 meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Kremlin-linked lawyer at Trump Tower. Hicks suggested they release the emails to get ahead of the story. The President said he did not want to know about it and they should not go to the press, the Mueller report says. Hicks warned the President that the emails were really bad but the President was insistent that he did not want to talk about it and said he did not want details. At another meeting, Hicks said, Jared Kushner tried to show Trump a folder of documents that Kushner was supposed to provide to congressional committees investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. According to the report, the president stopped Kushner and said he did not want to know about it, shutting the conversation down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These anecdotes complement previous reports that Trump demands that he be given a folder of positive news clippings about himself twice a day. With the assistance of family members and employees who have scrambled to avoid the presidents unpredictable rage, Trump has been able to cocoon himself in reports of his own competence, outsourcing the fallout from his scam-riddled campaign and presidency to others in his orbit. He seems unable or unwilling to consider inevitable consequences, pursuing momentary comfort over necessary conflict every time. The report depicts Trump as a haughty child of privilege convinced that his social capital and powers of personality are strong enough to make any negative accusations against him (even the true ones) dissipate on their own. Chris Christie told investigators that Trump was shocked to learn that this Russia thing was still a thing even after Michael Flynn left the administration. Flynn met with the Russians. That was the problem. I fired Flynn. Its over, Christie said Trump told him over lunch in February 2017, the day after Flynn resigned. Advertisement Trumps seeming naivete about the severity of this Russia thing and his confidence that any repercussions would be absorbed by his underlings isnt merely evidence of his willful ignorance and stunted capacity for critical thinking. Its the logical response of a man who has, for a lifetime, evaded consequences for his bad behavior (creating a scam university, doing sketchy tax stuff) and been rewarded with the presidency thanks to his worst tendencies (racist provocations, bragging about sexual assault). Advertisement Trumps blase attitude about the Trump Tower meeting emails and Kushners documentsleave it alone, he allegedly told his son-in-law when he learned the documents werent due to Congress for a few weekscontrasts with his well-documented paranoia over leaks to the press. According to Hicks account, Trump said he was sure the Trump Tower meeting emails wouldnt leak so she shouldnt preemptively publish them. Later, he seemed upset because several people in the White House knew about the emails when he wanted only a single lawyer to deal with them. The President indicated that he did not think the emails would leak, but said they would leak if everyone had access to them, the report says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This pas de deux of ego (Im sure these emails that make me look bad and possibly open me up to a damning investigation wont leak) and insecurity (these emails will definitely leak if more than one person sees them) is classic Trump. He knows that evincing open mistrust of his own administration means admitting the limits of his lackeys admiration and fealty to him. So he convinces himself that no one is going to betray him or compromise his public image, then smears them as incompetent turncoats when they inevitably do. Advertisement Advertisement The Mueller report also indicates that the president didnt much care if the results of the Russia investigation made him seem unethical, greedy, or treasonous. He was only worried that any corroboration of Russias interference in the 2016 election would undermine the flattering connotations of his victory: that he won Americas popularity contest all on his own. Several advisors told the special counsel that Trump believed it would detract from his election triumph if people thought Russia had propped him on top of a few phone books to help him reach the dinner table. Advertisement Trump also thinks the same primitive, manipulative tactics that work on him will work on everyone around him. Christie told investigators that in early 2017, the president told him to call thenFBI Director James Comey, who was launching an investigation into Russian election interference, to tell Comey that Trump really like[s] him. Tell [Comey] hes part of the team, Trump told Christie. Trumps conviction that Comey could be swayed with secondhand flattery delivered via the governor of New Jersey is so foolish its almost sad. For a man credited by his supporters with superhuman charisma and business instincts, he seems wildly inattentive to who people are, what makes them tick, and how to win them over. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In these please-like-me anecdotes, Trump comes off as deeply pathetic. He appears to be a socially inept child who lives in a fantasy world that revolves around his own ego, believes no rules apply to him, barely maintains a weak grasp on logic, and is desperate to be loved. None of these observations are groundbreaking. But its still both troubling and satisfying to read these firsthand accounts of Trumps failures as a president, boss, American, and human being in what was commissioned to be a dispassionate government report. Its not just Trumps political opponents and those beset by #resistance brain who think hes unqualified to lead a nation, a business, a family, or a productive life. The people working hardest to protect him think so, too. So, what did Robert Mueller find out about the presidents two family members/White House advisers? Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps son-in-law, has been a person of interest in the Mueller investigation largely due to his involvement in the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a lawyer connected to the Russian government. The Mueller report, released on Thursday, documents Kushners contacts with figures in and related to the Russian government in multiple sections. It also includes some humorous details, such as when Kushner desperately tried to escape the waste of time Trump Tower meeting by getting his assistants to call him. Advertisement The presidents eldest daughter Ivanka Trump makes only a few, tangential appearances in the report. Heres a rundown of what the report has to say about the couple. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A think tank and dirt on Bill Clinton The Mueller report contains a half-dozen pages describing contact between the Trump campaign and the Center for the National Interest (CNI), a think tank founded by Richard Nixon with expertise in and connections to the Russian government. Kushner communicated extensively with the centers president and CEO Dimitri Simes, who personally has many contacts with current and former Russian government officials. Kushner told the special counsels office that he first decided to seek Simes help during a CNI event in March 2016 because the Trump campaign was struggling to gain support from foreign policy experts. He and Simes had a one-on-one meeting thereafter to explore the possibility of forming a foreign policy advisory group for the campaign. They also planned a CNI event in which Trump would deliver a foreign policy speech. The report notes that CNI and the campaign collaborated on the speech: Advertisement Advertisement In mid-April 2016, Kushner put Simes in contact with senior policy advisor Stephen Miller and forwarded to Simes an outline of the foreign-policy speech that Miller had prepared. Simes sent back to the Campaign bullet points with ideas for the speech that he had drafted with CNI Executive Director Paul Saunders and board member Richard Burt. Simes received subsequent draft outlines from Miller, and he and Saunders spoke to Miller by phone about substantive changes to the speech. It is not clear, however, whether CNI officials received an actual draft of the speech for comment Advertisement Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak attended the CNI event after Sime promised that there would be an opportunity to meet Trump. Kislyak briefly met Trump, as well as Kushner, who recalls the ambassador telling him, we like what your candidate is saying its refreshing. Advertisement Kushner and Simes spoke periodically after the event, both in person and over the phone. Simes provided Kushner with unsolicited advice on Russia. One of the Kushner-Simes meetings regarded ways in which Trump could respond to Russia-related attacks from the Hillary Clinton campaign. Simes sent Kushner an email before the meeting with a Russia Policy Memo describing what Mr. Trump may want to say about Russia. The email also contained an offer for dirt on Bill Clinton: Advertisement Advertisement In a cover email transmitting that memo and a phone call to set up the meeting, Simes mentioned a well-documented story of highly questionable connections between Bill Clinton and the Russian government, parts of [which] (according to Simes) had even been discussed with the CIA and the FBI in the late 1990s and shared with the [Independent Counsel] at the end of the Clinton presidency. Kushner forwarded the email to senior Trump Campaign officials Stephen Miller, Paul Manafort, and Rick Gates, with the note suggestion only. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kushner later met with Simes to discuss the Clinton-related information. The report redacted what Simes told Kushner for personal privacy reasons. However, Kushner apparently believed that the information would not be useful to the campaign. The Trump Tower meeting As has been previously reported, Donald Trump Jr. invited Kushner and Paul Manafort to attend the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was promising derogatory information from the Russian government about Hillary Clinton. During the 20-minute meeting, Veselnitskaya stated that Americans with business in Russia had engaged in tax evasion and money laundering in the U.S. and Russia in donating profits to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. Veselnitskaya admitted, however, that she was unable to trace the money and prove the crimes. Kushner at that point became aggravated and asked [w]hat are we doing here? He then escaped the meeting: Advertisement At some point in the meeting, Kushner sent an iMessage to Manafort stating waste of time, followed immediately by two separate emails to assistants at Kushner Companies with requests that they call him to give him an excuse to leave. The report comments on the prospect of prosecuting Kushner and Trump Jr. for the meeting: Advertisement In light of the unresolved legal questions about whether giving documents and information of the sort offered here constitutes a campaign contribution, Trump Jr. could mount a factual defense that he did not believe his response to the offer and the June 9 meeting itself violated the law. Given his less direct involvement in arranging the June 9 meeting, Kushner could likely mount a similar defense. Advertisement Advertisement When the news media eventually found out about the meeting, former communication advisers Hope Hicks and Josh Raffel told Kushner and Ivanka Trump that the email chain setting up the meeting looked damaging. In a later meeting, Kushner reportedly came up with a strategy to respond but was rebuffed by Trump: According to Hicks, Kushner said that he wanted to fill the President in on something that had been discovered in the documents he was to provide to the congressional committees involving a meeting with him, Manafort, and Trump Jr. Kushner brought a folder of documents to the meeting and tried to show them to the President , but the President stopped Kushner and said he did not want to know about it, shutting the conversation down. Advertisement Russian banking CEO reaches out Kirill Dmitriev is a Russian national who was appointed CEO of Russias sovereign wealth fund and has close ties to Putin. Dmitriev was reportedly eager to meet members of the Trump administration shortly after the election and began working with Rick Gerson, a hedge fund manager who is friends with Kushner. Dmitriev and Gerson collaborated on a U.S.-Russia reconciliation proposal, which Gerson sent to Kushner, who then sent it to Steven Bannon and Rex Tillerson. Dmitriev implied to Gerson that he had cleared the proposal with Putin, though it did not get much attention in the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Kushner meets with the Russian ambassador Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, also reached out to meet with Kushner shortly after the election. Kushner accepted the invitation and the two met on Nov. 30: Advertisement During the meeting, which lasted approximately 30 minutes, Kushner expressed a desire on the part of the incoming Administration to start afresh with U.S.-Russian relations. Kushner also asked Kislyak to identify the best person (whether Kislyak or someone else) with whom to direct future discussions-someone who had contact with Putin and the ability to speak for him. Advertisement Advertisement The next month, Kislyak told Kushners assistant that the best point of contact would be Sergey Gorkov, the head of the Russian-owned bank VEB, which is currently subject to sanctions related to Russias annexation of Crimea. Kushner, however, seems to have downplayed the meeting in his communications with the special counsel: Kushner did not, however, recall any discussion during his meeting with Gorkov about the sanctions against VEB or sanctions more generally. Kushner stated in an interview that he did not engage in any preparation for the meeting and that no one on the Transition Team even did a Google search for Gorkovs name. At the start of the meeting, Gorkov presented Kushner with two gifts: a painting and a bag of soil from the town in Belarus where Kushners family originated. Advertisement Advertisement Kushner and Gorkov differ in their account of the meeting. Kushner said it was meant to be diplomatic in purpose, going over deteriorating U.S.-Russia relations during the Obama presidency. However, VEB put out a public statement in 2017 suggesting that Gorkov met with Kushner to discuss business opportunities for Kushner Companies: In contrast, in a 2017 public statement, VEB suggested Gorkov met with Kushner in Kushners capacity as CEO of Kushner Companies for the purpose of discussing business, rather than as part of a diplomatic effort. In particular, VEB characterized Gorkovs meeting with Kushner as part of a series of roadshow meetings with representatives of major US banks and business circles, which included negotiations and discussion of the most promising business lines and sectors. Advertisement The investigation concluded that Kushner and Gorkov did not have any substantial follow-up meetings. What about Ivanka? Ivanka Trump makes a few brief cameos in the report, mostly related to nixed plans for a Trump property in Moscow. In 2014, she met with Emin Agalarov, a pop star who would later help to arrange the Trump Tower meeting. Trump toured a site he owned called Crocus City as a possible location for a Trump property. The report mentions that she also discussed architectural and design elements for the project with Michael Cohen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2015, Lana Erchova, the wife of Russian electricity tycoon Dmitry Klokov, emailed Ivanka with an offer to assist the Trump campaign. The email read, in part, If you ask anyone who knows Russian to google my husband Dmitry Klokov, youll see who he is close to and that he has done Putins political campaigns. Ivanka forwarded the email to Michael Cohen, who Googled the name and incorrectly concluded that Klokov was a former Olympic weightlifter. Ivanka was also present at a morning campaign meeting shortly before the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower incident, in which Trump Jr. said he had a lead on damaging information about Clinton: On Thursday, Attorney General William Barr released a partially redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report on Russian election interference and potential obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. In both Barrs letter summarizing the report and a press conference earlier in the day on Thursday, Barr emphasized that Mueller had found no collusion between Trumps campaign and the Russian governmentbut the report itself sure seemed to include evidence of a lot of collusion-adjacent activities by those in Trumps orbit. Advertisement Where that seemed perhaps clearest was in the work of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was part of the campaign from March to August of 2016 and has already confessed to finance and corruption crimes that have resulted in him being sentenced to serve more than seven years in federal prison. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to details in the Mueller report, Manafort may have additionally colluded with a Russian government intelligence agent while working on the Trump campaign. Here are key points from the report that pertain to Manafort, some of which we already knew and some of which we didnt, and what they mean: As we knew, Manafort worked closely with Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI has assessed to be tied to Russian intelligence. One detail we learned: According to a former co-worker at an international nonprofit they both worked for, Kilimnik was fired from his post because his links to Russian intelligence were too strong. Manaforts deputy, Rick Gates, also suspected Kilimnik of being a spy. Advertisement Advertisement As had been previously reported, Kilimnik worked closely with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch to whom Manafort owed a large sum of money, due to a previous conflict over a consulting job. According to analysts, Deripaska has deep and direct ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Manafort may have additionally colluded with a Russian government intelligence agent while working on the Trump campaign. The report notes that Manafort instructed Gates to provide Kilimnik with updates on the Trump campaignincluding internal polling data. According to Mueller, Manafort expected Kilimnik to share that information with others in Ukraine and with Deripaska. Gates periodically sent such polling data to Kilimnik during the campaign. We knew that some polling data had been shared, but we did not know the extent of it and what exactly was shared. Advertisement During the period he was working for the campaign, Manafort met with Kilimnik to discuss what the Manafort described as a backdoor peace plan that would allow Russia to take permanent and legally recognized control of Eastern Ukraine. After Trump won the presidency, Kilimnik told Manafort that all the plan needed was a very minor wink (or slight push) from [Donald Trump]. Advertisement In sum, this is all pretty shady. Why isnt it shady enough to be criminal and why did it result in a finding that Barr has repeatedly summarized as no collusion? Mueller says that his team wasnt able to prove that the campaign, beyond Manafortwho was the chairman of said campaignwas involved. Mueller also notes, though, that Manafort lied to his office repeatedly and that Muellers team did not have access to messages from multiple encrypted apps. As the report puts it: And while Manafort denied that he spoke to members of the Trump campaign or the new Administration about the peace plan, he lied to [Muellers] Office and the grand jury about the peace and his meetings with Kilimnik, and his unreliability on this subject was among the reasons that the district judge found that he breached his cooperation agreement. Basically, we only know that Trump and his campaign did not work with the Russians on this backdoor plan to give Russia Eastern Ukraine if you take Manaforts word for it, whichas evidenced by the above quote from the reportthe special counsel does not. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And what about that polling data? Could it have been passed along and ultimately used by the Russian troll farm that Mueller charged with a conspiracy to interfere in the U.S. election, due to their efforts to target voters on social media? The Office could not reliably determine Manaforts purpose in sharing internal polling data with Kilimnik during the campaign period, Mueller writes. Because of questions about Manaforts credibility and our limited ability to gather evidence on what happened to the polling data after it was sent to Kilimnik, the office could not assess what Kilimnik (or others he may have given it to) did with it. Ultimately, Mueller couldnt find evidence that there was a connection between Manaforts sharing polling data and Russias interference in the election through the Russian troll farm. Advertisement The report also details how Trumps campaign chairman had his deputy share internal polling data prepared for the Trump Campaign by pollster Tony Fabrizio via WhatsApp and those communications were deleted on a daily basis. When Manafort briefed Kilimnik on that data, he also discussed battleground states, which Manafort identified as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. And both Manafort and Gates assumed that data would be shared with a close Putin ally in Deripaska. What happened next to the data is a mystery. Mueller could not prove one way or the other whether it was used in Russias attack against the 2016 electionbut Mueller did note that his team had a limited ability to gather such evidence. Advertisement Advertisement These Deripaska connections still matter today: In January, the Treasury Department eased sanctions on three companies linked to the oligarch, despite votes against it from both houses of Congress. Meanwhile, earlier this month, Deripaska sued the United States over the remaining sanctions. It will be up to Trumps DOJ, and William Barr, to mount a defense against that suit. Advertisement Advertisement Again, this really doesnt sound all that much like no collusion. It sounds more like maybe collusion, but we really couldnt prove what happened once the top Trump campaign official gave internal polling data to a suspected Russian agent and likely top Putin ally, because of our limited ability to gather such evidence inside of Russia. This is all from just one small section of a nearly 200-page volume of a report, which included other possiblealbeit nondefinitiveevidence of potential collusion. For example, a partially redacted portion of the report, surrounding Trump campaign affiliate Roger Stones alleged work to coordinate with WikiLeaks on the release of stolen Hillary Clinton emails, shows how candidate Trump was eager to exploit the material and early on said that more would be coming. [S]hortly after [an unidentified] call candidate Trump told Gates that more releases of damaging information would be coming, the report said. Because of the redactions, its unclear to what extent the evidence gathered by Mueller indicated foreknowledge by Trump. But it certainly does not put him in the clear. Ultimately, that doesnt sound like an exoneration at all. It sounds like Muellers work on collusion has only produced more questions. Special counsel Robert Mueller found ample evidence to convict President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice. His investigation uncovered multiple attempts by the president to hamper his investigation into potential misconduct by Trump and his associates. This evidence is incredibly damning and would seem to clearly meet the requirements for an obstruction charge. As he wrote in his report, Mueller only declined to indict the president because the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the executive branch, claimed that he could not. Instead, Mueller made the case for obstruction in his meticulous report, providing a road map to Congress, which he expects to consider impeachment proceedings. There appears to be more than enough proof of criminality for the House of Representatives to draw up articles of impeachment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All of this is obvious from the first few pages of Volume II of Muellers report, which details his obstruction investigation. All of it must have been obvious to Attorney General William Barr when he attempted to cover up the reports actual findings in his four-page summary released in March and in his Thursday press conference. All of it should be obvious to a majority of the House of Representatives once they read the report. There is no reason for the House to take impeachment off the table. Muellers report is as bad as the president and his allies feared. The federal crime of obstruction has three elements: an obstructive act, some kind of nexus between the obstructive act and an official proceeding, and corrupt intent. The official proceeding does not have to exist yetit can be pending or contemplatedand the nexus need only be a relationship in time, causation, or logic. Muellers report runs through various actions by the president that arguably meet this definition, and it analyzes each one in light of the elements of obstruction. He concluded that five acts supported a reasonable inference of obstruction of justice. Those acts: Advertisement Advertisement There appears to be more than enough proof of criminality for the House of Representatives to draw up articles of impeachment. National security adviser Michael Flynn lied to FBI agents, as well as administration officials, about his contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. After Acting Attorney General Sally Yates notified the White House that Flynn may have lied, the president did not fire Flynn, but seemed angry at him, saying not again, this guy, this stuff. The next day, Trump had a one-on-one dinner with thenFBI Director James Comey and told him, I need loyalty, I expect loyalty. On Feb. 13, thenchief of staff Reince Priebus asked Flynn to resign, and Trump told him, Well take care of you. A day later, Trump cleared the room to have a private conversation with Comey, telling him, I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. The presidents efforts to shield Flynn from an FBI investigation by pressuring Comey could, Mueller concluded, meet the elements of obstruction. (Trump later denied that he cleared the room, a denial that would have been unnecessary if he thought his demand was appropriateanother indication of corrupt intent.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On June 17, 2017, after learning that Mueller was investigating him for obstruction, Trump asked thenWhite House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller. (He had previously asked McGahn to contemplate ways of knocking out Mueller.) You gotta do this, Trump said, but McGahn refused. Trump called him back and pressed further, telling him, Mueller has to go. Again, McGahn declined to interfere with Muellers investigation. Advertisement Advertisement On June 19, two days after asking McGahn to fire Mueller, Trump asked his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to deliver a message to thenAttorney General Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia investigation. Trumps message demanded that Sessions unrecuse himself and then limit the special counsels investigation, only permitting him to investigate future election interference, not the 2016 race, because Trump was being treated very unfairly. (On several other occasions, Trump personally demanded that Sessions unrecuse himself, and the Justice Department investigate Hillary Clinton instead of his campaign.) Lewandowski did not deliver the message, so the president followed up on his request. The message was never delivered. In July, Trump asked Priebus to fire Sessions, which, after consultation with McGahn, Priebus did not do. Advertisement Advertisement Trump repeatedly directed McGahn to lie by denying that Trump asked him to fire Mueller. He condemned McGahn for telling the truth to special counsel investigators. Acting on orders from Trump, White House staff secretary Rob Porter told McGahn to write a statement claiming that he had never been told to fire the special counselor else McGahn would be fired himself. McGahn refused. After Flynn began cooperating with the special counsel, Trumps personal attorney left Flynns lawyer a voicemail that said the following (edited lightly for clarity): Advertisement I understand your situation, but let me see if I cant state it in starker terms. It wouldnt surprise me if youve gone on to make a deal with the government. If theres information that implicates the president, then weve got a national security issue, so, you know, we need some kind of heads-up. Um, just for the sake of protecting all our interests if we can. Remember what weve always said about the president and his feelings toward Flynn, and that still remains. Advertisement Advertisement Flynns attorney refused to share information about his clients legal strategy. The presidents personal counsel said he took this refusal as a sign of Flynns hostility toward Trump and planned to tell the president as much. Mueller also cited Trumps defense of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort as well as his former attorney Michael Cohen. Trump publicly floated pardons for both men after they were indicted. He also passed private messages of support to Cohen, telling him to hang in there and stay strong. Once Cohen began cooperating with prosecutors, however, Trump dismissed him as a rat and a weak person. Trump gave inconsistent answers about his knowledge of Cohens efforts to build a Trump property in Moscow. Finally, the report includes a lengthy segment that appears to be about Trumps aid to Roger Stonewho was also indictedthough it is redacted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each of these incidents, Mueller concluded, supported the inference of obstruction. They arguably met all three elements of the crime: Trump committed obstructive acts to thwart or impede a current or pending investigation with corrupt intent. Mueller seems to have a slam-dunk case for an obstruction indictment. Why, then, did he not pull the trigger? Its evident that he wanted to. But he wrote that he felt constrained because the Office of Legal Counsel has asserted that a sitting president may not be prosecuted. So he did not declare outright that Trump committed obstructionbut closed the report with a strong implication to that effect: Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the Presidents conduct. The evidence we obtained about the Presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mueller also noted: The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the Presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law. This sentence is, put simply, an impeachment referral to Congress. If Congress ignores it, it will have failed the special counsel and the American people. Muellers report is overflowing with proof of Trumps criminality, including new information that confirms Trumps efforts to hobble the investigation and tamper with witnesses. The president obstructed justice. And thanks to the restraints imposed on Muellers power, only Congress has the authority to redress this illegality by removing Trump from office. At this point, anything less than articles of impeachment would be an insufficient response to Muellers incriminating report. President Donald Trump. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Special Counsel Robert Muellers redacted report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was released on Thursday. (If you have several hours to kill, you can read the 400-plus-page, two-part document for yourself here.) Deep into the report on page 78 of Volume II, to be exact may just be the best passage of the entire document: the moment Trump admits hes fucked. In that section, Mueller revealed how Trump reacted to (unblinking) Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensteins May 2017 announcement that Mueller had been appointed to lead the special counsel. Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im fucked, Trump said when he was informed of the news by now-former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to the report. For a president who sees himself as above the law, admitting that hes fucked certainly isnt a promise that he is but it is nevertheless satisfying to hear him acknowledge that hes not unimpeachable. Well revel in that moment for a while. Done reveling, we will now resume. This exchange was found in notes kept by Sessionss chief of staff Jody Hunt. The president then slumped back in his chair in the Oval Office, per the report, and reportedly became angry. He is said to have lambasted Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation in the first place. How could you let this happen, Jeff? he reportedly asked. The report notes that Sessions recalls Trump also saying, You were supposed to protect me, or words to that effect. Per the report: The president returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I wont be able to do anything. Heres hoping. Stay in touch. Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. Thursday, special counsel Robert Muellers long-awaited report was released to Congress and the publicor at least parts of it were. The report that was publicly released contains significant redactions. Attorney General William Barr suggested that he would release a version with fewer redactions to certain members of Congress in a nonpublic setting. Assuming he expeditiously follows through on that promise, that is a good thing. But its not enough. After all, Barr said that even the version he will give to those members of Congress would not contain grand jury materials, which he said by law, cannot be shared. But Congress deserves to see the entire, unredacted report, as well as the underlying grand jury materials that gave rise to it. Fortunately, Congress has several avenues for obtaining that information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First, although government attorneys are generally prohibited from releasing grand jury materials under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e), the rule allows [a]n attorney for the government to disclose grand jury material involving foreign intelligence information to any federal law enforcement, intelligence, protective, immigration, national defense, or national security official to assist the official receiving the information in the performance of that officials duties. There is a strong argument that at least members of the House and Senate intelligence committees are national security officials who should receive the information in the performance of their duties. Thus, grand jury materials implicating foreign intelligence should be confidentially released to at least the intelligence committees. If Barr refuses to release such materials to the intelligence committees, they can issue subpoenas demanding that the Justice Department release information they believe was improperly or unnecessarily withheld, and if need be, the House of Representatives can sue in federal district court to enforce those subpoenas. That is precisely what the House successfully did during both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Under Bush, the House sued to enforce subpoenas related to its investigation into the resignation of nine U.S. attorneys, while under Obama, the House did the same related to its investigation of the so-called Fast and Furious operation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As one of us has previously explained, Congress can move quickly to issue those subpoenas, and it can expeditiously file suit if the Department of Justice does not comply. Moreover, Congress can ask the court to expedite proceedings to ensure that this litigation is resolved as quickly as possible. Second, although Barr is correct that there may be some grand jury material the Department of Justice cannot release directly to Congress under grand jury secrecy rules, Congress can get that material, too. For that information, Congress can go directly to the district court judge who impaneled the Mueller grand jury and request that the judge release it. There are several legal arguments that the House can make in support of such release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First, the House could ask the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn a recent decision limiting the district courts inherent authority to release grand jury materials. In McKeever v. Barr, a panel of three judges on the D.C. Circuit held that district courts lack the inherent authority to release grand jury materials and may release them only pursuant to exceptions that are specifically listed in Rule 6(e)(3)(E). As we have previously written, that decision is wrong both because it ignores the long history of permitting courts to disclose grand jury materials based on their inherent authority, and because it contravenes a prior binding decision of the full D.C. Circuit. McKeever should be overturned by the full D.C. Circuitwhich has the power to overrule a panel decisionand the district court should be able to release grand jury information based on its inherent authority to release important materials like these. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The House need not say the magic word impeachment or open a formal impeachment investigation to request grand jury material. Second, even under McKeever, Congress can ask the district court to release grand jury materials for one of the reasons specifically enumerated in Rule 6(e)specifically, Rule 6(e)(3)(E)(i), which permits courts to disclose grand jury material preliminarily to or in connection with a judicial proceeding. As the D.C. Circuit suggested in McKeever, a congressional impeachment inquiry qualifies as a judicial proceeding under Rule 6(e). That was the courts explanation for why, 45 years agoin a case called Haldeman v. Siricathe full D.C. Circuit affirmed a district court decision to disclose grand jury materials regarding the Watergate investigation to the House Judiciary Committee, which was considering whether to impeach President Richard Nixon. Though Haldeman seemed to rely on the district courts inherent authority, the D.C. Circuit concluded in McKeever that the Watergate-era court in fact relied on the judicial proceeding exception when it allowed disclosure of grand jury information. Thus, at the very least, a House committees impeachment investigation would fall within the Rule 6(e) exception and would provide a basis pursuant to the rules to release grand jury materialseven if the court lacks inherent authority to release them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The notion that impeachment is a judicial proceeding accords with the text of the Constitution. Article III, Section 2 provides that [t]he Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment; shall be by Jury, indicating that the Framers believed Impeachment to be a Trial for Crimes. Moreover, in discussing impeachment, Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution uses other words that are typically associated with judicial proceedings: words like Cases, try, convicted, and Judgment. As one district court noted, [t]he fact that senators rather than Article III judges decide [an impeachment] case does not make it any less judicial; it merely points to a jurisdictional choice made by the framers for political and historical reasons. To be sure, the House has not formally initiated impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, but Rule 6(e) speaks broadly, permitting disclosure preliminarily to a judicial proceeding. The House can reasonably argue that its investigation of the president for potential collusion and obstruction of justice can beindeed, could only bean investigation preliminary to impeachment. The House need not say the magic word impeachment or open a formal impeachment investigation to request material under Rule 6(e) as part of its existing investigation into whether the president engaged in collusion or committed obstruction of justice. In short, Congress has a number of different ways it can obtain the redacted portions of Muellers report, as well as the underlying grand jury materials. And the legislators dont need to choose only one of these avenues. Pursuing all of them should ensure that Congress sees the full report and underlying information, and would allow Congress to fulfill its critical oversight responsibilities. Nearly half the pages in special counsel Robert Muellers report163 out of a total 381 pages of textcontain passages that Attorney General William Barr has blacked out. In some cases, the redactions cover just a few words or a name; in many cases, though, whole paragraphs or entire pages are deleted. Most of the deletions were made for one of two reasons: Investigative Techniques (facts that, if uncensored, would reveal intelligence sources or methods) and Harm to Ongoing Matter (facts pertaining to grand jury probes or upcoming trials). Advertisement In principle, these are legitimate reasons for redacting government documents. But two points need to be made. First, because some of the ongoing matter concerns people indicted and facing trial as a result of the Mueller investigation, the redactions prevent us from assessing the nature and scope of the relationship between Russia and President Donald Trumps campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For instance, in a section titled Trump Campaign and the Dissemination of Hacked Materials (Volume I, pages 5158), almost the entire text is blacked out. The same is true for most passages concerning Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (for instance, Vol. I, page 143). See also a section titled Russian Hacking and Dumping Operations, especially a subsection whose title is redacted (Charging Decision as to [Harmful to Ongoing Matter], Vol. I, pages 17679). Another multipage blackout is labeled Constitutional Considerations (Vol. I, pages 19091). A passage recounting Trump discussing a pardon for Manafort is followed by two fully redacted pages (Vol. II, pages 12830). Advertisement Advertisement We may never know whats in those redacted passages of the Mueller report. The second point that needs to be made about redactions is that they often have little or dubious basis. Thursday morning, in anticipation of the Mueller reports release, the National Security Archivea private research organization at George Washington Universitypublished 10 examples of bizarre redactions from the thousands of Freedom of Information Act suits it has filed over the years. In some cases, redactionsor the removal of redactionswere ordered for obvious political reasons. But often, the government gatekeepers have taken out the black pen because there are no firm standards on what should and should not be made public. When in doubt, officialsoften to protect their careersopt for caution, not transparency. In many cases, different officials have different standards or make different decisions. The result is rampant overclassification. Advertisement Advertisement For instance, the archives report displays a 1984 State Department document on Geneva Convention violations in Rwanda, as it was marked up in four separate declassifications between 2001 and 2012. Each version redacts certain passagesbut the passages are different in each one: Words that are clear and open in one version are blacked out in another, and vice versa. All four reviewers justified the deletions for reasons of national security. In fact, they were for reasons of individual judgment. Advertisement Advertisement Back in 2011, the U.S. government, finally, formally declassified the Pentagon Papers, the top-secret history of the Vietnam War that Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had ordered way back in 1967. Daniel Ellsberg leaked the report in 1971, and the New York Times and several other newspapers famously reprinted huge chunks of it that same year. Sen. Mike Gravel, a Democrat from Alaska, then entered the full report into the Congressional Record, after which Beacon Press published it in four volumes. And yet, the governments official public version redacted 11 wordseven though the complete report, including those 11 words, had been available to the world for the previous 40 years. We may never know whats in those redacted passages of the Mueller report. Whether we should knowand how it might alter our view of its conclusionsis a vital question. During the press conference on Thursday morning about special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, Attorney General William Barr responded brusquely to criticisms that he has been politicizing the release of the report by issuing statements defending the president. During the Q&A portion, CBS reporter Paula Reid noted, A Republican-appointed judge on Tuesday said you have, Created an environment that has caused a significant part of the American public to be concerned about these redactions. The judge in question is Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who was presiding over a hearing for a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit when he made the comments. (BuzzFeed is in court to pursue the multiple FOIA requests it filed to gain insight into the internal workings of Muellers investigation and access the full unredacted report.) Walton was appointed to his current position by George W. Bush in 2004. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reid continued, You cleared the president on obstruction. The president is fundraising off your comments about spying, and here you have remarks that are quite generous to the president, including acknowledging his feelings and emotions. What do you say to people on both sides of the aisle who are concerned youre trying to protect the president? Barr initially defended himself by making references to the report, which the public has not seen yet. Actually, the statements about his sincere beliefs are recognized in the report that there was substantial evidence for that, so Im not sure what your basis is for saying that I am being generous to the president, he replied. .@PaulaReidCBS asks AG Barr what he would say to "people on both sides of the aisle who are concerned that [he] is trying to protect the president," but instead of answering directly, he questions the basis of her question and calls on another reporter. #MuellerReport pic.twitter.com/98EYA8eceN CBS News (@CBSNews) April 18, 2019 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reporter then asserted, You face an unprecedented situation. It just seems like theres a lot of effort to go out of your way to acknowledge Barr interrupted her and said, Is there another precedent for it? So unprecedented is an accurate description isnt it? Reid completed her question to ask how Barr would respond to people who say that he is trying to protect the president, but he quickly moved on to the next question. Shortly thereafter, another reporter picked up the thread again and asked, Is it impropriety to come out and what it appears to be spinning the report before the public has a chance to read it? Barr simply said, no, and the conference abruptly ended. North Korea test-fired a new tactical guided weapon, the countrys state-run media outlet announced Thursday (local time), the latest sign of a tactical chill in the love-a-thon President Trump has been touting between the two leaders. Specifics on the exact type of weapon and the nature of the launch remain unclear, but the Washington Post reports that experts believe the early descriptions of the test make it unlikely it was a ballistic missile, which would be an explicit violation of Pyongyangs self-declared moratorium on testing, and a substantial setback to whatever peace plan President Trump hopes to muster. Advertisement North Korean state media said Kim Jong-un himself oversaw the launch, which he described as an event of very weighty significance. The recent breakdown of denuclearization talks and Kims direct involvement in the test heaped strategic symbolism on the event. Experts were cautious to read too far into North Koreas intentions, but believed the test to be a show of growing military strength as form of negotiating tactic, without crossing the self-imposed ballistic missile red line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a speech last week, Kim showed frustration with the tenor of recent peace talks with the U.S. and while he said he was prepared to participate in a third summit with Trump, he cautioned he would do so only if the U.S. changed its approach. Pyongyangs latest launch is its first public test since February talks in Hanoi broke down. While it is surely a negotiating tactic aimed at focusing the mind in Washington, the escalation threatens one of President Trumps favorite talking pointsprogress, real or imagined, with North Korea. In fact, Trumps political reliance on the North Korea detente has grown such that it could diminish his hand at the negotiating table as the personal price of walking away increases. Advertisement Advertisement Is Trump already in too deep? Just earlier this week, days before the test, Trump was touting his relationship with Kim and progress with North Korea as kind of a big deal: Full Trump comments on North Korea, from his event in Minnesota today: pic.twitter.com/WrEpGN7ESm William Gallo (@GalloVOA) April 15, 2019 Maybe lets pump the brakes on the Nobel Peace Prize daydreams, look a little less personally needy, and hold our cards a bit closer to our chest. President Donald Trump was mostly unsuccessful in interfering with special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, according to the redacted version of the Mueller report released on Thursday, but it wasnt for lack of trying. Heres the crux of it, from Page 158 of the report, which concerns the presidents efforts to pressure FBI Director James Comey, White House Counsel Don McGahn, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and senior White House official Rick Dearborn: The Presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. Comey did not end the investigation of Flynn, which ultimately resulted in Flynns prosecution and conviction for lying to the FBI. McGahn did not tell the Acting Attorney General that the Special Counsel must be removed, but was instead prepared to resign over the Presidents order. Lewandowski and Dearborn did not deliver the Presidents message to Sessions that he should confine the Russia investigation to future election meddling only. And McGahn refused to recede from his recollections about events surrounding the Presidents direction to have the Special Counsel removed, despite the Presidents multiple demands that he do so. Consistent with that pattern, the evidence we obtained would not support potential obstruction charges against the Presidents aides and associates beyond those already filed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report includes juicy details on each of those incidents. For example, while we knew Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to tell Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller, we didnt know the president had called McGahn at home to pressure him. McGahn told his chief of staff Annie Donaldson that the president called at least twice and at one point asked, Have you done it? McGahn told the presidents thenchief of staff Reince Priebus that Trump had asked him to do crazy shit. In the case of Lewandowski, the president twice tried to get him to pass notes to Jeff Sessions to limit the scope of the investigation. Trump dictated this paragraph to Lewandowski, telling him that the attorney general should read it out loud: Advertisement I know that I recused myself from certain things having to do with specific areas. But our POTUS is being treated very unfairly. He shouldnt have a Special Prosecutor/Counsel b/c he hasnt done anything wrong. I was on the campaign w/ him for nine months, there were no Russians involved with him. I know it for a fact b/c I was there. He didnt do anything wrong except he ran the greatest campaign in American history. Very cool, very legal, definitely sounds like something the head of the Department of Justice would say of his own volition. Lewandowski did not pass those directions onto Sessions. This is all great news for the presidents aidesas Mueller notes at the bottom of the long blockquote above, the evidence we obtained would not support potential obstruction charges against the Presidents aides and associates beyond those already filed. As for the question of obstruction by the president himself, Mueller leaves that issue to Congress. Throughout the investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia, questions have swirled around an odd change the campaign pushed for in the Republican platform at the partys 2016 convention in Cleveland. As the Washington Post originally reported shortly after the convention, Trump campaign representatives pushed to water down language in the platform about providing lethal defensive weapons to the government of Ukraine for its fight against pro-Russian separatists. Given thencampaign chairman Paul Manaforts financial ties to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, that raised some eyebrows. Was the platform move part of a quid pro quo, or a demonstration of good faith to Trumps allies in Moscow? Advertisement On this particular question, the just-released Mueller report is mostly good news for Trump. Investigators found no evidence that the president ordered or was even aware of the change to the platform language. But it does highlight the degree to which Trumpworld officials with questionable motives were engaged in freelance policymaking during this period. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report mostly confirms what has been reported by the Post and later the Daily Beast about the incident. At a meeting of the national security platform subcommittee shortly before the convention, on July 11, 2016, Diana Denman, a Ted Cruzsupporting delegate, submitted an amendment to the platform denouncing Russian military aggression in Ukraine and calling for the provision of lethal weapons, a step the Obama administration was then opposing. Advertisement J.D. Gordon, a former Pentagon spokesman who was then a national security adviser to the Trump campaign and attended the meeting as a non-voting observer, flagged the amendment, saying he did not believe it corresponded with Trumps views on Russia and Ukraine. Denman says Gordon told her during the meeting that he was on the phone with Trump himself, but she was skeptical of this claim, and Gordon denies ever making it. Trump told the Mueller team he did not speak with Gordon about the matter, though phone records show Gordon called Jeff Sessions office that day. Gordon does say he talked to senior Trump advisers Rick Dearborn and John Mashburn, and heres where things get odd: Gordon says the two backed him up, but Mashburn remembers telling Gordon that Trump hadnt taken a stand on the issue and that the campaign shouldnt interfere. With this one notable exception, Trump campaign observers mostly held back and didnt offer any substantive input during the platform-drafting process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the end, the language in the amendment was softened to appropriate assistance, which led Mashburn to believe, as the Mueller report puts it, that Gordon had violated Mashburns directive not to intervene. Then-campaign co-chair Sam Clovis also told investigators that he was surprised by the change and did not believe it accorded with Trumps views. (In fairness, Trumps stated views on Ukraine, at that time, were a little vague and hard to parse.) Advertisement Advertisement So was Gordon just acting on his own? This wasnt his only activity during the convention that the report discusses. Gordon also spoke briefly with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a conference held the week of the convention in Cleveland. (You may recall this was also the conference where Kislyak spoke to Sessions.) Gordon and the ambassador, along with several other diplomats, also sat together at dinner that night and spoke about improving U.S.-Russia relations. (Gordon remembers the conversation lasting just three to five minutes. Quick dinner!) It should be noted this happened after Gordon advocated the platform change. Advertisement Advertisement The Washington Post has also reported that in the months prior to the electionwhen Gordon had left the campaign but anticipated being offered a job on Trumps transition teamhe socialized with the Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina, who has since been charged by the U.S. with working as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin. According to documents and testimony from the Senate Intelligence Committee, the two exchanged a number of emails, including invitations from Gordon to Butina to attend his birthday party and a Styx concert. The party platform was always an odd place for the Trump team to pick a fight on this or any issue. Its language is not binding, and its not as if Trump has ever been reluctant to buck GOP orthodoxy. In the end, the Trump administration did end up selling lethal anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, though reportedly over the presidents personal reluctance. Muellers investigation into this odd incident finds no evidence that Trump was acting on Russias behalf, though perhaps some people working for him thought they should be. On Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr issued a startling decision in the case of an Indian asylum-seeker who asked for a review of a high bond amount initially set by an immigration judge. In his ruling, Barr held that not only was the asylum-seeker not entitled to a lower bond amount, but he wasnt entitled to bond at all. The decision, which could result in countless asylum-seekers being denied bond, will effectively require most of these asylum-seekers to be held in detention for the entirety of their cases. The Trump administrations latest approach to asylum is not only inefficient and cruel, but seems designed to ensure even higher denial rates by keeping asylum-seekers in front of the harshest judges and away from accessible immigration counsel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In practice, Barrs decision means that both asylum-seekers who present themselves at official ports of entry as well as those who enter without inspection and are then apprehended and put into removal proceedings will be forced to fight their asylum cases from one of a vast network of squalid, inaccessible immigration detention centers spread throughout the United States. For now, only those who enter as a family unit will be spared from the mandatory detention, as the Flores Settlement Agreement currently prevents the government from detaining children for more than 20 days during removal proceedings. But even this small reprieve for families seems unlikely to last as the administration is reportedly considering an effort to modify the settlement to allow for a so-called binary choice in which parents would be forced to decide between indefinite detention with their children while their case is resolved or consent to be separated from their children with the parent detained and the child released. Advertisement Advertisement This means that thousands more asylum-seekers could be subjected to rotting food, inadequate medical care, sexual assault, overcrowding, and forced labor while they attempt to fight for their right to remain in the United States. Conditions in the facilities are so horrifying that it is common for asylum-seekers to give up and request deportation to escape the abuse they face while locked up in the United States. This is undoubtedly considered a benefit by the Trump administration, which is doing everything in its power to prevent asylum-seekers from coming to the United States. Advertisement One other less obvious benefit for the Trump administration is that keeping most asylum-seekers detained will force many to appear in front of some of the harshest immigration judges in the country, many who have less than a 4 percent grant rate when it comes to asylum cases. In general, only 34 percent of decisions in 2018 resulted in a grant of asylum. Denials are at an all-time high. But these numbers obscure the reality for asylum-seekers who are forced to fight their cases from detention, where lack of access to counsel combined with some of the harshest immigration judges in the country lead to denial rates above 90 percent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Take, for example, Lumpkin, Georgia. Lumpkin is home to Stewart Detention Center, a privately run jail with the capacity to hold more than a thousand people. Located more than 150 miles from Atlanta, Lumpkin has almost no legal infrastructure to serve detained asylum-seekers. Most asylum-seekers detained in Lumpkin have no chance of finding a lawyer to help them fight their cases. In fact, the location of many detention centers makes finding representation exceedingly tricky. A detention facility in Gadsden, Alabama, is more than 400 miles from the closest legal aid services, which are in Louisiana. The West Texas Detention Center in Sierra Blanca, Texas, is more than 80 miles from legal service providers in El Paso. The San Luis Regional Detention Center in San Luis, Arizona, is almost 300 miles from the closest legal aid providers. The largest family detention center, the South Texas Family Residential Center, is more than 70 miles from San Antonio. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And having a lawyer makes a difference: Detained immigrants with attorneys are more than twice as likely as those without representation to succeed in their cases. While almost two-thirds of nondetained immigrants in removal proceedings are able to find and retain a lawyer, only 14 percent of detained immigrants are represented by an attorney. This leaves most to attempt to represent themselves from behind bars, often without adequate access to the relevant legal materials, and sometimes even without access to asylum applications in their own language. For many, asylum denials have devastating consequences. Pro se representation is risky in the best of circumstances, and it can become almost entirely futile for detained asylum-seekers whose cases are heard by some of the harshest judges in the country. In Lumpkin, for example, the three immigration judges serving the Stewart Detention Center had an average 93.5 percent denial rate for asylum cases. Judges presiding over cases at the El Paso Immigration Court deny cases 92.6 percent of the time. At the Adelanto Immigration Court, which is two hours away from Los Angeles, asylum cases are denied 86.1 percent of the time. Most of these cases were presented pro se, without the help of a lawyer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, a nondetained asylum-seeker in Chicago has almost a 50 percent chance of winning her case and is much more likely to be able to secure representation. For many, asylum denials have devastating consequences. Deportation leads to permanent family separation, as deportees leave behind U.S. citizen children, spouses, and extended family. People deported from the United States are also frequently at a heightened risk for violence and extortion. In the worst cases, deportation is a literal death sentence. Barrs decision to detain all asylum-seekers isnt just about a plain reading of statutory language, as he asserts in his opinion. It is only one more way this administration is attempting to sharply limit the number of asylum-seekers allowed to stay in the United States by any means necessary, no matter how expensive, dangerous, or cruel. Observers of the Justice Department will spend the rest of our lives talking about Attorney General William Barrs jaw-dropping and horrifically inappropriate address on Thursday morning, which attempted to spin special counsel Robert Muellers report in Donald Trumps favorbefore the public has seen it. In just a few minutes, Barr managed to throw Mueller under the bus, mount a Fox Newsstyle defense of Trump, and further obscure his dubious decision to absolve the president of obstruction of justice. It is hard to convey just how appalling Barrs performance was, and it will take a while to assess the extent of the damage Barr just inflicted on the Department of Justice and the office of the attorney general. But let me take a first crack: This was Pravda-style propaganda, pure and simple, a grotesque display of spineless fealty to the president, and a confirmation that Barr views the Mueller investigation as fundamentally illegitimate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first half of Barrs address was essentially a reiteration of his earlier summary of Muellers report, which the attorney general helpfully summed up in Trumps two favorite words: no collusion. Mueller, Barr explained, found that the Russian government did unlawfully attempt to influence the 2016 election; both Russian military officials and the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm affiliated with the Russian government, meddled in the race. But the special counsel found no evidence that any Americansincluding anyone associated with the Trump campaignconspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme. We do not yet know if Barr used this oddly narrow language to conceal attempts by the Trump campaign to collude with Russian agents, or to disseminate stolen material; to obscure possible coordination with Russian nationals not formally connected to the Russian government; or to obfuscate an extremely cramped definition of conspiracy and collusion. The report itself should help us understand just how candid or dishonest, this segment of Barrs address was. And hopefully, Barr did not redact portions of the report that might clear up any sleights of hand the attorney general may have performed to gloss over legally troubling conduct by the president and his associates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What we do know is that the presidents national security adviser, Michael Flynn, spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the same day that President Barack Obama issued retaliatory measures in response to Russias interference in the 2016 election. And that Mueller later prosecuted Flynn for lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian officials. And that Flynn pleaded guilty to this felony charge and cooperated with the probe. And then Trump asked thenFBI Director James Comey to end the investigation into Flynn. We also know that Trumps former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations committed in an effort to cover up Trumps extramarital affaira crime allegedly committed at the presidents direction, and one that was prosecuted by the Southern District of New York after the special counsels office provided it with information about Cohen. And we know that Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the Trump Organizations attempts to build a new property in Moscow during the presidential campaign. Cohen, in fact, admitted to this crime as part of a plea deal with Mueller. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This information is important to keep in mind when considering the second half of Barrs address, pertaining to obstruction of justice. Barr once again reiterated that he does not believe in Muellers legal theory of obstruction. He didnt elaborate, but his views here are well-known: Barr believes obstruction of an investigation cannot be committed unless there is an underlying crime (which is wrong) and that the president cannot commit obstruction by exercising his executive powers, even if done with a corrupt motive (which is dubious). But leave that aside for now. Whats truly astonishing is that after briefly attempting to exculpate Trump of obstruction, Barr launched into a vigorous and gratuitous defense of the presidents highly unusual and suspect behavior throughout the probe: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In assessing the Presidents actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the Presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the Special Counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsels investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barrs message here is simple: Trump is the real victim. The victim of the media and leaks. The victim of excess scrutiny and oversight. The victim of what Barr appears to believe was an overly intrusive investigation conducted by overzealous federal agents and prosecutors. All of Trumps lying, his interference, his efforts to publicly discredit the probe, his public assault on Muellerall of it is excusable, Barr implied, because the probe found no collusion. Indeed, Barr writes off Trumps campaign against the investigation as a perfectly understandable effort to maintain his innocence. His acts were not obstructionary; they were noble. Thats not legal analysis, since righteous anger is not an actual defense against obstruction. Its political spin. Its propaganda. Its running interference for the president who appointed Barr to do precisely thisto exonerate him in public before Americans can read Muellers report. It was a galling performance for an audience of one, the president. And Trump must be pleased. In fact, the moment the presser ended, the president posted a Game of Thronesthemed tweet telling the haters and the radical left Democrats that it was Game Over. Barrs performance and Trumps tweet seemed almost coordinated. It is an extraordinary embarrassment for DOJ. The attorney general did what Trump hired him to do. In the process, he has disgraced his office in ways we are only beginning to understand. Barr joined the DOJ too late to quash the investigation. But he is doing his best to shield the Trump from its findings. Thursday morning will be remembered as one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the Department of Justice. The Justice Department hand-delivered special counsel Robert Muellers 448-page report to Congress at about 11 a.m. Thursdayon CD-ROMs. Why did officials decide to use such an anachronistic storage device? Because its still one of the standard methods of delivery. While the use of CDs bemused many in the press, its actually not that uncommon for lawmakers to receive sensitive documents on compact discs. I left the Hill in 2014, and at that time *any* electronic production was unusual. When it occurred, CD-ROM was what we got, Justin Rood, a director at the Project on Government Oversight who used to work for Sen. Tom Cotton, wrote in an email to Slate. When I saw that the report was delivered on CD-ROM, I thought it was fairly typical. Indeed, CBS reported that staffers on the House Judiciary Committee still have access to working CD drives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CD-ROMs are a preferred delivery vessel for classified materials in Congress in part because they have a considerable amount of memory and are largely impervious to tampering. As Wired notes, CDs can also typically hold 700 megabytes of data. The 412-page FISA application to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, for example, took up only 7.8 megabytes of space, so placing the document on a disc would leave you with plenty of room. Daniel Schuman, the policy director at Demand Progress, told Slate that some congressional offices have access to email networks that are equipped to disseminate classified material and that such documents are occasionally delivered on hard drives as well. Sometimes information isnt given to Congress, but you have to go to a secure facility and can read it there, he added. It was the case for the report that the FBI produced on the sexual assaults allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last year. As for everyone else: We got a scan of a PDF uploaded to the Justice Department website. Its not searchable. (Update: We made a searchable version!) The redacted version of the Muller report released Thursday surfaces new details about the correspondence between WikiLeaks and Donald Trump Jr. before the 2016 election. In November 2017, we learned that Trumps eldest son had exchanged direct messages with the WikiLeaks Twitter account in September 2016, less than two months before Election Day. In those messages, the WikiLeaks account, which is widely suspected to have been primarily operated by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, offered Trumps son a guessed password to an anti-Trump site putintrump.org that is about to launch. Advertisement According to the Mueller report, that password was provided to WikiLeaks by a man named Jason Fishbein, a detail that was previously unknown. A footnote in the report details that Fishbein obtained the password from someone in a chat room for discussing U.S. politics. Fishbein then sent a direct message to WikiLeaks with the login credentials, which were then passed on to Trump Jr. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hours later, Trump Jr. sent an email to senior campaign officials admitting that he used the guessed password to access the site. I tried the password and it works, he wrote. That could be an admission that he violated a federal criminal hacking law called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it illegal to access a computer using a stolen password without authorization. WikiLeaks doesnt appear to have had authorization to access the site, and the person behind the account told Trump Jr. that the password he provided was guessed, which implies pretty clearly that the then-candidates son knew he was using a key he wasnt supposed to have. The email where Trump Jr. admits that he accessed a website knowingly using a hacked password was first published in a report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2018. Advertisement Advertisement In that email, Trump Jr. goes on to say that he attached screenshots of an About page of the site, thereby demonstrating in pretty clear terms that he obtained information off the site after using a password he wasnt authorized to use. Orin Kerr, a law professor specializing in computer crime at the University of Southern California, wrote on the blog Lawfare that that may be enough to make his access of the site a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Advertisement This wouldnt be Assanges first time brushing shoulders with potential violations of federal criminal hacking law. Last week, when he was arrested by British police after spending seven years hiding out in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on charges of skipping bail, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia unsealed an indictment charging Assange with conspiring to commit computer crime by helping former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning crack a password to a government computer. While its not yet clear that Assange will ever be brought back to the U.S. to face these charges, it is clear that Assange isnt shy about encouraging people to break password locks to hack into computers and websites theyre not supposed to access. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Twitter handle provided for Jason Fishbein in the Mueller report links to a person who claims to be in edtech marketing, but I found another account thats different by one character that belongs to someone with the same name who appears to be a fan of WikiLeaks and a defender of Assange. I reached out to both to ask if theyre at all affiliated with the person named in the report and will update this story if I learn more. Advertisement Advertisement About two weeks after WikiLeaks first messaged Trump Jr., it sent another message to the then-candidates son asking for help sharing a link to a website alleging candidate Clinton had advocated using a drone to target Julian Assange, the Mueller report reads. A little over a week later, WikiLeaks wrote to Trump Jr. again to strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us wlsearch.tk. Trump Jr. apparently got the message. Two days later, he tweeted the link. Advertisement Advertisement Donald Trump Jr. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images In special counsel Robert Muellers redacted report, we learned that Donald Trump Jr. was not prosecuted for campaign-finance violations related to the infamous summer 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in part because it could not be proven that he willfully violated the law. Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, as well as an expert on campaign-finance regulation, believes this was a mistake. Hasen spoke with Intelligencer and explained why. You believe that Mueller let Donald Trump Jr. off too easily for potential campaign-finance violations. Why? This goes back to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between officials of the Trump campaign, including Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort, and people who were represented as connected to the Russian government. The Russians were supposedly offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump Jr. was very excited. Thats where he gave his famous, If it is what you say it is, I love it, quote. So the question was whether or not this was an illegal foreign in-kind contribution. This has been one of the key legal questions hanging over Donald Trump Jr.s conduct. It was surprising to see that not only did Mueller not attempt to indict Donald Trump Jr. for this conduct, but he didnt even call him before the grand jury. This is especially surprising given that one of the reasons that Mueller gives for not prosecuting Donald Trump Jr. is lack of evidence of willfulness, the kind of mental state that you need in order for there to be criminal campaign-finance violation. And of course bringing someone under oath before a grand jury is a way to get that kind of information. So why not bring Trump Jr. before the grand jury? Its inexplicable to me why, if one of his problems is lack of evidence, hes not seeking to get that evidence using the powers that he has. I think the answer must be that having called Donald Trump Jr. to the grand jury would have provoked Trump, and probably Mueller did not want to do that. So either fear or deference? It certainly would have drawn Trumps ire. Whether he was afraid or didnt want to rock the boat, or just wanted to complete his investigation, I dont know what it is. If Mueller had gone after Trump Jr., what kind of trouble would he be in? To the extent that he was found to have violated campaign-finance laws by soliciting something that was worth at least $25,000, it could have been a felony, which potentially could involve jail time. We have had people go to jail for felonious campaign-finance violations. But [Mueller] found some legal problems as well. I think his legal analysis was also questionable. It opens up the door to future problems in future elections. What kind of further problems could arise? Among the other reasons that Mueller gives for not going after Trump Jr. for the campaign-finance violations is the possibility that there might be a First Amendment problem with this, that there might be some First Amendment defense that Trump Jr. could have raised. Ive written about why this is a bogus argument and why preserving the national security of the United States is a very strong reason to say that campaign officials should not be able to meet with foreign governments to obtain information on political opponents. But all that Mueller did was flag the First Amendment concern. He doesnt analyze it, leaves it open. Which I think could suggest to some campaigns that they would have a constitutional defense if theyre tried to do something like this in the future. This interview has been edited for clarity. The rents in the Bay Area are among the highest in the nationin Oakland, the median rent for a one-bedroom is $2,320 a month. Which is probably why the California Highway Patrol thought this tweet would be funny: Breaking NewsThe only thing about disregarding the safety of yourself or others on our roadways is a ride from us to this rent- location #Facts #StayWoke #WedontplaywithDUI #ForYourSafety #DontBecomeaAStatistic #FreeRentInTheBayArea pic.twitter.com/zngxJd2bpj CHP Oakland (@CHPoakland) December 30, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maybe some people laughed, but I doubt it dissuaded anyone from driving under the influence. Police use social media to send announcements of road closures, to issue reports of missing persons, to post photos of people they arrest or are looking for in relation to a crime. But law enforcement agencies also turn to social media for the same lighter fare so many of us seek on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: memes, viral videos, cute dog photos, and ironic jokes about drugs. Its a form of community engagement. One way of bolstering your following and connecting with the community is through the occasional use of humor, when appropriate, says Jaime Coffee, a public information officer with the California Highway Patrol, who noted that some of their humor on social media has made it into local news reports, boosting the visibility of their accounts. Last year, police departments across the country took part in an online lip-syncing challenge. Videos of cops in Norfolk, Virginia, singing Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars Uptown Funk and officers in San Francisco doing a rendition of Lights by Journey, for example, went viral, garnering hundreds of thousands of views. Advertisement Advertisement Community engagement and showing the human side of officers is a reasonable pursuit. But posts like the one by the California Highway Patrol joking about jail and gentrification in Oakland dont always come off as funny as intended. Theres nothing inherently wrong with a cute cop, John Crew, a retired police practices specialist for the American Civil Liberties Union told me in an interview. I think the reason youre seeing attempts at social media across the country is that police agencies and the policing profession are aware that theyve got a problem. Part of that problem is trust: Only 44 percent of adults under the age of 35 have a great deal of confidence in the police, according to the most recent Gallup poll. But witty social media is unlikely to fix that problem, Crew says. If they think the problem is how theyre perceived, then they think the response is to project a better image and not We need more police accountability or We have an implicit bias problem. They think theyre just not understood. But if police fear theyre misunderstood, officers may not understand the communities theyre policing either. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Please help! My name is 10 Pounds of Weed. I am lost and looking for my owner. I was sent to the wrong address yesterday in Columbus and now the police have me locked up in the evidence room. Please get me out of here soon, you will need your ID. Thanks a bunch, reads a tweet last year from the Columbus, Indiana, Police Department. Hilarious except nearly 6 percent of all arrests in the United States in 2017 were based on possession of marijuana. In Indiana alone in 2016 more than 10,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession and sales, according to FBI data. Theres nothing funny about being arrested, which could lead to jail, legal fees, or time away from work and family, all for possessing a substance thats legal in 10 states. Lawrence, Kansas, police took a similar approach the year before with this tweet: Advertisement Advertisement Soooooo anyone know where the marijuana and ecstasy tablet parties are this weekend? Asking for a friend. Trust us, we're hip. Lawrence Police (@LawrenceKS_PD) March 3, 2017 Advertisement Advertisement More recently, a viral Facebook photo of two Mineral Wells, Texas, police officers eating doughnuts in a field of waist-high flowers was shared more than 132,000 times. The caption reads, Felt cute might arrest someone later idk. The comments section on the photo morphed into a mini-contest in wry anti-police sentiment. Felt cute, might racially profile later, said one person. Another wrote, Felt cute, might ruin someones life for possession of a plant later. Though most of the top comments appear to be antagonistic toward the police, the post that got the most reactionsmore than 8,000was from the police department in Anchorage, Alaska, asking where the Texas cops got their doughnuts. Its like what fast food Twitter accounts do, only instead of jokes about unhealthy food, cops are laughing about their power to put someone in jail. Advertisement Advertisement Sometimes police department social media use can seriously backfire. Beyond coming off as tone-deaf, sometimes police department social media use can seriously backfire. In 2017, a trio of police officers in Gainesville, Florida, posted a selfie of themselves working on Hurricane Irma relief efforts. Commenters noticed that the officers were attractive, and the post went viral-viralthe Washington Post even wrote about the #HotCops. But it only took a few days for an online sleuth to unearth anti-Semitic Facebook posts by one of the officers in the photo, after which he was suspended. (Notably, one of the police pictured, Daniel Rengering, had better luck after his social media spotlight. Hes gone on to become a cover model for romance novels and was on Survivor: David vs. Goliath in the fall.) Advertisement Advertisement But there are times when law enforcement social media accounts use their online mouthpieces for goodlike to invite community feedback and accountability efforts. The San Francisco Police Department, for example, regularly tweets about office hours it holds around the city where the community is invited to share concerns, and it shares links to know your rights brochures. But the same SFPD account posts mug shots of arrested suspects who may eventually be found not guilty or have their charges dropped. Similarly, the Berkeley Police Department decided to post the names and faces of anti-fascist demonstrators last year after they were arrested, which compromised their privacy and put them in danger of harassment from far-right activists. Police used to put this information out for reporters, so theyd say, Whats the difference [with social media]? says Lauri Stevens, who organizes the Social Media, the Internet and Law Enforcement, or SMILE, conference, a regular training event for police departments looking to improve their use of social media. But when you put it out on Facebook, its a bigger deal. Peoples reputation can be damaged a lot faster and a lot harder. One tweet from the Illinois State Police last month included a photo with an array of different types of handcuffs. We love jewelry. We carry it with us. We even let you wear it when we give you a free ride to jail, it read, along with the awkward hashtags #BraceletsAreOurFavorite, #SharingIsCaring, and #SoManyChoices. The cops are probably trying to come off as funny. Its not working. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses around the globe rushed to find a solution to keep their employees safe and healthy. Leading the charge among airport services companies was Talma, an airport services company in Latin America which provides ground assistance services, passenger services, aircraft maintenance, and training services across more than 280,000 flights annually. With various passenger touchpoints and crucial air cargo handling responsibilities, ensuring the health of Talmas employees was paramount to keeping air passengers safe and cargo deliveries running on schedule. Heres how it adopted a biometric solution to do both. The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless. The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well. By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism. Archaeologists also found fragments of vessels dating to the Bronze Age. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled A member of the Hradiska civic association found a spur sticking out from windthrow of a tree in the Small Carpathians in the town of Modra. This coincidental finding revealed an unknown elevated prehistoric settlement, informed Matus Sladok from the Regional Monuments Board (KPU) Trnava. Read also: Read also: Boars dug out a treasure of coins from the turn of 15th and 16th century Read more The finder followed the instructions of an archaeologist and he left the spur at the spot and concealed it. Taking into consideration the threat of the finding, archaeologists of KPU Bratislava and KPU Trnava along with the finder and other volunteers documented the spur and researched the surroundings the next day, said Sladok, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Prehistoric settlement During the research, they found fragments of vessels dating back to the Bronze Age. Until now, there has been no documented archaeological finding older than modern history in the locality. The spur originated from the 14th to 15th centuries and minimally on the spike there is engraved decoration. The Monuments Board will ensure its expert conservation, said Sladok, as quoted by TASR. During the research experts also discovered that the locality was devastated by so-called detector-finders. They took steps to protect the locality. Two Easter holidays concerts will take place in Bratislava and Kosice. Slovakia's philharmonic orchestras will pay tribute to the burned-down Notre Dame cathedral before Easter. (Source: Jan F. Lukas) Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava and the Slovak State Philharmonic in Kosice will show solidarity with Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which was destroyed by fire in mid-April. Both ensembles will pay tribute by playing two concerts before Easter, Slovakia's Culture Ministry informed on its website. Kosice with a premiere The Slovak State Philharmonic Kosice will play the Easter Concert on April 18, starting at 19:00 in Kosice's House of Arts. Read also: Read also: Slovak UNESCO sites want to help fire-damaged Notre Dame Read more The premiere of a symphonic poem for a soprano and orchestra, named The Lord Is My Shepherd, by Slovak composer Vitazoslav Kubicka, will be premiered, as well, the State Philharmonic Kosice wrote on its website. Marek Sedivy will conduct the performance, and soprano soloists Mariana Gelenekyova and Catherine St-Arnaud will perform, accompanied by the ensemble Cantemus from Hungary. Bratislava reads the Bible The State Philharmonic in Bratislava, conducted by Rastislav Stur, played its tribute to Notre Dame on April 17 in the Reduta building. Apart from masterpieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms, a recital entitled Juraj Kukura Reads the Bible was part of the concert. The completion of the third reactor at the nuclear plant in Mochovce has been postponed about 11 times. Here is an overview of the issue. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The power generating company Slovenske elektrarne has finished a hot hydro test in the third block of the Mochovce nuclear power plant, near Levice, in the south of Slovakia. At a time when the company is trying to comfort the public with the good news, the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) detained the company's former head. The police arrested Paolo Ruzzini on April 15 at the airport in Bratislava. Investigators have also accused another former head of the company, Nicola Cotugno, who replaced Ruzzini in the post. 1) What is going on in Mochovce? The Nuclear power plant in Mochovce was shortly to have launched the Unit 3 reactor. However, this has been postponed by another eight months. Journalists in the country continue to be harassed one year after the murder of Jan Kuciak. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Press freedom in Slovakia continues to worsen. The country placed 35th out of 180 countries monitored in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, dropping eight positions compared to 2018. Slovakia scored 23.58 points. What is the situation in Slovakia? Read also: Read also: Surprising testimony tests the quality of Kuciaks murder investigation Read more Investigative reporter Jan Kuciaks murder in February 2018 triggered an unprecedented political earthquake in Slovakia and sent shockwaves through the international community. In his last article, Kuciak revealed that the Calabrian mafia had been using high-level contacts within the Slovak government to embezzle EU development funds, informed the Reporters without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontiers, RSF) organisation which publishes the index. An ensuing wave of protests forced Prime Minister Robert Fico and several of his ministers to resign, RSF continued. In September 2018, the police arrested four persons for suspected involvement in carrying out Kuciaks murder and, in March 2019, businessman Marian Kocner was charged with ordering it. However, as RSF pointed out, journalists are being harassed in the country a year after Kuciaks murder. Situation in Europe worsens, too The 2019 RSF index suggests that the decline in press freedom can be seen also in other European countries over the past few years, and that it went hand in hand with the erosion of the regions institutions by increasingly authoritarian governments. Europes journalists are subjected to many forms of pressure and intimidation, and increasingly, to judicial harassment as well. Europe continues to be the continent that best guarantees press freedom, but the work of its investigative reporters is being obstructed more and more, according to RSF. The murders of three journalists in Malta, Slovakia and Bulgaria in the space of a few months have made the world realise that Europe is no longer a sanctuary for journalists, reads the RSF press release. This is especially true for those who take an interest in corruption, tax evasion and the misuse of European Union funds, often involving the mafia, who are among investigative journalists most dangerous predators. Read also: Slovakias Agriculture Ministry welcomed the change, calling it a victory. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Now it will be possible to punish those applying dual quality in the European Union, which will be now considered a deceptive trade practice. This stems from the update to the EU consumer protection rules approved by the European Parliament on April 17. The issue of dual quality was raised by Slovakia, and some other new EU member states, where the same brands deliver food of different standards to shops in other EU countries. The new rules will now be applied not only to food, but also other goods. Slovakias Agriculture Ministry, which has been pursuing this agenda for several years, welcomed the change. Penalties involved The changes to the EU rules clarify how national authorities should deal with misleading marketing. If certain conditions are met, such as marketing in different member states of products touted as identical, significantly unjustified different composition or characteristics, the practice could be qualified as a misleading practice and prohibited. Read also: Read also: Brussels suspends Slovakia's special levy on retail chains Read more The text includes a review clause requiring the European Commission to assess the situation within two years to see whether the dual quality of products needs to be added to the blacklist of unfair commercial practices, as reads the EP press release. The update defines penalties for violating the rights of consumers in the EU. The available maximum fine in member states must amount to at least 4 percent of the traders annual turnover in the previous financial year or a lump sum of 2 million in cases where information on turnover is not available, according to the EP. For the first time dual quality products are now being addressed and in the coming years the Commission will have to review progress seriously, said Daniel Dalton, the EPs lead negotiator, as quoted in the press release. Some exceptions allowed Agriculture Minister Gabriela Matecna of the Slovak National Party (SNS) recalled how she presented the results of the first tests focused on the dual quality of food when meeting her counterparts from EU countries back in March 2017. At the time, there was certain scepticism over the potential outcome of this fight. The pressure we managed to create together with other affected countries has resulted in the Europe-wide legislative solution of a years-long problem, Matecna said, as quoted in a press release. Its a victory not only for Slovakia, but for all consumers in central and eastern Europe impacted by dual quality the most. Read also: Read also: Foodstuff in the EU will have to be the same Read more Following the changes, all countries will use the same methodology when testing foodstuff, and it will be possible to compare the results with other countries. It will be then possible to penalize for the differences revealed not only in food, but in other types of goods proven to be different in the past, despite having the same brand and name. In the case of Slovakia, the tests will be carried out by the State Veterinary and Food Administration, the ministry pointed out. The only exception will be given to products whose differences in content arise from different regulations in member countries, are affected by seasonal access to certain ingredients, or have a different weight and amount compared with other products abroad. However, the producers will have to state these differences on packaging to avoid the potential deception of consumers, the ministry wrote in the press release, adding that such cases will then be considered on a case-by-case principle. Roy Moore, candidate for U.S. Senate from Alabama. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images A familiar name tops early polling for the 2020 U.S. Senate race in Alabama: Roy Moore, the former prosecutor and one-time chief justice of the state Supreme Court, who was defeated for the same office in a special election in 2017. According to results published on Tuesday by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, 27 percent of Alabama Republicans would vote for Moore were the GOP primary held today the highest rate of any potential candidate. (The runner-up, Mo Brooks, sits at 18 percent, with 25 percent of respondents undecided.) There is little to recommend Moore as either a political candidate or as a person. He surrendered one of Alabamas two solidly red U.S. Senate seats to a Democrat, Doug Jones, for the first time since 1992. His top donor is a neo-Confederate; he was a leading voice in the birther movement aimed at discrediting Barack Obama by claiming that he was born in Kenya; he once compared Keith Ellison swearing in to Congress on the Quran to a hypothetical official in 1943 swearing in on Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler; and he has blamed Americas purportedly permissive attitude toward abortion and anal sex in alleged defiance of Gods will for violent tragedies ranging from the 9/11 terrorist attacks to mass shootings. Perhaps the best-known fact about Moore, though, is that he is an accused child predator. At least four women have alleged that he pursued them for sexual relationships when they were between the ages of 14 and 17 and he was in his 30s. (The age of consent in Alabama, then and now, is 16.) Three claimed that he kissed them. One said that Moore touched her through her bra and underpants and guided her hand to touch his erect penis. She was 14. Another, who was 15 at the time, said that he sexually assaulted her in the back of a car, groping her breasts and locking the doors when she tried to escape. Four other women have alleged that Moore assaulted them when they were 18 or older. Despite these allegations which Moore denies the Republican lost the 2017 election by less than two points. His success relative to his deficiencies is attributable to the overwhelming support of white Alabama voters, who backed him at a rate of 68 percent. (Roughly the same share of white voters in the state are registered Republicans; 96 percent of black voters, on the other hand, backed Moores opponent, now-Senator Jones, effectively handing him the election.) President Trump endorsed Moore in the general, after his preferred candidate, Luther Strange, lost the GOP primary, while the Republican National Committee buttressed his campaign financially. All told, the racial chasm that marked Moores near-victory is unavoidable. Had most white Alabamians and national Republicans had their way, an unhinged zealot, conspiracist, and alleged child molester would be casting votes in the Senate today. It is hard to fathom being black in Alabama and witnessing this unfold. The history of the franchise in the state is defined largely by the struggles that black people have waged to secure it for themselves, most famously during the civil-rights era. They pursued these efforts, certainly, to enforce the laws and proclamations that had promised, but never fully realized, their citizenship and its attendant rights. But in more specific and practical terms, they also did so to thwart white efforts to send violent segregationists and reprobates to Alabamas local governments, sheriffs departments, state capitol, or to Capitol Hill to represent them nationally. These struggles were often bloody. Black-led civil-rights activities were met by violent and sometimes fatal attacks, claiming as casualties black and white activists alike. Reverend James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, and Jonathan Daniels were three white Northerners who were killed while assisting voting-rights efforts in Selma, on the Selma Highway, and in Hayneville, respectively. Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old black man, was beaten and shot by white state troopers in 1965 in Marion while protecting his grandmother and grandfather who were protesting for their right to vote from the troopers violent crackdowns. A man serving in Congress today, Representative John Lewis of Georgias Fifth District, was tear-gassed and beaten by state troopers the following month while attempting to march, with hundreds of others, from Selma to Montgomery to demand black voting rights. His skull was fractured in the process. All were brutalized or killed under the watchful eye of Governor George Wallace, a staunch defender of Jim Crow who proclaimed infamously in his 1963 inaugural address, [Segregation] now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever, and six months later stood in the doorway of the University of Alabamas Foster Auditorium to block two black students Vivian Malone and James Hood from enrolling in the school. It cannot have shocked black Alabamians that half a century later, so many of their white counterparts would still be trying to vote amoral bigots into positions of political power. But predictability cannot dull its sting. The partisan zealotry that allowed Republican voters to overlook at best, or at worst, endorse Moores conduct in the name of keeping Alabama red in 2017 will always be a national stain. But that enough are willing to try again two years later and at high enough rates to give Moore an early polling edge sours whatever sense of victory Joness election might have elicited. The Democrat is vulnerable, as evidenced by the same pollster showing that just 40 percent of respondents would back his reelection. Whoever the Republican nominee ends up being seems an odds-on favorite to win Joness seat. It does not have to be Moore, and time will tell whether his lead holds. But either way, the Alabamians seeking to move their state forward deserve better. Southwest Wisconsins Kickapoo Coffee have announced that after 14 years in existence, the specialty coffee roaster will change names. In a statement released yesterday, April 17th, owners TJ Semanchin and Caleb Nicholes cite appropriation as the reason the company has opted for the wholesale change. According to the press release, Semanchin and Nicholes chose the name Kickapoo when starting their coffee company back in 2005 with the intention of honoring the place where our business has its roots: the Kickapoo River Valley. They were at that time unaware that Kickapooan Algonquin word meaning one who goes there, then hereis also the name of an indigenous people that once inhabited the area. There are currently four tribes in the Native American Kickapoo Nation: the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, and the Mexican-Kickapoos. Holding onto the name was not consistent with our values, Semanchin tells Sprudge. We really started asking ourselves the hard questions within the last year one question led to another and once we allowed ourselves to take the blinders off of some willful ignorance, it just seems like something we had to do. Per the companys statement, Semanchin and Nicholes have apologized directly to the three US-based Kickapoo Tribes, all of which were unaware of the name use until the company reached out last fall, and have shared their decision to change the companys name with each Tribes leadership. Semanchin tells Sprudge that the coffee company has a face-to-face meeting with the leadership of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma in the coming weeks as part of an ongoing conversation with the different tribes. The point of these conversations, according to Semanchin, is to own up to their mistake and keep the lines of communication open. Semanchin goes on to make clear that the company isnt seeking any labor, emotional or physical, from the Kickapoo Nation: we know this is our problem not [theirs]. The new name for the coffee company has yet to be decided and is expected to roll out in early 2020. According to the press release, the new name will seek to accomplish Semanchin and Nicholes original intention in picking the Kickapoo name: A pride in the place where we live, roast, and raise our families remains at the heart of what we do. Our new name will better reflect this in an honest, authentic, and respectful manner. Semanchin tells Sprudge that the announcement of the change doesnt coincide with the rebrand itself to allow their mistake to be seen in its own light. We didnt want a new name and marketing blitz gloss over [this issue]. In an effort to remain transparent about everything associated with the Kickapoo name, Semanchin and Nicholes will be hosting a Q&A session via Instagram Live at 12:00pm CST today, April 18th. The company will also respond to questions, comments, or concerns sent to name@kickapoocoffee.com. To read the full statement, visit Kickapoo Coffees official website. Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge. Top image via Milwaukee: Inside Scott Luceys New Kickapoo Coffee Cafe A pair of $8,500 Preferred 3 events headlined Wednesday evening's (April 10) card at The Raceway at Western Fair District, and public choices Casino Classic ($3.50) and Lets Leavem ($5.00) failed to disappoint in their respective events. Casino Classic outlasted early inside pressure from Southwind Ion (Austin Sorrie) before claiming command up the backstretch in the Preferred 3 Pace for fillies and mares, but was able to clear before a :28.4 quarter before bracing for an extended first-over push from Top Royal (Colin Kelly) through middle splits of :58.4 and 1:27.1. Casino Classic held her ground under vigorous urging from Ryan Holliday through the far turn, and ultimately coasted home through the final sixteenth to keep Top Royal 1-1/2 lengths at bay in 1:57. Fading Shadow (Nick Steward) circled three-wide around stalled cover above the eighth pole and rallied mildly into third. Robert Manders trains 18-time winner Casino Classic for Richard and Keith Manders. In the Preferred 3 Trot, Lets Leavem sat chilly early behind a :28.1 first quarter duel between Summit City Nate (J Harris" and Full Of Pride (Marc St. Louis Jr.) before following the cover of Heineken Seelster (Robert Shepherd) into contention during the middle stages. With three-eighths to go, Heineken Seelster pushed clear of a Summit City Nate who stopped abruptly and Lets Leavem followed into the pocket past three-quarters in 1:29.2. Midway around the final turn, Scott Coulter angled the nine-year-old Angus Hall gelding back off the pegs, and the pair surged clear to a 1:59.2 score. Full Of Pride re-rallied to save second, 4-3/4 lengths back, while Heineken Seelster was an all-out third after tiring from his middle move. Shane Arsenault trains 26-time winner Lets Leavem for owner Sarah Town. To view Wednesday's harness racing results, click the following link: Wednesday Results The Raceway at Western Fair District. Ontario driving mainstay Scott Coulter achieved the 5,000-win milestone on Wednesday night (April 17) at The Raceway at Western Fair District, partnering with Spicey Victor ($2.40) in an $8,500 claiming trot. Coulter protected inside position with Spicey Victor to assume the lead on the first turn, seating both A Whole Lotta Sass (Colin Kelly) and Played By Swan (Dennis Duford) through a :28.4 first quarter. The pair then rebuffed a first-over push from Played By Swan nearing the half in :59.4 before accelerating away up the far side. The nine-year-old Broadway Hall gelding drew clear willingly to take the 48th win of his career by 8-1/4 lengths in 1:59.1 for trainer Leonard Lalonde and owner Kristina Lalonde. Played By Swan was an isolated second, well clear of a tiring A Whole Lotta Sass. Scott Coulter is honoured trackside by Greg Blanchard (left) and Greg Gangle (right) following his 5,000th career driving win Scott Coulter is honoured trackside by Greg Blanchard (left) and Greg Gangle (right) following his 5,000th career driving win Coulter, based out of Brantford, Ont., has been a mainstay on the Ontario circuit since the mid-1990s. He recorded 15 consecutive million-dollar seasons dating to 2004, earned his first Western Fair driving title in 2018, and enjoyed success south of the 49th parallel in 2016 as well, when he took top driving honours at Tioga Downs. In the featured $9,400 Preferred 3 Trot, Nebraska Jack ($8.90) and Tyler Borth sustained a first-over push out of third to wrest command from pacesetter Stormont Kate (Bruce Richardson) in upper stretch and fend off a bevy of late challengers in 2:00.3. All Out Henry (Scott Young) and Hldontghttoyrdrms (Alfie Carroll), second- and third-over respectively behind the winner's cover, finished second and third. Nebraska Jack (#2) leads a cavalry charge to the winning post in the Preferred 3 Trot Nebraska Jack (#2) leads a cavalry charge to the winning post in the Preferred 3 Trot Stephen Bossence trains 16-time winner Nebraska Jack for Stable Twenty Three Inc. To view Wednesday's harness racing results, click the following link: Wednesday Results The Raceway at Western Fair District. After having made a splash in qualifying action last week at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Courtly Choice, the returning son of Art Major, upped his game on Thursday (April 18) during the morning session at the Campbellville, Ont. oval. Courtly Choice was part of a compact, yet star-studded qualifying tilt that went postward for Race 8 over a fast track. Rail starter Mission Three was scratched from the race, which left a field of just four but what a foursome it was. Pilot James MacDonald was at the helm of Courtly Choice, the 2018 Meadowlands Pace and Little Brown Jug winner, and the duo started from Post 2 for the tightener. Courtly Choice was the quickest off of the starting gate, and led fellow stars Sintra, Magnum J and Jimmy Freight past the quarter pole in a pedestrian :29.1. Courtly Choice began to open up daylight on his competition early in the second quarter, but MacDonald rated the Blake MacIntosh trainee halfway through the panel before clicking off the half-mile clock in :58. It was in the back half of the mile where Courtly Choice was looking to shine and shine he did. MacDonald let the career winner of 12 of 28 starts and $977,000 in purses pace in the third quarter, and Courtly Choice responded by putting in a :26.3 third quarter and passing the third station in 1:24.3. Courtly Choice was revved up as he hit the head of the lane and was looking to keep on truckin. The four-year-old bay drifted through the homestretch, but he was flashing some solid pace in the process, as he was first under the wire in 1:50.4, courtesy of a :26.1 final quarter and :52.4 back half. MacIntosh told Trot Insider last week that the plan is to have Courtly Choice make his seasonal pari-mutuel debut in the first Graduate leg, which is scheduled to take place on May 4 at the Meadowlands Racetrack. Courtly Choice, pictured victorious at Yonkers Raceway in New York. Courtly Choice, pictured victorious at Yonkers Raceway in New York. Courtly Choice is owned by Hutt Racing Stable (of Malvern, PA), Mac And Heim Stables (Cambridge, Ont.), Daniel Plouffe (Bromont, Que.) and Touchstone Farms Inc. (Guelph, Ont.). Fresh off of her OBrien Award-winning 2018 campaign, Luc Blais trainee Emoticon Hanover recorded the first charted line of her six-year-old campaign in Race 5. A pair of scratches reduced the field to six, and thus the Bob McClure-driven millionaire started from the outside Post 6. The world record holder crossed over to the lead and cut the speed in :29.2, :59.1 and 1:29.1. The bay was well in hand through the lane and cruised home to an open-lengths win in 1:58.3. Emoticon Hanover is owned by the Determination stable from Montreal, QC. After having taken a two-hole trip in Race 10, Ontario Sires Stakes Gold winner Sweet Young Thing shot through the lane along the inside and muscled her way to a one and one-quarter-length victory in 1:55.3. The three-year-old daughter of Sportswriter was driven by Chris Christoforou, is trained by Tony OSullivan, and races for breeder/owners Lorne and Jean Keller of Exeter, Ont. The North America Cup eligible Do Ya Think showed a couple of moves during his victory in Race 12. The three-year-old Bob McIntosh-trained and Randy Waples-driven Ponder colt was parked to the lead past the :30.3 opening quarter before clearing to the point and leading the field down to the half in 1:00.2. The bay spun off three quarters in 1:28.4 before digging in through the stretch. He rebuffed all challengers en route to a solid win in 1:57. Do Ya Think has been pegged at odds of 50-1 in Trot Magazines 2019 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book. To check out the spring book odds, click here. Another Cup-eligible son of Ponder that is trained by McIntosh captured Race 13. John Mac, a gelded chestnut, paced to a 1:56.3 win for pilot Bob McClure. The duo made the front after the :29.1 opening quarter, cut the middle fractions (:58.4, 1:27.2) and finished things off with a :29.1 final quarter en route to a two and a half-length win. John Mac, who is owned by breeders Robert McIntosh Stables Inc. (Windsor, Ont.) and Al McIntosh Holdings Inc. (Leamington, Ont.), was assessed at odds of 100-1 in Trots spring book. The final qualifier of the morning (Race 16) saw the Anthony Beaton-trained and Jonathan Drury-driven Better Single record the first charted line of her three-year-old campaign. After an opening half that was clocked in :58.2, the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold-winning daughter of Betterthancheddar came calling first-up on the leaders. She continued her push past the 1:27.2 three quarters and went on to prevail at the wire in 1:55. Beaton, of Waterdown, Ont., co-owns the filly along with David Mercer of Sydney, NS. To view the harness racing results for the Thursday qualifiers at Mohawk, click the following link: Thursday Results Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers). Question: How is Hamlet portrayed in Branagh's Hamlet film (1996) compared to the original play? Hamlet: Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It follows Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, who learns that his father was murdered by his uncle. Hamlet wishes to avenge his father, but he first wants to ensure that his uncle is guilty before taking action. In the end, he is murdered, but not before he proves his uncle's guilt and kills him. Answer and Explanation: Become a Study.com member to unlock this answer! Create your account View this answer Question: Who won the Battle of Salamis? Greek and Persian Naval Battle: During the Second Persian War, King Xeres I of Persia looked to take over all of the Greek city-states to grow his empire. The Battle of Salamis took place in September, 480 BCE near Salamis, a Greek island. Prior to the battle, the Greek navy was off the coast of Salamis to help move the residents of Athens, since the city-state had just been destroyed by the Persians. While the Greek fleet was in the straits between Salamis and Greece, the Persian navy took advantage of their location and attacked. Answer and Explanation: Become a Study.com member to unlock this answer! Create your account View this answer Each school below offers study abroad programs for students to participate in and a number of unique academic and faith opportunities. Read more to find out which university appeals most to you. Hope College Hope College provides a liberal arts education with degree programs in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and natural and applied sciences. Students can choose to study internationally off-campus in over 60 countries across the world, such as Spain or South Africa. It is dedicated to ensuring students follow a Christian path by offering three chapel services each week. Chapel services are also posted online as a podcast for any students not able to attend. Albion College Albion College has a number of academic departments for students to choose from, such as education, music, or religious studies. Students also have the opportunity to study abroad through the Center for International Education. It provides several campus spaces to meet students' spiritual needs and to help the college accomplish its mission of strengthening student values and community involvement. Students can meet in spaces such as the Boyd Meditation Chapel, Spiritual Life Library, or the Goodrich Chapel, among others. Andrews University With 130 programs and degrees, Andrews University provides a wide variety of options for students to choose from. Some examples of degrees include accounting, graphic design, and theology. It works with Adventist Colleges Abroad to help place students in global partnering universities, so they may study abroad if they wish. Andrews University is committed to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church by running its ministries through this Christian perspective. The Office of Campus Ministries is responsible for delivering shared beliefs and values to students. Calvin College Calvin College has a variety of degree choices for prospective students, such as degrees in communication, education, or fine arts. Semester programs offer students an opportunity to study abroad in countries such as France, China, or Hungary. Students can practice and attend faith and worship, respectively, through opportunities both on and off campus. Chapel, bible studies, or service-learning with the community are just some of the ways students can participate and learn about the Christian faith. Grace Christian University Grace Christian University has on-campus, online, and graduate online degree options. Examples of on-campus degrees include areas such as criminal justice, general ministry, and urban studies. It also offers study abroad programs, and countries to choose from include Ireland, Italy, and Israel. Its primary core value is that it is Bible-centered, and its mission is to prepare students to serve Christ and society. One component of each degree program is biblical and theological studies. The Syrian Democratic Forces have held a number of meetings with the Assad regime, but residents remain concerned about their fate writes Asharq al-Awsat. At first glance, it seems as though life has returned to normal in the Kurdish-run northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli. Even though the wind-down of anti-ISIS operations last month and Turkeys daily threats of invasion have helped dull obvious tensions, fears of future violence have continued to reemerge with every regime statement communicating Damascus determination to regain control over all Syrian territory. Shavan, 56, is a cafe owner working a few blocks down from pro-regime barracks. He reports on his clients being ridden with anxiety over the East Euphrates region soon descending into chaos. In a faint whisper as regime tanks and convoys drive by, Shavan said: We need to find a way to avoid more violence in our already war-ravaged country, a military solution will raze everything to the ground. Qamishli is currently being run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have established the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Yes, I worry about the fate of the region. No one knows whats coming next, and I am frankly afraid for my family and work. The Kurds must unite and determine their own future, Seiban, one of Shavans workers, said. Sarkhaboun, a 42-year-old local who owns a money exchange and transfer shop, noted that regime officials renewed aggressive rhetoric has driven residents to switch their savings to foreign currencies. Fearing that it will come down to displacement, locals have taken the preemptive measure to switch currencies, Sarkhaboun explained. State civil bureaus are still open in Qamishli, as well as its only airport. Schools, however, are split among those which adopted the Damascus-based regimes curriculum and others who opted for the SDFs academic curricula. Regime forces pull-out from a number of areas by the end of 2012 gave Kurds, who make up 15 percent of the population, the opportunity to establish and strengthen their own administrations in the northeastern regions. As a key power in Syria, the SDF was partnered with the US-led international coalition in the fight against the ISIS terror group. The SDF and the regime, headed by Bashar Assad, have been held last year a series of meetings to shape the future of territories under Kurdish autonomous rule. Should a SDF-regime arrangement fall into place it would mean the reunification of the two largest areas in a war-torn country. However, two other swathes of land in the north and west will remain under the control of the opposition and Turkey-backed extremist opposition factions. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Photo: Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images The Robert Mueller prayer candles are objectively horrific, but if Mark Zuckerberg chose to light one, no one could blame him. The Mueller report must feel like, well, a godsend to the beleaguered Facebook founder. His company chose today of all days to announce that it had harvested the email contacts of 1.5 million users, according to an initial report in Business Insider. The actual number of people affected by the privacy breach may climb. While 1.5 million peoples contact books were directly harvested by Facebook, the total number of people whose contact information was improperly obtained by Facebook may well be in the dozens or even hundreds of millions, as people sometimes have hundreds of contacts stored on their email accounts, according to the Business Insider report. Facebook isnt the only entity to sneak its bad news into todays dumpster of a news cycle. Here are some other stories whose subjects are probably happy to be overlooked: More People Are Uninsured Now, Congressional Budget Office Admits On Thursday afternoon, the Congressional Budget Office finally released long-awaited information about the way it models rates of health insurance coverage in the U.S. The news is bad, and it should not get buried by the Mueller avalanche. As Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Health Foundation noted on Twitter, coverage rates have declined during Donald Trumps time in office: It's not going to get much attention today, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates that there were 1.4 million more people uninsured in 2018 than in in 2016.https://t.co/PLn6DkA3Fp pic.twitter.com/cM5n5MRC3w Larry Levitt (@larry_levitt) April 18, 2019 The CBO doesnt offer reasons for the trend, but we already knew that the uninsured rate had hit a four-year high during the Trump presidency, thanks, perhaps, to some recent developments. At Vox, Sarah Kliff noted that Affordable Care Act premiums had risen, and some states had begun to require Medicaid beneficiaries to work, which in Arkansas alone cost thousands of people their health-care coverage. That Massive Stop & Shop Strike Is Still Going On Thousands of Stop & Shop workers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island entered day eight of their strike on Thursday. Represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers, striking workers are protesting the grocery chains contract proposals, which would raise employee contributions to their health-insurance plans and reduce benefits and compensation for future employees, in addition to benefit reductions for non-vested employees, Boston.com reported. The chain, for its part, says that some cuts are necessary for it to remain competitive with nonunionized grocery stores. Negotiations continue, but the strike has already driven business to other local grocery stores, New England Public Radio reported on Thursday. Some local rabbis have announced that goods purchased by crossing a picket line are not kosher, and truck drivers who belong to the Teamsters are refusing to cross picket lines. Democratic candidates, meanwhile, are using the strike to signal support for organized labor. Senator Elizabeth Warren had already traveled to Massachusetts to join workers on the picket line. Former Vice-President Joe Biden, who has not declared his candidacy but is likely to do so shortly, rallied with workers on Thursday. Other candidates, like Senator Bernie Sanders, have released public statements support striking workers. For Stop & Shop, meanwhile, the strike is proving painful. Its Holy Week and Passover is approaching not a time when any grocery chain can afford to lose shoppers. One analyst told the Boston Globe that in nearly 30 years, we havent seen a strike as effective and devastating as this one. Terry McAuliffe Isnt Running for President The former governor of Virginia waited until Wednesday evening to announce that he would not pursue a rumored run for president. Instead, hes sticking with Virginia, and said that he plans to assist the states beleaguered Democratic Party. Democrats Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax, and Mark Herring remain in the states top-three executive offices, though Northam and Herring are weathering blackface scandals. Fairfax, meanwhile, faces sexual-assault allegations from two credible sources, Dr. Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson. Democrats have upcoming state elections to win, and while the scandals arent likely to push the partys base into the arms of the GOP, they could dampen crucial voter enthusiasm. Thus, TMac decided his talents are better put to local use. Theyre desperate down there, McAuliffe astutely noted in an interview with the New York Times. Northam, he added, only raised $2,500 last fiscal quarter. McAuliffe has a better chance of winning a second term as governor than he did as president; his entry into a field crowded with other centrist, white hopefuls never made a great deal of political sense. The National Enquirer Is Being Sold for $100 Million Trumps tabloid of choice has been sold for a reported $100 million to James Cohen, the head of Hudson News, a major operator of airport and rail station newsstands. American Media Inc., the holding company for the National Enquirer, has been struggling with profound debt problems. The sale, which also includes the tabloids the Globe and National Examiner, will cut AMIs debt to just $355 million. Readership of the paper has been down since 2014, when it sold an average of 516,000 copies per issue. By December 2018, that number had dropped to 218,000. Earlier in April, the Washington Post reported that AMI wanted to sell the National Enquirer because Anthony Melchiorre, the hedge-fund manager whose firm runs AMI, was disgusted with the Enquirers practices. In 2018, reports emerged that the tabloid had engaged in catch and kill tactics in order to protect publisher David Peckers friend Donald Trump; the Enquirer had the story that Trump paid off Stormy Daniels in the fall of 2016, but chose to bury it. The tabloid also reported on details of Jeff Bezoss alleged extramarital affair in a manner that federal prosecutors reviewed as a potential act of extortion. Sears Claims Former CEO Stripped $2 Billion From Company On Thursday, Sears filed a lawsuit against its former CEO and chairman Edward Lampert, claiming that he and his hedge fund gutted $2 billion from the company as it rocketed toward bankruptcy. As the Chicago Tribune puts it: Lampert and his investors instead systematically picked off the retailing giants most valuable and enduring assets as the companys losses deepened, the lawsuit asserts. Ultimately, the company was forced into bankruptcy after Lampert and his investors benefited at the company and creditors expense, the lawsuit says. Lampert is also known for his 2008 effort to Ayn Rand-ify a private corporation, when he split up Sears into 30 units with their own management, measuring each one on its individual profit performance. Hoping to spur competition within the company, the process caused units to prioritize their own profit growth at the expense of Sears as a whole. Turns out, the invisible hand of the market couldnt stop smacking itself. As well as celebrating the departure of the French occupation forces, Syrians also repeated their calls for the Syrian Golan to be returned to Syrian sovereignty reports SANA. On Wednesday, a public gathering was held in the town of Ayn al-Tineh in Quneitra province to mark the 73rd anniversary of Evacuation Day and to affirm the Golans Syrian identity. Assistant Secretary General of the Baath Arab Socialist Party, Hilal al-Hilal, affirmed that the struggle will continue till the occupied Syrian Golan is liberated, adding that todays celebration on the outskirts of the Golan confirms its Syrian and Arab identity, and Syrias determination not to give up any part of it and to restore what has been lost by all available means. Meanwhile, a similar gathering was held in the town of Majdal Chams in the occupied Syrian Golan opposite to Ayn al-Tineh to commemorate the evacuation of the French occupation. Sheikh Jad al-Karim Naser underlined the adherence of the locals of Golan to their motherland, Syria, expressing confidence in the inevitability of the complete liberation of the Golan and its return to Syrias sovereignty. A number of the participants pointed to the great meaning that Evacuation Day holds, which is embodied in the Syrian Arab Armys heroism and sacrifices, Syrian peoples steadfastness against terrorism and the economic siege imposed by colonial countries. They stressed that the largest evacuation will be achieved by liberating the occupied Syrian Golan, and its return to the motherland, Syria. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. The Assad regime has been accused of torturing those who have left the al-Rukban Camp after agreeing to reconciliation settlements reports Zaman Al Wasl. The Commission for Public and Political Relations in the al-Rukban Camp has accused the Syrian regime of turning temporary shelters in central Homs province into a detention and liquidation centre. The deputy head of the Commission, Shukri al-Shehab, told Zaman al-Wasl that the regime had established three centers in Homs to receive arrivals in the districts of al-Qusour, Deir Baalba and Baba Amr, but was not allowing the families to leave these centers, pointing to reports of the torture of returnees, specifically men. The Syrian regime, with Russian support and coordination, facilitated the evacuation of nearly 3,000 people from the al-Rukban Camp on the Jordanian border to its areas of control, after discussions held by the Russian Reconciliation Center with a delegation from al-Rukban earlier this month. According to the agreement, the people leaving the camp must go to temporary shelters, to settle their situation through reconciliations. Shehab said that the difficult conditions in the camp, due to the regimes siege on the al-Tanf area, forced some families to return to areas of regime control without obtaining UN guarantees. According to him, so far only some women and children have left the shelters, after mediation by dignitaries of the city of Homs. Shehab compares the centers to Abu Ghraib prison, adding that as soon as the families arrive, the regime isolates men from women and detains their personal belongings. As for Russias role, Shehab said that according to the few reports received from there, the regime does not carry out torture in the presence of Russian officers in the centers, but, Russian officers are not present around the clock. A special source for the independent outlet Iqtissad, said that the Air Force Intelligence investigates arrivals from the al-Rukban camp, explaining that the majority of the families are from the eastern countryside of Homs, from the city of Palmyra and al-Sukhnah. Regarding the circumstances of the families living in the shelters, a source in Homs said that there is an emphasis on security in the school centers, highlighting a lack of accurate data on what is going on inside. The future of the al-Rukban camp, which houses around 40,000 people, is still unclear. It is evident that there is a semi Jordanian-Russian agreement to dismantle the camp, one that the United States, which controls the al-Tanf area, opposes. A tripartite meeting, between America, Russia and Jordan, will be held in Amman to discuss the fate of the al-Rukban camp. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. The Assad regime has claimed that the area where the houses are located is owned by Hama University and that the land is needed to build university facilities writes Smart News. The Assad regimes government is preparing to displace hundreds of families living in Hama city after giving these families a deadline of one week to leave their homes, which will be demolished because the area is the property of Hama University. Local sources told Smart that the Hama provincial council had warned residents of the al-Samak and Meshaa al-Teyar districts in the city that they needed to leave their homes within a week, in accordance with a warning issued by the Ministry of Local Administration in the regime government. The sources added that Hamas council told residents that they had been threatened with eviction by the regime government for two months, but that there had not been an official decision issued until now. They said that their houses are located on property owned by Hama University, according to Decision 3513 for the year 2004. The Hama council said in the notice that these buildings were in violation and that they needed to be evacuated and then demolished to allow university facilities to be set up. They added that the houses needed to be evacuated within a week of the notice, threatening to take measures in accordance with the provisions of Decree 40 for 2012. Decree 40 pertaining to building violations allows building violations to be cleared at the owners expense, as well as imposing fines of up to 2,000 Syrian pounds per square meter on those associated with the building. According to the sources, there are about a thousand families living in the two district who have been there for decades and are now facing homelessness because of the evacuation order. They said that most of the residents of the two districts are poor and depend on free labor such as construction and selling items from carts. Over the last few years the regime government has demolished a number of residential neighborhoods in Hama city on the pretext of violations, most prominently Meshaa al-Niqarna and Meshaa al-Arbaeen, which displaced tens of thousands of civilians without any compensation. The Assad regime is following a new policy, which aims to take control of the property of opposition members by imposing so-called organizational plans on some cities under the pretext of reconstruction. There was also the issuance of Law No. 10 in April 2017, which stipulated that organizational zones could be established within the organizational plans, which Syrian legal experts say aims to expropriate the property of displaced people who are unable to return to their areas, which are now under regime control. People were particularly suspicious of this decree, given that it coincided with the regime and Russia imposing expulsion agreements on eastern Ghouta and the southern districts of Damascus. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Nicolas Maduro speaks during a military parade on April 13, 2019 in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: Marco Bello/Getty Images When Juan Guaido, the leader of Venezuelas National Assembly, declared Nicolas Maduros government illegitimate and claimed the presidency, he assured his backers abroad that the rank and file of the countrys armed forces were on his side and would turn on the regime in a matter of weeks, as his popular uprising gained momentum. That was in January. Nearly three months later, while Guaidos protest movement continues and about 1,500 Venezuelan soldiers have defected to neighboring countries, the pace of defections has slowed and the military remains solidly aligned with Maduro. For both Guaido and the Trump administration, thats a problem, because the military is the final guarantor of Maduros job security and will ultimately decide whether he stays or goes. So far, it seems to have decided that he stays, which raises some serious questions about Guaidos future and that of the Trump administrations efforts to shepherd Maduro out of power. The U.S., along with most countries in this hemisphere, came to recognize Guaido as the legitimate interim president after he invoked a constitutional provision that he claims gives him the power to force Maduro out of office. Of course, in a military dictatorship, the only people who can force the head of state out of office are his generals, so Guaidos soft coup would only go as far as the military would allow it. The opposition leaders widespread popular support has perhaps kept him alive and out of prison, but street protests alone are not enough to install him in the presidential palace. Why hasnt the military flipped as promised? To hear the Trump administration tell it, the Cubans are to blame. Elliott Abrams, the administrations special envoy for Venezuela, told the Washington Post that the 20,000 Cuban military and intelligence agents the administration believes to be embedded in the Venezuelan armed forces are watching generals and colonels like hawks for any signs of disloyalty, for which they are substantially in charge of incarceration and punishment. Theres no doubt that the Venezuelan armed forces are heavily surveilled, particularly at this moment, but the full answer is more complicated: Potential defectors are isolated and have no opportunities to organize against the regime, they are afraid of retaliation targeting their families, and Guaido has still not convinced the generals and other key figures that the end of the Maduro regime would come with reconciliation, not vengeance. The would-be president has floated an amnesty for crimes committed at Maduros behest, but his assurances dont seem to have convinced the right people at least not yet. Furthermore, Maduro knows where his power base lies and is actively working to expand it. On Saturday, he called for the drastic expansion of the civilian militia established by his predecessor Hugo Chavez, from 2 million to 3 million members. This paramilitary group reports directly to the president and serves as his unaccountable intimidation machine and death squad, spying on their neighbors, hunting down enemies of the regime, and cowing communities into submission. Maduro is now encouraging them to get involved in agricultural production; this would embed the militia further into the economy and make the population more dependent on them, paralleling the dual role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran. Along with the popular pressure provided by Guaido and his supporters in the street, the Trump administration has also sought to put economic and diplomatic pressure on the Maduro regime. The U.S. Treasury has steadily tightened sanctions on Venezuelas petroleum-dependent economy the latest of which affected four shipping companies and nine vessels believed to be transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba in an effort to cut off Maduros resources. The State Department, meanwhile, has worked with other democratic countries in the Americas and beyond to isolate the regime diplomatically. Yet just as Guaidos attempts to win over the military have faltered, the U.S. strategy of sanctions and isolation has yet to show any concrete wins and in some ways, may even be backfiring. The Venezuelan regime has proved resilient to sanctions so far, even as its people have suffered shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity. The government has been dipping into its gold reserves, and using gold sales as one means of skirting sanctions, even as many of its sovereign assets are frozen in banks abroad. Some countries most crucially Russia, China, and Cuba have resisted U.S.-led calls to stop doing business with Venezuela and are helping Maduro stay solvent. Combined with sanctions on Iran, the U.S. embargo is having an impact on the global oil market and giving Russia a perverse boost, as European countries are forced to replace their former Iranian and Venezuelan supplies with Russian crude. In Venezuela itself, the sanctions risk exacerbating an existing humanitarian and refugee crisis and allowing Maduro, who insists there is no crisis, an American scapegoat for explaining to impoverished Venezuelans why they have no food or electricity. The Trump administration wont hear this: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got testy at a news conference in Lima this week when a Post journalist asked whether Peru might consider engaging with Maduro if sanctions eventually make the humanitarian situation worse. You shouldnt ask questions like that, Pompeo exclaimed. A hundred percent of the refugee challenge that is faced by Peru and Colombia is the direct result of the Russians, the Cubans and Nicolas Maduro. A more measured version of that argument came from James Story, the U.S. charge daffaires for Venezuela, who told Reuters that most of the sanctions imposed thus far have been deliberately targeted at individuals and the regime. Those that would have a broader economic impact took effect too recently to be blamed for Venezuelas current problems, he said, instead blaming corrupt officials for blocking humanitarian aid and misappropriating resources. Story also said the administration has no timeline for regime change in Venezuela but is intent on seeing Maduro and his regime replaced by a democratically elected government. This was never going to be something that was quite easy, he emphasized. The administrations insistence on this outcome reflects the ideological bent of key foreign-policy officials like Abrams, Pompeo, and National Security Adviser John Bolton, but while democracy in Venezuela may be a noble goal, it is hardly out of bounds to question at what point the cost of achieving that goal becomes too much to bear. Notwithstanding his petulant demand that a reporter not ask a difficult question, Pompeo was right that the primary perpetrators of Venezuelas immiseration are Maduro and his enablers abroad. It is ridiculous, however, to pretend that embargoing the countrys sole export wont engender some suffering on the ground, and entirely legitimate to ask what happens next if these sanctions dont move the necessary levers of change in Caracas. For their part, Maduro and his supporters claim that Guaido is a right-wing American stooge and that the U.S. is preparing to invade Venezuela imminently to enforce regime change in Caracas at gunpoint. In this framing, the sanctions are merely a form of siege warfare intended to wear the country down and create a pretext for invasion by ginning up a humanitarian crisis. The Trump administration has pointedly refused to take military intervention off the table, even though Pentagon leaders and our allies in Latin America are broadly opposed to this course of action. Even as the Trump administration dangles the perpetual threat of military action, however, it clearly hopes to avoid military intervention and instead achieve regime change in Venezuela through coercive diplomacy, economic pressure, and support for indigenous anti-regime forces the same thing its supposedly trying to do in Iran. Bolton, notably, is known to be a skeptic of these softer tactics and may be waiting for them to fail so he can make a case for war to the president. The military planning has taken on an international dimension, however, and the Defense Department is currently developing new military options specifically aimed at deterring Russian, Cuban, and Chinese influence in Venezuela. In remarks to Congress last week, Pompeo described the Maduro regime as a threat to U.S. national security, citing the growing involvement of Iran, Russia, and Cuba in that country. Skeptics of this reasoning, like the Cato Institutes Doug Bandow, point out that further destabilizing South America in an unwanted war with unpredictable consequences could prove a greater threat, especially if that war drags in actual rivals like Russia and China. These world powers clearly see Venezuela as a proxy conflict in the low-key Second Cold War we are now fighting but not acknowledging, and are interpreting U.S. actions there as a matter of sphere-of-interest and strategic resource politics rather than a commitment to democratic ideals. After all, would we be so enthusiastic about backing Guaido if we didnt think hed be a reliable ally of ours? The fact that Chinese, Russian, and Iranian influence in Venezuela has increased in tandem with our escalating effort to topple Maduro presents a chicken-and-egg question, Bandows colleague Ted Galen Carpenter remarks: Is U.S. foreign policy responding to the coordination of tyrannical governments around the world or encouraging it? If the Trump administrations coercive strategy in Venezuela doesnt bear fruit soon, it will be time to ask some more tough questions. As the humanitarian crisis wears on and gets even worse, do we give up and cut Guaido loose? Do we keep tightening the screws and hoping that Russia and China get tired of bailing Maduro out? Or do we pull the trigger on an invasion, defying our regional allies and potentially escalating geopolitical tensions to dangerous levels? Mike Pompeo wont want to answer these questions either, but before too long, he might have to. Project Sidewalk uses an "onboarding" process to teach players how to manipulate the map and about common accessibility issues. Credit: University of Washington About 3.6 million adults in the United States use a wheelchair to get around, according to census data. But unless you're one of those people, you might not know how hard it is to get around your city. Now people can help map out accessibility here in Seattle. University of Washington researchers have led the development of Project Sidewalk, an online crowdsourcing game that lets anyone with an internet connection use Google Street View to virtually explore neighborhoods and label curb ramps, missing or rough sidewalks, obstacles and more. Project Sidewalk first launched in Washington, D.C., and it's now available in Newberg, Oregonnear Portlandand Seattle. The team will present its results from the Washington, D.C., deployment May 7 at the 2019 ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Glasgow, Scotland. "A lot of people think this is something where you walk around your neighborhood and take pictures of accessibility problems with your smartphone," said corresponding author Jon Froehlich, an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. "But Project Sidewalk is not like that at all. There's no assumption that you have any physical experience with what you're reporting on. That is the key difference. Anyone can do it from anywhere, as long as they have a web browser." To get started on Project Sidewalk, the team interviewed people with mobility impairments to learn about how accessibilityor a lack of itaffects their lives. From there the researchers came up with a method to use crowdsourcing to collect street-level data about accessibility in cities. Project Sidewalk relies on volunteers to log accessibility issues across a city. So the team used a video game model to make it more fun. Players go on missions where they audit 500 to 1,000 feet of a city at a time. The team developed a new verification "mini-game," in which players verify 10 labels that someone else placed. Credit: University of Washington "Your first mission is a guided mission," Froehlich said. "We have to teach you how you walk around and how to label things. But then we also need to help you understand what accessibility means: What is a curb ramp? What does it mean to have a missing curb ramp?" Then players are sent out on solo missionsthey're either dropped into the city in an area where there aren't already a lot of labels, or they can choose to go to a specific part of the city. For their first few missions, players receive helpful tips about the interface and shortcuts to make their labeling faster. Project Sidewalk also displays a progress bar that shows players how far they've gone on a mission. "We've found that people love seeing that progress bar," said first author Manaswi Saha, a doctoral student in the Allen School. "They say it makes it more fun and feel more like a game." After the team launched the Washington, D.C., version of Project Sidewalk in August 2016, 797 players added 205,385 labels to the city's streets over the 18-month deployment. Players placed labels accurately about 72% of the time and were most likely to find and label curb ramps. "We're still working on analyzing the data," Saha said. "But when we look at all the labels on the map, we can immediately start to see which portions of the city might be having issues." Players also made a variety of common errors, such as labeling a driveway as a curb ramp or labeling surface problems on the street when the sidewalks were fine. These errors prompted the team to develop a new verification "minigame" in the Seattle and Newberg versions of Project Sidewalk, in which players verify 10 labels that someone else placed. "I want it to be like Super Mario Brothers 2, which has these fast little minigames that pop up between levels," Froehlich said. "It gives people time to breathe and do something different. It's something you could do on the bus." Because the data from Project Sidewalk is available to anyone, the researchers envision that it could serve multiple purposes, from helping government officials decide which areas to investigate first to enhancing the independence of people with mobility impairments. Data from Seattle's Project Sidewalk could inform other accessibility projects in the area, Froehlich said. For example, AccessMap, which provides directions for pedestrians and wheelchair users looking to avoid hills, construction sites and other accessibility barriers, could use data from Project Sidewalk to be able to create better directions. Eventually the team would like to have computers use machine learning to help people add labels on Project Sidewalk and make accessibility audits go faster. The researchers hope to use the Project Sidewalk data to train an algorithm that would teach computers how to do their own audits. "My ambitious vision is for anyone in the world to click on their city and have our system provide a visualization and an accessibility assessment," Froehlich said. "It shouldn't matter if you live in Paris, France, Beijing, China or Cairo, Egypt. If Google Street View has driven there, you should be able to get a map visualizing the city's sidewalk accessibility." Where it all went down. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images In the summer of 2016, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort took a meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who promised to turn over dirt on Hillary Clinton. The meeting, along with the subsequent attempts to conceal its true purpose, is extensively covered in the redacted Mueller report. Heres what the special counsel has to say about it: Trump didnt know about the meeting before it happened. According to his own statements to the special counsel, Trump didnt know about the meeting until months after it happened. Muellers team also found no documentary evidence showing that he was made aware of the meeting or its Russian connection before it occurred. Michael Cohen, Trumps former lawyer, told Muellers team that he thought that wasnt true. But his belief that Trump Jr. had previously discussed the meeting with his father, was weighed against the fact that he was not involved in any such conversation. There was a meeting before the meeting. From the Mueller report: Rick Gates, who was the deputy campaign chairman, stated during interviews with the Office that in the days before June 9, 2016 Trump Jr. announced at a regular morning meeting of senior campaign staff and Trump family members that he had a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation. Gates believed that Trump Jr. said the information was coming from a group in Kyrgyzstan and that he was introduced to the group by a friend. Gates recalled that the meeting was attended by Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Paul Manafort, Hope Hicks, and, joining late, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. According to Gates, Manafort warned the group that the meeting likely would not yield vital information and they should be careful. Trump wanted to hide emails arranging the meeting. When the White House found out about emails setting up the meeting between Trump Jr. and British music publicist Rob Goldstone, some officials got scared. Former White House communications director Hope Hicks in particular thought the emails were really bad and their release would be massive. Trump rejected her idea to proactively leak the emails and insisted they would stay secret if access to them was limited. Trump directed Hope Hicks to release a false statement about the meeting. Important. Hope Hicks wanted to disclose that Russians had offered Don Jr. information helpful to the campaign. But the President nixed that, explicitly ordering Hicks to issue a statement that falsified the true purpose of the Trump Tower meeting: pic.twitter.com/B7xTAqLlAK Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 18, 2019 Mueller considered bringing charges related to the meeting. When Kushner, Manafort, and Trump Jr. showed up at the meeting in Trump Tower, they anticipated receiving damaging information on Hillary Clinton. That alone was enough for the special counsel to consider bringing charges. Ultimately, Muellers office determined the government would not be likely to obtain and sustain a conviction. On the facts here, the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the June 9 meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful. The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context. The government does not have strong evidence of surreptitious behavior or efforts at concealment at the time of the June 9 meeting. Jared Kushner was very bored in the meeting. Once it became clear that the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had little dirt on Clinton, Jared Kushner tried to get out of the meeting. He sent two separate emails to assistants at Kushner Companies with requests that they call him to give him an excuse to leave. It worked, as Kushner left the meeting before it ended. The Undead Archives I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world. Ad Legacy Research New this week - 1,698 interested New Year Special: #1 Crypto Expert Says HURRY before 1/1/22 This could be the most profitable event in crypto history. And it only happens once. If you miss it, there are no second chances. Attorney General William Barr speaking about the Mueller report. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images Ninety minutes before a redacted version of the Mueller report was set to be delivered to Congress, Attorney General William Barr held a press conference to discuss Muellers investigation into Russian election interference and, once again, offer his own summary of the special counsels report. Barr said he will deliver a copy of the public version of the report to Congressional leaders at 11 a.m. A copy of the report will be posted to the Justice Departments website shortly thereafter. Barr began the presser by summarizing the Mueller report. While Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, he said, they did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign. "So that's the bottom line ... the Special Counsel confirmed" that Russia interfered ... "But did not find" that Trump colluded. -Barr David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) April 18, 2019 Mueller's investigation concluded that there had been: no collusion; no cooperation; no conspiracy; no coordination; and no obstruction. AG Barr said this 7 times in his 26-minute press appearance. Kevin Gutzman (@KevinGutzman) April 18, 2019 He then moved to obstruction of justice. The report, Barr said, included ten potential incidents of obstruction. He and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Barr said, determined that there was not enough evidence to establish obstruction. Report lays out 10 accounts of Trump actions over obstruction. Barr says that the deputy attorney general and I determined that there was NOT sufficient evidence to establish that Trump obstructed justice. Barr says Trump had non-corrupt motives Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 18, 2019 Barr also seemed to be defending Trumps lashing out at the investigation as a rational response to a president who felt under fire. Barr is now defending Trump's actions by saying prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct and media were speculating about his personal culpability while he was trying to perform is duties as president. Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) April 18, 2019 Barr: "The president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks." Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2019 He added that because there was no collusion, Trump could not have obstructed justice. AG Barr essentially says the President gets a pass on obstruction because there was no collusion, so Trump can be excused for being frustrated by speculation to the contrary. Throwing sand into the gears of justice appear not to matter when there is no underlying crime. Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) April 18, 2019 Barr discussed the process of preparing the report for the public and said no parts were being redacted based on White House invocation of executive privilege. He also revealed something new: Trumps lawyers were given a copy of the redacted report earlier this week. Barr says the redacted report went to Trump's lawyers "earlier this week." "The Presidents personal counsel requested and was given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released." Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) April 18, 2019 Democrats took issue with the timing of Barrs presser. In a press conference Wednesday evening, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler accused Barr of waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump. Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin Muellers nearly two-year investigation, Nadler said. This post has been updated throughout. At seven months pregnant, I marched into Lululemon and said, Please help me. I was suffering, suffocating; every item of clothing I put on felt like punishment. Even leggings. The thing is, they seem like a no-brainer for someone with child the elastic waist, the full range of motion, the companionability with an oversize sweater in winter. Indeed, for many months, they served me well. But then the third trimester hit and the situation deteriorated. Whether from Target, or American Apparel, or the barre studio, or Rosie Pope, stretch pants no longer seemed so stretchy. They clung for dear life against my belly. They left teeth marks above my crotch. Committed as I was to my knitwear-plus-leggings wardrobe, I suddenly no longer knew how to make it work. These are the ones all the pregnant women love, said the kind, blonde Lululemon saleswoman, pointing to a pair called the Align. Its because of the Nulu fabric its designed to look like a legging, but not feel tight. And they still have the high-rise. A beat passed. I replayed the words in my head. Look like a legging, but not feel tight. With a single touch, I knew what she meant. Think of ranunculus petals. Think of the bear from the Downy commercials. Think of your skin postKorean face mask, or the superior tissues that Oprah must blow her nose with. I bought two pairs of the Align, have worn them almost every day since, and plan to do so every day hence. This means, they may well unravel by the time I give birth; but by then, it will be spring, and Ill have already moved on to the cropped version. (For our full list of the best maternity clothes, click here.) Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship. Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size Article body Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel today praised the efforts and sacrifices of CIA officers, such as the late Auburn University alum Johnny Micheal Mike Spann, and discussed how the CIA needs new recruits to help keep the nation safe, especially in the fight against opioids. Haspel, a 34-year CIA veteran nearing her first anniversary as director, made the comments during a National Security Forum at Auburn. Spann was the first American to die in the line of duty in Afghanistan during the nations response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The 1992 graduate lost his life Nov. 25, 2001, during an uprising of Taliban prisoners. Immediately before he was attacked and killed in the uprising, Mike was able to warn an agency colleague of the imminent danger, allowing that officer to get to safety, said Haspel. He demonstrated the highest standards of duty and sacrifice at the forefront of our fight against terrorism. In his short time in Afghanistan, Mikes actions played a pivotal role in our battle against the Taliban and al-Qaida in the region. His story is a poignant reminder of the unwavering commitment of all our men and women serving on the front lines. Haspel said todays CIA officers are carrying on that commitment and noted the agency is seeking new recruits with educational training in foreign languages and from diverse backgrounds. Were placing a renewed emphasis on foreign language expertise and training, she said. We want our men and women to be closely attuned to the cultures in which they operate and to speak the local language. And that aligns well with our push to strengthen diversity and inclusion at CIA. Our mission demands that we draw deeply from our nations rich and diverse talent pool. We just had our best recruiting year in a decade, and well do whatever it takes to make the agency an employer of choice for all Americans. Haspel said one of the CIAs top fights is currently the opioid crisis facing America. No foreign challenge has had a more direct and devastating impact on American families and communities than the flow of opioids and other drugs into our countrya scourge that has killed more Americans than any terrorist group ever has, she said. Thats why were taking concrete steps to increase our contribution to the presidents whole-of-government approach in tackling this epidemic. I recently had the opportunity to meet with some of our officers who are on the front lines of this effort, and Im proud of the work theyre doing to stop the problem closer to the source. At Auburn, Haspel addressed a crowd of approximately 300 attendees during her 20-minute talk followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by retired Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess, Auburn Universitys chief operating officer. Haspel then visited with students on campus and attended a cyber security briefing with faculty in the universitys Lt. Gen. Ronald Lee Burgess Cyber Laboratory. She is described by friends and peers of ours in the intelligence community as a quiet professional. She cares deeply about her people. Shes thoughtful. Shes resolute. And I cant tell you how much in her position in Washington, D.C., that last word really means in terms of the position she holds, Burgess said. She really is a true intelligence professional and represents the intelligence community with distinction. Haspel concluded her remarks by speaking of Auburns role in national security. We at CIA could not be more grateful for your schools distinguished history of service to our nation, Haspel said. And as you carry on that great tradition, I hope to see many of you againas partners in the honorable and essential work of keeping America safe and free. At a press conference on Wednesday, Medecins Sans Frontieres Luxembourg (Doctors Without Borders) discussed the situation in Mozambique. A month ago, the southern African country experienced a significant amount of damage following Cyclone Idai. A surface area nearly three times the size of Luxembourg was flooded following the cyclone. There was a quick reaction as aid organisations from all corners of the globe came together to provide medication and food to those affected by the cyclone. MSF's Karin Huster, who called into Wednesday's press conference, explained that the organisation was positively surprised by how well-organised the Mozambican Ministry of Health Was. Huster was part of the MSF ground team in Mozambique. AUDIO: D'Karin Huster vun MSF As for the immediate future, Huster explained that the NGO is optimistic for the country's recovery. Currently, MSF is focusing on water sanitation, as clean water is the basic starting point for so many aspects: clean water can help prevent illnesses like cholera and it is impossible to cook without clean water. She also explained that the NGO cannot leave the country without having set the groundwork for the country and the land to recover. The organisation will continue to provide medical support to the groups that are most at-risk. Despite visible improvements, Huster confirmed that the fear of a cholera epidemic remains a real one. The Ministry of Health, supported by aid organisations, had provided 93% of the affected population with vaccines in a week. Organisations have also installed a number of water stations, where dirty water can be purified and made drinkable. More than 600 people died in the cyclone and many more were injured. Nearly 240,000 homes were destroyed or flooded. The neighbouring countries Zimbabwe and Malawi were not quite as impacted as Mozambique, but the death counts lay at a respective 180 and 56. The Idea Foundation organised a press conference at the Chamber of Commerce on Thursday and had a stark warning for Luxembourg's pension system: if we want to maintain the current pension system until 2070, the GDP of Luxembourg must multiply by eight. Put another way, this would mean Luxembourg would have to reach the current GDP of Belgium or hire 1.7 million cross-border workers to maintain its current pension system up until 2070. Due to the perhaps unattainable nature of this challenge, the Idea Foundation has proposed a plan B. Whilst the foundation's economists do not believe the situation is dire, they stressed the need to act fast. Of the 10 billion in social contributions paid in Luxembourg, 50% make up pensions (more specifically, 39% are general pension schemes and 11% are special schemes). Fondation Idea (www.fondation-idea.lu) "Danger in delaying" The foundation's director Muriel Bouchet admitted that in the short-term, the situation is comfortable, as the Grand Duchy has a surplus of 1% of the GDP for pension schemes. The surplus, according to Bouchet, is significant in fuelling a compensation fund currently at 34% of the GDP. However, in the long-term, there is danger in delaying changes. As the below graph shows, an international comparison suggests that by 2070, Luxembourg will be the European country that is worst off in its pension share of the GDP. This will rise from the current 9% to 18% in 2070. Fondation Idea (www.fondation-idea.lu) As Bouchet explained, this is due to a number of factors, namely the ageing population and the influx of cross-border workers. Bouchet went on to stress that it is far from his role to condemn the cross-border worker contribution, stating that it is positive and the cause of the surpluses which benefit the Grand Duchy. However, he stressed that these cross-border workers will also have pensions that must be paid, adding to the pressure on the current system. Profitable pensions At the moment, Luxembourgish pensions remain "profitable", as the recovery period, namely the period required for a pensioner to make up all the pension payments they contributed during their career, is between six and seven years. In other words, a 68-year-old pensioner retired since the age of 60 will receive a 'bonus' pension, as the amount has surpassed the amount they contributed. Bouchet added that the return rate of pensions is relatively high at 7%. The rate does not vary much, regardless of whether pensions are high or low. Currently, paying 1 to your pension translates to 8 in retirement. Bouchet warned that if the GDP does not multiply by eight, then pension expenses will skyrocket. In order to contain this, the foundation believes the country needs an annual growth of 5% to affront the growing number of people needing pensions, a situation far from realistic. The statistics of the past 18 years show an average annual growth of 2.6%. Projections for the next five years show an annual growth of 3%. This growth will drop down to 2.3% by 2070. How to get to 5%? One statistics suggested by the foundation is an especially staggering one. In order to reach an annual growth of 5%, the country would require an increase in productivity, in other words 1.7 million cross-border workers by 2070. Fondation Idea (www.fondation-idea.lu) The foundation has also worked on more serious proposals for a 3% growth: unsurprisingly, this includes tightening belts, especially for the most affluent in society. The foundation proposes introducing proportionality in calculating pensions based on revenue and age. The Idea Foundation also believes that the return rate should be reduced for the highest pensions, preserving the end-of-year allowance (nearly 800/year) for the smaller pensions. The police took the opportunity to remind residents about the status of electronic parking discs via a Facebook post on Thursday. The police stressed that electronic parking discs continue to be banned in Luxembourg via posts on social media. The Code de la Route (Article 167bis) highlights which parking discs are authorised in the Grand Duchy, and explicitly bans electronic ones. Those continuing to use electronic discs could risk a fine. Shares of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries gained as much as 3 per cent in intraday on Thursday ahead of its March quarter earnings report slated to be released later today. The industry experts expect the country's largest private sector enterprise to report flattish net profit growth and lower petchem earnings due to weak margins, as per the Economics Times report. The market experts opined that RIL's retail segment may see robust growth, while its telecom arm Reliance Jio may report margin decline in average revenue per user (Arpu) on Quarter-on-Quarter basis, the ET reported. The investor will also keep an eye on the margin outlook of refinery and petchem business of RIL, it said. "We see lower petchem earnings due to margin weakness. Retail EBIT to grow by 8 per cent QoQ and Jio is expected to see 307 million subscribers. The telecom arm may report a slight decline in Arpu qoq to Rs 129," Emkay said in a report. Equirus Securities expects RIL's net profit and EBITDA to grow by 4.20 per cent and 1.90 per cent year-on-year. The brokerage firm forecasted that its net sales may see 23.5 per cent year-on-year rise. It expects a GRM of USD 8.30 per barrel due to fall in cracks. In the third quarter ended December 31, 2018, oil to telecom conglomerate RIL reported a 8.8 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 10,251 crore, helped by record performance in its petrochemicals, retail and telecom businesses. RIL was the first Indian private sector company to cross the Rs 10,000 crore profit mark. The company's refining business reported revenues of Rs 1,117,00 crore in the December quarter, while petrochemicals business saw its revenues rise 5.7 per cent q-o-q to Rs 46,246 crore. Meanwhile, the company' telecom arm, Reliance Jio, posted a net profit of Rs 831 crore in October-December quarter, up 22.1 per cent q-o-q. Reliance Industries share price were currently trading at Rs 1384, up 2.88 per cent, on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Edited by Chitranjan Kumar Also Read: Jet Airways crashes 30% as airline halts operations; SpiceJet, IndiGo stocks hit 52-week high Lok Sabha polls 2019: The phase two of the Lok Sabha election is coming to an end, with over 50 per cent of voter turnout till 3pm. Tamil Nadu, where election is being held for maximum 38 seats, has recorded 52.02 per cent voter turnout. In Maharashtra, voting percentage has remained 46.63 per cent till 3pm. Other states with over 50 per cent voter turnout include Odisha (53 per cent), Manipur (67.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (50.39 per cent), Chhattisgarh (59.72 per cent), and Karnataka 49.26 per cent. Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting on April 18; FAQs, polling on 95 seats Here are the live updates on the phase 2 of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. 6:05pm: 6:00pm: PM Narendra Modi addressing a public meeting in Amreli, Gujarat. 4.59pm: Voter turnout till 3 PM for 2nd phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 Maharashtra - 46.63%, Tamil Nadu - 52.02%, Odisha - 53%, Manipur - 67.5%, Uttar Pradesh - 50.39%, Chhattisgarh - 59.72%, Karnataka - 49.26%. 4.45pm: 107-year-old Padma awardee, Saalumarada Thimmakka, casts her vote for the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency. Karnataka: 107-year-old Padma awardee, Saalumarada Thimmakka casts her vote for the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/e7dJJgI2bO - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 4.26pm: Who is Shakti Bhargav, the man who threw shoe at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao? As per the Facebook profile of the accused, he is a self-acclaimed whistle-blower. His online profile shows he was concerned over the closure of several mills in Kanpur. Also read: Who is Shakti Bhargav, the man who threw shoe at BJP MP 4.20pm: Manipur and Karnataka both see 67.5% voter turnout till 3 pm. Maharashtra sees 46.63%. 4.15pm: Father of a victim in Malegaon blast has filed application against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur after she was declared BJP candidate from Bhopal. Application has questioned her candidature before NIA court citing her health which was one of the reasons in her bail application: ANI 4.10pm: Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai on alliance with Congress: "We had made one last effort, Sanjay Singh ji held talks, but can't understand that after almost finalizing the matter and seat sharing why the Congress stepped back last evening." 4.04pm: Manipur registered 49.7% voters, while Karnataka registered 36.31% voters till 1 pm. 4.03pm: Senior citizens come out in full force to vote. 4.02pm: West Bengal poll percentage till 3.00 pm - Jalpaiguri (SC) - 71.32%,Darjeeling - 63.14%, Raiganj - 61.84 %. State total - 65.43 %. 4.00pm: Visuals from a polling booth in Imphal. 3.59pm: Voter turnout till 3 pm in Jammu and Kashmir is 38.5%, including 5.7% in Srinagar. 3.57pm: Visuals from a polling booth in Assam's Nagaon. 3.55pm: Election Commission of India warns Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi over his 'Modi ki Sena' comment, asks him to desist from using references to security forces for political propaganda and to be careful in future: ANI 3.50pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a public meeting in Karnataka's Bagalkot, "The drama unfolding here in the state for the past one year is refusing to end. This drama has everything including emotions and revenge. Situation is such that we get to see overflow of emotions regularly in rallies and press conferences." 3.40pm: A 95-year-old man collapsed and later died while waiting for his turn to vote, at a polling booth in Ganjam. He was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead 3.20pm: Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and his family cast their vote. , @narendramodi 5 , #EveryVoteForModi - Chowkidar Dr Raman Singh (@drramansingh) April 18, 2019 3.15pm: Vivek Oberoi on his film 'PM Narendra Modi': "Everybody in the EC saw the film yesterday, we asked them how did you like the film?Can't tell you their response but we were happy with their answer; Only request is that the film should be allowed to release." Vivek Oberoi on his film 'PM Narendra Modi': Everybody in the EC saw the film yesterday, we asked them how did you like the film?Can't tell you their response but we were happy with their answer; Only request is that the film should be allowed to release. pic.twitter.com/4iblyY2YYA - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 3.00pm: Voter turnout till 1 PM in Maharashtra is 35.4%. Voter turnout till 1 PM in Maharashtra is 35.4%. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/W3eGR5B0ay - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 2.49pm: The Election Commission has allowed registered voters, who don't have a Voter ID card, to cast votes by showing other identity proof documents. Read more: 'How to vote, get polling booth details without voter ID card'. 2.47pm: SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav files nomination from Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat. 2.42pm: "Think before you vote! There is a woman abuser standing from @BJP4India in Bangalore South There is a woman cheater standing from BJP in Mysore There is a woman molester standing from BJP in Mangalore Think about your sister, wife, mother &friend before u vote!" says Congress leader Siddaramaiah. Think before you vote!! There is a woman abuser standing from @BJP4India in Bangalore South There is a woman cheater standing from BJP in Mysore There is a woman molester standing from BJP in Mangalore Think about your sister, wife, mother &friend before u vote!#VoteMaaDipic.twitter.com/N9Koef0Jag - Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) April 18, 2019 2.15pm: An electronic voting machine was vandalised during a clash between TMC and BJP workers in Chopra, West Bengal. 2.07pm: Voter turnout till 1pm: West Bengal records highest 51.68% voterturnout till 1pm. Voter turnout in other states include 37.93% in Tamil Nadu; 46.76% in Assam; 29.88% in Jammu and Kashmir; 38.48 % in Uttar Pradesh; and 21.47% in Karnataka. 2.04pm: Criminal complaint against Rahul Gandhi over his 'chor' jibe; the Congress President during a rally in Maharashtra had said "all thieves have Modi in their surnames". Criminal complaint filed in Delhi's Patiala House Court by one Joginder Tuli seeking direction to police for registration of FIR u/s 124A (IPC- Sedition charges) against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for making allegedly derogatory statements against PM Narendra Modi (file pic) pic.twitter.com/XivDSWLKLq - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 2.02pm: 108-year-old Dharam Singh casts his vote in Thathri, Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir. 108-year-old Dharam Singh casts his vote in Thathri, Doda district in #JammuAndKashmir, this inspiring man is a motivation for the youth to step forward and participate in polling.#MakeYourMark#IndiaElections2019#LoksabhaElection2019pic.twitter.com/jTsqmlTl9h - Doordarshan News (@DDNewsLive) April 18, 2019 2.00pm: 25.6 per cent voting till noon in Bihar: Bihar recorded 25.6 per cent voting in five Lok Sabha seats till noon on Thursday amidst reports of EVM malfunctioning and poll boycott delaying the start of polling in some booths, reported PTI. Banka recorded the highest turnout at 28 per cent followed by 26.2 per cent in Kishanganj, 25.5 per cent in Purnea, 25 per cent in Katihar and 23 per cent in Bhagalpur, an election official said. Altogether 86.01 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to elect 68 candidates in the second phase of polling. 1.45pm: BJP leader Babul Supriyo on violence incidents in West Bengal: "The the Murderer of Democracy sitting as the CM of Bengal, no matter how much of Central Forces (Election Commission) deploys, contaminated Bengal Police will disrupt Free & Fair Polls." The the Murderer of Democracy sitting as the CM of Bengal, no matter how much of Central Forces @ECISVEEP (Election Commission) deploys, contaminated Bengal Police will disrupt Free&Fair PollsVote shud be conducted after imposing Presidents Rule, throwing out the #TMchhi Govt - Chowkidar Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) April 18, 2019 1.37pm: Shoe hurled at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao during press conference. The BJP leader was holding a press conference over the BJP ticket to Sadhvi Pragya. #WATCH Delhi: Shoe hurled at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao during a press conference at BJP HQs .More details awaited pic.twitter.com/7WKBWbGL3r - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 1.36pm: Voting process recorded and posted on Facebook; EC orders probe: Election officials have ordered an inquiry after some voters recorded their voting process at a polling booth here and posted it on Facebook, police said. As per Election Commission guidelines, voters are not allowed to carry their mobile phones within a 100-metre radius of polling stations on the day of voting, an official said. (PTI) 1.31pm:Voting percentage in Karnataka till 1pm: 20% Bangalore North: 15.33% Bangalore Central: 16% Bangalore South: 19.48% 1.29pm: The winning candidate won by just one vote in Santhemarahalli constituency in Karnataka Assembly Election 2004. 1.24pm: At least 305 faulty EVMs and 525 VVPATs have been replaced in Tamil Nadu alone so far, suggest reports. Voting is going on for 38 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Polling in Vellore seat was cancelled due to excessive use of "money power". 1.14pm: Congress leader and Karnataka Culture Minister DK Shivakumar casts his vote; reiterates: "Your vote is not only your right, it is your power." Your vote is not only your right, it is your power. Use it for change & vote for saving democracy and building a progressive India for all our citizens. Vote for a MP and a Government that will deliver. #VoteNyayVoteCongresspic.twitter.com/PGyRejadXw - DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) April 18, 2019 1.03pm: BJP candidate from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya, starts #VoteMaaDi campaign. "Now's time to keep out josh high," he tweeted. I polled my vote. Did you? I'm initiating #VoteMaaDi challenge to encourage high voter turnout. I nominate @TVMohandasPai, @rajeev_mp & @KiranKS to post a selfie/video with hash tag #VoteForNewIndia & nominate 3 more people to do the same. Now's the time to keep our josh high! pic.twitter.com/sBqLcHOf8x - Chowkidar Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) April 18, 2019 1.00pm: Manipur Governor Najma Heptullah and Chief Minister N Biren Singh jump queues to vote in the election to the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat. Voters, says many other politicians had stood patiently in queues along with the general people, reported ANI. 12.57pm: SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow parliamentary constituency, Poonam Sinha, holds a road show after filing nomination. Lucknow: SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow parliamentary constituency, Poonam Sinha, holds a road show after filing nomination; Shatrughan Sinha & Dimple Yadav also present #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/gxXojges3d - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 12.32pm: Security personnel lob tear gas shells and lathi charge locals as they block NH-34 in protest after unknown miscreants allegedly prevented them from casting their votes. WB: Security personnel lob tear gas shells and lathi charge locals as they block NH-34 in protest after unknown miscreants allegedly prevented them from casting their votes at Digirpar polling booth in Chopra, in Islampur subdivision of North Dinajpur. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/XukT8B8Aol - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 12.28pm: Kanwar Singh Tanwar, BJP MP candidate from Amroha, says "fake voting has happened. Women in burkhas are not being checked for their identity. I heard a man wearing burkha was also caught." 12.08pm: Polling booth number 193 in Buldhana is being managed by specially-abled staff. Maharashtra: Polling booth number 193 in Buldhana is being managed by specially-abled staff. Presiding officer, says, "This booth is being managed by specially-abled staff only. I appeal to all specially-abled persons to cast their votes to strengthen democracy." pic.twitter.com/i9P91BwzOE - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 11.52pm: NC leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah cast their votes at a polling station in Munshi Bagh Area in Srinagar. 11.48am: Voter turnout till 11am. Voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh: 24.31% Voter turnout in Bihar: 18.97% Voter turnout in Assam: 26.39% Voter turnout in Chhattisgarh: 26.2% Voter turnout in Tamil Nadu: 30.62% Voter turnout in West Bengal:33.52% Voter turnout in Odisha: 33.10% Voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir: 17.78% 11.25am: BJP General Secretary and candidate from Raiganj constituency, Debasree Chaudhuri, alleges TMC workers were trying to capture booth at Raiganj Coronation High School. WB: BJP General Secy&candidate from Raiganj constituency Debasree Chaudhuri alleges TMC workers were trying to capture booth at Raiganj Coronation High School. Says "TMC workers were trying to capture booth. They were campaigning among Muslims there. This isn't election campaign" pic.twitter.com/BxQ19MoTxP - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 11.13am:Election statistic you should know. 11.11am: Hema Malini, BJP's candidate from Mathura, says: "Development in Mathura is all due to my efforts." #WATCH BJP MP Candidate from Mathura, Hema Malini says, "Development in Mathura is all due to my efforts. SP-BSP are only engaged in fighting with each other. There is a huge Modi wave here." #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/6Xm5dWWz2u - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 11.09am: Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in Hassan's Paduvalahippe. Karnataka: Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in Hassan's Paduvalahippe. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/kpBBzwbU7K - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 11.08am: The EC's flying squad has seized Rs 11.85 lakh cash in Sion area of Mumbai City district, reports ANI. Besides, polling has temporarily halted at booth number 217 in Solapur's Shastri Nagar due to fault in Electronic Voting Machine. 11.07am: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College. He is the Congress candidate from Fatehpur Sikri. Agra: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar and party's candidate from Fatehpur Sikri casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College, for #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/l1rLK9F88C - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 11.00am: 11.61 polling recorded in Assam till 9 am: An estimated 11.61 per cent of the 69,10,592 electorate exercised their franchise in five parliamentary seats of Assam in the second phase polling on Thursday. Polling is being held in 8,992 polling booths in Karimganj (SC), Silchar, Autonmous District(ST), Nowgong and Mangaldoi constituencies. Reports of EVM glitches have been reported from several booths in all the five constituencies and efforts are on to correct the snags, an election official said. PTI 10.55am: 7% polling in Odisha till 9 am: Around 7 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first two hours of polling Thursday in five Lok Sabha and 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha. The electoral fortunes of 279 candidates, including Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union minister Jual Oram, will be decided in the second phase of voting. Over 76.93 lakh voters will decide the fate of 279 candidates in Thursday's polling. Out of the total electorate of 76,93,123, there are 37,47,493 women voters. At least 605 electors belong to the third gender. PTI 10.45am: A teacher, who was on election duty at a polling booth in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district, died of a heart attack on Thursday. The deceased, Tukalu Ram Nareti, an assistant teacher in a government school, was deputed as the polling officer at Kamta booth (no.186) in Antagarh area of Kanker Lok Sabha constituency where voting was underway, the official from the local administration said. Kureti complained of chest pain around 6 am and fell unconscious at the polling station. He was immediately rushed to a local hospital where he was declared brought dead, the official said. The body was sent for postmortem, he said. PTI 10.38am:EC's flying squad seizes 1,381 kg gold A flying squad team stopped a van carrying 1,381kg of gold at Veppampattu check post at Thiruvallur, near Chennai. After the four men inside the vehicle couldn't provide adequate documents, and claimed the gold was on its way to Thirupathi Devasthaanam, the officials sieze gold. Further probe is on. 10.37am: A poll official who was on duty at polling booth number 186 in Kanker of Chhattisgarh has reportedly died of cardiac arrest. 10.30am: The voting process has been halted at upper Bagdogra's 25/47 booth under Darjeeling constituency after a black tape was found on the BJP symbol in an EVM. 10.20am: "When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay," says Congress President Rahul Gandhi. When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay. Nyay for our unemployed youth; for our struggling farmers; for the small traders whose businesses were destroyed by Demonetisation; for those who were persecuted because of their caste or religion. #VoteNyayVoteCongresspic.twitter.com/VvEZPPX5b8 - Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 18, 2019 10.10am: Voter turnout in Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Chhatisgarh. Polling underway for 95 Parliamentary Constituencies spread across 11 States n Puducherry UT in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 Voter turnout at 9 AM#IndiaElections2019#GeneralElections2019#VoteForIndiapic.twitter.com/Pv06zKH2Ah - PIB India (@PIB_India) April 18, 2019 9.56am: "Today is the second phase of polling and BJP and PM Modi seem to be very nervous," says BSP supremo Mayawati. , , - , - Mayawati (@Mayawati) April 18, 2019 9.53am: A newly married couple arrive at a polling station in Udhampur to cast their votes. Jammu & Kashmir: A newly married couple arrive at a polling station in Udhampur to cast their votes for #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/RWTHAmAEwE - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 9.52am: Uttar Pradesh election voting latest updates: As per EC, total voter turnout in UP has reached 10.76 per cent. 9.40am: State wise voting percentage: Polling percentage recorded in Assam (5 seats)-9.51 per cent,J&K (2 seats)-0.99 per cent,Karnataka (14 seats)1.14 per cent, Maha(10)-0.85 per cent,Manipur(1)-1.78 per cent, Odisha(5)-2.15 per cent, TN(38)-0.81 per cent, Tripura(1)-0.00 per cent, UP(8)-3.99 per cent, WB(3)-0.55 per cent, Chhattisgarh(3)-7.75 per cent and Puducherry -1.62 per cent,till 9am. 9.30am: Some interesting nuggets of phase 2 of the Lok Sabha 2019 election. 95 Lok Sabha constituencies across 11 states and one UT to go to polls. Nearly 15.80 crore voters to decide fate of 1,629 candidates. More than 1.81lakh polling booths set up for the purpose. Tamil Nadu, where all the seats, except one, is going for polls, 67,664 polling booths have been set up. The state has the most number of booths in poll going states Thursday. With 970, Puducherry has the least number of polling booths in this phase. Election in Vellore constituency of Tamil Nadu was cancelled by EC as it felt excessive use of money power has vitiated the poll process. No fresh date has been announced as yet. Fearing law and order issues, election to Tripura (East) has been postponed to April 23. Out of the total electors, 8,02,60,815 are men, 7,76,62,567 women and 11,136 are transgenders. EC identifies them as 'others'. (PTI) 9.25am: Here's what you need to do before you step out to cast vote. 9.23am: Over 2,000 people from Venkatapuram and Nachiampayalam villages of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu have reportedly boycotted election. 9.20am: Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh casts his vote at a polling booth in Imphal. #LokSabhaElections2019 : Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh casts his vote at a polling booth in Imphal. pic.twitter.com/Q01FDttDRc - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 9.17am: Puducherry polls: Puducherry and its outlying regions of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam together constitute the lone Lok Sabha seat and have a total strength of 9,73,410 voters. The main battle for the parliamentary seat from the Union Territory is between the ruling Congress's candidate V Vaithilingam, a former assembly speaker, and opposition AINRC nominee K Narayanasamy. (PTI) 9.16am: Tamil Nadu polls: State has a total of 67,720 polling stations and 7,780 booths have been categorised as critical and vulnerable where more Central Armed Police Forces personnel, and micro observers were deployed. (PTI) 9.15am: Voting underway in Purnea constituency, Bihar. 9.12am: Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan exercise their franchise in Chennai. 9.11am: Your vote is not only your right, it is your power: Congress. Your vote is not only your right, it is your power. Use your power for change & vote for the party that represents unity, justice & equality. #VoteNyayVoteCongresspic.twitter.com/1EUhZHHIvg - Congress (@INCIndia) April 18, 2019 9.10am: The process resumes at booth numbers 261 and 263 of the Bolangir Lok Sabha constituency after some delay due to EVM malfunction. 9.07am: Voting yet to begin in booth number 46 of Gantholi village of Goverdhan block. Mathura: People queue up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block. The voting is yet to begin here due to EVM malfunction. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/FxM95M7VLi - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 9.03am: Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central, Prakash Raj, stands in queues to cast vote. Bengaluru: Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central, Prakash Raj queues up at a polling booth, to cast his vote in #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/y93wPMKpxC - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 8.53am: Puducherry CM Narayanasamy casts vote in Bussy street PWD complex polling booth in Puducherry. Puducherry CM Narayanasamy casts vote in Bussy street PWD complex polling booth in Puducherry.#PollsWithAIR | #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/9ujBs8C27q - All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) April 18, 2019 8.38am: Lieutenant Governor Dr Kiran Bedi stands in queue to cast her vote. 8.36am: Uttar Pradesh election voting latest updates: Polling process has been delayed at booth number 201 in Agra and booth number 148 in Mathura due to faulty EVM, reports Firstpost. 8.30am: Poll percentage in Bihar till 8AM. 8.28am: Tamil Nadu election voting latest updates: Several reports of EVM malfunctioning are coming in from at least seven polling booths in Kanyakumari, Madurai, and Tirunelveli. 8.19am: Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palanisamy casts his vote. 8.18am: Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi stands in queue to cast her vote. 8.16am: BJP President Amit Shah to address rallies at Raigarh and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and Jalna in Maharashtra. "I appeal to all the voters in phase two, especially the young, that you must vote to keep this momentum going. In your one vote lies country's pride and progress," says the BJP chief. 8.12am: Manipur Governor Dr Najma Heptulla casts her vote at TG Higher Secondary School polling station in Imphal this morning. 8.10am: Several reports of EVM malfunctioning and late polling have been coming from Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. 8.00am: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrives at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency to cast her vote. 7.53am: Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde casts his vote at a polling station in Solapur. 7.47am: Polling yet to begin at booth number 29/134 of Islampur Hindi FP School in Uttar Dinajpur, Raiganj Parliamentary constituency of West Bengal, as the EVM at the booth is not functioning. (ANI) 7.44am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold rallies in three states today. Amreli, Gujarat (10.30am) Bagalkot, Karnataka (2.45pm) Chikode, Karnataka (4.40pm) Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (8.15pm) 7.40am: Former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, after casting his vote in Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu, says: "People of Tamil Nadu want a change of government in the Centre and state that is why there is support coming for us." Tamil Nadu: Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidi Rangarajan casts their vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/2C5hLVUsPb - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 7.38am: Today is also the last date for filing nomination papers for Phase V polling, to be held on May 5 in 51 Parliamentary constituencies spread across 7 states. 7.36am: Here's an overall look at all the action on the ground today. 7.30am: Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine not working properly at a polling station in Silchar, Assam. 7.19am: What to do if you don't have a Voter ID card? Log on to the NSVP Electoral Search page and click on search by details. Put in your details, such as name, gender, age, assembly constituency etc. Based on your details, a result will pop up, which means that your name is in the voter's list. In case, there is no pop-up, it means your name is probably missing from the voter's list. 7.16am: Voting has began across 95 Parliamentary constituencies in India. Here are the latest visuals from polling station number 38 & 39 in Bhagalpur parliamentary constituency. 7.10am: "Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise," says Prime Minister Narendra Modi. {blurb} 7.05am: Over 15.8 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha election. Lok Sabha Election 2019: Poll dates, full schedule, voting FAQs, election results, constituencies' details 7.04am: Elections will also be held in 35 Assembly constituencies of Odisha. 7.03am: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has postponed polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election on April 23 over the prevailing law-and-order situation. 6.30am: Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi are among the 1,600 odd contestants in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls to be held in 95 seats today. Edited by Manoj Sharma A poll officer in Odisha was suspended by the Election Commission (EC) yesterday over allegedly checking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chopper in Sambalpur and violating protocol. According to the Commission, Mohammed Mohsin, a 1996 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer didn't follow protocol for checking Special Protection Group (SPG) protectees. As per the guidelines of EC, SPG protectees are exempted from such inspection. "The commission has considered the material available before it and, prima facie, has found dereliction of duty. It found Mohsin's action was contrary to its instruction concerning SPG protectees", the poll commission said in its order. Reportedly, PM Modi reached Sambalpur to address a rally when a team of election officials including Mohsin allegedly started inspecting his chopper. If reports are to be believed, the prime minister was delayed for around 20 minutes because of the abrupt checking. "A team of poll officials led by Mohsin inspected some papers in the chopper carrying PM Modi. The inspection delayed the PM's arrival at the meeting place by around 20 minutes. This was reported to the Election Commission", The Times of India quoted a senior police officer as saying. As per reports, the poll panel had asked for a report from the district collector and the deputy inspector general of police after the incident. Recently, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's helicopter was also inspected by EC flying squad personnel in Rourkela. Similarly, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's chopper was also checked at Sambalpur. (Edited by: Nehal Solanki) Also read: Lok Sabha election phase 2 live updates: Voter turnout in UP reaches 24.31% till 11am; 26.39% in Assam Also read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Voting percentage in Tamil Nadu 13.48% till 9 am Your browser does not support the audio element. More than a dozen students from Son La Province in northern Vietnam whose scores in the 2018 National High School Exam were changed in a high-profile cheating scandal are children of provincial leaders and officials, an investigation by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper shows. Results of the National High School Examination, held each year in June, are used to determine whether a student qualifies for graduation from high school and acts as a placement test for colleges and universities in Vietnam. In the 2018 exam, hundreds of exam papers from the three northern provinces of Ha Giang, Son La, and Hoa Binh were found to have been manipulated by officials in order to alter the scores of dozens of students. A criminal investigation was launched this month against more than a dozen officials and police officers in the three provinces to identify any abuse of power or position which may have played a role in the scandal. Public opinion has been calling on officials and police officers to reveal a full list of students whose scores were altered in the 2018 exam, but the demand has not been met due to privacy concerns. Speaking with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Wednesday, a Party leader in Son La confirmed that a number of provincial officials are parents of the students involved in the scandal. An independent investigation by Tuoi Tre reveals that 21 out of 44 confirmed cheaters from Son La are children of local officials or police officers, many of whom hold top positions at their respective government bodies. The list includes the deputy director of the provincial education department, deputy chairman of Son Las namesake capital city, director of the provincial statistics office, and the chief inspector of the provincial education department. The children of these officials had their scores raised by 3-25 points on a test with a maximum score of 30, turning them into top-scorers on the exam despite their real scores being much lower than the national average. Most have dropped out or been expelled from their respective higher education institutions following the expose. However, according to a Party leader of Son La, an official court ruling on the role of these parents is needed before any disciplinary measure can be taken against the government officials. In the meantime, these officials will not be considered for promotion, commendation, or salary bonuses, the source said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis have agreed to enhance the two countries multi-faceted cooperation and to speed up the launching of a direct air route between their two capitals. The two leaders joined talks in Prague on Wednesday, within the framework of PM Phucs official visit to the Czech Republic on April 16 and 17. As a close friend of Vietnam and an active member of the European Union (EU), the Czech Republic supports the intensification of the Vietnam-EU relations and will push for the early completion of EU procedures so that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement can be signed within the next one or two months, PM Babis stressed. The two premiers agreed to strengthen the exchange of delegations between sectors and localities of the two countries. Focus will also be directed on effectively implementing the mechanism of the Vietnam-Czech inter-governmental committee on economic cooperation and boosting ties in security, national defense, technology, mining, and tourism. Both sides expressed their belief that the early opening of a direct air route between Hanoi and Prague will help further strengthen the bilateral relations in trade, investment and tourism. They consented to enhance bilateral cooperation at international forums and organizations. The Czech Republic supports Vietnams bid to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 term, PM Babis stated. He also praised the role and contributions of the Vietnamese community to the socio-economic development of the Czech Republic. The leaders reiterated the importance of preserving peace and stability in the East Vietnam Sea, and settling disputes via peaceful means in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Following the talks, they witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in mining, and held a joint press conference. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Check out todays leading news stories. Society -- Sizzling temperatures are forecast to impact all the northern, central and southern regions of Vietnam from today to Monday next week, with highs ranging from 35 to 37 degrees Celsius. Particularly, mercury can be as high as 40 degrees Celsius in some northern and central areas, while rains in the evening and night are in the forecast for the south. -- A traffic police in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau died from fatal injuries on Wednesday as he chased a Ford Ranger that was fleeing the scene after causing a serial accident in the neighboring province of Dong Nai. -- Citizens across several districts in Ho Chi Minh City such as District 9, District 8, District 3, Tan Binh and Binh Tan Districts have complained about unexpected blackouts that occurred during bedtime for three days in a row, affecting their sleep quality and daily routines. -- A fire allegedly caused by an electrical short circuit claimed three lives at an electric bicycle shop in Hue, the capital of the north-central province of Thua Thien Hue, at dawn on Thursday. Business -- Vietnams oil and petrol prices were on Wednesday increased sharply, now selling in the range of VND291-1,202 (1.25-5.2 cents), following adjustments made by the ministries of finance and industry and trade. -- Malaysias AirAsia Group cancelled plans to enter Vietnams crowded aviation market on Wednesday, Reuters reported. -- The ticket prices of the Ho Chi Minh City Khanh Hoa passenger bus route are allowed to be increased no more than 40 percent from the current rates during the long holiday to celebrate Reunification Day (April 30) and International Labor Day (May 1), the Khanh Hoa transport department said on Thursday. Lifestyle -- The administration of the south-central province of Ninh Thuan is slated to organize the 2019 Ninh Thuan Grape and Wine Festival from April 26 to May 2. Sport -- Vietnams Hanoi FC on Wednesday beat Myanmars Yangon United 5-2 in the latters soil in their fourth Group F match at the 2019 AFC Cup, Asias secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A traffic police officer died after being knocked off his motorbike while pursuing a hit-and-run driver in the southern Vietnamese province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. Police in Phu My Town, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province confirmed on Wednesday that they had arrested Huynh Van Chung, 43, a resident of District 9, Ho Chi Minh City, for a hit and run which caused the death of a traffic cop. According to preliminary information, Chung was driving a Ford Ranger when he hit multiple cars and motorcycles in the southern province of Dong Nai. Rather than stop, Chung immediately fled the scene. Some residents ran after him and managed to pull him over, but the driver injured one person and threatened the other with his axe. Huynh Van Chung is apprehended. Photo: Ho Ka The hit-and-run driver continued his journey and was pursued by Captain Chu Quang Sang after entering Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. Chung then knocked Captain Sang off his vehicle, leaving the officer with broken ribs and a broken leg and kneecap. The officer was admitted to the hospital but later succumbed to his wounds. Chung only stopped when he blew a tire on his truck. Following the arrest, Chungs family members submitted his medical record to the Ho Chi Minh City Mental Health Hospital, a police official in Phu My Town said, adding that Chung has been brought to the Ba Ria-Vung Tau mental hospital for a psychological examination. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A man from the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai in Vietnam is in trouble with local law enforcement for staging photos of himself being hit by a taxi and uploading them to Facebook for likes. Nguyen Nhat Duy, 20, saw a taxi parked outside his rented house in Pleiku City, Gia Lai on Monday and thought it was a good opportunity to create a viral post on social media. He laid his motorbike on its side in front of the taxi and lay down beside the vehicle, eyes closed, to create a fake accident site before asking one of his friends to take photos of the scene. In a Facebook post that also included a photo of Duys national ID card for added credibility, the man claimed that the victim had been knocked unconscious by the taxi. The location is Mang Yang District, Gia Lai, the caption reads. Please share to help find this mans family! it continued. The post immediately went viral. Photos of a staged accident site created by Nguyen Nhat Duy in Pleiku City, Gia Lai Province in Vietnam are shared across Facebook. Meanwhile, the taxi driver, Nguyen Minh Vuong, was unaware that his vehicle was used as a prop until the next day when friends and colleagues called him to offer their condolences for the accident." They sent me a link to the Facebook post, which indeed included photos of my taxi and license plate, Vuong said. "But I was not driving any customers at that time. On Thursday, Pleiku police chief Phan Nhat Toan confirmed the local police force had identified Duy as the one behind the viral photos and summoned the man for questioning. Duy contacted the taxi driver and apologized for his action, claiming he only did it for fun and had no intention of demanding compensation, Toan said. However, Pleiku police say they are still verifying Toans statement and will handle the case in accordance with the law. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam ! The War Powers law was passed during the time of the Vietnam War to try to give Congress more specific control over actions amounting to war because the Vietnam conflict was not conducted pursuant to a declaration of war by Congress under Article 1, section 8 of the constitution. President Richard Nixon vetoed the bill, arguing that Congress could use its power to appropriate money and stop funding the war. However, Congress overrode his veto by at least a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate, and the War Powers Resolution became law on 7 November 1973. "(c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution." On 4 April 2019, Congress passed a resolution under the War Powers Act, officially known as the War Powers Resolution, Public Law 93-148, to stop most operations by U.S. Armed Forces in Yemen. This was noted here on SST [1]. On 16 April, president Trump vetoed the resolution, which was Senate Joint Resolution 7 (S.J.Res. 7)-- Article 1, section 8 of the constitution grants Congress the power, "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." The War Powers law can be valid under this necessary and proper clause because it helps carry into execution the power of Congress to declare war. Section 1544(c) of Title 50 of the U.S. Code presents an interesting issue. As part of a valid law enacted in 1973, it clearly says that "... such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution". Congress has passed a resolution. Article 2, section 3 of the constitution says that the president "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed". Is the president obligated to "faithfully execute" section 1544(c) and a resolution pursuant to it? Congress has been assuming that Senate Joint Resolution 7 is like any other proposed bill and is to be presented to the president under Article 1, section 7 of the constitution [3]-- "Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the president of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the president within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law." However, is Senate Joint Resolution 7 a "bill" within the meaning of Article 1, section 7 of the constitution? Or is it part of applying and executing section 1544(c) of the War Powers Resolution? As a separate reason and basis, is it a way to hold the executive branch accountable and cancel an action by an administrative agency or the president, usually called a "legislative veto" over an action of the executive branch? The issue appears to be open, although somewhat tricky. The U.S. Supreme Court in INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983), ruled that a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act that allowed a house of Congress to in effect cancel an action by the immigration service through the attorney general was unconstitutional [4]. The House of Representatives had a resolution opposing "the granting of permanent residence in the United States to [six] aliens," including Chadha. The opinion addressed the concept of a legislative veto over activity by an agency of the executive branch. The majority opinion took the position that the requirement of Article 1, section 7 to present a bill to the president for approval or objections should apply to that particular situation as part of the separation of powers structure of the constitution. In a dissenting opinion in the Chadha case, Judge Byron White said-- "The prominence of the legislative veto mechanism in our contemporary political system and its importance to Congress can hardly be overstated. It has become a central means by which Congress secures the accountability of executive and independent agencies. Without the legislative veto, Congress is faced with a Hobson's choice: either to refrain from delegating the necessary authority, leaving itself with a hopeless task of writing laws with the requisite specificity to cover endless special circumstances across the entire policy landscape, or, in the alternative, to abdicate its lawmaking function to the Executive Branch and independent agencies. To choose the former leaves major national problems unresolved; to opt for the latter risks unaccountable policymaking by those not elected to fill that role. Accordingly, over the past five decades, the legislative veto has been placed in nearly 200 statutes." This present resolution, the situation involving U.S. Forces in Yemen, and the text of the War Powers law are different enough from the issue in the Chadha case to justify a good faith effort to initiate court action and present: 1) the issue of section 1544(c) as a legislative veto, and, separately, 2) the issue that a resolution under section 1544(c) requires the president to faithfully execute the determination by Congress in Senate Joint Resolution 7, and, therefore, the resolution is not a "bill" within the meaning of Article 1, section 7 of the constitution and does not have to be presented to the president for approval. Furthermore, section 1544(b) of Title 50 requires automatic withdrawal of armed forces after a specific time period-- "Within sixty calendar days after a report is submitted or is required to be submitted pursuant to section 1543(a)(1) of this title, whichever is earlier, the President shall terminate any use of United States Armed Forces with respect to which such report was submitted (or required to be submitted), unless the Congress (1) has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces, (2) has extended by law such sixty-day period, or (3) is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States...." Section 1, part 3 of S.J.Res. 7 does assert that U.S. armed forces were earlier introduced into hostilities in Yemen-- "(3) Since March 2015, members of the United States Armed Forces have been introduced into hostilities between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, including providing to the Saudi-led coalition aerial targeting assistance, intelligence sharing, and mid-flight aerial refueling." Although pinpointing March 2015 as the time soldiers were introduced into hostilities can be seen as a date that can trigger the application of section 1544(b) and its automatic requirement that the president terminate any use of U.S. Armed Forces, it might have helped if Congress had included in S.J.Res. 7 an additional section quoting 1544(b) and that the president is also required by that section automatically to terminate the use of the armed forces, since the 60 calendar days under 1544(b) have long since expired after personnel were introduced into hostilities in Yemen. Furthermore, S.J.Res. 7 could have included a statement that it is a directive pursuant to a valid law and does not have have to be presented to the president for a signature. Including both sections 1544(b) and (c) in the resolution and the assertion that it does not require a presidential signature would have set up the issues for an attempt at a lawsuit and court action. At this time, I have not found an instance in which section 1544(b) has been the subject of court action, and so its application is a wide open issue. Certainly if a court case is started, the Trump administration will argue that the language in Article 1, section 7 of the constitution requires that this resolution be presented to the president for his signature or objections as a veto, which was a rationale in the Supreme Court's Chadha decision in 1983. In addition, the administration may allege that since Congress did not include in S.J.Res. 7 a statement that the president was obligated to faithfully execute it pursuant to an existing federal law without it being presented to him for a signature or veto, Congress has "waived" that issue or legal point, and thus cannot get a court decision on it. However, the constitution does not say that a president has the power to initiate and direct military action unless and until Congress decides to cut the money off. It is the other way around. The president does not initiate and direct military action unless Congress so declares. Nevertheless, attempting to maintain a court case on this matter will keep it alive and in front of the public, even though the press and mass media have largely ignored it. But at the same time, before getting involved in a lawsuit, it is obviously important to think through and visualize possible events in the litigation and different outcomes, because with an issue like this one, you do not want to have a court of appeals or the Supreme Court create a precedent against the very point you are trying to establish. Congress will probably try to override the president's veto, but when originally passed, the resolution did not have a veto-proof margin of votes, with the House result being 247-175 and the Senate 54-46. Additional votes will have to be put together to override the veto in order to largely stop the involvement in Yemen. Otherwise, the risks and viability of a lawsuit in court will be on the table. [1] https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2019/04/congress-finally-uses-the-war-powers-law-to-try-to-stop-involvement-in-yemen.html [2] http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title50/chapter33&edition=prelim [3] http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/art1.asp https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei [4] Supreme Court opinion, INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983) https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/462/919 ABCs annual ANZAC Day coverage next Thursday includes Live coverage of marches in each state, and the Gallipoli service in Turkey and Villers-Bretonneux from France. These will be broadcast on ABC, ABC News and live streaming on ABC iview and Facebook throughout the day. 2019 marks the 104th anniversary of the action by Australian, New Zealand and other Commonwealth troops in Gallipoli in 1915. From 4.30am AEST, ABC will broadcast the Anzac Dawn Service from Sydney, followed by the Anzac Dawn Service from Canberra at 5.30am AEST. The service from Canberra will also be heard on ABC Radio local stations around the country and on RN. This will be followed from 9am AEST with live local coverages of marches in all State Capital cities. At 12.30pm AEST, the Gallipoli Dawn Service will commence from the Anzac Commemorative site located by the water at Anzac Cove in Turkey. The cove is on the Gallipoli Peninsula and following the landing became the main base for the Australian and New Zealand troops during the 8-month campaign. ABCs telecast from Villers-Bretonneux will take place at 1.30pm AEST live from France. Our Anzac troops returned home after the war during an influenza pandemic that would kill 50 million people worldwide. And as we remember the immediate aftermath of the war to end all wars, 2019 also marks 80 years since the commencement of WWll in September 1939. As is customary, the Anzac Day Message by the Governor-General, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC, will be broadcast nationally immediately before the ABC evening news bulletins at 7pm. $32,000 was raised for the local Launceston community last night when Paul Murray Live: Our Town came to visit. Daryl Braithwaite performed Horses and Executive Chairman of Harvey Norman, Gerry Harvey announced the total raised for the CWA Community. Sony Music also donated $10,000 to help install facilities for their daughter who is suffering from Battens disease. Paul Murray said: This was the best Our Town yet. The vibe in the room was fabulous. Launceston got some big-name guests including Darryl Braithwaite, while Katie Page and Gerry Harvey showed everyone why they arent just the biggest names in business, but two of the most community minded people in the country. Paul Whittaker, SKY News Chief Executive said: What an amazing effort made by the CWA and the local Harvey Norman store to raise critical funds for those affected by the recent bushfires as well provide improved healthcare and rehab facilities. Were really proud to have been able to bring Paul Murray Live Our Town to Launceston. A total of 13 states will go to the polls today, which will be conducted across 97 constituencies in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. One of the states that will go to the polls on Thursday is Jammu and Kashmir. State of Jammu and Kashmir is currently under President's rule after Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition broke down as the 25-member BJP in the state withdrew its support. The 87-member state assembly was dissolved on November 21, 2018. The second phase of polling in the state of Jammu and Kashmir will involve two constituenciesSrinagar and Udhampur - with twelve candidates each. The phase one of the elections in the state were held in Baramulla and Jammu on April 11. Tight security measures are being implemented to enable as much voter turnout as possible in the restive state. Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase 2 constituencies Two constituencies - Srinagar and Udhampur - will be voting from Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. The districts that will be covered in the two constituencies are - Ganderbal, Srinagar and Budgam in Srinagar and Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua in Udhampur. Both the constituencies in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections belong to the general category. Over 4,000 polling stations have been set up for the second phase of the elections in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. As per the Chief Electoral Officer's website, there are over 29 lakh general electors in the two constituencies, out of which nearly 15.5 lakh are general male electors, over 14 lakh general female electors and 69 third gender electors. In addition to this, there are over 21 thousand service electors and 16.5 thousand persons with disabilities (PWD) electors in Phase II. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, there were over 26.5 lakh electors in these two constituencies. The number has now increased by nearly 2.84 lakh electors. Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase 2 candidates A total of 12 candidates, including BJP's Jitendra Singh and Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh, will battle for Udhampur constituency in Jammu and Kashmir which goes to polls on April 18. Harsh Dev Singh of J&K National Panthers Party and Lal Singh of recently floated 'Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan' are also contesting from Udhampur. On the other hand, there is a triangular contest between Farooq Abdullah (NC), Irfan Ansari (Peoples Conference) and Agha Mohsin (PDP) in Srinagar. Edited By: Udit Verma Also Read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting on April 18; FAQs, polling on 95 seats Also Read: Lok Sabha election phase 2 Live Updates: Voters complain about EVM malfunctioning in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu The ongoing denial of marriage equality to people in Northern Ireland is an embarrassing stain on the UKs LGBT rights record and cannot be allowed to continue, it has been claimed. Love Equality NI campaigners briefed members of the Irish parliament on Wednesday about the fight for marriage equality in the region. The coalition, which comprises six organisations, is seeking the support of parliamentarians in both the UK and Ireland to compel British Prime Minister Theresa May to implement marriage equality without delay. They said UK marriage equality will not exist until same-sex couples in Northern Ireland are afforded the right to marry. Campaigner John ODoherty said: They (the UK Government) cannot say the United Kingdom has marriage equality and it wont have marriage equality until Northern Ireland has marriage equality. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland which maintains a ban on marriage for same-sex couples. It is almost four years since the successful marriage equality referendum in the Republic, and five years since the introduction of same-sex marriage in England, Wales and Scotland. Story continues In November 2015, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly voted to support equal marriage, but the measure was blocked by the DUP using a device called the petition of concern. Local politicians have not been able to vote on the issue since because Northern Ireland has been without an Assembly and Executive for more than two years. TDs and senators heard that Westminster had a duty to uphold the human rights of all UK citizens and that it had a jurisdictional power to legislate on the issue, but had no plans to do so. In the absence of a functioning Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive since January 2017, only the UK Parliament can currently remove the ban on same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, Mr ODoherty said. (PA Graphics) However, the UK Government remains unwilling to legislate, leaving same-sex couples in Northern Ireland facing continuing discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation. Justice delayed is justice denied. It is unacceptable and unsustainable to have a patchwork of marriage laws across these islands, he said. The ongoing denial of marriage equality to people in Northern Ireland is an embarrassing stain on the UKs LGBT rights record and cannot be allowed to continue. The Love Equality group includes three regional LGBT organisations: The Rainbow Project, HEReNI and Cara-Friend, as well as Amnesty International, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the National Union of Students-Union of Students in Ireland (NUS-USI). The campaign said it has the support of more than 50 major employers. Sinn Fein Senator Fintan Warfield said: Civil marriage equality is about protecting our families, neighbours and friends. It is about two people making a commitment to share in the ups and downs of life. It is also about ensuring that the state recognises all of our relationships equally. These are rights enjoyed by Irish and British citizens in all other jurisdictions. It is an injustice that we continue to see efforts toward equality blocked in the north. The honour was bestowed for his "outstanding contribution to peace and conflict resolution across the island of Ireland". A US Congressman has been given an honorary degree by Ulster University. Congressman Richard Neal was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws by Ulster University for his outstanding contribution to peace and conflict resolution across the island of Ireland and also for profiling Irish concerns throughout his Congressional career. Today I received an honorary degree from @UlsterUniISD in #NorthernIreland, a university doing tremendous work preparing students for the next steps in their lives. I accepted this great honor in memory of my grandmother, Mary Ward who was born in #CountyDown. https://t.co/tUc09ei1tg Rep. Richard Neal (@RepRichardNeal) April 18, 2019 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi watched on at the Magee campus of the university in Londonderry while vice chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon conferred the honorary degree. Congressman Neal went on to announce the development of Ulster Universitys Hume ONeill Washington Lecture Series, an annual lecture by an internationally-renowned conflict resolution expert, the first of which will be held during the St Patricks Day celebrations in Washington in 2020. It is with no small amount of humility that I accept this honorary degree of from Ulster University and I accept in honour of my grandmother, Mary Ward who was born in County Down, he told students and staff gathered for the ceremony. Professor Nixon added: Congressman Richard Neal is today recognised and honoured by the university community for his work as a champion of inclusivity, peace and prosperity across the island of Ireland. Throughout his political career he has remained a steadfast and unwavering supporter of peace building efforts here. He was an early supporter of the establishment of the John Hume and Thomas P ONeill Chair in Peace and has today launched the Ulster University Hume ONeill Washington Lecture Series as he continues to support the universitys expertise in peace and conflict resolution. Chads government continues to hold the head of an Equatorial Guinean opposition party after he was arrested south of NDjamena, the Chadian capital, last Thursday, according to the Spanish foreign ministry.The Spanish government is deeply concerned about this detention and calls on the governments of Chad and Equatorial Guinea to handle Andres Esonos case with the utmost respect for his fundamental rights, according to a statement from the authorities in Madrid.Andres Esono, the secretary general of the Equatorial Guinean political party Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) was accused by the Equatorial Guinea government of trying to organize a coup detat from Chad by recruiting fighters and buying arms and munitions.According to the Spanish foreign ministry, Esono had been invited to speak at a conference in Chad by UNDR, Chads main opposition party.Esonos CPDS party holds no seats in the Equatorial Guinean assembly, but he has been a regular target of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang. He was falsely accused of trying to spread the Ebola virus throughout the country in 2015.The Equatorial Guinea government is afraid of anything it doesnt control, said Tutu Alicante, the executive director of EG Justice, a US-based Equatorial Guinean human rights group.Human Rights Watch outlined how any opposition or critic of the Obiang government is targeted with torture, intimidation, detention and beatings.They called Human Rights Watch all sorts of names, and they consider me an enemy of the state and a traitor, Alicante told RFI. The government considers members of the opposition and human rights defenders as against them, according to the human rights activist.International pressure key to his releaseAlicante believes that African countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Botswana can help Esonos case.Sadly, the Central African region is full of other dictators - Idriss Deby is a dictator, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Paul Biya, Ali Bongo, theyre all dictators, said Alicante, referring to leaders in Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon and Gabon.Countries outside the African continent could also pressure Chad to release him using their bilateral relationships and economic influence to push for Esonos release, said Alicante.The Chadian government, like many other governments, listens, and is influenced by pressure from foreign countries, countries like France, and countries like the United States, and the European Union, he added.Alicante gave the example of Yahya Jammeh, the former dictator of The Gambia, who lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea. Jammeh freely left The Gambia after he lost the election at the end of 2016, despite being accused of numerous forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, rapes and murders.Jammeh was free to go where he wanted because no African country was against this. And no country of the European Union, nor the US said anything, said Alicante.These are things that should not happen, Alicante added, making a comparison to Jammehs case and the situation with Esonos detention in Chad. Chads government continues to hold the head of an Equatorial Guinean opposition party after he was arrested south of NDjamena, the Chadian capital, last Thursday, according to the Spanish foreign ministry. The Spanish government is deeply concerned about this detention and calls on the governments of Chad and Equatorial Guinea to handle Andres Esonos case with the utmost respect for his fundamental rights, according to a statement from the authorities in Madrid. Andres Esono, the secretary general of the Equatorial Guinean political party Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) was accused by the Equatorial Guinea government of trying to organize a coup detat from Chad by recruiting fighters and buying arms and munitions. According to the Spanish foreign ministry, Esono had been invited to speak at a conference in Chad by UNDR, Chads main opposition party. Esonos CPDS party holds no seats in the Equatorial Guinean assembly, but he has been a regular target of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang. He was falsely accused of trying to spread the Ebola virus throughout the country in 2015. The Equatorial Guinea government is afraid of anything it doesnt control, said Tutu Alicante, the executive director of EG Justice, a US-based Equatorial Guinean human rights group. Human Rights Watch outlined how any opposition or critic of the Obiang government is targeted with torture, intimidation, detention and beatings. They called Human Rights Watch all sorts of names, and they consider me an enemy of the state and a traitor, Alicante told RFI. The government considers members of the opposition and human rights defenders as against them, according to the human rights activist. International pressure key to his release Alicante believes that African countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Botswana can help Esonos case. Sadly, the Central African region is full of other dictators - Idriss Deby is a dictator, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Paul Biya, Ali Bongo, theyre all dictators, said Alicante, referring to leaders in Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon and Gabon. Story continues Countries outside the African continent could also pressure Chad to release him using their bilateral relationships and economic influence to push for Esonos release, said Alicante. The Chadian government, like many other governments, listens, and is influenced by pressure from foreign countries, countries like France, and countries like the United States, and the European Union, he added. Alicante gave the example of Yahya Jammeh, the former dictator of The Gambia, who lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea. Jammeh freely left The Gambia after he lost the election at the end of 2016, despite being accused of numerous forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, rapes and murders. Jammeh was free to go where he wanted because no African country was against this. And no country of the European Union, nor the US said anything, said Alicante. These are things that should not happen, Alicante added, making a comparison to Jammehs case and the situation with Esonos detention in Chad. As 10 Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra go to the polls in the second phase of elections on Thursday, the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena have to defend four seats each, which they won last time. Voters in 10 Lok Sabha seats of the state will exercise their right to vote in the second phase of general elections on April 18. The 10 constituencies from Maharashtra that will go to polls during the second phase of 2019 Lok Sabha elections include Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur and Solapur. The BJP, which had won 23 seats in the state in the last Lok Sabha elections, this time faces a formidable challenge from the coalition of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Indian National Congress (INC). During the 2014 elections for the Lok Sabha, Narendra Modi-led BJP had won the maximum number of 23 seats, followed by the Shiv Sena 18, NCP 4, INC 2 and Socialist Workers Party (SWP) by 1 seat. The major contenders in the state are the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA). UPA consisted of the Congress and the NCP whereas the NDA consisted of the BJP and the Shiv Sena. The Aam Aadmi Party has decided not to contest Lok Sabha elections from Maharashtra this time. The election is also being seen as a direct fight between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Also Read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Poll dates, full schedule, voting FAQs, election results, constituencies' details After some friction in the past, the BJP and Shiv Sena have once again come together as allies, which might spell trouble for the opposition. Last month, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had accompanied BJP president Amit Shah when he went to file his nomination for the Gandhinagar seat in Gujarat. In the state, key constituencies to be watched out for include Solapur from where Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar, will be contesting against the Congress' Sushilkumar Shinde. Prakash, who will contest from both Akola and Solapur constituencies, is chief of Bahujan Vanchit Aghadi (VBA) - an alliance of his party Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh and Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM. The 17th Lok Sabha elections for the 48 Parliamentary constituencies of Maharashtra began on April 11. Voting has already taken place on seven seats in the first phase in the state. Polling will be held in four phases, namely April 11, 18, 23 and 29, 2019. Voting will be held at 95,473 polling stations spread across 49,284 polling station locations. Out of the state's total of 87,330,484 electors as on January 31, 2019, women constitute 47.7 per cent. The results will be announced on May 23, 2019. Edited by Chitranjan Kumar Also Read: Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase 2: West Bengal to vote on April 18; to see triangular contest for 3 seats A former prison turned tourist attraction in Belfast has launched a new Troubles themed tour. The Crumlin Road Gaol once housed scores of political prisoners up to its closure in 1996 before re-opening its imposing Victorian doors as a tourist attraction in 2012. The Gaol Circle showing B wing and C wing of Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast which is part of a new Troubles themed tour (Liam McBurney/PA) On Wednesday it launched a new tour based on the history of the Troubles. The four-and-a-half hour experience aims to give visitors an insight into the conflict and tell the disputed story from all sides. It will take visitors through some of Belfasts most divided communities, including the Shankill and Falls, to hear from former prisoners on both sides. A man walks past a mural on the Shankill Road remembering those victims who died in the Protestant community during the Troubles which is part of a new Troubles themed tour (Liam McBurney/PA) The tour concludes at the jail and includes a bowl of stew and a pint of Guinness at Cuffs Bar & Grill before beginning the last leg of the tour through the prison to hear the stories of the security forces. It includes a close-up look at one of the last Wessex helicopters in Northern Ireland. Coiste tour guide Peadar Whelan in C wing of Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast which is part of a new Troubles themed tour (Liam McBurney/PA) Once a common sight in the skies above the region as the workhorse of the British armed forces transporting troops and VIP visitors, the helicopter was given to the jail by the RAF earlier this year. Phelim Devlin, director at Crumlin Road Gaol, said: The Troubles Tour will cover all aspects of the more recent history here at Crumlin Road Gaol and in the local area including the insights from security services, loyalist and republican communities. Tourists are shown Belfasts Peace Wall on Cuper Way which is a barrier that separates predominantly Republican and Nationalist Catholic neighbourhoods from predominantly Loyalist and Unionist Protestant neighbourhoods (Liam McBurney/PA) This tour will provide an enhanced visitor experience at our five star visitor attraction in addition to contributing and enriching the growing tourism industry here in Belfast. The tour is recommended for those aged 15 and over and costs 35. For more details visit www.crumlinroadgaol.com. Halle Berry gets hungry at night, just like the rest of us. She just looks a lot better when it happens. The Oscar-winning actress shared a photo Tuesday that showed her "lookin' for a late night snack". The image showed Berry, 52, wearing a light wash denim jacket unbuttoned with nothing - no bra, no shirt - underneath, along with black pants and a smile. Fans filled her page with compliments and quips: "Giiiiiiiiiiiiiirl your damn snack just burst into flames" "Ageless beauty" "More like lookin' like a late night snack" "I'm not sure if I've ever seen such beauty. My goodness" "I was thinking that you're looking LIKE a late night snack" Around the same time, Berry shared a photo from the Morocco set of her new movie,John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. All the training Berry put in ahead of filming that action sequel, alongside Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Angelica Huston, means she probably doesn't have to feel guilty about eating a late-night snack... maybe ever. Earlier this month at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, she recalled the movie's director, Chad Stahelski, had warned her that she'd have to "train harder than anything in your life" for the role. Halle Berry on Instagram15 "And it was the hardest thing ever done in my entire life," Berry said. She and Reeves trained six days a week, doing martial arts and learning to handle firearms. "If I get attacked on the street, God bless them, because I know some stuff that will f*** them up," Berry said. She's also got some serious social media skills. - This article first appeared on Yahoo Residents have been able to return to their homes in Lurgan and Lisburn after suspicious objects were examined. Homes were evacuated in a fourth security alert in less than 24 hours in Northern Ireland. In the latest incident, residents were advised to leave a number of homes in the Rathvarna Drive area of Lisburn, Co Antrim, on Wednesday afternoon following a report of a suspicious object. A Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) spokesman said army bomb experts were tasked to the scene and made safe what has been termed as a crude device. Residents who were evacuated from their homes were able to return to their properties on Wednesday evening. Ive spoken with the individual targeted by a crude device in Ballymacash Drive and offered my support in the days ahead. Those responsible have nothing to offer society and after meeting people in the Community Centre it will only strengthen the resolve of the local community. Paul Givan (@paulgivan) April 17, 2019 Democratic Unionist MLA Paul Givan condemned those behind the device. Ive spoken with the individual targeted by a crude device in Ballymacash Drive and offered my support in the days ahead, he said. Those responsible have nothing to offer society and after meeting people in the community centre it will only strengthen the resolve of the local community. A separate security alert is ongoing in Lurgan, Co Armagh where the Cornakinnegar Road has been closed while PSNI officers examine a suspicious object at a closed school. Meanwhile, late on Tuesday, pipe bomb devices were found in separate incidents in areas of Armagh and Rasharkin, Co Antrim. Two of the devices exploded during an attack in the on Windmill Avenue area of Armagh at 11.30pm. Three people were in the house at the time. No one was injured, but the front door of the house was damaged. Over in Rasharkin. Two suspect devices. Residents having to be evacuated. pic.twitter.com/4zCVZixOKj Philip McGuigan (@mcguigan_philip) April 16, 2019 In Rasharkin, a number of residents of Moneyleck Park were evacuated at 10pm. Story continues A pipe bomb had been set on the windowsill outside a house and a second bomb was thrown through a front window, police said. Sinn Fein North Antrim MLA Philip McGuigan condemned those responsible for the Rasharkin incident. Those responsible for last nights disruption have shown complete disregard for the local area, he said. Im relieved that no one has been hurt and these lethal weapons have now being taken off the streets. I would urge anyone with information to bring it forward to the PSNI. Democratic Unionist North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey also spoke out about his concern. This is a very concerning incident and caused disruption to people living in the area. Anyone involved in placing such a device clearly has no regard for life, he said. I would appeal for anyone who witnessed anything suspicious in the area to contact the police and assist them in bringing those responsible to justice. Leo Varadkar was speaking at an event at Dublin Castle, attended by the US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi. Leo Varadkar has hailed the countrys continuing relationship with our friend the US. The Irish Premier was speaking as he hosted a reception at Dublin Castle attended by the United States House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi. Also attending were TDs, Senators, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster. The Taoiseach said people in US helped to bring peace to Ireland and helped the country take its place among nations of the world. When courageous men and women walked the path of peace they did so knowing the US was alongside them, he said. The Good Friday Agreement was made possible by Americans of good faith and they helped pave the way for prosperity and gave young people their own future. The United States has been our friend through the worst of hardships and the best of times. Today we inhabit a shared world, we face the same challenges, and we search for similar solutions. Lets continue to do so together. Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) April 17, 2019 Mr Varadkar added that Ireland will do everything the country can to avoid a hard border. He added: Last week in Brussels we agreed to give the UK more time to ratify the Agreement and when that is done we look forward to securing a partnership with the UK. We want it to be as close as it can possibly be. I know you (US) will be there as you always have in the past to help us build a better future. Irish men and women have helped make America great. Ireland has become a home from home for so many Americans. We want Ireland to act as a political and economic bridge between the EU and the US. Given our shared language and history, it means the US and the EU can better relate to each other on a political level. Story continues Mr Varadkar added: Today we are working to preserve all of that which has been achieved in the past and no matter what happens with Brexit, we will do everything we can to prevent the return of a hard border. In this we are backed by countries across the EU and indeed our friends in the United States. We all want free movement of people North and South and free trade and enterprise, North and South, to continue into the future and forever. He also said he hoped it would be possible to find a solution for the thousands of undocumented Irish living in the US and those who are in a similar position who come from other countries. Their welfare continues to be a real concern and priority for us, he added. We know the politics of migration is particularly contentious in your country, as it is in so many parts in the world, but we also know the capacity and the power of democracy and politics to bring about great change. Earlier on Wednesday Ms Pelosi addressed the Irish parliament on the second day of her four day visit to Ireland. Her delegation is set to travel to Northern Ireland on Thursday. Speaking at Dublin Castle, Ms Pelosi said: We all strive to make the future better for the next generation. The connection between the United States and Ireland is very precious to us. We see the Brexit conversation as an aberration and we see a brilliant future ahead working together. She presented Mr Varadkar with a bespoke bowl printed with doves and added: Its all about peace and that is what we are striving for. French Defence Minister Florence Parly on Thursday denied that French weapons sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed as part of ongoing offensives in the war in Yemen. The French government had come under fire for allegedly allowing French arms to be used in the conflict, resulting in civilian casualties.To my knowledge, these weapons are not used in an offensive manner in this war in Yemen, Parly told Radio Classique in an interview, according to reports from the AFP news agency.In any case, I dont have evidence that enables me to say that French weapons have caused civilian casualties in Yemen, she added.A French-led team of investigative journalists published a story earlier this week showing how Frances military intelligence agency submitted a document detailing how French-made military equipment was deployed in the Yemen conflict. The 15-page report was submitted to the French executive.At least 10,000 people have been killed in the war in Yemen, according to the World Health Organisation. The UN has said it is the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.The investigation revealed the sale of French-manufactured tanks, armoured vehicles, fighter jets, helicopters, artillery, ammunition and radar systems to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partner, the UAE.The intelligence agency report contained a map estimating that more than 430,000 people live within the range of French artillery weapons on the Saudi-Yemeni border, according to the Disclose investigative journalism website.The investigation, entitled the Yemen Papers, contradicted French government statements about its awareness of how French-made weapons were being deployed in the conflict.Defense Minister Parly had said in January that she had no knowledge as to whether [French] weapons are being used directly in this conflict.Rights group Amnesty International launched a petition calling for an end to arms sales by France to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In a statement, it said France continues to supply weapons, despite an increased risk that they may be used to facilitate or commit serious human rights violations in Yemen.The conflict in Yemen pits a regional pro-government coalition led by Saudi Arabia against the Iran-linked Huthis. French Defence Minister Florence Parly on Thursday denied that French weapons sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed as part of ongoing offensives in the war in Yemen. The French government had come under fire for allegedly allowing French arms to be used in the conflict, resulting in civilian casualties. To my knowledge, these weapons are not used in an offensive manner in this war in Yemen, Parly told Radio Classique in an interview, according to reports from the AFP news agency. In any case, I dont have evidence that enables me to say that French weapons have caused civilian casualties in Yemen, she added. A French-led team of investigative journalists published a story earlier this week showing how Frances military intelligence agency submitted a document detailing how French-made military equipment was deployed in the Yemen conflict. The 15-page report was submitted to the French executive. At least 10,000 people have been killed in the war in Yemen, according to the World Health Organisation. The UN has said it is the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. The investigation revealed the sale of French-manufactured tanks, armoured vehicles, fighter jets, helicopters, artillery, ammunition and radar systems to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partner, the UAE. The intelligence agency report contained a map estimating that more than 430,000 people live within the range of French artillery weapons on the Saudi-Yemeni border, according to the Disclose investigative journalism website. The investigation, entitled the Yemen Papers, contradicted French government statements about its awareness of how French-made weapons were being deployed in the conflict. Defense Minister Parly had said in January that she had no knowledge as to whether [French] weapons are being used directly in this conflict. Rights group Amnesty International launched a petition calling for an end to arms sales by France to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In a statement, it said France continues to supply weapons, despite an increased risk that they may be used to facilitate or commit serious human rights violations in Yemen. The conflict in Yemen pits a regional pro-government coalition led by Saudi Arabia against the Iran-linked Huthis. Mondays calamitous fire at Notre-Dame elicited an unprecedented outpouring of generosity from donors near and far, great and small. But as the embers cooled, so have cracks appeared in the initial elan of unity and controversy flared over funds. Donations nearing the billion euro markDonors had by Thursday already pledged 850 million to rebuild the 850-year-old monument. The unheard-of sum appeared with lightning speed -- not least, observers quip, thanks to a fortuitous, decades-old rivalry between two of Frances top culture-minded billionaire families, the Pinaults and the Arnaults, who head the worlds top luxury goods giants, Kering and LVMH.The Pinaults pledged 100 million shortly after midnight on the night of the fire, with the Arnaults adding 200 million as Paris awoke the following morning. The Bettencourt family and its LOreal cosmetics firm chipped in 200 million later on Tuesday. Other French fortunes have followed suit (the Bouygues brothers offered up 10 million euros; Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere earmarked 10 million more to revive the buildings iconic spire).Oil giant Total gave 100 million and advertising firm JCDecaux put up 20 million. Business concerns including French banks (BNP, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, BPCE), insurer Axa, and the pharmaceutical firm Sanofi have made pledges totalling tens of millions. La Francaise des Jeux, the national lottery company, is allocating its share of the proceeds from Saturdays Easter lotto for the purpose. The City of Paris (50 million) leads the flurry of donations from assorted levels of government across the country.Other firms pledged help in kind. Air France-KLM offered free flights for experts officially taking part in the rebuilding of Notre-Dame. The day after the blaze, the insurer Groupama offered 1,300 oak trees from the forests it owns in Normandy, on the assumption the cathedrals ravaged roof would be rebuilt to match the 13th-century original. Steelmaker ArcelorMittal on Thursday offered up steel. Saint-Gobain has offered its glasswork expertise.Books, videogames, cartoonsPublishers of certain French-language editions of Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, which shot to the top of bestseller lists after the tragedy, have pledged to donate the proceeds.French video game maker Ubisoft, whose Assassins Creed Unity includes a faithful digital reproduction of Notre-Dame, promised 500,000 to the cause.Abroad, Apple chief Tim Cook pledged an unspecified sum and the Walt Disney Company, which turned Hugos Hunchback into a 1996 animated feature, said it would put up $5 million. The University of Notre Dame promised another $100,000.An Olympic effortThe International Olympic Committee said it would give 500,000 to boost the chances of meeting French President Emmanuel Macrons five-year rebuild goal, with Paris slated to host the summer Games in five years time. The objective of completing this reconstruction in time for Paris 2024 will be extra motivation for us all, IOC President Thomas Bach wrote in a letter to the organisers.In Hungary, the city of Szeged, population 160,000, said it would donate 10,000 in gratitude for a donation from the City of Paris after a flood devastated the city south of Budapest killing 160 people in 1879.Still, the astronomical pledges from conglomerates, billionaires and government authorities the world over have not discouraged individual donors from stepping forward en masse. The Fondation du Patrimoine, or French Heritage Foundation, had collected 13.1 million in donations from individuals by late Wednesday. It is one of four organisations the French government has certified to take donations, alongside the Fondation de France, the Fondation Notre-Dame de Paris and the Centre des Monuments Nationaux.Scam artists at workThe Fondation du Patrimoine issued a warning on Wednesday that fraudsters are seeking to profit from the torrent of generosity after the inferno. A number of scams have been flagged to us both in France and abroad, the organisation said Wednesday, saying any phone, mail or e-mail appeals arent coming from the foundation. All of these initiatives are fraudulent.Taxman lends a handPrime Minister Edouard Philippe announced an extra fiscal incentive for individual donors, bumping the usual tax break for such donations to 75 percent, up from 66 percent, for gifts up to 1,000.Gilles Carrez, the conservative lawmaker who reports to the French lower houses Finance Committee on heritage spending matters, deplored the fact that exemptions meant taxpayers would be saddled with the lions share of reconstruction costs. Out of nearly 700 million [pledged Tuesday], nearly 420 million will be financed by the state, by way of the 2020 budget, Carrez told Le Monde.The MEDEF employers union, for its part, put out a statement on Thursday noting that, since Notre-Dame Cathedral belongs to the state, which serves as its own insurer for the building, all of the rebuilding costs would fall to the state anyway. Every donation, even tax exempt at 60 percent, is therefore a 40 percent savings for the state on the amount given, it said. In short, since no one would suggest leaving the emblematic landmark in ruin, every little contribution helps.Some rich donors, meanwhile -- amid mounting controversy over their motivations as well as the hit to taxpayers said they would forgo the fiscal favours attached to giving. The Pinault family said as much Wednesday and JCDecaux followed suit Thursday. LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault told a shareholder meeting on Thursday that his family holding company was not eligible for a tax break and that his firm had reached the ceiling for such benefits.Theres some pettiness and jealousy in the air, instead of people thinking about the general interest, Arnault said, responding to criticism over his pledges. In many other countries wed be congratulated.BacklashIndeed, in a country that has seen 22 consecutive Saturdays of Yellow Vest protests partly in the name of income inequality, the backlash to such spontaneous largesse is audible.In one click, 200 million, 100 million. That shows the inequality which we regularly denounce in this country, CGT union chief Philippe Martinez said Wednesday. If they can give tens of millions to rebuild Notre-Dame, then they should stop telling us there is no money to help with the social emergency [in France].On BFMTV, Ingrid Levavasseur, one of the early figureheads of the Yellow Vest movement, slammed the inertia of the big conglomerates in the face of social misery when they prove their capacity for mobilising crazy cash for Notre-Dame in a single night.Culture Minister Franck Riester responded to the controversy: This pointless debate consists of saying its too much money for Notre-Dame even though there are needs elsewhere of course theres a need for money for the social system, for health, the fight against climate change, Riester told RMC radio. But lets leave this extraordinary show of generosity to run its course.Meanwhile, the media personality who Macron charged with overseeing the influx of funds has pointed out that restoring the cathedral will bring Frances unique savoir-faire to bear and that the funds raised will save metiers and create jobs. When will people understand that stones nourish men? For goodness sake, all of these professions would disappear! Stephane Bern told BFMTV. Opposing old stones to men is ridiculous!Observers further afield took note of the discrepancy in action over Notre-Dame and causes like climate change or justice for the victims of Londons deadly 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg made the analogy in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Yesterday, the whole world witnessed with sadness and despair the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris, but Notre-Dame will be rebuilt. I hope it has strong foundations and I hope we have strong foundations, but Im not so sure. Evoking the panic needed when ones house is on fire, Thunberg told the assembled lawmakers, Our house is falling apart and yet nothing is happening. Well have to switch to cathedral mode. I ask you to wake up and do what is necessary.Knock-on effectsThe sweeping breadth of fundraising for Notre-Dame did indirectly bring attention and inspire knock-on generosity for three US churches recently ravaged by arson.As Twitter users suggested that US President Donald Trump and US Vice-President Mike Pence appeared more interested in Notre-Dame than in the three Louisiana churches attended predominantly by African American worshippers and torched by a white suspect three weeks ago, a social media campaign urged people to give.Supporters tweeted nods to the French cathedral blaze to encourage help century-old churches an ocean away.Among them was Hillary Clinton, who tweeted: As we hold Paris in our hearts today, lets also send some love to our neighbours in Louisiana."Donors responded: Pledges for the Louisiana churches spiked to $1.5 million on Wednesday night, at least quintupling the money gathered over the previous week.(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS and AP) Mondays calamitous fire at Notre-Dame elicited an unprecedented outpouring of generosity from donors near and far, great and small. But as the embers cooled, so have cracks appeared in the initial elan of unity and controversy flared over funds. Donations nearing the billion euro mark Donors had by Thursday already pledged 850 million to rebuild the 850-year-old monument. The unheard-of sum appeared with lightning speed -- not least, observers quip, thanks to a fortuitous, decades-old rivalry between two of Frances top culture-minded billionaire families, the Pinaults and the Arnaults, who head the worlds top luxury goods giants, Kering and LVMH. The Pinaults pledged 100 million shortly after midnight on the night of the fire, with the Arnaults adding 200 million as Paris awoke the following morning. The Bettencourt family and its LOreal cosmetics firm chipped in 200 million later on Tuesday. Other French fortunes have followed suit (the Bouygues brothers offered up 10 million euros; Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere earmarked 10 million more to revive the buildings iconic spire). Oil giant Total gave 100 million and advertising firm JCDecaux put up 20 million. Business concerns including French banks (BNP, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, BPCE), insurer Axa, and the pharmaceutical firm Sanofi have made pledges totalling tens of millions. La Francaise des Jeux, the national lottery company, is allocating its share of the proceeds from Saturdays Easter lotto for the purpose. The City of Paris (50 million) leads the flurry of donations from assorted levels of government across the country. Other firms pledged help in kind. Air France-KLM offered free flights for experts officially taking part in the rebuilding of Notre-Dame. The day after the blaze, the insurer Groupama offered 1,300 oak trees from the forests it owns in Normandy, on the assumption the cathedrals ravaged roof would be rebuilt to match the 13th-century original. Steelmaker ArcelorMittal on Thursday offered up steel. Saint-Gobain has offered its glasswork expertise. Story continues Books, videogames, cartoons Publishers of certain French-language editions of Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, which shot to the top of bestseller lists after the tragedy, have pledged to donate the proceeds. French video game maker Ubisoft, whose Assassins Creed Unity includes a faithful digital reproduction of Notre-Dame, promised 500,000 to the cause. Abroad, Apple chief Tim Cook pledged an unspecified sum and the Walt Disney Company, which turned Hugos Hunchback into a 1996 animated feature, said it would put up $5 million. The University of Notre Dame promised another $100,000. An Olympic effort The International Olympic Committee said it would give 500,000 to boost the chances of meeting French President Emmanuel Macrons five-year rebuild goal, with Paris slated to host the summer Games in five years time. The objective of completing this reconstruction in time for Paris 2024 will be extra motivation for us all, IOC President Thomas Bach wrote in a letter to the organisers. In Hungary, the city of Szeged, population 160,000, said it would donate 10,000 in gratitude for a donation from the City of Paris after a flood devastated the city south of Budapest killing 160 people in 1879. Still, the astronomical pledges from conglomerates, billionaires and government authorities the world over have not discouraged individual donors from stepping forward en masse. The Fondation du Patrimoine, or French Heritage Foundation, had collected 13.1 million in donations from individuals by late Wednesday. It is one of four organisations the French government has certified to take donations, alongside the Fondation de France, the Fondation Notre-Dame de Paris and the Centre des Monuments Nationaux. Scam artists at work The Fondation du Patrimoine issued a warning on Wednesday that fraudsters are seeking to profit from the torrent of generosity after the inferno. A number of scams have been flagged to us both in France and abroad, the organisation said Wednesday, saying any phone, mail or e-mail appeals arent coming from the foundation. All of these initiatives are fraudulent. Taxman lends a hand Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced an extra fiscal incentive for individual donors, bumping the usual tax break for such donations to 75 percent, up from 66 percent, for gifts up to 1,000. Gilles Carrez, the conservative lawmaker who reports to the French lower houses Finance Committee on heritage spending matters, deplored the fact that exemptions meant taxpayers would be saddled with the lions share of reconstruction costs. Out of nearly 700 million [pledged Tuesday], nearly 420 million will be financed by the state, by way of the 2020 budget, Carrez told Le Monde. The MEDEF employers union, for its part, put out a statement on Thursday noting that, since Notre-Dame Cathedral belongs to the state, which serves as its own insurer for the building, all of the rebuilding costs would fall to the state anyway. Every donation, even tax exempt at 60 percent, is therefore a 40 percent savings for the state on the amount given, it said. In short, since no one would suggest leaving the emblematic landmark in ruin, every little contribution helps. Some rich donors, meanwhile -- amid mounting controversy over their motivations as well as the hit to taxpayers said they would forgo the fiscal favours attached to giving. The Pinault family said as much Wednesday and JCDecaux followed suit Thursday. LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault told a shareholder meeting on Thursday that his family holding company was not eligible for a tax break and that his firm had reached the ceiling for such benefits. Theres some pettiness and jealousy in the air, instead of people thinking about the general interest, Arnault said, responding to criticism over his pledges. In many other countries wed be congratulated. Backlash Indeed, in a country that has seen 22 consecutive Saturdays of Yellow Vest protests partly in the name of income inequality, the backlash to such spontaneous largesse is audible. In one click, 200 million, 100 million. That shows the inequality which we regularly denounce in this country, CGT union chief Philippe Martinez said Wednesday. If they can give tens of millions to rebuild Notre-Dame, then they should stop telling us there is no money to help with the social emergency [in France]. On BFMTV, Ingrid Levavasseur, one of the early figureheads of the Yellow Vest movement, slammed the inertia of the big conglomerates in the face of social misery when they prove their capacity for mobilising crazy cash for Notre-Dame in a single night. Culture Minister Franck Riester responded to the controversy: This pointless debate consists of saying its too much money for Notre-Dame even though there are needs elsewhere of course theres a need for money for the social system, for health, the fight against climate change, Riester told RMC radio. But lets leave this extraordinary show of generosity to run its course. Meanwhile, the media personality who Macron charged with overseeing the influx of funds has pointed out that restoring the cathedral will bring Frances unique savoir-faire to bear and that the funds raised will save metiers and create jobs. When will people understand that stones nourish men? For goodness sake, all of these professions would disappear! Stephane Bern told BFMTV. Opposing old stones to men is ridiculous! Observers further afield took note of the discrepancy in action over Notre-Dame and causes like climate change or justice for the victims of Londons deadly 2017 Grenfell Tower fire. Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg made the analogy in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Yesterday, the whole world witnessed with sadness and despair the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris, but Notre-Dame will be rebuilt. I hope it has strong foundations and I hope we have strong foundations, but Im not so sure. Evoking the panic needed when ones house is on fire, Thunberg told the assembled lawmakers, Our house is falling apart and yet nothing is happening. Well have to switch to cathedral mode. I ask you to wake up and do what is necessary. Knock-on effects The sweeping breadth of fundraising for Notre-Dame did indirectly bring attention and inspire knock-on generosity for three US churches recently ravaged by arson. As Twitter users suggested that US President Donald Trump and US Vice-President Mike Pence appeared more interested in Notre-Dame than in the three Louisiana churches attended predominantly by African American worshippers and torched by a white suspect three weeks ago, a social media campaign urged people to give. Supporters tweeted nods to the French cathedral blaze to encourage help century-old churches an ocean away. Among them was Hillary Clinton, who tweeted: As we hold Paris in our hearts today, lets also send some love to our neighbours in Louisiana." Donors responded: Pledges for the Louisiana churches spiked to $1.5 million on Wednesday night, at least quintupling the money gathered over the previous week. (FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS and AP) The suspects in the murder of ex-Rwandan spy Chief Patrick Karegeya could be brought to justice. A South African judge on Thursday ordered the case to be handed over to prosecutors who will consider whether to issue arrest warrants. The case threatens to embarrass President Paul Kagame, accused of being "directly linked" to the alleged assassins.Patrick Karegeya, a former Rwandan spy Chief and top aide to President Paul Kagame, was strangled on New Year's Eve in 2013 after being invited to a glitzy five-star hotel in Johannesburg.His family and opposition colleagues have always blamed the murder on Rwandan intelligence acting on orders from Kagame a claim he has vehemently denied.Up until now, prosecutors in South Africa have treated Karegeya's murder with caution, not least because of the possible diplomatic fallout it threatens with Rwanda.One police officer in charge of the investigation told the court on Thursday that the killers were "well-known.""Our investigations reveal that the identified suspects immediately fled South Africa after committing the crime," lieutenant-colonel Kwena Motlhamme told AFP.Direct links to KigaliThe suspects are still in Rwanda today, which makes it very difficult to trace them, he said.According to police investigators, their "direct links" to the government of President Paul Kagame makes issuing arrest warrants sensitive.That would require official requests for their extradition, which could further strain relations between Kigali and Pretoria.The Rwandan embassy was already closed over the scandal in 2014, shortly after 53-year-old Karegeya was found dead in the Michelango hotel which led to ambassadors from both countries being expelled.Even so, Karegeya's family is hoping against all hope that the government of South Africa can bring about justice.Justice now"Definitely what the family needs, or the Rwandans and the human rights activists need, or even what the South African government needs, is to see justice done," insists Kennedy Gihana, one of the family's lawyers.Karegeya was murdered in a well-planned attack, which has been compared to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October."People must not act with impunity. We want the people who killed Patrick Karegeya to be accountable, and to pay for the crimes they committed. So thats what the family needs, they need justice; they need closure," Gihana told RFI."There was overwhelming evidence connecting the Rwandan embassy to the people who came here and killed Patrick, so that was not acceptable," says Frank Ntwali, who represents Rwandan refugees in South Africa."We know that, as refugees living in South Africa, weve been hunted and tracked down by the agents of Kigali sent down to South Africa, as theyve done in other countries to kill so-called dissidents," Ntwali told RFI."Haven for killers"Karegeya had been a close friend of President Paul Kagame until they fell out. He fled Kigali in 2008, setting up the the Rwandan National Congress opposition party in exile.For rights groups, his demise matches a brazen pattern to silence Rwandan dissidents abroad. In a 2014 report, Human Rights Watch detailed 13 cases of former politicians from the ruling Rwandan Patriot Front, as well as military figures, intelligence agents and journalists who had fled Rwanda and been assassinated, kidnapped or attacked in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa or the UK."If the public prosecutor does not pursue this case, it will mean that South Africa has become a haven for killers," Gerrie Nel, another lawyer for Karegeya's family told AFP.Human rights vs recoveryAlthough there is no extradition treaty between Rwanda and South Africa, Karegeya's family members and lawyers want the South African authorities to issue arrest warrants for the suspects, allowing them to be detained if they travel outside Rwanda. It's now up to prosecutors to decide on whether to do so.The case has reignited concerns about Rwandas human rights record and shed light on the paradox between the countrys impressive recovery since the 1994 genocide and its history of suppressing political freedom. Contacted by RFI, officials within the Rwandan government abstained from commenting on the Karegeya case, saying it was an internal matter for South Africa. The suspects in the murder of ex-Rwandan spy Chief Patrick Karegeya could be brought to justice. A South African judge on Thursday ordered the case to be handed over to prosecutors who will consider whether to issue arrest warrants. The case threatens to embarrass President Paul Kagame, accused of being "directly linked" to the alleged assassins. Patrick Karegeya, a former Rwandan spy Chief and top aide to President Paul Kagame, was strangled on New Year's Eve in 2013 after being invited to a glitzy five-star hotel in Johannesburg. His family and opposition colleagues have always blamed the murder on Rwandan intelligence acting on orders from Kagame a claim he has vehemently denied. Up until now, prosecutors in South Africa have treated Karegeya's murder with caution, not least because of the possible diplomatic fallout it threatens with Rwanda. One police officer in charge of the investigation told the court on Thursday that the killers were "well-known." "Our investigations reveal that the identified suspects immediately fled South Africa after committing the crime," lieutenant-colonel Kwena Motlhamme told AFP. Direct links to Kigali The suspects are still in Rwanda today, which makes it very difficult to trace them, he said. According to police investigators, their "direct links" to the government of President Paul Kagame makes issuing arrest warrants sensitive. That would require official requests for their extradition, which could further strain relations between Kigali and Pretoria. The Rwandan embassy was already closed over the scandal in 2014, shortly after 53-year-old Karegeya was found dead in the Michelango hotel which led to ambassadors from both countries being expelled. Even so, Karegeya's family is hoping against all hope that the government of South Africa can bring about justice. Justice now "Definitely what the family needs, or the Rwandans and the human rights activists need, or even what the South African government needs, is to see justice done," insists Kennedy Gihana, one of the family's lawyers. Story continues Karegeya was murdered in a well-planned attack, which has been compared to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October. "People must not act with impunity. We want the people who killed Patrick Karegeya to be accountable, and to pay for the crimes they committed. So thats what the family needs, they need justice; they need closure," Gihana told RFI. "There was overwhelming evidence connecting the Rwandan embassy to the people who came here and killed Patrick, so that was not acceptable," says Frank Ntwali, who represents Rwandan refugees in South Africa. "We know that, as refugees living in South Africa, weve been hunted and tracked down by the agents of Kigali sent down to South Africa, as theyve done in other countries to kill so-called dissidents," Ntwali told RFI. "Haven for killers" Karegeya had been a close friend of President Paul Kagame until they fell out. He fled Kigali in 2008, setting up the the Rwandan National Congress opposition party in exile. For rights groups, his demise matches a brazen pattern to silence Rwandan dissidents abroad. In a 2014 report, Human Rights Watch detailed 13 cases of former politicians from the ruling Rwandan Patriot Front, as well as military figures, intelligence agents and journalists who had fled Rwanda and been assassinated, kidnapped or attacked in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa or the UK. "If the public prosecutor does not pursue this case, it will mean that South Africa has become a haven for killers," Gerrie Nel, another lawyer for Karegeya's family told AFP. Human rights vs recovery Although there is no extradition treaty between Rwanda and South Africa, Karegeya's family members and lawyers want the South African authorities to issue arrest warrants for the suspects, allowing them to be detained if they travel outside Rwanda. It's now up to prosecutors to decide on whether to do so. The case has reignited concerns about Rwandas human rights record and shed light on the paradox between the countrys impressive recovery since the 1994 genocide and its history of suppressing political freedom. Contacted by RFI, officials within the Rwandan government abstained from commenting on the Karegeya case, saying it was an internal matter for South Africa. Thailands March general election was the first poll since the countrys military deposed the government of Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. And there are now fears that the ruling junta will manipulate the countrys complex electoral code to achieve its own desired result. Given the significant deterioration of domestic freedoms since the Thai military staged a coup d'etat in 2014 and dissolved the elected government, there were low expectations for the election which took place, after considerable delay, on March 24. And so the fact that the opposition Pheu Thai (PT) party, affiliated with Thailands exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2014, won the most number of seats despite losing the popular vote to the military-backed Palang Pracharat (PP) party came as a surprise. Thailand was further shocked when an anti-military coalition of six parties led by the PT announced it would form a coalition government. Vote rigging? The campaign, which kicked off in December 2018, was marked by fears that the junta, led by retired general Prayut Chan-o-cha, would rig the vote to ensure it maintained control of parliament. The military-backed party, Palang Pracharat (PP), which gained a total of 118 (of 500) seats but won more national votes than the PT, also announced that it should have the right to form the government. Now all eyes are on the official result of the election, scheduled to be announced on May 9, after the coronation of the new king Rama X Vajiralongkorn earlier in the month. There are fears that the junta will influence that result by manipulating the complex mathematics involved in allocating seats in the lower house of parliament. The 2017 constitution set up a bicameral parliament with 250 seats in the senate, or upper house, and 500 seats in the house of representatives, or lower house. The military already controls the senate, so the national election was for the lower house where 350 constituency seats are elected through the first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system, and 150 are filled through a closed party list. Story continues The FPTP part is relatively straightforward, as there are 350 electoral constituencies in Thailand, and the candidate who wins the most votes in each one takes that seat. The method by which the 150 party-list seats are allocated, however, is considerably more confusing. A riddle Thailands electoral system is a type of mixed member proportional representation system but with only one ballot. Thus, unlike other mixed member proportional representation systems, such as the one used in German Bundestag elections where people have two ballots, one for an individual and the other for a party the Thai system only gives people one choice. This means that a voter can only vote for a specific party if there is a candidate from that party standing for election in the voters constituency area. So if a party does not send a representative to a constituency area, then that party cannot get any party-list votes. This is problematic for smaller parties, which, due to budget constraints, can stand for only a few constituency areas. In PTs case, its candidates stood for 250 of the 350 constituency areas because these are the ones that it believed it could win. For the remaining 100 constituency areas, its original plan was to use an allied party, Thai Raksa Chart (TRC). But this plan was foiled after the TRC was banned when it nominated a royal princess as its prime ministerial candidate. The election commission chose to disqualify her on the basis that the royal family should not be involved in politics, and then banned the party from contesting the election. Most voters in constituencies where PT did not nominate representatives, and who would otherwise have voted for the TRC, transferred their votes to the Future Forward Party (FFP) in the election, which unexpectedly became the third-biggest party and took a large share of the party-list seats. The maths bit To calculate how the 150 party-list seats are allocated requires substantial mathematical skill which is actually the whole point. By making it complex and opaque, the ruling junta has made the system incomprehensible to most voters. It is based on a concept of expected number of representatives (ENR), which refers to the theoretical number a party should get in the 500-seat lower house as a proportion of the total number of countable ballots (TNCB) nationwide. And yes, that is as complex as it sounds. The ENR of a party is based on three components: the total number of votes a party gets (TNVP), the total number of countable ballots (TNCB), and the total number of seats in the lower house (500), using the formula ENR = TNVP x 500/TNCB. After the ENR is calculated, whether a party gets any seats on the party-list depends on the ratio between the ENR and the actual number of constituency seats a party has already got. So, if a partys number of constituency seats exceeds the ENR, then that party cannot get any more party-list ones. In PTs case, the party has already won 137 constituency seats, but its ENR is only about 111 (PT won a total of 7,920,630 votes, and the total number countable ballots is around 35.5m). Thus, only those parties whose number of constituency seats is less than the ENR would be eligible for allocation of the party-list seats and even the final distribution of those is highly complex. Smoke and mirrors But all this complexity works in the ruling juntas favour. It would be a daunting challenge for the public to understand the intricacies of how their votes were counted, which would then reduce the accountability of the leadership. It also seems the system has succeeded in fragmenting the political party status quo in Thailand. So far, at least 16 political parties appear to have won at least one seat in the parliament, which is a bad omen of future instability. The opposition PT has announced that it has amassed around 255 votes from seven parties to form a coalition. But even if such a coalition government is formed, how effective it will be is any ones guess. Similarly, if the militarys allies manage to form the government, it will unlikely be any more stable, largely due to the relatively low number of lower-house seats the PP has won. More importantly, the Thai prime minister must also be nominated by both the senate and the house of representatives combined. And given the military already controls 250 seats in the senate, it seems unlikely that PT will succeed in getting its candidate through. Chaos, it seems, awaits. The authors would like to thank Dr. Pitch Pongsawat of Chulalongkorn University for his patient explanation of the history of the Thai electoral system. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The Conversation The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Cab aggregator Ola has announced that it will provide free rides to the person with disabilities (PWD) in Karnataka across Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Mangaluru on the Election Day today and Ballari, Hubali-Dharwad, Gulbarga, and Belgaum on April 23, 2019. Karnataka is having a two-phase Lok Sabha polls with 14 of the 28 seats going for polling today i.e. April 18. The second phase will be on April 23. The sole purpose of offering free rides is to let more people become part of the electoral process and increase the participation of PWD's in the elections who, otherwise' wouldn't have voted. Ola has assigned 270 cabs to the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer including the civic bodies in various cities to ferry PWD voters to the booth. In a statement, Ola said, "In a bid to increase voter participation, Ola has partnered with the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka and Mangalore Zilla Panchayat, the Bengaluru District Electoral Officer, and the Commissioner of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and the District Electoral Officer and Commissioner of Mysore Corporation to provide free rides to PWD voters." Ola has set up separate help lines to help PWD voters and address their queries and issues. The numbers are 9071464553 / 7624915133, Ola said in its release. In order to verify the status of the scheduled pickups of the PWD voters, IVRs related to the ECs rules will be played on the driver partners' mobile phones. "The upcoming Lok Sabha elections are the largest democratic elections held in the world and ease of mobility is integral to the effective functioning of the system. In the recent past, we have seen that availability of convenient transport options has resulted in positive voter turnout and we will continue to back initiatives that support the constitutional machinery of the country," said Vishnu Bommareddy, Regional Head - South at Ola. "We are grateful to Ola and appreciate their efforts in enabling seamless transportation so that every citizen can go out and vote," Surya Sen AV, Joint Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, said. Edited By: Udit Verma Also Read: Lok Sabha election phase 2 live updates: Rahul Gandhi appeals to voters; says 'Vote for NYAY today' Also Read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting on April 18; FAQs, polling on 95 seats Will Poker Players Miss the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino When It's Gone? April 18 2019 Eric Mertens Despite the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino being the summer mecca for poker players and aficionados worldwide since 2005 going on 15 years recent rumors of the venue's potential impending demolition was welcomed by many in the industry. You can read up on the potential sale of Caesars and the cloudy future of the Rio here. In this article, we take a look at the reactions that came out of the poker world. Las Vegas Locally tweeted some scuttlebutt: "Caesars is valued at $5.6 billion... but carries a whopping $18 billion in debt" https://t.co/K69sWfHzrk Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) Some Caesars insiders believe a sale to billionaire Tilman Fertitta will happen within the next 2 weeks https://t.co/JCU3uX81Ph Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) And in came the reactions on Twitter: @LasVegasLocally No biggie, just bump the resort fees and maybe charge more for breathing on mini bar items. Problem solved. The LV Bar Man (@TheLVBarMan) @LasVegasLocally Sounds like they made a big mistake by charging those #resortfees #ialto Rick (@pimpinwear) @LasVegasLocally Stayed there once before we moved here. Our window literally faced a wall, room service was slow and incorrect. Meh. Dee Severe (@SevereSociety) A source from Las Vegas Locally also posted the news that Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, the 15-year home to the World Series of Poker, may soon be no more... [email protected], the company behind the SoCal-to-Vegas high-speed rail project #XpressWest, may be the buyer. https://t.co/YoQsMxngaM Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) David "ODB" Baker wondered if this would affect the upcoming WSOP, but it seems most likely it won't. Matt Waxman joked that the demolition could coincide with the summer series. @audavidb @WSOP It's definitely at RIO - they're waiting until all of us are inside playing before they start the demolition. Lol Matt Waxman (@Matthew_Waxman) WSOP put those concerns to rest with an official response on Twitter: We'll be there, 100% certain (except act of mother nature, etc.). https://t.co/EvmqDDYPjq WSOP (@WSOP) Some Rio WSOP regulars, both players and media, expressed their "concerns"... WAIT WAIT WAIT .... Lance Bradley (@Lance_Bradley) @Kevmath @Lance_Bradley First Buzio's and now this! Chad Holloway (@ChadAHolloway) @Lance_Bradley The only thing good about the Rio was the wine cellar Erik (@ErikLemarquand) And long-time WSOP ESPN commentator Norman Chad presented a viable solution: BREAKING In an unprecedented promotion if the Rio is demolished the World Series of Poker will hold events scat https://t.co/i6Z1yMp7l3 Norman Chad (@NormanChad) @NormanChad Seems plausible. They seated us outside a seafood restaurant a few times. Jamie Kerstetter (@JamieKerstetter) @NormanChad If they held it at Roma Deli, everyone could have free soda @ToddBrunson Chris Schueller (@ChrisSchueller) Make sure to return to PokerNews in upcoming weeks for updates on the status of Caesars as well as the future of the current home of the WSOP. Rumors will surely continue to swirl, and with so many false alarms over the years, players and industry observers will understandably want to wait for something solid. PokerNews will continue to monitor things to see if anything concrete develops. Black hole photographer Katie Bouman. (Photo: Facebook/Katie Bouman) In the space of a few days, MIT postdoctoral fellow and team member of Event Horizon Telescope, Dr. Katie Bouman, was hailed as a STEM hero and symbol of female empowerment that the next generation of girls could proudly look up to. She was a member of the 200-strong team of scientists who captured the first-ever picture of the elusive black hole, and her work on the imaging algorithm helped the team reach success. Since her smiling picture was the one publicised round the world, she quickly became the face of the black hole discovery. Just as quickly, she was derided by Internet trolls as a fraud in the rush to celebrate her as the young, dynamic face of STEM that all girls could look up to, some on social media had overstated her role in the discovery. As she herself indicates in a post on Facebook from April 11, 2019, Bouman worked as part of a team: No one algorithm or person made this image, it required the amazing talent of a team of scientists from around the globe and years of hard work to develop the instrument, data processing, imaging methods, and analysis techniques that were necessary to pull off this seemingly impossible feat. Since we all feel we sort-of already know 29-year-old Dr. Katie Bouman via everyones reactions on social media, lets learn a bit more about her, shall we? Dr Katie Bouman, the 29-year-old scientist who this week created the first ever picture of a black hole, is humble about her achievements. (Photo: MIT CSAIL) 1. Just as soon as her picture appeared online, sexist trolls descended on Dr. Katie Bouman Reddit users among others were quick to minimise the scientists contributions to the project, with one writing: Notice something? Yeah, that woman wrote about 2,000 lines of code total. Another guy wrote over 850,000. Katie barely worked on the project at all until late last year, Andrew Chael worked on it relentlessly from its conception. If anyone deserves the credit, its him. Astronomer Chael was quick to rush to Baumans defence, writing on Twitter: So while I appreciate the congratulations on a result that I worked hard on for years, if you are congratulating me because you have a sexist vendetta against Katie, please go away and reconsider your priorities in life. Otherwise, stick around I hope to start tweeting. Story continues A black hole from millions of light-years away can now be imaged, but women continue to be given less than their due. (Photo: Twitter/Flora Graham) 2. Wikipedia deemed her not notable There is no doubt that women are still fighting for recognition in the scientific space its one of the reasons for the collective global hurrah and enthusiasm when Dr. Katie Boumans image first appeared alongside the black holes. After the discovery, Boumans Wikipedia page was created by physicist Dr. Jess Wade (one of our female STEM role models to know about, who has been rescuing female scientists from historical deletion by creating a Wikipedia biography for a female scientist or engineer daily). Within two days, her article was nominated for deletion. We think Maryam Zaringhalam, PhDs tweet sums it up nicely: What in the actual f**k?! Katie Boumans one of the scientists behind the image of the black hole Wikipedia article has been flagged as not notable. If shes not notable, then who TF is?! READ MORE: Female tech CEOs who play by their own rules 3. She has her own TED talk In 2016, Dr. Katie Bouman spoke on this very subject in a TEDxBeaconStreet talk entitled How to take a picture of a black hole, using the Event Horizon Telescope. Watch and learn. We could soon see a video of a black hole moving, scientists say. (Photo: EHT collaboration) We could soon see a video of a black hole moving, scientists say. (Photo: EHT collaboration) The people behind the black hole image. Here are (almost) all the heroes of the @ehtelescope. (From our last collaboration meeting in Nijmegen, Nov. 2018.) #EHTblackhole pic.twitter.com/ixegKTo5Lb Heino Falcke (@hfalcke) April 11, 2019 There are women involved in every single step of this amazing project. As a woman in STEM myself, its good to have role models out there who young girls and young boys can look up to. The diversity and group effort and the breadth of our collaboration, I think, is worth celebration, Sara Issaoun, a 24-year-old graduate student at Radboud University in the Netherlands who contributed to the research, told the New York Times. READ MORE: How parents can get their daughters excited about STEM Photo credit: Miller Mobley / AUGUST From Red Online Oprah Winfrey believes wanting to achieve your dreams is not enough, you must instead map out your path to success by sharing your intentions. Here, in an extract from her book The Path Made Clear, she reveals how to make things happen for you. How many times have you witnessed someone get close to achieving a goal, only to see it all suddenly fall apart? Or, he or she does reach the top of the mountain, but cant hold on. Maybe you too have struggled with near-misses and not-quite-realised dreams, yet are unable to pinpoint why. Self-sabotage can be a devastating cycle. I believe deeply in what Paulo Coelho so famously wrote in his seminal book, The Alchemist: 'When you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.' Time and again, I have seen how the Universe rises up to meet the vision that lives inside us. But just as often, Ive seen dreams crushed. The variable between winning the race and faltering at the finish line lies with one of the guiding forces in my life: intention. Before you embark on any quest, you must first articulate your vision. Set your course. It doesnt have to be a public or formal declaration, but it does need to be clear. Particularly in todays climate, where there is a palpable craving for meaning and authenticity, people can feel whats real and whats not. So if you want support for your idea, stand in what you hold sacred. Those who sense your truth will rise up. And, most importantly, you must believe with your whole heart that you are capable of achieving your goal. If not, your path becomes murky and the goal stays out of reach. For me, the journey to open The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls was one of the most challenging and ultimately rewarding Ive ever experienced. This was something I felt I had been growing towards my entire life. I recognised myself in the face of each and every girl yearning to overcome the trauma of poverty and all that it encompassed. These strong, talented future leaders could see their way forward but needed an environment in which to thrive. Story continues Thats why, despite confronting formidable obstacles along the way, breaking ground on the fifty-two acre campus just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, was an important full circle for me. Its taken an enormous emotional and financial investment, but ever since the year 2002, when I shared with Nelson Mandela my hope of creating access to education for those who demonstrated promise and potential, my commitment to the school has never wavered. So you can imagine my surprise when I was asked during an interview about critics who said the school would not last. 'They said that?' I asked the reporter. 'Yes, in the beginning,' she replied. My response to her was this: People have no idea of my tenacity. Once I commit to something and I have a full-hearted desire to see it work, I cant imagine what it would take to make me quit. I held a vision for what this school could be a place to build leaders and inspire greatness. I hand-picked every sock, every shoe, every door, every book to honour the girls who would attend. The purity of that intention was aligned from my heart to my head. I had no ulterior motive. This was about bringing the power of choice to the first generation of apartheid-free women in South Africa. That doesnt mean I didnt ask myself if it was worth it during some of the most difficult times. I certainly did wonder. But the answer that always came back was, Yes, this is one thousand percent worth it. I was convinced we could raise these girls to know for themselves what Ive told them over and over again: You are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. In my book, it is my hope that you will gain a greater understanding of how discovering your purpose begins with committing to your course. Whether you want to fulfil a long-held dream, find greater success in the career youve chosen, give more of yourself to others, or repair a broken relationship, you must first ask yourself why what is the real intention? And then, how will you execute the action? The tenth anniversary of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls was in 2017. To date, nearly 400 graduates have gone on to attend universities around the world. I set out to create a dream school where the brightest yet most vulnerable could find their voices and know for themselves that there is no bar. Their only limits are the ones they set. From day one I told them, Dont just break the ceiling, reach for whats beyond. As for the interview with the reporter who asked about naysayers? I went on to tell her, Dont bet against me. You cannot defeat someone who knows who they truly are. I know who I am and why I am doing this, so I would not bet against me. The moment you know with certainty that your intention is fully aligned with what you believe, all bets are off. Youve already won! Extracted from The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Purposes by Oprah Winfrey You Might Also Like [April 17, 2019] Vonage Holdings Corp. Announces Date of Earnings Release and Conference Call for First Quarter 2019 Results HOLMDEL, N.J., April 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG), a business cloud communications leader, will report its financial results for the first quarter of 2019 before the market opens on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. The earnings release will be available on Vonage's Investor Relations website. In addition, the company will host a conference call to discuss its financial results for the first quarter of 2019 and other matters at 8:30 AM Eastern Time. To participate, please dial (866) 891-8177. International callers should dial (412) 902-6756. A live webcast of the conference call will be available on the Vonage Investor Relations website. A replay of the webcast will also be available shortly after the conclusion of the call, and may be accessed through Vonage's Investor Reltions website or by dialing (877) 344-7529 or (412) 317-0088 for international callers, and entering the passcode 10130875. About Vonage Vonage is redefining business communications, helping enterprises use fully-integrated unified communications, contact center, and programmable communications solutions via Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, 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. Vonage is a registered trademark of Vonage Marketing LLC, owned by Vonage America Inc. To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage. To become a fan on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/vonage. To subscribe on YouTube, visit www.youtube.com/vonage. (vg-f) View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vonage-holdings-corp-announces-date-of-earnings-release-and-conference-call-for-first-quarter-2019-results-300834190.html SOURCE Vonage [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Vonage Recognized as a '451 Firestarter' HOLMDEL, N.J., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Vonage (NYSE: VG), a global business cloud communications leader, has received the prestigious 451 Firestarter award from leading technology research and advisory firm 451 Research, in recognition of the Company's innovative contribution to communications. 451 Research's Firestarter program recognizes exceptional innovation within the technology industry. Introduced in 2018 and awarded quarterly, the program is exclusively analyst-led, allowing 451 Research's team of technology and market experts to highlight organizations they believe are making significant contributions to the overall pace and extent of innovation in the technology market. Over the past several years Vonage has transformed into a global leader in Business Cloud Communications. Vonage offers its customers a unique combination of unified communications, programmable communications and contact center solutions to transform the way businesses communicate. Vonage is the first to bring these technologies together in one portfolio. By owning the full tech stack, the Company is leveraging these capabilities to deliver customizable customer and employee experiences via the fully-integrated One Vonage platform. By driving the convergence of these solutions into a new communications category, Vonage is uniquely situated to provide businesses with the ultimate flexibility of solution capabilities; a single engine for all of their solutions; and a trusted advisor for all their communication needs. "By bringing programmable communications into its One Vonage platform, Vonage is redefining contact center and unified communications through APIs that enable organizations to customize heir own applications," said Raul Castanon-Martinez, Senior Analyst for Workforce Collaboration & Communications at 451 Research. "This vision aligns with key attributes in our framework for the software-defined business communications ecosystem, including tight integration to business workflows and enablement of intelligent interactions, making its inclusion as a 451 Firestarter well deserved." "Vonage is honored to receive the 451 Firestarter award," said Alan Masarek, Vonage CEO. "At Vonage, we know that a great experience is enabled by great communications, and we're creating these singular experiences through the One Vonage platform, an offering unlike any other in the industry. By owning our own stack, we are driving great experiences for our customers through the unique combination of unified communications, contact center solutions, and programmable communications, empowering brands to improve digital engagement with their customers, and in doing so, enhance both customer and employee experience to create greater satisfaction and brand loyalty." About Vonage Vonage is redefining business communications, helping enterprises use fully-integrated unified communications, contact center, and programmable communications solutions via Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, 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, and Asia. Vonage is a registered trademark of Vonage Marketing LLC, owned by Vonage America Inc. To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage . To become a fan on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/vonage . To subscribe on YouTube, visit www.youtube.com/vonage. About 451 Research 451 Research is a leading information technology research and advisory company focusing on technology innovation and market disruption. More than 100 analysts and consultants provide essential insight to more than 2,000 client organizations globally through syndicated research, advisory services and live events. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New York, 451 Research is a division of the 451 Group. Learn more about the 451 Research Firestarters. (vg-a) View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vonage-recognized-as-a-451-firestarter-300833860.html SOURCE Vonage [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Broadvoice Names Marisa Freeden as Vice President of Brand and Experience LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadvoice, an award-winning provider of hosted voice, unified communications (UC) and SIP Trunking services for businesses, has announced that Marisa Freeden has been named as the company's Vice President of Brand and Experience. Marisa has more than a decade of experience in marketing and specializes in the business, technical and creative aspects of sales, marketing, and branding. In her new role, Marisa will lead the overall brand for Broadvoice, including the planning, development, and the execution of the company's brand strategy. As VP of Brand and Experience, Marisa is also responsible for research and analysis to help measure experience satisfaction and identify customer needs, perceptions and motivations that are critical to driving stronger customer loyalty that contributes to revenue growth. "Our partners and our customers are two important aspects of the Broadvoice brand, and Marisa will have oversight of both," said Broadvoice CEO Jim Murphy. "Her experience in brand marketing along with her passion and knowledge of the company make her a fantastic choice to lead this team." Marisa most recently served as Director of Brand and Channel Marketing at Broadvoice, where she was responsible for developing and executing marketing plans and championing the brand story across all campaigns and marketing materals. Previously, she served as Lead Partner Sales Manager at Broadvoice. Prior to joining Broadvoice, Marisa served as Managing Producer for Disney Channel. "Broadvoice has built a reputation on making meaningful connections," said Marisa. "I am excited to head this department and collaborate with colleagues and clients who are passionate about compelling brand experiences and making lasting relationships." Marisa's promotion comes at a time of significant growth for Broadvoice and its channel program. Broadvoice was just named to the Inc. 5000 list for the fourth consecutive year, and recently expanded its executive team with the addition of Kevin Connor as its new CFO, as well as Darrin Ingram as Vice President of Client and Partner Solutions. In the past year, Broadvoice has also expanded its channel program with the addition of three new regional channel managers. Broadvoice offers a flexible, smart portfolio of IP-based voice and data offerings, backed by its enterprise-class, geo-redundant IP telephony platform. This includes its flagship cloud UC and PBX services, which features unlimited voice calling plans throughout the continental United States and Canada. For more information on the Broadvoice Partner Program, please call 866.697.9112, or visit www.broadvoice.com/partners. About Broadvoice Broadvoice simplifies communications for small and medium businesses (SMBs) by combining powerful cloud PBX, UC and collaboration features with virtual call center in one award-winning Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform that delivers enterprise-class features at affordable rates. The platform is connected to Broadvoice's secure, redundant network and hosting infrastructure, enabling SMBs to connect with customers securely anytime, anywhere and with any device. Broadvoice is ranked in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. Media Contact: Melanie Saxe Marketing Communications Manager 747.210.9230 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/broadvoice-names-marisa-freeden-as-vice-president-of-brand-and-experience-300834629.html SOURCE Broadvoice [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next. US Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez raised eyebrows during an interview Sunday when she said the possibility of cutting military or economic aid to the Israeli entity is on the table after the election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ocasio-Cortez was on Yahoo News Skullduggery podcast when she said Netanyahus election comes during a disturbing trend of authoritarianism across the world and called the leader a Trump-like figure. The US representative further slammed the Israeli policy of detaining Palestinian minors, saying other senators have proposals asking the US not to fund Israeli detention of Palestinian children. The representative reflected her concerns, as a US citizen, if Trump started really pursuing more and more increasingly dangerous policies and everyone standing aside saying this is normal. Netanyahu has pledged to apply sovereignty to settlements in the occupied West Bank. He told Israeli Channel 12 TV that, we will go to the next phase to extend Israeli sovereignty. I will impose sovereignty, but I will not distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements, he continued, The Associated Press reported. Trump has recognized al-Quds [Jerusalem] as Israels so-called capital early in his term. Trump has also recognized the so-called Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The move was viewed in the entity as a political gift from Trump to Netanyahu. Related River to Sea Voting in Karnataka for the second phase of Lok Sabha Election 2019 has kicked off today. The state will witness polling exercise in 14 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats, while the remaining 14 seats will go to polls in the third phase on April 23. The southern state has witnessed 49.26 per cent voter turnout till 3:00 pm on Thursday. The highest number of voters were recorded from Dakshina Kannada and the least in Bangalore Central during the first two hours. Prominent contestants in this phase include former prime minister HD Deve Gowda (Tumkur), his grandsons Prajwal Revanna and Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Hassan and Mandya respectively, as also Union minister Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), and senior Congress leaders Veerappa Moily (Chikkaballapura) and K H Muniyappa (Kolar). Other candidates in this phase include independent candidates Sumalatha Ambareesh (Mandya) and Prakash Raj (Bangalore North), and BJP's youngest candidate Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore South), who is pitted against veteran Congressman B K Hariprasad. HD Deve Gowda and his wife came to cast their vote at a polling station in Hassan's Paduvalahippe today around 11 am. Karnataka: Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in Hassan's Paduvalahippe. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/kpBBzwbU7K a ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 A total of 36,196 control units, 52,112 ballot units and 37,705 VVPAT machines are being used for the polls in 14 constituencies, where a total of 2,11,405 polling personnel- including 1,54,262 poll officials, 38,597 police personnel, 7,727 transport personnel and 10,819 other personnel will be on duty. Also read: Lok Sabha election phase 2 Live Updates: Poll official dies of cardiac arrest while on duty in Chhattisgarh's Kanker The voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm in the evening. A total of 2.67 crore voters are expected to vote to elect their representative in parliament from among 241 candidates contesting in the second phase. Key constituencies to be watched out in Karnataka is Mandya, that saw a bitter campaign, where Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil from JD(S) is pitted against independent candidate Sumalatha, widow of actor-turned politician M H Ambareesh. Of the 14 constituencies going to the polls, BJP and Congress had won six each in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and JD(S)two. While the BJP is contesting in 13 constituencies and supporting independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in Mandya, Congress and JD(S) have fielded their candidates in 10 and four constituencies respectively. The remaining 14 constituencies, mostly in northern districts, will go to polls in the second phase on April 23. (With PTI inputs) Also read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting today; FAQs, all you need to know about polling on 95 constituencies Also read: Rahul Dravid, Karnataka's election commission ambassador, will not be able to cast vote this time There are many Democrats in the field to contest in the 2020 presidential election. There are women also in the fray but President Donald Trump feels it will ultimately boil down to a choice between Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden. He is confident of a win in the reelection against any of them and insists that he is not afraid of such competition. In his words, It will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden who will emerge from among the Democratic candidates. President Donald Trump is predicting that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden will be the final two Democrats standing in the 2020 race against him. "I look forward to facing whoever it may be. May God Rest Their Soul!" https://t.co/J04XfbvfQB ABC 7 News - WJLA (@ABC7News) April 17, 2019 Daily Mail UK reports Bernie Sanders (77), a Senator from Vermont, declared in February itself that he would contest for president for a second time. He is ahead of other Democrats in the 2020 presidential field as far as fundraising goes. He has so far raised $18 million towards his campaign. During his last bid three years back, he was considered an underdog and now he is a favorite. However, former Vice President Joe Biden has not yet announced his decision of contesting but observers feel he will join the race. The perennial fight between Democrats and Republicans From his recent tweets and remarks, President Donald Trump appears to be eyeing a second term in the White House. He says he is looking forward to facing any challenge and on the subject of probable competition from Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden says May God Rest Their Soul! There are many Democrats in the reckoning for the White House and some have set the ball rolling but from the Republican camp, there seems to be only one contender who happens to be Donald Trump, the present incumbent. Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are the only two prospective Democratic candidates to garner double-digit support in a 2020 run against Donald Trump. And according to polling, Beto ORourke is third in linehttps://t.co/zmevAdVi6o pic.twitter.com/Wo7uSxPd1W POLITICO (@politico) November 12, 2018 Daily Mail UK goes on to report that Trump believes people made fortunes off him and adds, Thats a good thing, not a bad thing. From these utterances, one can conclude that he holds himself in high esteem. Discuss this news on Eunomia Bernie Sanders campaign released his tax returns and declared the combined incomes of him and his wife to be in the range of over $1 million in 2016 and 2017. It seems $400,000 of his income was from book sales. In 2018, his book Where We Go from Here was the New York Times best-seller. Democrats could spring a surprise According to NBC News, President Donald Trump has talked about the 2020 presidential election. He said that the last two Democrats who would remain at the end of the primary campaign would be former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. He also dropped hints that none of them would be able to dent his armor and he would emerge a winner. He has faith in his abilities. However, it is too early in the day to make any forecast because there could be upsets with some women hopefuls like Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren who plan to contest. They are unknown factors, their influence on the voters is anybodys guess and they could steal the limelight. Ninety percent of investors around the world consider Vietnam and Indonesia the two most important destinations, according to a report from Bain & Company. It took us one year to negotiate and come to the funding agreement. The Japanese investment fund is very cautious with its investment decisions, said Nguyen Trung Tin, CEO of An Gia Investment. An Gia received $200 million from a foreign fund to develop six projects. Tin said the company attracted another foreign fund and is going to cooperate with the third foreign fund from the UK. With capital from foreign partners, Thu Duc House has developed five projects in HCMC and Hanoi, implemented by a joint venture with a South Korean group. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Chinh, deputy CEO of Thu Duc House, said the State Bank is following a roadmap to restrict cash flow into the real estate market. Real estate firms can seek capital from foreign investors. Having poured money into Vietnams real estate projects, Creed Group is optimistic about Vietnams economy, seeing great potential in affordably priced housing and A-class office market segments. Yamaguchi Masakazu, chief representative of Creed Group in Vietnam, said he believes Vietnam will be among the fastest growing economies in the world, and that the country bears little influence from the US-China trade war. A study from HSBC showed that $70 billion worth of capital will be funnelled into Southeast Asia in the next five years, and Vietnam and Indonesia are the top choices for investors. A study from HSBC showed that $70 billion worth of capital will be funnelled into Southeast Asia in the next five years, and Vietnam and Indonesia are the top choices for investors. Tran Nhat Khanh, director of VinaCapital Ventures, said the fund is most interested in finance, healthcare, retail and logistics. Explaining the interest in the finance sector, Khanh said 60 percent of Vietnamese still do not have bank accounts. He estimated that in 10-12 years, the added value in the sector would be as much as $78 billion. Asked which factors the fund will consider when considering making investments, Khanh said he will seek answers to some questions: Will the products be able to create a large market? Will the products create social value? Is it possible for the products to go beyond Vietnam and reach the world market? The fund will also assess the founders of the businesses. In general, investors want managers with long-term vision and capability to develop their businesses globally. We prefer teams of managers with two or three members, and each of them has their advantages in technology, finance, digitalization and sale skills, compared to companies with only one leader in charge of everything, Khanh said. Besides foreign capital, Vietnams businesses can also seek capital from domestic sources. Deputy director of SBV HCMC Branch Nguyen Hoang Minh said that local banks have VND500 trillion worth of capital ready for disbursement this year. RELATED NEWS Investment funds money funnelled to technology firms Foreign companies to pour big capital in Vietnam Mai Lan Greater effort is needed to boost VN s national brand value so as to earn higher export value, attendees heard at a forum held in Hanoi on Wednesday by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. A customer checks fruit origins using a QR code. Many products of Viet Nam are of good quality but promotion to international markets remains weak. Experts at the forum said that many products originating in Viet Nam did not make significant contributions to the countrys export value due to the failure in developing brands. According to Nguyen Van Thao, deputy chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, Viet Nams export value was appropriately equivalent to the countrys gross domestic product with dozens of products earning export value of US$20-30 billion per year. However, the country lacked prestige brands, thus, the export value remained modest. For many years, Viet Nam has been known as a country of exporting raw materials and doing contract manufacturing, Thao said, adding that developing Viet Nams national brand is a pressing concern. Nguyen Huu Nghia, deputy director of the Central Economic Committee, said that the core of the national brand was brands of businesses. Still, a large number of firms had not paid adequate attention to building and developing brands. In addition, the management agencies support for businesses in developing brands was not effective enough, plus there was a lack of resources to invest in brand development, Nghia said. Having an appropriate national brand development strategy was critical to enhance the competitiveness of Viet Nam in the global market, he said but streesed that developing the national brand would require the joint efforts of the whole country. According to Antonio Tedesco from the Italian Embassy in Ha Noi, Viet Nam could be the national brand with the participation of different resources, not necessarily of only Vietnamese and Vietnamese firms. He added that focus should also be placed on protecting brands. Many products of Viet Nam were of good quality but promotion to international markets remained weak, he pointed out. Ngo Minh Hai, chairman of TH Group, said that the core in brand development was product quality coupled with renovations to keep up with the changing trends in the world market. Vu Ba Phu, director of the Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency said that the ministry was drafting a Viet Nam national brand programme project for the new period to 2030 with an aim to promote brand development of firms with trade, investment and tourism promotion programmes. Building national brands is more urgent than ever in the context of rapid international integration, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai stressed at the forum. Now, more than 80 countries already developed their own national brand development programmes to boost exports. According to London-based business valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance, Viet Nams brand was valued at $235 billion in 2018, ranking 43rd in the world, rising two places from the previous year. The National Brand Week Programme is running till April 21. Giving wings to Vietnamese products HCM City plans to run a campaign called Giving wings to Vietnamese products, to improve the quality of farm produce and food products so that they can enter modern distribution channels and be exported, according to its Department of Industry and Trade. Speaking at a seminar in HCM City on Wednesday, Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, the departments deputy director, said after 10 years of implementing, the Vietnamese people give priority to using Vietnamese goods" campaign has achieved success. But the campaign targets peoples patriotism and only processed items have achieved a foothold whereas fresh food and other agricultural products have not really won consumers trust and their quality is inconsistent, he said. The city has huge demand for fresh food. It needs 600,000 tonnes of rice, 216,000 tonnes of pork, 130,000 tonnes of poultry meat, one billion poultry eggs, nearly one million tonnes of fruits and vegetables, and 132,000 tonnes of fisheries products annually. According to market research firm Kantar Worldpanel Viet Nam, with higher incomes consumers tend to spend more on new kinds of goods, but fresh foods and fast moving consumer goods remain their main items of purchase, and they account for more than one fourth of the total spending in the city. Consumers are paying greater attention to high-quality products while to be exported products must meet strict quality standards set by importing countries, Hoa said. Therefore, the department had proposed a new method to improve the efficiency of the Vietnamese people give priority to using Vietnamese goods" campaign through the Giving wings to Vietnamese products programme, he said. The programme would help standardise and improve the quality of farm produce and fresh foods through the application of VietGap, GlobalGap, HACCP and other standards in production, and revamp their packaging and enable tracing of product origins, he said. Distribution channels would sign purchase contracts with producers and only accept products meeting quality standards and traceability, Hoa said. At the event, the Department of Industry and Trade signed memorandums of understanding with 10 distributors, including Saigon Co.op, E-Mart Vietnam, Satra, MM Mega Market, VinCommerce, Aeon, and Big C, for implementing the programme. VNS Foreign car and motorcycle parts manufacturers are aware that the rapidly-expanding Vietnamese market may be their next cash cow and are intensifying presence accordingly. Manufacturers like VinFast must keep pace with innovations in the automotive industry Lee Jae Seung, CEO of auto parts maker PHA Vietnam, said, Once our automotive parts manufacturing project comes online in September, our products will serve big car manufacturers like Volkswagen, BMW, Audi, Ford, and Hyundai. PHA Vietnam is led by a group of Pyeong Hwa Automotive, YMP Plus, Dong Yang Vina Industry Co., Ltd., and MiChang Vietnam. They started construction of four automotive parts manufacturing plants with the total investment capital of $32.3 million in the northern city of Haiphongs DEEP C Industrial Zones late last year. The move aligns with the Vietnamese governments policies on promoting investment in the local supporting industries. Gaining a competitive edge Daniel Doni Sundjojo, business development manager at JATO Dynamics, which globally provides data for analysis of market trend vehicles and cars, said, When we talk about the automotive sector in Southeast Asia, most people think of Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. However, soon this may include Vietnam. According to Ringier Trade Media, the organiser of the ASEAN Automotive and Motorcycle Parts Manufacturing Summit 2019 held in Hanoi recently, Vietnam is a growing automotive market and one of the four largest motorcycle markets worldwide, which reflect the enormous market potential in components and parts. Vietnam already has factories of the most recognisable international brands. With favourable government policies, easy investment, and access to the ASEAN, EU, and the APEC, the Vietnamese automotive industry is projected to enjoy the fastest growth in Southeast Asia in the next 20 years, which makes it the best place to invest right now, noted a representative of Ringier Trade Media. Vingroup deputy CEO Vo Quang Hue said, The Vietnamese automotive market is full of energy. Although motorcycles are still the vehicle of preference, the car market has been steadily growing in importance. VinFast exploded on the scene in 2017 by announcing plans to launch the first car brand fully made in Vietnam. Through localisation, it is supporting the development of the local automotive industry and already highlights Vietnamese manufacturers capability to deliver high-quality components for top-end vehicles. We are willing to pour money into the supply chain as we see opportunities, said Truong Hong Minh, director of Nhat Minh Co., Ltd., specialised in manufacturing plastic components. Minh said that Vingroups VinFast complex is not only good news for the automobile manufacturing industry, but also creates a strong pervasiveness for the supporting industry which is quite meagre for now. Chening Fan, director of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, last year said that many Taiwanese auto parts enterprises have invested in manufacturing in Vietnam, but mainly produce for exports. Currently, the enterprises are paying attention to Vietnam as well as the ASEANs more than 600 million potential consumers. By investing in Vietnam, automotive parts can go for local consumption and for tax-free export to the region, Fan said, referring to Vietnams competitive wages and attractive foreign investment environment. Chairman of the Vietnam Association for Supporting Industries Le Duong Quang said that motorcycle manufacturing in the country has reached maturity, mainly due to the high consumption and motorbikes role as the main transport solution. Besides, limited road infrastructure and low highway rates have caused serious traffic congestions in city areas, especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Meanwhile, the automotive manufacturing industry is considered an emerging industry in Vietnam, entering into a phase of fast growth. In the future, Vietnamese manufacturers will need to reduce their production and assembly costs while improving product and service quality. This provides a unique opportunity for bigger Chinese suppliers to tap into Vietnams supply chain that was originally dominated by Japanese businesses, according to Ringier Trade Media. Game-changing trends The automotive industry is changing at a rapid pace and suppliers are learning to innovate in order not to get left behind. The change is putting tremendous pressure on original equipment manufacturers and automobile suppliers to evolve and innovate. Supporting this all is a strong base of digitisation. In 2018, trends pointed to a heavier reliance on plastics, and for good reason. As plastic formulations and technology develop, its application in the automotive industry expands. Vehicle interiors may be the most visible place of use, and manufacturers are increasingly turning to plastics for car parts. The corrosion resistance of modern plastics makes them ideal raw material for a number of car parts as they help reduce the weight of the vehicle. Plastics are also more weather-resistant than metal components. However, metalworking remains vital in automotive and motorcycle parts production. The global metalworking tools market is predicted to exceed $120 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6 per cent, and a large portion of this growth will take place in Asia, according to Technavio, a global market research firm. The signs of manufacturing growth in the ASEAN bloc indicate a related increase in the orders and purchases of metalworking tools, which will raise the demand for high-end manufacturing equipment. Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things are key trends and will have a profound influence on automotive and motorcycle parts manufacturing. Sensors are becoming smaller and easier to install in all kinds of products. Smart tooling and workholding will provide real-time feedback. Automotive and motorcycle companies will look to transform their plants into smart factories, and will require all equipment and tooling to be Industry 4.0-capable. VIR The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) says it will change the current policy on attracting and using FDI and begin to offer investment incentives more selectively. Mai Tien Dung, Chair of the Government Office, at the April regular press conference, said Vietnam in the first quarter had attracted a high number of large FDI projects with high quality and high tech content. Newly registered FDI capital reached $5.1 billion, an increase of 30 percent over the same period last year, while the implemented capital was $4.12 billion, up by 6.2 percent. Vietnam is now in a golden period of attracting FDI. A survey on Japanese production and business activities in Vietnam released last March showed that 70 percent of Japanese enterprises said they wanted to scale up business in Vietnam, and only 48.7 percent said they wanted to do so in China. The survey also pointed out that the number of Japanese enterprises wanting to scale down business in China or leave the country accounted for 6.7 percent, while very few enterprises were thinking of leaving Vietnam. Experts can see the wave of foreign investors relocating their production facilities from Cambodia as well. The EC last February began an 18-month long process of review which may lead to the suspension of the tax exemption being offered to Cambodia-sourced goods to the 28-country EU. The EBA (Everything but Arms) helps Cambodian goods approach the EU market with the tariff of zero percent. If this happens, Vietnam will benefit from the decision, according to Eric Sidgwick, Vietnam Country Director of ADB, because Cambodia, like Vietnam, also exports textile and garments, and footwear, to Europe and the US. If this happens, Vietnam will benefit from the decision, according to Eric Sidgwick, Vietnam Country Director of ADB, because Cambodia, like Vietnam, also exports textile and garments, and footwear, to Europe and the US. MPI is drafting a new strategy on attracting FDI and will submit it to the Party Politburo in April. MPIs Deputy Minister Vu Dai Thang said Vietnam is at the end of the 10-year 2011-2020 socio-economic development period and is building a strategy for the next 10-year development stage. In the future, projects to be developed in Vietnam must use high technologies with deep processing. They must be friendly to the environment and use a high-quality labor force. The age of low production costs and cheap labor force is over. At present, enterprises recognized as high-technology enterprises can receive incentives for the entire production process. But Thang said in the future only the production stage using high technology can receive the incentives. In addition, Vietnam will continue giving incentives to R&D, but only to added value created domestically, not to imported components. Thang hopes that Vietnam will be the destination for investors in Asia, not an alternative destination for them to disperse risks. RELATED NEWS Vietnam surpasses China in FDI prospects High labor cost emerges top risk for Vietnams FDI attraction Kim Chi A Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of cooperative and twining relations between Ho Chi Minh City and the Australian state of New South Wales was signed in Sydney on April 17. Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong (R) and Deputy Premier of New South Wales John Barilaro sign the MoU Under the MoU, signed by Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong and Deputy Premier of New South Wales John Barilaro, the two sides will focus their cooperation in the fields of mutual interest, including education-training, resources and energy, agriculture and food, startups, small-and-medium enterprises, infrastructure and business investment, science-technology and tourism. Addressing the signing ceremony, Deputy Premier of New South Wales Barilaro highlighted the sound relations between New South Wales and HCM City in all fields and affirmed that the signing of the MoU shows both sides commitment to boosting trade and investment and strengthening their bonds. Earlier on April 16, Chairman Phong and his entourage visited the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Phong expressed his wish that the university will share its experience in human resources training for the fourth Industrial Revolution. He wanted to promote the possibility of cooperation between UTS and HCM Citys universities on human resources training. Prof. Attila Brungs, Vice Chancellor of UTS, spoke of the citys programmes on smart city, innovative urban area and innovative startup centre development, while affirming that UTS will send experts to Vietnam to seek opportunities for cooperation in training high-quality human resources for HCM City. At the Sydney startup centre, Phong and his entourage learned about support policies for startups. He wished to learn experience in building a startup community support model and possibility for cooperation between the startup centres of HCM City and Sydney. The same day, he visited the Vietnamese Consulate General in Sydney. Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong is leading a high-level delegation of the city to pay a working visit to Australia from April 16-18.- VNA A man threw a shoe at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao during a press conference at the party's headquarters in Delhi on Thursday. The accused, identified as Dr Shakti Bhargav, is a resident of Kanpur, suggest reports. A visiting card has been recovered from the accused, who was sitting on the reporters' row during the BJP's press meet. The incident happened when GVL was talking about Sadhvi Pragya's candidature from the Bhopal. Bhargav threw the shoe, but missed the target. There's no clarity as to why the accused threw the shoe at the BJP leader. Some people and officials present in the room caught and took him to a nearby police station. The police have said they are investigating. Also read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting today; FAQs, all you need to know about polling on 95 constituencies As per the Facebook profile of the accused, he is a self-acclaimed whistle-blower. His online profile shows he was concerned over the closure of several mills in Kanpur. Aaj Tak reported when his mother was asked about her son she told the channel she had no contact with her son, and that they lived separately. Police have said the man was coming to the BJP headquarters regularly for the past few days. Meanwhile, Congress took a dig at the BJP after it named Pragya Singh Thakur as its Lok Sabha poll candidate from Bhopal, saying what else can be expected from the saffron party. People's Democratic Party leader Mehboob Mufti also slammed the decision. She said had her party fielded a terror accused, news channels would have gone berserk. Pragya Singh Thakur is out on bail in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case in which over 40 people were killed and 125 were injured. Edited by Manoj Sharma Also read: Lok Sabha Election Phase 2 Live Updates: 305 faulty EVMs and 525 VVPATs replaced in Tamil Nadu US Assistant Defense Secretary for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall G. Schriver once affirmed that Vietnam has appeared to be a valued partner for Washington in the Indo-Pacific region. The senior official discussed the US-Vietnam strategic cooperation during a panel at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington earlier this week, according to the US Department of Defense. Vietnam-US strong military ties Randall G. Schriver noted that the defense relationship between the US and Vietnam is strong and represents one of the strongest pillars in the multifaceted bilateral relationship. He said that the defense relationship with Vietnam has been strengthened even more over the last two years and plans are to keep strengthening it based on a foundation of shared interests. The official stated that the US seeks enhanced military ties with Vietnam. For instance, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson visited Danang last year, marking the first such visit since the Vietnam War and with discussions about having another visit this year. In 2017, the US transferred a major piece of defense equipment to Vietnam the Coast Guards Hamilton-class cutter USCGC Morgenthau. That ship is now very active in maritime security missions for Vietnam, Schriver said, hoping that there will be a second such cutter available. He said the US will continue to help enhance Vietnams military capabilities and pursue opportunities for military training and cooperation, concentrating on (i) Vietnams security and regional stability, (ii) Maritime security and maritime domain awareness, (iii) Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, (iv) Professional military education, including English language training, (v) Military medicine, (vi) Search and rescue, (vii) Peacekeeping operations. According to Schriver, a Vietnamese peacekeeping unit is deployed to South Sudan, with some assistance from the US and other partners. The US has upgraded the level of their annual defense talks and they had an unprecedented level of senior engagement, not only the presidents two visits to Vietnam since he took office, but last year alone two visits from [former] Secretary of Defense [James] Mattis, he said. Reasons for strong relationship Schriver said the US and Vietnam share a common interest in promoting a rules-based order, protection of sovereignty, and individual rights of countries, no matter their size. He continued that We share a view that for the Indo-Pacific to continue to flourish, each nation in the region must be free to determine its own course within a system of values that ensures opportunities for even the smallest countries to thrive and be free from the predations of strong countries. In short, for Vietnam, what we want is a strong, prosperous, independent Vietnam, nothing else, he noted. The predation to which Schriver referred is by China. The region is increasingly confronted with a more assertive, confident China that is willing to accept friction in the pursuit of its interests, the US Department of Defense quoted Schriver as saying, citing Chinas militarization of islands in the East Sea as an example. Hanoitimes Vietnam is considered a hot spot for elephant tusk trafficking, and the activity remains uncontrolled, especially in the Central Highlands. Part 1: White elephant tusks on black market Buon Ma Thuot City in early March was bustling as locals were in a hurry preparing for the Central Highlands coffee festival, where elephants would also be welcomed. In the so-called land of elephants, travelers can easily access shops which sell products made of elephant tusks, including bracelets, rings, necklaces, ivory combs and pens. A shop owner showed reporters an entire tusk block, weighing 2.2 kilograms after the reporters said they wanted to buy something extremely special. The tusk was valued at hundreds of million of dong. In Buon Ma Thuot, Ve Chai is the name of a cafe on Y Ngong street. However, it is actually a shop specializing in wholesale fine art products, including elephant tusk-made ones. The premises look old and deserted. Only when entering the shop do visitors realize so many cameras installed everywhere. The cafe is a den of wildlife product trafficking. The house is large inside, with animal skulls and bones displayed everywhere. In the middle of the living room, a young man could be seen by reporters measuring the radius of every tusk put in a big white plastic bag. He was a wholesale buyer. A glass wardrobe displays jewelry, including ones made of ivory tusks. Small products such as rings and bracelets are in baskets. Buon Ma Thuot City in early March was bustling as locals were in a hurry preparing for the Central Highlands coffee festival, where elephants would also be welcomed. When reporters said they wanted some small products for gifts, V, the owner of the shop, showed numerous products. There were heavy and large bracelets that V said were very special, and favored by many people. We take 40 orders a day from online sales alone, V told reporters. At one point, V had to stop talking to take a call from a tour guide who said he would be bringing travelers to the shop. Buon Don also sells elephant tusks Buon Don, the famous tourist site mentioned in songs for children, is an elephant tusk sales point. Even the admission ticket sellers at the Buon Don Tourist Center sell tusks to travelers. H, one of the centers officers, told reporters that she had sold a 1.6 meter long tusk. Money had already been paid, but the tusk would be delivered several days later to escape the notice of policemen who were present everywhere during the coffee festival. RELATED NEWS Does a new law prohibit elephant breeding? The men who love and take care of elephants in the Central Highlands Thanh Lich Vietnam is one of the countries with a high proportion of cancer patients. Cancer kills 115,000 Vietnamese people annually, or over 300 per day, and 165,000 new cancer patients are detected annually, local media quoted Director of K Hospital (Hanoi-based Cancer Hospital) Tran Van Thuan as saying. Over 300,000 Vietnamese people are now living with cancer, making Vietnam one of the countries with a high rate of cancer patients, Thuan said at the meeting between the hospital and its partners from the United Kingdom on April 16. The country has eight hospitals and 69 oncology centers, departments and units which basically meet the need for cancer prevention and treatment. Thuan added that his infirmary has built bilateral relationships with large hospitals and universities in South Korea, Japan, the US, France, Australia to improve its preventative and treatment quality. K Hospital has established a clinical research center, the first center in Vietnams cancer prevention network, Thuan stressed. Liver cancer is the leading common cancer in men, followed by lung, stomach and colorectal cancer while women have higher rates of breast, stomach, and lung cancer. Most cancer cases can be cured if patients are detected early, treated promptly and properly. However, in fact, most cancer patients in Vietnam are treated in the late stage, resulting in low survival rate. Professor Thuan said K Hospital has cooperated with the United Kingdom to do research of tamoxifen in treating breast cancer which has increase survival probability for woman patients. Hanoitimes Vietnamese students have to take many standardized tests, which has led to the creation of a giant exam preparation industry. However, the industry is killing students creativity, experts say. Ha Bui, an office worker who has a masters degree in economics in Hanoi, complained that children are abnormally busy nowadays. My daughter yesterday told me that she had not seen her cousin for half a year, she said. My nephew is learning day and night to prepare for the high school entrance exam this summer, while my daughter is taking an exam to enter a prestigious secondary school in Hanoi. The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in 2014 cited a report as saying that Vietnamese students ranked fifth in the world in spending time at extra classes. Curricula are getting heavier, children have to learn more. Their time for playing, traveling and sleeping has shrunk, she said. High technology is using too much capacity of childrens brains, though the benefits of technology have not been proven scientifically. To prepare for the exams, students have to use products from the exam preparation industry. The industry gives practice tests with multiple-choice questions. This is dangerous because it kills students creativity. Vu Huong Mai, a parent in Cau Giay district in Hanoi, said she sometimes feels bewildered about educating her children. People receive fixed-term training courses before taking a job, but they have to spend their whole lives parenting. Nguyen Chi Hieu, who has a doctorate from Stanford University and masters degree from Oxford University, said that most family dialogues often start with the question what? instead of "why" and "how". Parents tend to be influenced by other people and impose their views on children. Dont stuff your small childrens heads with too much knowledge before they become adults. For primary school students, playing is the best way of learning, Hieu said. Standardized tests have become so common at primary schools, he noted. No student feels happy if he has to sit for 40 minutes for exam preparation practice, he said, adding that the US SAT test, which is designed for 12th graders, now is applied in Vietnam for primary school students as well. Hieu cited a scientific study as saying that secondary school students are at a certain stage of emotional development and parents need to be more sympathetic to children. Many children at this age have to learn too much with too many exams and tests, affecting their ability to make decisions and retain information. To prepare for the exams, students have to use products from the exam preparation industry. The industry gives practice tests with multiple-choice questions. This is dangerous because it kills students creativity. RELATED NEWS Extra classes deprive Vietnamese children of a real summer Students study 16 hours a day to prepare for high-school entrance exams Mai Nam There is no better way to respond to school violence than by preventing it from happening. Students read books in the Ho Mit Commune Primary School library in Tan Uyen District, Lai Chau Province. Improving students critical thinking is a potential method of preventing school violence, according to experts. VNA/VNS Photo Quy Trung Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha stressed prevention mechanisms as an essential tool to fight the emerging trend of assaults on campus in a webinar live-streamed from Hanoi yesterday. Vietnam has witnessed a sharp increase of school violence in recent years. Nha said some of the causes are students psychological changes during puberty and negative societal influences. The educational sector must be the vanguard responsible for handling the issue, Nha said. According to the minister, the response should start in education schools. Trainee teachers need to be equipped with psychology training in addition to academic knowledge. Principals and teachers were also urged to develop prevention mechanisms against violence. The ministry has issued 25 directives related to school assault prevention, yet little improvement has been made, said Bui Van Linh, deputy head of the Department of Student Affairs. These documents touch upon specific solutions such as establishing a hotline to report violence and requiring commitments from schools and students family to fighting school assaults. Education universities are given the autonomy to build their own training on psychological consultation for teachers, which are expected to complete by the end of 2019, Linh said. Speaking at the event, psychology expert Tran Thanh Nam from Viet Nam University of Education said school violence is a global issue. He cited a study by UNESCO revealing that about 22 per cent of Vietnamese students aged 13 to 15 have participated in fights. The percentage in other countries may fluctuate from 30 to 40 per cent. Vietnam can learn from international experiences in preventing school violence including improving students critical thinking and defence skills and organising school-based intervention programmes for students at risk of violence. Last week, MOET issued a code of conduct for kindergartens and schools to create a more student-friendly environment and reduce violence on campus. In three first months of 2019, some 310 cases of school assaults were reported, mostly at secondary and high schools, according to Dang Hoa Nam, director of the Department of Children Affairs under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. Several videos of student brutal beatings were shared online in late March and early April. VNS The number of international cruise ships entering Vietnam has risen significantly since early this year, heralding a period of strong growth for the cruise tourism sector, according to travel firms. Cruise passengers visit the Reunification Palace in HCMC Saigontourist Holding Company on April 16 welcomed two international cruise ships with a combined 4,100 passengers on board. Ms Europa 2 called at Saigon Premier Container Terminal in HCMC, while Genting Dream arrived at Nha Trang Port. After arriving at Nha Trang Port, 3,500 Singaporean guests on board the cruise ship Genting Dream took sightseeing tours to Po Nagar Cham Temple, Long Son Pagoda and Vinpearl Land Amusement Park. The ship is expected to leave Nha Trang Port for Phu My Port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province in southern Vietnam on April 17, allowing passengers to visit HCMC and My Tho City of Tien Giang Province. Genting Dream will leave Phu My Port tonight, April 17, finishing its journey in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Ms Europa 2, carrying 600 German passengers, will stay in Vietnam longer, ending its trip in the country on April 21. In addition, Saigontourist will receivethe cruise ship Voyager of the Seas, visiting the cities of HCMC, Nha Trang and Danang this month. Statistics from Saigontourist show that over the first quarter, the firm welcomed 26,729 cruise passengers from Hong Kong, China, Britain, France, the United States and Germany.The international cruise ships to Vietnam included Celebrity Constellation, Celebrity Millennium, World Dream, Voyager of the Seas, MS Europa I, Azamara Quest and Mein Schiff. In addition, another local travel firm, Viet Excursions, welcomed the cruise ship Insignia in Danang City on April 16. After visiting Danang City and some tourist destinations in central Vietnam, the passengers on the top-rated Oceania cruise shipare scheduled to continue their trip to HCMC on April 18. The firm also saw off an international cruise ship in Halong City, Quang Ninh Province last night. The number of international cruise ship arrivals in Vietnam in January-March was much higher than in the same period last year. We welcome two or three ships on average a week, said Phan Xuan Anh, chairman of Viet Excursions. Anh told the Saigon Times that many ports in Halong Bay, Danang City, Thua Thien-Hue and Nha Trang, especially Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, have seen more international cruise ships coming. sgt The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism will host a tourism promotion programme in Chinas Chengdu, Chongqing, and Shenzhen cities from May 15 to 24. A group of Chinese tourists visit Nha Trang resort city in central Khanh Hoa province. (Photo: baokhanhhoa.com.vn) The information was released at a regular press conference by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in Hanoi on April 17. The programme is expected to attract the participation of 300 travel companies, airlines, and Chinese tourism agencies and associations. It will feature business matching events, the introduction of Vietnamese destinations and tourism products, and art performances. According to the Institute for Tourism Development Research, the number of Chinese tourists accounts for 28-30 percent of the total number of foreigners to Vietnam. The groups favorite destinations include Khanh Hoa province and Da Nang city in the central region, Quang Ninh province and Hanoi in the north, and Ho Chi Minh City in the south. Notably, 60 percent of foreigners visiting Khanh Hoa are from China; while the figures for Da Nang and Quang Ninh are 30 and 20 percent, respectively. It is forecast that the number of Chinese tourists to Vietnam will rise thanks to the low travel costs, short travel duration, and increased flight frequency between the two nations. Currently, there are over 10 Vietnamese and Chinese airlines operating more than 500 flights per week on 30 routes that connect 20 Chinese and Vietnamese cities. According to the World Tourism Organization, Vietnam was among the top five destinations of Chinese tourists in 2017.-VNA The Co Lao, one of Vietnams 54 ethnic minority groups, has about 3,000 people. The group settled in Vietnam about 200 years ago and now lives mainly in the northern mountainous region. Co Lao people play tug-of-war in a festival. The Co Lao have branches called the Green Co Lao, the Red Co Lao, and the White Co Lao. They live in villages of 15 to 20 families in Hoang Su Phi and Dong Van district in Ha Giang province. They have lost their original language and now each branch speaks either Chinese, Nung, Pu Peo, or Mong. The Co Lao grow rice on terraced fields and maize, buckwheat, green peas, and roots in mountain hollows. Basketry and woodwork are popular crafts. Some villages have blacksmiths to repair farm tools. Nguyen Huu Son, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Folklore Culture Association, said, Life for the Co Lao has improved a lot recently. They speak a local language plus Chinese. In the past they wove fabric and used natural dyes. Now they buy cloth to make clothes, but their costumes have kept their original decorations and designs. A Co Lao village has 15 to 20 households of the same clan. They make earthen-wall houses with Alang grass roofs. The Co Lao living in high mountains have to fetch water from nearby water sources, but those living in flat areas make bamboo aqueducts to carry water to their houses. The Co Lao worship their ancestors going back 3 or 4 generations. Of their many rituals, their adult naming ceremony and their coming of age ceremony are the two most important in a persons life. All the villagers attend these ceremonies and congratulate the honoree by singing. Doing farm work on rocky, sloping fields is extremely hard. So mature men are the pride of the family. Luu Sam Van, a researcher of ethnic culture, said, The coming of age ceremony of the Co Lao recognizes an adult mans new role in the family and community. He can now lead his family and join community activities. VOV5 The first batch of Vietnamese mangoes was shipped to the US by the air on April 18. Photo nld.com.vn HA NOI The Mekong Delta province of ong Thap has become the first locality in Viet Nam to export mangoes to the US, according to an announcement on April 18. Nguyen Thi Hong Thu, director of Chanh Thu Fruits Import and Export Ltd Co, said the company shipped the first batch of eight tonnes of mangoes to the US by air on April 18. The batch came from the My Xuong Mango Cooperative in ong Thap. At present, the company has managed over 25 regions growing all kinds of fruit over an area of nearly 400ha, including 175ha of mango under construction. In addition, the company has worked with many cooperatives growing fruits, including the My Xuong mango cooperative and the Binh Phuoc Xuan in An Giang Province. At a ceremony announcing the first mango exports to the US on April 18, Nguyen Thanh Hung, vice chairman of the Peoples Committee of ong Thap, said the province is home to 9,200ha of mangoes, producing 100,000 tonnes per year, topping the Mekong Delta region. Mangoes are among the provinces five key products to be boosted for export. ong Thap has applied Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGap) and Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGap) in mango cultivation, which has helped to improve quality. Mangoes are grown in 59 among 63 localities in Viet Nam. Of which, the Mekong Delta region accounts for 48 per cent of mango plantations in the country. About 96 per cent of Vietnamese mangoes are produced and sold locally. Vietnamese mangoes have been exported to 40 countries, including South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, China and Thailand. Le Quoc Doanh, deputy minister of agriculture and rural development, said Viet Nam has received permission to export dragon fruit, longan, litchi and star apple to the US. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments Plant Protection Department said the US had finally agreed to import Vietnamese mangoes after 10 years of negotiations. Viet Nam gained an export value of US$4 billion from fruit and vegetables last year, according to the ministry. VNS Boeing has conducted the final test flight with the software fix for anti-stall system of its 737 MAX aircraft. The company's chief executive Dennis Muilenberg said in a statement that the official engineering flight test with the updated software was done, and the company was steadily moving towards securing certification for the narrow-body aircraft family from aviation authorities. "Our talented test pilots have now completed 120 737 MAX flights totalling more than 203 hours of air time with the updated manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system, or MCAS software. We're making steady progress toward certification," Muilenberg said in a video posted on Twitter. ALSO READ:SpiceJet and IndiGo rally as Jet Airways suspends operations The Boeing CEO further stated that he firsthand experienced the software in action, "operating as designed". "More than 85 per cent of the 50-plus MAX operators around the globe also have had the opportunity to see the update in action during simulator sessions," Muilenberg said. Were making steady progress on the path to certification for our 737 MAX software update thanks to the work of our Boeing pilots, engineers and technical experts. pic.twitter.com/DIHrhG2OOi Dennis A. Muilenburg (@BoeingCEO) April 18, 2019 The Boeing 737 MAX aircraft were banned from skies by aviation authorities around the world last month after two of these planes, operated by Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines, crashed in October and March respectively, killing everybody on board. Glitches in the MCAS software were identified as the reason behind the crashes. In both cases, the planes nosedived shortly after takeoff, signalling a problem in a system that was meant to address an aerodynamic issue that caused the plane's nose to pitch up. ALSO READ:Donald Trump asks Boeing to fix 737 Max plane glitches The Federal Aviaiton Administration said that a portion of the modifications proposed by Boeing were "operationally suitable", but it would not be hasty to grant certification, news agency AFP reported. Earlier this month, Boeing had decided to cut the production rate of its 737 MAX jets. The company had revealed plans to produce only 42 Boeing 737 Max aircraft in a month, as opposed to the earlier 52 planes. The production cut was meant to help focus on solving the glitches in the flight-control software. Boeing reportedly has been facing financial troubles since the 737 MAX planes were grounded. After the ban on its most popular jet, Boeing had suspended deliveries to consumers. This caused problems, considering the company gets majority of a plane's cost upon delivery. ALSO READ:Boeing cuts production of 737 Max jets to focus on fixing glitches The temporary closure of Jet Airways is a setback for Indian aviation and a sad day for all those in the business of flying, Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani said Wednesday. With lenders not extending emergency funds, cash-starved Jet Airways, which has been flying for over 25 years, Wednesday announced temporary suspension of operations. "While sustained mismanagement definitely contributed, the fact remains that in the entire aviation eco-system, it is the airline that invariably remains at the receiving end while all other stakeholders make money," Lohani said in a Facebook post. According to him, it is a sad day for all those in the business of flying in the country to witness a fine airline closing shop. "We have in the past witnessed many airlines shutting shop and it is time to appreciate that the razor thin margins which airlines are forced to operate with in a competitive environment, results in a scenario that encourages unsustainability," he noted. Lohani, who is helming state-owned Air India for the second time, also said the issue has no easy solutions, yet a solution would need to be found. Air India, Jet Airways and Vistara are the only three full service carriers in the country. Also read: Cash-strapped Jet Airways to suspend operations from tonight Also read: Jet Airways crisis: Vijay Mallya accuses govt of discrimination against private airlines in India past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 17 (6) May 16 (5) May 15 (7) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (9) May 10 (3) May 09 (7) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (5) May 05 (8) May 03 (9) May 02 (1) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (8) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (10) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (7) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (8) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (12) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (8) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (1) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (2) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (2) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (1) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (2) Jan 20 (2) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (2) Dec 17 (1) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (2) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (1) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (5) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (10) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (2) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (5) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (9) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (6) Oct 22 (4) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (1) Oct 06 (10) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (1) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (6) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (8) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (5) Aug 31 (8) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (8) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (8) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (8) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (10) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (1) Jul 16 (10) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (7) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (8) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (10) Jun 05 (14) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (6) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (2) May 29 (7) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (4) May 25 (5) May 24 (4) May 23 (5) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (3) May 19 (10) May 18 (6) May 17 (3) May 16 (6) May 15 (2) May 14 (3) May 13 (5) May 11 (1) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (2) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (5) May 03 (5) May 02 (1) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (8) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (14) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (1) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (1) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (1) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (9) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (9) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (13) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (6) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (9) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (9) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (2) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (5) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (12) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (7) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (1) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (10) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (12) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (6) Dec 08 (7) Dec 07 (12) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (13) Dec 04 (6) Dec 02 (8) Dec 01 (8) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (8) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (11) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (14) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (11) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (10) Nov 01 (8) Oct 31 (12) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (13) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (8) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (11) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (10) Oct 12 (11) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (10) Oct 09 (7) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (14) Oct 04 (9) Oct 03 (12) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (9) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (10) Sep 21 (12) Sep 20 (12) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (11) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (8) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (10) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (9) Sep 07 (8) Sep 06 (11) Sep 05 (2) Sep 04 (8) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (9) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (2) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (6) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (7) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (11) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (9) Jul 31 (11) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (11) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (7) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (5) Jul 06 (6) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (3) Jun 30 (8) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (7) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (7) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (9) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (8) May 30 (7) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (3) May 23 (5) May 22 (2) May 21 (3) May 20 (7) May 19 (11) May 18 (1) May 17 (7) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (4) May 11 (11) May 10 (2) May 09 (6) May 08 (6) May 07 (2) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (8) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (13) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (9) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (2) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (9) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (6) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (9) Feb 24 (11) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (6) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (2) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (10) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (2) Feb 05 (9) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (7) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (14) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (10) Jan 18 (11) Jan 17 (9) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (10) Jan 06 (8) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (5) Jan 01 (14) Dec 30 (13) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (5) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (7) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (9) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (17) Dec 09 (8) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (10) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (9) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (15) Nov 24 (7) Nov 23 (15) Nov 22 (9) Nov 21 (6) Nov 20 (11) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (13) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (7) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (13) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (8) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (8) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (15) Oct 26 (10) Oct 25 (10) Oct 24 (13) Oct 23 (9) Oct 21 (8) Oct 20 (13) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (8) Oct 16 (14) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (13) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (15) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (11) Oct 05 (18) Oct 04 (14) Oct 03 (1) Oct 02 (10) Sep 30 (11) Sep 29 (11) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (15) Sep 26 (7) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (17) Sep 20 (20) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (11) Sep 16 (10) Sep 15 (12) Sep 14 (9) Sep 13 (12) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (8) Sep 09 (9) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (13) Sep 06 (15) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (10) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (12) Aug 31 (14) Aug 30 (14) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (8) Aug 27 (9) Aug 26 (12) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (11) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (9) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (8) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (6) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (6) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (15) Jul 15 (14) Jul 14 (5) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (12) Jul 11 (8) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (10) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (10) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (7) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (11) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (14) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (8) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (11) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (16) Jun 03 (8) Jun 02 (12) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (7) May 30 (15) May 28 (7) May 27 (5) May 26 (21) May 25 (14) May 24 (10) May 23 (7) May 22 (8) May 21 (11) May 20 (5) May 19 (4) May 18 (10) May 17 (11) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (7) May 13 (12) May 12 (10) May 11 (7) May 10 (13) May 09 (4) May 08 (7) May 07 (3) May 06 (6) May 05 (9) May 04 (14) May 03 (7) May 02 (10) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (14) Apr 22 (16) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (16) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (8) Apr 10 (12) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (13) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (15) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (15) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (11) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (10) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (12) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (8) Mar 24 (7) Mar 23 (15) Mar 22 (17) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (8) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (19) Mar 15 (13) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (20) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (13) Mar 08 (13) Mar 07 (7) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (16) Mar 02 (16) Mar 01 (13) Feb 29 (8) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (16) Feb 26 (10) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (12) Feb 23 (14) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (12) Feb 18 (12) Feb 17 (11) Feb 16 (8) Feb 15 (9) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (10) Feb 12 (11) Feb 11 (13) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (13) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (19) Jan 31 (21) Jan 29 (11) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (13) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (2) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (13) Jan 21 (11) Jan 20 (9) Jan 19 (13) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (11) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (13) Jan 13 (9) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (5) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (1) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (13) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (11) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (9) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (10) Dec 08 (13) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (8) Dec 04 (11) Dec 03 (12) Dec 02 (16) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (11) Nov 28 (15) Nov 27 (16) Nov 26 (11) Nov 25 (9) Nov 24 (13) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (10) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (10) Nov 13 (14) Nov 12 (8) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (12) Nov 05 (17) Nov 04 (12) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (12) Oct 31 (11) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (10) Oct 28 (18) Oct 27 (16) Oct 26 (11) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (12) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (12) Oct 20 (17) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (15) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (10) Oct 14 (16) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (12) Oct 09 (21) Oct 08 (22) Oct 07 (19) Oct 06 (18) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (17) Oct 03 (13) Oct 02 (14) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (14) Sep 29 (15) Sep 28 (12) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (15) Sep 25 (13) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (10) Sep 22 (12) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (12) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (16) Sep 16 (21) Sep 15 (14) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (10) Sep 11 (16) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (8) Sep 08 (10) Sep 07 (7) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (9) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (10) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (14) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (13) Aug 20 (9) Aug 19 (13) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (12) Aug 11 (9) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (14) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (2) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (6) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (6) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (9) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (13) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (7) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (9) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (7) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (11) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (8) Jun 03 (9) Jun 02 (6) Jun 01 (4) May 30 (7) May 29 (9) May 28 (13) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (2) May 23 (8) May 22 (9) May 21 (7) May 20 (4) May 19 (6) May 18 (7) May 17 (8) May 15 (9) May 14 (5) May 13 (8) May 12 (6) May 11 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (6) May 07 (11) May 06 (7) May 05 (4) May 04 (11) May 03 (5) May 02 (4) May 01 (9) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (10) Apr 22 (8) Apr 21 (9) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (6) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (2) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (7) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (9) Mar 19 (9) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (9) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (11) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (12) Mar 11 (9) Mar 10 (12) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (11) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (8) Feb 27 (9) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (10) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (7) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (2) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (12) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (10) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (12) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (8) Jan 26 (13) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (12) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (10) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (11) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (8) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (9) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (10) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (10) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (9) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (10) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (1) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (9) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (12) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (6) Nov 18 (10) Nov 17 (12) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (12) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (7) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (9) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (14) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (9) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (8) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (11) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (7) Oct 15 (7) Oct 14 (8) Oct 13 (5) Oct 12 (8) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (11) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (8) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (10) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (7) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (8) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (11) Sep 24 (15) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (10) Sep 17 (10) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (7) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (9) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (12) Aug 19 (8) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (8) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (12) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (12) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (8) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (8) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (8) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (9) Jul 13 (10) Jul 11 (9) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (7) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (7) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (15) Jun 26 (10) Jun 25 (9) Jun 24 (16) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (12) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (13) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (14) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (16) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (18) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (8) May 31 (3) May 30 (6) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (8) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (2) May 18 (9) May 17 (1) May 16 (5) May 15 (5) May 14 (7) May 13 (7) May 12 (7) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (5) May 08 (10) May 07 (4) May 06 (13) May 05 (4) May 04 (10) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (9) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (9) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (7) Apr 14 (11) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (9) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (10) Apr 03 (9) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (8) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (7) Mar 21 (14) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (11) Mar 17 (12) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (8) Mar 14 (13) Mar 13 (8) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (8) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (15) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (12) Mar 02 (20) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (11) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (14) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (8) Feb 16 (11) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (2) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (2) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (7) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (1) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 27 (1) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (8) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (1) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (9) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (8) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (12) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (12) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (9) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (11) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (7) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (2) Oct 21 (7) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (7) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (20) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (21) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (34) Oct 04 (24) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (7) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (6) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (2) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (9) Sep 19 (11) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (6) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (11) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (10) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (8) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (7) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (7) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (10) Jul 22 (8) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (7) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (10) Jul 16 (11) Jul 15 (5) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (12) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (12) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (23) Jun 27 (18) Jun 26 (12) Jun 25 (14) Jun 24 (15) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (15) Jun 20 (9) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (11) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (6) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (9) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (8) May 24 (7) May 23 (6) May 22 (9) May 21 (6) May 20 (5) May 19 (6) May 18 (9) May 17 (10) May 16 (11) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (7) May 11 (7) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (11) May 05 (5) May 04 (9) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (8) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (10) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (8) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (11) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (9) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (10) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (2) Mar 10 (1) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (1) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (2) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (5) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (9) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (10) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (8) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (1) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (1) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (8) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (8) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (7) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (1) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (16) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (5) Nov 25 (2) Nov 24 (6) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (15) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (5) Nov 08 (8) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (9) Nov 05 (1) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (8) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (1) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (1) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (10) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (15) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (1) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (8) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (8) Sep 24 (8) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (9) Sep 20 (7) Sep 19 (8) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (7) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (9) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (10) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (15) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (7) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (11) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (15) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (7) Aug 19 (2) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (9) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (7) Aug 07 (9) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (11) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (6) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (8) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (14) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (8) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (14) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (12) Jun 15 (12) Jun 14 (10) Jun 13 (10) Jun 12 (9) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (12) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (12) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (3) May 25 (5) May 24 (9) May 23 (16) May 22 (12) May 21 (11) May 20 (7) May 19 (10) May 18 (8) May 17 (8) May 16 (10) May 15 (8) May 14 (5) May 13 (1) May 12 (6) May 11 (9) May 10 (9) May 09 (10) May 08 (9) May 07 (6) May 06 (5) May 05 (7) May 04 (10) May 03 (7) May 02 (9) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (12) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (9) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (10) Apr 14 (7) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (8) Apr 05 (8) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (11) Mar 30 (12) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (9) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (12) Mar 20 (14) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (12) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (8) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (13) Feb 25 (10) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (10) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (18) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (9) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (8) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (10) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (12) Jan 30 (7) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (7) Jan 27 (12) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (11) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (12) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (11) Jan 16 (9) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (9) Jan 10 (10) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (10) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (10) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (9) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (8) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (1) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (6) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (13) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (7) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (7) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (9) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (7) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (8) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (10) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (10) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (8) Nov 17 (9) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (12) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (8) Nov 06 (10) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (11) Nov 01 (10) Oct 31 (5) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (8) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (11) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (7) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (9) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (9) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (12) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (13) Oct 04 (11) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (14) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (12) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (10) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (8) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (7) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (14) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (11) Sep 14 (13) Sep 13 (11) Sep 12 (9) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (13) Sep 08 (11) Sep 07 (11) Sep 06 (16) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (8) Sep 01 (7) Aug 31 (1) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (12) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (13) Jul 28 (10) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (12) Jul 22 (14) Jul 21 (6) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (12) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (8) Jul 14 (15) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (6) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (9) Jul 06 (15) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (10) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (11) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (11) Jun 24 (9) Jun 23 (10) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (8) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (15) Jun 17 (8) Jun 16 (13) Jun 15 (15) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (6) Jun 12 (15) Jun 11 (7) Jun 10 (7) Jun 09 (18) Jun 08 (20) Jun 07 (17) Jun 06 (9) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (12) Jun 03 (13) Jun 02 (14) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (13) May 30 (8) May 29 (6) May 28 (8) May 27 (17) May 26 (8) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (9) May 22 (4) May 21 (4) May 20 (11) May 19 (14) May 18 (6) May 17 (10) May 16 (4) May 15 (5) May 14 (28) May 12 (9) May 11 (17) May 10 (15) May 09 (12) May 08 (5) May 07 (4) May 06 (10) May 05 (8) May 04 (10) May 03 (5) May 02 (6) May 01 (8) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (12) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (10) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (13) Apr 19 (11) Apr 18 (11) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (11) Apr 14 (17) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (16) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (18) Apr 08 (14) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (21) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (13) Apr 01 (8) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (11) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (12) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (8) Mar 20 (4) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (9) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (14) Mar 11 (13) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (17) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (13) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (14) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (18) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (2) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (13) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (13) Feb 22 (12) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (16) Feb 18 (17) Feb 17 (15) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (15) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (15) Feb 10 (11) Feb 09 (13) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (15) Feb 04 (15) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (14) Feb 01 (15) Jan 31 (11) Jan 30 (9) Jan 29 (19) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (9) Jan 26 (16) Jan 25 (19) Jan 24 (17) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (15) Jan 21 (9) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (12) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (14) Jan 12 (11) Jan 11 (13) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (20) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (14) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (14) Dec 30 (15) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (10) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (11) Dec 24 (9) Dec 23 (9) Dec 22 (15) Dec 21 (12) Dec 20 (11) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (12) Dec 15 (14) Dec 14 (11) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (17) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (12) Dec 07 (16) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (12) Dec 03 (15) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (12) Nov 30 (16) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (13) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (15) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (8) Nov 19 (9) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (9) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (10) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (14) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (13) Nov 01 (9) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (18) Oct 28 (13) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (12) Oct 25 (14) Oct 24 (20) Oct 22 (18) Oct 21 (18) Oct 20 (19) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (18) Oct 15 (8) Oct 14 (11) Oct 13 (9) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (27) Oct 08 (14) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (10) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (9) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (13) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (14) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (14) Sep 22 (20) Sep 21 (11) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (14) Sep 17 (8) Sep 16 (17) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (11) Sep 13 (9) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (14) Sep 09 (12) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (9) Sep 04 (20) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (16) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (13) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (11) Aug 25 (10) Aug 24 (14) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (13) Aug 21 (10) Aug 20 (13) Aug 19 (15) Aug 18 (8) Aug 17 (10) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (11) Aug 13 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (10) Aug 10 (17) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (13) Aug 07 (11) Aug 06 (13) Aug 05 (11) Aug 04 (11) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (10) Jul 30 (21) Jul 29 (14) Jul 28 (13) Jul 27 (16) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (15) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (15) Jul 21 (19) Jul 20 (17) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (26) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (20) Jul 14 (16) Jul 13 (19) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (13) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (16) Jul 05 (9) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (15) Jul 02 (11) Jul 01 (14) Jun 30 (13) Jun 29 (19) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (9) Jun 26 (16) Jun 25 (22) Jun 24 (17) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (15) Jun 21 (14) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (17) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (10) Jun 16 (17) Jun 15 (13) Jun 14 (14) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (13) Jun 11 (15) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (10) Jun 08 (23) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (20) Jun 05 (10) Jun 04 (11) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (21) Jun 01 (14) May 31 (10) May 30 (14) May 29 (8) May 28 (23) May 27 (20) May 26 (16) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (10) May 22 (18) May 21 (14) May 20 (12) May 19 (18) May 18 (14) May 17 (13) May 16 (4) May 15 (7) May 14 (16) May 13 (13) May 12 (8) May 11 (18) May 10 (8) May 09 (7) May 08 (13) May 07 (11) May 06 (15) May 05 (18) May 04 (17) May 03 (7) May 02 (5) May 01 (11) Apr 30 (19) Apr 29 (21) Apr 28 (18) Apr 27 (16) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (20) Apr 22 (23) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (16) Apr 19 (13) Apr 18 (6) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (16) Apr 15 (18) Apr 14 (13) Apr 13 (14) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (14) Apr 08 (12) Apr 07 (18) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (11) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (16) Mar 31 (16) Mar 30 (22) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (19) Mar 26 (31) Mar 25 (25) Mar 24 (26) Mar 23 (27) Mar 22 (22) Mar 21 (22) Mar 20 (13) Mar 19 (21) Mar 18 (20) Mar 17 (24) Mar 16 (18) Mar 15 (9) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (29) Mar 12 (15) Mar 11 (11) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (20) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (21) Mar 05 (22) Mar 04 (19) Mar 03 (9) Mar 02 (20) Mar 01 (11) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (27) Feb 26 (15) Feb 25 (18) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (19) Feb 22 (24) Feb 21 (10) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (25) Feb 18 (16) Feb 17 (19) Feb 16 (23) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (16) Feb 11 (12) Feb 10 (18) Feb 09 (12) Feb 08 (14) Feb 07 (8) Feb 06 (27) Feb 05 (28) Feb 04 (24) Feb 03 (17) Feb 02 (20) Feb 01 (23) Jan 31 (16) Jan 30 (20) Jan 29 (26) Jan 28 (17) Jan 27 (21) Jan 26 (24) Jan 25 (16) Jan 24 (14) Jan 23 (16) Jan 22 (17) Jan 21 (19) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (17) Jan 18 (13) Jan 17 (14) Jan 16 (10) Jan 15 (21) Jan 14 (16) Jan 13 (19) Jan 12 (30) Jan 11 (14) Jan 10 (11) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (23) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (21) Jan 05 (15) Jan 04 (18) Jan 03 (9) Jan 02 (12) Jan 01 (15) Dec 31 (18) Dec 30 (7) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (6) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (28) Dec 23 (12) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (17) Dec 20 (19) Dec 19 (19) Dec 18 (22) Dec 17 (24) Dec 16 (17) Dec 15 (29) Dec 14 (22) Dec 13 (12) Dec 12 (22) Dec 11 (24) Dec 10 (25) Dec 09 (18) Dec 08 (15) Dec 07 (21) Dec 06 (24) Dec 05 (30) Dec 04 (28) Dec 03 (26) Dec 02 (22) Dec 01 (33) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (18) Nov 27 (25) Nov 26 (17) Nov 25 (23) Nov 24 (27) Nov 23 (12) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (15) Nov 20 (23) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (24) Nov 17 (21) Nov 16 (20) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (15) Nov 13 (27) Nov 12 (23) Nov 11 (19) Nov 10 (21) Nov 09 (13) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (16) Nov 06 (32) Nov 05 (24) Nov 04 (20) Nov 03 (29) Nov 02 (12) Nov 01 (15) Oct 31 (20) Oct 30 (22) Oct 29 (27) Oct 28 (20) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (21) Oct 25 (15) Oct 24 (23) Oct 23 (26) Oct 22 (27) Oct 21 (28) Oct 20 (24) Oct 19 (13) Oct 18 (9) Oct 17 (30) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (20) Oct 14 (14) Oct 13 (17) Oct 12 (16) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (19) Oct 09 (22) Oct 08 (16) Oct 07 (18) Oct 06 (23) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (15) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (22) Sep 30 (25) Sep 29 (20) Sep 28 (17) Sep 27 (13) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (15) Sep 24 (24) Sep 23 (23) Sep 22 (18) Sep 21 (20) Sep 20 (11) Sep 19 (24) Sep 18 (25) Sep 17 (25) Sep 16 (19) Sep 15 (21) Sep 14 (15) Sep 13 (10) Sep 12 (23) Sep 11 (23) Sep 10 (25) Sep 09 (25) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (17) Sep 05 (14) Sep 04 (24) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (19) Aug 31 (20) Aug 30 (11) Aug 29 (24) Aug 28 (24) Aug 27 (16) Aug 26 (26) Aug 25 (21) Aug 24 (15) Aug 23 (19) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (25) Aug 20 (27) Aug 19 (19) Aug 18 (24) Aug 17 (14) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (15) Aug 14 (16) Aug 13 (21) Aug 12 (30) Aug 11 (19) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (12) Aug 08 (17) Aug 07 (21) Aug 06 (26) Aug 05 (23) Aug 04 (21) Aug 03 (12) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (19) Jul 31 (21) Jul 30 (25) Jul 29 (29) Jul 28 (23) Jul 27 (17) Jul 26 (11) Jul 25 (21) Jul 24 (14) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (19) Jul 21 (15) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (10) Jul 18 (15) Jul 17 (22) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (21) Jul 14 (20) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (29) Jul 10 (19) Jul 09 (17) Jul 08 (26) Jul 07 (21) Jul 06 (18) Jul 05 (14) Jul 04 (20) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (24) Jul 01 (23) Jun 30 (23) Jun 29 (18) Jun 28 (16) Jun 27 (16) Jun 26 (17) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (32) Jun 23 (29) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (17) Jun 20 (25) Jun 19 (28) Jun 18 (19) Jun 17 (25) Jun 16 (23) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (14) Jun 12 (22) Jun 11 (19) Jun 10 (17) Jun 09 (15) Jun 08 (16) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (29) Jun 05 (27) Jun 04 (24) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (22) Jun 01 (13) May 31 (9) May 30 (26) May 29 (19) May 28 (15) May 27 (15) May 26 (23) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (24) May 22 (13) May 21 (21) May 20 (18) May 19 (16) May 18 (7) May 17 (12) May 16 (25) May 15 (24) May 14 (23) May 13 (19) May 12 (17) May 11 (8) May 10 (6) May 09 (14) May 08 (21) May 07 (26) May 06 (14) May 05 (14) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (24) May 01 (13) Apr 30 (15) Apr 29 (24) Apr 28 (24) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (13) Apr 24 (27) Apr 23 (15) Apr 22 (21) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (17) Apr 19 (8) Apr 18 (20) Apr 17 (27) Apr 16 (27) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (8) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (22) Apr 09 (15) Apr 08 (15) Apr 07 (17) Apr 06 (14) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (19) Mar 31 (25) Mar 30 (13) Mar 29 (9) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (23) Mar 26 (22) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (25) Mar 23 (16) Mar 22 (13) Mar 21 (24) Mar 20 (27) Mar 19 (20) Mar 18 (24) Mar 17 (17) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (20) Mar 13 (28) Mar 12 (30) Mar 11 (20) Mar 10 (21) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (8) Mar 07 (17) Mar 06 (20) Mar 05 (19) Mar 04 (15) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (12) Feb 28 (16) Feb 27 (17) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (23) Feb 24 (15) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (24) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (24) Feb 18 (19) Feb 17 (27) Feb 16 (13) Feb 15 (11) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (13) Feb 12 (13) Feb 11 (21) Feb 10 (16) Feb 09 (15) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (17) Feb 06 (21) Feb 05 (17) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (23) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (8) Jan 31 (17) Jan 30 (22) Jan 29 (23) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (24) Jan 26 (12) Jan 25 (9) Jan 24 (12) Jan 23 (19) Jan 22 (19) Jan 21 (14) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (12) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (20) Jan 16 (14) Jan 15 (23) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (20) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (18) Jan 09 (11) Jan 08 (18) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (12) Jan 05 (12) Jan 04 (11) Jan 03 (10) Jan 02 (9) Jan 01 (9) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (13) Dec 26 (15) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (8) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (14) Dec 19 (17) Dec 18 (14) Dec 17 (14) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (9) Dec 13 (11) Dec 12 (16) Dec 11 (18) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (24) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (19) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (26) Dec 04 (15) Dec 03 (20) Dec 02 (17) Dec 01 (11) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (18) Nov 28 (21) Nov 27 (10) Nov 26 (22) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (18) Nov 21 (9) Nov 20 (17) Nov 19 (16) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (21) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (20) Nov 12 (16) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (15) Nov 06 (18) Nov 05 (19) Nov 04 (16) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (17) Oct 31 (17) Oct 30 (21) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (16) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (16) Oct 24 (18) Oct 23 (14) Oct 22 (17) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (8) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (12) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (19) Oct 14 (15) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (10) Oct 10 (23) Oct 09 (13) Oct 08 (15) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (13) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (16) Oct 03 (17) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (20) Sep 30 (17) Sep 29 (9) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (14) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (19) Sep 24 (13) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (21) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (20) Sep 16 (16) Sep 15 (10) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (18) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (24) Sep 10 (17) Sep 09 (16) Sep 08 (16) Sep 07 (10) Sep 06 (20) Sep 05 (13) Sep 04 (23) Sep 03 (14) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (11) Aug 31 (11) Aug 30 (13) Aug 29 (18) Aug 28 (14) Aug 27 (21) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (10) Aug 23 (17) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (14) Aug 20 (20) Aug 19 (20) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (9) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (12) Aug 14 (14) Aug 13 (19) Aug 12 (14) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (12) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (18) Aug 07 (16) Aug 06 (16) Aug 05 (20) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (12) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (16) Jul 30 (16) Jul 29 (11) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (9) Jul 26 (17) Jul 25 (20) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (11) Jul 22 (18) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (14) Jul 18 (11) Jul 17 (15) Jul 16 (12) Jul 15 (10) Jul 14 (8) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (17) Jul 11 (18) Jul 10 (16) Jul 09 (13) Jul 08 (10) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (8) Jul 05 (16) Jul 04 (14) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (13) Jul 01 (16) Jun 30 (19) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (19) Jun 27 (21) Jun 26 (27) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (23) Jun 23 (12) Jun 22 (9) Jun 21 (18) Jun 20 (15) Jun 19 (24) Jun 18 (21) Jun 17 (13) Jun 16 (9) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (18) Jun 13 (24) Jun 12 (18) Jun 11 (23) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (24) Jun 08 (27) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (25) Jun 05 (30) Jun 04 (23) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (16) Jun 01 (17) May 31 (18) May 30 (19) May 29 (17) May 28 (23) May 27 (15) May 26 (10) May 25 (19) May 24 (16) May 23 (16) May 22 (27) May 21 (20) May 20 (26) May 19 (6) May 18 (8) May 17 (20) May 16 (8) May 15 (18) May 14 (5) May 13 (21) May 12 (9) May 11 (8) May 10 (12) May 09 (18) May 08 (11) May 07 (27) May 06 (12) May 05 (16) May 04 (19) May 03 (14) May 02 (18) May 01 (18) Apr 30 (25) Apr 29 (27) Apr 28 (11) Apr 27 (10) Apr 26 (18) Apr 25 (10) Apr 24 (29) Apr 23 (29) Apr 22 (14) Apr 21 (15) Apr 20 (20) Apr 19 (22) Apr 18 (16) Apr 17 (32) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (21) Apr 13 (15) Apr 12 (13) Apr 11 (14) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (20) Apr 08 (36) Apr 07 (22) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (28) Apr 04 (20) Apr 03 (29) Apr 02 (32) Apr 01 (18) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (15) Mar 28 (22) Mar 27 (24) Mar 26 (17) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (13) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (15) Mar 20 (18) Mar 19 (19) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (10) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (18) Mar 14 (24) Mar 13 (18) Mar 12 (18) Mar 11 (17) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (18) Mar 07 (25) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (16) Mar 04 (22) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (23) Feb 29 (19) Feb 28 (25) Feb 27 (26) Feb 26 (23) Feb 25 (12) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (15) Feb 22 (26) Feb 21 (31) Feb 20 (12) Feb 19 (21) Feb 18 (15) Feb 17 (10) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (19) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (20) Feb 11 (9) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (28) Feb 08 (20) Feb 07 (22) Feb 06 (20) Feb 05 (19) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (16) Feb 02 (28) Feb 01 (37) Jan 31 (27) Jan 30 (31) Jan 29 (18) Jan 28 (14) Jan 27 (10) Jan 26 (18) Jan 25 (26) Jan 24 (34) Jan 23 (21) Jan 22 (21) Jan 21 (18) Jan 20 (18) Jan 19 (18) Jan 18 (26) Jan 17 (24) Jan 16 (23) Jan 15 (30) Jan 14 (20) Jan 13 (18) Jan 12 (24) Jan 11 (11) Jan 10 (23) Jan 09 (22) Jan 08 (17) Jan 07 (17) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (18) Jan 04 (15) Jan 03 (19) Jan 02 (14) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (15) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (7) Dec 26 (10) Dec 25 (16) Dec 24 (13) Dec 23 (16) Dec 22 (11) Dec 21 (26) Dec 20 (28) Dec 19 (14) Dec 18 (25) Dec 17 (23) Dec 16 (19) Dec 15 (22) Dec 14 (38) Dec 13 (26) Dec 12 (25) Dec 11 (27) Dec 10 (31) Dec 09 (15) Dec 08 (30) Dec 07 (31) Dec 06 (27) Dec 05 (38) Dec 04 (25) Dec 03 (27) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (36) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (17) Nov 28 (23) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (16) Nov 25 (14) Nov 24 (18) Nov 23 (21) Nov 22 (21) Nov 21 (24) Nov 20 (20) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (17) Nov 17 (17) Nov 16 (34) Nov 15 (25) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (21) Nov 12 (18) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1) Researchers associated with Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, have proposed the creation of a Universal Basic Services (UBS) programme, which will expand the current public system of delivering key services to create millions of new jobs in India. The suggestions point out that just two public services - health and education - can create more than 2 million jobs, which is about 15 per cent of the current workforce in these sectors. The proposal has been made under the chapter 'Creating Good Jobs Through A Universal Basic Services Programme' in the 'State of Working India 2019' report, prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Employment of the university. Another component of the report looked at the job losses and estimated that India might have lost 50 lakh jobs between 2016 and 2018. Also Read: 50 lakh people lost jobs since demonetisation, says Azim Premji University report "Regularising the employment of Anganwadi workers, accredited social health activists (ASHAs), helpers and other contractual employees in the public health and education system can create good jobs for another 3 million workers. There have been calls recently to increase the health budget from around 1 per cent to 3 per cent of GDP, and the education budget from 4 to 6 per cent of GDP. Our analysis strongly supports the need to make this commitment. It will make enough resources available to eliminate existing shortfalls, expand capacity and create decent jobs for millions of workers across the education and health spectrum," the report states. The researchers point out that India needs to more than double its overall public spending on healthcare to catch up to comparable developing countries. If the vacant positions, as well as the shortfall in personnel and in health infrastructure, are filled, between 0.41-0.62 million jobs could be generated, they say. This constitutes around 8 to 12 per cent of the existing workforce in the health sector. Also Read: Jobs are back in IT sector! Top 6 firms hire over 1 lakh employees in 2018-19 Similarly, in 2016, there was a total shortfall of 0.9 million elementary teachers in government schools alone, a vacancy rate of approximately 18 per cent against all sanctioned posts. Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh had among the highest vacancy rates, together accounting for half the vacant posts in the country. "Ensuring all these posts are filled means creating almost a million additional jobs in the country. This is only for ensuring adequate teaching capacity at the primary level. At the secondary level, too, there is a dearth of teachers. Available official statistics suggest that at the secondary level, there are 1,06,906 vacancies for secondary school teachers," it said. The study also points out that the effects of an expansion in the health and education sectors would not be limited only to employment in these sectors. "As these sectors expand, the demand for inputs from other sectors that supply to these two sectors would also increase, thus increasing their output and hence employment. For example, health and education together account for 0.1 per cent of the output of the trade sector, but trade employs 48 million people. So, a 20 per cent increase in health and education output may proportionally generate 97,000 jobs. These effects would flow through the economy and the final effect on employment will be significantly larger than only on health and education," the study says. The chapter was co-authored by Rosa Abraham, Anjana Thampi, Tejas Pande, and Amit Basole. Also Read: Jobs in corporate sector on a decline: CMIE The business community in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka hopes that the outcome of General Election 2019 will be a break from the past and will not be individual-based but issue-driven. A Vellayan, business leader and member of the Murugappa family feels that the work is cut out for the government, which comes to power. "Tamil Nadu was at the forefront of industrial development but somewhere along the way our competitiveness was eroded,'' he says."If the government that comes to power addresses three key issues - power availability, more focus on governance and consistency in policies that are supportive of the industry - then the industry can pretty much take care of itself.'' Tamil Nadu is voting for 38 Lok Sabha seats (General Elections 2019) and 18 Legislative Assembly constituencies in the by-elections on Thursday. The remaining 4 of the 22 vacant assembly seats will vote on May 19. Also Read: Brokerages wait and observe L&T bid for Mindtree Other business leaders in the state are hoping that the absence of powerful leaders such as J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi does not result in a hung assembly as that may not augur well for policy-making. As a business leader in Chennai puts it, "The big worry today is really the formation of an unstable coalition as that will lead to instability.'' Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson and managing director, Biocon expects that every Member of Parliament (MP), who is voted for in this election is held accountable for his or her constituency. She says that identifying the local issues, therefore, becomes important and then demanding that the MPs and MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) deliver on the local demands. For instance, in Karnataka some of the main issues are water, jobs and infrastructure. Shaw opines that this election is about the haves and the have-nots. "It is the have-nots who will determine the outcome because, they are the ones who do not have a job, income, food, home or any means to ensure sustenance. All of these will matter in this election," she says. Consider Bangalore Rural Constituency, she says, the issues there are about poor roads, better drainage, sewerage, sanitation and drying up of water bodies. Dr B S Ajaikumar, chairman and CEO, HealthCare Global, raises the issue of financial distribution. According to Ajaikumar, Karnataka is one of the highest taxpayers to the centre and therefore the hope is that money will also come back to the state for its growth. Also Read: Pakistan's Finance Minister Asad Umar steps down Joseph Curtin and Max Munchmeyer in Foreign Policy: Even as international efforts to address climate change have gathered momentum, emissions of heat-trapping gasses have risen, reaching a new peak last year. The next major opportunity to reverse the trend will be the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York this coming September. But a necessary element that could break the deadlockU.S. leadershipwill be absent. Back in 2016, at the end of U.S. President Barack Obamas tenure, the United States formally joined the Paris agreement, which he believed was the most ambitious climate change agreement in history. By signing on, Obama argued, the United States had become a global leader in the fight against climate change. He was rightat that time, the United States was on track to cut carbon emissions by up to 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, in line with the objective it had set under the agreement. But that moment has passed. In 2018, emissions growth resumed as the Trump administration rolled back the Obama-era environmental protections. This wasnt the first time such a thing had happened. In fact, the cycle is relatively well established. More here. It's no secret that the past year has been hard on business. At least 85 of San Francisco's restaurants have closed. Relatives around the country are calling us to ask about the supposed "San Francisco Exodus" of former downtown workers. The local arts scene is standing on its last leg. Luckily, however, our right to spend our money on legal pot was protected. Cannabis businesses were declared essential, and though a few dispensaries closed (like the medical-era Urban Pharm, RIP), the majority have hung on. While smoking and vaping remains prohibited at cannabis lounges due to Covid-19, some, like at Posh Green Boutique, now let you sit down and enjoy an edible. And even though the traditional 4/20 festivities at Hippie Hill are canceled again this year, a few outdoor events, like the High, San Francisco! cannabis-themed scavenger hunt on April 17th, have been given the go-ahead. Whether you plan to gather with your pandemic pod or just enjoy a day parked in front of the TV, 2021 is most definitely a year to celebrate all the herb has given us. Impulsively bought pre-rolls, after all, saved us from many a night of pandemic boredom. Cannabis-infused salves and lotions cured the back pain induced by our lousy home office equipment. Discreet, low-dose edibles made three-hour Zoom meetings manageable. Soothing tinctures kept our pandemic anxieties at bay. So roll up a joint and let out a big exhale. The best thing about the stoner's holiday is you can make it just as relaxing, exciting, or sociable as you please. Here are some of the best products, dispensaries, deliveries, and adventures available within a couple hours' drive of the Golden Gate Bridge to help guide you on your journey. High-End Cannabis Dispensaries & Deliveries in the Bay Area Sleek and strategically located in San Francisco's posh shopping mecca Union Square, Stiiizy, from social equity program proprietor Cindy De La Vega, is the city's first Latina-owned cannabis dispensary. (Courtesy of Stiiizy) Lucky for daily tokers and occasional smokers alike, cannabis was declared an "essential" business in California this past year. The trip to the dispensary became our monthly outing, and local budtenders and delivery drivers became the smiling faces we could always count on. These are some of the best dispensaries and delivery services that have been meeting our needs over the past year, offering some of the most luxurious products available in the Bay Area. SAN FRANCISCO There is no bigger name in cannabis than Cookies, and there is no better location for a cannabis dispensary than the Haight-Ashbury near Golden Gate Park. Luckily Berner's on Haight (1685 Haight St., Upper Haight) has both the Cookies supply and the location, sitting at the corner of Cole and Haight and routinely carrying more than 50 different cultivars. If you ask CEO/founder Shawn Richard, however, he's most proud of his "equity shelf": a rack of flower, vapes, and edibles brands produced by other social equity entrepreneurs. // The first dispensary in San Francisco independently owned by a Black woman, Posh Green Cannabis Boutique (828 Innes Ave., Bayview), touts a stylish shop and places priority on wellness with their own, in-house CBD line. Having had their official opening interrupted by the pandemic, they're hosting an official grand-opening "Community Appreciation Event" on 4/20/21. Check out their Instagram for more updates. // Though smoking lounges are still a forbidden luxury, the centrally located Vapor Room (79 Ninth St., SoMa) has a carefully curated flower menu that, pound-for-pound, may be the best in the city. It's our choice for grabbing IC Collective flowerthe only true, Grateful Dead-approved Chem Dog aroundas well as the best sun-grown flower and the latest luxe edibles. // SPARC (1256 Mission St., 471 Haight St., 502 14th St.) still encourages customers to order online for pickup or delivery in order to reduce the amount of customers in the store, but it's worth the extra step. In addition to having their own vertically integrated farm operations, they also have made a pointed effort to support and advertise great social equity brands like the San Francisco Cannabis Oversight Committee's own Nina Parks' brand, Gift of Doja. // If you're a germaphobeand who isn't these daysThe Green Cross (4218 Mission St., Excelsior) is your jam. They've been taking pandemic safety seriously since before the first shelter in place order, and strictly enforce mask wearing and social distancing. // If you're heading back into the office, you'll want to get acquainted with the new Stiiizy location downtown (180 O'Farrell St., Union Square), a friendly, community-oriented shop with one of the widest vape and edible selections around. Cindy De La Vega, the store's co-owner, is supported by the city's social equity program and has developed a name for herself as a community activist with the violence-prevention and youth-development group United Playaz. Work remotely and never get downtown these days? Get a taste of the Stiiizy label by ordering its live resin pods in Gold Wedding Cake x Watermelon Z for home delivery ($30, available at Eaze). // If you've been surprised by the number of new Apothecarium locations (in the Castro, Marina, and SoMa) popping up around the Bay Area, don't worry, it's not short-term memory loss. They're owned by the Canadian company TerrAscend, one of the most successful companies in weed, and are rapidly expanding throughout the region. Their status also means they have one of the widest and consistently stocked selections in SF. // When a product is new on the market, Barbary Coast (952 Mission St., SoMa) will always be one of the first dispensaries to carry it. Stop by to check out the freshest edibles, eighths, and vapes on the scene. // Chic cannabis boutique Urbana (locations in the Inner Richmond and Mission District) transforms cannabis users from stoner to cannaisseur. This dispensary never carries anything "bottom shelf," so if you don't have the time to research before, you can rest easy knowing anything from Urbana is a safe bet. EAST BAY Located in a downtown space formerly used by legalization legend Oaksterdam University, Cookies Oakland (1776 Broadway, Oakland) is the top brand's flagship Bay Area locationand is also delivering to "most" of the East Bay. Call ahead to see if your secret retreat away in the hills isn't so remote after all. // Conveniently located near Oakland freeways, East Bay native and equity entrepreneur Alphonso "Tucky" Blunt's semi-eponymous Blunts+Moore (701 66th Ave., Oakland) is open from 10am to 7pm daily. // The original Harborside (1840 Embarcadero, Oakland) is still receiving steady shipments from its 47-acre farm in Monterey County, as well as from every ambitious flower provider in Northern California, and then delivering it all to you. Even better, they've dedicated an entire grow room to clones, just in time for the growing season this year. // Hi Fidelity (2465 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley) still boasts one of the biggest selections in the Bay Area, consistently stocked with Emerald Cup winners and hard-to-find boutique and craft products. // The dab bar is closed, but Magnolia (161 Adeline St., Oakland) is open and certified RN Barbara Blaser, the legendary cannabis nurse, is available via phone and FaceTime to advise you on what may best relax your stress. // Farmacy (3243 Sacramento St., Berkeley), founded by cannabis activist Sue Taylor, also offers excellent service, emphasizing education and a welcoming atmosphere where there's no wrong questions. SOUTH BAY If you ever worry about the amount of plastic packaging you accrue buying cannabis, Airfield Supply Co. (1190 Coleman Ave., San Jose) is the place to go this 4/20. For the full week leading up to the holiday, April 13th through April 20th, Airfield is encouraging customers to bring in as much plastic cannabis waste as possible so the dispensary can convert it into diesel fuel with the help of recycling innovator Resynergi. In return, customers receive a redeemable coupon for a wide range of edibles, vape cartridges, and pre-rolled joints with any purchase of $25 or more. // If one of your weekend road trips brings you to Santa Cruz, Kind Peoples (3600 Soquel Ave., 533 Ocean St.) is worth a stop on your trip. Not only does the Soquel location carry a wide variety of seeds and clones rare in the Bay Area, but they also have a long list of buy-one-get-one deals on cannabis eighths, vapes, and edibles. // East of Eden, with locations in Moss Landing and Salinas, consistently offer enough deals on products to fill up an entire web page. It's their extract selection, however, that keeps us coming back, stocked with both extracts for dabbing and multiple varieties of powdery hash to sprinkle atop your bowls and joints. For their tiered 4/20 giveaway, customers who purchase anywhere from $10 to $150 worth of products will receive raffle tickets for awesome prizes. The grand prize is a Marley Natural bong. MARIN + WINE COUNTRY The lone brick-and-mortar dispensary in Marin County is still the CBC Marin Alliance (6 School St. #210, Fairfax), just as it's been since the 1990s. Walk-ins are medical only, but the delivery service is for everyone 21 and up. // Those of us lucky to enjoy a Russian River getaway already know about Riverside Wellness Collective (15025 River Rd., Guerneville). Online express ordering is recommended when you're in a rush, though their membership offers access to coworking and event spaces as well. // Harvest House of Cannabis (2449 2nd St., Napa) is operating normal hours but is one of the few dispensaries still only offering curbside pickup. // If you're a fan of the low-cost and top-tier cannabis from Talking Trees, it's worth the trek to Humanity Wellness (3791 Cleveland Ave., Santa Rosa). In addition to Talking Trees, they regularly carry top-shelf brands like Seven Leaves, Cookies, and Wonderbrett at unbeatable prices. WEB- AND APP-BASED DELIVERIES Social distancing accelerated the already rising popularity of all things delivery, and that applies to cannabis, too. Customers can order nearly every product available on the California market through the Bay Area's top-tier dispensaries, as they often have the widest selections around. Still the biggest name in the smartphone-hailed weed delivery game after its initial arrival a half-decade ago, Eaze remains the most consistent delivery company around with its exhaustive menu, quick delivery times, and unparalleled coverage area. If you can't get Eaze delivered to you, you may not exist. // If Eaze has any competitors, it's Caliva, a statewide delivery service with an extensive selection of sungrown flower, edibles, and social equity brands (they also just opened a deli-themed dispensary in SoCal, if you ever make the trip south). Always whimsical and never stuffy, their colorfully packaged sungrown flower is toposthough they also carry a wide range of other brands including Jay-Z's pricey cannabis brand Monogram if you're feeling fancy. // From Bolinas to the Sausalito pier, if you live in Marin County, you must get to know San Rafaelbased Nice Guys Delivery. They're still one of the few retailers offering discounts for first-time patients (a whopping 25 percent off), and have a long list of changing buy-one-get-one deals on their website. // Bud.com has fully embraced the CBD game. Anchoring its CBD hemp line are packs of smokes, full-spectrum tincture, and gummies, but THC products, including Dosist vape pens and Chong's Choice party joints, are available throughout most of the state. They're even stocked up on CBD treatments for your furry friends, if you want to share the love. // Cannabis to impress comes from the carefully curated selections at women-founded, women-run Sava. If you're on the lookout for creams to cure your aches and pains, this delivery service has the best wellness selection in the Bay Area, hands down. They also carry some of the best, small-batch, craft products: Check out the rosin-infused, Michelin star-chef created Turkish delights from Rose or whole-plant infused olive oil tinctures from Cosmic View. // For when only the very finest flower will do, the first and last call goes out to C.R.A.F.T. On top of their own legendary strains, find IC Collective, Alien Labs, and Connected. Their most fun deal, however, is the Baker's eighths, which are $45 ounces of mixed sativa, hybrid, or indica nugs selected for infusing your own oils and butters at home. // Punching in 1-800-CANNABIS to your phone calls up Weden. Selections are cued up by desired outcome: Sleep? Party? McLovin' time? The latter keeps the spirit of brand ancestor Lady Chatterley's alive. // CaliXpress' lane is the "best value marijuana you can find." Rather than a concierge, CaliXpress positions itself as "a grocery store," a necessity rather than a treat yo'self splurgeno small promise in these essential times. // Ganja Goddess was founded by a woman who felt uncomfortable visiting most California dispensaries, and for good reasonthe ogling and "bro" culture of some cannabis dispensaries can be overwhelming. Though Ganja Goddess is an online delivery, they prioritize education and service, with patient customer support available daily via phone. Ganja Goddess is the place to go for luxury edibles or any wellness products you might need a little extra help choosing between. Artisanal Cannabis Edibles + Drinks Cooking with cannabis? Potli's cannabis-infused olive oil still takes the cake. (Courtesy of Aster Farms) As we begin to re-enter the real world, discreet consumption is once again the name of the game. Luckily, while we all got high watching Bridgerton last year, cannabis companies experimented with all types of different infusions to get us higher, quicker, and in even more delectable and creative ways. Indulge in a fast-acting aperitif, sautee vegetables in THC olive oil, or munch on some rosin-infused chocolates before bed. We are living through the renaissance of cannabis edibles, and there's never been a better time to indulge. FOR THE KITCHEN Though several cannabis brands have entered the cannabis olive oil game, Potli still takes the (olive oil) cake. They have a hemp-CBD variety if you need your olive oil to cross state lines ($32), a THC-infused collaboration with Aster Farms ($43) or, best of all, their CBD/THCA variety, which keeps you sober when served cold or activates with THC when heated ($55). Their THC-, CBD-, and CBN-infused organic local honey ($35-$45) also makes for the ultimate throat-soother if you're suffering from seasonal allergies. // For a little extra spice, Pot D'Huile has designed some mouthwatering offerings. Their CBD-infused Hot Sloth Hot Sauce ($36, available online) is ideal for pork or fruit, made with pungent, tangy ingredients like Japanese plum, purple sweet potato, shiso, and koji. Their Loud Grandma CBD-infused Chili Crisp Oil ($29, available online), delightfully packaged in an imitation take-out box, is also a wonderfully authentic-tasting topper for noodles and meats. // If you're a fan of Mexican food, FA Ninos' Smoking Green Pot Sauce ($25, available at Stiiizy Union Square) has all the classic tang of jalapenos, serranos, and garlic necessary for topping tacos through the summer months. CHOCOLATES + SNACKS Industry-dominating gummy brand Plus has finally entered the premium whole-plant edible market with their new limited-edition orange-blossom-flavored hash gummy, backed by old school hash masters Biscotti Brands, just in time for 4/20 ($29, available at Harborside). Prefer a more classic boost? Pop one of Plus' sour watermelon Uplift gummies for fast-acting bubbly vibes ($18, available at Eaze). // Papa & Barkley's hash-infused chocolates ($21) are as creamy as a Ghirardelli square and are infused with relaxing, whole-plant cannabis that gets you lifted with none of the typical edibles anxiety. Their hash-infused gummies, too, yield the ideal, euphoric, Sunday afternoon high while melting away the week's aches and pains ($20, both available at Farmacy Berkeley). // From Oregon but legally ported to California, Wyld is the industry leader in gummies ($18), with 1:1 and high-CBD varieties, and also stands out with its blood-orange, sativa-enhanced white chocolates (available at Posh Green, Urbana, and Project Cannabis). // If you must travel, melt away pandemic stress by popping a hand-crafted Mellows marshmallow in either THC-infused peppermint bark or the CBD-rich brown-butter sage ($7, available at Vapor Room). // Oakland-based Kiva Confections has entered the world of whole-plant edibles too, and for good reason: Within only a few weeks on the market, their Lost Farm line of fruit chews and gummies became a statewide favorite. Bite into a juicy peach-flavored gummy and enjoy the euphoric sativa high of the strain Mimosa ($25, available on Ganja Goddess). More of a chocolate lover? Order the brand's Terra Almond Bites ($28, available at Eaze)with 5mg each of THC and CBD, it's ok if you can't eat just one. // The new Kanha nano vegan gummy takes the guesswork out of edibles because their specialty nanoemulsion technology lets effects kick in within about 10 minutes. In flavors Blood Orange Bliss, Luscious Lemon, and Serene Green Apple, these indica, sativa, and CBD gummies are perfect when you're in a pinch ($20, available at Posh Green Boutique). // If you have any dietary restrictions, Dosist has you covered. Their new gummies, labeled with the same easy-to-understand names as their vapes like Bliss and Calm, are both vegan and gluten-free ($20, available on Sava). DELIGHTFUL DRINKS Cannabis has advanced from the White Claw era to fine faux liqueurs and mocktails, with infused drinks of every kind hitting the scene (and your brain). Up first is Wunder with their line of low-dose and low-calorie sparkling seltzers that feel more like a canned mocktail than sparkling juice. Infused with just 2mg THC, 2mg of THC's milder body-heavy cousin Delta-8, and 4mg CBD, these beverages bring on a subtle, social feeling unique from any other drink on the market ($20 per four-pack, available on Sava). // The magic of cannabis and caffeine is captured in Somatik, the first-of-its-kind (and still the best) cannabis cold brew ($8, available on Sava); the brand also offers THC coffee beans and CBD-rich goji berries, called Sparks, in its collection. // Designed with women foremost in mind, Kikoko made its mark with a variety of CBD and THC tea blends for all situations and occasions ($6 single-serve, $20/four-pack, $44/can of 10, available at Hi Fidelity); the Marin-based brand now also offers honey shots, tinctures, and mints. // Aperitifs are meant to stimulate the appetite and mind before a meal, so it makes complete sense to pour a little THC into your glass. Artet, however, is the only cannabis aperitif brand on the market so far, offering a botanical faux liqueur that has 2.5mg THC per serving ($50 per bottle, available at Posh Green Boutique). // Hops and cannabis are closely related, and so Lagunitas' combination, Hi Fi Hops, is rightly revered as one of the top weed drinks around. Try the 18:1 CBD:THC sparking water ($8, available at Posh Green Boutique). // Want a buzz without the booze? Grab a Cann Social Tonicwith 2mg THC and 4mg CBD, these sparkling waters provide a microdose in tasty flavors including ginger lemongrass. For 4/20 this year, the brand has released a special lime basil flavor in collaboration with the delivery service Sava ($5-$18, available on Sava). A note of caution: Cannabinoids in most drinks absorb more efficiently in the body, making them a bit stronger per milligram than the average edible. As the veteran stoner saying goes: Start low (dose), and go slow. // Sometimes, your cravings are just too specific for a pre-made beverage. Infuse your own drinks with Purejuana, an all-natural, rapid-onset powder that comes in easy-to-use 10mg packets. Better yet, the cannabinoids are strain-specific, so you can choose the ideal effect to go with your favorite drinks ($30, available at Barbary Coast). RECIPES + COOKBOOKS Most everyone has gotten more into cooking over the past year, whether it be by choice or out of necessity. If you're out of new recipes to try, the cannabis cookbook category continues to grow, with infinite meal and dessert options you can infuse at home. Mellows creator and San Franciscan Stephanie Hua and Cannasseur Series executive chef Coreen Carroll give all their secrets away in Edibles: Small Bites for the Modern Cannabis Kitchen. Featuring directions on how to prepare 30 low-dose edibles, the book is a roadmap for budding chefs as well as mindful entertainers. // Chef Cheri Sicard believes that cooking with cannabis should be an everyday venture. She also grasps that fudging the active ingredient is a recipe for disaster, which is why her Easy Cannabis Cookbook provides both a dosing guide and a 101-level explanation, as well as 60 recipes suitable for weekday nights and lazy brunches. // If you love to keep your bar cart stocked and mix cocktails at home, the new book Cannabis Drinks, from "Herb Somm" Jamie Evans, walks you through making THC and CBD drinks both with pre-made tinctures or honey and home-infused simple syrups. The Ginger Rabbit, made with THC honey, fresh carrot, ginger, and lemon juice will have you blissed-out all summer long. The Purest Vapes, Cartridges + Concentrates The new Pax Era Life vape comes in four colors and is even smaller and sleeker than previous models. (Courtesy of Pax) Each method of cannabis consumption has a time and place. Edibles are great for long hikes or movie marathons, joints are great for socializing, and bongs are there when you're ready to go all-in. But when it comes to discretion, nothing works better than vaping. With little smell, a quick, potent onset, and a similar appearance to nicotine vapes, it's tempting to keep one in your pocket at all times. These are the best cartridges and tech for your on-the-go vaping needs. CARTRIDGES AND DISPOSABLES For the peak top-shelf experience, it's hard to beat Friendly Farms' selection of exotic pure live resin cartridges ($36 per half gram, available at Hi Fidelity). A brand known as much for their community-first mindset as their premium concentrates, they routinely collaborate with other big-name brands like Connected, Wonderbrett, and Seven Leaves. // Raw Garden has become an industry standard for a reason: They're consistent, and probably offer the best bang for your buck. The cartridges are a blend of whole-plant live resin and distillate, yielding many of the benefits of top-shelf extracts at a reasonable price point. Pick up a 3 Bears OG half gram cart and you'll never go back to your post-work glass of wine again ($35/half gram, $60/gram, available at The Green Cross). // Though whole-plant extracts like live resin, sauce, and rosin are a must if you're looking for a heavy-hitting high, Eden's diamond distillate cartridges are the most premium distilled THC oil money can buy. In fact, the oil is so pure it's clear, and is delivered via a patented mouth piece that makes for a smoother than usual hit ($45, available at East of Eden). // Jetty Extracts utilizes sustainable farming practices and industry-leading hydrocarbon extraction in its high potency cartridges. Take a tropical vacay with a gram of the Gold Pineapple Express ($50, available at Eaze). // Born in Humboldt County, Dosist celebrates the seat of cannabis legacy in its plant sciencebased formulas that are "chemically engineered to make people feel a certain waycalm, sleepy, relieved of painwithout getting high." Most important, however, is the brand's patented technology: These pens buzz in your hand and shut off after puffing the proper "dose." Previously only sold in a disposable format, the pens now come in a rechargeable form. Better yet, the brand has also recently delved into live resin, so you can pair the premium technology with top shelf concentrates ($40-$100, available at SPARC). // We get it: You're a pro. You want potency, as quickly and cleanly as possible. Even more, you don't mind if it wears off in an hour or twoquick, potent highs are the name of the game, because you have stuff to do. You, friend, want the full-gram cartridges from Heavy Hitters, with full flavor and full effect ($60, available at Magnolia Oakland). // Known for clean cannabis, Oakland-based Brite Labs was one of the very first to be certified safe and free of the deadly additive Vitamin E acetate, the culprit behind the 2019 vape crisis. Breathe easy when you see the Brite Labs label on Pax Era pods and regular pen cartridges ($30-$50, available at Urbana). // For the best value, we can't argue with what's on offer from Circles ($15/half gram, $25/gram, available at Eaze). Their sauce cartridges, and particularly the Forbidden Fruit variety, are similar in quality to cartridges that sell for $20 more. CONCENTRATES Concentrates used to only suit the most serious of stoners, mainly because of their potency and the fact that a blow torch is typically needed to vape them. However, refillable vape pens like the Puffco Plus ($89) make it simple and easy to enjoy the purest concentrates at approachable doses. // Oakland-based Guild Extracts has one of the widest selections around, including oils that focus on specific cannabinoids. Try their distilled Delta-8 ($45, available at Barbary Coast) for a functional and comparatively subtle body high. // Whether it's after a killer workout or a tough day at work, sometimes we just need a hefty dose of CBD. Craft company Blessed Extracts has you covered with their Emerald Cup-winning Suzie Q CBD concentrate ($38, available at Hi Fidelity). // On nights when you're trying to let loose, it's hard to do better than Berkeley-based artisan rosin-makers Doc Green's. Their completely solventless extracts are made as pure and true-to-the-plant as humanly possible, so you get all the benefits of smoking with none of the smoke ($66, available on Sava). FLOWER POWER Born of the same lab that brought you a certain very notorious product popular with teens, Everyday's quarter-ounce of Mandarin Cookies ($105, available at Born of the same lab that brought you a certain very notorious product popular with teens, Pax carries none of the stigma and all of the design genius. The new Pax Era Life comes in three colors in addition to the classic black, and is even a tiny bit smaller and sleeker than their previous Pax Era models ($35, available at pax.com ). // The Hydrology9 NX, from Bay Areabased hardware company Cloudious9 , is the best tech for enjoying both extracts and flower without a flame. Throw the small water pipe in its nifty carrying case and you're set for any West Coast road trip no matter how long you're gone ($300, available on cloudious9.com ). // Just want to roll a J? For the everyday toke, pick up's quarter-ounce of Mandarin Cookies ($105, available at Eaze ). Cannabis for Wellness: Tinctures, Topicals + More Say "bye" to workaday stress with a ylang ylangscented, cannabis-infused bath bomb from Life Elements. (Courtesy of Life Elements) With the conditions around us fluctuating as much as they are, self-care has never been more important. For many of us, that means at-home spa days and pampering, and there's no better companion for a day of relaxing than cannabis-infused wellness products that amplify the relief. TINCTURES Papa & Barkley is a top brand for topicals, but in addition to balms and patches they also offer tinctures in both high CBD, 3:1, and 1:1 CBD:THC ratios ($45-$90, at dispensaries Bay Areawide; hemp-based CBD products may be ordered online for shipping directly from papaandbarkley.com). // Ditch the Ambien and place a dropper full of Cosmic View's Slumber tincture, a 4:1 ratio of THC:CBD with added skullcap, chamomile, and valerian for a peaceful night's rest ($62, available on Sava). // Chemistry's Lady Benbow 10:1 CBD-rich tincture ($50, available at Caliva) is an Emerald Cup first-place winner. Its healing properties come courtesy of full-spectrum cannabis extract, steam-distilled terpenes, and organic MCT oil. // If you need to relieve daytime anxiety and find CBD tends to make you sleepy, Juna's Balance CBD drops are designed to keep you clear-headed and awake despite the added sense of calm ($60, available at juna-world.com). OILS + LOTIONS + BALMS Melt away the day with one of Melt away the day with one of Life Elements ' hand-dosed, broad-spectrum CBD bath bombs ($14-$28, available at lifeelements.com ). These bath bombs are advertised as "water-activated pain relief," and the statement is true: Nothing cures post-workout muscle soreness better than a soak in a frothy, ylang ylangscented bath. // Cannabis is rife with essential oilsa terpene by any other nameand Sweet Releaf 's Roll-on Body Oils, coming in "warm" and "cool" varieties, are like an IcyHot from another dimension ($22-$40, available at Sava). Their standard topical, the Comfort Body Butter, is a favorite pain-reliever among industry veterans and has been around since the Prop 215 days. // Mary's Muscle Freeze ($44, available at Eaze ) combines CBD with menthol in a roller applicator to cool that burn in your back. // If you need a little help regulating yeast and bacteria in the down-there areas, Quim 's line of daily care products prioritize health over irritating scents. Their lubricants, on the other hand, increase sensation and libido in a healthy, temporary way by aiding blood flow ($48, available on Sava). // Lord Jones is an 'It' brand for those seeking luxurious, CBD-rich skin and body care products. And while the brand is actually based in Los Angeles, we're giving them props for having donated $300,000 worth of soothing CBD product to healthcare workers amid the Covid-19 crisis. Their high-CBD body lotion ($60), moisturizer ($75), and bath salts ($65) are typically available at FortyFiveTen (6540 Washington St., Yountville, fortyfiveten.com ) and Spa Radiance (3011 Fillmore St., Pacific Heights, sparadiance.com ), and may be purchased online at lordjones.com Airfares on several high-density routes have spiked 10-30% in last one month, prompting the DGCA to ask airlines to bring them down to "reasonable levels" over a meeting with representatives on Tuesday. But with Jet Airways now stopping all operations, at least temporarily, chances are that airfares are not going to start coming down in a hurry. In fact, they may spiral further in the short term. "The grounding of aircraft due to liquidity issues with Jet Airways and regulatory directive for the grounding of B737 Max aircraft have resulted in 15% impact on the industry capacity," Kinjal Shah, vice president, corporate ratings, ICRA, told IANS. "With the industry capacity remaining constrained, the fares are expected to remain high in the near term." According to industry insiders, airfares for flights originating from Delhi and Bangalore this month have increased by 18-19% year-on-year while fares for flights from Mumbai are up 36%. That's not good news for passengers who are just getting started on their summer leisure travel. Those who are planning last-minute flight bookings for foreign destinations will definitely burn a hole in their pockets. Citing travel agents and aviation experts India Today reported that last-minute international travel bookings, both business and leisure, make up 25-30% of all queries. What's more, such queries tend to come in even five days before the travel date. For example, a one-way ticket for a 13-hour Air India flight from Delhi to London via Vienna - the fastest option - costs over Rs 2 lakh for travel on April 19, according to fares listed on Yatra.com. "This fare hike is because of the crisis in Jet Airways. Every airline is taking advantage of the situation and raising fares based on demand and supply. The government has no control over airfares," Jaipur-based travel agent Arun Chowdhary said. He added that this time last year, Delhi-London tickets cost Rs 50,000-60,000 when booked around 20 days in advance and even last minute fares did not shoot up as much. Another reason for the spiralling international airfares is the partial closure of Pakistan's airspace that has resulted in longer routes, additional stopovers as well as flight cancellations. Experts, however, see airfares settling down once other airlines add more capacity on key routes. Since the peak travel season has already kicked off, the latter is bound to happen. According to Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, around 21 planes are expected to be added to the fleet of domestic carriers by end-May. Of them, eight aircraft have already been brought in since the beginning of March and another three are expected to be inducted in the coming weeks. Kharola added that there would be a "good number" of additional planes to meet the peak season demand. According to a senior DGCA official, the regulator will continue to monitor airfare movements on a daily basis and also engage with the airlines for appropriate action. "Airlines representative also intimated DGCA that they have removed the few higher buckets from sale and offering tickets to passengers in lower fare buckets," the source added. So a rationalisation of airfares could be on the cards going forward. With PTI inputs (Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal) Also read: Jet Airways' temporarily shutdown a setback for Indian aviation: Air India chief Ashwani Lohani Also read: Jet Airways shutdown: Value of JPMiles 'secure and intact', says Jet Privilege Child care crisis in S.D. hurting families, employers and state economy The daycare shortage is taking place in both urban and rural areas. Seven South Dakota counties have no state-registered daycare providers. SANTA FE U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan is getting help from a powerful friend in Congress in his bid for an open U.S. Senate race. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Wednesday endorsed Lujans campaign for the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat who announced last month he would not seek re-election in 2020. The endorsement did not come as a total surprise, as Pelosi had tabbed Lujan to run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a role he held for four years before stepping down earlier this year to run for a different caucus position. In her Wednesday endorsement, Pelosi praised Lujans work on health care issues and said he would serve New Mexico with honor in the Senate. Lujan also landed the endorsement of fellow U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., a first-term congresswoman who also considered running for the Senate seat but ultimately decided against doing so. Lujan, who this week reported having $634,000 in his federal campaign account, is currently the only Democratic candidate in the Senate race. Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver is also weighing a potential run and has indicated she will announce her plans by months end. Gavin Clarkson of Las Cruces, who lost to Toulouse Oliver in last years general election as a fill-in candidate for secretary of state, is the lone Republican to enter the race so far. Oregon State University will host the first-ever Phish Studies academic conference, showcasing research about Phish, its fans, and culture. The three-day event will take place on May 17-19, 2019, in OSUs Memorial Union. More than 50 presentations from scholars from more than 20 states and Canada will present at the conference. In addition to academic presentations, the conference will feature a number of special events, including art exhibits, community panels, a concert, and a documentary film screening. 2019 Ryan Kerrigan The art show, Below The Moss Forgotten: Phish in the Pacific Northwest, will feature promotional materials and fan-created artwork that trace the bands growth in the Pacific Northwest during the past nearly 30 years. The exhibit, curated by Alex Grosby, is a collaboration between PhanArt, The Phishsonian Institute, the Oregon State School of History, Philosophy, and Religion, and Benton County Museum. Mockingbird Foundation board members Dr. Ellis Godard, Brian Feller, Scott Marks, David ZZYZX Steinberg, and Charlie Dirksen will host a community panel. During the question-and-answer session, panelists will answer questions solicited from Phish.net users prior to the event. Benjy Eisen, music writer and co-author of Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead, will host a panel and book signing. Eisen co-wrote the book with Bill Kreutzmann, one of the founding members and drummer for the Grateful Dead. There will be a soft premiere of the documentary, Weve Got It Simple, a film by, for, and about Phish fans. The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the films director, Michael Ryan Lawrence. Left on Wilson, a Eugene-based band, will perform Friday, May 17 at Demaggios New York Pizza, 151 NW Monroe Ave., #102 Corvallis. Music begins after 10pm. An exhibition fair will provide opportunities for businesses and artists from the Phish community to display, promote, and sell their work. Conference organizers are still accepting participants for the exhibition fair and seeking sponsors to support special events and a scholarship fund. As is typical with an academic conference, registration is required. Register now to take advantage of the early bird rate, which ends on April 24. Fans who would like to support the conference may do so by sponsoring a special event, making a tax-deductible donation, or participating in the exhibition fair. SANTA FE Key federal agencies are standing by their plan split the work of producing the plutonium cores of nuclear weapons between Los Alamos National Laboratory and another site, a move that New Mexicos congressional delegation continues to oppose. But the Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Safety Administration were not unequivocal in describing the potential success of a two-site plan for making plutonium pits. Indeed, no option is without risk, said NNSA administrator Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty in a news release Wednesday. The NNSA, which oversees the nations nuclear weapons labs, announced that a contractor has completed a study of options for pit production that was mandated by language added to a defense budget bill by New Mexico Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich. The two senators want all pit production and the federal dollars and jobs that come with it to remain at LANL and say turning a facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into a second pit-production post will make the undertaking much more expensive. The $840,000 study by a non-profit defense research group was turned over to Congress Tuesday, NNSA said in its release. But the study is considered unclassified controlled nuclear information and was not made public. Members of Congress and other critics have questioned whether NNSA is capable of meeting a congressional mandate to make 80 pits a year by 2030 as part of a massive plan to modernize the nations nuclear weapons arsenal. The U.S made large numbers of pits during the Cold War, with thousands in storage, but only a few have been produced in recent decades, at LANL. Wednesdays release from NNSA and the Department of Defense said the study, described only in very general terms, found that all options considered by NNSA had cost and schedule risks and concluded that NNSAs two-site plan is potentially achievable. The study said sufficient time, resources and management focus will be necessary, the news release stated. The study by the Institute for Defense Analysis found that the two-site approach is comparable in costs to single-site options, according to the news release. Gordon-Hagerty added, Were fully committed to meeting military requirements and our two-pronged approach at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site represents the best way to manage the cost, schedule and risk of producing no fewer than 80 pits a year. At recent Senate hearings, Udall has continued to criticize the two-site option. He said NNSAs own engineering report showed that splitting up the plutonium mission would close to double the life cycle costs. Heinrich, in a statement Wednesday, said: We have a lot of investments to make and work to do in New Mexico to ensure production work is done safely and on time. That has to be our top priority. The question as to whether to spend twice as much money on a separate product that wont be delivered on time or at all has an obvious answer. Greg Mello of the Albuquerque-Los Alamos Study Group said the key takeaway from the study was that at the two-site strategy is of comparable cost to a LANL-only strategy. He said LANL, which has faced safety issues in recent years, cant do the work by itself and that there is no need for new pits in any case. Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico said: NNSAs plans for expanded plutonium pit production is a house of cards waiting to fall down. First, we have an agency with a long track record of cost overruns and schedule slippages. Added to this is the lack of true mission need. Plutonium pit production is not being expanded to maintain stockpile safety and reliability. Instead its all about provocative new nuclear weapons designs that cant be tested, or alternatively will push the U.S. back into testing with serious proliferation consequences. ALTO, Texas A survivor of a deadly Texas tornado says he managed to crawl out of a grass house at a Native American historic site before the twister hurled it into the distance with two other people still inside. Jeff Williams of Nacogdoches (nak-uh-DOH-ches) is president of Friends of Caddo (CAD-oh) Mounds, a historic site in Alto (AL-toh) that was among areas across the South that was pummeled by storms over the weekend. The Oklahoma native told KTRE-TV Tuesday that he helped build the beehive-shaped grass structure using the Caddo Nation method. Williams says the house disintegrated and the tornado dropped the other occupants a couple hundred yards away. They survived. Caddo Mounds was hosting a cultural event when the tornado struck. One person died and more than 20 were hurt. ___ Information from: KTRE-TV, http://www.ktre.com FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. The former superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, who recently resigned after being cleared of allegations she created a hostile workplace, is taking a new job in San Francisco. Christine Lehnertz oversaw Golden Gate National Recreation area before taking over at the Grand Canyon less than three years ago. Shes returning to the Bay Area next month as president and chief executive of a nonprofit group that supports Golden Gate. To have Chris return, it feels like a homecoming for all of us, and we couldnt be happier or more confident in her leadership skills and passion for the parks next chapter, said Greg Moore, who Lehnertz will replace at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in mid-May. At the Grand Canyon, Lehnertz had been tasked with overturning a culture of sexual harassment that included male employees in the now-defunct river district preying on female colleagues. She said she was proud of employees progress in becoming more respectful and inclusive, and of clearing a backlog of complaints. In an interview Tuesday, she said she didnt accomplish everything she wanted to and understood the tenure of park superintendents is limited. Lehnertz said her career with the Park Service was enriching and inspiring, and her new role will allow her to work in a similar field. This is a terrific opportunity to continue to promote the mission of public lands, of national parks and of getting people into these lands that are set aside for them, she said. Her departure from Grand Canyon leaves one of the countrys most popular tourist destinations without a permanent leader during its centennial year. Olympic National Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum, followed by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park Superintendent Woody Smeck, will fill the role temporarily. The Grand Canyon is the second-busiest national park in the country, drawing nearly 6.4 million visitors in 2018, behind Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Golden Gate National Recreation Area reclaimed the top spot in 2018 among the 418 National Park Service units with more than 15.2 million visitors. The recreation area includes the bridge itself, former military posts, Alcatraz, and beaches and trails on 125 square miles (323 square kilometers). The nonprofit that Lehnertz will lead has provided $500 million to the recreation area. Moore said the money has helped maintain old military posts, update buildings at Alcatraz to better withstand earthquakes, and repair roofs, among other things. The family of the 10-year-old boy who was killed in a Northeast Heights apartment fire early Tuesday has identified him as JaZay Simpson. He was charismatic, loving and kind, JaZays aunt Tamara Anderson told the Journal. He loved his family, especially his siblings. He loved sports, playing with friends and dancing with his big sister. He will be missed by many but never forgotten. JaZays two sisters, ages 2 and 13, were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and were in critical condition Tuesday. Family members said their mother has been staying by their side at the University of New Mexico Hospital. She is as good as can be expected, Anderson said, referring to JaZays mother. She is a strong lady. Lt. Tom Ruiz, a spokesman for Albuquerque Fire Rescue, said shortly after 2 a.m. firefighters were called to the Sierra Meadows apartment complex on Eubank NE, south of Montgomery. When they arrived, they found a building consumed by flames and billowing with smoke. Residents had jumped from second-story apartments and several people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Police officers were also called to the scene because a woman had been heard saying please dont hurt me, according to Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department. Gallegos said Tuesday night that it was unknown who said that statement or how it originated. Ruiz said AFRs arson unit is continuing to investigate how and where the fire started. Theyre actively looking for clues, he said. They have several resources there to help them determine the cause and the origin of the fire. Its a very slow and methodical process but one that they dont want to miss a step on because once they miss it they cant go back. Gallegos said the outcome of AFRs investigation will determine how APD detectives proceed. The fire destroyed six apartments and displaced 30 residents, about half of whom are children, according to the New Mexico Chapter of the American Red Cross. In the immediate aftermath after 70 firefighters battled the blaze for 45 minutes to get it under control Ruiz announced a child was unaccounted for. It was several hours before investigators were able to stabilize the building enough to enter and look for his body. Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal The Chinese company accused of providing faulty buses for the Albuquerque Rapid Transit system says it is nearing a settlement in the resulting lawsuit filed by the city of Albuquerque, according to court records. BYD Motors recently asked a federal judge for more time to file a formal response to the citys suit, citing progress in ongoing settlement discussions. The city did not oppose the motion, which Judge Robert Brack granted. The parties are now close to resolving this matter, and believe they can do so without continued litigation, BYD Motors attorney Ross Crown wrote in a motion filed April 5 in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. The parties also believe that the prospects for a settlement would be enhanced if BYD is not required to respond to the complaint while the current settlement discussions continue. Crown did not respond to Journal messages Wednesday. A city spokeswoman confirmed continued discussions with BYD but did not provide details. Because we are involved in litigation on this issue, we cant get into specifics, Jessie Damazyn said in an emailed statement to the Journal. But we can confirm that settlement conversations are ongoing. The city originally planned to start Albuquerque Rapid Transit service along Central Avenue in late 2017, but bus delays have pushed the expected launch to mid-2020. In suing BYD last December, the city alleged breach of warranties, breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation and more. It seeks damages and attorneys fees. The suit claims BYD had failed to meet the scheduled deadline for providing the 60-foot articulated electric buses and that the vehicles it ultimately delivered were unsafe, had defects such as cracked frames and improperly installed wiring, and did not meet the represented miles-per-charge standard. The city last November rejected the 15 buses, and BYD took them back. The city originally filed suit in state District Court in Albuquerque, but BYD had the case moved to federal court in January. The parties attended a mediation in Denver in February with a former U.S. Magistrate Judge, BYDs latest motion states. Although the parties did not reach a settlement at the mediation, they have continued to engage in productive settlement discussions, it reads. In an effort to salvage the ART project which created miles of bus-only lanes down the middle of Central Albuquerque has ordered 18 clean diesel buses from a different manufacturer, New Flyer of America. Transit Department Director Bernie Toon said the city expects the first one to arrive this summer for weeks of testing along the route. New Flyer will use the testing data to make any tweaks as it builds the rest of the buses, he said. Were leaving nothing to chance this time around, Toon said. The city anticipates the remaining 17 would be ready by the end of winter 2020. Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal A state Public Regulation Commission decision Tuesday requiring PNM to bill Facebook for nearly half the cost of a new, $85 million transmission line could reverberate well beyond New Mexicos borders. State officials and economic development professionals say the decision could be seen as reneging on previous PRC commitments, causing a chilling effect on efforts to recruit more large companies to New Mexico like Facebook, which is building a massive data center in Los Lunas. Facebook says the decision could affect its long-term operations in the state, raising costs and throwing into doubt Public Service Company of New Mexicos ability to provide 100 percent renewable energy to run the facility. Its unclear how PNM will respond to the order. It has 30 days to file a motion for a rehearing, or it could appeal the PRC decision to the state Supreme Court. PNM representatives told the Journal on Wednesday that they could not immediately comment on the issue. PRC members, who voted 5-0 Tuesday to approve the order, contend that PNM cannot bill ratepayers for the transmission project because the line will not benefit retail customers, only Facebook and wholesale electric operators who need the transmission capacity to supply renewable energy to other markets. The proposed high-voltage line, which would run from Clines Corners to a new substation in Sandoval County, would transmit electricity produced by a 166-megawatt wind farm being built near Encino by Avangrid Renewables to supply Facebooks data center. PNM in August requested PRC approval to construct the line. PNM has said the line will carry electricity from other sources for use by other customers as part of an overall system upgrade that will benefit everybody, not just Facebook. The transmission line and its costs were not part of any original plan to supply Facebook with renewable generation, so PNM proposed splitting the bill between wholesale and retail customers. But during hearings on the transmission line in February, one PNM executive contradicted that position, testifying that the project would serve only the needs of Facebook and wholesale customers, with no net impact in use or costs on retail electric consumers. That led the hearing examiner, Carolyn Glick, to recommend that only wholesale users and Facebook pay for the line, with Facebook covering nearly half the bill, or $39 million. PNM later filed a written correction to the February executive testimony, but commissioners opted to accept Glicks recommendation. PNM did a complete, 180-degree turn from what its witness said at the hearing, and that testimony was not refuted or rebutted by anyone, Commissioner Cynthia Hall told the Journal. Nothing supported PNMs later assertion that the transmission line would ultimately benefit ratepayers to justify imposing $39 million in costs on them. Under a special service contract, or SSC, between PNM and Facebook that the PRC approved in 2016, no ratepayers are supposed to be affected by any renewable generation systems managed by PNM to supply the Los Lunas data center. That contract comes out of a new green energy tariff that the PRC authorized to allow PNM to supply renewable electricity directly to customers such as Facebook with special rates negotiated between PNM and those large-scale consumers. Language in the SSC clearly says there will be no cost to PNM retail ratepayers for any renewable generation for the data center, Hall said. There should be no net impact. But Facebook says that applies only to renewable generation and infrastructure directly connected to its data center, not general transmission system upgrades like the project under review. This new issue is a significant deviation of our understanding of the terms and conditions of our SSC with PNM and its financial implications, creating uncertainty around the long-term costs of our operations in New Mexico, Bobby Hollis, head of energy and site selection for the Facebook subsidiary Greater Kudu LLC, wrote in a March 29 letter to the PRC. (This) contrary interpretation fundamentally restructures the transaction upon which we relied when we decided to locate in Los Lunas. One of Facebooks criteria for locating in New Mexico was that its data center could be powered by 100 percent renewable resources. The green energy tariff and subsequent service contract allowed that to happen. The La Joya wind farm is one of two wind farms and six solar plants that PNM has either built or planned to supply nearly 400 megawatts of renewable generation to Facebook as the company builds out the data center in stages over the next few years. Since 2016, Facebook has invested about $400 million out of more than $1 billion it plans to pump into the data center project, according to Hollis. In a separate letter to commissioners on April 12, Gary Tonjes, head of the business recruitment organization Albuquerque Economic Development, warned the PRC that an adverse ruling in the case would be unfair to Facebook and PNM and could significantly damage New Mexicos reputation and ability to attract other companies to the state. Changing the rules after the fact would create significant short- and long-term damage to New Mexico, Tonjes wrote. (It) would be interpreted by other companies as a bait and switch, effectively branding New Mexico as high-risk and anti-business. Economic Development Secretary Alicia J. Keyes and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Sarah Cottrell Propst weighed in as well in a joint letter to commissioners on April 15 warning that the PRC decision could have a chilling effect on statewide economic development and renewable energy investments. If New Mexico does not keep all of the promises made to this company, we may not have the opportunity to land another project of this caliber for years, the secretaries said. There is no bigger red flag to a site selector or business executive than failing to follow through on an agreement. Hall said all the PRC members are concerned about the consequences, but PNM presented no evidence to show that retail customers would actually benefit from the new transmission line. Of course, were upset, Hall said. But its our role to act in the public good based on clear evidence. It strains credulity that PNM would think we would accept its position without evidence. WASHINGTON They say that guests are like fish; after three days they become a bit whiffy. By this measure, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange smelled like an overladen fishing vessel adrift in the searing sun. Upon his arrest Thursday by British authorities, ending his nearly seven-year asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, revelations emerged that he was less than an ideal guest. He reportedly was rude and aggressive toward his hosts and demonstrated little interest in hygiene. In his grossest display of disaffection, he apishly smeared his feces on the embassy walls, according to Ecuadors interior minister. Assanges behavior makes one wonder about his mental health. Maybe he lost his mind while being confined for so long. On the other hand, he seemed quite cognizant as he left the embassy, offering peace signs and a thumbs-up to bystanders. If Assange is, indeed, of right mind, then we can only conclude that hes a solid jerk. Certainly, his non-fans including many in the U.S. media long have viewed him as a sociopathic interloper operating under the protection of free speech. More on that anon. No stranger to legal problems, Assange has been indicted by the U.S. on one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. This sounds more like a stay-after-school offense than what one might expect given the potentially disastrous ramifications of Assanges publishing activities. Then again, Al Capone was brought down on tax evasion. While the government seems to want to avoid a battle over the First Amendment, focusing mostly on conspiracy, it can later charge Assange with something more. Meanwhile, media talk has turned to whether Assange is really a journalist and if free-speech protections ought to apply to someone who is, allegedly, a criminal first? Despite the recent surge in citizen journalists, saying youre a journalist doesnt make you one. Granted, some are better than the real ones. The difference between someone like Assange publishing whatever leaks land in his lap and, say, The Washington Post, which published the leaked documents known as the Pentagon Papers, is mostly a lot of worry and process. Most responsible reporters and editors routinely ask themselves questions such as: Should we publish this? Does the public interest override other concerns? Is it justifiable to expose someones personal e-mails and under what circumstances? One supposes that Assange never bothered himself with such pesky queries. But then, why should he? He is not, after all, a journalist, despite his claiming to be, because he isnt accountable to anyone. No filters, no standards. In the case of the Pentagon Papers, former Rand Corp. military analyst Daniel Ellsberg stole thousands of pages of a top-secret report detailing the U.S. governments decades-long campaign of deceit, mayhem and murder related to the war in Vietnam. Ellsberg first gave the documents to The New York Times, which published three articles about them before the White House obtained a court injunction. Ellsberg then provided copies to the Post, which, after due consideration, began publishing its own stories. In deliberating whether to run them, Post publisher Katharine Graham deployed lawyers and editors to weigh the potential legal and commercial consequences against allowing the government to continue lying and sacrificing lives. Grahams bravery in standing up to the U.S. government and the courts all while risking great personal and financial loss was epic. Assanges process, on the other hand, is largely to dump secrets in the town square and let the scavengers sort it out. No filter. No conscience. It isnt hyperbolic to say were at a hinge point regarding how we gather and disseminate information. Does anyone have the right to publish stolen/classified materials? Should the manner of obtaining information inform the right to publish? For now, at least, the Assange case provides little help, but precedent may offer clues. On the surface, Ellsberg and Assange seem similar. Ellsberg stole and newspapers published. Assange allegedly conspired to steal and he published. The difference may be mostly political. The Vietnam War was unpopular, and the government demonstrably lied to the American people for decades, unconscionably committing tens of thousands of young Americans to their early graves. Ellsbergs charges on theft, conspiracy and espionage were eventually dismissed. Wikileaks leaked hundreds of thousands of secret documents that potentially endangered Americans and allies around the world and, possibly, helped get Donald Trump elected. One was a historic act of bravery; the other seems more like feces-smearing by a fishy-smelling cypherpunk. Then again, maybe thats just me. E-mail kathleenparker@washpost.com. 2019, Washington Post Writers Group. WASHINGTON The Democrats presidential aspirants seem determined to prove that their partys 2016 achievement the election of the current president was not a fluke that cannot be repeated. But the Republican Party, whose last remaining raison detre is to frustrate Democrats, seems to be thinking: We are determined to lose the 2020 election in order to foil Democrats attempts to lose it. The Democratic aspirants radiate unseriousness about things they speak about with notable solemnity. By their words of endorsement, many of them said that the Green New Deal is a matter of life and death for the planet, no less. But their actions zero Senate votes for the GND say something else. Among the reasons these aspirants give for promising to abolish the Electoral College is one reason that virtually guarantees that it will not be abolished: Because each state gets two electoral votes for its senators, the system advantages the least populous states. Opposition by 13 states will extinguish any constitutional amendment. If the legislatures of any of the 13 least-populous states Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Idaho, West Virginia fail to oppose an amendment abolishing the electoral-vote system, other legislatures those of, for example, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Utah, Mississippi probably will ensure defeat. Competition in the Democrats frivolity sweepstakes is intense. Beto ORourke contemplates amending the Constitution to show that corporations are not people. Conceivably, he has not thought through why corporate personhood has been in Anglo-American law for centuries: For-profit and nonprofit including almost all progressive advocacy groups corporations are accorded rights as artificial persons, William Blackstones phrase, to enable them to have lives, identities and missions that span generations and produce a robust civil society of freely cooperating citizens. Donald Trump must secretly admire Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warrens thoroughly Trumpian proposal made where pandering is perfected: Iowa, to ban foreigners from buying U.S. farmland. Lest diabolical foreigners take our loam home? No, Warren says foreigners threaten food security, hence national security, too. Warren and Trump he who sees a national security threat from imported Audis are together at last. I wore my Planned Parenthood pink! exclaimed Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at a recent Washington cattle call for Democratic candidates. She, who is supposed to represent the sensibility of flyover country in her disproportionately coastal party, told the conclave that a major priority for her, one that she would emphasize in her presidencys first 100 days, is statehood for the District of Columbia, a peculiar promise to facilitate retaking Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Julian Castro former mayor of San Antonio, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development said that when he is the 46th president he will favor making Congress subject to the Freedom of Information Act. This is perhaps a good goal but not uppermost in the electorates mind. The Financial Times notes that in 2018, exit polls showed that a plurality of voters 41% ranked health care as their foremost concern. That was the year when it became obligatory for all candidates to promise that health insurance shall not be denied because of a persons pre-existing health problems. But Trump, Nobody knew health care could be so complicated, evidently is going to seek re-election saying: Trust me, there will be a really great Republican health care plan after the election, and after my administration has convinced a court to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act, including guaranteed insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, which now enjoys the support of a narrow majority. Voters might wonder why the coming health plans greatness will not be unveiled as an election asset. And voters might remember that in 1968 Richard Nixon said: Trust me, I have a plan to end the Vietnam War. When, seven years later, in April 1975, the last helicopter lifted off the roof of the besieged U.S. Embassy in Saigon, more than 21,000 Americans had died in combat since Nixons inauguration approximately 37% of those killed in the war since the early 1960s. The eventual Democratic nominee is probably among the many already running. So the party, with its mosaic of factions to placate affluent progressives, faculty club socialists, suburban women, African Americans, Hispanics, climate worriers, identity-politics warriors, etc. and its aversion to winner-take-all primaries, should remember 1972 or 1984. Its nominees, George McGovern and Walter Mondale, won 25% and 38%, respectively, of the nominating electorates votes. In the two general elections, they lost 98 states. E-mail georgewill@washpost.com. 2019, Washington Post Writers Group. Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal A heftier anti-bullying law is coming to New Mexico. And it is now explicitly inclusive of LGBTQ students one of the big pushes advocates have striven for over the years. Early this month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law Senate Bill 288, or the Safe Schools for All Students Act, which aims to create more accountability, training and reporting requirements around bullying. By January 2020, all school boards in the state must adopt and enforce a slew of requirements, including creating a reporting system that involves students and parents, and outlining investigation procedures. Schools must launch an annual bullying prevention program for students and provide yearly training for employees. These efforts will be overseen by the state Public Education Department, which is required under the act to enact rules that reinforce the anti-bullying initiatives. The law goes into effect July 1. The states new law also spells out gender identity and sexual orientation along with race, religion and ability among others as bases of bullying that must be addressed by the district and school. Its a more comprehensive policy for students such as Milo Shimanek, 17, an openly transgender student at Highland High School. Its so important. I wish that everyone could not feel like school is an unsafe environment, Shimanek told the Journal. Nearly 30 percent of lesbian and gay New Mexico students were bullied at school, compared to about 16 percent of heterosexual students, according to the 2017 New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey. The rate of bullying at school climbs even higher roughly 33 percent for students who are transgender. The act aims to make school safer for all kids. The bill requires districts to have policies to prevent bullying at school, at school-sponsored events, on the bus and even through electronic communication. And the policies must be extensive, with retaliation protection for people who report bullying and a list of consequences for offenders, while remaining flexible to address incidents case by case. As for the reporting system, the act outlines that students must have access to report bullying orally in their preferred language, there should be mechanisms to keep reporters anonymous and parents should have means to report bullying, too. School employees must also notify administration of bullying no later than two days after it happened. Safety support plans, which are forward-looking plans to protect students who were bullied from being targets in the future, are also written into the bill. A step toward respect Shimanek says he knows first hand that being an LGBTQ student comes with specific, daily obstacles. For instance, a teacher of his uses his old pronouns at school a constant correction Shimanek has to make. The teen says he feels like hes always on guard. Its stressful, he said. And the high school junior cant remove his deadname the feminine name given to him at birth from the grade book, meaning every time there is a substitute teacher, its up to him to correct the instructor during class. Or, every time he accesses his online student portal, his former name and old photo are on display. That makes me feel bad. Everyone is grossed out by their seventh-grade photo but me particularly, that doesnt represent me at all, he said. Shimanek hopes this new law is a step in the direction toward inclusivity and respect for students who are in the LGBTQ community. Getting this law passed has been years in the making. Six years ago, a coalition of organizations in the state, including GLSEN a teacher-founded group that aims to increase safety and inclusivity in schools and Equality New Mexico, a local LGBTQ advocacy group, drafted a proposal for the Safe Schools for All Students Act, said Havens Levitt, GLSEN Albuquerque chairwoman. While the proposal didnt get out of committee for two sessions, Levitt said advocates have been pushing for the changes since. She said a stronger law was definitely needed in the state. There was a weak law on the books, and it was weak in terms of reporting requirements from districts and no one followed up with it, she said. She added that its more important now than ever. Over the past couple of years, all sorts of organizations see an uptick in LGBTQ harassment, she said. And the chairwoman says she feels thats been on the rise since President Donald Trump took office. His administration has taken many steps to overtly discriminate against LGBTQ people, she said. This year, the Department of Defense implemented its ban on transgender troops. In 2017, the Justice Department filed a legal brief on behalf of the United States in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing for a constitutional right for businesses to discern on the basis of sexual orientation and, implicitly, gender identity. According to state-specific data from a 2017 GLSEN report, most schools in the state were unsafe for LGBTQ students, with the majority of kids hearing regular anti-LGBTQ remarks and most students in the LGBTQ community experiencing bullying. Detectives this week arrested a man who is accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself last month in Albuquerque. Detectives arrested a man who is accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself last month in northeast Albuquerque. Justin Harwood, 34, is charged with murder and tampering with evidence in the March 11 death of 36-year-old Jeannie Castillo, also known as Genie. He was booked into jail Wednesday. Police allege that Harwood shot Castillo, cleaned up the scene, then tried to commit suicide. When officers arrived, he told them Castillo shot him, then herself. According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, officers responded to the shooting around 4 p.m. at an apartment in the 400 block of Texas NE, near Copper and Wyoming. They found Harwood outside the apartment, shot in the neck and covered in blood. Police say they found Castillo shot in the head, completely naked, on the bathroom floor with a gun beside her. She died at a hospital. Harwood couldnt speak due to his injuries and, through writing, told police the couple were fighting when Castillo put a gun under his chin and he told her to pull the trigger. Police say Harwood told them he ran out of the apartment after Castillo shot him and heard another gunshot. Investigators found the scene to be suspicious and not matching Harwoods statements, including how Castillo was shot and numerous bruises to her body. Castillos family told police the two had a rocky relationship, with multiple domestic violence incidents with Harwood as the aggressor. The family said that Castillo never talked about or attempted suicide and that she was very close to her 11-year-old son. Police say someone had cleaned up bloody footprints around the apartment and blood in the bathroom. When a detective revisited Harwood in the hospital, he told them he wouldnt speak to them without an attorney. WASHINGTON Public at last, special counsel Robert Muellers report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Muellers removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. Trump was largely thwarted by those around him who refused to go along. Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which Trump directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsels appointment in May 2017. Those efforts were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests, Mueller wrote. After nearly two years, the two-volume, 448-page redacted report made for riveting reading. In one particularly dramatic moment, Mueller reported that Trump was so agitated at the special counsels appointment on May 17, 2017, that he slumped back in his chair and declared: Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im fed. With that, Trump set out to save himself. In June of that year, Mueller wrote, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the probe, and say that Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. McGahn refused deciding he would sooner resign than trigger a potential crisis akin to the Saturday Night Massacre of firings during the Watergate era. Two days later, the president made another attempt to alter the course of the investigation, meeting with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and dictating a message for him to relay to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The message: Sessions would publicly call the investigation very unfair to the president, declare Trump did nothing wrong and say Mueller should limit his probe to investigating election meddling for future elections. The message was never delivered. The reports bottom line largely tracked the findings revealed in Attorney General William Barrs four-page memo released a month ago no collusion with Russia but no clear verdict on obstruction but it added new layers of detail about Trumps efforts to thwart the investigation. Looking ahead, both sides were already using the findings to amplify well-rehearsed arguments about Trumps conduct, Republicans casting him as a victim of harassment and Democrats depicting the president as stepping far over the line to derail the investigation. The Justice Department released its redacted version of the report about 90 minutes after Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings at a testy news conference. The nation, Congress and Trumps White House consumed it voraciously online, via a compact disc delivered to legislators and in loose-leaf binders distributed to reporters. The release represented a moment of closure nearly two years in the making but also the starting bell for a new round of partisan warfare. A defiant Trump pronounced it a good day and tweeted Game Over in a typeface mimicking the Game of Thrones logo. By late afternoon, he was airborne for his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida with wife Melania for the holiday weekend. Top Republicans in Congress saw vindication, too. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said it was time to move on from Democrats effort to vilify a political opponent. The California lawmaker said the report failed to deliver the imaginary evidence incriminating Trump that Democrats had sought. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said Republicans should turn the tables and investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation. But Democrats cried foul over Barrs preemptive press conference and said the report revealed troubling details about Trumps conduct in the White House. In a joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote that one thing is clear: Attorney General Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Muellers report appears to undercut that finding. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler added that the report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct. He sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting that Mueller himself testify before his panel no later than May 23 and said hed be issuing a subpoena for the full special counsel report and the underlying materials. Signaling battles ahead, Nadler earlier called the investigation incredibly thorough work that would preserve evidence for future probes. Barr said he wouldnt object to Mueller testifying. Trump himself was never questioned in person, but the reports appendix includes 12 pages of his written responses to queries from Muellers team. Mueller deemed Trumps written answers rife with iterations of I dont recall to be inadequate. He considered issuing a subpoena to force the president to appear in person but decided against it after weighing the likelihood of a long legal battle. In his written answers, Trump said his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Hillary Clintons private server was made in jest and sarcastically and said he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. But Mueller said that within five hours of Trumps comment, Russian military intelligence officers were targeting email accounts connected to Clintons office. Mueller evaluated nearly a dozen episodes for possible obstruction of justice, and said he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed criminal obstruction. The episodes included Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey, the presidents directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. Sessions was so affected by Trumps frequent criticism of him for recusing himself from the investigation that he kept a resignation letter with him in his pocket every time he went to the White House, Mueller said. The presidents lawyers have said Trumps conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Muellers team deemed the episodes deserving of scrutiny for potential criminal acts. As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts. But Mueller said investigators concluded, While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Workers at a Russian troll farm contacted Trumps campaign, claiming to be political activists for conservative grassroots organizations, and asked for signs and other campaign materials to use at rallies. While volunteers provided some of those materials and set aside a number of signs investigators dont believe any Trump campaign officials knew the requests were coming from foreign nationals, Mueller wrote. Mueller wrote that investigators did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, stressed that Mueller didnt think the presidents obligations to run the executive branch entitled him to absolute immunity from prosecution. But to find that the president obstructed justice, he said, Mueller would have needed much clearer evidence that the president acted solely with corrupt intent. The evidence was sort of muddled, Blackman said, adding that the presidents actions had multiple motivations. The report laid out some of Muellers reasoning for drawing no conclusion on the question of obstruction. Mueller wrote that he would have exonerated Trump if he could, but he wasnt able to do that given the evidence he uncovered. And he said the Justice Departments standing opinion that a sitting president couldnt be indicted meant he also couldnt recommend Trump be criminally charged, even in secret. Trumps written responses addressed no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trumps legal team. He told Mueller he had no recollection of learning in advance about the much-scrutinized Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Clintons Democratic campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made complimentary statements about him. It wasnt just Trump under the microscope. But Mueller wrote that he believed prosecutors would be unlikely to meet the burden of proof to show that Donald Trump Jr. and other participants in the Trump Tower meeting had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful. Nor did Muellers probe develop evidence that they knew that foreign contributions to campaigns were illegal or other particulars of federal law. Barrs contention that the report contained only limited redactions applied more to the obstruction of justice section than its look at Russian election meddling. Overall, about 40 percent of the pages contained at least something that was blocked out, mostly to protect ongoing investigations. Barr had said that he would redact grand jury information and material related to investigations, privacy and intelligence. ___ AP writers Zeke Miller, Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro, Dustin Weaver, Deb Riechmann, Susannah George, Michael R. Sisak, Stephen Braun, Jill Colvin, Jonathan Lemire, Darlene Superville, Jessica Gresko, Mark Sherman, Julie Pace and Elizabeth Kennedy contributed to this report. ___ For complete coverage of the Mueller report, go to https://www.apnews.com/TrumpInvestigations SEOUL, South Korea North Korea said Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon, its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations. The test, which didnt appear to be of a banned mid- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle negotiations, allows North Korea to show its people it is pushing ahead with weapons development while also reassuring domestic military officials worried that diplomacy with Washington signals weakness. Separately, the North Korean Foreign Ministry accused Pompeo of playing down the significance of comments by leader Kim Jong Un, who said last week that Washington has until the end of the year to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy. Both the demand for Pompeos removal from the talks and the weapon test point to North Koreas displeasure with the deadlocked negotiations. In a statement issued under the name of Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the American Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry, North Korea accused Pompeo of talking nonsense and misrepresenting Kims comments. During a speech at Texas A&M on Monday, Pompeo said Kim promised to denuclearize during his first summit with President Donald Trump and that U.S. officials were working with the North Koreans to chart a path forward so we can get there. He (Kim) said he wanted it done by the end of the year, Pompeo said. Id love to see that done sooner. The North Korean statement said Pompeo was misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement for the negotiations to be finalized by the years end, and referred to his talented skill of fabricating stories. It said Pompeos continued participation in the negotiations would ensure that the talks become entangled and called for a different counterpart who is more careful and mature in communicating with us. In Washington, the State Department said in a short statement that We are aware of the report. The United States remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation. In a speech at his rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim said he is open to a third summit with Trump, but only if the United States changes its stance on sanctions enforcement and pressure by the end of the year. Kim observed the unspecified weapon being fired Wednesday by the Academy of Defense Science, the Norths state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Kim was reported to have said the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the Peoples Army. The Associated Press could not independently verify North Koreas claim, and it wasnt immediately clear what had been tested. A major ballistic missile test would jeopardize the diplomatic talks meant to provide the North with concessions in return for disarmament. A South Korean analyst said that details in the Norths media report indicate it could have been a new type of cruise missile. Another possible clue: one of the lower level officials mentioned in the Norths report on the test Pak Jong Chon is known as an artillery official. Some in Seoul worry that the North will turn back to actions seen as provocative by outsiders as a way to force Washington to drop its hard-line negotiating stance and grant the Norths demand for a removal of crushing international sanctions. A string of increasingly powerful weapons tests in 2017 and Trumps response of fire and fury had many fearing war before the North shifted to diplomacy. Russia announced Thursday that Kim will visit later this month for talks at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, but gave no further details. Russian media have been abuzz in recent days with rumors about the rare meeting between the leaders. Putin is to visit China later this month, and some media speculated that he could meet with Kim in Vladivostok, the far eastern port city near the border with North Korea. Trump said last month that he would be very disappointed if I saw testing. There have been fresh reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research center and long-range rocket site where the North is believed to build missiles targeting the U.S. mainland. North Korean media said Wednesday that Kim guided a flight drill of combat pilots from an air force and anti-aircraft unit tasked with defending the North from an attack. Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seouls Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said North Koreas descriptions of the test show the weapon is possibly a newly developed cruise missile. The Norths report said the tactical guided weapon successfully tested in a peculiar mode of guiding flight and demonstrated the ability to deliver a powerful warhead. The analyst said the test could also be intended as a message to the North Korean people and military of a commitment to maintaining a strong level of defense even as it continues talks with Washington over nukes. Melissa Hanham, a non-proliferation expert and director of the Datayo Project at the One Earth Future Foundation, said the North Korean weapon could be anything from an anti-tank weapon to a cruise missile. The North said Thursday that Kim Jong Un mounted an observation post to learn about and guide the test-fire of the weapon. This is the first known time Kim has observed the testing of a newly developed weapon system since last November, when North Korean media said he watched the successful test of an unspecified newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon. Some observers have been expecting North Korea to orchestrate low-level provocations, like artillery or short-range missile tests, to register its anger over the way nuclear negotiations were going. North Korean officials accompanying Kim at the test included Ri Pyong Chol and Kim Jong Sik, two senior officials from the Norths Munitions Industry Department who have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for their activities related to the countrys ballistic missile program. Ri is believed to be a key official involved in North Koreas intercontinental ballistic missile development, while Kim Jong Sik has been linked to the countrys efforts to build solid-fuel missiles. The Pyongyang-based Munitions Industry Department is sanctioned both by the United States and the U.N. Security Council. Even if this is not a missile test the way we strictly define it, these people and MID are all sanctioned entities for a reason, Hanham said. The White House said it was aware of the report and had no comment. The Pentagon also said it was aware but had no information to provide at this point. South Koreas presidential office said it has no immediate comment. South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said it is analyzing the test but did not specifically say what the weapon appeared to be. After the animosity of 2017, last year saw a stunning turn to diplomacy, culminating in the first-ever summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Singapore, and then the Hanoi talks this year. North Korea has suspended nuclear and long-range rocket tests, and the North and South Korean leaders have met three times. But there are growing worries that the progress could be killed by mismatched demands between the U.S. and North Korea over sanctions relief and disarmament. ___ Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. Aztec Municipal School District Superintendent Kirk Carpenter will keep his educator license after a state Public Education Department investigation. PED, under former Gov. Susana Martinez, sought to revoke Carpenters license, contending the superintendent put kids in jeopardy by failing to report inappropriate behavior by a former Aztec High School teacher. But Secretary of Education Karen Trujillo has decided to uphold a hearing officers recommendation to allow Carpenter to keep his credentials, according to PED Chief of Staff Daniel Manzano. The Secretary upheld the Hearing Officers recommendations on April 3, 2019, Manzano wrote in an email, which did not provide any other details. In September, PED officials moved forward with revoking Carpenters license, arguing that the superintendent should have reported former Aztec High teacher and coach James Coulter to the PED or law enforcement after the school investigated the teacher in 2016 for an alleged sexual relationship with a student. However, the school determined at that time Coulter only had inappropriate conversations with female students and Carpenter said, according to the hearing officers report, that he felt the findings didnt fall under the purview of reporting to the PED. The Journal reported in March that a hearing officer recommended Carpenter keep his credentials, saying in a report that there were not sufficient grounds for revocation. The hearing officer felt Carpenters 2016 decision was not basis enough to end his career. Neither does one act of a failure to report reach the level of incompetency necessary to make this finding given his 30 years of competent leadership in the profession of education, she said in her report. In her report, the hearing officer also critiqued PEDs investigation into the matter and highlighted inaccuracies and inconsistencies. WASHINGTON For nearly two years, President Donald Trump and his allies sought to undermine special counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe, attacking investigators credibility and playing down their findings. As a redacted version of Muellers report was finally released Thursday, Trump resorted to bluster, broadsides and falsehoods to try, once more, to frame the moment as a political victory. It began even before the public glimpsed the two volumes covering 448 pages . The report included an account of how the president attempted to seize control of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and force out Mueller from leading the inquiry. But that didnt stop Trump from taking a public victory lap, declaring at a White House event that he was having a good day. Twelve times Trump took to Twitter in the hours before Attorney General William Barr outlined the findings of the report. The president proclaimed his innocence and insisted that the investigation was politically motivated. As soon as Barr concluded his remarks, and more than an hour before Muellers report was released, Trump tweeted a taunt over an image inspired by the HBO show Game of Thrones. No Collusion. No Obstruction, it said. For the haters and the radical left Democrats Game Over. But the report does recount how Trump repeatedly sought to intervene in a probe that has hovered over the first two years of his presidency. And it says Trump had been agitated by the investigation from the start, reporting that Trump reacted to Muellers appointment by saying it was the end of his presidency. At Justice Department headquarters, reporters buzzed around as they awaited Barr and then the Mueller report. A few blocks away, there was calm on one of the defining days of Trumps presidency. The news media were led into the White House East Room, just before the report came out, for Trumps appearance with wounded warriors. While newsrooms across the country digested the report, the White House guests, already seated while waiting for the president to arrive, were entertained by the U.S. Marine Band. Among the selections played: Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Knockout, read a text message from Rudy Giuliani, one of the presidents attorneys, to reporters after Barr finished speaking. A further statement from Giuliani and Trumps lawyers said the report itself is nothing more than an attempt to rehash old allegations and insisted that the results of the investigation are a total victory for the president. Current and former White House officials eagerly rushed through the report. They scanned for their names to see what Mueller had said about them and how he had characterized their testimony, and wondered how those depictions might sit with a mercurial president. Staffers had been told by the White House to cooperate fully with Muellers team and answer their questions truthfully. But many were nervous about how Trump would react to their testimony and whether it would damage their relationships with him. Talking points went out to Trump allies while his supporters phones buzzed with text messages from the campaign looking to raise money off Thursdays developments. Now the tables have turned, and its time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump, motivated by political retribution and based on no evidence whatsoever, said Trumps re-election campaign manager, Brad Parscale. Donald Trump Jr, the presidents eldest son, was featured prominently in the report for meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. Though the report said the campaign anticipated receiving derogatory documents and information from Russians that could assist Trumps electoral prospects, it said the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the participants at that meeting had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful. Though a seemingly backhanded exoneration, the younger Trump tweeted a series of attacks on Democrats. Better luck next hoax! he said. Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said that because the White House didnt interfere with Muellers work, that should make people feel good about democracy. Were accepting apologies today, too, Conway told reporters, adding that Trump watched Barr, talked to his lawyers and was in a great mood. The president, who normally talks to reporters on his way out of the White House, declined to speak as he left to spend the Easter weekend in Florida. But from Air Force One, he tweeted: I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted. I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to. I had the RIGHT to use Executive Privilege. I didnt! Appearing relaxed earlier Friday at a military event, Trump said a statue hed been presented with as a memento would have a permanent home at least for six years, in the Oval Office. As the audience applauded and laughed, Trump said he was going to joke and say at least for 10 or 14 years, but we would cause bedlam if I said that. ___ Lemire reported from New York. ___ Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire , Colvin at http://twitter.com/@colvinj and Superville at http://twitter.com/@dsupervilleap ___ For complete coverage of the Mueller report, go to: https://www.apnews.com/TrumpInvestigations A young boy was attacked by two dogs after walking into a fenced yard in a southeast neighborhood on Thursday afternoon, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. Albuquerque police spokesman Simon Drobik said the boy is in surgery for trauma to his head, neck and face. He said there were a total of four dogs in the yard when the attack occurred. Drobik said they responded to an animal call around 3 p.m. in the 600 block of Chama SE, near Zuni and Louisiana. There they discovered an injured boy. Officers are on scene conducting an investigation along with animal control, he said. Animal Welfare spokesman Adam Ricci said the two dogs are now in their possession and they are speaking with the owner. He said they anticipate the dogs being surrendered and, in all likelihood, euthanized. However, there is a possibility for rehabilitation. We have a team that reviews cases, Ricci said. Animal Welfare is also investigating whether the owners will be charged, or fined, for possible violations. SANTA FE A Las Cruces Democrat who works with developmentally disabled people has announced her campaign for a state Senate seat, setting up a potential 2020 primary showdown with a top-ranking senator. Tracy Perry, who is making her first run for elected office, said she is not daunted by the prospect of taking on Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, for the Senate District 38 seat. Its time for a change, Perry said, adding that she plans to run on a progressive platform and has already started raising money for next years race. A single mother and cancer survivor, Perry is the chief executive officer of Direct Therapy Services, which works with people with developmental disabilities. She said she has spent time in Santa Fe lobbying for changes to a state system that, in recent years, has featured a large backlog of people waiting for services. I know what its like to live paycheck to paycheck, she told the Journal. I feel like I would be a great voice for the people. Papen, 87, said Thursday that she has not decided whether she will run next year for another four-year term. Im not a spring chicken, and I dont own the seat, said Papen, who added that there are still issues she wants to work on at the Roundhouse, including autism awareness. But she is one of several moderate Senate Democrats who angered some progressives during this years 60-day legislative session by opposing proposals to take more money from New Mexicos largest permanent fund for early childhood programs, repeal a long-dormant abortion ban and legalize recreational marijuana use. Papen has served in the Senate since 2001 and was elected Senate president pro tem in 2013. In that position, she plays a key role in assigning members to committees, where a majority of legislative debate occurs. As a senator, Papen emerged as a leading critic of former Gov. Susana Martinezs administrations 2013 move to freeze Medicaid payments for 15 behavioral health providers due to alleged overpayments and possible fraud. But she also has voted with Republicans on several hot-button issues, including the 2015 confirmation of ex-Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera. Perry said Thursday she wants to provide district voters with a choice during the 2020 election cycle, but said her candidacy is not about Mary Kay Papen. Its about my campaign and what I can bring to the district, she said. The Senate District 38 seat encompasses parts of Las Cruces and stretches south to the Mexican border. It is a Democratic-leaning district, and Papen easily defeated Republican general election opponents during her last two re-election campaigns. She has not faced a Democratic primary opponent since her first run for the seat in 2000. Chico, Calif. - Chico City Council Member Kasey Reynolds has drafted a letter, saying Mayor Randall Stone is "lying and misrepresenting" the City Council's vote on AB 430. The letter, drafted to City Manager Mark Orme and City Attorney Andrew Jared asks them to set the record straight about the Council's position ahead of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee's vote on the bill on Monday, April 22nd. On Wednesday, Mayor Stone posted on Facebook, "The City of Chico vote to oppose AB 430 just as I expected we would. The City of Chico will not subordinate their conditional land use authority to a bunch of Sacramento bureaucrats. Thank you to my four colleagues for their opposition to this dangerous overreach. This City intends to act." In her letter, Reynolds says this is an untrue statement. She says on Tuesday, the Council defeated a motion to direct staff to work with the author's office in identifying the language in the legislation that needed to be amended. She says, "This was the only motion made during the discussion of this agenda item. No motion was ever made to oppose the bill". The bill, drafted by Assemblyman James Gallagher, seeks to expedite housing projects in Butte County after the Camp Fire. Mayor Stone has voiced his opposition to the bill in its current form. Action News Now has reached out to Mayor Randall Stone, Councilmember Kasey Reynolds and Assemblyman James Gallagher for comment. This is a developing story, check back for more details. MODOC COUNTY, Calif. Modoc County is declaring a state of emergency after recent storm damage. The countys office of emergency services sent the proclamation to the state. The storm on Monday, April 8, downed trees and destroyed several roads. The countys emergency services director said the most extensive flooding damage is in Lake City. County officials are working with the California Governors Office of Emergency Services to make recovery plans. (CNN) -- After years of investigating, the Department of Justice released a redacted copy of special counsel Robert Mueller's report Thursday. The report is nearly 400 pages and covers subjects ranging from questions about Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election to whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice. Read the full redacted report here. APP USERS: Please visit our website to view the full report. (CNN) -- Robert Mueller's investigation into possible obstruction of justice could not clear President Donald Trump, saying that it was unable to determine "that no criminal conduct occurred," according to a redacted version of the special counsel's report released Thursday. Mueller's investigation into possible collusion found that members of the Trump campaign knew they would benefit from Russia's illegal actions to influence the election, but didn't take criminal steps to help, it report said. Mueller also makes clear Congress can continue to investigate Trump. "With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice," the report said. In the report, Mueller provided a legal justification for why the special counsel was able to investigate obstruction of justice, even if it could not indict a sitting president. The lengthy section, citing legal precedents, also alludes to Congress' power under checks-and-balances to investigate and potentially impeach the President over obstruction of justice. "The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law," the report states. The investigation has clouded Trump's presidency for nearly two years, and Trump was clearly worried about the potential findings of Mueller, the former FBI director. In May 2017, after Trump learned of Mueller's appointment, Trump "slumped back in his chair and said, 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f***ed.'" Question of collusion On the collusion investigation, Mueller specifically stated Trump's presidential campaign "showed interest" in WikiLeaks' releases of emails that the Russians stole from the Democrats to hurt his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton. "Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in the election interference activities," the report said. Attorney General William Barr released the report Thursday after holding a press conference where he defended his conclusion there wasn't sufficient evidence to prosecute an obstruction case. "After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election, but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes," Barr said. Episodes of potential obstruction by Trump In his evaluation of whether Trump obstructed justice, Mueller looked at a number of issues and areas involving the President and his aides focused on whether they were attempting to curtail the investigation. Those areas include: the Trump campaign's response to reports about Russian support for Trump and conduct involving FBI Director James Comey and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Mueller's report says that after the election, "the President expressed concerns to advisers that reports of Russia's election interference might lead the public to question the legitimacy of his election." Other areas that Mueller probed: the President's reaction to the continuing Russia investigation; the firing of Comey; the appointment of the special counsel and efforts to remove him; efforts to curtail the special counsel; efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence; further efforts to have then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions take control of the investigation; efforts to have then-White House counsel Don McGahn deny that the President ordered him to have Mueller removed; conduct towards Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort; and conduct toward former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Mueller did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on the obstruction question, Barr said. Instead, Barr said he concluded the evidence was "not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense." "The President took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation," Barr said. Barr said the President's lawyers were permitted to read the redacted version of the report, but the President would not assert executive privilege. Trump declares victory At the White House, Trump said Thursday that he's having a "good day." "They're having a good day. I'm having a good day, too. It was called no collusion. No obstruction," Trump said to cheers at a Wounded Warriors event at the White House. "There never was by the way and there never will be. And we do have to get to the bottom of these things I will say. This should've never happened ... I say this in front of my friends, this should never happen to another president again. This hoax -- it should never happen again. Thank you." The President did not answer questions from reporters after the event. No subpoena Mueller declined to subpoena the President because it would "delay" the investigation. The special counsel believed it had the authority to subpoena Trump, but decided against doing so because it would delay the investigation, according to the report. The prosecutors also believed they already had a substantial amount of evidence. "We made the decision in view of the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation," the special counsel wrote in the report. "We had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the President's testimony." The report also says that while the OLC opinion concludes that a sitting president may not be prosecuted, "it recognizes that a criminal investigation during a President's term is permissible." The OLC opinion "also recognizes that a President does not have immunity after he leaves office," the report says. No prosecution of Trump Jr., Sessions Mueller's team declined to prosecute Donald Trump, Jr., and members of the campaign for campaign finance violations for their participation in the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, in part, because they couldn't prove that they "willfully" violated the law. "Taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the Office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting," the report states. They also didn't go after then-Sen. Jeff Sessions for making false statements or committing perjury to Congress during his confirmation hearing for attorney general in part because of the inexact wording of the questions. Sessions testified that he did not have communications with Russians during the campaign. It was later revealed Sessions interacted with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and a campaign event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Previously unknown effort by Trump to get Sessions to curtail investigation Mueller described a previously unknown example of the President's attempts to curtail the investigation involving Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Mueller says that on June 19, 2017, Trump met in the Oval Office with Lewandowski and dictated a message intended for then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who at that point had recused himself from matters involving the probe. In the message, Sessions was told to publicly announce the investigation was "'very unfair' to the President, the President had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the special counsel and 'let [him] move forward with investigation election meddling for future elections.'" Lewandowski told Trump he understood his instructions. A month later, Trump checked back in with Lewandowski on the status of his message. Lewandowski said the message would be delivered soon. Ultimately, Lewandowski declined to deliver the message personally, instead asking a senior White House official -- deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn -- to do it instead. Mueller's report says Dearborn was "uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through." Fight over full report Democrats have demanded to see Mueller's full, unredacted report, charging that Barr cannot be trusted to provide an accurate accounting of Mueller's findings as a Trump political appointee who previously argued against the merits of an obstruction case against the President. Congressional Democrats rose up in anger at Barr's decision to hold a press conference before the release of the report. Five House Democratic committee chairs said in a joint statement Wednesday night that Barr should cancel the press conference and slammed Barr. "With the Special Counsel's fact-gathering work concluded, it is now Congress' responsibility to assess the findings and evidence and proceed accordingly," the joint statement read. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer jointly called for Mueller to testify before Congress publicly, saying there was a "crisis of confidence" in Barr's independence and impartiality. "We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the special counsel's investigation is for special counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible," they said. Democrats have been particularly suspicious at the fact that Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the decision there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute such a case, especially in light of reports that some on Mueller's team have told others they were unsatisfied with Barr's characterization of the investigation. In a series of tweets on Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler questioned why Barr was having a press conference to explain the report at all, saying he was "deeply troubled by reports" the White House had been briefed on the report ahead of release, as The New York Times reported. He likewise said it was "wrong" for the Justice Department to time the release of the redacted report to Congress for after Barr's press conference. Congress will get to see a little bit more of Mueller's report and his findings than the general public once the report is delivered to them. Federal prosecutors said in a court filing related to the case against Trump associate Roger Stone on Wednesday that there would be two versions of the redacted special counsel report, with one for public release and another, less redacted, version for a limited number of members of Congress. Congressional Democrats have already authorized a subpoena for the full report and the underlying evidence, and they urged Barr to change course and provide them an unredacted version. They're likely to move forward now with the subpoena, which could spark a court battle between House Democrats and the Trump administration. Barr said Thursday he would redact four types of information before making the report public: grand jury material, classified material, material about ongoing investigations and "information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties." This story is breaking and will be updated. The-CNN-Wire & 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. CleverTap, the customer lifecycle management platform, today announced that 7-Eleven Philippines, a subsidiary of the global retail chain has chosen its platform to drive user engagement and retention for CLiQQ, their digital payments app. CLiQQ is the official 7-Eleven Philippines mobile app for WiFi, Rewards, and Payments. With its CLiQQ WiFi capabilities, 7-Eleven customers get easy access to the internet using the points theyve earned while purchasing at any of their stores across the Philippines. The app business is very important to us at 7-Eleven as it helps establish a direct digital connection with the customers, said Jason Jan Ngo, Head of Information Technology Division at Philippine Seven Corporation. Jan Ngo further added, Were looking at the app as a one-stop solution; where our customers earn points when they make purchases at the store and pay via our 7/11 app while making it convenient to pay their bills, load e-money, transfer funds and more. Weve seen our user base grow substantially in the past year. With CleverTap, we are excited to be able to build real-time engagement with customers across channels 7-Eleven apps, as well as in-store POS, kiosks, and website. "We are proud to be associated with 7-Eleven Philippines who are synonymous with digital transformation. We see a tremendous opportunity in the South East Asian Market and are committed to help brands retain their users for life. Our aim is to provide 7-Eleven with a single source of truth by unifying data from multiple sources and helping them build long-term customer relationships at scale. said Anand Jain, Co-founder of CleverTap. He further added, The CLiQQ business is uniquely positioned since it has a strong brand value that stems from the 7-Eleven conglomerate. While its no surprise that it has been one of the most downloaded apps in the region in recent times, it has contributed significantly to the growth of 7-Eleven's consumer base. With CleverTap, they will be able to optimize the entire customer lifecycle from onboarding to retention and maximize customer lifetime value - leading to brand loyalty and increased market penetration. Video hosting and sharing platform, TikTok has been banned from the Google Playstore and Apple Store after an order by the Madras High Court on April 3rd 2019. Several political pressure groups and conservative parties had brought to the attention of the court that TikTok was encouraging pornographic content, violence and made minors vulnerable to sexual predators. Apple and Google have complied with the high courts orders to block downloads for TikTok on their platforms. Last year, TikTok had announced that it reached 500 million monthly active users on its platform. Since then it has seen an upward surge both in popularity and controversy. This is not the first time the app has been called out for hosting inappropriate content. In China, Tencent banned WeChat owners from sharing external links to short video content especially on TikTok flagging them as inappropriate. Pakistan and Indonesia have outright banned TikTok citing the app as a bad influence. Is the platform at fault here for allowing content sharing to run unchecked? Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, CEO & Co-Founder, Gozoop said, Technology is never the problem, but how technology is used can be good or bad. Platforms definitely need to take measures to control offensive/vulgar content. I see this impacting brand campaigns on TikTok in the short term. We were also planning TikTok campaigns for our clients at Gozoop, but right now we will be re-evaluating them. TikTok is a fantastic platform for engagement with highly engaged audience. We are expecting campaigns to restart, as soon as the platform abides by the law. To be fair, TikTok is not the first application to come under the scanner for sharing harmful content. WhatsApp has been feeling the heat from the government for quite some time to curb the fake news that is allowed to spread on its network. Read Here: WhatsApp warned for abuse of their platform According to Heena Tickoo, Director Client Servicing India, DCMN, It has been a long debate and social media platforms need to take responsibility for content that is hosted on their platforms. Tech companies are big enough and make enough money that they should be held accountable for the information they carry. They must be liable for the actions that they allow other people to do and for the profits that one makes off such actions. TikTok has been facing regulatory issues in many countries now and Im sure a complete ban in India would raise red flags among all other players too, who would start taking content regulation more seriously. What is remarkable is the governments swift response to the issue. What implication does this hold for other third-party apps that skirt responsibility for hosting harmful content? Ashish Patkar, Founder and CEO, Monk Media Network: The implications are clear, it's your platform and you're accountable for every piece of content that goes up there. The moment your content starts causing pain and trouble to people, regardless if it's out of their own doing, you're going down. However, TikTok still has a sizeable audience in India using the app that continues to be exposed to sensitive material. The company has reported that it has removed 6 million videos that violated its Terms of Use and Community Guidelines following a review of content generated by Indian users. But TikTok considers India as one of its largest markets with 120 million active monthly users. How will existing users on the platform react after hearing the ban of the application? Tickoo opines, Doesnt look like it will affect the current users for now since existing users can still access the app. Hopefully, it might discourage content that promotes pornography or hypersexuality of kids, at least in the interim. Patkar added, While there have been so many reported incidents while using the app and the decision to remove the app across operating systems, how will it really help? The app provided a platform that let anyone be a creator and create content, while some tried to go beyond regular and do stuff to gather more followers & likes and ended up badly injured or even lost their lives, you can't really blame the app for it can you? For the 120 million users already using the app, people who have gained a significant number of followers would surely look for different outlets to push their content and continue to build a larger fan base. Liferay India Pvt Ltd, a California Headquartered open source technology company had announced the appointment of Gurgaon based image and PR consulting firm Media Mantra as its PR and communication partner starting from April 15, 2019 for India. Liferay creates products like Liferay DXP which is a leading digital experience platform used by various Enterprises, Large Corporations and Governments for end to end Digital Transformation including various types of content, analytics, commerce and horizontal portals. The company had commenced India operation in 2011. Since then, Liferay gained huge traction among the Indian market. Additionally, it has been recognized as Leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for 9th year in 2019 in a row (Horizontal Portal for 7 years and DXP for 2 years). Moreover, Liferay has also been recognized as a unique platform that opens up opportunities to quickly build and turn around a significant number of applications as per requirements. On winning the PR & Communication mandate for the company, Udit Pathak, Founder & Director, Media Mantra said, We are glad to be associated with Liferay, Inc. We thank them for choosing us as their PR and Communication partner which is a great addition to our existing clientele. In the coming days, we hope to be able to add fresh perspectives and new dimensions to Liferays storytelling in the country. We look forward to a long-lived partnership to deliver expected results. Choosing Media Mantra as its PR and Communication partner, Manish Gupta, Director, Liferay said, As a company Liferay is doing great piece of work for customers in all sectors including Enterprises, Governments and NonProfits in India and Globally and it is time when industry should learn about us and connect with Liferay for the innovation it is bringing in Digital Era. In addition to that Liferay has a huge open-source community in India and we believe working with Media Mantra will not just help in boosting our brand but also give encouragement to our developer community to look forward with Liferay as a very strong career building technology and a front runner in Digital Transformation wave. Saint-Gobain, leader in glass for over three centuries, today launched its brand campaign, highlighting the purity of its glass apart from clarity that it is already synonymous for. The focus of this Ad campaign is to establish that glass can also be measured for purity, just like other precious metals. Saint-Gobain, through consistent research & development and world-class technology, has brought down the PPM of iron content across their products to just 654. Lesser the iron content, clearer and purer will be the glass. The 654 PPM glass is now available across the country as the standard offering from Saint-Gobain. Consumers, whether B2B or B2C, now have a measure to find out whether they are buying a pure glass or not. Explaining the Ad campaign, Mr. A.R. Unnikrishnan, Director, Sales & Marketing, Saint-Gobain India Private Ltd. - Glass Business, said, Saint-Gobain has been the front-runner in glass business for over three centuries yet we are the most modern and technologically advanced in the business. Our Glass is known for its quality and clarity. Our previous campaigns, which focused on clarity, are still very relevant and have a strong brand-recall. Now, with this campaign, we take it a step further by establishing the purity of the glass and we do it in a very creative way. The TV commercial begins as a horror story but ends being witty. It brings a smile across and leaves a deep impression on what we are trying to convey. As always, we are raising the bar in the business. Earlier, it was Clarity and now, it is Purity. Through this campaign, we are educating consumers on the importance of 654 PPM in a glass the benefits of using a glass that is clear and pure and how could they differentiate the 654 PPM glass from the other ordinary products in the market. Sharing his experience working on this campaign, Mr. Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, South Asia, Leo Burnett, said, The campaign is called Subway Baby and it is made with a strong storyline. This campaign has been one of the most challenging yet fruitful experiences for me personally. We had to showcase a product that is actually not visible to anyone. We had to come up with an idea and a story which could bring this to the fore. Thats when we decided to add a story to the product with subtle humour where one cant see the product but ultimately senses its presence. To make it impactful and to the point, the story went under several iterations. Even the casting was very unique as we had to tell the kid actor in the ad to stare straight at the camera rather than showing any emotions. This has been a fun and learning experience for me and my team. Hope the audiences enjoy this ad as much as we did in making it. This campaign is being rolled out nationally, across TV channels English, Hindi and Regional, Digital Platforms and even content streaming portals. It will be supported by a strong, on-ground activation to seed the message of purity along-with brand-recall. It will be aired across 50 channels including regionals channels and languages covering Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali among others. The ATL media duties are being handled by Vizeum from Chennai. Several media reports indicate that Amazon will close its domestic business in the Chinese marketplace by end of July. This means that Amazon.cn will cease to exist and its customers in China will no longer be able to order from third party merchants in China. However, customers can still order from Amazon.com and have access to goods produced in the U.S, U.K, Denmark and Japan. Amazons presence in China was growing at a snails pace and was able to capture only 0.8% of the growing e-commerce business in China. Chinas biggest e-commerce players Alibaba and JD.com control 85% of booming e-commerce market that is expected to hit $1.8 trn by 2022. The question remains whether this will be a strategic retreat for the global e-commerce giant so that it can focus on its other interests in APAC like India. by Ginger Taylor Herd Immunity. That 95% claim that, if we attain, and maintain, will save Maine. The Maine Immunization Program has done us all one better. Maine has already reached 95% vaccine uptake for schools, so they have set their vaccine uptake rate goal for schools at 100%! Apparently, all vaccine exemptions must eventually go as well, not just the non-medical exemptions that they are hitting 'delete' on this year. Sorry chemo kids. Get your shots or get out. We have to have "safe schools" for the... ummm... chemo kids? Because if we can "immunize" all children, we will have reached herd immunity nirvana. Except that more than three quarters of the US population are adults and it is higher in Maine, where we are struggling with an "aging population." And the US CDC estimates national adult uptake rates are between nine and 62 percent nationally. So, if that is an accurate reflection of Maine's rates, the idea that "herd immunity" through vaccination can be achieved by getting our 95% vaccine uptake rate in Maine school children up to 100%, when adult vaccine uptake rates are between 9% and 62%, seems an unlikely scenario. We asked our representatives to ask the Maine Immunization Program, which supports the removal of religious and philosophical exemptions, What are the adult vaccine uptake rates in Maine for the vaccines that will be mandated for children? They responded: The Maine Immunization Program does not currently receive funding to support an adult vaccine program or staff resources to obtain immunization rates for this population. The Maine Immunization Program doesn't even know if Maine's one millionish adults are vaccinated, but they apparently believe for damn sure that if we don't get 9k more children vaccinated in Maine deadly epidemics are inbound. They believe it so strongly that they are going to deny these children their right to full participation in society, and bar them from daycare, pre-school, public and private k-12 and college, even if they have an IEP or 504. But don't worry Maine adults. You are next. Never say I didn't warn ya. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry will not be leaving his post atop the Department of Energy "any time soon" despite reports indicating otherwise, according to DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes. "He is happy where he is serving President Trump and leading the Department of Energy," Hynes said in prepared remarks posted to Twitter and shared elsewhere. The statement is a defensive swipe as Bloomberg News on Wednesday, and myriad other outlets thereafter, reported Perry was angling to leave the administration. Bloomberg cited several people familiar with the matter and noted Perry's exit was not seen as imminent. The reports of a planned departure seemingly clash with what Perry has repeatedly and quite recently said to members of Congress: This job is cool. Perry is the 14th secretary of energy and was the 47th governor of Texas. The president tapped him to head up the DOE in late 2016. Perry has spearheaded, or at the very least publicly advocated for, a number of significant changes at the Savannah River Site. Energy Secretary Rick Perry talks SRS, pit production following Plant Vogtle event U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry firmly believes the Savannah River Site is the right place to recurrently produce a large tranche of pluto On May 10, 2018, he notified congressional defense committees of his intent to terminate the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. MOX designed to turn surplus plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors was officially axed five months later and should be fully mothballed by fiscal year 2021, according to the president's latest budget blueprint. Perry supports dilute-and-dispose, another plutonium disposition method and the direct MOX alternative. Dilute-and-dispose involves mixing plutonium with inert material for burial at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Perry has also pushed for a plutonium pit production mission at SRS. Plutonium pits are nuclear weapon cores; 80 per year are needed by 2030 to satisfy defense demands. Fifty per year would be produced at SRS, according to a recommendation made by the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense. Perry in March, speaking to reporters at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, said SRS is "absolutely" the right place to pump out pits. [2018] , . . , " " , . . , , . , . , , ', : . - , . . , , , . . , . " " . . . . , . , . , , . , -2006 , . : ", , . [2008], . -2010 " " . , , . . " -2011. : "", ". , . " " ". 2011. : , " ", . . , . . . , . -2012 . , , 2013, 12 . , 2013, , 19 , . . 2015 " " , . , . , , , . ( ) . , . . , . , " ". ' : ", . ' . . . 2018 33 , . . . . "", . " ". - . . " , " , . CAIRO, Egypt Egyptian medical convoys will treat Sudanese patients with Hepatitis C in the coming weeks under an agreement with Sudan's Health Ministry. The Egyptian government started preparations in mid-March to carry out multiple health initiatives targeting African patients and a delegation from the Ministry of Health and Population has already visited Chad. The efforts coincide with Egypt taking over the chairmanship of the African Union Feb. 10. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made a number of recommendations at the March 17 closing session of the Arab African Youth Platform, held in Aswan in southern Egypt. They included an Egyptian initiative to eliminate Hepatitis C among one million Africans and a new phase, focusing on refugees living in Egypt, of its 100 Million Healthy Lives Campaign, created to end Hepatitis C and address other conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity among Egyptians. In a joint April 9 statement, the UNHCR and WHO praised the endeavor. The 280,000 refugees registered with the UNHCR in Egypt include many refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan and others from Arab countries such as Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Speaking to Al-Monitor, a source at Egypts Ministry of Health and Population explained, As part of the initiative to eliminate Hepatitis C among one million Africans, an e-system is currently being designed to register data on Africans infected with Hepatitis C to follow up on their health and stages of treatment. He went on, Another e-system is being prepared for the registration of refugees residing in Egypt as part of the 100 Million Healthy Lives Campaign. The source indicated that the ministry is coordinating with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to select the African countries where the initiative will start, develop a plan and timeline in these countries and communicate with their embassies to Cairo to gather information on the patients in need of treatment. Egypt's campaign to treat all Egyptian patients with Hepatitis C began in In 2014 and by October 2016 had succeeded in curing all the patients on its lists. At the WHO headquarters in Switzerland March 14, Health Minister Hala Zayed and WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus discussed applying the lessons of Egypt's successful Hepatitis C experiment to other African countries. The two sides agreed that the WHO will provide technical assistance and training while Egypt sends medical teams and Hepatitis C medications. Zayed expressed Egypts willingness to also help treat malaria patients in a number of countries in cooperation with the WHO. Some analysts on African affairs believe that such an initiative will support Egyptian efforts to promote ties with other African countries. Mona Omar, assistant to the former foreign minister for African affairs, told Al-Monitor over the phone, Such health initiatives support the role Egypt plays in Africa and promote its influence. All of these factors consist of concerted efforts to bring the Egyptian people closer to the rest of the African people as they involve the fundamentals of sustainable development, she added. She indicated that Egypt has always supported other African countries with many medical convoys, saving their citizens from the burden of paying for their treatment and travel. On March 7, Al-Azhar's committee for African affairs discussed ways to increase its relief and medical convoys in African countries. The institution has sent 11 convoys to Niger, Somalia, Sudan. Nigeria, Chad, Central Africa and Burkina Faso since 2012. According to Alaa Ramadan, vice president for community service and environmental development at Alexandria University, this year, the university will send medical convoys to provide treatment for eye conditions in a number of African countries, including Guinea, Tanzania and Chad. Amani Al-Taweel, director of the African program at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor that the implementation of Egypts health initiatives in African countries has a significant impact on bilateral relations with these countries. She said, It is an important topic that points to Egypts genuine care for matters concerning African citizens. Yet I believe that such directives go beyond the chairmanship of the AU, as they are linked to Egypts vision to deepen ties with African countries. Taweel explained, We are on the right track, but direct investments are required and development programs need to be implemented. Further efforts are required, be they by NGOs or as joint endeavors by the Egyptian and other African parliaments. CAIRO Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov concluded his visit to Cairo April 6, during which he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The two discussed several issues, mainly the war on terror, the situation in Libya and the return of Russian tourism to Egypt. Speaking about bilateral relations between Russia and Egypt, Lavrov stressed his countrys commitment to implement development projects in Cairo, which it launched under the Comprehensive Partnership and Strategic Cooperation Agreement signed between the two countries in October 2018. Also, Lavrov asserted that the competent authorities in Russia are taking the necessary measures to resume flights between Russian cities and Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada. Flights had been suspended after a Russian plane crashed on Oct. 31, 2015, immediately after its take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, killing all 224 passengers. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart April 6 that the two discussed the latest developments on the situation in the Middle East, mainly the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the situation in Syria and attempts to reach a political settlement as well as the situation in Libya, amid the recent military and political crisis between the governments of eastern military commander Khalifa Hifter and the prime minister of the internationally recognized government, Fayez al-Sarraj. Shoukry also noted that the two countries agreed to promote stability and fight terrorism, as Russia voiced support for Egyptian efforts in this regard. Russia is implementing major projects in Egypt, mainly the construction of El Dabaa nuclear power plant and the Russian Industrial Zone east of Port Said in the new Suez Canal Economic Zone. The railway sectors in Russia and Egypt are also cooperating through a deal reached in September 2018 to produce and import 1,300 new passenger railway wagons. Trade exchange between Egypt and Russia amounted to $5.1 million in 2018, Khaled Youssef, head of the Export Development Authority, said during his participation in the fourth International Arabia Expo in Moscow April 11. Nourhan al-Sheikh, a professor of political science at the University of Cairo who specializes in Russian affairs, told Al-Monitor that Lavrovs visit to Cairo is part of the comprehensive partnership agreement between the two countries and requires mutual visits occasionally to discuss common issues. Sheikh said that the timing of the visit is important because both countries have ties to important regional issues such as the situation in Libya and Sudan and the Palestinian cause. She noted that the talks tackled coordination regarding the scheduled Russia-Africa Summit that will most likely be held in Sochi next fall. She added that Egypt should be well-prepared for the summit, in light of its chairmanship of the African Union that started on Feb. 10 for a year, since Russia is interested in economic coordination with Africa. Egypt has an opportunity to be Russias gateway to Africa, especially through possible coordination between the two countries in the field of manufacturing weapons that can be exported to Africa. Egypt might also be a transit route for Russian airplanes en route to Africa, according to Sheikh. Egypt and Russia have strong military relations because of Russias development of Egypts air defense. In 2016, Russia provided the Egyptian naval forces with a new maritime piece, Molnia P-32, while the two countries signed cooperation protocols on joint military trainings. In regard to the resumption of flights, Sheikh said it is in the interest of Cairo and Moscow to restore tourism and ensure the security of these trips for Russian tourists. Tarek Kholy, secretary-general of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor over the phone that Egyptian-Russian relations are undergoing quick developments on all levels. On the Syrian file, Kholy said that Russia and Egypts cooperation was obvious through their brokerage of several truces on Syrian territories such as the truces in the northern countryside of Homs and eastern Ghouta. They also have a common perspective regarding the situation in Libya. Resumption of direct Russian flights to Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada is a political decision that stems from Russias belief that the situation in the region not just in Egypt is reassuring, Kholy added. According to the State Information Service, in 2015, Russian tourism brought Egypt $2.5 billion in revenues, accounting for 33.8% of the total tourism revenues of $7.4 billion. Meanwhile, the number of tourists to Egypt dropped by 54.9% during the first half of 2016, according to statistics by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. Former Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Gamal Bayoumi told Al-Monitor that the timing of talks between Egypt and Russia is important, as it indicates that Egypt will restore its position as a hub for political deliberations, especially with the crises in Arab countries such as Libya and Palestine. He added that bilaterally, Egypt and Russia are regaining their special relationship that offers huge economic and political support for Egypt. The Libyan situation deteriorated early April after the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army led by Hifter launched an offensive in the Libyan capital Tripoli, where the internationally recognized Government of National Accord, headed by Sarraj, is based. More than 147 people have been killed and 614 injured since then, the World Health Organization reported April 16. Meanwhile, Hifter is facing international pressure to withdraw his forces from Tripoli. Russia did not announce support for either of Libyas warring parties, although it did block a UN Security Council statement urging Hifter to stop the advance on Tripoli on April 7. Lavrov told Al-Ahram in the wake of his visit to Cairo April 6 that Russia and Egypt are coordinating efforts to solve the situation in Libya through a comprehensive national dialogue. He noted that there is a common vision between the two countries in this regard. Meanwhile, Sisi reiterated Egypts support for fighting terrorism and extremist militias to ensure security and stability for Libyans during his meeting with Hifter in Cairo April 14. "Sorry, this page isn't available." That's the message that now greets Instagram users trying to access accounts purportedly run by top figures of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Last week, President Donald Trump designated the IRGC a "foreign terrorist organization," and a day after the measure took effect, Instagram banned the accounts. "We work with appropriate government authorities to ensure we meet our legal obligations, including those relating to the recent designation of the IRGC," a spokesperson for the social media platform told AFP. Among the most notable accounts banned are those of IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari and Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who heads the influential overseas branch, known as the Quds Force. The long list has not even spared the Iranian traffic police chief, not to mention several retired officers, such as former Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and former head of the state broadcaster Ezzatollah Zarghami. Meanwhile, the English-language version of the supreme leader's official website on Instagram was temporarily suspended. Since Facebook and Twitter are officially blocked in Iran, Instagram gained immense popularity among Iranians. That means its 24 million users in Iran almost a third of Irans population do not have to bother with proxy apps to log on to Instagram. Iranian political and military figures have extensively employed the platform to spread their ideological messages to domestic and international audiences. Only last week, the now-banned profile page of Soleimani posted a video clip of his strongly worded speeches against the United States. However, the Quds Force has denied that Soleimani has any social media presence, suggesting that such pages are established and moderated by supporters. Many Instagram users have praised the IRGCs ongoing involvement in flood relief across Iran. "The popular face of the IRGC was further portrayed through Instagram in the floods' aftermath," wrote an IRGC supporter on Twitter. "Unlike what many believe, a free flow of information on social media best serves the interests of the Islamic Revolution." Instagram's ban on IRGC pages has triggered comprehensive debates about the platform's independence, leaving many wondering if Instagram is genuinely observing freedom of expression. "Insta-Trump" was the sarcastic portmanteau coined by the hard-line newspaper Javan. The paper, which reflects the IRGC's official views, attacked Instagram for employing "primitive measures aimed at blocking a free flow of information on social media." Elsewhere, conservative news agency Tasnim urged "an immediate tit-for-tat response" from the Iranian authorities. A similar but more straightforward suggestion was made by controversial hard-liner Hossein Allahkaram: "Instagram is one of those hostile virtual networks that have to be blocked." While criticizing Instagram's actions, Arman, a Reformist daily, noted that individuals like Allahkaram were "fishing in troubled waters" by pushing for restrictive measures. That did not, however, silence supporters of a total ban. "The time has come for the minister of information and communications technology to adopt a practical measure in response to Instagram's violation of Iran's sovereignty," one user wrote on Twitter. But the minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, who used the same blocked platform, did not seem to be ready for immediate action. Jahromi posted a "Game of Thrones" quote to criticize Instagram's decision: "When you tear out a man's tongue, you aren't proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you FEAR what he might say." Yet he made no indication of future plans for reciprocal measures. Iran's hard-liners have relentlessly called for Jahromi's head, as they claim the young minister has given too many freedoms to foreign social media networks. "In line with their policy to impose their values on others, they [Americans] enforce bans, while we do nothing to protect our identity in the face of invaders," wrote conservative political activist Vahid Yaminpour, echoing the conservatives' stance that social media networks are a threat to the Islamic Republic. Those on the other end of the political spectrum have also attacked Jahromi, lashing out at him for implementing censorship measures. "Those who are leaders of filtering at home and cannot tolerate a schoolgirl's dance on Instagram are now playing victim after their own pages were shut down," tweeted one person, referencing the teenage girl who posted videos of herself dancing on Instagram. Facebook, which owns Instagram, is expected to follow suit in banning IRGC pages. Accusations that Instagram is practicing double standards and advancing a political agenda gained further momentum when the ban targeted non-IRGC figures, among them Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative cleric who lost the 2017 presidential race to Hassan Rouhani. As far as Instagram is concerned, Iran's top decision-makers have always been stuck between a rock and a hard place. It still remains unclear whether Iranian official are set on implementing a total ban of the platform. Considering this, Instagram might have just cut the thin hair that was holding the sword of Damocles over its head. After US President Donald Trump designated Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, all eyes turned to Iraq, where thousands of US troops remain and many armed factions operate with the IRGCs support. Shortly after the April 8 announcement, the US Embassy in Iraq clarified what Washington wants Iraqi authorities to do in this regard. This designation makes it clearer and clearer that people can have a relationship with the problematic parts of the Iranian government, like the IRGC, or they can have a relationship with the United States and our financial system, but they cannot do both at the same time, Joey Hood, charge d'affaires of the US mission in Iraq, told reporters April 11. If they put the interests of the Revolutionary Guard before the interests of Iraq, they could be caught [up in] these designations, he said in reference to the Iraqi parties and armed groups close to Iran. Iran took retaliatory measures in response to the US action, which the IRGC called "the black decision by Trump and the idiots that surround the American regime." On April 9, Tehran designated the US Central Command a terrorist organization, thus placing all US forces in Iraq on the Iranian terror list. The IRGC then promised to utilize a strategy of meeting aggression with aggression against the enemy and teach it unforgettable and painful lessons." The Iraqi factions and parties close to Iran backed the IRGC. The Badr Organization said April 9 that the US decision will lead to more clashes and wars. A number of Iraqi Shiite factions showed solidarity with the IRGC, holding a conference April 13 at the home of Iran's consul general in the holy city of Najaf, denouncing the inclusion of the IRGC on the terrorism list. The Hezbollah Brigades responded by calling the United States the world's greatest sponsor of terrorism and reiterating calls for US troops to be driven out of Iraq. The presence of US military forces in Iraq poses a threat to our national security and the security of our brothers, the statement added. The Hezbollah Brigades is an Iraqi faction very close to Hezbollah in Lebanon and has been on the US terrorism list since 2009. Pressure has recently increased on the Iraqi government regarding the US presence in Iraq. During Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's visit April 6 to Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged Iraq to call on US forces to leave Iraq as soon as possible. This call did not go unnoticed in Iraq, especially after the IRGC was classified as a terrorist organization. On April 8, Hezbollah Brigades spokesman Jaafar al-Husseini said, Imam Khamenei commanded the removal of US forces from the region. The escalation on both sides has sparked concerns among Iraqi parties who fear Iraq will turn into a battlefield for the United States and Iran. Osama al-Nujaifi, a former speaker of the Iraqi parliament, tweeted April 9, A storm will hit the region in the wake of the US decision. The authorities must ensure that Iraq does not turn into an arena of confrontation or a battlefield" for something it has nothing to do with. The current situation brings to mind the confrontation between US forces and Iran-backed Shiite armed factions during the US occupation of Iraq (2003-2011). But there is a big difference between the political situation in Iraq back then and now. Unlike that period, when the United States was the de facto ruler of the country, many of these factions now have a significant presence in Iraq's political arena, be it through the legislature, the government or the bureaucratic structure of the country in general. They have something to lose, and a military confrontation would threaten many of the benefits they get through their influence in Iraqi politics. The parties that want to clash with US forces on Iraqi territory now have a difficult task to perform, which is garnering the support of the Iraqi people, who are sick and tired of the wars that have wreaked havoc on their country. The Iraqi people see Iran as one of the causes behind the deteriorating situation in the country. In November, The Washington Post published a poll that showed low Iraqi public support for Iran, even among the Shiite community. Those parties will need the public's support in coming elections. At the same time, it's unclear to what extent the United States is willing to place more Iraqi actors on the terrorism list at a time when it maintains contacts with many of them despite their close ties to the IRGC. For example, many US politicians met with Badr Organization President Hadi al-Amiri throughout the long years when he held various important positions that had a clear effect on the course of political action in the country. The Badr Organization has close ties to the IRGC, and Amiri demanded in 2015 that a statue be erected in Iraq for Qasem Soleimani, commander of the elite IRGC's even more-elite Quds Force. In other words, the possible inclusion of groups such as the Badr Organization on the terrorism list would deprive the United States of its contacts with them. As Iraq suffers from an already fragile situation, a misstep taken by either side could throw the country into another round of violence. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif paid an official visit to Turkey on April 17, following his visit to Syria the previous day. Although bilateral issues were a part of the agenda of Zarifs meetings in both countries, the timing of the trip and the content of his talks in Damascus and Ankara indicated that his diplomatic tour was, more than anything else, related to the international efforts to solve the Syrian crisis. Zarifs regional trips come less than 10 days before a new round of Syria peace talks within the framework of the Astana track in which Iran, Turkey and Russia play the leading role. As such, Zarifs visits to Syria and Turkey have given rise to speculation that the Islamic Republic might be trying to find common ground between the two sides and provide the framework for a breakthrough in the upcoming diplomatic talks. Furthermore, the necessity of finding a peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict was the main mantra repeated by Zarif during all of his meetings in Damascus and Ankara. A deeper look at Zarifs remarks during his trips indicates that Tehrans plan to facilitate and accelerate the Syrian political process has three main pillars. First and foremost, Iran appears to be dedicating unprecedented efforts to bring about the formation of the Syrian constitutional committee. The committee is due to be tasked with drafting a new constitution for Syria. Irans principal position since the beginning of the crisis has been that the future of Syria including its constitution should be only decided by the Syrian people, denying foreign initiatives for this purpose. However, since mid-2018, this position started to change as a result of the evolving equations in the war-torn country, and the Islamic Republic is now fully supporting the formation of the constitutional committee. Zarid said, I had a very good conversation with [Syrian] Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem on how to proceed with the political process within the framework of the Astana track and the constitutional committee. Zarif added, We need to cooperate with our Russian and Turkish counterparts in this regard. At a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, Iran's top diplomat once again touched upon this issue. Noting that Iran has conducted positive talks with Turkey and Russia on the issue of the constitutional committee, Zarif said, We hope two issues important for the start of the constitutional committee are resolved soon; one is the general composition of the committee and the other is the main principles governing the work of the committee. He went on to say that he would brief Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the content of his talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. As such, it seems that Zarifs visits to Damascus and Ankara were really aimed at conveying messages between the two sides regarding their expectations of the political transition process in Syria. Having said this, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman dismissed talk that Zarif conveyed a message from Assad to Erdogan. The importance of such a task becomes more evident when we consider that one of the main hurdles blocking the formation of the Syrian constitutional committee has been the Assad government's objection to the inclusion of certain names on the committee. However, at the same time that Zarif was in Damascus, it was announced that Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, had convinced Assad to accept the proposed names and that the list of the committee members would be finalized in the next Astana meeting April 25-26. It would be safe to argue that Tehrans new approach in support of the formation of the constitutional committee has contributed to softening Assads position. Indeed, this would be viewed as a positive step by Turkey, which has been strongly arguing in favor of a more serious presence of the Syrian opposition in the constitutional committee. But what might have Tehran and Damascus asked Ankara in return? This brings up the second and third pillars of Irans plan, that is, returning Idlib to the control of the Syrian government and preventing a Turkish military operation east of the Euphrates. Indeed, Zarif told reporters in Damascus that he had serious concerns about the situation in Idlib, saying, We [Iran], Turkey and Russia are definitely obliged to implement the commitments made on Idlib, one of the most important of which is to disarm the terrorist groups and expel them from Idlib. This was, in fact, a clear reference to Ankaras commitments under a deal with Moscow in September 2018 to oversee the disarmament of terrorist groups and the establishment of a deconfliction zone in Idlib. The deal was later endorsed by Iran, with the final aim of both Tehran and Moscow being the gradual return of the region to Syrian government control. However, Russia has on occasion criticized Turkey for not living up to its commitments. As for the issue of the region east of the Euphrates, Iran wants to reestablish the rule of the Syrian government over the area, while trying to address Turkeys concerns over the presence and activities of the armed Kurdish groups. We are fully aware of the concerns of our friends in Turkey regarding the threats [east of the Euphrates], Zarif said in Ankara, adding, The best way to preserve the security of all countries of the region is to deploy the Syrian army along the border with Turkey and to ensure that no terrorist activity will be conducted against the Turkish government and nation from the Syrian side. Turkey considers the US-backed Peoples Protection Units, which control vast areas in eastern Syria, a terrorist group. Turkish officials have warned that they would resort to a new military operation inside Syrian territory to eradicate the threat posed by the Kurdish group. As such, Iran is apparently trying to kill two birds with one stone, preventing Turkey from expanding the area under its control in Syria as a result of a new military operation, while minimizing American influence by helping the Assad government reestablish its rule over Syrias eastern and northeastern regions. For now, we have to wait until the upcoming Astana meeting to see whether Iran has been able to bring Turkey on board for implementing Tehran's vision for the political process in Syria. If so, we can expect important military and political developments in the war-torn country in the near future. Iran and Turkey have set up a special transaction channel in order to bypass US sanctions on Iran, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Zarif, who was in Ankara meeting with Turkish officials, spoke on April 18 to Iranian reporters afterward. It must be said that regarding bilateral relations our friends in Turkey have always opposed anti-Iranian sanctions, Zarif said. He added, Also, they are opposed to Americas illegal action against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], which we appreciate and are thankful for. The United States reimposed sanctions on Iran after US President Donald Trump decided to exit the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, which was one of former US President Barack Obamas foreign policy achievements. The United States this month also designated the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization an unprecedented move against the armed forces of a foreign country. Regarding the Turkey-Iran transaction channel, Zarif said, We reached an agreement in five fields in which we will pursue our work in a special manner, including preferential tariffs, cooperation in energy and banking, using national currencies and creating a mechanism similar to INSTEX [the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges], which is a special payment channel set up between Iran and Germany, France and the United Kingdom in order to bypass US sanctions and facilitate trade. The European Union has opposed Trumps decision to exit the JCPOA, but they have largely been ineffective in countering US sanctions. Zarif added that he and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu would personally oversee the Iran-Turkey transaction channel. He said Iran and Turkey would continue cooperation politically, economically and regionally, adding, The kind of relations we have with Turkey today we havent had in decades. Zarif also said relations with neighbors have been a priority for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's administration, touting the strong relations with Iraq, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and countries in Central Asia. While Zarif discussed positive relations with neighboring countries, two countries he left out were Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Iran and Saudi Arabia have been locked in a regional struggle that has escalated in the last five years due to ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen. However, in a notable step of a possibly positive direction in ties, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have delivered aid to Iran as it continues to recover from massive flooding that impacted multiple provinces in the country. In this vein, in a speech for Army Day, Rouhani tried to strike a conciliatory tone regarding relations with neighbors. If we in this region have a problem, the root of it is Zionism or American arrogance, he said, referring to Israel and the US military presence in the region. Rouhani added, The people of this region have lived together for centuries and did not have problems. He continued, Lets stand together and cleanse the region of invaders. Lets push back Zionism which has been busy for 70 years committing crimes and help deliver Palestinians and the great nations of this region their historical rights by helping one another." President Donald Trumps envoy for the Mideast peace process, Jason Greenblatt, is urging people to stop their guessing games about the administrations yet-to-be-unveiled deal of the century for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Weve been working hard drafting what we believe is a fair, realistic & implementable plan, he tweeted on April 16. Fair agreements require compromises. Several hours later, Israel shared its idea of fair and compromise when bulldozers stormed the Palestinian neighborhood of Wadi Yetzol, established some 30 years ago at the foot of Jerusalems Old City, turning a string of shops, warehouses and barns into rubble. After the Supreme Court rejected their petition against the Jerusalem municipality, residents fear the city will now demolish the neighborhoods 60 homes housing 500 people. The houses are built on private land owned by residents, but unfortunately for them, the area is designed in zoning plans as green and open land. The non-profit Elad organization has also built in that area without benefit of a building permit, but things are different for Jews, especially those affiliated with the radical right. The municipal authorities recently asked the local zoning committee re-zone the land in order to provide the NGO with permits for the illegal structures it erected there. Ironically, the disputed zoning request pertains to land known as the Peace Forest. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN April 13 that he does not believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus declared intention to annex the West Bank would be detrimental to a two-state solution. It is unclear whether Pompeo believes Netanyahus annexation declarations would harm the US peace plan because he doesn't take them seriously, or if he was hinting that annexation of the West Bank or of 60% of its area (designated as West Bank Area C, under Israeli control) is part of Greenblatt's fair compromise. It doesn't really matter. The Peace Forest case proves that annexation is already underway. It started off at a crawl, but with generous government support, it's picked up speed. In recent years, hailed by senior politicians, the annexation has been galloping wildly ahead without any domestic or foreign impediment. As a result, in the quarter century since Israel and the Palestinians signed their historic 1993 Oslo Accord, designed to bring Israels occupation of the West Bank to an end, the number of Israeli settlers there has quadrupled not even counting Jewish residents of predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem. The latest report issued on April 8 by the Peace Now organization indicates that under Netanyahu, from the end of 2008 to the end of 2017, some 132,300 new settlers moved into the West Bank. Some 50,000 of these residents moved into homes outside of what are termed settlement blocs, meaning into areas from which Israel would surely have to withdraw under a two-state agreement with the Palestinians. The recently built housing units in the settlements could potentially house 60,000 additional settlers, according to the report. For the settlers, even these gains are not enough. In 2018, according to the report, construction began on 2,100 new housing units in the settlements, about 9% more than the annual average since 2009. Only a quarter are located west of the security fence between Israel and the West Bank. At least 10% of the new construction is illegal, not only under international law but also under the laws that Israel has imposed in the settlements. Last year, plans were promoted for 5,618 additional housing units in 79 settlements, the vast majority (83%) east of the settlement blocs. The number of construction tenders for 3,808 units in the West Bank and 603 in East Jerusalem has broken a 10-year record. Data obtained by Peace Now indicate that in the decade of Netanyahus regime, government ministries allocated over 10 billion shekels ($2.8 billion) in extra budgets for the settlements unique expenditures that do not include defense and protection services the settlers would have received even had they lived inside sovereign Israel. As the report notes, even if one does not believe peace with the Palestinians is attainable in the near future, massive construction that thwarts all future prospects of a two-state solution defies logic. This conclusion brought President George W. Bush to insist that the peace plan he initiated in 2003 include a demand that Israel freeze all settlement activity and would not even accommodate natural growth. April 30 will mark 16 years since the government of Ariel Sharon's decision to adopt it. The governments 14 reservations about the plan did not include the freeze demand. However, American evangelists and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson are highly unlikely to let Trump hold the Netanyahu government to its predecessors decision. The prospects that Netanyahus colleagues in the Likud and members of his new ultra-right, messianic coalition government will allow him to even broach the idea of a settlement freeze are even lower. For them, freezing the settlement enterprise is sacrilege, a violation of the pledge God gave the Israelites to inherit the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. For them, annexation of the West Bank is merely a next step toward Israel conquering the land all the way to the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in modern-day Iraq. With far-right Zvi Hauser as one of its Knesset members, a call for peace, however faint, is unlikely to emerge from the opposition benches of the Blue and White Party. Hauser, one of the authors of the controversial nationality law and a former Netanyahu cabinet secretary, said in a February interview with Yedioth Ahronoth that he sees no difference between Netanyahu and his rivals on the settlement issue. Netanyahu, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, head of center-right Kulanu Moshe Kahlon and right-wing Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman all hold similar views on the matter, he said. Hauser even complained about the current Netanyahu government allegedly freezing construction in areas beyond the Green Line. Greenblatt wrote that he and his colleagues had worked hard to come up with a fair, realistic and feasible plan, yet the first sentence of any viable plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace is easy to write. One look at the pile of rubble in Wadi Yetzol or the settlement construction sites dotting the West Bank landscape should suffice to understand that galloping annexation means the demise of peace. With or without Trumps deal, this process must stop before it's too late. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is increasingly known for savvy social media skills and use of digital forums to reach out to his electorate, and hes using these methods to attract and maintain a base of support among Israeli youth. The prime minister's Twitter account has more than 1.5 million followers, and his Facebook page has 2.4 million. By the way, he has more than one Facebook page, and the 2.4 million refers only to the most popular one. Netanyahu also corresponds with world leaders on his Facebook account; thus, he received congratulations on his electoral victory from Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Hebrew. In addition to all of this, he has a popular Instagram account with 630,000 followers. These accounts were especially active during the elections, utilizing video clips, announcements, reports and an initiative called Likud TV, a supposedly private news network that was disseminated on the partys Facebook page. Its avowed goal was to sideline all major media outlets Netanyahu claims the media is hostile to him, his family and Israels entire right-wing public and transmit messages directly to his constituency. For that purpose, TV emcee Eliraz Sadeh was enlisted to conduct well-orchestrated interviews with Netanyahu; these interviews attracted numerous viewers and were widely shared. The team that operates the social networks of Netanyahu and the Likud is composed of young adults who are fluent in the digital language. They expertly target the main users of the networks: young adults who, according to the studies, get most of their information from these platforms. Noa S. (a soldier whose name could not be cited for the interview) says she decided to vote for Netanyahu after she also spent much time viewing the videos of his rivals, mainly Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and Labor chairman Avi Gabbay. Netanyahu sounded the most articulate and trustworthy of them all. She also accepted his assertion that the regular media is hostile to him. When you hear his interviews with most of the journalists on radio and TV, you understand how they try to attack him. By contrast, they are relatively kinder to the left-wing candidates, she says. When asked if she'd seen Likud TV on Facebook, Noa S. replies, Yes, but not much. I preferred listening directly to the video clips; they were short, catchy and adapted to the cell phone. Netanyahu looked into my eyes the entire time. Ilan Avraham, a 24-year-old student from Modiin, says he became more politically involved by virtue of the social networks and always supported the right; this time, he had to decide between Netanyahu and the chairman of the New Right, Naftali Bennett. Netanyahu talked to me using language that was direct, clear and with a strong message. I didnt always believe everything he said. Im not naive. But he was the one to catch my attention, says Avraham. For 18-year-old Ilanit Nechemia, tthis was the first time she voted. Im not crazy about politics, but in Israel we must be involved, also because of security issues. Im going to serve in the army in a combat role, and thats important to me personally and also the economic issues, she explains, adding, Therefore, I followed when I had time. I saw some news on the internet, but many times I didnt like the interpretations they gave. So, I followed the Facebook [pages] of Netanyahu and Gantz. True, Gantz was chief of staff and hes tall and looks good, but Netanyahu spoke to me personally. I felt that he was really talking to me. Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has much to say about the political involvement of Israeli youths on digital channels. She found fundamental differences between young Israelis and Americans regarding political involvement on Facebook. Israelis exhibit much greater interest in politics and want political discussions on Facebook more than Americans. The Americans tend to consider these kinds of Facebook discussions to be illegitimate or at least ill-mannered. One of the reasons for this is that the Israelis understand there are opposing political opinions in their divided society and that Facebook discussions are legitimate for convincing others or receiving support from those who hold similar opinions to your own. Another essential difference is that Israel exists in an ongoing political-military confrontation with the Palestinians and with other countries around it; this arouses a higher level of political involvement among Israelis. According to Kligler-Vilenchik's studies, Americans prefer to avoid political involvement on social networks. Yossi Levnoni of Ramat Gan, a 22-year-old computer science student, says, I emerged from my study bubble for a month before the elections, and I followed a lot. Im not a real left-winger, but Im sick and tired of what the outgoing government did to the rule of law and order. I wanted to hear, maybe I hoped to hear, Netanyahu change direction. Thats why I preferred his direct messages on the video clips he disseminated on Facebook and his tweets on Twitter. I became convinced he has some kind of paranoid persecution complex, so I voted for the person who had some chance of beating him Gantz. Twenty-eight-year-old Yael Edri from Jerusalem says she followed Netanyahus video clips for two reasons: First, she believed the media did not reflect what he wanted to say but only attacked him; second, she wanted to be sure about his views. In the newspaper interviews, they focused almost solely on the investigations and didnt ask about the Palestinians, about the economy, the crowding in the hospitals and the other problems. I was disappointed at how Netanyahu presented things, as if everything is wonderful, when I had hoped that hed give solutions. So I voted for Blue and White because they at least talked about change. Twenty-five-year-old Eli Tzioni from Tel Aviv is a Meretz adherent and freak of social networks. Netanyahu invested a fortune to promote his messages on the networks. I followed him on all the platforms; he simply took control of them. He knows how to deliver short, catchy messages, but you cant always believe him. Someone like me doesnt believe him at all. But he creates the impression of talking to you personally, and when his face talks to you from the screen of your cell phone, you feel that the prime minister is with you and he cares about you [even] I was almost convinced, Tzioni says. Netanyahu speaks amicably and simply but does not use low language like US President Donald Trump. The Israeli prime minister does not curse or use swearwords even when he attacks others sharply; his texts are polished, focused and organized. They are not spontaneous like many of Trumps messages on Twitter or in video clips. Netanyahu reacts quickly to events or to what other people say, including responses to the publications, posts and tweets of his rivals. His presence on social networks is many times more effective than those of his contenders. Here, too, lies the secret of his success in convincing young voters the main digital consumers of the media to vote for him. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Some Palestinians in the West Bank governorate of Qalqilya hope to stop construction of a water pipeline Israel plans to build that threatens to destroy agricultural areas there. The residents see the project as an Israeli ploy to uproot villagers and seize land. On April 7, Qalqilya Gov. Rafi Rawajba briefed the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights about the hardships the area faces as a result of Israel's plan. The pipeline is to be built by Israel's national water company, Mekorot Water Co. Ltd., which is the main Israeli company pumping and supplying water to all of Israel and its settlements. The pipeline will run from western to eastern Qalqilya to supply Israeli settlements in the central West Bank provinces of Qalqilya and Salfit. Qalqilya and much of Salfit lie in Area C of the West Bank, which is under Israeli civil and military control. The pipeline project threatens the Palestinian presence in the area, according to Mohammed Abu al-Sheikh, the official in charge of the settlements portfolio in Qalqilya. Sheikh told Al-Monitor more than 700 olive trees are being cultivated in the area, alongside some 2,600 almond and carob trees. He accused Israel of attempting, by all possible means, to seize Palestinian land and jeopardize Palestinian existence. Sheikh told Al-Monitor the decision to establish the pipeline was issued and approved in 2018, but the governorate was not informed of the plan until the end of March. The governorate held a meeting April 2 to discuss the implications of the pipeline. According to the documents his office received, Sheikh said, the project will be implemented in several stages, with the first phase providing water to the Israeli settlements and outposts near the village of Kafr Laqif. He stressed that the pipeline, at 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) in length and 42 to 948 inches in diameter, will destroy the agricultural land it passes through, and Israel will confiscate an estimated 100 dunams (25 acres). Officials also received a military report from the Israeli Civil Administration indicating that the pipeline will run from Azzun village in southern Qalqilya governorate and pass east through several villages in the Nablus governorate. Qalqilya also has received an aerial map of the plan including the numbers of plots and dams through which the line will pass. Sheikh said the documents advise "that those affected by the plan should report to the Israeli Civil Administration to receive financial compensation for the damage, which we reject." According to Israeli law, Sheikh said, Palestinians have the right to file complaints with Israeli courts within 45 days from the date of notification. We held a meeting of municipal councils of the villages that will be affected by the pipeline plan. The council heads signed a petition against the project, which has been submitted to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission [CWRC] to be submitted to the relevant Israeli authorities," Sheikh said. Ayed Marar, director general of the CWRC legal department, told Al-Monitor the real aim of the project isn't to provide Israeli settlements with water, but rather to confiscate Palestinian land. He explained that Israeli authorities could have established the pipeline along the bypass road created in 2018, but instead more agricultural land is being confiscated. Like Sheikh, Marar expressed hope of stopping the project through the courts and popular resistance, and he called on residents to reject Israeli financial compensation for their land. We are trying to salvage what we can from Israel's confiscation of Palestinian land, he said. According to Marar, landowners are identifying the damages the pipeline could inflict on them before they urge the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) to submit a complaint to Israeli authorities. The PWA is a member of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee, which requires that Israeli and Palestinian parties both approve of any project. Sheikh said the pipeline will also restrict Palestinian movement and population expansion, as citizens will be forced to relocate or purchase lands in more remote areas. In addition, the villages of eastern Qalqilya, which number around nine and have a total population of 30,000, already suffer from a severe water crisis, he said. Residents currently get only about two-thirds of what they need and are forced to purchase water from Mekorot at exorbitant prices around $1.50 per cup. We are unable to build a water line without Israeli approval, since its course would pass through Area C, Sheikh said. Marar said a single family of Israeli settlers often consumes water equivalent to what several Palestinian villages consume. Mohammed Jaber is a resident of Kafr Laqif village, north of where the pipeline will pass through Qalqilya. He told Al-Monitor, The line threatens income from the sale of oil and olives. In light of the local water shortages, especially with the approach of summer, Jaber said the settlements are enjoying water at the expense of Palestinians. Moreover, he said Israel is establishing water projects and building and expanding settlements and other infrastructure as a pretext for evicting Palestinians and seizing land. We will not accept the confiscation of our land, and we will confront the [pipeline] project by judicial means and popular resistance, he stated. In other recent projects, Israeli authorities in early March issued an order to confiscate about 15 dunams of land east of Azzun in Qalqilya, supposedly to widen roads, and in February, Israeli bulldozers also began razing hundreds of dunams of land in the villages of Siniriya and Masha to build new units for the nearby settlement of Etz Efraim. RAMALLAH, West Bank Three days before the Israeli elections were held on April 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Channel 12 that he would start extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and annex West Bank settlements if he was reelected. The settlements are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. For many Palestinians, however, this has been a fait accompli for many years now. Mohammed al-Khabir, 43, from Khirbet Ain al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley, is no longer interested in what is being said in the news. His biggest concern is that he and his people would be forcibly evicted from their homes if Israel extends its control of all surrounding land. We fear that Israel would take advantage of our summer travel and prevent us from returning to our land, Kabir told Al-Monitor. During the summer, the Kabir family moves with their livestock to the lush pastures in nearby Tubas in search of water and grass for the cattle to graze. They return to the Jordan Valley by the end of September every year. The Jordan Valley, which is home to Kabir and his family of 14 Palestinians, comprises 30% of the West Bank and half of the land classified as Area C, which makes up 61% of the West Bank. These areas are under Israels control, according to the Taba Agreement, which is seen as an extension of the implementation of the Oslo Accord in the West Bank. These areas were supposed to be transferred under Palestinian sovereignty within five years from the signing of the agreement, which has yet to be implemented. Now that Netanyahu has won the elections and is seeking to form a coalition of right-wing parties, his promises to annex the West Bank seem closer to becoming a reality, especially with the support of US President Donald Trump, who recognized Israels sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights on March 25 and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017. Back to the Jordan Valley, the facts on the ground indicate that in recent years Israel has been working on creating the proper conditions and preparing for this annexation through ongoing settlement building, uninterrupted land confiscations and harassment of the population, according to Mahdi Daraghmeh, head of the Northern Jordan Valley Council. The concerns voiced by Palestinian politicians in the media have become a grim reality for us, the people who are living in the Jordan Valley. I believe this has been the status quo for almost 10 years. Most of the mountain slopes facing the Jordanian border are now under full Israeli control, Daraghmeh told Al-Monitor. The region Daraghmeh mentioned is called the Swaida area and was completely closed in 2018 when Israel announced the establishment of a military base there and before that the establishment of a settlement by a single settler, who built a house in the area that was confiscated for the purposes of establishing a natural reserve. The settler now owns a farm there, while several other settlers have moved in to live with him. The settlement is called Khula al-Hamd. Daraghmeh heads 19 local councils in the Jordan Valley, which is home to 3,000 Palestinians. Palestinians of the Jordan Valley live freely inside their homes only. The rest of the surrounding lands have been confiscated for the establishment of settlements or natural reserves. The reserves end up being turned into settlements, training camps or military bases, he said. He added that all of the developments in the Jordan Valley have left Palestinian politicians feeling hopeless and unable to rise up to these Israeli threats. Head of the Colonization and War Resistance Commission (CWRC) Walid Assaf told Al-Monitor, We believe that Israel is likely to take this step [of annexing the West Bank] in light of US support. We take these threats very seriously, and we are outlining plans to deal with them. These plans, according to Assaf, include strengthening the peoples steadfastness to stay on their lands. Israels decisions are unilateral. Israel will not be granted any right to annex Palestinian lands. We will fight this project with all available means, and we will stand up against the forced eviction policies, which Israel has been carrying out in Area C, as a prelude to extending its sovereignty over our lands, Assaf said. He condemned this move as a war crime under international law, as Israel would be forcibly taking over the lands of a recognized state. Mohammad Shalaldeh, a professor of international law at Al-Quds University, told Al-Monitor, Israels actions are a violation of international law since the relations between the Palestinian Authority [PA] and the occupying force, which is Israel, is governed by the international law and not by the decisions of Israel or the United States to this effect. Their decisions [in reference to the Israelis] have no consequences. In international law, the occupying force has no right to extend its sovereignty, and any action in this context is null and void, Shalaldeh said. Shalaldeh also predicted that the annexation decision will be a prelude to the implementation of the Donald Trump administration's Mideast peace plan often referred to as "the deal of the century" and to the annexation of more Palestinian lands to Israel and the legitimization of the settlements. He said the Palestinian response should not remain a reaction to these decisions. These steps ought to be confronted through Palestinian constitutional decisions by the Palestinian National Council, including reviewing the agreements signed with the Israeli side, he said. Shalaldeh also called on the State of Palestine to call on the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention to bind Israel to respect and apply the convention and to resolve the dispute over the status of the Palestinian lands and recognize them as occupied territories. CWRC coordinator Jamal Jumaa told Al-Monitor that these plans are not something new, as Israel has been working on gradually annexing lands since 2017 through different laws and legislation, such as the implemented civil law rather than the military law, which ought to be applied in the West Bank settlements because they fall in occupied lands under the control of the Israeli military. Israel also passed a contentious law in February 2017 allowing the government to seize land privately owned by Palestinians in the West Bank to be granted for Jewish settlements. Palestinian landowners could apply for annual rents, request compensations or be given another parcel. Jumaa added that the biggest danger of these Israeli measures is the mass exodus they will cause, especially in these areas, in the Jordan Valley in particular and for the Bedouin communities living at the foothills of Jerusalem, such as in the village of Khan al-Ahmar. Jumaa does not believe in the possibility of establishing any form of a Palestinian State under these circumstances, which require serious decisions on the part of the PA based on the disengagement from Israel at the economic and security levels. Banking on the international law now is futile, especially since the United States provides Israel with an international cover. Palestinians and only Palestinians will be able to stop this step from becoming reality, and this will ultimately lead to a full-blown political confrontation with Israel, which would entail a massive popular uprising, he added. Israel is often referred to as the melting pot of the Jewish people, and this nation of immigrants where Jewish daily life is infused with the ancestral memories of Russia, Poland, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Iraq, Syria, Libya, France and dozens of other countries is as diverse in dress codes as it is in food, customs and language. Most Israelis wear Western clothing on a daily basis, but when it comes to lifes most special moments, ritual dress reigns. The most prominent example of this is Israeli weddings, Noam Baram-Ben Yossef, senior curator of ethnography at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, told Al-Monitor. In 2007, Baram-Ben Yossef sought to show the scope and diversity of Jewish ritual dress, both in terms of history as well as which garments retain modern usage in Israel today, in a major exhibition at the Israel Museum together with curator Efrat Assaf-Shapira "From the many Jewish costumes that arrived to Israel, the ones that are still most worn are those of wedding ceremonies, she said, noting that among the Jews of Sephardic descent with roots in Africa and the Middle East the henna ceremony, a pre-wedding celebration that includes a festive meal, is most often the opportunity to don native dress, while the actual wedding ceremony itself will see the groom in a standard suit and the bride in a typical white gown. Yemenite Jewish women, for example, will change their outfits three times during the henna ceremony, wearing a Sanaani bridal costume (the most elaborate), a northern Yemenite-style garb and an outfit in Habbani style, which has its roots in southeastern Yemen. Among Bukharan and Moroccan Jews, wealthier families own a dress called kesswah lekebireh, which is passed from mother to daughter and still appears at the henna ceremonies that take place around Israel today. Modesty in dress is common among many populations in Israel, and like everything related to sartorial customs in this nation of immigrants has its roots in the old country. For many populations, the customs of ultra-conservative dress are relegated now only to family gatherings and milestone events, whereas in day-to-day life, especially among the younger generations who were born and raised in modern Israel, there is little concern about exposed skin. You can still see here and there in some Kurdish villages that old people especially women cover their heads like they used to in their original hometowns, Baram-Ben Yossef noted. But it is rare. The ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, is one group in Israeli society that highly values modesty. But just because Israels most religious sector still dresses in the style of the old country doesnt mean that their current fashion is without evolution. For Haredi styles of dress, the shtreimels or ceremonial fur hats worn by men to mark special occasions the three-quarter length trousers, the socks, belts and some skullcaps and black caftans are already modified, Baram-Ben Yossef said. They still preserve some of the traditional garb, but whenever the materials are changed, the results are different. And just as some populations have found that the youth scoffs at tradition and embraces racier, more Western-style dress, in other segments of society, the opposite phenomenon is seen. Some ultra-religious Jewish women in Israel, for example, are more concerned with cloaking themselves for modesty than their ancestors were in Europe. There is a tendency among some groups of women to go backward in their style of dress, and over-cover, including wearing veils, several layers of shawls and aprons on top of their everyday dress, she concluded. Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, a Fatah Central Committee member and a leader in the first intifada (1987-1993), appears to be setting his sights on economic austerity and policies of self-reliance, versions of which Palestinians adopted during the first uprising. Shtayyeh told his Cabinet on April 15 at their inaugural meeting that the Palestinians must adopt austerity measures to deal with the difficult economic situation and to avoid having to raise taxes. The government is taking over under difficult circumstances, Shtayyeh remarked to the Cabinet, having arrived at work on foot, rather than in the usual motorcade. A press release by Shtayyeh's office about the meeting stated, The Cabinet decided to stop buying new cars and to end first-class trips, and all ministers must report their financial status, while at the same time, taxes will not be raised and priority will be given to support the steadfastness of the people of Jerusalem. The release also noted that a meeting with international donors is planned for April 30, including briefing them on the financial war being waged on Palestine by the United States and Israel. The location of the meeting was not disclosed. Shtayyeh is said to be reviewing ways to strengthen the local economy while pursuing an economic policy of steadfastness and resistance. Al-Monitor has learned that to this end and to separate the Palestinian economy from Israel, the government will introduce a plan to phase out use of the shekel, replacing it with other currencies, including the Jordanian dinar, the US dollar or the euro. Muntaser Hamdan, head of the investigative journalism unit at the pro-Fatah daily Al-Hayyat al-Jadida, told Al-Monitor that the new prime minister will try to adopt his economic policy to local situations. In the north, he will focus on agriculture, while in the south on trade and in the center on management and services, he explained. Hamdan also predicted that Shtayyeh will try to reestablish relations with Israel after a new government is formed. While security coordination has been ongoing between Israelis and Palestinians, there has been very little political coordination. The situation between both sides worsened when Israel decided to reduce the customs and tax monies it collects for the Palestinians as punishment for the Palestinian government supporting families of prisoners and martyrs. Walid Batrawi, a former trainer with BBC Media Action, the British broadcaster's international development charity, told Al-Monitor, The government has given people hope and will not go against the will of Palestinians in internal issues. Shtayyeh is the first prime minister from the Fatah movement since 2005. The new government will also for the first time have a minister of entrepreneurship and economic empowerment. Osama al-Saadi, an engineer and former member of the Gaza Housing Commission, holds that portfolio. Majed Arouri, executive director of the ISTIQLAL, the Commission for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Rule of Law, told Al-Monitor that the new government will have a huge challenge in ensuring that public servants are paid on time and in full. He also asserted, The new government will have to oversee the possibility of elections and to do that, [it] will need to address Palestinian divisions while at the same time dealing with a radical Israeli government. Arouri believes that without elections, the government, even one headed by a Fatah leader, will not be able to make difficult decisions. He remarked, Decisions are still made by President [Mahmoud] Abbas, and the proof of that is that the prime minister was unable to touch some of the major cabinet positions like the foreign and finance ministries. Foreign Minister Riyad Malki and Finance Minister Shukri Bishara, close allies of Abbas, retained their positions in the new government. Arouri was less-than-optimistic in general, asserting, [Fatah's internal politics] will weaken the new government especially in light of the bleak political future and the struggle over the post-Abbas presidency. Shtayyeh had hoped to establish a Cabinet broadly supported by the PLO factions, but it consists only of Fatah members and representatives from some of the smaller organizations. The government does not have the support of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine or the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Hamas was not asked to join Shtayyeh's government. Hanna Issa, director of the Islamic-Christian Commission for the Support of Jerusalem and Holy Sites, stressed the need for the new government to focus on national and geographic unity. He told Al-Monitor, Prime Minister Shtayyeh will need to deal with internal issues, especially the Jerusalem file, while everyone awaits the publication of the US deal of the century, and all this without the needed resources in the Palestinian treasury. The internal and external challenges facing Shtayyeh are larger than any one person can manage, even with a large political movement behind him. Shtayyeh appears to have made the correct decision in trying to build trust with those he will govern to obtain their support as he tries to implement the austerity measures needed to withstand the pressure being brought to bear by the United States and Israel. The United States' designation of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization is the Donald Trump administration's latest effort to exert political pressure on Iran. Moscow, which is allied with Tehran in its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has predictably condemned the move yet there could be some unexpected benefits for Moscow. In recent years, Russia and Iran have been partners in the fight against anti-government forces in Syria, but as the military phase of the conflict dies down, the relationship between Moscow and Tehran has grown to be more nuanced if not complicated. Russia thus monitors and weighs in on US-led initiatives concerning Iran with great attention and care. Rajab Safarov, director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Modern Iran, wrote, Moscow has been in pursuit of constructive engagement with Tehran over Syria and beyond. In fact, for the past five years Russia actively interacted in Syria with the IRGC, now a designated terrorist organization. The main line of Russian criticism of the US decision focuses on the fact that it pushes the Middle East into an even more chaotic state. Similar logic was used to describe Trumps earlier decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Interestingly, however, just as in these other cases, Moscow would never officially mention the Israeli angle in the IRGC designation: Trumps desire to prop up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus positions at home has served as a driving force behind some of these White House decisions. Russia is mindful of potentially antagonizing its relationship with Israel, and thus directly targets only the US position. Russia estimates the confrontational course toward Iran as destructive and short sighted. Without Tehran, the creation of a lasting regional security architecture in the Middle East is impossible, as is [the ability to] ensure a stable Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, stated Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Her statements on this issue come in sharp contrast to those of US special envoy on Iran Brian Hook, who argued earlier that The Middle East cannot be more stable and peaceful without weakening the IRGC. Another concern Moscow has expressed over the decision to designate the IRGC as a terror organization is that it may serve as a dangerous precedent for designating other countries institutions of power, which, say, in the case of Russia may eventually entail far bigger consequences for US-Russia interactions and Russian international standing. On a related track, Moscow has come to believe that the definition of terrorism is already uncertain enough at a global stage whereby countries have some leeway for their own creative interpretation and subsequent steps regarding terror groups, which, according to Russia, allows for potentially dangerous manipulations in this domain. What is not supposed to be said out loud, however, is that few in Russia actually believe there will be serious immediate fallout from the decision or that it will change much on the ground at least for now. Russian Iran watchers, both in the government and among the analyst community, believe that US sanctions against various Iranian legal entities and individuals related to the IRGC that had already been in place make interactions with any of the IRGCs affiliates perilous anyway. Therefore, the new status of terrorist organization instead of supporter of terrorism as the IRGCs international arm had been already classified has only a psychological effect. Another assumption popular in Moscow in this regard is that Trumps pullout from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action laid the foundation for hitting Iran politically and economically, thus the new move is simply a continuation of this policy of discouraging international players from engaging with Iran. The US-Iranian relationship [is] apparently perceived in the White House as a zero-sum game with no mutually beneficial compromise possible. Therefore, there is no reason for the administration to pursue any sticks-and-carrots approach sticks alone would be more than enough to deal with the stubborn and uncooperative US adversary, Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, wrote in his op-ed for the American Herald Tribune. All of these concerns notwithstanding, Russia does in fact find some benefits for itself in the Trump administrations decision. To a certain degree it allows greater freedom of movement for Moscow both politically and militarily. The decision will become another significant constraint for the US military, intelligence, and diplomats in the region. From now on, American officials cannot conduct any negotiations with their peers in Iraq, in Syria or in Lebanon, if the latter had any contacts with the IRGC. [A]n increased American pressure on Iran makes Tehran even more dependent on major US geopolitical adversaries China and Russia, Kortunov argued. Therefore, the move has at least three implications: First, it reinforces Russias argument that Washington is isolated when it comes to its Iran policy. On an increasing number of initiatives vis-a-vis the Islamic Republic, the United States finds itself supported only by Israel. Even if European allies have to follow suit, most are seeking loopholes and shortcuts for their own dealings with Tehran and ultimately feel much more closely aligned with the Russian agenda than that of the United States. Second, it potentially raises Russias regional neutral mediator profile to a new level and makes Moscow a more likely go-between for these parties than anyone else simply because Russia doesnt tie its own hands like the Trump administration just did. Third, and rather counterintuitively, Russia may also choose to leverage the designation with Iran itself by discouraging Tehran from occupying certain areas in Syria or laying claim to certain industries and projects by referencing possible political and security complications over the US decision. The IRGC is supposed to spearhead post-war reconstruction of Syria on the Iranian side, and the corps is determined to have its share after all the investments made by Iran in terms of financial, humanitarian and military help. The Trump decision potentially gives the Russians leverage in that process. So even if Moscow publicly grieves the decision as further destabilizing to the region, there might be some nuggets for Russia's regional policy. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Hamas has remained silent about the Sudanese government transition after Defense Minister Ahmed Awad ibn Auf stood down on April 12, the day after leading a coup that toppled President Omar al-Bashir, with whom the movement had had strong ties. Sudan's significance to Hamas lies in it being one of the most important routes for the transfer of arms to Gaza. Bashir's regime boasted of its political support for Hamas and allowed it to open an office there. Hamas members also studied in Sudan. Israel has over the years repeatedly reproached Sudan for opening its territory and ports to arms smuggled overland from Libya and by sea and air from Iran en route to Hamas via the Sinai. A retired Sudanese military commander who spoke to Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity said, The former Sudanese regime did not provide any weapons to Hamas, but it turned a blind eye to the smuggling of its weapons through its territory to the Gaza Strip. The change in regime in Egypt dealt a significant blow to operations when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the destruction of the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza through which the Palestinian factions received weapons and ordinary Palestinians were able to obtained an array of goods. With the crackdown, some smugglers turned to the sea to move goods. On April 7, Israel arrested two Palestinian fishermen for allegedly smuggling large amounts of explosives from Egypt to Hamas via the Mediterranean. Mahmoud Mardawi, a former military official of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, spoke to Al-Monitor about how political changes in the Arab world over the past decade had led to a decline in financial and military support for the Palestinian factions, especially Hamas. Given this lack of support and Israeli control over goods entering Gaza, the movement had to resort to manufacturing its own weapons using smuggled equipment. Mardawi would not go into the specifics of smuggling, stating, Methods of smuggling are secret, and no one in the movement is to speak of them in the media. The retired commander explained that the majority of members of the Sudanese military council, who hold positions in the army and the security services, had been aware of the details involving arms smuggling to Hamas. He ruled out the possibility of the new ruling transitional council, led by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Abdelrahman, taking any action contrary to the former regimes support of the Palestinians, in particular the Palestinian resistance movements. He claimed that support for the Palestinian cause was a top priority of Sudanese officials and citizens. Israel has sought to stem arms smuggling through Sudan to Hamas in various ways, including assassination, as in the case of Mahmoud Mabhouh, a Hamas official in charge of procuring weapons, while in Dubai in January 2010. In March 2009, it had conducted an air raid in eastern Sudan, targeting a 17-truck convoy carrying weapons destined for Gaza. Another raid, in October 2012, struck an arms factory in Khartoum, and in March 2014, the Israeli navy seized a ship loaded with weapons in the Red Sea between Sudan and Eritrea that it said was en route from Iran to Gaza. Israeli air raids have also been ordered to thwart arms smuggling in the Sinai, most recently in late February. In January, then-Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot reported that since he took office in 2015, the Israeli military had carried out air raids in the Sinai and elsewhere that destroyed 15,000 to 20,000 rockets headed to Hamas in Gaza. In recent years, Israel has sought to establish secret diplomatic relations with Khartoum to steer it away from Iran and stop the flow of arms to Hamas. In addition, on May 2, 2018, the French website Intelligence Online published Israel: Intelligence Service Cultivates Its Contacts in Libya, an article revealing that the month before Israel had established communications with Gen. Khalifa Hifter, commander of the so-called Libyan National Army, to exchange information to stop the transfer of arms to Hamas from Libya via Sudan. This past February a Libyan court convicted four Palestinians, who were picked up in October 2016 on charges of transferring weapons to Hamas via Sudan and Sinai. Yusuf al-Sharqawi, a retired Palestinian general, told Al-Monitor that he does not believe the change in regime in Sudan will affect the flow of arms to the Palestinian factions in Gaza, noting that many arms shipments clandestinely enter Gaza without the knowledge of Sudanese authorities. Sharqawi noted that given Sudan's geographic location, Hamas needs to maintain good relations with whoever controls the country. The movement feels it vital to ensure that its smuggling routes remain intact. For the meantime, Hamas is keeping an eye on the political situation in Sudan with the hope that the new leadership follows in the previous regime's footsteps in turning a blind eye. The Donald Trump administration is trotting out a new line of attack against Iran over its nuclear program as it continues to expand its so-called maximum pressure campaign. A synopsis of a pending annual State Department report on international nuclear compliance released this week accuses Iran of potentially violating the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The allegations lay the groundwork for the administration to argue that Iran is in violation of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, despite the International Atomic Energy Agencys (IAEA) assertions to the contrary. The new allegations are based largely on documents that Israeli intelligence says it seized from an Iranian nuclear archive last year. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has seized on that evidence to allege that Iran was removing nuclear material and equipment from an undeclared site, in violation of the NPT. Scrutinizing Irans compliance with nonproliferation pacts beyond the confines of the nuclear deal has been a priority for both hawkish Republicans in Congress and the State Departments new head of arms control. The fact that Iran has retained archives related to its past covert nuclear weapons program while many of its scientists and technicians continue to collaborate under the leadership of the programs former chief raises serious questions regarding whether Iran intended to preserve the option to resume elements of a nuclear weapons program in the future, according to the State Department report. It goes on to state that this could potentially constitute a violation of the NPTs ban on nuclear weapons development as well as a violation of the treatys safeguard provisions overseen by the IAEA. "The findings in the reports are informed by careful assessment of all relevant information, including information related to the existence of the archive, which raises serious questions regarding whether Iran intended to preserve the option to resume elements of a nuclear weapons program in the future, in the event a decision were made to do so," a State Department spokesperson told Al-Monitor. " Irans retention of archives related to its past covert nuclear weapons program, as well as other activities noted in the report, raise serious questions regarding whether Iran intended to preserve the option to resume elements of a nuclear weapons program in the future, in the event a decision were made to do so." The new allegations contradict the State Departments previous nonproliferation reports, which as recently as last year found that issues on Iranian NPT violations were resolved as of the 2015 reporting period, despite Irans continued refusal to acknowledge or provide certain information about the military dimensions of its past nuclear activities. The last time a nonproliferation report asserted that Iran was not in compliance with the NPT was under the George W. Bush administration in 2005. Still, the US intelligence community assessed with high confidence in 2007 that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are skeptical that anything has changed. This years report raises questions about whether its findings were made independent of political interference, said a spokesperson for Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. The administration cant just make up its own reality to suit its political agenda. Notably, six Republican hawks including Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. wrote a letter to President Trump last week asking him to ensure that this years nonproliferation report explicitly reference the nuclear archive the basis for the State Departments claims that Iran could be in violation of the NPT. Inclusion of the archives in the report would formalize your administrations acknowledgment of the [archive] as a nonproliferation issue that requires international resolution, they wrote. Yleem Poblete, who is responsible for this weeks report as assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, has also vocally condemned what she views as Iranian noncompliance with arms control agreements. The Senate confirmed Poblete in April 2018. During her Senate confirmation hearing last year, Poblete repeatedly accused Iran of marginal violations of both the NPT and the Barack Obama-era nuclear deal. She argued that before the nuclear deal, Iran was in violation of its safeguard agreements and its overarching NPT obligations. Reuters reported late Thursday that the report's unusually hawkish language on Iran created an internal rift within the State Department. Some nuclear experts think its a stretch to accuse Iran of violating the NPT based on assumptions about its past program. If youre going to pen that somehow some latent breakout capability would violate the NPT, then youre opening the door to say every other country is violating [it], said Alexandra Bell, who worked on the nonproliferation reports as a senior adviser at the State Department under the Barack Obama administration. Our issue with Iran should be, are they complying with the [2015 nuclear deal]. The US intelligence community has assessed that Iran is in technical compliance with the deal. As recently as March, the IAEA reaffirmed that Tehran continues to meet its obligations. The new report also reverses the State Departments previous position on the nuclear deal by highlighting its sunset provisions that will eventually allow Iran to resume certain nuclear activities. The report asserts that it would be easier for Iran to resume a nuclear weapons program if it were permitted to take advantage of provisions in the [nuclear deal] allowing it to expand its fissile material production capability and stocks of enriched uranium once key restrictions in that deal begin to expire in 2025. Conversely, last years report downplayed the significance of the sunset provisions. Tehrans adherence to these commitments will hinder its ability to produce a nuclear weapon even after the time-bound provisions of the deal expire, helping to ensure that its nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful in nature, the 2018 report concluded. After submitting its abridged report to Congress on Monday, the State Department posted it online as a Word document, raising potential security concerns. The posting as a doc file that can be edited and then reposted and then pushed around with potentially unauthorized changes, said Bell. The State Department reposted the report as a PDF file Wednesday. The full report is still undergoing a declassification review. After six years of investigations into human rights violations dating back to 1955, Tunisias Truth and Dignity Commission (known by its French initials, IVD) finally published its report March 26, marking the first real step forward in Tunisias process of transitional justice. The responsibility now falls on the government to ensure these atrocities are never repeated. However, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed has so far refused to acknowledge receipt of the report. Human Rights Minister Fadhel Mahfoudh, who is close to Chahed, told Al-Monitor that Chahed is simply waiting for the complete delivery of the report as well as all related files and archives. The report, at some 2,000 pages long, is the result of investigations into the suffering of 33,154 victims during the period from 1955 the final years of the French colonial period through the presidencies of Habib Bourghiba (1956-1987) and Zine Abedine Ben Ali (1987-2011) until 2013, when the transitional justice law was passed under the Moncef Marzouki presidency. The 2013 law outlines a plan to investigate the historic crimes and human rights violations. Its long-term goals are to create institutions that prevent the repetition of such violations and to preserve the national memory. The IVD was set up in 2014 as a committee to investigate crimes by the state and its institutions against the people of Tunisia and bring the perpetrators to trial. Since its inception, the IVD has initiated 173 court cases, 30 of which are currently in process in specialized courts around the country. The crimes cited in the report include torture, rape and murder by security services under both Bourghiba and Ben Ali as well as serious financial crimes including corruption and embezzlement by state employees. The coordinator of the Transitional Justice Project, Khayem Chemli, who is also a member of the French Lawyers without Borders, Avocats sans Frontieres, told Al-Monitor these crimes cause turmoil to the economy. Progress toward transitional justice has been hindered by a lack of police cooperation. The courts rely on the police to deliver warrants and summon the accused and witnesses to appear. However, there have been several instances of warrants not being delivered perhaps not surprising, since those accused include high-ranking police officers. On April 10, the defendants and some witnesses failed to appear at a Kasserine court hearing looking into torture allegations by corruption protesters in Gafsa, an industrial city in southwest Tunisia. The locals accused the state-owned Gafsa Phosphate Company of recruiting supporters of the Ben Ali regime. Chemli said that the victims lawyers are now suing the Ministry of Interior over its failure to bring to court the accused and witnesses who are still working for the Tunisian security services. Chemli went on, Some security unions threatened not to protect the trials taking place in the specialized courts, claiming that they are for revenge. He continued, In Gafsa, trials were being held without protection from the Ministry of Interior. The IVD recommendations also call for action ensuring such violations will never happen again in Tunisia. The transitional justice law obliges the government to draw up an action plan and appoint a committee to oversee the governmental process of reform. It must create institutions to establish a fair and just state based on the rule of law and mechanisms ensuring accountability in the government, civil service and security. Police reform in Tunisia is needed desperately. Today, young Tunisians, bloggers and activists are regularly detained, beaten and tortured in custody, with police refusing to inform relatives of their location and denying them access to lawyers upon arrest and during interrogation. Such is the case of activist Wajdi Mahouechi, who took part in demonstrations March 6-11 over the death of 12 infants in a hospital in Tunis. His case is currently in the hands of his lawyers and anti-torture NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and the World Organisation Against Torture, which are suing the officers who arrested Mahouechi. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Mahouechi described his public assault. They pulled my pants down, exposing me so I was half naked. He goes on to describe being sexually assaulted by a police officer and then arrested and taken to a police station. He describes being both beaten and psychologically tortured in custody, denied access to lawyers and his asthma inhaler and being moved from one place to another over a 24-hour period before he was released. Tunisia director at Human Rights Watch Amna Guellali told Al-Monitor that Tunisia is still a police state. She added, We are still a long way from where people are free. The police and security sector has not undergone the deep overhaul that is needed to change from a [strong-arm police force] to one that protects citizens. On April 4, Amnesty International published a report concerning deaths in custody. Tunisia: Where running from the police can be deadly lists a series of cases of recent police misconduct and brutality, including 19-year-old Omar Labidi, who was chased into a river and left to drown. Nadia Chaouchi, a lawyer who runs the small Tunisian association Bloggers sans Frontieres (Bloggers without Borders), told Al-Monitor that she receives cases of bloggers who are arrested every single day. Chaouchi created Bloggers sans Frontieres to defend bloggers and online activists who are arrested and tried in court for speaking out against the government and security services. Even criticizing the police on Facebook can result in arrest and days of interrogation and beatings, as one young woman in northwestern Tunisia's Jendouba discovered recently. Her sister, Haifa Naghmouchi, told Al-Monitor, She criticized the police after their violent repression of the demonstrators protesting the deaths of 12 babies at a Tunis hospital. Naghmouchi said her sister immediately deleted the post but was still arrested March 7. According to Naghmouchi, she faced charges of insulting the Ministry of Interior. During her detention, the police refused her request for a lawyer. She was interrogated for 24 hours with no food and beaten aggressively, Naghmouchi added. Her case awaits final sentencing, but a countersuit is being prepared by her lawyers. As parliamentary and presidential elections will be held in October and November, the report and its recommendations mean that for the first time, political parties and their candidates have a concrete legal platform on the issues of judicial and security service reform. The Tunisia director of Avocats sans Frontieres, Antonio Manganella, told Al-Monitor, Tunisian people realize that if there is reform, their daily lives will change. Though Chahed has yet to confirm receipt of the report, President Beji Caid Essebsi who has also been implicated in violations under both Bourghiba and Ben Ali and head of Parliament Mohamed Ennaceur have accepted it. Civil societys role now is not only to keep up pressure on the government to enact reforms, but to educate the wider public about the past atrocities. Despite the national catharsis back in November 2016, when witnesses including mothers of those killed by security services under previous regimes and during the revolution testified live on television, the work of the IVD has not been as popular as one might expect. Chemli said, Transitional justice is controversial and not very popular with the public. The wider public is quite hostile to transitional justice because they dont want compensation to be given to victims from their taxes. He added that eight years after the revolution, the public is still unaware of the torture and terrible things that happened; they only want to hear about reconciliation. Chemli expressed concerns that the the cabinet and prime minister want to close the book and bury the crimes. The goal is not just to reconcile, but to implement reforms to ensure non-repetition. Part of the process of transitional justice, the portion about preserving the national memory, requires winning over hearts and minds among the Tunisian people to accept the past and embrace the upcoming work. The role of civil society is to teach people about these things with an awareness campaign. We aim to reconcile but not forget the crimes, Chemli concluded. Despite modernization, Tunisian society remains loyal to its folk customs and traditions, especially those related to costumes and public appearance. As part of this, March has been designated the month of traditional Tunisian attire, and many Tunisians celebrate March 16, the National Day of Traditional Dress, by donning traditional clothing. Here is what they can chose from: Kadroun and burnous This traditional piece of clothing is popular among Tunisians, especially the elderly, and is mainly made of wool in winter. The burnous is a long open front coat without sleeves that is worn with a headdress. This garment, which dates back to the Amazighs, or Berbers, who are the indigenous people of North Africa, is still considered fashionable by many and continues to be worn by Tunisians particularly in the coastal areas in the south and northwest. The kadroun is also made of wool; however, it is shorter and has sleeves. Over the years, its traditional brown color has been exchanged for brighter colors that make it more attractive for the younger generation. Shashiyya This rimless woolen headgear, often in deep red, is part of a Tunisian man's traditional outfit. In the heart of the capital, Souk Ech-Chaouachine remains steadfast in its resistance of modern trendy hats imported from China and Turkey, where it is called the fez. In addition to the classical deep red color, the shashiyya is now available in new trendy colors to attract modern female customers. Sefsari The sefsari is a traditional silk or cotton garment worn by Tunisian women that covers the entire body. It is worn outside the house as a sign of modesty. Women in Tunis as well as coastal governorates such as Mahdia, Sousse and Monastir still wear the sefsari to this day, while the younger generation prefers to wear it on special occasions and at weddings, in particular on the day a bride goes to the traditional hammam for pre-wedding grooming. Boulgha This traditional leather shoe is closed at the front and open at the back and comes in different colors. A merchant at the boulgha market in the old city of Tunis told Al-Monitor that despite the shoe's popularity among both men and women, Tunisians prefer to buy French- or Italian-made classic and sports shoes. Boulgha makers are trying to attract the younger generation, especially young women, by producing new fashionable designs. Jebba The jebba is a loose and full body mens outfit made of cotton or silk with openings for the head and hands. Many Tunisian men have one or more jebbas in their wardrobe and wear it daily or on special occasions such as at bachelor parties. The outfit is known for its lightweight and loose design, making it an obvious choice especially in summer. Tunisian youths around the country wear this garment as it comes in elegant designs that are fashionable while maintaining a traditional style. Takhlila/haraam This garment for women is made of cotton and comes in bright colors. It is tied at the waist with a woolen or silk piece of fabric and a silver or golden pin on the chest that is called al-Khilaal." Elderly women still wear it in coastal areas and in the south of the country. Unmarried women and young girls wear a silk takhlila at weddings. Maryoul fadhila This white shirt has vertical green, blue or pink stripes that women wear underneath the al-Foutah jacket, which is still popular among girls in Tunisia. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Moscow on his first trip abroad after the March 31 elections and, on the flight back home, told journalists traveling with him that the delivery of the Russian S-400 air defense systems to Turkey could occur sooner than July, as scheduled. No crisis between Turkey and the Western alliance has been as predictable as the one over the S-400s. Its because US sanctions mechanisms against countries that purchase significant weaponry from Russia cannot be stopped; once Turkey receives the strategic S-400 air defense systems, the sanctions will be activated. Turkey would be subject to penalties under the 2017 Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, in addition to a separate measures that would bar it from receiving F-35 stealth fighters as part of a joint production program, in which it is both a coproducer and buyer. The worries over Turkeys acquisition of both the F-35s and the S-400s stem from the risk that the radars of the Russian systems could compromise the stealth capabilities of the fifth-generation fighter. Thus, a countrys simultaneous possession of the F-35 jets and the S-400 systems is seen as unacceptable in terms of the security of the F-35 project. The Turkish public perceives the S-400 crisis as a bilateral issue between Ankara and Washington. But if the security of the F-35 project is at stake, the issue goes beyond the United States, the principal manufacturer of the jet, meaning that other coproducers and buyers could have a potential problem with Turkey as well. Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom are the other coproducers of the costly aircraft, whose prices range from $90 million to $115 million, depending on the model. Israel, Japan and South Korea are buyers through direct military sales, with Finland and Belgium also considering purchasing the jet to modernize their existing air fleets. Turkeys removal from the F-35 program over the S-400 row would bear on all countries mentioned above due to the hitches that are likely to occur in the production of the aircraft. Its purchase of the Russian systems would trigger a chain reaction of side effects. Ultimately, in July, the crisis in Turkish-American ties would enter a course that would be hard to reverse should the S-400s be delivered as scheduled. An abrupt escalation in the crisis could come even before July if the deployment happens sooner, as Erdogan suggested. In a sign of how much negative energy the crisis has generated, US Vice President Mike Pence slammed Turkey as reckless during an April 4 gathering in Washington marking NATOs 70th anniversary. Turkey must choose, he said. Does it want to remain a critical partner in the most successful military alliance in history, or does it want to risk the security of that partnership by making such reckless decisions that undermine our alliance? Absent a rapid solution, the S-400 crisis will go beyond being the main dynamic of the general deterioration in ties with the West that Turkey has experienced under the Justice and Development Party, largely because of its own foreign policy choices. This historic crisis, which epitomizes Turkeys break with Western geopolitics, could open the floodgates of sleeping dynamics against Turkey in conflicts that are currently on the back burner. A case in point is Turkeys relationship with Greece. Although the two neighbors longstanding disputes in the Aegean and Cyprus appear frozen at present, there is a dawning prospect that the military balance could be upset, to Turkeys detriment, on the level of air forces. In a signal to that effect and at a time when the F-35 transfer to Turkey is effectively on hold Vice Adm. Mathias Winter, head of the Pentagons F-35 office, told Congress April 4 that sales of the jet could be expanded to five new countries, including Turkeys Aegean rival Greece, along with Singapore, Spain, Romania and Poland. Greek Defense Minister Evangelos Apostolakis confirmed that possibility the following day. Turkeys decision to buy the S-400s was driven not only by its close relationship with Russia but also its resentment and mistrust toward the United States. Ankara is incensed that Fethullah Gulen, whom it sees as the leader of the botched coup attempt in 2016, and his supporters have remained free in their activities in the United States. For Ankara, this is flouting the spirit of the alliance. Similarly, the US armament of the Peoples Protection Units the Syrian branch of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist group and has fought for more than four decades has stoked anger in Ankara, no matter how Washington justifies the move. This mood in Ankara, however, is unlikely to help Turkey in the current circumstances. The S-400 deployment plan a strategic step toward breaking up with the geopolitics of the Western alliance coincides with a critical moment, as the world sees Erdogans government emerging weaker from the March 31 local polls and grappling with a deepening economic crisis. Ankaras loss of economic and political might, on the one hand, and its audacious move to deploy the S-400 systems, on the other, could provoke Western capitals to turn against Turkey. Should they conclude that Turkey cares little about damaging its ties with the Western alliance, even in such difficult times, Western capitals could feel they are now free to act on certain moves they had avoided in the past so as to avoid harming ties with Turkey. French President Emmanuel Macron has already offered a case in point. On April 10, he signed a decision that recognized April 24 as Armenian genocide commemoration day. On the same day, Italian lawmakers approved a motion calling on the government to recognize the 1915 Ottoman massacres of Armenians as genocide. Ankara reacted furiously to both moves but was unable to stop them. Anti-Turkey sentiments are hardening in the US Congress as well. Last week, Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill to lift the arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus, which Turkey does not recognize, and authorize the Donald Trump administration to enter into energy cooperation agreements between Cyprus, Greece and Israel. President Recep Tayyip Erdogans reliance on Russia is growing as Turkeys ties with the United States deteriorate and move toward what might be a breakup of historic proportions. Turkeys purchase of Russian-made S-400 anti-missile defense systems has turned into the main issue clouding these ties, although there is no shortage of differences in other areas. Washington is threatening sanctions and other punitive measures, like withholding the delivery of modern F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, if Ankara goes ahead with the Russian deal. Turkish officials, however, remain defiant and continue to underline that Turkey has alternatives to the United States. Erdogans chief adviser, Gulnur Aybet, spelled out recently what the main alternative was. If the United States continues to approach Turkey with a zero-sum game then the doors, which are currently open for the future of relations, could turn toward another partner, and that is Russia, Aybet said during a panel discussion in Washington. Erdogan, for his part, reassured Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two met in Moscow April 8 that Turkey would not go back on its decision to purchase the S-400s. Putin responded by declaring that more modern military hardware could be supplied to Turkey once the S-400 deal is finalized. While returning to Turkey from Moscow, Erdogan told reporters on his plane that the date of the delivery of the S-400s, planned for July, might even be brought forward. Such talk is music to Moscow's ears, as Russian officials shower Erdogan with praise. The number of countries that can act independently can be counted on the fingers of the hand. Russia and Turkey are in this category, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state-owned Russia-1 channel on April 15. We are pleased with the firm position President Erdogan is maintaining, he added. Russian analyst Vladimir Frolov, however, has a different explanation for Russias satisfaction with Erdogan. Moscow played its hand brilliantly, using Erdogans distrust of Washington to bait and hook him. Now Russia has only to reel him in, Frolov wrote in The Moscow Times. Referring to Erdogan as our man in NATO, Frolov argued that Ankaras desire to buck NATO was arguably a more significant foreign policy coup [for Russia] than saving the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Breaking up NATO from inside and walking away with $2.5 billion to boot thats quite a priceless catch, Frolov added, referring to the cost of the S-400s for Ankara. Clearly aware of what it has gained from Turkey so far, Moscow continues to strum the right chords for Ankara, albeit with significant caveats. Two days after Erdogan and Putin met, Peskov told reporters in Moscow that some components of the S-400 system could be produced in Turkey. He was clearly trying to furnish the Turkish side with some corroboration for Ankaras claim that the S-400 deal involves the transfer of technology to Turkey. What he gave with one hand, though, he took away with the other. "We are not talking about the complete production chain, as it is a new type of weapon. But the production of some components can be organized, Peskov said. Peskovs caveat undermines Ankaras claim regarding the transfer of technology. Many military analysts argue that Moscows trust in Ankara which remains a NATO member is not such that it can reliably transfer its sensitive technology to Turkey. Cahit Armagan Dilek, director of the 21st Century Turkey Institute, used official Russian statements to dispute Ankaras claims regarding the transfer of sensitive Russian military technology to Turkey. Its not me that says this but Kremlins spokesman Peskov, who only two days ago repeated what many Russian officials have said before, Dilek wrote in the news site Yeni Cag. He was referring to Peskovs qualified remarks about the possibility of producing some S-400 components in Turkey. Soner Cagaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, believes that Erdogan has left himself no room to pull back from the S-400 deal. [Putin] is keenly aware that Turkeys purchase of the S-400 system will lead to a rupture between Ankara and Washington, creating a fissure inside NATO," Cagaptay argued in an article for The Hill. "Putin will not allow Erdogan to cancel the S-400 deal without extracting a pound of flesh from him. Meanwhile, pro-government Turkish analysts have started touting the idea that Ankara will turn to Russia for advanced fighter jets if Washington refuses to deliver the F-35s. However, if this also becomes the official line, it will further aggravate Turkeys ties with the United States. Al-Monitors Laura Rozen reported this week that Ankara is seeking a formula with the United States to secure the delivery of the F-35s, even if it goes ahead with the S-400 deal. This shows that Ankara is concerned about being cut out of the F-35 program, whose production it is also involved in. Retired Brig. Gen. Ali Er underlined another security risk for Turkey related to the S-400s. In an interview with daily Cumhuriyet, Er pointed to NATOs advanced Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) radar system in Kurecik, near the eastern city of Malatya in Turkey. The arrival of the S-400s could result in NATO withdrawing this system, according to Er, because the missile shield was set up against ballistic missile threats from Russia and Iran. Turkey denies that this system was set up against Russia and Iran, and says it is a defense system against missile threats from the Middle East. It was nevertheless keen to join the BMD program knowing full well who the real target was. If NATO were to shut down the Kurecik radar, Ankara could be left with no choice but to turn to Russia for a matching radar system, seeing as it does not have the capability to produce this itself. This is what makes Ankaras S-400 deal inexplicable, according to Er. I can find no economic explanation, let alone a military or political one, for why Turkey would engage itself to somewhere else when it can enjoy the fruits of NATOs defense resources, he argued. The wisdom of turning to Russia is being debated by other Turkish analysts, too. Many argue that the United States may have pushed Turkey to this position, but they are still not sure that Ankaras reliance on Moscow is justified. Despite the growing economic ties between Turkey and Russia, and much talk about a strategic relationship in the making, the sides are at odds over a host of critical issues. For example, while the sides have cooperated to a degree in Syria, they do not see eye to eye on Assads future or Turkeys ultimate fear of seeing the Syrian Kurds getting a say let alone some degree of autonomy in a new Syria. Moscow is also opposed to a new Turkish military incursion into northern Syria, and says Turkey must turn over to Damascus regions it captured from the Islamic State and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Erdogans recent talks in Moscow also showed that Russia is not fully in the bag for Turkey. Erdogan could not secure what he wanted in two areas that he values: namely visa-free travel for Turks going to Russia and a reduction in the price of Russian gas. According to retired Ambassador Selim Kuneralp, Erdogans desire to turn to Russia as a counterbalance to its deteriorating ties with the United States defies the logic of history and the realities that govern the region. Russia cant replace America or NATO for Turkey because the two countries do not have shared strategic interests, Kuneralp told Al-Monitor. They do not agree on an issue of vital national importance to Turkey, like Cyprus, or on many issues pertaining to the Balkans, the Caucasus or Syria, Kuneralp said. The past 300 years have been marked mostly by hostility between Turkey and Russia, he added, underscoring the fact that even today Armenias border is protected by Russian forces against Turkey. The only shared interest between Erdogan and Putin seems to be their hatred of the US and Europe, Kuneralp said. Retired Brig. Gen. Naim Baburoglu has no doubts as to who is the happiest person in this overall picture. Putin is so happy that he might even give the S-400s as a grant to Turkey, Baburoglu wrote in an article for the news site Gercek Gundem. Msrda 2013te Musluman Kardesler iktidarna yaplan darbeyi kendisine yaplms sayan Erdogan yonetimi, Sudanda 19 Aralktan beri suren kitlesel gosterilerin ardndan 11 Nisanda gelen askeri mudahaleyi uzerine alnd. Cumhurbaskan Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Uluslararas Ceza Mahkemesi (UCM) tarafndan soykrm sucundan hakknda tutuklama karar oldugu halde kardesim diye sahiplendigi Devlet Baskan Omer El Besirin devrilmesinin ardndan "Dunya bir garip dunya. Darbeye kars olduklarn soyleyenlerin darbecilerle daha sonra nasl koyun koyuna oturduklarn goruyoruz serzenisinde bulundu. Iktidara yakn medya sanki ayn kalemden ckmscasna, Besirin yuzunu Turkiyeye donmesinin darbeyi tetikledigi, mudahalenin arkasnda Suudi Arabistan, Msr ve Birlesik Arap Emirlikleri (BAE) uclusunun oldugu ve bunun ABD ve Israil ckarlarna hizmet ettigi senaryosunu paylast. Hedef Turkiye baslgn atan Yeni Safak gazetesi, Turkiyenin Afrika Boynuzunda artan etkinligi ve Sudanla iliskilerinin Suudi Arabistan, Msr ve BAEyi rahatsz ettigini, Turkiye ile iliskilerin kesilmesi icin yardm teklif edildigini ama Besirin reddettigini one surdu. Besire Korfez ayarl darbe mansetiyle ckan Star gazetesi ise 1989da darbeyle gelen Besir icin secilmis baskan dedi: Ordu darbe yapt, secilmis Baskan Besir tutukland. Ordunun mudahale oncesi Suudi Arabistan, Msr ve BAEye bilgi verdigi ogrenildi. Akit Gazetesi daha da ileri gidip Sudanda Siyonist darbe mansetini att. Hatta Nuh Albayrak gibi Bu, dogrudan Turkiyeye darbedir mesajlarn paylasan gazeteciler ckt. Oysa Sudandaki gelismeler ekmek, benzin, elektrik ve mutfak tupune yaplan zamlara tepki olarak baslayp halkn ozgurluk ve esitlik talepleriyle bulusan bir ofkeyle trmand. Gosterilere, Besirin 2015te kurdugu ulusal uzlas hukumetine katlms partiler dahil 22 parti ve baska sivil koalisyonlar destek verdi. Ancak Turkiyede iktidar cenah butun bu dinamigi Korfez-Israil-Amerikan komplosu olarak okumakta srar ediyor. Eger Sudann son dort ylda gecirdigi eksen kaymalar olmasayd, Turkiye-Sudan yaknlasmasnn darbede bir ds faktor oldugu yorumu uzerinde durulabilirdi. Besir ayagnn altna krmz hal serildigi 2008den bu yana Turkiye ile iliskilerini korurken 2016da Iranla selam kesip Suudi-Emirlikler eksenine el verdi. Yemen savasna bin askerle katlan Sudan, bunun karslgnda iki sey ald: ABD, Sudana yaptrmlar 2017de kaldrd. Ikincisi BAE, Sudanda 17 proje icin 2 milyar dolar finansman saglad. Hatta BAEnin yatrmlarnn 3.5 milyar dolara ulastgna dair haberler ckt. Besirin aralkta Sama gitmesi de Suriye ile Korfez arasnda arabuluculuk olarak alglanmst. Elbette Korfez uzerinden uluslararas tecridi yaran bu aclm, 50 milyar dolar borc biriktirmis Sudann uluslararas mali kaynaklara ulasmasn saglamad. Cunku hala ABDnin teroru destekleyen ulkeler listesinde. Belki bu yuzden Turkiye ile iliskilere biraz daha onem verme geregi duydu. Fakat bu iliskiler, henuz yarm milyar dolarla ifade edilebilecek bir boyutta bile degil. Bugunku komplolar bir ziyaret uzerine bina edildi. Erdogan, 24 Aralk 2017de Hartumda Osmanl eserlerinin bulundugu Sevakin Adasnn Turkiyeye tahsis edilmesini istemis ve talep kabul edilmisti. Turkiyenin buray askeri usse donusturecegine dair haberler Kzldenizde kaslarn catlmasna yol acmst. Sudan, Turkiyenin Afrika Yl ilan ettigi 2005ten beri yakn planda. Ama iliskilerin seviyesi, kopardg gurultunun cok gerisinde. 2005te 153 milyon dolar olan ticaret hacmi 2018i 434 milyon dolarla kapatt. 2013te tarmsal faaliyet icin Sudanda 99 yllgna 780 bin donumluk arazinin Turk sirketlerine kiralanmas ongorulmustu. Arazi devri ve isletme kurma surecleri nedeniyle henuz pilot uygulamasna gecilemedi. 2017deki ziyarette bir scrama hedeflendi. Hartuma yeni havaalan, Port Sudanda serbest ticaret bolgesi, Kzldenizde askeri ve sivil gemiler icin liman ve tersane, birkac yerde tahl silolar, universite, hastane ve elektrik santralinin insasn da iceren 22 anlasma imzaland. Bu minvalde hedef olarak bes yl icerisinde ticaret hacminin 10 milyar dolara ckarlmas ongoruldu. Ancak aradan gecen 16 ayda pratige gecen fazla bir sey olmad. Bu arada petrol alannda eylul 2018de Turkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklg (TPAO) Sudan ile 100 milyon dolarlk anlasma imzalad. Altn isi icin de Turkiyeye davet var, ama taraflar daha isin basnda. Teyakkuza neden olan Sevakin Adasndaki anlasmayla ilgili somut tek somut gelisme, Turk Isbirligi ve Koordinasyon Ajansnn (TIKA) zemin sondaj, sehir planlama, jeoloji, jeofizik, harita, mimar ve restorasyon alanlarnda 30 uzmanla yuruttugu etud calsmasndan ibaret. Adada 2011den beri calsan TIKA zaten Osmanl donemine ait Hanefi ve Safi camileri ile gumruk binasn restore etmisti. Sevakinde us meselesine gelince, niyetler, uygulama ve soylemler birbiriyle kavga ediyor. Turk medyas Osmanlnn dirilis hayalleriyle cosarken Suud ve Msr medyas bu meseleyi tehlike canlar esliginde isledi. Msrda El Vatan gazetesi plan Sudan silah ve teroristlerin Msra sevki icin liman ve snrlarn acyor ifadeleriyle ele ald. Suudi Okaz gazetesi de Son derece tehlikeli olan sey Ciddenin karssnda yer alan ve Osmanl Imparatorlugunun simgesi olarak gordugu Sevakinin Erdogana verilmesidir diye yazd. Turkiyenin Katarda us kurmasndan rahatsz olan Suudi Arabistann, Kzldenizde gormek istedigi son sey Turk askeri. Suud-BAE ikilisi Yemendeki savas, Eritre ve Cibutideki usler ve Sudan, Msr ve Urdunle yakn temaslar sayesinde Kzldenizi kontrol altnda tutmaya calsyor. Irana kars gelisen bu hassasiyetin yeni adresi Turkiye. Msr ayrca Kzldeniz kysnda Halayib Ucgeni uzerinde kavgal oldugu Sudann yannda bir de Turk dirsegi gormek istemiyor. Gelen tepkiler uzerine Erdogan 28 Aralk 2017de Askeri liman diye bir sey soz konusu degil demisti. Arcak Cumhurbaskan Yardmcs Fuat Oktay, 21 Kasm 2018de Hartumda Askeri anlamda, Sevakin Adasnn turizme kazandrlmas konusunda calsmalar var diye bir ifade kulland. Bu da askeri turizm seklinde esprilere konusu oldu. Turk Dsisleri ise us iddiasnn iki ulke iliskilerine zarar verme amac tasdg gorusunde. Beri tarafta Sudan yonetimi de us iddialarn birkac kez yalanlad. Kahireye giden donemin Dsisleri Bakan Ibrahim Gandur, Turkiye ile Sevakin ya da Sudann herhangi bir bolgesinde askeri bir us ya da askeri isbirligine dair herhangi bir gorusme olmamstr sozleriyle Msr temin etti. Gandur baska bir acklamasnda, sadece Osmanl zamanndaki gibi hac yolculugunun baslangc yeri olarak Sevakinin ibadet ve turizm acsndan canlandrlmasnn ongoruldugunu vurgulad. Yine de Turk medyas adadaki calsmalar ussun tesisi icin gerekli etut calsmalar ve yer secimi seklinde lanse etmeyi surdurdu. Hatta adada sabit bir kara unsurunun bulunacag ve bu gucun rotasyon halinde deniz ve hava unsurlaryla desteklenecegi iddia edildi. Bu bilgilerin kaynag da muhtemelen hukumet. Sudandaki askeri mudahaleden sonra olusacak yeni yonetimin Turkiye ile nasl bir yol tutturacag onemli. Bu, komplo teorileri icin de bir test niteligi tasyor. Ankara da gecis surecindeki belirsizligi aleyhine cevirmemek icin temkinli gidebilir. Turkiye, Msrdaki mudahaleye tepkisini Rabia isaretiyle simgesellestirip bunu, ic ve ds politikasnda bir enstrumana donusturmus ve yaklasm, siyasette epey diplomatik arza brakmst. Sudandaki mudahaleye yonelik tepki ise daha temkinli oldu. Erdogann ilk tepkisinin ardndan AK Parti Sozcusu Omer Celikten koseleri epey yontulmus bir acklama geldi: Sudan halknn talepleri, bizim taleplerimizdir. Sudan, dost ve kardes bir ulkedir. Beklentimiz halkn demokratik taleplerinin yerine gelmesidir. Bu Olan oldu, Besiri unutup yarna bakalm demek mi oluyor, bunu da bekleyip gorecegiz. Netice biraz da Sudann alacag istikamete bagl. Fakat mudahaleyi, Turkiyeye darbe addetmek tam da sikayet edilen Korfez medyasnn cizdigi portreyle uyumlu. Specialty home retailer Conns HomePlus is planning on opening two Birmingham locations later this year. The Houston-based furniture, appliance and tech franchise announced it will open stores in Roebuck Shopping Center and Wildwood Centre, with about 88,500 square feet of combined showroom floorspace. Both are slated to open by mid-September. According to the company, the two locations look to begin hiring for multiple locations in July. The chain currently has locations in Montgomery and Huntsville. For more information, visit the website. Regions Financial Corp. announced today its total revenue grew 2 percent over the previous year, with a net income of $378 million in the first quarter of 2019. Earnings per diluted share from continuing operations was $0.37, and pre-tax pre-provision income increased 11 percent over the same period. The company also generated 5 percent positive operating leverage on a reported basis and 4 percent on an adjusted basis. President and CEO John Turner said in a statement that the company began the year with positive momentum. We also reduced expenses and maintained stable but normalizing credit quality, while continuing to make smart investments in talent and technology to become more efficient and effective as we make banking easier for our customers," Turner said. "We are committed to generating consistent and sustainable long-term performance by focusing on our customers and actively managing our business through all economic cycles. The report offered a window into Regions continuing consolidation efforts. Regions incurred $2 million of severance expense and $6 million in expenses associated with branch consolidations and property and equipment charges. The company also reported an $8 million gain in the first quarter associated with the sale of $167 million of affordable housing residential mortgage loans. Additionally, the company incurred a $7 million net loss attributable primarily to the sale of certain lower-yielding investment securities. With images of the massive fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris this Holy Week still fresh on their minds, churchgoers at St. Pauls Cathedral in Birmingham are preparing for Easter this Sunday. The majesty of a cathedral is no more evident than on Easter, when Christians gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. In Alabama, believers are thankful for their own magnificent Roman Catholic cathedrals in Birmingham and Mobile, while mourning for the damage done at Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a Gothic cathedral, while ours is neo-Gothic, so there are some of the same elements, said Catie Yu Tiamco, who visited Notre Dame while a student at Birmingham-Southern College, where she graduated in 2014. She plans to attend the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday night at St. Pauls Cathedral in Birmingham, one of Alabamas two Catholic cathedrals. The other is the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile, where Yu Tiamco lived as a child. Theres something about being in a cathedral that takes you away from the mundane and takes you to spiritual transcendence, Yu Tiamco said. Any beautiful church can help you focus on the divine, which is the reason why youre there. Deacon Justin Ward, who is the master of ceremonies for Holy Week at St. Pauls Cathedral, played organ at Notre Dame Cathedral in 2009 while he was a graduate student at Samford University, traveling with a university choir. Lots of priests will tell you Notre Dame has the most beautiful altar in the world, said Ward, who will be ordained a priest at St. Pauls Cathedral on June 1. But St. Pauls Cathedral has some remarkable elements too. Our stained-glass windows and the high-vaulted ceilings it evokes that verticality, to point to the divine, to the transcendent. Cathedral of St. Paul The stature of St. Pauls Cathedral in Birmingham is even more amazing in that it was not built to be a cathedral. At the time it was built, in 1890, it was a parish church. Catholics werent that prominent, and the people did not have many resources, yet they built this church, said the Rev. Patrick Cullen, who was pastor of St. Pauls Cathedral from 1991-2000 and is now priest-in-residence. It was much more ornate in those days, with the high altar. A cathedral is a church that is the seat of a diocese, and has a bishops chair. Although it wasnt built as a cathedral in 1890, St. Pauls has soaring vaults that imitate the style of the great European cathedrals. The Diocese of Birmingham was founded only 50 years ago, in 1969, and St. Pauls became its cathedral, after the Archdiocese of Mobile was split in two. Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Previously, the only official cathedral for Alabama was the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile, which still serves as cathedral for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Mobile was elevated to a diocese in 1829, and the current cathedral was designed in 1833 in Roman basilica style. Construction began in 1835, delayed by a national financial crisis in 1837, and consecrated in 1850. St. Pauls Cathedral is built on a much more modest scale than the Cathedral Basilica in Mobile. In a sense its relatively small, Cullen said. It was designed to be longer, but they couldnt close the alley. Its probably one archway short. The Cathedral Basilica in Mobile is more ornate and has a built-in crypt, where previous bishops are buried, Cullen said. St. Pauls Cathedral has a cemetery in churchyard, with three bishops buried there. St. Pauls Cathedral, while towering, has a parish focus. It has a homey feel to it, rather than very formal, Cullen said. Lessons of Notre Dame Notre Dame, which began construction in 1163 A.D., serves as the seat of the Archdiocese of Paris but also has a more societal function. Its a national landmark and a symbol of the best things man accomplish, Yu Tiamco said. Its has secular and political significance, Cullen said. Napoleon was crowned there. Cullen recalls visiting Notre Dame many years ago and being struck by how dim it was inside. I found it very dark to go in, he said. Once your eyes adjust, it makes the stained-glass windows come alive. St. Pauls Cathedral has a set of stained-glass windows that were installed together and create their own ambiance. When we had to have the stained-glass windows re-leaded, we realized how valuable they were, said Cullen, who oversaw that renovation in 1993. Everythings been around for over 100 years. The fire at Notre Dame serves as a lesson for cathedrals everywhere of whats at stake. Were mindful that we have an old building, Ward said. Upkeep is a constant concern. Last month, St. Pauls Cathedral had its hardwood floors refinished and its pews replaced. By 2021, the cathedral will need to replace its organ, Cullen said. The pipes are bending, he said. Also, the organ pipes installed in 1986 block the stained-glass window in the balcony, an issue that will be remedied with new pipes tailored to expose the window and allow more light in. Cullen said the roof at St. Pauls Cathedral is reminiscent of the heavy timber roof at Notre Dame, but on a smaller scale. When you go up in the attic, its all wood, Cullen said. One of the positive things about the fire at Notre Dame is that big, ornate churches are going to have to give thought to installing a sprinkler system, Cullen said. It would be prudent. Of course, its not easy to retro-fit antique buildings. Theres the technical issue and the theres the financial issue, Cullen said. The idea behind cathedral is connecting man with God, Yu Tiamco said. Theyre designed to just be beautiful and to connect us with the beautiful and transcendent, she said. Thats why we spend so much time and so many resources building these beautiful buildings. Of course, that has to be balanced out with charitable work. But these buildings are for all people, for the spiritual good of everybody. Urban Smoke, the popular food truck best known for parking outside of Plum Bar on 17th Street North in Birmingham, will soon have a brick-and-mortar location. Truck owner Draper Mason is slated to open the Urban Smoke Bar and Grille in Fairfield on April 19. A Fairfield native, Mason says he decided to open the 5,500-square-foot restaurant in his hometown to help bring more jobs to the city. The city is struggling, Mason told Al.com. Fairfield really needs it. When the Urban Smoke food truck opened in 2016, its initial menu was an expansive roster of wings and fries, burgers, hot dogs, and catfish. After testing the waters, Mason says he eventually narrowed the options on the truck to a few fan favorites. "People were feeling the Philly (cheesesteaks), the wings, and the burgers. And the sweet tea," he joked. "We just put love in the tea. Those accustomed to Urban Smokes quick window service will still be able to grab a bite in a hurry. The dining spots drive-thru with late-night hours will open two weeks after the grand opening. Urban Smoke Bar and Grille is located at 7100 Aaron Aronov Dr. in Fairfield, Alabama. (Credit: Urban Smoke) The restaurant will offer up a full menu of its best-loved dishes of wings and namesake Urban Philly cheesesteaks, including the sweet heat wings and the Big Fella, the Urban Philly with chicken and steak, provolone or mozzarella cheese, and a special smoked sauce. Another favorite on the menu: the smoked fries, french fries loaded with Philly cheesesteak toppings. New additions to the Urban Smoke Bar and Grille include Polish sausage, catfish, and an array of new side dishes, including fried okra. Mason also plans to offer a vegan burger, made with Impossible meat. Fast casual wont be the only fare at Urban Smokes new location. The restaurant will also host brunch on Saturdays with a Southern menu featuring shrimp and grits and red velvet waffles. For Soul Food Sundays, Urban Smoke will boast a full meat-and-three menu including baked and fried chicken, oxtails, and meatloaf with sides from macaroni and cheese to string beans, and black-eyed peas. Urban Smoke Bar and Grille will also offer a full bar with wine, beer, and house-mixed drinks. The interior True to its name with a casual, heavily wooded smokehouse interior, Urban Smoke Bar and Grille will have a separate dining room and bar area. Sleek and modern, the seating around the bar is a mix of bar stools and swings. The bar at Urban Smoke Bar and Grille (credit: Urban Smoke) The walls of Urban Smoke will be a rotating canvas of chalk drawings from artists around the city. Mason, who put out an open call around the Fairfield and Birmingham area, says hes hoping to find an array of artists to showcase their talent on the restaurants walls. One of the first walls, says Urban Smoke manager Prentice Plesant, will be dedicated to the late Larry Langford, the former mayor of Fairfield and Birmingham. Langford died in January. When Larry was here, the city was thriving, said Plesant. Thats why were doing that wall. Details: The grand opening of Urban Smoke Bar and Grille is Friday, April 19 at 3:00 p.m. HOURS: Monday to Friday: Dining room: 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Drive Thru: 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday Dining room hours are subject to change Drive Thru: 11:00 a.m. until late Urban Smoke Bar and Grille is located at 7100 Aaron Aronov Drive in Fairfield, Alabama. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on April 18, 2019 2019/04/18 Q: Vera Songwe, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), hailed the role that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would play in better connectivity and job creation in Africa. We noted that yesterday, when Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister Alpha Barry, the two sides also discussed the Belt and Road cooperation. What is China's plan going forward? A: Africa, with its historical and geographical links to the Belt and Road, has been an indispensable and important part of the BRI cooperation. The vision, goals and cooperation areas of the BRI and the objectives and priorities of Africa's efforts to achieve development and revitalization by advancing Agenda 2063 are mutually reinforcing. The tenets for the Belt and Road cooperation, especially the principle of consultation and cooperation for shared benefits, also accord with the nature of China-Africa relations and cooperation. During the FOCAC Beijing Summit in 2018, many African leaders, including the then AU Chairperson and President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, spoke highly of the BRI proposed by President Xi Jinping, considered it a great initiative that will bring significant opportunities to Africa, and said African countries and people will play an active part in it. The positive remarks by UNECA Executive Secretary Songwe again reflect the endorsement by African countries and people. So far, 37 African countries and the AU Commission have signed BRI cooperation agreements with China. The two sides have already launched many important cooperation projects and achieved early harvests. Leaders and senior representatives from many African countries will attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation to be held next week in Beijing. China stands ready to work with African countries to create greater synergy between the implementation of the FOCAC Beijing Summit outcomes, China-Africa BRI cooperation, the AU's Agenda 2063, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the development strategies of African countries. We will advance bilateral cooperation in areas including industries, infrastructure, trade and investment, improve the living standards of African people, bring more development dividends to African countries, and deliver more benefits to people in China and Africa. Q: The US has been urging European countries to ban Huawei from 5G network building. But in his recent remarks, Chairman of the German Federal Network Agency Jochen Homann said that no equipment supplier, including Huawei, should be specifically excluded. The spokesperson of Belgium's center for cybersecurity also said that regarding Huawei, they have not found technical indications that point in the direction of a spying threat. I wonder if you have any comment? A: In fact, there have been a growing number of countries expressing an unbiased attitude toward Chinese tech companies' participation in 5G network projects. This again proves that most countries can make independent policy decisions that serve their interests based on objective facts, and that they remain committed to fostering and safeguarding a fair, just and non-discriminatory market environment. We hope all relevant countries can treat Chinese companies in a fair and unbiased way. Based on equality and mutual benefit, we will expand and deepen trade and investment cooperation in various fields with countries that can earnestly do so. Q: The US tightened a blockade against Cuba with measures that affect foreign investment and foreign remittance. What is your comment on this? A: China opposes such wrong practices as unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction based on domestic laws outside the UN Security Council. The US blockade has long inflicted great harm on Cuba's economic and social development and people's lives. As you all know, the UN General Assembly has adopted many resolutions urging the US to end this wrong practice. In state-to-state relations, China believes that mutual respect, equality, peaceful co-existence and win-win cooperation should serve as the guidance. China has also been urging the US to lift the blockade at an early date in line with purposes of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations, which is what the international community calls for. It will serve the interests of the US, Cuba and their people, and contribute to regional stability and development. Q: The DPRK leader Kim Jong-un yesterday oversaw the testing of a new strategic weapon. Is China concerned about this? A: The Peninsula issue is at a critical stage for political settlement. We encourage and support all parties, especially the DPRK and the US, to step up dialogue, meet each other halfway and work together for a sustained momentum for dialogue and more progress in denuclearization and the political settlement. This serves the common interests of all parties including the DPRK, the US and the regional countries. Q: Reports say that Alan Garcia, former President of Peru, killed himself with a gunshot to his head as police officers were trying to arrest him. Do you have any comment on this and how will he be remembered in China? A: Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia had long been friendly to China and promoting China-Peru bilateral relations. During his time in office, he pushed for the establishment of a strategic partnership and the conclusion of a free trade agreement between China and Peru and thus made positive contributions to bilateral friendship, deeper exchange and cooperation in various fields. We'd like to express our deep condolences on his passing and sincere sympathy to his family. Q: Madagascar faces a large measles outbreak with cases soaring beyond 110,000 and about 1,200 people killed, mostly children. Will China provide any help to Madagascar? A: China closely follows the measles outbreak in Madagascar and has taken measures to provide emergency humanitarian assistance. Based on the development of this epidemic and the country's needs, China will positively consider offering more necessary support and help to Madagascar. Q: Michael Pillsbury, a former US government official who worked on the Trump transition team, had been invited to a conference in Beijing which happened on Sunday and he said the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not give him a visa in time. He said he applied at least three weeks before. Do you know why the Chinese government did not grant him a visa? A: I need to check on this individual case you mentioned. As a principle, the Chinese diplomatic missions handle the visa applications by foreigners in full accordance with laws and regulations. I would like to reiterate that China welcomes people-to-people exchange with the US. American people from various sectors who are visiting to promote people-to-people exchange and mutual understanding are all welcome to China. Q: Did the DPRK notify China prior to its recent test launch? A: I don't have any information to offer. Christians today observe Maundy Thursday, which commemorates the Last Supper and Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. Here are five important things to know about Maundy Thursday: What does Maundy mean? The Thursday before Easter is known as either Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday. Maundy is derived from the Latin word for "command," and refers to Jesus' commandment to the disciples to "Love one another as I have loved you." What does it commemorate? Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, which Christians consider the institution of Holy Eucharist, also known as the Lord's supper or communion. It is described in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. At the Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus breaks bread, saying, "This is my body," and pours wine, saying, "This is my blood." He then asks the disciples to "Do this in remembrance of me." What holiday was Jesus observing? The Last Supper is derived from Jesus' Jewish heritage and his observance of a Jewish holiday. The Last Supper was a Passover Seder, the feast of unleavened bread. Jesus and the disciples are eating unleavened bread. Passover is the Jewish festival commemorating the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, when they left so quickly there was no time for the bread to rise. Why foot-washing? Maundy Thursday is also associated with foot-washing. Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, an act described in the Gospel of John, chapter 13, as Jesus teaching them to be servants. It's the ultimate act of "servant leadership." Jesus instructs his followers to love and to serve. Most Catholic churches will have a Mass tonight, with a Eucharistic celebration that includes the washing of feet. Who betrayed Jesus? Jesus foretells his death, saying he will eat no more until the kingdom of God is fulfilled. It also marks an act of betrayal. One of you will betray me, Jesus says. Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus 12 disciples, is pointed out by Jesus as the one who will betray him. This is an opinion column Tammi Taylor doesnt have many photographs of herself as a young girl. When your mother is a heroin addict and sharing a bedroom in a Brooklyn tenement with you and your four siblings, she doesnt take pictures. When your father is the drug kingpin of Brooklyns Brownsville neighborhood, has 24 children and served 26 years in prison, well, he doesnt take pictures, either. When you skip school to stay home and care of your young brothers and sisters, you dont even think about posing for pictures. You think about milk, whether theres enough of it for them to have cereal in the morning, so they can go to school. You endure being molested at eight years old by an uncle who was himself molested by a relative of his mother and later molested one of his own siblings. And his children. You now call molestation your familys generational curse. You get pregnant at 14 and have an abortion, which three decades later stills pries your insides. You get pregnant again at 16 and suffer a miscarriage. Now, you honor the two you lost by referring to the two sons and two daughters you later bore as your live children. Taylor, now 39, left all of that behindto the extent she could with a wake of a couple dozen siblings (Ive met them all, she says. We all look alike, were all very different.), countless other relatives (many also gripped by drugs) and a mother whos still battling addiction. She lives in Adamsville and has been in Alabama for a decade (hold on, how she got here from Brooklyn is coming). Shes a passionately devout woman of faith whos married to an electrical engineer (she met him at Wal-Mart) and has eight children, including four from her husbands prior marriage. Shes also a bit of a unicorn in these parts: An emphatically conservative, African-American Republican who is emerging in party circles within the state. She is a member of the executive steering committee and the steering committee for the Jefferson County Republican Party, as well as a myriad of other Republican groups. Not surprisingly, she and I dont exactly see eye-to-eye on a few thingsmore than a few, actually. She is an unflinching Donald Trump supporter, for instance. And while I believe all women should be able to choose what to do with their own bodies, Taylor says public funds should not pay for abortions at public healthcare facilitieswhich essentially eliminates the safest choice for poor women. There would be fewer abortions if tax dollars were not used to abort babies, she says. Most families are living check-to-check; if they had to spend two thousand dollars for an abortion, nine of ten arent taking their hard-earned cash to do it. Theyll chalk it up and have the baby. Taylor acknowledges mass incarceration policies half a century ago contributed to the disintegration of the black family, which was the catalyst, in my view, for the entrenched, generational poverty afflicting so many African-Americans today. She believes those conditions were ignited by Lyndon Johnsons nanny state (her term) Great Society social programs, a.k.a. welfare. During Jim Crow, black communities, black families were doing exceptionally well during a hardship time, she says. We didnt have a lot of unwed mothers. We were defeating odds. Government handouts Interestingly, Taylors stark positions belie some of her own experiences. Her family was poor, for instance, so Taylors abortion was funded by Medicaid. And while social-service programs like food stamps and such handouts, she confesses to relying on child-care public aid and, yep, food-stamps for more than a decade, until completing schooling to become a paralegal and overcoming a long, stifling fear of losing the benefits. The handout is meant for widows, elderly, disabled and single parents to help them get to the next level, she says. But people are staying on it way too long. I understand. I had many opportunities to get off but chose not toI feared getting kicked off so continued to go to school. I dont mind taxes helping someone, but there has to be a cap of it. (Numerous states, in fact, do have limits on public assistance; heres Alabamas stance.) That we have disparate views on various issues is fineinconsequential even, relative to the dark realities of Taylors arduous journey and how it shaped her, molded her into an ardent Christian who today home schools the three youngest of her children because Common Core is crap and supports politicians who line up with the things of God. I want my story, my testimony, to change the life of someone else, she says. I tell it now because it brought me from straight hardships to showing me what can be done through Gods Word. The story began, fittingly during this season, on Easter Sunday 1980 when Terrace Chillious bore Tammi, her first child. She was not yet using drugs at all. Im the only one of her children to see her in her natural, radiant beauty, Taylor says. Chillious was pregnant with her second child when she met the man who became the father of her third and fourth childrenfraternal twinsand who introduced her to drugs, Taylor says. I remember when she started on crack. Tammi recalls being about five years old at the time. Over a decade, Tammi and her siblings lived the frightening nightmare too many children lived, one cultivated by the influx of crack cocaine into poor, inner-city communities nationwide throughout the 1980s and 90s. If youre not familiar with a tenement, think Brownstone chopped into more separate apartments than the law probably allows, and housing more people than humanity should bear. I saw [my mother] getting knocked upside her head every day, Taylor says. Chillious moved her children into her sisters tenement apartment; Taylors grandmother lived next door. A couple of years later, she moved them into her brothers apartment, where they shared a single bedroom. Taylor says her mother and uncle were drug partners. This was, by the way, the uncle who later molested Taylor, she saysalong with numerous others, including a neighbor. Thats what led to him going to jail, the first time. (Taylor says the uncle is now a register sex offender.) There are too many to dark memories to justifiably sharememories of beatings by another uncle who drank all the milk before Tammi could pour it over her baby siblings cereal so they would not go to school hungry, of doing loads of laundry while they were gone, of watching her mother smoke crack from a glass pipe. A seminal excursion Now, put a pin in this memory: When Tammi was five, she accompanied her grandmother on an excursion about 90 miles north of Brooklyn to visit a family in rural Dutchess County, NY. What Tammi didnt know thenher grandmother, as a child, was raped by her stepfather, Taylor says, and impregnated. She bore the child, a girl, and gave her up for adoption. The girl was adopted by a prospering family in Dutchess County and, years later when Tammi and her grandmother arrived, was married and had a young daughter of her own. That was Tammis first exposure to a world outside of tenements, drugs, abuse, and stolen milk. Her first exposure to a farm, to horses. Her first exposure to a family very much unlike her own. I saw the love being poured over that little girl by her parents, Taylor recalls. It was my first glimpse of what a family should be. Remember that memory for another reason: Knowing more about it might have altered the decision Tammi made at 14, when, she says, she got pregnant after having sex the first time. Grandmother still had not shared the background of their visit to Dutchess County. So, the teenager had no idea the woman she met years before was actually her aunt. Tammi feared sharing the news of her pregnancy with anyone. She says the clinic where she learned of her condition did not advise her that adoption was an option. Instead, she says, she was encouraged to lie to her grandmother to obtain her Medicaid card, which covered the cost of the procedure. I wish Id told my grandmother [I was pregnant], Taylor says, knowing now of the womans experience. She would have understood and walked me through [adoption]. Now I see taxpayer dollars paying for abortions. I see it eliminating family conversation at the table. Thats why I am against because it eliminates conversation with the family. If you want to have one, thats your business, but tax dollars should not pay for it. Like many children without guidance and supervision, Tammi was left to her own choicesand they were rarely good ones: Alcohol, marijuana. And boys, sometimes men. I was promiscuous, drinking and smoking weed, Taylor says. There was no accountability. I got pregnant again but had a miscarriage. My body couldnt take it. At 20, Taylor gave birth to her first live son, Nasir, and moved to, yes, upstate New York. To a city called Troy, about 15 minutes north of Albany, the state capital. And not far from the prison where her sons father was incarcerated. I visited him, Taylor says. But I mostly just hung out, free being a mom, trying to find my way, but still doing stupid stuff-- dating different guys, smoking weed, drinking. Stealing from stores. Or trying. Taylor never considered even visiting Alabama until learning a friend from New York lived in Birmingham. By then shed moved to Atlanta (her sons father moved there after prison, but it didnt work out) and later San Diego where her cousin, Curtis Chillious, was a Seaman on the U.S.N.S. Mercy, one of the largest hospital/humanitarian ships in the world. She was returning to Georgia but needed someplace for the moving van to deliver her belongings from California because it would arrive before she reached Atlanta. Delivered to Birmingham She sent the truck to Birmingham, came here to retrieve itthen walked into Wal-Mart. Tammi, who by then had a second son, saw Gerome Taylor waiting in the checkout line and asked if she could scoot behind him so she wouldnt have to walk around it. Thats not what she really wanted, though. He was too scared to push up, she says. I could tell he wanted to say something, but he wouldnt, so I made the first move. That leap of faith became Taylors first step on a new faith walk. She was raised Catholic but never embraced it. It was always this religiously religious pattern of doing things, she says. Now I know its about a relationship with the Lord. Gerome attended Faith Christian Center in Hueytown and was in the midst of a nasty divorce when he and Tammi crossed shopping carts. They soon began dating and how Gerome handled strains with his wife and their four children showed Tammi a new spirituality. Id never met a man who took care of children, Tammi says. Things with his wife got ugly; she was upset he was even entertaining some other lady. But he was never ugly to her. That threw me because I was used to bitter divorces with beatings or cheating. He was heartbroken but still treated her with respect. I saw a glimpse of who Jesus was in how he treated her. I was not used to the way he loved on her. I literally saw the heart of Jesus in how he treated her. After dating just three months (during which time the divorce was finalized), Gerome asked Tammi to marry him. She stalled. I said, Lets just date. If were together when were fifty. well get married, she says laughing. I had no clue what marriage was about; I was raised only by women. Plus, I was still in the world, still drinkingnot heavily. But I was a heavy weed smoker. He never browbeat me about it. Tammi, also, knew little about faith: "I thought it was some sort of denomination. I never understood faith was how you please God. I was getting a lesson [from Gerome], learning how to walk in it and really apply it to my life. As Taylor strode deeper into spirituality, she vowed to adhere to the Words strictest interpretations. She got bored with drinking and smokingand found herself in Montgomery, attending state school board meetings. She was horrified by some aspects of Common Core, the national education standards adopted by the states a decade ago and modified in Alabama in 2013. Not unlike many conservative Common Core opponents, Taylor abhorred some books her oldest son was being assigned, as well as sex education. They were reading books like [author Tony Morrisons] Beloved, allowing kids to read, in detail, about sexual acts and rape, she says. Classics like The Scarlett Letter werent making it to the list. I thought [Common Core] was trying to poison our kids through education. "around this time, the Lord was telling me I was going to home school my kids. The Word tells me I am to steward over my children and raise them to love the Lord. My job is to guard their hearts and ears. If youre running amok with my kids, Im not doing my job. The public in Republican Back when she signed up for child-care assistance, Taylor was offered the opportunity to register to vote. Ironically now, she checked the Republican box. I saw public and though it was for the public, she says, with a chuckle. She voted, however, Democratic, blindly, she says, because thats how her family told her to vote. In the 2008 Presidential election, she even voted for Barack Obama. I was all for Obama, child, she says. I was such an Obama fan. The second time he ran, the light bulb went off and I did not vote for him. He really didnt do anything. I thought he was really going to bring dignity back to the black community. I didnt want to see more black people on welfare or food stamps. But he was for passing bills letting men use the bathroom with our daughters and focused on gay rights. What happened to the things of God? When he won, I was shocked. I thought people were tired of him. As I said, we dont see eye-to-eye on everything. In Alabama, Taylor found kindred spirits among Republicans on the state education board, such as Vice Chair Stephanie Bell. These women were saying everything I was thinking, and it resonated with my spirit, she says. We built relationships. In Adamsville, Taylor is a burgeoning, indefatigable voice. And to some, an irritating one. In 2016, she filed to run for mayor against long-time incumbent Pam Palmer but was thwarteddisqualified, along with 80 or so others who were told they failed to file ethics reports when qualifying to run, as required by a new state law. Told on the day after the filing deadline. Taylor did not go quietly, of course. Last year, Adamsville and Taylor sued and counter-sued each other taking shots at one another on social media. In the original suit, filed on June 8, 2018, the City of Adamsville alleged: Taylor has been a frequent critic of Adamsville for some years and as will be set out herein, her conduct has grown increasingly disruptive, threatening and harassing. In August 2016, Mayor Palmer ran into Taylor and Taylor told the Mayor that she was a Christian and that she loved the Mayor. The Mayor responded that, No, you dont, you hate me., to which Taylor replied Yes, I do. This conversation took place at Dans Printing in Adamsville. Taylor also uses social media to harass, intimidate and threaten. Taylor, in her suit, filed on October 2, 2018, charges the citys suit seeks to enjoin her from posting on her personal Facebook page. This action in and of itself is a violation of the First Amendment. Additionally, the suit charges: Taylor has been banned from posting on the public Facebook page for the City of Adamsville. As a result, she has been encumbered by her inability to directly comment to the events and even vote on important matters affecting her community. Taylor has been an outspoken critic of the City of Adamsville, its mayor and its City Council, thereby exercising her First Amendment rights. After expressing her opinions, the City of Adamsville and Mayor Palmer have blocked her from the City of Adamsville's Facebook page. This is viewpoint-based exclusion is a violation of the First Amendment. Regarding running for mayor in 2020, Taylor says she is still exploring my options. I enjoy serving my community in any capacity, she says. I am a servant first, and if public servantry is part of Gods plan, then Im ready to serve His people. Chronicled, this time, with myriad photographs along the way. A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama, Roys column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj A prominent black conservative commentator claimed he was removed from the UAB campus on Wednesday because the university wanted to censor his beliefs. UAB disputed Brandon Tatums version of events, saying a campus police officer was following protocol when they asked Tatum to leave the student union because he did not have a UAB ID badge, and Tatum did not say he was authorized to be on campus. But the officer was not aware that the schools Division of Student Affairs gave permission to the UAB College Republicans whom Tatum was set to speak to later in the day escort him on campus ahead of his engagement. Tatum said in a YouTube video, titled They Kicked Me Off UAB Campus, that he was at the student union handing out fliers to advertise his appearance when a black student angrily approached him because he took issue with the MAGA hat he was wearing. Tatum said he then talked to other black students and had a civilized conversation. Thats when, according to Tatum, two UAB police officers approached him. Were having reasonable dialogue. We are talking about real issues. Were not arguing, were not fighting, were just having a conversation. And somebody on campus I think it was an administrator decided to call the police to get me removed, the activist said. Tatum suggested that UAB was uncomfortable with his views. This is the problem, ladies and gentlemen. We should be able to have a conversation. I feel like these universities are fearing us having a conversation because they fear that if anybody that is articulate can articulate another side of the coin then they will lose control of the brainwashing session forever, he said. What this goes to show is that censorship on campus is fear of reasonable dialogue. A UAB spokeswoman said that was not the case and that the school is diverse and inclusive and committed to protecting free speech, adding that the officer involved did not have any ill will and was just doing his job. She released the following statement: UAB College Republicans hosted Brandon Tatum to speak at UAB this evening. The student organization was given prior permission by Student Affairs to escort Mr. Tatum on campus to speak with students ahead of the speaking engagement. A UAB police officer, who approached Mr. Tatum, was not aware of that permission, followed protocol and asked Mr. Tatum if he was a student, employee or authorized to be at that location on campus. He did not indicate he was, so the officer asked Mr. Tatum to leave. Mr. Tatum amicably complied. Tatums video can be viewed below: The story remains the same. Its just that one more chapter has now been written. Madison County is still growing, confirmed Thursday by the latest U.S. Census estimates for 2018 that revealed almost 5,000 new residents since 2017. It's the continuation of a trend that has seen the Huntsville metro area which includes not only Madison County but neighboring Limestone County as well further entrench itself as the state's second largest. And it probably comes as no surprise with the continued growth of Huntsville and Madison the two largest cities in Madison County and the state's third and 10-largest cities, respectively. But Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong recited a favorite statistic that underscores the growth in Madison County beyond its headline cities. "We have 111,900 people living in unincorporated Madison county," Strong said Thursday. "By population, that would be the fifth largest city in the state of Alabama." In the census estimates from 2017 to 2018, Madison County added 4,854 people. That's an increase of 1.34 percent over that same span. Madison County now has an estimated population of 366,519 people, as of 2018. And while that 1.34 percent growth might seem small, the actual numbers of new residents is more than twice as many added by any county in north Alabama. Limestone County saw a growth percentage of 2.23 percent from 2017-2018 but that translated into only 2,098 new citizens, according to the census. Other north Alabama counties saw modest gains or losses. Marshall County saw growth of .52 percent, which was third-highest. The three north Alabama counties that saw population losses were Lawrence (.36 percent), Jackson (.33 percent) and Lauderdale (.22 percent). The Huntsville metro area has grown by 11 percent from 2010-2018, eclipsing the 450,000 mark. But that's well behind the Birmingham metro with more than 1.1 million people. Strong said Madison County's growth can be attributed in part to developing an economy beyond Redstone Arsenal and Cummings Research Park the high-tech engineering jobs that have become the area's identity. In recent years, Madison County has welcomed employers beyond those engineering jobs such as GE Aviation, Polaris and Remington Arms. The Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA plant is scheduled to open next year and will create 4,000 jobs at its peak. And the high-tech jobs are still coming to Huntsville as well such as Blue Origin, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Facebook in recent years. What we have done economically and the diversification of our economy, those decisions we made in the last 6-7 years have shown to be the right decisions and growing the economy and growing our population, Strong said. The diversification of our economy is the biggest thing thats been accomplished since I became chairman. It shows weve got the right advanced manufacturing workforce. It shows weve got the right engineering workforce and weve got the second-longest runway in the southeastern runway at Huntsville International (Airport) and were set to go over 10,000 students at UAH. So I think were perfectly positioned not only for today but also for the days ahead. Manitou Cave in Fort Payne, Ala., is safe for now. The Cherokee writing on its walls that dates to the Trail of Tears is secure and has been written about in academic journals. The tiny bats and salamanders that live inside are safe, too, and so are the threatened Manitou Cave Snails found only there. If Annette Reynolds of Birmingham can get the help she needs now to go beyond protecting the cave to preserving it and educating a new generation about it, then Manitou Cave of ALabama, as it is now known, will remain a win for a state that loves to win. But its no sure thing. I felt something, Reynolds said Monday while sitting outside the cave talking about the first time she went inside. It was 2014, and it was also the first time she had ever been to Fort Payne, a small mountain town in northeast Alabama built on the site of a Cherokee village known as Willstown. Thats where the cave is located in the side of a mountain. I was moved by it, Reynolds said. The peacefulness. The beauty of it. A relative had come across the cave while exploring the areas mountains and hiking trails. And its for sale, she said. Curious, Reynolds came to see, and what she saw was an enigma. There were eight bridges inside crossing and re-crossing an underground river and hundreds of concrete steps dating to the caves history as a tourist attraction in the 1960s and 1970s. There was graffiti on the walls and other signs of modern visitors. It wasnt like I thought, Ive gotta save this cave, Reynolds said. That didnt happen at all. But I was telling people about it and inquiring about it and I was, really, all of a sudden, kind of passionate about it. And people said, Oh, I want to go. Reynolds said she took at least 250 people through the cave with then-owner and Fort Payne resident Steve Brewers permission. He wanted to sell it, she shrugged. There were other interested parties, but Reynolds herself and other like-minded people would eventually buy the cave from Brewer in 2015 with the idea of protecting it. Two big developments let that idea take flight. Her research led Reynolds to Dr. Jan F. Simek, an archaeology professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I made a connection with him and, before I knew it, he was down here with a group of scholars. He said the Cherokee, the Eastern Band, might be willing to pay for a cave gate. The new gate, built by specialists funded by the Cherokee, is 3,000 pounds of steel designed to fit the large opening. People cant pass through, but the bats fly easily between its bars. Still researching, Reynolds visited the National Speleological Societys headquarters in Huntsville, where she was referred to the societys Birmingham chapter or grotto. On her first visit there, she found the group coincidentally talking about Manitou Cave when she entered the room. It was for sale, someone said, but they didnt know much more than that. I said, I do.' Im interested, Reynolds told the group. I came here to learn. I dont know why, but I really kind of fell in love with it. I know this sounds crazy.' And they were all going, No, it doesnt. We understand. How can we help you? The Birmingham grotto would end up donating 400 volunteer hours to Manitou Cave. They took buckets and scrapers and cleaned the wet clay buildup that made the concrete steps dangerously slippery. They cleaned up the overgrown property and started repairs on the visitor center left over from the parks most-recent turn as an attraction. I nominated them for the National Speleological Societys conservation steward award," Reynolds said Monday, "and they got it. And they should have. It was very meaningful. They had to do this before the cave gate could be put up. That was a great part of the story. It hasnt always been easy. Some people in the area didnt like the new gate after years of unauthorized but easy access to the cave. There was a backlash, Reynolds said. We had to get people to guard it. It was painful and personally traumatic for me. I thought, What am I doing? But she persevered, and that perseverance was rewarded again when the graffiti on the caves walls proved to include rare Cherokee writing from the early 1800s. The symbols were examples of a written communication method created by Cherokee leader Sequoyah and told of ritual preparations in the cave for a contest of stickball between Cherokee communities. More than a game, stickball pitted groups against each other in serious and often bloody competition. Other symbols high on the ceiling appear backward from the ground and to address the Cherokees revered ancestors living above or in the rock, scholars say. On a tour, Reynolds will point them out but not allow photographs out of respect. The caves value is proven now, if it ever needed proving. The rituals inside are known to date to the time before and just after Alabama became a state and just before its Cherokee people were driven to Oklahoma in the forced march called the Trail of Tears. Reynolds is now the founder, director and steward of Manitou Cave of Alabama, a federally registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. She has a board and supporters but, as interest grows, so do the caves needs. The site is cleared now revealing large trees and wildflowers, but needs regular attention. The visitor center needs finishing, including a real bathroom. More money is needed to improve access to the site, and more volunteers are always needed. I had no idea what I was getting into, Reynolds said Monday. It kind of found me. The main goal was just to protect it. I hadnt even thought about what was next. Now, Reynolds has put her life on hold and taken a leave of absence from work. She is at her computer nonstop working on cave issues and taking advantage of the attention brought by the research into the Cherokee symbols. My biggest concern is Im going to burn out, Reynolds said Monday. It was a reminder of the difference one person can make and at what cost. And it was a warning, although Reynolds didnt intend it as one. But if she does burn out, who will be passionate about Manitou Cave then? (Updated at 7:30 a.m. to make several clarifications) The supplier for the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA facility thats bringing more than 400 jobs to Athens will receive almost $17 million in incentives from the state of Alabama. Toyota Boshoku will build a $50 million facility in Athens that will produce seat systems for vehicles built at the MTMUS plant now under construction in Huntsville, Gov. Kay Ivey announced last week. While the state is providing the incentives for the company, state coffers are expected to benefit through almost $75 million in new revenue over a 20-year period, according to the Alabama Department of Commerce. The state incentives break down into three categories: Jobs Credit valued at $6,199,396 over 10 years Investment Credit valued at $8,385,000 over 10 years Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT) services and support valued at $2,307,300 Those incentives total to $16,891,696. Toyota Boshoku also received an incentive package from the city of Athens, which the city council approved Monday. Council approves economic development project w/Toyota Boshoku: $25K when reach 200 full time workers: $25K when reach 352 full time workers City of Athens, AL (@AthensAL) April 22, 2019 Council approves non-educational tax abatements for Toyota Boshoku: $210,878/yr/10 yrs in property tax & $1.65 million in sales tax City of Athens, AL (@AthensAL) April 22, 2019 LCEDA says non-abated educational taxes for Toyota Boshoku to generate $172,536/yr/10yrs in property tax & $975,750 in sales tax for schools City of Athens, AL (@AthensAL) April 22, 2019 The commerce department also spelled out expected returns on investments in the Toyota Boshoku facility: 400 percent 20-year return on investment $74.4M total new state revenue over 20 years $475.8M new payroll over 20 years (construction + permanent jobs) Greg Canfield, the state's secretary of commerce, said Toyota Boshoku is the state's first new supplier to be announced as a result of the MTMUS plant. He said the state is in conversation with other suppliers about coming to Alabama, which is expected to bring a wave of more than twice as many jobs as the 4,000 at the Mazda Toyota plant. Canfield said more supplier announcements are expected to be made in the coming months. The MTMUS plant will produce Toyota Corollas and a yet-to-be-announced Mazda crossover vehicle. The first cars are expected to roll off assembly lines in 2021. Updated April 23, 2019, at 8:37 a.m. with information about incentives from the city of Athens. A brief mention of a proposed meeting between Russian officials, then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions and the governor of Alabama is included in the report issued today from special counsel Robert Mueller. The mention comes during a segment detailing the Alabama Senators interactions with Russian ambassador Segey Kislyak. According to the report, a representative of the Russian Embassy contacted Sessions senate office about setting up a meeting with Kislyak. At the time, Sessions was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and such interactions were fairly common. He was also a key member of President Trumps election campaign. The meeting between the Senator and the Ambassador occurred in September 2016 and included discussions on a range of military issues, the report said. During the meeting, Sessions was invited to a meal at the ambassadors house but declined later after being warned Kislyak was an old school KGB guy, referencing the old Soviet Unions spy agency. After the 2016 presidential election in November, a request came in from a U.S.-based advocacy group with ties to Russia for a meeting between Sessions, Kislyak, two other ambassadors and the governor of Alabama, the report showed. Sessions, however, was in New York on the day of the anticipated meeting and was unable to attend, the report noted. The memo does not include the date or the intent of the planned meeting involving the Alabama official or if the governors office was aware of the proposal. At the time, Alabamas governor was Robert Bentley. Bentley resigned in April 2017 as part of a plea deal related to campaign finance and ethics violations. He was replaced by then Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, who won her own full term in November 2018. According to Gov. Iveys press office, the mention does not refer to her. Bentley was responsible for appointing Sessions replacement when the Senator was named Trumps Attorney General, tapping state AG Luther Strange for the post. Strange lost the GOP primary in a special election to fill Sessions seat to Roy Moore, who was defeated by Democrat Doug Jones. Jones is up for reelection in 2020. President Donald Trump erupted when informed by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to counsel Robert Muellers report released today. The report said the president blasted Sessions, a former Alabama Senator and early Trump supporter, saying Oh my God, this is terrible! This it the end of my presidency. Im f- - - ed , the president said, using an expletive. How could you let this happen, Jeff? The statements came after heavy pressure on Sessions not to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The report showed the presidents representatives spoke to Sessions personal attorney, his chief of staff and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as well as calling the Attorney General twice to urge him not to step aside from the investigation. The report said after Sessions recusal, the president urged him to reverse his decision numerous times, contrasting former AGs Eric Holder, who worked for the Obama administration, and Robert F. Kennedy, AG under his brother John F. Kennedy. Sessions said he had the impression that the president feared that the investigation could spin out of control and disrupt his ability to govern, which Sessions could have helped avert if he were still overseeing it, the report concluded. At another point, Trump reportedly told Sessions the issues related to the investigation where all because you recused. AG is supposed to be (the) most important appointment, the president reportedly said. Kennedy appointed his brother. Obama appointed Holder. I appointed you and you recused yourself. You left me on an island. I cant do anything. At the appointment of the special counsel, Trump asked Sessions for his resignation, which was submitted. The president did not act on the resignation, however, and later returned the letter with the memo not accepted. Sessions eventually resigned in late 2017 following months of public criticism from the president. Huntsville police are closing their investigation into a school bus driver who was accused of refusing to let students off the bus on Tuesday afternoon. Lt. Michael Johnson said police didnt find evidence that rose to the level of criminal behavior by the bus driver. The drivers name hasnt been released. The situation happened during the after-school bus route on Tuesday when the driver skipped multiple students bus stops, Johnson said. Because the students were misbehaving, the driver told them he was taking them home to be disciplined, Johnson said. The students were under the impression the driver was taking them to his house because he had skipped their stops. Johnson said the driver told the students that unless they behaved, he wouldnt stop the bus. Police are leaving any remaining investigation to the Huntsville City Schools system and Apple Bus, a private company thats contracted to transport local students. Officers were called to the corner of Pulaski Pike and Sparkman Drive around 3:30 p.m. When the bus driver stopped at the red light, students apparently started getting off the bus, police said. Witnesses said students were crying and scared. Several parents went to the scene to pick up their children, while other students were taken home on a different bus. This situation was an isolated incident, said Huntsville City Schools spokesman Keith Ward in a statement on Wednesday afternoon. Huntsville City Schools has investigated the situation and found the Apple Bus drivers actions in dealing with this issue was unacceptable. The school system said it expects Apple Bus will provide a quick resolution to prevent anything similar from happening in the future. In a statement, the bus company said it is investigating and will take appropriate action. The school system said, The safety of our students is a high priority. Therefore, as part of its agreement with Apple Bus Company, Huntsville City Schools requires all bus drivers to meet all Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) requirements, including: the ability to pass the State of Alabama mandated background check; a pre-employment background check; and drug screening check. All applicants for a driver position with Apple Bus must be a minimum of 23 years old, have a clean driving record, and have a current, state-issued drivers license. Apple Bus applicants must either possess or have the ability to obtain and maintain a Commercial Drivers License (CDL), which includes receiving certification from the ALSDE. All drivers must also complete a state re-certification class each year. The school systems transportation coordinator oversees the bus company, Ward said. He is working with our HCS District team to see that this matter with the company is resolved and to ensure that our students are safely transported to and from school, Ward said in the statement. Birmingham Police are asking for the publics help in identify a suspect whom they say robbed a Crestwood Boulevard car wash at knifepoint on Sunday. The robbery occurred around 9:50 a.m. at the Goo Goo Car Wash at 7641 Crestwood Blvd., police said. The suspect brandished a knife when he demanded money from an employee. The suspect also threatened that he was armed with a gun and would kill the employee. After grabbing the money, the suspect left the car wash on foot toward Montclair Road. Anyone with information on the suspects identity was asked to call Birmingham Police Department robbery detectives at 205-254-1753. Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers instead at 205-254-7777. If a Crime Stoppers tip leads to an arrest, the organization will provide a cash reward. The Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (MDGLCC) will honor corporate and individual supporters of the Miami-Dade LGBT community at The Platinum Gala, its 20thAnniversary Annual Awards Celebration on Saturday, May 18, at the Hilton Miami Downtown, starting at 6 p.m. This annual event, MDGLCCs principal fundraising effort of the year, helps sustain operations and the ever-increasing demand to expand programming. The Platinum Gala will consist of a fabulous silent auction and interactive pop-up display area, open bar with light bites, followed by grand buffet dinner, the awards ceremony, and moonlight networking. Over 500 guests are expected to be in attendance to pay tribute to these honorees selected for their long-term commitment to fostering diversity, as well as for their efforts in contributing to the overall wellbeing and quality of life in south Florida. The 2019 honorees are; NBC6 South Florida (AT&T Business of the Year), Bertha Galindo-Crucet & Kevin Walsh, (Regions Business Persons of the Year), and Michael Bath (Morgan StanleyBob Balsam Civic Achievement Award). For the fifth year in a row, the MDGLCC is honoring former Miami Beach Convention Center General Manager Bob Balsam by naming this award in his memory. In his short five-year tenure in South Florida, Balsam made significant contributions to the LGBT community. He was a kind and generous man who gave tremendously of his time. He was also financially generous to make sure his community benefitted from his stature as a business leader. This years honoree Michael Bath has the charisma and qualities that were exemplified by Balsam, thus making him deserving of this award. For close to 30 years he has been involved in projects and initiatives that have made a significant impact in the LGBT community. As events director with the National LGBTQ Task Force he is committed to forward-thinking progressive change. Michaels work, professionalism, and dedication has contributed to the organizations success in providing more than $3 million in funds that have supported over 75 other nonprofit organizations in South Florida empowering and elevating the community. He is a well-respected activist, fundraiser, and a friend to many. We could not be more proud to honor him with this overdue recognition, said Jorge Richa, MDGLCCs marketing & programming director. To RSVP for The Platinum Gala or join the MDGLCC, visit www.gaybizmiami.com or reach us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / 305-673-4440. Veteran Alabama TV meteorologist James Spann touched on a topic and a nerve during severe weather coverage over the weekend in Alabama. Spann discussed maps and how many people have trouble finding their location on them. .@spann Fireside Chat: Many people can't find themselves on a map. pic.twitter.com/IEzUXBNhD5 ABC 33/40 News (@abc3340) April 14, 2019 Its a topic that has frustrated those in whats called the weather enterprise for years, and it came into much clearer focus after the deadly tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011. And its been something on the minds of many ever since. Just recently the National Weather Service highlighted the problem again: INTERESTING STAT: We traveled to a local high school & asked 100+ students to circle the county they lived in on an AL map. *Less than half* of them could locate their home county. Folks, we can't stress this enough - geography is a VITAL part of your #SeverePrep plans! #alwx pic.twitter.com/ULpaZnYlX5 NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) April 11, 2019 One of the people taking an in-depth look at the problem and everyone agrees its a problem is Dr. Laura Myers, the director of the Center for Advanced Public Safety at the University of Alabama and a research scientist. Myers was already very familiar with the issue. For a while she had been hearing from TV meteorologists who were constantly putting out severe weather maps and information and were then overloaded with requests from the public about specific locations. They were starting to speculate that these people didnt know where they were on a map, Myers recalled this week. So we started exploring that for them. It was just coming out of the research we were doing at that time. They couldnt get funding for that as a stand-alone study but integrated it into all the other funded studies they were doing one of those is the Vortex-Southeast research project. Myers and her team conduced surveys, interviews, focus groups and workshops, not just in Alabama but all over the Southeast. And they found some things that surprised them. First and foremost: Most people DO know where they live. They know what county theyre in, she said. Theyre pretty clear about what part of the county theyre in. But it turns out that knowledge doesnt translate when they look at a map in this case a weather map. People are not using maps anymore, she said. Theyre allowing their cellphones and their GPS to tell them where to go. So its the really the lack of usability of maps. Turns out a little screen cant tell you everything you need to know. It used to be that before technology you had to have maps, you had your book of maps in your car, your atlas, and then we had MapQuest and you printed them out and you had in the car, Myers continued. So now that we dont do that anymore, when a broadcast meteorologist throws that map graphic up, people dont have enough time to figure it out. Thats the whole issue. Time is of the essence when it comes to severe weather information and often it takes those unfamiliar with maps a while to acclimate when seeing them on the TV or computer screen. First of all theyre wondering Wheres my county? and theyve only got a couple of minutes when that graphic comes up, she said. So theyre trying to figure out the border boundary of their county, theyre trying to find landmarks and by the time they figure it out if they figure it out its gone. Thats the nature of the problem, thats what weve been able to determine, she said. Timing and location Myers found that the two most important pieces of information the public wants when it comes to weather are timing and location. But theyve got to be able make sense of that location information. One of the big issues that could help is using more or different reference points. And its a matter of finding the right balance between too few and too many. And also visibility: Finding those points can be even more difficult when there is a radar image of a severe thunderstorm or mass of rain also filling up the screen. Theyre trying to look through all of that and find their reference point, Myers said. So reference points are vital. But you cant have too many, either. It gets too confusing, Myers said. So the question is what reference points should you include to keep it simple enough? Typically its your roadways and your water. And maybe maps could incorporate landmarks you wouldnt expect. Which roadways are useful? You cant put every roadway on there. Cant put every convenience store or barbecue joint on there, but you may put a few, she said. Then theres an issue with colors. Theres the issue of consistency of color because theres different TV stations, the SPC (Storm Prediction Center) and the National Weather Service everyone uses different colors, she said. How do we educate our audience about what the colors mean? Whats the best simplification of colors because some colors have more meaning than others. And then how do we also simplify the message on the map? Doing the prep work Some of Myers recommendations to help solve the problem were put into practice just last weekend when severe weather was expected in Alabama. The recommendation that weve been making and weve been making it for a while now is that the weather enterprise should put out maps pre-event, she said. So last week, knowing that that event was coming over the weekend, a lot of the broadcast meteorologists and emergency managers and the National Weather Service put out maps in advance and said Look at this map and figure out where you are now. Because when the map comes out (during severe weather) with the weather information on it they will have already seen it and figured it out. The practice has gotten a positive response so far. So weve been watching them do it, and its been receiving a lot of good feedback. Its a lot of good preparedness information, she said. So weve gotten their attention, and all of them recognize that its a problem, and theyre all trying to do these things that help their public do better with maps. Myers said they arent done studying this issue. We continue looking at how people are doing with this and how they adapt to this and were continuing to interview the public about how helpful that is, she said. Its all about getting the news quickly, and acting on it. Thats the goal. If you get better information then you can make better choices, Myers said. You can be more confident in whatever actions you take if youre getting more information. An attorney for the Alabama inmate who narrowly avoided execution last week said the state is short circuiting the ongoing federal litigation regarding the inmates choice of execution method. Price, 46, was set to die by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore on Thursday at 6 p.m.. Around 4 p.m. that day, a federal judge in Mobile issued a stay of execution for 60 days and ordered the state to submit evidence in contradiction to Prices contention the three-drug lethal injection protocol will cause or is likely to cause severe pain. He was asking to be executed by the newly approved method, nitrogen hypoxia. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the stay based jurisdictional issues, and the Alabama Attorney Generals Office appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. At approximately 11:34 p.m., when the nations highest court had not yet ruled, the state called off the execution because the Alabama Department of Corrections wouldnt have sufficient time to prepare Price for execution by the time his death warrant expired at midnight. Price was convicted in the 1991 robbery and slaying of a Fayette County minister, Bill Lynn. Lynn was killed days before Christmas that year, while he was wrapping presents for his grandchildren. The U.S. Supreme Court voted early Friday morning, after the state had called off the execution and after the death warrant had expired, by a majority of 5-4 to vacate the stay. The majority order said Price had missed a deadline for selecting nitrogen as his preferred execution method and noted that his claim was filed late in the process. In a dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer admonished court conservatives for overruling two lower court stays in the middle of the night without discussing it further at a morning conference. What is at stake in this case is the right of a condemned inmate not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, Breyer wrote. Monday, the state asked the Alabama Supreme Court to quickly reset an execution date for Price in the interests of justice. The AGs Office has argued Price missed the deadline for electing nitrogen hypoxia as his preferred execution method. Aaron Katz, of Boston law firm Ropes & Gray, has represented Price as lead counsel since 2009. He said the AGs Offices request to set a new execution date for Price is a rushed attempt to kill him before his case can be litigated. He said there is information to show lethal injection is very likely to cause severe pain, and Alabama is rushing to execute inmates with a protocol many experts disagree on. Katz said the states claim that Price and his legal team knew about the nitrogen hypoxia opt-in period last summer but didnt act on it is nonsense. Early last year, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill giving inmates the option to choose execution by nitrogen hypoxia. According to the law, inmates waiting to be executed were allowed to opt in the nitrogen method if they wished, but had to do so within a 30-day period in June 2018. Of the 177 inmates on Alabamas Death Row, more than 50 inmates chose to die by the new method. The law had no requirement for the AGs Office to notify death row inmates attorneys, many who are located in other states, of the law change and the 30-day election period. Federal Defender for the Middle District of Alabama John Palombi said, The statute adding nitrogen hypoxia as an authorized method of execution for the state did not expressly require the state to notify death row inmates (or their attorneys) of the change, or that there was a time limit on opting in, or the legal effects of opting in. This meant that the attorneys had the responsibility of keeping up with these changes." The election for nitrogen had to be written and signed by the inmate during the month of June, but there was no official form issued by the state for the inmates to fill out. According to an affidavit by Palombi, his office made a form with blanks for their clients to sign and turn into the prison warden as notification of their elections. He said that on June 26, he and Federal Defender Spencer Hahn went to Holman to meet with their clients. On that visit, Palombi said he and his colleague presented their drafted forms to their clients. When we presented our clients with the form, we explained all of [the] details to them in a discussion protected by the attorney-client privilege," he said in the affadavit. "I did not direct or encourage any of our clients to convey any of our attorney-client privileged communications to inmates not represented by the Federal Defenders Office, and I believe it would have violated the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct for me to have done so. The Federal Defenders Office has never represented Mr. Price. I was also generally aware that Mr. Price was represented by other counsel, and so the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct would have prohibited me from making any attempt to speak with him, he said. No Alabama inmates have been executed by the new method, and a state protocol for the nitrogen hypoxia executions has not yet been developed. Prices days are precious," his lawyer said, and he spends them communicating with his new wife and making artwork for his attorneys and family. The inmates last request was to marry his now-wife, and they were wed in the Holman prison yard the day before his set execution. His days have meaning to him, Katz said. Katz said Price is remorseful for the 1991 slaying of Lynn, a minister who was stabbed to death with a sword and a knife outside his home in the Bazemore community. Court records show Lynn suffered 38 stab wounds, some up to four inches deep and between three and four inches long, and his arm was nearly severed. Lynns wife was also wounded in the attack, but survived her injuries. She was present Thursday, along with several other family members, to witness the execution. An Alabama teen who was charged in the shooting deaths of his parents, only to have the charges dismissed last year, will be featured in a Dateline NBC segment Friday night. Jesse Madison Holton, then-17, was charged as an adult in the 2016 slayings of his father, former Eclectic mayor Mike Holton, mother, April Holton. Both were 37. The shooting happened on a Sunday in September 2016. Mike Holton was pronounced dead on the scene. April Holton later died at the hospital from severe brain trauma. Authorities at the time said the parents were away and returned home to find their house in disarray after a party that apparently included drugs. The father called the sheriffs department Sunday afternoon, and an officer arrived at the house to find that the father had handcuffed the son. Mike Holton told the deputy he planned to sign a juvenile warrant the next morning against the teen. The deputy left on another call, but a neighbor called about 30 minutes later to say the teen showed up claiming his parents were fighting. A deputy went back to the house and found Mike Holton dead of a gunshot wound to the head and April Holton critically wounded. The teen told lawmen at the time that his father shot his mother and then turned the gun on himself. Sheriffs investigators at the time said the physical evidence didnt match the teens account. The youth, then a senior at Elmore County High School, told detectives he got "easily agitated" if he didnt have access to marijuana and Adderall, and witnesses told investigators the teen had anger problems. He was arrested and charged as an adult in his parents deaths. Two younger siblings were placed into the care of relatives. Elmore County District Attorney Randall Houston in October 2018 announced the dismissal against the son, who turned 19 in August. As prosecutors, our job is to find the truth and do justice, Houston said in a prepared statement. When we cannot find the truth, it is impossible to do justice. Madison Holton pleaded guilty to an underlying felony charge that is unrelated to the deaths of parents. Houston did not identify that charge and court records show the teen was granted youthful offender status so that information was not be made public. The district attorney said the forensics report stated the case was a homicide and that position has been maintained, he said. The medical examiner was expected to testify that the case could not be classified as a homicide beyond a reasonable degree of medical certainty. From the beginning, this case has been open to interpretation as to what is actually the trutheither Jesse Holton killed his father and mother; the father of Jesse Holton killed Jesses mother then Jesse killed his father; or the father of Jesse Holton killed Jesses mother and then killed himself. My office has reason to believe any of these three scenarios could have occurred, but we have no proof to support any of the three theories beyond a reasonable doubt, Houston wrote. Therefore, we are ethically obligated to dismiss the murder charges against Jesse Holton. The Elmore County Sheriffs Office has left no stone unturned in this case, and I thank them for their relentless search for truth and justice. The program is titled 11 Minutes and will air at 9 p.m. Central Friday on NBC. Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin, Madisons uncle Chris Owenby, and his former high school classmate, Hannah Traylor, will also appear on the show. According to a Dateline press release, Madison Holton tells NBC News Josh Mankiewicz, I have no doubt in my mind that the sheriff will try to put me back in jail. Report a digital subscription issue If you are being blocked from reading Subscriber Exclusive content, first confirm you are logged in using the account with which you subscribed. If you are still experiencing issues, please describe the problem below and we will be happy to assist you. Submit Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney Lynneice Washington said she and other county officials are collaborating on a policy that would put an end to arrests for some non-violent misdemeanors, including simple marijuana possession. Since 2017, I have been advocating for a policy of cite and release for certain non-violent misdemeanors, Washington said in a press release issued Wednesday afternoon. It is no secret that Jefferson County, like others around the country, is plagued with overcrowded jails. Now that the Jefferson County, Bessemer jail is closed for renovations, the need to address overcrowding is even more urgent, she said. Washington said she, Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr and Sheriff Mark Pettway have collaborated to implement the procedure, which is known as the Big Ticket. Specifically, she said, it is a Uniform Non-Traffic Citation and Complaint form. In practice, the procedure allows an individual to sign his or her own recognizance bond in lieu of arrest, assuring their presence in future court matters related to the citation charge. Washington said there is a list of offenses that would fall under the Big Ticket program, including simple marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and harassment. A complete list of applicable offenses has not yet been released. Carr on Tuesday wrote to Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith, urging him to have his department observe the policy. I truly believe our limited resources should be focused on more serious offenses, Carr wrote. Im not advocating the use of marijuana, just acknowledging the ability to cite and release personal use marijuana cases would benefit law enforcement, Courts, and the community. Sheriffs spokesman Capt. David Agee said the sheriffs office may release more information about the program early next week. The sheriffs office, Washington said, is in the process of ordering the ticket books needed to officially launch the effort. Other details have mostly been finalized. Were ready to go, she told AL.com. Washingtons comments on the Big Ticket were part of a statement released about a reported event scheduled for Saturday - a Decriminalize Bham Day Party sponsored by activist Carlos Chaverst. The event listed Washington, Carr and Pettway as guest speakers at the event. To be clear, I will not be in attendance at what has been described as a Decriminalize Bham Day Party or any other event sponsored by Mr. Chaverst. Further, I have neither spoken to, nor met with Mr. Chaverst, regarding this issue or any other topic related to marijuana, Washington wrote. Pettway also never planned to attend the event. It was without my permission and knowledge that Mr. Chaverst attached my name to a flyer advertising what can only be characterized as a pot-smoking party. I cannot imagine why and decline to speculate as to Mr. Chaverst motives in creating such fiction. Chaverst told AL.com Wednesday that two separate events were planned for Saturday, and the event that named the guest speakers has been canceled. A planned smoke-out, however, will go on he said and will be held at 8 p.m. Saturday at a location that will be announced shortly before it is to begin for security and safety reasons. The press release on that event says organizers are expecting more than 1,000 of Birminghams stoners to participate. Each year, thousands of innocent men and women are arrested and incarcerated for low level cannabis possession, according to Chaversts release. We are asking Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin to join other cities across the country by decriminalizing cannabis within the Birmingham city limits. Doing so will reduce the number of non-violent offenders, keep our jails and prisons from overcrowding and increases stability within the local economy. Forecasters said Alabama could be hit by severe weather on Thursday night and into Friday morning. The National Weather Service in Birmingham said damaging straight line winds are the primary threat, but brief tornadoes are also possible. The agency urged Alabamians to have multiple ways to get warnings Thursday afternoon and night, should they be issued.B y 9:30 p.m., the tornado threat greatly diminished for much of the state Storms are likely through Thursday night, until 4 a.m. Friday, the weather service predicted. A tornado watch was issued for southwest Alabama and portions of central Alabama until 11 p.m.. The effected areas are highlighted in yellow in this NWS tweet: TORNADO WATCH now in effect for SW portions of Central AL until 11 PM. If you are in the watch & live in a mobile/manufactured home, go ahead and head to your safe place/shelter now. Don't wait for a warning! #alwx https://t.co/n9cHvbNzle NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) April 18, 2019 Since the NWS released the tornado watch, it canceled the designation for 14 central and west-central Alabama counties: Tornado Watch has been CANCELLED for the following counties...Bibb, Fayette, hale, Marengo, Marion, Perry & Tuscaloosa Counties. #alwx NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) April 19, 2019 Tornado Watch has been CANCELLED for the following counties...Blount, Chilton, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Walker & Winston Counties. #alwx NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) April 19, 2019 By 9:30 p.m., the tornado threat in much of the Birmingham NWS offices coverage area was diminished: CURRENT WATCHES: Tornado Watch (yellow) until 11pm. Severe Thunderstorm Watch (pink) until 2am. Counties will gradually be removed from the Watches as the threat ends. #alwx pic.twitter.com/uLPJEQeRTK NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) April 19, 2019 With gusts reaching 60 m.p.h., the NWS warned of high winds damaging roofs, siding and trees. The NWS received reports of trees down in Jefferson County around 7:20 p.m.: Reports now of trees down across portions of Jefferson County. #alwx NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) April 19, 2019 A tree fell on the front of this home in Lipscomb off Handy Avenue @WVTM13 pic.twitter.com/EFzIOshu4p Mary O'Connell (@MaryWVTM13) April 19, 2019 And in Walker County, there was a report of a tree falling onto a house with people trapped: Per Walker Co. 911 tree down on house with entrapment at 38720 Highway 78 in Eldridge #alwx @spann @NWSBirmingham WalkerCoALWX (@WalkerCoALWX) April 19, 2019 In south Alabama, power lines and trees were downed: Power lines down on Highpoint Drive in West Mobile https://t.co/mSJNRZOOBD #alwx pic.twitter.com/aHYWUXbeoH NBC 15 News (@mynbc15) April 19, 2019 More pictures of damage coming in from West Mobile after the severe storms. This is from Snowmass Court. @NWSMobile pic.twitter.com/BPtNVGHvQP Adam Olivier FOX10 (@adamolivierwx) April 19, 2019 The NWS weather map is divided into three timing periods for different parts of the state. The western part of the state, including Tuscaloosa, Hamilton, and Demopolis, face the biggest threat between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Cities ranging from Gadsden, Anniston, Birmingham, Clanton, and Selma face threats between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. Friday. The final end of the storm is expected to hit the southeast corner of the state, including Montgomery, Auburn, Troy, and Eufaula between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Friday. At around 8 p.m., the NWS said central Alabama was under slight risk of severe weather while southeast Alabama was under an enhanced risk. Slight risk means damaging winds up to 60 m.p.h. while enhanced risk denotes damaging winds up to 70 m.p.h. and possible tornadoes. The western part of the state was no longer threatened with severe weather as of that time: UPDATE - Severe Threat Graphic Changes: - Pulled Enhanced Risk down to the SE. - Sped up timing - Threat has ended across the west Folks, stay weather aware this evening! #alwx pic.twitter.com/E1OY9KBUEV NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) April 19, 2019 Parts of north and east Alabama are under a severe thunderstorm warning until 2 a.m. Friday: 750 PM - Severe Thunderstorm Watch #85 continues until 2 AM CDT for Limestone, Lawrence, Cullman, Madison, Morgan, Marshall, Jackson, and DeKalb counties. Wind gusts to 70 mph and large hail is possible. A tornado or two cannot be ruled out. #HUNwx pic.twitter.com/21nYhEoDFj NWS Huntsville (@NWSHuntsville) April 19, 2019 The service also warned although the bad weather will be coming in late Thursday afternoon, storms are not expected to weaken throughout the evening. Have multiple ways of receiving alerts that will wake you up and do not rely on outdoor tornado sirens as they may not wake you up, the NWS said in a tweet. Forecasters will monitor the storms timing and severity throughout the day Thursday. Several school systems have already announced early dismissals due to the weather threat. This post will be updated as conditions change. A Tennessee deputy has testified that a knife had nothing to do with why he shot a 19-year-old suspect in January, despite initial reports to the contrary. The Tennessean reports Williamson County Sheriffs Deputy Matthew Murphy testified Wednesday at a preliminary hearing that Dalton Elam of Florence, acted like he grabbed something from his waist and then pointed his finger at the deputy like a gun. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced in January that the deputy shot a man who "displayed a knife" after fleeing a traffic stop, crashing and getting out of the car. The agency clarified its official statement on the matter Thursday, saying that while witness statements and evidence indicate Elam had a knife, the deputy didn't see it before shooting the suspect. Elam is jailed on multiple charges including reckless endangerment involving a deadly weapon. The latest round of census estimates shows that Baldwin Countys accelerating population growth has pushed it into Alabamas Top Five. Growth in Baldwin County is a familiar theme, but even so the latest figures are eye-opening. Baldwin saw the fastest one-year growth in both raw numbers (5,403 to Madisons 4,854) and percentage (2.5% to Limestone Countys 2.2%). Thats according to 2018 Census estimates released today for all U.S. counties. Yahoo! Now weve got to deal with it, said Chris Elliott of the move into fifth place, as Baldwin passed Shelby County near Birmingham. Elliott is a former chairman of the Baldwin County Commission who last fall was elected to the Alabama Senate Dist. 32 seat representing south Baldwin County. Next door, Mobile County continues to hold steady as Alabamas second most populous county, showing a very slight decline over the latest federal count. Mobile lost an estimated 758 people from 2017 to 2018, or 0.18 percent of its population. That offsets some previous small gains, but not entirely: The estimated change since the 2010 Census is a gain of 765 people. Elliott said that while population growth has been the single biggest issue facing Baldwin for years, the rate of change surprises me. Its impacts over the course of the decade will be profound, he said. "We are adding more in a decennial census than most counties' total populations," he said. That isn't hyperbole: Since the last full census in 2010, Baldwin has added an estimated 35,757 people. Roughly half the state's 67 counties have estimated population totals lower than that number. That translates to 20% growth over eight years, bringing Baldwin Countys estimated total population for 2018 to 218,022. A year ago Baldwin County ranked sixth among Alabama counties. Now, the new estimates put it fewer than 8,000 people behind fourth-place Montgomery County. Baldwins growth, combined with the fact that Montgomery Countys population has been declining, puts Baldwin on track to move into fourth place within the next two years. (Montgomery lost an estimated 1,316 people from 2017 to 2018.) In order to keep the county from becoming "a victim of our own success," Elliott said, "we're going to have to be proactive." Elliott said transportation infrastructure will continue to be a top concern, and said he'd been working to get assignments to relevant committees since taking state office. "If it's got asphalt, I'm involved," he said. One source of help: A massive round of projects funded by the RESTORE Act, which directs penalty money from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, includes $56 million for major road expansion projects in Baldwin County. But he said the fundamental key to Baldwin's growth is something else. It's driven by quality of life, he said, and that's driven by the quality of the county school system. "We've got to preserve that," he said. To that end, he has sponsored a bill that, if passed, would require developers of large-scale subdivisions and other large residential project in Baldwin County to submit information to the county or Gulf Shores school superintendents. "It basically requires planning commissions to listen to what the school board is saying about capacity," he said. "It's a step." While the U.S. Census Bureau only conducts a count every 10 years, it releases annual estimates of population changes. The latest round of data is county-based and shows population estimates for 2018. It also shows metropolitan areas but defines them in terms of how many counties they cover -- so the figures for metro Mobile are identical to those for Mobile County, while the figures for Metro Birmingham include the entire population of several counties. Alabama's biggest counties based on estimated 2018 populations: 1. Jefferson, 659,300 2. Mobile, 413,757 3. Madison 366,519 4. Montgomery, 225,763 5. Baldwin, 218,022 6. Shelby, 215,707 7. Tuscaloosa, 208,911 8. Lee, 163,941 9. Morgan, 119,089 10. Calhoun, 114,277 Baldwins growth also made the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley Metropolitan Area the states fastest growing metro, though it didnt move it from seventh place in that ranking. Birmingham-Hoover topped the list, followed by Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Columbus Ga. (which includes Russell County, Ala.), Tuscaloosa, Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, Auburn-Opelika, Decatur and Dothan. The Metropolitan Area population estimates are different from the Census Bureaus rankings of city populations. Estimates for 2018 city populations are due out later this spring. The 2017 city estimates showed Mobile slipping to fourth place as fast-growing Huntsville rose to third behind Birmingham and Montgomery. Hundreds of law enforcement officers descended upon an Alabama prison Thursday morning in a joint operation targeting contraband. The Alabama Department of Corrections led the predawn raid at William C. Holman Correctional Facility beginning about 4:30 a.m. More than 300 officers took part in the effort at the maximum security Atmore lockup, which houses 870 inmates. Deputy Commissioner of Operations, Charles Daniels, headed he operation. ADOC investigations and intelligence agents, correctional emergency response teams, and correctional K-9 drug units took part. Participating agencies included resources from Pardons and Paroles, AEMA, ADOT, Atmore, Bay Minette, Brewton Police Departments, and support from the Baldwin, Butler, Escambia and Monroe County Sheriffs Departments. The ADOC is conducting these large-scale joint operations in a move to eradicate contraband, identify deficiencies, and to take all necessary steps to reverse the trend of increased violence caused by illegal activity inside our prisons, Daniels said in a prepared statemnt. We are going to do whatever is necessary to eliminate the contraband problem while sending a message to those who are responsible. Such criminal activity will not be tolerated and anyone who is caught bringing illegal items into our prisons will be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Full coverage of Alabamas prison crisis . Spokeswoman Samantha Banks said the operation is a day-long search so there isnt a tally of what was found. By 9 a.m., however, multiple of makeshift weapons had been confiscated. An early-morning contraband raid at Holman prison is underway. The search is day-long but authorities by 9 a.m. had already confiscated nearly a dozen makeshift weapons. In February, ADOC conducted a similar joint operation at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville. That raid led to the seizure of more than 160 makeshift weapons, 48 cell phones, 110 grams of marijuana, and 276 grams of the synthetic drug, flakka. Daniels said ADOC will continue to conduct the unannounced joint operations at other major correctional facilities. Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn instituted the joint operations by using all available ADOC and state resources to address the proliferation of drugs and other contraband entering state correctional institutions. "We are committing all internal and external resources to address the contraband problem inside our prisons to ensure we provide the highest degree of safety and protection for our correctional staff and those who are in our custody. We owe them nothing less," Dunn said. Anyone with information on anyone trying to smuggle illegal contraband into state prisons is asked to call ADOC Investigations and Intelligence Division at 1-866-293-7799. The public may also report suspicious activity by going to the ADOC Website at http://www.doc.alabama.gov/investigationrequest. Alabama has always been a business-friendly state. In fact, I started my first business in Alabama as a KFC franchise owner. Small entrepreneurial businesses like mine have helped drive Alabamas record run of job creation over the past year. Alabama is usually known for sound economic policies, so as a business owner, it was surprising to see that both chambers in the state legislature are trying to pass short-sighted legislation that will harm local franchise businesses. Its called the Protect Alabama Small Business Act, but the name couldnt be further from the truth. These bills target the more than 12,000 Alabama small businesses that use the franchise model. If passed, itll mean fewer jobs, a slower economy, and less opportunity for all. Many people dont know what franchises are, but theres a 100% chance you benefit from them. Restaurants, convenience stores, barbers, repair shops franchise businesses are literally everywhere in Alabama. In Alabama, franchise businesses provide 125,000 jobs and $3.7 billion in payroll, which means stronger families and communities. In addition, over 90% of the revenue generally stays in the local community through jobs, vendor purchases, and community involvement. On top of that, franchises are like rocket fuel for new entrepreneurs. I should know. I opened my first KFC 20 years ago, and now own more than 15 KFC & Taco Bells throughout Alabama. I could not have done it without the franchise business model and the assistance and support of my franchisor. The franchise system is a win for everyone. It benefits local and national companies and it delivers results for our customers and Alabama families. Thats why state lawmakers never tried to get in the middle of this business relationship until now. The legislation basically upends the franchise system. If it passes, it will wrap small businesses in reams of red tape and fundamentally redefine the entire franchise model. Practices that have worked for decades will suddenly become illegal. In particular, there will be new restrictions on when and whether brands and small businesses can part ways. This is a huge payday for trial lawyers, who will be able to file bogus lawsuits to their hearts content. The legislation also applies retroactively to franchises that were established years or even decades ago, like mine. We entered willingly into a business contract. Now lawmakers want to change it without our consent. Why would the legislature overreach this far and get in the middle of my contract? Some lawmakers say this is about protecting franchisees like me, but they didnt ask me or any other franchise operator I know. The way we see it, the only small businesses this legislation helps are actually bad operators. Theyll have more wiggle-room to run their businesses poorly and ignore their brands standards. Those standards exist because they establish a level of quality and service for all of Alabamas consumers. They exist so I and franchisees like me can provide our customers with an experience equal to the brand promise they expected when they walked in the door. If this legislation becomes law, there will be less opportunity to franchise in Alabama. Its estimated that over the next four years, more than 400 fewer small businesses will open. Franchise growth will slow by 40%, costing the economy more than $350 million. Worst of all, our fellow Alabamians will lose out on at least 4,500 jobs. For the ten years after that, our state will be poorer by about a billion dollars and more than 12,000 jobs will never come our way. Is that really what state lawmakers want? Either theyre getting involved in something they dont understand or theyre listening to special interests who want to benefit at your and my expense. Take it from me, a small business owner in Alabama for 20 years. Franchising works. It is not broken. State lawmakers please dont try to fix it. David Barr is Chairman of PMTD Restaurants, which owns 18 KFC & Taco Bell restaurants in Alabama. He is also Chairman of the Board of the International Franchise Association. This article discusses two meetings. First, it reports on the HIV Planning Council (HIV-PC) meeting of March 28. Second, it reports on the South Florida AIDS Network (SFAN) meeting of April 5. The Broward HIV Planning Council (HIV-PC) oversees the Ryan White Care (RWC) Program of Broward (RWC-Broward), also known as Part A. The South Florida AIDS Network (SFAN) advises the RWC program of the Florida Department of Health in Broward (RWC-FL DOH Broward), also known as Part B. The HIV-PC meeting The HIV-PC approved service delivery standards for two programs. The AIDS Pharmaceutical Assistance program differs from AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). It provides short-term coverage for those meds for which ADAP does not provide coverage. The Emergency Financial Assistance program provides one-time or short-term urgent help for RWC clients. Lobbyist Kareem Murphy submitted a written report on Trumps proposed 2020 budget. In that budget, RWC and ADAP would see neither increases nor decreases. Other HIV programs, however, would see changes. Trump has proposed an increase of $291 million in his Ending the HIV Epidemic Plan. This would include funds for PrEP, HIV testing, and the Minority AIDS Initiative. It would increase funds for areas labeled high-need areas as well as for HIV programs at community health centers. Two areas would bear the brunt of these proposed cuts. The proposed budget would cut $63 million from Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA). It would also cut $1.3 billion from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). That program provides most of the funding for AIDS treatment and prevention in Africa. Over all, Trumps proposal would cut 12 percent from discretionary domestic spending. HIV programs tend to have support in both parties. Spending bills have to begin in the House, which the Democrats now control. As a result, this budget will be greatly rewritten. The public will have a much better idea of an actual budget when Congress starts to debate spending bills in May. The SFAN Meeting Serena Cook, RWC-FL DOH Broward, reported that RWC-FL DOH Broward has begun outreach to agencies about the Emergency Financial Assistance program. If RWC clients have urgent financial emergencies, they should call 954-467-4705. Wismy Cius, RWC-FL DOH Broward, reported on streamlining the dispensing of drugs from the DOH pharmacy to RWC clients without insurance. In the past, these clients had to go to the DOH pharmacy to obtain a 30-day supply. They now can obtain a 90-day supply and/or have their meds sent to their home. Clients will no longer have to take time off from work to pick up their meds. Jennifer Pace, of the Florida Department of Health HIV/AIDS section, called into this meeting from Tallahassee. She discussed the bilingual, multi-media Protect yourself campaign. It focuses on PrEP and testing, using billboards, digital media, websites, social media, and public events. Its social media posts have garnered 85 million impressions. The campaign focuses on ethnic, gender, linguistic, and sexual minorities at risk for HIV. Alex Barros, community liaison for Gilead, discussed a new website Stop the Virus. This site has HIV educational videos in English and Spanish. These videos can educate people about treatment and prevention and what an undetectable viral load means, among other topics. This site also has a link to a similar site for professionals. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2URGyKf. Holy Cross Hospital now has a free and bilingual diabetes prevention program. For more information call 954-383-9419 or visit www.holycrossdpp.com. Next SFAN Meeting: Friday, May 3, at 10:00 a.m. at Holy Cross Healthplex, 1000 NE 56th St., Fort Lauderdale. SFAN welcomes newcomers. Next HIV-PC meeting: Thursday April 25 at 9:30 a.m. at Broward Government Center, Room GC430, 115 S. Andrews Ave. In August 2007, very few people in Kenya had heard of Julian Assange or WikiLeaks, his uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis. The organisation was barely a year old and had posted a handful of documents. Then they leaked the Kroll report an investigation commissioned in 2003 by the newly elected Mwai Kibaki administration in an attempt to uncover where the former dictator, Daniel arap Moi, and his family and cronies had stashed away the hundreds of millions of dollars they had stolen from Kenyans in the previous quarter of a century. Kroll Associates, the consultancy firm hired to lead the investigation, eventually traced over $1.3bn in cash and assets spread out in nearly 30 countries. The report, which provided a rare comprehensive look at the scale of the looting, was submitted to the Kenyan government in 2004, by which time the Kibaki government had not only lost the appetite to fight corruption, but was itself deeply engaged in gluttonous eating. So, the report was buried. And buried it might have stayed were it not for WikiLeaks, which somehow got a hold of it and, in conjunction with the Guardian, published its details. For once, Kenyans were afforded an unvarnished and detailed glimpse of the amount of national wealth that was being stolen by the very people tasked with protecting it. Three years later, the Kenyan public would again benefit from a cache of documents published by WikiLeaks. The leaked US diplomatic cables it released revealed what Kenyan politicians were saying to American envoys behind closed doors and how different it was from the public statements they were making. If information is the lifeblood of democracy, then people like Julian Assange and sites like WikiLeaks are vital blood banks. As press revenues shrink and expensive investigative departments are done away with, it becomes ever harder for citizens to get the information they need to hold their governments to account. Outfits like WikiLeaks can go some way into filling that void and providing some basic information. In that sense, what they are doing is journalism. But of course, this is not how governments see it, which is why as I write this, Assange is spending his nights in a British jail. Having overstayed his welcome at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had been granted asylum to avoid rape charges in Sweden and possible extradition to the US, he was arrested on April 11. The US government is currently dreaming up additional charges to pay him back for his role in exposing its global secrets and iniquities. Though it would be right and proper that he be tried for the accusations against him in Sweden, should prosecutors resurrect the charges against him, extradition to the US would be a different matter altogether. As many have pointed out, Assange is guilty of little more than an act of journalism he did no more than other news outlets such as the Guardian or the New York times which also published the material leaked by then Private First Class Bradley Manning, now Chelsea Manning, who, after becoming aware of US misconduct in Iraq, concluded, I was actively involved in something that I was completely against. The revelations brought to light the many abuses US forces were committing in Iraq. They included a secret video showing US air crew in 2007 falsely claiming to have encountered a firefight in Baghdad and then laughing at the dead after launching an air raid that killed a dozen people, including two Iraqis working for Reuters News Agency. The leaks of diplomatic cables embarrassed US envoys across the world by showing exactly what they thought of their hosts and interlocutors. They earned Assange the enmity of government officials across the Western world. In the US, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and then-Vice President Joe Biden branded him a hi-tech terrorist and former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin demanded that he be hunted down with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. WikiLeaks was pushed off a series of servers in the US and denied online money transfer services by PayPal, Visa and Mastercard. In Europe, the Swiss Post shut down Assanges bank account, stripping him of yet another key fundraising tool. And yet, the US and its allies seemingly struggled to come up with laws that Assange had broken in relation to the leaked documents. The US indictment accuses Assange of offering to help crack a password. As media watch group, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, notes, it goes even further, criminalizing the use of an electronic drop box and other tactics that investigate journalists routinely use in the computer age to work with a confidential source. It is clear that the near decade-long effort to get at Assange is aimed at sending a message to the wider journalistic community: Dont mess with the US! It is for this reason that the US government demands its pound of flesh and is determined to jail Assange. Yet, if allowed, this will endanger every other journalistic enterprise that publishes accurate but embarrassing information that governments would wish to keep secret. An extradition to the US would signal to regimes around the world that journalists are fair game, endangering media professionals, particularly in the developing world where independent reporting is already facing severe pressures. Clearly, Assange has not endeared themselves even to many who support their cause. The role of the site in leaking hacked emails during the 2016 US elections still grates upon some today, as do his political statements and bias. However, his political views and survival game should not distract from the real issue posed by the extradition request. The day after his 2009 inauguration, and a year before his administration set after Assange and WikiLeaks, US President Barack Obama noted that the government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Yet that is exactly what his administration sought to do and what his successor, Donald Trump, is now doing. For Kenyans and many others around the world who rely on the leaks of such information to know what their governments are up to, it would be a tragedy if they succeed. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. US Attorney General William Barr says Mueller report found no collusion between Trump and Russia in 2016 elections. US Attorney General William Barr on Thursday defended President Donald Trump in advance of the release of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report on Russias role in the 2016 US election, emphasising that it found no collusion between Trumps campaign and Moscow. Barr, the top US law enforcement official and a Trump appointee, gave a news conference at the Justice Department as he sought to shape the narrative on a watershed day in Trumps tumultuous presidency. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinising his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates, Barr said. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was, in fact, no collusion, added Barr, one of a handful of people to have seen the report. The reports disclosure, with portions expected to be blacked out by Barr, is certain to launch a new political fight in Congress and on the 2020 presidential campaign trail, as Trump seeks re-election in a deeply divided country. Moments after Barr concluded his news conference, Trump posted an image of himself on Twitter surrounded by fog with the words: No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats GAME OVER. 190418130236282 The delay in seeing the report sparked Democratic complaints that Barr wanted to shape the publics views during his news conference before others had a chance to draw their own conclusions. Democrats, who are demanding the release of the full, unredacted version, have heavily criticised Barrs handling of the rollout of the report. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr had thrown out his credibility and the DOJs independence with his single-minded effort to protect Trump. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, The process is poisoned before the report is even released. Pelosi and Schumer issued a joint statement early on Thursday calling for Mueller to appear before Congress as soon as possible. They said Barrs partisan handling of the report has resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality. Disagreement Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel in May 2017, disagreed with some of Muellers legal theories about obstruction of justice and concluded that the special counsel did not have sufficient evidence to establish that Trump committed an obstruction of justice. Barr added, Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. Barr said Trumps personal lawyers were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released, a revelation expected to infuriate congressional Democrats. The Russian government sought to interfere in our election process but thanks to the special counsels thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign, Barr said. 190326083105913 The report promises to provide new details about some of the biggest questions in the investigation, including the extent and nature of his campaigns interactions with Russia and actions Trump may have taken to hinder the inquiry including his 2017 firing of FBI Director James Comey. Mueller submitted the report to Barr last month. Two days later, Barr told politicians the inquiry did not establish that Trumps 2016 campaign team engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia and that Mueller had not exonerated Trump of committing the crime of obstruction of justice. Barr subsequently concluded that Trump had not committed obstruction of justice. Thousands of subpoenas Asked why Mueller was not invited to take part in the news conference, Barr said that the special counsel was merely required under the regulation to provide me with a confidential report. Im here to discuss my response to that report and my decision, entirely discretionary, to make it public, since these reports are not supposed to be made public. Thats what Im here to discuss, Barr said. Justice Department regulations give Barr broad authority to decide how much of the report to make public. 190329081858733 Thats the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigations, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere in the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those efforts, Barr said. The release of the report may deepen an already bitter partisan rift between Trumps fellow Republicans, most of whom have rallied around the president, and his Democratic critics, who will have to decide how hard to go after Trump as they prepare congressional investigations of his administration. As Democrats lash out at Barr over handling of Mueller report, Republicans applaud the attorney general. US Democrats have criticised Attorney General William Barr over his handling of the long-awaited Mueller report, while Republicans and President Donald Trumps legal team have celebrated Barr. On Thursday, Barr released a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers long-awaited report into Russias role in the 2016 US presidential elections. The report, which is more than 440 pages long, has multiple redactions, including information that has been classified, information that relates to ongoing probes and grand jury information, which includes witness interviews and other records. According to the report, Mueller did not make a conclusion on whether President Trump had committed obstruction of justice, but did not exonerate him either. Barr subsequently concluded that Trump had not broken the law, but told a news conference that Mueller had detailed 10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offence. As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. 190417201052723 Political spin Democrats, who are demanding the release of the unredacted report, scolded Barr over his handling of the report. Its clear AG Barr is acting as Trumps personal attorney, not Americas, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on Twitter, adding, Our country demands and deserves full transparency. Thats why we must hear directly from Mueller. #MuellerReport. Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, requested that Mueller testify to panel no later than May 23. Adam Schiff, the Democratic House Intelligence Committee chairman, said Mueller has been invited to testify in front of the committee. After a two-year investigation, the public deserves the facts, not Attorney General Barrs political spin, he said. Kamala Harris, a US Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful, urged Barr to provide Congress with a full, non-redacted version of the Mueller report with all the underlying investigative materials. Trumps legal team, however, claimed the results of the investigation constituted a total victory for the president. The report underscores what we have argued from the very beginning there was no collusion there was no obstruction, his legal team said. Relentless speculation Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said that the US is fortunate to have an experienced leader like Bill Barr and claimed the attorney general had acted with maximum possible transparency. Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, while noting that the committees review of the report is ongoing, applauded Barr for his commitment to transparency and keeping the American people informed. in advance of the reports release on Thursday, Barr defended Trump. Barr, the top US law enforcement official and Trump appointee, gave a news conference at the Justice Department as he sought to shape the narrative on a watershed day in Trumps tumultuous presidency. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinising his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates, he said. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion, added Barr, one of the handful of people to have seen the report. Attorney General William Barr speaks alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, right, and Deputy Attorney General Ed OCallaghan, left, about the release of a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report during a news conference [Patrick Semansky/AP] Barr also said that a version of Muellers report with fewer redactions will be made available to a small group of politicians. In a letter to Congress later on Thursday, Barr said the second version of the report would be given to the Gang of Eight, the top-ranking House and Senate politicians from both parties who can view sensitive classified information. The chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate judiciary committees will also receive it. Barr said all redactions would be removed from that version of the report except those relating to grand-jury information. The attorney general said, I do not believe that I have discretion to disclose grand-jury information to Congress. Nevertheless, this accommodation will allow you to review the bulk of the redacted material for yourselves. Trump took to Twitter to post a meme that read, No collusion no obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats GAME OVER. Denial comes after investigative website published leaked intelligence report showing French arms being used in Yemen. French weapons are not being used against civilians in Yemen, Frances armed forces minister Florence Parly said on Thursday. Leaked intelligence published by investigative website Disclose showed this week that French arms, including tanks and laser-guided missile systems sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were being used in the Yemeni war against civilians. To my knowledge, French weapons are not being used in any offensive in the war in Yemen. I do not have any evidence that would lead me to believe that French arms are behind the origins of civilian victims in Yemen, Parly told Radio Classique. Entitled Yemen: security situation, a 15-page classified report written by Frances DRM military intelligence agency includes maps that detail the positioning of French-made weapons inside Yemen and on the Saudi side of the border. The report demonstrates that large numbers of Yemenis live under the threat of the French-made arms, according to Disclose. The intelligence document states that Caesar cannons, manufactured by French company Nexter and deployed along the Saudi-Yemeni frontier, conduct defensive shelling of Houthi forces as well as back up loyalist troops and Saudi armed forces in their progression into Yemeni territory. The intelligence dossier is dated September 25, 2018. It was presented to Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, as well as Frances defence and foreign ministers. The Disclose report was part of an investigation carried out with Mediapart, Konbini, France Inter radio, Arte television and US-based The Intercept. France is a signatory of the UN Arms Trade Treaty that regulates the international trade of conventional weapons and bans the sale of weapons that fuel human rights violations or war crimes. UN experts have said all sides in the Yemeni conflict may have committed war crimes. The four-year conflict in Yemen has shattered its economy and created one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises, the UN says. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed and some 10 million people have been driven to the brink of famine. Germany has imposed an embargo on arms exports to Saudi Arabia over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi amid concerns over Riyadhs role in the Yemen war, drawing criticism from the arms industry and from allies France and Britain, which say the move has put joint projects at risk. Passengers were removed from buses travelling from Gwadar to Karachi before being shot dead, officials say. Islamabad, Pakistan At least 14 people have been shot dead by attackers after several buses were ambushed in the remote Ormara area of Pakistans southwestern Balochistan province, officials say. The travellers were removed from the buses and taken to a second location, where they were shot dead, early on Thursday morning, provincial information minister Zahoor Buledi told Al Jazeera. They identified non-Baloch by checking their identity cards and employee cards, said Buledi. They took them to the nearby mountains and shot them dead after tying their hands. Muhammad Musa, a local health official who examined the bodies, told Al Jazeera that most had been shot in the head. They were all bullet injuries, he said. There are no wounded, all are dead. Provincial home minister Zia Langove confirmed the accounts of the killings and told Al Jazeera a search operation is ongoing in the area to find the perpetrators. We will definitely look at the security precautions on the route, but it is a very long route from Karachi to Gwadar. We have many security posts, but whenever terrorists want to carry out such attacks, they can target [vehicles] in remote locations, he said. The buses were carrying passengers from the port city of Gwadar to Karachi, the countrys largest metropolis, a distance of roughly 630km. Remote area The attack took place at an isolated location on the countrys main coastal highway, near the Hingol national park. This is a very remote place, about 60km from the nearest town in Ormara and 300km from Gwadar, Asif Shawani, a local health official, told Al Jazeera. Balochistan is Pakistans largest but least populated province. The attack took place on an isolated stretch of the main coastal highway [Al Jazeera] The Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar (BRAS), an alliance of armed ethnic Baloch separatist groups, claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement released on Thursday. Those who were targeted carried [identification] cards of the Pakistan Navy and Coast Guards, and they were only killed after they were identified, said Baloch Khan, a BRAS spokesperson. Buledi said the government could not immediately confirm whether those killed were members of the security forces. Separatist movement Pakistan has been battling an armed ethnic Baloch separatist movement for more than a decade, with armed groups carrying out frequent attacks against security forces and government targets in the vast Balochistan province. Balochistan, Pakistans largest but least populated province, is rich in mineral resources. It has been the focus of a number of trade and road projects that are part of the estimated $60bn in investments and loans for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a joint Chinese-Pakistan venture that would see southwestern China linked to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan. The culmination of the trade corridor is a deepwater port at Gwadar. Baloch separatist groups accuse Pakistan of rights abuses in its fight against political activists calling for freedom for the ethnic Baloch areas of the province, and say the government is extracting the provinces wealth without providing basic services and rights to those living there. Pakistans military and government say the armed groups are backed by India, the countrys eastern neighbour, with whom it has fought three wars. These people have no ideological stance, they just commit injustice and are murderers for hire, said Buledi in a tweet shortly after the attack. Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim. Saadullah Akhtar contributed additional reporting from Quetta. Reporters Without Borders warns the number of countries where journalists can work safely is plummeting. Hatred of journalists whipped up by populist and authoritarian leaders is degenerating into violence across the world, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has warned. The number of countries where journalists can work safely is plummeting, RSFs annual World Press Freedom Index revealed on Thursday. Political leaders hostility towards the media has incited increasingly frequent acts of violence that have fuelled an unprecedented level of fear and danger for journalists, the report added. If the political debate slides towards a civil war-style atmosphere, where journalists are treated as scapegoats, then democracy is in great danger, said Christophe Deloire, director general of RSF. Press freedom seems in good health in less than a quarter of the 180 countries covered by the index, with the United States sliding to 48th place. The period since President Donald Trumps election in 2016 has been one of the American journalism communitys darkest moments, the report said, linking Trumps notorious anti-press rhetoric with terrifying harassment aimed particularly at women and journalists of colour. Never before have US journalists been subjected to so many death threats or turned so often to private security firms for protection. Hatred of the media is now such that a gunman walked into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, in June and killed four journalists and one other staff member, the report added. The Paris-based watchdog fears that the rising tide of strongman leaders no longer seem to know any limits, citing the gruesome murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last year. A critic of the Saudi regime, Khashoggi was killed and dismembered on October 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a team of 15 agents sent from Riyadh. His body has not yet been recovered. Meanwhile, India, the worlds biggest democracy, slid two places further into the red zone at 140th place. Six reporters were murdered in India last year and RSF said critics of the Hindu nationalism espoused by its ruling party are branded as anti-Indian in online harassment campaigns. 190413133901719 Russia, which the report branded as another pioneer of repression, continued to slide down to 149th place. Another former Soviet republic, Turkmenistan, has sunk to the very bottom of the ranking, supplanting North Korea because of its disgraceful and relentless repression of reporters. Armenia, meanwhile, jumped 19 places to 61st after its Velvet Revolution and Kyrgyzstan also climbed 15 places to 83rd after it ended travel bans and the threat of levying astronomical damages on reporters. But, there was little to cheer about in China, which remains rooted to the bottom of the list with the fourth worst record. Expected subpoena sets up likely legal battle over access to Muellers full findings in his Trump-Russia investigation. Washington, DC US Representative Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said on Thursday he will issue a subpoena for the full, unredacted copy of the Mueller report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Because Congress requires this material in order to perform our constitutionally-mandated responsibilities, I will subpoena for the full report and the underlying materials, Nadler said in a statement on Thursday after US Attorney General William Barr released a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report to the public. In a letter sent to Congress on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said that the Justice Department would make a less-redacted version of the report available to the Gang of Eight, the top-ranking House and Senate Democrats and Republicans, as well as the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. Each politician can also have a staff member present. Boyd said the report would be provided in a secure reading room at the Justice Department next week and in a secure room on the Capitol the week of April 29. Nadlers comments come as politicians, journalists and the public scour through nearly 450 pages of the redacted Mueller report. A preliminary look at the report shows that Mueller identified numerous links between individuals with ties to Moscow and individuals associated with the Trump campaign, but the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges of collusion or coordination. The report also revealed, however, a series of incidents in which US President Donald Trump took actions to impede the investigation. According to the report, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn in June 2017 to tell the then-acting attorney general that Mueller had to be removed. McGahn refused. The report also found there was substantial evidence that in 2017 Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey because of his unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation. Mueller did not make a conclusion on whether Trump committed obstruction of justice, but he also did not exonerate him, according to the report. Barr then concluded that Muellers team did not find enough proof to warrant bring charges against the president. Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct, Nadler said a statement. The special counsel determined that he would not make a traditional charging decision in part because of the Department of Justice policy that a sitting President could not be indicted, he added. Rather, the special counsels office conducted an incredibly thorough investigation in order to preserve the evidence for future investigators. The special counsel made clear that he did not exonerate the president. The responsibility now falls to Congress to hold the President accountable for his actions. Nadler also said that he has formally requested that Mueller testify before the House judiciary panel by May 23. Barr is expected to testify before the committee on May 2. Likely court battle The expected subpoena sets up a likely court battle between Congress and the Trump administration, if Barr refuses to provide the House with the full document. So far, he has said he will not. The chances of his subpoena working are less than snowballs chance in a very hot area beneath the surface of the earth. Its going to have to be a court order, said Gene Rossi, a former Justice Department prosecutor now in private practice in Washington, DC. The House Judiciary Committee, and the House and Senate intelligence committees, they should get the full unredacted report. They are in the business of getting classified information and they are in the business of protecting the disclosure of classified information, Rossi told Al Jazeera. There is absolutely no reason why those committees cannot get the full monty the full report. The House would have to bring a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, DC, to enforce any subpoena. That could take months even under expedited procedures and would likely ultimately only be settled by the US Supreme Court even though the law is clear on Congresss ability to obtain documents from the executive branch, Rossi said. Because it is so important it could be an expedited briefing. And they could do this in two months. The judges dont need a lot of research, Rossi said. 190416214801192 Its not a hard question. Are the committees entitled to the full report if the committees promise not to disclose parts of the report? And if thats the case, there is no reason not to give it to them. They have the oversight ability and the authority. Entitled to full report Democrats had warned Barr in an April 11 letter that partial release of the Mueller report would be inadequate. Congress is entitled to the full report without redactions as well as the underlying evidence, Nadler and five House committee chairs had said in the letter. In every other instance where a federal grand jury was used to probe the alleged misconduct of a sitting president namely in the Watergate and Starr investigations the Department of Justice has worked with the relevant federal court to release the grand jury information to the House Judiciary Committee, the Democrats letter said. That has not happened in this instance. The Judiciary Committee had authorised the subpoena in a party-line vote on April 3 but Nadler withheld issuing the legal instrument to allow Barr time to work with members of Congress. Instead, Barr insisted he would only consult Congress after the redacted report was released. The Justice Department staff had reviewed redactions of Muellers report in four areas; grand jury information, intelligence sources and methods, potential interference with ongoing prosecutions, and information that would implicate privacy or reputation interest of peripheral third parties. Trump has sought to turn the narrative in Washington, DC, back on the investigators, claiming Total EXONERATION on Twitter and repeatedly suggesting the investigation was a hoax premised on false information fabricated by political opponents. Undercuts law enforcement Barr caused an uproar when he picked up Trumps claims and said in testimony before a Senate committee April 10 that he believed US agencies had been spying on the Trump campaign in 2016. 190410211558232 Barr subsequently walked the comments back slightly, saying, I just want to satisfy myself that there was no abuse of intelligence or law enforcement powers. But some Democrats in Congress have started to view Barr as little more than a political operator working on Trumps behalf. Barrs comments have just destroyed the scintilla of credibility he had left in terms of being a responsible person, Senator Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, told reporters last week. When he talked about spying, he made himself into the most partisan attorney general I have seen in a while. Others have reserved judgment on whether Barr was doing his job correctly, even if his suggestion of spying by top FBI officials on the Trump campaign raised eyebrows. That kind of language undercuts law enforcement and the investigative teams that were clearly trying to do their job, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen told Al Jazeera. There were things going on that led to the investigation that were legitimate. I had a briefing with the Department of Homeland Security in the summer of 2016 because I was hearing that there was Russian interference in our elections, Shaheen said. Clearly, there was information about the [Russian] effort at the time the investigation started. US-based group says torture is ongoing in Mosuls Faisaliya prison, despite calls on government to take action. Iraqi officers have continued to torture detainees in the countrys second largest city of Mosul, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. HRW documented new torture allegations early this year at the Faisaliya prison in northern Iraq, around six months after publishing a report on what it said were chilling abuses there and in two nearby facilities. The rights group said it had reached out about last years allegations to the Iraqi prime ministers office, the foreign ministry and the interior ministry, without response. If the Iraqi government ignores credible reports of torture, its no wonder that the abuses persist, said Lama Fakih, HRWs deputy Middle East director. What will it take for the authorities to take torture allegations seriously? A detainee held in Faisaliya prison in early 2019 described guards beating groups of naked detainees on their feet with plastic piping until they confessed to being affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group. The prisoner said guards also waterboarded detainees and suspended them from the ceiling with their hands tied behind their backs. Faisaliya is located in eastern Mosul, the battered Iraqi city that was ISILs de facto capital for three years before Iraqi government forces recaptured it in late 2017. Iraq has since tried thousands of its own citizens, as well as hundreds of foreigners, for affiliation to the armed group. But rights groups including HRW say the accused are often detained on lofty or circumstantial evidence, their trials do not guarantee due process, and that torture is widespread in Iraqs prison system. In a press release on Thursday, HRW said Iraqi judges had routinely failed to investigate credible reports of torture in detention. The group urged Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdis government to publicly condemn the use of torture by all law enforcement, security and military personnel. Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdis government should demonstrate to the Iraqi people that it is serious about ending torture in Iraqs detention facilities, Fakih said. Strong actions are needed, she said. Earlier this month, the group said, Iraqs High Judicial Council told HRW that Iraqi courts had investigated 275 complaints against investigative officers by the end of 2018. The council said 176 had been resolved, without providing details of the outcome, while 99 were still being addressed. Indian home ministry says armed groups were using the cross-border route to send arms, drugs and fake Indian currency. India suspended cross-border trade with Pakistan-administered Kashmir because it was being used to funnel weapons and drugs in a further crackdown in the volatile territory. Trade across the Line of Control (LoC) or the heavily militarised de facto border that divides the two parts of Kashmir between India and Pakistan has served as a confidence-building measure and to help the local population. But tensions between India and Pakistan have been running high ever since a Pakistan-based group claimed responsibility for bombing a security convoy in Kashmir, an attack that killed more than 40 Indian troops. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the middle of a tightening election race, ordered air attacks on a suspected camp of the Jaish-e-Muhammad group in northwest Pakistan, prompting a retaliatory air raid by Pakistan. On Thursday, the Indian home ministry said it received information that armed groups were using the cross-border route to send arms, drugs and fake Indian currency. Unscrupulous and anti-national elements are using the route as a conduit for money, drugs and weapons, under the garb of this trade, the ministry said. It said inquiries by the National Investigation Agency had shown a significant number of firms engaged in the cross-border trade were being operated by people with links to armed groups. It did not name anyone. Favoured status Trade operates on a barter system where no money is exchanged. Indian traders export cumin, chilli pepper, cloth, cardamom, bananas, pomegranate, grapes and almonds. Prayer mats, carpets, cloth, oranges, mangos and herbs return from the Pakistani side. Soon after the attack on the Indian security convoy, India withdrew Most Favoured Nation status from Pakistan, accusing its neighbour of not doing enough to rein in armed groups operating from its soil. Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack. The Indian government said on Thursday it believed that following the withdrawal of favoured status, more goods from Pakistan could be routed through the cross-border channels in Kashmir to avoid the higher duties. It has, therefore, been decided by the government of India to suspend the LoC trade at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Jammu and Kashmir with immediate effect, the government said referring to the points from where the trade took place. There was no immediate reaction from Pakistan. Fears of violence as President Widodo announces vote victory and his rival Prabowo does the same citing ballot-rigging. President Joko Widodo has declared victory in the presidential election of Indonesia, the worlds third-largest democracy. But his challenger Prabowo Subianto has also claimed his win while also complaining of widespread cheating. The standoff comes as security officials and analysts warned of potential violence in the worlds most populous Muslim nation over the election dispute. On Thursday, unofficial results from private pollsters based on vote samples from Wednesdays election pointed to a comfortable win for Widodo, with about 55 percent of the popular vote, giving him a lead of almost 10 percentage points over his rival, former general Subianto. The counts from reputable pollsters have proved to be accurate in previous elections, though the official result will not be announced until May 22. Widodo told reporters he had received congratulatory calls from 22 state leaders, including Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and he invited his rival to meet. We all know that the QC [quick count] calculation is a scientific calculation method. From the countrys experiences of past elections the accuracy is 99.9 percent, almost the same as real count results, Widodo said. He also urged supporters to wait for official results to confirm the win. Widespread cheating At a separate news conference just minutes after Widodo declared victory, Prabowo appeared defiant and said his team had evidence of cheating and claimed to have won 62 percent of the popular vote based on internal polling. We have declared [victory] because we got evidence of widespread cheating at the village, sub-district and district levels across Indonesia, he said, standing next to his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, who looked more subdued. In 2014, Prabowo also claimed victory on election day before contesting the results at the Constitutional Court, which confirmed Widodos win. A spokesman for Prabowo said he would take his complaint to the Constitutional Court if the Election Commission confirmed Widodos victory. The commission said earlier on its website Widodo had secured about 50 percent of the vote, based on results from 808 of more than 800,000 polling stations, with Prabowo securing about 45 percent vote. The English daily Jakarta Post carried a front-page headline declaring Five More Years next to a picture of the president. Alexander Raymond Arifianto, a political analyst at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said Widodos margin of victory meant the opposition did not appear to have a strong case to claim the election was stolen. But he noted supporters of the challenger, including the hardline Alumni 212 movement, could hit the streets to dispute the election. So Prabowo has no case but the hardliners and Alumni 212 can create lots of headaches for Jokowi if they go ahead with their protest plan tomorrow and in future weeks, he said, referring to the president by his nickname. Peaceful march Novel Bamukmin, a spokesman for Alumni 212, said the movement planned a peaceful march after Friday prayers at Jakartas Istiqlal Mosque. We just want to bow down to express our gratitude in order that this victory is recognised, he said, referring to Prabowos claim he won the election. Religious groups have in the past been able to mobilise tens of thousands of supporters. Since late 2016, they organised a series of big protests against Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the first ethnic-Chinese Christian to hold the job, who was subsequently jailed for insulting the Quran. Police vowed firm action against any rallies that could disturb security. I appeal to anyone not to mobilise, whether to mobilise people to celebrate victory or mobilise due to dissatisfaction, said national police chief Tito Karnavian. Avoid anarchy 190416031749532 At the same news conference, Chief Security Minister Wiranto called for people to avoid any act of anarchy that breaches the law. Wiranto, who uses a single name, added security forces will act decisively against any threats to order and security. Indonesia is an outpost of democracy in a southeast Asian neighbourhood of authoritarian governments and is forecast to be among the worlds biggest economies by 2030. A second term for Widodo, the first Indonesian president from outside the Jakarta elite, could further cement the countrys two decades of democratisation. The election was a huge logistical exercise with 193 million people eligible to vote, more than 800,000 polling stations, and 17 million people involved in ensuring the polls ran smoothly. Helicopters, boats and horses were used to get ballots to remote and inaccessible corners of the sprawling archipelago. Speaking at an Army Day parade, Iranian president also urged neighbouring countries to drive back Zionism. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on countries across the Middle East to unite against the United States during an address at an Army Day parade in Tehran. Speaking at a ceremony on Thursday, Rouhani also urged neighbouring countries to drive back Zionism, saying the US and its ally Israel were the root cause of the regions problems. He added that Irans armed forces were not a threat against any regional country. The regions nations have lived alongside each other for centuries and never had a problem If there is a problem, it is caused by others, Rouhani said. If we have a problem in the region today, its roots are either with Zionism or Americas arrogance. Flanked by top generals, Rouhani told Irans neighbours and countries across the region that its armed forces are never against you or your national interests but are standing against the aggressors. Let us stand together, be together and rid the region of the aggressors presence, he added in the speech broadcast live on state television. During the ceremony, soldiers marched past a podium where Rouhani and top military commanders were standing, while locally designed and produced fighter jets took part for the first time in an air display. Iran also unveiled missiles, submarines, armoured vehicles, radars and electronic warfare systems. It also showed off its Russian S-300 missile defence system. We seek regional security Iranian armed forces were more powerful than ever, said Rouhani, amid rising tensions with the US. We seek regional security and stability, countries sovereignty and end of terrorism and their activities in this region, he said. Iran has two armies, one that operates as a national defensive force, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps created after the 1979 revolution to protect the Islamic Republic against both internal and external adversaries. The US officially designated the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation on Monday, an unprecedented move that was condemned by Iran and created concerns about reprisal attacks on US forces. Rouhani called the US move against the guards abhorrent and said Insulting the Revolutionary Guards is an insult to all [Iranian] armed forces, and an insult to Iranian great nation. Irans army has the biggest ground force in Iran and the Revolutionary Guards are in control of a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles. Last year, US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from a multilateral agreement on Irans nuclear programme, later reimposing sanctions focusing on oil exports and financial transactions. Parades were cancelled in a few provinces where the armed forces were deployed to help flood-affected people. The flooding, which began on March 19, has killed 76 people, forced more than 220,000 people into emergency shelters, and left aid agencies struggling to cope. Rouhani said: I doubt we can find this level of unity between people and armed forces in any other country. Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had accused the US of economic terrorism, saying its unilateral sanctions were impeding aid efforts to flood-stricken cities. Iran has received material aid from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Kuwait as well as from Germany, France and Japan. United Nations Inquiries into the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi should not end once her report on the killing is submitted in the coming weeks, United Nations investigator Agnes Callamard has said. Callamard, an academic who leads an international probe into the killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, is set to release her findings to the UN Human Rights Council before its next session in June. My report is going to spend a lot of time and pages on the next steps and the recommendations and how we provide accountability to Mr Khashoggi, to his family, friends and colleagues, Callamard told Al Jazeera on Thursday. It will examine how we ensure that the killing, and the vacuum the killing generated in terms of accountability, [so] that we take steps to address the vacuum, she added. Callamard said while she cannot prosecute any suspects, she can refer the case higher up the UN system. This could include calls for more scrutiny at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, at the UN Security Council in New York, or by the head of the organisation, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Im not a court of law. I cannot try the perpetrators. I can provide the information, I can recommend that the perpetrators and the masterminds be tried, but I cannot do that myself, Callamard said. You have to wait a few more months as I go through the various options, but you will find that in the report. Brutal and premeditated killing Khashoggi was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage. After initially offering contradictory statements, Riyadh confirmed the journalist was killed inside the building. The US Senate, after a closed-door briefing by the CIA, adopted a resolution in December naming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the murder a conclusion the kingdom denies. Within days of wrapping up her January 28 to February 3 mission to Turkey, Callamard concluded the evidence pointed to a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by Saudi officials. Since then, she has received extra police and forensic reports from Turkey, she told Al Jazeera. Those documents were still being translated. The Saudi public prosecutor indicted 11 unnamed suspects in November, including five who could face the death penalty on charges of ordering and committing the crime. But these trials could not be seen as the appropriate response to the killing of Mr Khashoggi, Callamard, the UNs special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said. For Callamard, those trials fall below global standards for fairness and she has urged Riyadh to reveal the defendants names and the fate of 10 others initially arrested. Call for sanctions Louis Charbonneau, the UN director at Human Rights Watch, urged countries to slap targeted sanctions on top Saudi officials who are blamed for the killing in Callamards report. 190326142316598 The global community must make it clear to the Saudi government that there will be no business as usual with a government that lures a journalist and regime critic to a diplomatic outpost and dismembers him, Charbonneau told Al Jazeera. Still, Saudi Arabia may only get limited blowback via the UN system, he added. UN chief Guterres is reluctant to launch his own probe into the killing, and Saudi allies such as the United States and the United Kingdom can veto any proposed investigation or sanctions on Riyadh in the Security Council, added Charbonneau. The Human Rights Council can highlight Saudi Arabias abysmal human rights record, he said. Going forward, UN member states should think creatively about ways of ensuring that we can have credible international investigations of heinous crimes like the Khashoggi murder that dont rely solely on the decision-making of timid international diplomats like the current UN secretary-general, Charbonneau said. Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who was living in the US, had gone to the Saudi consulate to collect documents for his planned wedding. A critic of the Saudi government and the crown prince, Khashoggi had resisted pressure from Riyadh to return home. His body has yet to be found. Follow James Reinl on Twitter: @jamesreinl WHO says it has deployed more staff as UN-recognised government seeks international action against Khalifa Haftar. At least 205 people have been killed in the battle for control of the Libyan capital Tripoli, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday, as the United Nations-recognised government said it would seek the prosecution of renegade military leader Khalifa Haftar in the International Criminal Court (ICC). Libyas unity government issued an arrest warrant for General Haftar for allegedly ordering deadly air attacks against civilian areas. Six of Haftars officers were also named in the warrant, which was issued by the military prosecutor general and published by the unity governments press office. The United Nations(UN)-affiliated WHO said in a post on Twitter it had deployed medical specialists to support front-line hospitals as the recent fighting had also left more than 900 wounded. Toll for armed conflict in #Tripoli is 205 dead and 913 wounded. Medical specialists that WHO #Libya deployed to support frontline hospitals are helping perform dozens of surgeries. pic.twitter.com/94zXHzsQq1 World Health Organization in Libya (@WHOLIBYA) April 17, 2019 According to WHO, at least 18 civilians were among those killed in the fighting that broke out on April 4 when Haftar launched an offensive to take Tripoli, which is controlled by the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). WHO said it was keeping medical and surgical teams deployed at field hospitals near the front lines as Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) remained in the capitals southern outskirts and battled armed groups loyal to the government. Meanwhile, on Thursday, armed groups attacked a major airbase in southern Libya that is controlled by the LNA. The Tamanhint base near Sabha is the main base in southern Libya, which the LNA seized earlier this year. Fighting was continuing at the base, Sabha Mayor Hamid Rafaa al-Khiyali and an eastern military official said, without giving more details. The identity of the attackers was not immediately clear. ICC probe More than 25,000 people have been displaced by the clashes, including 4,500 over the past 24 hours, the International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday. During a tour of the Tripoli neighbourhoods worst hit by the rocket fire on Tuesday, GNA head Fayez al-Sarraj said the UN Security Council must hold Haftar to account for his forces savagery and barbarism. Its the legal and humanitarian responsibility of the Security Council and the international community to hold this criminal responsible for his actions, al-Sarraj said in footage of the tour released by his office. He said his government would seek Haftars prosecution for war crimes by the ICC in The Hague. Haftar has concentrated his forces near Tripoli, using mainly the Jufrah airbase but also Tamanhint to fly in material and send it on by road up north towards the Mediterranean coast. 190415210410048 The LNA seized Libyas sprawling south with its two main oilfields earlier this year, although tribesmen with flexible loyalties remain strong in the sparsely populated desert region. Fighting continues The UNs Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame, warned on Thursday of a widening conflagration in the North African country, saying international divisions had encouraged Haftar to launch his assault on Tripoli. Despite days of heaving fighting, Salame told AFP news agency there was a stalemate south of the capital. After the very first successes of the Libyan National Army two weeks ago, we are witnessing a military deadlock, he said. The resurgence of open conflict in Libya threatens to disrupt oil flows, increase migration across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and allow armed groups to exploit the chaos. Benghazi-based Haftar enjoys the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which view him as an anchor to restore stability. French support? In Europe, France has given Haftar support in the past, viewing him as the best bet to end Libyas disorder. However, on Thursday France said it supported the government in Tripoli after that authority accused it of backing Haftar in eastern Libya and said it would cut security cooperation with Paris. As we have already stated on several occasions, France supports the legitimate government of Prime Minister Sarraj and the mediation of the UN for an inclusive political solution in Libya, a French presidential official said. Furthermore, the presidents legitimate interlocutor is Prime Minister Sarraj, with whom the president spoke on Monday to reaffirm this support. Italy, the ex-colonial power with extensive oil holdings in Libya, backs the Tripoli government of al-Sarraj and fumed over French reluctance to endorse a recent European Union resolution urging Haftar to halt his advance. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned on Thursday the deteriorating situation in Libya could lead to an upsurge in violence. The situation of chaos and violence strongly increases the risk of a resurgence of the terrorist phenomenon, which is still present in Libya, Conte told parliament. The fight against terrorism and the flow of foreign fighters remains, therefore, one of the principal challenges facing the country and the entire international community, he said. Al-Sarrajs government views the 75-year-old Haftar as a dangerous would-be dictator. The UN Security Council has been considering a British-drafted resolution that would demand a ceasefire and urge all nations with influence over the warring parties to ensure compliance. Quake also shook buildings in the capital, Taipei, forcing the metro system in the capital to be suspended. A magnitude 6.1 earthquake has struck Taiwans coastal city of Hualien, shaking buildings and temporarily suspending subway services in the capital Taipei, causing minor damage and injuries. Local television footage showed school children being evacuated from buildings, while a weather bureau official said Thursdays quake was the largest to hit the island so far this year. It struck at 1:01pm local time (05:01 GMT) at a depth of nearly 19km. It was centred northwest of the city of Hualien on the countrys east coast, said Taiwans Central Weather Bureau. Water pipes at Hualiens train station burst and rail traffic was briefly suspended. Two hikers in the Taroko Gorge national park, including one from Malaysia, were injured by falling rocks, the Hualien government reported. The tremors were felt in the capital Taipei, about 115km from the epicentre, where officials shut down the metro for just over an hour for safety checks. The National Fire Agency reported 15 injuries around Taipei and that two buildings were temporarily evacuated due to structural damage. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes. More than 100 people were killed in an earthquake in the islands south in 2016, and in 1999, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake killed more than 2,000 people. We felt the quake move the building vertically and thats more serious than normal, Georgia Kao, a Taipei resident, told Al Jazeera. I felt very scared. It reminded me of the 1999 earthquake. The building moved up and down and then right to left. The first thing I did was to open my door and grab both my daughters. Luckily, it didnt last very long. Map of felt reports received so far following the #earthquake M6.1 in Taiwan 45 min ago pic.twitter.com/Mvl139Mbcp EMSC (@LastQuake) April 18, 2019 The United States Geological Survey put the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.4. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that people living near the coast could notice some effects on sea levels, but said there would be no tsunami. Due to this earthquake, Japans coastal areas may observe slight changes on the oceanic surface, but there is no concern about damage, the agency said. Hualien was hit by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake last year that killed 17 people. Ethics court orders any cash found in Walter Onnoghens foreign bank accounts be taken by the treasury. Nigerias top judge has been sacked by a tribunal that found him guilty of falsely declaring his assets. Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen was banned from office for 10 years on Thursday and ordered to forfeit any assets he could not account for to the state. Onnoghens suspension in January by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, just weeks before a presidential election, prompted allegations of interference in judicial matters. The chief justice holds a key role in determining the outcome of Nigerian elections if the results are appealed by a candidate and a tribunal is formed. A request to remove the chief justice usually requires the approval of two-thirds of the Senate, but Buhari did not follow that process. Onnoghen was tried for failing to divulge cash in five foreign bank accounts in contravention of rules governing the declaration of assets by public officials. 190227083032841 The defendant has clearly contravened the code of conduct for public officers, and he is hereby convicted, said Danladi Umar, chairman of the countrys ethics court. Umar ordered that any cash found in Onnoghens foreign bank accounts be taken by the treasury. The money in the five accounts, which the defendant has failed to declare and disclose its source, is hereby confiscated, seized and forfeited to the federal government, Umar said. After the ruling, Onnoghens lawyer, Okon Efut, said the process had not been fair. He decried what he called the unconstitutional suspension of the judge in January, claiming it was the first step in what he said was a premeditated decision. Judgment had been passed before today, Efut said. As head of the Supreme Court, Onnoghen could have ruled on any disputes relating to the election, which saw Buhari, of the All Progressives Congress, win a second term of office. Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition group, Peoples Democratic Party, who lost to Buhari has launched a legal challenge to the result, after calling the election a sham. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supervised the test-firing of a new type of tactical guided weapon in a move that could be an attempt to register the countrys displeasure with currently deadlocked nuclear talks with the United States. The countrys state media, KCNA, reported on Thursday that the advantages of the weapon were the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead. The report also said that the North Korean leader described its development as one of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the Peoples Army. KCNA added that Wednesdays test was conducted in various modes of firing at different targets and that Kim guided the test-fire. The announcement comes a day after a US monitor, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said activity had been detected at North Koreas main nuclear site. It suggested Pyongyang may be reprocessing radioactive material into bomb fuel since the collapse of a February summit with the US in Vietnam. That meeting, the second between US President Donald Trump and Kim, ended abruptly without agreement on Pyongyangs nuclear programme. Since then, North Korea has said it is mulling options for its diplomacy with the US, and Kim said last week he was open to talks with Trump only if Washington came with the proper attitude. Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US state department official, told Al Jazeera that it was a tactical weapon and not a missile. North Korea is maybe exaggerating a bit in order to get Americas attention and thats what it is all about, said Fitzpatrick. Kim would like to make Trump think again about a deal that might be in the interest of both countries [following the failed Vietnam summit]. The White House said it was aware of the report and had no comment. The Pentagon said it was aware of the reports but has no information to provide at this point. Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day, said Center for the National Interest analyst Harry Kazianis. 190416023730477 His regime is becoming frustrated with Washingtons lack of flexibility in recent negotiations. Last November, KCNA reported that Kim oversaw the testing of a newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon months after his first meeting with Trump. It was the first official report of a weapons test by North Korea since it began negotiations with Washington over its nuclear and missile programme. Foreign ministry describes the US secretary of state as reckless and says it wants him replaced by another official. North Korea wants United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced with someone more careful and mature in talks over its banned nuclear programme, a senior official told state media, hours after the country announced a missile test. Describing Pompeo as reckless the foreign ministry said a summit in Vietnam earlier this year showed that talks could go wrong whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in. The April meeting in Hanoi between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump collapsed after the US president reportedlygave Kim a document demanding that North Korea transfer its nuclear arsenal and weapons fuel to the US. The model proposed was one that Pompeo and US National Security Adviser John Bolton had supported. I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled, Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the ministrys Department of American Affairs said, according to the official KCNA news agency. 190417234059466 Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the US, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but (another) person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us. It is not the first time North Korea has singled out Pompeo for special criticism. When the top US diplomat met North Korean officials in Pyongyang in July, he was condemned for his gangster-like insistence that the North move towards unilateral disarmament. Kwon said leader Kim had made clear that the US attitude has to change, adding that Pompeo was standing in the way of a resumption of talks. We cannot be aware of Pompeos ulterior motive behind his self-indulgence in reckless remarks; whether he is indeed unable to understand words properly or just pretending on purpose, he said. New weapon tested Thursdays attack on Pompeo came hours after KCNA announced Kim had supervised the test-firing of a new tactical-guided weapon with a powerful warhead. It also comes after satellite imagery suggested heightened activity at a nuclear test site. Wednesdays test was conducted in various modes of firing at different targets, KCNA reported, adding that Kim described its development as one of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the Peoples Army. The report gave no details of the weapon. Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US state department official, told Al Jazeera that it was a tactical weapon and not a missile. North Korea is maybe exaggerating a bit in order to get Americas attention and thats what it is all about, said Fitzpatrick. Kim would like to make Trump think again about a deal that might be in the interest of both countries [following the failed Vietnam summit]. 190416023730477 Earlier in the week, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US monitor, said activity had been detected at Yongbyon, the Norths main nuclear testing facility. The think-tank said evidence suggested Pyongyang may be reprocessing radioactive material into bomb fuel. Kims Hanoi summit with Trump, the second between the two men, ended abruptly, with North Korea later protesting that the US was being unreasonable. Since then, North Korea has said it is mulling options for its diplomacy with the US, and Kim said last week he was open to talks with Trump only if Washington came with the proper attitude. How do you explore the interior of a planet without ever touching down on it? Start by watching the way the planet spins, then measure how your spacecraft orbits it -- very, very carefully. This is exactly what NASA planetary scientists did, using data from the agency's former mission to Mercury. It has long been known that Mercury and the Earth have metallic cores. Like Earth, Mercury's outer core is composed of liquid metal, but there have only been hints that Mercury's innermost core is solid. Now, in a new study, scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland have found evidence that Mercury's inner core is indeed solid and that it is very nearly the same size as Earth's inner core. Some scientists compare Mercury to a cannonball because its metal core fills nearly 85 percent of the volume of the planet. This large core -- huge compared to the other rocky planets in our solar system -- has long been one of the most intriguing mysteries about Mercury. Scientists had also wondered whether Mercury might have a solid inner core. The findings of Mercury's solid inner core, described in Geophysical Research Letters, certainly adds to a better understanding of Mercury, but there are larger ramifications. Just how similar, and how different, the cores of the planets are may give us clues about how the solar system formed and how rocky planets change over time. "Mercury's interior is still active, due to the molten core that powers the planet's weak magnetic field, relative to Earth's," said Antonio Genova, an assistant professor at the Sapienza University of Rome who led the research while at NASA Goddard. "Mercury's interior has cooled more rapidly than our planet's. Mercury may help us predict how Earth's magnetic field will change as the core cools." To figure out what the core of Mercury is made of, Genova and his colleagues had to get, figuratively, closer. The team used several observations from the MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry and Ranging) mission to probe the interior of Mercury. The researchers looked, most importantly, at the planet's spin and gravity. The MESSENGER spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury in March 2011, and spent four years observing this nearest planet to our Sun until it was deliberately brought down to the planet's surface in April 2015. Radio observations from MESSENGER were used to determine the gravitational anomalies (areas of local increases or decreases in mass) and the location of its rotational pole, which allowed scientists to understand the orientation of the planet. Each planet spins on an axis, also known as the pole. Mercury spins much more slowly than Earth, with its day lasting about 58 Earth days. Scientists often use tiny variations in the way an object spins to reveal clues about its internal structure. In 2007, radar observations made from Earth revealed small shifts in the spin of Mercury, called librations, that proved some of Mercury's core must be liquid-molten metal. But observations of the spin rate alone were not sufficient to give a clear measurement of what the inner core was like. Could there be a solid core lurking underneath, scientists wondered? Gravity can help answer that question. "Gravity is a powerful tool to look at the deep interior of a planet because it depends on the planet's density structure," said Sander Goossens, a Goddard researcher who worked with Genova on this study. As MESSENGER orbited Mercury over the course of its mission, and got closer and closer to the surface, scientists recorded how the spacecraft accelerated under the influence of the planet's gravity. The density structure of a planet can create subtle changes in a spacecraft's orbit. In the later parts of the mission, MESSENGER flew about 120 miles above the surface, and less than 65 miles during its last year. The final low-altitude orbits provided the best data yet, and allowed for Genova and his team to make the most accurate measurements about the internal structure of Mercury yet taken. Genova and his team put data from MESSENGER into a sophisticated computer program that allowed them to adjust parameters and figure out what the interior composition of Mercury must be like to match the way it spins and the way the spacecraft accelerated around it. The results showed that for the best match, Mercury must have a large, solid inner core. They estimated that the solid, iron core is about 1,260 miles (about 2,000 kilometers) wide and makes up about half of Mercury's entire core (about 2,440 miles, or nearly 4,000 kilometers, wide). In contrast, Earth's solid core is about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) across, taking up a little more than a third of this planet's entire core. "We had to pull together information from many fields: geodesy, geochemistry, orbital mechanics and gravity to find out what Mercury's internal structure must be," said Goddard planetary scientist Erwan Mazarico, who also helped Genova reveal Mercury's solid core. The fact that scientists needed to get close to Mercury to find out more about its interior highlights the power of sending spacecraft to other worlds. Such accurate measurements of Mercury's spin and gravity were simply not possible to make from Earth. Additionally, this result used data collected by MESSENGER over several years, information that's available for all scientists to use. New discoveries about Mercury are practically guaranteed to be waiting in MESSENGER's archives, with each discovery about our local planetary neighborhood giving us a better understanding of what lies beyond. "Every new bit of information about our solar system helps us understand the larger universe," said Genova. Genova's research team also included Goddard planetary scientists Frank Lemoine, Gregory Neumann, Weijia Kuang, and Terence Sabaka. Other team members include Steven Hauck (Case Western University), David Smith (MIT), Sean Solomon (Columbia University), and Maria Zuber (MIT). Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Quebec flooding could be worse than in 2017 as rapid thaw causes ice jam to give way. The small Canadian city of Beauceville, located to the east of Quebec City, was assessing major damage on Wednesday after an ice jam broke free in the spring thaw the day before, sending icy water down roads and flooding streets. The floodwater rose quickly, moving chunks of ice and debris along with it through submerged roads according to the state broadcaster CBC. Canadian news outlets reported that somewhere between 230 and 300 homes and businesses were flooded and that several dozen people had been displaced from their homes. Water levels are now starting to drop along the Chaudiere River in Beauceville but the actual clean-up is expected to take many days if not weeks. Such flooding has not been seen in the area in over a decade, and local meteorologists say that temperatures in the region are expected to stay above freezing. This means that the increased risk of flooding from melting snow is ongoing. Meanwhile, the city of Rigaud, near the Quebec-Ontario border, is telling residents to pack up and leave their homes over the next 24 hours as Thursday and Friday will bring heavy rains, and the resulting floods could be worse than those in the spring of 2017. Marie Andree Gagnon, a spokesperson for the municipality on the Ottawa River, west of Montreal, said flooding will peak over the next four days and will worsen quickly once it starts. Environment Canada, which is part of the environment ministry, said 25 to 50 millimetres of rain is expected to fall in the region over Thursday and Friday, and the still-frozen ground has a limited ability to absorb it. More rain is forecast for the weekend. Officials in Montreal and Laval are also bracing for flooding that could come by the weekend, as the storm clouds dumping rain near the Ontario border move further east. Starting on Sunday, areas hit by flooding in 2017 could be in for more of the same. Montreal has not given an estimate of how many residences are at risk of flooding, but it said the same areas as 2017 will be affected. US Attorney General William Barr released a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report on Russias role in the 2016 US presidential election on Thursday. The release of a long-awaited report, which is nearly 450 pages long and filled with large chunks of blacked-out text, was a watershed moment in Donald Trumps tumultuous presidency. Before its release, Barr whose Department of Justice oversaw the investigation delivered a spirited defence of the Republican president and his actions, infuriating Democrats. Mueller did not conclude that Trump had committed obstruction of justice, but did not exonerate him either. Barr subsequently concluded that Trump had not broken the law, but told a news conference that Mueller had detailed 10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offence. As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Trumps legal team called the results a total victory for the president, while Democrats criticised Barr for his handling of the report and called for the release of the full, unredacted findings of the investigation. Here are the key takeaways from the report: 1. Trump tried to seize control, influence probe Muellers report revealed that Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Muellers removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. 190417201052723 Mueller evaluated 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice, including Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey, the presidents directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. The report said that in June 2017, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call the acting attorney general and say that Mueller must be removed because he had conflicts of interest. McGahn refused deciding he would rather resign than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate firings fame. The report also said there was substantial evidence that Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017 due to his unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation. For all of that, Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed criminal obstruction of justice. The presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests, the special counsel wrote. The presidents lawyers have said Trumps conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Muellers team deemed the episodes deserving of criminal scrutiny. While declining to prosecute Trump for obstruction, the special counsel said such a determination could be left to the US Congress. Under applicable Supreme Court precedent, the Constitution does not categorically and permanently immunise a president for obstructing justice. 190326083105913 The separation-of-powers doctrine authorises Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regardless of their source. The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law. 2. Questions of collusion: Not sufficient evidence for criminal charges As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. The report said there were numerous contacts between members of Trumps circle and Russia and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts. But it said the efforts did not amount to criminal conspiracy. The Russian contacts consisted of business connections, offers of assistance to the campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin to meet in person, invitations for campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet, and policy positions seeking improved US-Russian relations. Special counsel Robert Muellers redacted report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election as released [Jon Elswick/AP Photo] 190418164759268 Mueller also said there wasnt sufficient evidence to charge any campaign officials with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. The report included an appendix that contained 12 pages of Trumps written responses to the special counsel. They included no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trumps legal team. Trump told Mueller he had no recollection of learning in advance about the much-scrutinised Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Hillary Clintons campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made complimentary statements about him. Trump said that his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Clintons private server was made in jest and sarcastically and that he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. 3. Trump cursed Mueller appointment: This is the end of my presidency Trump believed the appointment of a special counsel to take over the federal probe of Russian interference into the 2016 election would spell the end of his presidency, according to the report. When then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions informed Trump of Muellers appointment in May 2017, the report said, Trump slumped back in his chair and said: Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im f***ed. 190417211038833 Trump then asked Sessions, whom he had berated for months for recusing himself from the Russia probe, How could you let this happen, Jeff? and told Sessions he had let him down. Sessions, who resigned in November 2018, recalled that Trump said to him, You were supposed to protect me, or words to that effect, the report said. The Republican president had bristled at the investigation since taking office in January 2017, belittling Sessions and calling the probe a witch-hunt and a hoax. Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency, Trump said, according to the report. It takes years and years and I wont be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. 4. Manaforts efforts to monetise the campaign Mueller found that then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manaforts efforts to work with his former business partners in Ukraine were greater than previously known, as he tried to use his insider status on the campaign to collect on debts owed for his past work by Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as his campaign manager Paul Manafort looks on during Trumps walk through at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland [File: Rick Wilking/Reuters] Shortly after he joined the campaign in the spring of 2016, Manafort directed his deputy Rick Gates to share internal polling data and other campaign materials with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former Ukrainian business partner, with the understanding that it would get passed on to Deripaska, the report said. During an August 2016 meeting in New York, Manafort told Kilimnik about the campaigns efforts to win the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the report said. Trump ended up winning three of those states in the November 2016 election. Manafort worked with his Ukrainian allies until the spring of 2018, after he had been indicted by Mueller, to promote a peace plan that would have split the country in two. These efforts did not constitute coordination between the campaign and Russian efforts to disrupt the election, Mueller found. Manafort urged Gates not to plead guilty after they were both indicted by Mueller, apparently believing that they would be pardoned by the president if they did not cooperate with investigators. Trumps numerous sympathetic statements before and during Manaforts criminal trial could be interpreted as an effort to sway the outcome, but they also could be interpreted as a sign that he genuinely felt sorry for Manafort, Mueller said. 5. Mueller said he could have subpoenaed Trump Mueller tried for more than a year to interview Trump, but in the end, Trump refused. Trump provided written answers on some Russia-related topics, but did not agree to answer questions about possible obstruction of justice or events that took place during the presidential transition. Mueller said he thought he had the legal authority to order Trump to testify before a grand jury, but he decided not to take that course, due to the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation. US Justice Department to release Special Counsel Robert Muellers report on Trumps presidential campaign. In a matter of hours, US Attorney General William Barr is expected to release some of the information from Special Counsels Robert Muellers investigation into President Donald Trump and his campaign. The investigation took Mueller two years, but Barr concluded that the president had not tried to obstruct justice in just two days. The reports expected to be heavily redacted but Congress is already preparing to fight for much of the information. Al Jazeeras Patty Culhane reports from Washington, DC. Iranian president lashes out at US-imposed sanctions that hampered flood relief operations in his country. The United Statess reaction to floods that killed dozens of people in Iran has revealed Washingtons vicious nature, said Irans President Hassan Rouhani. At least 76 people have died after torrential rainfall which has caused damages of around $2.5bn since March 19. Irans Red Crescent has repeatedly complained that US banking sanctions reimposed last year make it impossible to receive donations from outside the country. Washington always claimed that it is on very good terms with the people of Iran [and] it is the Iranian government that it has a problem with, Rouhani said on Wednesday before adding that by blocking aid to the Red Crescent, the US had given lie to that claim. The heads of the American regime have revealed their true vicious and inhuman nature, he said at a cabinet meeting screened live on state TV. State TV quoted Rouhani as saying that if US officials were wise, they should have announced they would suspend the sanctions for one year because of the floods. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have estimated two million people need humanitarian aid following the largest disaster to hit Iran in more than 15 years. The floods were a historic test for the American leadership, Rouhani said. Last year, US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from a multilateral agreement on Irans nuclear programme, later reimposing sanctions focussing on oil exports and financial transactions. Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has accused the US of economic terrorism, saying its unilateral sanctions were impeding aid efforts to flood-stricken cities. Iran has received material aid from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Kuwait as well as from Germany, France and Japan. The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Ali Asghar Peyvandi, criticised the US for blocking the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). We used a number of bank accounts connected to SWIFT, which we used for receiving international aid. But at the moment these accounts are subject to sanctions, the Iranian Students News Agency quoted him as saying last month. Its impossible to transfer cash from other countries as well as the International Federation of [Red Cross and] Red Crescent Societies, he said. Moscows announcement comes after Pyongyang slams US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, claims new missile test conducted. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will travel to Russia later this month to meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said. Chairman Kim will be in Russia in the second half of April on Putins invitation, it said in a statement on Thursday but gave no further details. The meeting will be the first of its kind between the two leaders. Russias Izvestia newspaper cited a diplomatic source on Wednesday as saying the talks would likely be held in Russias far eastern city of Vladivostok, before Putin flies on to an April 26-27 summit in China. A North Korean official, Kim Chang Son, travelled to Vladivostok this week and was seen on Wednesday inspecting the citys train station and making security checks, Russias RIA news agency reported on Thursday, citing a station official. The Kremlins announcement came just hours after Pyongyangs foreign ministry denounced US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as reckless and called for him to be removed from negotiations between Washington and North Korean officials over long-running nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang also said it had conducted its first weapons test since the last summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February broke down with no agreement, claiming it launched a new kind of weapon with a powerful warhead. US ready to engage Pyongyang and Washington have been at loggerheads since the collapse of the Hanoi summit, the second meeting of its kind after the pair held talks in Singapore in June 2018. The posturing comes after Kim expressed deep disappointment earlier this month with what North Korea claims were inflexible, gangster-like demands by the US in Hanoi. Though Kim claims he still has a good personal relationship with the US president, he and senior North Korean officials have shown increasing frustration with Trumps top advisers Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton. The Hanoi summit gives us a lesson that whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in, the talks go wrong without any results even from the point close to success, Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the American desk at North Koreas foreign ministry, was quoted as saying on Thursday. I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but [some] other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us, said Kwon. Full denuclearisation 190225054227799 Responding to Pyongyangs remarks, a spokesperson for the US State Department said on Thursday that Washington remained ready to engage with North Korea in a constructive manner. The United States was aware of the North Korean foreign ministrys demand regarding Pompeo, the spokesperson added, but did not provide any further comment. Pompeo, who travelled four times to North Korea last year, has voiced hope for a deal with North Korea but also stood firm in calling for the country to commit to full denuclearisation before the US eases sanctions. US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun was in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday to meet Russian officials to discuss ways to advance a final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea, the US said. Russia has maintained relatively warm ties with Pyongyang and continued to provide food aid to the country, with Putin repeatedly expressing his readiness to meet Kim. Contribution of food and shelter material comes amid US-Iran sanction relief spat over flood recovery efforts. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have donated 95 tonnes of aid to their flood-hit regional rival Iran, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The aid, which included food and material for shelters, was delivered by the Saudi Red Crescent Authority following authorisation from Saudi Arabias King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, SPA reported on Thursday. The Emirates Red Crescent was also involved in the relief operation, UAEs official WAM news agency said. Iran has yet to comment on the aid package. Torrential rainfall since March 19 in the Islamic republic of Iran has killed at least 76 people. The downpours have left large swaths of the country submerged by floodwater and caused damage estimated to total about $2.5bn so far. Tehran has complained that United States sanctions have obstructed relief efforts. Reimposed last year following President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from a landmark nuclear deal, those sanctions were brokered between Iran and world powers in 2015. Tehran accuses US of economic terrorism Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the US should suspend for one year its punitive measures because of the floods, removing banking sanctions that make it impossible to receive financial donations from outside the country. The heads of the American regime have revealed their true vicious and inhuman nature, Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting shown live on state television. 190412174539077 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, meanwhile, has accused the US of waging economic terrorism by imposing the sanctions. In the midst of the spat, Iran has received aid from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Kuwait, as well as from Germany, France and Japan. The move by Saudi Arabia and the UAE came despite the long-standing rivalry with Shia-majority Iran, which is based as much on geostrategic interests as religious differences. Facing off across the Gulf, the major oil producers have taken opposing sides for decades in conflicts across the Middle East. Riyadh broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2016 in protest over the torching of its diplomatic missions by Iranian protesters angry over its execution of a leading Shia scholar. Thousands of Sudanese are converging on the countrys military headquarters in Khartoum, continuing with their demands that the military council that took over power from former President Omar al-Bashir hand it over to civilian leadership. Engineers and environmentalists took to the streets on Thursday, taking out marches at their respective ministries before proceeding onto the square in front of the military headquarters where a demonstration has been going on since last week as it continues to be the centre of the nationwide protests. We need to use the power of the people to take over these institutions and liberate them from the domination of the old regime, Argam Ahmed, a representative of engineers in the umbrella group of unions and syndicates the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA) told Al Jazeera. The SPA, which has been leading the protests, has told people not to leave the square until their demands are met. 190414135158735 We are happy with what we have achieved so far, but we do trust the SPA. So when it says we should stay in the square, thats what we are going to do, said Amir Abdul Rahman, an engineer. The renewed push by the demonstrators comes one week after al-Bashir was overthrown after three decades of rule. Defence Minister General Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf stepped down after 24 hours as the head of the military council when the demonstrators objected to anyone associated with the previous regime. The council is now headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a career soldier who is largely unknown outside of the army. Demonstrators have called on the military to hand over power to a civilian administration that will rule for four years. Some concessions The military council has made some concessions to protesters, including the removal of the countrys three highest-ranking public prosecutors, and the appointment of new intelligence chief. It has also invited protest organisers and political parties to decide on a civilian prime minister, but said it would hold on to the interior and defence ministries. The thousands in the square on Thursday were expected to be joined by womens groups, trade unionists, and students. Despite hot weather, the mood in the square was jubilant on Thursday, with people singing and dancing, and others chanting slogans in support of the SPA as traders and businessmen distributed free food and water to the protesters. Mohammed Amin in Khartoum contributed to this report. Before release of redacted Mueller report, Democrats ramp up criticism of Barr, saying hes thrown out his credibility. The top Democrats in the US House of Representatives and Senate on Thursday called on Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify publicly about his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer criticised Attorney General William Barr for writing what they called a slanted summary letter and for planning a press conference to immediately follow the expected release of the report detailing the probes findings on Thursday. We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsels investigation is for Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible, Pelosi and Schumer said in a statement. The spokesman for the special counsels office declined to comment. Pelosi has also said Barr had thrown out his credibility and the DOJs independence with his single-minded effort to protect President Donald Trump. And Schumer said, The process is poisoned before the report is even released. Barr on March 24 sent a four-page letter to politicians detailing Muellers principal conclusions including that the 22-month probe did not establish that Trumps 2016 campaign team conspired with Russia. Barr said he found insufficient evidence in Muellers report to conclude that Trump committed obstruction of justice, though the special counsel did not make a formal finding one way or the other on that. Waging a media campaign for Trump Thursdays release of the redacted report is certain to launch a new political fight spilling into the halls of Congress and the 2020 presidential campaign trail. 190415160713190 Barr has pledged to testify publicly about the reports conclusions before the Senate and House judiciary committees on May 1 and 2, respectively. The Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee voted on April 3 to empower its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, to issue subpoenas for the full report and underlying evidence. Late on Wednesday, Nadler said Barr appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of Trump. He said the attorney generals decision to hold a Thursday morning news conference, before releasing a redacted version of Muellers report to Congress, will again result in the report being presented through his own words. He warned that if the report is heavily redacted, the committee will issue subpoenas in short order. The release marks a watershed moment in Trumps presidency, promising new details about some of the biggest questions in the probe, including the extent and nature of his campaigns contacts with Russia and actions Trump may have taken to hinder the inquiry including his 2017 firing of FBI Director James Comey. Copies of the report will be delivered to Capitol Hill more than an hour later, between 11am and noon (15:00-16:00 GMT), a senior DOJ official said. The delay in seeing the report sparked Democratic complaints that Barr, a Trump appointee, wanted to shape the publics views during his news conference before others had a chance to draw their own conclusions. 190416214801192 Muellers investigation, which Trump has called a witch hunt, raised questions about the legitimacy of Trumps presidency and laid bare what the special counsel and US intelligence agencies have described as a Russian operation to derail Democrat Hillary Clintons candidacy and elevate Trump, the Kremlins preferred candidate. Some Democrats have spoken of launching impeachment proceedings against Trump in Congress, allowed under the US Constitution to remove a president from office for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours, but top Democrats have been notably cautious. Mueller charged 34 people and three Russian companies. Those who were convicted or pleaded guilty included figures close to Trump such as his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, personal lawyer Michael Cohen and NSA Michael Flynn. 2,500 foreign children of ISIL fighters stuck in a Syrian camp, UN says, urging governments to take responsibility. Thousands of foreign children are stuck in a Syrian camp after fleeing fighting in Islamic State of Iraq and the Levants (ISIL or ISIS) last stronghold, according to a United Nations official. Panos Moumtzis, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, urged governments on Thursday not to abandon the 2,500 children held in a restricted section of the sprawling al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. There is a prime responsibility of states vis-a-vis their own nationals, Moumtzis said at a news conference in Geneva, calling on home nations to take responsibility for repatriating their citizens. Really, nobody should be rendered stateless, said Moumtzis. Children should be treated first and foremost as victims and irrespective of family affiliation, he added. A number of European countries have refused to take back their citizens who joined ISIL after the group declared its caliphate in Iraqs second-largest city, Mosul, in 2014. At its height, the armed group ruled one-third of both Syria and Iraq, and more than 30,000 foreigners, including 6,000 Europeans, travelled to the Middle East to join it. There are 10,000 non-Syrian and non-Iraqi nationals from 30-40 countries at the sprawling Kurdish-run camp in Hassakeh province, according to the Red Cross. The camp, established in the 1990s to accommodate about 5,000 Iraqi refugees, held 10,000 people last December. It is now overcrowded with more than 75,000 people, according to Moumtzis. More than 90 percent are women and children. The huge influx followed the assault by the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the last ISIL holdout in Baghouz on the Euphrates River. The enclave collapsed last month. There are more than 75,000 people at the al-Hol camp, according to the UN [Ali Hashisho/Reuters] SDF said it has rounded up more than 5,000 ISIL fighters, of whom 1,000 were foreigners, but said it does not have the authority or the capacity to prosecute them or hold their families long-term. The United States and the SDF have long urged European allies to take back ISIL fighters but negotiations have so far ended without agreement and only a handful of detainees have been repatriated. Home countries of suspected ISIL members are reluctant to take them or their families back because of potential security risks and likely public backlash. Britain revoked the citizenship of a teenager who left at 15 to join ISIL in Syria, while Austria and Switzerland have said they will not help bring adults who joined ISIL home. 190218233213761 On Thursday, Moumtzis called for a concerted effort from the international community. This is not about blaming or naming and shaming, but its really about being practical and finding a way forward that would find a solution, he said. Meanwhile, aid agencies and officials have warned of a humanitarian emergency at al-Hol camp. According to the UN, 260 people have died while making the journey or upon arrival at the camp since December, including 211 children under the age of five. The highly-anticipated report shows a series of incidents in which Trump took actions to impede Muellers probe. US Attorney General William Barr released the highly-anticipated redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers Trump-Russia investigation report on Thursday. The report, which is more than 440 pages long, has multiple redactions, including information that has been classified, information that relates to ongoing probes and grand jury information, which includes witness interviews and other records. According to the report, Mueller did not make a conclusion on whether President Donald Trump had committed obstruction of justice, but did not exonerate him either. Barr subsequently concluded that Trump had not broken the law, but told a news conference that Mueller had detailed 10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offence. The report shows a series of incidents in which Trump took actions to impede the probe. Mueller reported that Trump had been agitated at the special counsel probe from its earliest days, reacting to Muellers appointment by saying it was the end of his presidency. In June 2017, Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to tell the then-acting attorney general that Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed, the report said. McGahn refused to carry out Trumps order to fire Mueller for fear of being seen as triggering another Saturday night massacre', referring to a term used during Nixons Watergate scandal. 190326083105913 The report also said there was substantial evidence that Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017 due to his unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation. As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Mueller cited some evidence suggesting Trump knew about former NSA Michael Flynns controversial calls with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office, but the evidence was inconclusive and could not be used to establish intent to obstruct. The report said Trump directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to ask former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to say the Russia investigation was very unfair. The report said Muellers team did not issue a subpoena to force Trump to give an interview to the special counsel because it would have created a substantial delay at a late stage in the investigation. It said Mueller accepted the long-standing Justice Department view that a sitting president cannot be indicted on criminal charges. Trump celebrated the report, telling a gathering of wounded veterans, It was called no collusion, no obstruction. There never was, by the way, and there never will be. He added, This should never happen to another president again, this hoax. Barr defends Trump Barr defended Trump in a press conference about 90 minutes before he released the report. He emphasised that Mueller found no collusion between Trumps campaign and Moscow. 190418130236282 President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinising his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates, Barr said. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion, added Barr, one of the handful of people to have seen the report. Democrats, who are demanding the release of the full, unredacted report, have scolded Barr over his handling of the report, saying they were concerned that a summary of its main conclusions he released last month portrayed the investigations findings in an overly favourable way for Trump. Crisis of confidence Ahead on the redacted reports release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr had thrown out his credibility & the DOJs independence with his single-minded effort to protect Trump. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, The process is poisoned before the report is even released. The top Democrats issued a joint statement calling for Mueller to appear before Congress as soon as possible. They said Barrs partisan handling of the report has resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality. Late on Wednesday, Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, warned that if the report is heavily redacted, the committee will issue subpoenas in short order. On Thursday, Nadler requested that Mueller testify to panel no later than May 23. 190416214801192 Barr said on Thursday that Trumps personal lawyers were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released, a revelation certain to infuriate congressional Democrats. Earlier this week, Rudy Giuliani, one of Trumps lawyers said the presidents legal team were putting the finishing touches on a rebuttal to the report. The full pink moon is expected to occur on Good Friday at 12:12 BST (07.12 EST). Despite having the name, the moon will not actually appear as the colour pink. Its name is derived from a flower that blooms at the same time in Spring annually. The pink full moon will rise over Earth on Good Friday. Picture by DARKFOXELIXIR/ SHUTTERSTOCK Stargazers around the world will be treated to a stunning astronomical display of a full Pink Moon on Good Friday. Despite its name, the Pink Moon wont actually be that colour but instead derives the name because it coincides with the blooming of a pink wildflower The name comes from the Herb moss pink phlox, or wild ground phlox, which blooms in early spring in the US and Canada WHEN CAN YOU SEE THE PINK MOON? According to the farmers Almanac, the peak fullness will be reached at 12.12 BST and this year, it will be visible from everywhere on Earth on Good Friday. The timing of the full moons appearance depends on where the moon is in its orbit around the Earth; this is why the actual time of the full moon can be in daylight for certain locations American commuters making their way to work will be able to catch the event as it reaches its peak at 7:12A.M EST. In China, it will occur in the evening time starting from approximately 4pm, calculated from China Standard Time. France, Italy and Spain will be able to catch it at around 13.00 (WET) and it will reach its peak in eastern Europe at around 14.00 (EET). For the best chance of seeing it, try to head to an area with little light pollution, so the moon will look particularly bright in the night sky. The April full moon will be the fourth full moon of 2019 after millions around the very rare events like the Super blood wolf moon in January. A full moon, known as a Pink Moon in the month of April, rising on the sea front at North Berwick in East Lothian in 2018 The name comes from the Herb moss pink phlox, or wild ground phlox, which blooms in early spring in the US and Canada. It occurs when the moon is located on the opposite side of the Earth as the sun, meaning its face is fully illuminated The pink moon has also been called the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and the full Fish Moon. According to an Old Wives Tale, many believe that labour can be induced by the lunar cycle and the start of a full moon. Despite its name, the Pink Moon wont actually be that colour but instead derives the name because it coincides with the blooming of a pink wildflower. A `Pink Moon seen through a cherry blossom tree in Dublin The suggestion is that a full moons gravitational pull affects the amniotic fluid in the same way it affects the water in the sea and rivers, as well as influencing the levels of the hormone melatonin. WHAT IS A FULL PINK MOON AND WHERE DOES IT GET ITS NAME? In the Northern Hemisphere, the April full moon lines up with the blooming of one of springs earliest-flowering plants wild ground phlox, or moss pink. The pink moon, which is also known as the grass moon and the egg moon, was given its moniker by Native Americans, who provided a name for each full moon to help them keep track of time. Native Americans have a name for the full moon of every month in the calendar, including Wolf Moon for January, Snow Moon for February and Worm Moon for March then Flower Moon in May, Strawberry Moon is for June, Buck Moon is for July and Sturgeon Moon is for August. In September, there is a Harvest Moon, Hunters Moon is in October, Beaver Moon is in November and Cold Moon is in December. The phenomenon, known as the Pink Moon, earns its name from the flowering of the brightly-coloured herb moss pink According to the Ontario Native Literacy Coalition, the Ojibwe peoples indigenous to North America called it the Sucker Moon after the common fish species known as suckerfish. This fish, also known as the remora, is one of the animals that the Ojibwe saw as a messenger between the spirit world and ours. In the same region, the Cree called Aprils full moon the Goose Moon, as April was the month when geese returned to the north after migrating south for the winter. The Tlingit of the Pacific Northwest call the April full moon Xeigaa Kayaani Dis, meaning Budding moon of plants and shrubs, according to the Tlingit Moon and Tide Teaching Resource published by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. In New Zealand, the Maori people had much different traditions for their April full moons, because in the Southern Hemisphere, April arrives in autumn. The Maori called the April moon Paenga-whawha, describing the month as a time when all straw is now stacked at the borders of the plantations, according to The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. For the Jewish people, April 20 marks the beginning of the holiday of Passover (the 15th day of the lunar month of Nisan), which celebrates the escape from Egypt and has been popularized by films such as The Ten Commandments and Disneys The Prince of Egypt. After 3 Supermoons in January, February and March, lets hope that Aprils fullmoon will be as awesome! Follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER. Share your thoughts in our DISCUSSION FORUMS. Donate through Paypal. Please and thank you [Space, DailyMail] Activists say women suffered from deadly crackdown in unexpected ways, and played a key role in the opposition movement. Jinotepe, Nicaragua Watching nervously for paramilitaries on motorcycles that stalked the street outside her door, Juana Lesage said she has lived months of terror since all three of her sons were imprisoned in Nicaraguas violent crackdown last year on anti-government protests. Since her sons lost their jobs, Lesages family has plunged into poverty, her carpenter husband unable to find work in Nicaraguas crippled economy. Lesage also faces intimidation by Sandinista supporters. Thats left the 48-year-old afraid to venture far from home, except to bring food to her sons languishing in prison. Lesage, her eyes narrowing as she spoke, the portraits of her jailed sons on a nearby shelf, said she believed the dictator should be removed for all the crimes hes committed. In the year since President Daniel Ortegas crackdown on demonstrations sparked a political and economic crisis that left more than 300 dead, 700 in jail and 62,000 in exile, Nicaraguas women have faced dramatic consequences, helping fuel the opposition, analysts and activists say. The crisis has affected women in myriad ways. Some lost their children, others struggled financially after their husbands were forced to flee, and some were fired from teaching or healthcare jobs as a result of the protests. Women were also playing key roles in the opposition movement, said Ana Lucia Alvarez, 31, an economics and gender academic researcher at Nicaraguas Center for Educational Research and Social Action. A Nicaraguan woman shouts anti-government slogans during a protest on March 16 in Managua. The government effectively banned such demonstrations last autumn [Chris Kenning/Al Jazeera] They ranged from Azalea Solis, a top figure in the Civic Alliance opposition group, to 21-year-old Madelaine Caracas, who became famous after she read out the names of the deceased after Ortega denied there had been student killings in reconciliation talks last year. Womens movements are a big part of this. We were in the barricades (during the height of the protests last year), we are in national dialogues, in politics, said Caracas, who spoke to Al Jazeera and whose actions led to threats of death and rape, and an order for her arrest before she fled to Costa Rica. I want justice One high-profile group was the Mothers of April, for those with lost, missing or jailed children. They have banded together to call for inquiries and support opposition demands such as ending repression, disbanding paramilitary groups and holding elections earlier than those scheduled for 2021. 190416172049648 Yardira Cordobas 15-year-old son, Orlando, was shot during a Mothers Day march in May, 2018, when snipers killed 19 people. Orlandito, as she called him, played the drums at church and was in high school when he decided to attend the march on his own. Cordoba, 45, recalled that after she heard her son was wounded, she rushed to the hospital, where he died. I fell on the floor, crying, she told Al Jazeera. Harassed by pro-government supporters, she decided it was unsafe to stay in her tiny home, filled with Orlandos trophies, photos and teddy bears. She has since moved to a house across town. Another of her sons lost his government job as a result of the publicity and had to flee to Costa Rica, she said. Initially scared to speak out, Cordoba has since joined the mothers group, worked with human rights lawyers and spoken out about her case. I want justice, for my son and all the others, she said. Yardira Cordobas 15-year-old son was killed in the protests last year [Daylife] Margarita Mendoza, 49, knew that feeling all too well. Recently, she and her husband, Vidal Reyes, laboured under the afternoon sun, weeding and cleaning her sons grave in Managua. Killed at 19 years old, Javier Alexander Munguia Mendoza was buried with others who died during the crackdown. They wanted to shut down the voices of our kids, and we need to continue for them. Margarita Mendoza, whose son was killed in the government crackdown After her son disappeared in May, she and other parents gathered outside Managuas El Chipote prison. Her sons body eventually turned up in a morgue. Since then, she has worked to piece together the events leading up to his death, discounting a police account that he died in a robbery. She believed that evidence suggests he went to a protest and was strangled, likely by paramilitaries or during an interrogation. Margarita Mendoza and her husband stand beside the grave of their son, who was killed last year during the crackdown [Chris Kenning/Al Jazeera] I always imagine the last moments of his life, all that torture and pain, she said. I wish I could have taken his place. Mendoza, who was wearing a T-shirt with her sons likeness and carried grisly photos of his corpse, said her husbands unemployment has compounded their grief. They wanted to shut down the voices of our kids, and we need to continue for them, she said. #SoyPicoRojo Other women vowed to continue for different reasons. One was feminist opposition figure Marlen Chow, a 69-year-old sociologist who carried an AK-47 in the Sandinista revolution that overthrew United States-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. When Chow was first arrested in October last year for protesting, she turned her lipstick into an opposition symbol. When police interrogators asked her which group she represented, she blurted out, Pico Rojo, which meant lipstick. It sparked a social-media meme with the hashtag #SoyPicoRojo, with both men and women posting photos of themselves with red lipstick. Sore from her latest arrest by police in a March protest, Chow said the crackdown sparked long-simmering anger over allegations of government corruption and Ortegas moves to consolidate power. Ortegas crackdown, she said, has come to resemble that of the dictator he helped replace. Marlen Chow has turned her lipstick into a symbol of opposition [Chris Kenning/Al Jazeera] Chow said that she too was under surveillance from pro-government supporters who followed her and took photos of her home and visitors, and threatened her on social media. Theres not any night I can sleep, she said. Across the border in neighbouring Costa Rica, Nicaraguan women were among the tens of thousands who were still afraid to return despite Ortegas recent agreement promising their safe right of return. 190418120021205 There are so many people living on floors, in refugee centres or with 20 people packed into a room, Caracas said, speaking from San Jose, a base from which she has travelled to Europe to highlight human rights abuses. Some Nicaraguan women, however, supported Ortega or blamed opposition groups for the clashes affecting their lives. Ingrid Gaitan is a resident of Monimbo, where clashes between protesters and the police and government supporters left bullet holes on the front of her house. She said the barricades kept her from getting to work or buying food. She said she feared protesters would target Sandinista supporters. Ingrid Gaitan supports Ortega and fears protesters will target Sandinista supporters [Chris Kenning/Al Jazeera] In a quiet Managua neighborhood, in an empty building that was used as a temporary safe house in late March, Yaritza Rosran hunkered down as she was hiding from the police, her friends keeping watch for paramilitary members. Her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. The student activist turned 25 while serving spent more than six months in La Esperanza prison, where she was taken after being arrested and beaten for protesting in Leon last year. After a hunger strike, shed been released along with 50 others to help bring opposition leaders back to the talks, but she was put on house arrest and was still facing charges that could see her locked up for years. 190417192724288 Nonetheless, she decided to slip out of the house to attend a March 16 protest, the first since they were banned last autumn. After police swept in and shut the demonstration down forcefully and arrested 100 people, she decided it was not safe to go back home. Since then, Ortega agreed to release the prisoners, respect peoples right to protest and let independent media report freely. But his recent clampdown on protesters shows he has backtracked. United Nations human rights officials say Ortega hasnt followed through on all of his promises. Earlier this week, the government said it had released 636 prisoners who had been imprisoned for various reasons, putting them on house arrest. But the opposition group the Civic Alliance said only a small fraction of those were political prisoners. Rosran said she planned to keep pushing for change. In Nicaragua, all of our revolutions have been with guns, she said, So its different, and its difficult. U.S. Army general George S. Patton, renowned for strategic military prowess and leadership, led World War II troops into Casablanca, Sicily, and France; relieved Allied forces at the Battle of the Bulge; and drove deep into Nazi Germany. Patton was equally renowned for his no-holds-barred opinions, colorful attire, profanity-laced speeches, and disregard for orders he thought ineffective, all of which did not sit well with the Allied high command. The new "must see" film, Silence Patton, suggests that the general's premature death in a mysterious auto accident may have been orchestrated to silence this oversized, historic personality. Written and directed by Robert Orlando, the film uses documentary footage, direct quotes, and interviews with historians to ask whether Patton's forthrightness, outspoken judgments, and criticism of battlefield leadership may have led to assassination. Robert Wilcox, an investigative and military reporter, voiced the same theory in this 2008 book, Target Patton: The Plot to Assassinate General George S. Patton. In Silence Patton, Orlando presents a non-lionized, realistic portrayal of a consummate yet flawed warrior, whose personal qualities often hindered him from obtaining the necessary orders to execute his desired military strategies. The film opens with a re-enactment of the accident in which an Army truck struck the car Patton was riding in, leaving him paralyzed and near death. The image of a dying Patton looms large throughout the film, which examines his impressive yet controversial military career and the suspicions surrounding his end. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme allied commander during WWII, recognized Patton's battlefield skills but considered the outspoken general a political and diplomatic nuisance. Patton proclaimed that the U.S. made serious mistakes in war negotiations, especially in misjudging Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Patton also asserted that the U.S. would pay a steep future price for partnering with Stalin. In Silence Patton, Orlando using his team of historians, battlefield graphics, and revealing quotes portrays Patton overwrought by the way his immediate superiors conducted much of the war and openly bemoaning their strategic decisions. Patton also saw through Stalin's collaborative posturing and repeatedly warned about allying with a communist commander whom he characterized as a duplicitous, brutal leader ambitious to capture much of war-torn Europe for the Soviet Union. The film's context for Patton's concerns includes revelations that before the war, Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration was filled with Soviet spies and progressives who visited the Soviet Union and viewed communism as far less ominous than Nazism and fascism, perhaps even a "new way" ideology with a possible American future. Further, Patton thought Roosevelt was seduced by Stalin and disturbingly trusting and attentive to the communist leader's ideas for negotiating the war and dividing the war effort among the Allies. In 1943, Roosevelt called for the Third Reich's unconditional surrender, an idea supported by Stalin but considered a tactical mistake by Patton and Britain's prime minister, Winston Churchill. With Germany eliminated as a buffer between Russia and Western Europe, Churchill and Patton believed that realigning postwar Europe would be difficult and lead to significant Russian domination. Patton proclaimed, "Stalin is not to be trusted." Silence Patton recounts the 1945 Yalta Conference, during which FDR, Churchill, and Stalin determined Europe's new boundaries. Roosevelt naively assumed that conceding to Stalin would bring his cooperation for postwar democracy and peace. In reality, Germany would have preferred surrender to the Americans. That's because under Russian captivity, 75% of German prisoners survived, compared to 98% under British and American troops. When Roosevelt died and Truman became president, the Russians continued their European westward push. Patton sought Eisenhower's approval to contain the Russians by advancing to eastern European capitals, but Eisenhower deferred to Stalin and ordered Patton to retreat from Berlin. When the Russians began to loot and pillage German towns, stripping them of industrial machinery, and Stalin ordered his men to kill Germans and rape women, a horrified Patton saw his worst nightmare realized. At war's end, a nervous Europe welcomed its American liberators but was filled with trepidation about advancing Russians. American troops could have driven past Prague deep into Eastern Europe, but Eisenhower, after consulting with the Russians, dismissed Patton's and Churchill's opinions and ordered the general to stand down. The Russians entered Prague. Although the Czechs requested aid from the British and Americans, eagerly anticipated their arrival, and even appealed directly to Patton, they were told that the Allies had stopped their advance at the Red Army's request. Appeals for help should be directed to the Russians, they were told. Patton complained to Churchill, "Russia is the real problem. I can't get the Americans to see it." Both were frustrated that the Red Army killed people who could have been saved by Anglo-American intervention. Thus, the Cold War began as Eastern Europeans, subjugated previously by the Nazis, suffered more than four decades of totalitarian rule under the Soviets. During his postwar position as governor of Bavaria to conduct denazification there, Patton continued warning about Stalin and communism. He recognized that, although Nazism was horrific, not all Germans had been true Nazis, that many good people had joined the Nazi Party to survive, and that they could be helpful in postwar rebuilding. He was certain that German soldiers could have served as allies in a fight against the Red Army. Instead, Patton watched the Russian bombing and brutality in German cities and the ethnic cleansing of several million Germans fleeing the Red Army. His pragmatic views about dire conditions in postwar Europe were characterized in the press as pro-Nazi, yet Patton made German citizens walk through the death camps and witness the atrocities that had taken place. Patton planned to return to Washington as a conquering hero and expose the wartime missteps and miscalculations of American military leadership. He was determined that the American public would know the truth and be alerted to the lurking communist threat. But Patton's superiors, aspiring presidential candidate Eisenhower and General Omar Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were concerned about political fallout, viewing Patton as a threat to their careers and reputations. Earlier, perhaps as a precaution, the politically ambitious Eisenhower had called on his men to present a united front to investigators and the American public. In October of 1945, Patton was removed as governor of Bavaria. In December, he was silenced for good when an oncoming army truck crushed his car. Paralyzed with life-threatening injuries, he died 12 days later. During his 90-minute documentary, Orlando explores this untimely, suspicious car accident that occurred just prior to Patton's scheduled return to the U.S. The film asks: was Patton silenced to obfuscate the war's missteps and shield those responsible for the aftermath with Stalin in Eastern Europe? How did a renowned and decorated four-star general die after an alleged army truck accident absent any investigation, court martial, or further action by the military? The film concludes with the haunting possibility that Eastern Europe was unnecessarily stuck behind the Iron Curtain from 1945 to 1989. If Patton's words had been heeded, could the Cold War have been prevented? Instead, his warnings were ignored, his actions constrained, and his sanity questioned while a communist dictator was free to act. From this beginning, the Soviet Union was strengthened and anchored to spread communism in the years ahead, when it could have been stopped in Berlin as Patton had urged. Tragically, the liberated lands of postWorld War II Europe were turned over to a Russian tyrant and forced to endure an even greater and longer lasting subjugation. Current politicians' dishonorable commitment to fake news, false accusations, and fraudulent posturing for the cameras is a fulfillment of Orwell's fiction of decades ago. George Orwell's declaration in his 1949 classic, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was, "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right." That attack on truth has been considered fiction, but distorting history is a fact that is accelerating daily. Ashamed of the past and fearful of the future, desperate, duplicitous, and disgusting politicians have destroyed the historical record to make them look less unscrupulous and to confuse, corrupt, and control each generation. A rewrite of history is in the making as I write. It has happened and has been accelerating since the beginning of time. Ancient kings glorified their successes in battle, often neglecting major disasters, all to preserve their position in history. They profusely bragged about their elaborate building programs but refused to reveal their warring tendencies that destroyed their cities. Sennacherib was the son of Sargon and ruler of the Assyrian Empire in the eighth century B.C. Assyrian inscriptions reveal that Sennacherib made astoundingly vainglorious boasts about his accomplishments of shutting up Hezekiah in his Jerusalem capital "as a bird in a cage." Everyone now realizes that Sennacherib took 46 Jewish cities but failed to conquer Jerusalem (after the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 of his troops in one night), and Sennacherib left in defeat for his Nineveh palace only to be eventually killed by his son. If anyone offended a tyrannical king, not only was that individual killed, but often any mention of him was removed from all public records. I revealed in my book, The God Haters, an example of politicians manipulating history when Caesar tried to obliterate the memory of Pilate because he had offended Caesar. Pilate therefore did not exist since Caesar said so, and officials and historians willingly obeyed by removing Pilate's name from all records. For many years, Bible critics declared that the Bible is unreliable because Pilate could not be found in any historical record. Then archeologists, digging in the rubble of Caesarea by the Sea, found a five-inch-thick stone that referred to Pilate and had been used in the famous theater ruins where I have preached a few times. The stone had been used because it was exactly the size needed and was used with the forbidden information about Pilate underneath! It is on display in Caesarea today. Mark Antony had a similar experience, with his memory being formally expunged from Rome's official records after his affair with Cleopatra. "His name was obliterated from the ... state registers of official events. His statues were removed. It was to be as if he had never existed. The Senate ... voted that no member of the Antonius clan should be named Marcus[.] ... His birthday was made ... an unlucky day, on which public business could not be conducted." Roman Emperor Caracalla murdered his brother and co-emperor Geta and had statues of Geta removed and his image chiseled off coins. Geta's image was removed from all paintings, his statues were destroyed, his name was struck from all records, and it became a capital offense to speak or write Geta's name. An estimated 20,000 people were massacred as a result. Soviet despot Joseph Stalin sent Leon Trotsky into exile and airbrushed him out of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia and then, to finish the matter, had him assassinated in Mexico. For decades, when a Soviet official fell out of favor with the sitting tyrant, the offender was painted out of the official photos of the most recent May Day Parade in Moscow. Politicians never change, and modern politicians continue in the same way: they exaggerate their successes, excuse their shortcomings, and excise their sins. Similarly today, politicians and their zealot followers seek to rewrite history and remove any photos or statues that might not meet their modern views of morality. Some U.S. textbooks don't deal with major American founders, and liberal censors insist that Huckleberry Finn be removed from libraries because it is politically incorrect. Notre Dame is a Catholic university, and the president cowardly responded to student complaints about paintings of Christopher Columbus, so they are being concealed. Columbus was a dedicated Catholic, now repudiated by a Catholic university. Usually, at the first demand of self-appointed protesters, whimpering university presidents cower under their desk as they immediately capitulate to the foaming-at-the-mouth fanatics. Officials at the University of Pennsylvania have quickly surrendered without a fight to the fanatics by removing a portrait of William Shakespeare and replacing it with a black lesbian writer. New York governor Andrew Cuomo removed the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from a public place. Calhoun College has been changed to Grace Hopper College since Calhoun was pro-slavery, you know. Also, stained glass windows depicting slavery were removed from college buildings. New Orleans removed its famous 20-foot statue of Robert E. Lee, the last of four to be removed. Baltimore removed its offensive statues overnight including one of Supreme Court justice Roger B. Taney, author of the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case that decided that former slaves could not become U.S. citizens. In rewriting history, they are going after dead judges for their judicial decisions. It is going to get confusing (and expensive) when the fanatics start removing and changing all streets, buildings, etc. with the names of slave-holders George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and almost all the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Even Mount Rushmore is in the sights of the history-haters, since two of the four faces were racists Washington and Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt an imperialist. Only Lincoln is safe, and if his statements on blacks were well known, he would be in danger. Roosevelt is considered an imperialist and is often ridiculed rather than respected for his part in the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt's statue in front of the museum on Central Park West is a tribute to his status as the nation's greatest environmentalist. His statue is also in front of the Museum of Natural History. Will the zealots determine to destroy Rushmore? Statues, paintings, etc. of difficult and embarrassing times in our nation's past are still a part of our past, and their presence could be a reminder that we don't want to make the same mistakes again. That goes for mistakes made in the North as well as the South. Would these dedicated progressives demand the destruction of the Roman Coliseum, where thousands were brutally slaughtered? How about the Pyramids, since they were built by slaves? Such nonsense is an attack upon the past that won't change reality and will only confuse the present. We should learn from history, not defile, distort, or destroy it. Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for eight years. Boys's book, Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! is available here. Follow Dr. Boys on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D. and TheGodHaters, Twitter, and visit his blog. Image: Tyler Menezes via Flickr. Vermont's politicians like to stand out nationally. Republican Governor Scott led Vermont's effort to prohibit its police from supplying identifying information, particularly "immigration status," to federal authorities. Bernie Sanders's 2020 platform consists almost entirely of anti-Trump sputtering. Patrick Leahy recently invoked Watergate to challenge President Trump to release the Mueller Report an awkward splash, since it appears that the Obama FBI was spying on the Trump political campaign in Watergate-on-steroids style. Then there's Burlington, Vermont mayor Miro Weinberger, who strives for Ocasio-Cortez-like stardom. The mayor has challenged the president to transport unlimited numbers of detainees to the Green Mountain State, saying, "The city will welcome the refugees with open arms if Trump follows through on the 'threat.'" Unlike some NIMBY sanctuary city leaders who complain that burdening them with detainees is "payback," Mayor Weinberger has openly invited the feds to deliver the human goods. The goods must be delivered before the mayor retracts his offer! But Mayor Miro has a huge problem rampant homelessness and related deterioration in his sanctuary city, Burlington. Nationally, there were an estimated 552,830 homeless in 2018. California and New York have by far the largest number of homeless people. But in Vermont, Burlington saw a 19% increase in homeless people in 2018 over 2017, from 291 to 359, even as "[t]he overall numbers of homeless individuals across the state decreased by two, from 934 to 932[.]" New York City, which has vociferously declared itself a sanctuary city, is burdened by some 79,000 homeless people, mostly sheltered. Los Angeles struggles with some 50,000 (largely unsheltered) homeless and is addressing problems with rats and fecal matter on sidewalks, where fleas are spreading typhus and hepatitis. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports, "In March, 92,607 people were apprehended between ports of entry on the Southwest Border, compared with 66,884 in the month of February and 47,984 in January. In FY18, a total of 396,579 individuals were apprehended between ports of entry on our Southwest Border." As Democrats like Mayor Weinberger implore foreigners to move here with offers of reward and protection, these numbers will swell. F.Y. 2019 contemplates the apprehension of more people at ports of entry than Vermont's entire population of 624,263. Miro insists that he is "preserving our right to make our own decisions about how best to keep our communities safe." Yet this man cannot sustain shelters for a mere 350 homeless people. Burlington has been fighting rampant panhandling, public urination, and "debauchery." The city evicted some homeless people from a wooded area and faces an ongoing suit. Mayor Miro has repeatedly proclaimed that his administration will champion this issue, but he has instead repeatedly failed. Like Leahy, Sanders, and Scott, Weinberger's appeal to Vermont voters is his ability to make a national ruckus more than deliver actual policy at home. But his latest fulmination is a risky one, proposing to invite unlimited detainees to Burlington, even "taking some steps, preliminary steps, to be as prepared as we can until more details are known about what they are planning[.]" Many areas of Vermont particularly its Northeast Kingdom, which constitutes some 25% of the state's land area do not have a single shelter, not even in churches. Making matters worse, Vermont has bitter, long winters. Vermont is paying workers $10,000 each to relocate here and has just expanded that program. Perhaps we should just sift through the huddled masses to our far south for qualified applicants and kill two birds with one stone. If Canadians permeated our northern border, presumably, Democrats would welcome their (largely liberal) white neighbors. Conservatives could then point to the problem of unregulated immigration without the taint of alleged racism impeding common sense. Canadians would fit in well in northern Vermont, where a long line of Canadian diaspora continue to cling to the clay muck. But it would not be fair for Vermont to absorb all the Canadians. It would have to share both the cost (and the joy!) and export some Canadians down to, say, Texas. This is precisely what the Trump administration is weighing, in reverse as Sarah Sanders put it, "so that the towns right there on the border aren't taking on the entire burden and that we're shifting some of that burden to places who constantly claim to want to have open borders and want to have an open city." Human populations are being disrupted globally. It is estimated that there are 2.5 million orphaned children in Uganda alone shall we airlift them all to Burlington, for Mayor Miro to feed and house? If he balked at the proposition, would that mean he is racist? Is it "fair" that Ugandans are ignored because they cannot flock to the border? President Trump should accept literally Burlington's offer and dispatch a sizeable consignment of immigrants to Vermont (in springtime, while it's warm!). Why disappoint the mayor? "[W]e don't want to overreact and put massive, large amounts of resources into something that may never materialize," he said. "Here, the way we overcome the kind of venom the administration is putting out is to remind Americans that we are a country of immigrants, that we are a country that really has been built by wave after wave of people coming here for a variety of reasons[.]" If Mayor Miro Weinberger can accrue "massive, large amounts of resources" to assist "wave after wave of people coming here for a variety of reasons," it would be criminal for Donald Trump to decline such a magnanimous humanitarian gesture. At last, instead of begging for federal disaster relief, here is a state that is stepping up and contributing at the local level to solve an admitted national crisis! Author George Orwell often expressed disgust with his fellow Englishmen, whom he criticized for a bourgeois disconnect whereby they called for liberation of third-world countries without sacrificing their own standard of living: Orwell thought that any Englishman who boasted of liberty and prosperity while India was still a colony was a hypocrite. "In order that England may live in comparative comfort, a hundred million Indians must live on the verge of starvation an evil state of affairs, but you acquiesce in it every time you step into a taxi or eat a plate of strawberries and cream[.]" If we are to help "hundreds of millions," we must help them where they are. This applies to El Salvadorans as well as Ugandans. President Trump should implement Orwell's truth by busing detainees en masse from America's southern to its northern border, where Burlington awaits and has issued public invitation. No coercion is required. It is perfectly legal for the federal government to (non-forcibly) bus people from one jurisdiction to another. Ample detainees will volunteer to accept Vermont's invite, without a $10,000 bribe. Five thousand immigrants should be a sufficient "wave" for Miro to rescue, and for the rest of the nation to witness. Let's see who volunteers to sacrifice his strawberries and cream. Want some perspective on why so many blue sanctuary cities have so many homeless encampments hovering around? Try the reality that illegal immigrants are routinely given free public housing by the U.S., based on the fact that they are uneducated, unskilled, and largely unemployable. Those are the criteria, and now importing poverty has never been easier. Shockingly, this comes as millions of poor Americans are out in the cold awaiting that housing that the original law was intended to help. Thus, the tent cities, and by coincidence, the worst of these emerging shantytowns are in blue sanctuary cities loaded with illegal immigrants - Orange County, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, New York...Is there a connection? At a minimum, it's worth looking at. The Trump administration's Department of Housing and Urban Development is finally trying to put a stop to it as 1.5 million illegals prepare to enter the U.S. this year, and one can only wonder why they didn't do it yesterday. According to a report in the Washington Times: The plan would scrap Clinton-era regulations that allowed illegal immigrants to sign up for assistance without having to disclose their status. Under the new Trump rules, not only would the leaseholder using public housing have to be an eligible U.S. person, but the government would verify all applicants through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, a federal system thats used to weed illegal immigrants out of other welfare programs. Those already getting HUD assistance would have to go through a new verification, though it would be over a period of time and wouldnt all come at once. Weve got our own people to house and need to take care of our citizens, an administration official told The Washington Times. Because of past loopholes in HUD guidance, illegal aliens were able to live in free public housing desperately needed by so many of our own citizens. As illegal aliens attempt to swarm our borders, were sending the message that you cant live off of American welfare on the taxpayers dime. The Times notes that the rules are confusingly contradictary, and some illegal immigrant families are getting full rides based on just one member being born in the U.S. The pregnant caravaner who calculatingly slipped across the U.S. in San Diego late last year, only to have her baby the next day, now, along with her entire family, gets that free ride on government housing. Plus lots of cheesy news coverage about how heartwarming it all is. That's a lot cheaper than any housing she's going to find back in Tegucigalpa. Migrants would be almost fools not to take the offering. The problem of course is that Americans who paid into these programs, and the subset who find themselves in dire circumstances, are in fact being shut out. The fill-the-pews Catholic archbishops may love to tout the virtues of illegal immigrants and wave signs about getting 'justice" for them, but the hard fact here is that these foreign nationals are stealing from others as they take this housing benefit under legal technicalities. That's not a good thing under anyone's theological law. But hypocrisy is comfortable ground for the entire open borders lobby as they shamelessly celebrate lawbreaking at the border, leaving the impoverished of the U.S. out cold. The Trump administration is trying to have this outrage fixed by summer. But don't imagine it won't be without the open-borders lawsuits, the media sob stories, the leftist judges, and the scolding clerics. Image credit: Larry D. Moore, via Wikipedia // CC BY-SA 4.0 On Tuesday, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was on the receiving end of a not so nice tweet while pushing back against a false Washington Post article. Receiving hateful tweets is likely considered a typical Tuesday for Shapiro, but this one came at the hands of a peculiar source: the official Twitter account for Media Matters for America. Media Matters for America is the group behind the failed boycott attempts on prominent figures within conservative media. Similarly situated to Media Matters is the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC is a group frequently cited as a reliable source on CNN and other liberal media outlets that labels as a hate group any organization not conforming with extreme progressive ideology. These are two of the best known organizations in politics that are used to target conservatives through the guise of objectivity. On its website, Media Matters describes itself as a "progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." The Southern Poverty Law Center claims on its website to be "dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seek justice for the most vulnerable members of our society." The way these groups describe themselves is misleading and serves as a disguise for attacking conservatives. They are effectively nothing more than a slimy tentacle of the Democratic Party, spewing misinformation of their own. Both Media Matters and the SPLC make a concerted effort not to "correct misinformation" or "seek justice," but instead to silence speech that differs in any way ideologically from the far left. While attempting to silence political dissidents is not a novel concept on the Left these days, what should be concerning is the tax status these political organizations enjoy. Both Media Matters for America and the Southern Poverty Law Center operate under the 501(c)(3) designation. The 501(c)(3) designation by the IRS allows these organizations to be exempt from paying federal taxes, and it also provides federal tax benefits to anyone who donates to them. Any donation to a 501(c)(3) is tax-deductible. For the average person who will be taking a standard deduction, this doesn't matter. But being able to receive tax-deductive donations makes having a 501(c)(3) status particularly valuable to organizations like Media Matters and the SPLC that have many potential wealthy donors in places like Hollywood and Silicon Valley. At this point, there should be little debate that both Media Matters for America and the Southern Poverty Law Center are arms of the Democratic Party functioning in the interest of the party. That creates a problem for both organizations under the law. To receive and retain a 501(c)(3) status, the law provides that, among other things, that "no substantial party ... is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, and which does not participate in, or intervene in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office." Both organizations certainly have a skilled team of lawyers who have fought to keep their lucrative tax-exempt status, and there is no sign that is about to change. But perhaps it's time to re-examine the activities of these organizations. Both Media Matters and the Southern Poverty Law Center are innately political in nature. They operate primarily to levy attacks against only conservative groups and individuals, suppress conservative speech, and disparage political opponents of the Left. Why should these organizations be allowed to continue to remain exempt from paying federal taxes and allow those who contribute to their cause to get a tax break as well? With Democrats looking to revamp our nation's tax laws and make sure everybody pays his fair share, maybe organizations like Media Matters and the Southern Poverty Law Center will be a good place for Democrats to start. Evan Berryhill is a former communications staffer on Capitol Hill for Rep. David McKinley. Currently, Evan is a law student at West Virginia University and works as an opinion writer and political commentator. You can follow him on Twitter at @EvBerryhill. It may not be an exaggeration to say millions of people around the world awoke with the same thought: what survived the fire at Notre Dame? Many of us went to bed knowing that the damage to the ancient cathedral was not as bad as feared as we watched the live coverage from Paris of the shocking conflagration. The dawn and each passing hour deliver encouraging news. An altar and pews survive, as do many works of art. Even the three large stained-glass rose windows, perhaps the most famous, if not the most visible, parts of the cathedral, survive. Damaged, but miraculously intact. Some may ask why millions of Earth's citizens experienced a shared deep and emotional interest in the burning of a Christian house of worship. Atheists. Jews. Muslims. Hindus. Buddhists. Animists. Conservatives. Liberals. Even those who seemingly go out of their way to use the slightest opportunity to mock or ridicule Christians and their faith. So why did all of these, and millions more, weep and stare in disbelief and whisper healing prayers or offer good thoughts for the best of possible outcomes? Victor Hugo wrote, "Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book." St. Augustine said, "Symbols are powerful because they are the visible signs of invisible realities." And Confucius taught, "Signs and symbols rule the world, not words or laws." Symbols speak to us from our unconscious mind and from the beginning of human time on Earth. Prehistoric humans carved and painted their symbols on rocks and the walls of caves. Stone structures stand as ancient symbols of beliefs long forgotten. Modern women and men illustrate their bodies with symbols that hold special meaning to themselves, which they communicate to others who share their personal interests. Symbols fill our lives, our histories, our art, and our beliefs. Symbols define us. And we do not realize their importance until something like the fire at Notre Dame reminds us of their importance and our loss when they are lost. This fire, though, goes beyond the obvious symbols of art and architecture, engineering, history, and religion. It may be no coincidence that this fire broke out at the beginning of the holiest week for Christians. Palm Sunday and the days that follow allow Christians to participate in the days leading up to the Friday crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection three days later. The birth of Christ, important though it be, is not at the core of Christian belief, which would not exist without the death and resurrection. And so, this awful fire, this terrible event that threatened to destroy a symbol that spoke to many people in many ways, has become a new symbol. For non-Christians, it has become a symbol of hope in the midst of despair, of rising from the ashes, an example of overcoming life's difficulties and disasters. For Christians, it has become a symbol of Easter, an example of overcoming life's difficulties and disasters through the knowledge that God is with us, but more important, a symbol of the foundation of the faith: death and resurrection. This Easter, when Christians say "Christ is risen" to each other, they will have the visual symbol of the standing structure dedicated to the Mother of God when they respond, "Indeed, He is risen." John David Powell is an award-winning journalist from Texas. His email address is johndavidpowell@yahoo.com. The US-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA) will likely have a moderate impact on the US economy and potentially increase automotive parts production and employment in the sector, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) said. The United States-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA) will likely have a moderate impact on the US economy and potentially increase automotive parts production and employment in the sector, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) said in an economic analysis report issued on Thursday April 18. The USMCA the proposed replacement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) would raise US real gross domestic product by an estimated 0.35% ($68.2 billion) and US employment by 0.12% (176,000 jobs), the ITC said in the report. A key component of the USMCA targets automotive rules of origin, requiring vehicles to satisfy a 75% regional value content requirement, up from the 62.5% for duty-free treatment under Nafta, according to a fact sheet from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). The USTR has also previously said that vehicles also would only be considered as originating from North America if at least 70% of automakers steel and aluminium purchases in the previous year were sourced from the region. USMCAs requirements are estimated to increase US production of automotive parts and employment in the sector, but also to lead to a small increase in the prices and small decrease in the consumption of vehicles in the United States, the ITC report said. The new trilateral trade agreement would likely lead to a net increase of 28,000 jobs in the automotive parts and manufacturing sector, the agency said, lower than the estimated increase of 76,000 jobs predicted by US government officials familiar with the USMCA negotiations and who have access to data from vehicle manufacturers. Additionally, the agreement is seen having a positive impact on all broad industry sectors within the US economy, with manufacturing experiencing the largest percentage gains in output, exports, wages and employment. In absolute terms, services would experience the largest increase in production and employment, the agency said. The manufacturing and mining sector would likely to see an increase of 49,700 jobs relative to baseline estimates in 2017, the report said, while employment in the services sector would rise by an estimated 124,300 jobs. Trade-wise, the USMCA is expected to have a positive impact on US trade, both with regional partners and globally. US exports to Canada and Mexico would increase by $19.1 billion (5.9%) and $14.2 billion (6.7%) respectively. US imports from Canada would also increase by $19.1 billion (4.8%) and those from Mexico by $12.4 billion (3.8%), the ITC said. Fastmarkets AMMs daily Midwest HRC index stood at $34.22 per hundredweight ($684.40 per short ton) on Wednesday, almost unchanged from $34.19 per cwt the previous day but down by 0.1% from $34.27 per cwt on April 10. This rickety wooden building, practically on the verge of collapse, is the largest wooden building in Europe and the second largest in the world. It stands on top of a small hill on Buyukadaa tiny island off the coast of Istanbul. The Prinkipo Greek Orphanage, also known as the Rum Orphanage, was originally conceived to be a luxury hotel and a casino. But when it couldnt obtain a permit, the building was turned into an orphanage. It operated for sixty years taking care of Greek Orthodox orphans. Once this establishment closed the building fell into neglect, and after half a century of being exposed to the elements, the 20,000-square meter structure is now in a state of heavy disrepair. The six-story building was designed and constructed in 1898 by the French-Ottoman architect Alexander Vallaury, for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the European passenger train company that operated the Orient Express. The idea was to turn it into a five-star resort catering to European travellers who were flocking to Istanbul in great numbers at the height of the Belle Epoque, the golden age of European civilization. But Sultan Abdul Hamid II, of the Ottoman empire, denied an operating license on grounds that gambling activities would be immoral. The grand building was then sold to the wife of a prominent Greek banker, Eleni Zarifi, who donated it to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, a church, who turned it into an orphanage. The Prinkipo orphanage became home for about 5,800 minority Greek children from 1903 until 1964 when it was forced to shut down, during a period of heightened political tensions between Turkey and Greece over the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus. In 1997, the property was confiscated by the Turkish state, but returned to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2010 following a court order. In 2018, Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank nominated the orphanage as one of the Seven Most Endangered cultural heritages. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople wants to preserve and repair the building, but lack of funds and the continued political tensions between Greece and Turkey over a variety of issues, including the protection of Byzantine and Greek heritage in Istanbul, has delayed preservation attempts. Leading image by aydngvn/Shutterstock.com Photo credit: Emre onemci/Shutterstock.com Photo credit: Dima Moroz/Shutterstock.com Orphans at the dormitory of the Orphanage Orphan students during class session Photo credit: Official / Shutterstock.com Photo credit: Official / Shutterstock.com Photo credit: Official / Shutterstock.com Photo credit: AP Photo/Helene Franchineau Photo credit: AP Photo/Helene Franchineau The skies lit up on Sunday, Dec. 12 with many of the fireworks perfectly timed to lyrics from music played at the base of the pier on the Skechers stage. Heres a first look at official renders of both the Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL. Neither of these phones have been announced yet, although they have been widely reported on during the last year with Googles own website even recently confirming the Pixel 3a name. In spite of this heightened degree of attention, theres been little in the way of eyes-on material. Thats until now. Advertisement Some renders have come forward in recent months but these have typically come through from accessory-makers and are therefore obscured to some degree by a case, or have been created based on known information. In either scenario, they are third-party interpretations and not necessarily exactly representative of the vision Google wants to promote. Equally, some hands-on images have also surfaced recently. Although it is never always clear what stage of development the phone on show in such depictions represents. For example, some of the best of these images came through last November. Again, making it unclear if they are representative of the final Google end product. Android Headlines is confident in these renders being official end product images of the next two phones from Google. Advertisement In other words, these images do accurately depict the Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL. Launching in a matter of weeks The first thing to note is Google recently sent out a teaser that said On May 7, something big is coming to the Pixel universe. Leading many to assume thats when the Pixel 3a series will launch. That assumption seems to be correct considering both renders do actively display a May 7 date. Advertisement The Pixel 3a and 3a XL will be unveiled on May 7, 2019. Familiar, but also different Theres been a lot of coverage on these phones, with many of their included (and missing) features highlighted. Some of these can be clearly seen in these images. For example, the Pixel 3a and 3a XL does include a headphone jack. A notable omission from the Pixel line of the last two years. The headphone jack is positioned on the top of the phones as previously indicated. Advertisement Bezels are back in fashion. Unlike the standard well, premium Pixel 3 line which includes the XL and its unfathomably large notch, the Pixel 3a series is completely uniform when it comes to the top bezel. There is no notable difference between the Pixel 3a and 3a XL in this respect. They both adopt the same bezel no notch, no cutout that houses the earpiece and the single (most likely 8-megapixel) front-facing camera. They both also seem to contain the same-sized bottom (chin) bezel housing a single speaker. Advertisement Previous leaks had pointed to the two being different-sized phones due to the Pixel 3a adopting a 5.6-inch display along with a 2220 x 1080 resolution and the Pixel 3a XL equipped with a 6-inch display accompanied by a 2160 x 1080 resolution. While not immediately apparent in these images, if you look closer, you can see there is certainly a difference in the overall size/shape with the Pixel 3a appearing slightly thinner than the Pixel 3a XL. Advertisement For reference, the Pixel 3a supposedly comes with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio compared to the Pixel 3a XLs 18:9 aspect ratio. Lastly, both models come running on Android 9 Pie from launch as to be expected. The fuller picture Although this is largely the extent to the information confirmed in these fresh images, theres plenty of leaks and reports to work with to paint a fuller picture of what the Google Pixel 3a line will offer. Advertisement For starters, these are mid-tier devices and this not only means a reduction in price but also a reduction in the overall product on offer. This can be understood as a lesser build overall with a greater focus on plastic compared to glass. That reduction does not include size, however, with the Pixel 3a and 3a XL literally filling in the size gaps between the 5.5-inch screen on the Pixel 3 and the 6.3-inch screen included with the Pixel 3 XL. So while these are more affordable options, they are not smaller ones at all, with their sizes almost strategically chosen to offer a size option for everyone beyond the 5.5-inch marker. Equally, the reduction does not show in the RAM department as both Pixel 3a phones are expected to come loaded with 4GB RAM as much as the standard/premium Pixel 3 phones. This is in addition to 64GB storage bases. This also seems to be true for the battery as while the Pixel 3 features a 2915 mAh capacity battery, the 3a is expected to be powered by a 3,000mAh solution. Theres been little word on the Pixel 3a XLs battery but considering this is a larger phone, and the similarities between the two smaller models, it might be wise to expect the 3a XL battery to fall in around the 3 XLs 3430 mAh capacity. Where there is likely to be an obvious on paper downgrade is in the SoC department with the Pixel 3a expected to rely on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 there has been suggestions the Pixel 3a XL will differ here due to the inclusion of the Snapdragon 710. The Snapdragon 670 was announced mid-way through 2018 and looks to bridge the gap between mid-range phones and the upper echelons. The Snapdragon 710 launched a couple of months before the 670 and also looks to straddle the mid/premium barrier. While either might be considered a downgrade when compared to the Pixel 3s Snapdragon 845, how much either will affect overall performance on these particular phones is less clear. In addition, a similar overall Pixel-ness experience is expected to be in play. For example, a number of Pixel 3 premium features including the use of squeezable Active Edge sides are understood to have been ported over to the Pixel 3a line offering a like-for-like experience. This also extends to the cameras with indications pointing to the Google Pixel 3a adopting the same 12.2MP dual-pixel rear camera found on the Pixel 3 line. In fact, the same overall camera experience is likely to be what Google mostly focuses on with these phones considering it is now the product brands signature feature. Only thing left to know is the price Between the wealth of information that had already come through and these new images, theres effectively not much left to unveil other than the price. It is already clear Google is looking to position these at lesser price points than the Google Pixel 3 line and although some pricing information has already been suggested, those suggestions have mainly come through based on international figures. Theres no guarantee they are directly equatable to the U.S. market. Google is certainly likely to release both 3a models in the U.S. and very recent reports have pointed to both of these phones (the Pixel 3 series overall) becoming available through T-Mobile for the first time. This essentially would mean the end of what has been a lengthy Verizon exclusivity period. Lenovos upcoming flagship, the Z6 Pro, will not only include a 48-megapixel camera on the back, but it will be able to capture 100-megapixel images. This information comes from the companys Vice President and General Manager, as he shared a couple of images showing the phones features. The device will be fueled by the Snapdragon 855 64-bit octa-core processor, and even a part of the phones back side has been shared by the company. As you can see in the provided image down below, the phone will include four cameras on the back, and at the moment, we only know that one of those cameras will be a 48-megapixel sensor, the rest of them are still a mystery. Those four cameras will be vertically-aligned, as you can see, and three of them will protrude on the back, as one will be separated below them. An LED flash will be placed next to the phones cameras, along with a Hyper Video branding, which suggests some interesting video-taking capabilities, or at least it seems like it. Advertisement The device will be made out of metal and glass, and its back side will be curved. The volume up, volume down, and power buttons are located on the right-hand side of the device, which is also shown in an image down below. The phone will probably arrive in a number of color variants, and we get to see some sort of red color here, dark red, which looks quite interesting. The phone is also rumored to sport a tiny waterdrop notch on the front, and a 90-percent screen-to-body ratio. The Lenovo Z6 Pro will also sport an in-display fingerprint scanner if rumors are to be believed, and that is probably accurate, as the fingerprint scanner is not located on the phones back, nor is it included on the side. One of Lenovos executives posted a screenshot of this devices network icons on Weibo (Chinese social network), and thus pretty much confirmed that the phone will support 5G connectivity. Were still not sure if Lenovo plans to release both 4G and 5G variants of this device, but well find out soon. Advertisement The device is also rumored to sport plenty of RAM, up to 12GB, though it remains to be seen how accurate that info is. We do know that this phone will become official on April 23, though, as Lenovo did confirm that recently. The phone will be announced in China, and it remains to be seen where else will it be available, but this handset may become Lenovos first global 5G handset at some point, maybe under a different name, though. If youre confused by the Z6 Pro branding, well, youre probably not the only one. At first, it may seem a logical solution for a flagship name due to the Pro addition to it, but if you consider that the Lenovo Z5 Pro was a mid-range phone, well its odd. The Lenovo Z5 Pro was announced back in November last year with the Snapdragon 710 64-bit octa-core processor, and it did sport some rather interesting features, including a pop-up camera, but it was a mid-range device, no doubt about that, so its quite strange Lenovo did not opt for a different name for this new device, but there you have it. As most of you have probably heard already, some Samsung Galaxy Fold devices that were shipped off to reviewers actually started breaking within two days, the phones main display seems to be the issue. Samsung decided to react quickly to such reports, and has reached out to The Verge. The company confirmed that a few reports arrived to its address regarding Galaxy Folds main display. Samsung promised that it will thoroughly inspect those units, in order to determine the cause. In addition to that, the company said that some reviewers removed the top layer of the display, and thus caused damage to the display itself. The Galaxy Folds main display features a protective layer on top of it, which may seem to be a screen protector to some people, thus some of them wanted to remove it from the display. It turns out that it is a part of the display structure, and the company says that it is designed to protect the screen from unintended scratches. Advertisement Samsung also said that removing that layer or adding adhesive to the main display can cause damage, as was the case with some Galaxy Fold review units. Samsung promised that information regarding that protective layer will be delivered to consumers, loud and clear, in order to avoid such issues in the future. So, if youve seen a report in which someone removed the protective layer from the Galaxy Folds main display, then display issues are not Samsungs fault, but fault of the person who removed that layer. On the flip side, it seems like quite a few media outlets did not mess with the protective layer, and still have serious display issues, and that is what Samsung is aiming to investigate. At least one review unit developed a bulge that appeared to be the result of something in between the screen and the hinge, and that basically broke the phones display. That was the case with The Verges unit. That same review unit had white lines before the display broke, one horizontal, and one vertical line. In an another case, part of the display started flashing, and is apparently not working as it should. In one example, the phones display simply shut off. Some of those reports may be connected to the protective filter on top of the display, but The Verge says that it did not attempt to remove that layer, the same goes for a couple of other outlets. Advertisement These are all reports that arrived in the last couple of days (more info here), as many reviewers shared issues via social media. At first, this seems to be quite a big issue for Samsung and its very first foldable smartphone, but it is worth noting that these are just media samples, and Samsung will probably find the cause of such issues and address them before it starts shipping units to consumers. The company did not mention anything about postponing the release of the Galaxy Fold, which is scheduled for April 26 in the US, and May 3 for Europe. Once Samsung figures out what caused such issues, it will be able to provide us with more information. If this ends up being an isolated problem, chances are that the phone will release as scheduled, but if its a widespread issue, especially a hardware issue, then things may not go as planned. All in all, were waiting for Samsung to figure out whats going on and let us all know. Samsungs Galaxy Note flagship series came to life back in October 2011 when the Galaxy Note was announced. The Galaxy Note was quite large back in the day, and it started the companys flagship series of smartphones which come with a stylus. The Galaxy Note was actually mocked back when it was released due to the sheer size of the device, and very few people expected it to become so popular. The Galaxy Note series of smartphone managed to become amongst the most popular on the planet, as Samsung sold tons of Galaxy Note devices over the year, and some would even compare the Galaxy Note series popularity to that of the Galaxy S series, even though the Galaxy S smartphones are still the companys bread and butter. Having said that, in this article, well take a little trip down the memory lane and visit every single Galaxy Note flagship that the company announced since 2011. NOTE: Well stick to international variants of the Galaxy Note series, that includes spec info. Advertisement Samsung Galaxy Note The Samsung Galaxy Note was announced back in 2011, and it was extremely large compared to other phones on the market back then. With a 5.3-inch 1280 x 800 display, the phone is 83mm wide, which make it wider than pretty much every other flagship these days (2019), phones with display sizes of well over 6 inches. The Galaxy Note features a plastic back cover, and it includes a physical key below the display, along with two capacitive buttons on the side. Inside the phone, its stylus is located, and accessible at all times. The Galaxy Note is fueled by Samsungs dual-core Exynos processor, and it came with 1GB of RAM and 16GB / 32GB of storage expandable storage. The device includes a 2,500mAh removable battery, and it sports a single 8-megapixel camera on the back. A 2-megapixel unit is included on the phones front side, and the device ships with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread out of the box, while the last update it received is Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Advertisement https://youtu.be/bfMmMrUwRnI Samsung Galaxy Note II Advertisement The Galaxy Note II (also referred to as the Galaxy Note 2) was announced in August 2012, and released a month later. The device includes a thinner home key than its predecessor, while two capacitive keys are placed on each side of that home key, and a stylus is once again a part of the package, that is actually the case with every Galaxy Note smartphone. The Galaxy Note II is made out of plastic, like its predecessor. The device features a 5.5-inch 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED display, along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB / 32GB / 64GB of storage (expandable). The phone is fueled by the Exynos 4412 quad-core processor, and it features an 8-megapixel camera on the back. A 1.9-megapixel unit is included on the phones front side, while a 3,100mAh battery is also a part of the package. Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean came pre-installed on this phone, while Android 4.4.2 KitKat is the last update the phone received. Samsung Galaxy Note III Advertisement The Samsung Galaxy Note III (also referred to as the Galaxy Note 3), was announced in September 2013, and made available that very same month. This phone is also made out of plastic, and it includes a removable battery. The Galaxy Note III is actually quite similar to the Galaxy Note II in terms of the design, while it arrived with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and received Android 4.4.2 KitKat as its last official update. The phone features a 5.7-inch fullHD Super AMOLED display, 3GB of RAM and 16GB / 32GB / 64GB of expandable storage. The phone is fueled by the Exynos 5420 octa-core processor from Samsung, and it sports a 3,200mAh removable battery. A 13-megapixel camera is included on the back of this phone, while Samsung opted to place a 2-megapixel unit on the devices front side. Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Advertisement The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 was announced in September 2014, and it offers considerably thinner bezels than the Galaxy Note III. The device is also boxier than its predecessor, and it was the very first Galaxy Note device to offer a fingerprint scanner. Its fingerprint scanner is built into its home key, and on each side of that home key, a capacitive button is located, same as on its predecessors. The Galaxy Note 4 features a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. The phone is fueled by the Snapdragon 805 quad-core processor, and it includes a 16-megapixel camera on the back. A 3.7-megapixel unit is located on the phones front side, while the device comes with a 3,220mAh removable battery with fast charging support (Quick Charge 2.0). Android 4.4.4 KitKat came pre-installed on this phone, and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow is the last official update that landed on the phone. Along with the Galaxy Note 4, Samsung announced yet another Note-branded flagship, its very first smartphone with a curved display, the Galaxy Note Edge. This handset features a curved display on the right side, and it basically ushered in curved display designs for Samsung. The device is fueled by the Snapdragon 805, same as the Galaxy Note 4, and aside from the design difference, the phone is almost identical to the Galaxy Note 4, it even came with a stylus. Advertisement https://youtu.be/dLqvSODLs6s Samsung Galaxy Note 5 The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 was announced back in August 2015, and it did not really bring all that much change in terms of the design compared to its predecessor. The phone features a physical home key / fingerprint scanner below the display, and that button is flanked by two capacitive keys, same as on the Galaxy Note 4. Android 5.1.1 Lollipop came pre-installed on the Galaxy Note 5, while the phone eventually got updated to Android 7.0 Nougat. Advertisement The Galaxy Note 5 is fueled by the Exynos 7420 octa-core processor, while the phone includes 4GB of RAM and 32GB / 64GB of storage (non-expandable). The device features a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, and a 16-megapixel main camera. A 5-megapixel selfie unit is also a part of the Galaxy Note 5 package, and so is a 3,000mAh battery which is non-removable. The phone supports 15W fast charging (Quick Charge 2.0), and also wireless charging. https://youtu.be/vQbNpfdUQNA Samsung Galaxy Note 7 The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was announced in August 2016, and it is made out of metal and glass. This phone still features a fingerprint scanner below the display, and two capacitive buttons, but it ushered in dual-sided curved displays to the Galaxy Note line. Unfortunately for Samsung, the Galaxy Note 7 had some serious issues with its battery, and the company was forced to stop selling it after a short period of time. The Galaxy Note 7 units were catching fire all over the globe, and the company eventually released the Galaxy Note FE (Fan Edition) variant of the Galaxy Note 7. The Galaxy Note 7 is fueled by the Exynos 8890 64-bit octa-core processor (the Snapdragon 820 in the US & China), and it features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (expandable). The phone came with a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, and that display is HDR10 compliant. A 12-megapixel camera is included on the back of the phone, while the device shipped with a 3,500mAh battery. Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow came pre-installed on the phone. https://youtu.be/vjsxRdwJihU Samsung Galaxy Note 8 The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was the first Galaxy Note smartphone not to include capacitive keys, those keys were replaced by on-screen buttons, while the phones fingerprint scanner was moved to the back of the device. The device got announced in August 2017, while it features considerably thinner bezels than the Galaxy Note 8, and was the most significant change in terms of the design since the very first Galaxy Note smartphone back then. The device also features a curved display, and is made out of metal and glass. The Galaxy Note 8 features a 6.3-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED, curved display, along with 6GB of RAM and 64GB / 128GB / 256GB of storage. The phone is fueled by the Exynos 8895 (the Snapdragon 835 in the US & China), while a 3,300mAh battery is included in the package, and it supports Quick Charge 2.0 fast charging, in addition to wireless charging. Android 7.1.1 Nougat comes pre-installed on the Galaxy Note 8, while the phone sports two 12-megapixel cameras on the back, which makes it the first Galaxy Note-branded device to include two cameras on the back. Samsung Galaxy Note 9 The Galaxy Note 9 was announced in August 2018, and it is quite similar to the Galaxy Note 8 in terms of the design, even though it is a bit boxier, and it sports even thinner bezels. The phone is made out of metal and glass, just like its predecessor, and it includes a rear-facing fingerprint scanner, just like the Galaxy Note 8. The Galaxy Note 9 ships with two cameras on the back (two 12-megapixel units), and a single 8-megapixel camera on the front. Android 8.1 Oreo came pre-installed on the device, while the phone features a 6.4-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED, curved display. The phone sports 6GB / 8GB of RAM and 128GB / 512GB of storage (expandable), while it is fueled by the Exynos 9810 64-bit octa-core processor (the Snapdragon 845 in the US & China). A 4,000mAh battery is a part of the package as well, while it supports Quick Charge 2.0 fast charging, and also wireless charging. https://youtu.be/pZH9u1UtjWw Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series was announced in August 2019. For the first time since 2014, Samsung had opted to announce two flagship Galaxy Note smartphones at the same time, the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+. Both phones are made out of metal and glass, they sport extremely thin bezels, and do look almost identical. The Galaxy Note 10+ does have an extra camera on the back, and is larger, but thats pretty much all there is as far as design differences are concerned. Both of these smartphones are fueled by the Exynos 9825 in Europe and India, while the Snapdragon 855 fuels them in the US and China. Both phones include curved displays, though the Galaxy Note 10+ features a QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED panel, while the Galaxy Note 10 includes a fullHD+ Dynamic AMOLED display. The Galaxy Note 10 comes with 8GB of RAM, while the Galaxy Note 10+ ups that to 12GB of RAM. Both devices offer fast charging, though charging is considerably faster on the Galaxy Note 10+. https://youtu.be/CYA_XAMfRfo Posted on: April 18, 2019 2:58 PM We know that, following the seismic events of Good Friday, the first disciples were now fearful, uncertain and deeply puzzled as to where their future might lie. But Easter transformed them into people of hope in Jesus Christ who brought that hope to those around them, and through them to the furthest reaches of the known world. But how? Yes, there was the confidence that physical death could no longer grip them with fear, but also a deeper conviction that, through the power of Christ, good would indeed ultimately win definitive victory over fear and evil. Does Easter do that for us? Can we truly call ourselves Easter people? Regardless of personal opinions on the various crises in Ireland, Britain, Europe and throughout the world, no reasonable person can seriously doubt the levels of anxiety, anger and divisiveness that are corroding human relationships within and through society and even within close-knit families. We must not only pray for the healing of relationships. We must also work fearlessly as Easter people for the restoration of hope and good relationships with one another and within a wider society. Saint Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, writes that he wants to know for himself the power of Christs resurrection. The Greek word he uses for power is dunamis, from which we get the word dynamic, and even dynamite. This Easter power is something immensely energetic and powerful, not simply an intellectual assent to the truth of the resurrection of Christ. In the power the dunamis of Christs resurrection, we are Christian disciples, called to bring hope and purpose into our own lives and into the lives of others. We can do this by our generous love and unflagging courage in words and actions, in our sense of positive purpose and in our adamant refusal just to let things happen. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia! +Richard Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh +Eamon Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh Posted on: April 18, 2019 8:21 PM The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has decried the worrisome levels of insecurity in parts of Nigerias Kaduna State. Dr Idowu-Fearon, in his role as Chairman of the Kaduna State Peace Commission, spoke to reporters this week to discuss the Commissions latest push for peace in the region. The challenges of insecurity in many parts of the state are quite worrisome, he said. This is most prevalent in Birnin Gwari council as well as many parts of Chikun, Giwa, Igabi, Kachia, Kajuru, Kagarko and Kauru councils. We appeal to the people of the state, as well as the security agencies to join hands to address this unfortunate situation of armed robbery, raiding of villages, kidnapping, rustling of cattle and other forms of rural crimes. During the press briefing, Dr Idowu-Fearon told journalists that the Commission was in talks with State Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai about the release of Adara Community leaders, who are being held in detention. I want to cease this opportunity to tell our brothers and sisters in the community that at least we have spoken with his Excellency. We believe that the police will quickly present the case, so that his Excellency will intervene. He welcomed the commitment by residents in the area, as well as local government and community groups, to work for peace. The Kaduna State Peace Commission has assured the communities of its commitment to support them in the process, until lasting peace is attained, he said. Posted on: April 18, 2019 8:07 PM [Anglican Journal, by Joelle Kidd] Parishioners of St James Anglican Church in Roseneath, Ontario, are grieving the loss of their church after the historic building was destroyed by a fire last week (Tuesday 9 April). Bryce Sangster, Rector of the parish of Campbellford, Hastings and Roseneath, says the blaze started around 10.15 pm EDT [2.15 am Wednesday 10 April GMT]. By the time he arrived on the scene close to 11.30 pm, smoke was rising from the front of the church, the only part of the building left standing. Its tough. . . I cant shut off. I cant read, I cant do anything else, says Sangster, when asked how he is feeling. While the church was completely destroyed, Sangster says he hopes its bell may be salvageable. However, no one has been allowed at the scene, which is currently being preserved by police as part of an investigation. About 15 people regularly attend the church, which was built in 1863. Many have been coming for years. One woman, I couldnt talk to [her] because she was so distraught. . . She [was] still ringing the bell, and she used to do that as a kid, says Sangster. The fire came on the heels of a dedication Sunday a few weeks previous, when the church paid tribute to a man who had done a good deal of work on the church building. The congregation also dedicated an altar cloth in memory of a woman who recently died. The altar cloth was in the church that day and then got taken home, and the person that had it forgot it last Sunday. So its still hanging in their house, says Sangster. I said, Bring it on Sunday. Thats the one thing that we have left, that we know of, that will be the continuation from the old church. The congregation met last Sunday in the nearby Alnwick Civic Centre. Though details of where the church will meet next are still being determined, Sangster says there is already talk of rebuilding the church. An historic cemetery, with monuments dating back more than a century and an eco-friendly interment area, surrounds the site of the church. Hopes for rebuilding are twofold, he says: a place for us to worship on Sunday morning and something to continue the cemetery, its presence in the community. Sangster says support has been pouring in since the fire. A Peterborough church has organised a travelling communion set for the churchs Eucharist this upcoming Sunday, and diocese of Toronto Area Bishop for Trent-Durham, Riscylla Shaw, has also visited. Still, for St James parishioners, the pain remains fresh, Sangster says. Were still grieving. In a sense, I dont think the shock has even worn off yet. Stellar Data Recovery is the worlds one of the largest data recovery industry in India and had proved a wide range of data recovery services to various clients across the globe. Stellar has been expert in all kind of Data recoveries which may accidental deletion, Virus Attack, RAID failure or any system crash. They have been the best data recovery service provider for both B2C and B2B consumers around the Globe. The services provided by Steller are classified into two categories i.e. Consumer And Business. The Consumer Services include the Device Recovery(Laptop, Desktop, Pendrive, SSD Data Recovery), File Recovery(Photo, Email, Database, Video Recovery), Mobile Recovery( Mobile Data, Android/iOS device Data), Data Erasure(BitRaser, Bitraser for File). The Services provided for Business Include Device Recovery(Hard Data, Flash Data, CCTV/DVR Data, Tally Data, Encrypted Data), Server Recovery(RAID Data, NAS Data, Server Data, SAN Data), File Recovery(Ransomware, Photo, Email, Database, Video), Data Erasure(BitRaser for Mobile, Enterprise & File). Stellar has conducted a Bloggers meet in Delhi and our team was a part of the meet. We had a complete factory visit of the organization and they have guided us with the modes of the data recovery. The event was conducted in such a way where we had a complete overview of the product in the presentation addressed by the speakers. Stellar Bloggers Meet was one of the exciting technology event for Indian bloggers to experience the worlds best Data Care Solutions through live demo zones and get a sneak peek into ISO certified Class 100 Clean Room lab. Post the presentation we visited the companies work zone where people were working live on Data Recovery. They have got the dedicated team working for different modes of recovery which helps in easy recovery of the lost data. The team has guided us with the overview of their internal tools which they use for data recovery and data erasure. The best thing about the company is that they work with the minute data of their client which may be a small photo or a corrupted video and helps in retrieval of the data. Steller is good a recovering the data from your damaged Windows OS/ Mac OS and Linux Operation system. In recent times they have helped many organizations to recover data in short span of time. They have recovered the data of many individuals from the recent cyber attacks i.e., WannaCry & Petya. Stellar has been best at Data Erasure for various clients offering them service in erasing the complete data from used devices at the end of the Life Cycle. They have build a dedicated software which provides secure erasure solution along with audit trails helping clients in safeguarding the data privacy. They have got dedicated software for data recovery which includes windows data recovery, mac data recovery, photo recovery and content recovery on a smartphone(Android/iOS). They have got few open source tools which help in basic retrieval of the data and is available for download on their website. Post the event there was an interactive Q&A session where had direct interaction with the Stellars Data Recovery team and companies Head. The Stellar Data Recovery Software is available for purchase with 1 Year Licence on their Official Website costing around Rs 5999 for Professional Version, Rs 7999 for Premium Version and Rs 15339 for Premium Version. If you would like to use the Stellar Data Recovery Tool then you can get the tool for a special discount by referring them with our Website. Not at all. It just seems like a lot of back-and-forth talk. Yes. I'm growing very worried over what might happen. If it keeps up, I might be a little more concerned. I think there are much larger things to concern us as a country. It's hard to tell; I can't take the leader of either country seriously. Vote View Results Marysville, CA (95901) Today Clear skies. Low near 35F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear skies. Low near 35F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. 37 Navistar MaxxPro Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles, donated by the US government, were handed-off for the Albanian Armed Forces on 4 April, Dylan Malyasov reported on MilitaryQ. The ceremony was attended by the Albanian Defense Minister Olta Xhacka, the charge daffaires at the U.S. Embassy in Tirana Leyla Moses-Ones, and Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces Brigadier General Bardhyl Kollcaku. Navistar MaxxPro Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles being offered to Albania (Picture source via Dylan Malyasov) Albanian Defense Minister Olta Xhacka thanked the U.S. government for its continued support to Albania and expressed gratitude for the donation of 37 Navistar MaxxPro MRAPs, which will increase the capabilities and performance of the countrys Armed Forces. On her part, Moses-Ones underlined that the new armored capability will enhance Albanians internal defense, strengthen NATOs southern flank, and provide critical combat power to NATO that can be deployed in support of global operations. These vehicles were transferred under the US program for the implementation of Excess Defense Articles (EDA) in accordance with the 2015 US-Albanian agreement. Under this agreement, the United States pledged to donate 250 wheeled combat vehicles via EDA. In 2017, Albania received 77 HMMWV M1114 Humvees and the first three MaxxPro armored vehicles as the first step under this agreement. In 2015-2018, the Albanian Ministry of Defense also received even Iveco LMV light armored vehicles with a thermal imager. from the Italian army. The Niti Aayog CEO also pitched for opening up of mining and coal sectors for boost job creation. New Delhi: Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Wednesday said India has been growing at more than 7 per cent rate and this could not have been achieved without adequate job creation. Speaking on the sidelines of a PHD Chambers of Commerce event, Kant said that when non-NDA ruled states like Karnataka and West Bengal are claiming that jobs are being created, then it was not possible that at all India level, employment is not being generated. "How is it possible that we are having 7.5 per cent growth and jobs are not being created? It is not possible. "... If West Bengal and Karnataka are saying that jobs have been created in their respective states, then how it is possible that at the national level there is no employment generation," he pointed out. Recently, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also stoutly defended the growth data saying an economy cannot be growing at 7-8 per cent without creating jobs. He had also stated that no major social agitation indicates it hasn't been jobless growth. Kant's statement comes against the backdrop of a report by Azim Premji University suggesting that employment opportunities declined and 5 million men lost their jobs between 2016 and 2018. The decline in job opportunities coincided with demonetisation in November 2016, although no direct causal relationship can be established based only on these trends, the State of Working India-2019 (SWI) report said. According to a leaked National Sample Survey Office's (NSSO's) periodic labour force survey (PLFS) report, India's unemployment rate had hit a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18. Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had recently expressed doubts over Indian economy growing at 7 per cent when not enough jobs were being created and had said the current cloud over the GDP numbers must be cleared by appointing an impartial body to look at the data. Kant said that India needs to accelerate its growth rate from 7 per cent to 10 per cent. He said India in the next three years will be amongst the top 25 countries in the ease of doing business ranking of the World Bank. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Goods and Services Tax (GST) and RERA were major reforms undertaken by the Modi government, Kant said, adding that "real impact of these reforms will start reflecting in next two years." The Niti Aayog CEO also pitched for opening up of mining and coal sectors for boost job creation. After rising to an intra-day record of 39,487.45 points, the 30-share index turned negative to settle 135.36 points. The broader NSE Nifty slipped 34.35 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 11,752.80. Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex retreated from its lifetime high to close 135 points lower on Thursday as investors booked profits at higher levels amid weak global cues. After rising to an intra-day record of 39,487.45 points, the 30-share index turned negative to settle 135.36 points, or 0.34 per cent, lower at 39,140.28. The broader NSE Nifty slipped 34.35 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 11,752.80. The benchmark indices had closed at record highs on Tuesday on earnings optimism and forecast of a near-normal monsoon. Markets were closed Wednesday for Mahavir Jayanti. "After a period of significant momentum ahead of the general elections, the market may take a pause in some kind of an interim profit-booking," said Joseph Thomas-Head Research, Emkay Wealth Management. "The accelerating scenario of a slowdown in global growth as also the definitive prospects of higher fuel prices and a weaker currency may also be working on the minds of the market participants at this juncture, he added. Top losers in the Sensex pack included Yes Bank, Vedanta, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, L&T, SBI, NTPC, Kotak Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank, PowerGrid, Infosys and ITC, falling up to 4.18 per cent. On the other hand, RIL was the biggest gainer on the index, rising 2.79 per cent ahead of its Q4 results. Tata Motors, Asian Paints, TCS, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, Axis Bank and HUL also ended in the green, rising up to 2.32 per cent. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equity worth a net Rs 1,038.58 crore on Tuesday, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares to the tune of Rs 37.22 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed. Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Japan, China and Korea ended in the red. In Europe, bourses in Germany, France and the UK were trading on a mixed note in early deals. Global crude oil benchmark Brent futures fell 0.17 per cent to USD 71.50 per barrel. Meanwhile, the Indian rupee appreciated 5 paise to 69.55 against the US dollar intra-day. The second phase of polling is being held in Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, UP and other places. Chennai: As voting gets underway in Tamil Nadu for the 38 Lok Sabha seats at stake, superstars and new entrants of the political arena Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan came out on Thursday to exercise their franchise. Haasan, who was accompanied by his daughter Shruti, were seen waiting in line to cast their votes at a polling booth in Chennai. Later, Shruti Haasan took to Instagram to share a snap of her inked finger. "Vote for the change you want to see ! #everyvotecounts," she captioned the post. Shruti also shared a picture with her father, and wrote "VOTING DAY !!! Proud of you my dear father @ikamalhaasan Im on my way to vote, are you? #bigday" Academy-award winning music composer AR Rahman asked his fans on Twitter if they have cast their votes. Done have you? he tweeted, along with a picture of his inked finger. Meanwhile, Rajinikanth cast his vote at Stella Maris College in Chennai. "Everyone should vote," he told reporters after exercising his franchise. Rajinikanth casting vote in Chennai. (Photo: ANI) The second phase of polling is being held in Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Puducherry. TDP activist Devibabu Chowdary filed the complained at Tadepalli Gudem rural police station in West Godavari district. West Godavari: A TDP activist has complained against film director Ram Gopal Varma for allegedly posting a morphed picture on Facebook depicting TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu joining YSR Congress Party. TDP activist Devibabu Chowdary filed the complained at Tadepalli Gudem rural police station in West Godavari district. "I complained against Ram Gopal Varma in Tadepalli Gudem rural police station in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. I had already complained in Telangana. Reason for present complaint is that he morphed the photo of Chandrababu Naidu as if he is joining in YSRCP and posted it on social media. That is provocative of our feelings," said Chowdary. "Ram Gopal Varma's acts are disturbing the law and order situation in Andhra Pradesh. I complained to the police to take stern action against him. Police responded positively, said they will investigate the matter. They registered an FIR. Our fight will continue until Varma makes an open apology to Chandrababu Naidu," he said. "The complainant has alleged that Ram Gopal Varma had posted in his social media account the morphed photo of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with derogatory comments. He even allegedly made unwarranted comments on his family members. We will take appropriate legal action, we will investigate the photo morphing issue," said a police official. Varma is said to have allegedly shared another picture on Facebook that includes satirical comments on Naidu, his son Nara Lokesh, daughter-in-law Brahmani, and her father Balakrishna. The actress had earlier stated issues over date, but as it turns out, she is working on another biopic based on a female indian politician. Known for her strong performances in films like Parineeta, The Dirty Picture, Kahaani and Tumhari Sulu, Vidya Balan was the first actress who was offered the biopic on Late J Jayalalithaa, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. However, according to the news that has been making rounds, Vidya refused to play this role owing to her dates issues and prior commitments. In a recent interaction with Vidya, we asked her about the real reason behind her turning down the Jayalalithaa biopic. Yes, I was offered to do the biopic of the Late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. I simply refused to do it because I had already committed to doing the biopic of Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which will begin soon, says the actress and adds, I always wished to play Indira Gandhi and now the biopic of Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is all set to be made into a web series. Thus, I did not wish to do another biopic. At that moment, I felt that doing one biopic was enough. Just to refresh the memories of the readers, Vidya was considered jinxed in her early days. She was also dropped from her first South film without any information. Yes, I was informed about me having been dropped (from the film) by my hair stylist, Vidya had confirmed to us earlier. But after her films in the Hindi film industry saw success, the directors from the film industries in the South, who had once refused to work with her stating that she is ugly and jinxed, are now approaching her. And, Vidya feels humbled about it. 'I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote!' Modi wrote. 'Dear Citizens of India, Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise,' Prime Minister Modi tweeted. (Photo: File) New Delhi: As the second phase of voting began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged voters to go out and vote and strengthen our democracy. Dear Citizens of India, Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise, Prime Minister Modi tweeted. Dear Citizens of India, Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise. I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote! Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 18, 2019 I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote! Modi wrote. Congress president Rahul Gandhi urged voters to "vote for Nyay" (justice). Gandhi appealed voters to vote for justice to unemployed youth, struggling farmers, small businessmen and those who were persecuted due to their religion or caste. He used the hashtag "VoteNyayVoteCongress" with his appeal. When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay. Nyay for our unemployed youth; for our struggling farmers; for the small traders whose businesses were destroyed by Demonetisation; for those who were persecuted because of their caste or religion. #VoteNyayVoteCongress pic.twitter.com/VvEZPPX5b8 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 18, 2019 Voting will be held in 115 constituencies in the third, 71 in the fourth phase, 51 in the fifth phase, 59 in the sixth and 59 in the seventh phase. The results will be declared on May 23. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. Ola said it has partnered with office of Karnataka CEO and others, including the civic bodies in various cities in this regard. As a part of the free service, Ola has assigned 270 cabs to the election commission which will be made available to ferry disabled voters to polling booths, a press release on Wednesday read. (Photo: File) Bengaluru: Cab aggregator Ola said on Wednesday that it would drive people with disabilities to the polling booths in Karnataka for free, in association with the Election authorities. The company said it has partnered with the office of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer and others, including the civic bodies in various cities in this regard. As a part of the free service, Ola has assigned 270 cabs to the election commission which will be made available to ferry disabled voters to polling booths, a press release on Wednesday read. This free ride facility would be across Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Mangaluru on April 18 and Ballari, Hubali-Dharwad, Gulbarga and Belgaum on April 23, the release said. We are grateful to Ola and appreciate their efforts in enabling seamless transportation so that every citizen can go out and vote, Surya Sen A V., Joint Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka said. Ola Regional Head (South) Vishnu Bommareddy said availability of convenient transport options had resulted in positive voter turnout in recent past and the company would continue to back initiatives that support the constitutional machinery of the country. "We are glad to partner with the local authorities and facilitate hassle-free mobility for every voter in Bengaluru, he added. In an interview to a news channel, Modi had expressed satisfaction over the fact that Mallyas extradition process was in the last stage. Mallya is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore and is currently facing trial at a London court. (Photo: AFP) New Delhi: Fugitive Businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday cited a statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while taking a dig at him as well as banks over contradictory statements made in British courts regarding recovery of money he owed PSUs. Mallya tweeted: None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe ? One or the other is lying. Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 18, 2019 In an interview to Republic Bharat news channel on March 29, Modi had expressed satisfaction over the fact that Mallyas extradition process was in the last stage and the government has recovered money from him. "We brought in a law that enabled the Indian government to confiscate the property of fugitives in any part of the world. You must've seen in the case of Vijay Mallya. He owed banks Rs 9000 crore but the government has confiscated his properties worth Rs 14,000 crore from across the world. Now, he is in trouble because we are taking double the amount," the Prime Minister had said in an exclusive interview to Republic Bharat news channel's Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. Mallya, who is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore, is currently facing trial at a London court. On April 8, a United Kingdom court had denied permission to the liquor baron to appeal against his extradition order to India to face trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. The unseasonal rains and storm also caused damage to property and crops in Gujarat and Rajasthan. People commute through a flooded road after heavy rains at Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI) Jaipur/Bhopal/Ahmedabad: Over 50 people were killed as rains coupled with thunderstorm and lightning hit several parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra overnight, officials said on Wednesday. The unseasonal rains and storm also caused damage to property and crops in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Rajasthan witnessed the maximum casualties with 25 people killed in rain-related incidents following by Madhya Pradesh where 15 were killed. While 10 people were killed in Gujarat, three were killed in Maharashtra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter in the morning to express anguish over the loss of lives in the rains in Gujarat and announce relief. Soon afterwards Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath hit out at the Prime Minister, accusing him of being concerned only about his home state Gujarat. The PMO in a tweet later said, PM @narendramodi has expressed grief at loss of lives due to unseasonal rains and storms in MP, Rajasthan, Manipur & various parts of the country. An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to unseasonal rain & storms in MP, Rajasthan, Manipur & various parts of the country has been approved from the PMs National Relief Fund. Rs 50,000 each for the injured has also been approved, the PMO said. Union home minister Rajnath Singh said the government is closely monitoring the situation in rain-hit areas and is ready to provide all possible help to states affected by rains and thunderstorm. Rajasthan disaster management minister Master Bhanwar Lal Meghwal said 25 people died due to unseasonal rains in the state. Compensation of Rs 4 lakh each has been announced by the Rajasthan government to the families of victims. A case under section 509 has been registered against the accused. The police have started investigation in the case. (Representational Image) Hyderabad: A 21-year-old woman has filed a complaint stating her drama academy teacher asked students to remove clothes, the police said on Wednesday. "On April 15 we received a complaint from a girl stating that she is a student of a drama and dance academy located under the limits of Narayanguda police station," the Narayanguda Police said. "She stated that the drama academy master asked all the students in the academy to remove their clothes before classes started. But she refused and complained about the matter to us," the police further said. A case under section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) has been registered against the accused. The police have started investigation in the case. Pitroda also criticised the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sam Pitroda, a confidant of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday said that he is not satisfied with the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. (Photo: File) Ahmedabad: Sam Pitroda, a confidant of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday said that he is not satisfied with the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. As an engineer, a technical expert, I am not satisfied with EVM, but I have not been able to pinpoint because we do not have EVM. If someone gives us EVM to study for one year, we'll be able to tell you something, Pitroda said while addressing a press conference here. You will have to understand the design, its software. Every little signal will have to be analysed. Then only you can say something. But one thing is clear that there is some problem, what is the problem we don't know, he added. In reference to Congress partys manifesto, Pitroda said, People's opinion was heard for Congress manifesto. We spent five-six months listening to people, spoke to villagers. We went from countries to countries, met domain experts, held a huge meeting in Dubai where members from 12 countries came. He added, In total, 52 things have been listed in the manifesto. If and when we come to power, I assure you this manifesto will be implemented. It will not be a false promise. When we say something, we deliver. Pitroda also criticised the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said, You can openly and shamelessly lie to people of India and people take that as truth. Young people have no idea of what went on in building a nation of this size and magnitude with the kind of diversity we have. We have created millions of jobs. We know how to create jobs. Congress party created jobs in agriculture, IT, space, atomic energy, auto industry, pharmaceuticals. As an engineer, a technical expert, I am not satisfied with EVM, but I have not been able to pinpoint because we do not have EVM. If someone gives us EVM to study for one year, we'll be able to tell you something, Pitroda said while addressing a press conference here. You will have to understand the design, its software. Every little signal will have to be analysed. Then only you can say something. But one thing is clear that there is some problem, what is the problem we don't know, he added. In reference to Congress partys manifesto, Pitroda said, People's opinion was heard for Congress manifesto. We spent five-six months listening to people, spoke to villagers. We went from countries to countries, met domain experts, held a huge meeting in Dubai where members from 12 countries came. He added, In total, 52 things have been listed in the manifesto. If and when we come to power, I assure you this manifesto will be implemented. It will not be a false promise. When we say something, we deliver. Pitroda also criticised the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said, You can openly and shamelessly lie to people of India and people take that as truth. Young people have no idea of what went on in building a nation of this size and magnitude with the kind of diversity we have. We have created millions of jobs. We know how to create jobs. Congress party created jobs in agriculture, IT, space, atomic energy, auto industry, pharmaceuticals. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. In his report to EC, Kerala CEO Teeka Ram Meena said Pillai made remarks on number of people killed during the Balakot air strike. Kerala Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has recommended "appropriate action" against BJP state chief PS Sreedharan Pillai for allegedly making anti-Islam remarks during an election campaign meeting (Photo: File) Kochi: Kerala Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has recommended "appropriate action" against BJP state chief PS Sreedharan Pillai for allegedly making anti-Islam remarks during an election campaign meeting in Attingal Lok Sabha constituency on April 14. In his report to the Election Commission, Kerala CEO Teeka Ram Meena said Pillai made the remarks while countering the comments of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the number of people killed during the Balakot air strike. "Our Rahul Gandhi, Yechury, Pinarayi and all are saying that, after getting there... the dead bodies... which caste, which religion... if they are Islam then there will be a few signs... if only you remove the dresses only then it can be found out... so after doing all that, we should come back is what they say," Pillai had said, according to Meena's report to the poll body. Pillai made these remarks during the poll campaign meeting organised for BJP candidate Sobha Surendran. The CEO, in his report dated April 16, said no permission was taken for the BJP meeting and a complaint has been registered in the Attingal police station in Thiruvananthapuram district. "It appears prima facie a case of violation of Section 123(3A) and Section 125 of the Representations of People Act, 1951. Accordingly, appropriate action may be taken in the matter," Meena said in his report sent to Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain. On Wednesday, the CEO had informed the High Court that strong action would be taken against Pillai in the case. A petition seeking a directive to the Election Commission to take action against Pillai was filed by CPI(M) leader V Sivankutty. The court disposed of the petition in the light of the submissions made by the Election Commission. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analysis etc all. Happy reading. The minister also conducted a road show ahead of filing her nomination for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. Maneka Gandhi had previously been elected on a BJP ticket from Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh. (Image: ANI) Sultanpur: Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi today filed her nomination from the Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. The minister also conducted a road show ahead of filing her nomination for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. Speaking to news agency ANI before nomination, Maneka Gandhi said, "The development works in Sultanpur, if I am elected, will continue in the same way they did in my previous constituency." Maneka Gandhi asserted that the work initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will "trump" the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh. "I am sure that BJP will win the election and form government," she added. Maneka Gandhi had previously been elected on a BJP ticket from Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh. However, her son Varun Gandhi will be contesting the ensuing polls from this seat. There are 80 Lok Sabha seats at stake in Uttar Pradesh. Out of these, eight seats went to polls on April 11 while an equal number of seats is witnessing polling today. The remaining seats will go to polls in the next five phases. Counting of votes will take place on May 23. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. 'I ensured that I carry my voter ID when I rushed to the hospital with my wife at about 3 am after she developed labour pain',said Mishra Bangalore: The early morning birth of second child and immediate medical concerns of his family did not deter Sandeep Mishra, a Bangalore-based techie, from casting his vote for the Lok Sabha polls in the state today. Mishra, 37, whose wife gave birth to their second son at about 5:45 am at a private hospital, rushed to his polling booth in Horamavu Road (Bangalore North constituency) as soon as it opened at 7 am. "I had ensured that I carry my voter ID card when I rushed to the hospital with my wife and family at about 3 am after she developed labour pain.I quickly drove to my polling centre, about 3 km from the hospital, as soon as I saw my newborn son," Mishra said. The software professional said he was among the first voters at the booth and he cast his vote at about 7:15 am. "It is my responsibility to ensure that I vote and also look after my family and hence by voting early I will now be able to take care of the new member in the family and my wife easily," Mishra said. He added his wife, Sudha, regretted she will not be able to cast her vote after the birth of their child but she "fully supported" him in ensuring that he exercised his franchise. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analysis etc all. Happy reading. Addressing a campaign rally at Vanthli in Junagadh district, he also accused PM Modi of applying different rules to the rich and the poor. Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that Minimum Support Prices (MSP) would also be announced in the separate farmers' budget which his party's manifesto has promised. (Photo: File) Vanthli: Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that Minimum Support Prices (MSP) would also be announced in the separate farmers' budget which his party's manifesto has promised. Addressing a campaign rally at Vanthli in Junagadh district, he also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of applying different rules to the rich and the poor. "If the Congress comes to power, the country will have two budgets. One will be national budget and another farmers' budget. In the farmers' budget we will announce MSP for various crops in advance so that farmers know what they will get. We will (also) announce the amount of insurance (premium) payable (by farmers) and what would farmers get," he said. The Modi government was ready to waive loans of rich industrialists but not those of farmers, he said. "We will not allow formation of two India. If we have one flag, then we should have one nation. If Ambani gets justice, farmers should also get justice," Gandhi said. If big industrialists defaulted on repayment of loan, they are not jailed, but if a poor farmer is unable to pay an instalment, he is put behind bars, the Congress chief said. Gandhi also claimed that his party's ambitious `Nyay' minimum income guarantee scheme under which poor families will get Rs 72,000 per year will not harm the economy, but instead help it grow. Modi had made a false promise of giving Rs 15 lakh to everyone, but my promise of giving Rs 3.6 lakh (in five years) to poor families is true, Gandhi said. The BJP has criticised the Nyay scheme in the Congress manifesto saying it would hurt the economy and increase the tax burden of the middle class. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. The OC must be arrested immediately and HR Commission abolished We welcome the circular issued by the Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain requiring female magistrates to be assigned for interrogation of women and children in rape and other sexual cases. One wonders why it took so long to insist that the women and children sexual victims should be interrogated by women magistrates. The male police must also be stopped from questioning women and children sex victims at any stage. It is widely known how the male OC of Sonagazi Police Station joked and teased student Nusrat with sexually salacious questions when she went to complain about sexual harassments by the principal and others. Nusrat Jahan Rafi was set on fire two days after detained Sonagazi Madrasa Principal Siraj Ud Doula gave a directive to some of his followers when they visited him in Feni District Jail, investigators said. It remains unclear exactly what the directive was but officials said two prime suspects -- Nuruddin and Shahadat Hossain Shamim -- and three other youths had planned the brutal act on April 5, just a day after the jail meeting. Arrest is easy and so far, 13 people, including two female students of the madrasa, have been found involved in the crime. It has been known that several female students and their guardians complained to the Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Additional District Magistrate, madrasa governing body and the police station at different times. But neither the local administration nor the madrasa governing body took any action in this regard. Siraj reportedly used to maintain close links with local administration and influential leaders of different political parties. The role of Moazzem Hossain, the then OC of Sonagazi Police Station, who filmed Nusrat while she was giving her statement following the harassment by Siraj on March 27, must come under severe criticism as he completely failed to provide any sort of protection to Nusrat -- which eventually ended up costing her life. How a police officer can do if there is any disciple in the police force? The OC was enjoying asking sexually explicit questions in the knowledge of his complicity of the offence of burning to death the helpless student. He forgot that the people do not pay police to treat them jokingly. The people are surprised how the police high-ups are trying to ignore the criminality of the disciplined police officer for whose negligence or intentional inaction was responsible for Nusrat's untimely brutal death. The OC should have been the first to be arrested as an accused. The harsh truth is some of the police do not care to remember that they are the people's police paid by the people. We must urge the high officials to make the police force the people's force for protecting the people. Dhaka Cyber Tribunal on April 15 took the case of Sonagazi Model Police Station Moazzem Hossain into cognisance and asked the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to submit a report by April 30. We find the cyber case against the OC is no case; he is to be charged in the murder case as one of the murderers. His complicity with the gang of local criminals gave others the necessary courage and protection. We are sure Nusrat was not the only girl victim in the hands organised gang that included political leaders and the OC himself. It is shameful how our politics degenerated to be anti-people and police appeaser. In a situation like this the people cannot be sure of police protection and undesirable tension is growing up between police and the people, which is not good. The intellectual hypocrisy and criminal dishonesty among the educated self-seekers enjoying benefits from the government are ready to blame society for degeneration of values deserve hateful condemnation. They refuse to see how corruption and abuse of police power is tolerated by the government in their own interest. They are ungrateful to the people although they get all benefits from the public funds. These dishonest intellectuals cannot see how politics has been criminalised and crimes enjoy impunity. The Chairman of the Human Rights Commission plays no effective role in defending human rights but draws fat salary and enjoys other benefits happily without doing his duty. Yesterday evening he appeared in a television programme to praise government for the empowerment of women and he showed no concern how helplessly our girls are easy victims of rape and killing after rape daily. The girls go to police but going to police is no help. Others admits that going to the police is not much of a help because of the political disempowerment of the people of the country. But Chairman had nothing in condemnation of the OC Moazzen Hossain. Some police officers show the arrogance that they are the king makers. The Chairman of the Human Rights Commission blamed society for loss of values but not the government or politics of the country. He finds nothing wrong for destroying public accountability about public services. The best thing would be to abolish the useless Human Rights Commission. We do not need the Human Rights Commission as a protector of the government. He did not say anything about the constitutional obligation of the government to protect the people's right to life. In the south-central Mumbai constituency, Mr Shewale is contesting against Eknath Gaikwad from the Congress. Mumbai: The Congress was left red-faced on Wednesday as its senior MLA Kalidas Kolambkar announced that he will campaign for Shiv Sena candidate Rahul Shewale in the south-central Mumbai constituency. The MLA from Naigaon has already given ample indications of his plans to join the BJP ahead of the Vidhan Sabha elections. In the south-central Mumbai constituency, Mr Shewale is contesting against Eknath Gaikwad from the Congress. Mr Kolambkar expressed disappointment with his party leadership and said he will campaign for Mr Shewale. I am deeply disappointed with the Congress leadership. He said he has not received any communication so far from his party leadership about the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress candidate Eknath Gaikwad also did not call me or send any message. I extend my support to Mr Shewale and will campaign for him, he said. Speculation is rife that Mr Kolambkar, who is a six-term legislator from the Wadala Assembly seat and a close aide of former chief minister Narayan Rane, may join the BJP. Word that Mr Kolambkar plans to join the BJP started doing the rounds after an image of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was found on the banner put up at his office Tuesday. Raised right opposite the Congress Tilak Bhavan office at Dadar, the banner had the image of Mr Fadnavis instead of his current party leaders. I dont want to remain in the Congress any more. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis possesses strong will power for the development of the state, he said. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. An official of the state branch of the ECI said that 235 EVMs were not working properly including 144 ballot units, and 91 control units. According to the Congress party, there were 57 complaints pertaining to slow working of EVMs, malfunction of EVMs, and violation of the model code of conduct (MCC), among others, at Hingoli, Latur, Nanded and Solapur. Meanwhile, the voting percentage was 62.43 per cent. Mumbai: In the second phase of the Lok Sabha election to 10 seats, complaints regarding slow working of electronic voting machines (EVM) and malfunction in the Marathwada region have been registered with the Election Commission of India (ECI) by Congress partys Maharashtra unit. According to the Congress party, there were 57 complaints pertaining to slow working of EVMs, malfunction of EVMs, and violation of the model code of conduct (MCC), among others, at Hingoli, Latur, Nanded and Solapur. Meanwhile, the voting percentage was 62.43 per cent. An official of the state branch of the ECI said that 235 EVMs were not working properly including 144 ballot units, and 91 control units. In addition to this, 195 VVPATs malfunctioned and all of them were immediately replaced. In an official statement issued by the Congress, the party demanded that BJP candidate Sudhakar Shringares candidature from Latur be revoked as Mr Shringare had violated the MCC. In addition to this, the party also demanded that a case be registered against him and Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar who had also violated the MCC. The vice-president of the legal unit of the state Congress, Vijay Pandey said, We have informed the state chief electoral officer and ECI about the malfunction and slow process of the EVMs along with the violation of the MCC at Latur and Nanded among other places in all ten LS seats. We have sent 57 emails to them. 35,000 police personnel were deployed to conduct the election. The highest voting percentage was registered in Beed at 64.37 per cent, while Solapur Lok Sabha constituency witnessed lowest voting percentage at 59.57 per cent. A total of 179 candidates are in the fray from ten seats and a total of 20,716 polling booths were used in the second phase. Out of these polling stations, a live web cast of 2,100 polling booths was carried out. The application has been filed by Jamiat-e-Ulema Maharashtra lawy-er Sharif Shaikh who is representing Ahmed. Ahmed is an intervener in the case. Mumbai: Sayyed Nisar Ahmed (59), who lost his young son Azhar in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast, has moved an application before the special National Investigating Agency (NIA) court, seeking to restrict accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha election and have her bail cancelled. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Ms Thakur from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat against Congress veteran Digvijay Singh on Wednesday and the application has been filed Thursday. Special NIA Judge Vinod Padalkar Thursday asked Thakur and the NIA to file their say on the application. The application has been filed by Jamiat-e-Ulema Maharashtra lawyer Sharif Shaikh who is representing Ahmed. Ahmed is an intervener in the case. The applicant has contended that Ms Thakur misguided the court by producing medical papers that she was suffering from breast cancer and was even unable to walk without support. But now, she is so fit that she is even contesting the election. The applicant has pointed out that the high court granted conditional bail to Ms Thakur but she did not attend hearing before the trial court on the pretext that she was unwell. According to the application, she did not attend court proceedings but was seen participating in various programmes and giving objectionable and instigating speeches since her release from jail. Mr Ahmed has requested the court to cancel her bail and restrict her from contesting elections on grounds that the court granted her bail for health reasons. But clearly healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat, which means she has misguided the court, read the application. The applicant has requested the court that she may be asked to attend the court proceedings in Mumbai and barred from contesting the election as the trial in still in progress and the petition for cancellation of bail is sub-judice before the Supreme Court. Foxconn Industrial has jumped 25 per cent this week and nearly 70 per cent so far this year, far outpacing the broad market. Gou, Taiwans richest person would join the already competitive presidential race, and take part in the opposition, China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) primary elections. Shares of Foxconn and its Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed units soared on April 18, as the investors cheered news that the chairman of the worlds largest contract manufacturer will run for president of Taiwan. Gou, Taiwans richest person with a net worth of USD 7.6 billion according to Forbes, said on April 17, he would join the already competitive presidential race and take part in the opposition, China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) primary elections. Foxconn in a statement said Gou would remain, chairman, though he planned to withdraw from his companys daily operations. On April 17, it said daily operations are handled by a team of professional managers, indicating that business would continue as usual. In terms of economic fundamentals, Taiwan stocks are not bad, said Cathay Futures Vice-President Anderson Chien. If Gou runs for the election, the market may draw parallels to the rally in the US stock market after US President Trump won in 2016, Chien said, referring to Donald Trump similarly being a businessman before turning attention to the presidency. Foxconn, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, climbed as much as 5.9 per cent to Taiwan Dollar 97.20, the highest since October 2018. The stock is up more than 8 per cent so far this week. Handset maker and Foxconn unit FIH Mobile Ltd jumped as much as 58 per cent to HKD 2.23, its highest since February 2018, and was on track for its sixth consecutive session of gain. The stock has soared more than 100 per cent so far this week, heading for its best week since its February 2005 listing. Punters are excited by the news and that boosted the stocks of the group of companies, said Alex Wong, a director at Ample Finance. However, he said, a correction - when a stock price falls as investors in tandem sell at a profit - could come at any time. FIHs stock ranked as the second-biggest percentage gainer in early trade, tracking a rally in its parent Foxconn. It has outperformed the Hang Seng Commerce & Industry Index sector by 55.2 percentage points in the past month. Shares in Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Foxconn, soared to the maximum allowed limit of 10 per cent, hitting their highest since June 2018. Foxconn Industrial has jumped 25 per cent this week and nearly 70 per cent so far this year, far outpacing the broad market. The Hong Kong-listed shares of Foxconn Interconnect Technology Ltd, Hon Hais electronic and optoelectronic connectors maker unit rose as much as 14.3 pct to the highest since February 2018. The stock is up 15 per cent this week. Asad Umar, who was involved in extensive discussions with the IMF to finalise a bailout package for the country, quit the Cabinet. Islamabad: Pakistan's Finance Minister Asad Umar, who was involved in extensive discussions with the IMF to finalise a bailout package for the cash-strapped country, quit the Cabinet on Thursday after Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his desire to shift him to the energy ministry. Umar, who recently returned from a trip to the US in which the details of Pakistan's next International Monetary Fund bailout were finalised, said he has obtained the prime minister's consent "to not take any cabinet position". "As part of a cabinet reshuffle, prime minister desired that I take the energy minister portfolio instead of finance," Umar said. "However, I have obtained his consent to not take any cabinet position." Prime Minister Khan-led government and Finance Minister Umar in particular have faced mounting criticism by opposition parties, members of the business community and citizens over the handling of the economic crisis. On Monday, the Pakistani media reported that a major reshuffle was on the cards in the Finance Ministry. However, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry denied the reports of the reshuffle. "There is no truth in reports regarding changes in posts of federal ministers. The prime minister has the power to change ministers and the media should play a responsible role on this subject," he tweeted. Cash-strapped Pakistan is seeking USD 8 billion from the IMF to bail itself out from a severe balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple the country's economy. Pakistan has so far received a total of USD 9.1 billion in financial aid packages from friendly countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE during the current fiscal year. Finance Minister Umar said earlier this month that a mission of the IMF would visit Islamabad soon after the spring meetings of the World Bank Group, which includes the IMF, and an agreement should be signed by the end of this month. NASA Needs You to Point Your Smartphone at Trees Heres Why NASA Needs You to Start Measuring Trees NASA needs you. Not to fly to the Moon or to Mars, but to measure trees. Its true. The space agency has created an app for citizen scientists (that means you) to measure local saplings, conifers and evergreens. Why? To aid the ICESat-2 satellite, of course. RELATED: An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth Using an instrument called ATLAS, the ICESat-2 estimates the height of trees from space (along with the elevation of sea ice, land ice, ocean and inland water). But how are accurate are those measurements? Thats where you come in. How You Can Help So why does NASA, with its approximately $21 million budget, need you? Well, to gather those measurements, the ICESat-2 (launched in September 2018) uses the ATLAS instrument to shoot 60,000 pulses of light at the Earths surface every second. On The Verge, Project scientist Tom Neumann likens it to a laser in space. But since NASA isnt set on the accuracy of these measurements they need a little help verifying the data. To get involved, you can download the NASA GLOBE Observer app (available for Apple and Android) and select the new tree-measuring tool called GLOBE Trees. After calibrating the app youre ready to measure. The process then involves standing about 25 to 75 feet away from your chosen tree (Note: the tree needs to be straight, not bent or broken) and holding your phone in front of your face to measure both the base and the top. After taking a picture, count the steps towards the trunk, log your position at the base, and the app will tell you the trees height. That's it. Youve officially done your bit for NASA. RELATED: NASA Five Things You Didn't Know WHY TREES? Why is Nasa really getting you to measure trees? Firstly, knowing how tall trees are can help scientists figure out the health of the worlds forests and their ability to act as carbon sinks. Secondly, as Neumann points out in The Verge report: You cant really ask a bunch of school kids in Pennsylvania to go to Antarctica to measure the ice sheet height for you for a calibration. [But] youve got all sorts of great terrain and features right in your backyard that you could go out and do these measurements that would be useful for us, he adds. Currently, GLOBE Trees has received about 700 measurements from 20 different countries. Naturally, they want way more than that. Ready to become a citizen scientist? Download the app here. You Might Also Dig: Richwood, TX (77531) Today Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Courtier belongs to the European Kindred gang, a white supremacist group he joined while in prison. In August 2016, he got into a fight with Bruce Jr. outside a 7-Eleven and it escalated to physical violence and, ultimately, murder, when he ran the latter over with his Jeep At the end of last month, after an 8-day trial, a jury found Courtier guilty on all charges: murder, hit-and-run driving and second-degree intimidation, which is a hate crime in the state of Oregon, as OregonLive informs. He had hoped for a lighter sentence, but prosecutors argued that he was unapologetic for the events of August 2016 and clearly a very violent man. The judge agreed with the prosecutors, according to the sentence handed out this week.Also with Courtier at the time was Colleen Hunt, his then-girlfriend and a passenger in the Jeep. She pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced in a separate trial to 10 years behind bars, after her attorney argued that, while she made mistakes, she did not espouse the same beliefs as Courtier on white supremacy.Police records show that, while Courtier was mowing down Bruce Jr. with the car, Hunt screamed encouragement at him, Get him baby! and Run him over! Surveillance footage captured the teens final and desperate dash to safety, as he tried to escape the car gunning for him on the pavement.During the sentencing, Bruce Jr.s family spoke, but Courtier declined to make a statement. He cried when hearing relatives talk about their pain, but the teens step-mother tells the media that his tears were for the cameras because a person who does what he did doesnt to me seem to have any empathy or remorse. 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. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is subtly shifting its position on climate change and growing vocal about the need to address it. Driving the news: The chamber recently updated its website with new language, including a statement stronger than anything the group has said before: Inaction is not an option. The group last week also released what it dubbed an energy and climate agenda, focused on clean-energy innovation. Why it matters: As America's biggest trade group representing business, the Chamber of Commerce gives voice to the common denominator position on a host of issues, including climate change. Official statements like this hold more weight. What theyre saying: Companies of all sizes and in every industry are paying ever more attention to climate change and are seeking sensible solutions, a chamber spokesman said. But, but, but: It's unclear whether this shift changes its long-held opposition to most regulations, which have been the main avenue of federal climate policy to date. The chamber has actively fought climate regulations issued by former President Obama and supported Trump's regulatory rollbacks. Flashback: A decade ago a top official, who has since retired, said the group wanted to put climate-change science on trial similar to what President Trump is considering today. (The groups official position at the time was more in line with mainstream science, however.) Where it stands: The main thrust of last weeks announcement was a new poll, and the group doesnt appear to be supporting any new policies, instead becoming more vocal on issues it already backs. This includes energy efficiency, nuclear power and technology capturing carbon emissions. The group doesn't have positions on more controversial and sweeping policies, like carbon taxes or the Paris Climate Agreement. The chamber does support amending a lower-profile environmental treaty reducing emissions from greenhouse gases emitted from appliances. Go deeper: Trump clashes with business on Obama-era climate treaty An 18-year-old woman who "made threats to commit an act of violence in the Denver metropolitan area," causing about 20 schools to close on Tuesday and Wednesday, was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Denver FBI office confirmed. Details: Authorities traced down the Florida woman, Sol Pais, who had traveled to Colorado and purchased a gun. Pais had an "infatuation" with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. Her threat, which sparked a manhunt on Tuesday and Wednesday, came days before April 20 the 20th anniversary of the Columbine shooting. Officials said in a press conference that there have been many copycats in the past who were inspired by the Columbine shooting, but that this instance felt different and credibly dangerous which is why they made the decision to close schools in the Denver metro area. Go deeper: The 10 deadliest school shootings since Columbine On a flight from New York City to Tel Aviv, a flight attendant fell ill, and is now being hospitalized while in a coma from a measles-related complication, the New York Times reports per Eyal Basson, a spokesman for the Isreali Ministry of Health. Details: It has not yet been confirmed whether the flight attendant had been vaccinated, but the woman's mother claimed she received recommended inoculations, per the New York Times. CNN reports that she has been in a coma for over 10 days. National health officials warned those who were aboard the March 26 El Al flight 002, recommending they visit medical professionals if fevers develop. In a letter, health officials also recommended all airline staff be immunized with 2 doses of the MMR vaccine. The big picture: Per CNN, 3,920 measles cases have been reported in Israel from March 2018 through April 11, 2019. Dr. Itamar Grotto, associate director general of Israel's Ministry of Health told CNN a flood of cases emerged in Israel last fall when members of ultra-Orthodox communities traveled to Ukraine, where, this year, more than 72,000 measles cases were recorded, according to the World Health Organization. Between 85% and 90% of Israeli measles cases have been among ultra-Orthodox Jews, Grotto said. Meanwhile, measles cases in New York and New Jersey this year have been largely concentrated in Orthodox Jewish communities, where vaccination rates may have been below the 95% threshold considered necessary to maintain immunity. Last year, in the U.S. there were 349 cases reported in 26 states and D.C., including outbreaks in New York and New Jersey where many were unvaccinated people in Orthodox Jewish communities. Go deeper: U.S. measles cases are "accelerating" amid "global crisis" On March 9, 2017, then-FBI director James Comey briefed the Gang of 8 on the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including the "principal U.S. subjects of the investigation," according to a redacted version of the Mueller report. What's new: On March 16, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) informed the White House counsel's office of the existence of "4-5 targets" in the Russia investigation, according to meeting notes written by Don McGahn's then-chief of staff, Annie Donaldson. Mueller does not make clear whether Donaldson was present at Burr's briefing. On March 16, 2017, the White House Counsel's Office was briefed by Senator Burr on the existence of "4-5 targets." The "targets" were identified in notes taken by Donaldson as "Flynn (FBI was inwrapping up) -> DOJ looking for phone records"; "Comey~Manafort (Ukr + Russia, not campaign)"; [REDACTED]; "Carter Page ($ game)"; and "Greek Guy" (potentially referring to George Papadopoulos, later charged with violating 18 U.S.C. 1001 for lying to the FBI) Donaldson and McGahn both said they believed these were targets of SSCI. But SSCI does not formally investigate individuals as "targets"; the notes on their face reference the FBI, the Department of Justice, and Comey; and the notes track the background materials prepared by the FBI for Comey's briefing to the Gang of 8 on March 9 (Donaldson could not rule out that Burr had told McGahn those individuals were the FBI's targets). Mueller report, page 52 of volume 2 Why it matters: The Senate Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation has long been considered to be less partisan than its House counterpart, which has been marred by infighting. It's unclear whether Burr had the blessing of Ranking Member Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to brief the White House. Statement from Burr's spokeswoman Caitlin Carroll: "Chairman Burr does not recall this specific conversation with Mr. McGahn in March of 2017; however, any conversations between the two would have been in reference to the need for White House personnel to voluntarily comply with the Senate Intelligence Committees Russia investigation. If specific individuals were discussed, they would have been those known to the Committee, the White House, and the media. The Chairmans stewardship over the Committees bipartisan and fact-based investigation over the last two years speaks for itself." Top of the Morning Unicorns will run rampant on Wall Street today, after both Pinterest and Zoom Communications priced IPOs above their proposed offering ranges. Pinterest raised $1.4 billion at $19 per share, above its $15-$17 range but below where it last sold shares to venture capitalists. Zoom raised $751 million at $36 per share, above its $33-$35 range, nearly 10x higher than where it last sold shares to venture capitalists. In both cases, it's a World Series grand-slam for early VC investors. Pinterest's raised $1.4 billion in venture capital, and will have an initial market cap of $10 billion while Zoom's is $9.2 billion after having raised just $160 million of venture capital. On the one hand, it's easy to now dismiss all of the hand-wringing over how Lyft's aftermarket performance would soften demand for subsequent unicorn IPOs. On the other, remember that Zoom is profitable and Pinterest has a visible path to profitability. Lyft had neither. New math: The Blackstone Group this morning announced that it will convert from a publicly-traded partnership to a C-corporation. We first discussed this trend 14 months ago, pointing out how the switch could broaden a firm's shareholder base. Publicly-traded partnerships are off-limits for many institutional investors, and also aren't eligible for most equity indexes or exchange-traded funds. Plus, the 2017 tax cut moved the corporate tax rate much closer to the capital gains tax rate. Put another way: It's designed to lift the stock price. And that's something very appealing to Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, who has complained for years that his firm is undervalued. Makes sense in theory, but results have been mixed. KKR shares have declined 5.93% since it converted to a C-corp last July, while Ares Management shares have climbed 4.37% since last November. (note: yes, there are all sorts of other firm-specific variables... just pointing out the conversion isn't a universal salve.) Game of Phones: TechCrunch's Josh Constine dives into the turmoil at mobile gameshow company HQ, where he reports that half the employees signed an internal petition to oust the CEO. Just one year ago it raised $15 million at a $100 million valuation from firms like Founders Fund and Lightspeed, but now is running short on cash and is struggling to find new investors. Worthy of your time. Debt distress: Yesterday we noted that Rob Jackson Jr. is planning to leave the SEC's board, potentially leaving the bipartisan group without a Democratic Party member. But, before he goes, Jackson is sounding the alarm on leveraged loans. From an interview with Bloomberg: "As a former banker, I think leveraged loans are an area where investors liquidity expectations might not match up with reality, and the SEC should do all we can to help investors understand that. The question is, is it time to go to Congress to get a new law to make sure the SEC can do that work? It may be time." Pro Rata Podcast: Our new episode focuses on the Apple-Qualcomm settlement. Listen here. North Korea wants U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo removed from nuclear negotiations with the country, Pyongyang state media reported Thursday. Details: "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," the official KCNA news agency quoted Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of American Affairs at North Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry, as saying. The big picture: The report comes a day after North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the test of a new tactical guided weapon. It's the first indication of a weapons demonstration by the East Asia country since President Trump's summit with Kim abruptly ended without an agreement in Hanoi in February. The backdrop: Pompeo said Monday he hadn't ruled out a third summit taking place between Trump and Kim. Between the lines: Pompeo's relationship with his North Korean counterparts has been tense at times. Last year, Choe Son-hui, North Korea's vice minister of foreign affairs, called him a "political dummy" and threatened to cancel a June summit between Trump and Kim. Trump canceled it hours later. Nurses, already in short supply, have not been afraid of going on strike at their hospitals. Between the lines: Pay and health benefits are almost always part of why any worker considers striking. But nurses, who make $72,000 per year on average, are also consistently unhappy about understaffed hospitals, saying they're caring for too many patients at once. The big picture: Nurses are in high demand but low supply, and that has led to a "high-pressure work culture" and "emotional burnout," Jaimy Lee of LinkedIn recently reported. Juggling a lot of patients over long hours has prompted many nurses to walk out. Nurses have authorized strikes at several different hospitals in California, including a potential strike at Stanford Health Care. Other nursing strikes occurred or were approved in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont over the past 2 years. One of the biggest strikes took place in 2016, when 4,000 nurses at Allina Health in Minnesota walked off the job for more than 6 weeks to protest cuts to their health benefits. Most recently, 3 New York hospital systems avoided a labor dispute last week that would have led to 10,000 striking nurses. Carl Ginsburg, spokesperson for the New York State Nurses Association, said the systems agreed to set nurse-to-patient ratios for specific departments. What they're saying: Staffing levels are often the driving force behind work stoppages. "Staffing continues to be the most persistent issue that nurses face, and the most difficult, controversial and fraught issue in collective bargaining," said Fernando Losada, the collective bargaining director for National Nurses United. California is the only state with mandated nurse-to-patient ratios in all hospital departments. Several other states have tried, but failed, to codify staffing ratios through ballot initiatives and legislation. What's next: Because nurses will continue to be in short supply over the next 3 years, hospitals will spend more money to hire temporary nurses and to attract and retain nurses, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service. Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia killed himself on Wednesday, reportedly as authorities closed in to arrest him for links to the corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, known as Operation Car Wash, or Lava Jato. By the numbers: Peru's last 5 former presidents have all been charged with crimes. Three have been sent to jail, 1 is currently on house arrest and the other is an international fugitive. The big picture: The last president not sought by authorities for graft was Fernando Belaunde Terry, who left office in 1985 and died in 2002. Peru's most recent ex-president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, was removed from office and eventually sentenced to 10 days in jail over charges a consulting firm he co-owned accepted nearly $1 million in payments from Odebrecht. Former President Ollanta Humala is currently under house arrest facing allegations he took $3 million in bribes, largely from Odebrecht, during his term from 2011 to 2016. Garcia served 2 terms as president, most recently prior to Humala, and shot himself in the head as authorities arrived to take him to jail. Alejandro Toledo has reportedly fled to the United States to avoid trial on corruption charges for taking bribes from Odebrecht. Alberto Fujimori, who oversaw a 10-year dictatorship in Peru from 1990 to 2000, was sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity, including killing more than 2 dozen people by military death squad. Fujimori was freed by Kuczynski in a controversial deal with Fujimori's daughter Keiko, who at the time was leader of the congressional opposition party. But last year he was sent back to prison. Keiko was arrested for taking bribes from Odebrecht in October and sentenced to 36 months pretrial detention. The state of play: Despite the political chaos, Peru's stock market delivered world-beating returns from the start of 2016 to the end of 2017. An ETF tracking MSCI's Peruvian index (EPU) gained 114% during that time, far outpacing the S&P 500's 43% rise and almost doubling MSCI's broader gauge of emerging market equities, which rose 66%, according to data from Yahoo Finance. It has since underperformed both indexes. Go deeper: After Peru's president, regional anti-corruption wave finds next targets The Trump administration must decide by May 2 whether to allow Iran to continue exporting crude oil a decision with huge implications for Washingtons Iran strategy and the oil market. The big picture: Since withdrawing from the nuclear deal last May, the U.S. has steadily ratcheted up economic and political pressure on Iran. The core component of the Trump administrations maximum pressure strategy is reducing the Islamic Republic's oil exports, which provide provide a third of government revenues. Background: U.S. sanctions require all purchasers of Iranian oil to significantly reduce their oil purchases every six months, with a stated goal of driving Iranian exports to zero. But in November the administration granted waivers that allow eight countries to continue importing Iranian crude: China, India, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Greece and Italy. Where it stands: Before the U.S. withdrew from the nuclear deal, Iran exported about 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. In 2019, its exports have fallen to about 1.3 million bpd. Yes, but: The Trump administration will not manage to bring Iran's exports to zero by May. The U.S. will not be able to convince all oil importers to give up on Iran. China and India, by far its biggest oil buyers, have strategic relationships with Iran and depend on its energy resources. The U.S. is unlikely to threaten sanctions against Chinese or Indian oil refiners or banks. The loss of Iranian barrels would lead to a significant spike in oil prices, which have already risen due to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, concerns about oil output in Libya and Algeria, and Saudi Arabias decision to cut production. Moreover, since Trump is sensitive to the political consequences of high oil prices (as his tweets make clear), the start of summer driving season would make for especially difficult timing. The bottom line: There's more slack in the maximum pressure campaign than the administration wants to let on. Trump's team still has higher priorities, like reaching a trade deal with China, strengthening ties with India and managing domestic gasoline prices. Robert Johnston is managing director for global energy and natural resources at Eurasia Group and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. Henry Rome is an Iran analyst at Eurasia Group. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called for U.S. assistance to what he called radical reforms implemented by his government when he met with eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives in Yerevan on Thursday. The U.S. congressional delegation comprised David Price, the chairman of the House Democracy Partnership, and other members of the bipartisan commission tasked with supporting legislatures in emerging democracies. It met with Armenian parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday. Pashinian told the visiting American lawmakers that boosting Armenias relations with the United States is one of his administrations foreign policy priorities. According to a statement by the prime ministers office, he briefed them on political and economic reforms launched in the country after last years velvet revolution. Nikol Pashinian emphasized that his government is taking consistent steps to strengthen the institutional and economic power of democracy and expects the support of our international partners, including the United States, said the statement. The Congress members assured of their willingness to assist Armenia in promoting democracy, implementing economic reforms and strengthening the Armenian-American friendship, it added. Speaking in the Armenian parliament late last month, Pashinian complained about Washingtons zero reaction to democratic change in his country. He seemed unhappy with the fact that there has been no significant increase in U.S. economic assistance to Yerevan since he came to power a year ago. The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, responded to the criticism when she spoke to RFE/RLs Armenian service on Monday. Tracy, who accompanied the U.S. lawmakers during their meetings in Yerevan, argued that the U.S. has provided over $2 billion in aid to Armenia since 1992 and is committed to more such assistance. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 24 times, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said April 18, Trend reports. The Armenian armed forces were using heavy machine guns. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova Given the fact that today most areas of the modern world economy are closely linked to the high technologies, Azerbaijan does its best to keep up with the consistent development of ICT. The Azerbaijani ICT market is rapidly developing, and new technologies are being introduced in the country, Director General of Nokia company in Russia Rashid Ismailov told Trend on April 17. He took part in the 6th meeting of the High Level Working Group on the Development of the Information Society in Baku. Ismailov stressed that the quality of mobile communications in Azerbaijan is quite good, and there is high-speed Internet that meets modern requirements. There are no problems with the work of mobile communication operators in Azerbaijan, he said. "The mobile communication network is being constantly expanded, which testifies to the growing demand of the population for the services of all three mobile communication operators - Azercell, Bakcell, Nar. Ismailov added that this direction should be more developed to further increase the quality level and even more to meet the needs of the population for the qualitative mobile communications and high-speed Internet. While speaking about the event in Baku, he emphasized the importance of the fact that the Executive Committee of the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications invited representatives of Nokia company, one of the important players in the digitalization market, to participate in the meeting. Ismailov stressed that this event is important for the company in terms of discussing the issues of digitalization in the post-Soviet area. Information technologies and the Internet play a special role in the development of Azerbaijan. More than 80 percent of the countrys population uses the Internet, and 76 percent of them use broadband Internet. Until 2020, the frequency range of 700-800 megahertz will be reserved for the needs of LTE mobile communication. ICT is considered to be one of the crucial spheres for the further development of Azerbaijan's economy and an integral part of the economic and political reforms which are currently implemented in the country. The income to be obtained in the sector is projected to hit $9 billion by 2020. In general, Azerbaijan is one of the leading countries implementing high technology in the region. Today, the country constructs high tech parks in the capital and regions. Due to the full transition to digital broadcasting in our country, the population now has the opportunity to watch radio and television broadcasts without interruption. The range and scope of postal and telecommunication services have grown and the infrastructure has been upgraded. All regional centers of the country are linked to the main fiber-optic telecommunication network. In addition, Azerbaijan has the most secure Data Center in the region. Today, local and international IT service providers can create their own infrastructure safely in the Data Center. In 2019-2022, $550-600 million will be invested in Azerbaijans telecommunications and information industry. There are plans to expand broadband connections to 70 percent in the fixed and mobile networks by 2020. By that year, investments in the expansion of the fiber optic broadband network in Azerbaijan are expected to amount to $80 million, while the coverage by fiber optic cables will increase to 70 percent by 2020 and to 95 percent by 2025. By Trend A meeting was held with representatives of large grain farms and agroparks at the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan, Trend reports referring to the ministry. The meeting, chaired by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ilham Guliyev, was devoted to the issues of harvesting and technical support, among other topics. During the meeting, representatives of large grain farms were informed that starting from this grain harvest season, preference will be given to plots of up to 50 hectares in harvesting with combines and equipment owned by Agroleasing, and only after that will the large grain farms be served. Representatives of agroparks were advised to purchase their own combines via leasing. It was emphasized that in accordance with the new rules, large grain farms can now buy agricultural equipment at a discount of 40 percent, subject to payment of 20 percent of the cost of equipment. They can pay the remaining amount for a long period and without interest. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) has officially announced the results of the municipal elections in Istanbul, Trend reports via Turkish media. According to the YSK, the candidate for the head of the Istanbul municipality from the opposition Republican Peoples Party Ekrem Imamoglu received 4.169 million votes, while the candidate from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Binali Yldrm received 4.156 million votes. Earlier, the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) of Turkey had appealed to the YSK demanding to issue a mandate to Ekrem Imamoglu to head the Istanbul municipality. The Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party has recently officially appealed to the YSK to hold the repeat elections in Istanbul. Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the results of the municipal elections in Istanbul may be annulled. Meanwhile, Yavuz said that the ruling party demands to hold the repeat municipal elections in Istanbul. He added that the ruling party has all the evidence of falsification of the election results. The ruling party will present all the facts of falsification of the election results in Istanbul soon, he said. The municipal election results in Istanbul were almost completely rigged, President Erdogan said earlier. He noted that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) appealed to the Turkish Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) to identify the perpetrators. Meanwhile, the Justice and Development Party presented facts of falsification of 11,000 votes in Istanbul in favour of the candidate of the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) Ekrem Imamoglu. Thirteen political parties took part in the municipal elections held March 31. These included the Felicity Party (SP), the Independent Turkey Party (Bagmsz Turkiye Partisi), the Communist Party of Turkey (Turkiye Komunist Partisi), the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi), the Great Unity Party (Buyuk Birlik Partisi), Free Cause Party (Hur Dava Partisi), Republican Peoples Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalknma Partisi), Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti), Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetci Hareket Partisi), Iyi Party (IYI Parti), Peoples Democratic Party (Halklarn Demokratik Partisi) and Democratic Left Party (Demokratik Sol Parti). Imamoglu gained 4.159 million votes, while candidate from the ruling party Binali Yildirim got 4.131 million votes in Istanbul. The coalition of the ruling party and the Nationalist Movement Party gained 51.67 percent of votes in the municipal elections throughout the country. Following the elections, candidate of the Republican Peoples Party Mansur Yavas became mayor of Ankara. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade Connecting trade, people and economies, the modern Trans-Caspian corridor has matured to strategic importance with extensive and integrated network of infrastructure, special economic zones, harmonized customs, cross-border procedures and more along this route. Azerbaijan will be represented at the next 4th Trans-Caspian Forum which will be held on May 22-23, 2019 in Washington D.C., the U.S., says the events website. Executive Director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication Vusal Gasimli, Vice President for Investments and Marketing of SOCAR Elshad Nasirov, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the U.S. Elin Suleymanov, Deputy Minister of Transportation and High Technologies Elmir Valizade and Chairman of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Rauf Valiyev, are among the speakers. Reportedly, policy and business leaders from the U.S. and the Trans-Caspian corridor countries will come together at the Forum to discuss opportunities and challenges in enhancing their strategic engagement and explore business, trade and investment opportunities to the benefit of all interested parties. Within the Forum framework, discussions will be held in the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Heritage Foundation will host the Summits second day luncheon to stimulate intellectual exchange on the way ahead. The Trans-Caspian Trade and Transit Corridor is a regional integrator, trade facilitator and reliable transit connecting link between Europe and Asia. Comprising Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to the west, and Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan Uzbekistan and Afghanistan to the east of the Caspian Sea, this corridor brings together more than 200 million strong markets and 400 billion in overall trade while connecting economies of the European Union and China along with access to Russia, Iran, Pakistan and India, reads a message on the website of the event. The U.S. has been playing an important role in the development of this corridor through joint initiatives to increase regional connectivity through oil and gas pipelines, to facilitate intra-regional cooperation and trade such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, Southern Gas Corridor, Lapis-Lazuli transport route and C5+1 format. While these initiatives contributed to the increased business between the U.S. and the corridor countries concerned, the emerging business potential of the corridor is under-explored and trade with the U.S. is significantly lagging behind in comparison with the EU and China. Building on the strategic partnerships forged between the U.S. and the corridor countries concerned and emerging business potential of the region, the Trans-Caspian Forum presents a leading platform to discuss the U.S. engagement with the strategically important Trans-Caspian corridor including investments and development of strategic infrastructure for benefiting the corridor countries, the U.S. and the business community concerned. The prevous Trans-Caspian Forum was held on May 18, 2018 in Washington D.C. in partnership with the embassies of Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade In recent years, automotive industry in Azerbaijan experiences positive changes. Azerbaijan is developing its own automobile manufacturing market by launching new plants to increase local production and decrease import dependence. Within the framework of the visit of Iranian Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Reza Rahmani to Azerbaijan, the foundation of a bus plant will be laid in Hajigabul on April 18, Sputnik Azerbaijan reports. Within the two-day visit of Rahmani, he will meet with Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev and Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Sahil Babayev, as well as business circles. The meetings are expected to discuss various projects, including the Rasht-Astara railway and the North-South corridor. The new plant is expected to produce 500 buses of both European and Asian countries at the initial stage. As many as 100 people will be employed at the enterprise, which will operate on 5 hectares of land. The cost of the project is 11 million manats ($6.47 million). Iranian-Azerbaijani cooperation in auto-making industry already has successful example. On August 6, 2016, big Iranian automaker Iran Khodro and Azerbaijani company AzEuroCar, a subsidiary of AzerMash, signed an agreement to establish a joint automobile plant in Neftchala. The Azerbaijani side invested 75 percent in the plant, while the Iranian side - 25 percent. Automotive sector is currently developing fast in Azerbaijan, as more plants engaged in the production of cars are being launched across the country. About 1,000 cars were sold in 2018, which is 32.4 times more than in 2017. However, according to the results of only two months of 2019, 500 vehicles were sold. At the same time, if last year 40 percent fell on purchases by government agencies and 60 percent - by the population, now this ratio has changed. This year only 15 percent account for the state structure while 85 percent falls in the share of the population. -- Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva Officials from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Hungary have gathered to discuss developments on efficiency of Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor. The 4th Meeting of the Ministers of Transport of the Turkic Council was held on April 17 in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek. In his opening speech, Turkic Council Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev emphasized the important role that transport plays in the socio-economic development of the member states. He noted that transport is one of the core areas of interest for the ongoing cooperation among the member states. The secretary general underscored the significant developments in the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor taking place in the last couple of years, particularly the reduction of logistical expenses along the corridor, facilitation of customs procedures in the Aktau port due to single window system and reduction of port charges, which made the transport operations faster and cheaper, as well as opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. Amreyev also noted the completion of projects such as the Marmaray Rail Tunnel, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and Eurasia Tunnel, reconstruction of Bishkek-Naryn-Torugart Road and ongoing development of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project. Javid Najafov, Head of the Transport Regulation Department at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan, updated the participants on the ongoing transport projects and modernization of the transport and logistic infrastructure of Azerbaijan. He mentioned that the Government of Azerbaijan attaches particular importance to the optimization and facilitation of the measures for increasing the efficiency of Trans-Caspian Corridor. Highlighting that the Trans-Caspian Corridor is the common future of all Turkic Council member states, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Turkey Selim Dursun called on the parties to take necessary steps to phase out administrative and bureaucratic obstacles hampering the efficiency of the corridor. The deputy minister asked the parties to work together in overcoming the practical difficulties encountered in road transport operations, border crossing points and Caspian Sea crossing to render the corridor seamless and sustainable route. Dursun also informed the parties that Turkey, in cooperation with Azerbaijan and Georgia, has conducted for the first time a rail shipment from Mersin, Turkey, to Baku by means of a single consignment note under the Unified Railway Law (URL) efforts of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. In turn, Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development of Kazakhstan Berik Kamaliev informed that the Kazakh government has already optimized the transport tariffs along the Trans-Caspian Corridor. He also said that the development of logistic centers is one of the main components of foreign economic and trade relations of Kazakhstan with Turkic Council member states and stressed the necessity of providing efficient transport logistic infrastructure for the competitively of the corridor. Addressing the event, Laszlo Mosoczi, State Secretary responsible for Transport Policy at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary, emphasized that the government of Hungary is open for cooperation with Turkic Council member states. Highlighting the Turkic States transit potential, he stated that Hungary with its close EU relations may work as a collecting and distributing point at the western end of the Trans-Turkic route. He also stressed that Hungary welcomes the developments of bilateral collaboration and exchanges in the field of international road transport with the Turkic Council member states. Another important topic of the meeting was the discussion of measures for the development of the Sister ports process between the Baku, Aktau and Samsun seaports of the Turkic Council. Deputy Director General of the Baku International Sea Trade Port Akbar Karimov made a presentation on the current state of cooperation among the Turkic Council Sister Ports, as well as on their potential to attract freight flow in China-Europe axis, in his capacity as the host of the last Sister Ports meeting. In turn, the head of the Ministry of Transport of Kyrgyzstan Zhanat Beishenov, noted that there is a permitting system of road transportation with Azerbaijan, and with this in mind, there is a need to increase the number of permission forms for road transport, which will eventually contribute to the development of the entire Trans-Caspian Corridor. The parties agreed to convene the 5th meeting of Transport Ministers of the Turkic Council in Budapest, Hungary in 2020. Trans-Caspian Transport Route (TITR) is a project initiated to improve transit potential and development of the countries of the Caspian region. This route runs from China through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and further to Europe. The project enjoys an opportunity to become one of the most attractive and profitable for consignors from European countries, while approximately 300,000-400,000 containers are expected to be transported via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route by 2020, bringing huge financial profits to Azerbaijan. New competitive tariffs have been introduced for the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route since June 1, 2016, putting the route among the cheapest and most profitable corridors for freight traffic. In October 2016, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Georgia signed an agreement on the establishment of the International Association of TITR, whose office is located in Astana. Its activities are aimed at attracting transit and foreign trade cargo, as well as at the development of integrated logistics products via TITR. By Trend A new office of Friends of Small and Medium Enterprises network opened in Azerbaijans Sumgayit on April 18, 2019, Trend reports referring to the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan. Addressing the gathering, Orkhan Mammadov, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), spoke about the concept of Friends of SMEs and the services provided to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs by this structure. It was stressed that the Friends of SMEs network, which was formed by the Agency in accordance with the strategic motto of the president of Azerbaijan stating that "The state is the best partner of the entrepreneur", is an important project implemented on the basis of cooperation of the state with entrepreneurs. Currently, Friends of SMEs are operating in 11 districts and cities around the country. Friends of SMEs is a mechanism that helps to identify and implement initiatives of small and medium-sized enterprises, realize their potential, provide them with support at all stages of their development and protect the rights of entrepreneurs. Orkhan Mammadov invited entrepreneurs to actively cooperate with the Friends of SMEs. He informed the event participants about activities of the network, which will expand its operations in the country, and about other mechanisms for supporting the agency. Zakir Farajov, Head of the Sumgayit Executive Power, spoke about the measures being taken to develop the private sector in Sumgayit. In his words, Friends of SMEs, like other state support mechanisms, will play a significant role in developing existing enterprises and creating new ones. During the event, a presentation covering activities and services of the Friends of SMEs was held. It was followed by Q&A session. The event attendants were familiarized with the office of the Friends of SMEs, located at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Sumgayit. The office has all the conditions for the provision of the agencys numerous services to entrepreneurs, and is equipped with necessary equipment and training materials. As noted in the ministrys report, the team of Volunteers of SMEs will operate in the same office. The businessmen participating in the event expressed their gratitude to the Head of State for the continuous support provided to the private sector, especially in the field of the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova New business support mechanisms are currently being applied to enhance the activities of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Azerbaijan. Agency for the Development of SMEs, the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) and the Azerbaijan Banks Association (ABA) have signed a protocol of intent on mutual cooperation. The documents says that FIMSA and will create a joint platform for discussing the effectiveness of mechanisms used in private financial and credit institutions as well as the issues of state financial support to finance SMEs. They will also explore the possibilities of applying innovative and alternative financing mechanisms based on international experience in financing SMEs, support SMEs for entering the securities markets and encourage the use of appropriate market instruments. The parties will also implement educational measures to improve the financial literacy of SMEs in the regions as well as organize forums and round table discussions on the development of SMEs. Speaking at the signing ceremony, the head of the Agency for the Development of SMEs Orkhan Mammadov noted that supporting the activities of SMEs and expanding their access to financial resources is a priority for the Agency. In this regard, projects and activities that will be jointly implemented with the FIMSA and ABA are important for expanding access to financial resources of SMEs, holding joint discussions in this area and improving financial literacy, he said. Ibrahim Alishov, Acting Chairman of the Executive Board of FIMSA, noted that the presidential decree on additional measures in connection with solving the issue of the individuals problem loans will provide banks with liquidity at the expense of cheap funds, which, in turn, will help SMEs to get access to cheap financial resources and revitalize the economy. Stressing the importance of the signing of the protocol of intent, ABA President Zakir Nuriyev said that a new platform will be created that will improve existing mechanisms providing financial support for SMEs from both the government and credit organizations. Small and medium-sized businesses play an important role in development of the country's economy. Development of SMEs leads to the growth of entrepreneurship which is one of the priority directions of Azerbaijans economic policy. The Agency for the Development of SMEs was established in 2017 to ensure the consistency of reforms, as well as the improvement of the business regulation system and the application of effective coordination, enhancement of the role and competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses in the country's economy, and the compliance of the management system of this sphere with modern requirements. The goals of the Agency also include the creation of favorable conditions for the development of SMEs in the regions and the attraction of local and foreign investments to this area. Simplifying access to financial resources for SMEs is an important aspect of the agencys activities, as the main part of the appeals involves financing. The online platform to be created by the Agency will provide an opportunity for online communication between financial institutions and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to present their projects to all interested parties online, and this will also minimize the loss of time. The share of SMEs in Azerbaijans foreign trade is planned to increase to 40 percent after 2025. Recently, a new office of Friends of Small and Medium Enterprises network opened in Azerbaijans Sumgayit. Friends of SMEs,which was formed by the Agency, is a mechanism that helps to identify and implement initiatives of small and medium-sized enterprises, realize their potential, provide them with support at all stages of their development and protect the rights of entrepreneurs. Currently, Friends of SMEs operate in 11 regions and cities around the country. Support for the development of small and medium-sized businesses is one of the most remarkable contributions to the economic reforms carried out in the country. --- Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade A feed processing plant has been commissioned in the Alkhanly village of Azerbaijan's Fuzuli region, Trend reports on April 18. The enterprise was launched within framework of the Socio-Economic Development Activity in Azerbaijan (SEDA), implemented by Azerbaijan and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Addressing the event held in connection with opening the enterprise by the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) under the Ministry of Economy, Deputy Chairman of the Agency Nadir Adilov, Deputy Head of the Executive Power of the Fuzuli region Suleyman Aliyev and representatives of the SEDA project noted the importance of implementing community projects in the regions, commissioning a feed processing plant in the development of SMEs in the agriculture sector, expansion of work in the livestock and crop production areas in the agriculture sector, and meeting the needs in forage and increasing employment. A production site and a warehouse have been built at the plant and the appropriate equipment has been installed. Along with residents of Alkhanly, residents of nearby villages can also use the plant. As part of the joint project, 25 feed processing enterprises in 14 regions were put into operation. At the event, villagers expressed their gratitude to the head of the state for the conditions created. Within the cooperation, a first-aid post began to operate in the village of Godakgobu in the Zardab region and a kindergarten was put into operation in the village of Huseynkhanli on the same day. Azerbaijan has experienced rapid revenue growth in recent years and the U.S. Government is supporting efforts undertaken by the Government of Azerbaijan to ensure that this growth facilitates the lives of Azerbaijani citizens in the regions. SEDA project aims to contribute to the advancement of the socio-economic development at the regional level in Azerbaijan by providing support for community-driven socio-economic projects. To increase community participation in socio-economic development at the local and regional levels, SEDA is revitalizing and supporting the establishment of Community Development Councils (CDCs) in more than 100 communities in the Aran, Guba-Khachmaz, and Ganja-Gazakh regions. SEDA will implement 150 small scale socio-economic development projects in partnership with these communities. The Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan was established by decree of the President dated December 28, 2017. The task of the Agency is to ensure the succession of reforms, as well as the improvement of the business regulation system and the application of effective coordination, enhancing the role and competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses in the country's economy, and the compliance of the management system in this area with modern requirements. -- Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova European Union is keen to actively cooperate with Azerbaijan to achieve remarkable developments in many spheres in the country. The EU plans to allocate $5-10 million to Azerbaijan if the country joins the Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) project, Michael Rupp, head of the sector for connectivity in the Eastern Partnership countries of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations, told Trend. The E5P Fund, managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), is a major regional program that includes all of the Eastern Partnership countries except for Azerbaijan. Negotiations are currently underway. We expect concrete proposals from the Azerbaijani government and are ready to assist if needed, he noted. Rupp stressed that solar energy supply for buildings is among the main directions of cooperation offered to Azerbaijan, which will help save energy. Launched in 2009, the E5P is a 200 million-euro multi-donor fund that promotes energy efficiency and environmental projects aimed at improving and preserving nature in Eastern Partnership countries. Grants blended with loans from international financing institutions are used to support municipal sector projects. E5P investments are financial measures to improve existing infrastructure in order to reduce energy consumption and other operating costs. This is expected to create the conditions that allow for institutional reforms such as consumption-based billing and to help increase peoples motivation to save energy. The E5P fund merges financial contributions from the EU and a group of 21 nations (including the beneficiary countries) which are then used to attract national funds and loans from international financial institutions. EBRD acts as the fund manager of E5P on behalf of its donors and participating international financing institutions. Grants target to reduce energy use, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, and other harmful greenhouse gases, as well as to promote policy dialogue. Projects demonstrating their potential for energy saving, capacity to reduce pollution are considered to be eligible for grant support. Supported projects include district heating, solid waste management, street lighting, local transport and the insulation of public buildings. The E5P is operating in Ukraine since 2010, while it began its activities in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova since 2014 and in Belarus since 2017. The fund is looking at opportunities to cooperate with Azerbaijan. Recently, EU allocated around 8.8 million euros for the implementation of the EU4Climate regional project on combating climate change, 830,000 euros of which accounted for the projects in Azerbaijan. The EU4Climate project is being implemented to help the Eastern Partnership countries to combat climate change, prepare a strategy for the development of preventive measures in this area, as well as to help integrate climate change issues into the main policy of states. --- Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade An exhibition entitled Germanaijan dedicated to German heritage and architecture opened in Ganja. Head of the Ganja City Executive Power Niyazi Bayramov and German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Michael Kindsgrab took part in the opening ceremony of the exhibition organized in the Ganja urban center. Addressing the opening ceremony, Michael Kindsgrab stated that the exhibition reflects the resilience, tolerance and creativity of Germans who migrated to the Caucasus. This exhibition is dedicated to German architecture. 200 years ago German settlements were created in Azerbaijan. The history of the Germans who settled in your country began with Ganja and adjacent regions. The first German settlements were laid here. This exhibition demonstrates our common past. Within the framework of the exhibition, visitors will be able to learn a lot of interesting things about these people and what heritage they have left to modern Azerbaijan, he said. The theme of architecture is dominant at the Germanaijan exhibition. The central work of the exhibition is a map graphically visualizing the significance of German footprints on the silhouette of Baku. Paper layouts provide detailed information on individual buildings. The exhibition is organized as part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the formation of German settlements in the South Caucasus. The exhibition was organized by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Azerbaijan with the support of the Program for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan and Goethe-Zentrum Baku. Touching upon cultural relations between the two states, it should be noted that the Berlin-Baku gallery was opened in Berlin as a partner of the Maiden Tower Gallery in Baku in 2007. The Year of Azerbaijan was held in Germany in 2008, and German Culture Weeks were organized in Azerbaijan in 2009. The German church located in the area of former Helenendorf was restored in 2008 with the support of the Federal Government. Cultural night was organized at Berlin History Museum in September 2011 on the occasion of 20th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Besides, cultural evenings were held in Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Hamburg, Hanover, Dusseldorf, Dresden, Frankfurt. German Embassy in Azerbaijan organized the first German teachers day in Azerbaijan, Sheki city, in March 2017. A concert dedicated to the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Germany was organized in Berlin on December 1, 2017. Currently, 154 companies with German capital are operating in Azerbaijan. German companies invested $570 million in the Azerbaijani economy, most of which was directed to the non-oil sector. Moreover, Germany is currently negotiating on the supply of hazelnuts, pomegranates, juices, wine, canned products from Azerbaijan, and also interested in the import of chemical products. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova The Land of Fire has the right to feel proud for its theater art.For many years, national actors have appeared in countless stage plays worldwide. Nowadays Azerbaijani theater art is taking a new turn in the art world. The Government of Azerbaijan pays great attention to the development of theater art. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the continuation of measures for the development of Azerbaijani theaters on April 17. Funds will be provided to the national theaters in order to continue measures on preservation of Azerbaijani theater traditions and development in accordance with the requirements of the time, Trend reported. According to the decree, 1.2 million manats will be allocated to the Ministry of Culture from the reserve fund of the President of Azerbaijan provided in the state budget of Azerbaijan for 2019. YUGH Theater, Azerbaijan State Pantomime Theater, Irevan State Drama Theater, Sheki State Drama Theater, Aghdam State Drama Theater, Fizuli State Drama Theater, Gazakh State Drama Theater, Gusar State Lezgian Drama Theater, Georgian State Theater of the Gakh region, Ganja State Puppet Theater, Gakh State Puppet Theater and Salyan State Puppet Theater are to receive 100,000 manats each. The Ministry of Finance is charged with providing financing in the amount indicated in the order. Theater development in Azerbaijani culture has a very rich history, which begins with the theatrical elements of open-air folk performances, religious ceremonies and much more. Azerbaijani theater originated in the second half of the 19th century, with the comedy "The Vizier of Lankaran khanate" by Mirza Fatali Akhundov, the first Azerbaijani playwright, prominent thinker and philosopher. First amateur performances staged by students of non-classical secondary school by initiative of Hasan-bay Zardabi and with the active participation of the Najaf-bay Vezirov and Alakbar Adigozalov became a powerful impetus for the establishment of the national theater. There are a number of theaters in Azerbaijan. YUGH Theater The theater was established in 1989 under the auspices of the Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theater by Vagif Ibrahimoglu and Hasanaga Turabov. In 1992, it received the status of the state theater. The name of the theater carries a meaning: yugh means "an old rite". Everything, however, is more complicated as it seems, because this burial ritual during which the scenes from the life of the deceased were played, symbolizes a return to the memory. The actors try reminding the spectators of what they knew, maybe even in their past lives, but just forgot. The main principle of this avant-garde theater is the relevance of chosen topics, non-standard interpretation of familiar stories and experimenting with new forms. During its history, the YUGH Theater has staged more than 90 plays. Today, it occupies a special place in the theater art of the country. The theaters troupe participated in many international festivals. Plays by William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Giovanni Boccaccio, Nikolai Gogol, Kobo Abe, as well as Azerbaijani classical and contemporary authors are regularly staged in the theater. Azerbaijan State Pantomime Theater The theater was founded in 1994 by Bakhtiyar Khanizadeh, actor of the Azerbaijan State Theater of Young Spectators. The theater has twice housed the Himjim International Pantomime festival. Azerbaijan State Pantomime Theater has toured a number of countries with a repertoire including dozens of plays by both local and foreign playwrights. Irevan State Drama Theater The theater named after Jafar Jabbarly was established in 1928. In April 1944, the theater presented "Othello" tragedy at the All-Union Shakespeare Festival dedicated to the 380th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare. In 1967, after a long break, the Irevan State Drama Theater once resumed its activities. Since 1989, the creative troupe of the theater continued its activities in Baku. In 1994, by decree of the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, the theater regained the status of a state theater. Irevan State Drama Theater has regularly performed with tours in various regions of Azerbaijan, as well as in Georgia and Dagestan. Sheki Drama Theater Sheki Drama Theater began its work in 1975. During its history, the theater staged such plays as "Aydin" by Jafar Jabbarly, "Human Life" by Alexey Arbuzov, "Aesop" by Guilherme Figueiredo, "Romeo and Juliet " by William Shakespeare, etc. In 2012, the theater took part in the Theater Festival of Turkic-speaking peoples and received two special awards. Every year, the theater comes on tour in Baku. Aghdam State Drama Theater The theater in Aghdam was created in 1902 and began its activities with Mirza Fatali Akhundov's play "The Vizier of Lankaran khanate" and Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev's play "The broken nest". In 1968, by order of the Cabinet of Ministers, the theater was renamed to the Agdam State Drama Theater named after Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev. Works of such famous play writers as Samad Vurgun, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Suleyman Rustam were staged at the theater. Over the years, many well-known directors worked in the theater including Honored Workers of Culture Heydar Shamsizade, Rafig Atakishiyev, Vagif Sharifov, Adalat Ziyadkhanov, and others. Gazakh State Drama Theater The Gazakh theater was founded in 1988. Plays of remarkable writers such as M. Akhundov, A. Shaig, S. Rahman, F. Ashurov are included in the repertoire of the theater. Gusar State Lezgian Drama Theater The theater began its activity with Guilherme Figueiredo`s play. In 2016, the theater successfully toured the city of Derbent. Dagestan State Lazgi Musical Drama Theater staged the play "Pearl" (Sedef) of the Honored Art Worker, playwright Asaf Mehman. The theater troupe was awarded the diplomas by the Derbent city administration. Georgian State Theater of Gakh region The Georgian theater began operating in the village of Alibeyli, Gakh region, in 1981 as a drama group. In 1985, it received the status of the national theater. In 2004, the corresponding decree of the President of Azerbaijan gave this cultural center the name of Alibeyli State Georgian Drama Theater. Ganja State Puppet Theater The theater building was built in 1885 as a Lutheran church and lately was converted into Ganja State Puppet Theater. For many years, the theater delights its viewers with colorful performances. The theater has performed at numerous festivals in Turkey, Iran and other countries. Gakh State Puppet Theater Over the past years, the theater has successfully performed at international theater festivals. The troupe presented spectacular shows at the 2nd International Puppet Theater Festival in Baku. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova Every woman is a goddess. History is rich in powerful women whose striking beauty inspired many artists. The beauty of a woman, her wisdom have always been glorified in poetry and prose, reflected in the canvases of great artists. A unique exhibition dedicated to women solemnly opened at Art Tower Gallery on April 17, Trend Life reported. The event was organized as part of a series of events held by Arts Council Azerbaijan in connection with the 85th anniversary of the birth of the Azerbaijani artist, animated film director Nazim Mammadov (1934-2004). The exhibition consists of paintings from personal collections. For example, the works of Nazim Mammadov, whose name is inextricably linked with the most beloved domestic cartoons, was presented to the general public for the first time. Eldar Babazade, whose work is displayed on the exhibition billboard, also exhibited his paintings. Works of Rafail Aliyev, Namig Ismayilzade and other artists were showcased as part of the project. The exhibition aroused the great interest of the guests, among whom there were representatives of diplomatic missions and creative youth, culture and art workers. The exhibition will last until April 27. Admission is free. Media partners of the event are Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Citizens in Zardab and Fizuli have contributed time and money to improve community infrastructure by building a new medical facility, a feed-grinding and seed-cleaning facility, and renovating a kindergarten. These projects were implemented through the Socio-Economic Development Activity (SEDA), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In Zardabs Huseynkhanli village, the renovated kindergarten will provide a warm, safe, and a healthy learning environment for more than 30 of the communitys children. In Godakgobu village, residents worked with local and regional governments to replace an aging medical point with a new facility that is better able to meet the communitys healthcare needs. The new facility, which includes an examination room and a waiting room, will improve the day-to-day access to healthcare for nearly 1,700 people from Godakgobu. In Fizulis Alkhanli village, the new feed-grinding and seed cleaning facility allow local farmers to make their own affordable animal feed for their cows and poultry and to clean disease-free seeds for planting crops. They no longer would need to travel long distances to the nearest city to grind their clover, corn, and barley crops into feed and purchase seeds. This facility will benefit nearly 1,500 people whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. These projects are part of a collaboration between USAID, the Azerbaijani government, and local communities to support citizen-led efforts to improve rural livelihoods. USAIDs SEDA is implemented by the East-West Management Institute with support from the Ministry of Economy. Since 2011, SEDA communities have implemented 139 projects that include activities supporting local economies, medical facilities, roads in rural areas, water and irrigation systems, and local school renovations -- benefiting nearly 225,000 people in 109 communities. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend A new head of the press service of Azerbaijan's Cabinet of Ministers has been appointed, Trend reports. The relevant order was signed by Prime Minister Novruz Mammadov. According to the order, Ayaz Mirzayev was appointed the new head of the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Within the framework of his official visit to Poland, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov held a meeting with Krzyshtof Szczerzki, Secretary of State Chief of the Cabinet of the President of Poland, Trend reports on April 17 with reference to Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry. K.Szczerzki underlined the importance of political relations between the two countries and their strategic nature. He said the Polish side intends to do its best to develop these ties. In this regard, it was recalled that in the time of the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski the bilateral relations developed at a very high level, and added that the Polish side wishes to upgrade these relations again. Touching on the meetings held during his visit to Poland, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that he discussed perspectives of economic cooperation, including energy, transport, and other fields between the two states. Meanwhile, Minister briefed K.Schersky about the negotiation process on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and thanked the Polish side for supporting the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. At the meeting, the Polish side once again expressed interest in the development of energy cooperation with Azerbaijan. The sides also exchanged views on the future prospects of the Eastern Partnership, as well as the EU's strong support for the development of this program. The sides also discussed the situation in Eastern Europe and other issues of mutual interest. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend In the framework of his official visit to the Republic of Poland, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with the Minister of Marine Economy and Inland Navigation of Poland, Marek Grobarczyk, Trend reports on April 17 with reference to Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry. Minister Marek Grobarczyk gave detailed information on the activity of the Ports of Poland and stressed the existence of great potential for economic development between the two states. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov noted the importance of cooperation among the ports of Azerbaijan and Poland and informed the other side about the Baku International Sea Trade Port and all three phases of the construction of the port. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov also noted that the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the Baku International Sea Trade Port and the Gdansk Sea Port has already been agreed. Marek Grobarczyk expressed interest in cooperation with Azerbaijan in shipbuilding and stressed the importance of exchange of experience in the field of technology between the two states. Minister Marek Grobarczyk also highlighted his countrys interest in cooperation with Azerbaijan in the production of seafood. During the meeting, the sides discussed transit and intermodal transport issues between the two states. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov invited Marek Grobarczyk to visit Azerbaijan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade The history of Azerbaijan-NATO relations dates back to March 1992, when Azerbaijan, together with some Central and Eastern European countries, joined a newly established consultative forum the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), which was transformed into the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council later in 1997. Azerbaijans Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov met on April 17 with a delegation led by Director General of NATOs International Military Staff, Lieutenant General Jan Broeks, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan, the country's Defense Ministry said in a statement. Having stressed that the visit coincides with 70th anniversary of NATO and the 25th anniversary of Azerbaijan-NATO cooperation, the defense minister noted that the relations between Azerbaijan and the Alliance are multifaceted. He said that special attention is paid to the anniversary of the partnership at the state level. Hasanov also emphasized that political support provided by NATO to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan serves to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security and that it is also important for regional peace and stability. Jan Broeks, in turn, highly praised the Azerbaijan-NATO relations and highlighted the contribution made by Azerbaijans peacekeepers to international security within the missions in Afghanistan and active participation of Azerbaijani servicemen in many programs of the Alliance. He also praised high level of training of Azerbaijani officers undergoing service at various NATO headquarters. During the meeting, issues of operational training, conducting exercises, providing military education and coordinating military operations were discussed. The sides also exchanged views on the current state and prospects of the cooperation development. The cornerstone of the substantive partnership between Azerbaijan and NATO was laid down on May 4, 1994, when the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev signed the Partnership for Peace (PfP) Framework Document. Azerbaijan conducts political dialogue with NATO on a broad range of issues of common concern based on the PfP principles. Within the political dialogue, which is held in different formats and levels, the issues like partnership, regional security, Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, peace support operations, contribution to Afghanistan, emerging security challenges etc. are the matters of bilateral discussions and consultations. The high-level political dialogue based on mutual understanding promotes progress in the practical cooperation. Moreover, the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), which Azerbaijan joined in 2004, enables to hold regular political dialogue, systematize bilateral cooperation as overarching tool and agree on new cooperation activities of mutual interest in a more flexible manner. Azerbaijan successfully completed the first (2005-2007), second (2008-2010), third (2012-2013) and fourth (2014-2016) cycles and is currently conducting the fifth cycle (2017-2019) of the IPAP document. In the framework of its Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program based upon the PfP Framework Document, Azerbaijan has been participating annually at more than 200 events. Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program enables Azerbaijan to benefit from various activities such as courses, exercises, conferences organized by NATO allies and some partners. -- Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva The Karabakh horse, a breed included on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, can truly be called the pride of the Caucasus. A commission to rate and assess horses of Karabakh breed will be created in Azerbaijan. The commission will include specialists from relevant departments of the ministry, Asaf Omarov, the head of the department of organization and identification in the field of animal husbandry of the Agriculture Ministry, told Report.az. He noted that 230 horses contained in the Karabakh horse-breeding complex will pass the assessment. The ones that most closely match the breeding qualities of Karabakh horse will be selected among them for breeding. In 2017, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev issued an order on additional support for the development of the Karabakh breed of horses. The Agriculture Ministry allocated 2 million manats ($1.18 million) from the reserve fund of the President for this purpose. The Karabakh horse, originating in the Azerbaijani Karabakh region, is renowned for its good temper, loyalty, strength and speed. Those are mountain horses, so they are not very tall, 1.48-1.52 meters. They are slim, with attractive faces and are kind and gentle by nature. Despite their delicate appearance, Karabakh horses are known for their stamina and they are very successful racers. Their suppleness also made them ideal for traditional games like Chovgan and Surpapag. The refined beauty, strength, special grace of the Karabakh horses delighted artists, writers and poets, who reflected the uniqueness of this horse breed in their works. One of the numerous publications on the Karabakh horses noted that "until the end of the 19th century the Karabakh horses were the beauty and pride of the Caucasus, worthy not only of the princely, but also of the royal saddle." The Karabakh horse takes a pride place in various international competitions and contests, winning various prizes and medals. Karabakh breed horses were repeatedly presented at the celebration of the anniversary of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II reign in 2012. Before, the English queen received a golden horse of Karabakh as a gift in 1956. Last year, Azerbaijani riders on Karabakh horse took part in the 75th anniversary of the Royal Equestrian Show in Windsor in the UK. At all times the Karabakh breed of horses was widely known. Specialists say that the Karabakh horse is one of the ancient breeds in Asia. And all the subsequent history of horse breeders worked on improving the horse. The greatest success was achieved in the 18th century. Already at that time there was a stud farm in Karabakh. After the assassination of Nadir Shah in 1747, it became the property of the founder and first ruler of the Karabakh khanate, Panah Ali Khan. Historians say that this ruler really appreciated the Karabakh breed. Half a century later, in 1797, after the murder of Agha Muhammad Khan in Shusha, the best producers from his herd remained at the Karabakh stud farm. The story of these horses is inextricably linked to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Unfortunately, these magnificent beasts can no longer be bred in the area from which they originated due to the Armenian occupation. The war in Nagorno-Karabakh at the end of the 20th century put these horses at risk of extinction. The militants, who captured the beautiful city of Aghdam with a rich industry, destroyed it, including the prosperous stud farm. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Pakistan will continue to develop friendly and fraternal relations with Azerbaijan, Shafqat Mahmood, Pakistans Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, and Federal Minister for National History and Literary Heritage, said during a meeting with Azerbaijani ambassador to Pakistan Ali Alizade, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Pakistan. Recalling his visit to Azerbaijan, Shafqat Mahmood emphasized the country's rapid advancement, and pointed out the importance of further developing friendly and fraternal relations with Azerbaijan and strengthening the existing trust between the countries. In his turn, Ali Alizade said that Azerbaijan has been facing the aggressive policy of Armenia for more than 30 years. He added that Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 adjacent districts of Azerbaijan are still under occupation and that, despite these hardships, the country manages to develop all spheres including science, education and culture. He noted that Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, is taught at Baku State University and that the number of Pakistani students studying in Azerbaijan is growing. He went on to say that Azerbaijani students are also interested in obtaining higher education at universities in Pakistan and informed that students and specialists from both countries are periodically involved in exchange programs. The ambassador pointed out that more efforts would be taken to strengthen bilateral relations. The meeting participants emphasized the importance of the support provided by Azerbaijan and Pakistan to each other within the framework of regional and international organizations and the need to increase the number of joint projects and reciprocal visits. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Heydar Aliyev semi-submersible drilling rig has drilled the deepest well in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijans Caspian Drilling Company (CDC) told Trend. The 6th generation Heydar Aliyev semi-submersible drilling rig under Azerbaijans Caspian Drilling Companys (CDC) management sat Caspian Sea record while drilling ABD-001 well on Absheron field where JOCAP (Joint Operating Company of Absheron Petroleum - a JV of SOCAR Absheron 50 percent - TOTAL EP Absheron 50 percent) is operator, said the company. Reportedly, on April 15 at 13:00 the well has reached 7411m TMD (total measured depth), it is the deepest well ever drilled on Caspian Sea. This is the first well in progress ever drilled by semi-submersible rig Heydar Aliyev, said CDC. SOCAR and Total signed a framework agreement in 2016 on the main contractual and commercial principles regulating the first phase of development of the Absheron field. The first phase of the fields development envisaged drilling one well at a sea depth of 450 meters. The production will stand at 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas and 700,000 tons of condensate per year and these volumes will be used in Azerbaijans domestic market. It is planned to produce up to 4 billion cubic meters of gas at the second stage. Absherons reserves are estimated at 326 billion cubic meters of gas and 108 million tons of condensate, according to estimations of the Total specialists. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov has visited the Federal Republic of Germany on a two-day official visit. During the official visit of the Kyrgyz President to Germany, a set of bilateral documents was signed aimed at strengthening cooperation in the field of diplomatic relations, economies and industry, agriculture and the agro-industrial complex, education, development of tourism and trade and economic relations as well as in the financial sphere. Jeenbekov made a statement to the press at a meeting with the Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel in Berlin. He expressed gratitude to Angela Merkel for the invitation to visit Germany on an official visit. Today we plan to discuss topical issues of cooperation between our countries and outline plans for the future. In recent years there has been a significant increase in political contacts at the highest levels. The official visit of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel to Kyrgyzstan in 2016 contributed to this, said the Kyrgyz President. He noted that important political meetings were also held with German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schauble, with whom he held substantive and productive negotiations. They covered all areas of bilateral cooperation and were held in the spirit of mutual trust and understanding. Yesterday I met with the leadership of Bavaria in Munich. I spoke at the Hanns Seidel Foundation in detail about the development of Kyrgyzstan. We held a Kyrgyz-German business forum with the participation of representatives of the business environment of the two countries, the Kyrgyz president stressed. He said contacts have been established to intensify economic relations: more than 10 documents were signed between the governments and departments of the two countries, as well as a number of contracts and memorandums between businessmen. The total amount reached more than 1 billion euros. Jeenbekov also noted that promising areas of cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Germany are the trade and economic spheres, hydropower, industry, development of a green economy, agriculture and tourism. He added that for Kyrgyzstan, attracting German investments, creating favorable conditions for small and medium businesses and cooperation in agriculture is important. Today, Kyrgyzstan is on the path of active socio-political and socio-economic transformations. Our main goal is to build an economically developed rule-of-law state with parliamentary democracy. In general, we express satisfaction with the level of development of Kyrgyz-German relations. We consider it important to continue the current pace of cooperation with an emphasis on expanding trade and economic relations with Germany, said the head of state. He stressed that the intensification of the Kyrgyz-German inter-parliamentary cooperation, further close cooperation in the cultural, humanitarian sphere and in the field of education and science are of great importance. I am sure that this direction will be a good investment in the future of Kyrgyzstan. Of course, the agenda includes issues of cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and the EU. The adoption of the new EU Strategy for Central Asia is expected in 2019, said Jeenbekov. Angela Merkel, in turn, stated that there are economic ties between Kyrgyzstan and Germany, but they need to be deepened. Addressing Jeenbekov, she noted that he arrived in Germany for the first time on an official visit as president, and that she was happy to welcome him. I was in Kyrgyzstan in 2016 and still remember what a beautiful country it is. You solve your problems - the establishment of parliamentary democracy, the treatment of natural resources, overcoming geostrategic challenges and multilateral cooperation. All these topics unite us, said Merkel. The chancellor also noted that Germany aims to strengthen bilateral relations in the field of youth exchanges and education. There are already 25 education partners between our countries. More than 500 students study in Germany and in your delegation today there are representatives of the German minority. They act as a bridge that connects our countries. Today, there are 8,000 Germans living in Kyrgyzstan, she noted. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov General Motors (GM) Uzbekistan will launch production of the Chevrolet Equinox crossover and the Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV in 2019, Podrobno.uz reports. "In 2019, it is planned to master the production of two new types of cars - the Chevrolet Equinox crossover and the Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV instead of everyone's favorite crossover Chevrolet Captiva. Production of cars will be established on the basis of GM Uzbekistan plants," Uzavtosanoat (Uzbek Association of Automotive Industry Enterprises) informed. Aziz Shukurov, deputy chairman of Uzavtosanoat, said that this year, the company is working on the start of large-assembly of two cars in the SUV segment - that is, off-road vehicles. "We removed the Captiva production in 2018, instead of which two new cars will be presented in this segment, he said. The Chevrolet Equinox is a mid-size crossover, the prototype of which was first introduced in 2003 at the Detroit Auto Show. In 2008, a new version of Chevrolet Equinox called Sport was introduced. The technical equipment of the crossover was thoroughly revised. Chevrolet Trailblazer began to be produced at the Moraine plant in Ohio in September 2001. In 2013, General Motors introduced a completely new generation of this SUV. As a true all-terrain vehicle, it is based on the frame structure of the body. A continuous rear axle and a decent ground clearance of 220 mm help against bad roads. GM Uzbekistan, formerly known as UzDaewooAuto, was created in 1996 on a parity basis by Uzbekistan and South Korean Daewoo Motors. In 2005, Uzbekistan acquired Daewoo's shares in UzDaewooAuto. Two years later Uzavtosanoat and the U.S.-based General Motors signed an agreement to establish GM Uzbekistan with an authorized capital of $266.7 million. Currently, 10 car models of the Chevrolet and Ravon brands are produced at the three production sites of GM Uzbekistan. In particular, Matiz, Spark (R2), Nexia (R3), Cobalt models (R4), Lacetti (Gentra) are produced at the main production in the Asaka city; Captiva and Malibu models - in the Tashkent branch; and Damas and Labo models are produced in the Pitnak branch. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Ravshan Usmanov, the Uzbek Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, has held talks with Teresa Kok, the Minister of Primary Industries of Malaysia. The parties discussed issues of further development of mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment cooperation. The Malaysian side was informed about large-scale economic reforms in Uzbekistan, including the liberalization of monetary policy, free economic zones, favorable conditions for doing business, as well as modern agro-industrial and cotton-textile clusters being created in Uzbekistan. Speaking about the significant potential of the two countries, Kok spoke in favor of intensifying trade relations and investment cooperation in various industries. She stressed that the rich resource potential and stable economic development of Uzbekistan, as well as the country's ongoing policy of modernizing and diversifying the industrial sector, open up new opportunities for Malaysian companies to conduct profitable business and investment cooperation. Kok emphasized that the government of Malaysia is carefully studying the successful cooperation of Uzbekistan with the International Labor Organization (ILO). The Malaysian side also stated that the possibility of identifying Uzbekistan as a hub for deep processing and packaging of palm oil for the further export of finished products to Central Asian countries and other CIS countries is currently being studied. This proposal was developed following the results of the visit of the leadership of the Council of Palm Oil Producers of Malaysia to Uzbekistan from March 31 to April 4, 2019. Production of palm oil is a source of income for many countries in Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Indonesia. These countries account for 85 percent of the global palm oil supply. Diplomatic relations between Uzbekistan and Malaysia were established on February 21, 1992. Exports from Uzbekistan to Malaysia increased by 2.7 times in January-September 2018, compared with the same period of the previous year. Currently, some 16 enterprises with Malaysian capital are registered in Uzbekistan. Malaysia is one of the reliable partners of Uzbekistan in Southeast Asia. During the years of independence, people of the two countries have achieved great success in mastering new industries, the most complex technologies in organizing and expanding finished products. An example of this is the automotive, textile and consumer electronics industries. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $105.3 million to restore and expand the regional water supply system in the Yangiyul and Chinaz districts of the Tashkent region in Uzbekistan, which will provide safe drinking water to over 220,000 people. The Tashkent region suffers from widespread restrictions on urban services, especially in the area of water supply and sanitation. Most of the Soviet-era water supply and sanitation infrastructure is worn out and outdated: about 80 percent of the residents of the two project districts do not receive municipal water supply and are forced to buy or receive unsafe water from various sources, the ADB office in Tashkent noted. ADB Senior Specialist on Urban Development in Central and West Asia Jung Ho Kim noted that the ADB loan to expand and rehabilitate water supply and sanitation services in these two areas will not only provide safe drinking water but also improve the quality of life for residents of the Tashkent region. The project includes the construction of 65 km of transport pipelines, 27 km of distribution pipelines, 540 km of distribution networks, 37 reservoirs, 22 water distribution centers, five pressure towers, two administrative buildings, two water quality laboratories, 37,500 water connections through meters, and 4,000 individual wastewater disposal systems, which is the first such project in Uzbekistan. The total cost of the project is $124.7 million, of which $19.4 million is provided by the government of Uzbekistan. The project is expected to be completed by August 2025. ADB is committed to achieving prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, and is sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. In 2018, it made commitments of new loans and grants amounting to $21.6 billion. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members, 49 of which are from the region. Since joining ADB in 1995, Uzbekistan has received 70 loans totaling $7.4 billion, including two private sector loans totaling $225 million. ADB also provided $6 million in equity investments, $218 million in guarantees, and $87.3 million in technical assistance grants. The Bank signed five loans totaling $1.1 billion in 2018, to improve energy efficiency and primary health care services, access to finance for farmers and fruit and vegetable producers, and access to drinking water in western Uzbekistan. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend In accordance with the schedule for the 11th parliamentary elections in Iran, the preparations for the elections will begin on May 23, 2019, Mohammad Javad Kulivand, Chairman of the Councils and Interior Affairs Committee of the Iranian Parliament, told Tasnim News Agency, Trend reports. According to Kulivand, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Iran has prepared a schedule for the parliamentary elections and has submitted it to the Supervisory Board. Kulivand said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Supervisory Board have held many discussions on the timeline so far, and the discussions are ongoing. "According to the schedule of the 11th parliamentary elections, officials who want to nominate their candidacy at the first stage of the elections should resign from their post," he said. The next Iranian parliamentary elections will be held on February 21, 2020. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The next meeting of the High-Level Working Group on the Caspian Sea (HLWG) will be held in July 2019 in Iran, Trend reports referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. This is stated in the communique of the second meeting of the working group, which was held on April 16-17, 2019 in Kazakhstans capital city Nur-Sultan. Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Kazakh Foreign Minister Beibut Atamkulov emphasized the importance of the tasks faced by the HLWG and the need to intensify work on the drafts of five-sided agreements on a wide range of issues of cooperation and implementation of activities in the Caspian Sea that are under consideration by the parties, the statement reads. The significance of holding the first Caspian Economic Forum in 2019 in Turkmenistan was also noted, according to the Foreign Ministry. It was noted that delegations from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan took part in the negotiations. "The parties continued discussing the draft agreement on the methodology for establishing direct baselines in the Caspian Sea and agreed on a number of its conditions. Discussion of this document will be continued at the next meeting. The parties also discussed various aspects of cooperation in the Caspian Sea during the meeting, and exchanged views on the implementation of the agreements, following the results of the 5th Caspian Summit. The delegations positively assessed the outcome of the negotiations and expressed deep appreciation to the Republic of Kazakhstan for the high level of organization of the meeting," the statement reads. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Turkmenistan is ready for close cooperation with Korean companies in building ships for use in the Caspian Sea, Trend reports referring to the Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary state agency. This initiative was announced on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 during negotiations with the President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-In, who is on a state visit in the Turkmen capital. The Balkan shipyard in Turkmenbashi city near the Caspian Sea is a basis for development of domestic shipbuilding. Dry cargo ships and oil tankers are repaired at the plant. It is planned to build ships of various classes and types in the future. Among them, there are the RO-RO ferries for transportation of wheeled vehicles (cars, trucks, trailers and wagons). In addition to assembling ships, a full cycle of repairs of tankers, dry cargo ships, tugboats, etc. can be carried out here. The technological lines of the plant allow for processing 10,000 tons of steel a year. It is possible to build a minimum of 4 vessels and carry out maintenance and repair work of 20 vessels or more annually. The shipyard was designed according to the requirements of IACS (International Association of Classification Societies). The shipyard occupies a total area of 166,000 square meters. Its construction project was implemented by the Turkish company Gap Insaat. With the commissioning of an additional international sea port in Turkmenbashi in May 2018, optimal opportunities emerged for sending goods that enter the port along the Silk Road route from the countries of Asia and the Pacific, and further to European countries through the ports of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. The annual throughput capacity of the port is 17-18 million tons. Together with the previously operating port, this figure reaches 25-26 million tons. Shareholders of the Balkan Shipbuilding and Repair Plant are the Turkmendenizderyayollary (Turkmen Seaways) agency and Turkmenbashi International Port. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is holding a high-level regional conference on countering terrorist financing and organized crime in Ashgabat on April 17-18, Trend reports with reference to OSCE and Turkmenistani media. The conference is attended by high-level and senior representatives of Central Asian countries and other OSCE participating States, experts from international organizations including United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED), INTERPOL and specialists from Western Union (WU), Facebook and other interested organizations. The two-day conference is organized by the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA), in co-operation with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Finance and Economy Ministry of Turkmenistan. Attacks around the world demonstrate that terrorist groups are still in a position to access financial resources, said OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger. He said that building the capacity of financial oversight and regulatory systems, as well as of prosecutorial and judicial authorities, is tremendously important. The conference is aimed at fostering regional co-operation among Central Asian States in addressing this serious challenge to security and exploring potential links with organized crime through discussions and exchange of good practices related to countering terrorist financing and misuse of new internet technologies by organized crime. We must do more to detect and suppress terrorist financing channels, Lukas Parizek, Slovak OSCE Chairmanship Special Representative and State Secretary, said. Terrorist groups are proven adepts at exploiting the Internet and social media platforms for networking and raising funds. We need to develop more effective ways to prevent and counter the misuse of the Internet by terrorists, while respecting fundamental rights and freedoms. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option. By Trend Turkey and Romania will hold military-political consultations, the Turkish Foreign Ministry told Trend April 18. Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu will visit Ankara on April 19 for these purposes. At a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the parties will discuss the issues of strengthening military ties and the outcome of the meeting of the foreign ministers of NATO member countries held April 4 in Washington, the ministry said. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov offered South Korea to consider the possibility of implementing joint energy projects, Trend reports with reference to the Turkmenistan State News Agency. The offer was made on April 17 during negotiations with President of South Korea Moon Jae-in, who arrived in the Turkmen capital on a state visit. It is expected that the following negotiations will take place in May-June this year. Representatives of the South Korean delegation expressed intentions of their countrys business circles to expand presence in the rapidly developing Turkmen market, the news said. The most important projects to be implemented in this area include processing of oil and gas, manufacture of gas and chemical products and the training of personnel for the petrochemical complex. South Korean companies participate in petrochemical, gas processing, road transport and other industries of Turkmenistan. In particular, they are taking part in the construction of a natural gas refinery at the Galkynysh gas field, the second biggest field in the world, a polymer plant in Kiyanly settlement, and high-octane gasoline production units at an oil refinery in Turkmenbashi city. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov The Hungarian Kiss Group plans to organize a plant for the production of vegetable oil in the Jizzakh region of Uzbekistan, Podrobno.uz reported. This was said during negotiations with representatives of the Hungarian company in the National Project Management Agency. "A preliminary agreement was reached with the Hungarian side on the implementation of a joint project to organize the production of vegetable oil in the Jizzakh region. It envisages the construction of a plant with a production capacity of 100,000 tons of oil per year. The products will be supplied both to the domestic and foreign markets," the agency said. The parties also discussed the issues of site selection for the construction of the plant, as well as opportunities for growing sunflower and other oil seeds in the Jizzakh region. They will help to provide the necessary raw materials for production, as well as the selection or creation of an organization coordinating the cultivation of seeds, for example, an integrator organization. In addition, questions were raised about the availability or creation of storage for the harvest, suitable outlets for the sale of vegetable oils and seed by-products that can be used as animal feed. An important issue was the discussion of creating a logistics network for collecting seeds and transporting the produced vegetable oil to consumers. Kiss Group specializes in general contracting for the installation of technologies for the food and beverage industry, the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Renewable resources have become one of the company's activities, due to the limited availability of fossil fuels and environmental protection. The most dynamic direction is the production of vegetable oils. Also, Kiss Group is renowned as world leading sustainable technologies provider. The company is providing sustainable clean technologies for Biogas, water and effluent treatment plants. Agricultural and industrial waste water is converted into profitable green energy resource. The company has offices in Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the UAE, Brazil and Colombia. It has provided solutions and technologies to prestigious clients such as Unilever, Sinarmas, Cargill, SIPEF, UPL), Astra, Citra Borneo Indah and many others across the world. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh has announced the possibility of signing a contract with a Chinese company to develop the 11th phase of the South Pars gas field. He said that currently, negotiations are underway between the leaders of both sides, but it is still unclear how long these negotiations will continue. In 2017, Total signed a contract to develop the 11th phase of the South Pars field with an initial investment of $1 billion, which marked the first major Western investment in the country's energy sector after the cancellation of sanctions in 2016. However, this company was forced to leave Iran after the U.S. threatened to impose sanctions on companies that do business in Iran. Productivity of the South Pars gas processing plants will increase by more than 7 billion cubic meters due to a reduction in the period of their overhaul, Shana reported with reference to the managing director of the South Pars Gas Company (SPGC). "Organized and accurate planning allowed us to shorten the repair period by 27 days compared with last year," said Hadi Hashemzadeh Farhang. The official said that every year during the first six months of the Iranian calendar year (beginning on March 21), the refineries of the giant South Pars field undergo reconstruction and major repairs, and, consequently, productivity drops. He noted that last year this period was 201 days, and this year it was only 174 days, which means an increase in the processing capacity of the complexes by 7.4 billion cubic meters. Hashemzadeh also said that mining at the field increased by 12 percent in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2019) compared with the previous year. The increase was due to the commissioning of new phases in the development of this giant gas field, which also allowed Iran to overtake Qatar in terms of gas production from the joint field. He added that South Pars has 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 19 billion barrels of gas condensate, which is equivalent to 50 percent of the country's total reserves and 8 percent of world gas reserves. The refineries of South Pars account for 74 percent of the gas produced in Iran. The huge field that Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which, called the South Pars, are located in the territorial waters of Iran. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called the Northern Dome, are located in the territorial waters of Qatar. On March 17, Irans President Hassan Rouhani officially opened phases 13, 22, 23 and 24 of the South Pars gas field. With the discovery of these phases, for the first time, Irans gas production from the giant South Pars exceeded the production in Qatar. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz At the invitation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Guangzhou, AZAL President Jahangir Asgarov took part at the opening of the Canton Fair - trade and industry fair in Guangzhou, China. Founded in 1957, the Canton Fair (also known as the China Import and Export Fair) is a world-known multi-profile fair, also called the main showcase of Chinese industry. It takes place twice a year - in spring and autumn. This year, the 125th fair is being held from April 15 to May 5 and its total area of exhibition halls is 1200000 square meters. Manufacturers and suppliers from around the world and from almost all the provinces and cities of China present hundreds of thousands of items. In total, more than 25,000 companies participate at this fair. At the Canton Fair, the largest amounts and turnovers of transactions are carried out, which constitute one-tenth of the annual volume of all Chinese exports. The Canton Fair attracts a growing number of entrepreneurs, including from Azerbaijan. The fast-growing Chinese market is very attractive for entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan, and therefore in prospect, we plan to make China even more accessible and open new flights to this country, Jahangir Asgarov said. Currently, Azerbaijan's national airline AZAL operates direct flights to Beijing, and Silk Way cargo airline operates direct flights to the Chinese cities of Zhengzhou and Shanghai. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz John Cox can be reached at 661-395-7404. Follow him on Twitter: @TheThirdGraf. Sign up at Bakersfield.com for free newsletters about local business. The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. Educator Shannon Allen, a Beaumont native who came up through the ranks of its public schools, on Wednesday was announced as the new superintendent of Beaumont ISD. Allen will be the first woman to hold the position when she takes over July 1. She will replace John Frossard, who retired. Allen, 45, will earn a minimum of $229,000 per year. Her salary is still being negotiated, a BISD lawyer said. After Frossard announced in February that he was leaving, the School Board posted the job internally. It concluded the search before bringing in any outside candidates. Allen was the only applicant; on March 27, she was identified as the sole finalist. The Wednesday afternoon vote formalizing the offer was 5-0, with board member Alexandrew Seale abstaining. Seale, who was appointed by the governing board of managers and is now running for the at-large seat held by Denise Wallace Spooner, did not explain his decision to not join the majority. Allen, 45, said she wants young girls in the community to be encouraged by her success in the school system where she had been educated herself. I hope I can be an inspiration to other young ladies coming up in BISD, she said after the vote. The fact that I get to work in the community where I grew up, where I went to school, its just simply amazing, she added. I feel like jumping for joy. Board president A.B. Bernard said he thinks the board made the right decision. I think Dr. Allen is going to do exceptionally well and I look forward to her leadership, he said In an interview with The Enterprise last month, Allen said she could provide a level of stability that the district needs right now. Over the last 22 years in BISD, she has been a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and associate superintendent. Allen attended Vincent Middle and West Brook High schools, then majored in biology at Prairie View A&M University. She returned to BISD as a substitute teacher in 1996 and was offered a contract the next year to teach science at Ozen High School. She has a masters degree from Lamar University and obtained her Doctorate in Educational Leadership there in 2013. Allen credited Frossard for progress in the district and in her professional career as well. He has provided me with so many opportunities to stretch and grow my leadership skills that have impacted the district in a positive way, she said. She said that experience will make her effective from Day 1. We will not have any lag time under my leadership because I know the programs, the system, the structure - there is no learning curve for me, she said. Allen, who is married to Phillip Red Allen, also has a lot of experience with educators. My husband is a professional artist, actually, but hes also an educator, she said. My father-in-law was a superintendent for many years, my mother-in-law was a teacher, my sister is a teacher, my husbands sister is a teacher, my brother-in-law in a teacher. So I come from a family of educators. The biggest challenge Allen said she will face is changing perceptions about BISDs leadership and the district as a whole. She said she hopes to attract families back into the school system. She said the community doesnt fully understand the progress being made in the district and how hard the administration is working toward that goal. I recognize that is going to be a challenge because there are false perceptions about BISD, Allen said. Allen plans to continue partnerships between BISD and the city of Beaumont, Exxon Mobil and other local leaders. If Beaumont ISD improves the whole city of Beaumont will improve, she said. Its not just about BISD, its about the city of Beaumont and where we want to go as a community. haley.bruyn@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/HaleyWrites_BE Southeast Texas has green gem in the Big Thicket National Preserve and theres never been a better time to explore its 40 miles of hiking trails and 100 miles of accessible waterways. The park, which had a record 221,514 visits in 2018, is gearing up for whats expected to be a lovely spring. On Saturday, park rangers will offer Pitcher Plants and Pines,a family friendly 1 mile walk on the Sundew Trail, where visitors will see a variety of carnivorous plans, as well as longleaf pines and wildflowers. (The Hill Country isnt the only spot for wildflowers!) The walk is part of Satudays National Junior Ranger Day Mark but all ages are welcome. Cant make Saturdays outting? There will be plenty of other spring adventures at Big Thicket National Preserve. May 5: Turtles in the Thicket The 10:00 a.m. hike takes visitors along Pine Island Bayou and showcases the adaptations and behavoirs that have allowed turtles to thrive in the Big Thicket. (Warning: You may get muddy.) Big Thicket National Preserve What: Pitcher Plants and Pines When: Meet at the visitor's center a 9 a.m. to caravan to the trailhead, or meet at 9:30 a.m. at the Sundew trailhead. Where: The visitors center is located 6044 FM 420, Kountz; the trailhead is on CR 1910, a half mile south of FM 2827 and approximately 7 miles north of the visitor center. Information: 409-951-6700; nps.gov/bith See More Collapse May 18: Kids to Parks Day Children of all ages can do fun activities from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. in their quest for a Junior Ranger badge. May 18: Full Moon Hike Youll need to register for this walk where youll learn all about the parks nocturnal residents. Call early because space is limited. May 25: Canoe trip Never paddled? This is your chance. Best of all: The park provides the canoes, the paddles and the all-important personal floation devices for this trip that pushes off at 10:00 a.m. Space is limited, so register soon. The gun used to fatally shoot the owner of a local landscaping company had been stolen during a burglary in the same neighborhood two weeks prior, Beaumont police said Wednesday. The new details came as Bernard Bell, who faces charges that police say are related to last weeks slaying of Anthony Wilson, was jailed for a second time. The 26-year-old and three teenagers were arrested Sunday. Bell, who was charged with tampering with evidence and felon in possession of a firearm, posted bond after he was arrested. The day the Port Neches City Council was expected to vote on the possibility of hosting Mardi Gras of Southeast Texas, organizers for the event announced they're ending discussions with the city. "Due to irreconcilable differences, Mardi Gras Southeast Texas has chosen to opt out of further discussions with the city of Port Neches regarding relocation of the festival to Port Neches Riverfront Park," a statement from the organization said. Mardi Gras representatives also requested the item be removed from Thursday's City Council meeting agenda. Port Neches City Manager Andre' Wimer said there were many issues brought up during the last council meeting on which organizers and the city couldn't come to a consensus. During the April 4 meeting, council members and city residents expressed concern about parking, a possible parade route, how alcohol would be handled and what sort of security the event would require. Mardi Gras organizers and city staff had planned to develop more concrete answers to those questions. Event chairman Tim Romero called those conversations "promising" last week. Wimer said he wasn't sure which issues were the most problematic. Romero said the organization would not comment past its statement released on Facebook Thursday. But this doesn't mean the end of Mardi Gras of Southeast Texas. "Other opportunities have been presented and will be considered," the statement said. Beaumont is one of those opportunities, Mayor Becky Ames said. Ames said she contacted event organizers when she heard the festival was looking for a new home, but didn't want to get in the way of any discussions going on with Port Neches. The issue even surfaced Thursday at a Beaumont mayoral candidate forum hosted by the Press Club of Southeast Texas. A majority of the speakers said they would support bringing the event to Beaumont. "I believe the Mardi Gras festival ... would be great in Beaumont," Ames said. Ames said she's not yet sure what Mardi Gras could be requesting, so she doesn't know what process the conversation would have to take. She plans to meet with Mardi Gras organizers on Tuesday to talk more about the possibility. Any approval likely would occur in a public meeting. If the event did relocate to Beaumont, she said it likely would bring in more Hotel Occupancy Tax to the city. Those revenues can be used for projects that enhance tourism, such as current renovations at the Tyrrell Park Community Center. Mardi Gras organizers ended their statement telling people to "watch for announcements in the near future." If Mardi Gras doesnt end up in Port Neches, it could have a home in Beaumont. Allowing the event to come to Port Neches Riverfront Park after spending 27 years in Port Arthur is on the City Councils agenda for discussion and a possible vote at Thursdays meeting. The majority of residents who attended a meeting earlier this month told the council in no uncertain terms that they did not want the celebration at Port Neches Riverfront Park citing concerns about parking, a possible parade route about how alcohol will be handled. But the council members were will willing to continue the discussion to the next meeting and allow time for city staff to work with Mardi Gras of Southeast Texas planners to come up with answers to specific questions the council and city residents had. Event chairman Tim Romero called the process promising. City Manager Andre Wimer said city staff anticipates having more specific information for the council at Thursdays meeting. But he said hes not yet sure how the council is feeling about the issue. If the council ultimately decides not to allow it in Port Neches, organizers may not have to look far for another home. Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames said shes reached out to Mardi Gras organizers a few times to tell them the city is potentially open to the event relocating to the city. However, she made clear she didnt want to cause any problems for the event being held in Port Neches and is content for the celebration to happen there if allowed. We werent approached to have it, but I have called and talked to the person in charge, she said. We are potentially interested in it and (the organizers) know that. As the largest city in the region, several residents have asked on social media and at the Port Neches City Council meeting why Beaumont wasnt approached about the move first. Romero said Beaumont was always considered when Mardi Gras was looking for a new home, but the Port Neches opportunity presented itself. Beaumont is not out of consideration in the future or anything else. If something should happen and were not able to use Port Neches I feel like Beaumont would definitely be a part of the conversation, he said. Beaumont has always been a good neighbor. Romero said previously the organization specifically looked at Port Neches because it would be a more central location than Port Arthur, which they hope will bring more people in the future. The event has seen a 25 percent drop in attendance and revenue over the past decade, which prompted the search for a new home. The meeting starts at 4 p.m. Thursday at Port Neches City Hall, 1005 Merriman St. kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/KaitlinBain The Police are soliciting the assistance of the public with respect to an incident of armed robbery of a car park attendant, at the Argyle International Airport (AIA). According to a briefing from the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force Public Relations Department, the police are investigating the report made by the 23-year-old attendant of Kingstown Park, who was robbed on Sunday. The briefing stated that the attendant was robbed of EC$800.00 in cash and one security pass, by an assailant armed with a gun. Personnel at the AIA declined to comment on the matter when contacted by THE VINCENTIAN. Persons with any information are asked to contact the Calliaqua Police at 458-4200 or the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in charge of crime at 456-1339. Attorney General William Barr is set to release a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report Thursday, and the document could leave everyone unsatisfied -- President Donald Trump, lawmakers and the public. The report will provide the fullest portrait yet of Mueller's secretive 22-month probe, providing new insights into his findings, analysis and reasons for his conclusions on conspiring with Russia and obstruction of justice, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are holding a news conference Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Washington to discuss the release. The report will be delivered to Congress -- on compact disc -- between 11 a.m. and noon, according to a Justice Department official. Democrats quickly blasted Barr's plan to brief reporters ahead of releasing the report, with five House chairmen releasing a joint statement calling on Barr to cancel the news conference and "let the full report speak for itself." The report itself will be colorful -- literally. Barr plans to hold back parts of the almost 400-page report, promising a color-coded system to identify the multiple reasons that certain information can't currently be shared with Congress or the public. Those redactions may fuel frustrations on all sides, as well as additional political fights, legal challenges and lingering suspicion about the full extent of Mueller's findings. They also could frustrate a public thirsting for answers about Trump, Russia and his 2016 campaign. For Trump, who is ramping up his 2020 re-election bid, the report may cement Americans' views of him, either helping to lift the collusion cloud that has shrouded his presidency, or reigniting the push to dig into his affairs and his business. In an interview Wednesday with WMAL radio in Washington, Trump predicted, "You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow." Mueller spent nearly two years conducting one of the most consequential investigations in recent U.S. history into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump or any of his associates conspired in the operation. Here's what to look for in the final report: According to the person familiar with the matter, the report is expected to answer one of the most urgent remaining questions: why Mueller declined to make a decision on whether to charge Trump with obstructing justice, something he spent months investigating. The special counsel found there was evidence "on both sides of the question" of whether Trump obstructed justice and that his probe didn't "exonerate" the president, according to a four-page summary that Barr released last month. Nonetheless, Barr and Rosenstein concluded that the evidence on obstruction didn't warrant a criminal charge after Mueller submitted his final report. The document is close to 400 pages long, reflecting an investigation that issued more than 2,800 subpoenas and almost 500 search warrants. About 500 witnesses were interviewed, Barr told lawmakers. Mueller also provided a series of exhibits, including testimony, but it's unclear if any of that will be released. Mueller's report isn't intended to be a comprehensive narrative that tries to reconstruct all the events of the 2016 campaign, or how Trump handled the investigation. Justice Department regulations say that Mueller should explain in a report to the attorney general the decisions that he made on who to prosecute, and he can choose to discuss additional relevant findings. Barr is going beyond what's required under Justice Department regulations by sharing any of the report. The regulations require only that he inform Congress if the special counsel was prevented from taking a significant action. Barr has said there was no such situation. Trump and his lawyers are bracing for new revelations that could be damaging to the president, his family members or close associates. They've spent months deriding the investigation as a "witch hunt," with the president repeatedly accusing Mueller's team of being biased against him. The president's advisers have been preparing for any unfavorable findings by the special counsel, assembling a rebuttal to the chain of events they believe Mueller may describe. They're also poised to address the legal arguments for why Trump's actions don't amount to obstruction of justice -- the main area they've been concerned about when it came to Trump's legal jeopardy. Trump and his allies have seized on Barr's summary of Mueller's findings to declare that the president was completely cleared by the special counsel. "Total EXONERATION," Trump tweeted last month. That narrative may get turned on its head by a more detailed version of the report, as every page and paragraph is picked apart looking for any newly disclosed questionable actions by Trump and his associates. Key findings the report might reveal include examples of potential obstruction that have never been disclosed and whether Mueller indicated that he wanted Congress to decide ultimately whether Trump impeded the investigation. Barr told lawmakers Mueller didn't establish that Trump or people associated with his campaign conspired with Russia in its campaign interference "despite multiple efforts by Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign." But the report might reveal additional evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government that didn't rise to the level of charging a criminal conspiracy. The report also might reveal who on the campaign directed long-time Trump associate Roger Stone to communicate with WikiLeaks about releasing information damaging to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the weeks before the election. It could also shed light on the relationship between Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who Mueller prosecuted, and Konstantin Kilimnik, who Mueller has said has ties to Russian intelligence services. Kilimnik was indicted last year on conspiracy to obstruct justice. The color-coded labels that Barr has said will give his reasons for redactions may include material involving grand jury proceedings, classified programs and ongoing investigations, as well as information that could damage the reputations of people "peripheral" to the investigation. Barr has said that he won't withhold damaging information about public officials, including Trump, just to protect their reputations. The attorney general also could withhold details of internal White House deliberations, citing executive privilege. He told lawmakers on April 9 that he decided not to seek Trump's input and had "no plans" to assert the privilege traditionally asserted by presidents who say they need to be able to have private conversations. That type of information could reveal Trump's conversations before he fired FBI director James Comey and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, as well as attempts the president made to fire other top Justice Department officials. "A heavily redacted report should not be acceptable to anyone, especially if the report was redacted to protect the president or his associates," Harry Sandick, a former federal prosecutor in New York who's now a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, said. The redactions could be extensive, if a filing on Monday by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia is any clue. Prosecutors used that filing to bat back a request by the Washington Post to unseal redacted material in the criminal case against Manafort, who was sentenced to 90 months in jail in two separate cases. Prosecutors said the redactions were intended to protect the privacy of uncharged third parties and investigations on "a number of matters'' that Mueller referred to other prosecutors -- two of the four reasons that Barr has cited for redacting the special counsel's report. "It is unknown how long some of these investigations may remain ongoing,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Kravis wrote. "And some of the privacy interests that are being protected may persist indefinitely.'' Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, took issue with Barr's plan to redact information related to "peripheral" persons during an April 9 hearing. "It seems to me that's an exception that you can drive a truck through," Case told Barr. Democrats are prepared to issue subpoenas for the full, unredacted report as well as all of Mueller's underlying evidence, setting up a legal clash that could go all the way to the Supreme Court. --With assistance from Bloomberg's Erik Larson, David Voreacos and Billy House. Drone Image: Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise The severe weather threat to the Southeast Texas area has passed, according to information from the National Weather Service. As of 9 a.m. Thursday officials said the region had received about .8 inches of rain, just over the predicted .75 inches the storm was thought to bring. Dr. Godwin Friday, Leader of the Opposition and MP for the Northern Grenadines, issued a call for an investigation into the demise of the MV Gem Star. Leader of the Opposition, Dr Godwin Friday, on last Mondays New Times Radio Programme, called for an investigation into the fire which destroyed the MV Gem Star last week, describing the situation as it unfolded as baffling. Last week Monday, shortly after docking at the Grenadines Wharf in Kingstown, there appeared to be a fire on board the MV Gem Star, and although efforts were made by the Fire Service and individuals to contain the blaze, there was still smoldering on Tuesday causing the port authorities to instruct that the vessel be removed from its berthing. It was towed into open sea, but the entire vessel soon became engulfed by fire. According to Dr. Friday, he saw the vessel being towed on Tuesday and there was smoke coming from the back and front of the boat, but not that much. "And the thought that came to mind was how are the authorities going to put this fire out with the vessel being towed out to sea? "That is a serious question that needs to be answered because it is something that makes me wonder if the fire service is effective or not, he continued. The Opposition Leader addressed the issue of the preparation of officers of the fire service, saying that the system where one enters the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF) as a police officer and is then transferred into the fire service, needs to end. "The nature of fires is that they are deadly and destroy property, Dr. Friday explained, "and we have to be better prepared to ensure that those things are minimized, and we cannot do that right now. The time for a review of the fire service was now, he asserted. Assistant Commissioner of Police Christopher Benjamin, when contacted, explained that the Royal SVG Police Force (RSVGPF) is comprised of various departments, and once assigned to a department, an officer receives training relevant to the task of that department. Once an officer is deployed to the Fire Department, that officer will receive the relevant training, Benjamin assured. "Once you join the Force, you can be deployed in any Department, and once enlisted as a member of the RSVGPF, it was mandatory for officers to assist in the event of a fire, he added. And this was the system that will remain until the Fire Department is separated from the RSVGPF, Benjamin said. "By the time it got out (to sea), it was engulfed in flames, and that needs to be investigated to determine what went on, because it just seems to me that it begs an explanation as to how the boat can be at the wharf dockedhow is it possible that we were not able to contain the fire?, Dr. Friday asked.The time had come for a separated, proper and well-trained fire service to be put in place, Dr. Friday posited.Interestingly, as Benjamin disclosed, there was a recruitment drive recently for applicants to the fire service, but this was to fill the staff at the fire service at the Argyle International Airport. Dale Da Breo, described as being mentally ill, died after being shot by police on the Southern Grenadine island of Canouan, on Sunday. According to a release from the Royal SVG Police Force Public Relations and Complaints Department, police on the island responded to a report of a mentally man attacking residents. On arriving at his residence, Da Breo is said to have attacked the police with a cutlass and knife. He was shot and taken to the Canouan Health Centre where he was pronounced dead. Social media and call-in programme on local radio, raised certain questions about the police action. In a veiled response to these concerns, the release referred advised that while using deadly force is always a last resort, the law gives the police the authority to use the necessary force to protect life and property. A post mortem was expected to be conducted on the deceased earlier this week, to ascertain the cause of death. The Carnival Breeze, one of the Carnival Cruise liners with a passenger capacity of 4428, could be part of re-scheduled visits to Antigua and Barbuda. (Photo Credit: CruiseMapper) Carnival Cruise Line has reversed its decision to cancel some of its calls to Antigua and Barbuda. This was announced after a meeting between the Carnival Corporation (owners/operators of the cruise line) and the Antigua and Barbuda Government in Miami two weekends ago. While details of that agreement reached at that meeting were not disclosed, the two parties issued a joint statement which said, inter alia, that the deal provides a foundation for Carnival to continue to operate in Antigua for many more years to come. "While some calls were rescheduled, other calls that were being considered for cancellation will now call as planned, and both parties agreed to continue discussions on the possibility of having more summer calls, the statement disclosed. Last month, March, President of the Antigua and Barbuda Cruise Tourism Association Nathan Dundas said that the Florida-based Carnival Cruise Lines was cancelling its scheduled calls. Dundas had told the media that Carnival had dropped Antigua and Barbuda from the itinerary of its Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic, Carnival Legend and Carnival Pride cruise ships which were scheduled to sail to the twin-island nation for the 2019/2020 winter season. The Government subsequently accused Dundas of scare-mongering and causing unnecessary fear among cruise stakeholders. But officials subsequently held talks with Carnival on the matter. (Caribbean 360, Antigua Observer) In the statement issued since news of the new deal broke, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, told the media, "We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship (with carnival Cruise Lines) that will bring even greater prosperity to our people. Kim Brent / Kim Brent / The Enterprise Vidor voters will not have to worry about a lack of experience in deciding their next mayor; former mayor Ken Crawford is challenging current mayor Kimberly Stiebig. We have no doubt that Crawford could fill this post well, because he did before. But we lean toward Stiebig because of her attitude and her focus on issues that can make Vidor better. Stiebig is a bit of a newcomer to the city council, having been appointed mayor when Robert Viator was elected Orange County commissioner. But she has a good background in Orange County disaster planning and the Vidor Planning and Zoning Commission. The last post was particularly valuable, as she and the council move to bring more land-use planning forward. Some cities without zoning want to stay that way, but more and more residents and businesses in Vidor seem to realize the benefits of setting aside certain parts of the city for certain kinds of growth. Residents of the other 49 states may have done a double-take last week when they read that Republicans in Texas were considering the states first sales tax increase in 30 years. Thats not the kind of thing conservative Republicans do, and thats the only kind we have in Texas. But of course the rest of the story painted a different picture. It was more of a tax swap than a tax increase, with the sales tax going up while property taxes (in theory) go down. The Legislature is still debating how that could play out, but the issue raises a familiar question: Is a sales tax fair? The argument against it, usually by Democrats, is that its mostly not. Their main complaint is that its regressive, hitting the poor harder than the wealthy. Its all about proportion. If you make, say, $15,000 a year, you will have to spend a chunk of that for basics like food, clothing and housing. When you pay sales taxes on those expenses, you end up paying a higher percentage of sales taxes on your overall income than a rich person. The League of Women Voters estimates that low-income Texans pay 7.4% of their incomes, directly or indirectly, in state sales taxes. The wealthy pay only 1.6% of their income in those taxes. On the other hand, the sales tax is paid in smaller totals, often at your discretion. Its something you can control, at least to some extent. And if a rich guy buys a Mercedes or a yacht, he pays a lot of sales taxes on that toy. Also, if you have a lot of tourists in your state, as Texas does, the sales taxes they pay bring a lot of money into the state treasury. In essence, folks from Massachusetts and Missouri are funding part of your state government. (Thanks, guys!) The state sales tax in Texas is currently 6.25%, which isnt that high. But many cities tack on their own sales taxes, pushing it to 8.25% in many places. The current proposal would increase the base-state rate by 1 percentage point, to 7.25% (and thus 9.25% overall in many cities). Ironically, the state rate would tie the highest one in the nation, held by the dreaded big blue state known as California. That extra penny in our state sales tax, if approved, would bring in an additional $5 billion to Austin, and thats real money. In turn (and again, in theory) property taxes could be reduced by $5 billion statewide, producing a wash for homeowners and business people. Beaumonts tax revenues wouldnt be affected by this change if it takes place, but Beaumont relies on the sales tax more than most other large or medium-sized cities. More Information Common sales tax sources for Beaumont Figures for December, 2018 Amount paid - Category - Number of outlets $15,244 - plumbing, HVAC companies - 42 $13,264 - commercial printing - 48 $7,703 - medical/dental wholesale - 87 $45,860 - industrial machinery - 53 $4,524 - durable goods - 46 $7,868 - trade agents/brokers - 96 $59,141 - electronics stores - 72 $16,605 - cosmetics/beauty stores - 45 $72,068 - gas stations w. conv. stores - 61 $74,325 - family clothing stores - 51 $28,538 - electronic shopping/mail order - 423 $7,280 - software publishers - 61 $107,576 - wireless telecomm. carriers - 41 $11,036 - data processing - 82 $32,472 - machinery rental/leasing - 54 $4,433 - computer programming - 67 $12,647 - security systems services - 48 $176,530 - full-service restaurants - 98 $151,170 - limited-service restaurants - 67 Source: Texas comptroller of public accounts See More Collapse The Beaumont city budget gets a surprising 32.4% of its revenues from local sales taxes. Thats the largest portion of its budget, with property taxes providing 28.8% and industrial taxes 15.1%. In most other cities, property taxes are the big dog, mostly because theyre more predictable. Property values will not surge up or down a lot in one year; in fact, they will mostly increase slowly. They provide a reliable number for city planners to work with. Sales taxes could fluctuate more dramatically, if, say, a major store closes, and things like that do happen. But Beaumonts sales tax base is big enough and broad enough to weather those storms so far. And, like property taxes, local sales tax totals have generally increased from year to year. Also, disasters like Rita, Ike and Harvey produce a big surge in sales taxes as people head to hardware stores and big-box retailers afterward to rebuild their damaged property. Debates like this hinge on the fact that nobody likes paying any kind of taxes, and one group will be constantly trying to shift that burden to another. In Texas, at least, groceries, medications (prescription or over-the-counter) and some infant products like baby food and formula are exempt from any sales taxes. Any politician of either party who tries to change that should become an ex-politician. One final point: Tax swaps can be justified if they are permanent. But if property tax rates go down now only to creep back up later, the offset from the sales tax increase will be gone. Thats often the way it works, however, and lawmakers must include guarantees in this deal to avoid that problem. ttaschinger@beaumontenterprise.com Physicians in Kentucky are among 53 medical professionals in six states facing charges related to a widespread opioid crackdown, according to the Department of Justice. Three key details: 1. A physician was charged for allegedly giving his office staff pre-signed, blank prescriptions so they could prescribe controlled substances in his absence. He also allegedly directed clinic staff including those not licensed to practice medicine to perform medical services on patients. 2. A separate Kentucky physician was charged in connection to an alleged kickback scheme involving a Florida compounding pharmacy and its owner. The physician allegedly wrote prescriptions for compounded drugs including controlled substances as part of an illegal kickback scheme. In addition, the physician, compounding pharmacy and pharmacy owner are accused of inflating prescription costs when billing Medicare and Tricare for reimbursement. 3. Federal authorities also filed charges in Alabama, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia as part of the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force Takedown. Sixty individuals face charges in cases involving over 350,000 controlled substance prescriptions and more than 32 million individual pills. More articles on anesthesia: 4 hierarchical chronic condition codes added in 2019 Former pain practice CEO found guilty of 8 counts in $4M kickback operation 4 details Arkansas won't expand CRNA scope of practice 3 notes Five medical professionals in Kentucky's Eastern District were charged in connection to schemes involving healthcare fraud and the illegal distribution of controlled substances, according to the Department of Justice. The charges were part of a massive U.S. crackdown on unlawful billing and prescribing practices. Altogether, 10 people in Kentucky and 60 across the country are facing charges related to the federal government's Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force Takedown. Five charges in Kentucky's Western District: 1. A physician was charged for allegedly prescribed opioids to Facebook friends who picked them up from his home. The physician allegedly signed prescriptions for people who sent requests to his office manager via Facebook messenger. 2. The aforementioned office manager is accused of receiving cash payments in exchange for the signed prescriptions. 3. A physician operating a pain management clinic allegedly gave office staff pre-signed, blank prescriptions, enabling them to prescribe controlled substances when he wasn't in the office. 4. The independent operator of a five-clinic family pain management practice allegedly billed Medicare for urine testing that wasn't performed. The practitioner was also accused of illegally billing Medicare for urine testing. 5. A dentist was charged for allegedly providing a myriad of unnecessary services including tooth removal, follow-up appointments and opioid prescriptions and billing inappropriately for services. More articles on anesthesia: 4 hierarchical chronic condition codes added in 2019 Former pain practice CEO found guilty of 8 counts in $4M kickback operation 4 details Arkansas won't expand CRNA scope of practice 3 notes The Department of Justice charged 32 people in Tennessee, including Jeffrey Young, a nurse practitioner known as the "Rock Doc," as part of a massive crackdown on illegal prescribing practices, The Tennessean reports. What you should know: 1. Mr. Young is a nurse practitioner at the GeneXis Health clinic in Jackson, Tenn., The Jackson Sun reports. Mr. Young allegedly prescribed about 1.4 million opioids and 1,500 fentanyl patches over three years. 2. Mr. Young allegedly exchanged drugs for sexual favors and publicity for a reality television show called "Rock Doc TV," which was about Mr. Young's clinic and his "Rock 'n' Roll" lifestyle. 3. In addition, Mr. Young allegedly saw patients while drunk or under the influence of drugs. 4. The indictment states that "Young used his power to prescribe controlled substances to promote his television pilot and his podcast, and to have sex with women, including women who were his patients." 5. An attorney for Mr. Young denied any wrongdoing to The Jackson Sun. 6. The charges against the "Rock Doc" were part of the Department of Justice's Appalachian Regional Prescription Strike Force Takedown, a large opioid bust resulting in charges against 60 individuals, 53 of whom are medical professionals. The bust accounted for more than 350,000 prescriptions and more than 32 million individual pills. IBM has discontinued the development and sales of its Watson for Drug Discovery product due to poor financial performance, according to STAT. This usage of IBM's Watson artificial intelligence software was introduced in 2014, with the aim of assisting pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs. Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer were among the firms that established partnerships with the research tool. Though IBM will no longer market or advance Watson for Drug Discovery, it will continue to serve pharmaceutical companies already using the software, IBM spokesperson Edward Barbini said in an emailed statement to STAT. "We are focusing our resources within Watson Health to double down on the adjacent field of clinical development where we see an even greater market need for our data and AI capabilities," Mr. Barbini wrote. Reports of the demise of Watson for Drug Discovery come amid continued criticisms of the Watson for Oncology technology. Despite these setbacks, on April 16, IBM reported a $5 billion increase in revenue from its Cloud and Cognitive Software sector in the first quarter of 2019, due in part to growth in its health offerings, including the AI-powered Watson Health resource. More articles about AI: Gilead, machine learning startup test AI's drug development potential AI-driven apps are coaching digital-first millennial managers Research roadmap details path to incorporating AI into radiology CMS ended its provider agreement with I-70 Community Hospital in Sweet Springs, Mo., on March 7. Now, the hospital is fighting to get its funding back, according to The Concordian. The Medicare contract termination came after the hospital voluntarily suspended its license for 90 days on Feb. 15. The hospital's owner, an affiliate of Kansas City, Mo.-based EmpowerHMS, entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 21. Shawnee, Okla.-based Cohesive Healthcare Management and Consulting took over operations of I-70 Community Hospital and is helping the hospital navigate its financial challenges. Cohesive is seeking to get the critical access hospital's Medicare contract back, and is meeting with leaders from the city of Sweet Springs to discuss options on April 18, according to The Concordian. According to the Medicare termination notice, I-70 Community Hospital was not in compliance with provisions of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, and the deficiencies were "an immediate threat to patient health and safety." The hospital's patient safety issues and financial challenges have sparked concern in the community. Several local residents attended a recent Sweet Springs Board of Aldermen meeting to request an update on a plan to reopen the facility, according to the report. More articles on healthcare finance: CMS' proposed inpatient rehabilitation payment rule for 2020: 5 things to know Healthcare stocks take $28B hit: 4 things to know The most common risk-bearing arrangements among surveyed health systems Here are 14 health information technology notes: 1. Although the company has faced backlash over the past six months for its popularity among young people, e-cigarette maker Juul is considering tapping into digital health. 2. IBM released its first quarter earnings on April 16, showing an acceleration in cloud revenue growth even as the tech giant's overall revenue dipped. 3. The City of Roseville Employees' Retirement System filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Apple shareholders, alleging the iPhone developer violated federal securities laws. 4. Although Cerner shares have seen a double digit increase this year 20 percent the EHR developer is expected to see even bigger growth. 5. The latest joint effort from the American Medical Association and Sling Health, a student-run biotechnology incubator based at Washington University in St. Louis, is an online database that will pair physicians' insights about clinical challenges with developers of cutting-edge medical technology. 6. Microsoft emailed an unknown number of users April 12 across its Outlook, MSN and Hotmail platforms alerting them of a data breach that occurred between Jan. 1 and March 28. 7. While Amazon announced Alexa was HIPAA-compliant earlier this month, the voice assistant is years away from connecting patients to physicians. 8. Samsung SDS and Tech Mahindra have partnered to collaborate on a global blockchain network. 9. Blockchain developer Augusta HiTech launched its first blockchain-powered EHR platform, which streamlines data sharing between patients and emergency medical services. 10. Google is in the processes of dismantling a panel that aims at reviewing its artificial intelligence solutions in healthcare. 11. Ovia Health, a developer of fertility, pregnancy and parenting-tracking apps, shares user data with employers and insurers as a way to monitor employees' health. 12. Uber released its S-1 form April 11 in preparation to go public. 13. Cerner and naviHealth, a provider of post-acute care management, have extended their partnership to create a new offering for Medicare's Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced program. 14. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Theranos, a biotech company that shuttered last year, five patents in March and April. More articles about health IT: IBM cloud earns $5B revenue in Q1: 4 things to know NYC Health + Hospitals now live on Epic at 19 more facilities Patient struggles to get medical records after Florida surgery center shuts down Joe Woodin, former CEO of South Peninsula Hospital in Homer, Alaska, resigned April 16, according to a Homer News report. In a media release obtained by the News, Mr. Woodin said that he is leaving due to "unanticipated circumstances." He became CEO of the hospital in March 2018. "[Mr. Woodin] made great progress on numerous priorities during a critical transition time for the organization, and we thank him for his service," said David Groesbeck, president of the hospital's board of directors, in the press release, according to the News. Previously, Mr. Woodin served as president and CEO at Oak Bluffs, Mass.-based Martha's Vineyard Hospital, a critical access facility. He was fired from the facility in June 2017. He filed a breach of contract action against the hospital, and it filed a counterclaim. He reached an agreement with Martha's Vineyard Hospital in October 2018. Noel Rea, senior director, hospital administrator at NetworxHealth, a consulting division of Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center, will serve as interim CEO of South Peninsula Hospital, effective immediately. Mr. Rea was director of the Alaska Rural Hospital Flexibility Program and CEO at Wrangell (Alaska) Medical Center. He is president of the Alaska chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives. CMS Administrator Seema Verma said "Medicare for All" proposals are "the biggest threat to the American healthcare system," according to Fox News. The nation's Medicare chief made the remarks April 17 on "Fox & Friends," arguing that Medicare for All policies would decrease Americans' quality of care and lead to longer wait times. "I've been saying that Medicare for All is the biggest threat to the American healthcare system," Ms. Verma said. "What we're talking about is stripping people of their private health insurance, forcing them into a government-run program." On April 10, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., unveiled a bill that vows to replace all other insurers including commercial payers, employer-sponsored payers and Medicaid with a single government-sponsored plan. Big health insurers like UnitedHealth have seen stock fall due to increased political uncertainty and discussions surrounding Medicare for All. To view Ms. Verma's full remarks, click here. More articles on payers: CEO of Texas health insurer abruptly resigns UnitedHealth posts $3.5B profit in Q1 Las Vegas hospital doesn't contract with any payers President Donald Trump and wife Melania share a photo with PM of St. Lucia Allen Chatanet, Presdient to the DR Danilo Medina, PM of Jamaica Andrew Holness, President of Haiti Jovenel Moise, and PM of the Bahamas Hubert Minnis. (Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk) The recent meeting between USA President Donald Trump and five Caribbean leaders, has had its fair share of rebuke and rebuff. Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph Gonsalves described the meeting as "troubling; Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne referred to the five leaders as "weak-minded, and the Dominica Governments legal advisor Anthony Astaphan labelled Allen Chastanet, Prime Minister of St. Lucia and one of the five leaders concerned, as a "lone ranger. Now, Chastanet, even though he stated that he "will not respond to criticisms, (from Gonsalves and Browne), told reporters on March 26, in justifying the meeting, that he places his countrys agenda above all. "At the end of the day, I was elected by St. Lucians to represent St. Lucians. At the end of the day, this was not a meeting for CARICOM; this was a meeting by invitation by the President of the United States of America, which is St. Lucias largest trading partner, Chastanet told the reporters. The Prime Minister Chastanet described the meeting with President Trump as "a very good me, saying further "We were invited by the US President to discuss a series of things that pertain to St. Lucia and also to the region. Among the issues related to St. Lucia that were discussed, according to the St. Lucian Prime Minister, were: security in the region particularly that of St. Lucia and assistance in this regard; the matter of St. Lucians having to go all the way to Barbados to get US visas and applying closer to home for such visas; pre-clearance facilities for the USA at the new terminal building; turning an old agency into an investment organization with $70 billion in its coffers; and trade with special focus on enabling a review of the requirement/facility regarding agricultural produce from St. Lucia entering the USA. With respect to the $70 billion facility that could become accessible by St. Lucia, Chastanet spoke of this becoming operable within 60 days, and also mentioned the visit by a team to St. Lucia within the next 90 days, to look into some investment opportunities "that we currently have here. (Source: Caribbean News) Other Caribbean leaders who attended the meeting with President Trump were; Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis of the Bahamas, along with the presidents of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, and the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina. Pittsburgh-based UPMC lost its bid to allow Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans outside of rival Highmark to contract directly with UPMC, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. On April 16, a federal judge in Alabama ruled against UPMC's request to intervene in a seven-year-old lawsuit filed against BCBS plans by some of its members. The ruling by U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor can be appealed. The ruling, if it stands, may further restrict patient volume at UPMC hospitals after a June 30 consent decree between Pittsburgh-based Highmark and UPMC expires. The ruling would make it more difficult for BCBS members outside of Pennsylvania to receive in-network care at UPMC. Mr. Proctor said UPMC is too late in its request. In his ruling, he wrote: "For at least five years, UPMC has been exactly where it finds itself now unable to contract with Blues other than Highmark after previously [albeit briefly] asserting that it has been unlawfully restricted from contracting with non-Highmark Blues." UPMC officials said they are considering their options. UPMC lawyer Joe Whatley told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the ruling "was only a denial of the motion to intervene. It was not a ruling on the merits of any claim. We have a number of options we are considering." More articles on payers: CEO of Texas health insurer abruptly resigns UnitedHealth posts $3.5B profit in Q1 Las Vegas hospital doesn't contract with any payers A staff physician at Google sent an email to employees that a worker who had been in one of its Mountain View, Calif., buildings had been diagnosed with measles, according to Buzzfeed News. Thousands of people work at Google's Silicon Valley location. The warning of the measles case was not distributed within Google or its parent company, Alphabet, and five employees told Buzzfeed News that they had not received the email or been told about the measles exposure. In the April 13 email, David Kaye, MD, an occupational medicine physician at Google, said the worker had been in the office April 4. Google is working with the Santa Clara (Calif.) County Public Health Department to limit the measles exposure. The U.S. has seen an uptick in measles cases in past years. So far in 2019, the CDC has reported 555 cases across 20 states, the agency said this week. Jacksonville, Fla.-based Baptist Health added remote monitoring technology from Advanced ICU Care, an intensive care unit telemedicine provider, for patients at Baptist Medical Center Nassau. The tele-ICU system uses audiovisual technology and real-time patient data to let physicians monitor patients' medical conditions from afar. It can track patients' vital signs, medications, lab results and clinical status, and it sends an alert to the physician to prompt immediate intervention if a patient's condition becomes serious. Baptist Medical Center Nassau is the first Baptist Healthhospital to launch the tele-ICU technology. Heraeus Medical brought Zimmer Biomet to court again recently to refute an initial decision over non-compete issues between the former partners and an employee, according to The Indiana Lawyer. Five things to know: 1. The companies were formerly partners, with Zimmer Biomet having exclusive U.S. distribution rights for the Palacos bone cements manufactured by Heraeus. However, Heraeus decided to establish direct sales in the U.S. for the product and tapped a former Zimmer Biomet employee to join the sales team. 2. The former Zimmer Biomet employee, Robert Kolbe, had signed a noncompete and nonsolicitation agreement with Zimmer Biomet, which the Kosciusko Superior Court found he violated when leaving the company for Heraeus Medical; multiple other Zimmer Biomet employees followed his lead. 3. The Kosciusko Superior Court in Warsaw, Ind., ordered Heraeus not to posses or use confidential information or employ former Zimmer Biomet employees in violation of the non-competes, or a preliminary injunction. Heraeus and Mr. Kolbe appealed the decision, saying the non-compete was against the law and some of the preliminary injunction was "unreasonable." 4. The most recent appellate court decision found that the noncompete and nonsolicitation agreement was "not unenforceable" as a result of undefined geographic scope, and that the non-solicitation of customers wasn't overbroad. 5. The appellate court did find the agreement between Kolbe and Zimmer Biomet not to solicit Zimmer Biomet employees was overbroad and instructed that the parties narrow the scope. Three spine surgeons discuss strategies for successful payer negotiations. Ask Spine Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to spine surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. We invite all spine surgeon and specialist responses. Next week's question: What advances do you hope to see in 3D printing in the next five to 10 years? Please send responses to Anuja Vaidya at avaidya@beckershealthcare.com by Wednesday, April 24, 5 p.m. CST. Question: What is your best advice for payer negotiations? Richard Kube, MD. Founder and CEO of Prairie Spine & Pain Institute (Peoria, Ill.): We constantly monitor outcomes. We feel it helps to market ourselves to the community. That same reasoning works for the payers. In addition to benchmarking outcomes, you need to benchmark price with your competitors. Use this combination to your advantage. In the end, do not be afraid to say no. You need to know your internal margins for conducting business so that you know where to draw the line. You will have to say no to some carriers. If you lose money on every case, you won't solve it with more volume. Issada Thongtrangan, MD. Orthopedic Spine and Neurosurgeon at Minimally Invasive Spine (Phoenix): The most important is to be able to show the payers patient outcome data. The second most important is the 'cost effectiveness' and/or cost-savings data showing them why you are different and backing it up with the data. For example, my practice is a multimodality spine practice, which it is essentially a 'one-stop shop,' so it is very convenient for the patients and payers from first visit to postoperative care. Brian R. Gantwerker, MD. Founder of the Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: Stay erudite and be tenacious. Payers continue to not play by their own rules. You must know the timeline, treatments and plan for your patient's care. Never stop being their advocate and steward. The payers certainly do not have that role and are doing everything they can to delay care in order to get the patient or doctor to give up and/or go elsewhere. Knowing this ahead of time, be prepared for peer-to-peer interviews. Be kind, but be to the point and not chatty. Tell the other person your outcomes, and what your beliefs are as to what your patient needs to get better. At the end of all this, the payers will need to explain their decisions to the patient, or better yet, to the insurance commission. Culture and Theatre Arts enthusiasts are in for a treat Saturday 4 May, with the staging of a theatre production Mali. Written by Zoila Ellis Browne, Honorary Consul for Belize in SVG, the work is directed by David Darkie Williams and produced by Kevin Rodriquez. There is input from calypsonian Ronald Ron B Browne who provides melodies, and with the Heartbeat Resistance Drummers adding their bit, Mali promises to be a moving affair. Williams gave a preview of the production scheduled for the Peace Memorial Hall from 7:30 pm, at a press briefing last Tuesday. He traced the origins of the Mali observance, which is something of a family reunion for Garifuna people. The play is inspired by one of the Garifuna ancestral traditions from which the Dugu emerges. According to the Garifuna Heritage Foundation, "The Dugu stems from the African component of the Garifuna Heritage, and is connected to the Spiritual Baptist faith which is practised in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and other Caribbean islands. Mali is a ritual which runs for seven days, at the end of which the gathering experiences healing. Rodriquez, Director of the 20-year-old Agape Methodists Dramatists, is anxious about the venture. Not only has it aroused his interest in the Garifuna Heritage, but he views the collaboration with renowned Theatre Director Williams, as a signal of a new level of Vincentian cultural/artistic expression. And if Saturdays episode delights, there is a repeat presentation the following evening for those desirous of a second serving. This event is in keeping with The Garifuna Heritage Foundation Month of activities, many of which were held in March. Pharmaceutical research firm Fusion Antibodies - one of Northern Ireland's most recent publicly listed companies - has reported revenue growth to 1.5m in the second half of the year. The Belfast-based firm, which floated on the Alternative Investment Market during 2017, said revenues for the full year ending March 31 were expected to be 2.2m. The company, headed by chief executive Paul Kerr, yesterday released its yearly trading update. Fusion Antibodies said revenues and orders picked up significantly from October 2018 onwards, following a disappointing first six months of the 2019 financial year. Total orders for the second half of the 2019 financial year were 2.1m. The company said revenues for the period are expected to be 1.5m, returning to the levels seen in the second half of the 2018 financial year (1.3m), but significantly ahead of the 700,000 recorded in first half of 2019. Fusion said the improvement in the second six months had been achieved by a mix of factors including addressing the external competitive pressures seen towards the end of the second half of 2018 and in the first six months of the 2019 financial year. Dalradian has said its gold mine could support 350 jobs in Co Tyrone A group of residents who lost their High Court battle over a proposed gold mine in Co Tyrone are to take their case to the Court of Appeal. Greencastle Rouskey Gortin Concerned Community (GRG) mounted a judicial review challenge to the Department for Infrastructure's decision to consider a planning application from Canadian firm Dalradian. They claimed insufficient information was provided before the 10,000-page planning application was submitted, arguing that the preliminary consultation exercise was significantly flawed. But in February Mr Justice McCloskey held that planning laws did not require the developer to publish and consult on a finalised scheme at that stage. Dalradian has claimed that its 25-year project could support 350 jobs in the area, offering a significant boost to the economy. Announcing the plan to appeal February's decision, solicitor for the residents, Andrew Ryan from law firm TLT, said: "GRG's carefully considered decision to appeal the decision of the High Court demonstrates the clear determination that the group has to ensure that no stone is left unturned in challenging the actions of the Department for Infrastructure and its consideration of the planning application to date. "This is an entirely new and previously unchallenged area of law and the group firmly believe that the issues raised in the High Court warrant further examination by the Court of Appeal." Rachel Taylor from planning consultancy Clyde Shanks, who is representing the GRG group, added: "While the judgment acknowledged that the challenge was well brought and raised important and interesting questions, in my view questions still remain regarding the plain fundamental differences between the pre-application notification which informed the community consultation exercise and what was eventually submitted in the subsequent planning application." Martin Conway from GRG said the residents believe there are still substantive issues of law and fact that have not been addressed. "The High Court recognised that this challenge might ultimately prove to be the first major staging post in a lengthy legal struggle and that the real battle has just begun in earnest. This is indeed the case and we are determined to fight the application every step of the way." Dalradian said after February's ruling that it is looking forward to its planning application proceeding through to the public inquiry stage. "We will continue to work constructively with the local community and to further develop our relationships with our near neighbours," the company said. "Modern mining is a new sector for Northern Ireland and can provide sustainable employment for decades to come." Even down the telephone line you can sense the smile on artist Leslie Nicholl's face as he talks about the happy circumstances that led him to meet the love of his life, Elaine, more than 40 years ago. When he later discusses what was undoubtedly the darkest time of their lives, after Elaine was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, his tone changes and you get a sense of the terrible fear he felt. That fear and also anger that his wife of 43 years had to endure the trauma of a cancer diagnosis later became the catalyst for a collection of stunning and very personal paintings. Leslie (63) used his love of art as his own therapy to cope and produced 40 pieces of work in tribute to Elaine (62). Very much inspired by poignant events, a collection of his work which includes some of the pieces inspired by Elaine's cancer journey is currently on display in Belfast's Engine Room. Buffeted by every element - the rain, wind and even the riptide of the sea she is standing on - this is a powerful portrayal of Elaine standing strong during her illness. Leslie, who describes his work as non commercial, has pieces in exhibitions around the world. He has painted for as long as he can remember and was also an art teacher and head of department in Gransha High School in Bangor for 30 years. He met Elaine, a civil servant, while at the College of Art in Belfast. The couple share a love of travel and decided not to have a family so that they could indulge their desire to see as much of the world as possible. Expand Close Personal exhibition: Elaine with some of Leslie's works Freddie Parkinson / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Personal exhibition: Elaine with some of Leslie's works They particularly enjoy Europe where they have travelled extensively over the years. Leslie recalls how he first saw Elaine on a bus three years before they were properly introduced and started to date: "I was on the bus and this girl with long blonde hair, a cape and boots on, and she fell fast asleep with her face against the window. "It was what she was wearing that drew my attention. She actually looked like she had been dragged through a bush backwards. "Three years later I started my foundation year at the College of Art and got friendly with a group from Portadown and this young girl was part of the group - we got to know each other and started going out together. "Some time later we were on a bus and Elaine was fast asleep with her face up against the window and I just thought 'I know this girl' and it turned out it was her I had seen three years before." The couple married in 1976 and honeymooned in London when Leslie vividly remembers his first ever visit to the Tate Gallery and seeing the work of the great artists he had grown up admiring. Expand Close Dark matter: Leslie Nicholl with his art Freddie Parkinson / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dark matter: Leslie Nicholl with his art Their first big adventure together soon followed when they hitchhiked across France from north to south - and their globetrotting hasn't stopped since. Leslie says: "We have no children. We were both a bit selfish because all we wanted to do was travel. "I drifted into teaching and it gave me the holidays and money to travel and we travelled every summer to Germany, Poland, the Baltic States and Estonia, all over Europe." When not travelling now of course he can be found standing at his easel working on his latest painting. Just after his current exhibition opened a visitor was drawn to the paintings which were done in tribute to Elaine's cancer journey. When Leslie explained the background to the lady, he was amazed when she said she too had been through breast cancer and felt very connected and drawn to the paintings. Expand Close Personal exhibition: Leslie with some of his works Freddie Parkinson / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Personal exhibition: Leslie with some of his works There is no doubting how traumatic a time it was for Leslie and Elaine. Her cancer was picked up during a routine mammogram and she had a lumpectomy and radiotherapy treatment. The couple are very grateful that it was caught early and that Elaine made a full recovery. Leslie says: "It is the worst thing that can happen but we were thankful that it was caught early. "You suddenly realise how totally powerless you are and you are relying on the goodness and expertise of total strangers. "Elaine had a wonderful surgeon, Mr Marshall, and a nurse called Rosie, and we will be forever grateful to both of them who were there for us through the worst of times and the best of times. "We didn't tell our families. We just decided to put our heads down and go through it together. I don't drive so I did tell a couple of close friends who were a great support and would have brought me to the hospital. "We didn't tell our families until we knew that Elaine was on the mend as we knew they would be calling and concerned and neither of us wanted that. When you go into the cancer suite in Belfast City Hospital the people are wonderful, the staff are kindness personified. "But when you see the children in the cancer unit you realise it is worse for other people and when we saw what they were going through it made us even more grateful that Elaine's was caught early. "It is absolutely terrifying and you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy. "The doctors and nurses are giving life and death diagnoses and yet they do it in such a kind and caring way. "When Elaine had come out of surgery we were so scared and confused and then Mr Marshall came to see her and he was so calm and measured and had such an easy manner it put us at our ease. "Elaine is very strong and I had to be too as we had decided not to tell anyone and I realised it was up to us to get through it together, there was no easy way out. "It was a learning curve and one I hope never ever to have to undergo again." When Elaine was finally given the all-clear, Leslie was still very emotional having watched his wife come through surgery and treatment. He turned to his art which he says he has always found therapeutic - and began what was to become a huge collection of work in tribute to Elaine and her strength during her cancer treatment. He says: "We live near the sea in Bangor and I wanted to produce something that used the sea and the elements of wind, rain and cold and the idea being that this figure is standing strong against it all, even the riptide underneath her feet as she is standing on the sea. "It was all the worst that could happen and yet the figure is still standing. "I just took the paint and tried to see where it would lead me to create the image. The figure is in red and you have to look hard to see that it is a figure. "I had a lot of anger and frustration which I wanted to get out of my system and put it somewhere else rather than inside my head, so I put it into the paintings, it was as simple as that. "It had been so intense and so frightening I really wanted it out of my system and I have always found painting to be therapeutic." He adds: "I think I did around 40 paintings in sequence and I didn't start until Elaine was fully recovered. "She is a very resilient person and it didn't take long for her energy levels to return." The experience has given both Leslie and Elaine a new appreciation of life, and travelling is now more important to them than ever. Leslie says: "It does change you. We grab everything life has to offer now and we live in the present and enjoy every single minute of it. "We have a new appreciation of life and I know that is such a cliche but cliches do have truisms. "We don't take anything for granted anymore." Leslie is a prolific painter who has produced 1,200 pieces of work over the years. He says he has no idea where his talent or passion for art came from since neither his parents or his relatives are artistic. He adds: "I'm obsessive and it has been a passion for as long as I can remember. We have a three-storey Victorian house which is full of artwork and my wife knows I will be painting until I am no longer here. "Some of my work is in collections in Dublin, London, Poland, America, Japan and South Korea. My stuff is not commercial and a commercial gallery would struggle to sell it. "People need to think left of centre like me to appreciate it and my work certainly challenges people to think for themselves." As his well as his collection of paintings in tribute to Elaine, Leslie has two others on show in his current exhibition. One is in memory of all the people who lost their lives in Dresden before the freeing of the city in 1945 and features 45 powerful pieces of work. The other is another emotive collection on a number of paintings done by children from Prague before they were taken to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. It's been hailed as an effective form of exercise, and it's one of the best activities you can do for your health. But walking is also one of the most pleasant ways to discover a destination, stopping to soak up sights and sounds which might otherwise be missed when using other forms of transport. For those longing to get out and explore on two feet now that spring is here, there are some incredible hikes to take on - both close to home or further afield. Here are some of our favourites: 1. Step-by-step for solo travellers Where: Yorkshire Dales, UK Hiking in a group is an excellent way to build and strengthen friendships, making it an ideal holiday choice for solo travellers. This escorted tour explores the Yorkshire countryside at a leisurely pace, although there is a chance to up the ante on tougher trails ascending the region's famous peaks. Long walks are rewarded with a stay at 19th-century country house Newfield Hall, where there's a chance to discuss the day. How: HF Holidays (hfholidays.co.uk; 020 3974 8876) offers a three-night Southern Yorkshire Dales Mighty Malham Challenge from 345pp. Departs August 30. 2. Beauty and wild beasts Where: Slovenia Europe's wildlife is often overlooked in favour of more exotic species further afield, but there are plenty of interesting creatures living close to home if you know where to look. Designed to observe Slovenia's brown bears, birds and butterflies on foot, this escorted tour includes hikes through pine forests and alpine meadows. There's also an opportunity to experience the impressive Savica Falls, explore Triglavski National Park, spend time in a bear hide and visit the UNESCO World Heritage Postojna Caves. The tour includes a free loan of Leica's Ultravid binoculars to ensure you don't miss a thing. How: The Urban Birder World (theurbanbirderworld.com) offer their eight-night Slovenia tour from 2,440pp. Flights extra. Departs June 8. 3. Hiking to dizzy heights Where: Murray River Walk, South Australia This little-known corner of Australia is a slice of paradise best explored on foot. Wander along the river, creeks and old oxbow lagoons that meander through ancient red gum forests dwarfed by ochre cliffs. This four-day trip covers 40km - mostly in exclusive conservancy areas which are only accessible to Murray River Walk guests. Sleep on a houseboat with a top-deck spa overlooking the river, and cruise to your daily walking destination. The walk starts in Renmark, about a three-hour drive from the vineyard city of Adelaide, and operates from May 1 to September 30 each year. How: The Murray River Walk (murrayriverwalk.com.au) trip costs $AUD2,500/1,400 (two sharing). 4. Guided by an expert Where: London, UK Whether you're a first-time visitor to London, or an old hand who wants to delve a little deeper into the city, Blue Badge guide Sophie Campbell will showcase the capital in a completely new light. Specialising in long walks criss-crossing the capital, she dives down alleys to reveal unexpected details about the city's past. Blue Badge Guides are officially recognised by the awarding body for guiding in England and undergo intensive training to ensure guests enjoy the very best experience. How: Half-day walks in London with Campbell cost from 200. She also guides in Oxford, Bath, Windsor, Stonehenge and Salisbury. Visit sophiecampbell.london/guide. 5. A culinary adventure Where: Sri Lanka Discover what the locals eat on the backstreets of Colombo's busy old quarters in this Other Side Of Colombo Food Tour. Rub shoulders with tuk-tuks and street vendors, and sample some of the city's most delicious treats. A three-hour tour includes six tastings and also visits Colombo's largest fruit and vegetable market. This experience can be booked as part of a longer foodie tour of Sri Lanka with AYU in the Wild - a company run by a Sri Lankan couple offering wonderful tailor-made trips across the island. How: $35pp (approx 28). Visit ayuinthewild.com. Any hi-tech solution to the problem of how to keep the Northern Ireland border open after Brexit is at least 10 years away, a leaked Home Office document has said. The memo said the cost and complexity of using new technology to remove the need for border checks meant "the challenges of this work cannot be underestimated". The finding will come as a blow to Eurosceptic Conservative MPs who have repeatedly insisted that technology could be used to keep the border open in the event of a no-deal Brexit, removing the need for the controversial backstop. Former First Minister Lord Trimble had backed an electronic border. The memo, seen by Sky News, was drawn up by the Home Office's Policy Unit and sent to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Treasury. It says there could be a possible technological solution but that it would come with a huge array of difficulties. The solution would involve companies uploading data on goods and using blockchain technology, sensors and automated collection to pay tariffs. The memo said: "If all these technologies are brought together, this could allow a seamless collection and analysis of the data needed. It would also provide the ability to target interventions away from the border itself." But it also warned of a series of practical problems in introducing the technology, including cost, time and complexity. It said: "The challenges of this work cannot be underestimated ... No government worldwide currently controls different customs arrangements with no physical infrastructure present at the border." Warning that the technology would take over a decade to introduce, the document said: "Current realisation for a similar technological solution in the UK is 2030." The memo also highlighted the cost and difficulty of implementing such a project and questioned whether the Government would be able to deliver it. It said: "Any future system must operate with 28 government agencies and a myriad of interconnected existing and planned IT systems. "There is currently no budget for either a pilot or the programme itself. And it will be expensive. "This suite of technology would need to operate on both sides of the border; as such it would require agreement and commitment from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and possibly the EU, too. It is a big and complex project, with possibly tight deadlines. "Government does not have the strongest track record on delivery of large tech projects." Dissident republicans have been blamed for four separate pipe bomb attacks within 24 hours. A suspicious device was thrown through a downstairs window of a property in Rasharkin, Co Antrim, on Tuesday night. Another was left sitting on a windowsill. It is understood the male occupant lives alone in the house at Moneyleck Park. Dozens of residents were forced to flee their homes as officers swarmed the quiet cul-de-sac at around 11pm. Army bomb disposal teams remained at the scene for most of the night. By 6am most residents had been allowed to return home. "We were able to go to my mother-in-law's house," one said. "I'm very worried that whoever did it will try it again, that's a real fear." The mum-of-one said she has been trying to sell her house for several years now and fears an escalation in the number of violent incidents will prevent her from moving. "I can't get rid of it and this is another setback," she added. "There was a shooting last year, then one man was put out and now this. "Who's going to want to buy a house here?" Another neighbour expressed their shock after being woken up by police knocking on the door. "I couldn't believe it when they told me to get out, but it was worse when they told me why," they said. "They opened up the parochial hall so we went there and people were coming and going. We didn't live immediately next door so we were allowed back in around 3am." North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey condemned those responsible for the "very concerning" incident that caused significant disruption. "Anyone involved in placing such a device clearly has no regard for life," he added. Police are also investigating after two pipe bombs exploded outside a property on Windmill Avenue in Armagh on Tuesday. The devices detonated around 11.30pm causing damage to the front door of a terraced bungalow. Three adults who were inside escaped unharmed. Sinn Fein councillor Garath Keating said the "very concerning" incident put a lot of young families in harm's way. More homes were evacuated yesterday following the discovery of suspicious objects at Cornakinnegar Road in Lurgan, near St Michael's School, and Rathvarna Drive in Lisburn. It's understood police are not linking the four security alerts, which happened within 24 hours at this stage. Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon SDLP councillor Joe Nelson told this newspaper he believed dissident republican groups were responsible for causing much of the disorder. "Easter weekend is obviously a big date on the republican calendar," he said. "Last year there was quite a number of arrests after an illegal republican parade held on the Saturday, so I think they're probably upping the ante. "They goad younger people into getting involved in activities like this and rioting." Mr Nelson said he has represented young people at youth justice conferences over previous incidents. "I think dissident groups are using young people and they end up as the cannon fodder," he added. "I expect the police are considering their response to illegal marches over Easter. "From that perspective, I think they're just trying to up the ante and cause the most disruption possible." He also warned that the local community suffers from such attacks as he urged parents to be vigilant and "know where your children are" this weekend. The security alert on Cornakinnegar Road ended yesterday after Army bomb disposal experts declared the suspicious object an elaborate hoax. It was removed for further examination. PSNI Chief Inspector Jon Burrows said: "I would like to thank the local community for their patience and understanding during the course of this prolonged policing operation. "A large number of residents were evacuated from their homes for a considerable period of time and pupils at two local primary schools were affected by the incident. "The blame for the inconvenience, however, lies squarely with those individuals who left this close to a local school." Mr Burrows said that during the course of the day a number of calls were received "claiming that terrorists had left what they described as an unstable device in the area". "The security operation caused significant disruption to the people of the area, but was necessary to allow for a careful examination of the scene in order to keep people safe," he added. Major extension: the Old Bushmills Distillery in Co Antrim Old Bushmills Distillery is to double production over the next five years after plans were approved yesterday for a major extension at the north coast whiskey maker. This will include a new distillery, boiler house, cooling equipment and barrel store on the existing site, all part of a 60m expansion. Last year the distillery received permission to construct 29 additional maturation warehouses. Master distiller Colum Egan said work will start later this year. "We are thrilled to receive planning permission to build additional distilling capacity on the site of the current distillery," he said. "We've been liaising with the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council for over a year on the application so we are delighted to get this green light to produce even more Bushmills for whiskey drinkers around the world. "Our plans for building additional distilling capacity is part of our 60m plan to double production capacity over the next five years to meet the increasing demand for our portfolio of single malt and premium blended Irish whiskeys. "As part of this investment, we plan to start building 29 additional maturation warehouses this year to support the long-term growth of the Old Bushmills Distillery, so it's a very exciting time for Bushmills and our industry." The distillery, which has had a presence in the Co Antrim village since the 1600s, is now under the umbrella of Mexican drinks giant Jose Cuervo. It currently employs 106 staff and reported pre-tax profits of 7.1m in its latest results. Concerns over the potential environmental impact of the plan had sparked opposition, with more than 100 objections lodged against the original proposals. Community group Save Our Causeway Coast expressed concern over the use of "hazardous substances" on the site. TUV leader Jim Allister also wrote to planners to express concerns about "serious issues". But planning officials recommended granting both consent for the use of hazardous substances and full planning permission for the maturation facility, which, alongside the warehouses, will also see the construction of a fire water retention lagoon, a sprinkler pump house, tanks, landscaping and a new access road. The Old Bushmills Distillery currently requires storage for just over 81,000 barrels per year - around 16.3m litres. The distillery already has 20 warehouses on site. The new development will not only to store its existing produce, but also barrels from extended facilities. Naomi Long, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, has announced she will stand as a candidate in the European elections. (Liam McBurney/PA) The leader of the Alliance Party in Northern Ireland has announced she will run in the European elections. Next months poll comes as the UK Government remains unable to agree a deal to leave the European Union. While a majority across the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, the majority in Northern Ireland wanted to remain. Naomi Long said she is running as a candidate to allow voters to express their will for a second referendum on membership of the EU. A vote for Alliance in this election is the best way to send a clear message we want that new referendumNaomi Long She was speaking as she submitted her nomination papers at the Electoral Office of Northern Irelands headquarters in Belfast on Thursday. The chaos and uncertainty created by Brexit has impacted every aspect of life here, including our economy, our community and our political situation, she said. People have felt badly let down in the 2016 referendum and since, and Parliament has now reached an impasse. The best and potentially only way through this crisis is to put Brexit back to the people. Alliance supports a Peoples Vote, crucially including the option to remain. A vote for Alliance in this election is the best way to send a clear message we want that new referendum. Ms Long said Brexit is not an orange versus green issue, adding: It affects us all. Alliance is best placed to unite people from all parts of our community together to resolve this divisive issue. Earlier on Thursday, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood confirmed he will run in the European elections. The candidates running for Northern Irelands three seats in the European Parliament are Sinn Feins Martina Anderson, the Democratic Unionist Partys Diane Dodds, Danny Kennedy (Ulster Unionist Party), Colum Eastwood (SDLP) and Naomi Long (Alliance). There is also speculation that Northern Ireland Green Party leader Clare Bailey will confirm her intention to run. Left: Mr. Kevin Julien latest recipient of the East Caribbean Group of Companies (ECGC) Foundation Award. Right: (Left to Right): Representative of SVGCFO Ms Lydia Daniel hands over cheque to ECGC Chief Executive Officer Mr. Osmond Davy in the company of ECGC Human Resources Manager Mrs. Phyllis James. Dominica-born Kevin Julien, a first year Law Student at University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, is the latest recipient of the East Caribbean Group of Companies (ECGC) Foundation Award. Julien received the award and US$1,000.00 to aid in his study expenses, during the UWI Cave Campus Student Awards Ceremony 2019, held on the 2nd April at Lecture Theatre 1 in the Roy Marshall Teaching Complex. The Award, which is open to OECS Nationals, has been granted to a number of University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus students over the years. Among the previous awardees are Vincentians Ms. Latoya Browne and Ms. Hannah Hamilton, valedictorians of the University of the West Indies Open Campus St. Vincent for the periods 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively. In a statement released earlier this week, the ECGC said it was pleased to contribute to the educational development of Vincentians and OECS nationals alike. Support for Vincentians has come through collaboration with the University of the West Indies Open Campus and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College. Meanwhile, the ECGC Foundation continued in its outreach to needy causes here when, on February 19, it contributed EC$10,000 to the St. World Pediatric Project (WPP), which has been active here since 2002, facilitating the provision of and training in pediatric specialty care through outreach programmes for children and Health Care professionals here and in the Eastern Caribbean. Bit it has not been simply a one-way flow of assistance. The ECGC Foundation was itself the recipient of a donation on 5th April, 2019, when Ms. Lydia Daniel of the SVG Central Florida Organization Inc. donated US$1,000.00 to aid in the execution of ECGC Foundations mandate to assist the less fortunate. The SVG Central Florida Organization, Ms Daniel said, is a 501C3 registered non-profit organization that seeks to "increase public awareness of Caribbean Culture through arts, music and education. A union has hit out after a training college offered newly-qualified teachers primary school jobs at minimum wage rates. Stranmillis University College in Belfast, however, said the roles were not teaching positions but support roles which would be under the guidance and mentorship of senior staff. It said the interns were not to act as substitute teachers and if they were the school was to pay them accordingly. It said the internship would end the day before any teaching work was undertaken. The NASUWT disputed that, saying candidates for the position had to be qualified teachers. It fears the low-pay scheme could become the norm for entry level teaching, and said it should be reconsidered. The BBC reported that the college had offered two graduate internships at Dundonald Primary School paying 7.70 an hour the minimum wage for those aged between 21 and 24. They will work full time alongside staff teaching literacy and numeracy. The primary aim of the internship is to provide graduates with meaningful professional experience through involvement in projects which enhance the Graduate Interns employability and skills, the college told the Belfast Telegraph. Justin McCamphill of the NASUWT said the job description also said those successful would be responsible for teaching children. He said there was an agreed rate for teachers and that is what should be paid. He told the BBC: The job description says to create and teach programmes and activities that will assist children to engage in learning which will have an impact on their level of achievement attained. Clearly this is a teaching job. The pay doesnt even match the support roles of those in schools. And at 7.70 an hour they appear to be excluding those over 24. He said he feared this could begin a race to the bottom in relation to wages and it could be how teachers enter the service in the future. He added: This is a job which you are going to bear the responsibility of teaching and be paid less than support staff. You will be the lowest paid employee in the school paid less than support staff. There are better paid jobs out there I would assume. He said that while well-intentioned, the scheme should be immediately suspended and reconsidered. The college said it was happy to meet with the unions to discuss their concerns. It refused to provide a copy of the job description. In a statement it said: The Stranmillis University College Graduate Internship Programme is targeted at students who have recently graduated and are preparing to enter the labour market. The primary aim of the internship is to provide graduates with meaningful professional experience through involvement in projects which enhance the Graduate Interns employability and skills. The vice principal of the school will supervise the intern and co-ordinate their programme of work, ensuring consistency and fidelity to the agreed objectives of the programme. The internship provides an opportunity for those just graduating from a teaching degree to engage in projects under the guidance of an experienced practitioner. An Ulster Unionist MLA has accused the Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) of a "sickening and abhorrent" attempt to smear the RUC by attributing a loyalist attack on a bar during the Troubles to the force. In a Tweet on Wednesday, the Pat Finucane Centre publicised a screening of the Glenanne Gang documentary Unquiet Graves at the Rock Bar in Granemore, Co Armagh, stating the pub "survived an RUC bomb and gun attack" in 1976. On June 5, 1976, loyalists - believed to be members of the Glenanne Gang - threw a bomb into a bar filled with customers and shot through the windows. The bomb only partially exploded and no one in the pub was injured, however one customer outside was shot and wounded. It later emerged that three of those who carried out the attack were serving members of the RUC. Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie said those responsible were "terrorists, nothing more, nothing less" and the PFC's comment was a "disgraceful slur". "The attack was investigated by the RUC and evidence was sought to secure convictions for those responsible," he added. "There is no doubt that during the course of the Troubles a very small number of police officers broke the law and disgraced the force. This is true of any profession be it doctors, teachers, accountants or lawyers. For one night only! "The Rock Bar", Granemore (near Keady) is transformed into a cinema and could have sold out twice. The bar survived an RUC bomb and gun attack on 5 June 1976. @glenannefilm pic.twitter.com/q80clyAQOB Pat Finucane Centre (@FinucaneCentre) April 17, 2019 It is very clear to me that the campaign to rewrite the history of the Troubles is gathering pace and that part of that agenda is served by republican organisations and individuals seeking to portray the RUC as the villains of the peace. I say again, this cannot be allowed to happen." Expand Close UUP MLA Doug Beattie condemned the post / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp UUP MLA Doug Beattie condemned the post PFC spokesperson Alan Brecknell defended the post, stating RUC officers were involved in the attack. At no point does Doug Beattie MLA actually mention that the gun and bomb attack on the Rock Bar was conceived and carried out in its entirety by serving members of the RUC, that a police vehicle and radios were involved, that one of those responsible was actually on duty and that one of those involved took statements from survivors in the aftermath," he said. "Only one officer received a custodial sentence with the others receiving suspended sentences from a trial judge who admitted that sentences would be 'on a lower scale' because these were police officers trying to rid the land of pestilence. "He correctly points to the sacrifice made by many RUC officers and on this we have no disagreement." Negotiations are under way to "minimise the impact" of the storage of hundreds of wooden pallets at a Belfast leisure centre car park. The pile is being accumulated three months ahead of July 11 when bonfires are traditionally lit in loyalist areas across Northern Ireland to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The pallets are being stored in the car park of Avoniel Leisure Centre in east Belfast. The leisure centre car park has been the site of a loyalist bonfire on July 11 for a number of years. A spokeswoman for Belfast City Council said: "Council is aware of the pallets at its car park at Avoniel Leisure Centre. "We are continuing to work with elected members and statutory partners to minimise any associated negative impact." A number of Belfast councillors in the area were contacted, but all declined to comment on the matter while negotiations are ongoing. In 2017, Belfast City Council was granted a High Court injunction to stop people from accessing four bonfire sites in east Belfast prompted by concerns for public safety. Those sites includes Avoniel Leisure Centre car park as well as Bloomfield Walkway, Inverary Playing Fields and Cregagh Park East. The Bloomfield Walkway site also hit the headlines last summer after the council went to the High Court to secure the removal of a tall pyre close to homes. A High Court judge ordered Stormont officials to intervene after hearing it posed a serious threat to nearby homes. Armed police were on hand while workers, who masked their faces to protect their identities, removed bonfire material on July 11 from Bloomfield Walkway as well as a second site at Cluan Place. Earlier this month, a number of pallets had been stacked at the Bloomfield Walkway site, but were later removed. Brexit should be just an aberration in the bid to strengthen Northern Irelands peace process, US congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has said. The US House of Representatives speaker visited the Irish border which has become a stumbling block to the UKs EU withdrawal. She was greeted by anti-Brexit campaigners during her short stop at the frontier on Thursday morning. The senior Democrat from California said the US had a vested interest in peace in Northern Ireland which was sealed by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Expand Close Nancy Pelosi address the media at the border (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Nancy Pelosi address the media at the border (Niall Carson/PA) She said: We have said that we are guarantors for the Good Friday Agreement because we believe it is fair to both sides that is why they agreed to it. We believe that Brexit should be just an aberration in this discussion as we continue to build and strengthen our peace that was generated by the Good Friday accord. Ms Pelosi repeated her assertion that the peace process was a beacon to the world and a model for reconciliation. She said: Far be it for any of us to want that beacons lustre to be dimmed by anything that the Brexit conversation could bring down on the Good Friday accord. The congresswoman walked across a peace bridge over the River Foyle in Londonderry. The span was built using EU funds and links primarily nationalist and primarily unionist communities on either river bank. Ms Pelosi said her border visit was made out of respect for the courage of those who participated in the Good Friday accord. The US Consulate General in Belfast was established on May 27 1796, by the first American president, George Washington, and is the second oldest continuously operating US consulate in the world. Ms Pelosi visited Belfast with her daughter more than two decades ago and recalled: The difference between what we went through then and what we saw in terms of tanks and barbed wire. It is about peace, it is about not just what it means to Northern Ireland and Ireland, that would be reason enough for us to be guarantors. She expressed pride in the peace process role of president Bill Clinton and talks chairman senator George Mitchell as well as senior congressman Richard Neal. What it means to the world to have this example of reconciliation, really ending hundreds of years of conflict, recent thousands of deaths. She has repeatedly railed against the prospect of a hard Irish border during her tour of Ireland with congressional colleagues. Earlier this week she warned that US trade talks with the UK could be endangered if the agreement which largely ended decades of violence was compromised. Let me be clear: if the Brexit deal undermines the Good Friday Accords, there will be no U.S.-U.K. trade agreement. #Dail100 Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 17, 2019 The DUPs opposition to the backstop insurance policy, which would keep Northern Irelands regulations aligned with the EU to protect the free-flowing frontier, helped thwart Theresa Mays bid to get her withdrawal deal through Parliament. Some believe any reimposition of a hard border and checks at the frontier due to a no-deal Brexit could encourage a return to violence, although that is contested by many unionists. The British Government has said it does not intend to put infrastructure there. Dermot OHara, a spokesman for Border Communities Against Brexit, greeted her at the frontier. Expand Close Anti-Brexit protesters at the border (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Anti-Brexit protesters at the border (Niall Carson/PA) He said: She is saying to the British very clearly that they must respect the Good Friday Agreement, the Good Friday Agreement underwrote the Irish situation here. This is a British border here, we want the border to be in the Irish Sea and we appreciate the visit by the delegation and their support for the rights of the Irish people. John Boyle, mayor of Derry City and Strabane Council, said it was evident Ms Pelosi was determined to protect the integrity of the agreement. Expand Close John Boyle (Steven McAuley/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp John Boyle (Steven McAuley/PA) They will support us in ensuring it does not impact on that very important agreement which was signed in 1998. He said a hard border would be difficult to deal with psychologically. Many of us going back generations remember what a hard security border looked like here. Joe McHugh, education minister in the Republic and Donegal public representative, said the visit of the third most powerful politician in the US was very important. He added: Since Brexit there has been a very loud voice along the border communities and further away from the border communities that we cannot go back to the past, we cannot go back to a border that is going to obstruct the free-flowing movement of goods and people on a day-to-day basis. An image taken from the Twitter account of Cllr Ciaran Beattie of the poster on fire (PA) Police have said they are treating the burning of a Sinn Fein election poster as a hate crime. On Tuesday night, a poster belonging to the party's Lisburn North candidate Joe Duffy was set alight in the McKinstry Road area of the town. Posting on social media, PSNI Lisburn said they received a report the burning was carried out by youths. Read More "Police searched the area however no suspects were located. Police are treating this as a hate crime," they added. Dispicable acts by idiots will not deter myself or Sinn Fein. If elected I will represent all of the people of North Lisburn....you have nothing to fear when it comes to equality, respect and a rights based agenda.... pic.twitter.com/OXEGgLF9vx Joe Duffy (@JoeDuff38) April 16, 2019 "This road is very busy generally and there was a lot of traffic moving around this time. If you have any information regarding this incident or witnessed anyone in the area causing damage to any posters or signs, please contact police on 101 quoting serial 1254 of 16/04/2019." Speaking following the incident, Joe Duffy condemned it as a "blatant attack on the democratic process". I will continue to work on behalf of everyone in North Lisburn and promote our message of equality, rights and Irish unity," he said. Sinn Fein will not be silenced by these attacks which will only increase our determination to bring our progressive politics to voters in this council area. In recent weeks there have been numerous cases of election posters being stolen or destroyed across Northern Ireland. On Wednesday, two men were arrested in Co Down over damage to election posters. They were later released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service. Environmental group Extinction Rebellion (XR) will be bringing their protests to the streets of Belfast on Friday to highlight climate change concerns. The group has been conducting a campaign of civil disruption in London since Monday. Belfast-based organiser Albert Seymour said the protest is just the start in Northern Ireland, with the group calling on government to take urgent action to help "minimise the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse". Around 100 people are expected to take part in the "engagement and awareness day" in Belfast city centre, but protesters say if their numbers grow they could step up their "non-violent civil disruption". That could mean blocking roads and disrupting the city centre - actions similar to that being undertaken by climate rebellion activists in cities in the UK and around the world. "We're starting small on Friday," Albert (31) told the Belfast Telegraph. "We're introducing ourselves to the public. We'll be handing out leaflets and petitioning for the city council to declare a climate emergency," he said. "The group only formed in Belfast a few weeks ago so we're not expecting anything on the scale of what we've seen in London over the past couple of days, but we've already had a lot of interest in what we're trying to do. This will be Belfast showing solidarity with what has been happening across the world." Protesters are due to gather at Castle Place from 1.30pm. "We are going to have speeches, music and food. This is about getting people over to chat to them and get our point across and get them on board with what we need to achieve." There are no plans for traffic disruption on Friday but regular protest dates are being considered for the future. "Civil disruption is key to the movement," he said. "We have tried campaigning, petitions but have made no headway. This way people have to take notice of the problems facing all of us. "We don't want to disrupt people, but Government failures over the last 30 years leave us no choice." In London yesterday three activists glued themselves to a DLR train in Canary Wharf and others used bicycle locks to chain themselves outside Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's home as climate change protests continued to disrupt the city for a third successive day. More than 300 people have been arrested so far with over half a million affected by road closures, traffic gridlock and disruption to transport and businesses since Monday. But critics, including DUP MP Sammy Wilson, hit out at what they called the group's "seriously flawed" methods. "They are complaining about too much carbon dioxide in the air, so what do they do? They disrupt traffic, they cause traffic jams, they cause people not to use public transport but to use private transport to get to work in the morning, so they are creating all these traffic jams and causing noxious gases to go into the atmosphere - the very thing they say they don't want to happen they are causing to happen," the East Antrim MP said. He welcomed the arrest of protesters. "If I went out and disrupted traffic on the Larne Line for some political purpose I'd be arrested, so why should they be exempt from the application of the law. "The other thing is the arrogance of some of them, who feel that because they are on some kind of crusade they should be allowed to do whatever they want. The Government has to apply the same rules to them as anybody else." A selfless schoolgirl is spreading a little cheer this Easter by delivering chocolate eggs to hundreds of sick children across Belfast. Big-hearted Jasmine Parker (9) from north Belfast has become the city's very own Easter Bunny, having collected 1,100 eggs for poorly young people over the past three years. Her target for this year was to bag over 400 eggs, but after reaching out to people on social media, she has ended up with a grand total of 659 - thanks mainly to the support of several companies in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Over recent weeks the front room of her family home has been stacked from floor to ceiling with boxes and boxes of Easter eggs. This week Jasmine and her family members are distributing the eggs to kids in the Royal Victoria Children's Hospital, Ulster Hospital and Northern Ireland Children's Hospice in Glengormley. For her proud mum Maggie Johnston (32), the run-up to Easter now involves chauffeuring her charitable daughter from one location to the next in a car filled to the brim with chocolate treats. Maggie explained: "When Jasmine was six she asked me if the Easter Bunny visits children who are sick in hospital. "I said 'no', so she decided that she would do it instead. "It was a brilliant idea and one that has made me so proud of my daughter. "Jasmine has always been kind-hearted so I wasn't surprised when she decided to donate Easter eggs to children who are her own age or younger, as she is so naturally caring." After an appeal on Cool FM in early March to get as many donations as possible, either eggs or money to buy them, the response was immense. "We started receiving donations from right across the province and beyond," Maggie said. Jasmine, who attends Carr's Glen Primary School, was over the moon when 50 eggs were donated from Scotland alongside offerings from various other local companies. The end result has seen Jasmine's house being overrun with chocolate eggs of every brand and size which have been collected over recent weeks for delivery to the children in time for Easter Sunday. "The living room is so full of eggs that we can't even sit down on the sofa," added Maggie. "It's like having a bath in Easter eggs, but when you see the reaction of the children after they get one, it makes it all worthwhile." Assisted by Jasmine's dad Jay Parker (31) and her grandfather, the eggs are being packed up into the family's cars and brought to the hospitals and hospice this week. Maggie explained: "The first year we collected 171 eggs followed by 283 the year after, so my car was a tight squeeze as it was so full. We're up to 659 this year so Jay's car is being used too as they won't all fit in mine. "It's very emotional when you see the praise that Jasmine gets for doing this and the response this year has just been incredible. The staff in the hospital are always glad to see her coming each year and they can't believe how well she has done this year. "Jasmine just wanted to make children happy while they are in hospital, but now she brings a smile to all our faces every Easter too. "While it's our daughter who started all this, it wouldn't be such a success without the generosity of the people of Northern Ireland and further afield." Jasmine is already looking ahead to a bigger campaign for Easter 2020 by setting a target to distribute more than 800 chocolate eggs. "We are so grateful to everyone for their donations and kind messages of support and here's to a bigger campaign next year," her mum said. After such a huge act of kindness, Maggie said she has had a quiet word in the real Easter Bunny's ear so Jasmine can expect her own special delivery of sweet treats on Easter Sunday. DUP leader Arlene Foster has urged all unionists to vote to prevent Sinn Fein becoming the biggest party. (Liam McBurney/PA) Arlene Foster has urged unionists to turn out and vote, warning that if Sinn Fein emerges on top in local government elections it will strengthen calls for a border poll. The Democratic Unionist Party leader said every vote counts. Some claim it does not matter which party you vote for, but you can be absolutely certain that it would be heralded as a massive success for republicans and a massive defeat for unionism if unionism was to be split and republicans were to have a massive win, and use the election results to strengthen their demand for a border poll, she added. DUP leader Arlene Foster has called for Unionists to turn out and vote DUP at the local government elections to prevent Sinn Fein becoming the biggest party which she says would strengthen their hand in calling for a border poll pic.twitter.com/wGdS05OsBO Rebecca Black (@RBlackPA) April 18, 2019 Mrs Foster was speaking as her party launched a 40-page manifesto for the local elections on May 2. Many of her partys candidates attended the official launch event at Kingspan Stadium in east Belfast. Mrs Foster continued: We believe in strong unionist co-operation and that is why this party encourages people, after giving their preference for DUP candidates, to further transfer to other pro-union candidates in the election. We all know in our hearts that unionism cant afford to be divided but the DUP is the only party strong enough to unite around. We are living in profound political times and there can be no doubting in these times that every vote mattersArlene Foster Every first preference vote for another unionist candidate or another unionist party runs the risk of dividing unionism, returning fewer unionist councillors, and bolstering Sinn Fein demands for a divisive border poll. We are living in profound political times and there can be no doubting in these times that every vote matters. Deputy leader Nigel Dodds said a vote for his party is a vote to get the Northern Ireland Assembly back. The institutions at Stormont collapsed in January 2017 following a breakdown in relations between the DUP and Sinn Fein. So much more could have been achieved with a working Assembly, he said. Expand Close DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds told his partys local government election manifesto launch that a vote for the DUP is a vote to get the Assembly back. (Rebecca Black/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds told his partys local government election manifesto launch that a vote for the DUP is a vote to get the Assembly back. (Rebecca Black/PA) The DUP has never seen influence in London and power in Belfast as a choice. The fact is the most will be delivered for Northern Ireland when they work together. It is unacceptable for Sinn Fein to hold the institutions and decisions on health, education and jobs to ransom for political demands. A vote for the DUP is a vote for the Assembly back now. According to the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley has the authority to call a border poll if at any time it appears likely that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland. The DUP has consistently been the party with the biggest vote in Northern Ireland, while Sinn Fein has the second biggest. At the 2017 Westminster election, the DUP won 292,316 votes, while Sinn Fein took 238,915. Nearly one in five teachers claims they have been driven to alcohol because of workplace bullying, a survey has said. A union warned the problem is ruining the lives of teachers, with many also left feeling depressed, anxious, lacking confidence and turning to the medical profession and medication. It comes ahead of a major teaching conference in Belfast this weekend. The survey of nearly 2,000 teachers by the teaching union the NASUWT found that 80% of teachers said they had suffered bullying in the last year. Most incidents were perpetrated by headteachers, senior leaders and line managers. One Northern Ireland teacher, who has 30 years' experience in the classroom, said his life was made more difficult by harassment from senior staff. "Teaching is a difficult job but the pressure I came under from senior staff made it so much tougher," he said. "I was pulled up on the smallest of things. In some cases I'd be in a room nearly an hour - on one occasion it got so bad that staff in another room could hear the shouting. "When the issue of low staff morale was raised with the principal, they were just dismissive. "I suffered quite a lot. It made it harder to do my job effectively," he added. The issue of bullying has come under the spotlight ahead of the NASUWT's annual conference over Easter, held in Belfast from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Around 1,000 teachers from across the UK will be attending. According to the union, bullying is having a serious impact on the mental health of teachers, with 80% saying they had suffered anxiety as a result of bullying they had experienced. Nearly half of teachers (45%) said they had visited their GP, while teachers also said they were turning to prescribed drugs (18%) and alcohol (17%) to help them cope. Over half of teachers (52%) have experienced depression because of bullying, with 41% saying it has affected their ability to deliver high-quality lessons. The majority of the bullying (70%) was carried out by headteachers or senior leaders, with 38% reporting their line manager was bullying them. Bullying was also carried out on a lesser scale by other teachers (22%), support staff (8%) and governors (4%). Forms of bullying range from shouting and verbal abuse to teachers being threatened with capability and having their work criticised in front of others. Being undermined or belittled was experienced by 84% of those who responded while half (51%) said they had been ignored or ostracised. Nearly half (44%) had their work criticised in front of others, four in 10 (42%) were threatened with capability and more than a quarter (28%) said they had rumours spread about them. More than half (52%) of teachers said the bullying situation in their workplace had got worse in the last year. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "Evidence of bullying is alarmingly prevalent in schools and colleges. "While there are many schools that treat their staff with courtesy and respect, teachers tell us that in too many a culture of bullying and abuse of teachers is far too common. "Bullying is destroying many teachers' physical and mental health, and driving some teachers from their schools or the profession entirely. The abuse, bullying, ostracising and undermining of teachers has to stop." The annual march is due to take place tomorrow between members of the town's Catholic church and neighbouring St Paul's Church of Ireland. Pic Google. The Parish Priest at St Malachy's in Castlewellan has said he is saddened after Free Presbyterian ministers condemned a cross community Good Friday Easter Unity march as a "sad and shameful act of wilful apostasy". The annual march is due to take place tomorrow between members of the town's Catholic church and neighbouring St Paul's Church of Ireland. Free Presbyterian ministers from across Co Down have now called on local worshippers to not "participate in any false unity". Fr Denis McKinlay, though, said the march will go ahead as planned, as it has done for many years. "I've been here for 10 years and each year we've had this march," he said. "It's a long-standing tradition in the town and one we want to continue for the community who always support it. "I find it sad that people who preach the Christian gospel would seek to deny friends the opportunity to walk alongside friends. "I understand the Churches Forum will be issuing a unified response to the concerns expressed, but from a personal point of view I would ask why these concerns have been raised at this time when the march has been happening for so many years?" In their letter published in the Mourne Observer, the group of Free Presbyterian ministers branded the joint the march "shameful". "We express our sincere concern at the proposed Easter Unity march... organised by the Castlewellan Area Bible/Prayer Group and Churches Forum," they wrote. "We feel it is our duty to highlight this sad and shameful act of wilful apostasy in the town of Castlewellan. "The Church of Ireland is supposedly a Protestant denomination; therefore we would implore St Paul's Church of Ireland in Castlewellan to return back to its former Biblical and Protestant position by not participating in an act of departure from Christ by uniting with the Church of Rome. "The scriptures make it abundantly clear that any 'church' which promotes the ungodly doctrine of salvation by works and does not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation is not a Christian Church; but rather an institution that true Christians should be separated from. "This is undoubtedly the position of Roman Catholicism. "There are many doctrinal differences between the Church of Ireland and the Church of Rome... they preach and believe very different messages and ultimately cannot be united. "The scriptures plead with all born again Christians to: "...come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing..." (2 Cor 6:17). "We hope that this Biblical warning and sincere appeal will be heeded." The Belfast Telegraph contacted St Paul's Church of Ireland but no-one was available for comment last night. Harry Gibson, General Manager of Facey Trading SVG, said his company was pleased to be invested in this inaugural effort aimed at advancing science education here. Facey Trading SVG, Distributive Agents for a range of top brand products, is investing EC11,000 in staging the first ever National Science Quiz in SVG. The investment is to be made in the name of America Fresh a detergent for which Facey Trading is agent. Speaking at a launch of the Quiz last Tuesday at the Curriculum Development Unit, Kingstown, Harry Gibson, General Manager of Facey Trading SVG, said his company was more than happy to partner with The Ministry of Education. Gibson said the idea to have a National Science Quiz competition was first broached to Facey Trading in 2018. His company was enthralled with the idea of the Quiz and agreed to source some level of assistance. They were pleased when Amercia Fresh responded positively. It is hoped that the partnership between Facey Trading/America Fresh and the Ministry of Education would be ongoing, Gibson said. The Quiz will target secondary school students at the Form 2 level. * Monday April 29th - 9:00am - Barrouallie Learning Resource Centre. The final, which brings together the winner of each of the zonal preliminaries, is set for May 13th at the Girl Guides Hut Conference Room at 3pm. The Quiz will comprise three rounds: an oral question round, where students will select questions from a game board; the science challenge round will see students showcasing their practical skills by working together to execute science related challenges; the fast answer round in which students will answer simple questions as quickly as they can. Education Officer with responsibility for Science - Juanita Hunte-King said that the Quiz is designed to highlight students achievements, but can also serve as a platform for teachers to aim for mastery of concepts. A preliminary round involving five zones and a total of 26 schools, begins on April 23 and runs until April 29, as follows:* Tuesday April 23rd - 9:00am - South Central Windward Learning Resource Centre;* Wednesday April 24th - 9:00am - Marriaqua Learning Resource Centre;* Thursday April 25th 9:00am - Doris Mc Kie Learning Resource Centre;* Friday April 26th 9:00am - Fisheries Conference RoomMrs. Hunte-King extended thanks to Facey Trading for investing in the development of scientific literacy here. Gregory Campbell has said that he and his DUP colleague Gary Middleton delivered some "home truths" to US Speaker Nancy Pelosi on her visit to Londonderry on Thursday. Senior Democrat Ms Pelosi was in Derry as part of a US delegation on a four-day visit to Ireland, she also visited the Irish border between Derry and Donegal. DUP East Londonderry MP Mr Campbell said it was important to have unionist representation at a reception for the US delegation to deliver some "home truths", especially given the large number of nationalists and republicans in attendance. In a joint statement, Mr Campbell and Foyle MLA Mr Middleton said that they took the opportunity to discuss the "mass exodus" of Protestants from Derry's west bank during the Troubles with Ms Pelosi and Congressman Richard Neal. The pair presented the visiting US politicians with a book on the matter, which describes how Protestants moved in huge numbers to Derry's Waterside during the Troubles. Read More Between 1971 and 1981 the Protestant population of the west bank, also known as the cityside, dropped by two-thirds - from 8,459 in 1971 to 2,874 in 1981. By 1991 it had fallen to 1,407, down 83% in those 20 years. The statement also said that the DUP men discussed Brexit and Stormont with the visiting US politciians. "The issue was relevant given that the meeting took place on that West Bank while there is much talk now of peace, reaching out and co-operation, but thousands of Unionists were forced to flee as a result of violent Irish Republicanism at the start of the Troubles," the statement read. "Irish Americans constantly wax lyrical about the 'Irish American' lobby, we were able to remind them that it was the Ulster Scots who helped create the United States at it's birth. "We also raised the Brexit issue of the mythical hard border, which no one wants and cannot be implemented." The DUP representatives said that while it was important to highlight the injustices of the past, there can be no return to violence. "It is important that we put into context what life was like for people in Northern Ireland, during some of its darkest days. "Our message however was clear there will be no return to this, despite efforts to glorify IRA terrorism and others feeding the myth that Brexit will bring back violence on the streets of Northern Ireland. Nine men and a woman have appeared in court on charges arising from searches carried out by the PSNI's Paramilitary Crime Task Force. Raids on houses in east Belfast, Newtownards and Comber were conducted last month, a number of arrests were made and police seized drugs, cash and cars. One of the defendants is a man accused of murdering father-of-two Ian Ogle in east Belfast in January. As well as being charged with murder, Glenn Rainey is one of eight men facing drug dealing offences, while a ninth man has been charged with breaching the Data Protection Act. During Thursday's hearing at Belfast Magistrates' Court, an application to amend the terms of Rainey's bail conditions to allow him to attend his GP was granted - despite police objections. District Judge Alan Whyte was told Rainey has been charged with the January 2019 murder of east Belfast man Ian Ogle, and is currently on High Court bail. Solicitor Mark Austin, representing 33-year-old Rainey, revealed his client had recently spent a period of time in the Royal Victoria Hospital, and was released on Monday. Pointing out Rainey's GP surgery was in Bryson Street - which Rainey is banned from entering as part of his bail conditions - Mr Austin asked the district judge to "show some degree of sympathy for a man who was in Intensive Care, who was only released on Monday, and who under direction from the Royal Victoria Hospital, needs to go to his GP." A sergeant from the PSNI told District Judge Alan Whyte that police were objecting to this. Highlighting reports of intimidation in the area and saying the Ogle family would be "re-traumatised" by Rainey's presence, the officer also raised concerns for Rainey's own personal safety. The police officer questioned how and why Rainey ended up in the Royal, and was told by Mr Whyte that he had seen a medical report which confirmed the accused had been "critically ill in hospital". Expand Close The accused Glenn Rainey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The accused Glenn Rainey Mr Whyte granted the application to allow Rainey to attend his GP - but said he must notify the police first and leave immediately after his appointments. Mr Austin then asked for a second variation to bail - to allow Rainey to possess a mobile - but was told "no, absolutely not" by the District Judge. Rainey, from McArthur Court in Belfast, is one of nine people accused of being concerned in the supply of cocaine. Also facing the same charge are Neil Findlay (48) from Park Avenue in Belfast; 24-year-old Taylor Gray from Oval Court in Belfast; 32-year-old Daniel Baine from Connswater Grove in Belfast; Richard Close (48) from Clonduff Avenue in Belfast. Four others are also facing the cocaine charge: 32-year-old Jonathan Watson from Weavers Grange in Newtownards; 40-year-old Simon Mooney from Mountjoy Street in Belfast; Daniel Irvine (47) from Tower Street in Belfast, and 46-year-old Maggie Hutton from Wolff Close in Belfast. Samuel Taylor, from Kingswood Park in Belfast, was charged with two counts of unlawfully obtaining and/or disclosing personal information - names and addresses - contrary to the Data Protection Act. The 34-year-old is charged with committing the offence on May 22, 2018 and again on August 6, 2018. A solicitor for Taylor revealed: "He has been suspended from work as a result of the allegations." All 10 appeared in the dock and confirmed they understood the charges against them. The police sergeant said he believed he could connect all the defendants to the offences they face. Mr Whyte released all ten on continuing bail, and re-listed the case before the same court on May 30. Two men have been released. Two men arrested in connection with dissident republican activity have been released unconditionally. The men, aged 41 and 44, were arrested by detectives from the PSNI's Terrorism Investigation Unit on Wednesday. Alliance leader Naomi Long has confirmed she will stand for election for the European parliament, as the Belfast Telegraph revealed this week. The MLA has been touted as a potential to run in the poll and on Thursday confirmed she would be the on the ticket for the May 23 poll submitting her nomination papers in Belfast. Launching her campaign she said she backed a "People's Vote" on Brexit. I am passionate about the EU and the enormous benefits it has brought not only to us in Northern Ireland, but also right across these islands and more widely across Europe over many decades. "Maintaining stability, co-operation and collaboration at that level is absolutely vital to our future," she said. The East Belfast representative said the "chaos and uncertainty" created by Brexit has impacted "every aspect of life here, including our economy, our community and our political situation. "People have felt badly let down in the 2016 Referendum and since, and Parliament has now reached an impasse," she said. The best and potentially only way through this crisis is to put Brexit back to the people. Alliance supports a People's Vote, crucially including the option to Remain. A vote for Alliance in this election is the best way to send a clear message we want that new referendum. We have been clear from the outset Brexit is not and must not become an orange versus green issue it affects us all. Alliance is best placed to unite people from all parts of our community together to resolve this divisive issue. It is vitally important we have a strong liberal, cross-community and pro-European voice representing people for the lifetime of this European Parliament, however long that might be. Alliance is that voice and so I am asking people for their support to represent them in Europe at this crucial time. Earlier on Thursday SDLP leader Colum Eastwood confirmed he would also be contesting the poll. Explaining his decision he said it was a "unique election". He said: "We have now a very clear opportunity to send a very clear message to the people of London and Brussels that the people of Northern Ireland do not want to leave the European Union and at the very least protected from a hard border." Irish citizens in Northern Ireland will continue to be European in all circumstances, Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said. In a move to reassure northern nationalists, the Taoiseach said people in Northern Ireland will continue to benefit from important rights and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of nationality. Thousands of nationalists living north of the border have called on Mr Varadkar to ensure their rights are protected as the political fallout over Brexit continues. In January more than 1,500 Irish citizens attended an event in Belfast which highlighted the potential impact of Brexit on their rights and livelihoods. A privilege as Leader of Seanad Eireann to welcome @LeoVaradkar as he addresses @OireachtasNews today on the 70th anniversary of our republic coming into effect. @merrionstreet @FineGael pic.twitter.com/UudiC8eNWV Senator Jerry Buttimer (@jerrybuttimer) April 18, 2019 In his annual address to Seanad Eireann the upper house in Dublin Mr Varadkar said: The Withdrawal Agreement contains a commitment from the UK that Brexit will not result in any diminution of the rights, safeguards and equality of opportunity as set out in the Good Friday Agreement. I have discussed with Prime Minister (Theresa) May the responsibilities of the UK Government under the Good Friday Agreement, with or without a deal. No matter what happens, there are a number of areas on which we can provide reassurance for Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland. Irish citizens in Northern Ireland will continue to be European citizens in all circumstances. They will continue to enjoy the right to travel and work and study freely throughout the EU, benefiting from the important rights not to be discriminated against on the grounds of nationality while doing so. Statements by An Taoiseach, Mr Leo Varadkar, T.D., in the #Seanad - watch LIVE here #seeforyourself https://t.co/EM4xhnO24k pic.twitter.com/6iRpKfbFDe Houses of the Oireachtas - Tithe an Oireachtais (@OireachtasNews) April 18, 2019 He said the continuation of the Common Travel Area will allow Irish and British citizens to move freely. They will continue to enjoy a range of rights and privileges in each others countries, including the right to live and work as well as to access healthcare, housing, education, pensions, social benefits and the rights to vote in each others local and parliamentary elections, he added. Even in the event of a no-deal outcome, we will ensure that people in Northern Ireland will still have access to European Health Insurance Cards. Similarly, we will work to ensure third-level students in Northern Ireland will continue to be able to access the Erasmus+ higher education programme. He thanked both houses of the Oireachtas legislature for showing unity in dealing with Brexit, particularly the Brexit Omnibus Bill which was passed last month. This landmark piece of legislation, crossing the remit of nine Government departments, focuses on protecting Irish citizens, assisting businesses and jobs, and securing ongoing access to essential services and products, he added. Our work complements the steps under way at EU level to implement measures to mitigate the impact of a no-deal Brexit. Snow and ice could cause problems The road has been closed. Follow the latest updates from our travel feed below The Dobbin Road in Armagh has been reopend folowing an earlier crash. Diversions are in place and traffic is being diverted onto the Vicarage Road, delays are expected. Our live updates from across Northern Ireland are compiled by @TrafficwatchNI, @BBCNITravel and @PSNITraffic. Peter McCool (Retail NI), Glyn Roberts (Retail NI) and Pat Leneghan (Nisa), speaking to the media after their meeting with the Policing Board in Belfast Photo By Justin Kernoghan Retail NI has said the Policing Board must ensure the PSNI has the resources to tackle the ATM theft crisis. The organisation which represents small and independent retailers met with the oversight body on Thursday just two days after the latest ATM theft in Bushmills. Ten ATMs have been stolen in nine raids this year with one failed attempt. Police said an immobiliser fitted to a digger thwarted the thieves on one occasion. Read More Police have called on communities to be their "eyes and ears" and to be alert to heavy machinery moving about in the dead of night. They have faced criticism for their response with Jim Allister saying the "criminal were winning". Police have upped patrols but said they can't be everywhere at once. "We dont have crystal balls, one officer said. Of their Policing Board meeting, Retail NI Chief Executive Glyn Roberts described it as "useful". "The Policing Board must play its role in holding the PSNI to account on its response to this crisis and to ensure that the police have the resources to catch the criminal gangs," he said. So far these robberies have cost our members in excess of 1million and they are putting businesses and jobs at risk. Our members are now living in constant fear that their stores will be next to be attacked and no small business should ever have to operate in that environment. They are not just attacks on independent retailers. They are attacks on entire rural communities." Policing Board Vice Chair Debbie Watters added: "Board members welcomed the opportunity to hear from Retail NI today and understand the concerns and frustrations expressed around the impact that the spate of ATM thefts is having on local retailers and communities, particularly in rural areas. "At the last board meeting, members questioned the Chief Constable in some detail on the preventative and investigative strategy being progressed to bring those responsible to justice and we were assured that appropriate resources are being directed in response. "The police also need the support and vigilance of the community in tackling these crimes. We welcome the public response to date in providing information and urge anyone who sees any activity they think is suspicious to contact the police immediately. The grief-stricken fiance of a young mother who tragically drowned in Carlingford Lough missed two phone calls from her asking for a lift home on the night she died. James Griffin didn't realise Ruth Maguire, his partner of 12 years, had been calling until a fortnight after her funeral because she had dialled his work phone, which he had mistakenly left at the office. The couple, who have three children - Tyler (10), Lydia (7) and Oliver (5) - were due to marry this August, but that was before the 30-year-old nurse assistant lost her life during a terrible accident on a friend's hen night in Co Louth. She went missing after 11.30pm on Saturday, March 16 after becoming separated from her friends. Her lifeless body was later recovered in the water between Carlingford and Greenore on March 18 - one month ago today. Heartbreakingly, Ruth, who lived in Newcastle, was buried in the wedding dress she never got to wear on March 29 following a funeral Mass at St Vincent de Paul's Church, close to her mother's home in north Belfast. In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Ruth's older sister Rachel Wilkinson said her family is still trying to cope with the pain of her death, and she told of James's devastation after missing his wife-to-be's calls that night. "Everybody is just trying to work through their grieving in different ways," Rachel said. Much to the bewilderment of her sister, Ruth had put out a short video with no sound on Instagram at 12.12am the Sunday she disappeared. It showed an image of a doorway to a small cottage across the road from the entrance to the pier. It was the last time she used her phone, and it is what is thought to have triggered the search in the lough. "The thing that I couldn't work out initially, after Ruth went missing, was that she'd been on her phone but I didn't know what she was doing," Rachel said. Expand Close Ruth and her mum Geraldine / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ruth and her mum Geraldine "Then, when Jim went back to work two weeks after the funeral, he turned on his work phone and saw that Ruth had called him twice at 12.06am, so it all makes sense now. "She had told her friends earlier that night that she wanted to go home and I now know she was ringing Jim in the hope that he would pick her up... but she'd obviously rang his work number instead of his personal phone by accident. "Jim told me that he had to pull over in the car when he saw the missed calls... he was devastated... but in a way it's comforting for us to know that she was trying to get home to her family before she died." Expand Close Ruth preparing for her sisters wedding / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ruth preparing for her sisters wedding In his distress at having missed Ruth's attempts to make contact, accounts assistant Rachel, who is in her 30s, said she told Jim not to dwell on what could have been. "There was a possibility that he might have been the one to find her in the lough... we don't know why she fell in," she said. "Even if he'd answered, she still could have fallen in and then he could have found her, which would have been horrendous, especially with three kids in the car." Expand Close Ruth with her fiance James / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ruth with her fiance James Speaking from a family holiday in Lanzarote with husband Ben (40) and their boys Louis (7) and Oscar (3), which she booked before Ruth went missing, Rachel said her sister's death had left a void that can't ever be filled. "Sometimes it doesn't feel real... you forget she's not there anymore," she said. "We talked every day. I would always ring her and even though she was younger she would always give me advice." She also revealed how losing Ruth, a strong swimmer, in a drowning accident has left her terrified of the sea. "The water has become a bit of an issue for me," she added. "The other day, down by the beach, I was an absolute mess, I just couldn't relax. Every time the kids went near the water I panicked... the sea was quite unsettled, the current was strong and it was horrendous. "I've always been a bit funny when it comes to kids around a swimming pool and I know you always need to keep an eye on children near water, but my reactions are 10 times exaggerated now. "It was scared. I kept making the kids play in the sand, rather than go near the water. "I told Louis that mummy is really nervous because of what happened to Auntie Ruth and he said he understood, but he's a seven-year-old boy and he just wants to have fun and play in the water and obviously I'm stopping him." She added: "At one point I just went to the shops so they could play without me pestering them to get away from the water all the time. At least they got half-an-hour playing with their dad, who's a lot more relaxed than me." Rachel said her parents - Geraldine Worthington and Malachy Maguire, who lives in London - are "struggling" with the loss of their youngest child. So, too, are her brothers Raymond Worthington (32) and Ryan Maguire (46). "You never think of these things. I certainly didn't. I thought Ruth would be looking after me when I got older," she said. Returning to work a week after the funeral was easier than staying at home for Rachel "because sitting around the house made it even worse". "Rather than sit and look at four walls, I just went back," she added. "The longer you put it off, the more insurmountable dealing with your grief seems." Rachel said that Jim (35), a gas engineer, has been strong for his children as he tackles the challenges of being a single parent head on. "He's trying to look after the kids and he's got a lot to work out... like how he's going to get them all to their various classes, such as gymnastics," she said. "He has decided to stay in Newcastle. My mum is going to go down a couple of days a week to help out with everything, and his family will also be there for him. "Tyler, Lydia and Oliver are really settled down there. Tyler is in Year 6 so he's going to have his transfer test soon so Jim doesn't want to uproot the whole family at this time." She added: "As my mum keeps saying, everything happened in Belfast - the wake was at mum's house, the funeral left from mum's house - but their house in Newcastle is still their wee happy home, although, of course, Ruth's not there..." The mum-of-two said her family have reconciled themselves to the fact the Ruth had a freak accident that came about partly because there are no barriers in the area near the lough where she is thought to have fallen in. And that is why she is now spearheading a campaign for one to be erected in the area as soon as possible. She also said it was ironic that, in the end, Ruth's body was discovered where ferries frequently sail from Co Louth to Co Down, considering there had been talk of her sister wanting to do just that on the night she died. "Ruth was actually found in Greenore about 5km from where she fell in - which is where you get the ferry to Greencastle. She had wanted to get the ferry home and that's where she ended up," she said. "Her bag washed up on Kilkeel beach a week after that but the only thing that was in it was her medical card. Her purse was gone and so was her phone. "She had an over-the-shoulder bag wrapped over her. She didn't like big handbags. They still haven't found her phone." Looking back to Mother's Day on Sunday, March 31, Rachel said it was very hard for Ruth's children, especially Tyler, her eldest, and she told how she tried to shield her nephews and niece from any pain that day. "Poor Jim had to go to a funeral because his dad's partner was getting buried," she said. "The children stayed with us. We were going to have a Sunday roast dinner but Tyler said he'd prefer a barbecue so we decided to do that instead. I didn't put up any Mother's Day cards in the house because I didn't want to draw attention to the day. The kids had made cards at school but I just put them away in a drawer." She added: "I just felt it was all simply too close to it all happening." Ruth had everything planned for her nuptials on August 8, according to Rachel, who was going to be maid of honour, while the children - hers, Rachel's, and Ryan's little girl Nyla (8) - were going to be flower girls and page boys. Instead, the mother-of-three was buried in her wedding dress in a closed coffin following advice from the undertakers. Rachel said her family's grief was all the more intense because "none of us got to see Ruth before she was buried". "I'm not a big fan of wakes but I felt I needed to see Ruth before the funeral," she said. "But the funeral directors recommended that we didn't because she'd been in the water for 36 hours, which meant she was very discoloured, and of course she'd had an autopsy. "They also told us she had a gash above her eye, which is in keeping with her stumbling, falling and hitting her head." She added: "I sent Jim pictures of the wedding dress but he didn't actually see her in it ... so he'll probably never get to see Ruth in her dress." Rachel revealed that one photograph was taken by Tyler of her wearing her bridesmaid's dress alongside Ruth dressed in her wedding robe - but she added that only Ruth had that image on her mobile. She added: "If we ever retrieve Ruth's lost phone from the ocean, or wherever it is now, only then Jim will finally get his wish to see his beautiful bride in her lovely dress." Rachel said the family hope to erect a plaque on one of the benches along the pier in Carlingford as a memorial to Ruth, who worked in Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry. "Ruth was a great swimmer... we can only think she stumbled or tripped, then fell into the water and was knocked unconscious," Rachel said. "It was probably slightly more peaceful for Ruth if she hit her head and became unconscious... it wouldn't have been as horrendous as the alternative." A fundraiser for Newcastle RNLI is also planned next month to raise awareness for the volunteers because "they're the ones who found her". "Ruth wasn't a party girl on a hen night who ended up in the lough," her big sister said. "Ruth lived for her children, she was a lovely family person, a great mum and a fantastic human being." Brenda Chivers hosting the first Easter Lily launch at Causeway Coast and Glens Council. Credit: Sinn Fein. A Sinn Fein Mayor has been accused of "abusing her position" after holding an event to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising on council property. Unionist councillors have hit out at Brenda Chivers who used the Mayor's parlour at Causeway Coast & Glens Council to host the event on Wednesday evening. The Easter Lily event was attended by Sinn Fein council candidates, MLAs and republican activists from the area. UUP councillor Darryl Wilson said that a Mayor should not use their position to promote "any political message" and said he had contacted senior council officials to lodge a complaint and seek answers as to why the event was allowed to take place. He added: I am also aware that one of the speakers referred to the memory of our patriot dead across Counties Derry and Antrim and how Their ultimate sacrifice continues to inspire us daily on our path to Irish Unity. That is not referring to the dead of 1916 who were nowhere to be seen in counties Londonderry and Antrim. "The people of Coleraine and the surrounding areas are only too well aware of the murderous and criminal deeds of the type of republican patriots which Sinn Fein are so fond of eulogising." Expand Close Sinn Fein mayor Brenda Chivers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sinn Fein mayor Brenda Chivers The IRA bombed Coleraine in 1973, murdering six pensioners and injuring 33 people. The IRA member who planted the bomb, Sean McGlinchey, currently serves on the council. The terrorist group also bombed Coleraine town centre in 1992. The Easter Rising was an armed insurrection launched by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic. The rebellion was suppressed by the British Army. DUP deputy Mayor Trevor Clarke said his party were also seeking answers from council officials about how the event was notified and organised. Councillors including the Mayor are bound by a Code of Conduct which states elected members cannot use council resources improperly for political purposes'," he said. "It is clear from the Sinn Fein banners on display in the Mayors Parlour this was precisely an event of a political nature, staged two weeks before a local government election. No party should politicise what is neutral civic space. The Mayor has abused her position and demonstrated total disregard for the office she currently holds. DUP deputy Mayor Trevor Clarke This is unacceptable and we are seeking further facts from councils chief executive ahead of deciding how best to pursue this matter. It is a serious breach of protocol and must be investigated and dealt with as such. In a statement Ms Chivers said it was an "honour" to host the event but did not address the criticism from unionist councillors. "Easter is the most important date in the Republican calendar; it is a time when we gather right across Ireland and beyond, to remember and commemorate those men and women, throughout the generations, who gave their lives in pursuit of Irish freedom and independence," she added. The 1916 Proclamation remains the mission statement for Irish republicans today. It is a freedom charter for all the people of this island which guarantees religious and civil liberty and promotes equal rights and opportunities for all citizens." Causeway Coast and Glens Council has yet to respond to a request for comment. Attorney Carlos James has represented a number of persons who have been brought before the courts for possession of cannabis during this period of uncertainty. The Carlos James Law Chambers is cautioning marijuana farmers to comply with the guidelines of the Cannabis Scientific Research Permission Approval, granted to investors, and the Cannabis Revival Committee (CRC), of which some farmers are members. The Law Firm has been providing free legal representation and assistance to marijuana farmers, leading up to the triggering of the Cannabis Cultivation (Amnesty) Act 2018, the granting of Licences to cultivators, and the passage of amendments to the Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act. This is according to Attorney Carlos James, who is also a government Senator and Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly. James told THE VINCENTIAN that, as it relates to farmers operating under the CRC, the movement of any Cannabis Material within the framework of the permission granted for Scientific Research, must be done in coordination with the Narcotics Unit of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force. James said there are farmers who have been moving cannabis without this coordination, and have ended up before the Court. James pointed out that, while marijuana is still illegal here, there are some farmers who could operate in relation to scientific research, pending the triggering of the afore-mentioned legislation. But, they have to operate in compliance with the guidelines of the Cannabis Scientific Research Permission Approval, or they could be arrested. The permission for scientific research is granted pursuant to an order obtained by the Ministry of Agriculture, in accordance with the Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act. Within the past two weeks, James has represented a number of persons who appeared at the Serious Offences Court on separate charges of marijuana possession. One of them, Sonel Isaccs, making his appearance last week, told the Court he was provided with an application form for a cultivators licence as he intends to get involved in the modern Medicinal Marijuana Industry, soon to come on stream, and he is already trying to deal with an investor. In relation to the other persons, who appeared in Court this week, James informed the Chief Magistrate that their matters were quite similar to Isaacss. They pleaded not guilty, and their matters were adjourned to June 7. Isaacs pleaded guilty to possession of 5,054 grams with intent to supply, but his matter was adjourned to May 3 for the Court to verify certain things.THE VINCENTIAN understands that while applications are already open for licences, none has yet been granted. Aontu leader Peadar Toibin has claimed that an official from Sinn Fein told him to F*** off out of an office on the party area at Leinster House before something happens. Mr Toibin who quit Sinn Fein last November made the claim on a social media post. He posted a picture of empty boxes that were left in his office. And he wrote: "This morning without permission these boxes were put in my office." He alleges that shortly afterwards a Sinn Fein official: "came in shouting "F*** off out of this floor, F*** off out of this area and F*** off out of this office before something happens [sic]". Mr Toibin added: "21 years I gave these people." Sinn Fein released a statement this evening which did not dispute Mr Toibins account. The statement said: "Peadar Toibin has not been a member of Sinn Fein since November last year, yet he is still on the Sinn Fein floor in Leinster House. "A party official today asked him to move off the floor. "This was a private conversation. "This issue is not uncommon in other parties when members leave. "The party has no further comment to make." Mr Toibin has founded a new party, Aontu, since he left Sinn Fein. Mr Toibin told Independent.ie that he had been trying to move office in recent months but that there hasn't been an alternative location available in Leinster House. He said he has been in contact with Oireachtas authorities today and expects to have an alternative office in the next 10 days. Mr Toibin said his relationship with some people in Sinn Fein have been "souring", especially since he launched Aontu. He said he's no "shrinking violet" and this is part of a "fractured situation" but that today's alleged incident was "out of order". He quit Sinn Fein last November having previously been suspended from party activity for six months after going against the partys decision to back legislation allowing for abortion. Ulster University spent 226k on settlements to staff that included "gagging clauses" in the past two years, it has been revealed. The BBC has reported the figure was made up of six separate payments to staff, which included non-disclosure agreements (NDA). Non-disclosure agreements are designed to stop former staff members sharing confidential information when changing jobs. Queen's University has declined to disclose the amount it has spent on similar payments to staff. Universities across the UK spent 90m on the "gagging orders" in the last two years. The sum is spread across around 4,000 settlements and it is understood some of the payments relate to allegations of bullying, harassment or sexual assault. Ulster University said that it used NDAs "in appropriate circumstances" to "protect the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information". "Negotiated settlements of this kind are mutually confidential for both parties and as these are in low numbers in a relatively small local market, provision of amounts may identify individuals or personal information, which would breach our confidentiality obligations," a university spokesperson told the BBC. While Queen's University refused to reveal how much it had spent on NDAs, they did say that the settlements were commonplace across the education sector. "Disclosure of information relating to settlements or agreements that have included confidentiality clauses would negatively impact on the university's ability to negotiate settlements and agreements in a robust and responsible manner in the future," a university spokesperson said. "In addition, due to the small number of agreements, disclosure of the details requested would risk breaching the confidential nature of these agreements as it may be possible to identify the details of individual settlements." Universities UK (UUK) said that NDAs were used for many purposes including "protecting valuable research". However it said that they should not be used to stop people from speaking out and such practices "will not be tolerated". UUK said that it was is working on developing comprehensive new guidance on sexual misconduct that will be published in the autumn. The guidelines will also cover NDAs, and the group is working with a Government consultation on the issue. A US diplomat is set to receive an award in Belfast for brokering the 1998 peace accord. Senator George Mitchell chaired the Belfast Agreement talks which led to an historic deal and the establishment of the power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly. More than two decades later the statesman is set to return to Belfast where he will be honoured by charity bosses at a special awards ceremony. Senator Mitchell is to receive an honorary award for leadership and peace building in Northern Ireland from CO3, the leadership organisation for the third sector, next month. Expand Close George Mitchell (centre), who brokered the Northern Ireland peace deal, with former First Minister David Trimble (left) and Deputy first Minister Seamus Mallon (PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp George Mitchell (centre), who brokered the Northern Ireland peace deal, with former First Minister David Trimble (left) and Deputy first Minister Seamus Mallon (PA) Senator Mitchell was appointed US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland in 1995. He acted as a facilitator in the review of the deadlocked process, helping to find a way to implement an inclusive power-sharing executive and the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. The Maine man later wrote that when the Good Friday Agreement was signed: I took a deep breath and felt tears welling in my eyes. I had to sit down. Nora Smith, chief executive of CO3, said Northern Ireland owes Senator Mitchell a great debt of gratitude. We both wanted to honour him and take inspiration from himNora Smith George Mitchell made a remarkable contribution to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. His achievements mean so much to everyone, but this is especially strongly felt by the voluntary and community sector, she said. After all, it does not seem so very long ago when it seemed as if civil society was all that stood between Northern Ireland and the abyss. We both wanted to honour him and take inspiration from him. With no government in place and all the uncertainty and division that Brexit is causing, we need strong leaders to bring us together more than ever. When we look back at what Senator Mitchell played such a leading part in achieving, his extraordinary ability to bring people together seems even more remarkable. We owe him a great debt of gratitude and we need leaders like that today. Residents have been forced to evacuated their homes for repairs to be carried out at the Victoria Square Apartments. Pic Presseye Residents have been forced to evacuated their homes for repairs to be carried out at the Victoria Square Apartments. Pic Presseye Representatives of a Belfast apartment block evacuated amid safety concerns about a structural column have approached owners of the adjoining shopping centre about sharing the costs of repairs. With the bill for fixing the problem at the Victoria Square complex estimated to reach up to 1million, an informed source said the proposal was knocked back. Photos have also emerged of the first signs of the damage - when steel reinforcement broke through the wall of one apartment two and a half months ago. Last week residents in the complex were told to leave their homes immediately for safety reasons. Read More At the time lawyers for the Victoria Square Residential Management Company Ltd said the decision was based on assessments of the building carried out after the structural issue was initially identified. The obtained images appear to show the steel reinforcement of a supporting column coming through the wall of a fourth floor apartment back in February. Repair work is expected to take around 20 weeks, with costs running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Apartment owners who are shareholders in the management company have been asked to make contributions towards that bill. Those costs may be recoverable at a later stage if any liability is established. No damage has been identified in the adjoining Victoria Square shopping centre, where business is continuing as normal. But a source close to the situation has revealed details of an approach made at the end of February. Representatives of the residents' management company proposed that repair costs should be shared between it and the owners of the shopping centre in the event of other parties failing to cover the bill. In response to that suggestion, however, it was stressed that the failure had occurred within the residential premises. According to the source the cost-sharing proposal was turned down on that basis. A statement issued on behalf of the shopping centre said: "Victoria Square Shopping Centre does not own the apartment complex and the management company, Victoria Square (Chichester Street) Residential Management Limited, has responsibility for all repair and maintenance works in relation to Victoria Square Apartments. "Victoria Square Shopping Centre will provide access as required to contractors undertaking work on behalf of the owners of the residential block, which we understand is due to commence shortly." The Ulster Unionist leaflet which has annoyed the Alliance Party The Ulster Unionist leaflet which has annoyed the Alliance Party A veteran Ulster Unionist councillor has said he is standing by a controversial leaflet condemned by the Alliance Party for alleging it is "closely aligned" with the "IRA's political wing". Jim Rodgers told the Belfast Telegraph that his stance in the election literature being distributed in east Belfast is shared by others in his party. Alliance leader Naomi Long said it was a disgraceful smear and called on the Ulster Unionists to apologise. She said the leaflet placed her party's representatives at risk in an area where they have previously faced death threats and intimidation. Mr Rodgers said the UUP was a "party of law and order" which didn't want to see anyone attacked but that it had the right to bring Alliance's "indisputable record of voting time and time again with Sinn Fein in City Hall" to public attention. But Lisburn North UUP council candidate Stuart Hughes tweeted: "This is not representative of the type of politics many of our members want to or are engaging in during this election. "It's wrong. I'll continue to talk about local issues and what I can deliver as an elected rep, not others." The election leaflet for Mr Rodgers and fellow UUP councillor Peter Johnston was distributed in the Ormiston electoral area in east Belfast. It states: "The Alliance party on Belfast City Council has demonstrated repeatedly during the lifetime of the council that they are closely aligned to Sinn Fein. "Their record shows time and time again they vote with the Provisional IRA's political wing." Mrs Long contested the accuracy of the leaflet and said she had contacted UUP leader Robin Swann about his party's literature last week. "This is a deliberate attempt by the UUP to link Alliance members to the IRA in an area where our offices have been attacked, representatives have received death threats and some have been forced to leave their homes due to previous raising of tensions by the UUP and others," she said. "Figures show for periods of time, the DUP and others have voted more with Sinn Fein on Belfast City Council than other parties. "Alliance votes for each issue on a case-by-case basis. "However, that is not politically expedient for the UUP to state. "While I wish I could say I was surprised by their latest actions, given the UUP's involvement in producing 40,000 inflammatory leaflets several years ago, I sadly am not." Mr Rodgers denied that he had been trying to stir up tensions. "We in the UUP believe in law and order," he said. "We wouldn't do anything that would see individuals or premises being attacked in any shape or form. "But it is legitimate to state the facts on how Alliance has voted on Belfast City Council. "No-one can deny that Sinn Fein is the political wing of the IRA. "It is also a fact that the IRA has not gone away as the present Chief Constable himself and others in the PSNI have stated." Mr Rodgers said his view was not an isolated one within his party. He said he has been inundated with support from UUP members and elected representatives, and from constituents. In a statement the UUP said: "This was not a central Ulster Unionist Party message. "It is included in a leaflet distributed in the Ormiston DEA. "The matter has been referred to party officers." The party added: "Naomi Long advised Robin Swann that she had also referred the leaflet to the Local Government Ombudsman." Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Baeattie criticised the leaflet which he tweeted wasn't "an uncleared message" not sanctioned by party headquarters. He said that while he didn't support the leaflet, it was "factual" to describe Sinn Fein as the IRA's political wing. Members of the public at the site of a mass grave for children who died in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam The final resting place of the "vast majority" of hundreds of children that died at a mother and baby home in the Irish Republic is not known. And many of the just over 800 children who died at the institution in Tuam are likely to be buried in underground chambers built within a decommissioned sewage tank. These findings are contained in the fifth interim report of the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation, which Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described as "gruesome reading". He said Irish society inherits a "deep shame" for what was done at the institutions at a time when women and babies were "appallingly treated", often for being unmarried or poor. Children's Minister Katherine Zappone appealed to anyone with information on babies that died at the homes to "let us know where they are buried" so they can be "treated with dignity in death". The commission's report contains criticism of religious orders that ran institutions and Galway County Council which owned the home at Tuam. The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary owned and ran three institutions - Bessborough, Co Cork; Castlepollard, Co Westmeath; and Sean Ross in Co Tipperary. It provided the commission with an affidavit about burials generally and specifically about those at Castlepollard and Sean Ross. The report says that the affidavit was "in many respects speculative, inaccurate and misleading". The commission said that more than 900 children died in Bessborough - or in hospital after being transferred from the institution - over more than seven decades. Many of the deaths took place in the 1940s. The report said that the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary do not know where the children are buried. The commission considers it likely that some of the children are buried in the grounds of Bessborough but has been unable to find physical or documentary evidence of this. It's not considered feasible to excavate 60 acres or the rest of the land that makes up an estate that was once 200 acres. A statement from the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary last night insisted that the commission "has had and will continue to have our fullest co-operation". The commission, chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy, was set up in 2015 after the revelations about burials at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam. The interim report says that 802 children died at the Tuam institution. Many of the children are said to have been buried in a chamber structure built within a large decommissioned sewage tank. The report says that the Sisters of Bon Secours which ran the Tuam home were "unable to provide any information about the burials there". Fianna Fail deputy leader Dara Calleary has accused the government of being on the side of cuckoo funds (Niall Carson/PA) The Opposition has accused the Government of contributing to the housing crisis by being on the side of so-called cuckoo funds. Fianna Fail deputy leader Dara Calleary criticised the Government for offering tax incentives to such funds, which have been buying entire blocks of apartments to rent them out. The corporate investors have been blamed for pushing up rental prices and squeezing first-time buyers out of the market. Its pretty clear that Fine Gael are on the side of the cuckoos in relation to this one, Mr Calleary told the Dail. He said cuckoo funds had purchased more than 3,000 units in 2018, with the benefit of Government tax incentives. Do the Government have any plans to review and restrict the taxation incentives that are available to these funds to use their corporate muscle to elbow out people who want to get a start on the housing market?Dara Calleary, Fianna Fail Mr Calleary added that these much-needed housing units were being snapped up before hard-working families had a chance to buy them. Theres not enough affordable housing being built, theres not enough local authority housing being built, yet where housing is being built, these funds are swooping in with your encouragement to take these away from people who actually want to get on the housing ladder, he said. Is it not time to shout stop? he asked. Do the Government have any plans to review and restrict the taxation incentives that are available to these funds to use their corporate muscle to elbow out people who want to get a start on the housing market? Tanaiste Simon Coveney said the Government was absolutely committed to increasing supply of all types of homes. He said institutional landlords represented a very small minority of the overall number of landlords, despite institutional investment in the private rental sector growing. Less than 5% of landlords own over 100 units, Mr Coveney said. The vast majority of landlords, just over 70%, own just one property. Institutional investment firms accounted for 1% of all property sales in 2017, he added. Sinn Feins Pearse Doherty said cuckoo funds were pushing up house prices and squeezing first-time buyers out of the market. He said in most cases these funds did not pay corporation tax, income tax or capital gains tax. More than 140 people have been living in Direct Provision for over seven years, according to government figures. Figures supplied to the Public Accounts Committee and seen by the Press Association show that of the 6,093 asylum seekers currently in Direct Provision centres, 142 of those have been there for more than 84 months. Direct Provision is intended to house asylum seekers while their applications are processed, many housed there cannot work, and receive an allowance of 38.80 euro per week. Children account for almost a third of the people housed in the 40-plus centres around Ireland. The system was designed as a short-term measure, but many applicants are now experiencing longer and longer stays which charities say is linked to declining physical and mental health, social isolation and self-esteem. The average length of time people live in Direct Provision is around two years, the figures state that 2,374, over a third of all asylum seekers, have lived in a centre for over 24 months. The figures also show there has been a 6% increase in occupancy in the first quarter of 2019. Sean McSweeney, CEO of Doras a charity supporting asylum seekers, says Direct Provision is unsuitable for long-term accommodation. He said: Research has shown that residents of Direct Provision are five times more likely to develop mental health issues. In the almost 20 years of providing support to residents of Direct Provision, we have worked with many clients who have lived in Direct Provision for more than five years, and in some instances more than 10 years. We have witnessed the negative effects that living in Direct Provision has had on their mental health, well-being and integration efforts, with these issues being compounded by the length of time people spend living in these conditions. These numbers show that a real, concerted change needs to be made within the International Protection system in order to efficiently and effectively process applications. Doras continue to advocate for an alternative reception system that respects human rights and meets the needs of international protection applicants while their cases are being processed. A Department of Justice spokesman said: In general, the majority of those living in RIA accommodation centres, have either made claims for international protection to the International Protection Office (IPO) that have not yet been positively determined or their claim has not been successful and they are choosing to challenge a decision through the Appeals Tribunal or the Courts. The system will always face challenges, such as the current trend of increasing numbers of applications for international protection. However, because of the substantial reforms to the legislation and processing system, we are in a much better place, than previously, to overcome these challenges. It has been noted by charities in the sector that Irelands housing crisis is adding to the issues of longer stays in Direct Provision centres, as even when people are granted asylum, there is a lack of appropriate housing. The ATM was pulled out of the building by the thieves (Cameron Brooks/PA) An ATM has been stolen from a bank branch by a gang who used a car to pull it from the building. The group of men arrived at the Virgin Money Bank on Castle Street, Edinburgh, at around 3.30am on Thursday in a stolen grey Audi Q5. They broke in through a window at the front of the building and used the car to pull the ATM out. The men escaped with the contents of the machine, driving off in the direction of George Street. THEFT OF ATM FROM BANK #CastleSt We're appealing for witnesses after a stolen Audi Q5 estate vehicle was used to steal an ATM from within the Virgin Money Bank at around 3.30am today (18 April). Officers believe 3 or 4 men are involved. Read more at: https://t.co/KOyWkLWZJl pic.twitter.com/WF736wUih1 EdinburghPolice (@EdinPolSE) April 18, 2019 Police are still working to establish how much money was in the ATM, and have appealed for information about the incident. The Audi, with the registration number SK68 NLN, was stolen from an address in the Craigleith area of the city on Tuesday April 9. Police Sergeant David Simpson said: We believe at least three, possibly four men arrived at the premises in the stolen Audi vehicle which was then used to commit the theft. We are eager to hear from anyone who saw this vehicle and these men immediately prior to the incident, or has seen the vehicle since the early hours of this morning, to get in touch. The vehicle was stolen on April 9 and were eager to hear from anyone who may have seen it in the city or surrounding areas since this time. Equally anyone who witnessed the incident, or has any information that can help identify and trace those involved, is asked to contact officers as soon as possible. Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 0330 of April 18, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where anonymity can be maintained. Scotland Yard has warned environmental protesters will face a robust response if they target Heathrow Airport, ruining families Easter holiday breaks. The force said it has strong plans in place involving a significant number of officers to deal with the planned Extinction Rebellion (XR) action on Good Friday. The airport said it is working with the authorities to address the threat of mass disruption, while Home Secretary Sajid Javid has urged police to use the full force of the law. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said the protests were increasing in intensity and warned demonstrators against targeting Heathrow Airport. He told the Press Association: Protesters can expect a robust police response. We are determined to keep the airport operating. A Met statement added: The airport is part of our national infrastructure and we will not allow the illegal activities of protesters to cause further disruption and misery to thousands of travellers, many of them families, over Easter. We would urge any protester planning to attend Heathrow to strongly reconsider. The Met have arrested more than 500 protesters as illegal demonstrations continue at Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Circus and Parliament Square, while demonstrations are allowed to continue only at Marble Arch. Expand Close A climate activist knits during an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Oxford Circus (Yui Mok/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A climate activist knits during an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Oxford Circus (Yui Mok/PA) The arrests are for obstructing the highway and breaching the Section 14 order that prohibits protests apart from at Marble Arch, and 10 people have been charged with those offences. A further three people who have been charged by British Transport Police appeared in court on Thursday morning. A spokesman for the XR group said activists will be staging protest action at Heathrow on Friday, with around 500,000 people expected to fly out for Easter breaks over the bank holiday weekend. Speaking after a briefing with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick on Thursday, the Home Secretary said she had told him that more than 1,000 officers were being deployed to the streets of the capital each day of the protests. Let me be clear I totally condemn any protesters who are stepping outside the boundaries of the law, Mr Javid said. They have no right to cause misery for the millions of people who are trying to lead their daily lives. Unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated. I expect the police to take a firm stance and use the full force of the law. Expand Close Climate activists surround a pink boat that has been parked during an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Oxford Circus (Yui Mok/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Climate activists surround a pink boat that has been parked during an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Oxford Circus (Yui Mok/PA) Scotland Yard said officers have been asked to work 12-hour shifts, while rest days and leave has been cancelled. The force said that although the Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) has been ring-fenced, the protests are diverting officers away from their local duties. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has written a letter to the Home Secretary about the increasing cost of policing a growing number of protests in London, and he is working with the Met to consider making a special grant claim over the current demonstrations. Expand Close A climate activist is led away by police officers from an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Oxford Circus (Yui Mok/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A climate activist is led away by police officers from an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Oxford Circus (Yui Mok/PA) The fourth day of protests which have seen activists glue themselves to public transport and block bridges and major roads across the capital began with a challenge to Environment Secretary Michael Gove to meet with activists at Parliament Square to find a solution to the issue. And organisers said they expected even more people to join the protests, with a statement which was later deleted adding: Easter weekend is tomorrow and thousands more rebels will join. Police struggle to arrest 350 and there are 10 times that number prepared to be arrested. The hollowed-out British state is overwhelmed. Its certainly an option that tactics will be escalated if our demands are not metDr Gail Bradbrook, XR co-founder Cathy Eastburn, 51, Mark Ovland, 35, and Luke Watson, 29, were remanded in custody after they were charged over their alleged involvement in obstructing trains at Canary Wharf station on Wednesday morning. All three indicated a not guilty plea when they appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court. Speaking from Waterloo Bridge, Dr Gail Bradbrook, a co-founder of the XR group, said demonstrators would continue to act despite the first people being charged over the disruption. It (the charges) might put some people off and we escalated our strategy by focusing on the rail infrastructure, she told the Press Association. Its certainly an option that tactics will be escalated if our demands are not met, she said. Prime Ministers Mai Mottley(Barbados), Dr. Ralph Gonsalves (SVG) and Gaston Browne (Anu/Bar) were all smiles when they thought they had struck a deal with the LIAT workers. Is cash-strapped regional airline LIAT heading for another run-in with its staff, especially its pilots? That was the question on the lips of citizens in the region on the weekend, especially those served by and dependent on LIAT, when news broke that LIAT shareholder governments had said they would not entertain anything lower than a 10% cut in salaries across the board. This position arose after the shareholder governments refused to accept a 6% offer made by the airline employees. Following a shareholders meeting in St Vincent and the Grenadines last Friday, CMC reported the shareholders as saying "the six per cent cut did not go far enough, and that "the six per cent cut did not meet the immediate cost reduction objectives of the company at this time. Last month, pilots employed with the regional airline, agreed to a less than ten per cent salary cut as a demonstration of their preparedness to help keep the airline in the air. Trade Unions representing the airlines workers at its 15 destinations, had, during a six-hour meeting in Barbados with Prime Minister Mia Mottley and her St Vincent and the Grenadines counterpart, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, agreed in principle to a six per cent salary cut, pending further deliberations with their members, this after .a LIAT request for the ten per cent pay cut across the board. President of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIAPA), Carl Burke confirmed that that pilots "actually voted on the salary cut, which has since been communicated to Prime Minister Mottley. five per cent deductions from their wages for a pension fund scheme. And to add further to the impasse, the Antigua-based Observer Radio, reported Friday that there seemed to have been a misunderstanding between the workers and LIAT management regarding the payment cuts. It said that the workers were of the impression that the salary cuts would come from their basic salaries, while LIAT thought the six per cent cut would be from all the earnings of the workers. The shareholder governments of the airline - Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines have been seeking, since February, to get other Caribbean countries to contribute a total of US$5.4 million in emergency funding, needed to keep the airline in the sky. All of this is nothing short of a turnabout on the part of the shareholder governments, LIAT employees claim.The workers had also agreed to allow LIAT to suspend its matching contributions to theAt the same time, 11 destinations were given until March 15, to respond to Minimal Revenue Guarantee model which, among other things, proposes flight cut to some destinations, unless the governments agree to fund then with a guarantee. Passengers whose flights are cancelled or delayed as a result of environmental protests at Heathrow Airport have been warned they are unlikely to be able to get compensation. Campaign group Extinction Rebellion has said it will target Heathrow on Friday as part of its mass protests around London. Although passengers may be due refunds or replacement flights, they are unlikely to receive cash payouts from airlines as the protests are likely to be considered extraordinary circumstances, a lawyer has said. I strongly suspect that any judge would say that this is an extraordinary circumstanceLawyer Coby Benson Events such as security threats, adverse weather, unexpected flight safety issues and staff strikes are considered extraordinary. Under the Montreal Convention, an international aviation treaty, flight operators are not required to issue compensation to passengers in extraordinary circumstances, which apply if the delay or cancellation is outside of the control and responsibility of the airline. Coby Benson, a lawyer in flight compensation at solicitors Bott & Co, said it was likely any disruption on Friday would be extraordinary and passengers would not be due compensation. Based on the case law that exists at this point in time, I strongly suspect that any judge would say that this is an extraordinary circumstance, he said. Mainly because its an event that is outside the control of the airline but also because its an activity which is outside the responsibility of the airline. Its a given that its outside the control of the airline, I dont think anyone would argue otherwise. But thats just one half of it. In order for something to be extraordinary it has to be both outside the control of the air carrier and also something that is not inherent in the normal activity of the air carrier. I think it fails on both parts. Expand Close Police officers arrive at Oxford Circus in London on Thursday (Kirsty OConnor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police officers arrive at Oxford Circus in London on Thursday (Kirsty OConnor/PA) The Civil Aviation Authority, the UKs aviation regulator, said it was not yet possible to determine whether delays on Saturday would be classified as extraordinary. While passengers may not be able to claim cash compensation, they may be due refunds or replacement flights to get them to their destination. Under European legislation, airlines are required to refund or reroute any passengers who have their flights cancelled, even if the cause is extraordinary. Passengers may choose between replacement flights and receiving a refund. If the flight is delayed but not cancelled, passengers may also be entitled to care from the airline while they wait for it to take off. Depending on the distance of the flight and the length of the delay, airlines could be obliged to provide food, accommodation, phone calls and transport. Passengers are entitled to care from the airline for short flights of 1,500km or less that are delayed for two hours, for flights of between 1,500 and 3,500km that are delayed for three hours, or for flights longer than 3,500km that are delayed for four hours or more. Expand Close Campaigners at Oxford Circus in London (Kirsty OConnor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Campaigners at Oxford Circus in London (Kirsty OConnor/PA) It is unknown when the Extinction Rebellion action will begin. The group has refused to disclose any details, although it said it had informed the police the protest would take place. A spokesman for the group said on Thursday the disruption was totally necessary because of a climate emergency. The Metropolitan Police said it had strong plans in place to deal with the protest, involving a significant number of officers. Police have been called to Edinburghs West End after reports of a disturbance. Officers were called to Chester Street at around 8pm on Wednesday. Posts on social media show the area has been sealed off. A Police Scotland spokesman said: Police in Edinburgh are responding to a report of a disturbance in Chester Street at around 8pm on Wednesday. Emergency services remain on the scene and enquiries are ongoing. Police said the death is being treated as suspicious (Alasdair Morton/PA) Police are investigating a suspicious death in Edinburghs West End. Officers were called to a disturbance on Chester Street at around 8pm on Wednesday and found a man seriously injured. He died at the scene, officers said. Expand Close Officers were called to a disturbance on Chester Street at around 8pm on Wednesday (Alasdair Morton/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Officers were called to a disturbance on Chester Street at around 8pm on Wednesday (Alasdair Morton/PA) A Police Scotland spokesman said: His death is being treated as suspicious and inquiries are continuing. Anyone who believes they have any relevant information should contact police immediately. Police remove climate activists who glued themselves to a DLR train at Canary Wharf Three environmental activists who are accused of obstructing the railway by gluing themselves to a DLR train as part of the Extinction Rebellion protests have been remanded in custody. Cathy Eastburn, 51, Mark Ovland, 35, and Luke Watson, 29, appeared before magistrates on Thursday facing charges relating to a protest at Canary Wharf station on Wednesday morning. The trio are thought to be the first people to be charged over the protests which have disrupted transport services across London and in towns and cities across the country. Eastburn, in a grey sweatshirt with her blonde hair loose and Watson, wearing a black suit, are accused of climbing onto the carriage and glueing themselves to it, while Ovland, also in a grey sweatshirt, allegedly glued his hand to its side. Expand Close Climate activists on top of a DLR train at Canary Wharf station PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Climate activists on top of a DLR train at Canary Wharf station All three indicated a not guilty plea to obstructing trains or carriages on the railway by an unlawful act contrary to Section 36 of the Malicious Damage Act 1861. If convicted, they could face up to two years in prison. Eastburn, of Gerards Close in Lambeth, south London, Ovland, of Keinton Mandeville, Somerton, Somerset, and Watson, from Manuden in Essex, were denied bail by District judge Julia Newton at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court. One Extinction Rebellion member, who said he was a friend of Eastburn, sat in the public gallery in support. He and three others put their hands to the glass in solidarity as the defendants left the dock, and Eastburn raised her hand in acknowledgment. The defendants will next appear at Blackfriars Crown Court on May 16. What the papers say April 18 (PA) European elections and climate protests provide the papers with plenty to talk about on Thursday. The Times carries a picture of Extinction Rebellion activists outside Jeremy Corbyns home, while their main story carries data from two polls which suggest the Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage has leapfrogged both the Labour and Conservative parties. The Daily Telegraph says police are being critical of London mayor Sadiq Khan for expressing support with the Extinction Rebellion activists. The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph: 'Khan feels heat from police over climate protest chaos' #tomorrowspaperstoday https://t.co/uWTlgCk3rD pic.twitter.com/ZaqXjV79fG The Telegraph (@Telegraph) April 17, 2019 The Guardian carries a report claiming that 25,000 landowners control half the country. Guardian front page, 18 April 2019: Revealed: Half of England owned by 1% of population pic.twitter.com/hpKSqIHE4F The Guardian (@guardian) April 17, 2019 The Metro leads on climate protesters who are said to have vowed to keep up the pressure after a third day of action. The i leads on the ethical debate surrounding the practice of reviving pigs brains after death. The Independent looks at the European elections, writing that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been told to back a second referendum to stop Nigel Farage. INDEPENDENT DIGITAL: Corbyn told: Stop Farage by backing a final say #tomorrowapaperstoday pic.twitter.com/3CGiBxMpoq Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 17, 2019 The Daily Mirror leads with warnings from Sir David Attenborough about the impact of climate change. Tomorrow's front page: The end of life on Earth...unless we change now#tomorrowspaperstodayhttps://t.co/CGlzLrbL47 pic.twitter.com/r3xUjMH180 The Mirror (@DailyMirror) April 17, 2019 The Sun reports school children collapsed after eating cakes laced with cannabis. Tomorrow's front page: Delirious kids collapsed at a high school after scoffing cannabis cakes brought in by a 16-year-old girl https://t.co/yuYDd56bQz pic.twitter.com/0TymVwEQzx The Sun (@TheSun) April 17, 2019 The Daily Mail carries a picture of police officers at the Extinction Rebellion protest in London, with the paper suggesting the forces are waving the white flag. The Daily Express reports that Sajid Javid will launch a blitz on knife crime over Easter. And the Daily Star carries a story about piranhas stalking British lakes. An Aberdeenshire driver is accused of being almost seven times over the alcohol limit (John Giles/PA) A woman is facing court accused of being behind the wheel while almost seven times over the Scottish drink-drive limit. The 57-year-old was stopped by police near Fyvie in Aberdeenshire on Wednesday evening. Officers were alerted by a member of the public concerned about a vehicle on the New Deer to Fyvie road. It is disappointing that drivers still believe it is acceptable to risk their safety and the safety of others.Inspector Neil Morrison The woman is expected to appear at Peterhead Sheriff Court on Thursday in connection with drink-driving and other road traffic offences. The alcohol limit for drivers in Scotland is 50 milligrammes in every 100ml of blood, or 22 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. South of the border, the limit is 80 milligrammes in every 100ml of blood, or 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. Inspector Neil Morrison said: The consequences of drink or drug-driving are widely known and it is disappointing that drivers still believe it is acceptable to risk their safety and the safety of others. I would like to thank the public for their continued support and provide assurances that any information passed to us will be actioned appropriately as we endeavour to reduce these offenders from our roads. One of the injured passengers is taken for treatment on a stretcher The wreckage of the tourist bus that crashed in Canico, on the Portuguese island of Madeira Twenty-eight people were reported dead last night after a bus carrying tourists crashed on the holiday island of Madeira. Local mayor Filipe Sousa told a Portuguese news channel the victims included 17 women and 11 men. Firefighters told local news agency Lusa several others were wounded, but did not give an exact figure. "I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," he told broadcaster SIC TV. He said most of those on board were German tourists and it is not yet known whether any other nationalities were involved in the accident. A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: "We are seeking information from the authorities in Portugal about a bus crash in Madeira, and are ready to support any British people who require assistance." The bus was carrying 55 people when it veered off a road near the town of Canico on a bend east of the capital, Funchal, before rolling down a steep hillside, Mr Sousa said. It came to rest near houses. Video footage of the bus after the crash showed it badly damaged and embedded in vegetation on a hillside of the Atlantic island, which has long been a popular holiday destination for British tourists. Authorities said they are investigating the possible cause. Local residents said the weather was fine at the time of the accident, which happened while it was still light, in the early evening. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was last night flying to the scene. According to Madeira's Civil Protection agency, the accident happened at around 6.30pm (UK and local time). A large emergency services response was at the scene. A spokesman for Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said "terrible news is reaching us from Madeira". Steffen Seibert said on Twitter "we are in deepest sorrow over all those who lost their lives in the bus crash". He added: "Our thoughts are with the injured." US attorney general William Barr has said there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government hackers as he spoke ahead of the release of Robert Muellers report into Russian election interference. Eager to get in the last word ahead of the public release of the special counsels report, Mr Barr laid out in advance what he said was the bottom line. While Mr Mueller drew no conclusion about whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice in the investigation, Mr Barr said he and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein personally had concluded that while Mr Trump was frustrated and angry about the Mueller probe, nothing the president did rose to the level of an obstruction-of-justice offence. Mr Barr said Mr Muellers report examined 10 episodes pertaining to Mr Trump and obstruction. Mr Barr said the president did not exert executive privilege to withhold anything in the report. And he said the presidents personal lawyer had requested and gotten a chance to review the report before its public release. Expand Close US President Donald Trump (Susan Walsh/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp US President Donald Trump (Susan Walsh/AP) The Justice Department will release a redacted version of the special counsels report later, opening up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country. Earlier, Mr Trump used a tweet to claim the investigation into Russian election meddling was The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!. Mr Barr said he and Mr Rosenstein disagreed with some of Mr Muellers legal theories pertaining to obstruction of justice, but he said that did not influence their conclusion that Mr Trump did not commit a crime. He said they set their feelings on the matter aside and accepted Mr Muellers legal framework for purposes of our analysis but still determined that the evidence gathered by Mr Mueller was not sufficient to establish that Mr Trump had violated the law. It is clear Congress and the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings. We are now requesting Mueller to appear before @HouseJudiciary as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/Mmo6PA4KPt Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) April 18, 2019 Even ahead of the reports release, Democrats cried foul about Mr Barrs press conference, for spinning the report in the words of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. The process is poisoned before the report is even released, he said. And moments after Mr Barr finished speaking, House judiciary chairman Jerrold Nadler sent a letter requesting that Mr Mueller himself testify before his panel no later than May 23. Mr Barrs news conference ended abruptly after he bristled at the tone of some questions about how he handled the Mueller report. A 6.1-magnitude earthquake has struck Taiwans east coast, according to the islands Central Weather Bureau. TV footage showed at least one landslide but there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries. The bureau said the quake happened at 1.01pm local time, with its epicentre about six miles north west of the eastern coastal city of Hualien. The depth was around six miles, according to the United States Geological Survey, while Taiwans Central Weather Bureau put it at almost 12 miles, a distance that would lessen the likelihood of damage. Expand Close Damage to a building in Taipei (Johnson Lai/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Damage to a building in Taipei (Johnson Lai/AP) The quake shook buildings in the capital Taipei, which is about 70 miles away. One multi-storey building was reported to be leaning against its neighbour, the citys subway system suspended service, and schools along the east coast were evacuated. Two hikers in the famed Toroko Gorge national park were injured by falling rocks, the Hualien government reported. Water pipes at the citys train station burst and rail traffic was briefly suspended. Taiwans premier Su Tseng-chang said schools, work sites, water, power and transit lines had been checked for damage and injured people, partly with the aid of drones. While no major problems were found, cracked road surfaces on the east coast could become a problem if rain were to fall in coming hours, Mr Su said. People in Chinese cities close to the Taiwan Strait dividing the island from mainland China also reported feeling the quake. Footage shown by Taiwanese television stations showed overturned furniture in homes and offices and at least one landslide along the mountainous and lightly populated east coast. Taiwan is on the string of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean known as the Ring of Fire and is frequently rocked by tremors, including a 1999 quake that killed more than 2,300 people. An earthquake in February 2018 in Hualien killed 17 people when four buildings partially collapsed. That quake hit two years to the day after an apartment building in the south-western city of Tainan collapsed in an earthquake, killing 115 people. The floating home lived in by an American man and his Thai partner in the Andaman Sea (Royal Thai Navy via AP) Thai authorities have raided a floating home in the Andaman Sea belonging to an American man and his Thai partner who sought to be pioneers in the seasteading movement. Seasteading promotes living in international waters to be free of any nations laws. Thailands navy said the pair had endangered national sovereignty, an offence punishable by life imprisonment or death. Expand Close The floating home lived in by an American man and his Thai partner (Royal Thai Navy via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The floating home lived in by an American man and his Thai partner (Royal Thai Navy via AP) The navy filed a complaint against the couple with police on the southern resort island of Phuket. Chad Elwartowski said in an email that he believes he and Supranee Thepdet did nothing wrong. The couple, who have gone into hiding, had been living part-time on a small structure they said was anchored outside Thailands territorial waters, just over 12 nautical miles from shore. Thai authorities said they have revoked Mr Elwartowskis visa. (L-R): Radika Ragguette and Adriann Straker proud recipients of White Coats as students of the All Saints University College of Medicine (SVG). Two Vincentians were among the twenty-nine students who received their White Coats from All Saints University College of Medicine(SVG), during a White Coat Ceremony last Saturday. The (two) students are Adriann Straker of Vermont and Radika Ragguette of Lodge Village. Both ladies attended the St. Vincent Girls High School. Radika went on to graduate from the St. Vincent Comunity College before joining All Saints, while Adriann skipped the Community College and went directly to All Saint University at the tender age of 16. Adriann entering early Adriann entered secondary school at the age of 10 years and graduated at 15 years old, and by 16 was "rubbing shoulders with students who had university degrees. She shared that she realized her calling was in medicine, "because I generally cared for people and if I saw someone sick, my first instinct would be to help that person and try to make them feel better. Having entered All Saints from secondary school, she had to pursue a year and half of Pre-Med courses before being accepted into the Doctor of Medicine programme. She admitted that entering straight from secondary school put her at a disadvantage. "I had to work hard and the Pre-Med courses were very rigorous ... I had to study a lot to get where I am today, said Straker, adding, "You are in class with people who had Bachelor degrees with all sorts of degrees and here I was as a Girls High School graduate. But she was determined, and today, she has completed the three-year Doctor of Medicine programme, received her White Coat signifying that she is ready for her two-year Clinical Rotation, which she will pursue at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH). And after all the "hard work, Adriann is feeling proud, and deservedly so. "I feel proud of myself because the competition was stiff, the fight was rough, and basically I was overwhelmed, she said. She expressed thanks to her family, particularly her mother Crislyn Straker, whom she described as her pillow. Radika - an early interest Radika was attracted to All Saints University because of its reputation. She was also prodded in that direction by the recommendations of persons who had had some association with the University. Her interest in science and health was nurtured at an early age, not least being by her mother a qualified nurse. Once her career path was clearly defined and settled in her own mind, she recognized All Saints University as the right institution through which to pursue her dream. She too admitted that the journey to having earned your White Coat was a difficult one. "The work is very challenging; it is a lot of information to learn. It calls for plenty late night studying, but once you really try your best and do what you are to do, then you can succeed. Ragguette said, adding that despite being among only two Vincentians studying at the facility, the students, who are mainly from Africa. "were nice to her. She said that she has not made up her mind as to an area of specialization but she is mindful that she would have to treat the sick. The Vincentian Newspaper spoke with both students following the last Saturdays Ceremony. Heres some of what they had to say:And as for advice she has for other young persons, she offered: "My advice is if this is what you want to do, just aim for the stars , work hard and pursue your dream. It will be hard and you will just have to fight through it to get what you want to be in life."Patients are going to trust you, so you have to know what you are doing, quipped the aspiring doctor. Special counsel Robert Muellers report has revealed that US President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mr Muellers removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. The report said that in June 2017, Mr Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to call the acting attorney general and say that Mr Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. Mr McGahn refused deciding he would rather resign than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate firings fame. For all of that, Mr Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Mr Trump had committed criminal obstruction of justice. The Justice Department posted a redacted version of the report online on Thursday morning, 90 minutes after attorney general William Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings. The two-volume, 448-page report recounts how Mr Trump repeatedly sought to take control of the Russia probe. Mr Mueller evaluated 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice, including Mr Trumps firing of FBI director James Comey, the presidents directive to subordinates to have Mr Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. The presidents lawyers have said Mr Trumps conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mr Muellers team deemed the episodes deserving of criminal scrutiny. Mr Mueller reported that Mr Trump had been agitated at the special counsel probe from its earliest days, reacting to Mr Muellers appointment by saying it was the end of his presidency. As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr Mueller wrote: While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Mr Mueller also said there was not sufficient evidence to charge any campaign officials with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. The report included an appendix that contained 12 pages of Mr Trumps written responses to the special counsel. They included no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Mr Trumps legal team. Mr Trump told Mr Mueller he had no recollection of learning in advance about the much-scrutinised Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Hillary Clintons campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made complimentary statements about him. Mr Trump said his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Mrs Clintons private server was made in jest and sarcastically and that he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. Mr Trumps legal team called the results a total victory for the president. Mr Trump tweeted moments after Mr Barr concluded his news conference, with an image inspired by the HBO show Game Of Thrones. The image included the words No Collusion and No Obstruction and then taunted Democrats with the phrase Game Over. Speaking at an unrelated White House event, Mr Trump said he was having a good day following the release of the report. And he said that no president should ever have to go through what he did again. He said: It was called no collusion, no obstruction. He added: There never was, by the way, and there never will be. He also renewed his calls for an investigation into the origins of the inquiry, saying: We do have to get to the bottom of these things. The story of Jesus death and resurrection is the very heart of the Christian faith. Without both those events, Jesus is not the Messiah but another Jewish prophet. The Christian religion does not exist. Constantine does not convert, the Roman Empire remains pagan and the world likely looks overwhelmingly different that it does today. Jesus did, however, die and rise from the dead. The Christian religion was born, spread and formed the backbone of the modern Western world. For all that Christianity has shaped the globe, many Christians know surprisingly little about the events that created their faith in the first place. There are a large number of Christians who have never read the Bible and its accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even those that have, however, often misunderstand parts of the story. Some of this is due to modern readers examining the text through the lens of contemporary beliefs rather than thinking about the context in which the Bible was written. Other times the confusion is due to poor translations or lost cultural understanding. Sadly, many Christians struggle to fill in the resulting gaps. This can lead to people misunderstanding some of the most important events in the Bible, and Christs death is no exception to this rule. Here are five things about the crucifixion that all Christians get wrong. Pilate wanted to free Jesus. Jesus carried the entire cross. Crucifixion was an unusual punishment. Jesuss death was long and drawn out. Jesus was crucified next to a pair of thieves. The idea that Pontius Pilate would have let Jesus go if the people had not insisted on His crucifixion is one of the most enduring misunderstandings in the entire Bible.It is also one of the most baffling implications in the entire Scripture because it would have taken an order straight from the emperor to get Pilate to free Jesus. Judea was a hotbed of rebellion. A minor rebellion was put down less than 30 years before Jesus death and had resulted in the crucifixion of 2,000 Jews. This revolt occurred less than a year after Rome annexed Judea. After that, Jews reacted negatively to the idea of a census and kept themselves separate from the Romans in every way possible out of thinly veiled hostility. Into this powder keg comes an extremely charismatic man whose followers worship Him. This man preaches against the existing social order in favor of a new kingdom and is said to be the Messiah. The Messiah, among many Jews, was believed to be a man who would lead a successful revolt against Rome. Add in Jesus miracles suggesting that He had true supernatural power, and Pilate would have been terrified of what Christs mere existence would have brought. Under no circumstances could he have allowed this fearless rebel to live.For centuries, Christian iconography has shown Christ carrying and dying on a cross that looks like a lowercase t. This cross, called the Latin cross, is not, however, what Christ likely died upon. Instead, Christ would have likely been nailed to a Tau cross, a cross that looks like a capital T. Latin crosses were heavy, unwieldy and required serious work for Roman soldiers to raise into an upright position. The central pillar of Tau crosses, however, could be left in place. Only the crossbeam, or patibulum, would need to be raised and replaced. This is likely what Jesus carried through the streets.Tau crosses were more common in the Roman Empire, especially in areas that would see numerous crucifixions. They were easier to create, maintain and use, something that Roman soldiers posted in rebellious areas would have preferred. Tau cross patibulums could also be carried through the streets. Most depictions of Christs final walk to Golgotha show Him carrying a Latin Cross, but that would actually have been all but impossible. Latin crosses would have weighed hundreds of pounds. A man who had just been scourged would have been incapable of dragging the massive cross through the streets. A petibulum, on the other hand, would have weighed around 100 pounds. It would have still been a difficult and painful thing to carry, but the condemned would have been capable of making the walk to the execution site.Given the importance of Christs crucifixion in Christianity, most Christians subconsciously assume that the world stood still during His death. In reality, however, crucifixion would have been a horrific but common sight. Judea and Israel had never suffered occupation quietly. The Jews revolted against every empire that ever tried to control them. The Assyrians and Babylonians both had to fight wars to quell Jewish rebellion even temporarily, and the Seleucid dynasty was driven out of Judea entirely. The Israelites did not submit meekly to Rome either. Small revolts were constantly flaring up in ancient Israel, and Rome was forever attempting to squash any ideas about Jewish independence with limited success. Within Jesus own lifetime there was a rebellion that lead to the capture of over 2,000 Jews. In an effort to crush rebellious sentiment, Rome dealt brutally with rebels. They were tortured and murdered with careful, creative cruelty, and one of Romes preferred methods of execution was crucifixion. Armed rebels would not have been the only ones crucified either. The cross was used to silence anyone who was seen as a potential threat to Roman control. The crucifixion of one more rebel, even one as charismatic and popular as Jesus, would not have stood out in anyones mind until word began circulating that the Galilean teacher had risen from the dead.Ironically enough, the most famous victim of crucifixion actually received a swifter death than most who were nailed to a cross. Jesuss scourging, march to Golgotha, nailing to the cross and death all occurred in a matter of hours. Many crucifixion victims hung on the cross for days. Jesus, by comparison, died quickly.Rome did thousands of crucifixions. According to Josephus, Rome crucified 3,000 Jews in A.D. 7 alone. Roman soldiers were very, very good at making sure their victims stayed alive on the cross as long as possible. Jesus, however, died faster than many crucifixion victims. Interestingly, Jesus relatively swift death may have been deliberate. Jewish law dictates that if a man is impaled on a stake or hung on a tree, both commonly interpreted as forms of crucifixion, the Jews must not let his corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury him the same day. If Rome was willing to respect Jewish laws, crucifixion victims would have needed to be dead before sundown. Archeological and Scriptural evidence suggest that, in the case of Jesus and the two thieves, Roman soldiers and officials were willing to bow to Jewish law and allow crucified men to die must faster than their unfortunate counterparts in other areas. The Bible states that the thieves legs were broken, and Jesus feet are almost always depicted as being impaled one over top of the other by a single nail.Crucifixion forces a persons entire weight to rest on their raised arms and lengthens the chest cavity. This makes breathing naturally almost impossible. Victims would have to push themselves upward to be able to breathe. Once they ran out of energy, they would suffocate. For this reason, the position in which the victim was nailed determined how long they would survive.Those to whom Rome wanted to give especially lingering deaths would have a small seat or step, called a sedile, on the cross to allow them to breathe. Jesus position, however, would have made breathing difficult. Rome would have known this, but may have used the more unusual position in order to ensure He was dead by sundown. Furthermore, the gospels say that the thieves legs were broken. This, again, would have led to a quick death by suffocation rather than leaving them to linger for days. In addition, Jesus body was allowed a proper burial. This was unusual, as most crucifixion victims were left to rot on the cross as a warning to all who saw them, but honorable burials for crucified Jews was not unheard of in Judea. The remains of Yehohanan, son of Hagakol, were found in a respected family tomb, and the nail from his crucifixion was still lodged in his heel bone. Given that Jesus body was handed over to his family and friends and the thieves legs were deliberately broken to hasten their deaths, it is quite possible that the last two people to speak to Jesus before His death were also laid properly to rest.The Bible describes the two unfortunate men crucified alongside Jesus as being a pair of thieves. This, however, is highly unlikely. Roman crucifixions were pageantries of violence, and even proud Romans recognized the sheer horror of the practice. As such, crucifixion was used only in specific circumstances. Roman citizens, such as the Apostle Paul, could not be crucified under Roman law. Even in occupied territories, however, this most awful of punishments was reserved for serious offenses. People found guilty of violent crimes such as murder and disobedient or rebellious slaves would have been crucified, as would those who were found guilty of political crimes against Rome such as treason, sedition, conspiracy and rebellion. As such, it is highly unlikely that the thieves were actually crucified for stealing. Instead, they were probably condemned for rebellion. Judea was a powder keg waiting to go off, and Passover was always the most likely time for a full blown revolt to erupt. After all, the entire holiday is dedicated to remembering when the Jews were freed from oppression.The crucifixion is one of the most important events in the entire Christian religion, but that does not mean that people do not misunderstand elements of the Bibles recounting of it. If anything, the sheer number of people that read and tell the story every year makes it even more likely that people will make a mistake. That does not mean, however, that it is better to only allow those with a serious background in the history and culture of first century Judea share the story of Christs death and resurrection. People can go back and fill in the details and correct the misunderstandings later. The most important thing is to make sure that they get the basics. Jesus did not die, after all, for scholars, experts and elites. He died for those that had needed Him most, for everyday sinners. Indonesian President Joko Widodo (center) walks with Hasto Kristiyanto, secretary general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), for a meeting in Jakarta with leaders of his coalition parties, April 18, 2019. Updated at 5:18 p.m. ET on 2019-04-18 Any post-poll unrest would be dealt with sternly, Indonesias security minister and military chief both warned on Thursday after opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto rejected unofficial counts indicating that incumbent Joko Jokowi Widodo had won the presidential election. Tensions rose after Prabowo claimed victory late Wednesday, hours after polls closed across the country, despite quick counts by at least five independent pollsters showing Jokowi leading with 54 percent of the votes, compared to 46 percent for his challenger. We will not tolerate and will take stern action against attempts to disturb public order or unconstitutional acts that undermine the democratic process, Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, the nations armed forces chief, told a news conference. Security affairs minister Wiranto, who uses only one name, said a turnout of nearly 81 percent gave the election winner strong legitimacy. Despite the competing claims, Wiranto assured the public that soldiers and police could deal with any threat to national security. We appeal to member of the public to remain calm and refrain from engaging in anarchic acts, he said. Jokowi, who claimed victory in a statement late Wednesday, called for calm and said he had confidence in the accuracy of the quick counts. But we are still waiting for the official count from the KPU, Jokowi, 57, told reporters on Thursday, using the acronym for the General Election Commission, which is required to release official results by May 22. He also said he had sent an aide to meet with the Prabowo camp to talk about reducing tensions. But Prabowo remained defiant, claiming victory once again on Thursday. He said his claim was based on his campaign teams own counts that showed him winning 62 percent of the vote in more than 320,000 polling stations. We are declaring our victory early because we have proof that there have been various attempts at fraud in many villages, sub-districts, districts, regencies, and cities across Indonesia, Prabowo told a news conference at his south Jakarta house. Prabowo, a 67-year-old former army special forces commander, was accompanied by his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, and former national assembly chief Amien Rais. The duo were not seen when Prabowo first claimed victory Wednesday night. Nevertheless, Prabowo urged his supporters to remain peaceful. We urge our supporters not to be complacent and refrain from acting excessively, he said. We will be a president and vice president for all Indonesians, for the glory of our beloved Indonesia, he said, ending his speech with cries of Allahu akbar, the Arabic phrase for God is great. Jokowi, meanwhile, said Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, as well leaders from 10 other countries had congratulated him on the peaceful elections. Representatives of other countries also offered their congratulations. This is an interesting experience for me and in my opinion everything went smoothly. It was well organized, a representative of the Japanese Embassy, Miki Nakata, said in a statement received by BenarNews. Quick counts, which have been accurate in previous elections, also showed that Jokowis Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was likely to win the parliamentary elections which were also held on Wednesday with almost 20 percent of the votes. Prabowos Gerindra party was in second place with nearly 13 per cent of the votes, according to quick counts. About 80 percent of 190 million eligible Indonesians voted at some 800,000 polling stations across the country, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Jakarta think-tank. Voters were electing a president, 575 members of the House of Representatives (DPR), 136 members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and almost 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities. Papua residents join vote Seven districts in Papua conducted voting on Thursday after more than 1,000 polling stations failed to provide ballot papers on time, officials said Thursday. More than 160,000 people were expected to cast their votes in 744 polling stations in South Jayapura and Abepura Districts in the regency of Jayapura. Twenty-two regencies had held elections. Only 20 districts in seven regencies conduct the make-up election, Theodorus Kossay, chairman of the Papua Province General Election Commission, told BenarNews. He said bad weather had delayed the distribution of election-related materials. Papua Gov. Lukas Enembe said he was disappointed with the election commission. He was one of many voters who arrived to cast his vote on Wednesday in the provincial capital Jayapura, only to find out that the ballots had not arrived. Victor Mambor in Jayapura, Indonesia contributed to this story. Former ground commander Sivanganam reacts after testifying about human trafficking camps discovered in 2015 outside Wang Kelian during a hearing in Putrajaya, Malaysia. April 18, 2019. A Malaysian police commander testified Thursday that he was ordered to stay away from a human trafficking camp and mass graves of Rohingya and Bangladeshis found near the Thai border in January 2015 after he sent a report about the discovery. Now retired Deputy Superintendent Sivanganam (alias Thirumugan Sathisivam), was ground commander for the Malaysian polices General Operations Force (GOF) in the region when the camp in the jungle outside Wang Kelian was discovered on Jan. 19, 2015. For reasons that remain unclear, police only publicized the discovery of the camp more than three months later, days after news of the grim discovery of mass graves at a similar trafficking camp on the Thai side of the border made international headlines. I was forbidden from returning to that area and when the unit was redeployed, I was ordered to sit out, said Sivanganam while testifying before a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the second day of its first hearings and investigation into the circumstances that led to 106 corpses being unearthed from the Wang Kelian camp in May 2015. The RCI, formed by Malaysias new government in early March and given six months to file a report, is scheduled to hear testimony from a district police chief and special branch officer when the hearing resumes on April 22, but members did not say if additional hearings would be scheduled. Weeks after the RCIs formation, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and legal activist group Fortify Rights questioned why authorities waited so long to allow the removal of the corpses found in the jungle. The groups released a joint 121-page report, Sold Like Fish, based on their own multi-year investigation and more than 270 interviews, which alleged that the delay hindered a proper investigation. Undocumented foreign migrants At the time of the discovery of the camp outside of Wang Kelian in northern Perlis state, authorities detained 38 men whom they suspected of being undocumented foreign migrants but were not linked to human traffickers. When the public finally learned about the camps and graves in May 2015, reports at the time said the camps contained pens likely used as cages to house the trafficking victims, including Rohingya and Bangladeshis. Days earlier in the same month, Thai officials announced that similar graves were found at an abandoned camp in the jungle on their side of Thailands frontier with Malaysia. Since then, the Thai government tried 102 individuals and convicted 62, including a former three-star general. In Malaysia, authorities under the previous government arrested 12 police officers and several foreign nationals in connection with the Wang Kelian case. However in 2017, then-Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters that the officers had been released from custody due to lack of evidence. Four foreigners two Myanmar nationals, a Bangladeshi and a Thai were convicted on human trafficking charges and remain jailed. During the first day of hearings on Wednesday, RCI members were told about how personnel found the campsite by following human tracks and a soapy stream, which led them to a river and a campsite with wooden fixtures resembling guard towers and a shop. I also saw a man, believed to be a Thai, inside one of the towers. At this time, I didnt see any of the illegal immigrants. But I heard noises from a generator ... I think they were producing drugs at the camp, GOF member Cpl. Mat Ten testified, according to the New Straits Times. Report details In his testimony on Thursday, Sivanganam said he sent a report to officials on Jan. 22, 2015, that included a tip received from a local source, who claimed that a human trafficking syndicate had approached him and others to help transport victims from the Wang Kelian area. The source, according to Sivanganams report, had indicated that a local trader called Aziz or Azim served as a middle man to assist with local authorities in the area. I can only identify Aziz as the middle man. But I did not check anything else, Sivanganam testified. I then channeled all the information to the Northern Brigade, Perlis Police chief, Northern Border Intelligence Unit and National Security Council in an incident report on Jan.22, 2015. He said he also passed the report to the Malaysia Human Rights Commission (Suhakam). Sivanganam, who retired from the GOF a few months after the operation, testified that the March 2015 redeployment was similar to routine duties he had carried out beginning in 2009. The GOF serves as a light infantry arm of the Royal Malaysia Police. Asked if he questioned his superior about being pulled from duty, he responded, We just follow orders. Campsite destroyed In addition, Sivanganam said he had participated in destroying the campsite on Jan. 20, 2015. That order was given by the state deputy police chief to his B Company commander, Joeking M. Marian Anthony. The discovery of about 30 graves forced troops to stop the destruction. I immediately directed my team to stop. We lodged a report of the incident at IPD Padang Besar on Jan. 22. We left the graves for the IPK (state police), IPD and forensics to handle, he told investigators. Joeking, who testified ahead of Sivanganam, said he was ordered to get rid of photos of the camp a couple of months after he participated in its destruction. There was a time between March and April 2015 where I received instructions from the commanding officer ordering anyone within the team to destroy photos in their possession related to Wang Kelian, Joeking said, adding the officer asked for the photos to be stored only at the battalion office. Buddhists place banknotes on strings around the Golden Mountain Pagoda for donation at Wat Saket temple in Bangkok, April 13, 2017. A court in Thailand sentenced a senior Buddhist monk to 26 years in prison Thursday after finding him guilty of money laundering when he and another monk embezzled almost U.S. $1 million of government funds that they claimed were earmarked for temples in the Deep South. The conviction took place eight months after another court ordered a former jet-setting member of Thailands Buddhist clergy to serve 114 years in prison for fraud, money laundering and computer crimes. Monk Kitti Patcharakun, 55, the former abbot of Lad Kae Temple in northern Petchaboon province, arrived at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases in Bangkok on Thursday, but was defrocked and sent to a remand house in the Thai capital after being sentenced, pending an appeal. The defendant was found guilty of violation of the 1999 Anti-Money Laundering Act on 13 counts, according to court documents. He is sentenced to three years for each count, but the jail term is reduced to 26 years because the defendant cooperated during hearings. Kitti (alias Somkiat Khanthong) did not talk to the media but his lawyer told reporters he had requested bail and would file an appeal. Prosecutors said Kitti and the former director of the National Buddhism Office (NBO), Nopparat Benjawatananan, siphoned off 28 million baht (U.S. $903,225) by collaborating and falsifying projects for 12 temples in four provinces. The temples did not request funds from the Buddhist Office and received a minuscule amount, prosecutors alleged in the court documents. Kitti and Nopparat claimed that the funds would be used for religious projects, including for temples in the Deep South, prosecutors said. The court indicted Kitti in February last year but Nopparat fled the country during the investigation process. Thailand has more than 61,000 monks and about 80 percent of the nation's 69 million people are Buddhists, who generally make donations believing that offering alms to monks secures them good karma in this life and the next. Last year, about 200 police commandos raided several temples in Bangkok, arresting several monks accused of involvement in a scam in which millions of baht (dollars) of temple funds were allegedly embezzled. At least six senior monks, a few civilians and other former NBO officials have been remanded for hearings. In August last year, a court sentenced Wirapol Sukphol to 114 years in prison also for money laundering, among other charges. Wirapol, 39, provoked outrage in 2013 when a YouTube video showed him wearing designer sunglasses in a private jet with a Louis Vuitton carry-on luggage by his side. As a result of the controversy, Wirapol was defrocked. He was also accused of raping an underage girl and allegedly had sexual relations with several women. While Buddhist monks have taken vows of celibacy and promised to live modest lives, modernization has creeped in, eroding such principles, a worshipper told BenarNews. The problem is that materialism causes some monks and supporters to become materialists as opposed to true Buddhists, said Kasana Lajarochana, an engineer and a Buddhist devotee. We need harsher punishment and efficient enforcement to deter bad people. Six employees from the Transmission and Distribution Department are attending the 2019 Lineman Symposium and Rodeo taking place in St. Kitts. The major objective of the event is to build capacity among Linemen, Supervisors and Line workers through a range of methods which include presentations, teaching modules and practical skill-building activities. The participants will also take part in a technical tour of the electric utility plant in St. Kitts. The symposium is being held under the theme "Caribbean Linesman: Creating Connections; Strengthening Communities. It is being coordinated by the Caribbean Electric Utilities Corporation (CARILEC) in collaboration with St. Kitts Electricity Services Limited. It began on Monday 15th April and will run until Thursday 18th April 18. The week will climax with a rodeo on Saturday, April 20th. The rodeo provides a platform for the Linemen to represent both themselves and their utility, through various competitive pole-climbing events which challenge them to safely demonstrate skill under pressure, with agility and accuracy. The Rodeo requires the Line worker to bring all of his experiences to bear in a series of tasks that demand safe execution with no room for error. VINLEC is being represented by Lamont Sterling, Omar Charles, Aaron Charles, Mowai Latham, Shane McDowall and Supervisor - Dave Dabriel. (Source: VINLEC) The event was held in St. Vincent in 2018. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, my take on the first leg of the Trump-O'Reilly History Tour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices For Immediate Release, April 18, 2019 Contact: Howard Crystal, (202) 809-6926, hcrystal@biologicaldiversity.org Legal Petition: North Carolina Energy Monopolies Violating Customers' First Amendment Rights RALEIGH, N.C. The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a motion to join a legal effort that would ban Duke Energy and other investor-owned public utilities from spending customer money on influence spending in North Carolina. The litigation, initiated in November 2018 by NC Warn and Friends of the Earth, calls on the North Carolina Utilities Commission to enact rules limiting monopoly utilities spending on lobbying and other activities largely supporting the fossil fuel industry. Energy monopolies are handcuffing North Carolina to dirty fossil fuels and spending ratepayer money to keep it that way, said Howard Crystal, a senior attorney at the Center. Residents stuck with utilities like Duke are being forced to fund slick greenwashing campaigns and political activities against their own interests. Investor-owned public utilities in North Carolina spend millions of dollars annually on lobbying, financial contributions to fossil fuel trade associations like Edison Electric Institute, advertising and other activities that promote fossil fuel-generated electricity. This money largely comes from North Carolina ratepayers, who are captive to investor-owned public utilities to provide them electricity. Under Duke Energys monopoly, most North Carolinians do not have any meaningful choice to purchase their electricity from other sources. Todays motion argues that the utilities use of ratepayer money to buy political influence violates the Centers North Carolina members and supporters First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution which protects not only freedom of speech but freedom to avoid subsidizing speech with which an individual disagrees. Duke Energy, the second-largest electric utility in the world, generates 90 percent of the electricity used in North Carolina and emits more carbon pollution than any other U.S. utility. Duke often wields its political influence to block competition from cheaper, cleaner renewable energy sources and instead has pushed for projects like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would cut through North Carolina communities. Our members and supporters in North Carolina have suffered enough from monster hurricanes and toxic coal ash contamination, Crystal said. They want to break free of dirty energy, not bank-roll lobbying and propaganda that will fuel even more climate chaos and pollution. For Immediate Release, April 18, 2019 Contact: Kelley Dennings, (919) 355-8102, kdennings@biologicaldiversity.org Rapid Texas Population Growth Increases Pressure on Imperiled Wildlife Limited Family Planning Access Amplifies Environmental Threats DALLAS U.S. Census Bureau data released today show that Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas, is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States, increasing pressure on the regions endangered species such as whooping cranes and Texas horned lizards. The biggest contributor to growth in Dallas was caused by natural increase, or a higher number of births compared to deaths. The data also found that 4 of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. counties are in Texas, raising concern for imperiled wildlife already stressed by habitat loss, drought and climate-driven extreme weather events. Soaring human populations are putting incredible pressure on endangered wildlife in Texas and across the Southwest, said Kelley Dennings, a population campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. We're crowding out wildlife and destroying wild places at an alarming pace, but Texans dont always have the ability to decide if and when they want to have kids. More reproductive freedom could yield big environmental benefits. Texas has one of the highest unintended pregnancy rates in the country and the highest rate of people lacking health insurance. Much of the state is considered a contraceptive desert, where there are no health centers that offer a full range of family planning services. Family planning, education and access to affordable contraception are crucial factors in addressing unsustainable population growth. People in Texas and across the country deserve full access to contraception, reproductive healthcare and family planning services, Dennings said. These are basic human rights. And theyre critical to tackling the problem of unsustainable population growth. Research shows that lifestyle-related hyperacidity is a growing concern for consumers In order to meet the underlying need and reach a broader audience, Digene has launched a new campaign focusing on providing a scientific solution to lifestyle-related hyperacidity, with Tapsee Pannu who talks about the issues related to life-style related hyperacidity. She represents the challenges and problems faced by modern day consumers. New market research shows that lifestyle-related hyperacidity is a growing concern for consumers. In fact, 61 per cent of the population in urban India suffers from hyperacidity at some point in time. Abbotts Digene, one of the key antacid brands in the country, is a scientifically proven solution to hyperacidity for modern-day hectic lifestyles. While hyperacidity has traditionally been associated by consumers with life-stage or body type, new market research shows that consumers believe hyperacidity is increasingly rooted in the lifestyle they lead. Due to the pressures of urban life, consumers report consumption of more culprit foods than ever, erratic eating habits and an increase in stress and tension. And data from one study found that nearly 70 per cent of acid reflux patients were aged below 50 years. This indicates that hyperacidity and related conditions are increasingly being driven by lifestyle factors and are thus more prevalent among younger populations. Dr. Srirupa Das, Director, Medical Affairs at Abbott explains, Digene provides fast and effective relief based on science, with active ingredients that relieve symptoms and protect the stomach lining. This translates into better relief which means people can get back to living their life. Commenting on the scientific approach presented to younger consumers, Ambati Venu, Managing Director, Abbott India Limited said, Research indicates one of the leading causes of hyperacidity is hectic and erratic lifestyle, which is common among todays urban consumers. Digene is an effective solution that is trusted by most doctors in India. Importantly, the product is backed by science through its high acid neutralizing capacity. As we further grow our consumer portfolio in the country, Abbott is committed to providing scientific solutions to help people get and stay healthy. Digene has been available in India for nearly 90 years, and is mostly prescribed antacid among doctors. Moreover, its efficacy is rooted in science. It has what is called high acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), which means it is very effective at reducing the acid in a persons stomach to give them relief. New executives will contribute scientific, operational and consulting expertise to support Simcyps growing footprint in drug development and regulatory decision-making Certara, the global leader in model-informed drug development, regulatory science, real-world evidence and market access services has announced four senior executive appointments in its Simcyp division. Simcyp is the leading provider of innovative mechanistic modeling technologies used to inform drug development, including physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK), quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) and quantitative systems toxicology and safety (QSTS) approaches. For example, the Simcyp Simulator has been used to inform 50 novel drug applications, including more than 200 label claims made without the need for clinical trials. Rob Aspbury, PhD, joins Simcyp as Chief Operating Officer; Frederic Yves Bois, PharmD, PhD, is the divisions new Senior Scientific Advisor and Head of Mechanistic Modeling;Will Redfern, PhD, is Vice President, Quantitative Systems Toxicology and Safety; and Noriko Okudaira, PhD, is Senior Consultant/Scientific Advisor supporting Certaras clients locally in Japan. Dr. Aspbury brings more than 17 years commercial and scientific leadership experience with Covance to Certara. Dr. Aspbury was appointed Global Finance Director for Covances Clinical Pharmacology Services Division in 2003 and was rapidly promoted within the division to Managing Director, then Vice President, Europe, and later Vice President and General Manager, Global. His most recent appointment was Vice President of Covance Strategic Solutions, Biosimilars. Dr. Bois was Research Director of the French National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS) before joining Certara. For six years, he also served in parallel as Professor and Chair of Mathematical Modeling for Systems Toxicology at UTC and INERIS. Dr. Bois is a recognized expert in Bayesian calibration of complex differential equation-based models. He has also served as a public health policy and regulatory risk assessment consultant to the US FDA, EPA and OSHA, the European Commission, and the French Ministry of the Environment. Dr. Bois is author or co-author of more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and recipient of the American Statistical Associations Outstanding Statistical Application Award, and the French Epidaure Prize for Environmental Health Research. Dr. Redfern is an international key opinion leader with more than 30 years experience in in vivo central nervous system and cardiovascular safety pharmacology. He joins Certara from AstraZeneca R&D in Cambridge (UK) where he was Principal Scientist for Safety and Mechanistic Pharmacology. Dr. Redfern is author or co-author of 36 peer-reviewed articles, six book chapters, 91 conference proceedings abstracts, and two drug patents. He is a past president of the Safety Pharmacology Society and has received both the organizations Technological Innovation Award and its Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Okudaira comes to Certara from Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. where she served as Director of the Clinical Pharmacology Department. Prior to that, she was Senior Researcher and later Senior Director of Daiichi Sankyos Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetic Research Laboratories. Warm welcome for Minerva Birmingham new collaboration between Aston Business School, University of Birmingham and Minerva Business Angels launches The Minerva Birmingham team from left to right: Alex Toft Head of Minerva Business Angels, David Coleman Head of Enterprise Acceleration, University of Birmingham and Paula Whitehouse Associate Dean for Enterprise, Aston Business School. West Midlands business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors have welcomed the launch of a new angel investment network for the region. Minerva Birmingham, a new collaboration between Aston University, University of Birmingham and Minerva Business Angels, part of the University of Warwick Science Park, held its inaugural pitching event at Aston University on 9 April. The launch event was formally opened by Professor George Feiger, Executive Dean of Aston Business School, and attended by more than 80 delegates. Recalling how surprised he was on arriving in the UK from San Francisco and finding how little funding was available in the region for any start-ups, Professor Feiger highlighted the importance of innovative finance initiatives in supporting our local entrepreneurs, and said: Aston enthusiastically supports the formation of the Minerva Birmingham Angel group. We have longstanding deep connections to small business and entrepreneurship in our city, our region and the country at large. Working with our partners to further develop this initiative will support entrepreneurs in our networks to pitch for investment and increase the level of knowledge and activity around early stage investment in our region. Liz McKenzie, angel investor and Vice Chair of the West Midlands Growth Company, spoke about her positive experience of being an investor and urged others to follow suit: Being able to work as a collective with like-minded individuals from a broad church of experience who are all successful in their own right is great, its both effective and enjoyable. The way their connectivity assists growing companies is genuinely impressive. We need more Angels to come on board. David Coleman, Head of Enterprise Acceleration at University of Birmingham Enterprise, added: We are very conscious that Minerva Birmingham will help promote our regional businesses as well as our spinouts to those outside the region, particularly in London and the South East, who are willing and able to invest. But we also want to encourage and develop our own locally based angel investors who a passion to help our regional businesses, but perhaps dont know about or who have yet to explore the opportunities on offer. Eileen Schofield, Chair of Birmingham Law Society, described the event as: A great initiative to help breakdown those barriers for both companies to raise money for growth and investors to come forward. I hope to see more of these events which reach a wider group of business and investors with the support and backing of Minerva business angels." A key function of the new group is also to raise the profile of the opportunities to be gained both for growth companies and potential investors within the Midlands and to work at countering the regional difference between the Midlands and the South East. From 1.8bn invested through to Enterprise investment scheme in 2017 only around 2.6% was invested in the West Midlands versus 56% in the South East the majority being London based companies. Improving the investment culture in the Midlands is a key challenge for the new group. All four companies who pitched at the launch event including Linear Diagnostics, a University of Birmingham spinout, received expressions of interest and look forward to working with that interest. Minerva Birmingham plans further events including embarking on a programme to provide training for those interested in becoming an Angel investor. Minerva Birminghams next event will be in June and anybody interested in becoming an investor should contact them at support@minerva.uk.net. Companies should apply through the Minerva website. Notes to editors About the University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the worlds top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 5,000 international students from over 150 countries. About the University of Birmingham Enterprise The University of Birmingham Enterprise supports innovators and entrepreneurs who want to take their ideas to market and grow their business. We do this by providing enterprise training, funding, office and laboratory space, as well as a full technology transfer service. The University of Birmingham Enterprise manages the incubation services and facilities at the Birmingham Research Park, including the BizzInn and BioHub Birmingham. Minerva is part of the University of Warwick Science Park Ltd and is an organisation which has helped over 70 companies received more than 11 million through its network of Angel investors attracting around a further 35 million in co-investment About Aston University Founded in 1895 and a University since 1966, Aston is a long established university led by its three main beneficiaries students, business and the professions, and our region and society. Aston University is located in Birmingham and at the heart of a vibrant city and the campus houses all the universitys academic, social and accommodation facilities for our students. Professor Alec Cameron is the Vice Chancellor & Chief Executive. Aston Centre for Growth Aston Centre for Growth offers leading growth programmes and other opportunities for SME owners looking to grow their business. Aston University has held the Small Business Charter since 2014, reflecting its expertise in SME engagement. We have experience of working with hundreds of SMEs to support their business growth, with investment-ready pitching competitions, through our student-focused start-up support and incubation centre and on high profile programmes such as Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. Unidentified men arrested Jones Abiri, the editor and publisher of the Weekly Source newspaper, in the Bayelsa state capital, Yenagoa, according to news reports, as well as a local activist with whom CPJ spoke and posts on social media. Jones Abiri, editor and publisher, Weekly Source. According to the independent news website Sahara Reporters , Abiri, who was meeting publishing colleagues in Yenagoa, was accosted by unidentified armed men--reported by Sahara Reporters to be members of Nigeria's Department of State Security (DSS)--and told that he was under arrest. Abiri was then forced into a vehicle at gunpoint; his whereabouts are currently unknown, according to Sahara Reporters. Bayelsa environmental activist and contributor to the Weekly Source Alagoa Morris told CPJ that he had received reports of Abiri's arrest from colleagues and community members from Abiri's home village. DSS spokesman Peter Afunanya did not answer his cellphone or respond to a WhatsApp message when CPJ contacted him for comment."Given that Jones Abiri was previously detained by intelligence officers without access to a lawyer or his family for two years, we are deeply worried that he has once again been arrested and that hs whereabouts are not known," said Angela Quintal, CPJ's Africa program coordinator. "We call on federal and state authorities in Nigeria to disclose where Abiri is being detained and the reasons for his arrest, and urge that they ensure that his rights are not violated yet again and that due process is respected."Abiri was released in August 2018 after two years in detention following a campaign by local and international rights organisations including CPJ who documented his case during that period. In two separate cases last year, one court threw out the case against Abiri, saying it did not have jurisdiction, and another ordered the DSS to pay damages for the journalist's illegal detention and violating his human rights. TBWA's Tessa Conrad on how SA rates in the global arena of innovation and disruption Canadian-born Tessa Conrad, global director of operations at TBWA\Worldwide's headquarters in New York, recently visited TBWA\South Africa's Johannesburg office where she did a series of presentations and assisted the local team in producing a module for DLearn. Tessa Conrad Conrad's role entails concepting innovations for the agency and its clients and seeing them through to implementation. With a focus on digital, data, tools, partnerships and ways of working, she helps key offices and clients on their path for growth. Among the likes of Nissan, Infiniti, Datsun, McDonalds, Apple, Henkel, one2free, H&M and more. Here, she shares some insights on how South Africa rates in the global arena of innovation and disruption as sustainable business operating models and how they impact the companys objectives and the greater industry... What brings you to SA? What brings you to SA? Conrad's role entails concepting innovations for the agency and its clients and seeing them through to implementation. With a focus on digital, data, tools, partnerships and ways of working, she helps key offices and clients on their path for growth. Among the likes of Nissan, Infiniti, Datsun, McDonalds, Apple, Henkel, one2free, H&M and more.Here, she shares some insights on how South Africa rates in the global arena of innovation and disruption as sustainable business operating models and how they impact the companys objectives and the greater industry... Describe your role in more detail. Describe your role in more detail. Building and revamping around Disruption Live, which is our way of working across people, process and tools. Integrating digital and innovation into how we work while also ensuring we have some envelope-pushing craft and ideas as well. Further our data capabilities across the collective. Building bespoke teams for clients to customise how we work with them. What do you love most about the agency and where its going? What do you love most about the agency and where its going? How does South Africa rate in the global arena in terms of innovation, creativity and disruption? How does South Africa rate in the global arena in terms of innovation, creativity and disruption? South Africa is also special outside of TBWA given the leapfrog way the continent tackles innovation. While there are some trends where it hasnt progressed as quickly as some other regions and countries, its perfectly primed to surpass those with the right steps and an early-adoptive culture. What are some trends that companies need to be planning for and activating against? What are some trends that companies need to be planning for and activating against? Any suggested new ways of working? Any suggested new ways of working? Tell us more about Disruption Live and of course, referencing your Breaking Ballet which won an award for disruption Tell us more about Disruption Live and of course, referencing your Breaking Ballet which won an award for disruption Comment on the current state of the industry and its transformation from specialised and siloed to needing more integration. Comment on the current state of the industry and its transformation from specialised and siloed to needing more integration. Whats next for TBWA? Whats next for TBWA? Jessica Tennant's articles About Jessica Tennant Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. moc.ytinummoczib@swengnitekram Im lucky enough to be able to come to South Africa to meet some of the clients as well as with the agency, around how to continue to push for innovation as it relates to creativity and how we work.Weve been doing some more work around how to make sure we are building for whats next so that we can continue to work with clients on future-proofing their business.Disruption is always key to what we do and were using innovation to ensure it brings impact for key business objectives to give our clients a larger share of the future.Im a Canadian that joined the company in Hong Kong before making the move to the USA, so Im able to bring a bit of an international perspective to the table. I focus on a few key things for TBWA, such as:What I love most about our collective is just that that were a collective rather than a network and I think that mostly resonates with me in relation to the people that our collective is made up of. The people I get to meet in my travels and work with from all around the world are insanely smart, driven, always pushing innovation and provocative all things that I love and respect. Its a privilege to be able to work with and learn from people like this who are consistently at the top of their game.Its amazing being in South Africa as its such a vibrant place with amazing people and a variety of perspectives. In my trips here and through working with the office and the region from afar, it has always captured a special place in my heart due to how open the people are when it comes both to scaling innovation as well as in bringing new innovations to the table that we can grow globally.Theres a slew of innovation trends that companies need to be planning for and activating against, both with regards to creative communications being put into the markets, as well as shifts in how businesses can change and how they operate to be future-proofed.Its also important to note that innovation relates to anything where theres a shift creating an opportunity for evolving and creating its not limited to new technology, which people can sometimes mistakenly solely equate innovation to.Voice is a big one. Making sure that its a touchpoint thats always thought of and created for when it comes to crafting and activating against customer journeys. Also, using it to open up accessibility to brands and consumer-driven interactions. This is only going to continue to grow, so we need to be activating and concepting against this now.Influencer marketing is another one. While its been talked about for a while now, we see it segmenting more across mega, macro, micro and nano influencers both in how they can be worked with as touchpoints within themselves and in how businesses need to change to be able to efficiently and effectively build strategic outputs with them. Then, considering things more on the cusp of innovation like AI influencers, where we can work with brands to craft the exact experience they want an influencer to evoke this is exciting.Work revolution is yet another trend that businesses need to adapt to. This comes through in the consumers you are serving and how they are defining a large part of their lives through how they work and what they need from work. It also comes through how companies are able to evolve to attract, retain and train their people to be the strongest, most empowered workforce possible. Touching on aspects like flexible working hours, new tools, new ways of working and the like, theres so much innovation across this wider trend.With Disruption Live, were set up to work at a quick pace and with scale to create relevant work for brands that drives business impact.With the move towards further integration and ensuring teams and offices have the right people across the right disciplines working together, Disruption Live sets us up to be able to continue to evolve how we work and to be able to do it at speed.Disruption Live is how we use our disruption methodology in a practical sense, across people, tools and processes. A few years back, we worked to get TBWA globally working in this way to ensure we can work with clients at speed and scale, while ensuring we bring culturally relevant and driven ideas.For TBWA, disruption is our driver and through this, we have a common language that lets us take on very open and quick collaboration across our global offices, which is crucial.Disruption Live specifically helps us ensure we have and upskill the right people in our business to be able to behave and deliver this way.With an ever-growing amount of tools out there, we constantly adapt which tools we use and how, to suit our ways of working, which also changes for different markets and clients.While processes can sometimes be seen as a boring word, I believe the Disruption Live processes are what help us get a consistent level of strategic and creative craft in how we crack ideas and deliver them, ensuring were on the same page and ready to deliver.With the people, tools and processes in place, were then able to locally adapt to how we need to operate and collaborate with our clients.Breaking Ballet is a clear example of Disruption Live at its finest. Its a platform idea built around the need to reframe ballet in the eyes of a younger generation and show its relevance. With that platform goal of driving cultural relevance set, the team then created a format to consistently deliver against, to keep production at speed and scale. Then with the format set, each version created for that was able to be directly relevant to cultural moments of the now spanning fromthrough to the water crisis. This is a prime way of using Disruption Live to help set the idea and strategy, while then enacting the necessary processes to be able to consistently deliver culturally relevant material against. It was brilliant to see the team come together to create this and I love seeing their success.With the rise of digital being ever-present, its no longer enough to have digital specialists that are tapped for key digital activations. Its got to be integrated with opportunities for specialised craft, in order to build a cohesive brand experience regardless of which touchpoint a consumer is starting from.This is also interesting when we look towards data or performance marketing or similar offerings that often are viewed as more specialised. While its important to have it as an offering, its crucial to be able to work specialisations like this into the norm of how businesses and agencies work in an everyday fashion. This is what creates cohesion again and makes room for more impactful marketing and innovation.TBWA is the number one global agency collective in the world and is also onlist of most innovative companies. Were happy with the progress weve made over the years but are working hard to make sure we continue towards whats next even more vigorously, without taking a pause and getting comfortable.Our use of data in the conceptualisation and development of insightful and culturally relevant work is crucial. Continuing the push on using data to drive each step of how we work as The Disruption Company is a key focus for us. Using data for measuring and optimisation is table stakes now but using it in a way to help differentiate our clients brands is where were driving.Continually evolving how we work through Disruption Live is also crucial, in how we operate as a business and ensure were a solid collaboration partner. This means that being constantly aware of and activating against innovations and shifts as they relate to talent, tools and ways of working is key for us. Hyacinth Williams can smile, now that she was given a suspended sentence. (Facebook photo) Hyacinth Williams, a 44-year-old woman of Redemption Sharpes, who took matters into her own hands and slapped a 16-year-old Bishops College Kingstown female student, was on Monday ordered to pay compensation to the victim, and placed on a suspended sentence. Wiliams was sentenced to six months imprisonment, but that sentence was suspended. She was also ordered to pay $500 compensation to the victim by April 30. In default, she would go to prison for three months. However, Williams may have received a custodial sentence, had it not been for the intervention of Attorney Grant Connell, and documentation before the Court, confirming that her 5-year-old son was suffering from cancer. Williams had pleaded guilty to assaulting Jada Palmer, causing her bodily harm, February 28. The facts showed that Williams, on receiving certain information, regarding her daughter, approached Palmer, as she exited the entrance of the school, during school hours, started arguing with the student, and slapped her. Williams told the Court that she approached the student to speak to her in relation to another girl, who was harassing her daughter, also a student of that school, and Palmer proceeded to curse her. During the exchange, Palmers hand grazed her face, and she (Williams) slapped her. Senior Prosecutor Adolphus Delpleche said it surprises him that a parent, instead of seeking to resolve the matter amicably, would take matters into her own hands and slap a student. Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne told Williams that the best thing to have done was to go to the schools Principal. According to Delpleche, "If every parent is to do that, we would have anarchy. The Magistrate stressed the extreme aggravating factors of the case, and said she would have to adjourn the matter to decide what penalty to impose. It was at this stage that Williams informed the Court that her 5-year-old son was battling with cancer. The matter was then stood down to have this confirmed. In the Interim, Williams sought Connells assistance and he obtained medical documentation confirming that the 5-year-old was indeed being treated for cancer. This was presented to the Court when the matter resumed. "If she is sent to prison, it can have a corrosive effect on her and her family. "I am certain that she is one that has learnt from her lesson. She erred. I am humbly asking the Court to temper justice with mercy, he pleaded. He noted that the woman pleaded guilty, and had no previous convictions. Delpleche agreed that the offence warranted a custodial sentence, but, given the documentation before the Court, he also agreed that the sentence should be suspended. The Chief Magistrate, however, thought that a clear message should be sent out, since the student, who was slapped while in uniform, suffered physical and psychological damage. She noted that the incident occurred in public, and in the presence of children. The Prosecutor told the woman, "This child can be your daughter too, and questioned, "Why would a parent go to a school and take matters in their own hands? Why would a parent go to a school to take on a student?Connell agreed that a custodial sentence was justified in the circumstances, but suggested that it be suspended.The lawyer described the incident as very unfortunate, but added, "There is always the possibility of healing.As a result, the Magistrate ordered compensation, in addition to the suspended sentence. Following its appointment to Maluti Mountain Cement in 2018, Boomtown has successfully rolled out the launch campaign for the Lesotho-based challenger brand. The highly regarded Lephema family from Lesotho partnered with international cement company and Boomtown client, Lafarge, to launch Maluti Mountain Cement. A product that carries the Lephema name with pride, the inception of the brand marks the beginning of a fruitful partnership with the worlds leading building materials supplier.The brand name draws on the strength of the Maluti Mountains and the haven it has created for the region. The campaign line, Our Mountain. Our Cement, looks to empower the people of Lesotho to build mountains and safe havens of their own. Were launching an infant brand and have developed a brand strategy, an integrated communications plan, the corporate identity (CI), packaging, collateral and an above-the-line launch campaign, remarks Boomtown Strategic Director, Glen Meier.Retaining the gold of Lephema Executive Group, the brand platform and bold iconography of the CI is a result of a full trade immersion exercise which included store visits and meeting individuals who have or will build their own home. Understanding the pride people have in their homes and that there are only two cement competitors within Lesotho, Maluti Mountain Cement is a strong challenger brand.The mountains of Lesotho are a symbol of strength and safety for the nation, remarks Maluti Mountain Cement Managing Director, Lebona Lephema. When our customers use our product, we want them to know they are building with the best so they can hold a sense of pride as they build their haven and mountain. For more than 180 years, Lafarge has provided integrated solutions and high-tech materials that build communities. Our family too has become synonymous with quality and reliability across Lesothos industries, so the partnership is as solid as the structures Maluti Mountain Cement will build and support."Boomtown is now working on a media campaign which includes radio advertising, print and the use of billboards and lamp poles in key locations. #IABSummit19: The new now Ahead of this year's IAB Summit, taking place 30 May at the Joburg Theatre in Braamfontein, we interviewed IAB SA CEO Paula Hulley to find out what to expect from this year's theme and insights and to talk us through the behind-the-scenes of what it takes to organise such an event... Image source: Gallo/Getty The Summit speaks to 'The new now! Transformation through the power of digital' and will provide insights into how the marketing and media industry can better navigate and thrive in the digital economy. We are working and living in a digital economy, whether it is to buy data on USSD, integrate a cloud-based CRM business platform, bank online, register for high school, deploy targeted advertising on the open exchange or through a private marketplace, promote our company or personal profile on social media or leverage Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace to directly sell products (or buy a car), says Hulley, explaining what the IAB means by the new now. #BizTrends2019: The transformative power of transparency Here, she goes on to tell us what we can expect from the Summit this year... Give us a sneak peek of the speaker lineup. Give us a sneak peek of the speaker lineup. The Summit speaks toand will provide insights into how the marketing and media industry can better navigate and thrive in the digital economy.We are working and living in a digital economy, whether it is to buy data on USSD, integrate a cloud-based CRM business platform, bank online, register for high school, deploy targeted advertising on the open exchange or through a private marketplace, promote our company or personal profile on social media or leverage Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace to directly sell products (or buy a car), says Hulley, explaining what the IAB means by the new now.Here, she goes on to tell us what we can expect from the Summit this year... What is the direct brand economy and direct to digital branding? What is the direct brand economy and direct to digital branding? How does it work? How does it work? What's happening on the IAB Summit fringe? What's happening on the IAB Summit fringe? Why is it important that the event is interactive? Why is it important that the event is interactive? What are you hoping will be the key takeaways for event attendees and other stakeholders? What are you hoping will be the key takeaways for event attendees and other stakeholders? What value will event sponsors derive from associating with the event? What value will event sponsors derive from associating with the event? So, how do we sign up? So, how do we sign up? Jessica Tennant's articles About Jessica Tennant Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. moc.ytinummoczib@swengnitekram We are very excited about the diverse range of speakers and interactive thought leadership at this years Summit. Our agenda and speaker lineup deliver the insights and input required to better understand and equip oneself to thrive in the digital economy.Accenture Interactive South Africas MD Wayne Hull kicks off the day with Leading in the New a necessary adrenaline boost to get us to sit up and think about the changes we are facing across the industry and how we can rise to the challenge. Followed by Duduzile Mkhwanazi, CEO of Project Isizwe on her experience, insights and learnings on empowering the connected community and connected city. Marcel Botha, founder and CEO of 10xBeta joins us from New York to speak to manufactured stories, as the world consolidates and intersects across advertising, product development, bioscience and social good. Media24 shares insights on the latest mobile case studies, DStv Media speaks to the new now in broadcast and our expert panel addresses Relationships Behind the Technology, which are so important as we move into an age of automation.We are also especially excited that our MC for the Summit is a leader from the media and marketing industry - IAB member, IAB Innovation councillor and now MC of IAB Insights: Samu Makhathini from Kantar South Africa, an insight-driven specialist what more could we ask for as the industry body that delivers smart, actionable and motivating insights to make better digital decisions and empowers you to thrive in the digital economy.Direct brands connect and commercially engage with their customers directly digital platforms are at the core of both their operations and their communications. They typically create value through low-barrier, capital flexible, leased or rented supply chains, with value extraction accomplished primarily through these direct relationships.The operating and financial models demand a new way of working that is here (now!) and it is exponentially changing the business process to do good business. It is also fundamentally changing the skills we need to be relevant and the education required to do so, as automation and machine learning take their place in our daily lives. UCook in South Africa is a great example and founder David Torr will be addressing 10 key learnings, as part of our 10x10 DBE format.To create an energised and interactive format that delivers insights to empower the media and marketing industry to thrive in the digital economy, the 10x10 format creates a space for a selection of our Summit speakers to share short bursts of insights from their experience leading in the direct brand and digital economy. They will share 10 values, principles or lessons they have learned with 10 slides in 10 minutes. Our Summit audience will walk away with 30 new insights in 30 minutes in this segment of the Summit.Outside of the auditorium where the speakers share their insights we also have a few interactive experiences to deliver on our Summit objectives. Interactive Pods to engage directly with the digital medium and learn more from our Summit partners takes place in our networking breaks, including the 10xbeta stand and Googles virtual paintbrush. Bizcommunitys BizTrends panel is also part of our interactive live content lineup to better understand and learn from additional experts attending the Summit.As the Interactive Advertising Bureau, it is important to us that our Summit is not just a lineup of one-way communication but that we are also learning through interactions throughout the course of the day. This includes our Interactive Up! segments, including YouTube specialist Special Effects Media, who will teach us to shoot and edit video on our phones, as well as Associated Media Publishersdeputy editor, Noxolo Mafu, engaging on Ready to Shop and the role of interactive media in driving commerce between print and digital. Plus a few great prizes to be won. Of course, the networking over lunch and after the event has always been a big part of the reason we have such strong attendance at our Summit events.Attendees will walk away with a new way of thinking to create positive forward momentum in the digital economy, a few new tools in your toolkit, new connections for the powerful partnerships and collaboration required to thrive in the digital economy and most importantly a raised awareness of the new now and the power of digital to transform across our industry.The Summit is a thought leadership platform and partnership connecting all 170 IAB SA company members across our online publisher, agency, brand and specialist networks. We reach an incredible and relevant audience through our media partners, as well as through our own channels, with insights at the core of all we do. To associate with the Summit is to invest in the industry and propel the media and marketing ecosystem forwards. We are very proud to enable this remarkable platform for our industry to support and invest back in the industry.Summit sponsors will be associated with state-of-the-industry thinking in digital content and companies, exposure to event attendees and via all IAB channels. Sponsors will also benefit from pre-event Bizcommunity interviews, live video from the event and a year of exposure in the IAB special section on Bizcommunity To book your ticket click here or to learn more about the programme, event sponsors and the lineup of the day, visit the event website and remember, IAB members get a discount!Follow these easy steps to book on Howler: Log onto Howler here . Register as a user with your name and email address. Select your ticket option IAB member or standard ticket. Indicate the number of tickets you require. Enter your name and email address as the first ticket holder (i.e. must match the registered user as per the login). Enter the names and email addresses of all ticket holders. Complete the payment process.Should you require an invoice for your ticket purchase on Howler, please contact ten.asbai@nerak with your ticketing information and invoicing details and well send you an invoice for your records. I had the privilege to attend the Global Education Skills Forum in Dubai, which took place from the 22nd to the 24th of March 2019. Organised by the Varkey Foundation, GESF is attended by more than 2,000 delegates from across the world who are eager to share, debate and shape new ways for education to transform our world. 1. Leadership: The biggest component missing in education? Approximately 75-80% of students are attending largely dysfunctional schools 66% of Grade 9 students cannot do basic maths After a full 4 years of education, 78% of SA children cannot read with comprehension 2. What makes a 21st-century education? 3. Who can be a change maker? 4. Teaching the world how to be one human family GESF 2019 bought together leaders from the public, private and social sectors including 1 head of government, 7 former heads of government, 40 ministers of education, 297 speakers, 124 public sessions, 200+ media, 144 countries, 2000+ delegates, 100+ teachers and 64 grant-making organisations. Amongst the attendees was Dubai crown prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mahmmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, former UK prime minister Tony Blair, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng, former minister of education in Zimbabwe, David Coltart, Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia and Sizwe Nxasana, founder and CEO of Future Nation Schools South Africa amongst others.Being amongst people who are dedicated to shape new ways of education and to transform the world I was reminded of my quest towards contributing to improving the education system in South Africa and Africa at large and provision of quality education for all children. Undoubtedly, education is the key to solving global issues!Below are my 4 key-takeouts from the GESF conference:In South Africa, we have 20 000 schools and school principals thereof who have been teachers and have been promoted to be the school principal without any knowledge, skills or training to lead one of the complex organisations, a school. School leadership remains a concern that has affected the entire schooling system. The countrys education system is characterised by severe underperformance and is failing the majority of young people in South Africa.There is increasing recognition that the role of school principals is not only critical but highly specialised and that school leadership is the critical factor in turning around an education system in crisis. What if every principle of a school had a strong team of supporters?The world is changing faster than ever before, and there are huge global challenges that need to be overcome. The volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world requires learners to be able to continually adapt to it, and they need to learn the skills necessary to change the world for the better.Adaptive teaching is one of the components that make 21st-century education. It is an approach that requires teachers to micro-adapt their instruction on a continuous basis. Teachers perform a continuous and often informal assessment of their students strengths and weaknesses and modify their teaching accordingly. The key aspect of this approach is that it makes children become responsible for and drive their own learning.Adaptive learning is a concept which I believe has the potential to assist society on how to rethink on how schools are organised and to equip everyone with competencies to reach their full potential.We don't know what the future will look like, we can certainly be sure that it will change again and we will have to re-adapt!The world is enjoying unprecedented social, economic and technological progress, which is transforming how we interact on a global scale. Regardless of the obvious leaps which we have made in recent years, challenges remain, with millions of people still being failed by the systems supposed to serve them.It is evident that the solutions to these challenges wont be found merely by looking to the traditional models of global policymaking, business and philanthropy. Instead, a new generation of ordinary people is taking some of the worlds biggest issues head-on and finding innovative solutions. They are the change makers! Everyone has the potential to be a change maker.Changemakers are philanthropists and innovators who focus on transforming the world around them into a better place for all. They are those who grasp opportunities, come from any walk of life and from anywhere on the planet. Everyone has the potential to be a change maker. What if we are the leaders we have been waiting for?Education is a vital tool in helping us reach the goal of one human family through providing access to success and progress in building bridges between human society and breaking down barriers as well building mutual trust and cooperation which are all basic requirements for global progress and world peace.The big question remains: how do teachers teach tolerance and equip their students to be accepting of differences between ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds?The 2018 Global Teacher Prize winner, Marjorie Brown from South Africa encourages listening and empathy among her students and this has been influential in transforming the countrys history syllabus. She mentions that everyone has to understand themselves and be prepared to grow. In order for diversity to prevail, we have to have a growth mindset.Social justice and the need for dialogue are embedded in South Africas new constitution, but Brown says the world has to ensure that dialogue and freedom of speech dont lead to more segregation and more hate.What is your contribution towards teaching the world to be one human family? This job expired on 10 May 2019. By Azernews By Leman Mammadova Digitalization is an important component of the dynamics of the global economys development. Movement towards a digital economy is officially one of the priorities of a number of countries, both the developed and developing ones. Digital development in the field of information technology is one of the priorities for Azerbaijan, and this process is of great interest both for the country and for the member states of the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications (RCC), said Elmir Velizade, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan. He made the remarks at the 6th meeting of the High-Level Working Group on the Development of the Information Society held in Baku on April 17. The event was organized by RCC and the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan. Velizade told reporters that discussing the outcomes of the recent World Summit Forum on Information Society, evaluation of digital development in countries as well as exchanging information on the activities of the countries in this area, evaluation of preparatory work on application of the 5th generation new mobile technology, cyber security issues and many issues related to the development of information societies were the key topics of the agenda. The event participants also discussed the priority areas of the activities of the High-Level Working Group in 2019-2025, a draft economic development strategy for the CIS countries until 2030, implementation of the projects entitled "Concepts of cooperation among CIS member states in the field of digital development" and the "Plan of priority actions on its implementation". They also spoke about challenges faced by telecom operators as part of the implementation of digital economy programs in RCC member states as well as cooperation of RCC participants and development of the joint approaches in Internet governance. The high-level working group on the development of the information society is a collegial working body of the RCC Communications Administrations Heads Council. It serves the objectives of the development of the information society in the RCC member states. The development of digital sales channels, internet and mobile banking in Azerbaijan is envisaged in the Strategic Road Map for the Development of Financial Services. It is expected that in 2020, as a result of digitalization, Azerbaijans GDP will increase by 135 million manats. Digitalization will make it possible to increase the total income of banks by 20 percent in 2020. International experts believe that the full use of non-cash settlements in Baku will lead to an increase of $1.9 billion in revenues, including in business income by $1.4 billion, governments revenues by $400 million, and consumers income by $100 million. It is noteworthy that the velocity of circulation of cash is lower than that of electronic payments, the cash flow is less transparent, and therefore more adapted to the shadow economy. In addition, cash is subject to high risks of impairment from inflation and other economic fluctuations. According to international studies, there are three major positive effects from an increase in the share of non-cash money in the economy: Transparency - a group of effects associated with better accounting of monetary transactions, increasing tax collection, reducing the share of the shadow economy, reducing the operating costs of various businesses, etc. Sustainability - systems with a high proportion of non-cash payments, according to a number of studies, are more resistant to fluctuations in the economic environment in the phases of recession. Growth - a number of studies indicate the direct effect of increasing the share of non-cash payments on overall economic growth through increasing the speed of transactions and increasing their number by reducing the cost of each transaction. By Azernews By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade In recent years, Azerbaijan has taken active steps to enhance local production of cars. A number of car manufacture and assembly plants have been opened in different regions of the country. Market Analysis Azerbaijan 2019, presented by the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (AHK Azerbaijan), reads that production in the automotive industry of Azerbaijan will reach $20 million this year and $70 million by 2022. In 2017, the automotive industry experienced a decline. As such, 30 cars were produced in 2017, while the identical figures for 2016 and 2015 were 300 and 700, respectively. "However, there was a jump in 2018, and 969 cars were produced in the country," the publication says. Azerbaijan has been paying special attention to the development of the automotive industry in recent years. The Khazar car plant, built by AzerMash, is located in southeast Azerbaijan in the Neftchala Industrial Site. All cars produced there comply with Euro 5 standards. Cars have been sold since summer 2018. In August 2016, big Iranian automaker Iran Khodro and Azerbaijani company AzEuroCar, a subsidiary of AzerMash, signed an agreement to establish a joint automobile plant in Neftchala. The Azerbaijani side invested 75 percent of funds in the plant, while the Iranian side invested 25 percent. In addition, the groundbreaking ceremony of the GAZ cars assembly plant was held in Azerbaijan's Hajigabul industrial area this February. The estimated investment in the new plant is 14 million manats (over $8 million). The plant owned by AzerMash will assemble a line of 12 types of light-duty Russian trucks of the GAZ Group, the output of which is scheduled for the second half of 2020. At the initial stage, 100 people will work there, while the assembly volume can reach up to 1,000 cars a year. AzEuroCar will deal with the distribution and maintenance of GAZ vehicles in Azerbaijan. Moreover, a plant in Nakhchivan opened in 2010 assembles eight models of Lifan passenger cars designed by Chinas Lifan Group, which provides all the necessary spare parts for cars to the plant, so they may be assembled in Azerbaijan under the direct supervision of Chinese automotive specialists. PR Newswire SHANGHAI, April 17, 2019 SHANGHAI, April 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers (T&AP), a business unit of DowDuPont Specialty Products Division, introduced a series of applications from its innovative electric and hybrid vehicle solutions portfolio during Auto Shanghai 2019. The anticipated release of practical applications is the first since the company announced its AHEAD (Accelerating Hybrid-Electric Autonomous Driving) initiative launched last September. Designed to bring customers solutions and material capabilities, AHEAD promises varied applications in vehicle electrification, autonomy, connectivity and associated infrastructure. With new technologies including digitalization, sustainability policies, and changing consumer preferences, the automotive industry is experiencing the most disruptive period in its history. Four technology-driven trends: diverse mobility, autonomous driving, electrification, and connectivity are driving the industry's transformation, and major automakers are increasing their investments in the fields of new energy technologies. A recent report from Boston Consulting Group cites that 50% of vehicles will be electrified by 2030. Electric vehicles will grow from 3 million units in 2017 to 125 million by 2030 according to International Energy Agency forecasts. In addition, a series of factors including tightening government subsidy policies and changing consumer demands have forced automakers to constantly innovate on new energy vehicles: increasing driving range, shortening charging time, and reducing the overall purchase cost. In order to meet the requirements of these new trends, critical innovation challenges including thermal management, safety, NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness), lightweighting, connectivity, sensing and control, durability and charging infrastructure must be solved in the value chain. AHEAD was developed to support OEMs and address their transformation challenges. More Efficient Battery Pack Components and Thermal Management System More Reliable NVH Solutions Better Lightweight Solutions "AHEAD is a cross business program of DowDuPont Specialty Products Division meant to capitalize on synergies in materials development across DuPont. AHEAD provides automotive industry partners one stop solution for varied applications in vehicle electrification, autonomy, connectivity and the supporting infrastructure space." said Tina Wu, Global Vice President Commercial Performance Solutions, DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers. A great example of the value DuPont's capabilities, technology and engineering solutions bring to the transportation industry is the recent multi-year strategic technical partnership to deliver new technology, beginning with hybrid and electric powertrain innovative solutions to help advance Formula 1 and other racing programs. Through a shared vision to address unique challenges in the rapidly changing mainstream automotive industry, Renault Sport Racing and DuPont will explore opportunities to co-innovate and accelerate development of new technology for future consumer and road car applications, leveraging their leading engineering polymers and adhesives solutions which play a vital role today in lightweighting, thermal management, connectivity and improved safety. Engagement in the electrification trend goes down to value chain partners of DuPont - xEV OEM NIO and battery producer CATL. The vision is to jointly develop innovative material solutions to help electric vehicle in lightweighting, emission reduction and safety. Solutions like BETAMATE and BETAFORCE structural adhesives, Zytel nylon, Nomex fiber from DuPont are contributing to the development of next-generation electric cars and batteries. With its mission to advance the efficiency of sustainable transportation, DuPont plans to feature more AHEAD technologies at upcoming industry events through 2019. For more information, please visit http://www.ahead.dupont.com. About DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers (T&AP), a DowDuPont Specialty Products Division business, delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to the transportation, electronics, industrial and consumer markets. T&AP partners with its customers to drive innovation by utilizing its expertise and knowledge in polymer and materials science. T&AP works with customers throughout the value chain to enable material systems solutions for demanding applications and environments. About DuPont Specialty Products Division DuPont Specialty Products, a division of DowDuPont Inc. (NYSE: DWDP) is a global innovation leader with technology-based materials, ingredients and solutions that help transform industries and everyday life. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver essential innovations in key markets including electronics, transportation, building and construction, health and wellness, food and worker safety. DuPont intends to separate the Specialty Products Division, which will be called DuPont, into an independent, publicly traded company. The DuPont Oval log, DuPont and all products, unless otherwise noted, denoted with , ? or are trademarks or registered trademarks of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company or its affiliates. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dupont-unveils-electric-and-hybrid-vehicle-solutions-at-auto-shanghai-2019-300834384.html SOURCE DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd. / Idorsia announces financial results for the first quarter 2019 . Processed and transmitted by West Corporation. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Allschwil, Switzerland - April 18, 2019Idorsia Ltd (SIX: IDIA) today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2019. Key figures Jean-Paul Clozel, MD and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Our focus in 2019 must be on delivering on our strategic priorities by advancing at full steam with our key clinical activities. This will enable us to begin reading out late stage clinical trials next year. Keep in mind that for every Phase 3 program, there are activities ongoing across the whole company to prepare the comprehensive dossier required by the health authorities. I'm very fortunate that at Idorsia, we have the right professionals who know exactly what it takes to register a drug and to market it successfully." Financial results For the first quarter 2019, US GAAP net loss amounted to CHF 106 million compared to CHF 79 million for the period ending March 31, 2018. The increase of the net loss was mainly driven by higher operating costs. US GAAP revenue of CHF 7 million in the first quarter 2019 as well as 2018 related to deferred contract revenue recognized in connection to the collaboration agreements with Janssen (CHF 5.3 million) and Roche (CHF 1.3 million). US GAAP operating expenses in the first quarter 2019 amounted to CHF 125 million (of which CHF 110 million R&D and CHF 16 million SG&A expenses) whilst operating expenses in the first quarter 2018 amounted to CHF 81 million (of which CHF 67 million R&D and CHF 14 million SG&A expenses). The US GAAP net loss resulted in a net loss per share of CHF 0.81 (basic and diluted) for the first quarter 2019 compared to a net loss per share of CHF 0.66 (basic and diluted) for the period ending March 31, 2018. * Idorsia measures, reports and issues guidance on non-GAAP operating performance. Idorsia believes that these non-GAAP financial measurements more accurately reflect the underlying business performance and therefore provide useful supplementary information to investors. These non-GAAP measures are reported in addition to, not as a substitute for, US GAAP financial performance. For the first quarter 2019, non-GAAP net loss amounted to CHF 108 million: the difference versus US GAAP net loss was mainly due to depreciation and amortization (CHF 5 million), share-based compensation (CHF 3 million) and non-cash financial gain (CHF 9 million). Non-GAAP net loss per share amounted to CHF 0.82 (basic and diluted) for the first quarter 2019 compared to a net loss per share of CHF 0.58 (basic and diluted) for the period ending March 31, 2018. Andre C. Muller, Chief Financial Officer, commented: "We are diligently advancing our diversified pipeline, focusing our efforts on recruiting patients for our four Phase 3 assets. Since projects are on track, expenses are in line with expectations. Therefore, the financial guidance for 2019 remains unchanged, excluding unforeseen events and potential milestone payments, we expect non-GAAP operating expenses for 2019 to be around CHF 530 million." Liquidity and indebtednessAt the end of the first quarter 2019, Idorsia's liquidity (including cash, cash equivalents, short- and long-term deposits) amounted to CHF 1,111 million. *rounding differences may occur Clinical Development PipelineIdorsia has a diversified and balanced clinical development pipeline covering multiple therapeutic areas, including CNS, cardiovascular and immunological disorders, as well as orphan diseases. The late-stage pipeline advanced significantly in 2018, with four compounds moving into Phase 3 clinical development. All late-stage trials are now recruiting patients, with data expected to be reported in 2020 and 2021. Details of the Phase 3 programs can be found in a series of investor webcasts published on our corporate website. Progress was also made with our early-stage compounds by accumulating information on clinical pharmacology in healthy volunteers or conducting Phase 2 profiling in patients. In addition, we made progress in the first quarter of 2019 with our early development pipeline and advanced ACT-1004-1239, a new cancer immunotherapy / immunology compound, into Phase 1. * In collaboration with Janssen Biotech Inc. to jointly develop and solely commercialize aprocitentan worldwide** Market registration trials are also being conducted in Japan Idorsia has the option to license vamorolone from ReveraGen Inc. and has granted to Santhera Holding Ltd. the option to sub-license vamorolone worldwide for all indications. Note to ShareholdersThe Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Shareholders to approve the Business Report of the year ending December 31, 2018 will be held on Friday May 3, 2019. The invitation was published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (Schweizerisches Handelsamtsblatt) and distributed to Shareholders by post on April 10, 2019, and is available, together with the Company's Annual Report and Compensation Report, on www.idorsia.com/agm. In order to attend and vote at the Annual General Meeting, shareholders must be registered in the company's shareholder register by April 24, 2019 at the latest. Results Day CenterInvestor community: To make your job easier, we provide all relevant documentation via the Results Day Center on our corporate website: www.idorsia.com/results-day-center. Upcoming Financial Updates Notes to the editor About IdorsiaIdorsia Ltd is reaching out for more - We have more ideas, we see more opportunities and we want to help more patients. In order to achieve this, we will develop Idorsia into one of Europe's leading biopharmaceutical companies, with a strong scientific core. Headquartered in Switzerland - a biotech-hub of Europe - Idorsia is specialized in the discovery and development of small molecules, to transform the horizon of therapeutic options. Idorsia has a broad portfolio of innovative drugs in the pipeline, an experienced team, a fully-functional research center, and a strong balance sheet - the ideal constellation to bringing R&D efforts to business success. Idorsia was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ticker symbol: IDIA) in June 2017 and has over 750 highly qualified specialists dedicated to realizing our ambitious targets. For further information, please contactAndrew C. WeissSenior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations & Corporate CommunicationsIdorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Hegenheimermattweg 91, CH-4123 Allschwil+41 (0) 58 844 10 10www.idorsia.com The above information contains certain "forward-looking statements", relating to the company's business, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "estimates", "believes", "expects", "may", "are expected to", "will", "will continue", "should", "would be", "seeks", "pending" or "anticipates" or similar expressions, or by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions. Such statements include descriptions of the company's investment and research and development programs and anticipated expenditures in connection therewith, descriptions of new products expected to be introduced by the company and anticipated customer demand for such products and products in the company's existing portfolio. Such statements reflect the current views of the company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. PR Newswire HOUSTON, April 17, 2019 HOUSTON, April 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In this digital age, emerging technologies are transforming the way everyone approaches business, and the energy industry is no different. As the 2019 Offshore Technology Conference gets underway this May in Houston, Nguyen & Chen, LLP is inviting leaders across the energy sector from the U.S. and China, as well as tech specialists, for an informative evening on how oil & gas companies can leverage innovative technologies, including artificial intelligence and drones, in ways that serve to revitalize corporate structure and which will further disrupt the energy industry. Hosted by Nguyen & Chen, LLP, the 2019 Energy & the Digital Era reception will take place Tuesday, May 7 from 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. CDT at the Hilton Houston Southwest, 6780 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77074. Registration fee: $100 per person. Dress: Business formal attire. To reserve your spot, please visit here. Discussion topics will include: Sponsors and co-organizers for the event include Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch and the Chinese Association of Professionals Science and Technology, as well as special sponsor China Mobile International. For more information, contact Joanna Wang at 713-818-8866, via WeChat at Jwang-2017 or by email: [email protected] In China, please call Annie Chen at (+86) 136 0108 1129. About Nguyen & Chen, LLPNguyen & Chen LLP was incorporated in Houston, Texas, in 2011, and has since grown into a thriving, multidisciplinary practice. Our team of licensed, bilingual attorneys have far-ranging expertise in Sino-American commercial transactions, civil and commercial litigation, and employment and investment-related immigration matters. In an era of increasing globalization and complexity, Nguyen & Chen brings unparalleled cross-cultural fluency in Chinese and U.S. law and business culture. For more, visit www.nguyen-chen.com or message us on WeChat at nclaw2011. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-future-of-energy-in-the-digital-and-intelligent-age-300834371.html SOURCE Nguyen & Chen, LLP By Trend The US offered to hold the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in Washington on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a press conference in Poland, Trend reports. Mammadyarov spoke about his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan with the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk in Moscow. I briefed about our aspiration to the conflict resolution which is almost 30 years old and noted that we need to reach a breakthrough, he said. Yesterday we got invitation of the US to visit Washington where the Secretary of State will also put his own way to reach a breakthrough on the conflict resolution." The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. By Azernews By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade The history of Azerbaijan-NATO relations dates back to March 1992, when Azerbaijan, together with some Central and Eastern European countries, joined a newly established consultative forum the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), which was transformed into the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council later in 1997. Azerbaijans Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov met on April 17 with a delegation led by Director General of NATOs International Military Staff, Lieutenant General Jan Broeks, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan, the country's Defense Ministry said in a statement. Having stressed that the visit coincides with 70th anniversary of NATO and the 25th anniversary of Azerbaijan-NATO cooperation, the defense minister noted that the relations between Azerbaijan and the Alliance are multifaceted. He said that special attention is paid to the anniversary of the partnership at the state level. Hasanov also emphasized that political support provided by NATO to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan serves to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security and that it is also important for regional peace and stability. Jan Broeks, in turn, highly praised the Azerbaijan-NATO relations and highlighted the contribution made by Azerbaijans peacekeepers to international security within the missions in Afghanistan and active participation of Azerbaijani servicemen in many programs of the Alliance. He also praised high level of training of Azerbaijani officers undergoing service at various NATO headquarters. During the meeting, issues of operational training, conducting exercises, providing military education and coordinating military operations were discussed. The sides also exchanged views on the current state and prospects of the cooperation development. The cornerstone of the substantive partnership between Azerbaijan and NATO was laid down on May 4, 1994, when the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev signed the Partnership for Peace (PfP) Framework Document. Azerbaijan conducts political dialogue with NATO on a broad range of issues of common concern based on the PfP principles. Within the political dialogue, which is held in different formats and levels, the issues like partnership, regional security, Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, peace support operations, contribution to Afghanistan, emerging security challenges etc. are the matters of bilateral discussions and consultations. The high-level political dialogue based on mutual understanding promotes progress in the practical cooperation. Moreover, the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), which Azerbaijan joined in 2004, enables to hold regular political dialogue, systematize bilateral cooperation as overarching tool and agree on new cooperation activities of mutual interest in a more flexible manner. Azerbaijan successfully completed the first (2005-2007), second (2008-2010), third (2012-2013) and fourth (2014-2016) cycles and is currently conducting the fifth cycle (2017-2019) of the IPAP document. In the framework of its Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program based upon the PfP Framework Document, Azerbaijan has been participating annually at more than 200 events. Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program enables Azerbaijan to benefit from various activities such as courses, exercises, conferences organized by NATO allies and some partners. By Trend The Director General of NATOs International Military Staff Lieutenant General Jan Broeks who is on a visit to Azerbaijan started it with attendance of the Alley of Martyrs. He paid tribute to the memory of Azerbaijani citizens who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and independence of their motherland and laid flowers on their graves, Tradereports referring to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. Then the distinguished guest visited the War College of the Armed Forces and held a series of meetings. Lieutenant-General Jan Broeks addressed the military personnel with a speech on the NATO projects and programs, and areas of NATO-Azerbaijan cooperation. He also answered questions of the meeting participants. Highly appreciating the Azerbaijan-NATO relations, the Director General of NATOs International Military Staff spoke about the contribution made by Azerbaijani peacekeepers to international security within the framework of the missions conducted in Afghanistan, the active participation of Azerbaijani servicemen in the events of the Alliance and highly praised the level of training of Azerbaijani officers. Al Salam Bank-Bahrain (ASBB), the pioneering sharia-compliant bank in the kingdom, has joined hands with Arab Financial Services, the regions leading FinTech enabler and payment services provider, for the official launch of the first digital payroll solution Al Rateb. The product was unveiled at a key event held at the Jumeirah Royal Saray, Bahrain yesterday (April 17) in the presence of senior government officials and dignitaries. The reception was an opportunity for decision makers to have a hands-on experience of the Al Rateb wage protection solution, said the statement from ASBB. Guests witnessed the unveiling of the exclusive first Al Rateb mobile ATM van, which will be moving between various locations across the Kingdom of Bahrain to service employees and facilitate access to an ATM machine. ASBB and Arab Financial Services officials commemorated the following corporate clients of Al Rateb with trophies; Lanterns Restaurant, Al-Namal Contracting & Trading Company, Dream Group, VK Universal Property Management Company, Al Edrisi United Contracting, Mohammed Noor Bukhari Restaurant and Almoayyed Contracting Group. Addressing the gathering, ASBB Group CEO Rafik Nayed said: "I am pleased to announce today the launch of the first of its kind solution that serves the blue-collar workers with cashless payment service "Al Rateb" the wage protection solution system." "Today through Al Rateb, we embarked on a significant milestone bringing both the corporate companies and their respective employees who do not have bank accounts in the kingdom via an innovative payroll solution that provides tailored banking services with secured access to their wages, and cash withdrawals and remittance solutions to meet and exceed all their requirements," he stated. "We are delighted with our partnership with AFS to deliver such a significant product to our valued clients," he added. Arab Financial Services CEO B Chandrasekhar said: "We are proud to partner with Al Salam Bank-Bahrain to bring this innovative product to Bahrain. More innovative FinTech solutions will be offered to Al Rateb employees in the next few months." "In line with the vision of the Government of Bahrain to move towards a digital, cashless society and the recent decree for wage protection, every employer in Bahrain must now pay their workforce digitally. Al Rateb solution is available to all employers, regardless of their workforce size," he explained. "The service allows employers to securely upload wages and benefits onto payroll cards through an online portal that is configured with their own payroll system," said Chandrasekhar. "Cardholders can withdraw funds at any ATM, transfer of funds (remittance solutions) and can use Point of Sale (POS) terminals locally or abroad. Cardholders can also access financial services including statements, interactive dashboards, 24/7 customer care and multi-lingual customer support," he added.-TradeArabia News Service The Opus by Omniyat, located in Dubai, has been honoured with one of the top design awards, the Award of Excellence by the Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The Opus, designed by renowned Iraqi-British architect the late Dame Zaha Hadid, was chosen from a shortlist of several designs. The Opus is an architectural wonder made of engineering at its most impressive. Located at Dubais Burj Khalifa district, the structure combines a variety of residences and a design hotel operated by the leading hotelier group ME by Melia Hotels International. Peter Stephenson, executive director of development at Omniyat, received the award at the CTBUH Tall + Urban Innovation Conference in Shenzhen, China, in April. It is a great honour to be awarded this accolade. This award celebrates the legacy of the late Dame Zaha Hadid, who has left an important mark on UAEs design landscape. The award is also a testament of Omniyats commitment to innovation and uniqueness, which has made a positive impact on our business, our industry, and the region, said Mahdi Amjad, Omniyats CEO and executive chairman. CTBUH Tall + Urban Innovation Conference explores and celebrates the very best in innovative tall buildings, urban spaces, building technologies, and construction practices from around the world. The awards aspire to provide a more comprehensive and sophisticated view of these important structures, while advocating for improvements in every aspect of performance, including those that have the greatest positive impact on the individuals who use these buildings and the cities they inhabit. TradeArabia News Service In his first Brandon rally as leader of the Peoples Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier asked Westman supporters to vote for their values in the upcoming federal election. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Leader Maxime Bernier makes his way to the front of the room during a People's Party of Canada rally at Victoria Inn Wednesday evening. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) In his first Brandon rally as leader of the Peoples Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier asked Westman supporters to "vote for their values" in the upcoming federal election. Approximately 120 supporters filled a room at Victoria Inn on Wednesday evening as Bernier touted "real conservative values" and the support his party has received so far. "I dont have the platform for Quebec to win votes in Quebec, I dont have the platform for Manitoba to win votes here, we have a platform that is good for the country and we are speaking about the bold reforms that need to be done to have a freer and more prosperous country." Projecting to speak for regular people, Bernier rejected the recently-imposed federal carbon tax, saying it wouldnt bring the country to the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement. Regardless of whether its a carbon tax or business regulations, consumers always end up paying for federal environmental policies. Instead, a PPC government would allow the provinces to create their own policies on climate change. Maxime Bernier holds a People's Party of Canada rally at Victoria Inn Wednesday evening. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) "We wont impose a carbon tax, we wont impose regulations on businesses, but we need to do something for the environment and yes, we will do something." On the environment, he said he is concerned about the health of the countrys rivers and lakes. "In 2019 all our lakes are not clear, we have some lakes that are polluted, some rivers that are polluted. We need to have clear rivers, clear lakes, we need to be able to fish in our rivers, we need to be able to swim in our lakes, so well have a strong policy to clean the environment." People's Party of Canada members and rally organizers David Trush, Damen MacGillivray and Frank Godon watch Maxime Bernier speak at Victoria Inn Wednesday evening. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) Berniers plan to balance the budget, including ending corporate welfare and reducing international aid, drew applause from the crowd. He said Canada could save $4 billion on foreign aid and he would seek to privatize Canada Post. David Trush, a former Conservative Party of Canada member and secretary of the Brandon-Souris PPC electoral association, said Berniers stance on corporate welfare was one of the things that first drew him to the party. "Were bailing out corporations too much, it feels like. ... We have poor people, we have middle-class, but were bailing out billion-dollar blue chip companies, it doesnt make sense." People's Party of Canada secretary David Trush films Maxime Bernier speaking at rally at Victoria Inn Wednesday evening. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) Trush added that he would rather see the money go to local communities or help Indigenous communities get access to clean water. Tom Giannopoulos, a supporter and immigrant from Greece, said one of the biggest issues for him is immigration and that he agrees with Berniers stance on the topic. He also agrees with the PPCs stance on foreign aid and feels the government does not consult people enough on how their tax dollars are spent. He said he used to be a Liberal Party of Canada supporter, but thinks the current government isnt keeping its promises and hasnt handled international diplomacy well. The Brandon-Souris PPC electoral association is currently vetting candidates seeking the nomination. Frank Godon, one of the candidates and vice-president of the electoral association, said he hopes for a "healthy" competition. He said he supports the party not for the leader, but for its platform. Bernier told the audience the goal is to have a candidate in every riding in time for the October general election and that anything is possible. He said he believes the party could form the official opposition and even hopes to be Prime Minister six months from now. "We are building a real political party and I want to thank you for that We have a strong organization in Manitoba and people are asking me Ok Maxime, do you think you are going to win some seats? I said, Yes we are going to win some seats, we are going to have lots of seats." dmay@brandonsun.com Twitter: @DrewMay_ Mental health/addictions and home care will be the two key areas prioritized in the province, after Manitoba signed on to the multimillion-dollar health accord with federal government. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Mental health/addictions and home care will be the two key areas prioritized in the province, after Manitoba signed on to the multimillion-dollar health accord with federal government. Through the agreement, $182 million will be added to the provinces health-care system over the next five years. The funding is part of a 10-year federal commitment of approximately $400 million for Manitoba. Cameron Friesen "Theres more to do, and this new agreement will give us additional revenues to be able to put in place our plan," Cameron Friesen, minister of health, seniors and active living told The Sun on Thursday. Theyre looking at both enhancing existing service and thinking about new investments, Friesen said. The province will continue to make investments in flexible withdrawal management service, he added. Theyre also working to generate more residential capacity for treatment in the Westman region and in Brandon specifically. "We are working to implement that important investment." The money is part of the $11 billion the federal government has committed over the next 10 years for provinces and territories, with two main initiatives to improve access to home and community care and mental health and addiction services. Palliative care will be another area of priority, Friesen said. "We know that in Manitoba there has been a long-standing disconnect between what those rural palliative care supports look like in an urban setting and what they look like in a rural setting," he said. "This was an area of priority articulated by Manitoba." More specific details were not available, Friesen said, but a press release issued by the provincial government said the funds will go toward expanding Manitobas home care, developing intensive, community-based home care and supports to help avoid hospitalizations and long-term care admissions, enhancing supports for rural palliative care, increasing access to co-ordinated care for mental health and addiction services, implementing peer support in formal health-care settings for patients with mental health and addiction issues and implementing a pregnancy and infant-loss program. Theyre working to get things done in a timely manner, he said. "There is an urgency for us to act especially because we know when it comes to home care people are getting older and need the services. "Manitobans can continue to expect that we will be responding on an ongoing basis, and in the weeks and months ahead we will continue to roll out more and more of our plan." mverge@brandonsun.com Twitter: @Melverge5 Editors note: Peoples Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier was in Brandon on Wednesday for an evening rally at Victoria Inn. Prior to the public event, Brandon Sun reporter Drew May sat down with the federal politician for an interview. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us People's Part of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier sits down for an interview with Brandon Sun Reporter Drew May at Victoria Inn Wednesday. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) Editors note: Peoples Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier was in Brandon on Wednesday for an evening rally at Victoria Inn. Prior to the public event, Brandon Sun reporter Drew May sat down with the federal politician for an interview. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Drew May: The Peoples Party of Canada is the newest federal party, so what do you think your chances are here in western Manitoba in the fall federal election? People's Part of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier sits down for an interview with Brandon Sun Reporter Drew May at Victoria Inn Wednesday. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) Maxime Bernier: I think theyre good. Its a conservative region and people believe in conservative values and we are the real conservative party. If you believe in conservative values you must believe in free markets, if you believe in free markets you must not support a cartel for dairy, milk and poultry. We are the only ones that want to abolish that cartel and we want them the supply management producers to work on the free market. But Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives, they dont want to touch that and these people will keep their privilege. I think it is not conservative principles and it is not fair for the population because, as you know, they are paying $500 more every year to keep that cartel and ... they represent only 10 per cent of the farmers in this country. ... Right now our goal is to have all our candidates before the beginning of July and well see what will happen, but up to now, because we have organizations all across the country 338 ridings all across the country they are helping us to find good candidates; people who believe in our ideas and principles. It is people who like the conservative values, we are the real conservative party, thats why we will have a chance here. And I can speak also about the immigration. People want fewer immigrants and were the only party to speak about it. The Liberals, the Conservatives and the NDP, they dont like that but we want people that will come here and share our Canadian values, thats our position and lets have that debate. DM: Youre saying youre the real conservative party, but in Brandon-Souris the Conservative Party of Canada is quite popular, do you think that will be an issue at all in the election? People's Part of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier sits down for an interview with Brandon Sun Reporter Drew May at Victoria Inn Wednesday. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) MB: I dont think so. The challenge is to be out there and to speak about what we believe, to speak about our principles; individual freedom, personal responsibility, respect and fairness and when we speak about that the more people that we can reach the best will be for us. ... You want pipelines? We have the solution. Andrew Scheer doesnt have a solution. We will use the Constitution, well impose a pipeline if necessary on Quebec and on B.C., well use the Constitution S. 92. (10) to build that infrastructure. The federal government used the Constitution more than 300 times since Confederation to build national infrastructure, so its a decision that must be taken by the federal government, not the Quebec government. This week the premier of Quebec, my premier, said there is no social consensus in Quebec for a pipeline, but sorry that population in Quebec knows that its safer to transport oil and gas by pipelines than by trains and its safer for the population and its safer for the environment. They remember what we had in Lac Megantic, a huge tragedy seven years ago. Im, ready to do that fight and to explain the position to Quebecers and Canadian and at the end, it will be good for the prosperity for our country these pipelines and it will be good also for the unity of our country. Look what happened in Alberta last week. It was good news, Jason Kenney has been elected. Im very happy with that, but he said we need a referendum, he wants a referendum on that, they cannot decide anything. Its Ottawa that has the power to do that and Im telling Alberta and western Canadians that if you really want the pipelines, were the only party who will have the courage to us the Constitution, and yes, if necessary impress a pipeline on different provinces or First Nations. DM: You were speaking about supply management. Among that 10 per cent of farmers who do benefit from supply management its a hard sell, so for people who are supporting it, how do you sell your idea of cancelling it? MB: Im telling them we have to buy back your quota. It will cost about $4 billion, so well buy your quota, youll receive the money the first year. They will have a transition period, they will have about five years transition period, they will receive the money the first year. It will be the status quo for five years, they will have time to use the money to invest in their business to be more productive and after the transition period, they will be able to export their products. DM: In recent months, the issue of canola seed exports to China has been a big issue around here. If you were Prime Minister would you be doing anything differently on the canola issue than Justin Trudeau? MB: What Im learning right now is I think you cannot trust China, you cannot trust the communist Chinese government. Thats why we have a huge challenge right now and they have a huge challenge with canola. What we must do in the future is try to find a new market, if 100 per cent of your market is one country you are at risk and thats the risk right now that they are in. What we can do in the government, first of all, we have embassies all across the world and these people can help to find new markets for these products for sure. Its a tough time for them so what Im telling them, we have a platform that with us they wont have any capital gain tax, well abolish that, that will help them to save money. Well have a flat tax on business, a 10 per cent flat tax, that will help them, they will be able to depreciate their investment in one year, that will give them better values when you do a big investment and you are able to depreciate that in the first year you have a better cash flow. All those three policies will help them but at the same time, the government can do something to help them find new markets. DM: On immigration, there have been people crossing the border into Manitoba to seek asylum and the current Liberal plan is similar to the Conservative plan. What would you propose on illegal (or irregular) immigration? MB: First of all, I think that people must respect our borders and we are a sovereign country. These people who are crossing our borders illegally, they are not all real refugees and actually, the Department of Immigration says that at least 40 per cent of them will have to be deported in three years from now because they are not real refugees. I dont understand why when youre coming from the state of New York, people who are crossing in Quebec, your life is not in danger over there. Since the beginning we have more than 37,000 people who cross our border illegally, so what we must do, we must sit with the Trump administration and fix the loophole and we are able to do that. We need to have the determination as a country to do it. ... If you cross our border in an official point of entry, that must be the same thing if you cross our border in a non-official point of entry, so we can declare our border to be an official point of entry all across the country from coast-to-coast. ... If you speak about immigration globally, if you speak about we are the only party that wants fewer immigrants 250,000 a year or less. Between maybe 150,000 up to 250,000 a year, we want our immigration system to be sustainable and we want our immigration system to fulfill our economic needs in our country. DM: On that topic, your pledge to decrease the level of immigrants to 250,000 per year has attracted a certain "white nationalist" perspective to your party. Youve been on the record saying racists are not welcome, but how do you deal with that as party leader? MB: Im saying if you believe in mass immigration, or if you believe in no immigration you are not welcome in our party, and thats clear. We have a strong platform and we believe in immigration, we just want fewer immigrants. They are not welcome in our party because we wont change that position. Im telling them, Go and create your own party, you are not welcome in our party. ... We want people who come in to share our Canadian values like they did in the past. All this country has been built by immigrants, Francophone, Anglophone, First Nations and after that immigrants from Europe, and after that immigrants from Asia, and after that immigrants from Africa, so we are welcoming them. All these people came in the past to share our Canadian values: the rule of law, equality between man and woman, equality before the law, the free market, the freedom and so we want our country to be the same like that in 25 years and so everybody is welcome, but its a privilege the be a Canadian. We must have an immigration system that is suitable and we believe that we need to have fewer immigrants, that's it. DM: With the SNC-Lavalin affair, being that SNC is headquartered in your home province of Quebec, what is your biggest concern coming out of that? MB: All that scandal happened because of cronyism, because of crony capitalism. I dont believe in giving subsidies to businesses, thats why in our platform we want to cut corporate welfare and well save $5 billion. I dont believe to give privilege to businesses and so whats happening right now, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals need Quebec to win the next election. They want to give a privilege to their friends at SNC-Lavalin. ... Im not working to give a privilege to a special corporation, and it is not the role of the government to give a privilege to a special corporation. The role of the government is to create the best conditions, the best economic condition for every corporation, every business in this country. Thats the proposal for our party, thats why were doing politics differently. We dont try to pander to special corporations. DM: Was there anything else about your visit to Brandon or the rally tonight that you thought was important to highlight? MB: Im very happy to have the opportunity to be here, and doing that really for me its important. I am campaigning right now, we have the platform, that platform will be the same one for the general election. Were the only party platform that is ready. The Conservatives and Andrew Scheer are too busy to do a survey and polling because they dont know what they believe in. We know what we believe in. We believe in people. We have faith in people. We have faith that they have the opportunity and the liberty to do what they want to do in life. We have a platform that is based on a smaller government in Ottawa, and that will give more freedom by lowering taxes and less regulations, so Im very pleased I have the opportunity today to speak about our platform. Im very pleased because in the beginning when I started that party some journalists were saying Bernier, its a one-man party, he will go nowhere, but you know we have more than 37,000 members. We have more riding associations than the Green Party after 35 years. ... Theres a momentum and its good. Its great to have the right ideas, and I think we have the right ideas for this country, but its better to have the right ideas at the right time and I think the time is there for us. When theres 52 per cent of the population that said to Angus Reid that they are ready to vote for a new party, its a great opportunity for us. I like what Im doing and Im very happy with the support we have and we are building. We can make a huge difference the 21st of October this year. TORONTO - The Ontario government's decision to repeal a modernized sex-ed curriculum does not violate a transgender girl's rights, the province's human rights tribunal decided Thursday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO - The Ontario government's decision to repeal a modernized sex-ed curriculum does not violate a transgender girl's rights, the province's human rights tribunal decided Thursday. The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario dismissed the argument that the government was discriminating against the 11-year-old sixth-grader identified only as AB by not including mandatory lessons on gender identity in the curriculum at the time she filed the complaint. The tribunal said a separate court decision in favour of the government made the girl's complaint moot. The Divisional Court ruled in February that it is the role of elected officials, not the courts, to make legislation and policy decisions, noting that government lawyers said teachers were allowed to go beyond what is in the new curriculum. "While the applicant is worried that she may experience increased victimization, her fear is speculative because it is now clear to all school boards and teachers what is required of them," adjudicators Jennifer Scott and Brenda Bowlby wrote, noting that the court affirmed that teachers are required to include all students in the sex-ed curriculum. "There is now no uncertainty about the sex education that she will receive," they wrote. "Her teachers must include her because the code and charter require them to teach in an inclusive manner." Since the girl's hearing before the tribunal in January, the Progressive Conservative government introduced a sex-ed curriculum that returns to teaching gender identity and consent. But the lessons on gender identity will happen in Grade 8 later than it would have under the modernized curriculum introduced by the previous Liberal government in 2015. The girl testified in January that she wasn't sure how classmates would treat her if subjects such as gender identity and gender expression were not required, and voiced concerns about going to a bigger school next year for Grade 7. "I don't know what the students have been taught," she said at the time. The challenge before the Divisional Court which was brought by the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association differed from the human rights case because it did not focus on the effects on LGBTQ students. The applicants in that case argued that the changes infringed teachers' freedom of expression and put students at risk by failing to be inclusive. But the tribunal opted to lean on the court decision because the government used the same defence in each case. "In order for the applicant to succeed, we would be required to find that the Divisional Court erred," Scott and Bowlby wrote. "That, in essence, amounts to stepping into the shoes of an appellate court." The College of Healthcare Management and Economics launched by Gulf Medical University (GMU), Ajman, has started admitting students into its Bachelor and Executive Master programs. The college aims to equip graduates with comprehensive skills and knowledge to pursue careers in healthcare management, health economics, policy-making and administration in the region and internationally. With the addition of this new college, Gulf Medical University has become the biggest private medical university in the region with six colleges and 26 accredited courses. The College of Healthcare Management and Economics offers two programs: The Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management and Economics (BSc. HME); a four-year program designed to graduate professionals with a deep understanding of the healthcare industry, its language and unique culture. The Executive Master in Healthcare Management and Economics (EMHME); a 12-month program designed to benefit middle to senior level professionals in the healthcare industry. The program would be highly beneficial for working professionals to improve their career prospects and widen their professional networks. The college, as well as its programs, are accredited by the Ministry of Education, UAE. The programs are offered in collaboration with leading international universities the University of Milan, University of Arizona, American University of Cairo, and University of Central Florida. The college is a member of the European Healthcare Management Association, giving it seamless access to the network of faculty and collaborating universities. The faculty for the Executive Masters program are top academicians and practitioners from renowned international institutions in the US, UK, France, and Italy. The College of Healthcare Management & Economics enjoys strong ties with industry partners in the UAE and the GCC, as well as in India, US, and Africa. Explaining how the new programs offer students a unique learning experience and career prospects, Prof Hossam Hamdy, the chancellor of GMU said: GMU is a specialised medical university offering the full spectrum of health professions education, including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, etc., and the only university owning a network of teaching hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and diagnostic labs. The students learn in a truly inter-professional atmosphere, experiencing multifaceted interactions within various healthcare systems.TradeArabia News Service Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Premier-Designate Jason Kenney addresses the media the day his after his election victory in Edmonton on Wednesday April 17, 2019. Kenney's Alberta election victory sent ripples of enthusiasm and concern across Canada Wednesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson Five stories in the news for Thursday, April 18 KENNEY'S 'TURN OFF TAPS' PLEDGE HEARD IN B.C. Jason Kenney's Alberta election victory sent ripples of enthusiasm and concern across Canada Wednesday. Ontario Premier Doug Ford welcomed a rising Conservative wave, British Columbia grappled with the Kenny campaign promise of squeezing its oil supply and Quebec stood firm on its rejection of oil pipelines. Kenney's United Conservative Party captured 63 seats and more than 55 per cent of the popular vote, defeating the incumbent government of Rachel Notley's New Democrats. In B.C. on Wednesday, where gasoline prices soared above $1.70 per litre in Metro Vancouver, Kenney's promise to use Alberta legislation to "cut off the taps" produced varying opinions from experts who say it's either bluster or a weapon to punish the province for its opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. B.C. Premier John Horgan said he spoke with Kenney Wednesday and the tone was cordial. NOTLEY'S DEFEAT MEANS CANADA HAS NO MORE WOMEN PREMIERS The gradual disappearance of women from the ranks of Canada's premiers raises questions about society's willingness to embrace true equality, former female leaders and political pundits said. Women made up nearly half of the country's provincial and territorial leaders in 2013, but those ranks have slowly thinned as a succession of female premiers covering the entire political spectrum lost their re-election bids. That list now includes Alberta's Rachel Notley, the last woman standing among Canada's first ministers until incoming premier Jason Kenney takes power and the seventh female provincial leader to be turfed from office in the past six years. ENVIRONMENT CHARITIES QUESTION INCOMING PREMIER'S PLAN Alberta's incoming premier plans to take on environmental charities that he says are blocking exports of the province's oil, but those groups may be saying "bring it on." In his victory speech Tuesday, Jason Kenney repeated his promise to fight back against Canadian environmental groups that take money from American foundations with what he says is the covert aim of economic sabotage by preventing Alberta from exporting oil in any direction but south. He said Alberta has been targeted by a foreign-funded campaign of special interests seeking to landlock Canadian energy. JOSHUA BOYLE'S TRIAL FACES POSSIBLE DELAY The assault trial of former Afghanistan hostage Joshua Boyle faces a possible delay of several months due to legal wrangling over allowable evidence. Boyle, 35, has pleaded not guilty in Ontario court to offences against his wife Caitlan Coleman including assault, sexual assault and unlawful confinement. The offences are alleged to have occurred in late 2017 after the couple returned to Canada following five years as hostages at the hands of extremists who seized them during a backpacking trip to Asia. Coleman's lawyer, Ian Carter, says he will ask the Supreme Court of Canada for permission to challenge a ruling handed down Wednesday that allows Boyle to introduce evidence concerning certain consensual sexual activity with his wife. The ruling is important because the law sets out limits on the extent to which an accused person can bring up an alleged victim's sexual history during a trial. POLICE URGE PARENTS TO DISCUSS 4-20 POT RISKS Police in Vancouver are asking parents to have a "tough" conversation with their teenagers about the dangers associated with marijuana at a large unsanctioned 4-20 event while city and park board officials call on organizers to pay for policing costs. Sgt. Jason Robillard says the 25th annual event, featuring vendors selling marijuana, baked edibles and drug paraphernalia, is expected to be a big draw on Saturday because of a concert by California hip-hop group Cypress Hill. He says police will focus on arresting anyone selling marijuana to minors at the Sunset Beach gathering, which typically attracts several thousand people. ALSO IN THE NEWS: Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor makes a funding announcement for the Universite de Moncton and the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute. International Development Minister Maryam Monsef announces support from the government's climate action fund and holds a media availability. Andrew Berry, charged with the second-degree murders of his daughters, stands trial. EDMONTON - An Alberta librarian has been archiving much of the provincial government's online content including studies on health, climate change policy and poverty reduction to prepare for a change in government. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. An Alberta librarian has been archiving much of the provincial government's online content -- including studies on health, climate change policy and poverty reduction -- in recent weeks to prepare for a change in government. Katie Cuyler, seen in a February 15, 2018, handout photo, is a public services and government information librarian at University of Alberta, and she is leading the project. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-University of Alberta, John Ulan, *MANDATORY CREDIT* EDMONTON - An Alberta librarian has been archiving much of the provincial government's online content including studies on health, climate change policy and poverty reduction to prepare for a change in government. The United Conservative Party won a strong majority government over the NDP earlier this week and is to be sworn in April 30. Katie Cuyler, a public services and government information librarian at the University of Alberta, said staff used to get paper copies of all government documents but that procedure changed when reports started going online. "The problem with everything being online is that when there is a new government or new policies, they just change their websites," she said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "You can lose access to a lot of their reports or data." Cuyler said they started the archiving project in 2011, with twice yearly downloads of government data, but she ramped it up in advance of the provincial election. "This year was interesting because there were some industry analysts and researchers who reached out to me because they had concerns about certain data and reports that they rely upon, that they were worried would not be up anymore," she said. Cuyler said she has archived hundreds of thousands of policy documents and scientific reports online, which will be available through an online portal with the University of Alberta or Wayback Machine. A similar effort took place in Ontario shortly after the Progressive Conservatives won a majority government in the province last June. Nick Worby, a government documents librarian at the University of Toronto, led the initiative there. "Environmental initiatives like the GreenON rebate program were shuttered and then their web presence was removed within days," he said in a news release. "That information is only available now through the archives by the University of Toronto and the Internet Archive." There have also been drastic changes to government information in the United States since President Donald Trump took office. The Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, which tracks changes to thousands of government websites under the Trump administration, has said hundreds of web pages providing climate information were omitted from a federal government website. Other pages have been substantially altered to removing mentions of climate and climate change. Worby and Cuyler are both associated with the Canadian Government Information Digital Preservation Network, a collection of university libraries across Canada whose mission is to preserve digital collections of government information. "I think it's a great program," said Cuyler. "It's important that we keep this information accessible and publicly available so that's why we do it." OTTAWA - Michael Wernick, the clerk of the Privy Council, has bid farewell to the more than 200,000 workers in the federal public service. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick has officially retired from his post as the head of the public service. Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick arrives for caucus in West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Tuesday, April 2, 2019. Wernick announced his impending departure in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in mid-March, saying he would leave prior to the fall election campaign. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - Michael Wernick, the clerk of the Privy Council, has bid farewell to the more than 200,000 workers in the federal public service. Wernick announced in mid-March that he would leave his post as the top federal bureaucrat prior to the fall election campaign. At the time, he told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a letter that he would no longer be able to fulfil central aspects of his role, including being an impartial arbiter of whether foreign interference occurs during the campaign and to help whichever party is elected to form government. He said it became apparent there was no path for him to have a relationship of "mutual trust and respect with the leaders of the opposition parties" in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin controversy. His farewell message released Thursday expressed how proud he was to serve as clerk of the Privy Council and reminded those still working in government that what they do matters. He said a non-partisan public service that is "guided by values, fuelled by evidence" and "a never-ending quest to learn" is key to the success of the country. "For almost 38 years, I have had the very good fortune to work in jobs that have been stimulating and rewarding alongside wonderful people," Wernick said in his statement. "I have great confidence that the public service is in good hands and that you will rise to the many challenges and even greater opportunities of the months and years ahead." Opposition parties called for Wernick's resignation after he rejected allegations that he and others improperly pressured former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to halt a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on charges of bribery and corruption related to contracts in Libya. Wernick's testimony to the House of Commons justice committee was critiqued by MPs as being partisan and unbecoming an impartial senior bureaucrat. Wilson-Raybould also accused Wernick of making "veiled threats" that she would lose her job as justice minister and attorney general if she didn't respond to pressure and went on to release a recording of a conversation with him to the committee. Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante spoke out Thursday about threats directed against her over her stance on the province's secularism bill. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Montreal mayor Valerie Plante responds to a question as opposition leader Lionel Perez looks on during a news conference in Montreal on Monday, April 15, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante spoke out Thursday about threats directed against her over her stance on the province's secularism bill. Plante told reporters Thursday the online attacks have intensified, and she is taking them seriously. "I'm always open for debate, but I will not accept that," Plante said. "This is not the kind of society we want. This is not what we want to encourage." The threats, including some of physical violence, are in messages posted online or sent directly to her social media accounts. "Freedom of speech is important, but we need to realize we're also talking to human beings," Plante said. A senior aide to the mayor told The Canadian Press that messages deemed to have crossed a line have been flagged and sent to Montreal police. Quebec's Bill 21 would prohibit public servants in positions of authority including teachers, police officers, Crown prosecutors and prison guards from wearing religious symbols on the job. A grandfather clause would protect people already hired in those positions. The debate surrounding the proposed legislation has been divisive since the bill was tabled last month. On Monday, Plante and Lionel Perez, the opposition leader at Montreal city hall, issued a joint motion denouncing Bill 21. On Wednesday, Toronto city council passed a resolution supporting Montreal and declaring its opposition to any legislation restricting freedom of religion. Quebec Premier Francois Legault called the attacks on Plante unacceptable and urged calmer debate. Legault also downplayed a recent article in the Chinese daily Global Times, praising the proposed legislation and comparing it to China's own policy of repression of the Uighurs, a Muslim minority group often sent to re-education camps. The premier said Thursday he couldn't stop the Chinese daily from applauding his government's legislation. The April 2 dispatch called the Quebec's proposed legislation a good way of ensuring separation of church and state. Legault said neither the Chinese nor Toronto would ultimately have an impact on the debate in Quebec. "I don't think so, when you compare what's happening in large countries like France, Germany, Belgium, they took decisions to forbid some religious signs," Legault said in Quebec City. "So we're doing that with the support of the majority of Quebecers, and it's not up to Ontario people to decide what's happening in Quebec." HALIFAX - More relatives of Kawthar Barho were to arrive in Canada Thursday, two months after a fast-moving Halifax house fire killed her seven children and left her husband badly burned. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Firefighters investigate following a house fire in the Spryfield community in Halifax on Tuesday, February 19, 2019. More relatives of Kawthar Barho arrive in Canada Friday, exactly two months since a fast-moving Halifax house fire killed her seven children and left her husband badly burned. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese HALIFAX - More relatives of Kawthar Barho were to arrive in Canada Thursday, two months after a fast-moving Halifax house fire killed her seven children and left her husband badly burned. Halifax MP Andy Fillmore and the Hants East Assisting Refugees Team (HEART Society) say in a news release issued Thursday that an additional group of family members was to arrive, although it didn't specify who, how many or where they're coming from. The Barho family arrived in Halifax in September 2017 as Syrian refugees and without any other family members. Shortly after a Feb. 19 fire destroyed the family's house in Spryfield, authorities were able to help some relatives come to Halifax to support Kawthar Barho, and have worked on bringing more. Ebraheim Barho, who was placed in a medically induced coma, remains in hospital, his wife by his side. The news release says no further information can be shared "relating to the emotional and medical condition of the family." "Kawthar would like to thank everyone who has reached out to support her and her husband, Ebraheim, over the past two months," the HEART Society, which sponsored the family's immigration, says in the release. "The love and generosity of Canadians has been a light in a very dark time. Kawthar continues to spend her time in the hospital by her husband's side supporting him on his long road to recovery. Kawthar is thankful to all the individuals who have worked to reunite her with her family." Muslim community leaders have said Ebraheim Barho has undergone multiple surgeries. More than 2,000 people attended a public funeral service at a waterfront hall, with many in tears as the children's names were read: teenager Ahmad; Rola, 12; Mohamad, 9; Ola, 8; Hala, 3; Rana, 2; and Abdullah, who was born in Canada on Nov. 9. A GoFundMe campaign has raised about $725,000 for the family. Note to readers: This is a corrected story. Due to an error at source, an earlier version wrongly stated Barho relatives would arrive Friday. TORONTO - The chairman of Toronto's board of health says the province has notified health units across Ontario their funding will be cut immediately as the government makes changes to a cost-sharing arrangement with municipalities. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO - The chairman of Toronto's board of health says the province has notified health units across Ontario their funding will be cut immediately as the government makes changes to a cost-sharing arrangement with municipalities. Joe Cressy who is also a Toronto city councillor says the cuts will mean Toronto Public Health will lose $1 billion in funding over the next decade and all of Ontario's health units will be impacted by the move. The Ministry of Health delivered the news Thursday afternoon in a conference call with public health units ahead of the long weekend, he said. Cressy said the long list of affected programs includes disease prevention, water quality testing, and immunization monitoring and surveillance. "I say this without an ounce of exaggeration," he said. "Because of today's cuts people will die." The province notified health units that it will reduce cost-sharing from levels from 100 per cent or 75 per cent in some cases, to 60 to 70 per cent for some municipalities, he said. In Toronto's case, Cressy said the cost-sharing for some programs drops to 50-50 by 2021. The changes mean Toronto will immediately have an $86 million funding gap in its public health budget this year, he said. "What that means is that for our immunization monitoring and surveillance program, for our sexual health services programs, for our food safety regulatory initiatives, to our water quality testing, we don't know how we are going to continue to run those programs this year," he said. Toronto Mayor John Tory condemned the funding cut in a statement late Thursday afternoon, saying while all health units will be impacted, the changes to Toronto are particularly punishing. "It is impossible not to see this as a targeted attack on the health of our entire city and, in particular, the health of Toronto's most vulnerable people," he said. "It is inconceivable why the Ontario government would want to single out Toronto, Ontario's capital and economic engine, for harsher treatment when we know a healthy city is a prosperous city." Tory said he intends to voice strong opposition to the cut and called on the province to back down. "This is a dangerous way to curtail expenditures and we will be working hard with Toronto residents to see it reversed," he said. Cressy said the changes mark a return to the cost-sharing between the province and municipalities that existed prior to the SARS and Walkerton E. coli outbreaks. In the wake of those events, the government beefed up funding to public health, he said. "The evidence has shown that the more money you put in public health the fewer health care costs you have going forward," he said. A spokeswoman for Minister of Health Christine Elliott said the government is working directly with municipalities as it shifts the cost-sharing model over the next three years. "In an effort to fear monger and sow confusion, Joe Cressy is fundamentally misrepresenting the facts," Hayley Chazan said in a statement. "Here's the truth: our government is strengthening the role of municipalities in the delivery of public health." Ontario's government has announced a number of funding cuts that it says will help deal with the province's $11.7-billion deficit. NDP legislator Marit Stiles said Thursday the cuts are irresponsible. "These are not areas where we can cut corners, this is crucial funding," she said. "The fact this information is leaking out late on Thursday evening before a long weekend, I think that is no coincidence. The government needs to come clean about these cuts." TORONTO - Ontario's constitutional challenge to Ottawa's imposition of a carbon charge was left in the hands of five Appeal Court justices on Thursday after the hearing wrapped up with each side pressing the court to find in its favour. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Ontario's constitutional challenge to Ottawa's imposition of a carbon charge was left in the hands of five Appeal Court justices on Thursday after the hearing wrapped up with each side pressing the court to find in its favour. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is shown in a in-camera multiple exposure image as he makes a keynote address at the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa on Saturday, March 23, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang TORONTO - Ontario's constitutional challenge to Ottawa's imposition of a carbon charge was left in the hands of five Appeal Court justices on Thursday after the hearing wrapped up with each side pressing the court to find in its favour. In closing submissions, a federal lawyer warned that climate change posed an urgent threat. Ottawa, she said, has addressed an issue of national concern in a manner that respects provincial jurisdiction. Ontario, however, stood by its view that the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act if deemed constitutional would undermine co-operative federalism by allowing Ottawa to overstep the dividing line between federal and provincial spheres of authority. "It governs a broad range of activities that are in provincial jurisdiction," Ontario lawyer Josh Hunter said Thursday in his closing comments. "It is not appropriate for a federation." The judges, who peppered the various counsel with questions throughout the proceedings, reserved their decision. Over the course of the four-day hearing, Ontario's highest court heard warnings about the dangers of unchecked greenhouse gas emissions. Indigenous groups, for example, stressed their vulnerability to global warming they said could destroy their way of life. Federal lawyers argued the act is a legitimate response to potentially catastrophic climate change. The act, which only applies in Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan four provinces Ottawa says don't meet national standards imposes a levy on gasoline, other fossil fuels, and industry. The law, federal lawyer Sharlene Telles-Langdon said, would not result in an expansion of constitutional powers that would give Ottawa carte blanche to regulate issues that fall squarely within provincial jurisdiction a claim made by Ontario and its supporters. The federal government maintains the levy in Ontario currently four cents a litre on gasoline is a regulatory charge designed to change behaviour in favour of lower greenhouse gas emissions. Ontario calls the charge an illegal tax another violation of the Constitution a position it repeated in final submissions. During the hearing, opponents of the act raised scenarios in which Ottawa could now ban wood-burning fireplaces, limit how warm or cool people could keep their homes, or when they could drive. Proponents of the law denounced those notions as "alarmist." In all, 14 interveners among them some provinces, Indigenous groups and environmental and business organizations lined up to defend or attack the federal law, with most siding with Ottawa. One supporter, British Columbia, argued the act does not prevent provinces from adopting their own approaches to climate change. For its part, Saskatchewan, which is awaiting its own Appeal Court ruling on a similar challenge, maintained the Liberal government in Ottawa was using a "big stick" to force its will on four Conservative provinces for purely political reasons. While the intricate constitutional issues at play over federal and provincial division of powers and Ottawa's ability to levy the carbon charge were fought in the legal arena, some observers said the case was as much about politics and ideology as it was about law. "Wherever there is a thorny political problem, and this is very much one in Canada, it's common for politicians to say, 'We should let the courts decide'," said Simon Archer, a Toronto lawyer with expertise in environmental law. "It's a government saying, 'We want the court to take the heat for this problem and not us'." It will likely take several months for the judges to rule. OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially launched the selection process to replace Supreme Court Justice Clement Gascon today, ignoring calls from the federal Conservatives to delay it. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially launched the selection process to replace Justice Clement Gascon today in spite of calls from the federal Conservatives to wait. Supreme Court of Canada Justice Clement Gascon speaks during a welcoming ceremony at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, Monday Oct. 6, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially launched the selection process to replace Supreme Court Justice Clement Gascon today, ignoring calls from the federal Conservatives to delay it. The 59-year-old Gascon, who is from Quebec, announced on Monday that he will step down from the country's top court for personal and family reasons in September. Trudeau says former prime minister Kim Campbell will once again lead the search as the head of an advisory panel whose members have not yet been named. The panel will be responsible for drawing up a short list of between three and five potential candidates, all of whom must be trained in civil law and hail from Quebec. The decision to launch the search to replace Gascon likely means the next justice will be appointed before this fall's federal election. It also comes against the wishes of the Opposition Conservatives who asked Trudeau to put the appointment on hold and conduct an investigation into who leaked information about a dispute between Trudeau and former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould over who should be chief justice of Canada's top court. The Canadian Press and CTV reported last month that Wilson-Raybould recommended Glenn Joyal, chief justice of Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench, as the new chief justice of Canada. According to sources, Trudeau was concerned about her choice because he believed Joyal has a conservative, restrictive approach to interpreting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Trudeau ultimately named sitting Supreme Court Justice Richard Wagner to replace Beverley McLachlin, who retired as chief justice in December 2017. He also appointed Alberta judge Sheilah Martin to fill western Canada's seat on the bench. The leaks, which Trudeau says did not come from his office, landed in the midst of a furor over Wilson-Raybould's contention that she was improperly pressured last fall to stop the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on foreign bribery charges. The reports suggested Trudeau had reasons unrelated to the Montreal engineering giant to move Wilson-Raybould out of the prestigious justice portfolio to Veterans Affairs in a mid-January cabinet shuffle. Wilson-Raybould believes the move was punishment for her refusal to halt the prosecution. She resigned from cabinet a month after the shuffle and was removed from the Liberal caucus in early April. Gascon officially retires Sept. 15, which is after the official start of the fall election. If the House of Commons is to have a chance to hear about the decision and ask questions of the new judge before the election, the advisory committee and Trudeau will have to make a decision before the end of June. Trudeau is not required to select a judge recommended by the advisory panel. Trudeau set May 17 as the deadline for interested to candidates to submit an application package. The new board set up to improve banking culture is "rigged" in favour of the lenders and not customers, one of the industry's biggest critics has claimed. Fianna Fail TD and chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, John McGuinness said he lacked faith in the Irish Banking Culture Board (IBCB), which appointed 14 board members earlier this week. The IBCB as set up with the aim of restoring public trust in the banking system following the 1bn tracker mortgage scandal, and is chaired by former Court of Appeal judge John Hedigan. The tracker mortgage scandal, which happened when almost 40,000 customers were wrongly put on more expensive loans by more than a dozen lenders, led to calls among political figures and consumer advocates for a change in how customers were treated The new entity is being funded by the five main retail banks of AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, Permanent TSB, and KBC Ireland, leading to critics already questioning its credibility. Mr McGuinness said: "I was disappointed with the makeup of the new board because one of the things we learned during the whole tracker issue is that the banks will rush to stack the house against the individual. So you are dealing with a rigged deck of cards here. "This is paid for by the banks and when I look at the membership of the board, with all due respects to all of them, I see it weighs heavily towards the banks. I don't see the consumer represented in the significant way that I would have expected. If you are changing the culture within the bank, the first thing you'd like to see is banks giving up ownership of it and allow people who are critical and who have a role to play in bringing about the transparency that is needed." The board includes senior figures of major banks including Ulster Bank chief Jane Howard, but also figures such as Padraic Kissane, the financial adviser credited as one of the main figures in exposing the tracker scandal. The number of passengers travelling through the main Irish airports has risen by more than 6%. In 2018, 36.5 million passengers flew through Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry airports, just over two million more than the previous year. Gulf Mining Group, one of the largest mining and mineral processing corporations in the sultanate, is pushing ahead with plans to triple the capacity of its ferrochrome smelting plant in Freezone Sohar with an investment of around $70 million, said a report. The plan follows the company successfully dealing with the problem of slag mountains - the waste resulting from ferrochrome smelting, which had begun stockpiling on land earmarked for the expansion project, Mohammed Yahya Al Shabibi, vice chairman, Gulf Mining Group, was quoted as saying in an Oman Daily Observer report. Al Shabibi said that the company is in the process of removing the slag, which has taken up more than a third of the site. The process will take about three to four months, upon the completion of which the company will commence construction work on the expansion project. He noted that the expansion will be undertaken in two stages. The first phase will lift smelting capacity from the present 50,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 100,000 tpa, with this new capacity slated for commercial operation by late 2020 or early 2021. Al Shabibi added that immediately thereafter, the company plans to embark on the second phase, which will boost the plants overall capacity to 150,000 tpa a process that should be completed by 2022-23. Some Ulster Bank customers are reporting difficulties receiving payments this morning. The bank says the glitch is due to an industry problem in Europe, and payments are now being processed. Customers who are expecting to receive payments today are being advised to check their accounts to see if the money has landed. Hey there. We have had recent confirmation that we have started to receive the delayed credits and we will process these to customers accounts this morning. Thank you for your patience with this. ST Ulster Bank Help (@UlsterBank_Help) April 18, 2019 Business journalist Gavin McLoughlin says the issue could potentially affect other banks: He said: "Ulster Bank said there was an issue, but it has been sorted now and they are processing the payments. They said it wasn't specifically to do with them it was an industry issue stemming from a problem with a system in Europe. INTO is aware that some members have experienced delays receiving their salary payments this morning. Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB users are affected and both banks have confirmed the problem has been rectified and members will receive payments by 10AM today. INTO (Irish National Teachers' Organisation) (@INTOnews) April 18, 2019 "Permanent TSB are acknowledging as well that there is a potential issue on Bank of Ireland. "Obviously, this kind of thing has happened a few times of late, it is very inconvenient for people, it can cause huge difficulties, even if it's only a short delay in people getting payments, as this one seems to be." They may be running the country, but it seems our glorious leaders and their top officials are as keen on a dirty takeaway as the rest of us. Mexican burritos, salads, Eddie Rockets, Nandos, Supermacs and Five Guys burgers are among the food which our dear leaders order most when working late. On numerous major nights of drama in the recent past such as the Bank Guarantee, the arrival of the IMF and more recently key Brexit nights, take-out food was ordered in to fuel the efforts of those present. A life in politics is renowned for long hours but it appears it is far from healthy living for TDs, civil servants and government workers going this Easter weekend, as they burn the midnight oil. Data released by delivery service, Deliveroo, reveals the eating habits of TDs and Senators working in Leinster House, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his staff working in Government Buildings, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and his staff in the Department of Finance and Arts Minister Josepha Madigan's Department of Culture. The survey shows that the top choice for the political class is Boojum, the Mexican burrito bar on Kevin Street. Perhaps linked to Mr Varadkar's fondness for fitness and healthy living, a noticeable exception to the list of fast food outlets is the inclusion of Sprout, the Irish farm-to-table salad bar, which ended up as the second most popular restaurant to receive political orders. Eddie Rockets, with its Irish-American diner version of the stalwart burger and fries, and Nandos take on Portuguese chicken, more predictably come in at numbers three and four. Burritos, burgers, and chicken are standard order-in fare, but it might surprise some to learn that the slightly more exotic noodle and sushi bar Eatokyo in Temple Bar makes the political cut at number five. Other interesting take-out outlets featuring on the list are Leo Burdocks fish and chip shop, Sano Pizza in Temple Bar, Wagamama in South King Street, KFC on Westmoreland Street and Supermacs also on Westmoreland Street. Dan Warne, Deliveroo Ireland managing director, said: The denizens of Leinster House do have other choices for a political lunch or dinner in the shape of the private members dining room, which is for TDs or Senators and their guests only, or the self-service cafe down the hall, but these may now only be for special occasions as more and more people are ordering from their favourite restaurants. The death of an asylum seeker with a serious heart condition just weeks after his transfer from Dublin to Cork without medical notes should act as a clarion call to the Government that reforms of the asylum system havent gone far enough. And NASC, the Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre, which was supporting the man and his wife in the weeks before his death, is also warning that a similar tragedy could happen again because vulnerability assessments for asylum seekers, which were enshrined in law last June, have not been introduced. NASC spoke out yesterday after an inquest into the death of an Algerian man in Cork University Hospital (CUH) on August 12, 2017. The man cannot be named for legal reasons. Cork City Coroners Court heard how the man and his wife sought asylum in Ireland in January 2017 and were living at the Balseskin reception centre in Dublin. The man had an inherited cardiac disease and was receiving medical treatment in Dublins Mater hospital from January to June 2017 when he and his wife were earmarked for transfer to the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre in Cork. Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre Despite concerns from NASC, the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) proceeded with the transfer. The man's widow told the inquest that he suffered hugely by being forced to take repeated trips by bus from Cork to Dublin for hospital and asylum appointments in the weeks after their transfer. On August 12, 2017, he was rushed from the Kinsale Rd accommodation centre to CUH where he later died. Death was due to natural causes. The next day, his grieving wife was transferred back to Dublin and given a double room at an accommodation centre where she is still living. NASC welcomed significant improvements in the asylum process but said RIA's refusal to consider transferring the man back to Dublin on foot of an urgent request over his declining health is "acutely worrying". NASCs campaigns manager, Jennifer DeWan said: People claiming asylum are fleeing conflict, persecution, torture, trauma, sexual and gender-based violence. "Providing accommodation for them is not just providing a bed and three meals a day it is about providing a package of supports and services that takes into account the sometimes traumatic and difficult experiences they have had prior to arriving in Ireland." Since June 2018, the Irish government has put the provision of asylum accommodation on a statutory footing, in line with the EU Directive on Asylum Reception Conditions. This means that, amongst other things, the government is statutorily obligated to take into account the additional supports and services that must be made available to asylum seekers in the provision of accommodation. This includes a vulnerability assessment, which must be offered to every person who enters the asylum process, which is supposed to help determine a persons special reception needs, including where a person should be accommodated and what supports and services they require. "The Government has yet to implement this assessment, despite the fact that it has been in legislation since June 2018. "The vulnerability assessment and the requisite supports needed to fully implement the outcomes of individual assessments must urgently be provided not least to help prevent another tragic death like this in Direct Provision. A government ministerial driver who served in his post for six years has failed in his claim that a government department breached workplace legislation concerning his role. Paul Kiernan - who worked as a driver for former Minister for Health, James Reilly for five years - was serving under Minster for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty when his work ended as a Ministerial driver in November 2017. Last year, Mr Kieran failed in an unfair dismissal action against the Dept of Employment Affairs and Social Protection claiming that that he had been unfairly dismissed without fair procedures and natural justice as would have been afforded a civil servant covered by the Civil Service code. However, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found that it has no jurisdiction to hear the unfair dismissal claim as Mr Kiernan accepted at the WRC hearing that no unfair dismissal claim had been lodged with the WRC. Mr Kiernan also lodged claims concerning suffering less favourable treatment than a fixed term employee and a separate contract claim. Those claims were also dismissed by the WRC as not being well founded, out of time or that the WRC didnt have the jurisdiction to hear the claims. Now, Mr Kiernan has appealed that ruling to the Labour Court claiming that the Dept had breached the Protection of Employees (Fixed Term Work) Act, 1993 in that it had failed to afford him a contract of indefinite duration. In the case, the driver first served for Minister for Health, James Reilly between 2011 until July 2014 - Ministers can appoint two drivers to the role. The civilian driver moved with Minister Reilly to his new post of Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in 2014. Following Minister Reilly losing his Dail seat and later his Ministry in July 2016, the driver was issued with his third fixed-term contract working as civilian driver for Minister Regina Doherty - first in her role as Government Chief Whip and then later as Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection. In his claim, Mr Kiernan claimed that by operation of employment law, his contract became a contract of indefinite duration with effect from May 6th 2015. In rebutting Mr Kiernans claims, the Dept of Employment Affairs stated that the nature of the relationship between a Minister and his or her driver is one of special trust and discretion reflective of the fact that Minister conducts political and Government business while travelling in his or her car. The Dept stated: That very particular and personalised relationship is reflected in the uncontested fact that it is the Minister who identifies to the Department the individual which the Minister wishes to have appointed as his or her civilian driver for the duration of his or her term of office. The court stated that it noted in this case the process of Mr Kiernan being appointed to his first position as a civilian driver commenced with a visit to the Minister in his constituency upon his appointment as Minister. The Labour Court stated that it is persuaded that the inherent characteristics of the role of civilian driver to a Minister involves a particular relationship such that the Minister is capable, by virtue of the level of trust placed in the driver, of carrying out Government and political business during what both parties acknowledge are extended period of working time spent in the Ministers car with the driver. The court found that it is common case that each contract provided to the Appellant specified that the contract was directly related to and would end upon the conclusion of the named Ministers term of office. In its findings, the court found that the issuance of a fixed term contract to a civilian driver chosen by the individual Minister is a legitimate and proportionate means of achieving the aim of facilitating the conduct of Government and political business by a Minister and is not persuaded that any alternative of a less discriminatory nature is available. Dismissing Mr Kiernans claim, the Labour Court stated that the Dept was not in breach of the Act by issuance of successive fixed term contracts to Mr Kiernan. Progress in future-proofing infrastructure for the development of mobile and broadband technologies will be discussed later. The Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce will meet for the eighth time. It was set up to address telecoms deficits in rural Ireland. This latest meeting comes amid continuing controversy over the rollout of the National Broadband Plan. Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development, Sean Canney, chairs an implementation group. He says facilities are in place along new motorways for the rollout of future technologies: "If you take the motorway from Kilcock all the way down to Galway or if you take the motorway from Tuam all the way to Limerick and beyond, we have additional underground pipework laid along that road to take any future connections that may come." This "may relate to 5G, autonomous cars anything that will come in the future so we don't have to dig up these roads," Minister Canney added. Gardai in Killarney are investigating a suspected fire bomb attack on a family home in a housing estate in the early hours. The family of settled Travellers including up to four children were asleep at the time of the attack which severely damaged the bungalow at Hazlewood Drive in Ballyspillane at around 1am. It is understood a petrol bomb was flung at the door and windows were smashed. Local councillor Donal Grady who has highlighted a number of incidents involving a so-called feud between sections of the Traveller community in Kerry, said both Kerry County Council and the gardai need to take a strong approach. Some of those involved in the feud live in council owned houses in Kerry, and anti-social behaviour rules need to be applied, Cllr Grady said. Are we going to continue to ruin the lives of the good people in Ballyspillane? he asked. In a statement, gardai said they are "investigating an incident of criminal damage that occurred at a house in Ballyspillane, Co. Kerry this morning, April 18, at approximately 1am." "The door of the house is believed to have been set alight. Damage to front of house. Occupants were asleep inside house and came out by back door safely. "No injuries. No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing. Gardai are investigating claims that a prisoner was sexually assaulted by other inmates in Cork Prison. The alleged assault occurred last week at the prison in Rathmore Road on the northside of the city. The prisoner, who is understood to be in his twenties, made a complaint to guards that he had been sexually assaulted. He was brought to the Cork Sexual Assault Treatment Unit. An official complaint was made to gardai who have launched a probe regarding the alleged incident. A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service (IPS) has confirmed that an investigation is underway by gardai. He said the service was aware of the complaint but as it is an alleged criminal activity it is being investigated by An Garda Siochana. The new prison in Cork opened three years ago and replaced the existing jail in the city which dates back to the 1800s. It has 169 cells and is designed to hold 275 inmates. The prison has a hi tech security system including a network over 300 CCTV cameras. File image of main block at Cork Prison Cork Prison is a closed, medium security prison for adult males. It is the committal prison for counties Cork, Kerry and Waterford. The prison represents the largest single investment in infrastructure by the Irish Prison Service. Climate change protesters say they will continue to shut down parts of London after a third day of disruption. They blocked traffic and glued themselves to trains - and say protecting the planet from climate change is a matter of 'life and death'. Reinstating History as a core subject is still possible despite a leaked report recommending that should not happen, Education Minister Joe McHugh says. The leaked report from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) advises against a change to the subject's current optional status at Junior Cert level. The NCCA was asked to carry out the review by Mr McHugh last November amid strong criticism from President Michael D Higgins and others about the 2015 decision to remove it as a mandatory subject. A spokesman for Mr McHugh told the Irish Examiner: The report is a work in progress. It is unfinished, incomplete. "The Minister looks forward to receiving the final, complete report after the NCCA Board has had an opportunity to discuss its review, assess the final report and decide on what advice, recommendations or options, if any, it should give the minister. Mr McHugh has said the NCCA needs to be given the time and space to come up with its own deliberations and observations. The draft report into the status of history makes no specific recommendation but does conclude that "changes to any single component or subject, such as History, has implications for the framework as a whole". The NCCA is to discuss its draft report with its members on May 1. Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Mr McHugh said he believes that some value should be placed on History as we are at "an important juncture in terms of our own history" and the younger generation must be informed about where they have come from, in order to understand what kind of future can be created. He said History remains a popular subject, taken by 90% of students, but is concerned that this could change over time. Fianna Fail's education spokesman, Thomas Byrne, said he and his party are fully committed to restoring History as a compulsory subject, saying he was concerned by the draft findings: The commitment was in our last General Election manifesto, it has to happen. I am not surprised by the NCAA's findings but this is another Fine Gael Ard Fheis promise that has already bitten the dust. "But the power is with the minister, he can do it, he said he would do it as he has given a personal commitment, but we would be using our powers to make it happen." Historians and others criticised the removal of history as a mandatory subject. Until recently, History was a core subject in most secondary schools, but the new framework for the Junior Cycle removed its core status. President Michael D Higgins, last April expressed his "deep and profound concern" about changes to the status of history saying "knowledge and understanding of history is intrinsic to our shared citizenship, to be without such knowledge is to be permanently burdened with a lack of perspective, empathy and wisdom". The sister of a baby boy who died in Bessborough only found out that he was buried in a former famine grave via the Commission's burials report. Carmel Cantwell's brother, William, was just six weeks old in December 1960 when he died at in St Finbarr's Hospital in Cork after having been born in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home. In the mid-1990s, Carmel's mother went to the nuns requesting documentation about her time in Bessborough and seeking information as to where her son was buried. She was told he was buried in Bessborough in the small burial plot belonging to nuns. In the intervening years, Carmel and her mother "checked everywhere and [wrote] to everyone" looking for confirmation of this. They got no answers until Carmel opened the Commission's burial report yesterday and it was revealed that William is in fact buried in Cork District Cemetery, Carrs Hill. Although William is not named in the report, Carmel knows it was him as he was the only boy from Bessborough to die in December 1960 and the details in the report referred to her mother's experience directly. The report states that the Bessborough records show that the Sister of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary contacted the chaplaincy at St Finbarr's Hospital seeking information on William. In response to a query from the chaplaincy, the administrator of St Finbarrs Hospital provided a full overview of the childs stay in St Finbarrs including the cause of death and the place of burial in Cork District Cemetery, Carrs Hill, in December 1960. This information was contained in a letter dated December 12, 1994. However, Carmel's mother was never informed of this fact and was told her son was buried in Bessborough. "I just cried and cried when I saw that section. To think we had spent years asking and writing and we thought he was in Bessborough. My mum doesn't believe it. She can't come to terms that he was anywhere else. "The report refers to "unclaimed" babies but William was so loved and wanted. And then I think we should feel lucky that we are one of the few people that now know," she said. Mari Steed of the Bessborough Mother and Baby group - a contact and peer support resource for those who were born or adopted in the institution - said the fact that Carmel had to learn the burial place of her brother by reading the report is "galling". "Perhaps the most hurtful is the fact that one of our own beloved mothers learned the likely location of her baby boys grave from the interim report, rather than from the religious order and current record holders, from whom she has sought answers as early as 1994, and been refused." "If, as the Minister has said on numerous occasions, this inquiry and efforts to engage survivors of these institutions is a process of authentic truth-telling, we must first know what that truth is. Survivors must be given full access to their own records, as well as administrative records that have impact on them or possible deceased family," she said. The group is calling for a full geophysical examination of the grounds at Bessborough and says the Order must be held accountable "for violating the rights of individuals in their care, including those deceased". Condo Protego, a UAE-based IT infrastructure and information management consultancy and solutions provider, said that that it has become a VMware Enterprise Solutions Provider, helping it to enable new digital business models in the region. The UAEs digital market is set to grow by 21 percent to top Dh24 billion ($6.53 billion) by 2021, according to a recent report by market research firm Fitch Solutions. UAE organizations are increasingly adopting the latest cloud, mobility, networking, and security solutions. By optimizing how they store, manage, and secure their data, organizations can gain new business insights to transform customer experiences. As the digital era advances, 2019 will be a vital year for UAE organizations to adopt a digital foundation that can leverage their data for new business insights, said Andrew Calthorpe, CEO, Condo Protego. To meet this target business leaders in the UAE will need to adopt a cloud-first strategy, look to modernize their data center infrastructure and endeavour to deliver robust mobility and security. Condo Protego has advanced in the VMware Channel Partner Program. Originally, Condo Protego joined as a VMware Partner in 2012, and is now an Enterprise Solutions Provider. VMware continues to showcase emerging business technology innovations across containers, the Internet of Things, edge computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Elevating Condo Protego to an Enterprise Solutions Provider strengthens our ties with one of the UAEs most innovative systems integrators and digital support businesses, said Ossama Eldeeb, director, Mena Partner Organization, VMware. We are committed to delivering innovative solutions to our customers to accelerate their digital journey. Through this strengthened partnership we hope to assist UAE organizations in meeting their digital transformation goals, protecting brand and customer trust and boosting workforce productivity. In the UAE, Condo Protego is seeing strong customer demand for VMware solutions across VMwares NSX platform for network virtualization and security, VMware vSAN for hyper-converged infrastructure and VMware Workspace ONE for enhanced workforce mobility. TradeArabia News Service The Minister for Finance, Pascal Donohoe has emphatically ruled out suspending the work of NAMA pending the final report of the investigation into the sale of NAMAs Northern Ireland loan portfolio. In June 2017, the Government appointed retired High Court judge John Cooke to investigate NAMAs 1.24 billion (1.43 billion) sale in 2014 of the portfolio to US distressed-debt firm, Cerberus. Mick Wallace TD had alleged in the Dail that 7 million in fees related to the transaction had been lodged in a bank account in the Isle of Man that was reportedly earmarked for a Northern Ireland politician or party following the transaction. The allegation sparked a number of inquiries, including the Cooke Commission. New York-based Cerberus has denied any connection to any wrongdoing, while NAMA has said the allegations relate to the buy-side of the transaction. In a written Dail response to Deputy Wallace asking Minister Donohoe to consider suspending the work of NAMA immediately pending the final Cooke report, Minister Donohoe has stated: It is important to note that in no way has the integrity of NAMA or the NAMA Board or the integrity of its decisions been brought into question in relation to the disposal of Project Eagle. He stated: I therefore have no intention of directing NAMA to halt its activities. To do so would irreparably damage NAMA's positive contribution to our recovery and damage our reputation as a credible, open and transparent market. Minister Donohoe stated that the Cooke Commissions final report is scheduled to be published by the end June next. He stated that neither the Commissions Terms of Reference or its interim report call for a suspension of NAMA's activities. Minister Donohoe said that any interference in the work of NAMA would be detrimental to the interests of Irish taxpayers. The decision of the Oireachtas in 2009 to allow NAMA to carry out its functions in an independent manner has been vindicated by its strong performance since inception. He pointed out that in October 2017 NAMA eliminated the Irish taxpayers' contingent liability of 30 billion which arose from the senior debt issued in order to acquire bank loan portfolios. He added that NAMA also expects to redeem its subordinated debt by March 2020 and to produce a surplus currently estimated at 3.5 billion by the time it completes its work subject to continued positive market performance. He said: Halting NAMAs activities would put these achievements at risk. It would entail the State taking direct control of NAMA and bring NAMA onto the States balance sheet. He stated: Such action also would raise serious competition concerns limiting the States flexibility in recovering value from NAMAs remaining assets. "Such action would also create significant challenges for NAMA in retaining staff and preserving a viable platform to maximise the return from its remaining assets. A homelessness charity says it is really concerned that a report from the Ombudsman for Childrens Office on family hub centres runs the risk of further stigmatising those living in temporary accommodation centres. Pat Doyle, CEO of the Peter McVerry Trust, made the comments following the release of the No Place Like Home report which consulted 37 children aged five to 17, and the parents of 43 children under the age of five. Among those consulted was eight-year-old Hannah who, according to the report cried and told us that the Hub was like a childrens jail. Those consulted are living in hubs in Cork, Dublin, and Limerick. There are 26 such hubs across the country. Mr Doyle said there is an obvious need for the organisation to listen and reflect on the reports findings, and to learn what it can from it. However, he said none of the Peter McVerry Trusts 10 hubs were included in the report, and that its findings are based on a limited sample: My concern is that the family hubs have to be seen in context. "They are a temporary stay, which were meant to be a leg-up or a better quality facility than what families were telling us about hotels. "They were in response to families telling us that their experience in hotels was not good, that they were in one room, that there was nowhere to do homework, nowhere to play, nowhere to do laundry, nowhere to cook your own food." So family hubs, in the middle of a housing crisis - and that's the real issue, a lack of housing supply- were meant to be somewhere better, somewhere more positive, he told Sean ORourke on RTE Radio 1. He said he worries that the language in the report could further stigmatise children: I'm really concerned that the children that we have in our hubs will be even more ashamed to talk about hubs now because the headlines in the papers refer to hubs as being like a jail, and you know the way children slag children, children can bully children and I don't want that word to become the only narrative. Some of our children have blossomed in the hubs. Mr Doyle said parents have told the Trust that they have been able to potty train and teach their children to walk in family hubs in a way they couldnt in hotel rooms, and do not need to be in bed with their lights out early as they do in single-room accommodation. The real issue here is that we need to get away from B&Bs, away from hubs and into social housing and we need more social housing and we need it faster, Mr Doyle said. We need to increase our rapid builds, we need to increase our Repair and Leasing Scheme, we need to increase our Buy and Renew Schemes because no child wants to be in any type of homeless accommodation be it or hotel, hub, or temporary stay. "They want their own home and they have a right to their own home, and we should be doing everything we can to get that, he said. Speaking on the same programme, Mike Allen, director of advocacy with Focus Ireland praised the report and welcomed its findings on what he described as the absence of government policy: This crisis has been with us for a very long time now, and it looks if it's going to be with us for some years to come. "So we need a plan, and we need some sort notion from Government as to how long they think this crisis is going to last and what we need to do in it." Two men have been remanded in custody after Gardai raided a house in Co Donegal and found a range of stolen passports, false identity cards and stolen driving licenses. The men were part of a group of three people arrested on Tuesday morning when Gardai raided a rented house in Letterkenny. The third man was today released without charge. The two men who appeared at a special sitting of Letterkenny District Court are both Romanian nationals. Evidence and reasons for objections to bail was given by officers from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, Detective Garda Stephen Kelly and Detective Garda Paulina Szramozski. Legal representatives for both men, barrister Sean Magee and solicitor Kieran O'Gorman applied for bail which was objected to by Gardai. Having heard the bail applications, Judge Paul Kelly turned down both applications. He said he was refusing the applications on a number of grounds including the seriousness of the charges, the likelihood of both reoffending and the possibility that they could leave the jurisdiction. The first man charged was Ioan Barbuc, aged 25 of Glenoughty Close in Letterkenny He was charged with four offences including having articles used to make forged documents and possession of a stolen UK driver's license. He was also charged with possession of a stolen Irish passport and also the possession of a forged Romanian National Identity card. The second man, Andrei Ciocan, aged 31, also of Glenoughty Close, appeared on six charges. They included handling stolen property namely 1,100 in cash, possession of a stolen UK driver's license and having possession of a forged Romanian Identity card. He was also charged with having possession of a forged Romanian driving license, possession of a forged Romanian Identity card as well as possession of a stolen Irish passport, Public Services Card and driving license. Judge Kelly remanded both men to appear by videolink to Letterkenny District Court next Thursday, April 25 when directions by the DPP are expected to be given in both cases. The childrens hospital crisis and revelations the project will cost at least 1.7bn has been branded a fucking joke by a TD during a Dail debate which has led to yet more questions over the future of the facility. Independent TD and MEP election candidate for Ireland South Mick Wallace hit out at the cost revelations and last weeks PwC report into the scandal, before being warned about foul language in the Dail. Speaking during a late-night debate on the childrens hospital, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, and Labours health spokespersons Stephen Donnelly, Louise OReilly, and Alan Kelly lashed out at the issues surrounding the project. During exchanges with Health Minister Simon Harris, Mr Donnelly said the hospitals glass dome design has become a vanity project for a Government that has squeezed frontline funding. He questioned whether the maternity hospital will ever move to the site. Mr Kelly said it is unbelievable to claim officials who would argue with you over a fiver did not know about the cost overruns before they officially knew. Ms OReilly said the Government spin that it has been vindicated by the PwC report is untrue as it found the project had glaring problems from the start. After hitting out at the tendering process and claiming the costs crisis would never have happened in the private sector, Mr Wallace said he and the public are furious about what is taking place. Criticising the Governments response to date, he momentarily silenced a mainly empty Dail by saying the scandal surrounding the project is a fucking joke. Despite similar criticism from Sinn Feins Jonathan OBrien and Independent TD Catherine Connolly, Mr Harris had earlier defended the response to the childrens hospital, saying the Government is focused on the best interests of sick children. Mr Harris said he wanted to reiterate the Governments extreme unhappiness with the issues that have caused the cost overruns at the hospital. However, he said changes are taking place to address the issues, and that he and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will bring forward new governance plans to help reforms to Cabinet next month. Update 5.40pm: Special counsel Robert Muellers report has revealed that US President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mr Muellers removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. The report said that in June 2017, Mr Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to call the acting attorney general and say that Mr Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. Mr McGahn refused deciding he would rather resign than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate firings fame. For all of that, Mr Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Mr Trump had committed criminal obstruction of justice. The Justice Department posted a redacted version of the report online this morning, 90 minutes after attorney general William Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings. The two-volume, 448-page report recounts how Mr Trump repeatedly sought to take control of the Russia probe. Mr Mueller evaluated 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice, including Mr Trumps firing of FBI director James Comey, the presidents directive to subordinates to have Mr Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. The presidents lawyers have said Mr Trumps conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mr Muellers team deemed the episodes deserving of criminal scrutiny. Mr Mueller reported that Mr Trump had been agitated at the special counsel probe from its earliest days, reacting to Mr Muellers appointment by saying it was the end of his presidency. As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr Mueller wrote: While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Mr Mueller also said there was not sufficient evidence to charge any campaign officials with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. The report included an appendix that contained 12 pages of Mr Trumps written responses to the special counsel. They included no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Mr Trumps legal team. Attorney General Barr: 'The evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense' https://t.co/AYaxJwZTI1 via @ReutersTV pic.twitter.com/P9CPGRn9c0 Reuters (@Reuters) April 18, 2019 Mr Trump told Mr Mueller he had no recollection of learning in advance about the much-scrutinised Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Hillary Clintons campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made complimentary statements about him. Mr Trump said his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Mrs Clintons private server was made in jest and sarcastically and that he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. Mr Trumps legal team called the results a total victory for the president. Mr Trump tweeted moments after Mr Barr concluded his news conference, with an image inspired by the HBO show Game Of Thrones. The image included the words No Collusion and No Obstruction and then taunted Democrats with the phrase Game Over. Speaking at an unrelated White House event, Mr Trump said he was having a good day following the release of the report. And he said that no president should ever have to go through what he did again. He said: It was called no collusion, no obstruction. He added: There never was, by the way, and there never will be. He also renewed his calls for an investigation into the origins of the inquiry, saying: We do have to get to the bottom of these things.- Press Association No evidence Trump obstructed Russia probe, says Attorney-General Update 4.14pm: The Mueller report says that the special counsel determined there was a "reasonable argument" that Donald Trump Jr. violated campaign finance laws, but Mr Mueller did not believe they could obtain a conviction. It also found that Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a link to Podesta emails four days after WikiLeaks asked him to do so. A page from the Mueller report shows redactions due to harm to ongoing matter. More live updates: https://t.co/8k9Xwcupem @carloallegri pic.twitter.com/0FXMpdHwNk Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) April 18, 2019 While the report detailed the efforts by Russian military officials to hack into Democratic Party computers and steal information, the Attorney-General said that while hacking the emails was a crime, publishing them was not if the person did not take part in the hacking. Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy, Barr said. After that explanation, Barr said the special counsel did not find anyone from the Trump campaign broke the law. The Special Counsels report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials, Barr said. Donald Trump has responded to the release of Muellers report into Russian election interference, saying: This should never happen to another president again. "This should never happen to another president again" - US President Donald Trump's brief response to publication of the #MuellerReporthttps://t.co/1KVvtLzdCi pic.twitter.com/sc1LHUmdAc BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 18, 2019 The report also revealed that President Trump told then Attorney-General Sessions "This is the end of my presidency," when he learned a special counsel was being appointed. It also found that Trump directed White House lawyer Don McGahn in June 2017 to tell the acting Attorney General that Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed. Update: Attorney General William Barr has said that Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation did not uncover evidence that US President Donald Trump obstructed the Russia probe. A redacted copy of Robert Mueller's report on alleged Russian interference into the 2016 US election has been released. Confirming that President Trump was briefed on the report, the Attorney-General said."The president confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the special counsel's report:" The report said prosecutors did not subpoena Trump because it would create a "substantial delay" at a "late stage" in the investigation, despite Mueller believing he had authority to do so. It also accepted the longstanding Justice Department view that a sitting US president may not be indicted as part of legal analysis for obstruction. However, the report did say there is "substantial evidence" that Trump fired FBI Director Comey due to his "unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation". Attorney-General William Barr. It says Trump asked Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland to draft an internal letter saying he had not asked Michael Flynn to discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador. It added that there was "some evidence" to suggest Trump knew about Flynn's calls with the Russian ambassador, but it is "inconclusive" and could not be used to establish an intent to obstruct. The report also found that Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, shared internal polling data and the strategy for winning Midwestern states with Ukrainian ally Konstantin Kilimnik. Earlier: Attorney-General: No collusion between Trump campaign and Russian hackers A redacted version of a report into claims of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's election campaign is being released. Special counsel Robert Mueller led the FBIs investigation which found there was no interference. US attorney general William Barr has said there was "no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government hackers" as he spoke ahead of the release of Mueller's report into Russian election interference. The fully published report said Russian operatives did not have the co-operation of President Trump or his election campaign. Eager to get in the last word ahead of the public release of the special counsel's report, Mr Barr laid out in advance what he said was the "bottom line". WATCH LIVE: Attorney General Barr says the Mueller report recounts 10 episodes involving Trump and evaluates whether they qualify as obstruction of justice https://t.co/fjwJEnmay0 Reuters Politics (@ReutersPolitics) April 18, 2019 While Mr Mueller drew no conclusion about whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice in the investigation, Mr Barr said he and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein personally had concluded that while Mr Trump was "frustrated and angry" about the Mueller probe, nothing the president did rose to the level of an "obstruction-of-justice offence". He also said the special counsel found no evidence that any American conspired or coordinated with the Russian government and did not find any person "illegally" disseminated any hacked emails Attorney-General William Barr. In his press conference, Attorney General Barr defended his four-page summary of the Mueller Report, which probed the Russian governments interference and any potential obstruction of justice by President Trump and others. Barr said Trump was "frustrated and angered" by the investigation, which did not establish Trump coordination with Russia, and he believed it was fueled by illegal leaks. The Attorney-General went on to say that the White House fully cooperated with Mueller's probe. He said a less redacted report will be made available to a bipartisan group of members of Congress before adding that no information in Mueller report was redacted because of executive privilege. Attorney General Barr said "significant portions" of the Mueller report could have been kept secret because of executive privilege, but were not. He said he did not think there was enough evidence to pursue an obstruction of justice case against the president. Mr Barr said Mr Mueller's report examined 10 episodes pertaining to Mr Trump and obstruction. Mr Barr said he and Mr Rosenstein disagreed with some of Mr Muellers legal theories pertaining to obstruction of justice, but he said that did not influence their conclusion that Mr Trump did not commit a crime. The Attorney-General said: "Although the Deputy Attorney-General and I disagreed with some of the special counsel's legal theory and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision. "Instead we accepted the special counsel's legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the special counsel in reaching our conclusions." It is clear Congress and the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings. We are now requesting Mueller to appear before @HouseJudiciary as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/Mmo6PA4KPt Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) April 18, 2019 He added that he has no objection to Robert Mueller testifying to Congress. Mr Barr said the president did not exert executive privilege to withhold anything in the report. And he said the president's personal lawyer had requested and gotten a chance to review the report before its public release. The Justice Department will release a redacted version of the special counsel's report later, opening up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country. The US President responded to the Attorney-General's press conference on Twitter. He tweeted a photograph of himself, with the words: "No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats, Game over." Even ahead of the reports release, Democrats cried foul about Mr Barrs press conference, for spinning the report in the words of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. The process is poisoned before the report is even released, he said. And moments after Mr Barr finished speaking, House judiciary chairman Jerrold Nadler sent a letter requesting that Mr Mueller himself testify before his panel no later than May 23. Mr Barrs news conference ended abruptly after he bristled at the tone of some questions about how he handled the Mueller report. UAE-based Gulftainer, a leading privately-owned independent terminal operating and logistics company, said the Iraq Container Terminal (ICT) being operated by the company at Umm Qasr Port in southern Iraq, has registered container volumes of 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), since it started operations in the region less than nine years ago. Gulftainer was the first foreign investor to launch a joint venture with the General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI) in Umm Qasr Port, starting operations at the Iraq Project Terminal on Berth 8 in the South Port in August 2010, followed by ICT on Berth 11 in the North Port in 2012. The company has invested heavily in ICT to develop a 376-m berth and container storage area within the 342,000 sq m terminal that currently has the capacity to handle in excess of 400,000 TEUs per year, allowing for future volume increase. The berth is equipped with two Mitsubishi ship-to-shore gantry cranes, supported by two Gottwald mobile harbour cranes with a 100-tonne lifting capacity, in addition to container-handling equipment including 18 reach stackers, two empty handlers and 28 terminal tractors, said the UAE group in its statement. ICT currently employs 250 locals and a support team of 50 expatriates. Since November 2018, Gulftainer also operates the Iraq South Terminal IST, on Berth 4 in the South Port that features 230 m of quay and a yard handling capacity of 100,000 TEUs per annum. Nic Gray, General Manager of Gulftainers operations in Iraq, said: "The latest developments at ICT and Iraq South Terminal in 2018 mark impressive milestones for Gulftainer in Iraq. The company offers reliable services, fast vessel turnarounds, competitive rates, 48-hour customs clearance, dedicated in and out gates, and an on-terminal customs scanner." "With its extensive experience in terminal management that dates back to 1976, Gulftainers efforts have helped enhance the capacity of these terminals to meet future growth." he stated. This year the company plans to expand its storage space by introducing two new yards and increasing ICTs annual handling capacity to 650,000 TEUs. In addition, the company will launch a new customer web portal, allowing for container and vessel tracking, generating online proforma invoices and sharing up-to-date terminal information." Gulftainer celebrated the latest achievements at an event held in Iraq that drew the participation of Dr Safaa AJ Alfayyadh, Director-General of the Iraqi Port Authority (IPA) port directors, senior officials from customs and borders authorities, and other distinguished guests. Speaking at the event, Ibrahim Serhan, Middle East Regional Manager at Gulftainer, said, "The success of ICT reflects Gulftainers commitment to implementing the latest best practices in port management." For his part, Dr Alfayyadh said: "On behalf of Abdullah Luaibi, Minister of Transport of Iraq, and IPA, we congratulate Gulftainer on this latest achievement that is attributed to the efficient management and excellent operational capabilities of the company." "Gulftainer is a strong partner to IPA, owing to its professionalism and credibility," he added.-TradeArabia News Service A team investigating the fire at Notre Dame in Paris think an electrical short-circuit was the most likely cause. The cathedral was gutted by the blaze which broke out on Monday evening. UAE-based National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) has appointed Bader Saeed Al Lamki as the companys new chief executive officer effective April 21. An industry veteran, Al Lamki joins from Masdar, where he was the executive director of the Clean Energy Directorate. In this role, he played an instrumental role in building the companys renewable energy portfolio across 25 countries, leading on a number of its most iconic projects, said a statement from Tabreed. He was responsible for steering the business growth activities including bidding, acquisition and green field development at Masdar besides maximising value from Masdars utility-scale renewable energy portfolio globally through effective asset and operation management, it added. Welcoming the appointment, Chairman Khaled Al Qubaisi said: "Al Lamki's vast expertise makes him the ideal successor to steer the company during the next stage of its growth strategy and further drive its operating and financial performance." "His considerable industry knowledge will be invaluable to us as we continue our expansion and seek to further efficiency gains and achieve our full growth potential," he added. Al Lamki joined Masdar in February 2008 from Adma-Opco after successfully leading a strategic development initiative to support increasing the oil production of the company to nearly 1 million barrels per day. Earlier in his career, he was also with the leading French energy operator Total, advising on oil and gas project development across the Africa continent. Al Lamki succeeds Jasim Husain Thabet, who joined as the first Emirati CEO of Tabreed in August 2012 and during his six-year tenure, the companys annual net income grew from approximately Dh202.3 million to Dh427.6 million. Under his leadership, Tabreed successfully pioneered a new model of sustainable growth, delivering approximately 50% growth in consolidated connected capacity and 28% growth in revenues, said the company in its statement. This outstanding performance facilitated the investment grade credit ratings from Moodys and Fitch of Baa3 and BBB respectively and the successful re-entry to the public debt capital markets through the issue of a $500 million 7-year unsecured sukuk. Thabet has played a major role in the strategic acquisition by Engie of 40% of Tabreed and most recently, he led Tabreeds first foray outside of the GCC market with the signing a 30-year concession for a contracted cooling capacity of 20,000 RT in Amaravati, India. Thanking him for the company's success, Al Qubaisi said: "The Board is grateful to Thabet for his commitment, strong leadership and many years of service to Tabreed." "He has been instrumental in effectively positioning Tabreed in the UAE and across the GCC and driving its growth, making it one of the best-performing and most profitable companies in the sector," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Pinterest rose as much as 32 per cent in its trading debut after raising $US1.4 billion ($1.95 billion) in the second-biggest US initial public offering of the year. Shares of the digital-scrapbooking company opened at $US23.75. They were up 30 per cent to $US24.79 at 2.49pm in New York trading on Thursday, giving the company a market value of about $US13.1 billion. Pinterest operates in a crowded digital marketing space, where Google and Facebook get the lion's share of ad dollars. Credit:Bloomberg The listing is second in the US this year only to Lyft's $US2.34 billion offering in March. Their IPOs will likely be eclipsed by Uber Technologies. Ride-hailing's global behemoth will seek to raise about $US10 billion in May in an offering valuing it at about $US100 billion, people familiar with its plans have said. Pinterest's strong showing, along with an even stronger first-day performance by Zoom Video Communications on Thursday, signals continuing investor thirst for new stocks amid a surge of unicorns - startups valued at $US1 billion or more - coming to market. Other high-profile companies considering going public include Slack Technologies, Postmates, Palantir Technologies and Airbnb. Household demand deposits fell by 1.1 per cent last month. This means that the growth rate of "true" M1 money is still at slump levels. It has ticked up a fraction but this is nothing like previous episodes of Chinese stimulus. It points towards stagnation into late 2019. "Hold the champagne," he said. A paper last month by Wei Chen and Chang-Tai Tsieh for the Brookings Institution - "A Forensic Examination of China's National Accounts" - concluded that GDP growth has been overstated by 1.7 per cent a year on average since 2006. They used satellite data to track night lights in manufacturing zones, railway cargo volume, and so forth. "Local officials are rewarded for meeting growth and investment targets," they said. "Therefore, it is not surprising that local governments also have an incentive to skew the statistics." Liaoning - a Spain-sized province in the north - recently corrected its figures after an anti-corruption crackdown exposed grotesque abuses. Estimated GDP was cut by 22 per cent. You get the picture. China President Xi Jinping is still locked in a tarde spat with Donald Trump. Credit:AP Bear in mind that if China's economy is a fifth or a quarter smaller than claimed it implies that the total debt ratio is not 300 per cent of GDP (IIF data) but closer to 400 per cent. If China's growth rate is 1.7 per cent lower - and falling every year - the country is less able to rely on nominal GDP expansion whittling away the liabilities. Debt dynamics take an ugly turn - just at a time when the working-age population is contracting by two million a year. The International Monetary Fund says China needs (true) growth of 5 per cent to prevent a rising ratio of bad loans in the banking system. Loading China bulls in the West do not dispute most of this. But they say that what matters is the "direction" of the data, and this is looking better. Stimulus is flowing through. It gained traction in March with an 8.5 per cent bounce in industrial output - though sceptics suspect that VAT changes led to front-loading. Suddenly the words "green shoots" are on everybody's lips. The thinking is that China will rescue Europe. Optimists are doubling down on another burst of global growth, clinched by the capitulation of the US Federal Reserve. It will be a repeat of the post-2016 recovery cycle. Personally, I don't believe this happy narrative. But what I do respect after observing late-cycle psychology over four decades - and having turned bearish too early during the dotcom boom - is that investors latch onto good news with alacrity during the final phase of a long expansion. A filtering bias creeps in. So sticking my neck out, let me hazard that heady optimism will lead to a rally on asset markets until the economic damage below the waterline becomes clear. Sharemarkets continue to strengthen, but trouble may be ahead. Credit:AP By then the adrenalin from Mr Trump's tax cuts will be wearing off fast. The steepest fiscal cliff in half a century is coming in the second half of this year, unless Congress agrees to a fresh package. Citigroup advised clients two weeks ago to wind down exposure to risky assets and prepare for a storm. "We are only 15 minutes to midnight," it said. The bank rebuked the Powell Fed for over-tightening and baking the next downturn into the pie. With unusual precision, it said the next recession would start in December. US stock market tops precede economic contraction by an average of five months. Ergo, equities will peak in July. That sounds about right. Let us concede that Beijing has opened its fiscal floodgates to some degree over recent weeks. Broad credit grew by $US430 billion ($601 billion) in March alone. Business tax cuts were another $US300 billion. Bond issuance by local governments was pulled forward for extra impact. But once you strip out the offsets, it is far from clear that the picture for 2019 has changed. Loading Nor is it clear what can be achieved with more credit. The IMF said in its Fiscal Monitor that the country now needs 4.1 yuan of extra credit to generate one yuan of GDP growth, compared to 3.5 in 2015, and 2.5 in 2009. The "credit intensity ratio" has worsened dramatically. This is why the People's Bank is pushing back valiantly against easy-money creditists in the finance ministry. Benefits are marginal and dangers are rising exponentially. The PBOC deserves plaudits for delivering a softish landing, but a landing it is. "When we were touring in the UK in the early days we'd look out at the audience and see that everybody had bought their Downton Abbey book to be signed," she said before a concert in 2015. "The look on their faces when we came on started playing this rock 'n roll music can only be described as somewhat shocked." Elizabeth McGovern at the Australian premiere of The Chaperone. Credit:Studio Canal McGovern's acting career began when Robert Redford cast her in Ordinary People - a student who starts dating Timothy Hutton's troubled character - while she was still studying drama in her late teens at New York's famous Juilliard School. Her very first movie won best picture at the Oscars in 1981. The following year, McGovern had an Oscar nomination of her own for playing a former chorus girl in Milos Forman's Ragtime, though the accolade was not all good news. "It was incredibly heady but it was tempered by the fact that I knew it was unearned," she says. "I felt like I wasn't ready. I didn't really feel in control of my craft or my personal life or any of it so it was a mixed thing to be honest." Other Hollywood movies followed quickly in the '80s: Racing With The Moon (1984) opposite soon-to-be-fiancee Sean Penn, just before he married Madonna. McGovern has described him as "someone who breathes drama every minute of the day", adding "when something's tragic, it's tragic to the gazillionth degree", so it only lasted a couple of years on and off. Loading Then came Once Upon A Time In America (1984) alongside Robert De Niro and James Woods, She's Having A Baby (1988) with Kevin Bacon and Johnny Handsome (1989) opposite Mickey Rourke. "I thought it was very easy," McGovern says. "The films that I started with catapulted me to a place where I was visible early on. They were seminal obviously. Then I feel like I've slowly, methodically, worked my way down. "But I've had a great time. I wouldn't have it any other way. I always did work that I totally believed in and I still feel like that's the only thing I care about." McGovern grew up amid the grand homes of Evanston in Chicago, with a father who was a university professor and a mother who was a high school teacher. She started taking acting lessons after an agent saw her in a play. Since marrying British producer-director Simon Curtis (Woman In Gold, Goodbye Christopher Robin) in 1992, McGovern has lived in London, juggling roles with raising two daughters. She remains baffled by the enduring success of Downton Abbey, which has delivered her nominations for Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards, given the focus on English class and wealth. Elizabeth McGovern, above, called on Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes to write a script for The Chaperone. Credit:Studio Canal "I'm surprised by people's continuing fascination for it," she says. "It presents this very romanticised version of that system and that life but people just love it." The Chaperone is a passion project that started when McGovern was hired to read an audio book version of Laura Moriarty's novel of the same name, about a straight-laced woman who discovers a new world when she escorts teenage future silent movie star Louise Brooks (Haley Lu Richardson) from provincial Kansas to buzzing jazz age New York. She decided to buy the rights, called on Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) to write a script and became a producer. The Chaperone is about a straight-laced woman who discovers a life she'd never imagined. Credit:Studio Canal "It just occurred to me that it would be a terrific story for a movie," McGovern says. "So I became fixated by that idea. Seven years later, after a lot of turmoil, it's come to fruition." That turmoil included potential backers who insisted that no one wanted to see a film about a middle-aged woman. No doubt, just as they once said no one would watch a film about a female superhero. "I was shocked that people would just say that right to my face," McGovern says. "They'd say it should be more about Louise Brooks, which is valid. But for me, that's much more of a predictable movie because it's the rise and then the self-destruct of a Hollywood star, which we have seen quite a few times before. "I didn't think that was as interesting as this odd relationship between the two of them. And I think that an ordinary middle-aged woman is interesting; most of us who are that age are." While Jacki Weaver's amazing career trajectory - 50 hours of television and 23 films since Animal Kingdom launched her Hollywood career in her sixties - suggests there more roles for mature actresses, McGovern believes there are still too few. "To be honest, nothing comes my way," she says. "I'm really excited to be doing a play [Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger with Matthew Broderick] when I go back. "I'm so busy in my life - I have so much going on - that I don't sit around feeling badly about things. But I don't think there's lots of material written for women my age." While she professes not to be very political, McGovern says it's difficult not to be engaged given the divisiveness in the US in the Trump era. "I feel, like a lot of people, very frightened," she says. "But I cling to a belief that the system is strong enough and that it will resurrect itself ... I'm an optimistic enough person to think that Trump will burn himself out. The best possible scenario is if his base, genuinely and organically, become disillusioned with his schtick because they see it for what it is." So in the more comforting world of period drama, what can audiences expect of the Downtown Abbey movie later this year? "More of the same," McGovern says. "Only on a bigger scale, with fancy cinematography. We haven't moved forward very much in time and all of the characters are saying pretty much what they've been saying for six years." From two months to 18 years of age, Isaiah Dawe lived in a succession of 17 foster homes where he was subjected to daily physical and verbal abuse, racial slurs and neglect. "Isaiah, you are a nobody, and that's why your family abandoned you," a foster carer told him when he was seven. That continued for years. NSW Governor David Hurley has mentored Isaiah Dawe for the last year. Credit:Wolter Peeters For the past four years Mr Dawe, now 24, has been visiting his mentor, NSW Governor David Hurley, in the "big fancy castle" for advice on how to ensure other Indigenous youth don't suffer like he did. In his last reception at Government House before his term ends on May 1, Governor Hurley launched Mr Dawe's new Indigenous mentoring program. A confidential agreement for unpaid rent has been reached between Brisbane City Council and a not-for-profit charity cafe it evicted from a historic council-owned building in Teneriffe. In February Brisbane City Council evicted The Uniting Hands Foundation Australia, a Nepalese charity, out of the Engine Room Cafe after it failed to pay more than $17,000 in rent. The Engine Room cafe was restored in 2016 after falling into disrepair. Credit:Glenn Hunt "Brisbane City Council and the former proprietors of the Engine Room entered into a confidential agreement, which included provisions for outstanding fees," a council spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Opposition spokesman Jared Cassidy (Deagon) said Labor still wanted to see an independent auditor review the tender process and council's oversight of the charity's tenancy. Queensland health authorities are urging people to get a flu shot ahead of the height of the flu season this year to avoid putting more pressure on the states overstretched hospital system. All public hospitals in south-east Queensland, with the exception of the Queensland Childrens Hospital, went to code yellow late last month in what has been repeatedly described as an unprecedented influx of patients. In particular, there were reportedly many more people presenting with severe cases of the flu compared with similar times in previous years this was pointed to as one of the major causes of the mass logjam of multiple emergency departments. Queenslanders are being urged to get a flu shot to spare the state's "overstretched" emergency departments. Credit:ninevms Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said that, as part of the governments response to that situation, they had started the annual flu plan earlier than expected, and had continued it since. More than 140 complaints have been made about Gold Coast City Council to the new Office of the Independent Assessor in just three months, far above other south-east Queensland councils, but more than half were dismissed. The regulator's first quarterly Insight report into council complaints and conduct does not include complaints about Brisbane City Council, which it does not regulate. Kathleen Florian took on the role of Independent Assessor for councillor complaints in Queensland. However, between December and March this year, the regulator received 143 complaints about Gold Coast City Council, 72 about Moreton Bay Regional Council, and 31 about Logan City. Fifteen complaints about the former Ipswich council were received, 14 about Redland City, and 11 about Noosa and the Sunshine Coast. Detectives are searching for a car that may help investigations into the death of a doctor shot in his Brisbane home this week. Luping Zeng, 56, was shot in the chest following a confrontation with an intruder in the garage at his Delfin Drive home in MacGregor before midnight on Monday. Emergency services were called to Dr Luping Zeng's home about 11.40pm on Monday. Credit:Facebook The former plastic surgeon who worked as a GP at Waterford Seven Day Medical Centre and Skin Cancer Clinic was taken to hospital but died. His wife, also a doctor, and both his daughters, who were medical students, rushed to Dr Zeng's aid after hearing a single gunshot. A Melbourne principal filmed dragging a student along the ground will be back at his desk on Tuesday after an investigation and an unreserved apology and now his supporters want the Education Minister to offer an apology of his own. Steve Warner, the executive principal of Manor Lakes P-12 College in Wyndham Vale, in Melbourne's south-west, was stood down when video of him dragging a nine-year-old boy came to light in February. Mr Warner, along with more than 15,000 parents, students and supporters who signed a petition demanding he retain his job, had been nervously awaiting the results of an independent investigation. The Education Department found Mr Warner's actions were "unacceptable" and "did not meet the behaviour expected of a principal", but that he was too valuable to the school to lose. Hong Kong: Group ban report released Chief Executive Carrie Lam today released to the public the report she submitted to the Central People's Government (CPG) on the prohibition of the operation of the Hong Kong National Party by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The report was submitted to the CPG on April 16 and its content includes the case background and summary of the process. The CPG issued a letter to the Chief Executive on February 26 in support of the HKSAR Governments actions to prohibit the operation of the Hong Kong National Party in accordance with the law. It also requested the Chief Executive to submit a report on the matter. Upon the Department of Justices advice, the report released to the public contains the main body of the report to avoid affecting any possible future legal proceedings. Click here for details. This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. International and regional speakers are expected to attend the upcoming Downstream and local Content Oil & Gas Petrochemical Industry in Bahrain, organizers of The Business Development Forums & Expo (BDFEX) announced. The forum will be held on April 24 and 25 at The Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel Manama. Dr. Abdula Al Sebyani, general director of Forum have announced key note speakers to attend the forum, including the VP local content & business Dev. Unit of SABIC Fuad Musa, general manager of Jazan Economic City Saudi Aramco Abdulla AlSoweilem, managing partner of Al Mobda Abdulla Saad Al-Rabeeah and CEO of Mena Research Partners Anthony Hobaika. Key note speakers will discuss various themes, including: challenges and opportunities for the localization of downstream oil and gas and petrochemical industries in GCC, addressing R&D challenges and improving human resources in the downstream industry, industrial entrepreneurship in the oil and gas and petrochemical industry and technology transfer agreements for industry localization, he added. The conference will host a two-day agenda with sessions for initiatives of benefit to the industry at large submitted by companies, investors and entrepreneurs aimed at reducing cost and increasing innovation. BDFEX forum and Expo aims to attract international and regional corporations, SME, investors and entrepreneurs that would result increasing local content of manufacturing and services and the hydrocarbon downstream industry, creating new sustainable jobs, and attracting investments. The objective of BDFEX forum and expo is for participants to get closer towards finding new business partners, investors, technology providers, new suppliers, new market access, etc. The two-day event is jointly organized by PROACT International Consultancy, Bahrain and United Gulf Industrial Consortia for Investment Management and Consultation, Jubail, Saudi Arabia. TradeArabia News Service The naked boy knocked on the door of a Highett property at 2.45am on Thursday. Credit:Victoria Police A young boy was naked and appeared distressed and disoriented when he knocked on a door in Melbourne's south-east early on Thursday morning. The boy, believed to be about nine, knocked on the door of a house in Hibberd Street, Highett, about 2.45am. The residents of the home promptly called emergency services, who took the boy to hospital. Police said the boy was "not verbal" and did not communicate with emergency services. A photo was released of the boy about 9.45am on Thursday in a bid to identify him. In the past, this was known (quietly) as a death watch. Should a leader blunder so badly that his (or, once, her) partys campaign enters a fatal spiral, or, heaven forbid, one of them actually expired, youd want to be there to report it. But theres not much more point to what's become of this ritualised circus. Leaders and their campaign staffers - and particularly this time, Morrison and his people, because they are on the back foot - have become so risk-averse that journalists regularly find themselves on buses and planes without having a clue about the destination. When they actually arrive somewhere, the mushroom treatment continues. A press release is thrust into their hands and they have a few minutes to ask questions of the PM before the caravan moves on. Shortens campaign - so far - has been a bit more relaxed, largely because his travelling guardians figure Labor is leading by sufficient margin to allow a little rope. Shortens travelling comet of journalists get press releases the night before announcements are to be made, and reporters are even informed ahead of time where they are going. Loading They probably shouldnt get too comfortable. Once Easter and Anzac Day are over and these early days of the campaign and the phony arguments about billions squandered or saved or cut - all in the abstract future - are behind us, the Opposition Leader can expect scrutiny of his agenda to sharpen considerably, and campaign paranoia to heighten. Increasing control and secrecy have, of course, been the way of things through a series of leaders going all the way back to John Howard, and were elevated to an art form by Kevin Rudd in 2007. Having travelled on the planes and buses of campaigning leaders for 35 years, I have witnessed the inexorable development of media manipulation. I shudder to think how much all those excursions cost my various employers. All those planes, all those buses, all those hotel rooms and minibars. This time, Im staying away until the last week of the campaign. Prime Minister Scott Morrison gets on the media bus after visiting the Premium Fresh carrot farm near Forth, Tasmania. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer I no longer see the point, and as it happens, neither does The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald. Journalists from our papers travelled for the first few days, but they left the bus on Thursday. We will report the campaign in other, more worthwhile ways until the last, frantic week. My colleagues will weigh the policies and issues, and some of them will travel independently to the marginal seats that will decide the outcome of the election. And me? Im setting off alone on my motorbike to gauge the mood in far-flung rural electorates. Perhaps, of course, I am overplaying the part of a jaded old journo. The first time I got on the bus - which is to say, the first federal election campaign I physically followed - seemed tremendously exciting. The bus was a plane: a not very big BAC-111 jet operated by the RAAFs VIP wing. Opposition Leader Bob Hawke sat up the front with his minders and maybe 12 journalists piled in the back. As the only reporter on board from a regional newspaper (Albury's Border Morning Mail), I was awed by legends of the craft all around. Glory be, Michelle Grattan sat right opposite my seat. Bob Hawke in the VIP section of the BAC-111. Credit:David John Barton Days passed in a blur of whistle stops: Hobart, Cairns, Brisbane. From time to time, Hawke brought his cigar down the back of the plane to chew the fat with the journos. We landed here and there across the country and we raced for the few pay phones in the terminal to file what we had learned. Buses picked us up and conveyed us to rallies and country shows and meeting halls, just as they did for those following the doomed PM Malcolm Fraser. It was 1983, long before mobile phones, ages before the internet. Reporters covering election campaigns needed to rock around the nation with political leaders: it was the only way they could see and record what was going on, and their reports were the only way voters could be properly informed. The leaders knew it, and far from handing out the mushroom treatment, confided their thoughts to the media off the record. Only the most senior political correspondents got the gig. Except for me, of course. I was indulged because no regional paper had ever been so bold as to ask to go along for the ride. Loading In the evenings, the scribes retired to hotel rooms, tapped out their reports and dictated them by telephone to copytakers for the next mornings papers. TV crews by then had already headed to the nearest transmitting facility to send pictures for the evening news. Radio reporters, who had typically spent the day updating their broadcasts every hour, prepared material for the dawn. For most of us, there was still time for a long dinner at a worthy eating establishment. And so readers, listeners and viewers got their daily dose of informed election campaign news, commentary and analysis. These years later, within the all-encompassing internet age, when everyone is connected and savvy and campaign managers are paranoid, all the travelling and the street walks and the brief stops for press conferences and smile-fests with local candidates are nearing redundancy. Tokyo: Emperor Akihito has prayed at a Japanese shrine in a ritual to report his upcoming abdication to the Shinto gods. The 85-year-old Emperor will retire on April 30 in the first abdication in 200 years and a rarity in Japan's ancient imperial history. Japanese Emperor Akihito, centre, visits Ise Grand Shrine on Thursday. This is the last trip to a local region for the Emperor and Empress before his abdication. Credit:Kyodo News/AP Crown Prince Naruhito will succeed to the Chrysanthemum throne on May 1. Akihito performed the Shinetsu no Gi ritual on Thursday at Ise Shrine in western Japan as part of the succession process. "Victor Hugo thanks all the generous donors ready to save Notre-Dame and proposes that they do the same thing with Les Miserables," he wrote on Twitter, referring to another one of Hugo's famous novels, about the lives of the poor. Manon Aubry, a senior figure in France Insoumise, the main radical left party, called the funding an "exercise in public relations." She said the donors' list "looks like the rankings of companies and people located in tax havens." She added: "I want to tell them: Start by paying your taxes. That will add to the state culture budget." Loading The bickering was about as far as possible to imagine from the image of a united France the President painted when he gave a national address on Tuesday. Macron said "it is up to us to transform this catastrophe" into a moment to become "better than what we are." The firestorm began when Jean-Jacques Aillagon, a former culture minister and now adviser to Pinault's father, went on Twitter after Francois-Henri Pinault announced his gift to suggest that corporate contributions to Notre-Dame's restoration be given a 90 per cent tax deduction, rather than the 60 per cent that corporations normally get for charitable contributions. Not far behind: LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault. Credit:AP "That's when the whole thing exploded," said Pierre Haski, a commentator for France-Inter, the public radio station. "That produced outrage, that this act of generosity turns into fiscal advantage." The reaction was so intense that Aillagon went on the radio on Wednesday morning to retract his suggestion. The Pinault family then announced that they would seek no tax deduction at all for the gift. Loading "It was very revealing about the sensitivity of the whole issue," Haski said, coming in the midst of a great national debate about the yellow vests and their protests against inequality and fiscal privileges. In general many are relieved that Notre-Dame still stands, and if there is now 1 billion to reconstruct it, without calling too deeply on an already stretched national budget, that may be enough. But taxes have been one of the pressing issues in the yellow vest movement, and the one that Macron has had most trouble diffusing. The protests that began in autumn were originally over a gasoline tax, but morphed into a larger collective outcry over declining living standards that many average French people complained were rooted in high taxes, while the upper-middle classes in the big cities, let alone the rich, were doing just fine. Loading The protesters have lashed out at Macron for favouring the very rich by eliminating a wealth tax, among other inducements as part of his plan to stimulate the economy. While he has since announced a series of modest tax cuts to help people struggling to make ends meet, he has refused to reinstate the wealth tax, a symbolic slap in the face of the protesters that redoubled their anger. Ingrid Levavasseur, a founding leader of the yellow vests, said France should "get back to reality". "There is growing anger on social media over the inertia of big corporations over social misery while they are proving able to mobilize a crazy amount of dough overnight for Notre-Dame," she added. The companies contributing are among the largest in France, and account for tens of thousands of jobs at home and abroad in the luxury, energy and construction industries. But for many, they are also symbols of an untouchable class of superrich who keep getting richer, thanks to a host of fiscal advantages. Both Arnault and Pinault made their fortunes in the world of luxury Arnault built the LVMH Louis Vuitton empire, and Pinault's family owns Kering, the second-largest luxury group in France. The two billionaires' families have been rivals ever since the so-called "handbag wars", when they sparred for control of Italian luxury group Gucci. Pinault's family eventually won. They have both amassed huge personal fortunes, although Arnault's, which Forbes estimated at 76 billion, far outpaces Pinault's, estimated at a mere 26 billion. Both families have built up priceless art collections and have scrambled to outdo one another over the years with new museums in France and Italy to house their treasures. So when the billionaires announced their generous donations to Notre-Dame, critics were quick to note that the ample deductions would be made up for by the French taxpayers. "These billionaires want to pass for heroes," Esther Benbassa, a senator with the Green party, said on Twitter. "They would do better to renounce tax evasion and fiscal optimization." Nor has another wealthy donor, global cosmetics giant L'Oreal. The company's heirs, the Bettencourt-Meyers, announced a 200 million donation for Notre-Dame on Tuesday through the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation. "Of course there is reputation washing involved," said Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, a French commentator, who saw the initial gifts as fundamentally sincere. "There's a muscle memory of Catholicism in France, and it came back," she said. "We're a secular country, but when push comes to shove," religious feelings come forward. Pittsburgh: Last year, a woman in northern Alabama who law enforcement officials said was a prostitute typed a message to a doctor: "Can u get any Xanax." The doctor replied: "What makes you think I know a Xanax source?" Just below, he added a smiley face, and then described his home as the "Fun House". The doctor was one of the scores of medical professionals across seven states who were charged by federal prosecutors on Wednesday, US time, with schemes to illegally distribute millions of pain pills. Opioid prescriptions were exchanged for sex in some cases, and for cash with an added "concierge fee" in others. One doctor was accused of routinely prescribing opioids to friends on Facebook. Kathleen Scarpone, left, and Cheryl Juaire, second from left, protest at Harvard University last week. Juaire, who's son Corey Merrill died in 2011, led a demonstration by parents who have lost a child to opioid abuse. Credit:AP Prosecutors said the doctor in northern Alabama "recruited prostitutes and other young women with whom he had sexual relationships" to become his patients. He also opened his home to people using heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, they said, in a criminal complaint, adding that police officers had been to the house several times concerning overdoses and other complaints. New York: It's a scene straight out of a Bob Woodward tell-all book: Donald Trump, slumped in his chair, discovers that a special counsel has been appointed to probe the 2016 election. "This is the end of my presidency," Trump declared in May 2017, according to Robert Mueller's final report. "Im f---ed." A redacted version of Robert Mueller's report into Russian election interference was released on Thursday local time. Credit:AP Almost two years after his probe began, Mueller's report has finally been released to the public. While it clears the President of colluding with Russia to win an election, its depiction of the President is deeply unflattering. Trump emerges as a serial liar who meddled with independent investigations and quite possibly obstructed justice from the White House. Latest News MoneyMe to acquire SocietyOne Deal brings together two of the fastest-growing brands in the non-bank space Resimac makes key broker channel hires Two new GMs to bolster broker support Research commissioned by online lender OnDeck has examined the impact upcoming events such as the rapid succession of holidays and the federal election may have on SMEs. Because Anzac Day falls so closely to Easter this year, employees are able to have a 10-day holiday at the expense of just three days of annual leave. Over one in four SMEs expect the unique set of circumstances to disrupt normal trading. Cameron Poolman, CEO of OnDeck Australia, explained: Negativity around the proximity of Easter/Anzac Day is likely being driven by the need to manage employee leave requests. One in two (52%) SMEs expect staff to take leave over the period, with one-third (31%) of these business owners expressing concerns about possible staff shortages. A similar proportion (29%) are expecting their cashflow to shrink over the public holiday period. The research also revealed that six out of ten small businesses have been impacted by previous major political events, especially elections. Poolman said, The possibility of a change in federal government often sees consumers and businesses put major purchases or projects on hold at least until the polls have delivered a clear result. While thats understandable, the SME sector bears the brunt of this wait-and-see approach. That said, 59% of those surveyed communicated that improved access to cashflow would help their business better navigate future events. According to Noah Breslow, global CEO of OnDeck, Cashflow is the lifeblood of many SMEs. So it makes sense that additional funding can help SMEs navigate difficult trading conditions that can accompany a critical event. The data indicated that over half of the respondents would attempt to secure a loan from a bank, while 44% said they would consider using an online lender. We are not just a positive option for SMEs rejected by their bank. Online lenders also offer the advantage of speed and convenience for those businesses that would be eligible for bank lending, said Breslow. This can be a critical advantage in preparing for events that are likely to have a short-term impact, he finished. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams The joke is that 420 is the weed number. This weekend is April 20, one of the high holy days for marijuana consumption. Those who indulge in the increasingly-less-illegal (but still banned in New York) substance have a few options for entertaining themselves, aside from just, like, really looking at their hands, man. On Friday night at 8 p.m., the cooler-than-thou Cooler Gallery (22 Waverly Ave. between Flushing and Park avenues in Fort Greene, thegr eenro om.brown paper ticke ts.com ) will host the Green Room Festival, an evening of plays perfect for those who might have an impaired attention span for some reason the longest is only five minutes long! Each deals with the impact of cannabis on a different community, and a portion of the $15 ticket price will be donated to the New York Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The show repeats on Saturday night. On Saturday, celebrate the Green Day by going to a green space! The Soul Tribe Network plans to meet at the Prospect Park Carousel (enter on Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard) at 11:11 a.m. on April 20, and then let the universe lead the way, as they roam Prospect Park and clean up trash, before heading to a smoke-friendly second location for an after-party. In the evening, head to Coney Island for a celebration of the least accurate film ever made about marijuana use: Reefer Madness! This terrible propaganda film from the 1930s has been newly colorized, so you can mock the over-the-top acting while experiencing a full sensory overload. Tonights screening at Sideshows by the Seashore (1208 Surf Ave. at W. 12th St. in Coney Island, www.coney islan d.com ) starts at 9 p.m., and your $15 ticket also includes a live performances from the band Pink Velvet Witch, and puppet appearance from Coney Islands own Funny Face. No squares! If this weekend of indulgence makes you want to cut back, buy a ticket now for next weekends special screening Spoons, Toons, and Booze Says No to Drugs! at the Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park (188 Prospect Park West at 14th Street in Park Slope, niteh awkci nema.com/ prosp ectpa rk ). The brunch screening will feature a cereal bar, drink specials, and a screening of anti-drug cartoons from the 1980s and 90s that are sure to scare you straight! The show will also include the government-sponsored Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, which aired only once in 1990 but you can catch it twice, at 10:45 a.m. screenings on April 27 and 28. Tickets are $18. Reach arts editor Bill Roundy at broun dy@cn gloca l.com or by calling (718) 2604507. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams Brooklynites who frequently cross the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge could soon see a steep fare discount, if a group of Kings County pols have there way. Legislation introduced by State Sen. Andrew Gounardes (DBay Ridge) and Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus (D-Coney Island) would provide Brooklyn residents using the citys E-ZPass system who drive across the bridge at least 10 times each month, the same reduced toll price as Staten Island residents. Brooklynites using E-ZPass system currently fork over $12.24 on each trip to the island borough, whereas Staten Island residents are charged a discounted rate of $5.50. At an April 16 press conference announcing the legislation to even out the fares, Gounardes blasted the price disparity as excessive and unacceptable. For the thousands of Brooklyn residents who rely on the bridge for travel to work, school and medical appointments, these outrageous rates are unaffordable, unacceptable, and highlight the gross inequities of New Yorks transit system, he said. The legislation, which would apply only to non-commercial vehicles, mimics the MTAs decision earlier this month to eliminate the $2.29 E-ZPass toll on the Cross Bay Bridge for all Queens Residents. Frontus criticized the MTA for constantly increasing fares for traveling New Yorkers, including on the Verrazzano, where fares have more than doubled since 2008. Its time for the MTA to stop passing the buck, she said. The line has to be drawn somewhere when you see consistent increases in fares without corresponding tangible benefits being produced to match the burden. Freshman U.S. Rep. Max Rose (DBay Ridge), who represents both sides of the Verrazzano, encouraged the effort, arguing that Southern Brooklyn and Staten Islands interlinked communities should not be separated by excessive fines. It is about time that we recognize that Staten Island and Brooklyn are one community, and rising tolls are becoming a barrier between families on both sides of the bridge, he said. I applaud Senator Gounardes efforts to give Brooklynites a break, and make it easier for them to reach their jobs or visit their families on Staten Island. City Councilman Justin Brannan (DBay Ridge) lent his support to the state legislators effort, arguing for equality in fares for residents on either side of the Verrazzano. Nobody is saying Staten Island shouldnt get a discount, but what about Brooklyn? he said. Its about time we are part of the conversation since, last time I checked, the bridge has two sides. The legislation, Senate Bill S4490, is currently awaiting a vote by the Senates Transportation Committee. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams 62nd Precinct BensonhurstBath Beach Using his head Police arrested a man who allegedly head-butted a police officer as he was putting him in a squad car on Bath Avenue on April 11. The alleged incident occurred between 17th Avenue and Bay 16th Street at around 7:30 p.m., according to the report, which added that the alleged heat-butt caused redness and pain to the police officer on duty but did not specify why the cop was putting the man in the car. Scissor hands A lout stole $20 from a man at the Bay Parkway train station on April 11. The incident occurred at the train station near 86th Street at around 9:45 a.m., when the scoundrel who police said was holding a pair of scissors followed the man off an elevator at the station to a Manhattan-bound D train and demanded the cash. Send it to voicemail A nogoodnik swindled a Bay Parkway woman out of $1,500 on April 11 by claiming she won cash and that she had to send money via Google Play gift cards to claim her prize. The woman, who lives between 68th Street and Bay Ridge Avenue, told police she received the call from a cellphone at around 6 p.m. Phone scam A scammer swindled an 82nd Street woman out of more than $2,500 on April 12 by claiming that she owed $3,000 for property that someone allegedly purchased under her name. The woman, who lives between 18th and 19th avenues, told police that she received the call from a cellphone at around 11 a.m., and that the caller threatened to arrest her if she didnt pay up. The victim sent the lout the money via Google Play cards, police reported. Late-night attack Police arrested a woman who they say struck another woman with a hard object multiple times on her head and face on Avenue O on April 12. Police say the victim was near W. Seventh Street at around 11:30 p.m., when the woman got out of her husbands car and attacked the victim, who received treatment for her wounds at Coney Island Hospital. Car steal A thief stole a car from a New Utrecht Avenue parking lot at some point between April 12 and 14, police said. The theft occurred at the lot between 66th and 67th streets at some point after 1 a.m. on April 12, according to the report. Purse-snatcher A thief stole $2,300 from a womans purse on 71st Street on April 13. The theft occurred between 18th and 19th avenues at around 11 a.m., according to the report, which added that the perp fled the scene on foot following the steal. Blinged out A thief stole jewelry from a 23rd Avenue home on April 13. The crime occurred from the home between Bath and Cropsey avenues at around 8 p.m., according to the report, which added that the crook fled in an unknown direction. Dastardly duo A pair of louts assaulted a woman and stole her credit card and cellphone at a Kings Highway bodega on April 14. The incident occurred at the bodega between Lake Street and McDonald Avenue at around 3:10 p.m., when the duo followed the woman into the store, where they kicked her in the head, took her phone, and fled in a gray Toyota to an unknown location. Julianne McShane Drone technology is finding acceptance in various fields and will soon become a part of our daily lives, says an expert. Drones not only help performers in shows or take photos, but also help with rescuing people and preventing crimes, explains Pavel Tatarintsev, head of NNTC R&D. NNTC is a UAE- based IT solution provider, software developer, and training services company. Drones are increasingly demanded because of their versatility and effectiveness. They can precisely locate accidents, operate in hazardous environments, and easily fly to hard-to-reach locations, said Tatarintsev. According to Transnational Institute and Statewatch, drones will account for 10 per cent of the EU aviation market (amounting to $19 billion) within a decade. Drones are often used for a plethora of reasons like monitoring, detecting fires (hidden hot spots) with a thermal camera, forecast building, and facility structure issues and control road situation and traffic as well as human conditions. In addition, vendors offer universal software that controls both individual UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle) and UAV swarms and support the majority of non-military unmanned aerial systems and flight controllers (DJI, MikroKopter, Microdrones, and MavLink-compatible ones), thus making drones and software more affordable for users. In 2017, Dubai Police became the first governmental body in the Mena region to use advanced drone solutions in its day-to-day operations. This significantly improved situation awareness and reduced emergency response time. The drones are connected to the police operation rooms and through the use of 4G technology they are capable of broadcasting live footage of traffic jams or accidents. This year, Dubai Police unveiled a hydrogen-powered drone which will be used to survey mountainous and marine areas. The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters used drones over 3,500 times. They were mostly used to fight wildfires and rescue people from collapsed buildings with the help of onboard thermal cameras. US Police uses drones to remotely monitor suspects movements, collect evidence, identify perpetrators, and thus enforce the law. In Morton, Illinois, investigators use UAVs to reconstruct 3D models of traffic accidents to accurately identify their root causes. Drones are indispensable when it comes to issues involving police officers and bystanders. In Ensenada, Mexico, the local police department dramatically reduced the number of crimes by purchasing just one drone to patrol districts that are the sources of the most frequent emergency calls. This resulted in 500+ suspects arrested during one year, 30 per cent home burglary reduction and 10 per cent overall crime situation improvement. Drones may also be used to define human conditions. Thus, scientists at the University of South Australia designed a UAV capable of measuring heartbeat and breathing rate from three to 60 m away from a human. With the results being as precise as those obtained by conventional methods. The scientists claim that drones will see, hear, and feel at much longer distances with technology advancement.TradeArabia News Service Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams 88th Precinct Fort GreeneClinton Hill Scoot away A couple of louts hit a man with a scooter at a N. Oxford Walk residence on April 13. The victim was in the apartment near Cumberland Walk and Park Avenue at 6:30 p.m. when the brutes punched him in the face, causing cuts and bruising to the head, chased him out of the apartment, and then struck him with a small scooter, police said. Three times the charm A rogue swiped more than $500 from a womans bank account near Myrtle Avenue on March 20. The victim reported on April 10 at 9 a.m. that some punk conducted three fraudulent transactions on her bank account near Hall Street and Emerson Place, police said. Debit doppelganger A lout wiped more than $300 from a womans bank account near her Carlton Avenue apartment on April 8. The woman told police she tried to buy a sandwich with her debit card from a shop near Adelphi Street around noon, but the card was declined. When she asked her bank, she was told that some nogoodnik either forged or duplicated her card to make a cash withdrawal, police said. Big haul A burglar stole an automated teller machine and $150 from a S. Portland Avenue restaurant on April 8. The crook cracked the front door lock of the eatery near Hanson Place and Fulton Street around 10:20 a.m., then walked off with the cash dispenser and money, police said. Not so secure A conman syphoned $3,000 from a womans bank account near Clinton Avenue on April 8. The fraudster introduced himself as an employee of the social security administration and called the victim at her apartment near Myrtle Avenue and Willoughby Avenue at 1 p.m., according to police. The crook said that all of her accounts would be frozen and her social security would stop working, then he prompted her to withdraw the money from a bitcoin machine and transfer it to him, police said. Unholy check Cops cuffed a man for allegedly forging and cashing a check from a church on Fulton Street on April 9, police said. The guy allegedly forged the check and cashed it in for $2,000 at a check cashing business near Washington and Waverly avenues at 6:40 p.m., according to police. Clinton Ave. scammer A fraudster stole more than $400 from woman near Clinton Avenue, the victim reported on April 11. The woman checked her bank account near Willoughby and DeKalb avenues, when she realized that some scammer had made several withdrawals from her account between March 30 and April 2, police said. Dining and stealing A crook looted a womans car parked at a DeKalb Avenue restaurant sometime overnight on April 10. The victim told police she parked the car outside the eatery near Clermont Avenue and Adelphi Street at 6:45 p.m. and returned the next day at 9:15 a.m., according to police. Police said the scoundrel stole a laptop, handbag, MetroCard, diary, and personal cards worth more than $2,000, police reported. Natallie Rocha Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams 78th Precinct Park Slope No parking Some jerk swiped a 61-year-old mans disabled-parking permit from his car on Third Street on March 29. The victim told police he left his car near Third Avenue at 5 a.m., and returned at around noon to find his city-issued permit stolen. Its possible the man left his car unlocked, the victim told investigators. Homeless hotel Cops arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly attacking a resident of a Butler Street hotel being used as a homeless shelter on April 6. The victim, 53, told police he was arguing with the suspect when the man attacked him inside the shelter-hotel between Nevins Street and Third Avenue at 1:50 a.m., scratching his forearm. Police arrested the suspect on a misdemeanor assault charge that day, cops said. Teen terrorized Police have given up the hunt for a man who threatened a 17-year-old girl outside a Fifth Avenue School on April 4. The victim told police she was leaving the school near Ninth Street at 3 p.m. when the creep walked up to her and snarled, Watch you backs. You are luck I dont have a gun. Colin Mixson Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Emirates has introduced its popular A380 carrier on flights to Glasgow with its inaugural A380 flight landing in the Scottish city on April 17, said a report. The Dubai-based carrier will now operate regular A380 services between Glasgow and Dubai, said a report in WAM. The world's largest commercial passenger aircraft comprises 14 private suites in first class, 76 lie-flat seats in business class, and 399 seats in economy. An onboard shower is available for first class passengers, along with a lounge on the aircraft for first class and business class passengers, the report said. The lenders consortium, led by State Bank of India, has sought protection of prime airport slots of Jet Airways so that the value of the suspended airline does not erode further. In a communication to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the lenders have made a case for protecting the Jet slots. "Adequate number of slots at metro airports will be protected by the government. These will only be given temporarily so that adequate number of seats are available, said a person aware of the development. "The investors and prospective buyers of Jet Airways are aware of this ... Movenpick Resort & Spa Tala Bay Aqaba in Jordan has welcomed Sami Ounalli as the new resort manager. The Tunisian hotelier gained his in-depth tourism, hospitality and leadership experience over the last 20 years at hotels and travel agencies throughout the Middle East and Africa. Ounalli began his career by managing sales and marketing activities at Tunisias Dar Jerba hotel complex. Six years at two Tunisia-based travel agencies and destination management companies followed. Hospitality called again in 2007 and he accepted the role as director of sales and marketing of Odyssee Resort & Thalasso Spa. In 2010, he joined Radisson Hotel Group in Tunisia, first as director of sales and marketing and later as executive assistant manager. Before joining Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, his final assignments for Radisson Blu were as hotel manager in Rwanda and Chad, where he lead the pre-opening team. Ounalli has been involved in the advancement of sustainable tourism in Tunisia, and he looks forward to continuing similar efforts in support of Accors sustainability programme, Planet21. Encouraging creativity and adapting to the trends of guest needs are at the top of his list of things to do in his new role. I am pleased to join the team and excited to bring new ideas and creativity to the fore, said Ounalli. - TradeArabia News Service In battleground Karnataka, the BJP claims to have an edge over the Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) and the Congress, thanks to its rising popularity among the youth as well as the tech sector. According to the BJP, the governments policies around technology and economy have found many takers among the 1 million plus tech employees in Bengaluru. In the past four years we have gained maximum support from the tech sector in Bengaluru. This would be visible in this years election results. The Prime Minister has a major following among people working in the tech sector, ... EU leaders have agreed a short extension to Brexit until October 31 at the latest, in order to give the British parliament time to agree a deal. This date avoids the UK still being a member when the next EU budget cycle starts but what does it mean for the divorce bill, the money the UK will pay the EU after its departure? The withdrawal agreement, which provides the legal framework for the UKs exit from the European Union, includes arrangements to determine its financial settlement with the EU. The essential principles of the financial settlement have ... Special Counsel Robert Muellers report on his inquiry into Russias role in the 2016 US election detailed a series of actions by President Donald Trump to impede the probe, raising questions about whether he committed the crime of obstruction of justice. The release on Thursday of the 448-page report that disclosed the findings of a 22-month investigation represented a watershed moment in Trump's tumultuous presidency. Mueller did not make a conclusion on whether Trump, whose presidency has been overshadowed by the Russia investigation, had committed obstruction of ... Help India! TCN News Pragya singh Thakur, also known as Sadhvi Pragya Singh has formally joined the Bhartiya Janta Party today. It is said that the party might pitch her against Digvijay singh, the former Chief Minsiter from Congress who is contesting from Bhopal. Support TwoCircles Pragya Singh is among the main accused in the Malegaon blast case in 2008 which killed 6 persons and injured at least 100 persons. She is still being tried under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and is out on bail granted by the Mumbai High court. But the NIA special court is yet to drop charges against her in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for which was arrested. Pragya Singh, 48 years old, who used to deliver strong speeches is associated with Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Durga Vahini the womens wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). BJP has a strong hold in Bhopal as they have been winning from here from 1989. Her entry in politics and subsequent declaration of contesting the Lok Sabha elections has won the approval of the party members while many other politicians, social activists and common persons have criticised the entry of someone who has been accused of being a terrorist in politics. A new, long-delayed 88-passenger jet from Japan may finally be the right plane at the right time. More cities in Asia and Europe are seeking to link up with each other and the global air travel network. The Mitsubishi Regional Jet, the first airliner built in Japan since the 1960s, began certification flights last month in Moses Lake, Washington, to satisfy that demand. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.s new airliner is testing the skies just as rivals are moving to sell off their manufacturing operations for jets with up to 160 seats. Boeing Co. is set to buy 80 percent of ... Out of the 150 people declared missing, at least three people lost their lives and 37 were rescued after an overcrowded boat capsized in Lake Kivu, according to Vital Muhini, the national Deputy from South Kivu province. Expressing his grief, Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi said: "I am very saddened by the sinking of a boat on April 15 at Lake Kivu. The provisional toll is 150 missing. I express my sincere compassion to the families who have suffered," he tweeted on Wednesday. Muhini told CNN that the overloaded boat had departed from Kituku port before the mishap occurred. The exact number of people on board is not known. Initial investigations revealed that the passengers were not wearing life jackets. "It's unfortunate to find that people travel aboard a small boat. They had no life jackets...which calls for sanctions of all the perpetrators who contributed to this sinking," Muhini said. The country's previous transport minister was sacked from his post after a string of accidents along its waterways in 2011. Previously, more than 100 people were declared missing after two boats collided on the Congo River in 2015. The death toll is expected to rise as efforts are ongoing to locate the other missing passengers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 'Dil Wale Dulhania Le Jayenge' (DDLJ) is hands-down everyone's favourite romantic film. Shah Rukh Khan as Raj and Kajol as Simran will forever be etched in our hearts! But one cannot forget Anupam Kher as SRK's cool father in the film and how the two gave us the coolest on-screen father-son duo of Bollywood! The duo shared an unconventional and adorable father-son relationship in the film, which was a refreshing break from the strict father we were used to seeing in Bollywood films. Anupam revived 'DDLJ' memories and reminded SRK of old times with a post on his Twitter handle. The veteran actor tweeted all the way from New York, "Mere pyaare, Shah Rukh! Baas aise hi... New York mein tumhari achanak yaad ayi. We have had some great times together. And then we all grew up! Love and prayers always." Anupam's post gave us major DDLJ nostalgia as he attached a hilarious gif of the two doing their signature high-five and hugging. SRK quickly responded to Anupam's post with the sweetest message possible. The 53-year-old actor sent the veteran actor an invitation to play a match of snake and ladders and said that they are still young at heart. He also added a miss you at the end of his adorable message. "Arre nahi Daddy Cool! 'Grow up' hon aapke dushman. Hum dono ka dil to baccha hai ji. Come back home let's start with snakes and ladders and we can move to making sand castles in the air. Miss you." Anupam replied to him in Hindi, saying, "See you soon. Much love." The veteran actor played SRK's father in the film, which starred Kajol as the female lead. Late Bollywood actor Amrish Puri had played Kajol's father and Farida Jalal her mother in the film. Satish Shah, Himani Shivpuri, Parmeet Sethi, and Mandira Bedi played pivotal roles in the film. 'DDLJ', directed by Aditya Chopra, released on October 19, 1995. It won several awards and received an overwhelming response from audience and critics alike. It also became the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema. The duo went on to co-star in many films together like 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', 'Paheli', 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan', 'Veer Zaara' and 'Happy New Year'. The veteran actor often reconnects with SRK over adorable social media banters. Meanwhile, Anupam is in New York shooting for his TV series 'New Amsterdam', while SRK is in China to attend the 9th Beijing International Film Festival, and promote his film Zero. The 53-year-old actor got a warm welcome in China and thanked his fans via a Twitter post earlier. Anupam was last seen in 'The Accidental Prime Minister' while SRK last starred in 'Zero'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar on Thursday stepped down from the position after Prime Minister Imran Khan asked him to take the Energy portfolio. Umar wrote on his official twitter handle, "As part of a cabinet reshuffle PM desired that I take the energy minister portfolio instead of finance. However, I have obtained his consent to not take any cabinet position. I strongly believe @ImranKhanPTI is the best hope for Pakistan and inshallah will make a naya pakistan." [{21b193b6-d7c9-4394-9abf-8154e2c37f2e:intradmin/tweet_B5hkzac.JPG}] In a press conference held hours after his announcement, Umar said that he hopes his successor will be supported in the efforts to take difficult decisions for the "sake of the nation". "What I want is that whoever comes in is supported when they make difficult decisions for the sake of the nation," Dawn quoted Umar as saying. "I need to thank the PTI's youth for their enthusiasm. I need to say that when we came in, the economy was in a dangerous and sorry state, we were standing near a ditch, one move and we would have been in the ditch. The state of the economy is still not great [and] the next finance minister that comes in will still have a hard time," he added. Notably, Pakistan on Tuesday reached on an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the multi-billion aid to the debt-ridden country. The exact size of the package is yet to be decided, however, Umar had apprised that it would be between USD 6 billion and USD 8 billion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], Apr 18 (ANI): Biju (BJD) on Wednesday wrote to the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) demanding action against Union Minister for allegedly misbehaving with government officers on election duty. The party also alleged that Pradhan prevented the officials from checking his helicopter. "Yesterday as telecasted by several television channels, it was seen that BJP leader misbehaved and prevented government officers from checking his helicopter and a sealed suitcase, which was being done as part of normal election duty checking," the complaint stated. "We also demand that the contents of the sealed suitcase, which was in his possession, is informed to the public, especially since apprehensions of him carrying cash in that sealed suitcase is being suspected at large," it stated. Five parliamentary constituencies of will go to polls on April 18. Counting of votes will be done on May 23. (ANI) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bhola Singh, BJP candidate from Bulandshahr, was placed under house confinement for a day on Thursday after he allegedly sought blessings from voters at a polling booth of his constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Singh has been ordered not to leave home till 6 pm today, which eventually means that he cannot leave his house until polling is over. The district administration decided to act against Singh after he was seen seeking votes from voters in a viral video at JP Janata Inter College polling station. Bulandshahr District Collector Abhay Singh said, "A candidate can visit polling booths in his constituency but cannot speak to the voters there. When we came to know that he (Singh) sought blessings from voters inside a polling station, we served him a notice and ordered confinement for a day." In Lucknow, Additional Election Commissioner Brahm Dev Ram Tripathi told ANI, "It has come to notice that the candidate was campaigning at a polling booth. An urgent report has been sought and action is being taken". Voting for eight out of 80 parliamentary constituencies is underway in Uttar Pradesh. Counting of votes will take place on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Islamabad police on Thursday arrested two men accused of harassing a Canadian-based model and humanitarian worker, Assma Galuta, during her visit to Pakistan. The Express Tribune reported that the accused, Hamza Sohail and Anas Kamran, were arrested by police and were identified by the complainant. Galuta on Tuesday had registered a case against the two accused regarding the alleged sexual harassment. The Canadian-based model shared that she was in Bahria Town Phase 7 when two men in a car began "harassing me, telling me to get into the car", reported Dawn. "When I told them to leave me alone, they started laughing. They blocked me for getting into my Uber and then followed by Uber from Bahria Town to Islamabad, trying to block the driver and even asking the driver for my drop-off location," the woman stated. A video made by her showing the two men intercepting her car and asking the driver for her destination went viral on the Internet. Following this, Galuta on Wednesday shared another video on her Instagram account, in which she slammed the critics for victim blaming her. The caption accompanying the video read, "The other day I was assaulted and I spoke up about it on Instagram. I woke up to find my story has reached media & I began receiving a lot of backlash from the public, blaming me for my attire or appearance or that I have not been integrated enough to earn any respect." "Rather the blaming a woman for being sexually harassed, let's discuss the real issue: lack of men being held accountable for their harassment," the caption further read. Galuta said in the video, "I've married a Pakistani, I live here, it is my home. And if I'm going to be living here for a long time, my kids will be Pakistani and it will also be their home so I want the country to be safe for them as I want it to be safe for me and my sisters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Help India! The Ladakh region of the Jammu and Kashmir will go to polls on May 6. The region comprising the two districts of Leh and Kargil has a total population of 2, 95,745 with an electorate strength of 1, 62,354. The entire region is spread over four assembly constituencies; two each in Kargil and Leh. The region remains cut off from the rest of the world during winters due to snow. With no air and road connectivity during these six months, the people of the region have to go through many hardships. In an attempt to give the community a strong voice, young Journalist and Social activist Sajjad Kargili has decided to contest the local elections. Sajjad is known for his social activism and has raised issues of the public time and again whether it is in Kargil and Ladakh or in Delhi. He has been arrested several times for raising social issues and supporting the peasant and underprivileged section of the society. To raise the issues of the families divided across the LOC, he co-founded an organisation named Peoples Forum for Peace Across LOC and has organized several seminars and conferences in Kargil. Now he is contesting as an independent candidate for MP from Kargil Ladakh. Support TwoCircles In an exclusive interview with TwoCircle.nets Kashmir Corresponded Auqib Javeed, Sajjad spoke his plans to represent Ladakh in New Delhi, and how he will act as a bridge between the different communities in Ladakh. Here are the excerpts: What prompted you to join politics? Politics has been a part of me since my student days when I was a member of the All India Students Association (AISA). I have been into social and political movements for years now. Due to this, the people of Kargil decided to choose me as the candidate for Lok Sabha elections. Do you believe that voting will change things, especially since many people in the Valley seem to be not participating in the process? If people have chosen you, it means they believe in the electoral process. Of course, things can change with your vote. The changes begin with votingyou choose the right candidate, you put your trust in him and things will change. Why did you choose Lok Sabha over state elections? Honestly speaking, I had no intention of contesting the elections but people of Kargil including religious leaders nominated me to represent them in the Parliamentary elections. After the division status and when a University which was promised to us was denied to Kargil, people were upset and different communities united for these demands. When the dates were announced for the Lok Sabha elections in the state, people felt that they had many issues and need a strong voice in the parliament so that their voices may be also heart in the centre. So it was decided that a new face should be nominated for that and they choose me to represent them. How have the people of Kargil been neglected by the government? During the winter season, this region faces a lot of difficulties. We have neither road connectivity nor air connectivity. The medical patients especially face a lot of difficulties. If elected, my first priority would be to make Kargil a hub of trade activities. We have many issues, like Zojila Tunnel which will connect Kargil with Kashmir, the construction of an airport, building a womens college and a University. And for divided families on LoC, I will press Government of India to open the Kargil-Skardu road so that the families who got divided during the partition of 1947 would be united. And with the opening of the route, we can have trade ties with Central Asia via Pakistan. Why are you demanding the opening of Kargil-Skardu Road? If the Government can open Wagha, Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkote roads, why cant they open Kargil-Skardu? We too are humans and have every right to live with honour and dignity. We want our border with Pakistan to be recognised as the border of peace, not as the border of violence. We cant change the borders but we can normalise the situation through trade. Before partition, we were directly connected with Silk round and central Asia. I want to restore that position. How will you solve the issue of Zanskar Muslims who are facing a social boycott from the majority community? I will act as a bridge between various communities. In Zanskar, the situation is quite normal now especially after His Holiness The Dalai Lama visited last year and appealed to both the communities to remain united. I will also try to resolve the issues between the two communities if I won. How will you bridge the gap between the different communities in Leh and Kargil? We are peace-loving people and have our unique culture which has made these two places a no-crime zone. Of course, there are some issues within the different communities but we have to work on it and try to resolve it. We need to strengthen our relations. Why did Shia leaders reject the idea of creating a Union Territory (UT) for the Ladakh region? Not only Shia leaders, all the community heads except few from the right-wing party were against the creation of Union Territory (UT). We want to remain a part of Jammu and Kashmir. And the biggest threat of creating a UT was that it will hit the Article 370 of India constitution. It is true with industrialization, unemployment will be less in the region but not at the cost of the Special status of the state. We are with our Kashmiri brothers and we will fight to safeguard of Article 370 and Article 35-A. How do you see at Kashmir politics and separatism? I think reconciliation is the only solution; it is true that everyone has its own view but its also important to we should avoid hate politics and violence. We should solve our issue with the dialogue process. What do the people of Kargil think about Kashmir? Entire Kargil wants that the bloodshed in the Valley should stop. Their grievances are ours and their concerns are ours. If Kashmir remains peaceful it will have a good impact on Kargil and Ladakh. If so, then why dont we see any protest there against the killing of Kashmiris? We do protest and issue statements against the innocent killings in Kashmir. The people of Kargil also appealed to the Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to Kargil, asking him to address the Kashmir issue and stop civilian killings immediately. Police registered a case against BJP Kerala State president Sreedharan Pillai on Thursday on charges of giving a communal speech against the Muslim community. The case was booked under section 153A for promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion. The Kerala State president stroked a controversy on Sunday after his remarks against the Muslim community, while addressing a public meeting in Attingal, Kerala. Citing a ritual all Muslim males undergo, Pillai had said that the members of the community can be identified "after removing their clothes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Florida woman suspected of making threats to Denver metropolitan area schools, which triggered shutdowns of 19 school districts here, was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday morning, according to Jefferson County Sheriff, Jeff Shrader. The police on Tuesday launched a massive manhunt for the suspect, identified as an 18-year-old white woman named Sol Pais, reported CNN. The police had asked people to report her if she is seen, warning them to not "approach her as she is considered armed and dangerous". Authorities believe that she was "infatuated" with a shooting which occurred at Columbine High School in 1999. Two shooters had taken the lives of 12 students and a teacher at Columbine around 20 years ago, before taking their own lives in the school's library. Pais had reportedly travelled from Miami to Denver on Monday night. However, authorities do not think she made it to the school grounds. After arriving in Colorado, Pais went to a store and bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition, according to the FBI. Dean Phillips, special agent in charge of the Denver FBI office, had earlier said. "Her comments, her actions that we have heard about from others tend to cause us great concern that she may pose a threat to a school." The incident comes right ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, with officers stating that it "opens a wound". Gun violence is a serious threat to students in the USA, with many students having lost their lives due to lax gun laws. Stringent gun laws have been sought by campaigns like 'Never Again MSD', helmed by student survivors from the February 14 shooting at Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida in recent times. They have demanded legislative action to be taken to prevent similar shootings in future and called out US policymakers who have received funding from the National Rifle Association (NRA). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Police on Thursday said that the man who hurled a shoe at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao at a press conference earlier on Thursday was let off after a joint interrogation. Police said, the motive of the man identified as Shakti Bhargava, was to "gain media's attention" and "nothing incriminating was found from him." No complaint was received against him, police said. A shoe was hurled at GVL Narasimha Rao today while he was addressing a media briefing. Rao had a narrow escape as the shoe did not hit him. At the time of the incident, the BJP spokesperson was talking about fielding Sadhvi Pragya from Bhopal constituency and was criticising Congress for allegedly defaming Hindus. Rao termed the incident a "condemnable act" by a "Congress-inspired" person. "This is yet another attempt by a Congress inspired person who comes in here to show the same kind of mentality. We won't get deterred by these criminal elements in society. We condemn this action," said Rao. BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav was also present along with Rao when the incident happened. Bhargava who hurled the shoe was immediately overpowered and pushed out of the media room, following which the press conference was suspended. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reacting sharply to the 'black buffalo' comment made by former BJP MLA Raju Kage, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Wednesday said he does not have the habit of "waxing" his face every day like Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "These people (BJP) say even if I bathe 20 times a day my black buffalo colour will not go. Yes, I am not like your Modi who comes out every morning after waxing his face. I love to live with poor people and I do not wash hands after touching poor," the Chief Minister said while addressing a gathering here. Earlier, Kage had said: "You say Prime Minister changes outfits again and again. Arre, he is fair and handsome, that's why he changes constantly. But even if you (Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy) bathe 100 times a day, you will remain a black buffalo." Attacking Modi, Kumaraswamy asked: "Youths keep chanting pro-Modi slogans. What has he given to youngsters? Employment..? What has he given to villagers, why do we not have a good relationship with Pakistan?" "How many leaders ruled India, all who have served the nation protected our country, not only Modi.. Modi will not come to power again," he asserted. The Congress and JDS are together fighting the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka. As part of the seat-sharing agreement, the Congress will contest 20 Lok Sabha seats and JDS eight out of 28 seats in the state. 14 Lok Sabha seats in South Karnataka will go to polls on April 18, while polling in the remaining seats will be held on April 23. Counting of votes will take place on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Election Commission officials on Thursday searched the chopper of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy here. The bags kept in the chopper used by Kumaraswamy, who was travelling from Ramanagara in Uttara Kannada district, were checked. This comes alongside Kumaraswamy's visit to Kumta to attend a public rally in favour of Janta Dal (Secular) candidate Anand Asnotikar. In a similar incident on Wednesday, seven EC officials searched Kumaraswamy's chopper after he landed in Anavatti village to take part in a public meeting. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that "emotional drama" of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy led Congress-JDS government has stopped development in the state. "Because of emotional drama, the development in the state has stopped. What about the loan waiver of farmers? What happened to irrigation schemes? They did not even get time to think about sugarcane farmers," said Prime Minister Modi, while addressing an election rally here. "The drama unfolding here in the state for the past one year is refusing to end. This drama has everything including emotions and revenge. The situation is such that we get to see an overflow of emotions regularly in rallies and press conferences," he said. Addressing an election rally in Mandya on April 16, Chief Minister Kumaraswamy had become emotional while campaigning for his son Nikhil. He claimed that Sumalatha Ambareesh, multilingual South-Indian actress and wife of former actor and union minister late Ambareesh, has got recognition in public because of him. Sumalatha, who filed her nomination papers as an independent candidate on March 20 from Mandya, is set to contest against Nikhil Gowda of JDS. Her husband had represented Mandya both as a Member of Parliament (MP) and also as a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA). Prime Minister Modi said: "In 2014, the Congress party claimed to have given 12 LPG cylinders to the poor. They also promised to give ample kerosene oil to the poor. On the other hand, we empowered the poor by giving them free LPG connections." Lauding various schemes launched by his government, he said: "The biggest healthcare scheme in the world is being run in the country. Karnataka along with other 50 crore poor people are getting healthcare services up to Rs 500,000 for free." Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats at stake out of which 14 went to polls on April 18, while the remaining 14 will go for polling on April 23. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Farooq is seeking a re-election from the prestigious Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, where he is up against Peoples Democratic Party's Aga Syed Mohsin, People's Conference's Irfan Raza Ansari and Khalid Jehnagir of the Bharatiya Janata Party. After casting his vote in Munshi Bagh area in the constituency, Omar said he hoped that the Centre and the Election Commission (EC) would soon conduct Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The former Chief Minister said, "Now that Lok Sabha polls are due to conclude, we can only hope that Centre with the EC gives people of Jammu and Kashmir an elected government which is their right." Underlining a difference between this election and the 2017 Lok Sabha by-election, he said that the people of the constituency were more receptive in this election. "These elections are significantly different from the by-elections that Farooq Sahab won in 2017. In that elections, we barely managed to conduct 2 public meetings outdoors. All election activities were confined to closed rooms. In this election, the electorate is far more receptive than it was in 2017." Omar also asked how BJP's Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya is being allowed to contest polls when she is out on bail on medical grounds. "BJP has given ticket (from Bhopal) to a candidate who is not only an accused in a terror case but is also out on bail on health grounds. If her health condition doesn't permit her to be in jail, how does it permit her to contest polls?" he asked. Two out of six Lok Sabha seats, Srinagar and Udhampur, of the state are voting today in the second phase of elections. Over 54 per cent voter turn out was recorded in Jammu and Baramulla parliamentary seats that went to polls in the first phase of elections on April 11. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fans of Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan have been eagerly waiting to watch him on the big screen. As the actor is busy shooting for his next release 'Angrezi Medium'. the director of the film, Homi Adajania, just treated fans with a picture from the movie's sets. The filmmaker shared a happy picture with the 52-year-old actor, which shows the two sharing a hearty laugh together. In the photo, Irrfan can be seen in the get up of his character, Champak, sitting on a scooter and Homi can be seen standing by his side. He captioned the post as, "Life is better when you're laughing ... Okay .. Actually I'm just cracking a really f@#k all joke and @irrfan is a really fab actor. #laughingtillyourbellyhurtseveryday #shootlife." Homi has earlier helmed films like 'Being Cyrus', 'Cocktail', 'Finding Fanny'. The film will mark Irrfan's comeback on the big screen, post the brief break that he took, as he was seeking treatment for neuroendocrine tumour in London. The film, which also stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Radhika Madan, went on floors in Udaipur on April 5. Radhika will play Irrfan's daughter in the film and reportedly, wishes to pursue higher studies in the UK. Irrfan had earlier shared a picture on his Twitter handle from the sets of the film, where he introduced his character Champak, who is a sweet shop owner. Irrfan will be playing a sweet shop owner in the film. On the other hand, Deepak Dobriyal, who also stars in the film, plays the role of his brother and Manu Rishi, who also features in the film, plays the role of his cousin. The trio run sweet shops and are rivals to each other. 'Angrezi Medium' is the sequel to the 2017 hit film 'Hindi Medium', which starred Irrfan and Saba Qamar in the lead roles. The film is being produced by Dinesh Vijan and apart from Udaipur, will also be shot in London. Irrfan was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in March 2018. On April 3, through Twitter, he thanked everyone for their affection and support. Irrfan was last seen in 'Karwaan' alongside Mithila Parker and Dulquer Salmaan. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian School of Hospitality (ISH), a hospitality college that has set out to transform the educational landscape within the country, has announced the signing of an agreement with Singapore based At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy, Asia's premier culinary institute. This is the second international tie-up for hotelier-entrepreneur and industry leader, Dilip Puri's higher education institute, with the school also holding the official academic accreditation of world leaders in hospitality education Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland. This is the first academic partnership that At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy has entered into within the Indian market. At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy is an EduTrust certified institution offering open access pathways into nationally-recognised diplomas, with the vision to advance foodpreneurship, culinary arts and the F & B profession with integrity and meaning. Founded in 2001, the institute has been cultivating global chefs and F & B professionals in an experiential environment of culinary authenticity, best-fit apprenticeship and innovation for the last two decades. With an internationally experienced faculty and staff, state-of-the-art facilities and strong industry partnerships, the academy deliver skills and knowledge in the east and west, old world and new world cuisines, herbs and spices and innovation and technology, and holds accreditation from the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications, SkillsFuture Singapore and The World Association of Chefs' Societies (WACs). It was also the first culinary school to be awarded the EduTrust 4-year certification from the Committee for Private Education (CPE). This agreement envisages a collaboration which will see the two institutes working together to bring new standards of excellency to culinary education within the country and bring more awareness towards the potential of pursuing careers in the culinary world. Through this collaboration, the two schools will engage in student exchange programs, knowledge transfer, articulation, internship and placement opportunities, and guest faculty exchange for special master classes and workshops. In addition to this, the second phase of the partnership will see collaboration between the two institutes on a cross-disciplinary startup lab for food entrepreneurs as well as a digital learning platform for culinary training. The first step of this collaboration is an 18-month programme, of which students will spend the first 9 months within the Indian School of Hospitality, before completing the rest of their studies in At-Sunrice along with 6 months of overseas industrial attachment within Singapore itself, earning a Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) upon graduation. They will then further have the opportunity to continue their studies at partner universities in Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and obtain a degree qualification. Renowned as Singapore's leading culinary arts institute, students of At-Sunrice learn from international and experienced faculty and benefit from some of Asia's most prestigious placements. Students of the 18-month programme will be learning how to master Asian and Western cuisines under the guidance of At-Sunrice multi-ethnic faculty and will go on to join alumni and industry network that boast renowned culinary entrepreneurs and Michelin Star-studded chefs. "I am delighted to have our institute join hands with At-Sunrice - an institution with learning philosophies, excellence and accomplishments we greatly respect and admire. We look forward to this collaboration contributing immensely to the education of students from both schools and help them learn more about the cultures and culinary diversity of both countries and the larger ASEAN region", said Dilip Puri, Founder & amp; CEO, ISH. "Culinary education incorporates science, arts, craft, gastronomy, profession and which are today more than ever driven by design, technology, cultures and sustainability. With ISH, we are very pleased to offer an integrated international opportunity for young and passionate Indian culinary students to pursue high-level skills and work experiences in Singapore, a world food capital", said Dr Kwan Lui, founder, At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said the Congress-JD(S) alliance is expected to win 10-12 seats out of 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka which are undergoing polling today during the second phase of general elections. "Today I request all voters to go to the polling station and cast their vote, whatever decision you will take will form the future of the country. Please put your valuable vote and don't miss it," Kumaraswamy said after casting his vote here on Thursday. "Elections are crucial for protecting the interest of the farming community. Out of 14 Lok Sabha seats, the JDS-Congress candidates may achieve 10-12 seats in this election," he added. Later, Kumaraswamy, while speaking to ANI, said, "Dynasty isn't an important issue now, country's problems are the main issue. Only because of dynasty and regional politics, this country developed in several states. We're not bothered about criticism from BJP." DMK Chief MK Stalin, who cast his vote at a polling booth at SIET College in Teynampet, Chennai, alleged that the Election Commission is in connivance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government, adding that the EC would be reformed if the Opposition is voted to power. "This year election has been full of Rs 500, 1000, 2000 and 10,000 currency notes. All attempts have been made to buy votes but in spite all this I have full faith in voters of Tamil Nadu who will exercise their democratic rights fairly," Stalin told media here. "Regarding the election issues, I can only request the EC but unfortunately the EC itself has become a party to the Modi-led government. People know this, therefore, we will thrive to reform EC once voted to power," he added. DMK Lok Sabha candidate from Thoothukudi, Kanimozhi, cast her vote at a polling station in Chennai's Alwarpet. "People in the opposition have been harassed, raids targeted at opposition candidates. BJP has completely taken over AIADMK," she told reporters after casting her vote. Wheelchair-bound DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan also cast his vote at a polling station in Mylapore, in Chennai South Parliamentary constituency. Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh cast his vote at a polling booth in Imphal, BJP candidate for Sivaganga constituency H Raja cast his vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. In Karnataka, RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale cast his vote at polling station number 45 in Seshadripuram at Bengaluru, while Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and his wife Kannika Parameshwari cast their votes at a polling booth in Koratagere, Tumkur. Meanwhile, PWD minister HD Revanna offered prayers at a temple in Paduvalahippe village in Hassan before casting his vote. His son Prajwal Revanna is contesting from Hassan. Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central Prakash Raj cast his vote in Bengaluru. Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy also cast their votes. Polling is being held in Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam (5), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (3), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (10), Manipur (1), Odisha (5), Tamil Nadu (38), Uttar Pradesh (8), West Bengal (3), and a single parliamentary seat of Puducherry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps senior adviser and son-in-law, told a group of ambassadors on Wednesday that all sides would have to compromise for his long-awaited Middle East plan to work. As Newsweek writes in the article KUSHNERS MIDDLE EAST PEACE DEAL ASKS ALL SIDES TO COMPROMISE, BUT MAINTAINS ISRAELS SECURITY, Kushner said everyone should keep an open mind about the plan before it is released. According to Reuters, the plan would not be unveiled until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends in early June, giving Israels recently re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu time to form a new coalition government. Jason Greenblatt, an assistant to Trump and a special representative for international negotiations, shared the Reuters article on Twitter, confirming it was an accurate report. "We will all have to look for reasonable compromises that will make peace achievable," Kushner said, according to the unnamed source. He also reportedly said that the plan will require concessions from both sides but won't jeopardize the security of Israel. Kushner added that it requires everybody approaching the plan with an open mind. The plan will reportedly have two primary components. One of these will be a financial and designed to assist Palestinians improve their economy. The other will address political issues, such as the status of Jerusalemwhich both Israel and the Palestinians consider to be their historical capitol. Analysts have argued that the Trump-Kushner plan is primarily focused on the financial aspect, with some suggesting the White House is simply trying to pay off the Palestinians. But Kushner reportedly pushed back against that assertion, saying the political component of the plan was very detailed. Under Trumps direction, the U.S. has already stepped back from long-established foreign policy toward Israel, officially recognizing Jerusalem as the countrys capital and opening a new U.S. embassy in the historic city. The decision was harshly criticized by the international community as undermining the peace process and condemned by the Palestinians. Kushners Wednesday remarks to diplomats came a day after the new Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh lashed out at the U.S., according to the Associated Press. He accused Washington of declaring financial war on Palestinians, dismissing the purported Trump-Kushner peace plan as born dead. The whole system is to try to push us to surrender, Shtayyeh said. "This [is] a financial blackmail, which we reject, he argued. Since taking office, the Trump administration has cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Palestinians, as well as to United Nations agencies working with the community. The Israeli government has also been withholding tens of millions of tax transfers intended for Palestinians. "There are no partners in Palestine for Trump. There are no Arab partners for Trump, the Palestinian prime minister said. Last September, Trump bragged about slashing the funding, threatening that funding would only be reinstated if Palestinians agreed to his peace deal. "I stopped massive amounts of money that we were paying to the Palestinians and the Palestinian leaders. We werethe United States was paying them tremendous amounts of money," the president said during a conference call with journalists. "And I'd say, You'll get money, but we're not paying you until we make a deal. If we don't make a deal, we're not paying." Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hit out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad stating it was "appeasement politics". PM Modi also questioned why the Congress leader could not contest from Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala's capital if he wanted to send a message to the South. "Congress president had to come to Wayanad here to secure his place in Parliament. He says he will not speak a word against CPI (Marxist). Kerala mein kushti, aur Delhi mein dosti, yahi inka khel hai," PM Modi said while addressing a rally here. "Congress' 'Naamdaar' says he is contesting from Wayanad because he wanted to send a message to South. Couldn't you contest from Trivandrum to give the message? It is the capital. It is not a message to South, but a message of appeasement politics," he added. The Prime Minister further slammed the Congress party and CPI (Marxist) for creating tensions in Kerala. "It is in front of you what the Congress and the Communists have done to the brotherhood, faith and trust in Kerala," he said. "When India is on the path of development, it becomes imperative to get India rid of the Congress and Communist culture. In democracy, governments are formed and voted out on the basis of ideologies. However, the ideology of the Congress and Communist is of opportunism," the Prime Minister said. "I would like to tell the BJP workers that one day Kerala will be free of of violence. Their sacrifice will not go in vain," he added. Prime Minister Modi said that because of CPI (Marxist), "the situation in Kerala is so bad that people can't even pray to their deity. If they do, they are thrashed and put behind the bars." "Let me assure that on May 23 when we again form government, we will fight for your faith from court to Parliament. BJP's stand is clear. But, Congress is playing a dangerous double game. They say something in Delhi, something else in Kerala. It is important to understand their two faces," he said. Prime Minister Modi also slammed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. "It is becoming clear now that Kerala floods was less of a natural calamity and more of negligence of Kerala government," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will travel to Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin later this month. "Vladimir Putin will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un will make a visit to Russia in the second half of April at Vladimir Putin's invitation," TASS news agency quoted the Kremlin saying in a statement. The meeting is speculated to take place in Russia's Far East city of Vladivostok next week, when Putin will travel there on his way to China for an international conference, reported Yonhap news agency. This will be the first-ever meeting between the leaders of the two countries in eight years, after the former leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il met the then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2011. Earlier in February, United States President Donald Trump met Kim at Hanoi in Singapore. The meeting ended without reaching a deal as the two leaders failed to achieve a consensus over Pyongyang's denuclearisation process and Washington's sanction relief. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is taking action against Bangladeshi actor Ghazi Abdul Noor for his overstay in the country in contravention of visa validity, according to sources. Noor, who attended a political rally in Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, has been asked to leave India, sources said. Noor's visa had expired, said sources adding that appropriate action is also being taken on his overstay in contravention of visa validity. This comes after the BJP on Wednesday approached the Election Commission, alleging campaign undertaken by Noor for Trinamool Congress candidate Sougata Roy in Dum Dum seat. The incident comes after another Bangladeshi national, actor Ferdous Ahmed, campaigned for the Mamata Banerjee-led party in the state. Subsequently, the government blacklisted Ahmed, cancelled his business visa and asked him to leave India. The seven-phase Lok Sabha election is currently being held in India. The result will be announced on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rebel BJP leader and Congress candidate from Patna Sahib constituency, Shatrughan Sinha, campaigned for his wife Poonam Sinha, who filed her nomination from Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday. Poonam Sinha, who is contesting as Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate, is pitted against BJP MP and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the constituency. Accompanied by his wife and SP leader Dimple Yadav during a road show, Shatrughan Sinha praised BSP-SP-RLD alliance in the state. "I have never seen such a powerful and huge gathering. This has been possible only through the blessings of Mulayam Singh Yadav, co-operation of BSP's Mayawati and hard work of RLD's Ajit Singh," he said. While praising SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Sinha said, "Grand alliance has the power of youth with it and the example is Akhilesh Yadav, who is a youth icon not only in Uttar Pradesh but also throughout the country." The Congress leader said, "I am here not only for SP and BSP but also for my wife, Poonam Sinha...The elections this time are being held to bring a change, it will be fought for a cause of development...the development of the city, state and country." "The elections this time are for reclaiming country's lost pride and to fight against the injustices," he added. Shatrughan Sinha who has joined Congress recently will be contesting against BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib Constituency in Bihar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Thursday accused the Election Commission (EC) of 'turning a blind eye' to the violation of the model code of conduct by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. "Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is flouting the EC's ban imposed on him by visiting temples and eating food in the houses of Dalits. He is doing drama and is broadcasting the same on the media platforms for electoral gains. Why the Commission is so kind to him?" Mayawati tweeted in Hindi. She further accused the EC of being biased and 'wrongly favouring' BJP leaders. "It is impossible to have free and fair elections this time if the EC continues to neglect the moves made by BJP leaders. How will this resolve the public's discomfort? The BJP leadership is still bent on doing the same arbitrariness as it has been so far, why?" she said in a follow-up tweet. Mayawati also claimed that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seem nervous in the same way how Congress was ahead of the previous elections due to the fear of losing. "The real reason for this is that along with poor and farmers, the BJP is indulging in anti-Muslim, and anti-Dalit deeds," she claimed. Polling for the second phase of general elections is underway across the country, including in eight Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lashing out at former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for opposing the candidature of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP's general secretary Ram Madhav on Thursday said the PDP chief is only "concerned about terrorists and militants and not the citizens of the country". "There are certain laws that guide the process for who can file nomination. The EC will continue to look into these matters and nobody can just go and ask for a person to be banned from contesting election," Madhav told ANI. "People like Mehbooba Mufti, have concerns only for terrorists and militants, not for citizens of the country. You can see how much she is bothered about how terrorists are treated. Such people's criticism has no meaning," he added. The BJP on Wednesday announced fielding Thakur, who is facing trial in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat. Congress has fielded Digvijaya Singh from the constituency. Madhav further called Thakur an apt challenger for her opponent and senior Congress leader Singh, who is "largely responsible for promoting the mischievous and dubious idea of saffron terror" in the country. "The very accusation of saffron terror, Hindu terror was a creation of the UPA government. There was no such thing existing at that time and not even now. Some people were wrongfully jailed and false cases set up against them. The courts are looking into these. Nobody can question us on the constitutional validity of fielding a candidate who has allegations against her," Madhav added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States Department of Justice on Thursday released a redacted version of the special counsel Robert Mueller's report. The 22-month long investigation into the alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 Presidential election was unable to clear US President Donald Trump in the matter, stating that the President's action and intent "present difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred," reported CNN. Titled "Report on the Investigation Into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election", the report further states that the Trump campaign knew they would benefit from Russia's illegal actions to influence the action, but did not take criminal steps to help. "After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government-sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election, but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes," Attorney General Willian Barr said in a press conference before the release of the report. Mueller also made it clear that Congress can continue to investigate Trump. The report further states that following the media reports that the "Special Counsel's office was investigating whether the President had obstructed justice," Trump directed his lawyer to remove special counsel Robert Mueller. "On June 17, 2017, the President called McGahn at home and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre," the report read. The report further stated that Trump's efforts to influence the investigation were "mostly unsuccessful", largely because "the person surrounding the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his request." The report also said that Mueller declined to subpoena the President because it would "delay" the investigation. Following the release of the report, Trump described the investigation as a "total victory for the President," reports CNN. The statement sent out by Trump's lawyers read, "This vindication of the President is an important step forward for the country and a strong reminder that this type of abuse must never be permitted to occur again." The nearly 400-page Mueller report released on Thursday is the redacted version of the full report. The other, less-redacted version will be given to a limited number of Congress members. The report includes the Special Counsel's findings from the 22-month long investigation into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 Presidential elections which saw incumbent US President and former businessman Donald Trump rise to power. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former ambassador of Pakistan to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand has said that Pakistan should review its India-centric policies in order to seek peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. Speaking at a seminar on 'The Afghanistan conflict: emerging dynamics and impact on Pakistan', at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) on Wednesday evening, Mohmand said that only the foreign forces are to be blamed for the ongoing 18 years of war in Afghanistan, The Dawn reported. Mohmand asked: "What has the war delivered? No country in the would suffer as much from Afghanistan's instability as Pakistan. And no country in the would gain as much from Afghanistan's stability as Pakistan," the former ambassador said. Mohmand's remarks came amid reports whereby Pakistan had rejected Afghanistan's request of using its territory for trade with India. The ex-ambassador added that if Pakistan had allowed the trade to happen then both India and Afghanistan would have depended on Pakistan. But now India and Afghanistan were forced to look for other ways. In addition, Pakistan's decision has also hampered trade with Afghanistan, he added. The ex-ambassador further argued that the US" decision to pull out its troops from Afghanistan is a "good gesture" as the people have become sick of fighting. But the move triggers many unanswered questions, such as who will take over the governance system in the country, whether there would be a ceasefire between the Afghan forces and the Taliban and on what terms would the Taliban be mainstreamed? He also pointed out various obstacles in the way of achieving a solution to the conflict. He noted that the Kabul government had always wanted the Taliban to come to them, however, the latter refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the government. Mohmand said that for the last few years Russia, China and Iran had forged relations with the Taliban. They feared that with the withdrawal of external forces there would be anarchy in Afghanistan, the rise of Daesh and uncontrolled production of drugs. The ex-ambassador stated that Pakistan has been handicapped due to various power centres which act simultaneously in the country, causing ambiguity in its policies. "So you are more focused on restricting India's role and less on seeking peace in Afghanistan. The Afghans get annoyed. Pakistan is justified in demanding that Afghanistan's soil must not be allowed to be used against Pakistan but beyond that India is one of the biggest donors [to Afghanistan] and is a regional power," Mohmand was quoted as saying. Mohmand said Pakistan and India should work jointly on projects inside Afghanistan for the benefit of both countries. "The India-centric approach will have to be reviewed because it doesn't deliver much," he said. Foreign players, including the United States and Russia, recently have been trying hard to mediate talks between Kabul government and the Taliban to achieve peace in the region. Despite the efforts, the Taliban last week announced the beginning of its annual spring offensive, aiming to "eradicate occupation" and "cleanse Muslim homeland from invasion and corruption". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Just a day after joining the Samajwadi Party (SP), Poonam Sinha on Thursday said that in the Lok Sabha elections, people will vote on the basis of work done by the leaders, and not on the basis of their popularity. Speaking to ANI, after filing her nomination for Lok Sabha polls from Lucknow, Sinha said: "I am very happy to receive the affection from people of Lucknow. My confidence has increased with the roadshow conducted earlier on Thursday...This election is not taking place based on any names, instead, it is taking place on the basis of what work has been done." "Leaders will be judged on the basis of whether they have fulfilled promises. People are smart, they will ask about promises made by BJP in 2014," she added. Her husband Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha also spoke about her candidature against the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. He said, "At present, we are not thinking of Rajnath Singh. Right now I have come here to encourage Poonam Sinha to work for the people." "We were invited by the grand alliance, especially SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav, whom we regard as our family friends. We discussed and unanimously made the decision to come here," he added. The Congress leader said, "We are not talking of defeating anyone purposely. We are only talking about development." "We are talking about giving justice to farmers and workers who have been betrayed by the false promises made by the BJP government," he added. Accompanied by his wife and SP leader Dimple Yadav during a road show earlier on Thursday, Shatrughan Sinha praised BSP-SP-RLD alliance in the state. Sinha who has joined Congress recently will be contesting against BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib Constituency in Bihar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Thursday said Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, is the apt challenger for her opponent and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who promoted the "mischevious and dubious idea of saffron terror" in the country. The BJP on Wednesday announced fielding Thakur, facing trial in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat. Congress has fielded Digvijaya Singh from the constituency. Madhav, speaking to ANI, asserted that the accusation of "saffron or Hindu terror" was a creation of the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. "The very accusation of saffron terror, Hindu terror was itself a creation of the UPA government. There was no such thing existing at that time and not even now. Some people were wrongfully jailed and false cases set up against them. The courts are looking into these. Nobody can question us on the constitutional validity of fielding a candidate who has allegations against her," Madhav said. The BJP leader said the decision to field Sadhvi Pragya against Digvijaya was taken by the party's Madhya Pradesh unit. "The decision was taken by the Madhya Pradesh unit. She is probably the right challenger for a person like Digvijaya who is largely responsible for propagating the dubious and mischievous idea of Hindu terror in this country. He needs a proper challenge that is why Pragya Thakur was fielded by the party," he said. Attacking Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah and People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti for objecting to Pragya Thakur's candidature, Madhav said, "There are certain laws that guide process for who can file nominations. The EC will continue to look into these matters and nobody can just go and ask for a person to be banned from contesting election." "People like Mehbooba Mufti, have concerns only for terrorists and militants, not for citizens of the country. You can see how much she is bothered about how terrorists are treated. Such people's criticism has no meaning" the BJP's general secretary said. Backing Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's theory that Congress might be plotting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Madhav said:"Better that Imran Khan keeps off Indian elections." "Who will be the prime minister of India will be decided by the people of India. We are wise enough; we don't need advisers from across the border. When we come back to power, we know how to deal with our neighbours. We don't need advisers or suggestions from across the border," he said. Sitharaman had told ANI that she believes that Khan's statement on peace talks between the neighbours and resolution to the Kashmir issue would be possibility, if BJP is voted back to power, as merely a ploy by the Congress to oust Prime Minister Modi-led government. Responding to a question on whether there is a deliberate attempt to politicise the country's armed forces, Madhav said, "We are doing so. It is the Opposition which is trying to gain political or electoral mileage by invoking the Balakot issue and raising doubts about our Army's actions. "They are not questioning the government but the very credentials of the Army itself" Madhav said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that the Trump administration would not rule out going to war with Iran even though there is no explicit authorization from Congress to do so. Pompeo said this in the context of being asked whether the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) could be used to attack Iran on the basis that Iran supported the 9/11 attacks and is connected to Al Qaeda (the organization forbidden in Russia), which carried out the 9/11 attack. The Real News published the conversation in its article Pompeo is Setting the Stage for a War with Iran. Do you believe that the 2001 authorization to go to war with those who attacked us on 9/11 applies to Iran or Iran's Revolutionary Guard? Senator Rand Paul asked Pompeo on April 11 during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. I'd prefer to just leave that to lawyers, Pompeo said, dodging the question. So you're unwilling to state unequivocally that you, that the resolution in 2001 to have retribution and stop people who attacked us, that Iran had something to do with the attacks on 9/11? Rand asked. The factual question with respect to Iran's connections to Al Qaeda is very real, Pompeo said. They have hosted Al Qaeda, they permitted Al Qaeda to transit their country. There's no doubt there is a connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Al Qaeda. Then on Monday, April 15, the Trump administration's decision to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization went into effect. Iran is not a sponsor of terrorism, Colonel Larry Wilkerson told The Real News Network's Greg Wilpert. So to say that Iran sponsors terrorism of any sort, let alone Al Qaeda, is just preposterous. The greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the region and indeed in the world is Saudi Arabiaour ally. In a previous interview with The Real News, Wilkerson criticized Pompeos initial declaration that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was a foreign terrorist organization and called the Secretary of State a fool. Wilkerson observed that the elements in this possible lead-up to warfrom a president who does not seem to know the inner workings of his own administrations military strategy to the involvement of hawkish National Security Advisor John Boltonrecall the invasion of Iraq in 2003 under President George W. Bush, where nonexistent Al Qaeda connections were used as justification for war. We're operating in a way that's inimical to, injurious to, U.S. national security interests, Wilkerson said. To watch this as an academic and to watch it even more so, more profoundly, as a military professional is really jarring. This is truly stupid. Wilpert observed that given that all of this groundwork ... being laid with the terrorism mission for Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the claim of connections between Iran and Al Qaeda, the U.S. was likely preparing for an attack on Iran, which would fall conveniently in the months leading up to the 2020 election. President Trump wants the tension, the pressure on Iran to bring Iran back to the negotiating table so he can claimjust prior to the 2020 electionsthat he's done the impossible: He's brought Iran back to the table and we're negotiating again, and that the deal he will produce will be much better than the deal President Obama produced, Wilkerson said. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that that's the case and that at the end of the day none of this happensthat we won't go to war. Around 650 Rohingya refugees held in a Saudi detention centre on Wednesday went on hunger strike to protest against their indefinite detention in the Gulf country for the third time in recent months. The refugees, held inside Shumaisi detention centre in Jeddah since 2012 for not having valid documentation, initiated the hunger strike on Saturday, Ro Nay San Lwin, campaign coordinator for the Free Rohingya Coalition told Al Jazeera. As the hunger strike continued across 10 rooms at the detention camp, at least seven members were immediately rushed to the hospital on Tuesday after their health deteriorated, the activist added. "The immigration police are harassing them, saying if you carry on this hunger strike, we will not even give you water," Lwin was quoted as saying. After seeing a video footage of the ongoing strike that was posted by Lwin on Twitter, Vice chairman of the NGO European Rohingya Council (ERC), Ambia Perveen, told Al Jazeera that the police have snatched away blankets, pillows, shirts and other necessary belongings of the detainees. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the second phase of polling commenced on Thursday amid heightened security, political bigwigs came out to cast their votes for constituting the 17th Lok Sabha. Among those who took to their respective polling booths were former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth, BJP candidate from Bengaluru South Tejasvi Surya, and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others. At Sivaganga, Chidambaram said he has voted for the Secular Democratic Front formed by Congress, DMK and allied parties. "The Tamil people want a change of government both at the centre and in the state and that is why there is overwhelming support for secular democratic front formed by the DMK, Congress and allied parties," he told reporters here. "I have voted and appealed people to vote for preserving our independence, sovereignty, democracy, self-respect, fight against superstition and false belief. We have to uphold the pride of Indian people as well as the nationality that are in India and the Tamil nationality," he added. Chidambaram's wife Nalini Chidambaram, their son Karti and daughter-in-law Srinidi Rangarajan also cast their votes at Karaikudi, Sivaganga. It may be noted that Karti is contesting from Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat on a Secular Democratic Front ticket. Meanwhile, Rajinikanth, who cast his vote in Chennai, said, "everybody should vote". Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy cast his vote at Salem, while actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti were seen waiting in queue to cast their votes at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai. At Bengaluru, Tejasvi Surya cast his vote at Girinagar polling booth and requested people to exercise their franchise. "I request to come out in large number and vote to ensure that good government and good men are elected," he said. On the other hand, Sitharaman cast her vote at a polling booth in Jayanagar area of the city. Speaking to reporters after casting her vote, Sitharaman urged voters to come out in large numbers and exercise their rights. Manipur Governor Najma Heptulla also cast her vote at a polling station in Imphal amidst heightened security. 95 parliamentary constituencies spread across 11 states and a Union Territory will go to polls today. Polling is being held in Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam (5), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (3), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (10), Manipur (1), Odisha (5), Tamil Nadu (38), Uttar Pradesh (8), West Bengal (3), and a single parliamentary seat of Puducherry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Backing Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's theory that Congress might be plotting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Thursday said it would be "better that Imran Khan keeps off Indian elections". Speaking to ANI, Madhav said: "Who will be the prime minister of India will be decided by the people of India. We are wise enough; we don't need advisers from across the border. When we come back to power, we know how to deal with our neighbours. We don't need advisers or suggestions from across the border." Sitharaman had told ANI that she believes that Khan's statement on peace talks between the neighbours and resolution to the Kashmir issue would be a possibility if BJP is voted back to power, as merely a ploy by the Congress to oust PM Modi-led government. Earlier, Khan had reportedly said that "there might be a better chance of peace talks with India if Prime Minister Narendra Modi wins the upcoming elections". Responding to a question on whether there is a deliberate attempt to politicise the country's armed forces, Madhav said, "We are doing so. It is the Opposition which is trying to gain political or electoral mileage by invoking the Balakot issue and raising doubts about our Army's actions. "They are not questioning the government but the very credentials of the Army itself," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Efforts are on to formulate a plan to minimise passenger inconvenience in view of Jet Airways crisis, said Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola here on Thursday. Kharola, who held a high-level meeting with the officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), and representatives of various airport operators, said: "We had a series of meetings today with airlines, airport operators, DGCA, and AAI. "About 75 planes have been grounded in the domestic sector in the last few months. DGCA is monitoring the situation. We have been able to induct around 55 planes as of now," he told media persons, adding the current deficit is of 15-20 planes. Kharola said that slot allocation would be done fairly. "Slots will be allocated for a period of three months. Airlines getting extra capacity will get preference in slot allocation," he said. "Airlines will be able to induct 30 planes by July. Some airlines are in talks with lessors to get 20-30 ex-Jet planes. We have told airlines to not resort to predatory pricing. We are hopeful to cover the current capacity deficit in one to two months," he said. The public sector carrier -- Air India -- has already introduced special fares for the passengers hit by the current disruption. About 160 slots of Jet Airways are vacant at Delhi, and 280 at Mumbai. It is worth mentioning that lenders are engaged in the bidding process for stake sale in Jet Airways, which burdened with the debt of over Rs 8,000 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on Cuba including limitations on travel to the Latin American nation. The new measures restricted Cuba's border policies and allowed exiles to sue for properties seized by the former Fidel Castro-led Cuban government, The Washington Post reported. In addition, the United States also announced new limits on the amount of money Cuban Americans can send to relatives on the island at USD 1,000 per person. The measures have been taken in an attempt to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and pressurize all those countries, including Cuba and Nicaragua that support his regime. "The Department of the Treasury will implement further regulatory changes to restrict non-family travel to Cuba. These new measures will help steer Americans dollars away from the Cuban regime," The Hill quoted US national security adviser John Bolton as saying. Addressing a gathering in Miami on the 58th anniversary of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, Bolton said that many Cubans in Venezuela are actually military and intelligence agents who control Venezuela's military and keep Maduro in power. Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo had stated that Washington will allow the U.S. citizens to sue foreign businesses using property seized during the 1959 Cuban revolution. On April 12, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state oil company, as well as companies and ships carrying Venezuelan oil to Cuba. The upcoming changes will significantly influence the US' diplomatic ties with Cuba that was normalised during the former Obama regime. In his statement, Bolton also said that the socialist governments of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, Miguel Diaz-Canel in Cuba and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua are "beginning to crumble." "The walls are closing in," Bolton said of U.S. pressure against Maduro. "There is no turning back. The people will prevail. And when they do, we know that Cuba will be next. And soon after, we pray, the third member of the Troika, Nicaragua, will also, at last, be free," he added. Venezuela is currently facing a political and economic crisis, which has been worsened by blackouts and an acute shortage of water and medicines. The U.S. has recognised National Assembly leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president and tightened sanctions on the country over the past few months. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US Justice Department on Wednesday (local time) said two versions of the redacted Special Counsel report will be released. While one copy will be released to the public, the other, less-redacted version will be given to a limited number of Congress members, according to CNN. The Robert Mueller report is expected on Thursday. The Justice Department said that some of the redactions in the Mueller report are due to the ongoing case involving Republican activist Roger Stone. They highlighted that the omissions are being made in a bid to keep the jury from being prejudiced as the case is headed towards a trial. Stone has pleaded not guilty to all the charges laid down against him. The less-redacted version will not be available immediately, prosecutors suggested while making the announcement. This move is being made in order to prevent the leakage of the report before the trials. The report includes the Special Counsel's findings from the 22-month long investigation into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 Presidential elections which saw incumbent US President and former businessman Donald Trump rise to power. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Vivek Oberoi on Thursday expressed happiness at the response of the officials of the Election Commission who watched the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said he hoped the film will be screened soon. Speaking to reporters here, the actor said, "Election Commission officials have watched the movie on Wednesday. In a way, the movie was premiered at the EIC office yesterday. The first thing we asked the officials was how did they find the movie? However, I can not reveal their answer as it is the constitutional body and we ought to respect it. Though the officials' answer made us happy." "Now I just pray that they let us release the movie," he said after visiting the EC office here. On Wednesday, officials of the Election Commission watched a special screening of biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the directions of the Supreme Court, A total of seven officials of a committee set up for the purpose were present for the screening of the biopic titled 'PM Narendra Modi'. A top court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, asked the EC to watch the Narendra Modi biopic and submit its view to the court by April 22 in a sealed cover. "I have been reiterating that neither the movie nor me are related to the BJP. There is no intention and financial funding involved in the movie," the actor said. "The entire team is sad and stricken. We had a lot of hopes. It took one and a half years to make the film and we were excited. However, when the movie is stalled just a day before the release does make the entire team sad," he added. Responding to the allegation that the movie might influence the decision of people, he said, "If that's the case then voters can be influenced by advertisements, political opinion and special comments in editorial columns." "We have been reiterating that there is no political agenda. Had that been the case, I would have accepted the ticket for a member of parliament. I was offered the tickets five times but I declined as I am a filmmaker and this is not my work," he added. Asked about the reaction of the EC officials he said, "Let's see how the officers would interpret the movie." On April 12, makers of the Oberoi-starrer had moved the apex court, challenging the stay of the film's release. The producer of the film, Sandip Ssingh, had said that the poll panel banned the movie without watching it. The film was scheduled to release on April 11, coinciding with the commencement of the Lok Sabha elections in the country. However, on April 10, the EC stayed the release of the biopic till national elections culminate, stating that the film disturbs the level-playing field. The movie is directed by Omung Kumar and includes Vivek Oberoi, Zarina Wahab, and Barkha Bisht Sengupta. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fugitive Businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday cited a statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while taking a dig at him as well as banks over contradictory statements made in British courts regarding recovery of money he owed PSUs. "None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe? One or the other is lying" he tweeted. In an interview to Republic Bharat news channel on March 29, Modi had expressed satisfaction over the fact that Mallya's extradition process was in the last stage and the government has recovered money from him. "We brought in a law that enabled the Indian government to confiscate the property of fugitives in any part of the world. You must've seen in the case of Vijay Mallya. He owed banks Rs 9000 crore but the government has confiscated his properties worth Rs 14,000 crore from across the world. Now, he is in trouble because we are taking double the amount," the Prime Minister had said in an exclusive interview to Republic Bharat news channel's Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. Mallya, who is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore, is currently facing trial at a London court. On April 8, a United Kingdom court had denied permission to the liquor baron to appeal against his extradition order to India to face trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Key equity benchmarks trimmed losses in mid-morning trade. At 11:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 47.22 points or 0.12% at 39,228.42. The Nifty 50 index was down 17.70 points or 0.15% at 11,769.45. After opening higher, the key indices reversed trend in morning trade and hit fresh intraday low. Sentiment was fragile amid negative cues from other Asian shares. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.71%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.84%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 703 shares rose and 1435 shares fell. A total of 132 shares were unchanged. Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 2.28% to Rs 1,376, ahead of its Q4 results today, 18 April 2019. Meanwhile, Reliance Ethane Holding Pte. Ltd. ("REHPL") (incorporated in Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of RIL, having 100% holding in six limited liability companies (LLCs) which own Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLEC or the Vessel)), Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOL) of Japan and a strategic minority investor have signed binding definitive agreements for a strategic investment by MOL and minority investor in the six special purpose limited liability companies (SPVs), each owning a VLEC. The announcement was made yesterday, 17 April 2019. Jet Airways (India) slumped 27.60% to Rs 175.10. The company yesterday, 17 April 2019, announced temporary suspension of flight operations. The airlines was informed by the State Bank of India (SBI), on behalf of the consortium of Indian lenders, that they are unable to consider its request for critical interim funding. Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going. Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. Jet Airways will now await the bid finalisation process by SBI and the consortium of Indian lenders. Interglobe Aviation was up 1.57% to Rs 1,608. The stock hit a record high of Rs 1,650 in the intraday today. SpiceJet surged 7.31% to Rs 142.40. The company announced during trading hours today, 18 April 2019, that it will induct six more Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft on dry lease. These six aircraft are in addition to the 16 B737s and 5 Q400s that the airline will soon induct. The total number of planes to be inducted in the immediate future now stands at 27. The airline has applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to import the planes. Subject to regulatory approvals the aircraft would begin joining SpiceJet's fleet in the next ten days IT major Wipro rose 1.74% to Rs 286 after the company's board of directors approved a proposal to buyback equity shares of the company at Rs 325 per share. The announcement was made after market hours on Tuesday, 16 April 2019. Wipro's consolidated net profit fell 1.07% to Rs 2,483.50 crore on 1.45% rise in total income to Rs 15915.30 crore in Q4 March 2019 over Q3 December 2018. The result was announced after market hours on Tuesday, 16 April 2019. Abidali Z. Neemuchwala, CEO and Executive Director, Wipro, said the company has built a strong foundation for growth on the back of healthy order book and continued investments in big bet areas of Digital, Cyber security, Engineering services and Cloud. In its outlook for Q1 June 2019, Wipro expects revenue from IT services business to be in the range of $2,046 million to $2,087 million. This translates to a sequential growth of -1% to 1% excluding the impact of the divestment of Workday and Cornerstone On Demand business which was concluded in Q4 March 2019. The outlook is based on the following exchange rates: GBP/USD at 1.32, Euro/USD at 1.14, AUD/USD at 0.71, USD/INR at 70.16 and USD/CAD at 1.33 The board of directors of Wipro has approved a proposal to buyback up to 32.30 crore shares of the company for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 10500 crore, being 5.35% of the total paid-up equity share capital, at a price of Rs 325 per share. Members of the promoter and promoter group of the company have indicated their intention to participate in the proposed buyback. On the political front, voting in the second phase of the 2019 general elections began today, 18 April 2019, with 95 constituencies across 11 states and one Union Territory going to polls. The 2019 Indian general election, which is scheduled to be held in seven phases, kicked off on 11 April 2019. It will conclude on 19 May 2019. The counting of votes will be conducted on 23 May, and on the same day the results will be declared Overseas, Asian shares traded lower on Thursday. Chinese government data showed the country's economy grew 6.4% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2019, maintaining the pace seen in the last quarter of 2018 as factory output picked up steam. US stocks closed lower Wednesday as the health-care sector slumped on concerns over potential adverse impact from future policy changes. The US trade deficit fell 3.4% in February to the lowest level in eight months, the Commerce Department said. Meanwhile, wholesale inventories in the US rose a mild 0.2% in February and sales increased 0.3%. Meanwhile, most of the US Federal Reserve's 12 district banks reported economic activity expanded at a "slight-to-moderate" pace in March and early April, according to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book report, released Wednesday. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Key benchmark indices were trading higher in early trade. At 9:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 132.40 points or 0.34% at 39,408.04. The Nifty 50 index was up 26.50 points or 0.22% at 11,813.65. Among secondary barometers,the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.12%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.11%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 585 shares rose and 411 shares fell. A total of 69 shares were unchanged. On the political front, voting in the second phase of the 2019 general elections began today, 18 April 2019, with 95 constituencies across 11 states and one Union Territory going to polls. The 2019 Indian general election, which is scheduled to be held in seven phases, kicked off on 11 April 2019. It will conclude on 19 May 2019. The counting of votes will be conducted on 23 May, and on the same day the results will be declared Overseas, most Asian shares traded lower on Thursday. Chinese government data showed the country's economy grew 6.4% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2019, maintaining the pace seen in the last quarter of 2018 as factory output picked up steam. US stocks closed lower Wednesday as the health-care sector slumped on concerns over potential adverse impact from future policy changes. The US trade deficit fell 3.4% in February to the lowest level in eight months, the Commerce Department said. Meanwhile, wholesale inventories in the US rose a mild 0.2% in February and sales increased 0.3%. Meanwhile, most of the US Federal Reserve's 12 district banks reported economic activity expanded at a "slight-to-moderate" pace in March and early April, according to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book report, released Wednesday. Back home, Wipro was up 0.37%. The company's consolidated net profit fell 1.07% to Rs 2483.50 crore on 1.45% rise in total income to Rs 15915.30 crore in Q4 March 2019 over Q3 December 2018. The result was announced after market hours on Tuesday, 16 April 2019. The board of directors of Wipro has approved a proposal to buyback up to 32.30 crore shares of the company for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 10500 crore, being 5.35% of the total paid-up equity share capital, at a price of Rs 325 per share. Members of the promoter and promoter group of the company have indicated their intention to participate in the proposed buyback. Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 2.13%. Reliance Ethane Holding Pte. Ltd. (REHPL) (incorporated in Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of RIL, having 100% holding in six limited liability companies (LLCs) which own Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLEC or the Vessel)), Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOL) of Japan and a strategic minority investor have signed binding definitive agreements for a strategic investment by MOL and minority investor in the six special purpose limited liability companies (SPVs), each owning a VLEC. The announcement was made yesterday, 17 April 2019. Cipla was up 0.02%. The company's wholly-owned subsidiary Cipla Medpro South Africa (Pty) has signed an agreement on 16 April 2019, to acquire 30% stake in Brandmed (Pty) (Brandmed). The transaction is expected to be completed on or before 31 May 2019. The announcement was made after market hours on Tuesday, 16 April 2019. Cadila Healthcare was up 0.44%. Zydus Cadila has received the final approval from the USFDA to market Acetazolamide for Injection USP (US RLD Diamox for Injection), 500 mg per single-dose vial. It will be manufactured at the group's formulations manufacturing facility at Moraiya, Ahmedabad. The announcement was made yesterday, 17 April 2019. Sasken Technologies was up 4.12%. The company has scheduled a board meeting on 23 April 2019 to consider buy-back of fully paid-up equity shares of the company. The announcement was made after market hours on Tuesday, 16 April 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump has been a historically unpopular president for most of his time in office, and his administration has been plagued by record-setting turnover and difficulties getting key initiatives off the ground. Despite all of this, recent evidence suggests Trump still has a good shot of being reelected in 2020. Business Insider reports in its article There's a growing amount of evidence that Trump has a great shot of being reelected in 2020 that the president's approval rating as measured by Gallup stands at about 45%. Trump's most recent predecessor, President Barack Obama, had an identical approval rating at this point in his presidency and was reelected in 2012. In mid-April back in 2011, shortly after Obama announced his reelection bid, his approval rating was hovering between 43% and 45% right on Trump's current level. Comparatively, in mid-April 1995, President Bill Clinton had an approval rating of 46%, according to Gallup, and he was also reelected. As an incumbent, Trump also has an inherent fundraising advantage, with Democratic funding split among a crowded field and many 2020 Democrats entering the race only in February or March. The president raised $30 million in the first quarter of 2019 and has about $40 million in cash on hand. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, who are leading Democrats in terms of money raised, raked in $18.2 million and $12 million respectively in the first quarter. At the same time, voters seem to overwhelmingly approve of Trump's handling of the economy, which also bodes well for him. Recent data indicates the US job market remains strong, wages for Americans are on the rise, and consumer confidence is near its highest level since the recession. Historical data shows that a strong economy can help boost a president's reelection chances, though the link may be weakening in recent years. A CNN poll from mid-March found 71% of Americans said the economy was in good shape. That was the highest percentage to express this view since 2001. A majority of those polled (51%) also approved of Trump's handling of the economy. That's similar to the RealClearPolitics average of polls measuring approval of Trump's handling of the economy, which is 51.5%. A more recent Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service "Battleground Poll" found that 58% of registered voters considered "likely" to vote in 2020 said they approved of the job Trump had done on the economy. The poll also found 55% saying they disapproved of Trump overall and a majority (57%) saying the country was on the wrong track. But Trump's level of support remained strong among Republicans, with 74% of GOP voters saying the country was heading in the right direction. A February poll from Pew Research Center found that strengthening the economy ranked as the top issue overall for Americans, though other polls place issues like healthcare higher on the list. In short, it's hard to say how much of an advantage Trump gets from positive perceptions of his handling of the economy, but it certainly doesn't hurt him. Wipro's consolidated net profit fell 1.07% to Rs 2483.50 crore on 1.45% rise in total income to Rs 15915.30 crore in Q4 March 2019 over Q3 December 2018. The result was announced after market hours on Tuesday, 16 April 2019. The board of directors of Wipro has approved a proposal to buyback up to 32.30 crore shares of the company for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 10500 crore, being 5.35% of the total paid-up equity share capital, at a price of Rs 325 per share. Members of the promoter and promoter group of the company have indicated their intention to participate in the proposed buyback. Reliance Ethane Holding Pte. Ltd. (REHPL) (incorporated in Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), having 100% holding in six limited liability companies (LLCs) which own Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLEC or the Vessel)), Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOL) of Japan and a strategic minority investor have signed binding definitive agreements for a strategic investment by MOL and minority investor in the six special purpose limited liability companies (SPVs), each owning a VLEC. The announcement was made yesterday, 17 April 2019. Cipla's wholly owned subsidiary Cipla Medpro South Africa (Pty) has signed an agreement on 16 April 2019, to acquire 30% stake in Brandmed (Pty) (Brandmed). The transaction is expected to be completed on or before 31 May 2019. The announcement was made after market hours on Tuesday, 16 April 2019. Zydus Cadila has received the final approval from the USFDA to market Acetazolamide for Injection USP (US RLD Diamox for Injection), 500 mg per single-dose vial. It will be manufactured at the group's formulations manufacturing facility at Moraiya, Ahmedabad. The announcement was made yesterday, 17 April 2019. Sasken Technologies has scheduled a board meeting on 23 April 2019 to consider buy-back of fully paid-up equity shares of the company. The announcement was made after market hours on Tuesday, 16 April 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 14 passengers including 11 security personnel were forcibly offloaded from a bus on a highway in Pakistan's Balochistan province and then shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, officials said. The deceased included nine personnel from Pakistan Navy, one from Pakistan Coast Guard and one from Pakistan Air Force, whereas identities of the remaining three victims were not determined yet, security officials were cited as saying by Xinhua news agency. The incident happened when five buses, travelling between Karachi and Gwadar on the Makran Coastal highway, carrying civilians and the victims were stopped by some 20-25 militants wearing Frontier Corps uniforms to check identity cards of the passengers. After scanning the identities of passengers in one of the buses in Buzi Top area, the militants offloaded 16 of them. Fourteen of them were shot dead, while two passengers -- reportedly soldiers of the Pakistan Army -- escaped, according to Pakistan media reports. After reaching a "safe" place, these soldiers informed security forces about the whole incident who rushed to the incident site and recovered 14 bodies, officials added. Confirming the incident, a Pakistan Navy spokesperson said that several Navy personnel were among those killed. Proscribed organization Baloch Raji Ajoi Sangar claimed the attack on their unverified Twitter account, saying that their offensives against the security forces will further intensify, Xinhua news agency said. Provincial Home Minister Mir Zia Langov said a full-scale investigation was launched into the attack and to track down the gunmen. "Such incidents are intolerable and we will not spare the terrorists who carried out this dastardly attack," he said. Condemning the attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan sought a report on the incident and directed the authorities to identify and bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal said: "Terrorists are killing innocent people on the agenda of anti-state elements. It is a conspiracy to create hurdles in the development of Balochistan." This is the second incident involving mass killings in Balochistan this month. On April 12, a terror attack targeting the Hazara community in Quetta left at least 20 dead. Similarly in 2015, armed men kidnapped about two dozen passengers from two Karachi-bound buses in Balochistan's Mastung area and killed 19 of them. --IANS soni/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unseasonal rain and severe dust storm in different parts of Gujarat over the last two days claimed 13 lives even as authorities Thursday predicted that temperatures that had fallen to less than 3 to 7 degrees below normal would rise from next week to mark a normal summer. Officials at the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) in Gandhinagar said the deaths occurred due to different reasons ranging from electrocution, lightning strikes and uprooting of trees. The worst affected districts were in North Gujarat and the western Saurashtra regions. As on Wednesday evening, as many as 13 deaths were reported while many people sustained injuries. Mehsana district reported the maximum five deaths followed by Banaskantha (2) and one each in Patan, Sabarkantha and Ahmedabad in North Gujarat region. One person each was killed in Rajkot, Morbi and Surendranagar in Saurashtra, according to Gopal Bhayani at the SEOC. Bhayani told IANS that there were no reports of dust storm or rain from any part of the state on Wednesday evening onwards. He said heavy rains were preceded by dust storms in most parts of Gujarat. The central and state governments announced Rs 2 lakh compensation to each of the kin of those killed. First, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the compensation from the PM Relief Fund, followed by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who also announced Rs 2 lakh relief. In all, every family of those who died would receive compensation of Rs 4 lakh. --IANS desai/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray on Wednesday warned the people of the country to beware as the 2019 parliamentary elections outcome would decide whether democracy will survive or pave the way for autocracy. Targetting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah at a large rally here, he said that they have displayed "all signs of autocracy, curbing freedom of speech, gagging the media and enslaving the masses as was done by the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. "Modi has been only speaking lies since five years. You must be on guard now and ensure that neither the BJP nor its allies are voted back to power for safeguarding your future," Thackeray cautioned. He said that during his entire tenure, Modi has been speaking a lot about the previous governments, but not a word about his own five-year tenure, the dreams of Make in India, Skill India, Startup India, Swachh Bharat, etc. "Demonetisation gobbled up four-and-half to five crore jobs in the country, Goods & Services Tax killed businesses. Spiking the Rs 500-Rs 1000 notes only benefited the BJP. It is blowing money during the Lok Sabha elections and all the Assembly elections held in the past five years. It has built a lavish 7-star party headquarters. From where has all this money come?" Thackeray said, amidst rounds of applause. Playing relevant video clips of Modi before and after he became Prime Minister, he said when he (Modi) was in opposition, he questioned then Prime Minster Manmohan Singh how did RDX come into India for terror attacks. "But he has not answered from where the RDX -- which killed 40 troopers in the Pulwama attacks of February 14 -- came into the country? Modi asked Singh to avenge one Indian soldier by killing four Pakistanis, but he himself invited Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif for his swearing-in, went to celebrate (Sharif's) birthday. Was it really necessary?" Thackeray demanded. He said that the maximum number of Indian soldiers have been killed on the borders in the past five years, but Modi never showed remorse, he and others like BJP Maharashtra MLC Prashant Paricharak have "insulted" our jawans many times in the past, but now politically exploiting their sacrifices to seek votes. "For all this, Modi should apologise to the armed forces," Thackeray said, adding that the maximum number of soldiers from the state hail from Satara. Referring to taunts by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other BJP leaders on why the MNS was organising rallies in the state although it was not contesting the elections, Raj hit back: "It doesn't mean I cannot speak against the injustice meted out by Modi-Shah in the country. I will expose in the public domain all the falsehoods perpetrated by them in past five years." He pointed out that it was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who first opposed the Mughals and the British rulers. "So why can't a Maharashtrian be the first to speak out against the despotism of Modi-Shah?" Thackeray called upon the people to exercise their franchise with extreme caution as it would decide the very future of democracy and their own freedom. --IANS qn/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 28 people were killed and another 28 injured when a bus crashed on Portugal's Madeira Island, authorities said. Most of the casualties were German tourists, Carmo Silva, a press officer for the Regional Health Department, told CNN on Wednesday. In total, 56 people were onboard the bus when it crashed, she said. Claudia Veloso, a spokeswoman for Portugal's Interior Minister, confirmed that 28 people had died. "The German Embassy in Lisbon is talking to local authorities and there possibly are German fatalities, but we cannot confirm at this moment," a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson told CNN. According to Silva, the bus was going down a steep road when the driver apparently lost control and it went down a cliff. Madeira is located approximately 1,000 km off the Portuguese mainland. --IANS ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 62 percent cent turnout was recorded in five of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats that saw voting in the second phase on Thursday amid cases of poll boycott, malfunctioning of EVMs and stray violence. According to the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer's office here, polls passed off peacefully amid tight security in Banka, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar parliamentary constituencies, except a case of reported firing by a Sashastra Seema Bal jawan at a polling booth in Banka. A senior police official also said that the voting was peaceful so far and there were no reports of violence, except some clashes between supporters of rival parties. There were also reports of problems in EVMs in Purnea, Katihar and Banka. More than 85 lakh voters were eligible to decide the fate of 68 candidates in this round. 'Braving scorching heat, people came out in large numbers to cast their votes since morning. Long queue of voters were seen at polling booths,' an official said. However, residents of more than a dozen villages in the five constituencies boycotted the elections, protesting lack of development including roads, school and health centres. Prominent candidates in the fray are Congress leader Tariq Anwar from Katihar and RJD leaders Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav (Banka) and Bulo Mandal (Bhagalpur). The first phase of polls was held on April 11 and covered the Gaya, Nawada, Jamui and Aurangabad parliamentary constituencies. All of these are areas affected by Maoist violence. --IANS ik/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The second phase of Lok Sabha elections across 95 constituencies saw a voter turn out of 66 per cent with the Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar witnessing a higher voting percentages as compared to the corresponding figures in 2014. "The preliminary figures for polling percentage in the second phase of polls is 66 per cent. It was 69.62 per cent for the second phase of polling in 2014," Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha told reporters here. The two constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir -- Srinagar and Udhampur -- saw voting percentage of 43.4 per cent but the turn out was quite low in Srinagar at 13.43 per cent, which was below 25.7 per cent registered in 2014. However, it was higher than the bypoll figures of 2017 when the constituency registered 7.12 per cent polling. Udhampur in Jammu region saw 66.67 per cent polling, which was lower than 71.48 percent in 2014. The overall percentage for the corresponding phase in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014 was 52.32 per cent. In Tamil Nadu, where 38 of 39 Lok Sabhba seats went to the polls on Thursday, 72 per cent of voters cast their ballot. The percentage was 73.58 in 2014. The state also saw voting for bypolls in 18 Assembly constituencies. In neighbouring Puducherry, the poll percentage was 78 per cent. The Union Territory witnessed 82.1 per cent polling in 2014. The three constituencies of West Bengal that went to the polls on Thursday saw a polling percentage of 76.07 per cent. The polling percentage in the 14 constituencies in Karnataka was 61.84 per cent till 5 p.m. It was 68.68 per cent in 2014. The three constituencies of Bengaluru recorded the lowest voting percentage among the 14 seats. It was 49.75 per cent in Bangalore Central, followed by Bangalore North (50.51 per cent) and Bangalore South (54.12 per cent). In the 10 seats in Maharashtra, the second phase voter turn was 62 per cent as compared to 62.64 per cent in 2014. The eight constituencies in Uttar Pradesh that went to the polls in the second phase recorded a poll percentage of 62.3 per cent, which is likely to increase as as all the votes cast have not been taken into account. In 2014, the voting percentage was 61.87 per cent. In the five constituencies in Bihar, the voting percentage was 62.52 per cent, higher than 61.93 per cent recorded in 2014. The three constituencies in Chhattisgarh registered a voting percentage of 71 per cent. It was 74.16 per cent 2014. In Assam, where five constituencies went to the polls, the voting percentage was 73.32 per cent. In Manipur, where one seat went to the polls, the polling percentage was 74.3 per. The state witnessed 75.16 per cent voting in the corresponding phase in 2104. In Odisha, where five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly seats went to the polls, the polling percentage was 64 per cent. It was 73.75 per cent in 2014. --IANS vv-ps/arm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka saw almost 68 per cent voter turnout in the state's 14 Lok Sabha seats which went to polls on Thursday. "The estimated voter turnout at the end of polling in 30,164 booths spanning 14 parliamentary seats is 67.89 per cent," a senior poll official told IANS here. The highest polling -- 80.23 per cent -- was registered in the high-profile Mandya seat where Nikhil Gowda, son of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, is challenged by multilingual actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, contesting as an Independent backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mandya was followed by Dakshina Kannada with 77.69 per cent, Hassan 77.28 per cent, Tumkur 77.01 per cent, Chikkaballapur 76.27 per cent, Kolar (SC) 75.94 per cent and Udupi-Chikmagalur 75.24 per cent respectively. The lowest polling was recorded in India's tech hub with 50.31 per cent in Bangalore Central, followed by 50.85 per cent in Bangalore North and 54.23 per cent in Bangalore South. In contrast, Bangalore Rural saw 64.09 per cent polling. Polling percentage in the other seats was: Chamarajanagar 73.45 per cent, Chitradurga (SC) 70.59 per cent and Mysore 68.85 per cent. An estimated 2.67 crore voters, including 1.35 crore males and 1.32 crore females were on the electoral rolls to decide the fate of 241 candidates, including 15 women and 133 Independents. In all, 52,112 Electronic Voting Machines were used, with 36,196 controlling units and 37,705 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit machines. Among the constituencies, Bangalore North had the highest number of 31 candidates, followed by 25 in Bangalore South and 22 each in Bangalore Central, Mandya and Mysore. The lowest number of candidates is six in Hassan, followed by 10 in Chamarajnagar, 12 in Udupi-Chikmagalur and 13 in Dakshina Kannada. Unlike in the past elections, the main parties - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress - are locked in straight contests this time, as the latter entered into a pre-poll tie-up with the ruling coalition partner Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S). Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Congress is in fray 21 and seven by JD-S. In the first phase, Congress has contested from 10 and JD-S from four seats. The BJP is in fray in 13 seats as it is supporting Sumalatha in Mandya. Nikhil, an upcoming Kannada film star, is the grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, who shifted to contest from Tumkur, paving the way for his other grandson Prajwal Gowda from Hassan, a bastion of the powerful Gowda clan. In India's tech hub, BJP and Congress are again locked in straight contests. Union Minister D.V. Sadananada Gowda has re-contested from Bangalore North for the second time, while its two-time sitting member P.C. Mohan is trying for a hat-trick from the prestigious Bangalore Central. The Congress has fielded Krishna Byre Gowda against Sadananada Gowda in the Bangalore North, where the politically dominant Vokkaliga community are present in large numbers. In the high-profile Bangalore South, the BJP has fielded Tejasvi Surya, in place of former Union Minister Ananth Kumar, who died last November. Kumar represented the seat for a record six times since 1996. Surya, a 28-year-old lawyer in the Karnataka High Court and a member of the RSS, is pitted against B.K. Hariprasad, a Congress Rajya Sabha member. Former Congress ministers M. Veerappa Moily and K.H. Muniyappa contested from Chikkaballapur and Kolar. Polling in the remaining 14 parliamentary seats in the western and northern regions of the state will be held on April 23. Vote count will be on May 23. --IANS fb/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A whopping 87 per cent of professionals in India say that harassment prevention at the workplace is a very important trend for the future of hiring and HR compared to 71 per cent globally, a new LinkedIn report said on Thursday. In India, 50 per cent of hiring professionals said that companies now talk about their harassment policies as part of their pitch to potential hires -- nearly double the global average of 29 per cent. "Anti-harassment is an especially hot-button issue in India," said the LinkedIn "Global Talent Trends 2019" report that surveyed over 5,000 talent professionals in 35 countries, including more than 400 professionals in India. While 75 per cent of those surveyed globally noticed some change in workplace dynamics/culture over the last two years, 92 per cent in India said that their company has implemented some harassment prevention action or tactic in the last 12 months or is planning to -- which is higher than the global average of 80 per cent. There has been an over 71 per cent (year-on-year) increase in workplace harassment content shared on LinkedIn. Employees are starting to feel more empowered to stand up against harassment - not just by calling for change, but by changing their own workplace behaviour, said the Microsoft-owned professional networking platform. Work flexibility was another important factor in considering a new job. "About 67 per cent of talent professionals in India agree that workplace flexibility -- the option for employees to work when and where they'd like -- is extremely important in shaping the future of recruiting and talent," the findings showed. Globally, in just the last two years, there's been a 78 per cent increase in job posts on LinkedIn that mention work flexibility. In the space of only four years, there's been a 24 per cent increase in the number of people who say flexible work arrangements are a very important factor when considering a new job. "With technology easing the way we work, 74 per cent respondents in India believe that the main benefit from allowing employees to work remotely, is enabling them to achieve better work-life satisfaction. In the opinion of 66 per cent respondents, flexible work hours encourage employee retention. "Women are 22 per cent more likely than men to cite flexible work arrangements as a very important factor when considering a job, with those aged 36 to 45 being the most likely to do so," the report said. The report looked at four key trends impacting the future of HR and the recruiting industry, both globally and in India: Soft Skills, Work Flexibility, Anti-Harassment and Pay Transparency. "Developing markets like India, Mexico and Brazil assign greater importance to soft skills in shaping the future of recruiting and HR," said the report. In India, 87 per cent respondents believe that candidates with strong soft skills will be increasingly important to the success of their organizations, however, only 53 per cent say their companies have a formal process for assessing soft skills. "Nearly 71 per cent respondents in India agree that the top benefit of sharing salary ranges is fostering greater job satisfaction for employees. That said, 78 per cent also fear that this will create salary disputes among current employees," the report noted. --IANS na/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An advocate on Thursday moved a Delhi court seeking to lodge an FIR on sedition charges against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for making an objectionable speech against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The plea is likely to be heard by a magisterial court on Monday. In his plea, petitioner advocate Joginder Tuli has requested the court to direct the Station House Officer (SHO) of Parliament Street Police Station to register an FIR under Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The advocate said on October 6, 2016, while addressing a public meeting at Jantar Mantar after completing his "Kisan Yatra" in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi made a statement against Modi accusing him of hiding behind the blood of soldiers and doing "dalali" (cash in on) on their sacrifice. "...the words used in speech by Rahul amounts to a shame to a democratic country like India and if democracy has to survive, then there should be some restrictions on the people talking against the country," read the plea. The advocate in his plea said that he lodged the complaint at Parliament Street Police Station on October 10 for registration of an FIR against Rahul Gandhi for the alleged speech but the police have not taken any action in this regard. --IANS ak/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The top U.S. envoy for North Korea will travel to Moscow this week for talks on dismantling North Koreas nuclear weapons program, the State Department said Tuesday a sign that a meeting between leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future could be imminent, according to The Japan Times' article Top U.S. envoy for North Korea heads to Moscow as speculation about Kim-Putin summit gains steam. Stephen Biegun, who is in charge of working-level negotiations with Pyongyang, was due to visit Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with Russian officials and discuss efforts to advance the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea, the State Department said in a statement. The visit comes amid unconfirmed reports that Kim and Putin will hold their first-ever summit in Russian next week. A senior Russian diplomat has confirmed that preparations are underway for the summit, South Koreas Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday, citing the countrys vice foreign minister, Cho Hyun. Cho said Monday that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Titov, had reiterated the Kremlins earlier announcement that Moscow has long been preparing for the first summit between the two leaders. On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that no final decision had been made on the time and location of a meeting, but said preparations were ongoing. I can confirm that preparations for the meeting are underway, we have been talking about it for quite a while, the Tass news agency quoted him as saying. As soon as there is full clarity on the date and place of the meeting, we will inform you. Yonhap had reported earlier, citing sources in Moscow, that Kim could visit Russia next week, saying that a Russia-North Korea summit was likely to be held in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok. It noted that Putin is expected to attend the One Belt, One Road forum in Beijing on April 26 to 27, and that the two leaders meeting could take place shortly before that event, possibly on April 24. A separate source said the meeting could take place after the forum. Tass reported in early March that Moscow and Pyongyang are discussing Kims trip to Russia through diplomatic channels, and that it will be decided in the near future. Speculation about the possible Putin-Kim summit comes as North Korea determined to develop its tattered economy has grown increasingly frustrated over a lack of progress in its efforts to secure sanctions relief in denuclearization talks with the U.S. By bolstering cooperation with Russia, as well as China, Kim may be seeking to ease the international and unilateral sanctions regime. Senior officials from Moscow and Pyongyang have been seen traveling to their respective capitals in recent weeks, suggesting the two countries may be laying the groundwork for a visit by Kim. Kim Chang Son, a member of the North Korean leaders inner circle and his chief aide, visited Moscow and Vladivostok from March 19 to 25. He in charge of logistical preparations ahead of Kims overseas trips, according to the North Korean Leadership Watch website. Earlier this month, Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, who is known to be in charge of security issues, visited Pyongyang. The North Korean leader has held multiple summits with three leaders: Chinese President Xi Jinping, South Korean leader Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump. A lawsuit filed in the US has alleged that violated the country's Securities Exchange Act by hiding a slowdown in the demand for iPhones, especially in China, the media reported. The City of Roseville employees' retirement fund filed the suit on Tuesday in Northern California US District Court, The Mercury published from San Jose reported. The lawsuit claimed that knew in November its iPhone sales were hit, but refrained from revealing it to investors then, leading to economic loss for investors. The lawsuit seeks class-action status, to bring in everyone who bought common stock between November 2, 2018 and January 2, 2019, the report said, adding that the plaintiff is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages. Apple in November said it had gone into the holiday season with its "strongest lineup of products and services ever," according to the suit. But in reality, the US trade war with China was hurting the iPhone sales and Apple and its CEO Tim Cook were aware of it in November, claimed the lawsuit which said that Apple disclosed the "true state" of its first quarter iPhone sales only in January. The suit alleged that Apple and Cook's "materially false and misleading statements" in November propped up the company's stock, "which continued to trade at artificially inflated prices". But in January, Apple lowered its revenue guidance for fiscal 2019 first quarter, which ended on December 29. In a letter to investors, Cook said that the company now expects a revenue of approximately $84 billion, down from the $89 to $93 billion it had previously projected. Cook acknowledged that the revenue shortfall in its guidance was partly due to China's trade tensions with the US. The slowdown in the Chinese economy also impacted its revenue, he said. Apple's disclosures in January caused its stock price to fall by more than $15 per share, or more than 9 percent, the suit claimed. A day after Jet Airways temporarily suspended operations, the government has strictly advised domestic airlines not to indulge in predatory pricing and keep air fares affordable, a senior official said here on Thursday. After meeting with airlines representatives, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said: "We have given a strict advice to the airlines that they should not resort to predatory pricing and as far as possible the prices have to be kept at affordable levels." The official said that Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is closely monitoring the air fare situation. Last Tuesday the government had advised domestic airlines to keep air fares in check after high prices were found on around 10 routes. The revelation that time was made as DGCA monitored 40 high-density routes. The regulator compared current prices with those between March 7 and 14 and found high fares on 10 routes. Besides, Kharola said that Air India has already introduced rescue or special fares to Jet Airways stranded passengers at international stations. "We also suggested to the airlines that sometimes for the help of stranded passengers, they can have something called rescue fairs which is especially applicable to international passengers whose flights have been cancelled," Kharola said. "Air India is the first airline to respond to it and they have already introduced special fares for passengers stranded at international destinations." The development comes a day after Jet Airways announced the temporary suspension of all its flight services from Wednesday night as it failed to secure interim funding for maintaining even bare minimum operations. --IANS rv/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian government on Thursday asked one more Bangladeshi actor, Ghazi Abdul Noor, who was seen at a Trinamool Congress rally in West Bengal earlier this week, after it was found that his visa has expired. "One more Bangladeshi actor, Ghazi Abdul Noor, who attended a political rally in Dumdum, West Bengal, has been asked to leave India. In any case his visa had expired," said an official of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The MHA added that appropriate action was also being taken with regard to Noor's overstay in contravention of visa validity norms. On Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moved the Election Commission (EC) seeking strong action against Noor for allegedly campaigning for Saugata Roy, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency. The government had on Tuesday cancelled the visa of Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed after he campaigned for Kanhaiyalal Agarwal, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Raiganj in West Bengal. The government also asked Ferdous to leave the country besides blacklisting him, an MHA statement said. --IANS rak-ak/arm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday vowed to stop the BJP from implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal and said her party will ensure the saffron outfit is given the NBC or "National Vidai (farewell) Certificate" from the Centre after the 2019 polls. "BJP is talking about imposing NRC in Bengal but that would result in ousting people from the country. Many people here would be affected. We will not let them implement the NRC. Instead we will give them 'NBC' or National Vidai Certificate," Banerjee said at a public rally in Malda district's Kaliaganj. Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of dividing the country along communal lines, the Trinamool Congress supremo said people would register their protest against the current regime at the Centre by exercising their democratic right to vote against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Referring to the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, she said: "We all are citizens of this country. Neither Modi Babu (Prime Minister) nor his party has the right to make us foreigners." Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to create division and hatred between the Hindus and Muslims in Bengal for political gains. "They know that they won't get too many seats in other states, so now they have come to Bengal to divide people. Modi is interested in creating rift between Hindus and Muslims," she alleged. "I respect other religions equally. I pray with Muslims, go to the churches and Gurdwaras. You will never hear me talking about divisiveness. I will never let BJP break Bangla and divide Hindus and Muslims," she added. --IANS mgr/ssp/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brisk voting was recorded in the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat in Manipur on Thursday, an official said here. In the first two hours till 9 a.m., 14.99 per cent of the electorate had voted, Chief Election Officer (CEO) P.K. Singh said Queues of voters formed outside many of the the 1,300 polling booths even before they opened at 7 a.m. Fifty companies of the central forces are assisting the state police and paramilitary forces. Fifty-six polling stations have been classified as critical, an official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence. There are 9.28 lakh eligible voters and 11 candidates in this phase. Polling in the Outer Manipur constituency was held on April 11. --IANS il/ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Close to 400 of the 30,164 polling stations in the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka where voting was held on Thursday were staffed exclusively by women, an official said on Thursday. "The 393 'sakhi' (women's) booths were staffed by 10 women, including 4 polling personnel, 3 assistants and 3 constables, with two outside and one inside the booth," Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar told IANS here. The maximum number of sakhi booths - 130 - were in Bangalore's 3 parliamentary seats, followed by 46 in Bangalore Rural, 45 in Udupi-Chikamagalur, 34 in Mysore, 30 in Chikkaballapur, 28 in Mandya, 22 in Tumkur, 20 in Dakshina Kannada, 14 in Hassan and 12 each in Chitradurga and Kolar. "The objective of all-women's booths is to empower them and demonstrate their capability to conduct free and fair polling as in the case of men," said Kumar. Both men and women are allowed to vote in the all-women's booths. "The response has been good and the voter turnout picked up as the day progressed. Many voters were curious to know how we manage the exercise," a woman presiding official told IANS from a booth in the city's western suburb under Bangalore North. Many voters were unaware of the pink booths till they stepped inside them and saw the staff were all women. Of the 600 sakhi booths across the state, polling in the remaining 297 will be conducted in the second phase in 14 seats across western and northern regions of the state on April 23. The vote count, as in the rest of the country, will be on May 23. --IANS fb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Thakur on Thursday accused the Congress of being anti-Hindu and said the party harassed a woman by linking Hindus with terrorism. Thakur is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case in which seven people were killed. She was in jail for nine years and is presently out on bail. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday and, thereafter, the saffron party announced her as its candidate against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Addressing a press conference here, Thakur said: "The Congress has linked Hindus with terrorism, called them terrorists and harassed a woman. The names that I given and the way I was tortured, how do I believe this won't be repeated with other women in the future?" To questions about her Congress opponent asking for proof of her harassment, Thakur said: "I don't say things without evidence. I am a living example of Congress' conspiracies and illegal activities. And if Digvijaya Singh is asking for proof for all this, he will be given proof. I will take my case to the public and even give evidence of my torture." Thakur will file her nomination on April 23. --IANS hindi/rtp/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Slamming Congress President Rahul Gandhi for contesting from Wayanad in Kerala, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out that the only message that's being sent out is appeasement Modi arrived in the state capital on Thursday night to campaign for the NDA candidates contesting in the state. Taking on Gandhi, Modi said what's happening now is not politics, it's only self-interest and opportunistic "The Congress says there is a message behind his (Rahul Gandhi) choosing to contest from Wayanad. But the message could have been sent if the contest was from Thiruvanathapuram. If not, the contest could have taken place in Pathanamthitta (where Sabarimala temple is located). Had it happened, an even bigger message could have been sent out," said Modi. Modi assured the gathering that when votes are counted on May 23 and the new government assumes office, the faith, culture and traditions will be protected through democratic means. "The BJP stand is very clear while the Congress is playing a double game. They say one thing in Delhi and another in Kerala. The CPI-M has no belief in faith, culture or tradition. What they have done here is to register false cases against those who protested to protect the culture and tradition. As long as I am the 'chowkidar', I will not allow these to be destroyed ," said Modi. He also took on the Pinarayi Vijayan government and pointed out that it's a corrupt one. "Even the Chief Minister is caught in the midst of the Lavalin case and so are other ministers. It has now come out that the floods that hit the state was manmade. Even the compensation for those affected has been diverted. Such a government cannot remain in office anymore," said Modi. He also reminded the people that his government in the past five years has put country on the fast track of development, be it in land, sea, air or space. "The 'chowkidar' of the country has empowered the scientists of the country who have come out with technology which will ensure the country's protection. The Congress never had the courage to take such decisions and when it came to hounding scientists, they did that. Your own scientists Nambi Narayanan was a victim of the Congress party," said Modi. He pointed out that the elections are not meant for just putting up a new government. "This election will determine the aspiration of building a new India. It's whether India should pave the way forward or it should follow others," said Modi. Modi said for a strong government which will protect the country, a 'chowkidar' is needed and for that, all should vote for the NDA. Modi arrived almost two hours late and left after his speech. The BJP does not have a single Lok Sabha member from Kerala. It is expecting to open its account this time: It has high hopes from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, where the party has fielded former Mizoram governor Kummanem Rajasekheran. He is pitted against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor who is aiming for a hat-trick of wins. Also in the fray is senior CPI legislator C. Divakaran. In 2014, BJP candidate O. Rajagopal finished a close second, while in all the remaining 19 constituency , the NDA candidates finished a distant third. --IANS sg/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An American investor and his Thai partner could face the death penalty for allegedly violating Thailand's sovereignty by building a floating house off the coast of the country. Chad Elwartowski and Supranee Thepdet, who are both investors in the virtual currency Bitcoin, are currently at an unknown destination after spending several weeks on the seastead installed some 12 nautical miles off the coast of Phuket. The cabin -- some six metres in diameter -- is a pilot test of the Ocean Builders project, promoted by entrepreneurs who, according to its web page, promote steasteading, the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea. The Royal Thai Navy on Monday filed a complaint at a police station in Phuket alleging that the couple had violated Article 119 of the penal code that regulates threats on the national integrity and is punishable with a death penalty or life imprisonment if found guilty, Efe news reported. The Navy in a statement released on Facebook said the couple wanted to create a community with an aim of making an independent state within the maritime territory of Thailand by exploiting legal loopholes in the UN convention on the law of the sea. Rattanachai Siangsanor, a police spokesperson, said that the investigation into the case was transferred to the provincial police and no arrest warrant was issued against the couple. Elwartowski wrote in a Facebook post that they lived on a seastead for a couple of weeks and now Thailand wanted to kill them and neither he nor his partner had participated in its designing, construction or finance. The Bitcoin investor is a software engineer who worked for the US government in Afghanistan and Iraq and made a fortune with an investment in the virtual currency, along with his partner who is also known as "Bitcoin Girl" in Thailand and uses a nickname "Nadia Summergirl". Elwartowski on Tuesday said on Facebook that he and his partner were safe. Ocean Builders in a statement said that "Chad and Nadia were volunteers excited about the prospect of living free". "They took pictures and videos of the whole process and posted it on social media. They spent a few weeks on the seastead and documented their adventure." Ocean Builders, however, denied any involvement of Elwartowski and rebutted the Navy's allegations that the seastead was interfering with the cargo traffic. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Democrats have intensified their offensive against Attorney General William Barr as he prepared to release on Thursday a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into alleged collusion between US President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia in the 2016 election. Barr has a scheduled a news conference at 9:30 a.m. (7 p.m. IST) to talk about the inquiry report and is expected to hand it over it to Congressional leaders later. The House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler raised an objection to Barr speaking to the media before giving him the report, calling it "wrong". "The Attorney General appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump... Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the Attorney General has taken unprecedented steps to spin Mueller's nearly two-year investigation," Nadler said at a Wednesday night news conference here. The New York Times quoting unnamed sources reported that Justice Department officials had discussed the Mueller report with White House functionaries. This, Nadler said, "has helped them prepare a rebuttal response for the President". House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is currently in Ireland, tweeted that Barr "has thrown out his credibility" and the Justice Department's "independence with his single-minded effort" to protect Trump. "The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitised version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin," she added in the tweet. Soon after he received the Mueller report last month, Barr said in a summary sent to Congressional leaders that it had exonerated Trump of the collusion allegations, but it had not concluded either way if the President had obstructed justice by interfering with the inquiry. Unconvinced that the inquiry had cleared Trump, Democrats have demanded a copy of the entire report without redactions. Barr has said that he would edit out portions of the report that relate to intelligence agency secrets, testimony that is considered legally secret and innocent third parties. Nadler accused Barr of having "cherry-picked findings in his March 24th letter to Congress" and withholding "summaries written by the Special Counsel that were intended for public consumption". Trump, meanwhile, sounded confident that the exoneration in Barr's summary would hold when the report is released and tweeted his constant complaint about the inquiry: "The Witch Hunt has been a total fraud on your President and the American people! It was brought to you by Dirty Cops, Crooked Hillary and the DNC (Democratic National Committee)." One of the hopes for the Democrats is that even if Trump is exonerated on the Russian collusion charges, the report may have something on which to pin the obstruction of justice charges, which Barr has dismissed. "Seems like it doesn't 'totally exonerate' Trump," Neal Katyal, who was the acting solicitor general in former President Barack Obama's administration, said in a series of tweets. "I am most interested to know whether Barr made legal conclusions that prevented an indictment and whether he second-guessed Mueller in this respect." The main lines of counterattack for the President and his supporters are that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "spied" on the Trump election campaign and the that basis of the inquiry was a dossier on hi, that was partly paid for the Democratic Party. The author of the report is Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent, and court documents later revealed that he was also paid by the FBI. Trump brought this up in a tweet: "FBI made 11 payments to Fake Dossier's discredited author, Trump hater Christopher Steele." Judicial Watch, a conservative activist organisation, filed a freedom of information lawsuit in a federal court on Tuesday demanding that the FBI release its correspondence with Steele and his associates and details of payments made to him. Barr had said in a testimony to a Congressional panel last week that Trump's campaign had been spied on during Obama's administration. The Attorney General did not give any details, but it is likely he was referring to a warrant obtained by the FBI to place campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page under surveillance. He was suspected of having Russian links but he was never charged with anything. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) --IANS al/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The international Russian-Belarusian conference titled 'The vector of development of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and the historical retrospective of Russian-Belarusian relations' was held at the history faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The event was organized by the history faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Foundation for Civil Society Institutions Development 'People's Diplomacy', the history faculty of Belarusian State University, the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus with the support of the Standing Committee of the Union State, the Embassy of Belarus in Russia, the Belarusian Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy 'Belarusians of Russia'. "Such events contribute to the solution of the key task - ensuring that historically verified, reliable facts of our common history (we have a common history with Belarus) were known not only by students, who learns about them at the university, but also by public. The role of the media, new means of communication existing today is very important. I would like them to base their work on such historically verified and reliable facts," acting dean of the history faculty at Moscow State University Lev Belousov told Vestnik Kavkaza. "The scientific event is both educational and popularizing. The fact that the history of Belarus, the Belarusian diaspora is studied at the history faculty, that the Belarusian language is taught, that we have been working closely and efficiently with our Belarusian colleagues for many years predetermined the holding of this conference," the deputy dean, Academic Secretary of the history department of Moscow State University, head of the Diaspora History Laboratory, Associate Professor, candidate of historical sciences Oksana Solopova explained. "The issues considered today at the conference are interesting, important, very useful for the further development of Belarusian-Russian relations, considering the fact that we have a single state, the Union State. The recommendations which will be developed here are extremely important. As far as I know, a scientific journals will be prepared following the conference, which will give pause for thought, identify new trends, new vectors of our cooperation between Russia and Belarus," head of the business cultural complex of the Embassy of Belarus in Russia Vasily Chernik said. In the framework of the conference, scientists, teachers, experts from Russia and Belarus discussed key stages of the Russian-Belarusian history, as well as development of scientific and educational centers of both countries at the present stage. Russian political scientist and journalist, political technologist, international expert Alexei Kochetkov told Vestnik Kavkaza: "The only possible vector of development of the Union State is based on the indisputable truth that our states are part of the all-Russian civilizational space, being historically its constituent parts. Unfortunately, faced with an unprecedented since the end of the Cold War ideological expansion of the West, our peoples faced a choice once again - merging and dissolving in the Western world under the conditions proposed by American and European politicians, or preserving their distinctive civilization to continue their development path on the basis of their own rich historical experience." Russia and Belarus have accumulated rich experience in interstate cooperation. This year marks the 20th anniversary of establishing the Union State. State Secretary of the Union State Grigory Rapota told Vestnik Kavkaza why such an association was needed: "We have already got used to living in this coordinate system. It has done a lot for Russians and Belarusians in the social sphere, in freedom of movement - not to feel like foreigners in the territory of another country. Impressive results are also provided by the coordination of efforts in the external political field, in the military political field, in the scientific and technical field. We cannot say that all tasks have been solved, but we already have something to present to the society." Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has alleged that the Election Commission was turning a blind eye to "blatant violation of the model code of conduct" by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In a statement, Mayawati said that Adityanath was visiting temples and eating food in the houses of Dalits during the period he was banned from campaigning. "The Chief Minister's activities are being widely published in the media which amounts to campaigning. Why is the Election Commission so generous towards him?" she asked. She accused the poll panel of wrongly favouring BJP leaders. "It is impossible to have free and fair elections if the EC continues to turn a blind eye to the activities of BJP leaders," she said. Mayawati alleged that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed nervous and the real reason for this was the party's anti-Dalit and anti-Muslim deeds. --IANS amita/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia has died after shooting himself as police arrived at his home to arrest him over bribery allegations. Garcia was rushed to hospital in the capital, Lima. His death was confirmed by current President Martin Vizcarra, the BBC reported on Wednesday. A crowd of supporters gathered outside the hospital building, and were held back by a line of police officers. Garcia was accused of taking bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht - claims he denied.rted to be carrying 55 people. He served as president from 1985 to 1990 and again from 2006 to 2011. Officers had been sent to arrest him at his home in the affluent Miraflores neighbourhood in connection with the allegations. Interior Minister Carlos Moran told reporters that when police arrived, Garcia asked to make a phone call and went into a room and closed the door. Minutes later, a shot rang out, Moran said. Police forced the door open and found Garcia sitting on a chair with a bullet wound to his head. Ricardo Pinedo, Garcia's secretary, said the former president had four or five weapons in his home, gifts he had received from the military, and that he had used one of these to shoot himself. He underwent emergency surgery in the Casimiro Ulloa hospital in Lima. Health Minister Zulema Tomas said Garcia had to be resuscitated three times after suffering cardiac arrests before finally succumbing to his injuries. In a post on Twitter, Vizcarra said he was "shocked" by the former president's death and sent his condolences to his family. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Honda Cars India (HCIL) has voluntarily recalled 3,669 units of its premium brand Honda Accord to replace faulty driver side front airbag inflators. An inflator system is used to pump-in gas at a high-speed to inflate airbag in case of an accident. Accordingly, the company will replace the "Takata driver side front airbag inflators" of 3,669 vehicles manufactured between 2003 and 2006 as part of a precautionary global recall campaign. "The replacement will be carried out free of cost at HCIL dealerships across India from 18th April, 2019 and the company will communicate with the customers directly," the company said in a statement. The company further said that Takata airbag inflator recalls have impacted several carmakers globally and that HCIL continued to urge owners of Honda vehicles affected by the recall to get their vehicles repaired by authorised dealers as soon as possible. "HCIL reiterates the importance of replacing the affected Takata front airbag inflators urgently as they may deploy with excessive internal pressure when activated," the statement said. "The airbag inflator casing might rupture, which may result in injury or safety risk to the vehicle occupants," it added. --IANS rv/sn/arm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar was removed on Thursday amid a wave of criticism over the government's handling of the financial crisis the country is facing. The change in the Finance Ministry comes at a time when Pakistan is in the middle of negotiating a new relief package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a tweet, Umar said the move was "part of a cabinet reshuffle" and that Prime Minister Imran Khan offered him the energy portfolio. "As part of a cabinet reshuffle, (the) Prime Minister desired that I take the Energy Minister portfolio instead of finance. However, I have obtained his consent to not take any cabinet position." "I strongly believe @ImranKhanPTI is the best hope for Pakistan and Insha Allah will make a Naya Pakistan," he tweeted. There was no immediate statement from Khan's office or confirmation of who would replace Umar and it was not clear how his absence would impact the deal, according to the Express Tribune. Umar has said often that "a deal is coming soon, and that it will be the last one". Following his tweet, Umar addressed a news conference in which he said "it was time to make some difficult decisions to stabilize the economy" and that he hopes his replacement would be supported in his efforts. "This does not mean I am not available to forward PTI's vision for 'Naya Pakistan'. I am and will always be available to forward the interests of the country." Asked whether there had been a conspiracy in the government to remove him, Umar said: "I don't know if there has been a conspiracy or not, but all I know is that my 'captain' wanted to see me in the role of the Energy Minister. I did not think that would be a great idea so I refused. "We have finalized the IMF agreement on much better terms than before. It is the time to take difficult decisions; I have made these decisions, I refused to take the decisions that would have crushed the nation." Defending his performance, he said: "Who says that I have failed in achieving what I wanted to achieve? I had left my job to join the party (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) when we weren't even in the Parliament, let alone in the opposition. Pakistan has gone to the IMF repeatedly since the late 1980s and last received an IMF bailout in 2013 to the tune of $6.6 billion. Earlier this week Hammad Azhar, a state minister for revenue, tweeted that Umar had reached an "agreement in principle" on an IMF deal during a recent trip to Washington, with the agreement to be finalised later this month. The United Arab Emirates had signed with Pakistan a $3 billion support package in January to boost the liquidity and foreign exchange reserves of the cash-strapped country. Islamabad had also secured $6 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia. --IANS soni/bg (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian-American political action committee (PAC) has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris of Indian and Jamaican descent for the US presidential race. "In such a critically important election, one that will shape policy and for generations to come, Indian Americans can't afford to stay on the sidelines," the Indian American Impact Fund's co-founder Raj Goyle said in a statement on Wednesday. Goyle, also a former Kansas state lawmaker, said it was for that reason that the organisation chose to be "the first Indian-American or Asian-American political organisation to endorse" Harris, whose mother was from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, reports the American Bazaar. "In the coming months, we look forward to mobilising our network of resources to ensure Senator Harris secures the Democratic nomination and is elected the next President of the US," Goyle said. Harris thanked the Impact Fund for the endorsement. "This endorsement and the support of the Indian American Impact Fund and its members means so much to me," she said in a statement on Wednesday. "Together, we will fight for an America that restores the values of truth and justice and works for working people, from raising incomes to expanding health care." The Impact Fund Executive Director and former Maryland state delegate Aruna Miller said her group was "proud to endorse" Harris. "She is a tested leader who has demonstrated, throughout her career, a strong commitment to our community's progressive and pluralistic values," Miller said. Harris, one of the first Democrats to launch the presidential campaign in this election cycle, is also one of the front-runners at the moment. If elected, she will become the first woman, the first Indian American, the first Asian American, and the first African American woman to serve as President. --IANS ksk/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared victory on Thursday in the national election amid opposition allegations of electoral fraud. Widodo claimed victory based on unofficial results which said that he had received 54 per cent of the votes in the Wednesday election, while his rival and former military general Prabowo Subianto secured 45 per cent support. Widodo said initial vote counts were a scientific method of calculating the results and they had been 99 per cent accurate in earlier elections, Efe news reported. The President urged his supporters to wait for the official results, set to be declared in May. He told journalists that he had received congratulatory messages on his re-election from around 20 world leaders. Subianto also claimed victory during a public speech. He said he had evidence that there had been attempts of electoral fraud in villages and cities across Indonesia. The Election Commission (KPU) said polls were held without major problems and analysts agreed, citing the difficulty of carrying out electoral fraud to an extent that could alter results, due to the presence of observers and the supervisory methods in place. Both leaders appealed for calm in their speeches, although the former general alleged irregularities in the electoral rolls during the campaign and threatened to go to the courts or mobilize "people's power" unless the issue was resolved. Earlier on Thursday, Security Affairs Minister Wiranto warned of strict action to counter any threats to democracy after the election, adding that armed forces would arrest and "neutralize" those who indulged in actions that disturbed peace and national security. The President, popularly known as Jokowi, said in a TV interview that he had sent a member of his team to urge Prabowo and his running mate - entrepreneur Sandiago Uno - to help in pacifying the atmosphere. More than 192 million Indonesians were eligible to vote in the third biggest democracy in the world, where the presidential and legislative elections were held simultaneously for the first time, with around 20,000 candidates in the fray. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran showcased all of its military might at its annual parade on Thursday following the US decision to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. "There is no doubt that today, our armed forces are more powerful than ever," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at the military parade in Tehran. "Everybody saw that the people were, and will be, united behind the IRGC ... Insulting the IRGC means insulting the armed forces and the great Iranian nation," he was cited as saying by Efe news and added that the skies and waters of Iran were now "safer than ever". US President Donald Trump on April 8 designated the Corps as a terrorist organization. Rouhani praised the "fundamental role" of the Army and the Corps in defending the country and in the fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq. Referring to the conflicts in the Middle East, Rouhani denounced "the interventions of the US Army in our region, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and other countries which has not brought anything except for crime, misery and destruction". Iran had established its own arms industry due to international sanctions and stated that its military capabilities, including the controversial missiles, were only defensive. Washington's decision to include the Revolutionary Guard on its blacklist was unprecedented and, in reciprocity, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran also designated US troops - deployed in the Middle East under control of the United State Central Command - to be part of a terrorist organization. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after Jet Airways suspended all flights, the government on Thursday asked domestic airlines to advance their aircraft induction plans for capacity augmentation and to keep air fares in check. Apart from fleet induction, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has formed a committee comprising airport operators, Airport Authority of India and DGCA to temporarily re-allocate Jet's slots. The development comes after Civil Aviation Secretary convened two separate meetings, one with airport operators and the other with the airlines to coordinate and address issues on capacity, slots and passenger convenience. Briefing the media after a series of meetings, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said that with grounding of Jet a" 280 slots in Mumbai and more than 160 slots in Delhi a" are left vacant. The slot re-allocation committee will meet next week to take the process forward. "This will be an interim allotment of three months only and after that depending on situation these slots can be extended," Kharola said. "These allocations will be done in a very rational, transparent, fair and equitable manner... the preference would be given to those airlines which bring in extra planes." According to Kharola, in the last 5 months Jet grounded 75 aircraft, whereas other airlines inducted 58 planes thereby leaving a deficit of 17. "All airlines have said that in the months of May, June and July they will be able to induct more than 30 planes," Kharola said. The official further said that some airlines are in talks with lessors to induct 20-30 grounded aircraft of Jet Airways and that these agreements are expected to be finalised within next week. This comes a day after Jet Airways announced temporary suspension of all its flight services from Wednesday night as it failed to secure interim funding for maintaining even bare minimum operations. On its part, Jet in a regulatory filing on Wednesday said that the state-run State Bank of India (SBI) told the airline that its consortium of lenders are unable to consider the private carrier's request for critical interim funding. "Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going," the filing said. "Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. The last flight will operate today (Wednesday)." --IANS rv/prs (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has called director K. Bhagyaraj, who has completed 40 years in cinema, a prolific personality in the Tamil region. Amitabh, who has worked under the directorship of Bhagyaraj in the 1986 film "Aakhri Raasta", took to his blog to praise the filmmaker-actor. "A message to that prolific personality in the Tamil region K. Bhagyaraj, a prolific director, producer actor, music director editor of a weekly - turning 40 years of his service to cinema. He directed 'Aakhri Raasta'," Amitabh wrote. The 76-year-old thespian said the "Aakhri Raasta" was a memorable film for him. "(It) was as a remake of a Tamil film, but one that I enjoyed being a part of," he added. Currently, Big B is gearing up for his next "Brahmastra", a fantasy thriller film directed by Ayan Mukerji. The film also stars Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor. --IANS dc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Moderate voting was recorded in the first two hours of polling in the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies across Karnataka's central and southern regions, an election official said on Thursday. "Polling has been moderate in the first two hours from 7 to 9 a.m., with 10 per cent voting in the first hour in most of the parliamentary seats," the state's Joint Chief Electoral Officer A.V. Surya Sen told IANS. Although polling began on a slow note in the rural areas, it was brisk in cities and towns with hundreds of voters queuing up at the booths to exercise their franchise. "The response has been good so far as voting picked up in the first hour and gained momentum as more voters turned up at the booths to cast their ballot," said Sen. Admitting that there were complaints of glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in some booths, Sen said they were replaced soon to ensure no delay in voting. "We have given extra EVMS to all the polling booths to replace any machine having glitches or malfunctioning. Technical officials have been stationed at the booths to replace them at the earliest to avoid voters waiting for their turn," added Sen. The constituencies where polling is underway are Udupi-Chikmagalur, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga (SC), Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajnagar (SC), Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikkaballapur and Kolar (SC). Of the 2.67-crore electorate in the first phase, 1.35-crore male and 1.32-crore female voters will decide the fate of 241 candidates, including 15 women and 133 Independents. In all, 52,112 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are in use with 36,196 controlling units and 37,705 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPATs) that allows voters to verify that their vote is cast correctly. "Over 1.54-lakh personnel are on duty in all the polling stations across the 14 seats with 38,597 police personnel providing security to ensure free and fair polling," another poll official told IANS earlier. Of the total booths, 16 per cent or 4,826 of them are considered critical in Bangalore Rural, Hassan, Mandya and Tumkur. Among the constituencies, Bangalore North has the highest number of 31 candidates, followed by 25 in Bangalore South and 22 each in Bangalore Central, Mandya and Mysore. Lowest number of candidates is six in Hassan, followed by 10 in Chamarajnagar, 12 in Udupi-Chikmagalur and 13 in Dakshina Kannada. Key constituencies in the first phase are all the three seats in Bangalore, Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur. Unlike in the past elections, the main parties - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are locked in straight contests this time, as the latter has entered into a pre-poll tie-up with the ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to field joint candidates as part of their seat-sharing arrangements. Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Congress is in fray 21 and seven by JD-S. In the first phase, Congress is in fray from 10 and JD-S from four seats. The BJP is contesting in 13 seats and supporting multi-lingual South Indian actress Sumalatha Ambareesh contesting as an Independent in the high-profile Mandya seat where JD-S has nominated Nikhil Gowda. Nikhil, an upcoming Kannada film star, is the son of state chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, who shifted to contest from Tumkur, paving way for his other grandson Prajwal Gowda from Hassan, a bastion of the powerful dynastic Gowda clan. In India's tech hub, BJP and Congress are again locked in straight contests. The BJP's outgoing member Union Minister D.V. Sadananada Gowda is re-contesting from Bangalore North for the second time, while its two-time sitting member P.C. Mohan is trying for a hat-trick from the prestigious Bangalore Central. The Congress has fielded Krishna Byre Gowda against Sadananada Gowda in the Bangalore North, where the politically dominant Vokkaliga community are present in large numbers. In Bangalore South, the BJP has fielded Tejasvi Surya, in place of former Union Minister A.H. Ananth Kumar, who died last November. Kumar represented the seat for a record six times since 1996. Surya, a 28-year-old lawyer in the Karnataka High Court and also a member of the RSS, is pitted against B.K. Hariprasad, a Congress Rajya Sabha member. Former Congress ministers in the UPA government - M. Veerappa Moily and K.H. Muniyappa are in the fray from Chikkaballapur and Kolar. BJP's Nalin Kumar Kateel and Pratap Simha are re-contesting from Dakshina Kannada and Mysore to retain the seats for the third and second time. Polling in the remaining 14 parliamentary seats in the western and northern regions of the state will be held on April 23. Vote count will be on May 23. --IANS fb/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 2016 April battles for Karabakh contributed to the Karabakh clan's collapse in Armenia and removal of Serzh Sargsyan from power, journalist Silvia Steber, specializing in the post-Soviet space, said in an interview with political scientist Nadja Douglas in the episode of the podcast dedicated to Armenia's 'Velvet Revolution,' available on the website of the Berlin-based Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOIS). Speaking about the results and prospects of the 'velvet revolution', Nadia Douglas expressed confidence that Yerevans foreign policy will not undergo changes due to the change of power. "Pashinyan will most likely continue the traditional policy towards Russia. Armenia will continue its constructive cooperation with the EU, but I do not think that steps will be taken in the foreseeable future towards concluding an associative agreement with the EU," she said, explaining that the Armenian society seeks to equally cooperate with both the EEU and the EU. The political scientist stressed that it is of fundamental importance for the Pashinyan government to achieve normalization of relations with Azerbaijan. "Public opinion polls show that after the country's socio-economic problems the Armenian population names the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as the second most acute problem. Unlike other regional conflicts, for example, in Georgia or Moldova, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not frozen - and all citizens of Armenia understand it," the ZOIS research associate noted. Silvia Steber dwelled on the connection between the 2016 April battles for Karabakh and the 'velvet revolution' in April 2018. "In 2016, Azerbaijan demonstrated that it is able to liberate the occupied territories. There was great dissatisfaction in Armenia in relation to its own government, which was accused of not being able to keep the territories and prevent the supply of Russian weapons to Azerbaijan. Particular anger is focused on corruption - the soldiers were not well secured to fight effectively. These events were very important in losing confidence in the government and increasing public dissatisfaction," she pointed out. According to the expert, today Pashinyan's space for political maneuver in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is limited, so he speaks from even more tough positions than his predecessors from the Republican Party, demanding to involve "representatives" of the unrecognized "NKR" in the negotiations. Touching upon Pashinyans fulfillment of his election promises, Silvia Steber noted that prior to the early parliamentary election, it was obstructed by members of the Republican Party of Armenia. A typical example is the failed adoption of a new electoral code. In the fight against oligarchs, despite a number of high-profile arrests, some old tendencies are preserved: the government is making political compromises with major businessmen, which contradict the Pashinian government's initial promises. The expert focused on another aspect: after the arrests and criminal cases against oligarchs and large businesses, for example, the Spayka company, ordinary employees of these companies began to realize that they can lose their jobs. As a result, they stage protests against the government's actions. Silvia Steber stressed that it challenges the Armenian government to create alternatives for citizens losing their jobs. But the question is what reforms can provide these alternatives. Today, attention is focused on neoliberal reforms, which resembles the example of Georgia, where little has been done in the social sphere. In the case of Armenia, social protection of the population is especially important, since this sector practically does not exist in the country, but people need to be strongly supported. The expert also noted the criticism of Pashinyans anti-misinformation methods, recalling his instructions to the Armenian National Security Service to investigate and prosecute fake news distributors. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will pay a visit to Russia later this month for his first meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Thursday. Kim will make the visit at Putin's invitation, TASS news agency and other Russian news outlets quoted the Kremlin as announcing in a press release. The report did not give further details, including dates and the venue of the summit between Kim and Putin. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the two leaders would hold their first summit in Russia's Far East city of Vladivostok next week when Putin travels to the Far East on his way to China for an international conference. Japan's Kyodo News, citing unidentified officials sources, reported that Kim plans to make a three-day visit to Russia beginning on Wednesday. Kyodo said that Kim plans to travel by train and hold a summit with Putin on Russky Island off the city of Vladivostok. Russian media reported on the widely expected summit, citing some restrictions being imposed at facilities in the city bordering the North. Japan's Fuji News Network also aired footage of a man presumed to be leader Kim's protocol chief, Kim Chang-son, checking around a train station in the Russian city. If the summit takes place, it will be the first meeting between leaders of the two countries in eight years, after Kim's late father, former leader Kim Jong-Il, met then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2011. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maoist guerrillas on Thursday set on fire machines used for building a bridge over the Harkatwa river in Jharkhand's Giridih district. The Maoists, numbering 15 to 25, raided a camp office at Bandh Panchayat and set on fire a mixture machine, generator and a vehicle. Denial of protection money was said to be reason for the attack, police said. --IANS ns/pg/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court on Thursday rejected an interim bail plea of British national Christian Michel -- an alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AugustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case -- for celebrating Easter. Michel wished to attend the holy mass on the Easter day and wanted to make religious offerings during those holidays, according to the defence counsel. Special Judge Arvind Kumar dismissed the bail plea after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opposed the Michel's application. Special Public Prosecutor D. P. Singh told the court that thousands of prisoners are lodged in the jail and have deep faith in their religion. "Various festivals are celebrated in India... The agency can't allow Michel to go out of jail to celebrate the festival," Singh added. However, Michel can participate in Easter in jail, the prosecutor said. The agency also said that there are chances that if he is released on bail then he can make a statement outside which can derail in the investigation. Michel's counsel Aljo K. Joseph and Vishnu Shankar told the court that the week commencing April 14 is a holy week for the Christians and Easter falls on April 21. "Michel wishes to attend the holy mass on Easter and would like to make offerings during the Easter days," Joseph said. The counsel also told the court that Michel has been in the ED custody since before Christmas -- December 22 to 28, 2018 -- and was interrogated by the agency even on the Christmas day. They also apprised the court that despite him being a Christian, he was not allowed to join a holy mass. Michel has been in custody for more than nine months now and that has affected his health and he has lost more than seven kilogram in the last four weeks, the defence counsel said and urged for a general medical check-up. "The CBI has given quiet voluminous documents pertaining to the entire case and the ED has also given more than 3,000 pages with regard to the entire investigation and the prosecution complaint filed before this court," Michel said in his plea. "The applicant (Michel) intends to file a detailed bail application and the counsels for the applicant/ accused are finding it difficult to carry the said documents every time to Tihar Jail for taking proper instructions with regard to the present charge-sheet." Michel was extradited to India on December 4, 2018 from the United Arab Emirates. --IANS ak/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court on Thursday rejected an interim bail plea of British national Christian Michel -- an alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AugustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case -- for celebrating Easter. Michel wished to attend the holy mass on the Easter day and wanted to make religious offerings during those holidays. Special Judge Arvind Kumar dismissed the plea after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed the Michel bail application. Michel's counsel Aljo K. Joseph and Vishnu Shankar told the court that the week commencing April 14 to 21 is a holy week for the Christians and Easter falls on April 21. "Michel wishes to attend the holy mass on Easter and would like to make offerings during the Easter days," the defence counsel said. The counsel also told the court that Michel has been in the ED custody since before Christmas -- December 22 to 28, 2018 -- and was interrogated by the agency even on the Christmas day. They also apprised the court that despite him being a Christian, he was not allowed to join a holy mass. Michel has been in custody for more than nine months now that has affected his health and he has lost more than seven kilos in the last four weeks, the defence counsel said and urged for a general medical check-up. "The CBI has given quiet voluminous documents pertaining to the entire case and ED has also given more than 3,000 pages with regard to the entire investigation and the prosecution complaint filed before this court," Michel said in his plea. "The applicant (Michel) intends to file a detailed bail application and the counsels for the applicant/ accused are finding it difficult to carry the said documents every time to Tihar Jail for taking proper instructions with regard to the present charge-sheet." Michel was extradited to India on December 4, 2018 from the United Arab Emirates. --IANS ak/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BSP chief Mayawati on Thursday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, saying they are nervous as the Congress was ahead of its rout in the Lok Sabha battle in 2014. "Today, amid voting for the second phase, the BJP and Prime Minister Modi are nervous like the Congress was fearful and distressed in the last Lok Sabha polls sensing defeat. The main reason is their anti-poor, anti-labour, anti-Dalit, anti-farmer, anti-backward and anti-Muslim mindest," she tweeted. Her remarks came as the voting for the second phase was underway in eight parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh: Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Fatehpur Sikri, Nagina, Amroha, Mathura and Agra. The BSP, which failed to win even one seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is contesting this year in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal. --IANS aks/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged the people to exercise their electoral right as the second phase of Lok Sabha elections was underway. "I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise. I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote," he tweeted. Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah also urged people to vote. "When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay," Gandhi said on Twitter, referring to Congress' minimum income guarantee scheme "NYAY". "Nyay for our unemployed youth; for our struggling farmers; for the small traders whose businesses were destroyed by demonetisation; for those who were persecuted because of their caste or religion," he added. Shah also took to Twitter and said: "I appeal to all the voters in phase two, especially the young, that you must vote to keep this momentum going. In your one vote lies the country's pride and progress." Referring to the Balakot air strike by the Indian Air Force and anti-satellite missile launch "Mission Shakti", he said: "New India of ours is setting higher benchmarks in every field, whether it be on earth, water, sky or even space." --IANS spk/mag/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 32.5 per cent turnout was recorded in five of the 40 Lok Sabha seats voting in the second phase in Bihar till 1 p.m. on Thursday. Voting was on amid tight security in Banka, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar, officials said. "The voting has been peaceful so far and there are no reports of violence, except some clashes between supporters of rival parties," said a senior official at the Police Headquarters here. There were also reports of problems in electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Purnea, Katihar and Banka. According to officials, more than 50,000 security personnel and three helicopters have been deployed for the second round of polling. More than 85 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 68 candidates in this round. "Braving scorching heat, people came out in large numbers to cast their votes since morning. Long queue of voters were seen at polling booths," an official said. However, in more than a dozen villages in the five constituencies boycotted the elections for lack of development including roads, school and health centres. Prominent candidates in the fray are Congress leader Tarique Anwar from Katihar, RJD leaders Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav from Banka and Bulo Mandal from Bhagalpur. --IANS ik/rtp (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) North Korea says it has test-fired a new type of "tactical guided weapon". A report, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), gave few details but said the weapon came fitted with a "powerful warhead", the BBC reported on Thursday. This would be the first public weapons test since talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump ended without agreement. North Korea made a similar claim last year in what observers saw as an attempt to apply pressure on the US. Last week, Kim said Trump needed to have the "right attitude" for talks to continue after the summit between the two broke up in February. According to KCNA, the test was overseen by Kim himself. The weapon has a "peculiar mode of guiding flight", KCNA reported, adding that the test was "conducted in various modes of firing at different targets". Kim said the development was "of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army". No other details were given, including if it was a type of missile. But the word tactical implies that it is a short-range weapon rather than the long-range ballistic missiles seen as a threat to the US. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nearly 31 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in Tamil Nadu's 38 Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly constituencies on Thursday and polling is continuing at a brisk rate, an Election Commission (EC) official said. In the first three hours till 11 a.m., 30.62 per cent voting was recorded, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told the media here. He said voters who do not have the booth slips can cast their ballots by showing any one of the permitted identity papers. Sahoo said there were reports of technical glitches involving EVMs in some centres, but the issues were sorted out. About 5.8 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 822 candidates in the Lok Sabha battle. Polling started at 7 a.m. and would continue till 6 p.m. Notable political personalities including Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, DMK President M.K. Stalin, actor-politician Rajinikanth, DMDK leader Vijayakanth, PMK's S. Ramadoss and Anbumani Ramadoss, Congress' P. Chidambaram, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararjan, Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan and DMK leaders Kanimozhi as well as Duraimurugan voted. Actors like Ajith, Vijay, Surya and others too voted. --IANS vj/ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Polling concluded in 38 of 39 Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly constituencies, where by-elections were held on Thursday, in Tamil Nadu. About 69.55 per cent of about 5.8 crore voters cast their vote pressing the button in the electronic voting machine (EVM) at the last count. The final poll percentage is expected to go up by about five per cent. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 73 per cent polling was registered. A total of 822 candidates are in the fray to enter the Lok Sabha. Polling which started at 7 a.m was peaceful except for some stray incidents that happened towards the evening in some parts of the state. According to police, stray incidents of violence were reported at a village in Ariyalur. In Arakkonam, para-military troopers fired in the air to disperse a mob and in Kanniyakumari, five Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) men were injured in a clash after the polls. In some places voting began a bit late owing to faulty EVMs/ Control Units/ Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. Speaking to reporters here, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said as many as 375 EVMs, 228 Control Units and 766 VVPAT machines were replaced across the state. Though there are 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday, the Election Commission (EC) rescinded polling for Vellore Lok Sabha constituency after the Income Tax (IT) Department seized unaccounted cash from the cement warehouse of a DMK functionary. The EC said the cash was kept for distribution to voters and the situation was not conducive for holding free and fair elections in Vellore. Sahoo said the three Lok Sabha seats in Chennai -- Chennai South (58.14 per cent), Chennai North (61.46 per cent) and Chennai Central (57.05 per cent) -- registered lower voter turnout. In fact, the three Chennai seats brought down the overall polling average. Along with the polls for Lok Sabha in Tamil Nadu, a sort of mini-Assembly elections were held with the conduct of by-elections to 18 out of 22 vacant Assembly seats. A total of 269 candidates were in the fray for the by-elections. Sahoo said 71.62 per cent polling was registered in the by-polls. The by-elections for the remaining four Assembly seats will be held on May 19. The results of both Parliamentary and by-elections for 22 Assembly seats will be declared on May 23, deciding the fate of the BJP-led Central government and also that of the Tamil Nadu government. In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the ruling AIADMK has 114 members (including the Speaker), DMK 88, Congress 8, and the IUML and Independents one each. To attain a simple majority, the AIADMK has to win just four seats in the by-elections. Factoring in the switching of camps by some of the lawmakers, the AIADMK has to win seven or eight seats in order to be safe. On the other hand, the DMK needs to win all the 22 seats to take the tally, along with its allies -- the Congress and the IUML -- to 119, just one number more than simple majority. DMK President M.K. Stalin in his campaign said there will be a change of government in Tamil Nadu once there is a change in the Central government. Analysts are of the view that even if T.T.V. Dhinakaran's AMMK wins a couple of seats, the DMK's dream of coming to power by toppling the AIADMK government may not come true. The two major fronts in the fray are AIADMK-led front comprising the PMK, BJP, DMDK, TMC, PT, PNK and others, and the DMK-led front consisting of the Congress, MDMK, IUML, CPI, CPI-M, VCK, KMDK and the IJK. With the cancellation of election for Vellore, both AIADMK and DMK are contesting in 19 seats in Tamil Nadu leaving the remaining to the alliance partners. The AMMK and the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), floated by Kamal Haasan, are fighting it alone. While the AMMK candidates are contesting under the common symbol "gift box", they are classified as Independent candidates as per the Supreme Court order. For the first time in several decades, both AIADMK and DMK will be fighting the polls without their iconic leaders J. Jayalalithaa and M.Karunanidhi, who are no more. Arithmetically, the AIADMK-led front has an advantage. But the electoral landscape has changed after Jayalalithaa passed away. The AIADMK had split into two and the BJP is facing a negative mood in the state. --IANS vj/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Greece supports the construction of the TurkStream gas pipeline and any other Russian gas supply routes, Dimitrios Velanis, special adviser to the Prime Minister of Greece on relations with Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe, said in an interview with Russian journalists, TASS reports. On Thursday, the Greek city of Thessaloniki hosted the 12th session of the Russian-Greek commission on economic, industrial and scientific-technical cooperation. Velanis coordinates the work of the commission. "We support "Turkish Stream" and any other routes of Russian gas, as well as the participation of Russian energy companies in Greece, "he said stressed that energy is the most important area of bilateral cooperation between Russia and Greece in general. The advisor to the Greek Prime Minister noted that the participation of Greece in the TurkStream project remains a relevant topic. "This topic is always on the agenda," he stressed. Velanis recalled that during a visit to Moscow in December 2018, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras voiced support for the construction of a gas pipeline through Greece to Italy and other European countries. Amid complaints of glitches in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in several states, the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday said the overall performance of EVMs was satisfactory with only 0.37 per cent of ballot units being replaced across the 95 constituencies where voting took place during the second phase. In over 1.8 lakh polling stations, only around 1,000 ballot units, 769 control units and 2,766 VVPAT machines had to be replaced, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain told the media. "That is 0.37 per cent ballot units, 0.40 per cent control units and 1.45 per cent VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) machines," he said. Jain added that one must consider that VVPATs have to be replaced in all those EVMs where control unit or ballot unit is replaced. Polling in the second phase of seven-phase elections was reportedly peaceful barring stray incidents of violence and complaints of glitches in EVMs coming from some states, briefly halting the electoral process. --IANS vv/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said India would be freed from poverty, the day it got rid of the Congress. Referring to late Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi as well as the Congress President Rahul Gandhi, he said while all of them talked about eradicating poverty and uplifting the poor, the only Prime Minister who had been successful in that was Narendra Modi. "They all talked about saving the poor and eradicating poverty, but in reality poverty kept increasing. Now Rahul Gadhi is also making such promises. The only Prime Minister who can eradicate poverty is Narendra Modi," Singh said at a public rally in Uluberia of the Howrah district. "I can assure you India will become free of poverty the day it becomes Congress-free. That's why I appeal to all of you to vote for the BJP in big numbers without any fear," he said. Slamming the Mamata Banerjee government over political violence, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said democracy had ceased to exist in Bengal under the current regime. "Democracy ceased to exist in Bengal. There used to be massive political violence during the Left rule and it's the same under the Trinamool Congress government. The same trend of violence is going on in West Bengal." Hailing the Election Commission, he said the EC has promised to deploy sufficiant number of central security force personnel to hold free and fair polls in Bengal. "I want to congratulate the EC because it has said it would deploy as many security personnel as needed in every polling phase here to ensure free and fair elections." The Minister said the mood in the two Lok Sabha constituencies, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar that went to the polls in the first phase on April 11, showed that the BJP would emerge victorious in both the seats. He said the Trinamool Congress leaders had become "so desperate" fearing their impending defeat in the 2019 polls that some of their women leaders were urging people to chase away the central force personnel. "One of their women leaders is urging people to stop the central forces from working. This shows they are sure about their defeat. Will the democracy be run like this in Bengal? We firmly believe there is no place for violence in democracy." --IANS mgr/ksk/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal's opposition parties on Thursday accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of resorting to proxy voting in a number of booths of the high-profile Raiganj constituency. A TV grab also showed two of the electors carrying voter slips failing to exercise their democratic right as their votes had already been cast. The polling officials manning the booth started passing the buck when they were confronted by the television correspondent. "The Trinamool tried to cast proxy votes in around 150 polling booths in the rural segments of the constituency. We are analysing the inputs from our workers and polling agents. We can asecertain the exact figure after studying all the inputs," BJP candidate and party's state secretary Debasree Chaudhuri told IANS over phone. Chaudhuri also alleged that the Trinamool activists captured a few booths and indulged in rigging. Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Pradip Bhattacharya alleged the Trinamool had cast proxy votes in around 14-15 booths in rural areas of Mohua as also the Islampur sub-division. "They have committed such irregularities in around 14-15 booths," said Bhattacharya, a former state Congress president. Earlier in the day, Bhattacharya had lodged a complaint before the Election Commission alleging violence in many polling stations of Raiganj where the central forces were not deployed. "The Central forces were deployed mostly in urban areas like Raiganj town while state police personnel were deployed in many sensitive areas," he told reporters. Speaking to IANS, Bhattacharya alleged that the election authorities had ignored the lists sent by the opposition parties where they presented their logic about declaring particular booths as sensitive. "The officials discarded those lists, and only took cognisance of the lists sent by the Trinamool Congress. As a result, Central forces were deployed only in those booths where the Trinamool was weak. In areas, where the Trinamool has a strong organisation, they deployed the state armed police," he said. The CPI-M also demanded repoll in 22 booths accusing Trinamool backed goons of indulign in rigging. The star constituency of Raiganj in North Dinajpur district witnessed four-cornered battle between sitting MP and CPI-M candidate Mohammad Salim, Union Minister and Congress nominee Deepa Dasmunsi, Chaudhuri and Trinamool candidate Kanaia Lal Agarwal. Ten other candidates, including five Independents, are also in the fray. --IANS ssp/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Targeting Rs 1,000 crore in revenue in India in the next three years, Japanese electronics major Panasonic has announced it has integrated its welding business and SMT (Surface Mount Technology) equipment business into one Smart Manufacturing Solutions company. The smart factory solutions proposition will enable Panasonic to deliver high value-added smart solutions and services along with world-class hardware to the manufacturing industry, the company said in a statement on late Wednesday. The company targets to achieve Rs 1,000 crore in revenue from its smart factory business in the next three years in India, with solutions and digital manufacturing expected to contribute 15 per cent to the total smart factory business revenue. "India is adopting new-age technologies such as 5G, IoT, AI and others at a rapid pace and we will only see more investment in these technologies as we move forward," said Hiroyuki Aota, President and CEO, Global Panasonic Smart Factory Solutions. "To be able to cater to these growing demands, having the right and smart capabilities in manufacturing will be key, and this is what we are addressing today," he added. The smart factory solutions mean integrated line management system (ILNB), automated process tracker, digital reporting system and more. Panasonic's recently introduced solution ILNB can communicate with the entire line of machinery and can automate up to 70-80 per cent of manual processes. The digital reporting system allows real-time access to information helping build agility and overall transparency of systems. "The key technology to realise a Smart Factory is to connect various equipments through the Internet of Things (IoT), synchronize them and collect and control data in real time for entire production processes," said Manish Sharma, President & CEO Panasonic India. --IANS na/pg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday said people have made up their mind that once again the reins of the nation should be handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thakur said in a statement that in five years, there has been remarkable development in the country. "Efforts in the social and economic upliftment has not only created a new India but the country's prestige has also increased all over the world," he said. Developmental and welfare schemes started during the last five years by the Central government have benefited every section of society, the Chief Minister added. --IANS vg/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Commission of Women (NCW) on Thursday issued a notice to the Punjab Police demanding action in a case when a Mohali rape victim had to travel between two police stations as the station house officers (SHOs) bickered over jurisdiction. The notice, issued to Punjab Director General of Police in Chandigarh Dinkar Gupta, cites a media report -- "Mohali: Rape survivor knocked on doors of two police station, none helped". The report claimed the 22-year-old victim, a call centre employee, was abducted on April 15 from an area that comes under the jurisdiction of Phase VIII and raped in an area that falls in the Sohana Police Station jurisdiction. As per the report, both the police stations sent her to the other to lodge the complaint, citing jurisdiction issues. Taking cognisance of the "reported police apathy" and "negligence shown by the police despite the provision of 'Zero FIR' in the law", the women's rights body expressed its concern and requested the Punjab DGP to take strict action against the erring officials and a detailed 'action taken' report be sent to it. A Zero FIR can be filed in any police station, regardless of the place of incidence of crime or jurisdiction. The media also reported that Sohana SHO Daljeet Singh was suspended and a case of rape was registered in that police station. --IANS sj/mag/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voting was underway on Thursday in the first phase of polling for Karnataka's 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state's central and southern regions amid tight security, an election official said. "Voting began at 7 a.m. in all the 30,164 booths across the 14 parliamentary seats of the state under tight security," the official told IANS here. The constituencies where polling is underway are Udupi-Chikmagalur, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga (SC), Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajnagar (SC), Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikkaballapur and Kolar (SC). Of the 2.67-crore electorate in the first phase, 1.35-crore male and 1.32-crore female voters will decide the fate of 241 candidates, including 15 women and 133 Independents. In all, 52,112 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are in use with 36,196 controlling units and 37,705 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPATs) that allows voters to verify that their vote is cast correctly. "Over 1.54-lakh personnel are on duty in all the polling stations across the 14 seats with 38,597 police personnel providing security to ensure free and fair polling," said the official. Of the total booths, 16 per cent or 4,826 of them are considered critical in Bangalore Rural, Hassan, Mandya and Tumkur, additional police have been deployed to maintain and law and order for peaceful voting. "Five companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have also been deployed in sensitive and hyper-sensitive booths across the region," the official added. Among the constituencies, Bangalore North has the highest number of 31 candidates, followed by 25 in Bangalore South and 22 each in Bangalore Central, Mandya and Mysore. Lowest number of candidates is six in Hassan, followed by 10 in Chamarajnagar, 12 in Udupi-Chikmagalur and 13 in Dakshina Kannada. Key constituencies in the first phase are all the three seats in Bangalore, Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur. Unlike in the past elections, the main parties - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress is locked in straight contests in this election, as the latter has entered into a pre-poll tie-up with the ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to field joint candidates as part of their seat-sharing arrangements. Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Congress is in fray 21 and seven by JD-S. Of the 14 seats in the first phase, Congress is in fray from 10 and JD-S from four seats. Polling in the remaining 14 parliamentary seats in the western and northern regions of the state will be held on April 23. Vote count for all the 28 seats will be on May 23. --IANS fb/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla on Thursday moved the Election Commission to debar Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP's candidate from Bhopal, from contesting elections, as she is facing terror charges. In a letter to the poll panel, Poonawalla said: "I would humbly request the Election Commission of India to take further necessary steps to uphold the Model Code of Conduct 2019 and take appropriate action against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and debar her from contesting elections." He informed the poll panel that "a candidate accused with terror links must not be permitted to contest elections." Poonawalla said the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had charged her as the "principal conspirator" in the 2008 Malegaon blast in which six people were killed. "Thakur was in jail for nine years and since 2017, she was out on bail citing health grounds. She is currently facing charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act," said Poonawalla. According to the law, any citizen above 25 years of age is eligible to contest polls unless convicted for any crime, which involves punishment for two years or more. --IANS ss/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The process for the release of Pakistani prisoners from jails in Saudi Arabia was underway, Islamabad's Ambassador to Riyadh Raja Ali Ejaz has said. "The Saudi Crown Prince's announcement on release of Pakistanis from Saudi jails is under process and in the holy month of Ramazan, we expect some good news regarding this announcement," an official statement said on Saturday quoting the Ambassador. "Discussion on the transfer of prisoners agreement is in process and once the agreement is signed, the prisoners will be able to complete their sentences in their respective countries," Ejaz added. He visit of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to Pakistan in February as "a major success", that started a new era of relations between the two countries. The Crown Prince had issued the order to release Pakistani prisoners a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan made a "special request" to him to look into the hardships of Pakistani labourers working in the Kingdom, and to "look upon them as your own people". --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In an unexpected move, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday mounted an attack on SP and BSP, saying the two along with the BJP had destroyed Uttar Pradesh. Gandhi was addressing a rally in Badaun when he said that SP and BSP were afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who held the strings of the Central Bureau of Investigation. "The Congress is not afraid of CBI. We are working to resurrect the Congress in UP and we will do it," he said. Gandhi, with his attack on SP and BSP, has demolished speculation that the Congress was locked in a friendly fight with the alliance. This is the first time that the Congress president has mounted an attack on SP and BSP. Interestingly, the attack came on a day when Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha was seen campaigning for his wife Poonam Sinha who is contesting the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat on a Samajwadi ticket. The SP-BSP had shunned the inclusion of the Congress into their grand alliance and had left the Rae Bareli and Amethi seats as a goodwill gesture. Though the BSP had been attacking the Congress, the Congress had refrained from directly attacking SP and BSP or even responding to their charges. --IANS amita/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Moscow does not consider the prospect of US military action against Venezuela abstract - it is a real scenario, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on the situation in Venezuela, Sputnik reports. "The harsh, aggressive tone of the representative of the armed forces (head of the US Southern Command Admiral Navy Craig Foller) reaffirms our fears: US military action in Venezuela is not an abstraction, but a possible reality that Washington admits," Zakharova said. The United States continues to ignore the principle of non-use of force, Maria Zakharova added. According to Zakharova, "every day we increasingly hear about the likelihood of the use of the power scenario against Venezuela. It is done with a different tone, it is done with different arguments, it changes like cubes in a game, but this does not change the essence aggressive rhetoric regarding a sovereign state." "High representatives of President's Trump administration no longer simply demand that President Maduro leave his legal office, now there are passages that he must leave before the end of the year, and if this ultimatum is not fulfilled, force might be used," she stressed. The members of Rajput community staged a dharna in front of Sikar District Collector (DC)'s residence in Rajasthan on Thursday to protest against the abduction of a bride by armed men in the small hours of Wednesday. At the call of BSP MLA Udaipurwati Rajendra Guda, thousands of people gathered in front of the District Collector's residence. Bansidhar, a police officer at Dhodh Police Station in Sikar, said: "Four accused in the case have been arrested and police teams are on the lookout for the main accused Ankit Sevada and the bride. Sevada was bride's neighbour." The police have dispatched our teams to Jaipur and Ghaziabad to trace the accused, he added. Earlier, MLA Guda also attempted a self-immolation at the office of the Superintendent of Police in presence of several protesters by pouring kerosene to protest delay in the arrest of accused. However, he was stopped by other protesters. Two sisters Sonu Kanwar and Hansa Kunar, after their wedding were going to their in-laws' place when they were stopped by armed men who gheraoed their vehicle, smashed the window panes of the car, whipped out a pistol and abducted Hansa near Mordunga village in Sikar district. Although the police have registered a case and investigating the abduction, the Rajput community is quite anguished as there has been no trace of the missing bride even after passage of 40 hours of the incident. Meanwhile, around 200 people were seen protesting at District Collector C.R. Meena's residence until filing of this report. --IANS arc/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A record 67 per cent voter turnout was reported from Karnataka's 14 Lok Sabha seats when polling ended at 6 p.m., peacefully, said an official on Thursday. "The estimated voter turnout at the end of 11-hour polling in 30,164 booths spanning 14 parliamentary seats is 66.59 per cent, which may go up slightly, as there were still many in queues when gates were shut at 6 pm," a senior poll official told IANS. The highest polling -- 77.60 per cent -- was registered in Dakshina Kannada, followed by 76 per cent in Tumkur, 75.94 per cent in Hassan, 75.65 per cent in Kolar (SC), 75.13 per cent in Udupi-Chikmagalur, 74.56 per cent in Mandya and 74.28 per cent in Chikkabalapur. The lowest polling was recorded in India's tech hub with 45.97 per cent in Bangalore Central, followed by 48.64 per cent in Bangalore North and 51.55 per cent in Bangalore South. In contrast, Bangalore Rural, 40km from the city centre, witnessed a high of 68.72 per cent when polling concluded. Polling percentage in the remaining seats are Chamarajanagar 73.07 per cent, Chitradurga (SC), 69.03 per cent and Mysore 66.87 per cent. Though polling began on a dull note in the rural areas, it was brisk in cities and towns with hundreds of voters queuing up at the booths to exercise their franchise. An estimated 2.67-crore voters, including 1.35-crore males and 1.32-crore females were on the electoral rolls to decide the fate of 241 candidates, including 15 women and 133 Independents. AIn all, 52,112 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used, with 36,196 controlling units and 37,705 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPATs) that allowed voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly. Among the constituencies, Bangalore North had the highest number of 31 candidates, followed by 25 in Bangalore South and 22 each in Bangalore Central, Mandya and Mysore. The lowest number of candidates is six in Hassan, followed by 10 in Chamarajnagar, 12 in Udupi-Chikmagalur and 13 in Dakshina Kannada. Key constituencies in the first phase were all the three seats in Bangalore, Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur. Unlike in the past elections, the main parties - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are locked in straight contests this time, as the latter entered into a pre-poll tie-up with the ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to field joint candidates as part of their seat-sharing arrangement. Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Congress is in fray 21 and seven by JD-S. In the first phase, Congress has contested from 10 and JD-S from four seats. The BJP is in fray in 13 seats and supported multi-lingual South Indian actress Sumalatha Ambareesh contesting as an Independent in the high-profile Mandya seat where JD-S has nominated Nikhil Gowda. Nikhil, an upcoming Kannada film star, is the son of state chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, who shifted to contest from Tumkur, paving the way for his other grandson Prajwal Gowda from Hassan, a bastion of the powerful dynastic Gowda clan. In India's tech hub, BJP and Congress are again locked in straight contests. The BJP's outgoing member Union Minister D.V. Sadananada Gowda has re-contested from Bangalore North for the second time, while its two-time sitting member P.C. Mohan is trying for a hat-trick from the prestigious Bangalore Central. The Congress has fielded Krishna Byre Gowda against Sadananada Gowda in the Bangalore North, where the politically dominant Vokkaliga community are present in large numbers. In the high-profile Bangalore South, the BJP has fielded Tejasvi Surya, in place of former Union Minister A.H. Ananth Kumar, who died last November. Kumar represented the seat for a record six times since 1996. Surya, a 28-year-old lawyer in the Karnataka High Court and a member of the RSS, is pitted against B.K. Hariprasad, a Congress Rajya Sabha member. Former Congress ministers in the UPA government - M. Veerappa Moily and K.H. Muniyappa contested from Chikkaballapur and Kolar. BJP's Nalin Kumar Kateel and Pratap Simha re-contested from Dakshina Kannada and Mysore to retain the seats for the third and second time. Polling in the remaining 14 parliamentary seats in the western and northern regions of the state will be held on April 23. Vote count will be on May 23. --IANS -fb/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) North Korea on Thursday called on the US to replace Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as head of its team negotiating for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, state-media said. North Korean Foreign Ministry official Kwon Jong-gun said in the event that bilateral talks resume, Pyongyang would like Pompeo to be replaced with a "more careful and mature" negotiator, Efe news quoted the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying. He said talks could become complicated if Pompeo was involved in the discussions, adding whenever the US Secretary of State "pokes his nose talks between the two countries go wrong, without any results". Kwon also said relations between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un were good, and Kim was pleased about that fact. Pyongyang's request came the same day that KCNA announced that Kim had overseen the testing of a new tactical guided weapon -- a short-range weapon designed for battlefield in combat scenarios. Experts believe the weapon could be a cruise missile, the use of which has not been banned by the UN resolutions against North Korea. The failure to reach an agreement at the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi in February revolved around the number of North Korean nuclear assets to be dismantled against the volume of sanctions that the US would alleviate as a corresponding measure. Washington wanted the North Korea to dismantle its missiles and chemical and biological weapons programmes before granting concessions, while Pyongyang called for the lifting of much of the sanctions in exchange for dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear facility, which the US considered insufficient. Since then, Washington and Pyongyang have been firm on their respective positions, although each have expressed willingness to keep the dialog open to work out their differences gradually, including a possibility of organising another Trump-Kim summit. --IANS ksk/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The next government at the centre is likely to inherit a rural economy in bad shape as the "informal" sector in many parts of agrarian India is yet to recover from the multiple disruptions over the past several months, a report said on Thursday. The JM Financial report titled Rural Safari, "Still on a bumpy road" has said that even with the possibility of a short burst of growth in discretionary consumption like in two- and four-wheelers after the general election, "a market-led sustained recovery may be more gradual than earlier estimated". "We have already trimmed our estimates for the auto sector and are beginning to see earnings cuts for staples. In our view, a 'pure' rural portfolio could underperform in FY20," the report said. The survey report noted that rural growth is currently weak in 10 out of 13 states visited when compared to September last year. It also highlighted that rural incomes are impacted by subdued realisations and stress on non-farm income. "Slackening of rural demand due to agrarian income challenge is now more widespread vis-a-vis only in western regions earlier. This is largely due to crop prices being deflationary," the report noted. "Stress on non-farm income due to various reasons - ban on sand mining, closure of brick kilns and disruption in NBFCs - further aggravated the situation." Rural income growth in the last fiscal has been adversely impacted by weak agri-pricing as overall crop production has not been disappointing. In terms of agri-related income, the expected rise of 13 per cent year-on-year (YoY) for paddy and 5-53 per cent YoY for other crops in the Kharif season clearly did not materialise, barring few states which have good procurement infrastructure, the report said. "From the income perspective, a clear disappointment has been the steady decline in prices for most food crops, notably the continued downtick in fruits and vegetable prices, particularly in 2HFY19," it said. The survey highlighted a mixed trend in output across states given the lack of rainfall in western India and a weaker North East monsoon (October-December) impacting southern India. On a historical note, the report said that safer crops (wheat, paddy, sugarcane) continue to find favour with farmers and have much lower volatility. On the other hand, there was high volatility in income for farmers growing vegetables and fruits, pulses and cotton, and barring cotton, income declined for a large section of commercial crops in fiscal 2018-19 due to weak pricing levels, it added. Moreover, the difference in output, and hence in income, from irrigated and non-irrigated farms continue to rise given the patchy and erratic rainfall pattern (9.4 per cent below normal in 2018). The prices of associated products such as milk had also been weak in the first half of 2018-19. However, going into 2019-20, there have been reports on abatement of output, prices have stabilised and could see an uptick going ahead aided by government subsidy, the report said. From the income perspective, therefore, agri-income suffered in the last fiscal, and decline was higher for small farmers, while large farmers were still able to get better prices because of their ability to store and also have better market access, it added. --IANS ravi/sn/bc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Moscow's interference in 2016 elections did "not establish that members of the (US President Donald) Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities" but left enough ammunition for Democrats to pursue charges that the president tried to interfered with it. The 448-page, two-volume report prepared after 22 months of investigations by Mueller was sent on Thursday to Congress on CD-ROM disks and released online. While it may have quelled allegations of Russian collusion, it dropped several hints that Trump tried to interfere with the investigations, which have the potential of developing into criminal charges of obstruction of justices. The report said that it could neither confirm nor rule out "that no criminal conduct occurred" on the obstruction of justice allegations, explicitly acknowledging that Congress could have jurisdiction over the matter. The report said that Trump had phoned then-White House lawyer Don McGahn and asked him to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that Mueller was conflicted and should be removed. It added, however, that McGahn refused to do that. Democrats vowed to pursue the obstructions allegations. House of Representatives Judicial Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, said he would order Mueller himself to appear before his panel before May 23 to explain his findings. "It is clear Congress and the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings," he tweeted. On the focus of the probe, the report said: "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges". While the report said "the evidence uncovered in the investigation did not establish that the President or those close to him were involved in the charged Russian computer-hacking or active-measure conspiracies, or that the President otherwise had an unlawful relationship with any Russian official", it tantalisingly added: "But the evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns". This seemed to be mainly about the business dealings Trump had in Russia. The report sketched out the Russian meddling in the elections, which started in 2014, in great detail. It detailed Russian military intelligence agency GRU's hacking of e-mails of Democratic Party and it leaders that were leaked to WikiLeaks and sowed dissensions within the party. It also said "the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations". Mueller's report said, "Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and. worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." The report also gave an inside look at the Trump's inner circle gleaned from officials it interviewed with juicy tidbits like Trump exclaiming after the Mueller inquiry was established, "This is the end of my Presidency. I'm (expletive)". It enumerated ten instances where Trump could have potentially interfered with the Mueller probe through intimidation in the media or attempts to end it or pressuring officials. Before releasing the report, US Attorney General William Barr told reporters that "all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed" through Mueller's investigation that the Russian "schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign -- or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter". He blacked out portions of the report because they relate to confidential intelligence matters, to testimony that is secret under the law or to innocent individuals or to ongoing investigations or court cases. He said that he would show Congressional leaders the redacted parts of the report that he legally could. Demanding the release of the report in full, Democratic Senator Kamala Harris tweeted: "Americans deserve the unvarnished truth". "The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitised version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin", Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted from Ireland, where she is on a visit. In his theatrical style, Trump reacted with tweet of a picture of him like a movie poster proclaiming, "No Collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats a Game over", and tweeted on Thursday morning his consistent position on the inquiry: "The Witch Hunt has been a total fraud on your President and the American people! It was brought to you by Dirty Cops, Crooked Hillary and the DNC (Democratic National Committee)". Democrats assailed Barr for holding a news conference before releasing the report. Harris tweeted: "Barr is acting more like Trump's defense attorney than the nation's Attorney General. His press conference was a stunt, filled with political spin and propaganda." During his news conference, Barr defended his controversial decision to not pursue obstruction of justice charges against Trump after Mueller had not come to a conclusion about it and had left it Barr to decide if a prosecution was warranted. Barr said Mueller had looked into ten instances where there could have been interference by Trump to impede the investigation but he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that there was not enough evidence to launch a prosecution. Barr dismissed culpability of the Trump campaign in disseminating emails of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton that were hacked by Russians and proved embarrassing to the Democratic candidate's campaign. He explained that "publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy" and "the special counsel's report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials". This is a defence used by news media in publishing material hacked by others like WikiLeaks -- that they themselves did not break the law by hacking. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) --IANS al/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab, Goa, Services and Karnataka will fight it out for a spot in the final of the Santosh Trophy here on Friday. After a rigorous number of Zonal Qualifiers, a total of 10 teams made it to the finals. Services, Goa, Delhi, Meghalaya and Odisha were clubbed in Group A, while Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam, Sikkim and home side Punjab were placed in Group B. Group A turned out to be a straightforward affair, with Services and Goa finishing with 10 points apiece, four ahead of their nearest opponents Delhi, with the former finishing as group champions by dint of a higher goal difference, as the two sides are tied on the head-to-head front. Group B was a more complicated affair, as Punjab, with the support of the home crowd behind their back, shot ahead of the rest of the pack on the last matchday, beating Karnataka 4-3 in a thrilling encounter. While the hosts topped the group with nine points, both Karnataka and Maharashtra finished with seven points apiece, the latter thrashing Sikkim 5-0 to reach their current tally. The two sides had drawn their game, and had even finished the group equal on goal difference. However, Karnataka went through as they had scored one goal more in the entire group. --IANS dm/kk/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Saudi Arabia announced it will host the G20 summit in November next year in the capital Riyadh, Al Arabiya TV reported on Wednesday. The first G20 meeting in the Arab world will be held in November 2020, according to the final communique of the G20 summit last year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which confirmed that the summit will be held in Japan in 2019, and in Saudi Arabia in 2020, Xinhua reported. Saudi Arabia confirmed that it looks forward to hosting the event. G20 world leaders met for the first time in 2008 with focus on rescuing the global economy from the worst financial crisis in more than 70 years. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CPI-M has urged the Supreme Court to kill the electoral bonds, calling it a "diabolical scheme which legitimizes big corporate and illegal money funding to the ruling party". An editorial in the CPI-M's "People's Democracy" said: "The electoral bonds scheme which came into effect in March 2018 is a brazen and opaque method to funnel corporate funds, kickbacks and black money into the ruling party's coffers." It said that the bonds provide for anonymous donors giving unlimited amounts of money to a political party through designated accounts in the State Bank of India. Even foreign companies operating in India have been allowed to donate to political parties. "Since the identity of the donor would be known to the SBI and through this State-owned bank to the government, the corporates and other big donors would prefer to give bonds to the ruling party than to an opposition party. "Contrary to the argument of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that the scheme removes the fear of donors' names being made public, the knowledge of the donor's identity becoming known to the government ensures that bonds will be given mainly to the ruling party. "The result was as expected. Up to November 2018, the BJP got 95 per cent of the electoral bonds issued." The editorial said that Jaitley's other argument that political funding was now coming through legitimate channels was also disproved by the fact that vast amounts of money in cash was being deployed for these elections. "Up to April 1, over Rs 1,400 crore in cash was seized by the Election Commission authorities and this is only a fraction of the black money flowing into the elections." The CPI-M said the Supreme Court has only asked political parties to provide details of bonds received by them and from whom in a sealed cover to the Election Commission. It did not stay the operation of the scheme. "This is a half-hearted and disappointing order, given the fact the court heard arguments from all sides for three days," the editorial said. "In the light of the court's declared stand of the people's right to know, the least the court could have done was to stay the scheme till a final judgment... "It is to be hoped that the Supreme Court will put an end to this diabolical scheme which legitimizes big corporate and illegal money funding to the ruling party." --IANS mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sensex and Nifty ended lower on Thursday after advancing for four consecutive sessions as investors took to profit booking. Investors also treaded with caution ahead of Q4 results from index heavyweight Reliance Industries. Jet Airways was in the spotlight throughout the day over its steep fall. Jet's scrip closed 32 per cent lower on the BSE, 32.23 per cent lower at Rs 163.90 apiece after it fell up to Rs 158.10 after "temporary suspension of domestic and international operations" over the refusal of lenders to provide emergency funding. "Negative Asian markets impacted the market sentiments as Japanese manufacturing activity contracted at a slightly slower pace in April thanks to a pick-up in hiring, a flash PMI survey showed, but new export orders fell at the fastest pace in almost three years in a sign slow global demand remains a major pressure point," said Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities. The BSE Sensex closed 135 points or 0.34 per cent lower at 39,140.28 and the broader Nifty settled 34.35 points lower or 0.29 per cent to 11,752.80. "Investors turned cautious ahead of announcement of results from key index heavyweights including large corporate banks. Consolidation was broad-based with PSU banks and metals underperforming," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services. "Despite mixed flows from DIIs, the downside was capped by positive flows from FIIs given a good start to Q4 results." "The accelerating scenario of a slowdown in global growth as also the definitive prospects of higher fuel prices and a weaker currency may also be working on the minds of the market participants at this juncture," said Joseph Thomas-Head Research, Emkay Wealth Management. The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries followed by Tata Motors, Tata Motors (DVR), Asian Paints and TCS. The laggards were Yes Bank declining over 4 per cent followed by Vedanta, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel and Larsen and Toubro. --IANS ravi/sn/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said the company was making "steady progress" toward certification of a software update for the 737 MAX aircraft, grounded worldwide following two crashes within five months. "We're making steady progress on the path to certification for our 737 MAX software update, thanks to the work of our Boeing pilots, engineers and technical experts," Muilenburg said in a video posted on Twitter on Wednesday. In the video, where he is standing in front of a 737 MAX plane at Boeing Field in Seattle, the CEO said the company carried out flight test of the updated software with its technical and engineering leaders on board the airplane on Tuesday. "That was the final test flight prior to the certification flight," he said. Boeing's test pilots, he said had conducted 120 flights, amounting to 203 hours of airtime, with the anti-stall software fix for the Manoeuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Muilenburg also said he participated earlier on Wednesday in another demonstration flight and witnessed this software's operating in its final form as designed across a range of flight conditions. "Around the world more than 85 per cent of our 50-plus MAX customers and operators have now experienced the new software through a series of simulator sessions," said the Boeing CEO. Boeing is working desperately on the software update of MCAS of 737 MAX aircraft, one of which crashed in October 2018 and other in March this year, killing 346 people on board. Investigators have zeroed in on the MCAS flight control system as a possible factor behind the two tragedies. Many countries, including the US, grounded the aircraft after the March crash. --IANS ksk/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has asked the State Revenue Committee (SRC), the Police and the National Security Service to fine compressed natural gas and petrol stations a thousand times a day for their failure to provide cash registers receipts. "Almost all compressed natural gas and petrol stations across the country fail to provide the receipts. I officially declare that receipts are not provided. Why this question is not solved? I am told every day that the stations do not provide receipts, and do it in a demonstrative way, and concrete people stand behind these stations," ARKA cited Pashinyan as saying. The PM asked the heads of the State Revenue Committee, the police and the National Security Service why this problem is not solved. In response, deputy head of the SRC Arthur Manukyan said that the agency cannot constantly monitor the process and all transactions, although the overall situation is under their control. The PM specified how many times a day one gas station can be fined, if it fails to provide cash register receipts and are there any restrictions. "If not, then fine a thousand times a day: what's the problem? Start criminal cases, put them in prison," Pashinyan said. Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav said on Thursday that the ongoing Lok Sabha polls were an "election for change". "Our Mahagathbandhan is an alliance of three parties (SP, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal) but the BJP is with 38 parties and this is an adulterated alliance," he said while addressing a rally after filing his nomination papers from the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat. He was accompanied by his party leaders Naresh Uttam and Abu Asim and BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra during the nomination. Striking an emotional chord, Akhilesh Yadav said that his father and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav always considered Azamgarh his second home. "And I have come to my home," he said. Azamgarh was won by Mulayam Singh in 2014 but now he has opted to contest from Mainpuri, which he had also won in 2014 but subsequently quit. Attacking Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Akhilesh Yadav said: "Our Chief Minister is a 'thokidar' - he always asks the police to 'thoko' (eliminate) criminals. A BJP MP recently hit his own party leaders with his shoes 12 times. We are here to take away the 'chowki' of these 'chowkidars' and 'thokidars'." In a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said that industrialists had run away from the country, taking away Rs 36,000 crore of the common man and the "chowkidar" has done nothing about it. Listing the developmental work done by his government included the Lucknow Metro and the Agra expressway, he said: "When we return to power, we will build the promised Purvanchal Expressway." --IANS amita/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US woman who worked for Air China at the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport here has pleaded guilty to acting on behalf of the Chinese government by placing unscreened packages on a flight from New York to Beijing. Ying Lin was working at the direction of Chinese military personnel stationed at Beijing's permanent mission to the UN, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said on Wednesday. Lin, a naturalised US citizen, worked for Air China from 2002 till 2015 at JFK and then at Newark Liberty International Airport through April 2016. She could face up to 10 years' imprisonment when sentenced, The Washington Post reported. "This case is a stark example of the Chinese government using the employees of Chinese companies doing business here to engage in illegal activity," Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said in a statement. "Covertly doing the Chinese military's bidding on US soil is a crime, and Lin and the Chinese military took advantage of a commercial enterprise to evade legitimate US government oversight." It is not known what was in the packages sent to Beijing. In exchange for her help, the Chinese government provided her tax-exempt purchases of discounted liquor and electronics available only to diplomats and free contracting work at her residence, according to court documents. "Lin was secreting packages through some of the country's busiest airports, using her work with the Chinese government to thwart our security measures," said William F. Sweeney, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI's New York Field Office. "We believe this case isn't unique and hope it serves as an example that the Chinese and other foreign governments can't break our laws with impunity." --IANS ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around 500 voters in Nagaraja Kandigai village in the Tiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu boycotted the election in protest against the functioning of a polluting sponge iron factory in their locality, said an official. "We have asked the company to stop all its operations at its factory... Talks are on with the villages to convince them to participate in the electoral process," Nandakumar, the Revenue Divisional Officer of Ponneri, told IANS. The villagers are up against the Chennai Ferrous Industries Ltd. According to officials, no vote had been cast in the polling booth set up for the people of Nagaraja Kandigai village. --IANS vj/rs/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi, who plays Narendra Modi in the controversial biopic on the Prime Minister, met the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday over the film's release. After the meeting, Oberoi said the poll panel watched the biopic on Wednesday and gave a "good response". "I can't tell you their response, but we are happy after meeting them and getting their answer," he told reporters here. "We hope the movie is allowed to be released soon as there's no political agenda behind PM Modi's biopic," he added. The Supreme Court had on Monday directed the EC to watch the film "PM Narendra Modi" and submit its report, after the movie's producers cried foul that the poll panel barred the film's release without even watching it. The filmmakers had moved the apex court challenging the EC's order delaying its release. The Supreme Court has scheduled the matter for the next hearing on April 22. Last week, the EC issued an order barring the screening of political films during the Lok Sabha elections. Directed by Omung Kumar and starring Vivek Oberoi and Boman Irani, the film was slated to release on April 11, the first day of polling for the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. Earlier on April 9, the apex court had rejected a plea filed by Congress leader Aman Panwar seeking stay on the release of the biopic. It had also refused to consider the issue whether the screening would tilt the balance in the favour of a particular political party. The court had said let the EC decide the matter. --IANS vv/arm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday urged voters to exercise their right to strengthen democracy. "Use your franchise in the second phase of voting. In democracy, voting not only determines the direction for next five years but for decades. For a strong democracy one must vote," he tweeted in Hindi. Voting in eight Lok Sabha seats -- Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Fatehpur Sikri, Nagina, Amroha, Mathura, Agra-- are underway in Uttar Pradesh. The seven-phase Lok Sabha battle is taking place in seven phases. --IANS aks/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voting began on Thursday across 95 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over 12 states and Union Territories as the second phase of the mega seven-phase electoral exercise kicked off. Voting for electing MLAs in 35 of Odisha's 147 assembly seats also started along with polling for five of the state's 21 Lok Sabha constituencies. In these constituencies, electors will cast two votes each. A total of 97 seats across 13 states were slated to see voting in the phase, but the election in Tamil Nadu's Vellore has been rescinded and polling to Tripura East has been deferred to the third round on April 23. --IANS vv/vd/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voting began on Thursday across 95 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over 12 states and Union Territories as the second phase of the mega seven-phase electoral exercise kicked off. Voting for electing MLAs in 35 of Odisha's 147 assembly seats also started along with polling for five of the state's 21 Lok Sabha constituencies. In these constituencies, electors will cast two votes each. In West Bengal, a total of 49,32,346 voters -- 25,22,887 men, 24,09,372 women and 87 registered in the 'other' category -- are eligible to exercise their franchise as polling began at 7 a.m. for three constituencies in the state. In Tamil Nadu, voting is happening in 38 out of total 39 seats as the Election Commission on Tuesday rescinded the poll for Vellore Lok Sabha constituency after the Income Tax (IT) department seized unaccounted cash from the cement warehouse allegedly belonging to a DMK functionary's relative. Voting also started in 14 out of 28 seats in Karnataka, 10 out of 48 in Maharashtra, eight out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh, five out of 40 in Bihar, and three each in Chhattisgarh (out of 11) and West Bengal (out of 42). Of Assam's 14 constituencies, voting started in five of them while it also began in two out of six -- Srinagar and Udhampur -- in Jammu and Kashmir, and one constituency each in Manipur and Puducherry. Polling to Tripura East, which was slated for Thursday, has been deferred to the third phase on April 23 on security concerns. Polling also started in the lone Puducherry Lok Sabha seat and in the Thattanchavady assembly constituency for which by-election is being held. The seven-phase Lok Sabha elections started on April 11 and would conclude on May 19. Counting of votes will take place on May 23. --IANS vv/vd/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voting was on amid tight security on Thursday in five of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in the second of seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. More than 85 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 68 candidates in the fray in this round. According to officials, more than 50,000 security personnel have been deployed in the second round of polling in Bhagalpur, Banka, Katihar, Kishanganj and Purnea constituencies. Three helicopters have been requisitioned to provide air cover to security forces. "It is a slow start but polling will pick up in the next three hours," one official said. Prominent candidates in the fray are Congress leader Tarique Anwar from Katihar, RJD leader Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav from Banka and Bulo Mandal from Bhagalpur. There were reports of problems in electronic voting machines (EVMs) machines in Purnea, Katihar and Banka. --IANS ik/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Standing wheat crop in hundreds of acres in Punjab and Haryana has been damaged due to untimely rains and hailstorm over the past 72 hours, according to revenue and agriculture officials from both states, here on Thursday. Agriculture Department officials said the losses could run into hundreds of crores, though the exact damage would be known only after assessment by revenue officials in various districts of the states. According to officials, the rain damaged not just the standing crop but also harvested wheat at various grain markets as it was lying in the open. "The procurement agencies will not buy this wheat because of higher moisture content than specified. The government should immediately do something to help farmers," said Kirpal Singh, a farmer in the Ludhiana district. Farmers said the squall destroyed thier months' of hard work in a few hours. "We were going to harvest the crop in two days. We had booked a combine harvestor. But now it won't work because the fields are wet. Elsewhere, the crop has been flattened. It is a big loss," said Jugraj Singh, a young farmer. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday ordered a special girdawari (crop inspection) to assess the damage. The Chief Minister asked the officials to start without any delay the special girdawari to assess damage due to the weather disruptions, said a government spokesperson and added, the assessment had to be completed on priority. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) too have expressed concern over the losses to farmers. AAP legislator and Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema said though the damage was widespread, it was serious in Ropar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Fazilka, Kapurthala and Bhatinda areas and sought release of 100 per cent compensation for the affected farmers within a stipulated time. Former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal too has demanded Rs 15,000 per acre compensation to the affected farmers. Though the weather became clear in most areas in both the states on Thursday, the maximum temperature was 14 degree below normal on Wednesday after more rain and thunderstorm. --IANS js/rtp/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The digital wave in gold is at a nascent stage, with about two tonnes of gold held at vaults on an outstanding basis, although the total number of customers using the digital mode to buy gold is estimated at about 80 million. This is due to the fungibility that the product offers and that there are no storage hassles. It is an interesting time and digital should be the way forward but it cant be on a regulatory infrastructure that is hanging on a loose thread. Digital gold could, in fact, become the biggest Ponzi scheme in India if a self-regulatory mechanism is not framed right ... A Boeing 757 departing from Russia's Saint Petersburg to Dubai made an emergency landing at Tehrans Mehrabad airport today. According to the report, 63-year old man having stroke forced the airplane to land. The patient was taken to a hospital in Tehran, the Mehr news agency reported. Over 10,500 families in 700 odd villages of Meghalaya have been affected after a cyclonic storm ravaged the state in the past three days leaving many of them homeless, officials here said Thursday. Three persons suffered minor injuries during the storm on Wednesday in West Garo Hills district. About a 100 school buildings and few community halls were destroyed by the storm that lashed the districts along the Indo-Bangladesh border. Revenue Minister Kyrmen Shylla reviewed the situation at a high level meeting attended by Chief Secretary P S Thangkhiew on Thursday. "The total number of households affected by the cyclone is 10,554 in 700 villages," a senior revenue department official said after the meeting. Relief materials have been distributed to the affected families. Power supply in parts of West Garo Hills, South West Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi districts has been disrupted and efforts are on to restore it, the official said. West Khasi Hills, East Jaintia and West Jaintia Hills districts were also affected by the storm. Shylla directed the deputy commissioners to reach out to all the affected families especially those in far flung areas. The chief secretary also asked them to submit detailed assessment reports at the earliest, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two men have been arrested for allegedly demanding Rs 35 lakh ransom from Congress's Amritsar candidate Gurjit Singh Aujla, police said Thursday. The accused, Vijay Sharma and Deepak, were nabbed on Wednesday, police said, adding that one countrymade pistol, a mobile phone and a scooter were seized from them. Aujla, who is the sitting MP from Amritsar, had lodged a complaint about ransom calls and a trap was laid to nab the accused, they said. The accused have been calling Aujla on his mobile and threatening him of dire consequences if Rs 35 lakh was not paid to them, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twenty-eight people, including German nationals, were killed when a tourist bus crashed on the Portuguese island of Madeira on Wednesday, local officials said. "Horrible come to us from Madeira," a German government spokesman tweeted after the deadly crash. "Our deep sorrow goes to all those who lost their lives in the bus accident, our thoughts are with the injured," he added. The German embassy in Lisbon confirmed to AFP that a number of its nationals were among the dead, without giving any figures. Filipe Sousa, mayor of Santa Cruz where the accident happened, said 17 women and 11 men were killed in the crash, with another 21 injured. The regional protection service in Madeira did not confirm those figures. "We only know that there were German victims. For the moment we don't know either the names or the number of the victims," an embassy spokesman said. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Twitter that he had contacted German Chancellor Angela to convey his condolences. "It is with profound sadness that I heard of the accident on Madeira," he wrote on the government's Twitter page. "I took the occasion to convey my sadness to Chancellor Angela Merkel at this difficult time," he added. Televised images showed the bus had spun off the road, apparently having flipped several times, before crashing into a house at the bottom of a slope. The deadly accident took place at 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) and left another 21 people injured, according to the Santa Cruz mayor. Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he would travel to Madeira overnight. Medical teams were sent to the scene of the crash to carry out autopsies on the dead. Often called the Pearl of the Atlantic, Madeira hosts thousands of tourists each year, attracted to its subtropical climate and rugged volcanic terrain. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 58.13 per cent polling, while the turnout was low in Srinagar seat with only 12.43 per cent of voters exercising their franchise till 3 pm on Thursday in the second phase of general elections in Jammu and Kashmir, according to poll officials. No untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 58.13 percent polling, with Kathua district registering the highest of 64.6 percent polling till 3 pm, poll officials said. Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency recorded 12.43 per cent polling, with highest 17.1 per cent polling recorded in Shia dominated Budgam district till 3 pm, they said, adding polling has been peaceful so far. Over 29.81 lakh people in the two seats are eligible to vote to decide the fate of 24 candidates, including former Chief Minister and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister Jitendra Singh who are contesting for Srinagar and Udhampur Parliamentary constituencies respectively. In the 2014 election, Srinagar witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country at 25.86 per cent whereas Udhampur witnessed 70.9 per cent polling Voters in border district of Kathua and Udhampur turned up in large numbers at polling booths this morning to exercise their franchise, officials said. A newly-married couple was seen in their wedding finery at a polling station in Udhampur town. The enthusiastic couple said youths should come out to vote. There was a problem with EVM at a polling station in Ramban district but it was later rectified. Raj Devi, 95, voted at a polling station in Chenani in Udhampur district. While Kathua district recorded 64.6 percent polling, Reasi registered 62.7 per cent turnout. Udhampur district registered 63.1 percent polling, Doda 57.2 per cent, Kishtwar (50.4 percent) and Ramban district recorded 50.8 per cent till 3 pm. In Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, Shia dominated Budgam with 17.1 per cent turnout was followed by Ganderbal which registered 14.4 per cent voting. Srinagar district polled lowest at 5.7 per cent till 3 pm, they said. Police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in strength in and around polling stations in all three districts -- Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal -- of the constituency, the officials said. Separatists had called for shutdown in the three districts against the Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, authorities snapped mobile internet services in these districts as a precautionary measure. "The mobile internet service has been suspended as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order," an official said. The BSNL's broadband service was working, but its speed has been decreased. For migrant voters of the constituency, 26 polling stations have been set up with 21 polling stations in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in New Delhi. In Srinagar, Abdullah is pitched against political greenhorns Aga Moshin of the PDP, Irfan Ansari of the People's Conference and Khalid Jehangir of the BJP. In Udhampur, prominent contestants include four Rajputs: Union minister Jitendra Singh seeking reelection on a BJP ticket, Dogra dynasty scion Vikramaditya Singh fighting as a Congress candidate, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan founder Choudhary Lal Singh and National Panthers party chairman Harsh Dev Singh. The Udhampur parliamentary seat has 16, 85,779 electors and with 2,710 polling stations. Srinagar constituency has 12,95,304 registered voters and1,716 polling stations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 62 per cent of the votes were cast in the eight constituencies which went to the polls in Uttar Pradesh in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday. State Congress chief Raj Babbar and actor-turned-politician Hema Malini (BJP) are among the 85 candidates in the fray in this phase. The Election Commission put the overall voter turnout at 62.30 per cent for the eight seats at 6 pm, the closing time for polling. However, people still in the queue at the polling centres then were being allowed to cast their vote, officials said. According to the EC, the polling percentage till 6 pm was 62.10 in Nagina (SC), 68.77 in Amroha, 62.14 in Bulandshahr (SC), 61.25 in Hathras (SC), 59.60 in Agra (SC), 62.80 in Aligarh, 60.56 in Mathura, and 61.16 in Fatehpur Sikri. There are 1.4 crore registered voters in these constituencies. People boycotted the polls during the initial hours in Nagina constituency's Gujjupura, protesting that there was no polling booth in their own village. However, Bijnor district administration officials intervened, persuading them to cast their vote. BJP MLA from Hasanpur in Amroha district, Mahendra Singh Khadagvanshi triggered a row, alleging that burqa-clad women were indulging in fake voting. The district administration, however, denied the charge. Bulandshahr administration acted against BJP MP Bhola Singh after a video clip on social media showed him "seeking blessings" inside a polling booth. "His movements were restricted till 4 pm and he was not allowed to move out from his house. He was seen seeking blessings from the people at a polling centre, which is a violation of the model code of conduct," Bulandshahr District Magistrate Abhay Singh told PTI. He said candidates can visit a polling booth but are not allowed to talk with the voters there. When contacted UP Chief Electoral Officer L Venkateshwar Lu said, "We have sought a report from the district magistrate in this regard." Bhola Singh is among the five MPs renominated by the BJP over the eight seats, all of them won by the party in 2014. This time the ruling party faces a tough fight from the opposition alliance forged in the state by the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance. The BSP fielded candidates for six of the eight constituencies, leaving Hathras for the SP and Mathura for the RLD under the seat-sharing agreement. In Mathura, Bollywood's "dream girl" of yesteryears, Hema Malini, is seeking re-election. She faces RLD's Kunwar Narendra Singh and Mahesh Pathak of the Congress. State Congress president Raj Babbar faces BJP's Rajkumar Chahar and BSP's Shreebhagwan Sharma in Fatehpur Sikri. Sharma is a two-time MLA from Debai assembly constituency of Bulandshahr. UP's Animal Husbandry Minister S P Singh Baghel (BJP) is contesting against Preeta Harit of the Congress and Manoj Kumar Soni of the BSP in Agra. In Amroha, sitting BJP MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar is fighting against Danish Ali, who recently joined the BSP after quitting as the general secretary of the Janata Dal-Secular. The JD-S leadership had said that Danish Ali switched to the BSP with the consent of his parent party, which did not have a big presence in Uttar Pradesh. Under their opposition alliance pact, the BSP is contesting 38 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the SP 37 and Ajit Singh's RLD three. The alliance has left two seats, Amethi and Rae Bareli, for the Congress. After the first two phases, polling is now over for 16 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the politically crucial state. The EC had set up 16,162 polling booths at 8,751 centres for Thursday's polling. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) High voter turnout marked polling in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday covering 95 constituencies in 11 states and Puducherry, with both the Union territory and Manipur clocking a percentage of 80. The Srinagar seat in Jammu and Kashmir recorded a percentage of only 14.8. Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 while in Puducherry it was 80.47. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said in Delhi that the overall turnout in the second phase was 66.63 per cent. Officials said the figures are likely to go up as there are many people in queues even after the scheduled timing for voting elapsed. Except for a few sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal and Manipur and EVM glitches in some seats, polling was by and large peaceful. Two violence-related deaths were reported since yesterday, including that of a woman polling personnel who was killed by extremists on Wednesday in Odisha. Another death was reported Thursday. Two other people, including a voter and a polling officer died of apparent heart attack. Referring to the issue of glitches in EVMs, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain said a total of 1000 ballot units, 769 control units 2,766 paper trail machines were replaced. Tamil Nadu registered 63.73 per cent polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 67.08 per cent in bypolls to 18 assembly constituencies. In Madurai, polling took place till 8 PM in view of the local temple festival. Paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam to disperse crowds. An estimated 61.84 per cent turnout was reported in the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which is witnessing a direct contest between the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the BJP. Puducherry registered 80.5 per cent polling in the lone Lok Sabha seat while in the by-election to the Thattanchavady assembly segment, 76 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. Srinagar had also witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country in 2014 at 25.86 per cent. No untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 70 per cent polling. Polling was also held in 10 seats in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat in Manipur besides 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha. Polling in Tamil Nadu's Vellore LS seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Isolated incidents of violence, road blockades, bombings and police firing marred polling in the three Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal with 76 per cent of voter turnout recorded. Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control a mob, who threw stones at them in Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra area, an EC official said. A reporter and a camera person of a local channel were allegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in Raiganj constituency. CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj, Md Salim, claimed his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur. Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, however, described the voting as "more or less peaceful" with a few isolated incidents reported from places in the three seats. In Manipur, voting was stalled in two polling booths of the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency after violence broke out over alleged proxy voting and dispute among election agents. In one of the booths at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality in Imphal East district, unidentified men stormed into a polling station around 11.30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that "proxy voting" was being carried out in the station, officials said. In the other booth in the same area, a scuffle broke out between the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3pm, derailing the voting process. Sources in the election office said that re-polling was likely in the two booths. An average 57.22 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in 10 constituencies of Maharashtra. Around 69 per cent polling was recorded in Chhattisgarh's three Lok Sabha seats, all having Naxal presence, amid tight security. According to police, except for an IED blast triggered by Maoists in Mohla-Manpur assembly segment of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, no other untoward incident was reported in the poll-bound areas. About 64 per cent voters exercised their franchise in five Odisha Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats, some of them in Naxal-affected areas. In Assam, Nowgong recorded the state's highest polling of 75.71 per cent, followed by Mangaldoi and Silchar with 75.07 per cent and 71.79 per cent respectively. In Karimganj, the figure was 71.41 per cent and Autonomous District witnessed the lowest voting at 69.51 per cent. The five seats in Bihar saw an estimated 62.52 per cent voting. The Election Commission put the overall voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh at 62.30 per cent. Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) High voter turnout marked polling in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday covering 95 constituencies in 11 states and Puducherry, with both the Union territory and Manipur clocking a percentage of 80. The Srinagar seat in Jammu and Kashmir recorded a percentage of only 14.8. Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 while in Puducherry it was 80.47. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said in Delhi that the overall turnout in the second phase was 66 per cent. Officials said the figures are likely to go up as there are many people in queues even after the scheduled timing for voting elapsed. Except for a few sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal and Manipur and EVM glitches in some seats, polling was by and large peaceful. Tamil Nadu registered 63.73 per cent polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 67.08 per cent in bypolls to 18 assembly constituencies. In Madurai, polling took place till 8 PM in view of the local temple festival. Paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam to disperse crowds. An estimated 61.84 per cent turnout was reported in the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which is witnessing a direct contest between the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the BJP. Dakshina Kannada recorded the highest turnout of about 72.97 per cent, while the lowest was reported in Bangalore Central constituency with 45.34 per cent, poll officials said. Puducherry registered 80.5 per cent polling in the election to the lone Lok Sabha seat while in the by-election to the Thattanchavady assembly segment, 76 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. Srinagar, which in 2014 witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country at 25.86 per cent, saw 12.43 per cent polling, with highest 17.1 per cent recorded in Shia-dominated Budgam district till 3 pm. No untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 70 per cent polling. Polling was also held in 10 seats in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat in Manipur besides 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha. Polling in Tamil Nadu's Vellore LS seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Isolated incidents of violence, road blockades, bombings and police firing marred polling in the three Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal with 76 per cent of voter turnout recorded. Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control a mob, who threw stones at them in Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra area, a senior EC official said. A reporter and a camera person of a local channel were allegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in Raiganj constituency. CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj, Md Salim, claimed his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur. Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, however, described the voting as "more or less peaceful" with a few isolated incidents reported from places in the three seats. In Manipur, voting was stalled in two polling booths of the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency after violence broke out over alleged proxy voting and dispute among election agents. In one of the booths at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality in Imphal East district, unidentified men stormed into a polling station around 11.30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that "proxy voting" was being carried out in the station, Chief Electoral Officer PK Singh said. In the other booth in the same area, a scuffle broke out between the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3pm, derailing the voting process. Sources in the election office said that re-polling was likely in the two booths. An average 57.22 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in 10 constituencies of Maharashtra. Around 69 per cent polling was recorded in Chhattisgarh's three Lok Sabha seats, all having Naxal presence, amid tight security. According to police, except for an IED blast triggered by Maoists in Mohla-Manpur assembly segment of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, no other untoward incident was reported in the poll-bound areas. About 64 per cent voters exercised their franchise in five Odisha Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats, some of them in Naxal-affected areas. In Assam, Nowgong recorded the state's highest polling of 75.71 per cent, followed by Mangaldoi and Silchar with 75.07 per cent and 71.79 per cent respectively. In Karimganj, the figure was 71.41 per cent and Autonomous District witnessed the lowest voting at 69.51 per cent. The five seats in Bihar saw an estimated 62.52 per cent voting. The Election Commission put the overall voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh at 62.30 per cent. Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An estimated 67.79 per cent voter turnout was reported in the elections to 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in the first phase Thursday with the polls being by and large peaceful with no major incident reported. The main contest is between the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the BJP. The key constituency of Mandya, where Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil is pitted against actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, recorded the highest voter turnout of about 80.23 per cent. The lowest turnout was reported in Bangalore Central constituency with 49.75 per cent, election officials said. In other constituencies of the city that has a history of low voter turnout, Bangalore North recorded 50.51 per cent, Bangalore South 54.12 per cent and Bangalore Rural 64.09 per cent. "These are tentative final figures....it may go up. it is better than last election," a senior poll official said, adding that the election was by and large peaceful, with no major incident reported. Voter turnout was at 68.68 per cent in these 14 Lok Sabha constituencies during the 2014 Parliamentary election. Polling began at 7am in 30,164 polling stations of 14 constituencies that are in the southern part of the state, covering almost the entire old Mysuru region and few coastal districts. In Tumkur, where former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is locked in a tough contest with G S Basavaraj of BJP, 77.01 per cent turnout was reported. Hassan where Gowda's other grandson Prajwal Revanna is contesting against A Manju of BJP, reported 77.28 per cent polling. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's home turf of Mysore where sitting MP Prathap Simha of BJP is fighting against Vijayshankar of Congress saw 68.85 per cent polling. Mandya, Mysore, Tumkur and Hassan are the constituencies where the ruling Congress-JD(S) faced dissidence among grassroot party workers as they were upset with the seat sharing arrangement. Both parties, which have been fighting against each other for decades, joined hands to form the government after the assembly polls last year as the election threw up a hung verdict. As per the alliance arrangement, both parties decided to fight the Lok Sabha polls together which is something that the leadership of the Congress and JD(S) has not been able to convince their party men. In Mandya, the rebellion within Congress came out in the open as many of them supported Sumalatha. With transfer of votes between Congress and JD(S) crucial for the alliance partners, especially in the old Mysuru region to defeat the BJP, the palpable dissidence and mistrust among workers of both parties in constituencies like Mandya, Mysore, Hassan, Tumkur are causing worry for the leadership. Any adverse result is likely to have its impact on the longevity of the coalition government in the state. The BJP, which has set a target of bagging at least 22 out of the total 28 seats, is hoping to win the maximum number of seats in the first phase riding on the "Modi wave". Of the 14 constituencies that went to the polls, the BJP and Congress had won six each in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and JD(S) in two. While the BJP is contesting in 13 constituencies and supporting Sumalatha, Congress and JD(S) have fielded candidates in 10 and four constituencies respectively. Dakshina Kannada recorded 77.70 per cent polling, Udupi-Chikmagalur 75.26 per cent, Chitradurga 70.59 per cent, Chamarajnagar 73.45 per cent, Chikkaballapur 76.14 per cent and Kolar 75.94 per cent. Voting began at 7 am in 30,164 polling stations that are mostly in the southern parts of the state covering almost the entire old Mysuru region and a few coastal districts. A total of 2,67,51,893 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the first phase with 241 candidates in the fray. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda along with wife Chennamma, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy along with wife Anita and son Nikhil, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the scion of Mysuru royal family Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar along with wife Trishika, pontiffs Siddalinga Swamiji of Siddaganga mutt and Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji of Suttur mutt were among prominent personalities who cast their vote. Also exercising their franchise were Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy along with wife Sudha, IT czar Nandan Nilekani, Kannada actors Ramesh Arvind and Sudeep. In Mangaluru and Udupi, two brides cast their votes ahead of their marriage Thursday, while in Madikeri a bridegroom was seen entering the poll booth to cast his vote in traditional attire. According to reports, two centenarians, one each in Dakshina Kannada district and Bengaluru, cast their vote. A poll officer on reserve duty died of heart attack in Chamaraja assembly segment under Mysore Lok Sabha constituency, officials said. The remaining 14 constituencies, mostly in northern districts, will go to polls in the second phase on April 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seventy per cent voting was recorded in Udhampur Lok Sabha seat on Thursday, while the trend of low turnout continued in Srinagar with 14.8 per cent voters exercising their franchise in the constituency where polling was held in tight security amid militant threats and boycott call by separatists. The polling for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir remained peaceful and incident-free, Chief Electoral Officer Shailendra Kumar told reporters. In the 2014 general election, Srinagar had witnessed a turnout of 25.86 per cent which fell to 7.2 per cent in the 2017 Lok Sabha bypoll. Udhampur had witnessed 70.9 per cent polling in 2014. Kumar said Srinagar district recorded the lowest turn out of 7.69 per cent while Reasi district in Udhampur constituency recorded the highest of 73 per cent among the nine district where polling was conducted Thursday in the state. According to sources, as many as 90 polling booths, mostly in downtown Srinagar, saw no voting. Srinagar constituency had 1,716 polling stations. Ganderbal district recorded 16.7 per cent while in Budgam district, the turn out was 21.5 per cent, the CEO said. Udhampur district recorded 69.8 per cent, followed by Kathua (69.7 per cent), Doda (61.5 per cent), Kishtwar (61 per cent) and Ramban (57.6 per cent). Kumar said there were no reports of any violence during the day. "The polling remained peaceful." However, there was protest by a group of displaced Kashmiri migrants in Jammu after some of the members found their names missing in the voters list at a special polling station. Over 29.6 lakh people in the two seats were eligible to vote to decide the fate of 24 candidates, including former Chief Minister and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister Jitendra Singh who were contesting for Srinagar and Udhampur Parliamentary constituencies respectively. For migrant voters of Srinagar constituency, 26 polling stations were set up with 21 in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in New Delhi. Out of 4,700 eligible to vote, 2,100 voters exercised their franchise. Kashmiri migrants demanded a probe into missing of names in the voters list at a special polling station here. A group of people also staged protest for not setting up polling station at Talwara (Reasi) for over 600 migrant voters. "No polling station was setup at Talwara migrant camp for voting. We have 673 votes here. DC Reasi first promised us polling station but later refused. We were told that buses will be given to us for ensuring voting at our places, but no vehicles were sent," a migrant leader told reporters. The protesters raised slogans against district authorities of Reasi and the Election Commission. There was a problem with EVM at a polling station in Ramban district but it was later rectified. Police and paramilitary personnel were deployed in strength in and around polling stations in all three districts -- Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal -- of Srinagar constituency, the officials said. Separatists had called for a shutdown in the three districts against the Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, authorities snapped mobile internet services in these districts as a precautionary measure. "The mobile internet service has been suspended as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order," an official said. The BSNL's broadband service was working, but its speed has been decreased. Voters in border district of Kathua and Udhampur turned up in large numbers at polling booths this morning, officials said. Udhampur parliamentary seat had 2,710 polling stations. The family members of senior RSS functionary Chanderkant Sharma, who was killed along with his PSO by terrorists in Kishtwar last Tuesday, cast their votes at Kishtwar after performing the post-death rituals on 10th day. A newly-married couple was seen in their wedding finery at a polling station in Udhampur town. The enthusiastic couple said youths should come out to vote. Raj Devi, 95, voted at a polling station in Chenani in Udhampur district. Authorities on Thursday order suspension of two poll officials including a presiding officer for dereliction of duty in Kishtwar. In Srinagar, Abdullah is pitched against political greenhorns Aga Moshin of the PDP, Irfan Ansari of the People's Conference and Khalid Jehangir of the BJP. In Udhampur, prominent contestants include four Rajputs: Union minister Jitendra Singh seeking reelection on a BJP ticket, Dogra dynasty scion Vikramaditya Singh fighting as a Congress candidate, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan founder Choudhary Lal Singh and National Panthers party chairman Harsh Dev Singh. "We made an attempt to have all women polling stations during this election. There were 25 such polling stations in total in both the constituencies. Other than that, we had 149 model polling stations as well," Kumar said. The CEO said there were 1.5 lakh first time voters which included 1.2 lakh voters who were between the age of 18 years and 21 years. "95 per cent voters had photo-identity cards while 97 per cent voters had photographs on electoral rolls," he added. Asked if the election authorities were mulling to prepone the ending time for polling in Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency in view of violence that led to death of one youth in Langate during the first phase, Kumar said they had received a request from police to this effect. "We are examining it," the CEO said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) AAP's West Delhi candidate Balbir Singh Jakhar's affidavit was found to be incomplete by district election officer Thursday. Jakhar, who is making his electoral debut, was among the 36 candidates who filed their nominations Thursday for the Lok Sabha polls. He has declared movable and immovable assets worth over Rs 3.28 crore. An advocate, Jakhar, has shown an income of Rs 9,78,458 in his last year's income tax return, while his wife, Anju Jakhar, a government servant, has shown an income of Rs 15,23,293 during the same period, according to the affidavit. He has declared movable assets worth Rs 1,85,25,444.05 which include deposits and cash possessed by him, his wife and his dependents. The AAP candidate has immovable assets worth Rs 1,22,50,000, including an inherited agricultural land in Mitraun village here worth Rs one crore, the affidavit said. Jakhar has also filed an income tax return of Rs 2,58,243 as part of Hindu Unidivided Family (HUF) beneficiary, it said. He has no criminal cases pending against him, the affidavit said. Jakhar, who completed his LLB from Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut, has liabilities of Rs 41,61,197.85 which include car loans and loans from private entities and individuals. His affidavit, however, was found to be incomplete by the district election officer of west district who stated that the row on government tax dues was missing. However, when contacted, Jakhar told PTI, "We had downloaded the format of the affidavit from the Election Commission Of India website. There is some problem in the sequence of the columns and the row on government tax dues, but not in proper sequence. I will be filing the revised affidavit on April 22." After filing his nomination, Jakhar said, "I want to serve the people of Delhi and work for the people of west Delhi. The Aam Aadmi Party and our Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have been working for the welfare of people." Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai, who accompanied Jakhar, said, "On April 20, our candidates from Chandni Chowk, east and north west Delhi will be filing nominations and on April 22, party candidates from north east, south and New Delhi constituencies will file the nominations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov has held a meeting with Special Assistant to the U.S. President, Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs on the U.S. National Security Council staff Fiona Hill, who arrived in Moscow for consultations. "There were meeting in the [presidential] administration, with Ushakov," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The Kremlin spokesman noted that the two leaders advisers discussed "bilateral relations issues." When asked whether the issue of a potential meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump was raised, Peskov answered in the negative, TASS reported. The Aam Aadmi Party will field candidates from Ambala, Karnal and Faridabad in Haryana, the AAP and the JJP announced in a joint press conference Thursday. The AAP and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) have formed an alliance in the state and they will fight the Lok Sabha elections on three and seven seats respectively. In the press conference, the JJP announced names of its candidates from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Sirsa, Rohtak and Hisar seats. JJP founder Dushyant Chautala said he will seek re-election from Hisar, while Pradeep Deswala will be the party's candidate from Rohtak. Nirmal Singh Malhadi will contest from Sirsa and Swati Yadav from BhiwaniMahendragarh, he said. The AAP will field candidates from Ambala, Karnal and Faridabad and their names would be announced soon, senior leader Gopal Rai said. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has said there will be no alliance with the Congress in Haryana after the grand old party refused to have a tie-ups in any other state apart from Delhi. Chautala said there is no question of an alliance with the Congress in Haryana as it is against their ideology. "From day one, we had clarified that we could not join hands with the Congress whose hollow and corrupt policies affected the country. "I want to clarify that there is no question of forming an alliance with the Congress and we have held no talks with the Congress in this matter," he said. The JJP was launched by former Hrayana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala's grandson Dushyant Chautala, following a power struggle in the state's main opposition INLD last year. Dushyant, who was the youngest MP at the age of 26, is the great-grandson of former deputy prime minister late Devi Lal. His grandfather Om Prakash and father Ajay Chautala were convicted in a teachers recruitment scam. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Just 32, a YouTube star and a poet who wraps his messages on conscience voting, secularism and women in fiery verse, Congress candidate Imran Pratapgarhi is the politician with more than a slight difference. The young man's poetry has always been political but he steered clear of mainstream politics, until recently when he became Congress president Rahul Gandhi's choice to contest the Lok Sabha elections from this parliamentary constituency. Pratapgarhi, who takes his name from Pratapgarh in the state, about 500 km from here, decided to write his political destiny from Moradabad, the land of legendary poet Jigar Moradabadi. "I am trying my best to not let the votes get divided. This is not about Muslims. I am appealing to every one troubled by the and policies of BJP," Pratapgarhi told PTI. The newbie is up against sitting BJP MP Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar, an influential Thakur and five-term MLA from the area, and the SP-BSP-RLD candidate, former mayor S T Hasan, who has a loyal base of supporters and managed over three lakh votes in the 2014 'Modi wave' election. Seen as a David among Goliaths in the poll arena, Pratapgarhi is confident of a win in the April 23 election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and SP president Akhilesh Yadav have held rallies to galvanise their respective support bases, but Pratapgarhi is trying to first test his own abilities. Asked why top leaders of Congress are not coming for his support in contrast to BJP and 'gathbandhan' leaders who are campaigning in and around Moradabad, he said, "I requested them to come during the fag end of the campaign. Till now, I am trying to test my own abilities to take on this challenge." The administration, he added, is scared of his rising popularity and has disrupted at least three meetings. "They are delaying permissions for meetings, arresting our workers, stopping meetings at the last moment as the state government is scared of my popularity. They may have some sort of understanding with the local 'gathbandhan' candidate," he alleged. Pratapgarhi said his political journey started eight months ago when the Congress president asked him to contest elections. "I convinced myself to take on this challenge. When (UP unit chief) Raj Babbar came to know, he offered me the chance to contest from here and went to Fatehpur Sikri," he said. And while the results of the election are in question, he does seem to have struck a chord with the YouTube generation that follows his work. At 8.30 pm one night recently, Mohammed Tasleem finished his 11-hour shift in a casting factory to reach the main square of the brass artisan colony 'Chakkar Ki Millat' along with hundreds of others. "I have seen many videos of his on YouTube. That's why I came along to hear him," said Tasleem. The three lakh odd brass artisans are an important deciding factor in the constituency. While men in the locality crowded into the square, women lined the rooftops to get a vantage view of the makeshift stage that was been set up. The air was abuzz with speculation. When he did arrive after a 45-minute delay, he delivered a speech laced with couplets, much to the delight of the crowd. Pratapgarhi said the the fight is not only to save the social fabric of the country but also their profession affected by GST and demonetisation. Underscoring that the Congress is a challenger to the BJP rather than SP-BSP-RLD grand alliance, he reminded the gathering that the fight is not for Lucknow but for the top seat in New Delhi. Whether the crowd comprised those curious to listen to him as a poet or those who want him to be a leader will be known on May 23, when votes for the seven-phase Lok Sabha election will be counted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As soon as the rituals of the 10th day of mourning period ended, the elderly mother of slain RSS leader Chanderkant Sharma, walked to a polling station with family members, saying their votes were for bringing his killers to justice. The senior RSS leader and his security guard were killed on April 9 when a terrorist opened fire inside a health centre in Kishtwar town. Authorities, then, imposed a curfew and call the Army to maintain law and order in the communally-sensitive region. Led by Sharma's mother, Vidhya Devi, seven family members walked to polling station number 5 at veterinary hospital in the town and cast their votes. "My brother laid down his life for the country. It is our right and duty to cast vote. Even in this situation we still voted," Chanderkant's brother Surikant Sharma told PTI. The distraught family said they were voting for the government and police to bring his killers to justice. He said that he hoped the government will arrest the killers as soon as possible and hang them. "Our vote is for that," the brother said. They asserted that Sharma was brave and never feared the threats of terrorists in Kishtwar. They family, before coming to polling station, performed the rituals in which large number of the people took part Thursday morning. Vidya Devi was accompanied by Surikant Sharma, daughters, Chander Kala and Jotshana Devi, daugher-in-law Anju Devi and Pranav Sharma to the polling station. Kishtwar is part of the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency, where polling was held Thursday, along with 96 other constituencies across 13 states in the second phase of elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Shiv Sena Thursday sought to pick holes in the BJP-led government's demonetisation exercise after the I-T raids during the ongoing poll season and said the note-ban was aimed at weeding out black money and stop illegal distribution ofcash during elections. The Sena, a BJP ally, said in the last few days, there have been I-T raids on prominent political parties and their leaders in which large amount of cash is claimed to have been confiscated. There was an I-T raid on DMK leader Kanimozhi's house and that the opposition is alleging the ruling party in Tamil Nadu is using the state machinery to put pressure on the DMK, said the Sena in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana'. "There is an AIADMK government in place in TamilNadu and the BJP is fighting election by allying with it," the Sena said. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party further noted that cash amounting to Rs 100 crore was seized from an aide of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and around Rs 211 crore has been confiscated in Maharashtra till now. "The purpose of demonetisation was to strike at the source of black money. It was said the exercise will stop terrorism in Kashmir and curb funding to terrorists. "The government had also believed that demonetisation will ensure that distribution ofblack money during the election stops," the Sena observed, seeking to remind the BJP about the goals of the 2016 move to scrap high-value notes. The Sena said the new government will have to take strong steps against terrorism funding and corruption. It further said Naxalites and terrorists still possess black money and use it for killing people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump on Thursday complained of the "greatest political hoax of all time" hours before the special counsel's report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election was due to be made public. "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats," the president tweeted. "Crooked" is Trump's nickname for election rival Hillary Clinton while he uses the phrase "dirty cops" to smear the members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team who conducted the probe. The details of the redacted 400-page report -- which is expected to go to Congress mid-morning before being made publicly available -- could determine whether Democrats pursue impeachment of the president. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Artificial intelligence (AI) may help develop safe, clean and virtually limitless fusion energy for generating electricity, scientists say. A team, including researchers from Princeton University and Harvard University, are applying deep learning to forecast sudden disruptions that can halt fusion reactions and damage the doughnut-shaped tokamaks or apparatus that house the reactions. Deep learning is a powerful new version of the machine learning form of AI, according to the findings published in the journal Nature magazine. "This research opens a promising new chapter in the effort to bring unlimited energy to Earth," Steven Cowley, director of US Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). "Artificial intelligence is exploding across the sciences and now it's beginning to contribute to the worldwide quest for fusion power," Cowley said in a statement. Fusion, which drives the Sun and stars, is the fusing of light elements in the form of plasma -- the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei -- that generates energy. Scientists are seeking to replicate fusion on Earth for an abundant supply of power for the production of electricity. "Artificial intelligence is the most intriguing area of scientific growth right now, and to marry it to fusion science is very exciting," said William Tang, a principal research physicist at PPPL. "We have accelerated the ability to predict with high accuracy the most dangerous challenge to clean fusion energy," Tang said. Unlike traditional software, which carries out prescribed instructions, deep learning learns from its mistakes. Accomplishing this seeming magic are neural networks, layers of interconnected nodes -- mathematical algorithms -- that are "parameterised," or weighted by the programme to shape the desired output. For any given input the nodes seek to produce a specified output, such as correct identification of a face or accurate forecasts of a disruption. Training kicks in when a node fails to achieve this task: the weights automatically adjust themselves for fresh data until the correct output is obtained. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Air India on Thursday announced special fares to international passengers of Jet Airways who have been stranded due to the grounding of the airline. The state-owned carrier's decision came hours after the civil aviation ministry asked airlines to look at whether there can be "rescue fares" for stranded passengers of Jet Airways. The "special stranded" fares have been offered to passengers at overseas airports such as Paris, London Heathrow, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Dammam, and Muscat, among others, Air India said in a statement. As a gesture of goodwill and to mitigate the hardship of the '9W' (Jet Airways flight code) at international stations, Air India would offer special fares to such passengers. Passengers holding confirmed return tickets on Jet Airways would be allowed to avail special stranded passenger fares from the destinations common with Air India, the statement said. In New Delhi, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said that during a meeting with airlines, they were asked whether there can be "rescue fares" for stranded passengers of Jet Airways. Air India is the first airline to respond to that request, he added. After flying for over 25 years, Jet Airways was grounded last night when its final flight, a Boeing 737, touched down at the Mumbai airport early Thursday after departing from Amritsar. However, the airline stopped its international operations from April 11, leaving its passengers in the lurch at several international airports across across the world. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu Thursday alleged violation of the model code of conduct by DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran, the candidate from Central Chennai Lok Sabha constituency, saying he sought votes on polling day. Party spokesperson and advocate R M Babu Murgavel lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, marking a copy to state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo in this connection. Murugavel alleged that Maran addressed the press after casting his vote and said "he voted for change of government" and he "request" the people also to do so. "It is clear indication to the voters to cast (votes) in his favour. It is clear violation of the MCC," the AIADMK spokesperson said. Murugavel urged the CEO to take necessary action against the former Union minister by issuing a show-cause notice and filing a case against him. Polling began in 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, besides the bypolls to 18 assembly segments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu Thursday alleged violation of the model code of conduct by DMK leaders M K Stalin and Dayanidhi Maran, and urged the Election Commission of India to act against them. AIADMK spokesperson and advocate R M Babu Murugavel filed separate complaints with the ECI against the two DMK leaders. In his complaint against Stalin, Murugavel said that while addressing the media after casting his vote here, the DMK chief with an intention to "divert the mindset of the voters" had made "false and frivolous allegations" against the BJP government at the Centre and the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. Murugavel alleged that Stalin wanted them to "vote against central and state governments." "It is a clear indication to the voters to cast their votes in his alliance's favour. It is clear violation of the model code of conduct (MCC)," he added. In a separate complaint, Murugavel alleged that Maran addressed the press after casting his vote and said "he voted for change of government" and he "request" the people also to do so. Murugavel urged the ECI to take necessary action against the former Union minister by issuing a show-cause notice and filing a case against him. Maran is contesting from the Central Chennai constituency. Polling began in 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, besides the bypolls to 18 assembly segments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Some loaders have pledged ornaments of their wives, some engineers have sold vehicles and many have defaulted on their monthly payments. They are among the 22,000-odd employees of the now wingless Jet Airways. As hundreds of employees, highly-skilled as well as semi-skilled, assembled for a "silent appeal" in the national capital on Thursday afternoon, hope was in the air despite an uncertain tomorrow. From being clueless on how to find money for their children's school and college fees, to paying rent for their accommodations, staff are looking for answers and for most, the answers lie in immediate funding from lenders. "I can't believe that I don't have work today... Hope the airline flies again," Chandrasekar Mandal, who has served the airline for 24 years, told PTI. Mandal, who is a supervisor of loaders at the airport here, has stories of many of his colleagues struggling to cough up money to meet their expenses, including for college admission of their wards. Sunil Kumar, a driver who has also put in 24 years, said it was becoming difficult to manage daily requirements, adding that many of his colleagues have pledged their wives' ornaments to raise money. With prayers on their lips for funds to restart the airline, many employees are optimistic about turning around things provided enough support is coming. About Thursday's gathering at Jantar Mantar, a place known for hosting demonstrations, senior pilot Rohit Chaudhary said the employees' gathering is not a protest but a "silent appeal" for reviving the airline. Chaudhary has been associated with Jet Airways for 21 years and his wife is also a pilot with the carrier for 16 years. According to a senior pilot, one of the reasons for the airline's downfall was possible lack of transparency in communications between the airline management and the government on funding. Manish, an engineer who has been with the carrier for 19 years, said he did not have any clue that the airline would suspend operations. He also said that some people have sold their vehicles and withdrew their fixed deposits. Quite a few employees did crowd funding for their colleagues in dire need, including for one who is bed ridden, Rithesh -- an engineer with 17 years stint at the airline -- said. Loaders and drivers, working on contract, are also bearing the financial brunt with mounting salary dues. One of them, Rajeev Kumar, said paying tuition and admission fees are becoming difficult and that most have taken loans. Not just meeting expenses, some employees staying on rented accommodations have been asked to vacate by their landlords in the wake of the airline crisis, according to Vaishali, who is in the commercial department. Besides impacting the lives of employees, there are also the cascading effect on others in the aviation business. The shutting down of operations is also negatively impacting travel agents and businesses of outlets at airport, according to Abhijit Angolkar, station manager of the airline here. He has been with the carrier for 26 years. Jet Airways would have completed 26 years of services in May. With substantial number of employees having been with Jet Airways for around 20 years, getting another job is also not easy considering the age factor and the job market situation. A rival airline was offering only around half the salary amount that was paid to a loader at Jet Airways, according to Srinivas, who is into the administration department. Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association (Jamewa) President Ashish Kumar Mohanty said that funds should be immediately given to the airline as efforts should be first made to save existing jobs and then look at generating jobs. Taking to the street, the harried employees are waiting to be heard as reflected in a placard, 'Hear our cry, Let 9W fly'. 9W is the code for Jet Airways flights. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Russian government has banned exports of Russian oil and petroleum products to Ukraine, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. "[The Russian government] bans exports of Russian oil and petroleum products to Ukraine," the PM said at a cabinet meeting. He also declared extension of the ban on imports of certain Ukrainian goods. "We are forced to protect our interests and strike back," Medvedev noted. "I have signed a government decree on that. We are expanding the ban on imports of certain types of goods to Russia, which will be applied to Ukrainian engineering products, consumer goods, metal products, the cost of which totaled almost $250 mln last year," TASS cited him as saying. Medvede recalled that the "Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers took another unfriendly step towards our country,expanding the list of Russian goods prohibited for import into Ukraine." "Under these conditions, we have to defend our interests and take retaliatory measures," the head of Cabinet stressed. The executive vice-president of NewTech Services, professor of the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, Valery Bessel, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that this decision has a political dimension. "Many of our political analysts stressed that the export of oil and petroleum products to Ukraine should be banned, because we sell diesel and gasoline to Kiev, which is used by the Ukrainian army. In economic terms, the ban is not so significant: of 400 million tons of oil exported by Russia in 2017 (earning almost $250 billion), less than 10 million tons were sent to Ukraine. It is clear that the export of hydrocarbons to Ukraine was to some extent dangerous in corrupt terms, because certain oligarchic groups were feeding from it," he said. "It will have almost no effect in financial terms - we will compensate for these deliveries to another direction, in particular, to China. Russia will lose nothing. It will have no effect on oil prices as well, since these are insignificant volumes on a global scale. We have a huge Chinese market, which will buy everything that we offer, since it has a significant shortage of fuel," Valery Bessel added. A scientist of the Institute for Economics of the RAS, Alexander Karavaev, in turn, noted that Ukraine can replace Russian oil with Belarusian supplies. "Everything will depend on the interaction of Russian companies through Belarus. By the way, Ukraine supplies most part of oil from Azerbaijan, so more likely it's about strengthening Russia's bargaining position. It will take affect from June 1, that is, after the new leadership of Ukraine is elected, which means that they are intended to show Kiev the need to turn in its foreign policy towards Russia and dismiss those anti-Russian sanctions, which Ukraine has started to introduce," he said. "Such measures should have been taken earlier. Ukraine still remains our third trading partner among the CIS countries after Kazakhstan and Belarus, despite the conflict. The volume of trade is about $14 billion, of which about 10% is oil products. I dont see any another explanation of why the ban on exports of oil and petroleum products is introduced now, except that it sums up the entire policy of restrictions and prohibitions, so that the new government takes into account Poroshenkos economic policy and could start relations with Moscow from scratch," Alexander Karavaev recalled. Bangladeshi actor Ghazi Abdul Noor who had attended a political rally in West Bengal has been asked to leave India immediately, officials said Thursday. Noor is the second Bangladeshi actor, after Ferdous Ahmed, to be served a 'Leave India' notice. Noor was staying in India despite expiry of his visa. "Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his overstay in contravention of visa rules," a home ministry official said. Reports suggest that Noor allegedly campaigned for TMC's Dumdum candidate Saugata Roy. The Centre on Tuesday had issued a 'Leave India' notice to Ahmed and cancelled the business visa given to him for allegedly campaigning for a political party. Ahmed had attended a rally in support of the candidate in Raiganj in West Bengal. The Home Ministry action came after it received a report from the Bureau of Immigration regarding visa violations committed by the Bangladesh actor. The BJP Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission after a video surfaced showing Noor purportedly campaigning for Roy in the Dumdum constituency in alleged violation of the poll code. "This act is in violation of the terms of visa and yet another case of a foreigner actively influencing the electoral process. This is a gross violation of the basics of democratic structure," BJP's West Bengal vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said after filing a complaint with the EC. The world's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal Thursday said it has offered help to France to reconstruct the world heritage masterpiece Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. The steel giant has a major manufacturing presence in France. Notre-Dame, which was added to UNESCO's world heritage list in 1991, stands ravaged due to a colossal fire that swept through the famed building on Monday. "Following the fire that devastated Notre-Dame de Paris, a world heritage masterpiece, on 15 April 2019, ArcelorMittal, the global steel company with a major manufacturing presence in France, wishes to support the reconstruction of the cathedral," ArcelorMittal said in a statement. ArcelorMittal said: "The company is ready to donate steel as part of the reinforcing and reconstruction process." The company said it has also offered help to the authorities working on the reconstruction to provide its expertise and competencies in construction and architecture. Some 600 firefighters worked throughout the night on Monday to put out the fire at the Paris landmark and prevent an even worse disaster, in a blaze that felled the spire and destroyed two-thirds of its roof. Sixty firefighters are still keeping a vigil at Notre-Dame to ensure no further fire erupts, while France's culture minister warned that two gables and figurines perched high up in the building were still at risk of collapse inside. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Devraj Anbu visited Trishakti Corps and forward areas of Sikkim bordering China during a two-day visit that ended Thursday, a Defence official said. The Vice Chief was briefed by Lt Gen C P Mohanty, GOC Trishakti Corps, at its headquarter at Sukna in North Bengal on the operational preparedness and prevailing situation on the border. Lt Gen Anbu thereafter went to East Sikkim to visit key forward posts, where he interacted with the troops. He complimented the soldiers for their professionalism, commitment and dedication for maintaining round-the-clock vigil in sensitive border areas and upholding the sovereignty of the nation, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Police arrested a supporter of the ruling IPFT on the charge of trying to attack the convoy of Congress' Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Dev Burman in Khowai district of Tripura on Thursday. The accused supporter of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) allegedly tried to throw brickbats at the convoy of the candidate but he was captured by the security guards escorting her car, Deputy Inspector General of Police Arindam Nath said. The incident took place while Pragya Dev Burman, sister of state Congress president Pradyot Dev Burman, was on her way back from a rally at Tulashikhar, a tribal hamlet in Khowai district, around 65 km from here. Pragya Dev Burman is the Congress candidate for East Tripura (ST) constituency which will go to polls on April 23. "We were returning after attending a public meeting at Tulashikhar area. An IPFT supporter tried to hurl a stone at my car. It seems there were more people with him," Pragya told reporters. She claimed that the support she is getting from people might have irked the IPFT. "The IPFT is giving alcohol to its supporters and asking them to attack opposition party workers. I have heard that the accused person also tried to attack other opposition party leaders," the Congress candidate said. Denying the allegation, IPFT spokesperson Mangal Debbarma said the arrested supporter was there by co-incidence and neither he nor the party was involved in the attack. "Very sad to see that my sister Pragya was attacked by paid goons in Tulashikhar. One person was arrested. I have no words to condemn it," the state Congress chief said. BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya denounced the incident saying "any attempt of attack is condemnable". The Election Commission had on Tuesday announced postponement of polling in the East Tripura seat to the third phase on April 23 from April 18, saying the prevailing law and order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Tripura has two Lok Sabha seats. Elections for the first phase were held in West Tripura seat on April 11, and the Congress and CPI (M) demanded re-poll in 460 polling stations on the ground of alleged rigging by the ruling BJP. The BJP-IPFT combine ousted the CPI(M)-led Left Front from power after 25 years in early 2018. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australian electoral authorities say they have for the first time set up a cybersecurity task force and are working with social media companies to tackle misinformation in the run up to general elections on May 18. Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers says safeguarding the election's integrity gained priority due to experiences in other countries, including Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Rogers says he is having daily briefings with the Electoral Integrity Assurance Task Force, which comprises the nation's major security agencies. Rogers said Thursday that he meeting almost as regularly with social media companies Facebook, Google and Twitter. It is an offense against Australia's Electoral Act to send messages to multiple people designed to influence their vote without publishing who authorized the message. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Malfunctioning Electronic Voting machines (EVMs), lack of awareness on the use of VVPAT machines and power cuts were some of the issues that came to the fore in some polling booths in Central Chennai constituency in the Lok Sabha polls here Thursday. As people began thronging booths from 7 AM, the scheduled polling time, they were disappointed as EVMs did not function at Choolaimedu here, leading to a delayed start by 40 minutes. DMK leader and former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran, Sam Paul of PMK under the AIADMK-led NDA, which includes the BJP and Kameela Nasser of Makkal Needhi Maiam were among the noted contenders in the fray in the constituency. Lack of awareness on the use of VVPAT machines was evident as some voters complained that they were not informed about the opportunity to confirm as to whom they voted for. Election Commission officials said the VVPAT machine would allow voters to confirm if their ballot was cast for the intended candidate after pressing the button on the EVM. The name of the candidate along with the symbol is displayed in the VVPAT machine for seven seconds. However, many people left the polling station soon after pressing the button, unaware that they can see the name and symbol of the candidate. "I selected the candidate to whom I wish to cast my vote and pressed the button. The official there asked me to leave as soon as the beep sound came," Anandhi, a voter said. She said she was not aware that she can see details of the candidate for whom she voted through the VVPAT machine. Another voter at Kodambakkam said a brief power cut resulted in officials having to scramble to verify the voter details, as the EVM alone was connected to the battery to ensure voting continued without interruption. "There was a power cut and the officials were busy collecting the details of the voters who were standing in large numbers. They were focused on ensuring that the voters after casting their votes left as soon as they pressed the button. So I just left without seeing the candidate details on the VVPAT machine", he said. In another polling booth at Ganga Nagar, voters had brought booth slips without the mandatory identity cards and had to return without casting their votes. Despite the notification on producing any of the identity cards like UIDAI, bank passbook, voter identity card, driving licence, many voters turned up with only the booth slips. They waited for more than 40 minutes in a long queue and were not allowed to cast their votes as they could not produce any of the identity cards. Some left the place without voting, saying they would return later. "We were standing in a long queue when this happened. I was about to enter the polling station and was told I cannot cast my vote without producing any of the identity cards. So I had to leave," another voter said. A booth official said despite the Election Commission taking up various campaigns to educate the voters, low awareness still prevailed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Urmila Matondkar, who is contesting the Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate from Mumbai North, Thursday said the biopic made on Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a joke as he has failed to fulfil his promises. She was talking to reporters at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh here. "The biopic made on his (Modi's) life is nothing but a joke as the prime minister, who claims to have a 56-inch-chest, has miserably failed to deliver anything. The movie made on his life is a joke on the democracy, poverty and diversity of India, which has been damaged," she said. "Rather, a comedy film should be made on him and his unfulfilled promises," the actor-turned-politician quipped. The biopic on Modi, starring Vivek Oberoi, was set to hit the screens on April 11. However, the Election Commission ordered a stay on its release during the poll period. The Election Commission has banned the screening of Modi's biopic starring actor Vivek Oberoi during the poll period. It was set to hit the screens on April 11. "What can be worse than a prime minister of a democratic country not holding even a single press conference in the last five years," she said. The "Rangeela" actor said she supported Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's sons-of-the-soil theory at a personal level and felt that there was nothing wrong in it. "At a personal level, yes I fully support the Marathi issue and will always support. I am thankful to Raj Thackeray for extending his support to me. "But let me also tell you that the constituency from where I am contesting, is like a mini-India and people from all corners of the country come and live there. I am seeking everyone's vote as I feel I can represent them well," she said. Matondkar, who is taking on BJP candidate and sitting MP Gopal Shetty in this election, said he has not done anything in the constituency in the last five years. "Wherever I went during the poll campaign and asked people, they said the MP had not paid even a single visit to their locality in the last five years," she said. According to her, she was being trolled on social media and several disturbing comments and sexist remarks were being passed about her family, marriage and career. "But such personal attacks and comments have made me stronger," she said. Replying to a query whether her stardom would help her win the election, she said that in politics, the public is the real star and her fate was in their hands. Election for all the six seats in Mumbai will be held on April 29. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari Thursday nominated the names of three councilors - two women and a sikh hailing from the Dalit community for the mayoral elections in three municipal corporations of the national capital. Expressing confidence, Delhi BJP general secretary Rajesh Bhatia said Avtar Singh, a mallah Sikh, representing the Civil Lines ward and nominated for the mayoral elections will create history by becoming mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation(NDMC). Bhatia said, "No Dalit Sikh has ever become mayor of Delhi's civic bodies." Anju Kamalkant and Sunita Kangra, both belonging to SC category, were nominated as mayoral candidates from East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation(SDMC) respectively. The BJP, which has majority in the three civic bodies. Sanjay Goyal (EDMC), Yogesh Verma (NDMC) and Raj Dutt Gahlot (SDMC) have also been nominated as candidates for deputy mayor elections. Two councilors each of the party were also nominated for election to the standing committees of the respective municipal corporations. The elections for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and three members of the standing committee of the SDMC will be held on April 26, a senior SDMC official said. The last date to submit nominations is April 18, he said. Mayoral polls in EDMC and NDMC would be held on April 29. "This year, as per the rotation basis, the mayoral seat is reserved for the SC category," he said. The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act provides for election of mayor and deputy mayor from among the councillors of the corporations in the first meeting of the House every year. The mayors and deputy mayors get a year-long term in the cities of Union Territories. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari Thursday nominated three party councillors -- two women and a Dalit Sikh -- for the mayoral elections in three municipal corporations here. Expressing confidence, Delhi BJP general secretary Rajesh Bhatia said Avtar Singh, a Mallah Sikh, will create history by becoming the mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). "No Dalit Sikh has ever become mayor of Delhi's civic bodies," he said, adding that Singh represents the Civil Lines ward. The move assumes significance as elections to seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital and mayoral polls will take place next month. The BJP's decision to field Singh is also expected to send a positive signal among Sikhs here. Anju Kamalkant and Sunita Kangra, both belonging to the schedule caste category, were nominated as mayoral candidates for the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) respectively. The BJP has majority in the three civic bodies. Sanjay Goyal, Yogesh Verma and Raj Dutt Gahlot have been nominated as candidates for deputy mayor elections in the EDMC, NDMC and SDMC, respectively. Two councillors each from the party were also nominated for election to the standing committees of the respective municipal corporations. The elections for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and three members of the standing committee of the SDMC will be held on April 26, a senior SDMC official said. The last date to submit nominations is April 18, he said. Mayoral polls in EDMC and NDMC would be held on April 29. "This year, as per the rotation basis, the mayoral seat is reserved for the SC category," he said. The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act provides for election of mayor and deputy mayor from among the councillors of the corporations in the first meeting of the House every year. The mayors and deputy mayors get a year-long term in the cities of Union Territories. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) City-based Srei Equipment Finance Ltd and Bank of Baroda will come together to offer joint loans for infrastructure equipment under a new agreement, company officials said on Thursday. The partners will be able to leverage each other's customers and cross-sell their products. The offerings would include both business-to-business and business-to-customer propositions, a Srei release said. Srei's 'iQuippo' platform will facilitate sourcing of loans under this arrangement. "Given that the increase in mechanisation is critical to timely and cost-efficient to large infrastructure and housing projects, there is a strong need for robust financing of equipment," Bank of Baroda MD and CEO, PS Jayakumar, said. The partnership will allow Srei and Bank of Baroda to collaborate, cooperate and widen their respective markets and customer base, the release said. "Apart from access to affordable financing, customers will be able to explore a wide range of innovative banking products," Srei Equipment MD, D K Vyas, said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday discussed the situation in Libya with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, with both sides expressing concern over the escalation of tensions in the Maghreb country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, Urdu Point reported. "The ministers have exchanged views on the current situation in Libya, expressed concern about the serious deterioration of the situation due to the ongoing clashes between various armed groups in Tripoli, which led to numerous casualties," the ministry said in a statement. The sides have reaffirmed their support for the promotion of political and diplomatic settlement of the Libyan crisis on the basis of the UN action plan, according to the ministry. During the talks, Lavrov and Cavusoglu also have brought up the issue of the Syrian crisis settlement. "The ministers reviewed the preparations for the next high-level meeting on Syria in the Astanaformat, emphasizing on the need to start the work of the constitutional committee as soon as possible in order to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and the decisions of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress," the ministry added. Boeing was making "steady progress" on the path to certifying of a crucial software update for the 737 MAX aircraft, CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said after two fatal crashes in recent months forced the grounding of the model, including by Indian carriers. He assured global airline industry that Boeing has also made the final engineering test flight before certification for the 737 MAX aircraft. The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) system of the 737 MAX aircraft has come under scrutiny from investigators reviewing two fatal crashes -- the Lion Air crash on October 29 and the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10. Boeing has been developing and testing a software change to the system that will now factor in input from a second sensor. "We're making steady progress on the path to certification for our 737 MAX software update thanks to the work of our Boeing pilots, engineers and technical experts," Muilenburg said in a video on his Twitter account. "Yesterday we completed the official engineering flight test with the updated software with our technical and engineering leaders on board the airplane. That was the final test flight prior to the certification flight," he said. During a speech in Dallas last week, Muilenburg said he joined the Boeing test pilots aboard a 737 MAX flight for a demonstration of this updated software. "During the flight, the crew performed different scenarios that exercised the software changes in multiple flight conditions. The software update functioned as designed, and I was impressed by the work and professionalism of our team," he said. Overall, the Boeing team has made 96 flights totalling a little over 159 hours of air time with the updated software. "They will conduct additional test and production flights in the coming weeks as we continue to demonstrate that we've identified and met all certification requirements. We look forward to completing near-term milestones on the path to final certification," he said in his speech on April 11. The causes of the two crashes involving Boeing 737 Max are still being investigated, but the focus has been on an automatic safety feature that may have forced the nose of each plane lower when it incorrectly sensed the plane was in danger of going into a stall. All Boeing 737 Max aircraft being operated by Indian carriers have been grounded since the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10. SpiceJet has been most affected by the grounding of 737 Max aircraft as it has 12 of them in its fleet. Jet Airways has not been affected as its five 737 Max aircraft have already been grounded - even before the grounding decision of the government -- due to non-payment of dues to lessors. Meanwhile, CNN reported on Thursday that a Federal Aviation Administration panel found changes Boeing made to a 737 Max stabilisation system to be "operationally suitable," and gave a thumbs up to the planemaker's plans for training pilots about how the system works. A Flight Standardization Board, comprised of pilots who fly the 737, said in a draft report released on Tuesday that it reviewed "the modified Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System" and concluded simulator-based training is not necessary for pilots who flew the previous version of the 737. The company has proposed a computer-based training that will familiarize pilots upgrading from the 737 NG series with the MCAS system. The board's draft report is a step forward for Boeing as it works to return the 737 Max fleet to the air. After two weeks for public review, the FAA is expected to publish a final board report, CNN reported. Boeing announced earlier this month it was cutting the production rate for all of its 737 planes from 52 a month to 42 amid the worldwide grounding. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bahujan Samaj Party's Rajveer Singh, who is making his electoral debut, filed his nomination from the North East Delhi parliamentary constituency on Thursday. Singh, a marble businessman and a social worker, has declared movable and immovable assets worth over Rs 9.2 crore. He has shown over Rs 1.32 crore as income in his last year's Income Tax returns, while his wife Seema Singh has declared Rs 22.06 lakh as income for the last fiscal. Rajveer Singh has shown an income of Rs 8,30,690 for last year as a Hindu Undivided Family beneficiary. He has declared a liability of Rs 53,84,646.76, which include car loans. His wife has a liability of Rs 1,27,64,644 which a includes home loan. He has a liability of Rs 2,25,96,872 as a HUF beneficiary. Rajveer Singh, who has been a BSP worker for quite some time, claimed that he has a good relationship with BSP supremo Mayawati. "I got ready to contest from the North-East Delhi Lok Sabha seat on her order. For me there is nothing more than her order," he said. "There is a huge resentment among the people towards the methodology and neglect of the current BJP MP. This will help our party in the polls," Rajveer Singh said He alleged that there has always been injustice with Dalits and this time, apart from OBC and STs, he will fight for the justice of the Balmikis and other underprivileged sections of society. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi Court Thursday reserved its order on a plea of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman arrested in the AgustaWestland chopper scam, who had sought seven-day interim bail to celebrate Easter with family. Special Judge Arvind Kumar said he would pronounce order at 4pm after hearing argument of lawyers from both sides. Special public prosecutor DP Singh, appearing for CBI and ED, opposed Michel's plea, saying India is a country of various festival thousands of prisoners are in jails and everyone has faith in religion so the accused can't be allowed to go out of jail to celebrate festivals. He said Michel can participate in Easter in custody. The lawyer argued before the court that if Michel comes out on interim bail and makes statement outside, it can derail investigation. Michel's lawyer argued that since the charge sheet has been filed, there is no point of tampering evidence. He said the accused is cooperating in the case and sought bail. "Being a Christian, he was not even allowed to offer a holy mass even during Christmas...," said the application moved by the accused. "It is submitted that the week commencing form 14th April to 21st April is a holy week for Christians and 21st April is Easter which will be celebrated universally. The petitioner wishes to attend the holy mass on Easter day and would like to make offerings during the Easter day," Michel has said in his plea. The Enforcement Directorate filed a supplementary charge sheet against Michel and others on April 4. He was arrested by ED on December 22 after his extradition from Dubai. He is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the chopper scam by ED and Central Bureau of Investigation. Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa are the two others. The agency had told the court that Michel made 24.25 million euros and 1,60,96,245 pounds from the AgustaWestland deal. ED has told the court that it identified Michel's properties purchased with proceeds of the crime. CBI has alleged that the deal, signed in Feb 2010 to supply VVIP choppers worth 556.262 million euros, caused an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (about Rs 2,666 crore). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prominent scientist and businessman Yusuf Hamied is among a host of Indian-origin experts honoured in the 2019 list of new fellows of the UK's Royal Society. The 82-year-old chairman of pharmaceutical major Cipla has been made an Honorary Fellow of the prestigious body, comprising of many of the world's most eminent scientists. The Royal Society is an independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth, dedicated to promoting excellence in science. His honorary fellowship of the world's oldest scientific academy came alongside 51 new fellows and 10 new foreign members as part of the 2019 cohort unveiled earlier this week. "Over the course of the Royal Society's vast history, it is our Fellowship that has remained a constant thread and the substance from which our purpose has been realised: to use science for the benefit of humanity, said Prof Venki Ramakrishnan, the Nobel Prize-winning Indian-origin President of the Royal Society. "This year's newly-elected Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society embody this, being drawn from diverse fields of enquiry - epidemiology, geometry, climatology - at once disparate, but also aligned in their pursuit and contributions of knowledge about the world in which we live, and it is with great honour that I welcome them as Fellows of the Royal Society," he said. Among the Indian-origin scientists elected as fellows this year include Prof Gurdyal Besra, Bardrick Professor of Microbial Physiology and Chemistry, Institute of Microbiology and Infection, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham; Prof Manjul Bhargava, R Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, Princeton University; Prof Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, India; Prof Anant Parekh, Professor of Physiology, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford; and Prof Akashay Venkatesh, Professor, School of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study. The Royal Society said that its newly-elected Fellows and Foreign Members this year come from across the UK and Commonwealth, as well as international institutions in Argentina, Israel, and the Netherlands. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The death of a Florida teenager who authorities say was obsessed with the Columbine school shooting and may have planned to carry out her own attack in Colorado did not end an investigation into the 18-year-old, authorities said as they examine whether the young woman acted alone and Denver-area schools prepared to reopen their doors. The body of Sol Pais was discovered in the mountains outside Denver with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday after investigators got a tip from the driver who took her there, the FBI said. Dozens of schools that closed as a precaution during the daylong manhunt planned to reopen Thursday with heightened security measures. Events planned to mark the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine attack will go on as scheduled throughout the week, including a ceremony near the school on Saturday. Two teenagers attacked Columbine on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives. They have inspired cult-like admirers, some of whom committed other mass shootings over the decades. A growing "no notoriety" movement has urged organizations to avoid naming the perpetrators of mass shootings to deprive them of the notoriety they seek. The details of Pais' travel from Florida to Colorado began to trickle out Wednesday along with some classmates' confusion at her involvement. The student at Miami Beach High School dressed in black and kept mostly to herself, said Adam Charni, a senior at the school. Charni said he was "baffled" to learn she was the person authorities in Colorado were searching for. Another classmate, 17-year-old Drew Burnstine, described Pais as quiet and smart. But the Miami Beach high school student made troubling remarks to others about her "infatuation" with the 1999 assault at Columbine High and this weekend's anniversary, said Dean Phillips, FBI agent in charge in Denver. He did not elaborate on what she said. Investigators will seek to learn more from Pais' social media and her other online presence, largely to ensure that she had no "accessories" or "accomplices," Phillips said. He confirmed that the material being scrutinized includes a blog containing hand-written journal entries that occasionally feature sketches of guns or people holding large firearms. In Pais' hometown, Surfside Police Chief Julio Yero asked that the family be given "privacy and a little time to grieve." Pais' parents had reported her missing on Monday night, police said. "This family contributed greatly to this investigation from the very onset. They provided valuable information that led us to Colorado and a lot of things that assisted in preventing maybe more loss of life," Yero said. Pais purchased three one-way tickets to Denver on three consecutive days, then flew in on Monday night and went directly to a gun store, where she bought a shotgun, authorities said. Authorities said she did not threaten a specific school. But Columbine and more than 20 other schools outside Denver reacted by locking their doors for nearly three hours Tuesday afternoon, and some canceled evening activities or moved them inside. "We're used to threats, frankly, at Columbine," John McDonald, security chief for Jefferson County school system, said when the manhunt was over. "This one felt different. It was different. It certainly had our attention." McDonald described her trip as a "pilgrimage" to Columbine, though Pais is not believed to have been on the school's campus. The threats and response added an emotional burden for many with ties to the Columbine community ahead of this weekend's anniversary. Frank DeAngelis, Columbine's principal at the time of the shooting, said he was on campus Tuesday when the threat prompted officials to lock the high school's doors. He immediately went to check on several staff members who continue working there 20 years after the attack. "The support was so great," he said. "Everybody came together." Denver-area parents faced the difficult job of explaining to their children why they had the day off school without scaring them. "This is definitely a challenge in their generation, and watching my kids learn how to navigate this is really hard. It is really heartbreaking," said Suzanne Kerns of suburban Arvada, whose children are 8 and 15. Kerns said she was angry about how easy it was for someone reported missing to come from out of state and buy a gun. Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader said the sale of the shotgun apparently followed the state's legal process. Out-of-state residents who are at least 18 can buy shotguns in Colorado. Customers must provide fingerprints and pass a criminal background check. Pais' body was found off a trail not far from the base of Mount Evans, a recreation area about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Denver, authorities said. She used the weapon she bought, Phillips said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Attacking the Congress over its poll promise of giving Rs 72,000 to poor families, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma Thursday said that those who did not give Rs 72 in 72 years are now making tall claims. He also claimed that while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was promoting nationalism, the Congress was backing anti-nationals by pledging to scrap the sedition law if voted to power. In a big-bang poll promise, the Congress president had on March 25 announced that Rs 72,000 per year will be given as minimum income to poor families, benefiting around 25 crore people, if his party is voted to power in Lok Sabha polls. "Those who didnt give Rs 72 to the people in 72 years are now talking about giving Rs 72,000 to them. They are only making false promises and deviating people from the right path," Sharma said at an election rally in Kushinagar district in support of party candidate Vijay Dubey. "They (Congress) broke their promise of loan waiver of farmers in 10 days in Chhattisgarh but in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has achieved the task of farmers loan waiver. There is a stark difference of character and action between the two parties," he said further. He also drew comparisons between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. "Modi ji looks at Pakistan and they start shivering while the national president of a party winks and even the children of country laugh (at him)," Sharma said. The 2019 elections is a fight between two ideologies, Sharma said, adding that in one corner was the BJP, which talks about nationalism and on the other was the Congress-led opposition which talks about dividing the country. "We talk about punishing anti-nationals and the opposition talks about ending sedition law. We enter Pakistan and kill terrorists and they talk about writing letters (to them)," he said. Slamming the Congress president, Sharma alleged, "He insulted the people of India when he said 'Chowkidar Chor hai' but today people are saying Chowkidar is not chor but pure. It is certain that Modi ji will become PM again... People understand everything," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP chief Amit Shah hit out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday for talking about poverty eradication, saying that during the 55-year-rule of the Congress, it could not remove poverty. Shah held a campaign rally here Thursday for Raosaheb Danve, the Maharashtra BJP chief who contesting from the Jalna Lok Sabha seat. Past Congress prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh spoke about poverty eradication, and now Congress president Rahul Gandhi, "a fifth generation leader", is talking about the same, he said. The country was safe in prime minister Narendra Modi's hands, the BJP chief said. "If Pakistan fires a bullet, we respond with a bomb," Shah said. Talking about the National Register of Citizens, he said, "We will find out every infiltrator from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and throw them out of the country." Rahul Gandhi and NCP president Sharad Pawar were appeasing infiltrators and talking about their human rights, the BJP chief alleged. Shah also said that the Devendra Fadnavis-led government in Maharashtra successfully implemented the Jalyukt Shivar irrigation scheme. The BJP government brought justice to Muslim women by introducing a bill banning instant triple talaq, while constitutional status was given to the OBC Commission, he said. Shiv Sena leader and minister of state for dairy development Arjun Khotkar also spoke at the rally. Khotkar had earlier declared that he would fight against Danve from Jalna, but later he relented. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant Thursday said the Congress was not serious about the Lok Sabha elections in the state and hence none of its national leaders could be seen campaigning. He said his party- BJP, on the other hand, was serious about both the Lok Sabha seats in Goa and hence Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders like Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu and Devendra Fadnavis were campaigning in the state. The chief minister was speaking while addressing a press conference along with the coalition partners, including Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte (independent), Art and Culture Minister Govind Gawade (independent) and Ports Minister Jayesh Salgaonkar (Goa Forward Party). "Congress is not serious about Goa as far as elections are concerned. From the time elections were announced till date, no national leader of the Congress visited Goa...Forget about national leaders, their own MLAs are not with the official candidate," he said. The BJP has fielded both its sitting MPs Shripad Naik (North Goa) and Narendra Sawaikar (South Goa). Congress's Goa unit president Girish Chodankar is contesting from North Goa, while former party MP Francis Sardinha from South Goa. Taking a dig at the Congress, Sawant said, "The Rahul Gandhi-led party, which ruled the country for seventy years, is now talking about 'nyay' (justice) and 'swabhiman' (self-respect)." "When the Congress was in power, it never spoke about 'nyay'. Now after the five years of the Narendra Modi government, they have started talking about 'swabhiman'," he said. The chief minister said that during its tenure, the Congress never managed to get the fund for Goa, whereas the Modi government has provided financial muscles to every sector in last five years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the continuing "flip-flop" over the tie-up for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress Thursday said the prospects of its alliance with the AAP are almost finished. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has "refused" to form an alliance with the Congress in Delhi alone, said P C Chacko, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Delhi. Sources, however, said that the party would wait for any fresh move by the AAP till the announcement of the list of its Lok Sabha candidates in Delhi. "They (AAP) had agreed for an alliance with us in Delhi alone on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, they raised the full statehood issue. I told them we are ready, full statehood was in our manifesto for 2015(Assembly) election. "But, later I received Sanjay Singh's message that Kejriwal had said the alliance was not possible unless it covers Haryana also," Chacko said. Singh, the AAP's Rajya Sabha MP, was authorised by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal to take the alliance talks with the Congress forward. After Singh's message, Chacko met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and apprised him of the development. "I told him about the flip-flop of the AAP leaders. Now, we will give a final touch to the list of our candidates in Delhi. It could be announced on Friday," he said. In the evening, Chacko met Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit and other leaders to take a final call on the list of party candidates. The Congress had proposed a 4-3 formula for an alliance in Delhi, offering four seats to the AAP. It had opted for the Chandni Chowk, North West Delhi and the New Delhi seats for itself. The AAP, however, said that if the alliance was limited only to Delhi, the Congress would have to contest in just two seats. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress wants to install a "helpless" prime minister, Narendra Modi said Thursday, making a forceful plea for people's mandate for a strong government, focusing on national security. Addressing two rallies in north Karnataka on the final lap of his campaign for Lok Sabha polls in the state, Modi mocked the "never ending drama" marked by revenge and emotion that he said characterised the Congress-JDS coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy. "If you want to see majboot sarkar (strong government) look towards Delhi, and if you want to see majboor (helpless) government look towards Bengaluru," he told the crowd, amid the polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections to 14 constituencies in Karnataka. Aiming big, BJP has set a target of winning 14 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, betting high on the "Modi wave". In the 2014 polls, BJP had bagged 17 seats. Modi has held back to back rallies covering all the regions in Karnataka and the state BJP has not announced any more rallies before the second phase of polls on April 23. Speaking about the "natak" (drama) by leaders that was going in Karnataka, he said the drama had emotion and revenge, and "the emotion is never ending." "After every few days, weeks, at any rally or press conference, emotion is flowing. Do you think of Karnataka like this?" Modi asked the crowd, apparently taking a dig at Kumaraswamy who has shed tears publicly quite often -- once about being helpless as head of the Congress-JDS coalition. "Congress likes such majboor (helpless) governments. They want such majboor Chief Minister and they want to install such majboor prime minister," he told the rally in Bagalkot. Modi said before 2014, no one even used to talk about Prime Minister, asking "was he able to take decision, every child in this country knows. Government was run through remote control," a veiled reference to the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh. He said Congress had claimed in its manifesto making Pakistan agree that its citizens were involved in the Mumbai terror attack was a major achievement. But Pakistan despite agreeing that the perpetrators were its citizens still carried out bomb explosions and even threatened India about nuclear bomb. During the then Congress' "majboor" government, Pakistan used to openly say "they are Jehadis do whatever you want and Congress' helpless government used to weep in front of the world. This was scene then." "...Now the new scene is before you, with 2014's majboot government today we are able to kill terrorists by entering Pakistan and Pakistan is weeping in front of the world. Today we can hear only voice from Pakistan across the world crying bachao bacha bachao (help help help ), Modi Maarta hai (Modi will kill)." Modi took on Kumaraswamy for saying the matter of airstrike on terror camps in Pakistan in Balakot should not be overpublicised "fearing the vote bank bank would get angry." "Now tell me, Where is Congress and the JD(S) vote bank? Is it in Bagalkot or Balakot? This Congress-JD(S) has to decide," the prime minister said. At his Chikkodi rally, Modi told the crowd, "your vote will decide whether those chanting Bharat Mata ki jai will be respected or tukde tukde will come amidst you and chant slogans about Bharat ke barbadi. "Your vote will decidewill rashtrawad (nationalism) stay or vanshwad (dynasty), corruption, terrorism." Modi said it was "unfortunate" that Congress and its "mahamilavat" (adulterated) friends were leaving no stone unturned to defame the country's traditions and culture. "Congress-JD(S) leaders can only see vote bank, they dont have anything to do with jan hith (public good) and rashtra hith (national good)," he said. Modi said the Congress and JDS faced conflict on every issue but there was agreement between them on four things. "...they are- abusing rahstrawad (nationalism), supporting vanshwad (dynasty)... and morning till evening one workto abuse Modi. There is not even a slightest difference between them on this," he added. Modi chided Kumaraswamy for his reported remark that only those can't meet two square meals a day join the armed forces. The language that he has used, can any self-respecting civilan accept it? Terming Kumaraswamy's remark an insult to the Army and soldiers, and asking if it can be tolerated, he said "on this one issue this whole family has to be removed from public life." Hitting out at Congress over its promise to remove Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), he said, it wants those pelting stones to file false cases on soldiers and they should roam in courts. "Congress also wants to give free hand to those indulging in desh droh (anti nationalism). By announcing that it will end sedition law, Congress has made it clear what its intentions are. Will you support such dangerous intentions? Will you support those committing such sins? Will you teach a lesson to Congress?" Modi asked. These "Mahamilavatis" were neither for jawans nor for kisans(farmers), he charged. During the Congress and "Mahamilavat" government, three types of development can take place development (vikas) of a few families, development of middle men and development of price hike, Modi said. He asked the gathering whether they were happy with the firmness he had worked with. "Are you happy? We entered inside Pakistan and hit (terrorists) are you happy? Do we have to take revenge for the killing of our jawans or not? Do you trust army on their bravery? Congress dont believe our brave and believe in Pakistans evidences. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Having achieved supreme power, third president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan intended to establish the Yerevan khanate in the republic, former head of the Central Bank of Armenia Bagrat Asatryan told the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, commenting on the reduction of the number of ministries in the republic. "I am convinced that having 17 ministries and 3 ministers is too much for a country like Armenia. This inefficient structure was approved by the Republicans when they wanted to create the Yerevan khanate," he said. "Sargsyan would be a khan, and the rest - errand boys. The past years have shown that such a structure of the Cabinet did not contribute to economic growth or any solution of social, economic and other problems," Bagrat Asatryan noted. "The only thing that distinguished Armenia was the number of civil servants having personal drivers, which exceeded one thousand," he recalled. A Delhi Court Thursday dismissed the plea of Christian Michel, alleged middleman arrested in the AgustaWestland chopper scam who sought 7-day interim bail to celebrate Easter with family, noting that he may tamper with evidence and abscond if released. Special Judge Arvind Kumar refused to grant the relief to Michel and said there are serious allegations against him of grave economic offence. "As per Enforcement Directorate, investigation on certain crucial aspects is still going on and the accused has close link to many influential persons and accused may tamper with evidence and may abscond. "Thus, considering the overall facts and circumstances, I do not find new ground for admitting the accused to interim bail. The application is dismissed," the judge said. The court also noted the submission of the counsel appearing for Michel who told the court that there is no medical emergency and he is seeking interim bail for general medical check up of accused. "There is dispensary inside the jail which takes care of the medical condition of the inmates and they are referred to different hospitals by jail authorities as and when required. It is also noted that the jail authorities are admittedly allowing accused legal interview with his lawyers, as per jail rules," the court noted. Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh, appearing for the CBI and the ED, opposed Michel's plea saying that India is a country of many festivals and thousands of prisoners have faith in various religions. The accused, therefore, can't be allowed to go out of jail to celebrate festivals. Singh said Michel can participate in Easter in the custody. He further argued that if Michel comes out on interim bail and makes some statement relating to the case, it would derail investigation. Michel's lawyer argued that since the charge sheet has been filed, there is no point of tampering evidence. He said the accused is cooperating in the case. "Being a Christian, he was not even allowed to offer a holy mass even during Christmas...," said the application moved by the accused. "It is submitted that the week commencing form 14th April to 21st April is a holy week for Christians and 21st April is Easter which will be celebrated universally. The petitioner wishes to attend the holy mass on Easter day and would like to make offerings during the Easter day," Michel said in his plea. The Enforcement Directorate filed a supplementary charge sheet against Michel and others on April 4. He was arrested by ED on December 22 after his extradition from Dubai. He is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the chopper scam by ED and Central Bureau of Investigation. Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa are the two others. The agency had told the court that Michel made 24.25 million euros and 1,60,96,245 pounds from the AgustaWestland deal. ED has told the court that it identified Michel's properties purchased with proceeds of the crime. CBI has alleged that the deal signed in February 2010 to supply VVIP choppers, worth 556.262 million euros, caused an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (about Rs 2,666 crore). On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Italy-based Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks. The CBI on September 1, 2017, had filed a charge sheet in the case in which Michel was named as one of the accused. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Denise Richards is set to star in the sci-fi action movie "Timecrafters: The Treasure of Pirate's Cove". According to Variety, the film is the first in a proposed franchise about time-travelling seamen who try to retrieve a treasure map from kids in a local town called Pirate's Cove. The travellers, who originally lost the map, have to adapt to new technology and modern ways of life as they have fast-forwarded through time some 300 years after lightning struck their ship and forced them through a portal into a modern generation. The "Wild Things" star will play a single mom named Victoria Dare who struggles with the loss of her husband and copes by gravitating toward a slew of unsuitable partners in search of the best one to help raise her son. The film also features actor Malcolm McDowell as Captain Lynch, a villain who leads the pirates looking for the elusive treasure map, and Eric Balfour plays Geoffrey Pistol, a dashing first mate who has beef with Lynch. Rick Spalla is directing the film. "'Timecrafters: The Treasure of Pirate's Cove' is the launching point for the entire Timecrafters franchise introducing the colourful storyline and the cast of misfit characters. The film is reminiscent of classic Disney narratives with sword-play, pirate ships, canon battles and even a Steam Punk time machine," said Spalla in a statement. The film will be shot on actual pirate ships on the coast of California. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With cash-starved Jet Airways suspending operations, aviation regulator DGCA Thursday said it will ask the airline for a "concrete and credible" revival plan, as well as extend help within the regulatory framework. A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also said the regulator would take action in accordance with due procedure under relevant regulations. After weeks of uncertainty, Jet Airways Wednesday announced temporary suspension of its operations as it did not receive emergency funds to stay afloat. The DGCA would be asking the company for concrete and credible revival plan to restart the suspended operations, the official said. According to the official, the watchdog would also endeavour to do its best to help the company revive its operations within the set regulatory framework. Lenders are carrying out the bidding process for stake sale in the ailing airline, which has a debt burden of more than Rs 8,000 crore. Against the backdrop of capacity reduction due to flight cancellations and rise in airfares, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Thursday held a meeting with representatives of various airport operators. It was also attended by Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials. Issues related to slot allocation at airports in the wake of Jet Airways suspending operations were discussed at the meeting, an official said. In the evening, the secretary would be holding a meeting with representatives of airlines. On Thursday, lenders to Jet Airways said they are reasonably hopeful of a successful bidding process for stake sale. The civil aviation ministry, on Wednesday, said it would support the resolution process for Jet Airways within the existing regulatory framework. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NCP chief Sharad Pawar Thursday said the ongoing Lok Sabha poll is an important one, but he doesn't think that this could be the last general election in India. Pawar made the remark at Karjat in Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency while canvassing for the party candidate Sangram Jagtap. He was apparently referring to West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's allegation she made earlier this month that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will throw away the Constitution to make India a totalitarian regime if he is re-elected and the upcoming Lok Sabha election could be the last one in that case. "This election is an important one. The entire world is watching it...Nehru and Gandhis preserved democracy...Some people (now) have apprehensions that this could be the last election. They are saying so in their speeches, but I don't think so," Pawar said. The former Union minister made the comment without mentioning the name of any leader. Pawar further said it is not the leaders, but the people of the country who have strengthened its democracy. The NCP president noted the people made "apt" use of their voting right, which he said, was given by B R Ambedkar, considered as the chief architect of the Constitution. The veteran leader said the people of the country come together whenever its democracy is in peril. The Maratha strongman also said that the NCP was encouraging young leaders to hone them to solve the problems that the nation will face in future. Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat also addressed the public meeting. Jagtap is locked in a contest mainly with BJP's Sujay Vikhe Patil in the constituency, which goes to poll in the third phase of the election on April 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Election Commission will on April 19 submit its decision to the Supreme Court on whether the ban on the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi should continue, a senior poll body official said Thursday. The EC, on the apex court's directions, had watched the film on Wednesday. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said the EC will on Friday submit to the Supreme Court its view on banning the film's pan-India release in a sealed cover. Earlier on Thursday, the film's producers had visited the Nirvachan Sadan, the EC's headquarters here, to present their view. The Supreme Court had on Monday directed the EC to watch the full biopic on Modi and take an informed decision on banning its release. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had said it will consider the EC report and hear the matter on April 22. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for film producers who challenged the EC's ban, said the poll panel had taken the decision after watching just the promo and it did not watch the entire movie. The EC had on April 10 stalled the release of the film until the Lok Sabha polls end, saying any such film that subserves the purpose of any political entity or individual should not be displayed in electronic media. Acting on the complaints of political parties, including the Congress, the poll panel had asserted that any biopic material with the potential to disturb the level-playing field should not be displayed in areas where the model code of conduct was in force. The Modi biopic, starring Vivek Oberoi in the lead, has been the most-talked about movie in this election season. Directed by Omung Kumar, it tells the story of Modi's rise to power from his humble beginnings. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar, who was expelled from the Congress and later went on to join the Trinamool Congress, Thursday said he will join the Akali Dal on April 19 at Muktsar in Punjab. "In my political and personal capacity, I have been driven by virtues and principles of Guru Nanak. Hence, I want to inform all well wishers who have stood by me that I will be joining the Shiromani Akali Dal tomorrow at Shri Muktsar Sahib, Brar tweeted on Thursday. While I live and breathe for and by the people, the Akali Dal gives me an opportunity to further my objectives of Sikhism and Punjab. At every step, I have raised issues for the people and will continue to do so, he said. Brar, who had been the permanent invitee to theCongress Working Committee (CWC) for 10 years, was expelled from the party in 2016. After the Congress party's defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Brar had suggested that then Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the then vice-president Rahul Gandhi go on a sabbatical to introspect on the reasons for the party's worst performance in the elections. Brar had later joined the Trinamool Congress and had remained president of party's state unit. He quit the TMC last year. Brar had defeated Sukhbir Badal from Faridkot Lok Sabha seat in 1999. Badal went on to defeat Brar in the 2004 polls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Thursday said Exim Bank has provided soft loans of USD 266.60 million to Rawanda for various projects. The funding, done in three separate tranches to Rawanda, is to support agricultural projects, development of special economic zones (SEZs) and for financing road project in the African nation. According to the agreements, Exim Bank will provide USD 100 million for financing the development of two SEZs and expansion of the Kigali SEZ in Rwanda; USD 100 million for financing three agriculture project schemes -- Warufu Multipurpose Project, Mugesera Irrigation Project and Nyamukana Irrigation Project. While USD 66.60 million will be funded for the Base-Butaro-Kidaho Road Project. All the three funding project agreements between Exim Bank and the Government of Rawanda have come to effect from April 2, RBI said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Popular Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed, who was expelled by the Indian government, has apologised for campaigning for a candidate in West Bengal, terming it as an "inadvertent mistake" and a step taken out of love of the people of the state. The Indian government on Tuesday issued a 'Leave India' notice to Ahmed and cancelled the business visa given to him for allegedly campaigning for a Trinamool Congress candidate in the state. The actor has also been "blacklisted" by the Union Home Ministry, jeopardising the chances of his future travel to India. I apologise for my inadvertent mistake. I hope everyone will forgive me, he was quoted as saying by bdnews24 portal. Ferdous said he understood that it was a mistake to take part in election campaign of another country, he said in his statement to the website on Wednesday after returning home the previous night. He said he had been driven by emotion from the love of the people of West Bengal when he had joined the campaign along with his Indian co-actors. Ahmed, along with a few Indian actors, allegedly took part in campaigning for TMC's Raiganj candidae Kahaiyalal Agarwal. The Bangladeshi film star was reportedly seen seeking votes for Aarwal at campaign rallies across Hemtabad and Karandighi near the Indo-Bangladesh border. Ahmed won Bangladesh National Film Award for best actor four times for his roles in the films Hothat Brishti (1998), Gangajatra (2009), Kusum Kusum Prem (2011), Ek Cup Cha (2014). Another Bangladeshi actor Ghazi Abdul Noor was on Thursday asked to leave India immediately after he attended a political rally in West Bengal. "Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his overstay in contravention of visa rules," a home ministry official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi said Thursday that Minimum Support Prices (MSP) would also be announced in the separate farmers' budget which his party's manifesto has promised. Addressing a campaign rally at Vanthli in Junagadh district, he also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of applying different rules to the rich and the poor. "If the Congress comes to power, the country will have two budgets. One will be national budget and another farmers' budget. "In the farmers' budget we will announce MSP for various crops in advance so that farmers know what they will get. We will (also) announce the amount of insurance (premium) payable (by farmers) and what the would farmers get," he said. The Modi government was ready to waive loans of rich industrialists but not those of farmers, he said. "We will not allow formation of two Indias. If we have one flag, then we should have one nation. If Ambani gets justice, farmers should also get justice," Gandhi said. If big industrialists defaulted on repayment of loan, they are not jailed, but if a poor farmer is unable to pay an instalment, he is put behind bars, the Congress chief said. Gandhi also claimed that his party's ambitious 'Nyay' minimum income guarantee scheme under which poor families will get Rs 72,000 per year will not harm the economy, but instead help it grow. "Modi had made a false promise of giving Rs 15 lakh to everyone, but my promise of giving Rs 3.6 lakh (in five years) to poor families is true," Gandhi said. The BJP has criticised the Nyay scheme in the Congress manifesto saying it would hurt the economy and increase the tax burden of the middle class. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Philippine diplomats have started evacuating a small group of Filipinos from the Libyan capital after it was hit by a barrage of rocket fire that wounded one Filipino, officials said Thursday. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Emmanuel Fernandez said in Manila that three hospital workers and four students were evacuated by Philippine Embassy personnel from Tripoli to Tunisia, where they are to take flights back home. Manila's top diplomat in Tripoli, Elmer Cato, said 13 more Filipinos have sought help and are expected to be flown back home in the next few days. But of about 1,000 Filipinos in Tripoli, only 20 have so far asked to be repatriated, including a man who was wounded in the rocket fire late Tuesday in the Libyan capital, he said. About 50 other Filipino workers have been evacuated to safer areas within Libya by their employers, Cato said. There are more than 2,000 Filipinos in Libya, mostly working as nurses, teachers and oil industry workers. "They have to stay here and take the risk because they have to provide for their families back home," Cato told The Associated Press in a cellphone message, adding that Filipino nurses in Libya are treated well and receive much higher salaries, along with other benefits. Last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila raised the threat level in Libya's capital to 3 and urged Filipinos and their dependents in Tripoli and outlying areas to consider leaving temporarily to avoid getting caught in the fighting. If the threat level is raised to 4, the government would have to implement a forced evacuation of Filipinos. The Philippine labour department has also imposed a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Libya, particularly in Tripoli and areas within a 100-kilometer (62-mile) radius of the capital, because of fighting between rival militias for control of the North African nation's capital. Many of the Filipinos in Tripoli refuse to return home because they feel the ongoing fighting would eventually ease, but Cato said that after the volleys of rocket fire hit Tripoli for the first time this week, some have started to consider to leave. The Philippines is one of the world's major labor providers, with a tenth of its more than 100 million people working abroad, including many house helpers and construction workers. The income they send home has helped the Philippine economy stay afloat in dire economic times. The wounded Filipino in Tripoli, Rolando Torres, was in his living room when he was startled by two powerful explosions outside his house. He ran to another room to check what happened but before he could open a window, he heard another loud blast, which sent debris flying that wounded him in the forehead, Cato said. Torres, a warehouse worker, immediately called the Philippine Embassy and was fetched later from his house. The rocket fire struck a Tripoli community where more than 200 Filipino nurses and their dependents live. They stayed put and treated the wounded, mostly Libyans, in a clinic, Cato said. On Wednesday night, the Philippine Embassy received reports that rockets struck a hospital south of Tripoli, where 15 Filipino nurses work. Filipino embassy personnel could not reach the Filipinos for hours but later managed to contact the hospital owner, who reported that the Filipinos were fine and would be moved to safety soon, Cato said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will hold military-political consultations with Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu, the Turkish Foreign Ministry reported. Teodor Melescanu will make an official visit to Ankara on April 19. "As part of the upcoming talks with the head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Mevlut Cavushoglu, the sides will discuss deepening of military ties, the outcome of the meeting of the NATO foreign ministers, which was held on April 4 in Washington," Trend cited the Turkish Foreign Ministry as saying. Six workers were injured in a fire at a club at Aarey Colony in suburban Goregaon Thursday, a fire brigade official said. A fire broke out at Emerald Club at Royal Palm Estate at 10.12 am, he said. A team of fire brigade personnel was sent immediately, but before they could douse the flames by 10.50 am, six people -- workers engaged in renovation job -- were injured, one of them suffering 80 per cent burn injuries, he said. All the injured were admitted to a hospital in Airoli, he said. "Prime facie the fire seems to have been caused by a short circuit," the official added. Two days ago, a massive fire had broken out at a 'sort centre' of e-commerce giant Amazon in suburban Andheri (East), though nobody was injured in the incident. Amazon India said in a statement that the fire was quickly extinguished, and out of caution it has closed the building for now and moved the operations to another building. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It's a day of tribute to the Paris fire fighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral from collapse and rescued its treasures from encroaching flames. French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting them for a special gathering on Thursday. Later, Paris City Hall will hold a ceremony in the fire fighters' honour, with a concert, two giant banners and readings from Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." More than 400 fire fighters took part in the nine-hour battle to save the 12th-century Notre Dame on Monday. Among those being honoured Thursday is Paris fire brigade chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who helped salvage the crown of thorns believed to have been worn by Jesus. Investigators so far believe the fire was accidental, and are questioning both cathedral staff and workers who were carrying out renovations when the fire broke out. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after resigning from the Goa Foward Party, former state minister Atanasio Monserratte joined the Congress on Thursday, nearly four years after he was expelled from it for alleged anti-party activities. Soon after joining the Congress in the presence of Goa party chief Girish Chodankar and others, Monserratte told reporters that he would contest the upcoming Panaji Assembly seat bypoll on the opposition party's ticket. The by-election, necessitated following the death of sitting MLA and then chief minister Manohar Parrikar last month, is scheduled on May 19. "I have joined the Congress for the development of the Panaji constituency. Parrikar, during his tenure, could not do much for the constituency on development and employment fronts," Monserratte claimed. In the 2017 state Assembly elections, Monserratte lost to BJP's Siddharat Kuncolienkar by 1,069 votes from Panaji seat, which was Parrikar's bastion since 1992 when he got elected as an MLA for the first time. Monserratte was a minister in the previous state governments led by Manohar Parrikar, Pratapsinh Rane and Digambar Kamat and joined the Goa Forward Party (GFP) in 2017. The GFP, headed by Vijai Sardesai, is an ally of the current BJP-led state government. While resigning from the GFP on Wednesday, Monserratte also quit the post of chairman of the Greater Panaji Planning and Development Authority. Monserratte got elected to the state Assembly for the first time in 2002, when he contested on United Goans Democratic Party's ticket from Taleigao constituency. He later became the town and country planning minister in the then Parrikar-led cabinet. In 2005, Monserratte along with two other ministers resigned, bringing down the Parrikar-led government, after which the Pratapsinh Rane-led coalition came to power. He fought the 2005 Taleigao by-election on Congress' ticket, won it and became a minister in the Rane-led cabinet. In the 2007 Goa Assembly elections, he again won as a Congress candidate from Taleigao but in the 2012 polls, he vacated the seat for his wife, who contested as that party's nominee and won. In the 2012 election, Monserratte won from St Cruz Assembly constituency as Congress' nominee. He was expelled from the Congress on March 11, 2015 for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities. He contested the 2017 Assembly poll from Panaji seat on United Goans Party ticket, but lost. Later that year, he joined the GFP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant Thursday assured to resolve the crisis in the iron ore mining industry in the state within six months. Talking to reporters, Sawant said since he hails from the mining belt he is well versed with the issue and problems being faced by people dependent on the sector. Iron ore mining and transportation operations came to a standstill in the state after the Supreme Court quashed 88 leases in February last year. The SC had quashed the second renewal of iron ore mining leases given to 88 companies in Goa in 2015. "I am from the mining area. I know people there. The people from the mining belt know me. I will resolve the issue within six months," the Chief Minister said. The people dependent on the mining industry have come under the banner of the Goa Mining People's Front (GMPF) and have been agitating demanding resumption of operations. The closure of the mining industry, a key source of livelihood as well as revenue for the state government, is estimated to have affected around two lakh people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With suspending operations, as many as 440 slots are vacant at and airports which will be allocated to other in a transparent manner, a senior official said. The grounding of planes by has resulted in capacity reduction in the domestic sector, which has also led to a spurt in airfares in many sectors. Civil Secretary Thursday said the 440 slots vacated by at and airports would be allocated to other on an interim basis through a "rational, fair and equitable" manner. There are 280 vacant slots at and over 160 at the airport. These two aerodromes are among the busiest in the country. The slots would be allocated for three months by a committee, comprising officials from the DGCA, (AAI) and respective airports. Kharola also said around 30 more planes would be inducted by various in next three months. With Jet Airways suspending operations, as many as 440 slots are vacant at Delhi and Mumbai airports which will be allocated to other airlines in a transparent manner, a senior official said Thursday. Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola also said Jet Airways is expected to provide information next week to the ministry about tickets booked by passengers and how it plans to refund them. The grounding of planes by Jet Airways has resulted in capacity reduction in the domestic sector, which has also led to a spurt in airfares in many sectors. The ministry has also asked airlines to keep fares at affordable levels and not indulge in predatory pricing ways. The ministry on Thursday held separate meetings with airport operators and airlines, where issues related to slots, passengers and fares were discussed. Kharola Thursday said the 440 slots vacated by Jet Airways at Delhi and Mumbai airports would be allocated to other airlines on an interim basis through a "rational, fair and equitable" manner. There are 280 vacant slots at Mumbai airport and over 160 at Delhi airport. These two aerodromes are among the busiest in the country. The slots would be allocated for three months by a committee, comprising officials from the DGCA, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and respective airports. Kharola also said around 30 more planes would be inducted by various airlines in next three months. Besides, a decision on 20-30 leased planes of Jet Airways that have been grounded is likely next week as some airlines have expressed interest in taking them, he added. With the additions, Kharola said there would be a "healthy growth in capacity". In the last five months, around 75 planes were out of the domestic sector due to groundings by Jet Airways. During the same period, about 58 aircraft were inducted by various carriers, he noted. Kharola also said that some airlines are in talks with banks for taking wide body planes of Jet Airways. As per official data, a total of 74 planes have been inducted by carriers since October last year. "We wanted to know from Jet Airways on how many passengers have booked tickets and how they plan to refund it. "Jet has said that they have to collect information from all over the world and they will be coming to meet us on Monday or Tuesday...," he said. He was responding to queries about refund of tickets booked with Jet Airways. Further, he said that global airlines' grouping IATA holds back some money of the booked tickets. International air tickets are booked through IATA system. "The credit card companies are also holding back some money. They have not been transferring all the money to Jet Airways. We have the cushion there," Kharola said in response to the question about refund to passengers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court Thursday directed the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) in Maharashtra to seal all private hospitals and nursing homes that were operating without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department. A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice N M Jamdar said if the several notices served by the TMC and the Fire Department to hospitals, asking them to follow fire safety norms, did not work, it was better to shut down such healthcare facilities. The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by RTI activist Sapan Shrivastav. The plea claimed a survey by the Thane Fire Department earlier this year revealed that more than 50 per cent of private hospitals and nursing homes in Thane were ill-equipped to deal with fire incidents. An affidavit filed by TMC's counsel Arvind Aswani stated that although the civic body's health department renewed registration of over 380 hospitals last year, only 181 hospitals were issued an NOC from the Fire Department. Currently, applications seeking NOCs had been filed by around 129 nursing homes and hospitals, while the remaining 70 did not have it and continued to operate in violation of the fire safety norms, the affidavit read. Following the fire at ESIC hospital in Mumbai in December last year in which 11 people were killed, the Thane fire brigade had initiated a safety audit at all private hospitals in the city. The Fire Department was supposed to make a list of hospitals in its jurisdiction and inspect them. The court said that since the TMC already had records of all hospitals and nursing homes violating the fire safety norms, it must initiate action. "You have the records. Go ahead and seal such hospitals that don't have an NOC," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court Thursday quashed a case lodged against a senior journalist and a retired soldier for allegedly abetting the suicide of an Army jawan and carrying out a sting operation in a prohibited area. While quashing the case, a division bench of justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre observed that accused journalist Poonam Agarwal had not done anything that affected the national interest. The court also noted that the Army was being "vindictive" in the present case. On March 27, 2017, the Deolali Camp police in Nashik registered a case against Agarwal and Deepchand Singh, a retired soldier and war veteran, under various IPC sections for abetment of suicide of jawan Roy Mathew and trespassing, and also under provisions of the Official Secrets Act for allegedly carrying out a sting operation in a prohibited area. The case was registered after Mathew, a sahayak with the Army, allegedly committed suicide on February 7, 2017. According to police, Mathew featured in the sting operation carried out by Agarwal and Singh, exposing the sahayak system in the Army, and that he allegedly committed suicide out of fear and shame. Agarwal and Singh had later approached the high court seeking to quash the case against them. Army's counsel Sandesh Patil argued that the accused entered a prohibited area and made videos. "Our contention is that the accused were spying," Patil said. The bench, however, refused to accept the contention. "Spying has a different meaning. We do not find anything in this case that says the accused persons did something that affected the national interest," Justice Dangre said. "She (Agarwal) did not have any intention to go and commit an offence. We do not understand why you (Army) are so vindictive," Justice More said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court Thursday refused to intervene in the Jet Airways crisis, saying it cannot direct the government and the Reserve Bank of India to rescue a "sick company". A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice N M Jamdar dismissed a writ petition seeking the government and the central bank be asked to direct the consortium of banks help the cash-starved airline, which was grounded from Wednesday indefinitely. Jet Airways' last flight landed at the city airport past midnight from Amritsar and became the seventh carrier to shutter operations in the past five years. The over 25-year-old airline had sought a Rs 400-crore emergency fund from its lenders to whom it already owes over Rs 8,500 crore, but was refused as the airline was not ready to offer more collaterals. The writ petition, filed by advocate Mathew Nedumpara, sought among other things a direction to the government and the RBI to ensure that the airline resumes operations till a potential investor was identified. SBI-led banks had invited bids for selling anywhere between 31 and 75 per cent stake in the airline and have already received four initial bids from Jet Airways' foreign partner Etihad Airways, the sovereign wealth fund NIIF, and two private equity funds--TPG Capital and Indigo Partners. Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, who along with his wife Anita were forced out of the airline late last month by the banks, had also put in bids, but was asked to withdraw after the four bidders threatened to walk out. The banks hope to complete the sale process by May 10. The market reacted badly to the shuttering and Jet stock tanked over 32 per cent on the BSE against a 0.32 per cent correction in the benchmark Sensex. The company has put at stake over 20,000 jobs and owes money to millions of passengers following flight cancellations that began since January apart from owing thousands of crores to its vendors and suppliers. The petitioner said the airline is an "essential service" and therefore, the court must pass orders directing banks, led by the State Bank of India, "to provide such bare minimal funds to Jet as required to keep its flights operational". The plea also sought the court direct RBI to convene a joint meeting of the banks and Jet management to take emergent steps to keep the airline afloat, during the completion of its ongoing stake sale process. The bench, however, said it cannot ask the government or RBI to release funds for a sick company. "We cannot ask the government to rescue a sick company. The only thing we can do is that if you get a hat, we can pass it around this court room for collecting money for charity," the court said, dismissing the petition and advised the petitioner to approach the National Company Law Tribunal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) These are the top stories from the northern region at 5.15 pm LUCKNOW ELX61 UP-PHASE-2-2NDLD-POLLING Lucknow: Over 50 per cent of the votes were cast by 3 pm Thursday in the eight constituencies which went to the polls in Uttar Pradesh in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections. MAINPURI (UP) ELN43 UP-ALLIANCE RALLY Mainpuri (UP): At loggerheads for decades, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati are scheduled to share the dais at a joint rally of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the Samajwadi Party citadel of Mainpuri on Friday. LUCKNOW ELN23 UP-MAYAWATI BJP Lucknow: Back from an Election Commission ban for campaigning for 48 hours, BSP chief Mayawati Thursday lashed out at BJP and its leaders for levelling "unfounded" charges on opposition parties, including allegations that they were abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. AZAMGARH ELX46 UP-AKHILESH NOMINATION Azamgarh (UP): Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Thursday filed his nomination papers for the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat. MORADABAD ELX24 UP-MORADABAD-CONG-POET Moradabad (UP): Just 32, a YouTube star and a poet who wraps his messages on conscience voting, secularism and women in fiery verse, Congress candidate Imran Pratapgarhi is the politician with more than a slight difference. RAMPUR ELX53 UP-JAYA PRADA-INTERVIEW Rampur (UP): Attacking SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for inaction over his candidate Azam Khan's khaki underwear jibe against her, BJP's nominee from Rampur Jaya Prada says it could well be the party's undoing with women in the constituency now turning against it. LUCKNOW ELX22 UP-MAYAWATI-ADITYANATH Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati Thursday accused UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of blatantly violating the 72-hr EC ban on canvassing and the poll body with turning a blind eye to the violations. JAMMU ELX41 JK-2NDLD POLL Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir recorded nearly 30 per cent polling till 1 pm in Udhampur and Srinagar Lok Sabha constituencies Thursday, poll officials said. SRINAGAR ELX54 JK-STRIKE-SEPARATISTS Srinagar: Normal life was affected in poll-bound districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday due to a strike called by separatists against the Lok Sabha elections in the state. SIKAR DES5 RJ-BRIDE Sikar: A bride on the way to her in-laws' place after the wedding was allegedly abducted at gun point by her jilted lover in Rajasthan's Sikar district, police said Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States offered to hold the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in Washington on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a press conference in Poland. He also recalled his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan with the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Moscow. "I briefed about our aspiration to the conflict resolution which is almost 30 years old and noted that we need to reach a breakthrough. Yesterday we got invitation of the U.S. to visit Washington where the Secretary of State will also put his own way to reach a breakthrough on the conflict resolution," Trend cited Mammadyarov as saying. In a veiled attack on the BJP, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday said if his party is voted to power, indebted farmers will not be sent to jails. Addressing an election rally at Dataganj under Aonla parliamentary constituency here, he said, "Businessmen who took loans amounting to thousands of crores were allowed to flee the country instead of sending them to jail. While the farmers who took loans of Rs 20,000 and were unable to pay, were sent to jail. "Now, this will not happen, until and unless the big defaulters are sent to jail, not a single farmer will be sent to jail. As soon as our government is formed, the farmers will not be sent to jail for non-payment of loans," Gandhi asserted. He said the Congress after forming government in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan fulfilled its promise of farm loan waivers. "We will not allow two 'Hindustans' to come up in the country," he said. Attacking the SP and BSP, the Congress leader said, "Did the SP and BSP ever say 'chowkidar chor hai' (watchman is thief)? No, because their keys are with Modi." Gandhi also hit out at the Modi-led central government for its poor showing in generating employment in the country. He claimed that unemployment ratio, under the Modi dispensation, was the highest in the last 45 years. "By demonetisation, Modi took away people's money. Now, Congress will snatch the same money and deposit it in the accounts of poor people," he said. Referring to the minimum income guarantee scheme 'NYAY' proposed by the Congress, Gandhi said, "Once the Congress government is formed, it will ensure an annual income of Rs 72,000. "On one hand, there is 'anyaay' (injustice), while on the other, there is 'nyay' (justice). You have to select between truth and lies," he told the crowd. Congress general secretary and in-charge of western UP Jyotiraditya Scindia was also present on the occasion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) If Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the BJP candidate from Bhopal and an accused in the Malegaon blast case, is fit to contest election, she is fit to be in jail, NC vice-president Omar Abdullah said Thursday. The BJP on Wednesday announced Thakur as its candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, where she is set to have a direct contest with Congress heavyweight and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh. "We are getting to hear new things from the BJP every time. First, they tried to fight elections on Balakot and Pulwama (attacks). Then, they tried speaking about development and when people did not digest it, they tried the religion card," the National Conference leader said. Omar Abdullah, who was talking to reporters after casting his vote, along with his father Farooq Abdullah, from Srinagar parliamentary constituency, said he hoped that the court hearing the case would cancel Thakur's bail. "They know that they will not get votes with 'mandir-masjid' (Ayodhya issue), so they gave the mandate from Bhopal to a person who is an accused in a terror case and is out on bail citing poor health," he said. "I hope the court which gave her bail cancels it as if she is fit enough to contest (election), she is fit to be in jail," he added. The NC leader, whose father is the party's candidate from Srinagar, said these elections have been significantly different from the 2017 by-elections that Abdullah Senior had won. "In that election, we barely managed one or two public meeting outdoors. All our election activity was confined to closed rooms and walled-off areas. In this election, thankfully, we found the electorate far more receptive," Omar Abdullah said. The former chief minister expressed hope that assembly elections would also be held in the state soon. The Centre is now "running out of excuses to delay the assembly elections", Omar Abdullah said. "Assembly elections were delayed because of parliamentary (elections) and now that parliamentary elections are due to conclude, we can only hope that the Centre, together with the EC (election commission), gives the people of J-K an elected government which is their right," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister on Thursday reshuffled his Cabinet amidst mounting criticism at the lackluster performance of the government. The changes were made after finance minister resigned. The key ministry of interior was assigned to former ISI officer, Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah who was recently appointed as minister for parliamentary affairs. He was a confidant of former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf. Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto reportedly named him among three people who were a threat to her life. Shah was elected as a member of Parliament in last year elections. Azam Swati, who stepped down last year as minister of science and technology forallegedly using his influence over police to register a case against a poor family, made a comeback and appointed as minister for parliamentary affairs. Among other changes, information minister Fawad Chaudhry was made minister for science and technology and petroleum minister Ghulam Sarwar made minister for aviation. Mohammad Mian Soomro would cease to hold portfolio of aviation and would be just the minister for privatisation. Minister of State for Interior and Shehryar Afridi was shifted and appointed as Minister of State for States and Frontier Regions. Dr Zafarullah Mirza was appointed as Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services in place of Amir Kiani who was sacked. Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan was appointed as Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Nadeem Babar appointed as SAPM on Petroleum Division. The Prime Minister has not appointed a new finance minister and instead planning to appoint an advisor on finance. Several names were making rounds for the key post. Those being discussed included Dr Abdul Hafiz Sheikh, Dr Hafiz Pasha and Shaukat Tareen. It is the first major reshuffle in the Cabinet since Khan became the prime minister eight months ago. Political activist Tehseen Poonawalla Thursday urged the Election Commission to debar BJP's Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from contesting the Lok Sabha polls as she was facing terror charges. In a letter to the poll body, Poonawalla said the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had found Thakur to be the "principal conspirator" in the 2008 Malegaon blast in which six people were killed. Her name has also cropped up in the Ajmer Dargah blast case, he said. "I would humbly request the Election Commission of India to take further necessary steps to uphold the Model Code of Conduct 2019 and take appropriate action against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and debar her from contesting elections," the letter read. He said in his letter that "a candidate accused with terror links must not be permitted to contest elections." Thakur has spent nine years in jail and is out on bail since 2017 on health grounds and she is currently facing charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the activist said. She also stands accused of "murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, and of promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion", Poonawalla, who is known for his proximity with the Congress, said. However, as per the law, any citizen above 25 years of age is eligible to contest polls unless convicted for any crime that entails punishment for two years or more. The BJP on Wednesday fielded Thakur from stronghold Bhopal to take on former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India has suspended the trade across the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan from Friday after probe agencies found the route was being "misused" by elements from the neighbouring country to smuggle illegal weapons, drugs and fake currency, a government order said Thursday. It said a stricter regulatory and enforcement mechanism is being worked and the issue of the reopening the trade routes will be revisited once they are implemented. The Union Home Ministry order stated that it has been "decided by the Government of India to suspend the LoC trade at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Jammu and Kashmir". It said the action was taken on the basis of reports that the trade routes were being "misused by the Pakistan-based elements for funnelling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency, among others." The LoC trade, at present, is conducted through two trade facilitation centres located at Salamabad in Uri of Baramulla district, and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Poonch district. This trade takes place four days a week and is based on barter system and zero-duty. The measure has been taken in the backdrop of the Pulwama terror attack following which India stepped up its military and strategic offensive against Pakistan and also withdrew the most favoured nation (MFN) from its neighbour. "Meanwhile, a stricter regulatory and enforcement mechanism is being worked out and will be put in place in consultation with various agencies. The issue of reopening of LoC trade will be revisited thereafter," the government said in the statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday mocked the Congress' promise to eradicate poverty, and said India will actually be freed of poverty the day it gets rid of the Congress. Singh said the indication after second phase of election is clear that the BJP will return to power. Addressing election rallies at Howrah and Malda districts, Singh said since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress has been promising eradication of poverty. "Now, Rahul Gandhi is also pledging that. The fact is the day the country becomes free of the Congress, it will also get freedom from poverty," the senior BJP leader said. Lashing out at the TMC in Bengal, Singh alleged that democracy has ceased to exist under its rule in the state. "Violence has been unleashed on opposition parties. Is it a sign of democracy? In Bengal, we will fight till we restore democracy," he asserted. He alleged that the TMC has replaced democracy by "goondaraj". Under the TMC rule, "all the three -- the mother, the motherland and the people are suffering," he said, referring to the ruling party's slogan of 'Ma, Maati and Manush'. Maintaining that infiltrators will be thrown out, Singh said refugees will be given citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP are engaged in a bitter fight over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The saffron party has also vowed to bring in National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country and weed out infiltrators. Referring to Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed who was ordered to leave the country after he took part in a campaign of the ruling TMC in West Bengal, Singh said people like him will not be allowed to act as per their whims and fancies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On a trip to Africa to promote women's economic empowerment, Ivanka Trump said Wednesday the White House should be judged by its actions toward a continent that her father has privately disparaged. In an interview with The Associated Press, the president's daughter and senior adviser pointed to visits to the continent by herself, first lady Melania Trump and others, saying: "Our commitment to Africa is clear." She added that she hopes President Donald Trump will visit, saying: "I've been deeply, deeply inspired by my trip here. And I think he will be as well." Ivanka Trump spoke on the last day of her four-day trip to Ethiopia and Ivory Coast, which has featured a mix of carefully choreographed diplomacy and visits to local business ventures as she advances a White House programme to give an economic boost to women in the developing world. While the trip was viewed with some skepticism given the president's persistent efforts to cut foreign aid and his disparaging comments about African countries, no tension was on display as his daughter posed for photos with top officials and announced development grants. The president was criticized last year after his private comments referring to "shithole countries" in Africa and other regions were leaked to journalists. "Our actions are speaking for themselves in terms of our dedication to seeing Africa prosper," Ivanka Trump said. "I'm very excited about continuing my work to specifically focus on those advocating and advancing the role of women on this continent and beyond." The president's latest proposed budget would cut funding for diplomacy and development by about 24 percent. But Congress has twice rejected the Trump administration's attempts to slash the foreign affairs budget and is likely to do so again. Travelling with the head of the US Agency for International Development, Ivanka Trump was welcomed with enthusiasm. In Ethiopia, she perched on a stool on a grass-covered floor for a traditional coffee welcome ceremony and sat behind a loom at a textile operation. In Ivory Coast, she travelled several hours outside Abidjan to a cocoa farm in a rural area and attended a World Bank-sponsored policy summit. As she entered the town where the cocoa farm was located, she was surrounded by a cheering, dancing crowd, many people waving signs and wearing shirts with her picture that said "Welcome to Adzope Ivanka Trump." "This is something we rarely see," said government minister Patrick Achi, after Trump got an open-air tour of the cocoa production process. He thanked her for making the trek to the area, adding that residents will keep it "forever in our hearts." As she concluded the trip, Ivanka Trump made clear she relished the work she was doing. She said her father recently asked her if she was interested in the job of World Bank chief but that she decided she was happy with her current role in the administration. She worked on the selection process for the new head of the 189-nation World Bank, David Malpass, and declared he would do an "incredible job." Asked if her father had approached her about other top jobs, Ivanka Trump said she would "keep that between us." But she did say she does not see a run for office in her future. She also said she had no plans to leave her White House role any time soon. A day before the Justice Department was expected to unveil a redacted version of the special counsel's report on Russian election interference and the Trump campaign, Ivanka Trump said she was not worried about what it would contain. "I knew that there was no collusion. I knew that there was no obstruction and this was affirmed in the Mueller report and Attorney General Barr's subsequent summary," she said. She also said she stood by a previous statement that the president had no involvement in granting security clearances to her or her husband, Jared Kushner, saying, "I have no evidence to the contrary." But she said she had not spoken to the president about the issue since reports surfaced that he had ordered officials to grant Kushner a clearance over the objections of national security officials. On whether she would support turning over documents to Democrats investigating the issue, Ivanka Trump said she would leave that decision to the White House counsel. A convert to Judaism, Ivanka Trump said she was concerned about a "rise in anti-Semitism" and said there currently was "less support for Israel than Israel has traditionally experienced." Asked if she agreed with her father's statements that Democrats had become an "anti-Jewish" party, she said: "I never make categorical statements but certainly there are some who have said things that are not supportive of the state of Israel." Throughout the interview, Ivanka Trump stressed her commitment to her White House work, but also said it takes a "tremendous toll" on her family life and her three young children. "That's a price that we're paying together," she said. "I am looking forward to a time in the future when I can live a slightly more low-key private life and be able to spend a little bit more time with my children." Her kids, she stressed, are proud of the current family business. Ivanka Trump said her 7-year-old daughter Arabella recently used her nanny's phone to ask the Siri digital assistant how many people her father had helped get out of prison, after the passage of a criminal justice reform bill Kushner had helped champion. "I think our kids are really proud and I share with them as many of these stories as I can," Ivanka Trump said. "I'm certainly going to share the stories of this trip. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seasoned diplomat Jaideep Sarkar has been appointed as India's next High Commissioner to South Africa. "He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the External Affairs Ministry said, making the announcement. Sarkar, a 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service official, is currently serving as India's ambassador in Bhutan. He served in Indian Missions in Tokyo, Seoul and Bangladesh as well. Sarkar also worked in the Ministry of Finance from 1992-1996 dealing with economic relations with European Union member countries. In 2004, Sarkar joined the Prime Minister's Office as a director and dealt with a number of ministries including the MEA, Finance and Planning. Before taking over as Ambassador of India to Bhutan, Sarkar was India's Ambassador to Israel from October 2012 to January 2016. The government also appointed Suhel Ajaz Khan, presently serving as India's Deputy Chief of Mission in Saudi Arabia, as next Ambassador to Lebanon. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Terra Drone Corporation, a Tokyo-based industrial drone solutions provider along with its subsidiary Terra Drone India has signed a tripartite MoU with IIT-Hyderabad to co-establish a first-of-its-kind Centre of Excellence for Unmanned Aerial Solutions (drones) here. According to a press release by Terra Drone, under the MoU, the Japanese company and its indian subsidiary would offer a complete sales-service-support module for the drone ecosystem in India and is actively working to implement unmanned traffic management (UTM) for drones for various government departments. Director of IIT Hyderabad, UB Desai said, "We are creating a unique educational ecosystem that combines interactive learning with cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This pact with Terra Drone Corporation and Terra Drone India is a step in that direction." "We are especially excited about developing drone-based solutions for domains like 5G communication, agriculture, transportation and AI," he said. The tripartite agreement was signed earlier this month when Desai, visited Tokyo, it said. Terra Drone would support Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad to organise workshops, seminars, lectures, and joint projects that leverage cutting-edge unmanned technologies and drone LiDAR systems. As one of the key players in the Indian drone industry, Terra Drone India would also offer internship programs to talented students and prepare them for real-world technology applications. Toru Tokushige, CEO, Terra Drone Corporation, said, "Drones can solve complex business challenges in a safe, timely, and cost-effective manner. As the world's fastest-growing major economy, the potential for commercial drone market in India is huge." "By co-establishing a Centre of Excellence for Drones in India, we will be empowering young professionals and strengthening the future of the industry," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The officers and employees union of the grounded Jet Airways Thursday sought government intervention to avert a Kingfisher-like collapse of the carrier, which could not take off after halting operations temporarily in October 2012. Alleging some "motives" behind the series of developments at the carrier, which eventually forced it to shutter services temporarily from Wednesday night, Jet Airways Officers & Staff Association president Kiran Pawaskar also demanded a probe, preferably by the national investigation agency CBI. After flying for over 25 years, Jet Airways was grounded last night when its final flight, a Boeing 737, touched down at the Mumbai airport early Thursday after departing from Amritsar. The country's oldest private airline flew its maiden flight nearly 26 years ago from the city airport to Ahmedabad as an air taxi operator. "The situation is very bad for employees. As many as 16,000 permanent employees don't have work today. I told the management that efforts should be made to resume operations as early as possible," Pawaskar, who is also an NCP lawmaker, said asking why the airline did not clear employees dues before suspending services. Airlines' chief executive Vinay Dube had Wednesday said the airline did not have an "answer" at present on the fate of its employees during the on-going stake sale process. The airline senior management, pilots and engineers have not be been paid since January while the other categories of employees have also not received their March salaries. "Employees are ready to work. They are experts at what they do because they have been working for 25 years. We are not going to run away. We will remain here," Pawaskar said. He said the SBI-led consortium, which now the controls the management, can resume operations after requesting the Prime Minister's Office or finance ministry for the required funds. The consortium had rejected the airline's appeal for Rs 983 crore lifeline, of which Rs 240 alone were to be used to disburse the pending salaries, Pawaskar added. He also asked why banks have not cleared the promised Rs 1,500 core loan to the airline even two weeks after chairman Naresh Goyal stepped down from the airline two weeks ago--the main condition of the lenders to lend more money. He also said none of the jobs are lost so far and that the employees will continue to claim salaries as long as they are with Jet Airways. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Apr. 18, 2019 on Thursday, April 25th from 6 - 8 pm on the first floor. Jack Martin & Good Company is an authentic Bluegrass band playing in the style of the 1st generation musicians from the Golden Age of Bluegrass during the 1950's. All programs are free and open to the public. The library is located across from City Hall, 555 Washington Street. For more information, contact Bobbie Wrinkle, 270-442-2510 ext. 119 or email: bwrinkle@mclib.net PADUCAH - In celebration of Quilt Week the McCracken County Public Library is hosting Front and Center: Jack Martin and Good Company Shakti Bhargava, a Kanpur-based doctor, hurled shoes at BJP leaders during a press conference on Thursday only to grab attention, the Delhi Police said after a joint interrogation by its Special Cell and the Intelligence Bureau. A joint team of the IB and Delhi Police's Special Cell and Security Wing interrogated Bhargava for several hours and nothing incriminating was found against him, Mandeep Singh Randhawa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), said. "He hurled shoes (at the BJP leaders) only to grab attention," the officer said, adding that he was released after the interrogation as no complaint was received from the BJP. The police also recovered Bhargava's visiting card from him, which showed that he was a surgeon by profession and also owned a hospital in Kanpur. Bhargava is facing legal cases related to property and income tax, sources said. He entered the BJP headquarters at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg on Thursday by showing his identity card. The incident took place when a scheduled press conference of BJP leaders Bhupendra Yadav and G V L Narasimha Rao was on. Bhargava threw a shoe and flung another after stepping close to the dais when Rao was attacking the Congress, accusing it of "defaming" the Hindu religion by linking it to terrorism during its rule at the Centre. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was playing with the emotions of people in the name of religion and terrorism. During an election rally at Chikkodi, Modi ridiculed the Congress-JDS coalition government and said the Congress wanted a "helpless" government and told the voters to look at the "helpless" Kumaraswamy. He also mocked the frequent emotional outbursts of Kumaraswamy, saying it was "natak" (drama). Hitting out at Modi, Kumaraswamy tweeted "PM Modi alleged opposition parties use emotions 4 (sic) votes. But it is Mr.Modi himself who is playing with the emotions of people in the name of religion & terrorism. Had he been confident of his development work to bring in votes Y (sic) would he resort to propaganda movie&TV channel in his name?" The chief minister also sought to know whether the prime minister could eliminate black money by demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. "Dear PM you claim to have given a good governance. Was it good that unemplymnt (sic) in India touched to a 45-year high? Was it good that poor, lower middle class people suffered to make both ends meet due to cash crunch during demonetisation?Did it eliminate blackmoney as you promised?" Kumaraswamy said. He said farmers marched against the union government because their problems could not be addressed. Kumaraswamy also alleged that the labourers had to wait for wages under the rural employment guarantee scheme for months together. In Karnataka alone, the chief minister said Rs 1,500 crore of funds were pending. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ongoing elections has delayed the launch of Nepal's private Buddha Air's proposed flight between and by over a month. The will now begin its operation from May 27 instead of its earlier plan to start from April 16, Buddha Air's Marketing Director Rupesh Joshi said. "We will operate three weekly flights between and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from May 27," he said. "Both the government and all agencies involved with aviation business suggested to begin the service post election. So we decided to defer it," he said. would be the second Nepali to connect with after the Royal Airlines' withdrawal from Kolkata two decades back, Joshi said. The Royal Airlines now operates flights from Delhi, and to Kathmandu, he said. Joshi said grounding of will affect tourism in and a large number of booking for hotels and tour operators have been cancelled. He said Jet was the key airline to bring foreign tourists to the Himalayan country. Now, return fare from Indian destinations from Nepal had soared four times the normal rate owing to grounding of the The Delhi High Court has sought a response of the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) on a plea by a lawyer's body seeking to be recognised as the bar association of the newly-opened court complex at Rouse Avenue here. Justice Vibhu Bakhru issued notice to the BCD seeking its stand on the plea by lawyers' body Rouse Avenue Bar Associates for recognition. The court gave the council two weeks time to file its response and listed the matter for further hearing on July 24. The petitioner-association, which claims to represent the lawyers practising at the new court complex, moved the high court after the BCD on April 3 rejected its request for issuance of Advocates Welfare Fund Stamps on the ground that it was not a recognised body. The court noted that since recognition has not yet been granted to the association, the BCD cannot be faulted for not issuing them the stamps. The BCD, on its part, opposed the association's plea for recognition, saying that it has been the prevalent practice that the council holds the first elections at any newly set up court complex in the national capital for creating the bar association there. It said that if every group of lawyers was allowed to form a bar association at each court complex, then there would be numerous lawyers' bodies which would create a lot of confusion. After hearing both sides, the court directed the BCD to indicate its stand on affidavit and ordered it to refrain from circulating any derogatory messages regarding the petitioner association. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP-sponsored can air live speeches of the PM during the "election silence period" as long as there is no reference to the candidate or constituency going to poll in that particular phase, a senior Election Commission officer said Thursday. On a tweet by Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday seeking votes for his party's on the proposed 'Nyay' scheme, the officer said it does not violate election norms as no candidate or constituency that went to polls today was named. A complaint was lodged with the poll panel, urging it to take down the tweet Speaking to reporters on NaMo TV, Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena said, "Since live speeches are not pre-certified election (campaign) material, they can be aired (by NaMo TV) during the silence period as long as there is no reference to candidate or constituency." The EC has already made it clear that according to electoral laws, the platform cannot display "election matter" during the silence period in a particular phase of the poll. The poll panel has asked the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Delhi to ensure that its directions are followed in each of the remaining five phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The directions were issued to the Delhi CEO as he is the nodal officer to pre-certify political content in TV channels and similar platforms which are beamed nationally. The CEO has also been provided with a committee specifically for the purpose, a source aware of the development said. Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act "prohibits" display of any "election matter" by means of "cinematograph, television or other similar apparatus", 48 hours before the hour fixed for conclusion of poll in a particular constituency. This phase is called the "silence period" as it allows a voter to make up his or her mind on whom to vote without being influenced by political campaigning. Section 126 is not applicable on the print media. The direction, sources said, was issued to bring clarity on the applicability of "silence period" on On Thursday last week, the EC had concluded that since is sponsored by the BJP, all recorded programmes displayed on the platform should be pre-certified by media certification and monitoring committee of Delhi and all political publicity contents being displayed without pre-certification should be removed immediately. After the Congress filed a complaint with the poll panel about the channel disturbing the level playing field, the EC had asked the Delhi CEO to file a report on the issue. Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting told the poll panel that it was an advertising platform that did not require a license from the ministry. The Delhi CEO had approved the logo of NaMo TV, which, the BJP said, is part of the NaMo App that it owns, but did not "certify" the content as it contained the old speeches of Prime Minister "It has been brought to the notice of the commission that NaMo TV/content TV is a platform service offered by DTH operators to the BJP on a paid basisany political publicity material or contents being displayed on electronic media without the requisite certification from competent authority (MCMC in this ease) should be removed immediately and any political content shall only be permitted strictly in accordance with the EC's instructions in this regard," the April 11 directive of the EC read . Elections to 38 Lok Sabha seats and bypolls for 18 Assembly segments in Tamil Nadu Thursday was by and large peaceful and the tentative turnout for Parliamentary polls stood at 69.55 per cent, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said. The turnout figure is likely to go up as data was still being collated, he said. When the figure goes up, it is expected to be more or less correspond to the final tally of 73.68 per cent recorded in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The turnout in the 18 assembly segments recorded 71.62 per cent (both LS and Assembly polls turnout were based on available data at 7 pm) and with Lok Sabha elections in Madurai segment ending at 8 pm, the data collation was still on, Sahoo told reporters here. There was no major law and order issues and a CAPF jawan fired one round in the air to disperse crowds (near Arakkonam), he added. DGP (Elections) Ashutosh Shukla said when the crowds tried to enter a polling station at Kilvisharam under Arakkonam Lok Sabha segment, a Central Armed Police Force jawan opened one round of fire in the air. "Superintendent of Police, Vellore rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control," he added. Minor incidents of violence were reported from five towns, including Gudiyatham and Ariyalur, and the situation was brought under control immediately, he added. Police said four BJP men were allegedly injured in a clash with workers of the DMK and Congress in Kanyakumari. On complaints of technical glitches, Sahoo said 375 ballot units, 228 control units and 766 VVPAT were replaced. "Based on the low replacement rates, we can say the EVM performance has been very good." The EVMs and VVPATs will be moved to counting centres by poll authorities and police in the presence of political parties, the CEO noted. On allegation of deletion of about a lakh of voters' names in Kanyakumari by the Congress, he said they could give a complaint and it will be acted upon. Tamil Nadu brought out the many colours of elections when several centenarians like 102-year-old Jegadambal of Nagapattinam and lakhs of first time voters braved the scorching sun to cast their vote. From Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, DMK chief M K Stalin, Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan were among those who exercised their franchise standing in queues. Party leaders and top film stars including Rajinikanth, Ajit and Vijay were among the prominent personalities who turned up to vote. Indisposed 96-year-old DMK veteran, K Anbazhagan, a colleague of late M Karunanidhi was wheeled in at a booth here to cast his vote. Just after tying the knot, several couples arrived in their traditional bridal attire at the polling stations in areas including Nallampalli (Dharmapuri) and Srivilliputhur (Virudhunagar) to cast their votes. Rain and shine played spoilsport to an extent in some parts of the State in keeping voters away from the polling stations for sometime. While Chennai and other northern parts of Tamil Nadu was blazing hot, some southern parts of the State including Kanyakumari received showers. People switched to protest mode as well in a couple of regions like the villagers of Top Station in Kurangani hill ranges of Theni District to protest lack of basic amenities. "Of the 185 voters of this village, none came forward to cast their vote," Theni District Collector M Pallavi Baldev told PTI. Two elderly men died after casting their votes in Sivagiri (Erode) and Vedappatti (Salem) respectively. A 65-year-old man, who collapsed after emerging from a polling station, was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead in Coimbatore while an 85-year woman died while she was standing in a queue at a booth there. Deletion of names from voters list, non-issuance of voters' slips, malfunctioning of EVMs and technical glitches delaying polling process were among the key complaints of the people. After casting his vote, Stalin alleged that there has been distribution of cash and accused the Election Commission of being an "ally" of central and state governments. Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi, and Karti Chidambaram of Congress are among key contenders. Radhakrishnan told reporters in Kanyakumari: "This is a massive democratic festival which will decide the fate of India. I have exercised my franchise... A silent revolution is happening." AIADMK leader and state minister D Jayakumar said 13 per cent voting in the morning "is a joyous thing.""This shows there is a wave for Amma and MGR," he said, exuding confidence that the AIADMK-BJP combine will emerge victorious. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dhinakaran alleged "malfunctioning of EVMs is an achievement of the Modi government." About 1.40 lakh police personnel and 160 companies of CAPF were deployed in 17,720 polling stations to manage law and order. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Elections to 38 Lok Sabha seats and bypolls for 18 Assembly segments in Tamil Nadu Thursday ended by and large peacefully and the turnout for Parliamentary polls stood at 70.90 per cent, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said. The turnout in the 18 assembly segments recorded 71.62 per cent, he told reporters here. There was no major law and order problems and a Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) jawan fired one round in the air to disperse crowds near Arakkonam, the CEO said. DGP (Elections) Ashutosh Shukla said when the crowds tried to enter a polling station at Kilvisharam under Arakkonam Lok Sabha segment, a CAPF jawan opened one round of fire in the air. "Superintendent of Police, Vellore rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control," he added. Minor incidents of violence were reported from five towns, including Gudiyatham and Ariyalur, and the situation was brought under control immediately, he added. Police said four BJP men were allegedly injured in a clash with workers of the DMK and Congress in Kanyakumari. Tamil Nadu had witnessed 73.68 per cent polling in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Namakkal Lok Sabha seat topped the list with a polling of 79.75 per cent while Chennai South was the lowest with 57.43 per cent. Chennai North (61.76), Chennai Central (57.86) and Sriperumbudur (60.61) on the city outskirts were among the segments that witnessed a comparatively low turnout. As regards Assembly segments, Harur constituency in Dharmapuri district recorded the highest polling percentage of 86.96 while Sattur in Virudhunagar district registered the lowest (60.87). On complaints of technical glitches, Sahoo said 375 ballot units, 228 control units and 766 VVPAT were replaced. "Based on the low replacement rates, we can say the EVM performance has been very good." The EVMs and VVPATs will be moved to counting centres by poll authorities and police in the presence of political parties, the CEO noted. On allegation of deletion of about a lakh of voters' names in Kanyakumari by the Congress, he said they could give a complaint and it will be acted upon. Tamil Nadu brought out the many colours of elections when several centenarians like 102-year-old Jegadambal of Nagapattinam and lakhs of first time voters braved the scorching sun to cast their vote. From Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, DMK chief M K Stalin, Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan were among those who exercised their franchise standing in queues. Party leaders and top film stars including Rajinikanth, Ajit and Vijay were among the prominent personalities who turned up to vote. Indisposed 96-year-old DMK veteran, K Anbazhagan, a colleague of late M Karunanidhi was wheeled in at a booth here to cast his vote. Just after getting married, several couples arrived in their traditional attire at the polling stations in areas including Nallampalli (Dharmapuri) and Srivilliputhur (Virudhunagar) to cast their votes. Rain and shine played spoilsport to an extent in some parts of the State in keeping voters away from the polling stations for sometime. While Chennai and other northern parts of Tamil Nadu was blazing hot, some southern parts of the State including Kanyakumari received showers. People switched to protest mode as well in a couple of regions like the villagers of Top Station in Kurangani hill ranges of Theni District to protest lack of basic amenities. "Of the 185 voters of this village, none came forward to cast their vote," Theni District Collector M Pallavi Baldev told PTI. Two elderly men died after casting their votes in Sivagiri (Erode) and Vedappatti (Salem) respectively. A 65-year-old man, who collapsed after emerging from a polling station, was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead in Coimbatore while an 85-year woman died while she was standing in a queue at a booth there. Deletion of names from voters list, non-issuance of voters' slips, malfunctioning of EVMs and technical glitches delaying polling process were among the key complaints of the people. After casting his vote, Stalin alleged that there has been distribution of cash and accused the Election Commission of being an "ally" of central and state governments. Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi, and Karti Chidambaram of Congress are among key contenders. Radhakrishnan told reporters in Kanyakumari: "This is a massive democratic festival which will decide the fate of India. I have exercised my franchise... A silent revolution is happening." AIADMK leader and state minister D Jayakumar said 13 per cent voting in the morning "is a joyous thing.""This shows there is a wave for Amma and MGR," he said, exuding confidence that the AIADMK-BJP combine will emerge victorious. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dhinakaran alleged "malfunctioning of EVMs is an achievement of the Modi government." About 1.40 lakh police personnel and 160 companies of CAPF were deployed in 17,720 polling stations to manage law and order. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The famous 'dabbawalas' (tiffin-box carriers) in Mumbai have announced their support for the Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha elections. "It is only the Shiv Sena, which always stood behind us for our welfare. It has also promised to construct a 'Dabbawala Bhavan' for us. Only the Sena has included Mumbai's dabbawalas in its 'Vision Mumbai' campaign and it has been taking several initiatives for our betterment," Subhash Talekar, president of Mumbai Dabbawala Association told PTI on Thursday. Election to the six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai is scheduled to be held on April 29. Around 5,000 dabbawalas have been rendering their services to office-goers working in different parts of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane up to Virar in Palghar district. The dabbawalas' efficient system of delivering home-cooked meals to more than two lakh office-goers on time every day has drawn praise from across the world. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Anthony Rapp says he was inspired to speak out against Kevin Spacey after he read Lupita Nyong'o's moving first person account about Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein, once a powerful Hollywood producer, fell spectacularly from grace after multiple women, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie and Nyong'o came forward to allege him of sexual harassment. Allegations against Weinstein sparked the #MeToo movement in Hollywood, inspiring others to share their stories of sexual harassment. Rapp, who was first to speak out against Spacey, says he was initially not sure about coming forward but once he read the account by Nyong'o, he changed his mind. "I was following along with the Harvey Weinstein stories, to some degree, but I wasn't like diving into them. And I hadn't yet really made the connection for myself. Lupita Nyong'o wrote a first person piece in The New York Times about her experience with Harvey. And as they go, she was pretty fortunate in that she was able to avoid the worst of it, but she wrote so beautifully and eloquently about what experience was like for her... "Coupled with it was the knowledge that that had been going on for decades to so many people, and that I knew for a fact several people in my own circle who had had experiences with Kevin Spacey, that it was like that was when the penny dropped, and I had to do something. It wasn't about my own experience, it really was not about airing out my own laundry. I thought that would be the only way that we could stop him," Rapp said told Cameron Esposito on her Queery podcast. But Rapp was worried that his revelation may not be enough to convince people about Spacey's alleged predatory behaviour. "I mean, I truly did not know that my story was enough. I thought - part of what was so powerful about the Harvey Weinstein thing was that there were so many stories. It was unavoidable. You couldn't escape it. So if it was just me, was that gonna be enough? Other people soon came forward against Spacey, leading Netflix to suspend the production of "House of Cards" and eventually moving forward without him. He was also replaced in Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World". "Before any of this happened, none of us thought these dominoes would actually fall... None of us ever thought that anything could ever come of all of this. We all just thought that we'd have to look the other way and get along. It's such a profound paradigm shift. It just didn't seem possible that these people could be removed from power," Spacey denied the allegations against him in a bizarre statement on Twitter in which he also came out as gay. Rapp says he is happy that Spacey is no longer in the position to abuse others. "I feel satisfied that he's on blast and that he can't do that anymore. I don't know in what environment that could happen now. He won't be in a position of power in a workplace situation, where he can do things. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Malegaon blast victim's father and a political activist Thursday moved the special NIA court and the Election Commission respectively seeking barring of prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from contesting the Lok Sabha polls, a day after the BJP fielded her from Bhopal. The BJP, meanwhile, said it will contest the polls in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh as a fight against the alleged "conspiracy" by the Congress to defame Hindu religion by linking it to terrorism. The application before the National Investigation Agency(NIA) court in Mumbai was filed by Nisar Sayeed, who lost his son in the blast in 2008. Special judge V S Padalkar sought replies from both the NIA and Thakur and posted the matter for Monday. The applicant pleaded that Thakur, who is out on bail, be asked to attend court proceedings in Mumbai and be barred from contesting the election as the trial is in progress. Thakur has spent nine years in jail and is out on bail since 2017 on health grounds. If Thakur was "healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat", then she has misled the court, Sayeed alleged. A petition seeking cancellation of her bail is pending before the Supreme Court, the applicant said. Six people were killed and over 100 injured in a bomb blast at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad(ATS) arrested Thakur and others in the case, alleging they were part of a Hindu extremist group which carried out the blast. The NIA later gave Thakur a clean chit, but the court did not discharge her. It dropped charges against her under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, but she is still facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code sections. In a letter to the Election Commission, Poonawalla said the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had found Thakur to be the "principal conspirator" in the Malegaon blast. Her name has also cropped up in the Ajmer Dargah blast case, he said. "I would humbly request the Election Commission of India to take further necessary steps to uphold the Model Code of Conduct 2019 and take appropriate action against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and debar her from contesting elections," the letter said. He said in his letter that "a candidate accused with terror links must not be permitted to contest elections." She also stands accused of "murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, and of promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion", said Poonawalla, who is known for his proximity with the Congress. However, as per the law, any citizen above 25 years of age is eligible to contest polls unless convicted for any crime that entails punishment for two years or more. Calling Thakur an innocent person, BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said she was tortured and asked opposition parties what problem they had if the BJP has fielded her as its candidate. "We are contesting this election in Bhopal as a fight against the Congress conspiracy to insult Hindu religion by linking it to terrorism. Digvijay Singh was the face of this conspiracy," Rao told reporters in Delhi. Singh is the Congress candidate from the seat. Rao alleged that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had "masterminded" this conspiracy, claiming that it was meant to appease a minority community. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 34-year-old man was arrested in connection with a 2012 case in Dwarka in which he allegedly robbed a taxi driver and fled the scene in the same vehicle in Dwarka, police said Thursday. The accused, Mohit Kapoor, is a resident of Faridabad. He was absconding in the robbery case registered at Dwarka South police station, they said. In February 2012, Kapoor, along with his associate, robbed the taxi driver of his belongings, including his mobile phone and purse containing driving licence and Rs 1,500 in cash and later fled in the same vehicle, G Ram Gopal Naik, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) said. Kapoor was arrested on April 16 after police were tipped-off that he would be coming near the Dwarka Court to meet someone following which a trap was laid, he said. He was also involved in a case of attempt to murder and robbery, in which the accused along with his accomplices robbed a jeweller after firing at him in Palam village, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Dehradun-bound passenger has been apprehended at the Delhi airport for allegedly carrying six live bullet rounds in his baggage, an official said Thursday. A Central Industrial Security Force officer, deputed at terminal-1D of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) to scan baggages, detected bullet-like objects while checking the bag of passenger R K Baid on Wednesday, he said. "Six live bullet rounds of 7.65 mm calibre gun were recovered from the passenger who was supposed to take a flight to Dehradun," the official said. The traveller was not allowed to board the flight and was handed over to the Delhi Police as he could not produce any document for the ammunition, he added. Carrying arms and ammunition inside an airport terminal area or an aircraft is banned under the aviation laws. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) president Thursday questioned the impartiality of officials during polling in Uttar Pradesh and demanded immediate action by the "The role of administrative and police officials in Uttar Pradesh has continuously been biased towards the BJP which affects free and fair elections," she said in a statement. "The needs to take immediate action in this connection," she added. Referring to an incident involving Bulandshahr MP Bhola Singh, who was allegedly found seeking people's "blessing" at a polling booth, she said though the district administration restricted his movement, no action was taken against the head of the district administration who allowed him to move about in the polling area. She said during the first phase of polling on April 11, officials had acted in a biased manner because of which people belonging to the weaker sections had been stopped from voting. A complaint was then lodged but no action was taken, she added. The president also thanked voters for coming out in large numbers to cast their votes. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) supremo Thursday alleged that the has an anti- mindset and that was why it had stopped her from campaigning in Agra, considered the ' capital' of northern She also claimed that BJP leaders are taking the Army's name in their poll speeches violating the model code of conduct, but the is keeping mum. Mayawati, a leader, also described the proposed 'NAYA' scheme as the 'jumla' of the "The Election Commission, which has an anti-dalit mindset, stopped me from campaigning in the capital of dalits, Victory of candidates in order to form its government at the Centre will be the appropriate reply to the Commission," said at a poll meeting here. The had imposed a 48-hour ban from 6 am on Tuesday on on campaigning for her "provocative" communal remarks which, it said, had the "propensity to polarise the elections". The former UP chief minister was scheduled to campaign in on Tuesday. Attacking the Congress, she described the proposed minimum income scheme 'NAYA' as 'jumla'. "We do not believe in jumlas like the which promises to provide Rs 6,000 as minimum income. We will give permanent jobs to farmers in government and private sectors if comes to power at the Centre," Mayawati said. The BSP has not come out with any manifesto as it does not believe in making making mere announcements, she said adding that it wants to carry out development works. Parties like the and the BJP release their manifestos during poll time and forget its promises later, Mayawati alleged. All these 'jumlebazi' and 'chowkidari' will not be able to save the BJP government, she claimed. It is because of the BJP that the private sector follows no reservation policy, Mayawati alleged. The BSP leader asked women to prepare for the men in the family only when they come back home after exercising their franchise. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court has given a ray of hope to people on death row who develop "severe mental illness" post-conviction, saying their health condition would now be a "mitigating" factor for appellate courts for sparing them from the gallows. An accused could till now take the plea of "legal insanity" under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to avoid criminal prosecution and the defence was "made relatable to the moment when the crime is committed". A three-judge bench headed by Justice N V Ramana spared a condemned prisoner, who has not been identified in the verdict owing to his mental condition. He was given death penalty in a barbaric rape and murder of two minor cousins in Maharashtra in 1999. It, however, took note of "barbaric and brutal manner of commission of the crime" and awarded the jail term to the convict for "remainder of his life" with the direction to the government to ensure proper mental health care to him. The bench, also comprising Justices M M Shantanagoudar and Indira Banerjee, was faced with "complex questions" concerning relationship between mental illness and crime and as to how "culpability" of a convict can be assessed if he develops mental condition after the court finds him guilty. Delineating directions to be followed by appellate courts on sentencing mentally-ill accused, the bench said: "The post-conviction severe mental illness will be a mitigating factor that the appellate Court, in appropriate cases, needs to consider while sentencing an accused to death penalty. "The assessment of such disability should be conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of qualified professionals (experienced medical practitioners, criminologists etc), including professional with expertise in accused person's particular mental illness." To prevent misuse of the directions, the top court said the burden would be on the accused to prove "by a preponderance of clear evidence" that he is suffering with severe mental illness. "The accused has to demonstrate active, residual or prodromal symptoms, that the severe mental disability was manifesting," it said. The court said that the state government would be at liberty to "offer evidence to rebut such claim" of insanity or mental illness. The court in appropriate cases could set up a panel to submit an expert report on the claim of mental illness of convicts, it said. "Test of severity' envisaged...predicates that the offender needs to have a severe mental illness or disability, which simply means that objectively the illness needs to be most serious that the accused cannot understand or comprehend the nature and purpose behind the imposition of such punishment," it said. To understand the phenomenon of post-conviction mental illness, the bench took note of the reports of the World Health Organisation and the International Red Cross. "It is well acknowledged fact throughout the world that, prisons are difficult places to be in." There are multiple circumstances such as over-crowding, various forms of violence, enforced solitude, lack of privacy, inadequate health care facilities, concerns about family can take a toll on the mental health of the prisoners, it said. It assessed the inclusion of post-conviction mental illness as a determining factor to hold that a case does not fall under the category of the "rarest of the rare" warranting the award of death penalty. The mental disorders, for sparing the death row convicts from the gallows, would "generally include schizophrenia, other serious psychotic disorders, and dissociative disorders with schizophrenia.". The convict, in the present case, was awarded death penalty by the trial court in the twin rape and murder case and both the high court and the apex court upheld the sentence. The review plea against the apex court verdict was also rejected. The apex court entertained the second review plea and passed the slew of directions on sentencing of convicts who develop mental conditions post convictions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said the NRC, which the BJP proposes to implement in the country if it comes to power, will boomerang on the saffron party and become the "NBC - National Bidaay (Farewell) Certificate". Banerjee, who was addressing a poll rally at Maldaha North parliamentary constituency, reiterated that she will not allow NRC in the state and called upon the people to throw out the Modi government for its 'divisive politics'. She also hit out at the Congress and the CPI-M saying that they had lost their relevance. "We will not allow NRC in Bengal and the decision for NRC will boomerang on the BJP and become the NBC or 'National Bidaay (Farewell) Certificate'. The Modi government must be thrown out," Banerjee said. Repeating her allegation that the saffron party is trying to divide the nation on religious lines, the Trinamool Congress supremo said people will give it a befitting reply by voting it out of power. She also claimed that her party would play the key role in forming the new government at the Centre. Stating that the Modi government is known for bluffing, Banerjee said "People will not pardon the BJP government any more for depriving them. Modi must face the consequences of bluffing and giving false assurances to the people." Criticising the Congress and the Left parties for their role in the current political situation in the country, she said "Both the parties have lost their relevance." "While the Congress has been sold out, the Left parties have lost their relevance ... It is the RSS which is now campaigning for the Congress and even distributing money to bribe the voters."Banerjee assured the people of the area of more development and called upon the people to caste their votes in favour of Mausam Benazir Noor, a Congress MP who had joined the TMC. Speaking at Pakuahat in the same district later, Banerjee alleged that the Congress was hand-in-glove with the RSS, which was campaigning for it and even distributing money to bribe the voters. Banerjee alleged that RSS is helping Congress in Jangipur and Baharampur Lok Sabha seats in Murshidabad district. While Abhijit Mukherjee, son of former president Pranab Mukherjee, is contesting in Jangipur, former WBPCC president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is in the fray in Baharampur. "Defeat the BJP, Congress and Left combine and elect our (TMC) candidates, who will help to form the new government at the Centre," Banerjee added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Poll authorities in Madhya Pradesh have banned the Congress's advertisement campaign 'chowkidar chor hai' in the state and an Election Commission officer said Thursday that the decision could have a pan-india impact. The order to ban the campaign was issued by Madhya Pradesh's Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Rajesh Kaul, on Wednesday. Kaul has informed all district officials in Madhya Pradesh that the media certification and inspection committee had cancelled the advertisement's certification and it should be banned across the state. The ban by the state's poll authorities will have a pan-India impact as other states and district-level media certification committees will take cognisance of the decision when the advertisement comes up for approval, a senior EC officer indicated to reporters here. The Congress's 'chowkidar chor hai' slogan is targeted at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who refers to himself as 'chowkidar' (watchman). There is no centralised media certification committee to clear political advertisements and campaign material during elections. While national parties approach the Delhi chief electoral officer for clearance, state parties approach their respective states. State units of national parties an also approach state pre-certification committees. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three persons were arrested for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a ten-year-old boy in Sagda village near here, police said Thursday. According to police, had executed the kidnapping to extort money from the boy's family. "Some of the villagers had last seen the boy, Badal Giri Goswami, going with the trio, which led to their arrest," Jabalpur superintendent of Police (SP) Nimesh Agrawal said. During the interrogation, one of the accused, Mukesh Sripal, revealed that they wanted ransom from the boy's family, he said. "The accused told that they had lost huge money in gambling. They were in dire need of money to compensate the loss. Therefore, they hatched a plan and kidnapped the boy," he said. The boy was kidnapped on April 8. On the same day, the boy's uncle lodged a missing person's report with the police. However, the trio killed the minor when they saw their plan failing, he said. A couple of days later, the residents of Sagda village complained of bad odour emanating from a locked house, he said. "When the police went inside the house, the boy's decomposed body was found lying in the corridor. The body was tied with electric wires and wrapped in a plastic bag," he said. The three accused- Manohar Lal Tiwari alias Guddu (39), Mukesh Sripal (39) and Anil Goswami (38)- all residents of Sagda were arrested. Tiwari, who was undergoing jail term in a 2008 murder case, was recently released on bail, the SP said. Chargawan police have booked the trio under relevant sections of the IPC. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The nearly two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller found "no evidence" of a "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 US elections, Attorney General William Barr Thursday announced Thursday, in a major relief to President Donald Trump. Addressing the media at the Department of Justice here on the release of Mueller's redacted report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller was chosen to head the investigation in 2017 following concerns from US intelligence agencies that Russia had tried to tip the election in Trump's favour. The businessman-turned-politician defeated former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Barr said Mueller investigated a number of links or contacts between Trump Campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government. "After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate US law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign," Barr said on the 400-page report. He, however, said the Russian government sought to interfere in US election process. Barr emphasised that the primary purposes of the Special Counsel's investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. The Special Counsel's report states that his "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." "I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the Special Counsel's report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. "But thanks to the Special Counsel's thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign -- or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter," he said. "That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed," Barr said. He said the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and e-mails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicising those e-mails. Again, the Special Counsel's report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations, Barr said. "In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign "collusion" with the Russian government's hacking," the Attorney General said. "So that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes," he said. He also said President Trump did not commit an obstruction-of-justice offense. Barr said there were 10 episodes involving Trump that were scrutinised for possible obstruction of justice. "As I said several times, the report contains limited redactions relating to four categories of information. To ensure as much transparency as possible, these redactions have been clearly labelled and color-coded so that readers can tell which redactions correspond to which categories," Barr said. Most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, he said. These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the Special Counsel's Office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases. The redactions are their work product. The President's personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions, Barr said. Earlier on Thursday, President Trump said the Mueller probe was "Greatest Political Hoax of all time!" "Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats," tweeted Trump, who refers his election rival and former secretary of state Clinton as "Crooked". Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler said he has sent a letter to Mueller - requiring his testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee by May 23. "We cannot take Attorney General Barr's word for it. We must read the full Mueller report, and the underlying evidence. This is about transparency and ensuring accountability," Nadler said. Democrats in Congress have demanded a full unredacted report, and want Mueller to testify to Congress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nearly 65 per cent polling was recorded in Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency, while the turnout was low in Srinagar seat with nearly 15 per cent voters exercising their franchise till 5 pm on Thursday in the second phase of general elections in Jammu and Kashmir, according to poll officials. No major untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. However, there was a protest by a group of displaced Kashmiri migrants in Jammu after some of the members found their names missing in the voters list at a special polling station. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 64.78 per cent polling, with Udhampur district registering the highest of 72.2 per cent till 5 pm, poll officials said. Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency recorded nearly 15 per cent polling, with highest 21 per cent polling recorded in Shia dominated Budgam district till 5 pm, they said, adding polling has been peaceful so far. Polling concludes at 6 pm. In the 2014 election, Srinagar witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country at 25.86 per cent whereas Udhampur witnessed 70.9 per cent polling. Over 29.81 lakh people in the two seats are eligible to vote to decide the fate of 24 candidates, including former Chief Minister and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister Jitendra Singh who are contesting for Srinagar and Udhampur Parliamentary constituencies respectively. For migrant voters of Srinagar constituency, 26 polling stations were set up with 21 in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in New Delhi. Out of 4,700 eligible to vote, 2,100 voters exercised their franchise. Kashmiri migrants demanded a probe into missing of names in the voters list at a special polling station here. A group of people also staged protest for not setting up polling station at Talwara (Reasi) for over 600 migrant voters. "No polling station was setup at Talwara migrant camp for voting. We have 673 votes here. DC Reasi first promised us polling station but later refused. We were told that buses will be given to us for ensuring voting at our places, but no vehicles were sent," a migrant leader told reporters. The protesters raised slogans against district authorities of Reasi and the Election Commission. Voters in border district of Kathua and Udhampur turned up in large numbers at polling booths this morning to exercise their franchise, officials said. The family members of senior RSS Leader Chanderkant Sharma, who was killed along with his PSO by terrorists in Kishtwar last Tuesday, cast their votes at Kishtwar after performing the post-death rituals on 10th day. Surikant Sharma, elder brother of the deceased RSS leader, demanded that the killers be arrested and hanged to death. Authorities Thursday order suspension of two poll officials including a presiding officer for dereliction of duty in Kishtwar. A newly-married couple was seen in their wedding finery at a polling station in Udhampur town. The enthusiastic couple said youths should come out to vote. There was a problem with EVM at a polling station in Ramban district but it was later rectified. Raj Devi, 95, voted at a polling station in Chenani in Udhampur district. Police and paramilitary personnel were deployed in strength in and around polling stations in all three districts -- Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal -- of the constituency, the officials said. Separatists had called for a shutdown in the three districts against the Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, authorities snapped mobile internet services in these districts as a precautionary measure. "The mobile internet service has been suspended as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order," an official said. The BSNL's broadband service was working, but its speed has been decreased. In Srinagar, Abdullah is pitched against political greenhorns Aga Moshin of the PDP, Irfan Ansari of the People's Conference and Khalid Jehangir of the BJP. In Udhampur, prominent contestants include four Rajputs: Union minister Jitendra Singh seeking reelection on a BJP ticket, Dogra dynasty scion Vikramaditya Singh fighting as a Congress candidate, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan founder Choudhary Lal Singh and National Panthers party chairman Harsh Dev Singh. Udhampur parliamentary seat has 16, 85,779 electors and with 2,710 polling stations. Srinagar constituency has 12,95,304 registered voters and 1,716 polling stations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) North Korea said Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of "tactical guided weapon," its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations. The test, which didn't appear to be of a banned mid- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle negotiations, allows North Korea to show its people it is pushing ahead with weapons development while also reassuring domestic military officials worried that diplomacy with Washington signals weakness. Separately, the North Korean Foreign Ministry accused Pompeo of playing down the significance of comments by leader Kim Jong Un, who said last week that Washington has until the end of the year to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy. Both the demand for Pompeo's removal from the talks and the weapon test point to North Korea's displeasure with the deadlocked negotiations. In a statement issued under the name of Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the American Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry, North Korea accused Pompeo of "talking nonsense" and misrepresenting Kim's comments. During a speech at Texas A&M on Monday, Pompeo said Kim promised to denuclearize during his first summit with President Donald Trump and that U.S. officials were working with the North Koreans to "chart a path forward so we can get there." "He (Kim) said he wanted it done by the end of the year," Pompeo said. "I'd love to see that done sooner." The North Korean statement said Pompeo was "misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement" for the negotiations to be finalized by the year's end, and referred to his "talented skill of fabricating stories." It said Pompeo's continued participation in the negotiations would ensure that the talks become "entangled" and called for a different counterpart who is "more careful and mature in communicating with us." In a speech at his rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim said he is open to a third summit with Trump, but only if the United States changes its stance on sanctions enforcement and pressure by the end of the year. Kim observed the unspecified weapon being fired Wednesday by the Academy of Defense Science, the North's state-run Korean Central Agency said. Kim was reported to have said "the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army." The Associated Press could not independently verify North Korea's claim, and it wasn't immediately clear what had been tested. A major ballistic missile test would jeopardize the diplomatic talks meant to provide the North with concessions in return for disarmament. A South Korean analyst said that details in the North's media report indicate it could have been a new type of cruise missile. Another possible clue: one of the lower level officials mentioned in the North's report on the test Pak Jong Chon is known as an artillery official. Some in Seoul worry that the North will turn back to actions seen as provocative by outsiders as a way to force Washington to drop its hard-line negotiating stance and grant the North's demand for a removal of crushing international sanctions. A string of increasingly powerful weapons tests in 2017 and Trump's response of "fire and fury" had many fearing war before the North shifted to diplomacy. Russia announced Thursday that Kim will visit later this month for talks at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, but gave no further details. Russian media have been abuzz in recent days with rumors about the rare meeting between the leaders. Putin is to visit China later this month, and some media speculated that he could meet with Kim in Vladivostok, the far eastern port city near the border with North Korea. Trump said last month that he "would be very disappointed if I saw testing." There have been fresh reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research center and long-range rocket site where the North is believed to build missiles targeting the U.S. mainland. North Korean media said Wednesday that Kim guided a flight drill of combat pilots from an air force and anti-aircraft unit tasked with defending the North from an attack. Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said North Korea's descriptions of the test show the weapon is possibly a newly developed cruise missile. The North's report said the "tactical guided weapon" successfully tested in a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" and demonstrated the ability to deliver a "powerful warhead." The analyst said the test could also be intended as a message to the North Korean people and military of a commitment to maintaining a strong level of defense even as it continues talks with Washington over nukes. Melissa Hanham, a non-proliferation expert and director of the Datayo Project at the One Earth Future Foundation, said the North Korean weapon could be anything from an anti-tank weapon to a cruise missile. The North said Thursday that Kim Jong Un mounted an observation post to learn about and guide the test-fire of the weapon. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) North Korea on Thursday demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, accusing him of derailing discussions. "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of American Affairs at North Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry said, according to the official KCNA agency. "Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the US, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but... (another) person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday said there will be no alliance with the Congress in Haryana after the grand old party refused to have a tie-up in any other state apart from Delhi. Uncertainty prevails over the alliance in Delhi, with sources saying that an internal meeting was held at the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to discuss the 4:3 seat sharing arrangement, with four seats for the ruling party, but no conclusion was reached. The AAP has proposed 5:2 seat sharing with five seats for the ruling party and two for the Congress. Haryana state party incharge Naveen Jaihind said talks over alliance in Haryana in a seat-sharing formula of 6:3:1 were held between senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh and Congress general secretary incharge of Haryana Ghulam Nabi Azad. "Six seats for Congress, three seats for the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and one for the AAP but the Congress abruptly called off the talks," Jaihind said, adding that a meeting was also held between former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and AAP party member Sushil Gupta. The AAP is contesting the upcoming polls in Haryana in alliance with the JJP, which was launched by former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala's grandson Dushyant Chautala, following a power struggle in the state's main opposition INLD last year. Dushyant said there is no question of an alliance in Haryana as it is against their ideology. "From day one, we had clarified that we could not join hands with the Congress whose hollow and corrupt policies affected the country. I want to clarify that there is no question of forming an alliance with the Congress and we held no talks with the Congress in this matter," he said. Dushyant also announced names of four out of seven candidates who will be contesting from the JJP. The AAP will be fielding three candidates in Haryana, from Ambala, Karnal and Faridabad. Jaihind said the AAP would have tried to convince the JJP to form an alliance with the Congress, had the grand old party agreed to the 6:3:1 seat sharing arrangement. AAP party leader Gopal Rai said the party tried till the last moment to forge an alliance in Haryana but the Congress refused last minute and maintained that an alliance could be formed only in Delhi in 4:3 arrangement. The Congress, on the other hand, said that the prospects of its alliance with the AAP are almost finished. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has "refused" to have alliance with Congress for Delhi alone, said PC Chacko, All India Congress Committee(AICC) incharge of Delhi unit of the party. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea which had alleged that Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was considered a "saint" by many in the Sikh community, was referred to as a "terrorist" in a Balbharti textbook in Maharashtra. The court said it had gone through the contested text, but did not find any "insulting or irreverent reference" made to Bhindranwale. "The name of Saint Bhindranwale (sic) is mentioned with reference to his support for the Khalistan movement... and the books say that operation 'Blue Star' (in 1984) was undertaken to evict terrorists out of the Golden temple (in Amritsar)," the court said in its written order. "It is in this context that we must read the alleged offending sentence," a bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre said. The bench pronounced its judgement on the writ petition filed by city-based lawyer Amritpal Singh Khalsa. In his plea filed through advocate Mathew Nedumpara, Khalsa had raised objections to certain contents in the Balbharti textbook of history and political science prescribed for students of Class 9. Khalsa said in his plea that a chapter in the book referred to Bhindranwale "as a terrorist and claimed that he was arrested by the police despite the fact that he was never arrested in his life". The plea claimed that the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbooks Production and Curriculum Research (popularly known as Balbharti) spreads "vicious propaganda against the Sikh struggle movement" and that "shaheed Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was considered a saint by many people in the Sikh community." The plea, however, was opposed by the Maharashtra government that had urged the court to dismiss the petition, saying the text in the book had been approved by a team of experts. The state's counsel, V A Thorat, had also said that Khalsa, the petitioner, was just an individual and did not represent the entire Sikh community. The court noted in its judgement that the petitioner had made the allegation merely relying on just a part of the chapter and that he had failed to read the text in context of the wider topic covered in the chapter. "The chapter covers topics, including India's internal challenges. While referring to the unrest in Punjab, the demand for an independent state, all the events are set out," the bench observed. It said the contents of the chapter did not refer to Bhindranwale as a "terrorist". "If the chapter is read as a whole, then we do not find anything there in which would hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikh community," the court said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj Thursday said no Pakistani soldier or citizen died in the air strike carried out by the Indian Air Force across the border in response to the Pulwama terror attack in February. Addressing women party workers here, she stressed on a 2014-like full majority BJP-led government this time also, saying former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee could not do everything which he wanted to because he was heading a coalition administration. The IAF had struck a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist training camp in Pakistan's Balakot area on February 26, in response to the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Swaraj said the air strike was carried out in self- defence. "When we carried out air strike across the border after the Pulwama terror attack, we had told the international community that we took that step in self-defence only. "We had told the international community that the armed forces were instructed not to harm any Pakistani citizen or its soldier during the strike," she said. "The Army was told to target only the terror camps of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, which had taken the responsibility for the Pulwama attack. "And, our Army did the same without harming any Pakistani citizen or soldier," said Swaraj. The foreign minister said the entire international community supported had India over the air strike. Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said he has emerged as a top international leader who sets the agenda for the world. Referring to the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, Swaraj said the then Congress-led UPA government had failed to take along other countries to isolate Pakistan in the world despite the fact that 40 foreign citizens belonging to 14 countries had also died in the strike. The External Affairs Minister said Pakistan had raised objection to the invitation extended to India for a meet of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Abu Dhabi last month, but the host county UAE snubbed Islamabad. Stressing on a full majority government led by the BJP this time also, Swaraj said Vajpayee could not do all the things he wanted because he was heading a coalition government (1998-2004). Swaraj, who was a minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet also, said coalition governments face pressure. "You must be wondering how Modiji could do so many things in these five years. He could do it because he was heading a full majority government. "If he was running a coalition government, then he might have been in some pressure," she said. "I have seen it. I was a minister in the Vajpayee government. Atalji wanted to do so many things. "But, since he was heading a coalition government, he could not do all those things. Modiji could do it because people gave us a full majority," said Swaraj. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as 90 polling booths, mostly in downtown city, saw no voting in Thursday's elections to the Srinagar Parliamentary seat, sources said. The Srinagar constituency comprising eight assembly segments recorded zero turnout in as many as 50 polling booths. The majority of these booths were located in Eidgah, Khanyar, Habba Kadal and Batmaloo, sources said. Barring the Sonawar assembly segment, where former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar cast their votes, all other seven assembly seats recorded a single digit voting percentage with Eidgah at 3.3 per cent by the end of the polling. Sonawar recorded 12 per cent polling. In the neighbouring Ganderbal district, which is a part of the Srinagar parliamentary seat, as many as 27 polling booths recorded no votes at the end of the day. The same was the case with 13 booths of Budgam, which witnessed large scale violence in 2017 by-elections to Lok Sabha. In Budgam area, Chadoora saw the lowest turnout at 9.2 per cent among the five assembly segments, while Chrar-e-Sharief recorded the highest turn out of 31.1 per cent. The National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah, who is the sitting MP from this constituency, is again contesting from this seat for the 17th Lok Sabha. PDP has fielded Aga Syed Mohsin, while Khalid Jahangir from BJP and Peoples Conference's Irfan Ansari are also in the fray. The Congress, which is an ally of NC, has stayed away from contesting Srinagar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than fifty Boko Haram fighters have been killed in an attack on a multi-national force in northeastern Nigeria, a military spokesperson said Wednesday. Two Chadian soldiers belonging to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MMF), an anti-Boko Haram force combining soldiers from Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, died in the assault at Cross Kauwa on Tuesday, Colonel Azem Bermandoa said. Eleven other soldiers were injured. "Fifty-two members of Boko Haram have been killed. Chadian forces have recovered a vehicle equipped with a heavy weapon and several small arms," Bermandoa said. Boko Haram's nearly 10-year insurgency has its epicentre in northeast Nigeria, but has spilled over into Chad, Niger and Cameroon. It has left more than 27,000 people dead and about 1.8 million others homeless. In late February, more than 500 Chadian soldiers entered Nigeria to aid the Nigerian army in the fight against the jihadist group. On Sunday night, seven Chadian soldiers were also killed in a Boko Haram attack in the town of Bouhama in Chad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Army took a jibe at India on Thursday after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj acknowledged that no civilian or soldier was killed in the Balakot attack, saying New Delhi should also take back its claim about the shooting down of a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet and the 2016 surgical strike. The statement by army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor came hours after Swaraj said that no Pakistani soldier or civilian died in the air strike on a terror camp at Balakot in Pakistan in February. "Hopefully, so will be about other false Indian claims i.e. surgical strike 2016, denial of shooting down of 2 IAF jets by PAF and claim about F16. Better late than never," Ghafoor said in a twet. Pakistan has denied that the Indian Air Force jets attacked terrorists in Balakot. In Ahmedabad, addressing BJP's women workers, Swaraj said that the Indian military was given a "free hand" in the operation but was clearly told that no Pakistani civilian should be killed and also there be "not even a scratch" on the Pakistani army. "We told them (the international community) that our air strike was in self-defence...we had given a free hand to the Army but had also given two directions too - no civilian of Pakistan (Pakistan ka koi nagrik) should die. Pakistan's Army should not be touched. "Your target should is those terrorists of JeM which had taken responsibility for killing 40 persons in Pulwama," she said. The IAF had struck a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror training camp in Pakistan on February 26, in response to the February 14 Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Pakistan had categorically said that no F-16 fighter jets were used and denied that one of its planes had been downed by the IAF. Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the Pulwama attack. India launched a counter-terror operation against a JeM training camp in Balakot. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan on Thursday said it is "keen" to hold a meeting with India soon to finalise an agreement for the opening of the Kartarpur corridor, days after the two countries held a meeting on the technical aspects of the proposal. The Kartarpur corridor links Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Narowal with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in Punjab. Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that work is proceeding rapidly on the Pakistani side on the Kartarpur corridor. "In view of paucity of time, we are keen to hold the meeting to finalise the draft agreement at the earliest. The meeting is specifically to discuss differences related to proposals of both countries for operationalising the corridor and to align positions to build convergence. We hope India will agree to hold a meeting at the earliest," he said. "Both sides agreed to share the technical design/parameters for passage of flood water at the earliest," he said. The spokesman announced that the Evacuee Trust Board Pakistan was all set to launch a special coin and postal stamp to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak. The technical-level talks took place on April 16. Officials said in New Delhi that at the nearly four-hour-long meeting, which took place in makeshift tents at "Zero point" of the proposed corridor, experts and technicians from both the countries discussed "timing for completion of bridge, alignment of roads and engineering aspects of the proposed crossing points". In November 2018, India and Pakistan agreed to set up the border crossing linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak, to Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspurdistrict. Kartarpur is located in Pakistan's Narowal district across the Ravi,about four km from the Dera Baba Nanak. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's Finance Minister Asad Umar abruptly quit the Cabinet on Thursday before securing a crucial multi-billion dollar IMF bailout package for the cash-strapped country, amid mounting criticism by the opposition and business community over the handling of the economic crisis. Umar, who recently returned from a trip to the US in which the details of Pakistan's next International Monetary Fund bailout were finalised, said he has obtained Prime Minister Imran Khan's consent "to not take any cabinet position". "As part of a cabinet reshuffle, prime minister desired that I take the energy minister portfolio instead of finance," said Umar, one of the close aides of the prime minister. "However, I have obtained his consent to not take any cabinet position." Later, addressing a press conference here, Umar said that it was time to make some "difficult decisions" to stabilise the economy and that he hopes his replacement would be supported in their efforts. "I don't know if there has been a conspiracy or not (to remove me) but all I know is that my 'captain' (Imran Khan) wanted to see me in the role of the energy minister. I did not think that would be a great idea so I refused," a visibly upset Umar said. Prime Minister Khan-led government and Finance Minister Umar in particular have faced mounting criticism by opposition parties, members of the business community and citizens over the handling of the economic crisis. Cash-strapped Pakistan is seeking USD 8 billion from the IMF to bail itself out from a severe balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple the country's economy. Pakistan has so far received a total of USD 9.1 billion in financial aid packages from friendly countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE during the current fiscal year. "We have finalised the IMF agreement on much better terms than before. It is the time to take difficult decisions; I have made these decisions, I refused to take the decisions that would have crushed the nation," Umar said. Responding to a question, the finance minister defended his performance and said "Who says that I have failed in achieving what I wanted to achieve?" He said the new team will look at things with fresh eyes and they can come up with better decisions. "I believe that this decision should be made as soon as possible ... we are about to go to the IMF, we are about to present the budget. This is already too late, the next person should have come in earlier, at least a month ago," Umar told reporters in response to a question on his replacement. It was immediately not clear who will replace Umar. The new finance minister's first priority would be to finalise the much-needed bailout package with the IMF to overcome the financial crisis. Finance Minister Umar said earlier this month that a mission of the IMF would visit Islamabad soon after the spring meetings of the World Bank Group, which includes the IMF, and an agreement should be signed by the end of this month. On Monday, the Pakistani media reported that a major reshuffle was on the cards in the Finance Ministry. However, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry denied the reports of the reshuffle. "There is no truth in reports regarding changes in posts of federal ministers. The prime minister has the power to change ministers and the media should play a responsible role on this subject," he tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scheme Meeting - Chairman's Address Sydney, April 17, 2019 AEST (ABN Newswire) - In accordance with ASX Listing Rule 3.13.3, attached to this announcement is a copy of the address to be given by the Chairman of MYOB Group Limited ( ASX:MYO ), Mr Justin Milne, to the attendees of the Scheme Meeting to be held today at MYOB Offices, Level 8, 45 Clarence Street, Sydney 2000, commencing at 3.00pm (AEST).Capitalised terms used but not defined in the attached document have the meaning given to them in the Scheme Booklet.To view tables and figures, please visit:About Myob Group Ltd MYOB Group Ltd (ASX:MYO) is a leading provider of online business management solutions. It makes business life easier for approximately 1.2 million businesses and accountants across Australia and New Zealand by simplifying accounting, payroll, tax, practice management, CRM, job costing, inventory and more. MYOB operates across three core segments Clients and Partners (business solutions to SMEs and Advisers); Enterprise Solutions (larger businesses) and Payment Solutions. It provides ongoing support through client service channels including a network of over 40,000 accountants, bookkeepers and other consultants. It is committed to ongoing innovation, particularly through its Connected Practice Strategy and through the development of the MYOB Platform. For more information, follow @MYOB on Twitter or visit http://investors.myob.com.au/Investors Pakistan will not be "pressured" by anyone on the issue of banning Masood Azhar, a top official here said on Thursday, a day after China dismissed reports that the US, the UK and France have served an ultimatum to Beijing to lift its "technical hold" on designating the JeM chief as a global terrorist by the UN. Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that Pakistan has a clear stance on Azhar. India says Pakistan-based Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group was behind the deadly February 14 attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Asked about China putting a technical hold to prevent Azhar from being designated a global terrorist at the UN, Faisal said: "Whatever decision Pakistan takes in this regard will be in its national interest. Pakistan will not be pressured by anyone". China Wednesday dismissed reports that the US, the UK and France have served an ultimatum to Beijing to lift its "technical hold" by April 23 on branding Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN but claimed the vexed issue was "moving towards settlement". After the Pulwama attack, a fresh proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, the US and the UK. However, China, a close ally of Pakistan, blocked the bid by putting a "technical hold" on the proposal. Following this, the US, backed by the UK and France, moved directly to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to blacklist Azhar. China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC, opposed the move, saying the issue should be resolved at the 1267 Committee itself which also functioned under the top UN body. China, which has previously blocked bids to blacklist Azhar thrice, stalled it once again at the 1267 Committee of the UN on March 14 by putting a "technical hold". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japanese consumer electronics major Panasonic, which Thursday announced its plans to ramp up smart factory solutions business in India, is targeting a revenue of around Rs 1,000 crore from the segment in three years. Panasonic expects its solutions and digital manufacturing to contribute around 15 per cent to the total revenue from the smart factory business, the company said in a statement. It has integrated its welding and surface-mount technology (SMT) equipment businesses to consolidate its software and hardware capabilities and to become an end-to-end integrated smart manufacturing solutions company, it added. "The company targets to achieve Rs 1,000 crore in revenue from its smart factory business in the next three years, with solutions and digital manufacturing expected to contribute 15 per cent to the total smart factory business revenue," said Panasonic. The smart factory solutions proposition will enable Panasonic to deliver high value-added and smart solutions and services along with hardware to the manufacturing industry. Panasonic India President and Chief Executive Officer Manish Sharma said: "The key technology to realise a smart factory is to connect various equipment through the internet of things (IoT), to synchronise them and collect and control data from the equipment in real time for entire production processes." The company is focused on building solutions that cater to the needs of customers and will aggressively ramp up its portfolio of smart factory solutions, he added. Panasonic plans to open a technical centre for its smart factory solutions also, as it is focusing to make India as its innovation hub and create an ecosystem of component and automated manufacturing in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Ram Madhav Thursday said what Prime Minister Narendra Modi did in five years, the Congress could not do in 55 years. He was addressing first-time voters at a function organised in Delhi University's Daulat Ram College. "There are more than 12 million young voters in the country which can make any government," Madhav said. He said the youths have the power to build a new India with their votes. The youth of India is "superior" to the youth of any country in the world, Madhav said. "The new voters of the country have got the world's best leadership in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Youths are credited with making Swachh Bharat Mission successful in every corner of the country," he said. For the first time in the country, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, there is a government which has done work in five years which Congress had not done in 55 years, he claimed. "There is no single charge of corruption on the present government. Our country has joined the world's five largest economies. The army is answering the enemies in the language of the enemy on the border. Modi ji has developed everything in the country on the basis Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas," he added. Delhi votes in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on May 12. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP Thursday said it will contest Lok Sabha election in Bhopal, where it has fielded Malegaon blast case accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, as a fight against the Congress' "conspiracy" to defame Hindu religion by linking it to terrorism. Its spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao claimed that the conspiracy has been "exposed", claiming that Thakur has been discharged in some cases. He also mentioned the arrest of Hindutva activist Swami Aseemanand and his recent acquittal to attack the opposition party. Thakur has been discharged of stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act but is still facing other serious charges in the case. Aseemanand was recently acquitted in the Samjhauta Express blast case. "We are contesting this election in Bhopal as a fight against the Congress conspiracy to insult Hindu religion by linking it to terrorism. Digvijay Singh was the face of this conspiracy," Rao told reporters. Singh is the Congress candidate from the seat. Dubbing Thakur as an innocent person, he said she was tortured and asked opposition parties what problem they have if the BJP has fielded her as its candidate. He alleged that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had "masterminded" this conspiracy, claiming that it was meant to appease a minority community. He also claimed that "Islamic terror" is an accepted notion the world over as "large number of terror organisations perpetrate terror in the name of the religion". The press conference was cut short when a man threw shoes towards him and BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, who was sitting besides him. The accused was immediately restrained by a party worker and was bundled out by security. He was later taken into police custody for questioning. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The early morning birth of his second child and immediate medical concerns of his family did not deter Sandeep Mishra, a Bangalore-based techie, from casting his vote for the Lok Sabha polls in the state on Thursday. Mishra (37), whose wife gave birth to their second son at about 5:45 am at a private hospital, rushed to his polling booth in Horamavu road (Bangalore North constituency) as soon as it opened at 7 am. "I had ensured that I carry my voter ID card when I rushed to the hospital with my wife and family at about 3 am after she developed labour pain. "I quickly drove to my polling centre, about 3 km from the hospital, as soon as saw my newborn son," Mishra said. The software professional said he was among the first voters at the booth and he cast his vote at about 7:15 am. "It is my responsibility to ensure that I vote and also look after my family and hence by voting early I will now be able to take care of the new member in the family and my wife easily," Mishra said. He added his wife, Sudha, regretted that she will not be able to cast her vote after the birth of their child but she "fully supported" him in ensuring that he exercised his franchise. Fourteen Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, including Bangalore North, Bangalore South and Bangalore Rural, are voting on Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pope Francis is ushering in the most solemn period in the Catholic liturgical calendar by celebrating a Holy Thursday Mass, made more poignant this year following the devastation of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral. The Crism Mass celebrates the unity of priests with their bishops. During Thursday's service, Francis blesses the holy oils that will be used over the course of the year in the administration of various sacraments. In his homily, Francis stressed that when priests use the oil, they are distributing their vocation and heart to the people of God. This year, Holy Week which for Catholics commemorates Christ's crucifixion, death and resurrection has taken on particular meaning following the fire at Notre Dame, a symbol of French Catholicism. Francis has offered his condolences repeatedly to the French faithful. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 prisoners Thursday and urged them to serve one another as brothers, as he ushered in the solemn pre-Easter rituals made more poignant this year following the devastation of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral. Francis travelled to a prison in Velletri, outside Rome, for the Holy Thursday service that re-enacts the biblical story of Christ washing the feet of his disciples. The Mass opens the most solemn period in the liturgical calendar, leading up to the commemoration of Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter. Francis has frequently performed the Holy Thursday ceremony at prisons to reinforce his message that even the most important figures must serve the most marginal like slaves, as Jesus did in washing the feet of his disciples. "The bishop isn't the most important. The bishop must be the most servant-like," Francis said. Directing his message at the prisoners themselves, Francis urged them to not try to dominate one another, and to make the fights that break out between them a "fleeting thing." "The biggest must serve the smallest. He who feels biggest must be the servant," Francis said. "May this gesture that I make help us to be more servant-like with one another, more friendly, brothers in service." He then proceeded to wash, dry and kiss the feet of the inmates: nine Italians, and one each from Brazil, Ivory Coast and Morocco. Francis, who suffers from sciatica, needed help from his aides to stand up and kneel down before each prisoner. This year, the final days of Holy Week have taken on particular resonance following the fire at Notre Dame, a symbol of French Catholicism. Francis has offered his condolences repeatedly to the French faithful, and French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that during a call to Francis after the blaze, he had invited the pontiff to visit Paris. On Wednesday, Francis fielded a call from U.S. President Donald Trump offering the sympathy of the American people over the loss, the Vatican spokesman said. Francis started the day by celebrating the Chrism Mass to bless the holy oils that will be used during the year. On Friday, he presides over the Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum re-enacting Christ's crucifixion, followed by the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica and Easter Sunday in a flower-decked St. Peter's Square. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As voting for the second phase of polling started Thursday morning, Congress president Rahul Gandhi urged voters to "vote for Nyay" (justice). Gandhi also appealed to voters to vote for justice to the unemployed youth, struggling farmers, small businessmen and those who were persecuted due to their religion or caste. He used the hashtag "VoteNyayVoteCongress" with his appeal. "Nyay" is also the social welfare scheme announced by the Congress party in its election manifesto that promises to pay Rs 72,000 per annum to families living below the poverty line. The second phase of polling for Lok Sabha elections began today in 95 constituencies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An additional district magistrate here was arrested Thursday by Rajasthan's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 10,000, officials said. Vijay Singh Nahta, a Rajasthan Administrative Service officer, was caught red-handed while accepting bribe in his office from Pappu Das Vaishnav of Chirdhani village in Pipar tehsil for issuing orders for marking the boundaries of his land, they said. DIG (ACB) Sawai Singh Godara said Vaishnav had agriculture land in his village and a portion of it was illegally encroached on by his neighbour Chimnaram Jat in 2015. When Vaishnav approached Nahta for help, the ADM demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 from him, following which he lodged a complaint, the DIG said. The allegations against Nahta were confirmed upon verification of the complaint during which the ADM called Vaishnav to his office with the bribe money where an ACB team nabbed him, he said. After the necessary documentary formalities, Nahta was arrested and an investigation has been initiated in the matter, the DIG said, adding that the ACB had been receiving complaints against the officer for long. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rajasthan's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested an additional district magistrate in Jodhpur and a bank cashier in Sawai Madhopur district in separate graft cases in the state, officials said. Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officer Vijay Singh Nahta, posted in Jodhpur as ADM, had demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 from the complainant for issuing an order related to land possession. After verification of the complaint, a team of the ACB trapped Nahta in Jodhpur and placed him under arrest, ADG (ACB) Saurabh Srivastava said. In Sawai Madhopur, another team of ACB trapped the head cashier of a Central Bank of India branch, Rajesh Prajaptai, while taking a bribe of Rs 15,000. He had demanded the bribe from the complainant to release Rs 1 lakh loan for setting up a shop under a government scheme. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Industrialist Ratan Tata met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at the organisation's headquarters here, Sangh sources said Thursday. The visit on Wednesday was Tata's second visit to the RSS HQ, the last being on December 28, 2016. Tata arrived in Nagpur on Tuesday and left the city on Wednesday after meeting the RSS chief, the sources said. ALSO READ: Why UP is looking beyond two big national parties in Lok Sabha elections An RSS functionary here said it was a courtesy call by Tata. In August last year, Tata shared stage with Bhagwat at an event in Mumbai to mark the birth centenary of late RSS leader Nana Palkar. Tata was the chief guest at the event. In his speech then, Bhagwat had lauded the Tata Group, saying its focus has always been on the use of wealth for betterment of society and not on creation of personal wealth. The residents of this village in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir Thursday stayed away from polling booths after pledging to boycott voting at the funeral of a local militant, who was killed in an encounter with security forces earlier this month. Rahil Rashid Sheikh was killed in Imamsahib area of Shopian district on April 6. Sheikh, a resident of Nuner village of central Kashmir's Ganderbal district - 32 kms from the state's summer capital Srinagar - was pursuing M Tech from a college in Chandigarh. He joined the militant ranks just three days before the encounter. The poll authorities had clubbed three polling booths of the village which falls under Kangan assembly segment of Srinagar parliamentary constituency. Stringent security arrangements were also in place to prevent any law and order problem. According to officials, no voter from the registered electorate of 2,568 in the three booths came to cast their votes at any of the booths till 1 pm the half-way mark of the allotted voting time of 7 am to 6 pm. The poll staff, tired of waiting for someone to turn up, was seen basking in the sun for most of the time. "No one turned up to vote at any of the polling booths here. We have been waiting for the voters, but no one came here," an official at the polling station said. He said not even a single polling agent reported at the polling station. "We did not even see any polling agent here. They were also not present in the mock polling that was conducted," the official said. Outside the polling station, a few youths said the whole area had "sworn" to boycott the polls in view of Sheikh's killing. "We used to have some polling here before, but his (militant) funeral shook the whole village and we swore not to vote," Hilal Ahmad, a resident of the village, told PTI. He said it was the first time that the village had witnessed a total boycott. "We are well past the half-way mark of the voting time, but no vote has been cast and we are sure, there will be no voting today. We are keeping our promise made to the martyr on the day of his funeral," Ahmad said. Junaid Nazir, who claimed to be a neighbour of the militant, said the village did not vote as "Sheikh's blood had not gone cold yet". "We are yet to come out of the trauma of his killing. How can we vote in such a situation? He laid his life for us and so, we cannot betray him," he said. The boycott call by Sheikh's native village also had an impact on nearby villages in Ganderbal as people largely stayed away from the exercise. "I have not seen such less number of votes cast in these polling stations," Hamid-ul-lah, a resident of nearby Serch village, said. Election authorities said the state witnessed a polling percentage of 29.6 per cent till 1 pm. In Kashmir Valley's Srinagar constituency spread over three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal, the polling percentage was 4.8 per cent, 11.4 per cent and 11.0 per cent, respectively till 1 pm, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, facing trial in the Malegaon bomb blast case, Thursday broke down while narrating how she was "tortured" while in custody of the police. Thakur (48) also set the tone for her high-profile poll battle in Bhopal againt Congress candidate Digvijay Singh, whom she accused of using words like "Hindu" and "saffron" terror". Out on bail, the saffron activist has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 case, but is still facing trial under other criminal provisions, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Addressing a gathering of BJP workers at Manas Bhawan auditorium here, Thakur, who spent several years in jail after being arrested in the case, alleged she was illegally detained and beaten up by police personnel. "Jab Mujhe Lekar Gaye, Gair Kanooni Taur Par, 13 Din Tak Rakkha, Pahle Hi Din Bina Kuchh Poochhe, Unhone Mujhe Bulaya, Itna Chauda Belt (showing size by her hand), Ek Belt Se Hath Sooj Jata hai, Doosre Belt Me to Hath Fat Jata Hai. (Police illegally detained me for 13 days. They called me and beat me with a wide belt. Hands get swollen just by one hit of the belt. The second strike can tear hand)," she said. "Ye Jo Belt Marte The, Poora Nervous System Dheela Pad Jata Tha, Sunn Pad Jata Tha, Ye Din Aur Raat Hota Tha. (The strike of belt makes nervous system go blank, this happened day and night)," she said in a choked voice. "They used to hurl filthy abuses, would threaten to hang me upside down, undress me. I am not narrating my pain in front of you, I am just saying no other sister should face this kind of ordeal," Thakur said, wiping her tears. The Hindutva activist claimed the police wanted her to admit that she was involved in the blast in Malegaon, a town in Nashik district of neighbouring Maharashtra. "They want me to accept that I carried out the blast and killed Muslims...they tortured me entire night, the people who beat me changed in the morning but I remained the same," she said. Earlier, in reply to a question, Thakur told reporters, "It was wrong for him (Digvijay) to use words like 'Hindu and saffron terror'. "Now, he is forced to call himself a Hindu. His (Digvijays) situation is like a thief who has been caught red -handed." Apparently taking a dig at the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, she said "Those who call terrorists with respect tried to ensnare me in a conspiracy." Reacting to the BJP candidate's statements, state Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said she narrated her ordeal with an eye on the polls. "Pragya Singh was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police in the Sunil Joshi murder case when the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government was in power. She should ask the BJP who conspired against her," Chaturvedi said. In 2017, a Madhya Pradesh court acquitted Thakur of all charges in connection with the 2007 murder of Joshi, a right-wing activist. Addressing the gathering, the sadhvi termed her fight from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat as a "dharmyuddh" (religious war). Reacting to Thakur's statement, Minister for Medical Education Vijaylaxmi Sadho said in Khargone that she should not bring religion into politics. Politics demands development and religion should not be brought into it, Sadho said. "If she wants to practice religion then she should go temples and recite bhajans," Sadho said. The minister said the BJP faced a tough time finding a candidate to take on Singh in Bhopal, a seat the saffron outfit has been winning since 1989. She was declared the BJP candidate from Bhopal Wednesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Saudi sisters have issued a plea for international protection after fleeing to ex-Soviet Georgia in the latest case of women fleeing oppression in the ultra-conservative kingdom. In a post on a Twitter account called @GeorgiaSisters, the women said they were "trapped in Georgia" after Saudi authorities cancelled their passports. The women posted photographs of their passports identifying themselves as 28-year-old Maha Alsubaie and 25-year-old Wafa Alsubaie. "We are in danger," Maha Alsubaie said in one video posted on Twitter. "Please help us." "We want to apply for asylum in any safe country," one of the women said in another video that does not show her face. "If we go back to Saudi we will be killed." "We fled oppression from our family because the laws in Saudi Arabia (are) too weak to protect us," Wafa Alsubaie said in another video. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement it was "closely monitoring" their situation. Human Rights Watch called on the Georgian authorities to protect the two "from anyone who would harm them or force to return to Saudi Arabia against their will". The UNHCR's Georgia office said on Facebook that anyone "requesting international protection in Georgia has access to a fair and effective asylum procedure". The Saudi women began posting tweets about their situation on Tuesday. Georgia's interior ministry spokeswoman Sopho Mdinaradze told AFP on Thursday that the women "up until now haven't contacted the Georgian authorities". "They didn't apply for asylum, nor have they asked for any kind of assistance," she said. Saudi nationals can travel to Georgia visa-free. Saudi Arabia is one of the world's most restrictive countries for women. In a similar case in March, another two Saudi sisters aged 20 and 18 who were marooned in Hong Kong arrived in a safe third country after securing humanitarian visas as they sought sanctuary from an abusive family. At the beginning of the year, 18-year-old Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun drew global attention with her dramatic escape from an allegedly abusive family, gaining refugee status in Canada. Many Saudi women who flee overseas have spoken to media and rights groups of persuasive and coercive tactics used by Saudi officials and family members to pursue those who escape. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union minister Nitin Gadkari Thursday attacked the Congress on Thursday saying the party has been making false promises of eradicating poverty for four generations since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru. The senior BJP leader also asserted that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi can keep the country safe by crushing terrorism and also ensure speedy development and end woes of the poor. "The Congress ruled the country for decades since Independence. For four generations, its leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru pledged to eradicate poverty, but the promises have been false," Gadkari said. After Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi became the prime minister, gave the slogan of "Garibi Hatao" and launched schemes such as the 20-point programme, but failed to eradicate poverty, the Union minister of road transport and highways said. Addressing election rallies in Jajpur, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar Lok Sabha constituencies, Gadkari said the same was the story with Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh as all of them failed to mitigate the plight of the poor. Referring to the Congress' proposed minimum income scheme NYAY, he said, "Now, the great grandson of Nehru (Rahul Gandhi) is banking on the poll plank of eradicating poverty. How can the people trust him? These people (Congress) have betrayed the poor for so many years by making false promises." Hunger, poverty and unemployment persisted and the country remained backward as the Congress failed to work sincerely for development and the welfare of the poor, the minister said. What the Congress failed to do in 70 years because of its wrong policies, corruption and lack of vision, the BJP-led government has done in just five years as it focused on good governance and honesty, he claimed. About achievements of the Modi government, Gadkari said only 3.5 crore people in the country had bank accounts till 2014, 34 crore bank accounts were opened under Jandhan scheme and Rs 70,000 crore deposited therein. Poor women in the country were spending hours in kitchens under unhygienic conditions, but Modi government provided LPG connections to 7 crore families under the Ujjwala Yojana, the Union Minister said. Gadkari also came down heavily on Naveen Patnaik-led BJD Government in Odisha accusing it of keeping the state backward and poor by obstructing implementation of a host of projects in many sectors including railways, roads and highways and industries. "The BJD government is not cooperating with the Centre for implementation of many projects. It is delaying land acquisition and clearances for important projects," he claimed. "The inefficient and corrupt government needs to be ousted as it failed in all spheres. It must be replaced in order to ensure development in Odisha," Gadkari said appealing to the people to vote for the BJP. Assembly election in Odisha is being held along with Lok Sabha polls in four phases. While first phase poll was held on April 11, the remaining phases will be held on April 18, 23 and 29. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The brother of gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter along with his wife and an associate, has filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court, challenging the acquittal of all 22 accused in the case. Sohrabuddin's brother, Rubabuddin, Thursday said he had wanted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file appeal against the acquittals, but since the agency made no move, he filed the appeal himself. In December 2018, a special CBI court acquitted the 22 accused, observing that the prosecution had failed to establish a cogent case to suggest that there was a conspiracy to kill the three persons. While there is no denying that Shaikh and the other two had been killed, "going by the evidence on record, the court could not conclude that the present accused persons could be questioned, or, held accountable for those deaths," the court had said. The accused in the case were mainly police officers, present and former, from Gujarat and Rajasthan. Rubabuddin had written to the Union government in January this year, requesting that the CBI appeal against the ruling. "I did not receive any reply to my letter. So I have filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court, challenging the trial court's order acquitting all the accused," he said. According to the CBI, Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsi Prajapati were abducted by Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad in November 2005. While Shaikh and his wife were allegedly killed by Gujarat police officials soon after, Prajapati was killed by Rajasthan and Gujarat police officials in 2006. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Technocrat-turned-politician Sam Pitroda said Thursday that he feels there is something wrong with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). He can not pinpoint the flaw immediately and would need to study the machine for that, the Congress leader said. "As an engineer, as a technical expert, I am not satisfied with EVM," Pitroda said at a press conference here. "But I have not been able to pinpoint it because I do not have an EVM. If someone gives me an EVM to study for a year, then I can say something," he said. "You will have to understand the design, the software ....But one thing is for sure, there is something wrong with it. We do not know what is wrong with it," said Pitroda, who had served as adviser to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Opposition parties recently demanded counting of at least 50 per cent of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips during the Lok Sabha elections, claiming that EVM's reliability was doubtful. On the feasibility of the Nyay scheme announced by the Congress in its manifesto, he said it was framed after consulting experts from across the world, and makes economic sense. "Time has come for our country to think about 50 million poorest families. It is our moral responsibility to uplift them," he said, adding that for a three trillion dollars economy, funding the scheme will not be difficult as the country's economy was growing at 8 per cent annually. "The money will go into economy, will create jobs in rural areas," he said, adding that it will help the economy just as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) did. On Prime Minister Narendra Modi's allegation that the Congress neglected and did injustice to Gujarat, Pitroda said nobody could humiliate the state. "Many chief ministers came and went, but Gujarat has always done well because Gujaratis do well. And they do well not just in Gujarat but also in London, America...They do well everywhere. Nobody can humiliate Gujarat," he said. On Modi's barb that the Congress was "speaking the language of Pakistan" over surgical and air strikes carried out by the Indian forces inside Pakistan, Pitroda said, "Whatever you say, the prime minister and (BJP president) Amit Shah tag you as anti-national. "(That) The Congress party at the right time cut Pakistan into two pieces (in 1971) should tell you enough," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shares of SpiceJet continued their best performance for the fifth day in a row, zooming 15 per cent Thursday, following the company's plans to expand its fleet. The scrip jumped 14.99 per cent to Rs 152.60 -- its 52-week high -- on BSE. SpiceJet Thursday said it will induct six more Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft on dry lease. "These six aircraft are in addition to the 16 B737s and 5 Q400s that the airline will soon induct. The total number of planes to be inducted in the immediate future now stands at 27," the company said in a BSE filing Thursday. The airline has applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to import the planes. Subject to regulatory approvals the aircraft would begin joining SpiceJet's fleet in the next ten days, it added. Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet said, "we are taking all possible proactive measures to deal with the sudden reduction of aviation capacity in the Indian market. SpiceJet continues to work closely with the government and regulatory authorities to help minimise passenger inconvenience. "We will induct as many as 27 planes in a record time of less than two weeks and are hopeful that these inductions will help considerably ease the pressure situation," he said. The shares climbed 8.5 per cent Friday after the airline announced it will induct 16 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, a move that will help in bringing down flight cancellations. On Monday, the stock zoomed nearly 9 per cent as the company announced launch of direct flights from Mumbai to seven international destinations, including Colombo, Jeddah, Dhaka, Riyadh and Hong Kong. The next day, the scrip soared over 11 per cent on plans to expand its fleet. Stock markets were closed Wednesday on account of Mahavir Jayanti. Meanwhile, other listed airline InterGlobe Aviation also gained 4.22 per cent to Rs 1,650 -- its 52-week high -- on BSE. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SpiceJet stock trimmed most of its sharp early gains and ended nearly 3 per cent higher Thursday on profit-booking after rising for five consecutive days. The scrip had climbed 14.99 per cent to Rs 152.60 -- its 52-week high -- on the BSE during the day. Later, it closed at Rs 136.25, up 2.68 per cent. On the traded volume front, 211.25 lakh shares were traded on the BSE during the day. SpiceJet Thursday said it will induct six more Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft on dry lease. "These six aircraft are in addition to the 16 B737s and 5 Q400s that the airline will soon induct. The total number of planes to be inducted in the immediate future now stands at 27," the company said in a BSE filing Thursday. The airline has applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to import the planes. Subject to regulatory approvals, the aircraft would begin joining SpiceJet's fleet in the next ten days, it added. "We are taking all possible proactive measures to deal with the sudden reduction of aviation capacity in the Indian market. SpiceJet continues to work closely with the government and regulatory authorities to help minimise passenger inconvenience," Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet said. The airline will induct as many as 27 planes in a record time of less than two weeks and is hopeful that these inductions will help considerably ease the pressure situation, he added. The shares had climbed 8.5 per cent Friday after the airline announced it will induct 16 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, a move that will help in bringing down flight cancellations. On Monday, the stock zoomed nearly 9 per cent as the company announced launch of direct flights from Mumbai to seven international destinations, including Colombo, Jeddah, Dhaka, Riyadh and Hong Kong. The next day, the scrip soared over 11 per cent on plans to expand its fleet. Stock markets were closed Wednesday on account of Mahavir Jayanti. Meanwhile, other listed airline InterGlobe Aviation gave up its early gains and closed at Rs 1,554.70, 1.80 per cent down on BSE. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voting picked up by Thursday afternoon in 95 seats across 11 states and Union Territory of Puducherry in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections which were marred by an IED blast by Naxals in Chhattisgarh, police firing in West Bengal on stone pelters and EVM glitches. Voting was also underway in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha and in 18 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 38 of the 39 LS seats. Polling in Vellore LS seat was cancelled Tuesday by the EC following recovery of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. Besides Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in UP, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Amidst tight security, polling was underway in Srinagar Parliamentary constituency of Jammu and Kashmir to decide the fate of 10 candidates, including NC president Farooq Abdullah who is seeking a re-election. Security personnel have been deployed in strength in and around polling stations in all three districts -- Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal -- of the constituency, officials said. Jammu and Kashmir recorded nearly 30 per cent polling till 1 pm in Udhampur and Srinagar Lok Sabha constituencies, poll official said. Polling in Chhattisgarh witnessed violence with an ITBP jawan suffering minor injuries after Naxals triggered an IED blast in Rajnandgaon district. Long queues were seen at polling booths in Tamil Nadu where 30.62 per cent voting was recorded till 11am in 38 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state, with Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin among the early voters. Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said polling has been peaceful until now and issues like technical glitches in some locations are being addressed. In Karnataka, an estimated 19.58 per cent of voters exercised their franchise till 11 am in 14 constituencies. Puducherry recorded 23 per cent voting till noon for the lone Lok Sabha, which is witnessing a battle between the ruling and opposition AINRC. Sporadic incidents of violence were reported in some areas of Bengal where around 51.6 per cent voters exercised their franchise till 1 PM in three Lok Sabha constituencies, officials said. A reporter and a camera person of a local news channel were allegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in the Raiganj constituency, they said. Voters in Uttar Dinajpur district's Chopra under the Raiganj constituency reportedly put up a road blockade, complaining about the absence of central forces at the polling stations, the sources said. Police fired in the air and lobbed tear gas shells to control a mob, after stones were pelted at them and bombs were hurled by unknown persons in Chopra , a senior EC official in the district said. At least three persons were detained by police in this connection, he said. Meanwhile, CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj Md Salim claimed that his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur in Uttar Dinajpur. Bihar recorded 25.6 per cent voting in five Lok Sabha seats till noon amidst reports of EVM malfunctioning and poll boycott delaying start of polling in some booths. Voting was delayed due to EVM malfunctioning at a polling station at Masuria in Banka town, two polling booths under Kahalgaon assembly segment in Bhagalpur, and another two booths in Purnea. Poll boycott was reported from a booth under Amarpur assembly segment in Banka, the official said. People also did not cast vote in the initial hours at two polling stations under the same assembly segment as they were protesting killing of a farmer at Kaitha village. The process began only after 10.15 am. In Odisha, around 18 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling in five Lok Sabha and 35 assembly constituencies. Maharashtra registered 21.47 per cent voting till 11 am in 10 constituencies where polling was underway. In Nanded, there were complaints of malfunctioning of 78 electronic voting machines (EVMs). In UP, voting picked up with more than 38 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise till 1 pm in eight parliamentary constituencies. SP president Akhilesh Yadav voiced concern over reports of EVM malfunctions in some parts of the Uttar Pradesh. In Assam, an estimated 46.42 per cent of over 69 lakh electorate exercised their franchise till 1 pm in five parliamentary constituencies. According to the official, there were reports of EVM glitches in several booths, but the polling personnel have addressed the issues. A former prime minister and four union ministers are in the fray in this phase of Lok Sabha polls in which the is looking to defend 27 seats. The Congress, besides seeking to defend 12 of the seats it won in 2014 polls and aiming to improve its performance in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha. Over 15.80 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 1,600-odd contestants. Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. Sudan's new military rulers arrested ousted President Omar al-Bashir's two brothers for corruption, part of a broad sweep against officials and supporters of the former government, the country's official agency reported Thursday. SUNA quoted the spokesman of the military council, Gen. Shams Eddin Kabashi, as saying that Abdullah and Abbas al-Bashir were taken into custody, without providing more details or saying when it happened. The Sudanese military ousted Omar al-Bashir last week, after four months of street protests against his 30-year rule marred by conflict, civil war and corruption. Al-Bashir is also wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court for atrocities committee in the western region of Darfur. The military council, which took over after al-Bashir's ouster, said the former president was transferred on Tuesday to Koper Prison in the capital, Khartoum, a facility notorious for holding political prisoners under al-Bashir. The military has also arrested a number of al-Bashir's close associates and former government officials. Meanwhile, the Sudanese Professionals Association, which has been spearheading the anti-government street protests since mid-December, released Wednesday together with several opposition groups a proposed blueprint for the transfer of power from the military to a civilian government. Though the street protesters were overjoyed at al-Bashir's ouster, they were not happy with the military taking over and have demanded a swift handover of power to civilian rule. The military council has said it plans to rule for a maximum of two years as they country prepares for new elections. The protesters fear the army, dominated by al-Bashir appointees, will cling to power or select one of its own to succeed him. They have vowed to carry on with their protests, focused around a sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum, until the transfer of power is complete. The two-page blueprint posted online envisages a civilian presidential council made up of "revolutionary figures" and a defense minister, the only representative from the military. It also proposes the formation of a Cabinet of technocrats to run daily affairs of the state and a legislative council to draft laws and oversee the Cabinet until a new constitution is written. "We have to continue our sit-ins until a transitional civilian authority takes over," the document says. "We have faith that our people's victory is coming and that no power can stop our people from achieving all their goals." It's not clear what will happen next to al-Bashir, a pariah in any countries. The military has said it would not extradite him to the ICC but has not ruled out that a future civilian government could someday hand him over to the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Meanwhile, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir offered to mediate in Sudan's political crisis. In a letter seen by The Associated Press, Kiir this week pledged his support for a transition where the rights of the Sudanese people are protected and offered to "mediate the on-going negotiations" among various groups. Some in South Sudan are concerned that al-Bashir's departure will hurt their country's fragile peace deal, which al-Bashir helped broker. South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in 2011, following decades of civil war. But they new country subsequently sank into its own civil war, which ended with an agreement signed in September. The deal calls for opposition leader Riek Machar to return to South Sudan next month to once again become Kiir's deputy, though that looks increasingly unlikely as tensions continue. One political analyst called Kiir's offer of mediation over al-Bashir a "hypocritical public relations" stunt. "It doesn't make sense. You cannot leave your house in a mess and claim to clean your neighbor's house," Jacob Chol, professor at the University of Juba, told the AP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An audio clip where NCP MP Supriya Sule is purportedly heard threatening a former party worker who has joined the BJP has surfaced on social media. Sule, NCP candidate from Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, denied that the conversation took place. In the clip, she is purportedly heard confronting BJP worker Rahul Shewale on phone over his reported statement that the Pawar family and Sule insulted him when he was with the NCP. She is heard asking when did she insult him, and adding, "It is okay that you joined the BJP, but do not mess with Supriya Sule. I am not a 'contractor'. I will come to your house and thrash (you)....If you defame me, I will file a defamation case. Shewale is heard claiming that his statements were reported wrongly by newspapers. When asked by reporters, Sule, daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, denied that the conversation took place, and said she would file a defamation case against Shewale. "If he is saying I threatened him, why didn't he go to the police? Why he approached the media? Why this clip appeared few days before the polling?" she asked. Polling will be held in Baramati in the third phase, on April 23. Shewale should get the clip authenticated and only after that she would reply, Sule said. Shewale maintained that she threatened him. He had not levelled any allegations against the NCP MP, he told reporters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Commission for Women (NCW) has issued a show cause notice to Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta and asked him to take action against police officers who reportedly refused to register a complaint of a rape survivor. Citing a media report, NCW member Soso Shaiza said the commission is seriously concerned about the "reported police apathy in the matter and negligence shown by the police despite the provision of zero FIR in the law". The media report said the SHO bickered with the victim over jurisdiction of where the complaint must be registered. "Considering the gravity of the matter, it is requested that strict action be taken against erring officials and a detailed action taken report be sent to the Commission at an early date," Shaiza said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A teenage Hindu girl's kidnapping by an "influential" Muslim man in Pakistan's Punjab province sparked outrage among the minority community that held a sit-in here on Thursday, blocking the city's main road to press the Imran Khan government to recover her safely. Holding placards and banners, the community members at Rahim Yar Khan, some 400-km from Lahore, were demanding the recovery of 17-year-old Naina and chanting slogans against forced conversions. According to the FIR, Naina was kidnapped by Tahir Tamri, with the help of his father and brothers last month. It said the kidnappers took the girl to Karachi and got her embraced Islam at a seminary, Jamiatul Saeed Gulshan-i-Maima, after marrying her. She was given Muslim name Noor Fatima. The suspect uploaded their marriage and her embracing of Islam on social media. The Hindu community members took to the streets on the second consecutive day Thursday to lodge their protest against the abduction and forced conversion of Naina. "Stop the forced conversion of Hindu girls after kidnapping them, read a placard. During the protest, the girl's father Ragu Ram threatened that he will set himself on fire if justice is not provided. Rahim Yar Khan district reportedly houses 150,000 Hindus. The protesters ended demonstration after police high-ups assured them that the justice would be done. Rahim Yar Khan police chief Umar Farooq Salamat said a police team has been sent to Karachi to recover the girl. "A police team of RYK is present in Karachi to trace the girl and the suspect and hopefully we will soon trace them," Salamat said. Last month, two Hindu teenage sisters - Raveena (13) and Reena (15) - were allegedly kidnapped by a group of "influential" men from their home in Ghotki district in Sindh on the eve of Holi. Soon after the kidnapping, a video went viral in which a cleric was purportedly shown soleminising the marriage of the two girls, triggering a nationwide outrage. In its annual report, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) this week raised concerns about incidents of forced conversions and marriages of Hindu and Christian girls, saying around 1,000 such cases were reported in the southern Sindh province alone last year. "The cities where such cases occurred frequently included Umerkot, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Karachi, Tando Allahyar, Kashmore and Ghotki," said the 335-page report titled 'State of Human Rights in 2018'. A Hindu lawmaker from Prime Minister Imran Khan's party last month moved two bills in Parliament seeking enhancement of punishment for those involved in forced conversion and for making child marriage a cognisable offence. The bills were accompanied by a resolution with the support of minority lawmakers from all major political parties condemning such incidents. The five-point resolution called for immediate passage of the bill against forced conversions, which had been unanimously passed by the Sindh Assembly in 2016 and then reverted due to pressure of extremist elements, from all the legislatures. Hindus form the biggest minority community in Pakistan. According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in Pakistan. Majority of Pakistan's Hindu population is settled in Sindh province. According to media reports, approximately 25 forced marriages take place every month only in Umerkot district in Sindh province. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, alleging that terrorism and Naxalism have grown during its tenure. He also blamed the Modi government for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. "Naxals killed one MLA (in Chhattisgarh). Naxalism, terrorism are growing but you are not ready to give an answer," said Pilot, also the Rajasthan Congress president, at a rally in Churu. On the BJP's defeat in the last year's assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the deputy chief minister said it is a reflection of voters' mood and their inclination towards the Congress. Taking a jibe at the BJP's 'Congress-mukt Bharat' slogan, Pilot said, "They used to say that they will make India free from Congress, but we sent them out of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh." Asserting that the Congress is gaining momentum across the country, he exuded confidence that the party will win all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan. Polling for the Lok Sabha elections will be held in two phases in Rajasthan -- on April 29 and May 6. Results will be announced on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Government Railway Police (GRP) has arrested three persons after a businessman travelling from Delhi to Mumbai was allegedly robbed of Rs 1.70 crore cash on a moving train here, officials said Thursday. Two of the arrested accused, identified as Ganpat Singh and Uttam Kumar, are the gang members who were involved in executing the robbery while the third one is the father of another gang member and had prevented police from conducting check at his house, where the looted cash was hidden, they said. Taar Singh and Uttam Kumar looted a bag from the businessman, Gautam Kumar, in a running train near the Kota railway station on April 14. While Taar Singh managed to jump off the train, Uttam Kumar was overpowered and handed over to the GRP by the passengers, Circle Officer GRP Kota, Humayu Kabir Khan, said Thursday. "The conspiracy was hatched by a person, Jhabar Singh, known to Kumar. He was aware of the fact that the businessman, who has a shop in Delhi, travels with huge sum of cash. He roped in other accused to loot the money," he said. After executing the crime, Taar Singh jumped off the train, reached Barmer and hid the money at his house and absconded, the CO said. "The case was thoroughly probed and a team reached Barmer and recovered Rs 1.69 crore in cash. One of the accused, Ganpat Singh, was also caught from there. Taar Singh's father Mohan Singh did not allow the police team to conduct search in the house and he was arrested for hiding evidences," he said. Efforts are on to nab the other accused involved in the case, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu recorded 39.49 per cent voting till 1 pm in 38 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state, with Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin among the early voters. Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said the state recorded 39.49 per cent voting till 1 PM, with Namakkal registering the highest of 41.56 and Kanyakumari the minimum of 37.2 per cent. In the bypolls in 18 Assembly segments, the polling percentage was 42.92. Sahoo said the polling exercise has been going on peacefully all over the state. As many as 384 EVMs and 692 VVPATs were changed spread over 66,167 polling stations across Tamil Nadu over technical issues, he said. Sahoo said that even if voters did not have the voter's slip, they could still vote since it was not one of the 12 documents mandated for voting. The slips were only meant to identify the elector's polling station and their serial number on poll rolls, he said. Meanwhile, chaotic scenes unfolded at the Koyambedu bus terminus here when a considerable number of commuters arrived to travel to their native districts on account of "continuous holidays" till Sunday (Friday is a holiday for Good Friday). Operation of "inadequate buses" was the reason for the choatic situation, they claimed. Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin waited in queues at Edappadi in Salem district and Chennai, respectively and cast their votes. After casting his vote, Stalin alleged that there has been distribution of cash and accused the Election Commission of being an "ally" of central and state governments. Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi and Karti Chidambaram of Congress are among key contenders. Radhakrishnan told reporters in Kanyakumari: "This is a massive democratic festival which will decide the fate of India. I have exercised my franchise...A silent revolution is happening." AIADMK leader and state minister D Jayakumar said 13 per cent voting in the morning "is a joyous thing." "This shows there is a wave for Amma and MGR," he said, exuding confidence that the AIADMK-BJP combine would emerge victorious. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dhinakaran alleged "malfunctioning of EVMs is an achievement of the Modi government." CPI national secretary D Raja expressed confidence that people were voting for the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu as they wanted to see the end of the BJP government at the Centre. Dayanidhi Maran voted here along with his family members. Besides 38 of the total 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state, excluding Vellore, bypolls to 18 assembly segments are also underway. Polling stations were teeming with enthusiastic voters even before 7 AM when polling began and the Chief Minister was among the early electors in his native Salem district. While senior Congress leader P Chidambaram voted at Kandanur in Sivaganga district, Dhinakaran execised his franchise along with his family here. Top actor Rajinikanth and popular stars Vijay and Ajith Kumar voted in Chennai. BJP's Tamil Nadu unit chief Tamilisai Soundararjan and actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan also cast their votes here. DMDK chief Vijayakanth, his wife and party leader Premalatha and Pattali Makkal Katchi chief S Ramadoss voted in Chennai and Tindivanam respectively. The state's electorate is 5.84-crore (after deducting the 14.26 lakh voters in Vellore) strong. Adequate security arrangements, with the deployment of over 160 companies of central police forces and one lakh state police personnel, have been made. In the run-up to the polls, election authorities had seized over Rs 129-crore cash, gold and other precious metals with a total value of over Rs 284 crore from all over the state. Tamil Nadu has a total of 67,720 polling stations and 7,780 booths have been categorised as critical and vulnerable where more Central Armed Police Forces personnel, and micro-observers were deployed. Measures like webcasting and videographing of proceedings are also in place. As many as 1,50,302 ballot units, 89,160 control units and 94,653 VVPAT which allows the electors to cross check the votes they have cast for seven seconds are available. Every constituency has one all-woman polling station. While polling is being held between 7 AM and 6 PM in 37 constituencies, it has been extended by two hours until 8 PM in Madurai Lok Sabha segment, due to the Chithirai festival, which marks the grand entry of Lord Kallazhagar into the Vaigai river. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Marwadi trader community of Bengaluru was in for a rude shock when many of them found their names deleted from the electoral roll, which several of them felt was a "conspiracy." They were those who had exercised their franchise in the 2018 assembly election in Karnataka, according to several from the community who were upset about not having been able to vote in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka Thursday. "I am living in Nagarathpet for the past 20 years and cast my vote in the 2018 assembly election but today when I went tovote, I found my name missing," Jogaram told PTI. He noticed that in his area at least 400 to 500 people fromhis community complained of the same thing. Another trader, Mahendra Jain said his name too was missing from the electoral roll. "My voter ID itself is 15-year-old which I got the day I shifted to this place but today it does not exist," said Jain. Most of the people from my community foundtheir names deleted from the electoral roll, he added. "Is it possible that an entire locality has vanished in the thin air? A major conspiracy has happened with the trader community. It is rigging.. All the Jains and Marwadis wereidentified and their names deleted from the electoral roll,"Jain alleged. Another trader, Bharamal Jain said he along with his family went to cast their vote and found their names missing. "It has not happened just to me or my family but the entireMarwadi community. So far as I know at least 15,000 to 16,000names were deleted illegally. This is not a fair election," avisibly upset Bharamal Jain said. Election authorities could not be reached for comments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tripura Congress president Pradyot Dev Burman courted controversy on Thursday after he was seen in a CCTV footage slapping a supporter of the IPFT, an ally of the ruling BJP, inside a police station. Police arrested the IPFT supporter earlier in the day on the charge of trying to attack the convoy of Congress' Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Dev Burman in Khowai district of Tripura on Thursday. Pragya is the sister of the state Congress president. The accused supporter of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) allegedly tried to throw brickbats at the convoy of the candidate but he was captured by the security guards escorting her car, Deputy Inspector General of Police Arindam Nath said. The incident took place while Pragya was on her way back from a rally at Tulashikhar, a tribal hamlet in Khowai district. Pragya Dev Burman is the Congress candidate for East Tripura (ST) constituency which will go to polls on April 23. "We were returning after attending a public meeting at Tulashikhar area. An IPFT supporter tried to hurl a stone at my car. It seems there were more people with him," Pragya told reporters. Senior BJP leader and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath showed the CCTV footage of Tulashikhar police station where the accused was taken and Pradyot Dev Burman slapped him. It showed that the state Congress president took law into his hands and wanted to send the message that he would terrorise and attack his political opponents, Nath claimed. "If he can manhandle a person inside a police station, he can also murder anyone anywhere," the law minister said. Pradyot Dev Burman, however, remained unapologetic. "He is a goon. He and many others were trying to attack my sister. Why is the BJP trying to protect a goon? Let the BJP go and file an FIR against me. Let them put me in jail. I will not even seek a bail," he said. The state Congress chief earlier said, "Very sad to see that my sister Pragya was attacked by paid goons in Tulashikhar. One person was arrested. I have no words to condemn it." IPFT spokesperson Mangal Debbarma claimed that the arrested supporter was there by co-incidence and neither he nor the party was involved in the attack. BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya denounced the incident saying "any attempt of attack is condemnable". The BJP-IPFT combine ousted the CPI(M)-led Left Front from power after 25 years in early 2018. The Election Commission had on Tuesday announced postponement of polling in the East Tripura seat to the third phase on April 23 from April 18, saying the prevailing law and order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Tripura has two Lok Sabha seats. Elections for the first phase were held in West Tripura seat on April 11, and the Congress and CPI (M) demanded re-poll in 460 polling stations on the ground of alleged rigging by the ruling BJP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump on Wednesday ramped up pressure on Cuba with new restrictions on US travel and remittances and a green light to lawsuits over seized property as he vowed to rid Latin America of leftists. Defying European warnings on the long-festering property issue, Trump rolled back much of previous president Barack Obama's bid to reconcile with Cuba and also imposed fresh sanctions on Venezuela and Nicaragua, the two other hard-left nations in Latin America. John Bolton, Trump's hawkish national security advisor, said the measures were meant to "reverse the consequences of disastrous Obama-era policies and finally end the glamorization of socialism and communism." "We're standing with the freedom-loving patriots of this region," Bolton said in Miami as he addressed veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the failed CIA-backed 1961 bid by exiles to topple the Cuban regime. Bolton said the United States would bar Americans from travelling to Cuba except to visit family, reversing the loosening under Obama that had started to open the cash-strapped island to US tourism. Bolton also announced restrictions under which no individual can remit more than USD 1,000 per quarter to Cuba, pledging: "These new measures will help steer American dollars away from the Cuban regime." The hard-hitting speech came hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would forge ahead with a long-delayed law that allows Cuban Americans to take businesses and the Havana government itself to court over properties seized after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. Passed by Congress in 1996 with support from Cuban-American hardliners, the provision of the Helms-Burton Act will finally go into effect on May 2 after being systematically suspended every six months by successive presidents. "Those doing business in Cuba should fully investigate whether they are connected to property stolen in service of a failed communist experiment," Pompeo told reporters in Washington. "I encourage our friends and allies alike to follow our lead and stand with the Cuban people," he said. But the European Union and Canada, whose vigorous protests helped block the Helms-Burton Act from coming into force two decades ago, swiftly condemned the move. "The EU and Canada consider the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures contrary to international law," the EU's foreign affairs supremo Federica Mogherini and Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in a joint statement with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. In a letter to Pompeo ahead of the announcement that was seen by AFP, Mogherini and Malmstrom warned that the European Union "will be obliged to use all means at its disposal" and warned of action at the World Trade Organization. Mexico, meanwhile, said it would support any of its companies targeted by the legislation, with the foreign ministry saying in a statement: "In this sense, Mexico endorses its support for the end of the economic and commercial blockade imposed against Cuba." Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced the decision on Twitter as "an attack against International Law and the sovereignty of #Cuba & third States." Kimberly Breier, the top US diplomat for Latin America, said the United States would not issue any exemptions to the new law, as it has in previous controversial decisions such as its sanctions on Iran. But Breier said businesses would only be affected if they operated in properties seized from Cubans who have emigrated to the United States. "I think the vast number of European companies will not have any concerns operating in Cuba," she said. But the costs -- and hours in Florida's courts -- could still be overwhelming. The Justice Department in 1996 took note of 6,000 potential claims that reach $1.9 billion, but a US official said the number could be as high as 200,000. The decisions mark a sharp reversal from the policies of Obama, who normalized relations with Cuba through secret diplomacy aided by the Vatican, declaring that a half-century of efforts to topple the regime had failed. Ahead of elections next year, Trump has increasingly tried to cast himself as a foe of socialism and tried to link the US Democratic Party, with its support of higher minimum wages and wider health care access, to Venezuela's crumbling economy. In the latest action to topple Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro by cutting off his cash flow, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the central bank and its director. Maduro branded the move "totally illegal and immoral." Representative Eliot Engel, the Democrat who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the decision on Cuba property lawsuits a "self-inflicted wound" that would isolate the United States just as it was working with allies on Venezuela. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray Thursday accused PDP president Mehbooba Mufti of fielding "extremists" in the Lok Sabha polls and asked if it was not a form of terrorism to say Kashmir will not be a part of India if Article 370 is abolished. Addressing a public rally in the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency, he asserted that if the BJP-led NDA comes to power, Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will "definitely" be abolished. "I read somewhere, (Mehbooba) Mufti bai, from Kashmir, said the BJP gave Pragya Singh Thakur (Malegaon blast accused) poll ticket from Madhya Pradesh against (Congress candidate) Digvijay Singh. "What is the allegation against her (Pragya)? Suspected Hindu extremist. Then Mufti bai asks will it be OK if we give ticket to suspected extremists...What have you been doing? You have been doing this only (giving tickets to extremists)," he said. Thackeray said the BJP and the NDA in their manifestos have promised that Article 370 will be abolished and that it will definitely be done because Kashmir is an inseparable part of India. "And then you say if we do so, Kashmir will not remain a part of India and nobody will hoist the tricolour. Is this not terrorism? Is this not a challenge to the integrity of the country? "Who will you give your vote to? To those who say Article 370 will be repealed or Rahul Gandhi who says he will not allow it to happen," Thackeray said. The Sena leader hit out at the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi. "Those in the Congress, who are themselves thieves, are calling others a 'chor'..... The PM's chair is not a musical chair," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UN's Libya envoy warned Thursday of "a widening conflagration" in the North African country, saying international divisions had encouraged strongman Khalifa Haftar to launch his assault on Tripoli. Despite days of heaving fighting, Ghassan Salame told AFP there was a stalemate south of the capital between Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and the internationally recognised government. "After the very first successes of the Libyan National Army two weeks ago, we are witnessing a military deadlock," he said. Fighting broke out on April 4 when Haftar and his LNA, based in the country's east, launched an offensive to take Tripoli, the western seat of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). The GNA on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against Haftar for allegedly ordering deadly air strikes against civilian areas, its press office said. A spokesman for the GNA said it was seeking an international arrest warrant against Haftar for "war crimes", as two UN experts were expected in Tripoli later Thursday to investigate the origin of rocket fire that killed six people the previous day. Salame told AFP that "international divisions" prior to the assault on Tripoli had emboldened Haftar, who is backed by Russia and seen by his allies Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as a bulwark against Islamists. "There are countries that have invested in Mr Haftar as a champion of the fight against terrorism," Salame said, without naming any countries. "They will not drop him now even if they do not agree with his attack on Tripoli." Haftar's offensive forced the UN to postpone a national conference that was to draw up a roadmap to elections in a bid to turn the page on years of turmoil since the 2011 ouster of dictator Moamer Gaddafi. "We worked for a whole year to prepare something that has no precedent," he said, saying the plan had been to "bring the country out of chaos". Instead, the political process was on hold and "these efforts are going up in smoke a little like the attic of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris", he said. The renewed fighting has killed at least 205 people and left more than 900 wounded, the World Health Organization said Thursday, while more than 25,000 have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration. Fighting continued Thursday on several fronts south of Tripoli, AFP journalists on the ground and security sources said. With both sides dug in, Tripoli this week witnessed its heaviest fighting since Haftar launched his offensive, including what the UN described as "indiscriminate rocket fire on a high-density neighbourhood" of Tripoli. World powers have long been divided on how to stabilise Libya, wracked by violence since Gaddafi's fall. Haftar's offensive has again highlighted those divisions. "There are interests in Libya. It's a country rich in oil," Salame said. This "makes companies -- oil companies, construction companies, etc -- salivate". But he added that some countries had supported one camp or another for "reasons that are not necessarily economic". The UN Security Council has been split on how to address the latest crisis. Negotiations this week on a draft resolution demanding a ceasefire in Tripoli have failed to yield agreement. Germany, which holds the council presidency, called for an urgent meeting Thursday, when the council was to hear a briefing on the situation on the ground and "consult on the way forward", according to a note seen by AFP. Britain has put forward a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation, but Russia objected to clauses that criticised Haftar's offensive as a threat to Libya's stability. Britain put forward a slightly watered-down version on Wednesday but the three African countries on the council -- Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, South Africa -- blocked it. They have insisted on including a reference to an African Union statement on the need for all parties fighting in Tripoli to protect civilians, including migrants and refugees, according to documents seen by AFP. Moscow said even the amended version was "still far away from accommodating our concerns", according to a note from the Russian UN mission. The revised text did not single out Haftar's forces, but instead expressed "grave concern at military activity" near Tripoli, "including the launching of a military offensive by the LNA". Britain had hoped to hold a vote before Friday, but that now looks unlikely. Diplomats said the United States appeared to be dragging its feet rather than pushing for a quick adoption of the draft resolution. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday claimed there is an undercurrent in favour of the Congress and Narendra Modi who has "failed" as Prime Minister is losing the 2019 general elections. Gandhi said the Congresss Nyay scheme has given a big jolt to Modi. "There is an undercurrent in favour of the Congress party. I am touring all over the country and atmosphere is good for us," he told reporters after addressing an election rally here in Gujarat. Gandhi went on to say that Modi is losing the 2019 elections as he is a "failed" Prime Minster. The Congress leader reiterated his charge of corruption in the Rs 58,000-crore Rafale deal. "The real issues this elections are unemployment, suffering of farmers and corruption. In the Rafale deal, Prime Minister has given a free gift of Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani. "Now, it has been published in the newspapers of France that they were given tax benefits in that country. Unemployment is at 45-year high," he said. "So, he is a failed Prime Minister and he is losing this election," Gandhi said. "Our Nyay scheme, in which we will transfer Rs 72,000 per year to poor families, has given a big jolt to Narendra Modi," he said. Asked about Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi filing a defamation case against him, Gandhi sounded dismissive, saying, "See they keep on doing such things". The Bihar BJP leader has filed the case in a court in Patna against Gandhi for his reported statement that "all thieves have Modi in their surnames". Gandhi expressed confidence that his party will gain major success in the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress chief addressed two rallies in Gujarat Thursday - one at Vanthli in Junagadh district and the other at Bhuj in Kutch district. After an overnight stay here, Gandhi will address a rally in Bardoli Friday morning. All the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will have a single phase polling on April 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Trump administration has halted, without explanation, the recent US government practice of disclosing the current size of the nuclear weapons stockpile. The decision was revealed in a recent Department of Energy letter to the Federation of American Scientists, a private group that studies nuclear weapons issues and advocates for government openness on national security issues. The Obama administration, in May 2010, had declassified for the first time the full history of the US nuclear weapons stockpile from its beginning in 1945. It revealed that the warhead total stood at 5,113 as of September 30, 2009, approximately the number that private experts had estimated and about 84 per cent below the official peak number of 31,255 warheads in 1967. As recently as last year, the Trump administration had disclosed that the stockpile consisted of 3,822 nuclear warheads as of September 30, 2017, down 196 warheads from the year before. The 2017 figure was made public in response to a request by the scientists group, which asked for a 2018 update last October. "After careful consideration ... it was determined that the requested information cannot be declassified at this time," the Energy Department wrote in an April 5 letter responding to the federation's request. The department provided no explanation for the decision, which it said was made by the Formerly Restricted Data Declassification Working Group, consisting of officials from the departments of Defense and Energy. "Formerly Restricted Data" is a category of classification that pertains to information such as nuclear stockpile quantities, warhead yields and locations. Nuclear warheads are attached to bombs and missiles, such as those carried by strategic bomber aircraft, ballistic missile submarines and land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, which form the US nuclear arsenal. Hans M. Kristensen, director of the federation's Nuclear Information Project, wrote in an analysis Wednesday that the decision against disclosing the 2018 nuclear stockpile number was "unnecessary and counterproductive." In his view there is no national security rationale for keeping the number secret. "The decision walks back nearly a decade of US nuclear weapons transparency policy in fact, longer if including stockpile transparency initiatives in the late-1990s," Kristensen wrote. "With this decision," he added, "the Trump administration surrenders any pressure on other nuclear-armed states to be more transparent about the size of their nuclear weapon stockpiles. This is curious since the Trump administration had repeatedly complained about secrecy in the Russian and Chinese arsenals. Instead, it now appears to endorse their secrecy." The Pentagon did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Gujarat Chief Minister and NCP leader Shankersinh Vaghela Thursday came out in support of Congress candidate from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency C J Chavda, who is pitted against BJP president Amit Shah. Speaking separately in Vadodara, Vaghela said UPA 3 government will be formed at the Centre after the Lok Sabha election results are announced on May 23. Vaghela, a former Congress leader, addressed a rally in support of Chavda, a sitting MLA, at Sanand near Ahmedabad. The former Chief Minister, who joined the NCP in January, came out in support of Chavda even when the Sharad Pawar-led party has not entered into a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in Gujarat for the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress and the NCP had tried to stitch an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat, but their effort did not materialise. The NCP is contesting on its own on seats like Patan and Surendranagar. The Gujarat NCP was keen to contest on three seats with support of the Congress and there were talks of considering Vaghela as the party candidate from Panchmahal in central Gujarat. The two parties are allies in neighbouring Maharashtra. In July 2017, Vaghela had left the Congress and stepped down from the post of Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, talking to PTI in Vadodara after an event Wednesday night, the NCP leader said the BJP will not come to power after the April-May elections. The saffron outfit will find it difficult to touch the simple majority mark of 272 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, Vaghela said. He said he would campaign for Congress candidates in Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states where the NCP has not put up its nominees. "I will go to Maharashtra for campaigning in support of NCP candidates. In Gandhinagar, I am campaigning for Congress candidate Chavda," Vaghela said. He criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for diverting attention from issues like unemployment and farm distress and said he has failed to fulfil his pre-2014 poll promises. Vaghela said demonetisation and GST have led to job losses and closure of 4 lakh small and medium scale units across the country. Taking on Shah, the NCP leader said the BJP chief should explain how he got to know that "250 terrorists" were killed in the Indian Air Force's air strike at Balakot in Pakistan. "We want proof of number of people killed in the air strike and it is the duty of the government to provide this information," he said. Vaghela rejected Modi's claim that the opposition is demoralising the armed forces by asking for proof of the Balakot air strike. He accused the BJP and its leaders of spreading "misinformation" over the air strike and said the people of the country would give them a befitting reply. Vaghela sought to know how huge quantity of RDX could reach Pulwama despite the presence of security personnel in the area. "Why is the prime minister not giving details and saying how many people died in the air strike," he asked. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Vatican's envoy to Paris has been heard by French police "at his request" over sex assault allegations, judicial sources said Thursday. Nuncio Luigi Ventura spoke to police at the start of April, they said. Ventura is being investigated for allegedly molesting officials at the Paris mayor's office. The 74-year-old is accused of allegedly assaulting a man at the town hall in Paris on January 17 when Mayor Anne Hidalgo gave a New Year's address to diplomats, religious leaders and civil society figures. A similar complaint has been filed by a former Paris city employee for an incident that allegedly took place a year ago, according to city hall officials. His immunity has not been lifted, according to the prosecutor's office in Paris. The Italian-born Ventura is also being investigated for alleged sexual assault in Canada where he served as the Vatican envoy from 2001 to 2009. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voting was stalled in two polling booths of Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday after violence broke out over alleged proxy voting and dispute among the election agents, an official said. According to sources in the election office, an estimated 75.69 per cent of over nine lakh electorate exercised their franchise till 4 pm in the second phase of the general election. In one of the booths at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality in Imphal East district, unidentified men stormed into a polling station around 11.30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that "proxy voting" was being carried out in the station, Chief Electoral Officer PK Singh told PTI. It was only after the security personnel opened fire in the air, the mob dispersed, Singh said. In another booth in the same area, a scuffle broke out between the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3pm, derailing the voting process. The reason behind the skirmish between the agents was not clear as yet, the CEO said. Sources in the election office said that re-polling was likely in the two booths of East Imphal district. Altogether 9,28,626 voters were expected to exercise their franchise at 1,300 polling stations of Inner Manipur to decide the fate of 12 candidates. Manipur Governor Najma Heptulla, who cast her vote early in the day at T G Higher Secondary School in Imphal West district, urged voters to exercise their democratic right judiciously. The state has two parliamentary constituencies, one of which went to polls in the first phase on April 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Tamil Nadu registered 63.73 per cent polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats Thursday even as paramilitary forces fired in the air near Arakkonam in Vellore district to disperse a restive crowd. The bypoll to 18 assembly constituencies held along the Lok Sabha polls saw 67.08 per cent voting percentage. The polling percentages are as of 5 PM. Voting drew to a close in the state at 6 PM, except in Madurai, where polling has been allowed till 8 PM in view of the local temple festival. All voters who had turned up at polling stations ahead of 6 PM were allowed to vote. A senior police official told PTI that paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam to disperse crowds and more details were awaited. Arani Lok Sabha seat registered 76.49 per cent turnout and the voting percentage in other Parliamentary seats ranged between 55.07 (lowest in Kanyakumari) and Chidambaram 70.73 per cent. The assembly polls saw Harur in Dharmapuri district recording a turnout of 79.91 per cent while that in other seats were between 51.44 (lowest in Periyakulam) and 78.12 per cent (Nilakkottai). Perambur in the city recorded 59.45 per cent votes. Earlier, the DMK had charged the ruling AIADMK with planning to do "booth-capturing" towards the close of voting. Tamil Nadu has a total of 67,720 polling stations and 7,780 booths have been categorised as critical and vulnerable where more Central Armed Police Forces personnel, and micro-observers were deployed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Taking a dig at the grand alliance of opposition parties, BJP president Amit Shah Thursday said there will a new prime minister everyday of the week if such a "mahamilawat" or "highly adulterated" government comes to power at the Centre. Addressing an election rally here in Bilaspur district, Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only leader in the country who can give a befittingreply to Pakistan for its anti-India actions. "There are two camps clearly visible in this election - one NDA and its allies led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which is united and then there is mahamilawat (highly adulterated) gathbandhan of Rahul Baba and company," he said. "When I asked them that if by mistake their alliance gets elected, who will be your Prime Ministerial candidate...? silence is the only answer I get. "One of my party workers sent me a message on WhatsApp about their planning if they get elected. That is, on Monday Sharad Pawar will be the PM, while on Tuesday it will be Mayawati. "On Wednesday it would be Akhilesh Yadav, Deve Gowda on Thursday, Stalin on Friday and Mamata Didi on Saturday while on Sunday the country will be on leave," he said, mocking the anti-BJP alliance. That is the reason why people shout slogans of 'Modi Modi' as they know only he can provide a strong and stable leadership, the BJP chief added. Work done by the Modi government in the last five years has changed the lives of 50 crore people in the country, he added. Hailing the air strike on a terror camp at Balakot in Pakistan in February, Shah said the government under Modi has safeguarded India's borders and he is the only one who can give a befitting reply to the neighbouring country. "The Narendra Modi government has done the biggest work of securing our borders. During the 10 years of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh-led UPA rule, Aliya, Maliya, Jamaliya anybody (terrorists) entered our borders and chopped off heads of our jawans and insulted them. "When the Pulwama terror attack occurred, there was anger among people in the country. Pakistan had deployed tanks on its border fearing another surgical strike. "Barely 13 days after the (Pulwama) attack, Narendra Modiji gave orders to the Air Force and the Air force carried out air strike and demolished terror camps in Pakistan," he said. After the air strike, when the people of the country were happy, sadness had gripped two places - Pakistan and the office of Rahul Baba and company, Shah said. Mourning in Pakistan was obvious. But why they (Rahul Gandhi and his alliance partners) were in pain? Were they (terrorists) their 'chachere bhai' (cousins), he asked, attacking the Congress-led opposition. "Guru of Rahul Gandhi, Sam Pitroda, says a few people committed mistake and a dialogue should be held with them. Do you think talks should be held with those who killed our 40 jawans...our policy is clear - reply of bullets will be given with shells," Shah asserted. "They (terrorists) will be given a befitting reply. The BJP has a zero tolerance policy against terrorists," Shah said. Lashing out at the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government, which came to power in December, Shah said, Chhattisgarh was a 'Bimaru' (underdeveloped) state when it was formed (in 2000). "The Raman Singh-led BJP government, during its 15- year rule (2003-2018), took it to new heights of development. After the Congress came to power in the state, it stopped the BJP government's scheme of distributing gram and salt to the poor people." Shah said Chhattisgarh may again become a 'Bimaru' state under the Congress rule. "It seems in the Congress rule, Chhattisgarh will once again become a Bimaru state aslaw and order situation has deteriorated and no new industries are coming up. "Only one industry is flourishing in the state and that is 'transfer industry'," he said, apparently referring to transfer of bureaucrats. Shah addressed the rally in support of Arun Sao, the BJP candidate from the Bilaspur Lok Sabha constituency which will vote on April 23 along with half a dozen other seats. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of favouring the rich and giving a raw deal to farmers, and said he will not allow the creation of "two Indias". Gandhi addressed poll rallies at Vanthli in Junagadh district and at Bhuj in Kutch district, ahead of April 23 Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat. Speaking at Vanthli village, he promised that if voted to power, the Congress will introduce a separate budget for the farming community and a ministry to exclusively address issues of fishermen. "For the last five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to create two Indias. One for the people like Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi. Modi fulfils all their demands. "Another India is of the poor, small traders and labourers....Congress will not allow Modi to create two Indias. If we are having one flag then we must have one nation. If Ambani gets justice, then farmers too should get it," Gandhi said. He promised that the Congress will waive loans of Gujarat farmers within 10 days of coming to power. The Modi government took no action against industrialists who defaulted on repayment of loans of thousands of crores of rupees, the Congress chief alleged. "If a farmer defaults on repayment of Rs 20,000, then he is sent behind bars. No industrialist was jailed for not repaying loans. We will change this situation... We will change the law to ensure that farmers are not jailed for failing to repay loan," he said. Gandhi reiterated the promise in the Congress's manifesto to introduce a separate farmers' budget. "In that budget, we will make advance provisions for MSP (minimum support price) to be given for crops during the year, rate of compensation and insurance. Farmers will get to know everything in advance through this budget," he said. The party's 'Nyay' scheme to give Rs 72,000 to poor families every year will not harm the economy, but "instead, it will help the economy to grow", he said. He also promised a simpler Goods and Services Tax, jobs to 10 lakh youths in panchayats, and exemption from taking any permission to start and run a business for three years to young entrepreneurs. Addressing a rally in Bhuj in the evening, Gandhi accused Modi and BJP president Amit Shah of snatching farmers' land "across India and in Gujarat". "Our land acquisition bill (drafted during the UPA rule) clearly stated that no one can take away farmers' land without their consent. "However, the first thing Modi did after coming to power in 2014 was to stall the bill. Later, it was diluted at the state level," the Congress chief alleged. On the 'Nyay' scheme, he said, "Modi talks about a surgical strike (on terrorists' camps) nowadays. I want to tell you that our Nyay scheme is a surgical strike on poverty. We will eliminate poverty in one strike. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Conservative French politicians expressed concern Thursday about the prospect of modern architecture being added to Notre-Dame cathedral after the government invited design proposals for a new roof and spire. Politicians from France's right-wing Republicans and far-right National Rally (RN) party called on the government to restore the cathedral exactly as it was before the devastating fire broke out on Monday evening. French President Emmanuel Macron has set a five-year target for the reconstruction to be completed and has said "an element of modern architecture could be imagined." "Let's stop this madness: we need to have absolute respect for French heritage," Jordan Bardella from the National Rally told LCI channel, rejecting the idea that "some modern art thing" might be added. "Modern art makes me nostalgic for the arts of the past," he added. Construction of Notre-Dame began in the mid-12th century and continued for 200 years, but the landmark has been repeatedly restored over its history. It fell into disrepair after the French Revolution in 1789 and is widely thought to have been saved by the Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" which re-ignited pride in the building. The spire which collapsed on Monday evening was a relatively modern addition made during an overhaul undertaken by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in the mid-19th century. "There will be a competition that will get architects from all over the world to reflect," Culture Minister Franck Riester told RMC radio. "Every time cathedrals are restored anywhere in the world they are done a bit differently," he added. "We shouldn't be dogmatic about thinking a cathedral needs to redone how it was." A descendant of architect Viollet-le-Duc urged on Thursday that the steeple be rebuilt in some form after the government said one option might be to do without one altogether. "Not reconstructing the spire would equate to amputating an element that belongs to it," Jean-Marie Henriquet, 76, told AFP. Senior Republicans politician Francois-Xavier Bellamy also warned innovation-loving Macron about the dangers of trying to modernise a national treasure. "It would be tragic if grief over the destruction gives way to a mania for disruption, and that the pride of the 'new world' distorts the best of the old instead of transmitting it," he wrote on Twitter. One of the most controversial additions to Paris in recent times was the glass pyramid built in front of the Louvre palace in central Paris. Hated by many Parisians when it was unveiled by Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei, it recently celebrated its 30th birthday and has become an attraction in its own right. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The World Trade Organization on Thursday largely sided with the United States in its Obama-era case against Beijing over Chinese restrictions on imports of American grain. Back in December 2016, Washington filed a complaint with the global trade body over what it claimed were illegal Chinese restrictions on imports of American rice, wheat and corn, describing China's use of the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system as "opaque and unpredictable". Washington estimated at the time that American farmers could have exported some $3.5 billion more of such crops to China if the system had been used properly, and charged that Beijing had violated its commitments under international trade rules. A panel of experts established by the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body agreed Thursday that China had failed to adhere to the commitments it made when it became a WTO member in 2001 to administer the TRQs on a "transparent, predictable, and fair basis". The panel however said that the US had failed to show that China violated its public notice obligation under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in respect to TRQs. TRQs are two-level tariffs, allowing for a limited volume of imports to come in at a lower "in-quota" tariff level, and all other imports charged at an often much higher "out-of-quota" tariff. Countries like China that joined the WTO after its creation in 1995 have had their TRQ commitments set out in their accession agreements. When China joined the WTO, it agreed to allow 2,660,000 metric tonnes of short and medium-grain rice and the same amount for long-grain rice, as well as 9,636,000 metric tonnes of wheat and 7,200,000 metric tonnes of corn to enter the country at the lower duty rates. Both sides have up to 60 days to appeal Thursday's ruling. China is the world's largest producer of wheat and rice, holding significant sway over world markets. The of the WTO ruling comes as Washington and Beijing strive to reach a new trade agreement to avoid escalating their trade war. The two sides have exchanged tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade since last year, weighing on both countries' manufacturing sectors and unnerving global stock markets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CPI candidate from Bihar's Begusarai Lok Sabha seat Kanhaiya Kumar has said that this election is a battle between people who want to educate the youth and those who want them to make 'pakodas'. Referring to the CBSE's decision to scrap chapters on 'democracy and diversity' from the political science textbook of class 9, he said, "If we remain silent today, democracy would be erased from the country tomorrow." Opponents of Kumar are trying to corner the CPI leader over the sedition charge levelled against him in February 2016. "If I am a criminal, why's the government not putting me in jail? If I have done something wrong, the government has the right to take action," the leader told PTI in an interview. "The fact that I am contesting elections is a proof that the allegations of sedition are baseless. The public knows everything. People want to talk about real issues, but the BJP is engaging people in useless topics. In the last five years, the central government has not done anything for the public," said Kumar who is pitted against Giriraj Singh of the BJP and Tanvir Hassan of the RJD. The CPI candidate said the conspirators are not bothered about the country and they want nobody to question them. Expressing satisfaction over his election campaign, Kumar said he is excited over the kind of support he has been receiving from the people. "If there is truth and honesty in the political battle then the people's support comes automatically," he said. Asked about his entry into politics, Kumar said, "I have not decided anything. Destiny and circumstances decide everything. When I was born in Begusarai, I had not imagined that I will got to Delhi some day. In Delhi, I had not thought that I would go to JNU and become president of the students' union." Talking about election funds, he said he believes that people's fight should be fought with their money. The CPI leader said his entire election campaign is going on with people's support. "Youngsters want to study and do something for the country but there are people who want them to make 'pakodas'," Kumar said. The CPI leader alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working overtime to "destroy" the country. "Modi is working 20 hours every day and the country is being destroyed," he said while taking a jibe at the prime minister. Begusarai is considered a citadel of the Congress as the party has so far won eight times from the seat. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Bhola Singh of the BJP defeated Tanvir Hassan of the RJD by 58,335 votes from Begusarai. Rajendra Prasad Singh of the CPI was at number three with 1,92,639 votes. Prior to that, Monajir Hassan of the JDU had defeated CPI (M) leader Shatrughan Prasad Singh in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. In 2004, Rajiv Ranjan Singh of the JDU defeated Krishna Shahi of the Congress. The CPI had won from this seat in the 1967 Lok Sabha election, where its candidate Yogendra Sharma had emerged victorious. The total number of voters in the Begusarai constituency is 19,53,007, of which 10,38,983 are males and 9,13,962 are females. Known as Bihar's 'Leningrad' and 'Mini Moscow', the Begusarai constituency has fairly good number of Bhumihars, Yadavs and Muslims. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya Thursday said either the PSU banks, fighting a case against him in the UK court, or PM Modi was lying. Mallya, in a Tweet, quoted PM Modi's recent interview where he said the government had recovered more money from the businessman than he owed the banks.Mallya highlighted that the banks had claimed otherwise in English courts. "None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe? One or the other is lying," Mallya tweeted. None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe ? One or the other is lying. - Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 18, 2019 The fugitive businessman's comments came a day after Jet Airways' decision to temporarily suspend all its operations for the lack of funds to keep the airline afloat. Also Read: Jet Airways crisis: Vijay Mallya accuses govt of discrimination against private airlines in India Mallya in his tweet Wednesday also expressed solidarity with Jet's founder Naresh Goyal scoffing indirectly at the government's inaction at saving the private airlines operating in the country. "Even though we were fierce competitors, my sympathies go out to Naresh and Neeta Goyal who built Jet Airways that India should be extremely proud of. Fine Airline providing vital connectivity and class service. Sad that so many Airlines have bitten the dust in India. Why ?" Mallya said in his tweet. Even though we were fierce competitors, my sympathies go out to Naresh and Neeta Goyal who built Jet Airways that India should be extremely proud of. Fine Airline providing vital connectivity and class service. Sad that so many Airlines have bitten the dust in India. Why ? - Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 16, 2019 Also Read: Vijay Mallya lashes out at Modi govt, PSU banks for 'double standards' after Jet Airways bailout The embattled businessman had recently filed an application in the UK High Court to avoid extradition to India. Mallya filed for an oral consideration after his first attempt at an application seeking "leave to appeal" in the court failed. The Westminster Magistrates' Court has already judged in favour of extraditing Mallya to India, which was then approved by the UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid back in February. Also Read: Vijay Mallya fails to convince UK court to dismiss Indian banks' attempt to recover dues Lok Sabha polls 2019: The phase two of the Lok Sabha election is coming to an end, with over 50 per cent of voter turnout till 3pm. Tamil Nadu, where election is being held for maximum 38 seats, has recorded 52.02 per cent voter turnout. In Maharashtra, voting percentage has remained 46.63 per cent till 3pm. Other states with over 50 per cent voter turnout include Odisha (53 per cent), Manipur (67.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (50.39 per cent), Chhattisgarh (59.72 per cent), and Karnataka 49.26 per cent. Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting on April 18; FAQs, polling on 95 seats Here are the live updates on the phase 2 of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. 6:05pm: 6:00pm: PM Narendra Modi addressing a public meeting in Amreli, Gujarat. 4.59pm: Voter turnout till 3 PM for 2nd phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 Maharashtra - 46.63%, Tamil Nadu - 52.02%, Odisha - 53%, Manipur - 67.5%, Uttar Pradesh - 50.39%, Chhattisgarh - 59.72%, Karnataka - 49.26%. 4.45pm: 107-year-old Padma awardee, Saalumarada Thimmakka, casts her vote for the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency. Karnataka: 107-year-old Padma awardee, Saalumarada Thimmakka casts her vote for the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/e7dJJgI2bO - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 4.26pm: Who is Shakti Bhargav, the man who threw shoe at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao? As per the Facebook profile of the accused, he is a self-acclaimed whistle-blower. His online profile shows he was concerned over the closure of several mills in Kanpur. Also read: Who is Shakti Bhargav, the man who threw shoe at BJP MP 4.20pm: Manipur and Karnataka both see 67.5% voter turnout till 3 pm. Maharashtra sees 46.63%. 4.15pm: Father of a victim in Malegaon blast has filed application against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur after she was declared BJP candidate from Bhopal. Application has questioned her candidature before NIA court citing her health which was one of the reasons in her bail application: ANI 4.10pm: Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai on alliance with Congress: "We had made one last effort, Sanjay Singh ji held talks, but can't understand that after almost finalizing the matter and seat sharing why the Congress stepped back last evening." 4.04pm: Manipur registered 49.7% voters, while Karnataka registered 36.31% voters till 1 pm. 4.03pm: Senior citizens come out in full force to vote. 4.02pm: West Bengal poll percentage till 3.00 pm - Jalpaiguri (SC) - 71.32%,Darjeeling - 63.14%, Raiganj - 61.84 %. State total - 65.43 %. 4.00pm: Visuals from a polling booth in Imphal. 3.59pm: Voter turnout till 3 pm in Jammu and Kashmir is 38.5%, including 5.7% in Srinagar. 3.57pm: Visuals from a polling booth in Assam's Nagaon. 3.55pm: Election Commission of India warns Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi over his 'Modi ki Sena' comment, asks him to desist from using references to security forces for political propaganda and to be careful in future: ANI 3.50pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a public meeting in Karnataka's Bagalkot, "The drama unfolding here in the state for the past one year is refusing to end. This drama has everything including emotions and revenge. Situation is such that we get to see overflow of emotions regularly in rallies and press conferences." 3.40pm: A 95-year-old man collapsed and later died while waiting for his turn to vote, at a polling booth in Ganjam. He was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead 3.20pm: Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and his family cast their vote. 3.15pm: Vivek Oberoi on his film 'PM Narendra Modi': "Everybody in the EC saw the film yesterday, we asked them how did you like the film?Can't tell you their response but we were happy with their answer; Only request is that the film should be allowed to release." Vivek Oberoi on his film 'PM Narendra Modi': Everybody in the EC saw the film yesterday, we asked them how did you like the film?Can't tell you their response but we were happy with their answer; Only request is that the film should be allowed to release. pic.twitter.com/4iblyY2YYA - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 3.00pm: Voter turnout till 1 PM in Maharashtra is 35.4%. Voter turnout till 1 PM in Maharashtra is 35.4%. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/W3eGR5B0ay - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 2.49pm: The Election Commission has allowed registered voters, who don't have a Voter ID card, to cast votes by showing other identity proof documents. Read more: 'How to vote, get polling booth details without voter ID card'. 2.47pm: SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav files nomination from Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat. 2.42pm: "Think before you vote! There is a woman abuser standing from @BJP4India in Bangalore South There is a woman cheater standing from BJP in Mysore There is a woman molester standing from BJP in Mangalore Think about your sister, wife, mother &friend before u vote!" says Congress leader Siddaramaiah. Think before you vote!! There is a woman abuser standing from @BJP4India in Bangalore South There is a woman cheater standing from BJP in Mysore There is a woman molester standing from BJP in Mangalore Think about your sister, wife, mother &friend before u vote!#VoteMaaDi pic.twitter.com/N9Koef0Jag - Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) April 18, 2019 2.15pm: An electronic voting machine was vandalised during a clash between TMC and BJP workers in Chopra, West Bengal. 2.07pm: Voter turnout till 1pm: West Bengal records highest 51.68% voterturnout till 1pm. Voter turnout in other states include 37.93% in Tamil Nadu; 46.76% in Assam; 29.88% in Jammu and Kashmir; 38.48 % in Uttar Pradesh; and 21.47% in Karnataka. 2.04pm: Criminal complaint against Rahul Gandhi over his 'chor' jibe; the Congress President during a rally in Maharashtra had said "all thieves have Modi in their surnames". Criminal complaint filed in Delhi's Patiala House Court by one Joginder Tuli seeking direction to police for registration of FIR u/s 124A (IPC- Sedition charges) against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for making allegedly derogatory statements against PM Narendra Modi (file pic) pic.twitter.com/XivDSWLKLq - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 2.02pm: 108-year-old Dharam Singh casts his vote in Thathri, Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir. 108-year-old Dharam Singh casts his vote in Thathri, Doda district in #JammuAndKashmir, this inspiring man is a motivation for the youth to step forward and participate in polling.#MakeYourMark#IndiaElections2019#LoksabhaElection2019 pic.twitter.com/jTsqmlTl9h - Doordarshan News (@DDNewsLive) April 18, 2019 2.00pm: 25.6 per cent voting till noon in Bihar: Bihar recorded 25.6 per cent voting in five Lok Sabha seats till noon on Thursday amidst reports of EVM malfunctioning and poll boycott delaying the start of polling in some booths, reported PTI. Banka recorded the highest turnout at 28 per cent followed by 26.2 per cent in Kishanganj, 25.5 per cent in Purnea, 25 per cent in Katihar and 23 per cent in Bhagalpur, an election official said. Altogether 86.01 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to elect 68 candidates in the second phase of polling. 1.45pm: BJP leader Babul Supriyo on violence incidents in West Bengal: "The the Murderer of Democracy sitting as the CM of Bengal, no matter how much of Central Forces (Election Commission) deploys, contaminated Bengal Police will disrupt Free & Fair Polls." The the Murderer of Democracy sitting as the CM of Bengal, no matter how much of Central Forces @ECISVEEP (Election Commission) deploys, contaminated Bengal Police will disrupt Free&Fair PollsVote shud be conducted after imposing Presidents Rule, throwing out the #TMchhi Govt - Chowkidar Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) April 18, 2019 1.37pm: Shoe hurled at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao during press conference. The BJP leader was holding a press conference over the BJP ticket to Sadhvi Pragya. #WATCH Delhi: Shoe hurled at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao during a press conference at BJP HQs .More details awaited pic.twitter.com/7WKBWbGL3r - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 1.36pm: Voting process recorded and posted on Facebook; EC orders probe: Election officials have ordered an inquiry after some voters recorded their voting process at a polling booth here and posted it on Facebook, police said. As per Election Commission guidelines, voters are not allowed to carry their mobile phones within a 100-metre radius of polling stations on the day of voting, an official said. (PTI) 1.31pm: Voting percentage in Karnataka till 1pm: 20% Bangalore North: 15.33% Bangalore Central: 16% Bangalore South: 19.48% 1.29pm: The winning candidate won by just one vote in Santhemarahalli constituency in Karnataka Assembly Election 2004. 1.24pm: At least 305 faulty EVMs and 525 VVPATs have been replaced in Tamil Nadu alone so far, suggest reports. Voting is going on for 38 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Polling in Vellore seat was cancelled due to excessive use of "money power". 1.14pm: Congress leader and Karnataka Culture Minister DK Shivakumar casts his vote; reiterates: "Your vote is not only your right, it is your power." Your vote is not only your right, it is your power. Use it for change & vote for saving democracy and building a progressive India for all our citizens. Vote for a MP and a Government that will deliver. #VoteNyayVoteCongress pic.twitter.com/PGyRejadXw - DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) April 18, 2019 1.03pm: BJP candidate from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya, starts #VoteMaaDi campaign. "Now's time to keep out josh high," he tweeted. I polled my vote. Did you? I'm initiating #VoteMaaDi challenge to encourage high voter turnout. I nominate @TVMohandasPai, @rajeev_mp & @KiranKS to post a selfie/video with hash tag #VoteForNewIndia & nominate 3 more people to do the same. Now's the time to keep our josh high! pic.twitter.com/sBqLcHOf8x - Chowkidar Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) April 18, 2019 1.00pm: Manipur Governor Najma Heptullah and Chief Minister N Biren Singh jump queues to vote in the election to the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat. Voters, says many other politicians had stood patiently in queues along with the general people, reported ANI. 12.57pm: SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow parliamentary constituency, Poonam Sinha, holds a road show after filing nomination. Lucknow: SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow parliamentary constituency, Poonam Sinha, holds a road show after filing nomination; Shatrughan Sinha & Dimple Yadav also present #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/gxXojges3d - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 12.32pm: Security personnel lob tear gas shells and lathi charge locals as they block NH-34 in protest after unknown miscreants allegedly prevented them from casting their votes. WB: Security personnel lob tear gas shells and lathi charge locals as they block NH-34 in protest after unknown miscreants allegedly prevented them from casting their votes at Digirpar polling booth in Chopra, in Islampur subdivision of North Dinajpur. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/XukT8B8Aol - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 12.28pm: Kanwar Singh Tanwar, BJP MP candidate from Amroha, says "fake voting has happened. Women in burkhas are not being checked for their identity. I heard a man wearing burkha was also caught." 12.08pm: Polling booth number 193 in Buldhana is being managed by specially-abled staff. Maharashtra: Polling booth number 193 in Buldhana is being managed by specially-abled staff. Presiding officer, says, "This booth is being managed by specially-abled staff only. I appeal to all specially-abled persons to cast their votes to strengthen democracy." pic.twitter.com/i9P91BwzOE - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 11.52pm: NC leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah cast their votes at a polling station in Munshi Bagh Area in Srinagar. 11.48am: Voter turnout till 11am. Voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh: 24.31% Voter turnout in Bihar: 18.97% Voter turnout in Assam: 26.39% Voter turnout in Chhattisgarh: 26.2% Voter turnout in Tamil Nadu: 30.62% Voter turnout in West Bengal:33.52% Voter turnout in Odisha: 33.10% Voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir: 17.78% 11.25am: BJP General Secretary and candidate from Raiganj constituency, Debasree Chaudhuri, alleges TMC workers were trying to capture booth at Raiganj Coronation High School. WB: BJP General Secy&candidate from Raiganj constituency Debasree Chaudhuri alleges TMC workers were trying to capture booth at Raiganj Coronation High School. Says "TMC workers were trying to capture booth. They were campaigning among Muslims there. This isn't election campaign" pic.twitter.com/BxQ19MoTxP - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 11.13am: Election statistic you should know. 11.11am: Hema Malini, BJP's candidate from Mathura, says: "Development in Mathura is all due to my efforts." #WATCH BJP MP Candidate from Mathura, Hema Malini says, "Development in Mathura is all due to my efforts. SP-BSP are only engaged in fighting with each other. There is a huge Modi wave here." #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/6Xm5dWWz2u - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 11.09am: Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in Hassan's Paduvalahippe. Karnataka: Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in Hassan's Paduvalahippe. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/kpBBzwbU7K - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 11.08am: The EC's flying squad has seized Rs 11.85 lakh cash in Sion area of Mumbai City district, reports ANI. Besides, polling has temporarily halted at booth number 217 in Solapur's Shastri Nagar due to fault in Electronic Voting Machine. 11.07am: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College. He is the Congress candidate from Fatehpur Sikri. Agra: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar and party's candidate from Fatehpur Sikri casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College, for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/l1rLK9F88C - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 11.00am: 11.61 polling recorded in Assam till 9 am: An estimated 11.61 per cent of the 69,10,592 electorate exercised their franchise in five parliamentary seats of Assam in the second phase polling on Thursday. Polling is being held in 8,992 polling booths in Karimganj (SC), Silchar, Autonmous District(ST), Nowgong and Mangaldoi constituencies. Reports of EVM glitches have been reported from several booths in all the five constituencies and efforts are on to correct the snags, an election official said. PTI 10.55am: 7% polling in Odisha till 9 am: Around 7 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first two hours of polling Thursday in five Lok Sabha and 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha. The electoral fortunes of 279 candidates, including Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union minister Jual Oram, will be decided in the second phase of voting. Over 76.93 lakh voters will decide the fate of 279 candidates in Thursday's polling. Out of the total electorate of 76,93,123, there are 37,47,493 women voters. At least 605 electors belong to the third gender. PTI 10.45am: A teacher, who was on election duty at a polling booth in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district, died of a heart attack on Thursday. The deceased, Tukalu Ram Nareti, an assistant teacher in a government school, was deputed as the polling officer at Kamta booth (no.186) in Antagarh area of Kanker Lok Sabha constituency where voting was underway, the official from the local administration said. Kureti complained of chest pain around 6 am and fell unconscious at the polling station. He was immediately rushed to a local hospital where he was declared brought dead, the official said. The body was sent for postmortem, he said. PTI 10.38am: EC's flying squad seizes 1,381 kg gold A flying squad team stopped a van carrying 1,381kg of gold at Veppampattu check post at Thiruvallur, near Chennai. After the four men inside the vehicle couldn't provide adequate documents, and claimed the gold was on its way to Thirupathi Devasthaanam, the officials sieze gold. Further probe is on. 10.37am: A poll official who was on duty at polling booth number 186 in Kanker of Chhattisgarh has reportedly died of cardiac arrest. 10.30am: The voting process has been halted at upper Bagdogra's 25/47 booth under Darjeeling constituency after a black tape was found on the BJP symbol in an EVM. 10.20am: "When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay," says Congress President Rahul Gandhi. When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay. Nyay for our unemployed youth; for our struggling farmers; for the small traders whose businesses were destroyed by Demonetisation; for those who were persecuted because of their caste or religion. #VoteNyayVoteCongress pic.twitter.com/VvEZPPX5b8 - Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 18, 2019 10.10am: Voter turnout in Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Chhatisgarh. Polling underway for 95 Parliamentary Constituencies spread across 11 States n Puducherry UT in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 Voter turnout at 9 AM#IndiaElections2019 #GeneralElections2019 #VoteForIndia pic.twitter.com/Pv06zKH2Ah - PIB India (@PIB_India) April 18, 2019 9.56am: "Today is the second phase of polling and BJP and PM Modi seem to be very nervous," says BSP supremo Mayawati. 9.53am: A newly married couple arrive at a polling station in Udhampur to cast their votes. Jammu & Kashmir: A newly married couple arrive at a polling station in Udhampur to cast their votes for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/RWTHAmAEwE - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 9.52am: Uttar Pradesh election voting latest updates: As per EC, total voter turnout in UP has reached 10.76 per cent. 9.40am: State wise voting percentage: Polling percentage recorded in Assam (5 seats)-9.51 per cent,J&K (2 seats)-0.99 per cent,Karnataka (14 seats)1.14 per cent, Maha(10)-0.85 per cent,Manipur(1)-1.78 per cent, Odisha(5)-2.15 per cent, TN(38)-0.81 per cent, Tripura(1)-0.00 per cent, UP(8)-3.99 per cent, WB(3)-0.55 per cent, Chhattisgarh(3)-7.75 per cent and Puducherry -1.62 per cent,till 9am. 9.30am: Some interesting nuggets of phase 2 of the Lok Sabha 2019 election. 95 Lok Sabha constituencies across 11 states and one UT to go to polls. Nearly 15.80 crore voters to decide fate of 1,629 candidates. More than 1.81lakh polling booths set up for the purpose. Tamil Nadu, where all the seats, except one, is going for polls, 67,664 polling booths have been set up. The state has the most number of booths in poll going states Thursday. With 970, Puducherry has the least number of polling booths in this phase. Election in Vellore constituency of Tamil Nadu was cancelled by EC as it felt excessive use of money power has vitiated the poll process. No fresh date has been announced as yet. Fearing law and order issues, election to Tripura (East) has been postponed to April 23. Out of the total electors, 8,02,60,815 are men, 7,76,62,567 women and 11,136 are transgenders. EC identifies them as 'others'. (PTI) 9.25am: Here's what you need to do before you step out to cast vote. 9.23am: Over 2,000 people from Venkatapuram and Nachiampayalam villages of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu have reportedly boycotted election. 9.20am: Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh casts his vote at a polling booth in Imphal. #LokSabhaElections2019 : Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh casts his vote at a polling booth in Imphal. pic.twitter.com/Q01FDttDRc - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 9.17am: Puducherry polls: Puducherry and its outlying regions of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam together constitute the lone Lok Sabha seat and have a total strength of 9,73,410 voters. The main battle for the parliamentary seat from the Union Territory is between the ruling Congress's candidate V Vaithilingam, a former assembly speaker, and opposition AINRC nominee K Narayanasamy. (PTI) 9.16am: Tamil Nadu polls: State has a total of 67,720 polling stations and 7,780 booths have been categorised as critical and vulnerable where more Central Armed Police Forces personnel, and micro observers were deployed. (PTI) 9.15am: Voting underway in Purnea constituency, Bihar. 9.12am: Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan exercise their franchise in Chennai. 9.11am: Your vote is not only your right, it is your power: Congress. Your vote is not only your right, it is your power. Use your power for change & vote for the party that represents unity, justice & equality. #VoteNyayVoteCongress pic.twitter.com/1EUhZHHIvg - Congress (@INCIndia) April 18, 2019 9.10am: The process resumes at booth numbers 261 and 263 of the Bolangir Lok Sabha constituency after some delay due to EVM malfunction. 9.07am: Voting yet to begin in booth number 46 of Gantholi village of Goverdhan block. Mathura: People queue up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block. The voting is yet to begin here due to EVM malfunction. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/FxM95M7VLi - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 9.03am: Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central, Prakash Raj, stands in queues to cast vote. Bengaluru: Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central, Prakash Raj queues up at a polling booth, to cast his vote in #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/y93wPMKpxC - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 8.53am: Puducherry CM Narayanasamy casts vote in Bussy street PWD complex polling booth in Puducherry. Puducherry CM Narayanasamy casts vote in Bussy street PWD complex polling booth in Puducherry.#PollsWithAIR | #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/9ujBs8C27q - All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) April 18, 2019 8.38am: Lieutenant Governor Dr Kiran Bedi stands in queue to cast her vote. 8.36am: Uttar Pradesh election voting latest updates: Polling process has been delayed at booth number 201 in Agra and booth number 148 in Mathura due to faulty EVM, reports Firstpost. 8.30am: Poll percentage in Bihar till 8AM. 8.28am: Tamil Nadu election voting latest updates: Several reports of EVM malfunctioning are coming in from at least seven polling booths in Kanyakumari, Madurai, and Tirunelveli. 8.19am: Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palanisamy casts his vote. 8.18am: Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi stands in queue to cast her vote. 8.16am: BJP President Amit Shah to address rallies at Raigarh and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and Jalna in Maharashtra. "I appeal to all the voters in phase two, especially the young, that you must vote to keep this momentum going. In your one vote lies country's pride and progress," says the BJP chief. 8.12am: Manipur Governor Dr Najma Heptulla casts her vote at TG Higher Secondary School polling station in Imphal this morning. 8.10am: Several reports of EVM malfunctioning and late polling have been coming from Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. 8.00am: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrives at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency to cast her vote. 7.53am: Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde casts his vote at a polling station in Solapur. 7.47am: Polling yet to begin at booth number 29/134 of Islampur Hindi FP School in Uttar Dinajpur, Raiganj Parliamentary constituency of West Bengal, as the EVM at the booth is not functioning. (ANI) 7.44am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold rallies in three states today. Amreli, Gujarat (10.30am) Bagalkot, Karnataka (2.45pm) Chikode, Karnataka (4.40pm) Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (8.15pm) 7.40am: Former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, after casting his vote in Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu, says: "People of Tamil Nadu want a change of government in the Centre and state that is why there is support coming for us." Tamil Nadu: Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidi Rangarajan casts their vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/2C5hLVUsPb - ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 7.38am: Today is also the last date for filing nomination papers for Phase V polling, to be held on May 5 in 51 Parliamentary constituencies spread across 7 states. 7.36am: Here's an overall look at all the action on the ground today. 7.30am: Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine not working properly at a polling station in Silchar, Assam. 7.19am: What to do if you don't have a Voter ID card? Log on to the NSVP Electoral Search page and click on search by details. Put in your details, such as name, gender, age, assembly constituency etc. Based on your details, a result will pop up, which means that your name is in the voter's list. In case, there is no pop-up, it means your name is probably missing from the voter's list. 7.16am: Voting has began across 95 Parliamentary constituencies in India. Here are the latest visuals from polling station number 38 & 39 in Bhagalpur parliamentary constituency. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday banned the Congress party's ad campaign 'Chowkidar chor hai' in Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh Joint Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Kaul on Wednesday sent a letter to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to halt the party campaign in the state. The officer also issued a notice to all district officers of the state saying the media certification and inspection committee had cancelled the ad certification and it should be banned everywhere. Also read: Lok Sabha Election Phase 2 Live Updates: 305 faulty EVMs and 525 VVPATs replaced in Tamil Nadu A few days before the commencement of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP and their leaders had prefixed the word 'Chowkidar' (security guard) in their names on social media platform Twitter. As per the party, it had decided to use the word 'chowkidar' in reference to those who guard the country against injustice and corruption. The BJP's election campaign was a counter to Rahul Gandhi's 'Chowkidar chor hai' slogan. Also read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting today; FAQs, all you need to know about polling on 95 constituencies According to IANS, Chief Election Officer VL Kantarao directed officers to take action against the Congress party as it's against the Model Code Of Conduct. In its recent action against erring political leaders, the EC had temporarily banned leaders like Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for making inflammatory speeches. The EC decision had come after the Supreme Court slammed the poll body for failing to take action in cases of poll code violation, and had questioned if it was even aware of its powers to force errant political leaders to fall in line. Also read: Will the 'Chowkidar' campaign cost BJP the elections? Also read: EC bars Yogi Adityanath from campaigning for 72 hours, Mayawati for 48 hours The second phase of the Lok Sabha polls began today at 7:00 am. Voting is underway across 95 constituencies in 11 states and one Union Territory. Apart from the Lok Sabha elections, polling is also underway for 18 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu and 35 assembly seats in Odisha. However, as a voter, how do you cast your vote without a Voter ID card? Here's how: The Election Commission has allowed registered voters, who don't have a Voter ID card, to cast votes by showing other identity proof documents. The list of ID proofs that are accepted by the Election Commission are: * PAN card * Aadhaar card * Passport * Driving License * Service photo ID Cards issued to Central/State Govt./PSUs/Public Limited Companies's employees * Bank/Post Office's Passbooks with attested photograph * Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR * Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGA) Job Card * Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour * Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs * Pension document with a photograph How to check if a citizen's name is on voter list by SMS Send an SMS to 1950 in the given format-ECI EPIC No- to check if citizen's name is on the voters' list. (EPIC stands for Electors Photo Identity Card, in other words, Voter ID card) Example- If voter's EPIC No is 12345678, SMS ECI 12345678 to 1950 How to find your polling booth 1. Electors can call the helpline number '1950' after adding their respective STD codes to check their polling station. 2. Voters can visit National Voters' Service Portal's website and enter details like name, DOB, Father's/Husband's name, local consistency to find their polling booth. 3. Election Commission of India has also set up a voter helpline app for helping registered voters to check their polling station. 4. Voters can also send an SMS to 1950 in the format- ECIPS *space* EPIC No- for polling booth's location. Example- If voter's EPIC No is 12345678, SMS ECIPS 12345678 to 1950 Additionally polling in Vellore and East Tripura constituency, which was scheduled for today, was cancelled by the Election Commission. Vellore's polling was suspended in the wake of cash seizures from the son of party treasurer Duraimurugan and DMK candidate Kathir Anand. East Tripura constituency's polling date has been changed from April 18 to April 23. (Edited by Vivek Dubey) Lok Sabha election phase 2 LIVE UPDATES: Stage set for another round of polls; voting begins Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase 2: West Bengal to vote on April 18; to see triangular contest for 3 seats The state of Tamil Nadu, in southern India, will be part of the second phase of voting across India. Elections for the 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu are being held in a single phase today, on April 18. Earlier, the Election Commission had decided to cancel polls in the Vellore constituency. Tamil Nadu also sends 18 members to the Rajya Sabha. There are 235 Assembly constituencies in the state and the last Assembly elections were held in May 2016. Also Read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting on April 18; FAQs, polling on 95 seats In 2014, AIADMK had won 37 of the 39 parliamentary seats but is only contesting from 20 seats this time. BJP and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) had bagged 1 seat each in 2014. The state of Tamil Nadu is divided into five regions, namely the Upper North Tamil Nadu, North Central Tamil Nadu, West Tamil Nadu, Cauvery Delta, South Tamil Nadu. As per the available data, there are a total of 5.89 crore eligible voters in Tamil Nadu, of which 2.92 crore are male, 2.98 crore are female and 5,461 voters of the other gender. The politics of Tamil Nadu has witnessed a sea change in the last few years. The death of J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi has brought in new players - AIADMK's E Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam on one side and DMK's MK Stalin on the other. There is also Kamal Hasan led Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and TTV Dhinkaran's Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK). In Tamil Nadu, mainstream parties like the Congress and the BJP are not very popular and have very little presence. At one point in time, Congress had a 20 per cent vote share in the state but that is now down to nearly four per cent. On the other hand, the BJP, which had no presence in the state, has now tied up with the AIADMK. Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases: April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting will be done on May 23. Edited By: Udit Verma Also Read: Lok Sabha election phase 2 Live Updates: Voters complain about EVM malfunctioning in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu Also Read: Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase 2: J&K to vote for Srinagar, Udhampur constituencies West Bengal recorded 51.68 per cent voter turnout till 1 pm. Polls are going for three Lok Sabha constituencies, Darjeeling, Raiganj and Jalpaiguri, in the state. Some reports of violence were also reported from Darjeeling, suggest reports. A total of 16.14 per cent polling was recorded in Darjeeling, while Jalpaiguri (SC) and Raiganj saw a voter turnout of 16.84 per cent and 17.45 per cent at 11 am, respectively. The Raiganj constituency is one of the two seats from where the Left had won from Bengal in the 2014 national election. Raiganj symbolises Left's struggle for existence in the state. The constituency is considered as a Congress stronghold. In 1999 and 2004, Congress' Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi won the election by a huge margin. The BJP has fielded Debasree Chaudhuri from Raiganj. CPI (M)'s Mohammed Salim, who won in 2014, is again contesting from this seat. Former Congress MLA Kanaialal Agarwal, who joined TMC is also contesting from Raniganj. During the second phase voting, several reports of violence and protests came in from Raiganj constituency, EC sources said. Also read: Lok Sabha Election Phase 2 Live Updates: 305 faulty EVMs and 525 VVPATs replaced in Tamil Nadu CPM candidate from Raiganj Mohammad Salim's vehicle was attacked in Islampur. The left party has alleged that state ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) is behind the attack. West Bengal: CPM candidate from Raiganj Mohammad Salim's vehicle attacked in Islampur; CPM has alleged that TMC is behind the attack. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/TrtdrU7sb7 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 In Darjeeling, where the BJP has won the last two election, the saffron party has fielded Raju Bista, who will fighting against TMC's Amar Rai. For more than a decade, TMC has been losing from Darjeeling. TMC last won from this seat was in the year 1998. The third consituency of the Bengal's second-phase poll is Jalpaiguri, which is a reserved constituency located in north Bengal. The constituency shares border with Bangladesh and comprises communities such as the Rajbangshis, Gorkhas, Adivasis and Bengalis. Jalpaiguri is said to be a Left citadel as the party had a stronghold from the 1980's till 2009. At present, BJP's Dr Jayanta Ray is all set to challenge TMC incumbent Bijoy Chandra Barman. Apart fro these two, Mani Kumar Darnal from Congress and trade union Saman Pathak from CPI(M) are also contesting from Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha seat. The Election Commission has deployed more than 190 personnel of central forces in over 5,000 polling booths in Raiganj, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling to curb violence during the polling. (With PTI inputs) Also read: Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase 2: West Bengal to vote on April 18; to see triangular contest for 3 seats Also read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Phase 2 voting today; FAQs, all you need to know about polling on 95 constituencies Two weeks after the Supreme Court set aside the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s controversial February 12 Circular, the bankers now await the future direction from the regulator. While RBI's power remains intact, it can be exercised only against specific defaulters. In an email interview with Anand Adhikari of Business Today, Punit Dutt Tyagi, Executive Partner, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan explains some of key issues that occupy the top of the minds of stakeholders: BT: What happens to existing stressed cases (for example, Jet Airways) triggered under February 12 Circular? Does the Supreme Court order put a complete stop to all proceedings under the banned circular? Punit Dutt Tyagi: As per directions passed by the Supreme Court, proceedings initiated by banks pursuant only to the February 12 Circular will be considered non est i.e. does not exist. In other words, banks are free to withdraw proceedings filed before the NCLT with respect to stressed companies, which remained pending because of the Supreme Court's status quo order. The impact is only limited to the direction of the RBI to banks to initiate IBC proceedings against a corporate debtor in case of default, which was struck down because of lack of authorisation from the government in terms of Section 35AA of the Banking Regulation Act. However, this does not mean that banks cannot take their own action, including initiation of IBC proceedings. There is, therefore, no impediment as far as banks' decision-making powers are concerned. Even though the Jet Airways default was squarely covered by the RBI Circular, the State Bank of India-led consortium had not triggered insolvency proceedings against it. They instead attempted a "Bank-led Provisional Resolution Plan" in terms of guidelines laid down by the Circular pertaining to valuation of shares. In other words, banks were trying to restructure the debt of Jet outside the IBC framework. This will not be impacted by the decision of the Supreme Court to strike down the RBI Circular. BT: Can affected promoters challenge the 'decision already taken under the circular'? For example, in the case of Jet Airways, the promoter is already out as part of the initial resolution worked out by bankers and promoters? Tyagi: The decision makes it clear that where proceedings had been initiated only because of the RBI Circular, such proceedings will come to a stop. However, banks remain free to initiate proceedings under IBC against a company in default, this discretion being couched in the IBC. The Supreme Court decision, therefore, offers no immunity to defaulting companies where banks want a resolution monitored by the NCLTs. Though we do not foresee such a situation because the Circular was challenged at a very initial stage and a status quo order was passed by the Supreme Court, it is theoretically possible for promoters to challenge proceedings if the same had been admitted by the NCLT or in the event any adverse order was passed against the promoters pursuant to such proceedings. Promoters may only be able to challenge proceedings in cases where it is apparent that the proceedings were initiated under the RBI Circular, and yet continue with such proceedings. No ground arises for them to challenge the wisdom of banks to draw up a resolution plan or in the event, banks decide to go for proceedings under the IBC. Therefore, no cause arises for the promoters of Jet to challenge the decision of lenders, as it is part of a restructuring plan that is not part of proceedings under the IBC. BT: What are some of restructuring options for banks without a February 12 circular -- can they convert their debt into equity? Tyagi: Without the February Circular, banks can continue a debt restructuring as per their commercial wisdom, whether outside or within the IBC framework. The relevant point to note is that with the Circular having been struck down, banks are no longer required to complete the restructuring process within 180 days of a company being identified as a defaulter, which had been mandated under the Circular. To convert debt into equity, banks can opt for schemes such as Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) and Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A) etc. BT: Can lenders enforce a sale of assets before invoking the bankruptcy proceedings? Tyagi: Yes, under the various debt restructuring schemes, it is possible to sell assets in stressed cases even before invoking IBC proceedings. For example, under the SARFAESI Act, a bank may sell assets to recover its dues. BT: Is there a risk of operational creditors or banks not joining the consortium invoking IBC? Tyagi: Once a creditor, whether financial or operational, decides to opt for IBC proceedings, it is imperative for all financial as well as operational creditors of the company to submit their claims. This means unless a debt restructuring scheme is adopted that pacifies all lenders, IBC proceedings may be invoked. As far as operational creditors are concerned, their debts are more likely to be paid in toto in case of a restructuring outside the IBC, as they often only end up being paid the liquidation value, which is almost nil where the company goes through insolvency proceedings. Therefore, creditors may be open to debt restructuring outside the IBC, provided it is fair to all. In all other cases, it is open for any creditor to initiate proceedings under the IBC. If that happens, it becomes imperative for all creditors to participate in proceedings. Also Read: Brokerages wait and observe L&T bid for Mindtree Also read: Jet Airways' temporarily shutdown a setback for Indian aviation: Air India chief Ashwani Lohani Also read: Jet Airways shutdown: Value of JPMiles 'secure and intact', says Jet Privilege Last May, Jet Airways approached Business Today for a story on airline completing 25 years in the skies. Jet promised access to its otherwise-inaccessible top management if BT sticks to the airline's journey story. We declined the offer politely. Since then, Jet came tumbling down. An airline that was celebrating its silver jubilee last year is now staring at a shutdown, sine die. In 2016, BT did a big story on Jet when the airline struggled its way back to profitability after four years of losses (Fresh Dawn) but these turnaround stories will soon become part of the airline's requiem. The latest BT cover story explores the possibilities of Jet Airways' revival (That Sinking Feeling). On April 17, the airline ran out of cash (and luck!) and temporarily halted its operations - first international, then domestic - after failing to secure additional funding from its lenders. Jet owes Rs 8,500 crore to its bankers, about Rs 3,000 crore to vendors, airport operators and fuel companies in addition to the pending salaries of its strong workforce of 16,000. In the absence of sufficient funds, the airline and its lenders is pinning hopes on the bidding process that will conclude on May 10. The question remains that whether Jet Airways will be able to fly again, ever? With Jet's lenders turning off the faucet, it seems that the bankers are not expecting suitors to have keen interest in acquiring the airline. To express interest in Jet doesn't mean anything except that some entities are more willing than others to weigh the pros and cons of acquiring Jet and sit across a table with lenders to haggle for a troubled asset. Bankers understand this, and therefore, are playing sensibly because a running airline would have definitely fetched them higher valuation than a grounded one. Unlike a dead elephant whose tusk is worth more than an alive elephant, an airline is worth as long as it is flying. Its market share, customer base, and brand have immense value for potential buyers. But lenders are not sure if they can actually pull off a deal. The danger of a possible inquiry in future could also have scared lenders to tighten the purse strings. Throwing good money to flog a dead horse can raise hackles, as it had happened in the Kingfisher Airlines' case. It would be easy to throw lenders under the bus as they are in full control of the airline after giving a trouble-free exit to its founder Naresh Goyal last month. For suitors, it has come down to how low they can drive the valuation of Jet Airways. In SpiceJet's case, Ajay Singh bought the airline for Rs 2 and scaled down the debt significantly. People are expecting a similar situation at Jet when the bidding process starts. The (reportedly) initial interests shown by TPG Capital, Indigo Partners, Etihad Airways, and sovereign fund NIIF (National Investment and Infrastructure Fund) have to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad, which currently owns 24 per cent in the airline, was keen on bailing out Jet Airways in January on some conditions: Goyal should be removed from the board, his stake should be lowered to 22 per cent and exemption from the SEBI's regulations on open offer and preference pricing. Etihad isn't in a good shape at the moment - it posted $1.3 billion losses in core airline operations in 2018, however, its interest in airline through EoI (expression of interest) is an indicator that airline might take over Jet if the SEBI norms can be modified and valuation reduced. Being a foreign carrier, Etihad's stake in Jet cannot go beyond 49 per cent but the airline can still be the largest shareholder taking key decisions for Jet. Global PE firms TPG Capital and Indigo Partners have historically been evaluating investments in the Indian aviation sector. Their entry remains elusive, though. TPG, for instance, wanted to invest in Air Deccan before Kingfisher bought the low-cost carrier in 2007. TPG was also interested in SpiceJet and IndiGo at some points but the transactions never materialised. Globally, TPG has investments in Continental Airlines, Rynair, Qantas whereas Indigo Partners, which specialises in LCC market, have controlling stakes in US-based Frontier Airlines, Wizz Air, Volaris and JetSMART. These firms are perhaps scouting for steep bargains in the distressed airline and could bring down the valuations to significantly lower levels. Also Read: Brokerages wait and observe L&T bid for Mindtree Also read: Jet Airways' temporarily shutdown a setback for Indian aviation: Air India chief Ashwani Lohani Also read: Jet Airways shutdown: Value of JPMiles 'secure and intact', says Jet Privilege Hyundai has unveiled its first sub-4 meter compact SUV, the Venue, in the country on a Mumbai to Goa cruise and the official launch of the vehicle has been confirmed for May 21. Venue is being touted as India's first 'connected' SUV and boasts of several new-age connectivity features and an unmatched driving experience. The Hyundai Venue is expected to take on the existing names like Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300 and the Ford EcoSport. Hyundai has already established itself in the SUV-segment with the Creta. The new compact offering is therefore expected to follow on the footsteps of its older sibling. The Venue also comes with 33 connectivity option, of which ten are India specific. It has tied up with Vodafone-Idea to offer features like auto crash notification, panic notification, SOS/Emergency Assistance, stolen vehicle tracking with immobilisation and more. As far as styling is concerned, Hyundai Venue has borrowed a lot from the Creta. The basic shape and the posture of the car remind you of the Creta. But what sets it apart is the front grille with a huge Hyundai logo and the chrome-lined mesh holding the two tier headlamps. Meanwhile, the rear design is restrained and decorated by the LED headlights. The Venue measures 3995mm in length, 1770mm in width and 1590mm in height, while the wheelbase is 2500mm. The interiors of the Venue will welcome you with dual-tone colours. There is an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment display at the centre which is compatible with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The SUV also gets wireless charging, air purifier, HD Display screen, eco-coating, Arkamys Sound, wheel air curtains and more. There are also usual features like remote engine start/stop, remote climate control, voice recognition, vehicle relationship management, remote sun-roof among others. Under the hood, Hyundai Venue is powered by three engines. There is 1.2 litre petrol variant that gives out 83hp and 115Nm of torque and the new turbocharged 1 litre engine that generates 118 bhp and 172 Nm of torque. There is also a 1.4 litre diesel variant churning out 89 bhp and 220 Nm of torque. Hyundai Venue will be launched on May 21, 2019 and the buyers can book the SUV by paying a token amount of Rs 25,000 at few select dealerships in the country. The exact pricing details of the Venue have not been revealed but it could start from Rs 8 lakh (ex-showroom) and go up to Rs 12 lakh (ex-showroom). Edited By: Udit Verma Also Read: Maruti Alto emerges as India's best-selling car for the 15th consecutive year The Bombay High Court Thursday refused to intervene in the Jet Airways crisis, saying it cannot direct the government and the Reserve Bank of India to rescue a "sick company". A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice N M Jamdar dismissed a writ petition seeking the government and the central bank be asked to direct the consortium of banks help the cash-starved airline, which was grounded from Wednesday indefinitely. Jet Airways' last flight landed at the city airport past midnight from Amritsar and became the seventh carrier to shutter operations in the past five years. The over 25-year-old airline had sought a Rs 400-crore emergency fund from its lenders to whom it already owes over Rs 8,500 crore, but was refused as the airline was not ready to offer more collaterals. The writ petition, filed by advocate Mathew Nedumpara, sought among other things a direction to the government and the RBI to ensure that the airline resumes operations till a potential investor was identified. SBI-led banks had invited bids for selling anywhere between 31 and 75 per cent stake in the airline and have already received four initial bids from Jet Airways' foreign partner Etihad Airways, the sovereign wealth fund NIIF, and two private equity funds--TPG Capital and Indigo Partners. Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, who along with his wife Anita were forced out of the airline late last month by the banks, had also put in bids, but was asked to withdraw after the four bidders threatened to walk out. The banks hope to complete the sale process by May 10. The market reacted badly to the shuttering and Jet stock tanked over 32 per cent on the BSE against a 0.32 per cent correction in the benchmark Sensex. The company has put at stake over 20,000 jobs and owes money to millions of passengers following flight cancellations that began since January apart from owing thousands of crores to its vendors and suppliers. The petitioner said the airline is an "essential service" and therefore, the court must pass orders directing banks, led by the State Bank of India, "to provide such bare minimal funds to Jet as required to keep its flights operational". The plea also sought the court direct RBI to convene a joint meeting of the banks and Jet management to take emergent steps to keep the airline afloat, during the completion of its ongoing stake sale process. The bench, however, said it cannot ask the government or RBI to release funds for a sick company. "We cannot ask the government to rescue a sick company. The only thing we can do is that if you get a hat, we can pass it around this court room for collecting money for charity," the court said, dismissing the petition and advised the petitioner to approach the National Company Law Tribunal. ALSO READ: Jet Airways crisis: What will happen to the 20,000 employees? ALSO READ: Jet Airways shutdown: Had a booking? Here's what you should do The pilots along with engineers and senior staff are yet to receive their March salaries. But paychecks have now become even more elusive, hinging on a positive outcome of the ongoing stake sale process Jet Airways' decision to temporarily halt all operations has left its 16,000-odd employees in the lurch. The pilots along with engineers and senior staff were last paid salaries in January, and the entire workforce is yet to receive their March salaries. While the crisis prompted several employees to seek jobs with other airlines - many had to settle for salary cuts - most of them had stayed put, hoping for a miracle. After all, Jet Airways had survived a financial crisis in 2013. But the miracle did not happen, and these employees have not only been rendered jobless but their paychecks have also become even more elusive - salary dues can only be cleared if a new investor, or two, come on board, which will take time. Worse yet, Jet Airways chief executive Vinay Dube has hinted at pink slips in the near future. "We must also be realistic that the sale process will take some time and will throw up several more challenges for us, many of which we don't have the answer [to] today," Dube said in a communication to harried employees on Wednesday. "For example, we don't have an answer today to the very important question of what happens to employees during the sale process." While he sought to reassure employees that the "leadership team is working on answering such questions alongside the lenders", the truth is that there are too many variable at play. For one, getting the grounded airline back in air will require at least Rs 7,000 crore and it's very debatable whether a new investor will be willing to bite this bullet. The SBI-led consortium of lenders had conducted online bidding for a stake sale in Jet Airways last week, seeking to recover dues of over Rs 8,500 crore. Prospective bidders were offered ownership of anywhere between 31.2% and 75% and several entities had submitted expressions of interest. The lenders have shortlisted four bidders - Etihad Airways, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), TPG Capital and Indigo Partners - who have to submit the final bids by May 10. So, at the very least, Jet Airways' employees have to wait till then for some clarity on their future, and pending dues. With PTI inputs Also Read: Brokerages wait and observe L&T bid for Mindtree Also read: Jet Airways' temporarily shutdown a setback for Indian aviation: Air India chief Ashwani Lohani Also read: Jet Airways shutdown: Value of JPMiles 'secure and intact', says Jet Privilege Share buybacks are back in news with Wipro jumping on to the bandwagon with a Rs 10,500 crore issue -- making it the third such issue by the third largest IT major in four years. Share buyback offers are on a rise. A total of 19 such issues hit Dalal Street in the financial year (FY) 2019 against 12 in FY18, with public sector undertakings (PSUs) accounting for a large chunk of dole outs. Based on FY18 financial statements of the BSE-500 constituents, Institutional Investors Advisory Services (IiAS) identified 75 companies that can return cash of up to Rs 1.1 lakh crore to shareholders. "These companies have large cash holdings and can distribute about half of their on-balance-sheet cash (including cash equivalents) to shareholders, as dividends or buybacks," IiAS pointed out in a report. As buybacks catch attention, analysts believe not all will be in investors' favour. Before any decision on tendering shares, let's take a lowdown on what buybacks are and how it affects the company and shareholders: What is a buyback? Under buyback, a company repurchases its own shares from shareholders at a premium to the current market price. This action reduces the number of shares outstanding in the market, in turn, improving the earnings per share (EPS) and return on equity (RoE) of the stock. The buyback is done either via a tender offer or the company directly buys shares from the secondary market. Under tender offer, shareholders submit a portion or all of their shares within a certain time-frame. In the secondary market, the company buys back shares over an extended period of time. While the premium is fixed in the tender offer, in the open market, only the upper limit (buyback price) is specified. Shares are bought back either at current market prices or at a premium to the market price, but not exceeding the buyback price. Why buybacks? Cash-rich companies resort to buybacks to reward their shareholders with surplus cash that cannot be deployed elsewhere. The promoters may come up with a buyback to increase their ownership in the company. For example, Mindtree considered buyback to consolidate its ownership in order to stave off L&T Infotech's hostile takeover attempt. Buybacks are also done in cases where management feel the stock is undervalued. (Buyback typically boosts stock price in short-term, but not necessarily in long-term). Mostly, buybacks are seen in a positive light because they indicate the company is healthy and no longer requires excess equity funding. The management repurchasing their own shares shows it has confidence in the company's future growth. However, in some cases, companies borrow money to execute buybacks with a view to quick-fix their financials. Investors must stay away from such buybacks. Buybacks vs dividends Buybacks are more tax-efficient for companies because if they declare dividends, they need to shell out a 15 per cent dividend distribution tax on total dividend payout. Since the dividend is distributed by companies from the net profit, which is already arrived at after paying off all corporate taxes, dividend payout pinches the companies twice tax-wise. Acceptance Ratio In a buyback offer, not all tendered shares get accepted. Retail investors should calculate theoretical acceptance ratio with respect to the shareholding pattern. This ratio depends upon the buyback size and the number of retail investors. It represents how many shares the company will be able to accept against every 100 shares tendered by retail investors. Actual acceptance ratio comes out at the end of the offer period. It is the ratio of the buyback size and the quantity tendered in the buyback. The lower the ratio, the lesser the chances of all tendered shares being accepted. Acceptance ratio tends to be attractive for retail investors because as per the regulations of Securities and Exchange Board of India, all companies are required to reserve 15 per cent of the buyback size for small shareholders holding shares of market value up to Rs 2 lakh as on the record date. "We have observed in the past buybacks, that small shareholders have a better chance to ensure higher acceptance than the general shareholders. Also, a lot of small shareholders do not tender their shares for buyback due to lethargy, ignorance or tax considerations. Thus, the acceptance ratio in the buyback is normally higher than that in the non-small or general shareholder category (but not necessarily 100 per cent except in rare instances)," noted HDFC Securities in a research note. Tax implications If buyback is done under the tender offer, the difference between buyback price and cost of acquisition is taxable as capital gains under section 46A of the Income Tax Act. Short-term capital gains are taxable according to slab rates, while long-term capital gains are taxed at 20 per cent with indexation and at 10 per cent without indexation benefit. If buybacks are executed in the secondary market, the normal equity taxation applies. Along with security transaction tax (STT), long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax of 10 per cent will be applicable where shares are held for more than 12 months, while short-term capital gains tax will be paid at 15 per cent. Thus, investors should analyse buyback price, the motive behind buyback, acceptance ratio and tax implications before participating in a buyback offer. If someone is a long-term investor and really believes in future prospects of the company, she would do well to ignore the buyback and patiently participate in company's growth journey for better long-term returns. Also Read: Brokerages wait and observe L&T bid for Mindtree Also read: Jet Airways' temporarily shutdown a setback for Indian aviation: Air India chief Ashwani Lohani Also read: Jet Airways shutdown: Value of JPMiles 'secure and intact', says Jet Privilege The Home Ministry on Thursday issued orders to suspend the Line of Control (LoC) trade between Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Jammu and Kashmir effective tomorrow, April 19. The government has taken this step after receiving reports of cross LoC trade routes being misused by Pakistan-based elements. Ministry of Home Affairs in a statement said, "This action has been taken as the Government of India has been receiving reports that the Cross LoC trade routes are being misused by the Pakistan based elements for funnelling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency etc." "It may be recalled that the LoC trade is meant to facilitate the exchange of goods of common use between local populations across the LoC in Jammu & Kashmir," the release added. The ministry, while highlighting the terror outfits fuelling separatism in the valley, said, "During ongoing probe of certain cases by NIA, it has been brought out that a significant number of trading concerns engaged in LoC trade are operated by persons closely associated with banned terror organisations involved in fueling terrorism/separatism." "So it's decided to suspend LoC trade at Salamabad & Chakkan-da-Bagh in J&K. Meanwhile, a stricter regulatory and enforcement mechanism is being worked out & will be put in place in consultation with various agencies. The issue of reopening of LoC trade will be revisited thereafter." the ministry added. (Edited by Vivek Dubey) Also Read: Brokerages wait and observe L&T bid for Mindtree Also Read: Business leaders in Tamil Nadu hope for a poll outcome that places issues over individuals The Irish Independent has today reported that the Central Bank has told an Oireachtas committee it wants legislation to stop bankers trying to hide wrongdoing. The regulators want to hold bankers individually responsible for the type of dishonesty that led to the tracker scandal. According to the report, the new legislation was needed to stop senior managers in financial firms trying to cover up their dishonest actions, claiming the firm acted collectively. The law would set out exactly who is responsible for various duties within a bank, and force them to adhere to certain conduct standards. Director of Financial Regulation, Policy and Risk Gerry Cross told the Oireachtas Finance Committee there was a need for what he called an individual accountability framework. Speaking today, Cross said, "We recommended the introduction of an enhanced individual accountability framework, key components of which would apply to all regulated financial services providers." He added, "The current hurdle of participation should be removed such that the Central Bank could hold individuals to account directly for their misconduct under the administrative sanctions procedure, rather than only where they are proven to have participated in a firms breach of rules. Removal of the participation requirement is essential to enhancing the accountability of individuals for failing to maintain basic standards of conduct." Source: www.businessworld.ie Modified On May 21, 2019 02:00 PM By Sonny for Hyundai Venue The Korean carmakers smallest SUV in India yet will launch with three engine options and smart Internet-based technology Update: Hyundai has launched the Venue in India with prices beginning from Rs 6.50 lakh (ex-showroom India). Click here to know more. The Hyundai Venue is set to launch on 21 May 2019. Will be offered with three powertrains - two petrol and one diesel. Debuts new 1.0-litre turbo-petrol and 7-speed DCT in India. Gets internet-based connected tech, 8-inch touchscreen and sunroof. Rivals Vitara Brezza, Nexon, XUV300 and EcoSport. Likely to be priced between Rs 8 lakh to Rs 12 lakh (ex-showroom). Hyundai Venue will come 3-year/unlimited kilmoetre warranty with 3-year roadside assistance as well. Latest update: Hyundai Venue official bookings are now open. More details here. The covers have finally come off the Hyundai Venue , the Korean brands global sub-compact SUV and its first for India. Unveiled simultaneously at the New York Auto Show and in India, the Venue is slated to launch in the country on 21 May 2019. Originally showcased in 2017 as the Carlino concept, the Venue looks bold and boxy like the concept. The Hyundai Venue measures 3995mm in length and has a wheelbase of 2500mm.The width and height stand at 1770mm and 1590mm, respectively. In terms of design, the Venue is quite boxy but with smoother edges and design lines than the Creta. The Venues most distinct visual character is at the front. The large Hyundai cascading grille and split headlamp design seem to have been inspired by the Kona and the new Santa-Fe. The Venue has indicators mounted on the edge of the bonnet while the projector headlamps surrounded by LED DRLs are lower down on the front bumper. The projector fog lamps sit underneath the headlights. At the rear, the styling is clean with the shoulder line running across the boot lid as well for a sculpted look. Hyundai has also added a Turbo badge with red lettering for variants powered by the new 1.0-litre turbo petrol engine, which it debuts in India. The LED tail lamps are also of an elegant, conventional design in contrast to the headlamp design. Inside the cabin, the Venue showcases a fresh dashboard layout as compared to other Hyundai models sold in India. The Venue that was showcased today was equipped with the 1.0-litre turbo-petrol engine and featured an all-black interior with silver bezels around the AC vents. The steering wheel is also a new design and gets updated steering mounted controls while the centre console is divided into clear sections. At the top sits the infotainment screen, which is flanked by AC vents. The middle portion houses the climate control while the bottom row features USB ports and a wireless charger. The instrument cluster gets an analogue tachometer and speedometer split by a digital MID (multi-info display). The Hyundai Venue will be available with three powertrain options, most notably a new 1.0-litre turbo-petrol engine. It produces 120PS of power and 172Nm of torque while mated to a 6-speed manual. A new 7-speed dual-clutch transmission developed in-house will also be available with this new engine. The other petrol engine is the familiar 1.2-litre unit found on hatchbacks like the Elite i20 and Grand i10. It produces 83PS and 115Nm while mated to a 5-speed manual. Diesel variants are powered by Hyundais 1.4-diesel engine with an output of 90PS and 220Nm while mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. Sadly, this engine will not be offered with an automatic gearbox. Engine 1.2-litre petrol 1.0-litre turbo-petrol 1.4-litre diesel Power 83PS 120PS 90PS Torque 115Nm 172Nm 220Nm Transmission 5-speed MT 6-speed MT/7-speed DCT 6-speed MT The Hyundai Venue will also debut the carmakers connected car technology called BlueLink. This tech uses an eSIM from Vodafone-Idea for internet access as well as access to vehicle telematics via the BlueLink smartphone application. The app can also be used for remote control features like ignition and AC control, among others. For the full rundown of the connected tech features, click here . The Venue is well-equipped as expected from a Hyundai model. Its feature list includes an 8-inch floating touchscreen display for the infotainment system, automatic climate control, sunroof, cruise control and wireless charging too. It will also get rear AC vents and an air purifier. Hyundai will offer the Venue with up to six airbags, at least on the top-spec variant. Other safety features that will be offered include hill assist control, electronic stability control, vehicle stability management, ISOFIX child seat mounts and brake assist too. The standard safety net should include dual-front airbags, ABS with EBD, front passenger seatbelt reminders and speed limit alerts. The all-new Hyundai Venue is scheduled to launch on 21 May 2019 with prices expected to range between Rs 8 lakh to Rs 12 lakh. Once launched, Hyundais smallest SUV will rival the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza , Mahindra XUV300 , Tata Nexon, Ford EcoSport and the 2020 Renault HBC . Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. Introduction to Christianity: Bestseller around the world In the winter semester of 1900, the Lutheran, liberal-minded theologian Adolf von Harnack gave in sixteen lectures, at the University of Berlin, a course designed for students from all the faculties entitled "The Essence of Christianity," which recalled the title of a work by Ludwig Feuerbach, published in 1841. The lectures were soon collected in a volume that became a classic of Lutheran theology, one of the cornerstones of liberal thought against which Karl Barth thundered. Where Feuerbach proved to be destructive, Harnack turned out to be reductive, subjecting God to the measure of man, who ended up taking the upper hand over God's own holiness. Later, in the late 1920s, in Tubingen, a Catholic dogmatic theologian, Karl Adam, also gave a lecture course on the nature of Catholicism. In opposition to modernism, Adam argued that the Catholic Church is a community capable of acting and suffering, of praying and loving, of growing and preserving unity. Moreover, it has grown enormously since A.D. 33, the year of Jesus' death, but at the same time has preserved its identity through the centuries and in those peoples where it has spread. Adam's book, too, had a long-lasting success. However, the author to whom Ratzinger felt closest and who inspired him was certainly Romano Guardini, who in turn published, in 1938, a book entitled the Essence of Christianity. The Italian-German author, in the initial pages, wondered: "What is the particular quality peculiar to it alone, by virtue of which Christianity is founded and is distinguished from all the other religious possibilities?" Guardini then rejected a wide range of false answers that ended up reducing Christianity to natural categories. The meaning of Christianity, therefore, must be derived from within, in particular from its essential core, Jesus of Nazareth. "Through the Incarnation of the Son of God, through the mystery of faith and grace, all creation is required to give up itsapparentautonomy and to submit to the dominion of a concrete person, namely, Jesus Christ, and to make him its own fundamental norm." Ratzinger's long confrontation with Christology would show how seriously Ratzinger had taken his reading of Guardini. In any case, lectures directed to students from all the faculties were a gigantic undertaking in theology. On the wave of the growing popularity he had among students, in the summer semester of 1967, Ratzinger in his turn ventured to offer a similar course. In response as well to the request by the council Fathers, who asked for a simple, uniform exposition of the Catholic faith, the subject was a in the form of a commentary on the Apostles' Creed. It was presented in the sober form that was so dear to the author, with arguments drawn from tradition and the Fathers, but also from personalist philosophy and the Hassidic tradition. Just as he transferred to Tubingen, Ratzinger changed his assistant, and, instead of Werner Bockenforde as his right-hand man, now there was Peter Kuhn, an expert in Judaic language and literature. Students from all fields attended the two weekly lectures that took place on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, from 5:00 to 6:00 P.M., but priests assigned to pastoral work, religious, and simple lay people also attended. Faithful to his own way of writing and arguing, Ratzinger introduced into his presentation, however, a series of anecdotes that impressed the audience and contributed to the success of the initiative. Clever Hans Among those who are not devoted to work, the example of Clever Hans became famous, the prototype of the theologian who is optimistic at all costs, who exchanges the truths of the faith for current opinions that are less and less convincing. In the end, like Hans, who started his trip with a load of gold that he trades for products of less and less value until he finds in his hands a whetstone that he then throws away, the theologian, too, ends up becoming a bearer of opinions that are completely useless. Another story that caused a sensation was the example of the theologian who, in order to make himself heard, changes his clothes and language, ending up in the situation of the clown that Kierkegaard had talked about in his day. Urged by a circus owner to ask for help from nearby villagers because a fire has broken out in the camp, he runs, without taking the time to change his costume. His haste, however, is not rewarded with success. When he arrives in the nearby village, his distressed pleas for help are welcomed by the loud laughter of the villagers. They think he is reciting his lines well, that his desperate attempts to urge them to action are just a trick to convince them to watch the show. Hence Ratzinger's conclusion: it is not enough for a theologian or a preacher to change his clothes in order to be taken seriously. In a time when the reasons for non-belief are presented and diffused with a previously unknown vigor, the theologian must rigorously dig into the grounds of his faith and present them frankly, even at the risk of being ridiculed. Besides, the abyss of doubt yawns not only in front of the believer. Even the nonbeliever must grapple with the hypothesis that God may exist, that the believer is not chasing fairy tales, but that he may have reasonable arguments at the foundation of his faith. Ratzinger made use of a Jewish story, related by Martin Buber, to suggest this idea humorously. A well-educated scholar went to visit a tzadik to cause a crisis in the latter's convictions, to wreak havoc with his apologetics. Upon being admitted in the room of the just man, he was about to repeat his arguments, which had already caused many other learned men to question their certainties. The tzadik, however, did not seem to pay him much attention. He continued to pace back and forth in his room and only after a while glanced at him and exclaimed: "Who knows, maybe it really is true." The learned scholar sought, in vain, the strength to reply. That observation: "Who knows, maybe it really is true," was already making its way inside his mind. These courageous and acute observations attracted a growing number of auditors at Ratzinger's lectures. Peter Kuhn then had the idea of going beyond a mere transcript for the handouts and brought his huge tape recorder to the auditorium. The lectures, thus recorded, were then transcribed, and, with a few corrections, the text of the Introduction to Christianity was ready for the press. Published for the first time in 1968, the book was a dazzling success. In Germany it was reprinted a dozen times in just one year; abroad it was translated into about twenty languages. Very few books of theology can boast such a wide readership. The Christian, a Castaway Clinging to the Cross The examples admonishing the reader to consider the importance of theology are accompanied by a powerful exhortation to rely on faith, which, far from resulting in a protected circle or a Church outside which there is no salvation, is support for universal brotherhood. The starting point of Ratzinger's argument is that every Christian is called to plunge into the abyss of faith, experiencing every man's condition of poverty and indigence. "The believer is always threatened with an uncertainty that in moments of temptation can suddenly and unexpectedly cast a piercing light on the fragility of the whole that usually seems so self-evident to him." Even a saint like Therese of Lisieux, who grew up sheltered by a faith protected by membership in a remarkable family and by the high walls of the Carmel, cannot escape, at the height of her mystical experience and her earthly journey, the "worst temptations of atheism." In the uncertainty that surrounds it and threatens the foundations of its faith, the soul of the believer experiences its own extreme poverty, but also the brotherhood that creates a bond with every other human being. In this descent into the skin of sinners and nonbelievers, the believer finds himself in the situation described by Paul Claudel at the beginning of The Satin Slipper, the work made known in Germany by Hans Urs von Balthasar, who promoted its first performance in Zurich during the war, seeing in it a clear allusion to the world situation at the time. The beginning of the play tells the story of a Jesuit missionary whose ship has been sunk by pirates. He is adrift, clinging to a board from the sunken ship like Jesus to the Cross, but the board is not attached to anything, so that he ends up sinking in the middle of the ocean, halfway between the old and the new world. According to Ratzinger, this is the real situation in which the believer lives in our time. Only a miserable wooden board binds him to life, to God, but everything makes him think he will soon be swallowed up in the abyss, like all the other castaways from the ship. The believer, however, following the example of Saint John of the Cross or Saint Therese of Lisieux, does not let go of the board, knowing that it has the strength and power to bring to safety not only him but also his brother and all those who can somehow cling to it. The Jesuit Father, in fact, has a brother, Rodrigo, who is the prototype of the worldly man, an adventurer wandering between God and the world. Rather, Ratzinger continued (repeating an idea of his friend von Balthasar), the Jesuit, like every believer, clings to the Cross not only for himself but also for his brother who considers himself a nonbeliever, who has turned his back on God and, tired of waiting, employs all his energies to acquire the riches of this world. The brother can thus be saved, drawn by the power of those ropes and that unstable board. Even the nonbeliever, in reality, cannot stay compact and hermetically sealed in his non-faith, but he, too, is subject to the doubt that exposes him to the temptation to believe. "Anyone who makes up his mind to evade the uncertainty of belief will have to experience the uncertainty of unbelief, which can never finally eliminate for certain the possibility that belief may after all be the truth." Ratzinger's observation was a warning for the generation that was bound to face the tormented period of 1968. To the many who were about to leave the Church because they did not want to be members of a community that, both because of its historical past and because of some reductive theological views, seemed to exclude the poor, the weak, the damned, Ratzinger showed an inclusive brotherhood extending to all the sons of Adam. God's Revelation Introduction to Christianity rightly begins with a reflection on the act of faith. Faith is the recognition that reality is more than the sense objects that we can touch and shape, more than factum, something that we can transform with our hands; it is the realization that the invisible precedes the sensible and, indeed, is more real than the visible. Moreover, faith is the confident acceptance of the meaning of what is real; it is a confident stance on the ground of the Logos, the word of God that, for Christians, is a person whose name is Jesus Christ. And not only that. As John's Gospel says, the Word was with God and the Word was God. In the beginning, therefore, there is not an abstract thought but, rather, a relationship that, as the evangelist hastens to point out, is a relationship of love that unites the Father and the Son with one another. In love, the Father generates the Son; in love, he creates the world in the image of the Son. That is why creation is full of signs that refer to God, which mankind has recognized over the centuries and transmitted through religions. Not only that: when confronted with man's sin, as dramatically recorded in the Book of Genesis, Father and Son conceive their plan for redemption. The Son offers to come into the world; the Father accompanies the mission of the Son in the spirit of their common love. Thus, salvation history begins as a mystery of love with well-defined persons (Abraham, Moses) and with a people that likewise has a precise name: the sons of Jacob or Israel. God makes a covenant with this people, entrusts to it his law and his name. God then comes out of his secrecy and his fullness and reveals himself. Ratzinger also stressed, however, the importance of negative theology, in which love prevails over knowledge: We are now touching a realm in which any false forthrightness in the attempt to gain too precise a knowledge is bound to end in disastrous foolishness; a realm in which only the humble admission of ignorance can be true knowledge Love is always mysteriummore than one can reckon or grasp by subsequent reckoning. The Love That Moves the Sun and the Other Stars The second part of the book, reflection on the Son of God, is introduced by the final verse of Dante's Comedy, "The love that moves the sun and the other stars," and by the entire conclusion of canto XXXIII of the Paradiso. The mystery of God is revealed to Dante through the human figure that shines with the very hue of the circle of God (XXXIII, vv. 13031). Moreover, not only the Trinitarian doctrine, even Christology begins with a mystery, the scandal of the historicity of the Word that comes into the world and dies in it. The theology of the Incarnation and the theology of the Cross fuse, as is again evident in the most obvious way in John's Gospel. But this way, the meaning of everything comes to rely on a little branch that floats in the ocean of history. To counter this objection, contemporary theologians and exegetes have ended up following the positive method of the natural sciences, which are limited to cataloguing rather than interpreting or inquiring about meaning. Yet in the field of history and that of theology, positivism creates an antithesis between meaning and history, between Logos and event, which leads to the denial of theology itself and of the reflection on God. The first step in this direction was taken by Harnack in his What Is Christianity? Harnack focused his attention on Jesus, stripping him of his supernatural revelatory attributes, which are considered later additions by the evangelists. The central statement of his work is: "Not the Son but only the Father belongs in the Gospel." Ratzinger ironically commented: "How simple, how liberating this seems! . . . Jesus versus Christ, and this means 'away from dogma, onward to love'." Not only that. A few decades after the publication of Harnack's book, the anthropological optimism that his work promoted ended up being trampled under the boots of the marching armies. Therefore, it was necessary to change direction, to escape the mirage of historicism so as to respond to the thirst for the supernatural, to the question of meaning. That is what Rudolf Bultmann did: during the years of World War II, he stated that, as far as Jesus is concerned, the important thing was that he existed; for the rest, faith was not based on such uncertain historical bases but solely on his preaching, the kerygma, contained in the Gospels. Ratzinger wondered: Once the question about Jesus and his person had been deemed irrelevant, was any progress made? Preaching is important, but it loses legitimacy and meaning when it is detached from his person. During the rest of the sixties, with the so-called "theology of the death of God," there was once again an insistence on Jesus as a person: we have lost God, but we have Jesus, who is a sign of trust. "In the midst of a world emptied of God, his humanity is to be a sort of proxy for the God who can no longer be discovered." For Ratzinger, however, the oscillation between Jesus and Christ that characterized the first half of the twentieth century was not in vain. It stimulated closer consideration of the good reasons behind the transformation of the title "Christ," Messiah, into a proper name as we understand it. Christ is, indeed, a title that indicates a name as we understand it. Christ is, indeed, a title that indicates an office, a commission, but it is also a person, because in Jesus it is not possible to distinguish between person and office. Jesus did not accomplish a mission different from his person. Calling him Christ means affirming that he identified himself with his office, with his commission, with his word. He is the Verbum, the Word; he acts and gives himself; he is self-giving. Jesus said about his death on the Cross: "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (Jn 12:32). Ratzinger commented: "This sentence is intended to explain the meaning of Jesus' death on the Cross. . . . The event of the crucifixion appears there as a process of opening, in which the scattered man-monads are drawn into the embrace of Jesus Christ, into the wide span of his outstretched arms." This brings us back to the Cross again. "As the crucified criminal, this Jesus is the Christ, the King. His crucifixion is his coronation. . . . His existence is thus his word. He is word because he is love." Thus we return to the Cross about which Claudel spoke in his Satin Slipper. The Jesuit, like every Christian, clings to it in faith and love. Jesus Christ, indeed, is not a wreck accidentally lost in the ocean; rather, he is a person who comes from the Father for the love of mankind. Through the Cross to which Christians adhere by faith, love is revealed, which is the nature of God, the meaning of the world and of history, the path by which every man can reach God. The Spirit and the Church The third part of the book and of the Creed is introduced by the statement relative to the Holy Spirit. Ratzinger hastened to make a clarification. Holy Spirit here refers, not to the third Person of the Holy Trinity in his being within the divine life, but, rather, the Spirit understood as a divine gift left by Jesus to mankind. He is "the power through which the risen Lord remains present in the history of the world as the principle of a new history and a new world." In this way, the article referring to the Holy Spirit becomes interwoven with the one about the Church and her sacraments. It is what can be inferred from the following article on the communio sanctorum, which must be interpreted above all as a communion of holy things, of the Eucharist. The other article, the one on the remission of sins, primarily concerns the first sacrament of the Christian initiation, Baptism, but soon the focus extends also to the remission of the sins of wayfarers, of those who travel through history and always need forgiveness for their faults and weaknesses. The connection between Holy Spirit and Church already partially eliminates the difficulties that emerge as soon as the Church is defined as one, holy, catholic, apostolic. The characteristics of the Church do not depend on the observance of the covenant with the Redeemer but, rather, are given by God in the form of grace that continues despite the infidelity of mankind. Lastly, the article about the resurrection of the body expresses the New Testament hope of the resurrection of the person, the unique human composition of body and soul. The fact, then, that "the awakening is expected on the 'Last Day', at the end of history, and in the company of all mankind indicates the communal character of human immortality, which is related to the whole of mankind." The collection contains about six thousand publications, differing in topics, titles, authors and categories, which can be accessed by the... Discussion This report describes an outbreak of HIV infection in a population of women and MSW who inject drugs and the sex partners of these persons. The outbreak was part of a cluster of 23 persons, nine of whom received a diagnosis of HIV during 20082017. The data suggest that HIV transmission from persons with these earlier diagnoses, some of whom were not virally suppressed, or from their sex partners without a diagnosis, led to a rapid expansion of transmission during 20172018, with 14 related infections diagnosed in 2018 in a small geographic area. The occurrence of a large HIV outbreak in Indiana in 20142015 (1) highlighted the vulnerability of rural communities with few HIV prevention and medical services to HIV outbreaks among persons who inject drugs. Subsequent CDC analyses sought to identify the 5% of U.S. counties with the highest risk for HIV and hepatitis C virus outbreaks among persons who inject drugs (3). King County, Washington, was not among those highest-risk counties. PHSKC estimates that 93% of county residents with HIV infection know their HIV status and that 85% of persons with diagnosed infection were virally suppressed in 2017 (<200 copies of HIV RNA/mL of blood) (4). The rate of new diagnoses of HIV infection in King County declined 51% from 2008 to 2017 (PHSKC, unpublished data, 2019). PHSKC SSPs provided >7 million syringes to persons who inject drugs in 2017; 79% of persons who inject drugs report using SSPs, and syringe sharing among persons who inject drugs has declined over time (5). Only 1%3% of the approximately 21,000 women and MSW who inject drugs in the county have HIV infection, and 80% of those with a diagnosis are virally suppressed (4). Despite these successes, the current outbreak, similar to a recent outbreak in Massachusetts, demonstrates that vulnerability to outbreaks of HIV infection among persons who inject drugs is widespread in the United States (6). The outbreak described here is part of a larger increase in HIV infection among heterosexual persons who inject drugs that is ongoing in King County. During 2018, the county experienced a nearly threefold increase in new HIV infections among women and MSW who inject drugs. Several factors might contribute to King Countys vulnerability. First, although access to HIV care and prevention in the county is generally good, this outbreak was concentrated in an area where syringe and clinical services for persons who inject drugs are limited, highlighting the need to expand access. Second, like much of the United States, King County faces growing epidemics of opioid overdose and homelessness. From 2007 to 2018, the number of heroin overdose deaths in the county increased 264% (7), and from 2007 to 2017, the number of country residents living homeless increased 47% (8). Among SSP users surveyed in 2017, 43% were living homeless, and an additional 26% were unstably housed, a 19% increase from 2015 (4). Thus, the area has a rapidly growing population who inject drugs and are living homeless, a group for whom accessing services is particularly difficult. These factors have resulted in a new population-level susceptibility to HIV transmission. The King County outbreak also illustrates both the value and limitations of disease intervention specialist investigations and molecular HIV analyses. Disease intervention specialists initially identified the outbreak, and PHSKC and the Washington State Department of Health used molecular analyses to recognize related cases not identified through disease investigation and to confirm relationships suggested by epidemiologic linkages. Retrospective review of the molecular data demonstrated that 10 related cases (eight with genetic sequence data available) were diagnosed from December 2016 to August 2018, when the cluster was first identified. Had the molecular data been available and analyzed more quickly, it might have been possible to respond earlier, possibly averting some cases. CDC recently initiated a national effort to expand the use of molecular HIV analyses to identify growing clusters of cases (9). The experience described here suggests how such analyses might be useful if they were available and analyzed in real time with appropriate thresholds for action. Finally, the King County outbreak demonstrates how difficult it is to engage the most socially marginalized persons with medical care. As of mid-November 2018, seven of the 21 living persons in the cluster were not receiving HIV care. Disease intervention specialists are actively seeking these persons to link them to a clinic that provides walk-in HIV medical care (10). Persons who inject drugs remain vulnerable to outbreaks of HIV infection, even in cities with large HIV prevention programs and shrinking HIV epidemics. A new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiative, Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America,* defines molecular HIV surveillance and associated responses as one of four central pillars for ending the epidemic. The outbreak described in this report illustrates the benefits of integrating disease investigations and molecular HIV analyses to more rapidly and efficiently identify and respond to localized outbreaks of HIV infection and should prompt health departments in other jurisdictions to investigate whether similar outbreaks are ongoing in their areas. Pakistan's exports to South Africa fall after anti-dumping duty 18 April 2019 Pakistans cement exports to South Africa have significantly fallen over the last two years as a result of the anti-dumping duty imposed by the South African government, according to Mohammad Rafiq Memon, chairman of the Pakistan-South Africa Business Forum (PSABF). The value of cement exports to the country has reportedly decreased to around US$100-150m from US$700m recorded prior to the imposition of the duty. "We are trying our best to get this issue resolved but Pakistans Ministry of Commerce also has to send a delegation to South Africa in order to convince the authorities to review and waive this anti-dumping duty on cement," said Mr Memon at a meeting during the visit of a South African delegation to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry. However, the PSABF chairman was optimistic that the South African government would review the anti-dumping duty on cement imports and that the situation is likely to improve by 2020, providing that the Ministry of Commerce takes up the issue with the relevant authority in South Africa, according to the Business Recorder. Published under Republic Cement launch Kapit-Balay masonry cement 18 April 2019 Republic Cement has developed a new cement called Kapit-Balay masonry cement at its Danao City plant, Philippines. The product is designed to meet demand from Cebu's construction industry for a more economical and environmentally-friendly masonry cement. Kapit-Balay masonry cement has a Type S high-strength optimised for ease of application and adhesion, where mortar masonry is required. This hydraulic cement is designed to be used for plastering, brick or block laying, and block filling with minimal wastage. Utilising less clinker due to its use of light micro-materials, there is reduced carbon footprint in its production. "We are happy to introduce Kapit-Balay Masonry Cement as a solution that will increase productivity for our contractors due to improved workability, while providing flexibility of application, since it can be used even for load-bearing walls," said Paul Victor Aquino, Republic Cement Services, Inc Vice President for Commercial. Published under is still being treated for his injuries at a local hospital. Upon his release, he will face the following charges: three counts of attempted first degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, unlawful possession of a firearm, and felony reckless endangerment. Chattanooga Police officer was involved, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office was called in to investigate. The responding officers were placed on administrative leave under department policy until the investigation is complete. The incident occurred after police were dispatched to 2000 Cleveland Avenue. Erudition is that high level of learning acquired by reading, study, and scholarship. It is most often attributed to those who have given their life to academics. Rare though they be, there are such men who choose to give their lives to the more mundane labors of mankind and to those industries that are more apt to touch the lives of the masses. Although men such as this could have chosen to remain within the ivy covered walls enclosing the halls of learned scholars, some do not find satisfaction in the giving of lifes labors to increasing the academic knowledge of ephemeral things. They instead venture into the work of serving their fellow man in the difficult navigation of daily life. This kind of man is fulfilled only through being afforded the opportunity to give counsel to the people of his community. James Ross McKay was such a man. That James Ross McKay was a man who could rightly be called a man of letters was known to all who knew him. Yes, James Ross McKay was a man of erudition, but he owed his fame chiefly to his personality. That wry grin of his, which when it spread across his countenance, announced to the world that this was a man who appreciated humor and who did not take himself too seriously. When he was amused a facial contortion spread across his face that caused his eyes to all but disappear until the punchline was delivered after which he would join his company in hearty laughter. I had the privilege of working with Jim McKay for most of twenty five years as his law partner. I had heard that there was a former teacher and band director who had become a lawyer and had had seen him in court defending indigents in criminal cases. I watched as he stood before the court and advocated for the poor. These were the hardest of cases and the odds were against him but there stood James Ross McKay arguing for this client without fear or embarrassment. I was impressed and pulled him aside after court telling him that if he was ever interested I would like to someday practice law with him. The day he came to work with me as my partner changed the course of my life for the better. Jim and I worked for twenty five years representing thousands of debtors in bankruptcy proceedings. With his leadership and tireless work and long hours Fuller and McKay became the eighth largest bankruptcy law firm in the state of Georgia. Our clients were the honest working people of Northwest Georgia who were under the threat of becoming homeless with great burdens of debt caused by illness, death of a spouse, or loss of employment. The idea to take on this work was Jims idea entirely. I came reluctantly to the work. I will never forget the day he came to me saying that the people we were representing against the corporate giants were the same people Jesus had called The least of these. James Ross McKay was a good and decent man. He dearly loved his wife, Amy Shelly McKay whom he married on the 19th day of June, 2009. He also loved his children; Cameron Ross McKay, who preceded him in death in 1988; Collin Charles McKay who preceded him in death in 2014; his beautiful daughters, Jennifer Kelley McKay of Rome, and Heather McKay-Schraeder of New Braunfels,Tx.; two stepsons, Stafford Andrew McPherson of Wildwood, Ga. and James Andrew Madden of Chattanooga; two grandsons, Charles Andrew Schraeder and Allen Ross Schraeder of new Braunfels, Tx.; one step grandson, Eli James McPherson of Wildwood, Ga. Mr. McKay passed away at his residence following a long struggle with cancer. In compliance with his wishes, he is to be cremated and no services will be held to mark his passing. Those who wish to extend condolences are urged to make a donation to the American Cancer Society at www.cancer.org. James Ross McKay came this way and left his mark advocating for the poor and the disadvantaged. The world is the better for it. The County Commission on Wednesday did not go along with an idea by Commissioner Greg Martin seeking to have the Tennessee Democratic Party cover county taxpayer costs in the Robin Smith lawsuit. He was joined only by Tim Boyd in support of the move. Voting against were Sabrena Smedley, Randy Fairbanks, Chester Bankston, Warren Mackey, Chip Baker and David Sharpe. Katherlyn Geter was absent. Commissioner Martin said the lawsuit had been "dismissed three times" but was still going forward and racking up taxpayer costs. The Election Commission last week set aside another $70,000 for litigation expenses. Commissioner Sharpe said it was a judicial matter and out of the purview of a legislative body. He said Democrats believe "they were prevented from having a free and fair election" after Rep. Gerald McCormick pulled out of the race "long after the qualifying deadline" and Ms. Smith was allowed by the election panel to run for the House District 26 seat. Commissioner Sharpe indicated the election should have gone on with only the qualified Democratic candidate on the ballot, saying it was past time for the Republicans to get anyone legally qualified. He also said Democrats "want to know the true reason why Gerald McCormick dropped out well after the qualifying deadline." Mr. McCormick has since left Hixson and moved with his wife, Kim, to Nashville. Ms. Smith is serving as the House 26 representative after defeating the Democratic candidate. County Attorney Rheubin Taylor, questioned by Commissioner Sharpe, said the matter was first filed in Chancery Court in Nashville. He said it was dismissed there as being in the wrong jurisdiction. He said the appeals court agreed with that ruling. It was then moved to Hamilton County and dismissed by Chancellor Jeff Atherton. The matter is now before the Court of Appeals, which is hearing oral argument on it this week in Knoxville. Officials of the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority issued a statement Wednesday saying that any final merger agreement with the city sewer system must include the city's Moccasin Bend plant handling the WWTA effluent. The statement says, "WWTA has been encouraged by the city of Chattanooga and the Hamilton County Commission to engage in discussions about merging the sewer system the WWTA operates with the Chattanooga system. Both entities expressed support for research that could result in a system that could operate more efficiently and be able to handle the WWTA flow at the citys Moccasin Bend treatment plant. "Because the WWTA is in active negotiations regarding the terms of a consent decree with the EPA, it is important to recognize that the final agreement will require the city of Chattanooga and the WWTA to cooperate to have WWTA flow effectively treated at Moccasin Bend. The negotiations include a requirement for the WWTA to enter into a formal agreement with the city to address the use of the Moccasin Bend plant for WWTA flow into the future." At a meeting on Wednesday afternoon, two representatives were chosen to speak for WWTA. They will be interim Executive Director Mike Patrick and Board Chairman Mike Moon. John McPherson has resigned from the board. Board Member Dick Gee was appointed to replace Mr. McPherson as chairman of the WWTA Engineering Committee. Resolutions passed by the commissioners include agreements to accept ownership of two sewer systems, one at Caney Ridge in the Ooltewah area for $30,000 and the system of the Perry Village phase 3 in East Ridge for the price of $26,332. HDR, Inc has been pre-qualified to perform engineering services for two years. Amendments were approved for two projects that are in process. The WWTA will pay CTI Engineers, Inc. an additional $20,500 for a total cost not to exceed $133,700 for services related to the work to alleviate the moratorium in Red Bank. That project was complicated by a railroad. Changes have been made from the original plans for the Lee Highway pump station upgrade and force main reroute. The WWTA has agreed to pay an additional amount of $29,000 for a total cost not to exceed $411,000 for engineering services to Santec Consulting. The WWTA will also buy three submersible sewage pumps for $218,500 for that project. Fees and sewer billing will be changed for sewer systems that use grinder pumps. Those already in existence will continue to be maintained as they currently are. Any new ones installed must conform to the specifications of the WWTA and be purchased from either the Authority or from an approved manufacturer. The ones installed after May 1, 2019 will not be maintained by the WWTA and will not be subject to the 1.10 surcharge. Maintenance will be the responsibility of the homeowner. Property which has access to sewers will be charged for sewerage regardless of whether the sewer connection has been made. Statistics from the WWTA for Tennessee American Water customers show that current billing is $831,341. Accounts that are four months in arrears total $171,016. The collection rate from December 2018 was 96.6 percent, just below the cumulative collection rate of 96.9 percent. The next meeting of the WWTA Board of Commissioners will be May 15. Joe Davis, 65, was killed Wednesday morning when his motorcycle collided with a pick-up truck on Battlefield Parkway near Ridgeland High School. Officials said the pick-up was turning left when the two collided. Mr. Davis was taken to CHI Memorial Georgia, where he was pronounced dead. The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the accident. Charges are pending the outcome of the investigation. President Donald Trump on Wednesday approved federal disaster assistance for 56 counties in Tennessee affected by severe weather between Feb. 19 and March 30. Senator Lamar Alexander said, I commend President Trump for rapidly approving Governor Bill Lees request for a major disaster declaration to help the 56 counties that were harmed by flooding and severe weather earlier this year. This federal assistance will help Tennessee communities quickly begin to recover from flooding and severe storms which Gov. Lee estimated cost our state $151 million. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said, I thank President Trump and FEMA for their swift action in approving federal aid for the Tennesseans affected by the devastating flooding that occurred earlier this year. This additional assistance is a necessary step in the recovery process and rebuilding efforts must continue to ensure our communities receive the help they desperately need." Last month, the Tennessee Congressional delegation sent a letter to President Trump urging his quick approval of the Major Disaster Declaration saying: On behalf of the State of Tennessee, we are writing to support Governor Bill Lees request to declare a major disaster pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief Act as a result of the flooding and severe storms that impacted our state ...We thank you for your Administrations ongoing response, specifically the Federal Highway Administration making $10 million immediately available to help repair roads damaged by flood and landslides. However, the severe storms that swept across the State of Tennessee beginning on February 6th brought severe storms and flooding that cost the state over $151 million. Federal Emergency Management Agency and State joint Preliminary Damage Assessments in affected counties for both Public and Individual Assistance occurred between March 7, 2019 and March 21, 2019. The Hamilton County Sheriffs Office released additional details in an effort to help the public recognize the GMC Sierra pickup truck driven by Geneva Atkins. Mrs. Atkins was last seen on Tuesday at approximately 9 p.m. driving a gray 1999 GMC Sierra with damage to the right front fender. The vehicle is registered in Tennessee and the license plate is 158-JSP. The 1999 GMC Sierra is an SLT model with an extended cab. It has a dent in the right front fender with a matching grey bed cover. It has running boards, chrome wheels, no spare tire, and a small dent in the back of the cab next to the third brake light. The vehicle and Ms. Atkins were last seen in the 5700 block of Highway 58.The HCSO has notified law enforcement agencies in the Tri-State area of Mrs. Atkins missing status and search efforts continue. Officials said, "The HCSO has taken all internal law enforcement measures possible as our patrol and investigations divisions continue to help locate Mrs. Adkins.If you or anyone you know have any information as to Genevas whereabouts, please contact the HCSO at 423-622-0022 or your local law enforcement agency." Mrs. Atkins is an African American, 5 2 tall, 135 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She is a severe diabetic and suffers from dementia. Anyone with information can contact the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office at 423-622-0022. In Michigan, where the winters are cold, dark and seemingly endless, a good coffee shop can turn some right serious coin. The key to the success at Mighty Good Coffee was thought to be its baristas, the experts who roast the beans with uncanny accuracy in the college town of Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is located, and free thought is said to thrive. Some time ago a female server felt she was being discriminated against, and while her case settled out of court, the emboldened baristas decided to take a stand for American workers. They formed a labor union and, by golly, it was just sanctioned in an effort to empower the American workers voice to coffee-shop management. As the United Auto Workers union huddled with the National Labor Relations Board yesterday in a further effort to unionize Chattanoogas Volkswagen Assembly plant, the front office at Mighty Good Coffee in Ann Arbor chopped the very legs off the baristas and their stand for the worker. A terse notice was delivered to its four coffee shops yesterday that read, This is to inform you Mighty Good Coffee will close all of its locations, and barista Mandy Gallegos doesnt quite get why it just happened: We walk away with no job and no contract, he told a television reporter in a shaky voice as he wonders what just happened. What really happened is the guys who own Mighty Good Coffee werent going to get pushed around by some kids who just made fools of themselves. Meanwhile, the scandalous UAW is jockeying for an election date at Chattanoogas Volkswagen plant. From where I sit the UAW doesnt stand a chance. In 2014 a determined UAW effort to unionize the VW plants was shy by less than 100 votes. Since then, VW and the UAW have gone in markedly different directions. The VW plant has doubled in size, increased employee pay, added a new line, and better benefits. The UAW, now being continually outed as a cesspool of scofflaws, lost 35,000 members in 2018 alone. What else do you need to know? An ongoing Federal investigation has already netted eight in a multi-million conspiracy and just last Friday, a Michigan district judge identified the UAW as a co-conspirator in the growing scandal. That label leaves no room to doubt the highest UAW leadership is indeed party to this conspiracy so where is the Department of Justice? The United States slammed Volkswagen for billions when its faulty diesels were discovered not the individuals who knitted the ruse so why charge only individuals at UAW when make no mistake about it -- the union itself is the real monster? Gary Casteel, who led the UAW assault on VW in 2014, has abruptly departed as the UAW secretary-treasurer. There is mounting speculation he may be in search of a good field position as the government investigation widens. Seriously, insiders say other high-ranking UAW officials, as well as Ford and Chevrolet leadership, may also be involved. President Trump has publicly said the UAW leadership is dishonest and that he does not like to meet with those guys. The president asserts the UAW dues are too high and is among a small army of critics who blame the union greed as the overwhelming reason GMs Lordstown plant has closed after 50 years, stranding nearly 2,000 people who now have no jobs. A well-done website on the UAW Culture of Corruption can be found on www.uawinvestigation.com and full-page ads appeared in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and both Detroit newspapers on Wednesday. The facts are unsettling and the majority of Chattanoogans, by a 2-to-1 margin in one poll, are stymied by the news 30 percent of full-time VW workers want a UAW vote. Worse, there is little the union could do that VW hasnt already done, but with over 700,000 on its pension rolls, the UAW is desperate for a new income source after being repeatedly shunned by every other manufacturing plant in the South. A friend shared what a union card actually costs the holder: * * * Here's how it works: UAW dues are currently 2.5 hours of gross pay per month. So, lets assume a new UAW member is being paid $20/hour and will normally work a 160-hour month. Dividing 2.5 by 160 equals 1.5625 percent which doesn't sound like much but it is taken off the gross wages on the first pay of the new month. A worker making $20 per hour makes $3,200 per month or $800 per week. His monthly dues are $31.25 per month. If you assume weekly pay periods, $800 is reduced by taxes and then $31.25 is subtracted out. $31.25 x 12 is $375 per year... enough to start a vacation or buy something useful. * * * What in heavens name could induce anyone to pay $31.25 every month for little, if any, representation? On the other hand, we know the union paid $218,000 in legal fees for former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell before he copped a plea. And to add insult to injury, on Tuesday he resigned his political post as a national committee member for the Michigan Democratic Party. royexum@aol.com Fire destroys a mobile home Wednesday night. At 11:55 p.m,.a neighbor called 9-1- 1 reporting a fire at 845 Pickett Gulf Road (Falling Water area). Dallas Bay Volunteer Fire Department responded and arrived on the scene reporting 75 percent of a mobile home was on fire. Neighbors reported to fire officials the trailer was abandoned and was being cleaned out for demolition. Dallas Bay VFD requested a Mutual Aid response for Chattanooga Fire Department and Soddy Daisy Fire Department to stand by at their stations for any additional emergency calls. Fire officials reported there was no electricity to the mobile home. The home is a total loss and damages are estimated at $25,000. The cause of the fire is undetermined and will be under investigation by the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office. No injuries were reported but HCEMS was on the scene for any potential injuries to the firefighters. The deadline to apply for the 2019 Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine has been extended to Friday, April 26. Rising high school seniors and 2019 high school graduates who have an interest in a career in medicine now have an additional week to apply or be nominated for the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society and Medical Foundation of Chattanooga's 14th annual Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine. The program will be held June 3-6 and includes daily roundtable discussions with physicians. Students will also shadow a different physician each day. Medical Society President Colleen Schmitt, MD, said the program is designed to: - Provide students the opportunity to learn more about life as a physician and inspire them to consider a career in medicine; - Educate students about options available to assist with the cost of medical education; - Provide students and local physicians with a community-based mentoring/teaching experience; and - Assist with efforts to increase the pipeline of health care providers in Southeastern Tennessee. Students must complete an application and submit two letters of recommendation from a teacher, principal, guidance counselor, or other individual familiar with the student's educational background and interests. Applications must be received by the Medical Society by April 26. Applications and complete information are available at www.chattmd.org. Typically more than 100 students apply for the competitive program and approximately 25 students are selected. "We developed this program to inspire talented young people to aspire to careers in medicine," said Mark Brzezienski, MD, past president of the Medical Society and Foundation and founder of the program. "Some of our earlier participants are now in medical school or residency." The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society, established in 1883, is an advocate for physicians and for the continual improvement of community health. The Medical Foundation is an affiliated non-profit organization that provides access to health care for low-income uninsured residents and works to improve community health. On Saturday, May 4, dragons and water warriors alike will make waves at the TVA Recreational Area of the Chickamauga Dam for the 13th Annual Childrens Hospital at Erlanger Dragon Boat Festival. This boating event encourages team building, friendly competition and fundraising for Childrens Hospital at Erlanger.Races begin at 8 a.m. on the water, while activities are provided on land, including a childrens play area and competitions for awards such as Best Theme, Top Fundraiser and Best Drummer Costume. A Parade of Drummers takes place at noon and will be led by the 2019 Dragon Boat Grand Marshall and Childrens Miracle Network Miracle Child, Adalyn.Proceeds from the event will help fund a Pediatric MRI and Procedure Center at the new Kennedy Outpatient Center.This state-of-the-art center will allow kids and teens to experience MRI scans and minor procedures in a space uniquely designed for them."Dating back more than 2,300 years, Dragon Boat racing features teams of 20 paddlers, a drummer and a coxswain in 46-foot long Chinese dragon boats, racing through the water to the finish line. Paddlers ages 15 and older at any skill and fitness level can participate, making it the ultimate team building sport," officials said.Corporate and community teams are encouraged to register their boat and a fundraising page by going to http://paddleforchildrenshospital.org . Boating registration is $1,000 for regular team entry. The team fundraising entry is $100 for teams who are going the extra mile to raise $3,000. Individual paddlers are welcome to register to join a crew and the fun too. There is still room for additional volunteers as well.Spectators are welcome, and there is no charge for attending the event. Food concessions are available onsite, with proceeds benefiting Childrens Hospital at Erlanger.Sponsors include First Tennessee Bank, EPB, CTFP, Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union and Coca-Cola Bottling Company United.To learn more about the festival or for information on how to volunteer, call 423-778-4803, e-mail RebeccaStyles@Erlanger.org or visit www.paddleforchildrenshospital.org The Bi-Annual National Drug Take Back will be held on Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The purpose of this event is to keep drugs out of the environment and off our streets. Three locations will also include document shredders provided by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, Division of Consumer Affairs.Local residents are encouraged to simply drive up and drop off their old medications prescriptions or over-the-counter -- for proper disposal at one of the 13 Hamilton County area locations.Sites in green bold will have document shredders available for personal documents such as tax information or medical records:Walgreens in Hixson - 5478 TN Highway 153Walgreens in East Brainerd - 2289 Gunbarrel RoadMt. Canaan Baptist Church 4801 Hwy. 58Sams Club 6101 Lee HighwayElks Lodge #91 1069 Graysville RoadFood City in Red Bank - 3901 Dayton BoulevardOrchard Knob Baptist Church 1734 E. 3rd StreetSignal Mountain Police Department -1111 Ridgeway AvenueWalgreens in Brainerd - 3605 Brainerd RoadWalgreens in Ooltewah - 9307 County HighwayWalgreens in Soddy Daisy 121 Harrison LaneWalgreens in St. Elmo 3550 Broad StreetWalgreens in East Ridge - 5301 Ringgold RoadJasper City Hall 4460 Main Street(9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central Time Zone)Walgreens in Dunlap - 14857 Rankin AveBradley County Location:Walgreens in Cleveland 35 25th Street NWThe program has positive community and environmental benefits. Having unused or expired medications in the home can lead to medication errors, accidental overdoses, or inappropriate use/abuse. In a well-intentioned effort to avoid these problems, many people flush unwanted medications down the toilet as a means of disposal. However, flushing medications means that traces of these drugs eventually end up back in the environment.Experience shows that the most effective and cost-efficient way to ensure high-quality water at the tap is to keep our source waters clean. We support this partnership because it helps spread an important message to the public: Don't flush medications down the toilet, where they would eventually end up in our waterways, said Kitty Vaughn, Tennessee American Water Supervisor of Water Quality and Environmental Compliance.The local Drug Take Back program offers citizens a chance to safely and conveniently dispose of unwanted, unused prescription or over-the-counter drugs (for both pets and people) and avoid misuse or unintentional harm to families, pets and the environment.Properly disposing of medication reduces the chance of teenage experimentation and overdose. We encourage residents to take advantage of the drug take back day by simply driving to one of the locations and dropping off medication with no questions asked, said Camilla Bibbs, Executive Director of the Hamilton County Coalition.Along with Tennessee American Water, other sponsors for the Drug Take Back are:Blue Cross Blue Shield of TennesseeCount It! Lock It! Drop It!City of Chattanooga Police DepartmentCity of Chattanooga Youth & Family DevelopmentCHI MemorialDrug Enforcement AdministrationEast Ridge Police DepartmentHamilton County CoalitionHamilton County Sheriffs OrganizationRed Bank Police DepartmentSignal Mountain Police DepartmentSoddy Daisy Police DepartmentTennessee Department of Commerce & Insurances Division of Consumer AffairsTennessee Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse ServicesTennessee Department of Environment and ConservationTennessee Department of TransportationTennessee Bureau of InvestigationUnitedHealthcareWalgreens A Dalton man entered a guilty plea on Thursday to armed robbery and two counts of aggravated assault arising out of his robbery of the Wells Fargo Bank, 2114 Cleveland Highway, on Oct. 19, 2017. Superior Court Judge William T. Boyett sentenced James G. Crick, 63, formerly of 1383 Presley Road, per a negotiated plea agreement to serve 20 years without the possibility of parole on the armed robbery plus 20 years probation on each aggravated assault. Crick was scheduled to go to trial on Monday and was facing a sentence of life without parole due to a murder conviction from Christian County, Ky., in 1973. The prior conviction would have triggered the maximum sentence under Georgias two strikes law. Crick was still under life-time parole from Kentucky at the time of the robbery. Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer handled the prosecution for the state. Crick was represented by Blake Skipper and Andrew Powell of the Public Defenders Office. DA Bert Poston said Crick entered the Wells Fargo bank with a pistol which he pointed specifically at two bank employees as he demanded that money be placed in a bag that he had with him. Crick took approximately $13,000 and fled the bank but was apprehended within minutes by quick acting deputies of the Whitfield County Sheriffs Office. The patrol officers, including Deputy Shawn Giles who placed Crick under arrest, had Crick in custody before detectives or the agents of the FBI could even be called to the scene. At the time of his arrest, Crick still had the firearm and the money, the wrappers around which were signed by the bank teller, and was still wearing the same clothing as seen in the bank surveillance video. Detective Chris Guay, also of the Whitfield County Sheriffs Office, led the local investigation, interviewed witnesses at the bank and collected evidence including the bank surveillance video which was recorded on new equipment in high definition. The case took an interesting turn when federal prosecutors picked it up based on Wells Fargo being a federally insured bank. Frequently, defendant receive longer sentences and serve more time before being released than in state prosecutions, but this was not the case with Crick because of Georgias tough two strikes law which requires anyone convicted of a second serious violent felony to serve life without parole and requires any prison time ordered on even a first serious violent felony to be served without parole. Based on federal sentencing guidelines, Crick entered a guilty plea in Federal Court on March 15, 2018 and received a sentenced of 114 months (9.5 years) for bank robbery and for use of a firearm during a felony. Crick actually received more time on the firearm charge than on the robbery under federal guidelines. District Attorney Poston, Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer and Detective Chris Guay attended the plea and sentencing in Federal Court. D.A. Poston said, "No one, including the local victims, were satisfied with the result which was below the minimum of 10 years in Georgia for a first-time armed robbery even by a defendant with no prior criminal history. Crick was a convicted murderer and, while that crime occurred decades ago when Crick was a young adult, everyone involved felt like a stronger sentence was needed. State prosecution was still possible in the case because Constitutionally, double jeopardy does not exist between two sovereignties, being the state and federal governments and because Georgia law does not bar successive prosecutions where different crimes are alleged. Case law from the Georgia Supreme Court existed which held that armed robbery under State law was a separate and distinct crime from bank robbery under Federal law. After researching the law, and consulting with victims, Mr. Kenemer pressed on with the local prosecution. Defense counsel filed a motion seeking to bar the prosecution on double-jeopardy grounds but that motion was denied by Judge Boyett on Jan. 23 and the case was scheduled for trial. "There were a number of victims in the case, including two which Crick pointed the firearm directly at and several more who were in apprehension of being shot as he brandished the loaded weapon generally in the bank. All of the victims were consulted throughout the process. They agreed with the State prosecution after thefFederal plea and agreed to the negotiated plea agreement. While Crick was spared a sentence of life without parole, at his age and given his current state of health, it is likely that the twenty years without parole will amount to a life sentence anyway. Given that, everyone agreed that a guilty plea was better than putting everyone through a jury trial under the circumstances. I want to commend Ben Kenemer and Chris Guay for all of the work they put into this case and for pressing on with the local prosecution even after the Federal case was resolved in the U.S. District Court in Rome. It would have been much easier to drop the state case after the federal conviction but their extra effort in the case insured that justice was achieved in full for the victims of this violent crime and that the community will be protected from Mr. Crick in the future. The Ringgold Playhouse will be looking for its next wave of talent when it holds open auditions for its summer comedy, Moon Over Buffalo, Monday and Tuesday. The classic play has several roles available for actors of various ages, and will run for seven performances in late June. We are so excited for the upcoming auditions for Ken Ludwig's backstage farce Moon Over Buffalo, Director Kimberly Tyner Jones said. This show is full of fast-paced physical humor, razor-sharp wit, mistaken identities, slapstick and situational humor, backstage shenanigans, and dysfunctional family dynamics, making this a bubbling concoction of hilarity. Play synopsis: In the madcap comedy tradition of Lend me a Tenor, the hilarious Moon Over Buffalo centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950's. At the moment, theyre playing Private Lives and Cyrano De Bergerac in repertory in Buffalo, New York with five actors. On the brink of a disastrous split-up caused by Georges dalliance with a young ingenue, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra is coming to town to see their matinee, and if likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, abetted by a visit from their daughters clueless fiance and hilarious uncertainty about which play theyre actually performing, caused by Charlottes deaf old stage-manager mother who hates every bone in Georges body. The play has roles available for three women and four men of different ages. Ms. Jones said actors must be able to do physical comedy, and that several characters need to be able to do an upper-class British accent. Auditions will consist of cold reads from the script, and Ms. Jones encourages actors of all experience levels to try out. Character descriptions GEORGE HAY - (Male, 50's-60's) An overly dramatic actor, often a ham. Sometimes he drinks too much; he is a large presence in any room, both physically and vocally. CHARLOTTE HAY - (Female, 50's-60's) Attractive leading lady, a larger than life drama queen who plays all the leads, even the ones she is now a bit too old to do; Must be able to do strong physical comedy and an upper-class British accent. ETHEL - (Female, late 60's-70's) Charlottes mother who is almost completely deaf. Grumpy and a trouble-maker; a former star actress. ROSALIND ROZ - (Female, 20's-30's) George and Charlottes daughter; she used to be an actress in the troupe, but does not want to follow in the family business. Must be able to do an upper-class British accent. EILEEN - (Female, early 20's) An aspiring actress in the touring company of George and Charlotte; she is their ingenue; she is very attractive, eager to please, and can seem a bit flighty and naive at times. HOWARD - (Male, late 20's-30's) a weatherman and Rosalind's fiance. He comes across as a wimp, a little annoying, nervous, and very excitable. Must be able to do strong physical comedy. PAUL - (Male, late 20's-30's) He is Rosalinds former love interest, he still loves her, and wants her back; but he has been with the troupe for a long time and would not leave to be with her. Must be able to do strong physical comedy; must be able to do an upper-class British accent. RICHARD - (Male, 50's-60's) He is George and Charlotte's attorney, but he is in love with Charlotte - always trying to get her to leave George. He is wealthy and used to getting what he wants, and he is both amused and perplexed by the Hay family. Even if you have never been onstage before, but have always wanted to try, come on out to auditions, Ms. Jones said. It is never too late to join in the fun. Auditions will begin at 7 p.m. each evening at Patriot Hall, at 406 Cotter St. next to the city pool. Anyone seeking additional information about auditions or the show in general can email TRP at TheRinggoldPlayhouse@gmail.com. Senator Lamar Alexander on Thursday said both sides "should stop hyperventilating" over the Mueller investigation. He commented upon the Justice Departments release of the Special Counsels report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election: Senator Alexander said, Robert Mueller is a respected prosecutor. He has determined that the president did not collude with Russia during the 2016 election. Attorney General Barr has released as much of Muellers report as he legally and appropriately can. It is time for both sides to stop hyperventilating over the Mueller investigation and focus on reducing health care costs and making a college education worth it for students. Congressman Chuck Fleischmann said, I am pleased that the Mueller report has been made public, giving the American people the transparency they deserve and providing accountability in our democracy. After two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of interviews we once again come to the conclusion that there was no collusion. Furthermore, we know that Russian meddling in our election was an effort to sow uncertainty in our democracy and was furthered by Democrats false narrative and personal vendetta against the President. "Today, the Special Counsels report was released to Congress but it is abundantly clear that Democrats are steadfast in their effort to prolong their dog and pony show of taxpayer-funded investigations regardless of the Special Counsels findings. There was no collusion, but there is a crisis at our southern border. I plan to spend my time addressing this national emergency and other challenges facing our nation. Congressman Scott DesJarlais said, This investigation has been a political one from the start, which makes it all the more remarkable that a team of mostly Hillary Clinton supporters could produce no evidence for her claim that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. There was no obstruction. The truth about the Presidents victory is that he and Republicans have a positive vision for our countrys future. Tennesseans want a growing economy, national security, and justice. We want to know more about the Clinton Campaigns and the Obama Administrations abuse of intelligence agencies to harm a political opponent. Im working to make sure it never happens again. Have you heard the news? Kim Kardashian has just been appointed to the Supreme Court! Okay, not quite. But judging by the reactions of some to the reality stars latest revelation, she might as well have been. The 38-year-old mother of three and queen of reality TV recently revealed that she is going to be a lawyer, despite never having finished college. So, it begs to question: C an you become a lawyer without going to law school? Why does Kim Kardashian want to become a lawyer? Kardashian recently told Vogue that she never in a million years thought she would go to law school. However, a recent experience made her become passionate about the law and look into what it would take to become a lawyer. Last year she spent a lot of time and energy fighting to get Alice Marie Johnson released from prison. Johnson spent over 20 years in jail for a non-violent drug charge. Kardashian famously visited the White House and talked to the president about Johnsons release. Kardashian says the experience made her satisfied with a good outcome and also made her feel out of her depth. She began to become increasingly involved with prison reform, including offering to pay rent for a recently released inmate. The decision to become a lawyer did not come easy. After all, Kardashian has a successful media empire, numerous endorsements, and three kids at home. She says she had to think long and hard about the decision, but ultimately felt that she could do so much. According to California law, Kardashian can skip law school California does not require residents to attend law school to sit for the state bar, which is the test needed to become a lawyer. In fact, Virginia, Washington, and Vermont all allow residents to skip law school as well. Maine, New York, and Wyoming dont require a law degree either, but they do require some law school before sitting for the bar. How can someone be qualified to become a lawyer without years of law school? In the aforementioned states, citizens can choose to participate in an internship in lieu of attending law school. They must complete a set number of hours with a licensed lawyer and successfully pass the state bar. In California, those who wish to take the bar without going to law school must take the first year law students examination, also known as the baby bar. Kardashian recently shared pictures of her studying for her upcoming exam. Kim Kardashian wouldnt be the first lawyer in the family It may seem like Kardashians ambition to become a lawyer has come out of nowhere, but we have to remember that her father, Robert Kardashian, was a very well known lawyer. Many believed that Robert Kardashian and a team of lawyers helped OJ Simpson get away with murder. Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Though there was a large amount of highly incriminating evidence, OJ walked away with a not guilty verdict, thanks in large part to the work of his legal team. Kim Kardashian says she remembers her father working on the case when she was a kid. She says the whole legal team would come over to her house to prep for the trial. She remembers looking through the books and evidence. She says she was really nosy about the forensics. Kim Kardashian hopes to sit for the bar in 2022 Kardashian has a long road ahead of her. She is currently one-fourth of the way through her required internship. After completing her internship, she must still sit for and pass the California State Bar. The bar consists of multiple choice questions and an essay portion and is considered very difficult to pass. If she does pass the bar, she will still face a few hurdles. It is unlikely that Kardashian will want to work for a private law firm, and instead will choose to work with private clients. However, if she does choose to pursue working at a law firm, employers may be reluctant to hire her because of her lack of schooling. If she plans to go to trial, she must also be granted permission by each circuit court she wishes to argue in. If youve ever traveled through Northwest Nevada at summers end, then no doubt youve encountered a few dusty, uniquely clad people wandering around, looking entirely out of place in modern society. Dont worry, youre not witnessing an alien visitation or some kind of cult gathering. Those are just Burning Man attendees (known affectionately as Burners) heading back to their regular lives. The annual party in the desert kicks off on Sunday, August 25 this year, but some people are saying this could be the last hurrah for Burning Man at least in its current structure. The reason? The federal government has some issues that theyd like to see addressed, and theyre not backing down. Read on to find out why Burning Man might be done for good in 2019. Burning Man | DigitalGlobe via Getty Images What is Burning Man? According to their official website, Burning Man is not a festival its a community. Its a temporary city thats constructed in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada and run on 10 lofty principles: Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-reliance, Radical Self-expression, Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Leaving No Trace, Participation, and Immediacy. Then there are those people who just call it an extended orgy in the desert. It all depends on your perspective. Burning Man | Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images Regardless of what its become, Burning Man began in San Francisco in 1986 when two friends built a wooden man on the beach and set it ablaze to celebrate the summer solstice. The event grew from there, eventually moving into the desert as attendance numbers swelled. Now this 8-day long celebration is revered by many and attended by tens of thousands. Why is Burning Man facing legal issues? The event was moved into the middle of nowhere on purpose, so people could be free to fully celebrate the 10 principles without bothering anyone. But now even this location is becoming an issue. Burning Man | MIKE NELSON/AFP/Getty Images The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently held a hearing that would impart new restrictions on the event. They proposed constructing a physical barrier around the temporary city and hiring additional security guards to scan attendees for prohibited items, including weapons and drugs. But thats not all. Concerned with the amount of trash generated, the BLM also recommended installing dumpsters and having the trash hauled away privately instead of relying on nearby communities. Despite the principle of Leave No Trace, community residents have lodged complaints in the past about the garbage. This town gets trashed, Melanie McClenahan, a bartender at Brunos Country Club in nearby Gerlach told the Wall Street Journal. This is big money for Burning Man and they should be responsible. Burning Man organizers claim it would take more than 1,500 trucks carrying away 10 tons of garbage to accomplish what the BLM is proposing. Theyre saying its feasible but would drive up costs significantly. Burning Man | John Horsley/Photoshot/Getty Images What is the future of Burning Man? The 2019 festival is still happening at the end of this summer, but the fate of the event in 2020 is yet to be determined. One thing thats clear? Theyre going to need to beef up security beyond just having plastic barriers, or consider moving the whole event somewhere safer. Burning Man | John Horsley/Photoshot/Getty Images But the whole point of having the festival in the desert was to get away from society, at least for a little while. Thats what makes it so difficult for event organizers to concede to these demands, which feel way too structured and demanding. This is about helping to keep you safe, one BLM ranger explained during a hearing. The crowd just laughed. Joe Giudice, the husband of reality television star Teresa Giudice, who stars in the Bravo show The Real Housewives of New Jersey, was recently released from prison after serving close to four years behind bars for crimes committed nearly a decade ago. Now, hes hoping to remain in the United States with his family, but his recent immigration appeal just got denied. Heres what it means for his future. Teresa Giudices husband, Joe Giudice, just had his immigration appeal denied. | Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images Joe and Teresa Giudice were arrested on several fraud charges in 2013 Back in 2009, Joe and Teresa Giudice filed for bankruptcy after building their massive Towaco, New Jersey mansion. In 2013, Joe Giudice and his wife were arrested for allegedly committing mail, wire, and bankruptcy fraud. The court case lasted quite a while, and the two were found guilty and sentenced to prison in 2014. Teresa was sentenced to 15 months in jail but ended up serving only about 11 months; Joe was sentenced to 41 months, and he left for prison after Teresa returned home. Joe was released in early 2019, but his future looks extremely unclear. A judge ruled that Joe would be deported at the end of his sentence Joe wasnt born in the United States, and hes not a U.S. citizen. He was born in Italy but moved to the U.S. with his family when he was only a year old. Since then, hes been raised in the U.S. and has said this is the only home he knows. However, during his lifetime, he never sought U.S. citizenship, which meant that if Joe committed a crime, he could easily be deported. He had a deportation hearing back in October 2018, and the judge ruled that Joes fraud convictions warranted deportation. Joe and his family vowed to fight the ruling and were disappointed with the outcome. View this post on Instagram Happy Christmas Eve A post shared by Teresa Giudice (@teresagiudice) on Dec 24, 2018 at 6:38pm PST Joes wife, Teresa, and their four daughters all live in the United States. Joe and his lawyers appealed the deportation, but the appeal was just denied As soon as the family learned that Joe would be deported, Joe, Teresa, and Joes lawyers decided to appeal. After another long wait, a judge denied Joes appeal in April 2019. The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Giuseppe Giudices case appeal on April 11, 2019, an immigration representative told Page Six. In dismissing the case, the BIA affirmed the immigration judges decision of removal dated Oct. 10, 2018. This meant that Joes deportation would go through. However, the family was saddened to hear that Joe may be returning to Italy, and theyre not yet done fighting. Joe plans to appeal once more, but his future in the U.S. is in limbo Joe and his lawyers plan to appeal the ruling once more with the hope he will be able to stay in the U.S. with his family. Joe has remained in federal custody since March 14, since his deportation status is pending. As of now, he wont be staying in the U.S., but things could change if a judge rules in his favor. Teresa and the couples four daughters all live in the United States, and Teresa previously said that she would divorce Joe if he were sent back to Italy. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton were lucky enough to find their literal Prince Charming. For them, this wasnt just a fairy-tale-like telling of a commoners love story, but a reality. While both lucky ladies have an amazing story about finding their Prince, people wonder which duchess has a better love story? How Kate Middleton met Prince William Kate and Williams royal fairy tale began in a very common way: The two met in 2001 while studying at the University of St Andrews, where they both lived at the schools St Salvadors Hall. It was in 2002 that William claims to have fallen in love with Kate, after seeing her appear in a charity fashion show hosted by the school. Despite having already fallen for Kate, the couple did not begin dating until the following year. When they did, they kept the relationship a carefully guarded secret for fear of media harassment. The fear was well-founded because once the relationship went public, Kate became the object of a lot of media attention. The pressure and stress caused by the media was so much that Kate and William broke up for a short period of time in 2007. They did (obviously) get back together again, and William finally proposed to his beloved in 2010 while vacationing in Kenya. They were married (ironically) on St Catherines Day in 2011. How Meghan Markle met Prince Harry Meghan and Prince Harry were first introduced in 2016 by Violet von Westenholz, a London-based public relations director who had already been part of the princes inner circle for years. According to von Westenholz, her friend had been having a really hard time finding anyone. When the PR director noticed Markle, she told Harry that she might just have found the perfect for him. Eventually Markle and Prince Harry met on a blind date in Toronto, Canada where Markle was living while filming Suits. They began talking over drinks, and it soon led to talking of future meetings. The rest was fairy tale history. Similarities and differences in their love stories Both Meghan and Kate were commoners before meeting their future husbands. This is remarkable because a marriage between a royal and commoner is rare, albeit not unheard of. A difference; however, is that Meghan is an American while Kate is British. Another similarity is that both Megan and Kate had to deal with a lot of press coverage and much of it was not so nice. This is reminiscent of what happened with William and Harrys mother, Princess Diana. Even after officially becoming members of the royal family after marriage, the media has continued their harassing. Thankfully, it has died down a little recently. One major difference in the two Duchess love stories is how quickly the relationships progressed. William and Kate took their time, with just a few years shy of a decade passing between their first date and their marriage. Comparatively it would seem that Prince Harry and Markle ran down the aisle, with a significantly faster moving relationship. Which love story is better? So, which love story is better? Neither, really. They are both beautiful in their own ways and have led to the happiness of Kate and Meghan and their respective princes. Each woman is contently living out her happily ever after, and both are adding to the British royal family with their own children. Kate is now the proud mother of three: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. Meghan is due any day now with her first child. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are expecting the arrival of their firstborn child any day now. While the Duchess of Sussexs actual due date isnt entirely known, Her Highness has hinted at a late-April date. While the royal family and the rest of the world anxiously await the arrival of the new royal baby, we cant help but wonder: Are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle already planning for baby number two? Find out what we know, ahead. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Facundo Arrizabalaga Pool/Getty Images How many children do Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want Its no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have had a whirlwind romance. From dating to engagement to wedding to baby, not much time has passed since the two first met. The two are very much in love, which likely has something to do with their relationship (and family) advancements. That said, the timing of their marriage and pregnancy could have something to do with how many kids they want. At 37 years old, Meghan Markle is considered advanced maternal age, which could mean a riskier pregnancy, or harder time conceiving in the future. Recently, while attending a reception on behalf of his royal duties, the Duke of Sussex chatted with a Falklands veteran named Simon Weston, who warned Prince Harry of the many sleepless nights ahead. According to Weston, Prince Harry admitted that if he had more than two children, it would serve him right. By the sounds of it, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might not just be thinking about a second baby, but a third, too! Are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle already thinking about baby number two? Given the possible risks of mature pregnancy (also known as Geriatric Pregnancy), the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are likely already thinking about baby number two and possibly even baby number three. But, although Meghan Markles age might have something to do with it, its possible that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are considering the closeness of their children, too. In the royal family, its not uncommon for children to be close in age. Despite the age gap between Princess Anne (68) and Prince Andrew (59), many royal children are born just a couple of years (if not less) apart. Prince William (36) and Prince Harry (34) are around two years apart and Prince George (5), Princess Charlotte (3) and Prince Louis (11 months) are also close in age. Princess Beatrice (30) and Princess Eugenie (29) are 19 months apart. Zara Tindall (37) and Peter Phillips (41) are also a few years apart. What will Prince Harry and Meghan Markle be like as parents? Its no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are excited for parenthood. But, what will they be like as parents? Between Prince Harrys nephews and niece and Meghan Markles closeness with her friends children, both mom and dad-to-be have quite a bit of experience with children, so we dont doubt they will make a great team. The two are also incredibly sweet and understanding with the children they encounter on royal tours, which also reveals what they might be like as parents. That said, Prince Harry is a big softy, so we doubt he will be the one disciplining. Like Princess Diana, we imagine Prince Harry will be fun, warm, and full of life he will also try his best to provide normal experiences for his children like trips to Disneyland (Princess Diana once took him and Prince William there) and maybe a sneaky bite of fast food (though health-conscious Meghan Markle might not approve). Meghan Markle will also make a great mother. The Duchess of Sussex is incredibly close to her mother and has a warm, sweet character. She and Prince Harry are both passionate about philanthropy and womens rights and will likely teach their children about giving back to community, equality, and supporting others. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Kim Kardashian and husband Kanye West are one of Hollywoods highest-profile couples. The two spare no expense when it comes to outfits and jewelry and especially their home. Where do Kardashian and West live, and how big is their house? Kanye West and Kim Kardashian | Jeff Vespa/Getty Images Kardashian and West paid $20 million for their 15,000-square-foot mansion in 2014 Kardashian and West originally purchased a Bel Air home together back in 2011, but it turned out not to be the couples dream home. They reportedly spent millions renovating the Bel Air house, but turned around and sold it before purchasing their current home. Kardashian and West reportedly paid $20 million for their current estate back in 2014. They upgraded in size, too; there previous home was 9,000 square feet, but their current home is just over 15,600 square feet. The home has eight bedrooms, plus eight full and two half baths. It sits on three acres. The couple lives in Hidden Hills, California, along with many other Kardashians Kardashian and West shipped out from Bel Air and over to Hidden Hills, a very affluent neighborhood outside of Los Angeles. And plenty of Kardashians already call the area home. Kardashians mother, Kris Jenner, purchased a $9.9 million home in Hidden Hills back in December 2017, and its reportedly right across the street from her supermodel daughter and rapper son-in-law. Kylie Jenner also lives in Hidden Hills; she reportedly paid $12 million for her 13,000-square-foot home. Kylie Jenner owns several properties in the Los Angeles area, including an investment property with boyfriend Travis Scott. Kardashian and Wests luxury features have confused many fans Kardashian and West spent a lot of time renovating their mansion, and the couple actually lived with Kris Jenner during the renovations. But when everything was finally done, the pair couldnt be happier with the home. However, when Kardashian took fans on a video tour of the house, all people felt was sheer confusion. Kardashians bathroom sinks quickly became an Internet sensation; it appeared the sinks had faucets but nowhere for the water to go. (Kardashian later explained that the marble sinks had a slight slope, and water traveled into a drain that was a thin slit.) Kardashians light switches also confused people; rather than have a box with three switches for on, dim, and off, there were simply three small buttons on the side of the wall. She said she felt that having no box around the switches made them more visually appealing. View this post on Instagram Kinda missing blonde hair A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Feb 13, 2019 at 8:32am PST Kim Kardashian posted a selfie from her bathroom. In the right front of the frame are the infamous confusing sinks. Kris Jenner recently said the couples home is worth $60 million after renovations Kardashians mother said back in 2018 that her daughters home was now worth $60 million after the couples renovations. While its unclear how true this is, it doesnt make much sense; home values are strongly influenced by location and neighborhood, and if most homes in the area are between $10 million and $25 million (based on the Kardashian familys properties), it would be very difficult to sell a home for $60 million, regardless of how upgraded it is. Either way, Kardashian and West clearly spared no expense to create the home of their dreams. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! For eleven years, Marvel has consistently been releasing films following the exploits of superheroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man. All of it has been leading up to the April 26 release of Avengers: Endgame, which is highly anticipated by fans everywhere. Knowing that Endgame is being touted as a grand finale for the Avengers, the public has started to wonder whats next for Marvel, and when fans can expect to see new movies. Spider-Mans next outing Even though Spider-Mans future seemed uncertain following the events of Avengers: Infinity War, the doubt as to his fate was removed when a brand-new Spider-Man film was announced. Set to release in July 2019, Spider-Man: Far From Home stars Tom Holland as the web-slinging hero, and co-stars Zendaya, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, and Jon Favreau, and also features newcomer Jake Gyllenhaal. While little is known about the plot specifics, the Marvel website does reveal that Far From Home will take place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Fans can expect to see Peter Parker take a school trip to Europe with his friends, with the intention of taking an extended break from any superhero antics, but his plans are sidelined when he agrees to help Nick Fury tackle a mysterious menace. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 production drama While Spider-Man: Far From Home is wrapped and in the bag, all set for the July release date, theres another Marvel film that has been experiencing a lot of bumps in the road on the way to completion. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 has been on the docket for some time, with initial planning having started years ago. However, there have been several snafus, and now, it is quite uncertain when (or even if) the film will happen. The drama really began in July 2018, when controversial tweets by director James Gunn came to light. Although the messages in question were years old, and the cast rallied to support Gunn, Disney fired him from the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 project. For a while, the film was in limbo, with no announced director or cast. Then, in March 2019, Disney re-hired Gunn and announced that he would resume directorial duties on Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Initially, before Gunn was fired, the movie was set for release in 2020. Following the drama with Gunn, the release date has been pushed back significantly, with no confirmed due date in place. It seems likely that the earliest fans can expect to see the film is sometime in 2022, as listed by the IMDb. Another Guardians 3 issue none of the cast members have yet been announced and with the way Avengers: Infinity War ended, fans arent even sure which of their favorite characters are still standing. Is anything releasing next year? Currently, there are no Marvel movies set for a 2020 release. This will mark the first time in eleven years that Marvel wont have a brand-new film. Even though it seems unlikely, there is a slight chance that the studio could come out swinging and get a movie in the pipeline for 2020. The most likely candidate would be the long-awaited Black Widow film, or possibly Black Panther 2, both of which would get fans out in full force. The reality is that with no films currently scheduled for 2020, fans will have to get their Marvel fix in other ways. Even if there are no feature-length productions releasing next year, the much-anticipated Disney streaming service is set to feature several Marvel shows, including a Loki standalone series. With the release of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel will likely start releasing more information about their plan for the next several years of movies. Tomorrow is Good Friday. Hundreds of millions of Christians around the world will observe the day Jesus was nailed to the cross to save us from our sins. For many, it is a day of fasting. Of silence. Of prayer and contemplation. And that is as it should be. After several weeks of Lenten fasts and disciplines, many of us are eager for the celebration of Easter. But as Fr. Richard John Neuhaus observed, were far too quick to rush past the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper, and the events of Good Friday. The only way to Sunday is through, not around, the important events of this week, especially Good Friday. Let me be clear, however. No Christian ought dwell on Friday as if we dont know what happens three days later. Sundays a-comin, said that great African-American preacher, describing that brilliant new day which awaits confused disciples, triumphant religious authorities, and that angry mob. Sunday is not a maybe for us Christians. Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed. Thus, we wont rightly understand anything from the Creation and the Fall of the world to the birth, life, miracles, words, or last week of Jesus Christ without having His resurrection fully in view. Sren Kierkegaard once observed that life is lived forward and can only be understood backward. As we remember the events of Holy Week, we have an advantage that Christs first followers did not. We look backward. Not only that, we also have the benefit of watching the shift in the disciples perspective from looking forward to looking backward. Peters sermon at Pentecost offers the very first, clear, Holy Spirit-led, backward-looking exposition of Holy Week events. The punchline of that rhetorical tour de force in Acts 2 is this unequivocal claim: Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified (Acts 2:36). Peter, like the rest of the disciples and the masses that welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem, did not have this perspective looking forward. They expected a kingdom of this world, specifically of Israel. Even as they walked with Jesus after the resurrection, the disciples were still asking, Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? It is only after Christs ascension that Peter realized the answer to that question is both yes and no. Yes, the kingdom is inaugurated. No, the kingdom is not limited to Israel. God the Father has placed all things in heaven and earth under the feet of Jesus Christ. His rule is over all. His rule was sealed by His Sunday resurrection, but it only came through His victorious death over death on that Good Friday: the Good Friday that we remember tomorrow. Many of us will remember it by walking through the words of Jesus from the cross. The staff of the Colson Center has prepared a series of meditations on those last seven words of Jesus from the cross as He died. In a beautifully illustrated booklet, using sacred art about the passion of Jesus, these devotionals can help you and your family meditate on the significance of Good Friday. Its a free pdf download that you can print and share. Just visit BreakPoint.org/7sayings. If youre unfamiliar with Jesus seven last sayings, they are: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do; Today you will be with me in Paradise; Behold your son/Behold your mother; My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I thirst; It is finished; and finally, Father into your hands I commend my spirit. Tomorrow, find some time to pray and meditate on Him Who was wounded for our transgressions, whose chastisement was the punishment for our peace, and by Whose stripes we are healed. Again, the free downloadable devotional booklet is available at BreakPoint.org/7sayings. For all of us at the Colson Center, may God grant you a glorious Easter celebration. He is risen. Indeed. BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on todays news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions. John Stonestreet, the host of The Point, a daily national radio program, provides thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview. Publication date: April 18, 2019 Photo courtesy: Christoph Schmid/Unsplash An Ohio church is apologizing to the community after an Easter lesson on the crucifixion of Christ led a youth pastor to invite his students to spit on, slap and cut him with a steak knife. In no way do we condone that students or anyone else should spit on someone, should slap them or use a weapon to harm anyone or harm themselves, lead Pastor Justin Ross, of Impact City Church in Pataskala, Ohio, said in a video posted to the churchs Facebook page after the April 15 incident. The apology came after his youth pastor, Jaddeus Dempsey, used Holy Week to lead a graphic illustration of Christs suffering at the crucifixion. In the cell phone videos captured by the students, Demsey invites the teens to spit in his face, promising no repercussions. According to the Washington Post, the footage records a student saying, Can I do it again? as he returns to the back of the line, while another student declares, Thats enough. The exercise continues with Demsey upping the ante. If theres anyone here that would like to slap me, you can do so without any repercussions, he said. Although some students backed away in apparent disbelief, several students took advantage of the offer, with one student slapping him sharply with an open hand. Other students were yelling No. Another teen refused, Im not doing that. Demsey was slapped numerous times, prompting some students to plead, Thats enough, thats enough. But the lesson continued with Demsey removing his hoodie to reveal his bareback. He pulled out a steak knife, offering to let the students cut him. Im serious, you gotta be very gentle, one of the adults said. A voice was recorded saying, Dont do it, while a peer took the blade. Here, let me get it, he said before asking how much pressure he should use. You gotta make it bleed, one classmate urged, while another cautioned, Dont do it, man. The student eventually cut the youth pastor, causing him to bleed. Students were recording the incident on social media, prompting at least one couple to rush to the church to get their son after another parent called to warn them. One of the posted videos showed someone giving their son the knife. He was upset, the father said. He thought he was in trouble, and I explained to him, Im not upset with you. I just want you to know that the things that happened here today wasnt OK.' Police were called but their investigation determined a crime had not been committed. Ross, the lead pastor, said the point of the exercise was to express just how much Jesus suffered. He chose to allow it to happen He chose to allow them to spit on him, and beat on him, and crucify him in order to take the payment of our debt that we call sin. Later, in an interview with a local CBS station, Ross talked about the churchs commitment to creating a safe space for youth. We exist to create an environment that is safe and predictable for students to come, connect with their friends and grow closer to God, he said. Today we failed at creating that safe, predictable environment. We want to do better. The station asked Ross, who was in the room during the incident, why he didnt intervene. That's something that I'm thinking about a lot right now, he responded. What could we have done to handle the situation better? In the Facebook apology video, youth leader Demsey admitted the lesson was in poor taste, I crossed the line and it was over the top. It was just not appropriate and it was in bad judgment, he added. I am so sorry for misrepresenting the community, the church, the parents, and the studentsanybody that I hurt. This was not my intention. My intention was to just show them how much Jesus loves them and that I love them as a student leader for almost four years now. Tonight was an anomaly and it is not normally what happens. Again, I am deeply sorry for the pain that I have caused. Photo courtesy: Alex Woods/Unsplash The environment outside of Changing a Generation Full Gospel Baptist Church is dark and cloudy. For the last two days, weather forecasters have been predicting that the weather in Atlanta would be bad. However, the mood inside the church is anything but that, with people bustling with excitement in anticipation of what God is going to do on this dreary Sunday Morning. One may wonder what the source of all this excitement is until they meet Pastor Debora Morton. Pastor Debra Morton co-pastors the Changing a Generation Church alongside her influential husband, Bishop Paul Morton. Bishop Morton is well-known for leading the Full Gospel Network, a church network that has become known as the fastest growing network of black churches in America. Having grown up in New Orleans and surviving Hurricane Katrina, the stormy weather does not seem to bother Morton. And on this day one thing is clear, Morton is not going to let the weather slow her down. The multifaceted woman is on a mission to do as much for God as He will allow her to do. Morton is a proud first lady but she's much more than that, she's a pastor, business leader, speaker and author who proudly serves alongside her husband. Without his wife being by his side, Bishop Morton expressed to me that so many of the pairs projects would have never gotten off the ground. When asked how she keeps up with the many tasks and titles that she's responsible for, she said, "Its a mindset and I believe that God has anointed me for it." In her latest book Beyond the Storm, it is also clear that God has gifted Morton to lead in many different areas of life. Deborah expressed she's always been able to balance many things at once, but it has always been because of God. When speaking with Morton it is clear that she loves her husband and counts it a joy to serve alongside him. The couple has two churches in two state locations. The Mortons run the Changing a Generation Church in Atlanta, Georgia and the Greater St. Stephens Church in New Orleans, Louisiana, which the Mortons started after Hurricane Katrina lead many of their parishioners to leave the state. This devastating storm was also what inspired Morton to write Beyond the Storm, a book she says she wrote to help people navigate between the different storms in their lives. Going through life storms isn't anything new for Morton. Before the writing process, Morton shared that her granddaughter and sister passed away. Morton revealed that the loss was devastating and caused her to experience a mental breakdown. As she worked through her own personal storm, she realized that if people would look at the inner eye of the storm they would see that God watching over them and guiding them through their hardship. For many of us, however, the eye of the storm as where the crisis lives. In my conversation with Morton, she encouraged people not to miss God in the middle of a crisis noting that he always has our best interest in mind. When asked how she got through her storms Mortons response is clear, she had to choose to thrive instead of just surviving. This choice, she says, is why she's been able to lead and serve alongside her husband and handle the many assignments and titles that she's responsible for. Morton believes that the reason God has given her so many opportunities is not because she is better than any other first lady-or even different. Instead, its because God has been more than faithful in giving her what she likes to do. At the end of the day, its about knowing that what God has called you to do outweighs any storms or responsibilities that you may have. Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Royce DeGrie/Stringer A teacher in the United Kingdom lost her job because of her public objections to transgender issues being taught at her sons Church of England School. Kristie Higgs, 43, served as a pastoral assistant at an academy in Fairford, Gloucestershire. According to CBN News, the events that led to Higgss firing for gross misconduct started with a post on her personal Facebook page. Higgs, a mother of two, took issue with pro-transgender teaching in her childrens elementary school. This included a book about a boy who wears dresses and Red: A Crayons Story, which features a red crayon who discovers that he is a blue crayon. According to the Daily Mail, Higgs took to Facebook to express her displeasure and on her personal page said that, children will be taught that all relationships are valid and normal, so that same-sex marriage is exactly the same as traditional marriage, and that gender is a matter of choice, not biology, so that its up to them what sex they are. In addition, she asked her friends to sign a petition against compulsory sex education. The school received an email from someone who said that Higgs had shared homophobic and prejudiced views. The school investigated and fired Higgs for what the school called, gross misconduct and illegal discrimination for sharing thoughts which could be deemed offensive. In addition, the school said that her comments could bring the school into disrepute and damage the reputation of the school. However, the school possessed no evidence that her post had hurt the school in any way. Higgs claims that the school fired her because of her religious convictions. The school responded that the firing took place for reasons other than your religion. Higgs claims that their statement is a legal tactic and that her firing has everything to do with my religion. The BBC reports that Higgs initiated a legal challenge to the disciplinary action through the Christian Legal Centre, which is part of the lobbying group Christian Concern. Higgs released a statement through them and said she holds her views on sexuality and gender because of my Christian beliefs, beliefs, and views which are shared by hundreds of thousands of parents across the UK. Higgs further elaborated on her concerns with the UKs program of sex education, which education secretary Damian Hinds expanded in February to include same-sex relationships, transgender people, and other related issues. She said, my number one concern has always been the effect that learning about sex and gender in school will have on children at such a young age. Higgs also recognizes that her legal battle affects other concerned Christians in the United Kingdom. She said, I am determined to fight this case and to stand for Christians and all parents across this country who are being silenced for sharing and holding these views. Scott Slayton writes at One Degree to Another. Photo courtesy: Pixabay Despite continued calls for an independent, third-party investigation into Sovereign Grace Churches (SGC) and its response to abuse allegations, the network has officially taken the option off the table, calling it inappropriate, impractical, unjust and impossible. Controversy has surrounded SGCpreviously Sovereign Grace Ministries, or SGMand its founder C. J. Mahaney since at least 2012, when SGMs flagship congregation faced a lawsuit alleging a sexual abuse cover-up, which was later dismissed on procedural grounds. This year, as evangelicals ramp up their response to abuse, top leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention have joined the scrutiny over Mahaney and his current congregation, SGC Louisville, which is also affiliated with the SBC. In a statement released this week, SGC declared that there hasnt been enough credible evidence against its leaders or churches to necessitate an investigation and that an outside query would violate ... 1 One of the early iconic martyrs of Sudans recent protests was inspired by Christian oppression. Shot dead by police while aiding protestors against the regime of 30-year dictator Omar al-Bashir, Babiker Salamaa 27-year-old doctor from an exclusive Khartoum suburbwas motivated in part by what he witnessed in the mountain region populated by one of Sudans few Christian communities. We were not like the people in need, his sister toldThe New York Times in January. We had nothing to do with politics. Salama was sent by the military for a three-month stay. After performing emergency C-sections by the light of his cell phone, he volunteered to stay three months longer until a replacement could come. The same military has now replaced Bashir, whose crimes include indiscriminate bombing in the Nuba Mountains. And among the thousands who protested outside military headquarters demanding his overthrow were Sudanese Christians, from the mountainous ... 1 Azusa Pacific's new president to promote 'unity' amid concerns of 'theological drift' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The largest Christian college on the West Coast has named a new president who looks to restore financial stability and promote unity at a 120-year-old institution that has faced questions about its commitment to the authority of scripture. Last Monday night, the Azusa Pacific University board of trustees in Southern California voted for Dr. Paul Ferguson, an accomplished college administrator who previously led two public universities, to succeed President Jon Wallace. Wallace is retiring at the end of May. Ferguson, who has served in the past as president of secular institutions like Ball State University in Indiana and the University of Maine, has served since 2016 as the founding dean of the School of Science, Technology and Health at the evangelical Biola University in La Miranda, California. [APU] certainly has one of the great reputations in Christian higher education. It's one of the larger, more successful schools, certainly in a very challenging environment of Southern California, Ferguson told The Christian Post. So my background, I think as God has brought us together at a certain point in time, I think I'm bringing probably a deeper broader experience in strategic planning, resource development, how to ensure that the university is fiscally sound and moving towards a clear goal. David Poole, the chair of APUs board of trustees, said in a statement that Ferguson will work to improve financial stability to APU. Im confident he will strengthen our position as a leading university in teaching, student development, and Christian service, Poole said. Ferguson explained that he will spend time over the next two months familiarizing himself with the situations facing APU so that he can hit the ground running on June 1. Ferguson said that APU, like many other private and public universities across the U.S., faces a number of financial challenges. Particularly when developing an aggressive enrollment management model, Ferguson said that expenses have to be controlled. There's nothing unique about the [APU] situation that other universities don't face, Ferguson stated. I think my job is to come in and really take a hard look at it. Obviously, I don't have the blueprint today until I have my time over the next several weeks to kind of gain insight and to get the debriefings. But I think it's really clearly going to be tied to very insightful fiscal management of controlling revenue and expenses, looking at new sources of revenue advancement development plans. He also stated that questions of how to balance the undergraduate model versus the graduate model will also come into play. There are over 5,600 undergrads and over 4,400 graduate students enrolled at APU. I think really coming in and addressing maybe a more nimble financial model that really is commensurate with the marketplace of higher education will be one of the challenges that we seek to look at, he explained. I think also, the challenge will be to make sure that we take a bit of reflection. I'm looking forward to meeting a lot with the faculty and the staff and the students. Just weeks prior to Ferguson being named APUs next president, APU announced changes to its student handbook in which a ban on homosexual relationships was removed. The announcement drew strong reactions from some Christians who saw the move as somewhat of a capitulation by the evangelical institution on the LGBT issue. However, the APU handbook still bans sexual intimacy outside the confines of marriage. Although the decision came in March, that was not before the university attempted to remove the ban on same-sex relationships in the handbook last September and faced criticism from Christian conservatives. Days later, the school reversed course after the board of trustees stated that school officials never got approval to remove the ban. APU still upholds the traditional Christian view of marriage being a union between one man and one woman and an APU spokesperson explained in March that APU is an open enrollment campus and some students who choose to attend do not share our Christian faith perspective. I think that's one of the very important issues that I need to sit across the table and hear firsthand from the folks who have been engaged in that, Ferguson explained of the student handbooks changes. He added that he believes APU is on the right path on the issue. But I think where the board of trustees has come with a campus right now and the revision of the handbook, is really holding on to the basic foundational principles of Azusa Pacific University but also being very loving and caring to the constituencies that come to the campus, he stated. I think that that seems to be where APU has tried to go to love all who are there on campus, within the context of the traditional and clear positions of what they believe. Last year, two members of the APU board of trustees resigned, citing what they claimed to be a drift in the evangelical institutions foundation and mission. Raleigh Washington, a black pastor who served for over 15 years on the board, said at the time that he voiced concern that administrators and a chunk of faculty members were promoting what he considered to be a progressive ideology that clashes with the APU statement of faith. He argued that APU is suffering from a "theological drift from what is required of an evangelical Christian university." At the time, Poole responded to those claims by stating that APU is firmly committed to upholding the biblical values that undergird the university. Ferguson told CP that the most important thing for him to do is to meet with people within the APU community to understand where everybody is coming from. He added that his goal is to help promote unity on campus. I think that there's no question that Azusa Pacific University can be a light to the world and absolutely has been and will continue to be. I think these issues are going to be front and center on where all Christian higher education is going to be over the next several years, he said. My goal is to come in and contribute to support and promote unity on campus. And to do that within a framework of Christian love and concern is a message that I'm bringing today. In shocking message on Easter, pastor allows kids to hit, spit on and even cut him with steak knife Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A pastor in Pataskala, Ohio, had members of the public reacting with shock and disgust this week after a video of him allowing children in an after school program to hit, spit on and even cut him with a steak knife to illustrate a message about Easter. A recording of the message shared on Facebook by Lola Hatfield, shows part-time pastor of Impact City Church, Jaddeus Dempsey, being spat on by several young boys who then later slap him repeatedly in the face without any reaction from the pastor. Dempsey then removes his shirt and picks up a steak knife and offers it to one of the boys and tells him to cut him gently. This request however was met with an incredulous Are you serious! The pastor insisted that he be cut however until one of the boys steps up and draws the blade across his back. One parent, whose son is featured in the video, said she got a call from a friend warning her about what was happening at the church. The guy who is in the video turns around and grabs the knife and he hands it right to my son, the parent identified only as Mandy told 10TV. She said she and her husband Josh rushed to the church to pick up their son because they found the event inappropriate. He was upset. He thought he was in trouble. When I explained to him I'm not upset with you, I just want you to know that the things that happened here wasn't OK, Josh said. The churchs lead pastor, Justin Ross, in an appearance with Dempsey, later apologized for the incident in a video message on Facebook Monday. Ross said the incident took place during the churchs student after school hangout. Each Monday we invite students to come across the street, a place where they can hangout with their friends. We provide activities for them, we feed them. As part of that program we also take five minutes to do a deposit of faith in the students. A chance where we can share the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, Ross said. Dempsey, who chose to discuss the message of Easter on Monday, took things a little too far Ross said. He chose to use an illustration to explain a very important topic about the crucifixion but the illustration went too far and it was inappropriate for the audience that we had, Ross said before retelling the details of the video. Jaddeus got up in front of his students and he says, Im gonna ask you to do something that might seem a little crazy, but if there is anyone here that would like to spit in my face you can do so without any repercussions. Now the students were a little caught off guard. Some got excited about it as they never had the opportunity to willingly spit in someones face and several students took him up on it, he said. The process was repeated with the offer to slap Dempsey in the face as well as cut him with the steak knife. The reactions are appropriate. Many of you were disgusted, many of you were hurt by this, many of you were very confused. Why this would be taking place in a church, in a youth group? And we agree, it was inappropriate for this audience. And there is really no excuse for why it happened, Ross said. He argued, however, that the intent behind the exercise is important. This part did not get posted on social media. After Jaddeus allowed them to spit on him, slap him and cut him, he sat them down and explained to them about this guy named Jesus who thousands of years ago, He was put on trial for a crime He did not commit, Ross said. And He was beaten, He was broken, He was whipped. He was crucified. He died as an innocent man. We believe Jesus had the power at any point to stop them. To stop those that were hurting Him. But He chose to allow it to happen in order to take the payment of our debt that we call sin, he explained. Dempsey who spoke later in the video took full responsibility for his actions and apologized to the church community for his bad judgement. I am deeply sorry for the pain that Ive caused, he said. Rick Warren criticized for hosting Rwanda president at Saddleback Church Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment California megachurch pastor and author Rick Warren is facing criticism for his decision to invite Rwanda President Paul Kagame to speak at Saddleback Church about the transformation of the Central African nation since the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. Warren, who has been friends with Kagame for over 15 years and has traveled to Rwanda a number of times, interviewed the 61-year-old Kagame during a Sunday service in which he preached how to overcome trauma. With April marking the 25th anniversary of the three-month span in which at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Rwandan security forces and Hutu extremists, Saddleback Church honored the victims during its April 13 and 14 services. The services also celebrated Saddleback's 14-year partnership with Rwandan churches that are using Saddleback's missionary and reconciliation strategy, The PEACE Plan. "The PEACE Plan started in Rwanda, was birthed in Rwanda at the invitation of the president, and its now all over the world," Warren told the church on Sunday. Kagame was asked to talk about how the nation has overcome the trauma of genocide to unite around the purpose of building a better future. The Kagame government has stressed the importance of reconciliation and forgiveness within Rwandan communities as being keys to Rwandas future. If you look at our history, the country was divided, ideology and politics played out so that a section of our population was made to believe the other is not only different but they should hate each other, Kagame, who took office in 2000, said. We found a way of saying we are a family with different individuals but at the same time, we have a lot in common and a lot of common aspirations. Considering that neighbors killed neighbors during the genocide, Kagame said that his government didnt expect all Rwandans to be able to put their hurt aside to forgive those who killed their family members. However, there are many stories throughout Rwanda of neighbors forgiving their genocide perpetrators. In some cases, victims and perpetrators have worked together to rebuild their broken communities. Forgiveness may come out of realizing that first, we have to live [for] the future, Kagame said. We have to have a better life coming for us. How do we get there? You dont forget that you have lost so much. You keep that in mind. But the people in Rwanda have found it possible to forgive so that they create a better future so that we can stop losing the little we are left with. Warren chimed in: Are you hearing what he is saying? We dont forgive for the other peoples sake. We forgive for our own sake because we dont want to hold on to the pain. And second, we are going to need forgiveness ourselves. And third, we want a better future. Although much of Warrens talk with Kagame was focused on the positives of Rwandas transformation in the last 25 years, critics are not happy with Warrens decision to invite Kagame. It was also not the first time that Kagame had been invited to Saddleback Church. Kagame spoke at the church in 2014 to mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi. Although the Kagame government has been praised as the driver of economic growth that has led many Rwandans out of poverty, Kagame has also been accused of being a dictator whose RPF-led government has done all it can to silence political dissent and maintain its stronghold on the Rwandan political system. In 2017, Kagame was elected to a third term in office in 2017 after parliament enacted a constitutional amendment to allow Kagame to serve more than two terms. Thanks to changes enacted by parliament, it is possible for Kagame to remain in power until 2034. Additionally, the Rwandan government is suspected of being behind the mysterious killings or disappearances of Kagames political dissidents. The Rwandan government has been accused of running hit squads to assassinate political opponents. Aristide Rwigara, the younger brother of womens rights activist Diane Rwigara, who ran against Kagame for president in 2017, told the Los Angeles Times that hes shocked Warren would host Kagame at his church. Diane Rwigara was imprisoned for over a year along with her mother. "This cannot go unchallenged, Rwigara, who works in Los Angeles as a translator, said. Warren is a global figure, and if you want to wear the mantle of spiritual leadership, why would you do this? I used to think he was the real deal, and then I found out that he backed the government a government that stifles all manner of opposition, that has no humanity. Rwigara also criticized Kagames government for forcing thousands of churches to close last year. Last year, the Rwandan government passed a law regulating churches and requiring pastors to receive theology degrees. "Why would [Warren] give attention to someone who has closed thousands of churches and who has consistently denied human rights to his own people?" Rwigara said. The Christian Post reached out for a response to the criticisms of Kagames visit from Saddleback Church. A response to the criticisms was not provided. CP was pointed in the direction of a press release stating that Saddleback is standing in solidarity with Rwanda so that the genocide will never be forgotten. Warrens invitation to Kagame was also criticized by David Himbara, a professor of international development and solar energy at Centennial College in Toronto and a former economic adviser to Kagame. Pastor Rick Warren is fully aware that Christians remain one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world, Himbara wrote in an op-ed. Warren ought to know that while Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced by Christians. For Warren to host a strongman who closed 8,000 churches and imprisoned 6 church leaders, including a Bishop, Warren is on the side of the persecutors of Christians. Shame. Although Rwandas church law was criticized by many, some have praised the law. Ananias Sentozi, an integrated programs manager for World Vision Rwanda whose organization receives funding from the Rwandan government, told reporters in February that the Rwandan government does not interfere with faith work in the country. Sentozi believes many people have gotten the wrong idea about the church regulation. "I know there has been kind of misinterpretation of what happened early last year ... when the government decided to close a number of churches that were not fulfilling their requirements, Sentozi explained. "Some of those [churches] were in the households of people. Some of those were just gathering under tents. Some didnt have wash facilities. There was no car parking. There was no sound management systems. There was no water. There were not any minimum requirement of bringing people together. Sentozi, who has worked for the evangelical humanitarian group for 19 years, said that many churches did not have the adequate facilities to accommodate children. In some cases, the churches would be housed in a tent with a loudspeaker. In the end, Sentozi said, there is cause to celebrate the new law. "Because now in church, you find it looks nice and they manage their sounds and have basic facilities like wash, water, a toilet, he explained. You could imagine if you go to one of our churches, the highest population are the children and the shortest service here will take two to three hours. You can imagine gathering children for three hours in a place that doesnt have water with no toilet. What could be the effect? I think there have been good improvement and we appreciate the decision of the government." SWBTS removes stained glass honoring Paige Patterson, conservative SBC leaders Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Stained-glass windows at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary immortalizing leaders of the conservative resurgence within the Southern Baptist Convention have been removed. The Fort Worth, Texas-based seminary confirmed that the stained-glass windows depicting the likes of former SWBTS President Paige Patterson and other controversial conservative Southern Baptist leaders have been taken down from the J.W. MacGorman Chapel and Performing Arts Center. Colby Adams, the schools vice president for strategic initiatives and chief of staff, told The Alabama Baptist that the school is working with donors to finalize plans for relocating the windows. After much prayerful consideration and discussion, we have concluded that it is in the best interest of the institution to remove and relocate the stained-glass windows installed in our J.W. MacGorman Chapel and Performing Arts Center, SWBTS Board of Trustees Chairman Kevin Ueckert wrote in a letter dated April 3, according to the newspaper. Expenses to remove the windows are minimal and will be covered by the seminary. The seminary will [safely] store the windows until we have a chance to discuss with you the next steps. Along with Patterson, who stepped down as SWBTS president last year after he was accused of mishandling rape allegations brought to him by students, two other controversial leaders featured in the windows are Paul Pressler and Frank S. Page. Pressler is a former Texas judge who was accused in a lawsuit last year of sexual assault. Pressler denied the allegations and the case was later dropped because the statute of limitations had expired. Page is the former CEO and president of the Southern Baptist Conventions executive committee. But he resigned last year citing an inappropriate relationship. Others depicted in the stained glass windows include California megachurch pastor and author Rick Warren, Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell, former SBC presidents W.A. Criswell, Adrian Rogers, Charles Stanley, Ed Young and Ronnie Floyd. Floyd was recently elected to serve as the new SBC executive committee president. After Pattersons firing from SWBTS, critics on social media called for his stained glass window to be removed. Jimmy Draper, chair of the Southwestern Advisory Council, who is also depicted in one of the windows, told Baptist Press that there was a sense for the past year on the council that the windows needed to be removed. "I have mixed feelings about that because I think the Conservative Resurgence was a very significant part of Southern Baptist life, but it was only two decades, really, of the 111-year history of the school," Draper explained. "I do understand that." The windows were created by Forth Worth-based artist Don Young. The first of the stained glass was installed in the building in 2013. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the stained glass windows are the dream of Pattersons wife, Dorothy. My dream was to portray the 20-year history of the conservative resurgence of the Southern Baptist Church, Patterson was quoted as saying in 2013. A press release from 2015 stated that the windows were created to pay tribute to those who played a major role in turning the convention back to a high view of Scripture. In an October 2015 service, Patterson claimed that in 1978, there were only 16 professors at the SBCs six theological seminaries that believed in the inerrancy of the Bible. But due to the conservative resurgence, Patterson said, there is not one professor today at an SBC seminary who does not believe in the infallibility of the Bible. That is a phenomenal act of God, Patterson said at the time. And we want future generations of students to know about the people who made that possible. The Christian Post reached out to SWBTS for comment on why the windows were removed. A response is pending. It remains unclear as to where the windows will be reinstalled. Franklin Graham condemns Randall Terry's 'Sodom and Gomorrah' protest against Pete Buttigieg Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham condemned protesters who shouted slurs about "Sodom and Gomorrah" toward gay presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday at an Iowa campaign rally. Graham, son of the late Billy Graham took to Facebook to condemn the harassment. Protesters shouting Sodom and Gomorrah interrupted mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg this week at a rally in Iowa. I dont agree with heckling anyone, he wrote. While on his campaign run in Iowa this week, protesters, including Randall Terry, a Christian activist who founded Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion rights group, shouted the biblical reference, "Sodom and Gomorrah," which was destroyed by God for their sinful behavior including homosexuality. Democrat presidential candidate and mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg hopes to make history as the first openly gay president in America. Operation Rescue, split with Terry 18 years ago and now considers the activist too radical. Other Christian leaders have also weighed in to condemn the behavior of the protesters. "I identify with the fake @PeteButtigieg whipping Jesus. It was MY sins that put Him on the Cross, my sins as well that Jesus died for, and I would have likely yelled crucify! But for grace. Singling out Mayor Pete alone for this is horrendous, especially as a political protest," Southern Baptist Pastor Alan Cross wrote on Twitter. Christian radio host Carmen LaBerge also weighed in on Twitter. "Misrepresenting Christ is not Christian. Making a farce of the faith is not faithful. Please stop," she wrote in part. Buttigieg who was also met with cheers at the campaign rally, tactfully responded to his critics, "The good news is, the condition of my soul is in the hands of God, but the Iowa caucuses are up to you." While not condoning the politician's lifestyle, Graham did commend his response. Mayor Buttigieg is absolutely rightHis soul is in the hands of God, so is everyones, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said. He also says that hes a Christian and wants to become the first openly gay president in Americas history. Whats wrong with that picture? In reality, being a Christian isnt just a title we select or a church membership. It is a faith in God and His Word that transforms our lives to be more like the One we followJesus Christ, Graham continued. Last week, Buttigieg drew criticism from evangelicals after telling Vice President Mike Pence that his gay marriage actually brought him closer to God. "My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man and yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God," Buttigieg declared during a speech at the LGBT Victory Fund's annual brunch in Washington, D.C., according to USA Today. Despite slamming the protestors, Graham went on to reference John 14:15, where Jesus said those who love God keep His commandments. The Bible makes it very clear that homosexuality is a sin. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination... (Leviticus 20:13). Thats what God says and that settles it for me. I stand with the Word of God. I care enough about people to tell them the truth and to warn them about the judgment to come for all sin, Graham warned Buttigieg. Harvest Bible Chapel allegedly made James MacDonald a millionaire; ECFA terminates membership Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment James MacDonald, founder of Harvest Bible Chapel in greater Chicago, who was recently fired under a cloud of financial abuse, was allegedly being paid nearly a million dollars per year in regular salary, had access to approximately a million more in discretionary spending, and is currently owed $2.6 million in deferred compensation by the debt-ridden church. Independent journalist Julie Roys reported Wednesday that in 2018, HBC paid MacDonald $80,000 per month ($50,000 monthly in regular salary and $30,000 monthly in deferred compensation), which amounts to $960,000 annually. This number does not include additional money MacDonald may have received from his broadcast ministry, Walk in the Word, Harvests church planting network, Vertical Church, its songwriting and worship ministry, Vertical Worship, and books, Roys said. Roys reported that she confirmed the details of MacDonalds compensation arrangement with a senior leader at the church. The Christian Post reached out to HBC seeking comment on the report Thursday but officials authorized to speak on behalf of the church were not immediately available. Citing Emmanuel Manny Bucur, a deacon and one-time volunteer bodyguard of MacDonalds, and Mark Banaszak, a Harvest member and captain of the churchs Saturday night security team, as sources, Roys reported that HBC gave MacDonald between $800,000 to $1.2 million annually in discretionary funds. Half of the discretionary funds in general came from a senior pastor discretionary fund, and a similar amount came from a discretionary fund in Walk in the Word. Roys noted that the unnamed HBC leader she consulted with confirmed the discretionary funds were part of a hidden or black budget. The news comes just over a month after HBC officials revealed they are struggling financially due to the hemorrhaging of members and donations in the fallout from MacDonalds Feb. 12 ouster from the megachurch. In their message to members on March 10, officials reviewing finances at the church admitted that there was a lack of financial control over MacDonalds office but did not provide any details of how that lack of control manifested. As our Harvest 2020 team is charged with reviewing all finances within the church, we have found that there was a lack of financial control and oversight as well as questionable spending practices made by the senior pastors office. "In addition, we have identified there was a separate budget for the senior pastors office over which there was not sufficient controls and oversight, officials said. According to Roys report however, MacDonald was supposed to record any personal expenses charged to his discretionary funds and reimburse the church, but it is unclear if that happened. He reportedly counted having a bear stuffed and shipped from Alaska as a ministry expense. Church funds were also allegedly used to gift between six and eight Harley Davidson motorcycles to people inside and outside of the church. The report also noted that HBC also handed over the Walk in the Word ministry to MacDonald even though the church pumped millions of dollars into it. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability announced Wednesday that they had terminated HBCs membership based on further investigation into the megachurchs operation. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) board voted today to update the membership status for Harvest Bible Chapel (Elgin, IL) from suspension to termination due to significant violations of four of ECFAs Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship. Based on new information obtained by ECFA from the church while under suspension, ECFA determined that the church was not in compliance with Standards 2, 3, 4 and 6, which pertain to Governance, Financial Oversight, Use of Resources and Compliance with Laws, and Compensation-Setting and Related-Party Transactions, the organization said. ECFA continues to champion integrity in Gods Kingdom, Dan Busby, ECFA president said in the announcement. "We are committed to applying our standards rigorously and consistently. MacDonalds ouster from HBC was triggered by "highly inappropriate recorded comments" he made on a radio program as well as "other conduct." He was recorded talking about planting child pornography on Christianity Today CEO Harold Smith's computer, and making crude remarks about independent journalist Julie Roys including joking that she had an affair with CT Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli and a rude reference to Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. It was recently reported that MacDonald splurged thousands of dollars in church funds on a vintage car he gifted Stetzer. Stetzer said he had no idea MacDonald used money from church donations to pay for the gift. He reportedly reimbursed the ministry for the full value of the car, a just under $13,000 1971 VW Beetle, in March. Jentezen Franklin, Abby Johnson urge thousands at Free Chapel Church to not stay silent on abortion Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of the multi-campus Free Chapel Church in Gainesville, Georgia, urged more than 4,000 Christians to speak out against abortion at an event celebrating life with former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson from the hit movie Unplanned Saturday. If America is going to be destroyed, it will be destroyed by the silence of the pulpits and the silence of the righteous minority called Christians who are failing to lift their voice and say with great passion we are going to protect the life of the unborn, Franklin said in opening remarks at his Life Is Beautiful conference. He also recommended grace for people who have had abortions or were engaged in the abortion industry. With just as much passion and just as much fervency, we are going to extend grace and compassion to anyone who has experienced an abortion, been anyway involved in it, were not mad at you. Jesus loves you and we love you. And were here to walk through life. Were all flawed people. We need Gods grace. We can make our nation greater. We can make our world a place that values life because life is beautiful, Franklin said. He also highlighted the recent legislation in New York permitting abortion up until the point of birth, as well as a similar proposal in Virginia and noted: If theyre not ashamed to take that stand, then I am not ashamed to take the Word of God and say with all the love in my heart, that life matters to God and it matters to us. Franklin further urged the gathering, which included a number of national Christian leaders, public servants, and the church community to unite on the issue. "We no longer have the luxury of disunity in the Body of Christ. The lines have been drawn. Stand up for life. And stand up for compassion and grace for those that have experienced abortion. We dare not be silent in such a time as this, he said. Franklin, Johnson and others who spoke at the conference raised concern about pregnant women who feel like abortion is their only option and also prayed for women grieving past abortions. Johnson, who is now pregnant with her eighth child, shared her story of going through two abortions herself. Most people who work inside these abortion clinics are not there because they love abortion, theyre there because of misguided compassion, she said of her eight years working for Planned Parenthood. "I was very ignorant surrounding the topic of abortion. It was my ignorance, it was my naivety that led me inside the doors of the abortion industry." She revealed that her conversion came in 2009 when her supervisor asked her to double the quota of abortions at her clinic. She was also affected by her role in an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure on a 13-week-old unborn baby boy. I watched this perfectly formed innocent human being become dismembered in his mother's womb, she said. I believe that all of these things that happened in 2009 were God's way of chipping through the callous that had formed around my heart. I knew then that what I had seen was a grave injustice. Since then, Johnson has been fighting for life. There is no such thing as an unwanted child because every child is created in the image and likeness of God, and very much wanted by our Father, Johnson said. Let us do everything that we can, not just to make abortion illegal, but to make abortion unthinkable in our society. Lauren Daigle reveals music healed her after two year battle with extreme illness Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Grammy award-winning artist, Lauren Daigle visited New Yorks Z100 studios this week and revealed that music healed her while in a two year battle with an extreme illness. Daigles last release, Look Up Child debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart upon its release in September, beating out popular secular musicians such as Drake, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B that week. Since then shes been on a mainstream circuit sharing her Christian music and her story. While at Z100, Daigle shared that at age 15 she was diagnosed with cytomegalovirus, an immune deficiency she likened to an extreme form of mono. I was placed on homebound and that was when my mom said, 'Hey we should start voice lessons,' basically to say, to keep you from depression, let's keep you focused on music. Daigle explained. I fell in love, it became my healing. That time of isolation became the Louisiana natives inspiration for most of her Christian music today. The wealth that was given to me and invested in that time, I tell people a lot of times, 'What you think might overcome you is actually just the place you're supposed to launch from. What you think might be the place that is overwhelming and all-consuming is actually just the beginning of your destiny, she testified. The now 27-year-old wants everyone to know that the difficult times in life can serve as their starting part. Daigle said in a recent interview with The Christian Post that she is remaining true to her call of going outside the walls of the church to share the Gospel. "I think the passage that says, 'Go out into the world and draw people unto Him,' the Great Commission, that's what I think about in regard to the mainstream aspect," Daigle told CP in the interview. "I wasn't looking at [making my music] as in mainstream versus Christian. I was like, 'OK, what is the purest version of me? Or what is the purest thing that God has written into my spirit and how do I express that? How do I communicate that?" The 27-year-old Louisiana native said she's not afraid to appeal to the world with her message of hope, which some fear might lead her astray and to abandon her worship roots to become a secular artist. Daigle, however, said her faith and mission in life has never been clearer. "[My music] is having crossover appeal, but it doesn't mean that I'm leaving one for the other or that I'm going to be swept up by one thing or the other. For me, it's like, 'Oh, everything just got even more clear.' Everything just got clearer as to why it is that we go and love people who are outside of the walls of our church, outside of the walls that we're comfortable with," Daigle added. Daigle is scheduled to perform at the Billboard Music Awards Wednesday, May 1st on NBC. Ohio pro-life group optimistic that heartbeat abortion ban law will survive legal challenge Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A spokesperson for a pro-life organization based in Ohio is confident that the states newly signed law banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected will survive a legal challenge. Jamieson Gordon of Ohio Right to Life, whose group lobbied on behalf of the legislation, which effectively bans abortions after six weeks, explained to The Christian Post in an interview her reasons for the confidence. The ACLU has said that they will sue, but we are confident that our pro-life Attorney General Dave Yost will defend the law well, said Gordon. We believe that the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals may be the most conservative circuit in the country, and the heartbeat bill may have a better chance there. Gordon also told CP that they viewed the new law as the next incremental step to overturning Roe v. Wade, the controversial 1973 United States Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Last week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 23, or the Ohio Human Rights and Heartbeat Protection Act, into law. "The essential function of government is to protect the most vulnerable among us those who do not have a voice," said DeWine just before he signed the bill. Government's role should be to protect life from the beginning to the end, to protect those who cannot protect themselves, such as the elderly, the unborn, those who are sick, those who have a disability, those who have a mental illness, or an addiction. SB 23 passed 56-40 in the House and then 18-13 in the Senate last week. Local news reported protests from both sides of the abortion debate outside of the legislative chamber. Former Ohio Governor and Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich vetoed similar legislation while in office, believing that such a law would not survive a costly legal battle. Freda Levenson, legal director at the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement released before the bill signing that the new law was blatantly unconstitutional. SB 23 is one of the most aggressive, oppressive, and radical attacks against women ever seen in this state and this country, stated Levenson. In addition to Ohio, other states that have recently passed similar legislation include Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, and North Dakota. Legal challenges to the laws in Iowa and North Dakota successfully blocked them from taking effect, while last month a federal judge blocked Kentuckys law via a temporary restraining order. Other states, including Tennessee, are considering bans on abortions once a heartbeat is detected in an unborn baby. Tennessee state Senator Mark Pody submitted a letter earlier this week to the state Senate clerk asking for Senate Bill 1236 to be brought before the Senate floor, according to the Nashville Tennessean. As someone who believes life begins at conception, I support the bill philosophically, stated Lt. Gov. Randy McNally regarding SB 1236, adding that he opposed it because he feared it would be the losing side of a lawsuit. Passing a constitutionally suspect bill now would give the courts an opportunity to erase the progress we have made. Quena Gonzalez, director of State and Local Affairs at the Family Research Council, told CP that he believed the rise in heartbeat bills was "a reflection of the polling showing that Americans are more and more pro-life." "There are also more and more pro-life legislators; since the wave election in 2010, when Republicans took a commanding lead in state legislatures, pro-life Republicans have maintained or grown their dominance in the state elections every cycle," said Gonzalez. "This year alone more than 125 pro-life bills have been introduced; states have enacted bills to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, prohibit dismemberment abortions, prohibit partial-birth abortion, and prohibit all abortions when Roe v. Wade falls." Gonzalez also told CP that it still remains to be seen if the heartbeat bill litigation "will ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court." Twitter drops hate map nonprofit SPLC as 'safety partner' amid accusations of discrimination Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Twitter is reportedly no longer partnering with the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center after the organization was itself accused of having a culture of discrimination and sexual harassment. As The Daily Caller reports, the social media giant is no longer working with the SPLC as one of its safety partners in the effort to prevent abuse, harassment, and bullying. The SPLC is one of the most well funded civil rights organization with an endowment of over $470 million in 2018. It claims to fight hate and teach tolerance and gained prestige in the civil rights community by standing up for victims of attacks by the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan. But over the years, its credibility has been cast into doubt as it has included nonviolent Christian organizations as part of its online map of American hate groups because of the organizations conservative advocacy on political issues like marriage and sexuality. Mainstream media outlets and other watchdog organizations have regularly used SPLC as a resource to further the claim that the Christian conservative nonprofits are hate groups. Some of the worlds largest tech companies, such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Twitter have partnered with the SPLC to help police their platforms. As noted in a 2018 report, Twitter had previously listed SPLC as one of its safety partners. However, an anonymous Twitter employee recently told The Daily Caller News Foundation on the condition of anonymity that the SPLC is not a member of the Twitter Trust and Safety Council, which serves to provide input on Twitters safety products, policies and programs. Additionally, the employee stressed that the SPLC is not an organization that Twitter has recently worked with. The Christian Post reached out to Twitter for clarification on its current and past relationship with the SPLC. A response is pending. The news comes over a month after SPLC co-founder Morris Dees was fired after being accused of inappropriate conduct. The SPLC was also accused of having a toxic culture that breeds gender and racial discrimination as well as sexual harassment. Additionally, the SPLC and Dees have been criticized for shady fundraising practices that take advantage of gullible Northern liberals. One progressive writer even accused the SPLC hate group map of being a deceptive promotion aimed at generating funds. After the firing of Dees, the organizations president and legal director also resigned. Trying to chart a new path forward, the SPLC hired an external consultant to analyze the SPLC workplace culture. In recent weeks, conservative Christian organizations listed on the SPLC hate map have renewed their pressure on news and social media companies to stop using the SPLC as a resource, claiming it has an untrustworthy and corrupt nature. An April 3 letter to members of the media signed by a number of conservative leaders led by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins expressed concern about the neutrality of the SPLCs external consultant Michelle Obama's former chief of staff, Tina Tchen. Todays SPLC is aggressively anti-Christian and morally bankrupt both inside and out. It attacks anyone who disagrees with its far-left agenda, smearing them with lies and grossly mischaracterizing their work, the letter reads. Indeed recent developments, including confessions by former staffers that the SPLCs fundraising was suspect, have attracted the attention of a member of the U.S. Senate and triggered a request for investigation by the Internal Revenue Service into the SPLCs classification as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. On Wednesday, FRC along with the American Family Association and SPLCExposed.com posted a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal calling on companies like YouTube, Spotify, CNN, MSNBC, Amazon and Paypal to stop using the SPLC as an authority on hate and extremism. The SPLC has become a hate-for-cash machine that has weaponized its hate labeling of groups and individual people, the advertisement states. As SPLC collected hundreds of millions in donations, it expanded its definition of hate to nonviolent conservative Christian and parent organizations who oppose SPLCs political agenda. 8 Democrat presidential candidates who have talked about their Christian faith Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Over the last several years, many political commentators have spoken about the Democratic Partys apparent problems with the issue of religion. A 2006 Pew Research Center piece summed it up as follows: insofar as religion has become a political force, it seems generally to help Republicans and hurt Democrats. However, in the race to become the 2020 presidential nominee, many Democrat candidates have been discussing their faith in interviews and town halls. Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service noticed the trend and started keeping a thread on his Twitter account late last month of the instances in which Democrats have been publicly discussing their beliefs. Here are eight examples of Democratic hopefuls, specifically those coming from Christian backgrounds, speaking about their faith. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next Christian college students, alumni protest Mike Pence invite over Trump admin policies Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Thousands of students, alumni and supporters of Taylor University, a Christian college in Indiana, are calling on school officials to disinvite Vice President Mike Pence as their commencement speaker because his politics are not consistent with the Christian ethic of love we hold dear. Inviting Vice President Pence to Taylor University and giving him a coveted platform for his political views makes our alumni, faculty, staff and current students complicit in the Trump-Pence Administration's policies, which we believe are not consistent with the Christian ethic of love we hold dear, Alex Hoekstra, a 2007 graduate of Taylor, wrote in a Change.org petition he launched on Friday, which has already garnered more than 4,000 signatures. Founded in 1846, Taylor University describes itself as a premier, nondenominational, Christian liberal arts university and the number one college in the Midwest. Taylors president, Paul Lowell Haines, announced Pence as the schools 2019 commencement speaker in a release last Thursday. Taylor University is pleased and honored to welcome to our campus and its 2019 Commencement exercises, Vice President Mike Pence, Haines said. Mr. Pence has been a good friend to the University over many years, and is a Christian brother whose life and values have exemplified what we strive to instill in our graduates. We welcome the Vice President and his wife, Karen Pence, to this 173-year-old premier institution of Christian higher education, and thank them for their love and service for our nation, our state, and our institution. The petition has triggered divided opinions about Taylors decision to invite Pence. I attended Taylor University for two years in 1974-75 and am upset that TU has invited VP Mike Pence to speak. His actions in office have not reflected any Christian values that I recognize. He has been judgmental and divisive. His unwillingness to speak out when President Trump puts children in cages is the antithesis of Christianity, Sara Hare wrote on the petition Tuesday. Others like Velma Landrum argued that Pence should be allowed to speak. Many of my kids teachers graduated from Taylor. I thought it was a strong Christian school. It seems that no place is immune from the left liberal agenda. I think Pence should be allowed to speak and welcomed with respect! she wrote. Also weighing in on the controversy on Tuesday was Rev. Franklin Graham, who serves as president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Protesters, he argued, should be absolutely thrilled that Pence will be speaking at the school. For the life of me I dont understand this. Some students and alumni at Taylor University in Indiana, a Christian college, are objecting to Vice President Mike Pence speaking at their upcoming graduation commencement. They should be absolutely thrilled. But instead, this group started a petition to rescind the invitation because they say the Administration is not consistent with the Christian ethic of love we hold dear, he wrote in a statement on Facebook. What are these people smoking? This reminds me of Pauls words, You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? (Galatians 3:1). Vice President Mike Pence recently told CNN that he is a Bible-believing Christian. Is that what they are objecting to? I appreciate the fact that Taylors president, Paul Lowell Haines, has stood firm on the decision to invite the vice president and publicly praised him as a good friend to the University over many years, and a Christian brother whose life and values have exemplified what we strive to instill in our graduates. There couldnt be a better, more qualified, more inspirational speaker for graduates to hear from or a better example for them to follow in life. Thank you Mr. Vice President, Graham said. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment (JNS) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) proved again this week that while shes gotten some competition lately from her friend Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the Queens congresswoman is still the countrys most unavoidable political personality. AOCs latest headline concerns her reaction to Israels election. When asked on a Yahoo News podcast whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus re-election should affect U.S. policy toward the Jewish state, she gladly took the bait. She said that these were the sorts of conversations Democrats were now having about Israel, and that she thought aid cuts should be part of a conversation she wanted to lead. This is one more sign of an impending partisan clash between older mainstream pro-Israel Democrats and the increasingly vocal radical left intent on hijacking their party. AOC and her BDS-supporting allies like Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) arent yet running the Democratic caucus. But the discussion about the Middle East emanating from their partys presidential candidates indicates that, at the very least, the 2020 presidential race will feature a divisive debate about Trumps pro-Israel policies that will fracture, perhaps fatally, whats left of the bipartisan consensus backing the Jewish state. But instead of just dismissing AOCs comments, its worth examining how the issue of fiscal aid works to the Jewish states disadvantage. For the moment, aid to Israel isnt in any danger. Indeed, as some Jewish Democrats pointed out in the wake of her statement, the House leadership remains firmly opposed to any effort to tie it to disagreements about Netanyahus policies. More importantly, the current level of military assistance was set in place by the 10-year agreement signed in 2016 by the Obama administration that guaranteed $38 billion in aid to Israel. That was a milestone in the relationship, but it was not crafted entirely to Israels advantage. Though the total and the scope of the commitment was generous, President Barack Obamas purpose seemed to be aimed at hamstringing Israels ability to say no to U.S. demands about peace-process negotiations and to impede measures of self-defense against its Palestinian terrorist or Iranian foes. Netanyahu was also forced to agree that Israel would not go to its friends in Congress for increases in assistance over and above the amounts in the agreement. Equally important, it phased out Israels right to use some of the aid on buying weapons made by its own arms industry rather than on American-made armaments. What AOC and her friends dont understand about U.S. military aid is that it is as much a jobs program for Americans as it is a boost to Israeli security. Almost all of it is spent on U.S. munitions and armaments manufactured here. Nor do Israels criticsor even most Americans taxpayersrealize that the intelligence sharing and strategic cooperation that is an integral part of the alliance is a huge bargain for the United States. They dont understand that while the aid total that goes to Israel is the largest in the budget for any form of foreign assistance, its actually a fraction of the amount the United States spends on defending other allies. Few consider that the many billions annually spent by Washington on NATO are no different than aid to Israel, except that the amounts are larger, and more of it is spent outside the United States. The difference is that the accounting places it as part of the U.S. defense budget, not foreign aid. But while Israels critics like AOC hold onto the false notion that U.S. aid to Israel is a gift that empowers Netanyahu, there is actually a good argument to be made that its time for the aid to be phased out because it no longer serves Israels interests. There was a time when Israel desperately needed both U.S. economic and military aid. But in 1996, Netanyahu told a joint session of Congress that it was time to end the economic portion of the assistance. With free-market reforms enabling it to break free of the shackles imposed by its socialist founders, Israel no longer needed economic subsidies. But defense requirements were different. With so many of its foes, including Gulf states, able to buy the most sophisticated U.S. weapons, Israel needed to keep up and maintain a qualitative advantage that ensured its security. But 23 years later, the political price of accepting U.S. aid remains onerous. It limits Israels options and flexibility with respect to defense procurement, especially when it comes to its own industries. It also creates the impression that Israel is a beggar that requires Washingtons assistance in order to defend itself. That encourages resentment of Israel on the part of Americans who dont like foreign aid even when, as in Israels case, the United States gets a great deal in return. It also boosts Palestinian intransigence, which remains rooted in a foolish belief that sooner or later, America and the West will hand Israel to them on a silver platter. It also creates fodder for resentment of Israels influence in the Beltway. That feeds the bile of pro-BDS forces, including critics like AOC and her friends who hope to use it, as Obama sometimes tried to do as leverage to force Israel to make dangerous concessions on national-security issues. While theres no need to worry that AOC and other anti-Israel Democrats will be able to do that in the short term, it would be far better if Israel started to think about ending military aid, too. For far too long, pro-Israel activism was solely the function of keeping aid flowing to Jerusalem. While the Israel Defense Force has benefited from such assistance, its time to acknowledge that the Jewish state is on a path to paying its own way, even when it comes to defense. In the long run, that will be far healthier for both Israels economy and for strengthening the relationship between two democracies that should relate to each other as friends and allies, not as a patron and a dependent client state. Originally posted at JNS. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNSJewish News Syndicate. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Editors note: This article first appeared at The American Spectator. The image of the Cathedral of Notre Dame engulfed in flames will remain seared in memories. I was made aware of it when a student burst into my office shouting that the magnificent church was on fire. I was about to head into my Major European Governments course, where we read George Weigels prescient work, The Cube and the Cathedral. The Cathedral in the book is Notre Dame. As the ensuing minutes proceeded, the conflagration only worsened, captured by the cataclysmic moment when the towering spire collapsed. It took me back to watching the collapse of the World Trade Center tower on 9/11, though that was worse because you knew you were witnessing not just the death of a structure but a significant number of human beings. With Notre Dame, we figured there was probably no one trapped inside. The fire proceeded slowly enough for people to get outin fact, so slowly that I was surely one of countless millions watching on a computer, a TV, a phone, yelling in frustration: What are the French authorities doing? Cant they stop this? Meanwhile, the flames encroached upon the relics, the artifacts, the windows, the paintings, the irreplaceableupon what is believed to be the actual crown of thorns of Christ. On Holy Week no less. It was a feeling of helplessness. And in that sense, it was a frustration similar to what many of us have felt toward the French authorities for a long time, as theyve eagerly embraced secularism and rejected the very Christian patrimony represented by the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The burning cathedral, and the states seeming inability to stop the blaze, seemed a harsh symbol of Frances vanishing religious heritage. Angela Merkel, one of the few European leaders unafraid of tradition, observed that Notre Dame is a symbol of France and of our European culture. It certainly is. Its erection was just that, as was its survival through centuries of struggles, as is its smoldering now. Hilaire Belloc said that the faith is Europe and Europe is the faith. Well, the Christian faith is in worse shape in Europe than at any time since the first stones of Notre Dame were laid eight-and-a-half centuries ago. And in many respects, France has led the way in the aggressive secularization. Numerous glorious Parisian churches today stand mainly as tourist attractions. Recall a defining moment at the turn of this new century. In the early 2000s, a battle raged within the European Union over whether to include a reference to God in the EU constitution. It was a natural acknowledgment, a critical reminder to Europeans of where their rights come from. The God opponents were the predictable European progressives: leftist Eurocrats in Brussels, Labor Party atheists in Britain, German socialists, Scandinavians, and, of course, the French leadership. The God supporters included new EU member states that had escaped godless communismwith Poland in the forefront, along with Hungary and the Czech Republicand the continents preeminent religious figure: Pope John Paul II. The pope, suffering from advanced Parkinsons, took up the fight with vigor. In the summer of 2003, he devoted a series of Sunday Angelus addresses to this political issue that transcended politics. He made arguments akin to those made by the American Founding Fathers: It is crucial for citizens living under a constitution to understand the ultimate source from which their rights derive: their rights come not from government but God. What government gives, government can take away. What God gives, government cannot take away. European culture cannot be understood without referring back to Christianity, explained John Paul II. Christianity is at the very roots of European culture. He said that an explicit recognition of the Christian roots of Europe would represent the principal guarantee for the continents future. The pope was countered by French president Jacques Chirac, who sniffed: France is a lay state, and as such she does not have a habit of calling for insertions of a religious nature into constitutional texts. The lay character of Frances government and public institutions, according to Chirac, simply did not allow for a reference to God in a constitution. Nope, no room for God, insisted the president of France in spearheading the continental revolt. It was predictable Jacques Chirac, who in retrospect seems like Joan of Arc compared to Francois Hollande or Emmanuel Macron. So goes France. In the end, the EU compromised on a gutless statement grudgingly conceding the continents cultural, religious, and humanist inheritance. It was a nod to God that George Weigel described as so bland as to be meaningless. But, in an important way, it was not meaningless. It was sadly symbolic. Again, Belloc: the faith is Europe and Europe is the faith. Well, the state of the faith in much of Europe is in flames. That brings us back to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Anno Domini 2019, the day after Palm Sunday. We do not yet know what caused this tragic episode, nor whether the authorities and responders could have done a better job preventing the sickening level of destruction. Let me repeat: I dont know whether the authorities and responders could have done a better job. Maybe they did a great job. Maybe what was saved was spared because of its original architecture. I dont know. Nonetheless, this seems, at the least, an undeniable symbol of Frances loss of its Christian heritage and its failure to protect its Christian heritage. In this case, the pinnacle of its Christian heritage. The Easter season is about hope, about a Redeemer who rises again. If theres a particular hope for Europe this Holy Week, its that the Cathedral of Notre Dame will be resurrected. And yet, given the state of modern France, its hard to be hopeful about what will replace it. We cant go wrong placing our faith in the inspiration of that cathedral, but we will always find disappointment in the secular authorities who seek to replace it. The former stood strong for over 800 years; the latter will fail us again and again. Posted at Faith & Freedom. Dr. Paul Kengor is professor of political science and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment I was recently asked for my take on the controversy surrounding Francis Chan speaking at what some call questionable events. I took time to pray while driving three hours to one of these events to meet Francis and hear him speak. When I posted the picture on my Facebook page, it created quite a firestorm, branding me as heretical, ecumenical, and part of the NAR (I don't even know what that is unless they meant the NRA). The irony is that nothing could be further from the truth; listen to the controversial sermon here beginning at the 18-minute mark and judge for yourself. My ministry allows me to meet many different Christians. Last week I attended the National Religious Broadcasters event, was invited to Fox News studios in Los Angeles just days later, and worked with Pure Flixs Billy Hallowell on the new series After Columbine earlier in the month and was able to chat with Ray Comfort before filming. My schedule provides many opportunities for me to observe whats going on in American Christianity. When I met Francis backstage, I found him to be very humble and eager to listen as we talked about these issues. True to form, he also delivered a powerful message on repentance. Isnt that our goal as preachers? The event moved me deeply during worship, and I had the opportunity to meet some of the other speakers such as Corey Russell and Derek Carr. Their passion for the lost and their heart for genuine revival was evident, as thousands came forward to recommit and renew their relationship with the Lord. The irony is that when I try to tell the other side of it, heresy hunters are not open, humble, or teachable. The old adage Dont confuse me with the facts comes to mind. Why is emotional worship, nights of prayer, and pressing into God viewed as fanatical when these things are actually biblical? Why do I never see the heresy hunters at all-night worship services or broken by the Lord at the altar? This question demands an answerthe answer is that many have never been filled mightily with the Holy Spirit. They cant say, like Jeremiah, that Gods Word is in their heart like a burning fire (Jeremiah 20:9). Read more here on emotional worship and listen to my sermon on the true cost of revival here. The men and women who do the most for God are always people of prayer and worshipheart-wrenching, soul-searching prayer. Prayerlessness is the great sin of America today. For those interested, many of the teachers I listen to are featured on our radio network, and I use The MacArthur Study Bible often. I love solid teaching and sound doctrine, as well as the movie American Gospel: Christ Alone. I also desperately need the power of the Spirit, like Spurgeon said every time he walked up those famous steps in London, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Unction is the dire need in the pulpits today. Ive noticed that the division between cessationists and continuationists is causing a lot of the controversy. Cessationists tend to be leery of emotionalism and continuationists tend to be the polar opposite. What about Roman Catholic priests at events? The theology of Rome cannot be reconciled with historical Christianity. This type of ecumenicalism is not biblical. When asked why no one says anything when leaders allow priests on the stage, Im saying something now: its not right. Maybe some leaders dont understand Romes theology, but to hastily charge them as heretics and part of the One World Order is naive at best, dishonest at worst. I cant speak for Francis, but Im assuming he believes the same. And how do we know that Francis isn't bringing solid teaching into the charismatic community? I would love to see more of that. Maybe John MacArthur can reach out to Jesus Culture, John Piper to Bethel, and Alistair Begg, or better yet, Paul Washer, to Elevation Worship. No, Im not joking. I would love to see more unity. What about some of these people with eccentric behavior such as Todd White, Heidi Baker, and Lou Engle? Personally, I dont understand many charismatic mannerisms, nor do I agree with some video footage from past events, but I would have to speak to them directly and see the fruit. I love Lous heart for prayer and fasting. Some people are eccentric and very emotional. Its difficult for me to properly evaluate everyone because I tend to be reserved, and I sometimes judge those who are different (meaning, not conservative like me). I can neither endorse nor rebuke speakers I dont know unless something is clear and evident, such as when I debated a pastor on Fox News about gay marriage. Click here for the quick video version and here for the hour-long audio. If Todd White has said controversial things in the past, let's give him the opportunity to clarify. Would some of these leaders be willing to go on the podcast Remnant News and answers these questions with me, and my podcast Idleman Unplugged where I talk about controversial issues? Both can be found on iTunes and Podbean. I did a recent interview on Remnant that just posted on YouTube. Todd, Heidi, Lou, and Mike Bickle . . . Im easy to reach. Would love to try to better understand your ministries. Do I have concerns with Benny Hinn? Absolutely, but I recently heard he restored his marriage and denounced the false gospel. Has anyone checked these facts? Again, Im not endorsing him; based on what I have seen in the past, I have several issues with his ministry, especially if repentance has not taken place. My question isnt why did Francis speak to a huge group of people, but why did Benny Hinn if he has not repented of the false gospel? If he hasnt, why did organizers allow it? Again, we need clarification. If I was offered the chance, like Francis was, to speak to thousands of people about the true gospelto preach hell hot and heaven sweet and call the stadium to repentanceI would have a hard time saying no. Speaking at an event doesnt always mean endorsement. Francis and I dont follow many of these ministries closely . . . we dont always know who is safe and who is dangerous. If our motivation for going into a dark and dying world is to preach the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, that should be taken into consideration. I tend to be safely conservative when considering the power of the Holy Spirit, however, Scripture clearly supports the miraculous work of the Spirit today. Im open but cautious. I think we have too many prophecies and not enough humility; too much self-centered worship and not enough waiting on God. We need sound doctrine and the power of the Holy Spirit. Its possible to be Bible taught but not Spirit-ledstraight as a gun barrel theologically but just as empty. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (c.f. 2 Corinthians 3:6). Dont get me wrong. Theological and expositional teachings are essential to Christian living, but how often are theology students encouraged to fast and pray as well as study? How often are they taught brokenness and repentance in addition to translating the Greek language? How often are they taught the surrendered life? We can sometimes be more concerned about a masters degree than a degree from the Master. All of us need to be filled with Gods Spirit . . . we need gentleness, love, grace, and mercy to overflow from our hearts. Then, and only then, can we preach, write, and speak with boldness for the truth. Sadly, it appears that many are eager to be critical. God help us. When we point out error, we should be broken and humble, not excited about it. Many bloggers disqualify themselves by their attitude, and most have limited facts. They grasp at a picture here or a YouTube video there and begin their tirade. I have a question: When was the last time you led someone to the Lord, visited the sick, worshiped and prayed for hours, and served your family with humility? That's a true mark of a believer. A defender of truth should also be a defender of love and grace. This lack was the pitfall of the Pharisees. A word to future conference organizers: 1] If you truly want to see revival dont charge for the event or sale products. 2] Dont have popular speakers and worship leaders simply to draw a crowd. God isnt concerned with numbers; His Spirit falls on a broken and contrite heart. 3] Dont have a tight schedule to follow. Waiting on God is the missing element these days. We dont need to leave for lunch or collect an offering. 4] Speakers, please dont say, Thus saith the Lord unless He has truly spoken. 5] We dont need to always fire up the crowd with motivational sermons. For the love of God, preach repentance if you want to see revival. We need people filled with the fire of God because theyve been saturated by His presence: Preaching, in one sense, merely discharges the firearm that God has loaded in the silent place (Calvin Miller). A few years ago I prayed, Lord, bring revival to the churchesI was not ready for the response that followed. I felt impressed with these words: You dont want revivalit will ruin your schedule, your dignity, your image, and your reputation as a person who is well balanced. Men will weep throughout the congregation. Women will wail because of the travail of their own souls. Young adults will cry like children at the magnitude of their sin. With the strength of My presence, the worship team will cease playing. Time will seem to stand still. You wont be able to preach because of the emotions flooding your own soul. Youll struggle to find words, but only find tears. Even the most dignified and reserved among you will be broken and humbled as little children. The proud and self righteous will not be able to stand in My presence. The doubter and unbeliever will either run for fear or fall on their knees and worship Methere can be no middle ground. The church will never be the same again. Do you truly want revival? Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:5 (New International Version) Hi, my friend. Last month, I had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion on end-of-life care entitled Affirming Ethical Options for the Terminally Ill hosted by The Heritage Foundation. Panelists Robert E. Moffit, PhD, Senior Fellow on Domestic Policy Studies with The Heritage Foundation, Professor Farr Curlin, MD, a medical ethicist with Duke University, and Professor G. Kevin Donovan, MD, MA, Director, Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University Medical Center, each shared on the spectrum of options between palliative care to hospice available to patients. Some patients who fall within this spectrum are never presented with options but rather the means for compassionate care," mercy killing or physician-assisted suicide. Per The Heritage Foundation, six states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws providing for physician-assisted suicide. Compassionate care is a gentler term used to camouflage the truth of what it really is: killing patients. For patients undergoing pain and suffering, physician-assisted suicide is being championed, justified and normalized by many in the medical field as relief from suffering." Such decisions often disproportionately impact the poor, disabled and vulnerable. It is highly encouraged that all patients get an advance directive that outlines their instructions concerning medical care. This is particularly wise when a patient is unable to communicate these instructions. It is also recommended that patient have a proxy authority who they know and trust to speak on their behalf, based on a great understanding of that patients values, religious convictions, etc. Cultural trends are legally enabling more physicians to provide euthanasia to help their patients die. If the medical society remains silent or neutral on such issues, it becomes acceptableand a runaway train. Whatever is permissible in medicine becomes habitual and soon it becomes required," said G. Kevin Donovan, MD. According to medical ethicist Farr Curlin, the traditional standards of the Hippocratic Oaththe commitment to never kill patients, to never hasten or cause a patients deathis no longer the reigning standard in modern medical education. The commitment to never kill gives patients the ability to entrust their care to their doctor. The practice of physician-assisted suicide erodes the patients trust in medicine and the practice of it in which the public depends. This and other issues weigh on my heart and prayers. As the Christian Medical & Dental Associations for Washington, D.C., we and fellow Believers nationwide have been presented an opportunity to pre-empt what the culture is promoting. We need to secure the best and humane treatment for all until the time of a patients natural death. Through CMDA DC, we hope to disciple and equip more of our medical students and healthcare professionals on how to take an informed and biblical stance to preserve, protect and promote life. In times like these when uncommon sense is more common; when words are camouflaged to justify evil and expediency; may we recognize that we are in an intentional fight against good and evil. Despite what is the next camouflage or counterfeit that Satan unleashes, keep your head about you. Continue with a holy courage to dispense the duties of your particular ministry and calling. As Christs representatives here on the earth, and for those of us who reside in the Greater Washington, DC area, we cannot and will not cede this influential territory to the enemy. Good news: Earlier, many of us praised God when we learned that the Maryland Senate voted to defeat the physician-assisted suicide bill at least for this year! We continue the good fight. Grateful for many of our Christian healthcare professionals including members on our CMDA DC advisory council who have testified against this bill. Read more on the issue in this March 20, 2019 article written by Robert Moffit, PhD, and Abigail Slagle, How State and Federal Lawmakers Can Promote Ethical Options for the Terminally Ill. Stay the course. Keep your head about you in times like these. Move in holy courage and depend on our Almighty God for all that you need to do. Blessings on your Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday! Nicole D. Hayes is CMDA Area director in Washington, D.C. Court orders return of Pakistani Christian teen raped and tortured in forced Islamic marriage Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Pakistani court has ordered the return of a Christian teenager who was abducted and forced into an Islamic marriage in March after the victim gave testimony of how she was beaten, tortured and raped, rights groups are reporting. Shalet Masih, believed to be about 15-years-old, was rescued by a police raid at the home of her captor, Zafar Iqbal, last Wednesday morning, according to the London-based NGO British Pakistani Christian Association. Masih was said to have been kidnapped on March 25 after leaving her familys home in Faisalabad, Pakistans third most populous city. Although she left the home following an argument with her brother, Masih reportedly headed to a family friends house. However, BPCA reports that Masih was eventually sold into slavery by a neighbor of the family friend to a Muslim man. After Masihs family and NGOs pressured police to intervene, a woman by the name of Rukhsana was arrested. According to BPCA, Rukhsana is alleged to have confessed to police that she sold Masih to a man who she knew to be involved in sex trafficking. However, the woman could not tell police where the girl was at that time. About a week later, the family reportedly received what is said to be a fraudulent marriage certificate in the mail signifying that their daughter had married Iqbal and also converted to Islam. Even though the raid was conducted before dawn last Wednesday, Iqbal is believed to have fled the home before police arrived and is still on the run. After officers secured Masih, she was allowed to call home to her parents. The parents later arrived at the location to see their daughter. Later that morning, the family appeared in the Lahore High Court. Masih shared the details of her capture and forced marriage. She claimed that she was coerced into converting to Islam, forcibly raped, beaten and tortured. She told the judge that she wanted to return to her parents. Justice Tariq Saleem Shaikh ruled that the girl be allowed to return to the legal custody of her parents. Lawyer Chaudhry Abdul Rasheed advocated on behalf of Masih. I was violated and abused by my captor but he has not broken my spirit, Masih told BPCA officer Mehwish Bhatti. I spoke in court and will testify again and again until the monster is jailed he should not be allowed to do this to anyone else ever again." According to the U.K.-based NGO Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, Masihs name was changed during the abduction from Shalet to Ayesha. Handing the kidnapped girl back to their parents is not enough the perpetrators have to be brought to justice, Nasir Saeed, director of CLAAS-UK, said in a statement. It is important to punish all those who were involved in kidnapping, selling, and then forcibly converting her to Islam. Masihs ordeal comes as countless girls and teens, especially religious minorities, have been abducted, raped or forced into Islamic marriages over the last several years. An NGO called the Movement of Solidarity and Peace estimated in 2014 that between 100 to 700 Christian girls are abducted, raped and forced into Islamic marriages every year. "If this case is won by Shalet it will prove once and for all that releasing captured girls from the clutches of their Muslim rapists reveals the truth of their ordeal, BPCA Chairman Wilson Chowdhry said in a statement of the criminal case against the culprits. "It will bring to an end the awful Muslim insinuation that Christian girls willingly convert and marry men much older than them. It should be a test case that hails in new more favorable marriage laws in Pakistan that protect minority girls. Last month, it was reported that a 13-year-old Pakistani Christian teen was abducted by three men and forced to convert to Islam. What is most disturbing in many of these cases is how rape is used as a weapon to entrap victims, International Christian Concern Regional Manager William Stark told The Christian Post in March. For many women in Pakistan, securing a good marriage is the only way to secure a good life. When these victimized women are raped, they feel trapped because it takes away their ability to secure a good marriage due to the shame associated with being a rape victim. Stark added that another tactic that abductors use to exert their power over the teen or girl is by claiming that they have custody over them because of the forced marriage. This makes it especially difficult for Christian women who have been abducted, forcefully converted to Islam, and forcefully married to their abductors to provide testimony against their abductors, Stark said. Pakistan, which is over 97 percent Muslim, ranks as the fifth-worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2019 World Watch List. Christian girls are not the only ones victimized by abduction and forced marriage. Earlier this month, two Hindu girls were kidnapped by armed men and are believed to have been forced to convert to Islam. Frances richest man, French billionaires pledge more than $500M to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The LVMH Group, which owns luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy and is led by Frances richest man, Bernard Arnault, pledged 200 million ($226 million) Tuesday to help rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral hours after a tragic fire ripped through the iconic church. The Arnault family and the LVMH Group, in solidarity with this national tragedy, are committed to assist with the reconstruction of this extraordinary cathedral, symbol of France, its heritage and its unity. They will donate a total sum of 200 million euros to the fund dedicated to the reconstruction of this architectural work, which is a core part of the French History, the company announced in a statement, making it the biggest benefactor so far in a growing fund dedicated to rebuilding the Notre Dame. The LVMH Group has also pledged assistance from their creative, architectural and financial specialists to help with the long work of reconstruction and fundraising, which is already in progress. Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of Gucci owner Kering SA and husband of Hollywood actress Salma Hayek, first pledged 100 million ($113 million) Monday after President Emmanuel Macron launched an appeal to help rebuild the cathedral. The Notre-Dame tragedy strikes all French people, as well as all those with spiritual values and those who care about history and culture, Pinault said in a statement on Twitter. Faced with this tragedy, my father and I have decided to contribute to the funds needed to fully rebuild Notre Dame de Paris, in order to bring this jewel of our heritage back to life as soon as possible. The Bettencourt Meyers family and the LOreal Group, a French luxury cosmetics company, also announced a joint donation of 200 million to participate in the renaissance of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the reconstruction of this symbol of French heritage and common history. LOreal also pledged the assistance of their 86,000 employees who have expressed their profound emotion and wish to contribute to the collective effort for the reconstruction of this iconic monument which inspires men and women around the world. Total, a major French oil and gas company, also pledged 100 million ($113 million) Tuesday for the reconstruction. Tech and consulting firm Capgemini has promised 1 million ($1.1 million). Father Fournier The Fire Department Chaplain Is the man who saved the Blessed Sacrament and Crown of Thorns from the fire God bless him! #notredame#francepic.twitter.com/zwSq2seI3Q Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 15, 2019 As rebuilding efforts for the more than 850-year-old church advanced Tuesday, condolences continued to flow from around the world for the people of France, including a message from Queen Elizabeth. "Prince Philip and I have been deeply saddened to see the images of the fire which has engulfed Notre-Dame Cathedral, the queen said in a statement Tuesday. I extend my sincere admiration to the emergency services who have risked their lives to try to save this important national monument. My thoughts and prayers are with those who worship at the Cathedral and all of France at this difficult time. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, called for prayers Monday night, noting that people are weeping "for this beautiful, sacred place where millions have met with Jesus Christ." Welby has encouraged cathedrals and churches across England to toll their bells on Thursday. Praise has, meanwhile, poured in for heroes like Jean-Marc Fournier, chaplain of the Paris Fire Brigade, who saved the Blessed Sacrament and the Crown of Thorns from the burning cathedral. Many feared the religious artifacts had been lost in the fire but on Monday night, Fournier bravely went in with firefighters to save them, Sky News reported. "Father Fournier is an absolute hero," a member of the emergency services told the network. "He showed no fear at all as he made straight for the relics inside the cathedral, and made sure they were saved. He deals with life and death every day, and shows no fear." At 6:20 p.m. on Monday, the first call to emergency services came in, but no fire was visible at that time, Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said, according to CNN. It was mentioned during the call that there was a fire in the attic of the church. About 20 minutes later, a second call was reported and the fire was visible to the public at that point. About 400 firefighters were deployed to put out the blaze but were delayed slightly by rush hour traffic. It is not yet clear how the fire, which spread quickly across the roof and over a section of around 1,000 square meters, was started. Just before 8 p.m. local time, however, the Notre Dame Cathedrals famous spire collapsed as thousands of Parisians watched helplessly in horror. Some three hours later, Macron announced: "The worst has been avoided. The facade and the two main towers did not collapse." The fire was fully extinguished by Tuesday morning. Teacher fired for protesting pro-transgender lessons at son's UK Christian school Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Christian school assistant has been fired for gross misconduct after she protested against transgender issues being taught at her young sons Church of England school. Kristie Higgs, 43, was fired from her positions as pastoral assistant at a Gloucestershire academy after she posted objections on her personal Facebook page to the use of two pro-LGBT children's books at her son's school, the Daily Mail reports. The books in question included stories about a boy who wants to wear a dress and a red crayon that discovers it is really blue. She also urged her Facebook followers to sign a petition against compulsory sex education in primary schools, which will go into effect September 2020. Under the new guidelines issued by the U.K. Department of Education, children as young as five will receive lessons about LGBT relationships and gender reassignment. On Facebook, Higgs warned that under the new curriculum, children will be taught that all relationships are valid and normal, so that same sex marriage is exactly the same as traditional marriage, and that gender is a matter of choice, not biology, so that its up to them what sex they are. She added that at the same time, expressing and teaching fundamental Christian beliefs, relating to the creation of men and women and marriage, will in practice become forbidden because they conflict with the new morality and are seen as indoctrination into unacceptable religious bigotry. Please sign this petition, they have already started to brainwash our innocent wonderfully created children and its [sic] happening in our local primary school now, she concluded. Higgs, a mother of two who had worked at the secondary school for six years with an unblemished record, was fired after a sole anonymous email complaint accused her of posting homophobic and prejudiced views, the DailyMail reports. A disciplinary panel found she was guilty of gross misconduct and illegal discrimination for using language which could be deemed offensive. The panel also said her comments could bring the school into disrepute and damage the reputation of the school, but admitted there was no actual evidence that this had happened. The school told Higgs that no action was taken because of your religion and that the disciplinary action occurred for reasons other than your religion. However, Higgs said shes clearly being targeted for her faith: As soon as the investigation began I was repeatedly told 'This is nothing to do with your religion, she said. That was clearly a legal tactic and of course it has everything to do with my religion. Higgs has launched a legal challenge via Christian Legal Centre, the legal arm of the lobbying group Christian Concern, the BBC reports. In a statement via Christian Concern, she said: I hold these views because of my Christian beliefs, beliefs, and views which are shared by hundreds of thousands of parents across the UK. My number one concern has always been the effect that learning about sex and gender in school will have on children at such a young age. She added: I am determined to fight this case and to stand for Christians and all parents across the country who are being silenced for sharing and holding these views. Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: This case is about the freedom to hold Christian views about what it means to be human. In February, Damian Hinds, the education secretary, announced English schools will significantly broaden sex and relationship education to cover topics including same-sex relationships, transgender people, and other issues. Our guiding principles have been that these compulsory subjects should help to keep children safe, should help to prepare them for the world in which theyre growing up, Hinds said, adding the curriculum will help them foster respect for others and for difference. Parents may opt out of any sex education element of relationships education in primary school; in secondary school, they may only withdraw their children from lessons until the age of 15. However, at that stage, a student can request to have lessons alongside their classmates regardless of their parents views and in exceptional circumstances, head teachers can overrule parents. The updated sex education curriculum has seen vocal opposition from conservative Christian, Jewish, and Muslim parents, who say the new guidelines undermine their religious beliefs. In a statement, Colin Hart, chairman of the Coalition for Marriage, called the lessons completely unacceptable and warned they will downgrade marriage. The Department for Education is sidelining traditional marriage, the most stable form of relationship for raising children and forcing them to learn about every other form of relationship under the sun, even when it is not age-appropriate. The law should encourage traditional marriage, not undermine it, he said. Hart said the new guidelines evidence that the Department for Education believes that traditional marriage no longer matters and marginalizes those who do not support political correctness for religious reasons. But even those keen to promote other forms of family life have been unable to deny that evidence shows that children do best when they are raised by their mother and father, he said. It also ignores that marriage, the life long union between one man and one woman, despite all the rhetoric and spin is the most stable form of relationship. This is why rather than downgrading marriage we should be doing more to celebrate its many societal and personal benefits. Christians commemorate Last Supper with Maundy services and footwashing Christians around the world will commemorate the Last Supper on Thursday with footwashing ceremonies while the Queen will give out Maundy money in a traditional ceremony. This year's Royal Maundy Service is taking place in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, the spectacular setting for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding last year. The Queen will be handing out Maundy money in small leather purses to 93 men and 93 women who have been selected for their service to the community. The number of men and women invited reflects the years of the Sovereign's life, a tradition dating back to the 15th century. The Queen turns 93 on April 21, although she will not mark her official birthday until June 8. Each person will receive two small leather string purses, a red one containing ordinary coins and a second white one containing silver Maundy coins specially minted by the Royal Mint for the occasion. The Maundy coins amount to the same number of pence as the years of the monarch's age and bear the portrait of the Queen that was created by Mary Gillick for the first coins of her reign in 1953. Two people receiving Maundy money from the Queen this year are Jean Carleton, a churchwarden at Stanley St Andrew Church and South Moor St George, and the Rev Roy Merrin, who served as the full-time minister of Jarrow Baptist Church on a voluntary basis between 1993 and 2016. Mrs Carleton also serves as the deanery lay chair in Lanchester Deanery and works with the local Credit Union and food bank. Additional roles include acting as a counsellor with Derwentside Bereavement Support and as president of the parish Mothers' Union. During his time as minister at Jarrow Baptist, Rev Merrin established a baby equipment lending service, a free furniture depot for those in need, and also worked with the local food bank. The Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, said: "I am delighted that Her Majesty The Queen in her 93rd Birthday year has chosen to recognise these outstanding individuals. "The amazing work that Jean and Roy do and the way that they do it in our communities in blessing them for the transformation of us all is simply outstanding. "Each recipient has made a significant and lasting difference to their communities through their voluntary service and I am thrilled that the Queen's award of Maundy Money recognises this vital contribution." The Maundy Thursday service has been an annual tradition since the 1200s when the reigning monarch would give out Maundy money to the underprivileged at Easter time. The word 'Maundy' is derived from the Latin version of John 13:34, 'Mandatum novum do nobis' - 'A new commandment I give you'. In more recent times, the tradition has been to give out money to pensioners who have made significant contributions to their local community or the church. Churches across the nation will also be holding traditional footwashing ceremonies today in memory of the example set by Jesus when he washed the feet of his disciples during the Last Supper before his crucifixion. Flying tankers and a rush for answers: a lesson from Notre-Dame Like many I was shocked to see the images of Notre-Dame in flames earlier this week. Quickly, my social media timelines were filled with friends and family sharing pictures and memories of their time in this beautiful place of worship. I always find the response to these type of events fascinating. In days gone by, the only thoughts given or prayers publicly offered would have been from world leaders releasing statements or taking over TV or radio schedules to share their condolences. Even they now turn to the quick and short opportunity of Twitter. British Prime Minister Theresa May Tweeted: "My thoughts are with the people of France tonight and with the emergency services who are fighting the terrible blaze at Notre-Dame cathedral." The Australian leader Scott Morrison wrote: "I fondly remember standing outside Notre Dame with Jen almost 30 years ago. So sad to see this beautiful cathedral in flames this morning. Our thoughts are with the people of France and emergency services who are fighting this fire. They will rebuild as Parisians always do." Former US President Barack Obama offered: "Notre Dame is one of the world's great treasures, and we're thinking of the people of France in your time of grief. It's in our nature to mourn when we see history lost but it's also in our nature to rebuild for tomorrow, as strong as we can." Canadian Primer Minister Justin Trudeau Tweeted (in both English and French): "Absolutely heartbreaking to see the Notre-Dame Cathedral in flames. Canadians are thinking of our friends in France as you fight this devastating fire." The Archbishop of Canterbury sent this from his official account on behalf of the Anglican Church: "Tonight we pray for the firefighters tackling the tragic Notre Dame fire and for everyone in France and beyond who watches and weeps for this beautiful, sacred place where millions have met with Jesus Christ. Nous sommes avec vous." It's quite a skill to be able to convey so eloquently in just 280 characters how you or your nation or your denomination responds to an event of this scale. I imagine the list of proof-readers is a lot longer than the message itself. But amongst the prayers and memories, affirmation and solidarity, one world leader took a different approach: "So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!" Yes, President Trump took the opportunity to offer some firefighting advice to the French both in terms of machinery and urgency. His suggestions were both unhelpful (flying water tankers might not only have caused more structural damage to the cathedral but also to anyone in the vicinity) and unnecessary (reports would tend to suggest they were acting incredibly quickly already, even if the fires location took some time to discover). It would be easy to be cynical about this (my favourite response came from @SeriousCharly who Tweeted "Can you please teach us how to put a fire out ? We the French have no clue, we're currently blowing on it but it doesn't work. Please help us o mighty world ruler.") but what President Trump did here was something I've often been incredibly guilty of. You see, like the 45th President of The United States of America, I sometimes find myself facing someone's situation or confronted with another's problem and before I can help it, I've blurted out some unsolicited, unnecessary advice. Problems at work - let me tell you what I know. Problems in your family - let me tell you what I would do. Problems with your kids school - let me tell you what I would write...better yet, let me write it. It's never done with any bad intention, I'm not trying to make things worse, but my instinct has often been to rush to "help" before I've stopped to listen. To offer up my "fix" before the other person has even had the chance to finish. Over the past few years I've become more aware of this trait. And while it comes from a very real and genuine desire to help, I'm pretty sure there's an unhelpful dose of ego in there that can lead me to believe that I have the answer. This realisation has led me to reach out and apologise to some of those I now realise I didn't support in the right way in the past. And whilst I still find myself jumping in from time to time with a three-point plan or a "strategic solution", I try these days to offer less and listen more. It's funny how when something is pointed out in yourself you start to notice it more in other people, maybe that's why President Trump's response nudged me like it did. But I don't think I'm alone. So, if like me and Mr President (a pairing of similarity that makes me more than a little uncomfortable), you find yourself offering advice no-one asked for and solutions no-one ordered, I've found two simple things that have helped me shift my mindset and slowed down my advice-reflex. **In an attempt to escape the irony police I should also say, if you're not like this, or even if you are and you have no interest in what I've learnt, feel free to stop reading...I wouldn't want to be offering advice you didn't want or need.** SILENCE OVER SPEAKING: One of the hardest things for me was learning to stop talking. I now actively tell myself that in situations like this, I'm not going to talk until I'm asked a direct question. That might seem extreme but it takes the pressure off my brain to be thinking of what to say when I should be listening and it means I'm actually listening without feeling any pressure to have "something to say". QUESTIONS OVER ANSWERS: This is totally obvious to anyone who does this naturally but I had never considered asking the question "why did you want to share this with me?" It immediately makes things clearer. If the other person says "I just needed to unload" then I know that my job is simply to listen and be present. If they say "I wondered if you might know anyone who can help", I know that they're not expecting me to have the answers, but would like some help to find someone who might. Whatever the answer, it means whatever comes next isn't being led by my own agenda or need to fix. On that, if the answer is "I wanted to get some advice from you", that doesn't give me permission to launch straight in. I've found that more questions are always the way forward. Asking questions unlocks other people's answers and stop mine becoming the focus or goal. Questions like: "How would you respond to someone asking you for advice in this?" "What do you want the ending to look like?" "What would be the worst outcome for you?" As the fire subsides and the rebuilding begins, much help, advice, money and support will be needed. Already financial benefactors are making themselves known, and experts from across the globe are offering their services to restore Our Lady of Paris. Funnily enough, I won't be turning up with my tool set or writing to the billionaires suggesting other ways they could spend their own money...it feels like in this situation, as I strive to do so more in others, I know exactly what is and isn't needed of me. Matt White is a Northern Irish TV producer living in Essex and working in London. Follow him on Twitter @mattgwhite Justin Welby: Men in #MeToo scandals need to express genuine repentance Justin Welby has said the #MeToo movement must lead to genuine repentance from those revealed to have exploited and abused women. Speaking to Elizabeth Oldfield, director of the Theos thinktank, in a new edition of The Sacred Podcast, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: "Sin has consequences. Wrong has consequences. Injustice has consequences. And people must face those consequences. "We don't have 'cheap grace' there is a cost, there is a genuine need for repentance and a journey of repentance and redemption, both for groups and individuals. "If you take #MeToo as an example, we cannot put the issues that have quite rightly been raised behind us until we have concepts and understandings of social behaviour, particularly between men and women, that mean it is utterly accepted that the kind of behaviour that has been exposed is simply wrong, and that there are consequences to indulging in that kind of behaviour. Cause and effect have to be discovered before you can find redemption." In the wideranging interview, the pair also discussed Brexit, with the Archbishop warning that it was an oversimplification to divide people into 'good' or 'bad'. "Categorising groups of people as bad or good really worries me, both in the church and outside it," he said, suggesting instead that people "stop being binary" and instead reflect the "enormous complexity of human beings". Earlier in the interview, on a similar theme, the Archbishop urged people to stop automatically viewing others with suspicion. "We don't seem to have the capacity - that when we see someone who's very different or saying things that are very different - to start with the assumption until proven otherwise that their intentions are positive, that they are saying what they believe, that they want a good outcome," he said. "So our instinct is to convict unless innocence is proved convict of deceit, of trickery, of underhandedness, of not believing what they say. Whatever it is, we bring a hermeneutic of suspicion." He went on to consider the question of disagreements in relation to the Anglican Communion, noting that it was hugely diverse, with members from the Torres Straits in Australia to Papua New Guinea to the Democratic Republic of Congo and some of the richest parts of the planet. "They're all part of the one church and they all brought face to face in a way we have never imagined before [...] every single day through the news and through social media. And we have so far to go to learn how to deal with that in the love of God," he said. "Yes, disagree of course we disagree [we have] 2,000 languages, 1,500 cultures that's only Anglicans. But how do we make sure that disagreement models a capacity to live on one planet as one human race caring for and loving one another, and not defining our identity either by the will to power or the need for an enemy?" Pressed on where the boundaries of church unity might lie in relation to questions of Scripture being authoritative and other Biblical principles, the Archbishop said: "If we are in Jesus Christ, we are one by the choice of God, not by human choice. Our task is not to find unity but to live out unity. It's very, very straightforward. "When is that overwhelmed? It's when people deny the deity of Christ, the fundamental understanding that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. "Jesus prays that we will be one so that the world may know that He has come from the Father. The purpose of unity is to reveal the love of Christ. So what overwhelms that? I can't think of anything that overwhelms that; it just doesn't make sense to me. "Yes, there will be plenty of things we disagree on and we say to other Christians 'you're wrong', but for those who are Christians and the test of being a Christian is saying 'Jesus is Lord' it is sufficient to transform the life of the greatest intellectual and sufficient for the person with immense learning disabilities to know they are loved by Jesus Christ. That is why we are one." Man arrested after walking into St Patrick's Cathedral with petrol and lighters A man was apprehended by police after trying to enter St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City with cans of petrol, lighter fluid and lighters on Wednesday. The NYPD said the man walked into St Patrick's at around 7:55pm on Wednesday and was subsequently apprehended by officers "without incident". The 37-year-old was arrested after cathedral guards saw him spilling gasoline. "We thank our partners for their help, and remember - if you see something, say something," a NYPD statement read. The cathedral is the seat of the Archdiocese of New York. The arrest occurred just two days after a major fire partially destroyed Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Deputy police commissioner John Miller told reporters that the timing of the incident was "suspicious". "An individual walking into an iconic location like St Patrick's cathedral carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters, is something we would have grave concern over," he said. A motive has not yet been established. On Wednesday, the cathedral announced that it would be participating in a major fundraising campaign to help in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame. The appeal was launched by Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone. Cardinal Dolan said, "Almost from the very first moments we heard the awful news that Notre Dame was ablaze, New Yorkers of all faiths, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, reached out to me to express their sorrow at the devastation and ask how they could help. "Thankfully Ken Langone, in his typically generous way, called and said 'We've got to do something. Count me in.' And so today we are announcing From Saint Patrick's to Notre Dame, a way for people from New York and around the country to contribute in helping rebuild this magnificent house of faith and monument to western civilization. "I am especially grateful to my good friends, including the leaders of other faiths, who have joined in support of this noble effort." What has Pentecostalism ever done for Christianity? The eve of the publication of my next book, an edited work, Pentecostals and Charismatics in Britain: An Anthology, seems a good moment to reflect on the contribution of Pentecostalism to Christianity. As readers of the anthology will discover, Pentecostalism, which burst on the scene at the start of the 20th Century, is viewed by some as a kind of Second Reformation, this time awaking the Christian church to the missing ingredient of an immanent God expressed as transformative power. This eruptive awakening is not without its challenges. For example, as one commentator observes, 'Pentecostalism has succeeded in creating more schisms in a century than it took the rest of Christianity in two thousand years' (see Allan Anderson's chapter in the book, p. 139). Whether as renewal energy within mainstream Christianity or as a reforming movement in its own right, Pentecostalism and its offshoot Charismaticism, has tended to divide cell-like to grow. This can be viewed as healthy diversification or unhealthy fragmentation. However one views it, the last one hundred-plus years have seen Pentecostal and Charismatic expressions of Christianity surge around the world challenging downward trends in so-called developed western countries. Pentecostalism brings a certain certitude and confidence to the Christian faith worldwide. As my church sing, 'if God is dead, tell me who is this living in my soul?' Pentecostalism demonstrates that God still works through base people, those on the underside of our rich world. We see this in the recorded happenings at the Azusa Street mission in Los Angeles (circa 1906-1909), recognised as part of a simultaneous combustion of Pentecostalism in various parts of the world including Britain. At Azusa Street people began to rediscover 'signs and wonders' such as healings and glossolalia previously abandoned or unknown in a modern church that had become weakened and ineffectual as a result. From Azusa Street and other places around the world the supernatural has become near normal in today's church and this is owed to the rise of Pentecostalism in the modern church. A feature of Azusa Street, is that it was located among the poorest areas of Los Angeles (see Andrew Davies' chapter, p. 7). This was where God chose to pour out his Spirit. The mission was led by a one-eyed black man William Seymour, son of enslaved parents living under Jim Crow laws, with little by way of formal education or status to commend him. Seymour is totemic of how Pentecostalism raises up the disfranchised, poor and marginalised. As Mark Sturge (p. 180) reminds us, God has never been uninterested in the plight of the poor. We recall too that the first century disciples of Jesus turned apostles were drawn from among the common people. The 'fringe churches' that resulted represent a grassroots movement challenging the status quo. Pentecostalism therefore empowers even illiterates, who moved by the Holy Spirit build and lead churches without the approval of ecclesial hierarchy. However it is instructive to note that what became the litmus test of classical Pentecostalism, namely glossolalia, was the construction of a white man who obeyed Jim Crow laws that required the exclusion of William Seymour from being in the same classroom as white students. Charles Parham, 'the theological father' of the movement was principal of a bible school in Topeka, Kansas and it is his brainchild of 'initial evidence' that remains central in much of Pentecostalism today. While rightly understood as empowering the poor and the laity by making participation in leadership more reachable than in 'established' or 'mainstream' churches, the privileged, better educated and trained still play pivotal roles even as the phenomenon continues to spread in the poorer global south more than in the wealthier global north. Pentecostals tend to see Acts 2 as a key point of reference for the belief that the Holy Spirit has come among the church and operates miraculous power. Making the powerless powerful is a key performative trait and pneumatological experience is understood as transformative (Forster p. 35). This exercise of divine power challenges cessationist ideology and promotes a church of power capable of engaging with and overcoming the principalities and powers that seek to hinder the work of God in the world. Pentecostals contrast nominal (William Kay's chapter, p. 53) Christian practice with those filled with the Holy Spirit and committed to affecting their community and world for good by the transformative power of God. Pentecostals live their lives in expectation that God is immanent and personal. For Pentecostals it is Scripture that stands undisputedly and supremely at the hegemonic pinnacle of belief as a theological and doctrinal source. 'Bibleology' or a reliance on the Bible embraces the Reformers' sola scriptura mantra (Anderson p.138) and holds fast the inerrancy and infallibility of the bible. Some critics of Pentecostalism view these as simplistic and fundamentalist approaches to scriptural understanding. However, Pentecostals continue to remind the Christian church of the significance of Holy Writ and its centrality to the faith of the church. Even as some Pentecostal pastors tell their congregations 'the only book you need to read is the Bible' (Davies p. 12), it is apparent that from the beginning Pentecostalism has promoted engagement with wider publication genres. Yet there is little doubt that while other sources are embraced for knowledge, the bible stands as supreme authority in Pentecostalism. Finally, if you have never visited a Pentecostal church, particularly a Caribbean or African-led one, you really should. Probably the first thing that will impact you is the sheer joy of the worshippers. You may even find this in Pentecostals outside of church too! Pentecostal ecstatic communal worship marked by spontaneity and creativity (Daniel Akhazemea p. 73) is a trademark everywhere, an essential ingredient of a people filled with the Holy Spirit for whom joy is one of the gifts freely given. The use of polyrhythmic handclapping, tambourines, drums, percussions, bass, guitar, keyboards, choirs, soloists have transformed the mode of worship across almost all churches. Dancing and jumping in worship in church is now common place, this was not so in the UK fifty years ago (Akhazemea p. 80). This infectious joy, along with much besides, represent a flavour of how Pentecostalism has impacted the whole church, proving as some sang, 'this joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me; the world didn't give it and the world cant take it away'. Bishop Dr Joe Aldred is a broadcaster and ecumenist. He is responsible for Pentecostal and Multicultural Relations at Churches Together in England and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton. His book, 'Pentecostals and Charismatics in Britain,' is published later this month but can be pre-ordered here at a special pre-publication discounted price. This article originally appeared on the SCM Press blog and is re-printed here with permission. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is planning to leave the Trump administration and is finalizing the terms and timing of his departure, according to two people familiar with his plans. While Perrys exit isnt imminent and one person familiar with the matter said the former Texas governor still hasnt fully made up his mind, three people said he has been seriously considering his departure for weeks. All of the people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. An Energy Department spokeswoman, Shaylyn Hynes, rejected the idea that Perry would be leaving the administration any time soon. He is happy where he is serving President Trump and leading the Department of Energy, she said in a statement. The White House press office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Perry, an Air Force veteran who was previously Texass longest-serving governor, has enjoyed a good rapport with President Donald Trump. Trump personally asked Perry if hed take over as Homeland Security secretary, before the president asked Kirstjen Nielsen to resign earlier this month, two of the people said. Perry declined, they said. Perry has been preparing the agencys deputy secretary, Dan Brouillette, for the transition, two people said. Its unclear if Trump would name Brouillette as secretary. Part of Perrys motivation in seeking to leave before the end of Trumps first term is a desire to build his income before retiring, two people said. Considered for Pentagon Perry, 69, was previously considered for Defense Secretary, but ultimately was tapped to lead the Department of Energy. The agency has an annual budget of around $30 billion and is responsible for work ranging from safe-guarding nuclear weapons to maintaining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. During his tenure, Perry championed the national laboratory system and other department programs that the Trump administration sought to cut, and he tried unsuccessfully to rescue unprofitable coal and nuclear plants. Perry hasnt been a seamless fit with the Energy Department, where the two most recent secretaries had PhDs in physics. Perry was an animal science major at Texas A&M, and he once advocated abolishing the department during his own presidential bid. Rumors of Perrys departure from the agency have popped up before. Trump is said to have considered him as a contender to lead the Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs departments. Perry is familiar with border issues from his nearly 15 years as governor of Texas, but his views on immigration have not always aligned with Trumps. In 2012, Perrys presidential campaign foundered after he accused his Republican opponents of not having a heart about immigrants. Texas has a large Latino population, and Perry helped advance legislation that let undocumented children of immigrants pay in-state tuition for college. 2019 Bloomberg L.P. WASHINGTON - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the construction Thursday of two new LNG export terminals in Port Arthur and Calcasieu Parish, La, continuing what is exported to be a years long expansion in U.S. natural gas exports. The decision signaled that FERC commissioners had reached a lasting resolution on their disagreement earlier this year over LNG projects' impact on climate change change, something that had delayed a decision on the Calcasieu Pass LNG facility before it was ultimately approved in February. Houston pipeline operator Kinder Morgan has set a target date of May 1 to begin operations at its Elba Island LNG export terminal in Georgia and moved one step forward on obtaining a permit to build another liquefied natural gas export terminal in Mississippi. As part of the company's first quarter earnings released on Wednesday afternoon, Kinder Morgan revealed that the first of 10 production units at its $2 billion LNG export terminal in Savannah, Georgia is expected to be placed into service by May 1. The remaining nine units will be placed into service sequentially at a rate of one per month. Once all of them are in operation, the Georgia facility will be able to make up to 2.5 million metrics tons of LNG per year. Midstream Moves: Kinder Morgan green light for next step in Elba Island LNG startup Officials with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have meanwhile given Kinder Morgan's proposed Gulf LNG export terminal in Pascagoula, Mississippi the green light in a final environmental impact statement released on Wednesday morning. FERC officials are expected to make a final permit decision about the project in July. Aside from traffic during construction, the report stated that the proposed project is not expected have any significant impacts on the environment or surrounding communities. Located off State Highway 611 in Pascagoula, Gulf LNG is expected to be built on a 230-acre site that includes more than 38 acres of wetlands. However, Kinder Morgan has pledged to create 50 acres of tidal salt marsh to mitigate those impacts. "We conclude that the potential impacts of the project, when combined with the impacts from the other projects considered in the geographic scope, would not result in a significant impact on resources," FERC officials wrote in the report Fuel Fix: Get energy news headlines in your inbox Kinder Morgan originally developed the Gulf LNG site as a liquefied natural gas import terminal in 2009. But with record production from U.S. shale plays creating a surplus of natural gas, the Houston company filed an application with FERC in July 2015 seeking permission to redevelop part of the site as an export terminal. Dave Conover, a spokesman for Kinder Morgan, said the company was pleased that the proposed project export terminal received a positive final environmental impact statement. "While this brings us one step closer, reaching a final investment decision remains contingent on the resolution of various other commercial and financing factors and agreements that must be achieved," Conover said. Oil prices turned higher on Thursday after a report showed a drop in U.S. drilling activity. Futures in New York erased an earlier loss to cap a seventh straight weekly gain for the holiday-shortened week, the longest winning streak since May 2015. Oil explorers curtailed activity in U.S. fields for the first time this month, bowing to investor calls for restraint. That offset concerns about the economy after a surprise drop in a gauge of private-sector activity in the euro-area and lower-than-expected factory orders in Germany. Oil has climbed about 40 percent this year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers curbed output. But uncertainty about the coalition's ability to sustain output cuts and the impacts of U.S. sanctions on Iran have muddied the outlook, even as fighting in Libya adds to supply threats. A surge in U.S. shale production has also hung over the rally. PREVIOUSLY: Oil stumbles as crude and gasoline declines dash expectations "We are still calling for a little bit of an overshoot towards the $67 a barrel level," said Daniel Ghali, a TD Securities strategist. "But that's really not necessarily sustainable on a longer-term basis as OPEC might want to reconsider the over-compliance to their pledge." WTI for May delivery rose 24 cents to $64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, edging 0.2 percent higher for the week. London-traded Brent futures closed 35 cent higher, at $71.97. Oil markets in New York and London will be shuttered Friday ahead of the Easter holiday. SUPPLY: U.S. crude, fuel stocks dip from the week prior May could be a pivotal month for crude markets as the U.S. decides whether to extend waivers allowing some countries to buy Iranian crude. Asian buyers were said to be putting purchases on hold while awaiting a White House decision. A meeting of OPEC and its allies in Saudi Arabia next month, meanwhile, may provide clues on future production levels. ''I think the rumblings out of Russians about their commitment or lack thereof to the OPEC+ deal this week really weighed on things,'' said John Kilduff, founding partner at Again Capital. ''They see the prices carrying a bit too far for their liking and they are also getting increasingly bothered by U.S. market penetration into the Asia region specifically.'' --With assistance from James Thornhill, Tsuyoshi Inajima and Alex Nussbaum. 2019 Bloomberg L.P. NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. What do a rooftop pool, valet parking and room service have in common? All customary hotel amenities, they are also a part of daily life for residents of the Latitude Med Center Apartments. "The line between a boutique hotel and an upscale apartment building continues to blur as apartment amenities become more and more incredible," said former hotelier Nitesh Gandhi. That's part of the reason he left the hotel business to found Locale, an example of what has become known as the aparthotel industry. It's entirely possible that the Houston Food Bank's annual "Chef's Dinner" is one of the philanthropic community's most underrated and under-the-radar events. If you've never heard of it, you're not alone. If you're never attended, you're truly missing out. As repeat dinner-goer Lexi Sakowitz explained oh-so concisely, "IIt's a) very civilized meal, not a lot of fanfare, but delicious food." Hashtag #nailedit. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: With Netflix special and new book, Brene Brown shares keys to leadership at Houston benefit On Wednesday night, approximately 320 in-the-know diners joined her and fiance Michael Marek at the Houstonian for the 19th annual foodie-fest. Local celebrity chefs served five courses - in addition to two passed hors d'ouevres crafted by chef Judd Lohof and the Food Bank's own 535 Catering - with wine pairings from Imagery Estate Winery and AVA Grace Vineyard. Board chair Michael Cordua, the former self-taught chef/owner behind Cordua Restaurants, kicked things off by introducing the evening's culinary roster. First up, chefs Robert Del Grande and Elliott G. Kelly admitted that they initially couldn't decide what to serve, so Kelly dreamed up a roasted artichoke and cippolini terrine. Vegetarians in the audience ate it up, pun intended. The next three courses played to the carnivorous crowd. The Houstonian's executive chef Neal Cox served Post Oak wood grilled redfish; Rainbow Lodge's chef Mark Schmidt rolled duck confit into a ricotta-stuffed crepes; and for the grand finale, meat-lovers rejoiced over chef Jeff Taylor of (where else?) Steak 48 and his Wagyu filet mignon topped with Maine lobster, black truffle, creme fraiche and caviar on a potato bellini. Not to be outdone, Patisserie Paris Je T'Aime's chef Nga Rogers ended the meal on a high note with her trio of vanilla, salted caramel and cassis St. Honore puff pastries. After the feast, dinner chairs Sara and Phil Hawk sweetened the deal more than dessert ever could. The couple offered to donate $25,000 toward the food bank's mission to stabilize Houston's food-insecure families if attendees could raise $300,000. PARTY FOR THE PLANET: Zoo, Arboretum and Memorial Park events mark Earth Day Patrons rose to the challenge and the Hawks upheld their end of the bargain. By night's end, $353,385 had been tabulated. Get your tickets early to the 2020 fete; "Chef's Dinner" will be celebrating its 20th anniversary and the word is officially "out." NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Find fun things to do and see around Houston in our weekly Preview newsletter. Subscribe here. The sixth annual Shop with Heart Card 10-day shopping event is back from April 26 through May 5. The Shop With Heart Card, presented by the Heart Guild of Houston, can be purchased with a minimum $50 donation with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting the American Heart Association. The card can then be used to get a discount at over 340 stores and 36 restaurants in the greater Houston area. Retailers that have partnered with the Shop With Heart Card will offer a 20 percent off discount in their store (not including sale items), and restaurants are offering a free appetizer or dessert with the purchase of an entree. There is no limit to how many times the card can be used during the 10-day event. We have loyal stores that have been with us from the beginning like Tootsies and the Cotton Club, said Roz Pactor, Shop With Heart Card honoree. Every year we have been able to bring in more stores. The restaurants are everything from fine dining and casual. According to Pactor, educating people and fundraising for heart disease and strokes is her passion because of her family history. Her father died of a heart attack at the age of 47, and her mother also had heart disease, as well as many other family members. About being given the honoree title for this years event, Pactor said, The card is something that I have believed in and driven home from the beginning. We ever had an honoree before, so my first reaction was, Oh you dont have to do that. But it does mean a lot to me. I am proud of it. Pactor noted that heart disease and strokes used to be considered a mans disease, but now women are becoming subject to it as well. Movements like Go Red for Women are ways for the public to be more informed. When I grew up, heart disease was hereditary. But that is not really the case. 80 percent of it is preventable. Eat better, exercise. Know your numbers - cholesterol and blood pressure. The numbers show that the go red movement has helped women. It makes me excited, Pactor said. Pactor says that the Shop With Heart Card event has proven to be so successful due to the nature of the event. The beauty of it, I think, is that it is a great way to give back in a way that is fun. Who doesnt love to shop? And youre contributing too. AHA has one of the highest percentages of fundraising that goes to research. So you are really helping combat heart disease, Pactor said. A kick-off after-hours shopping soiree event will be held on Wednesday, April 24, from 6 to 8 p.m. at retailer Kuhl-Linscomb, located at 2424 W. Alabama St. in Houston. Owners Pam Kuhl-Linscomb and Dan Linscomb have been holding the kick-off event at their campus for the past three years, and they have been a Shop With Heart Card retailer since the start of the event. Kuhl-Linscomb consists of two city blocks of shopping, with a little bit of almost everything, Kuhl-Linscomb said. We do this because it is the number one killing disease. My father died of a heart attack and my mother had strokes. I just truly believe that we need to do as much research as we possibly can. We need to research and educate, Kuhl-Linscomb said. My father also passed away from heart disease, so it is close to the family. Our customers are important to us and a lot of them have been affected by heart issues too, Linscomb said. At the kick-off event, sip and snack on light bites from Bollo Woodfired Pizza, Ouisies Table and Ooh La La Sweets as you shop and save 20 percent. It will have a party atmosphere with a DJ, and door prizes, Linscomb said. This whole event helps people to shop and eat locally, so its really good for the city. A full list of Shop With Heart Card participants can be found at http://shopwithheart.wpengine.com/where-to-shop. Shop With Heart Cards are available for purchase at participating retailers beginning April 26. rebecca.hazen@chron.com Its harder than it should be to describe Kent Jones Diane in a way that makes it sound distinctive or special, which it is. Its easier to say how lovely it is seeing Mary Kay Place, whom many have been nuts about since Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in the mid-1970s, as she eases into a leading role at once dominant and intriguingly recessive. She plays the title character, a small-town rebel who has paid for her younger risks and rewards, but not yet in full. For a while in Jones narrative feature directorial debut, working from his own script written with Place in mind, we experience the daily routines of Diane, who lives alone in a tight-knit community full of extended family and old friends. (Jones filmed in New York state; he grew up in Pittsfield, Mass., in the Berkshires.) Diane lives alone but fills her days with volunteer work. She puts in steady hours at a local community center kitchen, serving those in need, alongside her dearest friend (Andrea Martin). She pays regular visits to her dying cousin (Deirdre OConnell) in the hospital. She drops in daily on her grown son (Jake Lacy), who has a sort-of girlfriend. We learn early on in Diane that her son has been through rehab for drug addiction. And now, he appears to be using again. Jones handles that part of his scenario straightforwardly, while withholding or sneaking in other aspects of Dianes story. Its not a delayed-secret affair, exactly; Jones doesnt amp up the big reveals. Rather, we hear about Dianes circumstances, old and new, through natural-seeming bits of conversation. In between games of gin rummy, her bedridden cousin needles Diane about something that happened between them, involving Dianes then-preteen son, some 20 years earlier. Throughout, Place remains at the center of most scenes and many individual shots, but shes often quiet and watchful enough to indicate an inner unease about her sons health, about the guilt she has lived with for two decades There are some contrived moments, as when an old acquaintance at the community shelter (Charles Weldon, who died last year) tells Diane: When you serve me, I feel sanctified. The main characters dilemma is clear and interesting enough without lines like that. Can an ordinary, flawed persons good works make up for a selfish, long-lingering mistake? Is love ever truly a mistake? As we glide through the years with Diane, Places character sorts through these questions, writing in her notebook, trying out a line or two of a new poem. Place is superb. She grows more and more expressive as the movie does, without an ounce of external indicating. Diane doesnt suffer fools gladly, and since the very beginning of her career, Places comic instincts have been marvelous. All the same: In Diane, you believe these people as small-town citizens, perhaps slightly or heavily at odds with many of the neighbors. (In code, I wonder if Jones is suggesting the plight of the blue-state outlier in red-state territory.) The writings terse, insightful, rhythmically natural. The direction is nearly up to the same level. Jones and cinematographer Wyatt Garfield keep the set-ups unobtrusively simple, though Jones has a touching fondness for old-school slow dissolves. Contrarily, Jones and editor Mike Selemon never quite cut when you expect, to the films benefit. Diane runs a nicely compressed 90 minutes, but its genuinely interested in all its side characters, allowing them an extra second or two in close-up, lending us a fleeting but new perspective on a given scene. Place is wonderful. But everyone else is, too. Its a welcome change to see a movie designed for actors, but primarily actresses in their 60s, 70s, 80s and, in the case of Estelle Parsons, early 90s. Diane affords Martin, Parsons and company the chance to do honest, low-keyed work with material worth the effort. While it remains to be seen if Jones is a born director or merely a good, solid craftsman behind the camera, finding out, I suspect, will be rewarding either way. Hop into the holiday of rebirth, decorated eggs and bunnies with these special events. Note that although Easter is on Sunday, a couple of the events here will also happen on Friday and Saturday. Glow-In-The-Dark Egg Hunt The Lake Houston Family YMCA is hosting this special, free-to-attend event from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday. The facilitys address is 2420 W. Lake Houston Pkwy., Kingwood. The egg hunt will be divided into three age groups, all beginning at different times 7:45 p.m. for children ages 4 and under, 8:15 p.m. for ages 5 to 7, and 8:30 p.m. for ages 8 to 12. PREVIEW: Get our experts' picks for concerts, kids' stuff, fine arts, movies and more You are to bring your own egg baskets to the event. No registration is required. Snacks will be provided. Easter Bunny appears at Journey Church The Kingwood church at 3939 Glade Valley Drive invites everyone to celebrate the day by taking pictures with the Easter Bunny, enjoying the petting zoo and experiencing more uplifting elements. Services are scheduled for 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 11:55 a.m. on Sunday. HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Celebrity chefs serve 5 courses for the Food Bank The petting zoo will be on-site on Sunday during the second and third services. Nectar Market Days From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Nectar Cafe (7560 FM 1960 Road E in Humble), there will be an Easter event featuring an egg hunt, vendor fair, coloring contest, and photo opportunities with the bunny. The egg hunt, which begins at 11:30 a.m., is a bring-your-own-basket event. Additional info for the coloring contest at 12:30 p.m.: You must pick up a drawing in the correct age range either at the event, at Nectar, or print them out on event co-host Coffee Chicks Events Facebook page and you must be present on the day to claim your prize. For more information, call Coffee Chicks Events at 402-418-1574. Easter Bunny Jam Violinist and vocalist Sonya Nguyen, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, will pack Green Oaks Tavern with tunes of the holiday with an open-mic-and-jam session. The venues address is 211 E Main St., Ste. 4 in Humble. Holiday brunch in Atascocita Tosca Americana restaurant will serve up a brunch buffet between 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, featuring 30 food items to choose from and with an extra fee of $12 bottomless selected beverages. Reservations are recommended for the event. It is $30 per adult, $15 for kids from 6 to 12 years old and free for those under 5. For more information, visit the restaurant at 18321 W. Lake Houston Pkwy, Ste. 540, call 832-777-1596 or visit toscaamericana.com. nguyen.le@chron.com NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. Former Katy Independent School District superintendent Lance Hindt is endorsing two candidates including one who has no opponent for the open seats on the KISD board of trustees. On a YouTube video taken at a campaign rally, Hindt is seen strongly backing Donald Duke Keller and Lance Redmon for the school board seats. Keller is a candidate for the Position 1 seat while Redmon is running unopposed in the Position 2 race. Sporting a full beard and calling himself a recovering superintendent, Hindt touted his long career in education including about 10 years serving as superintendent in three school districts while offering his ideas about what is needed in a school board member. They have to have a heart a huge heart for students and staff, Hindt told the crowd. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Redmon is assured a seat on the board but Keller is running against current trustee Rebecca Fox and controversial community activist Sean Dolan. Fox, who could not be reached for comment, was slated to run against Redmon but switched at the last minute to contend for the Precinct 1 seat. Thank you Dr. Lance Hindt for your support and official endorsement. I continue to be humbled by the support that this community has displayed during this election season, Lance Redmon posted on his campaign Facebook page. In a clear jab at Fox and Dolan, Hindt said the voters should choose a board member who has a desire to serve and not somebody who has a personal agenda or is a self-serving individual. While saying he wasnt naming names, Hindt accused Fox and Dolan of being self-serving. Ive been in the pits with them and I know how this works, he said. Hindt abruptly left office at the end of the year, pocketing a $770,000 payout from the school board, following months of tumult after he was accused of having been a bully while a student at West Memorial Junior High School. Dolan helped stoke the fire of the bullying controversy and later raised allegations that Hindt had plagiarized his doctoral thesis while a student at the University of Houston. At the campaign event, Hindt said board members should accept that they wont always get their way and eventually back the final decision of the majority. It is okay to agree to disagree, he said. What I see in quality board members are those that can agree to disagree, accept the majority of the boards decision and move on 100 percent behind that decision. In a statement, Dolan said he is the only candidate in the race who will challenge the status quo and bring transparency to district operations. The notion from Lance Hindt that any debate should be done behind closed doors, without any public visibility and then board members should vote in lock-step with each other, irrespective of the views of their constituents, is contrary to the principles of democracy, he said. As a board member, one of my primary objectives is to bring as much of the conversation that happens behind closed doors to the visibility of the public as the law permits. Hindt said Keller and Redmon would both bring important backgrounds and skill sets to the Katy ISD board of trustees. Keller is a lawyer with a back in real estate that could come in handy in a fast-growing school district like Katy. We are buying property every single month, Hindt said. In addition to his work in business, Redmon has been a youth pastor and a pastor in his home church, Hindt said. He brings a good, strong faith to this school board that is needed in this day and time, he said. In addition to voting themselves, Hindt encouraged those at the campaign rally to bring others with them. Im going to tell you, the stability of Katy ISD depends on your vote, Hindt said. mike.glenn@chron.com The Katy Area Chamber of Commerce is moving forward with a new chief executive officer and new building. According to a news release, Matthew Ferraro has been named the new CEO. Ferraro come from the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce, where he has been for nearly the last seven years, most recently serving as the vice president of governmental affairs. Im excited about the opportunities that the Katy Chamber has to offer its community, Ferraro said in the news release. Im eager to get to work and help the Chamber grow to reach its full potential, Ferraro is a 2012 Texas A&M University graduate with a bachelor of science in recreation, park, and tourism management, Ferraro has also graduated from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organizational Management, a four-year professional development program. We are very excited to welcome Matthew, said Marcus Henneke, Katy Chamber chairman of the board. With the amazing growth of the Katy Area, we cant wait for him to lead our chamber. We think members will be excited to meet Matthew and work with us as we take the chamber to unprecedented heights. Ferraro is scheduled to begin work as CEO on April 29. Ferraro already knows the Katy area as he, his wife Sarabeth and their son Hudson live in Katy with their Boston Terrier, Winston. I look forward to building relationships with our businesses and community leaders, Ferraro said. They need to know that their chamber is going to be focused on working for them. The Katy Area Chamber will operate from its new permanent location at 814 East Avenue, Suite F in Katy. This is an exciting time for the Katy Chamber, Henneke said. Coupled with Matthews hiring, our newly renovated office will allow us to serve our members better. For more information, visit www.katychamber.com or call 281-391-5289 (KATY). rkent@hcnonline.com American Historian John Henrik Clarke once said that a good teacher, like a good entertainer must hold his audiences attention. Then he can teach his lesson, Clarke said. Two Katy Independent School District teachers do just that in their classrooms every day. The district, along with Brazos Valley Credit Union, recognized the efforts of Tompkins High School Math Teacher Matthew Rhodes and Sundown Elementary Reading/Social Studies Teacher Audra Olivia-Thamrin Gorsuch on Thursday at the Katy ISD Teacher of the Year Luncheon at the Merrell Center, where teachers from 68 Katy ISD campuses received acknowledgment for the contributions to education. Rhodes and Gorsuch held the highest honors and were selected as the district-wide teachers of the year, an honor bestowed upon them for their passion and dedication to education. Gorsuch, who is originally from California, said she was stunned and honored when she realized she had been selected. She went into teaching about 10 years ago, she said. I just started jumping up and down, dancing, hugging everyone, she said. Its amazing to be recognized for what you do. Its what you do every day. Its not more special than what any other teacher does. The hula dancer, who has a background in performing arts, said she loves working with children and just knew it her heart from an early age that she wanted to be a teacher. She said she inspires her children to learn in a fun way every day. I like to try new things (in the classroom), she said. I try to incorporate music and singing into my lesson plans. Were always trying to integrate technology and different projects and do group work together. Rhodes, an Angleton native, said the best part about his job is that he gets to work with many great teachers at Tompkins High School and added that he felt honored and blessed to be nominated for district-wide teacher of the year. Being a teacher is rewarding, he said. If I have the opportunity to impart something that Im carrying into a student, and change their life for a better, thats what I want to do, Rhodes said. Rhodes said he loves to make learning fun and interactive in the classroom, doing his best to get students interested in a subject many consider to be tough. Nine out of 10 people have been talked to negatively about math, even in their own family, Rhodes said. Its funny because we dont say that about English or History. I have taken that stigma and tried to change it to show people that its just the way I communicate, and it makes it a little better. Katy ISD Superintendent Ken Gregorski called teachers the heart of the district. And Ive told people for years as a principal, and now as a district leader, that quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers, Gregorski said. It just cant. We count on our teachers to do good work every day. From luncheons, to awards and to campus-level events, the district recognizes the hard work its teachers do every day, Gregorski said. Gregorski said that not only does the district offer a competitive salary, but it provides it teachers with multi-level support with its programs, principals, assistants and administrators. I think its a premier school district, not only in the state but in the nation, he added. About 300 people, including teachers and Katy ISD administration, attended Thursdays event, said Yvonne Kirshner, CEO/President of Brazos Valley Credit Union. The awards event was previously sponsored by the Katy Area Chamber of Commerce, she said. Teachers impact (childrens) life, forever, Kirshner said, referring to the reason the credit union decided to sponsor the event. Theyre extremely valuable to not only the children but to the to the entire school and to the community as children grow and go on to further education. Next week, Katy ISD officials will recognize other professionals within the district for their contributions to education, a spokeswoman said. michelle.iracheta@chron.com Whether its old prescription medicines or personal documents that need to be kept from the wrong hands or out of a landfill, residents of Deer Park have a day to safely dispose of these items free of charge. On Saturday April 27 the Deer Park Citizen's Police Academy is hosting a shred day from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or when the truck is full at the parking lot of the Deer Park Police Department, 2911 Center St., Deer Park. On the same day at the same location, the police department will conduct a local collection site for National Drug Take Back Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The two events have a common goal to help to eliminate waste, according to Charles Thomas, a member of the Deer Park Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association, whose volunteers will be on hand at both events. For three years, the police department has organized a shred day to provide residents a way to clean out drawers, boxes and filing cabinets filled with nonessential documents. We get so much mail that has a lot of personal information on it, and people tend to not throw away old bank and tax statements for that reason, he said. They save it. At a time when more and more people worry about identity theft, said Thomas, eliminating unwanted paper trails is a good way to ensure personal security. Thomas said the event is for Deer Park residents, but anyone can show up. The event is sponsored by the police department with the help of funds raised by the association from various projects such as its recent Tamales for a Cause drive. The event is held after Tax Day for a reason, Thomas said. This way, it lets people to throw out their old tax records and things theyve been holding onto, he said. Many people have little personal shredders, but a lot of people keep their records and depend on an event like this to get rid of them. The department organizes a licensed and certified shred truck to be on hand while volunteers collect boxes or bags of paper from participants via a drive-through system or drop-off. The volunteers then put those items in large trash cans to be placed on a conveyor into the truck. These documents are shredded on site immediately, Thomas said. There are some people who drive up and will not leave until they watch their documents go into that shred truck, he said. According to Thomas, the drug take-back event is a no questions asked call to bring any and all medications for disposal. We have people with outdated medications, people who have loved ones who pass away, and they dont know what to do with these medications, said Thomas. This is a perfect opportunity for them to dispose of any and all drugs. The police department also has a container in the lobby of its station where residents can drop off old medications around the clock. Our members (Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association) go to the cars and collect the items, dump them into disposal containers, and at the end of the day, the bags are weighed, he said. Items that are accepted include pills, old needles and containers for disposal of used medical supplies. We dont want drugs in the landfills, we dont want drugs flushed down the toilet, Thomas said. Both events are free and provide an environmentally-sound way to dispose of paper or medical waste products, Thomas said. For more on both events, click here. To learn more about the Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association, click here. For more on National Drug Take Back Day, click here. yorozco@hcnonline.com The Conroe Symphony Orchestra performance last Saturday evening was magnificent. The Farewell Concert: A Walk down Memory Lane lionized beloved Music Director/Conductor Dr. Don Hutson upon his retirement from the position, but it also showed incoming Maestro Dr. Jacob Sustaita the excellence that awaits him. Musicians played with so much passion that the notes seemed to rise from their instruments with a force of their own. Dr. Hutson opens every CSO performance with the national anthem. After that, listeners appear sufficiently prepared to take on the Brits at Fort McHenry were that doable; but alas, they have to content themselves by shouting Hurrahs! Bravos! Huzzahs! and by applauding until their hands sting. That night the crowd responded to every selection with unstoppable fervor, all justified; and the musicians answered with feeling that was almost palpable. Oh, how I hope you were there! It was glorious. Never have I heard a more rousing approach than CSOs Shostakovichs Festive Overture, or a better-done rendition of Out of Africa. Leroy Andersons Typewriter Song brought amused smiles from the older crowd and looks of puzzlement from the juniors, but it captivated all with humor and excellence. Dances with Wolves conjured images of calm, with a few canine snarls at just the right measures. Then for the piece de resistance Dr. Hutson announced a composition titled Watch Me Burn that his nephew Charles Blake created, mingling Blakes own melody with that of beloved hymn It Is Well with My Soul. The composer was in the audience and stood for an introduction. The close of the concert brought memories and praise for the late Dr. Aline Arnold as Dr. Hutson recalled her determination and sacrifices that furthered CSO from its early years until now. Afterward, orchestra support leaders Judge Kathleen Hamilton and Lyn Howard walked onstage where they presented Dr. Hutson with a baton symbolizing his more than a dozen years of leadership; plus an auditorium full of good vibes and well wishes from attendees who have reaped joy from his commitment. At this point Dr. Hutson symbolically passed the torch in the form of his own magic baton to Dr. Jacob Sustaita. Great warmth pervaded the transition, along with visions of a glowing future and even greater CSO success. Another of Dr. Hutsons passions is The Cowboy Solution, a seminar where he uses horses at different levels of training and ability to teach partnership lessons to business executives. So, with reference to the title of an old Western tune This is where the cowboy rides away. But not too far. In the midst of joy there still was sadness, as longtime CSO enthusiasts recalled the late Dr. Aline Arnold, a volunteer whose steadfast determination was a major factor in the CSOs arrival at where it now is. Dr. Arnold passed to another place last month, fairly close to the death of her husband, Gene Arnold. Both worked tirelessly for the success of CSO and its musicians. Gene was a somewhat silent partner to his wifes presence, but always close at hand. Aline, however, was seldom silent, always pushing for her beloved orchestra, never retreating quietly in the face of a challenge. If a problem needed to be solved, there was a way to do it. Some just took more time than others. Dr. Arnold was intensely loyal to the orchestra as well as to friends and other volunteers; and if you wanted to be her friend, youd best support her orchestra. Her footsteps crossed many places far from her birth state of Texas. With a business background, she became a hospital administrator at Carbondale in Southern Illinois, after extensive teaching and other experiences elsewhere. These life events seemed a readymade preparation for her leadership in developing the Conroe Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Arnolds memorial service, held earlier this month in the Conroe Symphony Centre, was simple and straightforward. She would have liked that. Some key CSO supporters voiced tributes. Her son, Hubert Tex Arnold, a successful New York musician, delivered a touching homage, and popular Broadway entertainer Sal Viviano sang some favorites. Dr. Arnold admired both these men, and had engaged them numerous times for CSO fundraisers and performances. They were highly regarded by Dr. Hutson, orchestra members, and the public as well. Although absent in the body, Dr. Arnolds presence in the spirit will continue; a lasting tribute to a strong, fiercely dedicated woman who made Conroe a greater and better place for posterity. She led with a sure hand. Peggie Miller may be reached at pegmiller01@gmail.com. Six hours. Four students. One gold medal. Students Colyn Howard, Ryan Pino, Aaron Miles and Diego Marquez secured that win as a first-time team from Conroe High School during the applied engineering contest at the SkillsUSA state competition in Corpus Christi earlier this month. During the contest, a knowledge test is first required. The boys were tested on physics, math and engineering concepts before they could even advance to the hands-on part. The next step, Howard said, was to create something out of nothing. We showed up without any notice of what wed be doing. The first three hours are a little stressful, when youre sketching ideas. It can be kind of frustrating until you find something thats the aha moment and it works, Howard said. The team was tasked with creating an irrigation system: not one made out of high-performing canals and tanks, but one made out of the materials they were given such as plastic cups, Popsicle sticks and aluminum foil. First sketching their design, getting every modification approved by the judges, the team toiled away. Their sponsor, engineering teacher Eric Canestorp, said this was when their team dynamic shone through. This group of fourhad intense discussion early on and seemingly came up with a good solution, Canestorp. With a laugh, Howard confirmed that theyre a spirited group. Were known as the dysfunctional team. We argue and bicker, but its getting our ideas out there and having constant back and forth conversation to make sure (our design) is going to work, Howard said. After the design part, they started to build their system using prototypes to test their designs along the way. They were able to build a 10-level irrigation system, achieving the most points for reaching the maximum height. It came time to test their device, but the group held offtesting it for the first time in front of the judges. They were also the first of 12 teams from around the state to display their finished project. Howard said that was quite nerve-wracking. But, it functioned and the team achieved a perfect score. It worked pretty well. That was an amazing feeling, especially when youre going first, Howard said. Canestorp said that this competition, though intense in the moment, covers a range of skills for the students that they can take with them into their future careers. One of the judges for this event, Anthony Tasillo, echoed that. Hes the technical chair for this contest and works as the manager of educational initiatives with Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service. (This challenge) is much like an actual construction project. They cant start construction until approval is given. All of their materials they use have a cost, Tasillo said. They build a documentation notebook, develop a safety plan and include a resume and cover letter. This is in addition to telling the judges what they learned through working as a team. The Conroe team, Tasillo said, did very well. They did a good job working together as a team. This particular challenge was a little more challenging, and a few teams were ready to quit halfway through. But these young men from Conroe stayed focused and figured out a solution, Tasillo said. Though SkillsUSA is a national organization aimed at serving students interested in technical, skilled and service occupations, the Texas division is the only one with an applied engineering contest. jane.stueckemann@chron.com Getting shot down three times during the Vietnam War could have grounded 81-year-old Conroe resident Patrick Pappy Gray, but he is among the honorees recognized by the FAA for more than 50 years of safe flight operations. Deemed by the FAA as one of its most prestigious commendations, Gray, who has flown over 13,000 hours, is the recipient of The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, which recognizes his longtime aviation expertise. And he still remembers his first taste of the sky. Its complete freedom because youre not bound to earth anymore, Gray said. You are soaring with the eagles. Its a euphoric feeling is the best way I can describe it. Gray soared in his first solo flight in January 1959, but learning to fly was no easy feat. His flight lessons began while in Vietnam before the war as military advisor about eight years after he enlisted in the military with an interest in becoming a paratrooper. There was one catchhis French aerial club instructor did not speak any English. A FRESH START: Texas groups help jailed military vets in Montgomery County reintegrate It was kind of fun, he would give me a command in French and I knew just enough, Gray said. Hed hit me on the head with a plastic ball bat and when he wanted me to turn left hed yell tournez a gauche, a gauche, a gauche. He returned to the U.S. that year to go through the Armys helicopter training program. In 1963, he returned to Vietnam as a gunship pilot in an armed helicopter equipped with rockets and machine guns to escort and provide cover for troops in a landing zone. During two close calls, his helicopter crashed in the jungle where he survived a fire fight with the Vietcong. In another, he was nearly struck by ground fire on a mission towards the provincial Vietnamese city of Tay Inh that killed one of the men aboard. Gray spared from a bullet by the shredded armored plate under him that created a haze he first mistook for smoke. Fuel was spreading all over the helicopter, Gray said. We were scared to death that we were going to blow up in the air. We got on the ground and plugged up the fuel tank with a stick enough to keep it from coming out. He still remembers watching the tail-rotor fly off during a third helicopter crash. After pre-striking the coast the bird was forced to take an unplanned turn over the ocean when it began to receive fire. It entered an immediate uncontrolled spin and crashed into the ocean. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: 100-year-old Veteran reflects on his life of service The next thing Gray knew he was under water. He released his seat belt and attempted to swim out of the door, when he was jerked back--his seat belt was tangled around his Bayonet knife. I kind of gave up, at this point I was going to die, he added as his voice began to break. Then, I said, try one more time and jerked real hard and the seat belt came lose. I was free. He told himself he was a good swimmer and to relax. A helicopter threw down a rope and pulled him in. But they struggled to help an officer with the British Royal Air Force on the other side of him, who upon being released sank to the bottom. They never did find him, he added as one of only two men to survive the crash. Gray, who was born in Chicago and spent most of his life in Florida, returned to the U.S. after the year-long combat tour and continued to serve in the reserves before he retired after 34 years of combined experience in 1986. He continued to fly helicopters for the Army, including as an instructor, and as a civilian, including for oil rigs. He even started his own Crop Dusting business in Florida until it went bankrupt due to the oil embargo in 1973. After 25 years, Gray retired from management at The Woodlands-based manufacturer Tenneco, for which he worked for its subsidiary company Tennessee Gas Pipeline. While his plan now is to glide into full retirement, for the past two years he has also mentored younger military veterans in the Montgomery County Veteran Treatment Court and Montgomery County Jail. The military was really very good to me for all the time I spent with them, he added. I felt like giving back. Nobody seemed to be helping the guys (veterans) that were hooked on drugs they are kind of a forgotten group. I felt there was some good in these guys and anything I could do to help bring it out-- I wanted to give it a shot. He continues flying today. He is also a flight instructor who obtained an Airline Pilot Transport License. In half a century, Pappy says he has never crashed an aircraft or felt flying was unsafe. The flying part never bothered me, it was people shooting and trying to kill you, Gray, a Purple Heart Medal Recipient, said. The helicopters were absolutely safe. mellsworth@hcnonline.com Four candidates with views and visions for the future of the growing city of Montgomery discussed the issues affecting the community during a forum at City Hall Tuesday. From tourism to traffic, each candidate was asked a question and given two minutes to respond during the forum hosted by the Voter Awareness Council. The other candidates also had a chance to offer thoughts on the conversation, such as how they would balance growth and the history of the community. There are two incumbents who face challengers for their seats. Place 3 For place 3, councilman and longtime resident T.J. Wilkerson is being challenged by Nick Haddad, who works in business development at Bureau Veritas and moved to the area with his family about four years ago. When it comes to the traffic on Texas 105, Haddad wants to work with TxDOT to widen the roads and add infrastructure to address the rapid growth. He is asking for those interested in change to vote for him and says he will work hard to lower taxes. He noted drainage concerns while discussing fiscal priorities. He has lived in Cypress the majority of his life and has seen it grow in population and businesses. The reason Ive decided to run for office is because I love this city and instead of complaining about the decisions being made that effect each and every one of us, Ive decided to run and work to make a difference in the community, Haddad said. I understand what works and doesnt work Montgomery needs someone up here that is going to make the decisions and work to ensure that as we grow we are adding value to the city. Wilkerson, whose fiscal priorities include budgeting for infrastructure and the sewer sanitation lift station, said the council is already working with TxDOT to establish turn lanes at Texas 105 and FM 149. He believes the city needs to focus on moving some of the traffic off of Texas 105 with the schools to bring them around the loop with the help of officers. He said the city is also aware of kids speeding through neighborhoods and the city has added speed bumps. He wants to continue serving with the support of the community. We can work together with ideas and come together and do it for not just one part of the community but the entire city of Montgomery, Wilkerson said. We want to include everybody. Place 5 Incumbent Councilman Tom Cronin, who owns a business in the historic district, has lived in the city eight years, and was recently appointed to the place 5 in December to fill a vacancy, also felt it was important to establish a good relationship with TxDOT and diverting traffic. He said large trucks are also slowing down traffic and was more in favor of that approach than spending more money to widen the roads. While addressing a recent issue with the Baja Construction project that left several residents without power, he said he would make sure the city had a better handle on the project and make sure the job is done right as the people had been let down and do not need to be let down again. The city has its challenges and there are opportunities here, Cronin said. The solution to the challenges and opportunities is leadership. I think our city now more than ever needs leadership. We dont need leaders or people who have an axe to grind. We dont need people who have an agenda. We need leaders. Leadership is what it is going to take to finish our downtown city scape, to get ready for the growth we are facing. As a small business owner I know that leadership is not complicated. Regarding fiscal priorities, he feels it is important to make sure the positions with the city are justified before added. Although his challenger did not know what the city could do to help more than 100 employees who will be laid off at La Torretta Resort and Spa, which will soon be turned into a new Margaritaville Resort, Cronin said the city could host a job fair in the historic district and was aware of challenges businesses downtown are having to recruit employees. Cronin is being challenged by David Brown, who is a project Manager with McKesson . His spouse owns the Montgomery Quilt Company downtown as well. He wants to look at the departments within the citys budget and see what can be tightened up. He believes his long history of successful project management and finishing large projects would be beneficial to the city. He believes closer oversight could have prevented the Baja project issue, even if the contractor was the lowest bid. What I have seen here since Ive lived in Montgomery is a lot of misallocation of funds on projects that have not been well-managed, Brown said. I would like to bring some of the talents and some of the things I have learned in private industry into this area to see if we can get more efficient use of our money in the city of Montgomery and also I would like to do away with the acrimony and emphasize content and efficiency. mellsworth@hcnonline.com Former Conroe Police Officer Kenneth Barnett still remembers the day when he and his partner dashed to a busy bakery where a man was threatening to fire off rounds from his gun. Barnett was in the patrol cars passenger seat on that April 2011 afternoon as he hurriedly loaded his partners rifle, which killed the assailant who shot Conroe Officer Sgt. James Kelemen in the face. Not all of Barnetts days in his near 10 years working law enforcement have been this intense. The vigorous 77-year-old still welcomes the work, even if as a reserve law enforcement officer hes not getting paid for doing the work of a standard law enforcement officer. As he was approaching retirement age, he settled on being a reserve officer to express appreciation he said he gathered from being a Marine veteran and an international businessman. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity that I had in this country compared to everything Ive seen in other places. I was thinking, there must be some way, What can I do to show my gratitude? To give back to the community be of some assistance, Barnett said. He also wanted to be a part of the action. It got me to thinking. I began my adult life in the military. To me it seemed like that would be pretty cool to end my active adult life doing something like this, he said. Now working deputy duty at the Montgomery County Precinct 4 Constables Office as a reserve unit sergeant, Barnett started out five years as a reserve officer with the Conroe Police Department. A Montgomery resident who owns and operates an agricultural chemical company out of Willis, Barnett had grown an interest with the deputy patrol service his neighborhoods homeowners association was contracting. He reached out to the Montgomery County Sheriff s Office, which invited Barnett to be a reserve deputy. Barnett went on to complete Lone Star Colleges police academy in December 2009. In Texas, the education requirements and the training requirements everything that a reserve officer goes through is no different than what a full-paid officer goes through, Barnett said. The academy class is mixed. Theres people there who are going to be a reserve. Theres people there whos going to be full paid. They go through the exact same classes, exact same instructors that are there every day. Actually no difference. As time consuming as the rigorous studying and homework were, all while he ran his business, Barnett managed to graduate valedictorian from the academy. He was hired by Conroe Police Department. Eventually, the reserve unit there was dissolved and Precinct 4 recruited him. Unlike at Conroe where everything was furnished, reserve deputies provide equipment for themselves, except for the uniform. In addition, they are only insured if there is a lawsuit filed against them in the line of duty. If hospitalized while working, the reserve deputies pay out of pocket, unless their personal health insurance covers it. There are currently 15 reserve deputies at Precinct 4, part of a deputy staff of 50. Two to three more reserve deputies are expected to join. Montgomery Countys five constable precincts have a total of 70 reserve deputies, according to county budget officer Amanda Carter. Precinct 4s reserve unit is headed up by Lieutenant Kevin Sapp, a reserve officer. Under his command are two sergeants, Barnett and reserve deputy T.J. Knox. Sapp, who often travels abroad as CEO of an industrial services company, manages a unit which regularly executes drug busts. Recently, he and Barnett had to fight off a repeat DWI offender resisting arrest. Different people do it for different reasons, Sapp said about being a reserve deputy. For instance, some people volunteer their time to build houses for the homeless. There are two different types of people who join the reserve unit, Sapp explained. Some, he said, are previously employed as full-time officers, while others, like himself and Barnett, have full-fledged careers. The reserve unit has that one common anchor point, which is law enforcement, Sapp said. We still have a desire to help people who arent in a situation to help themselves. When not working the street beat, many of the reserve deputies are a resource for doing security work at civic events like the Montgomery County Fair and Rodeo. This helps ease the full-time deputies workload. Part of our duty, as I see it, as a reserve, is we back these full-paid officers because they dont have any other backup out there, Barnett said. At least 70 percent of Precinct 4s full-time deputies began as reserves, since many join with the intent of being hired on as paid officers. Theyre there for that opportunity, Barnett said. Every reserve deputy, he continued, must undergo the same exact training as any newly hired full-time deputy. When open positions become available at Precinct 4, they are automatically allowed to apply ahead of external candidates, he added. Our reserve division is a phenomenal resource for us, Precinct 4 Captain Buck Clendennen said. No limitations are placed on the reserve deputies as they have a lot of experience. They bring a lot to the table, Clendennen said. On top of working a full-time job and a having a family, they support us by coming out here and putting a uniform on with absolutely nothing to gain other than doing the job. With all the activity within Precinct 4, Clendennen finds reserve deputies are particularly valuable as patrol partners to full-time deputies. At Precinct 4, there are three so-called pool patrol cars which reserve deputies share. If none is available when a reserve deputy arrives, then he or she will ride with a full-time officer. Clendennen relayed having a partner would have likely prevented him from multiple hospitalizations when he was patrolling. When we have an extra set of eyes and ears thats sometimes the difference between these guys getting home at night, he said. The reserve deputies supplementary work, he said, prevents Precinct 4 from requesting more taxpayer money. Im honored that they would show us they support us that way and put on our badge and uniform and not accept a nickel for what they do, Clendennen said. It has never been a concern among full-time deputies that their pay faces risk because of reserve deputies and pay at the precinct has not dropped with increases in the reserve unit, he added. These guys are always talking shop. Hey, what do you want to do this week? Where are we going to patrol this week? Whats a hot spot we need to hit this week? Clendennen said. He made special note of Barnetts contributions to the reserve unit and the precinct as a whole. Sergeant Barnett does anything and everything. The guy, hes a tool, man. I mean that in a good way, Clendennen said. On a breezy spring night recently, Barnett was on patrol, driving a cruiser through the streets of New Caney, doing traffic checks and pulling over violators. All of it alongside full-time deputies. No one would know the difference at stops where he and a full-timer were at work. Barnett is sure to defer praise to all the deputies at Precinct 4, reserve and full-time alike. All (of them) work hard. As hard as anybody works to the last (one), Barnett said. Harris County Sheriff's Office A woman whose body was found Monday floating in the San Jacinto River was stabbed to death, authorities said. The woman has been identified as Tera Rose Hoseck, 32 . She is originally from Minnesota and it is unknown where she most recently lived or whom she knew, authorities said. UPDATE: Steven Washington was a 50-year-old black man who died April 17 from stab wounds at 5600 Hershe Street, Houston. ORIGINAL STORY: A man was found dead in an east Houston ditch Wednesday morning, and police are searching for answers. Houston firefighters responded to reports of a person down in the 5600 block of Hershe around 10 a.m., Houston Police Department Cmdr. C. Hatcher said. When they arrived, they found the man dead in a nearby ditch and requested HPD officers. Homicide detectives interviewed a person who was on scene when police arrived but said he is not considered a suspect, according to Hatcher. The circumstances of the person's death were not immediately clear, although Hatcher said the death is considered a homicide. She asked the public to come forward if they heard or saw anything suspicious, including any gunfire or someone who does not normally trek the small neighborhood off Lockwood Drive. Hatcher said the man did have visible injuries but declined to go into detail about what they are. She said the man appears to be an adult. The man's body does not appear to have been in the ditch for a long period of time, Hatcher said, but she couldn't give a firm time frame of when the man died. Melanie Chaykoski lives nearby and told Chron.com that a sheet covering the body was covered in blood. She also said that police officers asked her if she heard any gunfire or loud arguments earlier in the morning. She said she didn't hear any earlier Wednesday, but she did hear gunfire late Tuesday night. "We hear gunshots every night," Chaykoski said. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message Pearland officers responded recently to a variety of incidents involving residents not getting along, filing reports for everything from assault and family violence to road rage and harassment. Assault Assault occurred April 8 in the 2300 block of Eagles Way, police said. A woman was assaulted March 23, according to a police report filed April 8 in the 2100 block of Roland Rue. Police filed a family violence report April 8 in the 2700 block of Green Mountain Drive. Assault occurred between March 12 and April 9, according to a police report filed April 9 in the 3300 block of East Orange Street. Police conducted a family violence investigation April 9 in the 2600 block of Old Alvin Road. A female suspect assaulted a male April 9 in the 2400 block of Business Center Drive, police said. Assault was reported April 10 in the 11600 block of Broadway Street, police said. Police took a Houston man, 30, into custody for assault and DWI April 10 in the 12400 block of Trinity Bay Drive. A 17-year-old Pearland woman was arrested for assault, family violence April 11 in the 8300 block of Preston Drive, police said. Police filed a family violence report April 12 in the 2200 block of North Austin Avenue. A Laredo woman, 35, received a citation for assaulting her sister-in-law April 12 in the 11900 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said. Police filed an assault report April 12 in the 4300 block of Leisure Lane. A Pearland woman, 47, was arrested for assault April 12 in the 4100 block of Cleburne Drive, police said. Police cited a Missouri City woman, 26, for assault April 13 in the 4800 block of Pinder Lane. A Spring woman, 38, was arrested for assault April 14 in the 2000 block of Cheryl Drive, police said. Assault was reported April 15 in the 2200 block of Business Center Drive, police said. A Pearland woman, 67, received a citation for assault April 14 in the 6700 block of Broadway Street, police said. Burglary Motor vehicle burglary was reported April 8 in the 2900 block of Pearland Parkway, police said. Police filed two motor vehicle burglary reports April 8 in the 2500 block of Alexander Lane. Two motor vehicle burglaries were reported April 8 at Gringos Mexican Kitchen, 3005 Kirby Drive, police said. A vehicle was burglarized April 8 in the 9500 block of Broadway Street, police said. Police filed a motor vehicle burglary report April 8 in the 8200 block of Broadway Street. Several vehicles were reported burglarized April 9 in the 1000 block of Bass Pro Drive, police said. Four vehicles were burglarized April 9 in the 2800 block of Business Center Drive, police said. Police filed a criminal activity report documenting burglary suspects April 12 in the 2500 block of Cullen Parkway. A vehicle was burglarized April 12 in the 7300 block of Shade Court, police said. Police conducted a motor vehicle burglary investigation April 13 in the 2800 block of Business Center Drive. Motor vehicle burglary was reported April 13 in the 2500 block of Business Center Drive, police said. Burglary of a motor vehicle occurred April 14 in the 2900 block of Cullen Parkway, police said. Police filed a burglary of habitation report April 14 in the 5100 block of West Orange Street. Theft A 17-year-old Alvin woman was arrested for shoplifting April 8 in the 2500 block of Pearland Parkway, police said. A bicycle was stolen April 7 or April 8 in the 4000 block of East Spring Branch Drive, police said. Police filed a theft report April 8 in the 2900 block of Oak Road. Shoplifting was reported April 9 in the 11100 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said. Police arrested a Houston man, 59, for shoplifting April 9 in the 10100 block of Broadway Street. Police conducted a shoplifting investigation April 9 in the 1900 block of Main Street. Motor vehicle theft was reported April 10 in the 2200 block of Business Center Drive, police said. Theft was reported April 10 in the 11300 block of Broadway Street, police said. Police filed a theft report April 10 in the 12400 block of Shadow Creek Parkway. A wallet was reported stolen April 10 in the 2800 block of Business Center Drive, police said. Theft occurred between April 7 and April 9 in the 2200 block of Sandlebrook Street, according to an April 10 police report. A Brazoria County man, 22, was taken into custody for theft April 10 in the 11200 block of Broadway Street, police said. Theft was reported April 10 in the 2400 block of Copper Sky Drive, police said. Police filed a shoplifting report April 10 in the 1700 block of Broadway Street. Two women stole food April 11 from a restaurant in the 1300 block of Broadway Street, police said. An unknown offender took items from a business without paying April 12 in the 2700 block of Pearland Parkway, police said. Police took a Brady woman, 26, into custody for shoplifting April 12 in the 1700 block of Broadway Street. Police arrested a Houston woman, 32, for theft April 12 in the 1900 block of Main Street. A 51-year-old Houston man was arrested for shoplifting and a warrant April 13 in the 2800 block of Business Center Drive, police said. Theft occurred April 13 in the 10000 block of Broadway Street, police said. Shoplifting was reported April 14 in the 1900 block of Main Street, police said. Police took a Jasper man, 31, into custody for shoplifting April 14 in the 11100 block of Shadow Creek Parkway. Narcotics Police arrested a suspect for possession of a controlled substance April 9 in the 16500 block of Texas 288. A Friendswood man, 26, was arrested for possession of a dangerous drug April 9 in the 1500 block of Red Bud Court, police said. Police took a Missouri City man, 28, into custody for marijuana possession and warrants after a traffic stop April 9 in the 3200 block of Dixie Farm Road. Police arrested a Houston man, 36, for marijuana possession and a warrant April 10 in the 2100 block of Main Street. Police arrested a male suspect for marijuana possession April 10 in the 4000 block of Broadway Street. Police filed a report for possession of a controlled substance after allegedly finding THC oil in a vehicle April 11 in the 2300 block of North Park Avenue. Police arrested a Houston man, 24, for marijuana possession April 12 in the 2800 block of Pearland Parkway. A Pearland man, 39, was arrested for marijuana possession and warrants April 12 in the 5300 block of Broadway Street, police said. Fraud, forgery Police filed a forgery report April 8 in the 2800 block of Broadway Street. A victims identity was used fraudulently to apply for a credit card, according to a police report filed April 9 in the 3600 block of Broadway Street. Police filed a report for fraudulent use or possession of identifying information April 9 in the 3800 block of Oak Bent Drive. A man told police he had been sold a fake gold coin March 9 in the 1000 block of Main Street, according to an April 11 report. Debit-card abuse occurred between April 1 and April 4, according to a police report filed April 11 in the 8300 block of Broadway Street. Fraud was reported April 13 in the 2100 block of Forest Bank Lane, police said. Police filed an identity fraud report April 14 in the 4000 block of Greenwood Drive. Weapons A student was found in possession of a weapon April 8 on school grounds in the 3000 block of Old Alvin Road, police said. Police arrested a Houston man, 48, for unlawfully carrying a weapon and DWI April 12 in the 1700 block of Cullen Boulevard. Criminal trespass Police arrested a Houston man, 32, for criminal trespass April 8 in the 3500 block of Broadway Street. Police filed a criminal trespass report April 11 in the 3300 block of Dixie Farm Road. Police arrested a man, 55, for criminal trespass April 14 in the 7000 block of Broadway Street. Criminal mischief Property was damaged on or before April 8 at 7200 Lakeview Terrace Drive, according to an April 9 police report. Criminal mischief was reported April 9 in the 8100 block of Broadway Street, police said. Two men were involved in a road rage incident April 12 in the 6000 block of Broadway Street, police said. Threats, harassment Harassment occurred between March 26 and April 9, according to a police report filed April 9 in the 2200 block of Green Tee Drive. A known female made threats to a known male April 10 in the 1900 block of Copper Knoll Court, police said. Harassment was reported April 13 in the 2500 block of Cullen Parkway, police said. Driving while intoxicated Police took an offender into custody for DWI April 9 in the 1800 block of Pearland Parkway. A Sugar Land man, 42, was arrested for DWI after a crash April 13 in the 9800 block of McHard Road, police said. Police arrested a 50-year-old Houston man for DWI April 14 in the 2800 block of McLean Road. Evading, resisting arrest Police took a suspect into custody for evading on foot April 8 in the 7500 block of Broadway Street. A Houston man, 21, was taken into custody for resisting arrest and marijuana possession April 11 in the 16500 block of Texas 288, police said. Failure to identify An 18-year-old Houston woman was taken into custody for failure to identify as a fugitive after a traffic stop April 10 in the 1300 block of Main Street, police said. She reportedly was found in possession of stolen property. Traffic Police arrested a Houston man, 21, for no drivers license and failure to maintain financial responsibility April 10 in the 2300 block of Cullen Parkway. A Pearland man, 18, was arrested for reckless driving after a crash April 11 in the 3200 block of Kirby Drive, police said. Public intoxication Police arrested two Alvin men, 22 and 29, for public intoxication April 14 in the 4600 block of Main Street. ALBANY A judge has thrown out the State Education Departments new oversight program for parochial schools, independent schools and the Jewish schools known as yeshivas, concluding that it was improperly put in place. The move is a win for the hundreds of non-public schools in the state whose leaders had objected to the plan, which required local school boards to survey the schools and decide whether the institutions were following state law. State education officials "are reviewing the courts decision and will determine the appropriate next steps, said SED spokeswoman Emily DeSantis. Operators of non-public schools hailed the decision as a victory. The state Council of Catholic School Superintendents said it was very pleased" that the court struck down SED's plan. Weve prided ourselves on going above and beyond state academic standards, added James Cultrara, the group's executive secretary. Parents have always chosen our schools because of that rigor, and they can remain confident in the strength of our schools going forward. State Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba ruled the new guidelines were in fact rules, which need to go through a prescribed process before being implemented. State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia issued the new plan in November, saying at the time they were guidelines which represented an update to a longstanding but previously under-enforced regulation about non-public schools. Because Ryba voided the new rules, the judge also said that the plaintiffs didnt need to seek a restraining order to halt the process because her ruling nullified the plan. Nor was there any more need to argue the constitutionality of the plan, which opponents have claimed violates the separation between church and state. Lawyers for three groups Catholic schools, independent schools and yeshivas objected to the plan and were seeking an injunction to halt if. They were in court on Monday. More for you Parochial, religious and private schools fight oversight in court The new plan stemmed from earlier lawsuits filed by a group of graduates from ultra-Orthodox yeshivas. They complained that the schools focused so heavily on studying Torah that other subjects like science and math received short shrift. That prompted the state Legislature in 2018 call for stricter oversight of non-public schools, which typically receive public support for things like textbook loans and services such as bus transportation. Naftali Moster, a yeshiva graduate who sued over what he said was his sub-par education, decried the court ruling. "The Court's decision to rule in favor of yeshivas is a tragedy for all children. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) revised guidelines for nonpublic schools are reasonable and essential, not an intrusive overreach of the government," he said. Non-public school operators raised a number of objections, and argued that since public schools are actually competitors for students, a conflict of interest would arise if representatives of public schools were charged with inspecting the competition. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU ALBANY - Legislation moving through the Capitol would make state prison inmates, regardless of their crimes, eligible for parole on their 55th birthday if they've served 15 consecutive years in prison. The proposal from Democratic lawmakers wouldn't guarantee release for those individuals, but it would immediately create the possibility of parole for about 900 inmates who would otherwise be ineligible for early release. Following the board's decision on Wednesday to release 69-year-old Judith Clark, state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, said the Legislature must work to help secure the freedom of older inmates. "There are so many more Judith Clarks out there elder, incarcerated New Yorkers who have honestly confronted their crimes, taken responsibility, served their time, and worked to change the path of their lives," said Hoylman, who sponsors the "elder parole" legislation. Clark was originally sentenced to 75 years to life for serving as the getaway driver in a 1981 robbery that resulted in the deaths of two police officers and a security guard. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo commuted her sentence in 2016 to provide parole eligibility. The proposal is opposed by Republican state legislators, who along with many members of law enforcement opposed Clark's release. "It's nuts," said Sen. Bob Antonacci, a Syracuse-area Republican. "It's unbelievable that a cop killer is being freed." He said parole is an important part of the criminal justice system, but doesn't think the state should be in the business of commuting sentences handed down by a judge. "If you do the crime, you serve the time," he said. David George, associate director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, said the elder parole initiative is based on decades of study and data that indicates there is a 5 percent rate of recidivism among released prisoners who are 50 or older, and the odds fall to below 4 percent at age 65. "We can never say an older prisoner coming out of prison won't engage in a crime, " George said. "But we also know those exceptions shouldn't be defining how we do things in New York." He described the legislation as a "back-end criminal justice reform," and hopes New York's judicial system will also reconsider the sentences being handed down. George stressed that the policy was formulated with victims in mind, pointing to a national study showing a majority of crime victims and their families prefer rehabilitation over punishment. Proponents of the legislation also say it's less expensive to house and care for older New Yorkers outside of prison. There is some version of elder parole in 17 other states, but New York's proposal would be unique because it doesn't exclude eligibility for certain crimes. David.Lombardo@timesunion.com - 518.454.5427 - @poozer87 There are great white sharks, and then there are Great White Sharks. The 1,200-pound giant in this story falls into the latter category. On Thursday, OCEARCH, a non-profit organization that tracks and collects scientific data about great whites announced that it is currently tracking a massive female of the species in the Gulf of Mexico. 'Miss Costa,' (the name given to her by the organization) was spotted right off the coast of Panama City, Fl. a few days ago. Her tracker pinged her entering the Gulf at the beginning of April, according to OCEARCH. BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox Miss Costa was 12 feet 5 inches long when she was tagged in 2016 off the coast of Nantucket, MA and could between 14 and 15 feet long today, reports OCEARCH. HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Shark tangled in car engine belt rescued off Gulf Coast shore She is now the third documented great white to make the rare journey outside the normal migratory patterns into the Gulf. Above, you can click through to see Miss Costa's unique growth, her rare journey to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the two others that made similar trips before her. All of the quotes in the slides above are from the OCEARCH press release. Check out the size of the Great White Shark caught in the Gulf of Mexico, near northwest Florida on Houston Chronicle.com Peter Dawson is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | Peter.Dawson@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. A lawyer for a failed Houston doctor convicted of conspiring to have his ex-girlfriend and his then-girlfriends ex-husband murdered argued Wednesday that his trial did not link the would-be victims to their initials in the criminal indictment. The indictment against 41-year-old Leon Jacob listed the targets of his murder-for-hire plot by their initials. The name M.V. stood for Jacobs ex-girlfriend Meghan Verikas, while M.M. was the initials for Marion McDaniel, the ex-husband of Jacobs girlfriend, Valerie McDaniel, a popular Montrose veterinarian who killed herself soon after her arrest in the case. Jacob was convicted of paying an undercover Houston police officer who posed as a hit man to kill Verikas and McDaniel. Both were identified by their full name in news accounts of the weeklong trial in March 2018. I dont know who the individuals were as alleged in the indictment because its just initials, said Scott Shearer, an appellate lawyer who was not part of Jacobs criminal case. M.M. could be anything. It could be Mickey Mouse, Shearer said in front of Chief Justice Kem Thompson Frost in the 14th Court of Appeals. Shearer said he went through court transcripts and never found a hint that M.M. was McDaniel or M.V. was Verikas. He pointed out the presumed oversight to Frost in an attempt to overturn Jacobs life sentence for solicitation of capital murder. Surprisingly, during the trial and Ive never seen this happen before there was no evidence ever to connect the initials with either of the complaining witnesses. It was very unusual, Shearer said after the hearing. An appeals filing on Monday goes into depth about the initials, despite having misspelled Verikas name as Meaghan Verikas on multiple occasions. The attorney said he believes the error during trial could have been avoided had both witnesses testified to using the pseudonyms in the indictment or if the prosecutors spoke on the record tying the witnesses to their initials. Frost posed the question of whether inference between the initials and the names stated in court was enough. Shearer said no. In response to Shearer, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Bridget Holloway contended that testimony from Verikas, for example, was enough to link her to her initials. She testified that this is my name, Holloway said. He knew from the get-go who these individuals were, she added. The appeal asks that the appellate court reverse Jacobs conviction and sentence or allow him a second trial. Jacob was initially charged in the murder-for-hire plot last year with McDaniel, who killed herself a short time later by jumping off a balcony at her River Oaks complex. The two wanted to dispose of their exes and began negotiating with someone they thought was a hitman, prosecutors alleged during the six-day trial. Jacob is serving the life sentence at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville and was absent from the oral arguments. Relatives to the convict who attended the hearing declined to comment while rushing out of the courtroom. He is eligible for parole in 2047, prison records show. nicole.hensley@chron.com A house fire broke out Thursday morning after power lines fell on the roof of a home in northwest Harris County, according to Metro Video. A family was in the home at the time, but they got out safely. No injuries have been reported. A Pasadena man was arrested earlier this week after he was caught on video lobbing racist remarks at an AT&T store employee in Friendswood. Joey Christian, 38, was charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct after the ordeal on Tuesday. He has already posted bail for both Class C misdemeanor charges, police said. BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox Christian was reportedly at the store at 101 West Parkwood around 6 p.m. that evening when cellphone video showed him being confrontational with the clerk, demanding to speak to a manager. He can be heard asking the cashier's name. When the cashier said his name was Mohammad, Christian responded, "F---ing Arab. G-d damn f---ing Arabs." At that point, Christian started speaking to the woman taking the cellphone video, who wished to remain anonymous. HOUSTON CRIME: Man shoots woman who approached him with Mace, Taser He called her a "bitch" and proceeded to say that he's been "killing their g-d damn kind" for "almost 20 years" on five different continents. "I've been killing his kind for longer than you've probably been alive," Christian said. The woman said she was 55. "That's cute," Christian responded. The woman is heard talking with Christian about how the aggression started. She also stated that she had called police. As Christian walked outside, he was met by a Friendswood police officer. "What's the issue?" the police officer said before the video cuts out. Mohammad, who said he did not want to use his last name, posted the video on Twitter on Tuesday. It has since been viewed more than 2.7 million times. It also garnered 33,000 retweets and 97,000 likes. Mohammad said he was born in Pakistan, but he's an American citizen who's lived here since he was 5 years old, he said. "I'm not even Arab," he said. He said said he's been getting a lot of positive feedback since the video went viral. "A lot of people who can relate to my situation [are] commending me on my composure," he told Chron.com. Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. Harris County was ranked the third most populous county in the nation in 2018 according to new Census population estimates. The Houston metropolitan area alone reported a numeric growth of 1 million between 2010 and 2018. Across the United States, population growth in counties between 2010 and 2018 was concentrated in the south and west. Metro areas not among the nations most populous also saw growth, according to Sandra Johnson, a demographer in the Census Bureaus Population Division. Though no new metro areas moved into the Top 10 largest areas, Phoenix, Seattle, Austin, and Orlando all experienced numeric increases in population since 2010, rivaling growth in areas with much larger populations, Johnson said. Harris County, with an estimated population of about 4.7 million is behind only Los Angeles County in California and Cook County (which includes Chicago) in Illinois. Midland, Texas, with an estimated population of more than 178,000, reported the highest percentage growth for a metro area between 2017 and 2018 with 4.3 percent in growth. RELATED: Texas, Spring earn high spots on U-Haul destination lists Between 2010 and 2018, Harris, Tarrant, Bexar and Dallas counties in Texas ranked among the Top 10 counties experiencing numeric growth. Census calculates growth by both population numbers and percentage changes. Harris County took the lead with more than half a million people added to its population during that time. Between 2017 and 2018, Harris Countys population grew by more than 34,000. In terms of the highest percentage growth experienced in a county with more than 20,000 people between 2010 and 2018, Fort Bend County ranked in 10th place with 34.7 percent in growth. The new Census report also noted that all metro areas in Puerto Rico decreased in population between 2017 and 2018. The island was devastated in 2017 by Hurricane Maria, leading to mass migration to the mainland. Other reports have noted earlier this year that Texass overall population has been growing with more migration from other states, including California. Updates on Houstons detailed population changes by 2018 will be available later this year. A state district judge on Thursday ordered the city, the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association and the Houston Police Officers Union to enter into mediation as they seek to resolve lingering differences over the implementation of Proposition B, the measure granting firefighters the same pay as police of corresponding rank and seniority. Judge Tanya Garrison of the 157th Civil District Court ordered the mediation after hearing arguments in a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the pay parity amendment. During the hearing, Garrison said she would not issue a ruling on the case any time soon, concluding it would only set back ongoing negotiations to phase in firefighters Prop B-mandated raises. If I make a decision on this one way or the other it will be the equivalent of throwing a bomb in the middle of the attempts to negotiate a resolution, Garrison said. The judge gave the parties until noon Monday to agree on a mediator. The court would appoint a mediator if they cannot settle on one. The mediation is mandatory but not binding. The mediator may suggest ways to resolve the dispute but cannot impose judgment, according to a list of rules attached to Garrisons court order. If the parties do not voluntarily agree to a settlement, the issue returns to Garrison. During mediation, the city and fire union are expected to continue trying to hash out disagreements that so far have prevented them from agreeing to phase in Prop B raises over several years, a step Turner has said would eliminate the need for layoffs. City council is scheduled on Wednesday to consider sending 60-day layoff notices to 220 firefighters, which Turner says are necessary to account for the added cost of Prop B. Turner has estimated Prop B would cost the city $79 million a year if fully implemented at once, requiring layoffs of hundreds of employees, including firefighters. Phasing in the raises over five years, Turner has said, would require no layoffs. Fire union officials say the mayor is being vindictive and could find a way to avoid the layoffs, while Turner repeatedly has noted that Prop B came without a funding source. The city, already facing a massive deficit, must approve a balanced budget by the end of June. The city sent Prop B-related pink slips to more than 100 fire cadets and municipal employees earlier this month. Though it is non-binding, the city will comply, Turner said in a statement issued by his office late Thursday. What is important is that the mediation occur as soon as possible, preferably Monday or Tuesday. Thursdays hearing and subsequent mediation order marked the latest developments in a lawsuit filed Nov. 30 by the police union seeking to strike down Prop B, which voters overwhelmingly approved Nov. 6. City council adopted it into the city charter Nov. 28. Named as a defendant in the police unions suit, the city filed a legal claim contending that Prop B conflicts with a section of Texas Local Government Code tying compensation for firefighters and police officers to that of comparable private sector employees. The city focused on that argument Thursday, contending that Prop B unconstitutionally violates the private sector pay provision by requiring the city to pay firefighters the same as public sector employees in the police department. Reagan Brown, an attorney from the Norton Rose Fulbright firm representing the city, contended the state provision preempts Prop B and any contradicting local laws. The fire union, meanwhile, argued that Prop B does not conflict with the private sector provision, and instead complements the part of the Local Government Code that deals with police and fire employment conditions, known as the Fire and Police Employee Relations Act. Garrison, who took over the case after winning the bench in the November midterms, at one point asked the unions lead attorney, Travis Sales, what would happen if firefighters comparable private sector hourly pay was $20, while the comparable police rate was $50. Sales characterized Garrisons scenario as a remote hypothetical, and noted that in a separate lawsuit between the city and fire union, the city argued that no such private sector standard exists to compare with city-employed firefighters. They are saying that this is contrary to something that they say does not even exist, Sales said. Near the end of the hearing, as Garrison weighed how to move forward, the two sides discussed the idea of mediation, which they previously attempted in 2017 before talks broke down. City Attorney Ron Lewis told Garrison the Turner administration does not believe a mediator could resolve the matter. Instead, Lewis suggested Garrison provide a window during which she would agree to not rule on the matter, which he said could act as an incentive for both sides to reach an agreement before that time expired. Troy Blakeney, an attorney for the fire union, generally agreed with the idea. I'm not here to say that some time frame as referenced by Ron would be detrimental, he said. Blakeney also gave a brief update on the state of negotiations, saying the fire union received financial information from the city Wednesday. The city and union have tussled over the data, which the union repeatedly had requested to verify that Turners offer to phase in the raises over several years honors the charter amendments terms. "Last night, we got financial data we've been looking for, Blakeney said. It came in yesterday afternoon, or something some of the data so that we could try to understand the citys position. After the hearing, Lancton said the data, which was sent around 6 p.m., was the absolute same regurgitation, the same information weve gotten previously that answers none of the questions that we have asked. In any case, Garrison made clear that she would make a ruling if it becomes necessary, but for now would prefer the two sides strike a deal outside her courtroom. "Y'all are close, she said. And if I rule Prop B is unconstitutional or it's been preempted, or if I rule that it isn't, I just set y'all back. I can only make this situation worse." At one point, Garrison asked why Prop B did not include language nullifying the law that ties public safety compensation to that of comparable private sector employees. A bill introduced by state Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, would do exactly that, stripping the language from the local government code and instead requiring that firefighters and police officers receive pay equal to that of comparable fire and police departments. The police unions attorney, Kelly Sandill, contended at Thursdays hearing that state law ties fire and police compensation to that of private sector employees for the sake of stability, arguing that the provision gives employees an idea of what sort of pay they will receive. The police union also has contended that Prop B impairs the unions ability to bargain freely for the fair compensation of its members, saying pay parity undermines and interferes with the unions independent meet-and-confer-style salary negotiations. Fire union officials disagree, saying the two unions still can negotiate on behalf of their constituents because they remain separate bargaining units. Authorities released the identity of a motorcyclist killed after being hit by a METRO bus in the Galleria area Monday afternoon. Dionisios Vythoulkas, 31, was riding his motorcycle westbound along Woodway when a METRO bus turning onto North Post Oak from Woodway's eastbound lanes pulled in front of the bike, METRO Houston officials said. The collision killed Vythoulkas almost instantly and sparked a blaze that was quickly contained by a fire extinguisher and the Houston Fire Department, officials said. BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox The bus was facing east on Woodway in the left-turn lane moments before the crash, METRO officials said. The traffic signal at that intersection allows for east-facing traffic turning north on North Post Oak such as the bus in question to turn on a solid green light, but it must yield to westbound traffic on Woodway. The signal can also stop westbound traffic and allow the north-turning traffic from Woodway to turn safely on a green arrow light. HOUSTON CRIME: Man shoots woman who approached him with Mace, Taser at apartment near NRG Park It was not immediately clear if the bus had a solid green light, meaning the driver should have yielded to the motorcycle, or if the signal was a green arrow, indicating Vythoulkas might have been at fault. METRO officials said the bus driver was employed by First Transit, a Cincinnati-based company with whom METRO contracts some drivers for its many buses. While the METRO Police Department continues its investigation into the crash, including whether or not to charge or cite the driver, it was not immediately clear if the bus driver is back on the streets or faces any sort of disciplinary action or suspension. METRO said any such action would be determined by First Transit. A spokesperson for First Transit was not immediately available. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message MacDermid Alpha to Promote High Reliability Die Attach Solutions at PCIM, Nuremberg Published: 18 April 2019 by Chelsey Drysdale by Chelsey Drysdale (Waterbury, CT USA) April 18th, 2019 The Assembly division of MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions, the world leader in the production of electronics soldering and bonding materials, will showcase its range of high reliability die attach solutions, including ALPHA Argomax Silver Sinter Technology, at the PCIM exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany from the 7th- 9th May 2019. During the show, Gyan Dutt, Global Portfolio Manager, Die Attach Assembly for MacDermid Alpha, will be presenting on the Thermal Resistance of Interconnect Layers in Inverter Power Assembly Stacks at the PCIM Conference. The increasing adoption of wide band gap semiconductors, along with the increasing current density within the power modules in traction inverters, has led to the thermal impedance of the stack becoming more important comments Gyan. "The paper presentation will look at the role of interconnects in power assembly stacks and how this effects the overall thermal resistance. ALPHA Argomax Silver Sinter Technology, which has been specially developed for die attach, package attach and substrate-heat spreader attach in traction inverters and other high voltage applications, provides a dramatic reduction in thermal resistance and inductance. The ALPHA Argomax technology creates extremely high thermal and electrical conductivity silver bonds, explains Julien Joguet, Global Business Market Manager. Die Attach at MacDermid Alpha. The high thermal conductivity delivered by ALPHA Argomax enables individual die to handle much higher levels of current, reducing the total number of die required, and providing the highest levels of efficiency. ALPHA Argomax also provides an unprecedented increase in die attach reliability, more than 30x higher than traditional solder methods. ALPHA Argomax is available in paste, film and preform material types and solutions from Ag, Au and Cu surface finishes for unparalleled flexibility. To speak to one of our technology experts visit MacDermid Alpha in Hall 7 Booth 518 at the PCIM exhibition or visit the Alpha website. About PCIM Date: Tuesday 7th Thursday 9th May Location: Nuremberg, Germany PCIM Europe (Power Conversion and Intelligent Motion) is the international leading exhibition for Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management. Exhibitors from across the globe will present the newest products, trends and developments in the power electronics industry. PCIM Europe is the forum for technologies for the whole value chain of the power electronics industry from the components to the intelligent system. https://pcim.mesago.com/events/en.html About MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions Through the innovation of specialty chemicals and materials under our Alpha, Compugraphics, and MacDermid Enthone brands, MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions provides solutions that power electronics interconnection. We serve all global regions and every step of device manufacturing within each segment of the electronics supply chain. The experts in our Semiconductor Solutions, Circuitry Solutions, and Assembly Solutions divisions collaborate in design, implementation, and technical service to ensure success for our partner clients. Our solutions enable our customers manufacture of extraordinary electronic devices at high productivity and reduced cycle time. Find more at MacDermidAlpha.com. OHCHR Moldova: Apel deschis pentru aplicatii din partea OSC-urilor pentru a beneficia de suport in desfasurarea activitatilor de advocacy la nivel international in contextul celui de-al treilea ciclu de EPU a R. Moldova On a Sunday in early February, Lilian Tahan, executive director of the Brazilian news website Metropoles received a call from the morning editor. News was coming out that Sabrina Bittencourtthe activist behind the recent downfall of famous faith healer Joao Teixeira de Faria, also known as John of God, over sexual assault chargeshad committed suicide. The editor was eager for the story. At first, Tahan wasnt sure. There had been a previous fake report of Bittencourts death. But this time, Bittencourts oldest son and a well-known colleague, the president of an NGO, confirmed that she had died. Before midday, virtually every outlet in the country, including Metropoles, had run the story. (The international press mostly avoided it, bar a few tabloid reports.) When Tahan shared the Metropoles article on a WhatsApp group discussion with sources in the capital, Brasilia, there was a consensus among political figures and analysts: Bittencourt had succumbed to the pressure of a prominent role in Brazils first major #MeToo scandal. She was a sexual assault survivor herself, and the founder of a movement dedicated to reporting instances of abuse by religious leaders, and had gathered hundreds of testimonies from victims against Faria. She often fed information to journalists. And her face was featured on the cover of a national magazine as the woman who had brought down John of God. Death threats had followed. But as the country mourned the activists death and celebrities posted promises, on social media, to carry on her legacy, the precise circumstances around Bittencourts suicide remained mysterious. Had she taken her own life in Spain, according to initial reports, or in Lebanon, as her son later declared? Was there a death certificate? Journalists tried contacting the embassy in Beirut and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but there was no official record of a Brazilian womans death in the first days of February. Reporters with Folha de S. Paulo, the main daily newspaper in Brazil, went to the small town of Indaiatuba, in the state of Sao Paulo, to interview Bittencourts family, but the only story they got centered on how her mother and sisters were warding off attention. Soon, another theory surfaced: Bittencourt was not dead, but living in hiding outside the country under a different identity. Metropoles enlisted Cleuci de Oliveira, a freelance journalist, to investigate. We werent the first to become suspicious that the outcome wasnt the official version, Tahan said, noting that established publications had already flagged inconsistencies in the story. But in the end, everyone had published information that was wrong, so there was a tacit, unspoken discomfort. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Oliveira first learned about Bittencourt while working on a story on how social media helps disseminate fake news about international trafficking of children. In January, the activistwith a scarf around her head and a light on her face, appeared in a six-minute video accusing John of God of running a two-decade-long human trafficking operation that sold babies to families in the US, Australia, and European countries for up to $50,000. (Public prosecutors later opened an investigation based on Bittencourts accounts.) The video looked to me like a horror movievery The Handmaids Talelike, Oliveira says. When you work for a long time as a journalist, you can tell when things dont seem to make a lot of sense. When the news of the suicide came out, Oliveira decided to partner with David Agape, an architecture student who started running an independent fact-checking website. Agape had published what he calls a dossier on Bittencourts life: a compilation of declarations and public appearances the activist made over the years, including a highly publicized episode in which she said she had lost all memory of 11 years of her life. Bittencourt had accused Agape, in a list shared with journalists, of threatening her. He says the allegations against him have no merit; they were Bittencourts way of responding to growing suspicion around the veracity of her stories. Anyone asking questions was being attacked by her supporters on the internet, Agape says. Two months later, Oliveira and Agape published a stirring profile, built on evidence from 50 sources, of Bittencourt in Metropoles. Most people close to the activist, according to the article, dont believe the story of suicide. Bittencourts first husband said he suspects she is with their son in an unknown location. Other family members, speaking anonymously, provided evidence of unsuccessful attempts to obtain reliable information about Bittencourts death. (In a series of statements discrediting the article in the comments section, a user identified as Bittencourts son recently said the family doesnt owe the press explanations and that the concerned authorities in the case have evidence that his mother is dead.) Bruna de Lara, a reporter with The Intercept covering human rights and gender issues, was one of the first to criticize the media coverage of the case. In The Hunting of Sabrina Bittencourts Body, published in February, she argued that publications failed to weigh the value of the story against the safety concerns. If her death is real, the lack of respect for the familys pain is insensitive, to say the least, Lara wrote. If it is not, working to prove that this woman has forged her death so she can stay alive is to put her head back in a guillotine. In the weeks leading up to the news of Bittencourts suicide, Lara had a video call with the activist. She said Bittencourt used to email and text her, as well as other journalists and public defenders, with updates on the accusations involving John of God and general comments about the threats against her, without ever disclosing her location. My initial impression was that I had never seen someone so exhausted, Lara says. She sounded like someone crying for help and her voice and manners matched the situation she was describing. Following the publication of the Metropoles piece, Lara hasnt changed her mind about the medias initial approach to the story. Peoples lives are worth more than the news, she says. My impression was that clicks were worth more than her life. But she also conceded that Oliveira and Agapes investigation, developed over a longer period of time, was well-supported and responsible, even if it didnt provide a definitive answer either way. In the absence of irrefutable evidence, Tahan says that is what she was aiming for. We needed to do exhaustive reporting to get to the point where the readers could say: Shes alive,' Tahan says, adding: Shes going to appear and we need to keep following. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Isabela Dias is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and a fellow with the Global Migration Project. PHILADELPHIA Bill Cosbys insurance company has settled another lawsuit filed by a female accuser a week before the imprisoned comedian was set to give a deposition in the case, prompting Cosby to call the insurer complicit in a scheme to destroy him. Former model Chloe Goins had accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her at a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 2008, when she was about 18. Cosby in a statement Tuesday accused American International Group Inc. of egregious behavior in settling what he called a frivolous suit, and said he could prove he was in New York at the time. Goins lawsuit was filed in state court in Los Angeles. Goins lawyers, Craig Goldenfarb and Spencer Kuvin, said their client was pleased with the confidential settlement. An AIG spokesman said the insurer had no comment. Mr. Cosbys legal team provided medical records, which showed that Mr. Cosby had undergone eye surgery and was in New York, recuperating at his home, at the time of the alleged events, he said in the statement, issued by spokesman Andrew Wyatt. Cosby, 81 is serving a three- to 10-year prison term after a Pennsylvania jury last year found he drugged and molested a woman who worked at his alma mater, Temple University, in 2004. Earlier this month, AIG settled defamation lawsuits filed by seven other Cosby accusers in Massachusetts, after losing a legal battle over their duty to defend Cosby in those cases. Cosby had at least $37 million in insurance coverage through AIG, including two $1 million homeowners policies and a $35 million umbrella policy protecting him from personal injury or property damage claims. AIG argued that the policies did not cover sexual misconduct claims. However, a federal appeals court, in a 2018 decision written by former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who was filling in on the court, said the defamation claims were distinct from the sexual misconduct claims underlying them, and must be covered. The Massachusetts plaintiffs said Cosby and his agents had labeled them liars in public comments denying their accusations. AIG declined to comment Tuesday on its decision to settle the lawsuits or on Cosbys ire. Cosby, in the statement, called AIG complicit in this scheme to destroy me and my family. I can only imagine how terriblyatheyre treating their policyholders, who dont have my means and my resource, Cosby said in the statement. The settlements largely bring a close to what was once a dizzying spate of litigation involving sexual misconduct and defamation accusations lodged against Cosby around the country. There are now two claims remaining in California filed by accusers Judith Huth and Janice Dickinson, Wyatt said. Cosby is appealing his conviction in the Pennsylvania criminal case, insisting the encounter with Andrea Constand was consensual. He had settled a civil lawsuit she filed in 2006, and was arrested nearly a decade later, after a deposition he gave in the case was unsealed, prompting prosecutors to reopen the criminal case. Los Angeles police investigated Goins claims, but said she had come forward months after the six-year statute of limitations ran out. She initially filed the lawsuit against both Cosby and Playboy Mansion owner Hugh Hefner, but Hefner was dismissed from the case before he died in 2017. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are sexual assault victims unless they give their permission, which the Cosby accusers have done. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Facebooks vow to block ads on its platform from being programmed to discriminate based on demographics ended a string of lawsuits against the social network, but companies that allegedly used the site to weed out older applicants for jobs arent off the hook yet. Amazon.com Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. were named as defendants in a 2017 lawsuit by the Communications Workers of America among hundreds of companies nationwide that the union claims have systematically deployed Facebooks algorithms to exclude job seekers over 40. The corporate advertisers urged a federal judge to throw out the lawsuit after Facebook last month announced what it called a historic settlement that will no longer allow housing, employment or credit ads to be targeted to particular users by age, gender or zip codes. The judge said at a hearing Wednesday in San Jose, California, that its peculiar the union didnt name Facebook as a defendant and questioned whether the dispute even belongs in her court given that the companies which are targeted arent local. She also suggested the union might address that flaw by adding a Northern California-based job seeker as a plaintiff. These are very difficult issues, this is a very important case, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman said at the close of the hearing. Freeman said she was not as persuaded by arguments from attorneys for Amazon and T-Mobile that the union lacked standing to bring the case at all even if Northern California is the wrong place to proceed. At the same time, the judge voiced doubt about whether the case can go forward as a class action against hundreds of employers and employment agencies that used age-targeted Facebook ads. I dont see any link among the vast group, she said. In announcing last months settlement, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the changes the company is making are an important step in our broader effort to prevent discrimination and promote fairness and inclusion on Facebook. Separately, the top Democrat and Republican members of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging had sought information from Facebook on how much age-specific job advertising is displayed on its platform. Freeman said that regardless of the settlement Facebook reached, the company may have to take its lumps in the unions separate suit against advertisers. Just because they settled doesnt mean that you cant throw tomatoes at them, she said. When Miami Beach borrowed $162 million from Wall Street this week, it wanted investors to know rising seas and extreme weather are a real risk to the city and that its doing something about it. An increasing number of states and local governments are including climate change in their list of risks investors should consider before buying their bonds. Theres good reason. BlackRock Inc., the worlds largest asset manager, says that within a decade, more than 15 percent of debt in the S&P National Municipal Bond Index will come from regions that could suffer losses from climate change adding up to as much as 1 percent of gross domestic product annually. Climate is becoming a bigger and bigger part of calculating risk in our market, said Eric Glass, a portfolio manager for fixed income impact strategies at AllianceBernstein. We have to take these things into consideration as we build out our portfolios. Miami Beach, which sits on a barrier island off the southeastern coast of Florida, devotes more than two pages in its official bond offering document to climate change, saying city officials are keenly aware of the risks from hurricanes and sea level rise. History Lesson That warning is warranted. The picturesque beach destination along with Sarasota on the states western coast, are among the most exposed cities to climate change in the country, according to an analysis last year by advisory firm Four Twenty Seven. Recent history has investors concerned: Puerto Rico was decimated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, a disaster that all but destroyed the already-bankrupt islands electricity grid and set back efforts to settle with bond holders and to emerge from bankruptcy court. Superstorm Sandy caused some $70 billion in damages when it slammed into the Eastern seaboard in 2012, flooding half of Hoboken and parts of lower Manhattan and Wall Street and inundating subways. California wildfires, which have intensified in severity because of climate change, in part sent PG&E Corp., the states largest power company, into bankruptcy amid mounting liability costs.BlackRock developed a model which uses climate data to analyze the physical risks and probabilities of flooding and hurricane force winds on a granular level across the U.S. The companys research found that Coastal Florida, the Gulf Coast region which was recently battered by Hurricane Harvey and Arizona because of extreme heat, are most susceptible to economic losses from climate change. Our early findings suggest investors must rethink their assessment of vulnerabilities, BlackRocks Global Chief Investment Strategist Richard Turnill wrote in a research note this week. Climate-related risks already threaten portfolios today, and are set to grow. Paying Attention Miami Beach asked voters last year to approve $439 million in general obligation bonds, a fourth of which would be used to directly address the effects of climate change. The measure passed overwhelmingly. A portion of the latest sale will be used for infrastructure and capital improvements, including storm-water, flooding and mitigation efforts. The bonds priced with spreads ranging from 3 basis points for debt maturing in 2020 to 82 basis points on debt with a 3.25 percent coupon maturing in 2049, according to data collected by Bloomberg. San Francisco voters passed a referendum for a revitalized sea wall and Harris County, Texas home to 4.65 million people approved flood bonds a year after Harvey dumped a record amount of water on the region in 2017. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio last month proposed a $10 billion plan to push out the lower Manhattan coastline as much as 500 feet, or two city blocks, to protect from flooding thats expected to become more frequent as global temperatures rise. In the meantime, investors are mindful that municipalities can borrow money for 30 years out and a lot of catastrophic weather can happen in that time. All five of the costliest hurricanes on record Katrina, Harvey, Maria, Sandy and Irma hit in the last 15 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Does Miami Beach look like what we know Miami Beach to look like in 25 or 30 years? Glass said. (The Valley, Anguilla: RAPF Release) Garvin Scott Hapgood, a 44yr old man, was arrested and charged for the offence of manslaughter. Mr. Hapgood appeared before the magistrate court today, Wednesday April 17th, 2019, where an application was made for bail on his behalf. Upon hearing the application, bail was denied and Mr. Hapgood was remanded to Her Majestys Prison to return to court on Thursday, August 22nd, 2019. -end- EARLIER REPORT: RAPF Investigates Homicide Incident At 16:05 on 13th April, the Royal Anguilla Police Force (RAPF) responded to a report of an incident at West End. The incident resulted in the death of one resident of Anguilla. The RAPF are carrying out a thorough investigation into this matter. A family liaison officer has been assigned to the family of the deceased. A pathologist will arrive in Anguilla on 15th April 2019 and will carry out an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Both the Acting Governor and the RAPF would like to express their sincere condolences to family and friends of the deceased and all those who are affected by this incident. A further statement will be issued by the RAPF in due course. The RAPF would like to remind the public that: a) The defendant is entitled to a fair trial; b) There is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty; c) Nothing would be stated or published which would prejudice a fair trial taking place; and d) Section 115(g) of the Criminal Code applies and which provides for an offence in respect of any person who, while a judicial proceeding is pending, makes use of any speech or writing misrepresenting such proceeding or capable of prejudicing any person in favor of or against any parties to such proceeding, or calculated to lower the authority of any person before whom the proceeding is to be held. AKRON, Ohio -- An Akron police officer was hospitalized for minor injuries Thursday afternoon after he was struck in his cruiser while escorting a funeral procession for a woman who police say was killed last week by her firefighter fiance. The procession for Olivia Hamey left Newcomer Funeral Home on North Canton Road just before 2 p.m., Akron police said in a news release. Police previously said Hamey, a 35-year-old Aultman Hospital social worker, was shot in the basement of her home by Twinsburg firefighter Demetrius TJuan Butler. He later shot himself in the chest and died at Summa Akron City Hospital. About a block north of the funeral home, as the procession drove north on Darrow Road, a 21-year-old Akron woman driving a Chevrolet Malibu struck the officers marked cruiser, police reported. A woman struck a marked Akron police cruiser Thursday afternoon during the funeral procession for Olivia Hamey. With damage to the drivers side door, the officer was initially trapped in the car, police said. First responders were able to remove him from the cruiser and bring him to Akron City Hospital. The woman and her passenger were brought to Cleveland Clinic Akron General with minor injuries, police said. The driver was cited for left turn into approaching traffic, driving on a suspended drivers license and right-of-way for a funeral procession, according to police. She also had a warrant for driving on a suspended license from the Copley Police Department, police said. To comment on this story, visit Thursdays crime and courts comment section. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.coms Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. CLEVELAND, Ohio The Cleveland Orchestra has returned from its 2019 Asia Tour, and judging by the reviews that have appeared and been translated so far, it was a successful trip. Below are excerpts from online Chinese and Portuguese articles about the early legs of the Cleveland Orchestras journey. Translations are approximate. The Cleveland Orchestra also produced its own tour diaries, a video from which appears above. MACAO: The Jornal Tribuna de Macau, a Portuguese-language paper, noted a full house at the Macao Cultural Center and described the orchestras performances of Beethovens Egmont Overture and Prokofievs Symphony No. 3 with music director Franz Welser-Most as irreproachable, citing in particular a thunderous moment of musical depth in the symphony. Performing Beethovens Emperor Piano Concerto No. 5, pianist Daniil Trifonov struck the paper as unquestionably the most amazing pianist of our time. The concert, it reported, came to an end with the audience applauding for a long time." TAIPEI: Liberty Times writer Ling Meixue reported applause of nearly 15 minutes from an audience fascinated by the orchestras performance and moved by the delicate balance and ultimate acoustic effect at Taipeis National Concert Hall. Meixue also reported on Welser-Mosts rehearsal process with pianist Trifonov in Beethovens Emperor Concerto and quoted first associate concertmaster Peter Otto about his varied roles in Strauss Ein Heldenleben. Radio Taiwan International noted the rarity of the occasion: the orchestras first appearance in Taiwan in 32 years. It cited Trifonovs encore, the fourth movement from Beethovens Piano Sonata No. 18, as the heart of his performance. It also published an interview with Welser-Most wherein the maestro reflected on the background to Strausss Ein Heldenleben, his long and still-developing relationship with the Cleveland Orchestra, and the art of conducting. The China Times published a review. Critic Luo Yijun said the orchestra overall is elegant and balanced, full of European style and still retains the pure and innocent sound cultivated by former music director George Szell. Trifonovs performance of Beethoven was three-dimensional and impeccable, Yijun said, his encore enough to conjure goosebumps. The orchestra, meanwhile, evinced enthusiasm for restraint and a strong humanistic quality in Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 5. PEPPER PIKE, Ohio -- The city will bury no more people in its two cemeteries. At Wednesdays City Council meeting (April 17), legislation was passed to close the city-owned cemeteries, to reserve no more plots within them and to provide refunds to those who had already reserved spaces. Pepper Pike owns two cemeteries, both on Pinetree Road. One is located between Lander Circle and Lewis Drive, and the other to the east, just west of Ohio 91. Mayor Richard Bain said the cemetery between Lander Circle and Lewis Drive has been closed for some time and has not accepted burials since well before he became mayor. The other cemetery, which some people are not aware exists, is farther east on Pinetree, up a hill, he said. "Its a small cemetery. It has a lot of very old burials in it. Each of them have really historic grave sites in them. The original settlers of this area -- the township of Orange, the (then) village of Pepper Pike, and certainly the up-the-hill (cemetery to the east), the city of Pepper Pike, he said. When the cemeteries have been active, city service department workers dug graves and buried people. It turns out both cemeteries are completely filled, which created a situation where it became obvious to us we needed to stop accepting any reservations, Bain said. Bain said he spoke about the cemeteries with Service Director Robert Girardi, and it was decided to use sonar to determine where graves were located. Because some of the graves date to the early 19th century, markers in some cases have been worn down to nothing. Some people may have been buried without markers. The sonar device showed that both cemeteries were virtually filled to capacity. Bain said it is wise to close the cemeteries to future burials to ensure that no grave sites are disturbed by additional burials. Girardi told council that burials have been rare in recent years. Weve only had three or four burials in the 20 years Ive been here, Girardi said. There are, however, 44 people who over the years have paid the city $250 each to reserve a burial site at the eastern cemetery. Some of those people may be deceased and buried elsewhere. The city has a list of those who have paid the $250 reservation fee and will return that money. Certainly, well refund their money. Well return it to them with some modest additional funds, Bain said. The city will return as much as $350 to those with reservations, which could total as much as $15,400. Bain said the only exceptions would be for those who have already reserved a space and who are cremated. As cremated remains require less space, these people could still be buried in the eastern Pinetree Road cemetery. We think this is a fair resolution for those people, Bain said of the legislation. The city is most comfortable closing the cemeteries and not continuing the situation. Because records have been lost and sonar indicates people were buried in certain parts of the cemeteries where markers dont exist, Bain said, I would like to undertake a project where we can continue searching who might be buried in unmarked spots. Although Bain said he doesnt know how successful such work might be, he said it would be a worthwhile project to investigate. He said he will talk to some local genealogists about perhaps working on such a project. New playground equipment Also at its Wednesday meeting, council approved legislation for the city to enter into an agreement with Snider Recreation Inc. to install new playground equipment, replacing the old equipment at Pepper Pike Park. Girardi said that the new equipment will make the playground easier for all to use. We wanted to make this more handicap friendly than our current playground is, Girardi said. And well also have the Poured-in-Place (rubberized) surface, so well no longer have mulch out there. The playground will also include three pieces of outdoor cardio equipment for adults, which will be located close by the childrens play area. The total cost of the new multi-generational playground additions is $169,185. Of that amount, an Ohio Department of Natural Resources Nature Works Grant will pay for $126,889. The citys share of the cost is $42,296. Girardi said he would like to get the new equipment installed by early June. Read more news from the Chagrin Solon Sun here. SEVEN HILLS, Ohio -- One of the hottest tickets in Seven Hills every spring is an evening filled with mingling and sampling -- the Taste of Seven Hills. The ninth annual event takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. April 25 at the Seven Hills Community Recreation Center. Its grown year after year, with more restaurants added to the evening, Seven Hills Director of Community Service Tony Terry said. Its different from, say, Fall Fest or Home Days in that its more of an adult event. We offer beer and wine. Considering seating is limited to 265 people in the recreation center, its very popular. In fact, weve sold it out five years in a row. Hopes are high that the event will again sell out. This years restaurant lineup features An Occasional Flavor, Dairy Queen, Georges Deli, Gioninos, Hokulia, Jaipur Junction, Jersey Mikes Subs, Little Birdie Wine Nest, Longhorn, Marge Walter Caterers, Mission BBQ, Piada Italian Street Grill, Sammys of Parma, Scratch, Si Senor Mexican Restaurant, Stancatos Italian Restaurant, Swensons, Tavern of Independence, Tonys Family Restaurant and Zoup! We do have raffle baskets and the nonprofit North Coast Red Devils will be selling 50/50 and sideboards, Terry said. Its a fundraiser for Home Days, so we do our very best to generate the most we can. On average, the city raises roughly $6,500 toward its annual summer soiree. The Taste of Seven Hills is a great opportunity for you to come and enjoy some fine foods and the company of people in your community, Terry said. City Council President Anthony D. Biasiotta, who said the Taste of Seven Hills is one of his favorite events of the year, commended Terry for putting on a topnotch affair. For only $30, we get to sample many different types of cuisine under one roof, Biasiotta said. In addition, we get to enjoy this awesome variety of food with our friends and neighbors. I encourage anyone who enjoys sampling food and interacting with others to attend this family-friendly event. Tickets are $30 per person, which includes all tasting samples, as well as beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages. A limited number of seats are available. Call 216-525-6230. Read more news from the Parma Sun Post here. CLEVELAND, Ohio A Medina native whom officials said claimed to be a missing Illinois boy who disappeared in 2011 was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements to the FBI and aggravated identity theft. Brian Rini, 23, was charged Wednesday in a federal court in Cincinnati. He has been in custody since earlier this month. Federal authorities said Rini claimed he was Timmothy Pitzen, a missing Aurora, Illinois boy, when police in Newport, Kentucky approached him on April 3. At the time, complainants said Rini was wandering the street and looked confused and as if he needed assistance Rini told an officer he was kidnapped as a child and he just wanted to go home, according to an affidavit written by a Cincinnati police officer earlier this month. The officer took Rini to Cincinnati Childrens Hospital after Rini complained of abdominal pain. He reiterated his story to FBI agents and said he had been held captive by two men, who sexually abused him for years while being held captive, according to the affidavit. Rini told the agents he escaped from a nearby motel. But he refused to provide the agents with fingerprints, the affidavit said. He did allow investigators to take a swab from his cheek for DNA testing. That testing showed he wasnt Timmothy, the affidavit stated. The DNA, however, did match Rini, who had his DNA on file from felony convictions in Medina County, including a recent 18-month prison stint for trashing a $400,000 Brunswick Hills home that he pretended to be interested in buying in order to gain access to the home. Records show Rini was released from prison March 7. After the DNA test came back, Rini again insisted he was Timmothy, court records say. After being confronted with the DNA test results, though, he immediately admitted he was not the missing boy and had watched an ABC News 20/20 story about the case, the affidavit said. Timmothy vanished in 2011 after his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, pulled him out of kindergarten early one day, took him on a two-day road trip to the zoo and a water park, and then killed herself at a hotel. She left a note saying that her son was safe with people who would love and care for him, and added: You will never find him. Rinis case attracted national attention. An aggravated identity theft conviction requires a federal judge to sentence a defendant to two years in prison. That time must be consecutive to the sentence of any other conviction in the same case. Rini is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Thursdays crime and courts comments section. CLEVELAND, Ohio A homeless man slashed the tires on a womans car after she caught him staring into her 14-year-old daughters bedroom window, police said. Brandon D. Hope, 39, is charged with voyeurism in the incident, which occurred outside a home on East 99th Street near St. Clair Avenue, according to court records. He is being held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on $75,000 bond. The mother reported April 10 that she caught a homeless man staring into her daughters bedroom window. The man had also been seen staring at the girl at a bus stop, court records say. She told police that she believed the man was some sort of pervert. She was unsure if he had spied on her daughter while the girl was naked, police reports say. The woman said the man had been staying at a vacant home on the street, and that his face was covered with a mask when she caught him staring in the girls window. She confronted the man, who told her B---h, I got something for you. She later saw him slash three tires on her 1981 Pontiac Bonneville with a knife, police reports say. Officers found Hope a short time later and arrested him. They found a knife in his left pocket, police reports say. Hope waived his right to a preliminary hearing during his arraignment Saturday in Cleveland Municipal Court. The case was bound over to a Cuyahoga County grand jury. Hope was previously convicted in a 2015 case for breaking into a different home on the same street and threatening residents with a knife. He pleaded guilty to aggravated menacing, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, court records say. His criminal history also includes a 2018 conviction for assault in Richland County. He was released from prison Feb. 27, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records. To comment on this story, visit Wednesdays crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio The president of AFSCME Ohio Council 8 accused Cuyahoga County leaders Thursday of firing unionized medical staff at the county jails without due process and of unfair labor practices. John Lyall made the accusations in a letter to County Council President Dan Brady, responding to a letter Brady sent to another union leader Wednesday regarding nurses at the jails. Lyall alleges that the county failed to bargain solely with AFSCME, which represents some nurses at the jails, because Brady had written David Wondolowski, executive secretary at the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, about the transition away from a fully-unionized jail medical staff. Brady disputed the notion that unfair labor practices occurred because the administration of County Executive Armond Budish negotiates union contracts, not County Council. Brady also said that providing information, as he did with Wondolowski, does not constitute a negotiation. Lyall in his letter accused Brady of failing to share the information he sent to Wondolowski with AFSCME. An email obtained through a public records request shows that Brady sent the same information to Lyall on Thursday morning. Lyall also accused the county of firing medical staff without due process, though nurses have not been fired to date. Both labor leaders have raised concerns with the fact that County Council and Budish approved a contract to replace the countys unionized jail medical staff with a combination of unionized and non-unionized staff from MetroHealth System. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees , announced plans to protest the move by picketing April 28 outside the Cuyahoga County Democratic Partys annual dinner in Cleveland. That would likely cost the dinner its headline speaker, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, whose spokeswoman said Wednesday that Harris would not cross a union picket line. The county continues to employ unionized nurses at the county jails during the transition to an all-MetroHealth staff. Brady reported in his Wednesday letter that 37 of the 49 county health-care workers who applied for new MetroHealth jail positions have been offered jobs at MetroHealth. For those not offered jobs by MetroHealth, or for those who declined those offers, the county will offer them jobs elsewhere in the county, spokeswoman Eliza Wing said Thursday. If workers dont take up those options, the county will work with a placement service to help them find different jobs, Wing said. All workers, whether they go to MetroHealth, other county departments, or leave altogether, will receive what Brady described as a significant retention and severance package. The transitional contract that would include that package is in the works. One jail nurse union has already approved it, but AFSCME has not, Wing said. Both contracts are subject to approval by County Council. Our focus all along has been to bring quality health care to the jails through this marriage with our partner, the county public hospital, Brady said. And we are relentless in trying to make sure that nobody is left behind that is an employee of Cuyahoga County. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Rep. Ilhan Omars flippant comment minimizing the 9/11 terrorists attacks wasnt taken out of context, as some Democratic presidential candidates, members of the media and her other supporters continue to falsely claim as they defend her, instead of condemning her latest insensitive remark that hurt the families of 9/11 victims. The cartoon in this post is a colorized and updated version of my black & white cartoon, recognizing first responders, that was first published in The Plain Dealer in 2001, following the 9/11 attacks. Its unfortunate that Rep. Omars callous comment, and Democrats tone deaf response to it, gave me reason to update the cartoon. Speaking before the Council of American-Islamic Relations banquet, Omar said CAIR was created after after 9/11 because it recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. CAIR was actually founded in 1994. It would be fair and accurate to say Rep. Omar was taken out of context if she had continued on and condemned the 9/11 attacks and the terrorists who had carried them out, she did not. I read the transcript of her entire speech to confirm that she had not. Rep. Omars CAIR speech spoke out, justifiably, about discrimination against Muslims, especially following the 9/11 attacks. But nowhere in her speech did she condemn the 9/11 terrorists or hold them accountable for contributing to the unjustified discrimination against law-abiding Muslims contributing to communities in a positive way. Not surprisingly, President Trump pounced on Omars comment. Trump posted a video inter-splicing Omars comments with footage of the 9/11 attacks. The New York Post cover featured the image of the burning twin towers next to Omars quote. When I heard and read Omars comment, the first thing I thought of was all the first responders who did something," and my cartoon from the time recognizing them. The first responders who did something, many of whom died doing something or are still suffering from the illnesses they contracted by doing something selfless for their fellow men and women under attack by some people as Omar described the 9/11 terrorists. Democrat politicians and some in the media, were quick to condemn the response from Trump and the New York Post. But in doing so, few acknowledged Omars comment was, at the very least, poorly phrased. Few noted that her comment had hurt the families of 9/11 victims and survivors still suffering from 9/11 induced illness. While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Trumps Omar response, Pelosi admitted to CNN that she had not yet read or heard Omars offending comment. Rep. Omar has been defiant, refusing to apologize and claiming that Trumps response has led to threats of physical harm and violence against her, with many of the threats actually referencing Trumps response. Threats against Omar are, of course, to be condemned. Yet Omar refuses to acknowledge the role her own callous comments have made in making her a target, as much as Trumps tweets have. Just as she failed to hold the 9/11 terrorists accountable for contributing to the unjustified discrimination against Muslims. Rep. Omars CAIR comment, and refusal to apologize for it, further calls into question the sincerity of her belated apology for her previous chronic use of anti-Semitic tropes. CAIR is as tone-deaf as Omar and some Democrats have been about how Omar just plays into Trumps hands, helping his reelection bid. Some of these institutional Democratic leaders cant find, frankly, the spine to speak up quickly and strongly in defense of one of their colleagues. If we dont find alignment soon, knowing that Donald Trump is already passing Democratic candidates in his own fund-raising, I worry that we are looking at a second term because the leaders of our party did not do the right thing, said CAIR spokeswoman Zahra Billoo. Democratic Party alignment with anti-Semitic trope users and 9/11 minimizers is not that kind of alignment Democrats will need to defeat Trump. Rep. Omar, who is portraying herself as the victim, needs to show the spine Billoo talked about, and do the right thing by apologizing to the real victims -- the 9/11 victims, the survivors, the first responders and their families. Instead of threatening violence against Rep. Omar, some people can do something in Minnesota by simply voting her out of office. Anti-Semitic trope users and 9/11 minimizers is not the kind of diversity the U.S. Congress needs. (ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - Italy rose from 46th to 43rd in the latest press freedom standings from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), overtaking the United States. Italy had been 52nd in 2017. The US dropped from 45th to 48th. leading the French NGO's rankings again was Norway followed by Finland, up two places, and Sweden, down one. North Korea and Turkmenistan came last. RSF added that almost 20 Italian journalists were under police protection form the Mafia and other threats, double the previous year. CLEVELAND, Ohio A suspect who authorities believe might be dangerous and suicidal escaped from an ambulance Wednesday afternoon near downtown. Jonathan Luton, 35, of Lakewood, was being transported to a psychiatric facility when he managed to get out of the ambulance near the intersection of Chester Avenue and East 130th Street, U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott says. He was wearing only a hospital gown. Elliott says authorities suspect Luton, who is 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, was high on PCP earlier in the day and that he has mental issues. Luton was being held on warrants for aggravated burglary and aggravated assault. He is a suspect in an incident Saturday at a home on Irvington Terrace near East 70th Street, in Clevelands Central neighborhood. According to police, Luton used an ax to break into the home and threatened the residents inside. His girlfriend told police he had been high on a mixture of marijuana and PCP earlier in the day. Anyone with information can call 911 or the tip hotline at 1-866-4WANTED. To comment on this story, visit Wednesdays crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio Cleveland rapper Q-Money is accused of killing a fellow up-and-coming rapper from Cleveland on Monday in Georgia, police said. Qamar Williams, 23, of Avon, is charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of a 24-year-old man in Dekalb County, about 10 miles outside Atlanta, according to Dekalb County police spokesman Sgt. J.D. Spencer. Williams, whose only felony conviction in Cuyahoga County is a 2014 drug trafficking conviction, is not in police custody and Dekalb County police are searching for him. Dekalb County police have not yet released the identity of the man who was killed, but a police report says that both men knew each other because they are hip-hop artists from Cleveland. Spencer said they are awaiting confirmation that the mans family has been notified before releasing his identity. The man was fatally shot in the right side of his head, according to the police report. The shooting happened inside a home about 8:30 a.m. Monday a Decatur home. A man who lived in the home told police he heard a gunshot, grabbed his gun and ran downstairs, the police report says. He told police that he saw Williams with a gun in his hand standing over the 24-year-old mans body, police reports say. He asked Williams what happened and Williams only stuttered I several times, according to police reports. The 24-year-old man ran upstairs and woke up a 23-year-old roommate, telling him that Q had done something, police reports say. The two men ran downstairs and confronted Williams. The 23-year-old man took the gun from Williams and the two men forced him out of the house and locked the door, according to the police reports. They called a friend, who showed up later with a gun, according to the police report. Officers reported finding the 24-year-old man face down in the living room near several fired bullet casings and two guns in the kitchen. The 23-year-old man told police that the 24-year-old man who was killed is his cousin and had been living at his home for about three or four days, police reports say. The police report also says that the home was equipped with working surveillance cameras. Williams is rapper who became popular with the release of his song Work that garnered more than 8.5 million views on YouTube. He inked a record deal last year with Warner Bros. Records and Think Its A Game Records. Violence broke out in Cleveland while Williams filmed his first music video under the new label, a song called Neat. Williams filmed at several locations in Cleveland on July 25, 2018, including at Mark Tromba Park and London Liquor Store and St. Clair Avenue near East 162nd Street. His last stop that day was filming in the early morning hours outside the DPG Dog Pound Bar on St. Clair and East 186th. Dozens of people followed him to each site, including the bar. Williams left, but about 100 of the followers remained at the bar. Two women got into a fight, another fight broke out and gunfire erupted, according to police and the surveillance video of the incident reviewed by cleveland.com. Seven people were injured by gunfire, including 27-year-old Cortez Ruffin, who died days after the shooting. Two people have been arrested in connection with the case, but charges were eventually dropped against both. Williams in the aftermath of the shooting told cleveland.com that he disturbed by the shooting and apologized to the victims. He said at the time he was particularly upset because he makes a point to not show prop guns in his videos. He said he pushed to have his first video recorded in the neighborhood where he grew up instead of Atlanta or Los Angeles. Williams grew up in the St. Clair-East 185th Street neighborhood and at the Park Place apartment complex on East Boulevard and East 105th Street. He graduated from Euclid High School in 2015. His popularity was grew until he was arrested in 2014 for drug trafficking in Cleveland and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He said he missed the birth of his son while he was serving his sentence and decided to leave the drug trade. Williams worked as a lifeguard at the Glenville Rec Center for a short time before Work caught fire. He also released the popular Q-Money Challenge, a dance-off that had people submit videos of themselves dancing to his music for $7,000 in prizes. Neat was released on Aug. 18, and his mixtape, Aint St Funny was released later that month. Warner Bros. Records representatives did not return messages seeking comment. To comment on this post, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio Cleveland rapper Q-Money turned himself into police Thursday on charges that he shot and killed a fellow Cleveland rapper in Georgia, police said. Qamar Williams, 23, of Avon, was booked into the Dekalb County Jail about 3:25 p.m. Thursday on a murder charge, according to jail records. Dekalb County police spokesman Sgt. J.D. Spencer said Williams turned himself in. Williams is accused of shooting Calvin Chappell, 24, of Euclid, according to police and the Dekalb County Medical Examiner. Chappell grew up in Cleveland and the two knew each other because they were both hip-hop artists in the Cleveland area, according to police reports and public records. The shooting happened about 8:30 a.m. Monday at the home of Chappells cousin in Decatur, about 10 miles outside Atlanta, according to police. Williams is accused of shooting Chappell in the right side of his head. A man who lived in the home told police he heard a gunshot, grabbed his gun and ran downstairs, the police report says. He told police that he saw Williams with a gun in his hand standing over the 24-year-old mans body, police reports say. He asked Williams what happened and Williams only stuttered I several times, according to police reports. The 24-year-old man ran upstairs and woke up a 23-year-old roommate, telling him that Q had done something, police reports say. The two men ran downstairs and confronted Williams. The 23-year-old man took the gun from Williams and the two men forced him out of the house and locked the door, according to the police reports. They called a friend, who showed up later with a gun, according to the police report. Officers reported that they found Chappell face down in the living room near several fired bullet casings. They also recovered two guns from the kitchen. The 23-year-old man told police that Chappell is his cousin and had been living at his home for about three or four days, police reports say. The police report also says that the home was equipped with working surveillance cameras. Williams was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor gaming violation on March 13 in Cleveland. He is accused of ushering his 14-year-old brother into Cleveland Jack Casino past security, according to court records. Williams did not show up for an April 11 arraignment in Cleveland Municipal Court and a warrant was issued. He was also convicted of drug trafficking in Cleveland in 2014 and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Seven people on July 26, 2018 were shot in Cleveland, including one who died, at the filming of Williams rap video for his song Neat. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County Council President Dan Brady defended council on Wednesday after labor unions threatened to publicly protest the decision to replace union nurses at the county jails with union and non-union nurses from MetroHealth System. Brady sent a letter to David Wondolowski, executive secretary at the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, assuring the labor leader that the county is helping the affected union nurses. In a telephone interview with cleveland.com, Brady said he wrote the letter in response to concerns raised by Wondolowski about the nurses. The letter went out the same day that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents some of the nurses, announced plans to picket April 28 outside the Cuyahoga County Democratic Partys annual dinner at Hilton Downtown Cleveland. The picket would likely cost the county its headline speaker, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, who is running for president. A spokeswoman for the California Democrat said Wednesday that Harris would not cross a union picket line. Earlier this month, County Council approved a contract that turns health care at the jails over to MetroHealth. The administration of County Executive Armond Budish proposed the move to address health-care problems at the jails, where eight inmates died last year. The countys current health care staff is comprised of 18 registered nurses represented by the United Auto Workers and 36 licensed practical nurses and support staff represented by AFSCME. MetroHealths licensed practical nurses are unionized, but its other positions are not. In his letter to Wondolowski, Brady said he remains a strong supporter of labor, but believes the best course for providing high-quality medical care in the jails is by partnering with MetroHealth. Brady reported that 37 of the 49 county health-care workers who applied for the new MetroHealth jail positions have been offered jobs by MetroHealth. He said he also is working with Budish to provide other job opportunities for workers not hired by MetroHealth. He pledged that he and the rest of County Council will set aside money so other displaced jail employees can be hired in other county departments that need them. Brady further said that the county is in the final stages of negotiating a significant retention and severance package for the medical unit workers. This kind of generous separation package is very rare and has never been provided to any other bargaining unit since the creation of the current form of county government, the letter states. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Planting thousands of trees, installing more charging stations for electric vehicles and establishing a game-changing power supply are all part of Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budishs initiatives for 2019. Budish used his State of the County address Thursday to provide new details about two of his initiatives combating climate change at the local level and creating a redundant power grid for downtown businesses. The executive also told the crowd of mostly movers and shakers at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland about the steps his administration has taken to address problems at the county jails, where eight inmates died last year. Noticeably absent from his 45-minute speech and about 15 minutes of questions from the crowd was any mention of the ongoing corruption investigation focusing on the jails and the countys troubled IT Department. Here are some takeaways from the event, sponsored by the City Club of Cleveland: Addressing climate change: Budish said his seven-pronged effort is aimed at mitigating the local effects of climate change, such as higher average annual temperatures and increased frequency of violent storms. Tree canopy: Budish will ask County Council for $5 million over the next five years to plant thousands of trees in an effort to increase the countys tee canopy from 14 percent to 30 percent by the end of 2040. The Department of Public Works will be asked to include a tree plan on any road and bridge projects. Budish said more trees will mitigate higher temperatures, lessen the need for air conditioning and improve health issues. Green bank: Announced earlier this year, the county will help home and business owners finance the up-front costs of installing solar panels. Greenway: Budish wants to connect the trails and pathways, such as the Towpath Trail, that already exist in the county to make it easier for residents to walk, bike, or ride scooters from point to point. The county Planning Commission is developing a greenway plan. Public transit assistance: The county will give preference to economic and community development projects that locate within walking distance to public transit to encourage. The county will also support transit-connected job hubs to encourage businesses to locate close to public transit. The Department of Development will develop an incentive program that could, for example, include generous loan terms for new and expanding businesses, Budish said. Electric-vehicle charging stations: Budish said he will accelerate the creation of electric vehicle charging stations, as only about 50 public stations exist in the county. Synchronize traffic lights: To curb carbon emissions from idling vehicles, the county is partnering with Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency to better time traffic lights. A previous pilot project on Cedar Avenue and Pearl Road reduced fuel use by 538,000 gallons and reduced commute times by 755,000 hours, Budish said. Solar energy: Already announced by the county is the addition of solar panels to three county buildings. Budish said the county will make available to any local government the same reduced pricing the county is receiving on solar energy. Micro-power grid: Budish offered additional details about his plan to create a redundant power grid for downtown businesses. He described it as a power island that is separate from the rest of the grid. As described in the regions unsuccessful bid for Amazons second headquarters, the so-called microgrid would use electricity generated by Cleveland Thermal, a private company which recently converted its power facility from coal to a natural gas. That energy would flow to a grid connected to Cleveland Public Power's system, the citys public utility, which would deliver the electricity. Microgrid boundaries: A video shown during the speech indicated the grid would be bordered on the north by Lake Erie, on the west and south by the Cuyahoga River, and on the east by East 55th Street. Constructing a microgrid is one way for Cuyahoga County to distinguish itself from other locations as it seeks to bring more business and more jobs to the area, Budish said. Budish hopes to attract businesses in areas that rely heavily on a constant stream of power, such as health care, manufacturing and financial services. CLEVELAND, Ohio Two Cuyahoga County Jail officers were indicted on Thursday, accused of beating an inmate bloody and blocking a nurse from providing the inmate medical care after the attack, according to prosecutors. Officer John Wilson, 37, is charged with felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and first-degree misdemeanor counts of interfering with civil rights and unlawful restraint. Cpl. Jason Jozwiak, 36, is charged with unlawful restraint and interfering with civil rights, both first degree misdemeanors. Both are scheduled for May 2 arraignment hearings. The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor and Ohio Attorney Generals Office have now secured indictments against eight people involved in the jail during an investigation that began looking into corruption in the countys IT department and has since pivoted to the jail, where eight inmates died in 2018. Wilson attacked the inmate and Jozwiak blocked a nurse from treating the inmate and lying to investigators, according to the indictment. Wilson attacked Joshua Castleberry, a 21-year-old veteran of the United States Army, on Feb. 8, 2018, the indictment says. Castleberry was in the jail after his arrest on charges of domestic violence and attempted assault of a police officer. Castleberrys attorney at the time, Scott Hurley, said on Thursday he that hes pleased the case is under investigation. Im grateful that his injuries and this case was exposed," Hurley said. Hopefully this will stop this terrible nonsense from ever happening again. He said Castleberry suffered from mental illnesses and described him as a shell-shocked veteran. He also said he was disturbed by Wilsons treatment of his client. Wilson was part of the jails Special Response Team, which came under scrutiny after a Nov. 21 U.S. Marshals report detailed instances of excessive use-of-force against inmates. He was attacked by the goon squad within days of him entering Veterans Court, Hurley said. Hopefully that culture will wither and die and a more therapeutic one will grow in its place. Wilson punched Castleberry in the head several times. He knocked out two of Castleberrys teeth and got another tooth lodged in Castleberrys nasal cavity, according to the indictment. He also broke Castleberrys nose, the indictment says. The guards strapped Castleberry to a restraint chair and placed him in small isolation cell, according to the indictment. Jozwiak refused to allow a nurse to provide medical attention to the bloodied Castleberry, the indictment says. Jozwiak lied to investigators Wednesday about being in the isolation room with Castleberry and preventing the nurse from helping him, according to the indictment. Wilson wrote in his incident report on the day of the attack that Castleberry asked him for an extra sandwich as the officer searched his cell. Wilson refused and wrote that Castleberry became belligerent. He wrote that he ordered Castleberry to stand against the wall and he refused. Wilson then shot pepper-spray Castleberrys face. Wilson said Castleberry punched him in the forehead and that he slammed Castleberry to the ground, Wilsons report says. Another SRT officer arrived and shot more pepper-spray in Castleberrys face. Wilson wrote he punched Castleberry four times in the back before handcuffing him, the report says. Wilson has worked at the jail for five years and made $48,526 per year. Jozwiak is an 11-year veteran corrections officer who made $60,600 annually, Cuyahoga County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said. Wilson and Jozwiak join several others charged in the on-going investigation. Former Warden Eric Ivey was also indicted Thursday for ordering corrections officers to turn off their body cameras during an investigation into the death of inmate Joseph Arquillo, according to court documents. Former Director of Corrections Ken Mills was indicted in February on charges that he lied to investigators about his role in blocking the hiring of nurses at the jail. Medical care at the jail has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the inmates death and a U.S. Marshals report on the jail that detailed poor medical care for inmates, along with civil rights violations and inhumane conditions. One former and four current corrections officers were indicted on April 8 in three separate incidents. Martin Devring, 60, is charged with violating civil rights and dereliction of duty after being accused of ignoring Arquillo as he was dying in the jail. He has since been fired. Cpl. Idris-Farid Clark and Officer Robert Marsh are accused of strapping a 29-year-old woman to a restraint chair, pepper-spraying her face and punching her in the head. And Cpl. Nicholas Evans and officer Timothy Dugan are accused of strapping an inmate to a restraint chair and punching him repeatedly in the head. The attack caused a concussion, investigators said. Evans turned off his body camera before attacking the inmate, the indictment says. LONDON, Ohio Police say a man shot and killed a woman and her daughter Wednesday before driving off and then taking his own life. Yaisa Cordero, 40, and Joceline Cordero, 25, died of gunshot wounds outside a home in London, WCMH Channel 4 reports. Police tell 10tv.com the suspect, James Evans Jr., 54, an ex-boyfriend of Yaisa Cordero, was seen arguing with the women outside the home. He drove off in a pickup truck. Evans was later found dead in the truck behind a church just outside of London, WCMH reports. Police believe Evans shot himself. London police, the Madison County Sheriffs Office and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation are working on the case, reports say. London is located about 30 miles southwest of Columbus. To comment on this story, visit the crime and courts comments page. WHITEHALL, Ohio A woman released on a bond after being arrested on an OVI charge apparently didnt learn her lesson. Kayana Jones, 40, was arrested again on suspicion of drunken driving about 15 minutes later after she was involved in a road-rage incident, police tell 10tv.com. It happened early Tuesday morning. Jones initially was stopped at 1:40 a.m. Tuesday for a traffic violation and was arrested after she failed sobriety tests, Fox 28 reports. She was charged with OVI and then released on bond to a sober relative at about 3 a.m. About 15 minutes later, a police officer pulled into a parking lot to investigate a possible road rage incident and ended up arresting Jones after learning she again had been driving while under the influence. This time she was taken to the Franklin County Jail, WCMH Channel 4 reports. To comment on this story, visit the crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, OhioLast week, Fisher-Price recalled 4.7 million of its Newborn Rock n Play Sleepers after reports of babies dying in their sleep in the product and a growing call for their removal from the market from pediatrics and consumer safety groups. But the Rock n Play, an inclined seat marketed by Fisher-Price as a way to help babies sleep through the night, is only one of many such products that pose a similar risk to infants, say local and national experts. From 2013 to 2017, at least 31 Ohio babies died while sleeping in products like the Rock n Play and in other sitting devices such as bouncers, swings and car seats, according to data gathered by local fetal infant mortality review (FIMR) and child fatality review (CFR) teams across the state and aggregated by the Ohio Department of Health. About 690 infant sleep-related deaths were reviewed during that time, which is about 91 percent of total sleep-related deaths. In Cuyahoga County, nine babies have died in products like these since 2008, including one in a Rock n Play, according to the county board of health. In the past three years, eight babies in Franklin County have died while sleeping in Rock n Plays, bouncy chairs, on nursing pillows, or in car seats outside of the car, according to that countys CFR team. Two babies in Butler County died while sleeping propped up on Boppy nursing pillows in the past few years, according to the county board of health. The Rock n Play has never been recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for safe sleep, says Lorrie Considine, Cuyahoga County Board of Health FIMR Program Manager. Nothing should be at an angle, there should be no padding. The only safe way for a baby to sleep in the first year is flat on the back, with no extra bedding or pillows, in a crib, Pack n Play, or a safety-tested bassinet, according to the AAP. The issue with an incline The problem with using the Rock n Play in the first few months of life, says Cleveland Clinic Childrens pediatrician Richard So, is that it places the baby at an incline during sleep. Because babies have big heads and weak neck muscles at this time, they can end up in a chin-to-chest position if theyre sitting or propped up. Being inclined, the chin comes down, which can make [them] more likely to close [their] airway and have some sort of incident, said So, noting that when performing CPR, the chin is lifted to open the airway for this very reason. When the baby is older and can roll over, the risk in the Rock n Play and other similar inclined sleepers, is that if theyre not restrained, the babys face may end up trapped in the material on the side of the product. Thats what appears to have happened in some of the cases reported to the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), which on April 5 warned consumers of 10 infant deaths since 2015 after the infants rolled from their back to their stomach or side, while unrestrained. All 10 infants were 3 months or older. On April 8, Consumer Reports published an article documenting 32 deaths in the product, including babies younger than 3 months. On April 9, the AAP called on the CPSC to immediately recall the Rock n Play Sleeper. This product is deadly and should be recalled immediately, AAP President Dr. Kyle Yasuda, said in the release. When parents purchase a product for their baby or child, many assume that if its being sold in a store, it must be safe to use. Tragically, that is not the case. The incline hazard is the same for babies sleeping in other products, too, says So, including bouncy seats and swings. And car seats, warns Considine. Almost half of the infant deaths in Cuyahoga County related to an inclined sleeping surface were in car seats used outside the car. Many parents will place the car seat on the floor in the house to avoid waking a baby that has fallen asleep on a drive, she says. Its only when the car seats are appropriately installed in the car that its safe, Considine says. When you take it out of the base in the car and set it down, its no longer at the appropriate angle. For desperate sleepless parents, Rock n Play a godsend The Rock n Play has become hugely popular since its introduction in 2009, with droves of parents swearing by it as the only place their infant will sleep. In local and national parenting message boards, its often hailed as a miracle" or savior. The product was advertised by Fisher-Price as an extra-deep seat with a comfy, supportive insert [which] helps baby sleep all night long. In Canada, though, the Rock n Play is sold as a soothing seat instead of a sleeper because it doesnt meet safety regulations as a crib or bassinet. Caroline Calfee Zerbey, of Rocky River, says the Rock n Play was a lifesaver for both her children, Martin, now 7, and Caroline, 5. It was the only thing my son slept in for the first eight weeks, she says, adding that Martin absolutely hated being flat on his back. I recommended it to so many people and I also sold our old one a few years ago. Erin Ginsburgs second child, Zoe, slept in the Rock N Play, swaddled, in her parents room for almost six months before transitioning to a crib, she says. I saved mine thinking Ill give it to my sisters because its such a godsend, she says. I just felt like the angle theyre at is great for acid reflux and digestion and all that stuff, because thats so much of the issues baby have. Ginsburg, 38, of Beachwood says shes not sure if shed use the product, or a similar one again. With parenting you kind of have to make those calls about what youre comfortable with because nothing is totally safe. If we had another kid, I dont know... I guess I would try to avoid it, but she seemed so comfy in it and it seemed so convenient. Richard So has heard the same from many parents in his practice, he says. Exhausted, stressed parents want and need to sleep, he says, but the reality of the first six weeks is that babies only sleep in two-hour intervals. For babies under two to three months, normal stomach emptying time is every two to three hours, So says. Those babies are going to cry every two hours and need to feed. For reflux, he recommends holding a baby upright for 20 to 30 minutes after feeding, and then placing the baby flat to sleep. He also advises not overfeeding, which can make it harder for babies to sleep. As much of a relief as it is to extend sleep time by using a product such as the Rock n Play, its still not safe, he says. As long as your babys awake, Im fine with it, So says. But calling it a sleeper is inappropriate because the current recommendation is to put your baby flat. Consumers who own a Rock n Play Sleeper should contact Fisher-Price for a refund or voucher. If youve owned the product less than six months, youll receive a full refund. To reach the company, go to service.mattel.com and click on Recalls & Safety Alerts or call 866-812-6518 for more information. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Could Clevelands St. John the Evangelist burn like Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris? Its possible. The cathedral, built in 1852, does not have sprinklers. The building was renovated in the 1940s and installed an extensive fire alarm system five years ago, complete with smoke detectors and heat sensors. Plenty of other Cleveland buildings dont have sprinklers. Other Cleveland landmarks are less vulnerable, since theyve added fire suppression systems in more recent decades. "There are tons of them in Cleveland. And Clevelands not unique, said Gary Jones of Karpinski Engineering, president of the Northeast Ohio chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. But Cleveland fire officials say they have plans to fight fires in all major buildings. And Shaker Heights has enacted the first legislation in Ohio to require training and permits for hot works, welding and other construction that creates a fire risk during renovation of old buildings. Hot works, like electrical faults, are one of the leading causes of fires in historic buildings, according to a fire protection report by Siemons. Shaker passed the requirement after Fernway Elementary School burned last July. When you dont have a fire suppression system in buildings that are all wood, like Fernway, like Notre Dame, theyre more susceptible to fire, especially during construction, Shaker fire chief Patrick Sweeney said in a phone interview with cleveland.com. Its a huge concern. Sweeney hopes other cities follow Shakers lead. This building like a lot of buildings in Cleveland that are older, like all of our schools, when they were built in 20s and 30s, they werent required to have a fire suppression system, he said. We really wanted to find a way to keep this from happening again. Why dont all public buildings have sprinklers? Experts say sprinklers are the most efficient fire protection. But fire codes change routinely, said Sean DeCrane, an expert who worked for the Cleveland Fire Department for more than 25 years. If a building was constructed before the early 1970s, the fire code generally did not require a sprinkler system. Buildings can be grandfathered in to current codes, meaning a historical buildings owners dont have to add sprinklers. Owners can balk at the cost of sprinkler systems, said David Schiraldi, an engineering professor at Case Western Reserve University. The decision to not install sprinklers can also come from the desire to preserve the buildings historic features. While adding sprinklers can cost $3 to $5 a square foot, replacing ceilings cost be another $15 per square foot, Jones said. So sprinklers are often added during renovations, rather than just retrofitting a building. Some of these buildings are very very hard to sprinkler, Jones said. Fernway Elementary added fire suppression systems after the fire, during a major renovation. What does Cleveland Fire prepare for? Cleveland Fire Chief Angelo Calvillo said each building and fire is different. Theres no cookie-cutter plan, he said. The department needs to know where to hook up to water and what the problem areas are. Commanders communicate with dispatch to get information and plan the type of approach firefighters will take to the blaze. When buildings dont install sprinkler systems, have vulnerable infrastructure or contain dangerous, flammable chemicals, firefighters plan for that. The citys fire prevention bureau sends out inspectors to gather information and make sure buildings are up to code. The department also periodically completes major inspections of high-risk sites. Recently, responders for citys Playhouse Square district took a tour of the theaters. What makes cathedral fires especially dangerous? Notre Dame had heavy wooden beams in a tinderbox of an attic, contributing to a fire that overwhelmed firefighters. Timbers are hard to ignite, said Frank Szabo, second vice president of the Local 93 firefighters union. But once it catches, itll burn for a long time, keeping the building structurally sound for a time but carrying a big fire load. Its like a big train, he said. Its hard to start, but its hard to stop. He remembers fighting a fire at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 2011, from the roof. Most of the Catholic churches in Cleveland, including St. John, use large timbers in the roof, he said. In a church, Calvillo said, firefighters must be aware of the high ceilings and collapse zones where parapets could drop due to weakened infrastructure from fire damage. These cathedral fires are a challenge, Calvillo said. We have the resources to handle our business in the city of Cleveland. What about other Cleveland structures? Severance Hall, where the Cleveland Orchestra performs, was constructed in the 1930s and added a sprinkler system, smoke detectors, regular fire pump testing, and constant monitoring of the buildings systems during a major renovation, said spokeswoman Rebecca Calkin. Archival materials and artifacts at Severance Hall are also protected by a sprinkler system. Additionally, some archival materials are kept at a museum-quality storage location off-site, which has fire protection through a Halon chemical system. The Terminal Tower -- largely constructed from steel in the 1920s -- has sprinkler systems and is built of steel. Though its height could be a problem, said Szabo. The city has equipment with about a 100-foot reach. Playhouse Squares historic theaters were build in the early 1920s, using concrete and steel -- and no wood. The theaters all have smoke and fire detection systems, sprinkler systems and fire doors. Cleveland Public Librarys main library was also built in the early 1920s, using a modern steel frame and stone. As architects drew up plans for the building, library board president John G. White said not to use any wood in the buildings construction, because he had memories of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Wood was only used for things like chairs, tables and card catalogue cabinets. Though there are aspects of the main library that look like wood, they are actually finished metal. Today, the main library has smoke and heat detection systems and a sprinkler system. Karpinski worked on converting the Cleveland Board of Education into the Drury Hotel and added sprinklers during the renovation, Jones said. The Maltz Performing Arts Center at CWRU also added sprinklers. The old Cuyahoga County courthouse, which is owned by the county, has a modern fire alarm system. The Old Stone Church in Public Square also has fire extinguishers and an advanced alarm system. Old buildings have other common challenges, besides wood and a lack of sprinklers, according to Siemens. They often have thin walls, open or ill-fitting doors, unknown floor and wall voids, open staircases and unstopped ventilation routes. Szabo said Cleveland fire uses best practices and standard operating procedures to be prepared. No one ever believes a buildings going to catch fire, he said. The way we think, its all going to burn. Were all going to assume its going to burn. (ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - The House Justice and Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday instructed the rapporteur to move ahead with a text setting up a parliamentary probe into the Cairo torture and murder of Giulio Regeni. The House will therefore start examining the text on April 29. The chair of the committee, Francesca Businarolo of the ruling 5-Star Movement (M5S), said she was "satisfied that the commission of inquiry will have all the necessary powers to try to discover the responsibility for the horrible murder of Giulio Regeni". The Lower House's foreign affairs committee on Tuesday already approved the base text for the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the death of Italian researcher Regeni, tortured and murdered in Cairo in late January-early February 2016. Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge doctoral student researching Cairo street sellers unions, disappeared on the Cairo metro on February 25, 2016, the highly policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted former strongman Hosni Mubarak. His mutilated body was found in a ditch on the highway to Alexandria on February 3. His parents said they could only recognise him "from the tip of his nose". Egypt has put out several explanations for his death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff turned ugly and a kidnapping for ransom in which the alleged gang, criminals but presumably innocent of the Regeni murder, were later wiped out. Italy recently placed several members of the Egyptian security apparatus under investigation in the case - after which bilateral cooperation ground to a halt. COLUMBUS, Ohio - The federal National Institutes of Health selected several Ohio universities and a hospital as research sites Thursday for an ambitious, four-state study that intends to speed up scientific solutions to stem the opioid epidemic. The goal of the study -- called HEAL, or Helping to End Addiction Long-Term -- is to reduce overdose deaths by 40 percent over three years in selected communities in Ohio and other states, according to an NIH statement. Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati are leading a coalition of universities -- including Case Western Reserve University, Ohio University, the University of Toledo, and Wright State University, along with Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, according to a statement by Gov. Mike DeWine. The Ohio schools will together receive $65.9 million to test a set of proven prevention and treatment interventions, such as distributing the opioid-overdose reversal drug naloxone and connecting people in the criminal justice system to drug treatment. Ohio has been hard hit by the opioid epidemic: The states overdose death rate in 2017 was about 46.3 per 100,000 people. The other states involved in the study are Kentucky, New York and Massachusetts. The study has identified communities in those states to track incidences of opioid use disorder, increase the number of people receiving medication-based treatment for addiction, increase treatment retention beyond six months, provide recovery support services and expand the distribution of naloxone. In Ohio, communities in the following counties will be studied: Cuyahoga Allen Ashtabula Athens Brown Darke Franklin Greene Guernsey Hamilton Huron Jefferson Lucas Morrow Ross Scioto Stark Williams Wyandot U.S. Sens. Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown recruited the Ohio congressional delegation to sign a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, asking the government to consider the proposal that the Ohio universities had submitted to obtain the money. Portman, in a statement, said he knows the money will make a real difference in Ohio. "This is great news for Ohio and our efforts to address the crisis of addiction in urban, suburban and rural areas of our state, he said. On average, 14 Ohioans die every day due to an opioid overdose. We must be doing everything in our power to fight this crisis on all fronts, Brown said. CLEVELAND, Ohio Robert Muellers report showed he scrutinized events surrounding President Donald Trumps campaign and Russia during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The special counsel details interactions that arose in his investigation into whether Trumps campaign colluded with the Russian government to defeat Hillary Clinton. Many of those interactions, including those between Trump campaign officials and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the RNC in Cleveland in July 2016, have previously been widely reported. Attorney General William Barr on Thursday morning delivered a redacted copy of Muellers report, which details the special counsels investigation, to Congress. It was also made public for the first time. Mueller said there was not enough evidence to show the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. He did not make a determination on whether the president obstructed justice, another focus of his investigation. Barr, however, determined Trump did not do so. The word Cleveland shows up eight times in the 448-page report. Ohio is in there twice. However, all of the information about what happened in Cleveland came under a subsection for a portion of the report titled RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT LINKS TO AND CONTACTS WITH THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN. (For those following along on Thursdays developments, the report can be found here. The relevant section is from pages 123-127.) It details the following: - Jeff Sessions, then an Alabama senator and later Trumps first attorney general, spoke at a Global Partners in Diplomacy event on July 20, 2016 at Case Western Reserve Universitys Tinkham Veale University Center during. Trump campaign aide J.D. Gordon also spoke at the event, which took place the same week as the RNC. An article written by The Plain Dealers Laura DeMarco and published on cleveland.com about a reception for the Global Partners in Diplomacy conference was cited by the Mueller team in their report. Kislyak was among those in attendance at the event where Sessions and Gordon spoke. Gordon said during his speech that the U.S. should have better relations with Russia. After the speeches, Gordon shook hands with Kislyak and reiterated that he meant what he said in his speech. Sessions spoke with between six and 12 ambassadors, with Kislyak among them. That evening, Gordon attended a reception and ran into Kislyak as the two prepared plates of food. They decided to sit at the same table and again spoke for a few minutes, with Gordon saying he meant what he said in his speech. Trump campaign advisor Carter Page joined them at the table, as did the ambassadors from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. - In the week leading up to the convention, the Trump campaigns foreign policy advisors worked with the Republican National Committee and reviewed the partys 2012 convention platform to identify any differences between that and Trumps positions. Committee meetings were held at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. On July 11, 2016, a delegate proposed at a subcommittee meeting to amend the partys platform to include a provision of armed support for Ukraine and described Russias ongoing military aggression" against the country. It announced support for maintaining and, if need be, increasing sanctions against Russia for such aggression and providing weapons to Ukraines armed forces. Gordon flagged the amendment because of Trumps position on Ukraine and his statements that there should be improved U.S.-Russia relations. He and another campaign aide approached a committee co-chair and asked him to table the amendment to permit further discussion because of the language about providing lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine. After further discussions, the subcommittee changed the amendment by replacing lethal defensive weapons with appropriate assistance. The subcommittee approved the altered amendment. CLEVELAND, Ohio A planned picket of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party annual dinner by unions could put headliner Kamala Harris planned appearance in jeopardy. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is targeting County Executive Armond Budish and County Councilwoman Shontel Brown also the county party chairwoman with a protest of the April 28 dinner at the Hilton Downtown Cleveland. A spokeswoman for Harris, a California senator who is running for president, said Harris would not cross a union protest line. Kamala Harris is a longstanding friend of labor and if there is a dispute that leads to a picket line, she will not cross it, said Kate Waters, a Harris spokeswoman. The scuffle between the union and the party centers on Brown and Budishs vote to transfer the three county jails health services to MetroHealth. The deal, which the County Council passed April 9, did not guarantee that nurses currently working at the three county jails would keep their jobs when the positions are transferred to MetroHealth. Nor did it preserve those jobs union status. The nurses currently working in the jail would be allowed to reapply for their positions with MetroHealth without union representation. That did not sit well with AFSCME, which represents some of the nurses at the jail. To keep these nurses on the job, we have tried to work with the County Council, the county executive and the chairwoman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, said AFSCME Ohio Council 8 President John Lyall. We have asked them not to fire these nurses, and we have asked Democrats to support labor because these nurses and labor have supported them. Joe Weidner, an AFSCME spokesman, said they were expecting support from others in the labor community, with as many as 100 people protesting the dinner. Council supported the move as both a cost-saving measure and because they believe an outside firm would better manage health care at the facility. They made the decision following criticism about the quality of care in the jails, including eight inmate deaths in 2018. The dispute is the latest example of intraparty fighting in the county party at easily the highest profile event of the year. Harris has not officially dropped out as the featured speaker. But as one of the top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, crossing a union picket line would likely be borderline political suicide in the primary. A resolution to the row between the union and the party seems unlikely. Amending the deal within that timeframe is next to impossible. MetroHealth already has the deal with zero incentive to change the terms. Harris skipping the dinner would be a monumental blow to the county party. Harris is a serious contender and the Cuyahoga Democrats still trying to rebuild following corruption scandals 10 years ago landing her first presidential visit to the state did not go unnoticed in political circles. Budish and Brown did not answer calls seeking comment about the protest. Regardless of whether Harris attends the county party dinner, she will still visit Cleveland. The campaign told cleveland.com it has additional events planned for Northeast Ohio. WASHINGTON, D.C. - The long-anticipated release of special counsel Robert Muellers report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election seems to have generated almost as many questions as it answered for some Ohio members of Congress. The probe that lasted nearly two years and resulted in more than 30 indictments concluded President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign didnt collude with Russian efforts to tilt the election in Trumps favor. It also laid out a series of actions by Trump - such as firing FBI Director James Comey and trying to have the U.S. Attorney General take over the probe - that it said could be interpreted as an effort to obstruct justice. While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him, it said. After examining a redacted version of the 448-page report released Thursday, some Northeast Ohio Republicans in Congress said they saw it as a vindication of Trump, and hoped it would end politically motivated efforts to undermine his presidency. Champaign Countys Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, released a statement that said the report showed no collusion and no obstruction, while a statement from Bainbridge Townships Dave Joyce said he hoped the reports release would prompt Congress to renew its focus on issues that have more of an effect on the everyday lives of Ohioans. Democrats who represent the region had a different perspective. They had questions about Attorney General William Barrs determination that nothing in the 448-page report should result in charges against Trump and called for further examination of Trumps conduct. A statement from Niles-area Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan said Barr was behaving more like Trumps personal attorney than an attorney for the American people. Cleveland.com asked five questions about the report to Ohios U.S. Senators and the House members who represent Northeast Ohio: Republicans Jordan, Joyce, Anthony Gonzalez of Rocky River, Jim Jordan of Champaign County and Bob Gibbs of Holmes County, and Democrats Ryan, Marcy Kaptur of Toledo and Marcia Fudge of Warrensville Heights. Spokesmen for Joyce and Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman said their bosses could not provide detailed comments on the report because theyre out of the country on official congressional trips. Portman is in Vietnam while Joyce is in South America. Portman released a statement on Friday morning that said he found the full report consistent with an earlier summary released by Barr, and he hopes the House and Senate work together to prevent the sort of election meddling the Russians undertook in 2016. The only ones who have provided answers so far are Sen. Sherrod Brown and Reps. Gibbs and Kaptur Our questions and the answers are below: Read a searchable version of the full report here. 1) The Special Counsels report does not exonerate the president of obstruction of justice, even though Attorney General Barr concluded that he shouldnt be charged. Do you think Barrs conclusion was correct? Why or why not? (For reference, the report said: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.) Sen. Brown: I am not a lawyer and Im not going to comment on legal charges. But its clear Barr has not been impartial nor completely forthcoming in this process, and he has put politics ahead of doing his job. The American people deserve to hear directly from Robert Mueller in a public hearing before Congress Rep. Gibbs: His conclusions were absolutely correct. Attorney General Barr conducted this matter appropriately and by the book, Democrats and the mainstream media simply didnt like the results. Theres nothing Barr could have done or said to make Congressional Democrats happy. Barr should be applauded for his fair handling of this issue. Rep. Kaptur: I believe the release of the report opens more questions than it answers. With the release of the report, it now appears AG Barrs position over the past month was more spin than fact. I will have to wait until Congress hears from Special Counsel Mueller directly before I make a determination on whether AG Barrs conclusion was accurate. 2) The report documents multiple attempts by President Trump to get witnesses not to cooperate with law enforcement and other efforts to thwart and undermine the investigation, including trying to remove Mueller. Do you think the president acted appropriately, either as the subject of an investigation or as an elected official? (For reference, the report said: Although the series of events we investigated involved discrete acts, the overall pattern of the Presidents conduct towards the investigations can shed light on the nature of the Presidents acts and the inferences that can be drawn about his intent. In particular, the actions we investigated can be divided into two phases, reflecting a possible shift in the Presidents motives. The first phase covered the period from the Presidents first interactions with Comey through the Presidents firing of Comey. During that time, the President had been repeatedly told he was not personally under investigation. Soon after the firing of Comey and the appointment of the Special Counsel, however, the President became aware that his own conduct was being investigated in an obstruction-of-justice inquiry. At that point, the President engaged in a second phase of conduct, involving public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation.) Sen. Brown: Of course, the President trying to interfere with an investigation is completely out of line. Career law enforcement and DOJ officials must be allowed to do their jobs without political interference. Rep. Gibbs: The special counsels report confirmed there was no collusion. With Democrats and mainstream media colluding to create an air of suspicion, the President was rightfully frustrated over this false narrative. As the head of the Executive Branch, the President had every right to fire James Comey, who was shown to have flouted DOJ practices and should have been fired before President Trump even took office. Rep. Kaptur: The fact that President Trump took steps to remove the Special Counsel, only to fail after White House Counsel Don McGahn refused, is deeply concerning. Had McGahn complied, President Trump would have likely triggered an event similar to the Saturday Night Massacre. This shows why the House and Senate must hear from the Special Counsel directly. 3) Should the unredacted parts of the report be released? Why or why not? Sen. Brown: The American public deserve the full truth and its clear Barr cannot be trusted to make a fair determination what should be redacted. Robert Mueller must testify in a public hearing before Congress and the American people. Rep. Gibbs: No. The redactions are appropriate and in line with standard procedures under the four specific conditions as stated by the Attorney General. Rep. Kaptur: There are appropriate times to redact information in a report such as this, I will have to review the redacted portions of the report before I can make a determination as to whether these purposes were appropriately utilized or to make such a call. However, I do think Special Counsel Mueller should brief Congress on the reports full, unredacted findings, in a classified setting if necessary. 4) Barr thanked Mueller for the thoroughness of his work, but the president has characterized Muellers work as a witch hunt. What is your view on the investigation and its motives? Sen. Brown: President Trump should stop belittling and undermining our law enforcement. Career law enforcement and DOJ officials must be allowed to do their jobs without political interference. Rep. Gibbs: I have strong concerns about the way certain personnel at the Department of Justice conducted themselves before the special counsel appointment. The dossier was fabricated and used as false evidence to obtain FISA surveillance, and I am very happy to know Attorney General Barr is investigating it. Rep. Kaptur: The Presidents characterization of the investigation as a witch hunt demonstrates an irresponsible willingness to mislead the American public on a matter of serious national security. The scope of the investigation was always larger than President Trump. At its core, the Special Counsel was investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. The American people and Congress deserve to know the full scope of that involvement, and whether Americans supported the involvement, so we can take steps to prevent it in the future. 5) What should Congress do about the findings in the report? Sen. Brown: My office and I are still thoroughly reviewing the report, but we know the President has a history of not telling the truth. Already, five people in the Presidents circle have been convicted of crimes and there are as many as 14 ongoing criminal investigations that have yet to be resolved. So, the American people deserve to hear the truth directly from Robert Mueller in public testimony before Congress. Rep. Gibbs: Congressional Democrats and the mainstream media should accept the findings and move on. After 22 months, millions of taxpayer dollars, and thousands of subpoenas, their only objective now is to move the goalposts to avoid looking foolish. The two outstanding questions are: A - Was the FISA process corrupted by political bureaucrats for electoral advantage? And B - At what point in his 22-month investigation did Mueller know there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign? Rep. Kaptur: On initial reading, it appears Congress must continue to investigate what is not a clear and complete answer to the question of Russias involvement in the 2016 presidential election and the potential participation of Americans in these efforts. As I noted earlier, even more questions arise from the release of the report than what the public imagined from the AGs initial presentation of a case closed. Congress has an equally important responsibility to investigate constitutional violations at the highest level. CLEVELAND, Ohio Ohio Republican leaders largely declined to speak in detail about the redacted version of the long-anticipated report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller released Thursday. Mueller was investigating possible collusion by Republican President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign with Russia as well as potential obstruction of justice for nearly two years. The investigation resulted in more than 30 indictments, including several aides close to Trump. Mueller turned in his final report to Attorney General William Barr in March, finding no evidence of collusion by Trumps campaign. But the report explicitly did not exonerate him of obstruction of justice. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him, Mueller writes in the report. Read a searchable version of the full report here. Cleveland.com reached out to Gov. Mike DeWine, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, Speaker of the House Larry Householder, Senate President Larry Obhof and Ohio Republican Party Chairman Jane Timken earlier this week to inform them we would have a series of questions following the reports release. Timken was the only leader to respond in detail. Cleveland.coms full questions as well as Timkens full answers are below. DeWine, Husted and Householder declined to comment. Obhof did not answer cleveland.coms questions, instead issuing a statement that said partisans need to accept Trumps election victory and Congress should work on issues people care about such as the economy, the opioid crisis and trade. Asked if Obhof would like to respond to cleveland.coms questions, spokesman John Fortney said, That answer covers those questions. Below are the questions cleveland.com asked as well as Timkens responses. The Special Counsels report does not exonerate the president of obstruction of justice, even though Attorney General Barr concluded that he shouldnt be charged. Do you think Barrs conclusion was correct? Why or why not? (For reference, the report said: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.) Timken: The Department of Justice determined from the evidence compiled in the report that there was no obstruction of justice. There were over 2,800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants, 500 witnesses, and millions of dollars of taxpayers money spent. Both the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General determined that there was absolutely no evidence of obstruction of justice. This emphatically exonerates President Trump. The report documents multiple attempts by President Trump to get witnesses not to cooperate with law enforcement and other efforts to thwart and undermine the investigation, including trying to remove Mueller. Do you think the president acted appropriately, either as the subject of an investigation or as an elected official? (For reference, the report said: Although the series of events we investigated involved discrete acts, the overall pattern of the President's conduct towards the investigations can shed light on the nature of the President's acts and the inferences that can be drawn about his intent. In particular, the actions we investigated can be divided into two phases, reflecting a possible shift in the President's motives. The first phase covered the period from the President's first interactions with Comey through the President's firing of Comey. During that time, the President had been repeatedly told he was not personally under investigation. Soon after the firing of Comey and the appointment of the Special Counsel, however, the President became aware that his own conduct was being investigated in an obstruction-of-justice inquiry. At that point, the President engaged in a second phase of conduct, involving public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation.) Timken: The Department of Justice determined that there was no obstruction of justice. There was no collusion. There was no corruption. President Trump has every right to be angry that the Democrats launched this political witch-hunt that cost taxpayers millions of dollars and called into question the integrity of our democratic process. We need to investigate the people who instigated one of the greatest hoaxes on the American people. Should the unredacted parts of the report be released? Why or why not? Timken: The Department of Justice was committed to full transparency throughout this entire process and the report is as transparent as it can be. No redactions were proposed or made by anyone outside the DOJ. In addition, a group of bipartisan members of Congress will receive the unredacted report excluding grand jury materials that are restricted by law. Barr thanked Mueller for the thoroughness of his work, but the president has characterized Muellers work as a witch hunt. What is your view on the investigation and its motives? Timken: Again, this was a shameful and politicized investigation that started as a vendetta against President Trump. This all started when President Obamas administration was asleep at the wheel. The Obama administration investigators seized on the unverifiable Steele Dossier to launch an investigation into the Trump campaign. It is clear that the investigators under the Obama administration misused and abused their powers to spy on the Trump Campaign. We need to investigate these investigators. What should Congress do about the findings in the report? Timken: The report was a concrete exoneration of President Trump. There was no collusion, no corruption, and no obstruction. Democrats need to give up on this hoax. We need to let the American people move on from this and get back to our focus on President Trumps booming economy. (ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - Reporters without Borders (RSF) said Thursday it was concerned about insults aimed at Italian journalists by the ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S). "Many Italian journalists," it said in its annual report on press freedom, "have been openly criticised and insulted for their work by political representatives, in particular by some members of the M5S, who have not hesitated to call them "jackals without value" and "prostitutes", the report said. "For this reason, some of them (the journalists) today give in to the temptation of self-censoring to avoid pressure on the part of the political universe". Italy rose from 46th to 43rd in the latest RSF press freedom standings, overtaking the United States. Italy had been 52nd in 2017. The US dropped from 45th to 48th. leading the French NGO's rankings again was Norway followed by Finland, up two places, and Sweden, down one. North Korea and Turkmenistan came last. RSF added that almost 20 Italian journalists were under police protection from the Mafia and other threats, double the previous year. 205 killed in latest fighting in Libya, WHO Over 910 injured, Haftar conducts attack SW of Tripoli (ANSAmed) - TRIPOLI, APRIL 18 - The death toll in Libya since the beginning of the most recent fighting has risen to 205 with 913 injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The UN Security Council has meanwhile failed to find a compromise on a draft resolution by the UK calling for an immediate ceasefire in Libya, UN sources in New York said. The sources noted that Germany, current holder of the Security Council presidency, has called for a Security Council meeting on Thursday after the talks on the revised draft fell through. Meanwhile, the fighter jets of Libyan general Khalifa Haftar carried out two airstrikes during the night on the eastern front of Wadi Rabie, about 30 km east of Tripoli, and on Suani beni Adem, 25 km southwest of the capital, military sources told ANSA. In Wadi Rabie, 4 were killed and 6 injured among forces loyal to the national unity government under Fayez al-Serraj. Some observers say that this may be a signal that an attack by the general's militias announced by his spokesman on Wednesday is under preparation. (ANSAmed). Apache Apache, a natural gas and crude oil producer, has wells in the United States, Egypt, and the North Sea near Great Britain, Cramer said. The company also has a lot of exposure to the Permian Basin, which is a large sedimentary in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Apache has been an inconsistent producer, but the stock has plummeted so low from $101 in 2014 to $25 in December that it could have some upside, the host said. It closed at less than $37 Wednesday. The debt-laden balance sheet is the only problem with the company, Cramer said. Still, he thinks it could worth a lot to Exxon than it is as a standalone company. Concho Resources Concho Resources has become a pure play on the Permian Basin after the company made a series of acquisitions and small-scale divestitures, Cramer said. He thinks Occidental or Exxon could absorb the independent oil and natural gas company. While Concho doesn't appear to be interested in merging, but Cramer said they could bite for the right price. Parsley Energy Parsley Energy has a $6.6 billion market cap with holdings in two of the best sub-areas of the Permian Basin, the host said. The independent exploration and production company could be ready to reap the benefits of its investments, he said. Furthermore, the stock is cheap at about $20 and selling for 9-times 2020 earnings estimates, Cramer said. Pioneer Natural Resources An acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources could be just as big, if not bigger, than the Anadarko deal, Cramer said. It would depend on the size of the premium, he added. CEO Tim Dove announced he would step down from the office in February following a disappointing quarter, a move that Cramer said he didn't see coming. Scott Sheffield, who retired as chief in 2016, returned to turn things around. Cramer said it would not surprise him if he put the company back in shape and later put it up for sale. Additionally, the stock didn't rise 11% following the announcement of the Anardarko merger for no reason, he said. "Personally, I love this company. Sheffield mad some brilliant acquisitions when oil cratered," Cramer said. "He's such a smart guy, fantastic negotiator. He'll get the highest price imaginable if he does decide to sell." WATCH: Cramer breaks down potential oil and gas mergers Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry speaking at the 2019 CERAWeek conference in Houston, TX on March 11, 2019. The Department of Energy on Wednesday denied a report that Secretary Rick Perry is preparing to leave his post. "There is no truth that Secretary Perry is departing the administration any time soon," Press Secretary Shaylyn Hynes told CNBC. "He is happy where he is serving President Trump in leading the Department of Energy." Earlier on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that Perry plans to leave the administration and is currently working out the terms and timing of his exit. Bloomberg cited sources who said the departure is not necessarily imminent and Perry has not made up his mind, but that the former Texas governor has been mulling over the move for weeks. Two sources told Bloomberg that Perry is preparing Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette for his departure. The news agency reports that Perry wants to build up his income before retiring, citing two sources. Earlier this month, reports identified Perry as a contender to take over the Department of Homeland Security after Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was pushed out. In response, the Energy Department said Perry is content in his current position. Perry has been a leading advocate for President Donald Trump's "energy dominance" agenda. He has promoted U.S. energy exports overseas, worked to advance U.S. geostrategic interests through trade and international partnerships and spearheaded plans to keep coal-fired and nuclear power plants on the grid. He is a familiar face at energy conferences and frequently refers to his current post as the "coolest" job he has ever had. A web page on Amazon.cn website. Zhang Peng | LightRocket | Getty Images Queenie Liao, an office worker in Guangzhou, China, shops online several times a week. Alibaba's Taobao and JD.com are her go-to platforms, but it wasn't always that way. "I used to use Amazon a few years ago. Amazon was one of the first online shops in China and a lot of friends told me that the things from Amazon were much more trustable. That's why I used it," Liao told CNBC. "Taobao and JD have more items now." Her shift in attitude underscores one of the major reasons why Amazon is thought to be struggling in China. The U.S. e-commerce giant now plans to close its domestic marketplace business in China. "We are notifying sellers we will no longer operate a marketplace on Amazon.cn and we will no longer be providing seller services on Amazon.cn effective July 18," the company said in a statement, referring to its Chinese-language site, according to the Financial Times. "Over the past few years, we have been evolving our China online retail business to increasingly emphasize cross-border sales, and in return we've seen very strong response from Chinese customers. Their demand for high-quality, authentic goods from around the world continues to grow rapidly, and given our global presence, Amazon is well-positioned to serve them," the company added. Customers in China will still be able to buy items from the U.S., Germany, Japan and the U.K. through Amazon's global site as it focused more on cross-border sales into the world's second-largest economy, according to an earlier Reuters report. Amazon's cloud business will reportedly continue to operate in China. Cross-border market Amazon entered the Chinese market in 2004 through the acquisition of Joyo, a domestic online shopping market. Joyo was rebranded to Amazon China in 2011. It enjoyed success in the early days with market share of over 15 percent in 2011 to 2012, according to China-based analyst Choi Chun of iResearch. That has now plummeted to less than 1 percent, according to another China-based market research firm, Analysys. As Liao mentioned, Amazon had a reputation in the early days of its China operation for being a site that would have legitimate products and so was trusted by Chinese consumers. Chinese players like Alibaba struggled with policing fake items on their sites. Chinese e-commerce players, however, have been taking proactive measures to fight counterfeit goods. Not only is Amazon trying to compete with e-commerce giants like JD and Alibaba, who are often able to deliver goods to Chinese customers faster, but smaller domestic like Pinduoduo and VIP.com are also offering a challenge. The U.S. giant has also not been as aggressive on the marketing front as some of its rivals. Alibaba and JD both do huge sales promotions and big advertising campaigns on Nov.11 each year, known in China as Singles Day. Amazon said in its statement that it is emphasizing cross-border trade. While that may have been a unique part of the business in the past, China's domestic players have put a big focus on that in recent years. In November, Alibaba announced plans to help global businesses sell $200 billion in goods to China in the next five years. However, analysts said Amazon can still compete for now. An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX airplanes parked on the tarmac at the Boeing Factory in Renton, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. Lindsey Wasson | Reuters Helicopters, handbags and hazelnuts are among the U.S. goods facing EU tariffs, after the European bloc hit back against U.S. subsidies of Boeing aircraft. The European Commission threatened to impose charges on U.S. imports worth $20 billion on Wednesday, following a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling last month which said the U.S. government had failed to end illegal support of Boeing. In a mirror-like situation, Washington has previously said it is considering tariffs on approximately $11 billion worth of EU goods, which it said was in line with economic damage the U.S. had sustained by European subsidies to aeroplane and defense firm Airbus. Both sides have agreed to open talks designed to reduce trade barriers. The EU's 11-page catalog of items facing tariffs cover a range of U.S. products, from aircraft to chemicals and food products. EU does not want 'tit-for-tat' trade row "European companies must be able to compete on fair and equal terms. The recent WTO ruling on U.S. subsidies for Boeing is important in this respect. We must continue to defend a level-playing field for our industry," Cecilia Malmstrom, EU trade commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday. "But let me be clear, we do not want a tit-for-tat. While we need to be ready with countermeasures in case there is no other way out, I still believe that dialogue is what should prevail between important partners such as the EU and the U.S., including in bringing an end to this long-standing dispute," Malmstrom said. Cecilia Malmstrom Corbis News | Getty Images The U.S. and EU have been battling each other for nearly 15 years at the WTO over subsidies given to Boeing and Airbus. After partial victories for both sides, Washington and Brussels have both asked a WTO arbitrator to determine the level of countermeasures they can impose on one another. Arbitrators have yet to set an amount, but the U.S. case against Airbus is reportedly more advanced and a ruling is expected over the coming months. "The EU has taken advantage of the U.S. on trade for many years. It will soon stop," President Donald Trump said via Twitter last week. Tweet 1 Trade talks Trade talks between EU and U.S. officials are likely to get underway soon with two sets of negotiations one to cut tariffs on industrial goods and another to make it easier for businesses to show that products meet EU or U.S. standards. The European bloc has insisted it does not want agriculture to be included, putting it at loggerheads with the U.S., which wants farm products to be part of future discussions. "We do not expect an escalating dispute that could sow uncertainty and hurt global industry as much as the U.S.-Chinese trade war has done in the last three quarters," Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, said in a research note published Tuesday. "In one key respect, the U.S.-EU trade talks could be similar to the lengthy renegotiation of NAFTA, in our view. While the talks could be difficult and noisy, they need not disrupt markets, confidence and economic activity very much," Schmieding said. U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker walk to the Rose Garden of the White House to deliver a joint statement on trade July 25, 2018 in Washington. Win McNamee | Getty Images Canadian marijuana grower Canopy Growth announced Thursday a $3.4 billion deal to acquire Acreage Holdings that will take effect after cannabis has been legalized in the U.S. The deal, which was finalized Thursday morning in New York, grants Canopy the right to buy all of Acreage's stock following nationwide legalization; the two companies will operate independently until then. It will also grant Acreage access to Canopy vault of brands including Tweed. "Today we announce a complex transaction with a simple objective. Our right to acquire Acreage secures our entrance strategy into the United States as soon as a federally-permissible pathway exists," Canopy co-CEO Bruce Linton said in a press release. "By combining Acreage's management team, licenses and assets with Canopy Growth's intellectual property and brands, there will be tremendous value creation for both companies' shareholders." Canopy's stock soared more than 8% Thursday following the announcement. The equity is up 70% since January. New York-based Acreage Holdings is one of the largest multistate cannabis operators in the U.S. with a presence in 20 states. It bills itself as developing a consumer-centric branded cannabis product line and has leveraged board director and former Speaker of the House John Boehner in its efforts on Wall Street. Questions remain on legalization For its part, $14 billion Canopy Growth remains one of the largest players in the burgeoning cannabis industry. The company is perhaps best known in the U.S. for its partnership with Corona beer maker Constellation Brands and its plans to locate a hemp operations in New York State. It has announced partnerships with both Martha Stewart and Seth Rogen in 2019. But despite the announcement, the deal still faces a number of important questions. Though several U.S. states have approved the recreational use of marijuana in recent years, consumption of the plant remains prohibited by federal law. Even in states that have approved recreational use, national banks' moves to accept deposits or loan to cannabis businesses could make them vulnerable to a Department of Justice suit and the ire of the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA prohibits companies from adding active ingredients that are drug products in foods and drinks. The deal could also put them at odds with the stock exchanges on which they're listed, which have their own policies about illicit business practices. "Until now, the Nasdaq has not been willing to list companies that have U.S. 'plant touching' cannabis operations," said cannabis lawyer David Feldman, a partner at Duane Morris. "What's interesting is that they didn't tie this to Nasdaq, they tied it to legalization." "It is interesting that they are limiting it to legalization, rather than completing the acquisition when TSX and Nasdaq are prepared to allow the listing," he added. Awaiting key legislation Stephen Moore of The Heritage Foundation is interviewed by CQ in his Washington office, August 31, 2016. "Capitalism versus socialism," reads the Republican 2020 bumper sticker. Now, one of President Donald Trump's Federal Reserve picks has written an alternative Democrats like better. That new framework is "capitalism versus democracy." Whether or not he ever takes a Fed board seat, Stephen Moore has brought that less-flattering trade-off into focus. Moore, after years with the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Club for Growth and Wall Street Journal editorial board, represents mainstream Republican economic thinking. As he awaits formal nomination by the White House, no GOP senator has opposed him. But the scrutiny underway since Trump tweeted his intent to nominate Moore highlights a theme Republicans rarely emphasize: That democracy, rather than being the well-spring of the American system, can be a used as weapon for struggling have-nots to prey on the affluent by seizing their wealth. "Capitalism is a lot more important than democracy," Moore once told a documentary filmmaker. "I'm not even a big believer in democracy. I always say that democracy can be two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner." Republicans have long invoked the specter of "socialism" in opposing Democratic proposals to expand government by levying taxes to finance benefit programs. They used that rationale to oppose the creation of Social Security in the 1930s, Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s, and Obamacare a decade ago. Lately, a few prominent Democrats have made that charge easier to make. The front-runner among declared 2020 presidential candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, calls himself a democratic socialist; so does fiery first-term Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, which explains why conservatives shower her with attention. In reality, both parties traditionally have supported neither socialism nor unregulated capitalism. Instead they back the "mixed economy" that exists throughout Western societies Democrats preferring more government regulations and services to temper market outcomes, Republicans fewer. But the rising influence of unalloyed conservatism since the Reagan era has increasingly placed GOP economic policies at odds with the preferences of the electorate. Voters want to preserve major benefit programs while raising taxes on major corporations and wealthy Americans. A Democracy Fund study of Trump voters following the 2016 election found that, among the core supporters who propelled Trump to the GOP nomination, 75% favor higher taxes on the rich. Republican policymakers, by contrast, view the giant Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs as fiscal burdens. And they oppose higher taxes not just on practical grounds but in principle, as improper confiscation from owners of property. When President Barack Obama proposed tax hikes on private equity executives in 2010, Blackstone Group billionaire Steve Schwarzman, now an outside Trump advisor, declared it "like when Hitler invaded Poland." In a radio interview unearthed by CNN, Moore called the early 20th century constitutional amendment permitting a federal income tax "the most evil act that has passed in 100 years." Ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan used to call 60% of Americans "takers" who consume more services than they paid for in taxes, and the other 40% "makers" stuck with the bill. In 2017, Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney derided deficit-spending on government programs as "theft" from taxpayers. "We will reverse that larceny," Mulvaney wrote in a newspaper column. Trump and the GOP Congress subsequently enacted a large tax cut benefiting businesses and the wealthy more than everyone else. Those priorities have grown ever harder to sustain in an age of stagnant working-class wages and widening income inequality. As Democrats have won the popular vote in six of the past seven presidential elections, Republicans have increasingly sought to impede steps to make voting easier, most conspicuously through new voter identification requirements. When newly empowered House Democrats this year passed legislation to make voting easier and reduce partisan gerrymandering, the GOP response highlighted its predicament. "A power grab," declared Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Now Democratic presidential candidates have upped the pro-democracy ante with plans to expand the Supreme Court, abolish the Electoral College and eliminate the Senate legislative filibuster. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a former McKinsey business consultant, specifically repudiated Moore's assertion that capitalism matters most. "America is a capitalist society, but it's got to be democratic capitalism," Buttigieg told NBC's "Meet the Press." "If you want to see what happens when you have capitalism without democracy, you can see it very clearly in Russia. It turns into crony capitalism. And that turns into oligarchy." Bahrain convicts 138 of terrorism in mass trial Accused of plotting to form terrorist group with links to Iran (ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 18 - The Bahraini authorities have convicted 138 people of terrorism and for ''plotting to form a terrorist group with links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards'', Al Arabiya reported. ''The Public Prosecutor's Office received a report from the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation about the formation of a terrorist cell inside the Kingdom of Bahrain by Iranian regime leaders who issued orders to elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to provide logistical support to terrorists to form a group called the Bahraini Hezbollah," a statement from the public prosecution read. The sentences for having taken part in a terrorist group with links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards included the revocation of Bahraini citizenship and from three years in jail to life sentences. (ANSAmed). China's auto industry has hit a soft patch, but there may be a bright spot. Auto sales have fallen in China for nine straight months, including a 5.2 percent decline in March. But electric-powered cars were on display from start-ups and foreign auto giants alike at this week's Shanghai Auto Show. For some in the industry, they say it will be the smartphone-like interface of the new vehicles that will really attract buyers. Those consumers are increasingly using internet-connected services such as food delivery for daily life, especially in China. So-called new energy vehicles are booming, with sales jumping 62 percent last year. And not just because of the way they're powered. "The key point is not new energy. The key is smart," Fu Qiang, president and co-founder of electric vehicle start-up Aiways, said Wednesday in a Mandarin-language interview translated by CNBC. China battery-electric vehicle unit sales forecast (in millions) Source: Morgan Stanley Research "The entire decline in the auto industry, much more, in my personal view of course has some small connection to the economy but I think the greater reason is that customers right now are not satisfied with the product mix," said Fu, formerly president and CEO of Volvo Cars China. The nine-month slide in automobile sales in the world's largest vehicle market has many worried about a significant slowdown in the Chinese economy, and the wallets of a population of more than 1 billion. Last year, uncertainty about the fallout from the U.S.-China trade war and Beijing's efforts to reduce reliance on debt for growth put a chill on spending, especially on big-ticket items such as cars. Much of the decline in auto sales in the last two years was the result of a tough comparison with rapid growth in 2016, Alan Kang, Shanghai-based senior market analyst at LMC Automotive, said on Tuesday. He noted a major drop came from decreased demand from China's smallest cities for domestic auto brands, while premium foreign brands had less of an impact. ConocoPhillips on Thursday announced it has struck an agreement to sell its U.K. oil and gas operations for nearly $2.7 billion, setting up its exit from the North Sea. The Houston-based driller will sell its ConocoPhillips United Kingdom subsidiaries for $2.675 billion to Chrysaor E&P, a company focused on producing oil and natural gas from the North Sea. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2019. The deal is the largest transaction in the exploration and production space outside the U.S. this year, according to investment bank Jefferies, which acted as Chrysaor's financial advisor. Shares of ConocoPhillips were slightly higher in morning trading. ConocoPhillips has been marketing the assets for several months. The company will retain its commercial trading business in London and its roughly 40% interest in the Teesside oil terminal. It will also continue to operate the terminal, which receives oil and gas from the North Sea fields. "We are extremely proud of the legacy we've built in the U.K. over the last 50 years and are pleased that Chrysaor recognizes the value of this business," ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance said in a statement. "This disposition is part of our ongoing effort to hone our portfolio and focus our investments across future low cost of supply opportunities." Earlier this year, Conoco's chief operating officer, Matthew Fox, said the company's major portfolio restructuring was essentially complete, with the exception of the North Sea sale. The company earned nearly $1.1 billion on dispositions in 2018. The deal makes Chrysaor one of the largest producers in the U.K. North Sea. Chrysaor will pick up offshore assets that produced about 72,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. That increases its pro forma 2018 output to about 177,000 boepd of oil and gas. The company will take control of two major offshore production hubs, Britannia and JBlock, and ConocoPhillips' stake in the Clair Field area. "This significant acquisition reflects our continuing belief that the UK North Sea has material future potential for oil and gas production," Chrysaor CEO and former Hess executive Phil Kirk said in a statement. The transaction continues a trend of major oil companies exiting the North Sea and placing the region in the hands of private equity-backed independent drillers. Shares in Deutsche Bank slipped nearly 2% on Thursday morning following reports the German bank could face legal action over a $20 billion Russian money-laundering scheme. The Guardian, on Wednesday, published a confidential internal report in which the bank admits fears over "significant disciplinary action" from U.S. and U.K. regulators, conceding that the scandal had hurt its "global brand" and was likely to cause "client attrition" and a decline in market value. Deutsche Bank is said to have been implicated in a massive money-laundering scheme, called the Global Laundromat, The Guardian reported. The scheme, used by Russian criminals with ties to the Kremlin and the old KGB and FSB, involved moving money into the western financial system between 2010 and 2014. According to the Guardian report, the cash involved could total $80 billion. The bank could face fines, legal action and the possible prosecution of 'senior management' for its role in the scheme. A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the ongoing investigations, but told CNBC Thursday: 'Deutsche Bank remains committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations." 'We have considerably increased staff numbers in Anti-Financial Crime and more than tripled our staff since 2015. We invested since 2016 700 million ($787.9 million) in upgrading our key control functions there.' Click here to read the full report. French President Emmanuel Macron has one big issue regarding trade talks with the United States the White House does not support the latest climate deal. Earlier this week, the European Union agreed to start trade talks with the United States on industrial goods. France, however, has objected to the decision while Belgium abstained. In Paris, the concern is that there cannot be any agreement over trade while the U.S. refuses to commit to key environmental targets. "France is opposed to the initiation of any trade negotiations with countries outside the Paris climate agreement," a French official said Monday, explaining why the second largest euro country said no to trade negotiations with Washington. "It is a question of values. Europe must be exemplary and firm in its defense of the climate," the same official said. Analysts at Teneo Intelligence said Wednesday that with just a few weeks away from European parliament elections, Macron needs to convince the electorate to vote in his party. "Macron relies heavily on new, urban, pro-EU middle-class voters...These voters also care for the environment while strongly opposing U.S. President Donald Trump on ideational (sic) grounds," the analysts said in a note. Despite the French opposition, the European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told reporters Monday that she would now contact U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to see when talks could begin. The U.S., under the Obama Presidency, signed the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016. This committed the world's largest economy to keep the rise in global temperatures "well below" 2C more than pre-industrial levels. However, President Trump is of the opinion that the deal is "bad" for the United States and in 2017 he notified the other members of his intention to withdraw from the agreement. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, January 11, 2018. Trump evoked the epic fantasy television phenomenon, which kicked off its eighth and final season last Sunday, in a tweet celebrating the outcome of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian election meddling and possible Trump-campaign collusion in 2016. And once again, HBO wants him to cut it out. President Donald Trump on Thursday used imagery inspired by HBO's "Game of Thrones" to sell his political messages without the network's permission again . In a more than 400-page report, Mueller's team said it did not find evidence that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein further determined that Mueller's findings did not warrant an obstruction of justice offense. As part of his victory lap Thursday morning, Trump tweeted an image using a font style that closely matches the title cards and credits used in HBO's show. "NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION," the text of the image reads. "FOR THE HATERS AND THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS GAME OVER." Trump TWEET HBO, a unit of AT&T, said in a statement that it doesn't want Trump using the show, which clocked a record-high 17.4 million viewers during its season premiere, to suit his political agenda. "Though we can understand the enthusiasm for Game of Thrones now that the final season has arrived, we still prefer our intellectual property not be used for political purposes," an HBO spokesman said in a statement to CNBC. Trump has aped the style and slogans of "Game of Thrones" before. He has shared at least two other photos in the past six months that borrow from the slogans and font style of the television series. In November, Trump promoted his administration's promised sanctions against Iran by tweeting "SANCTIONS ARE COMING NOVEMBER 5" a clear reference to the phrase "Winter is coming" popularized by the show. "We were not aware of this messaging and would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes," HBO told CNBC at the time. The network's official Twitter account later suggested Trump misused its trademark. HBO TWEET In January, Trump's Instagram account posted a similar photo this one apparently meant to promote Trump's long-held campaign promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Wilkie TWEET The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding HBO's statement. WATCH: What it costs to eat like The Mountain will shock you House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., called on special counsel Robert Mueller to testify before his committee "no later than May 23." The letter to Mueller was made public on Nadler's Twitter account minutes after Attorney General William Barr said Thursday that the nearly two-year Russia probe found "no collusion" between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and the Kremlin. "As I have already communicated to the Department of Justice, I request your testimony before the Judiciary committee as soon as possible," Nadler wrote to Mueller. "But, in any event, no later than May 23, 2019. I look forward to working with you on a mutually agreeable date." "We cannot take Attorney General Barr's word for it. We must read the full Mueller report, and the underlying evidence," he later tweeted. Nadler tweet Barr told reporters Thursday that he has "no objection to Bob Mueller personally testifying." The report had not been made public when Barr spoke at the Department of Justice. Mueller was not present at the event. "The bottom line," Barr said, was that "after nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes." Nadler's committee, which holds authority to launch an impeachment inquiry against Trump, demanded that Barr release the entire Mueller report and its underlying evidence without redactions. His committee authorized a subpoena for such a report in early April. Barr said that a version "with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information" will later be made available for some members of Congress. The report was released later Thursday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also called for Mueller to testify in the House and Senate in order to "restore public trust in the handling of the Special Council's Investigation." Pelosi tweet Schumer tweet CNBC's Nadine El-Bawab contributed reporting. Big European banks are set to report their first-quarter earnings starting next week and some investors fear that poor report cards could lead to further volatility in the stock markets. Several analysts have raised concerns over earnings this quarter due to external challenges such as low economic growth, uncertainty over a U.S.-China trade deal, Brexit and a U-turn on major central bank policy toward more easing. Daniel Morris, senior investment strategist at BNP Paribas, told CNBC Monday that results among European corporates in the fourth quarter of 2018 was weak. "It was one of the lowest you had in a long time. We really didn't notice because we were recovering from the end of December and you had the (Federal Reserve) and so on. Now, we have digested the Fed, I think we have priced in most of the (U.S.-China) trade deal so earnings are going to matter this time. And if we have such minimal beats over expectations, and of course as we know expectations are very low for this quarter, I think markets are not going to be happy with that," Morris told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe." European banks are suffering from years of weak profits, massive fines, ultra-low monetary policy and uncertainty surrounding the U.K.'s exit from the European Union. The U.S. banks, on the other hand, especially the big ones like J.P. Morgan and Citi have very strong retail operations that have kept them resilient in the face of economic headwinds. CNBC takes a look at the big European banks that are set to report over the next two weeks and what's been driving their strategy: Credit Suisse Credit Suisse is due to report on Wednesday, April 24. According to data firm Refinitiv, Credit Suisse is expected to report a first-quarter net profit of 793.7 million Swiss francs, compared to 694 million Swiss francs reported in the first quarter of 2018. Looking at the whole of last year, the Swiss lender swung back to profit for the first time since 2014. CEO Tidjane Thiam has led the bank's turnaround strategy by improving the balance sheet, cutting down on bonuses as well as slashing headcount. In February, Thiam highlighted a number of external uncertainties weighing on the bank. These included the U.S. trade negotiations and Brexit that have led to "limited visibility" in the months ahead. The bank's stock is still down nearly 20% over a 12-month period and about 40% since Thiam took over as the CEO in 2015. UBS UBS is set to report its first-quarter earnings on Thursday, April 25. According to data firm Refinitiv, it's expected to report a first-quarter net profit of 856 million Swiss francs, compared to 1.5 billion Swiss francs reported in the first-quarter of 2018. Last month, UBS chief Sergio Ermotti told CNBC that despite the rally in global equity markets, revenues in the first quarter of 2019 was one of the worst in recent years. Noting especially tough conditions outside the United States, Ermotti said investment banking revenues were down about a third compared to the euphoric first quarter that kicked off 2018. Investment banking is a specific division of banking related to the creation of capital for other companies, governments and other entities. The bank recently announced that it is cutting an extra $300 million from its 2019 costs after anticipating the fall in revenues. UBS shares are down more than 23% over a 12-month period. Barclays British-bank Barclays is due to report its first-quarter numbers on Thursday, April 25. According to data firm Refinitiv, Barclays is expected to report a first-quarter net profit of 875.6 million, compared to the heavy loss of 764 million reported in the first quarter of 2018. The bank remains under pressure from its shareholders over its turnaround strategy. In February, U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global Management dumped all of its stake in Barclays. The New York-based hedge fund had been one of the top 10 investors in Barclays and held a 2.5% stake. Barclays' first-quarter numbers come at a time when the bank is also facing pressure from activist investor Edward Bramson forcing his way on to the board. Bramson's Sherborne Investors holds a 5.5% stake in the bank. According to Reuters, Bramson wants Barclays to reduce resources allocated to its investment units. Barclays shares are down more than 21% over a 12-month period. Deutsche Bank German lender Deutsche Bank will report first-quarter earnings on Friday, April 26. According to data firm Refinitiv, Deutsche Bank is expected to report a first-quarter net profit of 130.5 million euros, compared to the 120 million euros reported in the first quarter of 2018. Deutsche Bank has been in the news regularly in the past few months due to speculation over a merger with Commerzbank. The merger is seen to be heavily backed by the German government in a bid to create a strong national champion. A joint operation could have a balance sheet of nearly 2 trillion euros. In the past few years, Deutsche Bank has made headlines for all the wrong reasons from settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice, to management reshuffles, weak earnings, constant restructuring and steep stock price falls. Last year, the bank posted its first full-year net profit since 2014 but shares are still down more than 35% over a 12-month period. RBS British-bank RBS is set to report first-quarter earnings on Friday, April 26. An estimate for RBS' first-quarter net income for 2019 wasn't available from Refinitiv. However, the bank reported a net profit of 792 million in first quarter 2018. The bank slightly beat expectations for full-year profit during its fourth-quarter numbers. However, it has been at the center of a long legal saga with the Department of Justice (DOJ) over its selling of toxic mortgages in the U.S. in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. The lengthy settlement process had prevented the bank from providing dividends to its shareholders. In the summer of last year, the bank proposed its first dividend in 10 years. RBS has continued to warn of ongoing economic and political uncertainty and a highly competitive mortgage market, along with uncertainty surrounding the U.K.'s exit from the European Union. In the third quarter of 2018, the bank said it had set aside an impairment provision of 100 million to deal with economic uncertainties, including from the fallout of Brexit. Shares of RBS are down nearly a percent over a 12-month period. BNP Paribas French lender BNP Paribas publishes first-quarter numbers on Thursday, May 2. According to data firm Refinitiv, BNP Paribas is expected to report a first-quarter net profit of 1.8 billion euros, compared to the 1.5 billion euros reported in the first quarter of 2018. The bank downgraded its 2020 targets during its fourth-quarter results in 2018. It said that the economic environment in Europe supported outstanding loans, despite low interest rates. However, it lowered its profitability and revenue growth targets for 2020 due to the impact from the market sell-off in the fourth quarter of 2018. The French bank now hopes to achieve revenue growth of 1.5% per year between 2016 and 2020, down sharply from its previous 2.5% target. Shares of BNP Paribas are down more than 23% over a 12-month period. Societe Generale As Vogue's May cover star, Kim Kardashian West gave the magazine's website a tour of her Hidden Hills, California home during her "73 questions" interview. When asked to describe its style, Kardashian West replied: "I would say like a minimal monastery." As Kardashian West walks through her home, viewers can see a large bedroom, a bathroom with a square bathtub in the middle, a long hallway with an arched ceiling and glass doors and a living room with an "unbleached Steinway" piano, according to Kardashian West. Kardashian West later explained some of the unique features of her home in an Instagram Story. Tweet First is the bathroom. Kardashian West says the bathtub "fits all our kids," and there is a rain shower. "Since everyone is a little confused about our sinks, I thought I would just show you guys a little tour of our bathroom," Kardashian West says in her Instagram story. Tweet She explains there were eight versions of the prototype sink made. In the story, viewers can see that there are two faucets that appear to have no basin, though Kardashian West clarifies the countertop "slopes down." Tweet When she turns on the faucet, the water pours into a slit. "You can put it on as high pressure as you want and no back splash will come up." Tweet In her bedroom, Kardashian West shows off a flat-screen TV that rises up from its hiding spot in the floor. Tweet She says it's a "130-inch" in front of the bed. Tweet In April 2018, People magazine reported the house is worth $20 million. Kardashian West's mom, Kris Jenner, responded in a Tweet: "WOW wrong again!! Their house is $60 MIL." Tweet Kardashian West recently announced she wants to be a lawyer. She plans to take the bar exam in 2022 and registered with the California State Bar to study law last year, according to her Instagram post. Don't miss: Orlando Bloom's $9 million Beverly Hills home is for sale take a look inside This $500,000-a-month apartment is the most expensive rental listing in NYC take a look inside This $1,500 ice cream is the most expensive in America here's what you get A man carrying gasoline cans at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral was taken into custody by the New York Police Department on Wednesday, according to NBC News. The man was described by law enforcement sources as emotionally disturbed, NBC reported. The archdiocese said in a statement that the man had been stopped as he tried to enter the cathedral, and that nothing had occurred within the building itself. Palemo mayor to appeal to hague agst Salvini migrant policy Against 'subversive' migrant policy (ANSAmed) - Palermo, April 18 - Palemo Mayor Leoluca Orlando said Thursday he would appeal to the Court of Justice in The Hague against what he called Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's "subversive" action against migrants. Orlando said he had filed a similar complaint "a year and a half ago" and would now refile it "enriching it with new elements", accusing the minister of violating migrants' human rights. "We are seeing a subversive plan by the interior minister," Orlando said in criticising Salvini's closure of Italian ports to migrant rescue NGO ships. Orlando was speaking at a press conference along with a lawyer representing the Mare Jonio ship which was recently stopped form disembarking migrants. He said they had audio and video evidence of communications between Italian and Libyan coast guards on March 18. Orlando also said he was ready to resort to the regional administrative tribunal (TAR) against Minister Salvini's new directive granting prefects the power to step in in place of mayors when the latter were judged not to be doing enough to fight crime and urban decay in so-called 'red zones' of cities. "If the prefect of Palermo were to fall into line with the interior minister's directive I will appeal to the TAR on the so-called red zones," Orlando told a press conference. "This is a sign of the political involution of this minister, he talks of hunting delinquents, I'm asking what the juridical expression is". Prefects will be able to fill in for mayors when first citizens are "distracted" on issues like high crime and urban decay, League leader and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said in unveiling a new directive Wednesday. "The interior ministry and the security decree offer extra weapons to fight squats, decay, illegal buildings and crime", he said on the directive that envisages greater prefect powers in so-called red zones. Salvini has criticised Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi on issues including dysfunctional transport and gridlocked traffic, potholes, uncollected trash and degraded green spaces. On Wednesday he said "Roma is stupendous and does not deserve the situation it is in... "Is it a clean city, well-organised, well-functioning, with streets without potholes. Doesn't look that way to me". The other deputy premier, 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio, defended Raggi, who is an M5S member, and criticised Salvini's directive. "I'm of the opinion that citizens choose who govern. "It's the ABC of democracy. "You express a vote and then you judge at the end of their mandate. "That's the way I see it". The head of the Italian mayors association, Bari Mayor Antonio Decaro, said "we mayors will not be commissioned off". He said Salvini "does not miss a chance to attack us". "If Salvini had convened us we would have told him that designating red zones is a bit like sweeping the dust under the carpet: it doesn't solve the problem but simply moves it elsewhere." (ANSAmed). Microsoft on Thursday said it has acquired Express Logic, a company that makes software for embedded devices. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The move reflects Microsoft's continuing focus on generating revenue around the so-called internet of things, which describes how a wide range of simple devices can gain functionality by connecting to the internet to share data, receive network updates and so on. Administrators can use Microsoft's Azure cloud service to manage devices remotely and set up artificial intelligence models that can be deployed locally on devices. Other cloud providers, like Amazon and Google, also offer some functionality around the internet of things. Cloud is where Microsoft continues to direct investors' attention; in the most recent quarter Microsoft's commercial cloud revenue represented more than 25% of the company's revenue. Express Logic says it has 6.2 billion deployments of its ThreadX operating system, reflecting the widespread nature of connected devices. The company also has Windows software people for monitoring device activity. Microsoft has its own version of Windows 10 designed for connected devices, and last year it introduced the Azure Sphere operating system and compatible cloud service. "Our goal is to make Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS available as an option for real time processing requirements on an Azure Sphere device and also enable ThreadX-powered devices to connect to Azure IoT Edge devices when the IoT solution calls for edge computing capabilities," Sam George, director of Azure IoT at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. Express Logic was founded in 1996 and is based in San Diego. The company has 38 employees listed on LinkedIn. WATCH: Microsoft unveils Azure Cloud Collaboration Center But with more than 1,000 individual black redaction boxes scattered throughout the 448-page document, the report also raised new questions about what special counsel Robert Mueller and his team uncovered that Justice Department officials decided not to release to the public. The public release of the special counsel's report on Thursday provided a wide array of new information about some of the most important questions surrounding Russian interference in the 2016 election and the actions of President Donald Trump during his first two years in office. The most striking of these may be a list, almost completely redacted, of 14 instances of "potential criminal activity" the special counsel says it uncovered and handed over to other offices within the DOJ and in particular to the FBI, because it determined that the crimes involved were "outside the scope" of the special counsel's mandate. Out of the 14 potential crimes for which Mueller uncovered evidence, only two have so far been made public. That means there are still 12 investigations that arose from the special counsel's probe about which the public knows nothing. Here's how the special counsel describes them: During the course of the investigation, the Office periodically identified evidence of potential criminal activity that was outside the scope of the Special Counsel's jurisdiction established by the Acting Attorney General. After consultation with the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office referred that evidence to appropriate law enforcement authorities, principally other components of the Department of Justice and the FBI. Those referrals, listed alphabetically by subject, are summarized below. It's a tantalizing mystery, made all the more so by the fact that the two probes which have so far been made public have targeted two of the most high-profile individuals to be caught up in the special counsel's web: Trump's longtime personal fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen, and the former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, Greg Craig. The discovery of Cohen's potential crimes is the second item on the 14-item list. "During the course of the investigation, the Special Counsel's Office uncovered evidence of potential wire fraud and [Federal Election Campaign Act] violations pertaining to Michael Cohen. That evidence was referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI's New York Field Office," wrote the special counsel. Craig's case is No. 5 on the list. "During the course of the [Foreign Agents Registration Act] investigation of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, the Special Counsel's Office uncovered evidence of potential FARA violations pertaining to Gregory Craig, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Skadden), and their work on behalf of the government of Ukraine," the report said. Craig was indicted earlier this month on two counts of lying to federal investigators about the nature of past lobbying work he did for the government of Ukraine. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and is expected to face trial later this year. Barr's press conference will only fuel more concerns about his independence. Congressional Democrats have questioned why the attorney general decided not to charge Trump, especially because of a memo he wrote criticizing the Mueller investigation before the president chose him to lead the Justice Department. Barr told reporters Thursday he felt the Justice Department "had to" decide whether Trump's conduct was criminal because Muller did not. In outlining the department's decision not to charge Trump with trying to derail the probe, the attorney general said officials considered not only whether the "acts were obstructive" but also the president's motives behind his actions. Barr said the DOJ considered the "unprecedented situation" Trump faced entering office and what he called "substantial evidence" in Mueller's report "to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief" that the probe undermined his presidency. He added: Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel's investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. It is unclear exactly which "episodes" related to obstruction questions that Mueller outlines in the report. The release of the redacted document could cast more light on which events the special counsel probed. Trump's lawyers saw the final version of the redacted report "earlier this week," but did not request to redact anything from it, Barr said. Several members of the president's legal team went to the Justice Department on Tuesday and Wednesday to view the document, NBC News reported. Barr noted that he and Rosenstein "disagreed with some of the special counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law." It is unclear which theories the two officials disputed. Asked Thursday about the potential for accusations of political motives, the attorney general pointed to Mueller's report itself. "Actually, the statements about his sincere beliefs are recognized in the report that there was substantial evidence for that. I'm not sure what your basis is for saying I'm being generous to the president," the attorney general said. Read Barr's full remarks on the probe, as prepared for delivery Thursday: Good Morning. Thank you all for being here today. On March 22, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation of matters related to Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and submitted his confidential report to me pursuant to Department of Justice regulations. As I said during my Senate confirmation hearing and since, I am committed to ensuring the greatest possible degree of transparency concerning the Special Counsel's investigation, consistent with the law. At 11:00 this morning, I will transmit copies of a public version of the Special Counsel's report to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The Department of Justice will also make the report available to the American public by posting it on the Department's website after it has been delivered to Congress. I would like to offer a few comments today on the report. But before I do that, I want to thank Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for joining me here today and for his assistance and counsel throughout this process. Rod has served the Department of Justice for many years with dedication and distinction, and it has been a great privilege and pleasure to work with him since my confirmation. He had well-deserved plans to step back from public service that I interrupted by asking him to help in my transition. Rod has been an invaluable partner, and I am grateful that he was willing to help me and has been able to see the Special Counsel's investigation to its conclusion. Thank you, Rod. I would also like to thank Special Counsel Mueller for his service and the thoroughness of his investigation, particularly his work exposing the nature of Russia's attempts to interfere in our electoral process. As you know, one of the primary purposes of the Special Counsel's investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Volume I of the Special Counsel's report describes the results of that investigation. As you will see, the Special Counsel's report states that his "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the Special Counsel's report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. But thanks to the Special Counsel's thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter. That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed. The Special Counsel's report outlines two main efforts by the Russian government to influence the 2016 election: First, the report details efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. Following a thorough investigation of this disinformation campaign, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian nationals and entities for their respective roles in this scheme. Those charges remain pending, and the individual defendants remain at large. But the Special Counsel found no evidence that any Americans including anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme. Indeed, as the report states, "[t]he investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA's interference operation." Put another way, the Special Counsel found no "collusion" by any Americans in the IRA's illegal activity. Second, the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and emails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicizing those emails. Obtaining such unauthorized access into computers is a federal crime. Following a thorough investigation of these hacking operations, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian military officers for their respective roles in these illegal hacking activities. Those charges are still pending and the defendants remain at large. But again, the Special Counsel's report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations. In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign "collusion" with the Russian government's hacking. The Special Counsel's investigation also examined Russian efforts to publish stolen emails and documents on the internet. The Special Counsel found that, after the GRU disseminated some of the stolen materials through its own controlled entities, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the GRU transferred some of the stolen materials to Wikileaks for publication. Wikileaks then made a series of document dumps. The Special Counsel also investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts. Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the Special Counsel's report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. Finally, the Special Counsel investigated a number of "links" or "contacts" between Trump Campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. After reviewing those contacts, the Special Counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign. So that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes. After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the Special Counsel's report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the President could amount to obstruction of the Special Counsel's investigation. As I addressed in my March 24th letter, the Special Counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. Instead, the report recounts ten episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense. After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General and I concluded that the evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision. Instead, we accepted the Special Counsel's legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the Special Counsel in reaching our conclusion. In assessing the President's actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the President's personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the Special Counsel's report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel's investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. Now, before I take questions, I want to address a few aspects of the process for producing the public report that I am releasing today. As I said several times, the report contains limited redactions relating to four categories of information. To ensure as much transparency as possible, these redactions have been clearly labelled and color-coded so that readers can tell which redactions correspond to which categories. As you will see, most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, such as the IRA case and the Roger Stone case. These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the Special Counsel's Office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases. The redactions are their work product. Consistent with long-standing Executive Branch practice, the decision whether to assert Executive privilege over any portion of the report rested with the President of the United States. Because the White House voluntarily cooperated with the Special Counsel's investigation, significant portions of the report contain material over which the President could have asserted privilege. And he would have been well within his rights to do so. Following my March 29th letter, the Office of the White House Counsel requested the opportunity to review the redacted version of the report in order to advise the President on the potential invocation of privilege, which is consistent with long-standing practice. Following that review, the President confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the Special Counsel's report. Accordingly, the public report I am releasing today contains redactions only for the four categories that I previously outlined, and no material has been redacted based on executive privilege. In addition, earlier this week, the President's personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released. That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government Act, which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an Independent Counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. The President's personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions. In addition to making the redacted report public, we are also committed to working with Congress to accommodate their legitimate oversight interests with respect to the Special Counsel's investigation. We have been consulting with Chairman Graham and Chairman Nadler throughout this process, and we will continue to do so. Given the limited nature of the redactions, I believe that the publicly released report will allow every American to understand the results of the Special Counsel's investigation. Nevertheless, in an effort to accommodate congressional requests, we will make available to a bipartisan group of leaders from several Congressional committees a version of the report with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information. Thus, these members of Congress will be able to see all of the redacted material for themselves with the limited exception of that which, by law, cannot be shared. I believe that this accommodation, together with my upcoming testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, will satisfy any need Congress has for information regarding the Special Counsel's investigation. Once again, I would like to thank you all for being here today. I now have a few minutes for questions. The New York City Council on Thursday took a major step toward implementing a pillar of the Green New Deal, the aggressive blueprint for addressing climate change supported by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The council passed a bill that requires large buildings to meet new standards aimed at reducing their carbon footprint. The bill aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the city's buildings by 40% over the next decade. That will require many building owners to take measures to make them more energy efficient. The bill is packaged with several other green initiatives in the Climate Mobilization Act and was passed ahead of Earth Day, which is Monday. Lawmakers say the bill will help New York achieve its goal of slashing overall greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. It is also a response to the federal government's "surrender" in the fight against global warming under President Donald Trump, said council member Costa Constantinides, who introduced the bill. The legislation aligns with one of the topline goals in Ocasio-Cortez's plan. Her Green New Deal, which would overhaul the nation's economy, calls for retrofitting all buildings for energy efficiency within 10 years. Traditional addressing is a real problem in China, just as it is in most parts of the world. Multiple streets in the same area can have the same name, meaning that the driver or the car risks selecting the wrong destination. Many addresses are also very similar; just one letter entered incorrectly can send a driver far from their intended location. And for iconic Chinese shopping malls and stadiums, there is often only one address, meaning finding the specific entrance, car park or meeting point can be very frustrating. Without simple and precise addresses, navigating from A to B - a critical part of how we use our cars everyday becomes frustrating. Especially when it comes to making sure that our cars understand where we want to go: most traditional addresses are too complicated to either type or speak and are poorly recognised by speech recognition on-board your car. The inaccuracy of voice addressing systems has also shut down the door for a lot of LBS services. Introducing what3words. With market-leading voice accuracy, what3words is an innovative global addressing system thats divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each square a unique 3 word address made of three dictionary words. ///caramel.kingdom.signature, for example, will take you to the Bruce Lee statue on the Avenue of the Stars in Hong Kong. For automotive integrations, drivers can enter a 3 word address by voice or text input, and then navigate to that precise place. To prevent errors, every 3 word address is unique, and similar addresses are located far apart to avoid confusion. The intelligent AutoSuggest feature helps drivers to spot and correct their mistakes immediately. If someone needs to drive to a hotel in Xuzhou City, they will usually have to input a long address such as Mountain top of Dangkou Park, Zenhgxin Road, Xuzhou City. Now they can simply say navigate to - and know theyll arrive at the correct front door. Partners of what3words include Mercedes-Benz, Ford Europe and top tier 1 suppliers Nuance and SoundHound. Mor.AI partnered with what3words to enable advanced speech recognition and commands on board any car. It is now as easy as saying Navigate to what3words , and find a gas station halfway., or if youre into good food, just ask your car to Find a good hotpot restaurant with price range around 200 yuan per person near what3words . Coupled to what3wordss precise addressing solution, Location-based services, i.e. restaurants, cinemas, and gas stations etc., can be found in a more accurate way. With this partnership, Mor.AI is paving the way for a new addressing solution in China. We are thrilled to be partnering with Mor.AI to launch what3words in China. A more accurate way to talk about location means a smoother in-car experience for drivers. Associated to an advanced speech recognition solution, it is now easier than ever to get anywhere in China said Clare Jones, CCO of what3words. Mor.AI is an artificial intelligence company that specialized in Natural Language Understanding and cognition computation technologies. Thanks to its strong technology and mature solutions, it has made outstanding performance in home appliance industry and automotive industry. Mor.AI has 60% voice AI TV market share, and is in deep partnership with a number of global and local car manufacturers. In China, Mor.AI is highly rated in its full stack in-house technology, including but not limited to voice interaction and abundant on board voice LBS (Location-based Services). Integrating with what3words accurate addressing system, we believe Mor.AI will bring more pioneering voice-activated LBS user experience! said Claire Gong, co-founder of Mor.AI. This was of course a great chance for both companies to expand their market abroad. Europe has world class OEMs, and China is becoming the largest automobile market. The partnership proved how well 3 word address function worked in China, and how well Mor.AI could integrate diverse services in its Car OS. Now that navigation is more convenient and precise than ever, which ensures a promising future, the two companies will continue their partnership in on board voice LBS. Shares of Samsung Electronics dropped more than 3 percent on Thursday after multiple accounts emerged of its cutting-edge folding phone breaking ahead of the device's retail launch. The phone, named the Galaxy Fold and priced at $1,980, has only been given to gadget reviewers so far, but several people have reported that their screens appear to be disconnecting and permanently flashing on or off. Samsung started taking pre-orders for the Galaxy Fold last weekend, but quickly ran out of availability, suggesting supply is constrained at least until its retail launch. The wider technology sector in South Korea also saw declines on the day, with shares of SK Hynix and LG Electronics declining 1.25 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. Samsung's stock decline was related to the early reports of the Galaxy Fold breaking, said Daniel Yoo, head of global strategy and research at Kiwoom Securities. On top of that, investors were also responding to concerns about Samsung's part in the roll out of the next generation 5G wireless standard, he added. "With Qualcomm and Apple deal, expectation for 5G was very high," Yoo said. Blackstone CEO and Chairman Stephen Schwarzman on Thursday outlined what he called a "Marshall Plan" for the middle class to address increasing income inequality in America. The billionaire private equity titan and supporter of President Donald Trump pointed to three main pillars of the plan: a higher minimum wage, more resources for technical training programs in schools and the elimination of taxes for teachers. "What we have is less an issue of income inequality than income insufficiency for the bottom 50% of the society," he said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "I look at this as a systemic problem. This is not anecdotal," he said. "This is like half of our society is severely disadvantaged. We can't allow that to continue, so that means you need policy solutions." Schwarzman, whose company manages $512 billion in assets, suggested that business communities in each state should connect with high schools to start job training early. Each state, he said, would receive money from the federal budget to advance training programs. "We have now slipped from number one in primary, secondary education. ... We're now down, depending upon who's measuring, to number 30 to 35 in the world," he said. "Our graduates simply aren't competitive on a global basis. You can't be in a knowledge economy, can't do all the tasks you need to do, if you're number 30 or 35." He also said teachers should not pay taxes to help improve education levels in America. "I think teachers is where the key is. We have to address getting the best people. It's not just money. We also have to make teachers a special class in our society," he said. Schwarzman also said the stock market has had a "good run" this year, but its rate of increase may slow down. The U.S. has been classified as a "noticeably problematic" place to be a journalist, according to the World Press Freedom Index 2019. It has slipped three places to 48 out of 180 countries in the ranking, published on Thursday by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The report cites the June 2018 killing of five people who worked for the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, as a factor in the country's reduced press status, and noted President Donald Trump's continued attacks on the media. "Amid one of the American journalism community's darkest moments, President Trump continued to spout his notorious anti-press rhetoric, disparaging and attacking the media at a national level," the report's authors noted. In August 2018, the president attacked the media in a stream of tweets, saying the "fake news" media are "dangerous and sick," and in November 2018, the White House temporarily revoked the press pass of CNN reporter Jim Acosta. In March, President Trump's re-election campaign sent a memo to TV producers warning them about the "credibility" of six of his critics given their "outrageous and unsupported" prior claims. President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd of supporters during a campaign rally at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Nov. 5, 2018. "In addition to the report completely vindicating the President, both Attorney General Bill Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ... concluded there was not a single instance in which the elements of any crime were met," wrote the four member team of Rudy Giuliani, Jay Sekulow, Jane Raskin and her husband, Marty. "The results of the investigation are a total victory for the President," Trump's four personal attorneys said in a statement after the redacted report was released Thursday. "The report underscores what we have argued from the very beginning there was no collusion there was no obstruction. President Donald Trump 's lawyers, his reelection campaign and political backers were all quick to dismiss the damaging revelations about the president's conduct detailed in the newly released 448-page report of the special counsel's investigation. Yet even as they held up the report by special counsel Robert Mueller as proof of their client's innocence, Trump's lawyers also sought to undermine the veracity of the report itself, and the scores of damaging revelations contained within it. The report included vivid details of more than a dozen instances during which the president appears to have sought to interfere in the special counsel's Russia probe. "The report itself is nothing more than an attempt to rehash old allegations" wrote Trump's lawyers. The attorneys also suggested that the report might violate rules that prohibit the Justice Department from "insinuating or alleging that an individual who has not been charged with a crime is nevertheless guilty of some wrongdoing." While Trump himself made only a passing reference to the report on Thursday morning, Vice President Mike Pence issued a statement that essentially served as the White House's formal response. "The report confirms what the President and I have said since day one: there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and there was no obstruction of justice," the statement said. Even as he struck a note of confidence, Pence also tacitly acknowledged that the report's release would do little to put to rest the serious questions raised about the propriety of the president's actions during his first two years in office. According to Pence, however, these questions amount to little more than partisan political weapons. "While many Democrats will cling to discredited allegations," Pence said, "the American people can be confident President Trump and I will continue to focus" on improving the country. For those in Trump's political firmament, however, the damaging revelations in the Mueller report appeared not to exist at all. "President Trump has been fully and completely exonerated yet again," Brad Parscale, Trump's 2020 campaign manager, said in a statement. "Now that the collusion and obstruction conspiracy theories have been exposed for the pathetic hoaxes they always were," the statement continued, "the Obama-era DOJ and FBI must answer for their misdeeds and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people." Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel called the report "a complete and total vindication of President Trump." "It is increasingly clear that the only scandal here is the Obama administration's repeated failure to act against Russian cyber meddling," she added. "Instead, they prioritized spying on a political opponent the Trump campaign and used a phony DNC-funded dossier as justification." Both McDaniels' and the Trump campaign's statements sought to dismiss the contents of the report and focus on the unfounded allegation that Trump's 2016 presidential campaign had been placed under improper surveillance due to its myriad contacts with people suspected of connections to Russian intelligence. Yet as the amount of damaging information about the president's actions grew larger and more public Thursday, it was unclear how long Trump's political operation would be able to go on focusing exclusively on Attorney General Bill Barr's conclusions while ignoring the report's contents. WATCH: Pimco's Libby Cantrill: The Mueller report will slow lawmaking in Congress President Donald Trump barely influenced the Russia investigation, according to special counsel Robert Mueller's team. But it's largely because the people he ordered to disrupt the probe into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election did not carry out his orders, according to a redacted report released Thursday. Mueller's team outlined several key events it investigated relating to questions of whether Trump obstructed justice. Those include him asking former FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating former national security advisor Michael Flynn and ordering former White House counsel Don McGahn to remove Mueller, among other instances. "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," the report reads. Comey and McGahn did not carry out the president's requests which McGahn referred to as "crazy s---," according to Mueller's report. The former White House counsel prepared to resign instead of following through on what the president wanted. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House aide Rick Dearborn also did not carry out the president's requests. Trump asked them to deliver a message to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying he should try to limit the Mueller probe to only future election meddling. Lewandowski was not a member of the administration. Ultimately, Mueller's team did not conclude whether the president obstructed justice by trying to influence the probe. It in part cited difficulties in determining the president's intent behind his actions. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein declined to charge Trump with obstruction, a move met with skepticism from congressional Democrats. Trump responded to the release of the report by saying "No collusion, no obstruction," at a White House event Thursday. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. President Donald Trump lashed out at "Crooked, Dirty Cops" and the Democratic National Committee in a series of heated tweets Thursday ahead of the release of a redacted version of Robert Mueller's long-awaited Russia report. Trump, who did not mention the probe of Russian election interference directly but has regularly denounced it as a hoax and a "witch hunt," tweeted Thursday morning about "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!" Trump TWEET The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats. The president also shared on Twitter a video mashup of him saying there was "no collusion" between his presidential campaign and Russia. Trump TWEET no collusion no obstruction Attorney General William Barr was scheduled to hold a press conference at the Justice Department at 9:30 a.m. ET before releasing to the public a redacted version of the special counsel's nearly 400-page report on Russia's interference and possible coordination with Trump's campaign and whether the president committed obstruction of justice. Democrats including House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York have criticized the timing, accusing Trump's recently appointed attorney general of attempting to establish a narrative about the findings in the report. Nadler TWEET In a four-page letter last month, Barr said Mueller did not find sufficient evidence of a conspiracy between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also concluded that Trump did not illegally obstruct justice. At the press conference, Barr will address whether the White House invoked executive privilege related to parts of the report, as well as the department's interactions with the White House regarding the contents of the report, according to a DOJ spokeswoman. Barr will also talk about the process officials followed when redacting certain portions of the report for a public release. Questions about what will be redacted have become especially controversial on Capitol Hill, as some Democratic leaders continue to demand that Barr provide for them the full report along with all of its underlying evidence. Barr has signaled his resistance to hand the lawmakers a completely unscrubbed report, but the DOJ does plan to share a less-redacted version with some members of Congress and their staff some time after the public version has been released, according to a court filing in the Roger Stone case. In a follow-up, Trump sent a two-word tweet exclaiming "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!" That phrase has become a familiar refrain for the president in the final months of the special counsel's 22-month investigation. Trump TWEET 2 The president also encouraged his nearly 60 million followers to watch Barr's press conference on Fox News. Trump TWEET 3 [The stream is slated to start at 9:30 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] Attorney General William Barr holds a news conference Thursday ahead of the release of the highly anticipated, redacted report on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. Mueller delivered the document which Barr said is "nearly 400 pages" long to the Justice Department last month. The version to be released Thursday is expected to have major redactions. Barr summarized the findings in a four-page briefing. He said Mueller did not find that the Trump campaign had coordinated with Moscow. The attorney general added that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice. Barr's summary said Mueller did not come to a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice and said the special counsel probe "does not exonerate" the president. Trump, who called the investigation a "witch hunt" for the nearly two years it lasted, claimed "complete and total exoneration." However, Democrats questioned the motives of Barr, who wrote a memo criticizing the Russia probe before he was picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Since the release of the summary on March 24, Democrats have called for Barr to make the full report public. Barr will likely face questions not only about how he came to his conclusions about obstruction of justice, but also why he redacted certain portions of the report. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST Bazaar Corporate Radar Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar. You must be logged in to participate in the Show Me the Errors contest. Public can now book tickets for Singapore's bicentennial celebrations The online ticketing for Singapore's bicentennial centrepiece event is now open, and public can secure tickets to visit the two-part showcase at Fort Canning for the month of June. To be held from June 1 to September 15, 2019, 'From Singapore to Singaporean: The Bicentennial Experience' will be set in the historic Fort Canning Park. The event comprises two showcases Time Traveller and Pathfinder. Photo courtesy: Singapore Bicentennial Time Traveller is an immersive, cinematic experience within the Fort Canning Centre, taking visitors through five powerful acts that present Singapores story over 700 years in 60 minutes. Viewers of the indoor multimedia show will be brought through the sights, sounds and drama of the formative events throughout our evolution. Outdoors within the greenery of Fort Gate, Pathfinder is a free-and-easy experience where visitors can walk through eight interactive pavilions and installations reflecting on Singapores journey. Pathfinder, one of two parts in Singapore's bicentennial celebrations. Photo courtesy: Singapore Bicentennial We had conceived the Bicentennial Experience as an immersive world. Visitors can drop into key moments of our 700-year history and be an eye-witness to the many points where we navigated the tides of time through war, climatic episodes, geopolitics and the everyday struggles of the peoples who were once here," said Mr Gene Tan, Executive Director of the Singapore Bicentennial Office. "Our hope is that visitors of all ages will be inspired by our tumultuous history and find out for themselves just what it took for us to journey from Singapore to Singaporean. Tickets can be reserved on the Singapore Bicentennial website on a first-come-first-served basis. Each visitor may book up to a maximum of 12 tickets online. Brexit Party takes early poll lead Nigel Farages Brexit Party has surged into the lead for the European elections, according to two opinion polls. Having formed only in January, the party has leapfrogged Labour and the Tories and eaten into Ukips support. A YouGov poll forput the Brexit Party on 23 per cent, Labour on 22 per cent and the Conservatives on 17 per cent. Last week it was on 15 per cent, Labour was on 24 per cent and the Tories were on 16 per cent. Many former Ukip voters appear to have followed Mr Farage away from the party he had led in three separate stints. Ukip has languished in seventh place on 6 per cent since the launch of the Brexit Party. The polling was less positive for Change UK. The breakaway group of former Labour and Conservative MPs was on 8 per cent in s European elections poll, up just a point. The Times Disunity to cost Remain parties seats FT Beckett says Farage will win unless Labour backs Remain The Guardian Stanley Johnson rejected as Tory MEP candidate The Sun More: Remain MPs can delay legislation to ensure we take part in Euros, warns da Costa Daily Telegraph Britain left in charge of Brussels over Easter The Sun Comment: How the details of PR could stymie Remainers Miranda Green, FT Britain will have its second referendum on 23 May Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian The Tories face annihilation Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph >Today: >Yesterday: Daniel Hannan MEPs column: Brexit. Vote Conservative in the European elections to help us deliver it and finish the job. Skidmore and Ellwood demand universities do more for military families Ministers have told universities to help more people from military backgrounds. Just 24 per cent of young people with parents in the services go on to higher education, compared with 43 per cent in the general population. And veterans who want to apply are often hindered by having served rather than studied. Now Universities Minister Chris Skidmore and Veterans Minister Tobias Ellwood have written to all universities demanding that they sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant. Just 57 of 136 have so far committed to the pledge that the Armed Forces community will not be disadvantaged. The two ministers are also calling for military experience and qualifications to count towards course entry requirements. The Sun >Yesterday: ToryDiary: Potemkin legislation Hunt sets out leadership stall Express readers back Johnson (on Twitter) Daily Express Jeremy Hunt has set out his credentials for the Tory leadership as he warned that the Tories must restore their reputation as the party of aspiration and overcome claims that they dont care about young people. The Foreign Secretary told the New Statesman that the Tories need to find some big social issues to show that its not all money for moneys sake. He said the Tories need to show that they are not only the party of wealth creation but establish themselves as the party of prosperity with purpose. He insisted that he is just as radical as Michael Gove, who is seen as another leadership contender, and that the reforms he introduced in the NHS were as significant as those introduced in schools. Daily Telegraph Comment: Pray the next leader isnt in this cowardly Cabinet Allison Pearon, Daily Telegraph Government to force pupils to take a foreign language GCSE All schools will be ordered to sign their pupils up for foreign language GCSEs from September and will be marked down if they dont, The Sun can reveal. In a bid to boost Britains bilingual skills Schools Minister Nick Gibb has set a target of getting three in four of all pupils studying and taking a foreign language GCSE by 2022. Currently just under half of kids in England and Wales sit a foreign language GCSE. But from September all secondary school starters will be expected to study one and take the exam. And to get the numbers up schools will be assessed on the proportion of pupils studying foreign languages. As well as being held to account by Ofsted inspections, schools will also be judged on their foreign languages take-up in league performance tables. The Sun Method to the madness of Labours ban on primary testing Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph Schools which off-roll pupils need to be named and shamed David Laws, The Times >Yesterday: Left Watch: Abolishing SATs is a policy designed to please teaching unions, not help school pupils Tory MPs preparing fresh push against Bercow Conservative MPs are to launch a further attempt to prise John Bercow from office amid anger over what they claim is the Speakers bias against Brexit. The backbencher behind the move, who says it has support from the government front bench, warned Mr Bercow yesterday that enough is enough. There have been reports that the Speaker wants to stay in his post beyond the summer if Brexit is not resolved. Crispin Blunt, former chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, is canvassing support among MPs for an early day motion expressing no confidence in Mr Bercow. He hopes to table the motion when parliament returns on Tuesday, after the Easter recess. The Times Merriman puts pressure on Javid over climate extremists Sajid Javid was last night under mounting pressure for failing to reclaim Britains streets from eco-extremsists after a third day of traffic carnage. Tory MPs turned their anger on the Home Secretary over how cops were often standing by while Extinction Rebellion protesters continued to barricade major roads in central London. Parliament Square yesterday began to resemble a music festival, as the climate change warriors graffitied the tarmac and held sing songs in the middle of it. Government aide Huw Merriman MP branded the scenes a national embarrassment. Mr Merriman told The Sun: Our economic and democratic hub has been closed off by these protesters, while the police just stand by watching them do it. The Sun Fury over Scotland Yards revolving door Daily Mail Comment: Why havent these anarchists felt the full force of the law? David Blunkett, Daily Mail >Today: ToryDiary: And then they shall see Robin Boardman-Pattison coming in a cloud with power and great glory as police accuse Khan of aggravating protests T Corbyn refuses to speak to protesters outside his home The Times Labour leader targeted on day three The Guardian he Mayor of London has been accused by rank and file police officers of aggravating climate protests as demonstrators brought havoc to the capital. Sadiq Khan was criticised by policing and business leaders after activists from Extinction Rebellion were able to disrupt major transport routes for a third day. Hundreds of arrested protesters even cited the Mayors support for their cause to police in a bid to escape criminal charges, The Telegraph has learned. It came after another chaotic day in which three protesters glued themselves to a train, while Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge and Parliament Square were brought to a standstill. Daily Telegraph Comment: Theyre making a laughing stock of London Robert Hardman, Daily Mail Editorial: Londoners deserve better than their grandstanding mayor Daily Telegraph Time for cops to clear the middle-class morons The Sun >Today: Rachel Wolfs column: Brexit agonies? Twitter pile-ons? Fanatical protesters? Put them in perspective. For all our troubles, were happier than ever. Burgon antisemitism video contradicts libel evidence Labours shadow justice secretary came under mounting pressure on Wednesday after it emerged he had told a judge under oath that it was not his view that Zionism was the enemy of peace. Richard Burgon twice declined to say in court if he had made such remarks, insisting he had already answered the question on the television. The Leeds East MP was forced to apologise on Tuesday after a video surfaced online appearing to prove that he had described Zionism as the enemy of peace and of the Palestinian people. He said he did not recall making the remarks but acknowledged it was now clear I did and I regret doing so. However, a transcript circulated on Wednesday shows that Mr Burgon appeared to avoid directly answering questions about the comments when asked about them in court just three months ago. Daily Telegraph Sturgeon faces SNP row over transgender rights T Ex-Labour leader wins defamation case against nationalist blogger The Guardian Claim of democracy deserts over hundreds of uncontested local elections Hundreds of thousands of potential voters will be denied a choice in Englands local elections next month as 300 council seats go uncontested. According to an analysis by the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) some 300 councillors are guaranteed success in the poll on May 2. Darren Hughes, the campaign groups chief executive, said it had estimated that 850,000 voters would not be granted a say over who is elected in what he called democracy deserts. It was frankly a disgrace in the 21st century for parties to have landed 300 seats without a single ballot being cast, he said. FT News in Brief: Jeremy Hunt: the last Cameroon Jason Cowley, New Statesman The real reason Jeremy Corbyn wants to scrap SATs Harry Phibbs, CapX Catalan question dominates ahead of wildly uncertain Spanish election Caroline Gray, Reaction The long road to Brexit Pieter Cleppe, 1828 Should I forgive the journalist who got me fired? Sir Roger Scruton, The Spectator hree female SNP MSPs including a Scottish Government minister have criticised Nicola Sturgeon over her support for transgender rights in a leaked conversation suggesting she was out of step with the party. Gillian Martin, Ash Denham and Ruth Maguire expressed their frustration at a tweet in which the First Minister was quoted as saying she did not see the greater recognition of transgender rights as a threat to me as a woman or to my feminism. The trio hit out at Ms Sturgeon after her comment was highlighted by Emma Ritch of the Engender organisation, who said: So glad to hear Nicola Surgeon powerfully articulate this positive feminist analysis of trans rights. But Ms Martin told her two colleagues that Ms Sturgeon was a bit (out) of step with the feelings of her own group of MSPs over the controversial issue. Daily Telegraph Hunt urges May to repair relations with the DUP In a telling sign of how crucial a role the Northern Irish party still has to play for the Tories, one of the leading contenders to succeed Theresa May has urged her to repair relations with the Democratic Unionists. Jeremy Hunt urged the Prime Minister to rebuild the partys coalition with the DUP, according to the Daily Telegraph, whilst speaking in Japan. This comes in the same week as a Times report that Boris Johnson and his leadership campaign team had also met with the Democratic Unionists. He met with Arlene Foster and Nigel Dodds, the DUPs overall and Westminster leaders, for 40 minutes as part of a process a source described as candidates paying homage to the Northern Irish party. Johnson has ground to make up with the DUP, who reportedly voted down the Prime Ministers Withdrawal Agreement after interviewing himself and Dominic Raab and concluding that they were insufficiently committed to avoiding divergence between the Province and the mainland after Brexit. Meanwhile relations between May herself and her putative allies appear to be deteriorating yet further. This week the DUP reiterated their demand for the Prime Minister to tackle the so-called backstop, whilst Sammy Wilson clashed with the Prime Minister in the Chamber over her conduct of the negotiations. Yesterday Emma Little-Pengelly, the DUP MP for Belfast South, wrote for this site about their opposition to scrapping free TV licences for the over-75s, in a clear signal as to the sort of demands they will have for renewing the pact. Dugdale wins defamation case against cybernat blogger Kezia Dugdale, the former leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, has successfully seen off a lawsuit brought against her by a hard-line nationalist blogger, the Guardian reports. Stuart Campbell, better known by his pseudonym Wings over Scotland, brought a 25,000 against the MSP after she accused him of homophobia in a column for the Daily Record newspaper. He had alleged that Oliver Mundell, the MSP son of Scottish Secretary David Mundell, was the sort of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner. Even before the outcome, the matter was at the centre of controversy after Labour refused to support her todays Times has her saying that she cannot forgive the Party for its decision to sever its legal aid to her. The Daily Record stepped in to support Dugdale in its place. It remains to be seen whether this disillusion will affect her long-term position in the party. Dugdales partner is an SNP MSP, and at least one Scottish Labour watcher suspects she will defect especially after previous comments appeared to cast doubt on her professed opposition to independence. Welsh patients barred from English hospitals in devolved funding row Devolving healthcare always had the potential to break up a UK-wide National Health Service, but the reality of that is starting to hit home amidst a furious row over funding. The Times reports that Countess of Chester Hospital has started to refuse admission to Welsh patients because, due to decisions made by the Labour administration in Cardiff Bay, they bring in less funding than their English equivalents. This despite Wales reportedly receiving 1.20 in NHS funding for every 1 England receives, according to the Welsh Conservatives. Hospitals are paid a fixed fee for every patient they treat. In England this was recently increased, but Cardiff Bay opted not to follow suit, meaning the funding gap between the two broadened to about 8 per cent per patient. This is an acute problem for hospitals such as Countess of Chester, which is just minutes from the border and usually receives one fifth of its patients from North Wales. Resentment that England is effectively subsidising Wales, whose own hospitals do not perform as well, has apparently been bubbling for some time, but rising waiting lists mean that Countess of Chester is now confident it can fill its beds without Welsh patients. If Wales continues to pay less it could have broader implications for other Welsh patients currently sent for specialist treatment in Liverpool or Bristol. Suffice to say, it is typical of the devocrat approach that they want the power to pinch pennies whilst still shifting costs out onto a Union-wide safety net. They should not be allowed to do so. A week in bad news for the SNP With Brexit still failing to deliver the long-prophesied boost for independence, the weight of time is beating down on the Nationalists more than ever. Nicola Sturgeon faces a mounting list of problems, notwithstanding the looming prospect of Alex Salmonds trial. First, as Kenny Farquharson details in the Times, she faces a revolt from her once uber-disciplined grassroots over the SNPs post-independence currency plans. After their proposal for a currency union was scotched during the 2014 referendum, the new and extremely-cautious line is that Scotland would use the pound independently until some very strict tests were met about setting up a new currency. Perhaps conscious of how Gordon Brown killed off British membership of the Euro with similar tests, Nationalist activists are pushing for a much more ambitious and rapid transition to a Scottish currency ahead of the upcoming party conference. Any compromise will muddy the waters on what remains one of the key weaknesses in the independence case the broader question of which she apparently plans to address after Easter. In other news: an anti-racism worker has received 17,000 in compensation after being wrongfully dismissed by a key adviser to the First Minister; a senior SNP MSP has been accused of spreading fake news on a Russian-backed propaganda station; and Sturgeon herself has been accused of being out of step with her party on transgender rights. Some victims of the tech support scam who live in Ohio are getting justice. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the state of Ohio are sending out $92,000 in refunds to consumers who were tricked. Weve reported on this scheme over the years. There are many variations of the tech support scam, but most go like this: an ad that looks like a security alert pops up on a consumers computer informing them they have a virus and provides a toll-free number to call to get it removed. If the victim bites, he or she will be charged several hundred dollars for lifetime support and sold useless software they dont need. Its rare that victims ever get relief, but in this case the FTC and Ohio reached a settlement with operators who were doing business under a variety of names, including Repair All PC and WebTech World, among others. Masquerading as Microsoft As early as 2015, scammers were cold calling consumers and claiming to be employees of Microsoft, telling their intended victims that an analysis had indicated their PC was infected with malware that could be removed for a hefty fee. In one year, Microsoft said it received 175,000 complaints about that scheme. The latest FTC complaint said people who called the toll-free number listed on the pop-up ads were urged to provide the telemarketers with remote access to their computers. The telemarketers then went through the motions of running diagnostic tests before delivering the bad news -- the victims computer was packed with viruses, had been hacked, or had other problems. Checks are in the mail The FTC said it is mailing checks, averaging $417 each, to 222 victims of the scam. Those receiving a check should deposit or cash it within 60 days, as indicated on the check. The FTC also points out that it never requires people to pay money or provide account information to cash a refund check, heading off yet another scam in which criminals promise to help victims receive their compensation in exchange for a fee. Consumers who believe they are due a refund should watch their mail for a check. If they have questions, they can contact the FTCs refund administrator -- Rust Consulting, Inc. -- at 1-877-773-8183. Hopeful travelers have to hurry because the sale lasts for only one day With holiday shipping deadlines tightening by the day, United Airlines has decided it could take a little stress off the shoulders of gift-givers by offering a gift that doesn't need expedited shipping one-way fares starting at $49. The airline is also giving its rewards members a good deal by offering awards trips starting at 4,900 miles. However, there are two buts that consumers need to pay attention to, and theyre big ones. First, travelers need to understand th... Contractors Question: I have my own limited company which was recently offered a 3-month contract in Luxembourg. Under it, the suggestion is that I would be contracted out to an agency yet remain an employee of my own company. But Im confused because the agency says I will have hardly any tax requirements due to me being freelance, whereas an outsourcing firm is suggesting I must obtain a tax ID card and register with the local commune, among other obligations. Can you settle this for me? Experts Answer: I can completely understand why you could be confused based on the conflicting information you have found. Unfortunately, I am unable to say exactly where they are getting their information from, although registration in Luxembourg is at your local Administration Communale. Please note, you can only contract through your own UK limited company if your company is registered in Luxembourg. So with this in mind to be compliant, you have three options. Option 1 -- be employed by an umbrella company (where you will be classified as an employee, paying tax and social security in Luxembourg). Option 2 -- register a new company in Luxembourg. Option 3 -- operate as self-employed (the UK equivalent of a sole trader) in Luxembourg. If you use a compliant and competent umbrella company, it will ensure that you are set up correctly in-country and take care of the requirements you will face when working in Luxembourg. The umbrella will make automatic tax and social security deduction from your monthly, guaranteed pay. In this sense, Option 1 will probably be the least hassle for you, especially as you will only be there for three months, and would have the admin/ HR aspects of your contract taken care of. Then, you can completely focus on your core business. The umbrella route is additionally appealing because, once your work is complete, you can simply leave the country straight away with no further concerns. Under Option 2, closing down the company after you have completed the work and before you return to the UK would need to be a consideration. But we are unable to provide you with details on the cost of setting up a company in Luxembourg. To find out if it this route would be more financially-advantageous than Option 1 and Option 3, you should talk to an accountant. Generally-speaking though, and based on what contractors tell us, the hassle and the time it takes to register, set up and make sure all is compliant, and then to close down your business when you leave, is not usually worth it for such a short contact. The expert was Lucy Peel, global employment specialist at Capital GES. 100% Website beforward.jp uses latest and advanced technologies like: Boostrap. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 5951 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 384431 bytes (375.42 kb uncompressed) and 59693 bytes (58.29 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-09-17, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. 100% Website gafalectura.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 32958 bytes (32.19 kb uncompressed) and 4570 bytes (4.46 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-08-25, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. 90% Website watra.pl uses latest and advanced technologies. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 60858 bytes (59.43 kb uncompressed) and 15029 bytes (14.68 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-01-20, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions -- and also skulls, probably. No supervillain can compete with the accidental cruelty of a do-gooder who didn't think things through. Here are a few times cities or countries tried to solve big problems with the very best of intentions ... and their very worst ideas. 5 Germany Housed Refugees In Former Concentration Camps In less than a century, Germany went from causing people to flee in terror to welcoming almost a million refugees in one year, because history loves a good plot twist. Naturally, all those people needed a place to live, so Germany further proved how much they'd changed by housing some of them in a comfy building at Dachau. Wait, where have we heard that name befo- Oh. Oh nooooo. National Archives Don't worry, instead of that swastika, there's now a big sign that says "OPEN FOR BUSINESS!" Of course, they aren't using the World War II "barracks" we associate with the Holocaust. Instead they're using the "good buildings," like the herb garden at Dachau. Because it's OK for Germany to house persecuted ethnic groups in a place where Germany eradicated persecuted ethnic groups, as long as it isn't where they tried to sleep while stacked on top of each other. One politician pointed out that "turning the former barracks into a refugee center would make it a 'better memorial site than a museum would be.'" It's certainly a better option than turning them into a McDonald's, we'll give him that. The Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) has announced that its Strategic Master Plan, Port NOLA Forward, will earn the port a Silver 2019 National Planning Achievement Award for Economic Development Planning from the American Planning Association (APA) for identifying and seizing upon economic growth opportunities. Being recognized by a planning body like the American Planning Association is an honor and validation that we as an agency are on the right course, said Brandy D. Christian, Port NOLA president and CEO. Our role as a port is to plan and build the infrastructure to drive commerce and create jobs for our region. In an economy with limited public resources, it is absolutely vital to have a clear vision and strategic roadmap to remain competitive now and 100 years from now. Port NOLA also received the Plan Excellence Award in October from the APAs Louisiana Chapter for its strategic master plan, which is a vision to deliver significant, sustained economic benefit throughout the Ports three-parish jurisdiction Jefferson, Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes. With finite assets such as land, capital and facilities, as well as projected growth in cargo and cruise volumes in the Gulf region, Port NOLA stated that its strategic master plan enables it to think cohesively about growing vital maritime and hospitality industries and capitalize on the potential of the region. At the plans core, and key to its success, according to a prepared statement, is collaborative partnership with a wide range of stakeholders. Throughout the planning process, the port invited the participation of its tenants, carriers, customers, federal, state and local elected officials, economic development and civic leaders, and neighbors residents who rely on the port for family-supporting jobs. More than half of the bookings for the inaugural season of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection have come from guests that have never taken a cruise before, according to CEO Douglas Prothero. They are coming because of the brand and because of the design, he said. Delivery of the companys first 298-guest ship is scheduled for this November, with cruise service starting early next year. We are in outfitting, Prothero told Cruise Industry News in a February interview in Manhattan. Its mostly subcontractors outside the yard doing production. Onboard we have pipe, electrical and we are racing toward the main engine start. Its a busy place. There are 600 people onboard per day running six days, two shifts, and we are about to go six days and three shifts. The ship has been designed by Tillberg Design of Sweden. Commuting between the companys quickly-growing Florida office now at 70 people and the shipyard in Spain, Prothero was also busy finalizing the details on ships two and three. In Spain there is a large 15-person site team, while another office in Malta now stands at 10 employees. With the ship under company control as soon as November; December and January will be spent on brand and crew training in the Canary Islands and on her crossing to Port Everglades. Opening sales in 2018, the results have been nothing but strong. Were not surprised its doing well. We have a great brand selling a great new concept with a very big loyal following with a unique design, Prothero explained. More than half are new-to-cruise. I dont think they are looking at anyone else. At 298 guests, the newbuilds offer a unique size not found in the luxury cruise market. We started with a lower number and converged on this number. We were trying to make sure we were building a Ritz-Carlton at sea. The real boutique Ritz-Carltons cap out at that number of keys, Prothero continued. Demand can be attributed to a unique design, the luxury brand and the trend towards experiences over goods, Prothero explained. Our guests, our travelers, are veteran luxury travelers. Theyve been everywhere. These are people who are interested in having this brand experience at sea. They trust what its going to be and theyre intrigued by the design. This end of the luxury cruise business was mostly vacated and that is why there are so many new to cruise. There has been an overwhelming response from potential officers and crewmembers. An added benefit the company will offer will be the ability to transition shoreside at a Ritz-Carlton property. Prothero said 2020 will be about the guest experience, with years of planning coming to fruition. "The ship is certainly going to be full. We are well on our way to that. What does success look like? Happy guests. Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Spring 2019 On April 4, 2019, California Assembly Member Wicks proposed sweeping changes to bill AB 1760, effectively repealing the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and replacing it with the Privacy for All Act of 2019 (PAA). The proposed rewrite would increase a businesss compliance obligations as well as its potential exposure to civil and regulatory liability, shifting California even closer to the requirements of the GDPR. If passed, the PAA will go into effect on January 1, 2021, giving businesses one additional year to implement the new requirements. Proposed changes at-a-glance Renames the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 as the Privacy for All Act of 2019 Requires an affirmative opt-in consent by consumers for sharing of personal information Businesses can only delay, but not refuse, a consumers right to delete data for so long as reasonably necessary for one of the exceptions to no longer apply Increases transparency obligations regarding data sharing activities, including specifics of personal information shared and the entities with whom personal information is shared Increases diligence requirements for service providers and narrows the safe harbor for service provider violations Makes fundamental changes to a consumers private right of action and other statutory damages, increasing potential exposure and liability to businesses Incorporates broader regulatory enforcement actions Delays the effective date until January 1, 2021 Requirements of the PAA Affirmative Opt-In Consent. While the CCPA only required opt-out consent for the selling of personal information, the PAA would require businesses to provide California consumers with an affirmative opt-in consent to share that consumers personal data. Furthermore, sharing under the PAA includes all forms of selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating and, unlike the CCPA, no monetary or valuable consideration is required. Like other affirmative opt-in consent requirements, businesses will not be able to pre-check the opt-in consent consumers must perform an affirmative act for the consent to be valid. In addition, the collection of data from children under 13 years of age still requires opt-in consent from a parent or guardian. While the CCPA only required opt-out consent for the selling of personal information, the PAA would require businesses to provide California consumers with an affirmative opt-in consent to share that consumers personal data. Furthermore, sharing under the PAA includes all forms of selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating and, unlike the CCPA, no monetary or valuable consideration is required. Like other affirmative opt-in consent requirements, businesses will not be able to pre-check the opt-in consent consumers must perform an affirmative act for the consent to be valid. In addition, the collection of data from children under 13 years of age still requires opt-in consent from a parent or guardian. Exceptions to Right to Delete. The PAA would also significantly restrict a businesss ability to refuse a California consumers request to have his or her personal information deleted. Under the PAA, a business will only be able to delay its compliance with a consumers request for deletion only for so long as reasonably necessary until one of the enumerated exclusions no longer applies. Under the PAA, a business would be required to automatically comply with the request once none of the exceptions apply without a further request from the consumer. Additionally, the business will be required to delete all of the consumers data regardless of the source, not just data collected from that consumer by the business. The PAA would also significantly restrict a businesss ability to refuse a California consumers request to have his or her personal information deleted. Under the PAA, a business will only be able to delay its compliance with a consumers request for deletion only for so long as reasonably necessary until one of the enumerated exclusions no longer applies. Under the PAA, a business would be required to automatically comply with the request once none of the exceptions apply without a further request from the consumer. Additionally, the business will be required to delete all of the consumers data regardless of the source, not just data collected from that consumer by the business. Increased Disclosure Obligations. Under the CCPA, businesses were only required to disclose the categories of personal information shared and the categories of third parties with whom the personal information was shared. Under the PAA, businesses would be required to also disclose the specific pieces of personal information disclosed as well as the specific third parties to whom the personal information was disclosed. Businesses will also be required to contractually prohibit downstream recipients from re-identification of consumer information, and must make reasonable efforts to ensure service providers comply with the PAA. Under the CCPA, businesses were only required to disclose the categories of personal information shared and the categories of third parties with whom the personal information was shared. Under the PAA, businesses would be required to also disclose the specific pieces of personal information disclosed as well as the specific third parties to whom the personal information was disclosed. Businesses will also be required to contractually prohibit downstream recipients from re-identification of consumer information, and must make reasonable efforts to ensure service providers comply with the PAA. Expanded Definition of Personal Information. The CCPA already had a broad definition of personal information, which included information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular California consumer or household. The PAA would expand the definition of personal information to include information that could be linked with a device, including, for example, network MAC addresses and device serial numbers. However, while the CCPA excluded from the definition of personal information publicly available information made available from federal, state, and local government when the information was used for a purpose compatible with the purpose for which the information was maintained, under the PAA all information (other than biometric information) lawfully made available from federal, state, or local governments would be excluded. The CCPA already had a broad definition of personal information, which included information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular California consumer or household. The PAA would expand the definition of personal information to include information that could be linked with a device, including, for example, network MAC addresses and device serial numbers. However, while the CCPA excluded from the definition of personal information publicly available information made available from federal, state, and local government when the information was used for a purpose compatible with the purpose for which the information was maintained, under the PAA all information (other than biometric information) lawfully made available from federal, state, or local governments would be excluded. Increased Liability for Violations by Service Providers. The PAA would significantly expand exposure to liability of businesses for their service providers violations of the PAA. Under the CCPA, a business was not liable for the violations of its service providers if, at the time of the disclosure of personal information, the business had no knowledge of or reason to believe the service provider intended to violate the CCPA. Under the PAA, a business would not be liable for its service providers violations of the PAA only if the business has made reasonable efforts to ensure that the service provider will comply with the PAA and the business has no actual knowledge of or reason to believe that the service provider violated the PAA. Essentially, the PPA creates a duty on businesses to audit their vendors and confirm their compliance with PPA. The PAA would significantly expand exposure to liability of businesses for their service providers violations of the PAA. Under the CCPA, a business was not liable for the violations of its service providers if, at the time of the disclosure of personal information, the business had no knowledge of or reason to believe the service provider intended to violate the CCPA. Under the PAA, a business would not be liable for its service providers violations of the PAA only if the business has made reasonable efforts to ensure that the service provider will comply with the PAA and the business has no actual knowledge of or reason to believe that the service provider violated the PAA. Essentially, the PPA creates a duty on businesses to audit their vendors and confirm their compliance with PPA. Increased Private Rights of Action. Under the current version of CCPA, a California consumer could bring a private right of action only for data breaches resulting from failures to reasonably protect personal information and only after the consumer provided the business notice and an opportunity to cure. Under the PAA, California consumers would be able to bring a private right of action for any violation of the PAA without providing the business pre-suit notice or an opportunity to cure. The PAA also explicitly permits California consumers to recover reasonable attorneys fees in addition to other statutory damages of no less than $100 and up to $750 or any other relief the court deems proper. Under the current version of CCPA, a California consumer could bring a private right of action only for data breaches resulting from failures to reasonably protect personal information and only after the consumer provided the business notice and an opportunity to cure. Under the PAA, California consumers would be able to bring a private right of action for any violation of the PAA without providing the business pre-suit notice or an opportunity to cure. The PAA also explicitly permits California consumers to recover reasonable attorneys fees in addition to other statutory damages of no less than $100 and up to $750 or any other relief the court deems proper. Increased Regulatory Enforcement. The PAA would expand the scope of potential regulatory actions from actions brought by the Attorney Generals office with a 30-day cure period to actions brought by any district attorney, city attorney, or county counsel with no cure period. In addition to injunctive relief, fines remain at up to $2,500 for each unintentional violation and up to $7,500 for each intentional violation. Applicability to businesses The PAA would continue to apply to for-profit entities that do business in California that also determine the purposes and means of the processing of California consumers personal information, and that either: (a) have annual gross revenues in excess of $25,000,000 (anywhere); (b) annually process the personal information of 50,000 or more California residents, households, or devices; or (c) derive at least half of their gross revenue from the sharing of personal information of California consumers. The PAA excludes the same businesses as are excluded from the CCPA, such as: Medical Information governed by Californias Confidentiality of Medical Information Act or protected health information subject to the privacy, security, and breach notification rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; information collected as part of a clinical trial subject to human subject protections under the Common Rule, the International Conference on Harmonisations Guideline for Good Clinical Practice, or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the sale of personal information to or from a consumer reporting agency used to generate consumer reports and in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act; information processed, sold, or shared pursuant to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act; and information collected, processed, sold, or shared pursuant to the Drivers Privacy Protection Act. It also would not apply when a business believes in good faith that an emergency exists that requires sharing of personal information, or when information is shared with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in connection with a report. Impact on businesses Although the PAA, if passed, will not go into effect until 2021, it will take time for impacted businesses to comply with all of its provisions. Businesses subject to the PAA should consider the following actions in preparation for the PAA implementation: Conduct a data mapping of the personal information collected by the business to understand the scope of personal information collected and how it is obtained, used, and shared with third parties. Review internal policies and procedures to be able to appropriately respond to consumer requests for access to, deletion from, or information related to the sale or disclosure of their personal information. Begin the planning and implementation of technological improvements to their information systems that may be necessary to process consumer requests and consumers rights to opt-in to the sharing of personal information. Businesses may wish to consider the use of technology features that enable easy moves between opt-in and opt-out consents in the event this requirement is not present in the final law. Review and update privacy policies to comply with the disclosure requirements of the PAA when it becomes necessary to do so. Begin preparing training materials and planning for training all personnel who are responsible for handling consumer personal information inquiries. Update contracts with third parties and/or service providers to whom consumer personal information is conveyed to ensure that the contracts explicitly limit the use of personal information to providing the services contemplated, permit the business to audit the vendors operations for compliance with PPA and contractual terms, and require the vendor to assist with consumer requests. Review vendor due diligence procedures (including audits) to verify that service providers are able to comply with the PAA. Consider including defense, indemnification, and insurance provisions in favor of the business in all contracts with vendors given access to consumer information. Consider using third-party audits to ensure compliance with the PAA and conducting those audits through legal counsel to support the position that the results are covered by the attorney-client privilege. Although AB 1760 has only now been formally introduced, Assembly Member Wicks has been discussing the PAA for a few weeks. In February, she stated that Consumers should have the right to find out what data companies have collected on them, how that information is being used, and to stop their personal information from being shared and sold. While the fate of the PAA remains in question, we expect that we will see several concepts from the PAA become law. There is already significant lobbying taking place on behalf of the PAA, including by the ACLU of California, Common Sense Kids Action, Consumer Reports, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. In addition, often considered a more liberal state, California is seeing a backlash resulting from the rushed, closed-door process of drafting the CCPA which some have called pay-for-privacy and holding the right to opt out hostage opening the door for an increasing groundswell for a fair deal for all. On the other hand, the PAA does not incorporate other proposed changes to the CCPA that have received significant support, making it likely that we will see the PAA amended again. For example, AB 25 proposed to remove employee personal data from the scope of the CCPA, which is not reflected in the PAA as it is currently drafted. It is also worth noting that many businesses in California are calling for the CCPA enforcement date to be pushed back, as even those business that are taking an aggressive, proactive response to complying with the CCPA fear they will not be compliant by January 1, 2020. Many businesses are also concerned about the look-back period created by the CCPA, as almost no company can say it was compliant with the CCPA as of January 1, 2019. Given all of the above and more, we are seeing efforts to push back the effective date of the CCPA to 2021, like the PAA is proposing. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether California Governor Newsom will sign the bill into law, as the CCPA was signed into law by his predecessor, former Governor Brown. Contributed Photo / Google Maps / Contributed Photo BRIDGEPORT City firefighters pulled a man out of swamp water and thick mud at Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday, officials said. The call came in for a reported water rescue at the park, 4750 Park Ave., around 5 p.m. Dispatch reports indicated the man jumped into the water because he was being chased by a dog. A Connecticut man was sentenced to 18 years behind bars for sexually assaulting a minor. Andrew Cunningham, 39, formerly of Windsor, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven. After serving jail time, Cunningham has 10 years of supervised release. According to court documents, in March 2017, Cunningham began communicating with a 13-year-old female on Omegle, a website and mobile application designed to pair strangers for text and video chats. Cunningham first told the minor victim that he was 17, and later stated he was 25. Cunningham and the minor victim then communicated via text messaging and phone calls for approximately one week. During that time, Cunningham enticed the minor victim to send him sexually explicit images of herself, and attempted to lure her to travel to Connecticut. Cunningham has been in state custody since May 2, 2017, when he was arrested on related state charges. He pleaded guilty in state court to illegal sexual contact with a minor and enticement of a minor, and is currently serving a three-year state sentence. On Nov. 6, 2018, he pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of count of enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. Cunningham was a registered sex offender and was on probation at the time of the offense. In 2014, Cunningham traveled to Illinois and engaged in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl. He had told the girl he was 25 years old when, in fact, he was 34 at the time. In 2015, he was convicted in Illinois of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced to five years in prison and two years of mandatory supervised release. He was released from prison in December 2016. This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Connecticut State Police, with the assistance of Connecticut State Parole. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy V. Gifford. This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justices Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com 3 1 of 3 Contributed Photo / Connecticut State Police / Contributed Photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Contributed Photo / Connecticut State Police / Contributed Photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3 WINDSOR LOCKS There were minor injuries in a rollover near the Bradley International Airport on Wednesday, according to Connecticut State Police. It was unclear when the crash happened, although images from the agency appear to be taken around dusk. State police posted the images and information about the crash on Twitter at 8:47 p.m. NEW HAVEN An analysis of state data shows that the presence of police officers in Connecticut schools leads to a higher average of student arrests, but the impact on student achievement is negligible. In a report released Thursday called Policing Connecticuts Hallways: The Prevalence and Impact of School Resource Officers in Connecticut, New Haven-based policy research group Connecticut Voices for Children analyzed state data comparing districts with school resource officers to those without. Given a national rise in school shootings, stationing police in schools may seem like an intuitive way to ensure the safety of Americas most valuable resource its children. However, when SROs are present in a school, administrators may defer disciplinary duties to SROs, wrote researchers Camara Stokes Hudson, Lauren Ruth and Wendy Waithe Simmons in the reports executive summary. Unlike security guards and school administrators, SROs have the power to arrest students. Experiencing arrest can be traumatizing for children who are arrested, their families, and other observers who may be present. Even one arrest can result in children experiencing reduced access to future educational and employment opportunities. One of the reports findings is that Latino students at schools with SROs are six times more likely to be referred to law enforcement than Latino students at schools without uniformed police officers. This year, New Haven school administrators presented the Board of Education with data that black boys made up 41 percent of all suspensions in New Havens schools over the last five years, although they comprise 18.6 percent of students in the district. Finance committee members criticizing Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks for her spending priorities said they would like to see more financial resources put into efforts to reduce racial disparities in punishment. We should be repurposing this money to help these children, said finance committee chairman Jamell Cotto. According to the report, black children at schools with SROs in Connecticut, which included 19 New Haven schools in 2015-16 when the data was analyzed, were nearly twice as likely to be referred to law enforcement than in schools without officers in schools. The report also found that there was no statistical significance in academic performance on state testing along racial and ethnic lines between students at schools with SROs and those without. Of note is that Smarter Balance ELA and Math scores are lower for in schools with SROs present, though not significantly, and they are lower for all students than for White students. This suggests that within groups of children of color, the presence of SROs may still have an impact on academic achievement in a way that this data set does not allow us to measure, the report said. Recently, New Havens emergency responders reviewed the school districts school shooting protocol. Earlier this month, officials participated in a fictional scenario exercise to review the proper protocol in the citys police and fire training academy. SROs are included in that protocol as a crucial link for communication and containment. Connecticut Voices for Children researches made four policy recommendations: that the General Assembly request studies on the efficacy of SROs; that school districts have a transparent memorandum of understanding on the use of SROs, that questions about SROs be included in school climate surveys for all districts using SROs and that school districts with SROs included information as to students legal rights in student handbooks. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com Getting into college is something worth celebrating -- but the process of getting into college is nothing short of excruciating. In 2007, Neha Gupta was a recent college graduate, and the memory of applying to schools was still fresh: It was a confusing experience that sparked arguments with her parents and left Gupta feeling isolated. To bring in cash, she started offering to help parents and students navigate the intense, draining application process, and as her clientele grew, College Shortcuts was born. Today, the Houston-based business has nearly 100 Ivy Leagueeducated employees helping teens across the country target potential schools and perfect their applications -- while providing a heavy dose of emotional support. Heres how she got started. Related: Does That College Diploma Really Matter for Success? 1. Get the word out. This company started with $500 and a really ugly logo, Gupta says. A friend who was a graphic designer helped me with it, and it was hideous. We had nothing. The phone number on our website was my cell number. To drum up early business in a world that hadnt yet been transformed by social media, Gupta went analog: I put an ad in the newspaper just to see if families needed assistance. Then she had to seal the deal. 2. Dress for the job you want. When prospective clients reached out, Gupta would arrange an in-person meeting -- essentially an interview in which students parents decided whether or not she was trustworthy. Being the nerd that I was, I showed up to peoples homes in a suit with a two-page resume in hand, she says. It helped her win over moms and dads, and as a young 20-something, she was more easily seen as an ally by teens. Were not the nagging parent or the crusty counselor, she says. Were the helpful sibling. Once people saw that, moms were like, Youre hired. Related: Why Private College Admissions Consulting Has Become the Rule 3. Staff up. Gupta was a one-woman show at first, but within three months, shed exhausted her bandwidth. Our first employees were friends of mine -- other top students who wanted to do this part-time, she says. Before too long, she was getting requests from outside Houston. (Moms talk, Gupta says.) As she considered a long-term plan to scale, she focused on taking advantage of new technologies that were already being embraced by teens. I could have opened an office in other cities and been a blip in those markets, but were in a time when the internet enables you to have a team all over the country, she says. We can embrace video chat, work with kids across the country, and have the same impact. 4. Focus your mission. The company was originally named Elite Private Tutors, offering both application assistance and subject-specific tutoring. But as the college arm of the business grew, Gupta realized she needed a brand name that better communicated that mission and created College Shortcuts as its own entity. This is really about helping kids create an ideal college application, she says. My entire team is Ivy Leagueeducated, so whatever college a student wants to go to, we can help. Thats what we needed our name to explain. Related: College is Good for Getting a Job but Not Necessarily for Getting Rich 5. Get emotional. As the company has evolved over the past 12 years, one thing has remained constant: Gupta and her team acknowledge and embrace that their clients are at an emotional, complicated moment in their lives. I look at my competitors and its a lot of data-driven males using technology to give XYZ results, she says. Thats great -- and we have data, as well -- but this is about someones child leaving home for the first time. We make it clear that we have the heart to help these students go from teen to adult. Related: This Founder Built a National Business By Helping Kids Get Into College When Their Investor Bailed, These Female Founders Launched Their Company Anyway How Coachella and an Old Postal Truck Helped Launch Ice Cream Brand Coolhaus Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Cynthia Rowan, President, Performance Management Solutions Every organization seeks to establish a program that develops the next generation of leaders. But the most successful programs develop leaders at all levels of the organization, not just those who are next in line on the succession plan. Youre investing in everybody, Cynthia Rowan, president of Performance Management Solutions, tells 2019 CUNA HR & Organizational Development Council Conference attendees Tuesday in Anaheim. Rowan suggests several steps to create a high-impact leadership development program that equips employees at every level with the skills necessary to lead: Two of the top NCUA compliance priorities this year are the Bank Secrecy Acts Beneficial Ownership regulations and the HMDA (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act) Fair Lending rules. These are two of the topics addressed in our recent webinar, because you can be sure that NCUA will be looking closely at these in upcoming exams. Credit unions have been given some leeway to work toward compliance in the past, but that time has pretty much run out. In the recent audits that we have done for credit unions, were seeing that far too many of them are not yet ready with the proper documentation when it comes to BSA Beneficial Ownership. Beneficial ownership applies to legal entities such as corporations, limited liability companies, or general partnerships. Those individuals who directly or indirectly own 25 percent or more of the entity, along with those who have significant responsibility in terms of controlling, managing, or directing the entity, are considered beneficial owners. They must be identified and have their information added to the account. What is most important to credit unions is that they can prove that they have obtained the required information about individuals who have control or ownership of the legal entities they have opened or changed accounts for in the past year. To be prepared, we advise: Be sure your credit union has updated policies and procedures properly to match the requirements. Schedule a policy review and demonstrate that the credit union board reviews the policies and risk assessment at least annually. Ensure that the credit union staff is trained on how to properly collect beneficial ownership information for each legal entity account Tip: Use the form that FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) provides. Its easy to use and saves you the trouble of creating your own form. One of the biggest issues we see with HDMA/Fair Lending compliance is proper posting of lobby notices, with the revised wording that is now required as a result of Regulation C. The disclosure procedure is also important. The posting itself is straightforward enough, with the notification to be placed in a clear and conspicuous place, ideally in an entry vestibule or similar area where everyone passes through. As far as handling a member or visitor request for the HMDA data, its important to make sure your staff is properly trained on what specific disclosure is provided, and how to fully comply with the rules surrounding these requests. It is actually much easier now; at one time it might have been necessary to print a sizable number of pages for the rare person who requested the information. Now you can simply hand that person a single sheet that clearly directs them to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus website. A couple of other pieces of advice for the HMDA/Fair Lending compliance would be to ensure that the HMDA data on the Loan Application Register (LAR) matches the data on the loan file, and is updated within 30 days of the end of each quarter. Through frequent data reviews and employee awareness, the credit union can guarantee that they meet both of these requirements. In the webinar, we offer more detail about both Beneficial Ownership and HMDA/Fair Lending, as well as other areas where NCUA is sure to be looking closely at policies and procedures this year. Its critical that your staff knows and follows these rules. Not doing things correctly can result in some highly painful fines for the credit union, and nobody wants that. CultNews101.com: news, links, resources. Cults101.org: resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics. CultMediation.com: offers resources designed to help thoughtful families and friends understand and respond to the complexity of a loved ones cult involvement. Intervention101.com: to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement. CultRecovery101.com: assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice. Our own Bruce Siwy and Eric Kieta talk about their true-crime cases in Return To View: The Roundtable news Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Hanteng Auto, a privately owned Chinese automobile manufacturer, signed an agreement at the Auto Shanghai 2019 with the Internet giant Baidu to step up their cooperation in Level 3 autonomous driving area. The latest cooperation involves automated parking and Level 3 expressway autonomous driving technologies, etc. At a speed of over 60km/h, car-borne laser radars scan the map data, helping the system pinpoint locations. After receiving drivers' confirmation, the autonomous driving system can enable a vehicle to automatically execute car-following, cruise, lane-changing and overtaking. Besides, both parties are proactively promoting the R&D of autonomous vehicle models, which will be mass produced in 2021. Hanteng Auto will work together with Baidu's Apollo platform to co-build autonomous driving, intelligent connectivity and smart traffic ecosystem. Before the signing ceremony, the automaker officially released the presale price of the Hanteng V7, which carries the ADAS available for Level 2 intelligent driving features, covering such functions as LDW (lane departure warning), AEB (autonomous emergency braking), SLIF (speed limit information function), full-speed ACC (adaptive cruise control) and HBA (high beam assist). Last year, Hanteng Auto collaborated with Baidu on HD (high-definition) map and self-positioning technologies. In early 2019, both companies started to jointly research and develop the Baidu Map Auto applicable to Hanteng Auto's cars, which is expected to enter into market in March next year. PHOENIXVILLE The Mayors Task Force to restore rail service to downtown Philadelphia via the Manayunk/Norristown line will hold a public town hall meeting on Monday. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. and is open to the public but has limited space at Phoenixvilles Columbia Station. That building, located at 4 Bridge St. in downtown Phoenixville, served as the communitys rail station for almost 150 years. For those who cannot attend, a virtual town hall will also be available via the web. To RSVP to attend the presentation in person visit http://www.steelcityrail.com/, a link for the virtual meeting will also be available on the same website as the event draws closer. Phoenixville developer Manny DeMutis who has provided seed funding for the group to get an operational plan, said the plan is now in its third iteration. We secured input from Norfolk Southern and revised the plan and submitted to SEPTA. SEPTA provided guidance and commented on the plan. Subsequently, we then revised a third time and are now taking the plan public for comment in a public informational setting to increase the number of potential users in the project. This is about as grassroots as you can get. DeMutis said. The town hall will touch on aspects of the program including the economic impact, the environmental benefits, cultural impact and operational issues. The in person and virtual town hall will allow for real time input of concerns, questions or comments which would be appropriate for improving the plan. These are new concepts that the group is bringing forward in a public administrative setting, said Phoenixville Mayor Peter Urscheler. Through the Transit Revitalization Investment District Act, we have adapted the funding mechanism to solve our problem, giving us, as a community, the ability to prioritize our transportation needswe need a train, he said in a press release. The group has already made presentations to Phoenixville Borough Council, Schuylkill Township, Phoenixville School District and will present to the Chester County Commissioners on the April 24. Australian astrologist Pia Lehmann (pictured) revealed which signs get on best in the workplace Your star sign might be the reason you're not getting along with your boss. Australian astrologer Pia Lehmann looked at each of the twelve sun signs to decipher how they react as bosses and which other members of the zodiac they work well with. 'Note a full horoscope consist of two luminaries (the Sun and the Moon) and eight planets and their relationship with one another,' she said. 'It is therefore important not just to know the Sun sign, but also its ruler (i.e. in the case of Aries it is Mars); and the Moon sign gives insight into the deeper needs of a person. 'But today we'll just look at the Sun signs.' From an 'explosive' Aries leader to an ambitious Capricorn, these are the common traits they exhibit in the workforce. ARIES Your Aries boss is a natural innovator and leader. They can be explosive but do not hold grudges for long. Note they will want to WIN and be FIRST, Pia explained. They work well with followers that share their dynamic approach. Remember, they lead. If a company is in trouble an Aries manager is often the person sorting it out. If you are looking for a cushy position or your life is going through a down phase, where you cannot give your best, do not work for an Aries boss. He expects overtime and rearrangement of your own plans to fit in with company projects. If you want a place with action, this is the one to be with. You can win their heart with honesty and enthusiasm, never with procrastination. Compatible: The fire signs of Leo and Sagittarius should get on well, since the enthusiasm is shared and you are as outright spoken as Aries is. Difficulty: Capricorns. Your ambitions might clash. If you are a Cancer you might easily feel hurt by the brash, quick tempered Aries. If you are Libra, indecisiveness is a characteristic an Aries cannot tolerate. Aries does not try to please people but goes forth regardless what other people think and does not mind stepping on a few toes. If a company is in trouble an Aries manager is often the person sorting it out (stock image) TAURUS Your Taurus boss is security conscious, practical, dependable and loyal. Their ideas can be fixed as they dislike change, Pia said. Do not mistake their mild, patient friendly way as being a marshmallow. Their patience has a limit and without warning can explode when you least expect it. The company is their kingdom, they are good with finances and are careful not to invest in new things too quickly. You can win their heart with loyalty, and never with frivolous behaviour. Compatible: Virgo and Capricorn because they are both practical earth signs and should talk the same language as their Taurean boss. Difficulty: Leo can be too extravagant and might be bored by the Taurean conservative nature. Aquarius might get impatient, since your ideas are innovative and new and your Taurus boss tends to follow traditions and is slow to catch on. Scorpio can go both ways, it can be a mutual attraction or a repulsion. Scorpio wants emotional security and Taurus wants material security. The Taurus boss (ruled by Venus) might be hurt by the occasional sting of Scorpio (traditional ruler Mars). GEMINI Your quick-witted Gemini boss may be very entertaining with their stories. They can easily talk themselves out of a tricky situation, are restless and talented at multi-tasking. They like ideas and theories. There will be change and it will never be boring. Geminis usually do not last long in the same position, so there might be room for you to climb the ladder. You can win their heart with a joke but never with tears. Bring them more information, they will love it! Compatible: With the other air signs of Aquarius and Libra sharing their intellect and ideas and cracking a joke. Difficulty: Virgo can be too pedantic and Pisces too sensitive and dreamy for an intellectual Gemini boss who is not really interested in deeper emotions. Sagittarius can work both ways. They like the big picture and a goal, as an employee you might get frustrated with the information gathering Gemini boss, changing direction frequently and perhaps being too scattered and too much detail for a Sagittarian who sees the big picture. A Sagittarius employee can work out if she is employed as a sales rep. CANCER Your Cancer boss is working hard: For money. Because money is their security. They are not greedy, but they know how to save money and are quite thrifty. With their intuition they know what people want and give it to them with a profit. They can be conservative, nurturing and maternal. Full of empathy and politeness. You can learn a lot from a Cancer boss, often they are self-made people. Family oriented, they can bring out the best in people. They are tenacious, maternal, protective, emotional and have a good memory. Win their heart: With a neat appearance, being polite and be caring about his family. Compatible with: Scorpio and Pisces since they are empathetic water signs. Difficulty: Aries is too outspoken and Libra - they tend to spend too much money, possibly for a more aesthetic office interior; from a Cancer's point of view this is a pure waste of money. Capricorn can appear to be too cold and calculating for a Cancer boss. LEO If you work for a Leo boss, then you must be an excellent, diligent worker, Pia said. Leo bosses know how to delegate, especially the mundane tasks. They have a huge ego and don't be surprised if they take your idea as their own. The Leo boss is very generous and lives beyond their budget. They love children and have a big heart. Leo bosses know how to surround themselves with people of fame and influence. Your life will never be boring working for a Leo boss. Win his heart: Admire them, pay them compliments, listen to them, thank them and do all the small chores for them. They will reward you and possibly your family too. Compatible with: Aries and Sagittarius. They are optimistic and would share your enthusiasm and optimism. Also Virgo, they would be ideal to execute the mundane tasks and attention to detail. Difficulty: With Taurus - could be too conservative; with Scorpio there would be a power clash; and Aquarius is far too frugal for a Leo. If you work for a Leo boss, then you must be an excellent, diligent worker, Pia said (stock image) VIRGO Your Virgo boss pays attention to details. They are very industrious, clean and health conscious. Not your typical CEO they are often better at playing a background role of an analyst or adviser to the board. They can be anxious and overwhelmed by too much detail. Virgo bosses are very reliable and genuine and fair, they do not mind rolling up their sleeves and working late. Their work ethic is second to none. And they will pay you what you are worth. A Virgo boss can be critical, fault finding but hates to be criticised, since the ego is not that strong. Win their heart: Try to be perfect and conscientious, by not making mistakes and do not criticise them. Appear on time and be practical and reliable. Compatible: Taurus and Capricorn because they usually are reliable and steady. Difficulty: Gemini can be far too scatterbrained and Sagittarius too sloppy and outspoken for a Virgo. Pisces is far too chaotic and sensitive for them. LIBRA Is your boss elegant? The best dressed in the company? And good looking? Librans tend to have a good taste and an eye for art in any form, Pia said. They like harmony and are interested in resolving conflict. There are many females amongst Libra bosses, and they may be a little more decisive than their male. Generally, the Libran find it hard to make a decision, since they want to please all. Libra bosses are creative both in thought and speech as well as manually. They have tact and know how to bring feuding parties together. Win their heart: Be friendly, do not gossip and do not expect them to take sides. Talk about love and art and they will love it. Compatible: Gemini and Aquarius match their intellect. Difficulty: Cancer and Capricorn. Cancer is far too emotional and concerned about the family and Capricorn tends to be matter of fact and too stern and conservative for a Libra boss. Aries might be too forward and self-centred for a Libra boss and Libra might feel threatened. Aries can be too brash and not polished enough for a refined Libra. Is your boss elegant? The best dressed in the company? And good looking? Librans tend to have a good taste and an eye for art in any form, Pia said (stock image) SCORPIO So your Scorpio boss is quiet and does not let you see through? Yet they observe everything. Just like an X-ray they know. They can be a doctor, psychologist or a banker, it's always about wisdom and power. They need connection and therefore only feel secure once they really know you. And all your secrets too. If you'd rather keep your secret, then don't work for them because they will find out. They can know your most intimate thoughts but nobody will guess theirs. Unlike Leo or Aries who announce their ambitions, Scorpio keeps theirs secret until they overtake them all, very quietly. Scorpio's determination and ambition is a fact. There is no grey, as they either like you and then will help you and further your career. If they do not like you, I doubt you will last. Win their heart: By being totally loyal and dependable and secretive. The selected few working for them will form like an inner circle. They can be very suspicious, make sure you keep their trust. Compatible: Cancer and Pisces have similar intuition but Scorpio KNOWS. Difficulty with: Aquarius, Taurus or Leo because they would try to take over or do their own thing. That would not work because Scorpio wants control and power. SAGITTARIUS Your Sagittarius boss is an entrepreneur par excellence. They see the big picture, opportunities no end and are very optimistic. They like to deal on an international level. They are fighting hard for their convictions, after all, remember that they see the big picture and are in the right. And they have a skill to talk themselves out of any situation. Life will never ever be boring with a Sagittarius boss, there will always be new plans, big theories and actually you might learn a lot, since Sagittarius can be good teachers. Win their heart: Don't sweat the small stuff. They have no time for your complaints, after all they are just concluding another big business deal. You need to learn to make a lot of excuses for them and their way of putting people's back up. Compatible: Aries and Leo share their fiery nature, optimism, leadership style and enthusiasm. Difficulty with: Virgo is far too pedantic for them, lacking that big picture, Pisces would really have to toughen up, because they are very sensitive. Gemini carries a lot of information which might be too detailed for Sagittarius who would lose interest quickly. CAPRICORN Very ambitious and wants to move up the ladder into the right circles. Not like a Leo with flamboyance, no, this one is traditional, just like the Royals. A Capricorn boss is a very good business person, good with figures, keeping control without needing the limelight. They are a very private person, shy in a way. Their home is in the office, perhaps decorated with family photos. To their employees they are like a shepherd, a father figure, stern but fair. In a way the Capricorn has a heart for older people, successful people. They might be impressed with famous private schools or relatives of rank. Win their heart: Don't waste time, be productive, self-motivated and recognise extra chores to do without being asked. Compatible: Taurus and Virgo share the same down to earth practicality and matter of fact attitude. Difficulty: Aries might be too competitive for a Capricorn boss and too impatient; Libra would spend too much money and be too indecisive and talk too much on the phone with their friends. Cancer likes to leave the office and go home; Capricorn is at home at the office. AQUARIUS Your Aquarius boss can be very detached, impersonal and independent. Future oriented, savvy with technical equipment, they can be a minimalist and idealist. We do not find many Aquarian corporate bosses; they would get bored by office routine. They have no pleasure to lead others. They like to be informed but will never be shocked. They will never give you advice about your personal life; remember they are detached. Aquarius can be erratic and very changeable. They pay you what you are worth but not more. Money is not a driving force for Aquarius. Win their heart: Community projects for the greater good, save the whales, Greenpeace these are all topics that interest an Aquarian. Talk about time travel or anything futuristic and they will love it. Compatible: Gemini and Libra will share many interesting talks. Difficulty: Taurus cannot adapt so quickly to keep up with their changes and Scorpio is power and money oriented - these fixed signs might clash with stubborn Aquarius who wants it their way and so do they. Leo tends to be far too ego flashing. I doubt as a Leo employee you will be happy under an Aquarian boss. Aquarian bosses do not like people living beyond their means. PISCES Dreamy Pisces is difficult to pinpoint. Not your typical boss unless in the right industry. Pisceans are very sensitive and sometimes find it difficult to deal with the harshness of this world. They are dreamers and unless they have a Capricorn moon or similar, they find it difficult to be an authority figure in the corporate world. They are a romantic, love nature; maybe lead a dance studio or they are the CEO of s charitable organisation. Pisceans are formidable hotel directors since they love to serve customers and humanity as whole. Win their heart: Be practical to realise their dreams. Suggest they travel, they will love it. Compatible: Cancer and Scorpio are empathetic water signs. Difficulty: Gemini and Sagittarius - Gemini is too intellectual and Sagittarius too outspoken and tactless for a sensitive Piscean. Pia Lehmann has been formally studying Astrology for many years and is a Gold Medal winner of the Federation of Australian Astrologers. She has been working as a qualified counselling Astrologer for over 20 years. See website: www.soulscapesoz.com. Pia also works as a qualified, registered homeopath, which you can find more information about here: www.pialehmann.com. A former ISIS bride, who turned her back on the organisation after spending two years in Syria, has blamed anti-Islamic bullying at her British school for driving her into the arms of ISIS. Fatima, 30, from London, spent two years in Syria before cutting all ties with them and returning to her family in 2017, at the age of 28. In an eye-opening interview with Stylist, she said she sought solace in extremist beliefs, after being regularly assaulted in school, and singled out due to her headscarf. Fatima told how when she was 11-years-old, a gang of girls pushed her into a corner of their playground and ripped off her headscarf, pulling out handfuls of her hair. 'The whole time, they were screaming that I was a Paki b***h', she recalled. 'Men would come up behind me, groping me, threatening to pull off my headscarf and jeering that I would be a sl** without it. I have also been punched and kicked. I never felt safe'. This comes as Shamima Begum, now 19, who left her Bethnal Green home in 2015 for the Syrian city of Raqqa and married a Dutch jihadi, has appealed the decision to have her British citizenship revoked as she battles to return to Britain. Former ISIS bride Fatima, 30, from London who turned her back on the organisation after spending two years in Syria, thinks Shamima Begum may still be living in fear of the group (stock image used) Recalling an incident when her pregnant friend was subjected to a violent assault, she said: 'You hear about attacks on British people on the news, but then compare that to the women who threatened to kick an innocent baby to death just for being a Muslim, and suddenly you don't feel so sorry for them anymore'. Fuelled with rage Fatima admitted that she felt inspired after meeting a man online, who pointed her in the direction of articles about 'Islamic justice'. She added: 'Prince Harry was a warring hero for the British people, so I felt: why can't we have our own heroes that protect us?' This comes as Shamima Begum, now 19, who left her Bethnal Green home in 2015 for the Syrian city of Raqqa and married a Dutch jihadi, has appealed the decision to have her British citizenship revoked as she battles to return to Britain Fatima married the man she met in London after a short relationship, and they arrived in Syria in 2015 to support the 'liberation army'. Shockingly, Fatima revealed how they were given books justifying the murder of children, beheadings and use of sex slaves. The rise of Islamophobia Last year hate crimes rocketed by nearly a fifth in England and Wales, latest figures reveal. There were 94,098 such offences recorded in 2017/18, an increase of 17 per cent on the previous year, while statistics show the figure has doubled since 2013/2014. In November, a 15-year-old boy who whose family escaped war in Syria and were relocated to Huddersfield, was beaten up and 'waterboarded' on a school field, and told how he was so upset and 'ashamed' of the attack he dreaded returning to school and cried himself to sleep. Advertisement Admitting that she initially justified attacks on the western world as 'retaliation', she said a 'terrifying wake-up call' - which she would not detail - 'changed her mind for good. Returning to Britain in 2017, Fatima was accepted by her family on the condition she cut all ties with her husband and any extremist connections. She moved to the suburbs and took on the new motto that 'the solution for violence is never more violence'. Addressing the apparent lack of regret Shamima expressed in an interview with Sky News in February, Fatima said: 'It's 'possible' that Shamima Begum has been threatened with consequences 'if she dares to be publicly disloyal to the Islamic State'. 'Once you're too far in, for some, it can be difficult to get out.' Fatima believes the stereotypes and rising Islamophobia is creating an environment where 'where female terror recruits can thrive'. She added: 'When someone ties you to a stereotype for years, eventually you get tired of trying to prove people wrong, and out of anger, you start living up to that stereotype'. John Lewis is determined to stick to its famous motto 'never knowingly undersold,' despite falling on hard times, a Channel 5 documentary has revealed. In last night's programme 'John Lewis: Profits and Problems', Peter Cross director of customer experience, confirmed that the brand are 'committed' to its price-match promise - even it means cutting employee's bonuses. Last year, the retail giant saw a decrease in profits, resulting in smaller bonuses for its employers, who all have a share in the business. The 'partners' in 'John Lewis & partners' refers to the employees - and for years they benefited from good bonuses. But recent hardships driven by a competitive market has seen their personal profits continue to reduce. And after hearing from those in charge, viewers were also keen to voice their own opinions: 'Ten years time I'd be surprised if their department stores even exist. These big shops are expensive dinosaurs of the past,' wrote one, while another penned: '"Partners" is just a phrase John Lewis use to encourage the correct behaviour. All just employees.' John Lewis is one of the UK's high street giant, with an unique business model, but could the secrets of its success be the cause for its downfall Director of customer experience Peter Cross (above) revealed that John Lewis are absolutely committed to their motto During last night's documentary, viewers took to social media to voice their own opinions: 'Ten years time I'd be surprised if their department stores even exist. These big shops are expensive dinosaurs of the past,' wrote one 'Never knowingly undersold,' introduced in 1925 by Lewis' son, means that the company will match its prices to cheaper offers from competitors. The store offers to not only match the price both online and in-store, but also to refund the difference. And during the episode, Cross revealed that as a consequence of sticking to the motto, employees are fully aware they're in for a tough time. 'Constantly price-matching has put pressure on our business,' he admitted. 'But this is something we are absolutely committed to.' Sir Charlie Mayfield, the chairman of John Lewis, added that the partners were 'very realistic.' 'They're seeing exactly what's going on,' he explained. 'There was no surprise that the bonuses were going to be very low.' Taking to social media, those who tuned in to see what was in store for the future of John Lewis, offered a range of opinions on the matter. The company's motto - 'never knowingly undersold' - is at the heart of John Lewis' philosophy, but it also comes at a price. It promises the company will reduce its prices to match the cheaper offers from discount-crazy competitors 'Profit and problems...the problems from 150 years ago? Brushed all redundancies under the carpet, the migration of call centres out with the UK and the fact that the bonus was 3% this year with the big wigs still getting 5k plus bonus when staff got 150,' wrote one, while a second commented: 'Incredible advertising spend last Christmas...when redundancy notices issues. Bonus = less pay = less overtime rate. Meanwhile, a third added: 'Watching Inside John Lewis - the green blood is flowing through my veins again.' Over 1,800 staff serve customers at the company's flagship store on Oxford Street in London. And according to retail journalist Laura Onita, John Lewis' profit was hurt by a 'discount frenzy' stemming from other online brands. One frustrated viewer commented: 'Incredible advertising spend last Christmas...when redundancy notices issues. Bonus = less pay = less overtime rate' 'We've seen a lot of distressed businesses, department stores like Debenhams and House of Fraser discount heavily to keep their doors open,' she said. 'This discount frenzy had led John Lewis to have to match that level of discounting and thus hurting their profits.' And it seems these hardships stem from the very philosophy that used to guarantee John Lewis' success. The promise made to the consumers was recently put to the test by online retailers and competitors such as department stores Debenhams and House of Fraser. But ironically, 'never knowingly undersold' comes at a cost - as last year it was reported that the half year profits had slumped by 99 per cent. And because of its unique business model, this decrease in profit affects everyone at John Lewis directly. John Lewis and Partners saw its half year profit decrease by 99 percent in 2018 - a reduction which affected its staff directly The son of John Lewis Senior, John Spedan Lewis, thought of the philosophy behind the organisation. He didn't think it fair for business owners to enrich themselves on the back of their workers, so he made sure their employees would get a share of the company's profits. The biggest bonus ever given out was 24 per cent, which has been handed out three times over the years, in 1979, 1987 and 1988. Meanwhile the average across the years has still been an impressive 11.7 per cent. But last year, partners only received a three percent bonus - the lowest it had ever been in the last sixty-six years. The brand has put new initiatives in place in its stores in order to attract customers, such as personal shopping, but John Lewis - and its partners - are bracing for some tough times ahead. Duggar fans have been taken by surprise by a new picture of Anna Duggar which appears to show impressive weight loss. On April 14, Counting On star and oldest female Duggar sibling Jana Duggar, 29, took to Instagram to share photos from a visit to Vintage Market Days of Bentonville, Arkansas. In one snap, she stands with her friend Laura DeMasie and her sister-in-law Anna, 30, who was virtually unrecognizable to commenters. So different! Fans are saying Anna Duggar (pictured right with Jana Duggar, center, and Laura DeMasie, left) looks amazing in this new photo, with some attributing it to possible weight loss Taking care of herself? Commenters on Instagram thing the 30-year-old mother-of-five, pictured earlier this month, looks slimmer and younger Changing? Fans say that the latest photo of Anna (right) proves she is 'ageless', while others have pointed out that she looks much slimmer (left, April 2015, right April 2018) The photo certainly seems to benefit from good lighting and a creative use of filters, but it was still undeniable to fans that it was a flattering snap of Anna in particular. 'Why does this not look like Anna?! Haha!! She looks like a high schooler! Not a bad thing at all,' read one comment. 'Wow Anna looks amazing,' wrote another fan, while a third commented: 'Anna is tall and she looks different in this pic!' Anna noted in a comment that while she is 5' 4.5", she was wearing heels in the picture hence her towering over the other two women. Others commented on how much younger the mother-of-five looked than she normally does. 'Anna looks so young!!!' said one, followed by, 'Is it just me or does Anna look really young in this picture?' Dual sex scandals: Anna is married to Josh Duggar, 30, whom she is pictured with in July 2018. In 2015, it was revealed he molested his sisters as a teen and cheated on his wife as an adult Big brood: The couple, who remained married even after the cheating and molestation scandals, have five children together - Mackynzie, Michael, Meredith, Marcus, and Mason Little: She and Josh married back in 2008 when Anna was just 20 years old 'You are honestly looking younger and younger as you get older! You look awesome,' wrote yet another. One fan commented on her figure, writing: 'Anna looks like shes slimmed down from all that walking. I should start the 50 mile challenge!' Back in February, Anna shared on Instagram that she'd set herself a new fitness goal: By the end of the month, she wanted to walk 50 miles. 'Two or three miles a day will reach the goal with a few extra days to rest,' she wrote. She posted a pictured of her pedometer and said that the 'accountability will motivate me to keep going and not to quit.' By the end of the month, she'd clocked 55 miles walked, and set a new goal for 50 more miles in March. It does seem to fans that all that extra activity paid off. It's also been a while, by Duggar standards, since the last time Anna was pregnant. She gave birth to her fifth child, Mason Garrett, a year and a half ago on September 12, 2017. Always making babies: She was pregnant with their four when Josh's scandals broke. They've since had a fifth child (pictured February 2015) Having 17 months since her last pregnancy has given her a rare chance to lose all the baby weight and then some. Mason, who joins big siblings Mackynzie, Michael, Meredith, and Marcus, was the first child that Anna and her husband Josh Duggar conceived after Josh's joint sex scandals. In the summer of 2015, InTouch magazine unearthed reports that Josh, now 30, had molested four of his younger sisters and a fifth child back when he was a teenager. Josh had admitted to his parents in 2002 that he touched the breast area and genitals of the other children, including sisters Jill and Jessa, several times. Josh went to Christian counseling for several months as a result. After the news came to light, TLC cancelled the Duggars' show, 19 Kids and Counting which has since been resurrected under a new name, Counting On. Youngest: Mason (pictured) was conceived after the sex scandals and born a year and a half ago But it was only the first of the scandals. That same summer just a month after Josh and Anna welcomed their fourth child, Marcus when a hacker released user information for the adultery website Ashley Madison and Josh was found among those who had used the services. His profile included interests like 'one-night stands and 'experimenting with sex toys.' Josh admitted publicly to infidelity and having a porn addiction, calling himself 'the biggest hypocrite ever' in a statement. 'While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife,' he wrote. 'I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.' Anna famously stuck by him, moving into his parents' house with their children while Josh sought out more Christian counseling treatment. A high school girl has been expelled after allegedly defending herself against a group of anti-transgender boys who were protesting the ability for certain students to use other bathrooms and the explosion has caused fury online. School officials at North Pole High School in North Pole, Alaska, expelled a female student after she attempted to leave the female bathroom only to be allegedly blocked by seven male students. The boys were protesting the ability for a transgender student who was transitioning to a male to use their bathroom. The school has sparked fury from people online who didn't agree with the punishment it gave out to the female student. Controversy: A student transitioning from a female to male snapped a selfie in the boys bathroom at North Pole High School (pictured) in North Pole, Alaska Fury: The school was later attacked on social media because it decided to expel a female student, who claims she defended herself against a group of boys who were protesting Mad: Male students stormed the female bathroom and allegedly blocked one student from leaving, so she kneed a boy in the groin. People did not agree with her punishment Upset: One Twitter user who claimed to have gone to the school explained how bullying often happened in the hallways against LGBTQ students Not happy: The school did punish the seven boys, but it was the female student who was expelled for using 'excessive force'. It remains unclear if the boys blocked her exit Furious: The story quickly blew up on social media with people accusing the school of being transphobic and anti-LGBTQ Problems started at North Pole High School after the student transitioning from a female to a male snapped a selfie in the boys bathroom at the school. Male students then took it upon themselves to stage a protest by storming the female bathroom. When the first boy entered the girls bathroom, though, a female student kneed him in the groin because the group was allegedly 'blocking' her ability to leave the bathroom. The incident in question happened on April 4 and resulted in the seven boys and the girl being punished by the school. Although it remains unclear the punishment the seven boys faced, the female student was reportedly expelled for using 'excessive force' during the altercation, it was later revealed by the female's sister in a tweet that she was expelled. Her parents are now seeking an appeal on the decision, The Washington Post reports. Since the altercation, the story has blown up on social media with people expressing their thoughts on the situation. It is not confirmed the seven males were preventing the girl from leaving, but most people sided with the female student in the incident. 'I don't care why the boys were in the girls' bathroom,' one frustrated commenter wrote. 'The moment they blocked the girl in, she had every right to protect herself. The Administration of North Pole High School should be ashamed of themselves - and apologize to this girl, fix the policy, and punish the boys.' Someone who claimed to be a former student of the high school accused the school of promoting bullying against gay and transgender students. Horrifying: Other commenters were concerned about the transgender student who sparked the protest. The student wanted to use the boys bathroom but was born a female Supportive: People rallied behind the female student, whose parents are reportedly planning to appeal the explosion Shameful: The school released a statement on Monday and held a school board meeting on Tuesday to address the situation Interesting take: The incident spread across the United States with people reacting to the protest and the students' punishments Airing out frustrations: The school said it investigated the incident and found the female used excessive force, but people say that is not the entire story 'I'm disgusted that I went to North Pole High School,' the upset person expressed online. 'This sorta sh** happened all the time,' the tweet continued. 'Both of my ankles are extremely weak and messed up from kids pushing me down the stairs and calling me a f*****, and slamming me up against lockers. F*** that school.' Another person wrote: 'What I'm reading here is that North Pole High School supports false imprisonment and attempted assault?' People accused the school officials of not supporting the female student who claimed to feel threatened by the seven boys. Others also worried the school was not LGBTQ friendly like it claimed. 'While the trans boy in the article was not part of this specific incident, there's plenty of evidence that North Pole High School (and central Alaska in general) is pretty sh** place to be if you're any part of the LGBT crowd,' one commenter wrote. On Monday, Superintendent Karen Gaborik released a statement regarding the April 4 incident to the community. According to Webcenter 11, the statement said the school was unable to reveal any details of the punishments students' received because they are 'confidential as a matter of law and district policy'. Gaborik went on to explain how the school did not allow anyone to use excessive force when handling a situation. The plan: In a Snapchat shared online prior to April 4, one male student implored other boys to storm the women's bathroom in protest against the transgender student Telling the truth: The female student's sister was the one who informed the public that she was expelled from the school, not suspended Response: Superintendent Karen Gaborik (pictured) released a statement saying excessive force is not allowed, but said students can't decide what bathroom someone should use When addressing the issues with transgender students and what bathroom they should use, the school explained how it has an open discussion with the individual to decide their best option. Gender neutral restrooms are also available at the school. 'Some continue to use the restroom of their birth gender,' the statement continued. 'Other transgender students use restrooms that correspond to their gender identity. Each situation is addressed individually.' The statement ended by stating, 'Students are not permitted to determine which restroom facility is appropriate for other students.' On Tuesday, the school board met on to discuss the incident and what should happen to the eight students involved. Superintendent Gaborik explained to parents that appeals for each of the student's punishments would be under review, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. But another member of the community expressed to the school board that the boys were acting as 'bullies' with their intention to post a Snapchat to mock the transgender student. Other people testified during the school board meeting in support of the female student and transgender student. There was concerns raised that the seven boys were acting to make students feel unsafe in their own school. The female student's parents intend to appeal the decision of their daughter's expulsion. The Duggar family is ever-expanding, but the latest to announce a pregnancy still has a only a barely-there baby bump. Joe Duggar, 24, and his wife Kendra, 20, announced last week that they are expecting their second child just 19 months since they tied the knot. Though it's still early on, Kendra showed the tiniest hint of a baby bump while out with her sister-in-law Jinger and Jinger's husband Jeremy Vuolo this week. Expecting another! Kendra Duggar (center left) is pictured for the first time since revealing her second pregnancy, posing with husband Joe, sister-in-law Jinger, and brother-in-law Jeremy The fam: The 20-year-old (pictured center) also posed for a birthday snap with Lauren and Josiah Duggar (left) and John and Abbie Duggar (right) Another on the way! They announced last week that they are already expecting their second child Early Tuesday, Jinger's husband Jeremy shared a picture of the two couples posing together, captioning it: 'Love these guys!' A tiny baby bump: Kendra was showing off just a hint of her growing belly in the picture In the snap, Kendra is wearing a floral shift dress that's loose around the middle with a pair of heels. That same afternoon, Josiah and Lauren Duggar shared an Instagram story from their shared account wishing John Duggar's new wife, Abbie, a happy birthday. Josiah, Lauren, John, Abbie, Joe, and Kendra are all standing together smiling, the men standing behind the women. In fact, the particular grouping of the three couples, and the way they are posed, as some fans speculating that Abbie and Lauren are about to announce that they are pregnant, too. Abbie and John tied the knot last fall, while Lauren and Josiah married in June. Lauren learned she was pregnant soon after but miscarried early on. Kendra and Joe similarly announced that they were expecting soon after marrying, having said 'I do' on September 8, 2017, shortly after Kendra's 19th birthday. Just a month later, they told fans that they'd conceived a honeymoon baby and were pregnant with their first child. Their son, Garrett, was born June 8, at 1:36 pm, weighing 7lbs 8oz, and measuring 20.5 inches. He was Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's 11th grandchild. Then last week, they announced that they have another little one on the way, making a big brother of 10-month-old baby Garrett. 'We are ready to double the fun at our house!' the couple told Us Weekly in a statement. Joyful news: The couple made the happy announcement just 19 months after they married New member: Kendra (nee Caldwell) struggled through labor which was filmed for Counting ON On camera: Kendra had just turned 20 when she gave birth to their first child 'Being parents has already proven to be a greater joy than we had hoped or imagined. We love getting to parent together and are loving every moment and milestone,' they continued. 'We are very happy that our little family will welcome a new addition later this year. Children really are a blessing from God!' After Garrett's birth, couple said: 'No matter how many times weve experienced the joy of babies born in our families, theres nothing comparable to the joy in our hearts today! 'Children truly are a gift from God. We are so thankful for his safe arrival and this new journey as parents.' Kendra's labor was documented on TLC's Counting On. She also revealed on the show that her mother Christina was actually pregnant at the same time as her, expecting her eighth child. 'I think this has definitely been really interesting because we've been able to share a lot of things that we didn't get to share before so I feel like we've become even more like friends. And I guess our relationship has gone more to a different level, I guess,' Kendra said. Marriage and babies: Joe proposed to Kendra at his sister Joy Anna's wedding Happy couple: They tied the knot at the First Baptist Church in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, in September 2017 Joe and Kendra started 'courting,' the family's terminology for 'dating with a purpose' in March 2017. Joe popped the question at his sister Joy Anna's wedding to Austin Forsyth not long after. Growing: Kendra's latest pregnancy means two babies in just over two years for the young couple, which is hardly unusual by Duggar standards Kendra's latest pregnancy means two babies in just over two years for the young couple, which is hardly unusual by Duggar standards. Joe's 27-year-old sister Jill, who married Derick Dillard in June of 2014, has two sons, three-year-old Israel and one-year-old Samuel. Jessa, 26, who is married to Ben Seewald, has a three-year-old son named Sprugeon and a two-year-old son named Henry. They are currently expecting their third. Jinger, 25, has an eight-month-old daughter named Felicity with her husband Jeremy Vuolo, while 21-year-old Joy Anna has a one-year-old son named Gideon with her husband Austin Forsyth. Eldest brother Josh, 30, who is married to Anna, has five children. Only newlyweds John David, 29, and Abbie, 26, have yet to announce a pregnancy. No longer on the show: Jill, who married Derick Dillard in June of 2014, has two sons, three-year-old Israel and one-year-old Samuel Another! Jessa and her husband Ben, who already have three-year-old Spurgeon and two-year-old Henry, are also expecting again Babies everywhere: Joy Anna and her husband Austin have a son, Gideon Lots of babies: Jinger, 25, has an eight-month-old daughter named Felicity with her husband Jeremy Vuolo Lovely: Josh Duggar and his wife Anna have five kids, the youngest of which was conceived after his cheating and molestation scandals Josiah, 22, and his wife Lauren, 19 announced earlier this year that they were expecting last fall, but Lauren suffered a miscarriage in the early weeks of pregnancy They do: Newlyweds John David, 29, and Abbie, 26, have yet to announce a pregnancy Joe's brother Josiah, 22, and his wife Lauren, 19 announced earlier this year that they were expecting last fall, but Lauren suffered a miscarriage in the early weeks of pregnancy. It's not confirmed whether any of the adult Duggar children believe in family planning or using birth control but their parents certainly do not. Years ago, Jim Bob revealed that initially, he and Michelle thought they'd have just two or three kids, and Michelle went on the pill for the first few years of their marriage. After having their eldest son Josh, Michelle went back on the pill, but got pregnant while taking it. They ended up losing that baby, and were so grieved that, through prayer, they decided to 'give that area of our life to the Lord,' letting God decide on when and how often they would have kids. Kim Kardashian West has spoken about her special visit to Australian facialist Melanie Grant's clinic in Los Angeles. Melanie, who started her practice in Sydney's exclusive Double Bay, met up with the reality TV star to conduct one of her signature treatments. Following the session Kim shared a number of snaps of herself in the therapy bed, a white mask slicked over her face, and the products 37-year-old Melanie gave her to continue the routine at home. Scroll down for video Kim Kardashian West has spoken about her special visit to Australian facialist Melanie Grant's (pictured) clinic in Los Angeles What products did Melanie recommend for Victoria Beckham? The products the facialist prescribed included the Cosmedix Purity Solution($57) and the Cosmedix Purity Clean ($70). Both of these are deep cleaning, decongesting products which aim to give a 'nourished complexion that is deeply purified without any residue'. Melanie recommended Victoria follow these with Cosmedix Elite Serum 24 ($155) at night, to refine and brighten her skin texture. Advertisement 'Actually product heaven! Thanks Melanie Grant,' Kim wrote alongside a photo of sunscreen, a Codage moisturiser, Chanel parfum, cleansers and serums. During her press trip to Australia, Victoria Beckham also stopped by at Grant's headquarters in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, picking up a pink face mask on the way. She now swears by Cosmedix's cleanser and 'solution' serum, as prescribed by the beauty guru. 'Thank you for introducing me to these creams. They are amazing,' Victoria wrote on Instagram. She uses the Melanie Grant mask once a week. During her press trip to Australia, Victoria Beckham similarly stopped by at Grant's headquarters in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, picking up a pink face mask on the way Previously, Melanie spoke to FEMAIL about the anti-ageing secrets she shares with her top clients such as Lara Worthington, Jessica Gomes and Nicole Trunfio. For those looking to smooth out a few lines or prevent the appearance of crow's feet, it would seem you need to opt for less Botox and fewer fillers to get that facialist-like glowing complexion. According to Melanie, the most common mistake women make as they try to prevent the onset of middle-age is reaching for the needle more than they should: 'Overuse of Botox and filler... can actually make us look older,' she said. 'If you decide to go down this path be discerning with your injector and remember less is more.' Previously, Melanie has spoken to FEMAIL about the anti-ageing secrets she shares with her top clients like Lara Worthington, Jessica Gomes and Nicole Trunfio Designer Nicole Warne visited Melanie Grant in the lead up to her New Zealand wedding The expert also cites scrimping on sunscreen or relying on the SPF in your make up as one of the things that could be making you look older than you are. 'The best anti-ageing product is sunscreen for sure. Invest in a good-quality, broad spectrum, high SPF specifically for the face,' she said. Melanie recommends Elta MD SPF 46 as a great product, which you will find easy to wear every single day. Victoria's Secret model Karolina Kurkova pictured in Melanie's Los Angeles clinic Next on the anti-ageing regime list, Melanie says you need to double cleanse each and every night: 'First with an oil cleanser, then a lactic acid cleanser if your skin isn't too sensitive. The oil will break down makeup, dirt and oil, and the lactic acid cleanser will deep clean brighten, exfoliate, and stimulate collagen,' she said. She also recommends exfoliating every second or third night, followed by eye cream, night cream and a Retinol every so often. Aldi is set to launch a new Special Buys bulk foods range that could give bulk-foods outlet Costco a run for its money. Fans of the budget supermarket can expect deals on a range of items including biscuits, deli products and pantry essentials. Specials include a value pack of coffee pods which works out at 31 cents per pod and a kilogram of Australian honey for $8.99. Shoppers will need to be quick - as the range launches on April 24 and is only available while stocks last. Aldi Australia is offering shoppers a range of bulk sized items as part of its Special Buys range available on April 24 (file image) The bulk specials include Expressi Coffee Capsules Value Pack (pictured) which comes with 96 capsules for just $29 - 31 cents each Coffee fanatics can purchase a one kilogram bag of Lavazza Qualitia Ora Italian coffee for $19.99 (pictured left) or a one kilogram tub of Australian honey for $8.99 (pictured right) Shoppers needing to feed the family can do so with family sized packets of Arnott's biscuits (Tim Tam left or Mint Slice right) for $3.49 or a 24 pack of Carmen's Muesli Bars are on offer for $14.99 (pictured centre) Those looking to stock up on coffee over the Easter break will be thrilled to know the store is also offering a one kilogram bag of Lavazza Qualitia Ora Italian coffee for $19.99. If an instant brew is more to your liking, a 400g jar of Moccona Classic is available for the affordable price of $15.99. With children at home for the holidays, having plenty of snacks on hand is a must. Here, shoppers can buy a 24 pack of Carmen's Muesli Bars for $14.99. For a more indulgent treat, the store is offering Arnott's Mint Slice and Tim Tams in a family pack size for $3.49. Shoppers wishing to stock up on deli items might like to consider a 1.9kg jar of marinated artichokes, $9.99 (pictured left), a 1.5kg jar of sundried tomato strips, $9.99 (pictured centre) or a 2kg jar of Kalamata olives, $3.99 (pictured right) Aldi has also made it easy for those who are looking to stock up on a range of delicatessen essentials. Items on offer include a 1.9kg jar of marinated artichokes for $9.99, a 1.5kg jar of sundried tomato strips for $9.99 and a 1.95kg jar of pickled cucumbers for $3.99. Other deli products shoppers might want to consider are a 1.95kg jar of jalepeno peppers for $7.99 and a 2kg jar of Kalamata olives for $9.99. Shoppers can purchase a one kilogram bag of Allen's Party Mix for $8.99 (pictured left) and a 900g bag of Darrell Lea Liquorice Twists for $8.99 (pictured right) Pantry essentials include 350g jars of assorted herbs for $4.99 (pictured left) or 500g bags of Tortilla chips for $3.99 (pictured right) A selection of super-sized sweet treats are also available as part of Aldi's Special Buys. These include a 900g bag of Darrell Lea Liquorice Twists or Chocolate Bullets for $8.99 and a one kilogram bag of Allen's Party Mix, also priced at $8.99. Other bargains include a 400g tub of Flirt Blitz Mints for $7.99. If you need to stock up on pantry must-haves, buying in bulk could see you save. On offer are 380g packets of salt and pepper for $2.99, 350g jars of assorted herbs, $4.99 each and 500g bags of Tortilla chips for a low $3.99. A woman who survived being viciously mauled by five of her grandma's Bull Mastiffs when she was just eleven wants to prove her scars are beautiful after cruel bullies labeled her a 'dog chew toy'. Jynnie Kent, 26, from Ontario, Canada, was at her grandma's house on her 11th birthday when she went outside to play with her dogs, but instead was brutally attacked by them. The landscaper was in a coma for two days, and had to remain in hospital for three months while she recovered and learned to walk again. And even after she returned to school, Jynnie faced another battle when she was tormented by bullies who made fun of her scars. 'As a teenager I hid my scars from everyone,' she explained. 'I had social anxiety and battled with low self-esteem. I thought no one would ever love me because of these scars.' Jynnie Kent, 26, from Ontario, Canada, was viciously mauled by five of her grandma's Bull Mastiffs when she was just eleven, and she has been left with scars all over her body She suffered 13 tears all over her body and doctors found more than 150 puncture wounds after she was rushed to hospital, where she required over 1,000 stitches 'I suffered from bullying because of these scars and some kids at my high school would call me a "dog chew toy" and even go as far as telling me the dogs should have killed me.' But now, 15 years after the attack, Jynnie has found the strength to overcome their cruel words and embrace her scars, learning to see them as a sign of her strength and courage, rather than something she needs to hide. When the incident took place on October 26, 2003, Jynnie was left with wounds all over her body, revealing that doctors found over 150 punctures when she arrived at the hospital. 'I suffered 13 tears all over my body, over 150 puncture wounds and about 1,000 stitches inside and outside of my body,' she explained. 'I had a skin graft repair on my lower right leg, suffered severe blood loss and I was hospitalized for three months.' Jynnie recalls her granddad coming to her rescue, but says that he struggled to get the dogs off her - and admits that she was close to giving up hope that she would survive. 'When my grandfather realized what was happening to me in the backyard he rushed outside and began to beat the dogs off me, but they didn't want to stop,' she explained. Jynnie's throat was ripped open and the main artery in her right leg was lacerated and she lost a lot of blood following the dog attack. She also had to rely on a cane to walk during recovery After years of hiding her scars, Jynnie has finally decided to embrace them and hopes to inspire other attack survivors by showing them off, as seen in this photo 'I was at the point of giving up and [I was] prepared to die because I could barely speak or breathe because one of the dogs had ripped my throat open.' Jynnie's injuries were so bad, that when she was rushed to hospital paramedics initially assumed she was a burns victim. 'It was cold and rainy that day, while I was being attacked the dogs,' explained Jynnie. 'They were able to rip all of my winter clothes off, such as my winter coat, snow pants and boots and due to the rain it was very muddy in the yard and I was covered in mud.' 'When I arrived at the hospital, I was rushed in on a stretcher and the nurse kept yelling asking my grandmother if I was a burns victim. 'I looked completely black due to the blood and mud. I was unrecognizable.' I was at the point of giving up... I was prepared to die Jynnie's throat had been ripped open and the main artery in her right leg was lacerated and she lost a lot of blood. 'The dogs had torn the main artery in my right leg and that there was no pulse,' she explained. 'The doctors decided that they would have to amputate my right leg to the hip but before they made the decision. 'They decided to call a vascular surgeon by the name of Dr Rubin who came in and took over the procedure.' After 10 hours of surgery and skin grafts her leg was saved but she will continue to see her specialist for the rest of her life as she is at risk of artery collapse, which would result in her having her leg amputated from the hip. 'After intensive rehabilitation and physiotherapy, I learned how to walk again,' she said. 'Due to the artery in my right leg, I have to see him every six months for the rest of my life as I am still at risk for an artery collapse.' Jynnie was cruelly labelled a 'dog chew toy' at school by bullies - but now wants to show that scars are beautiful The landscaper was in a coma for two days following the dog attack and in hospital for three months, while she recovered and learned to walk again At school, Jynnie was mercilessly bullied by her peers and called a "dog chew toy" - and told that the dogs should have killed her. As a result, she struggled with depression and self-harm for eight years. But as summer approached in 2008, Jynnie decided she was tired of covering up and hiding away, so decided with her mother Shelley's support to embrace her scars in shorts - and she hasn't looked back since. 'Eventually I got tired of all the long clothes and self-harm,' she explained. 'I no longer wanted to hide behind the wall I built.' Jynnie's wounds required more than 1,000 stitches 'I wanted to wear a pair of shorts or a skirt or a bikini and I wanted to feel pretty and comfortable in my own skin.' She continued: 'After a long night of self-motivation, I woke up for school the next day and put on that pair of shorts I so longed to wear again.' 'When my mom saw me, she marveled at my courage. She asked me, "are you sure you're ready?" I replied with a strong yes and left for school. Ever since that day, I've been more confident in my own skin.' Jynnie credits her mother for being by her side throughout her whole ordeal and for helping her come to terms with her scars. Now, she hopes to be a role model to men and women to show them that scars are beautiful and something to be proud of. 'I feel too beautiful to care about what anyone thinks about me or my scars,' she said. 'I'm at peace with the scars and nothing can take that from me.' 'When I finally started wearing shorts again I did have some people make fun of my scars, but there were also so many more positives and so many people began to look up to my strength and my courage.' 'I had so many women come up to me and feel beautiful about themselves because I had the courage to show my scars.' Now, Jynnie wants to be a role model and show people that scars are beautiful and something to be proud of, saying, 'I'm at peace with the scars and nothing can take that from me' 'I had women who were too afraid to wear bikinis shorts or skirts because they have stretch marks or cellulite and after meeting me they now wear short skirts and bikinis.' And the attack hasn't stopped Jynnie from being a dog lover and as she has three of her own; Buddy, a Labrador German Sheppard mix; Molly, a Pomeranian Chihuahua mix and Leo, a red nosed Pitbull. 'What I would say to someone who is going through a similar situation to what I went through is please don't hide who you are, your scars are beautiful and they show the strength of a fighter,' she said. 'Everything happens for a reason and God chose this as your path to show the world your courage.' 'Just know that you are not alone and that you are beautiful just the way you are, you don't need to change for anyone just be yourself, you are strong and unique and if you ever feel sad or alone, just know that God is always with you. She added: 'I have a favorite quote that I think of everyday and I live by it and it says; "never be ashamed of a scar, it simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you." I truly believe in that saying.' Meghan concluded her royal engagements before maternity leave on a very stylish note in a Victoria Beckham ensemble, and now fans can recreate the look for a fraction of the price. M&S has launched a cream rope-print skirt that's almost identical to the VB number Meghan wore to the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March. The dress was a bespoke version of a Victoria Beckham dress, costing 1,668, and at the time, fashion experts estimated that Meghan's custom-made number would have cost around 3,000. Now royal fashion fans can nab a button-down midi skirt from M&S, which bears a striking resemblance to Meghan's designer number, but costs just 39.50. Meghan wore a 3K bespoke version of a Victoria Beckham dress, costing 1,668, to the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, and now M&S has launched a skirt in a near-identical print The 39.50 skirt, which is from the M&S collection, also has a similar flowing shape, and chain pattern. The M&S collection is described online as featuring 'elevated everyday essentials, While the Victoria Beckham print shows chains, the M&S print has ropes in a similar twisted pattern, and uses the same colour palette of cream and black. Unlike the Victoria Beckham piece, it also features small brown buttons down the front. The Victoria Beckham piece (left), which sold out shortly after Meghan was spotted in it, costs 1,668 whereas the M&S skirt (right) is just 39.50 While the piece isn't for sale yet, the dupe will be out in stores and online mid-May. The original Victoria Beckham dress sold out shortly after Meghan was spotted in it, on her final official engagement before she went on maternity leave. She's been spotted in Victoria Beckham's pieces several times, including attending the Christmas Day service at Sandringham last year. Meghan has favoured the British designer on several occasions, including the Christmas Day church service at Sandringham last year Meghan wore her Veja trainers while on the royal tour of Australia last year, with the trainers selling out soon afterward It's not the first time M&S has wowed royal fans with near-identical clothing pieces. Earlier this month, the high street giant restocked the hugely popular Leather Lace-up Trainers, that are almost almost identical to the veja pair Meghan wore on the royal tour of Australia. Meghan wore the 115 classic black and white Veja V-10 trainers back in October. The M&S dupes are just a fraction of the price of Meghan's shoes, costing just 45, and are near identical with their black 'V' style detailing. Advertisement The Queen wore spring-like Easter yellow for the annual Maundy Thursday service at St George's Chapel, at Windsor Castle today. Her Majesty, 92, was joined by her granddaughter Princess Eugenie for the annual service, which sees her offering commemorative coins to senior citizens. The recipients are retired pensioners, recommended by clergy and ministers of all denominations in recognition of service to the Church and to the local community. This year, the Queen will hand out Maundy money to 93 men and women, one for each of her 93 years. She will celebrate her birthday on Saturday. Meanwhile, her husband Prince Philip, 97, who retired in August 2017, did not join the royals for the service and was seen driving in Windsor Great Park. St George's chapel has a significance for Princess Eugenie, as she married her husband Jack Brooksbank at the church on 12 October 2018. The royals looked overjoyed to be attending the service at St George's Chapel together, which is a rare official appearance from the pair. They were joined by schoolchildren from Holy Family Catholic School, in Berkshire Princess Eugenie, 29, wore a stylish floral Erdem dress and a small navy blue hat by Juliette Botterill for the service. She was given a traditional nosegay at the chapel's door before entering the church As The Queen and Eugenie attended the service, Prince Philip, 97, was seen driving his Land Rover at Windsor Castle. The royal officially retired from duty in August 2017 Princess Eugenie donned a blue floral dress from Erdem which featured a ruffled neck and long sleeves. It's a favourite of the princess, as the royal was spotted in the dress at Royal Ascot and for a meeting at the UN headquarters. She paired it with navy blue accessories, including a small hat with plait detailing by London milliner Juliette Botterill. Meanwhile the Queen wore a buttercup-coloured Stewart Parvin outfit and matching hat by Rachel Trevor-Morgan, with an Australian wattle brooch. The Queen and Princess Eugenie arrived at the Royal Maundy Service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle earlier today The Queen wore a bright, colourful skirt beneath her yellow coat, which featured yellow and purple flowers that perfectly matching her nosegay. She topped off her outfit with an Australian wattle brooch The royals arrived at the Maundy Service earlier today, and waved to crowds. The annual service will see the Queen handing out commemorative coins to 93 pensioners The Queen wore her glasses to present the 93 commemorative coins to the 93 pensioners, which honours the monarch's upcoming 93rd birthday Beneath her yellow coat, the Queen wore a bright, colourful floral skirt, which featured purple and yellow flowers. Both outfits perfectly matched the gorgeous spring flowers that the royals held as they walked into church. The presentation of the money took place during the Royal Maundy service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The pensioners were chosen in recognition of their service to the community and the Church. The royal pair held nosegays at they attended the service at St George's Chapel, Windsor. It was a rare public appearance Eugenie and the Queen, who were last seen together at an official event of this kind in 2009 The Queen handed out the coins to the pensioners, who are chosen each year in recognition of their service to the community and the Church The Queen distributed the commemorative coins in traditional red and white purses to pensioners who are recommended by clergy and ministers of all denominations The Queen waved to four school children from Holy Family Catholic School in Berkshire, who curtseyed to her, before they joined the monarch for a photograph The four schoolchildren from Holy Family Catholic School in Berkshire posed alongside the Queen and Princess Eugenie of York after the service. The children and Royal Almonry team wear a linen towel - an act to remember Jesus washing the feet of his disciples The Queen handed two purses - one white and one red - to 93 men and 93 women, marking her 93rd birthday, which she will celebrate next month The Queen, who first attended the service aged eight, seemed overjoyed to attend the Royal Maundy service once again this year It is the first time in ten years that Princess Eugenie and the Queen have attended an official royal event of this kind together What is Maundy Thursday and why is it called that? What is Maundy Thursday? Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter and is observed by millions of Christians worldwide in commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ and his disciples. Christians also believe the Jesus commanded his followers to love each other and washed their feet during the meal. It always precedes Good Friday and marks the start of the three-day Easter celebration. Maundy Thursday is also sometimes known as Holy Thursday, the Thursday of Mysteries, Covenant Thursday and Sheer Thursday. Why is it called Maundy Thursday? The word Maundy is derived from the Latin word mandatum, which means command. This refers to the command that Jesus gave his disciples to love each other during the Last Supper: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (John 13:34, Revised Standard Version). How is Maundy Thursday celebrated in the UK? Queen Elizabeth observes Maundy Thursday by taking part in the distribution of alms. In 2019 this will take place at St George's Chapel, at Windsor Castle. The number of pensioners chosen rises with the monarch's age. In 2019 the Royal Maundy will be distributed about 93 women and 93 men. All of the recipients will be senior citizens who will receive the Royal Maundy in honor of their service to the church and the local community. Advertisement The Queen looked radiant in a buttercup-coloured Stewart Parvin outfit and matching hat by Rachel Trevor-Morgan, and stunning pearl jewelry. The royal looked overjoyed to be greeting those honoured with the commemorative coins this year, smiling at one recipient who bowed his head to her The Queen was joined by Princess Eugenie for the service, which is an annual fixture in the royal's calendar. She had only missed it four times during her reign When the Queen arrived at the chapel's north door with her granddaughter they were presented with traditional nosegays - which in ancient times warded off unpleasant smells - before taking their seats at the head of the congregation. The nosegays are made up of daffodils, primroses, stocks, purple statice, freesias, ivy, hebe and the herbs rosemary and thyme. This year the service was held at St George's Chapel, at Windsor Castle, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank tied the knot last year. It's a rare public appearance for Princess Eugenie and the Queen. Princess Eugenie joined the Queen for the annual service for the first time. She has a special connection to St George's Chapel after marrying her now husband at the church in October The Queen, pictured here with The Rt Revd David Conner from St George's Chapel, presents the commemorative coins in the service every year to a number of pensioners The Queen, pictured here with The Rt Revd David Conner from St George's Chapel, attends the annual event every year The Queen and Princess Eugenie looked overjoyed to be at the service, and posed for photographs afterward with schoolchildren. The children and Royal Almonry team wear a linen towel - an act to remember Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. Historically older gentleman, clad in linen towels assisted recipients at the ceremony. The Queen, pictured here leaving St George's Chapel, presented 93 commemorative coins during the annual Royal Maundy service Eugenie, now 29, last joined the Queen when her grandmother, with the Duke of Edinburgh, opened the Great North Museum in Newcastle in 2009. The then 19-year-old princess was studying English, history of art and politics at the city's university. While the royal pair were at the church service, the Queen's husband Prince Philip, 97, was seen driving his Land Rover in the estate at Windsor Castle. Philip also missed the service last year, apparently because he was experiencing some trouble with his hip. Meanwhile, the Queen's husband Prince Philip, who no longer carries out Royal Duties, headed out for a drive in his Land Rover at Windsor Castle She looked overjoyed to be taking part in the annual service once again, and was given a nosegay at the door of the church before entering It was a rare appearance for the royal duo, who were last at an official event together ten years ago. They posed for photographs with children from Holy Family Catholic School in Berkshire It came as a surprise at the time, as he was still named in the order of service, but it seems he ultimately decided not to attend. The royal last joined the Queen in 2017 for the annual service, which celebrates Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday, which is the Christian holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter, and commemorates the Maundy and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. The Royal Maundy is an ancient ceremony which originated in the commandment Christ gave after washing the feet of his disciples the day before Good Friday. Eugenie wore a Erdem dress with navy accessories for the service. She finished off her outfit with a navy hat, with plait detailing The monarch looked overjoyed to be at the service in Windsor, and was joined by her granddaughter Princess Eugenie and was joined by children from Holy Family Catholic School, in Berkshire The royals posed for photographs in the sun after the service with schoolchildren from Holy Family Catholic School in Berkshire. It is the first time Princess Eugenie has attended the annual service with her grandmother The Queen walked down lines of recipients and handed them a red purse containing a 5 coin, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria, and a 50p coin portraying Sherlock Holmes. Both coins have been newly minted this year. Historically, this sum of 5.50 in the red purse is made up of 3 for clothing, 1.50 in lieu of provisions and 1 for the redemption of the Sovereigns gown which, before Tudor times, used to be divided between the recipients. The White Purse contains uniquely minted Maundy Money, which, unlike coins in general circulation, bear the portrait of the Queen produced by Mary Gillick at the start of her reign. The royals posed for pictures in the spring sun after the annual Royal Maundy service in Windsor today The Queen is joined by Princess Eugenie today, who married her husband Jack Brooksbank in St George's Chapel at Windsor Gillick, a sculptor, designed the portrait which appeared on the coins of the UK and some Commonwealth countries from 1953 until preparations for decimalisation began in 1968. The portrait of the Queen wearing a wreath on her head was considered to reflect the nation's optimism as it greeted a new monarch in the post-war years. This year, the money in the White Purse includes 1, 2, 3 and 4 silver penny pieces. The Queen waved and smiled as she and Princess Eugenie left the annual Royal Maundy Service at St George's chapel today Princess Eugenie has worn the gorgeous floral Erdem dress in the past to the Royal Ascot, as well as to a UN meeting (above) The history of the monarchs and the Maundy Thursday service The first monarch to take part in a Maundy Thursday service was King John, of Magna Carta and Robin Hood fame, who distributed gifts of clothes and money to the poor in Knaresborough in 1210. John was also the first to present the poor with silver coins and is recorded as having done so in Rochester in 1213. John's grandson Edward I, the king known to posterity as 'the Hammer of the Scots', was the first to confine the tradition to Maundy Thursday alone, which, until his reign, could be conducted on any day of the year. By 1363 and Edward III, the tradition had evolved into a ceremony that is still recognisable today, with monarchs handing out money equivalent to their age in years. The ceremony was little changed by the dawn of the Tudor period, although rulers could - and did - increase the number of beggars involved to show their religious devotion and humility. None took it more seriously than Mary I - or Bloody Mary - who in 1556 washed the feet of 41 'poor women' and spent the entire ceremony on her knees. Later monarchs were less keen on the service, with some, among them Charles I, rarely bothering to take part. Charles II, anxious to curry favour with his subjects following the Restoration, took part in the ceremony without fail, including during the plague years. Although today's ceremony takes place in a different location each year, Queen Victoria insisted on doing it at Westminster Abbey - a custom that remained in place until the Queen took the throne in 1952. The Queen was just eight years old when she first attended the Maundy Day service as Princess Elizabeth in 1935 at Westminster Abbey She has taken part in the Royal Maundy Service in all but four years of her reign, including in 1954 when she was away touring the Commonwealth. In 1960 she was also forced to pull out because of the imminent birth of Prince Andrew, again in 1964 for the birth of Prince Edward and in 1970 due to a tour of New Zealand. Author Wendy Mitchell has revealed she's been helping to write the scripts for Casualty, as the show charts popular character Duffy's battle with dementia. Wendy, 62, from Yorkshire, worked as a NHS manager before being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 56. Her memoir, Somebody I Used to Know, became a Sunday Times best seller and she appeared on Lorraine this morning to discuss how she's helped the soap's writers with the powerful storyline. 'I've been helping over the last year to comment on the scripts and how they've been writing them,' she said to presenter Christine Lampard on today's show. 'I've changed things that I haven't thought were accurate.' Author Wendy Mitchell, 62, from Yorkshire, appeared on Lorraine this morning alongside stand-in presenter Christine Lampard. She was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 56 and revealed she's been helping write the scripts for Casualty regarding the powerful new storyline In the BBC One soap, popular character Duffy (above) played by Cathy Shipton, is diagnosed with dementia and in heartbreaking scenes, informs her employer of the news She added: 'It's such a powerful story line and such a big programme to get it wrong, so they had to get it right.' In the BBC One soap, Duffy, who is played by Cathy Shipton, had been struggling with memory problems for a while, before an online test indicated she may have dementia. But it was only after a trip to the doctors late last year that she received the heartbreaking diagnosis of the debilitating disease. Duffy then endured a difficult conversation with her estranged husband and manager, Charlie Fairhead, before telling her employer the news. Wendy, who gave an honest account of what it's like living with dementia, appeared on Lorraine alongside her daughter and presenter Christine Lampard (pictured) Speaking on the show alongside her daughter (right), Wendy revealed: 'I've been helping over the last year to comment on the scripts and how they've been writing and change things that I haven't thought were accurate' Speaking from her own personal experience, Wendy explained that remaining upbeat is key, and insisted there's still a life to be lived following the diagnosis. 'Whenever people hear the word dementia, they think of the end,' explained Wendy. 'They forget that there's a beginning and a middle and there's still so much life to live - albeit differently.' 'There's no getting away that it's a bummer of a diagnosis, but there's still so much you can do. Forget all of the stuff you can't do because there's no control over that.' During the segment, Wendy also spoke about her book 'Somebody I Used to Know' which came out last year. During the emotional segment, Wendy urged those who may have received the diagnosis to still 'live.' She said: 'Whenever people hear the word dementia, they think of the end, the end stages. They forget that there's a beginning and a middle and there's still so much life to live' Urging anyone affected to 'be positive,' she went on to explain that writing things down always helps her. 'If I don't write things down, I forget,' she said. 'I forget all the wonderful things I've done. I'll always remember what I've felt. We never lose our emotions but I'll forget the details'. Wendy also revealed that her book struck a chord with Emma Thompson, who has previously spoken of the challenges she faced when caring for her mother, and Julianne Moore, who she praised for her role in the film Still Alice. The actress plays Alice Howland, a linguistics professor who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease shortly after her 50th birthday. 'I can tell if someone has dementia through their eyes,' said Wendy, who believes Julianne Moore really nailed the depiction of the disease. 'Because we're concentrating so much that our eyes are doing the thinking. And she got the visual mood just right in Still Alice.' It's not often we see Meghan Markle recycle clothes (unless you count her trusty Aquazzura heels), but there is one wardrobe staple she returns to time and again. Previously unseen footage of the Duchess of Sussex on a charity visit to India in 2017, which emerged yesterday, saw her wearing a stylish khaki green jacket that looked very familiar. Meghan, 37, who is expecting her first child any day now, seems to be a big fan of the all-weather J. Crew coat, having worn it a number of times since. When her relationship with Prince Harry had only just been confirmed back in December 2016, the former Suits actress was spotted wearing the outerwear while on her way to a yoga class in Toronto. The Duchess of Sussex, 37, appears to be a big fan of this khaki green J. Crew coat which is from the men's section Previously unseen footage of the Duchess of Sussex on a charity visit to India in 2017, which emerged yesterday, saw her wearing a stylish khaki green jacket that looked very familiar It topped off her casual look, for which she also sported a matching cotton green scarf, blue jeans, white trainers and a classic Mulberry tote bag. A month later she took it with her on her trip to Mumbai and Delhi as part of her work with the charity World Vision, during which she visited schools to highlight issues of gender equality and girls' limited access to education in the country. In February this year she rolled it out again on her trip to Morocco with Prince Harry during a visit to the Royal Equestrian Club in Rabat. This time Meghan teamed it with black skinny jeans and a black and white horizontal striped top, with the jacket unzipped to give onlookers a glimpse of her blossoming baby bump. When her relationship with Prince Harry had only just been confirmed back in December 2016, former Suits actress Meghan, pictured right, was spotted wearing the outerwear while on her way to a yoga class in Toronto. Pictured with mum Doria, left In February this year Meghan rolled out the jacket again on her trip to Morocco with Prince Harry during a visit to the Royal Equestrian Club in Rabat The coat itself is actually from the men's section of the American brand, though Meghan's khaki green version is no longer available Meghan teamed the coat with black skinny jeans and a black and white horizontal striped top, with the jacket unzipped to give onlookers a glimpse of her blossoming baby bump The coat itself is actually from the men's section of the American brand, though Meghan's khaki green version is no longer available. There is a brown alternative in the same style currently on sale at John Lewis, retailing at 198 in sizes small, medium and large. Described as perfect for the winter-spring transition, the item description reads: 'Inspired by a vintage military mechanic's jacket, this is garment dyed, broken-in and built to handle everything from days out to your morning commute.' The jacket features a foldable zip hood, a zip and button closure, flap patch pockets, adjustable tabs at the cuffs and comes partially lined. Ivanka Trump is being roasted online after she tweeted it was her 'privilege' to meet with the local women while visiting a small town on the Ivory Coast as part of her solo tour of Africa. The first daughter, who is normally very reserved, showed off a much more playful and carefree side to her personality early Wednesday when she joined in with some local dancers in Adzope, where she toured a coffee collective. 'Theres no denying these Ivorian women were very excited to meet Ivanka Trump. Especially when she started dancing with them,' journalist Mac William Bishop tweeted on Wednesday, prompting Ivanka to reply: 'It was my privilege!' Solo tour: Ivanka Trump, 37, visited Adzope, a small town on the Ivory Coast, on Wednesday Response: After journalist Mac William Bishop tweeted that the women 'were very excited to meet Ivanka,' she responded: 'It was my privilege!' Critics of the 37-year-old had a field day mocking her comment, with many pointing out that her wealth and privilege are the reason she is working in the White House in the first place. 'This should be the title of your memoir,' writer Jesse McLaren tweeted. 'Im glad youre finally acknowledging your privilege,' a Twitter user named Nick commented. Someone else added: 'Oh honey...we know what your privilege is... bless your heart...stay in your lane.' In videos posted to Ivanka's Instagram Stories, she is seen bouncing up and down to the beat of the melody being sung by hoards of women who gathered around and clapped while performing for her. Hitting back: Critics of Ivanka had a field day roasting her over the comment, with many pointing out that her 'privilege' is the reason why she working in the White House FYI: Many Twitter users pointed out that 'privilege' is the story of her life As well as getting the chance to show off her dance moves, Ivanka was also presented with several gifts upon her arrival in the town of Adzope. The first daughter was given a traditional cloth that is usually presented to visiting kings and a portrait of her face that had been painted in chocolate made in the local area. The mother-of-three looked delighted with the gifts, especially when she got to put one to use straight away; a local woman helped her to wrap the cloth around her waist like a skirt, adding a very colorful touch to her otherwise-low key look. It looked as though Ivanka was able to forget about any ill-will towards her family during her trip to the town, where locals gathered to greet her, holding up signs featuring the words, 'Welcome in Adzope Ivanka Trump. We love u.' Clearly overjoyed with her warm welcome, Ivanka took the time to speak with several of the local women, trading hugs, kisses, and several laughs as they gathered around her to say hello. Cutting loose: The first daughter showed off her more playful side when she joined in with some local dancers during the visit. 'Is that the Nepotism Dance? one person tweeted Not all fans: Many Twitter users, including comedian Chelsea Peretti, couldn't resist sharing photos of some of the women in the audience looking less than thrilled with Ivanka's presence Many Twitter users, including comedian Chelsea Peretti, couldn't resist sharing photos of some of the women in the audience looking less than thrilled with Ivanka's presence. While tweeting a photo of one local woman who had a glazed expression on her face, one person wrote: 'We are all this lady rn.' Ivanka was born into wealth and grew up in the limelight because of her parents, Donald and Ivana Trump. She worked as a model as a teen, though many agencies didn't find her to be model material. Her father had a 'longstanding, informal relationship' with Elite Model Management, her agency at the time. Ivanka attended Georgetown University for two years before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated cum laude in 2004. Special: Ivanka was presented with a local cloth that is traditionally given to visiting kings and a portrait of her face that had been painted in chocolate Joyous: Ivanka, who has three children with her husband Jared Kushner, put her hand on her stomach at one point, and laughed uproariously Lessons: Ivanka was shown the process for making chocolate from the cocoa pods during her visit to the town Her father donated a generous cumulative $1.4 million to the esteemed Ivy League school, amping up his donations the same year her older brother Don Jr. started attending the school in 1996, according to his donation records. Before Trump became president, Ivanka worked for his real-estate company and launched her now-defunct jewelry, clothing, and accessories lines. Many critics believe Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner's senior adviser positions are a clear-cut example of nepotism. Considering her privileged upbringing, it's unsurprising that her use of the word rubbed more than a few people the wrong way. When Ivanka said it was her 'privilege' to meet with the woman, Nicole Ballivian tweeted: 'You speak the truth for once.' '"It was my privilege" is the story of your life,' one person wrote, while another responded: 'I will take how I got in the White House for 100 Alex.' Former Princess Tessy of Luxembourg has revealed her older brother still refuses to talk to her after she married into the royal family 13 years ago. The activist, 33, who was granted a divorce from Prince Louis earlier this month, said her family 'suffered greatly' when she became a princess in 2006. Speaking on Sky News special report The Meghan Effect, Tessy explained: 'My little cousin needed to change schools twice. My twin brother was incredibly bullied at work he still is today. 'My sister, my parents suffered, my oldest brother doesn't talk to me anymore because of that, because it was too much for him to handle. Speaking on Sky News special report The Meghan Effect, Former Princess Tessy of Luxembourg revealed her older brother still refuses to talk to her after she married into the royal family 13 years ago 'That was when I married in, and when I got divorced, oh my gosh the same.' During the report, Tessy spoke about standing up for the Duchess of Sussex on Twitter following an article that criticised Meghan's estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr., and sister Samantha Markle. Tessy tweeted: 'No one deserves that. One should never assume. Either you know or be [quiet]. 'It's not nice to talk badly about someone else just because one can, as he or she takes advantage of the anonymity of the web. Stay Kind!!! It's the new cool! She does not deserve that.' During the report, Tessy spoke about standing up for the Duchess of Sussex on Twitter following an article that criticised Meghan's estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr., and sister Samantha Markle Tessy married Prince Louis in September 2006, six months after giving birth in a modest country church wedding Tessy told Sky News royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills: 'Why I did it, why I stood up for her and a lot of people as well is, my children read these things and I don't want my children to grow up in such an environment. 'This is not a society I want my kids to grow up in.' Tessy, who is now concentrating on her charity work and using social media to promote more positive messages, said she has learned you can 'never police everyone'. 'Some people will just like to talk bad about you,' she said. The Meghan Effect report looked at the shocking level of trolling aimed at the Duchess of Sussex and how it compares with the rest of the Royal Family In defence of Meghan Markle, Tessy tweeted: 'No one deserves that. One should never assume. Either you know or be [quiet]. It's not nice to talk badly about someone else just because one can, as he or she takes advantage of the anonymity of the web. Stay Kind!!! It's the new cool! She does not deserve that.' 'A person who went to school with me, literally wrote me an email, wrote me and said, "I'm sorry I wrote that about you, I know it's not true but I need to feed my children."' The Meghan Effect report looked at the shocking level of trolling aimed at the Duchess of Sussex and how it compares with the rest of the Royal Family. Their research showed nearly a quarter of all tweets mentioning Meghan contained angry content, compared to only three per cent of tweets referencing the Duchess of Cambridge. Social commentator Bonnie Greer said she has been 'completely shocked' by the level and intensity of abuse levelled at Meghan, calling it 'sick'. 'I assumed that there would be a level of racial abuse because you do, but I've never seen or heard this before,' she said. Tessy, who in 2017 was named Woman of the Decade by the Women Economic Forum for her work in women's empowerment, now lives in London with Gabriel and her youngest son Prince Noah of Nassau, 11, while Louis lives in Paris. Pictured: the family together in 2014 Born a commoner, Tessy joined the Luxembourg Army in 2002 at the age of 18, rising to the rank of corporal. Two years later, when she was one of a handful of female UN peacekeepers in Kosovo, she mett Prince Louis, who was visiting the army. His family only became aware of their love affair when Tessy fell pregnant and gave birth aged 19, and unmarried, in September 2005, providing Grand Duke Henri with his first grandson. It infuriated the royal family, and Prince Louis renounced any claim to the title of Grand Duke due to the constitutional crisis they had created by having a child out of wedlock. Tessy and Louis' fairytale marriage broke down in 2016, and they were granted a decree nisi in February last year When Tessy married Prince Louis in September 2006, six months after giving birth in a modest country church wedding, the Grand Duke stripped her of any claim to his title. The couple's fairytale marriage broke down in 2016, and they were granted a decree nisi in February last year. Tessy, who in 2017 was named Woman of the Decade by the Women Economic Forum for her work in women's empowerment, now lives in London with Gabriel and her youngest son Prince Noah of Nassau, 11, while Louis lives in Paris. The philanthropist is the co-founder of social enterprise Professors Without Borders which aims to improve access to higher education across the globe. She also works as a consultant, public speaker and is a UN Association patron. Delivering a baby by a planned caesarean section is cheaper for the NHS than a vaginal birth, research suggests. Experts claim around 400 could be saved, once all compensation costs are taken into consideration. The majority of expectant mothers are being denied a C-section, despite official guidelines saying they should have the choice. This is despite studies showing that the risks of serious complications - including haemorrhaging - are higher with C-sections than vaginal births. Planned C-sections are 400 cheaper for the NHS than vaginal births after taking compensation claims into consideration, a study has found Maternity claims represented the biggest area of spend for NHS Resolution, the body that handles NHS compensation claims, in 2017/18. Gynaecological and obstetric injury claims are made when complications such as an injury arise because poor standards of care of negligence. They can be particularly expensive because babies may need specialist care for life if they are left brain-damaged by labour, for example. Of the clinical negligence claims notified to the organisation, obstetrics claim they represented 10 per cent of clinical claims by number. But they accounted for 48 per cent of the total value of new claims - 2.17billion of the total 4.51billion. And the costs for negligence were around nine times higher for vaginal births than for planned C-sections, the figures showed. ARE C-SECTIONS MORE RISKY THAN VAGINAL BIRTHS? One in every four pregnant women in the UK now has a caesarean birth. For many women, it is scheduled because a natural birth is deemed too risky. Medical conditions include diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV that could be passed from mother to baby, or problems with the placenta during her pregnancy. Women with no other medical reason should be offered appropriate discussion and support if they want a C-section to make an informed choice, NICE says. Generally it is a safe procedure, and the level of risk will depend on things such as whether the procedure is planned or carried out as an emergency, and your general health. It's a major surgery that involves opening up a pregnant woman's abdomen and removing the baby from her uterus. One study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that the chances of problems after a caesarean were 1.5 times higher for a mother than for vaginal births. Older mothers - over the age of 35 -who give birth by caesarean are three times more likely to experience severe complications than those who give birth naturally. Although uncommon, needing admission to an intensive care unit is more likely after a caesarean birth than after a vaginal birth, according to NICE. It is not clear whether this happens as a result of a caesarean section or because of the reasons for needing a caesarean section. Midwives or doctors should discuss the benefits and risks of a caesarean section compared with a vaginal birth with the pregnant woman taking individual circumstances into consideration. Advertisement Previous economic modelling by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has found that vaginal deliveries are about 700 cheaper than a planned C-section, but these figures do not take into account compensation claims. A planned C-section, according to this study, was over 400 per birth cheaper than a vaginal birth. But when looking at long-term indemnity costs, it could end up being 2,000 to 3,000 less expensive than a planned vaginal birth. They said the costs for negligence relating to the planned method of birth were found to be approximately nine times higher for planned vaginal birth than for a planned C-section. One of the authors of new study, Jonathan West, a former NHS consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology who worked at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, said: 'Planning to have a baby naturally is very safe when looked at from the viewpoint of the chance of something going seriously wrong, but very expensive when the human and financial cost of something going wrong actually occurs. 'We should recognise that women have a right to informed choice, and our study shows that it is unfair to discourage mothers from choosing to Caesarean birth on the grounds of cost.' For the study, which has been published on the F1000 research website and may be submitted to a medical journal, the team looked at data from Nice, NHS Resolution and NHS Improvement. Research has shown that women at 75 per cent of UK maternity units are being denied their right to choose a C-section. NICE guidance says women should be allowed to opt for a planned C-section even if it is not for medical reasons. Women requesting a C-section with no other medical reason should be offered appropriate discussion and support, NICE says. But ultimately, if they are regarded as making an informed choice, a C-section should be offered. Of the 146 trusts that shared their policies with the Birthrights charity last August, only 26 per cent fully complied with the guidelines while 15 per cent refused all elective C-section. Whether C-sections put women at more risk than vaginal birth is of debate due to conflicting evidence but some experts say that doctors should be more considerate. While avoiding some after effects of labour such as urinary incontinence, the procedure can lead to scarring of the womb, which heightens the risk of complications during future births. Older mothers - of which there are soaring numbers - who give birth by C-section are three times more likely to experience severe complications than those who give birth naturally, research has shown. The numbers of C-sections have increased from 19.7 per cent in 2000 to 26.2 per cent in 2015. WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF A VAGINAL BIRTH? To the mother: Painful vaginal area (common) Urinary incontinence (unknown) Anal incontinence (unknown) To the baby: Brachial plexus injury - when the nerves that send signals from the spinal cord to the shoulder, arm and hand are stretched, compressed, or in the most serious cases, ripped apart or torn away from the spinal cord. Having an assisted vaginal birth with either vaccum or extraction or forceps rather than a spontaneous birth also has risks to the mother (such as hemorrhoids, psychological trauma and tear in perineum) and to the baby (brain injury). Source: Childbirth Connection Advertisement A girl who was born with half her brain missing has defied doctors by living to reach the age of six. Lily Wetherall was expected to die a few months after birth and was sent home from hospital to enjoy the little time she had left with her family. She had appeared normal at birth, but was diagnosed with hydranencephaly after brain scans. The condition occurs when the brain's cerebral hemispheres large parts of its solid tissue are missing and replaced with fluid. Parents Sienna King, 37, and Anthony Wetherall, 31, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, were told their daughter was blind and deaf and would soon become 'incompatible with life'. But, remarkably, Lily has beaten the odds and is able to recognise her relatives, smile, stand up and even go to school twice a week. Lily Wetherall was born with half her brain missing but has defied doctors by living till the age of six when they expected her to die after a few months. Pictured with her mother, Sienna King Lily appeared normal at birth, but was diagnosed with hydranencephaly after brain scans (pictured). The condition occurs when the brain's cerebral hemispheres are absent and replaced with brain and spinal fluid Ms King had an emergency caesarean section to have Lily (pictured) after her twin, Paige, died in the womb although it is not clear why Ms King said: 'They told us she wouldn't be able to move, and I have pictures of her holding herself up. 'She has made it past six birthdays, she has stood up by herself, and smiles every day.' Ms King had originally been pregnant with twins, but her other girl Paige died in the womb. It is not clear why Paige died, but medics at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire rushed to save Lily, the surviving twin, by performing an emergency caesarean section three weeks before the twins' original due date. Ms King, who is Lily's full time carer, said: 'When Lily was born, she didn't open her eyes once for a week, I wish we had listened to our gut that told us it was a red flag. 'I didn't hear her cry for two weeks. We just sat looking at this tiny thing in an incubator.' Doctors said that Lily was deaf and blind, but it wasn't until a month later that they discovered why. Ms King and Mr Wetherall, a tree surgeon, claim they were due to take Lily home from hospital before medics allegedly said they had forgotten to complete a brain scan. 'We were discharged one month after her birth and we thought we were over the worst,' Ms King said. 'But as we were walking out, a nurse ran after us and told us she was sorry but they had forgotten to complete a brain scan. 'The minute the doctors came back to speak to us after the scan, they said they were sorry but it wasn't good. In patients with hydranencephaly, the main portion of the brain known as the cerebrum (pictured left) is missing and replaced with a sac of spinal fluid (pictured right, in blue) Scans showed only transparent fluid is visible inside Lily's skull, where there would normally be thicker, grey tissue like there is towards the bottom of the brain When Lily was born, she didn't open her eyes for a week. Doctors believed she was blind and deaf but didn't discover why for a few weeks (Pictured: Lily as a toddler) Ms King, pictured with Lily and her son, Riley, at their home in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, were told her daughter was blind and deaf at birth Doctors said Lily would be 'incompatible with life'. But Ms King said she proves them wrong every day because she is able to move and has sat and stood up before 'No-one at the hospital had ever seen anything like it. She has a brain stem, but she doesn't have a brain, her brain scan just shows as a mass of fluid. 'Doctors told us she would never be able to talk, move, show emotion, recognise anyone, and we only had a few months before we would lose her.' WHAT IS HYDRANENCEPHALY? Hydranencephaly is a rare condition in which a child is born with most of the brain's solid tissue its cerebrum missing. Instead, where most people have the folded tissue you imagine when picturing a brain, children with this condition have a sac of fluid. This means parts of the brain which control vision, object recognition, language, speech, logic and muscle movements may all be damaged or missing completely. An infant with h ydranencephaly may look normal at birth but serious problems might become obvious as it grows. The disorder can cause seizures, muscle stiffness, breathing problems, slow growth and intellectual development, and blindness or deafness. Hydranencephaly is incurable and can be caused by genetic disorders or disruption to blood supply during an embryo's development. The condition affects around one in every 250,000 newborns, according to US charity the Brayden Alexander Global Foundation for Hydranencephaly. Prognosis for children affected by the illness is poor most die before birth or as infants, although some may survive for several years. Those who do survive will likely be affected by serious intellectual and physical disability. Common causes of death for children with hydranencephaly are major seizures, failure of the organs and body tissues to grow, and lung infections or breathing difficulties which may be worsened by weak or paralysed chest muscles. Source: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Italian Journal of Pediatrics Advertisement A child with hydranencephaly may appear normal at birth, but the condition means a large part of the brain is missing. Doctors believe the cause of Lily's condition is her brain being starved of blood and oxygen before she was born, potentially because of a clot. Instead of having the cerebrum the biggest part of the brain there is a sac filled with brain and spinal fluid called cerebrospinal fluid. Scans show she still has the brain stem, which controls breathing and vital bodily functions, and the cerebellum, responsible for muscle movements. The cerebrum, which is missing from Lily's brain, contains the frontal lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe and temporal lobe, which control a huge list of functions from emotions, sense of touch, memory, speech and body movements. This leaves those effected approximately one in every 250,000 according to the Brayden Alexander Global Foundation for Hydranencephaly with a vast range of symptoms. These can include vision and hearing problems, intellectual and physical disabilities, seizures and muscle stiffness and weakness. Most children who develop the disorder die as infants causes of death are usually severe seizures, the failure of organs and tissues to grow normally, and breathing difficulties or lung infections, potentially worsened by weak chest muscles. Many die before the age of one and there is no treatment. However in rare cases, such as Lily's, they may survive for several years or more. Ms King said: 'They told us to take her home and enjoy the time we had left with her, because having no brain meant she was incompatible with life and she didn't have long to live. 'We had already lost Paige, so for them to tell us we were going to have to bury our other child was like a sick joke. 'We were told that she would never be able to see, would be deaf, wouldn't be able to move, speak or show any emotion. 'They also said she would only be here for a few months.' But she says Lily has come on leaps and bounds since she was a baby. Ms King said: 'My daughter is not "incompatible with life" she proves that [wrong] every day. 'Now, six years on, she has celebrated every birthday, can partially see, hear, and she knows who her mum and dad are, constantly smiling. 'As she has grown up, she has become a little girl she has a personality and if you're with her every day you can see it. Ms King claims 'tactless' nurses left her in wards with mothers with newborn twins who told her to 'cheer up' because she had one healthy child (Lily, pictured) after the birth Ms King said: 'They told us to take her home and enjoy the time we had left with her' 'When Anthony comes home, she excitedly waits for him to come over and say hello to her, she knows who mum and dad are. 'Every day we see her personality grow, she's a proper little girl, and she even goes to school twice a week.' The family were able to get a special bed for Lily with the help of a charity called NewLife, which donated 7,000 through a community outreach programme. Ms King said: 'NewLife and our community have been amazing; they've provided us with equipment to give Lily the best quality of life possible and we could not be more appreciative of that. 'Lily shows us every day that she's fighting, so we fight with her, and we will never give up on providing her with the fullest life we can. 'As a mother, watching her battle through this with such bravery is what gives me mine.' Lily is fed through a tube 24 hours a day and has been receiving palliative care, for terminally ill patients, since she was born. Neither her doctors or parents know what her future holds. Ms King said they have seen Lily's personality grow and she is even able to go to school. Pictured: Lily at home recently Doctors said Lily would never be able to talk, move, show emotion or recognise anyone. However, Ms King said Lily can do these things Tina Kenny, medical director of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Stoke Mandeville Hospital, said: 'We would like to offer our sincere condolences to Ms King for the sad loss of her daughter [Paige]. 'Although we can't comment on individual cases, we would be happy to have a meeting with Ms King to discuss her experience. 'The Trust is dedicated to ensuring that families affected by the loss of a child or a child born with a disability are cared for and supported with compassion and sensitivity and that appropriate information and counselling is provided.' Two people in the UK have died after being given a vaccine to protect against the potentially fatal yellow fever. The tropical illness is spread by mosquitoes and found in Africa, South and Central America, and the Caribbean, so the jab is recommended for people travelling to those areas. But in extremely rare cases approximately one in a million the vaccine can trigger viscerotropic disease, which can be deadly. Both the unidentified victims were in categories of people who shouldn't always be given the vaccine one was aged over 60 and the other had had their thymus gland removed. Travellers should not be put off getting the vaccine, health chiefs said, and medics have been warned to check it's safe to give their patient the jab, which can cost around 60 on the NHS. Two patients in the UK have died after being given the yellow fever travel vaccine, which went on to cause a disease which can lead to multiple organ failure (stock image) The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) revealed the cases in a report this week but could not say when the two people died. Both of them died 'shortly' after receiving the vaccine because of yellow fever vaccine-associated viscerotropic disease (YEL-AVD). One of them was 67 years old the life-saving jab is not recommended for people over the age of 60, according to the NHS. This person died 16 days after their injection. One of the UK's leading cancer scientists and a consultant at the Royal Marsden NHS trust in London, Professor Martin Gore, 67, died after having a yellow fever vaccine in January, The Guardian reported but the MHRA would not confirm the identity of the patient. The vaccine is also not recommended for people who have had surgery to remove their thymus gland, a gland in the chest which is part of the immune system. The other victim, who was in their 40s, had had this operation and died just eight days after having the yellow fever jab. The vaccine is known to give safe and effective life-saving protection from a deadly infection, and the MHRA said travellers should continue to get it because of the danger of yellow fever. An MHRA spokesperson said 'Yellow fever is serious and potentially fatal. 'Protection against the disease is essential for anyone travelling to an area where it is known to exist, and vaccination is the best form of protection. 'The risk of serious, life-threatening reactions is rare, at around 1 in 100,000 vaccinees. CAN VACCINES MAKE YOU ILL? Live vaccines, such as the one given to protect against yellow fever, work by injecting a weakened but still living form of the virus into the body. The purpose of this is to train the body how to make the right antibodies to fight off the virus, so it can remember how to do so in future. However, if someone's immune system is weakened by cancer, pregnancy, HIV or age, for example it may be unable to destroy even the weakened form of the virus. If this happens, it's possible the injected virus can survive, take hold and cause the infection it was intended to prevent. If this happens the symptoms are usually milder than the real disease. People who have had live vaccines may also be able to transmit an illness to someone with a weakened immune system, so should stay away from them after the jab. Live vaccines given in the UK include those for: rotavirus, MMR, flu (nasal only), shingles, chickenpox, tuberculosis, yellow fever and typhoid (oral only). They are all proven to be effective and side effects are rare. Source: Vaccine Knowledge Project, University of Oxford Advertisement 'The potential risks associated with yellow fever vaccines must be balanced with the benefits in terms of protection from infection. 'Vaccine safety is of paramount importance and we continually monitor the safety of vaccines.' And the government body warned medics to thoroughly check all patients before giving it to them. In a report it said: 'When a person presents for yellow fever immunisation, it is important that healthcare professionals clearly discuss with them the individual risks and benefits of the vaccine based on their specific travel itinerary. 'Sufficient time should be set aside to ensure that the person is immune competent and has no [reasons they shouldn't have] the vaccine, including a review of full medical history and any available medical records.' YEL-AVD triggers a similar illness to yellow fever caught from a mosquito, which leaves patients with fevers, headaches, vomiting and muscle pain. In severe cases it can progress to uncontrollable bleeding and lead to multiple organ failure and death. While wild yellow fever has a death rate of around 50 per cent among patients with symptoms, YEL-AVD kills more than 60 per cent of patients, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The vaccine can trigger yellow fever in people with particularly weak immune systems because it uses a live form of the virus. A healthy body destroys the weakened virus and remembers how to do it, making the person immune, but if the body is too feeble to do this the virus can take hold and trigger illness. Other people who may be too unprotected to have the yellow fever vaccine include pregnant women, HIV or cancer patients and babies under nine months old. As many as one in three people may have side effects such as headache, soreness or mild fever after having the jab, but these should pass within a fortnight. The yellow fever vaccine, known as Stamaril, is given in a single injection and is not freely available on the NHS it usually costs between 60 and 80. Nina Garcia said she felt 'horror' when she tested positive for the BRCA gene, which raises a woman's breast cancer risk by up to 85 percent. But once it sunk in, the 53-year-old Elle editor and Project Runway judge said she felt 'lucky'. 'I kind of switched, and I was like, "How lucky ... that I was able to know this so early on,"' Garcia told ABC News' Robin Roberts today in her first interview about her preventative double mastectomy earlier this year. Garcia told Roberts she felt compelled to share her story, particularly as a woman in the preened fashion world, because it's 'very important to stand up and be like, "You know what? We are not perfect."' Nina Garcia shared her story on Good Morning America because she felt compelled, as a woman in the fashion world, to show 'we are not perfect' As of 2015, Garcia started getting mammograms every six months, which is more regular than doctors usually recommend, even for people with the BRCA mutation, but Garcia wanted to be sure. Recently, her doctor saw something 'abnormal' and ordered a lumpectomy. That was enough for Garcia What is the BRCA gene and how does it affect people's risk of cancer? Having a mutated BRCA gene - as famously carried by Angelina Jolie - dramatically increases the chance a woman will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, from 12 per cent to 90 per cent. Between one in 800 and one in 1,000 women carry a BRCA gene mutation, which increases the chances of breast and ovarian cancer. Both BRCA1 and BRCA2 are genes that produce proteins to suppress tumours. When these are mutated, DNA damage can be caused and cells are more likely to become cancerous. The mutations are usually inherited and increase the risk of ovarian cancer and breast cancer significantly. When a child has a parent who carries a mutation in one of these genes they have a 50 percent chance of inheriting the mutations. About 1.3 per cent of women in the general population will develop ovarian cancer, this increase to 44 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation. Advertisement Garcia first tested positive for BARD1, which interacts with BRCA1, in 2015, after undergoing tests because of a family history of cancer. 'So many thoughts raced through my mind,' Garcia said. 'I was like, "oh, my - why me? What does this mean?"' She then started getting mammograms every six months, which is more regular than doctors usually recommend, even for people with the BRCA mutation, but Garcia wanted to be sure. Recently, her doctor saw something 'abnormal' and ordered a lumpectomy. That was enough for Garcia. 'The news started to get worse. In January, I decided I wanted to opt for a double mastectomy,' Garcia said. 'I don't think it's a choice that every woman should make, but with my history, it was the right decision for me... it was my personal choice.' Going public was also a difficult decision. Garcia shared her news in an open letter in February as Fashion Week was about to kick off and she knew her inevitable absence from front rows would be noted. She knew she had to do it, she said, and her husband was pushing her to, but she agonized over it. She thought: 'Will I look weaker to my staff? Will I miss such a important moment that is Fashion Week for me, as the editor of Elle, a fashion magazine? 'I am in a business that... is so about perfection,' she said. 'And it's changing... thankfully it's changing.' Going public was also a difficult decision, Garcia admits, but she knew it was the right thing Garcia, pictured on Project Runway with Elaine Welteroth, is now back at work Now that Garcia is back at work, she says she is incredibly grateful. 'I learned that I could be very brave. I learned that ... I'm strong,' she said. 'I think the most invaluable lesson is that you got to share your stories. 'The message is the technology and the science is there especially for breast cancer. For that woman at home that hasn't had her mammogram, that hasn't had a sonogram, to get tested, for that woman at home that has a history of breast cancer in their family to get the BRCA gene test. 'I think it's so important.' In December 2018, little Shira Goldschmidt came down with a runny nose and a fever of 104F. Her mother, Fainy Sukenik, took her to see her pediatrician, who said the eight-month-old had a virus that would pass. But then, less than a week later, red spots appeared all over Shira's body and her parents knew she had contracted measles. The infant was having trouble eating and drinking and was struggling to breathe, so she was rushed to the ER, and she was hospitalized, reported CNN. Sukenik says she's furious because her daughter was too young to get her MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) shot and slammed anti-vaxxers for fueling the global outbreak - and even suggested they 'wear a sign' so she can avoid them However, it's unclear how Shira contracted the virus because it's possible to be infected by someone who is vaccinated. Shira Goldschmidt, eight months (left and right), from Israel, came down with a runny nose and a fever of 104F in December 2018. Her pediatrician believed it was a common virus that would quickly pass A few days later, the red spots that are the hallmark of measles appeared on Shira's body. She was too young to be vaccinated because doctors don't administer the shot until patients are at least one year old. Pictured: Shria with her mother, Fainy Sukenik Sukenik has four children, the youngest of whom is Shira, and they are all up-to-date on their vaccines. However, Shira was eight months old when she contracted the virus. Most countries, including the US, don't administer the first MMR dose until children are at least one year old. Sukenik told CNN that she was terrified when her daughter began exhibiting the hallmarks of measles. 'It wasn't just dots on one part of her body,' she said. 'They were everywhere: inside her mouth, between her fingers, in between her toes. I'm an experienced mother, and never ever have I seen something like this.' Her parents had to take her to the hospital when the baby stopped eating and drinking and was too weak to hold her own head up. Doctors put Shira in isolation and administered IV fluids. STATES THAT ALLOW PARENTS TO OPT OUT OF VACCINES BASED ON PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEFS Arkansas Arizona Colorado Idaho Louisiana Maine Michigan Minnesota North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Texas Utah Washington Wisconsin STATES THAT RECENTLY REVOKED THIS ALLOWANCE: Vermont California Missouri West Virginia Advertisement Both in the US and in Israel, where Sukenik lives, the highly infectious disease has been spreading among people who are unvaccinated or live in states that allow non-medical exemptions for vaccines. 'I'm so angry and so frustrated,' Sukenik told CNN. 'On Facebook, I wrote to the anti-vaxxers: "You are hurting our kids because of your choice". ' In December, when Shira first fell ill, Sukenik wrote a post on Facebook where she slammed those who were willingly unvaccinated. 'Let's talk about the freedom of choice here for those who believe that vaccines are the devil and the source of all evil,' she wrote in Hebrew. 'Let's remind them that they have the right to believe what they want, but we will also the prices that others pay so that they can act as they please.' She suggested that anti-vaxxers either stay in isolation or walk around with signs telling others they are not immunized. 'Are you ashamed that you don't vaccinate?' Sukenik told CNN, in reference to anti-vaxxers. 'No, you're not ashamed. So you should wear a sign and let me choose whether my kids will play with your kids.' The measles outbreak in the US began last year when an unvaccinated Orthodox Jewish child from New York became infected during a trip to Israel. From there it spread to several states. Last month, a man identified as 'Patient Zero' traveled to Michigan from New York and spread measles to at least 43 people. The CDC revealed last week that there are now 555 cases confirmed in 20 states since January 1. Measles was declared 'eradicated' in 2000, but 2019 has the second highest number of cases since then, closing in on 2014 when 667 cases were reported. When someone with measles coughs, sneezes or talks, infected droplets are sprayed into the air, where other people can inhale them and are then infected. Symptoms present themselves between 10 to 14 days after infection and include fever, cough, runny nose and a total-body skin rash. Shira (left and right) couldn't eat, drink or hold her own head up, so her parents rushed her to the ER. She was put in isolation and given IV fluids, and since recovered Her mother, Fainy Sukenik, slammed anti-vaxxers in a Facebook post and suggested they stay in isolation or carry signs saying they're anti-vaxxers. Pictured: Shira Cases have been confirmed in: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Of those states, six - Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, Texas and Washington - allow exemptions for philosophical and/or personal beliefs. In New York, there have been at least 522 confirmed cases in Brooklyn, Queens and Rockland County since October 2018 - most in Orthodox Jewish communities. Mayor Bill De Blasio has declared a state of emergency and has threatened to fine any families that don't get their children vaccinated in light of the outbreak. Three weeks ago, officials in Rockland County issued a State of Emergency, banning unvaccinated people under age 18 from public places. The vaccine is about 97 percent effective. But those who are unvaccinated have a 90 percent chance of catching measles if they breathe the virus in, according to the CDC. In fact, the agency says an unvaccinated person can get measles by entering a room that a person with measles left up to two hours before. Shira has since recovered, and is now walking, but doctors told her parents she could face complications down the road. In rare instances, about a decade after someone contracts measles, they could develop a fatal neurological disorder known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. 'For years I'm not going to be able to rest from this fear,' Sukenik told CNN. Scientists have found infertile male mice lack a crucial 'repair gene' - and they hope it could provide answers for drops in sperm counts and sperm quality being recorded across the world in humans. The gene, XRCC1, is crucial for sperm development, to ensure a high sperm count, swift motility, normal shape, and solid concentration. Previously, it wasn't clear how important XRCC1 was to male fertility. But a new study by Chinese researchers found it was the one thing that determined sperm quality in a batch of male mice. Experts say the finding warrants research in humans as data show a concerning rise in male infertility. It's unclear, however, what might cause a deficiency in XRCC1. The gene, XRCC1, is crucial for sperm development, to ensure a high sperm count, swift motility, normal shape, and solid concentration. Chinese scientists show it is lacking in infertile mice (file image) 'Even modest DNA damage in human spermatozoa can reduce fertility and increase the risk of disease in offspring,' said Aihua Gu, a researcher at State Key Laboratory at the Ministry of Education School of Public Health in China. 'Now that we know XRCC1 plays a crucial role in maintaining normal spermatogenesis in mice, further study should explore potential treatments that could reverse male infertility caused by XRCC1 deficiency.' Concerns about male infertility hit headlines globally in 2017, when researchers in Israel and the US published shocking data that sperm counts among men living in Western countries had fallen by 59.3 percent in the last 40 years. By reviewing the previous studies, the researchers found that, since 1973, sperm concentration for Western men had fallen by more than 52 percent, declining by 1.4 percent each year on average. Overall sperm count fell by 1.6 percent each year, resulting in a cumulative decline of nearly 60 percent in the last 40 years. Last year, another study by researchers in Spain and the US added weight to that warning, with data from two major fertility centers between 2002 and 2017. They found the number of men in their cohort went up seven-fold, from 8,000 to 60,000 in that time, with an increasing number diagnosed with oligospermia, a type of male infertility. Among those men with fertility issues, an increasing number had a sperm count so low they have a higher risk of needing IVF to conceive, while the number of men with a 'normal' sperm count dropped. What's more, in July 2017 fertility in the US reached an all-time low. Dr Thoru Pederson, editor-in-chief of the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) journal, hailed the XRCC1 finding. 'XRCC1 has long been known as a guardian of genome integrity in many cell types, and this new study moves its role into the important context of spermatogenesis,' Dr Pederson said. BOOK OF THE WEEK THE CORNER SHOP: SHOPKEEPERS, THE SHARMAS AND THE MAKING OF MODERN BRITAIN by Babita Sharma (Two Roads 16.99, 272 pp) We lost our corner shop a couple of years ago. The Patels had been running it for as long as I have lived in the neighbourhood, which is the best part of 30 years. Then a Sainsburys Local had opened up on the main road and the corner shop saw its turnover cut by 45 per cent overnight. They struggled on for a few months, but to what end? Eventually, they shut up shop, converted the building into flats and hotfooted it for comfortable retirement in the wilds of Edgware. I still feel angry about it now. A corner shop, if you have a good one, is the hub of a community. Ours was a small miracle: friendly, capable, light-footed and always looking to improve its service. Babita Sharma (pictured centre with her parents in the familys former corner shop) explores the history of corner shops in Britain in a fascinating new memoir When our daughter forgot her keys a couple of times after school, where did she go to sit for an hour before someone came home? You guessed it. Babita Sharma is best known as a journalist and TV presenter who helms Newsday for BBC World News, but she is also the daughter of Asian immigrants who, when she was a child, ran a series of corner shops in and around Reading and Caversham. Her book is a memoir of what it was like to grow up in a building that had no front door other than the shop entrance. Its also a study of how so many of these shops came to be run by Asian families, whether from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan or East Africa, which threw out most of its Asian families in the early Seventies. In light of whats going on in the world today, this early example of ethnic cleansing actually takes the breath away. In Uganda, for example, the indigenous black population were not allowed, by law, to go into trade, and the longstanding Indian minority were not allowed to own property. The result was that the black population had all the land and 50,000 Asians, 1 per cent of the population, controlled 90 per cent of the countrys wealth. Idi Amin came to power, called the Asians bloodsuckers and sent them all packing. Several of them ended up in Leicester. The city council in Leicester was concerned that too many immigrants were arriving, so it put large advertisements in Ugandan papers asking them to go somewhere else, anywhere else, just not Leicester. The result: even more people went to Leicester. They had heard of it now, you see. Asian immigrants have been noted as saving corner shops from the brink, at a time when the model portrayed in BBC sitcom Open All Hours (pictured) was on the decline In the UK, meanwhile, corner shops were in sharp decline. The traditional model of Ronnie Barker as Arkwright serving you behind a counter in BBC sitcom Open All Hours had been superseded by the arrival of American supermarkets, with their wide aisles, Angel Delight and many different cheeses: English cheddar, Canadian cheddar, Australian cheddar, Irish cheddar. (I can remember how exciting these shops were in the late Sixties when, lets face it, nearly everything was exciting.) Many of the Asian immigrants had strong business pedigrees: they realised that, while most shoppers would pop off to the supermarket for the big shop of the week, theyd use their corner store for emergencies. So it was they who brought the corner shop back from the brink. Bag of sugar late at night? Emergency greetings card? Bottle of red wine when youve just inadvertently emptied the last one? The phrase open all hours pretty much sums it up. Sharma is excellent on all this and the cultural peculiarities of running these places. Understanding customers daily habits became a fact of my childhood, she says. When I began writing this book I knew that, as a former corner shop kid, I was still bound by a particular code of conduct. Babita says historically in Britain there has been times when there seemed to be nothing worse than seeing someone of colour doing financially well, when white parts of the country are out of work (pictured: children playing outside a corner shop in Manchester in 1977) For, as well as delivering your newspaper and supplying your groceries, they were the custodians of your personal secrets. They must reveal nothing unless they changed their customers names in order to write a book about them. So Mark, as I am now calling you, your teenage addiction to porn mags will not be revealed now that youre a sitting member of Parliament. Your secret is safe with us. A lot of it, of course, was the purest drudgery. Floors had to be mopped, more often than you could imagine, and family members had the enormous advantage, as employees, of not having to be paid. I remember the smaller daughter of the Patels serving behind the counter of my corner shop, bored to distraction, because there were roughly a thousand things shed rather be doing. I believe shes a barrister now. Sharma doesnt soft-soap the racism of the era, or the ever-present threat of having dog poo posted through your letterbox by members of the National Front. THE CORNER SHOP: SHOPKEEPERS, THE SHARMAS AND THE MAKING OF MODERN BRITAIN by Babita Sharma (Two Roads 16.99, 272 pp) In Britain, there has historically been nothing worse than seeing someone of colour doing well financially when white parts of the country are p****d off and out of work. In fact, its one of the best books Ive read of the immigrant experience in this country. But its the detail that makes it. For one thing, corner shops could open on Sundays in the Seventies and Eighties when supermarkets couldnt. Why? Because of the 1950 Shops Act, an inexplicably shambolic piece of legislation that meant you could sell pornography on a Sunday, but not a Bible. You could sell a G&T, but not teabags. You could sell a fresh chicken, but not a fresh egg. And a fish and chip shop could sell any dish on Sunday other than fish and chips. The ramifications were too complex for supermarkets to overcome but a corner shop could be lighter on its feet. It must have been a singular childhood. For dinner, you had to eat what was available: there often wasnt time to make a proper meal, as there was a shop to be run. On the basis that you are what you eat, Sharma says shes half-Indian, half-Findus. Its a typically deft touch in a subtle, enjoyable book. MEMOIR AIRHEAD by Emily Maitlis (Michael Joseph 18.99, 352 pp) The title has to be dealt with first. Emily Maitlis is one of our most talented TV journalists and I, for one, cannot understand why this totally serious, multi-lingual woman, now Newsnights chief presenter, was not given the coveted Question Time gig. But an airhead is a bimbo, so why feed sexist prejudice by calling your first book a fascinating, perceptive, intelligent and gossipy examination of The Imperfect Art Of Making News Airhead? Maitlis explains that she is trying to invert the cliche, describing the moments of utter panic when you have no idea what will come out of your mouth next; when what seems to be between your ears is, indeed, empty air. TV journalist Emily Maitlis (pictured), recounts the combination of careful thought and utter chaos behind the scenes of making news in a fascinating new memoir Her intention is to illuminate that combination of careful thought and utter chaos: the big, deep breath that comes when youve lost contact with the gallery, the guest has walked out, the riot police are at your back and all you hear is the sole instruction to keep talking. Anyone with aspirations to work in television news, any wannabe presenter who thinks it looks pretty easy to read an Autocue, should study this book and take on board just how hard the whole thing is. Are you prepared to grab your case, leave your family, sweat (mentally and physically), argue, chase, think on your feet, miss your children, lose your way in an interview knowing all the time that, even though you are part of a team, you carry the can? Whats most impressive about Maitliss whistlestop tour through trying television moments is her frankness about how easy it is to misjudge the moment. Again and again, she admits she made the wrong call . . . and frets about priorities. So, not an autobiography, but a serious book about journalism, disguised in anecdotal chapters about her encounters with the great and the good and the rather awful from Bill Clinton through David Attenborough and to Steve Bannon and Russell Brand. What happens when you are interviewing a senior politician and it becomes clear that you cannot ask the question on your mind? Emily (pictured) was inspired to writer her memoir to dispel the myth that everything that happens in television is planned Maitlis is in India to interview Bill Clinton, in punishing heat. She wants to ask him about Monica Lewinsky, who has written about her entanglement with Clinton two decades on. But she is pre-warned Clinton is unwell and (effectively) must not be upset and, if he is, the tape will be pulled. In the end, the decision has to be taken: no Lewinsky question. You warm to her frankness: I was terrified. Absolutely terrified. Emily Maitlis seems endearingly starstruck by David Attenborough, Emma Thompson, Simon Cowell, some naked Chippendales she met in Las Vegas and, above all, by playing a character called Emily Maitlis in a comedy sketch with Alan Partridge. In stark contrast, she writes movingly about the Grenfell Tower disaster and the ethics of emotional involvement when you have to interview the Prime Minister on the story. AIRHEAD by Emily Maitlis (Michael Joseph 18.99, 352 pp) Few things can be predicted: Im writing this book to try to dispel the myth that everything that happens in television is planned and that an element of chance is the essence of . . . the job. Maitlis sometimes gets caught out by her own profession. She is filmed (a smartphone, it must be) while doing a radio interview with Emma Barnett, gives away too much and hates being caught looking scruffy without her make-up. Trivial? Not in the slightest. The searing honesty that informs Maitlis on this, as well as on migrants in Budapest, her compassion for those who present an unsympathetic face to the world, the intelligence that informs the most succinct paragraph on Brexit I have ever read . . . all this leads the reader towards a deeper understanding of an essential part of our culture: current affairs. This is a book that engages at every level and so Ill take brainbox perhaps, Ms Maitlis, but not airhead . . . no, no, no. Jupiter Asset Management is preparing to back corporate raider Edward Bramson Jupiter Asset Management is preparing to back corporate raider Edward Bramson (pictured right) in his fight for a board seat at Barclays, insiders claim. The investment firm is expected to support a motion at Barclays' annual meeting next month to make him a non-executive director. It would give Bramson a big boost in his battle, which is expected to be opposed by most shareholders. Jupiter is one of Barclays' 25 largest investors, with a 0.56 per cent stake according to Reuters data. It also owns 3.6 per cent of Bramson's fund, Sherborne Investors Guernsey C. Most of this stock is owned by fund manager Ben Whitmore. Bramson, who controls a 5.51 per cent stake in Barclays through Sherborne, is trying to insert himself on the bank board so he can change its direction. He is thought to favour deep cuts to the prized investment bank, and has embarked on a vicious war of words with its management. Barclays last week said that Bramson is secretive and unwilling to work with existing directors, making him unsuitable for a board job. The bank also attacked him for failing to understand how banking works, and said a major overhaul would be extremely disruptive just after it finished a round of savage cuts. Bramson has also been slammed for failing to set out a detailed plan of what he wants Barclays to do. These criticisms could lead to questions over whether a vote for the 68-year-old raider would fit with Jupiter's stewardship policy, which states that it expects firms to be open and honest with investors. Barclays last week said that Bramson is secretive and unwilling to work with existing directors, making him unsuitable for a board job Other investors including Aviva and fund manager Richard Buxton, of Merian Global Investors, have publicly come out against Bramson. Shareholder advice group ISS recommended voting against Bramson's appointment and criticised his failure to set out detailed plans. ISS said: 'Shareholders might reasonably expect more timely disclosure of a detailed critique which would allow for a healthy public debate over a longer time frame. 'In light of the board's apparent cognisance of the issues outlined by the dissident, and stated intention to continue to refresh itself by adding executive banking experience, [Bramson] has not presented a sufficiently compelling case that additional change is warranted.' A Jupiter spokesman insisted Whitmore has not yet decided how to vote. Our quest to find some of the most promising entrepreneurs and businesses across Britain has reached a successful conclusion. The This is Money team and prominent entrepreneur and angel investor Andy Yates are now proud to reveal the winning entrepreneurs from the short list we recently announced. We are delighted to reveal our first female winner of the Great British Entrepreneur Challenge - which is testament to the growing number of women entrepreneurs that are making their mark in what was once a male dominated world. The Great British Entrepreneurial Challenge offered SME owners the chance to win business advice, mentoring and up to 50k in seed funding What's more - all three 2019 winners are mid-life entrepreneurs. As such they have used their extensive experience, networks and expertise in their particular industries and sectors to unearth exciting new opportunities. Nothing can replace real world knowledge - and a real understanding about what your clients want and how you can help them solve the problems they face. We think these entrepreneurs can show young 'whiz kids' a thing or two. So the message from this years' competition proves it is never too late to start a business. The 2018 winner Lee Flavin, founder of RateSwitch, the no fee mortgage switching service, has already seen his business double in size through winning the Great British Entrepreneur Challenge. So without further ado here are the 2019 Great British Entrepreneur Challenge Winners: Data Cubed Website: https://data-cubed.co.uk/ Winner of up to 50,000 investment and 12 months of mentoring and support The idea: Transforming businesses by harnessing the power of their data. Data Cubed already runs a successful data lab in Bristol, helping everybody from large businesses like AXA and Barclays to start-ups. Now it is on a mission to help British businesses grow. The first goal - to transform the embattled financial advisor industry because better data means a better service to customers. Helen Tanner is the founder of Data Cubed The entrepreneur: Helen Tanner describes herself as a mid-life entrepreneur. She took the plunge to set up a start-up after two decades in corporate life that gave her a wealth of experience in how great data can make great businesses. Andy Yates' view on Helen and Data Cubed: Data is transforming the way businesses run and grow and is increasingly the difference between success and failure. But too many small and growing British businesses lack the skills and support to really understand and use the data they have. I want to work with Helen to change that and help businesses get better at what they do and the service they provide to customers. The financial advice sector is just the start. Data can transform British SMEs and there are so many products Helen has that can do that. Helen is also an inspirational, passionate, determined and hard working entrepreneur that really knows her sector and is driven to make a real success of Data Cubed and the products it will produce. These are all the qualities I look for in a great entrepreneur. She has a brilliant future ahead. Watch this space. Helen Tanner, the founder of Data Cubed said:"I love a challenge and I love to be challenged. That's why I applied to the Great British Entrepreneurial Challenge. 'Im a mid-life entrepreneur and I spent the last two decades working in large global corporates at director/head of level. I set up my own business in 2017 and nows the time to scale and grow. I have big ambitions and I would love to benefit from Andys expert advice, mentoring and support based on his awesome entrepreneurial experience. Winners of mentoring and support Domeble Website: https://www.domeble.com The idea: The way cars are sold is changing rapidly. Imagine going for a test drive in any car, anywhere in the world from the comfort of your own home or a car showroom. Domeble, founded by Carl Lyttle, offers a library of virtual reality worlds that put you in the driving seat of any car Domeble already provides high quality 360 degree computer images and backgrounds for Nissan, Mercedes, GM, Audi, BMW, Tesla and Jaguar LandRover to name a few. Now it is building a complete library of virtual reality worlds that put you in the driving seat from any seat in the world. The entrepreneur: Belfast born Carl Lyttle is an award winning photographer, who has taken photos of everything and everyone from music legends to stunning landscapes before specialising in digital photography and the car industry. Andy Yates' view on Carl and Domeble: Domeble is a brilliant idea. If Carl, with all his fantastic experience in the photography and car industries, can build up a significant and market leading library of VR images and backgrounds this can help transform the way cars are sold around the world. Future visual Website: https://www.futurevisual.com The idea: Using Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality to revolutionise the way businesses run projects and train teams. Brighton based Future Visual has created VisionxR a platform which allows staff to collaborate in a VR world using any device from anywhere in the world. Tim Fleming is the founder of Brighton based Future Visual VisionxR can be used to do anything from training airport staff and guiding planes to managing global engineering projects. The entrepreneur: After a successful career directing shows for the likes of Fat Boy Slim, Tim Fleming went on to create his award-winning VR and AR studio, working with everybody from Peugeot to John Lewis. Andy Yates' view on Tim and Future Visual: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality is not just about gaming or experiences. It is now changing the way people work and collaborate together globally. The potential is huge going forwards. Companies can use Future Visual's platform to save significant amounts of time and money. I can see a great future for Tim and the business. So there you have it - three worthy winners with great potential and we will keep you up to date with how they fare over the next 12 months. Exciting times ahead. It just goes for us to thank everybody that entered the Great British Entrepreneur challenge. There are so many inspiring and inspired entrepreneurs out there and we wish every one of you every success going forwards as you have such an important part to play in our future. A murderer who strangled a Brisbane mother before stealing her money for a trip to the Philippines has told a court his victim was a 'good friend', although 'unreliable, clumsy and a drunk', before being sentenced to life imprisonment. Robert Graham Thomas' sacked his lawyers and represented himself before being sentenced in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday for the murder of Danielle Miller. Miller, who had been in a casual sexual relationship with Thomas, was found by police lying face up alongside a broken fan and a clump of her own hair in her Greenslopes home in October 2015. Robert Graham Thomas strangled Brisbane mother-of-two Danielle Miller (pictured) in 2015 Ms Miller, who had been in a casual sexual relationship with Thomas, was found by police lying face up alongside a broken fan and a clump of her own hair in her Greenslopes home (pictured) The only clue as to Thomas' motive for killing Ms Miller was that he had told a man she had humiliated him in some way, his trial heard in March. During the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Dzenita Balic submitted statements from Miller's two children which listed 'things I miss about mum' and said the impact of her death would have been 'unimaginable' for them. Thomas stood up and told the court his lawyers advised him not to talk but he felt the 'damage had already been done and I will stay silent no longer'. He said he wanted to explain what happened in the lead up to the murder one day 'should I get the chance to tell the truth'. He also made disparaging remarks about Ms Miller while also apologising to her family. 'I did try my best to resuscitate Danny, and wish I had realised sooner that she had passed,' Thomas said. 'Danny like the rest of us had faults. She was also a good friend, someone unreliable, clumsy and a drunk, but to us that was Danny. 'However, no matter what, she was loved unconditionally by two people who know her as mummy.' Thomas who strangled Ms Miller before stealing her money for a trip to the Philippines Almost immediately after Thomas finished his submissions Justice David Jackson delivered his judgment. Justice Jackson said a day after the murder Thomas told a friend he had squeezed her around the neck with his hands. He said Thomas squeezed so hard he fractured cartilage in Ms Miller's neck and caused heavy bruising. 'The precise period over which you strangled Ms Miller is not known, but it was more than half a minute and possibly much longer,' Justice Jackson said. 'For the victim it would have been a terrifying ordeal.' He sentenced Thomas to life imprisonment for the murder which has a mandatory minimum non-parole period of 20 years in Queensland. A convicted sex offender has been charged after he allegedly targeted an eight-year-old boy and his 10-year-old brother for sex while they were playing in a park. Geoffrey Michael Breasley, 46, was allegedly 'highly intoxicated' when he approached and threatened the brothers and another boy, 11, at Marrickville's Jarvie Park in Sydney's inner-west on Wednesday afternoon. Police allege Breasley kicked and spat on a male and female sergeant, after he was he was arrested at about 3pm. A convicted sex offender, 46, allegedly approached three boys aged eight, 10 and 11 for sex Geoffrey Michael Breasley was allegedly 'highly intoxicated' when he approached and threatened the boys at Jarvie Park (pictured) Breasley was charged with three counts of procuring a child under 14 for sexual activity, two counts of assaulting police, intimidating police, stalking and intimidation, and offensive behaviour. Breasely was for jailed in 2013 for sex-related crimes, 9News reported. He fronted Burwood Local Court and was refused bail. The magistrate told Breasley's lawyer he is likely to get a custodial sentence if he is found guilty because of the 'seriousness of the offence'. 'These are serious charges,' the magistrate told the 46-year-old. He will front he court again via a video link on May 1. Parliamentary recess could not come soon enough. As if UK politics hasnt had enough drama, what with Brexit dominating the Parliament debate agenda in recent months, there was excitement aplenty in Westminster before the Easter recess began this week when the House of Commons proceedings disrupted not once, but twice. The first interruption happened on April Fool's Day when semi-naked climate change protesters stormed the public gallery and glued themselves to the glass. On April 1, semi-naked climate change protesters stormed the public gallery of the Houseof Commons and glued themselves to the glass. However, the interruption was more of a distraction as the session was not suspended, and MP Peter Kyle even used the incident to make 'cheeky' puns about 'the naked truth'. Three days later, the House of Commons session was suspended when water flooded into the chamber because of a roof leak. The House of Commons session was suspended three days later on April 4 when water flooded into the chamber because of a roof leak. However, these recent disruptions have nothing on the following ten incidents that interrupted the House of Commons sessions, which include everything from fist fights, gas canisters and manure throwing. 22 March, 2017: Westminster attacks Parliament was suspended on the day of the Westminster attacks when terrorist Khalid Masood drove a car across Waterloo Bridge, hitting pedestrians, before crashing into the railing outside Parliament and stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death. He was then shot dead by armed police. In total five people were killed and more than fifty injured. Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle told MPs at 2.44pm: The House is now suspended, but please wait here. The main entrance was closed off and the sitting remained suspended for another 35 minutes. Parliament was suspended on the day of the Westminster attacks for 35 minutes, with the main doors being closed off. Once proceedings resumed, Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle adjourned the sitting for the day. Pictured: MPs observe a minute's silence the day after the attacks Once proceedings resumed, the Leader of the House of Commons David Lidington said: I hope the House would agree that, in the current circumstances, it would not be right to continue with todays business', before they were adjourned. 15 September, 2004: Protesters break into chamber Sitting was suspended for nearly 20 minutes during the debate on the Hunting Bill when members of the public, including Otis Ferry, the son of pop star Bryan Ferry, who opposed the bill, managed to evade security and break into the House of Commons. Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry's son, Otis, was one of the protesters who managed to evade security and break into the House of Commons when the Hunting Bill was being debated in '04 19 May, 2004: Tony Blair hit with condom full of flour One of the most notorious incidents in the House of Commons in recent times. During Prime Ministers Questions, then-PM Tony Blair was hit with condoms full of purple flour, lobbed from the galleries by Fathers 4 Justice activists. The group said they carried out the stunt to draw attention to MPs apparent inaction when it came to helping fathers get access to their kids through courts. The Sitting was suspended for over an hour by the Speaker. One of the most notorious incidents in the House of Commons in recent times was when Fathers 4 Justice activists threw condoms full of purple flour at then Prime Minister Tony Blair 4 February, 2004: Anti-War protests in the galleries The House of Commons proceedings were suspended for 12 minutes during the Hutton Report debate after members of the public, who were anti-war protesters, in the gallery began shouting, No more whitewash! when then-Prime Minister Tony Blair began speaking and refused to stop. The debate was suspended while the public gallery was cleared. The House of Commons proceedings were suspended for 12 minutes during the Hutton Report debate after anti-war protesters began shouting 'No more whitewash' from the galleries 6 July, 1978: Manure thrown from the galleries During points of order on debates about the Scotland Bill, the Sitting was interrupted after members of the public, including the daughter of the former Maltese prime minister Dom Mintoff, threw manure into the House of Commons from the public galleries. One MP remarked that he could not sit down because the Bench has been soiled by some of the offensive matter that has just been thrown from the Public Gallery. The Sitting was suspended for 20 minutes to allow for the offensive material to be cleared away. Yana Mintoff, the daughter of the former Maltese Prime Minister Dom Mintoff [pictured], threw manure into the House of Commons from the public galleries during a debate about the Scotland Bill in 1978 4 March, 1975: One MP reportedly hit another During a heated debate about the allocation of subsidies to motorbike manufacturer Norton Villiers Triumph, a Tory MP reportedly hit a junior minister with his Commons Order Paper. 23 July, 1970: A protester threw gas canisters On 23 July, 1970, an Irish nationalist protester shouted Belfast! See how you like it! and threw two CS gas canisters into the House of Commons as Anthony Barber was speaking on the Common Market negotiations. The gas caused many MPs to start coughing and tear up, while three people ended up being taken to Westminster Hospital. Some MPs reportedly crawled under the benches in a bid to escape the worst of the gas. The House of Commons was cleared for two hours after the attack. On 23 July, 1970, an Irish nationalist protester shouted Belfast! See how you like it! and threw two CS gas canisters into the House of Commons as Anthony Barber, pictured left at 10 Downing Street, was speaking on the Common Market negotiations. 2nd July, 1931: An MP had to be ejected by force John McGovern MP brought proceedings to a halt when he refused to stop asking supplementary questions and was named by the Speaker of the House. The House then voted to suspend the MP from the service. However, McGovern refused to leave and a scuffle ensued as the Serjeant-at-Arms had to remove the MP by force. The Sitting was suspended for 15 minutes. The Speaker then said that McGovern would be suspended from the service for the remainder of the session. 11 April, 1923: A brawl between MPs The Sitting was suspended after a scuffle broke out on the floor of the House of Commons over the Governments position on the employment of ex-servicemen. Labour MPs prevented the debate from proceeding and tensions finally culminated in one MP being hit on the back of the head and consequently hitting another MP, who was standing closest to him. Quickly, more and more MPs became involved and the scuffle became a brawl. Proceedings were suspended for over an hour, after which sitting was actually adjourned. Some supermarkets and retail chains are planning to have extended trading hours on Thursday to accommodate the demands from customers over the long Easter weekend. Customers are advised to stock up on grocery and booze as supermarkets giants such as Woolworths, Coles and ALDI are planning to keep most stores closed on Good Friday across Australia. On Easter Sunday, some stores will open with reduced trading hours. Stock up: Most supermarkets will be closed on Friday across Australia (stock image) Woolworths Good Friday Woolworths has decided to keep its stores closed on Friday in New South Wales (NSW), the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and Norther Territory (NT). In Queensland, all Woolworths stores will be closed except for Brisbane Airport, which is open 24 hours. The supermarket giant has also decided to keep its Eaton and Margaret River stores in Western Australia; and Murray Bridge Marketplace, Victor Harbor and Mt Barker stores open in South Australia on Good Friday. Woolworths has decided to keep its stores closed on Friday in NSW, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and Norther Territory (stock image) Easter Saturday All Woolworths stores will open on Saturday, except the those at 333 George Street and Sydney Metcentre, in NSW. In Victoria, all stores will open on Saturday except for Melbourne Central, Bourke St and Collins Square. All stores will open in the ACT, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia (SA), NT and Western Australia (WA). Easter Sunday Most stores will be closed in NSW and SA, but in other states Woolworths has decided to open its stores with a few exceptions on Sunday. Easter Monday Most Woolworths stores will open on Monday across Australia. Residents are advised to visit woolworths.com.au/stores for the revised opening hours. Residents are advised not to miss out on special deals at supermarkets (stock image) Coles Good Friday Coles has decided to close its stores across Australia on Good Friday, except for Dunsborough and Eaton Fair in Western Australia; and Victor Harbor, Mount Barker, and Murray Bridge Green in SA. Easter Saturday The supermarket giant will open all its stores on Easter Saturday with normal trading hours barring a few exceptions. Wynyard, Casula and Wyong stores in NSW will have reduced trading hours. Trading hours have also been reduced at Croydon, Wodonga Plaza and Melbourne CBD stores in Victoria. In Western Australia, all Perth stores will open from 8am to 5pm. Coles has decided to close its stores across Australia on Good Friday, except for Dunsborough and Eaton Fair in Western Australia; and Victor Harbor, Mount Barker and Murray Bridge Green in SA Easter Sunday All stores, except those in designated regional tourist zones, are closed in NSW on Easter Sunday. Coles to open its stores in Victoria, except for those in Croydon, Richmond Icon, Melbourne CBD. In Queensland, all stores to open from 9am to 6pm and those in designated tourist zones are scheduled to open between 7am and 9pm. Its stores at Ayr, Goodwindi and Mt Isa, however, are closed on Easter Sunday. In Western Australia, Perth stores will run from 11am to 5pm. NT, Tasmania and ACT, except for Five Dock, stores are open as usual on Easter Sunday. In South Australia, the CBD stores will open from 11am to 5pm, but metropolitan stores will be closed. Easter Monday Most Coles stores will open on Monday across Australia, but a few will have reduced trading hours. ALDI A spokesperson said ALDI Australia's store trading hours will vary over the Easter long weekend. "Most stores will have extended trading hours on Thursday, 18th April and all stores will be closed on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday some stores will open with reduced trading hours," the spokesperson said. Kmart Good Friday All Kmart stores are closed on Good Friday across Australia and New Zealand. Easter Saturday All stores are open on Easter Saturday, but customers are advised to check the trading hours first at www.kmart.com.au Easter Sunday All Kmart stores are open on Easter Saturday, but customers are advised to check the trading hours first at www.kmart.com.au (stock image) Most stores are open except: NSW Figtree, Warriewood, Ashfield, Sylvania, Chatswood, Bondi Junction, Pagewood, Hurstville, Burwood, Lidcombe, Waratah, Hornsby, Mt Druitt, Maitland, Glendale, Kotara, Wagga Wagga, Campbelltown, Casula, Narellan, Queanbeyan, Minto, Bass Hill, Merrylands, Blacktown, North Rocks, Orange, Bankstown, Fairfield, Penrith, Marrickville, Parramatta, Stanhope, Castle Hill and Top Ryde. Queensland - Mt Isa, Armidale & Tamworth Western Australia Kalgoolie All SA stores are closed except for Port Pirie, Mt Barker, Port Lincoln and Rundle Mall. Easter Monday Most stores are open on Easter Monday across Australia except Mt Isa in Queensland and Kalgoolie in WA. In SA all stores are closes except for Port Pirie, Mt Barker, Port Lincoln and Rundle Mall. Liquorland/Vintage Cellars/First Choice Liquormart Good Friday All stores are closed on Good Friday across Australia. Easter Saturday All stores are open and have normal trading hours. Easter Sunday A few select stores are open in NSW, SA and WA. All stories are open in other states with the exception of Chisholm in the ACT. Easter Monday All stores are open across Australia, except South Australia where only a selected few are open. The world's largest passenger plane touched down in Glasgow yesterday, after the Scottish airport spent 8million upgrading its airport for the giant aircraft that will go out of production in two years. The Airbus A380-800, which can hold almost 500 people, will be withdrawn from production after Emirates cut its order by 39 planes and other airlines did not buy the model. Regular Emirates flights with the large aircraft began on Tuesday between Glasgow and Dubai following the visit. The A380 pictured coming in to land at Glasgow airport yesterday evening The arrival marks the beginning of regular A380 flights between Glasgow and Dubai The plane photographed as it approaches the airport to land. As much as 8million has been spent upgrading the airport to accommodate the large aircraft Video shot at the airport shows the giant aircraft coming in to land, and then taxiing towards airport facilities. It was welcomed onto the tarmac by a kilted piper yesterday evening. The plane had previously visited the airport in 2014 to mark 10 years of flights between the city and Dubai. Airport managing director Mark Johnston described the decision by Emirates to introduce the aircraft as a 'huge milestone' for Glasgow Airport and a first for the Scottish aviation industry. After landing, the plane was photographed moving from the runway to its landing bay The Scottish government's economy secretary said the jets arrival represented 'enhanced connectivity and capacity' for Scotland With a wingspan of nearly 80 metres and two decks, the A380 can carry almost 500 passengers. Economy Secretary Derek Mackay, who attended the jets arrival, said: 'This represents enhanced connectivity and capacity for Scotland and Glasgow Airport. 'An aircraft of this size coming shows a vote of confidence in the city, in the country and the economy generally. Its great news.' The figure refers to 2018, which marks a slight decrease compared to the 9.2 billion dollars of the previous year. Ministry of Defense says the sector is "exceptionally strong" and represents one of the leading industries. Most important clients are India, Azerbaijan and Vietnam. Tel Aviv (AsiaNews / Agencies) - In 2018 Israeli military exports exceeded 7.5 billion dollars with most of the production destined for countries in the Asia-Pacific region. A spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Defense told AFP that last year, despite a slight decline compared to 9.2 billion in 2017, the arms sector was "exceptionally strong" and represents is a leading sector in the national industry. The Stockholm-based international research institute for peace had placed Israel in the eighth place globally among arms exporters in 2017. Its most important customers are India, Azerbaijan and Vietnam, confirming a predominance of Asian nations. Without going into the details of the contracts, the Israeli Defense Ministry said in a statement that the anti-missile and anti-aircraft defense systems represent 24% of sales in 2018. At the same time, unmanned aerial systems and drones make up 15% of the total; followed by the radar and warning systems at 14%, the aircraft and the flight industry also at 14%. "Last year - underlines the director of international cooperation of the Ministry of Defense Mishel Ben-Baruch - we signed dozens of contracts with different countries in the world". "This testifies - added the expert - the willingness of an increasing number of nations to collaborate with the State of Israel, and their confidence in the excellent capabilities of our defense industries". As far as geographical areas are concerned, at the level of sales, Asia and the Pacific represent 46% of the total market; followed by Europe with 26%, 20% in North America, 6% in South America and 2% in Africa. After President Trump skewered Attorney General Jeff Sessions for more than a year over his recusal from the Russia probe, his nomination of William Barr as successor presented an opportunity finally to rein it in. With Barr's release of the redacted Mueller report on Thursday, the nation gets the chance to evaluate to what extent, if any, he has used his powerful office to shield the president and his advisors from any damaging information it contains. Depending on how much material Barr opts to block out using a color-coded method, the public can see the basis for his decision not to charge the president with obstruction of justice and evaluate the president's claim that the report is a 'complete and total exoneration.' Barr had obvious credentials for the job, having served as attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration. But it was his more recent writings that drew immediate concern after Trump announced Barr's nomination in December. Barr had written an unusual 20-page memo dated June 8, 2018 and sent it to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the Russia probe, where he described Mueller's theory of obstruction of justice as 'fatally misconceived.' Attorney General William Barr assumed control of the Justice Department after the Mueller probe was well underway, and after penning an outside 20-page memo critical of what he described as Mueller's theory of obstruction of justice Drafted while Barr was in private practice, the memo called Mueller 'grossly irresponsible' and took apart what Barr determined was the theory Mueller was acting upon, writing that it had potentially disastrous implications.' 'Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the President submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction,' Barr wrote. 'Apart from whether Mueller (has) a strong enough factual basis for doing so, Mueller's obstruction theory is fatally misconceived.' After the memo was revealed, Democrats labeled it part of a try-out for securing the post as the nation's top law enforcement officer under Trump, who had now dispatched the head of the FBI, his deputy, and the previous attorney general. Senior Democrats, including Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York, said it was disqualifying. Some of Barr's earlier writings also pointed to how he might carry out the role of Trump's attorney general with a firmly held belief in overriding executive power. Barr faced a grilling in the Capitol after his four-page letter summarizing the conclusions of the Mueller report Barr outlined four categories of material he intended to consider for redactions President Trump nominated Barr after launching a stream of attacks on his predecessor Barr has described a years-old friendship with special counsel Robert Mueller In a 1989 memorandum from when he was assistant attorney general, Barr outlined 'Common Legislative Encroachments on Executive Branch Authority.' It states that 'The President, as the head of a unitary executive branch, has a duty to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, U.S. Const, art. II, 3, to coordinate and supervise his subordinates, and to ensure that the executive branch speaks with one voice.' The Barr memo stipulates: 'The Presidents power to remove subordinates is essential to carrying out these responsibilities.' Against this backdrop, Barr was forced to provide repeated assurances to lawmakers that he was not being reinstalled at the Justice Department to steamroll Mueller. Trump had hailed him as 'a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man,' but Democrats in the Senate wanted to know whether he would be Trump's man. 'I believe it is vitally important that the Special Counsel be allowed to complete his investigation,' Barr, 68, said in prepared testimony for the Senate addressing the key issue of his confirmation early in his remarks. He said he would 'provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law' a response could cover a wide range of disclosure. He also said he would not follow President Trump's 'instruction' to fire Mueller if given, assuming there was no 'good cause.' Barr noted in his confirmation hearing that he and Mueller were friends, and referred to him as 'Bob.' He said their wives had attended bible study together. Mueller was a guest at the weddings of his children. Those reassurances and Barr's performance may have tamped down some Democratic concerns, although Barr was confirmed on a mostly party-line vote, 54-45, with just three Democrats voting for him. One of the most enduring parts of Barr's tenure so far is not what he did, but what he did not do: He made no effort to remove Mueller, whose team began sending signals months ago that the investigation could be winding down. A Republican who had worked for the CIA, Barr did a stint in the Reagan White House before landing a high-level jobs in the Justice Department under the elder Bush. A competitive bag piper, Barr took up the instrument at age eight, and was a member of the City of Washington Pipe Band, occasionally playing at Justice Department functions during his first stint. He married Christine Moynihan Barr in 1973. In just one signal of his belief in the power of the executive, Barr recommended pardons for key figures in the Iran-Contra affair. He executed his most consequential action of the Trump administration after Mueller delivered his 400-page report, as required by statute. Within 48-hours of receiving it, Barr produced a March 24 letter to Congress summarizing its 'principal conclusions.' It quoted sparingly from the actual report, but stated the special counsel 'did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government ... despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist.' He also wrote that the special counsel 'did not draw a conclusion' on obstruction of justice while including a line with a partial quotation stating that 'while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.' Then, Barr took the opportunity to render his own decision. He wrote that he and Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein concluded that the evidence 'is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense' determining that Trump would not be charged. Democrats fumed at the quick turnaround and speculated that Barr was cherry-picking the report to protect Trump. Regardless of whether that is accurate, the president seized on the opportunity, declaring victory while the public and Congress had yet to examine Mueller's findings. He compared it a 'complete and total exoneration.' Facing pressure from Congress, Barr released another letter where he described his process of going through redactions. He introduced a new category of material that might be obscured: information that could affect 'reputational interests' of peripheral figures. The report was also being scrubbed for secret grand jury information, information that might affect ongoing prosecutions, and information of an intelligence nature. SECOND TIME AROUND: In this Nov. 26, 1991, file photo, President George H.W Bush, right, and William Barr wave after Barr was sworn in as the new Attorney General of the United States at a Justice Department ceremony in Washington As he vetted the report with Mueller's team, Barr provided no hints about how much information he would hold back although he told Congress he was open to discussions after making a 'first pass.' Barr took a few other actions as AG that kept observers guessing. Two days after his letter, Politico reported that Barr weighed in internally against the administration joining a state suit to have all of Obamacare thrown out as unconstitutional. And when he was grilled in Congress about his letter, Barr promised he would be as transparent as possible with the release of the report. He also provided the public with something that has been rare throughout the Mueller probe: advanced notice of a major action. He told Congress he would make the report this week, and the Justice Department even provided a date-certain of Thursday. In the charged environment of the Russia probe, even the calendar date for the report raised suspicion. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler described it as an effort to put out the administration's side right before Good Friday, Passover, and Easter making it harder for opposing views to break through. The mayor of Yuma, Arizona, has declared a state of emergency to deal with the number of illegal migrants being released from Border Patrol custody into the city. Mayor Douglas Nicholls, a Republican, said on Tuesday that he hoped not to get to this point but that organizations helping immigrant families just don't have capacity to deal with so many. He called on the federal government to send resources, suggesting a FEMA response. The state of emergency doesn't actually allocate any funds but calls on the federal government to help. 'This isn't a natural disaster but it is a disaster either way,' said Nicholls, a Republican. 'Their resources could come in and effectively handle that.' A migrant group is seen in Yuma sector late last month. Border Patrol has begun releasing illegal migrants, saying that it faces an unprecedented surge that overwhelmed the agency Yuma has opened an an emergency shelter that can hold 150 people, and Nicholls said that in the past three weeks, at least 1,300 migrants had been released into the city's shelter system. Struggling agencies have tried to help the migrants continue to their intended destinations. On Tuesday, there were 200 immigrants at the shelter and more were expected, Nicholls said. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said that on Tuesday alone, more than 400 illegal migrants were detained in Yuma sector, with most of them family units that would be quickly released. Nicholls said he feared some immigrants would wind up on the street if there wasn't enough room for them at the shelter. Mayor Douglas Nicholls, a Republican, (right with a Border Patrol official last month) declared a state of emergency on Tuesday asking for more funding for the city's shelters Last last month, CBP began releasing family units who cross the border illegally in Yuma sector and elsewhere, with Commissioner Kevin McAleenan calling the situation an 'unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis all along our Southwest border.' Current U.S. law and policy prevents speedy deportation or lengthy detention of Central Americans who cross the border with children. 'These groups cannot be repatriated expeditiously, and instead, are almost guaranteed to be released to remain in the US indefinitely, regardless of the merits of their immigration or asylum claim,' McAleenan said at a March press conference. Border cities have seen a large number of immigrant families from Central America being dropped off by immigration authorities who don't have the resources to process them. Immigration authorities saw about 100,000 people come through the border illegally in March and say they're on pace to arrest a million by the end of the year. A CBP chart shows southern border apprehensions annually from 2014 to 2019. Current year apprehensions since October 1 are seen in black In the Yuma area, Border Patrol officials have seen a staggering number of immigrant families who show up at the border and turn themselves in. Most are from Guatemala, and many are seeking asylum. Many cross in large groups and immediately surrender to Border Patrol, likely having been told by smugglers that they will be quickly released into the U.S. interior. Patrick Ptak, spokesman for Governor Doug Ducey, said the office will review Yuma's emergency declaration once it is received. 'Ultimately, this humanitarian crisis is the result of Congress' failure to act. It will only be solved by Congress actually doing something, and the governor has vocally urged Congress to quit playing politics and take action,' Ptak said. Ptak said the governor is working with local governments, non-profits groups and federal officials to 'maximize available resources.' Last night, Customs and Border Protection revealed that they have made more than 418,000 apprehensions in the last six and a half months - more than the 12 months before. The agency tweeted: '418,000+ APPREHENSIONS. In 6.5 months, the #BorderPatrol has already surpassed FY2018 total apprehensions. 414,000+ apprehensions along the Southwest border so far this year.' Britain should use the next few months to 'cool down and rethink' its decision to leave the European Union, the socialist candidate to head the next European Commission has declared. Frans Timmermans, currently the Commission's first vice president, said on Wednesday: 'I absolutely hope that the UK might stay in the EU.' The UK was last week given an extension of its departure date until October 31, with the chance to leave sooner if parliament agreed to Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal with the EU. Britain should use the next few months to 'cool down and rethink' its decision to leave the European Union, the socialist candidate to head the next European Commission Frans Timmermans (pictured) said on Wednesday 'I hope this period of extension will be used for Britain to calm down and rethink things a bit, perhaps for politicians to be more responsible with the promises they make, and then look at the issue again later this year,' the Dutchman added. 'Who knows what might change in the meantime?', he said. Timmermans was speaking during a television debate with his main rival, Manfred Weber of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP). He expressed a sentiment shared by some in the EU, notably the chairman of EU leaders, Donald Tusk, that Britain could still change its mind and stay in the EU. Timmermans hopes to replace the EPP's Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission and is running on a ticket from the EU's second biggest political family, the socialists. Britain is likely to still be a member of the EU at the time of the European Parliament elections on May 23-26, which means it would take part in the vote. Labour, which backs a second referendum, could help Timmermans' socialists win more seats in the 751-seat European assembly. Timmermans hopes to replace the EPP's Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured) as head of the European Commission Weber does not stand to benefit in the same way from British participation in the EU elections because no UK parties belong to the EPP, currently the largest grouping in the parliament. 'I have a problem that they (Britain) are now participating in the EU elections, are deciding about the future of our union,' Weber said during the TV debate with Timmermans. 'That is not easy to understand. I respect the outcome, and if they are part of the EU, they have the right to vote - dont get me wrong,' he added. The EU political family with most seats in the European Parliament expects its candidate for Commission president to land the job, although the decision formally lies with EU leaders. Latest polls - which assume UK participation in the elections - show the EPP winning 178 seats and the socialists getting 144 seats. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler blasted Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday for his planned news conference before the release of the redacted Mueller report on Thursday. 'The attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump - the very subject of the investigation at the heart of the Mueller report,' the Democratic congressman from New York told a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. 'Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin [Special Counsel Robert] Muellers nearly two-year investigation.' Nadler said that Barr 'summarized the report and cherry-picked findings in his March 24 letter to Congress'. Attorney General William Barr (left) 'appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump,' House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (right) said on Wednesday Earlier on Wednesday, Nadler blasted Barr for scheduling a news conference on Thursday before the release of the Mueller report Nadler also reacted to news that White House lawyers were briefed by Department of Justice officials about the Mueller report on Wednesday In that summary, Barr wrote that the Mueller report found there was no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 elections. Nadler also criticized Barr on Wednesday because he 'withheld summaries written by the special counsel that were intended for public consumption'. The committee chair slammed Barr for 'brief[ing] the White House on the report before providing Congress with a copy, which has helped them prepare a rebuttal response for the president.' Nadler also noted that his committee was informed by the Department of Justice that it would receive the redacted version of the Mueller report before 11am and noon, well after Barrs scheduled 9.30am news conference on Thursday. This is wrong, Nadler said. It now appears the attorney general intends to once again put his own spin on the investigative work completed by the special counsel and his team. Nadler says Barrs press conference means that Muellers report will be presented through [the attorney generals] own words rather than the words of the special counsel. The Democratic congressman says that Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves but is rather trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House. Nadler said the timing of Barrs moves is deliberate since it comes right before the Easter holiday weekend, making it difficult for anybody to react. Barr plans to hold a news conference on Thursday morning before releasing the redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report to Congress. Mueller is seen above in Washington, D.C. on March 24 He warns that if the report is heavily redacted, the committee will issue subpoenas 'in short order.' Nadler says he will 'probably find it useful' to call Mueller and members of his team to testify after reading the version of the report Barr releases. The Justice Department plans to release the redacted report on the special counsel's Russia investigation one or two hours after a Thursday morning news conference by Barr. That's raising the ire of Democrats. They have said they are concerned that Barr will try to color the findings before the public has a chance to read the report. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Barr has 'thrown out his credibility & the DOJ's independence with his single-minded effort to protect' Trump The chairman of the Democratic caucus, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, tweeted in reference to Barr, 'Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut.' Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says 'the process is poisoned before the report is even released.' Barr 'is acting more like a Trump campaign spokesman than an independent agent of the law,' Schumer said 'Newsflash: no one wants to hear from Barr,' said California Rep. Eric Swalwell. 'Show us the full report.' Another California Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, tweeted: 'Once again, Barr wants to shape the publics perception of the report.' Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says 'the process is poisoned before the report is even released.' Barr 'is acting more like a Trump campaign spokesman than an independent agent of the law,' Schumer said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Barr has 'thrown out his credibility & the DOJ's independence with his single-minded effort to protect' Trump. The chairman of the Democratic caucus, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, tweeted in reference to Barr, 'Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut.' 'Newsflash: no one wants to hear from Barr,' said California Rep. Eric Swalwell. 'Show us the full report.' Another California Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, tweeted: 'Once again, Barr wants to shape the publics perception of the report. 'This is on top of reports DOJ secretly briefed the White House. 'This is not justice. Just PR.' President Trump says he may hold a press conference after the release of the redacted version of Mueller's report on Thursday. Trump is expressing confidence about the findings of Mueller's Russia probe in an interview with conservative radio host Larry O'Connor. He says, 'You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow.'___ Barr's news conference will be held at 9:30am at the Justice Department in Washington. Barr will be joined by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller two years ago to look into the Russia matter after President Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey Barr will be joined by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Mueller officially concluded his investigation late last month and submitted a nearly 400-page report to Barr. After nearly two years of waiting, America will get some answers straight from Mueller. The report will lay out the special counsel's conclusions about formative episodes in Trump's presidency, including his firing of FBI Director James Comey and his efforts to undermine the Russia investigation publicly and privately. A drug addict mother will give birth to her third child in jail after admitting her role in an elaborate amphetamine and GHB dealing syndicate. Sheryl Corscadden, 35, from Wollongong south of Sydney will spend the next 18 months behind bars after she was sentenced on Tuesday. It followed a two-month police investigation that led to multiple arrests, including alleged kingpin Robert Losco, The Illawarra Mercury reported. Corscadden used a fake driver's licence and credit card to check into Belmore Apartments in Wollongong on December 18, according to court documents. Sheryl Corscadden (pictured) was sentenced in Wollongong Local Court this week 'I've been doing dodgy sh** all day ... full dodgy, dodged it up hard today,' she later told Losco in a phone call. 'I checked into the Belmore mate, I had no problems either. Can you believe it? Sweet as, I've found a new scam. I'm getting shocking, I feel bad but I don't.' Police grew suspicious about Corscadden, who was arrested several days later at The Sage Hotel, where she was with Losco. The court heard Corscadden was found in possession of five fake driver's licences and five credit cards, along with a diary with additional credit card details. Corscadden admitted her role in an amphetamine and GHB dealing syndicate following a two-month police investigation that led to multiple arrests, including alleged kingpin Robert Losco (pictured) She was charged with fraud and released on bail but allegedly continued to arrange drug exchanges and booked another hotel room for Losco in early January, the court heard. Corscadden's lawyer Claire Carpenter told Wollongong Local Court her client had been a 'high-functioning drug addict' for the last 13 years and pleaded she be spared full-time jail as she was pregnant with her third child. Sheryl Corscadden (pictured) will give birth to her third child behind bars and will eligible for parole next year The request was refused by Magistrate Michael Stoddart. 'These facts are disturbing ... you've gone out of your way to rip people off and you seemed pretty proud of it,' he told Corscadden. 'I don't see your part [in the syndicate] as any small role.' Corscadden was sentenced two years' jail with a non-parole period for 18 months. She will be eligible for parole in July 2020. A Kuwaiti researcher has caused outrage by claiming Jews 'slaughter Christian children' to make 'holiday pastries'. In a video posted on YouTube, Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna, appears to claim Jewish people use human blood, preferably of Christian children, in the making of 'holiday pastries'. Muhanna posted the video on his Youtube channel, which has over 13,000 subscribers, earlier this year. The 47-minute long video was viewed close to 25,000 times and drew a wave of criticism online. Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna posted the controversial video to his YouTube channel earlier this year 'One of the most famous religious practices of the Jews is the slaughter of a Christian child on a certain holiday. 'They take his blood and make it into a pastry, which is eaten on that day. They call it 'sacred blood.' 'It must be an innocent child, who has not been contaminated by the world.' Muhanna goes on to call Jews 'The Enemies Of Our Religion, The Enemies Of Our People' as he continues to attack their faith. In it he appears to claim Jewish people murder Christian children to make a certain type of food The 47-minute long video was viewed close to 25,000 times and drew a wave of criticism He also appears to claim Hitler killed Jews because they were 'fighting social order'. 'Hitler noticed that the Jews were behind every clandestine movement fighting the social order.' 'He noticed that the Jews were behind the pornographic movies and literature. 'So he said that if Germany wants to make progress, it must get rid of the Jews or of their control. A mother who was six times over the limit when she dropped her two children to school could hardly stand when police arrested her, a court has heard. Hannah Louise Morris, 44, was pulled over for a breath test on March 8 while driving home from dropping her kids at a school on Sydney's northern beaches. The Dee Why woman returned a blood alcohol limit of 0.314 and admitted to having six glasses of red wine the night before. Police pulled the mother over after concerned motorists saw her swerving over the road and driving at an 'extremely slow speed' along Wakehurst Parkway at Oxford Falls, The Daily Telegraph reported. A mother of two who returned a road side breath test six times the legal limit after dropping her kids off at school has pleaded guilty in the Manly Local Court (stock image) Officers initially arrived at Mrs Morris' home after receiving reports a Citroen DS4 registered to the property was driving erratically in the area. While an officer spoke with a neighbour Ms Morris pulled up to the home, the court heard. Documents tendered to the court stated that Ms Morris was 'unsteady on her feet' and required the help of officers to stand upright. Police proceeded with the breath test which returned the high reading. Ms Morris told the court she started drinking wine at 6pm the night before and again at 4am the following morning, before taking her kids, aged 12 and 14, to school. She said she was also taking strong pain medication, Nuromol, in the days leading up to the incident. Ms Morris pleaded guilty to drink driving in Manly Local Court on Wednesday is set to appear for sentencing on May 29. The Department of Justice will provide a select few members of Congress a look at the Mueller report without certain redactions. It is uncertain which lawmakers will have the opportunity to review the report without the specific redactions, according to NBC News. Washington is bracing for a busy news day on Thursday, when a redacted version of the report will be released to Congress and the public. Attorney General William Barr will hold a news conference on Thursday before the report is released. Congressional Democrats have demanded the release of the full report with nothing blacked out and also have asked for the underlying evidence gathered by Mueller, meaning Thursdays action by Barr may be just the first move in a longer fight that could play out in the courts. Attorney General William Barr will hold a news conference on Thursday before the release of the redacted version of the Mueller report The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee says it is 'wrong' that his committee will receive a redacted version of Mueller's report after Barr gives a news conference on it Thursday. Barr will hold the news conference alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel in May 2017. New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler says in a tweet that the Justice Department has informed his panel that it will receive the report around 11am or noon, hours after Barr's 9:30am press conference. Democrats have said they are concerned that Barr will try to color Mueller's findings before the public has a chance to read the report. The chairman of the Democratic caucus, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, tweeted in reference to Barr, 'Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut.' President Trump says he may hold a press conference after the release of the redacted version of the special counsel's report. Trump is expressing confidence about the findings of Mueller's Russia probe in an interview with conservative radio host Larry O'Connor. He says, 'You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow.' The president said he may hold his news conference after the attorney general addresses reporters. Trump says, 'Maybe I'll do one after that, we'll see.' Barr will hold the news conference alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (above), who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections Meanwhile, it was learned on Wednesday that Justice Department officials had numerous conversations in recent days with White House lawyers about the conclusions of Muellers report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. News of the contacts between DOJ and the White House were reported by The New York Times and ABC News. Mueller on March 22 submitted his report to Barr on his investigation into whether Trump's campaign worked with Moscow to sway the election in his favor, and whether Trump committed obstruction of justice with actions to impede the inquiry. The New York Times, which cited people with knowledge of the discussions between the department and Trumps lawyers, said the talks had assisted the presidents legal team as it prepared a rebuttal to a redacted version of the full report scheduled to be released on Thursday morning. The Justice Department declined to comment. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow also declined to comment. Barr so far has sent a letter to Congress describing what he called a summary of the main conclusions of the investigation. Mueller (seen above in Washington, D.C. on March 24) submitted his report to Barr on his investigation into whether Trump's campaign worked with Moscow to sway the election in his favor, and whether Trump committed obstruction of justice with actions to impede the inquiry In his letter to lawmakers, Barr said Mueller did not find that members of Trumps campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia. Barr said he determined there was not enough evidence to establish that Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice, though Mueller did not exonerate Trump on obstruction. Barr on Tuesday was criticized by a federal judge for failing to convince the public that he is being transparent with the Mueller report. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton spoke during a hearing on a lawsuit demanding access to the report. The attorney general has created an environment that has caused a significant part of the public...to be concerned about whether or not there is full transparency, Walton said during the hearing, according to Politico. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton (above) criticized Barr on Tuesday, saying the attorney general failed to assure the public he was operating with full transparency The judge did not elaborate. Walton was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2001. He is a senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Despite his criticism of Barr, Walton denied a request by the news site BuzzFeed to force the Justice Department to release the Mueller report by Thursday. Even though the Justice Department has already stated that the 400-page report will be released with redactions, BuzzFeed demanded that the release be in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. A lawyer with the department declined to say whether the version of the report that will be released on Thursday will be the same as that which will be released under FOIA. Matthew Topic, the lawyer representing BuzzFeed, says that a court order requiring the release would speed up any future litigation over whatever information is redacted from the report. The government claims it can make an open-ended extension with no specific deadline in mind, Topic said. Walton said on Tuesday that he might ask the government to hand him an unredacted copy of the report in order to judge for himself whether the redactions made are appropriate. Thats something we will have to work through. Ill have to think about it, he said. Walton said he was hopeful that the Justice Department would release most of the report so that legal disputes would be kept to a minimum. I would hope that the government is as transparent as it can be. Last month, Barr released a four-page summary of the Mueller report which the attorney general says includes no evidence that President Trump (above) colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign Advertisement Hollywood actress Salma Hayek has posted a gushing tribute to her billionaire husband's generosity after he pledged 100 million euros to rebuild the Notre Dame - as total donations reached a billion euros last night. The 52-year-old's beau, Francois-Henri Pinault, pledged the enormous sum less than 24 hours after the fire devastated the Notre Dame. Bernard Arnault of luxury goods group LVMH doubled the 100 million euros pledged by Mr Pinault, and other heavyweight donors include the Bettencourt family - owners of cosmetics giant L'Oreal - have given 200 million euros. But the largesse of the billionaires and corporate giants raised questions among some French people over whether they had hidden motives such as seeking tax breaks - something Hayek was quick to dismiss in her lavish tribute to the Pinault family on Instagram. Posting the snap with her husband and father-in-law on Wednesday, she said: 'Today more than ever I feel proud to be part of the Pinault family. 'Not only for their personal and heart felt participation in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris but also because their contribution wont be claiming any tax deductions from the government. Salma Hayek (centre) posted a tribute to her husband (pictured left) and father-in-law (pictured right) after their donation to help rebuild the Notre Dame Macron spoke to the French nation in a TV address on Tuesday evening to reassure people that the cathedral would be rebuilt within five years Pinault, who married Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek in 2009, is chief executive of Kering, which owns brands like Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent 'My husband and father in law are two generous french citizens, who sincerely understand the importance of this spiritual, cultural and historical treasure from Paris to the world.' There has been growing anger over the fact that wealthy donors can benefit from tax deductions of up to 66 per cent, depriving the French treasury of income. Supporters of the Yellow Vest movement and left-wing activists expressed anger over the willingness and speed in which the wealthy donated. Ingrid Levavasseur, a founding leader of the yellow vests, said: 'There is growing anger on social media over the inertia of big corporations over social misery while they are proving able to mobilise a crazy amount of dosh overnight for Notre Dame.' Despite the backlash, just two days after an inferno destroyed the spire of the ancient place of worship, the fund to rebuilt has reached the one billion euro mark - as President Macron said the cathedral would be rebuilt in five years time. Stephane Bern, the TV personality who helped launch the appeal by saying Notre Dame was 'a close friend who almost disappeared' said on Wednesday morning: 'The billion-euro mark of donations was reached during the day.' Macron said in a televised address on Tuesday night that the cathedral would be rebuilt 'even more beautifully' within the next few years as he urged the French nation to 'come together'. France's richest man Bernard Arnault (pictured with his wife Helene in 2014), made an donation of 200 million euros (172million) doubling that of Francois-Henri Pinault French multinational companies are among those who have pledged money to restore the medieval cathedral, which was engulfed by flames on Monday following a likely accident in its loft. L'Oreal promised 200 million euros (172.7m) on Tuesday, while the LVMH luxury goods group run by Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, has pledged the same. Multi-billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault and oil company Total have also pledged 100 million euros (87m) each. Other high-profile French donors included the investor Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere with 10 million euros, and construction magnates Martin and Olivier Bouygues, also with 10 million euros. Among other firms, the Credit Agricole bank gave five million euros, while US private equity investor Henry Kravis has promised $10 (8.8) million. Corporate contributions are expected to climb, with blue-chip firms like Vinci, Michelin and BNP Paribas also saying they were weighing how to participate. Air France said it would offer free flights to experts brought in to help with Notre-Dame's renovation. Such vast amounts of money mean it is almost certain that Macron's claim the cathedral will be restored to its former glory 'within five years' looks extremely likely. 'We will rebuild Notre Dame even more beautifully and I want it to be completed in five years, we can do it,' Macron said in a television address to the nation. 'It is up to us to change this disaster into an opportunity to come together, having deeply reflected on what we have been and what we have to be and become better than we are. It is up to us to find the thread of our national project,' he said. But he also warned: 'Let us not fall into the trap of haste.' Macron said that the dramatic fire had brought out the best in a country that has been riven with divisions. The sun rising over Notre Dame Cathedral on Wednesday morning as donations towards its renovation soared to one billion euros Francois-Henri Pinault, married to actress Salma Hayak (pictured together in 2015), was the first to make a donation towards the rebuild of the cathedral Another speedy donor to the fund to restore Notre Dame was the Bettencourt family (pictured left Jean-Pierre Meyers and his wife Francoise Bettencourt Meyers), who part-own L'Oreal - they've stumped up 200 million euros (172million). Mark (pictured right with his wife Melissa) and Oliver Bouygues, who own construction, media and telecom companies, have donated 10 million euros 'What we saw last night in Paris was our capacity to mobilise and to unite,' the 41-year-old leader said in the solemn address from his office in the presidential palace. France had over the course of its history seen many towns, ports and churches go up in flames, he said. 'Each time we rebuilt them,' he said, adding that the cathedral inferno had shown that 'our history never stops and that we will always have trials to overcome.' Mr Macron's aim to complete the restoration within such a short timeframe was at odds with some experts' estimates that the project would take decades. It came as the iconic rooster weathervane that topped the spire of Notre Dame before it was destroyed by fire has been found in the rubble. In what is being described as 'an absolute miracle', France's Ministry of Culture confirmed that 'the rooster has been saved'. 'It's dented but can be restored,' said a spokesman. 'The fear was that it had been burnt and melted in the fire.' Shocked crowds watched the rooster fall to the ground on Monday evening as a fire engulfed the cathedral and destroyed its wooden and lead spire. Firefighters tackle the blaze on Monday evening as flames and smoke rise from the Notre Dame cathedral as it burns in Paris Macron said he would be looking to rebuild the church 'even more beautifully than it was before' and urged the nation to come together over the disaster There was particularly fear for the rooster, because it contains religious relics including one of the 70 thorns of the Holy crown of Jesus Christ, and remnants linked to Saint Denis, the Christian martyr and former bishop of Paris, and Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of the French capital. According to cathedral guides, the rooster had acted as 'spiritual lightening rod' to protect the Notre Dame faithful. Jacques Chanut, the president of the French Building Federation, shared a picture of the damaged rooster on Twitter. 'Fire at Notre Dame the Culture Ministry announces that the rooster on the spire of the cathedral has been found.' A Colorado neighborhood called 'Swastika Acres' has voted to change it's racially insensitive name. The Cherry Hills Village City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a name change to 'Old Cherry Hills' to prevent future controversy. The Denver Swastika Land Company platted the subdivision neighborhood in 1908, a decade before the Nazis ever became associated with the ancient symbol, which originally meant 'conducive to well-being.' The Cherry Hills Village City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a name change to 'Old Cherry Hills' to prevent future controversy 'Originally, the entire block was subdivided as Swastika Acres,' Cherry Hills Village City Council Agenda meeting minutes explained. 'Over time, areas of Swastika Acres No. 1 and No. 2 were consolidated, redeveloped, and replatted into new subdivisions or lots. 'A few of these renamed subdivisions in the area include Cherry Hills Village Acres Amended Plat, Viking Acres, Harper Subdivision #2, Chenango Acres, Cherry Moor Acres, and Layton Lane Minor Lot Adjustment.' Councilman Dan Sheldon spearheaded the change and says the name was hardly noticed by people living in the area. The Denver Swastika Land Company platted the subdivision in 1908 and there was no relevance or relation to Nazis associated with the name at the time. Additionally, the company had no ties to what the word 'Swastika' is known to mean today While the name cannot be found on road signs, it still appeared on real estate closing documents. Sheldon first noticed the name in 2007 while he was shopping for a home. Councilman Dan Sheldon spearheaded the change and says the name was hardly noticed by people living in the area 'I found [the name], frankly, quite offensive,' he said to 9NEWS. 'And I thought, boy, that's something that should get rectified.' In 2017, Sheldon led an effort to formally change the neighborhood's name and an ordinance was created to start the process. Michael Brady O'Donnell, a resident of Cherry Hills, garnered support for the name change by gathering 51 percent of resident's signatures in 2019. Susan Cooper, a Jewish artist living in the area, wrote a letter to the council opposing the name change and was one of the few people to actively disagree with the move. 'My husband and I are Jewish,' she said in the report. 'During the Holocaust much of our family was murdered, including the aunt after whom I am named, and my cousins. I have created art on this subject that in in a museum in Los Angeles. 'The subject is very important. Swastikas scare me and bring back sadness. '(But) Swastika is an Indian design with peaceful meaning. 'I do not know why the Germans picked that name. The neighborhood was named way before the Holocaust. The Jews were all but wiped out in Europe. Susan Cooper, a Jewish artist living in the area, wrote a letter to the council opposing the name change and was one of the few people to actively disagree with the move 'If we change the name of this area we will be adding to the destruction of native culture. Keep the historic name but call it what you wish. No one uses that name anyway. Perhaps you can share my view of the matter at the meeting.' However, when the resolution went to the local council on Tuesday, it was passed unanimously. 'I'm very pleased with the outcome,' Sheldon said. 'Those residents that live in that neighborhood now don't have to live with that name on their plat.' Cherry Hills is an affluent area where the median home value is more than $2million. Home values have raised in the last few years and the median list price for square foot is $479. The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Metro average is just $263, according to Zillow. Data USA says that the population is roughly 6,414, with a median age of 47.5. Median income is said to be around $224,125. White residents make up roughly 89. 5per cent of the population while Asian residents make up 3.32 per cent, 2.59 percent identify as mixed, 2.28 per cent identify as Hispanic and 1.5 per cent identify as black. Cherry Hills is an affluent area where the median home value is more than $2million by Peter Zhao Bishop Guo, an auxiliary bishop not recognized by the government, was able to celebrate with episcopal insignia. Perhaps there was an intervention by the Vatican. Patriotic Association membership is optional. Mindong (AsiaNews) - Mindong's ordinary and auxilliary bishops, Msgr. Zhan Silu and Msgr. Guo Xijin, concelebrated at the Chrism Mass today. In particular, Msgr. Guo was able to celebrate with episcopal insignia (miter and pectoral cross) even though he is not yet recognized as a bishop by the government (see photo). A few weeks ago the faithful of Mindong (Fujian) had expressed concern that since the bishop was not recognized by the government, not wanting to join the Patriotic Association, he would have been blocked from concelebrating. Even the over 50 priests of the unofficial branch of the community participated in the concelebration commemorating the institution of the priesthood by Jesus It is not clear what has happened but it is probable that the Vatican itself and the central government intervened to save the Sino-Vatican agreement that was thrown into crisis by the possible exclusion of Msgr. Guo. After the signing of the agreement and the reconciliation of Pope Francis with Bishop Zhan Silu, Msgr. Guo, unofficial bishop, who was the ordinary of the diocese, agreed to take a step back and become the auxiliary bishop of Msgr. Zhan, who ascended to the role of ordinary bishop. But the United Front and the Religious Affairs Bureau distributed a sheet to all the priests and to Msgr. Guo demanding obedience to the new bishop, but above all adherence to the principles of "independence" of the Church and to the PA. From what we understand - given that the text of the agreement was neither published by China nor by the Holy See - this would be contrary to the principles of the agreement, in which adherence to the PA would only be optional. Thanks to this important element, regarding non-obligatory adhesion to the PA, a path towards reconciliation between official and non-official communities seems possibile. In the last 60 years the unofficial (or "underground") communities have never accepted to support an association that aims at the independence of the Church from the Holy See. Immediately after the agreement, however, a campaign was unleashed in several provinces to force priests and bishops to join the PA, under penalty of exclusion from the ministry. Furthermore, to priests of the official community is reiterated that "despite" the Sino-Vatican agreement, the Church is bound to "patriotism" and above all to build an "independent" Church. A former employee at Delaware State University allegedly took more than $70,000 in bribes to give students discounts on their tuition. Crystal Martin, 35, who once worked as a registrar at the public university, told a court on Tuesday that she accepted money from out-of-state students to reclassify them as in-state residents. The scheme took place between 2013 and 2017 and cost the college more than $3 million, according to prosecutors. In-state tuition at Delaware State University is $7,868 per semester, while out-of-state tuition is more than double the cost, at $16,904. Scroll down for video Crystal Martin told Delaware District Court on Tuesday that she was involved in a bribery scheme at Delaware State University According to prosecutors, the forgery scheme cost the university (pictured) more than $3 million Martin allegedly took money from numerous students from 2013 until 2017. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as an 'associate registrar' at the college, however she is no longer employed there Martin told Delaware District Court that more than 100 students had their student status changed, and that they usually paid between $300 and $600 for the forgery. She claimed that students were brought to her by a co-conspirator, who was not named in court. The former registrar pleaded guilty to a felony charge of accepting a bribe as an agent of a program that receives federal money. She faces 10 years in prison and will be sentenced in July. Delaware District Attorney David Weiss said in a statement Wednesday: 'The defendant abused her position at a public university to personally profit and to defraud her employer. 'Individuals who accept bribes while serving in a public capacity risk undermining trust in those institutions. He added that: ''Delaware taxpayers have the right to expect honest services from our public employees. When those employees fall short of these expectations my office will hold them accountable.' It remains unknown whether students involved in the scheme will be prosecuted, according to Delaware Online. Delaware District Attorney David Weiss (pictured) said Martin 'abused her position at a public university to personally profit and to defraud her employer' Tuition at Delaware State University is cheaper for in-state residents, who currently pay $7,868 per semester Martin's court testimony comes just weeks after the country learned about another college admission scam. 33 parents, including actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, allegedly took part in a scheme that involved either cheating on tests or paying bribes in order to have their children admitted to some of the country's most prestigious universities. The parents are accused of paying more than $25 million between 2011 and 2018 to William Rick Singer, who is said to have organized the scheme. Full House star Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli are pleading not guilty to charges that they paid $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California. The couple are accused of paying bribes to have their daughters designated as crew recruits to the elite school, even though neither of them is a rower. Authorities say Loughlin and Giannulli helped create fake athletic profiles for the teens by sending Singer photos of their teens posing on rowing machines. By entering not guilty pleas, the couple is now facing up to 40 years in prison. Meanwhile, Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman has been accused of paying $15,000 disguised as a charitable donation to have a proctor correct the answers on her daughter's SAT. Prosecutors say they will seek a prison sentence that's on the low end of between four and 10 months for Huffman after she agreed to plead guilty. Labour MP Richard Burgon declared on oath that he did not believe Zionism was the enemy of peace three months before a video emerged proving he did. Last year, the shadow justice secretary a staunch ally of Jeremy Corbyn denied making the comment after it was exposed by the Mail in 2016. He was only forced to concede he had done so after video footage came to light this week of him saying those very words. Yesterday, it emerged he had denied he believed Zionism was the enemy of peace in court, saying: Its not my view. Newly unearthed footage shows Mr Burgon, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, making a speech to a Labour Party event in 2014. He said: 'The enemy of the Palestinian people are Zionists and Zionism is the enemy of peace and the enemy of the Palestinian people.' Following a Daily Mail story, Mr Burgon was repeatedly asked by the BBC's Andrew Neil in March last year (pictured left) whether he had said 'Zionism is the enemy of peace'. He said 'no and it's not my view' (pictured right) The revelation intensified calls for Mr Corbyn to sack Mr Burgon from his shadow cabinet and remove the party whip. Euan Philipps, from Labour Against Anti-Semitism, said: He should have been sacked for his Zionism is the enemy of peace comment and for denying it. Now it appears Mr Burgon may have repeated those denials in court. What more needs to happen before Mr Corbyn gives him his marching orders? Zionism is the belief that Jews have the same right to a national homeland as other nations. It is often used as an insult by those who deny Israel has a right to exist. Mr Burgon was asked about the Mail story during his libel action against the Sun in January over a story that claimed a heavy metal band, whose album he performed a spoken word piece on, used Nazi imagery. The Sun lost, but it argued it was relevant due to the public interest in the issue. Newly unearthed footage shows Mr Burgon, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, making a speech to a Labour Party event in 2014 Richard Burgon is pictured second from the left with Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and members of the shadow cabinet The Labour MP was brought up in Yorkshire by two teachers, and is a heavy metal fan The newspapers lawyer asked him about the 2016 Mail story, which read: Justice spokesman Richard Burgon has urged MPs and 17 party members to quit the Labour Friends of Israel group, declaring Zionism is the enemy of peace. Mr Burgon replied: Thats what the article says, yes. When asked if the article was right, he said: At the time I believe you wrote to the Daily Mail asking when it was alleged I said this, what event in what year, and they couldnt say. Ive answered this question on the television as well. Its not my view When asked the question again, Mr Burgon replied: I have answered the question already in detail to which the lawyer said: Im not sure you have, Mr Burgon. It comes as a Jewish News poll found 51 per cent of people believe Labour has a serious problem with anti-Semitism. Last night, Mr Burgon said: When it was put to me in August 2016 I had made these remarks I did not recall doing so. It is now clear that I did and I regret doing so. I recognise such a phrase fails to distinguish between those seeking a peaceful solution in line with international law, and those, such as the current Israeli government, which is undermining efforts towards peace. Karen Ristevski's childhood friend has told how she almost found her rotting body. Mrs Ristevski was killed in June 2016 by her husband Borce who dumped her body in Victoria's Mount Macedon Regional Park where it decomposed for eight months before it was found. Ahead of his sentencing for manslaughter on Thursday, Mrs Ristevski's childhood friend Sam said she and her sister almost found the body while looking for her. Struggling to hold back tears in an emotional interview on the Today show, she recalled walking just 50 metres from the body without realising. 'In Macedon my sister said, "I can smell something",' she said. 'I said, "Don't worry, it's probably just a kangaroo". Later on, we found that's where she was found.' Ahead of his sentencing for manslaughter on Thursday, Mrs Ristevski's childhood friend Sam (pictured) said she and her sister almost found the body while looking for her Borce Ristevski (centre) will learn his fate on Thursday after entering a shock guilty plea last month to reveal he killed his wife Karen (left) Borce Ristevski entered a guilty plea last month with an unexpected admission on the eve of his five-week scheduled murder trial in mid-March - after vehemently denying involvement in Karen's death for almost three years. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale ruled that Ristevski's actions after the killing, when he played the role of grieving husband, could not be used to prove 'murderous intent'. A new indictment with the lesser charge of manslaughter was subsequently filed and Ristevski pleaded guilty. Following the admission, Sarah gave her father a glowing character reference during a pre-sentence plea hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria. 'If I could use a few words to describe my dad's personality they would be loving, caring, sympathetic, protective and charismatic,' Sarah said in the character reference that goes on for more than one page. 'Growing up as a family my mum, dad and I were completely inseparable. 'We would spend all of our spare time together and family was everything to us. The love we had for each other was unexplainable, and everyone in our lives saw it.' The sentence was delivered by Justice Christopher Beale in the Supreme Court of Victoria at 10.30am on Thursday morning Sarah said she had never witnessed her father act violently towards her mother. 'My dad has not had any prior convictions or issues with the law, and I can confidently say that in my 23 years and I have never witnessed any form of violence between my mum and dad,' she said. Dress shop-owner Karen disappeared from the family home in Avondale Heights, north-west Melbourne, on June 29 2016. Eight months later her skeletal remains were found dumped between logs in Macedon Regional Park. Ristevski was charged in December 2017 following a lengthy investigation. Ristevski (pictured carrying wife's coffin) pleaded guilty to manslaughter and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars After his wife's death, Ristevski shoved her body in the back of her Mercedes Benz, before dumping her in the regional park and covering her with foliage. Justice Beale will be forced to consider the fact that Ristevski has not revealed how or why he killed his wife of 27 years. Other aggravating factors likely to be considered include the disposing of the body and lying about the criminal offence. At last month's pre-sentencing hearing, defence counsel David Hallowes SC said the crime was in the 'mid-range' of the offence of manslaughter. But prosecutor Brendan Kissane QC argued the crime sat at the higher end and labelled it an example of domestic violence. 'He (Ristevski) has failed to reveal what went on in the house. The fact he hasn't given an explanation doesn't suddenly mean his offence ends up in the middle.' TIMELINE OF KAREN RISTEVSKI'S DEATH AND BRINGING HER KILLER BORCE TO JUSTICE Karen Ristevski with her daughter Sarah June 29, 2016 Karen Ristevski last seen at her Melbourne home in Avondale Heights Her mobile phone pings off a tower in the Macedon Ranges A car similar to her black Mercedes SLK coupe is spotted by CCTV cameras near Diggers Rest railway station July 14, 2016 Husband Borce Ristevski and daughter Sarah make a tearful plea for information to help find their missing wife and mother December 19, 2016 Police search grassland, waterways, creeks and farms February 20, 2017 Karen Ristevski's body is found at the Mount Macedon Regional Park March 6, 2017 Funeral service held with Borce Ristevski a pallbearer and daughter Sarah leading the procession August 31, 2017 Police recreate the journey of Ms Ristevski on the day she went missing in a black Mercedes, identical to hers December 13, 2017 Borce Ristevski is charged with murder and faces court where a lawyer indicates a not-guilty plea. He is remanded in custody April 18, 2018 Ristevski returns to court where it's revealed detectives tapped his phone calls and planted listening devices as they investigated the alleged killing, compiling a 22,000-page evidence brief Ristevski is granted state-funded legal aid as he fights the allegations July 16, 2018 Ristevski's two-week committal hearing begins and later hears evidence from his daughter Sarah who said he was never 'aggressive' towards her mum. August 2, 2018 Ristevski is ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court, charged with murdering his wife December 4, 2018 A five-week trial for Ristevski is set for March 2019 March 13, 2019 A day before a jury is due to be empanelled for his murder trial, prosecutors withdraw the murder charge after a judge's ruling. Borce Ristevski pleads guilty to the alternative charge of manslaughter Advertisement Children high on cannabis collapsed at a school after wolfing down cakes brought in by a 16-year-old girl. Police quizzed the unruly pupil after fellow teenagers started hallucinating at the high school in Croydon, South London. Staff at Shirley High called police and ambulance services after being informed the teenagers had eaten high strength skunk brownies. The young girl is said to have baked the pot-based edibles at home with 'skunk weed', taking them into school the and sharing them out. Teenager at Shirley High School in Croydon (pictured above) were hallucinating after they ate the brownies She is thought to have be one of the six children taken to hospital and officers are now investigating the girl. A source told the Sun that the girl hid the cakes in her locker before giving them out at lunch time. 'The brownies were full of skunk grass and would have been the equivalent of smoking several really strong joints. 'The kids were hallucinating and in a state of delirium. Teachers realised something was wrong and were told they had all eaten cannabis cakes. The girl is said to have baked the brownies at her fathers house before taking them into school 'A teacher called 999 and a load of ambulances and police turned up. It was quite a drama but luckily none of the kids suffered any permanent damage. 'The girl admitted baking the cakes and says it was only meant to be a bit of fun and she didn't intend to harm anyone.' The Met Police confirmed they had been called to the school at 3pm on March 29 following reports of students feeling unwell. Six of the students were taken to hospital, though none were in a life threatening condition. The Met Police said: 'A teenager was spoken to in relation to the incident. No arrests have been made. Police are working to establish the circumstances.' The school has almost 1,000 students and was named by the government for under-performing in January this year. It is understood that the girl was staying at her father's home when baking the cakes. She is not expected to be cautioned or charged following the incident. A source said: 'She has apologised to the school and the pupils who fell ill. She won't be expelled for it.' MailOnline contacted Shirley High for comment. Jessica Aitchison has been charged with reckless wounding after a woman claimed she split open her lip in a Sydney hotel A stripper, a tattoo artist and a legal secretary walk into a bar - what allegedly happens next is no joke for any of them. The secretary, Lauren Cameron, ended up with a gruesome gash to her lip which has left her permanently scarred. The stripper, Jessica Aitchison, was charged with throwing a plastic drink cup at Ms Cameron which cut open her mouth. The tattooist, Reece Mobbs, was charged with spitting on Ms Cameron before her lip was split apart. Aitchison - now a rapper who performs as 'Jackel' or 'Jackel Daniels' - faced Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday along with her boyfriend Mobbs. The 27-year-old was charged with reckless wounding after Ms Cameron was hit in the face with a hard plastic cup at the Burdekin Hotel in Darlinghurst in the early hours of July 29 last year. Ms Cameron needed 11 external and five internal stitches after being struck by the missile and the injury still causes her pain nine months later. The 23-year-old said the cup was thrown at her after she was called a 's**t' while in the Burdekin's smoking room and that Mobbs, 29, spat at her. Ms Cameron had never met Aitchison but knew she had previously gone out with her friend Franz Schrammel and recognised her from her social media profile. 'She's got quite a big social media presence,' Ms Cameron told the court. 'I'd seen her social media before.' Scroll down for video Lauren Cameron suffered a serious cut to her lip during a night out at Sydney's Burdekin Hotel Jessica Aitchison, who performs as 'Jackel' or 'Jackel Daniels' is a model and stripper turned rapper. For last Halloween she dressed up as Harley Quinn, the comic book and film character Legal secretary Lauren Cameron was left with a scar across her top lip after being struck in the face with a hard plastic cup. She gave evidence against stripper Jessica Aitchison on Thursday Similarly, Mr Schrammel gave evidence he had not met Mobbs but knew who he was. 'I would have seen him on social media and he would have been pointed out to me at the venue,' Mr Schrammel told the court. There is no issue that Ms Cameron was hit with a cup or that she sustained a serious injury. Aitchison simply says she did not throw it and Mobbs says he did not spit on her. Aitchison, a New Zealand-born centrefold model who was crowned Miss Nude Sydney in 2012, and the others had been attending an emo club night at the hotel. Ms Cameron said despite not knowing Aitchison she smiled a 'friendly hello' to her when she entered the smoking room with Mobbs shortly before 1.30am. Mr Schrammel told the court: 'I heard Lauren Cameron make a comment about rappers and then saw Reece turn around.' 'He yelled something - I wasn't quite able to hear what that was - and saw him spit on Lauren.' Mr Schrammel later said he did not actually see any spit leave Mobbs's mouth. Jessica 'Jackel' Aitchison dressed demurely when she faced court on Thursday charged with reckless wounding. She was accompanied by boyfriend Reece Mobbs, charged with assault Ms Cameron needed 11 external and five internal stitches after being struck by the missile Ms Cameron said Aitchison and Mobbs had been in the smoking room for about five minutes when she felt a nudge or tap on her shoulder. 'I got called a s**t and got spat on,' she told the court. 'It all happened super quickly.' Ms Cameron did not know if the spit landed on her but said she saw Mobbs spitting. She had felt 'a little bit scared honestly - someone a lot taller than what I am and built, it's a little bit confronting to be in that situation.' Ms Cameron told the court she then turned to Aitchison and saw she was looking at her before she was hit by the cup. While Ms Cameron did not actually see the cup leave Aitchison's hand she had seen her holding something before she was hit. 'I saw she had something in her hand... like it was ready to be launched and when I got hit with it I put two and two together and realised what had happened,' she said. 'I felt the impact of the cup hitting me but still didn't know what had happened,' she said. After being hit with the cup Ms Cameron heard someone yell 'who the f*** threw that?' The New Zealand-born centrefold model, who was crowned Miss Nude Sydney in 2012, turned to rap music after a breast enhancement procedure which went wrong almost killed her Her friend Amy Absalom told the court she had yelled 'who the f*** threw the cup?' which had flown past her own ear. Ms Absalom said before the cup was thrown, 'Lauren said something about Jessica's rap career.' Ms Cameron felt 'scared and shocked and angry' after the cup split her lip, as well as being 'very sore'. She had been left scarred and still felt the wound. 'I'm still feeling it on cold days,' Ms Cameron told the court. 'On cold days it hurts quite a bit and flares up.' Aitchison has pleaded not guilty to reckless wounding and Mobbs to common assault. Mobbs, from inner city Surry Hills, is a tattooist at Bondi Junction's Valhalla Tattoo Studio, while Aitchison, from Hamyln Terrace on the Central Coast, is a bar supervisor at Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq in Alexandria. In court the rapper was dressed demurely in a dark green blouse buttoned to her neck and wrists along with black pants, covering most of her tattoos. Solicitor Phillip Carey, acting for both accused, said CCTV footage supported Mobbs and Aitchison's case; the film did not capture anything untoward. Ms Cameron had been left scarred and still felt the wound. 'I'm still feeling it on cold days,' she told the court. 'On cold days it hurts quite a bit and flares up' Magistrate Joan Baptie found there was a prima facie case against Aitchison and Mobbs and adjourned the matter to hear evidence from them both. Aitchison, who is also a fire-eater, has more than 40,000 followers on Instagram where she goes by jackellovesyou. She once told a New Zealand website of her tattoos: 'To me I felt awkward, uneasy and lying to the world when I had bare skin.' 'The truth is I'm used to it, I'm actually used to society putting me down for being myself.' Aitchison made news in July 2015 when she complained of being trolled by 'haters telling me to go kill myself', largely because of her music and tattoos. 'It's vicious, it is bullying and unfortunately I have had to deal with bullying my whole life, starting at primary school,' she told Daily Mail Australia at the time. 'It's hate mail and comments they put on my photos telling me to go kill myself.' 'I live in art - my body is adorned in tattoo art and you know, about 90 per cent of them are direct writings of my life, it's like a journal entry except on my skin,' Jessica Aitchison says 'I couldn't model how I wanted anymore, I started thinking about what I wanted to do,' she says Aitchison worked as a model and stripper after moving to Sydney but turned her talents to rapping when a breast enhancement procedure almost killed her. 'I couldn't model how I wanted anymore, I started thinking about what I wanted to do,' she said. 'I am lying on a hospital bed listening to music and the fact I could no longer be a showgirl, I needed my creative juices to be put to use elsewhere. 'So I thought "let's do music". I always wanted to but you know, I can't sing but I found out that I can really rap.' In a music video released about that time, Put In Fitness, Aitchison raps in a fridge filled with money, surrounded by semi-naked and tattooed girls. State's Attorney Kim Foxx had no authority to appoint her top deputy to act on her behalf after recusing herself from the Jussie Smollett case, according to an official from within her own office. Foxx 'recused' herself from the case after it emerged she had exchanged text messages with a member of Smollett's family in the days after the incident. She then handed the case over to her deputy Joe Magats and weeks later the 16 grand jury charges against Smollett were suddenly dropped. But the supervisor of the criminal appeals division for the state's attorney's office, Alan Spellberg, said in an email a day after news of her recusal was made public that appointing Magats after recusing herself was not allowed. Thousands of texts and emails about the case were made public and given to CBS Chicago by State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office Tuesday as criticism of her handling of the case grew. Citing case law Spellberg wrote: 'My conclusion from all of these authorities is that while the State's Attorney has the complete discretion to recuse herself from any matter, she cannot simply direct someone (even the First Assistant) to act in her stead.' The email was sent to Chief Deputy States Attorney and Chief Ethics Officer April Perry and senior adviser Robert Foley on February 20 - a day after Foxx announced she was recusing herself. The States Attorney office told The New York Post Foxx 'was not included in Alan Spellbergs email and was not aware of its existence or content'. They said: 'The States Attorney was recused at the time of Mr. Spellbergs opinion and thus had been not [sic] made aware of the email or its contents.' State's Attorney Kim Foxx, left, had no authority to appoint her top deputy Joe Magats, right, to act on her behalf after recusing herself from the Jussie Smollett case, according to an official from within her own office The supervisor of the criminal appeals division for the state's attorney's office, Alan Spellberg, said in an email that appointing Magats after recusing herself was not allowed While she announced at the time that she was recusing herself, she has since said she meant it in a 'colloquial' sense rather than a 'legal sense' and that it was more an informal decision to 'step away from the decision making' rather than remove herself entirely from it. And messages now show that weeks after that decision Foxx continued to meddle in the case, calling Smollett a 'washed up celeb who lied to cops' and telling Magats that the actor was being overcharged. In messages sent to Magats she also appeared to compare Smollett's charges to those leveled at another celebrity defendant, R. Kelly. She said: 'Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16.' Foxx was referring to the 16 count grand jury indictment Smollett was hit with for allegedly staging a hoax attack on himself on January 29. She went on: 'On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think it's indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn't mean we should.' 'Agreed', Magats replied. Kim Foxx sent these text messages to her deputy on March 8 after a grand jury indicted Smollett on 16 counts of lying to police. She had already 'recused' herself for speaking to Smollett's family but continued to interfere in the case by telling her deputies that the charges were excessive. The charges were dropped two weeks later The case against Smollett, 36, was suddenly and unexpectedly dropped last month by Foxx's office in questionable circumstances and questions surrounding Foxx's alleged role in that decision have run rampant since. Magats said during an interview afterwards that he still believed Smollett was guilty. Foxx claimed it was never her decision to have the charges dropped in exchange for Smollett surrendering $10,000 in bail money or completing community service. Newly public messages also reveal how a group of staff fretted over the media coverage of the case, routinely sharing news articles with one another in a group called 'Foxxhole'. Foxx said it was 'not who we want to be' to charge someone 'because we can' despite a grand jury deciding on the 16 Class 4 felonies In messages sent two weeks before that decision Foxx, who has since faced repeated calls to resign over her handling of the case, writes: 'Sooo......I'm recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases...16 counts on a class 4 becomes exhibit A. She goes on: 'Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16.' Magats replies: 'Yes. I can see where that can be seen as excessive.' Further messages show Foxx replies 'yeah....it's not who we want to be' in response to a message from her colleague Magats saying he'll take a 'hard look' at how we charge the cases. Magats writes: 'I'll get with Risa and Jim. With him taking over we can take a hard look at how we charge the cases and get it to something that covers what needs to be covered without being excessive and ultimately pointless.' Risa is thought to be prosecutor Risa Lanier, it is not known who Jim refers to. In a statement to DailyMail.com, Foxx said: 'After the indictment became public, I reached out to Joe to discuss reviewing office policies to assure consistencies in our charging and our use of appropriate charging authority. 'I was elected to bring criminal justice reform and that includes intentionality, consistency, and discretion. I will continue to uphold these guiding principles.' Other messages show how the office struggled to 'anticipate the magnitude of the response' to their decision. Smollett was arrested in February for allegedly lying about the attack. Police say he paid Abel and Ola Osundairo to attack him and that he thought he could use it as leverage to get a raise on Empire, a claim he denies Other texts, that were revealed on Tuesday night, show the staff exchanging messages in a group called 'Foxxhole' where they fretted over the media coverage of the case When Smollett was arrested on February 21, the prosecutors said it was a 'complete shock'. They then accused the police department of 'leaking' to the press and shared articles they thought had come from inside the force The office released nearly 200 pages of screenshots of texts and more than 3,600 pages of emails Tuesday. The Empire actor was accused of staging an attack on himself on January 29 to try to get a raise on the show. After the charges were dropped, the office staff started receiving inquiries from the press demanding answers. Keira Ellis, one of the communications team, told colleagues: 'Good speed all of you' He is now facing a lawsuit after refusing to pay $130,106 worth of overtime that was accrued by police investigating the January incident that authorities now believe was a staged attack. The star is currently on vacation with his family in Hawaii where he appeared tense during a heated phone call, telling a pal 'it's over, I got off'. Police say he paid Abel and Ola Osundairo to beat him in what he then described as a racist, homophobic attack by two Trump-loving perpetrators. He has always maintained his innocence and insisted he was attacked. Smollett told police on January 29 that two apparent supporters of President Trump struck him, put a noose around his neck, and poured bleach over him wile yelling 'This is MAGA country'. He told officers the unknown chemical substance was used on him while 'Empire f****t' and 'Empire n*****' was shouted at him. Investigators later said they believed Smollett may have paid Abimbola 'Abel' and Olabinjo 'Ola' Osundairo $3,500 to assault him in an alleged orchestrated attack. Residents of a small town have vowed to stop serving anti-Adani protesters in their cafes and restaurants. Locals in Clermont, central Queensland, will refuse to serve the 800 activists who are expected to visit the town, as they say they need the jobs the mine will provide. The $1million coal mine in the Galilee Basin is expected to create more than 1,500 jobs for the rail and coal mine construction. The protesters, who will be joined by Greens leader Richard Di Natale, left Tasmania on Wednesday and will be holding 10 rallies within 18 days in four states. Residents in Clermont, Queensland, refuse to serve up to 800 activists who are expected to visit the small town Locals say the town (pictured) needs the jobs which the mining project will provide and are angry with the council for allowing the protesters to enter They will be visiting Clermont, which is the closest town to Adani's Carmichael mine. Locals are angry because the council will allow the protesters to enter the town and are criticising their 'appalling decision'. 'They are trying to drown us backwards, not one town or cafe want them here. They came to us, we didn't go to them,' Grand Hotel Motel publican Kelvin Appleton told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's not acceptable because all our industry goes down there. Just look at the trains, railways and infrastructure,' he said. Residents have said that local businesses depend on mines and cannot exist without these jobs. 'The whole town depends on mining. We are the silent minority and people only hear about the local majority,' Mr Appleton said. 'Do not come up here. We don't want you coming here and wrecking our industry,' he told Courier Mail. Anti-Adani protesters left Tasmania on Wednesday and will be holding 10 rallies within 18 days in four states 'Something hydro on the dam and clean green, no one is against that,' he said. 'We are not aganist the greens, we just need someone to act on behalf of the town,' Mr Appleton said. Locals have printed pro-Adani material and have stuck them on shop fronts and cars. Bowen Chamber of Commerce chairman Bruce Hedditch said: 'We get upset because there is so much fake news.' 'Without this mine, kids leave, families leave, and then we lose a teacher and a nurse. It all flows through,' Mr Hedditch said. A sex offender is being deported from Australia every second day under a crackdown on foreign criminals. A staggering 31 sex offenders were sent packing in just the first two months of 2019, including 19 paedophiles. A man who traveled the coast trying to pick up young girls in his campervan and a 60-year-old who sexually assaulted three young sisters were among those deported. Foreign-born criminals and sex offenders are being forced to leave Australia and being sent back to the UK in record numbers Child predator John Alexander Kenyon was caught trying to meet young girls and have sex with them in the back of his campervan. Kenyon was on holiday in Australia from the UK, and was driving down the east coast from Cairns to Sydney, Channel Nine's A Current Affair reported. He planed to meet with a 13-year-old girl and take her into the back of his van to have sex. He was unknowingly talking to an undercover police officer from the New South Wales Police Child Exploitation Unit and was arrested in Westmead. Kenyon was sentenced to two years behind bars, but the sentence was suspended after just 16 months and he was immediately deported back to the UK. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said tough laws allowing the government to cancel visas of foreign-born criminals made Australia a safer place. Among them is child predator John Alexander Kenyon (pictured being arrested), from the UK, who was caught attempting to meet young girls and have sex with them in the back of his campervan 'They can expect to leave our country as swiftly as I can cancel the visa and see them deported,' Mr Dutton said. Among other sex offences is 60-year-old Iain Hay who was convicted of sexually assaulting three young sisters. He had become friends with their father before he committed his offences, one while the victim was asleep. He served 14 months behind bars and he was immediately flown from Perth to the UK after his visa was cancelled. In 2018 137 criminals who committed sexual offences had their Australian visas cancelled, 92 of which were child sex offences Turkish man Cemal Ferda Sekendiz had his visa cancelled after he was caught grooming a 13-year-old girl for sex online. He pleaded guilty to four counts of indecency and served 14 months in jail before he was sent back to Turkey. In 2018, 137 criminals who committed sexual offences had their Australian visas cancelled, 92 of which were child sex offences. We're counting down to the launch on Saturday of the Mail's new daily Puzzles & Prizes pullout. To celebrate, each day this week we are introducing one of our fabulous new brain teasers. Britain's best-known puzzle addict Carol Vorderman is here to share her tips to unlock all their secrets. Today, we put Train Tracks under the spotlight. Not only is our fantastic Puzzles & Prizes pullout bigger and brighter, but there is also 3,000 to be won every week. You can find yet more games in the interactive version of the paper, Mail Plus, available for tablets and smartphones at www.mailsubscriptions.co.uk visit the website to find out more. Full steam ahead! (Scroll down for solutions) Carol Vorderman is ready to test your logic again with another brainteaser, Train Tracks Wife killer: Borce Ristevski arriving at court to be sentenced for killing his wife Karen Borce Ristevski was today sentenced to nine years in jail for killing his wife Karen but may walk free in less than five with time already served. Passing sentence in Victoria's Supreme Court this morning, Justice Christopher Beale castigated Ristevski for his 'rank deceit,' saying 'for years, you continued spinning your web of lies'. Ristevski killed his wife Karen, 47, at their Melbourne home in June 2016 before dumping her body in a national park where it was found eight months later. The 55-year-old feigned innocence for almost three years, lying to the police, the public and his daughter, even carrying his wife's coffin at her funeral, until pleading guilty to manslaughter on the eve of his murder trial last month. Ristevski was stony-faced when sentenced to six years without parole. With 491 days behind bars already, he could be free before his 60th birthday. Mrs Ristevki's brother Stephen Williams gave in a brief statement outside court criticising the sentence. He said: 'Nothing is going to bring Karen back but today was about justice. 'We didn't get justice today, at all'. 'As a society, at some stage in regards to domestic violence we must make a stand,' he said. Scroll down for video Wife killer Borce Ristevski is led from a prison van into court as the father-of-two prepares to learn his fate after shock guilty plea The court heard his 24-year-old daughter Sarah (pictured today) declined to provide a victim impact statement and instead gave a 'glowing' character reference to try to lessen her father's sentence Mrs Ristevki's brother Stephen Williams (pictured today) gave in a brief statement outside Victoria's Supreme Court in which he slammed the sentence Borce Ristevski (centre) learned his fate on Thursday after entering a shock guilty plea last month to reveal he killed his wife Karen (left with their daughter Sarah, right) At around 10am today, Ristevski, wearing a suit and white shirt with no tie while sporting a greying beard, was escorted from a police van into a packed courtroom by four corrections officers. The court heard his 24-year-old daughter Sarah declined to provide a victim impact statement and instead gave a 'glowing' character reference to try to lessen her father's sentence. The judge said she did this 'out of love for her father.' 'I mean no criticism for Sarah - anyone with a modicum of compassion would find her predicament an agonising one,' he said. The judge said he regretted that the sentence he must impose would add to her grief. Judge Beale criticised Ristevski for not revealing how or why he killed his wife. 'You may have turned off the road of deceit but you have not taken the high road of full and frank disclosure consistent with true remorse,' he said. 'You acted as a pall-bearer, playing the part of the innocent, grieving widower. 'The pretence, the rank deceit, only ended a few weeks ago when you pleaded guilty to manslaughter.' Ristevski (pictured carrying wife's coffin) pleaded guilty to manslaughter and has been jailed for nine years Stephen Williams (centre), brother of Karen Ristevski departs the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne The judge said he did not know enough about how the killing happened to determine whether the crime was mid-range or upper-range manslaughter. He said it was certainly not low-range because it was a case of domestic violence against a 'devoted' wife who 'should have lived for many more years.' 'This is a case of domestic violence, it's a case of a killing taking place in woman's home where she should feel safest,' he said. Justice Beale said Ristevski's chances of rehabilitation were 'good' and that his case was rare because there was no history of domestic violence before the killing. He said Ristevski's guilty plea was 'no small thing' but added: 'By reason of his plea of guilty, he's admitted that he killed Karen Ristevski and he killed her by an unlawful and dangerous act.' Justice Beale said if he had not pleaded guilty, the sentence would have been 10 years, seven without parole. Ahead of the murder trial in March, Justice Beale ruled that Ristevski's actions after the killing, when he played the role of grieving husband, could not be used to prove 'murderous intent'. A new indictment with the lesser charge of manslaughter was subsequently filed and Ristevski pleaded guilty. Following the admission, Sarah gave her father a glowing character reference during a pre-sentence plea hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria. 'If I could use a few words to describe my dad's personality they would be loving, caring, sympathetic, protective and charismatic,' Sarah said in the character reference that goes on for more than one page. 'Growing up as a family my mum, dad and I were completely inseparable. Borce Ristevski is pictured with his daughter Sarah after appealing for information on his wife's whereabouts in July 2016 This is the spot where Mrs Ristevski's body was found by horticulturalists in February 2017 'We would spend all of our spare time together and family was everything to us. The love we had for each other was unexplainable, and everyone in our lives saw it.' Sarah said she had never witnessed her father act violently towards her mother. 'My dad has not had any prior convictions or issues with the law, and I can confidently say that in my 23 years and I have never witnessed any form of violence between my mum and dad,' she said. Dress shop-owner Karen disappeared from the family home in Avondale Heights, north-west Melbourne, on June 29 2016. Ristevski was charged in December 2017 following a lengthy investigation. At last month's pre-sentencing hearing, defence counsel David Hallowes SC said the crime should be considered in the 'mid-range' of the offence of manslaughter. But prosecutor Brendan Kissane QC argued the crime sat at the higher end and labelled it an example of domestic violence. 'He (Ristevski) has failed to reveal what went on in the house. The fact he hasn't given an explanation doesn't suddenly mean his offence ends up in the middle.' The maximum sentence for manslaughter is 20 years. TIMELINE OF KAREN RISTEVSKI'S DEATH AND BRINGING HER KILLER BORCE TO JUSTICE Karen Ristevski with her daughter Sarah June 29, 2016 Karen Ristevski last seen at her Melbourne home in Avondale Heights Her mobile phone pings off a tower in the Macedon Ranges A car similar to her black Mercedes SLK coupe is spotted by CCTV cameras near Diggers Rest railway station July 14, 2016 Husband Borce Ristevski and daughter Sarah make a tearful plea for information to help find their missing wife and mother December 19, 2016 Police search grassland, waterways, creeks and farms February 20, 2017 Karen Ristevski's body is found at the Mount Macedon Regional Park March 6, 2017 Funeral service held with Borce Ristevski a pallbearer and daughter Sarah leading the procession August 31, 2017 Police recreate the journey of Ms Ristevski on the day she went missing in a black Mercedes, identical to hers December 13, 2017 Borce Ristevski is charged with murder and faces court where a lawyer indicates a not-guilty plea. He is remanded in custody April 18, 2018 Ristevski returns to court where it's revealed detectives tapped his phone calls and planted listening devices as they investigated the alleged killing, compiling a 22,000-page evidence brief Ristevski is granted state-funded legal aid as he fights the allegations July 16, 2018 Ristevski's two-week committal hearing begins and later hears evidence from his daughter Sarah who said he was never 'aggressive' towards her mum. August 2, 2018 Ristevski is ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court, charged with murdering his wife December 4, 2018 A five-week trial for Ristevski is set for March 2019 March 13, 2019 A day before a jury is due to be empanelled for his murder trial, prosecutors withdraw the murder charge after a judge's ruling. Borce Ristevski pleads guilty to the alternative charge of manslaughter Advertisement This is Gods work, says the vicar of Phnom Penh, Bishop Schmitthaeusler, who urges the faithful to experience their mission as baptised and sent: the Church has been, the Church is, the Church shall be. Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/EdA) On Easter night, Cambodias Catholic community will celebrate the baptism of 294 people: 154 in the capital Phnom Penh, 80 in Battambang and 60 in Kampong Cham (capitals of their respective homonymous provinces), said Mgr Olivier Michel Marie Schmitthaeusler, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, on the occasion of the Chrism Mass celebrated on 9 April (pictures). About 80 local priests took part in the service in which Mgr Schmitthaeusler urged the faithful to live their mission of baptised and sent, in accordance with the theme of the next Extraordinary Month of the Mission called by Pope Francis in 2017. Baptised and sent: The Church of Christ on a mission in the world will be celebrated in October 2019. In his homily, the apostolic vicar said that "In Cambodia, the Extraordinary Month of the Mission is a sort of powerful reminder of the ordinary life of our baptised and sent." "Here, he added, our small vicariate and our small prefectures do not have large structures, and our communities, often tiny and planted in the middle of a rice field, at the foot of a hill or in the heart of the city, do not have crowds of Christians. The mission is the heart of our lives as believers, priests and religious. Here, the whole People of God is an apostle, with daily concerns, in the manner of Saint Paul: "woe to me if I do not preach it (the Gospel)!" After noting the number of the newly baptised, Mgr Schmitthaeusler asked those present: "Is this simply the result of the work of the sixty priests present in Cambodia, or the hundreds of men and women religious who live there, or the work of some thirty lay missionaries? No, it is above all Gods work. Dear brothers and sisters, we are this People of God, baptised and sent. Let us give thanks to God for all the Christians who, as in the days of the Acts of the Apostles, are our most precious collaborators. The priest is the pastor of the community he must love and understand, to walk together towards God. Let us simply be pastors in accordance with Gods Heart. The prelate told those present how to "build our Church, a sign of the Kingdom of God", in ten points - one for each year of apostolic vicariate in Phnom Penh. "Spiritual life: we are born of God and sent into the world; communion: among us; inclusion: for all, everyone is welcome; forgiveness: a sine qua non condition to go forward; a heart that listens and loves in action and in truth: charity in action; true and direct dialogue at all levels: religious, institutional, societal; concrete presence in society; the integral education of just and virtuous men and women; a paternal and maternal heart: the Church is a family . . . a giant tree with a huge heart; be creative: the Gospel is new every morning". "Yesterday, today, tomorrow: The Church is 2000 years old; it has roots that nourish our today and prepare the future. Useless servants: no one is indispensable, we are useless servants . . . who offer however more love and life, and who can withdraw discreetly knowing that others will continue this service of proclamation and peace; the Church has been, the Church is, the Church shall be. (Photo credit: EdA). The husband of Home and Away star Kate Ritchie had been caught drink driving on two previous occasions before his most recent alleged offence. Stuart Webb was allegedly caught running a red light in Sydney's eastern suburbs on March 26 this year, before blowing 0.083 in a roadside breath test. Webb, an ex-NRL player who married TV soap star Ritchie in 2010, was charged with drink driving and driving while suspended, and issued a court attendance notice. While court documents stated this was Webb's first offence, Daily Mail Australia can reveal the father-of-one has a track record of drink driving - having been found guilty in 2012 and 2017. Scroll down for video Stuart Webb (left), the husband of Home and Away star Kate Ritchie (right), had been caught drink driving twice before his most recent alleged offence Stuart Webb was allegedly caught running a red light in Sydney's eastern suburbs on March 26 this year, before blowing 0.083 in a roadside breath test. He had previously pleaded guilty to similar offences in 2012 and 2017 Webb's first offence occurred when he was caught mid-range drink driving after a Saturday night out in March 2012. When police pulled Webb over they noticed he appeared to be affected by alcohol and performed a breath test, to which he blew in the mid-range. He had spent the night drinking at the Bondi Surf Club where he had five schooners and an unknown number of vodka and cranberry juice mixes, he told officers. In sentencing Webb, the Magistrate commended his regular fundraising efforts and also his participation in the traffic offenders' program. He was fined $800 and ordered to pay $81 in court costs. More than five years later he was again caught drink driving after police noticed him speeding on his black motorbike at Mascot, south of Sydney, just prior to Christmas. Court documents reveal that police observed Webb driving at 20km/h over the limit about 10.20pm on December 18, 2017, and pulled him over. Officers again noticed he had 'glassy and blood shot eyes' and performed a breath test to which he returned a reading of 0.063. STUART WEBB'S DRINK DRIVING TRACK RECORD: MARCH 11, 2012 - Webb pulls into a random breath test at Taren Point, south of Sydney, in the early hours of Sunday, March 11 - Police notice he appeared to have been affected by alcohol and he blew in the mid-range - Webb told officers he had drunk five schooners of beer and several vodka and cranberry juice mixes - He was fined $800 and ordered to pay $81 in court costs DECEMBER 18, 2017 - Just a week before Christmas in 2017, Webb was spotted speeding at 20km/h over the limit on his black Triumph motorcycle - Police pulled the ex-NRL player over and noticed he had 'glassy and blood shot eyes', and performed a breath test - Webb returned a reading of 0.063. He told police he had drunk a longneck of Tooheys New full strength beer and had not eaten - He was handed a $440 fine and had his licence disqualified for three months MARCH 26, 2019 - Webb was allegedly spotted running a red light in Randwick, in Sydney's east on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 26 - He was pulled over by police and underwent a breath test, returning a reading of 0.083 - The father-of-one is charged with drink driving and driving while unlicenced and his matter is currently before the court Advertisement Ritchie and Webb havee regularly made headlines in recent years for apparent marriage woes, but the couple (pictured) have denied the rumours as 'baseless' Ritchie (pictured) was one of the original stars on hit TV soap Home and Away, before taking up a role as presenter on Sydney radio station Nova FM Webb played 88 rugby league games for Sydney Roosters (pictured), St George Illawarra and South Sydney. He retired at the end of the 2009 season and proposed to Ritchie a month later Webb was caught mid-range drink driving in 2012 and low-range drink driving just a week prior to Christmas in 2017 When asked if he had consumed any alcohol, Webb stated: 'Yeah, I just finished one'. He told officers he had drunk one Tooheys New longneck between 9pm and 10pm on an empty stomach. Webb pleaded guilty to low-level drink driving and was sentenced in Waverley Local Court on March 8, 2018. He was fined $440 and had his drivers licence disqualified for three months. Almost a year after he was sentenced for that offence, Webb was picked up for his most recent alleged crime. Court documents state the accused was seen running a red light in his Subaru as he drove down Avoca Street in Randwick about 4.15pm on Tuesday, March 26, this year. Webb and Ritchie married in 2010 and welcomed their daughter Mae (pictured) in 2014 Webb - who played 88 rugby league games for Sydney Roosters, St George Illawarra and South Sydney - was pulled over by police, who discovered his licence was suspended. They performed a breath test and he returned a mid-range reading of 0.083. If convicted he faces a further six-month licence suspension plus up to 12 months in prison for driving on a cancelled licence. He is due back in court on May 7. Ritchie and Webb were engaged in 2009 and tied the knot a year later. In 2014 they welcomed their daughter, Mae. They have regularly made headlines in recent years for apparent marriage woes, but the couple deny any issues with Ritchie saying the rumours are 'baseless'. A nine-year-old boy who was found wandering the streets of Melbourne naked and alone in the middle of the night has been reunited with his parents. The child was handed in to police after knocking on the door of a stranger's home in Highett, in the city's south-east, at about 2.45am on Thursday morning. Police said the boy, with-shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes was taken to hospital for assessment but remained silent. After a public appeal for help, the boy's parents came forward. A nine-year-old boy who was found wandering the streets of Melbourne naked and alone in the middle of the night has been reunited with his parents 'The concerned parents of the young boy found wandering in Highett early this morning have come forward,' police said in a statement. 'Police wish to thank the media and public for their assistance. 'We will not be facilitating any further media in relation to this.' A close friend of the parents claimed on Facebook that the young boy had a tendency of wandering off. 'The parents of this little boy are wonderful people and would do anything for him. They probably thought he was safe in bed,' she wrote. As Australia's political leaders campaign at opposite ends of the country, time is running out to enrol to vote in the upcoming federal election. Australian citizens have until 8pm on Thursday to register or change their details to take part in the May 18 poll. Failing to vote in the upcoming election could lead to a $20 fine, and failing to provide a reasonable excuse for not voting could land that person in court. Scroll down for video Prime minister Scott Morrison will campaign in Tasmania on Thursday, promising more than $25 million for the state's health services Opposition leader Bill Shorten will spend the day in the Northern Territory, rounding out a week of health announcements of his own As the deadline looms, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten are squeezing in a final day on the hustings before pausing over Easter. The prime minister will campaign in Tasmania on Thursday, promising more than $25 million for the state's health services. Mr Morrison is hoping to snatch a swag of crucial marginal seats in the north of the Apple Isle. Mr Shorten will spend the day in the Northern Territory, rounding out a week of health announcements of his own. Mr Shorten has endured a tough couple of days after slipping on Labor's superannuation policies, and clashing with a cranky reporter over climate change. The Opposition Leader was on the campaign trail in the marginal Liberal-held electorate of Boothby in Adelaide's southern suburbs on Tuesday. 10 News First reporter Jonathan Lea became frustrated when Mr Shorten declined to provide detail on how Labor's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent within 11 years would affect the economy. 'When can voters expect to learn more about Labor's emission reduction target, how you're going to get there and the cost to the economy?' Lea asked. Lea said Mr Shorten's reply to Prime Minister Scott Morrison's budget was 'focused exclusively on health', a claim Mr Shorten took exception to. 'First of all I haven't spoken exclusively about health... I don't know what private conversations you have with people or what you want to reveal, but let me go to the record,' Mr Shorten said. Mr Morrison has also had his fair share of blunders, namely during a visit to Strathfield in Sydney's inner-west last Saturday. Australian citizens have until 8pm on Thursday to register or change their details to take part in the May 18 poll The prime minister greeted a woman in Mandarin but was left red-faced after she told him she was Korean. He shook hands with a woman and said: 'Hello, how are you? ... Ni hao.' 'No, no, no, I'm Korean. I'm from the Korean community,' the woman politely replied. Mr Shorten continues to lead the polls as the preferred candidate for the seat of prime minister. A Newspoll released this week had Labor leading the Coalition Government 52 to 48 per cent, after preferences. If replicated at the May 18 election, the government would lose 12 seats to Labor, with a swing of 2.4 per cent against them. Sportsbet still had Labor as the favourite to win the election, with short odds of $1.18 compared with $4.75 for Mr Morrison's Liberal-National Coalition. The national economy will return to the agenda on Thursday when the latest jobs figures are released. A man has been slapped with a $680 fine after going on a racist rant inside a cell phone store in Houston. Joey Derek Christian, 38, was caught on camera unleashing a verbal tirade upon an employee inside the AT&T store in Friendswood on Monday evening. The man's meltdown reportedly began after his nephew was told he didn't have the right identification to open a new account. Joey Derek Christian, 38, was charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct after going on a racist rant in Houston on Monday A female customer inside the store whipped out her phone to record Christian as he then began yelling racist epithets at a store clerk named Mohammad. 'Mo? What the f**k kind of name is that?' the man can be heard asking the employee. 'Mohammad, sir,' the worker politely replies 'F**king Arab!' Christian exclaims, before later stating: 'People like this are the reason our country is going what it's going to!' Later in the video, the man bizarrely claims to have been killing people of Middle Eastern descent for two decades. 'I've been killing them for 20 years. I've been on five different continents!' he can be heard slurring in the footage. When the woman recording the confronting scene steps in and voices her disapproval, Christian snaps back: ''I don't like dealing with some little peon Arab that doesn't even belong here!' A customer inside the store whipped out her phone to record Christian (pictured) as he began yelling racist epithets The AT&T employee by the name of Mo remained calm as faced racial abuse from Christian The woman called police on Christian, who greeted him outside the store. He was charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct, and fined $682 for the two violations. Meanwhile, the AT&T employee told KPRC2 that it took 'all his will power' to remain clam. 'I had to keep my cool in that situation. I could never stoop down to his level,' he explained. Some of Australia's biggest brands have suddenly gone missing from supermarket shelves - and shoppers are furious. The problem is due to a recent price war between the supermarket giants - Coles and Woolworths - and the makers of popular products. Amid a widening dispute, Mars Petcare brands such as Pedigree, My Dog and Whiskas have been in short supply. Nestle products have also been affected, with Uncle Tobys brands virtually disappearing from supermarket shelves. It's the biggest pricing stand-off since the Coles versus Arnott's Tim Tam stoush in 2015. This photo of bare pet food shelves in Woolworths was taken by a western Sydney cat owner While store shelves are now on the way to being fully restocked, many disappointed consumers have taken to social media demanding answers. 'Why are you still holding cat food to ransom at St Marys. Sandy/Meow Meow is not happy,' one man posted on the Woolworths page on Wednesday, along with a photo with empty shelves at the western Sydney store. Coles also suffered online backlash over the pet food shortage, where one woman claimed she tried every store within a 50 kilometre radius on Melbourne's outskirts. 'Where is all the cat food, I have tried Lilydale Victoria and all surrounding within 50km,' she posted. Nestle recently announced a price rise to its products in the wake of the drought, which saw a shortage of Uncle Tobys' products on supermarket shelves Cereal lovers have also gone online to vent about the disappearance of their favourite products. 'I haven't been able to get the Plus Cereal Antioxidant and Protein at two Woolworths in our area. Please tell me they're not discontinued and it's just a temporary,' one woman posted on Uncle Toby's Facebook page this week. Another added: 'Just wondering why your oats are in short supply at the moment. We buy the big box of Traditional Oats, and we can't get it at the Woolworth or the IGA in town. It's been like this for a good month.' A Nestle spokeswoman said Woolworths shelves will soon to restocked with Uncle Tobys cereals, which have been missing from supermarket shelves in recent weeks Cereal lovers have taken to social media (comments pictured) to vent about the disappearance of their favourite Uncle Tobys products A Nestle spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that Nestle and Uncle Tobys breakfast cereal products are fully stocked in Coles and independent supermarkets and will soon return to Woolworths shelves. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mars Petcare for comment. Woolworths told Daily Mail Australia it's addressing the shortage of the popular brands. 'We've been working with our suppliers to address the supply shortages and stock has started returning to shelves,' a spokesperson said. 'We have items on order and expect to see stock levels improve over the next week.' A Coles spokeswoman assured store shelves were fully stocked. A price war with supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths sparked empty shelves 'An availability issue with our supplier resulted in a small number of pet food products being out of stock earlier this month. These products are now back on shelves in all Coles supermarkets,' she told Daily Mail Australia. Nestle recently announced a price rise to its products in the wake of the drought. 'In the last year, we've seen neighbouring farms affected by first drought, and then frosts, which has had an impact not just on those farmers, but the whole community,' a company statement read. 'It's also made it harder for us to source the oats and grains we need, particularly oats that meet the higher specifications of the superior Uncle Tobys oat, and we've had to look further afield to find enough. Right around Australia, the cost of grains has risen significantly.' The company has also also seen increases in the prices of fruits and nuts (10 per cent), electricity (28 per cent) and gas (21 per cent) in recent years. 'Most suppliers probably haven't put a price increase through to the major retailers in the last two or three years,' Next Gen food industry consultant Neil Rechlin told the ABC. Increased competition from Aldi has also been a factor, which has snared more than 10 per cent of the grocery market in just 15 years with its low prices. 'That has put enormous commercial pressure on both Woolworths and Coles, which then cascades through to putting enormous pressure on their suppliers,' Mr Rechlin said. Michelle Obama has spoken about her disbelief upon discovering that the Notre Dame Cathedral was on fire. The former US first lady was promoting her memoir Becoming at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris on Tuesday, when she reflected upon the tragedy. She said: The security driver, we were en route somewhere, and he said Notre Dame is burning and I thought Oh you must be joking, The former US first lady was promoting her memoir Becoming at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris on Tuesday, when she reflected upon the tragedy I sent a tweet out to the people of Paris, to the people of France, just saying that, you know, we have to be strong in times like this, we have to believe in each other, we have to use these times to unite. Because Notre Dame will be rebuilt. You have been through worse, as so many of us have. So, now is the time to be strong and have faith, Mrs Obama added, clad in an orange-striped suit with open-toe heels and hoop earrings. The mother-of-two, 55, went on to reveal that Paris was the first foreign city she ever visited. Mrs Obamas memoir is the first in a two-book deal that she and former president Barack made with Penguin Random House in 2017 for a reported 46million. The next stop on her book tour will be Amsterdam, followed by further appearances in Canada and back home in the United States. Notre Dame, UNESCO world heritage landmark, was engulfed in a roaring blaze on Monday, at around 5.43pm in the French capital Notre Dame, UNESCO world heritage landmark, was engulfed in a roaring blaze on Monday, at around 5.43pm in the French capital. The blaze sent its spire and roof crashing to the ground as flames and clouds of smoke billowed into the sky. Just two days after the inferno destroyed part of the ancient place of worship, the fund to rebuild it had reached the one billion euro mark. This was largely thanks to donations from France's richest man Bernard Arnault, who pledged 200 million, and Salma Hayek's husband Francois-Henri Pinault, who added 100 million euros. It comes as President Macron said the cathedral would be rebuilt in five years time. Francois-Henri Pinault, who married Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek in 2009, is chief executive of Kering, which owns brands like Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent Aurora, Illinois shooter Gary Martin, 45, killed five co-workers during his murderous spree in February. Police have now released surveillance footage from the day This is the terrifying moment the shooter who killed five co-workers in Aurora opens fire on police as officers desperately try to stop his murderous spree. Surveillance footage from the February 15 mass shooting released Wednesday shows the moment Gary Martin, 45, prepares to ambush law enforcement officials after being told he was being fired from his job of 15 years. The clip, posted online by police, shows four camera angles from Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora, Illinois, right after Martin pulled out his gun and began shooting at his industrial valve manufacturer workplace. It shows the shooter, who had one pistol and eight pistol magazines, in the lobby area of the building, looking out of a window and pacing back and forth. Officers are seen running towards the building as police cars swarm the parking lot and Martin, who is carrying a black ammunition bag and fired 64 rounds during the incident, picks up a bin of cleaning products, throwing them to the ground. He then begins to shoot as police duck behind SWAT shields. The clip, posted online by police, shows four camera angles from Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora, Illinois, right after Gary Martin began shooting at his industrial valve manufacturer workplace It shows the shooter, who had one pistol and eight pistol magazines, in the lobby area of the building, looking out of a window and pacing back and forth before he opens fire Later an armored police truck arrives and rams doors from where Martin is shooting. As officers approach the door the shooter continues firing rounds through the glass. Seven armed officers can be seen entering the workplace and police are said to have searched the building for more than an hour before hunting down the gunman, shooting him six times and killing him. An autopsy showed one of the wounds was likely self-inflicted to his jaw. Later an armored police truck arrives and rams doors from where Martin is shooting. As officers approach the door the shooter continues firing rounds through the glass Seven armed officers can be seen entering the workplace and police are said to have searched the building for more than an hour before hunting down the gunman and killing him Police secure the area following the shooting at the Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, Illinois Right after learning Friday that he was being fired from his job of 15 years at the Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora, Gary Martin pulled out a gun and began shooting Posting the eight minute long clip online police said they were 'not careless in their judgement' but said the footage is a 'matter of public interest' and part of their 'ongoing commitment to transparency within our community'. They said: 'We have chosen to publish a portion of the surveillance video which captured the horrible shooting event on February 15, 2019. 'As with our decision to release audio related to this event, we were not careless in our judgment here, and we understand the disturbing nature of these images. HR Intern Trevor Wehner, 22, was killed on his first day on the job 'We understand, however, that as a matter of public interest and our ongoing commitment to transparency within our community, we agree that you have a right to see for yourself what transpired at the Henry Pratt facility that day where, sadly, five members of our community lost their lives, and five of our police officers were shot while simply doing their jobs. 'This video depicts the shooter as he prepares to ambush approaching officers, and shows the officers initial approach and subsequent entry into the Henry Pratt facility. 'The shooter was in possession of one pistol and eight pistol magazines, and we confirmed that he fired 64 rounds during this incident.' The video, which police say has parts removed due to privacy, is split into four screens and has no sound. It shows three views of the parking lot and one from inside the lobby. There is said to be no further surveillance video available from inside the building. The clip does not show Martin killing his colleagues. Martin was able to buy and keep a handgun despite a felony conviction in Mississippi. Human Resources Manager Clayton Parks, seen with his family, was killed when an employee opened fire the moment he was told he was being let go from the job Vincente Juarez (second from left), a stockroom attendant and forklift operator, was killed Josh Pinkard, left, the plant manager at the Henry Pratt Co. industrial valve manufacturing plant, was also killed when the shooter opened fire. Russell Beyer's sister Dawn posted a moving tribute after he was confirmed among the dead He killed human resources manager Clayton Parks of Elgin; plant manager Josh Pinkard of Oswego; mold operator Russell Beyer of Yorkville; stock room attendant and fork lift operator Vicente Juarez of Oswego; and Trevor Wehner, a Northern Illinois University student who lived in DeKalb and grew up in Sheridan. Martin was no stranger to police in Aurora, where he had been arrested six times over the years for what Ziman described as 'traffic and domestic battery-related issues' and most recently, for violating an order of protection in 2008. After an initial background check failed to detect his felony conviction, Martin was issued his FOID card and bought the Smith & Wesson handgun on March 11, 2014. Five days after that, he applied for a concealed carry permit. That background check, which used digital fingerprinting, did flag his Mississippi felony conviction and led the Illinois State Police to revoke his permit. Two people have been taken into custody, including a 14-year-old girl, over the death 22-year-old man whose body was mysteriously found on the side of a road. Jarrod Leigh Turner was shot and his body was found near Richmond, north of Hobart, on early Sunday morning. A 29-year-old man is also being held by police as part of the investigation. Detective Inspector Doug Rossiter said noone had been charged yet at this stage. Jarrod Turner (pictured), aged in his 20s, was found dead near Richmond, 25km north of Hobart, Tasmania, just before 6am on Sunday His death is being treated as suspicious by police, and officers said he died from a gunshot wound Devastated friends posted tributes to Mr Turner's Facebook page after his death 'We believe that there are people in the community who know what happened to Jarrod and we encourage them to come forward and speak with police at the earliest opportunity,' he told the ABC. It is understood three busloads of police recruits were driven to the location where the body was found to comb the area for evidence. Previously, it was reported that the young father-of-two had been shot dead and his body left on the side of a road, according to Nine News. Mr Turner was a single father to two boys, Blayne and Kydon. Devastated friends posted tributes to Mr Turner's Facebook page after his death. 'I'm actually lost for words. I wish none of your family or friends had to go through all this heartache and pain, you'll forever be missed,' one person said. 'It's not goodbye it's we will see you later.' '[You] may be gone but definitely won't be forgotten, you left a mark on everyone's heart... you'll be missed deeply,' another friend said. 'Heart goes out to all of your family. Rest easy and stay wild.' 'Rest in peace Jarrod... you're gone too soon... buddy it's so sad to hear that you're gone. Couldn't believe it,' another person said. 'I'm actually lost for words. I wish none of your family or friends had to go through all this heartache and pain, you'll forever be missed,' one person said Facebook says it may have 'unintentionally' uploaded email contacts of 1.5 million new users who joined beginning May 2016 Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it may have unintentionally uploaded email contacts of 1.5 million new users on the social media site since May 2016. The contacts were not shared with anyone and the company is deleting them, Facebook told Reuters in a statement, adding that users whose contacts were imported will be notified. Business Insider had earlier reported that the social media company harvested email contacts of the users without their knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts. Facebook has been hit by a number of privacy-related issues, including a glitch that exposed passwords of millions of users stored in readable format within its internal systems to its employees. Last year, the company came under fire following revelations that Cambridge Analytica obtained personal data of millions of peoples Facebook profiles without their consent. Facebook told Business Insider that it did not mean to upload these contacts, and is now in the process of deleting them. The company has been dealing with a months-long public relations nightmare over its handling of personal user data, which the social media giant reportedly gave to app developers who spent big on advertising and who were 'friends' of CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Earlier this week, a trove of leaked documents revealed years of internal deliberations over user data at Facebook, indicating privacy was used as public justification for business decisions designed to gain 'leverage' against competition. The company has been dealing with a months-long public relations nightmare over its handling of personal user data, which the social media giant reportedly gave to app developers who spent big on ads and who were 'friends' of CEO Mark Zuckerberg (above on April 2) Some 4,000 pages of highly sensitive Facebook internal documents, largely spanning 2011 to 2015, were leaked to a British journalist who shared them with several outlets, according to NBC News. The documents, which include emails, webchats, presentations, spreadsheets and meeting summaries, appear to show Facebook's internal deliberations on whether to sell user data to third party app developers. It appears the Facebook ultimately decided against selling user data, instead opting to dole it out to app developers who were considered personal 'friends' of CEO Mark Zuckerberg or those who spend money on Facebook ads or shared their own valuable data. According to the report, Facebook made deals with developers at Amazon, Tinder, Sony, and Microsoft to give these sites access to user data, despite restricting others from the same information. In a statement to DailyMail.com, Facebook VP and Deputy General Counsel Paul Grewald said that the documents were 'cherry picked' as part of a lawsuit against Facebook to force it to share more data with third parties. 'The set of documents, by design, tells only one side of the story and omits important context,' Grewald said. 'The documents were selectively leaked as part of what the court found was evidence of a crime or fraud to publish some, but not all, of the internal discussions at Facebook at the time of our platform changes. But the facts are clear: we've never sold people's data,' he continued. The documents mostly describe internal deliberations leading up to a major change that Facebook made in 2014 and 2015, when it severely restricted access to user data from third party apps. While one employee fretted that the company's approach to user data was 'unethical', Doug Purdy, Facebook's director of product, described Zuckerberg as a 'master of leverage,' according to the documents. At the time, and following the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal, Facebook publicly portrayed the policy change as motivated by deep concern for user privacy. But the documents show that privacy was rarely mentioned as executives debated how Facebook handled third-party access to user data. In the early 2010s, Facebook's approach was to encourage third-party apps to build within its ecosystem by giving developers access to user data through an application programming interface. Marc Lamparello, 37, is a PhD student and University lecturer A New Jersey man who was caught walking into New York's famed St Patrick's Cathedral with gas cans and lighter fluid is a PhD student who once wrote a passionate defense of Donald Trump after he was criticized by the French. Marc Lamparello, 37, entered the Manhattan church with the two gallon cans of gasoline before being apprehended by security at around 8pm on Wednesday night. He is a Boston College-educated philosophy professor who has lectured at Lehman College and also held several roles in the Catholic church. Police say it is too early to say whether the incident was terror related but it comes two days after the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris. They later added that four cans of gasoline were found in total after searching the suspect's van. NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counter Terrorism John Miller confirmed they had increased security at the site in recent days, The New York Post reports. He called Lamperallo's actions 'very suspicious'. At a press conference Wednesday evening he said: 'It's hard to say what his intentions were, but I think the totality of circumstances of an individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patrick's Cathedral carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters is something that we would have great concern over.' Police say the 37-year-old man entered the Manhattan church with the two 2 gallon cans of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and two extended lighters The suspect has an active online presence and, in 2018, he criticized a news story about French people disliking President Donald Trump more than Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He wrote, 'All I know is, if the French dislike us for something, we must be doing something right. They think they're so much more sophisticated and culturally alluring than us. But secretly, they're jealous of us and want to be us. Never forget that, fellow Americans.' Lamparello's brother Adam told The Daily Beast, 'Oh my god. I'm shocked this could even be true. I'm almost speechless. This is something that is so not him. I don't know what to even say.' Pictures posted online show a large police presence outside the church, which was open at the time of the incident Police tweeted Wednesday evening: 'We are investigating an incident at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Expect a heavy police presence. Update to follow.' They later added: 'Around 7.55pm, a man walked into St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan with gas cans and lighter fluid, and was subsequently apprehended by @NYPDCT without incident. 'We thank our partners for their help, and remember - if you see something, say something.' The archdiocese said the man was stopped as entered the landmark cathedral and there was no fire. 'Nothing happened inside the cathedral', they said. St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was built in 1878, has installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations and its wooden roof is coated with fire retardant The man, who is known to police, is understood to have been taken into custody after being apprehended by security at the cathedral. NBC reports he is 'emotionally disturbed'. After spilling some of the gasoline he is said to have left the church but was quickly found by nearby counter-terrorism police after church staff alerted them to the incident. The suspect is said to have told cops he was cutting through the cathedral to get to his minivan which had run out of gas, giving them 'inconsistent and evasive' answers when questioned. Miller said: 'His basic story was that he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue, that his car had run out of gas. We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas.' The suspect is said to have told cops he was cutting through the cathedral to get to his minivan, pictured right, which had run out of gas Police say it is too early to say whether the incident was terror related but it comes three days after the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller confirmed they had increased security at the site in recent days Pictures showed a large police presence outside the church, which was open at the time of the incident. Miller added: 'There was some very good work done here, obviously by the St. Patrick's Cathedral security officer who encountered this man immediately inside as well as the two police officers who tracked him down.' St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was built in 1878, has installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations and its wooden roof is coated with fire retardant. A devastating blaze struck the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday destroying the roof and spire. Fr Paul talks about the many families from North America and Europe who have come back for Holy Week. Heavy rains are hindering the celebrations, but the desire to participate is very strong. A father brought his daughter from Canada to Mart (Saint) Barbara shrine in Karamles to baptise her. We must stop looking back and think about the past, about the Islamic State, says the clergyman. We must build a future here, in this land, and help those who have left to come back. Karamles (AsiaNews) Christians in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, forced to flee in the summer of 2014 by the Islamic State (IS) group, are preparing for Easter, hopeful of "putting roots back in their land of origin, said Fr Paul Thabit Mekko, head of the Christian community in Karamles (Karemlash), northern Iraq. Dozens of "diaspora" families from "Canada, the United States and Europe" have returned this time of the year "to participate in the celebrations of Holy Week, amid prayers and celebration," the clergyman told AsiaNews. This week, several events are planned, including the Way of the Cross and celebrations of the Eucharist in the various communities scattered around the Nineveh Plain. After the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people, about half of Christian families (almost 42,000 people or 45% of the total) have come back to their native villages following the wreck caused by IS. In many places, like Qaraqosh, Bartella and Karamles itself, the reconstruction process continues - albeit at a slower pace and amid huge economic difficulties. About 6,500 homes (out of 14,000) have been restored or built anew. This is the third time Christians can celebrate Easter in their villages after the liberation of the Plain thanks to a joint Arab-Kurdish offensive. However, if the first year was largely symbolic and last year the churches were not usable, this year people hope to be able to relive the atmosphere and sense of participation of the past. "Palm Sunday is an important moment, said Fr Paul, because in the villages in the Nineveh Plain we were able to hold processions. There was a large turnout at Qaraqosh. In Karamles too, there were numerous faithful who did not want to miss meeting the new Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Mgr Najib Mikhael Moussa, who led the celebrations and the message of faith and hope." The main thing though, said the clergyman, was "the return of many of our people who live in Canada, the United States, Europe, who came precisely to participate in Holy Week celebrations. This is a good sign, and more are still coming for Easter. "One person originally from Karamles but in Canada for many years wanted to come back to celebrate his daughter's baptism. The ceremony was held at the Saint Barbara shrine, a place dear to all local Christians. Many Diaspora families have decided to bring their children and grandchildren, to rediscover their roots, their bond with their land. Having put the IS madness behind, this years threat comes from the bad weather and heavy rains that have hit Iraq and Iran, causing billions in damages. "Lots of rain, a strange spring, said the clergyman. Last night we had a real deluge. Bad weather has hindered various celebrations, especially processions and other outdoor events. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was really beautiful and life is coming back." For Palm Sunday, said Fr Paul, we defied the weather to ride our bicycles and renew with an ancient tradition: that of planting blessed olive branches in the fields, a ritual that farmers have done for decades. This is a sign that we belong to this land, that we decided to stay, which we want to strongly reassert. Of course, problems persist: the economy is weak, there are few jobs and much depends on next years harvest to revive farming. "We need jobs, trust but above all security. I must admit though that lately the situation seems calm. Finally, for Fr Paul, "We must stop looking back and think about the past, about the Islamic State, or consider ourselves refugees. We must build a future here, in this land, and help those who have left to come back. A 35-year-old woman who died from cancer earlier this month has penned her own touching obituary in which she proclaims 'life was good'. Bailey Jean Matheson, from Halifax, Canada, was diagnosed with a rare form of terminal cancer two years ago but decided she wanted to embrace life fully, with the time she had left. Concerned about the side effects of chemo, she decided to skip therapy for her incurable disease and instead spend her remaining time on Earth travelling and spending her time with loved ones. Bailey Jean Matheson, 35, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and died April 5 Before she passed, she ended up writing her own obituary, full of advice for friends and family WHAT IS LEIOMYOSARCOMA? Leiomyosarcomas are cancers that develop in a type of muscle tissue called smooth muscle. These muscles are found in the walls of muscular organs like the heart and the stomach. They are rare and usually only affect people over the age of 50, but they can start anywhere in the body. They most commonly start in the walls of the womb, the limbs and the digestive system. People with early leiomyosarcoma often have no symptoms until the later stages of cancer. Late-stage symptoms include include a lump or swelling, abdominal bloating, swelling or pain and a change in menstruation. Advertisement '35 years may not seem long, but damn it was good!,' her obituary, which was written by her and published in the Chronicle Herald, begins. Matheson, who ran her own beauty business, went on to thank her parents for supporting her decision of not going through chemo after radiation treatment failed. She said that as an only child she knew the decision wouldn't be easy for them to accept. 'I know how hard that must have been watching me stop treatment and letting nature take its course. I love you both even more for this,' she said. 'I've always cherished my friendships more than anything because I've never had siblings of my own,' Matheson wrote. 'I never thought I could love my friends more than I did but going through this and having your unconditional love and support you have made something that is normally so hard, more bearable and peaceful.' Matheson got to travel to Europe with her boyfriend, Brent Andrews. A friend snapped this photo of the two of them in Seville (left), and they are pictured together (right) 'I never thought I could love my friends more than I did but going through this and having your unconditional love and support you have made something that is normally so hard, more bearable and peaceful,' she wrote. Matheson is pictured, left Matheson, seen left, was an only child who ran her own beauty business. She said she cherished her friendships 'more than anything' because she never had siblings She ended her obit by urging people around her to appreciate their own lives as well. 'Don't take the small stuff so seriously and live a little,' she wrote. She even managed a joke about her boyfriend whom she met on Tinder just months before her devastating diagnosis. 'To my Brent you had no idea what you were getting yourself into when you swiped right that day,' she wrote. In her final few months, Matheson got to see her favorite band, Coldplay, twice and traveled to 13 countries, including the U.S., Ireland, England, Norway, Croatia, Montenegro, St. Lucia, Mexico, France, Morocco, Greece, Portugal and Spain. One of her best friends, Julie Carrigan, told Today that she wanted her obituary 'to be a message to everybody I loved', and not a 'boring' one. 'She said, "I dont want it to sound like a normal, boring obituary. I want it to be a message to everybody I loved,"'' Carrigan said. 'She ended up seeing the illness as like a blessing in disguise, in a way, because most people just go every day and take it for granted. And when you get diagnosed with something like that, there's no taking it for granted anymore. 'You just do everything you want to do and say everything you want to say,' Carrigan added. 'To my parents, thank you for supporting me and my decisions throughout my life,' Matheson wrote. She is seen here pictured with her mother, Wendy Matheson Matheson, right, would have been both 'mortified and touched to know her last words are getting so much attention', her friends said to the media Matheson was very healthy and physically fit until she suddenly started complaining about stomach pain. Doctors initially believed the pain was caused by muscle or back problems, but then she felt a lump on left side of her abdomen. A biopsy allowed doctors to diagnose Matheson with leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that affects smooth muscle tissue. Doctors hoped to shrink the tumor with radiation but the treatment failed and surgery was thought to be too risky. She was given two years to live. Although Chemotherapy was an option, it was thought unlikely to save her life. Not wanting to suffer from the side effects, Matheson declined the treatment. 'She was worried that those two years if she was going through chemo her quality of life during that time wouldnt be very good, so she just went for it and did a lot of stuff that she really wanted to do,' her boyfriend Brent Andrews said. Karen Ristevki's devastated brother has criticised the 'lenient' sentencing of her killer husband, saying: 'We didn't get justice today, at all'. Borce Ristevski was today sentenced to nine years in jail for killing his wife and lying about it for almost three years. With time already served, the 55-year-old, who showed no remorse and refused to explain why or how he killed her, may walk free from jail in less than five years. After the sentencing, Mrs Ristevki's brother Stephen Williams gave a brief statement outside Victoria's Supreme Court. He said: 'Nothing is going to bring Karen back but today was about justice. 'We didn't get justice today, at all'. 'As a society, at some stage in regards to domestic violence we must make a stand.' Wife killer: Borce Ristevski arriving at court to be sentenced for killing his wife Karen The court heard the killer's 24-year-old daughter Sarah (pictured today) declined to provide a victim impact statement and instead gave a 'glowing' character reference to try to lessen her father's sentence Borce Ristevski (centre) learned his fate on Thursday after entering a shock guilty plea last month to reveal he killed his wife Karen (left with their daughter Sarah, right) Stephen Williams (centre), brother of Karen Ristevski departs the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne Ristevski killed his wife Karen, 47, at their Melbourne home in June 2016 before dumping her body in a national park where it was found eight months later. He feigned innocence for almost three years, lying to the police, the public and his daughter, even carrying his wife's coffin at her funeral, until pleading guilty to manslaughter on the eve of his murder trial last month. Passing sentence today, Justice Christopher Beale castigated Ristevski for his 'rank deceit,' saying 'for years, you continued spinning your web of lies'. Ristevski was stony-faced this morning when sentenced to six years without parole. With 491 days behind bars already, he could be free before his 60th birthday. Mrs Ristevki's brother Stephen Williams (pictured today) gave in a brief statement outside Victoria's Supreme Court in which he slammed the sentence Wife killer Borce Ristevski is led from a prison van into court as the father-of-two prepares to learn his fate after shock guilty plea At around 10am today, Ristevski, wearing a suit and white shirt with no tie while sporting a greying beard, was escorted from a police van into a packed courtroom by four corrections officers. The court heard his 24-year-old daughter Sarah declined to provide a victim impact statement and instead gave a 'glowing' character reference to try to lessen her father's sentence. The judge said she did this 'out of love for her father.' 'I mean no criticism for Sarah - anyone with a modicum of compassion would find her predicament an agonising one,' he said. The judge said he regretted that the sentence he must impose would add to her grief. Judge Beale criticised Ristevski for not revealing how or why he killed his wife. 'You may have turned off the road of deceit but you have not taken the high road of full and frank disclosure consistent with true remorse,' he said. 'You acted as a pall-bearer, playing the part of the innocent, grieving widower. 'The pretence, the rank deceit, only ended a few weeks ago when you pleaded guilty to manslaughter.' Ristevski (pictured carrying wife's coffin) pleaded guilty to manslaughter and has been jailed for nine years The judge said he did not know enough about how the killing happened to determine whether the crime was mid-range or upper-range manslaughter. He said it was certainly not low-range because it was a case of domestic violence against a 'devoted' wife who 'should have lived for many more years.' 'This is a case of domestic violence, it's a case of a killing taking place in woman's home where she should feel safest,' he said. Justice Beale said Ristevski's chances of rehabilitation were 'good' and that his case was rare because there was no history of domestic violence before the killing. He said Ristevski's guilty plea was 'no small thing' but added: 'By reason of his plea of guilty, he's admitted that he killed Karen Ristevski and he killed her by an unlawful and dangerous act.' Justice Beale said if he had not pleaded guilty, the sentence would have been 10 years, seven without parole. Ahead of the murder trial in March, Justice Beale ruled that Ristevski's actions after the killing, when he played the role of grieving husband, could not be used to prove 'murderous intent'. A new indictment with the lesser charge of manslaughter was subsequently filed and Ristevski pleaded guilty. Following the admission, Sarah gave her father a glowing character reference during a pre-sentence plea hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria. 'If I could use a few words to describe my dad's personality they would be loving, caring, sympathetic, protective and charismatic,' Sarah said in the character reference that goes on for more than one page. 'Growing up as a family my mum, dad and I were completely inseparable. Borce Ristevski is pictured with his daughter Sarah after appealing for information on his wife's whereabouts in July 2016 This is the spot where Mrs Ristevski's body was found by horticulturalists in February 2017 'We would spend all of our spare time together and family was everything to us. The love we had for each other was unexplainable, and everyone in our lives saw it.' Sarah said she had never witnessed her father act violently towards her mother. 'My dad has not had any prior convictions or issues with the law, and I can confidently say that in my 23 years and I have never witnessed any form of violence between my mum and dad,' she said. Dress shop-owner Karen disappeared from the family home in Avondale Heights, north-west Melbourne, on June 29 2016. Ristevski was charged in December 2017 following a lengthy investigation. At last month's pre-sentencing hearing, defence counsel David Hallowes SC said the crime should be considered in the 'mid-range' of the offence of manslaughter. But prosecutor Brendan Kissane QC argued the crime sat at the higher end and labelled it an example of domestic violence. 'He (Ristevski) has failed to reveal what went on in the house. The fact he hasn't given an explanation doesn't suddenly mean his offence ends up in the middle.' The maximum sentence for manslaughter is 20 years. TIMELINE OF KAREN RISTEVSKI'S DEATH AND BRINGING HER KILLER BORCE TO JUSTICE Karen Ristevski with her daughter Sarah June 29, 2016 Karen Ristevski last seen at her Melbourne home in Avondale Heights Her mobile phone pings off a tower in the Macedon Ranges A car similar to her black Mercedes SLK coupe is spotted by CCTV cameras near Diggers Rest railway station July 14, 2016 Husband Borce Ristevski and daughter Sarah make a tearful plea for information to help find their missing wife and mother December 19, 2016 Police search grassland, waterways, creeks and farms February 20, 2017 Karen Ristevski's body is found at the Mount Macedon Regional Park March 6, 2017 Funeral service held with Borce Ristevski a pallbearer and daughter Sarah leading the procession August 31, 2017 Police recreate the journey of Ms Ristevski on the day she went missing in a black Mercedes, identical to hers December 13, 2017 Borce Ristevski is charged with murder and faces court where a lawyer indicates a not-guilty plea. He is remanded in custody April 18, 2018 Ristevski returns to court where it's revealed detectives tapped his phone calls and planted listening devices as they investigated the alleged killing, compiling a 22,000-page evidence brief Ristevski is granted state-funded legal aid as he fights the allegations July 16, 2018 Ristevski's two-week committal hearing begins and later hears evidence from his daughter Sarah who said he was never 'aggressive' towards her mum. August 2, 2018 Ristevski is ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court, charged with murdering his wife December 4, 2018 A five-week trial for Ristevski is set for March 2019 March 13, 2019 A day before a jury is due to be empanelled for his murder trial, prosecutors withdraw the murder charge after a judge's ruling. Borce Ristevski pleads guilty to the alternative charge of manslaughter Advertisement Fears are growing for an American woman who vanished from a group hiking trip in the Mexican state of Baja California a week ago. Kat Hammontre, 68, set out on a walking track with several friends near San Felipe last Thursday before she hurt her toes and told her companions she would stay put and wait for their return. However, when the group came back along the trail around 90 minutes later, Hammontre and her dog, Tootsie, were gone. Her husband, Greg Sundquist, was waiting in his car near the start of the hiking track, and told investigators that she never returned. Despite a massive search operation, Kat Hammontre, 68, has not been seen since she and her dog Tootsie vanished on a group hike near San Felipe, Mexico last Thursday Part of the hiking trail near San Felipe where Hammontre vanished Hammontre's beloved dog Tootsie (pictured) was with her on the hike, and has also disappeared Hammontre's husband, Greg Sundquist left), was waiting in his car at the start of the trail, but told investigators she did not return to the vehicle A search-and-rescue group was set up last Friday, and the Mexican military brought in helicopters to comb the area, about 120 miles south of the U.S. border. However, there has been no sign of Hammontre or Tootsie. A former resident of Seattle, Hammontre has lived in Mexico for the past two decades, where she teaches English to schoolchildren. She is well-known in the San Felipe community, according to a report in The Seattle Times. Meanwhile, Sundquist has been diligently updating concerned friends and family about the search effort for his missing wife. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, he wrote: 'I spent the afternoon in the command center while highly trained individuals were dispatched out to continue the search. Again I am overwhelmed with the effort that has been done by the Mexican Authorities.' Later in the evening he posted: 'Goodnight Kat and Tootsie, wherever you are. God I miss you'. Sundquist has been diligently updating concerned friends and family about the search effort for his missing wife The Mexican military was brought in to help with the search effort last Thursday Hammontre's daughter, Desiree Blair, told The Seattle Times that her mother was an experienced hiker and a 'tough chick'. She said her mother would likely have a cigarette light with her as she was a smoker. On Monday, Hammontre's niece set up a GoFundMe account to help raise money to send Blair, who lives in Washington state, down to Mexico to help search for her mother. The account has raised $2,690 in just over 48 hours, with Blair set to arrive in San Felipe sometime on Thursday. Searchers comb the area near where Hammontre disappeared Terrifying footage showing a masked gunman opening fire on a man as he walked into his family home before fleeing in a stolen Mercedes has been released by police. CCTV footage showed the homeowner, who is known to police, walking up to his front door before bullets smashed into the wall around him at 2.20pm last Tuesday. The 31-year-old victim managed to sprint into his house as more bullets hit his home in Caddens, in Sydney's far-west. Superintendent Brett McFadden told media the brazen daylight execution attempt was targeted and likely gang-related. Two masked gunmen (one pictured) who attempted to kill a man as he walked into his western Sydney home are on the run 'We are satisfied this is part of a number of incidents and the activities we have undertaken today are designed to suppress the activities of those that may seek retribution or retaliation,' Superintendent McFadden said. 'The nature of what it is linked to is the subject of our investigations. 'We are working closely [with specialist agencies] to look at what may have preceded this incident that occurred on Tuesday.' He said the intended target, a 31-year-old man who miraculously escaped without injury, was 'well known' to police. While footage only shows one shooter police have been told there were two men firing shots at the homeowner. The men then allegedly fled the scene in a stolen black Mercedes A45 coupe, which was torched and dumped in Friend Street, Merrylands. After firing multiple shots the gunman was seen fleeing the scene in a stolen Mercedes Police said the intended target, a 31-year-old man who miraculously escaped without injury, was 'well known' to police. Pictured above is one of the bullet holes after the shooting Detectives under Strike Force Geering raided seven homes across Sydney on Thursday morning and served firearm prevention orders on individuals. Police raided the home of high-ranking Lone Wolf gang member of Erkan 'Eric the Wolf' Keskin (pictured) after the shooting and served him a firearm protection order One of the homes raided after the attempted shooting murder was the lavish city apartment of Erkan 'Eric the Wolf' Keskin. Mr Keskin, a high-ranking Lone Wolf gang member, was served a firearm prevention order, according to the Daily Telegraph. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Mr Keskin had any involvement in the shooting, only that he was served a FPO. Six other homefirearm prevention orders were served on individuals at Caddens, Cambridge Park, Castlereagh, Emu Plains, Kingswood, Sydney CBD, and Wentworth Point. Investigators are seeking dash-cam footage or other vision anyone may have of the Mercedes travelling to or from the shooting on Tuesday. The vehicle was bearing stolen Victorian plates, with registration AAV765, and is believed to have travelled between Caddens and Merrylands at speed. Anyone with information that could assist investigators are being urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Detectives under Strike Force Geering raided seven homes across Sydney on Thursday morning A man who crashed his car while driving illegally on a beach, killing a 16-year-old girl, has been imprisoned for eight months. Mitchell James Hawkins, 23, was driving the car at Five Rocks near the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Queensland on November 25, 2017. He arrived at the popular camping site at 5.30pm for a weekend camping trip and began driving friends along the beach. Hawkins was travelling with 16-year-old Hannah Dingle in the front seat when he hit bumps in the sand and launched the vehicle into the air. The car smashed nose-first into the sand at 70km/h and rolled onto its side. Hannah was killed in the crash, and her parents later said their only child's death had torn them apart. A man who crashed his car while driving illegally on a beach, killing 16-year-old girl Hannah Dingle (pictured), has been imprisoned for eight months Mitchell James Hawkins (pictured), 23, was driving the car at Five Rocks near the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Queensland on November 25, 2017 Hawkins was travelling with 16-year-old Hannah Dingle in the front seat when he hit bumps in the sand and launched the vehicle into the air. Pictured: Five Rocks Hawkins' lawyer Ross Lo Monaco said his sister was in another car when the crash happened, and was the first on the scene, the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin reported. Emergency services were called to the scene at 11.20pm that night, and Hawkins first spoke to police from his hospital bed at 3.50am. He gave a blood sample that returned a zero alcohol reading. Hawkins later admitted that he had illegally modified his car, raising the suspension and removing the front sway bar. He made the changes just a month before the fatal crash that killed Hannah. Hawkins mother was seen crying outside the court after her son was sentenced to serve eight months behind bars with two years and one month suspended on Thursday. He was convicted of one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and one count of having a vehicle in a restricted area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. He was disqualified from driving 'absolutely' and will have to apply to be able to drive again. Hawkins later admitted that he had illegally modified his car, raising the suspension and removing the front sway bar. Pictured: Hannah Dingle Mr Lo Monaco said Hawkins went to Hannah's funeral and had set up a fundraising account that had raised almost $24,000 for the Dingles. Judge Michael Burnett said Hawkins' life had been 'significantly destroyed or ruined'. At the time of her death, close friend Tony Lever said Hannah was a 'beautiful soul'. 'Hannah loved her four-wheel driving, hanging with friends and always had a massive smile on her face, no matter the situation,' he wrote on Hannah's Go Fund Me page. Police have praised the courage of a 10-year-old girl after a man was arrested in relation to her alleged rape at a park in an Adelaide suburb a two weeks ago. Special Crime Investigation Branch detectives initially arrested a 29-year-old at his Blair Athol home in the city's north on Wednesday night. The man was charged with two counts of rape, aggravated indecent assault, gross indecency and unlawful detention. But South Australian police have now dropped all charges against him and arrested a 32-year-old man in relation to the attack. A spokesman said police had 'reasonable grounds' to arrest the initial man on Wednesday April 3, but forensic evidence has now cleared him of direct involvement in the attack. 'He has been unconditionally released with all charges being withdrawn. 'Forensic Science SA are undertaking urgent forensic examinations in this matter. It is expected that the results will not be known until tomorrow,' the spokesman said. The second man has been remanded in custody and a date is yet to be determined for his court appearance. A man has been charged in relation to the alleged rape of a 10-year-old-girl in public toilets (pictured) at Blair Athol Reserve on April 3 Police alleged the girl was attacked in the public toilets at Blair Athol Reserve on April 3 after she was allegedly approached by a man who asked where the toilets were. Chief superintendent Mark Wieszyk praised the young victim for her help in the lead-up to the arrest. 'Victims are affected in different ways,' he told reporters on Thursday. 'The best way to describe this particular victim was very courageous in being able to provide information.' Supt Wieszyk said the man was not known to police and did not resist when officers arrived at his home. Chief superintendent Mark Wieszyk (pictured) described the allege victim as courageous The officer said all sexual offending against children was abhorrent, and police working on the case had shown unwavering commitment to finding the alleged offender. 'Based on things that happen like this, the desire and the professionalism of detectives that are involved in the investigation is very, very important,' he said. The alleged incident sparked a major police manhunt at the time. Crime Stoppers received 58 calls after police released CCTV footage last week from a nearby home of a man entering and leaving the park with a stroller near the time of the alleged incident. Police released CCTV of a man entering and leaving the reserve following the alleged incident Police said no specific call led to the man's arrest. 'We are still working through some of those calls but there could be something small that's in there at any time,' Supt Wieszyk said. Police confirmed the man is a father himself and is of Afghani descent. The man was remanded in custody and will appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court later on Thursday. Anyone with information who has not yet spoken to police is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. The New York Police Department on Wednesday announced the death of a detective who is believed to have died of a 9/11-related illness. Detective Lisa Rosado, who recently retired from the NYPDs Real Time Crime Center, died, a senior NYPD official announced on Tuesday. Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Detective Lisa Rosado, recently retired from the NYPDs Real Time Crime Center, tweeted NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea. September 11 has claimed yet another life: a dedicated law enforcement officer with a huge heart, driven to make the world a better placeand she did. #Hero. Detective Lisa Rosado, who recently retired from the NYPDs Real Time Crime Center, died, a senior NYPD official announced on Tuesday Rosados death is being attributed to the toxic dust that was in the air above Ground Zero after hijacked airliners knocked down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 Rosados death is being attributed to the toxic dust that was in the air above Ground Zero after hijacked airliners knocked down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Since September, there have been 104 deaths from 9/11-related illnesses, 10 of which were recorded this month, according to WPIX-TV. In the nearly eighteen years since the attacks, the number of deaths from 9/11-linked illnesses is soon expected to surpass the number of killed on the day of the tragedy. More than 2,000 people have died from illnesses that experts say can be traced to toxic chemicals in the air at Ground Zero, according to the Rockland/Westchester Journal News. That number is expected to climb even further. Last September, it was reported in The Guardian that 10,000 people have been diagnosed with cancer linked to 9/11. In total, more than 43,000 people have been certified as having a condition caused by the aftermath of 9/11. More than 93,000 first responders and survivors have enrolled in the WTC Health Program since the 9/11 attacks, according to the Center for Disease Control. This number represents the total number of affected individuals who responded to the attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania. In February, the special master overseeing a U.S. government fund to compensate victims of the attacks said future awards will be significantly reduced, typically by at least 50 percent, because the fund is running short of money. Rupa Bhattacharyya, the special master, said the reduction in payouts from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund is necessary because the $2.375 billion remaining in the $7.375 billion fund is not enough to compensate the thousands of additional eligible victims and family members. I am painfully aware of the unfairness of this plan, Bhattacharyya said on a conference call with reporters. It is the best that we could do. Roughly $5billion has been awarded on more than 21,000 claims, about three-quarters of which came from New York. Since September, there have been 104 deaths from 9/11-related illnesses, 10 of which were recorded this month. Since the attacks, more than 2,000 people have died from illnesses that experts say can be traced to toxic chemicals in the air at Ground Zero Bhattacharyya said the fund would have needed to be $12billion, instead of $7.375billion, to compensate everyone fully. Nearly 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, 2001 when airplanes hijacked by al Qaeda crashed into New Yorks World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington, and a Pennsylvania field. The fund opened in late 2011 for first responders including police officers and firefighters; cleanup and construction crews; and people who lived, worked or went to school near the attacks. A similar fund ended operations seven years earlier. Nearly 40,000 compensation claims have been filed in the last seven years, but half were filed in 2017 and 2018. Thousands more are expected. Bhattacharyya attributed the faster pace of claims to the growing number of cancers, other serious illnesses and deaths linked to the attacks, and the funds warning in October that future payouts might be reduced. The new procedure calls for base payouts, before offsets for sums awarded from other sources for the same injuries, to be reduced by 50 percent for claims submitted before Feb. 2, 2019, and 70 percent for claims submitted later. Bhattacharyya said she could not abide by alternatives that would have awarded nothing to eligible victims. People have until Dec. 18, 2020 to file claims. Advertisement The home of a recluse who was jailed after police found a 'frightening' arsenal of weapons inside the property has sold for less than $650,000. Graham Leslie White, 58, had his four-bedroom home in Wallan, Victoria raided by police in July 2018. Officers found a cache of illegal firearms including a modified machine gun. semi-automatic shotgun, handguns, dozens of knives and swords during the search. The property was sold this week for between $600,000 and $650,000, Realeastate.com.au reported. The home of a recluse who was jailed after police found a 'frightening' arsenal of weapons inside the property has sold for less than $650,000 Graham Leslie White, 58, had his four-bedroom home in Wallan, Victoria raided by police in July 2018 The house is lined by tall trees, obscuring it from public view, and sits on an unkempt 6075sq m block. The 10-car garage is surrounded by skulls and the windows are painted black. The ceilings are also black and have dark-coloured chandeliers hanging from them. Scary masks are hung up on the walls and the house is full of items that were once used at the now-defunct Dracula's Cabaret Restaurant in Melbourne. White's lawyer Ian Hill said he had 24 cars on the property. Most of the vehicles were American 'muscle' cars. The arsenal of weapons at the home were found behind a false wall of shelves in the property's bathroom, The Age reported. A loaded handgun was found under White's bed, and bladed weapons, a spiked club, a crossbow and imitation firearms were also displayed around the home. Officers found a cache of illegal firearms including a modified machine gun. semi-automatic shotgun, handguns, dozens of knives and swords during the search White was sentenced to six months behind bars in March. 'He's had an interest in firearms for probably 30 years. They took his interest, not only the mechanics but the beauty - as he sees it - that firearms possess,' Mr Hill said at the time. 'This is a man who is somewhat eccentric, who lives a relatively isolated life on this scenic, large, rural property.' Judge John Smallwood said White had a 'very frightening collection of weapons'. White's property was purchased by a local buyer after it did not sell at auction, estate agent Wayne Dent said. Muslim sect leaders shouted and heckled as they were fined more than $100,000 for illegally clearing bushland to develop a religious retreat north-west of Sydney. Mustapha and Diaa Kara-Ali were told to stop work on the bushland hideaway at Colo in the Hawkesbury region in August last year. On August 27 the Land and Environment Court ordered the pair to demolish and remove sheds, slabs, fences and every other structure they had illegally built on the property within 28 days. Mustapha and Diaa Kara-Ali (pictured) were told to stop work on the bushland hideaway at Colo in the Hawkesbury region in August last year Mustapha (right) and Diaa Kara-Ali (left) pictured when confronted by Hawkesbury City Council officers at the gates of their 12 hectare property in the Hawkesbury region in July Justice Terence Sheahan's orders were ignored and the brothers appeared at Sydney's Land and Environmental Court on Thursday where they were convicted of 12 counts of contempt of court. The brothers escaped a jail term but instead were fined $100,000. According to the ABC, the men were seen shouting and heckling before being handed the fine. The pair's lawyer ordered the men to leave the courtroom and to return once they had calmed down and were ready to be quiet. When leaving the court, Mustapha Kara-Ali claimed 'religious persecution' and said: 'our religion is a crime'. The Lebanese-born siblings claimed they were exempt from Australian laws due to their spiritual group, Diwan al Dawla was a religious charity. Subsequently the pair refused to abide by court orders to demolish buildings and repair the damage they had already done. Muslim sect leaders heckled as they were fined more than $100,000 for illegally clearing bushland to develop a religious retreat north-west of Sydney The Lebanese-born siblings claimed they were exempt from Australian laws due to their spiritual group, Diwan al Dawla was a religious charity In December, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), revoked the charity status of the Diwan Al Dawla guild. Diwan Al Dawla was registered by the ACNC on 21 October 2016 with the purpose of 'advancing religion and social or public welfare.' The brothers were also accused of trapping a man who had delivered court documents on the property by padlocking the gates while he was inside. During sentencing on Thursday Justice Sheahan described their contempt of court as 'flagrant'. The pair would also be fined $2,000 for every month after June they spent failing to fix the Colo property. A member of the 'Colt' family accused of sexually assaulting young relatives will temporarily live at a NSW Central Coast motel instead of a youth hostel in Sydney following publicity around his initial release. NSW Supreme Court Justice Desmond Fagan on Thursday granted the variation to Frank Colt's bail because he 'can't sit in prison forever'. Colt is charged with four counts of sexual intercourse with a person under 10 and one count of sexual intercourse without consent involving an 18-year-old woman. NSW Supreme Court Justice Desmond Fagan granted the variation to Frank Colt's bail because he 'can't sit in prison forever' The 49-year-old, who was one of eight relatives arrested by police in 2018 and who was given the pseudonym Frank Colt, was granted bail in January by another Supreme Court judge to live in a Sydney hostel. But Justice Fagan was told it was cancelled within 24 hours. Colt's lawyer Frank Coyne on Thursday said the motel was the best option his solicitors had been able to come up with since the accommodation at the youth hostel was cancelled 'because it was on the front page of (a newspaper)'. Justice Stephen Campbell imposed several conditions on Colt when granting bail in January, including that he must report twice daily to police, not contact crown witnesses or his co-accused and not leave the state. Prosecutor Mardi Cartwright again opposed Colt's release on Thursday. She previously told the court that Colt had breached bail in other states and belonged to a family 'known to travel long distances to see each other'. Colt's former lawyer Robert Bucksath in 2018 told the court his client 'is in a situation where he is basically consumed by the terrible taboo of intergenerational incest'. The court accepted a petition presented by a Muslim couple. The Quran does not speak of separation between men and women in places of worship. In some cases, women have access to a space through a secondary entrance, but in most they pray at home. New Delhi (AsiaNews) India's Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to consider a petition from a Muslim couple, Yasmeen Peerzade and her husband Zuber Peerzade, to allow women to pray in mosques. This is a very good development. A couple has approached the court with a petition seeking the womans right to enter the mosque. This is allowed as per religion and as per equality principles. I support them both, said Zakia Soman, co-founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) women's association, speaking to AsiaNews. Indias highest court two days ago issued notices to the central government, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Central Wakf Board (which manage charitable assets), on a public interest plea that said Muslim women should have unhindered access to all mosques across the country. A few months ago, the court ruled in favour of women entering Hindu temples. The Muslim couple appealed to the Supreme Court in order to abolish the centuries-old practice that prevents Muslim women from entering mosques. The petition says that the Quran does not differentiate between man and woman. It speaks only about the faithful. But Islam has become a religion in which women are being oppressed. The Muslim Holy Book in fact says nothing about banning women or separate spaces in mosques. Yet, over the centuries a practice developed allowing women to access a reserved area from a secondary entrance, at least in some places of prayer, whilst most women pray at home. Similarly, women of menstrual age have come to be seen as impure, lacking the necessary condition to pray. At present, women are allowed to offer prayers at mosques under the Jamaat-e-Islami and Mujahid denominations but are barred from mosques under the predominant Sunni faction. I question who gave the men the right to decide this, says Zakia Soman. I believe all places of worship should be open to women without discrimination of any kind. For the activist, it is good that the call for womens equality should come from ordinary citizens and from within the community. The conservative patriarchal religious leaders need to open their eyes and see the need for change. They must become accountable to gender justice principles enshrined in the Constitution. They cannot continue to exclude women from any public place. This is the six-months pregnant Oklahoma woman who police say was beaten to death by her boyfriend in a brutal attack which also killed her unborn baby. Allyssa Fielding, 21, was allegedly killed by Colby Wilson at their Tulsa home. He is now facing now two charges of first-degree murder over both deaths. Officers with the Tulsa Police Department responded to the apartment on Monday evening after getting a call from a woman saying her son, 22-year-old Wilson, was suicidal. When officers entered the house, they found the caller administering CPR to her son's pregnant live-in girlfriend, identified by police as Allyssa Fielding. The six-months-pregnant Fielding was rushed to a hospital, where doctors found that her unborn baby no longer had a heartbeat. She was expected to deliver the baby on July 17. Allyssa died after suffering skull fractures, collapsed lungs, as well as cuts and bruises all over her body, authorities confirmed Tuesday. Her boyfriend was arrested and booked into the Tulsa County Jail on charges of first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill and possession of a firearm. Wilson is accused of holding Fielding hostage in the apartment in the weeks before her death, Fox 23 reports. Police say tragic Allyssa had been cut off from loved ones. They say she was forced to sit in a chair all day in front of a phone that livestreamed to Wilson's phone so he could watch her. Scroll down for video Allyssa Fielding died after suffering skull fractures, collapsed lungs, as well as cuts and bruises all over her body, authorities confirmed Tuesday. Her boyfriend Colby Wilson , 22, was arrested and booked into the Tulsa County Jail on charges of first-degree murder Police say tragic Allyssa had been cut off from loved ones and was forced to sit in a chair all day in front of a phone that livestreamed to Wilson's phone so he could watch her Police arrived at Wilson and Fielding's home at 1294 East 35th Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma (pictured) to find Wilson's mother administering CPR to the injured mom-to-be When police first interviewed him, Wilson had blood on his clothes and fresh cuts on his knuckles, according to police. When interviewed by detectives following her son's arrest, Wilson's mother said that her son called her on Sunday in tears, saying he was hurt and was going to take his own life, KTUL reported. The mother called 911 and ran over to his apartment, where she said she found Wilson unconscious in a chair and his girlfriend lying on the floor with visible injuries to her face. Wilson's mother told investigators the couple had a history of domestic violence, and that in 2016 her son was convicted of assaulting Fielding. He was sentenced in 2017 to three years in prison but was released a year later, reported Tulsa World. When officers executed a search warrant at Wilson's apartment, they found a shotgun, which he was not supposed to have because he is still on probation. His criminal record also includes prior arrests on charges of assault and battery, larceny and public intoxication. The booking photo on the left shows Colby following his arrest on assault and battery charges targeting Fielding in 2016. The mugshot on the right was taken in 2014, when he was arrested for larceny The six-months-pregnant Fielding was rushed to a hospital, where doctors found that her unborn baby no longer had a heartbeat. She was expected to deliver the baby on July 17 Records indicate that Fielding had an order of protection in place against her boyfriend at the time of the alleged attack on Monday. Wilson is being held without bond pending his next court appearance scheduled for April 24. Sergeant Shane Tuell with the Tulsa Police Department said: 'For whatever reason, either they believe that they can change that person or they believe there's better things to come, or that that person has something to offer them. 'But in actuality, the only thing that person is probably going to offer you is an early grave, and that's what happened in this case.' An illegal immigrant has been arrested in Ohio for the abduction and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl. A state trooper pulled over Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza near Toledo on Tuesday for a driving infringement when he discovered the teenager inside the car. Neither Morales-Pedraza or the girl spoke English or had any identification on them. A Patrol translator was subsequently called to the scene, and troopers were able to positively identify the teenager. Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza was arrested for the abduction and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl on Tuesday After entering her name into a database they discovered she had been listed as a missing person in Paterson, New Jersey. Morales-Pedraza was allegedly taking her to Chicago before he was pulled over for the traffic violation. Police allege that he had forced the girl to perform sexual acts, and she was taken to hospital for a medical examination. Morales-Pedraza, originally of Mexico, was placed under arrest and transported to the Lucas County Jail. He has previously been deported from the United States, and had returned to the country illegally. The Lucas County Juvenile Protective Services, Lake Township Police Department, the Ohio Investigative Unit and the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency are now all assisting in the investigation, according to Cleveland 19 News. Morales-Pedraza will appear in court on Thursday. The teenager was abducted from Patterson, New Jersey (pictured) Two Democrats have refused to accept donations from House Rep. Ilhan Omar because of her controversial remarks about Israel. Dan McCready, who is running for the vacant House seat from North Carolinas Ninth Congressional District, confirmed on Twitter that he returned a $2,000 donation to Omar on March 30. Omar made the donation to McCready on November 6, according to WSOC-TV. McCready tweeted: Some folks are asking why I directed the return of Rep. Omars donation. I did this weeks ago because I vigorously disagree with any anti-semitic comments. House Rep. Lucy McBath (left) of Georgia and Dan McCready (right), who is running for the vacant House seat from North Carolinas Ninth Congressional District, are two Democrats who have returned donations made to their campaigns by House Rep. Ilhan Omar Omar, the freshman member of Congress who was elected by voters in Minnesota, has been accused of making anti-Semitic comments as well as downplaying the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks Since this time, dangerous and hateful attacks have started against her. I condemn in the strongest terms the hateful rhetoric against her, the Muslim community and people of color. Too many have been hurt by our broken politics. We must end hate speech against all people and groups. McCready is running in a special election later this year for the vacant seat. In November, he ran and lost to Republican Mark Harris, but state officials refused to certify the result because of massive voter fraud. Another Democrat, House Rep Lucy McBath of Georgia, also refused to accept a $2,000 campaign contribution from the Minnesota congresswoman. The campaign told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it rejected the donation, though no reason was given. McBath, who represents Georgias Sixth Congressional District, includes areas that have relatively dense Jewish populations. Omar, one of two Muslim women elected to the House of Representatives this past November, has been a lightning rod of controversy due to remarks about Israel that were perceived as anti-Semitic. Omar divided Democrats with her claim, later retracted, that moneyed Jews buy the support of U.S. lawmakers with a strategy that's 'all about the Benjamins baby.' Then she reignited the controversy again when she said supporters of Israel were pushing for U.S. politicians to declare 'allegiance' to that nation. McCready tweeted: Some folks are asking why I directed the return of Rep. Omars donation. I did this weeks ago because I vigorously disagree with any anti-semitic comments' McCready also tweeted that he condemns hateful comments made toward Omar, who is one of two Muslim women elected to Congress A battle broke out between the older, powerful, more moderate Jewish members of Congress who accused Omar of anti-Semitism and the younger, progressive members who have stormed the House floor after the 2018 election and defended Omar's right to speak. But all Omar's controversies have had one thing in common: they have brought the wrath of Republicans on to the Democrats. Her latest controversy involved statements she made which were perceived by Republicans as downplaying the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Omar referred to the 9/11 attacks in passing during a speech before an American Muslim group, saying 'some people did something.' Earlier this week, President Trump said he would not apologize to Omar for the criticism he's heaped on her after her 9/11 comments, saying she's 'been very disrespectful to this country,' as Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused him of using the September 11 terror attacks as a 'political tool.' 'No not at all,' the president said when asked if he had any second thoughts about a video he tweeted that the Minnesota Democrat claimed increased death threats on her life. 'Look, she's been very disrespectful to this country. She's been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel. She is somebody that doesn't really understand life. Real life, what it's all about,' he told KSTP, a Minneapolis TV station, during his visit to Minnesota on Monday. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said he would not apologize to Omar for the criticism he's heaped on her after her 9/11 comments Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused him of using the terror attacks as a 'political tool' 'It's unfortunate. She's got a way about her that's very, very bad, I think, for our country. I think she's extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country,' he added. On his Twitter feed, Trump posted a video showing footage of the 9/11 attacks interspersed with clips of Omar's speech. The video in question was pinned to the top of Trump's Twitter page but is now just in its regular spot in his feed. 'WE WILL NEVER FORGET' he tweeted on Friday night, accompanied by a 43 second video that showed Omar's comment during a speech to the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), interspersed with footage from September 11, 2001. In her full speech to CAIR last month - the footage surfaced last week - Omar said: '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. '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.' Since the controversial comments resurfaced, Omar has defended what she said, using an example of George W. Bush making similar remarks in the wake of the tragedy and marking the difference in reaction. Omar has said the furor surrounding the comments - which she believes were taken out of context - stem from the fact that she is Muslim, and not white. 'Was Bush downplaying the terrorist attack? What if he was a Muslim,' she asked on Twitter. Pelosi, meanwhile, doubled down on her criticism of Trump on Tuesday, charging him with playing politics with a national tragedy. 'I criticized the president for using video of 9/11 as a political tool. I think he was wrong to do that,' she told CNN. 'What the president did was not right.' Omar, a 36-year-old freshman Democrat and mother of three, said the president's tweets led to an increase of death threats, specifically a video he sent out on Friday. 'Since the president's tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life many directly referencing or replying to the President's video,' Omar said in a statement Sunday. 'Violent rhetoric and all forms of hate speech have no place in our society, much less from our country's Commander in Chief. We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop,' she said. Trump tweeted 'WE WILL NEVER FORGET' with a video that showed Omar's 'some people did something' 9/11 speech intersected with video of the disaster Democrats rushed to defend the freshman lawmaker, who made history last year when Minnesotans elected her to Congress. She is one of two Muslim women serving in the legislative body. But some liberals have questioned whether or not Pelosi has done enough to defend Omar. 'They put us in photos when they want to show our party is diverse. However, when we ask to be at the table, or speak up about issues that impact who we are, what we fight for & why we ran in the first place, we are ignored. To truly honor our diversity is to never silence us,' freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only other Muslim woman in Congress, tweeted on Saturday, in reference to another tweet complaining the party leadership was not supportive. Pelosi told CNN she has not had a chance to talk to Omar because she's traveling. She's on a visit to the United Kingdom with other lawmakers. 'I haven't had a chance to speak with her I'm traveling,' she said. The speaker on Sunday called on President Trump to remove the video criticizing Omar from his Twitter feed. 'The President's words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger. President Trump must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video,' Pelosi said in a statement from London. She also said she's asked Capitol Police to investigate any threats to the freshman Democrat from Minnesota. 'Following the President's tweet, I spoke with the Sergeant-at-Arms to ensure that Capitol Police are conducting a security assessment to safeguard Congresswoman Omar, her family and her staff. They will continue to monitor and address the threats she faces,' Pelosi said. Rep. Ilhan Omar (right) with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (left), who is one of the liberal left questioning if enough was done to protect the freshman lawmaker Pelosi's call came after White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Sunday President Trump wishes 'no ill will' against Omar but added he is right to call out her comments on the September 11th attacks. 'Certainly the president is wishing no ill will, and certainly not violence towards anyone but the president is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman for her not only one time but history of anti-Semitic comments,' Sanders said on ABC's 'This Week.' Tornadoes and thunderstorms hit the South and Midwest for a second time this week, starting on Wednesday afternoon and they will gradually push eastwards. At least five people, including three children, were killed over the weekend in a storm system that drove more than three dozen tornadoes across the Deep South. Communities in central Texas and western Louisiana, already hit by flash floods and twisters in the first round, will be hit once more by high winds, twisters and intense rain, according to AccuWeather and the NWS. Scroll down for video Thunderstorms and heavy rain have begun in the Plains and Midwest and will spread into parts of the South and East later in the week Severe thunderstorms are ongoing across parts of the southern Plains, moving eastwards Thunderstorms will be ongoing throughout Thursday from the Deep South, including much of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of the Florida Panhandle Thunderstorms are likely up and down the East Coast from Florida to the mid-Atlantic states 'This is a dangerous, vigorous storm,' Jim Hayes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in Maryland, said on Wednesday. The storm is expected to stretch from Iowa and Missouri in the north through Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to the south, said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist John Feerick. 'Dallas and Oklahoma City, from there on eastward is probably at greatest threat from damaging winds, flooding downpours and tornadoes,' said Feerick. Northern Oklahoma could be pelted with hail 2 inches in diameter, or larger, on Wednesday, the NWS tweeted. Hundreds of trees were flattened in the wake of a powerful twister near Alto, TX on Saturday A car is seen stranded in a ditch in Lufkin, Texas, after a tornado tore through on Saturday Strong winds caused trees and power lines to topple in Thompson, Pennsylvania NWS forecaster Hayes said the storm gets its initial fuel from warm, moist air over the Gulf of Mexico. 'It'll kick-up this afternoon over southern Kansas and about all of Oklahoma, with rain, wind gusts of 65 mph, hail and tornadoes.' 'The worst will hit before midnight,' he added. 'By early Thursday it'll push into Kentucky and Alabama.' As the storm tracks eastward, it will extend from Indiana south to Florida by late Thursday, hitting the Atlanta area that night and the Atlantic coast the next day. Picking up moisture from the ocean, the system is likely to produce intense thunderstorms up the eastern seaboard as far north as New York state. New York City, Philadelphia and Washington may face travel delays from the rain and possibly property damage from high winds, AccuWeather warned. Flash flooding could remain a threat in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts on Saturday, the weather service said. Damage is seen along Route 487 just north of Route 239 in Benton, Pennsylvania on Monday, caused by an EF1 tornado, according to the National Weather Service Scott Morrison has revealed he turns to his wife Jenny for advice as he campaigns to keep his job. The Prime Minister was 12 when he met his other half through their church. With the Coalition struggling in the opinion polls, Mr Morrison confirmed his wife of almost 30 years is his best political adviser. Scott Morrison has revealed he turns to his wife Jenny for advice as he campaigns to keep his job (pictured are the couple arriving at a Liberal Party campaign rally in Brisbane this week) Mr Morrison (left) arrives with Jenny (right) for the annual Mid Winter Ball at Parliament House, September 2018 'I talk to Jen, I talk to my friends. Jen's a great sounding board because she's not in politics, has never been in politics, she's not connected to it, she doesn't think like a politician,' he told The Australian on Wednesday as he campaigned in Tasmania. 'I didn't meet her in politics. Her and her family, our friends, they're all outside of politics so I have a great window back into the real world every day.' Griffith University politics lecturer Paul Williams, however, doubted Mrs Morrison would offer her husband a fresh political perspective. 'Given that they do move in the same circles, I would be very surprised if she didn't share almost 100 per cent of her husband's ideological beliefs,' Dr Williams told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday. 'So in terms of bringing a new perspective, I would be very surprised if there was one.' Dr Williams said Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's wife Chloe, who he married a decade ago, was more likely to offer more independent political advice, as a woman who previously worked as a journalist and a corporate affairs adviser. With the Coalition struggling in the opinion polls, Mr Morrison confirmed his wife of almost 30 years is his best adviser (pictured is the Morrison family with daughters Abbey and Lily) Mr Morrison described his wife as a 'great sounding board' because because she's not in politics and has never been in politics 'Given that's Bill Shorten's second marriage, obviously later in life, Chloe would probably bring to a relationship more divergent views,' he said. 'She's had a whole life away from Bill.' Dr Williams said Chloe Shorten, whose mother Dame Quentin Bryce was governor-general, was more likely to be outspoken in her views behind the scenes. 'They might be rarefied, having a very high-profile mother,' he said. Mr Shorten's who was previously married to Deborah Beale, the daughter of a federal Liberal MP. Mr Morrison and Jenny share a kiss while celebrating Winx's final race at Royal Randwick on April 13 Griffith University political lecturer Paul Williams said Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's wife Chloe, who he married a decade ago, was more likely to offer more independent political advice Should he win the May 18 election, Mr Shorten would be the first Australian prime minister to have been divorced and remarried. He would have something in common with U.S. President Donald Trump and one of his Republican predecessors Ronald Reagan. Dr Paul Williams says Australian voters would be a 'little concerned' about a PM's wife giving political advice Australian voters, however, would balk at the idea of a prime minister's wife acting like a powerful American first lady in the style of Nancy Reagan, who consulted astrologers and strongly influenced her husband on policies, ranging from building relations with Soviet Russia to belatedly tackling the AIDS crisis during the 1980s. 'Many voters, you might even say most voters, would find it quite homely and reassuring and acceptable for prime ministers to talk to their spouses about politics,' Dr Williams said. 'But the electorate would then become a little concerned if they felt that advice was disproportionate because prime minister's spouses are not elected.' Unlike the United States, the wives of the national leader don't have an official office and don't traditionally address campaign rallies, as Michelle Obama did in 2016. Amazon said it will shut its China online store in an apparent admission of defeat to home-grown e-commerce rivals such as Alibaba and JD.com. The US e-commerce giant said on Thursday it will no longer operate a marketplace nor provide seller services on Amazon.cn starting July 18 as the company looks to focus more on cross-border sales. Amazon shoppers in China will no longer be able to buy goods from third-party merchants in the country, but they still will be able to order from the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan via the firm's global store. Amazon said on Thursday it will shut its China online store in an apparent admission of defeat to home-grown e-commerce rivals such as Alibaba and JD.com The move underscores how entrenched, home-grown e-commerce rivals have made it difficult for Amazon's marketplace to gain traction in China. A host of nimble rivals led by Alibaba and JD.com have capitalised on domestic supplier networks and a deeper understanding of Chinese consumers to gobble up market share before Amazon could gain a foothold. Consumer research firm iResearch Global said Alibaba Group Holding's Tmall marketplace and JD.com controlled 82 per cent of the Chinese e-commerce market last year. 'We are working closely with our sellers to ensure a smooth transition and to continue to deliver the best customer experience possible,' an Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement. 'Sellers interested in continuing to sell on Amazon outside of China are able to do so through Amazon Global Selling.' A host of nimble rivals led by Alibaba and JD.com have capitalised on domestic supplier networks and a deeper understanding of Chinese consumers to gobble up market share before Amazon could gain a foothold Jack Ma's (above) Alibaba in January reported its slowest quarterly earnings growth since 2016, while JD.com is responding to the changing business environment with staff cuts Amazon will wind down support for domestic-selling merchants in China in the next 90 days and review the impact on its fulfilment centers in the country, some of which it may close, a source told Reuters. 'They're pulling out because it's not profitable and not growing,' said analyst Michael Pachter at Wedbush Securities. Ker Zheng, marketing specialist at Shenzhen-based e-commerce consultancy Azoya, said Amazon had no major competitive advantage in China over its domestic rivals. Unless someone is searching for a very specific imported good that can't be found elsewhere, 'there's no reason for a consumer to pick Amazon because they're not going to be able to ship things as fast as Tmall or JD,' he said. The Amazon spokeswoman said that the company would continue to invest and grow in China through its Amazon Global Store, Global Selling, Kindle e-readers and online content. Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing unit that sells data storage and computing power to enterprises, will also remain. Consumer research firm iResearch Global said Alibaba's Tmall marketplace and Richard Liu's (above) JD.com controlled 82 per cent of the Chinese e-commerce market last year US-listed shares of Alibaba and JD.com rose 1 per cent on Wednesday after Reuters first reported the move, before paring gains later in the day. Amazon's shares closed flat. The withdrawal of the world's largest online retailer - founded by Jeff Bezos, who later became the world's richest person - comes amid a broader e-commerce slowdown in China. Alibaba, founded by Jack Ma, in January reported its slowest quarterly earnings growth since 2016, while JD.com is responding to the changing business environment with staff cuts. It also follows the Chinese e-commerce retreat of other big-name Western retailers. Walmart Inc sold its Chinese online shopping platform to JD.com in 2016 in return for a stake in JD.com to focus on its bricks-and-mortar stores. Similarly, the country appears to factor less in the global aspirations of fellow U.S. tech majors Netflix Inc, Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, Wedbush Securities' Pachter said. Workers pack orders on the warehouse floor at the Amazon UK Fulfilment Centre in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. Amazon will wind down support for domestic-selling merchants in China in the next 90 days and review the impact on its fulfilment centers Amazon bought Chinese online shopping website Joyo.com in 2004 for US$75 million, rebranding the business in 2011 as Amazon China. But in a sign of Tmall's dominance, Amazon opened an online store on the Alibaba site in 2015. Li Chengdong, founder of the Beijing-based internet financial research house Dolphin Think Tank, said Amazon was hurt by not adapting to what works in China. 'Amazon has been unwilling to localise in China, which feels kind of arrogant,' Li said. 'They still insist on American-style web pages and do not promote merchandise during the 'Double 11' shopping season, in which Chinese e-commerce companies Alibaba and JD put a lot of effort.' 'Double 11', also called 'Singles' Day' refers to an annual shopping extravaganza that takes place each November 11 and in which tens of billions of dollars worth of merchandise is bought, in China's answer to the US 'Black Friday' shopping day. Amazon is still expanding aggressively in other countries, notably India, where it is contending with local rival Flipkart. Trairat Changsanan is seen on CCTV after the British backpacker was raped A young British backpacker was raped after passing out drunk on a Thai holiday island while celebrating the country's new year, it emerged today. The 21-year-old woman had travelled alone and was drinking with a male friend, from Ireland, on Koh Phi Phi off the coast of Krabi in southern Thailand on April 14. Having taken part in mass water fights, they returned home in the early hours of the morning on April 15 but could not make it back to their hostel and slumped on the ground outside a restaurant. At around 3am, local deck hand Trairat Changsanan walked by and allegedly used scissors to cut off the drunk woman's denim shorts. He said he then pulled away here underwear and raped her. The tourist told police she woke up the next morning fearing she had been raped and contacted police who checked CCTV to trace the alleged attacker. Changsanan was arrested on April 17 and allegedly confessed to the rape. He was taken in handcuffs back to the scene of the attack where he pointed to the place where he allegedly raped the woman. Changsanan told police he had been walking home after drinking and saw the woman sleeping and decided to rape her. Changsanan allegedly admitted the attack to police, before pointing to the spot where he found the woman passed out after the country's New Year celebrations Changsanan was arrested on Wednesday and charged with rape and violent threatening behaviour against a person who in a state of inability to resist Police Colonel Krissana Patanacharoen, the police deputy spokesman, said that the victim reported to the Koh Phi Phi police on Monday morning at 10am but could not identify the alleged rapist since she was very drunk. He said: 'She came with no actual evidence of the incident, so the investigators took her to the hospital for her body to be checked in order to find traces of sexual abuse. 'Meanwhile, police officers went to the area to find possible evidence and check CCTV.' Cameras outside the restaurant showed the alleged attack while others in the area showed him walking suspiciously. The spokesman added: 'He has been taken to Krabi Provincial Police and currently under the police custody.' Officers said Changsanan was reprimanded for 'damaging the image of tourism in the country', which is hugely popular with British backpackers Changsanan points to the CCTV camera which recorded him carrying out the attack in the early hours of April 14 Trairat now faces charges of rape and violent threatening behaviour against a person who in a state of inability to resist. Officers said they 'expressed their condolences' to the alleged victim and slammed the suspect for 'damaging the image of tourism in the country'. They said that the young woman had been drinking alcoholic drinks from a bucket until the bar closed at 1am. She initially could not remember anything about the incident when she woke up because she was 'drunk and sleeping'. The attack is said to have happened during Thailand's Songkran new year celebrations, which originally began as a sedate annual festival in which water was sprinkled on elderly residents for good luck. Thailand is the world's most popular destination for British backpackers and Koh Phi Phi (pictured) is notorious as a party island But in recent years they have developed into a three day long booze-fuelled festival which attracts holidaymakers from around the world - often drawn in by party promotions in the the cities and islands. Police have tried to crack down on heavy drinking during the national holiday and encourage women to 'dress conservatively' to reduce the risk of sexual assaults. Tourists have also been warned about lewd behaviour during the period. The alleged rape is now the latest harrowing crime to hit the popular tourist destination. Earlier this month a German backpacker, Miriam Beelte, was raped and murdered on the island of Koh Si Chang. While in September last year, a British tourist, 18, claimed she was drugged, stripped, robbed and raped on Sairee Beach in Koh Tao. She was later threatened with being banned from the country for making the complaint. Advertisement These pictures reveal the inside of a creaking Guantanamo Bay as U.S. military bosses struggle for funds to maintain a prison they say is in 'bad condition'. The photos, offering a rare look inside the detention facility in Cuba, show the simple cells in which prisoners are kept as well as a medical operating room and communal areas. Further glimpses of life in the prison include U.S. soldiers bringing meals on wheels for detainees, a piece of baklava pastry wrapped in plastic film ready to be given to inmates and a set of instruments to test their vision. Guantanamo remains an active military prison after Donald Trump signed an order to keep it open last year but military chiefs believe the camp's uncertain future has left it struggling for funding. Prisoner: A detainee at Guantanamo Bay walks in Camp VI of the detention facility in Cuba, which remains open A U.S. soldier holds a set of keys while a colleague stands behind him inside the Camp VI detention facility at Guantanamo A cell with items given to detainees is seen inside the facility which remains an active military prison 17 years after it opened One of the detainees prepares to place a sign to denote the beginning of time for prayer at Guantanamo Bay's Camp VI A sparrow sits on razor wire at Guantanamo Bay in front of the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag at Guantanamo Bay As a result the camp is starting to deteriorate with many facilities 'in bad condition' and stains of feces and urine still on the wall from when inmates have attacked guards. Barack Obama transferred some 197 prisoners out of Guantanamo but was unable to persuade a Republican-dominated Congress to close the site in Cuba, after promising to do so during his 2008 campaign. The military prison, established in 2002 in the wake of 9/11 and George W. Bush's declaration of a War on Terror, still holds 40 prisoners today. Navy Admiral John Ring told ABC11 that the facility needed repairs, saying: 'This was closing for eight years then it was kind of a hold what you got. 'And now it's like who knows what's going to happen. So a lot of our facilities are in bad condition so we've looked at a few things.' Three of the detainees interact inside the detention facility which remains open despite longstanding efforts to shut it down U.S. Army Spc. Jermell Hinnant sits on his bed in a building he shares with several other soldiers at Guantanamo Naval Base A piece of baklava - a dessert pastry originating in the Middle East - is covered in plastic film to be taken to detainees An American soldier delivers meals on wheels to the 40 remaining detainees. Almost 200 left under Barack Obama At its height in July 2003 the camp held about 680 prisoners. Over time, a total of nearly 800 passed through the facility. Most of the releases occurred under Mr Bush, who ultimately agreed the detention center should close. His administration freed 540, sometimes dozens at a time, to countries around the world. The Obama administration ultimately failed to close the center because it deemed some detainees not releasable and Congress prohibited moving any of them to the U.S. mainland. The huge complex s part of a huge naval base which the US is charged $4,000 rent a year for, although former Cuban leader Fidel Castro allegedly never cashed the check out of protest. The base is located on the eastern tip of Cuba and was leased by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 for 2,000 gold coins or $4,085 a year - in the aftermath of the Spanish-American war. A U.S. soldier uses his radio microphone outside one of the cells. At its peak the detention facility held around 680 prisoners The view from inside a cell: A U.S. soldier stands in a corridor as seen through an opening in a cell door in Camp VI In the months after 9/11 many of the inmates were captured in Afghanistan and transported by the U.S. military to Guantanamo's Camp X-Ray. They were allegedly tortured by special CIA agents, using techniques such as waterboarding in order to gather intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. Obama disavowed the use of torture but Trump has taken a harder line, saying that 'we have to fight fire with fire' against extremists. He said after taking office in January 2017 that he wanted to do 'everything within the bounds of what you're allowed to do legally'. A padded cell stands open inside the Guantanamo detention facility which military chiefs believe needs additional funding An operating room sits ready inside the Camp VI detention facility at Guantanamo Bay which President Trump has kept open U.S. Navy Commander Adam Bashaw stands at Guantanamo Bay between instruments used to check the detainees' vision A U.S. soldier demonstrates the closing of a cell door at Guantanamo, where 40 prisoners are currently being detained North Korea has demanded that Mike Pompeo stand down from talks with Pyongyang to be replaced by someone who is more 'careful and mature in communicating'. The country's foreign ministry said Pompeo was 'talking nonsense' amid failing efforts to reach a peace deal over Kim Jong-un's nuclear ambitions. Pyongyang called Pompeo 'reckless' and questioned his intelligence, questioning 'whether he is indeed unable to understand words properly'. The latest provocation comes after North Korean leader Kim oversaw the testing of a new tactical guided weapon. Happier times: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un meets U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang last year. Kim's regime has demanded that Pompeo is replaced as envoy The KCNA news agency quoted Kwon Jong Gun, an official at the North's foreign ministry, as saying today that 'no one can predict' the situation if the United States does not abandon the 'root cause' of the nuclear stand-off. 'I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled,' Kwon said. 'Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the U.S., I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but... (another) person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us.' 'We cannot be aware of Pompeo's ulterior motive behind his self-indulgence in reckless remarks; whether he is indeed unable to understand words properly or just pretending on purpose.' Pompeo had insisted on Monday that Kim should keep his promise to give up nuclear weapons sooner than Pyongyang was offering. Kim had said he would wait 'till the end of this year' for the United States to decide to be more flexible. Asked about Kim's statement last week that he was only interested in meeting Trump again if the United States came with the right attitude, Pompeo said the U.S. was 'determined to move forward diplomatically.' Pompeo said Kim had made a commitment to denuclearize and 'we collectively need to see that outcome move forward.' It is not the first time North Korea has singled out Pompeo for special criticism. When the secretary of state met with North Korean officials in Pyongyang in July last year, he was condemned for his 'gangster-like' insistence that the North move towards unilateral disarmament. The latest military operation marked the North's first public weapons test since a second summit with the United States ended without agreement in February. The weapon has a 'peculiar mode of guiding flight' and 'a powerful warhead', KCNA said. North Korea has demanded that Mike Pompeo (pictured) stand down from talks with Pyongyang to be replaced by someone who is more' careful and mature in communicating' Kim said 'the completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power' of the North Korean army. Experts said the description that the test was 'conducted in various modes of firing at different targets' likely meant that it could be launched from the ground, sea and air. A second summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February failed to make any progress towards denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The first historic meeting in Singapore last year had sparked hopes of a deal but relations have deteriorated again since then. Sanctions against the North over its nuclear and missiles programs remain in place. Satellite images from last week showed movement at Yongbyon, North Korea's main nuclear site, that could be associated with the reprocessing of radioactive material into bomb fuel, according to a U.S. think tank. 'Kim never promised to stop testing all weapons in his military arsenal, just nuclear weapons and ICBMs that have the potential to hit the U.S. homeland,' said Harry Kazianis of the Washington-based Center for the National Interest. A desperate bid is underway to save a forlorn polar bear at least 450 miles off course after being carried away on an ice floe off Russia's Pacific coast. The beast headed towards the police station in Tilichiki village once the floe touched land, evidently pleading for human help. The predator is 'lame, exhausted and confused' but has climbed on its hind legs to peer into windows in a search for food or assistance, leaving some locals scared, according to reports in Kamchatka, a peninsular in the extreme east of Siberia. Residents have left fish for the bear and police officers in the remote settlement - population 1,750 - are watching over the animal as Russian officials seek to organise an airlift for the bear back above the Arctic Circle. The polar bear, named Umka, stands on the ice near the village of Tilichiki on Russia's Pacific coastline after drifting 450 miles on an ice floe from the north The polar bear is described as 'lame, exhausted and confused' but has clambered up to windows in the village in his search for food The bear eating food left for him by locals - while some have been scared by him others have left him fish as he appears unable to hunt himself The young male polar bear, now named Umka, got stuck on the floe off the coast of Chukotka, Russia's most easterly region, and floated far to the south away from its natural habitat, travelling a distance at least as great as London to Edinburgh. The wild animal seems to have a wounded front paw and is 'disorientated' and weak after its odyssey. The 'forlorn' beast is scavenging for food in the bleak village. Svetlana Gubareva, deputy head of the district, said: 'At first, the animal behaved quite actively. 'Locals filmed it on video, photographed it, and yesterday - fed it with fish, though he did not eat much. A pair of dogs from the village assess their new neighbour 'The bear looks drained and weak. 'For some reason he does not catch fish and seals, which we have in good supply.' Locals came out to gawp but also want to help. Yet they are rightly frightened to approach too close, reported The Siberian Times, a resident on one video says: 'He is starving.. Poor poor bear, so hungry. 'If this wasn't Russia but America, they would have found a way to send him to sleep and move him to an animal enclosure.' But then a voice is heard getting frightened as the bear approaches. 'We've got to go, we are leaving,' says the woman. 'Please can we go now, we won't have enough time to escape, please, please can we go!' The colossal animal tucks into some fish provided by locals who hope he can be taken back to the Arctic Circle for his safety and their own Umka the polar bear eats some fish - the wild animal seems to have a wounded front paw and is 'disorientated' and weak Umka gazes towards the village where he has sought refuge after his odyssey from the far northeast of Russia In fact officials in Kamchatka have called in the Russian Emergencies Ministry in a bid to rescue Umka. 'He lies near the bay on the ice - close to our police station,' said Gubareva. 'The police are watching him so that no one will approach him.' Regional wildlife head Vladimir Gordienko said that bears getting carried away by floes is a rare event. 'Bears get here on the ice floes washed this way,' he said. 'As a rule, they cannot go back to Chukotka. In Kamchatka, the feed base does not suit them. 'So, most likely, such guests will die.' Officials wish to airlift the bear back to the Arctic Circle to liberate him from the unnatural habitat The police are keeping watch over the bear so that people are protected - and the bear from them However, regional governor Vladimir Ilyukhin is seeking to organise a rescue for Umka. 'A special cage is already being manufactured in (regional capital) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for transporting the animal,' said Kamchatka official Sergey Khabarov. 'On arrival in Tilichiki, specialists will temporarily put the bear to sleep so he can cope with the flight.' An assessment will also be made if the bear needs medical attention for its paw. by Mathias Hariyadi The eight most important poling companies attribute a range of votes between 54.32% and 55.77% to Widodo. His rival, supported by the Islamists: "They are trying to make it look like we lost". Fear of possible street unrest spreads among the population. The armed forces promise "zero tolerance". Jakarta (AsiaNews) - The pollsters accredited by the Indonesian Electoral Commission (Komisi Pemilihan Umum, Kpu) for the preliminary counting of the votes have no doubts: the current president, the moderate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, is the winner of the general election with about 55% of the votes. Widodo is inviting the parties to national unity and his supporters to "wait for the official results", which will be published no earlier than next month. His rival, the former army general Prabowo Subianto, contradicts the data provided by analysts and claims he can count on "52.2% of preferences". The son-in-law of the late dictator Haji Mohammad Suharto, Subianto does not specify the source of the information but states: "Some pollsters are trying to make it seem that we have lost." Adding to his constituents, he adds: "Do not let yourself be provoked, continue to monitor the counting of votes". Much of the Indonesian society has accepted Subianto's statements with skepticism. The politician claimed victory in 2014, when he was defeated by Widodo himself. The eight most important survey companies attribute a range of votes between 54.32% and 55.77% to Widodo with Subianto esteimated at between 44.23% and 45.68%. Following Subianto's claims, the fear of possible street riots by Islamists has spread among the population, constituting its main reservoir of votes. However, the Indonesian police released a statement in which it excludes this possibility. The Armed Forces (Tni) have put in place extensive security measures and are actively defending the Kpu headquarters. A few hours ago, the commander-in-chief of the TNI, air marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, stated in a press conference that military and police officers will implement a zero-tolerance policy towards any attempt at riot. "We will never tolerate actions that intend to interrupt the democratic process, illegal activities, the clouding of the law and the social order. The Nkri [the unitary Republic of Indonesia will never be compromised, "he said. A homeless man has been reunited with his pet rat after she disappeared from the streets of Sydney's CBD almost two weeks ago. Chris left his pet rodent Lucy outside Footlocker on Pitt Street when he ducked to a nearby toilet on Saturday April 6. When he returned moments later, his adored pet was nowhere to be seen and he was forced to launch a frantic search. The devastated Sydney local contacted police to investigate the rodent's disappearance, who believed they were dealing with a cruel theft. Scroll down for video A homeless man has been reunited with his pet rat after she disappeared from the streets of Sydney's CBD almost two weeks ago Chris (centre) left his pet rodent Lucy outside Footlocker on Pitt Street when he ducked to a nearby toilet on Saturday April 6 With the help of social media, police urged Sydney locals to spread the word to reunite the duo. On Thursday, almost two weeks after her disappearance, Sydney City Police Area Command returned Lucy to her owner. In a video shared by NSW Police, Chris eagerly waited as a police officer approached him with a cardboard box containing a brown and white rat. 'Let's hope it's the right rat,' Chris says. He reaches his arm into the box and craddles the rodent before giving her a welcome home kiss. 'She remembers me,' he says, confirming the rodent is his missing rat. On Thursday, almost two weeks after her disappearance, Sydney City Police Area Command returned Lucy to her owner 'Sorry to put you all through the trouble looking for her.' Chris said it felt 'wonderful' to have Lucy back and thanked officers for their efforts. On Monday, police released CCTV footage of a woman who they believed could assist with finding Lucy. While they initially believed the rat was nabbed, a member of the public told police they took Lucy to take care of her after noticing she was unattended. 'A woman, who walked past and saw Lucy alone, believed she had been abandoned, so took her home and cared for her,' NSW Police said. In a video shared by NSW Police, Chris eagerly waited as a police officer approached him with a cardboard box containing a brown and white rat Chris said it felt 'wonderful' to have Lucy back and thanked officers for their efforts Lucy was retrieved by police on Thursday, before an emotional reunion with her owner. Social media users commended NSW Police for the heartwarming story. 'Oh I'm soooo happy. I spoke to him on Monday and he was still devastated but hopeful that Lucy would be returned. So wonderful she's back with her owner,' one person wrote. 'Great work NSW police and all who shared, this has made my day, yay Lucy,' commented another. The 59-year-old pet owner last week told Daily Mail Australia he had just gone to the bathroom across the road and when he returned, his pet was gone. Lucy was retrieved by police on Thursday, before an emotional reunion with her owner 'I don't want to press charges against the person who stole Lucy. I just want her back.' The homeless man has become a local identity in the city with numerous people on their way to work stopping to pat the rat as it sat perched on its milk crate. 'Almost everyday since I started my job in the city Chris and his pet rat Lucy have sat in the same spot, Chris chatting to passersby and Lucy happily munching, sleeping and looking on,' one distressed person said in a Facebook post. 'They are a feature of Sydney city life and I have always smiled when I see them & felt glad they had each other.' Another person said: 'I've passed him so many times he's always been so friendly my son is always amazed that he has a pet ray that doesn't try and run away.' Lucy (pictured) disappeared outside Footlocker on Pitt Street, Sydney CBD, on Saturday April 6 Homeless man Chris, pictured with Lucy, told Daily Mail Australia he had just gone to the bathroom across the road and when he returned, his pet was gone A couple had gifted the rat to Chris when the rodent was only four-weeks-old. 'She was family. I would lean down to her and say, 'how are you?' and she would get up on her hind legs and give me a peck. 'She only bit me once, but that was because I was feeding pigeons out of my hand and I rubbed my mouth and she would've thought there was food on my lips or something,' he laughed. While lettuce and corn was the pet's favourite food, Chris admitted Lucy had her weaknesses. 'She loved cakes. I would also let her drink a bit of coke mixed with water or coffee as a treat.' And just as locals shared in the good times, there were also several down moments. Only six weeks ago, a tumour was removed from the rat, though thankfully the pet made a full recovery. A photo of Chris shows the homeless man sullenly sitting next to his crate. Over the top is a blue blanket, where the rat normally rests on. Attached to the bare crate, is the sign imploring for help to find his pet The homeless man has become a local identity in the city with numerous people on their way to work stop and pat the rat as it sat perched on its milk crate Advertisement Japanese Emperor Akihito made his last pilgrimage to the country's holiest Shinto shrine on Thursday, as people lined the route to catch a glimpse of the 85-year-old ahead of his abdication this month. Akihito and his wife Michiko's last trip as emperor and empress to the Ise Jingu shrine in central Japan is part of a series of abdication ceremonies ahead of his retirement. Akihito will make way for his son Crown Prince Naruhito on April 30, in the first abdication in 200 years - a rarity in Japan's imperial history. Japan's Emperor Akihito, 85, gets out of his car in front of the main sanctuary as he visits the outer shrine of Ise Jingu Shrine ahead of his April 30 abdication Emperor Akihito is seen on arrival at the Geku, outer shrine, while a chamberlain holds a legendary sword - one of three Sacred Treasures of Japan. The regalia represent the three primary virtues: valor (the sword), wisdom (the mirror), and benevolence (the jewel) Japanese Emperor Akihito (centre) visits Ise Jingu shrine - the most sacred Shinto shrine in Japan - on 18 April 2019. Akihito participated in a ceremony to pay respect ahead of his retirement at the end of the month Japan's Emperor Akihito, flanked by an Imperial Household Agency official carrying the legendary sword - one of the 'Three Sacred Treasures of Japan', visits at Outer shrine of the Ise Jingu shrine Japanese Empress Michiko (centre) visits Ise Jingu shrine, Mie Prefecture, western Japan, 18 April 2019. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Ise Jingu, considered to be the most venerable sanctuary in Japan, to participate at a ceremony to pay respect at the shrine ahead of the Japan's Empress Michiko walks toward the main sanctuary as she visits the outer shrine of Ise Jingu Shrine, ahead of Emperor Akihito's April 30 abdication Japan's Empress Michiko walks from the main sanctuary as she visits at Outer shrine of Ise Jingu. Her husband will retire at the end of April to make way for their son Crown Prince Naruhito Japan's Emperor Akihito leaves at the Outer shrine of Ise Jingu shrine in Ise in the central Japanese prefecture of Mie, accompanied by chamberlains holding two imperial treasures, legendary gifts from the goddess Amaterasu to the emperors Naruhito will succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1. Akihito performed the 'Shinetsu no Gi' ritual at the shrine as part of the succession process. Dressed in a tuxedo, he headed into the shrine on Thursday while palace chamberlains held up two imperial treasures - a legendary sword and a jewel - encased in patterned wrapping. The two items, together with an ancient mirror kept at the shrine, are known as 'the three sacred treasures' and represent the three primary virtues: valor (the sword), wisdom (the mirror), and benevolence (the jewel). A vehicle carrying Japan's Emperor Akihito at the Ise Jingu Shrine, after he took part in a series of rituals ahead of his abdication on April 30 Japan's Empress Michiko (pictured) and her husband are on a three day tour ahead of his abdication. On Thursday they visited the Ise shrine in the central Japanese prefecture of Mie Japan's Empress Michiko, 84, (centre) enters to the main sanctuary during her visits at Inner shrine of the Ise Jingu shrine Japan's Emperor Akihito (centre), surrounded by Imperial Household Agency officials carrying two of the 'Three Sacred Treasures of Japan', walks from the main sanctuary as he visits the outer shrine of Ise Jingu Shrine The emperor of Japan (fifth left) visited a holy shrine in Ise, in the central Japanese prefecture of Mie on April 18, 2019 as part of a series of abdication ceremonies ahead of his retirement Priests see off Japan's Emperor Akihito leaving after his prayer at Ise Jingu Shrine, during what will be his last pilgrimage to the country's holiest Shinto shrine Emperor Akihito leaves the Geku, outer shrine with chamberlains holding a legendary sword and a jewel, treasures thought to date over a millennium Emperor Akihito walks through the gate of the Geku, outer shrine with chamberlains holding a legendary sword and a jewel at Ise Shrine on April 18, 2019 in Ise, Mie, Japan. The emperor will abdicate at the end of this month People bow to see off Japan's Emperor Akihito following his succession rituals at the country's holiest Shinto shrine today The Japanese government announced in December 2017 that Akihito would abdicate on 30 April 2019. His son will assume the throne the following day Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, who married on 10 April 1959. It was the first time an ordinary person had married into the Imperial Family in 2,600 years Emperor Akihito (pictured with his wife Michiko) succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne upon the death of his father Emperor Hirohito on 7 January 1989. He will abdicate in favour of the couple's son Naruhito on April 30 These imperial regalia are said to date back more than a millenium, having been bequeathed to the imperial line by the Sun goddess Amaterasu - the most sacred of all Shinto deities in Japanese mythology. Japanese emperors were once believed to be direct descendants of Amaterasu, who is enshrined at Ise and who sits at the top of 'yaoyorozu', or eight million gods of all things in Shinto. The treasures were brought from the palace in Tokyo and travelled with the emperor, and will be handed to Naruhito after his succession. Cheering wellwishers waved national flags as the royal couple's motorcade headed to the shrine, dedicated to sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami - the emperor's mythical ancestor. 'I'm touched. I'm very happy to have seen them,' a beaming woman told public broadcaster NHK. Akihito's daughter and the shrine's head priest, Sayako Kuroda, also attended. Japan's Emperor Akihito walks while flanked by palace chamberlains carrying two of the so-called 'Three Sacred Treasures of Japan' - the legendary sword, which represents valor, and the jewel, which represents benevolence A vehicle transporting Japan's Emperor Akihito is escorted by Shinto priests as he visits the outer shrine of Ise Jingu A vehicle carrying Japan's Emperor Akihito, who takes part in a series of rituals ahead of his abdication, leaves the inner shrine of Ise Jingu Japan's Empress Michiko,84, walks toward to the main sanctuary as she visits at Outer shrine of the Ise Jingu shrine on Thursday Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are seen inside their vehicle as they leave an Inner shrine. The couple met on a tennis court in 1957 and their relationship was portrayed in the media at the time as a real 'fairy tale' and the 'romance of the tennis court' A car carrying Emperor Akihito is seen prior to his visit to the Geku, outer shrine at Ise Shrine on April 18, and is greeted by priests at the shrine Japan's Emperor Akihito's motorcar is escorted by Shinto priests as he visits the outer shrine of Ise Jingu Shrine on Thursday Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko wave to well-wishers on arrival at Uji Yamada Station on April 17, 2019 in Ise, Mie, Japan, where they visited the Ise Jingu shrine for the final time ahead of Akihito's retirement Emperor Akihito's will be the first abdication in Japan for 200 years - a rarity in the country's imperial history Well-wishers line the streets to greet Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko upon their arrive at Ujiyamada Station today Emperor Akihito leaves the Geku, outer shrine at Ise Shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu, from whom emperors were said to be descended When the 85-year-old Japanese Emperor Akihito steps down on April 30, he will be succeeded by his eldest son Crown Prince Naruhito (pictured) the following day Imperial Household Agency chamberlains carrying boxes containing a legendary sword and a jewel, which are two of the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan, follow Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on arrival at Nagoya Station on their way to Ise People gathered despite the rain to take photos of Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko (not pictured) upon their arrive at Ujiyamada Station on April 17 Ise Shrine was a centre of Japan's wartime emperor worship that still attracts political and business leaders today. Rituals at Ise are intended for the imperial family, and the emperor was the head priest until 1945 while Shinto was the state religion and the emperor was said to be a living god. Shinto, a religion perhaps as old as Japan itself, is a rich blend of folklore, reverence for all things natural and the Japanese nation. The royal couple are making a three-day tour through Friday. An eco-warrior has been blasted by Nick Robinson live on-air this morning for encouraging climate protesters to have fun causing chaos in the streets of London. Dr Gail Bradbrook got a rise out of the BBC Radio 4 presenter when she said the protests were 'awesome' and asked more people to take the day off work and join them. The Extinction Rebellion co-founder added: 'People are having a fantastic time on the streets... I think its really important that people have fun while they're rebelling.' Robinson slammed Dr Bradbrook, saying not everyone had the privilege of choosing when to go to work. The awkward exchange started when the Today Programme host suggested Dr Bradbrook's protests had been irrelevant. He said: 'Lord Deben and an independent committee were asked to do a target for zero emissions before you took to the streets. So when it's announced in two weeks time, your protests will have been irrelevant to that, wont they?' The grinning activist said she found it really important that 'people have fun while they're rebelling' The Extinction Rebellion co-founder (pictured on Waterloo Bridge on Thursday) said the disruptive protests were 'awesome' and asked more people to take the day off work and join them Dr Bradbrook replied: 'I think our protests have been awesome. We're making history at the minute, people are having a fantastic time on the streets and we really welcome people to come join us. The presenter, seemingly agitated, then said: 'They don't frankly have the privilege that you do, in order to choose when you can go to work. And they may not appreciate being told they should have fun doing it.' The climate protester added: 'I think it's really important that people have fun while they're rebelling actually. What we're asking is for people to come and join us if they can and people are taking time. Her comments got a rise out of Today host Nick Robinson who said not everyone had the privilege of choosing when to go to work Gail Bradbrook, 47, is one of the directors of private limited company Compassionate Revolution, which has organised and partly financed Extinction Rebellion (XR). The Wiltshire mother said on a recent podcast that she decided to become an activist as a direct result of taking huge doses of two powerful psychedelic drugs. Ms Bradbrook, who has two sons aged ten and 13, flew to Costa Rica a few years ago to take a dose of ibogaine, a hallucinogenic shrub growing in West Africa. The mother, who has a PhD in molecular biophysics, also tried ayahuasca, a highly toxic, mind-bending potion made by Amazon jungle shamans. Bradbrook , 47, said on a recent podcast that she decided to become an activist as a direct result of taking huge doses of two powerful psychedelic drugs She said the drugs 'rewired' her brain and gave her 'the codes of social change'. Here, she's pictured addressing climate protesters last October in Parliament Square She said the drugs 'rewired' her brain and gave her 'the codes of social change'. Afterwards, she ended her marriage and began her activism in XR. Within XR, she holds mystic 'moon circles' with female colleagues inside a tepee, at which they ingest another 'natural' drug, mugwort, used by ancient Celts. Ms Bradbrook, a self-described 'neo-pagan', has warned that warming in the Arctic is likely to cause 'the collapse of the food system' in just three years a belief no scientist would endorse. Dr Bradbrook appeared on ITV's Good Morning Britain earlier in the week where she looked close to tears as she told of fears for her children's future She has also said she 'does not condemn' protesters who 'choose to damage property in order to protect nature', although she personally prefers non-violence. Speaking on ITV earlier this week, she looked close to tears as she spoke emotionally about the impact of climate change and fears her children would be left with nothing to eat. She told of Sir David Attenborough's fears over civilisation, but Good Morning Britain host Richard Madeley interrupted her to say he is 'not a saint, just a broadcaster'. Nigel Farage revelled in the 'very good start' enjoyed by his new Brexit Party today as a new survey showed it topping the polls for the EU elections. Mr Farage said it was clear the 'public are warming to us' and he moves to crush both the Tory party and his old force Ukip. A new YouGov survey - the third in a week - for the Times today again shows the Brexit Party on top, leading Labour 23 per cent to 22 per cent. The lead is smaller than yesterday's sensational results which showed the Brexit Party on 27 per cent. In a further boost, a ComRes poll suggests Mr Farage's party is third when voters are asked about a general election - on 14 per cent, with Labour leading on 33 per and the Tories sinking fast on 23 per cent. Boyle Sports made the Brexit Party the 4/1 favourites to win the EU elections, slashing the odds as the polls rolled in. Nigel Farage revelled in the 'very good start' enjoyed by his new Brexit Party today as a new survey showed it topping the polls for the EU elections A new YouGov survey - the third in a week - for the Times today again shows the Brexit Party on top, leading Labour 23 per cent to 22 per cent The lead is smaller than yesterday's sensational results which showed the Brexit Party on 27 per cent - but Mr Farage's new party is still ahead As Ukip launches its own campaign - five years after Mr Farage led it to victory at the last EU elections - Mr Farage added on Twitter: 'They now have just three MEPs. The Brexit Party has 16. 'The lurch towards extremism has destroyed Ukip.' Mr Farage told the Express: 'We should be slightly cautious about polling at this stage but, overall, the Brexit Party is off to a very good start What does the Brexit Party want? Nigel Farage's Brexit Party is basically a single issue party: it has been set up because of claims Brexit is being betrayed. The ex-Ukip leader has said most of his policies are the same as his old party - except on Islam, where he is strongly critical of the stance taken by current Ukip leader Gerard Batten. This suggests controlled immigration, tough law and order and low taxes are likely to end up in a wider manifesto. But at the EU elections Mr Farage will talk about only one thing: Brexit. Advertisement 'The public are warming to us. There's great grassroots support, large numbers of people joining, grassroots donations and all of it feels very exciting. 'I think we will be announcing a few more candidates next week.' Mr Farage - who has been a politician for 20 years and in the European Parliament since 1999 - added: 'People want a fresh, positive vision. 'They are tired of career politicians endlessly threatening them, sounding miserable and not believing in the country.' As Ukip launches its own campaign - five years after Mr Farage led it to victory at the last EU elections - Mr Farage added on Twitter: 'They now have just three MEPs. The Brexit Party has 16. 'The lurch towards extremism has destroyed Ukip.' The elections on May 23 are only happening at all because the deal Mrs May negotiated with Brussels has been defeated three times by MPs. Writing in The Guardian yesterday, Mr Curtis said: 'It is entirely plausible that we are facing another Farage-shaped upset at the ballot box. 'While there are more than five weeks of campaigning to go, I certainly wouldn't bet against him.' Mr Curtis said there are 'many reasons to believe' Mr Farage's new outfit could close the gap to the leading parties and win again. He said: 'Firstly, the Brexit party has already achieved a 15 per cent vote share as a force that is still fairly unknown, with the fieldwork for this poll taking place before the party officially launched last Friday.' He added: 'Meanwhile Ukip, which is currently dividing the vote share, has not only lost its main salesman, but now finds itself being openly attached by him. 'It may be holding 14 per cent of the vote share in our European parliament poll, but it is easy to see how much of this could shift away once the campaign gets going.' Adding to the trouble for Theresa May's (pictured in Wales on Sunday) party are fears of a 'donor strike' amid fury at the Prime Minister's handling of Brexit The Brexit Party has surged into the lead in the race for the European Elections after a top pollster predicted Nigel Farage's new party could win its first election The analysis comes amid claims the Conservative Party treasurer Sir Mick Davis has dipped into his own pocket to cover the campaign for Mrs May's party. One Tory source told The Times: 'Mick Davis is having to reach into his own pocket to fund campaigning, at least up front. 'Hopefully we'll recoup it later but Mick had to tell cabinet recently about the dire funding situation, particularly among Remain-leaning donors, because of the situation on Brexit.' Sir Mick has given 5.2 million to the Conservative Party since Electoral Commission records began, 295,000 of which was given in donations reported to the watchdog this year. He became chief executive and treasurer in June 2017, shortly after the Tory's botched general election. Annunziata Rees-Mogg was unveiled as the Brexit Party's star candidate at the European Elections by Nigel Farage and she blasted MPs including her brother, pictured last week Last week, Mr Farage launched his new Brexit Party and announced Jacob Rees-Mogg's sister Annunziata as his first star MEP candidate - as she quit the Tories after 35 years. Who is Annunziata Rees-Mogg? Jacob's younger sister who stood as a Tory in 2010 Annunziata Rees-Mogg was unveiled as the Brexit Party's star candidate at the European Elections by Nigel Farage. The younger sister of Brexit hardliner Jacob Rees-Mogg, Annunziata is a 40-year-old married mother of one. She last appeared on the political stage in 2010 as the Tory candidate in Somerton and Froome, losing to the Lib Dems by less than 2,000 votes. Ahead of the poll it was claimed David Cameron asked her to shorten her name to Nancy Mogg - but she refused and later claimed 'I think it's phoney to pretend to be someone you're not'. Just like her older brother, Annunziata has been steeped in the family business of Tory politics since she was a child. She told the Independent in 2006 she joined the Tories aged 5 and added: 'I was too young to be a Young Conservative, so I joined the main party. 'Aged eight I was out canvassing, proudly wearing my rosette.' She currently works as a director of the public affairs recruiter Wild Search. She previously worked as a journalist for the Daily Telegraph and the European Journal, a magazine printed by the think tank owned by Tory Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash. Annunziata married former soldier Matthew Glanville in 2010 and they have a daughter, Isadora. Advertisement The former UKIP leader has vowed to take votes from the 'tarnished' party he left in December and started a new war of words with successor Gerard Batten by claiming he lacks 'good people' and has allowed a 'take over' by the far right. Launching the party in Coventry Mr Farage said it is 'no more Mr Nice Guy' before unveiling his secret weapon Ms Rees-Mogg, whose brother told MailOnline: 'The Brexit Party is fortunate to have such a high calibre candidate but I am sorry that Annunziata has left the Conservative party'. His younger sister previously stood as a Tory candidate in the 2005 and 2010 general elections and joined the party aged five - but has now jumped ship after Theresa May failed to deliver Brexit. She defected from the Tories to join Mr Farage's revolt. The 40-year-old mother-of-one, once one of David Cameron's 'cuties' who refused party requests to 'de-toff' her name to Nancy, blasted MPs, including her older sibling. At the launch she said: 'The politicians are not our masters - they are to do our bidding. 'We need to fight back to take back our democracy. It's as drastic as that. 'It is our fight and we must fight to win'. She said she had stuck with the Tories 'through thick and thin' but Brexit had been the last straw. She said: 'But the point at which our Prime Minister will not listen, not only to her membership, but will not listen to the people of her country. 'I can't sit by and let her do it. We've got to rescue our democracy, we have got to show that the people of this country have a say in how we are run'. The first picture has emerged of a 19-year-old student who was burned to death in Bangladesh after accusing the headmaster of her Islamic school of rape. Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, died on April 10, four days after a mob doused her with kerosene on the roof of her school in the town of Femi, south of the capital Dhaka. Police have since arrested 15 people, seven of whom they believe were directly involved in the attack. At least two male students were among those detained. Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body during an attack by fellow students after accusing the headmaster of her school of rape The tragedy began on March 27 when Rafi said the headmaster of her madrassa, or Islamic school, called her into his office, the BBC reports. She claimed the man, named locally as Siraj-ud-Daula, repeatedly touched her inappropriately and that she fled, before going to the police station the same day. In a video-taped interrogation, Rafi gave details of the alleged assault which were later leaked to the local media. The allegations caused a backlash against her and her family, with male pupils from her school organising a rally in support of the headmaster. Rafi had exams to attend at the school on April 6, but fearing for her safety she tried to take her brother along for protection. The teenager's death provoked a fierce backlash among locals who took to the streets in protest, prompting police to arrest 15 people In a video recorded after the attack, Rafi said four or five people wearing burqas lured her to the school's roof, threw kerosene on her, and set her alight (pictured, protests in Bangladesh) He was barred from entering the school building, and a short while later Rafi was lured to the roof on the pretext that one of her friends was being beaten up there. Instead, she was confronted by a group of people wearing burqas who demanded that she drop her complaint against the headmaster. When she refused, the group held her down, poured kerosene over her and set her alight before fleeing. The group had apparently tried to make the incident look like a suicide - self-immolation is not an uncommon method of suicide among sex attack victims in that part of the world - but she survived. While being taken to hospital in an ambulance, Rafi used her brother's mobile phone to record a video about her attack in which she named some of the people she believed were responsible, according to the BBC. A group of people staged a demonstration in Sylhet, Bangladesh this afternoon demanding justice for Nusrat Jahan Rafi News of the attack has sparked a fierce backlash among locals and drawn protesters on to the streets demanding justice. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met Nusrat's family in Dhaka and promised that 'none of the culprits will be spared from legal action.' Daula remains in police custody where he has been held since the alleged attack. Fifteen others are now being held alongside him, while the police officer who filmed Rafi's confession has since been removed from his post. Nusrat's funeral ceremony was held on Thursday in her hometown, Uttar Charsandia. Her father, Musa Manik, said: 'We are satisfied with the progress of the investigation, but a speedy trial is a must.' This is the horrifying moment carjacking thugs drag a tourist from her vehicle at gunpoint in South Africa after ramming her and shooting through the window. The 19-year-old Namibian was outside the gated complex to visit her friend in Randburg, Johannesburg, when the men went into the back of her Volkswagen. Two get out of the SUV banging on her windows, before one blasts through the glass with a handgun. They then haul her out by her hair and drive off as she stands screaming helplessly in the road. The thug in the white cap blasts through the driver's side window, while another stands on her bonnet outside the gates of the complex in Randburg, Johannesburg The men haul the terrified young woman out by her hair while the driver of the SUV which rammed her begins backing out of the driveway At least one other person is in the gang's getaway SUV and speeds off as the two men complete the robbery. According to local media, the student from Namibia was visiting family friends when the attack took place. The young woman, who has been studying ophthalmology at the University of Johannesburg since January, was calling her friend Ester van Rensburg at the security gates when a gang of at least three men stole her vehicle, according to reports. Van Rensburg told local media: 'There have been many burglaries in the past in our complex, so we put up a huge security gate and cameras at our entrance.' Van Rensburg claimed that the armed men drove into the back of the victim's car and the teenager 'thought they wanted to come and say sorry'. Van Rensburg said that the victim's car was found within 40 minutes, adding: 'All the neighbours responded immediately and tracking was amazing. We could see the registration number on the footage and that is when we alerted everyone. The tourist from Namibia can be seen shrieking in terror as the callous thieves hop into her Volkswagen The armed man on the near side approaches the driver while the other robber on the far side tries to open the passenger side door 'It is just her phone that was missing, but fortunately her laptop with all her assignments and student stuff and purse were in the boot and they didn't take that.' Meanwhile, the teenager is said to be staying with the Van Rensburg family until her mother flies in from Namibia. It is unclear whether the police are investigating the incident. Horvath (pictured) travelled to the UK to target shops across several cities and has now been allowed to return to Romania A Romanian girl jailed after she flew to the UK to shoplift across the country has been freed to return home. Madalina Horvath travelled to Britain in 2015 when she was just 16 so she could steal more than 15,000 worth of consumer goods from stores in a spree that hit cities including Cambridge and Manchester. The 19-year-old was jailed up for 14 months after she admitted five charges of theft this month. But a judge has now ruled she can return to the village of Bata to save the taxpayer 8,000 in prison costs. The teenager was first arrested in Kent, granted bail and told to attend court - only to disappear and go on another thieving expedition. She was rearrested in November last year with accomplices at the Trafford Centre mall after the group stole thousands of pounds worth of items from John Lewis. Earlier this month she was jailed, only to be brought back to court this week to have her sentence slashed. Judge Bernard Lever allowed her to return home immediately when she presented him with a one-way ticket back to Romania. He did this by knocking four months off her sentence and taking into account the time that she had spent on remand. Horvath, who had been living in Coventry, sobbed in the dock at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, as Judge Lever slammed the 'completely unacceptable' practice of 'professional gangs of shoplifters' coming to the UK to 'interfere with the lawful commerce of shops in this country'. 'Your behaviour was a complete disgrace,' he said. 'We are very welcoming of foreigners in this country and you will not be treated any differently because you are from Romania. However all we ask is that people simply abide by the law. 'The fact is you went on a professional shoplifting spree and you were at the epicentre at the planning of it - 3000 in this town 2000 in that town, going round the country. Whilst on the run you still stole thousands of pounds worth of goods here in Greater Manchester before you were caught and remanded in custody. 'This was no ordinary shop lifting expedition - this was professional theft by a gang and as a result last week I imposed a sentence of 12 months with an additional two months consecutive on you making 14 months Horvath (pictured) has been allowed to return immediately to Romania 'You had never been to prison before and you have already served the equivalent of a 10 month sentence - but what I'm going to do for you is only possible because you are young, have no previous convictions, and have expressed a view that you want immediately to go home to Romania. 'I would not shorten a sentence in normal circumstances but it costs the tax payer of this country between 3000- 4000 a month to keep you in custody. 'My decision to vary your sentence will save the tax payer between 6000 and 8000 and also has the highly desirable effect, after a significant period in custody, of getting you out of this country by your own wishes within 24 hours. 'I make it clear that crimes to which you have pleaded guilty would not have warranted a deportation order but happily in your case by using the ticket which I have inspected to fly out back to Romania tomorrow having served a shortened custodial sentence has produced both justice and savings to the hard pressed tax payer. It will also fulfil your wish to return home and not to return to this country. 'If you do return to this country within the next 12 months you will be subject to a licence period but you have indicated that you want to remain at home and stay away from this country. 'I see you nodding, this present sentence has been very hard on you has it not? I see you crying. 'So when you return home feel free to tell your friends and everybody else what happens to people who come over from other countries to be professional shop lifters - it is not pleasant. It is my intention that you should be immediately released so that you can get the plane back to Romania tomorrow with the ticket I have seen. 'Let the record show I said there was no reason for an interpreter, there was no necessity for prosecuting council to attend, my intention was to minimise public expense. 'It is completely unacceptable for people to come to this country as professional gangs of shoplifters and interfere with the lawful commerce of shops in this country. 'The sooner that she leaves this country the better. If she wants to catch the next plane out of this country instead of serving the licence period, then she is welcome.' Horvath was later freed from the court via a side door to avoid waiting photographers. The court heard the offences took place between July 2015 and November last year. Items stolen included five BOSE headphones and three memory cards worth 1184.89 from a John Lewis store at Manchester's Trafford Centre plus five Beats headphones and two Apple 'time capsules' to the value of 2566 from Watford shopping centre. Other consumer items stolen included sixteen Ipod Touches worth 2864 from a John Lewis store at the Victoria Centre, In Nottingham, Apple products worth 6,839 from another branch of the department store chain in Cambridge. Prosecutor Juliet Berry told an earlier hearing: 'She has been in custody since her final arrest on November 8 with the first offence being committed on July 18 2015. The defendant entered the Apple Store in Watford and was with other people, she stole headphones and two time capsules to the value of 2500. On 3 November 2016 the defendant entered John Lewis in Nottingham - again with others, there were two other people and 16 iPods were taken to the value of 2800. 'On 4 November 2016, she entered the John Lewis store in Cambridge and stole Apple products to the value of 6800, with other people again. 'On 12 December 2016, the defendant went into three stores in the Blue Water shopping centre and stole six sets of headphones to the value of 999 belonging to John Lewis, she stole two pairs of Chanel sunglasses to the value of 600 from an opticians and nine items of clothing belonging to Warehouse. 'On 8 November 2018 she entered John Lewis in the Trafford Centre in Manchester and stole five sets of headphones and three memory cards the total amount was 1400. The grand total for the amount of items that she has stolen comes to 15,443.' Horvath thanked the judge as she walked free. In mitigation defence lawyer James Priest said: 'Her partner is going back to Romania and she does want to go back as well. She has no previous convictions on her record.' A 'dead' dog has been returned to its astonished owners after it dug its way out of a shallow grave. Dik, 18, was given a funeral by his owners in the village of Novonikolsk, in Russia's far eastern Primorsky Krai region, after being found motionless on his blanket. But it is understood that he woke up shortly after being buried, dug his way out of the grave, and made his way to a nearby motorway. Dik, an 18-year-old pet dog from eastern Russia, was buried by his owner (pictured) in a pet cemetery after they found him motionless on his blanket and couldn't wake him But soon after being buried in a shallow grave Dik dug himself out, found his way to a nearby motorway and was taken to an animal shelter by passers-by Passers-by spotted the exhausted Dik lying by the road and took him to 'Otkroi Svoe Serdtse' (Open Your Heart) pet shelter. Later the shelter employees posted the pictures of Dik on their social media hoping to find him a new home. Dik's owners spotted the pictures and came to the pet shelter to take him home. Irina Mudrova, who is head of the shelter, said: 'Dik's owners thought that he was dead after failing to wake him up. 'Fortunately, they buried him not deep underground and he managed to get to the surface after regaining consciousness. 'His owners, two elderly sisters, came to take him home and cried. 'They were very grateful and donated 5,000 rubles (60) to our shelter.' The shelter put pictures of Dik on social media in an attempt to find him a new home, before his owners spotted him and went to retrieve him As word of Dik's revival spread online, commentors compared the story to Stephen King's Pet Sematary (pictured) and worried for the owner's safety The story caused debates among netizens with some referring to 'Pet Sematary', a horror novel by Stephen King where buried pets return to life 'fundamentally wrong'. Social media user 'Kasyanenko Anastassiya' said: 'I wonder, have Dik's owners read Pet Sematary? Are they afraid for their lives?' And 'Kresla_125rus' said: 'I am crying because I am happy for Dik! He has such loving owners!' While 'Venya_1603' commented: 'Once I almost buried my cat alive. I thought she died and started panicking. Luckily, she woke up before I buried her.' A New Zealand university's graduation procession has been cancelled due to fears of copycat terrorism in the wake of the Christchurch shooting. Students attending the University of Auckland take part in a graduation tradition where they march through the city streets to celebrate the completion of their studies. Rising terror fears in the months following the Christchurch attack has forced the Vice Chancellor to call off the long standing tradition this year. Rising concerns of copycat terror attacks in the months following the Christchurch shooting has forced the Vice Chancellor to cancel the university's graduation procession and tradition Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon said following discussions with the police and others, he has found it necessary to cancel the procession. 'We know that following events such as the Christchurch mosque shootings there is a period of several months during which the risk of related or copycat terrorist events is increased,' Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon said. 'Although we know of no specific risk to the graduation processions or ceremonies, we nevertheless need to consider that increased general risk. 'We also, of course, pay careful attention to health, safety and well-being matters related to the ceremonies themselves. I am confident that we are doing everything necessary in this regard.' Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon said following discussions with the police and others, he has found it necessary to cancel the procession. Though there are means of decreasing potential risk, those means could encourage other forms of terrorism like those seen overseas. The Vice-Chancellor said though the university can decrease potential risk of a terrorist attack, doing so could also be dangerous. 'While there would be ways of significantly decreasing the risk associated with the processions, these would involve blocking off all intersections and side streets between Old Government House and the Aotea Centre to ensure that there could not be the kinds of 'vehicle as a weapon' incidents that have been seen in other cities. 'This would lead to a level of traffic disruption that may be unacceptable to the City but that, even if acceptable, could not be negotiated and organised in the time available.' The horrific Christchurch terror attack resulted in the deaths of 50 Muslim worshipers and another 50 were seriously injured. The alleged shooter, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, has been charged with 50 counts of murder The horrific Christchurch terror attack resulted in the deaths of 50 Muslim worshipers and another 50 were seriously injured. The alleged shooter, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, has been charged with 50 counts of murder. The Australian-born man is accused of gunning down almost 100 people in a sickening attack on the Al Noor and Linwood mosques that was live-streamed and shared to Facebook on March 15. In the wake of the attacks, gun laws have been changed in New Zealand, with semi-automatic weapons now banned. A 'trouble maker' bull has sent his farmhands into fits of laughter after getting inside a hay ring and pulling all across his farm. The huge animal sashayed around a field wearing a metal ring feeder to alert a farmer that he was hungry - despite being surrounded by plentiful lush green grass. Kody Wordelman watched the hilarious scene unfold at his farm in Jamestown, Missouri, after searching for the missing feeder. The full-time farmer watched open mouthed as the hefty balancer bull, known as '200', strutted across the field sporting the metal ring in a bid to bag some extra hay. 200's stubborness won through in the end however, as Kody was forced to release him from the feeder and satisfy his craving for the dried variety of grass. Animal lover Kody, who documents his animals' antics on social media, uploaded the video on Facebook where it has gone viral, racking up 2.9 million views. Kody, 30, said: 'In the spring, once the grass starts growing, we start feeding them less hay. The balancer bull known as '200' has been seen dragging a metal ring feeder across his field as a way of asking for more hay 'He wasn't satisfied with the fresh green grass so his solution was to start dragging the hay ring that we put hay bales in with him to let me know he wanted more. 'My bulls are well known for causing me trouble, whether it's tearing up fences or visiting the neighbours. '200's a tame animal and will eat corn out of your hand but he does consistently cause trouble. 'He'll jump over a gate and ruin it just to be on the other side but if you call for him he will come right back and act like he didn't do anything wrong. 'This was a little more unusual incident and we got a good laugh out of it.' Kody Wordelman watched the hilarious scene unfold at his farm in Jamestown, Missouri after searching for the missing feeder Farmer Kody said that people had responded in a positive way to the clip - once they realised he wasn't trapped in a cage. Kody, who raises corn, soybeans, hay and cattle, said: 'Most people got a good laugh out of it. 'On the farm you never know what's going to happen but it's a new adventure every day. 'Before I started filming we'd actually gone out looking for the hay ring to put out more hay. 'I assumed it rolled down the hill but as I was walking past I looked up and saw it bouncing my across the next ridge. I thought it was hilarious.' The North Korean leader, who had not attended a test-firing exercise since November, set the "phased and strategic goals" for maintaining his country's munitions production. According to South Korean experts, the new weapon could be a newly developed short-range guided missile. The first meeting between Kim and the Russian president might take place next week. Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has supervised the test-firing of a new tactical guided weapon, calling its development an "event of very weighty significance" in beefing up his regimes military power, state media reported today. This comes amid Russian and Japanese media reports that Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Vladivostok. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the test took place Wednesday but did not specify what the newly developed weapon was. For Kim, this was the first time he oversaw a weapon testing exercise since November. His visit to the testing centre came a day after he visited an air force unit. North Koreas strongman also set the "phased and strategic goals" for maintaining his regimes munitions production, putting national defence science and technology on a "cutting edge level," and ordering "detailed tasks and ways to attain them." According to South Korean experts, the new weapon could be a newly developed short-range guided or cruise missile. Kim's attendance at the test-firing may also be a warning to the United States. The test-firing came after Kim suggested a year-end deadline for denuclearisation negotiations following the breakdown of the February summit with Trump in Vietnam. Meanwhile, a Russian newspaper has cited a Foreign Ministry source saying preparations are under way for a summit between President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next week, whilst a Japanese TV reported Kim's protocol chief was in the Russian city of Vladivostok. According to some reports, the first summit between the two leaders is expected to take place ahead of Putin's trip to China for an international conference on 26-27 April. Spartan Tories insisted today they would never vote for Theresa May's Brexit deal and said staying in the EU for longer was a better solution to the impasse. The hardline intervention is a fresh blow to the Prime Minister's hopes that sending MPs away from Westminster for a week of Easter holidays would cool tempers. Mrs May herself is in Snowdonia trying to find a new strategy for getting her deal through Parliament after it was crushed three times by MPs. At the last vote she was still defied by 28 Tory Brexiteer rebels in the hardline European Research Group. Since the vote, the number of rebels has if anything gone back up. One of them, former Cabinet minister David Jones, said a long extension inside the EU was better than signing up for the deal. He said delay allowed time for a new deal or better preparations for No Deal. He was backed by Stewart Jackson, a former Tory MP and chief of staff to David Davis when he was Brexit Secretary. Spartan Tories insisted today they would never vote for Theresa May's (pictured in Wales on Sunday) Brexit deal and said staying in the EU for longer was a better solution to the impasse One of them, former Cabinet minister David Jones, said a long extension inside the EU was better than signing up for the deal. He said delay allowed time for a new deal or better preparations for No Deal. Mr Jones told Politico: A reasonably long extension of the Article 50 period, though unwelcome, is preferable to entering the transitional arrangement set out in the Withdrawal Agreement,' 'It enables us to elect a new party leader and then hold an election seeking a mandate for an early withdrawal, if necessary, on World Trade Organization terms. 'It is not the big problem that the EU thinks it is.' Mr Jackson told the site: 'It's not a deal it's a binding international treaty with no unilateral exit mechanism or end date, which colonizes a part of the UK to a foreign sovereign entity.' He added: 'We cannot 'lose' Brexit because we voted for it. It doesn't matter how long it will take, it's more important than the Tory Party. 'You can't put the genie back in the bottle, the impact will be too corrosive to our democracy.' Mrs May's troubles have continued to mount while she has been on holiday this week as senior activists plot to remove her. An emergency meeting will be called if 65 Conservative Association chairmen sign a petition demanding one. Between 40 and 50 are thought to have done so. The petition blames Mrs May for Brexit being delayed twice and says she is the wrong person to lead the negotiations with the EU onward. Even if 65 chairmen sign the letter it will take at least 28 days for the emergency meeting to be called - and no confidence vote would not be enough to force Mrs May out, though defeat would be a fresh humiliation for the PM. An emergency meeting could also seek to change party rules to dislodge Mrs May but this would take even longer. Mrs May is protected under party rules from a fresh challenge by her MPs until at least December after Brexiteers tried and failed to remove her last year. Despite the stalemate, rivals to replace her as Tory leader and PM are campaigning in Westminster while she is on holiday in north Wales. Footy star Josh Caddy has revealed the bizarre story behind the massive tattoo on his leg. The 26-year-old's ink of a sultry-looking woman, which stretches from his knee to his ankle, is not of his girlfriend - or even someone he knows. 'It's just an Insta famous chick that I went and got a tattoo of,' the Richmond Forward told The Footy Show on Wednesday. Scroll down for video Josh Caddy (pictured with his partner Caitlin) revealed his girlfriend has not said much about his calf tattoo The tattoo is of model Marina Laswick, boasts 700,000 followers on Instagram The 26-year-old Canadian beauty has the honor of featuring on Josh Caddy's leg for the rest of his life The 'insta chick' is model Marina Laswick, who boasts 700,000 followers on Instagram. Caddy said he didn't put too much thought behind getting the 26-year-old Canadian beauty tattooed on his leg. However, he did admit the model was probably a bit hard to get. 'Shes a bit out of my league, shes over in America.' Instagram model and blogger Marina Laswick boasts 700,000 followers During the interview Caddy revealed to host Neroli Meadows his partner Caitlin might not be too thrilled about his new ink. 'She hasn't said much about it. She's probably not happy During the interview Caddy revealed to host Neroli Meadows his partner Caitlin might not be too thrilled about his new ink. 'She hasn't said much about it. She's probably not happy,' he said. The ink took about 12 hours complete and has already created some confusion online, with some people thinking the artwork was of his partner. In a social media post featuring Caddy and his girlfriend, a friend commented: 'Good to see you've already got her tattooed on ya calf'. It took 12 hours for Caddy to get the image of model Marina Laswick(pictured) on his leg Tries to scare the bird out and opens side door onto a busy interstate road Trucker pulls over to get rid of bird that broke into front car of his truck This is the hilarious moment a trucker forces a mischievous turkey out of his vehicle - only to meet its fate seconds later. After watching the animal's cruel end, the driver quips 'well he didn't make it very far'. The incident is believed to have happened on a US highway, the equivalent to a British motorway. While driving his truck on the highway, Kevin Bokelman had a large turkey fly through the window into the front cabin. Footage shows him stopping his truck by the road to get the animal back to freedom, but things quickly complicated. 'Right, I've got to try get this turkey out of my truck,' he can be heard saying while at first deciding how to deal with the large creature. At first making shooing noises at the animal, he realises the bird might need a bit more direction. Trucker Kevin Bokelman opens the door of his truck to reveal a stowaway turkey on the back seat 'OK, you've got to go stupid. C'mon go out the same way you came in,' he says pointing at the cabin's window. When imitating a turkey 'gobble gobble' noise doesn't work either, he walks around to a side door to force the turkey out. Stopping to let a fast moving truck pass, he throws open the door in what suddenly seems like a very bad idea. Getting back into the front of the cabin he once again shoos the bird to exit. 'Alright, door's open get the f*** out,' he says as the bird quickly takes flight to avoid his waving. Dead-winger: The bird is forced out onto the busy highway but quickly meets its fate when hit by a car, leaving only a pile of feathers The bird fly through the open door, gliding straight onto the highway, where it is almost immediately hit by a car with a loud thud. Feathers can be seen flying everywhere as the Kevin stands in stunned silent for a split second. And then without any hesitation, he says 'well he didn't make it very far', before going to get back in his truck. Turkeys are known to be the cause of several accidents across the United States every week. The Duke of Rutland has offered to donate mature oak trees grown on his estate at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire to help restore Notre Dame. The 850-year-old cathedral in central Paris lost its spire and much of the ornate timber roof during Monday's devastating blaze. French cultural heritage expert Bertrand de Feydeau said France no longer has trees on its territory big enough to replace Notre Dame's ancient wooden beams, which were cut in the 13th century from primal forests. But the Duke of Rutland and a number of other owners of historic British estates have now offered to provide some of the oaks. The Duke of Rutland has volunteered to donate mature oaks from the historic Belvoir estate (pictured) in Leicestershire, saying the Notre Dame fire is a reminder to 'both look after and renew our heritage resources' So far some 100 members of the Historic Houses association, to which Belvoir Castle (pictured) belongs have pledged trees to help rebuilt Notre Dame's ornate timber roof 'Anyone who lives in an old building knows there's something special about the way it was built and the materials used,' the Duke said. 'The trees in the original roof at Notre Dame probably started growing over a thousand years ago. We're able to donate replacements because my great-great-grandfather had the foresight to plant trees that would only be valuable long after he died. 'And in turn we'll replant every tree we fell someone will need them for something in another few hundred years. 'It's a reminder of how important it is to both look after and renew our heritage resources. In our business you have to plan in centuries, not years,' he added. Flames and smoke rise from the blaze at Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris on Monday evening Paris fire brigade BSPP General Jean-Claude Gallet (centre left), Paris Prefect Didier Lallement (centre right), French President Emmanuel Macron (right) and the audience stand guard at the Elysee presidential Palace in Paris during a tribute ceremony to BSPP's staff and other emergency workers who saved Notre Dame in the devastating blaze three days ago So far more than 100 members of Historic Houses, which represents independently owned notable houses and gardens, have pledged to donate trees which were planted centuries ago. The association says on its website that Hutton-in-the-Forest, Scone Palace, Castle Howard, Holkham Hall, Powderham Castle, and Firle Place have all volunteered to help. Historic Houses President James Birch, who has pledged timber from Doddington Hall, said the Notre Dame fire was 'a reminder of how our great buildings provide a cultural back drop to everyday life that is often only recognised when they are threatened. 'Some of our members have first-hand experience of the damage and destruction of catastrophic fires. It's fitting that we would offer to help restore such an important part of the world's heritage.' Firefighters arrive at the Elysee Presidential Palace for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on April 18, 2019 French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech for the Parisian Firefighters' brigade and security forces who took part at the fire extinguishing operations at Notre Dame Donors admit that despite their best efforts they will only be able to provide a small fraction of the some 1,300 mature oaks that went into the construction of the original roof. However they hope the gesture will inspire others. French President Emmanuel Macron wants to rebuild the cathedral within five years - in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics that Paris is hosting - but experts have questioned whether that is realistic, given the vast scale of the work. French firefighters at the scene of Monday's fire at Notre Dame cathedra One said the rebuilding project would easily take 15 years. More than 750 million has been pledged for the restoration. Bishop Patrick Chauvet, Notre Dame's rector, said a temporary wooden 'ephemeral cathedral' should be built on the site's esplanade while restoration takes place. Speaking to CNews Chauvet said: 'We mustn't say "the cathedral is closed for five years and that's it",' suggesting, 'Can I not build an ephemeral cathedral on the esplanade (in front of Notre-Dame)?' Chauvet said the wooden church would host priests who could address some of the millions of tourists who throng the original 850-year-old Gothic cathedral each year. The Bishop said the surrogate 'cathedral' would be erected quickly, as soon as the esplanade reopens after work to secure the cathedral is completed. Donations rising to a billion euros have been added to the rebuilding project, including free flights from France-KLM to those participating in the project. In a statement the airline said: 'Air France will provide free transport for all official partners involved in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.' French President Emmanuel Macron (left) speaks with Notre Dame's rector Patrick Chauvet on Wednesday after meetings on the reconstruction at the Elysee Palace Macron hailed as 'exemplary' hundreds of firefighters who battled for eight hours to extinguish the blaze on Monday evening The blaze which tore down the cathedral's steeple and much of its roof, would have been far worse if not for Paris' brave firefighters who Macron met on Thursday. The president hosted them for a special gathering to share 'words of thanks', as efforts intensified to ensure there was no further damage to the still fragile cathedral. 'The country and the entire world were watching us and you were exemplary,' Macron said. 'You were the perfect example of what we should be,' he added. Some 600 firefighters worked throughout the night Monday to put out the fire at the Paris landmark and prevent an even worse disaster, in a blaze that felled the spire and destroyed two-thirds of its roof. Parisian Firefighters' brigade arrives at Elysee Palace to attend a speech of the French President Emmanuel Macron French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner (left), First Lady Brigitte Macron and Chauvet arrive to attend a mass, as part of the Holy Week, at the Saint Sulpice Church in Paris on Wednesday Dressed in ceremonial uniform, the firefighters and other emergency workers filed into the Elysee Palace for the closed-door meeting with Macron. The President said the firefighters would be awarded France's golden medal of honour in recognition of their 'courage and devotion'. Sixty of them are still keeping a vigil at Notre-Dame to ensure no further fire erupts while France's culture minister warned that two gables and figurines perched high up in the building were still at risk of collapse inside. Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and Senior government ministers also took part in the event at the presidential palace in Paris. The ceremony this afternoon will see a reading of Victor Hugo's celebrated novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (called simply Notre-Dame de Paris in the original French) about the deformed Quasimodo that helped turn the building into a cultural, as well as religious icon. French firefighters pull supplies and hoses from their trucks outside Notre Dame on Monday night Firefighters stand in tall crane as they tackled the ferocious inferno on Monday evening Fire fighters line up as they wait for French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner outside Notre on Tuesday There will also be a Bach violin concert, and two giant banners strung from the monumental city headquarters. More than 400 firefighters took part in the nine-hour battle to save the 12th-century cathedral on Monday evening. They were able to save the iconic belfries, rose windows, organ and precious artworks. No one was killed in the fire, which occurred during a mass, after firefighters and church officials speedily evacuated the building. French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, right, greets firefighters outside Notre cathedral in Paris on Tuesday French Interior minister Christophe Castaner (top left), Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (top right), defence minister Florence Parly (bottom left) and general Jean-Louis Georgelin (bottom right) arrive at the Elysee Presidential Palace for a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron and firefighters who battled to save Notre Dame on Monday Among those to be honoured is Paris fire brigade chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who helped salvage the crown of thorns believed to have been worn by Jesus at his crucifixion. Another is Myriam Chudzinski, among the first firefighters to reach the roof as the blaze raged. Loaded with gear, they climbed hundreds of steps up a narrow spiral staircase to the top of one of the two towers. She had trained at the cathedral for just this moment. 'We knew that the roof was burning, but we didn't really know the intensity,' she told reporters. Rector-Archpriest of Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris, Monsignor Patrick Chauvet and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo arrive at the Elysee Presidential Palace on Thursday French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (left), First Lady Brigitte Macron (second left), Archibishop of Paris Jean-Marc Chauvet (second right) and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo (right) attend the President Emmanuel Macron's speech for the Parisian Firefighters' brigade and security forces Chaplain of the Paris Fire Department, Jean-Marc Fournier walks down the steps of the Elysee Palace in Paris after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. Fournier has been hailed as a hero after he entered the burning Notre Dame cathedral to help authorities rescue priceless relics from the blaze 'It was from upstairs that you understood that it was really dramatic. It was very hot and we had to retreat, retreat. It was spreading quickly.' She heard a roar, but her focus was on saving the tower. She learned later that it was the sound of the spire collapsing. Investigators believe the fire was accidental and are questioning cathedral staff and workers who were carrying out renovations to the building before the fire broke out. Some 40 people have been questioned and some are being quizzed again on Thursday, according the Paris prosecutor's office. Fire officials warn that the massive cathedral remains fragile, and are removing statues above the rose windows to keep them from falling. The building would have burned to the ground in a 'chain-reaction collapse' had firefighters not moved as rapidly as they did to battle the blaze, said Jose Vaz de Matos, a fire expert with the Culture Ministry. An initial fire alert was sounded at 6.20pm as a mass was under way in the cathedral, but no fire was found. A second alarm went off at 6.43pm and the blaze was discovered on the roof. This map shows how half of England is owned by less than one per cent of the population. Around 25,000 landowners, made up mostly of the aristocracy and corporations, control vast swathes of the country Half of England is owned by less than one per cent of the population, new figures have revealed. Analysis of Land Registry documents and maps for a new book shows just 25,000 landowners control huge swathes of the country despite the population being 55million. The research found the 25,000 is mostly made up of members of the aristocracy and large corporations, with critics saying it shows how 'astonishingly unequal' the distribution of wealth is in England. And the data was also used to create a full break down of land ownership across England, showing that the aristocracy alone holds 30 per cent of the country. Another 18 per cent belongs to corporations while City bankers and oligarchs own 17 per cent of land. Public sector bodies including councils and universities own another 8.5 per cent, with private homeowners, conservation charities and the Church of England owning around 7.5 per cent combined. The research by activist and author Guy Shrubsole also shows that if the land was distributed equally across the entire population of 55million, each person would have around an acre of land. It has been shared with The Guardian and shows major landowners include The Queen, businessman James Dyson and water firm United Utilities. In his book, Mr Shrubsole wrote: 'A few thousand dukes, baronets and country squires own far more land than all of middle England put together. 'Land ownership in England is astonishingly unequal, heavily concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite.' This graph shows the full breakdown of land ownership in England and how much each sector owns. The aristocracy and gentry own 30 per cent, corporations 18 per cent and oligarch and City bankers 17 per cent. The 1 per cent of 25,000 landowners who own half of England are made up primarily of the aristocracy, corporations and the royal family Among the most prominent landowners in England are The Queen, left, and Royal Family, who own around 1.4 per cent, and businessman James Dyson, right, who owns thousands of acres of farmland in Lincolnshire. Business oligarchs and City bankers are believed to own around 17 per cent of land in England Another 17 per cent of land in England is 'undeclared', which means it has not been sold on the open market and therefore does not have to be logged with the Land Registry. It is likely this section also belongs to aristocrats who have kept it in their family for generations and never sold it. Among the prominent landowners in the aristocracy are the Duke of Buccleuch, who owns the Boughton estate in Northamptonshire, and the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort who own the Badminton estate in Gloucestershire. The Royal Family is believed to hold around 1.4 per cent of English land through the Crown Estate and the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster. The aristocracy owns about 30 per cent of land in England and critics say it shows they wield as much power and influence as they always have. Pictured left is the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, who own the Badminton estate in Gloucestershire, and right is the Duke of Buccleuch, the largest private landowner in Scotland who also owns the Boughton estate in Northamptonshire The findings led to calls for a debate in Parliament as critics claim it is 'unfair' that aristocrats and corporations have 'more influence over neighbourhoods than the people who live there'. Labour shadow minister Jon Trickett told the Guardian: 'The dramatic concentration of land ownership is an inescapable reminder that ours is a country for the few and not the many.' Carys Roberts, chief economist at thinktank The Institute for Public Policy Research, added the figures were 'shocking but not surprising' and that it revealed that the aristocracy is still as important in modern society 'in terms of wealth and power' as it was in past centuries. The book reveals the public sector, ie councils and universities, owns around eight per cent of the country and is the most 'open' sector around land holdings because such institutions frequently sell off sections. Meanwhile charities including the National Trust own around two per cent of the country, with the church holding around 0.5 per cent. US Speaker Nancy Pelosi reprimanded a leading Brexiteer for being 'condescending' in a meeting during her visit to the UK, it emerged today. Nancy Pelosi - the third most powerful person in the US Government - scolded Mark Francois, a member of the European Research Group, during private talks this week. Ms Pelosi completed a tour of the UK and Ireland and held a series of meetings about Brexit. She issued a stern warning that if Brexit undermines the Good Friday Agreement it will end hopes of a US-UK trade deal. The Irish border question fuelled the clash with Mr Francois during a meeting this week, sources told The Times. A leading Brexiteer was reprimanded for being 'condescending' in a meeting with the Speaker of the US Congress Nancy Pelosi (pictured yesterday in Dublin), it emerged today Ms Pelosi - the third most powerful person in the US Government - told off Mark Francois during private talks this week Ms Pelosi became 'so offended by the ERG group that she turned to [Mark] Francois and reprimanded him'. 'She said, ''Don't condescend to me or to us''. His face turned from already red to even brighter red. 'They were really condescending to the group, repeatedly saying the issue had been ''concocted'' by Remainers, Brussels, and Leo Varadkar, and essentially that they were unwitting dupes.' Mr Francois did not deny the incident when asked for his response. He said: 'We had a good discussion with Speaker Pelosi and her delegation in which she kindly said twice, ''You guys have been the most consistent of anybody we have spoken to since we've been here''. 'However, a number of the delegation had clearly visited the province prior to 1998 and made constant references to a hard border, including some cases of barbed wire and watchtowers. 'We did our best to point out that no one was contemplating any such arrangement on the border including Leo Varadkar who has said himself that no such infrastructure would be necessary.' She issued a stern warning that if Brexit undermines the Good Friday Agreement it will end hopes of a US-UK trade deal Speaking in Dublin yesterday, Ms Pelosi said two decades of peace cannot be jeopardised by the Brexit process. 'We treasure the Good Friday accord because it is not just a treaty, it is an ethic, it is a value, it is an article of faith for us, it is a beacon to the world,' she said. 'We treasure the Good Friday accord because of what it says is possible for the entire world and the reason to hope that in every place the dreams of reconciliation is possible for them too. 'As you face the challenges posed by Brexit, know that the United States Congress, Democrats and Republicans, in the House and in the Senate, stand with you.' She added that children born 21 years ago know only peace. 'We cannot jeopardise that,' she added. A judge has lashed 'cruel' Borce Ristevski for acting as pallbearer at his wife's funeral and tormenting her family with his web of lies - before admitting to the crime with a lesser sentence of manslaughter. Ristevski was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday to nine years behind bars for killing his wife and lying about it for almost three years. But the 55-year-old, who has already served some time, may walk free from jail in less than five years. Ristevski has not revealed how or why he killed his dress-shop owner wife Karen in June 2016, before disposing her body in between two logs and covering it with foliage. A judge has lashed 'cruel' Borce Ristevski for acting as pallbearer at his wife's funeral and tormenting her family with his web of lies Wife killer: Borce Ristevski arriving at court to be sentenced for killing his wife Karen Passing sentence to a packed courtroom on Thursday morning, Justice Christopher Beale castigated Ristevski for his 'rank deceit,' saying 'for years, you continued spinning your web of lies'. 'When Karen's body was discovered after eight months, you acted as a pallbearer, playing the part of the innocent grieving widower.' Justice Beale criticised Ristevski for not revealing how or why he killed his wife. 'You may have turned off the road of deceit but you have not taken the high road of full and frank disclosure consistent with true remorse,' he said. 'You acted as a pall-bearer, playing the part of the innocent, grieving widower. 'The pretence, the rank deceit, only ended a few weeks ago when you pleaded guilty to manslaughter.' Borce Ristevski (centre) learned his fate on Thursday after entering a shock guilty plea last month to reveal he killed his wife Karen (left with their daughter Sarah, right) The court heard the killer's 24-year-old daughter Sarah (pictured today) declined to provide a victim impact statement and instead gave a 'glowing' character reference to try to lessen her father's sentence He described Ristevski's actions as 'cruel' when he told Karen's family not to speak with media or police, news.com.au reported. 'Rather than making any meaningful efforts to locate your wife, you would make angry calls to (members of Karen's family) demanding they stop talking to police,' the judge said. Ristevski would 'rant and rave about police and media' while knowing how his wife died and where her body was. The judge said he did not know enough about how the killing happened to determine whether the crime was mid-range or upper-range manslaughter. He said it was certainly not low-range because it was a case of domestic violence against a 'devoted' wife who 'should have lived for many more years.' 'This is a case of domestic violence, it's a case of a killing taking place in woman's home where she should feel safest,' he said. Ristevski killed his wife Karen, 47, at their Melbourne home in June 2016 before dumping her body in a national park where it was found eight months later. Wife killer Borce Ristevski is led from a prison van into court as the father-of-two prepares to learn his fate after shock guilty plea He feigned innocence for almost three years, lying to the police, the public and his daughter, even carrying his wife's coffin at her funeral, until pleading guilty to manslaughter on the eve of his murder trial last month. At around 10am on Thursday, Ristevski, wearing a suit and white shirt with no tie while sporting a greying beard, was escorted from a police van into a packed courtroom by four corrections officers. The court heard his 24-year-old daughter Sarah declined to provide a victim impact statement and instead gave a 'glowing' character reference to try to lessen her father's sentence. The judge said she did this 'out of love for her father.' 'I mean no criticism for Sarah - anyone with a modicum of compassion would find her predicament an agonising one,' he said. The character reference read during a pre-sentence plea hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria last month said: 'If I could use a few words to describe my dad's personality they would be loving, caring, sympathetic, protective and charismatic.' 'Growing up as a family my mum, dad and I were completely inseparable. This is the spot where Mrs Ristevski's body was found by horticulturalists in February 2017 Borce Ristevski is pictured with his daughter Sarah after appealing for information on his wife's whereabouts in July 2016 'We would spend all of our spare time together and family was everything to us. The love we had for each other was unexplainable, and everyone in our lives saw it.' Sarah said she had never witnessed her father act violently towards her mother. 'My dad has not had any prior convictions or issues with the law, and I can confidently say that in my 23 years and I have never witnessed any form of violence between my mum and dad,' she said. Ristevski was when sentenced to six years without parole. With 491 days behind bars already, he could be free before his 60th birthday. After the sentencing, Mrs Ristevki's brother Stephen Williams gave a brief statement outside Victoria's Supreme Court. Stephen Williams (centre), brother of Karen Ristevski departs the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne Mrs Ristevki's brother Stephen Williams (pictured today) gave in a brief statement outside Victoria's Supreme Court in which he slammed the sentence He said: 'Nothing is going to bring Karen back but today was about justice. 'We didn't get justice today, at all'. 'As a society, at some stage in regards to domestic violence we must make a stand.' Ahead of the five-week scheduled murder trial in March, Justice Beale ruled that Ristevski's actions after the killing, when he played the role of grieving husband, could not be used to prove 'murderous intent'. A new indictment with the lesser charge of manslaughter was subsequently filed and Ristevski pleaded guilty. TIMELINE OF KAREN RISTEVSKI'S DEATH AND BRINGING HER KILLER BORCE TO JUSTICE Karen Ristevski with her daughter Sarah June 29, 2016 Karen Ristevski last seen at her Melbourne home in Avondale Heights Her mobile phone pings off a tower in the Macedon Ranges A car similar to her black Mercedes SLK coupe is spotted by CCTV cameras near Diggers Rest railway station July 14, 2016 Husband Borce Ristevski and daughter Sarah make a tearful plea for information to help find their missing wife and mother December 19, 2016 Police search grassland, waterways, creeks and farms February 20, 2017 Karen Ristevski's body is found at the Mount Macedon Regional Park March 6, 2017 Funeral service held with Borce Ristevski a pallbearer and daughter Sarah leading the procession August 31, 2017 Police recreate the journey of Ms Ristevski on the day she went missing in a black Mercedes, identical to hers December 13, 2017 Borce Ristevski is charged with murder and faces court where a lawyer indicates a not-guilty plea. He is remanded in custody April 18, 2018 Ristevski returns to court where it's revealed detectives tapped his phone calls and planted listening devices as they investigated the alleged killing, compiling a 22,000-page evidence brief Ristevski is granted state-funded legal aid as he fights the allegations July 16, 2018 Ristevski's two-week committal hearing begins and later hears evidence from his daughter Sarah who said he was never 'aggressive' towards her mum. August 2, 2018 Ristevski is ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court, charged with murdering his wife December 4, 2018 A five-week trial for Ristevski is set for March 2019 March 13, 2019 A day before a jury is due to be empanelled for his murder trial, prosecutors withdraw the murder charge after a judge's ruling. Borce Ristevski pleads guilty to the alternative charge of manslaughter Advertisement Japanese judges have come under fire from furious Me Too campaigners after they allowed two rapists - one an incestuous sex attacker - to walk free because their victims did not put up enough of a fight. Hundreds of appalled demonstrators descended on Tokyo station last week to protest the court's finding that a daughter did not consent to sex with her father but that fending him off would not have been very hard. The ruling has triggered a hefty backlash as protesters demand that judges be given 'an education on human rights'. Hundreds of appalled demonstrators descended on Tokyo station last week to protest a judges' decisions to allow rapists to walk free The ruling triggered a hefty backlash as protesters demand that judges be given 'an education on human rights' 'I am confounded and terrified by the not-guilty rulings,' activist Minori Kitahara told the Asahi Shimbun. 'I am afraid that victims of sexual abuse will not be able to raise their voices after such verdicts were given.' The Asian news outlet reported that last March's trial saw prosecutors argue that a 19-year-old daughter was not able to resist her father's advances because of his violent track record. But despite the court finding that the father had used violence before he raped his non-consenting daughter, he was found not guilty of quasi-forcible sexual intercourse because the victim 'was not in a state in which resisting her father was extremely difficult'. Protesters took aim at a court ruling which found that a daughter had not consented to sex with her father, but that it would not have been 'extremely difficult' to fend him off Last Thursday, more than 400 men and women gathered for a rally called Standing Demonstration Protesting Sexual Violence and Sexual Violence Court Rulings' By Japanese law, a sexual aggressor cannot be punished for non-consensual sex unless prosecutors convince the court that the victim found it 'extremely difficult' to stop him. And another similar case which saw a second rapist dodge prison poured petrol on an already fiery protest movement which took to the streets last Thursday. Last Thursday, more than 400 men and women gathered for a rally called Standing Demonstration Protesting Sexual Violence and Sexual Violence Court Rulings'. They waved placards emblazoned with the words Yes Means Yes and Me Too - a reference to the global movement against sexual assault which went viral with the hashtag #metoo in 2017. The demonstrators waved placards emblazoned with the words Yes Means Yes and Me Too They form part of a global movement against sexual assault which went viral with the hashtag #metoo in 2017 Microsoft is building two data centers to store secret U.S. military data as it competes with its rival Amazon for a $10billion government contract. The tech giant announced it is working on two highly secure hosting centers 500 miles apart in the United States. Military bosses at the Pentagon are planning to move their data storage to a 'cloud' system which it promises will have the 'highest security measures'. The scheme is known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure - or JEDI, a reference to the Star Wars movies. Microsoft is building two data centers to store secret U.S. military data as it competes with its rival Amazon for a $10billion government contract Microsoft said its Azure Government Secret software could handle classified government data, as it awaits accreditation from the Department of Defense. The two distant centers 'provide geographic resilience in disaster recovery scenarios and faster access to services across the country,' Microsoft's Lily Kim said. 'In addition, Azure Government Secret operates on secure, native connections to classified networks.' The company did not say where the data centers would be located. but said they were 500 miles away from each other. Microsoft and Amazon Web Services emerged as the two finalists for the $10billion JEDI contract last week. Oracle Corp and IBM Corp were eliminated from the bidding as they did not meet the 'minimum requirements', the Pentagon said. Microsoft promises that its Azure Government Secret product (pictured, some of the company's promotional material) will offer 'secure connections to classified networks' Google was also in the running for the contract but pulled out last year saying it 'couldn't be assured that it would align with our AI principles'. The search giant's AI principles prohibit the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in weaponry. The contract could be awarded as soon as July although the bidding has been dogged by claims of conflict of interest. Oracle voiced concern that a former Amazon employee had worked on the JEDI project at the Pentagon before returning to Amazon. The Department of Defense is now reviewing potential ethical violations, a spokesperson said last week. A 9/11 first responder who suffers from an illness relating to the terror attacks has claimed that Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw was unsinterested when he tried to speak with him. Rob Serra, now retired, was one of the first on the scene after the attack in 2001 and in March he was on Capitol Hill trying to convince lawmakers to support a bill backing up the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. He said when he and Rep. Max Rose ran into Crenshaw in a hallway, he brushed off their advances - but the Republican says the whole story is untrue and Serra and Rose are colluding against him. Rob Serra, now retired, was one of the first on the scene after the attack in 2001 and in March he was on Capitol Hill trying to convince lawmakers to support a bill Serra said members of the Feel Good Foundation, which regularly lobbies lawmakers to support victims of 9/11, met with Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw in February urging him to co-sponsor the legislation but when confronted in March, the politician wouldn't say if he planned to co-sponsor the VCF legislation. Serra said he added he would have his staff look into it. He is yet to sign, his office said he is currently still reviewing the bill. 'We handed him whatever paperwork we had and that was the end of it,' Serra said, adding that he has personally not heard back from Crenshaw. U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw seen speaking at the American Conservative Union's Conservative Political Action Conference. Rob Serra said Crenshaw ignored him in March 'It stood out to me because I had a lot of respect for him. I was actually happy to meet him and was looking forward to it, but unfortunately, he said he was busy and doesn't remember [the meeting], so I'll take him at his word.' Crenshaw, crying foul, said there is a 'more malicious underlying motive here' and that Serra and Rose are colluding to wreck his reputation. The former Navy SEAL pointed to Twitter activity between the pair, saying Rose retweeting Serra's tweet detailing the apparent Capitol Hill hallway incident is evidence of a smear. Serra denied any collusion, he said: 'The only agenda we have is to help the sick and dying people of 9/11 and their families it truly is a bipartisan bill, our group within itself is bipartisan.' Serra said when he and Rep. Max Rose ran into Crenshaw in a hallway, he brushed off their advances @MaxRose4NY we met @DanCrenshawTX in the hallway. We introduced ourselves as 9/11 first responders and I tried to shake his hand but he couldnt get away from us fast enough. Said hed have his staff look into it as he walked away. #neverforget https://t.co/EziUiCu5LQ Rob Serra (@SerraRob) April 10, 2019 'This happens a lot, where you bump into people as you're rushing to vote. I am obviously not the kind of person who would walk by fellow service members and ignore them. That would never happen,' Crenshaw said in a statement to the Advance. Rose has been trying to get signatures in support of the Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act. It has 225 co-sponsors but needs 290 co-sponsors to force it onto the House floor for a vote. The fund is in trouble over future funding, hence the effort to secure signatures to back it. Francis celebrated the in coena Domini Mass in a prison in Velletri washing the feet of 12 inmates. "It is true that in life there are problems: we quarrel among ourselves . . . but this must be a thing that passes, a passing thing, because in our hearts there must always be the love to serve others, of being in the service of others." Velletri (AsiaNews) Pope Francis said that service to others should be the guiding principle of those who are strong, as evinced by the example of Jesus who washed the feet of the apostles, a practice that was traditionally associated with slaves. The pontiff spoke before performing the traditional ceremony of washing the feet during the Mass, celebrated in a prison in Velletri, a town not far from Rome. For the Holy Father, this was his fifth in coena Domini Mass in a prison. On previous occasions, he carried out the same ceremony in Casal del Marmo, Rebibbia, Paliano and Regina Coeli. The Velletri facility holds 577 people, 60 per cent of whom are foreigners. The Pope washed the feet of nine Italians, a Brazilian, a Moroccan and an Ivorian. Speaking without a prepared text, Francis noted that serving is doing something that one needs to do. It is about brotherhood and humility. For this reason, bishops repeat Jesuss action. "Bishops, said the Pope, must be the greatest servant. Each of us must be the servant of others. This is Jesuss rule and the Gospels rule: the rule of service, not of domination, of doing evil, of humiliating others." Francis went on to stress that Jesus told his people how the leaders of nations dominate them, but that it should not be like that among themselves. The tallest must be the smallest. "It is true that in life there are problems: we quarrel among ourselves . . . but this must be a thing that passes, a passing thing, because in our hearts there must always be the love to serve others, of being in the service others." Actress Lori Loughlin's fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli lied to his parents about going to college, pocketing the money that they sent him for tuition. Giannulli, 55, who has been accused alongside his actress wife, 54, of paying bribes to get his daughters into the University of Southern California, used fake reports and tuition bills to trick his parents. The under-fire couple's daughter, Olivia Jade, had previously branded both her parents hypocrites for 'forcing' her to go to university, describing how her father had 'faked his way through college'. Now, a recently resurfaced online profile has revealed how Gianulli made his parents think that he was attending the elite school in the 1980s, pocketing the money they sent him in support. Lori Loughlin's fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli (pictured together) lied to his parents about going to college, forging tuition bills and report cards The profile, written in 2016 on the fashion blog The Hundreds, shares how Gianulli persuaded his father to pay by producing fake tuition bills and bogus report cards. He told the blog: 'SC was expensive, so that was how I was starting my company. I used all that cash.' Gianulli persuaded his parents to give him money - which he then pocketed The profile adds, however, that Giannulli did attend some classes while living in a fraternity house at the school. USC confirmed to CNN that Giannulli attended during the spring semester of 1984, but not as a fully enrolled student. Instead, he went to the College of Continuing Education, which is a non-degree program open to anyone and has 'no formal admissions requirements.' Those students were given 'visitor status' on campus. Olivia Jade, the YouTube star daughter of actress Loughlin, admitted in March that her parents forced her to go to college and that her father 'faked his way' through school by using tuition money to start his design business. She has been slammed ever since her parents were accused of paying $500,000 to get her and her 20-year-old sister Isabella into USC. Olivia Jade also came under fire for 'ignorant' comments she has made previously about college. 'Mostly my parents really wanted me to go because both of them didn't go to college... I think they did fine,' Olivia said on the Zach Sang Show, before joking that her parents were 'hypocrites'. 'I'm so happy they made me go, that sounds so terrible. They didn't make me. My sister goes to the same school and we're pretty much inseparable.' Giannulli's family including his mother Nancy Giannulli (circled in red) Olivia Jade Giannulli, who is the 19-year-old daughter of Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, admitted in an interview that her parents forced her to go to college Olivia started attending classes at at the University of Southern California last year. She is pictured with her parents following her high school graduation The 19-year-old has also cashed in on being student during her brief time at USC. She posted sponsored content for Amazon Prime on her Instagram account (above) in September that featured an image of her inside her USC dorm room Olivia has come under fire for comments she has made about her education, which people have said proves she's 'ignorant' and 'spoiled' Later in that same interview, Olivia spoke about how her father inspired her and revealed that he had 'faked' his way through college. 'He, like, built his whole entire brand and he wasn't actually, like - I don't know if I'm supposed to say this - ever enrolled in college,' she said. 'But he, like, faked his way through it and then he started his whole business with tuition money that his parents thought was going to college. That's, like, such a different time. I don't know if I was supposed to say that, but it's okay. 'So he started Mossimo then and it sold to Target. He was a baller.' It comes as the DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that a third member of the Loughlin clan is now the focus of a Department of Justice probe for her involvement in the college admission scandal that ensnared the actress. Nancy Giannulli, Mossimo Giannulli's mother Multiple sources tell DailyMail.com that one of the actress daughters received a target letter from federal prosecutors in Massachusetts earlier this month regarding the investigation. That letter informed the embattled University of Southern California student that she was the subject of an investigation which could result in criminal charges. No students have been charged or arrested at this point in the investigation, but court documents make it clear that some of the youngsters were aware of the illegal actions being carried out in their behalf. 'It is a not-so-veiled threat,' said one source who has seen the letter. '[The US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts] is making it pretty clear that they have evidence that very strongly suggests she knew of the illegal plot.' The sources DailyMail.com spoke with only knew about one of the daughters getting a letter, the tone of which was described as 'ominous.' Gianulli and Loughlin, alongside more than a dozen other parents, were indicted last week on charges of mail fraud and money laundering conspiracy in the college admissions scandal which has gripped the nation. The Full House star and husband Giannulli each face up to 40 years in prison for getting their daughters, Olivia and Isabella, into USC, as rowing crew recruits, even though neither is a rower. They haven't publicly addressed the allegations against them. Gianulli and Loughlin (pictured with daughter Olivia Jade), alongside more than a dozen other parents, were indicted last week on charges of paying bribes to get their daughters into college Fullest house: One of Lori Loughlin's daughters received a target letter from the Department of Justice announcing that they were the subject of a criminal probe (l to r: Olivia, Lori, Massimo and Isabella) Sister, sister: The 'DOJ is making it pretty clear that they have evidence that very strongly suggests she knew of the illegal plot' said another source (l to r: Olivia and Isabella) DailyMail.com revealed that Loughlin and Giannulli turned down a plea deal which would have drastically reduced their sentences because they thought prosecutors were 'bluffing' when they said they could end up behind bars. Olivia Jade and Isabella Giannulli - sisters who describe themselves as 'inseparable' Multiple sources have also told DailyMail.com that one of their daughters received a target letter from federal prosecutors in Massachusetts earlier this month regarding the investigation. That letter informed the embattled University of Southern California student that she was the subject of an investigation which could result in criminal charges. No students have been charged or arrested at this point in the investigation, but court documents make it clear that some of the youngsters were aware of the illegal actions being carried out in their behalf. Brexiteer Crispin Blunt said John Bercow was guilty of 'obvious partiality' over his handling of Brexit in the Commons A hardline Tory Brexiteer is to make a fresh attempt to boot out Commons Speaker John Bercow, accusing him of 'bias' in favour of Remainers that has helped delay the Uk's departure. Former minister Crispin Blunt, a member of the European Research Group of Tory eurosceptics, said he intended to table an early day motion (EDM) of no confidence when MPs return to Westminster on Tuesday. EDM's - which are not allocated any time in the parliamentary timetable - are rarely debated or voted on, but are used by MPs as a vehicle to express their views on a particular issue. While it is unlikely to succeed, strong support for a motion of no confidence would be highly embarrassing for Mr Bercow, adding to the pressure on him to say when he intends to step down. Reigate MP Mr Blunt's intervention follows a series of controversial rulings by the Speaker which were widely considered to favour Remain supporters. Tory Brexiteers were further angered by reports that Mr Bercow - who had previously indicated he would stand down in the summer after 10 years in the post - now intends to carry on. Mr Blunt's intervention follows a series of controversial rulings by the Speaker which were widely considered to favour Remain supporters Mr Blunt confirmed that he has now written to all MPs seeking their support for his EDM. In his email, he said he hoped to get a 'minimum' of 100 MPs to sign to make it a 'substantial motion' and to provide 'cover' for others who wished to join them. In a statement, Mr Blunt acknowledged they were in 'totally unprecedented territory', but said the impartiality of the Speaker was an 'indispensable condition' for workings of the House. 'Even his most partisan supporters for the positive changes he has delivered as Speaker do not now seriously dispute his bias in the conduct of our affairs,' he said. 'But it now goes way beyond the Brexit debate. The public should never underestimate how far reaching the implications of these powers are for our democracy. 'The holder of this great office decides which MPs can speak in the House of Commons Chamber during debates and selects the amendments that MPs vote on, giving the Speaker the effective power to shape legislation. 'If colleagues are too cowed or too content with the direction of his bias to state their view on Speaker Bercow's obvious partiality, then not only will he feel able to continue, as is being reported in the media, but also feel able to do so exercising the power of his office wholly inappropriately. 'MPs will have failed to stand up for our most basic standards and have no one to blame but ourselves.' Mr Bercow's office declined to comment on the statement. At least two million bottles of wine have been destroyed in a horror fire in South West France. The blaze broke out on Tuesday in a warehouse north of Bordeaux belonging to Sovex, which markets a range of red, whites and roses. Many of them were in boxes on wooden pallets that erupted in flames for so far unknown reasons. The a huge fire broke out on Tuesday at warehouse near Bordeaux belonging to Sovex, which markets red, white and rose wines An estimated two million bottles of wine were destroyed in the blaze (pictured), which could mean losses of up to 10million Firefighters intervened very quickly at the scene of the disaster, which began around 3.30pm, and evacuated around 80 people working on the site. 'In total, two million bottles of alcohol were destroyed,' said an investigating source, who added that 60 firefighters spent 15 hours fighting the blaze. A video posted on You Tube showed a Sovex worker shouting in panic as the fire intensified, and colleagues left the building. Flames can be seen engulfing the wooden pallets near the ceiling of the warehouse, as pieces of debris were sent flying through the air. The company said on its Facebook page that there was 'material damage but very fortunately, not human' and thanked firefighters for their quick intervention The warehouse stored the wine in piles of boxes up to 35 feet high, and most were covered in flammable materials. Despite this, there were no injuries reported. On Wednesday morning, company executives met with experts and insurers to estimate the loss, which is likely to be well past a sum equivalent to 10million. Judicial police are also investigating the cause of the blaze, which charred half of the building in the Bordeaux suburb of Gironde. It follows the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris the previous day, when the ancient place of worship lost its spire and roof. Iftikhar Sarwar, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, has been jailed for five years at Minshull Crown Court after scrounging 21,000 in benefits and using the money to buy a house A judge has slammed how 'easy' it is to take advantage of the benefits system after a drug dealer scrounged 21,000 in benefits and used the money to buy a house. Jobless Iftikhar Sarwar, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, illegally pocketed child tax credits by falsely claiming he was the sole carer for his 15-year old daughter when she was in fact living with her aunt. The 39-year-old later fled the UK after being arrested for drug dealing and went on the run for more than three years before he was eventually detained in Italy. Jailing Sarwar for five years at Minshull Crown Court in Manchester on Tuesday, Judge Angela Nield criticised those who take advantage of the welfare system. She said: 'You fraudulently obtained tax credits, an offence made relatively easy by the fact the system of benefits in this country has largely been based on the honesty of those who claim against it. 'If an individual chose to be dishonest against the system, which is vulnerable to the lies they tell, it is expensive to pursue an investigation into the enquiry.' The judge also heard how Sarwar laundered the benefit cash and drug money he made from peddling heroin and crack cocaine to purchase a house with a friend. She continued: 'In your case you stated you were responsible for your daughter, who at the time you claimed tax credit for, when she was residing with her aunt. 'But by these lies you secured benefit to which you were not entitled to do so for a period of 151 weeks and you received payment of just over 21,000. 'You also have a conviction for money laundering. You were seen to be manipulating the system which relies on the honesty on those who avail themselves to it. 'You concealed some of the money by conspiring with another to purchase a property in his name, but that money was laundered. 'This offending all seems to stem from your issues with drugs.' Jailing Sarwar on Tuesday, Judge Angela Nield criticised those who take advantage of the welfare system. She said: 'If an individual chose to be dishonest against the system, which is vulnerable to the lies they tell, it is expensive to pursue an investigation into the enquiry' The court heard the offences took place between 2011 and 2014 after Sarwar's daughter moved in with her aunt in 2008 following his conviction for a previous drug dealing matter. Miss Hayley Bennett prosecuting said: 'The defendant claimed child tax credit for 168 weeks and working tax credit for 151 weeks between 2011 and 2014. 'The defendant maintained he was the primary carer for his daughter with tax credits and also claimed he was working 16 hours per week, but an investigation into these matters proved these claims to be false. 'The defendants daughter had been in full care of her Auntie from 2009 after residing with her from 2008. 'The defendant was interviewed about these matters and maintained he was correct and the information he provided was correct but he then absconded before he was charged.' She added: 'Regarding the drugs offences, on January 23, 2014 the defendant's car was spotted by three officers. 'He was seen to get out of the vehicle and went down a narrow pathway followed by the officers in an unmarked vehicle. 'They saw the defendant approaching a corner and headed towards a BMW. When he spotted the officers, he naturally changed direction and proceeded in the direction of the business park. 'A police officer alerted himself to the defendant and said he was a police officer and told him to stop and said he wished to speak to him. 'The defendant did not speak, but he began to run down the pathway. He produced his phone from his pocket as he ran, but officers caught up to him and he was arrested and restrained. 'A number of phones were discovered and a BMW car key was discovered to have dropped from his pocket whilst he was being apprehended. The vehicle was also searched. 'In the ash tray there was a white plastic bag containing seven wraps of diamorphine and crack cocaine. The defendant was arrested and taken to custody. 'One of the phones taken from him was ringing constantly. Examination of the phones showed regular dealing under the name 'Clyde'. He was even drug dealing on the day of his arrest.' The court (Minshull Street Crown Court is pictured) heard the offences took place between 2011 and 2014 after Sarwar's daughter moved in with her aunt in 2008 following his conviction for a previous drug dealing matter The court heard Sarwar and another man transferred the dirty money between bank accounts to help secure a mortgage on an 80,000 house. He disappeared in August 2015 but was arrested in November last year after he gave himself up to the Italian authorities. Sarwar pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply, converting criminal property, benefit fraud and a bail act offence. The court heard he had previous convictions for possessing fake insurance documents with intent to deceive and a 2008 conviction for possessing drugs with intent to supply class A drugs for which he received 16 weeks custody. In mitigation, his defence lawyer Michael Johnson said: 'The defendant is 39 years old. Before he fled the jurisdiction, he had significant problems with a class A drug addiction, which unsurprisingly makes up the most serious of offending. 'He has a 15 year old daughter who lives with family in Rochdale. He has regular contact with her now he is in prison and he intends to build that relationship. 'For a time in Europe he lived nomadically before he settled in Italy where he worked. He has addressed his drug misuse and he did not continue with offending. 'While he was in custody he completed a drug awareness course and he has worked whilst in prison. 'The Italian authorities told him he was bonkers for surrendering. But he wanted to come back to being these matters to an end. This was not highly sophisticated offending.' MSNBC host Chuck Todd reacted furiously to claims that the White House had been briefed in advance on the Mueller report, claiming it was 'actual collusion'. The TV presenter said it would be 'shamelessness and hubris' if the Justice Department had informed President Trump about the report's contents, as was claimed yesterday. He also accused Republicans of hypocrisy, claiming that 'impeachment hearings' would have begun if a Democratic President such as Barack Obama had 'tried anything like this'. A redacted version of Mueller's long-awaited report into the Trump campaign's dealings with Russia is due to be released to the public today. MSNBC host Chuck Todd (pictured) reacted furiously to claims that the White House had been briefed in advance on the Mueller report, claiming it was 'actual collusion' Todd said that Republicans in Congress had expressed outrage when former President Obama spoke about the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Todd said: 'Where are all of these House Republicans now when what you have here, the attorney general briefing the President of the United States on a case that involves the President of the United States. What is the difference? 'This is actual collusion. In case you're wondering what does collusion look like, it looks like the attorney general's lawyers briefing the president before Congress or the public.' A report in the New York Times had claimed that the Justice Department had spoken to White House lawyers about the report's contents. The President's office declined to comment on the claims. Barr will hold a 9.30 a.m. news conference to present his interpretation of the report's findings, before providing redacted copies to Congress and the public. T Reports yesterday claimed that Attorney General William Barr (left) had briefed the White House on the findings that Robert Mueller (right) made in his report In 2015 Obama said Clinton's use of a private email server was 'not a situation in which America's national security was endangered'. Then-FBI director James Comey later said Clinton had been 'extremely careless' but did not recommend any charges over the emails. Mueller officially concluded his Russia investigation late last month and submitted the report to Attorney General William Barr. Two days later, Barr sent Congress a four-page letter that detailed Mr Mueller's 'principal conclusions'. In his letter, Barr said the special counsel did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump associates during the campaign. Mueller apparently did not reach a definitive conclusion on whether Mr Trump obstructed justice. The President nonetheless claimed victory and declared that the report had exonerated him. Mr Johnson wrote: At present, all eyes seem to focus on the current cross-party discussions in Westminster. That is a mistake' Boris Johnson's dad has failed in a sensational attempt to be elected to the European Parliament. Stanley Johnson, who was an MEP for the Tories between 1979 and 1984, had made a fresh bid to represent the party at the elections in May. But despite his connections - both his sons, Boris and Jo, are MPs - he failed to make the cut for elections in which the Conservatives are predicted to suffer heavy loses. He admitted he had failed to catch the selectors' eye last week in an article for the Politics Home website. But he said it was important for the UK to take part in the poll and return its 73 MEP to the parliament in Brussels. He said that it might be the best chance to force the EU to change the deal it gave Theresa May for Brexit, a deal it has so far refused to revisit. Mr Johnson, who represented Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in Brussels almost four decades ago, wrote: At present, all eyes seem to focus on the current cross-party discussions in Westminster. That is a mistake. More than a mistake. This is a trap designed to see the Withdrawal Agreement pass on the back of Labour votes. It is also a major, possibly intentional, diversion from the real political priority which is not what the Labour Party says or does but whether Brussels will move to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement. In my view, newly-elected UK MEPs need to make clear that they totally disagree with the idea that the Withdrawal Agreement is done and dusted and not up for renegotiation or even tweaking. And I am sure they will find other MEPs, outside the UK, who deplore the way the UK has been treated over the Irish backstop issue and see the need for change in the Withdrawal Agreement in this area at least. The new Parliament, flexing its muscles, might even insist on revisiting the negotiating mandate it granted to the Commission back in 2016 so as to achieve a more accommodating approach. In that context, newly elected Conservative MEPs (and I hope there will be many of them) as well as UK MEPs of other parties should make it their priority to build alliances on a cross-party and multi-national basis. Stanley Johnson on the campaign trail in north London with his son Boris, when the later was The city's mayor The Brexit Party set up by Nigel Farage (pictured last week in Brussels with Michel Barnier) has roared into a lead in the polls ahead of European elections on May 23 A new YouGov survey - the third in a week - for the Times today again shows the Brexit Party on top, leading Labour 23 per cent to 22 per cent It came as a new poll showed that Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party is topping the polls for the EU elections. Mr Farage said it was clear the 'public are warming to us' and he moves to crush both the Tory party and his old force Ukip. A new YouGov survey - the third in a week - for the Times today again shows the Brexit Party on top, leading Labour 23 per cent to 22 per cent. The lead is smaller than yesterday's sensational results which showed the Brexit Party on 27 per cent. In a further boost, a ComRes poll suggests Mr Farage's party is third when voters are asked about a general election - on 14 per cent, with Labour leading on 33 per and the Tories sinking fast on 23 per cent. Three workers at a daycare center in Illinois have been charged after they were allegedly caught force-feeding young children. Maura Healy, 38, Stephanie Radke, 24, and Mariah Flemister, 20, are all accused of endangering the life or health of a child. Prosecutors claim they were each seen force-feeding two infants at the Little People Learning Center in Downers Grove, Illinois. The three suspects were released on bond and are due to appear at DuPage County Court on May 15. Maura Healy, left, Stephanie Radke, center, and Mariah Flemister, right, are all accused of force-feeding two young children at a daycare center in Illinois All three women have already been fired from their jobs at the daycare center, according to NBC Chicago. They face charges of battery and endangering the life of a child. The Department of Child and Family Services reportedly received a call alerting them to the alleged abuse in January. The alleged force-feeding is said to have been captured on surveillance footage. 'During the investigation, video from the daycare center showed each employee, on separate occasions, force feeding the two infants under their care,' prosecutors said. One of the children who prosecutors claim was a victim is said to have been only eight months old at the time. Prosecutors claim the three women caught on video footage force-feeding two infants at the Little People Learning Center (pictured) in Downers Grove, Illinois Earlier this year two daycare center workers were charged in a separate case in Missouri after allegedly hurling a three-year-old girl into a cabinet. Relatives said the toddler sustained a head gash that required seven stitches after the attack in February. Staff allegedly claimed the girl had fallen and hurt herself but the family later saw footage of the incident at Brighter Day Care and Preschool in the St Louis area. In a separate incident another worker at the center allegedly squeezed four-year-old girl's arm and punctured her skin with her nails. It is claimed she then carried the girl by her foot and threw her on a cot. Investigators believe an 'electrical short circuit' was responsible for starting the blaze which devastated Notre Dame cathedral this week. A French judicial police official said investigators brought in to work out the cause of the inferno made the claims - despite them not having been given access to the church yet for safety reasons. The official, who spoke anonymously about the ongoing investigation, said the monument is still being consolidated with wooden planks to support some fragile parts of the walls. Only after it is fully made safe will investigators will be allowed a closer look in order to accurately determine the cause of the fire. A French scaffolding company working on Notre Dame's roof revealed it installed a timelapse camera at 2pm the day of the fire, and say it may contain clues about how the blaze started Meanwhile firefighters who helped save the cathedral arrived at the Elysee Palace in Paris to meet with President Macron Mr Macron was due to praise the fire crews for their efforts in tackling the blaze, which saved the structure of the building along with its rose windows and organ Scaffolding was hoisted into place at Notre Dame cathedral on Thursday as $1billion restoration work got underway Earlier on Thursday, police released time lapse footage from a camera installed just hours before Monday's devastating blaze which was believed to contain vital clues as to what caused the inferno. The camera was installed around 2pm by French scaffolding company Europe Echafaudage and was set to take photographs every 10 minutes. The fire broke out around 6.40pm. Marc Eskenazi, a representative for Echafaudage, confirmed that smoke can be seen on some of the images and appears to start on the south side of the building. The camera will not reveal the exact cause of the fire and where it started, Eskenazi said, but will point investigators in the direction of vital clues. The camera is now in the hands of investigators. Europe Echafaudage was one of five companies contracted to restore the cathedral's landmark spire, which was timber-framed and towered 295 feet (90 metres), shaping the skyline along the Seine river. French President Emmanuel Macron (left) speaks with Notre Dame's rector Patrick Chauvet on Wednesday after meetings on the reconstruction at the Elysee Palace French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner (left), First Lady Brigitte Macron and Chauvet arrive to attend a mass, as part of the Holy Week, at the Saint Sulpice Church in Paris on Wednesday The fire consumed Notre-Dame's roof, whose oak beams dated back to the thirteenth century, and sent its spire crashing through the cathedral's vaulted ceiling. The damage to one of France's best loved monuments prompted an outpouring of national sorrow and a public desire for quick answers over where and how the blaze started. Paris public prosecutor Remy Heitz has said the fire appeared accidental. His office did not respond to a request for comment on the time-lapse images photographs. The news emerged as Paris firefighters began arriving at the Elysee Palace for a meeting with Emmanuel Macron. The French President was due to praise them for their efforts in tackling the blaze, which saw the three rose windows and pipe organ saved from the flames. Meanwhile Bishop Patrick Chauvet, the rector of Notre Dame called for a temporary cathedral to be built for Catholics outside the ruined building while restoration work takes place. Mr Chauvet spoke of an 'ephemeral cathedral' to stand outside the holy site after Macron said Notre Dame's rebuilding would take five years. Speaking to CNews Chauvet said: 'We mustn't say "the cathedral is closed for five years and that's it,"' suggesting, 'Can I not build an ephemeral cathedral on the esplanade (in front of Notre-Dame)?' French firefighters pull supplies and hoses from their trucks outside Notre Dame on Monday night Chauvet said the wooden church would host priests who could address some of the millions of tourists who throng the original 850-year-old Gothic cathedral each year. The Bishop said the surrogate 'cathedral' would be erected quickly, as soon as the esplanade reopens after work to secure the cathedral is completed. Donations rising to a billion euros have been added to the rebuilding project, including free flights from France-KLM to those participating in the project. In a statement the airline said: 'Air France will provide free transport for all official partners involved in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.' The blaze which tore down the cathedral's steeple and much of its roof, would have been far worse if not for Paris' brave firefighters who Macron will meet on Thursday. The president is to host them for a special gathering to share 'words of thanks', according to his office. French firefighters at the scene of Monday's fire at Notre Dame cathedral Senior government ministers will also take part in the event at the presidential palace in Paris. Later, Paris City Hall will hold a ceremony in the firefighters' honour, with a Bach violin concert, two giant banners strung from the monumental city headquarters and readings from Victor Hugo's The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. More than 400 firefighters took part in the nine-hour battle to save the 12th-century cathedral on Monday evening. They were able to save the iconic belfries, rose windows, organ and precious artworks. No one was killed in the fire, which occurred during a mass, after firefighters and church officials speedily evacuated the building. Among those to be honoured is Paris fire brigade chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who helped salvage the crown of thorns believed to have been worn by Jesus at his crucifixion. Another is Myriam Chudzinski, among the first firefighters to reach the roof as the blaze raged. Loaded with gear, they climbed hundreds of steps up a narrow spiral staircase to the top of one of the two towers. She had trained at the cathedral for just this moment. Firefighters stand in tall crane as they tackled the ferocious inferno on Monday evening 'We knew that the roof was burning, but we didn't really know the intensity,' she told reporters. 'It was from upstairs that you understood that it was really dramatic. It was very hot and we had to retreat, retreat. It was spreading quickly.' She heard a roar, but her focus was on saving the tower. She learned later that it was the sound of the spire collapsing. Investigators believe the fire was accidental and are questioning cathedral staff and workers who were carrying out renovations to the building before the fire broke out. Some 40 people have been questioned and some are being quizzed again on Thursday, according the Paris prosecutor's office. Fire officials warn that the massive cathedral remains fragile, and are removing statues above the rose windows to keep them from falling. Fire fighters line up as they wait for French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner outside Notre on Tuesday French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, right, greets firefighters outside Notre cathedral in Paris on Tuesday The building would have burned to the ground in a 'chain-reaction collapse' had firefighters not moved as rapidly as they did to battle the blaze, said Jose Vaz de Matos, a fire expert with the Culture Ministry. An initial fire alert was sounded at 6.20pm as a mass was under way in the cathedral, but no fire was found. A second alarm went off at 6.43pm and the blaze was discovered on the roof. Mr Macron wants to rebuild the cathedral within five years - in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics that Paris is hosting - but experts have questioned whether that is realistic, given the vast scale of the work. One said the rebuilding project would easily take 15 years. More than 750 million has been pledged for the restoration. For the past 11 years, office worker Zhu Biwu has successfully avoided all traffic and transit woes experienced by every commuter. The 53-year-old man living in the southern city of Wuhan came up with a way to beat the rush hour commute - by swimming 2,200 metres (7,200 feet) across the Yangtze River to get to his office. It takes him 30 minutes to get across the river from his home, Zhu said. The journey originally would take him an hour by train. Zhu Biwu, 53, living in the southern city of Wuhan came up with a way to beat the rush hour commute - by swimming 2,200 metres (7,200 feet) across the Yangtze River to get to his office Zhu carefully puts his work clothes, shoes and personal belongings into an inflatable dry bag before his journey to the north side of the Yangtze River. His commute takes half an hour Zhu lives in Hanyang district and works as a manager of a food market in Wuchang, according to China News. Video footage shows the man changing into his swimming trunks and putting on his goggles on the shore at around 7am on a typical day. He is also seen carefully placing his work clothes, shoes and personal belongings into an inflatable dry bag before his journey to the north side of the river. Zhu then jumps in from the starting point at the Yingwuzhou Yangtze River Bridge and is seen skillfully wading through the choppy waters, stroke by stroke. After changing into his swimming trunks and putting on his goggles, 53-year-old Zhu starts his journey at the Yingwuzhou Yangtze River Bridge in Wuhan city Zhu was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1999 and weighed more than 100 kg (220 lbs), prompting him to find a way to get fit. He started swimming to work in 2008 Not only does the special commute help him save time, it has made him a lot healthier and fitter, he told reporters. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1999 and weighed more than 100 kg (220 lbs), prompting him to find a way to get fit. He started swimming near the shore of the river since 2004 and training himself to make the 2,200-metre journey. In 2008, Zhu started participating in winter swimming events and taking the alternate route to work. Zhu says it cuts his commute from an hour to 30 minutes and has made him healthier and fitter Zhu said boats and ferries travelling along the river would now recognise him and let him pass, adding that the safest way to swim across the river would be doing a breaststroke Net users and his colleagues were all impressed by Zhu's incredible endurance, calling his trek 'the most intense commute' ever 'My weight and blood sugar levels are back to normal and have remained stable after all these years,' he said. Zhu said boats and ferries travelling along the river would now recognise him and let him pass, adding that the safest way to swim across the river would be doing a breaststroke. 'Only do a breaststroke - so you can see what's going on around you clearly,' he said. 'But a person would definitely need professional training before attempting to cross the river themselves.' Net users and his colleagues were all impressed by Zhu's incredible endurance, calling his trek 'the most intense commute' ever. Zhu dries his feet and puts on his shoes after getting out of the water on the north side One of Zhu's colleague says he is always the earliest to arrive at the office located in Wuchang His colleague, surnamed Wu, said the man is always the earliest to arrive at the office. 'I've been working with him for more than 10 years,' she told video news site Pear. 'He has never been late, not even once.' 'As a capable swimmer, I don't think I have the courage to do this!' one person said on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. 'Wow, he doesn't look 53 years old to me at all. Must be all the exercise,' one comment read. 'Seems like going to work is just an excuse for him to go swimming!' another user said. 'Such a creative way to get to work! Just remember to be safe,' another said. A babysitter who crashed her car - killing a four-year-old girl she was looking after and severely injuring the girl's sister - has avoided jail time. Courteney Matthews' vehicle was split in two when she was driving Elle Underhill, four, and her sister Elaina, two, along the Bruxner Highway near Casino in northern NSW in 2015. In Coffs Harbour Local Court on Thursday, Matthews, 21, was handed down her sentence for the charge of negligent driving causing death, and negligent driving causing grievous bodily harm. She received two community corrections orders totalling four and a half years, 420 hours of community service, and total fines of $1500. Scroll down for video Babysitter Courteney Matthews (pictured) was handed a three-year community corrections order and 300 hours community service and a $1000 fine for negligent driving causing death over the 2015 crash that killed a four-year-old girl she was taking care of Matthews - who was 18 at the time of the crash - pleaded guilty to negligent driving occasioning death and negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm in January. Elle and Elaina's father Steve Underhill said his family hasn't received closure from the sentence, the ABC reported. The verdict comes after the parents revealed their horror of finding the car ripped in two. Sergeant Steve Underhill, who was called to the crash scene, had discovered his four-year-old daughter Elle (pictured) died after being trapped inside the wreckage Michelle and Steve were at home when they heard screaming sirens as police cars drove past their house. Mr Underhill - who works as a police officer - said he had an immediate feeling that something was wrong. 'Thinking to myself, that's not good. Knowing full well what screaming sirens usually mean,' he told A Current Affair. The 19-year-old babysitter was driving a Red Mazda 323 (pictured) when it collided with a Subaru Liberty near Casino in northern NSW on December, 2015 'Call it a mothers instinct - I just had a horrible, gut-wrenching feeling it was the girls,' Mrs Underhill said. The couple saw on social media that someone had posted about a crash involving a red Mazda - the same car Mrs Underhill owned. The pair raced to the scene of the crash, which was where they found the horrific wreckage. 'I just remember the shards of glass piercing my feet as I just ran, ran to the middle, I sat down in front of half a car,' Mrs Underhill said. Both Elle and Elaina had already been rushed to hospital. Mr Underhill was then told by a colleague his daughter had died. Unfortunately officers at the scene had mixed the girls up and the parents were told their youngest, Elaina, was killed. Elle Underhill, four, and her sister Elaina, two, were travelling in a car with their babysitter Courtney Matthews when tragedy struck When Mr and Mrs Underhill were taken to identify their daughter's body, they were shocked to find their eldest, Elle, in the morgue. 'It was at that point I thought both girls were dead,' Mr Underhill said. Elaina had sustained life-threatening injuries but she was still alive. The two-year-old was airlifted to the children's hospital in Brisbane. While four-year-old Elle had died and her younger sister was fighting for her life, Mathews had walked away from the crash with minor injuries. John White was the driver of the other car involved in the crash, and suffered a fractured sternum in the collision Matthews has never contacted or apologised to the Underhill family, despite being close with them before the devastating crash. After Elle's deaths, heartfelt tributes to her were posted on the GoFundMe page set up for her family. 'Such a beautiful girl and friend to our daughter, you will be greatly missed,' one person said. 'Our hearts go out to you for your loss of beautiful Elle and our prayers will be sent for her sister,' another said. The scene of the wreckage showed the red Subaru ripped in two near Casino in northern New South Wales 'We have only just been touched by tragedy ourselves and wish to pay forward some of the beautiful kindness we have also received. Stay strong for each other.' Another person said Elle would be 'constantly in our hearts'. John White was the driver of the other car involved in the crash, and suffered a fractured sternum in the collision. The 81-year-old described the impact as 'horrendous'. About 155 million citizens go to the polls in 12 states. The biggest challenges are among the large local parties in Tamil Nadu, Karnata and West Bengal. Today is Holy Thursday and the bishops had asked not to hold the votes in conjunction with the Christian holiday. New Delhi (AsiaNews) - The second phase of the Indian general elections began this morning. Approximately 155 million citizens are expected at the polls, out of a total of 900 million voters who will vote on seven different dates until May 19th. Today thousands of candidates compete for 97 seats in 12 states, including some districts of Jammu and Kashmir. The second election date also coincides with the feast of Holy Thursday. In recent weeks the Indian bishops had tried to postpone the vote so as not to overlap with the Christian celebration, which sees the faithful gathered in prayer even in the schools used as polling stations. However, the Electoral Commission rejected the request of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, there are reports of incidents of violence at polling stations: a teller was killed by Maoist rebels in Orissa. The woman, Sanjukta Digal, survived the device detonated when her car passed, but was then shot down. Today the main challenge is between the large regional parties in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal. The first assigns 38 seats (out of a total of 39) of the Lok Sabha; the competition is between Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Dmk) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Aiadmk), who have been competing for political life for decades. In West Bengal the favorite is the Trinamool Congress of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The other territories to vote are: Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Puducherry and Tripura. The third phase will be held on April 23rd. Two Italian students have been told to pay a joint fine of 27million euros (23million) after they were accused of letting a barbecue start a forest fire. Prosecutors say the two 22-year-olds, who dispute the claim, lit a barbecue with a group of friends near Lake Como in the north of Italy on December 30 to celebrate New Year. The wildfire was started by the embers of the barbecue, eventually ravaging 2,471 acres of forest. The local fire authority tweeted a picture of one of their planes battling New Year's Eve blaze which was started by two students with a barbecue Several buildings were destroyed, including one in which all the domestic animals died, according to the daily La Repubblica. The huge fine for the two students was calculated in accordance with a decade-old formula which determines the financial penalty depending on the scale of the damage. It was unclear how the two students were expected to afford the fine. Their lawyers have three weeks to challenge the amount in an administrative court. The fire broke out near Lake Como (stock image) on December 30 and tore through 2,471 acres of forest Although the students have expressed regret for their actions, they have said that they are being scapegoated. 'We are the scapegoats of a fire that cannot be explained', one told La Stampa newspaper. 'We are the real victims of this story... We immediately alerted the fire brigade and threw ourselves at the flames to try and put them out.' The wife of NRL star Frank Winterstein has been slammed by medical experts for pushing a 'purple powder' which has been claimed to safeguard against cancer and heart disease. Taylor Winterstein, who proudly does not immunise her children, is understood to charge up to $1,000 a kilogram for the supplement Alfa PXP Royale. According to Ms Winterstein and other proponents of the 'superfood', it helps treat a host of ailments - from improved eyesight and reduced migraines to thin hair and back pain. But medical experts have criticised the self-professed 'health warrior' for flogging the powder which they say is 'just ground rice'. 'That's all it is. There's nothing magic about it. It's difficult to describe how benign this powder is. It's just like eating rice,' Dr John Cunningham told A Current Affair. Scroll down for video Taylor Winterstein (pictured), who made headlines for her anti-vaxxing views, is pushing a 'superfood' rice According to Ms Winterstein's website, the 'royalty rice' powder is made from a specific type of rice that has higher levels of nutrients and antioxidants than regular rice. The rice is crushed into a fine powder so its 'alfa particles' are easily absorbed into mitochondria - which are the cells that give our bodies energy, the website states. Doctor Cunningham rebuffed the website claims and said he was concerned about the adverse impact selling such a product could have on consumers. According to her website, the 'royalty rice' powder is made from a specific type of rice that has higher levels of nutrients and antioxidants than regular rice 'One [concern] is, they're wasting their money, and for this product a large amount of money; and secondly, they may be led to believe they don't need to take their legitimate treatments, their effective treatments for conditions they may actually have,' he said. Doctor Cunningham also noted it wasn't acceptable to give people 'false hope' and that it was 'unacceptable to make money from it'. Ms Winterstein sells the product in two sizes - 150 grams of the powder can be purchased for $150 while 454g can be brought for $275. According to one website which stocks Alfa PXP Royale, the product is 100 per cent purple rice grains. The site says it's made from short grain purple rice flour, long grain purple rice flour and fragrant purple rice flour. The website claims Enzacta's purple rice is harvested at a 'nutritionally optimum time' in it's life cycle. Ms Winterstein (pictured left), who is married to Penrith Panthers NRL star Frank Winterstein, is regarded for her view on vaccines Some customers have messaged the 'health warrior' to say how good they have found the products Ms Winterstein suggests people should commit to eating purple rice flour every day for at least three months to achieve the best results from the product A 2007 brochure for the product also claims antioxidants in PXP can 'neutralise' free radicals that can cause cancer, heart disease and diabetes, The Age reported. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting that Ms Winterstein is making any such claims. Ms Winterstein also states on her website the powder can 'help anyone and everyone from the ages of 6 months old onwards' - so long as they don't have an allergy. Ms Winterstein has previously shared customer testimonials on her social media pages She suggests people should also commit to eating purple rice flour every day for at least three months to achieve the best results from the product. But according to University of Melbourne food scientist Dr Senaka Ranadheera, you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to reap the benefits of purple rice. Dr Ranadheera told the publication you can get the same benefits from eating supermarket-bought purple rice, also known as black rice, for about $10 a kilogram. Ms Winterstein, who previously hosted anti-vaccination seminars, is also reportedly taking a break from selling PXP to focus on her workshops. Melbourne surgeon John Cunningham, who is regarded for his work promoting vaccinations, said Ms Winterstein is only appealing to the 'wealthy and gullible'. 'I have no issue with people making an income in novel and innovative ways, but to try to hitch onto the anti-vaccination crowd is morally corrupt,' Dr Cunningham said. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Taylor Winterstein and Enzacta for comment. A former TV presenter has been found not guilty of attempted murder after he was accused of trying to kill a Penthouse Pet and her boyfriend with a parcel bomb. Roberto de Heredia was on trial for allegedly sending an explosive device in a shoe box to model Simone Cheung's home in Belrose in 1998. The package was picked up by Cheung's boyfriend at the time, Brett Boyd, and detonated in his face. He lost a thumb and an eye in the explosion. De Heredia, who was a presenter on Foxtel Television Shopping network, was alleged to have sent out the bomb after falling out with the couple, who reportedly owed him $80,000. After he was charged three months later, de Heredia allegedly faked his own death, fled the country with a fake passport, and went on the lam for 17 years. Roberto de Heredia, a former presenter for the Foxtel Television Shopping network was found not guilty of attempted murder after he was accused of trying to kill Penthouse Pet and her boyfriend with a parcel bomb in 1998 De Heredia was alleged to have mailed the explosive device to model Simone Cheung (left) and her then boyfriend Brett Boyd (right) home in Belrose Before his arrest, he had last been seen on July 27, 1999, driving a blue four-wheel-drive in Rose Bay, Sydney. Police found the car days later in Kings Cross. The driver's seat and door was covered in blood, leading officers to believe he had died. Boyd came in contact with the package which then exploded in his face causing him to lose and eye and a thumb However, an investigation by NSW Police determined the former television host had allegedly staged the incident to fake his own death. He was finally arrested in 2016 at London's Gatwick Airport after flying in from Spain to visit his family. De Heredia was tried in 2017 but that trial resulted in a hung jury. This week, a jury of six men and six women found him not guilty after deliberating for one day, The Daily Telegraph reported. The court heard de Heredia's DNA was found on the stamps used to send the parcel and on a post note. His lawyer, Grant Brady told the court de Heredia fled Australia because he feared for his life after Boyd was arrested for standing outside a police station with a machine gun as he waited for him to be released in 1999. Boyd, who died in 2008, is seen in evidence photos showing his injuries after receiving the parcel bomb The man had his right thumb blown off while also suffering facial scars Boyd was severely injured after the package exploded in his face and threw him more than 8 metres in the air. He was almost blinded in the blast, losing his left eye and 80 per cent of vision in his right eye, while also losing his right thumb and suffering facial scars. The courts were told Boyd, then 29, and Cheung - were planning to use the $80,000 to set up a 'sex website.' Just weeks later on July 7, an unknown gunman shot de Heredia in the shoulder and arm when he returned to his apartment in Sydney. The courts were told Boyd, then 29, and Cheung - were planning to use the money to set up a 'sex website' Mr Boyd committed suicide in 2008. The court also heard from a woman, Ros Switzer-Hewson, who had been dating de Heredia at the time, who said he once asked her if superglue would hold nuts and bolts together, the publication reported. She also claimed he lied about where he was the night of the explosion. Throughout the investigation, it was uncovered that de Heredia created at least two fake identities and had passports issued in the UK under the names Robert Valentine Shorthouse and Robert Jackson. He reportedly used the passports regularly since 2011 to travel between England and Spain, where de Heredia had been working as a foreign exchange trader in Spain. These rare and fascinating photos show Albino men, women and children posing for the camera in the nineteenth century - at a time when many of them would have been kept segregated from the rest of society. During the 1800s, people with albinism featured on postcards and were exhibited in Victorian travelling circus freak shows, usually the only form of employment available to them. This extraordinary collections highlights the struggles of everyday Albinos in the era, as well as celebrating some of the more famous ones who were active. Featured in the collection are remarkable relatives like long-haired albino sisters Florence and Mary Martin, who were known to tour with P.T Barnum's legendary circus in the 1800s. Also pictured is Helen Ann Windman Walker and her twin brother Henry Sedam Walker, with the 'black and white' twin siblings later exhibited at Burnell's Museum in New Orleans, USA in May 1866. Albinism - which denotes people with a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes - occurs in all racial and ethnic groups throughout the world. Unzie an albino Aboriginal man with an abundance of white hair, pictured in New York in the late 19th century. Unzie was born in New Zealand but was snatched up by the Barnum and Bailey Circus to tour around Europe and the US . Barnum and Bailey billed him as 'The Australian Aboriginal Beauty' and said that he was an albino Aborigine from the Outback, born into a tribe and worshipped as a sort of god by his own people Rudolph and Antoinette Lucasie, an Albino family from Europe, with an unknown son. When P.T. Barnum discovered them at the 1857 Amsterdam fai,her gave them the name Negroes from Madagascar and claimed that their pink eyes remained staring even as they slept. He brought them to New York to work at his American Museum that same year. In addition to Barnum's shows, the Lucasies also performed with W. W. Coles and the Lemon Bros., for a total of 40 years. When Antoinette died, Rudolph continued performing in vaudeville as an albino violinist. He died in Kansas City in 1909 Nellie Walker, otherwise known as the White Negro Girl, real name Helen Ann Windman Walker. She and her twin brother Henry (pictured) were the offspring of African-American parents, toured as a sideshow named the White and Black twins, due to her albinism, picture taken circa 1860s Another photo of an older Nellie Walker, the White Negro girl, one of the most prominent and well-known Albino women in the Victorian Era. She and her twin brother were born from African-American parents Tom Jack otherwise known as The Ice King, pictured with fellow sideshow performer Tom Thumb, circa 1890s. Jack was born in the Czech Republic with severe albinism. He was moved to Sweden as a boy where he visited a circus who approached him after the show about becoming their clown Tom Jack pictured circa 1910. After joining the circus, he expressed interest in illusion and manipulation. He joined up and quickly became adept at the magical arts of escapism, using chains and tempting death. He toured all over Europe and became a rich man Birdie Morrell, seemingly nothing is known about her other than the little girl's name. It's likely she toured as a sideshow performer in the late 19th century. Clearly her albinism effects her eyes as she has a severe squint Pictured is an Albino woman named Millie Lamar. She, like many others in the fascinating collection, worked in the circus. She was described as a touring mind reader in New York in 1890 Five-year-old Little Ida, described as a beautiful Albino, circa 1880s, also features in the fascinating portraits which reveal the hidden history of Albinism in the Victorian era. Albino sisters Florence and Mary Martin who toured with the Greatest Showman P.T. Barnum in the late 19th century. They were known as the long-haired albino sisters, pictured circa 1890 Another photo of the long-haired Albino sisters. During the time period, many Albinos were part of the circus while they also featured on postcards that became popular collectors' items Cabinet card of an unidentified albino woman, who is believed to be involved with a travelling circus, circa 1870s. While many of the characters in the photographs are unidentified, other photographs shows the mere handful of individuals with albinism who rose to fame in the nineteenth century A huge storm at 'full force' caused a terrifying power outage, and almost killed a city worker trying to repair work. In shocking footage the next day, a utility worker is nearly electrocuted trying to repair the broken line which turned out to still be live. The video, recorded on a police dashcam, is from Manchester Township in New Jersey. Ocean County officers were asked to attend the scene of a 'downed power line' at a busy intersection on Highway 70. But the situation quickly became dangerous, as a power started to spark out wildly as officers put out cones to divert traffic away from the accident. As the rain continues to beat down on the officer, they have no option but to leave the dangerous wires until the morning. Police are laying out cones on a stormy night in Manchester Township after a power line has been downed The situation quickly became more dangerous when a power line exploded in a fire of electricity But in police dash cam footage taken the next day, a police car arriving at the scene captured an extraordinary moment. A utility worker who believes he is dealing with a disconnected line is attempting to retrieve one end hanging off of another wire. After a few attempts he manages it, and the line drops to the floor. The line however, is live and immediately sparks off again before catching fire. The next morning, a police car's dash cam footage captures a utility worker attempting to remove a power line from its position trapped over a set of street lights After a few quick attempts the worker frees the line, and then it moves towards the wet ground The man quickly runs away from the burning cables, and appears to be unharmed. In statement posted with the video, Manchester Police said: 'Last night was quite shocking for some of our midnight officers! 'The rain, wind, lightning and thunder were at full force, causing transformers to explode and electrical wires to drop. 'In one instance, our officers responded to the intersection of State Highway 70 and Colonial Drive for a report of a traffic light being out due to the power outage. Unaware the line is actually still live, it explodes into fire as it hits the wet ground, and nearly kills the man from the electric shock The worker quickly jumps out of the way of the line that lies on fire on the ground Still unsafe, the downed line smolders on the floor following the terrifying ordeal 'As our officers were setting up traffic cones and directing traffic, sparks were flying due to an arcing transformer. 'As the night turned into morning, a utility worker narrowly escaped death when handling a wire that was believed to be de-energized! 'The wire then caught fire as it struck the wet ground. 'Luckily, he was wearing proper safety equipment! 'At the end of the night, no one was injured and everyone made it home.' This is the tense moment a cop shoots down a escaped suspect in a quiet neighbourhood after being chased with a crowbar-like object. Body cam footage shows Officer Brandon Lee running after suspect Kirk Dustin Shields, who then turns on him with the weapon. The scary ordeal occurred on West Park Place near Oklahoma city centre. Officer Lee can be seen observing the suspect, said to be from the Department of Corrections, from across the road in his police patrol car. As the suspect begins to run, the cop gets out and chases him on foot to the back of 2608 West Park Place. As he reaches the back of the house, the man pulls a crowbar-like weapon and takes aim at the officer. As the suspect begins to run to the east the officer jumps out of his car and gives chase around the back of a house on a quiet street As he confronts the suspect, the man brings out a crowbar-like weapon. After attempting to subdue the man with a taser, the officer is forced to retreat Quick to react, the Officer Lee discharges his taser at the man. But the use of the taser seems to only provoke the man further, causing him to run for the officer who is forced to retreat. The pair ran back out onto the front lawn of the property, where the cop fires a round of shots at the man, who eventually falls to the floor on the lawn. Back out on the front lawn Officer Lee draws his firearm and shoots the man in the front at least once The suspect screams, shouting 'you're dying' at the officer who calmly responds, 'no, no I'm good' as he waits for backup to arrive The man begins to scream out as the officer tells him to remain still. He shouts, 'Kill it, kill it please', although it is unknown what he is talking about. In a weird moment while the officer waits for backup, the man shouts at him 'you're dying', only for him to respond, 'no, no I'm good'. After the arrest, suspect Kirk Dustin Shields was transported to a local hospital and was diagnosed with non-life threatening injuries. A brave female biker has been praised after she confronted two youngsters suspected of stealing a moped, branding them 'muppets'. The unidentified woman manages to shame one of the suspected thieves into getting off the bike after scolding him for not wearing a helmet and threatening to call police. And as she leaves the duo behind she can be heard muttering: 'You've nicked that you little f***s.' A brave woman confronts two youngsters who she believes have stolen a moped with one riding without a helmet The incident is believed to have happened in Brighton and came to light when the video was posted by a man saying he was the owner of the bike. Greg Miranda, from Brighton, posted on Facebook yesterday: 'Here's the video thanks to a good Samaritan. You stole the wrong person's bike you little scumbags.' The video shows the woman riding towards the two young men who are sat on a moped with a learner plate attached. She stops beside them and asks the passenger: 'Where is your helmet?' She then asks: 'Is that yours or have you nicked it? The video was posted on Facebook by Greg Miranda who claims to be the owner of the bike 'You're mad - you come off and land on your head. You'll get nicked for it, your insurance is invalid, you'll never ride a bike again.' The youngsters giggle as the woman continues: 'Aye, you don't care do you? Na you muppet, but I will report you to the police.' The man without a helmet gets off the bike saying: 'Yeah well I'll be sensible then and get off.' Greg Miranda added in his post: 'These are the faces of the little thieving scumbags that have stolen my bike. The video has been shared around social media including the The UK Motorcycle Theft Protest Community who posted today saying: '#Brighton. This lovely rider caught up with these scumbags and gave them a lovely talk while getting their faces on camera. 'It turns out the bike was recently stolen and on fake plates.' The Justice officials: Robert Mueller The former FBI director was appointed to oversee the probe into Russian election interference and whether there was any collusion with Donald Trump or his campaign. Mueller kept a low-profile, secured multiple indictments and guilty pleas, but failed to secure an in-person interview with the president. He submitted a 400-page report to Attorney General William Barr. Rod Rosenstein As deputy attorney general, Rosenstein assumed authority over the Russia probe with the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Rosenstein tapped Mueller to lead the probe a fateful decision that drew the ire of President Trump, who went after him publicly. He remained on the job with oversight of the probe as Trump launched repeated attacks on the Justice Department. He relinquished formal authority when Trump named Matthew Whitaker acting AG and the Senate later confirmed William Barr to run the agency. Jeff Sessions Attorney General Jeff Sessions drew the unending scorn of President Trump by recusing himself from the Russia probe, allowing for Mueller's appointment. He had been a Trump campaign advisor, and had failed to initially disclose his own campaign contacts with Russians. Matthew Whitaker Trump installed Matthew Whitaker after asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign. The move put a Trump loyalist in charge of the Mueller probe he had blasted publicly during a critical period. Nevertheless, Whitaker allowed Rosenstein to maintain day-to-day oversight of the probe, and it was allowed to go forward. William Barr Trump secured the resignation of Sessions and named Matthew Whitaker acting attorney general. Then, he nominated Barr, who had blasted the obstruction of justice basis for the probe in his writings, and who has taken a view of strong executive power. He was confirmed by the Senate on a 54-45 vote with just three Democrats voting for him. Barr infuriated Democrats by releasing a four-page summary of the Mueller report just 48-hours after he got it. The campaign advisors Jared Kushner The president's son-in-law, a senior White House advisor, was interviewed extensively by Mueller's team. Kushner's White House portfolio, his contacts with Russians and inaccurate disclosures, and his efforts to secure overseas financing for a Manhattan skyscraper all became areas for inquiry. Mike Flynn Former Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about his conversations with Russians about sanctions during the transition, and to lying about his lobbying for Turkey. His early cooperation sent a message to other witnesses. Paul Manafort Trump's former campaign chair got a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted on one set of money laundering and corruption charges, and pleading guilty to other charges. Prosecutors say he lied despite an agreement to cooperate. President Trump praised his loyalty, but claimed he had not thought about a pardon for his former top advisor. Rick Gates Manafort's deputy on the campaign, Gates had been Manafort's business partner, and testified about Manafort's efforts set up offshore companies, failure to pay taxes, and avoid disclosure laws. His participation helped the government untangle extremely complex business arrangements dealing with millions the pair earned for their Ukrainian work. Carter Page Page was a Trump foreign policy advisor when there were just a handful of them. His Russia contacts he gave a speech in Moscow in the midst of the campaign drew immediate scrutiny. The FBI got a judge's approval for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Warrant to monitor Page leading to Trump's claim there was 'spying' on his campaign. George Papadopoulos Papadopoulos met with a Maltese professor in London who said he had information about Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton, a key development in the beginning of the FBI's counter-intelligence probe on Trump. He pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and served 12 days in jail. Donald Trump Jr. The president's son attended an infamous meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016. When word got out, he released a statement saying the meeting was about Russian adoptions. When the New York Times was about to report on the contents of his emails, he tweeted out the entire email chain of contacts with British publicist Rob Goldstone about the promise of dirt on Hillary Clinton. Goldstone was representing pop singer Emin Agalarov, whose father is a major Moscow real estate developer. Roger Stone Trump's longtime advisor Stone is an infamous political dirty trickster on the scene since the Nixon administration. Prosecutors charged him with seven counts including obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and lying to Congress about his communications with WikiLeaks in January 2019. Hope Hicks Trump's long-time press secretary and top White House communications aide met with investigators, and was involved when Trump dictated an initial misleading statement about the Trump Tower meeting with Russians. Having been with Trump since his campaign operated with a skeleton crew, she was a potential font of information. But unlike many Trump aides, she left in good standing, and secured a lucrative job with Fox, where Trump is deeply connected. The diggers Christopher Steele The ex-British intelligence officer compiled information based on his Russia contacts for what became the golden showers dossier, which contained salacious unverified claims about Trump's conduct in Moscow. It also said the Russians had compromising financial leverage over Trump. The FBI obtained the document in 2016, and former FBI Director James Comey briefed Trump about it during the transition. Glenn Simpson Simpson's firm, Fusion GPS, conducted the investigation that resulted in the 'dirty dossier.' Fusion began the 2016 campaign under contract from the conservative Washington Free Beacon news outlet, whose leaders hoped to damage Donald Trump enough to drive him out of the Republican primary season. Later, however, the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid Fusion roughly a combined $9 million to continue the work, using a law firm to move the money. Fusion hired Christopher Steele to do the ground work, using his contacts in Russia as sources. James Comey Comey led the FBI when it opened a counter-intelligence probe of Trump campaign aides, and when agents obtained judicial approval for a surveillance warrant on Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Trump cited Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, and his sudden exoneration of her in the middle of the presidential campaign, when he fired him just four months into his presidency. It became one element in the examination of possible obstruction of justice. Comey famously orchestrated press leaks of information from memos he wrote following his private meetings with President Trump, hoping they would lead to a special counsel probe. He delivered riveting testimony after his firing about Trump's request for loyalty and cryptic comments about the investigation of Michael Flynn. Peter Strzok and Lisa Page Peter Strzok and Lisa Page The FBI lawyers became known as 'FBI lovers' after their anti-Trump texts were exposed. Both shared deep concerns about Trump's Russia connections as they unfolded. They became regular features of Trump's Twitter attacks on the Mueller investigation. The Trump lawyers Ty Cobb Cobb joined the Trump White House to aide in his legal defense. He counseled the staff to be in 'full cooperation mode.' Even as the president attacked the Russia probe, Cobb shared his personal admiration for Robert Mueller. John Dowd Trump's outside lawyer John Dowd provided some back-channel communications with Mueller's team amid the president's attacks. He disputed journalist Bob Woodward's claim that he called his client a 'f****** liar' and saw the 'nightmare' of possibilities of what would happen if Trump were allowed to meet with investigators after staging a mock interview. Don McGahn The White House counsel met with Mueller's investigators for a total of 30 hours. McGahn, who previously served as a member of the Federal Elections Commission and who advised Trump during the 2016, threatened to quit after Trump ordered Mueller's firing, according to a New York Times report. Rudy Giuliani Amid a wave of turnover in Trump's legal team, the president brought on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani stumbled several times in interviews and at one point confirmed Trump paid reimbursements to Michael Cohen after he paid porn star Stormy Daniels. He also steered Trump's public response as he managed to avoid having to sit for an interview for the Russia probe despite saying he would love to do so. The Russians Vladimir Putin The Russian president bristled at U.S.-led sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine, seeks to challenge U.S. influence around the globe, and maintained unrivaled control in Moscow as military intelligence undertook an election hacking campaign. Trump drew criticism for repeatedly praising Putin during the campaign and asking Russia to find Hillary Clinton's emails. Sergei Kislyak The former Russian ambassador to the U.S. was revealed to have had contacts with a series of Trump-connected figures during the campaign. His Oval Office meeting with President Trump drew attention when the Kremlin, rather than the White House, put out a photo. Natalia Veselnitskaya The Kremlin-linked lawyer attended the Trump Tower meeting after the offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton, then frustrated participants by pitching a sanctions-related issue. She was revealed to have worked with the Russian prosecutor general. She was later charged with obstruction of justice in a different money laundering case involving Russia. Oleg Deripaska The Russian oligarch was Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort's benefactor and Manafort also owed him millions during the campaign. Manafort offered to provide campaign updates to the aluminum magnate through an intermediary. Felix Sater The Russia-born Sater tried to broker a deal through Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and Russians to build a Trump tower in Moscow, though the project fell through. Julian Assange The WikiLeaks founder published damaging Democratic emails during the campaign. He was arrested on April 11 on charges of conspiracy to hack U.S. government computers in 2010. The initial charge does not mention Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Emin Agalarov Pops singer Emin Agalarov, an Azerbeijani-Russian entertainer who once cut a music video featuring a cameo by Trump, became an unusual link in the infamous Trump Tower meeting. The son of oligarch Aras Agalarov, it was Emin who put in motion the Trump Tower meeting with Russians by having his associate Rob Goldstone reach out to Donald Trump Jr. about information being promised by Moscow. Rob Goldstone Goldstone's email to Donald Trump Jr. became a key piece of evidence of a direct connection between Russians and the Trump campaign. The British PR figure reached out to the president's eldest son, mentioning 'Russia and its government's support' for the Trump campaign and conveyed the offer of dirt on Clinton. He mentioned Emin's father and the 'Crown prosecutor' of Russia, lending legitimacy to what was being conveyed. Long after being swept up in the probe and testifying about the unusual way the meeting came together, he told NPR he had 'no idea what I was talking about.' The Overseers Jerold Nadler The House Judiciary Chair obtained a subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report, and has emerged as the most prominent figure trying to force its release. He demanded Congress get the full report, called on Mueller to testify, and bashed Bill Barr's four-page letter summarizing the probe's conclusions. Devin Nunes The House Intelligence chairman steered his committee's own Russia probe to put the focus on FBI investigators, the origins of the probe, and misconduct. He had to step back from running the inquiry after his White House visits were revealed, including one shortly before he said intelligence agencies may have monitored President Trump incidentally. Julian Assange (pictured after his arrest at the embassy) has agreed to remain in custody ahead of his extradition hearing next month Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to remain in custody ahead of his US extradition hearing next month, a court heard today. The alleged cyber criminal faces being extradited to the United States over the leak of huge amounts of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010. The 47-year-old was dramatically arrested and dragged from the Ecuadorean Embassy on April 11 after the country withdrew its diplomatic protection. President Lenin Moreno later accused Assange of 'despotic' behaviour and said he was responsible for a dirty protest at the embassy. The Australian will remain at maximum security Belmarsh jail in south-east London ahead of his next hearing in a fortnight. Neither Assange nor his legal team attended today's brief hearing at Wesminster Magistrates' Court. Barnaby Hone, prosecuting, told District Judge Margot Coleman: 'He has consented to be remanded in custody and produced on 2 May.' Assange faces up to five years in prison if extradited to the US over the leaking of nearly 700,000 confidential documents provided by former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. He also faces potential extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations from 2010, as the case may be reopened by Swedish authorities. Pictured: The moment that police arrested Assange as he was kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy after a seven-year stay Last week, Assange did not enter a plea to the US charge but he was found guilty of failing to surrender. Australian-born Assange surrendered to UK police on 7 December 2010 but was later released on bail. He breached his bail after he failed to challenge the extradition proceedings and sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy, which was formally granted in August 2012. Assange will be sentenced for failing to surrender at Southwark Crown Court at a future date. He was remanded in custody ahead of his next extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on May 2. Prince Philip has been spotted back behind the wheel of his new Land Rover for the first time since surrendering his driving licence. The Duke of Edinburgh was seen driving through the grounds of Windsor Castle today as the Queen attended the Maundy service at the nearby St George's Chapel. It comes after the 97-year-old voluntarily surrendered his licence in February, having flipped his car in Norfolk and injured two women in a crash the month before. As Windsor Castle is located on private land, the Prince is still permitted to drive freely, but is no longer allowed to use public roads around the estate. Scroll down for video Prince Philip has been spotted back behind the wheel of his new Land Rover for the first time since surrendering his driving licence The Duke of Edinburgh was seen driving through the grounds of Windsor Castle today as the Queen attended the Maundy service at the nearby St George's Chapel It comes after the 97-year-old voluntarily surrendered his licence in February, having flipped his car in Norfolk and injured two women in a crash the month before The Duke was told recently that he would face no criminal action for his horror smash in which his Land Rover Freelander hit a Kia at a T-junction. The Crown Prosecution Service said it was not in the 'public interest to prosecute' after the collision near Sandringham, Norfolk in January. He escaped injury but Emma Fairweather, 46, broke her wrist and called for Prince Philip to be prosecuted if found to be at fault. He said he was 'deeply sorry' and explained while he was familiar with the junction he could 'only imagine' the low sun stopped him seeing her approaching. A close-up picture shows Prince Philip's Land Rover on its side after crashing on the A149 in January Philip had just left Sandringham, marked in red, and was turning on to the A149 at this junction when he collided with a Kia and his car cartwheeled on to the other side of the road The Queen wore spring-like Easter yellow for the annual Maundy Thursday service at St George's Chapel, at Windsor Castle today The Duke appeared to admit responsibility in a letter to Ms Fairweather several days after the accident. In his 181-word typed letter, Prince Philip wished her a 'speedy recovery from a very distressing experience'. Two days ago, Norfolk Police confirmed they were still investigating Prince Philip's crash on January 17 when his Land Rover rolled over after being hit by a Kia. The accident happened as Philip pulled out of a side road on to the 60mph limit A149 road. According to one eyewitness, the Kia, driven by a 28-year-old mother, 'T-boned' the duke's car and ended up in a hedge with smoke coming from the engine. On January 21, Prince Philip sent her a letter wishing her a 'speed recovery' and that he 'failed to see the car coming', the Sunday Mirror reported. AwazToday.pk Privacy Policy: We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here. Disclaimer: AwazToday.pk is not responsible for any content linked to or referred to from these pages. All videos, live tvs, blogs or video links point to content hosted on third party websites or members. We are using third party links for live tvs. Users who upload these videos or blogs agree not to upload illegal content when creating their user accounts. AwazToday.pk does not accept responsibility for content hosted on third party websites or by the members. If you have any questions please contact us. Copyright 2000-2021 AwazToday.pk. All rights reserved unless where otherwise noted. A British pensioner has been jailed for 25 years in Spain for attempting to murder his stepson with a hammer and then turning on his wife when she rushed to stop him. Robert Ulph, 72, started beating his 20-year-old stepson over the head while he was in bed asleep in the family home at Denia, a favourite resort with British expats on the Costa Blanca north of Benidorm, on April 16, 2017. The stepson suffered multiple skull fractures. His mother, who had married Ulph in the UK in 2004, went to her son's aid and was also struck with the hammer Robert Ulph, 72, staged his attack in April 2017 at his home in Denia on Spain's Costa Blanca, which is located north of the tourist hotspot of Benidorm (file image) Ulph then punched her in the stomach and attempted to suffocate her, a court at Alicante heard earlier this month. Neighbours alerted the police when they saw Mrs Ulph struggling with her husband at the front door of their home where they had lived after moving to Denia about six months earlier. When officers arrived he still had the hammer in his possession and his body was splattered with blood, a panel of three judges heard. Ulph, who denied all charges, told the court that he could not remember attacking his stepson with a hammer. Both the mother, who was 49 at the time, and her son have been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder since the attack, the court heard. The son spent five months recovering from multiple head fractures. The mother also told the court that her husband repeatedly called her son 'a little s****' and 'a waste of empty space'. In their written sentence published on Wednesday the three judges dismissed the defence plea that Ulph was not guilty due to his mental faculties being temporarily annulled and sent him to prison for 25 years. His two years in jail on remand will be classed as part of the prison term. BBC Newsnight host Emily Maitlis has revealed she once saw former US president Bill Clinton browsing a copy of the Kama Sutra. The presenter, 48, has given a revealing insight into her career as a journalist in her new book Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News. Maitlis, who last month took over the lead anchor role on the BBC Two show, also tells how she found Donald Trump 'creepy' during a one on one interview. It also features accounts of interview with Prime Minister Theresa May, Tony Blair, Emma Thompson, former FBI chief James Comey and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Matilis (right) says the former US president (left, during their interview in 2014) who famously had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, was looking at a 'heavily decorated' copy of the Kama Sutra. She writes how the night before she interviewed Clinton in India in 2014 she spotted him in a hotel gift shop. Matilis says the former US president, who famously had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, was looking at a 'heavily decorated' copy of the classic Kama Sutra sex manual. Maitlis interviewed Clinton in India in 2014 In an interview at the weekend with the Mail on Sunday's You Magazine, Maitlis revealed she regretted not pressing Clinton on his affair with Lewinsky. She made the 11th-hour decision after Clinton's aides told her he had just had a 'funny turn' and might pull out of the interview altogether if 'anything happens on camera.' Maitlis, who has two children, Milo, 14, and Max, 12, said: 'I was trying to read between the lines, thinking, 'What are you saying?' There were all these sorts of things stacked against us that we had to weigh up. 'The fact that he wasn't well, that we had travelled all this way to get the [interview] and if they pulled the tape, I would come away with nothing.' The book also follows her work covering the Bataclan terror attack in Paris in 2015, and she briefly mentions her stalker who was jailed in January last year for stalking her over 25 years. The reshuffle of the Newsnight presenting team saw it go an all female line-up for the first time. It comes after a major row over the treatment of women at the BBC, with female journalists repeatedly protesting at being paid less than their male counterparts for doing similar roles. In her book, Maitlis told how she found US president Donald Trump (pictured) 'creepy' during a one on one interview Canadian-born Maitlis acted as a political editor and presenter on the current affairs show, and covered numerous elections for the BBC. She said after he appointment: 'I am delighted to be moving into this role at a time when Newsnight feels so pivotal to our understanding of this extraordinary moment in British history, and to be working with such an exceptional team.' Newsnight editor Esme Wren said: 'This is a tremendous presenter line-up that sends out a clear signal about the programme's growing ambition. 'All three presenters bring substantial political clout and a wealth of expertise across a broad range of subjects. Emily with her husband Mark Gwynne in the exclusive photoshoot for You magazine 'Emily's promotion to lead presenter is testament to the journalistic excellence, passion and tenacious interview style that saw her recognised as Network Presenter of the Year at the recent RTS Television Journalism Awards.' In the interview last weekend Maitlis said that her best-ever question was asking the man who would become her husband to marry her. Speaking in an exclusive interview in The Mail on Sundays You magazine she even reveals how investment manager Mark Gwynne had the temerity to take his time before accepting. Talking about the moment she popped the question on a beach in Mauritius 19 years ago, she says: Wed flown out on millennium eve. It seemed the right place to ask. Id packed a little white beach dress and I was like, This will be great? Well just get married on Friday! But Mark stopped short of marrying her there and then. She says: Mark was like, No, my mum has to be there which is very sweet but, actually, when we got back she was the first one to say, Oh, for goodness sake, you should have eloped. Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News is published by Michael Joseph (18.99). The bakery Milk Bar has changed the name of its 'Crack Pie' after critics said the reference to addiction was in bad taste. The New York-based brand's founder said the name of the treat was 'getting in the way of letting the gooey, buttery slice bring happiness'. The snack, made with an oat cookie crust, will now be known as the Milk Bar Pie after the name of the bakery chain. Critics had said it was 'callous' to use the language of drug addiction, which has devastated many U.S. communities, to promote the company's baked goods. The bakery Milk Bar has changed the name of its 'Crack Pie' to 'Milk Bar Pie' (pictured) after critics said the reference to addiction was in bad taste Company founder Christina Tosi said: 'Weve made the decision to stop using the name Crack Pie. Starting today, it will be known as Milk Bar Pie. 'While change is never easy, we feel this is the right decision. 'Why Milk Bar Pie? Its simple, so weve decided to keep it simple. Its been on the Milk Bar menu since day one. 'And, the old name was getting in the way of letting the gooey, buttery slice bring happiness - my only goal in creating the thing in the first place.' The newly-titled dish was 'the same pie you've always known - just a new name', the company said on its website. Food writer Devra First had argued in a Boston Globe column that there was 'nothing cute' about the name. She said: 'The language of addiction is frequently deployed when it comes to food, and its time to stop. Critics had said it was 'callous' to use the language of drug addiction, which has devastated many U.S. communities, to promote the company's baked goods 'It is a moment to pay attention to the way we talk about food, to stop speaking lightly about addiction and equating it with deliciousness. 'Because no matter how sweet it is, Crack Pie is just in bad taste.' Another restaurant critic, Soleil Ho, wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that it was 'callous' to talk about baked goods in terms of drugs. 'No matter how delicious something might be, its effect on me is nothing close to what crack does to people and their families,' she said. Milk Bar is not the first brand to abandon the name 'crack' following a backlash in recent months. Michigan-based restaurant chain HopCat announced in December it was changing the name of its 'Crack Fries' to 'Cosmik Fries'. 'We chose the name more than 11 years ago as a reference to the addictive quality of the fries and their cracked pepper seasoning, without consideration for those the drug negatively affected. We were wrong,' the company said. 'The crack epidemic and the lasting impact on those it affects is not funny and never was.' Residents along the East Coast have reported seeing a meteor blazing across the nighttime sky. The American Meteor Society (AMS) said it received 360 reports on Tuesday about a meteor or fireball seen from Vermont to South Carolina. According to the society, the fireball traveled from north to south across 12 states and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in front of Bethany Beach, Delaware. Scott Rudlosky, a physical scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said a satellite-based instrument confirmed the meteor. The instrument was launched into orbit about two years ago to help the National Weather Service track severe weather. A green colored meteor blazing through the night sky, which was categorized as a fireball, in dashboard camera footage taken by a social media user in Fairfax, Washington D.C. Its not unusual for meteors to enter the Earths atmosphere, according to Rudlosky, but it is rare for people to see them especially if they fall during night time. 'All the time these are occurring, its just a matter of people seeing them to report them,' Rudlosky said. The AMS said several thousand meteors appear in the Earth's atmosphere each day. Many of them occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions and are masked by daylight. Steve Chazin captured breathtaking footage on Twitter from his car as it blazed through a street in Fairfax, just outside Virginia in Washington D.C just before 11 pm Tuesday night. WHAT ARE METEORS? Meteors, also known as 'shooting stars', are the visible paths of asteroid or comet fragments that enter into the Earths atmosphere. Atmospheric friction causes the fragments to slow down, heat up and explode. Advertisement The astrological event lasted much longer than a typical shooting star and was visible for nearly ten seconds, according to videos showing the phenomenon. William Cooke, an astronomer with NASAs Meteoroid Environment Office, told the Huffington Post that the meteor was bright enough to be categorized as a fireball. This means that the meteor was was brighter than the planet Venus. NASA claimed the fireball event began about two miles east of Island Beach, New Jersey, about 57 miles above the Atlantic coastline. The meteor, which appeared green in color, illuminated the night sky and was categorized as a fireball. This happens when fragments of the meteor explode in the Earth's atmosphere The fireball traveled from north to south across 12 states and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in front of Bethany Beach, Delaware, according to the American Meteor Society The astrological event ended about 50 miles east of Ocean City, Virginia. Judging from the fireballs brightness and orbit, NASA claims that it was caused by a piece of a Jupiter family comet, about 10 inches in diameter and weighing about 60 pounds. Cooke explained that his office typically records two to three similar meteor events per month that occur somewhere in the U.S. Stargazers in Florida and Georgia spotted a meteor burning bright green in the sky just last month. Many stargazers posted footage of the meteor as it blazed through the sky on social media. The astrological event began about two miles east of Island Beach, New Jersey, about 57 miles above the Atlantic coastline The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also confirmed that the fireball occurred as it was monitored on a satellite-based recording tool An observer from Haymarket, Virginia, told the AMS: 'It was one of the coolest things Ive ever seen. 'I will probably never see one again, but, I am now hooked and will look every night!,' the person reported. Another social media user tweeted: 'Did anyone else just see that MASSIVE meteor fall out of the sky over the DC area?! Bright green.' Someone else claimed: 'Just saw a massive meteor fall from the sky with a green flame due east from Montgomery County Maryland falling across the sky from north to south.' The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that the meteor occurred. The administration has a Geostationary Lightning Mapper, a satellite-based tool picks up meteors that burn in Earths atmosphere in addition to lightning flashes. The instrument was launched into orbit about two years ago to help the National Weather Service to track extreme weather events. President Donald Trump says he's having a 'good day' now that the he's been cleared of collusion and obstruction. Trump touched on the topic at the beginning of a Wounded Warriors event at the White House. 'And they're having a good day. I'm having a good day, too. It was called no collusion, no obstruction,' he said. 'There never was, by the way, and there never will be. And we do have to get to the bottom of these things, I will say.' He added, 'I say this in front of my friends, this should never happen to another president again, this hoax. This should never happen to another president again.' He had celebrated the end of the special counsel investigation earlier with a play on 'Game of Thrones,' which is in its final season on HBO. The president shared a theatrical poster of himself, standing in fog, with an overlay that said: 'NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION. FOR THE HATERS AND THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS - GAME OVER.' It was the latest in a series of 'Game of Thrones' styled posters the White House created to promote Trump's agenda. It created the full-length 'SANCTIONS ARE COMING' posters he brought to a Cabinet meeting in January. Trump and his lawyers were aware of what the special counsel's redacted report would say, and they sought to get ahead of of it on Thursday morning, branding the entire probe a 'Political Hoax' conducted by 'Crooked Dirty Cops,' before Attorney General William Barr held a news conference on Russian election meddling. I'M HAVING A GREAT DAY, HOW ABOUT YOU: Trump touched on the topic at the beginning of a Wounded Warrior event at the White House. 'And they're having a good day. I'm having a good day, too. It was called no collusion, no obstruction,' he said Trump celebrated the end special counsel investigation with a play on 'Game of Thones,' which is in its final season on HBO. He said 'GAME OVER' to Democrats hoping Mueller would recommend he be indicted He had not released the redacted report to Congress at the time of the press conference but spoke again about Robert Mueller's decision not to make a determination on obstruction of justice. Barr claimed Mueller left that decision up to him, even though the report later revealed the special counsel kicked the issue to Congress. Before the press conference, the president sent out a flurry of tweets accusing his political enemies of crimes. He intimated that he was referring to former FBI director James Comey and Hillary Clinton, as well as the Democratic National Committee. 'The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats,' he said in a tweet. 'PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!' he said in another. He shared a video of himself declaring 'no collusion' at every turn of the investigation. 'No Collusion - No Obstruction!' he proclaimed again. Hours later, he put out another video that seemed to troll the mainstream media. It included clips of MSNBC and CNN anchors acknowledging Barr's initial conclusion that Mueller found no evidence of criminal collusion between the president's campaign and Vladimir Putin's government. 'As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION!' the president said. Several other tweets highlighted charges that a conservative judicial activist group levied against the FBI and an informant who's claims served as the basis for allegations that Russia could be blackmailing Trump. The group, Judicial Watch, had also been tweeting about Clinton and the emails she routed through a private server when she was secretary of state. The FBI investigated her but declined to bring charges against her for gross negligence. Trump also shared a video of himself declaring 'no collusion' at every turn of the investigation. 'No Collusion - No Obstruction!' he proclaimed again. President Donald Trump sought to get ahead of the attorney general and the special counsel on Thursday morning, branding it the entire probe a 'Political Hoax' conducted by 'Crooked Dirty Cops' before William Barr released the redacted report of Russian election meddling He further claimed that the investigation that looked at allegations of obstruction of justice and collusion with Russia was harrassment Trump sent the tweets before Barr said at a 9:30 am press conference that he determined that the president was 'frustrated' with the special counsel investigation but did not actively seek to impede it or obstruct justice. On Wednesday Trump suggested he could hold a press conference to discuss the findings of the special counsel report. He did not end up having one. A planned rebuttal report from his lawyers was also on ice on Thursday. 'We have not issued and have not determined that we will,' Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told DailyMail.com in a late morning text. Rudy Giuliani, another Trump attorney, did a victory lap for half-an-hour on Fox News, instead. Barr revealed at his press conference that he had provided the president's attorneys with full access to the report - something he was refusing to do for Congress - prior to his news conference. Giuliani told Fox that he and the president's other, personal attorneys read the full report in a secure room at the Department of Justice. The attorney general suggested that the president's attorneys were offered the opportunity to redact additional sections but they made no such requests. Giuliani confirmed that version of events. Their collective statements affirmed Wednesday reporting that Trump's personal attorneys reviewed the report before it was prepped for release. They had days to put their own spin on it and prepare a public relations campaign in support of the president. Trump was still gloating hours later - he shared a second video of mainstream media acknowledging Barr's summary Democrats want Mueller to testify before Congress about the report he helped Barr redact Congressman Adam Schiff, a former prosecutor himself, lit into Barr for giving the president's legal team an edge. 'He took it upon himself to reach a conclusion on obstruction. He adopted the Presidents spying smears. Now, he will spin a report no one has read. My advice: Wait to read Muellers words for yourself,' he tweeted. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer demanded that Mueller testify in public before Congress. They said that Barr's 'partisan handling' of the report has resulted in a 'crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality.' In their joint statement, Pelosi and Schumer blasted the attorney general for 'his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference' before it becomes public and for his 'irresponsible testimony before Congress last week.' The chaos around the release of the redacted report was reminiscent of the furor on Capitol Hill after the FBI abruptly announced that it was not recommending charges against Clinton in her email and server case. Republicans argued that Clinton had been allowed to skate, and the conclusion had been rigged in her favor. When the FBI wrapped up its investigation into the former secretary of state, Comey held an impromptu media avail that even his bosses didn't know about. He said investigators found her to be reckless but not guilty of crimes. Trump went on to fire Comey for what he claimed at the time was sloppy work on the Clinton case. He claims now that Comey was a dirty cop who led dirty team and they were all out to get him. He has claimed more than once that Comey and his cronies may have committed treason, once he learned that they investigated his business ties to Russia. He has accused ousted FBI officials of 'illegal spying' on his presidential campaign and plotting a 'coup' to forcibly remove him from office. He told press before a luncheon on Capitol Hill in March that he believes the alleged spying went all the way to the top suggesting that former President Barack Obama was involved. In a WMAL interview on Wedesday, Trump would not accuse Obama of crimes, however, he said it was hard to fathom a situation in which the sitting president was not aware of what was taking place in his own Justice Department. 'We're talking about pervasive horrible things that were happening. And it would certainly be hard to believe what was going on, but we're going to leave that for another day,' the president said. Attorney General William Barr's press conference focused heavily on obstruction of justice allegations against Trump Barr has agreed with Trump that 'spying' on the presidential campaign took place. He hasn't explained exactly what he meant by that, though. His press conference focused heavily on obstruction of justice allegations against Trump. Mueller did not reach a conclusion on obstruction, but Barr, working in tandem with Rosenstein, decided against charges. In the report Mueller outlines ten instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice - and notes that the president believed the appointment of a special counsel would lead to him being ousted from office. According to the report, on May 17, 2017, Sessions left a meeting to take a call from Rosenstein, who delivered the news. In notes by Sessions' chief of staff, Jody Hunt, the president slumped back in his chair. 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I' m f*****,' he said, according to Hunt's notes. Then, according to the report, 'The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, 'How could you let this happen, Jeff?' Trump contrasted Sessions to former AGs Eric Holder and Bobby Kennedy, venting, 'you were supposed to protect me' or similar words. 'The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, 'Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.' Trump seemed extremely upset afterwards, recounted former Trump communications director and White House aide Hope Hicks. 'Hicks said that she had only seen the President like that one other time, when the Access Hollywood tape came out during the campaign,' she said. Sessions handed in a resignation letter after the incident, as per Trump's request. Trump asked Sessions if he wanted to stay, and when Sessions said he did, Trump said he wanted Sessions to stay. 'At the end of the meeting, the president shook Sessions's hand but did not return the resignation letter,' according to the report. This action also caused concerns. Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said it acted like a 'shock collar' and that Trump had DOJ 'by the throat.' Priebus and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon were said to be concerned and said they would try to get it back. The report also describes an incident on a flight to the Middle East where, according to Hicks, Trump pulled out the letter and showed it out to a group of advisors. When Priebus asked Trump about the letter on the trip, Trump told him it was back at the White House residence. Only three days after he returned did Trump return the letter to Sessions with a notation stating: 'Not accepted.' ' After reviewing a litany of instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice, the attorney general opted to exonerate the president. He claimed in a letter to Congress that Mueller left the task to him. The redacted report revealed that Mueller explicitly said the issue should be decided by Congress. 'With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,' the special counsel wrote. He said, 'The separation-of-powers doctrine authorizes Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regard less of their source. 'The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.' Giuliani said Thursday that instances of alleged obstruction are 'easily explained' - they were defensive actions from an under-siege executive. He told Fox that the Trump 'did not have a guilty motive,' as there was on underlying crime and was reacting the way he did because he was 'innocent man being accused of something he didn't do.' The president was concerned that investigators who worked for Mueller had ties to the Clinton family and were 'highly partisan Democrats' who were 'very strongly supportive' of the Democratic presidential candidate. He believed that he was being 'framed' by the prosecutors, Giuliani said. 'And he was right,' the attorney added. 'You're going to find out over the ensuing four, five months, they were framing him. This was a deliberate plan to plant this idea.' After almost two years of opacity, waiting and guessing, the Mueller report will finally be released on Thursday. But before unveiling their thousands of pages of work, William Barr and his team delivered one final blow to the waiting world - it'll be delivered on a CD. Congress, which is on tenterhooks anticipating its delivery, scrambled on Wednesday night to ensure it had old enough computers that still have CD drives in order to load it. Attorney General William Barr will hold a press conference about the report at 9.30am. It will then be delivered, in redacted form, to Congress, between 11am and noon on the CD and after that, it will be uploaded to the Justice Department's website. After the news that the Mueller report would be delivered on a CD emerged on Wednesday, the internet went into overdrive mocking it In Congress, any Apple Mac desktops and the majority of laptops will not be able to host it because their drives were phased out years ago as the cloud grew in popularity and USBs became ubiquitous. After the announcement, the internet - which has waited just as eagerly for the report's release as the government - seized on it. Twitter users mocked Attorney General William Barr for the old fashioned choice by likening him to Fred Flindstone, a comparison which spawned hilarious memes. 'What year is it?' asked users. Others took the chance to hark back nostalgically to the years they spent burning music onto CDs, as was their only choice in a pre-Apple Music and Spotify world. 'Yelling at your little brother because he scratched the Mueller report CD and now it won't work anymore,' joked one user. 'Remember how C's used to have hidden tracks? Like if you rewinded before the first song on the X files first soundtrack where there was hidden s**t? The internet erupted with memes about the decision to release the report on a CD 'Yeah, I think that's what the Mueller cd is gonna be like. You go backward far enough and it UNREDACTS ITSELF,' another quipped. 'If a CD is good enough for the mix tape I made my high school crush, it's good enough for the Mueller report,' someone else said. The report is the culmination of thousands of interviews, hundreds of subpoenas and years of suspicion over President Trump's election victory. It details how there is no evidence he colluded with Russians to sway the election, but Mueller and the team behind it have refused to exonerate him from obstruction of justice claims. Attorney General William Barr is pictured leaving his home in Virginia on Thursday morning ahead of his 9.30am news conference He will however not be prosecuted. The report's crucial finding was announced last month and was rightfully celebrated by the president and his team. The victory tees them up perfectly ahead of his 2020 reelection campaign. After the redacted version of the report is released, an unredacted version will be shown to some members of Congress but not all. The redacted information is anything that will reveal investigative methods or compromise grand jurors. MUELLER BY THE NUMBERS 2,578 interviews Robert Mueller's investigators spoke to 500 witnesses, all of whom could have been charged with lying to the FBI. They ranged from top level figures like Paul Manafort, Don McGahn and Michael Cohen to obscure personalities like George Papadopoulos - and people are the very heat of Trump's inner circle, including Hope Hicks, his former communications director who had worked for him even before he ran for president. $25 million It cost U.S. taxpayers $25 million to fund the Mueller investigation as of February, and it was wrapped up by the end of March, meaning the cost is expected to be slightly above that figure. 675 days Mueller was appointed to begin investigating Trump and his campaign's possible collusion with Russia on May 27, 2017. He handed over his completed report on the investigation to Attorney General Bill Barr on March 22, 2019. 33 indictments Of the indictments that came out of the probe, 25 were Russian nationals and three were Russian entities. The other five were Konstantin Klimnik, a former employee of Paul Manafort; Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin, both Michael Flynn's business partners; Roger Stone, former Trump campaign official; and Greg Craig, who served for a period as former President Barack Obama's White House counsel. 22 guilty pleas (many from Paul Manafort) Eight of the pleas came from Trump's former attorney, who cooperated with Mueller's investigation, Michael Cohen. Another 8 came from Paul Manafort for bank and tax fraud. The rest are individual pleas from Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos (left), Rick Gates, Richard Pinedo, Alex Van Der Zwaan, and W. Samuel Patten. One 'golden showers' dossier The dossier drawn up by ex-British spy Christopher Steele detailed claims of degrading sex acts in Moscow which Trump denied ever happened. It also detailed claims Trump was in the pocket of the Kremlin, and was used to start the counter-intelligence investigation which morphed into the Mueller inquiry. Trump's disgust and anger at what he says is a smear has erupted in public repeatedly. Steele has said his dossier was never verified or supposed to be made public. '18 angry Democrats' Trump repeatedly attacked Mueller's team, claiming they were biased. He initially said they were 13 'angry Democrats' running the 'witch hunt' but later upgraded that to 18. 400 pages The full report is just slightly shorter than its nearest modern equivalent - Kenneth Starr's independent counsel report into Bill Clinton. Four pages When Mueller handed in his report, it spawned its own report- from William Barr, the attorney general, to Congressional leaders. It meant Trump's appointee offered the first draft of histoshry, saying Mueller cleared Trump of colluding with Russia and that Barr cleared him of obstruction of justice.. 2,800 subpoenas In his quest for information Mueller's team issued almost 3,000 subpoenas. 19 lawyers As the probe proliferated, the legal team grew to 19 lawyers. One was Andrew Weissmann, who joined the team after taking a leave of absence from his job leading the Justice Department's criminal fraud unit. Three of the other lawyers to join Mueller's probe into Trump included Jeannie Rhee, James Quarles and Aaron Zebley. All three are former employees of WilmerHale, a "Big Law" law firm where Mueller had worked. 40 FBI agents There were 40 agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants and other staff from the bureau that assisted with the investigation in some capacity. 107 Trump tweets Trump referenced Mueller on Twitter 107 times and tweeted about the 'witch hint' his nickname for the probe 185 times throughout the duration of the investigation. One report There is only one Mueller report but whether you ever see it in its entirety remains unknown. Some members of Congress and their staff will be able to see it without redactions, and the Democrats are already promising an epic constitutional legal battle which is likely to go all the way to the Supreme Court for the public at large to see it. Advertisement Lindsay Lohan's stepmother has pleaded guilty to commandeering a bus full of people and attacking its driver on Christmas Day when she was drunk. Kate Major Lohan, 36, apologized while entering the third-degree disorderly conduct misdemeanor plea on Wednesday at a Pennsylvania court. In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors withdrew other charges including drunken driving, harassment and public drunkenness. Kate Major Lohan, 36, (above leaving court) pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on Wednesday in Allentown, Pennsylvania following the drunken Christmas Day incident on a bus Major Lohan, who is married to the actress' father Michael Lohan, was a passenger on a chartered bus in Allentown on Christmas Day last year when she accused the female driver of missing her stop. In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors withdrew other charges including drunken driving, harassment and public drunkenness An enraged Major Lohan, who is a former celebrity journalist, berated the driver for 15 minutes until the bus stopped at a scheduled stop in the next town. The driver forced Major Lohan off the bus but she started grabbing at the driver's coat. Major Lohan then made her way back onto the bus, got behind the wheel and started pushing buttons as the engine ran. A passenger managed to remove her from the driver's seat and held her until police arrived to arrest her. She ended up spending Christmas night in prison. Defense attorney Greg Spang lauded prosecutors for dropping the DUI charge, saying his client wanted to put a 'Christmas she won't soon forget' behind her. Major Lohan has been married to Lindsay's father Michael since October 2014 and they have two sons together. She filed for divorce in September last year after she was arrested for domestic battery Major Lohan has been married to Lindsay's father Michael since October 2014 and they have two sons together. The Christmas Day arrest was her seventh in five years. She was arrested early last year after her husband called 911 to report that she was drunk, had smashed his cellphone and then hurled a glass candle holder at him. Major Lohan was charged with battery after the altercation. She was released under supervision and was ordered to wear a SCRAM bracelet, which monitors alcohol levels. Major Lohan filed for divorce a month later but said they are still raising their children together. A former SS soldier who served as a concentration camp sentry has been charged with aiding and abetting thousands of murders during the Second World War. The 92-year-old, known only as Bruno D, will be hauled in front of a jury after prosecutors accused him of being an accessory to 5,230 killings while stationed as a watchtower guard at Stutthof in Poland. Surviving Nazis who helped usher through Adolf Hitler's brutal Final Solution are dwindling in numbers and German courts are rushing to bring Holocaust-era war criminals to justice before they die. A former Stutthof concentration camp (pictured in 2012) sentry has been charged with being an accessory to 5,230 murders during the Second World War The war-era watchtower (pictured) guard has reportedly admitted watching prisoners led into the gas chambers for murder during his nine months in the death camp In a sensational confession, Bruno D admitted that during his nine months in the camp watched prisoners troop into the gas chambers to be murdered, according to the Die Welt newspaper. He said: 'What good would it have done for me to leave? They'd just have found somebody else. 'I felt bad for the people there. I didn't know why they were there. I knew that they were Jews who had committed no crime.' And the ex-Nazi, who was 17 when he started serving at Stutthof, claims that he was not a Third Reich loyalist. More than 60,000 people died in the camp based in Poland (crematorium pictured) during Adolf Hitler's Holocaust Inmates of the camp were He joined the Hitler's paramilitary unit, the SS, during the war because a weak heart meant he was only fit for garrison duty. More than 60,000 people died in the grounds of Stutthof, near Gdansk, as part of the Nazi's ethnic cleansing of Poland. Inmates were poisoned in the notorious death showers, shot, starved and even injected in the heart with gasoline. The trials of former camp guards do not link the ex-Nazis to any specific crime but accuse them of being complicit in Holocaust murders. Another nonagenarian's case was halted last year after he was judged to be too frail to appear in court. A scorned wife decided to take things into her own hands after appearing to catch her husband in bed with their young child's babysitter. In a widely-circulated video from Brazil, the unnamed woman fires her gun four times in her home after catching her husband in the act. Her young baby then cries after hearing the loud gunshots echoing around the home. A woman readies her phone as she checks in the bedroom to confirm her suspicions that her husband is sleeping with their babysitter The video has been shared on YouTube and Whatsapp groups in Brazil but it is not yet clear who the woman is. The footage was shot on her mobile phone and shows her positioning it on the counter top facing the bedroom with the baby in shot. The woman then proceeds to open the bedroom door and verify her suspicions. She then heads back only to return with a gun in her hand which she fires while in the kitchen metres away from the baby. After opening the bedroom door again, she fires twice in the room and shouts at the cheating pair. She then returns with a gun and fires it four times causing the young baby to start screaming The scorned woman yells in Portuguese: 'Get out of here, leave!' on the widely-circulated video from Brazil A woman, who is believed to be the babysitter, then appears naked in the doorway, followed shortly by the husband She says in Portuguese: 'Get out of here, leave!' Soon after, a naked couple appear at the doorstep just as the woman fires once more in the kitchen. According to local media, the husband was cheating with the family's babysitter although this has not been confirmed. Around 20 Minneapolis cops refused to speak to investigators probing the death of an unarmed woman who was shot dead by a police colleague, prosecutors have claimed. The murder trial of Mohamed Noor, the officer accused of killing Justine Ruszczyk Damond in 2017, has also heard how a senior cop turned off her body camera when talking to Noor moments after the shooting. In addition, police allegedly discussed withholding evidence with their union officials and had to be compelled to testify by a grand jury. The evidence has raised fears of a 'blue wall of silence' put up to protect a fellow police officer. Yoga teacher Damond, 40, had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home but Noor said he was spooked by a bang on his squad car and fired through the window. Justine Ruszczyk Damond was shot after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home in 2017 Defense attorney Peter Wold said in his opening statement that Noor heard a loud bang on the squad car and feared an ambush. But prosecutors say there is no evidence of any threat to justify deadly force. They also claim that police officers did not mention the noise on his car until days after the shooting. Noor's colleague Matthew Harrity initially told the incident commander that the officers got spooked, prosecutor Patrick Lofton told jurors. But the first mention of a possible slap on the squad car came not from Noor or Harrity but rather from others at the scene who made assumptions about what happened, according to Lofton. According to prosecutors and court testimony the incident commander turned her body camera off when talking to Noor in the moments after the shooting. Noor and Harrity did not turn on their body cameras until after the shooting. Many responding officers turned their body cameras on and off at will and one had his camera recording while headed to the scene and shut it off upon arrival, according to the fresh claims. Prosecutors have told the court that about 20 police officers refused to talk to investigators. It was also alleged that in the aftermath of the shooting, officers sought union advice to find out their rights in keeping a code of silence. 'These are extremely troublesome things,' said Phil Turner, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor in Chicago who is not connected to the case. Mohamed Noor leaves the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota 'They're law enforcement officers and they are supposed to enforce the law equally, whether someone is a sworn law enforcement officer or not.' Noor, 33, is on trial for murder and manslaughter in the death of Damond, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia. The shooting gained instant international attention, led to the forced resignation of the city's police chief, and led to changes in the department's policy on body cameras. It also raised questions about a 'blue wall of silence' as prosecutors said they had to convene a grand jury to compel officers' testimony because many refused to provide statements. Turner found this allegation troubling, saying officers around the U.S. have been covering for each other for years. He pointed to the aftermath of the 1991 police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. Justine Ruszczyk Damond with her family. The two responding officers didn't turn on their body cams until after the shooting An independent commission found the code of silence among officers to be 'perhaps the greatest single barrier to the effective investigation and adjudication of complaints' about police behavior. 'It's the same thing, even back then,' he said. 'It's been going on for a long time.' At Noor's trial, some officers have described arriving to a hectic, confusing situation in which they didn't initially know Damond had been shot by an officer. Officer Jesse Lopez told Noor: 'Just keep to yourself. Keep your mouth shut until you have to say anything to anybody.' Prosecutors have also raised questions about the noise that Harrity later told investigators precipitated the shooting. Mugshot image of Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor at Hennepin County Jail in Minnesota Mohamed Noor, center, leaves the Hennepin County Government Center after the first day of jury selection with his attorneys Thomas Plunkett, left, and Peter Wold Justine Damond (pictured with her fiance Don Damon ) called 911 to report a possible rape Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said there are many checks and balances to hold police officers accountable. The department requires officers to immediately report any police misconduct, including unreasonable force. 'This profession is monitored and the oversight has never been higher,' he said. Body cameras have been seen as one way to counter the 'blue wall.' Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who was the assistant chief at the time, testified that officers should have left theirs on. Arradondo said that under the department's body camera policy at the time, officers were expected to hit record when conducting traffic stops or 'any sorts of contact where an officer believes that there may be an adversarial situation that develops.' But officers were given wide discretion. The revised policy requires officers to activate the cameras in most public encounters. Still, it gives officers latitude and says they can temporarily deactivate their cameras to discuss an incident with a co-worker. Sgt. Shannon Barnette, the incident commander, was asked Tuesday why she turned her camera on and off. She said the department's policy on cameras 'was confusing.' In court documents, Judge Kathryn Quaintance cautioned prosecutors against making arguments about a general code of silence among officers based on their behavior at the scene. Prosecutors argued in court documents that statements and behaviors of some officers show bias as to why certain evidence was not gathered or kept. 'The jury should question the credibility of any officer's testimony if he or she demonstrates an unwillingness to give full or truthful testimony because of a bias toward police,' prosecutors wrote. Britain First's Jayda Fransen, who is one of several far-right figures banned from Facebook, pictured outside court in 2016 Facebook has banned far-right groups including the British National Party (BNP) and the English Defence League (EDL) from having any presence on the social network for violating the site's rules around promoting hate and violence. The banned groups, which also includes Knights Templar International, Britain First and the National Front as well as key members of their leadership, have been removed from both Facebook or Instagram. The social network's policy does not allow groups or individuals which engage in 'terrorist activity, organised hate, mass or serial murder, human trafficking or organised violence or criminal activity'. Convicted Neo-Nazi Jack Renshaw, who plotted to kill West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper and exact revenge on a female police officer who was investigating him for child sex offences, has also been banned. Facebook said it uses an extensive process to determine which people or groups it designates as dangerous, using signals such as whether they have used hate speech, and called for or directly carried out acts of violence against others based on factors such as race, ethnicity or national origin. 'Individuals and organisations who spread hate, or attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are, have no place on Facebook,' a spokeswoman for the social network said. 'Under our dangerous individuals & organisations policy, we ban those who proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence. The individuals and organisations we have banned today violate this policy, and they will no longer be allowed a presence on Facebook or Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg outside Government Buildings Oireachtas Communications Committee in Dublin on April 2 (left) and Tommy Robinson, who is also banned from Facebook at a rally in London on March 29 Who has Facebook just banned? The far-right British National Party, which currently has no UK elected representatives; and its former ex-leader Nick Griffin, who notoriously appeared on BBC Question Time in 2009. Britain First, a fascist group formed by disillusioned former BNP members. It is known for its attention-seeking 'direct action' stunts, such as going into mosques and harassing worshippers. Its leader, former BNP councillor Paul Golding, and deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, have also been banned. The EDL, a far-right street movement which relies on public demonstrations to express its hateful views. These often turn violent and see clashes between EDL members and antifascists. Paul Ray, its founding member, has also been banned. Knights Templar International, a militant Christian group that harks back to the days of the crusades against Islam. Also banned from Facebook is its founder, Jim Dowson, a far-right activist from Scotland who is known for his effective use of social media to spread his views. The National Front and its leader, Tony Martin. It has never been elected to the British or European Parliaments, but was formerly one of the most high-profile fascist street movements in Britain. Jack Renshaw a neo-Nazi who plotted to kill Labour MP Rosie Cooper with a machete. He is also a convicted paedophile who was jailed last year for trying to groom two underage boys. Advertisement 'Posts and other content which expresses praise or support for these figures and groups will also be banned. Our work against organised hate is ongoing and we will continue to review individuals, organisations, pages, groups and content against our community standards.' Former BNP leader Nick Griffin, Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, EDL member Paul Ray, Knights Templar International's Jim Dowson and the National Front's Tony Martin have also been banned as part of the crackdown. Golding and Fransen's official pages were removed by Facebook last year for violating the site's community standards, but the new ban will prevent them from having any presence on Facebook or Instagram, including a personal profile. Praise and support by others for any of the groups or individuals named by Facebook will also no longer be allowed on either social platform. In February, Facebook and Instagram announced a permanent ban for far-right activist Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, for behaving 'in ways that violate our policies around organised hate'. In March last year, Yaxley-Lennon was also banned from Twitter after breaching its 'hateful content' policy. Although Yaxley-Lennon's videos are still on YouTube, he faces more restrictions on his channel. Videos now come with a content warning and are removed from recommendations. Viewers will no longer be able to comment, suggest or like the videos. YouTube had already, in January, been prevented from making money on his videos with adverts. An Italian teenager who allegedly raped a British girl during a cruise is a student who was on a school trip at the time, it has been revealed. The 18-year-old suspect, from Sicily, was kicked off the boat when it docked in Valencia and met by his father who provided with a top lawyer, according to reports. He later appeared in court in the Spanish city but a judge freed him after ruling that he had no jurisdiction to investigate. An Italian boy accused of raping a 17-year-old British girl on a cruise ship bound for Valencia (pictured) is a student who was on a school trip at the time The judge based his ruling on the fact that the alleged rape took place between two foreigners on a Panamanian-flagged ship - making it technically the territory of Panama - while in international waters. A spokesman from the Italian student's school told the Sun Online that the father of one of their students had been in contact about the boy. The father revealed his son was asked to leave the boat in Valencia and stayed at a nearby hotel, but was not detained by any authority. Prosecutors in the student's hometown said that no case has been filed so far. It is understood that UK and Panama authorities could also pursue the case, but it is not clear if allegations have been filed. The victim, who was travelling with her family, is understood to be back in the UK, the Sun reports, while her alleged rapist remains overseas. The attack allegedly took place around 5am on April 11 when the British girl says the Italian boy forced her into his cabin before raping her while the boat was sailing between Palma and Valencia. The ship docked at Port Valencia at 7.35am and left just after 4pm the same day for Marseille, without the suspect on board but with the British girl and her parents. The boy was arrested as he returned from a day trip around the city after the captain informed port authorities about an incident on board and they alerted police, according to local media. The girl was examined at Valencia's La Fe Hospital as part of a rape crimes protocol. DNA tests are also understood to have taken place in the cabin where the sex attack allegedly occurred and on the British girl's clothes so they could be analysed at Valencia's Institute of Forensic Medicine. The alleged attack happened around 5am on April 11 after the ship left Palma (pictured) when the girl claims the boy pushed her into his cabin and attacked her The boy was taken to court the same day but was freed after the judge concluded he did not have jurisdiction to probe the alleged crime. Despite the judge saying that a man was arrested and then released due to a legal technicality, the company that owns the cruise ship said that it 'cannot comment further' as there is an ongoing investigation. A well-placed source said the 'ship's captain had done everything that was appropriate.' She said this included 'making port authorities in Valencia aware' and allowing police to board the vessel so they could search the cabin where the alleged sex attack is said to have occurred' She said the captain also ensured any relevant potential evidence could be taken away. A spokesman for the company said: 'As there is an ongoing investigation, we are unable to provide any additional comment on this matter. 'Any questions can and should be addressed to the relevant authorities. 'Additionally, this is a matter that relates to guests who were travelling on board one of our ships. 'Within this context, our company is fully cooperating with the authorities overseeing this investigation, but is not itself in any way subject to it. 'Finally, please note that contrary to at least one media report, the ship was never held nor released for any technicality. 'As we are and never were part to the investigation - beyond our role in cooperating with the authorities - this is simply incorrect.' Spain pioneered the use of the doctrine of universal jurisdiction after it was passed into national law in 1985. The doctrine allowed judges to try certain cases of crimes against humanity that took place in other countries. The best known use of the doctrine occurred in 1998 when Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet was briefly arrested in London on an arrest warrant issued by a Spanish judge. It was modified in 2009 and further curbed in 2014. The Spanish government said recently it wanted to re-establish the doctrine and expand the law to take in economic, financial and environmental crimes. Rachael Keogh pictured in 2006, when she was warned by doctors they might have to amputate her arms A former heroin addict has unveiled her staggering transformation from street-working teenager with festering injection wounds on her arms to a healthy woman. Mother-of-one Rachael Keogh, 39, from Dublin, said she went to a park as a teenager and took ecstasy for the first time and totally fell into the grip of drugs. She began smoking cannabis at just 11 and had moved onto heroin by the time she was 13, selling her body on the streets. At 26 she made headlines with the horrific wounds on her arms that had been burned away by the citric acid used in her countless injections. Doctors told her then that if she failed to quit the drugs she could lose her arms. She told the Journal: 'I was on the verge of having both my arms amputated because I had been chronically using drugs completely against my own will for years and I just couldnt access treatment..' It had been Ms Keogh's own mother who had contacted the press in a desperate attempt to have her daughter face up to her problem. Ms Keogh, a mother-of-one, has managed to turn her life around - though the scars from her drug-taking still cover her forearm Ms Keogh revealed she started with cannabis aged 11 before moving onto heroin at 13, before she was jailed at 15 She told the Irish Mirror: 'I hit rock bottom when I was 15 I think. My veins started to collapse in my body because of the repeated injections. 'I ended up injecting into capillaries which are small veins that can't handle heroine, and basically what happened was the citric acid burned through my skin.' Ms Keogh had turned to the drug as a way to handle ecstasy comedowns, in what she told the Irish paper was a 'quick downward spiral.' She told RTE Radio: 'I went to a disco in the back fields of Ballymun and I didn't come home until I was 26. That's what it felt like. 'I went to a disco and I took ecstasy and I didn't come home until I was 26. Ms Keogh in a recent photo, she said her time in jail had only exacerbated her problems 'I felt like I was grabbed by the scruff of the neck by this mammoth entity that I couldn't get out of until I was 26.' She was sent to Mountjoy Prison at 15 which she said was simply an education in becoming a better criminal and addict. Ms Keogh told the Irish broadcaster she was the only child at 'The Joy' and was given drugs by older women and sharing dirty needles with other addicts. She told the Journal: 'It was terrible because I felt like I was using drugs against my own will, it was like something that I had no control over, I didnt want to be using drugs, you know?' In total she said she had spent ten years at the prison. She told presenter Ryan Tubridy that it was not until after she was watching a play written about her life that she realised the horrors she had been through. Drugs had enabled her to block out how dreadful her circumstances were. Ms Keogh in a recent photo, she wrote a book in 2009 called 'Dying to Survive' in 2009 and has also had a play written about her life The drugs survivor told the Irish Mirror ten of her friends had died along the years, one being especially close. She was able to kick her lethal habit after the media interest in 2006 and detoxed while undergoing three months of rehab. Ms Keogh, who is now at university studying interior design, wrote a book called 'Dying to Survive' about her life in 2009. She now advocates for the decriminalisation of drug users and instead believes in a health-orientated approach. Climate change protesters are planning to shut down London Heathrow Airport tomorrow as the Easter holidays begin. The Extinction Rebellion demonstrators are expected to start targeting the aviation industry, having already taken over London's streets and caused commuter misery. Activists claimed they would 'raise the bar' on protests having already taken over Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Circus, Parliament Square and Marble Arch this week. The location of the protests across London that has caused mayhem over the last four days Activists are arrested during Extinction Rebellion protests at Oxford Circus in London today Organisers said they are prepared to escalate the group's tactics if their demands 'are not met' - with 'thousands more rebels' expected to join in the coming days. An Extinction Rebellion spokesperson confirmed the group 'will be staging protest action at Heathrow Airport tomorrow'. Today, Heathrow said they are 'working with the authorities' to address any threat of protests from climate change activists in London which could disrupt the airport.' Internal messages seen by the Sun Online said: 'Tomorrow we raise the bar. We are going to shut down Heathrow. 'There is a deep remorse for those whose holiday and family plans will be disrupted tomorrow. It is not our intention to cause further separation. Extinction Rebellion protesters in sleeping bags this morning on Waterloo Bridge in London Climate change activists block traffic on Vauxhall Bridge in London this morning 'However, the aviation industry needs to be targeted and we are all aware of the deep, structural change that needs to come.' Nick Robinson blasts Extinction Rebellion's 'neo-pagan' co-founder Dr Gail Bradbrook told Radio 4 the protests are 'awesome' An eco-warrior has been blasted by Nick Robinson live on air this morning for encouraging climate protesters to have fun causing chaos in the streets of London. Dr Gail Bradbrook got a rise out of the BBC Radio 4 presenter when she said the protests were 'awesome' and asked more people to take the day off work and join them. The Extinction Rebellion co-founder added: 'People are having a fantastic time on the streets... I think its really important that people have fun while they're rebelling.' Robinson slammed Dr Bradbrook, saying not everyone had the privilege of choosing when to go to work. Today host Nick Robinson slammed the protester today The awkward exchange started when the Today host suggested Dr Bradbrook's protests had been irrelevant. He said: 'Lord Deben and an independent committee were asked to do a target for zero emissions before you took to the streets. So when it's announced in two weeks time, your protests will have been irrelevant to that, wont they?' Dr Bradbrook replied: 'I think our protests have been awesome. We're making history at the minute, people are having a fantastic time on the streets and we really welcome people to come join us. The presenter then said: 'They don't frankly have the privilege that you do, in order to choose when you can go to work. And they may not appreciate being told they should have fun doing it.' The climate protester added: 'I think its really important that people have fun while they're rebelling actually. What were asking is for people to come and join us if they can and people are taking time. ' Advertisement Protesters have been urged to travel to a bus stop near the airport to raise awareness of the impact that flying has on the environment. The internal message also suggested the idea to demonstrators that 'if there are lots of us, there will be a low risk of arrest'. Organisers say they are prepared to escalate the group's tactics if their demands 'are not met' - with 'thousands more rebels' expected to join in the coming days. Dr Gail Bradbrook, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, said demonstrators would continue to act despite the first people being charged over the disruption. It has seen activists glue themselves to public transport and block bridges and major roads across the capital. The fourth day of protests began with a challenge to Environment Secretary Michael Gove to meet with activists at Parliament Square to find a solution to the issue. And organisers said they expected even more people to join the protests, with a statement - which was later deleted - adding: 'Easter Weekend is tomorrow and thousands more rebels will join. 'Police struggle to arrest 350 and there are ten times that number prepared to be arrested. The hollowed-out British state is overwhelmed.' A Heathrow spokesman told MailOnline today: 'We are working with the authorities to address any threat of protests which could disrupt the airport. 'While we respect the right to peaceful protest and agree with the need to act on climate change, we don't agree that passengers should have their well-earned Easter Break holiday plans with family and friends disrupted. 'Passengers should contact their airlines for up to date information on their journeys.' It came as officers were slammed by their own commander after being filmed raving and skateboarding with the protesters. Police danced with the demonstrators at Oxford Circus overnight, as one of them pumped his hand in the air and the protesters chanted 'we love you'. More than 1,000 officers have been on patrol each day this week. Elsewhere police were even spotted skateboarding on Waterloo Bridge and sleeping in a car at a protest campsite, as politicians criticised Scotland Yard's response to the activists who have now blocked key routes for four days. Police talk to motorists as climate change activists block traffic on Vauxhall Bridge today Climate change protesters are allegedly planning to shut down London Heathrow (file image) Metropolitan Police Commander Jane Connors said today: 'I'm disappointed by the video and the unacceptable behaviour of the officers in it. 'We expect our officers to engage with protestors but clearly their actions fall short of the tone of the policing operation at a time when people are frustrated at the actions of the protestors.' An Extinction Rebellion spokesman said of the Heathrow protests: 'We are facing a man-made disaster on a global scale. 'It may sound frightening but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies.' Freed to cause chaos again: Revolving door as eco-activists go from police cells straight back to demos Scores of eco-warriors arrested in the capital rejoined the protests hours after being freed from police custody. As a row broke out about 'revolving door justice', a lawyer who was arrested after she superglued her hands to the pavement outside the Shell HQ went on TV and radio to defend the chaos. Farhana Yamin, who was detained on Tuesday, told Radio 4's Today programme: 'I totally want to apologise to people using public transport. Angie Zelter was arrested at Waterloo Bridge on Tuesday (left) before re-joining activists at Oxford Circus yesterday (right) 'Obviously I use public transport as much as possible and we're encouraging everyone to use less cars, less emissions, less private emissions. 'But at the same time we need to take actions which are disruptive and the reason for that is to make sure everyone understands the dangers we're facing right now.' But the fact that so many of the arrested protesters were able to rejoin the fray within hours only added to the chaos at some of London's major landmarks. Angie Zelter was carried off Waterloo Bridge by police on Tuesday afternoon after she refused to move. Zack Polanski was arrested on Waterloo Bridge on the second day of the protest at five locations city-wide and returned after being released. The Green Party candidate complained the police provided no vegan food or soy milk The 76-year-old spent seven hours in a cell at Brixton police station before she was let out and immediately re-joined the Extinction Rebellion strongholds. But by yesterday morning she appeared relaxed as she sat underneath a bright pink boat which had been placed in the middle of an Oxford Circus junction. She said: 'When I was released I came straight back out and went around all the four places where the blockades were still held and checked where they needed more support. 'I went back to a friend's house, had a rest then came and joined here at Oxford Circus this morning. I plan on being here for at least two weeks. If I get arrested again, so be it.' Jeffrey Brewster, who was arrested on Monday, returned to the protest and locked himself to the pink boat at Oxford Circus Green Party London Assembly candidate Zack Polanski was back on Waterloo Bridge yesterday after being arrested and spending 12 hours at a police station the day before. The 36-year-old 'cognitive hypnotist', who once boasted he had the power to make women's breasts grow, moaned about the lack of vegan food and soy milk while in custody. Hypocrisy of globe-trotting ringleader A privately educated eco-activist who flounced out of a TV interview yesterday has enjoyed a string of foreign holidays despite criticising air travel. Robin Boardman-Pattison, 21, appeared on Sky News to defend the Extinction Rebellion protests that have brought misery to hundreds of thousands in London. Robin Boardman-Pattison got up from his seat and walked out of the Sky News studio during an interview with Adam Boulton But he stormed off the set after presenter Adam Boulton suggested he and his fellow middle-class demonstrators were patronising and self-indulgent. During the interview Boardman-Pattison, who has twice been charged with criminal damage over previous protests, said his group would like to see aircraft 'only used in emergencies'. Boardman-Pattison at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy But it later emerged that his Instagram page features a series of photos of him enjoying skiing holidays abroad. He has also posted pictures online of himself in Italy three years ago visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is unclear how he travelled on his foreign breaks. But a carbon footprint calculator reveals that if Boardman-Pattison took a 1,800-mile return trip to Pisa by air he would have generated 0.20 tons in CO2 emissions. A similar journey in an average-sized car would result in 0.46 tons. If he had taken either a bus or train from London to Pisa his CO2 footprint would have been 0.04 tons. Last year Boardman-Pattison sprayed the words 'Make Ecocide Law' over the entrance windows of Bristol magistrates' court in an Extinction Rebellion demonstration. He and a fellow protester were arrested after reportedly taking 'too long' to wash off the paint under police orders. They pleaded not guilty but were eventually convicted and fined a total of 1,804. Boardman-Pattison has spent much of his life living in Beckenham, Kent, where his parents Roger and Mary own a 1million four-bedroom home. He previously attended the 17,500-a-year boys-only Trinity School in Croydon, south London, the Guido Fawkes political website reported. On Sky News yesterday, he said the Extinction Rebellion protests were to 'wake the public up'. But Mr Boulton told the activist: 'I feel very patronised by you. You're like the incompetent middle-class, self-indulgent people and you want to tell us how to live our lives.' Boardman-Pattison then got up from his seat and walked out of the studio. Advertisement 'I'm a vegan and they were pretty bad about getting me some vegan food,' he said. 'If you are going to arrest 300 activists you have got to think about getting some vegan food ready. There was no soy milk either so I had to have my tea black.' Charity worker Sarah MacDonald, 52, rejoined the protests after spending seven hours in a cell. She said police were 'really lovely, really kind' after she was arrested. She was taken to Wood Green police station in north London after being forcibly removed from Waterloo Bridge on Tuesday. She had travelled to London with her 19-year-old son, a student. 'I could see police had circled around my son so I went over to stand next to him. He moved off the street but I stood my ground and they arrested me,' she said. 'The police were actually really lovely, really kind. They gave me something to eat, a cup of tea, let me keep my book. My first thought after being released was that I wanted to get back out into the thick of it. I went back to Marble Arch and camped in a tent.' Jeffrey Brewster, 59, praised the 'fantastic' police after he was arrested on Monday evening after refusing to move off Waterloo Bridge. He was taken to a police station where he was kept until Tuesday afternoon. 'Myself and others had to wait for two hours outside the police station because there simply wasn't enough room for us inside,' the retired electrician said. 'We then had to wait another two hours inside because there weren't enough resources to process us all. They had 24 cells and we filled up the cells. 'The police were fantastic. I became very friendly with one of them and heard his life story. I was let out at about 5.30pm on Tuesday. A group of us went to the pub for a couple of pints then came here to Oxford Circus. I camped at Hyde Park overnight. 'There's a group of us who have come up from a sleepy Somerset village. I'm going to stay until Friday, but there are others who are staying two weeks.' Mother-of-three Katerina Hasapopoulos, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, who was arrested on Monday for causing damage to the Shell building, was back out protesting yesterday. She was held on Monday after activists smashed glass doors at the Shell HQ in Waterloo and spray-painted graffiti on to the building. Yesterday she returned to Waterloo Bridge, where protesters have been told they face arrest if they do not comply with a condition to continue demonstrations in the Marble Arch area. 'As soon as I was out of the cell I went and served some food at Marble Arch, then came here,' she said. 'I left my three children, all under six, at home with their father to do this, because their future depends on it.' Caroline Vincent, 56, who was arrested on Waterloo Bridge on Tuesday, said she planned to return to protest at Parliament Square. 'They arrested me for obstructing the highway. They were very polite, I was equally polite,' she said. 'I spent the night at Sutton police station [in south west London] and was released this morning. I will be back on the streets tonight. I'm on Parliament Square duty.' Grandmother Lucy Craig, 71, said she also plans to rejoin the protests after she was arrested at Oxford Circus on Monday. 'If they arrest me again, so be it, I've got nothing to lose,' she said. The grandmother was arrested after joining the protest at Oxford Circus on Monday with members of her family. She was taken to Kingston police station miles from her north London home but described the officers as 'charming'. Forget Brexit, this lot's making Britain a global laughing stock: ROBERT HARDMAN on eco-warriors' London takeover With the politicians off for Easter, some might imagine Britain has been granted some respite from international self-embarrassment. Well, think again. We might be enjoying a couple of weeks without our MPs but that image of a rudderless, incompetent country is now being ably maintained by, among other things, a pink yacht, currently parked across one of London's most famous intersections, and the transformation of one of the capital's most important bridges into a yoga mat. Now entering Day Four, the so-called 'Extinction Rebellion' is settling down nicely as our new national joke. Waterloo Bridge became the scene for yoga parties yesterday despite Scotland Yard officers ordering crowds to disperse Between them, a handful of earnest, peaceful and impressively organised eco-warriors have managed to bring the capital to a standstill while the police make inconsequential arrests and the other 99.9 per cent of the population are left asking: who, exactly, is in charge here? Among yesterday's highlights were one group who shut down the Docklands Light Railway and a quartet who glued themselves to Jeremy Corbyn's house (though they later unglued themselves and said they were very sorry). Today, we are promised widespread chaos on the Tube network. Who decided that people should be allowed to enjoy an extended camping holiday at central London landmarks? Who agreed that people should be allowed to build plywood lavatory cubicles in the middle of London's Oxford Street? They are not even public ones, it transpires, but only available to those with the key. Who said that more than 50 bus routes should be blocked with impunity? Who gave permission for a musical stage to be erected indefinitely across both carriageways on Waterloo Bridge, not to mention a skateboarding ramp? London has seen protests of every stripe over the years, some of them violent. However, they have tended to come and go in the course of a day or two. This one, which, it must be said, remains peaceful, is now settling in for the long haul. The organisers say that they are preparing for an open-ended stand-off with the police until the Government agrees to their core demands. Environmental campaigners smiled as they protested in the centre of Oxford Circus in London yesterday afternoon Since these include supplanting Parliament with a 'citizens' assembly' and the end of capitalism, it might be a very long wait. Yet how much longer is London prepared to have some of its most important thoroughfares sealed off to traffic by a self-appointed cadre of we-know-best activists? I arrive at Oxford Circus the crossroads of Britain's two best-known shopping thoroughfares, Oxford Street and Regent Street to find a 20ft bright pink sailing boat on a trailer parked in the middle. Around 20 recumbent protesters are chained to its trailer. A couple of hundred others stand around it swaying to tunes played by a grey-bearded disc jockey who has set up his sound system in the boat's cockpit. He fires off revolutionary slogans in between his Radio 2-style repertoire of hits from the Seventies and Eighties. 'We're here to tell the politicians: F*** you!' he shouts, to a few lame cheers. It is the middle of the afternoon. It's wholly inappropriate on a road junction next to the world's largest toy shop, Hamleys, as a steady stream of children pass by. But the police do not bat an eyelid. Most stand around 'monitoring the situation'. I find one police sergeant politely enduring an interminable lecture on the state of the planet's permafrost by a pimply teenage know-all in a Green Party bib. I wait and wait for the policeman to ask him to move on but, instead, he asks him a question about tree-planting. The protestors on Waterloo Bridge, pictured yesterday, are settling in for the long haul and preparing for a stand-off The police are certainly keen to keep the temperature down. All are in soft hats and hi-vis vests rather than riot gear. Every now and then, a team of seven or eight move in and pick up one of the protesters lying by the boat. Most of their targets go quietly, having volunteered for arrest in advance of these protests. Many will be back again as soon as they are released. There are none of the combative anarchist element who trashed Oxford Circus during the May Day anti-capitalist protests a few years back. There are no balaclavas, no finger-jabbing conspiracy theorists aggressively filming the police or the media. It is, largely, a combination of fresh-faced college activists and a lot of grey-haired people in sensible walking boots who look ready to ramble. 'I've only been on three demonstrations in my entire life,' says Bob Hill, 65, a retired civil engineer from Abergavenny, who genuinely knows his stuff about pollution levels and global warming. 'This is so important that we just have to do everything to make the politicians listen. And it's no use having a one-day protest. It's got to go on.' Here, too, is Robin Boardman-Pattison, 21, one of the organisers. He has taken a year's break from his modern languages degree course at Bristol to focus on this cause. Viewers may have seen him walk out of a heated television interview with Sky's Adam Boulton yesterday. 'He wasn't asking me proper questions,' Robin explained. 'The media need to take this seriously.' He had no problems whatsoever with the police, he went on, merely with the Government. 'We are a world-leading economy and we have to set an example. And we will maintain our programme of economic disruption until the politicians listen.' How does this win hearts and minds? And why on earth make all this noise when the entire political class is on holiday and thus cannot hear? Extinction Rebellion demonstrators continue to occupy Oxford Circus in London with their 'tell the truth' boat 'This is an international movement and this was the date that was set in advance,' says Robin, from Beckenham, Kent. I explain that a lot of people look on all this as a lot of posturing by an arrogant middle-class minority who are inconveniencing millions and achieving nothing. 'A lot of middle-class people also know that we need to cut back on our consumption,' he replies. Over on Waterloo Bridge, there are similar scenes. The mass yoga session from earlier in the day has finished. Many just lie in the sun reading a book, as homebound commuters weave past their rucksacks and the potted plant displays which some demonstrators have erected. Some office workers make little attempt to hide their contempt for the people who have added half an hour to their commute but there is no abuse. Again, there has been a slow trickle of arrests here too, although they do all add up. By the end of the day, the Met puts the total thus far at 340. But if most of those are simply going back to their original spots straight afterwards, the police strategy seems a little flawed. 'It's about proportionality,' one police officer explains when I ask why it is permissible to park a boat, trailer and toilet block in Oxford Street for days on end but not permissible for an ordinary person even to drive a car down it. 'If we tried to move everyone, there'd be a riot.' At some point, in the not too distant future, there is going to be a riot if they don't. Christina Martinez, 33, allegedly took a knife to both of her girls, aged eight and ten, at their home in Manzanola, Colorado, and then drove them to the Arkansas River Bridge A mother accused of trying to murder her two young daughters by stabbing them and driving them off the side of a bridge faces life behind bars. Christina Martinez, 33, allegedly took a knife to both of her girls, aged eight and ten, at their home in Manzanola, Colorado, and then drove them to the Arkansas River Bridge in her SUV. Miraculously, everyone survived the horror smash and when Martinez was released from hospital on Tuesday, she was immediately arrested by the Otero County Sheriffs Office. She is charged with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of felony child abuse and arson. Police have said Martinez launched the vehicle off the side of the bridge and plunged into the water. A passerby witnessed the horror scenes and emergency responders were able to rescue the girls from the vehicle, while Martinez escaped the vehicle on her own. Martinez is being held at the Otero County Jail in southern Colorado on a $500,000 bond. Her first court appearance is scheduled for April 24. Because the incident involves allegations involving possible child abuse, information released about the case will be limited, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. A Otero County Sherriff's office spokesperson said: 'A 33-year-old woman is suspected of stabbing her daughters (ages 8 and 10) at their home in Manzanola early Sunday morning, and later leaving with them in her vehicle. 'Its believed the woman then drove the girls northbound on Colorado State Highway 207, towards Crowley County, at which time she left the roadway and landed in the Arkansas River. Police have said Martinez launches the vehicle off the side of the bridge and plunged into the water (the Arkansas River Bridge is pictured) 'A passerby in the area called emergency responders and the two girls (10 and 8) were rescued from the SUV. 'The female driver was located outside of the vehicle. All three were transported for medical treatment. While their injuries are serious, they are all expected to survive. 'The Otero County Sheriffs Office, the Town of Manzanola Marshal, and the 16th Judicial District Attorneys Office are investigating to determine the events leading up to the traffic crash. 'The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has also been requested to provide assistance in the investigation.' China's first test-tube baby has given birth to a healthy boy at the same hospital where she was born 31 years ago. Zheng Mengzhu, who was born in 1988 after being conceived through in vitro fertilisation, gave birth to a baby boy in Beijing on Monday morning, according to the Peking University Third Hospital. The newborn, who was conceived naturally, was delivered by caesarean section and weighed 3.85 kg (8.48 lbs). Zheng Mengzhu, who was born in 1988 after being conceived through in vitro fertilisation, gave birth to a baby boy in Beijing on Monday morning. The newborn (above), who was conceived naturally, was delivered by caesarean section and weighed 3.85 kg (8.48 lbs) Doctors said the delivery went well and both mother and son are in stable condition Dr Zhang Lizhu, a leading doctor in test tube baby research, was pictured holding China's first test-tube baby Zheng Mengzhu after she was born on March 10, 1988 in Beijing Zheng was born on March 10, 1988 in the Beijing hospital, 10 years after Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby was born in Britain. Zhao Yangyu, head of obstetrics at Peking University Third Hospital, said the baby boy was in a horizontal position in the womb, which required delivery by C-section. 'The surgery went rather well. Both the mother and the baby are in stable condition,' she said. 'I feel a bit dizzy and think it's all like a dream,' Zheng's mother, Zheng Guizhen, told Beijing Daily. 'Mengzhu finally has her own child!' 'I just hope that my baby will grow up healthy and happy,' the new mother said. 'I just hope that my baby will grow up healthy and happy,' new mother Zheng Baozhu said Zhao Yangyu, head of obstetrics at Peking University Third Hospital, said the baby was in a horizontal position in the womb, which required delivery by C-section China's first test-tube baby was born on March 10, 1988 in Beijing, 10 years after Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby was born in Britain, pictured above Zheng mother, a primary school teacher in north-west China's Gansu province, sought the help of doctors after being unable to get pregnant for 20 years after her marriage due to blocked fallopian tubes. At the age of 38, she finally gave birth to baby Zheng with the help of Dr Zhang Lizhu, a leading doctor in test tube baby research. Dr Zhang, who has been dubbed the mother of China's test-tube babies, died in 2016. The reproductive medicine centre that she established at the hospital is one of the leading institutions in the field. After her birth, Zheng grew up in Gansu. After graduating from university, she worked as a medical archivist in the hospital's Reproductive Medicine Center. The successful birth of Zheng's child marked another milestone in the history of assisted reproductive technology in China, the hospital's director Qiao Jie said. The successful birth of Zheng's child marked another milestone in the history of assisted reproductive technology in China, the hospital's director Qiao Jie said Hospital director Qiao Jie (centre) holding the baby with Dr Zhao Yangyu (right) and Dr Liu ping Dr Qiao said many people were worried about whether a person born via IVF could naturally reproduce. Though many test-tube babies have became adults and had their own children, the figure remains relatively small. 'The birth today is further proof of the safety of assisted reproductive technology,' Dr Qiao said. Now, about one to two babies in every 100 newborns are born with assisted reproductive technology, she added. Luo Youqun, China's fourth test-tube baby who was born on June 7, 1988, became the first to have a child when his wife gave birth to a daughter in Changsha, Hunan province in 2016. More than 45 million people in the country were infertile, the Global Times reported in 2017 citing the China Association of Reproductive Health Industry. An American backpacker who survived a horror head on collision on an Australian freeway is pleading for help to pay her mounting medical bills. Andra Nicholson, 27, and her friend John borrowed a car from a friend and collided with another vehicle on Doonan Bridge Road near Queensland's Sunshine Coast last Friday. Ms Nickerson, from Washington, needed emergency surgery after being rushed to hospital with a shattered knee cap, a fractured femur bone and severe damage to her right foot. Andra Nickerson (pictured), from Washington, needed emergency surgery after being rushed to hospital with a shattered knee cap that required plates, a fractured femur bone and severe damage to her right foot Andra Nicholson and her friend John borrowed a car from a friend and collided with another car on Doonan Bridge Road near Queensland's Sunshine Coast last Friday 'After seeing pictures of the car I'm shocked I got out,' she told The Courier Mail. John escaped from the crash with no injuries. A Go Fund Me page set up by her friend Lauren has been set up to help foot the bill for Andra's recovery - with more than $10,000 already raised in just two days. 'Going to the bathroom or reaching for a glass of water is a major ordeal,' Ms Nickerson wrote on Facebook. 'I must swallow my pride and accept the fact that this is one of those situations in life when you can't do it alone. This accident is beyond my capacity to fix.' Over 200 generous strangers have already donated towards the $20,000 goal. The page hopes to help cover as much of Ms Nickerson's medical costs as possible, as she isn't covered by Australian healthcare. The page hopes to help cover as much of Ms Nickerson's medical costs as possible, as she isn't covered by Australian healthcare Before the tragic accident, Ms Nickerson - who has been in Australia since January 2018 - was working as a barista in Noosa but was told by doctors she may never be able to run or jump again. 'She is surrounded by love and wonderful care, but she has an overwhelming amount of bills coming her way and will be unable to work for several months while she heals,' the Go Fund Me page read. 'All who know Andra know just how kind and generous her soul is; how she would give the shirt off her back to help someone else.' Before the tragic accident, Ms Nickerson - who has been in Australia since January 2018 - was working as a barista in Noosa but was told by doctors she may never be able to run or jump again Ms Nickerson - who was discharged from Sunshine Coast University Hospital on Tuesday - will begin intensive physical therapy sessions after undergoing foot surgery next week. Ms Nickerson said she doesn't know how she will afford to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills, as her health insurance has expired since her second VISA hasn't yet been renewed. A Go Fund Me page set up by her friend Lauren has been set up to help foot the bill for Andra's recovery - with more than $10,000 already raised in just two days 'I am just happy to be alive and eventually I will be able to walk again,' she told The Courier Mail. 'I am young, fit and determined so I am just going to focus all my energy on this recovery,' she said. Ms Nickerson took to Facebook to thank everyone for their support, 'I feel the compassion, the kindness, and the concern from all corners of the world; I may not have my family around me or the comforts of home, but my support system here is astounding.' An irate motorist was prevented from getting to his job as a sustainable energy engineer this morning due to climate protesters. The furious scooter driver blasted a group of eco-warriors blocking off Vauxhall Bridge in London with a human barrier during rush hour. He fumed: 'I'm a engineer, I work in f***ing sustainable energy. How can I save the world if I can't get to f***ing work?' An irate scooter driver blasts a group of eco-warriors blocking off Vauxhall Bridge in London with a human barrier during rush hour The activists caused a queue of traffic that took drivers 45 minutes to get through. Tensions flared as drivers and motorcyclists came face to face with campaigners on the bridge. One protester was even punched in the chest by a passerby while trying to give him a leaflet. He fumed: 'I'm a engineer, I work in f***ing sustainable energy. How can I save the world if I can't get to f***ing work?' The clashes come as Extinction Rebellion activists continue to take over London's streets and cause misery for commuters. Officers were slammed by their own commander today after being filmed raving and skateboarding with the protesters, and one at Waterloo Bridge told bystanders he believed the disruption could last until next Friday. Elsewhere police were even spotted skateboarding on Waterloo Bridge and sleeping in a car at a protest campsite, as politicians criticised Scotland Yard's response to the activists who have now blocked key routes for four days. Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, who has not yet made a public statement on the protests, said more than 1,000 officers were on patrol daily this week. The activists caused a queue of traffic that took drivers 45 minutes to get through But a group of them were seen dancing with demonstrators at Oxford Circus who chanted 'we love you'. As anger grows amid threats that the disruption could affect the Easter getaway at Heathrow Airport, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he wanted police to use the 'full force of the law' against protesters who act illegally. But Mayor Sadiq Khan suggested police funding cuts were restricting the Met's abilities, while ex-commissioner Lord Stevens said: 'You have to clear the streets... you have to bring in police resources. Enough is enough.' Today, the protesters turned their attention to Vauxhall Bridge - having already taken over Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Circus, Parliament Square and Marble Arch. Advertisement Haunting black and white photographs of the devastating earthquake that shook San Francisco in 1906, reveal how the disaster that claimed 3,000 lives reduced the city to smoldering ashes and rubble. Thursday marks the 113rd anniversary of the earthquake that destroyed the northern California city on April 18, 1906. Striking photographs of the calamitous 7.9 magnitude quake offer an inside look at the extensive damage left in the wake of the one-minute temblor, such as towering buildings knocked down to a pile of bricks and full neighborhoods crushed to debris. Homes that weren't destroyed were slanted sideways and streets were splintered and broken, with giant cracks ripping through the earth. Photographers braved the rubble to capture the devastation and now 40 of those first-hand are images are for sale at Swann Auction Galleries where theyre expected to sell for between $2,000 and $3,000, according to Atlas Obscura. Striking and haunting photographs from the deadly 1906 San Francisco earthquake that known as one of the catastrophic tremors in history are going up for sale The terror temblor struck on April 18, 1906, rupturing through the northernmost 296miles of the San Andreas Fault, collapsing towers and sparking a series of deadly fires that raged on for days Streets were ripped in two after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake shook the earth for a full minute in 1906 in San Francisco Homes that weren't reduced to rubble were slanted in bizarre ways in the catastrophic earthquake This print titled 'Relic seekers after the fire' show men in hats pilfering through rubble searching for anything to salvage Some of the shocking images depict clouds of smoke stretching into the sky, homes twisted and slanted, and buildings engulfed in fire. One image entitled 'Relic seekers after the fire' show men in bowler hats pilfering through rubble, searching for something to salvage. The photographers behind most of the historic images are not known. One print is credited to Willard E. Worden, a Bay Area transplant by way of Philadelphia, who worked as a newspaper illustrator. As the photographs are taken in different light, format, and on different paper stocks, experts suspect that the images were shot by multiple photographers. Total destruction: Homes were completely destroyed and reduced to rubble in the quake that claimed 3,000 lives Photographers braved the rubble to capture the devastation and now 40 of those first-hand are images are for sale at Swann Auction Galleries where theyre expected to sell for between $2,000 and $3,000 The haunting photographs capture the ominous smoke of earthquake-sparked-fires billowing into the sky As the photographs are taken in different light, format, and on different stocks, experts suspect that the images were shot by multiple photographers The deadly quake woke up San Francisco at 5am on that fateful day, shaking the earth for one long minute. The damage would have the city reeling for years to come A total of 3,000 people perished in the earthquake's and its vicious aftermath and 80 percent of San Francisco was destroyed The deadly quake woke up the city at 5am, shaking the earth for one long minute, but the city would reel from the intensive damage for years to come. Gas and pipelines were twisted and broken and rampant fires broke out and raged on for days. A total of 3,000 people perished in the earthquake's and its vicious aftermath and 80 percent of San Francisco was destroyed. 'One side of the country moved north, while the other side stood where it was, and there came a tear through the entire San Mateo county north and south,' Hermann Schussler, chief engineer of the Spring Valley Water Works, said in a testimony after the quake. 'If San Francisco had been at or near the fault line there would not have been anything left of it,' he added. The quake has gone down in history as one of the most destructive of all time. Trolley tracks were up rooted from the ground, homes were sent backwards, and towers brought to the ground Nature's wrath: The quake ruptured the northernmost 296miles of the San Andreas Fault between San Juan Bautista and Cape Mendocino, completely ripping apart some streets in San Francisco The quake decimated thousands of homes, leaving between 227,000 and 300,000 people homeless out of a total population of about 410,000 At first 375 deaths were reported, but hundreds of fatalities in China town were ignored and unreported. Later the number of dead was reported between 700 and 3,000 Historic buildings became shells of their former glory after the 1906 earthquake violently shook the earth for a minute Each year San Francisco remembers the 1906 earthquake on April 18, to honor the dead and how the city rebuilt itself The quake ruptured the northernmost 296miles of the San Andreas Fault between San Juan Bautista and Cape Mendocino and was followed by multiple aftershocks, according to the U.S. Geological Service. At first 375 deaths were reported, but hundreds of fatalities in China town were ignored and unreported. While the precise total is uncertain, reports at the time ranged the number of fatalities to be between 700 and 3,000. The quake decimated thousands of homes, leaving between 227,000 and 300,000 people homeless out of a total population of about 410,000. Half of the homeless then fled to Oakland and Berkeley, across the bay. San Francisco landmarks like the Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, and the Panhandle were then covered with refugee camp makeshift tents as the city slowly rebuilt itself to its former glory. Dorothy Lee Flood, 55, was charged on Wednesday after being accused of fatally shooting her grandsons Jaden and Jorden Webb multiple times in her Tucson home on April 4 An Arizona woman accused of shooting dead her twin eight-year-old autistic grandsons because caring for them full-time had become too much has been indicted on two counts of murder. Dorothy Lee Flood, 55, was charged on Wednesday after being accused of fatally shooting her grandsons Jaden and Jorden Webb multiple times in her Tucson home on April 4. Police said Flood admitted to shooting the boys before she tried to kill herself by overdosing on prescription medication. Authorities were called to the home following reports of medical concerns and found Flood unresponsive from what they said was an apparent overdose. First responders then found the two boys dead in separate bedrooms. They had suffered gunshots wounds to their heads and bodies. Flood was rushed to the hospital for treatment and was arrested the following day. Investigators said they found a gun and ammunition in her home. Jorden and Jaden Webb were found dead in their grandmother's Tuscon home on April 4 after being shot multiple times in the head and body Authorities were called to the home following reports of medical concerns and found Flood unresponsive from what they said was an apparent overdose. The boys were found in their bedrooms A family member told investigators that Flood had said the boys had become too much for her. The boys, who were both autistic, had apparently been having trouble sleeping in the last six weeks. Flood took the boys and was their sole caregiver after their mother Kristen Webb - who was her daughter - killed herself two years ago. Neighbors were shocked to learn of Flood's arrest and said she was regularly spotted playing with her grandsons in their yard. Flood, who remains in jail on a $250,000 bond following fears she will attempt suicide again, was indicted on Wednesday. She was indicted on Wednesday on two counts of first degree murder. It is unclear if she has an attorney to speak on her behalf about the case. Dramatic bodycam video has been released showing sheriff's deputies fatally shooting a man who hurled a large wrench at them while wielding a hammer. Juan Ricardo Torres, 39, was shot by Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputies on Friday after his terrified younger sister called 911 saying he was 'all crazy' and 'probably on drugs'. 'I need sheriffs out here now, my brother's trying to hurt us! I need sheriffs out here now, please!' the sister says in 911 call audio released by police. In the call, the sister said that Torres was a habitual user of a drug he called 'G', which is slang for 'glass' or methamphetamine. Toxicology tests have not yet confirmed whether Torres was under the influence of any drugs at the time. Juan Ricardo Torres, 39, was shot by Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputies on Friday after his terrified sister called 911 saying he was 'all crazy' and 'probably on drugs' Two deputies, who have not yet been publicly named, responded to the scene and confronted Torres outside of the home. Bodycam footage shows the officers trying to talk Torres down during a lengthy standoff. 'Calm down. You're not in trouble,' says one of the deputies. 'Just shoot me!' Torres shouts back repeatedly, pacing around the home's backyard holding a large wrench in his right hand and a Craftsman ball peen hammer in his left. Family members tried to get Torres to calm down, but he refused. 'Just stop!' his sister said. 'We want to help you!' Torres, listed in records as six-foot-one and 380 pounds, repeatedly replies 'Shoot me!' 'Put those down, buddy. Just put those down,' one deputy says. 'You're making a big scene right now out of nothing, just relax.' Deputies arrived to find the six-foot-one, 380-pound Torres pacing in a backyard Torres was holding a large wrench in his right hand and a ball peen hammer in his left hand 'Put those down, buddy. Just put those down,' one deputy says. 'You're making a big scene right now out of nothing, just relax' The standoff continues for several minutes, until Torres suddenly approaches the deputies and raises his arm. 'Put that down!' a deputy shouts as Torres hurls the wrench. The wrench, a four-pound, 18-inch long Craftsman Combination, flew directly at one deputy's head and struck him in the back of the neck as he tried to duck out of the way, County Sheriff Paul Penzone said. Both deputies opened fire on Torres. A total of 11 shots were fired, and preliminary information is that seven shots struck Torres. The deputies rendered aid until paramedics arrived on the scene. Torres was transported to a hospital, where he was declared dead. Police say that his rap sheet included 22 documented contacts with law enforcement, 12 of those being with the Maricopa Sheriff's Office. 'Just shoot me!' Torres shouts back repeatedly, pacing around the home's backyard Suddenly Torres hurled the four-pound wrench at the head of one of the deputies Sheriff Penzone said at a press conference on Wednesday that the shooting appeared justified, though prosecutors will make that determination. 'The investigation will take its course but from my position where I stand today, the deputies were in a position where they had no other choice but to respond with deadly force to protect themselves,' Penzone said. 'It is a very dangerous, dynamic with different perspectives that are very fluid,' he said. He called domestic violence calls 'probably the most unpredictable' that police face. However, Torres' family, who looked on in horror as he was shot dead, feel differently, and say police should have They treated him like an animal, like a bear or something, 11 shots, it's not right,' Irma Torres, one of Juan Torres' sisters, told KPHO-TV. Torres 22 had documented contacts with law enforcement, 12 of those being with the Maricopa Sheriff's Office. But his family say he was a 'big teddy bear' and wasn't a threat Vanessa Torres, Juan's youngest sister, was the one who called 911. She blasted police for not attempting to use less-lethal methods. 'There was enough room to step back,' Vanessa Torres said. 'They didn't use any other method besides their guns.' 'I was standing behind the cops,' Vanessa Torres added. 'I didn't feel threatened.' She said that her brother had down times when he felt 'everyone was against him' but also had his good days. 'When he's good, he's good. He's playful with the kids,' said Vanessa Torres. 'He's a big teddy bear.' The family says they are actively pursuing a lawsuit against the sheriff's department. A Kazakh woman has been arrested for allegedly torturing her three step-daughters because she thought her husband loved them more than their baby son. The unnamed 28-year-old step-mother's supposed evil acts are laid bare in her torture log where she describes the pain inflicted on the girls in colourful detail - all while her husband knew nothing. The woman intimidated her step-daughters who were too afraid to tell anybody about their traumatic ordeal at their home in Zhetisay, southern Kazakhstan. Nurmukhamet Koimbetov, the girls' father, knew nothing about the pain being inflicted on his daughters The sisters were hospitalised and diagnosed with numerous bruises and doctors say the children's bodies were covered with horrible scars The step-mother kept a torture log and described the tortures in colourful details Reports say that the girls' father, Nurmukhamet Koimbetov, married his new wife three years ago. At first, the woman treated her step-children well but everything changed radically after she gave birth to the couple's first son. The mother became jealous as she believed that her husband loved his daughters more than their newborn child and started abusing the girls. The eldest daughter told local media: 'She [her step-mother] inserted needles under my nails and tried to tear off my tongue with pliers. 'She curved lines on my sisters' backs with a knife and forced us to lie in a cold bath.' The two youngest daughters (pictured) along with their elder sister were allegedly tortured by their Kazakhstani step-mother The eldest daughter (pictured) said that the unnamed 28-year-old woman poked needles up her fingernails The step-mother is believed to have used a knife to cut figures on her step-daughters backs The victims' grandmother said: 'The girls told me how she [the step-mother] poked them with a screwdriver. 'They said they urinated with blood after she beat them up. 'How could a woman be so cruel towards children?' The step-mother, who is pregnant with her second baby, tortured the girls during the course of a year but their father only learned of his daughter's suffering one week ago. Mr Koimbetov, who burst into tears when he spoke of the torture, said: 'My daughters never told me anything. 'Lately, I noticed that they became reclusive and tried not to leave their room. 'When I asked my wife why she did that, she said, "I was very jealous, I thought you loved them more than me and our son."' The step-mother is alleged to have tortured the children because she believed her husband loved them more than he loved her Police raided the family home (pictured) in the town of Zhetisay in Turkistan Region in southern Kazakhstan Only a week ago the girls dared to tell of their horrific experience to their teachers, who reported everything to the father and called emergency services. The sisters were hospitalised and diagnosed with numerous bruises and doctors said that the children's bodies were covered with horrible scars. The police raided the family's flat and found the step-mother's torture log where she described every sick episode in graphic detail. The local police spokesman Nurdilda Oraz said: 'A criminal case on child abuse was initiated against the mother. 'She was arrested and taken into custody. She is being interrogated now.' The suspect faces up to eight years in prison if found guilty. Only a week ago the girls dared to tell their teachers, who reported everything to the father (pictured) and called emergency services The step-mother, who is pregnant with her second baby now, tortured the girls during a year and their father learned about the fact only one week ago Christopher Patrick Medina-Izarrara, 27, faces felony aggravated robbery, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct charges A Utah teenager is being praised for helping to stop a potential carjacker from escaping with her vehicle and her three younger siblings on Tuesday. The 18-year-old woman was in the driving seat when she was approached by Christopher Patrick Medina-Izarrara, 27, who had just been kicked out of another vehicle. As he walked up to the car, which had her three young sisters in the back, she rushed to lock the door but wasn't fast enough. Medina-Izarrara allegedly yanked her from the behind the wheel and dragged her out the car. But she refused to let him steal the car and reached back inside to grab the keys. A truck driver then blocked his path so he couldn't get away. Police caught up with him outside an Sharp Auto, and surveillance footage captured the moment a cop 'gave him one cycle with the Taser'. A shirtless Medina-Izarrara is seen tipping straight back and slamming to the ground. In his mugshot he appears with a bandaged head. 'It was quite a brave act on our victim's part,' South Salt Lake Police Department spokesman, Gary Keller, told Gephardt Daily. Video shows the suspect being tasered by police before he hit the ground on Main Street 'He turns and goes to her car. While she's trying to lock the doors, he gets the door open and she's trying to hold it shut,' Keller explained about her fight to stop him. The victim's sisters, ages nine and 10, and their 12-year-old brother were in the back of the four-door Hyundai Elantra at the time. The woman said her younger sibling were shaken by the incident that occurred while she was driving northbound on South Salt Lake City's Main Street around 6.30pm. The boy helped get his sisters out while his older sibling fought off the would-be kidnapper. She is suffering back and neck pain after the suspect pulled her out by her arms pushed her away when she grabbed the keys. The victim said he pulled her out of the car by her arms while her younger siblings were inside - allegedly by Medina-Izarrara (pictured) He is accused of trying to steal the car from right outside South Salt Lake Police Station on Tuesday around 6.30pm She said her sisters and brother seem to be doing OK, but the experience was terrifying for them, too. Her 12-year-old brother jumped into action and got his two younger sisters and himself out of the back seat while she struggled with the carjacker in the front seat. The teen's actions helped buy time and onlookers did what they could to help. Witnesses knocked on the windows of the police station that was right by where the incident occurred. During his angry rampage the suspect punched a South Salt Lake Police cruiser, according to the woman who kicked him out of the first vehicle. Police said it started with 'some type of verbal domestic'. Medina-Izarrara is married to Kelsey Medina. She shared the video of his arrest on her Facebook profile Wednesday and wrote: 'Who the f**k records this s**t Its stupid & just hurts to see f**k you whoever did this.' Medina suggested intoxication and may have been a factor as well as issues with loved ones. Medina-Izarrara is married to Kelsey Medina. She denied claims from his family and friends on Facebook that she cheated on the suspect with her ex and contracted an STD 'I think it's funny it's all my fault all this s**t happened supposedly but he wouldn't have even left the house & drank if it wasn't for you guys & I have to tell him to call you guys & let you know he is okay cuz he dont wanna talk,' Medina-Izarrara's spouse posted on Wednesday. 'I'm always the one who is in the wrong & bad guy but whatever helps you sleep at night.' She appeared to be referring to public comments from family members on her social media profile that alleged she cheated on the suspect with her ex and contracted an STD. Medina denied the claims. On Thursday she posted that other issues played a factor: 'That's disgusting and horrible I'm Chris's mother what happened was horrible and shouldn't have happened but Chris has Asperger's syndrome, bipolar and manic depression he's been violent since he was 1. 'He would hurt himself so bad we had to restrain him so you people that say this is funny mental illness is not funny.' The suspect appears to have a complicate relationship with his wife who has been sharing updates on Facebook She added that 'he needs to be punished for what happened yes' but said mental illness isn't a joke. 'He hasn't been on his medication it's my fault I should have been making sure he was taking them,' the woman continued. He faces felony aggravated robbery, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct charges. Asdrit Kapaj (pictured) is suspected of being the Wimbledon Prowler that targeted affluent homes in south-west London An accused burglar suspected of being the Wimbledon Prowler appeared in court today accused of stealing jewellery worth more than 500,000. Asdrit Kapaj, 42, has now been accused of breaking into multi-million pound homes across the affluent suburb in southwest London between 2008 and 2018. The married father of-two appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates Court today charged with 18 burglaries and two attempted burglaries, totalling around 542,000. According to the charges, jewellery to the value of 371,855 was taken in one single burglary, between 24 February 2017 and 27 February 2017, in Atherton Drive, Wimbledon. Wearing a red jumper and jeans Mr Kapaj, from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, spoke only to confirm his name, address and Serbian nationality. Earlier this year he appeared in court charged with six other burglaries and one of going equipped for burglary, over allegations he stole valuables worth 90,000 from properties in Wimbledon. Mary Atera, prosecuting, said today: He has been charged as part of a specialised police investigation. Police were investigating a series of burglaries particularly in affluent parts of Wimbledon. Asdrit Kapaj today appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court (pictured) and will face Kingston Crown Court next month The defendant had been targeting specific areas and the burglaries were only committed at night, between 7pm and 5am. The defendant had been committing a very tidy search when going into homes, closing drawers and putting items back in place, causing some of the victims not to discover they had been burgled. He targeted jewellery and cash. Mr Kapajs latest charges will be linked up to the other offences when he appears at Kingston Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on April 24. Mr Kapaj, of Broadheath, was remanded in custody to appear at Kingston Crown Court on 24 April. Brian Michael Rini, 23, - who is accused to pretending to be missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen - has been indicted on new charges: two counts of lying to federal agents and one count of aggravated identity theft The Ohio man who claimed to be missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen who disappeared in 2011, has been hit with new charges. A federal grand jury has indicted Brian Michael Rini, 23, on two counts of lying to federal agents and one count of aggravated identity theft. The indictment was filed Thursday and carries a possible sentence of eight years in prison for making false statements and two years for identity theft. The Medina, Ohio man was arrested on a single false statement count on April 6 after he claimed to be Pitzen, who was just six when he vanished in 2011, but a DNA test proved he was not. Rini is currently being held without bond and has his arraignment scheduled for Friday. Rini was picked up by police on the morning of April 3 in Newport, Kentucky, claiming that he was Timmothy Pitzen, who hadn't been seen for eight years. Police said Rini (left) from Medina, Ohio, lied to investigators when he claimed to be missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen (right). He faces 18 years in prison if convicted on all charges Rini pictured on April 3 moments before he told police he was Pitzen and was kidnapped by two men He claimed he had escaped two kidnappers who kept him captive and subjected him to years of sexual abuse. He was treated and tested at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital and was found to be lying. Federal authorities had said they were skeptical, especially after he refused to be fingerprinted, but didn't want to miss a chance to possibly solve the Pitzen disappearance. On April 3 he was picked up by police after claiming to be missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared at the age of 6 in 2011. But a DNA test proved he was not Federal authorities say he has a lengthy criminal record and has twice before portrayed himself to be a juvenile sex trafficking victim What happened to Timmothy Pitzen? On the morning of May 11, 2011, James Pitzen dropped his son off at Greenman Elementary School in Aurora. At 8:30am, Timmothy's mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, appeared at the school telling educators that she needed to remove her son from class because of a 'family emergency'. Later that day, James returned to the school to pick Timmothy up, but was told Amy withdrew him from class hours earlier. For more than a day, he found no sign of Timmothy or Amy, until eventually she called James and his brother on May 12, telling them 'Timmothy is fine. Timmothy belongs to me. Timmothy and I will be fine. Timmothy is safe'. The last CCTV images of Amy and Timmothy alive together were captured on May 12 as they checked out from the Kalahari Resort, in Wisconsin Dells. The following day, Amy was spotted alone on CCTV 120 miles away in a supermarket near Rockford, having purchased a pen, paper and some envelopes. On May 14 she was found dead in her Rockford Inn motel room having committed suicide by slashing her wrists. A note found next to her body said that Timmothy was safe, and in the care of others, but added: 'You'll never find him'. Timmothy's identification card was found inside the room, but workers at the motel said Amy had checked-in alone. Police say they've investigated several false leads since Timmothy's disappearance in 2011. The last potential breakthrough came in 2014, when a woman said she saw a boy matching his description at her yard-sale. Police were never able to confirm the sighting. Advertisement DNA testing revealed Rini's true identity and established he was a convicted felon who was released on probation in March from an Ohio prison. He had served more than a year on burglary and vandalism charges. When confronted with DNA results proving he wasn't Timmothy, Rini acknowledged his identity, saying he had watched a story about the missing boy on ABC's 20/20 and wanted to get away from his own family, the FBI said. Federal authorities said he has twice before portrayed himself to be a juvenile sex trafficking victim, as he allegedly did in this case. A federal magistrate last week cited Rini's lack of a permanent address, past mental health issues and 'a lengthy criminal history' that goes back to age 13 as she ordered him held without bond. In 2017, Rini was treated at an Ohio center for people with mental health or substance abuse problems, according to court papers. Timmothy vanished after his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, pulled him out of kindergarten in Aurora, Illinois, nearly eight years ago, took him on a two-day road trip to the zoo and a water park, and then killed herself at a motel. She left a note saying that her son was safe with people who would love and care for him and added: 'You will never find him.' Timmothy Pitzen's family say they are heart-broken to find themselves back at square one in their search for Timmothy. 'It's devastating. It's like reliving that day all over again and Timmothy's father is devastated once again,' one of the boy's aunts, Kara Jacobs, said in a press conference, reported TODAY. 'I just hope this young man who claimed to be Tim realizes how much hurt he caused,' Linda, Timmothy's grandmother, said. 'And now everybody is hurting. And I just don't understand how somebody could be so sick to do this.' A man ended up shirtless while brawling with the manager of a 99 cent store The manager is seen trying to force the man out of the 99 Cents Only store as shocked customers watched the incident unfold. In the video, the two men are near the exit of the store when the manager is shoved to the ground. A 99 Cent store manager was captured on video fighting a 'homeless' man (in blue). In the video, the two men are near the exit of the store when the manager is shoved to the ground (in brown) The manager quickly gets back to his feet and grabs the man's shirt, ripping it off The manager quickly gets back to his feet and grabs the man's shirt, ripping it off. The man then runs behind a cash register and yells: 'I need my food!' In the clip, the manager is seen grabbing the man by the neck and asking him to calm down and 'listen'. Moments later, two officers arrived to the scene and handcuffed the man. 'My backpack, my backpack! Don't leave it!' the man shouted as police escort him out of the store. It's unclear where in the US this incident took place. The man (pictured) then runs behind a cash register and yells: 'I need my food!' In the clip, the manager is seen grabbing the man by the neck and asking him to calm down and 'listen' Police in San Francisco are hunting a driver who smashed their SUV through the front window of an Yves Saint Lauren store before making off with thousands of dollars worth of goods. The incident took place at about 4.40 am on Wednesday and witnesses said the vehicle ploughed the glass three times. A person jumped out of the car and stole several items before fleeing, police said. A work crew removes broken windows at a Yves Saint Laurent store in San Francisco The Paris-based fashion house now faces a bill of between 17 and 28 thousand dollars for the damaged glass along with loss of earnings as workmen try to repair the damage. The 'smash and grab' - as local workers call the increasingly common crime - took place in San Francisco's Union Square and the thief made off with handbags and high heels. Details around how many items, and how much they are worth, are still scarce. But some of the bags at the store retail at around $2800 a piece. Police say a robber backed a car into a window of the store in San Francisco's Union Square then jumped out of the car and burglarized it before fleeing The sidewalk was this morning covered in glass and a tire that appeared to be from the vehicle as police inspected the inside of the store for clues. They said they don't have a suspect. A manager of a sunglasses store across the street told local TV: 'We've been here one day and nothing bad has happened to us yet but we've heard a lot of windows get broken all the time.' Similar crimes have blighted the bay area in recent years. Donald Trump Jr., said that anyone still touting that there was collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia was helping Russian President Vladimir Putin in his goal to cause 'division and dissension' in the U.S. 'At this stage, anyone continuing this fake charade against @realDonaldTrump is doing the bidding of the Russians,' Don Jr., tweeted Thursday morning. 'They are the ones causing division & dissension the stated goal of Putin. They should stop colluding with the Russians & start working with President Trump to #MAGA' Trump made the comments after Attorney General Bill Barr concluded a press conference Thursday at the Department of Justice where he went over Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report in more detail before handing it over to Congress later in the day. Barr had previously answered several questions related to the report at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing April 9. Donald Trump Jr., led the family in issuing reactions to the redacted Mueller report President Donald Trump's eldest son tweeted that if people still believe the 'fake charade' Russia probe, they were 'doing the budding' of Russian President Vladimir Putin in causing 'division' in the country The eldest Trump son was the first in the family to react to the release of the redacted Mueller report, calling those who believed there was collusion, including Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell and Senator Adam Schiff, 'Russia Truther losers' who are part of the 'tin foil hat brigade.' 'In case it wasn't clear for the last few weeks... let's say it one more time for the tin foil hat brigade. #NoObstructionNoCollusion cc: Schiff Swallwell and the other Russia Truther losers,' Trump tweeted Thursday. Don Jr., also reiterated Attorney General Bill Barr's assertion that President Donald Trump did not exert any executive privilege throughout the special counsel's investigation or request any redactions. He dared CNN to try and 'start spinning' the story. Don Jr., issues his reactions after Attorney General Bill Barr concluded a press conference where he went into more detail about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report before handing the redacted version over to Congress He also said that those who still did not believe there was no obstruction were part of the 'tin foil hat brigade' 'So we are clear. The White House offered 'unfettered access', 'no redactions' and 'didn't exert any executive privilege which would be within their rights,' Trump tweeted as Attorney General Bill Barr wrapped up the press conference. 'Start spinning CNN... we are waiting.' Barr said that following a review with Office of the White House Counsel, the president did not choose to request any addition redactions which the attorney general did add was fully within the rights of the president. 'Following that review, the President confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the Special Counsel's report,' Barr said. When President Trump's former senior communications director Jason Miller tweeted that people owed an apology to Don Jr., he said he wouldn't hold his breath. 'I won't hold my breath,' Trump tweeted. 'They lied about me for two years, but in the process destroyed their credibility along with mainstream journalism in the process... so I'll take the W.' A bride-to-be who drowned while on a friend's hen do had tried to call her fiance in her last moments, her sister has revealed. Ruth Maguire, 30, died after falling into Carlingford Lough on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland on March 16, months before she was due to marry partner James Griffin. The mother-of-three was buried in her wedding dress at St Vincent de Paul Church in Ligoniel, north Belfast, last month. Her sister Rachel Wilkinson has now revealed Mr Griffin discovered two missed calls from her on his work phone made on the night she died and only found them two weeks after her funeral when he switched it back on. Ruth Maguire, left, 30, who drowned on a hen do on the Irish border last month tried to call her fiance James Griffin, right, on his work mobile just minutes before she died Mr Griffin, pictured with his partner of 12 years and their three children, found two missed calls on his work mobile from her on the night of her death - but he only discovered them two weeks after her funeral because he had the phone turned off the whole time Ms Wilkinson, left, said the family had found some 'comfort' after realising Ms Maguire was trying to get home She told the Belfast Telegraph: 'The thing I couldn't work out initially, after Ruth went missing, was that she'd been on her phone but I didn't know what she was doing. 'Then when Jim went back to work two weeks after the funeral, he turned on his work phone and saw that Ruth had called him twice at 12:06am, so it all makes sense now.' Ms Wilkinson said she believes her sister, who was with her partner for 12 years, was trying to get Mr Griffin to give her a lift back home to Newcastle in County Down, Northern Ireland but must have 'accidentally' called his work mobile. She added it was a 'comfort' to the family that she had been trying to get home before she died. Ms Wilkinson said the family believes Miss Maguire must have tripped over and hit her head before falling into the water. She added: 'Ruth wasn't a party girl on a hen night who ended up in the Lough. Ruth lived for her children, she was a lovely family person, a great mum and a fantastic human being.' Crowds of mourners turned out last month for her funeral in Belfast, pictured, and she was buried in her wedding dress Ms Maguire, 30, with her sister Rachel Wilkinson (left) and friend Michelle McCabe (right) Emergency services are pictured at the scene on Carlingford Lough, pictured, last month Earlier this month Ms Wilkinson revealed how she had told her sister's children how 'mummy had gone to heaven' - but her youngest son Oliver, five, did not understand. She said: 'Tyler is 10, Lydia is six and Oliver is five. I don't think Oliver really understands. 'Lydia is just trying to work it out in her head how it's all going to work. "Who's doing my hair for Irish dancing?" and she's asking for things that belonged to Ruth.' Ms Maguire, who lived in Newcastle, County Down in Northern Ireland, had rented a property for the weekend with friends just five minutes' walk from Taaffe's Bar. On the night she went missing it is believed she told the doorman she intended to walk home to Newcastle, and at around midnight she posted a photo on Instagram with the Lough in the background. By 11.30pm, the rest of the hen party were back in the house and realised Ruth was not with them. Her friends started searching for her immediately after realising she was missing. They then raised the alarm, prompting a much wider search by police, the coastguard and members of the public. Hundreds of tearful mourners attended the funeral service last month, where Ms Maguire's coffin, covered in flowers, was carried by her partner James Griffin and followed by her three children. Friends have described Ms Maguire as 'the most loving, hardworking and caring mother to her three beautiful children' who, along with her partner, 'worked tirelessly to give their children the best that they possibly could in life'. Speaking after her body was recovered on Monday, her fiance James Griffin paid an emotional tribute, writing on Facebook: 'Ruth wasn't just my partner, she was my soul mate. Stay safe love always James and your three beautiful children.' President Trump invoked Game of Thrones to celebrate the findings of the Mueller report becoming public on Thursday despite being warned by HBO in the past for infringing on its copyright and the network was just as displeased this time around. As Attorney General William Barr rapped up a glowing press conference which exonerated the president from any wrongdoing and vindicated him as a victim of 'unprecedented' scrutiny, Trump tweeted a mocked-up image which showed him with his back turned. The words included read: 'No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left democrats - game over.' HBO told DailyMail.com afterwards: 'Though we can understand the enthusiasm for Game of Thrones now that the final season has arrived, we still prefer our intellectual property not be used for political purposes.' Trump tweeted on Thursday morning as the end of Attorney General Barr's press conference that exonerated him, invoking Game of Thrones imagery despite being told in the past not to by HBO It previously warned him against using its imagery, saying in a statement last year after he used it to threaten sanctions: 'We were not aware of this messaging and would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes.' In a tweet at the time on the show's official account, writers added: 'How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki?' Stars of the show also hit back at it. Maisie Williams tweeted in response to the November tweet: 'Not today.' The president was also reprimanded by Warner Bros for using music from The Dark Knight Rises earlier this month. He took the tweet down after being contacted by the company's lawyers who said it accounted to copyright infringement. In November, Trump attracted criticism from the show by playing on its famous phrase, Winter is Coming, to promote himself and threaten sanctions HBO tweeted in response that there was a trademark issue and the show's creators later issued a statement saying they would prefer for the president not to use their material Maisie Williams, one of the show's leading stars, hit back at him on Twitter directly The video was a compilation. It said: 'First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they call you a racist. 'Donald J. Trump. Your vote. Proved them all wrong.' The video showed images of his presidency, including his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. 'Your vote proved them all wrong,' the two-minute video said, calling Trump's 2020 re-election a 'great victory.' Before: This was the original message tweeted by Trump before Warner Bros complained last week. It showed a more than two minute long video using the theme from The Dark Night Rises The niece of brutal dictator Assad (pictured) has been living and studying in London Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad's niece has had her bank account frozen as the National Crime Agency seeks to seize thousands of allegedly illicit cash. Anisseh Chawkat, the daughter of a security operative who died in a suicide bombing, has been living and studying in London. Her account is thought to have just under 25,000 in it and law enforcers are seeking a cash forfeiture. Ms Chawkat studied at University of the Arts London and obtained a degree in spatial design, the Evening Standard reports. It emerged that the 22-year-old was in the capital in a preliminary hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court. Her presence raises questions as to how she was able to get a visa and fund herself through her studies. National Crime Agency (NCA) chiefs say that their case for seizing the money is based upon the fact that the student had no legitimate source of income in Britain. Pictured, left: Chawkat's father, who was Assad's security chief. Pictured, right: Chawkat's mother, who is the sister of the dictator This is coupled with the fact that some of her family members were listed for international finance sanctions. Ms Chawkat's final-year project concerned Selfridge's Oxford Street store and focused on 'the bond between fashion and architecture'. It is not yet known when she arrived in the UK but she completed her spatial design BA at Elephant and Castle's London College of Communication last year. The based comes under the University of the Arts, which also covers Central Saint Martins and the London College of Fashion. A source told the paper that the student's relation to Assad was known at the London College of Communications. Her visitors included Assad's son, Hafez al Assad. 'It was known who she was, but she kept it very quiet,' they said. 'She used to change the spelling of her name as well, which was a bit odd. Her cousin [Hafez al Assad] visited her once too. He was quite recognisable.' Pictured: Former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad (front and right) poses with his family, including Bashar (back, second from left) and Bushra (back, far right) Ms Chawkat, who is not believed to be politically active, is now taking a Master's in the capital. Her address was withheld from journalists on the grounds that disclosure risks her being targeted by Assad's opponents, which includes Islamic State supporters. The student's mother, Bushra, is the dictator's sister and was described as having a 'fearsome reputation in Damascus' in the Economist magazine back in 2013. Its report claimed that she is able to 'exercise considerable influence' over the President. She was one of the 12 Assad family members listed for EU sanctions in 2012 because she was 'benefiting from and associated with' the dictatorship due to her 'close personal relationship and intrinsic financial relationship' to him and 'other core Syrian regime figures'. Her assets were frozen and she was subject to a travel ban. She failed to overturn the sanctions two years later. The European Court of Justice ruled that her move to Dubai after her husband's death was not necessarily because she was trying to distance herself from Assad. At the appeal, the court found that she may have moved to the UAE because of the deteriorating security in her war-torn home country. Ms Chawkat's father, Assef, was Assad's military intelligence head and deputy defence minister before his 2012 death. He was killed by a rebel outside the National Security Bureau in Damascus. One year earlier he'd been placed under US and EU sanctions for the part he played in suppressing demonstrations by opponents of Assad's brutal regime. A spokesman for Ms Chawkat told the paper that she was 'a young student trying to complete a degree with no political involvement'. MailOnline has approached the Home Office for comment on why Ms Chawkat was allowed to live in Britain. Sol Pais, 18, who was infatuated with Columbine and may have been planning an attack before she killed herself, had passed background checks when she legally bought the same gun used in the 1999 massacre The Florida teenager who was infatuated with Columbine and may have been planning an attack before she killed herself had passed background checks when she legally bought the same gun used in the 1999 massacre. Sol Pais, 18, was found dead in the mountains just outside Denver on Wednesday morning after a massive 24-hour manhunt that shut down dozens of schools just days before the 20th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. The FBI said Pais raised suspicion after making comments to people at home in Florida about Columbine and then buying three one-way tickets to Denver spanning three consecutive days. The high school student flew from Miami to Denver on Monday and headed straight to the Colorado Gun Broker shop, which is located just two miles from Columbine High School. She legally purchased a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. It is the same gun model that one of the teen shooters used in the deadly massacre 20 years earlier. The gun store has since revealed that Pais underwent a full background check and was cleared to buy the weapon. She was given clearance by both the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. 'We had no reason to suspect she was a threat to either herself or anyone else,' Josh Rayburn, a spokesman for the gun store, said. The teen was found dead in the mountains just outside Denver on Wednesday morning after a massive 24-hour manhunt that shut down dozens of schools. Pictured is her body being removed from the wooded area where she was found The high school student flew from Miami to Denver on Monday and headed straight to the Colorado Gun Broker shop to purchase the gun The Colorado Gun Broker shop is located just two miles from Columbine High School Out-of-state residents who are at least 18 can buy shotguns in Colorado. Customers must provide fingerprints and pass a criminal background check. The FBI said Pais had already bought the firearm on Monday before they even considered her a threat. When they did launch a wide-scale manhunt for her on Tuesday after learning she had arrived in Denver, the FBI described her as 'extremely dangerous' and said she had made threats to 'commit an act of violence' after becoming fixated on the shooting massacre. But instead of hurting anyone, Pias led authorities on a massive 24-hour manhunt that ended when she killed herself with the shotgun she had bought. Her body was recovered on Wednesday afternoon near the Echo Lake Campground in Mt Evans. The dozens of schools that were forced to close as a precaution during the daylong manhunt reopened on Thursday with heightened security measures. Authorities said they will now continue looking into Pais' social media and her other other online presence as part of their investigation to ensure that she had no 'accessories' or 'accomplices'. From the details that started trickling out on Wednesday as the manhunt continued, it became clear that Pais - who was a senior at Miami Beach High School - had been planning what authorities described as a 'pilgrimage' for weeks. She legally purchased a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. It is the same firearm that one of the teen gunmen - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (above with the gun) - used in the deadly Columbine massacre in 1999 A sawed off double barrel shotgun, ammuntion clips and an automatic pistol used in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting are displayed above The FBI said Pais raised suspicion after making comments to people at home in Florida about Columbine and then buying three one-way tickets to Denver spanning three consecutive days She started asking for advice last month on buying a shotgun in Colorado in a series of posts on the National Gun Forum. 'Florida resident here. I am planning a trip to Colorado in the next month or so and wanna buy a shotgun while I'm there and I was wondering what restrictions apply for me? I've found a few private sellers I might want to purchase from; is it legal for me as a Florida resident to purchase a shotgun in Colorado? I'm 18 years old too, if it's important,' she wrote on the National Gun Forum. 'The problem is i have no friends in FL who are into guns like me so it's not as fun having to do all of this alone,' she wrote in a follow up post. A website belonging to her was filled with self-hate journal entries and contained a tribute to a Marilyn Manson song that was inspired by the high school shooting. The site contained photocopied handwritten journal entries with multiple drawings of guns and troubling phrases like 'being alive is f**king overrated' and 'how do I pull it out of me? I'm f**king empty.' The website also had the phrase '1999 - the nobodies' written on it. Marylin Manson wrote a song titled The Nobodies based on the 1999 shooting massacre at Columbine. The Denver FBI office was alerted to the potential threat early Tuesday by Miami FBI agents after Pais' parents reported her missing on Monday night. The FBI said they often receive threats around the time of the Columbine anniversary but took Pais' case seriously after realizing she had booked one-way tickets to Denver and learned of her troubling remarks to those back home about the massacre. 'We're used to threats, frankly, at Columbine,' John McDonald, security chief for Jefferson County school system, said when the manhunt was over. 'This one felt different. It was different. It certainly had our attention.' McDonald described her trip as a 'pilgrimage' to Columbine but Pais is not believed to have been on the campus during her time in Denver. The FBI searched the Miami Beach home where Pais lives with her parents on Tuesday night and remained outside on Wednesday About a dozen Denver area districts called off classes for Wednesday and about a half million students were forced to stay home because authorities believed Pais could pose a threat to a school. A squad car is pictured outside Columbine High School on Wednesday About a dozen Denver area districts called off classes for Wednesday and about a half million students were forced to stay home because authorities believed Pais could pose a threat to a school. Authorities said she did not threaten a specific school. Photos of the teenager were released by authorities and they warned she was 'extremely dangerous'. Her body was found in the mountains after investigators got a tip from the ride-share driver who took her there. She had also reportedly been spotted by witnesses running around naked with the shotgun. In Pais' hometown in Florida, Surfside Police Chief Julio Yero asked that the family be given 'privacy and a little time to grieve.' 'This family contributed greatly to this investigation from the very onset. They provided valuable information that led us to Colorado and a lot of things that assisted in preventing maybe more loss of life,' Yero said. The FBI searched the Miami Beach home where Pais lived with her parents on Tuesday night and remained outside on Wednesday. Classmates at Miami Beach High School were shocked to learn that Pais was the person authorities in Colorado had been searching for. Pais, who was taking AP and honor roll classes, was described by her classmates as quiet and smart. The speaking clock function that gives people the precise time down to the second will be a thing of the past come October. For the last 66 years, Australians have been able to dial 1194 to hear the old-fashioned voice of a man telling them the exact time. 'At the third stroke it will be 1.10 and 40 seconds,' before a beeping sound plays and the the new time is repeated. The service still receives about two million calls a year - a lot considering today's technology. The speaking clock function that gives people the precise time down to the second will be a thing of the past come October Dennis Benjamin, executive chairman of Informatel, the Melbourne-based company that runs the number told The Age there's still great demand for it. He said the amount of calls for daylight saving time this year was even more than last year. But Telstra, which provides the service's network and billing, is pulling the plug on October 1 - saying it's not compatible with their new network technology. 'It's like any time you upgrade to radically new technology, sometimes older services wouldn't work,' a Telstra spokesman told The Age. The spokesman compared it to an older model iPhone being able to work with the latest iPhone software due to incompatibility. The service was meant to be cut off on June 30 - but has been given a three month extension 'to give users more time to find an alternative solution.' For the last 66 years, Australians have been able to dial 1194 to hear the old-fashioned voice of a man telling them the exact time Mr Benjamin hopes Telstra won't follow through on their decision to can the long running service, saying Australians who don't have smartphones rely on it. He also says there could be an alternative to keep the service around, by using Session Initiation Reciprocal that sends all forms of media, such as voice and data, to multiple parties. This could replace the current network, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) that carries voice and data services over the switched telephone network. Eating cats and dogs is legal in seven states and territories in Australia, with South Australia being the only one to have a law prohibiting it. But Michele Brown, a member of the Fight Dog Meat group, has launched a petition demanding that changes. Fight Dog Meat is a registered charity in Australia which opposes the slaughter and consumption of dogs or cats for the use of food or fur. The petition, which was supposed to be sent to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull before the leadership spill, currently has 5,203 supporters with a goal of 6,000. New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland do not have laws prohibiting people eating cats and dogs. The only state where it is illegal is South Australia 'In 2018 the slaughter and eating of dog and cat meat is allowable and legal in all states except South Australia, which definitively prohibits its consumption,' Ms Brown wrote in the petition. 'Current laws in the other states and territories of Australia do not prevent slaughter and/or human consumption of dogs and cats for personal use. 'Australian pet owners should not have to live in fear of their loved family pet being taken for dog or cat meat, as local animal lovers living in dog and cat eating countries are forced to live with on a daily basis.' Michele Brown (pictured), 60, from Queensland is a member of the Fight Dog Meat group who launched a petition demanding every state in Australia to prohibit the eating of dog and cat meat Jim Dodds, chief executive officer of Stones Corner-based Safe Food Production in Queensland, said that personal consumption of cat and dog meat is not illegal if the animal was slaughtered in a humane way. 'In Queensland, and most other states and territories, personal consumption of cat or dog meat is not illegal provided the slaughter is undertaken humanely by an individual for their own consumption,' Mr Dodds said to The Gold Coast Bulletin. 'However, the supply including sale of cat and dog meat is prohibited in all Australian jurisdictions. This is because the production or processing of meat from cats or dogs is not authorised under national standards governing meat production and processing, which are given effect in Queensland's Meat Food Safety Scheme under the Food Production (Safety) Act 2000. 'Consequently, there is no industry in Queensland for the supply of cat and dog meat and we are not aware of any evidence of the consumption of cat and dog meat in Queensland.' 'Asian and African methods of dog and cat meat slaughter such as beating the animal to death, boiling them alive, stabbing them in the chest, neck or belly, skinning them alive, hanging them from a branch, electrocuting them in the genitals or anus, are all in direct opposition to Australian animal anti-cruelty laws,' Ms Brown said in the petition Ms Brown said there was absolutely no way to humanely kill cats and dogs for consumption. 'Asian and African methods of dog and cat meat slaughter such as beating the animal to death, boiling them alive, stabbing them in the chest, neck or belly, skinning them alive, hanging them from a branch, electrocuting them in the genitals or anus, are all in direct opposition to Australian animal anti-cruelty laws,' Ms Brown said. 'Dog meat eaters demand meat to be tough in texture which is brought about through flooding the conscious animal's body with adrenaline up until death or loss of consciousness, by inflicting acute pain or terror to the live animal. 'This is considered offensive behaviour in mainstream Australian society and in complete opposition to Australia's anti-cruelty laws.' Fight Dog Meat is a registered charity in Australia which opposes the slaughter and consumption of dogs or cats for the use of food or fur. The petition, which was supposed to be sent to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull before the leadership spill, currently has 5,203 supporters with a goal of 6,000 The RSPCA says consuming cat and dog meat is against 'Australian values' and should be made illegal. 'RSPCA Australia believes the consumption of cat and dog meat should be expressly prohibited in statute. Cats and dogs hold a specific place in Australian society as companion animals,' the RSPCA said. 'Eating cats and dogs is therefore offensive to mainstream Australian cultural values. RSPCA Australia believes that state governments should follow the lead of South Australia and create specific offences for eating cats and dogs, either within their animal welfare legislation, or within their general criminal legislation.' Emily Atack has become a victim of hackers who stole the actress' private photos. The I'm A Celebrity star, 29, is the latest in a long line of high-profile figures who have suffered the theft of intimate pictures, including Jennifer Lawrence and Pippa Middleton. The identity of the hackers who targeted Atack is not known and it is unclear where the photos were taken from. The I'm A Celebrity star, 29, (seen left, in a photo she herself shared online; and right, on a night out in London) is the latest in a long line of high-profile figures who have suffered the theft of intimate pictures, including Jennifer Lawrence and Pippa Middleton Miss Atack, who shot to fame playing Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners, has not commented publicly about the hack on any of her social media channels and her representative declined to comment. Hackers have repeatedly targeted high-profile figures for the purpose of leaking their photos online or selling them on for profit. In 2016, Pippa Middleton had 3,000 images stolen from her iCloud account, which reportedly included ones showing her sister, the Duchess of Cambridge and her children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. A 36-year-old man and 34-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of stealing the images but both were released without charge. However the man, Nathan Wyatt, was jailed for hacking a US law firm earlier this year. Hackers have repeatedly targeted high-profile figures for the purpose of leaking their photos online or selling them on for profit. They include Jennifer Lawrence (seen left, in LA on March 4) and Pippa Middleton (pictured with James Matthews at Princess Eugenie's wedding) Two years before, a host of celebrities including actress Jennifer Lawrence were hit by a mass breach of iCloud which saw their naked photos posted online. Lawrence described her horror when she spoke about the incident for the first time in 2017. 'I don't know, I feel like I got gang-banged by the f***ing planet like, there's not one person in the world that is not capable of seeing these intimate photos of me,' she said. 'You can just be at a barbecue and somebody can just pull them up on their phone. That was a really impossible thing to process.' The photos stolen from Pippa reportedly included ones showing her sister, the Duchess of Cambridge (Seen with Prince William at their wedding on April 29, 2011) and her children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte While the findings of Mueller report took center stage, more than a few observers couldn't help but be distracted by the Deputy Attorney General's thousand-yard stare. Social media was quickly ablaze with reaction to Rod Rosenstein, who was stood at the back with an unflinching gaze, while Attorney General Bill Barr seemingly cleared Trump of any Russian collusion. The 54-year-old became the butt of several jokes, as some asked whether he was being held their hostage, and others suggested he was trying to win a staring contest against America. Hello darkness my old friend: Social media was ablaze with reaction to Rod Rosenstein's fixed stare, while Attorney General Bill Barr seemingly cleared Trump of any Russian collusion The jokes started to pile in as more and more noticed Rosenstein's gaze, with Brian Fallon demanding he 'blink twice if Barr is mischaracterizing the report.' One joked: 'I did a shot each time Rod Rosenstein moved any individual muscle and I've never been more sober.' While another said: 'Is it me or does Rod Rosenstein look like he's being held hostage?' - and Joan Walsh agreed, writing: 'Rod Rosenstein looks like a hostage here. Just saying.'' Joe Hagan added: 'That Rod Rosenstein cardboard cutout isn't fooling anybody.' And another said: 'Rosenstein looks like he's staring into the abyss.' David Axelrod added: 'This may not be the main point but why doesn't Rod Rosenstein even blink?' And Philip Bump wrote: 'Barr did take time from his speech to praise a key employee, the inanimate carbon rod,' The 54-year-old became the butt of several jokes, as some asked whether he was being held their hostage, and others suggested he was trying to win a staring contest against America The 54-year-old became the butt of several jokes, as some asked whether he was being held their hostage, and others suggested he was trying to win a staring contest against the whole of America The jokes came as Robert Mueller's redacted special counsel report into Donald Trump and Russian election interference was finally published Thursday. The 448-page document was littered with redactions but crucially says that the special counsel did not clear Trump, saying in its final paragraph: 'Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.' That judgment will be seized on by Democrats already furious that Barr used a press conference to announce the findings of the report before it had been seen by Congress or the public but after it had been given to Trump's personal attorneys to review. A triumphant Trump tweeted a Game of Thrones meme saying 'Game Over' and speaking at the White House said: 'I'm having a good day.' Borce Ristevski will never reveal how or why he killed his wife of 27 years because he has 'nothing to gain' from doing so, a former homicide detective says. The 55-year-old was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday to nine years jail for killing Karen Ristevski following a shock guilty plea on the eve of his murder trial last month. Despite the 11th hour admission, former homicide detective Charlie Bezzina told A Current Affair Ristevski won't disclose any further details about the crime. 'If he hasn't said how he killed her to this point he won't say it into the future, I wouldn't imagine,' he said. 'He's got nothing to gain by it and he doesn't want to then place himself in a position of how he killed her.' Borce Ristevski (left) was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday to nine years behind bars for killing his wife Karen and lying about it for almost three years Former homicide detective Charlie Bezzina (pictured) said Ristevski would not admit why he committed the crime The father-of-two has shed no light on what happened on June 29, 2016, when he killed his dress-shop owner wife before disposing her body in between two logs and covering it with foliage. In a packed courtroom on Thursday morning, Justice Christopher Beale castigated Ristevski for his 'rank deceit,' saying 'for years, you continued spinning your web of lies'. 'When Karen's body was discovered after eight months, you acted as a pallbearer, playing the part of the innocent grieving widower,' he said. The unexpected guilty plea in mid-March came after he vehemently denied involvement in Karen's death for almost three years. Justice Beale ruled that Ristevski's actions after the killing, when he played the role of grieving husband, could not be used to prove 'murderous intent'. Ristevski (pictured with wife Karen and daughter Sarah) pleaded guilty to manslaughter on eve of his five-week scheduled murder trial in March Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale ruled that Ristevski's actions after the killing, when he played the role of grieving husband, could not be used to prove 'murderous intent' A new indictment with the lesser charge of manslaughter was subsequently filed and Ristevski pleaded guilty. Ristevski has already spent 491 days behind bars and could walk free before his 60th birthday due to his non-parole period of six years. But the Director of Public Prosecutions is reviewing the sentence, which could pave the way to an appeal. 'This sentence, like all sentences, will be under review for possible appeal. However, no decision has been made as yet,' a spokeman told The Age. A spokesperson for the Office of Public Prosecutions told The Age in a statement that Ristevski's sentence was being reviewed Michael O'Brien, the Victorian Opposition leader, said the sentence did not fit the crime. 'Too many Victorians will be looking at the sentence handed down to Ristevski and shaking their heads,' Mr O'Brien said. 'That's not justice, that's not justice or anything like it, but that's where we are in Victoria at the moment.' After Thursday's sentencing, Mrs Ristevki's brother Stephen Williams gave a brief statement outside Victoria's Supreme Court. He said: 'Nothing is going to bring Karen back but today was about justice. We didn't get justice today, at all. 'As a society, at some stage in regards to domestic violence we must make a stand.' Ristevski killed his dress-shop owner wife on June 29 2016 before disposing her body in between two logs and covering it with foliage Emily Maguire, from the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria, also referred to the public response of the sentence. 'The only positive that we can take out of this situation is that there has been such a public outcry to the sentence and I think what that shows is that we are starting to as a society and as a country, much better, value the lives of women and to take family violence seriously,' she told A Current Affair. Ristevski killed his wife Karen, 47, at their Melbourne home in June 2016 before dumping her body in a national park where it was found eight months later. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is set to leave the Trump administration after considering his future for several weeks. The former Texas governor, 69, is said to have told people close to him that he would quit the government soon, with his desire to build his income before retirement the primary motivation. Perry, an Air Force veteran, enjoys a good relationship with the President and was even asked to take over as Homeland Security secretary earlier this month, though he declined. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, 69, is set to leave the Trump administration, so he can build up his wealth before retirement Two people close to Perry have said that he is finalizing the terms and timing of his exit, though it doesn't seem to be imminent. Previously Texas's longest-serving governor, other sources claim that Perry has yet to make up his mind about quitting. In a statement, Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes rejected talk of Perry's imminent departure: 'He is happy where he is serving President Trump and leading the Department of Energy.' The White House has yet to comment on the reports. Energy department sources say that Perry is preparing deputy secretary Dan Brouillette to succeed him, though any replacement would be picked by the President. The 69-year-old was previously considered for the position Defense Secretary, before ending up in his current role. Perry, an Air Force veteran, enjoys a good relationship with the President and was even asked to take over as Homeland Security Secretary In Februrary, Perry was been named designated survivor for the State of the Union. The designated survivor remains outside the House chamber during the address in case an attack or disaster incapacitates the President and top government officials. Perry, who became secretary of energy in March 2017, and twice ran for president during Republican primaries in 2012 and 2016, spent the evening in a secure, secret and remote location. Many of us want to break into a dance when our takeaway pizza arrives at the door. But this worker took it one step further by advertising Domino's by performing a rather unique and hilarious dance routine. The video, shot in East Kilbride, Scotland, was posted on Twitter by Aston Kerr on Wednesday evening. A Domino's worker has an unusual tactic of selling pizzas by performing an unusual dance routine on a hilltop in East Kilbride It shows the unnamed worker dancing on a hilltop and the video is captioned: 'Give this man a raise @Dominos_UK.' As Mr Kerr pulls up to the hillside, the unnamed man is mid-routine and performs a variety of moves including the floss. He then picks up the advertising placard which says: 'Any size pizza, 5.99.' The enthusiastic employee spins the placard around in the air and dances alongside it much to the amusement of those passing by. Floss is boss: The enthusiastic employee pulls out all the stops in an effort to advertise the deal of any size pizza for 5.99 The video, shot by Aston Kerr and posted on Twitter, has received nearly 100,000 views in one day Mr Kerr honks his horn at the dancer while he laughs hysterically, prompting a wave back from the Domino's worker. The video has since gone viral on Twitter, attracting nearly 100,000 views and more than 5,000 likes. Mr Kerr has since posted a reply to the original tweet, saying: 'Almost 24 hours and I havent received confirmation that this man has been promoted to CEO. Please explain yourself @Dominos_UK.' Abdirahman Abdullahi Mohamed (pictured), 42, from Northolt, west London has today been jailed for 15 months after he was found with a stash of Islamic State propaganda A Somali man who downloaded a terror tactics manual about vehicle and knife attacks and wrote 'I like ISIS' on a file has been jailed for 15 months. Abdirahman Abdullahi Mohamed, 42, from Northolt, west London, was in 2017 found with documents 'useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.' And had become 'addicted' to terrorist propaganda, downloading videos of beheadings and executions onto his mobile phone. Despite claiming it was all for research, an Old Bailey jury convicted him of eight counts of possession of a document or record for terrorist purposes. Judge Philip Katz, QC, explained that his interest in Islamic States activities in Somalia meant he was considered a risk. He said: This had become an obsession or fixation for you. I suggest you may have become desensitised to it all. The word has not been used but addiction may be apt. Abdirahman Mohamed, I have to sentence you now for eight offences of possessing documents likely to be useful for a person preparing an act of terrorism. You committed these offences by downloading an retaining digital material over a period of nearly two years. Mohamed was today jailed for 15 months as a result, but will be eligible for automatic parole after half of his jail term. He was cleared of one charge of disseminating terrorist propaganda. Judge Katz explained that much of the material had been in the form of magazines, including ISIS publication Rumiyah magazine and Al-Qaeda distributed Inspire. The magazines and ebooks were professional, sleek looking publications. All the publications had front covers with graphic images. It was all blatant propaganda for Islamic State. It certainly makes for tedious reading - it could be of no legitimate interest to anyone. It can only be described as extremist material. I accept that your case was that you had moved from a position of support for IS and you came to reject its activities due to its barbarism across Europe and elsewhere. The father-of-two claimed he was researching how terrorism had affected his community, but a jury found him guilty of terror offences The judge explained that Mohameds case was that he had taken an interest in Islamic States activities in Somalia. I heard you give this evidence and I didnt believe you. I didnt think you had been truthful with the jury about your mindset. You said you had come to realise that you were spending too much time looking at this material. I wanted to believe you. The problem is that you began downloading extremist material a long time ago. You didnt stop the downloads, you were still downloading terrifying videos onto your phone in May and June 2017. You are an educated man who is capable of working hard and looking after your family. You have lost your job and you will find it difficult now to support your family. The court heard how Mohamed kept a laptop under his bed containing copies of the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire and one of his files featured a thumbs up image with the slogan I like ISIS. The father-of-two claimed it was just for research and that he was trying to understand the issues involved but prosecutors said the collection showed he clearly had terrorist sympathies at the very least. The court heard that Mohamed had download a prolific amount of material. Earlier Kelly Brocklehurst, prosecuting, said: The so-called Islamic State is of course now a familiar name and does feature heavily in the documents found in the defendants possession. He knowingly possessed documents of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and that he provided a service to others. An Old Bailey jury convicted Mohamed of eight counts of possession of a document or record for terrorist purposes (the Old Bailey is pictured) Police officers searched the home Mohamed shares with his wife and two small children in Northolt, west London, on 21 July 2017. Police located two laptops, one Samsung Galaxy smart phone and a USB memory stick, said Mr Brocklehurst. When officers examined those devices what they found was a very large number of worrying documents. Several videos and files were also found on his Samsung Galaxy mobile phone. Mr Brocklehurst said: Some of these videos contain graphic scenes of public beheadings, dead bodies and executions by gunfire. Details of files found on a second Lenovo brand laptop, including e-books glorifying IS and a photo of an IS-style execution. Found on this laptop was two particular photographic images, the first depicting two young males dressed in orange overalls with two young children dressed in black standing behind them, said the prosecutor. The children appear to be holding weapons and is reminiscent of IS-style executions. In a statement to police, Mohamed wrote: I am a Somali Muslim, my community had been affected by terrorism. The document was to help me understand the issues involved and for my own general interest and for me to form a view on what is happening. Mr Brocklehurst added: It beggars belief that the defendant possessed such material in order to maintain his knowledge of regional affairs or for any other good reason. Such a collection by its content and quantity shows someone with terrorist sympathies at the very least. Alex Rose, defending Mohamed, said: He was looking at it in the context of the Arab world and the Arab Spring. He did have sympathy for these groups and it was not a fleeting sympathy. He is coming at it all from a war torn country in Somalia, with that particular background and that particular view of countries where Muslims are subject to oppression and dictatorial rule. Mohamed, of Shadwell Drive, Northolt, denied but was convicted of eight counts of possession of a document or record for terrorist purposes. He was cleared of one count of dissemination of terrorist publications. The judge ordered forfeiture and destruction of the laptop and phone but allowed Mohameds legal team to remove images of his family before they were destroyed. Mohamed was also told after serving his 15 month jail term he will be required to to notify the authorities if he changed address. A leading racehorse trainer killed himself after his wife had an affair with one of his jockeys, an inquest heard today. Richard Woollacott, 40, hanged himself after initially trying to forgive wife Kayley only to find the jockey had sent her 'sexualised' texts in December 2017. The father-of-one died a month later and his body was found in a barn on his land in South Molton, Devon, two days after a 'venomous' row with his spouse. The inquest in Exeter heard Mrs Woollacott had begun a relationship with the jockey earlier in 2017 and that the trainer had discovered it when he saw messages from him on her phone. Horse trainer Richard Woollacott, left, hanged himself after wife Kayley, right, had an affair with one of his jockeys, an inquest heard today Marie Woollacott told the hearing her brother (pictured) had sacked the jockey when he discovered the relationship earlier that year, but later found more messages between them because they were linked to an iPad His sister Marie told a coroner Mr Woolacott's wife assured him the relationship was over and they tried to move on, only for him to discover more messages the following Christmas, including one that said 'I want to rip your clothes off'. Mrs Woollacott told the inquest her husband was also angered when she went to a Christmas party and stayed out all night. She said: 'He asked me why I stayed out and he was not happy and crying and shouting.' Regarding the texts, she claimed they were jokes and added: 'This chap [the jockey] wanted something to happen between us. On December 29th he said he wanted to rip my clothes off. 'Richard was very angry. He said the relationship was over.' Marie Woollacott told the hearing her brother had sacked the jockey when he discovered the relationship earlier that year, but later found more messages between them because they were linked to an iPad. Mrs Woollacott, pictured at the inquest today, said her husband had a 'big temper' and had previously said he had 'nothing to live for' She said her brother, who suffered from depression, was 'humiliated' and the discovery 'a significant impact on his well being'. Marie told the hearing she overheard a 'venomous' row between them on January 20 and that Kaylay was shouting 'you are useless' at her husband. He was found in the barn by his mother on January 22. Emergency services were called but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Mrs Woollacott said told the inquest the couple met in 2008 and both were involved with horse training. Her husband previously rode 248 winners during his career as a jockey and was crowned a national champion in 2010. They married in 2013. Mrs Woollacott told the coroner: 'Our relationship was feisty and fun. We got on very well. We both had big personalities and big tempers.' She added an increase in their workload put them under more pressure and she became unhappy six months before his death. Mrs Woollacott added: 'I think he knew things had been swept under the carpet.' She claimed Richard was 'angry, crying and volatile' and in the past had said he had 'nothing to live for and felt so lonely'. On the day of his death she said he was 'very calm' but she later found a typed note saying he loved her and their daughter Bella and 'wanted them to be happy'. Assistant coroner Alison Longhorn recorded a verdict of suicide. She added: 'Richard had previously suffered depression and was recently estranged from his wife. Very sadly he intended to end his own life.' For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see samaritans.org for details. Easter looks set to be unseasonably warm for parts of Australia with temperatures tipped to rise to the mid-to-high 20s in swathes of the country. Sunshine will be a warm welcome for those who have hit the road in the hopes of having a relaxing long weekend at the beach. Those in New South Wales will be particularly pleased with perfect autumn weather predicted. However, those in Victoria and southern Western Australia might be stuck indoors over the long weekend with a cold snap and rain expected. The weather for the Easter weekend across some parts the country is forecast to be unseasonably warm, particularly in NSW Victoria and southern Western Australia are forecast to experience a cold snap, NSW and the northern parts of the country will enjoy warm, sunny weather Sydneysiders could see themselves beach bound on Friday as the mercury edges towards to the mid-to-high 20s, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The city should remain warm throughout the long weekend before showers start to move in on Tuesday. 'In NSW, the Easter weekend will be dry for much of the state with warmer than average temperatures,' Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Ellie Blandford told Daily Mail Australia. 'Parts of NSW, particularly the south west, are looking at temperatures of around eight degrees above average, while around Sydney the days will be warm at a few degrees above average.' 'Towns such as Griffith and Wagga are likely to see temperatures of up to 30 degrees which is unusual for this time of year.' Holidaymakers heading to the north coast around Byron Bay, however, may be in for a wet weekend, according to Ms Blandford. Lifeguards are warning those holidaymakers heading to the beach to enjoy the warm weather to be careful 'In NSW, the Easter weekend will be dry for much of the state with warmer than average temperatures,' Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Ellie Blandford told Daily Mail Australia This area was the only part of the state expecting constant showers over the Easter break. Lifeguards have warned holidaymakers planning on heading to the beach to be careful as they were expecting strong rips along the coastline. Steven Pearce from Surf Life Saving Australia said last summer was one of the most dangerous he had seen. 'We've had 32 people drown on the NSW coastline,' he told the ABC. 'Our life savers will be out in force and during the Easter period they do, on average, 300-500 rescues,' he said. 'With the elevated temperatures we're expecting a really busy period.' Across the rest of the country the southern areas will see colder temperatures while the northern parts of the country will be warm. Across the rest of the country the southern areas will see colder temperatures while the northern parts of the country will be warm Melbourne will reach a minimum of 10C and a maximum of 25C on Saturday. Perth will be similarly chilly with a minimum of just 6 degrees on Sunday and a maximum of 21. Brisbane will see mild temperatures with lows of about 19 and maximums reaching the high 20s. Canberra and Hobart will be cold, while Adelaide will be experience milder temperatures. Australia's Easter weekend weather Sydney Friday: Min 17, Max 24 Saturday: Min 17, Max 24 Sunday: Min 17, Max 25 Melbourne Friday: Min 10, Max 20 Saturday: Min 10, Max 25 Sunday: Min 15, Max 26 Brisbane Friday: Min 19, Max 27 Saturday: Min 19, Max 27 Sunday: Min 20, Max 28 Perth Friday: Min 12, Max 19 Saturday: Min 9, Max 18 Sunday: Min 6, Max 21 Adelaide Friday: Min 14, Max 31 Saturday: Min 22, Max 31 Sunday: Min 16, Max 20 Darwin Friday: Min 25, Max 34 Saturday: Min 25, Max 34 Sunday: Min 25, Max 34 Canberra Friday: Min 11, Max 22 Saturday: Min 11, Max 23 Sunday: Min 11, Max 25 Hobart Friday: Min 6, Max 17 Saturday: Min 7, Max 21 Sunday: Min 11, Max 24 Advertisement The president's lead attorney says that instances of alleged obstruction of justice, which were outlined in the special counsel report and serve as the basis for claims that Donald Trump committed crimes, are 'easily explained' as defense mechanisms from the under-siege executive. Giuliani told Fox News in a lengthy dissertation on Thursday afternoon, 'The president did not have a guilty motive. The president was, and is considered under the law now because theres no finding of an underlying crime he was an innocent man being accused of something he didnt do.' The president was concerned that investigators who worked for Mueller had ties to the Clinton family and were 'highly partisan Democrats' who were 'very strongly supportive' of the former senator. He believed that he was being 'framed' by the prosecutors, Giuliani said. 'And he was right,' the president's attorney said. 'Youre going to find out over the ensuing four, five months, they were framing him. This was a deliberate plan to plant this idea.' The president's lead attorney says that instances of alleged obstruction of justice, which were outlined in the special counsel report and serve as the basis for claims that Donald Trump committed crimes, are 'easily explained' as defense mechanisms from the under-siege executive The special counsel reviewed ten instances in which the president may have interfered with the investigation in way that could be determined as obstructing justice. But Giuliani said it was always a false accusation because, 'Its kind of ridiculous to go after a man for obstruction when he was falsely accused, he was defending himself. 'His intent, in each one of these situations all 10 of them is easily explained as an intent to not get framed.' Giuliani suggested that Mueller's prosecutors tried to trick Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, into claiming that Trump knew about a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was at the center or allegations that that Trump was part of a criminal conspiracy. He said, 'And he doesn't get intimidated by Muellers out of control prosecutors, and they dont put him solitary confinement like they put Manafort, and they dont question him 11 times, and try to get him to say they tried so hard to get Manafort to say that the president knew about that meeting on June 9. 'They literally conducted the kind of questioning that you conduct for a terrorism suspect,' he contended. Giuliani said it was his belief that Mueller did not draw a conclusion on the topics, because there was a disagreement in his team over the issue. 'Nothing was obstructed they can't point to a single thing that was obstructed in the investigation. So now you're talking about a purely theoretical crime,' he said. 'And I think as a practical matter in most United States Attorneys office they would laugh this kind of thing out of court.' Some of Mueller's prosecutors might have recommended an indictment anyway, he said, 'Because these people had a bias a strong one and because they used the standard of proof. I mean it's an amazing standard of proof. Can't conclusively determine he did not commit obstruction of justice.' Giuliani took issue publicly with parts of the Mueller report, but Donald Trump's lawyers are sitting on a formal rebuttal of the special counsel's findings. After reading 'every single page of it' in a secure room, the president's lawyers were apparently reconsidering that approach. 'We have not issued and have not determined that we will,' Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told DailyMail.com in a late morning text. Giuliani told Fox News, Were very, very happy. I mean, its a clear victory. I think any lawyer would say, when you get a declination, you just one. President Donald Trump 's lawyers are sitting on a rebuttal of the special counsel's final report they have not decided to publish The president's lawyers assumed they would need to defend the president against conclusions in Robert Mueller's final report about Trump's conduct. But Jay Sekulow told DailyMail.com: 'We have not issued and have not determined that we will' Sekulow did not say why they were deliberating the release of the report. But the president and Giuliani, who was taking a victory lap on Fox News at the time, suggested they were pleased with the way Mueller approached most of the allegations against the president. Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to Trump, also told reporters that Trump 'doesnt need a point by point rebuttal.' She said his presidency is 'his greatest rebuttal' and the Mueller report has ensured he'll be elected again. The president joked at a Thursday event that he could be in office '10 to 14' more years but quickly retracted the statement as he observed it would cause 'bedlam' among the press if he suggested he'd hold on to power for longer than the constitutionally-allowed eight years. Trump declared at the White House event that he's having a 'good day' now that the he's been cleared of collusion and obstruction. Touching on the topic at the beginning of a Wounded Warrior event, he said, 'They're having a good day. I'm having a good day, too. It was called no collusion, no obstruction. 'There never was, by the way, and there never will be. And we do have to get to the bottom of these things, I will say,' he asserted. 'I say this in front of my friends, this should never happen to another president again, this hoax. This should never happen to another president again.' Trump had celebrated the end special counsel investigation with a play on 'Game of Thones,' which is in its final season on HBO. The president shared a theatrical poster of himself, standing in fog, with an overlay that said: 'NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION. FOR THE HATERS AND THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS - GAME OVER.' It was the latest in a series of 'Game of Thrones' styled posters the White House created to promote Trump's agenda. It created full-length 'SANCTIONS ARE COMING' posters he brought to a Cabinet meeting in January. Trump and his lawyers were aware of what the special counsel's redacted report would say, and they sought to get ahead of the attorney general on Thursday morning. The president branded it the entire probe a 'Political Hoax' conducted by 'Crooked Dirty Cops' before Attorney General William Barr held a news conference on investigation that launched to investigate Russian election meddling. President Donald Trump celebrated the end special counsel investigation with a play on 'Game of Thones,' which is in its final season on HBO He had not released the redacted report to Congress at the time of the press conference but spoke again about Robert Mueller's decision not to make a determination on obstruction of justice. Barr says Mueller left that decision up to him. Before the press conference, the president sent out a flurry of tweets accusing his political enemies of crimes. He intimated that he was referring to former FBI director James Comey and Hillary Clinton, as well as the Democratic National Committee. 'The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats,' he said in a tweet. 'PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!' he said in another. He shared a video of himself declaring 'no collusion' at every turn of the investigation. 'No Collusion - No Obstruction!' he proclaimed again. Several other tweets highlighted charges that a conservative judicial activist group levied against the FBI and an informant who's claims served as the basis for allegations that Russia could be blackmailing Trump. The group, Judicial Watch, had also been tweeting about Clinton and the emails she routed through a private server when she was secretary of state. The FBI investigated her but declined to bring charges against her for gross negligence. Trump also shared a video of himself declaring 'no collusion' at every turn of the investigation. 'No Collusion - No Obstruction!' he proclaimed again. President Donald Trump sought to get ahead of the attorney general and the special counsel on Thursday morning, branding it the entire probe a 'Political Hoax' conducted by 'Crooked Dirty Cops' before William Barr released the redacted report of Russian election meddling He further claimed that the investigation that looked at allegations of obstruction of justice and collusion with Russia was harrassment President Trump says he could hold a press conference on Thursday afternoon to discuss the findings of the special counsel report Trump sent the tweets before Barr said at a 9:30 am press conference that he determined that the president was 'frustrated' with the special counsel investigation but did not actively seek to impede it or obstruct justice. On Wednesday Trump suggested he could hold a press conference to discuss the findings of the special counsel report. He backed away from it on Thursday, however, tweeting his musings on the investigation, instead. He'd said one could follow a presser that Barr planned have. 'Maybe I'll do one after that, we'll see,' the president said on a WMAL radio program. The Justice Department seemingly gave the president a heads up that Barr would speak to media. Barr revealed at his press conference that he had provided the president's attorneys with full access to the report - something he was refusing to do for Congress - prior to his news conference. He suggested that the president's attorneys were offered the opportunity to redact additional sections but they made no such requests. Barr's statement confirmed Wednesday reporting that Trump's personal attorneys, and therefore Trump, reviewed the report before it was prepped for release. They had days to put their own spin on it and prepare a public relations campaign in support of Trump. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the House Judiciary Chairman, said Wednesday night in a tweet that he was 'deeply troubled by reports that the WH is being briefed on the Mueller report AHEAD of its release,' especially after DOJ informed lawmakers that they would not be getting the report until after Barr's news conference. Trump had been relatively quiet about the special counsel and the redacted report on Wednesday until it came up in a drive-time radio interview The Justice Department seemingly gave the president a heads up that Barr and Rod Rosenstein, the outgoing deputy attorney general, would speak to media, prompting Trump to say he might have a news conference, too Congressman Adam Schiff, a former prosecutor himself, recommended that Americans skip Barr's presser and spend their time reading the redacted Mueller report, instead. 'He took it upon himself to reach a conclusion on obstruction. He adopted the Presidents spying smears. Now, he will spin a report no one has read. My advice: Wait to read Muellers words for yourself,' he tweeted. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer demanded that Mueller testify in public before Congress. They said that Barr's 'partisan handling' of the report has resulted in a 'crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality.' The Democratic congressional leaders issued their call hours before Mueller's highly-anticipated report became public and before Barr's 9:30 am press conference. In their joint statement, Pelosi and Schumer blasted the attorney general for 'his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference' before it becomes public and for his 'irresponsible testimony before Congress last week.' The chaos around the release of the redacted report was reminiscent of the furor on Capitol Hill after the FBI abruptly announced that it was not recommending charges against Clinton in her email and server case. Republicans argued that Clinton had been allowed to skate, and the conclusion had been rigged in her favor. When the FBI wrapped up its investigation into the former secretary of state, Comey held an impromptu media avail that even his bosses didn't know about. He said investigators found her to be reckless but not guilty of crimes. Trump went on to fire Comey for what he claimed at the time was sloppy work on the Clinton case. He claims now that Comey was a dirty cop who led dirty team and they were all out to get him. He has claimed more than once that Comey and his cronies may have committed treason, once he learned that they investigated his business ties to Russia. He has accused ousted FBI officials of 'illegal spying' on his presidential campaign and plotting a 'coup' to forcibly remove him from office. He told press before a luncheon on Capitol Hill in March that he believes the alleged spying went all the way to the top suggesting that former President Barack Obama was involved. In a WMAL interview on Wedesday, Trump would not accuse Obama of crimes, however, he said it was hard to fathom a situation in which the sitting president was not aware of what was taking place in his own Justice Department. 'We're talking about pervasive horrible things that were happening. And it would certainly be hard to believe what was going on, but we're going to leave that for another day,' the president said. Barr has agreed with Trump that 'spying' on the presidential campaign took place. He hasn't explained exactly what he meant by that, though. His press conference focused heavily on obstruction of justice allegations against Trump. Mueller did not reach a conclusion on obstruction, but Barr, working in tandem with Rosenstein, decided against charges, based on underlying evidence they have not made public and won't turn over to Congress. Several 2020 Democratic candidates vying for the presidency are lashing out at Attorney General Bill Barr, calling his press conference, where he cleared Trump of collusion, a 'farce' ' and politically spun 'stunt.' Kamala Harris, who represents California in the Senate and is a former prosecutor, said instead of serving as the attorney general of the U.S., he was acting like Trump's personal defense attorney. 'Barr is acting more like Trump's defense attorney than the nation's Attorney General. His press conference was a stunt, filled with political spin and propaganda. Americans deserve the unvarnished truth. We need Special Counsel Mueller to testify publicly in Congress.' Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also a former prosecutor, and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan agreed with Harris, and want the special counsel to testify in a public hearing before Congress. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and California Senator Kamala Harris are both former prosecutor who believe that Special Counsel Robert Mueller should publicly testify before Congress Attorney General Bill Barr held a press conference Thursday where he classified Mueller's report ahead of releasing the full redacted document to Congress later in the day Harris said during the press conference it was more like Barr was Trump's personal defense attorney rather than the U.S. Attorney General 'Attorney General Barr has made it clear he is not impartial when it comes to this investigation,' Minnesota Senator Klobuchar said. 'Now that we have the report we should hear from Robert Mueller himself in public hearings. Our democracy demands it.' Ryan succinctly put, 'We need to hear from Mueller directly.' Barr told reporters during the conference Thursday morning he had no objections to Congress holding a public hearing with the special counsel. Massachusetts Senator and fellow 2020 contender Elizabeth Warren agreed with Harris' point that Barr was acting like an attorney to Trump. 'It's a disgrace to see an Attorney General acting as if he's the personal attorney and publicist for the President of the United States,' Warren tweeted. Barr said that Mueller's report, which he handed over to Congress following the press conference, found no collusion or obstruction between Russia and anyone in the Trump campaign, including the president. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said the whole press conference was a 'farce' Gillibrand's campaign for president is behind her other Senate colleagues. She brought in only $3 million in the first quarter of 2019, and among the 18 Democrats running doesn't even rank in the top 12 in popularity He also said although President Donald Trump had the opportunity and power to redact parts of the report, he did not choose to exercise his right to do so. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand weighed in and said Barr's conference was a 'farce.' 'AG Barr's press conference was a farce and an embarrassing display of propaganda on behalf of President Trump,' Gillibrand tweeted. 'Barr works for the people, not the president. They deserve to know Mueller's full findings because nobodyespecially not the presidentis immune from accountability.' Gillibrand's presidential campaign is off to a slow start. She brought in only $3 million in the first quarter of 2019 and ranks very low in popularity among the Democratic candidates, not even making the top 12 in a new poll. Sen. Cory Booker demanded the full report be released instead of a 'spin' from Barr. 'The American people deserve the truth,' the senator from New Jersey tweeted. 'Not spin from a Trump appointee. Release Mueller's full report now.' Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper said that Barr was working to protect Trump in his classification of the Mueller report. 'AG Barr should work to protect the interests of the people, not the President,' the long-shot candidate wrote in Twitter. 'It's clear from this morning's press conference where his allegiances lie. The American people deserve answers.' There are currently 18 Democrats competing for the party's nomination to take on Trump in 2020. By the end of the April it is expected that there will be at least 20 candidates with the upcoming announcements from former Vice President Joe Biden, who usually comes in first or second in the polls, and Massachusetts Congressman Bill Moulton. Michael Cohen's lawyer said he can 'fill in the redacted blanks' of the Mueller report because he has 'seven days, 70 hours and more than 100 pages of what the investigative team knows'. The 448-page report was released by the Justice Department on Thursday after almost two years of anticipation. It contained information about how Russia interfered in the 2016 US election and found that Trump did not collude with them but much of it was redacted. Attorney General Bill Barr said the reason for each of the redacted sections was one of four; it contained grand jury material, information that the Intelligence Committee believes would disclose sources and methods; information that would impair other ongoing investigations and information that implicates the 'privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties'. Michael Cohen said he could 'fill in the blanks' of the Mueller report on Thursday morning Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis tweeted on Thursday that he could 'fill in the blanks' He insisted that President Trump did not request any of the redactions but there was still a public appetite for a completely uncensored version of the report. Cohen, who is awaiting sentencing on fraud charges, claimed he could be the source. WHY IS THE REPORT PARTIALLY REDACTED Attorney General Bill Barr said the redactions fell into four categories. - Grand jury material - Information that the Intelligence Committee believes reveals sources and methods - Information that would impair other investigations - Information that implicates privacy and reputational interests of third parties Advertisement In a tweet before the report was released, Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis said: 'As the country waits for#Muellerreport, know this... it does not matter how #Barr #Redacted MuellerReport. 'Michael Cohen has 7 days, 70 hours + 100 pages of what #TeamMueller knows and can fill in the bulk of the redactions. 'Nice try Mr. POTUS. #Truth We will tell it all.' Cohen tweeted afterwards: 'Soon I will be ready to address the American people again... tell it all... and tell it myself!' He will be sentenced on May 3 for committing fraud by using a home equity line of credit to facilitate hush payments to two women who say they slept with Trump years ago. He turned on Trump unscrupulously as part of the case and went before congress to depict him as a liar and a cheat. The report was released by the Justice Department on Thursday morning Amor Ftouhi, 53, was convicted on federal terrorism charges on Tuesday in Michigan A Tunisian man with dual Canadian citizenship has been sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a Michigan airport cop in the neck in a terrorist attack. Amor Ftouhi, 53, was sentenced in a federal court in Flint, Michigan on Thursday after being convicted last year on terrorism and other charges. Witnesses saw Ftouhi attack Lt. Jeff Neville at Flint's Bishop International Airport in June 2017 and wrestle him to the ground. Prosecutors said he told investigators his 'mission was to kill and be killed.' His defense lawyer, Joan Morgan, said Ftouhi wasn't attempting to create mass casualties and wanted to be killed so his family could collect life insurance and so he could become a martyr. Investigators said Ftouhi wanted to stab Neville, take his gun and start shooting people in the airport. Before sentencing, Ftouhi told the judge he had no regrets and only wished he could have acquired a machine gun that day to kill Neville and others. Ftouhi said he wants to commit another act of terrorism, only do it "better" by successfully killing people. Ftouhi, who moved to Canada in 2007, was convicted in November. He was sentenced in a federal courtroom in Flint by U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman. Amor Ftouhi, 49 (left), was charged with terrorism and related charges for stabbing police officer Jeff Neville (right) while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' on June 21, 2017 On Tuesday, the jury convicted Ftouhi of three crimes after deliberating for just over an hour. The 53-year-old father of three is a native of Tunisia who was living in Montreal at the time of the stabbing. He holds dual Canadian and Tunisian citizenship. He legally drove into the U.S. at Champlain, New York, and arrived in Flint five days later. He tried but failed to buy a gun at a gun show and instead bought a large knife. Witnesses said he yelled, 'Allahu akbar' - Arabic for Allah is the greatest - during the attack before stabbing Neville with an eight-inch serrated knife. 'He further exclaimed something similar to, 'You have killed people in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die,'' according to a court affidavit submitted by authorities. Neville survived but has lost feeling in part of his face as a result of being stabbed in the neck. 'This is what a Muslim is born for,' Ftouhi said in a handwritten note to his wife that was found in his apartment. Police officers gathered at the airport on June 21 after Neville was stabbed Travelers and traffic sit outside a terminal at Bishop International Airport on June 21, 2017 after Ftouhi stabbed an airport police officer in the neck FBI agent Shadi Elreda told jurors about his interview with Ftouhi after his arrest. He said Ftouhi was upset that Neville might survive. 'His mission was to kill and be killed. He said his mission was not over,' Elreda testified. Ftouhi's lawyers didn't offer an opening statement at trial and didn't call any witnesses. The trial lasted only a week, including jury selection. Montreal Police are seen last June guarding the building in Montreal where airport stabbing suspect Amor Ftouhi lived before traveling to the US and stabbing a police officer In her closing argument, attorney Joan Morgan said Ftouhi was unstable and believed it would be easier to be killed by police in the U.S. than in Canada. 'He was a person who was absolutely looking for a way out,' she said. Ftouhi was convicted of committing an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, committing an act of violence at an international airport and interference with airport security. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cathleen Corken told jurors: 'This isn't a mystery. He was caught right there. He has the knife in his hand.' The attack came amid a wave of jihadist-inspired attacks in Europe, but investigators have said there is no information to suggest that the Flint stabbing was part of a wider plot. The partner of a US-Somali police officer who fatally shot an unarmed yoga instructor who had called 911 to report a possible crime testified Thursday that he heard a thump on the officers' squad car right before the shooting and feared a possible ambush. Officer Matthew Harrity's testimony echoed a key claim by attorneys for Mohamed Noor, who fired a single shot at Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who was barefoot and dressed in her pajamas as she approached the officers' squad car on July 15, 2017. Noor has pleaded not guilty to charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Damond had placed two 911 calls that night to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. Struck in the abdomen, the 40-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia quickly bled to death in an incident that sparked anger and disbelief in both countries. Prosecutors have questioned the defense narrative of a thump on the squad car, saying investigators found no forensic evidence that Damond touched it. They've also questioned the timing of the claim, saying Harrity first mentioned it days after the shooting and after investigators raised the possibility. In explaining why he didn't mention the thump in the aftermath of the shooting, Harrity said he was required to give only a brief public safety statement at the scene. Matthew Harrity, left and right in a courtroom sketch, testified Thursday that he heard a thump on the squad car before Justine Ruszczyk Damond was shot and feared a possible ambush Justine Ruszczyk Damond was shot and bled to death after she placed two 911 calls that night to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home Mohamed Noor killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond with a single shot in July 2017. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter Noor never talked to investigators and it isn't clear whether he will testify. On Thursday, Harrity described a tense scene, with he and Noor rolling down the dark alley with headlights off, using a spotlight to search for any evidence of a woman in trouble. Harrity, who was driving, said that at one point he took a safety off his holster, but that when they neared the end of the alley without finding anything, he thought he had replaced it. Harrity - wearing his uniform - testified that he then had a 'weird feeling' to his left but couldn't make out what it was. He cried at points during his testimony and said that he and Noor had worked well together. 'At this time, I hear something hit the car and I also hear some sort of murmur,' he said. He immediately drew his gun and held it to his ribs pointing downward, he said. 'She just came outta nowhere,' Harrity added, 'On the side of the thing and we both got spooked. I had my gun out. I didn't fire. And then Noor pulled out and fired.' Prosecutor Amy Sweasy asked Harrity whether he always pulled his gun when startled. He said it depends. 'In this situation, with the thump and being startled, I went straight to, 'This could be an ambush,'' Harrity answered. He added: 'My first thought is, I'm going to make sure whatever it was is not a threat to me.' Harrity said that as he tried to make sense of what was happening, he heard a pop and looked over to see that Noor had fired across him and through the driver's side window. Neither officer had their body cameras running at that point, something Harrity blamed on what he called a vague policy that didn't require it. Both men switched them on afterward, and a portion of Harrity's was played Thursday. In the distressing footage Ruszczyk Damond says: 'I'm dead, I'm dying.' Harrity replies: 'Keep fighting, ma'am. Stay with us.' Justine was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia who had taken her fiance's last name ahead of their wedding, set for a month after her July 2017 death A medical examiner testified that Damond, pictured with fiance Don, was hit in a key artery and lost so much blood so quickly that even faster medical care might not have saved her It shows efforts by the two men to save Damond with CPR. Damond's labored breathing is heard, with Harrity saying, 'Stay with me, stay with me, stay breathing.' He also is heard addressing his partner: 'Noor, breathe, just breathe.' At one point, as Harrity steps away to get medical supplies, he cautions Noor to slow down the CPR, and reassures Noor that an ambulance is coming. Harrity said he 'loved' working with the accused former officer and felt he always had his back. A medical examiner testified earlier that Damond was hit in a key artery and lost so much blood so quickly that even faster medical care might not have saved her. Noor , 33, is a Somali American whose hire two years before the shooting was celebrated by Minneapolis leaders as a sign of a diversifying police force in a city with a large population of Somali immigrants. Much of the prosecution's early case focused on the handling of the crime scene by police and state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents, including possible missteps. They also highlighted officers turning their body cameras on and off repeatedly after the shooting. William Korzon, 76, has been charged with murder, forgery and other counts in the death of his wife Gloria Korzon who went missing nearly 40 years ago in Pennsylvania A 76-year-old Pennsylvania man has been charged with killing his wife nearly 40 years ago and plotting to murder a police sergeant who investigated the woman's disappearance at the time. William Korzon, of East Prospect, who goes by the name Bill, was arrested Thursday on counts of criminal homicide in the death of Gloria Korzon, who has not been seen or heard from since 1981. He was also arraigned at district court in Jamison on charges of solicitation to commit criminal homicide, forgery and perjury. He denied killing his wife after the arraignment. As he was led from the courthouse en route to jail, the bearded suspect told reporters 'she went to Florida' and that he has no idea where her body is. During an interview with investigators earlier this year, however, Korzon is alleged to have asked them: 'Did you find the body?' At a press conference broadcast on CBS Philadelphia on Thursday, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said despite their efforts investigators have not found Gloria's remains. Scroll down for video Korzon (left) is accused of killing his wife sometime in March 1981. Gloria Korzon was 37 years old when she vanished without a trace. Her body was never found 'We had hoped to located Gloria Korzon and bring her home to her family,' he said, conceding that it will be difficult to prosecute the case without the victim's body. 'But difficult to prosecute is not an excuse for us to avoid seeking justice for Gloria Korzon,' he said. 'We can't just wait and hope that this case will improve. Gloria's family has waited long enough.' Gloria, who would have turned 76 this coming Easter Sunday, was formally declared dead in 1997. Her younger brother, Ralph Kidder, said his brother-in-law's arrest gave him hope. 'Its been a long time waiting to have justice,' Kidder said on Thursday. 'Until we find out what happened and where she is, its still not going to be put to rest. This is a step in the right direction, but until we absolutely know, its still not over.' A police affidavit said Korzon repeatedly abused his wife over many years. Kidder said the couple met while working at an electronics plant in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Following his arraignment Thursday, Korzon (center) said of Gloria that 'she went to Florida' and that he has no idea where her body is About a year after their 1967 wedding in Massachusetts, William was committed to a psychiatric facility following an arrest on charges he threatened to kill Gloria. The abuse continued after the couple moved to Pennsylvania in 1968, police said in the affidavit. The couple had no children. 'During these incidents of domestic violence, Gloria suffered multiple injuries, including a broken arm, a broken collarbone, damage to her nasal bone and a black eye. Many of these injuries required hospitalizations,' police said. Gloria documented the abuse in letters to her attorney and to her father. WFMZ reported that the woman instructed her father to keep her letters sealed unless something happened to her. Gloria was last seen working at an electronics plant in the Philadelphia suburb of Horsham on March 6, 1981. She was 37 years old at the time. A few days later, police said, her husband told her employer to terminate her because of mental and physical health problems, retrieved her belongings and directed that her last paycheck be mailed to their home. At a press conference on Thursday, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said investigators have not found Gloria's body 'In the months and years following Glorias disappearance, Bill Korzon engaged in a series of actions to lie, conceal and profit from it,' police said. He allegedly forged her signatures on two checks in 1981 and filed a joint tax return months after she disappeared, police said. A tenant who lived in the Korzon home in 1981 told police five years later that William had asked him to help ambush and kill a Warrington Township Police sergeant who was investigating Gloria's disappearance, the charging documents allege. The Bucks County Courier Times said police dug up the Korzon home's yard twice in 1986, but turned up only the cadaver of a dog. Police said that Korzon admitted to them earlier this year he had battered his wife for years, including breaking her collar bone. 'Korzon further admitted that following the date that Gloria was last seen alive, he forged Glorias final paycheck, credit union check and tax return so that he could illegally access Glorias money,' the affidavit said. 'He further admitted to having perjured himself during a 1988 Orphans Court hearing that he initiated, in order to determine what percentage of property he was entitled to from Glorias estate.' During the police interview this year, investigators say, Korzon confessed to signing a 1981 Mothers Day card in Gloria's name and sending it to her mother to make her think her daughter was still alive. The woman's mother, Pearl Korzon, died of cancer in 1987. White House counsel Don McGahn deliberately disobeyed President Trump when he tried to interfere with the special counsel's investigation, Robert Muellers report released Thursday shows. McGahn refused to do crazy s**t by trying to get Mueller fired. The President' s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests, Mueller wrote in his report. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, deputy national security advisor K.T. McFarland and deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn also declined to act on Trumps orders, Mueller reports. McGahn fell afoul of the president after Trump called him at home on a Saturday in June 2017 instructing him to tell acting attorney general Rod Rosenstein that Mueller who had only been appointed a month earlier had a conflict of interest and had to be fired. Mueller's report reveals that Trump was probably saved from worse misconduct by top aides who simply refused to carry out Trumps orders to obstruct justice, key among them legal counsel Don McGahn The President called McGahn a second time, McGahn recalled that the President was more direct, saying something like, 'Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can't be the Special Counsel' McGahn considered the President's request to be an inflection point and he wanted to hit the brakes, Mueller wrote. When the President called McGahn a second time to follow up on the order to call the Department of Justice, McGahn recalled that the President was more direct, saying something like, "Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can't be the Special Counsel. McGahn decided he should quit because he felt trapped by Trumps demands. He then called his lawyer and told his chief of staff Annie Donaldson that he would resign before driving to his office to pack his belongings and submit his resignation letter. Donaldson recalled that McGahn told her the President had called and demanded he contact the Department of Justice and that the President wanted him to do something that McGahn did not want to do. 'McGahn told Donaldson that the President had called at least twice and in one of the calls asked "have you done it?" Two days after Trumps meeting with McGahn, Mueller reports, the president met his former campaign chief Corey Lewandowski and dictated a message that he ordered him to take to Sessions, who he had already attacked for recusing himself from overseeing Muellers probe Mueller said McGahn did not tell Donaldson what it was that Trump wanted him to do because he was consciously trying not to involve her in the investigation. Later that evening McGahn called then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Trump strategist Steve Bannon to tell them of his decision. Priebus recalled that McGahn said that the President had asked him to "do crazy s**t," but he thought McGahn did not tell him the specifics of the President' s request because McGahn was trying to protect Priebus from what he did not need to know. Both Priebus and Bannon urged him not to resign and, in the end, he decided to stay on. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre, referring to the slew of resignations that occurred after President Nixon tried to fire special counsel Archibald Cox in 1973, wrote Mueller. In early 2018 McGahns threats to quit leaked out. Trump told White House officials to tell him to deny them, but McGahn told them the reports were accurate, Mueller wrote. The President then met with McGahn in the Oval Office and again pressured him to deny the reports. In the same meeting, the President also asked McGahn why he had told the Special Counsel about the President's effort to remove the Special Counsel and why McGahn took notes of his conversations with the President. When Lewandowski, wimped out of delivering the message to Sessions that he should publicly put down the Mueller probe, he contacted contacted deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn and told him he had to deliver the message to Sessions McGahn refused to back away from what he remembered happening and perceived the President to be testing his mettle. McGahn, 50, stayed in office another 16 months before quitting in October last year. Two days after Trumps meeting with McGahn, Mueller reports, the president met his former campaign chief Corey Lewandowski and dictated a message that he ordered him to take to Sessions, who he had already attacked for recusing himself from overseeing Muellers probe. The message said that Sessions should publicly announce that, notwithstanding his recusal from the Russia investigation, the investigation was very unfair to the President, the President had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the Special Counsel and let [him] move forward with investigating election meddling for future elections. Lewandowski said it was clear what Trump really wanted Sessions to do, but he stalled and did not pass the message on to Sessions, who Trump fired immediately after last years mid-term elections. It took another month before Trump and Lewandowski met again, and the president asked what had happened. Lewandowski said the message would be delivered soon. Lewandowski, 45, then wimped out of delivering the message himself and contacted Dearborn and told him he had to deliver the message to Sessions. Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through, Muellers report recounts. Dearborn, 53, left office early last year. K. T. McFarland also refused to act on Trumps orders, Mueller reports. The president told her to draft an internal letter saying he had directed national security advisor Michael Flynn who had resigned a day earlier not to discuss sanctions against Russia with that countrys ambassador Sergey Kislyak Sessions had already disobeyed Trumps order to insert himself into the Mueller probe. On the first weekend in March 2017 the President took Sessions aside at an event and urged him to unrecuse. Mueller wrote. McFarland also refused to act on Trumps orders, Mueller reports. The president told her to draft an internal letter saying he had directed national security advisor Michael Flynn who had resigned a day earlier not to discuss sanctions against Russia with that countrys ambassador Sergey Kislyak. McFarland declined because she did not know whether that was true, Mueller writes. And an unnamed White House lawyer also agreed that McFarland should not write the memo because it would look like a quid pro quo, for being nominated as ambassador to Singapore. McFarland. 67, lasted another three months in office before being fired by Flynns successor, H.R. McMaster. She later withdrew her nomination for the ambassadordorship. Health officials in California have confirmed that an employee at Google visited the tech giant's campus in Silicon Valley while suffering from measles. The patient, described only as an adult resident of San Mateo County, entered the Google offices at 1295 Charleston Road in Mountain View on April 4. Marianna Moles, a spokesperson for the Santa Clara County Public Health, said at a press conference Wednesday there was no additional risk to the public from the Google exposure. A Google employee from San Mateo County visited the company's offices at 1295 Charleston Road in Mountain View (pictured) on April 4 while sick with measles Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that spreads easily from an infected person by coughing, sneezing or even just breathing (virus is pictured under the microscope) BuzzFeed has obtained an email sent on April 13 by an on-staff doctor at Google to employees in the building on Charleston Road, warning them about the measles exposure as a precaution. It is unclear how many people work in the building. The offices are located a half-mile away from the sprawling corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc, known as Googleplex. The company physician also reached out to the county health officials to report the case. The April 4 incident at Google is not related to four recent cases of measles reported in Santa Clara County, where vaccination rates are at nearly 97 per cent, reported ABC 7 News. Meanwhile, health officials in San Mateo County, where the unnamed worker lives, are trying to track the patients movements while infected to find out who else might have been exposed. Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that spreads easily from an infected person by coughing, sneezing or even just breathing. Symptoms develop between six and 19 days after infection, and include a runny nose, cough, sore eyes, a fever and a rash. In one in 15 cases, measles can cause life-threatening complications including pneumonia, convulsions and encephalitis, which could lead to death. Measles can be prevented by receiving two vaccinations, the first at 13 months old and the second at three years and four months to five years old. Congressman Adam Schiff (left) in February sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai (right), urging the company to crack down on anti-vaxxers The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week said that 555 measles cases have been confirmed so far this year, up from 465 as of a week ago, and the highest number since 2000, when the disease was fully eradicated in the US. While 20 states, including California, have reported cases, New York has been the epicenter, with nearly two-thirds of all cases. The nationwide outbreak of the highly contagious yet preventable disease has been partially attributed to a campaign of misinformation that anti-vaccination activists have been waging on social media in recent years. CNN reported that Congressman Adam Schiff in February sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, urging his company to crack down on anti-vaxxers spreading inaccurate information about potential side effects and risks associated with the measles vaccine. 'I am writing out of my concern that YouTube [owned by Google] is surfacing and recommending messages that discourage parents from vaccinating their children, a direct threat to public health, and reversing progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases,' the California Democrat wrote. A man with black demonic black eyes and vampire fangs has been arrested after allegedly killing a female tattoo master and leaving bite marks on her neck. Tattoo master Tatiana Podvashetskaya, 27, was found dead in her rented apartment in the city of Ternopil in western Ukraines Ternopil Oblast region. The woman's body was found by the apartment owner who came to carry out repairs, according to reports. Andrey Gorbatyuk, 26, was said to have been one of the victim's main clients before her death Tatiana Podvashetskaya was found dead in her rented apartment in the city of Ternopil in western Ukraine When the unnamed owner entered the flat, she saw Podvashetskaya lying on the floor in a pool of blood and called emergency services. Witness Oleg, who lives next door, said to local media: 'The woman was lying in a pool of blood. A knife was sticking out of her stomach.' After examining the victim, forensics said that she was knifed in the stomach several times and was dead for about six hours. A source in local police said to local media that the woman had fresh bite marks on her neck. Police reports say Podvashetskaya was last seen together with Andrey Gorbatyuk, 26, who was one of her regular clients. The apartment building in Ternopil where Tatiana's body was found by her landlord who went in to carry out repairs Podvashetskaya helped Gorbatyuk to change his appearance so he would resemble a vampire The man became a local celebrity after Podvashetskaya helped him to change his appearance so he would resemble a vampire. The man got his eyeballs tattooed black and vampire teeth. He also got two magnets implanted under the skin of his forehead to be able to wear horns. On the night of 15 to 16 April, Gorbatyuk was with Podvashetskaya in her flat when he allegedly killed her and fled the scene, reports say. His mother said to the police: 'He [Gorbatyuk] came home at night and told me, ''I killed Tatiana Podvashetskaya''. After that, he got changed, took several hundred dollars and fled our apartment.' Late last night Gorbatyuk was found and arrested. He was taken into custody. Police spokesman Anatoly Kit said: 'A criminal case on murder has been initiated. The investigation is ongoing.' The police have yet to comment on the alleged murderer's motive. The suspect faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. A wildlife enthusiast captured the moment a hummingbird rested on his hand as it extracted nectar from a flower. The adorable video, captured on March 27 in San Jose, California, begins with the tiny bird resting on the stem of a bright pink plant. Suddenly, the hummingbird springs forward towards a flower being held by a man, known only as Brent. The adorable video, captured on March 27 in San Jose, California, begins with the tiny bird resting on the stem of a bright pink plant before springing forward towards a flower being held by a man, known only as Brent Flapping its small wings at an extraordinary speed, the bird hovers around and appears to draw nectar from the brightly coloured flower. The man, seemingly mesmerised by the petite creature, slowly moves his outstretched palm underneath the flying hummingbird until it reaches its legs. Soon the bird stops beating its wings and rests against the mans hand. Soon the bird stops beating its wings and rests against the mans hand The clip finishes with Brent flashing a smile at the camera while the hummingbird continues to sit on his palm. Social media users were keen to express their excitement for the footage, with one writing: Congratulations. Great and beautiful video. Another said: Beautiful moment as it settled in the hand. The shocking 911 call made by one of the California house of horrors children that led to 13 siblings being rescued has emerged just one day before the parents are due to be sentenced. David Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise, 50, will be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to abusing and imprisoning their children in their home. They were arrested in January 2018 after their 17-year-old daughter Jordan managed to escape from the home and call 911 to report that her parents were abusive and some of her siblings were chained to their beds. The chilling 911 call audio, obtained by ABC News on Thursday, lasted for 20-minutes as the daughter told the dispatcher of the abuse and struggled to work out her address because she had not been outside alone before. David Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise, 50, will be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to abusing and imprisoning their 13 children in their home 'Okay, I live in a family of 15 people and my parents are abusive. They abuse us and my two little sisters right now are chained up. There's 13 kids and then a mother and a father,' she said in the 911 audio. She went on to reveal that two of her sisters and one of her brothers were tied to their beds with chains. When asked for details about her location, the girl said: 'I've never been out. I don't go out much so I don't know anything about the streets or anything.' The dispatcher then asked if anyone in the house would need to go to the hospital. 'I'm not sure. Sometimes we live in filth and sometimes I wake up and I can't breathe because because how dirty the house is,' she said. The dispatcher responded: 'When was the last time you had a bath?' 'I don't know, almost a year ago. But sometimes I feel so dirty, I wash my face and I wash my hair,' the girl said. After the dispatcher asked if anybody took medication at the house, the girl replied: 'Oh I don't know what medication is.' The couple pleased guilty to abusing and imprisoning their children in their home. They are due to be sentenced on Friday to at least 25 years each in prison They were arrested in January 2018 after their 17-year-old daughter Jordan escaped from the home and called 911 to report that her siblings were chained to the bed. She's pictured above in a YouTube video of herself singing that she managed to upload to YouTube The teenager managed to escape from the family's home in January last year and call 911 to report the abuse from their parents The 17-year-old also told the dispatcher that she and her siblings didn't attend school. 'We don't do school. Our mother tells people we're home schooled... she has a fake private school set up but we don't really do school,' she said. 'I haven't finished first grade and I'm 17. 'I don't know much about my mother. She doesn't like us. She doesn't spend time with us ever.' Sheriff's deputies eventually met the 17-year-old girl 20 minutes after she called 911 and discovered a house of horrors. Officers found the children, who ranged in age from two to 29 at the time, were severely underweight. They had stunted growth and hadn't bathed for months. The children told officers they had been starved and put in cages. The Turpins had led a mostly solitary, but seemingly unremarkable life until the teenager jumped from a window and called for help in 2018. David had worked as an engineer for both Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, while his wife Louise was listed as a housewife in a 2011 bankruptcy filing. The family led a nocturnal existence, which kept them largely out of sight from neighbors in a middle-class subdivision. The 17-year-old also told the dispatcher that she and her siblings didn't attend school and that they hadn't had a bath in over a year David Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise, 50, were arrested in January 2018 after their 17-year-old daughter managed to escape from the home and call 911 Children were deprived of food and things other kids take for granted, such as toys and games, and allowed to do little except write in journals. Some children suffered from severe malnutrition, stunted growth and muscle wasting, including an 11-year-old girl who had arms the size of an infant. The kids were rarely allowed outside but went out on Halloween and traveled as a family to Disneyland and Las Vegas. They spent most of their time locked in their rooms except for limited meals or using the bathroom. All the children were hospitalized immediately after they were discovered and have not spoken publicly. Riverside County authorities then obtained temporary conservatorship over the adults. The social services agency tasked with overseeing the younger children declined to comment on their cases. The adult children are all living together, attending school and getting healthy while leading lives similar to their peers, said Jack Osborn, an attorney who represents the seven adult children. He said they value their privacy. 'They are relieved they can now move forward with their lives and not have the specter of a trial hanging over their heads and all the stress that would have caused,' Osborn said. An Arizona cop faces criminal charges of assault for allegedly hitting a suspected shoplifter more than 100 times after reportedly catching him trying to steal pants from Walmart. Officer Tim Baiardi, a 19-year veteran with the Phoenix Police Department, allegedly assaulted homeless man Roger Moran, 22, after he resisted arrest on December 8, 2018. It is claimed that Baiardi struck Moran more than 100 times as he struggled to overpower him and place him in handcuffs. Even after Moran was finally restrained, Baiardi allegedly slapped him. Moran's bleary mugshot reveals bloody cuts and bruises on his face. Arizona police officer Tim Baiardi faces assault charges for allegedly hitting suspected shoplifter Roger Moran, 22, more than 100 times on December 8, 2018 Baiardi was off duty at the time and was moonlighting as a security guard when he saw Moran allegedly trying to steal multiple pairs of pants from the Phoenix Walmart. According to court documents seen by ABC15, Moran resisted arrest in three instances and even tried to grab the officer's testicles. A report written by a different responding officer says Baiardi hit Moran 23 times in the face with his knee and struck him 45 times with a closed fist after Moran tried escape again. When he tried to run a third time, it is claimed he punched him an additional 23 times. After Moran was in handcuffs, Baiardi walked him into the store's loss prevention room. ABC15 said they had seen surveillance footage which showed that once inside that room, Baiardi placed Moran on a bench and slapped him so hard Moran fell off the bench and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. The Phoenix Police Department said that following the allegations Baiardi has been assigned to his home. Officials have launched an internal investigation. Police say Roger Moran, who was arrested for allegedly stealing pants at the Walmart, is homeless. In the attack Moran was allegedly hit so hard while handcuffed he fell off a bench and his eyes rolled to the back of his head Baiardi is also a member of the Phoenix Police Law Enforcement Association, the union which represents rank-and-file police officers and has been suspended following the allegations. 'PLEA is aware of the allegations against our board member and, pending the outcome of the investigation, his duties as a member of PLEAs Board of Trustees have been suspended,' PLEA president Britt London said in a statement. 'As is our practice, we will not comment on the specifics of the investigation. Throughout this process, PLEA will remain committed to its mission of promoting the positive role of the police profession and protecting the rights of its members. We would like to remind the public that police officers are entitled to due process and that they are entitled to the same presumption of innocence afforded to every citizen,' the statement added. Following incident the Phoenix Police Department assigned Baiardi to his home and he faces charges of aggravated assault, which is a class six felony. The Phoenix Walmart where the incident took place above Walmart also released a statement saying they condemn the violence. 'Customer and associate safety is a responsibility we take seriously. One of Walmart's core values is respect for the individual and we expect each associate and all third-party workers to act with respect for others and the law,' the statement said. Maricopa County Attorney's office forwarded the case, recommending the officer be charged with aggravated assault, which is a class six felony. Prosecutors are still in the process of making that decision, according to ABC15. The officer is yet to comment on the investigation. A philosophy professor arrested after walking into New York's famed St Patrick's Cathedral with gas cans and lighters had booked a one-way flight to Rome for the following day. Marc Lamparello, 37, entered the Manhattan church on Wednesday evening, just two days after a blaze devastated Paris' famous Notre Dame Cathedral, with the two gallon cans of gasoline before being apprehended by security at around 8 pm. Officials confirmed he was arrested for criminal trespass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark just two days earlier - the same day of the Notre Dame blaze. It also emerged that he had booked a one-way ticket for Rome, scheduled to depart Thursday evening. The NYPD said Thursday that he has been charged with attempted arson, reckless endangerment and trespassing. Marc Lamparello, 37, (pictured) was arrested Wednesday after entering St Patrick's Cathedral church with two gallon cans of gasoline and two lighters. He is seen here being escorted out of a police precinct in New York, Thursday An NYPD spokesman claimed that the incident does not appear to be terrorism- related, but did not state whether any motive may have been linked to the Notre Dame fire. But he said they believe his intent was to start a fire at the cathedral based on the materials that he was carrying. Lamparello is a Boston College-educated philosophy professor who has lectured at Lehman College and also held several roles in the Catholic church. Lamparello, (pictured), was arrested for criminal trespass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark two days earlier - the same day that a massive blaze destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris On Thursday, his father insisted that he was completely surprised by the Manhattan arrest just 48 hours after a massive blaze nearly destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. 'Extremely out of character,' his father, who lives in New Jersey, told the New York Daily News. 'Hes a brilliant professor. His writings, other professors cant even understand his writings. Something happened, we dont know.' While police have indicated that Lamparello might be emotionally disturbed, he sounded fine earlier Wednesday in a conversation with his father. His father added: 'I spoke to him (Wednesday) morning. 'It was just, "Hi Daddy, how are you, how are you feeling?". 'Then last night was like what the hell? Thats all I can tell you.' He said they family were waiting to hear from the NYPD and had no details about the case other than initial reports about the arrest. Lamparello was taken into custody following the incident and was seen on Thursday being escorted from Manhattan Midtown North police precinct. Police had said that four cans of gasoline were found in total after searching the suspect's van. Charges are now pending against Lamparello, who claimed he was cutting through the cathedral with the gasoline because his car was running empty on Madison Avenue, near the rear of the church. However when cops located his car, they discovered that the vehicle was not in need of fuel. It emerged that he had booked a one-way ticket for Rome, scheduled to depart Thursday night and a day after he was arrested at St Patrick's Cathedral with two gas cans and two lighters Police do not yet know what Lamparello's motive was but sources have indicated that he could possibly be 'emotionally disturbed' and has been previously arrest for criminal trespass The New Jersey native has previous arrests for criminal trespass and public drunkenness, sources claimed. The trespassing occurred on Monday, when officers from the Essex County Sheriffs Department went to Sacred Heart Cathedral and placed him under arrest. WABC-TV reported that Lamparello was arrested for refusing to leave a New Jersey cathedral on Monday because he wanted to pray. He also got into a physical altercation with two policemen and was arrested later that night. Lamparello studies at CUNY and is currently doing a Ph.D. in philosophy. He also worked as an adjunct lecturer in the Lehman College philosophy department and held a teaching position at Brooklyn College. He served as the musical director and pianist at St. Josephs parish in East Rutherford for a short period of time. He also served as the musical director and pianist at St. Josephs parish in East Rutherford for a short period of time. Police say the 37-year-old man entered the Manhattan church with the two 2 gallon cans of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and two extended lighters According to Heavy, he has been heavily engaged in the study of philosophy from an early age. He is currently working on two other book-length projects, including a 'witty dialogue on arguments for and against the existence of God, and a series of essays on the epistemology of practical motivation.' NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counter Terrorism John Miller confirmed they had increased security at the site in recent days, The New York Post reported. He called Lamperallo's actions 'very suspicious'. At a press conference Wednesday evening he said: 'It's hard to say what his intentions were, but I think the totality of circumstances of an individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patrick's Cathedral carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters is something that we would have great concern over.' Lamparello is listed at living at this address in New Jersey but police said he also has a property in New York and had been staying at a hotel at the time of the incident Pictures posted online on Wednesday show a large police presence outside the church, which was open at the time of the incident NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counter Terrorism John Miller confirmed they had increased security at the site in recent days, The New York Post reports. He called Lamparallo's actions 'very suspicious'. The suspect has an active online presence and, in 2018, he criticized a news story about French people disliking President Donald Trump more than Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He wrote: 'All I know is, if the French dislike us for something, we must be doing something right. St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was built in 1878, has installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations and its wooden roof is coated with fire retardant 'They think they're so much more sophisticated and culturally alluring than us. But secretly, they're jealous of us and want to be us. Never forget that, fellow Americans.' Lamparello's brother Adam told The Daily Beast: 'Oh my god. I'm shocked this could even be true. I'm almost speechless. This is something that is so not him. I don't know what to even say.' The archdiocese said the man was stopped as entered the landmark cathedral and there was no fire. 'Nothing happened inside the cathedral', they said. After spilling some of the gasoline he is said to have left the church but was quickly found by nearby counter-terrorism police after church staff alerted them to the incident. The suspect is said to have told cops he was cutting through the cathedral to get to his minivan, pictured right, which had run out of gas Police say it is too early to say whether the incident was terror related but it comes three days after the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller confirmed they had increased security at the site in recent days Pictures showed a large police presence outside the church, which was open at the time of the incident. Miller added: 'There was some very good work done here, obviously by the St. Patrick's Cathedral security officer who encountered this man immediately inside as well as the two police officers who tracked him down.' Heavy reported that Lamparello is a regular poster to Reddit community AmIUgly, where users ask for their appearance to be rated. He also wrote about struggling on a dating app Tinder and claimed he was having no luck meeting women on the site. He wrote: 'Its a total self-esteem killer. Im a pretty in-shape guy, and Im going for in-shape women who are a little attractive, and have a few nice features. 'Not models, but just generically attractive women. Ive swiped right on 500+ women. So far, not a single match. Depressing.' In other posts, he wrote about his own appearance and how he became vain in recent years and was trying to lose some weight. St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was built in 1878, has installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations and its wooden roof is coated with fire retardant. A devastating blaze struck the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday destroying the roof and spire. A man was charged in a Ugandan court on Thursday with kidnapping for ransom an American tourist and her driver earlier this month, police said. Kimberley Sue Endecott, 35, and local guide Jean Paul Mirenge-Remezo were ambushed and seized by gunmen as they drove in Queen Elizabeth National Park in southwest Uganda on April 2. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $500,000 and the pair were released six days later. Kimberley Sue Endecott, 35, and guide Jean Paul Mirenge-Remezo (pictured together) were kidnapped earlier this month Onesmus Byaruhanga, who appeared in court to be charged, 'played a supportive role of surveilling the movement of the American tourist', police said in a statement. Byaruhanga, the police said, has a history of carrying out kidnappings and robberies in the area and provided crucial 'information that facilitated the kidnapping of the two' and he was also involved in pressing ransom demands. The firm that organised Endecott's safari has said she and her guide were released after a 'negotiated settlement' and a Ugandan official also said a ransom was paid. Queen Elizabeth National Park, where the victims were seized, is one of Uganda's most visited, with visitors flocking there to see lions, zebras, hippos, elephants and other attractions. Kidnappings and other forms of assault on tourists are rare in the East African country. The last major similar incident occurred in 1999 in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, when an American couple, four Britons and two New Zealanders were killed along with four guides after being ambushed by gunmen. President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni reassured tourists that Uganda is safe after warnings from President Trump In a tweet , U.S. President Donald Trump previously urged Ugandan authorities to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice 'openly and quickly'. 'Bring them to justice openly and quickly!' the president tweeted earlier this month, adding that it is the only way 'people will feel safe going there'. Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni had earlier reassured tourists that 'Uganda is safe', describing last week's kidnappers as 'isolated packets of criminals'. GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor and Robert Mueller's most senior scalp to date. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation. GUILTY AND JAILED: MICHAEL COHEN Pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and two campaign finance violations in August 2018. Pleaded guilty to further count of lying to Congress in November 2018. Sentenced to three years in prison and $2 million in fines and forfeitures in December 2018 Cohen was investigated by Mueller but the case was handed off to the Southern District of New York,leaving Manhattan's ferocious and fiercely independent federal prosecutors to run his case. Cohen was Trump's longtime personal attorney, starting working for him and the Trump Organization in 2007. He is the longest-serving member of Trump's inner circle to be implicated by Mueller. Cohen professed unswerving devotion to Trump - and organized payments to silence two women who alleged they had sex with the-then candidate: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. He admitted that payments to both women were felony campaign finance violations - and admitted that he acted at the 'direction' of 'Candidate-1': Donald Trump. He also admitted tax fraud by lying about his income from loans he made, money from taxi medallions he owned, and other sources of income, at a cost to the Treasury of $1.3 million. And he admitted lying to Congress in a rare use of the offense. The judge in his case let him report for prison on March 6 and recommended he serve it in a medium-security facility close to New York City. GUILTY AND JAILED: PAUL MANAFORT Found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August 2018. Sentenced to 47 months in March 2019. Pleaded guilty to two further charges - witness tampering and conspiracy against the United States. Jailed for total of seven and a half years in two separate sentences. Additionally indicted for mortgage fraud by Manhattan District Attorney, using evidence previously presented by Mueller Manafort worked for Trump's campaign from March 2016 and chaired it from June to August 2016, overseeing Trump being adopted as Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is the most senior campaign official to be implicated by Mueller. Manafort was one of Washington D.C.'s longest-term and most influential lobbyists but in 2015, his money dried up and the next year he turned to Trump for help, offering to be his campaign chairman for free - in the hope of making more money afterwards. But Mueller unwound his previous finances and discovered years of tax and bank fraud as he coined in cash from pro-Russia political parties and oligarchs in Ukraine. Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud but was convicted of eight counts in August 2018. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges. A second trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent due in September did not happen when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and witness tampering in a plea bargain. He was supposed to co-operate with Mueller but failed to. Minutes after his second sentencing hearing in March 2019, he was indicted on 16 counts of fraud and conspiracy by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., using evidence which included documents previously presented at his first federal trial. The president has no pardon power over charges by district and state attorneys. GUILTY AND GOING TO WEEKEND JAIL: RICK GATES Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Sentenced to 45 days weekend jail and three years probation, December 17, 2018 Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns. GUILTY AND JAILED: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Sentenced to 14 days in September 2018, and reported to prison in November. Served 12 days and released on December 7, 2018 Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank. GUILTY AND JAILED: RICHARD PINEDO Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Sentenced to a year in prison Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities. GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence and was deported to the Netherlands on his release Van der Zwaan was a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik. His law firm say he was fired. GUILTY: W. SAMUEL PATTEN Pleaded guilty in August 2018 to failing to register as a lobbyist while doing work for a Ukrainian political party. Sentenced to three years probation April 2019 Patten, a long-time D.C. lobbyist was a business partner of Paul Manafort. He pleaded guilty to admitting to arranging an illegal $50,000 donation to Trump's inauguration. He arranged for an American 'straw donor' to pay $50,000 to the inaugural committee, knowing that it was actually for a Ukrainian businessman. Neither the American or the Ukrainian have been named. CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. At large, probably in Russia Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S. He has been linked to Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team. INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. They remain at large in Russia Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud. Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S. INDICTED: MICHAEL FLYNN'S BUSINESS PARTNERS Bijan Kian (left), number two in now disgraced former national security adviser Mike Flynn's lobbying company, and the two's business partner Ekim Alptekin (right) were indicted for conspiracy to lobby illegally. Kian, an Iranian-American was arrested and appeared in court charged with a conspiracy to illegally lobby the U.S government without registering as a foreign agent. Their co-conspirator was Flynn, who is called 'Person A' in the indictment and is not charged, offering some insight into what charges he escaped with his plea deal. Kian, vice-president of Flynn's former lobbying firm, is alleged to have plotted with Alptekin to try to change U.S. policy on an exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania and who is accused by Turkey's strongman president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of trying to depose him. Erdogan's government wanted him extradited from the U.S. and paid Flynn's firm through Alptekin for lobbying, including an op-ed in The Hill calling for Gulen to be ejected. Flynn and Kian both lied that the op-ed was not paid for by the Turkish government. The indictment is a sign of how Mueller is taking an interest in more than just Russian involvement in the 2016 election. GUILTY AND AWAITING SENTENCE: ROGER STONE Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign official and longtime informal advisor to Trump, was indited on seven counts including obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and lying to Congress about his communications with WikiLeaks in January 2019. Convicted on all counts November 15, 2019, awaiting sentence Stone was a person of interest to Mueller's investigators long before his January indictment, thanks in part due to his public pronouncements as well as internal emails about his contacts with WikiLeks. In campaign texts and emails, many of which had already been publicly revealed before showing up in Mueller's indictment, Stone communicated with associates about WikiLeaks following reports the organization had obtained a cache of Clinton-related emails. Stone, a former Nixon campaign adviser who has the disgraced former president's face permanently tattooed on his back, has long been portrayed as a central figure in the election interference scandal. 'They got nothing,' he said of the special counsel's investigation. Stone gave 'false and misleading' testimony about his requests for information from WikiLeaks. He then pressured a witness, comedian Randy Credico, to take the Fifth Amendment rather than testify, and pressured him in a series of emails. Following a prolonged dispute over testimony, he called him a 'rat' and threatened to 'take that dog away from you', in reference to Credico's pet, Bianca. Stone warned him: 'Let's get it on. Prepare to die.' CLEARED: GREG CRAIG Greg Craig, President Barack Obama's White House counsel, was indicted for failing to register as a foreign agent. Mueller's investigators uncovered Craig's work on behalf the government of Ukraine while probing Manafort, who did business with Craig. Prosecutors released a grand jury indictment of Craig in April 2019, after Craig's law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP agreed to pay more than $4.6 million as part of a settlement. The prominent firm also acknowledged it had failed to register, and placed much of the blame on Craig, a senior partner there. Craig's lawyer blasted the decision as an abuse of prosecutorial discretion, and prepared to argue that omission of information during an interview is not tantamount to making false statements. The charges stem from a 2012 report Craig and the firm produced on behalf of the Ukrainian government on opposition figure and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She was an opponent of Manafort's client , former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Craig was cleared on September 9 2019. It was a throwaway boast over several glasses of vino at the trendy Kensington Wine Rooms in London that set off a chain of events that led to the Mueller report. A Trump campaign adviser telling a senior Australian diplomat that Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton - information that was dutifully fed back to Canberra, and then, eventually, to Washington - culminating in the official investigation. Now, an Australia official has confirmed the chain of events between then high commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer, and disgraced Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, following Freedom of Information requests by BuzzFeed News. The meeting between the pair was first reported in 2017 but Australia refused to confirm its role for reasons of national security - that is until the Mueller report was finally released. A senior Australia official has confirmed the chain of events between then high commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer, and disgraced Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos. A boast from Papadopoulos to Downer was reported back to Canberra, and the eventually, to the U.S. Australia has now confirmed that in May 2016, Downer arranged drinks with Papadopoulos at the Kensington Wine Rooms. The bar and restaurant in west London In May 2016, Downer arranged drinks with Papadopoulos at the Kensington Wine Rooms. The bar and restaurant is in one of London's most affluent areas, between Kensington High Street and Notting Hill Gate, and close to Kensington Palace, the London home of Prince William, his wife the Duchess of Cambridge and their three children. It is unknown what drinks the two shared, but glasses of wine start at $6.40 and go up to $58 for a 2008 Bordeaux. Papadopoulos bragged that Russia had information on Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton - information that would impact her campaign and boost that of his new employer's. When Wikileaks began publishing Clinton's emails on its site some months later, Australian officials contacted Washington to tell them about the meeting, which led to investigators taking the first steps toward opening an official investigation. Following a protracted campaign for information about the meeting that was so central to the investigation, Australian officials said that it would now 'reassess its position' in relation to the information request, 'in light of the recent conclusion... into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election.' 'Notably, in light of the conclusion of that investigation, the Department is now ready to confirm that a meeting occurred between Mr. Downer and Mr. Papdopolous [sic], on 10 May 2016, whilst Mr. Downer was High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.' When Wikileaks began publishing Clinton's emails on its site some months later, Australian officials contacted Washington to tell them about the meeting, which led to investigators taking the first steps toward opening an official investigation The official said Downer's cable had been heavily redacted because the full document could 'reasonably be expected' to damage Australia's relationship with the US. Trump adviser Papadopoulos spent 12 days in jail after he admitted lying to the FBI in October 2017 about his contacts with a British professor, Joseph Mifsud, who claimed to have disparaging information on Clinton. Despite the revelations, the provenance of the 'golden showers dossier' - aka the Steele dossier' - that caused great embarrassment to the Trump administration has remained secret. The Steele dossier, which was written by former British spy Christopher Steele and paid for by Fusion GPS - research firm that also did work for the Democratic National Committee, offered unverified allegations Trump was vulnerable to blackmail from Russia and had engaged with 'golden showers' with prostitutes during a 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. Trump and his allies have long claimed that FBI surveillance of Page was a done through a tainted FISA warrant that relied on the Steele dossier. The Mueller report's focus is on how Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election and then penetrate the White House to advance its motives. One of the many ways its operatives attempted this was by trying to gain access to the Trump campaign and then his team through a relentless campaign of making contact with people they believed they could compromise. Here are the many ways they tried. President Trump is shown on Thursday, victoriously striding towards Marine One to start his journey to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend Posing as grassroots conservatives to ask for help arranging rallies According to Mueller's report, the Internet Research Agency (referred to as IRA throughout the report), contacted people connected to the campaign to try to coordinate rallies. They claimed to be US political activists working on behalf of grass roots, conservative organizations, the report says, and asked for signs and other materials to be used at rallies as well as requests to promote the rallies and help coordinate 'logistics'. 'Certain' campaign volunteers agreed to provide the support (ie setting aside signs) but none knew they had come from Russians. The Trump Tower Moscow project as their Trojan Horse In 2013, the Trump Organization started exploring a licensing deal for a hotel in Moscow. They started planning it with a local company but the deal fell through. It was revived in 2014 with interest from a New York based adviser who was working on behalf of a Russian real estate developer. Over the course of the next three years, Russian efforts to use the deal as an excuse while inviting Trump and/or Michael Cohen to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin intensified. Cohen, whether aware of their true intent or not, always maintained that it had to be done for business purposes. Despite their many efforts, no visit was made. The revived deal was negotiated between Felix Sater, the New York based adviser, and Michael Cohen. Sater, an equally hungry, New York-born businessman who uses language similar to Trump and Cohen, was desperate to 'put' Trump in the White House. Donald Trump is shown with Tevik Arif and Felix Sater (right) in 2007. Sater worked on behalf of a Russian developer to try to secure the Trump Tower Moscow project. He wad desperate to 'put our boy' in the White House and frantically tried to set up meetings with him and Putin but it seems he was simply trying to land the deal and was not being manipulated by the Russians He thought that if he and Cohen could get Vladimir Putin 'on a stage' with Trump while he was a candidate to endorse the hotel, that it would do wonders for his political campaign and seal the election for him. His extraordinarily naive emails to Cohen are detailed in the report and include him promising that he could get 'Putins (sic) team to buy in on this'. In one, he told Cohen: 'Michael lets go. 2 Boys from Brooklyn getting a USA president elected. This is good really good.' The report suggests that Sater, an American citizen, was not working on behalf of the government but was simply hungry to secure the deal and thought the potential political gain he identified would sweeten it for the Trump organization. But Cohen did receive a more suspicious offer from someone who wanted him to meet with Russian government officials. Giorgi Rtzhkiladze, a Russian former Trump Organization adviser who Cohen emailed about the deal, sent them to an associate and said: 'If we could organize the meeting in New York at the highest level of Russian government and Mr. Trump, this project would definitely receive the worldwide attention. ' He then told Cohen the organization had to send a proposal to 'the Mayor of Moscow, second guy in Russia' in order for him to pledge his support. He described the partnership afterwards as a 'symbol of stronger economic, business and cultural relationships between New York and Moscow and therefore the United States and the Russian Federation.' Cohen declined and said he'd keep working with Sater. The ex-Putin press secretary who used his wife to target Ivanka - but Cohen thought he was an 'Olympic weightlifter' Lana Erchova, whose husband was Dmitry Klokov, to offer his assistance to the campaign. He at the time was the communications director for Russia's largest electricity transmission company and was the former aide and press secretary to Russia's energy minister. Ivanka was contacted twice by women representing Russian political heavyweights who wanted to offer their support to the campaign Ivanka forwarded the email to Cohen who said he researched him and found none of his political background but that he was a 'former weightlifter'. The pair spoke on the phone several times afterwards. Klokov told Cohen he was a 'trusted' person who could offer the Campaign 'political synergy' and 'synergy on a government level'. He said Cohen should travel to Russia to meet with him and an unidentified person who he referred to as 'our person of interest'. Later, Erchova, his wife, said the 'person of interest' was Putin. Cohen expressed willingness to go and meet with them but said it had to be about the project and that the Trump Organization had to receive a formal invitation. Klokov, however, had requested for Trump's visit to be informal. Ultimately, he never took Klokov up on the deal. When asked about how much he looked into Klokov, Cohen said he Googled him and thought he was a former Olympic weight lifter. Michael Cohen said he thought correspondence from a former Putin press secretary was safe because when he Googled the man's name, the Olympic weight lifter Dmitry Klokov (shown) came up Invitations to St. Petersburg Economic forums Trump and Cohen were both invited to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum but they turned their invitations down. The president's came from Mira Duma, a fashion contact of his daughter Ivanka's,who said she was asking on behalf of Sergei Prikodko, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. Cohen's came from Sater who was relaying it for someone else. They turned them down, citing his 'demanding' schedule as a presidential candidate. Robert Foresman, an NY-based investment banker, contacted Rhona Graff, Trump's Executive Assistant, to have Trump speak at the Forum. He was writing, he said, on behalf of Anton Kobyakob, Russian presidential aide. Foresman touted his 'long standing personal and professional expertise in Russia and Ukraine' and boasted about setting up a private channel between George W. Bush and Putin. When he got no reply, he suggested that he could meet with Donald Trump Jr. or Eric Trump instead. It did not happen. George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos In April 2016, Papadopoulos was told that the Russian government had 'dirt' on Clinton. He was told by a Joseph Misfud, a London-based, Maltese professor who had just come back from Moscow and who claimed to have Russian connections. At the time, Papadopoulos was a foreign policy adviser. He then contacted 'a representative of a foreign government' to say the Campaign had received 'indications' from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of the information. According to the report, he only told people outside of the campaign about it and no one on the inside but he continued working, for the next two months, with Russian nationals to arrange a meeting with the government and the Campaign. Those efforts included numerous emails but in none did he mention the 'dirt', according to the report. Papadopoulos thought that by speaking with the Maltese professor, he would increase his value to the campaign as a foreign policy adviser. He had only met him a week after signing on to the Trump campaign and admitted when questioned that Misfud only seemed interested in him when he said he was working for Trump. Among their other interactions was a meeting with a woman who Papadopoulos excitedly but incorrectly thought was Putin's niece. Carter Page He also had contact with Sergei Millian, a US citizen who is a native of Belarus and who was president of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce. Millian contacted him on LinkedIn and said he had 'insider knowledge and direct access to the top hierrarchy in Russian politics.' They continued to meet over several weeks but Papadopoulos said Millian lost interest in him when he learned he was not pursuing a job in the White House. Carter Page Page worked for the campaign from January to September 2016 as a foreign policy adviser. He had strong ties to Moscow, having lived there, and also had connections to Russian intelligence agents. In April 2016, he was invited to speak at the July commencement ceremony at the New Economic School in Moscow because of his position in the Trump campaign. He was excited about it and sought permission from Corey Lewandowksi. While waiting for an answer over email, he said Trump could take his place. Lewandowski told him that if he wanted to go in a personal capacity, he could, but that Trump would not and he was not to represent the campaign while there. Nonetheless, Page emailed him during the trip about the interactions he was having and about the support for Trump in Moscow. The infamous Trump Tower meeting The June 9, 2016 meeting was proposed by Robert Goldstone on behalf of Emin Algarov, who is the son of a real estate developer Trump had worked with in the past. Donald Trump Jr. was the point of contact for the notorious June 9 meeting Don.Jr. replied in an email about 'I love it' when contacted by Goldstone who said the Russian government had 'dirt' on Hillary, then they arranged the meeting Donald Jr, Kushner, Paul Manafort attended on the Trump side and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer, Irakli "Ike" Kaveladze of the Crocus Group, translator Anatoli Samochornov, a Soviet-born U.S. lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and Goldstone attended on the Russian side. The meeting lasted 20 minutes. Veselnitskaya told the group that the Ziff brothers had broken Russian laws by donating illegal money to the DNC or the Clinton Campaign. She said they had engaged in tax evasion and money laundering in both the US and Russia. Donald Jr. asked, according to witnesses, how the payments could be tied to her but when she said she could not trace the money they became disappointed. Kushner, the Russians recalled, became aggravated and said: 'What are we doing here?' They then spoke about US sanctions under the Magnitsky Act and Russia's response to prohibit the US adoption of Russian children. Don. Jr said that his father was a private citizen and could do nothing, they said, but that they could revisit it if and when he was in office. During the meeting, Kushner sent a message to Manafort saying: 'Waste of time.' He then sent emails to assistants at Kushner Companies asking them to call him so he had an excuse to leave. Sergey Kislyak The Republican National Convention and the Russian ambassador During the week of the RNC, Trump campaign officials met with Sergey Kislyak but they were short, brief and non-substantive interactions, according to the report. Nonetheless, he kept trying to interact with former National Security Adviser JD Gordon and Jeff Sessions, a Senator at the time. He had more success with Michael Flynn who became his point of contact during the transition period. Paul Manafort Manafort, the former campaign chairman, had his own links to Russia having formerly worked for an oligarch and for a pro-Russia regime in Ukraine. He instructed his deputy to keep his former Russia contacts updated throughout the campaign. He also took messages through his contacts from the Ukrainian President for a peace plan that was actually a backdoor plan for Russia to control parts of Ukraine. Manafort lied about the interactions to the investigation in addition to the FBI. He says he never told anyone in the campaign about them. Michael Flynn (left) and Paul Manafort (right) were both squeezed by their Russian contacts and squeezed them in return. They also both lied about it when questioned by investigators Michael Flynn The report lays Flynn's interactions with the ambassador which led to him being charged with lying to officials as part of the investigation. In December 2016, he spoke with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the phone about limiting Russia's reaction to sanctions set by the Obama administration. He was the ambassador's primary source of contact in the transition team and had strong ties to Russia. Through his contact, Russian officials agreed not to retaliate against the US as a result of the sanctions. Desperate attempt to penetrate the White House after the election As soon as the news broke that Trump had been elected, Russians started trying to make 'in roads' but found it difficult. At 3am on election night, Hope Hicks got an email from someone representing Putin. She did not know if it was legitimate so forwarded it to Jared Kushner and asked him to check it out, saying: 'Don't want to be duped but don't want to blow off Putin!' The email checked out and Trump and Putin spoke five days later On election night, at 3am, Hope Hicks received a call on her cell phone from someone who 'sounded foreign' but was calling with DC area code. She said she could make out the person saying 'Putin call' and that she told them to send he ran email. She then got an email from the Russian Embassy saying with a subject line: 'Message from Putin'. It read that Putin gave Trump his congratulations and he 'looked forward to working with him'. She forwarded it to Kushner, asking him to look into it, saying; 'Don't want to get duped but don't want to blow off Putin!' It was verified as legitimate and, five days later, Trump and Putin spoke on the phone. While there were efforts through official channels, there were also efforts from non-government individuals. Peter Aven, a Russian national who heads Alfa-Bank, told the investigation that after the election, Putin was panicked because he could not directly reach the then President-Elect. It was during a quarterly meeting for oligarchs which Putin regularly held, he said. Kirill Dmitiriev, who runs Russia's sovereign wealth fund, also tried to meet with members of the administration by asking a close associated who worked for the UAE to introduce him. He was introduced to an associate of Steve Bannon's in the Seychelles and a friend of Jared Kushner's, Rick Gerson. He worked with Gerson on proposals to improve US-Russia relations which were then given to Kushner who passed them on to Bannon and Rex Tillerson. The Russian embassy also sent repeated requests to Jared Kushner's office for meetings which he declined because he did not think he had enough power. A married couple killed themselves because they didn't want to live without each other after learning the husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Joseph Howard and Jacqueline Titterton, who lived in St Asaph, North Wales, left jointly-signed letters explaining the decision for their friends, the police, and their solicitor. The pair, who had been married for 54 years, wrote 'neither one of us wishes to live without the other', adding that they had had a 'great life'. Before taking their own lives on November 13 last year, the couple left their key with their next-door neighbours so police could enter their home, and labelled items with the names of the people who they wanted to receive them. An inquest into their deaths at Ruthin Coroner's Court ruled that the pair died by suicide. Joseph Howard and Jacqueline Titterton, who lived in St Asaph, North Wales, took their own lives because 'neither one of us wishes to live without the other' after Mr Titterton was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer. Pictured: their home Mr Titterton, 80, a retired research and development officer with glass manufacturers Pilkington, had been diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer. He was receiving palliative care at home where his Mrs Titterton, a former nurse, was able to help look after him. Among those who received letters was Anthony Jones, a close friend from their childhood days. He said the Tittertons, who had no children, enjoyed travelling, especially cruises, and shared the same hobbies of music and photography. Their next-door neighbour, Denbighshire County Councillor Andrew Thomas, said in a statement that Mr Titterton had begun looking frail but seemed 'OK' a few days before his death. His wife Susan Thomas described them as 'lovely people' and said the tragedy came as a real shock. She had thought it odd that Mrs Titterton had, only the previous day, given her a park-and-ride ticket for Chester, telling her she would not be using it. On the morning of November 13 Mr Thomas found an envelope through his door containing 500 and a note indicating that they had killed themselves. 'I wondered if I was reading what I was,' he said. Mrs Titterton, 78, died of suffocation and her husband's death was consistent with the same cause. Both had died a short time apart. For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details. Advertisement Hundreds more Central American migrants are making their way through Mexico towards the U.S. as border agents reported catching 1,800 illegal immigrants sneaking into the United States in just one day. Migrants were spotted walking along a highway in the Mexican town of Villa Comaltitlan on Thursday. They are en route to the U.S. but are still about 1,000 miles from reaching the border. It comes after border patrol agents said they had intercepted roughly 1,800 illegal immigrants in just one day as they crossed over the U.S. border. Hundreds of migrants were spotted walking along a highway in the Mexican town of Villa Comaltitlan on Thursday as they made their way to the U.S. border The migrants are en route to the U.S. but are still about 1,000 miles from reaching the border Half of those detained on Tuesday crossing over from Mexico were found in the El Paso, Texas area, according to officials. Border patrol said more than 980 were apprehended before 5am after crossing in three large groups. The groups were mostly made up of families from Central America. Officials released night surveillance footage showing one large group making their way over the U.S.-Mexico border. Other migrants were also detained in New Mexico and Arizona. A group of more than 230 immigrants were detained at the Antelope Wells port of entry in remote New Mexico, before another group of 130 were apprehended there later in the day. Agents detained an additional 360 near Sunland Park, New Mexico. A group of 360 were apprehended near the Ajo Station in Tucson after agents spotted multiple buses arriving near the border. Herlinda, 68, carries her grandson on a wheelchair as her family walks with other Central American migrants during their journey towards the United States Central American migrants walk during their journey towards the U.S. Mexican police officers watch Central American migrants as they walk in Huixtla, Mexico A family from Honduras tries to fix the wheel of a stroller as they walk with other Central American migrants on Thursday Central American migrants wait for buses to participate in the Migrant Via Crucis with Cuban migrants to continue in their journey Migrants from Honduras walk along a road with other Central American migrants on Thursday One of the people detained on Tuesday was Mexican gang member Victor Chavez Ibarra. The 46-year-old Mexican has a U.S. criminal record for burglary and cocaine possession. Authorities said Chavez was arrested and was being held at an El Paso jail for illegal re-entry. Two other men from El Salvador were also arrested, including a gang member and a convicted child sex offender. Border Patrol said in six months they've encountered 114 different groups of more than 100 people illegally crossing into the U.S. They said they only encountered 13 groups of 100 people last financial year. Border Patrol agents released night surveillance footage showing one large group making their way over the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday near El Paso, Texas Border patrol said more than 980 were apprehended before 5am on Tuesday after crossing in three large groups. Pictured above is a night surveillance image of the group crossing The groups of migrants detained on Tuesday were mostly made up of families from Central America A Guatemalan politician who had dreams of becoming his nation's next president was arrested in Miami for allegedly promising Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel full access to his country's ports and airports for their drug trafficking in return for them funding his political campaign. The candidate, Mario Estrada, 58, and an alleged accomplice, Juan Pablo Gonzalez, 50, were both taken in by law enforcement agents on Wednesday. Both men were charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and a related weapons offense. If convicted, they could spend up to life in prison. Estrada and Gonzalez were scheduled to appear Thursday before a federal magistrate in Miami on charges brought in New York, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a release. 'Estrada and Gonzalez conspired to solicit Sinaloa Cartel money to finance a corrupt scheme to elect Estrada president of Guatemala,' Berman said. The Sinaloa Cartel was once headed by Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman before he was extradited to the United States. Guatemalan presidential candidate Mario Estrada (pictured) was arrested by U.S. authorities in Miami on Wednesday. He was allegedly seeking financial campaign assistance from Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for future favors Juan Pablo Gonzalez (pictured second from left) joined Guatemalan presidential hopeful Mario Estrada's political party two years ago and holds the title of deputy secretary. Mario Estrada founded the National Change Union party. It holds just six seats in the 158-member Congress 'In return, the two allegedly promised to assist the cartel in using Guatemalan ports and airports to export tons of cocaine into the U.S.' The presidential hopeful's apprehension took place a day after a meet-and-greet with future voters in the department of Chiquimula. Estrada had told his running mate he was traveling to Miami to spend Holy Week and that he would return home Easter Sunday. The former congressman was far behind in recent presidential polls, with less than 3 percent support in one recent survey. The National Change Union party, which Estrada founded, holds just six seats in the 158-member Congress, and has typically supported the policies of President Jimmy Morales' government. Gonzalez joined the party two years ago and holds the title of deputy secretary. Estrada's running mate, Javier Castillo, was taken aback by Estrada's arrest. 'We had no idea something like that was happening. I would never have been involved in something that was unusual,' he said during a press conference Thursday. The political party's Secretary General, Jorge Passarelli, was quick to dismiss any notion that the group was financially backed by drug gangs. 'The little money we have is the product of political debt, and what some candidates have been able to give,' Passarelli. 'Our [financial] books are open.' Mario Estrada was charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and a related weapons offense. If convicted, he could spend up to life in prison The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed its indictment and revealed that Guatemalan presidential hopeful Mario Estrada had drafted a list with his accomplice and were willing to pay hit men to carry out the assassinations The Sinaloa Cartel was once commandeered by Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (pictured). The criminal organization, co-founded by Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada Garcia (right), was allegedly approached by Guatemalan presidential hopeful Mario Estrada in hopes it would back his campaign The prosecutor credited the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with building the case against the men with the aid of confidential sources. 'As further alleged, Estrada and Gonzalez attempted to arrange the assassinations of political rivals,' he said. 'Thanks to the DEA, Estrada stands no chance of election in Guatemala, but he and Gonzalez face justice in the United States.' According to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday, the DEA has been investigating several individuals since December after learning there were efforts to secure financing from international drug cartels to support Estrada's presidential campaign. The evidence against the men includes video and audio communications, according to the complaint. As part of his all out quest to become the Central American nation's next president, U.S. authorities said Estrada and Gonzalez had crafted an assassination plot with a list of names and agreed to provide hit men with firearms, including AK-47s, to carry out murders. Special Counsel Robert Mueller ultimately did not accuse President Trump of crimes - but he did paint an unflattering portrait of a foul-mouthed executive who believed the Russia probe would lead to his demise. When Mueller was appointed, the special counsel's report says, Trump ranted: 'I'm f***ed. This is the end of my presidency.' The account was included in the report that was released to Congress on CD-Roms and to the public in a PDF document that could not be searched. It provides new details on the moment Trump learned of Mueller's appointment and actions he took to keep the walls from closing in on him. Mueller declined to call any of the actions criminal, yet, he intentionally left room for Congress to arrive at another conclusion. 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so,' he writes. Special Counsel Robert Mueller ultimately did not accuse President Trump of crimes - but he did paint an unflattering portrait of a foul-mouthed executive who believed the Russia probe would lead to his demise He outlines ten instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice - and notes that the president believed the appointment of a special counsel would lead to his being ousted from office. According to the report, on May 17, 2017, Sessions left a meeting to take a call from Rosenstein, who delivered the news. In notes by Sessions' chief of staff, Jody Hunt, the president slumped back in his chair. 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I' m f*****,' he said, according to Hunt's notes. Then, according to the report, 'The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, "How could you let this happen, Jeff?" Trump contrasted Sessions to former AGs Eric Holder and Bobby Kennedy, venting, 'you were supposed to protect me' or similar words. 'The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.' Trump seemed extremely upset afterwards, recounted former Trump communications director and White House aide Hope Hicks. 'Hicks said that she had only seen the President like that one other time, when the Access Hollywood tape came out during the campaign,' she said. Sessions handed in a resignation letter after the incident, as per Trump's request. Trump asked Sessions if he wanted to stay, and when Sessions said he did, Trump said he wanted Sessions to stay. 'At the end of the meeting, the president shook Sessions's hand but did not return the resignation letter,' according to the report. This action also caused concerns. Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said it acted like a 'shock collar' and that Trump had DOJ 'by the throat.' Priebus and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon were said to be concerned and said they would try to get it back. The report also describes an incident on a flight to the Middle East where, according to Hicks, Trump pulled out the letter and showed it out to a group of advisors. When Priebus asked Trump about the letter on the trip, Trump told him it was back at the White House residence. Only three days after he returned did Trump return the letter to Sessions with a notation stating: 'Not accepted." ' After reviewing a litany of instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice, the attorney general opted to exonerate the president. He claimed that Mueller left the task to him. The redacted report revealed that Mueller explicitly left the job to Congress. 'With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a Presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,' the special counsel wrote. He said, 'The separation-of-powers doctrine authorizes Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regard less of their source. 'The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the Presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.' The president's lead attorney said Thursday that instances of alleged obstruction of justice are 'easily explained' as defensive actions of a person being 'framed' with crimes he didn't commit. Giuliani told Fox News, 'He was an innocent man being accused of something he didnt do.' The president was concerned that investigators who worked for Mueller were 'highly partisan Democrats' who were 'very strongly supportive' of Hillary Clinton. He believed that he was being 'framed' by the prosecutors, Giuliani said. 'And he was right,' the attorney added. 'Youre going to find out over the ensuing four, five months, they were framing him. This was a deliberate plan to plant this idea.' The president's lead attorney says that instances of alleged obstruction of justice, which were outlined in the special counsel report and serve as the basis for claims that Donald Trump committed crimes, are 'easily explained' as defense mechanisms from the under-siege executive The special counsel reviewed ten instances in which the president may have interfered with the investigation in way that could be determined as obstructing justice. But Giuliani said it was always a false accusation because, 'Its kind of ridiculous to go after a man for obstruction when he was falsely accused, he was defending himself. 'His intent, in each one of these situations all 10 of them is easily explained as an intent to not get framed.' Giuliani suggested that Mueller's prosecutors tried to trick Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, into claiming that President Trump knew about a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was at the center or allegations that that Trump was part of a criminal conspiracy. He said, 'And he doesn't get intimidated by Muellers out of control prosecutors, and they dont put him solitary confinement like they put Manafort, and they dont question him 11 times, and try to get him to say they tried so hard to get Manafort to say that the president knew about that meeting on June 9. 'They literally conducted the kind of questioning that you conduct for a terrorism suspect,' he contended. Giuliani said it was his belief that Mueller did not draw a conclusion on the topics, because the allegation wouldn't stand up in court. 'Nothing was obstructed they can't point to a single thing that was obstructed in the investigation. So now you're talking about a purely theoretical crime,' he said. 'And I think as a practical matter in most United States Attorneys office they would laugh this kind of thing out of court.' A Guatemalan girl in the custody of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol was diagnosed with measles on Wednesday. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol claimed that the girl, 8, and her father were part of a group of 39 people who illegally crossed the Colorado River near Yuma at County 9th Street in Arizona. The group surrendered when border patrol agents determined that they were illegal immigrants travelling from Guatemala and Honduras. A Guatemalan girl in the custody of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol was diagnosed with measles on Wednesday. A group of people forming part of the migrant caravan walk on their journey to the Guatemalan border of Agua Caliente, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras A Guatemalan girl in the custody of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol was diagnosed with measles on Wednesday. Pictured is a computer illustration of the measles virus It was determined the young girl had measles after she was medically screened. Authorities claimed that no one else in the group was diagnosed with the illness. The child and her father were quarantined from the other detainees, and the Yuma County Health Department was notified per protocol. The Yuma Sector said they are currently at more than double the recommended detention capacity with more than 1,000 illegal immigrants in their custody. It is not known if the girl contracted the virus upon her arrival in Yuma or whether she would have been exposed to it before the group made their illegal crossing. It comes amid a recent surge in cases of measles in states across the U.S. Data released earlier this month shows that between January 1 and April 11, officials confirmed 55 individual cases of measles. The figure is nearly 200 more cases than were seen in all of 2018 and the most reported in a year since 2014. Measles is a highly infectious itchy rash with a fever and it mainly affects children. The mayor of Yuma, Arizona, has declared a state of emergency to deal with the number of illegal migrants being released from Border Patrol custody into the city Outbreaks are currently ongoing in four states: New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and California.The spread of measles within the U.S. in recent months tracks with outbreaks around the globe, according to data from the World Health Organization. The news also comes a day after the mayor of Yuma, Arizona, has declared a state of emergency to deal with the number of illegal migrants being released from Border Patrol custody into the city. Mayor Douglas Nicholls, a Republican, said on Tuesday that he hoped not to get to this point but that organizations helping immigrant families just don't have capacity to deal with so many. The news comes amid a recent surge in cases of measles in states across the U.S. Data released earlier this month shows that between January 1 and April 11, officials confirmed 55 individual cases of measles He called on the federal government to send resources, suggesting a FEMA response. The state of emergency doesn't actually allocate any funds but calls on the federal government to help. 'This isn't a natural disaster but it is a disaster either way,' said Nicholls, a Republican. 'Their resources could come in and effectively handle that.' Yuma has opened an an emergency shelter that can hold 150 people, and Nicholls said that in the past three weeks, at least 1,300 migrants had been released into the city's shelter system. Struggling agencies have tried to help the migrants continue to their intended destinations. On Tuesday, there were 200 immigrants at the shelter and more were expected, Nicholls said. A CBP chart shows southern border apprehensions annually from 2014 to 2019. Current year apprehensions since October 1 are seen in black U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said that on Tuesday alone, more than 400 illegal migrants were detained in Yuma sector, with most of them family units that would be quickly released. Nicholls said he feared some immigrants would wind up on the street if there wasn't enough room for them at the shelter. Border cities have seen a large number of immigrant families from Central America being dropped off by immigration authorities who don't have the resources to process them. Immigration authorities saw about 100,000 people come through the border illegally in March and say they're on pace to arrest a million by the end of the year. In the Yuma area, Border Patrol officials have seen a staggering number of immigrant families who show up at the border and turn themselves in. Most are from Guatemala, and many are seeking asylum. Many cross in large groups and immediately surrender to Border Patrol, likely having been told by smugglers that they will be quickly released into the U.S. interior. An Amber Alert has been issued for a 15-year-old California girl who was last seen with her mother and a man who are both wanted in connection to a gruesome stabbing murder. Police announced Thursday they're searching for 15-year-old Hispanic teen Alora Benitez. Her mother Maricela Mercado, 40, and Roman Cerratos, 39, are suspects in the stabbing death of a man whose body was found in a car in the city of Carson early Tuesday morning. Both are considered armed and dangerous, according to police. An Amber Alert has been issued for 15-year-old Alora Benitez of California on Thursday, after she was last seen on Wednesday with her mother and a man who are suspects in a murder Her mother Maricela Mercado, 40, (left) and Roman Cerratos, 39, (right) are suspects in the stabbing death of a man whose body was found in a car in the city of Carson Alora was last seen leaving with the suspects in a white 2013 four-door BMW around 9am on Wednesday in Torrance. The car has a Nevada license plate that reads 'MARIMAR', but the Sheriff's Department says it may have been removed and replaced with a paper plate. Cops say it's not clear if Alora willingly left with the suspects. 'Los Angeles County Homicide Bureau is requesting the publics assistance in locating Alora and safely returning her to her family,' the LA County sheriff's department said in a statement. 'Please do not take independent action, call 9-1-1 and alert local police or sheriffs officials.' Alora was last seen leaving with the suspects in a white 2013 four-door BMW around 9am on Wednesday in Torrance Alora is described as 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighing about 100 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Officials found a man dead inside a parked white Audi car in Carson early Tuesday morning around 3.30am. According to the LA County Sheriffs Department, it has been described as a deadly stabbing and the victim, found in the front seat, was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim of the apparent murder has not been revealed and the connection between the three is not clear Mercado and Cerratos are suspects in the stabbing murder of a man found dead in the front seat of this white Audi in the city of Carson Tuesday morning around 3.30am The victim of the murder has not been revealed and the connection between the three is not clear The official cause of death is pending an autopsy. Cerratos is described as a Hispanic male, standing at about 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing about 210 pounds. He is bald and brown eyes. Mercado is described as a Hispanic female who is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing about 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information was urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. To provide information anonymously, you can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477. The White House joined the president's legal team Thursday in pushing back on aspects of the special counsel report - including a claim that Trump exploded when he found out about Robert Mueller's appointment and declared: 'I'm f***ed.' Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, told press at the White House that she 'never' heard Trump make comments like what what was included in the report. 'I was very surprised to see that because that was not the reaction of the president that day when I was there and he has never there are words where the president's quoted throughout the report where he doesn't use those words, so I'm not sure, you can ask the people about that,' she said. The White House joined the president's legal team in pushing back on aspects of the special counsel report - including a claim that Trump exploded when he found out about Robert Mueller's appointment and declared: 'I'm f***ed' She said that Trump had never ever talked about resigning from office or ending his presidential campaign. 'I will tell you he has never once on the campaign said, "I think we should resign, I'm not gonna run anymore, let's just I'm done here, I can go back to my happy life, make billions of dollars." He has never said that during the campaign and he certainly never has said it since he was here.' She said, 'I've been by his side for three straight years now. He has never expressed that, "my presidency is over." 'And I know that that was the promise and the wish of many people many people who for some reason you give a lot of airtime and ink to, who have zero credibility now, who promised collusion, who swore there would be criminal conspiracy, who would whisper in the ears of people like me that my colleagues or members of the trump family, or both, would be headed to jail, would be indicted by the grand jury, would be taken into prison,' she said. 'None of that happened. Honestly, it's time to move on, total exoneration, the president's in a great mood. And I think what's incredibly important here is that democracy in the world's greatest country, the greatest democracy, flourishes.' Conway said that Trump's 'greatest rebuttal' to the special counsel probe is that he will remain in office. 'He doesnt need a point by point rebuttal. You know what his greatest rebuttal will be? His greatest rebuttal will be hes in office hes gonna remain in office and hell get reelected because the Democrats have nothing,' she insisted. Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not accuse President Trump, his family or his aides of crimes - but he did paint an unflattering portrait of a foul-mouthed executive who believed the Russia probe would lead to his demise. When Mueller was appointed, the special counsel's report says, Trump ranted: 'I'm f***ed. This is the end of my presidency.' The account was included in the report that was released to Congress on CD-Roms and to the public in a PDF document that could not be searched. It provides new details on the moment Trump learned of Mueller's appointment and actions he took to keep the walls from closing in on him. Mueller declined to call any of the actions criminal - but he intentionally left room for Congress to arrive at another conclusion. 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so,' he writes. Special Counsel Robert Mueller ultimately did not accuse President Trump of crimes - but he did paint an unflattering portrait of a foul-mouthed executive who believed the Russia probe would lead to his demise He outlines ten instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice - and notes that the president believed the appointment of a special counsel would lead to him being ousted from office. According to the report, on May 17, 2017, Sessions left a meeting to take a call from Rosenstein, who delivered the news. In notes by White House aide Reed Hunt, the president slumped back in his chair. 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I' m f*****,' he said, according to Hunt's notes. Then, according to the report, 'The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, 'How could you let this happen, Jeff?' Trump contrasted Sessions to former AGs Eric Holder and Bobby Kennedy, venting, 'you were supposed to protect me' or similar words. 'The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, 'Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.' Trump seemed extremely upset afterwards, recounted former Trump communications director and White House aide Hope Hicks. 'Hicks said that she had only seen the President like that one other time, when the Access Hollywood tape came out during the campaign,' she said. Sessions handed in a resignation letter after the incident, per Trump's request. Trump asked Sessions if he wanted to stay, and when Sessions said he did, Trump said he wanted Sessions to stay. 'At the end of the meeting, the president shook Sessions's hand but did not return the resignation letter,' according to the report. This action also caused concerns. Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said it acted like a 'shock collar' and that Trump had DOJ 'by the throat.' Priebus and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon were said to be concerned and said they would try to get it back. The report also describes an incident on a flight to the Middle East where, according to Hicks, Trump pulled out the letter and showed it out to a group of advisors. When Priebus asked Trump about the letter on the trip, told him it was back at the White House residence. Only three days after he returned did Trump return the letter to Sessions with a notation stating: 'Not accepted.' ' After reviewing a litany of instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice, the current attorney general, William Barr, opted to exonerate the president. He claimed in a letter to lawmakers that Mueller left the task to him. The redacted report revealed that Mueller explicitly left the job to Congress. 'With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,' the special counsel wrote. He said, 'The separation-of-powers doctrine authorizes Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regard less of their source. 'The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.' The president's lead attorney said Thursday that instances of alleged obstruction of justice, which were outlined in the special counsel report and serve as the basis for claims that Donald Trump committed crimes, are 'easily explained' as defensive steps taken by an under-siege executive. Giuliani told Fox News in a lengthy interview on Thursday afternoon: 'The president did not have a guilty motive. The president was, and is considered under the law now because there's no finding of an underlying crime he was an innocent man being accused of something he didn't do.' The president was concerned that investigators who worked for Mueller had ties to the Clinton family and were 'highly partisan Democrats' who were 'very strongly supportive' of the former U.S. senate who competed against him for the presidency. He believed that he was being 'framed' by the prosecutors, Giuliani said. 'And he was right,' he claimed. 'You're going to find out over the ensuing four, five months, they were framing him. This was a deliberate plan to plant this idea.' The president's lead attorney says that instances of alleged obstruction of justice, which were outlined in the special counsel report and serve as the basis for claims that Donald Trump committed crimes, are 'easily explained' as defense mechanisms from the under-siege executive The special counsel reviewed ten instances in which the president may have interfered with the investigation in way that could be determined as obstructing justice. But Giuliani said it was always a false accusation because, 'It's kind of ridiculous to go after a man for obstruction when he was falsely accused, he was defending himself. 'His intent, in each one of these situations all 10 of them is easily explained as an intent to not get framed.' Giuliani suggested that Mueller's prosecutors tried to trick Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, into claiming that President Trump knew about a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was at the center or allegations that that Trump was part of a criminal conspiracy. He said, 'And he doesn't get intimidated by Mueller's out of control prosecutors, and they don't put him solitary confinement like they put Manafort, and they don't question him 11 times, and try to get him to say they tried so hard to get Manafort to say that the president knew about that meeting on June 9. 'They literally conducted the kind of questioning that you conduct for a terrorism suspect,' he contended. Giuliani said it was his belief that Mueller did not draw a conclusion on the topic, because there was a disagreement in his team over the issue. 'Nothing was obstructed they can't point to a single thing that was obstructed in the investigation. So now you're talking about a purely theoretical crime,' he said. 'And I think as a practical matter in most United States Attorney's office they would laugh this kind of thing out of court.' Some of Mueller's prosecutors might have recommended an indictment anyway, he said, 'Because these people had a bias, a strong one, and because they used the standard of proof. I mean it's an amazing standard of proof. Can't conclusively determine he did not commit obstruction of justice.' Two MEPs campaigning for a second referendum have been re-selected as candidates for the Conservative Party. Sajjad Karim, a former Liberal Democrat who has described Brexit as 'madness', will be top of the party's candidates list in the North West of England. While Charles Tannock, who co-founded the Conservatives for a People's Vote campaign, will be on the ballot paper in London. The pair have been re-selected by the party ahead of next month's European Parliament elections despite their calls for Brexit to be cancelled. It comes as senior party figures worry the Tories are heading for a crushing defeat on May 23, and could lose more than half their current tally of 18 MEPs as many party members are unwilling to go out and canvass in elections they never wanted to take place. Sajjid Karim (right) and Charles Tannock (left) have been re-selected as candidates for the Conservative Party Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured above) has said she is determined to get a Brexit deal through Parliament Theresa May has said she is determined to get a Brexit deal through Parliament before the elections so that voting can be cancelled, but this is looking increasingly unlikely. A heavy defeat would likely precipitate calls for Mrs May to quit. Both Dr Karim and Mr Tannock are part of the Conservatives for a People's Vote campaign, which is calling for a second referendum. Dr Karim, who has been an MEP since 2004, said last December: 'The only way to stop this madness in its tracks is a Parliamentary process leading to a People's Vote. We want to be leading in our continent ideally through the European Union and projecting ourselves to the globe and winning, not falling down with a whimper.' Labour has selected arch- Remain campaigner Lord Adonis (pictured above) to stand as a candidate in the South West He defected from the Liberal Democrats in 2007 saying his old party had 'lost their way'. Mr Tannock, who has represented the London region since 1999, will keep his slot as the party's second candidate on its list in the capital. In October last year, Mr Tannock said he was hoping that Mrs May's Brexit deal would be voted down. He said: 'The more MPs that vote against the deal, the better. I want the deal rejected because it might result in us remaining in the European Union via a People's Vote.' Meanwhile, Labour has selected arch-Remain campaigner Lord Adonis to stand as a candidate in the South West. The former minister will suspend his membership of the Lords if he wins. Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned that Mrs May could struggle to hang on to power if she cannot get her Brexit deal through Parliament before the elections. He acknowledged that the Tories could be heading for a 'disastrous' showing at the polls if the country was required to vote. A New Jersey state trooper has been arrested on child pornography charges. Trooper Jeffrey G. Reitz, 47, of Williamstown was arrested on Thursday and charged with third-degree possession of child pornography. Police said that he traded explicit emails with a woman who proposed he sexually assault her five-year-old daughter, and who sent him a nude photo of the girl. In a brief statement to DailyMail.com, Reitz's defense attorney was adamant that the allegations are false and his client will beat the charges. 'He is innocent and will be restored to duty,' said lawyer Stuart J. Alterman. Trooper Jeffrey G. Reitz, 47, of Williamstown, New Jersey was arrested on Thursday and charged with third-degree possession of child pornography According to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by DailyMail.com, Reitz was engaged in an X-rated email exchange with a woman on December 31, 2014. The woman proposed that Reitz sexually assault her five-year-old daughter, according to the document. Police say that Reitz responded: 'ANY PICS? I WANNA SEE IF IT GETS ME HARD.' The woman then sent a photo of the five-year-old girl's genitals, to which Reitz responded 'NICE!' according to the affidavit. Investigators say that Reitz sent the woman photos of his own genitals both before and after receiving the explicit image of the prepubescent girl's genitals. Reitz is seen in an undated photo. His lawyer maintains his innocence The alleged email chain, now more than four years old, was discovered by authorities much later, when the woman was arrested a separate case by the Camden County Prosecutors Office. Her phone was seized and investigators discovered the emails. The woman pleaded guilty to permitting a child to engage in pornography, and was sentenced to seven years in state prison. The investigation into Reitz was carried out by the state of New Jersey's Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau. If convicted, Reitz faces a sentence of three to five years in state prison and a fine of up to $15,000. Reitz, who is assigned to the Commercial Carrier Safety Inspection Unit, has been suspended by the state police pending the outcome of the case. He is currently being held in Salem County Correctional Facility. He is already serving a seven and a half year prison sentence and now Robert Muellers report has revealed just how sleazy Donald Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort is. Manafort only took the job because he thought it would get him back on good terms with Russian-backed Ukrainian oligarchs who owed him money, the long-awaited report reveals. And he made it clear he wouldnt take any jobs in the White House once Trump was elected because he wanted to make money off his friendship with the new president. Trump hired Manafort in March 2016 during a meeting at the now-commander-in-chiefs Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Manafort agreed to work on the Campaign without pay, Mueller writes. Manafort had no meaningful income at this point in time, but resuscitating his domestic political campaign career could be financially beneficial in the future. Paul Manafort made it clear he wouldnt take any jobs in the White House once Trump was elected because he wanted to make money off his friendship with the new president As soon as he joined the campaign Manafort, 70, began to use his position to get back in with the Ukrainians, telling three opposition politicians in that country that he would be willing to press their cases in the United States. He told his deputy, Rick Gates, that being hired for Trumps campaign would be good for business and increase the likelihood that he could finally get $2million he was owed for work he had done for the Ukrainians before. He also hoped that one of the Ukrainians, Oleg Deripaska, would drop a lawsuit over a failed investment fund that Manafort had persuaded him to invest in, especially if he thought Manafort could get him a visa to visit the US. He also sent internal polling data to Ukrainian political consultant Konstantin Kilimnik. Gates told Muellers team he wasnt sure why Manafort sent the data but thought it was a way to show the Ukrainians what he could do if he went to work with them. Muellers report details the cloak-and-dagger way that Manafort met Kilimnik at the Grand Havana Club in New York on August 2, 2016. Kilimnik had written to him using codewords. Manafort is serving a seven and a half year prison sentence for fraud and witness tampering, charges that were brought by Muellers team I met today with the guy who gave you your biggest black caviar jar several years ago. We spent about 5 hours talking about his story, and I have several important messages from him to you, wrote Kilimnik. He asked me to go and brief you on our conversation. I said I have to run it by you first, but in principle I am prepared to do it. ... It has to do about the future of his country, and is quite interesting. The black caviar jar guy turned out to be former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych who had given Manafort the delicacy worth more than $30,000 in 2010 to celebrate his own election. Yanukovych, who was seen as a Russian stooge was ousted from power in a coup in 2014. Kilimnik said he needed about two hours for the meeting because it is a long caviar story to tell. Over dinner also attended by Gates they discussed forming a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine and getting Yanukovych elected president there. That plan, Manafort later acknowledged, constituted a "backdoor" means for Russia to control eastern Ukraine, writes Mueller. Manafort initially said that, if he had not cut off the discussion, Kilimnik would have asked him to convince Trump to come out in favor of the plan. He also claimed he had told Kilimnik that his plan was crazy. Gates and Manafort said they left the meeting separately because they knew journalists were trailing Manafort and he did not want to let them know he was connected to Kilimnik. The plan didnt work, though. Manafort quit the campaign two weeks later after press reports linked him to Yanukovychs pro-Russian party. Even after he resigned, Manafort kept in contact with Trump as well as his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump advisor Steve Bannon. Manafort told his deputy, Rick Gates (above), that being hired for Trumps campaign would be good for business and increase the likelihood that he could finally get $2million he was owed for work he had done for the Ukrainians before Manafort sent internal polling data to Ukrainian political consultant Konstantin Kilimnik. Gates told Muellers team he wasnt sure why Manafort sent the data but thought it was a way to show the Ukrainians what he could do if he went to work with them Three days before the election he told Kushner that he if Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton she would claim voter fraud and cyber-fraud, including the claim that the Russians have hacked into the voting machines and tampered with the results. Immediately after the election Manafort told Trump he was not interested in working in the White House because he wanted to make money by working on the outside. Manafort appeared to follow that plan, as he traveled to the Middle East, Cuba, South Korea, Japan, and China and was paid to explain what a Trump presidency would entail, writes Mueller. He then continued to do business with the Ukrainians, traveling twice to Spain for meetings, which he told Mueller was about the failed fund. But Mueller got hold of emails that proved they were again talking politics. One of the emails showed that Manafort told Kilimnik that all it would take was a very minor wink (or slight push) from Trump to get Yanukovychs plan on the rails. DT could have peace in Ukraine basically within a few months after inauguration, he wrote, referring to Trump. Mueller said his office did not uncover evidence that Manafort had ever taken Yanukovychs plan to Trump. Manafort is now in federal prison serving seven and a half years for fraud and witness tampering, charges that were brought by Muellers team. He is not due to be released until 2024. During one of the two federal trials he was convicted at, the prosecutor said: Paul Manaforts upbringing, his education, his means, his opportunities could have led him to be a leading example for this country At each juncture, though, Mr Manafort chose to take a different path. Immigration drove population growth in roughly one-tenth of U.S. counties in fiscal year 2018, according to U.S. Census data. It's a major increase from 2011 and a sign of how the nation is shifting as the native population gets older and birth rates decline, according to The Wall Street Journal. Immigration has accounted for a growing share of U.S. population growth since 2010, when Americans were still reeling from the Great Recession and in many cases putting off having children. This graph illustrates the decline in population growth over the past eight years, with the most significant declines in 2017 and 2018, according to U.S. Census This graph illustrates the share of population growth that's due to immigration vs. new births and in-migration from other parts of the country, with a growing share of immigrants accounting for much of the increase in recent years. Source: U.S. Census Birth rates have yet to bounce back, a trend that coincides with growing shares of Baby Boomers entering retirement, or dying as they get older. Immigrants were responsible for 48 percent of population growth in America in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018 up 13 points compared to 35 percent in fiscal year 2011. It's a sign that the U.S. is becoming more dependent on immigrants' participation in the economy, through filling jobs and funding state and federal programs such as Social Security and Medicare, economists told the Wall Street Journal. 'We have a situation where U.S. fertility rates are really low and we're not actively adding to the workforce through natural increase,' said Aparna Mathur, a resident scholar of economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. 'We cannot afford to talk about immigrants as bad for the U.S. economy,' she told The Post. In the most recent fiscal year, 298 out of America's 3,142 counties grew largely due to immigration rather than from new births and people moving in from elsewhere in the country. This graph illustrates the top 12 destinations for immigrants in the U.S. - regions where migrants are helping bolster the overall population growth. Numbers are per 100,000 of the population in each state and the District of Columbia. Source: U.S. Census By comparison, just 247 counties saw immigration as a primary driver of population growth in 2011. The counties involved in the trend are typically in large cities and their surrounding areas, including regions around San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, Miami and Boston. The trend repeats itself in counties that include Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Buffalo, New York, Albuquerque, Nashville and Burlington, Vermont. In addition, 14 states and Washington D.C. can attribute more than half of their growth last year to immigration including Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Meanwhile, New York City the nation's largest metropolis is losing population for the first time in over 10 years. The city's population dropped nearly 0.5 percent to 8.4 million from July 2017 to July 2018, Census data shows. Several other large cities also saw decreases in their population, including Los Angeles (0.1 percent) and Chicago (0.2 percent). The decline is partially due to a decrease in international migration coupled with the departure of more residents than projected by Census officials. Overall, immigrants from Asia account for 41 percent of U.S. immigration since 2010 - the largest share from any one region. Some 21 percent came from Mexico and Central America. Meanwhile, federal data indicates that a large share of women who delayed having children following the economic downturn of 2008 are now deciding to skip having them altogether. Out of 3,142 counties, 1,739 (55.3 percent) gained population between 2017 and 2018. Twelve counties (0.4 percent) experienced no change in population during this time, while the remaining 1,391 (44.3 percent) lost population In 2017, the fertility rate for women ages 15-44 was 60.2 births per 1,000 women the lowest rate ever recorded, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. While some experts attribute the drop to better and more frequent use of various birth control methods, those may not be the only cause of the decline. Kenneth M. Johnson, a senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire, told The Washington Post that a decrease in teenagers giving birth accounts for roughly a third of the overall drop in U.S. fertility rates. Instead, more women are attending college and foregoing having children and the financial pitfall of having a career stalled by balancing motherhood with work. The decline in births is problematic, because demographers say that it's critical to maintain a younger population to offset the costs of the growing aging portion of society. Immigration opponents say the nation can't rely on immigrants to fill the gaps in the aging workforce or to fund shortfalls for Social Security and Medicare. 'The bottom line is that it would take a ridiculous level of immigration to come close to maintaining even the current ratio of workers to nonworkers,' said Steven Camarota, demographer and director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. 'Immigration isn't going to fix Social Security,' he told The Journal. Two former California law enforcement officers have been ordered to stand trial after being accused of ordering 'crappuccinos' and telling inmates at Santa Rita Jail to hurl them at prisoners they didn't like. Oakland's Alameda County sheriff's deputies Justin Linn, 25, and Erik McDermott, 28, got people on the inside to throw a mix of feces and urine, according to testimony at Alameda County Superior Court. 'There is pervasive evidence that they (Linn and McDermott) worked together for the common purpose of intimidating witnesses by gassing,' Judge Morris Jacobson about the incidents from 2016. Fernando Soria, 48, claims he was one of the victims on numerous occasions. Deputies Justin Linn (right), 25, and Erik McDermott (left), 28, allegedly got inmates to throw a mix of feces and urine at Santa Rita Jail, California prisoners they didn't like The inmate said the pair of officers opened his cell door cubby portal so William Epting, 51 who was convicted on two voluntary manslaughter charges and faces being charged with murder in an Oakland shooting two years ago could 'gas' him with the contents of a shampoo bottle. Soria said he had tried to block the memories: 'It's kind of like a horror movie you're in. You try to black it out.' East Bay Times reported Soria also broke his arm when he tried to close the cubby and someone kicked the limb breaking it 'in half, clean'. He is suing Alameda County and four deputies for the alleged incidents that took place August to December 2016. A cleaner inmate claimed deputies nicknamed the prisoner carrying out attacks 'The Preacher', and said he was 'spreading the gospel' and 'crappuccinos' Inmates Shane Woodcock, a cleaner at the facility, claimed Linn and McDermott ordered him to tell gang members that Ruben Febo was snitch. It was after Febo allegedly told authorities about what the pair of officers were up to. Woodcock also claimed 'gasser' Epting was nicknamed 'The Preacher' by Linn and McDermott. He testified that the inmate helping them carry out the attacks was said to be 'spreading the gospel' and 'crappuccinos'. The officers allegedly supplied Epting with plastic gloves, bags and gray bins to do the service. As a reward, Epting who was sentenced to 261 years to life in prison in 2018 for sexually assaulting his nine-year-old stepdaughter and a female adult in incidents in 2012 and 2013 - was allowed out of his cell often and was given extra food, it is claimed. Two other deputies Sarah Krause (left), 27, and Stephen Sarcos (right), 32, faces less serious charges. An inmate who claims to be a victim is suing Alameda County and four sheriff deputies allegedly involved Linn and McDermott were arrested in August 2017. In October 2018 they were charged with felony assault under the color of authority, witness intimidation and conspiracy to obstruct justice. They no longer have their jobs and are both free on $320,000 bail. They're due for a hearing to announce their trial date April 29. Deputies Sarah Krause, 27, and Stephen Sarcos, 32, are named as co-defendants on less serious charges. Crossrail bosses have warned the wait could be another two years until 2021 Just 15 of 70 new trains are being used for existing, limited, Crossrail services The trains should have been up and running by now on the new Elizabeth line Stretching away into the distance, row upon row of Crossrail's high-tech trains stand idle in a depot. They are part of a 1billion fleet that should by now have been carrying more than half a million passengers a day on the new Elizabeth line from Reading, under central London, and out to Abbey Wood in south-east London and Shenfield in Essex. Instead, more than 50 of the new trains are sitting idle, with most of them stored at a new multi-million-pound depot in Old Oak Common in north-west London. The trains are pictured at a new multi-million-pound depot in Old Oak Common in north-west London. A senior source associated with Crossrail told the BBC the 'best-case scenario' would be an opening in spring 2020, while the 'worst case' is spring 2021 Yesterday it emerged that they could be there for a great deal longer possibly until spring 2021. Just 15 of 70 new trains are being used for existing, limited, Crossrail services. More are parked up at other depots across the country, including Ilford in Essex and Derby. The latest delay comes as engineers struggle to link up the trains' software with the networks' signalling systems. Labour MP Meg Hillier, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, which has published a scathing report on the project, said: 'The image of brand new trains sitting there doing nothing will be deeply frustrating for passengers crammed into trains like cattle.' Crossrail bought 70 Bombardier Class 345 trains for more than 1billion. At 200 metres long, they have space for 1,500 passengers in their nine, interconnected carriages. They have air conditioning, wi-fi and are said to be 30 per cent more efficient Caroline Pidgeon, chairman of the London Assembly transport committee, said: 'To the average passenger forced to travel on crammed trains looking at a line of unused trains will be painful. It's insulting. 'Crossrail was seen as a flagship project for Britain. It is now way behind schedule and over budget.' The link was meant to be opened by the Queen on December 9 last year. But at the end of August London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the opening would be pushed back by at least nine months. The goal posts shifted again a few months later as Crossrail's new boss Mark Wild admitted he had no idea when the line would open. The link was meant to be opened by the Queen on December 9 last year. But at the end of August London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the opening would be pushed back by at least nine months It was also revealed it would cost more with the Government stepping in with emergency loans of up to 2.8billion. Now Europe's biggest infrastructure project has descended deeper into farce. As well as failing to finish renovating stations such as Bond Street and Paddington, the engineers have still not managed to integrate three signalling systems on the route with the new trains. They have also fallen behind on installing the communications systems at the stations, including 50km (30miles) of cables, 200 CCTV cameras and 200 radio antennas. There are fears that the budget will rise again. It has already soared by 3billion from 14.8billion in 2010 to around 17.6billion. A senior source associated with Crossrail told the BBC the 'best-case scenario' would be an opening in spring 2020. A 'middle probability' would be the summer of 2020, while the 'worst case' is spring 2021. The source said that testing trains and signalling was 'proving more difficult than was first thought'. The 1billion fleet should by now have been carrying more than half a million passengers a day on the new Elizabeth line from Reading, under central London, and out to Abbey Wood in south-east London and Shenfield in Essex Mr Wild said: 'We have picked up several serious issues that explain why we want to be testing.' Crossrail bought 70 Bombardier Class 345 trains for more than 1billion. At 200 metres long, they have space for 1,500 passengers in their nine, interconnected carriages. They have air conditioning, wi-fi and are said to be 30 per cent more efficient. A Crossrail spokesman said: 'London needs the Elizabeth line completed as quickly as possible. We will be providing more details later this month.' Current services run from Liverpool Street station east out to Shenfield and west from Paddington to Hayes and Harlington. Advertisement Emma Thompson arrived at Marble Arch yesterday afternoon to support climate change protesters and urged others to join their numbers. What she might not have mentioned to them is that she had just flown back to Heathrow Airport from Los Angeles the day before. Many of the protesters have demanded that the Government limit how many times individuals can fly each year. Extinction Rebellion ringleader Robin Boardman-Pattison declared during a television interview this week that flying 'should only be used in emergencies' despite his own apparently extensive travels. A flight from Los Angeles International Airport to London Heathrow generates at least 1.67 tonnes of CO2. Dame Emma Thompson was at the Extinction Rebellion protest in Marble Arch on Thursday afternoon and in an interview with Sky News called on people to join the protest as police attempted to enforce the law - But only the previous day she had stepped off the plane from LA (pictured right arriving in London) Heathrow Airport say they are 'working with the authorities' to address any threat of protests from climate change activists in London which could disrupt the airport Miss Thompson said she had wanted to join the protests sooner but it had been her 60th birthday on Monday. Dressed in black dungarees and wearing a green sticker bearing the Extinction Rebellion logo on her chest, she said: 'I was not here on April 15 because I was with my husband because I was 60. 'I absolutely wanted to be arrested on my 60th birthday but I haven't quite managed that. 'I bet that will happen in the future.' It comes as Heathrow Airport said they are 'working with the authorities' to address any threat of protests from climate change activists which could disrupt the airport. The Oscar and Bafta-winning actress added: 'I am so proud and thrilled to be part of Extinction Rebellion, a new movement that has come up behind all the old ones that I've been part of since I was 16 years old. 'A movement that's telling it like it is and saying to government 'look, there's no more time. You can't lie and you can't stall any longer'. 'And we will occupy until you take action because that is the only way we are going to save our planet. It's hard, it's inconvenient sometimes but it's much more inconvenient to leave a planet that's so completely destroyed that our grandchildren will be up against things that we cannot even imagine.' Her spokesman said: 'She had to fly home at any rate, it was just earlier than she thought she could have. At the moment, that is our only available and practical means of trans-global travel.' More than 500 people have now been arrested with police complaining their tactic of going limp and requiring multiple officers to carry them away is stretching resources thin Protestors drumming makeshift instruments including pots and pans (left) marched down Oxford Street to reinforce the protest at Oxford Circus this evening after a massive show of force by the Metropolitan Police (right) which looked set finally to remove the demonstrations from the city centre site they have held since Monday morning A samba band drumming anything they could lay their hands on arrived to augment the Oxford Circus protest after police moved in The crowd at Oxford Circus around a pink boat erected by climate change protesters swelled after officers poured into the area More than 500 people have now been arrested since Monday morning in the Extinction Rebellion protests bringing central London to a standstill. But last night the left-wing activists vowed to 'raise the bar' by targeting hundreds of thousands of tourists jetting off for the weekend as they prepared to 'shut down' Heathrow Airport. More than 1,000 police are being deployed each day but have failed to restore order leading to claims they are surrendering the streets. The climate change activists, from Left-wing group Extinction Rebellion, expect to be joined by thousands more supporters off work for Easter. As pressure grew on the authorities to act yesterday: Home Secretary Sajid Javid urged police to use the 'full force of the law'; London Mayor Sadiq Khan blamed Government cuts and asked for more cash; Officers caught dancing and skateboarding with activists received a dressing down; Only eight protesters have been charged, with hundreds of others released as resources are so squeezed; Company bosses complained the chaos has forced them to lay off staff members. Leaked messages, apparently sent by privately-educated ringleader Robin Boardman-Pattison, 21, yesterday laid out the plot to cause Bank Holiday travel chaos. They said: 'Tomorrow we raise the bar. We are going to shut down Heathrow. For the Bank Holiday, we are halting our swarming disruption and turning our focus onto the aviation industry.' Climate activists from an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Oxford Circus, London. Londoners faced a fourth day of disruption in the capital Extinction Rebellion demonstrators at Oxford Circus on the fourth day of disruption in the capital Scotland Yard has warned environmental protesters will face a 'robust response' if they target Heathrow Airport tomorrow as threatened. The force said it has 'strong plans' in place involving a significant number of officers to deal with the planned Extinction Rebellion (XR) action on Good Friday. The airport said it is 'working with the authorities' to address the threat of mass disruption, while Home Secretary Sajid Javid has urged police to use the 'full force of the law'. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said the protests were 'increasing in intensity' and warned demonstrators against targeting Heathrow Airport. He said: 'Protesters can expect a robust police response. We are determined to keep the airport operating.' He added that although the Met were aware of the planned protests across central London, they had not known what scale it would be. 'That has developed as the days have passed,' he said. Extinction Rebellion has said the current protest will end on April 29. More than 500 arrests have now been made. Pictured: An Environmental campaigner confronts an officer at Oxford Circus A climate activist is carried away by police officers from an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Oxford Circus Shortly after Dame Emma spoke to Sky News a large samba band arrived at Oxford Circus, which police were attempting to clear What do we know about the planned climate change protest at Heathrow? The Extinction Rebellion (XR) environmental protesters have identified Heathrow Airport as their next target, having spent four days camped out in central London. Here, the Press Association looks at how the protest might work. Why Heathrow? No explanation has been given - except for a peculiar press release which consisted almost entirely of quotes from Sir David Attenborough on climate change. But it is an obvious target. The airport is the country's largest, yet is currently operating at 98% capacity, it said. Plans to expand have been met with concern from environmentalists. What form will the protest take? Details are typically vague at the moment - an element of surprise is often crucial for a well-executed stunt. So far, the XR protesters have favoured obstruction of roads, sit-ins, and supergluing themselves to other things. What sort of penalties could a protester expect? Those accused of obstructing trains in Canary Wharf this week were told they could face up to two years in prison. At airports, the penalty can be much more severe. Pilots who flout restrictions banning all drones from flying within one kilometre of airport boundaries face an unlimited fine, up to five years in prison, or both. The Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990 also states it is illegal for someone to disrupt the services of an airport that could endanger the safe operation or safety of passengers and staff. The punishment? Potentially life in prison. That must be a deterrent? Recent cases have looked slightly more favourably than that on protesters at airports. The so-called Stansted 15, who cut through the airport's perimeter fence and locked themselves together around a Boeing 767 jet containing people being deported to Africa in 2017, avoided a jail term when they were convicted at trial. Each defendant denied the single charge against them but all were found guilty following an earlier two-month trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, with prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC telling jurors the activists put the 'safety of the airport in a likelihood of danger'. Once again, XR will be looking for 'arrestables' - those who are willing to be detained by police in the course of publicising their message. What is Heathrow Airport doing to pre-empt the protest? Unlike many previous airport protests, Heathrow has at least been notified in advance. A spokesman confirmed they were 'working with the authorities to address any threat of protests which could disrupt the airport'. They added that passengers should contact their airlines for up-to-date information ahead of their flights. What about the other protests in London? There is nothing to suggest the sit-ins at Marble Arch, Oxford Street, Waterloo Bridge and Westminster will be pared back - in fact organisers have claimed 'thousands' more are ready to flock to London over the weekend. It may be that a splinter group heads to Heathrow, leaving the remainder to protest in central London as originally planned. So will the Heathrow protest definitely go ahead? Who knows. Advertisement Mr Ephgrave said: 'The one thing about this protest that is absolutely true is that there has been no violence whatsoever or any disorder. 'The protests have been good natured, the protesters have been good natured albeit it has proved a very difficult challenge to police.' A Met statement added: 'The airport is part of our national infrastructure and we will not allow the illegal activities of protesters to cause further disruption and misery to thousands of travellers, many of them families, over Easter. 'We would urge any protester planning to attend Heathrow to strongly reconsider.' A spokesman for XR said activists will be staging protest action at Heathrow on Friday, with around 500,000 people expected to fly out for Easter breaks over the bank holiday weekend. On Wednesday evening a large group of cyclists carrying XR banners and chanting congregated outside New Broadcasting House, the BBC's headquarters, demanding it 'tell the truth' about climate change. Speaking after a briefing with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick on Thursday, the Home Secretary said she had told him that more than 1,000 officers were being deployed to the streets of the capital each day of the protests. 'Let me be clear - I totally condemn any protesters who are stepping outside the boundaries of the law,' Mr Javid said. 'They have no right to cause misery for the millions of people who are trying to lead their daily lives. Unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated. I expect the police to take a firm stance and use the full force of the law.' Scotland Yard said officers have been asked to work 12-hour shifts, while rest days and leave has been cancelled. The force said that although the Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) has been ring-fenced, the protests are diverting officers away from their local duties. The raid on Oxford Circus followed police being slammed by their own commander after officers were filmed raving with protesters last night, while another officer was spotted skateboarding on Waterloo Bridge. A video of an abandoned arrest at Oxford Circus today emerged amid claims police did not have enough resources to remove the demonstrators, although Scotland Yard declined to comment on these allegations. Today, the protesters turned their attention to Vauxhall Bridge as they brought traffic to a standstill with a human barrier - having already taken over Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Circus, Parliament Square and Marble Arch. Metropolitan Police Commander Jane Connors said today: 'I'm disappointed by the video and the unacceptable behaviour of the officers in it. We expect our officers to engage with protestors but clearly their actions fall short of the tone of the policing operation at a time when people are frustrated at the actions of the protestors. 'We will be reminding officers of their responsibilities and expectations in policing this operation - however the majority of officers have been working long hours and I am grateful to them for their continued commitment.' Twitter users were also angered by the clip, with one saying: 'As long as the police are enjoying themselves, that's great. It's not like there's a knife crime problem or any worries about terrorism. Good to see them having fun.' Advertisement Donald Trump has landed in Palm Beach to enjoy the long Easter holiday weekend with his family at his Florida estate, just hours after Robert Mueller's 448-page report went public. Trump was joined by first lady Melania, daughter Tiffany, 25, and 13-year-old son Barron and was greeted by huge crowds of MAGA fans both at the airport and lining the streets as his motorcade headed to his exclusive club. He had earlier not stopped to take questions from the press as he left the White House with Melania en route to Florida on Thursday afternoon. Trump, 72, and the first lady, 48, blew past dozens of reporters waiting to hear from him - the president often stops to hold impromptu press conferences - and boarded Marine One. They did not talk on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, either, allowing the comments of the president's lawyers and one of his top aides to stand. But as Trump walked across the tarmac to greet hundreds of supporters after landing in Florida he told the waiting crowds: 'Game over, folks, now it's back to work.' He mingled with the crowd for around 15 minutes and could be heard saying 'thank you' as he signed autographs and posed for selfies, The Palm Beach Post reported. Robert Mueller's redacted special counsel report on Russian election interference was finally published Thursday and it revealed that Congress could find the president guilty of obstructing justice, after attorney general Bill Barr said he had cleared the president personally of alleged crimes. Trump had tweeted about the probe numerous times in the day and said at a Wounded Warrior event that he was having a 'good day,' given that the attorney general declined to indict him. 'I'm having a good day, too. It was called no collusion, no obstruction,' he said. 'There never was, by the way, and there never will be. And we do have to get to the bottom of these things, I will say.' Scroll down for video US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport to spend Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort. President Trump arrived as the report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was released by Attorney General William P. Bar earlier today in Washington Trump was greeted by huge crowds of MAGA fans in Mar-a-Lago with Melania, Tiffany, pictured, and Barron in tow Trump has landed in Mar-a-Lago to enjoy the long Easter holiday weekend with his family, including teenage son Barron Supporters in MAGA hats wait as Air Force One carrying President Trump arrives at the Palm Beach International Airport Trump was greeted by huge crowds in Mar-a-Lago after claiming the Mueller report completed vindicated him Supporters hold signs as U.S. President Donald Trump's motorcade heads to his Mar-a-Lago club, in West Palm Beach Trump walked across the tarmac to greet supporters after landing in Florida. 'Game over, folks, now it's back to work,' he said The release of the 448-page report on Thursday after a 22-month investigation marked a milestone in Trump's tumultuous presidency and inflamed partisan passions ahead of his 2020 re-election bid U.S. President Donald Trump had been uncharacteristically quiet on his departure from Washington to Mar-a-Lago after the release of a redacted version of the Mueller report Trump greets supporters on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport, as he arrives to spend Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club, Florida He added: 'I say this in front of my friends, this should never happen to another president again, this hoax. This should never happen to another president again.' He had celebrated the end of the special counsel investigation earlier with a play on 'Game of Thrones,' which is in its final season on HBO. The president shared a theatrical poster of himself, standing in fog, with an overlay that said: 'NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION. FOR THE HATERS AND THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS - GAME OVER.' But the Democrats have already reacted with fury after Barr used a press conference to announce the findings of the report before it had been seen by Congress or the public. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer later accused him of 'deliberately distorting' the Mueller Report which they say 'paints a disturbing picture of a president who has been weaving a web of deceit, lies'. The pair issued a joint, blistering statement Thursday evening in response to the release of the 448-page report, outlining 'at least four significant ways that Mr. Barr has misled the public on the contents of the Mueller report'. Posting their response to the report's release Pelosi tweeted: 'Weve learned today that AG Barr deliberately distorted significant portions of the #MuellerReport. 'The #MuellerReport paints a disturbing picture of a president who has been weaving a web of deceit, lies and improper behavior and acting as if the law doesnt apply to him.' The statement adds: 'But if you hadnt read the report and listened only to Mr. Barr, you wouldnt have known any of that because Mr. Barr has been so misleading.' Democrats and freshmen lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar also joined forces in voicing support for an impeachment order against Trump following the report's release. Mueller's report is clear in pointing to Congress' responsibility in investigating obstruction of justice by the President, AOC tweeted on Thursday. It is our job as outlined in Article 1, Sec 2, Clause 5 of the US Constitution. The 29-year-old then promised to sign on to impeachment proceedings launched by fellow freshman Democrat Rashida Tlaib. Omar echoed AOC's sentiments, asserting that Congress has a 'constitutional responsibility' to investigate whether Trump has committed any impeachable offenses. She tweeted that such violations include: 'Obstruction of justice, violating the Emoluments Clause, collusion, [and] abuse of power.' Trump had tweeted about the probe numerous times in the day and said at a Wounded Warrior event that he was having a 'good day,' given that the attorney general declined to charge him with crimes Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not accuse President Trump of crimes, however, he did paint an unflattering portrait of a foul-mouthed executive who believed the Russia probe would lead to his demise Tiffany was escorted by Secret Service agent as she walked towards a waiting SUV, wearing a short navy dress, sky-high blue-and-gold heels, and a gold belt The younger first daughter couldn't stop smiling as she made her way across the tarmac, toting a small black Saint Laurent purse on her shoulder Tiffany is currently a student at Georgetown Law, where she has been studying since the fall of 2017 President Donald Trump did not stop to take questions from the press on Thursday as he left the White House with Melania en route to Mar-a-Lago for Easter weekend They did not talk on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, either, allowing his lawyers' comments and one of his top aides' stand Trump's top lawyer and one of his closest aides came to his defense. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway joined the president's legal team in pushing back on aspects of the special counsel report - including a claim that Trump exploded when he found out about Robert Mueller's appointment and declared: 'I'm f***ed.' Conway told press at the White House that she 'never' heard Trump make comments like what what was included in the report. 'I was very surprised to see that because that was not the reaction of the president that day when I was there and he has never there are words where the president's quoted throughout the report where he doesn't use those words so I'm not sure, you can ask the people about that,' she said. The White House joined the president's legal team in pushing back on aspects of the special counsel report - including a claim that Trump exploded when he found out about Robert Mueller's appointment and declared: 'I'm f***ed' She said that Trump had never ever talked about resigning from office or ending his presidential campaign. 'I will tell you he has never once on the campaign said I think we should resign, 'I'm not gonna run anymore, let's just I'm done here, I can go back to my happy life, make billions of dollars, he has never said that during the campaign and he certainly never has said it since he was here.' She said, 'I've been by his side for three straight years now. He has never expressed that, 'my presidency is over.' 'And I know that that was the promise and the wish of many people many people who for some reason you give a lot of airtime and ink to, who have zero credibility now, who promised collusion, who swore there would be criminal conspiracy, who would whisper in the ears of people like me that my colleagues or members of the trump family, or both, would be headed to jail, would be indicted by the grand jury, would be taken into prison,' she said. 'Honestly, it's time to move on, total exoneration, the president's in a great mood. And I think what's incredibly important here is that democracy in the world's greatest country, the greatest democracy, flourishes.' Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not accuse President Trump of crimes, however, he did paint an unflattering portrait of a foul-mouthed executive who believed the Russia probe would lead to his demise. When Mueller was appointed, the special counsel's report says, he ranted: 'I'm f***ed. This is the end of my presidency.' The account was included in the report that was released to Congress on CD-Roms and to the public in a PDF document that could not be searched. It provides new details on the moment Trump learned of Mueller's appointment and actions he took to keep the walls from closing in on him. Mueller declined to call any of the actions criminal, yet, he intentionally left room for Congress to arrive at another conclusion. 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so,' he wrote. He outlines ten instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice - and notes that the president believed the appointment of a special counsel would lead to him being ousted from office. According to the report, on May 17, 2017, Sessions left a meeting to take a call from Rosenstein, who delivered the news. In notes by Sessions' chief of staff, Jody Hunt, the president slumped back in his chair. 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I' m f*****,' he said, according to Hunt's notes. Then, according to the report, 'The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, 'How could you let this happen, Jeff?' Trump contrasted Sessions to former AGs Eric Holder and Bobby Kennedy, venting, 'you were supposed to protect me' or similar words. 'The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, 'Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.' Trump seemed extremely upset afterwards, recounted former Trump communications director and White House aide Hope Hicks. 'Hicks said that she had only seen the President like that one other time, when the Access Hollywood tape came out during the campaign,' she said. Sessions handed in a resignation letter after the incident, as per Trump's request. Trump asked Sessions if he wanted to stay, and when Sessions said he did, Trump said he wanted Sessions to stay. 'At the end of the meeting, the president shook Sessions's hand but did not return the resignation letter,' according to the report. This action also caused concerns. Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said it acted like a 'shock collar' and that Trump had DOJ 'by the throat.' Priebus and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon were said to be concerned and said they would try to get it back. The report also describes an incident on a flight to the Middle East where, according to Hicks, Trump pulled out the letter and showed it out to a group of advisers. When Priebus asked Trump about the letter on the trip, Trump told him it was back at the White House residence. Only three days after he returned did Trump return the letter to Sessions with a notation stating: 'Not accepted.' ' After reviewing a litany of instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice, the attorney general opted to exonerate the president. He claimed in a letter to lawmakers that Mueller left the task to him. The redacted report revealed that Mueller explicitly left the job to Congress. 'With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,' the special counsel wrote. He said, 'The separation-of-powers doctrine authorizes Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regard less of their source. 'The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.' The president's lead attorney said Thursday that instances of alleged obstruction of justice, which were outlined in the special counsel report and serve as the basis for claims that Donald Trump committed crimes, are 'easily explained' as actions that were taken by a man who thought he was being 'framed' by his political enemies. Giuliani told Fox News in a lengthy interview on Thursday afternoon, 'He was an innocent man being accused of something he didn't do.' The president was concerned that investigators who worked for Mueller had ties to the Clinton family and were 'highly partisan Democrats' who were 'very strongly supportive' of Hillary Clinton. He believed that he was being 'framed' by the prosecutors, Giuliani said, 'And he was right.' 'You're going to find out over the ensuing four, five months, they were framing him. This was a deliberate plan to plant this idea,' he claimed. The special counsel reviewed ten instances in which the president may have interfered with the investigation in way that could be determined as obstructing justice. But Giuliani said it was always a false accusation because, 'It's kind of ridiculous to go after a man for obstruction when he was falsely accused, he was defending himself. 'His intent, in each one of these situations all 10 of them is easily explained as an intent to not get framed.' Giuliani suggested that Mueller's prosecutors tried to trick Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, into claiming that President Trump knew about a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was at the center or allegations that that Trump was part of a criminal conspiracy. He said, 'And he doesn't get intimidated by Mueller's out of control prosecutors, and they don't put him solitary confinement like they put Manafort, and they don't question him 11 times, and try to get him to say they tried so hard to get Manafort to say that the president knew about that meeting on June 9. 'They literally conducted the kind of questioning that you conduct for a terrorism suspect,' he contended. Giuliani said it was his belief that Mueller did not draw a conclusion on the topics, because the charges wouldn't have stood up in court. 'Nothing was obstructed they can't point to a single thing that was obstructed in the investigation. So now you're talking about a purely theoretical crime,' he said. 'And I think as a practical matter in most United States Attorney's Office they would laugh this kind of thing out of court.' A police officer has been shot during a confrontation with two suspects in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan on Thursday, the NYPD have revealed. Officers from the New York Police Department were summoned to 191st Street and Wadsworth Avenue to reports of a man repeatedly shooting his gun in the air, at 4:30pm. When police arrived, the man is said to have then focused his line of fire towards the officers, striking one of them in the arm. Officers from the New York Police Department were summoned to 191st Street and Wadsworth Avenue on Thursday afternoon Officers returned fire at the suspect, who was accompanied by another man, and shot him. He was taken to hospital Mount Sinai St. Lukes Hospital where it's believed he later died. The afflicted officer was also taken to hospital and is said to be in a stable condition, police said. The suspect's accomplice attempted to flee the scene through a parking lot but was later apprehended. He has been taken into custody but it's not yet clear what charges he will face. A spokesperson for the NYPD told DailyMail.com they aren't looking for any other suspects in relation to the incident. The afflicted officer was also taken to hospital and is said to be in a stable condition. One of the suspects died shortly after the shoot-out Police say a man shooting his gun in the air, accompanied by another suspect, opened fire at the attending officers, striking one in the arm The gun responsible for the shooting was recovered at the scene. This is the second time an NYPD officer has been shot this year. Detective Brian Simonsen was shot and killed in February, after a tragic case of friendly fire in Queens. A baby boy was saved from a pack of dingoes by his father who wrestled him away from the wild dogs. The 14-month-old was dragged by his head from the family's caravan on Fraser Island as his parents slept after at least two dingoes broke in. The parents awoke to the sounds of their baby screaming, with the cries getting fainter as he was dragged farther away. The boy was airlifted to hospital by RACQ LifeFlight Rescue after he was attacked by the dingoes on Fraser Island, Queensland The boy was treated by paramedics stationed on the island before an RACQ LifeFlight helicopter arrived about 2.30am on Friday The father looked outside then heroically confronted the dingoes and rescued his child before chasing some of the pack away. 'He was apparently grabbed around the back of the neck area and dragged away,' the pilot Frank Bertoli told reporters. 'If it wasn't for the parents fighting off the dingo he could have had much more severe injuries.' The dingoes were believed to have crawled underneath a canvas flap over the doorway and taken the boy as he slept. 'I think he made his way under the canvas to get into the camper trailer,' Mr Bertoli said. 'It's pretty horrific to hear something like that come over the phone and we just wanted to get there to be able to help. The boy was bleeding heavily but was in a stable condition in Hervey Bay Hospital by morning. He was later transferred to Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane He suffered a fractured skull, puncture wounds to his neck and head, and cuts on his legs, scalp and body in the attack 'They said that the main dingo was surrounded by others.' The boy's four-year-old sister was also sleeping in the campervan near their parents when the dingoes entered. The boy was treated by paramedics stationed on the island before an RACQ LifeFlight helicopter arrived about 1.40am on Friday. The boy was bleeding heavily but was in a stable condition in Hervey Bay Hospital by morning. He was later transferred to Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane. He suffered a fractured skull, puncture wounds to his neck and head, and cuts on his legs, scalp and body in the attack. The latest incident is an eerie reminder of a case which captivated Australia in 1980, when Lindy Chamberlain's nine-week-old baby Azaria was taken by a dingo in the Northern Territory Paramedic Ben Du Toit advised visitors to avoid dingoes and never to venture out on the island alone. 'Just stay well clear of them, keep all food sources well locked up and away from dingoes, and never walk alone, always walk in groups,' he said. Rangers are trying to identify and track down the dingoes responsible, which are likely to be put down. Extra patrols are also in action. 'Once further details are known, the we will consider any other measures necessary to ensure visitor safety,' the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service said. It is the ninth dingo attack on Fraser Island in the past 20 years, and the third this year after a six-year-old boy Michael Schipanski was mauled in January. 'I heard him screaming bone-chilling screams of terror and fear and pain, and turned around and saw him set upon and dragged down by this pack of dingoes,' his father Mark said at the time. 'I hate to think what might have happened if they got to his head or throat.' A month later, two tourists including a nine-year-old boy and his mother were attacked as they tried to run back to their vehicle. Fraser Island dingo safety guide Dingoes are enough of an issue on Fraser Island that the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service has detailed information on how to stay safe around them. 'Stay very close - within arm's reach - of your children. Never leave children in tents, on beaches or walking tracks without adults; not even for a few minutes,' it said. 'What looks like playful dog behaviour is often serious dominance-testing by dingoes. People caught up in this display for dominance can be bitten or seriously mauled. It is the ninth dingo attack on Fraser Island in the past 20 years, and the third this year 'Children cannot be relied upon to know or remember what to do if threatened by dingoes. 'Some children have been bitten by dingoes that have wanted food or were excited by the children running and playing.' Visitors are also advised to keep food locked up to avoid them stealing it and to keep campsites so 'boring' they won't come near. If threatened by dingoes, people should stand still at their full height and fold their arms across their chest, and calmly back away instead of running. Advertisement Research indicates that more than half of dingo attacks occur when the victims are running away, as the animals 'chase' response is triggered. 'Wildlife authorities recognise that Fraser Island dingoes may become the purest strain of dingo on the eastern Australian seaboard and perhaps Australia-wide,' the Queensland Department of Environment and Science website states. The last person to be killed by a dingo on the island was in 2001 when Clinton Gage, nine, was killed and his brother mauled. He is one of only two people ever killed by dingoes in Australia, and sparked the culling of 31 dingoes on Fraser Island that outraged residents. 'On Fraser Island, they have become used to tourists as tourists tend to feed them. This has led to dingoes lurking around camping areas,' one local said earlier this year. Recent visitors to Fraser Island claimed dingoes were appearing more often and in greater numbers than in the past. 'We are on Fraser at the moment and there are so many around compared to past trips,' one said. Fraser Island is home to about 200 dingoes who travel in packs of up to 30. The latest incident is an eerie reminder of a case which captivated Australia in 1980, when Lindy Chamberlain's nine-week-old baby Azaria was taken by a dingo in the Northern Territory. In his annual address, joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said families must be told about disgraceful levels of funding under the Conservatives and urged to vote for education Britains biggest teaching union has vowed to mobilise parents against Tory education cuts in the run-up to next months local elections. The National Education Union (NEU) instructed its members to encourage parental campaigning on the issue. It will mean teachers around the country will be targeting families during the sensitive purdah period when schools cannot use public funds for electioneering before the May 2 vote. In his annual address, joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said families must be told about disgraceful levels of funding under the Conservatives and urged to vote for education. And in the event of a snap general election this year, members must ramp up their campaign even more, he said. His call to arms was branded depressing by critics, who accused him of trying to influence voters with partisan statements before the elections. It follows a similar campaign in the run-up to the 2017 general election, when many Tories were unseated and Theresa May lost her House of Commons majority. At the time teachers were accused of trying to sway the result by sending letters home in childrens schoolbags which criticised Tory education policies. Research from pollster Survation suggested around 795,000 people may have switched their vote due to the issue of school funding. It has no official political affiliation but members have made no secret of their love of Jeremy Corbyn, chanting his name and giving him a standing ovation when he appeared at their conference (stock photo) The NEU is countrys largest education union, with more than 460,000 members. It was formed in 2017 by the merger of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. It has no official political affiliation but members have made no secret of their love of Jeremy Corbyn, chanting his name and giving him a standing ovation when he appeared at their conference. Giving his call to action the action at the unions annual conference in Liverpool yesterday, Mr Courtney urged teachers to keep education at the top of the political agenda. School and college funding is an issue that will not go away for this Government and I want to thank everyone who has helped build parental engagement this year, he said. No politician in this country can safely ignore the fact that three quarters of a million people changed their vote in the 2017 General Election because of school funding. One pupil in eight is in a class of over 30 Super-size classes are at a 36-year high in secondary schools because of an explosion in the pupil population. Analysis by the National Education Union shows that last year 12.1 per cent of pupils one in eight were in classes of over 30. The last time so many children were in over-sized classes in secondaries was in 1982, when the proportion was 12.3 per cent. The Department for Education figures suggest councils and schools are struggling to cope with the bulging pupil population, partly due to high migration in the early 2000s. The NEU also called for higher spending on secondary schools to prevent average secondary school class sizes reaching a 40-year high of above 22 pupils from the current 21.2. Joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: This represents a real problem in our schools, a real problem for our members as well as their pupils. A DfE spokesman said: This Government is undertaking the biggest expansion in school places in two generations reversing a reduction of 100,000 school places between 2004 and 2010. On top of this, standards are rising. Advertisement And so, we want you to encourage parental campaigning in the run-up to the local elections, and to ramp it up even more than that if there is a general election. We dont tell people who to vote for, but we do say vote for education. He also declared: The next election will be fought on education. The union says its campaign is purely about getting election candidates to take on board school funding issues, and does not seek to influence voters on polling day. However, it is likely to harm local Conservative council candidates if families are told the Tories are depriving schools of funding. Mark Lehain, of campaign group Parents and Teachers for Excellence, said: The NEU makes a big thing about being non-affiliated and independent of all parties. Its depressing to hear them make such partisan statements during election periods. School funding is an incredibly important issue, but they should consider whether obviously party-political activity is right during an election. Conservative Party vice chairman and MP Paul Scully said: This shows that the NEU has sadly become little more than a front for the Labour Party. Their spending in the last general election was investigated by the Electoral Commission while their Schools Cuts website has been condemned by the UK Statistics Authority. They should be focused on helping great teachers to educate our children not using school staff to campaign for Jeremy Corbyn. A minister at the secretive Word of Faith Fellowship in North Carolina has been sentenced to 34 months in prison for his role in a fraud scheme that was dubbed 'God's plan'. In 2008, Kent Covington laid off workers at his struggling manufacturing business so that they could collect unemployment benefits. However, the employees continued to work at the company and their unemployment checks replaced their actual salaries. At Covington's sentencing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger said that the minister had shown a 'cynical disregard to the law' and that his actions 'undermined the entire unemployment security structure of the state'. Around 150 of his friends, family and members of his church attended his sentencing, according to WLOS. Word of Faith Fellowship minister Kent Covington has been sentenced to 34 months prison for implementing an unemployment fraud scheme at two of his businesses. He is pictured arriving at court Thursday Word of Faith Fellowship is a secretive church based in North Carolina Prosecutors say Covington and his employee, Dianne McKinny, later put the scheme into place at another of his companies - a stone fabrication business by the name of Integrity Marble & Granite. It resulted in more than $250,000 in fraudulent claims made between November 2008 and March 2013, according to the original indictment in the case. Word of Faith Fellowship leader, Jane Whaley, was named in a court document as someone who 'promoted' the scheme. Former members of the church say she called it 'God's plan' to help the businesses survive the economic downturn and keep money coming into the church. She has strongly denied any insinuation that she was involved in the offense. Most of Covington's employees were members of the Word of Faith Fellowship, and prosecutors allege the minister used his leadership position in the church to force them to comply. In addition to 34 months in prison, Covington was ordered to pay $466,960 in restitution. He avoided a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine by pleading guilty to the crime. Meanwhile, McKinny has pleaded not guilty and she is scheduled for trial May 6. Covington's sentencing comes just days after two other ministers at the Word of Faith Fellowship also faced punishment for fraud. Word of Faith Fellowship leader Jane Whaley (center) has steadfastly denied calling the fraud scheme 'God's plan' Last week, Dr. Jerry Gross and his son, Jason Gross, were ordered to spend three years on probation and pay restitution of $162,276 after admitting to fraud at a podiatry clinic in Forest City, North Carolina. The unemployment allegations were uncovered as part of the Associated Press's investigation into Word of Faith, which had about 750 congregants in rural North Carolina and a total of nearly 2,000 members in its branches in Brazil and Ghana and its affiliations in other countries. In February 2017, the Associated Press cited 43 former members who said congregants were regularly punched and choked in an effort to beat out devils. The Associated Press also revealed how, over the course of two decades, followers were ordered by church leaders to lie to authorities investigating reports of abuse. AP later outlined how the church created a pipeline of young laborers from its two Brazilian congregations who say they were brought to the U.S. and forced to work for little or no pay at businesses owned by church leaders. Covington is described by former congregants as the highest-ranking member of the church to be charged in the unemployment case. His wife, Brooke Covington, is facing unrelated state charges that she and other members of the church assaulted a congregant in an effort to expel his 'homosexual demons'. Covington is a high-profile minister at the church, located in the North Carolina town of Spindale Police have dropped all charges against a father who they believed had raped a 10-year-old girl inside a public bathroom. Special Crime Investigation Branch detectives initially arrested a 29-year-old Afghani man at his Blair Athol home in Adelaide's north on Wednesday night. He was charged with two counts of rape, aggravated indecent assault, gross indecency and unlawful detention. But on Thursday, police unconditionally dropped all charges against him and arrested a second man, aged 32, that night. The short time frame between the 29-year-old's release and the 32-year-old's arrest suggests the men have similar DNA, The Adelaide Advertiser reported. A spokesman said police had 'reasonable grounds' to arrest the initial man on Wednesday April 3, but forensic evidence has now cleared him of direct involvement in the attack. A 29-year-old father charged in relation to the alleged rape of a 10-year-old-girl in public toilets (pictured) at Blair Athol Reserve on April 3 has been released, with a second man charged shortly after 'He has been unconditionally released with all charges being withdrawn. 'Forensic Science SA are undertaking urgent forensic examinations in this matter. It is expected that the results will not be known until tomorrow,' the spokesman said. The second man has been remanded in custody after being refused bail and is expected to appear in Adelaide Magistrate's Court some time next week. Police alleged the girl was attacked in the public toilets at Blair Athol Reserve on April 3 after she was allegedly approached by a man who asked where the toilets were. The young girl's mother told the Advertiser her daughter's mouth and eyes were covered with tape and her hands were tied behind her head during the brazen daylight attack. Afterwards, she claims her daughter was pushed to the floor by her attacker and told to 'wash your hands'. Instead, the brave girl allegedly elbowed the man and bolted out of the bathroom. Chief superintendent Mark Wieszyk praised the young victim for her bravery in coming forward and her help in the lead-up to the arrest. 'Victims are affected in different ways,' he told reporters on Thursday. 'The best way to describe this particular victim was very courageous in being able to provide information.' Supt Wieszyk said the man was not known to police and did not resist when officers arrived at his home. Chief superintendent Mark Wieszyk (pictured) said the alleged victim was courageous in coming forward Police released CCTV of a man entering and leaving the reserve following the alleged incident The officer said all sexual offending against children was abhorrent, and police working on the case had shown unwavering commitment to finding the alleged offender. 'Based on things that happen like this, the desire and the professionalism of detectives that are involved in the investigation is very, very important,' he said. The alleged incident sparked a major police manhunt at the time. Crime Stoppers received 58 calls after police released CCTV footage last week from a nearby home of a man entering and leaving the park with a stroller near the time of the alleged incident. Police said no specific call led to the man's arrest. 'We are still working through some of those calls but there could be something small that's in there at any time,' Supt Wieszyk said. Anyone with information who has not yet spoken to police is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Dozens of pages in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report had redactions, including portions of a section on Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election via social media and parts of one on the investigation into ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and WikiLeaks. One of the most heavily redacted section of the 448-page report was about Russia's effort to sow seeds of discord in the 2016 presidential election. Specifically targeted by the Justice Department's black pen was the section dealing with the Internet Research Agency, which 'carried out the earliest Russian interference operations identified by the investigation - a social media campaign designed to provoke and amplify political and social discord in the United States,' the report states. Dozens of pages in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report were redacted Special counsel Robert Mueller's 438-page report was made public Thursday Page after page is blacked out by Attorney General William Barr, whose DoJ lawyers went through the report to hide sensitive information before its public release on Thursday. 'Harm to an ongoing matter,' is the stated reason, which indicates the matter is still being investigated by federal prosecutors. The section details Russia's efforts on Facebook and Twitter to influence voters toward Donald Trump and away from Hillary Clinton. Barr said at a press conference on Thursday that nothing was redacted for executive privilege, which President Donald Trump could have used. The four categories for redaction are grand jury evidence, classified material, information about on-going investigations, and details that could 'unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.' About about 2,050 lines - or 12.4 percent - are redacted, the Wall Street Journal noted. There are also several blackouts in the section detailing the hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee and the placing of malware software in their system. The reason given is 'investigative technique.' There are also heavy redactions in the section looking at possible contacts between Trump's campaign and Wikileaks, in reference to the hacked Democratic emails. 'Harm to an ongoing matter' is the reason. In January, Mueller brought charges against longtime Trump confident Roger Stone, claiming he sought to gather information about hacked Democratic Party emails at the direction of an unidentified senior Trump campaign official and engaged in extensive efforts to keep it a secret. 'Grand jury' was another heavily cited reason for redactions, particularly in a section on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, who was under FBI surveillance during the campaign after a FISA warrant was issued as part of the feds' counter-intelligence investigation into Trump's campaign. It was also cited as the reason for redactions in the section on the infamous June 9 2016 Trump Tower meeting when Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and then campaign manager Paul Manafort met with a Russian who claimed to have information on Hillary Clinton. And it's listed as the reason for several black outs in the section Manafort's work for the Ukraine, which ultimately got him convicted in federal court last year. All the 448 pages of the Mueller report with the redacted sections seen in black Roger Stone was indicted because he sought info about the hacked Democratic emails There are several black outs in the section about former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's work for the Ukraine And an unknown person seems to be wiped away from the report. In Volume II, Mueller's team examined Trump's conduct toward former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign manager Paul Manafort after both men agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's team. There is also a third name blacked out, citing 'harm to ongoing matter.' Muellers office also referred 14 cases to other agencies in the course of their work. 'During the course of the investigation, the Office periodically identified evidence of potential criminal activity that was outside the scope of the Special Counsel's jurisdiction established by the Acting Attorney General. After consultation with the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office referred that evidence to appropriate law enforcement authorities, principally other components of the Department of Justice and the FBI,' the report states. Two of those matters were named and have been publicized: the case against former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen and against former Obama White House Counselor Gregory Craig for his work with the Ukraine. The other 12 are blacked out. Prosecutors with the U.S. attorneys office for the District of Columbia told The Washington Post one is a continuing grand jury investigation in connection with a foreign state-owned mystery company that refused to comply with a Mueller subpoena. ther sale items also include her desk blotter, which is estimated to fetch 1,200 Some of Lady Thatcher's designer dinner suits will also be up for auction One personal item is an amethyst ring which is expected to fetch 1,200- 1,800 As a pioneer of power-dressing, Margaret Thatcher will be associated by millions with the blue Aquascutum suit she proudly wore for her bravura farewell speech in the Commons on the day she resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990. However, the image that the true-blue Tory most wanted people to associate with her was in bright red a colour linked with Labour. A detail from a framed 17in by 14in picture by the Japanese photographer Eiichiro Sakata, taken in Tokyo. The print, with its misspelt dedication, is signed and dated in pencil: 'For Mrs Tatcher 'Sakata' Nov 21, 91'. This is expected to fetch 1,000-1,500 Cynthia Crawford, her personal assistant for 35 years, said the image of her in a deep-red outfit pictured here was, in Mrs Thatcher's words: 'How I would like to be remembered.' The ex-PM wore it on a visit to Japan in 1991 and the picture was taken by photographer Eiichiro Sakata, who signed it with a dedication to 'Mrs Tatcher'. Despite the misspelling of her name, she subsequently hung it in her office in London's Belgravia. The photo is among 170 personal items once owned by Lady T being auctioned next month to mark the 40th anniversary of her election as Prime Minister for the first time. Two previous sales of her memorabilia made 4.5 million. As with most topics, Britain's first woman PM had strong views on fashion. They were formed at the knee of her seamstress mother Beatrice, who made her clothes as child in Grantham. Among the outfits being auctioned are a blue dinner suit embroidered with scattered sequins worn at a No. 10 dinner for the 2002 Golden Jubilee. There's also a gold ensemble by the same British designer, Camilla Milton, worn to the unveiling of her statue in the Commons in 2007. The first of two dinner suits in a single lot by the designer Camilla Milton and made in the early 2000s. This midnight-blue design with scattered sequins also has a short as well as a full-length skirt. Lady Thatcher wore the outfit when she re-visited No. 10 (left) for the 2002 Golden Jubilee dinner attended by all the surviving prime ministers of the Queens reign. This is expected to fetch 1,000- 1,500 The black velvet evening dress worn at a state banquet in the U.S. with Ronald and Nancy Reagan in 1981 is also for sale. Two of the most personal items are an amethyst ring and pebble bracelet gifts from husband Denis in the late Sixties. The ring was chosen by her twin children, Carol and Mark. It was on her wrist when she walked into No. 10 for the first time as PM on May 4, 1979 and when she left in tears 11 and a half years later. 'Lady T was inseparable from that jewellery,' said a long-standing friend. 'They were part of her. They were her most treasured possessions.' An 18-carat gold and amethyst ring with a London import mark dated 1968. One of the most personal items in the auction collection, this was a gift from Denis Thatcher, chosen by their twins, Carol and Mark. The ring was on Mrs Thatchers finger when she first entered No. 10 in 1979 (right) and when she left 11 years later. This is expected to fetch 1,200- 1,800 A hardstone Sixties-era pebble bracelet featuring vari-shaped cabochons, banded agate, jasper, nephrite jade, pale blue/grey chalcedony, tigers eye and pale purple chalcedony. A gift from Mrs Thatchers husband, Denis. This is expected to fetch 1,500- 2,500 Reserve price is 1,800 for the ring and 2,500 for the bracelet but auctioneer Christie's expects them to go for much more. Cynthia 'Crawfie' Crawford said her boss had a restrained taste in jewellery 'except on very formal occasions, such as President and Nancy Reagan's farewell dinner in the White House'. As for clothes, she recalled: 'Mrs Thatcher told me that if you wear one full drop of colour in an outfit, it makes you look taller.' One of three formal hats in a single lot designed by Katharine Goodison for the parade to mark the 25th anniversary in 2007 of the end of the Falklands War. Lady Thatcher wore this one (above) during the military marchpast on Horse Guards Parade in London. The hat is expected to reach 400-600 Other sale items include her desk blotter, estimated to fetch 1,200, and the same price for two signature handbags, four pairs of Italian Ferragamo shoes and three hats designed for the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War by Katharine Goodison. There is also a Henry Moore etching of a woman's head, reserve price 2,500, which hung above the fireplace in her Downing Street flat. The Mail's legendary cartoonist Mac is represented too, in one of three framed caricatures with a reserve price of 500 to 800. One fascinating lot, entitled 'Last day in power', is a typed schedule for November 28, 1990 Lady T's final day as PM. It began with hair styling at 7.45am, her departure from Westminster and later her final audience with the Queen. The proceeds will go to Carol Thatcher, 65, whose brother, Sir Mark, knew nothing about the sale. An unnamed charity will also benefit. The auctions run from May 2-8; christies.com The second of two dinner suits in a single lot by the designer Camilla Milton and made in the early 2000s. This is a cafe au lait satin design with a gilt spider web overlay, studded with pastes and composed of a dress and jacket. Lady Thatcher wore it (left) to the unveiling of a bronze statue of herself in the House of Commons in 2007. She was the first British prime minister to be honoured this way during her lifetime. This is expected to reach 1,000-1,500 Theresa May has no chance of hitting her target of reducing immigration to 1990s levels after Brexit, a think-tank said yesterday. The rate of net migration will be barely changed, Migration Watch UK said. It published estimates based on the prospect that under future immigration rules, skilled workers will be allowed to come and live in Britain if their earnings are 30,000 a year or more. Immigration levels are unlikely to be reduced even after the UK leaves the European Union, according to Migration Watch [File photo] If that happens, immigration will add 270,000 people a year to the population. The 270,000 figure for net migration - which is the number of people added to the population after both immigration and emigration have been counted - compares with 283,000 according to the most recent official migration count, which covered the year to the end of September 2018. It is around 10 per cent below the five-year average for net migration, Migration Watch said. Mrs May's objective remains to reduce net migration to below 100,000 a year. Prime Minister Theresa May aims to reduce net migration to below 100,000 a year If the think-tank estimate is correct, the population of England will hit 60million in ten years. That is also the level predicted by the Office for National Statistics last week. Migration Watch estimates said that if the Government sets the future salary range for skilled immigrants at 25,000 a year, net migration would run at 305,000 a year, and it would reach 331,000 a year if the salary limit were reduced to 21,000. The estimates, which are based on Government post-Brexit immigration plans set out last year in a White Paper, said: 'While the end of free movement for EU workers will have some effect, a new work permit system for skilled workers will be wide open to the global labour pool.' Migration Watch chief Lord Green said: 'The Government are deliberately ignoring the very strong public concern about massive levels of immigration that were a major factor in the referendum result. Many members of the public will be deeply angered to see both main political parties running roughshod over their well-founded concerns.' Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report provides a detailed account of the days before the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians and reveals that Ivanka and Eric Trump attended a meeting about adverse Clinton information on the way. Investigators principally focused on the June 9 meeting itself exhuming emails between Donald Trump Jr. and a British music publicist that set up the meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer after the promise of dirt on Hillary Clinton. They also included supplementary information that reveals discussions of the anticipated meeting got touted to senior staff and Trump family members. Former Deputy campaign chair Rick Gates, who cooperated with prosecutors in the trial of campaign chair Paul Manafort, described information that was announced at a regular staff meeting in the days before the June 9 meeting with Russians. 'Rick Gates, who was the deputy campaign chairman, stated during interviews with the Office that in the days before June 9, 2016 Trump Jr. announced at a regular morning meeting of senior campaign staff and Trump family members that he had a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation,' according to the Mueller report. Donald Trump Jr., Ivana Trump, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump all attended a staff meeting where Don Jr described a lead on negative information about Hillary Clinton, according to the Mueller report Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya attended the June 9 meeting after the promise of dirt on Hillary Clinton 'Gates believed that Trump Jr. said the information was coming from a group in Kyrgyzstan and that he was introduced to the group by a friend,' it states. The anti-Clinton information offered up to Don Jr in fact was linked to Moscow, not another Russian republic. However the source of information, oligarch Aras Agalarov, was born in Azerbaijan, which could explain confusion. According to Gates, the meeting was attended by Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Manafort, press secretary Hope Hics, and 'joining late' Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner. Manafort, now sitting in jail after his conviction on corruption charges stemming from his work on behalf of Ukraine, urged caution. Donald Trump Jr described the information days before the June 9th meeting with Russians, according to the Mueller report. The staff meeting was attended by Ivanka and Eric Trump 'According to Gates, Manafort warned the group that the meeting likely would not yield vital information and they should be careful,' according to the report. 'Hicks denied any knowledge of the June 9 meeting before 2017 and Kushner did not recall if the planned June 9 meeting came up at all earlier that week.' Longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen 'recalled being in Donald J. Trump's office on June 6 or 7 when Trump Jr. told his father that a meeting to obtain adverse information about Clinton was going forward,' according to the report. But 'Cohen did not recall Trump Jr. stating that the meeting was connected to Russia.' Ivanka Trump arrived late to the meeting, according to former deputy campaign chair Rick Gates 'From the tenor of the conversation, Cohen believed that Trump Jr. had previously discussed the meeting with his father, although Cohen was not involved in any such conversation,' according to the report. The information on the meeting was provided in a section called 'Awareness of the meeting within the campaign.' Trump Jr told the Senate Judiciary Committee he didn't tell his father about the meeting. President Trump didn't sit for an interview with prosecutors, but responded to questioned in writing with answers he discussed with his lawyers. In written answers, Trump said he has "no recollection of learning at the time" that Don Jr, Manafort, or "Kushner was considering participating in a meeting in June 2016 concerning potentially negative information about Hillary Clinton." Ignorance of the law appears to have benefited Trump Jr, Kushner, and Manafort the three senior campaign figures who attended the meeting. The trio managed to avoid being charged for violating campaign finance law by not being smart enough to know that they were engaging in unlawful activity. In summarizing his findings from the infamous June 2016 meeting between members of the Trump campaign and Russian Natalia Veselnitskaya, Robert Mueller wrote that unlawful activity did take place, but the men who broke them were unaware of their illegal actions. 'On the facts here, the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the June 9 meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful,' reads the report. 'The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context.' Scroll down for video Off the hook: The Mueller Report states that the meeting between Russian Natalia Veselnitskaya and members of the Trump campaign was illegal (l to r: Donald Trump, Don Jr and Jared Kushner above in 2009) Kremlin: The aim of Veselnitskaya (above) was to try and get the Magnitsky Act overturned once Trump was in office 'Even assuming that the promised "documents and information that would incriminate Hillary" constitute a "thing of value" under campaign-finance law, the government would encounter other challenges in seeking to obtain and sustain a conviction,' wrote Mueller. He then explained how reasonable doubt would make it hard to convict Don Jr and Kushner. 'To prove that a defendant acted "knowingly and willfully," the government would have to show that the defendant had general knowledge that his conduct was unlawful,' wrote Mueller. Much has been said and speculated about the meeting, which according to Mueller was proposed to Donald Trump Jr. in an email from publicist Robert Goldstone. He in turn was reaching out at the request of his then-client Emin Agalarov, the son of Russian real-estate developer Aras Agalarov. 52 U.S. Code 30121 - Contributions and donations by foreign nationals It shall be unlawful for a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election Advertisement In his call to Don Jr, Goldstone 'offered to provide the Trump Campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia.' Once the actual meeting began, Kushner became increasingly frustrated with the topics of discussion according to the report. 'Participants agreed that Veselnitskaya stated that the Ziff brothers had broken Russian laws and had donated their profits to the DNC or the Clinton Campaign,' states the report. Don Jr then asked Veselnitskaya how this could be tied back to the Clintons according to the report, a question that the Russian lawyer dismissed by stating she does not track money once it has entered the United States. That response resulted in Kushner emailing Manafort to as him 'what are we doing here?' He then followed that up with emails to his company asking that someone call him so that he could leave the meeting. The aim of Veselnitskaya, who according to the report appeared to be working on behalf of the Russian government and Aras Agalarov, was to try and overturn the Magnitsky Act. That is a 2012 statute that imposed financial and travel sanctions on Russian officials under the Obama administration which later resulted in a retaliatory ban on adoptions of Russian children. In closing out the reasons why no charges would be pursued, Mueller broke down the potential problems with getting a conviction for the three campaign members. 'Additionally, in light of the unresolved legal questions about whether giving "documents and information" of the sort offered here constitutes a campaign contribution, Trump Jr. could mount a factual defense that he did not believe his response to the offer and the June 9 meeting itself violated the law,' wrote Mueller. 'Given his less direct involvement in arranging the June 9 meeting, Kushner could likely mount a similar defense.' He then noted: 'And, while Manafort is experienced with political campaigns, the Office has not developed evidence showing that he had relevant knowledge of these legal issues.' A footnote in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report describes a new nugget of information that may relate to one of the most salacious elements of the unverified golden showers dossier about Donald Trump. The Mueller report briefly mentions the incident, pegged to the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant. It is one element in the dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele about potential Russian compromising material held over Trump. A footnote in the report references the infamous unverified Moscow hotel incident. It also stipulates that Trump may have known about claimed Russian tapes of him as far back as October 2016 before the election, and that the information traveled through longtime Trump lawyer and former fixer Michael Cohen. Donald Trump and Olivia Culpo attend the red carpet at Miss Universe Pageant Competition 2013 on November 9, 2013 in Moscow, Russia. The Mueller report describes email information a Russian businessman sent to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen about unverified 'compromising tapes' of Trump from 2013 The report references Former FBI Director James Comey's briefing of Trump during the transition, and that it 'included the Steele reporting's unverified allegation that the Russians had compromising tapes of the President involving conduct when he was a private citizen during a 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe Pageant.' Comey has said he decided he needed to tell Trump about it so he knew it was out there. According to the report, 'During the 2016 presidential campaign, a similar claim may have reached candidate Trump. On October 30, 2016, Michael Cohen received a text from Russian businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze that said, 'Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there's anything else. Just so you know .... ' According to the report, Rtskhiladze said 'tapes' referred to 'compromising tapes of Trump rumored to be held by persons associated with the Russian real estate conglomerate Crocus Group, which had helped host the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Russia. President Trump has railed against the 'phony' dossier, which included unverified allegations about his conduct in a Moscow hotel room 'Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there's anything else,' wrote Giorgi Rtskhiladze (R), pictured with George Ramishviliand at Language Of Fashion presented by the School of Visual Arts on September 8, 2016 in New York City MOSCOW, RUSSIA - NOVEMBER 09: Gabriela Isler walks the stage as the newly crowned Miss Universe during the Miss Universe Pageant Competition 2013 on November 9, 2013 in Moscow, Russia Longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen says he told Trump about the information Singer Emin Agalarov kicked off the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians when his publicist reached out to Donald Trump Jr The email said the tapes were held by Crocus Group, which is headed by Azerbaijan-born real estate magnate Aras Agalarov Crocus Group is the real estate company headed by Azerbaijan-born oligarch Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin. It is Emin who set in motion the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians. According to the Mueller report, Aras Agalarov was engaged in communications about the meeting in advance. The Steele dossier had mentioned the pageant as one of many areas where it stated that the Russians held 'kompromat' compromising leverage that the Russians had obtained on Trump, much of it financial in nature. Trump has fumed that the 'phony' dossier influenced bad conduct by 'dirty cops' in the FBI, and his Republican allies have said the information was used as the basis to surveil Trump advisor Carter Page, who had Russia ties in effect corrupting the Mueller investigation. According to the Mueller report, 'Cohen said he spoke to Trump about the issue after receiving the texts from Rtskhiladze.' It adds that 'Rtskhiladze said he was told the tapes were fake, but he did not communicate that to Cohen.' Cohen, who Trump has termed a 'rat,' assisted prosecutors and ultimately denounced Trump. He is set to begin a three-year prison sentence next month for lying, tax issues, and a campaign finance violation tied to hush payments to two women who claim they had affairs with Trump. The businessman, Rtskhiladze, told Forbes about his partnership with Trump and his plan to go ahead with a planned Trump Tower in his home country using all but the Trump name. He told the publication in 2017 he spoke to Trump Organization chief counsel Alan Garten 'almost every week, and said of the idea to piggy back off Trump's name: 'Michael Cohen is going to hate me, and Alan Garten is going to hate me even more.' Special counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report outlined Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. But Mueller did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government, and he made no conclusion on the question of whether the president obstructed justice. As lawmakers await a version of the report with fewer redactions, here's a look at the other investigations surrounding Trump and inquiries that stemmed from Mueller's Russia investigation. Trump has dismissed the investigations as politically motivated harassment. HUSH-MONEY PROBE Federal prosecutors in New York are still investigating the hush-money payments that led Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, to plead guilty last year to campaign-finance violations. There are mounting indications the probe is winding down, but a federal judge this year ordered portions of a search warrant to be kept secret until prosecutors tell him the investigation has concluded. Cohen helped orchestrate six-figure payments to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, and a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, to keep them quiet during the campaign about alleged affairs with Trump. Cohen has implicated Trump in the case, saying he ordered the payments and later reimbursed him for his efforts. The U.S. Justice Department has held for decades that a sitting president cannot be indicted. If prosecutors find evidence Trump committed a crime, they could wait to charge him after he leaves office, though the legal deadline for filing charges is five years for the campaign-finance violations in question. FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2017, file photo, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, steps out of a cab during his arrival on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) Trump says the payments to Daniels and McDougal were a private matter unrelated to his campaign. Cohen is scheduled to begin serving a three-year prison sentence next month. MUELLER'S REFERALS In all, Mueller's team said it referred 14 cases to prosecutors in other jurisdictions, including the Cohen case, which was handled by the Southern District of New York. A dozen of those investigations were blacked out of Mueller's report because those inquiries remain ongoing. It's not clear whether they will result in any charges. Another case that was referred was that of Gregory Craig, the former Obama White House counsel charged recently with making a false statement in a foreign lobbying probe. STATE INQUIRIES New York's attorney general has opened a civil investigation into Cohen's allegations that Trump exaggerated his wealth to obtain loans. Letitia James, a Democrat, issued subpoenas last month to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank seeking loan applications and other records related to Trump real estate projects and his failed 2014 bid to buy the Buffalo Bills. James' office is also overseeing a lawsuit alleging Trump turned his charitable foundation into a wing of his White House campaign. The Trump Foundation reached a deal in December to fold and distribute about $1.7 million in remaining funds, but the lawsuit is continuing as James seeks millions of dollars in restitution and an order banning Trump and his three eldest children from running any New York charities for 10 years. At the same time, New York's insurance regulator is investigating Cohen's allegations that Trump also misled insurance companies about his financial worth and the state's tax department has said it's "vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation" into a New York Times story last October that reported Trump and his family cheated tax authorities for decades. New York City also said it would investigate. INAUGURAL PROBE Federal prosecutors in New York are also investigating Trump's inaugural committee, which raised an unprecedented $107 million to celebrate his election. The inquiry has focused partly on whether donors received "benefits" after making contributions or whether foreign nationals made illegal donations, according to a subpoena sent to the committee. The same document shows prosecutors are looking at whether the committee's vendors were paid with unreported donations. The White House has said Trump was not involved in the operations of his inaugural committee. Britain's biggest music festivals are joining the war on single-use plastic this summer. Glastonbury is among dozens that have vowed not to sell drinks in plastic bottles. Some 65 festivals have pledged to eliminate single-use plastic items on their sites altogether by 2021. UK music festivals produce 23,500 tons of rubbish every year, two-thirds of which goes straight to landfill. Glastonbury alone got through 1.3million plastic bottles in 2017, with revellers leaving litter-strewn fields in their wake. But this year they will not be sold by any of its bars or food vans, or supplied backstage for artists. Glastonbury, (pictured: the aftermath of the festival) is among dozens that have vowed not to sell drinks in plastic bottles Festival-goers will not be stopped from bringing plastic bottles, but are being urged to take a reusable one and refill it at any of hundreds of free taps and water kiosks around the Somerset site. Organiser Emily Eavis said: Its paramount for our planet that we all reduce our plastic consumption. Weve already cut out plastic crockery, cutlery, straws, sauce sachets, non-biodegradable glitter and this is the next step. All 65 members of the Association of Independent Festivals have pledged to rid their sites of single-use plastics by 2021. In the first year of the campaign last summer, two-fifths of these events banned the sale of single-use plastic drinks bottles. The same proportion replaced single-use plastic cups with reusable ones. An overwhelming 93 per cent ditched plastic straws, while two-thirds sold reusable drinks bottles. Festival-goers will not be stopped from bringing plastic bottles, but are being urged to take a reusable one and refill Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire was hailed as one of the best at reducing plastic waste in the first year of the campaign. It has a site-wide ban on the sale of plastic drinks bottles and organisers say 95 per cent of their audiences already bring their own reusable water bottle. Boardmasters festival in Cornwall also introduced a reusable cup scheme, cutting the number of cups on the site by 200,000. Association of Independent Festivals boss Paul Reed said: By working together as an industry and taking action, we can make a tangible difference. A staggering 548,055 people have committed to taking part in the Great British Spring Clean, which ends on Tuesday. For more information or to take part this weekend, go to gbspringclean.org. Uber has been accused of listing restaurants with a zero hygiene rating on its food service. The companys Uber Eats app arranges the delivery of takeaways to homes. But one in five eateries with a zero rating in London was featured on the companys website in January, it is claimed. Comedian Joe Lycett even pranked the company after being shocked by the appalling hygiene standards of some restaurants listed on takeaway apps. Uber has been accused of listing restaurants with a zero hygiene rating on its food service (file photo) In an episode of his Channel 4 show, Got Your Back, the presenter sets up a fake restaurant called Le Sauter French for The Skip run from a waste container, which he lists on Uber Eats. A food hygiene expert refuses to give it a rating, but when Lycett, 30, places an order, an Uber Eats driver goes to the skip, picks up the food and delivers it to the presenter. Uber Eats told the Channel 4 show, which airs at 8.30pm tonight: We are working with the FSA [Food Standards Agency] to review our processes and better signpost food hygiene ratings. An Uber spokeswoman said: Uber Eats takes food safety very seriously. All restaurants who partner with Uber Eats must comply with UK food safety laws and regulations, which includes being registered with their local authority. It is also a requirement that all restaurant partners must hold, or be in the process of obtaining, a Food Hygiene Rating of 2 or above to be on the Uber Eats app. If any restaurant is found to have fallen to a zero rating we take immediate action to restrict their access to the app. As a result of the serious issue brought to our attention by Joe Lycett, we are actively working in consultation with the FSA to review our food safety processes, to better signpost food hygiene ratings on the app and prevent this issue from happening again. 2,578 interviews Robert Mueller's investigators spoke to 500 witnesses, all of whom could have been charged with lying to the FBI. They ranged from top level figures like Paul Manafort, Don McGahn and Michael Cohen to obscure personalities like George Papadopoulos - and people are the very heat of Trump's inner circle, including Hope Hicks, his former communications director who had worked for him even before he ran for president. $25 million It cost U.S. taxpayers $25 million to fund the Mueller investigation as of February, and it was wrapped up by the end of March, meaning the cost is expected to be slightly above that figure. 675 days Mueller was appointed to begin investigating Trump and his campaign's possible collusion with Russia on May 27, 2017. He handed over his completed report on the investigation to Attorney General Bill Barr on March 22, 2019. 33 indictments Of the indictments that came out of the probe, 25 were Russian nationals and three were Russian entities. The other five were Konstantin Klimnik, a former employee of Paul Manafort; Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin, both Michael Flynn's business partners; Roger Stone, former Trump campaign official; and Greg Craig, who served for a period as former President Barack Obama's White House counsel. 22 guilty pleas (many from Paul Manafort) Eight of the pleas came from Trump's former attorney, who cooperated with Mueller's investigation, Michael Cohen. Another 8 came from Paul Manafort for bank and tax fraud. The rest are individual pleas from Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos (left), Rick Gates, Richard Pinedo, Alex Van Der Zwaan, and W. Samuel Patten. One 'golden showers' dossier The dossier drawn up by ex-British spy Christopher Steele detailed claims of degrading sex acts in Moscow which Trump denied ever happened. It also detailed claims Trump was in the pocket of the Kremlin, and was used to start the counter-intelligence investigation which morphed into the Mueller inquiry. Trump's disgust and anger at what he says is a smear has erupted in public repeatedly. Steele has said his dossier was never verified or supposed to be made public. '18 angry Democrats' Trump repeatedly attacked Mueller's team, claiming they were biased. He initially said they were 13 'angry Democrats' running the 'witch hunt' but later upgraded that to 18. 400 pages The full report is just slightly shorter than its nearest modern equivalent - Kenneth Starr's independent counsel report into Bill Clinton. Four pages When Mueller handed in his report, it spawned its own report- from William Barr, the attorney general, to Congressional leaders. It meant Trump's appointee offered the first draft of histoshry, saying Mueller cleared Trump of colluding with Russia and that Barr cleared him of obstruction of justice.. 2,800 subpoenas In his quest for information Mueller's team issued almost 3,000 subpoenas. 19 lawyers As the probe proliferated, the legal team grew to 19 lawyers. One was Andrew Weissmann, who joined the team after taking a leave of absence from his job leading the Justice Department's criminal fraud unit. Three of the other lawyers to join Mueller's probe into Trump included Jeannie Rhee, James Quarles and Aaron Zebley. All three are former employees of WilmerHale, a "Big Law" law firm where Mueller had worked. 40 FBI agents There were 40 agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants and other staff from the bureau that assisted with the investigation in some capacity. 107 Trump tweets Trump referenced Mueller on Twitter 107 times and tweeted about the 'witch hint' his nickname for the probe 185 times throughout the duration of the investigation. One report There is only one Mueller report but whether you ever see it in its entirety remains unknown. Some members of Congress and their staff will be able to see it without redactions, and the Democrats are already promising an epic constitutional legal battle which is likely to go all the way to the Supreme Court for the public at large to see it. The first ever molecule formed in the universe helium hydride, or HeH+ has been detected in space for the first time, a new study reports. The elusive molecule was found in the young planetary nebula NGC 7027, where HeH+ is being formed by a white dwarf star. Around 13 billion years ago this molecular bond would have formed as positively charged particles combined with hydrogen atoms in the early cooling universe. The discovery was made using a telescope which is carried up into the Earth's atmosphere, and above its signal-damping effects, by a special aeroplane. The finding, led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, brings to the end a search for the molecule which began back in the late 1970s. Scroll down to video The first ever molecule formed in the universe helium hydride, or HeH+ has been detected out in space for the first time, a new study reports As the early universe cooled below 4,000K (6740F/3,727C) some 13 billion years ago, the light elements produced from the Big Bang began to combine. It is believed that neutral helium atoms and ionised hydrogen - or protons - reacted to form ions of HeH+. This would have been the first type of molecular bond to ever form in the universe. HeH+ would have ultimately gone on to react with neutral hydrogen, paving the way to the formation of molecular hydrogen and the beginning of the universe as we know it today. Despite both its significance in the history of the universe, and having been first successfully synthesised in the laboratory in 1925, attempts to detect the molecule out in the universe itself had previously been to no avail. The hunt began in the late seventies, when chemical models suggested that HeH+ might exist in detectable amounts in nearby interstellar nebulae. 'The chemistry of the Universe began with HeH+,' said lead author and astrophysicist Rolf Gusten, of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), in Germany. 'The lack of definitive evidence of its very existence in interstellar space has been a dilemma for astronomy for a long time.' Around 13 billion years ago, however, helium hydride would have formed as protons first combined with hydrogen atoms in an early, cooling universe (pictured in artist's impression) The failure to spot naturally-formed HeH+ out in space had been casting doubt on the understanding that had been developed of the chemical processes that were thought to have formed it in the early individual. However, past hunts were only unsuccessful because the available spectrometer technology used all had too limited resolving power at the relevant wavelengths in which the molecule would be found. With new technology, however, the search has finally come to an end. The discovery was made using a telescope which is carried up into the Earth's atmosphere and its signal-damping effects by a special aeroplane (pictured, with the telescope visible through the open door in the plane's rear fuselage) SOFIA (pictured in an artist's impression showing the interior of the craft) is capable of flying above the majority of the water vapour in the atmosphere, the presence of which blocks some infrared signals from reaching the ground Dr Gusten and colleagues from the MPIfR joined forces with researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, both the Universities of Cologne and Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in Germany, as well as the Institute of Millimetre Radioastronomy in France. The international team made use of the high-resolution German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT) spectrometer to detect the infrared signals emitted by helium hydride ions. The GREAT device is located on-board the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747 aircraft that carries a reflecting telescope. The scientific research craft is operated by NASA and the German Aerospace Centre. SOFIA is capable of flying above the majority of the water vapour in the atmosphere, the presence of which blocks some infrared signals from reaching the ground. 'With recent advancements in terahertz technologies is has now become possible to perform high-resolution spectroscopy at the required far-infrared wavelength', Dr Gusten added. The GREAT device is located on-board the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747 aircraft that carries a reflecting telescope Analysing data from three of SOFIA's flights, the researchers found unequivocal evidence of HeH+ atoms in the direction of the planetary nebula NGC 7027. Located around 3,000 light years from the Earth, NGC 7027 is a young, dense and small nebula located in the constellation of Cygnus. NGC 7027's young age made it a likely candidate in which HeH+ might be found, as it harbours conditions similar to those found in the early universe. 'The discovery of HeH+ is a dramatic and beautiful demonstration of Nature's tendency to form molecules', said paper author and molecular astrophysicist David Neufeld from Johns Hopkins University. 'Despite the unpromising ingredients that are available, a mixture of hydrogen with the unreactive noble gas helium, and a harsh environment at thousands of degrees Celsius a fragile molecule forms.' Located around 3,000 light years from the Earth, NGC 7027 is a young, dense and small nebula located in the constellation of Cygnus. NGC 7027's young age made it a likely candidate in which HeH+ might be found, as it harbours conditions similar to those in the early universe Planetary nebulae like NGC 7027 are produced by sun-like stars in the final stage of their lifetimes, where they expel large amounts of material to leave behind a dense hot core a so-called 'white dwarf'. The radiation emitted by such stars which have temperatures of around 180,000F (100,000C) causes the star's ejected envelope to ionise. It is here that HeH+ can form. The molecule can be detected by suitable telescopes thanks to its characteristic light emissions, which are strongest at a wavelength of 0.149 millimetres. This wavelength is one that cannot penetrate far enough into the absorbing layers of Earth's lower atmosphere as to reach ground-based observatories. This explains in part why HeH+ has so far only been detected using the airborne SOFIA telescope. The full findings of the study were published in Nature. A 12th century viking-style ship dating back to 1188 has been lifted from ten feet under water at a German port where it was found. Pieces of timber from the 80 x 13 foot (25 x 4 metre) vessel were pulled up after being found just ten feet (three metres) under water. A Nordic research team lifted the ship out and, using a 3D scanner, was able to work out that it was constructed using axes and adzes, a type of cutting tool. The ancient ship dates back to 1188 and, thanks to the seawater and harbour silt, the ship's timbers have been perfectly preserved, experts say. Scroll down for video A 12th century 'viking ship' which dates back to 1188 has been lifted from ten feet under water at a German port where it was found. Here, Massimiliano Ditta, a maritime archaeologist at the Stavanger Maritime Museum examines the ship underwater Archaeologists from Stavanger Maritime Museum say that the vessel is of Viking descent and was likely to have carried cargo like timber, stones and beer, according to a Fox report. Experts used 3D scanner technology to reveal that the open-decked ship was constructed using axes and adzes alone. Analysis of the ship's timbers revealed that the hunks of wood were originally from Western Sweden. Maritime Archaeologist Dr. Jens Auer, who led the project, described the ship as a descendant of Viking vessels and said 'It was a heavy, load-bearing cargo ship.' It had overlapping pine planks, clinker-style, with 'beautiful curved construction' made during a relatively peaceful period of the time,' he said in a statement. Experts estimate that the ship had a crew of 8 to 12 men. Here, a 3D scan of one of the ship's timbers According to archaeologists, the ancient ship dates back to 1188, the seawater and harbor silt, the ship's timbers are perfectly preserved. Here, a diagram of the shipwreck The ship, of Nordic design, was built with 'great care and durability', according to researchers. It had overlapping pine planks, clinker-style, with 'beautiful curved construction' and was made during a relatively peaceful period of the time. Experts estimate that the ship had a crew of 8 to 12 men. 'The Wismar wreck is of great importance because it tells us about the type of vessels that were crossing the seas of Northern Europe during the high medieval period,' Massimiliano Ditta, maritime archaeologist at the Stavanger Maritime Museum told Fox News, via email. The Nordic research team lifted the ship out and using a 3D scanner, were able to glean that it was constructed using axes and adzes. Here, one of the ship's timbers recovered from wrecksite 'Historically we were in a period of transition and a shift of economic power. This is reflected in the construction of the ship, and due to its incredible state of preservation, it is a treasure trove of information not otherwise accessible.' After lifting the wreck out of the Baltic waters, experts used an Artec handheld 3D scanner technology to scan the timbers at a warehouse in the German city of Schwerin. The scanning process took one month, with the scans used to create a 3D-printed small scale model of the ship. Ditta, who oversaw the 3D scanning of the wreck, says that the ship offers a glimpse into Baltic trade before towns in the region formed a powerful trading group known as the Hanseatic League. This was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s, the league came to dominate Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coasts of Northern Europe. NASA has released a staggeringly clear image of the UK and its surrounding waters taken from the International Space Station with a regular camera. It shows the UK's green lands and surrounding seas and parts of Ireland and France as well as the iconic ISS solar array wing. The picture was taken by astronauts on board in low Earth orbit, as it travelled past late in February at exactly 09.25 (GMT) in the morning. An ordinary Nikon D5 was used to snap the shot, with a 17-35mm zoom lens, looking through a window of the International Space Station over the sea between Wales and Ireland. Scroll down for video NASA has released a staggeringly clear image of the UK and its surrounding waters taken from the International Space Station. The picture was taken by astronauts on board in low Earth orbit, as it travelled past late in February at exactly 9.25 in the morning The spacecraft's altitude was 246 miles (396.328 km) away from Earth - about the same distance it takes to drive from central London to Manchester by car. The space station circles the Earth at roughly 250 miles up (402 km), and travels at 17,500 mph (28.16352 kmph). It orbits the planet every 90 minutes and bares witness to breathtaking views of different angles, countries and all types of weather and light. Earth Imagery from the ISS creates a series of videos showcasing Earth from space, using its external high-definition camera. These videos are taken in 6K hi-resolution, then integrated into videos for screensavers for public enjoyment, exploration, and engagement. Last year, the International Space Station celebrated 20 years since it was first launched. In its lifetime, the station has been home to 236 astronauts though the first batch of long-term residents did not arrive until two years later in November 2000. The picture was taken by astronauts on board in low Earth orbit, as it travelled past late in February at exactly 09.25 (GMT) in the morning. The spacecraft's altitude was 246 miles (396.328 km) away from Earth The space station circles the Earth at roughly 250 miles up (402 km), and travels at 17,500 mph (28.16352 kmph). It orbits the planet every 90 minutes and bares witness to breathtaking views from different angles. Here, a space selfie taken by an ISS astronaut Two decades ago, the Zarya module lifted off from Kazakhstan, ushering in a new era of high-tech cooperation in space. Since its inception, the ideas of which actually date back to the 1930s, the station and its laboratory provided a unique opportunity for research capabilities. NASA's research activities on the space station span several scientific areas, including exploration technology development; microgravity research in the physical and biological sciences; human physiology research; Earth science; and education. This morning we reported that a food shipment destined for the ISS rocketed into space yesterday to the six astronauts on board, in time for Easter. The space agency said the shipment, consisting of Easter goodies include smoked turkey, pork chops and asparagus along with cargo to be used in new and existing experiments. Writing on Twitter, NASA announced: '@NorthropGrumman's Cygnus spacecraft is on its way to the @Space_Station with ~7,600 pounds of science investigations and cargo after launching at 4:46pm ET from @NASA_Wallops in Virginia.' A 14th century hoard containing more than 550 rare gold and silver coins that's potentially worth 150,000 ($195,000) has been discovered in Buckinghamshire. The haul includes 12 extremely rare full gold coins from the time of the Black Death and is thought to be one of the biggest hoards from the UK in the last decade. The men who found it were four amateur detectorists taking part in a local metal detector rally. The coins are being kept in a museum until they are officially valued and will be sold with the proceeds being split between its finders and the land owner. A 14th century hoard containing more than 550 rare gold (pictured) and silver coins that's potentially worth 150,000 has been discovered in Buckinghamshire and includes extremely rare full gold coins (pictured) from the time of the Black Death Over four days the four men excavated 557 coins which were found in a field in Buckinghamshire. They were initially delighted to find just 12 ornately decorated silver Edward I and II coins. But the men, who say they are more used to digging up shotgun shells and thimbles than treasures, found coin after coin as they dug. On the first day they found 276 silver coins and nine gold nobles. The silver coins are believed to be from the reign of Edward I and II - 1272 to 1327 - and are a rare mintage mix of Lincoln, Birmingham, Ireland and Scotland. The haul, nicknamed the Hambleden Hoard, is suspected to have been stashed for safekeeping by a wealthy person more than 600 years ago. The location of each coin has since been painstakingly plotted on a grid. Three of the four men who found the collection are from Tyneside in north-east England, even slept in tents to avoid the finds getting stolen. The group consisted of three friends - Andrew Winter, brothers Tobiasz and Mateusz Nowak, and another man who they did not know at the time, Dariusz Fijalkowski. Mr Mateusz, a hospital cleaner from Newcastle, said: 'It felt unreal. After finding the hoard, and then clearing the area, we had to extend the search twice more because we were finding so much. 'It was a miracle moment after moment for everyone.' Over four days the four men excavated 557 coins which were initially found in a field where a local rally for amateur metal detectorists was being held. Most of these were silver coins, some of which are shown in the picture above The men who found it were four amateur detectorists taking part in a local metal detector rally in Buckinghamshire. This image shows one of the many silver coins that was found by the team Mr Tobiasz Nowak, a baker from Newcastle added: 'I can't even imagine how we got so lucky. It was the best weekend of my life. I'll remember it my whole life.' The find was made at an organised rally which was held on a field near Hambleden, a village recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. But while most people participants found themselves digging up shotgun shells and bits of old iron, the men struck gold. Digging on a field without finding anything, the group were on their way to another location when their detectors signalled. According to Mr Winter, his machine was emitting a code which suggested they had detected a hammered silver coin. The haul includes 12 extremely rare full gold coins from the time of the Black Death and is thought to be one of the biggest hoards from the UK in the last decade The find was made at an organised rally which was held on a field near Hambleden (labelled), a village recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 in Buckinghamshire The trio turned over a clod of earth which contained two coins, and could see more in the hole. This happened around the same time that Mr Dariusz, who did not know Mr Winter, had found two silver coins. Under the rules of detecting and treasure finding, anything over three coins is considered a 'hoard' - meaning it has to be declared to organisers. The area has to be cleared and was claimed jointly by the four men, who were then left to work alone. They said they had to fight off competition and admit it got 'absolutely hectic' when news of the find got round the festival. The group (pictured) consisted of three friends - Andrew Winter, brothers Tobiasz and Mateusz Nowak, and another man who they did not know at the time, Dariusz Fijalkowski The silver coins are believed to be from the reign of Edward I and II - 1272 to 1327 - and are a rare mintage mix from Lincoln, Birmingham, Ireland and Scotland. The picture shows the silver coins as they were found Detectorists from all over the world who were at the festival came to take a look, as the four due out coin after coin. Mr Winter, a forklift and crane driver from Blyth, said: 'I swung around my machine and all the silver coins were coming in at number 16 on the screen - this indicates a hammered silver coin. 'The other signal I got was a 21. It went ting, ting, ting and sounds completely different to anything else. I shouted 'gold, gold gold!' He said the the 545 silver coins are still being analysed but most are likely to be worth between 20 and 50 ($25 to $65) each - with the rarer ones worth around 500 ($650) each. According to Andrew Winter, one of the men who made the discovery, his machine was emitting a code which suggested they had detected a hammered silver coin when the rally was nearing an end. The picture shows one of the gold coins found in the hoard The full gold nobles are worth around 10,000 ($130,000) each, according to Mr Winter. The discovery has been claimed as the biggest gold hoard found since 52 pieces of mid 17th century coins were found in High Ackworth, West Yorkshire, in 2011. Its also the biggest silver hoard found since 617 early 10th century coins were found near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in 2007. Drinking an ancient type of beer and celebrating with regular alcohol-fuelled festivals may have been key in ensuring the long-lasting peace of the Wari Empire. The civilisation endured for 500 years in relative peace and harmony across Peru until the rise of the Inca empire in 1100 AD. Archaeologists studying remnants of the Wari culture found evidence of a brewery which was reduced to ashes after its collapse. A study of the drinking vessels found the South American natives created a way to produce beer - but it was a drink which did not last long and had to be drank swiftly. It was called chicha and made from fermented from corn and pepper berries and was the centrepiece of many celebrations where long-standing alliances between different factions were cemented. The brewing and then serving of the beer formed a unity among these different Peruvian communities, which 'kept people together', the researchers of a new study said. Scroll down for video Drinking an ancient type of beer could have been the key to why the Wari Empire, which gave rise to the Inca Empire, lasted for so long. Experts team worked with Peruvian brewers to recreate the ancient chicha recipe used at Cerro Baul WHO WERE THE WARI CIVILISATION? The Wari civilisation flourished in the coastal and highland areas of ancient Peru between c. 450 and c. 1000 CE. Based at their capital Huari, now central Peru, the Waris successfully exploited the diverse landscapes they controlled to construct an empire administered by provincial capitals connected by a large road network. Their methods of maintaining an empire and artistic style would have a significant influence on the later Inca civilisation. Advertisement 'This study helps us understand how beer fed the creation of complex political organisations,' said Ryan Williams, associate curator of the Field Museum of Natural History. 'We were able to apply new technologies to capture information about how ancient beer was produced and what it meant to societies in the past,' he said. Nearly twenty years ago, the team discovered an ancient Wari brewery in Cerro Baul in the mountains of southern Peru. Archaeologists found broken vessels in this 'rare time capsule' after excavating it over the last two decades. The researchers analysed pieces of ceramic beer vessels from Cerro Baul using techniques which involved removing tiny pieces of material and heating them so that the molecules break down. This told them where the clay came from, which was found to be locally sourced, and what the beer was made of. They then recreated the brewing process themselves. The key, the researchers found, was the fact that they brewed the beer in their own breweries and used these pepper berries because they could survive droughts. The Wari empire was huge and made up of different groups of people from all over Peru. The Waris also held religious ceremonies where the beer was served, which were important to society. They would drink chicha from tall ceramic vessels decorated to look like Wari gods and leaders. Heads of other local communities who lived in the shadow of these two major empires would also attend these gatherings. The brewing and then serving of the beer formed a unity among these different Peruvian communities, which 'kept people together', they said. A replica of a chicha vessel used in Cerro Baul They would drink chicha from tall ceramic vessels decorated to look like Wari gods and leaders (pictured is a replica). Heads of other local communities who lived in the shadow of these two major empires would also attend these gatherings WHAT IS THE BEER-LIKE BEVERAGE CALLED 'CHICHA'? To learn more about the beer that played such an important role in Wari society, the researchers analysed pieces of ceramic beer vessels from Cerro Baul. They used several techniques, including one that involved shooting a laser at a shard of a beer vessel to remove a tiny bit of material, and then heating that dust to the temperature of the surface of the sun to break down the molecules that make it up. From there, the researchers were able to tell what atomic elements make up the sample, and how many - information that told researchers exactly where the clay came from and what the beer was made of. To check that the ingredients in chicha could indeed be transferred to the brewing vessels, the researchers worked with Peruvian brewers to recreate the brewing process. 'Making chicha is a complicated process that requires experience and expertise. The experiments taught us a lot about what making chicha would look like in the ruins of a building and how much labour and time went into the process,' said Professor Donna Nash, an adjunct curator at the Field Museum. Advertisement 'It was like a microbrewery in some respects. It was a production house, but the brewhouses and taverns would have been right next door,' said Mr Williams. 'People would have come into this site, in these festive moments, in order to recreate and reaffirm their affiliation with these Wari lords and maybe bring tribute and pledge loyalty to the Wari state. The authors of the study argue that this steady supply of beer could have helped keep Wari society stable. 'We think these institutions of brewing and then serving the beer really formed a unity among these populations, it kept people together,' said Williams. As the Wari empire was collapsing, the revellers trashed their communities and set fire to the brewery at Cerro Baul. Its ruins were covered with sand so that no one could ever use the building again - until its re-discovery. The findings were published in the journal Sustainability. Christians travelling from Western Europe to the East during religious warfare with medieval Muslims had children with local women, a study has found. These mixed families were short-lived however, with brutal battles wiping out the offspring and modern-day inhabitants showing no relationship to the Crusaders. Analysis of DNA extracted from nine skeletons dating back to the 13th century shows the family members often died together in battle from horrific wounds. Scroll down for video The Crusades were a series of wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the 'Holy lands' of the near East. Modern-day inhabitants of the region where the Crusades took place have no genetic evidence of interbreeding with Crusaders from the west The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the near East. Analysis of DNA extracted from nine skeletons (pictured) dating back to the 13th century shows the natives and Crusaders did interbreed The Crusades were a series of wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the 'Holy lands' of the near East. It's known that nobility led the Crusades, but historical records lack details of the ordinary soldiers who travelled to, lived, and died in the near East. A total of 25 skeletons dating back to the 13th century were found at a burial pit in Sidon, Lebanon, and all who died there were male. They suffered broken bones and skulls and their bloodied carcasses were burned. Three of these people who met a gruesome death were Europeans from all over the continent, four were near Easterners and two individuals had mixed genetic ancestry, suggesting they were the descendants of mixed relationships between Crusaders and near Easterners. The violent deaths indicates they died in battle and is a likely explanation as to why the Crusader bloodlines ran dry after only a handful of generations in the Near East. Alongside the pit was a separate head - bereft of a body. Experts at the Wellcome Sanger institute who published their research in the American Journal of Human Genetics believe this severed head was likely of an individual infected with a disease and thrown into the ranks of the opposition to lower morale and spread illness. The remains were also found with a number of relics such as shoe buckles and coins which were carbon dated to the time of the Crusades. A total of 25 skeletons dating back to the 13th century have been found at a burial pit in Sidon (pictured), Lebanon and all were males who died with broken bones and skulls and their bloodied carcasses burned Three of the people at the site met a gruesome death were Europeans from all over the continent, four were near Easterners and two individuals had mixed genetic ancestry Crusaders travelling from Western Europe to the East as part of the religious missions in medieval times fathered children with local women but made no lasting impact on the genetic landscape in the long term (file photo) Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: 'Historical documents tell us the names of the nobility who led the Crusades, but the identities of the soldiers remained a mystery. 'Genomics gives an unprecedented view of the past and shows the Crusaders originated from western Europe and recruited local people of the near East to join them in battle. 'The Crusaders and near Easterners lived, fought and died side by side.' Researchers took DNA samples from modern-day inhabitants of Lebanon and compared it to the DNA from remains during the Roman era and the time of the Crusades. The mixed remains suggests they were some descendants of mixed relationships between Crusaders and near Easterners The violent deaths indicates they died in battle and is a likely explanation as to why the Crusader bloodlines ran dry after only a handful of generations in the Near East. Alongside the pit was a separate head - bereft of a body Researchers took DNA samples from modern-day inhabitants of Lebanon and compared it to the DNA from remains during the Roman era and the time of the Crusades. They found people today resemble the Lebanese-Romans and not the mixed descendants from the Crusades They found people today closely resemble the Lebanese-Romans and not the mixed descendants from the Crusades, indicating the religious quest had no lasting impact on the genetic diversity in the area. Extracting DNA for this analysis was an extremely difficult task which required bone fragments to be shipped to a Cambridge laboratory where the remaining genetic material was extracted from the temporal bone in the skulls. Dr Claude Doumet-Serhal, Director of the Sidon excavation site in Lebanon, said: 'I was thrilled to discover the genetic identities of the people who lived in the near East during the Crusades. 'Only five years ago, studies like this would not have been possible. 'The uniting of archaeologists and geneticists creates an incredible opportunity to interpret significant events throughout history.' A total of 25 skeletons dating back to the 13th century were found at a burial pit in Sidon, Lebanon and all were males who died with broken bones and skulls and their bloodied carcasses burned Astronauts on space missions should start wearing swimming goggles to prevent the affect of weightlessness on their sight, according to new research from NASA. Astronauts on long missions at the International Space Station often experience changes to their eyes that can last for years, including impaired vision. Scientists have found that wearing goggles that create mild pressure around the eyes can counteract the problem, caused by a drop in pressure inside the eye. These could be swimming goggles or the type of safety glasses commonly worn by sportsman and constructors. Astronauts on space missions could start wearing swimming goggles like those in the picture to prevent the affect of weightlessness on their sight, according to new research. The picture shows astronaut Anne McClain who is currently working on the International Space Station Up to 75 per cent of astronauts develop changes to their eyes, including decreased visual sharpness. Many astronauts experience poorer sight - some leave on missions with perfect site yet return needing glasses. This phenomenon, a medical condition known as Space flight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS), is caused by the lack of gravity in space which reduces the fluid pressure inside the eyes. In a new study, scientists showed that by giving astronauts safety glasses, like those worn in snow sports, protected vision by boosting the pressure of fluid inside the eye known as Intraocular pressure (IOP). SANS is a significant clinical concern at NASA and symptoms include 'cotton wool spots', which are fluffy white spots on the retina, and the swelling of the optic nerve. This condition is seen in approximately one out of three International Space Station astronauts. Dr Jessica Scott, of the Universities Space Research Association, Houston, explained: ' Swimming goggles firmly compress the skin around the eye.' 'These findings suggest modestly increasing intraocular pressure with swimming goggles could be used to mitigate spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome. 'Elucidating the mechanistic underpinnings of SANS is important to protect the health of astronauts and continued human space exploration.' Astronauts on long missions at the International Space Station often experience changes to their eyes that can last for years, including impaired vision. Scientists found that wearing goggles that create mild pressure around the eyes can counteract the problem (stock image) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans suggest pressure changes in the brain, with spinal fluid caused by weightlessness perhaps partly to blame. The latest findings were based on tests on 20 individuals at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston. Ten of these participants were given swimming goggles to wear and the others going eye wear free. Dr Scott said: 'The addition of swimming goggles was associated with modestly increased pressure, which could reduce some of the adverse effects on the eye of long-duration spaceflights. 'Confirmatory studies are required to determine the appropriate duration and intensity of artificial increase in IOP in space flight to modulate SANS. 'In addition, evaluation of the safety of prolonged or daily goggle use is needed. She added: 'These findings need to be replicated in spaceflight to determine whether increasing eye pressure with swim googles is safe and effective.' It is known long term exposure to zero gravity causes a host of health problems, one of the most significant being loss of bone and muscle mass. Over time these can impair astronauts' performance, increase their risk of injury, reduce their aerobic capacity and slow down their cardiovascular system. But previous researcher also found that most of the changes to the human body from extended spaceflight returned to normal shortly after a return to Earth. The risks to their sight on prolonged periods in space, however, has only recently emerged. NASA hopes to put man on Mars within 15 years after being given an order by Donald Trump to speed up their space operations. Last month administrator Jim Bridenstine said the president's desire to put humans back on the Moon by 2024 will enable a mission to the Red Planet by 2033. The full report of the findings were published in JAMA Opthalmology. A previous study on retired astronaut Scott Kelly (right) and his identical twin brother Mark found that most of the changes to the human body from extended spaceflight returned to normal shortly after a return to Earth. The risks of travel to sight has only recently emerged The Viking age in European history was from about 700 to 1100 AD. During this period many Vikings left their homelands in Scandinavia and travelled by longboat to other countries, like Britain and Ireland. When the people of Britain first saw the Viking longboats they came down to the shore to welcome them. However, the Vikings fought the local people, stealing from churches and burning buildings to the ground. The people of Britain called the invaders 'Danes', but they came from Norway and Sweden as well as Denmark. The name 'Viking' comes from a language called 'Old Norse' and means a pirate raid. The first Viking raid recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was around 787 AD. It was the start of a fierce struggle between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. Her husband, former NRL star Stuart Webb, was recently charged with drink driving. And Kate Ritchie spoke generally about how she copes with life's challenges in an interview with WHO's Most Beautiful People issue on Thursday. The former Home and Away actress, 40, said that she exercises to be 'the best version' of herself and 'quieten the mind'. Coping mechanism? Kate Ritchie (right) revealed on Thursday that she exercises to be the best version of herself - as her husband Stuart Webb (left) faces possible jail time for drink driving 'I just always try to be the best version of me, rather than trying to compare myself with those around me,' Kate told the publication. 'I think that quietens the mind. It's very important for the mind.' While Kate did not mention her husband Stuart's legal woes specifically, there's no doubt she would benefit from the therapeutic qualities of exercise at the moment. Self-care: 'I just always try to be the best version of me,' Kate told WHO magazine on Thursday Stuart, a retired rugby league player who now works as a chef, allegedly blew 0.083 when police stopped him in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs on March 26. The 38-year-old had reportedly run a red light on Avoca Street in Randwick, just a short distance from the couple's home, at about 4pm. Soon after, police learned he was also allegedly driving on a suspended licence. If convicted, the former Sydney Roosters and St George Dragons player faces a further six-month licence suspension for the drink-driving offence alone, while driving without a licence carries up to 12 months in prison. Family life: Kate and Stuart, who married in 2010, are proud parents to daughter Mae, four Stuart was due to face Waverley Local Court on Tuesday, when the drink-driving matter was listed to be heard, but his solicitor asked for it to be adjourned to next month. Kate, who married Stuart in 2010, is reportedly dreading her husband's court appearance. A family friend allegedly told Woman's Day on Monday that she 'is keeping a very low profile and preparing for the worst'. In January, Ada Nicodemou confessed to having a breast enlargement after being trolled about her appearance on Instagram. And the Home and Away star, 41, has now revealed she publicly acknowledged her surgery to support teenage girls who were also being targeted by cyber bullies. 'I can handle it - I'm in the media so I know it could be out there - but I think about these teenage girls getting it all the time,' she told WHO's Most Beautiful People issue on Thursday. Nothing to hide: Ada Nicodemou decided to publicly acknowledge her boob job earlier this year 'to show solidarity with teenage girls also struggling with Instagram trolls'. Pictured left: Ada on holiday in the Maldives recently, and right: in 2005 cast photo for Home and Away Ada, who also admitted to having Botox injections, explained that she wanted to turn the situation into something 'positive' by coming clean. 'The reason why I did what I did was there was a bit of cyber bullying happening online,' she said. 'We have to send the message out there that women should not be bullying other women - if people choose ways to make themselves happier [with cosmetic surgery] we should be building them up.' Public scrutiny: 'I can handle it - I'm in the media so I know it could be out there - but I think about these teenage girls getting it all the time,' Ada told WHO magazine on Thursday Breathtaking: Ada (pictured) is featured in WHO's Most Beautiful People issue, on sale now Ada, who plays Leah Patterson-Baker in Home and Away, made the admission about her cosmetic surgery after an Instagram follower implied she was 'fake'. 'I don't use fillers and I rarely use Botox and the only surgery that I've done [that] is "fake" is breast augmentation, which I have every right to do,' she wrote in response to the troll. Last year, Ada told Daily Mail Australia that she was not opposed to cosmetic surgery on principle. 'Everyone should do whatever makes them feel good': Last year, Ada told Daily Mail Australia that she was not opposed to cosmetic surgery on principle. Pictured on April 12, 2006 'Everyone should do whatever makes them feel good,' she said when asked about Botox injections. 'I have no judgement on it whatsoever.' In July 2018, Ada underwent a body transformation in collaboration with Who magazine, losing a total of five kilograms. The actress dropped down to 47kg by following an eight-week exercise plan, which focused on strength training, including push-ups and sit-ups. 'Think before you post next time': In January, Ada confessed to having a breast enlargement after being trolled about her appearance on Instagram He has joined hit series Line Of Duty as ruthless gang leader John Corbett. However following the revelation that Stephen Graham's character is actually working as an undercover cop, the actor told ES Magazine that he spoke to an Army Intelligence offer in order to gain insight for the role. The actor, 45, confessed that working as an undercover officer in the real world is 'acting of the highest order', as they put their lives at risk in high stake situations. Background work: Following the revelation that Stephen Graham's character is actually working as an undercover cop, the actor told ES Magazine that he spoke to an Army intelligence offer in order to gain insight for the role Reflecting on his time with Army intelligence, he said: 'I spoke to a friend of mine who did a lot of undercover work, not as a police officer but in Army intelligence. He put his life on the line. 'Basically, what I came away with was that being undercover is acting of the f***ing highest order. We get in make-up, put on a costume and we entertain people. We try and dive into these characters and tell a story. What they're doing is putting their lives at risk. Imagine how high the stakes are.' Following his new role in Line Of Duty, Stephen will also appear on the small screen next month in Channel 4 drama The Virtues. Impressed: The actor, 45, confessed that working as an undercover officer in the real world is 'acting of the highest order', as they put their lives at risk in high stake situations Stephen auditioned for the role of Joseph, who is struggling with an alcohol addiction which only spirals when his ex moves from Liverpool to Australia to start a fresh with their son. He revealed that during the audition stages of the series he met Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. However it appeared that Stephen played it completely cool when meeting the acting legends. Stephen said: 'I got there early Saturday morning and Bob, Robert, Mr De Niro was running a bit late. He comes in with a pair of shorts on, cap on, newspaper under his arm. This Is England: The Virtues is written by This Is England creator Shane Meadows, who previously worked with Stephen on the show when he played antagonist Andrew 'Combo' Gascoigne 'We're having a little chat and two and a half hours just went like that. Then Marty went, 'You two have got something in common. You both played Al Capone.' And [De Niro] says, 'And you were great, I loved you.' I was like, 'Sound, mate.' The Virtues is written by This Is England creator Shane Meadows, who previously worked with Stephen on the show when he played antagonist Andrew 'Combo' Gascoigne. On how he would love to work with director, Shane Meadows, for as long as he wants him, he said: 'With Shane, if he said I want you to jump off the cliffs of Dover, my question wouldn't be, 'Have we got a safety net?' My question would be, 'Do you want me to walk or run?' Despite enjoying an illustrious career, Stephen admitted that it does still come as a surprise when he sees himself on screen, he admitted: 'You do still watch things and go, 'S***, that's me.' He also revealed that there is one person in particular that is very happy about his new Line Of Duty role, his mum. However the main reason she is so excited is because of his co-star Vicky McClure. He revealed: 'My mum is a massive fan of Vicky, she said, 'Ooh, your mate's in this new thing that's starting.' I've been with Line of Duty off the bat.' MasterChef Australia will return to screens at the end of this month. On Wednesday, Channel 10 announced the eleventh season of the popular cooking show will premiere on Monday April 29 at 7.30pm. Judges Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris are all set to return alongside a banquet of celebrity guest mentors. Dinner is (almost) served! MasterChef Australia's premiere date has been revealed. Pictured: Judges Gary Mehigan (left), Matt Preston (centre) and George Calombaris (right) Media website Mumbrella reported on Wednesday that Nigella Lawson will appear as a guest judge, 'hosting her own week'. The British culinary queen, 59, was in Australia in February on a speaking tour, so it's possible she filmed her cameo around this time. The publication also revealed that Rick Stein, Clare Smyth and Yotam Ottolenghi will join the show for Legends Week. Making a comeback! British culinary queen Nigella Lawson, 59, will appear as a guest judge MasterChef regulars Curtis Stone and Maggie Beer will also makes appearances alongside former contestants Poh Ling Yeow, Billie McKay and Matt Sinclair. The premiere date reveal comes after Channel 10 recently announced the first group of 2019 contestants. Travel agent Jess Hall, microbrewer Kyle Lyons and IT consultant Sandeep Pandit were all confirmed last week. Will he get the Royal treatment? The premiere date reveal comes after Channel 10 recently announced the first group of 2019 contestants, including 'Prince Harry lookalike' Tim Bone One of the participants, Tim Bone, is being billed as a 'Prince Harry lookalike' with a penchant for gourmet toasted sandwiches. Former prison guard Sashi Cheliah won MasterChef Australia last year after earning a record 93 out of 100 points in the finale. He later said that his background with Singapore's STAR (Special Tactics and Rescue) unit helped him keep his cool throughout the competition. Chiwetel Ejiofor could read a McDonald's menu and make it sound like a soliloquy from King Lear Earth From Space Rating: Chimerica Rating: One of the most glorious ways to waste time is with Google Earth, a mosaic of high-definition satellite images covering all the globe. You start by looking up your own street and spend the next few hours scrolling back and forth over the world's landscape like an astronaut with a jet-pack. Earth From Space (BBC1) is that experience with the bonus of stately narration from Chiwetel Ejiofor, an actor who could read a McDonald's menu and make it sound like a soliloquy from King Lear. This was an hour of ravishing, apparently abstract images that gradually resolved into recognisable views. Midges swirling over grassland became a vast herd of wildebeest. A blizzard of black spots, like mould on the Atlantic shoreline, was revealed as a colony of fur seals. Varicose veins spreading up America's west turned into the San Andreas Fault and the Grand Canyon. There was so much to see the show couldn't linger anywhere for long, and that sometimes felt frustrating. In Mozambique, the orbiting cameras spotted a pristine rainforest on an isolated outcrop of high cliffs, where man has never trod. We zoomed over and left it behind. As I remember, that 'table-top' mountain mirrors the setting of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. Professor Challenger found dinosaurs there. We should at least have stopped for a look. The real value of the pictures was in the secrets on display that are hard to discern at ground level. We watched a colossal iceberg break away from the frozen shelf of Antarctica, and picked out emperor penguin colonies by the stains of droppings they left behind. Alessandro Nivola plays a warzone photographer trying to revive his career in the less-than-convincing Chimerica Criss-crossing waterways bulldozed by hippos in the swamps of the Okavango Delta unravelled like a roadmap of Spaghetti Junction. Two volcanic islands in the South Pacific became one as more lava bubbled up. The documentary climaxed with aerial views of Shaolin martial arts students in Dengfeng, China, staging an immense parade ground display. The kung fu masters who devised the mass choreography couldn't have known but, from above, the red robes of the trainees looked like sparks in a kaleidoscopic fireworks display. It was beautiful. The images of China in the photo-journalism thriller Chimerica (C4) were less lovely. Alessandro Nivola plays Lee, a warzone camera ace whose prize-strewn career disintegrates after he is caught doctoring a picture using Photoshop to add a gun-toting soldier to a photo of a Syrian marketplace in the aftermath of a bombing. Codebuster of the night: Inside John Lewis (C5) revealed the store's head of research, Hugh Alexander, was co-opted during World War II to join the Bletchley Park unit that cracked Enigma. There's the seed of a great Christmas ad in that tale. Advertisement To win back his job, Lee decides to track down the star of his most famous photo: the young man who stood in front of tanks in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in 1989. Everything about this story jarred. For a start, no decent war photographer would dream of sticking two images together with digital Sellotape. It's beyond unforgivable, and makes Lee deeply dislikeable... even before he accosts the journalist who exposed him, marching into her office to publicly sneer at her web-based job. The drama also makes a big deal of despising President Trump, but its storyline can only stoke the White House pretence that 'fake news' is endemic in major American newspapers. Based on a stage play, Chimerica takes a vaguely colonial attitude to China, making the assumption that everyone there is fascinated by U.S. politics and desperate to watch YouTube. They really aren't. And why are we expected to sympathise with Lee's plan to track down the lone protester who has been in hiding for 30 years? He might get a very brave man killed. Will Smith has responded graciously to the mass criticism of his take on Aladdin's Genie in Disney's forthcoming live-action Aladdin remake. After the release of the first trailer for the Guy Richie-fronted film, fans were left dumbfounded by the blue-skinned character's outrageous appearance however the actor, 50, admitted the Internet puts everything under scrutiny. As well as responding to criticism, Will also weighed in on the endless memes born from the trailer, as he insisted the jokes were 'very funny'. 'It was very funny': Two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith has a good sense of humor when it comes to the backlash over his interpretation of Genie in Disney's live-action Aladdin remake Will clearly has a good sense of humor when it comes to the early backlash over his interpretation of Genie in Disney's live-action Aladdin remake. Speaking in the new issue of Empire, which is due for release on Thursday, Will said: 'It was very funny,' 'There was a Sonic The Hedgehog / Genie frog... 'Everything is under such critical scrutiny. I came up in an era where there was no Internet. It's a new thing that I'm trying to get a handle on.' In February fans first got their first look at Will as the fast-talking, magic lamp-imprisoned Jinn made famous by the late, great Robin Williams in 1992. The 50-year-old action star said in the new issue of Empire: 'There was a Sonic The Hedgehog / Genie frog. Everything is under such critical scrutiny. I came up in an era where there was no Internet. It's a new thing that I'm trying to get a handle on' And the DIY memes have since overflowed poking fun of Smith as the big blue wish granter, including one reinterpreting the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. There were ones likening Genie to Arrested Development character Tobias Funke, who frequently 'blued' himself in a sad bid to join The Blue Man Group. There were several memes tweeted out comparing Genie to the Infinty Stones-empowered Marvel Comics supervillain Thanos. Good one: And the DIY memes have since overflowed poking fun of Smith as the big blue wish granter, including one reinterpreting the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Yes! There were ones likening Genie to Arrested Development character Tobias Funke, who frequently 'blued' himself in a sad bid to join The Blue Man Group Some compared Genie to the 10ft-tall human-Na'vi hybrids in James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi flick Avatar. Others were unsettled or terrified by the Philadelphia-born father-of-three as the blue-hued Genie. However, Aladdin filmmaker Guy felt the first full-length trailer - which dropped March 12 - managed to change some minds about Genie. 'It even came with apologies from the cynics who were so adamant initially,' the 50-year-old King Arthur helmer told Empire. 'Endgame looks good': There were several memes tweeted out comparing Genie to the Infinty Stones-empowered Marvel Comics supervillain Thanos 'Oh my gooooddddd!' Some compared Genie to the 10ft-tall human-Na'vi hybrids in James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi flick Avatar G'ah! Others were just straight up unsettled or terrified by the Philadelphia-born father-of-three as the blue-hued Genie 'I've never seen apologies in that world. I thought, "Oh well, great, we're back to where I'd hoped we'd be."' Fans can see for themselves when Disney's Aladdin hits UK theaters May 22 and US theaters May 24. The cast also includes Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari, Mena Massoud, Billy Magnussen, Alan Tudyk, as well as returning OG castmember Frank Welker (Abu and the Cave of Wonders). Arabian nights: Fans can see for themselves when Disney's Aladdin hits UK theaters May 22 and US theaters May 24 Darcey Bussell officially announced the news of her departure from Strictly on Twitter last week. And, according to a report, professional ballet dancer Carlos Acosta is being eyed-up by BBC show bosses to saute into her vacant seat on the judging panel. The globally sought-after choreographer, 45, who has danced with Darcey before on numerous occasions, is said to be after an eye-watering fee of 400,000 to take on the TV gig. Next judge? According to a report, professional ballet dancer Carlos Acosta is being eyed-up by BBC show bosses to saute into Darcey Bussell's vacant seat on the Strictly judging panel According to The Sun, the internationally revered Cuban choreographer has already agreed to be Birmingham Royal Ballet's new artistic director from 2020. And in order to have the ballet dancer on the Strictly panel, show bosses may have to fork out a rumoured 400,000 which is around 150,000 more than the other judges get. A Strictly insider told the publication: 'Carlos is a huge name in the dance world and has been on Strictly's radar for a long time. 'Shirley Ballas popularity as head judge proves that audiences love genuine experts, even if theyre not a household name yet. Gone: Darcey officially announced the news of her departure from Strictly on Twitter last week Expensive signing! The globally sought-after choreographer is said to be after an eye-watering fee of 400,000 to take on the TV gig (Pictured together at Spencer House in London, in 2018) Former colleagues Carlos and Darcey have danced together on numerous occasions (Pictured dancing at Diner des Tsars gala evening at The Guildhall, London in March 2007) Rumours: A Strictly insider told The Sun: 'Carlos is a huge name in the dance world and has been on Strictly's radar for a long time' (Pictured in June 2017) 'Carlos is a vibrant character, full of energy, with vast experience in his field. He ticks all the boxes and has the backing of influential producers.' MailOnline has contacted Strictly Come Dancing and a representative for Carlos Acosta for comment. UK-based ballet professional Carlos is married to former model Charlotte Holland, 37, with whom he shares three children, including two-year-old twin daughters. After joining the Royal Ballet in 1998, the dancer starred in productions of Swan Lake and the Nutcracker, amongst others, before leaving in 2015. In 2014, he was awarded a CBE for his services to ballet. Expert: 'Shirley Ballas popularity as head judge proves that audiences love genuine experts, even if theyre not a household name yet' continued the source (Pictured dancing at Royal Albert Hall, London in October 2018) Ticks the boxes: 'Carlos is a vibrant character, full of energy, with vast experience in his field. He ticks all the boxes and has the backing of influential producers' claims the source (Pictured last week on The Jonathan Ross Show) Family man: UK-based ballet professional Carlos is married to former model Charlotte Holland, 37, with whom he shares three children, including two-year-old twin daughters (Pictured in 2015 dancing at London Coliseum) Darcey officially announced the news of her departure from Strictly on Twitter last week, as she explained she is ready to make a change after years a judge. She said: 'It has been a complete privilege for me to be part of Strictly, working with such a talented team... 'I have enjoyed every minute of my time and will miss everyone from my fellow judges, the presenters, the dancers, the musicians, the entire back stage team, and especially the viewers of the show, who have been so supportive... Seasoned pro: After joining the Royal Ballet in 1998, the dancer starred in productions of Swan Lake and the Nutcracker, amongst others, before leaving in 2015 (Pictured in 2004) End of an era: Darcey revealed it had been a 'privilege' to work on Strictly but was stepping down to give more focus to her 'other commitments in dance' 'I am not leaving because of any upset or disagreement at all, I am just stepping away to give more focus to my many other commitments in dance, after seven truly wonderful years that I cant imagine having gone any better. 'I know I will miss being part of this unique show and the fact that it celebrates dance is something I am so passionate about. I hope that I may be very lucky to be asked back again one day'. Darcey first joined the Strictly panel in 2009 working as a fifth judge in the final stages of the competition, and also took to the floor herself when she performed a jive with professional dancer Ian White in the semi-final. Annoyed: Darcey was reportedly 'fed up' with Bruno Tonioli's theatrics and quit when her demands for a 40,000 pay rise to match her salary with the other judges weren't met In 2012, she returned to the panel to replace judge Alesha Dixon, who had been drafted in as a replacement for Arlene Phillips. Before her time on Strictly, Darcey had a world renowned dance career, and is widely considered to be one of the best British ballerinas of all time. The mother-of-two announced her retirement as a principal ballerina in 2006, and from ballet entirely in 2007, and before this danced for the Royal Ballet. Such was Darcey's talent and status as a British icon that she represented the country during the 2012 Summer Olympic closing ceremony in London, where she led a troupe of 200 ballerinas and four male dancers from the Royal Ballet. In 1997, Darcey married Australian businessman Angus Forbes and the couple have two children, Phoebe, 17, and Zoe, 15. From humble beginnings in New Mexico to becoming one of the most famous actresses of our time, Demi Moore has lived a life worthy of knowing. Which is why the 56-year-old triple threat is writing it all down in her upcoming memoir, Inside Out. According to Harper Magazine's executive editor, the book will be one that both surprises and moves readers. Book worm: Demi Moore, 56, is soon to release her tell all memoir, Inside Out, coming in September Coming this September, readers of Moore's memoir will get to learn intimate details of The Ghost star's battle with addiction, body image and childhood trauma. Growing up with a step-dad who moved the family around often prior to committing suicide when she was young, and never meeting her real father, the icon's early years were not easy. Not to mention her mother had a long record of arrests for crimes such as drunk driving and arson. All of that, plus health issues before she was a teenager, created a tumultuous past before Demi eventually dropped out of high school to pursue show business full time. These trials will be delved into for the book, which will also discuss Demi's career and three marriages. At 17, the Striptease front runner met musician Freddy Moore, who she co-wrote three songs with and went on to marry in 1980 up until their divorce in 1985. She was also in a high profile relationship and marriage with Bruce Willis from 1987 to 2000, and then later was wed to Ashton Kutcher from 2005 to 2013. Co-parents: She was also in a high profile relationship and marriage with Bruce Willis from 1987 to 2000 Unexpected: The Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle actress later was wed to Ashton Kutcher from 2005 to 2013 With inside information on those relationships coming forth in the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle beauty's tell all, Harper executive editor, Jennifer Barth, is already praising the authentic book. 'Inside Out is first and foremost a womans story; that the woman in question happens to be one of the most celebrated actresses of our time only makes her journey of vulnerability, strength, and self-acceptance all that more resonant,' she said. She continued: 'I think readers are going to be surprisedand movedby this book.' The magazine big wig calls Inside Out a story of 'survival, success, and surrender - as well as resilience.' According to her, Demi's writing is 'wrenchingly honest.' All girls: In the 1980s, the mother of Rumer, 30, Scout, 27 and Tallulah, 25, checked into rehab for a drug and alcohol addiction In the 1980s, the mother of Rumer, 30, Scout, 27 and Tallulah, 25, checked into rehab for a drug and alcohol addiction. Then in 2012, she returned to treatment after collapsing in her Los Angeles home, convulsing due to months of partying and intense weight loss. She was seen for addiction and eating disorder struggles the second time around. Demi has since been open about her hardships, admitting in a speech at the Peggy Albrecht Friendly Houses 29th Annual Awards Luncheon, where she was named Woman Of The Year, that for years, she was 'spiraling down a path of real self-destruction.' 'No matter what successes I had, I just never felt good enough,' she bravely said. This path, she went on to say, brought her to a crisis point, where with the help of loved ones, she eventually began to rebuild. 'They gave me a chance to redirect the course of my life before I destroyed everything. Clearly, they saw more of me than I saw of myself. And Im so grateful because without that opportunity, without their belief in me, I wouldnt be standing here today,' the starlet said. Still on screen: Demi recently stole the show in Corporate Animals, alongside Ed Helms. Pictured in 2019 at the Sundance Film Festival Demi recently stole the show in Corporate Animals, alongside Ed Helms. She is on good terms with Willis, who she raised their three girls with, and is mending relations with Ashton's new wife, Mila Kunis. On top of that, the beauty says she's shifted her priorities over the last seven years. While speaking to Gwyneth Paltrow and Arianna Huffington at the 2019 In Goop Health summit, Moore said she's now focused on her health and the people around her, rather than her career. 'My relationships are more important, and what I do comes second,' she explained at the NYC event, reports People. Inside Out will hit the stands on September 24. She recently spoke about her struggle to conceive her second child Neve following endometriosis surgery last year. And now Home and Away star Penny McNamee, 36, has revealed she didn't enjoy her pregnancy. 'If I'm honest I don't like being pregnant,' the actress, who welcomed Neve into the world in March, told WHO's Most Beautiful People this week. 'I don't enjoy the experience': Home and Away star Penny McNamee has admitted that she didn't love being pregnant after welcoming her second child Neve into the world (pictured with one-month-old baby Neve) 'I wish I was an earth mother who loved every minute. 'But I was pregnant so I could have a baby. Now I've had a baby, I'm happy.' The actress, who plays Tori Morgan in the soap opera, also spoke about the juggling act that comes with having two young children. But she added her son Jack, four, was already adapting to having to pack his own bag for preschool when his mother was busy with his younger sibling. What is endometriosis? Endometriosis is a common disease in which the tissue that is similar to the lining of the womb grows outside it in other parts of the body. Up to 10 per cent of women suffer with endometriosis at some point in their life with the disease often starting in teenagers. Symptoms are variable and this may contribute to the seven to 10 year delay in diagnosis. Common symptoms include pelvic pain that puts life on hold around or during a woman's period. It can affect fertility. While endometriosis most often affects the reproductive organs, it is frequently found in the bowel and bladder and has been found in muscle, joints, the lungs and the brain. Source: Endometriosis Australia Advertisement 'If I'm honest I don't like being pregnant': The actress revealed (pictured pregnant with Eve in photo shared in February) In September, Penny described the relief of being able to have another baby after doctors told her she would need to conceive within six months of having endometriosis surgery. Having been diagnosed with endometriosis at the start of 2018, she underwent surgery hoping she would be able to have more children. 'I had the surgery, and typically doctors say that you really need to fall pregnant within the first six months after,' she told New Idea. 'That's your best chance because the endometriosis hasn't started to grow back yet. Hands full: The actress, who plays Tori Morgan in the soap opera, also spoke about the juggling act that comes with having two young children So sweet! In September, Penny described the relief of being able to have another baby after doctors told her she would need to conceive within six months of having endometriosis surgery (Neve pictured) She continued: 'The next step for us was IVF. So to fall pregnant in the fifth month we just felt such relief and gratitude.' The painful condition, which affects one in 10 Australian women, made it difficult for her to conceive. Penny shares her children with husband Matt Tooker, who is a financier. The couple married in 2009. Paula Abdul announced the passing of her father Harry on Instagram. The former American Idol judge took to the social media site to pay tribute to her dad's life with a series of photos of them together on Wednesday. Harry's passing occurred a little over a year after her mom Lorraine's January 2018 death. Paula Abdul announced the passing of her father Harry on Instagram In her sweet caption, the 56-year-old choreographer wrote, 'Dad: a daughters first love. - Unknown ' The Straight Up hitmaker continued: 'Everyone loved my father. He had a heart of gold and carried his heart on his sleeve wherever he went, and shared it with everyone he came in contact with.' 'Isnt it a beautiful gift that I still feel his spirit with me?' 'My Father was, and always will be, my superhero. [HEART EMOJI, PRAYER HANDS EMOJI]'. 'Thank you ALL for the heartfelt condolences. Your love and support is comforting me during this difficult time. xoP' In her sweet caption, the 56-year-old choreographer wrote, 'Dad: a daughters first love. - Unknown ' Harry Abdul died after a long battle with Alzheimers Disease at the age of 85, according to Radar Online. Paula's mother Lorraine was also 85 at the time of her passing. 'Lorraine died with her daughters Paula and Wendy by her side,' Abduls cousin Tara Riceberg told PEOPLE at the time. She recently described being cast as DC Comic's first openly gay superhero, Batwoman as a major 'win.' And on Wednesday, Australian actress Ruby Rose continued to celebrate her new lead role, stepping out in Los Angeles wearing an iconic Batman T-shirt. The 33-year-old, who just filmed a pilot for the new Batwoman TV series last month, was spotted donning the logo top following an afternoon gym session in the City of Angels. Wham! Pow! Bang! Ruby Rose celebrated her new Batwoman role by wearing an iconic caped crusader T-shirt after gym workout in Los Angeles on Wednesday Ruby completed her outfit with black apparel, including leggings, Nike shorts and a pair of sneakers. The model also offered onlookers a generous view of her lean legs in the form-fitting exercise pants. What's more, she gave fans a closer look at her impressive sleeve tattoos while carrying a white gym bag and a bottle of water. Superhero chic: Ruby completed her outfit with black apparel, including leggings, Nike shorts and a pair of sneakers Ruby added a stylish accessory to her activewear, with a Fendi monogram backpack slung over one of her shoulders. The beaming brunette appeared to be in high spirits following her workout - flashing the peace sign to onlookers at one stage. The Orange Is The New Black star - who identifies as gender fluid - told TV Week last month how excited she was to play the openly gay superhero character. Designer details: Ruby added a stylish accessory to her activewear, with a Fendi monogram backpack slung over one of her shoulders Peace! The beaming brunette appeared to be in high spirits following her workout, flashing the peace sign to onlookers at one stage Ruby called the gig a breakthrough role a 'win' for the LGBTIQ community. 'It fulfils my life mantra of, "Be the person you needed when you were young,"' she told the magazine. 'I can't speak on behalf of everyone in the LGBTIQ community, but I know any win for anyone in our community is a win for all.' Fans were introduced to Ruby's Batwoman during a crossover event between Supergirl, Arrow and The Flash titled Elseworlds on The CW network last year. 'Ugly' Phil O'Neil is leaving his job at Triple M and returning to the UK once again. Phil, a veteran radio personality in both Australia and Britain, was previously married to Jackie 'O' Henderson in the late '90s. His departure from Triple M's Afternoons and My Generation was announced by the network's head of content Mike Fitzpatrick on Thursday. Going home: 'Ugly' Phil O'Neil is leaving his job at Triple M and returning to the UK once again 'Today I can let you know we'll be saying farewell to 'Ugly' Phil O'Neil. Again,' Fitzpatrick told Radio Today. 'Ugly is heading back home to the UK, where he was the winner of many radio awards, to do a top secret project no doubt we'll hear more in the coming weeks. 'Phil is a consummate professional and an amazing broadcaster and we'll be sad to see the back of his bald head.' Former couple: Phil, a veteran radio personality in both Australia and Britain, was previously married to Jackie 'O' Henderson (left) in the late 90s. Pictured with a Michael Jackson lookalike The 56-year-old has returned to Britain twice during his career, first in 2000 and then in 2004, but each time was drawn back to Australia. Phil famously hosted the Hot30 Countdown with his then-wife Jackie O between 1996 and 2000, when he ended his marriage and left the country. Phil was replaced by Kyle Sandilands, forming the Kyle and Jackie O partnership that continues to this day. History: Phil famously hosted the Hot30 Countdown with his then-wife Jackie O between 1996 and 2000, when he ended his marriage and left the country. Phil was replaced by Kyle Sandilands (left), forming the Kyle and Jackie O partnership that continues to this day Phil briefly returned to the spotlight last year when Jackie made a rare public comment on their divorce, admitting how 'anxious' she had felt being single again. 'I remember when I split up from my first husband and I had a period of being single. I just had that anxiousness of constantly wanting to find someone,' she said. Triple M said Phil's replacements on Triple M will be announced shortly. She's famous for creating the Skinnygirl brand. But even though there's nothing slimming about the delicious offerings available at Belgian chocolatier Godiva's brand new cafe in New York City, Bethenny Frankel lent her star power to its official opening on Wednesday. Frankel, 48, posed for photos as she arrived at the Godiva cafe, located at 560 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, that's the first of 2,000 cafes the company is planning to roll out over the next six years. Influencer: Real Housewives Of New York star Bethenny Frankel, 48, lent her star power to the official opening of the new Godiva cafe in Manhattan, NYC, on Wednesday For the occasion, the Real Housewives Of New York star wore a silky black long-sleeved top with a cropped back that revealed some skin. She paired it with a black skirt that was decorated with shiny gold and pink floral designs and had a slightly asymmetrical hem. The reality star and businesswoman went bare-legged in pale green pumps and carried a shiny gold purse. She accessorized with a chunky gold necklace and earrings. Stylish: Frankel wore a silky black long-sleeved top with cropped back that revealed some skin. She paired it with a black skirt decorated with shiny gold and pink floral designs Blinged: The reality star and Skinnygirl businesswoman went bare-legged in pale green pumps and carried a shiny gold purse. She accessorized with a chunky gold necklace and earrings New direction: The 560 Lexington Avenue cafe is the first of 2,000 cafes the Belgian chocolatier is planning to roll out across the US over the next six years Meanwhile, Frankel has been gushing recently about the new man in her life. With a nasty divorce from Jason Hoppy, with whom she shares a daughter Brynn, eight, and the death of former beau Dennis Shields last year, she seems to have found love again. Last week, she told Bravo's Andy Cohen during Watch What Happens Live that her current flame, 41-year-old Paul Bernon, is a keeper. 'He's incredible,' she said. 'He's a beautiful human being inside and out.' She and the real estate developer and film producer started dating in December 2017 when she was on a 'break' from Shields. She then went back to Shields, but last August, the businessman was found dead of a suspected drug overdose at age 51 inside his Trump Tower residence in New York. Frankel reunited with Bernon again in September. In love again: Meanwhile, Frankel has been gushing recently about the new man in her life, Paul Bernon, telling Bravo's Andy Cohen last week that he's 'a beautiful human being inside and out' SAG Award nominee Kate Beckinsale opted for quite a leggy look for her appearance on Wednesday's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in Manhattan. The 45-year-old mother-of-one dazzled 30 Rock while clad in a b&w ruffled Georges Chakra SS/18 mini-cocktail dress selected by stylist Taylor Jacobson Wolf. Backstage, the London-born Brit posted a snap of her 'disappointing guest gift banana' but stressed it was 'not reflective of how fun' the segment turned out. Fierce after 40! SAG Award nominee Kate Beckinsale opted for quite a leggy look for her appearance on Wednesday's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in Manhattan Beckinsale was most likely promoting her role as grieving Georgia Wells in the eight-episode drama The Widow, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime/ITV. After the taping, Kate (born Kathrin) headed back to her hotel, The Ritz-Carlton New York, wearing a belted, b&w-striped silk pantsuit. The wisecracking brunette lives year-round in Los Angeles, but she has two big reasons to be in the Big Apple - her toyboy Pete Davidson and her daughter Lily Mo Sheen. On Wednesday, the 25-year-old comedian announced via Insta-story that he was raffling off two VIP tickets to the May 4 episode of Saturday Night Live for Autism Awareness Month. Off the runway: The 45-year-old mother-of-one dazzled 30 Rock while clad in a b&w ruffled Georges Chakra SS/18 mini-cocktail dress selected by stylist Taylor Jacobson Wolf 'Tune in!' Backstage, the London-born Brit posted a snap of her 'disappointing guest gift banana' but stressed it was 'not reflective of how fun' the segment turned out Now streaming! Beckinsale was most likely promoting her role as grieving Georgia Wells in the eight-episode drama The Widow on Amazon Prime/ITV 'That's actually going to be very sick because [Adam] Sandler is hosting,' the 6ft3in funnyman said of the NBC sketch show also featuring musical guest Shawn Mendes. On Tuesday night, Pete enjoyed a guys' night out playing shooting games at Dave & Buster's with photographer Marcus Russell Price and his pal Leo. The May-December couple - who met at a Golden Globes after-party on January 6 - were last pictured together on March 19 at Nobu Malibu with Kate's mother Judy Loe and stepfather Roy Battersby. 'I don't know much about dating because I've had five boyfriends in my whole life, so I haven't done much of it,' Beckinsale told Daily Mail Weekend Magazine earlier this month. Beetlejuicy: After the taping, Kate (born Kathrin) headed back to her hotel, The Ritz-Carlton New York, wearing a belted, b&w- striped silk pantsuit Loved ones: The wisecracking brunette lives year-round in Los Angeles, but she has two big reasons to be in the Big Apple - her toyboy Pete Davidson and her daughter Lily Mo Sheen 'There have been times when I thought I'd fallen in love but it turned out I was being stupid - but not recently.' It's only been six months since the Dirt actor ended his four-month engagement to pop star Ariana Grande. The other reason the Only Living Boy in New York actress was in town was her 20-year-old daughter, who's an acting student enrolled at New York University. 'Sandler is hosting': On Wednesday, the 25-year-old comedian announced he was raffling off two VIP tickets to the May 4 episode of Saturday Night Live for Autism Awareness Month Locked and loaded: On Tuesday night, Pete enjoyed a guys' night out playing shooting games at Dave & Buster's with photographer Marcus Russell Price and his pal Leo Date: The May-December couple - who met in January - were last pictured together on March 19 at Nobu Malibu with Kate's mother Judy Loe and stepfather Roy Battersby '[My ex-boyfriend Michael Sheen] and I have accepted our failure in not producing a nice doctor,' Kate shrugged to DM. 'But acting is what she wants to do. She's very good at it.' On Monday, Beckinsale shared a panicked, private text exchange between the pair after a Haribo gummy 'fell out of' Lily's nose. 'She's very good at it': The other reason Beckinsale was in town was her 20-year-old daughter with ex-boyfriend Michael Sheen, who's an acting student at NYU (pictured Monday) He made clear his love for theme parks in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this month. And on Wednesday, Chris Hemsworth was able to squeeze in a roller coaster ride at Shanghai's Disneyland while promoting Avengers: Endgame. After braving the Tron roller coaster, the Australian actor, 35, boasted that the ride 'wasn't even that scary'. Scroll down for video Work hard, play hard! On Wednesday, actor Chris Hemsworth was able to squeeze in a roller coaster ride at Shanghai's Disneyland while promoting Avengers: Endgame 'I wasn't even afraid,' he said to the camera after stepping off the ride. The group behind him appeared to include the movie's directors Anthony and Joseph Russo. The ex-Home and Away star also shared hilarious footage of him on the ride wildly screaming. But despite the manic expressions, his good looks were unchanged by the high-speed ride as he kept his hair slicked back and off his face. His fun-filled theme park experience comes after he revealed to Jimmy Kimmel he once placed 'two Snickers bars' in his daughter's shoes so she could ride a roller coaster. While the actor was originally proud of what he'd done, he quickly realised there was a reason why his little girl wasn't allowed on the ride. That's a bold move: His fun-filled theme park trip comes after he revealed to Jimmy Kimmel he placed 'two Snickers bars' in his daughter's shoes so she could ride a roller coaster Animated: Chris recalled the story on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! while doing press for his new blockbuster, Avengers: Endgame 'We're at the top and and she's strapped in and the seat is massive on her and I'm like "We beat the system honey well done" and it drops and she [flies up] and I grab on to her and she's screaming the whole way down,' he said. 'So maybe there's a reason that there's a height size. So, don't do that. She's fine, she's well. I'm her hero.' Last month, Chris and wife Elsa Pataky took a no-frills trip to Western Australia with friends and family. The pair left the Tinseltown glamour behind to rough it in tents with little water and no wifi or phone signal. He may be the Australian chef-turned-restauranteur behind Los Angeles eateries Gwen and Maude. But Curtis Stone, 43, chose to dine elsewhere on Monday as he visited rival restaurant Craig's in West Hollywood for a late-night feast. The famous chef looked cheery as he was spotted leaving the venue in a green-and-white spotted shirt and grey jeans. That's not your restaurant! Curtis Stone, 43, chose not to dine at his own restaurants on Monday as he visited rival restaurant Craig's in West Hollywood for a late-night feast He completed his look with a pair of crocodile-skin loafers and a large silver wrist-watch. It's not uncommon for chefs to eat at their competitor's restaurants, and Curtis has previously praised Craig's for its celebrity fan-base. Curtis opened his first restaurant Maude in 2014 in Hollywood, and has since garnered rave reviews and accolades as an international culinary destination. Spotted! The famous chef looked cheery as he was spotted leaving the venue in a green-and-white spotted shirt and grey jeans In 2016 he opened his second restaurant, Gwen, which is also located in Hollywood. Meanwhile, the dashing gourmand is set to join the likes of Nigella Lawson and Maggie beer as a guest judge on the upcoming season of MasterChef Australia. The father-of-two frequently returns to Australia for work, thanks to his ambassador role with supermarket chain Coles. Got the Hollywood style! He completed his look with a pair of crocodile-skin loafers and a large silver wrist-watch In November, he spoke to BW magazine about regularly commuting between Australia and the US. 'I come back about seven times a year,' he said. 'And when I do, I feel like I never left, in that sense I'm lucky because I get to live a double life,' he added. Curtis, who has been married to American actress Lindsay Price since 2013, said that he tries to bring the couple's two sons Hudson, seven, and Emerson, four, along as often as he can. 'I think it's really important they understand that part of their heritage, It's funny because only recently my son told his teacher he's really an Aussie, which was cute,' he explained. Hot-shot: Curtis opened his first restaurant Maude in 2014 in Hollywood, and has since garnered rave reviews and accolades as an international culinary destination His son Garry Chapman's school was put into lockdown during the manhunt for Columbine obsessed Sol Pais. And Dog the Bounty Hunter was 'frantic' upon hearing the news while on vacation with wife Beth in Hawaii, the television personality has told TMZ. 'Yesterday we got a text from the Douglas County schools that there had been a [Be On Lookout alert], all schools have been shut down, and my youngest Garry Boy, we couldn't get a hold of him,' said the A&E star. 'So were were completely freaked out.' Panic: Duane 'Dog' Chapman's son Garry Chapman's [center] school was put into lockdown during the manhunt for Columbine obsessed Sol Pais. The TV star -whose real name is Duane Chapman- continued the harrowing story: 'Tomorrow is his first prom and he's like "Dad, you've gotta come out here, I've gotta go to prom and I can't let none of my friends get killed."' But luckily Garry was not hurt and his prom will go ahead as planned. 'So it's incredible the things you go through,' concluded the relieved father. The panic began when authorities started a frantic search for a teenage girl who flew from Miami to Denver on Monday and bought a pump-action shotgun. 18-year-old Florida girl Sol Pais, who was allegedly 'infatuated' with the Columbine massacre killed herself in a Colorado forest following a massive manhunt that saw schools across Denver shut down. Relief: But luckily Garry was not hurt and his prom will go ahead as planned. Dog seen here in 2015 Pais was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound near the Echo Lake Campground in Mt Evans, just outside Denver, on Wednesday morning. Witnesses told local media that Pais had earlier been spotted running naked through the woods with a gun. Nearly 30 armed law enforcement officers swarmed the area in the moments before confirming that Pais was dead. Captain Marvel star Gemma Chan was honored at the Apex for Youth 27th annual Inspiration Awards gala inside Manhattan's Cipriani Wall Street on Wednesday. The 36-year-old SAG Award nominee bared a shoulder in her single-sleeved black Monse FW/19 dress, matching clutch, and pumps selected by stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray. Hairstylist Heitai Cheung coiffed the London-born Brit's tidy side-parted bun. 'I just want to be part of a change': Captain Marvel star Gemma Chan was honored at the Apex for Youth 27th annual Inspiration Awards gala inside Manhattan's Cipriani Wall Street on Wednesday Make-up artist Marian Woo applied Gemma's bright red pout and kohl-rimmed eyes. Chan's sighting came the day after she hiked the Brush Canyon Trail in LA with The Dirt star Douglas Booth, Informer star Bel Powley, and Mr. Mercedes actor Harry Treadaway. 'I want to keep challenging peoples perceptions,' the Watership Down actress said in the May edition of InStyle Australia - on stands Thursday. 'I hope that the message has been received by now that diversity does pay off. People want to see these stories.' LBD: The 36-year-old SAG Award nominee bared a shoulder in her single-sleeved black Monse FW/19 dress, matching clutch, and pumps selected by stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray Exquisite: Hairstylist Heitai Cheung coiffed the London-born Brit's tidy side-parted bun Chic: Make-up artist Marian Woo applied Gemma's bright red pout and kohl-rimmed eyes Friends! Chan's sighting came the day after she hiked the Brush Canyon Trail in LA with The Dirt star Douglas Booth, Informer star Bel Powley, and Mr. Mercedes actor Harry Treadaway Joining the Kurt Geiger brand ambassador on the red carpet Wednesday night was fellow Apex for Youth honoree, Olivia Munn. The pair may have never acted together, but the half-Chinese 38-year-old loved Crazy Rich Asians so much she wore a Goh Peik Lin (Awkwafina) costume for Halloween. The Six actress looked groovy in a gold tank top beneath a white-striped pantsuit with bell bottoms selected by stylist Jessica Paster. Hairstylist Kiley Fitzgerald coiffed Olivia's middle-parted brunette waves for the ceremony. Hey girl! Joining the Kurt Geiger brand ambassador on the red carpet Wednesday night was fellow Apex for Youth honoree, Olivia Munn Big fan: The pair may have never acted together, but the half-Chinese 38-year-old loved Crazy Rich Asians so much she wore a Goh Peik Lin (Awkwafina) costume for Halloween Seventies retro: The Six actress looked groovy in a gold tank top beneath a white-striped pantsuit with bell bottoms selected by stylist Jessica Paster Dimple alert: Hairstylist Kiley Fitzgerald coiffed Olivia's middle-parted brunette waves for the ceremony Contoured: Make-up artist Carly Fisher applied Munn's brown pout and shimmery eye shadow Make-up artist Carly Fisher applied Munn's brown pout and shimmery eye shadow. 'The biggest message that I would want to share [to youth] is have a strong sense of self,' the Predator actress said on the red carpet. 'Because how will anyone know you're worth it if you don't?' The University of Oklahoma grad was presented with her honor by her beanie-clad pal, New York fashion designer Dao-Yi Chow. Earlier that day, Deadline reported that Olivia (born Lisa) has been cast in Dean Craigs rom-com Love, Wedding, Repeat as well as Michele Civetta's social drama The Gateway. The Predator actress said: 'The biggest message that I would want to share [to youth] is have a strong sense of self, because how will anyone know you're worth it if you don't?' 'I so appreciate everything you said!' The University of Oklahoma grad was presented with her honor by her beanie-clad pal, New York fashion designer Dao-Yi Chow Two new gigs! Earlier that day, Deadline reported that Olivia has been cast in Dean Craigs rom-com Love, Wedding, Repeat as well as Michele Civetta's social drama The Gateway Fahrenheit 11/9 director Michael Moore - who divorced wife Kathleen Glynn in 2014 - attended the Apex for Youth Awards with a mystery woman and a young girl. '[I encourage youth] to help out those who are new Americans, new visitors, new whatever,' the 64-year-old Oscar winner said on the red carpet. 'I think we've been known throughout our history as a welcoming people.' Allure editor-in-chief Michelle Lee looked beautiful in a multi-color Valentino gown featuring a sheer skirt. Fashion designer Phillip Lim looked dapper in a black velvet suit, matching jaunty scarf, and patent leather dress shoes. Moved on? Fahrenheit 11/9 director Michael Moore - who divorced wife Kathleen Glynn in 2014 - attended the Apex for Youth Awards with a mystery woman (M) and a young girl (R) The 64-year-old Oscar winner said: '[I encourage youth] to help out those who are new Americans, new visitors, new whatever. I think we've been known throughout our history as a welcoming people' Epic! Allure editor-in-chief Michelle Lee looked beautiful in a multi-color Valentino gown featuring a sheer skirt With her new book, Our Shoes, Our Selves officially in book stores, Bridget Moynahan is making sure people everywhere know what it's all about. Continuing in her press tour, the author, 47, made her way to the Build Series set along with Sirius XM studios for two back to back interviews on Wednesday in New York City in two stunning outfit variations. Bridget rocked a blue cheetah print top, along with a sheer floral shirt for her separate appearances. Promotions: Bridget Moynahan, 47, made her way to the Build Series set along with Sirius XM studios for two back to back interviews on Wednesday in two stunning outfit variations Prepared: Bridget rocked a blue cheetah print top, along with a sheer floral shirt for her separate appearances For her time on the radio station, the Blue Bloods actress looked stylishly sophisticated in navy blue slacks paired with a collared cheetah shirt. She wrapped a thin black belt around her waist and added earrings to spice up the set. Staying practical, she kept comfortable in black platform sneakers. Smartly dressed: For her time on the radio station, the Blue Bloods actress looked stylishly sophisticated in navy blue slacks paired with a collared cheetah shirt Then for her visit to the Build Series, she switched things up, but remained in a similar vibe. For the second of the shows, she wore black pants with a streak of light pink up the sides. The pink went perfectly with her flower patterned top. Switching it up: With a red, pink and black flower dotting the shirt all over the cream backdrop, Moynahan wore her hair down and curled With a red, pink and black flower dotting the shirt all over the cream backdrop, Moynahan wore her hair down and curled. Looking a bit more done up, she rocked the pants with pointed black heels, but kept the same belt at her hips. Dishing on her time on the show, she took to Twitter and wrote, 'Had a great conversation today with @BUILDseriesNYC on @ourshoesos @BlueBloods_CBS and my callout to #willsmith. #amandabenchley Book photos by @melaniedunea #ourshoesourselves @girlsincnyc @ABRAMSbooks.' Stay tuned: Now, fans can know to expect information on not only her book, but what's next on the CBS hit show coming up too Now, fans can know to expect information on not only her book, but what's next on the CBS hit show coming up too. Moynahan worked with Amanda Benchley to interview 40 women, some famous, about the stories behind their favorite pair of shoes and to tell those stories in Our Shoes, Our Selves: 40 Women, 40 Stories, 40 Pairs of Shoes. One of the well-known women featured in the book is former Today anchor Kate Couric. Other renowned figures who tell their stories include Christy Turlington, Misty Copeland, Padma Lakshmi, Danica Patrick and Rachael Ray. Unstoppable: Moynahan worked with Amanda Benchley to interview 40 women, some famous, about the stories behind their favorite pair of shoes The book contains photos of the shoes that are being talked about as well as other images captured by photographer Melanie Dunea. Moynahan also shares her own personal story in the book about a stressful time in her life that led to the purchase of a pair of motorbike boots. Back in 2007, she had just given birth to her son John whose father was her former boyfriend Tom Brady who had moved on to be with Giselle Bundchen. 'I would have cars following me and men hiding in the bushes outside my house,' she recalled of the paparazzi who pursued her. 'As a new mother, you want to just protect your child. That kind of attention felt like a threat,' she explained. Then one day, as she was followed by photographers on her way to return some baby clothes at Barneys, she caught sight of the motorcycle boots. 'I thought, thats what I need. Let me get a little bit of my 'New York' back, a little armor,' she says in the book. Moynahan is now married to businessman Andrew Frankel whom she wed in 2015. She's the most popular Married At First Sight star on Instagram, known for her glamorous selfies and resemblance to Kim Kardashian. But Martha Kalifatidis looked very different from her polished social media photos during a low-key outing in Chatswood, Sydney last Tuesday. The 30-year-old makeup artist was hardly recognisable without makeup and filters as she attempted to fly under the radar in a pair of oversized sunglasses. Instagram vs reality! Martha Kalifatidis looked very different from her polished social media photos (right) during a low-key outing in Chatswood, Sydney last Tuesday (left) While Martha's Instagram followers are used to seeing her in bikinis and skimpy outfits, she instead covered up in a baggy Harley-Davidson T-shirt. While fans will no doubt be stunned by how different Martha looks in real life, it's not the first time she has made headlines for her overly flattering social media snaps. Back in February, she shared a photo to Instagram of herself posing in the same black bikini she had worn during her honeymoon on Married At First Sight. Is that really you? It's not the first time Martha has made headlines for her overly flattering social media snaps. In February, she shared a photo to Instagram (right) of herself posing in the same black bikini she had worn during her honeymoon on Married At First Sight (left) But in the photo shared online, Martha's lips appeared noticeably plumper and her breasts looked several cup sizes' larger. By contrast, she seemed to have a smaller chest on TV, as well as thinner lips and a considerably paler skin tone. Meanwhile, Martha has made no secret of the fact she's changed her appearance with cosmetic surgery over the years. 'I do Botox but I like to keep it really understated and natural': Martha has made no secret of the fact she's changed her appearance with cosmetic surgery over the years She previously told NW magazine: 'I don't have fillers in my lips - but I do have them in other places on my face. And I've had my boobs done. 'I do Botox but I like to keep it really understated and natural, so I don't like to look like I've had anything done. If you can tell you've had it done, then it's gone wrong.' She also admitted to undergoing rhinoplasty but denied having 'butt implants'. He is in the middle of his Dying to Live Tour. But Kodak Black cancelled his concert in Boston, Massachusetts on Wednesday night. Making things even stranger, the 21-year-old rapper scrapped the show at the last minute and the reason for doing so remains unknown, according to TMZ. Cancellation policy: Kodak Black cancelled his concert in Boston, Massachusetts on Wednesday night The Wake Up in the Sky rapper was set to appear at the House of Blues near Fenway Park. Apparently, fans waited outside the venue for hours, before Kodak's team finally called off the show. The outlet added that the late cancellation forced 'local cops to have to assist in clearing the venue.' But why: Making things even stranger, the 21-year-old rapper scrapped the show at the last minute and the reason for doing so remains unknown, according to TMZ Things only got more complicated from there according to TMZ, as after speaking with several members of Kodak's team, they were no closer to understanding what happened to the show. 'Everyone is telling us the same thing, 'explained the outlet. 'They don't know why the show was canceled and they can't get in touch with Kodak or those traveling with him.' Unknown: Things only got more complicated from there according to TMZ, as after speaking with several members of Kodak's team, they were no closer to understanding what happened to the show Kodak kicked off his Dying to Live Tour on March 14, with a show in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since then, he has played across the United States and Canada, last appearing in Detroit on April 13. The rapper is next slated to play Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut on Thursday, She recently confirmed she is giving her relationship with Lee Cronin another chance after he realised she was the 'best thing that ever happened to him'. And Lydia Bright showed off her washboard abs in a lilac bikini as she enjoyed the final day of her Bali break with her mother, Debbie Douglas, on Wednesday. The former TOWIE star, 28, looked incredible as she posed on a beach swing on the idyllic Indonesian island. Swing when you're winning: Lydia Bright showed off her washboard abs in a lilac bikini as she enjoyed the final day of her Bali break with her mother, Debbie Douglas, on Wednesday The reality TV personality beamed from ear to ear as she sported a make-up free look and had her locks swept back from her face. In the background of the image, Lydia's mum Debbie, 55, could be seen in an emerald green bikini as she pushed her daughter on the swing. Lydia paid tribute to her mother with the caption, by writing: 'No one pushes me like my mum but sometimes she is a little too forceful #PushyParent (swipe left) Bikini @primark AD.' Earlier in the week, the Essex beauty told her followers she was enjoying a freebie trip to the Bliss Sanctuary retreat with her mum and elder sister Georgia. Purple perfection: The former TOWIE star, 28, looked incredible as she posed on a beach swing on the idyllic Indonesian island Fun in the sun: The reality TV personality beamed from ear to ear as she sported a make-up free look and had her locks swept back from her face Keeping her fans up to date during her holiday, the star has posted a series of snaps on social media. In one offering Lydia posted a photograph of herself coming face-to-face with an elephant at a sanctuary in Ubud. The TV star wore a black bikini top and light wash denim shorts as she grinned next to the animal after a day of 'bathing, cuddling and playing'. In the caption, she wrote: 'Getting a hug of an elephant, unforgettable. These beautiful creatures were rescued from Sumatra due to poaching and deforestation and re-homed in a sanctuary in Bali. Excursion: During her getaway, Lydia has shared with her followers about her trip one offering showed a snap of her coming face-to-face elephant at a sanctuary in Ubud 'Although I would love the thought of them running free in the wild, this isn't always possible.' Lydia's girls' trip comes after she confirmed she was back together with ex-boyfriend Lee Cronin, just three months after their split. The former TOWIE star explained to Hello! magazine she had got back with her former flame because he realised she was the 'best thing that had happened to him'. She said: 'We had some time apart and then he realised I was the best thing that ever happened to him. Lucky lady: Earlier in the week, the Essex beauty told her followers she was enjoying a freebie trip to the Bliss Sanctuary retreat with her mum and elder sister Georgia Lydia and Lee met in a nightclub in Ibiza in the summer of 2017, but split just four months later. They eventually reunited and moved in together in January 2018. In an Instagram post in January, the reality star informed her fans that the pair had parted ways. She wrote: 'Sometimes relationships dont work out but having time away to reflect on how lucky I am in my life, what I have achieved and who I have around me fills my heart with so much love. 'Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. Here is to my next chapter.' Quality time: Lydia's mum Debbie, 55, is on the luxury getaway with her daughter Beforehand, Lydia had been in an explosive on-off romance with her TOWIE co-star James 'Arg' Argent, and after eight years of drama, the teenage sweethearts had finally called it quits in 2016. Love is also in the air for Lydia's parents, Debbie and Dave, who plan to tie the knot this year after 40 years together. Lydia said: 'It makes me so happy that my parents are finally tying the knot. They've gone through ups and downs and they've worked very hard all their lives. 'They've always loved each other, but I feel like they're the happiest they've ever been.' The couple have fostered more than 250 boys and girls between them as well as raising their four biological children; Georgia, Lydia, Freddie and Roma. Game Of Thrones viewers have been convinced The Night King is a Targaryen because the fiery message resembled the house sigil and he rode an ice dragon. Fans pointed out the Night King's fire symbol at the end of season eight episode one had the hallmarks of a three-headed dragon which is the sigil of House Targaryen. Social media was awash with viewers speculating the Night King is a Targaryen in the latest theory to take Twitter by storm. Double take: Game Of Thrones fans were certain the Night King is a Targaryen because his fiery message (L) resembled the house sigil (R) and he rode dragons 'I just had a revelation. The Night King is a Targaryen. That is all.' One fan wrote, leading the troops on social media. In hair-raising closing scenes of the premiere episode, the Night King left little Lord Umber nailed to the wall for the Night Watch to find. The well-loved child burned alive in the middle of a fiery symbol which appeared to look like a three-headed dragon which is the house sigil for the Targaryens. What do you think? Social media was awash with viewers speculating the Night King is a Targaryen in the latest theory to take Twitter by storm Explained: Fans pointed out the Night King's fire symbol at the end of season eight episode one had the hallmarks of a three-headed dragon which is the sigil of House Targaryen Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) said: 'It's a message from the Night King.' On reflection, fans have looked back to historic episodes for evidence the Night King could be a member of the Targaryen family. Game Of Thrones viewers' theory gave the menacing scene when the Night King rode the ice dragon in season seven episode seven a whole new meaning. American screenwriter David Benioff recently pointed out only Targaryens can ride dragons when he spoke in the Inside The Episode documentary segment. He said: 'No one has ever ridden a dragon except for Dany. Only Targaryens can ride dragons and that should be a sign for Jon. Jon's not always the quickest with the uptake but he gets there.' Looking back: Game Of Thrones viewers' theory gave the menacing scene when the Night King rode the ice dragon in season seven episode seven a whole new meaning Feisty fans took to social media to share their revelation as they were convinced the Night King was in fact descended from the Targaryen family. Another added: 'Im convinced the night king is a Targaryen and he is coming to claim the throne. Only a Targaryen can ride a dragon.' Others concluded: 'Im sold. The Night King is a Targaryen'; 'The Night King is a Targaryen. Fight me'; 'The night king is a Targaryen'; 'I honestly believe the night king is a Targaryen!' A fan questioned: 'Is that a coincidence or The Night King is Targaryen?' Convinced: Feisty fans took to social media to share their revelation as they were convinced the Night King was in fact descended from the Targaryen family Others added: 'Is the Night King a Targaryen? He was riding a dragon.' 'The night king is a targaryen u heard it here first boys and girls.' 'The Night King is a Targaryen! He can ride a dragon! So maybe they just want their dragons back - the dragon eggs came from the Shadowlands and the Dothrakis said in season one that the grasses from the Shadowlands (aka undead) will take over the world.' 'A GOT THEORY What if the Night King is a Targaryen..? Or what if Jon is forced to kill Dany?' (sic) Myer ambassador Kris Smith's girlfriend Sarah Boulazeris gave birth to the couple's first child together, Mila, in December. And on Thursday, the Bondi personal trainer proved they're just like other new parents by lamenting her lack of sleep. Taking to Instagram, the 28-year-old shared a snap of her cherubic daughter on a family out in Sydney. 'Lucky you're cute': Kris Smith's girlfriend Sarah Boulazeris reveals struggle with 'sleep deprivation' on a family day out with four-month-old daughter Mila Sarah shared a short clip of her cherubic daughter smiling in her pram. 'How's your sleep deprivation, mum? Lucky you're cute!' she wrote. Sarah was pictured walking with her model boyfriend Kris, who also joked about sleepless nights. Too cute: Sarah posted this adorable photo of her daughter, Mila 'One more word and the unicorn [toy] gets it,' he joked to Mila It was a candid moment for the couple, who have regularly spoken about their journey as new parents on social media. The young family enjoyed a luxurious vacation to Byron Bay last month, staying at the upscale Elements of Byron Bay & Spa. 'I look like I'm the one who has had the baby': The young family enjoyed a luxurious vacation to Byron Bay last month, staying at the upscale Elements of Byron Bay & Spa Sarah, who maintained light exercise during her pregnancy, flaunted her stunning curves in a skimpy striped bikini during the idyllic vacation. Taking to Instagram, Sarah looked happy and relaxed as she enjoyed her downtime in the tourist hub, sipping on an iced coffee on a sun lounge. The eye-catching display caught the attention of boyfriend Kris, who was in awe of his girlfriend's stunning physique just months after Mila's birth. Georgia Love, 30, and Lee Elliot, 35, have defied critics by staying together since finding love on The Bachelorette in 2016. And on Thursday, the smitten couple jetted off ona luxury holiday to South Africa. They both documented their Airport antics on Instagram, while waiting to board their flights. Easter escape! Georgia Love and Lee Elliot jet out of Melbourne on yet another luxury holiday... as they head to South Africa Georgia and Lee looked ecstatic during a wine tasting at the Icons Victoria bar at Melbourne Airport. The Channel Ten journalist was dressed comfortably for the long-haul flight, in a black singlet top, grey leggings and white sneakers. 'We were so overexcited we got to @melbourneairportau early enough to do a full wine tasting at Icons Victoria before we head off and taste aaaall the South African wines,' she captioned. 'Who says the fun has to start when you land? Everything happens for a riesling!' It's wine-o'clock somewhere! The Channel Ten journalist was dressed comfortably for the long-haul flight, in a black singlet top, grey leggings and white sneakers Over on Lee's Instagram page, the hunk uploaded a story of them sitting in a car on their way to the airport. Georgia wriggled in her seat excitedly as he panned over their stacked luggage in the boot and a bottle of champagne nestled between them. Holiday Road by Lindsey Buckingham, made famous from holiday film National Lampoon's Family Vacation, plays over the top. They're coming! Lee also couldn't contain his excitement as he filmed Georgia wriggling in her car seat presumably on their way to the airport 'Coming for you South Africa' Lee wrote. Yesterday, Georgia posted a photo of the pair in a swimming pool from their last vacation - the pair looked ecstatic as they sport quirky sunglasses among a tropical setting. 'Throwing back to our last overseas trip before we head off on our next one TOMORROW!' she wrote. It is unclear how long the pair will be travelling for and what exactly their itinerary entails, but as Georgia made clear on Wednesday, it is clear what they won't be doing. They love a vacation! Yesterday, Georgia posted a photo of the pair in a swimming pool from their last vacation - the pair looked ecstatic as they sport quirky sunglasses and smile into the camera In an for essay for Whimn Georgia felt compelled to speak up by weighing in on a particularly disturbing issue after a friend told her that 'nine out of 10 girls these days ask to be choked during sex'. 'Now I know I have been in a relationship for a while now, but surely I'm not so old and boring as to be the only one who thinks this is worrying?' she wrote. 'Let's be real here. Choking can kill. It is violent, hateful and dangerous. So why are people asking for it? Why are women (especially in the age of #MeToo) not only letting men degrade and put them in danger, but asking them to?' Worrying: On Wednesday, Georgia weighed in on a particularly disturbing issue after a friend told her that 'nine out of 10 girls these days ask to be choked during sex' Georgia explained that she is aware choking during sex, or erotic asphyxiation, is not a new trend and that she doesn't 'judge' people who are genuinely into it. But her concern is that some women and girls may believe that sexual choking is something they have to do to please a man. 'You do not have to do something that makes you scared, uncomfortable or puts you in danger,' she wrote. She was dumped by Dan Webb last week due to 'trust issues'. And on Thursday, Jessika Power alluded to feeling 'broken' and 'alone' in a cryptic quote on Instagram. 'I have endured pain and loss, I have felt broken. I have known hardship, and I have felt lost and alone,' the post read. 'I have felt broken: MAFS' Jessika Power posts a cryptic quote and a busty selfie... after ex-boyfriend Dan Webb said he will NEVER speak to her again 'But here I stand, trying to move forward, one day at a time. 'I will remember the lessons in my life because they are making me who I am. Stronger.' The post came after Dan revealed in a YouTube video that he will never talk to Jessika again. 'I have endured pain and loss': Jessika posted this quote to her Instagram on Thursday 'I want to set the record straight - there is no way in the world I'd be getting back with Jess, no way. I won't ever speak of her again,' he said. 'It brought back the first reason why I broke up with her at the start. I've had trust issues throughout our relationship. Just the lies, you know?' 'There are so many rumours and so many stories out there that have been coming to light since we've been together, I can't keep up.' Over: The Queensland car broker (right) split with Jessika last Friday after they clashed on Talking Married last Monday Tearing up, Dan added he 'put himself through misery' by having an affair with Jessika behind the backs of their on-screen partners Tamara Joy and Mick Gould. 'I made myself look like a fool to have an affair on TV,' he said. The Queensland car broker split with Jessika last Friday after they clashed on Talking Married last Monday. Kim Kardashian has already been offered a job at a law firm, having taken a foray into legal studies. Famed attorney Robert Shapiro - who worked closely with her father Robert on OJ Simpson murder trial - has praised Kim, 38, for her qualities, explaining that they will transfer well when it comes to working as a lawyer. According to TMZ, he said: 'Kim's already done incredible work with no experience, so the sky's the limit now that she's seriously practicing law.' You're hired! Kim Kardashian has already been offered a job at a law firm, having taken a foray into legal studies He added: 'She has a long, difficult road ahead of her and there's a high chance of failure... but she'll pull through.' He allegedly then said that he would happily employ her. The reality veteran plans to take the California state bar exam in 2022. And proving how serious she is about her new passion, Kim was pictured with a binder tucked under her arm as she arrived at her torts exam on Wednesday. Later in the day the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star revealed she passed the exam. 'Aced my test btw,' she wrote on Twitter along with some related emojis. Famed: Attorney Robert Shapiro - who worked closely with her father Robert on OJ Simpson murder trial - has praised Kim, 38, for her qualities, explaining that they will transfer well when it comes to working as a lawyer Back in the day: Kim's father Robert - seen here centre, who died in 2003 - famously worked on the trial of OJ Simpson in 1995, and the sports star was acquitted in a historic moment Dynamic duo: Shapiro also worked closely with OJ on his trial. It was a legal case that gripped America and saw tens of millions of viewers tune in Keeping it comfy: She made sure to wear a casual outfit so as not to distract from the matter at hand Coming prepared: The reality star lugged a khaki backpack which appeared to be weighed down with more books Exam day: Kim was dressed comfortably in sweats as she hopped out of her Range Rover and into an office building in Los Angeles On Instagram on Tuesday Kim shared a glimpse of some study notes in her binder as well as flashcards featuring handwritten legal definitions and key terms on them. Within her notes could be seen definitions of 'negligence', 'standard of care' and 'breach of duty.' She captioned the images with 'Torts Test Tomorrow'. A tort is 'a wrongful act or an infringement of a right (other than under contract) leading to civil legal liability.' Torts is one of three subjects that Kardashian has been studying in her first year of law. Kim revealed this week that she's coming to the end of her first year of studies and will be taking the 'baby bar' exam in June. She discussed her new direction in life in a Vogue interview last week, revealing that she has been studying for the 2022 state bar exam since last summer. 'Aced it!': Kim later tweeted on Wednesday that she passed the test Ambition: Kim's binder had the word 'criminal' written on the spine and she carried a cream snakeskin Birkin bag Legal terminology: Kim was tested on her knowledge of torts - which are 'wrongful acts or infringements of rights leading to civil legal liability.' She's got this! Kim disappeared into an office building after arriving solo Days later she hit back at her haters who accused her of relying on her 'money and privilege' to pursue her dream with a lengthy Instagram post. She detailed the gruelling study schedule she has undertaken to achieve her goal and that she disconnected from her friends and sacrificed time with her kids to spend 18 hours a week on her studies. 'I want people to understand that there is nothing that should limit your pursuit of your dreams, and the accomplishment of new goals. You can create your own lanes, just as I am. She added, 'The state bar doesnt care who you are. Everyone can take this route if you live in a state where this is allowed. Its true I did not finish college. Exam time: Kim shared to her Instagram account on Monday that she was brushing up on her legal terminology ahead of a 'torts test tomorrow' Kim went on to reveal that she needed 60 credits to 'read the law' in an 'in office law school being apprenticed by lawyers' and she had 75. 'For anyone assuming this is the easy way out, its not. My weekends are spent away from my kids while I read and study. I work all day, put my kids to bed and spend my nights studying. Kim admitted feeling daunted at the huge challenge she set for herself but is thankful for her support system after distancing herself from her social group to dedicate her time to her studies. She continued, 'There are times I feel overwhelmed and when I feel like I cant do it but I get the pep talks I need from the people around me supporting me. I changed my number last year and disconnected from everyone because I have made this strict commitment to follow a dream of mine - Its never too late to follow your dreams.' Along with her message Kim posted a photo of her sat down with her two mentors Jessica Jackson and Erin Haney. The reality star began a four-year long apprenticeship at a San Francisco law firm last summer. Diligent: In an Instagram post on Monday, Kim explained the lengths she is going to study for the state bar. She is pictured with her mentors Jessica Jackson and Erin Haney She said she was inspired to study law after successfully petitioning US President Donald Trump last year to pardon Alice Marie Johnson. Johnson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother, had served nearly 22 years of a life sentence for cocaine trafficking. A week after meeting with Kardashian, President Trump pardoned Johnson in June 2018. 'I just felt like I wanted to be able to fight for people who have paid their dues to society,' she told Vogue. '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,' said the mother-of-three whose own father Robert was an attorney who helped defend OJ Simpson in his murder trial. She balances being an actress with being a mum to her young daughter. And Scarlett Johansson explained her little girl Rose has been convinced she's a superhero as she appeared on Lorraine with her co-star Paul Rudd on Thursday. The Avengers star, 34, who reprises her role of Black Widow for new movie Endgame, said her four-year-old doesn't think she's got a 'regular job'. 'Who are you fighting?' Avengers star Scarlett Johansson revealed her daughter Rose, 4, is convinced the actress is a superhero in real life She explained to TV stand-in Christine Lampard: 'I was going to the office, not even going to the set, she asked me, "Who are you fighting?" 'I don't think she thinks I've got a regular job. I can't image how abstract that is for a four-year-old.' Scarlett brings up her daughter with her ex-husband Romain Dauriac whom she was married to from 2014 until 2017. The Hollywood star went onto marry Ryan Reynolds from 2008 until 2011. In Endgame, Scarlett returned to her role as Black Widow, Paul transformed back into his Ant-Man part in the Marvel canon. Role model: The Avengers star, who reprises her role of Black Widow for new movie Endgame, said her four-year-old doesn't think she's got a 'regular job' While Paul said his 14-year-old son Jack is a 'big fan' of Scarlett, he revealed the teenager often mocked the actor for his role as the 'stupid' superhero. Paul took the teasing on the chin as he asserted his son was 'proud' of his acting efforts even if he 'still got in the shots'. He said: 'He said I can't wait to see how stupid you'll be in that. He said it with a smile on his face. He loves it. He loves all the Marvel films. 'He's also very quick to remind me I'm not Falcon. It's nice, I'm his dad. He's 14. He's proud but he still gets in the shots. He's a big fan of yours [he says to Scarlett]. Amazing achievement: The Hollywood star balances being an actress with being a mum to her young daughter 'He'll say, "black widows can take down ants in real life".' The pair join a star-studded catalogue of the superheroes as they battle to save the Marvel universe from Thanos' clutches. Paul said Marvel fans will be 'satisfied' with the latest three-hour movie in the Avengers canon Endgame. He said: 'It's very satisfying from what I hear.' Good nature: While Paul said his 14-year-old son Jack is a 'big fan' of Scarlett, he revealed the teenager often mocked the actor for his role as the 'stupid' superhero Scarlett admitted it was a 'huge relief' to have women join the line-up for the Avengers movies because she felt left out with her male co-stars. She said: 'It was a huge relief for me. You can only imagine a decade ago. It was a major testosterone festival. It was me and the dudes. Locker room banter. 'I was so thankful to have two other women. We'd cling to each other. Now the universe has expanded. We've got so many female actors. It's a huge relief!' Avengers: Endgame is released in UK cinemas on 25th April. Former Bachelor star Nick Cummins, 31, was known for his larrikin behaviour during his season of the show last year. And on Thursday, the former Wallabies player showed fans his humorous side on a camping trip in the Blue Mountains. Taking to Instagram, the curly-haired hunk shared two shirtless snaps flaunting his burly physique near a campfire. 'When your bum catches fire but you play it cool': Former Bachelor Nick Cummins flaunts his burly physique in a hilarious snap while camping in the Blue Mountains Posing with his back to the camera and his arms outstretched, Nick appeared to make a fart joke after flames appeared to come out of his shorts. 'When your bum catches fire and you play it cool for the shot,' he captioned a series of cheeky photographs. Nick showed off his ripped physique while wearing his trademark akubra hat on the long weekend trip. Flaunting it: Nick showed off his ripped physique while wearing his trademark akubra hat on the long weekend trip Nick appears to be shunning the limelight since the October finale of the show, which saw him gain the ire of fans after not choosing either finalist. The snaps come only days after former Bachelor star Keira Maguire dropped a bombshell on podcast The Buzz, claiming to have proof Nick was never going to pick a winner last year. 'Well, the thing is Nick never had any intention to actually end up with anyone. Like, we knew that!' she told co-hosts Joey Carroll and Mikkayla Mossop. 'He fully did it for publicity': Speaking on her podcast The Buzz this week, Keira explained that Nick's globetrotting lifestyle is evidence he was never going to settle down Keira explained that the former rugby player's globetrotting lifestyle is evidence he was never going to settle down. 'He's not ready to settle down. Have you seen his lifestyle?' she said. 'There was no way. He fully did [The Bachelor] for publicity and that's a full stop. We don't even need to talk about that.' 'He had no intention from day dot to even hook up with any of them,' she concluded. Whoops! Nick's public image as a 'likeable Aussie larrikin' was shattered after he dumped both women in last year's Bachelor finale. Pictured with Sophie Tieman Nick has been less than pleased with his experience on reality TV, with him hitting out at former love interest Brooke Blurton this week. On Monday, Woman's Day magazine published Nick's exchange with a fan, leaving no doubt that he still feels bitter about his experience on the dating show. 'That's what the TV world is unfortunately,' Nick wrote in response to a follower who claimed Channel 10 was 'using him' to promote Bachelor in Paradise. 'I'll get back at them with mass success and be the happiest I can be. F**k em, basically,' he added. Brooke Blurton has sensationally quit Bachelor In Paradise. The beauty walked away from the show during Thursday's episode, after being dumped by Alex Nation. 'I feel like a broken little girl right now,' sobbed Brooke, 24, before leaving the luxury resort in Fiji and returning to Australia. 'I feel like a broken little girl right now': Brooke Blurton (left) QUITS Bachelor In Paradise as she breaks down in tears after being dumped by Alex Nation (right) Earlier in the episode, Alex dumped Brooke while revealing her decision to focus on her blossoming romance with Bill Goldsmith instead. 'Coming into this I was keen as mustard [on you], and I feel we have really good connection and get each other,' said Alex. 'But I feel like after our date, whilst I still think you're amazing and beautiful, my feelings for Bill have surpassed what was going on with you.' Earlier in the series, the girls enjoyed a steamy date while passionately kissing. 'My feelings for Bill have surpassed what was going on with you': Brooke was shattered as Alex let her down, revealing she prefers Bill Goldsmith to her It just wasn't meant to be: Earlier in the series, the girls enjoyed a steamy date while passionately kissing Discussing the rejection with producers, Brooke confessed: 'It was upsetting to hear that, I thought that I was connecting with Alex. I'm feeling lost. 'It's hard to see Alex Nation and Bill develop such a strong connection. I feel like Alex Nation can definitely do better than Bill, I get a sly vibe from him - he's a snake.' The beauty then revealed she's 'worried' Bill may break Alex's heart, while dubbing them a 'recipe for disaster'. 'I wanted to spend more time with you': After taking some time to contemplate her next move, Brooke sat down with Alex in the evening to tell her she is quitting the show Shock blow! Although she understood Brooke's decision, Alex then starting to cry while walking away from the cameras to compose herself After taking some time to contemplate her next move, Brooke sat down with Alex in the evening to tell her she is quitting the show. 'My heart's not in it and I came here wanting to get to know you. It sucks, I wanted to spend more time with you,' said Brooke. Although she understood Brooke's decision, Alex then starting to cry while walking away from the cameras to compose herself. 'I was hoping to find love, I definitely put myself out there, I did find someone that I had potential with but it wasn't meant to be': Brooke then left the resort to return to Australia She's made her choice! Alex is keen to focus on Bill Goldsmith, who she has also kissed In her final interview, Brooke concluded: 'I'm being real with my emotions and I feel like a broken little girl right now. 'I was hoping to find love, I definitely put myself out there, I did find someone that I had potential with but it wasn't meant to be.' Her abrupt exit is similar to her farewell on Nick Cummins' series of The Bachelor last year, which she also quit a week before the finale. She works hard to juggle her busy Hollywood career with family life. And Rachel Weisz looked every inch the doting mum as she treated her son Henry, 12, with a trip to the Royal Opera House in London on Wednesday. The actress, 49, cut a stylish figure in a tailored navy blazer as she joined Henry to watch a performance composed by the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. Bonding time: Rachel Weisz looked every inch the doting mum as she treated her son Henry, 12, with a trip to the Royal Opera House in London on Wednesday Rachel paired the blazer with a crisp white shirt and velour lion print trousers, which sheathed over her slim figure. She carried a blue striped scarf in her arm and wore her brunette locks in soft waves. The Mummy star appeared to be enjoying some quality bonding time with Henry, whose father is Rachel's ex fiance Darren Aronofsky, during the Easter holidays, with her husband Daniel Craig and their eight-month-old daughter missing out on the outing. Chic: The actress, 49, cut a stylish figure in a tailored navy blazer as she joined Henry to watch a performance composed by the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi Rachel and Daniel, who tied the knot in 2011, previously told friends they were 'very happy' to welcome their daughter into the world in August. The private duo had been laying low in New York as they prepared for the birth of their child and last walked a red carpet together in April 2018. Rachel was last pictured in April in the Big Apple, where she covered her large baby bump with a black smock top. The actress first shared her baby news in an interview that month with the New York Times, telling the publication: 'Daniel and I are so happy.' She added: 'Were going to have a little human. We cant wait to meet him or her. Its all such a mystery.' She later talked about raising her newborn in the UK, with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. 'Is the child going to be raised American or English,' Colbert asked the NYC resident, causing Rachel to quip: 'I suppose it will have to be bilingual!' Daniel and Rachel kept details of the pregnancy a closely guarded secret, not publicly revealing the due date or the gender of the baby. Rachel shares son Henry, with former fiance, director Darren, while Daniel, 50, has a daughter Ella, 26, with ex-wife Fiona Loudon. They began dating in 2010 and married in June 2011 in a private New York ceremony with just four guests - their children and two family friends. New Victoria's Secret model Barbara Palvin showed off her incredible curves in pink underwear for a new lingerie campaign. She playfully toyed with the pink straps of her bra when she posed up a storm for the raunchy campaign. She joined the likes of Lais Ribeiro and Stella Maxwell for the incredible shoot. Hot stuff! New Victoria's Secret model Barbara Palvin showed off her curves in pink lingerie as she and a host of other models stripped off for new campaign Smoldering snap! Lais Ribeiro also sizzled in pink lingerie as she turned up the heat with her fashion shoots The star-studded procession of Victoria's Secret Angels amazed when they posed for a series of flirtatious snaps in New York City. Scantily-clad Stella seductively sucked her finger and she winked for the camera as she posed in a hot pink two-piece. Alexina Graham also starred in the campaign alongside the long-running Victoria's Secret models. Raunchy! Scantily-clad Stella seductively sucked her finger and she winked for the camera as she posed in a hot pink two-piece Alexina provocatively wagged her finger at the camera as she slid her fantastic figure into a pink bra and a mismatching turquoise blue briefs. The new Angel swept her flame-coloured curls away from her face to reveal her pretty features and let her tresses tumble down her shoulders. Alexina gained her wings this year for the first time and she is the first redhead to become an Angel but she has been modelling for the lingerie brand for two years. The lingerie pin-up walked her first Victoria's Secret show in 2017 and she walked for the second time in the annual catwalk in 2018. Barbara also transformed into a Victoria's Secret Angel in 2019 but she first walked for the brand in 2012 for the annual show and Barcelona Bridal Week 2012 runway. Lais walked in the Victoria's Secret shows for seven years between 2010 and 2018, only skipping the catwalk in 2012 and becoming an Angel in 2015. Stella strutted her stuff in the iconic lingerie annual show in 2014 and she became an Angel the following year. She's just returned from a work trip to Nashville, where she has been focusing on her singing career. And Megan McKenna was fulfilling yet more professional commitments on Thursday when she took part in an al fresco fashion photoshoot in Essex. The 26-year-old looked incredible with her blonde locks perfectly styled and her lips sporting a slick of bright red lipstick. Doing her thing: Megan McKenna looked stunning as she got back to work at a fashion photoshoot in Essex following her recent work trip to Nashville Glossy: She ran her fingers through her hair as the photographer got to work She wore a cotton T-shirt which had the words: 'Good boy ramen' on the front with a picture of a little cat. The former TOWIE star tucked it into a pair of cream trousers which were cropped in length - and she completed her look with box-fresh white trainers. A team of hair and make-up artists got to work on her look in between shots. Animal instinct: She wore a cotton T-shirt which had the words: 'Good boy ramen' on the front with a picture of a little cat Chic: The former TOWIE star tucked it into a pair of cream trousers which were cropped in length - and she completed her look with box-fresh white trainers Getting into it: Megan pulled a series of funny expressions as she got into the spirit of things New look: She showed off a faux nose piercing as she posed for yet more looks Earlier on the day, Megan was sporting a more natural look wearing a cream ensemble. Wearing a big smile on her face, Megan was wearing long hair extensions as she showed off another look. Megan's trip to Nashville was booked in before December. Lovely locks: Earlier on the day, Megan was sporting a more natural look wearing a cream ensemble Refreshing: She treated herself to a fizzy drink as she wore her hair up And during her time in the home of country music she visited country music hot spots and performed at the iconic Bluebird cafe. It's been an extremely tough time for the star after the death of her former boyfriend Mike Thalasittis. Police confirmed he was found hanged in a London park. The star released a statement on Twitter to offer condolences to Mike's family, two days after his death in March. Snap happy: She took a selfie in a mirror before heading outside as she put on an animated display Smothing her locks: She ruffled her hair as she made sure she was picture perfect Bronzed goddess: Megan showed off a golden glow as she headed outside She wrote at the time: 'Sorry I haven't been on social media but I'm in complete shock and trying to come to terms with this. 'I can't believe I'm even writing this post. My thoughts and prayers are with Mike's family. Rest in peace Mike x' Mike and Megan dated on and off throughout 2018, but ended their relationship for good last August. All done: Megan clutched her hair extensions in a bag as she prepared to head home Susanna Reid has insisted her friendship with Kevin Clifton did not cause the breakdown of her relationship with Dominic Cotton. Speaking on Loose Women, the Good Morning Britain presenter said that she's still in touch with the dancing pro and her ex partner, as she laughed off claims of the so-called 'curse.' It comes after it was revealed that Strictly winner Stacey Dooley has been secretly dating Kevin for several months, following an explosive interview with her ex-boyfriend Sam Tucknott. Not the case: Susanna Reid has insisted her friendship with Kevin Clifton did not cause the breakdown of her relationship with Dominic Cotton Susanna explained that despite rumours surrounding her relationship with Kevin, things between them have always been strictly platonic. The breakfast presenter also addressed the show's so-called 'curse,' by admitting that that backstage the show is like 'one big Christmas party.' She said: 'So I say it's a Strictly coincidence. Kevin and I got on like a house on fire. It was not responsible for the break up of my relationship. I am still fantastic friends with my ex and really good friends with Kevin.' Done: The Good Morning Britain star said she's still 'fantastic friends' with her ex partner Dominic, who she split from in 2014 - three months after her Strictly stint Candid: Susanna explained that despite rumours surrounding her relationship with Kevin, things are have always been strictly platonic Susanna also insisted that the timing of her 2014 split from Dominic - three months after her Strictly stint - was wholly coincidental. 'Unfortunately our relationship was at that stage. If you look at Strictly overall, the vast majority of people end up in the same relationships. 'I met my ex through work. It is normal. Strictly is just like one big Christmas party!' It comes after it was revealed that Kevin had been secretly dating his celebrity partner Stacey, after the pair were crowned series champions in December. Open: The breakfast presenter also addressed the show's so-called 'curse,' by admitting that that backstage the show is like 'one big Christmas party' Open: She said: 'Kevin and I got on like a house on fire. It was not responsible for the break up of my relationship. I am still fantastic friends with my ex and really good friends with Kevin' Shocking: It comes after it was revealed that Kevin was secretly dating his 2018 celebrity partner Stacey Dooley, following an explosive interview with her ex Sam Tucknott Kevin has yet to comment on his new headline-grabbing romance, but Stacey took to Twitter on Monday to insist there 'are two sides to every story' after her ex Sam branded Kevin 'a rat'. She wrote: 'Anyone with any adult life experience knows there are 2 sides to every story. I haven't got the time or energy to correct some of the utter nonsense I've read on here. Re Sam, I loved him v much and only wish him happiness and success.' The news came to light after Stacey's ex Sam told the Mail On Sunday their relationship was already under strain, and he first discovered their romance after finding text messages between the pair. Insiders have since claimed that Stacey, known for her hard-hitting BBC Three documentaries, 'dumped' Sam for Kevin as he was 'better for her image,' according to The Mirror. Daytime star: Susanna also addressed her decision to quit drinking last year, confessing she was stood up by a date after they discovered she was teetotal Gorgeous: Susanna was a guest on the show as she spoke about her upcoming ITV special Joanna Dennehy: Serial Killer During her daytime appearance, Susanna also addressed her decision to quit drinking last year, confessing she was stood up by a date after they discovered she was teetotal. The star - who is now dating Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish - explained: 'I was due to go out on a date last summer and the guy texted saying, ''Where shall we go? Let's go out for a drink.'' 'I said, ''Oh I hate to say this but actually I don't drink, so we can do something else.'' And then that was it. I thought, ''if that is the kind of night he wants, I am better off out of it.''' 'I am still off the booze. Even Piers [Morgan] himself says he normally drives people to drink when they work with him. I have managed to stay off the booze pretty much for seven months. It's not entirely teetotal as I have had on average one day drink a month.' Sensational: The presenter cut an effortlessly chic figure in a pretty red lace dress as she appeared on the ITV chat show Looking good: The brunette beauty finished her look with matching striped heels, and her glossy brunette tresses styled into loose curls Susanna continued: 'One of the last times that I drank was after the Oscars, we did this show in LA. 'I thought, if you are not going to have a margarita after the world's biggest most glamorous party, when are you going to have one? I had one, it took me two days to get over the hangover.' Susanna was a guest on the show as she spoke about her upcoming ITV special Joanna Dennehy: Serial Killer, which sees her follow the murders of the woman described as 'the most dangerous in the prison system.' Jason Statham and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson will battle Idris Elba's 'black Superman' in Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw. The hotly-anticipated spin-off released its second trailer on Thursday, with the dynamic duo going to war with villainous mercenary Brixton (Elba). The explosive preview is packed with gravity-defying stunts and comedic scenes as cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton gains control of an insidious bio-threat which could alter humanity forever. Thrilling: Jason Statham and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson will battle Idris Elba's 'black Superman' in Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw Hulking lawman Hobbs, (Johnson), a loyal agent of America's Diplomatic Security Service, and lawless outcast Shaw (Statham), a former British military elite operative, became sworn enemies in 2015s Fast & Furious 7. The pair have never quite developed a warm friendship, exchanging bitter words and blows. But when Brixton bests a brilliant and fearless rogue MI6 agent (The Crowns Vanessa Kirby), who just happens to be Shaws sister Hattie the two rivals have to partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves. Evil: The hotly-anticipated spin-off released its second trailer on Thursday, with the dynamic duo going to war with villainous mercenary Brixton (Elba) Action-packed: The explosive preview is packed with gravity-defying stunts and comedic scenes Powerful: Cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton gains control of an insidious bio-threat which could alter humanity forever Enemies: Hulking lawman Hobbs, (Johnson), a loyal agent of America's Diplomatic Security Service, and lawless outcast Shaw (Statham) have never quite developed a warm friendship Stronger together: But when Brixton bests a fearless rogue MI6 agent (The Crowns Vanessa Kirby), who just happens to be Shaws sister Hattie the two rivals have to partner up In the trailer, an intimidating Elba says in a VT at Piccadilly Circus: 'Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw. We've got unfinished business, Shaw's sister took something from me. A virus that can wipe out half the population and I want it back.' It then flashes to a scene where MI6 agent Hattie is lying chained on a medical bed before she wipes out her opponents and steals the medical vial in which the virus is contained. With Shaw telling Hobbs he will deal with it because it's 'family business', the trailer travels across the globe, from Los Angeles to London to the toxic wasteland of Chernobyl to the lush beauty of Samoa. Intimidating: In the trailer, Elba says in a VT at Piccadilly Circus: 'Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw. We've got unfinished business, Shaw's sister took something from me. A virus' Rogue: It then flashes to a scene where MI6 agent Hattie is lying chained on a medical bed before she wipes out her opponents and steals the medical vial in which the virus is contained Family first: Helen Mirren makes a special guest appearance as Deckard's mother Magdalene, telling Shaw: 'This whole thing sounds really dodgy, look after your sister' Helen Mirren makes a special guest appearance as Deckard's mother Magdalene, telling Shaw: 'This whole thing sounds really dodgy, look after your sister'. As tensions reach fever pitch, an alliance forms between Shaw's sister Hattie and the duo and they travel to Hobbs' home in Samoa to prepare for war against an army of mercenaries. With just spears and axes as weapons, Shaw says 'we're in serious trouble' as a gun-wielding Brixton descends on the island and starts an epic battle. Travel: As tensions reach fever pitch, an alliance forms between Shaw's sister Hattie and the duo and they travel to Hobbs' home in Samoa to prepare for war against an army of mercenaries Battle: With just spears and axes as weapons, Shaw says 'we're in serious trouble' as a gun-wielding Brixton descends on the island and starts an epic battle Action-packed: After fighting on the battlefield, the pair try to take him down in a helicopter, but as their car flies into the sea it remains to be seen if they will come out victorious After fighting on the battlefield, the pair try to take him down in a helicopter, but as their car flies into the sea it remains to be seen if they will come out victorious. The film is directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2) from a script by longtime Fast & Furious narrative architect Chris Morgan. It is produced by Morgan, Johnson, Statham and Hiram Garcia. The executive producers are Dany Garcia, Kelly McCormick, Steven Chasman, Ethan Smith and Ainsley Davies. Other co-stars include Eiza Gonzalez, Eddie Marsan, Vanessa Kirby, Roman Reigns and Cliff Curtis. Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw will be released in UK cinemas on August 2, 2019. Jett Kenny and his dancing partner Lily Cornish were voted off Dancing With The Stars in emotional scenes on Monday night. The handsome blond lifeguard is not showing any signs of retiring from public life anytime soon, however. Jett, 24, posted a photo of him shirtless on the beach to Instagram on Thursdsay while pondering his next move. Abs-olute perfection! On Thursday, a smoking hot Jett Kenny (pictured) contemplated life after DWTS while posting a shirtless beach photo to Instagram. His mother, Olympic swimming champion Lisa Curry, however banned him from becoming the next Bachelor Jett captioned his striking Instagram picture: 'No more nippers. No more dancing. What to do now?' The handsome dancer showed off his chiselled body and rock hard abs in a pair of black Speedos. He captioned the striking picture: 'No more nippers. No more dancing. What to do now?' When one follower suggested Jett become the next Bachelor, Jett replied: 'Is that what my life has come to?' When one follower suggested Jett (left) become the next Bachelor, he replied: 'Is that what my life has come to?' Lisa (right) was having none of it, commenting: 'Absolutely not! Couldn't think of anything worse ...' Jett's mother - Olympic swimming champion Lisa Curry - made it clear she was having nothing of it, though, and commented: 'Absolutely not! Couldn't think of anything worse ...' Another fan suggested Jett 'hang out with Lily', his DWTS dancing partner. Other followers joined in the call for the TV star to spend more time with Lily and with good reason, as it has been rumoured Jett is indeed dating the beautiful brunette. New love? Another fan suggested Jett 'hang out with Lily', his DWTS dancing partner. Other followers joined in the call for the TV star to spend more time with Lily Cornish (pictured) and with good reason, as it has been rumoured Jett is indeed dating the beautiful brunette What's more, Jett is said to be determined to make a long-distance relationship work with Lily. A close family friend of the surfer claimed to Woman's Day that the blond hunk is 'head over heels in love' on Monday. 'He's trying as hard as he can to make it work, but it's tricky because she lives in Melbourne and he lives on the Sunshine Coast,' the insider allegedly said. What's more, Jett is said to be determined to make a long-distance relationship work with Lily. A close family friend of the surfer claimed to Woman's Day that the blond hunk is 'head over heels in love' on Monday The source went on to claim that Jett's mother Lisa has welcomed Lily into the family with open arms. 'Lisa is Lily's biggest fan and really wants it to work out, so she's gone all out to make Lily feel welcome and a part of the family,' they added. She's been a key cast member experiencing the highs and lows of TOWIE life since 2016. And Courtney Green ensured all eyes were on her as she headed to filming alongside co-stars Shelby Tribble and Clelia Theodorou at a 'traffic light party' in Essex on Thursday. Ramping up the glamour for the daytime shoot, the TV personality, 23, flashed her bra in a sheer glittery top, which she teamed with a silver pleated mini-skirt. Stunning: Courtney Green ensured all eyes were on her as she headed to TOWIE filming at a 'traffic light party' in Essex on Thursday Courtney cinched in her waist with a Gucci belt and boosted her height in red tie-up stilettos. The reason for the TOWIE favourite's bright footwear was because the cast were filming scenes for an upcoming episode where they attend a traffic light party - where attendees dress according to their relationship status. People in a relationship wear red, amber for it's complicated and green if they are single and ready to mingle. Shelby Tribble, 26, and Clelia Theodorou, 24, both slipped into green ensembles for the bash, highlighting that they're on the lookout. Pretty: Ramping up the glamour for the daytime shoot, the TV personality, 23, flashed her bra in a sheer glittery top, which she teamed with a silver pleated mini-skirt Gorgeous in green: Shelby Tribble, 26, (left) and Clelia Theodorou, 24, (right) both slipped into green ensembles for the bash, highlighting that they are single Clelia cut a chic figure in a British racing green blazer and matching trousers. She flashed a glimpse of her midriff by wearing a black crop top beneath her jacket and added height with strappy sandals. Shelby wowed in khaki mini-skirt that featured a tie around the waist, teamed with a simple black vest as she soaked up the mild spring sunshine. She added ankle boots to the look and carried a black fur-style coat in case the weather turned chilly. Cute: Shelby added sock boots to her look and carried a black fur-style coat in case the mild spring day turned chilly The friends both styled their brunette locks down with loose waves. Liam Gatsby, 30, made an effort for the party by selecting a forest green jacket over a black T-shirt and blue skinny jeans. Bobby Norris, 32, did not disappoint as he slipped into a jazzy satin shirt printed with a gold and green design. He sported a pair of spectacles and carried a Louis Vuitton holdall as he strode into the venue. Chic: Clelia flashed a glimpse of midriff by wearing a black crop top beneath her jacket and added to her height with strappy sandals Wild side: Georgia Kousoulou looked incredible in patterned ab-flashing co-ords Toned: The star flashed her incredible abs in the tiny crop-top Scarlet siren: Chloe Meadows wowed in a scarlet trousersuit Series 24 newcomers Chloe Ross, Kelsey Stratford and Ella Rae Wise ensured they caught the eye as they appeared without a hair out of place in true TOWIE style. Chloe Ross, 26, sizzled in a green lace midi-dress that hugged her svelte figure, featuring a daring plunging neckline. Ensuring she sent out a message loud and clear that she was not on the lookout for love, Ella, 18, looked phenomenal in a bright red fringed jumpsuit alongside a pillar box red lipstick. Go for it! Liam Gatsby, 30, (left) and Bobby Norris, 32, (right) both selected green to advertise that they were ready for love Beauty: Chloe Ross, 26, sizzled in a forest green lace midi-dress that hugged her svelte figure Casual cool: Georgia looked incredible in her sports luxe ensemble Series 24 of the ITVBe show has already got off to a dramatic start - with the main story line focusing on the romance between Chloe Sims, 36, and Dan Edgar, 28. During last week's episode, Chloe confided to Georgia Kousoulou, 27, that Dan is hesitant to take their relationship up a notch, despite them yet to even have a first date. Continuing to back their relationship, Georgia decided to go head to head with Diags - who has voiced his concern over heart throb Dan and Chloe becoming more than friends - as she wanted to know if he has influenced Dan in any way. New to the scene: Kelsey Stratford (left) and Ella Rae Wise (right) both slipped into sexy jumpsuits for the party In a heated discussion, bold Georgia confronted Diags on being the reason as to why Dan wants to halt the brakes on his budding romance with the mother-of-one. Diags being in Georgia's line of fire came after Courtney felt the wrath of Tommy Mallet's girlfriend in last week's episode. In the fiery scenes, Georgia blamed Courtney - who is friends with Dan's ex Amber Turner - for meddling in the age-gap romance. Glowing: Kelsey revealed that she was open to hitting the dating scene as she slipped her figure into a green pleated jumpsuit New guard: TOWIE newbie Chloe Brockett was seen at Sheesh with pal Junaid Ahmed later that evening Wild side: The reality starlet showed off her style in snakeskin print co-ords Alex Nation looks set to become the third person to quit Bachelor In Paradise. In the wake of Brooke Blurton and Cat Henesey-Smith abruptly leaving, a dramatic trailer for Tuesday's upcoming episode shows Alex 'pushed over the edge'. 'I'm out guys, I f***ing tap out,' raged the single mum, 27, with footage appearing to show her storm off set. Another one bites the dust? Alex Nation looks set to be the THIRD person to quit Bachelor In Paradise in a dramatic new trailer for Tuesday's episode Prior to that, the brief teaser revealed Alex confronting Bill Goldsmith, after discovering the plumber had two-timed her with Florence Alexandra. 'Someone is making me look like a f***ing idiot,' vented Alex. With Alex clearly emotional in the clips, a voice over on the declared she'd been 'pushed over the edge'. 'I'm out guys, I f***ing tap out,' raged the single mum, 27, with footage appearing to show her storm off set after being comforted by friends Settling some scores? Prior to that, the brief teaser revealed Alex confronting Bill Goldsmith, after discovering the plumber had two-timed her with Florence Alexandra Seemingly poking fun at her heartbreak, the teaser then cut to Alex's ex-boyfriend Richie Strahan laughing to camera, saying, 'Oh mate, what have you done?' During Thursday's episode, Alex started to doubt her future with Bill after Florence confessed that he'd 'promised' her his rose - before he gave it to Alex. Confronting Bill about this, the hunk branded Florence a 'conniving piece of s***' while denying this - adding that she is 'out to get me'. Will he miss her? Seemingly poking fun at her heartbreak, the teaser then cut to Alex's ex-boyfriend Richie Strahan laughing to camera, saying, 'Oh mate, what have you done?' 'I feel like a broken little girl right now': If Alex does quit, she would follow in the footsteps of Brooke Blurton, who quit on Thursday after being dumped by the blonde If Alex does quit, she would follow in the footsteps of Brooke Blurton. Ironically, the Perth-based reality star walked on Thursday after Alex dumped her in a bid to pursue her blossoming romance with Bill. 'I feel like a broken little girl right now,' sobbed Brooke, 24, before leaving the luxury resort in Fiji and returning to Australia. The week before this, Cat Henesey-Smith, 25, sensationally walked after it became apparent she would not be receiving a rose. Deciding to bow out on her own terms, the brunette fled to a toilet to cry before then storming off. She is known for her impeccable sense of style, no matter the occasion. And on Wednesday night, Sofia Vergara did not disappoint while leaving II Pastaio in Beverly Hills after dinner with pals. The 46-year-old actress showcased her legs in fitted denim, adding a black and white blazer and sky-high heels for her meal with pals. Gorgeous: Sofia Vergara was spotted leaving II Pastaio in Beverly Hills after dinner with pals on Wednesday night Sofia shared a snap to her Instagram from inside the restaurant while posing with three pals; she captioned the image: 'Grupo Barranquillero.' She added the hashtags '#LA #springnights.' The Modern Family star chose ripped jeans that featured tears along her knees; the beauty wore a white T-shirt tucked into her bottoms. She layered a white blazer on top that featured black accents along the pockets. Sofia carried a statement studded bag featuring black, tan and white tones; the beauty rocked her large diamond wedding ring for a pop of sparkle. Giddy: The 46-year-old actress showcased her legs in fitted denim, adding a black and white blazer and sky-high heels for meal with pals Sofia chose sky high Alaia heels in a cream tone to round out her stylish evening ensemble. The TV star wore her brunette tresses loose and sleek, opting for a center part. She painted her pout a red hue with smokey eye makeup and a touch of blush on her cheekbones. So much fun: Sofia shared a snap to her Instagram from inside the restaurant while posing with three pals Sofia, who is married to actor Joe Manganiello, was spotted stepping out on Monday rocking a bold floral duster coat for a shopping outing in West Hollywood. The Colombian-born beauty rocked a long-sleeved flower patterned cover up that featured pink, blue, yellow, red, green, black and white tones. The mother of one paired the statement piece with cropped denim, a black top, a large Chanel handbag with black heels. Beautiful lady: Sofia, who is married to actor Joe Manganiello, was spotted stepping out on Monday rocking a bold floral duster coat for a shopping outing in West Hollywood; pictured on April 15 in West Hollywood So stylish: The Colombian-born beauty rocked a long-sleeved flower patterned cover up that featured pink, blue, yellow, red, green, black and white tones; pictured April 15 Australian model and actress Jessica Gomes is passionate about many things. Aside from creating and producing her own award-winning skincare range, Equal Beauty, the actress is also an ambassador for charity, World Vision. And on Thursday, Jessica, 34, took to Instagram to share details of her trip to a health centre in Uganda where local women were having their children immunised against polio and other diseases. 'Incredible women': Australian model Jessica Gomes (pictured) visited a health centre in Uganda on Thursday where children are being immunised against polio. She also met local villagers at their homes The model posted several heartwarming photos of the women waiting patiently with their children sleeping on their laps. Jessica captioned the pictures: 'I was fortunate enough today to visit a Health Centre in Uganda where @worldvisionaus has trained local staff to complete thorough health checks on mothers and their children.' 'The incredible women pictured here are waiting to have their babies immunised against polio and other diseases,' she added. Warm welcome: Jessica, 34, took to Instagram to share details of her trip to a health centre in Uganda where local women were having their children immunised against disease. She also met many of the local villagers According to the World Health Organization, there hasn't been a wild polio case in Uganda since November 2010. Jessica also met some of the local villagers, who welcomed her to their homesteads, and was shown how to use a makeshift hand-washing station built from branches and plastic bottles. The water station is part of World Vision's assistance with hygiene in the area. Water works: Jessica also met some of the local villagers and was shown how to use a makeshift hand-washing station built from branches and plastic bottles Jessica has been an ambassador for the charity since 2014 and has since visited Peru, India and Africa. She launched her skin care line Equal Beauty in 2017 after three years' work developing products. The range features five products that are heavily focused on hydration and protection. Joe Giudice began his fight against his deportation order six months prior. And the Real Housewives Of New Jersey star may be heading to Italy, as the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has denied his appeal, according to E! News. James J. Leonard, Jr., the Giudice family attorney, said in a statement on Thursday to Dailymail.com: 'We are extremely disappointed that the Board Of Immigration Appeals has denied Mr. Giudices appeal.' 'We have filed a stay with the Third Circuit Court Of Appeals and will continue to fight to keep Mr. Giudice in the United States, the only country he knows, and reunite him with his wife and four daughters.' Drama: Joe Giudice began his fight against his deportation order six months prior. And the star may be heading to Italy, as the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has denied his appeal, according to E! News; pictured March 5, 2016 in Mount Pocono, PA The 46-year-old TV star, who is married to Teresa Giudice, has one chance left at avoiding deportation to Italy, the website revealed. E! News' source said: 'The Board Of Immigration Appeals ruled against Joe in an April 6 decision.' However, his team of lawyers have already filed a petition for the federal court to review the appeal, the website reported, adding that the entire process is 'done entirely by mail.' If the court refuses to review it, then Joe will be 'deported' to Italy, E!'s insider revealed. Joe was released in March 2019 from a almost three year stint in prison into the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Future: James J. Leonard, Jr., the Giudice family attorney, said in a statement on Thursday to Dailymail.com: 'We are extremely disappointed that the Board Of Immigration Appeals has denied Mr. Giudices appeal;' pictured March 4, 2014 with Teresa in Newark, New Jersey Unknown: The 46-year-old TV star has one chance left at avoiding deportation to Italy, the website revealed; pictured on the red carpet heading to Watch What Happens Live in 2015 Joe, who was born Giuseppe Giudice, moved from Italy to the United States at the age of one; he never became a US citizen but is a lawful permanent resident of the US. Immigrants can be deported if they are convicted of a 'crime of moral turpitude' or an aggravated felony according to US Law, via People. He had served time at the Allenwood Low Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania from late March 2016 until his release this March. He was originally supposed to spend 41 months in prison; in early October 2018, a judge ruled that he will be deported after he gets released, an earlier E! News reported at the time. Teresa was in prison for 11 months on charges of mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud charges; she was released in December 2015. He began his sentence for the same crimes three months later, according to People. A judge ruled on October 10 that he must be deported; his lawyers filed paperwork within the 30 day time period (on November 10) to appeal the order. Family: Joe and wife Teresa are parents to four daughters: Gia, 18, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10 Joe and wife Teresa are parents to four daughters: Gia, 18, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10. Teresa has spoken out about what she plans on doing if her husband of 20 years gets deported to Italy. The 46-year-old RHONJ said in a reunion special for the show in early March 2019: 'I want to be happy. I haven't been happy in a long time. I'm tired of legal stuff! It's a lot to deal with - my children, what's going to happen to [Joe]... It's a lot,' via People. On Joe if he goes to Italy: 'I'm not doing a long-distance relationship. I'm not doing it. I want somebody with me every day.' She said: 'I know exactly what happens - I'm sure he'll be with other women. It happens. You do the long-distance thing, it's not going to work. I'd be like, "Bye-bye."' Teresa continued: 'We hate to talk about it. Believe it or not we've only talked about it once, but he said it too. "Obviously if that happens, I'm going to move on with my life, you're going to move on with your life." And that's whats going to happen.' She's busy filming scenes on the set of her new film Ammonite with Saoirse Ronan. And on Thursday, Kate Winslet, 43, showed her dynamic acting skills as she threw up during a dramatic scene for the 19th century period drama in London. A camera crew followed the acclaimed actress, dressed in a maroon dress with a cape, a bonnet and carrying a satchel, as she walked out of a building looking upset. In character: Kate Winslet, 43, showed her dynamic acting skills in a sick scene for the 19th century period drama in London, on Thursday Committing to the scene: The actress was seen leaning forward and vomiting for a scene in the period film set in the 1840s She looked ill as she quickly made her way to the back of the carriage before bending forward and vomiting - as part of the film set in the 1840s. Kate indeed committed to her sick scene by clutching on to the wheel in front of her, seemingly in pain. She wiped the sick off her face and walked away from the mess she made, appearing teary eyed as she covered her mouth. Action: A camera crew followed the acclaimed actress, dressed in a maroon dress with a cape, a bonnet and carrying a satchel, as she walked out of a building looking upset In a rush: She looked ill as she quickly made her way to the back of the carriage before bending forward and vomiting Sick: The actress lent forward and threw up behind the carriage Ill: Kate committed to her sick scene as vomited on the set After the take, the Oscar-winner was attended to by her on-set team assistant who was armed with tissues, plastic cups and a large bottle of water, while another assistant followed her with an umbrella. MailOnline has approached Kate Winslet's representatives for comment. In the film Kate plays Mary Anning, an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist, opposite Charlotte Murchison a Scottish amateur geologist played by Saoirse Ronan. On set: Kate continued to throw up behind the carriage on the set of the film Acting unwell: The Oscar-winner was in character as she bent over to vomit on the set of the film Vomiting: The acclaimed actress plays English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist Mary Anning in the film Ammonite Despite being in the early stages of filmimg, Ammonite has already faced criticism for a central storyline focusing on a lesbian affair involving Anning and Murchison. Barbara Anning, a distant niece who still lives near the Jurassic Coast where the fossil hunter made many discoveries, insisted there was no proof she was ever in a same-sex relationship. She said: 'The lesbian storyline is pure Hollywood as far as I know and there was no suggestion that she was a lesbian at all. That's just what they do I suppose.' Playing sick: Kate indeed committed to her sick scene by clutching on to the wheel in front of her, seemingly in pain Leaving: She wiped the sick off her face as she walked away from the carriage Emotional: Kate appeared teary-eyed as she covered her mouth Anning's niece had previously written on an online forum: 'I do not believe there is any evidence to back up portraying her as a gay woman... I believe Mary Anning was abused because she was poor, uneducated and a woman. Is that not enough?' Experts and fans of her work are also upset, claiming the paleontologist, who never married or had children, was 'interesting enough' without needing her life spiced up for the sake of a film. A fan society dedicated to the fossil finder called Mary Anning Rocks also objected to the plotline, including Harvard University geologist Bretton Carter, who said: 'I have mixed feelings about this movie. 'Being gay, I'm all about the inclusion of LGBTQ characters, but I feel like Mary Anning is an interesting enough person as she is, they didn't have to throw in same-sex affair with her (as it has no known historical basis).' In the shade: After the take, the Oscar-winner was attended to by her on-set team assistant who followed her with an umbrella Carrying the essentials: Kate's other assistant was armed with tissues, plastic cups and a large bottle of water Anning is known for making major discoveries in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs at Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Her work contributed to important changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life. However, due to being a woman, she was prevented form joining the Geological Society of London and did not receive full credit for her findings. It is also thought she was the inspiration for the 1908 tongue-twister 'She sells seashells on the seashore' by Terry Sullivan. Directed by Francis Lee, Ammonite is expected to go on general release in 2020. The production company behind The Wendy Williams Show has finally confirmed that the host's estranged husband Kevin Hunter was given the boot as executive producer, on Thursday. Days after DailyMail.com exclusively first reported that Williams fired Kevin in the wake of their divorce, a spokesperson from Lionsgate's Debmar-Mercury released a statement that Hunter was no longer with the company. After his dismissal, insiders told several news outlets that the 54-year-old star has added extra personal security to her roster while her ex clears out. Moving on: The Wendy Williams Show confirmed DailyMail.com's report that her estranged husband Kevin Hunter had left the show as Executive Producer and insiders claim the host has beefed up security on Thursday 'Kevin Hunter is no longer an executive producer on The Wendy Williams Show. Debmar-Mercury wishes him well in his future endeavors,' read a statement released to Variety. Previously, DailyMail.com broke the news of Kevin's decade long affair with a massage therapist named Sharina Hudson. News of the affair and, subsequently, the love child that Sharina quietly gave birth to just a few weeks ago, pushed Wendy to an unfortunate relapse into drugs and alcohol abuse. She took a prolonged absence from her talk show at the end of 2018 and through the start of the new year and, at the time, claimed it was for medical reasons. 'Kevin Hunter is no longer an executive producer on The Wendy Williams Show. Debmar-Mercury wishes him well in his future endeavors,' read a statement from the production company After DailyMail revealed that she was actually seeking treatment, Wendy shared her story with fans. Following the continuation of Kevin's affair, which he flaunted in front of the public by taking the mistress out to dinners decked out in pricey clothes and in expensive cars, Wendy decided enough was enough. As the former couple begin to disentangle their personal and professional lives, sources told Page Six that Wendy is taking her safety very seriously. The outlet explained that as Kevin is negotiating an exit package with the show, Wendy has added several new body guards to keep watch over her. It's over: Last week Wendy filed for divorce from her husband of 22 years after reports were published of his rampant affair and love child (pictured in 2010) The handful of additional guards have been with the star since before she served Kevin with divorce papers last week, according to TMZ. 'Wendy has retained 3 full-time security guards to stand watch while she preps for and shoots her daily talk show, on which Kevin is still an executive producer, if only temporarily,' the outlet wrote. Adding that the television personality was worried that Kevin might have one of his 'blow ups' when he received official word that she was ending their 22 year marriage. Protection: Three additional guards have been with the star since before she served Kevin with divorce papers last week, according to TMZ . After serving Kevin with marriage dissolution documents last week, sources told DailyMail that Wendy gave her husband 48 hours to vacate his belongings from their New Jersey mansion. Photos were also obtained at that time of Sharina Hudson's gold matte Ferrari Portofino, a gift from Kevin, being loaded onto the bed of a tow truck. Kevin had previously told those close to him that he wouldn't divorce his long time wife because she pulled the purse strings and he couldn't afford his lifestyle on his own. Brooklyn Beckham and his model girlfriend Hana Cross engaged in a heated chat during a shopping trip with his brothers Romeo and Cruz in Los Angeles. During the chat Romeo, 16, could be seen consoling Hana, as he wrapped his arms around her in an attempt to intervene in their row on Tuesday afternoon. It seemed that their dispute had rumbled on into the evening, as after dinner at Madeo in Beverly Hills, Brooklyn, 20, looked tearful during another tense chat with Hana. Heated: Brooklyn Beckham and his model girlfriend Hana Cross engaged in a heated chat during a shopping trip with his brother's Romeo and Cruz in Los Angeles Hana, 21, who was clad in a camouflage jacket and a pair of distressed jeans, looked forlorn as Romeo appeared to reason with her while stood out on the street. Brooklyn, who was wearing an open plaid red shirt with a pair of blue jeans, stood opposite his love while his brother stood in between them, taking on a mediator role. At one stage, Brooklyn had walked off and left his girlfriend and brother to talk, before later returning and hopping in the driver's seat of a black vehicle. As Romeo offered his brother's girlfriend comfort, his younger brother Cruz, 14, stood nearby, wearing a David Bowie T-shirt and navy trousers with checked Vans. Tearful: It seemed that their dispute had rumbled on into the evening, as after dinner at Madeo in Beverly Hills, Brooklyn looked tearful during another tense chat with Hana Comforting: During the chat Romeo could be seen consoling Hana, as he wrapped his arms around the her in an apparent attempt to intervene in their row It's okay: Romeo touched Hana's arms as he stood between her and brother Brooklyn Forlorn: Hana, who was clad in a camouflage jacket and a pair of distressed jeans, looked forlorn as Romeo appeared to reason with her while stood out on the street Intense: Brooklyn and Hana both looked stern as they spoke to each other in the public space Family affair: As Romeo offered his brother's girlfriend comfort, his younger brother Cruz stood nearby, wearing a David Bowie T-shirt and navy trousers with checked Vans Beautiful confusion: Romeo wore a vibrant hooded jacket with the words 'beautiful confusion' splashed across the back with a pair of blue jeans and Converse Unknown: It is unclear what had caused the strained atmosphere between Brooklyn and Hana, who usually look nothing less than loved-up when they are spotted out together Hana walked with crossed arms and a blank expression, while Romeo continued to talk to her at the bottom of a set of steps during Brooklyn's absence. It is unclear what had caused the strained atmosphere between Brooklyn and Hana, who usually look nothing less than loved-up when they are spotted out together. Brooklyn and Hana have been dating since November last year, where they were spotted enjoying a romantic date at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland in London. Days later they cemented their dating status, when they were seen on another date at a Mumford & Sons gig as their romance continued to blossom. Good friend: Hana walked with crossed arms and a blank expression while Romeo continued to talk to her at the bottom of a set of steps during Brooklyn's absence Dating: Brooklyn and Hana have been dating since November last year, where they were spotted enjoying a romantic date at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland in London Downcast: Hana looked downcast as she stood beside a black car while Brooklyn sat in the driver's seat Not talking? Brooklyn sat in the front seat on his car while Hana stood outside Since then the couple have gone from strength-to-strength and often post loved-up displays of affection on their respective social media pages. Hana has also been introduced to Brooklyn's famous family and even appears to have the seal of approval from mum Victoria, as she was sent an exclusive selection of her Victoria's collaboration with Reebok. But despite their seemingly solid relationship, it appeared to be a stressful day for the couple, as hours later they were seen during another tense conversation after enjoying dinner together. Stressful: It appeared to be a stressful day for the couple, as hours later they were seen during another tense conversation after enjoying dinner together Downcast: It appeared that their earlier row was yet to be resolved as Brooklyn could be seen breaking down in tears as they continued their discussion outside the restaurant Hugging it out: However seeing her boyfriend in tears proved too much for Hana to bare, as she offered him a consoling hug during the emotional chat It appeared that their earlier row was yet to be resolved as Brooklyn could be seen breaking down in tears as they continued their discussion outside the restaurant. The son of David and Victoria Beckham could be seen wiping away his tears and holding his hands over his face in apparent frustration. He also held his hands up in the air while Hana looked confused, as they lengthy dispute rumbled on into the evening. However seeing her boyfriend in tears proved too much for Hana to bear, as she offered him a consoling hug during the emotional chat. Too much: However seeing her boyfriend in tears proved too much for Hana to bear, as she offered him a consoling hug during the emotional chat Emotional: It seemed to have been a tough day for the pair Confused? He also held his hands up in the air while Hana looked confused, as they lengthy dispute rumbled on into the evening Moving on? They appeared to put the lover's tiff behind them and hugged it out Romantic: Despite the difficult day they appeared to have put it behind them by the end Passionate: As restaurants closed up around them they held a passionate embrace in the street It appeared that their lover's tiff was shortly forgotten, as the next day Hana joined the Beckham family in celebrating Victoria's 45th birthday. Just the next morning, Instagram showed enjoying a birthday breakfast with her beau and the rest of the family as she sat next to Harper, seven, in the sweet snaps. Later in the day the family headed for dinner at Giorgio Baldi, an Italian restaurant in Santa Monica and posed for cosy family snaps with Hana. Distracted: Brooklyn and Hana stared off into the distance Dramatic: Brooklyn leaned over with his head in his hands while Hana looked on What do you want me to do? Brooklyn held his hands up in the air in confusion Tearful: Hana appeared tearful while Brooklyn tapped away on his smart phone Lean on me: Brooklyn leaned against the wall and rest his hand on his hip Brooklyn's flourishing romance shortly follows the demise of his long-term relationship with Chloe Grace Moretz, who he split with in April 2018. Their tumultuous pairing saw the couple break things off a number of times over the years before finally calling it quits in spring last year. They had initially begun dating in 2014 but it seems the spark in their relationship had run its course four years later. Deep chat: Brooklyn stood with folded arms and a tearful expression on his face Nail biting stuff: It proved to be a tense situation as Brooklyn stood biting his nails Awkward? The couple appeared to be all talked out after their lengthy chat What's it to be? Just hours after their row the couple enjoyed breakfast with his family for mum Victoria's birthday Heading home? They appeared to be making movements to leave the restaurant Frustrated: Brooklyn rocked his head back and stood with his arms folded Ongoing row: It is unclear whether the row earlier in the day was linked to the later one Home time: Brooklyn got into the driver's seat of his BMW M4 without girlfriend Hana The footballer's son enjoyed a few romantic dalliances including a steamy smooch with Playboy model Lexi Wood, before finding love with Hana. He was previously romantically linked to chart-topping singer Rita Ora and Justin Bieber's protege Madison Beer as well as Celebs Go Dating star Tallia Storm. Hana is a model and is signed by three different agencies; listing Select Model Management, US agency The Lions and French agency Premium Models on her Instagram page. Celebrations: It appeared that their lover's tiff was shortly forgotten, as the next day Hana joined the Beckham family in celebrating Victoria's 45th birthday Late night snack: Brooklyn headed for some comfort food in the form of a Pinkberry ice cream Yum! Brooklyn enjoyed his late night snack following his earlier dinner Heartwrenching: The couple tearfully chatted after their dinner date Making amends: It wasn't long before they were back in each other's arms Hong Kong: HK to participate in Belt-Road forum Chief Executive Carrie Lam will lead a high-level Hong Kong Special Administrative Region delegation to the second Belt & Road Forum for International Cooperation that will be held in Beijing from April 25 to 27. The forum will open up discussion on development policy co-ordination, infrastructure connectivity, sustainable development and other topics of common interest. Twelve thematic forums will be held including those focusing on policy, infrastructure, trade and regional co-operation. The Hong Kong delegation comprises senior government officials and representatives from numerous sectors. Mrs Lam said Hong Kong's participation in the forum will enhance its role and position as the prime platform and a key link for the Belt & Road Initiative, and foster integration into the overall development of the country. She will deliver the opening keynote address at the sub-forums on financial connectivity and regional cooperation. This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Birthday wishes Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun. Happy Birthday Wishes She is no stranger to sultry photoshoots and on-point selfies for her Instagram page - showcasing her incredible figure and her flawless beauty. But on Wednesday, Emily Ratajkowski took it a step further to attain the perfect topless selfie - having an assistant on hand wielding a leaf blower to create a windswept look. The 27-year-old model and actress, who sported a pink wig, posed up a storm on a balcony in Los Angeles as she snapped pictures of herself with the assistance of the leaf blower. Glamorous life: Emily Ratajkowski took it a step further to attain the perfect topless selfie - having an assistant on hand wielding a leaf blower to create a windswept look on Wednesday Emily was taking the snaps in between shooting a project for Love magazine, she had revealed on her Instagram stories on Thursday morning. The beauty flaunted her ample cleavage during her selfie session; she pulled down her long-sleeved skintight white dress - leaving it at her waist. The actress covered up her chest with her arms while heading to and from the balcony, but relied on her pink wig to protect her modesty during her selfie photo shoot. Emily, who sported her large diamond wedding ring, posed seductively for her phone camera as the assistant dutifully held the miniature leaf blower. Model material: The 27-year-old model and actress, who sported a pink wig, posed up a storm on a balcony in Los Angeles as she snapped pictures of herself with the assistance of the leaf blower Beautiful lady: The beauty flaunted her ample cleavage during her selfie session; she pulled down her long-sleeved skintight white dress - leaving it at her waist Her temporary pink tresses were styled loose and voluminous, with her full pout painted a glossy rose hue. The beauty rocked rose gold glittery eye shadow for a pop of sparkle. The assistant on hand was wielding the Makita LXT Handheld Blower, which retails for $109. The art of the selfie: Emily, who wore rocked her large diamond wedding ring, posed seductively for her phone camera as the assistant dutifully held the miniature leaf blower Sultry: The actress covered up her chest with her arms while heading to and from the balcony, but relied on her pink wig during her selfie photo shoot Her secret to the perfect selfie: The assistant wielded the Makita LXT Handheld Blower that retails for $109 Emily shared the results of her glamorous selfie session to her Instagram stories, tagging Love Magazine. Some snaps appeared to be taken inside while the others were from her balcony shoot. Earlier in the day, Emily was seen wearing the same white dress with coordinating sneakers, adding small framed sunglasses and a silver necklace. Windy: Emily, 27, shared the results of her glamorous selfie session to her Instagram stories, tagging Love Magazine Stunner: Some snaps appeared to be taken inside while the others were from her balcony shoot Wow factor: The good looking star shared a number of selfies to her Instagram stories Casual: Earlier in the day, Emily was seen wearing the same white dress with coordinating sneakers, adding small framed sunglasses and a silver necklace Her photoshoot comes days after she attended weekend one of the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California with her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard. Emily posted a racy snap of herself while lounging on a tube - the Float Naked Fiesta float - in the pool with her significant other. She flaunted her flat midriff in a leopard print bikini from her own line - Inamorata Woman. Emily had both arms lovingly around Sebastian's neck while he had his hands resting near her shoulders and his feet near her hips. Relaxation: Her photoshoot comes days after she attended weekend one of the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California with her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard Emily married Sebastian, a 32-year-old actor and producer, last year; they tied the knot on February 23, 2018 in a New York City courthouse. The model launched her brand as Inamorata Swim in 2017 with a daring swimsuit collection; in February 2019 she revealed she is expanding with a lingerie and bodywear line - Body - under the umbrella of her label, which she now calls Inamorata Woman. In a February 6, 2019 post, Emily shared a snap of herself in a lace bra and underwear while at a convenience store with the caption: 'A little over a year of @inamoratawoman and I'm so thrilled to finally share what I've been working on for you guys. Introducing BODY, a category that is so much more than lingerie. I hope you guys love it as much as I do.' Happy: Emily married Sebastian, a 32-year-old actor and producer, last year; they tied the knot on February 23, 2018 in a New York City courthouse; pictured at the Levi's bash during Coachella weekend one with Sebastian She is currently in Barbados attending a fashion show for her swimwear brand. And Lady Victoria Hervey proved she is her company's own best advert, as she modelled her latest bikini design during an outing at the beach on Thursday. The socialite, 42, was sure to turn heads as she stepped out in her revealing attire, which ensured that her slender figure and toned legs were on full display. Stunner: Lady Victoria Hervey, 42, showed off her slender figure in a white bikini from her bespoke swimwear brand as she enjoyed her sun-soaked Barbados break on Thursday Her blonde locks cascaded over her shoulders in tousled waves, and she gave her look a pop of colour by accessorising with multi-coloured shades. Keen to show off her outfit at all angles, the model strutted her stuff along the beach as if modelling for her swimwear campaign. The beauty's strappy-style bikini top and tiny bottoms ensured she could showcase her bronzed physique while chilling on the beach. Modelling prowess: Keen to show off her outfit at all angles, the model strutted her stuff along the beach as if modelling for her swimwear campaign Stylish: Her blonde locks cascaded over her shoulders in tousled waves, and she gave her look a pop of colour by accessorising with multi-coloured shades Finishing touches: Victoria accessorised with a circular pendent necklace and a selection of beaded bracelets around her wrists as well as dainty anklet Taking a dip: Lady Victoria cooled off in the crystal blue ocean Time for a stroll: Lady Victoria took full advantage of the empty beach as she walked around Chilling out: After enjoying her stroll by the beach, the beauty relaxed on a sun lounger so she could top up her tan Pretty: Victoria fluffed up her hair to make it more voluminous Slender: Her outfit was sure to showcase her slim figure as she walked on the beach In good spirits: Lady Victoria seemed to be having a great time at the beach Fixing her ensemble: She could be seen pulling up her bikini to avoid a wardrobe malfunction Victoria accessorised with a circular pendent necklace and a selection of beaded bracelets around her wrists as well as dainty anklet. After enjoying her stroll by the beach, the beauty relaxed on a sun lounger so she could top up her tan. Later on, Victoria wore a pair of white shorts, which barely covered her mid-riff as she walked along the sandy beach barefoot. Natural look: Lady Victoria opted not to wear any make-up for the outing Covering up: Later on, Victoria wore a pair of white shorts, which barely covered her mid-riff Stunning: The beauty's halterneck-style bikini top and lace-up bottoms ensured she could showcase her bronzed physique Cheerful: The model knew how to work every angle as she walked along the beach Time for a break: Victoria chilled out during her outing Beach babe: Lady Victoria showed off her svelte physique in the outfit Looking around: The model looked around the quiet beach in curiosity Strut: Lady Victoria used the beach as her own personal catwalk Enviable figure: She showcased her slender physique in the skimpy outfit Beaming: The beauty couldn't keep the smile off her face as she enjoyed her outing The holiday comes as the model revealed to The Mail On Sunday last January that she has frozen her eggs in a fertility clinic, costing her 11,000, as she hopes to have a child before she is 45. She explained at the time: 'I had six eggs removed from my ovaries and frozen in a fertility clinic. At the end of this month, I intend to go through the exhausting procedure again in the hope that I will produce another half-dozen or so eggs... 'It will, I hope, fill what has become rather a hole in my life.' At one with nature: Lady Victoria looked thoroughly relaxed on her beach jaunt as she headed along the shoreline and rockery Time for a dip: The socialite cooled off from the heat of the sun by with a dip in the sea All that glitters: Her hexagonal shades were adorned with jewels Cooling off: Lady Victoria walked through the ocean What's that? Lady Victoria pointed out at something at sea Checking out her notifications: Lady Victoria looked at her phone with a perplexed expression Accessories: Lady Victoria wore a large silver bracelet on one hand Sun-kissed: She accentuated her golden tan with deftly touches of make-up and black eyeliner Attention to detail: The model added a glittering touch with pendant earrings Toned: Lady Victoria's outfit accentuated her toned stomach Tanned: Victoria's stark white outfit highlighted her bronzed skin Early: Lady Victoria seemed to be so keen to enjoy the beach she headed there before anyone else had arrived Splashing about: The beauty walked along the shoreline Victoria confessed that she would like 'two children' and turned to freezing her eggs - a decision prompted by Stacey Solomon, whom she met while competing on The Jump in 2015 - following her fears she has 'left it too late' to become a mother. Explaining that she wants the 'emotional aspect' of a relationship, rather than favouring a sperm donor, Victoria added: 'I'm hoping science might be able to stop the clock until I find the right man to be a father to my babies. 'A major part of the problem is that I'm still single. Despite some intense relationships in my early 20s, they all fizzled out eventually.' 'I do have a back-up plan if my Prince Charming doesnt materialise,' Victoria claimed. 'Ive got friends whove said theyd be prepared to father my child, and Im considering that option very seriously.' Looking to the future: Although she has been travelling all over the world, the socialite has recently discussed her plans to settle down Life goal: She recently spoke about her dreams to become a mum after realising she wanted to have a baby The next step: Victoria revealed last January that she has frozen her eggs in a fertility clinic, costing her 11,000, as she hopes to have a child before she is 45 She explained at the time: 'I had six eggs removed from my ovaries and frozen in a fertility clinic' Preparation: Victoria went on, 'At the end of this month, I intend to go through the exhausting procedure again in the hope that I will produce another half-dozen or so eggs' Sorting out her hair: Lady Victoria tousled her hair to make it look perfect Glam: The beauty looked stunning in her ensemble Enjoying the view: Lady Victoria made sure to make the most of the beautiful beach Natural beauty: Lady Victoria sported a clear complexion during her outing No time for a swim: Lady Victoria decided not to take a full dip in the sea Splish splash: Victoria seemed content as she walked in the water Checking where she's going: The model looked down at the ground She's on a rigorous promotional trail for her new film Serenity. But Anne Hathaway didn't look like she had a care in the world as she made a cheery exit from London's Corinthia Hotel on Thursday. The actress, 36, cut a stylish figure in a black Adidas bomber jacket as she made her way to film the Graham Norton show. So happy: Anne Hathaway didn't look like she had a care in the world as she made a cheery exit from London's Corinthia Hotel on Thursday The star teamed her sporty jacket with a plain black top and high-waisted black trousers. She added a pop of colour with a pair of bright red pointed stilettos, while adding a chic black handbag and gold hooped earrings to her look. Anne's poker-straight brunette tresses were left to hang loosely on her shoulders, while she accentuated her stunning features with smokey eyes and a coral lip. The Devil Wears Prada star happily waved to fans and smiled for photographs as she made her way to her car. Style Queen: The actress, 36, cut a stylish figure in a black Adidas bomber jacket as she made her way to film the Graham Norton show Anne stated earlier this year that she was going to avoid alcohol until her son, Jonathan Rosebanks Shulman, turns 18-year-old. The little boy - whom she shares with husband Adam Shulman - is only three years old. But the Oscar-winning actress has now insisted it is not a 'moralistic stance' and is not because she has a problem with drinking. But her choice has been made because cocktails give her bad hangovers. The brunette star - who can next be seen with Rebel Wilson in The Hustle - added that sometimes her hangovers would last five days. All black everything: The star teamed her sporty jacket with a plain black top and high-waisted black trousers Lady in red: She added a pop of colour with a pair of bright red pointed stilettos, while adding a chic black handbag and gold hooped earrings to her look Stunning: Anne's poker-straight brunette tresses were left to hang loosely on her shoulders, while she accentuated her stunning features with smokey eyes and a coral lip She explained to Boston Common Magazine: 'I didn't put [a drink] down because my drinking was a problem; I put it down because the way I drink leads me to have hangovers and those were the problem. My last hangover lasted for five days.' The Les Miserables star added, 'When I'm at a stage in my life where there is enough space for me to have a hangover, I'll start drinking again, but that won't be until my kid is out of the house... 'But, I just want to make this clear: Most people don't have to do such an extreme thing. I don't think drinking is bad... Stepping out: The Ocean's 8 star put her best foot forward, teaming her black ensemble with bright red shoes So lovely: The Devil Wears Prada star happily waved to fans and smiled for photographs as she made her way to her car 'It's just the way I do it - which I personally think is really fun and awesome - is just not the kind of fun and awesome that goes with having a child for me. But this isn't a moralistic stance.' Meanwhile, the star opened up to Tatler further on the subject, telling the magazine that she would probably be an 'alcoholic' if she hadn't of become a successful actress. She added: 'In the gutter? I could have seen myself being a teacher. Or going into the military. Or being some kind of do-gooder with a death wish. But more likely than anything else I would have been an alcoholic.' Bold statement: Anne stated earlier this year that she was going to avoid alcohol until her son, Jonathan Rosebanks Shulman, turns 18-year-old Anne expanded on her acting career during the interview and admitted that someone once told her she would 'never get a good part again' once she turned 35. She said: 'I was always told that once I turned 35 I would turn into a pumpkin and never get a good part again. It makes me sad that the world tells me my skin is somehow less valuable than it used to be, but I dont listen and I dont agree.' Anne is happily married to her husband of seven years, Adam Shulman, the couple married in Big Sur, California, in September 2012. Open: 'I didn't put [a drink] down because my drinking was a problem; I put it down because the way I drink leads me to have hangovers and those were the problem' She's taken Hollywood by storm. Actress Joey King burst onto the scene with an award-worthy role in The Act and proved she can do high fashion like a pro in a new spread for As If magazine. At just 19-years-old, the fresh face ingenue transformed into a couture muse for the stunning shoot and didn't hold back about her latest role. It girl: Actress Joey King transformed into a couture muse for a stunning shoot for As If magazine and didn't hold back about her latest role in The Act The starlet was pictured in a variety of stylish looks in a pink and purple family of colors in front of simple solid colored backdrops in purple and blue. During her shoot with the mag, Joey's pixie cut brunette locks were coiffed into a tousled, edgy look. The Hulu star's hair is growing back after she shaved it, for the second time in her career, for the film The Act. 'I have never felt happier than working on this project. Shaving my head was something I was a nervous about even though I had done it before,' she revealed. Stunning: The starlet was pictured in a variety of stylish looks in a pink and purple family of colors in front of simple solid colored backdrops in purple and blue Glam! Joey's pixie cut brunette locks were coiffed into a tousled, edgy look and she rocked a deep purple, nearly black lipstick in several shots 'I dont know what has happened to me over the years, but the negative comments people say dont really register anymore, which Im so thankful for because I feel beautiful, and I feel proud of myself.' 'It was a bizarrely enjoyable experience to be able to completely strip away all vanity and become Gypsy, so f**k what other people say, Im proud of myself!' The fashion forward looks from the magazine are in sharp contrast to her most recent role as Gypsy Rose Blanchard. 'I dont know what has happened to me over the years, but the negative comments people say dont really register anymore, which Im so thankful for because I feel beautiful, and I feel proud of myself.' (pictured with Patricia Arquette) 'People have been asking me if I am a Method actor who stayed in character on and off set, and the answer to that is no,' she said in As If. Gypsey is a young victim of Munchausen by proxy at the hand of her mother who she goes on to murder. The emotional tale is based on a true story and required Joey to completely shed her sense of self to become the abused girl. 'People have been asking me if I am a Method actor who stayed in character on and off set, and the answer to that is no,' she said in As If. 'I have never felt happier than working on this project. Shaving my head was something I was a nervous about even though I had done it before,' she revealed about her role in The Act. 'It was a bizarrely enjoyable experience to be able to completely strip away all vanity and become Gypsy, so f**k what other people say, Im proud of myself!' Adding: 'But, there were times when I took Gypsy home and it was really hard to shake her off. I had to decompress by watching cartoons.' 'Its interesting because Im playing a character I dont have a lot in common with, so getting in that headspace takes more focus because Im trying to relate to something that I cant possibly begin to imagine.' Showcasing the versatility of both the actress and the makeup, Joey looked like she could head to a royal court when she changed into a demure jacquard coat with large brooch buttons and a big bow. Jaw dropping: The 19-year-old is picture perfect in a voluminous pale pink ruffled mini dress that laid asymmetric across her petite frame Runway ready: Joey donned several gowns ranging from modest cranberry look , to a one shoulder black dress with purple flowers, to a sultry peach dress with a daringly low plunging neckline Joey donned several gowns ranging from modest cranberry look circa Jackie-O days, to a more bohemian one shoulder black dress with purple flowers, to a sultry peach dress with a daringly low plunging neckline. A mature style belying her age was particularly highlighted by silk wrap dress in magenta haze with a thick swipe of sparkling white eye shadow across her lids. Her most jaw dropping look appeared to have sauntered right off the runway with it's dramatic lines in voluminous pale pink ruffles that laid asymmetric across her petite frame. The mini dress came up high and cut across one shoulder, and was accented by a thick pink netted choker. Truth: 'There were times when I took Gypsy home and it was really hard to shake her off. I had to decompress by watching cartoons.' Styled with shimmering fawn hued tights and pointy suede heels in the same color, the look popped with the addition of a vampy, nearly black blackcherry lip color. However, it was when joey popped on a simple pink cashmere sweater that she appeared a bit closer to the young, lighthearted, burgeoning actress that she is. As If's founder and creative director, Tatijana Shoan, also served as photographer for the shoot. 'Photographing actress Joey King for AS IF Magazine in a word, was, joyous,' Tatijana said. 'Her inner brightness and playfulness, combined with an indescribable depth, resulted in a portfolio of images as alluring as the subject herself.' A Lannister always pays respect! With the eighth season of Game of Thrones upon us, there is a slew of discord in the realm and one of the most famous families in Westeros is getting some much needed help with their in-fighting. Rival siblings Tyrion and Cersei Lannister we given a lesson in respecting one another from Elmo in a new Sesame Street and Game of Thrones crossover video released on YouTube Thursday. Lesson learned: Rival siblings Tyrion and Cersei Lannister we given a lesson in respecting one another from Elmo in a new Sesame Street and Game of Thrones crossover video released on YouTube Thursday 'Respect brings us together, and if anyone can convince Game of Thrones's Cersei and Tyrion to get along, a familiar furry red friend might just be the one,' the caption on the YouTube clip read. Adding the hashtag: '#RespectIsComing' The video opens with the two Lannister siblings, played by actors Peter Dinklage and Lean Heady, bickering at a large table in the Red Keep as they are known to do. 'You can't ignore me forever,' Tyrion says with a dramatic pause. 'Respect brings us together, and if anyone can convince Game of Thrones's Cersei and Tyrion to get along, a familiar furry red friend might just be the one,' the caption on the YouTube clip read. Play on words: #RespectIsComing was added to the post as a play on the show's popular catch phrase Winter is Coming Adding: 'I only want what's best for Westeros.' His sister dramatically responds in a way befitting her vengeful personality. 'And I only want for you to not get what you want,' she quips. The whole scene feels so authentic to the HBO juggernaut, a viewer might assume it was from the actual show. The scene: The video opens with the two Lannister siblings, played by actors Peter Dinklage and Lean Heady, bickering at a large table in the Red Keep 'See? This is why you don't have any friends,' Tyrion shoots back with a pointed finger. A clatter sounds under the table and the actors duck to see what is making the noise when a red character pops up from beneath the table and sidles into a chair. 'Excuse, Elmo,' the familiar Muppet pipes. After the Lannister's exchange bewildered looks, they ask the beloved children's character who he is. 'See? This is why you don't have any friends,' Tyrion says to his sister What's that? A clatter sounds under the table and the actors duck to see what is making the noise when a red character pops up from beneath the table and sidles into a chair 'Excuse, Elmo:' The beloved furry red muppet shows up, dressed as a knight, to help the siblings learn to respect each other 'Oh, Elmo is Elmo of Sesame Street,' he explains in his high pitched voice. 'Elmo thinks that you two need to respect each other.' 'When Elmo has a problem with his friends, like Abby or Cookie Monster, Elmo doesn't get upset, Elmo listens and learns from what they have to say.' Tyrion, the clever one, seemed to get the message first: 'If we stop fighting and work together, we can be stronger. I'm willing to learn and listen if you are.' 'Oh, Elmo is Elmo of Sesame Street,' he explains in his high pitched voice. 'Elmo thinks that you two need to respect each other.' 'When Elmo has a problem with his friends, like Abby or Cookie Monster, Elmo doesn't get upset, Elmo listens and learns from what they have to say.' Cersei, who in the actual show holds a long held grudge against her younger brother, struggled to agree. 'Will Miss Cersei try to listen and understand what Mr. Tyrion is saying?' Elmo sweetly asked. 'I can try,' she agreed in a clipped, staccato fashion. 'Will Miss Cersei try to listen and understand what Mr. Tyrion is saying?' Elmo sweetly asked. The impossible! Elmo managed to get Tyrion and Cersei to agree to listen and respect each other but who that might not last in Game of Thrones So good! The scene is spot on for one that could have been cut from the actual show - with the exception of the muppet The video ends with Tyrion offering a toast to their new red friend - which Elmo misunderstands to be an actual piece of toast. 'Oh yummy! Elmo loves toast, yay!' HBO, which is the parent company of Sesame Street, released a similar PSA last year with some of the cast members from Westworld. To you! The video ends with Tyrion offering a toast to their new red friend - which Elmo misunderstands to be an actual piece of toast EastEnders actor Danny Walters has apologised for historic homophobic language that he used on Twitter. The 25-year-old actor, who plays Keanu Taylor in the soap, showed his remorse as he told MailOnline on Thursday that he was sorry for his 'immature' tweets. According to a report from The Sun, in two now-deleted tweets Danny referred to a friend as a 'little f**' in one post, while he told another friend: 'you owe me 5 f****t!' Apologetic: EastEnders star Danny Walters apologised over 'immature' historic homophobic tweets on Thursday The tweets were published in 2012 when the actor was 19, and was before he landed his breakthrough role as Tiger Dyke in ITVs Benidorm, or joined the soap. When contacted for comment, Danny told MailOnline: 'I am very sorry for posting these immature comments to a friend when I was 19-years-old. 'Its not language I would ever use now and Id like to apologise to anyone Ive offended.' Shocking language: According to a report from The Sun, Danny referred to a friend as a 'little f**' in one post, while he told another friend: 'you owe me 5 f****t!' in two now-deleted tweets While a friend of his came to his defence, as they told Digital Spy: 'Danny is feeling absolutely mortified that something he posted when he was younger has come back to bite him. He doesnt have a bad bone in him.' The actor first joined the soap in 2017, becoming a part of the Taylor family before he embarked on an affair with Sharon Mitchell (Letitia Dean). He has taken part in a number of important storylines in the soap, and will soon be part of a mission to save Louise Mitchell from kidnappers. Before: The tweets were published in 2012 when the actor was 19, and was before he landed his breakthrough role as Tiger Dyke in ITVs Benidorm, or joined the soap The revelation comes after Emmerdale star Shila Iqbal was fired from her role as Aiesha Richards on the soap over her historic racist and homophobic tweets. Shila, 24 was dismissed by ITV on Wednesday last week when the tweets, shared six years ago while she was at college, were unearthed and infuriated TV executives. In one Twitter posting, she wrote: Do not tweet me you gay. In another, which further outraged the shows bosses, she wrote: I know too many noisy n****s and followed it with a sad face emoji. The tweets revealed by Mail Online are part of a series of hateful messages posted by the actress and passed to ITV. Scandal: The revelation comes after Emmerdale star Shila Iqbal was fired from her role as Aiesha Richards on the soap over her historic racist and homophobic tweets The actress, who sent the insults when she was 19 and attending college in Rochdale, has apologised for her remarks and deleted her entire Twitter account. She declared she had let people down, but claimed she herself had become the target for anti-Islamic online attacks. She said: 'I am terribly sorry and take full responsibility for my use of such inappropriate language... The only consideration I would ask is that I have recently received hateful tweets telling me that as a Muslim my Emmerdale role means that I am committing sinful acts, promoting sin and deliberately going against the Quran. 'We live in sensitive times for members of all communities and especially those in multi-racial Rochdale where I grew up. Revealed: The shocking racist and homophobic content of tweets sent by Emmerdale actress Shila Iqbal which led to her sacking, were revealed by Mail Online I regret that I too have let people down by the use of such language, albeit six years ago. I, like everyone else, have a responsibility about the language I have used on social media as well as in conversation.' Insiders tell MailOnline: 'The nature of the banter that went on in Rochdale six years ago. That's how everybody - straight, gay, all colours spoke.' A representative for Shila declined to comment when approached by MailOnline. While a representative for ITV confirmed the news, writing: 'As a consequence of historic social media posts Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale. 'The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company's attention.' Leaving the role: The Rochdale-born star was dismissed by ITV bosses on Wednesday when the tweets were unearthed Shila's scandal comes after ITV were forced to weather another racism storm in 2016 when Marc Anwar was fired from Coronation Street for a shock rant on social media. Marc, who played the role of Sharif Nazir in Corrie, referred to Indians as b******s' and 'p***-drinking c***s' on Twitter. On his account he also wrote: 'Why the f*** do Pakistani artists want to work in f***face India? Do you love money so much?' It prompted a furious backlash on social media, with many describing themselves as 'disgusted' and others calling for the rant to be reported for a hate crime. He left the Yorkshire Dales behind to pursue a career in Los Angeles. And while Ned Porteous' Hollywood career hasn't quite taken off as yet, his love life certainly has as it's been reported that he's dating American actress Lucy Heath after meeting in the Californian city. According to reports, it's early days for Lucy and the 24-year-old actor, who played Joe Tate in the ITV soap, with the couple spending time together in both the UK and the US. New love? Ned Porteous' career hasn't quite taken off as yet, his love life certainly has as it's been reported that he's dating American actress Lucy Heath after meeting in the Californian city New romance: The 24-year-old actor left the Yorkshire Dales behind to pursue a career in Los Angeles A source told The Sun: 'Its early days but Ned is really enjoying dating Lucy. They have both been in America recently looking for work and grew really close. 'Ned usually likes to keep his love life private but has been taking Lucy to various events both in London and LA. 'They have loads in common with their acting work and make a great looking couple its just Neds fans who are gutted!' The couple enjoyed a date night at Circus Extreme in Richmond on Wednesday night, with the pair seen looking cosy. That's my girl: Although the soap actor is yet to confirm his romance, he did recently post a romantic looking snap of himself and Lucy snuggling up on a rock in California Although the soap actor is yet to confirm his romance, he did recently post a romantic looking snap of himself and Lucy snuggling up on a rock in California. MailOnline have contacted his reps for comment. Ned moved to America earlier this year in a bid to crack the industry across the pond. Speaking to the publication about his move, Ned said: 'I havent had a holiday for a very long time so Im desperate first to get out to America. 'Ive got management out there so I want to try my hand with the American casting system and then go on a little holiday. Blossoming: Its early days but Ned is really enjoying dating Lucy. They have both been in America recently looking for work and grew really close' 'I will turn my phone off, go climbing, go camping, go fishing.' Ned's character Joe recently stunned fans when it was revealed that he was alive after being presumed dead after being attacked by Cain Dingle in a fit of rage. However, in a shock twist last month, Kim Tate revealed the startling truth after she hired a private investigator to find out about missing money from her offshore account. Attack: Joe Tate was presumed dead last autumn after being attacked by Cain Dingle in a fit of rage After suspecting her employee Graham Foster was hiding something, she later confronted him with CCTV pictures of Joe withdrawing money from her account from Monte Carlo. And it was little surprise that she was livid with Graham, seeing as she had ordered him to murder Joe months before. Meanwhile, Lucy attended the Guildford School Of Acting and has starred in two short films Mating Call and Stretching The Play. Heidi Klum and her fiance Tom Kaulitz are looking more loved up than ever. The future spouses got close for a tender kiss while attending the About You Awards in Munich, Germany on Thursday. Klum, 45, tried out her animal instincts in a tiger patterned outfit with Tom, 29, rocking leather beside her. Honeymoon phase: Heidi Klum, 45, and Tom Kaulitz, 29, got close for a tender kiss while attending the About You Awards in Munich, Germany on Thursday While at Bavaria Studios, the lovebirds didn't take their hands off each other for even a second as they frolicked and laughed on the front row. The catwalk queen rocked a long sleeved jumpsuit with a tan and black tiger pattern, littered with light sparkles. She clung to her man's side as her blonde bangs swept across her forehead with the rest of her locks down. Her makeup was left natural, with just some easy black eyeliner across her lids. Bold moves: Klum tried out her animal instincts in a tiger patterned outfit with Tom, 29, rocking leather beside her Delighted: Heidi was honored at the event where she was beaming and chatting Happy: The couple looked truly enthralled with one another, with Kaulitz attentively smiling at the beauty every second Cute couple: Remaining at her side the entire show, Tom looked like the rock star he is in a leather jacket with black slacks Remaining at her side the entire show, Tom looked like the rock star he is in a leather jacket with black slacks. He rocked low sneakers with a red tongue as he kept his long, curly hair down. The couple looked truly enthralled with one another, with Kaulitz attentively smiling at the beauty every second. Putting on a proper PDA display, they locked lips as the show unfolded. Brotherly love: They sat next to the long haired guitarist's brother, Bill while clapping for the winners They sat next to the long haired guitarist's brother, Bill while clapping for the winners. Just three months ago Tom popped the question to Heidi. She has admitted that her four children Helene, 14, Henry, 14, son Johan, 12, and Lou, 9, 'can't wait for the wedding' as they love their rocker stepfather-to-be, 29. The supermodel met Tom on set of Germany's Next Top Model, and he whipped out a dazzling dark-stone engagement ring on Christmas Eve. Inseparable: The supermodel met Tom on set of Germany's Next Top Model, and he whipped out a dazzling dark-stone engagement ring on Christmas Eve Proud? She would not put her gong down in a proud display Heidi is 16 years older than the Tokio Hotel guitarist, and, of their wedding, she told ET last month: 'We're two Germans, it will be very organised and on time. Very, very much on time and very organised.' Heidi shares her eldest daughter with her ex partner Flavio Briatore, who she split from soon after announcing her pregnancy. While she shares her three other children with ex husband Seal, who she married in 2004 before the pair finalised their divorce in 2014. Hot mom: Heidi shares her eldest daughter with her ex partner Flavio Briatore, who she split from soon after announcing her pregnancy Proud: The happy couple sat in the crowd together The "absolutely horrific" leak of US President Donald Trump's contentious 2017 phone call with then Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull could lead to criminal charges. Devin Nunes, the highest-ranking Republican member on the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, announced on Sunday he is sending eight criminal referrals to US Attorney General William Barr. One of the referrals is aimed at finding out who leaked transcripts of Mr Trump's January 28, 2017 phone call with Mr Turnbull, a call with then Mexican president Pena Nieto and former national security adviser Michael Flynn's communications with a Russian ambassador. "You had conversations with the president of the United States and the prime minister of Australia leak," Mr Nunes told Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. "You had leaks of President Trump talking to the president of Mexico leak. "We all know the travesty of General Flynn. "Nobody knows where those supposed transcripts came from. "Those are just three examples that are absolutely horrific, but there's things that are even worse that were leaked and there were only two or three reporters involved in this, so it would not be hard to get to the bottom of." The Trump-Turnbull phone call transcript leak to the Washington Post rocked the usually solid US-Australian alliance, with both nations going into damage control when it was revealed the president abruptly cut short the planned hour-long call to just 24 minutes. The transcript showed Mr Turnbull pushing Mr Trump to support an asylum-seeker deal struck with former US president Barack Obama. The call was Mr Trump's last of numerous calls with world leaders that day, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Putin was a pleasant call," Mr Trump told Mr Turnbull. "This is ridiculous." Mr Nunes said the eight referrals "are classified or sensitive" so he was unable to publicly offer details. "Five of them are what I would call straight up referrals, so just referrals that name someone and name the specific crimes," Mr Nunes said. "Those crimes are lying to congress, misleading congress, leaking classified information." The referrals also involve alleged abuse by "numerous individuals" of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which involves surveillance warrants against suspected foreign spies inside the US. Some Republican members of congress allege the FBI counterintelligence investigation into potential collusion between Russia and the Trump election campaign, that led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, was marred by lies and false information to obtain FISA warrants. A man who allegedly hurled abuse at a picnicking family before driving his car in circles around them has been arrested for what police say was an anti-Islam inspired attack south of Sydney. The family had gathered at the Bulli Tops lookout before the 43-year-old man began verbally abusing them at about midday on Sunday. The man got into his car and drove in circles around the group - which included young children - before driving away, police were later told. When officers arrived they found the man driving around the carpark and he was stopped and arrested. In his vehicle, police said in a statement on Monday, they found a box cutter and hammer. Police will allege in court the alleged attack had anti-Islam overtones, AAP understands. The man was charged with intimidation and dangerous driving and refused bail to appear at Wollongong Local Court on Monday. "There is no place for any type of intimidation, abuse, or violence in New South Wales and I encourage the community to contact us to ensure every instance can be investigated," Superintendent Chris Craner said. Police are calling for any witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage to come forward. There have been more measles cases so far this year than in the whole of 2017 with the Australian government urging people to be aware of the symptoms of the infectious disease. As of April 5 this year there had been 83 measles cases compared with 103 for the whole of 2018 and 81 for the whole of 2017. Health Minister Greg Hunt said 95 per cent of the community needed to be vaccinated to achieve immunity and prevent the spread of the disease. He said 93.5 per cent of two-year-old children have received two doses of the vaccine making them protected against it. "I am concerned about the recent increases in measles cases in Australia and want to make sure our community is well protected against this very serious disease," Mr Hunt said in a statement on Monday. "Immunisation saves lives. The measles vaccine is very effective at protecting lives." As a result of the spike in cases Mr Hunt has commissioned the Australian Academy of Science to work with measles experts to raise awareness about the disease. Four videos will be released in the coming weeks which will explain the disease and its symptoms, the vaccinations available and will warn people travelling to countries where the risk of measles is high. It comes as NSW Health issued a fresh measles alert on Sunday after two unvaccinated Australians caught the disease while travelling in Asia. The two travellers, aged in their 20s, likely acquired the infection while in the Philippines in mid-March and were unwell before landing on the Gold Coast on March 30, NSW Health said. They visited shops in Pottsville and Cabarita in NSW's northern rivers region on April 2 before seeking medical treatment in Murwillumbah and Tweed Hospital the following day. Since Christmas, NSW has recorded 33 measles cases - a rate almost five times higher than over the two years before that. Environment Minister Melissa Price is still working on sub-approvals for the Adani coal mine, despite a reported threat from a Liberal senator to call for her resignation. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who was environment minister before Ms Price, said the vast majority of federal environmental approvals were done. But Liberal senator James McGrath, who famously helped bring down Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, has now turned his attention to Ms Price. He reportedly will publicly call on her to resign unless she approves the groundwater management plan for the controversial mine. But Mr Frydenberg played down the tensions when asked about the threat on Monday. "Melissa Price is going through the proper process, working with the scientists, taking the best possible advice," Mr Frydenberg told reporters in Melbourne. "The Adani project is one where the major approvals have been given and it is now going through the sub-approvals." Mr Frydenberg said there were "180 rigorous environmental conditions attached" to the Adani coal mine project, which is due to be built in central Queensland. Queensland Nationals and conservative Liberal MPs are increasingly restless for the Galilee Basin project to go ahead, while their Victorian colleagues worry it will hurt the vote in their electorates. Adani has said it will self-fund construction of a scaled-down version of the original mine plan. Star winger Suliasi Vunivalu will miss Melbourne's trip to North Queensland unless he can beat a dangerous contact charge at the NRL judiciary. Vunivalu was on Monday charge with a grade-two offence for a leg pull on Canterbury fullback Nick Meaney early in Sunday's narrow win over the Bulldogs. Meaney got up gingerly but the incident was not penalised by on-field officials, before Vunivalu was picked up by the match review committee. The Fijian will miss just one match if he pleads guilty to the charge but would risk sitting out the Storm's grand final rematch against the Sydney Roosters in round six if he contests it at the judiciary and loses. Meanwhile, Canterbury forward Ofahiki Ogden was charged for dangerous contact on Storm centre Will Chambers but will escape suspension with a guilty plea. Camperdown Dairy Company has extended its production contract with New Zealand yoghurt brand The Collective by two years, potentially doubling the value of the deal for owner Australian Dairy Nutritionals Group. ADN told the ASX on Monday that the four-year deal signed between Camperdown and The Collective in April 2018 had been extended to six years on the back of pleasing sales volumes. Camperdown, which currently produces 17 products for The Collective that are stocked in Woolworths nationally, has also agreed to install a high speed pouch machine to boost production. ADN duly upgraded the contract's revenue forecasts from $30 million over four years to between $60 million and $70 million over the longer period. Shares in ADN were flat at 14.5 cents at 1215 AEST on Monday. The company added 16 per cent to its share price last week after continuing its shift from white milk to infant formula with the $5 million purchase of an offshore powder processing plant. Labor has demanded the Morrison government come clean on how much taxpayers' money will be spent on advertising in the lead up to the federal election. Senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong grilled Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Monday after Prime Minister Scott Morrison opted not to announce when Australians would go to the polls at the weekend. The government is able to continue using taxpayers' money to plug its policies until an election is called and the public service enters "caretaker mode". Senator Cormann "completely rejected" suggestions the election had been delayed, saying the government continued to operate as usual. "I understand you are running this to get a grab on the evening news," Senator Cormann told Senator Wong during an estimates hearing in Canberra. He said the finance department was responsible for government advertising and those officials would appear before estimates on Tuesday. In a heated exchange, Senator Wong asked Senator Cormann to confirm or deny $600,000 a day was being spent to promote the government. "How much are you spending per day on government advertising? Tell us how much per day," Senator Wong said. Senator Cormann said the government would continue to promote online safety for children, defence recruitment, incentives to employ apprentices and reducing electricity bills during the week. "Just because there is an election around the corner doesn't mean that we now all of a sudden all have to go into conspiracy theories," he said. Senator Cormann said the election was not due until the "end of May". It is anticipated Mr Morrison will call the election this weekend for May 18. A male who allegedly kicked the teen who egged Senator Fraser Anning in Melbourne last month is wanted for questioning by police. The now infamous incident took place in Moorabbin on March 16 when 17-year-old Will Connolly, dubbed "Egg Boy", cracked an egg on the back of Senator Fraser Anning's head after the politician made controversial comments about the New Zealand terror attack. Police on Monday released a photo of the man, who they say kicked the 17-year-old numerous times while he was being held to the ground by others. Connolly and Anning have both been interviewed by police and the investigation into the initial incident remains ongoing. A man has suffered burns to his limbs and face after a gas main ruptured at a primary school in Melbourne's south east. Fire crews were called to the scene at 11.40am on Monday after the rupture started a fire, which spread to the school buildings at St Catherine's Catholic Primary School in Berwick. A man in his 20s was airlifted to The Alfred Hospital in a stable condition and another man was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Luckily no students were present at the school, as it's the first day of school holidays. An elderly man has died in hospital more than a week after he was hit by a car while waiting for a bus in north west Sydney. The 72-year-old was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition after he was hit by the Ford Focus at a bus stop in The Ponds on March 29. Police charged the 47-year-old female driver the next day with dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm and negligent driving. However, police are now investigating further charges after the man died in hospital on Saturday, April 6. The driver was granted bail to appear at Blacktown Local Court on April 15 and further charges are expected. A report will be prepared for the coroner. The body set up to provide the Morrison government with climate change policy advice was not consulted for its climate package. The policy includes $2 billion over 15 years for the Climate Solutions Fund, which aims to reduce Australia's emissions between 26 to 28 per cent by 2030 over 2005 levels. Climate Change Authority chair Wendy Craik says she didn't hear about the government policy before it was announced in the media. "We weren't invited to have an input or put advice together," Dr Craik told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Monday. The body hasn't done any analysis on the policy or Labor's approach, she added. A couple who travelled to work in Australia from Tonga "imported" a live-in worker from Fiji because they felt a servant was missing from their lives, a Queensland court has been told. Isikeli Feleatoua Pulini and Malavine Pulini are on trial for human trafficking and forced labour offences in relation to allegedly bringing a woman to work in their Brisbane home for about $250 per fortnight from 2008. The couple pleaded not guilty to the trafficking and forced labour charges in Brisbane District Court on Monday but pleaded guilty to harbouring an unlawful non-citizen. In his opening address, crown prosecutor Ben Power told the court the woman lived hidden from plain sight, with neighbours oblivious of her alleged forced labour in suburban Brisbane. Mr Power told the court the alleged victim had initially worked as a domestic servant for the pair in Tonga in the early 2000s, earning about $90 to $170 a fortnight. But in 2006 Mr Pulini and Ms Pulini secured work in Australia as a civil engineer and public servant respectively. Mr Power said the couple felt like there was something missing from their lives after their arrival, and allegedly arranged for the woman to travel to Australia twice on a tourist visa. Upon the woman's second arrival in 2008, the Pulinis allegedly took her passport and said they would use it to get her an Australian visa. Mr Power said the woman feared asking for her passport back and it was not returned until 2013, after it had expired. He said the woman felt depressed as the years wore on, allegedly working on call around the clock, before she escaped in 2016. The trial is expected to continue for most of the week. A swift and wide-sweeping New Zealand royal commission into whether a terror attack on Christchurch mosques could have been stopped will probe the activities of the alleged gunman in Australia. Following the attack that killed 50 people on March 15, an inquiry was ordered to answer questions about why the lone man charged, Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, was not flagged by security agencies on either side of the Tasman. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday announced the probe would look at Tarrant's time in Australia, his arrival and life in New Zealand, his travel abroad, his use of social media, links with others and how he managed to obtain a gun licence and weapons. "We are asking that he look at this connection with others, whether in New Zealand or internationally," Ardern said. "We've had good cooperation (with Australia) so far, certainly via our agencies, and my expectation is that would continue." The commission - to be chaired by sitting New Zealand Supreme Court Justice Sir William Young - will be carried out with haste. It'll hear evidence from May and report back by December. Australian Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo last week said Tarrant - now charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 of attempted murder - had spent just 45 days in Australia over the past few years. Security and intelligence chiefs had no evidence to suggest the 28-year-old from Grafton in NSW posed a risk, Pezzullo said. The policies and actions of New Zealand intelligence agencies, police, customs and the immigration department will be part of the royal commission, as will questions about whether enough attention is placed on far-right extremism. The way information was shared with overseas intelligence partners, including Australia, will also be probed. "The government will ensure no stone is left unturned as we examine as quickly as possible how the March 15 attack happened, what could have been done to stop it and how we can keep New Zealanders safe," Ardern said. Meanwhile, a New Zealand parliamentary committee taking submissions on gun reforms - announced days after the shooting - is set to return proposed tweaks to the new laws after hearing from the public last week. The amended legislation, which bans military-style, semi-automatic rifles and some modifications, will go back to the MPs for a second vote on Tuesday, with a plan for it to become law by Thursday. While it's meant to pass with near-universal support in parliament, a small number of vocal opponents have criticised the speed of the process, which only included one day of oral feedback and gave politicians a few days to consider 12,000 written submissions. A meat industry leader has called vegans' nationally coordinated trespass "an attack on regional Australia", and harmful to anyone working in the $22 billion sector. Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said five member operations on the eastern seaboard, as well as a number of other farm businesses, had been illegally disrupted by vegan activists. Monday's actions, which included activists chaining themselves to equipment and disrupting small to medium meat processing facilities, were part of a national animal rights protest that also shut down traffic in the Melbourne CBD. "Of course people are entitled to their own views, but illegally entering facilities is just not OK," Mr Hutchinson said. "It creates biosecurity risks, it leads to breaches of privacy, it is potentially unsafe for the activists themselves and at the end of the day it puts at risk jobs in regional communities." Affected businesses included the Carey Bros abattoir at Warwick in Queensland, Southern Meats in Goulburn, NSW, and six Victorian locations, including Westside Meats at Bacchus Marsh, MC Herd at Geelong, and O'Connor Beef at Pakenham. "It's an attack on regional Australia, pure and simple," Mr Hutchinson said. "(Activists) come in from the city, they cause trouble, they create images that are not representative of the work our members do, they damage a business's ability to operate, and then they're gone." The protests were organised to mark the one-year anniversary of the film Dominion, which used drones and hidden cameras to film inside farms to show how animals are treated during the production process. Police also arrested 38 activists in Melbourne who blocked a major intersection, causing chaos for commuters during the morning peak hour. National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar and president Fiona Simson were among the industry leaders condemning the trespasses, with Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud urging state governments to hasten the introduction of stronger farm trespass laws. Mr Hutchinson said he supported the right to peaceful protest but could not condone action that may hurt an industry employing 55,000 people, mostly in country areas. "We have a supply chain that will be impacted all the way through, from farmers through to transport individuals, blue and white collar workers at the abattoirs, meat wholelsalers, right through to local butcher," Mr Hutchinson said. "They will stop at nothing short of abolishing our industry, and you just can't negotiate with that." An Adelaide man has been detained but later released after posting an image on social media which appeared to threaten violence against a local mosque. Police say the man was detained on Sunday night under the Mental Health Act. He has since been released from hospital and investigations are continuing. Media reports suggested the man had posted an image on social media of him holding what appeared to be an automatic rifle. In an accompanying post he, wrote: "on my way to my local mosque to introduce these f****** to my lord and saviour Jesus Christ, Amen". Police did not release details of the man's post or comments and have not said if charges will be laid. A Vietnamese man has been arrested at Adelaide Airport after he allegedly attempted to smuggle a live fish into the country. The 34-year-old was stopped by Australian Border Force (ABF) officers for a baggage check when he arrived in Adelaide from Malaysia. It's alleged he had the live Fully Red Asian Arowana in a bag hanging around his neck. The fish was identified and assessed for its biosecurity risk by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. ABF SA chief Brett Liebich said the force was committed to protecting Australia's national wildlife from potential foreign diseases and predators. "The ABF takes the illegal wildlife trade seriously," he said. In Australia, it is illegal to own an Asian Arowana unless it is legally imported. The man was granted bail to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on May 15. The maximum penalty for trade offences in Australia is 10 years in gaol and a fine of up to $210,000 for individuals or up to $1,050,000 for corporations. The Australian share market is set for an uninspiring start on Monday despite US shares closing on a positive note last week. Positive economic data from China and a good start to the US earnings report season meant Wall Street and Europe traded strong at the end of the week. European shares were up 5 per cent, the Dow was up 1 per cent and the S&P 500 Index was up 0.7 per cent. "But the funny thing is our futures contract is flat," AMP Capital's chief economist Shane Oliver told AAP. "Normally a rally on Wall Street should be positive for us." Dr Oliver said the federal election campaign is likely to cause some volatility, and all eyes will be on national employment figures for the month of March when they are released on Thursday. It is unlikely there has been enough new jobs created to stop the unemployment rate rising to 5 per cent, after dipping to 4.9 per cent in February. While growth across the country has been steady, it hasn't been able to absorb new entrants to the workforce, like migrants and graduating students, and the participation rate has also been rising, Dr Oliver said. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and federal Labor leader Bill Shorten will continue to talk about making more jobs in the lead up to polling day, but the economist warned of taking promises too seriously. "We are generating good jobs growth in Australia, but I'd be a bit skeptical of precise numbers," he said. "I have no doubt the Australian economy will continue to generate jobs going forward, it's just that you can get into all sorts of debates about the numbers, particularly when you're talking about numbers spread out over many years." Figures detailing GDP growth in China will also be released this week. Unions have launched a marginal seat blitz on Queensland as the prime minister campaigns to save crucial contests in the state. The Australian Council of Trade Unions used the first weekend of the federal election campaign to knock on doors in key seat across the country. In Queensland, unionists targeted Petrie, Capricornia, Forde and Herbert. Scott Morrison campaigned in LNP-held marginal seat of Petrie on Sunday morning, as he made his first foray into Queensland during the five-week race. The ACTU has dumped its campaign to "put the Liberals last" and fallen into line with Labor preferencing One Nation at the bottom of how to vote cards. ACTU president Michele O'Neil said doorknockers wouldn't discuss preferences. "It's a conversation about issues and a conversation about how important it is to get rid of this government," she told AAP. In Western Australia, ACTU doorknockers have targeted Canning, Swan and Pearce, while in NSW, they were out in Robertson on the Central Coast. The Victorian seats of Corangamite, Deakin and Dunkley were also visited by union volunteers. Ms O'Neil said voters were worried about rising inequality under the coalition. "They're angry about casualisation and about their wages not keeping up," she said. The ACTU president said there was an appetite for change, but unions would not let up during the five-week campaign by continuing talking to people. "That's the most powerful thing we can do," she said. One Queensland MP potentially in trouble is Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who apologised after accusing his Labor opponent Ali France of using her disability as an excuse not to move into the electorate of Dickson. Ms O'Neil said Mr Dutton had attacked someone with a disability who was standing up for others. "To try and score a cheap political point on the back of her disability is as an absolute disgrace," the ACTU president said. The case of a young South Australian mother is being highlighted 22 years after her disappearance, as part of a campaign to resolve cold cases. Annabel Strzelecki disappeared from her home in SA's mid-north in June 1988. Her husband Wlodzimierz Strzelecki was the only person of interest for her disappearance and suspected murder. The 73-year-old man took his own life two years after his wife's disappearance. During initial investigations, Mr Strzelecki told police his wife left their home late on June 5 with two friends after a confrontation with him. SA's branch Detective Sergeant Rebecca Rayner said no evidence supported his claim. "He later indicated to someone that he had killed her and disposed of her body in the far north of the state," Detective Sergeant Rayner said. "Unfortunately police did not have sufficient corroboration to charge and convict him. "Despite an extensive investigation, there is nothing to suggest that anyone else is responsible." A $200,000 reward will be paid by the SA government, at the discretion of SA Police, to anyone with information which leads to the location of the victim's remains. Manly prop Addin Fonua-Blake is facing a two-match ban for the high tackle that left Newcastle halfback Mitchell Pearce concussed. Fonua-Blake was the Sea Eagles' best in their win over the Knights, but he has been charged with a grade-one careless high tackle on Pearce and an early guilty plea won't secure a reduction in the suspension. Sydney Roosters centre Joseph Manu stands to miss Friday's grand final rematch with Melbourne after being charged for a high shot on Cronulla winger Sione Katoa. A taxi driver has been carjacked at gunpoint in Sydney's west according to police, who are hunting for the culprit. The driver picked up a man at St Mary's train station, before 2.30am on Sunday, who pulled out a gun and demanded the driver's wallet, police say. The driver then left his taxi and the man drove away. Police found the car half an hour later on Queen Street. Police are now hunting the man responsible, who has been described has Caucasian with short brown hair and aged in his mid to late 20s. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says he regrets accusing his Labor opponent of using her disability as an excuse for not living in the electorate. A day after apologising to Labor's candidate for Dickson Ali France on Twitter, the senior cabinet minister confirmed he was sorry. But he was keen to shift the subject to the election campaign. "I made comment yesterday obviously in relation to it, I regret having said the words I said," Mr Dutton told reporters at an LNP rally in Brisbane on Sunday, "Now the focus, as the prime minister said, in this campaign is making sure we can manage the economy well and pay for the services we need." Ms France, who had her leg amputated after she was hit by a car protecting her child in 2011, said she had been unable to find an accessible home in Dickson but would buy a house and modify it if she won. But Mr Dutton said voters in his seat were angry that Ms France was using her disability as an "excuse" for not moving into the electorate. Asked whether the comments had hurt his chances of re-election in Dickson, which he holds with a 1.6 per cent margin, Mr Dutton said: "No." "My focus is always been on what's best for the local area, that's why I've been so passionate about making sure we can deliver." Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday Mr Dutton's comments had been taken out of context. Disability advocates, union figures and Labor all savaged Mr Dutton over the issue. ACTU president Michele O'Neil told AAP Mr Dutton was a "disgrace". A man extradited from the United States has been charged with the murder of Thai national Wachira "Mario" Phetmang, whose body was found bound and gagged on the side of a Sydney road. Alex Dion, 38, was charged with the 2018 murder of Mr Phetmang on Sunday after he arrived in Sydney from California under police guard. Mr Phetmang's body was discovered last June, wrapped in plastic and covered in a mattress protector, having died from blunt force trauma to the head. NSW Police travelled to the US last week to bring Dion back to Australia after he was arrested last year by local authorities for an unrelated matter. He was escorted from the airport to Sydney Police Centre and charged with murder. Dion was refused bail and will appear before Central Local Court on Monday. WHAT THEY SAID ON DAY 4 OF THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN THE BEST LINE "Exclusive Treasury modelling shows Bill Shorten hates puppies." - Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek mocking government's attacks on the opposition leader. THE BEST LINE (NOT) "Maybe Tony Abbot is on to something here ... what do you reckon?" - Senator Matt Canavan tweeting a video of himself wearing a hi vis jacket eating a raw onion, a habit of the former prime minister. Mr Abbott retweeted. PRIME MINISTER SCOTT MORRISON "Life is not about what you accumulate. Life is about what you contribute. And I think that's what we believe as Liberals." - he told a Liberal rally in Brisbane, relaying what he and his brother were taught by their parents. LABOR LEADER BILL SHORTEN "Better hospitals, stronger Medicare, the NDIS back on track - this is at the heart of Labor vision for the future of a fair go Australia." - he told a Labor volunteer rally in Burwood, NSW. REAL PEOPLE "What are they going to plug it into, a bloody gum tree?" - Margaret, 69 and no fan of Shorten, asks Morrison about Labor's electric vehicle policy. THE SUPPORT CAST "This is another dodgy con-job from a dodgy snake oil salesman." - Labor campaign spokesman Jim Chalmers says the coalition's youth jobs announcement won't make up for six years of cuts to TAFE and apprenticeships. -- "We are quite able to add up." - Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on the $387 billion of taxes the coalition says Labor will impose on the economy, a figure Treasury said it did not provide when doing individual costings of proposed policies. Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government have sent reinforcements to push back an advance on Tripoli by fighters of strongman Khalifa Haftar The US on Sunday appealed for an "immediate halt" to a military offensive by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, as fighting raged near Tripoli despite a UN call for a ceasefire. Haftar's forces and the UN-backed unity government exchanged air strikes Sunday, three days after Haftar launched an offensive to seize the capital. The unity government said the fighting had killed 21 people, while the United Nations said there had been "no truce" despite calls for a two-hour pause in fighting for civilians and the wounded to flee. Oil-rich Libya has been riven by chaos since the NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi, as rival administrations and armed groups have battled for power. Haftar's offensive has threatened to plunge the country into a full-blown civil war and once again derail tentative diplomatic efforts to find a solution to Libya's woes. Khalifa Haftar "We have made clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftar's forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late Sunday. "This unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans," he added. Pompeo stressed that there is "no military solution to the Libya conflict," and urged all parties to return to "political negotiations" mediated by the UN. After a pause overnight on Saturday, fierce fighting flared Sunday morning south of Tripoli between Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and forces backing the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). As the clashes raged in the rural area of Wadi Raba and the destroyed international airport south of the capital, a spokesman for pro-GNA forces announced a counteroffensive. Colonel Mohamed Gnounou told reporters on Sunday forces had launched operation "Volcano of Anger" aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces", in reference to Haftar's fighters. The LNA said it had carried out its first air raid on a Tripoli suburb, defying international calls for a ceasefire. - Truce hopes fade - The unity government's health ministry said Sunday at least 21 people had been killed and 27 wounded since the fighting began, without specifying whether civilians were among the dead. Haftar's force said Saturday that 14 of its personnel had been killed, while the Libyan Red Crescent reported the death of one of its doctors. Emergency services spokesman Oussama Ali said rescuers "have not been able to enter" the battle zones. Mohamed Gnounou, spokesman of Libya pro-government forces, announces the launch of a "counteroffensive" against fighters of strongman Khalifa Haftar to defend Tripoli The UN's Libya mission UNSMIL said it was "still hoping for a positive response" to its earlier call for a pause, after a two-hour window it had set for a humanitarian truce passed with no apparent let-up in the fighting. UN Security Council on Friday called on Haftar's forces to halt their advance, warning it would further destabilise Libya. But on Sunday Russia blocked proposals for the council to adopt a formal statement, diplomats said, instead insisting that all Libyan forces be urged to stop fighting. Moscow is a key supporter of Haftar, along with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The US military said Sunday it had temporarily pulled an unspecified number of its troops out of Libya "in response to security conditions on the ground". - 'Protracted war' - Analysts say Haftar has been buoyed by a series of successful operations that have brought all of the east and much of southern Libya under his control. A field marshal who served under Kadhafi and now backs an administration in eastern Libya opposed to the GNA, Haftar was counting on a swift battle to capture Tripoli. But some experts say he miscalculated. This image grab obtained from a video posted April 3, 2019 on the Facebook page of Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army War Information Division allegedly shows military convoys heading towards the capital Tripoli "To date, Haftar's operation has mostly failed to go according to plan, and it has now galvanised western Libyan forces against him," said analyst Wolfram Lacher. "He now faces the prospect of a protracted war south of Tripoli, or of a decisive defeat," said Lacher, a researcher with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Haftar's offensive came as UN chief Antonio Guterres visited Libya on Thursday, ahead of a planned UN-backed conference aimed at uniting Libya's rivals and paving the way for elections. Envoy Ghassan Salame has insisted the UN was "determined" to go ahead with the April 14-16 conference. Map of Uganda locating the Queen Elizabeth National Park where an American tourist, driver were freed after ranson paid A US tourist and a safari guide kidnapped by gunmen in a Ugandan national park have been recovered safe and sound after a ransom was paid for their release, a safari firm said on Sunday. The pair were hauled from their safari vehicle by four gunmen around dusk on Tuesday as they drove through the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Mike Walker, manager of Wild Frontiers Safaris, said US tourist Kimberly Endicott and experienced guide Jean-Paul Mirenge, were "back safe". "Ransom paid and people exchanged," he told AFP by text, adding that he didn't know the "precise amount yet". US President Donald Trump, in a tweet, confirmed the news of Endicott's released. "Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released. God bless them and their families!" Trump tweeted Police had said the kidnappers used Endicott's mobile telephone to demand a ransom of $500,000 (445,000 euros) for the release of the pair. Asked about the ransom, police spokeswoman Polly Namaye would not confirm directly but referred AFP to the tour company, saying it was "an authority on its own". She credited the safe recovery of the pair "to the untiring efforts" of the search teams who were drawn from the police, military and the wildlife authority. "The victims of last week's kidnapping have been recovered alive," Namaye said. - 'The kidnappers have escaped' - The Ugandan police's tourist protection force had deployed a special response unit working alongside soldiers and wildlife rangers in the hunt for the kidnapped pair. Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of the East African nation's most popular wildlife reserves, runs along the border with conflict-wracked regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It borders the famous Virunga national park, the oldest in Africa. Numerous militia groups and armed gangs roam eastern DR Congo. Virunga suspended all tourism activities last year after a ranger was killed and two British tourists kidnapped. The Britons and their driver were freed two days after the attack. The park reopened in February. Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo wrote on Twitter that Endicott and Mirenge, were rescued "by Uganda security forces in the DRC". He added that "the kidnappers have escaped and operations continue." Queen Elizabeth park is about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, famous for gorilla trekking. Uganda is home to more than half of the world's endangered mountain gorillas. In 1999, Rwandan rebels killed eight foreign tourists and four Ugandans there, inflicting an enormous blow to Uganda's tourist industry. The rebels were part of a militia group that was involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide before fleeing to the jungles of DR Congo. Tourism is a key industry for Uganda, as a major earner of foreign currency. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit each year. Malawi President Peter Mutharika is seeking a second term in office Malawis President Peter Mutharika launched his Democratic Progressive Partys manifesto and election campaign Sunday, ahead of next months elections where he will seek a second and final term in office. Mutharika, who has been in power since 2014, will face tough opposition, including from his own deputy Saulos Chilima, at the May 21 election. "This is the most important campaign since 1994 when Malawi attained multi-party democracy," Mutharika told over 5,000 supporters at the Kamuzu Institute of Youth in Lilongwe. "This year we choose between going forward or going backwards." His government has been dogged by several high-profile cases of corruption and nepotism. Last November, Mutharika himself was forced to return a $200,000 donation from a businessman facing a corruption case in a $3-million contract to supply food to the Malawi police. But on Sunday he told his supporters: "In 2014, we made promises and kept the promises. "We are government that has done more in the last five years than any government has done in the history of Malawi. "We are ready to take Malawi further from poverty to prosperity," he told the jubilant crowd. And he held his hand out to the opposition, calling on them to "just come and join us so that we build together, because they are not presenting any new ideas". - Rival contenders - Mutharika, 78, defeated the incumbent Joyce Banda in the 2014 presidential elections. Next month, he faces three challengers, including his own Vice President Chilima. Chilima, 48, quit Mutharikas party to form the United Transformation Movement, while staying on as vice president. Under Malawi law, the president cannot fire the vice president. The other two contenders are Lazarus Chakwera, head of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP); and Atupele Muluzi, health minister in Mutharikas government. Former baptist preacher Chakwera, 64, is running with the support of former president Banda. Atupele Muluzi, 41, who launched his partys manifesto in Lilongwe on Sunday, inherited the United Democratic Front from his father, Malawi's third president Bakili Muluzi. The party entered into a parliamentary alliance with the president's party after Muluzi came fourth in the 2014 elections. About half of Malawi's 18 million population live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, and the country relies on foreign aid. Food shortages, power outages and ballooning external debt have hurt Mutharika's popularity ahead of the vote. Ghosn is likely to be stripped of his membership of Nissan's board Nissan shareholders were meeting Monday for a vote expected to eject Carlos Ghosn from the board, as the detained former chairman fights multiple financial misconduct charges that have landed him in custody. The extraordinary shareholders' meeting at a Tokyo hotel is the first such gathering since the stunning arrest of the 65-year-old auto sector titan on November 19. Shareholders will vote on the removal of Ghosn, once hailed as the Japanese car giant's saviour, and his replacement by Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard. They will also likely jettison from the board Greg Kelly, a US executive who served as Ghosn's right-hand man and who also faces charges in Japan. Nissan sacked Ghosn as chairman almost immediately after his initial arrest but an extraordinary meeting of shareholders is required to remove him from the board. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa opened the meeting with a speech outlining the allegations against his former mentor, accusing him of misusing funds and seeking to conceal his compensation. He and other executives bowed deeply before the thousands of shareholders at the meeting as it opened. "We have to admit that there was a significant problem with our corporate governance," he said, adding that he had been "extremely shocked when I learned of the misconduct." "Nissan's government isn't working well. I really regret that," 77-year-old shareholder Isamu Beppu told AFP before the meeting. "If there is no rebuilding of its governance, there will be no revival," he added. Carlos Ghosn Ghosn faces three separate charges. The first two relate to the alleged deferring of around $80 million in income and concealing this in official documents to shareholders. The third, more complex, charge is that he attempted to transfer personal losses to Nissan and paid a Saudi contact who provided collateral from company funds. Last week, prosecutors rearrested Ghosn, who was out on bail, over an additional allegation that he transferred Nissan money to a dealership in Oman but siphoned off millions for his own personal expenses -- including the purchase of a luxury yacht. Prosecutors believe Ghosn moved Nissan funds totalling $15 million between late 2015 and the middle of 2018 and used $5 million of that for his own ends. On Friday, the Tokyo District Court ruled that prosecutors could have until at least April 14 to interrogate Ghosn, who denies any wrongdoing. This period can be extended for a further 10 days if the court allows, meaning Ghosn is unlikely to be released any time soon. Ghosn's wife Carole, who had been living with him in Tokyo while he was out on bail, told a newspaper on the weekend that she had fled Japan with the help of the French ambassador because she "felt in danger" after her husband's rearrest. Japanese prosecutors reportedly wanted to question her on a voluntary basis and are looking into claims that Ghosn routed suspicious funds transfers through a business run by his wife. - 'It's a plot' - Ghosn's rearrest on Thursday came less than a month after he dramatically won bail, paying around $9 million to secure his release. Prosecutors believe Ghosn moved Nissan funds totalling $15 million between late 2015 and the middle of 2018 and used $5 million of that for his own ends He had kept tight-lipped during his bail period and was subject to restrictions on his contacts with others connected with the case, and his online communications. He was also banned from leaving the country. Just before his rearrest, Ghosn had appeared on Twitter to announce a news conference for April 11 -- which will now not happen barring a further surprise. However, he gave a combative interview to France's TF1 television channel where he again denounced his downfall as a Nissan "plot" and voiced fears he might not receive a fair trial. "It's obvious it's a plot," said Ghosn, adding: "Everything needs to be put on the table. Of course, I have names." Nissan headquarters in Yokohama. Nissan sacked Ghosn as chairman almost immediately after his initial arrest but an extraordinary meeting of shareholders is required to remove him from the board "Some of them you have seen in the press, but there are others that haven't been in the press," he said. He said his downfall was orchestrated by people scared of closer integration between Nissan and its French partner Renault. The other reason for the "plot" was the "deterioration in Nissan's performance for two years," he charged. "I am very worried about the performance and future of Nissan," said Ghosn, widely credited with saving the Japanese firm from the brink of bankruptcy. Kirstjen Nielsen, pictured in October 2017, listens as US President Donald Trump nominates her as US Secretary of Homeland Security US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced the departure of Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, underscoring his intent to toughen immigration policy amid a surge in illegal crossings along the southern border. Nielsen's exit marks the end of a difficult relationship with her boss, who was said to be unhappy with her performance despite her unswerving loyalty and full-throated defense of the president's most controversial policies. During her 18 months at the helm of the powerful agency, the 46-year-old became synonymous with the controversial practice of separating children from their parents, making her a frequent target of progressive groups and the Democratic opposition who repeatedly called on her to resign. None of this, however, seems to have been enough for Trump. "Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service," Trump tweeted Sunday. He added US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would become acting secretary. "Despite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside," Nielsen said in a resignation letter she later shared on Twitter. The move came just two days after she and Trump visited the Mexican border in California together, with the president delivering a stern message to would-be illegal immigrants and asylum seekers: "Our country is full." Despite warnings of dire economic consequences, including by top Republicans, Trump has repeatedly threatened to close the US-Mexico border, demanding that Congress and Central American governments act to stem a flow of migrants that saw Nielsen last week order an "emergency surge" of personnel to handle the situation. "System has been broken for many years. Democrats in Congress must agree to fix loopholes - No Open Borders (Crimes & Drugs). Will Close Southern Border If necessary..." he tweeted Sunday evening. - 'Not extreme enough' - On Friday, US media reported that Trump also pulled his nominee to lead the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department -- saying he wanted someone "tougher" at the helm of the Homeland Security sub-agency. Together, the shake-ups were seen by observers as a sign the president wants to tack an even harder line. Border Patrol estimates put the number of migrants passing through Mexico at over 100,000 in March, most from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala: the highest monthly figure in nearly a decade, according to Nielsen. Trump cut aid to those three countries last month in response to the surge. Kirstjen Nielsen has become the face of US President Donald Trump's divisive immigration policy "When even the most radical voices in the administration aren't radical enough for President Trump, you know he's completely lost touch with the American people," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added it was "deeply alarming that the Trump Administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White House's liking." Nielsen initially joined the Trump administration in January 2017 as an assistant to Trump's first DHS secretary, John Kelly. When Kelly moved to the White House as Trump's chief of staff in July 2017, Nielsen went with him as his deputy. But by October of that year she was back at DHS, this time as secretary. Disaster relief, cyber security, transportation security, the Coast Guard, customs and policing the borders all fall under the department's purview. - Family separations - She will be remembered most, however, as the face of the Trump administration's fierce anti-immigration policy, including the widely condemned practice -- since revoked -- of separating migrant children from their parents as part of a "zero tolerance" policy of prosecuting all illegal border crossers. Images of sobbing children being taken from their parents last year fuelled a national outcry as condemnation poured in from the United Nations, human rights groups, and four former first ladies -- all mothers -- who called the policy "cruel" and "immoral." Nielsen, though, bristled at suggestions the children were being mistreated, or placed into what appeared to be "cages." And in any case the children taken from their parents after crossing the border were "well taken care of," she insisted. "@SecNielsen's legacy of tearing innocent families apart will follow her for the rest of her life-and she should be ashamed of the role she played," Democratic senator and 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren tweeted of Nielsen's exit. On the other side, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Nielsen "did her best to deal with a broken immigration system and broken Congress." Nielsen's relationship with the president has long been said to be difficult Despite reports Trump complained constantly about Nielsen performance -- and that he believed she was not harsh enough -- she remained a loyalist. When participants in a January 2018 White House session on immigration quoted Trump as referring to African nations as "shithole" countries, Nielsen came to the president's defense. "I did not hear that word used," she told a congressional hearing. Last month, she defended the president's declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for his pet project: a wall on the US-Mexico border. As it stands, the future of the Japanese imperial family rests on 12-year-old Hisahito, the son of Crown Prince Naruhito's younger brother and the last eligible male heir Japanese Emperor Akihito's historic abdication later this month has reignited concerns over the future of what is believed to be one of the world's oldest royal families, given its hereditary, male-only succession rules. As it stands, the fate of the Japanese imperial family rests on 12-year-old Hisahito, the son of Crown Prince Naruhito's younger brother and the last eligible male heir. Japan's centuries-old succession would be broken if Hisahito does not have a male child as the Imperial Household Law, in place since 1947, does not allow women to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. That means Naruhito's only child, 17-year-old Princess Aiko, is not in line to inherit the throne. While public attitudes seem to be shifting to change the succession laws to allow women to rule, the chance of concrete reform looks remote. According to a poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily between October and November, nearly two-thirds want the law revised to allow women to be the rightful heir. Japan's royal dynasty "I just wonder why Princess Aiko cannot ascend the throne," Mizuho, a Tokyo resident in her 30s who only gave her first name, told AFP. "If it's just because she's a girl, then I think it's out of place in the current era," she said. "Why don't we allow female heirs like Queen Elizabeth in the British monarchy?" Under the current rules, female imperial family members also lose their royal status upon marriage to a commoner, a point highlighted by the engagement of one of Akihito's granddaughters, Princess Mako, to her college sweetheart. - 'Sun goddess' - Traditionalists are vehemently opposed to any change in the law but there have been as many as eight empresses, with the last one, Gosakuramachi, on the throne about 250 years ago. And the imperial family, which has a myth-filled history dating back more than 2,600 years, is said to be descended from legendary sun goddess Amaterasu. Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito's only child, 17-year-old Princess Aiko, is not in line to inherit the throne When the parliament passed a one-off rule allowing the ageing emperor to step down in 2017, it also urged the government to "swiftly study" reforms that would allow the sons of royal women to become emperor. Tokyo has said these discussions will begin soon after May 1, when Naruhito ascends the throne. But the government has also decided that only male royal adults will attend the main abdication ceremony, during which the new emperor will inherit the traditional regalia such as a sacred sword and jewel. Politicians are dodging the looming issue of male-only succession because "they do not want to shoulder the responsibility", Yuji Otabe, professor of Japanese history at Shizuoka University of Welfare, told AFP. "If you think about the heredity system, a woman is also of imperial blood," he said, voicing concerns about the future of the Japanese royal line if the situation does not change. - 'Great pressure' - Another consequence of the male-only succession line is the enormous pressure to conceive boys to keep the line going. The future emperor and empress were under huge pressure to have a boy but their only child -- born in 2001 -- was Princess Aiko. The "crisis" was averted when Prince Hisahito was born in 2006 to the Crown Prince's younger brother Akishino, meaning the male blood line could continue. After Crown Prince Naruhito takes the throne, Akishino is next in line, followed by Hisahito. Crown Princess Masako, a former high-flying diplomat, has struggled for years with a stress-related illness after joining the tradition-heavy household, which some have put down to the pressure of producing a male heir. Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and his bride, Masako Owada, in full traditional Japanese Imperial wedding costumes at the Imperial Palace in 1993 Hideto Tsuboi, professor of modern Japanese literature and history at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, argued that Masako's illness epitomises the difference between Japanese and British royals. Japanese imperial family members "do not enjoy normal human rights due to too much emphasis on" the male-blood lineage succession system compared to the British monarchy, said Tsuboi. Analyst Otabe also pointed to the "great pressure" on any woman marrying into the imperial family to bear a son. "Who would want to marry (Hisahito)?" he asked. Tokyo resident Mizuho called for change, saying: "I really don't think it has to be a man." "As long as the person has the qualities needed to take over the throne, whether the heir is male or female doesn't matter to me." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before supporters at his Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv on election night Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked set for a fifth term in office Wednesday after nearly complete election results put him and fellow right-wingers on track to form a governing coalition. - What now? - With Netanyahu's Likud and other right-wing parties projected to take around 65 seats in the 120-seat parliament, he is almost certain to be asked by President Reuven Rivlin to form a government. After Rivlin canvases all parties he is expected to invite Netanyahu to hammer out formal coalition contracts. He will have up to 42 days in which to do it. In addition to his natural allies, Netanyahu could invite his main challenger -- centrist Blue and White -- to add its 35 seats to his coalition, although that is seen as a less likely scenario. Netanyahu faces the prospect of becoming the first sitting prime minister to be indicted. The attorney general has announced he intends to indict him for bribery, fraud and breach of trust pending a hearing in the coming weeks. But Netanyahu would be entitled to remain in office until his trial and any subsequent appeal process are over. - What about Gantz? - With 97 percent of the vote counted Netanyahu's main rival, ex-military chief Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White alliance, was projected to win the same number of seats as the Likud. But the electoral collapse of potential partners left it incapable of putting together more than 55 seats with them -- not enough to take power. Labour, in particular, crashed in flames with only six seats in the incoming parliament compared to the 24 it held previously in alliance with the centrist Hatnuah party. Gantz is now set to become leader of the opposition in parliament, an official post. Final results were expected by Thursday afternoon, adding in the ballots of soldiers and other special categories of voters. - What is likely to change? - If the preliminary results are largely confirmed, there are unlikely to be any major policy shifts. Netanyahu's outgoing government is already seen as the most right-wing in Israeli history, and the make-up of the next one may be similar. The strengthening of the two ultra-Orthodox parties -- to a combined 16 seats from 13 in the outgoing parliament -- will increase their clout in government, particularly in matters of religion and state such as the fierce debate over whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should perform mandatory military service. What about the Palestinians? Netanyahu made a last-minute pledge ahead of the elections to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that could end remaining hopes for a two-state solution if done on a large scale. There is no sign he would back off from that approach after he forms a government. Israel's politics have moved firmly to the right, with many voters disillusioned by failed peace attempts with the Palestinians. The landmark Oslo accords of the 1990s were followed by the bloody second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has said he hoped that Israel's elections could help bring peace but senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said Wednesday that the results showed otherwise. "They have chosen an overwhelmingly right-wing, xenophobic and anti-Palestinian parliament to represent them," Ashrawi said in a statement. Saudi King Salman and his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with family members of Jamal Khashoggi in Riyadh, shortly after the journalist's murder The family of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi denied Wednesday being in talks to reach a settlement out of court with Saudi authorities following reports that his sons had taken payouts. "Currently, the trial is taking place and no settlement discussion had been or is discussed," read an English statement posted to Salah Khashoggi's verified Twitter account. The Washington Post on April 1 reported Khashoggi's children, including Salah, had received multimillion-dollar homes and were being paid thousands of dollars per month by authorities. Khashoggi -- a contributor to the Post and a critic of the Saudi government -- was killed and dismembered in October at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul by a team of 15 agents sent from Riyadh. His body has not been recovered. Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has been accused of orchestrating Khashoggi's killing, but a local investigation exonerated him. Riyadh initially said it had no knowledge of Khashoggi's fate, later blaming rogue agents for his death. Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor has charged 11 people over the murder. - 'Not admission of guilt' - Khashoggi's son said only the family and their attorney were authorised to "claim to be a source of information". The statement did not openly confirm or deny possible reparations from the Saudi king or crown prince, whom the family called "guardians to all Saudis". Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in October at Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul by a team of 15 agents sent from Riyadh "Acts of generosity and humanity come from the high moral grounds they possess, not admission of guilt or scandal," the statement said. According to the Post, the payments to his four children -- two sons and two daughters -- "are part of an effort by Saudi Arabia to reach a long-term arrangement with Khashoggi family members, aimed in part at ensuring that they continue to show restraint in their public statements". The Khashoggi murder has sparked international outcry and calls to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which leads a regional military campaign battling Yemeni rebels linked to Iran. US President Donald Trump has been Riyadh's strongest Western ally throughout the Khashoggi affair, phoning Prince Mohammed on Wednesday to discuss "bilateral relations," Saudi state news agency SPA reported. But Republicans and Democrats have both bristled over the White House's apparent embrace of the kingdom and its leadership. - Saudi in spotlight- At least seven writers and bloggers -- including two US citizens -- were arrested in Saudi Arabia on Friday, according to rights groups, in the first major crackdown since Khashoggi's murder. The arrests came the day after US lawmakers voted to end military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which has triggered what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has been accused of orchestrating Khashoggi's killing, but a local investigation exonerated him The text cleared the Senate last month and now heads to Trump, who is widely expected to veto the legislation. The US State Department on Monday also barred entry to 16 Saudi nationals under the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. The section in question "provides that, in cases where the Secretary of State has credible information that officials of foreign governments have been involved in significant corruption or gross violations of human rights, those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States". The State Department has also frozen the assets of some Saudi citizens over the Khashoggi affair. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused Iran of ties to Al-Qaeda US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday accused Iran of ties to Al-Qaeda and declined to say whether the Trump administration had legal authority to invade the country. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo hedged on whether the authorization of force by the US Congress days after the September 11, 2001 attacks would allow the United States to strike Iran. "I would prefer just to leave that to lawyers," Pompeo told Senator Rand Paul, a Republican who is critical of US foreign interventions. "The factual question with respect to Iran's connections to Al-Qaeda is very real. They have hosted Al-Qaeda, they have permitted Al-Qaeda to transit their country," he said. "There is no doubt there is a connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Al-Qaeda. Period, full stop," he said. But Pompeo denied Paul's suggestion that President Donald Trump's designation Monday of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards was aimed at making a legal case for war. "It was not part of the decision-making process. The designation was a simple recognition of reality," Pompeo said, citing US figures that Iran was behind more than 600 deaths of US troops in Iraq after the 2003 invasion when Tehran backed Shiite forces. Trump has piled pressure on Iran after last year withdrawing from a nuclear accord negotiated under previous president Barack Obama, slapping sweeping sanctions as Washington seeks to roll back the clerical regime's regional influence. Paul voiced concern that Pompeo had not rejected war with Iran under the 2001 authorization, which has been used to back the war in Afghanistan as well as attacks on Al-Qaeda in countries as diverse as Yemen and the Philippines. "I am troubled that the administration can't unequivocally say that you haven't been given power or authority by Congress to have war with Iran," Paul said. "In any kind of semblance of a sane world, you would have to come back and ask us before you go into Iran," Paul said. The US Constitution gives the power to declare war to Congress. Paul also rejected the idea that Iran, a Shiite clerical regime, would ally with Al-Qaeda, Sunnis whose ranks have denounced Shiites as heretics. "I don't think that dog hunts very well," Paul said of Pompeo's statement. "They actually would just as soon eradicate Sunni extremists." Iran is believed to have been the longtime base of Hamza bin Laden, the son of late Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. But some experts say Tehran kept him under house arrest as a way to maintain pressure on rival Saudi Arabia and dissuade Al-Qaeda attacks inside Iran. US Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a Security Council meeting about the situation in Venezuela at the United Nations in New York on April 10, 2019 in New York City US Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday asked the United Nations to recognize Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, telling the Security Council: "Nicolas Maduro must go." Washington will present a draft resolution to the Security Council aimed at recognizing Guaido and appointing his representative as the ambassador to the world body, Pence told the council. "The time has come for the United Nations to recognize interim president Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela and seat his representative in this body," Pence said. The United States is among some 50 countries that recognize Guaido, the opposition leader who declared himself interim president in January, and consider Maduro to have lost legitimacy. Maduro has maintained control with support from the military, Russia and China. Russia last month sent troops to Caracas, raising tensions between Washington and Moscow. A draft resolution recognizing Guaido is certain to be vetoed by Russia. A bid by the United States to win support for elections failed at the Security Council in February, with Russia and China vetoing a US-drafted resolution. After appealing for UN recognition for Guaido, Pence turned to Venezuela's Ambassador Samuel Moncada, who was seated in the council chamber, and said: "With all due respect Mister Ambassador, you shouldn't be here." He advised him to return to Caracas and convey the message to Maduro that "his time is up. It's time for him to go." The United States called the council meeting after a UN report detailed the heavy toll of the crisis from the collapse of Venezuela's oil economy. Seven million people -- 25 percent of Venezuela's population -- are in need of humanitarian aid, lacking basic access to food and medical care, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock told the council. Malnutrition rates have trebled over the past five years, particularly affecting children under five, and power outages are worsening access to clean water, threatening a major spread of disease. More than 3.4 million people have left the country -- triggering a migrant crisis in neighboring countries, and that figure is expected to reach five million by the end of the year. "There is a very real humanitarian problem in Venezuela," said Lowcock, who asked the council to support a ramping up of the international aid response. Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces stand guard over veiled women in al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, which houses relatives of Islamic State group members Iraq has offered to put on trial hundreds of accused foreign jihadists in Baghdad in exchange for millions of dollars, potentially solving a legal conundrum for Western governments but sparking rights concerns. Western countries have been rocked by fierce public debate over whether to repatriate citizens who joined the Islamic State group, which held swathes of Iraq and Syria for years before losing its last speck of land last month. Around 1,000 suspected foreign IS fighters are in detention in northeast Syria, in addition to around 9,000 foreign women and children in Kurdish-run camps there. Iraq has submitted a proposal to the US-led coalition that fought the jihadists, offering to try and sentence foreign IS suspects in exchange for operational costs, three Iraqi officials told AFP. "These countries have a problem, here's a solution," one said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to give details to the press. The source said Iraq had proposed a rate of $2 million per suspect per year, a calculation based on the estimated per-capital detention costs in the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison. "We made the proposal last week but have not gotten a response yet," the source added. A second official said Iraq had requested $2 billion to try the suspects as "one of several options", and could ask for "more money to cover the costs of their detention". - 'Special tribunal'? - Iraq has already tried several hundred IS foreign jihadists and handed down death sentences to around 100, none of which has been carried out. Other IS suspects have been condemned to life in Iraqi prison, including 58-year-old Frenchman Lahcen Ammar Gueboudj and two other French nationals. At least 12 French nationals are in Iraqi custody awaiting trial after being transferred from Syria in February. Detainees from as many as 52 countries could be tried by Baghdad under the arrangement, a third Iraqi official told AFP. "Iraq proposed to the coalition setting up a special tribunal to try foreigners. There's been a constructive beginning to those discussions," the source said. But establishing the court could be complicated, the official said, with questions over whether international funding for it would preclude implementation of death sentences. The source added that Iraq proposed the arrangement to the US-led coalition as a whole because it was simpler than negotiating with individual countries. The US-led coalition did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment. Transferring foreign fighters to Iraq for trial appears to resolve a thorny legal debate for Western powers. On the one hand, the Kurdish-run administration in northern Syria has said it does not have the capacity to try all foreigners, calling for an international tribunal to be established there. But it is not an internationally recognised government, so jurisdiction is dubious. On the other hand, repatriation is a politically-fraught issue, and governments fear they may not have enough evidence to convict IS members who claim they did not fight. - 'Real risk of torture' - Enter Baghdad, which has claimed legal jurisdiction over any individual who joined extremist groups that has committed crimes in Iraq, even if that person did not pick up arms. And last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi hinted Baghdad could have jurisdiction over jihadists who were in Syria but never entered Iraq, "because as you know the battlefields became one". But Human Rights Watch has warned that transferring suspects to Iraq could be "problematic". "Our first and main concern with these transfers are the reality of Iraqi proceedings, which in summary provide no clear right to a fair trial and a real risk of torture," said HRW's Iraq researcher Belkis Wille. German woman Jennifer W who joined the Islamic State group hides her face as she arrives in court for the opening of her trial on April 9, 2019 in Munich, southern Germany Instead, Wille said countries whose nationals may have joined IS should be investigating and trying them at home. She cited the case of a 27-year-old German woman who went on trial this week in Munich for letting a five-year-old Yazidi girl die of thirst under IS. And other foreign IS suspects have been transferred via Iraq to their home countries for detention. Otherwise, Wille added, "if countries want their nationals to be tried in Iraq, they should be much more heavily invested in improving the judicial system so that people have a fair trial and the risk of torture isn't as significant." File picture of security forces in Buea, the capital of Southwest Region, after separatists declared an anglophone state on October 1 2017 Cameroonian security forces have killed five civilian men, one of whom was beheaded, in an attack on a village in a restive anglophone region, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday. The five were either killed execution-style or shot as they attempted to flee from forces raiding their neighbourhood on April 4 in Meluf, near an armed separatist camp in Northwest Region, HRW said. Three of the bodies were later discovered mutilated, including two found with their hands tied and their genitals cut off. "Government forces are committing abuses against people living in the Anglophone areas of Cameroon," said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement. "Cameroon's civilian and military authorities should make it clear that these types of abuses will not be tolerated and hold commanders responsible." Cameroon AFP contacted the army, which did not give an immediate response. The rights group said Cameroonian soldiers, gendarmes and members of the elite Rapid Intervention Brigade carried out the attack. Multiple witnesses told HRW that security forces entered the village on foot and with military vehicles, including at least three military trucks and a bulldozer. At least 80 homes were forcibly entered, some were looted, and seven burned down, HRW said. "We woke up to the sound of guns. A soldier broke the window, and asked my aunt where the Amba Boys (anglophone separatists) were hiding. She told him that she didnt know, so he shot her in the right arm," one 45-year-old resident told HRW, whose uncle was killed. The NGO also reported an increase in attacks on health facilities and against medical staff. According to HRW, the army attacked a hospital in Mbingo on April 1, killing a 32-year-old woman and wounding another person while searching for separatists. Conflict in Cameroon, a majority French-speaking nation, broke out in October 2017 when anglophone militants declared an independent state in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. The International Crisis Group has said the death toll since the start of the fighting has topped 500 for civilians and more than 200 for members of the security forces. Around 437,000 people have fled the fighting, according to the United Nations. English-speakers, who account for about a fifth of Cameroon's population of 24 million, have chafed for years at perceived discrimination in education, law and economic opportunities at the hands of the francophone majority. The self-declared entity, the "Republic of Ambazonia," which has been named after the local Ambas Bay, has not been recognised internationally. Mali French and Malian troops killed or captured more than 30 extremists and dismantled a jihadist training camp during a major counter-terrorism operation near Mali's border with Burkina Faso, the French military told AFP on Friday. "Over 30 members of armed terrorist groups were neutralised," the military said, a term meaning that they were killed or captured. A French military doctor was also killed during the operation, the military previously reported. The operation was launched in late March in Gourma, a crossroads region in Mali's central belt that flanks the border with Burkina Faso. The doctor was killed when his vehicle hit a mine, bringing to 24 the number of French defence force members killed in counter-terrorism operations in the region since 2013. Some 4,500 French troops are deployed in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad to help local forces try to flush out jihadist groups, six years after France helped chase al-Qaeda fundamentalists out of northern Mali. The Gourma area is a haven for armed groups who hide in the forests along the border with Burkina Faso to the south, including a group suspected of carrying out several cross-border attacks. Around 700 French troops and 150 Malian troops were deployed in the air and ground operation to try to destroy their bases. On the other side of the border Burkina Faso had deployed troops "to prevent any attempt by the enemy to escape towards the south of the zone," French military spokesman Patrik Steiger said. The operation first targeted the Foulsare forest in the southwest of Gao province, where the troops found "a logistical base" containing rocket launchers and other weaponry, the military said. No jihadists were killed in that offensive, the defence forces said. The second phase of the operation, which caused the losses on the jihadists' side, targeted several sites including a training camp in the Serma forest. A pick-up truck, a dozen motorbikes and arms and ammunition, including large amounts of material used to make roadside bombs were seized, the military said. Democratic lawmakers gave the Internal Revenue Service a final deadline of April 23 to hand over President Donald Trump's tax returns Democratic lawmakers on Saturday gave the Internal Revenue Service a final deadline of April 23 to hand over President Donald Trump's tax returns, which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration was diligently considering. "I am aware that concerns have been raised regarding my request and the authority of the Committee. Those concerns lack merit," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal said in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig after an initial April 10 deadline lapsed. On Wednesday, Mnuchin said the Treasury was handling the request and that a deadline set for that date would be missed, citing possible constitutional issues raised by the Democratic request. But on Saturday, he said the administration would respond by the latest target date. "I'm sure we'll respond by that deadline, not going to make a commitment prematurely whether we'll be able to conclude a legal review by that deadline," Mnuchin said. "We have people working on it diligently." Calling Neal's new deadline an "arbitrary" date, Mnuchin said the Democrats' request could set "enormous precedent in potentially weaponizing the IRS." Trump argues that he cannot release his tax returns because they are being audited, but the IRS has said this is no impediment to their release. "It is not the proper function of the IRS, Treasury or Justice to question or second guess the motivations of the Committee or its reasonable determinations regarding its need for the requested tax returns and return information," Neal said. "Concerns about what the Committee may do with the tax returns and return information are baseless." Neal gave the government until 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) on April 23 to hand over the tax records. "Please know that, if you fail to comply, your failure will be interpreted as a denial of my request," Neal wrote. Burkina Faso's government belives that Luca Tacchetto (L) and Edith Blais are alive but no longer in the country An Italian man and his Canadian companion abducted last December in Burkina Faso are alive but may have been moved to another country, a Burkinabe government spokesman said. An Italian missionary abucted last September in Niger meanwhile may since have been briefly held in Burkina Faso, the spokesman added. Burkina Faso's government spokesman Remis Fulgance Dandjinou updated Italy's state television channel Rai on the hostages in an interview broadcast Friday evening. They information they had on Luca Tacchetto, 30, and 34-year-old Canadian Edith Blais suggested that they were no longer in Burkina Faso, he said. But he added: "We are certain that their life is not in danger. We can say that these people are still alive." Quebecois Blais and Tacchetto, from Venice, disappeared mid-December when driving through Burkina Faso. Armed men abducted Father Pier Luigi Maccali, 57, from his home in southwest Niger in September. While denouncing the abductions, Dandjinou added: "The important thing is that there has been no homicide, otherwise we would have already recovered the bodies." A Canadian geologist abducted in January from a mine in the northwest of Burkina Faso was found dead the following evening. The country has been prey to a wave of abductions and since 2015 has also had to contend with deadly attacks by jihadist groups. Meanwhile Italian investigators looking for Silvia Romano, a 23-year-old volunteer at an orphanage in Kenya said after talks with officials in Nairobi that they were certain she was still alive, the Italian daily Corriere della sera, reported Saturday. No caption For 56 years, Louis Mofsie has danced with his troupe, making Native American heritage shine and ensuring that age-old steps live on, even if their tribes of origin may have forgotten them. Born in Brooklyn 82 years ago, the director of the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers -- which he founded in 1963 -- is a native New Yorker who only saw Indian reservations on trips out West. The son of a Hopi from Arizona and a Winnebago from Nebraska, he was still passionate about Native American culture as a young man, quickly looking beyond his tribal ties. "We went to different reservations, and we danced with the people and we learned the songs and we learned the dances," recalls Mofsie, who also learned from the large Mohawk community that lived in Brooklyn. "We put these all together, and then we all came back here to New York. And it kind of grew from that," he explained. The goal at first was to "bring those different styles of dancing to New York so people here have an opportunity to see these -- without having to travel all over the Southwest." These were purely social dances, since ritual or sacred dances traditionally are not to be danced or even seen by anyone outside a tribe. Though he carefully avoided that pitfall, Louis Mofsie had "troubles" early on. "Real troubles, because he wanted to share the Indian culture with a large audience and some people in his community were opposed to it," says Crystal Field, Artistic Director of Theater for the New City, where the Thunderbird performs every year. "Every culture that's oppressed draws into itself and then you are the enemy. They're protecting themselves that way." Sometimes inter-tribal, often presented at pow wows, large community gatherings, Mofsie's chosen dances focus on nature, mainly wildlife, such as the Robin dance, which celebrates the arrival of spring. The step is often supple, even airy, like a series of bounces alternating to the rhythm pounded out by percussion instruments and songs. It's not a couple's dance, even though women and men practice; the sequencing recalls a bit of swing, or even traditional rock, which has the same fluidity. Louis also fondly remembers his meeting with the famous American choreographer Martha Graham and his Mexican counterpart Jose Limon. "Many of their dances were influenced by native American dances," he says. - 'Make leaps' - The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are trying to keep their heritage alive In the series of shows each year by the Thunderbird at the Theater for the New City, an institution in Manhattan's East Village, Mofsie takes care to contextualize the dances, which if they are not sacred, make sense. "The important thing for us, too, is to explain what all these dances are, what they mean, because what people have seen on television and movies just looks like a bunch of people jumping around," says the octogenarian who still leads a troupe of 20 dancers. "These dances all have an origin, stories that are part of it. That's important to us, too." The old dances intermingle steps that evoke the history of Native American people and their struggles with the white men altering their way of life forever. One of them refers to the federal government's forced assimilation policy from the 1870s to the 1960s, which sent thousands of Native American children to boarding schools outside reservations. Mofsie is delighted to see more people who are deeply interested in Native American culture, as evidenced by the series of shows that was packed. But he is more concerned today about the preservation of this cultural heritage, which he knows is fragile. "Some of these dances, I think, they're no longer" danced. "I think it's important for those dances to be kept alive so that's what we're doing," he told AFP. Mofsie would like them to be cataloged and documented in video, for generations to come. He collaborates with the American Indian Community House, an inter-tribal organization based in New York, which has a large collection of documents. But so far nobody has sought to inventory the dances fully, including in images -- not the AICH or the National Museum of the American Indians, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. A specialist in Native American heritage at Washington State University, Lotus Norton-Wisla, who helps community organizations in their archival work, says he has never heard of such a project. Mofsie thinks about the troop, which is getting older, even though some young people have joined him. "With the influences that young people have today with television, ipods, and everything else, it's very hard to keep this going," he said. US Senator Bernie Sanders addresses a campaign rally in San Francisco, California on March 24, 2019, one of several Democratic presidential primary candidates campaigning outside of traditional early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire While first votes in the 2020 election cycle are still 10 months away, Democrats keen to distinguish themselves in a historically crowded field are expanding the traditional map, crisscrossing America to campaign in unexpected places. Several states have been long overlooked in primary politics, particularly those in the heartland -- derisively described by some as "flyover country" -- where some states have few delegates at stake. Among them is Utah. Often an afterthought in primary season, its influence could be further minimized in 2020 as residents vote on the same March day as a dozen other states including huge players California and Texas. Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has visited early on in her campaign states that are usually overlooked until the final days before primary elections there Yet Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren heads to Utah on Wednesday for a Salt Lake City organizing event that may give her an early state-wide edge. Last month, the liberal Massachusetts stalwart also campaigned in southern states Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, where candidates usually pay token interest until they jet in days before the primaries. "I am running to be president of all the people, and that means getting out and talking to people all across this country, building a grassroot movement that stretches from coast to coast," Warren told AFP ahead of her Rocky Mountain campaign swing, which also includes Colorado. "That's how we'll win in 2020." Tradition dictates that in the runup to the voting that determines presidential nominees, candidates focus on the four early-voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Conditions are different this cycle, with more candidates from a single party vying for president -- 18 Democrats by the latest count -- than any modern-day US election But conditions are different this cycle, with more candidates from a single party vying for president -- 18 Democrats by the latest count, after Congressman Eric Swalwell entered the race Monday -- than any modern-day US election. Experts say the wide field may complicate a candidate's efforts to secure a large majority of early delegates, resulting in a prolonged primary battle. Democrats seeking to challenge President Donald Trump are balancing the pressing needs of visiting the early states, introducing themselves to voters elsewhere, and meeting donors in wealth capitals like Los Angeles and New York to raise much-needed funds to propel their campaigns. Democratic candidates visited at least 21 states and more than 100 cities in total in March as they sought money and support, mostly in the first four states but also in places like Florida, Georgia, Nebraska and Texas. "I cannot recall a cycle where Democratic primary candidates were campaigning in states like Utah or other later states like they are this early in the process," said James Curry, a political science professor at the University of Utah. Candidates are taking the broader approach early, Curry said, because they anticipate the later states "may matter more than they typically have" in the process. - Not just Iowa - Candidate Beto O'Rourke has already completed a campaign road trip through Rust Belt battleground states plus Ohio, all of which Donald Trump flipped in 2016 to win the presidency The incentive today is to plan for a longer primary nominations process, building up support and infrastructure in more states. For decades, the prevailing narrative involved candidates essentially parking their campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first and second states to vote. Jimmy Carter did that in Iowa and went on to win the White House in 1976. Thirty-two years later, it was Barack Obama who obsessed over the Hawkeye State. "I don't think that's the reality any more," Curry said. Iowa remains at the political fulcrum of the nominations process, but candidates are increasingly going cross-country. Candidate Julian Castro, a former Obama cabinet member, has pledged to campaign in all 50 states. California, the state with the most delegates up for grabs, was once an afterthought because of how late it voted in the nomination calendar. But it has shifted its primary forward aiming for a bigger role, joining massive Texas in voting on Super Tuesday next March. Campaigning will no longer wait in these two states until after the first four have their say. Among those who have traveled to California is Bernie Sanders, who held large rallies there last month. While California is a liberal stronghold, Sanders is also headed to the Rust Belt battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin beginning Friday, seeking to cut into Trump's backstop of white workingclass voters. Candidate Beto O'Rourke has already completed a campaign road trip through those states plus Ohio, all of which Trump flipped in 2016 to win the presidency. Wisconsin holds "exceptional value" because it has a stand-alone primary next April and is expected to be a critical battleground state in the general election, said political science professor Barry Burden of University of Wisconsin-Madison. "There is also symbolic value in paying attention to swing states in the Midwest that Trump narrowly won and led to his victory," Burden added. The hotly awaited royal baby will have US nationality because of his American mother and thus have to answer to the US tax man Talk about being born with a silver spoon in your mouth: the royal baby of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have a particularly glittery one. And US tax authorities will be keen to know how much that utensil is worth. That's because the baby will have dual nationality: British because of his father and US from his American mother, whose official title is the duchess of Sussex. "When one of the parents is American and has resided in the US for five years with at least two after the age of 14, the baby is automatically a citizen," said David Treitel, founder of American Tax Returns, a consultancy for US expatriates living in Britain. "This is the case with Meghan," said Treitel, noting this case is a first in the British royal family. US nationality comes with a bevy of restrictive conditions: like any American who is born, grows up and dies anywhere in the world, year after year Meghan and Harry's child will have to show the Internal Revenue Service his or her tax status is clean. The IRS will demand that any valuable gifts from non-Americans to Harry and Meghan's child also be declared as assets From the moment of birth, money deposited in banks by the royal parents -- eager to ensure a bright future for their progeny -- must be duly reported to the tax man. The same would apply to money that comes in if mom and dad decide, say, to have the child follow in the footsteps of his ex-actress mother to become a star on TV or in movies. - 'Accidental Americans'- Forget about privacy, said Treitel. The IRS will "get to know a lot more about the couple's wealth" through the tax returns of the couple and their mother. "A lot more information is gonna get to the US," he added. To wit: the IRS will demand that any valuable gifts from non-Americans to Harry and Meghan's child -- and he will be feted, won't he? -- also be declared as assets. "Imagine the queen giving the baby some nice beautiful book of art from the royal collection, with paintings by Van Gogh or Miro. If this gift if worth more than $100,000, it is reportable," said Treitel. However, baby shower gifts that Markle received recently in New York will not have to be declared if they came from fellow Americans, the expert said. To avoid IRS headaches Meghan can renounce her US citizenship, but tax returns would still have to be filed for the child until age 18 And although the baby and the mother will have to present forms that will be very time-consuming for their accountants, they may still not have to pay a lot in tax: these may be offset by duties paid in Britain, tax specialist Laura Saunders told The Wall Street Journal. US tax authorities' efforts to keep a close watch on American expatriates can have serious consequences for people whose sole link to America is that they were simply born there. Such is the case of so-called "Accidental Americans" -- such as thousands of people in France who automatically received US citizenship because they were born in the US but left America as little kids and no longer have any links whatsoever to the country. - Fines - Since the adoption of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act in 2010, which replaced the criterion of nationality with that of tax domicile, these people are obliged to report their income to US tax authorities and in some cases actually cough up some money. Many of these people left the US when they were very young. The Association of Accidental Americans that brings them together asked President Donald Trump last year to find a solution to their quandary. Their status can be a touchy subject. If they refuse to play ball with the US tax authorities, their banks at home can be sanctioned. So these institutions can refuse them services like bank accounts and mortgages. To a lesser extent, the British royal family cannot dodge its US tax obligations either: a flawed tax return can trigger hefty fines. But there is a solution to avoid headaches for the royal couple's accountants: Meghan can renounce her US citizenship. However, even if she does that, tax returns would still have to be filed for the child until age 18. Hauwa was one of the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014 Aisha Musa Maina digs through an old bag looking for memories of her daughter Hauwa, one of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped five years ago by Boko Haram jihadists in northeastern Nigeria. All she has left are old papers damaged by dust and humidity, a school diploma and a small photograph. The kidnap had caused the family such suffering and sadness it feels as if they were all abducted, Hauwa's mother told AFP. On April 14, 2014, gunmen stormed the Chibok girls' boarding school, kidnapping 276 pupils aged 12-17, 57 of whom managed to escape by jumping from the trucks. At a big traffic junction in the centre of the economic capital Lagos, drivers no longer pay attention to the girls' pictures hung along the railings Their plight moved the world and became a key election issue for President Muhammadu Buhari who was elected a year later on the promise of defeating Boko Haram and returning the girls safe and sound. After negotiations with Boko Haram, 107 of the girls either escaped, were released in exchange for prisoners or were recovered by the army. - Living in hope - Hauwa is one of the 112 girls of whom there has been no news. Her family wonders if their daughter is still alive or if she was killed in a Nigerian army bombing, a claim made by the jihadist group. She might have died of hunger or disease, given the army's long-term policy of blocking the group's supplies. She might even have been converted to the group's radical beliefs. Hauwa's father Musa Maina insists he has not given up hope In a propaganda video broadcast by Boko Haram in January 2018, 14 women claiming to be Chibok girls, three of whom held babies, warned their families they would not be coming home. Thanking the leader of the group Abubakar Shekau, who "married us off" they added: "We are the Chibok girls that you cry for... (but) by the grace of Allah, we will not return to you." News is scarce in this small, remote town where the literacy rate is very low. Hauwa's father Musa Maina has no idea what has happened to his daughter, although he insists he has not lost hope. "We heard that some parents were reunited with their daughters but ours (is) still yet to come back home," he said. Kabu, one of the 112 abducted Chibok girls who are still missing "We aren't losing hope but we are appealing to government to invest more effort to bring back our girls and reunite us," he added. Elsewhere in the country, the passage of time seems to have lowered expectations of finding the girls. At a big traffic junction in the centre of the economic capital Lagos, drivers no longer pay attention to their pictures hung along the railings. - Over 1,000 children kidnapped - Five years ago the "Bring back our girls" slogan - fuelled by social media -- became a powerful rallying cry. Now, the girls' plight takes its place alongside the many other tragedies in this country of 190 million plagued by crime and conflict. Boko Haram has also grown in strength over the past year, after being weakened during the first years of Buhari's presidency -- he was reelected for a second term in February. Zainabu Mala holds a shirt belonging to her daughter Kabu who was abducted The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the IS-linked faction of Boko Haram, has increased its deadly attacks on military bases, killing several hundred Nigerian army soldiers. Last year on the fourth anniversary of the Chibok kidnapping, the UN Children's agency said more than 1,000 other children had also been kidnapped by jihadists since 2013. In 2016, Human Rights Watch put the number of young boys -- some as young as five -- in the hands of the group at up to 10,000. Some of these children are believed to have been released and sent to deradicalisation centres as the Nigerian army made inroads into Boko Haram territory. Whatever their fate, and that of the Chibok girls, a decade of conflict has taken a heavy toll. The Boko Haram insurgency has claimed 27,000 lives in Nigeria where nearly two million people still cannot return to their homes and also spilled over into neighbouring countries Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Land of tensions: Hunters armed with bows and arrows gathered in Dasso, central Nigeria, in February pledging to defend farmers in conflict with nomadic herdsmen Misinformation risks worsening ethnic and religious tensions in Nigeria, media commentators and researchers say, at a time of heightened concern about internal security and fragile community relations. The months and weeks running up to recent elections saw a slew of false claims about politicians and their parties, as part of deliberate attempts to shape the narrative before polling. Africa's most populous nation is often characterised as teetering on the brink. Security threats include Boko Haram Islamists in the northeast and violence between nomadic cattle herders and farmers in central states. The latter is primarily a battle for water and land but those involved have been polarised along ethnic, sectarian and religious lines, in a country with more than 250 ethnic groups and where identity is rarely far from the surface. Simon Kolawole, a former editor with Nigeria's ThisDay newspaper and founder of The Cable online news site, said manufactured lies in the guise of news was "further endangering the delicate ethno-religious fabric of Nigeria". Hungry for news: Nigerians gather around a newspaper vendor on February 16 after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announces a week-long postponement in presidential elections It was also "hampering the credibility of news outlets in the country", he told AFP. Information minister Lai Mohammed said misinformation and hate speech "threatens the peace, unity, security and corporate existence of Nigerians". Of particular concern was the fabrication of stories pitting the country's mainly Muslim north against the predominantly Christian south -- a traditional fault line often used by proponents of restructuring the current federal system and even breaking it up. "When you go by social media, the impression you get is as if Nigeria is at war and as if Muslims are killing Christians," said Mohammed. - 'Fake news' factories - Misinformation -- deliberate or not -- is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria. In November 1989, the state broadcaster NTA announced the death of Nnamdi Azikwe, the country's first governor general and president after independence in 1960. By morning, most of the newspapers were running the story but "Zik", as he was known, was very much alive and would live for another seven years. Thirty years later, rumours circulated that President Muhammadu Buhari had died during one of his lengthy absences from Nigeria in 2017 on medical grounds, and that he had been replaced by a lookalike called Jubril from Sudan. It took nearly two days before Azikwe was to clear the air about the state of his health and inform the world he was still alive -- and the false claim was relatively contained. Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook and other social media have been major vectors of fake news in Nigeria The supposed death of Buhari in contrast spread like wildfire on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, so much so that he had to address the claim at a news conference. "It's the real me," he told supporters on a trip to Poland in December 2018. That Buhari, 76, had to even devote time to debunking the claim is extraordinary but the fact it still circulates is a sign of the scale of problem -- and the task facing the media and fact-checking organisations. Fredrick Nwabufo, a political analyst and columnist, said it was "an open secret" that Nigeria's two main political parties ran "media centres" to pump out misinformation during the election. He agreed there was a risk the practice could escalate ethnic and religious tensions. - Election impact? - The lookalike rumour can be traced to pro-Biafran supporters, who want a separate state for the ethnic Igbo people who dominate southeast Nigeria. Another claim, that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar was being supported by the LGBT community, was designed to discredit him in the religious and socially conservative north. Separatism: A drawing of the Biafran flag on a wall in the pro-independence region of Umuahaia A recurrent claim against Buhari, who is also a Muslim from the north, is that he wants to Islamise all of Nigeria and extend Sharia law across the country. To what extent "fake news" influenced the result of the election is so far inconclusive. Buhari was re-elected by almost four million votes. But Sam Ejiwunmi, a doctoral student at the University of Lagos researching the possibility, said misinformation affects rural areas more than urban centres. "My fear is majorly with the impact it has on the credibility of the media. The media houses are no longer perceived as the custodian of credible news," he added. "We should all worry about how fake news especially during election can lead to increase in hate speech and alter the voting pattern. "While there is no data I'm aware of to support this claim at the moment, it is an hypothesis that will be examined soon enough." Message in a bottle ... artist Basavaraj poses with a creation showing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his election rival Rahul Gandhi India's tycoons are playing a pivotal role in the Asian giant's most expensive election ever, from funding campaigns and tacit endorsements to being hot-button issues themselves. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's re-election bid has received huge financial backing from corporate India, raising fears about the integrity of the world's largest democratic process, experts say. Meanwhile, Congress party opponent Rahul Gandhi is trying to exploit a fighter jet deal involving industrialist Anil Ambani while fugitive tycoons Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi loom over the vote from London. Contesting polls is getting costlier in India and analysts say parties are becoming more reliant on donations from anonymous businessmen, leading to a lack of transparency and worrying conflicts of interest. "There's a trend towards plutocracy," Niranjan Sahoo, of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) think-tank, told AFP. "Unbridled corporate influence can have a serious impact on policies," he added. The New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies estimates that around $5 billion was spent during the 2014 election that swept Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power -- up from $2 billion in 2009. The group thinks the 2019 contest could top $7 billion, making it one of the priciest elections globally. "Elections are getting more expensive for many structural reasons," Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank, told AFP. "(There is a) growing population, increasing political competition, voter expectations of handouts in the form of cash and other inducements, and technological change, which means greater outlays for media and digital outreach," he added. Analysts say traditional funding streams, such as party memberships, are declining so parties increasingly rely on wealthy donors to fund campaigns. Data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watchdog, showed that in financial year 2017-18 corporates and individuals contributed 12 times more to the BJP than to six other national parties, including Congress, combined. - 'Quid pro quo' - The BJP received 93 percent of all donations above 20,000 rupees ($290) that year, according to ADR'S analysis. Modi's BJP banked 4.37 billion rupees ($63.3 million); Congress got just 267 million rupees. "There is a huge funding disparity now. Congress simply doesn't have the money to fight elections. That should worry people," said the ORF's Sahoo. Modi's government says it has cracked down on so-called "black money" in politics by lowering the amount that can be donated in cash from 20,000 rupees to 2,000 rupees. Critics, however, say it is now easier for wealthy entities to donate to political parties; corporate funding formed 92 percent of the total donations declared by the BJP in 2017-18, according to ADR. India Detractors point to the government removing a cap on corporate donations two years ago and introducing a scheme whereby donors can give anonymously through "electoral bonds" purchased from a bank. On Friday India's supreme court ordered parties to reveal the identity of donors after activists challenged the bond system, which the government has defended. "The lack of transparency allows conflicts of interest and quid pro quos to flourish", said Vaishnav, who suspects that medium-sized businesses requiring permits from the government are more of an issue than India's big oligarchs. Tycoons do not explicitly endorse candidates for fear of backing the wrong horse but Modi, 68, is seen to be close to several big tycoons. In 2014 he travelled between rallies in a corporate jet and helicopter owned by billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani, while magnate Ratan Tata praised Modi for carrying out air strikes in Pakistan. India's richest man Mukesh Ambani -- whose personal net worth has soared from $18.6 billion when Modi came to power to $53 billion today, according to Forbes -- has repeatedly called him "our beloved prime minister" in speeches. - 'He's not the messiah...' - "If you look at the measure that counts, which is how much money do these guys have, then India's tycoons have done tremendously well under Modi," James Crabtree, author of "The Billionaire Raj", told AFP. Ambani's oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries and the Adani Group did not respond to requests for comment. Gandhi, 48, is trying to score political points by accusing Modi and Anil Ambani, Mukesh's younger brother, of dodgy dealings related to the purchase of Rafale jets from France -- allegations both deny. Congress's leader is also using liquor-baron Mallya and jeweller Nirav Modi to attack the BJP. The government accuses them of massive fraud and is trying to extradite them from Britain. Modi pledged to crack down on crony capitalism during his tenure so the duo represent a sore point for a man who prides himself on being India's "chowkidar" ("watchman"). "Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi have become the symbols of a job half done. Nonetheless the noose is tightening on these guys," said Crabtree. India's business community appears less enthusiastic about Modi this time round after a shock cancellation of high-value banknotes and poorly implemented new tax disrupted economic growth. But they are set to vote for him overwhelmingly anyway, fearing that a coalition or Gandhi victory could put a halt to much-needed economic reforms. "He's not the messiah we thought he was but without doubt almost everybody wants Modi to come back with an absolute majority," said a prominent Mumbai-based businessman who asked not to be named. "Because beyond him there is no alternative," he added. John Shipton, father of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has urged the Australian government to bring his son home WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's father on Sunday called on Australia to bring his son home, saying he was shocked to see his son's condition after his arrest in London last week. John Shipton -- who was secretary of the Wikileaks Party when his son tried to run for a senate seat in 2013 national elections -- reportedly visited Assange every Christmas at the Ecuadore embassy in London after he sought refuge there in 2012. "DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs) and the prime minister should in a nuanced way do something," Shipton told Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun. "It can be resolved simply to the satisfaction of all. There has been some talk in a meeting between a senator and a senior DFAT official to extradite Julian to Australia." Shipton said he was shocked to see the state of his son when he was arrested at the embassy on Thursday on allegations of skipping bail, and on a US extradition warrant related to a huge leak of official documents. "I saw him, the way they dragged him down the steps, the coppers (police), he didn't look good. I'm 74 and I look better than him and he's 47. It's such a shock," he said. "For months and months he has been living like a high-security prisoner, he can't even go to the toilet. There have been cameras watching his every move." Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that Assange would receive "no special treatment" from Canberra. The 47-year-old Australian had sought refuge in the embassy while on bail awaiting extradition to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault and rape, which he always denied. British lawmakers on Saturday urged their government to prioritise any extradition bid Sweden might make for him over the allegations. Swedish prosecutors dropped a preliminary investigation into the rape allegation in 2017. Floods have forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate from cities and villages Floods in Iran have killed 76 people and caused more than $2.2 billion in damages in recent weeks, officials said Sunday, with warnings still in place for large swathes of the country. "With the death of five people in the Khuzestan province flood and another person in Ilam province the death toll has now reached 76" since March 19, according to a statement published online by the coroner's office. The two southwestern provinces are the latest overwhelmed by floods that first hit the northeast of the usually arid country, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate from cities and villages. Officials have again issued flood warnings for the east of Iran with heavy rains that began on Saturday forecasted to continue. The floods have caused immense damage with homes, roads, infrastructure and agriculture all hit. "Twenty-five provinces and more than 4,400 villages across the country were affected by the floods," Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli told parliament, according to the official IRNA news agency. He said the damages amount to between 300 and 350 trillion rials -- between $2.2 and $2.6 billion at the free market rate. Transport minister Mohammad Eslami meanwhile told lawmakers "725 bridges have been totally destroyed." "More than 14,000 kilometres (8,700 miles) of roads have been damaged," he said, according to IRNA. The head of Iran's meteorology service told the same parliamentary session that the floods do not necessarily mean that a decades-long drought has ended. "The recent floods were due to climate change and global warming," Sahar Tajbakhsh said according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. The Islamic republic has received aid from neighbouring countries and further afield, with France on Saturday donating 210 tents and 114 pumps. A Summit Air aircraft crashed into two helicopters while attempting take-off at Lukla airport in Nepal A small plane veered off the runway and hit two helicopters while taking off near Mount Everest on Sunday, killing three people and injuring three, officials said. The accident happened at Lukla airport which is the main gateway to the Everest region and is reputed to be one of the most difficult in the world for landings and take-offs. A co-pilot of the turbo-prop Let-410 plane run by Summit Air bound for Kathmandu and a police officer on the ground were killed on the spot, Lukla airport official Ema Nath Adhikari told AFP. Another policeman died in hospital in Kathmandu, a police spokesman confirmed. Wreckage from the accident that killed three people in Nepal "The plane slipped towards the helipad during take-off and collided with two helicopters. The injured have been sent to Kathmandu for treatment," Adhikari said. "We are not sure about the cause of the accident." Pictures from the scene showed mangled and scorched wreckage of the plane and helicopters. Lukla airport is used by thousands of trekkers and climbers heading for the Everest region each year. It is particularly busy in April as the spring mountain climbing season begins. Nepal's aviation industry has boomed in recent years, flying tourists and goods to remote corners of the Himalayan nation where road access is limited. An injured man is taken to hospital after a light aircraft veered off the runway during take-off and crashed into two helicopters in Nepal But the impoverished country has a poor air safety record due to weak training and maintenance. The European Union has banned all Nepalese airlines from its airspace over safety concerns. Seven people, including the country's tourism minister, were killed in February when a helicopter crashed in the hilly east. Trump said US support for the war between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Huthi rebels was necessary to "protect the safety of the more than 80,000 Americans who reside in certain coalition countries" Yemen's Huthi rebels on Wednesday slammed President Donald Trump's veto of a Congress resolution directing him to end support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen as proof Washington was behind the conflict. The veto "proves that the United States is not only involved in the war on Yemen but also was behind the decision to go to war," Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdelsalam tweeted. "Others followed that decision and execute the wishes and ambitions of the United States," Abdelsalam added, referring to Saudi Arabia and its allies. Abdelsalam, who heads a rebel delegation involved in ongoing UN-led peace talks, held the US responsible for "massacres, crimes and the unjust siege of Yemen". Yemen and Mexico are the only two countries to have been targeted by a Trump veto. The president overrode a congressional resolution that aimed to reverse the border emergency he declared in order to secure more funding for his wall between the United States and Mexico in March. Congress' Yemen resolution was a harsh bipartisan rebuke to Trump that took the historic step of curtailing a president's war-making powers -- a step he condemned in a statement announcing his veto. Democrats argue that US involvement in the Yemen conflict, which includes intelligence-sharing, logistical support and now-discontinued aerial refuelling, is unconstitutional without congressional authority. Trump said US support for the devastating war between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Huthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa, was necessary to "protect the safety of the more than 80,000 Americans who reside in certain coalition countries". Trump also said the veto would harm "bilateral relations" with key US allies. These countries "have been subject to Huthi attacks from Yemen," he said, referring to drone and missile strikes Saudi Arabia's air force either claimed were intercepted or denied altogether. Some 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen during the past four years, according to the World Health Organization, although human rights groups say the toll could be five times higher. The country stands at the brink of famine. Both the Saudi-led alliance and the Huthis have been accused of acts that could amount to war crimes, while the coalition has been blacklisted by the United Nations for killing and maiming children. Critics of the Yemen war warn Saudi forces are likely using US weapons to commit atrocities. Angola's President Joao Lourenco is seen April 3, 2019 Angolas President Joao Lourenco has cancelled a mobile phone licence awarded to a little-known startup company due to "non-compliance", his office said Thursday. Local company Telstar was last week awarded a license to operate the countrys fourth mobile network, valued at $120-million-dollars (106 million euros), beating 26 other local and international firms. The tender will be reopened, said a statement from the presidency. Telstar was established only in January 2018. Listed among its shareholders are army general Manuel Joao Carneiro and entrepreneur Antonio Cardoso Mateus. According to Angolan weekly Expansao, the company has links to Mundo Telecomunicacoes, an operator owned by several former ministers or advisers to ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The profitable mobile telecommunications sector is currently shared between two private firms, Movicel and Unitel, the country's leading operator. Isabel dos Santos, the former president's oldest daughter -- believed to be the richest woman in Africa -- holds a controlling stake in Unitel while her half-sister, Welwitschia dos Santos, holds a stake in Movicel. A third operator, the state-owned company Angola Telecom, which is partially privatised, has recently tried to make inroads into the sector. Lourenco swept to power in 2018 after pledging to clean up Angola's endemic graft, tackle nepotism, and revive its listless economy. He is opening up the telecommunications sector as part of plans to boost the economy of sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer, struggling to recover from the impact of a sharp drop in crude prices in 2014. VARANASI, India (AP) - In the Indian city Hindus consider the center of the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges River with the centuries-old Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. It's a project dripping with equal parts symbolism - Modi, the devout Hindu, restoring the ancient connection between two religious icons - and political calculation. In his five years as prime minister, Modi has pushed to promote this secular nation of 1.3 billion people and nine major religions - including about 170 million Muslims - as a distinctly Hindu state. The $115 million promenade is just one of a number of Modi's religious glamour projects, aimed squarely at pleasing his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party's base ahead of a general election that starts on Thursday. While India is majority Hindu, critics say such projects undermine India's multiculturalism, potentially stoke religious tension, and come at the expense of far more pressing infrastructure needs. The project is also part of a larger Hindu nationalist effort to erase evidence of India's diverse past. Modi, 68, has long understood how politics and religion intertwine in Varanasi. Despite hailing from the western state of Gujarat, he has chosen to run for a second time as the parliamentary candidate for Varanasi. There are those who say the money could have been better spent in one of the world's oldest living cities, where men relieve themselves in public on trash-strewn streets and sewage flows into the Ganges near religious bathers, funeral pyres and crowds of devotees who gather by its waters for nightly prayers. In this March 19, 2019, photo, 17th-century Gyanvapi mosque, white structure sandwiched between Hindu temples, is seen in the background as Hindu devotees walk at the site of a proposed grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, in Varanasi, India. And some Varanasi Muslims fear the project could embolden Hindu hard-liners who have demanded for decades that the 17th century Gyanvapi mosque _ which they claim was built over an earlier Vishwanath temple demolished in the Mughal era _ should itself be torn down. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) And some Varanasi Muslims fear the project could embolden Hindu hard-liners who have demanded for decades that the 17th century Gyanvapi mosque - which they claim was built over an earlier Vishwanath temple demolished in the Mughal era - should itself be torn down. The demolition of around 300 commercial and residential buildings to make way for the promenade has left a gaping hole in Varanasi's urban core, a congested maze of zig-zagging brick lanes full of religious shrines. Outside the heavily guarded temple and mosque complex ringed with barbed wire, where photography is prohibited, Aijaz Mohammed Islahi, the mosque's caretaker, said he fears the new clearing could allow right-wing Hindus to form a mob and attack the mosque. Around a Hindu festival day in March, Islahi said, a group tried to install a Hindu statue near the mosque to assert a claim on the property. "They thought they would quietly garland the statue and people will accept the change after a couple of days," he said. The Vishwanath project is part of a broader campaign to downplay the Muslim Mughal dynasty's place in Indian history. The campaign includes restoring the Hindu names of cities that were renamed by Mughals centuries ago and excluding the Taj Mahal, a Muslim tomb, from government tourism materials. At the same time, Hindu nationalists are demanding that a temple to the god Lord Ram be built at the site of a mosque rioters destroyed in 1992 that they say was built only after Muslims destroyed an ancient temple there. Thus, Modi's messaging around the Vishwanath temple project is hard to miss. "Enemies had their sight on Shri Kashi Vishwanath. Many a times it was under attack," Modi said at a promenade groundbreaking ceremony in March. "But there is power in the faith here and this great temple continues to give strength to people." Deepak Agarwal, the city commissioner overseeing the Vishwanath project, said that residents had been paid at least twice the market rate for their properties and that no one had been forced to leave. Modi's directive was "to restore the glory back to this area," Agarwal said, including rehabilitating about 40 Hindu temples or shrines uncovered in the demolition, and investing in public amenities. Though Varanasi draws millions of devout Hindus each year, scholars and residents emphasize its identity as a city where people of many faiths have long lived together harmoniously. But the temple project is a BJP-led effort to stamp India's Hindu mores onto a multicultural society, historians and political scientists say. "It's a bid to rewrite the ground rules of Indian republican politics by either implicitly or explicitly arguing that India needs to be remade as a state defined by its majority faith," said writer and professor Mukul Kesavan. Other examples abound. Last October, Modi unveiled another dream project: a statue in Gujarat of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an Indian independence leader, politician and Hindu. The Statue of Unity is the world's largest, almost twice as high as the Statue of Liberty. And in January, the central government in New Delhi and the BJP-led government of Uttar Pradesh state spent an unprecedented $650 million on a Hindu mega-fest, advertising the event on CNN and plastering the festival grounds with posters of Modi and the state's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk who was arrested but not prosecuted for allegedly inciting a deadly 2007 anti-Muslim riot. Modi's BJP took power in 2014 elections on a pledge to rapidly expand India's economy. A master marketer, Modi has branded some government programs as personal successes - constructing millions of toilets to reduce open defecation, and improving roads and electricity in rural areas - while distancing himself from failures. But in the lead-up to the polls, his government's economic performance has come under scrutiny. Modi's administration was accused in January of suppressing unemployment data that showed joblessness had reached its highest level in 45 years. A demonetization program aimed to curb black market money by taking some rupee notes out of circulation. But it ultimately hurt the poor, and India's central bank later said that most of the illicit funds had re-entered the banking system. Public subsidies to support India's distressed agricultural sector failed to stem a pattern of suicides among farmers facing mounting debt for purchases of seeds, fertilizer and cattle feed. Even in Modi's constituency of Varanasi, the government's record is uneven, most visibly on the prime minister's signature Swachh Bharat, or Clean India, program. But with the Vishwanath temple and other symbolic projects, one of Modi's undisputed successes has been to insert religion into the center of the political debate in India. Even leaders of the opposition Congress party, which has stood for secularism since before India's independence, are trying to prove their Hindu credibility. Priyanka Gandhi, sister of Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, spent three days in March traveling by boat on the Ganges, a trip billed as a "yatra," or religious journey, that culminated with a visit to the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. Yet criticizing Modi's development projects, she said that "the prime minister should stop thinking that people are fools," and "should understand that they see through this," arguing that the prime minister's showmanship lacks substance. In the demolition zone, Sonu Khanna sits cross-legged amid stacks of pashmina shawls and silk saris. Khanna and his siblings, parents and grandfather live and run a wholesale garment business near the Vishwanath temple that deeds on weathered paper show the family has owned since Mughal times. If the government offers them cash to move, the Khannas, practicing Hindus, will probably join most of their neighbors uprooted in Modi's dream project. But Modi won't have won their votes. "Friends and family used to live all around us, and now we're alone in all this dust and noise," 25-year-old Khanna said. ___ Follow South Asia correspondent Emily Schmall at www.twitter.com/emilyschmall In this March 19, 2019, photo, devotees and tourists watch as Hindu priests perform daily rituals in reverence for river Ganges on its banks, in Varanasi, India. A project in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi dreamed up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows the master political marketer's penchant for symbolism as political strategy in elections that begin this month. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this March 19, 2019, photo, funeral pyres burn on the banks of river Ganges, in Varanasi, India. According to ancient practice, funeral pyres burn constantly, with the debris and ash shoveled into the river. In the Indian city considered the center of the Hindu universe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this March 22, 2019 photo, people cover their noses as they walk past trash strewn on a street, in Varanasi, India. A project in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi dreamed up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows the master political marketer's penchant for symbolism as political strategy in elections that begin this month. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this March 22, 2019, photo, Hindu devotees stand in queue in a narrow lane to enter into Vishwanath temple, in Varanasi, India. In the Indian city considered the center of the Hindu universe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this March 22, 2019, photo, trash is strewn on the banks of river Ganges, in Varanasi, India. Modi promised to clean up the Ganges, but gray water continues flowing not far from the banks where crowds of devotees and tourists converge for a nightly prayer. In the Indian city considered the center of the Hindu universe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this March 19, 2019 photo, a Hindu man prays next to a small temple uncovered hidden within the wall of demolished buildings at the site of a proposed grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, in Varanasi, India. The demolition of around 300 commercial and residential buildings between the temple and the river have left a gaping hole in Varanasi's urban core, a congested maze of zig-zagging brick lanes full of religious shrines. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this March 19, 2019 photo, Hindu devotees walk barefoot through debris of demolished houses to reach river Ganges at the site of a proposed grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, in Varanasi, India. The $115 million promenade is just one of a number of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's religious glamor projects, aimed squarely at pleasing his Hindu nationalist base ahead of elections that start this month. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this March 19, 2019 photo, a woman watches from her window as a worker demolishes a house at the site of a proposed grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, in Varanasi, India. The $115 million promenade is just one of a number of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's religious glamor projects, aimed squarely at pleasing his Hindu nationalist base ahead of elections that start this month. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this March 19, 2019, photo, workers demolish a house at the site of a proposed grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, in Varanasi, India. A project in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi dreamed up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows the master political marketer's penchant for symbolism as political strategy in elections that begin this month. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) This March 19, 2019, panorama made up of multiple photographs stitched together, shows a view of demolitions done for a proposed grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, in Varanasi, India. A project in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi dreamed up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows the master political marketer's penchant for symbolism as political strategy in elections that begin this month. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - Twenty-five years after the start of a genocide that killed some 800,000 people, Rwanda is rebuilding with hope and shines with a new light, President Paul Kagame said at commemoration services Sunday. He said Rwandans would never turn against each other again. "Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars, but none of us is alone," Kagame said at a ceremony attended by several heads of state. "We Rwandans have granted ourselves a new beginning. We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, every day, in all that we do ... Today, light radiates from this place." Earlier in the day, Kagame and his wife laid wreaths and lit a flame at the mass burial ground of 250,000 victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in the capital, Kigali. Those attending the ceremonies included the leaders of Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Niger, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, as well as the African Union and the European Union. "I am moved beyond words at this memorial to tragedy," said Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission. "Time can never erase the darkest hours in our history. It is our duty to remember." From left to right, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Rwanda's First Lady Jeannette Kagame, and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, light the flame of remembrance at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda, Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Songs, poems and plays about the rebirth of Rwanda after the genocide the new nation were later performed at the Kigali convention center. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said "the duty of remembrance must be a sacred requirement." Belgian peacekeepers were among those killed in Rwanda during the genocide. Ethiopian Prime Minister expressed solidarity with Rwandans and said under Kagame's leadership, seeds of unity and never again had been sowed. Kagame and other leaders joined in a procession later Sunday through the capital to the National Stadium, where thousands joined in an evening candlelight ceremony. "Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda fell into a deep ditch due to bad leadership, today, we are a country of hope and a nation elevated," Agnes Mutamba, 25, a teacher who was born during the genocide, told The Associated Press in Kigali. "Today, the government has united all Rwandans as one people with the same culture and history and is speeding up economic transformation," said Oliver Nduhungihere, Rwanda's state foreign affairs minister. The mass killing of Rwanda's Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu. The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane and the bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police, and militias. Kagame's government has previously accused Hutu-led government of 1994 of being responsible for shooting down the plane and has blamed the French government for turning a blind eye to the genocide. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a government study into the country's role in Rwanda before and during its 1994 genocide. Macron ordered a commission of researchers and historians to investigate the "role and involvement of France" in Rwanda from 1990-1994. It is to make conclusions within two years. Kagame has won praise for ending that violence and making advances in economic development and health care. Ethnic reconciliation is a cornerstone of the rule of Kagame, Rwanda's de facto leader since the genocide ended in 1994 and the country's president since 2000. He is credited with bringing Rwanda stability, economic growth, and improved health and education. However, Kagame's critics charge that he is intolerant of criticism and his government is repressive, jailing opposition leaders. A quarter-century after the genocide, bodies of victims are still being found. Last year, authorities in Rwanda found discovered mass graves they said contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims. "Twenty-five years on, the victims and survivors should remain the center of everyone's thoughts, but we should also take stock of progress and the need to ensure accountability for all those who directed these horrific acts," Human Rights Watch said. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, center, gestures as he and first lady Jeannette Kagame, center-left, lead a "Walk to Remember" accompanied by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, far left, Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel, second left, France's Herve Berville, third left, and Governor General of Canada Julie Payette, fourth left, from the parliament building to Amahoro stadium in downtown Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Rwandans sitting in the stands hold candles as part of a candlelit vigil during the memorial service held at Amahoro stadium in the capital Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, center, and First Lady Jeannette Kagame, right, arrive at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel, center, participates in a "Walk to Remember" accompanied by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, left, and Rwanda's First Lady Jeannette Kagame, right, from the parliament building to Amahoro stadium in downtown Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Rwandan women sitting in the stands, hold candles as part of a candlelit vigil during the memorial service held at Amahoro stadium in the capital Kigali, Rwanda, Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Rwandans and others sitting in the stands hold candles as part of a candlelit vigil during a memorial service held at Amahoro stadium in the capital Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Governor General of Canada Julie Payette arrives to lay a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, center-left, First Lady Jeannette Kagame, center, and son Ivan Cyomoro Kagame, right, prepare to lay a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) President of the Swiss National Council Marina Carobbio Guscetti arrives to lay a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) President of the Swiss National Council Marina Carobbio Guscetti, center, arrives to lay a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Governor General of Canada Julie Payette lays a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Nepal's president, top officials and diplomats gathered recently at army grounds in central Kathmandu for an annual horse festival that marks the slaying of the Hindu Gurumapa demon. Soldiers race the horses and show off warfare techniques believed to keep devil spirits away through the pounding of the horses' hooves. A dedicated team of soldiers spends three months preparing the animals for the Ghode Jatra festival. According to a centuries-old tradition, people raced horses before worshipping gods with offerings of food and flowers under a tree. It has been 169 years since a Nepalese king designated the army to perform the festival rituals. At the Nepal Cavalry grounds on the former site of the royal palace in Nepal's capital, riders spend months bonding with the horses. There are 106 horses at the cavalry and more than 200 soldiers take care of them. In this April 4, 2019, photo, Nepalese cavalry soldiers display their skills during the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) Every day, the soldiers bathe, groom and feed the horses, which are raced and tested to check their skills and ability. Capt. Ram Shrestha of the Nepal Cavalry likened horses to children: "If you love them, they will love you back, but if you abuse them, they will hit back like a bad child." On the day of the festival, the uniformed riders race the horses on tracks, and show off skills like picking up objects with spears while riding at high speeds. Meanwhile, the most powerful members of Nepal's government and foreign diplomats cheer them. A child revered as the Hindu Living Goddess Kumari is carried out of the palace temple and brought to watch the horse festival. Away from the cavalry grounds, the Newar community - an indigenous group from Kathmandu - worships the gods and feasts with friends, families and community. In this April 5, 2019, photo, a Nepalese cavalry soldier displays his skills during the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this April 3, 2019, photo, a Nepalese army soldier bonds with a horse at the Nepal cavalry stable before the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this March 18, 2019, photo, an army man bathes a horse as he prepares the animal for Ghode Jatra festival at the Nepal cavalry ground in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this March 24, 2019, photo a Nepalese cavalry soldier rehearses for the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this April 5, 2019, photo, Nepalese cavalry soldiers rehearse for the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this March 19, 2019, photo, a Nepalese army man massages a horse leg while he prepares the animal for Ghode Jatra festival at the Nepal cavalry ground in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this March 19, 2019, photo, a Nepalese army soldier plays with his horse as others watch before leaving for rehearsals for Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this April 3, 2019, photo, a Nepalese army soldier trains his horse for Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this March 24, 2019, photo, a horse rolls on the ground in play days before Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this March 18, 2019, photo, a horse from Nepal cavalry rests after morning practice for Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this March 24, 2019, photo, a Nepalese army soldier draws a picture of horse for the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this April 5, 2019, photo, a Nepalese cavalry horse is decorated for the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this April 5, 2019, photo, a Nepalese cavalry soldier displays his skills during the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) In this April 5, 2019, photo, Nepalese watch from outside cavalry soldiers displaying their skills during the Ghode Jatra festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 'Ghode Jatra' is an annual horse festival celebrated on the Nepal Cavalry grounds in Kathmandu, which marks the defeat of a Hindu demon. The president of Nepal, diplomats, top officials and civilians all gather to watch 106 horses and more than 200 soldiers display warfare techniques which are believed to keep the demon away. The preparations of this event start three months prior, when a dedicated team of soldiers spend days bonding with the animals, by feeding and grooming the horses. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitch McConnell says the Senate will be in the "personnel business" this year. But the majority leader's focus on confirming President Donald Trump's nominees is coming at the expense of any big legislative priorities. Nearly 100 days into the new Congress, the drive to confirm is adding more conservatives to the courts and putting more Trump appointees in government offices. But Trump's promises to replace the Affordable Care Act, invest in infrastructure or cut middle class taxes have been essentially shelved. The result is that the GOP-controlled Senate is on a very different path heading into the 2020 election than is the House, where the Democratic majority is churning out a long list of bills on ethics, gun violence and other topics that, while unlikely to become law, show voters their priorities. Sara Binder, an expert on Congress at George Washington University, said there doesn't seem to be much room in the Senate "to set out a policy agenda and make some progress toward it." She added: "It does leave on the table quite a number of issues that don't get any progress." Underlying his strategy, McConnell, R-Ky., engineered a rules change last week to speed the confirmation process, pushing past Democrats' stalling of Trump's picks for administration jobs and district courts. "Look, we know you don't like Donald Trump, but there was an election," McConnell argued on the Senate floor to the Democrats, saying the president "is at least entitled to set up the administration and make it function." FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2019, file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington. One of the only jobs McConnell ever wanted was to be in the Senate. But the majority leader is steadily changing the way the chamber operates in pursuit of a greater prize: reshaping the judiciary. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Democratic senators see a much more deliberative strategy. Rather than try to work with Democrats - and Trump - to pass bills that can be turned into law, they say McConnell is simply blocking bills from the House while spending his time packing the courts with conservatives judges as part of a broader legacy of reshaping the judiciary. Already McConnell spent the first two years of the administration confirming a record 30 circuit court nominees. With seven more confirmed this year, he's now turning to the district courts; four nominees already are teed up for Senate action. "What Leader McConnell, President Trump and Republicans in the Senate are trying to do is use the courts to adopt the far-right agenda that Republicans know they cannot enact through the legislative process," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said during the floor debate. In an earlier time, McConnell was an advocate of capitalizing on divided government to foster deal-making. Compromises between Democrats and Republicans ended a budget crisis during President Barack Obama's administration and produced bills on other education and topics. But so far this year, the big-ticket items have been elusive. Trump wanted GOP senators to try again to replace Obama's health care law, but without a substantive plan, McConnell quashed that effort until after the 2020 election. Republicans are quick to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying there's almost nothing Senate Republicans and House Democrats can agree on. As if to prove the point, McConnell forced the Senate into a vote on the Green New Deal from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., highlighting Democratic tensions with the liberal flank of their party. Yet it's clear that Republicans have had their own difficulty with Trump, whose shifting positions have left them without fully shared policy priorities. For example, many Republicans oppose Trump's tariffs as leverage in trade negotiations. One major bill that did pass the Senate rebuked Trump's plan to withdraw troops from Syria. Trump opposed two substantive measures that cleared both chambers of Congress. He vetoed one that went against his national emergency to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall and has threatened to veto another that's opposing U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen. "If you're talking about a big bold vision, yea, I'd like to do entitlement reform, I'd like to do tax reform 2.0 - there are a whole bunch of things on the economic agenda that I think we can do, but those things aren't going to move in a Democrat House," said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Republican. "It's just hard right now," he said. "In terms of legislative expectations I think we're being realistic and not setting the bar too high, but there are some things that I think can get done." One of the only jobs McConnell ever wanted was in the Senate, he says in his biography, "The Long Game." But after more 30 years in office, the majority leader often seen as an institutionalist is steadily changing the way the chamber operates. In many ways, he's simply building on the moves made by a predecessor, Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who used the "nuclear option" to change the rules to more easily approve Obama's Cabinet officials and most judges with a majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate. McConnell took it further, going "nuclear" to usher through Trump's Supreme Court nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and again with last week's changes that slashed debate time on most nominees from 30 hours to two. Some say it's only a matter of time before the legislative filibuster, which sets a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation, becomes the next to fall. Not everyone opposes such changes. On Friday, presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaking at the National Action Network, said if Democrats take control they should end the filibuster. She cited the filibuster's role in stopping anti-lynching and civil rights legislation. Even some Democrats see the hours of idle debate on lower-level picks as a waste of time. "Our obligation as senators is not to try to revive the old Senate, but rather to figure out how we can build a new Senate that has its own customs and rules and institutional perogative that will work in a modern era," said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. But for now, the Senate has a singular focus. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who faces re-election next year, isn't sure confirmations will be enough for voters. But in divided Washington, he sees few other options. "The personnel business may be the whole game," he said. ___ Follow on Lisa Mascaro on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lisamascaro In this April 3, 2019, photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., walks off the House floor following a speech by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Capitol Hill in Washington. One of the only jobs McConnell ever wanted was to be in the Senate. But the majority leader is steadily changing the way the chamber operates in pursuit of a greater prize: reshaping the judiciary. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Cory Booker's early fundraising numbers are well behind those posted by other major Democratic candidates in the race to challenge President Donald Trump. The New Jersey senator, who campaigned Sunday in New Hampshire, said he raised over $5 million in the two months since he entered the 2020 primary, and has over $6.1 million cash on hand. Booker announced the figure in an email to supporters. The sum puts him near the back of the pack in fundraising with roughly 10 months left before the start of Democratic primary voting. Of those candidates that have announced their figures, only entrepreneur Andrew Yang announced raising less than Booker. Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke raised $6.1 million during his first 24 hours of presidential campaigning beginning March 14, edging Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' $5.9 million over the same period to top the Democratic field. Booker said Sunday he feels "incredible" about the fundraising haul. "Money is important, but it is definitely not going to be the barometer with which people make their decisions over who's going to be the next president of the United States," Booker said. "And I'm happy that we have the resources we need to be in this race." United States Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., center, addresses an audience during a 2020 presidential campaign stop in the gymnasium of a school, Sunday, April 7, 2019, in Londonderry, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) On the policy front, Booker on Sunday promoted a program known as baby bonds. It calls for newborns to get a savings account. The government would contribute up to $2,000 to the account annually until the child is 18. The amount would depend on their parents' income. Booker's campaign says it's expected that one in 10 kids in New Hampshire would receive the full $2,000 contribution annually. He said the plan would let kids use the fund to get training, to go to college, to start a business or to buy a home. Booker said the idea is to "create a fair playing field where everybody has a stake in this economy." Elsewhere in campaigning Sunday: PETE BUTTIGIEG The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, defended his experience ahead of an expected run for president, saying he isn't someone who has "been marinating in Washington" for a long time. Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" about his qualifications, he said he would "stack up my experience against anybody," though he acknowledged "it's not as traditional." The Democratic field is full of senators and members of the House. Buttigieg said "being a mayor of a city of any size means that you have to deal with the kinds of issues that really hit Americans." Buttigieg would not confirm that he plans to announce his candidacy at an event next Sunday in South Bend but said "the kind of thing we're going to announce is the kind of thing you only get to announce once." Buttigieg was campaigning in New Hampshire this weekend. ___ BERNIE SANDERS Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said Sunday he favors a comprehensive immigration overhaul. But when asked at an Oskaloosa, Iowa, town hall why he supported open borders, Sanders replied, "I'm afraid you may be getting your information wrong. I think what we need is comprehensive immigration reform." The Vermont senator continued: "Oh my god, there's a lot of poverty in this world, and you're going to have people from all over the world. And I don't think that's something that we can do at this point. Can't do it," he said of open borders. Sanders came under fire during the 2016 campaign for opposing a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill in 2007 over concerns it would depress wages and hurt U.S. workers. The stance that aligned him closely with a number of unions at the time. He supports a pathway to citizenship for children brought into the U.S. illegally by the parents, and in 2013 supported the comprehensive immigration legislation backed by the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators, which ultimately failed in the House. He has not yet released an immigration policy outline for his 2020 campaign. Sanders made his comments during a two-day swing through a handful of rural Iowa towns. During the Oskaloosa event, he took six questions from the crowd, on issues ranging from the feasibility of his economic policies to whether he'd unite the Democrats after the primary. ___ MICHAEL BENNET The Colorado senator was in New Hampshire, days after he made his prostate cancer diagnosis public. Bennet said earlier this weekend that he wasn't dwelling on the diagnosis and spoke to voters about health care and partisan divides in Washington. He also told CNN's "State of the Union" that he hopes to announce a run for president "as soon as I can," depending on his health. "I have got to go through a procedure at the beginning of the upcoming recess," Bennet said. "That starts later this week. And then it's going to be a couple of weeks for recovery. But I would like to get on with this." He added that he's "looking forward to running in 2020." "This obviously was unexpected," Bennet said. "But we caught it early. It's something that I think we're going to be able to treat. And I don't think it should keep me off the trail." United States Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., center, takes selfies with residents at the conclusion of a 2020 presidential campaign stop, Sunday, April 7, 2019, in Londonderry, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, South Bend, Ind. mayor, address the National Action Network (NAN) convention, Thursday April 4, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) LONDON (AP) - "The Inheritance", an epic drama about gay lives in New York, and musicals "Come From Away" and "Company" were the big winners at British theater's Olivier Awards on Sunday, receiving four trophies apiece. "Come From Away," inspired by a small Canadian town that sheltered thousands of stranded airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks, was named best new musical at Britain's equivalent of Broadway's Tony Awards. The play also took trophies for sound, outstanding achievement in music and choreography. Choreographer Kelly Devine dedicated the award in her category to the people of Gander, Newfoundland who in real life "effortlessly showed the world how easy it is to be kind." The award for best musical revival went to a production of Stephen Sondheim's "Company" that gender-swapped the lead role of a commitment-shy New York singleton and turned the usually male Bobby character into Bobbie. Director Marianne Elliott attributed the show's success partly to "a wind of change blowing in the industry, where celebrating female stories is not only possible, but absolutely vital." "Company" also delivered a supporting actress prize to Broadway diva Patti LuPone and a supporting actor trophy to Jonathan Bailey. It took another award for set-design. Kyle Soller with the Best Actor award and Patsy Ferran with the Best Actress award, at the Olivier Awards ceremony in London, Sunday April 7, 2019. Spanish-British actress Patsy Ferran was crowned best actress for her performance in "Summer and Smoke" as a woman consumed by love, and Kyle Soller is awarded for his work in "The Inheritance," an epic but intimate story of modern gay lives. (Ian West/PA via AP) "The Inheritance," Matthew Lopez's drama about young gay men living in New York a generation after the AIDS crisis was declared best new play. Lopez said he was "overwhelmed and overjoyed" by the trans-Atlantic success of his seven-hour epic, which had its world premiere at London's Young Vic Theatre. "We've seen a lot of Brits come over and take home Tonys," Lopez said backstage, clutching a statuette topped with a bust of the late actor for whom the award is named, Laurence Olivier. "It's only fair." Lopez said he was hopeful the show would get a Broadway run now that London has shown the play, mined from his own experience, resonates with audiences. "You could have blown me over with a feather," he said of the reaction his play got from theatergoers in Britain's capital. "Even some of the New York jokes, they got." "The Inheritance" also took prizes for lighting and for Stephen Daldry's direction, while star Kyle Soller beat rivals who included Ian McKellen to be garlanded best actor in a play. Soller, an American based in London, dedicated his award to "those who continue to fight in a world where you can still be stoned to death for loving who you love." Islamic Laws making gay sex and adultery punishable by death by stoning took effect Wednesday in the southeast Asian nation of Brunei. The country's sultan owns properties around the world. includes London's Dorchester Hotel. Spanish-British actress Patsy Ferran was crowned best actress in a play as a woman consumed by love in Tennessee Williams' smoldering "Summer and Smoke." The competition was a talented field that included Gillian Anderson for "All About Eve" and Sophie Okonedo for "Antony and Cleopatra" "Summer and Smoke" also took the prize for best revival. Sharon D. Clarke was named best actress in a musical for her powerful performance as the maid to a Southern U.S. family in the 1960s in Tony Kushner's "Caroline, or Change." Best actor in a musical went to Kobna Holdbrook-Smith for playing a charismatic, abusive Ike Turner in "Tina - The Tina Turner Musical." Founded in 1976, the Olivier Awards honor achievements in London theater, musicals, dance and opera. Winners in most categories are chosen by a panel of stage professionals and theatergoers. Sally Field, Kelsey Grammer, Tom Hiddleston, David Suchet and Gloria Estefan were among the stars walking the red carpet in a drizzle before the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall. The show saluted long-running musicals "The Lion King" and "Mamma Mia," both celebrating 20 years of playing in London's West End. Matthew Bourne - the choreographer behind an iconic all-male production of "Swan Lake" - received a lifetime achievement honor, presented by Prince Charles' wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. Actress Sally Field, from left, actors Kyle Soller and Bill Pullman pose for photographers backstage at the Olivier Awards in London, Sunday, April 7, 2019. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) Actor Tom Hiddleston, from left, actors Zawe Ashton, Patsy Ferran and Charlie Cox pose for photographers backstage at the Olivier Awards in London, Sunday, April 7, 2019. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) Actor Tom Hiddleston poses for photographers backstage at the Olivier Awards in London, Sunday, April 7, 2019. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) Actress Patsy Ferran poses for photographers backstage with her Best Actress award for her role in the play 'Summer and Smoke' at the Olivier Awards in London, Sunday, April 7, 2019. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats will "never" see President Donald Trump's tax returns, said White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday, as a new front opened in the confrontation between the administration and Congress. Mulvaney accused Democrats of engaging in a "political stunt" and wanting "attention" after the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, asked the IRS to provide six years of Trump's personal tax returns and the returns for some of his businesses. "That is not going to happen and they know it," Mulvaney told "Fox News Sunday." Asked whether he believe Democrats would ever view the president's returns, Mulvaney replied: "Oh no, never. Nor should they." Last week, Massachusetts Democrat Neal, one of only three congressional officials authorized to request tax returns, requested Trump's personal and business returns in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. He asked for returns covering 2013 through 2018. He also asked for the documents in seven days, setting an April 10 deadline. An obscure 1924 statute includes no exceptions to Neal's authority to ask the Treasury Department for returns and says the department "shall furnish" them when requested. It does require that the review of an individual's return be conducted by members of Congress in "closed executive session" if the returns are provided without the taxpayer's consent. Still, Mulvaney claimed the law provides for lawmakers to review individual tax returns but "political hit job is not one of those reasons." His comments echoed those made by Trump's lawyers who argued the Democratic request "would set a dangerous precedent" if granted. FILE- In this July 11, 2018, file photo Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and Director of the Office of Management, listens during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington. White House chief of staff Mulvaney said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday" Democrats will "never" see President Donald Trump's tax returns. Mulvaney says Democrats just want "attention" and are engaging in a "political stunt" after the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, asked the IRS to provide six years of Trump's personal tax returns and the returns for some of his businesses. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) Trump broke with precedent when he chose not to release any tax returns as a presidential candidate. Mulvaney tried to cast the issue of the president's taxes as old news, saying it was "already litigated during the election" and the American people "elected him anyway." Trump has said he won't release the information because he is under audit, something he reiterated again Friday while visiting the U.S-Mexico border. "I'm under audit. When you're under audit you don't do it," Trump said. IRS officials have said taxpayers under audit are free to release their returns. Trump claimed at a news conference following his election in November 2018 that the filings are too complex for people to understand. William Consovoy, whose firm was retained by Trump to represent him on the matter, said in a letter Friday to the Department of Treasury's general counsel that the tax code zealously guards taxpayer privacy. He said requests for tax returns "must have a legitimate legislative purpose." Neal has said he made the request to review the IRS policy of auditing the tax returns of all sitting presidents and vice presidents, saying, "little is known about the effectiveness of this program." "On behalf of the American people, the Ways and Means Committee must determine if that policy is being followed, and if so, whether these audits are conducted fully and appropriately," Neal said when unveiling his request for Trump's returns. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee who has been an occasional critic of Trump's, called Democrats' actions "moronic." He told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he believes Trump should release his tax returns, but by demanding them, "I think the Democrats are just playing along his handbook." NEW YORK (AP) - Wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart was tackled by a spectator Saturday while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to Hart's defense. Hart, 61, is OK. The person ran toward the ring from the crowd, spectator Alan Fisher told The Associated Press. "I couldn't believe that the security had missed him in the first place and the next thing you know there was Shane McMahon and Travis Brown on top of him the crowd was going crazy booing," Fisher said. "Everyone was cheering when one of the wrestlers punched him." New York City Police arrested 26-year-old Zachary Madsen. He faces assault and criminal trespass charges. An email to the district attorney seeking someone who could comment on Madsen's behalf wasn't immediately answered. Several shocked onlookers posted footage of the tackle online. FILE - In this March 28, 2010, file photo, Bret "Hit Man" Hart celebrates his victory over Mr. McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI in Glendale, Ariz. Hart was tackled by a spectator Saturday, April 6, 2019, while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center. The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to Hart's defense. Hart is okay. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File) The induction event resumed, with Hart continuing his speech, after the fan was taken into custody. "He should have never attacked Bret Hart especially at such a special moment in his life," Fisher said. MIAMI (AP) - Stephanie Loraine Pineiro was 17 when she discovered she was pregnant for the second time. She says her parents were livid about her first pregnancy a year earlier, though she never dared tell them she was raped. Her father took her to a clinic for an abortion. On the way home, she says, he threw birth control pills from the clinic out of the car window and ordered her to abstain. A year later, the circumstances were different. She said she became pregnant after having sex with a boyfriend, and was afraid her parents would force her to continue an unwanted pregnancy if she told them. She sought but was denied emergency contraception from a pharmacy. "I felt like I was being forced into parenthood," she said. She still had options for an abortion, but situations like hers might become more difficult under several bills before the Florida Legislature that could restrict access to the procedure, including a measure to require minors to get consent from a guardian before terminating a pregnancy. Sensing a shift in the U.S. Supreme Court, conservative lawmakers across the country have introduced hundreds of anti-abortion measures into state legislatures this year that could spark challenges that eventually may prompt the top court to revisit Roe v. Wade. In this Thursday, March 28, 2019 photo Stephanie Loraine Pineiro reflects at her home in Orlando, Fla. When Loraine Pineiro was 17-years-old she was pregnant and wanted to have an abortion without her parents permission. She now works as a social worker and advocate for reproductive rights in Orlando. (AP Photo/John Raoux) More than half of U.S. states require consent from at least one parent or legal guardian for a minor to obtain an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Florida, a state that provided 1,472 abortions to minors in 2017, is one of the few states that require a parent or guardian to be informed 48 hours before the procedure in person, over the phone, or within 72 hours by certified mail. Many clinics allow parents to sign a notification waiver in order to bypass the mandatory waiting periods before a procedure is performed. A bill proposed by Vero Beach Republican Rep. Erin Grall would flip Florida's status as a notification state to a consent state, where legal guardians have deciding power over an abortion. It would require physicians to obtain notarized written consent and government-issued proof of identification from a parent or legal guardian before any procedure. Grall said in a House Committee meeting that she suspects many parents are left in the dark about their children's decision to have an abortion, and that they need to be involved. "It is my belief that parental notification does not go far enough. It does not give parents the opportunity to weigh in the decision that child is making," Grall said. "I believe that parents have a fundamental right in the upbringing of their children," Grall said. "This really seeks to put the focus back on the family in such an important decision - a decision that cannot be undone." Recently, a House Health Quality Subcommittee and Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the measure. The bill is slated to come before a Senate Health Policy Committee on Monday. Although a similar law was deemed unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court in 1989, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has also publicly voiced support for the bill. DeSantis, when asked about the measure at an event last month in Miami, called the measure a matter of "common sense". "If you're a minor and you have to get consent to do almost anything else, to me, that's very reasonable," DeSantis said. More than 60% of minors in notification states discussed their decision to have an abortion with their parents, according to a Guttmacher Institute study. Dr. Sarah Stumbar, a physician who works with predominately low-income families in Miami, said she is concerned about the percentage of minors who don't notify their parents. "That's due to their home situation," said Stumbar, who opposes the bill. "They're concerned about physical violence, emotional violence, sexual abuse . . . about getting kicked out the house and becoming homeless." Florida law provides an alternative for minors who want to keep their parents out of the loop in the form of a judicial bypass, a hearing in which a judge decides if it's in the best interest of the minor to not have their parents involved. The judge also determines if a minor is mature enough to make such a decision. In 2018, Florida minors filed 193 petitions, 182 of which were granted, per state records. In 2017, judges approved nearly 92% of petitions. Loraine Pineiro learned about the judicial bypass when she was desperate, researching methods to induce a miscarriage. A lawyer took on her case and they won. Without a ruling in her favor, her parents would have been notified ahead of the abortion, and under Grall's bill their consent would have been required. Now 27, Loraine Pineiro works as a social worker and advocate for reproductive rights in Orlando. She said judicial bypass information is notoriously difficult to find, leaving many minors unaware of their options. "There's no consensus across the state on where to go and what to do," she said. The Associated Press generally does not identify those who say they've been sexually assaulted, but Loraine Pineiro tells her story publicly as an advocate. Two-thirds of Florida county courts failed to provide adequate information to callers seeking information about the judicial bypass process, according to a University of Michigan report. Loraine Pineiro said that if conservative lawmakers want to eliminate the need for abortions they should broaden sexual education for minors. In this Thursday, March 28, 2019 photo Stephanie Loraine Pineiro poses at her home in Orlando, Fla. When Loraine Pineiro was 17-years-old she was pregnant and wanted to have an abortion without her parents permission. Now 27, she works as a social worker and advocate for reproductive rights in Orlando. (AP Photo/John Raoux) RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Thousands of people chanting "Free Lula!" protested Sunday outside the jail where former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is being held on the anniversary of his incarceration, but other Brazilians staged rallies across the country to celebrate the crackdown on corruption that has put him and other politicians behind bars. Da Silva is serving a 12-year sentence on a corruption and money laundering conviction. Prosecutors say he received a beachfront apartment from a construction company in exchange for a lucrative contract with the state-owned oil company Petrobras. He and his Worker's Party maintain he is innocent and say he was persecuted by the judiciary and political enemies to prevent him from running for president again. His imprisonment is at the center of a deeply polarizing debate between Brazilians who see him as a political prisoner for championing the poor and others who believe justice is being served for a corrupt politician. Fernando Haddad, who ran for president in da Silva's place and lost a November runoff election to far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro, spoke at the rally outside the federal police station that is holding da Silva, who is widely known to Brazilians as Lula. The country's elites "wouldn't stop until they put possibly one of the worst Brazilians in the presidency and put one of the best Brazilians in prison," Haddad told protesters. "Lula has been kidnapped by the bourgeoisie," said another speaker, Joao Pedro Stedile, a leader from the far-left Landless Workers Movement. "The ransom is for us to stop fighting. They want to bring the Brazilian people to their knees." A woman holds a hashtag sign that reads in Portuguese "Free Lula" during a demonstration on the anniversary of the incarceration of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, outside the jail where he is being held in Curitiba, Brazil, Sunday, April 7, 2019. While Da Silva serves a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering, he and his Worker's Party maintain his innocence, and claim persecution by political enemies to prevent him from running again for president. (AP Photo/Denis Ferreira Netto) Protester Beth Dori, 65, called da Silva's arrest unjust. "They did this so they could do what they're doing now with social security and workers' rights laws," she said, referring to unpopular austerity measures taken on after the Worker's Party was no longer in power. Meanwhile, on the boardwalk of Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach, a rally supporting the attack on corruption cheered da Silva's continued incarceration. "Today marks one whole year that Lula hasn't stolen!" a protester yelled from the top of a sound car while the crowd applauded. "I'm very happy to see he's stayed in prison a whole year, and one year is nothing compared to what he's done to the Brazilian people," said Jose Elias, 67, a retired farm worker. "Lula and the Worker's Party ruined this country with their corrupt, leftist mess." Da Silva is the most prominent figure jailed in an anti-corruption investigation called "Operation Car Wash" that has snared dozens of prominent politicians and business figures. Anti-corruption demonstrators also demanded the continued take-down of "old politicians," calling for the arrest of other corrupt politicians and applauding the judiciary that is going after them. "I'm here to call for the impeachment of the corrupt Supreme Court. As long as the court is corrupt, Lula and other corrupt politicians have a chance to be free," said Yasmin Albudane, a 24-year-old university student. ___ Freelance video journalist Fabio Tissot in Curitiba contributed to this report. Workers' Party President Gleisi Hoffmann, center right, attends a demonstration on the anniversary of the incarceration of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, outside the jail where he is being held in Curitiba, Brazil, Sunday, April 7, 2019. While Da Silva serves a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering, he and his party maintain his innocence, and claim persecution by political enemies to prevent him from running again for president. (AP Photo/Denis Ferreira Netto) A supporter of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wears an image of the former Brazilian president on his back during a demonstration on the anniversary of Da Silvia's incarceration outside the jail where he is serving time in Curitiba, Brazil, Sunday, April 7, 2019. While Da Silva serves a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering, he and his Worker's Party maintain his innocence, and claim persecution by political enemies to prevent him from running again for president. (AP Photo/Denis Ferreira Netto) CHICAGO (AP) - Two men who opened fire on a crowd of people gathered for a baby shower, wounding six people, including two children, may have acted in retaliation for an earlier gang conflict, police said Sunday. Authorities have only "shards of information" about what happened at the family gathering in Chicago because witnesses are not cooperating, a police spokesman said, but investigators hope the serious nature of the children's injuries will prompt someone to talk. "This is a very tragic incident. You have two young children, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, clinging to life," Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. At least a dozen people were gathered outside a home decorated with balloons for the baby shower when two armed men approached on foot and began shooting about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Guglielmi said. The gunmen fired multiple rounds and ran away down an alley, he said. An 8-year-old boy was shot in the chest and back, and a 10-year-old girl was shot in the leg. Both children were in critical but stable condition. Their names were not released. Chicago police work the scene of a shooting in the 6300 block of South Seeley on Saturday, April 6, 2019. Authorities say two children were among the several people who were wounded when two men opened fire Saturday evening on a baby shower outside of a home on the South Side of Chicago. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via AP) Also shot were four other people - three men ranging in age from 23 to 48 and a 29-year-old woman. The woman was hospitalized in critical condition, and the two younger men were in stable condition. The condition of the oldest man was unknown, and Guglielmi said it was unclear whether the woman who was hurt may have been the person who was pregnant. People rushed inside the house when the shooting began. Children who had been playing in the yard reportedly started piling atop one another as they tried to get through the door. "We were trying to pick the kids up, get the kids out of the way . they were going to get crushed," Richard Nix, whose grandson was having the shower, told The Chicago Tribune. "It wasn't nothing but kids in front of the house, sitting on the porch. They was just playing, and the shooting went off." The shooting occurred in the West Englewood neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, and investigators had indications it was in retaliation for a previous incident, the spokesman said. "It's part of a larger conflict that's going on in that area," Guglielmi said. Another shooting occurred Sunday morning about three blocks from the home where the gunfire erupted, he said, but it was unclear whether there was any connection. Authorities have struggled to contain violence in Chicago, the nation's third-largest city. Police said 561 homicides were committed in the city last year, a total that exceeded the number of killings in New York and Los Angeles combined. MOSCOW (AP) - The lawyer for an imprisoned Russian organized crime figure says the man has been charged in the 1998 assassination of reformist lawmaker Galina Starovoitova. Starovoitova, a prominent liberal member of the national parliament, was gunned down outside her St. Petersburg residence. Four people were convicted of taking part in the slaying or organizing it, but who ordered the assassination wasn't determined. Russian news agencies quoted attorney Konstantin Kuzminikh on Sunday as saying a client of his has also been charged in the killing. The St. Petersburg news site Fontanka reported that the charged man, Vladimir Barsukov, allegedly expressed a desire for Starovoitova to die. Barsukov has been behind bars since 2007 and is serving sentences for murder, extortion, fraud and money laundering. SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) - Two South Carolina men have been charged with murder after sheriff's deputies found two bodies buried at a house just outside Spartanburg, authorities said. The arrests came after one of the suspects shot himself in the head in front of deputies, survived, and subsequently told deputies he'd witnessed the other man kill his girlfriend. Arrested Saturday were 39-year-old Jonathan Galligan and 41-year-old Christian Daniel Hurlburt, local news outlets report. Deputies say that on Friday, they found buried the bodies of 27-year-old Christin Renee Bunner of Spartanburg and 40-year-old Melissa Fairlee Rhymer of Mountville. Galligan is charged with Bunner's death, while Hurlburt is charged with killing Rhymer. Both men are jailed without bail following a Saturday hearing. It's unclear if they have lawyers who could comment for them. Officers were called to a local towing service Wednesday concerning a disturbance. Hurlburt, who lives on the property, wouldn't follow deputies' commands, took out a gun and shot himself in the head. Wounded, he called deputies to his hospital bed Thursday and told them about Bunner's death, saying he helped bury the woman in the yard at Galligan's house. Hurlburt later confessed that he'd killed a second woman and buried her at the house, where Galligan lived at one time. In this Friday, April 5, 2019, photo, police tape marks the area where the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office and Spartanburg County Coroner's were working after two bodies were found buried on the property on Williams Street in Spartanburg, S.C. Two men have been charged with murder in connection with the discovery. (Tim Kimzey/Spartanburg Herald-Journal via AP) Deputies couldn't find the bodies Thursday, but returned with cadaver dogs Friday. Authorities said the remains were found in graves that began about 18 inches (46 centimeters) below the ground. "The dogs indicated in two areas," said Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger. "We went to those two areas and were able to find human remains. They are of two people." They interviewed Galligan on Friday, but released him after he demanded an attorney and asked to leave, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Kevin Bobo. But later that day, the sheriff announced deputies were seeking to arrest Galligan. He was taken into custody Saturday at a convenience store. Hurlburt was taken to jail Saturday after he was released from the hospital. Both men are also charged with being accessories after the fact. Hurlburt is also charged with being a convicted felon in illegal possession of a gun. Bunner had been missing since December and deputies say Galligan was her boyfriend. "This man took my daughter," said Renee Bunner, Christin Bunner's mother, at the bail hearing. "She has been missing since December the 16th. Not only did he murder her, but he also tried to bury her." Deputies say Hurlburt told them he killed the second woman at the towing company in January, but said he didn't remember her name. She was identified as Rhymer using fingerprints. Rhymer had not been reported missing to local law enforcement agencies. Investigators said they don't believe any more bodies are buried at the house. LONDON (AP) - A British man who survived exposure to a military grade nerve agent said he has questioned Russia's ambassador to the U.K. about the accidental poisoning that killed his girlfriend last year, a newspaper reported Sunday. Charlie Rowley told the Sunday Mirror that Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko seemed "genuinely concerned" when the two met Saturday but he thinks he was fed "Russian propaganda" during their meeting at the Russian Embassy in London. "I went along to ask them 'Why did your country kill my girlfriend?' but I didn't really get any answers," Rowley, 45, said. The newspaper helped arrange the meeting "I liked the ambassador, but I thought some of what he said, trying to justify Russia not being responsible, was ridiculous," he added. Rowley fell severely ill in June after he picked up a discarded perfume bottle near Salisbury, England. British authorities say the bottle contained traces of Novichok, the nerve agent that poisoned former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury a few months earlier. Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko, right, shakes hands with Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley, inside the Russian Embassy in London, where they met for talks Saturday April 6, 2019. UK citizen Charlkie Rowley, who was exposed to the deadly Novichok nerve agent in June 2018 in Amesbury, England, near Salisbury the city where Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with Novichok, visited the Russian Embassy in London to seek answers to their questions about the notorious poisoning. Rowley survived the poisoning, though still suffers various health problems, but his partner Dawn Sturgess died. (RTR via AP) The Skripals also survived. Rowley's girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, became sick and died in a hospital after he found the perfume bottle. Britain has charged two Russians, reported to be agents working for the Russian military intelligence service GRU, with attacking the Skripals. Moscow strongly denies involvement. The nerve agent poisoning on British soil ignited a diplomatic confrontation in which hundreds of envoys were expelled by both Russia and Western nations. Rowley told the Sunday Mirror said he suffers long-term effects from his exposure. Yakovenko told him the substance used to attack the Skripals had not come from Russia and the country only had small amounts of Novichok, he said. "I'm glad I met him and feel I did find out some things I didn't know before. But I still think Russia carried out the attack," Rowley said. A tweet from the Russian ambassador's account Sunday said: "Met with Charlie Rowley to discuss last year's events in #Salisbury and #Amesbury. He never heard of the questions we put to the British side." The post included a link to a report the Russian Embassy in London issued last month that challenged many of the assertions made by British investigators. "If one is to believe that the bottle was found in a charity bin, how has it been possible that nobody had found it over the several months, before Mr. Rowley did?" the report states. Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko, left, meets with Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley, centre, and his brother Matthew, right, inside the Russian Embassy in London, where they met for talks Saturday April 6, 2019. UK citizen Charlie Rowley, who was exposed to the deadly Novichok nerve agent in June 2018 in Amesbury, England, near Salisbury the city where Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with Novichok, visited the Russian Embassy in London to seek answers to his questions about the notorious poisoning. Rowley survived the poisoning, though still suffers various health problems, but his partner Dawn Sturgess died. (RTR via AP) BOPIRA, Mozambique (AP) - A battered notebook lists the people still alive in this village after a devastating cyclone. But sip by sip, a deadly threat remains. Nearly a month after Cyclone Idai made landfall and unleashed flooding that reached the tops of trees, more than 1,300 people in Bopira have been drinking from the local pond and whatever the muddy waters left behind, including the contents of flooded latrines. The conditions are ripe for deadly disease. Already a cholera outbreak has been declared in the regional city of Beira, many of whose half-million residents live in slums, and in a few outlying communities where scores of thousands of people now huddle in displacement camps with few toilets and little clean water. Confirmed cases of the acute diarrheal disease quickly shot from five when it was declared on March 27 into the hundreds and currently is above 3,100, with six deaths. Now health workers are holding their breath, encouraged by a rapid response in Beira and the restoration of running water there, though it reaches only 60 percent of the city's residents and some must defecate openly in slums. "I'm quite optimistic. Yes, honestly," Julien Graveleau, a cholera specialist with the United Nations who coordinates the post-cyclone water and sanitation relief effort, told The Associated Press. "Of course, the numbers will be increasing but I believe we're ready for it." A woman and her baby walk past cholera vaccination campaign posters on the first day of the cholera vaccination programme at a camp for displaced survivors of cyclone Idai in Beira,Mozambique, Wednesday, April, 3, 2019. A cholera vaccination campaign is kicking off to reach nearly 900,000 cyclone survivors in Mozambique as officials rush to contain an outbreak of the disease. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi) Plenty of challenges lie ahead. "We have seen one today," Graveleau said of his visit to Bopira, where he demonstrated how to use a shipment of water filters. But in a week or so the effects of a huge cholera vaccination campaign should start to be seen, he said. Nearly 900,000 oral cholera vaccines arrived in Beira last week for a mass vaccination that Doctors Without Borders calls "the most ambitious campaign ever conducted using the one-dose oral cholera vaccine strategy." The vaccine is normally given in two spaced-out doses but the aid group asserts that one dose is effective in emergencies where it can be difficult to find people for the second. A single dose offers six months of coverage. Now hundreds of vaccine promoters are said to be active in Beira and elsewhere, messaging with megaphones or handing out the doses in high-traffic areas. Cholera is endemic in Mozambique, a hotspot in Africa along with parts of Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, and many people are familiar with purification tablets and other precautions. At the popular Shoprite grocery, people knocked back the doses like shots in a bar and walked on. More than 70 percent of the vaccines had been administered as of Sunday morning, Mozambique's health ministry said. "We were prepared really for the worst," said Francisca Baptista da Silva, a project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, which operates cholera treatment centers and oral rehydration centers. "But for the moment we are controlling it." She spoke at a cholera treatment center in the worn-down Beira neighborhood of Pioneros, where fetid pools of water remained in the streets and a young woman balancing a bucket of water from a nearby tap stepped carefully around the gray mud. "It's a big problem," said Rosa Zimbane, who was selling bottled water outside the treatment center and reported herself healthy so far. An ambulance carrying two women with small children was parked at the entrance. Treatment for cholera can be simple rehydration but it must come quickly, as the disease can kill within hours. More severe cases need intravenous drips, and inside the center more than a dozen people lay on beds with strategically placed holes, with two buckets at the ready. One was for vomiting. This cholera outbreak is more complicated for people with HIV in a country where some 13 percent of people have the virus, a prevalence considered very high. The cholera treatment centers are not normally equipped for people with immune systems weakened by HIV, and many people stopped receiving regular care after the cyclone, da Silva said. Now the cholera treatment centers have basic stocks of antiretroviral drugs and basic testing for depressed immune systems, said Dr. Katrien Duquet at the Pioneros center. Overall the medical charity had been expecting more cholera cases, project coordinator da Silva said. "It never spiked to the level we thought." Such spikes occur two to three weeks after an outbreak. The dry season that begins in the coming weeks is expected to help contain the disease across the region. And yet health workers are not relaxing. Outlying areas like the riverside town of Buzi, where disease surveillance is much weaker, remain a concern. "People are still afraid of cholera," da Silva said. "We are not claiming this is over." ___ Associated Press photographer Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi in Beira, Mozambique, contributed. Women and children wait in a queue for oral cholera vaccinations, at a camp for displaced survivors of cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique, Wednesday, April 3, 2019. A cholera vaccination campaign is kicking off to reach nearly 900,000 cyclone survivors in Mozambique as officials rush to contain an outbreak of the disease. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi) A government official receives an oral cholera vaccination at a camp for displaced survivors of cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique, Wednesday, April, 3, 2019. A cholera vaccination campaign is kicking off to reach nearly 900,000 cyclone survivors in Mozambique as officials rush to contain an outbreak of the disease. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi) A health worker prepares to administer an oral cholera vaccination to a child at a camp for displaced survivors of cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique,Wednesday, April 3, 2019. A cholera vaccination campaign is kicking off to reach nearly 900,000 cyclone survivors in Mozambique as officials rush to contain an outbreak of the disease. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi) WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration is preparing to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization," an unprecedented move against a national armed force that could have widespread implications for U.S. personnel and policy in the Middle East and elsewhere. Officials informed of the step said an announcement was expected Monday, after a monthslong escalation in the administration's rhetoric against Iran, its support for militia groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, as well as anti-Israel groups in the region and beyond. It would be the first such designation by any American administration of an entire foreign government entity, although portions of the Guard, notably its elite Quds Force, have been targeted previously by the United States. Two U.S. officials and a congressional aide confirmed the planned move. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, seemed to anticipate the designation, saying in a tweet Sunday aimed at President Donald Trump that Trump "should know better than to be conned into another US disaster." The designation, planning for which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes with sanctions, including freezes on assets the Guard may have in U.S. jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it or providing material support for its activities. Although the Guard has broad control and influence over the Iranian economy, such penalties from the U.S. may have limited impact. The designation, however, could significantly complicate U.S. military and diplomatic work, notably in Iraq, where many Shiite militias and Iraqi political parties have close ties to the Guard. FILE - In this Sept. 21, 2016 file photo, Iran's Revolutionary Guard troops march in a military parade marking the 36th anniversary of Iraq's 1980 invasion of Iran, in front of the shrine of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran, Iran. The Trump administration is preparing to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps a "foreign terrorist organization" in an unprecedented move that could have widespread implications for U.S. personnel and policy. U.S. Officials say an announcement could come as early as Monday, April 8, 2019, following a months-long escalation in the administration's rhetoric against Iran. The move would be the first such designation by any U.S. administration of an entire foreign government entity. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File) In Lebanon, the designation could further restrict with whom U.S. officials can interact. The Guard has close ties to Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government. Hezbollah is already designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Its presence in Lebanon's parliament and executive branch have forced the U.S. to avoid any contact with Hezbollah members even as the U.S. continues to provide assistance to and works with the Lebanese army. Without exclusions or waivers to the designation, U.S. troops and diplomats could be barred from contact with Iraqi or Lebanese authorities who interact with Guard officials or surrogates. The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move does not allow contact with foreign officials who may have met with or communicated with Guard personnel. Those concerns have in part dissuaded previous administrations from taking the step, which has been considered for more than a decade. It was not immediately clear whether the designation would include such carve-outs. In addition to those complications, American commanders are concerned that the designation may prompt Iran to retaliate against U.S. forces in the region, and those commanders plan to warn U.S. troops remaining in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere of that possibility, according to a third U.S. official. This official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Aside from Iraq, where some 5,200 American troops are stationed, and Syria, where some U.S. 2,000 troops remain, the U.S. 5th Fleet, which operates in the Persian Gulf from its base in Bahrain, and the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, are potentially at risk. A similar warning is also expected from the State Department of possible Iranian retaliation against American interests, including embassies and consulates, and anti-American protests, the first two U.S. officials said. Similar alerts were issued at the start of the Iraq War in 2003 and more recently when the Trump administration announced it would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Despite the risks, Iran hard-liners on Capitol Hill, such as Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and elsewhere have long advocated for the designation. They say it will send an important message to Iran as well as deal it a further blow after the Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed economic sanctions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton have taken up the call and have in recent months spoken stridently about Iran and its "malign activities" in the region. Pompeo has made clear in public comments that pressure on Tehran will only increase until it changes its behavior. Just last week, Pompeo's special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, accused Iran and its proxies of being responsible for the death of 608 U.S. troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. He cited newly declassified Defense Department information for the claim, which is expected to be used in the justification for the Guard designation. "Secretary Pompeo will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to press the regime to change its destructive policies for the benefit of peace in the region and for the sake of its own people, who are the longest-suffering victims of this regime," Hook said, in an indication that new action is coming. The department currently designates 60 groups, such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State and their various affiliates, Hezbollah and numerous militant Palestinian factions, as "foreign terrorist organizations." But none of them is a state-run military. Once a designation is announced by the secretary of state in coordination with the Treasury secretary, Congress has seven days to review it. If there are no objections, then it will take effect. ___ Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report. DIAVATA, Greece (AP) - The last 60 holdouts from among nearly 1,000 migrants who fought with Greek police for three days have left their makeshift camp in northern Greece. The migrants clashed with police because they believed false reports on social media that restrictions on travel to central and northern Europe had been lifted. Police detained a few of the 60 who had no valid papers. The rest left either for migrant camps or apartments across Greece. None of the residents of a nearby official camp were among them. Even as the makeshift camp started emptying late Saturday, a group was heard cheering loudly. Asked why, they said Chancellor Angela Merkel was opening Germany's borders. Like the previous reports, this one also was false. Most of the migrants are refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. A man reacts as children cry during clashes outside a refugee camp in the village of Diavata, west of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, April 6, 2019. Clashes between hundreds of protesting migrants and police continue for a third day outside an overcrowded migrant camp, with migrants throwing rocks at police and the latter responding with tear gas and stun grenades. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) Children offer flowers to riot police after clashes outside a refugee camp in the village of Diavata, west of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, April 6, 2019. Clashes between hundreds of protesting migrants and police continue for a third day outside an overcrowded migrant camp, with migrants throwing rocks at police and the latter responding with tear gas and stun grenades. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) LORTON, Va. (AP) - A high school student's artwork that used anti-Semitic stereotypes has prompted school officials in Virginia to apologize. The Washington Post reported Sunday that the student goes to South County High School in Fairfax County in northern Virginia. An image shown at an exhibition at a community college depicts a man with a hooked nose carrying a bag of money. The caption reads: "No Jew in the world understands the importance of money." Fairfax County Public Schools said the image was part of a series called "Racial Irony." It intended to convey a message that the "exaggeration of stereotypes spreads ignorance." But it sparked criticism from some in the Jewish community. Superintendent Scott Brabrand apologized in a letter to the community and said the student did not intend to offend anyone. ___ Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A body has been found in the Oregon home of Dennis Day, an original member of Disney's "The Mickey Mouse Club" who has been reported missing since July. Police have not identified the body or released details on how it was found, The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported . Police in Phoenix, Oregon, on Thursday requested that investigators from Medford examine a body found at the home of Day. Day, 76, was reported missing July 15 by his husband, Ernie Caswell, who suffers from memory loss. Caswell was in a hospital when he reported Day missing. Day's car on July 26 was found at the Oregon coast. A missing person report said Day had "uncharacteristically" left his dog with a friend on the day he disappeared. In February, members of Day's family spoke with "Dateline," a television news show, who said the investigation into Day's disappearance had been poorly handled. "We are devastated," Day's niece Denise told the NBC news program. "We had no idea anything was happening, and six months into it, we figured it out. We should have been notified." Friends and relatives set up the Help Us Find Dennis Day Facebook page. Reporters from the Medford Mail Tribune on Friday spotted an Oregon State Police Forensics truck outside Day's home. Day was born in 1942. After moving to California, he began performing at age 6. When he was 10, he was among the first children hired for "The Mickey Mouse Club." Day and his longtime partner Caswell moved to Oregon in the 1980s. They married in Ashland in 2009. ___ Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) - Montana's agriculture industry has experienced negative impacts of Trump administration tariffs on foreign products and withdrawal from agreements with countries that generate vital revenue, according to officials. The state is dealing with a blow that trade policy has landed on more than $1 billion in annual revenue generated by Montana agricultural products, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported Sunday. Among the effects of tariffs between the U.S. and China, exports of Montana's lucrative hard red spring wheat to China have collapsed, while the January 2017 U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership removed Montana's preferential trade access to Japan, one of its most important markets for its large wheat and cattle exports, the newspaper reported. While attention is focused on China, trade with Japan "needs to be addressed quickly and might be more of a concern for Montana farmers," said Collin Watters of the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, which found that wheat and barley farmers have lost $150 million due to current trade policies. In July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorized up to $12 billion in financial assistance to farmers, including $1.2 billion to offset lost export revenue and $200 million to expand foreign markets, both of which help Montana, the newspaper reported. The Montana Grain Growers Association said subsidies gave some farmers 14 cents per bushel, but tariffs and withdrawal from the Pacific agreement cost them about $1.40 per bushel. "We're looking at a year where we are not only not going to break even, but we might not be able to pay the bills," said Lyle Benjamin, the association's president. ___ Information from: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com NEW YORK (AP) - Wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart was tackled by a spectator Saturday while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to Hart's defense. Hart, 61, is OK. The person ran toward the ring from the crowd, spectator Alan Fisher told The Associated Press. "I couldn't believe that the security had missed him in the first place and the next thing you know there was Shane McMahon and Travis Brown on top of him the crowd was going crazy booing," Fisher said. "Everyone was cheering when one of the wrestlers punched him." Several shocked onlookers posted footage of the tackle online. The induction event resumed, with Hart continuing his speech, after the fan was taken into custody. "He should have never attacked Bret Hart especially at such a special moment in his life," Fisher said. FILE - In this March 28, 2010, file photo, Bret "Hit Man" Hart celebrates his victory over Mr. McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI in Glendale, Ariz. Hart was tackled by a spectator Saturday, April 6, 2019, while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center. The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to Hart's defense. Hart is okay. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File) New York City Police arrested 26-year-old Zachary Madsen, of Lincoln, Nebraska. He faces assault and criminal trespass charges. An email to the district attorney seeking someone who could comment on Madsen's behalf wasn't immediately answered. Madsen had a previous run-in with a fighter in Lincoln. He's awaiting trial for violating a protection order obtained by 23-year-old mixed martial arts fighter Haris Talundzic. Talundzic's manager, Nick Goodwin, said the two were former friends and training partners. Goodwin said Talundzic told a Lancaster County judge that Madsen had been stalking him and was trying to provoke a fight. The two had trained together at a Lincoln gym, but Talundzic left over concerns about Madsen's mental stability. Goodwin said he hopes Madsen "gets help before he hurts himself or anyone else any further." "His harassment of Haris, publicly and online, seems to have been the beginning of an extremely self-destructive spiral," Goodwin said in a statement. "His threats toward Haris, along with Haris' friends and family, were aggressive and violent in nature." ___ This story has been corrected to show that Talundzic's age is 23, not 21. CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. (AP) - Wild ponies living on Virginia's Eastern Shore have been corralled because visitors ignored warnings against approaching the animals. The Daily Times of Salisbury, Maryland, reported last week that the warnings were ignored at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. The ponies were moved to the south corral of Assateague Island. The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company owns and cares for the Virginia pony herds on Assateague Island. Spokeswoman Denise Bowden said they've tried numerous times to educate the public. She warned that one kick or bite from one of the animals could badly injure someone. The ponies will be corralled until the spring roundup April 12-13. That's when the ponies get a health check and authorities see if any new foals have been born. NEW DELHI (AP) - As she patrols for cow smugglers, Sadhvi Kamal, a Hindu holy woman in a saffron robe, rides in a white SUV with a sticker on the rear window displaying a cow framed by swords and rifles. The words in the sticker's logo say, "The cow is the mother of the world." Kamal leads a vigilante force of thousands of volunteers, mostly young Hindu men. Such vigilante forces have emerged after several Indian states banned the slaughter of cows, sacred to Hindus, in recent years. Mobs have lynched three dozen Muslims, who traditionally run meat shops and slaughterhouses. As India heads toward a general election that begins this week, taking up arms for "mother cow" is part of a broader campaign to impose ancient Hindu religious values across a multicultural country. As with similar movements across the world, Hindu nationalism, once fringe, has now taken a central place in India's politics. The movement is led by the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who grew up chanting slogans and practicing maneuvers at nationalist training camps. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party seek to retain power in the elections by promoting Hindutva - a Hindu way of life - instead of secular pluralism. A fresh mandate for Modi could embolden efforts to mold the world's largest democracy of 1.3 billion people into a stringently Hindu nation. "I think what Modi has successfully done is just to normalize bigotry," said writer and historian Mukul Kesavan. "What we have already seen is a shift of the common sense of the republic way to the right." Scenes of religious nationalism are now common in India. In this Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 photo, Hindu hardliners, one holding a sword, chant slogans against Muslim communities during a rally demanding a Hindu temple be built on a site in northern India where hardliners in 1992 had attacked and demolished a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya Uttar Pradesh. Riots had left about 2,000 people dead. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In New Delhi and Ayodhya, a city in Uttar Pradesh state, tens of thousands of men in saffron armed with swords and the name of the Hindu Lord Ram painted on their foreheads shouted anti-Muslim epithets. They demanded a temple to Ram at a site where Hindu hardliners tore down a 16th century mosque in 1992, sparking riots that left about 2,000 people dead. Hindu groups say the mosque was only built after Muslim invaders destroyed a temple dedicated to Ram. Elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh, the government spent unprecedented sums on the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival that ended last month, with Modi and the chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, himself a Hindu monk, appearing in countless posters. Three months earlier, Adityanath's state government replaced the Muslim name of the host city, Allahabad, with Prayagraj, a Sanskrit word from Hindu religious texts. The name change from Muslim to Hindu is one of many in recent months. A Modi-appointed committee of scholars is also studying DNA samples to prove that today's Hindus are descendants of India's first inhabitants, and to establish that Hindu scriptures are fact and not myth. Asked whether the Modi government is forcing Hinduism on its people, Abinav Prasoon, a spokesman for India's information ministry, said that "this is a political thing, and we cannot comment on it." Even the Taj Mahal has not escaped the Hindu political agenda. Despite being a UNESCO world heritage site, the mausoleum built by Muslim Mughal emperor Shah Jahan was not included as a listed attraction by the Uttar Pradesh tourism ministry in 2017. Chief Minister Adityanath said foreign dignitaries should be gifted with the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu religious text, instead of a replica of the monument. The cow has become a symbol of this growing nationalism. About 280 people were injured in more than 100 attacks by vigilantes between May 2015 and December 2018, Human Rights Watch said in a recent report. Kamal's group has been involved in some of the most gruesome assaults on suspected cow smugglers. "Violence is wrong but if the matter involves protecting a mother, all is fair," Kamal said. At least two men involved in assaulting suspected cow smugglers are also candidates in the upcoming parliamentary polls. Even the opposition Congress party, long associated with the secularism of its co-founder and India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has pushed to protect cows. In Congress-controlled Madhya Pradesh state, authorities jailed two men suspected of illegally transporting cows under the National Security Act, which allows for detention in cases of threats to state security. As Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, put it: "While the U.S. is ruled by cowboys, India is ruled by cowmen." Cowwomen, too, it seems. In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 photo, Hindus gather for a spiritual cleansing dip at Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, during the Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj, India. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 photo, a Hindu hardline supporter wears the the name of the god Ram written on his forehead in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. Tens of thousands rallied to demand a Hindu temple be built on a site in northern India where hardliners in 1992 had attacked and demolished a 16th century mosque, sparking deadly Hindu-Muslim violence. Hindu groups say the mosque was built after a temple dedicated to Ram was destroyed by Muslim invaders. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 photo, sadhus, Hindu holy men, take a holy dip at Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, during the Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj, India. The city's Mughal-era name Allahabad was recently changed to Prayagraj by the Hindu nationalist government. The historic city name referred to Muslim Mughal rulers during the 16th century. The new name refers to the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, the site of the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018 photo, a supporter of the Hindu nationalist political group Vishwa Hindu Parishad is dressed as the Hindu deity Hanuman during a rally in New Delhi, India. Tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in India's capital to demand construction of a Hindu temple on the ruins of a disputed 16th century mosque in northern Indian city of Ayodhya. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 photo, a sadhu, a Hindu holy man, pours water from a shell as he takes a ceremonial cleansing dip at Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, during the Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj, India. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 photo, a Hindu hardline supporter applies saffron to his forehead in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. As with similar movements across the world, Hindu nationalism, once fringe, has now taken a central place in India's politics. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018 photo, Hindu students of the Baghambari Math Gaddi have lunch in Prayagraj, India. As with similar movements across the world, Hindu nationalism, once fringe, has now taken a central place in India's politics. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 photo, a man holds a brick reading "Jai Shree Ram" (Victory to Lord Ram) as bricks of the old Babri Mosque are piled up in Ayodhya Uttar Pradesh, India. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 photo, Hindu hardliners gather next to building materials to be assembled in a temple dedicated to Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018 photo, members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) gather during an early morning shakha, a daily training, in Prayagraj, India. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 photo, Hindu hardliners visit a memorial dedicated to the Kothari brothers and other Hindus killed during riots in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 photo, moviegoers stand as national anthem is played at a cinema before the screening of a movie in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. As with similar movements across the world, Hindu nationalism, once fringe, has now taken a central place in India's politics. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018 photo, relatives cry next to the body of police Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh in Chingarwathi, near Bulandshahr, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The previous day, Singh and another person were killed in the mob violence that began with accusations of cow slaughter in the area. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) This Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018 photo shows vandalized cars and other vehicles in Chingarwathi, near Bulandshahr, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The previous day, two people were killed in mob violence that began with accusations of cow slaughter in the area. About 280 people were injured in more than 100 attacks by vigilantes between May 2015 and December 2018, Human Rights Watch said in a recent report. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Friday, Jan. 25, 2019 photo, Hindu holy woman Sadhvi Kamal, 40, talks on the phone with members of her vigilante network in front Indian muslim cattle traders on the outskirts of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Thousands of volunteers, mostly young Hindu men from India's desert state of Rajasthan, disguise themselves by growing beards, wearing short, rounded skullcaps, and using Muslim names to infiltrate illegal cow smuggling operations. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2018 photo, people stand near a poster of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad, India. The government spent unprecedented sums on the heavily-attended Hindu Kumbh Mela festival, with Modi and the chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, himself a Hindu monk, appearing in countless posters. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018 photo, a supporter of Hindu-extreme political group Vishwa Hindu Parishad wears a poster of the Hindu god Ram during a rally in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019 photo, Taj Mahal postcards are displayed in a souvenir shop in Agra, India. Despite being a UNESCO world heritage site, the mausoleum built by Muslim Mughal emperor Shah Jahan was not included as a listed attraction by the Uttar Pradesh tourism ministry in 2017. Chief minister Adityanath said foreign dignitaries should be gifted with the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu religious text, instead of a replica of the monument. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018 photo, cows rest in a barn at Baghambari Math Gaddi in Prayagraj, India. Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, and slaughtering them or eating beef is illegal or restricted across much of the country. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 photo, Muslims selling meat wait for customers in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led government came to power in 2014, several Indian states have banned the slaughter of cows, sacred to Hindus, giving rise to vigilantes and dozens of lynchings of Muslims, a minority group who have traditionally run meat shops and slaughterhouses. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Friday, Jan. 25, 2019 photo, Muslim cattle traders load buffaloes into a pickup after being challenged by cow vigilantes on the outskirts of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019 photo, a man holds a phone showing a video of Muslim farmer Saghir Khan, 25, moments after being beaten, Mirzapur, India. Most of the attacks by so-called cow vigilantes from Hindu groups have targeted Muslims, who make up 14 percent of India's 1.3 billion people. Hindus make up about 80 percent of the population. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) In this Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019 photo, the wife of Saghir Khan,Anisa Khan, holds their daughter, Alfisa, at the family's house in Mirzapur. Saghir was beaten by a group of Hindus after being spotted transporting cows. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Southern California man was arrested on suspicion of murder and driving drunk in the death of a motorcycle officer with the California Highway Patrol, officials said Sunday. Michael Callahan of Winchester was booked on the charges in the death of California Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Licon, said Officer Steve Carapia. Callahan is suspected of driving drunk Saturday afternoon when he crossed over the right shoulder of Interstate 15 in Lake Elsinore, crashing into Licon and a car he had pulled over for speeding. Licon died at a nearby hospital. The family of four in the car he had pulled over weren't hurt. It's unclear if Callahan has an attorney. Inmate records show he has a court appearance set for Wednesday. Investigators believe the recommendation of a murder charge in the case is "completely appropriate," said Mario Lucio, special services commander of CHP's Inland division. In this Saturday, April 6, 2019 photo, officers escort the remains of fallen California Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Licon's as it is transferred from the Inland Valley Medical Center to the Perris Coroner in Wildomar, Calif. Motorcycle officer Sgt. Licon was involved in a collision on the I-15 Freeway in Lake Elsinore Saturday afternoon. Michael Callahan of Winchester was booked on the charges in the death of California Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Licon, said Officer Steve Carapia. (Cindy Yamanaka/The Orange County Register via AP) "We have uncovered evidence which shows gross negligence both during and before this tragic collision," Lucio said at a Sunday news conference. He declined to explain what the evidence was. Ultimately, prosecutors will decide what charges to file. Licon was a 27-year veteran of the agency and is survived by his wife, daughter and stepdaughter. Licon's body was taken to the coroner's office in a slow and somber procession on Saturday night. Acting Gov. Eleni Kounalakis ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the state Capitol, and the California Highway Patrol is holding a bell tribute ceremony in his honor on Monday. Carapia, who knew Licon for six years, said the sergeant was well-liked and known for his work ethic and a distinct and quirky high-pitched laugh. "He had a great sense of humor," Carapia said. "You could hear him laughing from the sergeant's office. You could hear him coming down the hallway ... Just an all-around great human being." He said Licon loved his job and the fact that his office was on a motorcycle. "This is a tough one," he said. "It hits you to the core." Lucio said Licon used to be his sergeant when he was coming up in the agency and helped shape his career and that of many other younger officers. "He loved mentoring the troops," Lucio said. "The guy really spent time developing the officers he supervised." He said the sergeant's death should be a strong reminder to the public that drinking and driving is never acceptable. "We lost a darned good sergeant," he said. "He's going to be missed." Police departments and officers across the state took to social media to post about Licon. CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said Licon was a great leader "who sacrificed his life serving the people of California." CHP Headquarters tweeted that "our hearts are heavy ... Rest easy brother, we have the watch from here." In this Saturday, April 6, 2019 photo, unidentified family members in tears follow the remains of California Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Licon, being transferred from Inland Valley Medical Center, pictured, in Wildomar, Calif., to the Perris, Calif., Coroner. Motorcycle officer Sgt. Licon was involved in a collision on the I-15 Freeway in Lake Elsinore Saturday afternoon. (Cindy Yamanaka/The Orange County Register via AP) In this Saturday, April 7, 2019 photo, emergency hospital staff bow their heads in a sea of salutes for fallen California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer Sgt. Steve Licon, who was struck by a vehicle near Nichols Rd., on the I-15 freeway in Lake Elsinore, Calif. on Saturday. Sgt. Steve Licon was airlifted to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, Calif. (Cindy Yamanaka/The Orange County Register via AP) In this Saturday, April 6, 2019 photo, after carrying the casket of fallen CHP Sgt. Steve Licon, an unidentified law enforcement agent, center, doesn't take his eye off Sgt. Lincon's casket as he's transported from Inland Valley Medical Center, pictured, in Wildomar, Calif., to the Perris, Calif. Motorcycle officer Sgt. Licon was involved in a collision on the I-15 Freeway in Lake Elsinore this afternoon. (Cindy Yamanaka/The Orange County Register via AP)/The Orange County Register via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on Sunday amid President Donald Trump's growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border. Trump announced on Sunday in a tweet that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be taking over as acting head of the department. McAleenan is a longtime border official who is well-respected by members of Congress and within the administration. The decision to name a top immigration officer to the post reflects Trump's priority for the sprawling department founded to combat terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks. "I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside," Nielsen wrote in her resignation letter. "I hope that the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America's borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation's discourse." Though Trump aides were eyeing a staff shake-up at Homeland Security and had already withdrawn the nomination for another key immigration post, the development Sunday was unexpected. Nielsen traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday with Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement. There she echoed Trump's comments on the situation at the border, though she ducked out of the room without explanation for some time while Trump spoke. As they toured a section of newly rebuilt barriers, Nielsen was at Trump's side, introducing him to local officials. She returned to Washington afterward on a Coast Guard Gulfstream, as Trump continued on a fundraising trip to California and Nevada. Nielsen had grown increasingly frustrated by what she saw as a lack of support from other departments and increased meddling by Trump aides on difficult immigration issues, according to three people familiar with details of her resignation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. FILE - In this Monday, March 18, 2019, file photo, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen speaks at George Washington University's Jack Morton Auditorium in Washington. In a tweet on Sunday, April 7, 2019, President Donald Trump said he's accepted Nielsen's resignation. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) She went into the White House on Sunday to meet with Trump not knowing whether she'd be fired or would resign. She ended up resigning, though she was not forced to do so, they said. Nielsen is the latest person felled in the Trump administration's unprecedented churn of top staff and Cabinet officials, brought about by the president's mercurial management style, insistence on blind loyalty and rash policy announcements. Nielsen was also the highest profile female Cabinet member, and her exit leaves DHS along with the Pentagon and the White House staff itself without permanent heads. Patrick Shanahan has held the post of acting defense secretary since the former secretary, Jim Mattis, was pushed out in December over criticism of the president's Syria withdrawal plans. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has held his post since January, following John Kelly's resignation last year. Her resignation lett er lacked any sense of controversy - unlike those of others who have left. She thanked Trump and DHS staff for their hard work. Her replacement, McAleenan, has helped shape many of the administration's policies to date and is considered highly competent by congressional leaders, the White House and Homeland Security officials. But it's unclear if he can have much more of an effect on the issues at the border. The Trump administration has bumped up against legal restrictions and court rulings that have hamstrung many of its major efforts to remake border security. Tensions between the White House and Nielsen have persisted almost from the moment she became secretary, after her predecessor, Kelly, became the White House chief of staff in 2017. Nielsen was viewed as resistant to some of the harshest immigration measures supported by the president and his aides, particularly senior adviser Stephen Miller, both on matters around the border and others like protected status for some refugees. Once Kelly left the White House, Nielsen's days appeared to be numbered. She had expected to be pushed out last November, but her exit never materialized. During the government shutdown over Trump's insistence for funding for a border wall, Nielsen's standing inside the White House even appeared to rise. But in recent weeks, as a new wave of migration has taxed resources along the border and as Trump sought to regain control of the issue for his 2020 re-election campaign, tensions flared anew. The final straw came when Trump gave Nielsen no heads-up or opportunity to discuss his decision to pull the nomination of acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Ron Vitiello - a move seen as part of a larger effort by Miller, an immigration hardliner, and his allies at the White House to clean house at the department and bring in more people who share their views, the people said. Nielsen had wanted to discuss the move with Trump during their visit to the border Friday, but when there was no time, she asked for the meeting Sunday. She walked into it prepared to resign, depending on what she heard. The people described mounting frustrations on both sides, with Trump exasperated at the situation at the border and Nielsen frustrated by White House actions she felt were counterproductive. Arrests along the southern border have skyrocketed recently. Border agents are on track to make 100,000 arrests and denials of entry at the southern border in March, over half of which are families with children. A press conference to announce the most recent border numbers - scheduled to be held by McAleenan on Monday - was postponed. Nielsen dutifully pushed Trump's immigration policies, including funding for his border wall, and defended the administration's practice of separating children from parents. She told a Senate committee that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens "in the United States every day." But she was also instrumental in ending the policy. Under Nielsen, migrants seeking asylum are waiting in Mexico as their cases progress. She also moved to abandon longstanding regulations that dictate how long children are allowed to be held in immigration detention, and requested bed space from the U.S. military for some 12,000 people in an effort to detain all families who cross the border. Right now there is space for about 3,000 families, and facilities are at capacity. She also advocated for strong cybersecurity defense and often said she believed the next major terror attack would occur online - not by planes or bombs. She was tasked with helping states secure elections following Russian interference during the 2018 election. She led the federal agency since December 2017, and was this administration's third Homeland Security secretary. A protege of Kelly's, he brought her to the White House after Trump named him chief of staff. She earned a reputation as an enforcer working to corral the chaotic West Wing. Nielsen, 45, previously served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and worked for the Transportation Security Administration. She rose through the Trump ranks quickly - joining the transition team after the election to help guide Kelly through the confirmation process. She quickly became a trusted aide to Kelly, and the two worked together to impose order on a dysfunctional White House that lacked clear lines of command. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said her tenure was "a disaster from the start." The policies she helped create "have been an abysmal failure and have helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border." His Senate counterpart, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said the government needed "steady, informed and effective leadership in the administration and in Congress to have any hope of fixing our out-of-control border security and immigration problems." ___ Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. ___ This story corrects the month in which border agents are on track to make 100,000 arrests and denials of entry to March, not this month. FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018, file photo, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, left, speaks with Border Patrol agents near a newly fortified border wall structure in Calexico, Calif. In a tweet on Sunday, April 7, 2019, President Donald Trump said he's accepted Nielsen's resignation. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) BEIJING (AP) - A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves: ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at developments in the South China Sea, the location of several territorial conflicts in the region. ___ US CONCERNED OVER CHINESE SHIPS NEAR PHILIPPINE ISLANDS A senior U.S. official says the presence of large numbers of Chinese vessels near islands and islets occupied by the Philippines is "a concern." FILE - This July 20, 2011, file photo shows an aerial view of Pag-asa Island, part of the disputed Spratly group of islands, in the South China Sea located off the coast of western Philippines. A senior U.S. official says the presence of large numbers of Chinese vessels near islands and islets occupied by the Philippines is "a concern." The Philippine government protested the Chinese ship movements Thursday, April 4, 2019, after its military monitored more than 200 Chinese vessels from January-March in a disputed area named Sandy Cay, which is near the Philippine-occupied island of Pag-asa. (Rolex Dela Pena/Pool Photo via AP, File) The Philippine government protested the Chinese ship movements Thursday after its military monitored more than 200 Chinese vessels from January to March in a disputed area named Sandy Cay, which is near the Philippine-occupied island of Pag-asa. Asked about the situation while on a visit to Bangkok, Joseph Felter, deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, told reporters Friday that the U.S. is troubled "by any aggressive activity by any country in the South China Sea, in this case China. We see that as of concern." "In this case, China's activities are of concern. It seems to be somewhat aggressive and provocative and we feel that they're unnecessary and unwarranted," said Felter, who was in Thailand to attend a meeting of defense officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. The Philippines regards a chain of islands and islets, nine of which it occupies, in the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea as a municipality it calls Kalayaan under its western province of Palawan. That claim conflicts with the larger territorial claims of China, Vietnam, and three other governments in a long-simmering Asian dispute. ___ DUTERTE TALKS OF 'SUICIDE MISSIONS' TO DEFEND TERRITORY Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he has few options other than to order troops to "prepare for suicide missions" if a Philippine-occupied island comes under threat from China. Duterte reminded China in a speech Thursday night of its closer ties with the Philippines under his leadership, but said if an island occupied by Filipinos in the disputed waters is threatened, "things would be different." Duterte has adopted a non-confrontational approach in territorial spats with Beijing while seeking Chinese infrastructure funds, trade and investment. He has often lashed out at the security policies of the United States, a treaty ally, while praising China and Russia. The Philippine military has monitored Chinese vessels in a disputed area named Sandy Cay near the island Filipinos call Pag-asa. "I'm trying to tell China, Pag-asa is ours ... so let us be friends but do not touch Pag-asa Island and the rest. Otherwise, things would be different," Duterte said. "This is not a warning, this is just a word of advice to my friends, because China is our friend." "I will not plead or beg, but I'm just telling you (to) lay off (of) Pag-asa because I have soldiers there," he said. "If you touch it, that's another story. Then I will tell my soldiers 'prepare for suicide missions.'" ___ PHILIPPINES PROTESTS CHINESE VESSELS NEAR ISLANDS The Philippine government has protested the presence of large numbers of Chinese vessels near islands and islets occupied by the Philippines as illegal and vowed to take "appropriate action." The Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday issued the rare public rebuke of the Chinese presence after the Philippine military monitored more than 200 Chinese vessels from January to March in a disputed area named Sandy Cay near a Philippine-occupied island called Pag-asa by Filipinos. The statement said the presence of the Chinese vessels there was illegal. "Such actions are a clear violation of Philippine sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction as defined under international law." The department said it has lodged diplomatic protests and raised concerns in meetings with Chinese officials, and that the presence of Chinese military, fishing or other vessels in the area would "continue to be the subject of appropriate action by the Philippines." "We call on the Chinese government to adhere to this consensus reached at the highest levels, down to its agencies and its military," the Philippine foreign affairs department said. ___ Associated Press journalists Jim Gomez and Joeal Calupitan contributed to this report from Manila, Philippines. MADRID (AP) - The administration of President Jair Bolsonaro is considering a dramatic change in the council that oversees Brazil's environmental policy, replacing a broad-based panel of independent voices with a small group of political appointees, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Activists say they fear the move, which reflects Bolsonaro's oft-stated skepticism about environmental organizations, could lead to more deforestation and less oversight in the nation that holds about 60% of the vast Amazon rainforest, which scientists see as crucial for efforts to slow global warming and for the world climate systems. A policy roadmap drafted by Bolsonaro's transition team before he took office Jan. 1 proposes a decree creating a "government council" to replace Brazil's National Council of the Environment, which has almost 100 members, including representatives of independent environmental and business groups. The new body would consist of five presidential appointees plus Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who is one of the authors of the plan. The documents, first published by the Brazilian Climate Observatory environmental group, were obtained and verified by the AP. Brazil's Environment Ministry did not reply to a request for comment. Part of the transition plan has already come into force. The country's forestry service, aimed at promoting "knowledge, sustainable use and widening of forestry coverage," was transferred to the Agriculture Ministry on Bolsonaro's second day in office. On the same day, the Agriculture Ministry was given the power to determine the limits of indigenous lands, rather than Brazil's official indigenous rights agency. FILE - In this March 15, 2019 file photo, a student holds a sign showing images of U.S. President Donald Trump, right, and Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro during a protest against what the students believe are their governments' failure to take tough action against global warming, in Madrid, Spain. As a congressman and candidate, Bolsonaro often questioned the reality of climate change and cast environmental groups as foreign-influenced meddlers restraining Brazil's economic growth by holding back mining and agriculture, stances that resemble those of Trump, who before taking office described the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a "disgrace" that largely should be dismantled. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File) As a congressman and candidate, Bolsonaro often questioned the reality of climate change and cast environmental groups as foreign-influenced meddlers restraining Brazil's economic growth by holding back mining and agriculture - stances that resemble those of U.S. President Donald Trump, who before taking office described the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a "disgrace" that largely should be dismantled. The authors of Bolsonaro's transition plan say the current Environment Council, known as CONAMA, is a "confusing" body that "acts emotionally, without due technique, being subjected to ideological interference." In another transition team document, lawyer Antonio Fernando Pinheiro Pedro argues that CONAMA's decisions have led to "the emission of norms and standards that are far from reality." In an interview shortly after his election, Bolsonaro complained that it could sometimes take a decade to get an environmental license. "That will not continue," he said. While officials haven't yet formally proposed the smaller council, there has already been increased friction over CONAMA. Security guards blocked alternate members of the council from joining the main meeting at a March 20 session in the capital of Brasilia, breaking a long tradition of wide-open debate in Brazil's top environmental council. Carlos Rittl, executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, which includes several nonprofit groups, said he believes that chaotic meeting was "more evidence that the plan (for a smaller council) is indeed being implemented." "Deforestation ended 2018 on the rise. It is on the rise in 2019, but we haven't heard a word from the minister about that. We have heard about limiting the access to civil society so we can't have a fair discussion," Rittl said. Former Environment Minister Rubens Ricupero speculated the new administration may have delayed creating the new council due to public anger over the collapse of a mine dam near the city of Brumadinho in January that killed at least 223 people, with 70 still missing. Ricupero noted that Bolsonaro's chief of staff suggested closing the environmental ministry during the campaign, but said that the powerful agribusiness lobby is afraid such a move would damage trade and has prevented any such move. "Then Brumadinho showed that our problem is not excessive care in environmental licensing - it is the lack of it," Ricupero said. He added that hopes Bolsonaro would engage with environmentalists have not come to pass. Bolsonaro recently defended his environmental ideas at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying that Brazil "is the country that most preserves the environment" and that "those that criticize us actually have a lot to learn from us." The Bolsonaro transition plan also suggested closing the federal agency that oversees conservation zones such as national parks and biological reserves and issues fines for violation of environmental laws there. Many of those penalties are never paid, but several Brazilian agribusiness leaders have complained about them over the years. Pinheiro Pedro, the transition team lawyer, wrote that the agency should be folded into the Environment Institute, which enforces other environmental legislation and aims to promote the sustainable the use of natural resources. He said the two have "the same objective" and streamlining environmental governance is key to "avoid international interference." Rittl, of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, said he believes that change would reduce oversight in key areas by diluting the focus of regulators. Environmentalists also took umbrage at the language used in the transition documents, though the tone echoes Bolsonaro's own pronouncements. The plan says NGOs involved in climate change discussions are "uncontrollable organisms" that need to be stopped so the system is "closer to ministerial control." It also contends Brazil's environmental governance is crafted to give jobs to political appointees, describing that as "a risk to national sovereignty." Emilio Bruna, a tropical ecologist focused on the Amazon who is based at the University of Florida, said the transition plan shows the "worst fears" about Bolsonaro's presidency "are starting to come true." "Scientists are not only concerned about the government not creating new protected areas, but also the downgrading of existing protections in the rainforest," he said. "There was already a culture of impunity, but now it's being reinforced." ___ Associated Press science writer Christina Larson and EPA reporter Ellen Knickmayer in Washington contributed to this report. WASHINGTON (AP) - American Airlines is extending by over a month its cancellations of about 90 daily flights as the troubled 737 Max plane remains grounded by regulators. American said Sunday it is extending the cancellations through June 5 from the earlier timeframe of April 24. The airline acknowledged in a statement that the prolonged cancellations could bring disruption for some travelers. The Boeing-made Max jets have been grounded in the U.S. and elsewhere since mid-March, following two deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Airlines that own them have been scrambling other planes to fill some Max flights while canceling others. American Airlines Group Inc., the largest U.S. airline by revenue, has 24 Max jets in its fleet. The Ft. Worth, Texas-based airline said it is awaiting information from U.S. regulators, and will contact customers affected by the cancellations with available re-bookings. Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said last week the company needs more time to finish changes in a flight-control system suspected of playing a role in the two crashes. That means airlines could be forced to park their Max jets longer than they expected. American said Sunday that by canceling the flights in advance, "we are able to provide better service to our customers with availability and re-booking options," and to avoid last-minute flight disruptions. FILE - In a March 13, 2019 file photo, an American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 sits at a boarding gate at LaGuardia Airport in New York. American Airlines said Sunday, April 7, 2019 it is extending by over a month its cancellations of about 90 daily flights as the troubled 737 Max plane remains grounded by regulators. The Boeing-made Max jets have been grounded in the U.S. and elsewhere since mid-March, following two deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) American's reservations staff will contact affected customers directly by email or phone, the airline said. "We know these cancellations and changes may affect some of our customers, and we are working to limit the impact to the smallest number of customers," the statement said. Boeing said Friday that it will cut production of the Max jet, its best-selling plane, underscoring the mounting financial risk it faces the longer the airliner remains grounded. Starting in mid-April, Boeing said, it will cut production of the plane to 42 from 52 planes per month so it can focus on fixing the flight-control software that has been implicated in the two crashes. Preliminary investigations into the deadly accidents in Ethiopia and Indonesia found that faulty sensor readings erroneously triggered an anti-stall system that pushed down the plane's nose. Pilots of each plane struggled in vain to regain control over the automated system. In all, 346 people died in the crashes. Boeing faces a growing number of lawsuits filed by families of the victims. The announcement to cut production came after Boeing acknowledged that a second software issue has emerged that needs fixing on the Max - a discovery that explained why the aircraft maker had pushed back its ambitious schedule for getting the planes back in the air. ___ This story has been corrected to say that American Airlines is headquartered in Ft. Worth, Texas. TOKYO (AP) - The Latest on Nissan Motor Co. and its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn (all times local): 1:20 p.m. Shareholders of Nissan Motor Co. have approved removing its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, from its board. The approval Monday was shown by applause from the more than 4,000 people gathered at a Tokyo hotel for a three-hour extraordinary shareholders' meeting. Other votes had been submitted in advance. The shareholders also approved the appointment of Nissan's French alliance partner Renault SA's chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, to replace Ghosn. They likewise gave a green light to removing from the board Greg Kelly, who is charged with collaborating with Ghosn in the alleged misconduct. Ghosn is facing financial misconduct charges and was arrested in connection with fresh allegations and taken back into custody last week after spending barely a month out of detention on bail. FILE - In this May 12, 2016, file photo, then Nissan Motor Co. President and CEO Carlos Ghosn arrives for a joint press conference with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. in Yokohama, near Tokyo. At left is Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa. Nissan Chief Executive Saikawa has apologized to shareholders for the unfolding scandal at the Japanese automaker and asked for their approval to oust from the board former Chairman Ghosn, who has been arrested on financial misconduct charges. Saikawa and other Nissan Motor Co. executives bowed deeply at a Tokyo hotel Monday, April 8, 2019, where the extraordinary shareholders' meeting was being held.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File) ___ 10:52 a.m. Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa has apologized to shareholders for the unfolding scandal at the Japanese automaker and asked for their approval to oust from the board former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who has been arrested on financial misconduct charges. Saikawa and other Nissan Motor Co. executives bowed deeply at a Tokyo hotel Monday, where the extraordinary shareholders' meeting was being held. Shareholders are also voting to approve the appointment of Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard in Ghosn's place. French alliance partner Renault SA owns 43 percent of Nissan. Also on the ballot agenda is the removal of Greg Kelly, a board member who is charged with collaborating with Ghosn in the alleged misconduct. Ghosn is being held at the Tokyo Detention Center. ADEN, Yemen (AP) - In the summer of 2017, a plane chartered by the United Nations idled on the tarmac at an airport in the Horn of Africa as officials waited for final clearance to deliver half a million doses of cholera vaccine to Yemen. Amid the country's ruinous war, the disease was spiraling out of control, with thousands of new cases reported each day. The green light for the plane to head to northern Yemen never came. The U.N. wasn't able to distribute cholera vaccines to Yemen until May 2018 and the outbreak ultimately produced more than 1 million suspected cholera cases - the worst cholera epidemic recorded in modern times and a calamity that medical researchers say may have been avoided if vaccines had been deployed sooner. U.N. officials blamed the canceled flight on the difficulties in distributing vaccines during an armed conflict. But officials with knowledge of the episode told The Associated Press that the real reason was that the Houthi rebels who control northern Yemen refused to allow the vaccines to be delivered, after spending months demanding that the U.N. send ambulances and other medical equipment for their military forces as a condition for accepting the shipment. The cancellation of the shipment was just one of the setbacks that aid agencies faced in battling the cholera epidemic, which has killed nearly 3,000 Yemenis. Relief workers and government officials said they have seen repeated indications that insiders in both the Houthi government in the north and the U.S.-backed government in the south have skimmed off money and supplies for cholera vaccination and treatment and sold them on the black market. In some cases, treatment centers for people who had contracted cholera existed only on paper even though the U.N. had disbursed money to bankroll their operations, according to two aid officials familiar with the centers. The AP's examination of the efforts to fight the disease in Yemen drew on confidential documents and interviews with 29 people, including aid officials previously based in the country and officials from health ministries run by both the Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government in the south. Almost all of these individuals - including six relief and health officials who say the Houthis were responsible for cancellation of the 2017 vaccine shipment - spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation. FILE - In this July 1, 2017 file photo, a man is treated for suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the war -- the U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemen -- impeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File) "Both the Houthis and the government of Yemen were trying to politicize cholera," an aid official told the AP. "The Houthis are taking advantage of U.N. weakness," the official said. "Corruption or aid diversion and all of this are because of the U.N.'s weak position." Relief workers know that if the U.N. speaks out, the official said, "their visas will be denied and they would not be allowed back in the country." Cholera spread across Yemen in late 2016 and throughout much of 2017 and 2018. It ebbed late last year, but has again picked up in 2019. A new surge in the disease has produced roughly 150,000 reported cholera cases and nearly 300 deaths since the start of this year. The first cholera vaccine drives in Yemen didn't start until May 2018 in the south and August 2018 in the north, aid and health officials told the AP. Ali al-Walidi, the deputy health minister in southern Yemen, and Youssef al-Hadri, the spokesman of the Houthi-run Health Ministry in the north, both deny there were delays in getting cholera vaccines into Yemen at the start of the outbreak. Al-Hadri said claims that the Houthis blocked the shipment of vaccines into Yemen are false. "This is all baseless, and I challenge the agencies to say this officially," he said. Geert Cappelaere, the Middle East director for UNICEF, the U.N. children's relief agency, declined to blame any particular group for halting the 2017 shipment. "What is important is that the vaccines that needed to get in have ultimately gone in and have reached the people who needed to be vaccinated," he said. "Has this been simple and easy? Absolutely not. Each shipment has been problematic to get in because of the long approval time" and because of "skepticism among the authorities on both sides" about the value of cholera vaccines. __ A RAVAGED LAND More than half of Yemen's hospitals and other health facilities have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in 2015, after Houthi forces overran much of the country and Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, with backing from the United States, launched airstrikes and imposed blockades on rebel-held territory. The conflict has killed more than 60,000 people and much of Yemen has been on the edge of famine. An AP investigation published in December revealed that factions on all sides of Yemen's war have blocked food aid from going to groups suspected of disloyalty, diverted it to front-line combat units or sold it for profit on the black market. More than 19 million of Yemen's 29 million people don't have access to adequate health care, and more than 17 million don't have clean water, according to the U.N. Those are prime conditions for the spread of cholera, a disease caused by feces-tainted water and food. Cholera can kill swiftly if untreated, its victims drained by diarrhea, vomiting and fever. The first significant cholera outbreak came in late 2016, leading to more than 25,000 suspected cases and killing at least 129. Soon after, in April 2017, the disease erupted again, this time spreading at an even more furious pace. Within two months, more than 185,000 suspected cases and 1,200 deaths were reported. One local aid worker in northern Yemen recalls house after house with dying children, their small bodies racked by severe diarrhea. When U.N. officials tried to rush in oral vaccines to halt the spread, some Houthi officials claimed vaccines were ineffective. A few circulated messages on social media asserting that vaccines could be harmful to children. Four aid officials and a former Houthi health official said that some rebel leaders suggested that the vaccination plan was a plot by the U.S. and Israel to use Yemenis as guinea pigs. A former senior official in the Houthi Health Ministry said the concerns over the vaccines' safety were a pretext. Rebel leaders had a list of demands and tried to bargain with U.N. officials for money and equipment, he said. During weeks of negotiations over the vaccine program, the rebels demanded that U.N. officials send X-ray machines and other items they could use to treat their wounded fighters on the front lines, according to the former health ministry official and three aid officials. Al-Hadri, the spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, denied that Houthi authorities demanded medicine and medical equipment to be used in treating front-line soldiers. Cappelaere, UNICEF's Middle East chief, said he had no knowledge of aid officials bargaining with authorities in Yemen in the effort to import cholera vaccines. __ THE SHIPMENT Finally, in July 2017, U.N. officials believed they had the go-ahead to bring in cholera vaccines. Half a million doses were loaded onto a plane in the tiny African republic of Djibouti. At the last minute, hard-liners in the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry told the U.N. they would not allow the plane to land. Publicly, the U.N. blamed the change of plans on security and logistical challenges involved in delivering immunizations across Yemen's conflict-torn landscape. A spokesman for the U.N.'s World Health Organization said at the time that delivering vaccines "has to make sense" in terms of the conditions on the ground, adding that the vaccine doses intended for Yemen would likely be re-routed to places that "might need them more urgently." U.N. officials sent the shipment to South Sudan in central Africa, where the disease had recently erupted. The cholera outbreak in South Sudan left 436 dead but was declared over by early 2018, largely due to the introduction of vaccines during the outbreak's early stages. The outbreak in Yemen went on unabated. Hager Taher, a 27-year old mother of two, was one of hundreds who died from cholera in the months after the vaccine delivery into the country had been called off. Taher was in the last days of pregnancy, living in the village of al-Ghareb, an impoverished area in the Houthi-controlled northern province of Hajjah, when she began vomiting and showing cholera-like symptoms. The only health center in the village of nearly 1,200 people was a building with two rooms and few beds. As the number of suspected cholera cases grew, local authorities used a school to receive patients, who had to lie on the floor in the empty classrooms. Taher was sent to a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the city of Abs. She soon developed complications and was moved to another hospital nearby. It was there, in September 2017, that she died. Her child was born alive but died four days later. "It's God's will," her husband, Mohammed Hassan, told the AP. "There's nothing to do." Taher was one of 16 people reported to have died from cholera in her district in Hajjah. Hundreds more were infected. "The district was gulped up by cholera," said Ibrahim al-Masrahi, a health worker in charge of gathering epidemic surveillance reports. By the end of 2017, the number of reported cholera cases in Yemen had surged past 1 million, with more than 2,200 deaths. The spread of the disease waned for a time, but rebounded again in the spring and summer of 2018, adding another 370,000 reported cases and 500 more deaths. U.N. officials continued struggling to find a way to get cholera vaccines into the country. Houthi officials held a succession of meetings throughout much of 2017 and into 2018 to consider the science and policy questions relating to vaccines. In the spring of 2018, after science panels approved bringing cholera vaccines into rebel territory, Health Minister Mohammed Salem bin Hafez gave U.N. officials the go-ahead to bring in nearly 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine, according to documents obtained by the AP. Then two of his deputies, both of them well-connected within the Houthi leadership, said the shipment couldn't proceed, asserting that there were still more bureaucratic hurdles before the vaccines' "safety and security" could be assured, according to the documents. As a non-Houthi, bin Hafez didn't have the power to overrule the decisions of the two deputies who supposedly were working under him. He wrote a letter to the prime minister of the Houthi-controlled government, Abdel-Aziz bin Habtour, detailing how the delivery of vaccines had been once again been put off. "I am washing my hands of the consequences of these irresponsible actions," bin Hafez's letter said. He told the prime minister that he was "putting the matter between your hands" in the hope the government would "take the necessary measures to use aid in a proper way and create proper work conditions for international and local aid agencies." A month later, bin Hafez left his post and fled Houthi territory. Abdel-Aziz al-Daylami, one of the Health Ministry deputies that bin Hafez blamed for holding up the delivery of vaccines, denied that he had stopped the shipment. "No, there was no rejection, but we had reservations," he told the AP. "We thought that the vaccines would be useless" if they were deployed without more efforts to ensure clean water and reliable sanitation systems. "We worried that if the vaccine campaigns failed, people would turn against the use of vaccines and that would be disastrous," he said. ___ ONLY ON PAPER As Houthi authorities debated the use of vaccines in the north, the U.N. was also working to get cholera vaccines into the country via the government in the south. But this plan was also marred by delays - and by questions about possible corruption. After the U.N. was able to get a shipment of vaccines into the southern city of Aden in May 2018, the Health Ministry for the U.S.- and Saudi-backed government there put together teams to raise awareness and administer the vaccines. But some of the vaccination teams existed only on paper and many workers on the teams never received the full stipends budgeted for them under the program, two aid officials told the AP. The two officials said authorities in the south prevented aid workers from visiting the districts where immunization campaigns were taking place, making it impossible for them to monitor what was happening on the ground and verify how aid money was being used. In the wake the vaccination campaign in the south, the Houthis broke the logjam in the north. They agreed to allow cholera vaccines into some areas under their control. Immunization drives were launched in three rebel-held districts in August and September 2018. A senior official who worked with the Houthi-run Health Ministry at the time noted the U.N. had agreed to some of the rebels' wish list of additional medical supplies and equipment, including the purchase of 45 ambulances for the ministry. The ambulances were then sent to the front lines for the military's use, the ex-official said. Beyond vaccine drives, concerns emerged in both the north and south about whether patients who had already contracted the disease were getting medical treatment targeted for them. Some centers set up to treat cholera victims weren't functional even though UNICEF and the WHO had provided funding to government authorities and nongovermental groups to cover costs of setting them up and running them, according to two aid officials familiar with the centers. One of those two aid officials said he was told there were nine cholera treatment centers in Aden. He could find only two. "The rest didn't exist," he said. Another concern in north and south was whether relief organizations were getting accurate counts of the number of people sickened with cholera in various parts of the country. Two aid officials and a former official with the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry said authorities exaggerated the number of cholera cases to increase the amount of international aid money. A December 2018 study of the Yemen outbreak by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that some overreporting was likely due to health workers whose livelihoods depended on money paid by the U.N. Many of the workers hadn't received their government salaries in years and believed that the cholera centers where they worked would be closed and aid money stopped if they didn't report enough suspected cases. Still, even with overreporting, the outbreak of cholera was "massive," Paul B. Spiegel, the lead author of the study and director of the university's Center for Humanitarian Health, told the AP. Another study, published in December 2018 in the journal BMC Public Health, called the epidemic "the largest cholera outbreak in epidemiologically recorded history." The report said the scale of Yemen's outbreak "most likely" could have been avoided or managed if enough cholera vaccines had been deployed earlier in the conflict. It added that even if a large shipment had come into the country early enough, getting the vaccine to those who needed it might not have been possible, given the "deeply chaotic situation" across war-torn Yemen. More than 2.5 million doses of the cholera vaccine have been transported into Yemen by the U.N. since mid-2018. It's unclear how many of them have been administered to people in target populations. Two Houthi officials confirmed to the AP that nearly 1.2 million doses remain stored in warehouses in Sanaa, the rebels' capital. The Health Ministry there plans to distribute those doses soon in two northern districts, one of the officials said. A senior aid official said the continuing cholera crisis remains a way for the Houthis rebels to cultivate global sympathy for their struggle against the U.S.-backed and Saudi-led coalition, whose bombing campaign has been blamed for helping to create the conditions that caused the outbreak. "If you resolve cholera, what are the headlines?" he said. "They managed to control the narrative because it's easy to blame the coalition and not them and they always show up as victims." Al-Hadri, the spokesman for the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry in Sanaa, called that nonsense. It is international aid officials, he said, who are raking in donations and benefiting from disease and suffering inside the Middle East's poorest country. "They are profiting from the Yemen crisis and begging in the name of Yemen," he said. "They need the Yemeni crisis more than we need them." ___ The AP's reporting on the war in Yemen is supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In this May 12, 2017 photo, released by UNICEF, a child is treated for suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the war -- the U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemen -- impeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (UNICEF via AP) FILE - In this July 12, 2017 file photo, a woman fills a jerrycan with water from a well that is alleged to be contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera, on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the war -- the U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemen -- impeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File) FILE - In this July 26, 2017 file photo, a girl scavenges for recyclable items at a garbage dump in a street in Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the war -- the U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemen -- impeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File) In this May 12, 2017 photo released by UNICEF, patients suffering from severe diarrhea and suspected of cholera, wait to receive treatment, at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the war -- the U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemen -- impeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (UNICEF via AP) LONDON (AP) - Tech giants like Facebook and Google came under increasing pressure in Europe on Monday when countries proposed stricter rules to force them to block extreme material such as terrorist propaganda and child porn. Britain called for a first-of-its-kind watchdog for social media that could fine executives and even ban companies. And a European Union parliamentary committee approved a bill giving internet companies an hour to remove terror-related material or face fines that could reach into the billions. "We are forcing these firms to clean up their act once and for all," said British Home Secretary Sajid Javid, whose department collaborated on Britain's proposal. Opponents warned the British and EU measures could stifle innovation and strengthen the dominance of technology giants because smaller companies won't have the money to comply. That, in turn, could turn Google and Facebook into the web's censors, they said. The push to make the big companies responsible for the torrent of material they carry has largely been driven by Europeans. But it picked up momentum after the March 15 mosque shootings in New Zealand that killed 50 people and were livestreamed for 17 minutes. Facebook said it removed 1.5 million videos of the attacks in the 24 hours afterward. The U.S., where government action is constrained by the First Amendment right to free speech and freedom of the press, has taken a more hands-off approach, though on Tuesday, a House committee will press Google and Facebook executives on whether they are doing enough to curb the spread of hate crimes and white nationalism. FILE - In this April 18, 2017 file photo, conference workers speak in front of a demo booth at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference, in San Jose, Calif. The U.K. for the first time on Monday April 8, 2019, proposed direct regulation of social media companies, with senior executives potentially facing fines if they fail to block damaging content such as terrorist propaganda or images of child abuse. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) Australia last week made it a crime for social media platforms not to quickly remove "abhorrent violent material." The offense would be punishable by three years in prison and a fine of 10.5 million Australian dollars ($7.5 million), or 10% of the platform's annual revenue, whichever is larger. New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner wants his country to so the same. The British plan would require social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to protect people who use their sites from "harmful content." The plan, which includes the creation of an independent regulator funded by a tax on internet companies, will be subject to public comment for three months before the government publishes draft legislation. "No one in the world has done this before, and it's important that we get it right," Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright told the BBC. Facebook's head of public policy in Britain, Rebecca Stimson, said the goal of the new rules should be to protect society while also supporting innovation and freedom of speech. "These are complex issues to get right, and we look forward to working with the government and Parliament to ensure new regulations are effective," she said. Britain will consider imposing financial penalties similar to those under the EU's online data privacy law, which permits fines of up to 4% of a company's annual worldwide revenue, Wright said. In extreme cases, the government may also seek to fine individual company directors and prevent companies from operating in Britain. Under the EU legislation that cleared an initial hurdle in Brussels, any internet companies that fail to remove terrorist content within an hour of being notified by authorities would face similar 4% penalties. EU authorities came up with the idea last year after attacks highlighted the growing trend of online radicalization. The bill would apply to companies providing services to EU citizens, whether or not those businesses are based in the EU's 28 member countries. It still needs further approval, including from the full European Parliament. It faces heavy opposition from digital rights organizations, tech industry groups and some lawmakers, who said the 60-minute deadline is impractical and would lead companies to go too far and remove even lawful material. "Instead, we call for a more pragmatic approach with removals happening 'as soon as possible,' to protect citizens' rights and competitiveness," said EDIMA, a European trade group for new media and internet companies. Opponents said the measure also places a bigger burden on smaller internet companies than on giants like Facebook and Google, which already have automated content filters. To help smaller web companies, the bill was modified to give them an extra 12 hours for their first offense, a measure opponents said didn't go far enough. Mark Skilton, a professor at England's Warwick Business School, urged regulators to pursue new methods such as artificial intelligence that could do a better job of tackling the problem. "Issuing large fines and hitting companies with bigger legal threats is taking a 20th-century bullwhip approach to a problem that requires a nuanced solution," he said. "It needs machine learning tools to manage the 21st-century problems of the internet." Wright said Britain's proposed social-media regulator would be expected to take freedom of speech into account while trying to prevent harm. "What we're talking about here is user-generated content, what people put online, and companies that facilitate access to that kind of material," he said. "So this is not about journalism. This is about an unregulated space that we need to control better to keep people safer." NEW YORK (AP) - TV actress Allison Mack pleaded guilty Monday to charges she was involved in a scheme to turn women into sex slaves for the spiritual leader of a cult-like upstate New York group, a development that came on the same day jury selection began for a federal trial in the case. Mack, 36, wept as she admitted her crimes and apologized to the women who prosecutors say were exploited by Keith Raniere and the purported self-help group called NXIVM. "I believed Keith Raniere's intentions were to help people, and I was wrong," Mack told a Brooklyn judge. Mack - best known for her role as a young Superman's close friend on the series "Smallville" - said that after months of reflection since her arrest, "I know I can and will be a better person." The actress is to be sentenced Sept. 11 on two racketeering counts that each carry maximum terms of 20 years in prison. However, it's likely she would face far less time under sentencing guidelines. The plea means Mack will avoid going to trial with Raniere, wealthy heiress Clare Bronfman and another member of Raniere's inner circle, Kathy Russell. All have pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. Actress Allison Mack leaves Brooklyn federal court Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering charges on Monday in a case involving a cult-like group based in upstate New York. The trial is expected to detail sensational allegations that the group, called NXIVM, recruited sex slaves for its spiritual leader, Keith Raniere.(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) About two hours after Mack's guilty plea, potential jurors got their first glimpse of the jailed Raniere at a proceeding where they were instructed on questionnaires to be filled out as a first step in the selection process. Opening statements are scheduled for April 29 for a trial that is expected to last up to six weeks. The question of who would be seated at the defense table that day had remained unanswered in the wake of new allegations that Raniere exploited a teenage girl. The accusations gave his co-defendants even further incentive to seek separate trials and engage in plea negotiations. Court papers allege NXIVM formed a secret society of women who were branded with Raniere's initials and forced to have sex with him. Defense attorneys have insisted any relationship between Raniere and the alleged victims, including an unidentified actress and other women expected to testify against him at trial, was consensual. On Monday, Mack said that at Raniere's direction, she obtained compromising information and images of two unidentified women - called "collateral" within the group - that she threatened to make public if they didn't perform "so-called acts of love." The jury questionnaire covers several topics, including asking candidates for their opinions about "rich individuals" and people who "engage in relationships with multiple sexual partners" and whether they "believe that people under the age of 17 should be able to consent to sex with adults." Actress Allison Mack leaves Brooklyn federal court Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering charges on Monday in a case involving a cult-like group based in upstate New York. The trial is expected to detail sensational allegations that the group, called NXIVM, recruited sex slaves for its spiritual leader, Keith Raniere.(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Kathy Russell, a member of NXIVM, an organization charged with sex trafficking, leaves Brooklyn Federal Court, Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Jury selection is set to begin Monday for the trial, expected to detail sensational allegations that a cult-like group based in upstate New York recruited sex slaves for its spiritual leader. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Clare Bronfman, right, a member of NXIVM, an organization charged with sex trafficking, leaves Brooklyn Federal Court, Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Jury selection is set to begin Monday for the trial, expected to detail sensational allegations that a cult-like group based in upstate New York recruited sex slaves for its spiritual leader. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Clare Bronfman, a member of NXIVM, an organization charged with sex trafficking, leaves Brooklyn Federal Court, Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Jury selection is set to begin Monday for the trial, expected to detail sensational allegations that a cult-like group based in upstate New York recruited sex slaves for its spiritual leader. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Actress Allison Mack leaves Brooklyn federal court Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering charges on Monday in a case involving a cult-like group based in upstate New York. The trial is expected to detail sensational allegations that the group, called NXIVM, recruited sex slaves for its spiritual leader, Keith Raniere.(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Clare Bronfman, center, a member of NXIVM, an organization charged with sex trafficking, arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court with her lawyer Mark Geragos, Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Jury selection is set to begin Monday for the trial, expected to detail sensational allegations that a cult-like group based in upstate New York recruited sex slaves for its spiritual leader. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Clare Bronfman, center, a member of NXIVM, an organization charged with sex trafficking, arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court with her lawyer Mark Geragos, Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Jury selection is set to begin Monday for the trial, expected to detail sensational allegations that a cult-like group based in upstate New York recruited sex slaves for its spiritual leader. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) HAGATNA, Guam (AP) - The Catholic Church in Guam does not agree that its parishes and schools should be sold to settle more than 200 clergy sexual abuse claims, according to officials. The statement by the Archdiocese of Agana Tuesday was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, the Pacific Daily News reported Tuesday. The lawsuit includes a list of Catholic schools, parishes, shelters, cars, cemeteries, and a shelter for battered women that the creditors believe should be considered archdiocese property and liable for sale, the newspaper reported. Parishes and schools are not owned by the archdiocese, but rather held in trust, and the "trust relationship is well established" and supported by Guam's "corporation sole" statute, said Ford Elsaesser, a bankruptcy counsel for the archdiocese. The archdiocese believes the trust relationship is consistent with both case law and canon law within the church, Elsaesser said. The disputed properties include the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagatna, which is valued at $9.5 million, and the St. Anthony Church and School in Tamuning, valued at $6.2 million, the creditors committee said. All other Catholic schools and parishes are also on the disputed list, the committee said. Guam's Catholic Church filed for bankruptcy in January, allowing the archdiocese to avoid trial in dozens of child sexual abuse lawsuits and enter settlement negotiations. Resolution of the lawsuit by the creditors committee will allow the parties to go back to mediation and resolve issues including abuse survivor compensation, the archdiocese said. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The son of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi appeared to acknowledge on Wednesday that financial compensation had been made to the family, but said it did not amount to an admission of guilt by Saudi rulers. Salah Khashoggi described King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as "guardians to all Saudis." "Acts of generosity and humanity come from the high moral grounds they possess, not admission of guilt or scandal," he said in a statement posted to Twitter. "We, Jamal Khashoggi's family, were brought up by our parents to thank acts of good not disavow." On April 1, the Washington Post reported the writer's children were given million-dollar homes and monthly payments of at least $10,000 in the aftermath of Khashoggi's killing by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year. The Post, quoting current and former Saudi officials as well as people close to the family speaking anonymously, reported the payments were approved by King Salman. It is not unusual for the king to make so-called "blood money" payments to victims of crimes or accidents in Saudi Arabia. An example of this was the king's pledge to pay thousands of dollars to victims of a 2015 crane crash in Mecca that killed more than 100 pilgrims and injured nearly 400 people days before the start of the hajj. FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2018, file photo released by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, shakes hands with Salah Khashoggi, a son, of Jamal Khashoggi, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The son of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi says no settlement discussions have taken place and suggested that financial compensation to the family did not amount to an admission of guilt by Saudi rulers. Salah Khashoggi described King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as "guardians to all Saudis." (Saudi Press Agency via AP, File) The Post reported that Khashoggi's two sons and two daughters could also receive payouts of tens of millions of dollars each as part of "blood money" negotiations after Saudi Arabia concludes a trial of 11 people charged in connection with the killing, describing the payments as an effort aimed in part at ensuring that the family continues to show restraint in their public statements. The statement by Salah Khashoggi apparently sought to clarify this, saying: "The trial is taking place and no settlement discussion had been or is discussed." "The people who committed and were involved in this crime will all be brought to justice and face punishment," the elder son's statement said. In its report, the Washington Post noted that Salah is the only sibling who intends to continue living in Saudi Arabia and that his desire to remain in Jiddah with his family contributed to the siblings' deference to the authorities and caution in their public statements. The Post also reported Salah has been responsible for financial discussions with Saudi authorities, and that it was the crown prince's younger brother, Khalid bin Salman, who helmed those discussions on the Saudi side. Prior to his killing, Khashoggi had written critically of the crown prince in multiple columns for the Washington Post and had been living in exile for about a year, fearing he would be detained if he returned to Saudi Arabia as part of a wider crackdown on writers, activists and critics. After offering shifting accounts of what transpired, and under intense international and Turkish pressure, the kingdom eventually settled on the explanation that Khashoggi had been killed by Saudi agents in an operation masterminded by two of the crown prince's top aides, who have since been removed from their posts. The kingdom denies the crown prince had any knowledge of the operation. His critics, however, point to U.S. intelligence reports that say an operation like this could not have happened without his knowledge. President Donald Trump has defended U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia, despite Congressional pressure and a Senate resolution blaming the crown prince for the murder. The White House said Trump spoke with Prince Mohammed by phone on Tuesday, and that that they "discussed Saudi Arabia's critical role in ensuring Middle East stability, maintaining maximum pressure against Iran, and the importance of human rights issues." The call comes days after activists told The Associated Press that 12 people with ties to women's rights activists, including two U.S. citizens, were detained last week and have been held incommunicado since. BALTIMORE (AP) - Close advisers to Baltimore's embattled mayor said Tuesday that she's staying out of public view because of a serious case of pneumonia, not the mounting scandal involving her sale of her children's books. The Baltimore Sun reported that Catherine Pugh continues to convalesce at home and is under doctors' supervision. She abruptly took leave April 1. "While her well-known tireless energy has been diminished by this illness, her doctors are confident she will recover her health and strength in due course," Pugh's personal attorney, Steven Silverman, told The Sun. "I know she is grateful for the good wishes of concern and support that she's received." Pugh was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in late March, before she took leave and just as the scandal began to grow. The scandal involves her sales of her "Healthy Holly" children's books to the University of Maryland Medical System, where she sat on the board. Details also emerged that she had collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for her books from entities doing business with the city of Baltimore. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan asked a state prosecutor to begin a criminal investigation. FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2016, file photo, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh delivers an address during her inauguration ceremony inside the War Memorial Building in Baltimore. A spokesman for the embattled mayor of Baltimore says she'll return from her leave of absence as soon as her health allows. Spokesman James Bentley told The Baltimore Sun on Saturday, April 6, 2019, that Pugh's health is improving. It's unclear when she'll return. Pugh abruptly took her leave last week to recover from pneumonia. Meanwhile, a scandal involving her sale of children's books to high-profile clients has intensified. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) Many city and state lawmakers have called for her resignation. All but one member of the Baltimore City Council have called for Pugh to step down. U.S. Rep. Andy Harris told The Sun that Baltimore needs a new leader. "There are enough questions - legitimate questions cast about this - that I think the mayor probably can no longer be an effective leader of the city," the Republican said. But the people closest to Pugh say her health, not the scandal, is keeping her from public view. "She's recovering day by day," said James Bentley, her spokesman. "She's focused on getting healthy, and remains committed to Baltimore." The Sun reported that Pugh, 69, has not publicly faced serious medical issues previously. Neither she nor her advisers have offered details about the nature of her pneumonia. Dr. Paul Auwaerter, clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told the newspaper that recovery times can vary. After people seek treatment, and particularly if they've been hospitalized, they are on average "feeling better within 48 to 72 hours," though it "might take five to seven days" to bounce back completely, he said. But he said it can take longer if complicating factors are involved, such as stress. ___ Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com TOKYO (AP) - Japan's Olympic minister resigned Wednesday after making remarks deemed offensive to the people affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, a gaffe that had questioned his credentials. Yoshitaka Sakurada said he submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He said he made comments that hurt the feelings those in the disaster-hit areas, and just retracting them would not be enough. Sakurada, at a party earlier Wednesday for Hinako Takahashi - a ruling lawmaker from Iwate, one of the prefectures severely hit by the disaster - said Takahashi is more important than reconstruction. Sakurada was in charge of the 2020 Games, whose main theme is to promote reconstruction of the disaster-struck region. Abe was quick in his damage control. Soon after accepting Sakurada's resignation, he apologized for the minister's remark to the people in the disaster-hit region, reassuring them that his government has an unshakable policy to do the utmost for reconstruction while staying close to the feelings of the people affected. "As prime minister, I offer an apology to everyone in the disaster-hit areas," Abe said. "I have a responsibility for having appointed him." Former Olympic minister Shunichi Suzuki is expected to return to the post to replace Sakrada, Japanese media reports said. Sakurada joined Abe's Cabinet as part of its reshuffle last year, quickly making a reputation as a gaffe-prone minister. Sakurada, who also doubled as cybersecurity strategy chief, said in November that he does not use a computer. In February, he was forced to apologize after expressing disappointment over swimming gold medal hopeful Rikako Ikee's disclosure of her leukemia diagnosis. Sakurada was also scolded for being late and holding up a parliamentary session. "Minister Sakurada's resignation is only natural. It was an unbelievable comment that hurt the feelings of the people in the region and others working hard for the reconstruction," said Yukio Edano, leader of a main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Edano also criticized Abe for repeatedly defending Sakurada despite his repeated problems since his appointment. Sakurada's resignation is also an embarrassment for Abe, who saw another Cabinet member step down over a questionable remark. Deputy minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism minister Ichiro Tsukada quit last week after suggesting he acted for the interests of Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso over a road project related to their constituencies, prompting opposition lawmakers to seek explanation though he denied any preferential treatment. ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A jury was unable to reach a verdict in the trial of a Delaware man who admitted he broke a thumb off a $4.5 million statue at a Philadelphia museum. Michael Rohana was attending a Christmas-themed ugly sweater party at the Franklin Institute in December 2017 when he entered a closed exhibit of ancient Chinese terra cotta warrior statues. Authorities said Rohana, 25, took photos while posing next to a statue known as "The Cavalryman," then removed the valuable relic's left thumb and made off with it. The incident was captured by surveillance cameras. The vandalism outraged Chinese officials. Though Rohana didn't deny he snapped off the digit and took it home, a jury deadlocked Tuesday on charges of theft and concealment of an object of cultural heritage, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Rohana's lawyers argued he wasn't charged under the right law. "These charges were made for art thieves - think like 'Ocean's Eleven' or 'Mission: Impossible,'" federal public defender Catherine C. Henry said in closing arguments. Rohana "wasn't in ninja clothing sneaking around the museum. He was a drunk kid in a bright green ugly Christmas sweater." Rohana, a shoe salesman who lives with his parents, told jurors it was a dumb mistake. In this Tuesday, April 2, 2019 photo, Michael Rohana leaves the James A. Byrne U.S. Federal Courthouse in Center City Philadelphia. A jury is unable to reach a verdict in the trial of the Delaware man who admitted he broke a finger off a $4.5 million statue at a Philadelphia museum. Rohana was attending a Christmas-themed "Ugly Sweater" party at the Franklin Institute in December 2017 when he entered a traveling exhibit featuring ancient Chinese terra-cotta warrior statues. Authorities say the 25-year-old took photos while posing next to a statue known as "The Cavalryman," then snapped off the statue's left thumb. The vandalism outraged Chinese officials. (Tim Tai/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP) "I don't know why I broke it," he testified. "It didn't just happen, but there was never a thought of, 'I should break this.'" He added: "Every time I see this video now, I'm trying to figure out, 'What was going through your mind? What were you thinking?' I don't know how I could have been so stupid." A mistrial was declared. Federal prosecutors said they'll decide by May whether to retry the case. The thumb was returned to China. Franklin Institute officials told the jury it has not been reattached. MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says his administration has nearly stamped out the fuel theft that has plagued the country for years. Lopez Obrador sent the military after the fuel thieves shortly after taking office in December. In November, thieves were stealing an average of 81,000 barrels of gasoline per day, mostly by illegally tapping pipelines. Official figures indicate that the daily loss was down to 8,000 barrels a day last month, and through the first week in April, it was averaging 5,000 barrels per day. Lopez Obrador said Wednesday it's proof that his government will not tolerate corruption. Fuel theft cost the government more than $3.4 billion last year. If the current strategy continues to work, the president said Mexico could save more than $2.6 billion this year. ROME (AP) - A restaurant owner in northern Italy has canceled an event that would have brought together the great-grandson of Italy's long-time fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and a neo-Nazi group under special observation by authorities, following protests. Mauro Rosa, owner of the restaurant Rosa, near Padua, said he canceled the presentation of a new release of the 1932 "Doctrine of Fascism," co-authored by Mussolini, after receiving "many insults online." He said staff booked the event without being aware of its nature. The Italian dictator's great-grandson, Caio Giulio Cesare Mussolini, a European election candidate for the far-right Brothers of Italy, was invited to attend, along with a leader of the Veneto Fronte Skinheads, an extreme right group that is under special observation by authorities after storming a migrant association's venue in 2017. LONDON (AP) - The top U.S. diplomat for cybersecurity policy on Wednesday praised Germany's draft security standards for next generation mobile networks, which he said could effectively shut out China's Huawei. The standards published last month were a "positive step," said Rob Strayer, who's leading the U.S. campaign to persuade its allies to stop using the Chinese tech giant's network gear. The German standards , which are subject to feedback from the industry, call for mobile providers to use "trustworthy" telecom equipment suppliers that comply with national security regulations covering communications secrecy and data protection. The U.S. has been lobbying European allies to ban Huawei from new 5G networks over concerns China's communist leaders could force the company to use its equipment for cyberespionage. Huawei, the world's biggest maker of telecom network gear, has consistently denied the U.S. allegations. While no European countries have issued blanket bans, Strayer said a "risk-based" approach to evaluating telecom suppliers, including their relationship with their national government, would "lead inevitably" to banning Huawei. "At this point we're looking for governments to adopt security standards like we're seeing in Germany," Strayer told reporters on a conference call. FILE - In this Friday, March 29, 2019 file photo, Huawei mobile phones are displayed at a telecoms service shop in Hong Kong. The top U.S. diplomat for cybersecurity policy has praised Germany's draft security standards for next generation mobile networks, which he said could effectively shut out China's Huawei. Rob Strayer said Wednesday April 10, 2019, the standards published last month were a "positive step." (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File) The German requirements are incompatible with China's national intelligence law, which compels companies to cooperate with intelligence requests, so "it's hard to see how Chinese technology would meet that standard," Strayer said. The U.S. is concerned that intelligence sharing or other forms of cooperation with its allies could be hurt if those countries use unsecure equipment from untrusted countries in their 5G networks, Strayer said. The battle over Huawei has intensified in recent months as countries in Europe and elsewhere prepare to deploy 5G networks, starting with the auction of frequencies this year. CHICAGO (AP) - A hearing is set for four Chicago police officers who are fighting their dismissals following accusations they covered up a white officer's 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald. A Chicago Police Board hearing officer has set aside three days for testimony starting Wednesday. The hearing officer will then confer with the police board, which will decide the four officers' fate. The Chicago Tribune reports that could take months. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson fired the three patrol officers and sergeant after a disciplinary investigation into Jason Van Dyke's fatal shooting of McDonald. They're accused of falsifying or approving police reports that exaggerated the threat McDonald posed. A Cook County judge acquitted three other officers in January of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and official misconduct charges in the case. Jurors convicted Van Dyke of murder in October. He's serving a more than six-year prison term. ___ Check out the AP's complete coverage of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald. NEW YORK (AP) - Amazon, facing backlash from critics who say cashless stores discriminate against the poor, will soon accept cash at all its stores. The online shopping giant has more than 30 stores that don't accept cash, including its book shops and Amazon Go convenience stores. Amazon confirmed it is working to accept cash, but wouldn't say when that would happen. Critics say cashless stores discriminate against those that don't have credit cards or bank accounts. Philadelphia became the first city to ban cashless stores earlier this year; New Jersey passed a statewide ban; and New York, San Francisco and other cities are considering similar laws. The news was first reported by business news website CNBC. FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2019, file photo people walk past and into an Amazon Go store in San Francisco. Amazon, facing backlash from critics who say cashless stores discriminate against the poor, will soon accept cash at all its stores. The online shopping giant has more than 30 stores that don't accept cash, including its book shops and Amazon Go convenience stores. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File) MOSCOW (AP) - Lawmakers from Russia, Iran and Turkey are calling for Syria's territorial integrity to be preserved as remarks from Israel and the United States have renewed long-standing land disputes. The legislators from parliament foreign affairs committees met Wednesday in Moscow for a special session on Syria. Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Iranian parliament member Heshmatollah Falahatpishe as saying the discussion "was a good beginning." Falahatpishe continued: "We confirmed the necessity of preserving the territorial integrity of Syria, especially regarding the Golan Heights." President Donald Trump last month signed a decree recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed during a 1967 war. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A Florida clemency board has denied an early prison release for a man known as "White Boy Rick," once one of the FBI's youngest informants and the subject of a recent Hollywood movie. The Executive Clemency Board sent a letter two weeks ago to Richard Wershe Jr.'s attorney, saying it has denied the request for a commuted sentence. The letter didn't state a reason. Wershe's current release date is in October 2020. Wershe is in prison for his role in an interstate car theft ring which operated while he was already imprisoned. At age 14, Wershe was an FBI informant in Detroit who helped convict a major cocaine trafficking ring but he eventually got caught selling drugs himself. His story was the basis of the 2018 film "White Boy Rick." COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttles says it is postponing the delivery of Airbus aircraft to reduce its capital expenditure by approximately $570 million in 2019 and 2020. The Oslo-based airline says in a statement that it has reached an agreement with Airbus for the rescheduling of part of the order book, including both A320neos and A321LRs. Norwegian said Wednesday it was "a result of a dialogue" with the European plane manufacturer and was in line with its strategy of shifting its focus from expanding capacity to increasing profitability. The carrier, which has struggled to make profits, recently started offering "premium" budget fares to capture some of the lucrative market for transatlantic business travel. BANGKOK (AP) - Western diplomatic missions responded Wednesday to charges from Thailand's foreign ministry that they violated protocol by observing a Thai politician being charged by police with sedition, calling their action standard diplomatic practice. They were responding to Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, who said Tuesday that foreign countries are barred from closely observing such internal procedures "not only by etiquette, but also by rules and regulations that the whole world abides by." His ministry on Wednesday accused the diplomats of intervening in Thai politics. Thirteen foreign diplomats were present Saturday at a Bangkok police station where Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of a popular new political party, acknowledged charges of sedition and other crimes. Thanathorn says the charges are politically motivated. Thanathorn's Future Forward Party ran a strong third in last month's general election and positions itself as being opposed to political interference by Thailand's powerful military. Several criminal complaints and protests to election authorities have already been lodged against Thanathorn and his party. The election results are to be certified by May 9, and the contending parties are maneuvering to establishing alliances or have opponents disqualified. The Thai foreign minister on Tuesday had complained informally, but his ministry on Wednesday issued a diplomatic note "to register our displeasure and concern." It charged that the diplomats' action violated an article in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that says diplomats "have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs" of the nation in which they are stationed. It said their presence at the police station "with such a visibility and the publicity it generated were clearly an act of political significance, seen by the Thai public largely as a show of moral support to Mr. Thanathorn." "In other words, it was a political act or a political statement on the part of the Embassies," it said. "It clearly amounted to the Embassies choosing to be a player in Thai domestic politics, at least by having taken side in the country's political landscape." U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Jillian Bonnardeaux said U.S. Charge d'Affaires Peter Haymond met Wednesday with a senior foreign ministry official at the ministry's request. "The U.S. Embassy regularly attends court proceedings in high profile cases around the world in order to observe fair trial guarantees and respect for rule of law," she said in an emailed statement. "This is a standard diplomatic practice. The U.S. interest in this case, as in many other cases, is to observe the judicial process and obtain first-hand information about the handling of the case." A statement from the European Union delegation to Thailand made a similar point, saying, "Observation of hearings and trials is standard diplomatic practice worldwide. Its purpose is to enhance understanding of adherence to international standards such as human rights and due process." "Such observations are in no way indications of political preference or support for specific actors," it said. The EU statement thanked the Thai police for their cooperation "in facilitating the observation and for offering to brief the diplomats present." DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Amnesty International says a prominent activist in the United Arab Emirates has been on hunger strike for over three weeks to protest his prison conditions and conviction. Ahmed Mansoor is serving a 10-year prison sentence for criticizing the government in social media posts. He was convicted of seeking to damage the UAE's reputation and relationship with neighboring states by posting false reports and information. An electrical engineer with a master's from the University of Colorado Boulder, Mansoor was the recipient of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015. Amnesty International's Lynn Maalouf said Wednesday that Mansoor has been kept in solitary confinement since his arrest two years ago. She expressed concern that his lengthy hunger strike would result in the deterioration of his health. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration defended on Wednesday cuts in direct aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras amid a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. the southern border. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that U.S. aid to Central America has so far been ineffective. "The United states has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to try and build out solutions... it's a fact of this crisis at the southern border that it has not been effective," Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations panel. "We are endeavoring to change that we are dealing in reality." People from Central America are fleeing north and overwhelming U.S. resources at the U.S.-Mexico border. The chaotic situation contributed to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's resignation Sunday. The panel's top Democrat said people were fleeing "because of violent crime." "We need to fight at the very essence of that and the very essence of that is not at our border, it's in Central America," said Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey. The State Department notified Congress in March that it would look to suspend 2017 and 2018 payments to the trio of nations. U.S. aid programs to Central America are aimed at strengthening local law enforcement and fostering local development. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2019, about the FY'20 budget. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) President Donald Trump has recently repeated a threat to close the border with Mexico. Trump has never followed through with the threat amid warnings that a closed border could create economic havoc on both sides. The president blames Democrats and Mexico for problems at the border. VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis, who travels with journalists aboard the papal plane, is expanding his reach when he meets with members of Italy's 400-strong foreign press association at the Vatican on May 18. The Argentine-born Francis, the first pope from Latin America, occasionally gives interviews to foreign correspondents. But this will be the first time he will meet separately with such a large group of international journalists. The Vatican announced the move Wednesday. Francis generally faces questions on issues ranging from the worldwide clerical sex-abuse scandal to efforts to restore diplomatic relations with communist China. Pope John Paul II was the first pontiff in modern history to take questions from journalists, and in 1988 visited the offices of the Associazione della Stampa Estera, as the foreign press club is called in Italian. The House has passed bill Wednesday to restore Obama-era "net neutrality" rules, but the legislation faces slim odds of making it through the Republican-controlled Senate. The Save the Internet Act passed the Democrat-controlled House 232-190 Wednesday, with only one Republican vote in favor. But top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that net neutrality is "dead on arrival in the Senate." The Trump administration also opposes the bill . Still, the effort to restore net neutrality could give Democrats political points on consumer protections. The 2015 net neutrality regulations barred internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T from blocking or slowing online traffic or from charging companies for faster lanes for consumers. They were highly partisan in Washington and came after a decade of telecom-industry resistance. They were upheld by a federal appeals court, but the Federal Communications Commission scrapped the rules after the Trump administration installed a Republican majority there. That meant there was nothing stopping ISPs from interfering with internet traffic so long as they disclosed it. The net-neutrality saga continued as tech companies and nearly two dozen U.S. states sued to undo the 2017 repeal and restore the 2015 measure. A decision by a federal appeals court on that is pending. California also has a net-neutrality law which is on hold until the appeals court decision. In Congress, Republicans have introduced three other bills that net-neutrality advocates say are too weak because they don't give the FCC the power to go after potential bad behavior by ISPs aside from blocking, throttling and charging internet companies for zippier access to users. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Afghan government says talks with the Taliban will take place on April 19 in Doha, the capital of Qatar, five days later than originally scheduled. Abdul Hadi Arghandewal, a member of the leadership council for reconciliation, says Wednesday more discussions on the Afghan negotiation team are needed. The meeting is seen as a significant step toward finding an end to Afghanistan's protracted war and the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Afghan government representatives are participating in talks as part of a larger group of prominent Afghans. The Taliban say they will speak with the government representatives but recognize them only as "ordinary" Afghans. Arghandewal says the council will announce the Afghan negotiating team in the next three to four days. Taliban officials confirmed the delay without providing more details. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - A somber memorial has marked one month since the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the many humanitarian workers killed. Wednesday's event in Ethiopia's capital was organized for 21 United Nations staffers and 12 aid workers killed when the flight crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi. All 157 people on board died. An Ethiopian Airlines official, Michael Yared, told the several hundred people at the memorial that results from DNA tests of any remains found are expected in the next six months. He also said insurance payments are now being made in consultation with insurers. The head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Vera Songwe, called the lost colleagues "seasoned officials from all corners of the globe and in a wide array of expertise." People sign condolence books during a Memorial for UN and NGO Personnel Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during a somber memorial marking one month since the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the many humanitarian workers killed. The event in Ethiopia's capital was organized for 21 United Nations staffers and 12 aid workers killed when the flight crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, with all 157 people on board killed.(AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) Photos of the UN and NGO Personnel on display Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during a somber memorial marking one month since the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the many humanitarian workers killed. The event in Ethiopia's capital was organized for 21 United Nations staffers and 12 aid workers killed when the flight crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, with all 157 people on board killed.AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The skyrocketing price of insulin has some diabetics scrambling to cover the cost of the life-saving medication. Others are skipping doses or using smaller amounts than needed, and sometimes landing in the emergency room, patients and advocates told Congress recently. About 7.4 million Americans use insulin to keep their blood sugar at safe levels. Insulin needs vary by patient, as do costs depending on insurance coverage. Amid the public uproar about costs, drugmakers and some prescription plans are starting to offer patients bigger discounts. Express Scripts and its parent company, insurer Cigna, just began offering a month's worth of insulin to eligible patients for $25 per month. Express Scripts is now lining up other insurers whose prescription plans it manages. For most insulin and other diabetes medicines, manufacturers offer coupons reducing monthly out-of-pocket costs. The American Diabetes Association connects patients to assistance programs through www.insulinhelp.org , though not everyone qualifies. FILE - In this April 18, 2017 file photo, a woman with Type 2 diabetes prepares to inject herself with insulin at her home in Las Vegas. The skyrocketing price of insulin has some diabetics scrambling to cover the cost of the life-saving medication. Others are skipping doses or using smaller amounts than needed, and sometimes landing in the ER, patients and advocates told Congress in April 2019. (AP Photo/John Locher) "We do not want anyone to skip or ration doses," says Dr. William Cefalu, the advocacy group's chief scientific officer. If you are struggling to afford insulin, tell your doctors, says Cefalu. They might be able to recommend a free clinic or patient assistance plan, or suggest cheaper options. If cost is an issue, here are other ways to save money: TRY OLDER KINDS OF INSULIN Talk to your doctor about switching to older, cheaper kinds of insulin, suggests Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief medical officer at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Dangerous blood sugar plunges are more common with those, as they don't control blood sugar as tightly as newer, more expensive insulins. Patients using older products such as Novolin and Humulin R must test their blood sugar more often, and more carefully time when they inject insulin before meals, Gabbay stresses. SWITCH TO VIALS Patients who've been using insulin pens - injection devices containing multiple insulin doses - could switch to insulin vials. They are cheaper but less convenient. It requires drawing insulin out of the vial into a syringe, which makes doses less precise, and the abdominal injections hurt a bit more. Another option is Basaglar, a cheaper near-copy of the popular long-acting Lantus insulin pens. CHECK INSURANCE Review your insurance company's list of covered medications for insulin with the lowest copayments; coverage and copayments often change in January and there may be cheaper choices. Other savings options include getting a 90-day supply instead of 30-day refills. SHOP AROUND Check prices at different pharmacies. Prices can vary widely for insulin, other diabetes drugs and the testing strips and lancets needed to check blood sugar levels. Patients can look up drug prices at multiple drugstores and get coupons for big discounts at the pharmacy counter at www.GoodRx.com . Or try www.healthwarehouse.com , which sells medicines at cash prices, which can be cheaper even if you have insurance. Medicare and Medicaid patients can't combine coupons with their insurance, but a coupon alone might be the cheapest option. The three main insulin makers offer savings, including: -Sanofi's Insulins ValYOU Savings Program offers uninsured and cash-paying patients one insulin vial for $99 or one insulin pen for $149 each month. Starting in June, it will offer up to 10 vials and/or pens of most of its insulins for $99. Its Sanofi Patient Connection offers low-income uninsured patients free insulin. -Eli Lilly will soon sell Insulin Lispro, a half-price version of its top-selling insulin Humalog KwikPens, for $265 per month. Its Lilly Diabetes Solution Center helps patients find affordable options. -Novo Nordisk has long sold an older insulin, ReliOn, through Walmart for about $25 a vial. It's now available through CVS Health and Express Scripts. Novo Nordisk offers copay savings cards for Tresiba and other insulins, plus patient assistance with generous income limits at www.NovoCare.com . ___ Follow Linda A. Johnson at https://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma Workers' rights are a 2020 campaign focus this weekend DENMARK, S.C. (AP) - The issue of workers' rights is a focus this weekend for some of the Democrats running for president. At a rally in Warren, Michigan, where General Motors is closing a plant, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called on President Donald Trump to "go back to the drawing board" on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the tentative pact that would replace NAFTA. Sanders said the newly negotiated deal, which has yet to clear Congress, would still let companies such as GM continue to send U.S. jobs to Mexico. "I challenge Donald Trump: For once in your life, keep your campaign promises," he told a rally of 1,300 gathered in a community college parking lot in suburban Detroit. "Go back to the drawing board on NAFTA. Do not send this treaty to Congress unless it includes strong and swift enforcement mechanisms to raise the wages of workers and to prevent corporations from outsourcing American jobs to Mexico." Sanders, who spoke earlier in the day at a West Michigan plumbers and pipe fitters union local, narrowly won Michigan's 2016 Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton. She subsequently lost the state to Trump. Sanders said when Trump ran the first time, his "biggest lie" was that he would "stay with the working class of our country, that he was on their side." Sanders criticized Trump's tax cuts and his attempt to repeal the Obama health care law, adding that the trade deficit has gone up by $180 billion and 185,000 jobs have been moved overseas during Trump's presidency. ___ 2 children dead, many homes damaged as storms pummel South DALLAS (AP) - Powerful storms that rolled across the South on Saturday spawned at least two suspected tornadoes, damaged homes and killed two children in Texas, authorities said. The Angelina County Sheriff's Office said an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old died when strong winds toppled a tree onto the back of their family's car in Lufkin while it was in motion. Capt. Alton Lenderman said the parents, who were in the front seats, were not injured. Lufkin is about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Houston. Additional information was not immediately available. In Central Texas, Robertson County Sheriff Gerald Yezak told The Associated Press a tornado hit the small city of Franklin, overturning mobile homes and damaging other residences. Franklin is located about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of Dallas. The National Weather Service said preliminary information showed an EF-3 tornado touched down with winds of 140 mph (225.3 kph). Crews will continue to survey the damage over the next few days. ___ Pace of Bering Sea changes startles scientists ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Yupik Eskimo village of Kotlik on Alaska's northwest coast relies on a cold, hard blanket of sea ice to protect homes from vicious winter Bering Sea storms. Frigid north winds blow down from the Arctic Ocean, freeze saltwater and push sea ice south. The ice normally prevents waves from forming and locks onto beaches, walling off villages. But not this year. In February, southwest winds brought warm air and turned thin sea ice into "snow cone ice" that melted or blew off. When a storm pounded Norton Sound, water on Feb. 12 surged up the Yukon River and into Kotlik, flooding low-lying homes. Lifelong resident Philomena Keyes, 37, awoke to knee-deep water outside her house. "This is the first I experienced in my life, a flood that happened in the winter, in February," Keyes said in a phone interview. Winter storm surge flooding is the latest indication that something's off-kilter around the Bering Strait, the gateway from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. Rapid, profound changes tied to high atmospheric temperatures, a direct result of climate change, may be reordering the region's physical makeup. Ocean researchers are asking themselves if they're witnessing the transformation of an ecosystem. ___ Trump sanctuary city idea could help migrants stay in US PHOENIX (AP) - An idea floated by President Donald Trump to send immigrants from the border to "sanctuary cities" to exact revenge on Democratic foes could end up doing the migrants a favor by placing them in locations that make it easier to put down roots and stay in the country. The plan would put thousands of immigrants in cities that are not only welcoming to them, but also more likely to rebuff federal officials carrying out deportation orders. Many of these locations have more resources to help immigrants make their legal cases to stay in the United States than smaller cities, with some of the nation's biggest immigration advocacy groups based in places like San Francisco, New York City and Chicago. The downside for the immigrants would be a high cost of living in the cities. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University announced this week that an analysis found that immigrants in sanctuary cities such as New York and Los Angeles are 20% less likely to be arrested out in the community than in cities without such policies. "With immigrants being less likely to commit crimes than the U.S.-born population, and with sanctuary jurisdictions being safer and more productive than non-sanctuary jurisdictions, the data damns this proposal as a politically motivated stunt that seeks to play politics with peoples' lives," said George Gascon, district attorney for San Francisco. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated over the situation at the border, where tens of thousands of immigrant families are crossing each month, many to claim asylum. His administration has attempted several efforts to stop the flow, and he recently shook up the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security. ___ Morehouse College to admit transgender men starting in 2020 The country's only all-male historically black college will begin admitting transgender men next year, marking a major shift for the school at a time when higher education institutions around the nation are adopting more welcoming policies toward LGBT students. Leaders of Morehouse College in Atlanta told The Associated Press that its board of trustees approved the policy on Saturday. Transgender men will be allowed to enroll in the school for the first time in 2020. Students who identify as women but were born male cannot enroll, however, and anyone who transitions from male to female will not be automatically eligible to receive a degree from the institution. Morehouse officials hailed the move as an important step toward a more inclusive campus while affirming its mission to educate and develop men. "I think Morehouse having the courage to speak to issues of masculinity in today's environment is important," Morehouse College President David Thomas told The Associated Press. "For 152 years, the world has, in some way, seen Morehouse as the West Point of black male development." ___ House Democrat, treasury chief bicker over Trump tax returns WASHINGTON (AP) - A top House Democrat on Saturday ratcheted up his demand for access to President Donald Trump's tax returns, telling the IRS that the law clearly gives Congress a right to them. The government's failure to respond by an April 23 deadline could send the dispute into federal court. Trump's treasury chief, who oversees the IRS, cited "complicated legal issues" and bemoaned "an arbitrary deadline" set by Congress, while saying he would answer in that time frame. A new letter by Rep. Richard Neal, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, comes after the Trump administration asked for more time to consider his initial request last week. Neal had requested six years of Trump's personal and business tax returns. Neal, D-Mass., argues that a 1920-era law saying the IRS "shall furnish" any tax return requested by Congress "is unambiguous and raises no complicated legal issues" and that the Treasury Department's objections lack merit. The letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig is the latest exchange in a tug of war over Trump's returns, which would give lawmakers far greater insight into the president's business dealings and potential conflicts of interest as it exercises its oversight role. ___ Chief: Boy thrown from Mall of America balcony being treated BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) - A 5-year-old boy who was thrown from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America near Minneapolis remains hospitalized with serious injuries, authorities said Saturday. Bloomington police Chief Jeffrey Potts said during a news conference that the boy fell nearly 40 feet after a man who apparently didn't know the boy or his family threw him off the balcony Friday. Authorities haven't released the boy's name and say his family has requested privacy. Potts said he couldn't give an update on the boy's status, except to say that he's being cared for at the hospital and that his parents are with him. Hospital officials haven't responded to requests for a status update. Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, of Minneapolis, was arrested at the mall's transit station after the attack and is jailed on a suspicion of attempted homicide charge. Potts credited bystanders and mall security for his quick capture. "This is a horrific situation," Potts said. ___ Large, flightless bird attacks and kills its fallen owner ALACHUA, Fla. (AP) - A large, flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea attacked and killed its owner when the man fell on his farm in Florida, authorities said Saturday. The Alachua County Fire Rescue Department told the Gainesville Sun that a cassowary killed the man Friday on the property near Gainesville, likely using its long claws. The victim was apparently breeding the birds, state wildlife officials said. "My understanding is that the gentleman was in the vicinity of the bird and at some point fell. When he fell, he was attacked," Deputy Chief Jeff Taylor told the newspaper. He said first responders got a call at 10 a.m. Friday and rushed the man to a hospital for trauma care but he died. The county sheriff's office identified the victim as Marvin Hajos, 75, and said a death investigation has been opened. "Initial information indicates that this was a tragic accident for Mr. Hajos," said Lt. Brett Rhodenizer, a sheriff's office spokesman, in an email to the paper. "The cassowary involved remains secured on private property at this time." ___ Molinari builds 2-shot lead over Woods, Finau in Masters AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - Record scores on the white boards at Augusta National. Ground-shaking roars for Tiger Woods along the back nine. Francesco Molinari blocked out the buzz on a delirious day of nine players sharing space atop the leaderboard Saturday. He emerged with another rock-solid round that looked spectacular only on his scorecard. Molinari ran off four straight birdies on the back nine for a 6-under 66 that kept Woods and everyone else at a short arm's length going into a Sunday unlike any other at the Masters - an early start because of storms forecast for Sunday afternoon, with threesomes going off the first and 10th tees. The leaders were to tee off at 9:20 a.m. That puts Woods in the final group at the Masters for the first time in 12 years, two shots behind. Molinari played with Woods on the final day at Carnoustie last summer and outplayed the 14-time major champion amid a crowded leaderboard to win the British Open. ___ Shame, sadness in UK as Brexit reveals Parliament's flaws LONDON (AP) - As a symbol of the woes of Britain's Brexit-era democracy, it could hardly be bettered. Lawmakers had to be sent home in mid-debate last week when water from a burst pipe began gushing into the House of Commons chamber. The image perfectly illustrates Parliament's problem as it tries to solve the puzzle that is Brexit. On the outside, the U.K. institution is resplendent, a world-famous symbol of democracy sitting majestically on the River Thames. On the inside, it's decrepit and increasingly unfit for use. The hidden flaws in Britain's political system have been laid bare - and televised worldwide - since voters chose, almost three years ago, to leave the European Union. Decision-making has ground to a standstill, even as business leaders and residents alike cry out for certainty. Many Britons feel a mix of frustration, fascination and shame at the ongoing political chaos. So do politicians on both sides of the Brexit divide. "I am ashamed to be a member of this Parliament," said pro-EU Liberal Democrat lawmaker Norman Lamb after lawmakers once again failed to find a way forward on Brexit. DENMARK, S.C. (AP) - The issue of workers' rights is a focus this weekend for some of the Democrats running for president. At a rally in Warren, Michigan, where General Motors is closing a plant, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called on President Donald Trump to "go back to the drawing board" on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the tentative pact that would replace NAFTA. Sanders said the newly negotiated deal, which has yet to clear Congress, would still let companies such as GM continue to send U.S. jobs to Mexico. "I challenge Donald Trump: For once in your life, keep your campaign promises," he told a rally of 1,300 gathered in a community college parking lot in suburban Detroit. "Go back to the drawing board on NAFTA. Do not send this treaty to Congress unless it includes strong and swift enforcement mechanisms to raise the wages of workers and to prevent corporations from outsourcing American jobs to Mexico." Sanders, who spoke earlier in the day at a West Michigan plumbers and pipe fitters union local, narrowly won Michigan's 2016 Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton. She subsequently lost the state to Trump. Sanders said when Trump ran the first time, his "biggest lie" was that he would "stay with the working class of our country, that he was on their side." Sanders criticized Trump's tax cuts and his attempt to repeal the Obama health care law, adding that the trade deficit has gone up by $180 billion and 185,000 jobs have been moved overseas during Trump's presidency. Other highlights from the campaigns: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a rally in Warren, Mich., Saturday, April 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) BETO O'ROURKE Beto O'Rourke is campaigning in rural South Carolina, saying he wants to show up for communities that are often overlooked by politicians or "left for last." O'Rourke spoke to about 50 people at Voorhees College, a historically black college in Denmark, a city of 3,000 people. Addressing the infrastructure needs of rural areas, he said politicians need to demonstrate that every community, no matter how big or small, "is worthy of investment." O'Rourke spoke specifically about using federal infrastructure spending to address issues like the water crisis in Denmark, where residents have been dealing with brown-tinted drinking water that smells foul and is filled with sediment. The city for years used a pool disinfectant not approved by the EPA in a drinking water well, which was taken offline last summer. ___ ELIZABETH WARREN Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the United States is a world leader on the climate issue. It's just that the nation is leading in the wrong direction. At a house party in New Hampshire on Saturday, the Massachusetts Democrat said the reason the country is headed in the wrong direction is because of corruption. "This is not ignorance," Warren said. "This is not that people just don't get it. The people in Washington, oh, they get it. But they are on the take. They are influenced by the money." But it's so much more than campaign contributions, she said. It's also the lobbyists, lawyers, the think tanks and "bought and paid for experts" that has created a sense of deniability around climate change, she said. "The key that we've got to play into, unlock, fixing the problems we need to fix, starts with, we have got to push back on the influence of money in Washington," Warren said. ___ CORY BOOKER New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker returned his Newark home on Saturday to kick off a two-week, nationwide "Justice For All" tour that will focus on issues that include gun control and criminal justice reform. Booker, who served as the mayor of Newark before joining the Senate, has sought to showcase the city's economic progress as an example of the kind of priorities he would set as president. In his remarks on Saturday, he emphasized issues including ending mass incarceration and gun control. Booker formally announced his presidential campaign more than two months ago but has been mired in the middle of a crowded field of candidates. His campaign is hoping the new tour - which will include stops in Iowa, Georgia and Nevada - gives him a burst of momentum this spring. ___ JOHN HICKENLOOPER Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said on Saturday Democrats can't beat President Donald Trump with anger. Instead they should make fun of him. Speaking to a crowd of about a dozen voters at a diner in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Hickenlooper said Trump was a "bully," and "most bullies are narcissistic and insecure...they want to be respected, and they want to be seen as a powerful person." "The way I dealt with bullies as a kid is...you don't take them head-on, you take what they're saying, you twist it a little bit so you expose the ridiculousness of what they're saying," he said. "The only way you can beat Trump is to set him up for the absurd figure, the comic book figure that he is," he said. Hickenlooper advised Democrats to avoid getting angry at Trump because, "especially in elections...it pushes people in the middle a little farther out to the edges." ___ Associated Press writers Hunter Woodall in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and David Eggert in Warren, Michigan, contributed to this report. SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) - Northern California authorities say that part of a giant hammer stolen last year has been returned. The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa reports that a local attorney told Healdsburg police Thursday that someone had left the hammerhead portion on Sonoma County property owned by a client. Santa Rosa attorney Izaak Schwaiger said his client wished to remain anonymous but asked him to "mediate the artwork's return." The hammerhead weighs more than 200 pounds (90 kilograms) and is 6 feet (2 meters) tall. It disappeared in October. Artist Doug Unkrey says the head needs refurbishing. He also needs the return of the 21-foot (6-meter) long redwood handle, or make a new one. The entire piece weighed about 800 pounds (363 kilograms). The art is valued at $15,000. In this Friday, April 12, 2019 photo, artist Doug Unkrey, creator of the 800-pound hammer sculpture, examines the hammer head's condition after its return to his studio at the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation in Healdsburg, Calif. "The Hammer" sculpture was stolen in October 2018 from its installation at the Healdsburg Community Center. (Alvin Jornada/The Press Democrat via AP) ___ Information from: The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, http://www.pressdemocrat.com In this Friday, April 12, 2019 photo, artist Doug Unkrey, creator of the 800-pound hammer sculpture, stands beside the hammer head after its return to his studio at the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation in Healdsburg, Calif. "The Hammer" sculpture was stolen in October 2018 from its installation at the Healdsburg Community Center. (Alvin Jornada/The Press Democrat via AP) DALLAS (AP) - Powerful storms that rolled across the South on Saturday spawned at least two suspected tornadoes, damaged homes and killed two children in Texas, authorities said. The Angelina County Sheriff's Office said an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old died when strong winds toppled a tree onto the back of their family's car in Lufkin while it was in motion. Capt. Alton Lenderman said the parents, who were in the front seats, were not injured. Lufkin is about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Houston. Additional information was not immediately available. In Central Texas, Robertson County Sheriff Gerald Yezak told The Associated Press a tornado hit the small city of Franklin, overturning mobile homes and damaging other residences. Franklin is located about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of Dallas. The National Weather Service said preliminary information showed an EF-3 tornado touched down with winds of 140 mph (225.3 kph). Crews will continue to survey the damage over the next few days. Two people were hospitalized for injuries not thought to be life-threatening, while others were treated at the scene for minor injuries, Yezak said. Some people had to be extricated from their homes. A roof is torn off a home following a suspected tornado, Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Franklin, Texas. (Laura McKenzie/College Station Eagle via AP) Weather service meteorologist Monique Sellers said they've received reports of downed trees, as well as damage to buildings and a transmission tower. The storms are part of a large system moving through the southern United States, knocking out power to thousands and causing some flash flooding. The weather service said the system is expected to shift to the Ohio Valley and the Southeast on Sunday. More than 140,000 customers remained without power in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas late Saturday. Meteorologist John Moore said a possible twister touched down Saturday in the Vicksburg, Mississippi, area. No injuries have been reported, but officials said several businesses and vehicles were damaged. Trees were down throughout the hilly city on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi. Heavy rains and storms continued to rake the Magnolia State into the night, with Mississippi State University's 21,000 students huddling in basements and hallways as a tornado came near the school's campus in Starkville. University spokesman Sid Salter said some debris, possibly carried by the tornado, was found on campus, but no injuries were reported and no buildings were damaged. Trees were down and at least some minor structural damage was reported in residential areas east of the campus. Winds of up to 60 mph (96.56 kph) were reported in Cherokee County, Texas, damaging two homes in Alto but not injuring anyone. Alto is situated about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of Houston. A vehicle drives through a flooded section of Muskingum Avenue on Saturday, April,13, 2019, in Odessa, Texas. (Jacob Ford/Odessa American via AP) A car lies upside down in a ditch following a suspected tornado, Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Franklin, Texas. (Laura McKenzie/College Station Eagle via AP) A tree lies on its side following a suspected tornado in Franklin, Texas, on Saturday, April 13, 2019. The storms are part of a large system moving through the southern United States. The weather service said the system is expected to shift to the Ohio Valley and the Southeast on Sunday. (Laura McKenzie/College Station Eagle via AP) A crew member moves signage during a weather delay for practices and qualifying for the Grand Prix of the Americas motorcycle race at the Circuit Of The Americas, Saturday, April 13, 2019, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) A gas station is damaged following severe weather, Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Vicksburg, Miss. Authorities say a possible tornado has touched down in western Mississippi, causing damage to several businesses and vehicles. John Moore, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jackson, says a twister was reported Saturday in the Vicksburg area of Mississippi and was indicated on radar. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post via AP) Robert and Marion Murphy peek into their damaged shop in the Pemberton Quarters strip mall following severe weather Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Vicksburg, Miss. Authorities say a possible tornado has touched down in western Mississippi, causing damage to several businesses and vehicles. John Moore, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jackson, says a twister was reported Saturday in the Vicksburg area of Mississippi and was indicated on radar. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post via AP) Debris is strewn in flooded water in the Pemberton Quarters strip mall following severe weather Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Vicksburg, Miss. Authorities say a possible tornado has touched down in western Mississippi, causing damage to several businesses and vehicles. John Moore, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jackson, says a twister was reported Saturday in the Vicksburg area of Mississippi and was indicated on radar. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post via AP) Vehicles travel on Pemberton Square Boulevard under missing and damaged traffic lights following severe weather, Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Vicksburg, Miss. Authorities say a possible tornado has touched down in western Mississippi, causing damage to several businesses and vehicles. John Moore, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jackson, says a twister was reported Saturday in the Vicksburg area of Mississippi and was indicated on radar. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post via AP) PHOENIX (AP) - An idea floated by President Donald Trump to send immigrants from the border to "sanctuary cities" to exact revenge on Democratic foes could end up doing the migrants a favor by placing them in locations that make it easier to put down roots and stay in the country. The plan would put thousands of immigrants in cities that are not only welcoming to them, but also more likely to rebuff federal officials carrying out deportation orders. Many of these locations have more resources to help immigrants make their legal cases to stay in the United States than smaller cities, with some of the nation's biggest immigration advocacy groups based in places like San Francisco, New York City and Chicago. The downside for the immigrants would be a high cost of living in the cities. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University announced this week that an analysis found that immigrants in sanctuary cities such as New York and Los Angeles are 20% less likely to be arrested out in the community than in cities without such policies. "With immigrants being less likely to commit crimes than the U.S.-born population, and with sanctuary jurisdictions being safer and more productive than non-sanctuary jurisdictions, the data damns this proposal as a politically motivated stunt that seeks to play politics with peoples' lives," said George Gascon, district attorney for San Francisco. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated over the situation at the border, where tens of thousands of immigrant families are crossing each month, many to claim asylum. His administration has attempted several efforts to stop the flow, and he recently shook up the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security. The idea to ship immigrants to Democratic strongholds was considered twice in recent months, but the White House and Department of Homeland Security said the plan had been rejected. But Trump said Friday he was still considering the idea. In this April 5, 2019 photo, President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable on immigration and border security at the U.S. Border Patrol Calexico Station in Calexico, Calif. Trump said Friday he is considering sending "Illegal Immigrants" to Democratic strongholds to punish them for inaction- just hours after White House and Homeland Security officials insisted the idea was dead on arrival. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) "Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only," Trump tweeted. He added that, "The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy - so this should make them very happy!" Wilson Romero is an immigrant from Honduras who chose to settle in the San Francisco Bay Area. Romero, 27, was separated from his daughter, now 7, by federal authorities at the U.S. border at El Paso, Texas, last year and jailed for three months before being released and making his way to live with his mother in San Jose, California. There he was reunited with his daughter, who attends public kindergarten. Romero says he goes about daily errands in public without worry of discrimination. His daughter has made friends and has playdates with the children of Mexican American families. It's a far cry from his hometown in the violence-plagued outskirts of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, that he fled after his brother-in-law was killed. To him, the biggest problem with being in the Bay Area is the high cost of living. The former textile factory worker relies on his mother's income from waitressing for food and clothing, and he's started thinking about asking legal permission to move to North Carolina, where an uncle resides and says it's cheaper to live and work. "To tell the truth, it's a little tight now, financially speaking," said Romero, a former textile factory worker, who said he doesn't know of any charities that may be willing to help. The plan discussed by Trump would also have financial, logistical and legal issues. The transportation of immigrants who are arrested at the border to large and faraway cities would be burdensome and costly at a time when Immigration and Customs Enforcement is already stretched thin, having released over 125,000 immigrants into the country pending their immigration court since Dec. 21. They are currently being released mainly in border states. Flights chartered by ICE cost about $7,785 per flight hour, according to the agency, and require multiple staffers, including an in-flight medical professional. The agency also uses commercial flights. Doing longer transports would increase liability for the agency, especially considering that many of the immigrants in its care are families with young children. And despite the consideration given to releasing the immigrants on the streets to sanctuary cities, the Trump administration actually has plenty of jail space to detain families. As of April 11, the nation's three facilities to detain immigrant families were nowhere near capacity, including a Pennsylvania facility housing only nine immigrants. It's also unclear how long the immigrants would stay in these cities because they are required to provide an address to federal authorities - typically of a family member - as a condition of their release. "It's illogical," said Angela Chan, policy director and senior attorney with the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus. "It's just alarming that they are spending so much effort and so much time to engage in political theater." The Trump administration has long pushed back against cities with sanctuary policies, which generally prohibit local authorities to cooperate with federal immigration police, often by refusing to hold people arrested on local charges past their release date at the request of immigration officers. Over 100 local governments around the country have adopted a variety of these polices "New York City will always be the ultimate city of immigrants - the President's empty threats won't change that," New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio said in a statement. But Trump seemed ready to step up his fight with the cities, vowing to "give them an unlimited supply" of immigrants from the border. ___ Associated Press writer Karen Matthews contributed to this report. LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Border Patrol agents dropped off asylum-seeking migrants in New Mexico's second most populous city for the second day in a row Saturday, prompting Las Cruces city officials to appeal for donations of food and personal hygiene items and a state medical program to seek volunteers to provide health assessments of migrants. The migrants were being temporarily housed at a homeless shelter in Las Cruces, a city recreation center and a campus of social service agencies, city officials said in a statement. The statement said 83 migrants arrived Saturday, following about 95 who were dropped off by the Border Patrol on Friday at the Gospel Rescue Mission homeless shelter and the Community of Hope campus. The Las Cruces Sun-News reported Las Cruces churches for months have been providing temporary shelter to migrants released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention but that Friday was the first time that the Border Patrol vans dropped off migrants at the homeless shelter. City spokesman Udell Vigil said Saturday that migrants could be arriving "for the next several days." Las Cruces is not a sanctuary city that rebuffs federal officials carrying out deportation orders. In this Friday, April 12, 2019 photo, a U.S. Border Patrol agent helps migrants out of a van at the Gospel Rescue Mission in Las Cruces, N.M. The U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped off asylum-seeking migrants in New Mexico's second most populous city for the second day in a row Saturday, April 13, 2019 prompting Las Cruces city officials to appeal for donations of food and personal hygiene items. The migrants were being temporarily housed at a homeless shelter, a city recreation center and a campus of social service agencies. (Blake Gumprecht/The Las Cruces Sun News via AP) Some migrants were taken to Meerscheidt Recreation Center, which the statement said was closed to the public because of its use as temporary housing for migrants. The closing forced cancellation of a T-ball on-site registration event that was scheduled Saturday. The statement said needed items included utensils, napkins, paper plates, sanitary napkins, shampoo, clothing, towels, blankets, canned food, bottled water, foam padding for bedding and stuffed toys. The Border Patrol announced Thursday it would release migrants in southern New Mexico and in El Paso, Texas, pending their future court hearings because of Immigration and Customs "capacity issues." In another development, the state Department of Health in Santa Fe on Saturday appealed for health care professionals such as pediatricians, nurses and EMTs to join a state-run volunteer registry involved "in the humanitarian mission by providing medical screening support services to migrants in New Mexico." Bobbie MacKenzie, volunteer coordinator for the New Mexico Medical Reserve Corps , said the appeal made Saturday was aimed at augmenting the current ranks of volunteers so they don't get burned out. "We need more. This is going to be an ongoing event," MacKenzie told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "We're trying to not to inundate and overwhelm the volunteers." Most of the current volunteers helping provide health assessments of migrants in Las Cruces are from that area but some are from as far away as Albuquerque, she said. Albuquerque, New Mexico's most populous city, is 192 miles (308 kilometers) north of Las Cruces. In this Friday, April 12, 2019 photo, migrants wait in line to get drinks after being dropped off by the Border Patrol at the Gospel Rescue Mission in Las Cruces, N.M. The U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped off asylum-seeking migrants in New Mexico's second most populous city for the second day in a row Saturday, April 13, 2019 prompting Las Cruces city officials to appeal for donations of food and personal hygiene items. The migrants were being temporarily housed at a homeless shelter, a city recreation center and a campus of social service agencies. (Blake Gumprecht/The Las Cruces Sun News via AP) Border Patrol vans drop off migrants at Meerscheidt Recreation Center on Saturday morning, April 13, 2019 in Las Cruces, N.M. The U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped off asylum-seeking migrants in New Mexico's second most populous city for the second day in a row Saturday, prompting Las Cruces city officials to appeal for donations of food and personal hygiene items. The migrants were being temporarily housed at a homeless shelter, a city recreation center and a campus of social service agencies. (Blake Gumprecht/The Las Cruces Sun News via AP) Staff from Casa de Peregrinos food pantry unload food supplies for migrants at Meerscheidt Recreation Center on Saturday, April 13, 2019. The U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped off asylum-seeking migrants in New Mexico's second most populous city for the second day in a row Saturday, prompting Las Cruces city officials to appeal for donations of food and personal hygiene items. The migrants were being temporarily housed at a homeless shelter, a city recreation center and a campus of social service agencies. (Blake Gumprecht/The Las Cruces Sun News via AP) BYHALIA, Miss. (AP) - A north Mississippi man has killed himself and wounded a sheriff's deputy in a standoff. Marshall County Sheriff Kenny Dickerson tells local news outlets that a deputy confronted an unnamed man as part of a drug investigation Friday evening. Dickerson says the man fled and the deputy chased him to a house in Byhalia. The man got out of his vehicle and shot the deputy at least twice. The man barricaded himself in the house while the wounded deputy was taken by helicopter to a Memphis, Tennessee, hospital, where he's expected to recover. Deputies cut power to the house during the hours-long standoff. Dickerson says the suspect emerged about 10:30 p.m., asked to speak to the sheriff, then shot himself. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation will take over the investigation. WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal investigation into a company run by one of President Donald Trump's nominees to head a prominent federal agency found a "severe and pervasive" culture of sexual harassment. The Labor Department report from January 2018 made a harsh assessment of the internal culture at AccuWeather, concluding that multiple sexual harassment claims were ignored by executives and that women who complained feared retaliation. AccuWeather's chief executive at the time, Barry Myers, has been nominated by Trump to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A redacted copy of that report from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has now been obtained by The Associated Press, providing previously unreported details on the extent of the company's problems. The investigation claims that multiple sexual harassment claims - including several against a specific "high-profile male employee"- were ignored and that the company "was aware of the sexual harassment but took no action." It also concludes that claims from the company's human resources director that they had no knowledge of the accusations are "not credible" and that several female employees say they were driven to resign. Myers served as AccuWeather's chief executive from 2007 to January 2019. His brother Joel Myers is the company's founder and president. His nomination to head NOAA - which oversees the National Weather Service - has advanced out of committee but has not been scheduled for a full Senate vote. AccuWeather had already agreed last year to pay $290,000 as part of a settlement of the findings. The company, based in State College, Pennsylvania, provides commercial weather forecasting services and is a federal contractor. A statement from the company says it continues "to deny the allegations and claims." But it says the company agreed to pay the fine not as an admission of guilt but to avoid wasting "time and money needlessly on protracted legal negotiations." The AccuWeather statement said the company "continues to improve as an inclusive, empowering and respectful workplace." NEW YORK (AP) - The president of Brazil may not be a welcome guest in New York - at least, not at one event. President Jair Bolsonaro is to be honored at the American Museum of Natural History in May, invited by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce that rented space there for its annual gala. Mayor Bill de Blasio and some museum staff members are demanding he stay away because Bolsonaro favors mining in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, as well as logging and fossil fuel exploration. Opponents say the New York scientific institution dedicated to preserving nature should not allow such a politician to appear there. The museum on Manhattan's West Side had agreed to the dinner booking before the New York-based Brazilian business organization invited Bolsonaro. Given the space-leasing contract, the museum said in a tweet that it is "deeply concerned" and exploring its legal options. Speaking on WNYC radio Friday, the New York mayor called Bolsonaro "a very dangerous human being because, unfortunately, he is the person with the most ability to impact what happens to the Amazon going forward." FILE- In this April 5, 2019 file photo, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro smiles during a military promotion ceremony at the Planate Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil. New York mayor Bill de Blasio and some staff members of the American Museum of Natural History don't want Bolsonaro to be honored by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce that rented space there in May 2019 for its annual gala because Bolsonaro favors mining in Brazil's Amazon rain forest, as well as logging and fossil fuel exploration. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File) In a statement, the museum said the event "does not in any way reflect the museum's position that there is an urgent need to conserve the Amazon rainforest, which has such profound implications for biological diversity, indigenous communities, climate change, and the future health of our planet." The Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce could not immediately be reached for comment. ALACHUA, Fla. (AP) - A large, flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea attacked and killed its owner when the man fell on his farm in Florida, authorities said Saturday. The Alachua County Fire Rescue Department told the Gainesville Sun that a cassowary killed the man Friday on the property near Gainesville, likely using its long claws. The victim was apparently breeding the birds, state wildlife officials said. "My understanding is that the gentleman was in the vicinity of the bird and at some point fell. When he fell, he was attacked," Deputy Chief Jeff Taylor told the newspaper. He said first responders got a call at 10 a.m. Friday and rushed the man to a hospital for trauma care but he died. The county sheriff's office identified the victim as Marvin Hajos, 75, and said a death investigation has been opened. "Initial information indicates that this was a tragic accident for Mr. Hajos," said Lt. Brett Rhodenizer, a sheriff's office spokesman, in an email to the paper. "The cassowary involved remains secured on private property at this time." Cassowaries are similar to emus and stand up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and weigh up to 130 pounds (60 kilograms), with black body feathers and distinctive, bright blue heads and necks. FILE - In this June 30, 2015, file photo, an endangered cassowary roams in the Daintree National Forest, Australia. On Friday, April 12, 2019, a cassowary, a large, flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea, killed its owner when it attacked him after he fell on his property near Gainesville, Fla. Cassowaries are similar to emus and stand up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and weigh up to 130 pounds (59 kilograms). (AP Photo/Wilson Ring, File) The San Diego Zoo's website calls the cassowary the world's most dangerous bird with a four-inch (10-centimeter), dagger-like claw on each foot. "The cassowary can slice open any predator or potential threat with a single swift kick. Powerful legs help the cassowary run up to 31 miles per hour (50 kph) through the dense forest underbrush," the website says. Cassowaries are eaten in parts of New Guinea. The birds are not raised for food in the U.S., but are sought after by collectors of exotic birds, according to authorities. To obtain a mandatory permit, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission requires cassowary owners to have "substantial experience" and meet specific cage requirements, spokeswoman Karen Parker told the newspaper. She said the commission lists the cassowary as a type of wildlife that can "pose a danger to people." Wildlife officials did not answer phone calls late Saturday from The Associated Press and it wasn't immediately known what would happen with the bird. MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - A drive-by shooting outside a popular Melbourne nightclub in Australia early Sunday left one man dead, another critically wounded and two others injured, police said. Police said shots were fired from a car into a crowd standing outside the two-story Love Machine club, hitting three security guards at the nightclub and one patron. Police appealed for anyone with video footage or information to come forward. They have made no arrests so far. Four people were taken to a hospital, two of whom in critical condition. Police later confirmed that one man, 37 years old, had died. They are investigating whether a black Porsche SUV seen leaving the area is related to the shooting. The car was later found burnt out. "These things are still incredibly rare and there's nothing to indicate at the moment that this is part of a broader agenda," said Andrew Stamper of Victoria state police. Forensic police examine items at the scene of a multiple shooting outside Love Machine nightclub in Melbourne, Sunday, April 14, 2019. A shooting outside the nightclub early Sunday left at least two people critically wounded, police said. (Ellen Smith/AAP Image via AP) Love Machine host Steve Yousif posted on Facebook: "Overwhelmed with all your calls and texts, nothing but love for you all." "What happened last night was uncalled for and devastating. For some of you it was a night out, the rest of the Love Machine family lost a beautiful soul today," he wrote. Gun violence is rare in Australia, which strengthened its gun laws following the murders of 35 people by a lone gunman in 1996 in Tasmania. In New Zealand, an Australian white supremacist has been charged with murder over the March 15 mosque attacks that left 50 dead, leading that nation to ban a range of semi-automatic weapons. NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Mired in the 2020 pack, Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker returned on Saturday to the city where he earned his political chops, hoping for a surge as he undertakes a two-week tour around the country and expressing confidence to supporters that he, like the country he wants to lead, "will rise." The New Jersey senator joined the race more than two months ago, capped by an appearance before reporters outside his Newark home and with a call for the country to unite in a time of sharp division. He emphasized that theme in Saturday's rally, billed as a campaign kickoff, with the goal of gaining political momentum and distinguishing himself from among his dozen-plus rivals. "Critics will tell us that a campaign powered by grace and love and a deep faith in each other" cannot prevail, Booker said. "But I say it's the only way we win. The president wants a race to the gutter and to fight us in the gutter. To win, we have to fight from higher ground in order to bring this country to higher ground." Booker has made early voting states a priority during his 10 weeks in the race, yet he remains bunched among the contenders, with poll numbers in the single digits. Nonetheless, his campaign is projecting confidence that he doesn't have to lead early to succeed with a strategy built more on grassroots enthusiasm than national buzz. "We're trying to win the election - we're not trying to win a news cycle," campaign manager Addisu Demissie told reporters this past week, describing the approach as "organize and get hot at the end." And to win, Booker said he would work to "make justice real for all." Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. talks to the crowd during a hometown kickoff for his national presidential campaign tour at Military Park in downtown Newark, Saturday, April 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) The former Newark mayor and his team know that building a higher profile requires some bigger swings for attention that spotlight his oratory skills. Saturday's rally before a friendly crowd was intended to give the campaign a chance "to keep Cory front and center with the voters, which is how you break out here," as Demissie put it. "You need to be visible." The first stops on Booker's national tour are in Iowa, Georgia and Nevada. The themes he pressed at the rally included ending "mass incarcerations" and "the school to prison pipeline," passing gun control measures such as universal background checks and an assault weapons ban and advancing "Medicare for All." He wants to enact "comprehensive immigration reform" that also provides a path to citizenship for young immigrants who are in the country illegally and end "the sabotage" of the Obama-era health care law. He pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who will defend the landmark ruling that legalized abortion. "Together, we will fulfill our pledge to be a nation of liberty and justice for all. Together, we will win. And together, America, we will rise," Booker said. His campaign announcement in February emphasized the importance of "common purpose" in politics, a message he's since expanded on to trumpet his successful work on bipartisan measures, such as the criminal justice reform bill that President Donald Trump signed last year. "There are some folks that want to criticize you for getting into the sausage-making, for making compromises and horse-trading, but when I walk around my neighborhood now, folk come out and tell me, 'Thank you for doing that bill,'" Booker told New York-based radio show "Ebro in the Morning" on Friday. Booker, 49, raised more than $5 million in the first quarter of the year, his campaign said, which is less than higher-polling candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke reported raising in their first 24 hours in the race. That sum ranks Booker behind at least six contenders, including South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who raked in $7 million. ___ Associated Press writer Hunter Woodall in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. salutes the crowd during a hometown kickoff for his national presidential campaign tour at Military Park in downtown Newark, Saturday, April 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. talks to the crowd during a hometown kickoff for his national presidential campaign tour at Military Park in downtown Newark, Saturday, April 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) Cory Booker talks to the crowd during a Hometown Kickoff for his national presidential campaign tour at Military Park in downtown Newark, New Jersey, Saturday, April 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) BEIJING (AP) - This year's Shanghai auto show highlights the global industry's race to make electric cars Chinese drivers want to buy as Beijing winds down subsidies that promoted sales. Communist leaders are shifting the burden to automakers by imposing mandatory sales targets for electrics, adding to financial pressure on them amid a painful sales slump. Chinese purchases of pure-electric and hybrid sedans and SUVs soared 60% last year to 1.3 million - half the global total - but overall auto sales shrank 4.1% to 23.7 million. Buyers of electrics were lured with subsidies of up to 50,000 yuan ($7,400) per car, but that support was cut by half in January and ends next year. "Competition is getting more fierce," said industry analyst Paul Gong of UBS. Communist leaders have been promoting electrics for 15 years in hopes of cleaning smog-choked Chinese cities and gaining an early lead in a promising industry. General Motors, Volkswagen, Nissan and other global majors are developing models to suit Chinese tastes. They have money and technology, but local rivals have experience: brands including BYD Auto and BAIC Group have been selling low-priced electrics for a decade. FILE - In this April 25, 2018, file photo, a visitor takes a closer look at the Sylphy Zero Emission during the start of the Auto China 2018 in Beijing, China. The 2019 Shanghai auto show highlights the global industry's race to transform electric cars into a profitable product Chinese drivers want to buy as Beijing winds down multibillion-dollar subsidies that made this country the biggest market for the technology. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) At the Shanghai show, which opens to the public Saturday, automakers plan to display dozens of electrics, from luxury SUVs to micro-compacts priced under $10,000. They aim to compete with gasoline-powered models on performance, cost and looks. By the end of next year, "it will be very difficult for a customer to decide against an electric car," said the CEO of Volkswagen AG, Herbert Diess. "The cars will offer roominess, space, fast charging," Diess said during a January visit to Beijing. "They will look exciting." Automakers are looking to China, their biggest global market, to drive revenue growth at a time when U.S. and European demand is flat or declining. That gives them an incentive to cooperate with Beijing's campaign to promote electrics. This week, General Motors Co. is unveiling the first all-electric model in Buick's China-only Velite range, which includes a hybrid based on the Chevrolet Volt. VW will display a concept SUV as part of plans to launch 50 electric models by 2025. Nissan Motor Co. and its Chinese partner will display the Sylphy Zero Emission, an all-electric model designed for China that went on sale in August. BYD Auto will display an all-electric sedan with an advertised range of 400 kilometers (250 miles) on one charge. Pressure to shift to electrics is "more an opportunity than a threat" to Chinese automakers, said UBS's Gong. Latecomers to gasoline-powered vehicles, Chinese brands account for just 10% of global sales, mostly in low price tiers, Gong said. But they account for 50% of electric sales worldwide. "In the EV world, Chinese companies started earlier and reacted faster," said Gong. The ruling Communist Party has spent billions of dollars on research grants and incentives to buyers. State-owned power companies have blanketed China with 730,000 charging stations, a vastly larger network than any other country. Meanwhile, automakers are struggling to revive sales of traditional SUVS, minivans and sedans that fell last year for the first time in three decades. A tariff war with Washington and weakening economic growth made jittery consumers reluctant to commit to big purchases. That skid worsened this year. First-quarter sales shrank 13.7% from a year earlier. Despite that, people in the industry say Chinese sales could top 30 million vehicles a year by 2025. Ford relaunched its China operation this year after 2018 sales plunged 37%. The company blamed an aging product lineup. Global brands are linking up with Chinese partners with experience at low-cost production. Ford has an electric venture with Zotye Auto. GM and its Chinese partners plan 10 electric models by next year. Mercedes Benz launched the Denza brand with BYD. VW's electric joint venture, SOL, started selling an SUV last year. Under the new system, automakers must earn credits for sales of electrics equal to at least 10% of purchases this year and 12% in 2020. Automakers that fall short can buy credits from competitors that exceed their targets. Regulators say targets will rise later. An electric's sticker price in China still is higher than a gasoline model. But charging and maintenance cost less. Industry analysts say owners who drive at least 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) a year save money in the long run. China's biggest SUV brand, Great Wall Motors, has responded to the sale quotas by launching an electric brand, Ola. Its R1 compact, while looks like a toy beside Great Wall's hulking SUVs, went on sale in December priced as low as 59,800 yuan ($8,950) after the subsidy. In a move to spur competition, Beijing lifted ownership restrictions on electric automakers last year. Tesla Ltd. responded by announcing plans to build its first factory outside the United States in Shanghai. Official ambitions clash with the Chinese public's love of bulky SUVs, seen as the safest option on crowded, bumpy streets. But sentiments are shifting. A UBS survey found 71% of Chinese buyers are willing to try an electric, up from 58% a year ago. The rate for the United States and Europe was below 20%. "Customer willingness is always higher in China," said Gong. FILE - In this April 25, 2018, file photo, attendees take photos of the E-SEED electric concept car during a press conference by Chinese automaker BYD at the China Auto Show in Beijing. The 2019 Shanghai auto show highlights the global industry's race to transform electric cars into a profitable product Chinese drivers want to buy as Beijing winds down multibillion-dollar subsidies that made this country the biggest market for the technology. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - The administration of President Jair Bolsonaro plans to auction seven offshore oil fields in the northeast despite contrary advice from analysts of Brazil's main environmental body, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. Environmentalists say it's the latest example of how Bolsonaro, who campaigned on promises to revive Latin America's largest economy by cutting red tape, is pushing aside warnings and scientific evidence in the name of progress. It comes at a time when Brazil, one of the world's largest oil producers and energy consumers, is moving toward the privatization of several industries, including offshore exploration. "There is no need to explore these areas," said Carlos Rittl, executive secretary of environmental group Climate Observatory. "This decision is in line with a government that sees the environment as an obstacle." Brazil's environment institute, called IBAMA, enforces legislation and aims to promote the sustainable the use of natural resources. IBAMA analysts recommended against the exploration of oil in seven out of 42 offshore fields originally offered for auction in March by regulating body Brazilian Petroleum Agency. Three of the fields to be auctioned in October are in the Jacuipe Basin and four in the Camamu-Almada region, both in the waters off the coast of the northeastern state of Bahia. Appointed by Bolsonaro, the new head of the institute, Eduardo Bim, rejected its analysis, which warned that exploration of "highly sensitivity areas" could lead to spills. FILE - In this April 21, 2015 file photo, a man fishes near a floating oil platform in Guanabara Bay in Niteroi, Brazil. The administration of Jair Bolsonaro plans to auction seven oil fields despite contrary advice from analysts of Brazil's main environmental body. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File) The study, dated March 18, also said spills could lead to the destruction of the Abrolhos islands, an area of 353 square miles (913 square kilometers). Four of Abrolhos' five islands are home to a marine national park with rare coral formations, tropical fish, whales, seabirds, turtles and dolphins. The dispute within IBAMA was first published by daily O Estado de S. Paulo. The documents were obtained and verified by the AP. IBAMA analysts said the blocks are in regions that have never been tapped, which require more "strategic studies that could evaluate the aptitude of the area." The document said those studies are needed to give investors "more legal protection" in the case of an accident. The analysts also wrote that a spill could get to the coast and the island chain within two days, and authorities would not be prepared to respond quickly or adequately to protect marine life. "Add to that the fact the impact of a spill of large proportions over mangroves and corals are in general irreversible, harming the local economy and health," the document said. In response, Bim said in a letter to the environmental ministry, dated April 1, that he doesn't "see the need of exclusion of the (seven) fields as suggested by technical information." He did not detail why he believed it was fine to ignore the warnings. In a statement, IBAMA said that it, along with the environmental and energy ministries, agreed the auction was viable. The auction "means neither automatic authorization for tapping oil and gas nor the anticipation of the result of the environmental licensing." The institute said that studies on possible spills will still be required. The statement also said that previous auctions were made in oil fields that sit closer to the Abrolhos marine park than the ones expected to go on sale in October. Carlos Minc, Brazil's environmental minister between 2008 and 2010, said he had blocked attempts to explore for oil near Abrolhos because the migration of whales and dolphins in the region would be affected by ships. "Humpback whales left the list of animals under threat of extinction because of this. How could Brazil be taking this step back?" Minc said. "We have to stop them from destroying our marine biodiversity in the name of profits." Brazil is the world's ninth largest producer of oil in the world, and the third largest in the Americas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 2016, Brazil produced 3.24 million barrels per day of petroleum and other derivatives. Brazil is also the eighth-largest total energy consumer in the world. Bolsonaro has often said environmental protections should not block business. Before taking office Jan. 1, he promised to remove Brazil from the Paris agreement on climate change. He has since back-peddled, saying Brazil would remain in the agreement. Earlier this month, the AP reported that Bolsonaro's administration plans to drastically change a council that oversees the country's environmental policy, replacing a broad-based panel with a small group of appointees. IBAMA's Bim and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles are among the authors of the plan. According with Bolsonaro's plan, IBAMA would soon absorb the attributions of the federal agency that protects conservation zones such as national parks and biological reserves, including the Abrolhos maritime park that would be endangered by oil fields. Bim, Salles and the other authors of the study said in the plan that the move was necessary to streamline environmental governance and "avoid international interference" in Brazil. ____ Savarese reported from Madrid. FILE - In this April 9, 2019 file photo, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro attends a swearing-in ceremony at the Planalto Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil. Bolsonaro's administration plans to auction seven oil fields despite contrary advice from analysts of Brazil's main environmental body. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File) SYDNEY (AP) - Australian police on Sunday charged a man extradited from the United States with murder in the death of a Thai national, whose body was found bound and gagged on the side of a Sydney road. Alex Dion, 38, was charged with the 2018 murder of Wachira "Mario" Phetmang after he arrived in Sydney from California under police guard. The arrest warrant for Dion was issued in September while he already was in custody on a domestic violence charge in San Diego. Phetmang's body was discovered by a truck driver last June bound, gagged and wrapped in plastic, covered in a mattress protector. An autopsy of his body found he suffered more than 20 wounds to his head and had multiple skull fractures. The 33-year-old former cafe and spa worker had been living in Australia for at least the last 10 years, and was a permanent resident at the time of his death. He was last seen alive on May 25 at a petrol station in the Sydney suburb of South Hurstville. Dion, a U.S. national, is believed to have left Australia on May 27 - more than a week before the body was found and formal identification was made. This May 25, 2018 image from surveillance video released by the New South Wales Police Force shows Wachira "Mario" Phetmang, 33, entering a service station in South Hurstville, a suburb of Sydney. Authorities have identified an American suspect in the killing of Phetmang, a Thai national whose battered body was found bound, gagged and wrapped in plastic on the side of a road in a high-profile case in Australia, according to a federal search warrant obtained Tuesday, April 9. 2019. (New South Wales Police via AP) When Australian police held a news conference seeking the public's help in the case, Dion called them and tried to blame an associate for Phetmang's killing, while also acknowledging that he had Phetmang's credit cards and cellphones with him in San Diego, according to the search warrant. Dion told police that he had met Phetmang at the gas station to buy meth but that he left when their associate showed up, a story police say is contradicted by surveillance footage. Dion was refused bail and will appear at a court on Monday. Twenty-five years after the start of its genocide, in which some 800,000 people were killed, Rwanda is rebuilding with hope and shines with a new light, said its President Paul Kagame. Speaking at commemoration services on Sunday, Mr Kagame said that Rwandans would never turn against each other again. Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars, but none of us is alone, said Mr Kagame at the ceremony attended by several heads of state. We Rwandans have granted ourselves a new beginning. We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, every day, in all that we do Today, light radiates from this place. Rwandas President Paul Kagame, centre, and First Lady Jeannette Kagame (Ben Curtis/PA) Earlier in the day, Mr Kagame and his wife laid wreaths and lit a flame at the mass burial ground of 250,000 victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in the capital, Kigali. Those attending the ceremonies included the leaders of Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Niger, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, as well as the African Union and the European Union. I am moved beyond words at this memorial to tragedy, said Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission. Time can never erase the darkest hours in our history. It is our duty to remember. Songs, poems and plays about the rebirth of Rwanda after the genocide the new nation were later performed at the Kigali convention centre. Cherie Blair, also known as Cherie Booth, arrives to lay wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial (Ben Curtis/PA) Belgian prime minister Charles Michel said the duty of remembrance must be a sacred requirement. Belgian peacekeepers were among those killed in Rwanda during the genocide. Ethiopias prime minister expressed solidarity with Rwandans and said under Mr Kagames leadership, seeds of unity and never again had been sowed. Rwandans sitting in the stands hold candles as part of a candlelit vigil (Ben Curtis/PA) Then followed a procession through the capital to Kigalis National Stadium where are many as 30,000 are expected to participate in an evening candlelight ceremony. Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda fell into a deep ditch due to bad leadership, today, we are a country of hope and a nation elevated, Agnes Mutamba, 25, a teacher who was born during the genocide said in Kigali. From left to right, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, Rwandas President Paul Kagame, Rwandas First Lady Jeannette Kagame, and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, light the flame of remembrance (Ben Curtis/PA) Today, the government has united all Rwandans as one people with the same culture and history and is speeding up economic transformation, said Oliver Nduhungihere, Rwandas state foreign affairs minister. The mass killing of Rwandas Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu. The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane and the bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police, and militias. Mr Kagames government has previously accused Hutu-led government of 1994 of being responsible for shooting down the plane and has blamed the French government for turning a blind eye to the genocide. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a government study into the countrys role in Rwanda before and during its 1994 genocide. The children of genocide survivors and perpetrators play together in the reconciliation village of Mbyo, near Nyamata, in Rwanda (Ben Curtis/PA) Mr Macron ordered a commission of researchers and historians to investigate the role and involvement of France in Rwanda from 1990-1994. It is to make conclusions within two years. Mr Kagame has won praise for ending that violence and making advances in economic development and health care. Ethnic reconciliation is a cornerstone of the rule of Mr Kagame, Rwandas de facto leader since the genocide ended in 1994 and the countrys president since 2000. He is credited with bringing Rwanda stability, economic growth, and improved health and education. However, Mr Kagames critics charge that he is intolerant of criticism and his government is repressive, jailing opposition leaders. A quarter-century after the genocide, bodies of victims are still being found. Last year, authorities in Rwanda found discovered mass graves they said contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims. Twenty-five years on, the victims and survivors should remain the centre of everyones thoughts, but we should also take stock of progress and the need to ensure accountability for all those who directed these horrific acts, Human Rights Watch said. The Scottish Greens have argued they are the only the only political party to have maintained a rock solid Brexit position. In her closing speech at the party conference in Edinburgh, the parliamentary co-leader Alison Johnstone criticised both the Conservatives and Labour on Brexit. She said: In the face of timidity, stupidity, selfishness, tribalism and outright racism we have been rock solid. People know where we stand on the EU. Members of other parties dont have that certainty. But folk know the Greens wholeheartedly want to be in the EU, and to work to change what needs to be changed. No ifs, no buts. She accused the Conservatives of having plumbed new depths on Brexit, while saying the behaviour of the Labour Party on the issue has left her baffled. Alison Johnstone (third left) with fellow Green MSPs and party co-convener Maggie Chapman (Laura Paterson/PA) 'International socialists don't collude with the Tories to end freedom of movement in Europe' @AlisonJohnstone #SGPConf pic.twitter.com/nykaBcM0CV Ross Greer (@Ross_Greer) April 7, 2019 The MSP told delegates: How can it be the case that not a single Scottish Conservative has voiced their disquiet about the behaviour of their colleagues in Westminster? We are told that the majority of Scottish Conservatives, like the overwhelming majority of people in Scotland, like every local authority area in Scotland, voted to remain in the EU, yet not a peep. Not even in the face of the hardest of Brexits. I was going to say that Im not surprised at their behaviour, but I am. Their behaviour has plumbed new depths. Its now clear that they dont care if livelihoods are lost, if ordinary people suffer as a result of their obsession. And what about the so-called official opposition? Their initial response, the incredible Jobs First Brexit? To put it politely I am absolutely baffled by their behaviour. International socialists? International socialists dont collude with the Tories to remove the right of citizens to freedom of movement within the EU. Voting to remove the rights of people to move, and to work. The so-called party of the worker. Back-to-back Randox Health Grand National winner Tiger Roll has received a heros homecoming back in Ireland. Thousands lined the streets as the history-making horse paraded through the Co Meath village of Summerhill on Sunday evening. The nine-year-old reduced his usually unflappable trainer Gordon Elliott to tears at Aintree on Saturday in becoming the first horse since the great Red Rum in 1973/74 to win successive Nationals. Just as he did a year ago, Tiger Roll took to the streets of Summerhill less than 24 hours after racing into the history books and was treated to a rapturous welcome from the locals, who packed the small village to celebrate his triumphant return. 2019 Grand National Winner Tiger Roll with owner Michael OLeary during the parade through Summerhill, County Meath, Ireland (Brian Lawless/PA) Elliott, a native of Summerhill, who was winning his third National having struck Aintree gold with Silver Birch in 2007, said: To come back here and see the crowds, its unbelievable, its great. You get emotional, its the biggest race in the world. Everyone will remember Tiger Roll winning two in a row. Were all proud Summerhill men. Grand National Winner Tiger Roll (Brian Lawless/PA) My uncle passed away this year, he used to take me point-to-pointing and the race was for him. It was a great day, brilliant. To come here (and celebrate) two years in a row is great this is a great community, everyone gets on well, so its great to see a big crowd here. It looks an even bigger crowd than last year. Around 2,000 people were in attendance as Tiger Roll, also a four-time Cheltenham Festival winner, strutted his stuff on the main street alongside his trainer, jockey Davy Russell, his devoted groom Louise Magee and owner Michael OLeary, among others. Elliott returned to his local village on Saturday after catching a Ryanair flight from Liverpool to Dublin and the celebrations continued long into the night. Asked about plans for later on Sunday, Elliott quipped: Ill have a few quiet drinks in Shaws (pub). He (Tiger Roll) got back about 6.30am, I was in bed before him, but tonight will be a different story. Ryanair boss Mr OLeary, who runs Tiger Roll under his Gigginstown House Stud banner, said: I never thought wed win the Grand National once in our lifetime, so to do it three times in four years (Rule The World won in 2016) is phenomenal, a fantastic achievement. It was a fantastic day, the atmosphere in Aintree was electric. There was a lot of expectation he might win it again and he was a hot favourite, and very rarely does the hot favourite win the Grand National. 2019 Grand National winning jockey Davy Russell and his son Finn (three) with the cup during Tiger Rolls parade through Summerhill (Brian Lawless/PA) That they are now talking about him in the same breath as Red Rum just made for a phenomenal, historic occasion. Mr OLeary treated Ryanair passengers to free drinks on his flight back to Ireland after the race, and added: I give away free drinks every time we win the Grand National, it probably wont happen for another 45 years! Thousands of supporters, many chanting Free Lula!, have protested outside the jail where former Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is being held on the anniversary of his incarceration. But many other Brazilians have chosen the day to celebrate the countrys crackdown on corruption, with demonstrations across the country. Da Silva is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering. He and his Workers Party maintain he is innocent and say he was persecuted by the judiciary and political enemies in order to prevent him from running for president again. Workers Party President Gleisi Hoffmann, centre right, attends a demonstration (Denis Ferreira Netto/AP) Lula has been kidnapped by the bourgeoisie, Joao Pedro Stedile, a leader from the far-left Landless Workers Movement, told the protesters. The ransom is for us to stop fighting. They want to bring the Brazilian people to their knees. Mr Stedile then led the crowds in a pledge to the ex-leader, instructing them to turn toward da Silvas cell window. I promise to not rest one day, to do grassroots organising, to spread the word to the people, until Lula is free, the crowds repeated with their left arms raised in a fist. Meanwhile, on the promenade of Rio de Janeiros Copacabana Beach, anti-corruption protests cheered Lulas continued incarceration. A supporter of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wears an image of the former Brazilian president (Denis Ferreira Netto/AP) Today marks one whole year that Lula hasnt stolen! a protester screamed from the top of a sound car while the crowds applauded. Da Silva is the most prominent figure jailed in an anti-corruption investigation called Operation Carwash that has snared dozens of prominent politicians and business figures. The anti-corruption protesters were also demanding the continued crackdown on old politicians, calling for the arrest of other corrupt politicians and applauding the judiciary that is going after them. A mans body has been found in Loch Lomond after police were called to reports of an empty boat having ran aground. The officers were alerted at around 2pm on Sunday after an empty boat was discovered at the shoreline near to the Cameron House Hotel. Police searched the water and found the body of a man, who has yet to be identified. His death is being treated as unexplained and police are carrying out inquiries. The body was found in the water near Cameron House Hotel (Les Gallagher/The Sun Glasgow) A Police Scotland spokesman said: Around 2pm on Sunday, April 7, Police Scotland were notified of a rigid inflatable boat which had been found run aground near to Cameron House Hotel. Officers attended and subsequently the body of an as yet unidentified man was recovered from the water a short distance away in Loch Lomond. The death is being treated as unexplained at this time and significant inquiries are under way to establish the circumstances of this incident. The Duchess of Cornwall congratulated Olivier Award winners in London following a night celebrating London theatre. Camilla talked with West End stars following the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, which saw surprise talents commended. Beating competition from the likes of Gillian Anderson, Patsy Ferran won the best actress award for her work in the Tennessee Williams play Summer And Smoke. The young star was shocked by her win, but was praised by the duchess for keeping her composure as the pair spoke backstage. The Duchess of Cornwall arriving to attend the Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London (John Stillwell/PA) Ferran said: She asked if it was a big surprise that I won an award, and I said it was a massive, huge surprise. I wasnt expecting it at all. She said she thought I did very well with dealing with my surprise. Ive never done that, Ive never met royalty before. So its quite a night to remember isnt it? Camilla also spoke to comedian Kyle Soller, who won best actor for his part in The Inheritance, which swept four awards at the ceremony. The duchess also offered congratulations to musical stars Sharon D Clarke and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, who won the best actor and actress in a musical respectively. Ferran added on her surprise win: I just just dont associate myself with that world. So to find myself speaking in front of a group of people that Ive watched for years on stage and screen is kind of weird, and quite alarming. I am going to go for a drink. US president Donald Trump has said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is leaving her job. President Donald Trump thanked her for her work in a tweet and announced US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be taking over as acting head of the department. Mr McAleenan is a longtime border official who is well-respected by members of Congress and within the administration. The decision to name an immigration officer to the post reflects Mr Trumps priority for a sprawling department founded to combat terrorism following the September 11 attacks. Though Trump aides were eyeing a staff shake-up at Homeland Security and had already withdrawn the nomination for another key immigration post, the development on Sunday was unexpected. Ms Nielsen travelled to the US-Mexico border on Friday with Mr Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement. There she echoed Mr Trumps comments on the situation at the border, though she ducked out of the room without explanation for some time while Mr Trump spoke. As they toured a section of newly rebuilt barriers, Ms Nielsen was at Mr Trumps side, introducing him to local officials. President Donald Trump with Kirstjen Nielsen (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) She returned to Washington afterwards on a Coast Guard Gulfstream, as Mr Trump continued on a fundraising trip to California and Nevada. But privately, she had grown increasingly frustrated by what she saw as a lack of support from other departments and increased meddling by Trump aides, two people familiar with the decision said. Her resignation later, obtained by The Associated Press, showed no sign of controversy, unlike others who have left from the administration. Despite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside, she wrote. I hope that the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse. There have been persistent tensions between the White House and Ms Nielsen almost from the moment she became secretary, after her predecessor, John Kelly, became the White House chief of staff in 2017. Donald Trump visited a new section of the border wall with Mexico in Calexico with Kirstjen Nielsen (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) Ms Nielsen was viewed as resistant to some of the harshest immigration measures supported by the president and his aides, particularly senior adviser Stephen Miller, both on matters around the border and others like protected status for some refugees. In recent weeks, as a new wave of migration has taxed resources along the border and as Mr Trump sought to regain control of the issue for his 2020 re-election campaign, tensions flared anew. Arrests all along the southern border have skyrocketed in recent months. Border agents are on track to make 100,000 arrests and denials of entry at the southern border this month, over half of which are families with children. Ms Nielsen dutifully pushed Mr Trumps immigration policies, including funding for his border wall, and defended the administrations practice of separating children from parents, telling a Senate committee that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens in the United States every day. But she was also instrumental in ending the policy. Under Ms Nielsen, migrants seeking asylum are waiting in Mexico as their cases progress. She also moved to abandon longstanding regulations that dictate how long children are allowed to be held in immigration detention, and requested bed space from the US military for some 12,000 people in an effort to detain all families who cross the border. Currently, there is space for about 3,000 families and facilities are at capacity. Time is running out for Theresa May to reach a Brexit compromise with Labour ahead of a summit with European leaders this week. The Prime Minister has angered Tories by holding talks with Labour, with Brexiteers including Boris Johnson concerned she will accept a customs union as the price for a deal with Jeremy Corbyn. Mrs May has told European Union leaders she wants a delay to Brexit until June 30 at the latest, with the possibility of an early exit if she can get a deal through Parliament. But Brussels is expected to demand a clear strategy from the Prime Minister at a meeting of EU leaders on Wednesday and could insist on a longer delay which would require the UK to participate in European elections. Let me explain what's happening with Brexit.pic.twitter.com/gjGkvFk8fT Theresa May (@theresa_may) April 7, 2019 In a video message recorded in her Chequers country retreat, Mrs May said both sides will have to compromise in the cross-party talks with Labour. The negotiations stalled after Labour said the Prime Minister had refused to set out any changes to her Brexit red lines and no further face-to-face meetings have yet been confirmed. The Prime Minister acknowledged that she could not see the Commons accepting her deal in its current form and MPs would not agree to a no-deal exit currently the default position at 11pm on Friday unless an extension is granted. That was the reason for the new approach of cross-party talks with Labour as the choice that lies ahead of us is either leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all. She said: Itll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us. If no deal can be reached with Labour, Mrs May has committed to putting a series of Brexit options to the Commons and being bound by the result. Solicitor General Robert Buckland told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour that a customs union does mean that we deliver an end to freedom of movement and it does mean that we deliver the vast majority of the aims of Brexit, which was to leave the institutions of the European Union. Its not perfect but, frankly, in this particular hung parliament none of us can get perfection, we need to compromise. He said that something approximating a customs arrangement or customs union would be the most likely outcome of the process. But former foreign secretary Mr Johnson used his Daily Telegraph column to warn that Tory MPs would not allow Mrs May to surrender to Mr Corbyn. If the UK were to commit to remaining in the customs union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result, he said. To agree to be non-voting members of the EU, under the surrender proposed by Jeremy Corbyn it cannot, must not and will not happen. In a further sign of the constraints on Mrs May, Brexiteer Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt warned a long delay to Brexit would be unacceptable to the public and businesses which were already having to prepare for a whole raft of eventualities. For me, the critical thing is that we leave, we do it swiftly, we dont get locked into fighting European elections, she told City AM. Brexit is something we have to do to arrive at where the public wanted to be, which is to have more control over laws, borders, money and trade, and having an independent trade policy. Shadow business minister Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labours negotiating team, said while it was disappointing that there had not been any shift in the Governments red lines last week, the overall mood is quite a positive and hopeful one. Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip attended a Sunday church service ahead of another crucial week for the Brexit process (Andrew Matthews/PA) Ms Long-Bailey told BBCs Andrew Marr Show the proposals we have seen from the Government so far and their direction of travel over the last two years have not been compliant with the definition of a customs union. But she indicated talks aimed at reaching a deal with the Tories were expected to continue early this week. It is a very hypothetical question Shadow Business Sec Rebecca Long-Bailey on revoking Article 50 to avoid a no deal #Brexit#Marr https://t.co/YDe43V1G51 pic.twitter.com/6uX3gljWSL BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 7, 2019 Ms Long-Bailey suggested Labour could be prepared to revoke Article 50, cancelling Brexit, if the UK was heading towards a no-deal scenario on Friday. We have promised our party members and our constituents that we will do all we can to avoid a no-deal situation, she said. On Monday, peers will continue considering Yvette Coopers Bill forcing the Prime Minister to request a Brexit extension rather than leave the EU with no deal. The Bill, which gives MPs significant power over the Brexit process, scraped through the Commons by a single vote last week. Meanwhile, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will travel to Ireland for talks with Leo Varadkar ahead of Wednesdays summit. At the weekend, Mr Varadkar said his preference was for a longer delay than the June 30 date proposed by Mrs May and said it was extremely unlikely that any one of the 27 EU leaders would use their veto over an extension at the European Council meeting. Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has criticised the Governments plans to introduce a regulator that will aim to make tech companies more responsible for harmful content online, warning that it fails to address concerns about how social networks handle user data. The MP for West Bromwich East has previously spoken out strongly about Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, calling him an arrogant corporate elite and a coward for failing to answer questions from a select committee in the UK. The proposals set out in the long-awaited white paper will take too long to put into action, Mr Watson argues, and also do nothing to tackle dark digital advertising campaigners which many fear have used social networks to meddle in elections. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been heavily criticised by Tom Watson (Niall Carson/PA) The public and politicians of all parties agree these platforms must be made to take responsibility for the harms, hate speech and fake news they host, he said in response to the proposals. The concern with these plans is that they could take years to implement. We need action immediately to protect children and others vulnerable to harm. These plans also seem to stop short of tackling the overriding data monopolies causing this market failure and do nothing to protect our democracy from dark digital advertising campaigners and fake news. This is a start but its a long way from truly reclaiming the web and routing out online harms. Mark Zuckerberg says he is looking forward to discussing plans for the regulation of social media with lawmakers around the world. So I've sent him another invite. It would be good if, just for once, his deeds matched his words. https://t.co/3ATl63Iwg5 Tom Watson (@tom_watson) April 6, 2019 Issues surrounding political advertising were also a concern echoed by Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairman Damian Collins MP, who said that it is vital that our electoral law is brought up to date as soon as possible and urged for emergency legislation to be introduced should there be an early election. Both Facebook and Twitter have made efforts to reduce misinformation, beefing up political advert transparency tools in the lead up to European elections in May. To date, Twitter has been an active participant in the discussion between industry and the UK Government on how to keep people safe online, said Katy Minshall, head of public policy for Twitter UK. We are already deeply committed to prioritising the safety of our users, as evidenced by the introduction of over 70 changes to our policies and processes last year to improve the health and safety of the public conversation online. We look forward to engaging in the next steps of the process, and working to strike an appropriate balance between keeping users safe and preserving the open, free nature of the internet. The rollout of technology allowing police to gather data from digital devices without using a password should be delayed, MSPs have said. Last year, Police Scotland purchased 41 cyber kiosks laptop-sized machines that are able to bypass encryption on devices such as mobile phones so personal data can be read quickly. It was intended the machines would start being deployed to police stations across Scotland from autumn last year. Police have so far been unable to use them due to a lack of clarity about the legal basis for them. The Justice Sub-Committee on Policing at the Scottish Parliament has been scrutinising the proposed use of the devices since last May. In a report published on Monday, MSPs recommended the scheme should be paused until greater clarity on the legal framework for their use is provided. The report was also critical of both the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) for a lack of effective scrutiny and oversight and Police Scotland for not following best-practice prior to using the devices on a trial basis before deciding to roll out their use across Scotland. The committee found that during trials, police in Edinburgh and Stirling searched the mobile phones of suspects, witnesses and victims without undertaking the required governance, scrutiny and impact assessments. Members of the public whose phones were seized and searched were also not made aware their phones were to be searched using cyber kiosks as part of a trial. They were also not told about the implications of the search and were not provided with the option of giving their consent. John Finnie says any future trials must be carried out to a higher standard (Danny Lawson/PA) Justice Sub-Committee convener John Finnie said: The sub-committee fully supports Police Scotlands ambition to transform to effectively tackle digital crime. However, prior to the introduction of any new technology to be used for policing purposes, an assessment of both the benefits and the risks should have been carried out. It appears that, in relation to the introduction of cyber kiosks, only the benefits were presented by Police Scotland to the SPA, with the known risks not provided. The SPA, for its part, seems to have accepted the information provided with very little critical assessment. Even the most fundamental questions, such as the legal basis for using this technology, appear to have been totally overlooked. This sub-standard process has resulted in over half a million pounds worth of equipment sitting gathering dust. Clearly, this is not an acceptable situation. The sub-committee wants to work with the Scottish Government and the stakeholder groups belatedly assembled to consider the implications of introducing cyber-kiosks to find a solution which would provide the necessary safeguards for the use of this new technology. Mr Finnie added any future trials on the use of the machines must be greatly improved. He said: While the events related to the trials are in the past, the sub-committee remains concerned that this technology was used by frontline officers without any human rights, equality or community impact assessments, data protection or security assessments, and in the absence of any public information campaign. That approach is harmful to the reputation of Scotlands police service and potentially very serious for any victim, witness or suspect impacted by this. Any future trials must be carried out to a far higher standard, with more due diligence and forethought. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson of Police Scotland said: Like the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing, we have received written confirmation from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service about the clear legal basis, and robust statutory regime, for the use of this much-needed technology. The rigorous scrutiny of this process by the Justice Sub-Committee has added significant value to the development of Police Scotlands assurance and governance processes for the use of this necessary equipment. As the Chief Constable has already made clear, there is a policing imperative for deploying the equipment to protect vulnerable victims and bring offenders to justice. However, he has also stated that he must be satisfied that privacy and human rights considerations have been transparently and satisfactorily addressed. He added: The value of cyber kiosks in helping protect the most vulnerable people in society while tackling the most highly-sophisticated criminality cannot be underestimated. A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: The recommendations in this report are principally for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority to action, but the Scottish Government will give the report due consideration in the coming weeks. The Policing 2026 strategy emphasised Police Scotlands commitment to improving its cyber-capability and we welcome their ongoing commitment to further consultation with stakeholders as part of this process. Susan Deacon, SPA Chairwoman, said: The Committees consideration of this issue has been informative and the SPA will consider the report carefully and respond in due course. The SPA has already strengthened our arrangements for the oversight of policing policy and practice and will continue to do so. She said the SPA recognised that the proposed rollout has raised concerns regarding privacy, human rights and other legal and ethical matters. She has asked the Chief Constable to provide a further report to the SPA Board regarding his proposed plans for the rollout in light of the concerns raised. Manchester United may live to regret the two legs of their Champions League quarter-final with Barcelona being reversed if the history books are anything to go by. United were drawn against the five-times winners in the last eight and were originally supposed to play the second leg at Old Trafford after visiting the Nou Camp first. But as Manchester City, who have a higher UEFA ranking, were also drawn at home second against Tottenham, Uniteds tie was switched and they must now host Barcelona first. How the record looks for those teams playing at home second (PA Graphic) And that could be a problem for Ole Gunnar Solskjaers side as it has been shown to be an advantage to play the second leg on your own ground. Since the Champions League adopted its current format in 2003-04, 62 per cent of teams advancing from the quarter-finals were at home in the second leg. United have taken advantage of the Old Trafford factor on three out of the four occasions they have played the second leg of last-eight ties there. In 2006-07 they overturned a first-leg deficit against Roma by thumping the Italians 7-1, while the following season they were able to get the job done against the same opponents after bringing back a slender lead. Patrice Evra celebrates scoring against Roma with Cristiano Ronaldo in April 2007 (Martin Rickett/PA) In 2010-11, they protected a 1-0 first-leg win at Chelsea with a 2-1 success at Old Trafford. The only time they have been at home second in this round and not qualified was in the 2009-10 season when they lost on away goals to Bayern Munich, despite winning in front of their home fans. Solskjaers men will be channelling the last round, when they beat Paris St Germain despite a first-leg defeat at home, and also the 2008-09 season when they advanced past Porto despite having to play there in the second match. To make matters worse, Barcelona have a formidable record in quarter-finals when they play the second leg at the Nou Camp. Manchester United beat Barcelona in the 2008 having been away first (Martin Rickett/PA) They have progressed six out of seven times, with the defeat to Juventus in 2016-17 their only blemish. Uniteds potential suffering is Citys gain, though they have progressed in just one of their previous two quarter-finals, against PSG in 2016-17. Tottenham will be hoping their brilliant new stadium will help give them a significant first-leg advantage to take to City as they try to buck the trend. Their only previous quarter-final ended in a comprehensive defeat to Real Madrid, having had to play the second leg at the Bernabeu. Liverpool are also away in their second leg against Porto, but they will fancy their chances of going against the grain. Both in 2005 and 2018 on their way to the Champions League final they progressed through the quarter-finals despite playing their first leg at home. Ole's at the wheel... Solskjr has been appointed as Manchester United's permanent manager, signing a 3-year contract #UCL pic.twitter.com/or8sPUDynJ UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 28, 2019 They got the better of Juventus after a 2-1 win at Anfield in the first game while a 3-0 hammering of Manchester City was enough to see them through last season. The overall record in all knockout rounds the round of 16, the quarter-finals and the semi-finals strengthens the theory that it is an advantage to be at home in the second leg, with 63 per cent of the winners having had that luxury. That is, of course, weighted by the fact that in the round of 16, teams who top the group are ensured a second leg at home against a second-placed opponent from another group. Therefore, in theory, stronger teams play at home last and would be expected to advance and more than 70 per cent have done so. The semi-finals provide an interesting exception to the overall trend, with only 37 per cent of teams with a second leg at home progressing. Mondays front pages feature a variety of lead stories, with Brexit making headlines at the outset of another crunch week. Several papers also feature veteran rower James Cracknell after the Olympic gold medal winner became the oldest Oxbridge boat race competitor. Leading with Britains EU departure, The Guardian says the PM has come under intense pressure from her Cabinet to avoid a long Brexit delay. Guardian front page, Monday 8 April 2019: Cabinet fury at May grows as long Brexit delay looms pic.twitter.com/2dGpX56yvc The Guardian (@guardian) April 7, 2019 A Brexit video message from Theresa May released by Downing Street on Sunday leads the Metro, the Daily Express and the i. The Daily Telegraph leads with proposed laws that aim to make the internet and social media safer by placing legal responsibility on platforms and their management. The Financial Times also carries the story, reporting that the Government has declared the sectors era of self-regulation is over. What the papers say - April 8 (PA) Just published: front page of the Financial Times, UK edition, Monday 8 April https://t.co/BFCNkmr4Bn pic.twitter.com/LHeRhX5xZP Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) April 7, 2019 The Daily Mirror reports that Google avoided paying a huge UK tax bill by booking advertising revenue overseas. A number of clinicians have resigned from an NHS gender clinic for children amid concerns over its referral system, The Times reports. Calls to end transgender 'experiment on children'#tomorrowspaperstoday @BBCHelenaLee pic.twitter.com/bCs2fbwcM0 The Times Pictures (@TimesPictures) April 7, 2019 Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has told the family of victim Charlotte Brown he is sorry for her death, but insisted he is not to blame, The Sun reports. Afghan interpreters for the Army are yet to arrive in the UK despite being promised sanctuary, the Daily Mail says. Plans for new laws making tech giants and social networks more accountable for harmful content online have been set out by the Government, in a bid to make the UK one of the safest places in the world to be online. Here is everything you need to know about the long-awaited white paper: Will there be regulation? An independent regulator will be responsible for ensuring tech companies abide to a new duty of care and code of practice. The Government is currently consulting on whether this should mean the creation of a brand new regulator or whether it should be housed within an existing regulator, such as Ofcom. Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright met with tech bosses including Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg in February to discuss the plans to tackle online harms (Niall Carson/PA) What will the regulator do? It is proposed that the regulator be given powers to ensure all companies affected by a new regulatory framework fulfil their duty of care. Clear safety standards will be set out, which force companies to report to the regulator. Tech firms could be issued substantial fines for any proven failures, with a requirement to publish a notice to the public detailing where they went wrong. The Government is also consulting on giving the regulator even tougher powers to make individual senior managers criminally liable for any breaches. This could extend to preventing offenders from appearing in search results, app stores or links on social media posts, before making internet service providers block non-complaint websites or apps entirely as a last resort. What is considered an online harm? The Government has defined a wide list of what it considers an online harm, both illegal and with less legal definition. Illegal harms that will be tackled include: Child sexual abuse and exploitation Terrorist content and activity Organised immigration crime Modern slavery Extreme pornography Revenge pornography Harassment and cyberstalking Hate crime Encouraging or assisting suicide Incitement of violence Sale of illegal goods or services, such as drugs and weapons Contempt of court and interference with legal proceedings Sexting of indecent images by under 18s Many of the measures are designed to protect children and the vulnerable online (Peter Byrne/PA) The harms that will be covered that have less legal definition include: Cyberbullying and trolling Extremist content and activity Coercive behaviour Disinformation Violent content Advocacy of self-harm Promotion of Female Genital Mutilation It will also make companies liable for exposing children to legal content for adults, such as pornography. Who will regulation affect? Any companies that let users share or discover user-generated content or interact with others online will be affected by the regulations particularly social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. However, it will also stretch to other parts of the web, including file hosting sites, forums, messaging services and search engines. The proposals will effect a number of web-based firms (Nick Ansell/PA) Why is the Government cracking down on online content? The Government wants to stamp out a host of online harms, such as illegal activity and content, ranging from terrorism-related material, to child sexual exploitation, abuse and inciting or assisting suicide. It also wants to tackle areas that are not illegal but it believes could be damaging to individuals, particularly children and vulnerable people. It has come to the conclusion that self-regulation is no longer working and therefore wants to introduce new legally-binding measures that make tech companies hosting the content responsible for blocking it or removing it swiftly. Molly Russell, 14, who took her own life in November 2017 (Family handout/PA) The urgency to act has been highlighted by a number of cases, such as teenager Molly Russell, who was found to have viewed content linked to self-harm and suicide on Instagram before taking her own life in 2017. More recently, material relating to terrorism has also been a concern, following the mosque attack in New Zealand which was livestreamed on Facebook. What next? A 12-week consultation of the proposals will now take place before the Government will publish its final proposals for legislation. Business activity in Northern Ireland has dropped for the first time in almost three years, with Brexit uncertainty blamed for the decline. The Purchasing Managers Index, a well-established benchmarked index for measuring private sector growth, has recorded a decrease in activity for the first time since July 2016. Rates of employment and new orders in the sector are also on a downward trajectory, the data from the Ulster Bank Northern Ireland PMI. Richard Ramsey, chief economist with Ulster Bank Northern Ireland, said the regions firms were becoming increasingly pessimistic about what lies ahead in 2019. The term Brexit Uncertainty has been overused in the last couple of years, however it is again a major feature of the latest PMI, with the impact of this becoming more and more tangible, he said. A man looks across the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from Edentober in Co Louth to Newry in Co Down (NIall Carson/PA) Business conditions deteriorated further according to respondents, with March seeing the first fall in business activity in 32-months. Perhaps more significantly though, export orders and employment levels both dropped at their fastest rate in almost six years, and Northern Ireland firms are increasingly pessimistic about the year ahead. Clearly the potential for a no-deal scenario was exercising the minds of business owners last month. Positives were in short supply in the latest survey with manufacturing continuing to be the only sector recording output growth; albeit that stockpiling was no doubt a factor. This is seen in the UK Manufacturing PMI, where stockpiling was reported to be rising at its fastest rate in 27 years. At the other end of the spectrum locally is retail, with sales activity declining at its sharpest rate in four years. Meanwhile, Northern Irelands largest sector, the service industry, took a turn for the worse in March, with output, orders and employment all going lower. Service sector activity hit a 32-month low and staffing levels in the sector are falling at the fastest rate in almost six and a half years. Last month marked the end of the first quarter of the year, and the deteriorating picture in March meant that it was the weakest quarter in terms of output since Q3 2016. More significantly though, employment and exports had their worst quarter since the first half of 2013. Mr Ramsey said the UK as a whole was struggling on the growth front. Indeed this picture is consistent in Europe as well, where Germany for instance, is seeing manufacturing activity falling at a rapid rate, he added. Northern Ireland, though, differs from the rest of the UK in that there has been a lack of decision-making on two fronts, with the absence of an Executive adding to the complications created by uncertainty over Brexit. This has driven a declining picture regarding confidence, with Northern Ireland respondents, particularly in the construction sector, the most pessimistic in the UK regarding future output. With the prospect of a no-deal Brexit receding and decisions in relation to some key infrastructure projects now being made in Northern Ireland, it remains to be seen whether some optimism returns in the months ahead. The March PMI report was produced for Ulster Bank by IHS Markit. Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has said he absolutely, unreservedly apologises for the role he played in Charlotte Browns death but insisted he is not solely responsible for the Thames tragedy. Awaiting extradition from Georgia, Shepherd said he agreed that he bears some of the moral responsibility for the 24-year-olds death, but rejected the charge that he is to blame. Speaking from prison in Tbilisi, Shepherd said Ms Browns actions led to the fatal accident. I can understand why her family apportion the entire blame on me. But the reality is not quite so simple, he told The Sun. Absolutely, unreservedly, I apologise for the role I played, and undeniably I did play a part. (Ms Browns family) have my sincere sympathies and condolences and I understand why they apportion the blame as they do. Jack Shepherd will be flown back to the UK on Wednesday, according to reports (PA file) Shepherd, who is reportedly due to be flown back to Britain under police guard on Wednesday, said there were a number of factors that led to the accident. The pair were on a champagne-fuelled first date when they went for a late-night speedboat ride down the Thames in December 2015. The 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte struck a submerged log near Wandsworth Bridge and overturned, throwing Ms Brown to her death in the icy water. Shepherd told the paper that it was a joint decision for the pair to go out on the boat and it was Ms Browns desire to drive it. Shepherd admitted it was his decision to permit her to take the controls, although conceded that he could have given her more instruction. He said: But it was ultimately Charlottes action to accelerate in the manner that she did, even though I failed to prevent her. Shepherd also said there were matters of luck or fate involved and highlighted that they did not see the log. The web designer, who is originally from Exeter, fled his manslaughter trial at the Old Bailey last year. He was found guilty in his absence and sentenced to six years imprisonment. In December he was granted permission to appeal against the conviction and handed himself in to authorities in Tbilisi in January. His surrender came after repeated public appeals by Ms Browns family for him to return to Britain and face justice for her death. After his extradition was granted by a court in March, her family said he had a weak case and no choice but to return. We are going to get justice for Charlotte, her father, Graham Brown, told ITV. Were hoping that he wont follow through with his appeal, which causes the family more anguish, but I guess that could be a forlorn hope. The Sun said Mr Brown had no comment on his apology, while her mother, Roz Wickens, told the paper: I dont want to sound disrespectful, but nothing he says will bring my daughter back. Shepherd also faces a grievous bodily harm charge over an alleged assault in Devon on March 16 last year. A warrant for his arrest was issued by magistrates in Newton Abbot after he failed to attend the court. Following his extradition, Shepherd will be returned to the Old Bailey before he is committed to prison. No date has yet been set for the appeal hearing. A British woman is facing two years in jail in Dubai for allegedly using disparaging language about her ex-husbands new wife on Facebook, campaigners have claimed. Laleh Shahravesh, 55, of Richmond, south west London, was arrested together with her teenage daughter at Dubai airport in March and now faces up to two years in jail and a fine of 50,000 for two Facebook posts she made while living in the UK in 2016, according to the Detained In Dubai campaign group. They had been visiting Dubai for her ex-husbands funeral after he died from a heart attack on March 3, campaigners say. Her 14-year-old daughter was later allowed to fly home alone and is staying with relatives. A Foreign Office spokesman said its staff are supporting a British woman and her family following her detention in the United Arab Emirates. The spokesman added: We are in contact with the UAE authorities regarding her case. The woman had been visiting Dubai for her ex-husbands funeral (Carey Tompsett/PA) Ms Shahravesh had been married to her ex-husband for 18 years and the couple had lived in Dubai for an eight-month period. She had returned to London with their daughter Paris, while her husband stayed in the United Arab Emirates with a plan that he would join them later. Ms Shahravesh received divorce papers a few months later and, soon after that, saw photographs on Facebook which said that her husband had remarried, the campaigners say. It was then that she allegedly posted two online comments which were written in Farsi, including one which stated: I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. She then allegedly made a disparaging remark about the new wife. Radha Stirling, who is the Detained In Dubai chief executive and is also representing Ms Shahravesh, said the experience is heartbreaking for her clients family. This includes Ms Shahraveshs daughter who is writing a letter to the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the UAE to appeal for her mothers release. Ms Stirling added: Every family member was teary and it was very emotional to speak with all of them. They are all extremely damaged by what has happened and I expect it will be a long and psychological recovery process for them. Ms Shahravesh is currently staying in a hotel. Ms Stirling is calling on British officials to warn Britons about defamation and UAEs cybercrime laws. Sinn Fein leaders are due to hold Brexit talks with Jeremy Corbyn later on a day of meetings in London. Party president Mary Lou McDonald and vice-president Michelle ONeill are also set for discussions with Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley. They will also meet a number of SNP MPs at Westminster. On Sunday, Mrs McDonald said she would tell the Labour leader that Irish interests must be protected whatever the outcome of his Brexit negotiations with Prime Minister Theresa May. Sinn Fein leader @MaryLouMcDonald said Irish citizens in the north, who are EU citizens, should have elected representation in the @Europarl_EN pic.twitter.com/JbcogyzOWK Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) April 7, 2019 Mr Corbyn is due to meet the republican leaders late this afternoon. We will set out again the very clear need to protect Irish interests and make it very, very clear that whatever way Brexit lands, deal or no deal, that Irish interests have to be protected, said Mrs McDonald. Sinn Fein leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle ONeill (Sinn Fein/PA) Our peace process, our all-Ireland economy, crucially our citizens rights, cannot be the collateral damage to the Tory Brexit. At the weekend, Mrs McDonald also confirmed that Sinn Fein will hold a convention this weekend to select a candidate to fight a potential European election in Northern Ireland. If an election happens, we will fight the election, she said. We are ready. The fatal accident inquiry into a police helicopter crash which claimed 10 lives will open on Monday. The pilot, two crew members and seven customers in the Clutha bar in Glasgow were killed when the Police Scotland helicopter crashed on to the roof of the building on November 29 2013. A minutes silence will be held in memory of those who died after Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull makes his opening remarks at the inquiry, which is taking place in a temporary court at Hampden Park in Glasgow. Personal statements about some of those who died will also be read out in tribute to them. The wreckage of the helicopter was lifted clear following the crash (Andrew Milligan/PA) Statements will be read on behalf of customers Gary Arthur, Robert Jenkins, Samuel McGhee and Colin Gibson, while John McGarrigles son is expected to provide one and Mark OPreys family are still considering the matter. There will be no personal statements on behalf of pilot David Traill or crew members Tony Collins and Kirsty Nelis, while relatives of Joe Cusker have not indicated whether they wish to give one. The sheriff has said that families can provide a statement at any point before the end of the inquiry if they so wish. The purpose of the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) is to determine the cause of the deaths, establish whether they could have been prevented, and enable the sheriff to make recommendations which could prevent fatalities in similar circumstances. The inquiry will take place at Hampden Park in Glasgow (Andrew Milligan/PA) More than 100 people were at the Clutha Vaults pub when the helicopter, returning to its base on the banks of the River Clyde, crashed through the roof. An Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) report published in 2015 found two fuel supply switches were off and the pilot did not follow emergency procedures after a fuel warning in the cockpit. The Crown Office has previously said there is insufficient evidence for criminal proceedings. Fifty-seven Crown witnesses are expected to give evidence at the inquiry, down from a previous estimate of 85. Police have taken more than 2,000 statements as part of preparations for the FAI, while the Crown has around 1,400 productions. The inquiry, which opens on April 8, is expected to involve around three months of evidence spread over six calendar months this year. The Prince of Wales has marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of the huge Pirelli Tyres factory in Carlisle with a tour of the site. Charles began his day-long visit to Cumbria at the factory, which first opened in 1969 and employs 900 people in the local area. Pirelli workers gave the Prince of Wales a warm welcome (Owen Humphreys/PA) He toured the Italian firms operation, spoke to bosses at the company, and chatted with shift workers and apprentices. Pirelli has been operating in the UK since 1929, and employs 1,300 people at its sites in Carlisle and Burton-on-Trent. At the end of the 50-minute visit, Charles unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion, receiving a round of applause from factory workers. Charles chatted with workers during his visit (Owen Humphreys/PA) Chief executive Marco Tronchetti Provera said: Its a special day for Carlisle. A special day for Pirelli. It was a great honour to welcome His Royal Highness to our factory in Carlisle during this important anniversary year, and so celebrate the enduring and fruitful relationship between Pirelli and the United Kingdom. It will be a day that we will all long remember. Charles unveiled a plaque during his visit to celebrate 50 years of Pirelli Tyres production in Carlisle (Owen Humphreys/PA) The factory focuses on tyres for premium and prestige cars and Charles was shown a range of supercars. The royal visitor chatted with the firms senior managers as he viewed a Range Rover, a McLaren Spider, a Jaguar E Type, a Ferrari Dino and an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera all fitted with Pirelli tyres. The Prince of Wales looks at a Ferrari Dino, one of the supercars for which Pirelli supplies tyres(Owen Humphreys/PA) The prince was accompanied on the visit by Italian Ambassador to the UK Raffaele Trombetta, and Andrew Mitchell, HM Trade Commissioner for Europe. Later, Charles met members of the Langdale Ambleside mountain rescue team and watched a demonstration at their Ambleside headquarters of how the deal with injured patients. Charles views a McLaren 600LT (Owen Humphreys/PA) The group, staffed by volunteers and funded by public donations, is called out around 100 times a year, with 25 incidents logged so far in 2019. Charles told the volunteers: Im full of admiration for all the work you do, if I may say so, rescuing people and all the different callouts you have to deal (with) out in this part of the world. We are very lucky indeed in this country to have all these different mountain rescue teams. I occasionally come across one in Scotland, in the Grampian region, and I know just how hard you all work and how dedicated you all are. Charles watches volunteers taking part in a training exercise (Owen Humphreys/PA) The Ambleside team covers the Langdale, Ambleside, Grasmere and Windermere areas primarily, but works across the Lake District with other mountain rescue services in major incidents. While touring the base, Charles met Ted, a seven-year-old border collie veteran of 99 rescue searches, and his owner Roger Pickup, a volunteer who is also a professor of bio-medicine at Lancaster University. He also met former paratrooper Justin Hale, who was rescued by the team in December 2018 after falling into a gully while fell running on Steel Fell and fracturing his spine in two places. The Prince of Wales meets rescue dog Ted (Owen Humphreys/PA) After the visit, rescue team leader Nick Owen said: Its been great. Everybody seems to have really enjoyed it. All the team members are volunteers and their families make sacrifices to allow this to happen, so it is good to get recognition. The princes trip to Cumbria ended with a visit to Hawkshead. Medical students in the US have discovered that a woman who lived to the ripe old age of 99 had all her internal organs except for her heart in the wrong place. The discovery of the rare condition, which was presented this week to a conference of anatomists, was astounding especially because Rose Marie Bentley had lived so long. People with the condition known as situs inversus with levocardia often have life-threatening cardiac ailments and other abnormalities, according to Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Rose Marie Bentley may have been the oldest-known person with rare, life-threatening condition called situs inversus with levocardia. Her liver, stomach and other organs were transposed right to left but her heart remained on the left side of her chest. https://t.co/CtSyo90x8V OHSU News (@OHSUNews) April 8, 2019 Cameron Walkers class at the university in Portland was examining the heart of a cadaver last year when they noticed the blood vessels were different. When they opened the abdominal cavity, they saw that all the other organs were on the wrong side. The unusual blood vessels helped the heart compensate. Rose Marie Bentley lived with all her internal organs, except for her heart, on the wrong side (Bentley Family via AP) Mr Walker described his reaction to the find as definitely a mix of curiosity, fascination and a sense of wanting to explore a little bit of a medical mystery a medical marvel really that was in front of us. And I would say the students felt something very similar, Mr Walker, an assistant professor of anatomy, SAID. Mrs Bentleys family had not known about the condition, which OHSU said occurs only once in every 22,000 births, and apparently Mrs Bentley did not either. Mrs Bentley, who lived in Molalla, 25 miles south of Portland, had led a normal life. She was an avid swimmer, raised five children and helped her husband run a feed store. Her only recurrent physical complaint was arthritis, her daughter Louise Allee remembered, but there were signs. When Mrs Bentley was in her fifties, she underwent a hysterectomy, and the doctor also wanted to remove the appendix but could not find it, Ms Allee said. She said it was removed later. Oregon Health & Science University noted that Mrs Bentley had three organs removed during her life, but only the surgeon who removed her appendix recorded its unusual location. When Mrs Bentley had her gallbladder removed, it was on the opposite side of where it should have been, Ms Allee said. No-one said a thing, Ms Allee said. I was surprised. This was before they did it with a scope, and she had a good-sized incision. Youd think they would have said something, but they didnt. Mr Walker expressed his gratitude for Mrs Bentley agreeing to donate her body to OHSU, Oregons only academic health centre. This is an important case that really gave us an opportunity to talk about the importance of future clinicians paying attention to subtle anatomic variations, not just large anatomic variations, in terms of addressing their future patients as individuals, Mr Walker said. Dont judge a book by its cover, and always check and see what youve got before you talk about care. He has researched how long people with the condition have lived, and he found no documented cases in which a person lived beyond 73. Mrs Bentley surpassed that by 26 years. Ms Allee said her mother would have been delighted that the donation of her body led to a learning experience. She would have been tickled to know she could educate with something unusual, Ms Allee said. Dad would have loved to know about it so he could tease her. Mrs Bentleys husband James died about 15 years ago. A small number of British children have left Syria and returned to the UK via other countries in the last year, it has emerged. The disclosure comes after the death of Shamima Begums newborn baby prompted questions over the Governments policy on repatriating youngsters born in or taken to the war-torn country. Responding to a written parliamentary question, Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said: We can confirm that in the last 12 months there have been a small number of British children who have left Syria and returned to the UK via third countries. She noted that the Government does not have a consular presence in Syria, and advises against all travel to the country. Baroness Williams added: We will not put British officials lives at risk to assist those who have left the UK to join a proscribed terrorist organisation. If a British child who has been in Syria is able to seek consular assistance outside of Syria, then we would work with local and UK authorities to facilitate their return if requested. A Home Office minister confirmed that a small number of British children have left Syria and returned to the UK via third countries in the last 12 months (Yui Mok/PA) The issue came under the spotlight earlier this year after Ms Begum, who left east London to join Islamic State in 2015, declared from a Syrian refugee camp that she wished to come home. But she was stripped of her British citizenship by Home Secretary Sajid Javid in an effort to block her return. Ms Begum later gave birth to a baby boy, who died aged less than three weeks. The child was a British citizen, regardless of his mothers status. After facing criticism in the wake of the death, Mr Javid insisted the Government was unable to provide support to British nationals in Syria as there is no consular presence there. The Home Secretary has also staunchly defended the decision to revoke Ms Begums citizenship. It was reported last month that her family have begun legal proceedings to challenge the move. The case prompted fresh debate over the approach to those returning or seeking to return from Syria. In February, Mr Javid suggested that hundreds of children may have been born to foreign fighters. He said females account for a significant proportion of around 900 individuals who left the UK to travel to territory held by extremist groups in Syria and Iraq. Some may have taken their offspring with them, he said, while others may have had children whilst overseas. The 900 figure relates to the estimated number of people of national security concern who travelled from the UK to engage with the conflict in Syria. Of those, approximately 20% have been killed overseas, while around 40% have returned to the UK. A significant proportion of returnees are assessed as no longer being of a security concern, according to the Home Office. The Government has provided funding to assist local authorities and NHS trusts to carry out mental health and emotional wellbeing assessments of all British children returning from the conflict in Syria. The Home Office said: Our support will be tailored to the needs of each individual child. Local authorities and the police can use existing safeguarding powers to protect returning children, support their welfare and reintegration back in to UK society and minimise any threat they could pose within schools and to their local community. The Vatican has for the first time opened its own investigation into the case of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Vatican citizen who disappeared in the summer of 1983. The Orlandi familys lawyer Laura Sgro confirmed the probe. She said the secretariat of state has authorised the opening of an investigation into a grave in the Teutonic Cemetery inside the Vatican, after an anonymous tip-off indicated that investigators should look where a statue of an angel in the cemetery is pointing. The Vatican had previously said it was handling a request from the Orlandi family to reopen a grave close to the statue of an angel holding a sheet bearing the words Rest in Peace. Interim Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti declined further comment. Emanuela Orlandi (AP) Emanuela was the daughter of a Vatican employee who lived with his family in the tiny city state. She was 15 when she disappeared after a music lesson in Rome. The family have long demanded to see Vatican documentation about the enduring mystery. The cold case attracted fresh attention at the end of October when two sets of remains were found in the basement of the Vatican Nunciature, an extraterritorial Church property located in Romes city centre. The identification of at least one of the bodies as female led to immediate speculation in Italy that the findings might eventually shed light on one of the countrys most persistent mysteries. Investigators said at the time that preliminary examinations of the bones indicated they belonged to a woman probably in her thirties. But, despite the age of the bones, the Orlandi family lawyer said they would wait for DNA results. One hypothesis for Emanuelas disappearance is that she was not killed immediately but instead held for years against her will. Investigative sources, however, told Italian media in the following weeks that the bones were too old to be related to the Orlandi case. For more than 35 years, Italian media have been obsessed with the fate of Emanuela. Over the years, many rumours have swirled about what happened to her including conspiracies tied to the Mafia and the plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II. A two-year-old girl has been taken to hospital after falling from the window of a flat. The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon on Dumbarton Road, close to Boquhanran Road, in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire. She was taken to hospital but her condition is unknown. A police spokeswoman said: At 2.10pm on Wednesday April 10, police were called to a report of a two-year-old girl having fallen from a window on Dumbarton Road, near to Boquhanran Road, in Clydebank. Emergency services attended and she has been taken to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow where her condition is unknown. Inquiries are ongoing. Police outside a block of flats on Dumbarton Road, Clydebank, where the incident occurred (Andrew Milligan/PA) A Scottish Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: We received a call at 1407 hours today to attend an incident at Dumbarton Road, Clydebank. We dispatched an ambulance, the trauma team and our special operations response team to the scene and one patient was taken to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. A wealthy German businessman and his estranged German wife are waiting for a judges ruling after becoming embroiled in a fight over where they should divorce following the breakdown of their 35-year marriage. Jurgen Pierburg, who is in his 70s, says they should divorce in Germany and, consequently, any fight over money should be staged in a German court. Clarissa Pierburg, who is in her 60s, says she now lives in London and wants to divorce in England. Clarissa Pierburg leaves the Royal Courts of Justice (Nick Ansell/PA) Mr Justice Moor on Wednesday finished analysing evidence at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London. He is expected to announce a decision in the near future. The judge has heard that the Pierburgs had been living in Switzerland, in a chateau about an hour from Geneva, when they separated. Mr Pierburg, an art collector, told the judge that he and his estranged wife were tied to Germany. Our main connection, like an umbilical cord, to Germany has never been broken, he said. We were living in Switzerland but our hearts were still beating in Germany. Mrs Pierburg said she had moved to London about two years ago and says her centre of interests is in the UK. London is the city of things I am interested in, she told the judge. There is nothing for me to go back to Germany for. US President Donald Trump, facing a congressional deadline for his administration to provide his tax returns, has said he wont do it while he is under audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Mr Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that I would love to give them, but Im not going to do it while Im under audit. Representative Richard Neal, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has asked the IRS to turn over six years of the presidents tax returns by the end of the day. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, who supervises the IRS, said he is not seeking direction from the White House on whether to comply. He said the department would probably respond by Mr Neals deadline but did not say whether he would provide the returns as demanded. Democrats do not expect the Treasury to comply but they have not sketched out their next steps. President Donald Trump (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) Mr Neal has adopted a methodical approach to seeking Mr Trumps returns. He has the option of eventually seeking to subpoena the records or to go to court if the IRS does not comply, but it is not clear he will adopt a more confrontational approach just yet. We intend to follow through with this, Mr Neal said. Ill let you know fast. The request for Mr Trumps tax filings is but one of many oversight efforts launched by Democrats after taking back the House in last autumns midterms. Mr Neal is relying on a 1920s-era law that says the IRS shall furnish any tax return requested by the chairmen of key House and Senate committees. Mr Mnuchin told politicians the Treasury will follow the law but has not shared the departments interpretation of the statute. A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a car was driven at police officers outside the Ukrainian embassy in London. Police fired shots at the scene in Holland Park in the west of the capital after the Ukrainian ambassadors car was deliberately rammed twice on Saturday morning. Scotland Yard said a vehicle was driven at officers when they arrived at the scene and a man in his 40s was arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of police officers and criminal damage. Police firearms and Taser were discharged in the incident, and the man, who was not injured, was taken to hospital as a precaution and is now in custody at a central London police station. Armed officers were deployed to the incident as part of the protective security arrangements for London, police said. A man has been arrested after an incident in #HollandPark this morning - police firearms and Taser were discharged. The arrested man was not injured. https://t.co/QYoUqeL24p pic.twitter.com/L05XKjaSeY Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) April 13, 2019 The Met said officers were called at approximately 9.50am to reports of anti-social behaviour involving a car in Holland Park. On arrival, the car was driven and was in collision with a number of parked vehicles near the Ukrainian embassy. The incident is not being treated as terrorist-related. Witness Darcy Mercier described the really strange event to the BBC, saying the car was blasting Ukrainian music in some kind of protest against the embassy after arriving at about 7am. He said: I was out on my terrace when he started ramming the car and then the police arrested him. I asked him to turn down the music and he said that he was playing Ukrainian music for the Ukrainian Embassy and was a little bit belligerent. Footage showed armed police surround the silver Mercedes before smashing the drivers window and using a Taser on the screaming suspect. Neighbours described hearing gunfire outside the Ukrainian Embassy before a suspect was arrested. It sounded like firecrackers. I thought, What the heck, its not Guy Fawkes, said Heather from Texas pic.twitter.com/ryWceQOxRr Sam Blewett (@BlewettSam) April 13, 2019 A statement from the Ukrainian embassy said: The official vehicle of the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom was deliberately rammed as it sat parked in front of the Embassy of Ukraines building. The police were called immediately, and the suspects vehicle was blocked up. Nevertheless, despite the police actions, the attacker hit the ambassadors car again. In response, the police were forced to open fire on the perpetrators vehicle. The embassy said no staff were injured. The Met declined to confirm whether or not ambassador Natalia Galibarenko was in her car at the time. Forensic officers at the scene near the Ukrainian Embassy (Jonathan Brady/PA) The Mercedes was the subject of a forensic investigation on Saturday afternoon. The vehicle appeared to have been backed into a black car which was heavily scuffed on its right-hand side. Police used a sniffer dog to search the area. Pointers are laid at the scene by forensic officers (Jonathan Brady/PA) Emma Slatter, who is Visas general counsel, watched the Mercedes collide with the car from her home with her partner, David Hinsley, a banker who is also in his 50s. Then came gunfire. I think I heard about half a dozen shots, she said. Police apprehend a suspect near the Ukrainian embassy in Holland Park (Emma Slatter/PA) Another resident, mother-of-two Heather Feiner, said: My kids were hanging out in the living room. They said, Mum, is that firecrackers?' I saw all this police activity. I thought, Oh my gosh, whats going on?, added Ms Feiner, who is originally from Texas in the US. A forensic officer bags evidence after examining the silver car (Jonathan Brady/PA) Chief Superintendent Andy Walker, from the Mets Specialist Firearms Command, said: As is standard procedure, an investigation is now ongoing into the discharge of a police firearm during this incident. We appreciate the swift and professional @metpoliceuk response in the incident outside the Embassy earlier today@foreignoffice Ukraine's Emb. to UK (@UkrEmbLondon) April 13, 2019 The Met said the Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed. A mother held in Dubai over Facebook posts in which she called her ex-husbands new wife a horse has said she had given up hope and wanted to die. Laleh Shahravesh, from Richmond, south-west London, returned to Heathrow on Friday morning, according to the Detained in Dubai campaign group that supported her. She was swiftly reunited with her 14-year-old daughter Paris in an emotional scene at the airport. Ms Shahravesh, 55, told the Sunday People: The day before I was told I was free to go Id given up hope. I was suicidal. I felt like I was never going to see my daughter again and sent a message to my sister saying I cant do this any more. I told her, Its killing me, every day is killing me. I felt so much pain and then I turned off my phone. Laleh Shahravesh with her 14-year-old daughter Paris (handout/PA) I could see my whole life flashing before my eyes and I just wanted to die. It was torture to me. Ms Shahravesh was detained under controversial cyber-crime laws as she visited the United Arab Emirates with her daughter in March for the funeral of ex-husband Pedro Correia Dos Santos, who was Pariss father. Authorities had received a complaint over posts made three years ago and Ms Shahravesh was warned she faced prosecution and up to two years in prison. But during a court appearance on Thursday, a judge ordered that her passport would be returned if she paid a fine of 3,000 UAE Dirham (624). After discovering her ex-husband had remarried in 2016, Ms Shahravesh called his new wife, Samah Al Hammadi, from Tunisia, a horse on Facebook. Theresa May is facing calls to open up talks about leaving the European Union to ministers from Holyrood and Cardiff in a bid to help break the Brexit impasse. Scottish Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell made the plea shortly after Mrs May was granted more time by Europe to reach agreement over Britains future relationship with the EU. The Prime Minister now has until October 31 to find a way forward, and Mr Russell stressed she must use this extra time wisely. He said all parties and all devolved governments should be invited to the negotiating table. He urged Mrs May to drop her red lines, which have seen her insist the UKs departure from the EU will also see it leave both the single market and the customs union. The Scottish Government has repeatedly made the case for Britain to remain part of these arrangements, arguing this will help mitigate the economic impact of Brexit. Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell. (Jane Barlow/PA) Mr Russell said: Taking us out of a market around eight times bigger than the UK will cost jobs, make people poorer and undermine the democratic decision of the people of Scotland to remain in the European Union. The Scottish Government set out compromise plans that would keep both Scotland and the UK in the single market but these were dismissed out of hand by the UK Government. Meanwhile, the boss of a biscuit firm in Forres, Moray, has warned Brexit would make its plans to expand into Japan more difficult, as well as increase its costs. Macleans Highland Bakery produces traditional shortbread, biscuits and oatcakes, but managing director Lewis Maclean said while the Brexit extension was a reprieve, he has a really terrible feeling about the way forward. He said: My fourth biggest customer is based in Copenhagen and worth 100,000 a year to my business. They have already made it clear they will not meet any additional costs of trading with us after we leave the EU. If our goods cost more to export, or take longer getting through customs, its likely well lose business. I am getting a really terrible feeling in my stomach, the closer we get to leaving the EU. This weeks extension feels like a reprieve, but for how long? A UK Government spokeswoman said: There are already regular discussions at all levels between the UK and Scottish Government ahead of UKs exit from the European Union to discuss the next steps in delivering Brexit in a smooth and orderly way. Unions have urged employers and the Scottish Government to do more for migrant workers ahead of Brexit. Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) general secretary Grahame Smith wants improvements to migrants working lives in Scotland. Among changes called for are increased wages for all workers in sectors reliant on migrant labour, such as care, hospitality and agriculture. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last week wrote an open letter to EU citizens in Scotland, stressing they are welcome here and play a crucial role in Scotlands economy. She said her Government will offer support to those who want to stay, and urged them to apply for settled status. Mr Smith said: As the STUCs 122nd annual congress begins this week, we are calling for employers and Scottish Government to step up for migrant workers with the impact of Brexit and a tightening Labour market. The first step would be for employers to recognise unions and work with us to make the workplace a genuinely welcoming and positive place for all employees. He said unions have worked to ensure migrant and non-migrant workers are rostered together and offered free language courses. Grahame Smith said migrant workers should be given more support ahead of Brexit (Danny Lawson/PA) Mr Smith added: Much has been done to promote Scotland as a welcoming country for migrants, but we need to do more to improve their working lives here. As the labour market tightens and Brexit continues to dominate headlines, wages need to be higher in care, hospitality and agriculture, benefiting native and migrant workers alike. The STUC has collected testimonies from a range of migrant workers and found that while there is consensus on the need to attract migrants to Scotland, employers need to step up for migrant staff facing hostility in the workplace and uncertainty ahead of Brexit. Among the workers the STUC spoke to is a Greek woman who has worked in Scotland since 2017. The care assistant said: I think sometimes people were a bit aggressive because I was a foreigner. They told me they dont like Polish people. They ask where Im from and how long Im here for and if I claim benefits. Its always very patronising. Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills Jamie Hepburn said: Scotland benefits significantly from the contribution of people who choose to live, work and study here, and they are crucial to Scotlands future economic growth. Thats why we have launched a campaign and support package to encourage EU citizens to stay here. However the UK Governments approach to Brexit and migration in general threatens Scotlands future prosperity. The evidence is clear current UK Government immigration policy is harmful to Scotlands interests. We need a more flexible approach to migration with more powers for Scottish Ministers, accountable to the Scottish Parliament, to develop tailored sustainable solutions for Scotland which meet the needs of all sectors of our economy, public services and communities, including heath and social care, construction, agriculture, hospitality and tourism. Calls have been made for the housing element of Universal Credit to automatically go to landlords. The current system sees claimants opt in for their benefits to go directly towards rent. However, research by Scottish Labour suggests fewer than half of eligible households currently have it paid direct to their landlord. The party has called for the housing element to be paid directly to landlords in all instances, with claimants having the option of opting out of that practice if they wish. Labour Social Security spokesman Mark Griffin said: The Tories shambolic Universal Credit means thousands of families across Scotland are being pushed into rent arrears through no fault of their own. The SNPs Scottish Choices have helped fewer than half of tenants eligible. Using new social security powers to ensure housing benefit is automatically paid direct to landlords to protect the roof over peoples heads is a no-brainer. Less than half of households are signed up to the automatic system (Joe GIddens?PA) Across the country thousands are suffering the misery of Universal Credit, and are still having to juggle paying the rent heating their home or eating. We need to do more to prevent arrears building up, risking low-income families becoming homeless. Scottish Labour says the number of households in Scotland that receive the housing element of Universal credit is 75,138, with 43,266 who not signed up to direct payment. That leaves just 31,872 who have decided to use the automatic system. A Scottish Government spokesman said: We think it is important that individuals have the choice about whether or not to have the housing cost element of their Universal Credit award paid to their landlord, just as they have choice if they are paid monthly or twice monthly. In line with our social security principles of respect, dignity and fairness, we support people to make an informed choice based on their own needs and what works best for them. Hundreds of call handlers at Police Scotland could be forced to quit over cuts to pay and changes to working conditions, Willie Rennie has warned. The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader said salary reductions have damaged staff morale as he urged ministers to take action to address staff concerns. Police Scotland has stated that a restructuring of terms and conditions was necessary following the centralisation of the force in 2013 in order to address historical anomalies and inequalities. A freedom of information request by Mr Rennies party indicated that more than 120 staff at Police Scotland have had their pay cut, with some facing reductions of up to 6,400 as a result of changes to back and night shift allowances. In September, an agreement was reached between the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) which guaranteed officers an immediate 6.5% pay increase. Willie Rennie said morale among Police Scotland staff is low (PA) The deal also sought to address the issues of inequality and anomalies in relation to pay progression, with the new pay deal for Police Scotland staff coming into effect on April 1. Mr Rennie said: Police call centre workers in Govan, Bilston and Motherwell are facing pay cuts and unreasonable changes to their conditions. No wonder absences are so high and morale so low. There have already been a number of high-profile incidents relating to emergency call handling in recent years. Experienced call handlers are essential but there is a risk that they will stream for the exits. The fatal accident inquiry into the 2015 M9 crash, which was handled by Bilston Glen, still hasnt been conducted. It may be that the failure then to retain experienced call handlers is one of the lessons to be learned. Ive challenged the First Minister and the Justice Secretary to step in and support this service. Theyre sleepwalking towards another blunder. Ministers need to take a long hard look at the past and reverse these cuts. John Yuill, 28, and partner Lamara Bell, 25, died in a crash on the M9 in July 2015 which was reported to police at the time by a member of the public but no action was taken. The pair were only discovered in the car three days later after police received a further call to the scene. Jude Helliker, Police Scotland, explained that a project focused on a restructuring of terms and conditions was required after the merger of eight regional forces to form the force and outlined that a majority of staff would be receiving an uplift in pay. Ms Helliker said:Staff Pay and Reward Modernisation will ensure our staff, who are our most important asset, enjoy common terms and conditions of employment. The proposals have been subject to negotiation with our trades union colleagues and have received endorsement through collective agreement. The new pay and grading system, along with new terms and conditions of employment, removes inequalities and anomalies in pay and conditions inherited from predecessor forces. The agreed package represents a significant investment in the region of 23m, with over 70% of staff receiving an increase in basic salary and/or shift reward. For those whose salary is to be reduced, the agreed employment package offers a two-year period of protection of pay and allowances. An independent appeals process is open for staff to appeal against the outcome of the evaluation of their role. A Scottish Government spokesman said: The modernisation package represents one of largest and most complex pay harmonisation programmes in Scotlands public sector, with more than 70% of police staff receiving a higher pay package. It will improve equality and help deliver on Scotlands fair work agenda. From call handlers to forensic scientists, Scotlands civilian police staff play a critical and often frontline role in keeping people safe, and the Scottish Government has been working with the service and the Authority to invest in the workforce. This deal establishes common pay, terms and conditions for police staff across Scotland. It also follows the widely-welcomed thirty-one month 6.5% pay settlement for officers in Scotland. Jeremy Corbyn must stop wasting time and commit to supporting another vote on Brexit, Ian Blackford has said. The SNPs Westminster leader said it would be unforgivable for Labour to avoid another referendum on EU membership, and he warned against pushing through a Brexit deal that ends freedom of movement and removes single market access. Earlier this week, the EU granted a further extension to Article 50 and the UK is now set to depart on October 31. Mr Blackford said: Talks have been ongoing between both the Tory Government and Labour Party for over a week but not a single compromise has been tabled. Jeremy Corbyn is being urged to insist on a second EU referendum (Jonathan Brady/PA) Instead of wasting more time, Labour must make clear to the Tories that the answer to the Brexit deadlock is to put the decision back to the people. It is no secret that the Labour leader has ducked and dived on the issue of a second EU referendum, but at this crucial crossroads it is high time Jeremy Corbyn commits to putting a second referendum on the table as the only way forward. In 2016, Labour backed Remain and the Tories Brexit policy has failed so there is no mandate for any outcome they may reach if it is not put back to the people. It would be unforgivable if Labour side-stepped a second EU referendum in the talks and instead pushed through a deal that would drag Scotland out of the single market and end freedom of movement which will hit our public services and cost thousands of jobs. Westminster is failing Scotland and it is becoming clearer each day that the only real way to safeguard our interests is through independence. Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn has also been urged to explicitly back another referendum by members of his own party. Richard Corbett, Labours leader in the European Parliament, warned that voters could desert the party in the EU election unless it committed to a public vote. He told The Observer: If Labour does not re-confirm its support for a confirmatory public vote on any Brexit deal in its manifesto then it will haemorrhage votes to parties who do have a clear message. If on the other hand we do offer clarity and a confirmatory ballot we could do very well. Former Labour foreign secretary Margaret Beckett echoed his calls, saying a lack of clarity could cost the party not only in the EU election, but in the next general election too. She told the paper: It is very important that there is a clear message about where Labour stands and what Labour is offering. In my view that clear and simple message should be that there should be a confirmatory vote of the British people. A large, flightless bird killed its owner when it attacked him after he fell, authorities in Florida have said. The Alachua County Fire Rescue Department said a cassowary killed the man on his property near Gainesville, apparently using its long claws. The victim, 75-year-old Marvin Hajos, was breeding the birds, which are native to Australia and New Guinea. Deputy chief Jeff Taylor said: It looks like it was accidental. My understanding is that the gentleman was in the vicinity of the bird and at some point fell. When he fell, he was attacked. Initial information indicates that this was a tragic accident for Mr Hajos, said Lieutenant Brett Rhodenizer, a sheriffs office spokesman. Cassowaries are similar to emus and stand up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall (Wilson Ring/AP) The cassowary involved remains secured on private property at this time. Cassowaries are similar to emus and reach up to 6ft in height and weigh up to 60kg. They have black body feathers and bright blue heads and necks. The San Diego Zoo website calls cassowaries the worlds most dangerous bird, with a 4in dagger-like claw on each foot. The cassowary can slice open any predator or potential threat with a single swift kick, the website says. Powerful legs help the cassowary run up to 31mph through the dense forest underbrush. Cassowaries are not raised for food in the US but are sought after by collectors. To get the mandatory permit, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission requires cassowary owners to have substantial experience and meet specific cage requirements, spokeswoman Karen Parker said. The father of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has called on the Australian government to help his son and suggested he could be brought back to his home country. John Shipton, who lives in Melbourne, urged prime minister Scott Morrison to step in following Assanges arrest in London last week. He told News Corp Australia that Mr Morrison and the countrys Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) should in a nuanced way do something. He added: It can be resolved simply to the satisfaction of all. There has been some talk in a meeting between a senator and a senior DFAT official to extradite Julian to Australia. John Shipton urged Australian PM Scott Morrison to help his son (AP Photos/Rod McGuirk, File) Mr Morrison has previously said Assange, an Australian citizen, will have consular assistance available to him but will not get special treatment. Mr Shipton also expressed shock at the appearance of his son in footage of his removal from Londons Ecuadorian embassy on Thursday. I saw him, the way they dragged him down the steps, the coppers he didnt look good, he added. Im 74 and I look better than him and hes 47. Its such a shock. In Britain, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said Assange should answer questions about sexual assault allegations in Sweden. The comments came after more than 70 Parliamentarians signed a letter to Home Secretary Sajid Javid urging the Government to ensure Assange faces Swedish authorities if they request his extradition. Mr Corbyn told Sky News: If there are allegations which Julian Assange needs to answer of sexual issues, sexual attacks that may or may not have taken place in Sweden, then its a matter for the courts to decide. But, I do think he should answer those questions. My objection was to his extradition to the United States because I do believe that WikiLeaks told us the truth about what was actually happening in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Tonight over 70 parliamentarians stand with victims of sexual violence, and are calling on both the Home Secretary and the shadow Home Sec to urge them both to be champions of action to ensure Julian Assange faces Swedish authorities and is extradited there if they so request: pic.twitter.com/uaJMM984Cc stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) April 12, 2019 The letter to the Home Secretary was organised by Labour MP Stella Creasy and stated: We are writing to request that you do everything you can to champion action that will ensure Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden in the event Sweden make an extradition request. This would be so the formal investigation into an allegation of rape can be concluded and, if appropriate, a charge can be made and any trial can take place. We do not presume guilt, of course, but we believe due process should be followed and the complainant should see justice be done. We urge you to stand with the victims of sexual violence and seek to ensure the case against Mr Assange can now be properly investigated. The rape allegation has a limitation period which expires in August 2020, it added. Assange had been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly seven years (Rebecca Brown/PA) Assange spent almost seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he sought political asylum in 2012. This followed defeat in his legal battle against extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted over two separate allegations, one of rape and one of molestation. In May 2017, Swedens top prosecutor dropped the long-running inquiry into a rape claim against Assange, which he has always denied. But his arrest prompted the lawyer for a Swedish woman who alleged she was raped by Assange during a visit to Stockholm in 2010 to say they wanted the case reopened. Prosecutors in Sweden have since confirmed that, while the investigation has not been resumed, they are looking into the case. Labour MP Stephen Kinnock told the BBC: Mr Assange is accused of rape and sexual violence in Sweden and its vital that that doesnt get airbrushed out of the conversation because of all the other issues to do with WikiLeaks. I think the top priority, as we say in our letter, is to ensure that if the Swedish authorities wish to have him extradited there to face those charges, they must take priority above all else. Writing in The Observer, Labour MP Jess Phillips said the allegations against Assange in Sweden were the first and most pressing case he should answer. The UK government should support his extradition to Sweden before they even begin to consider any pressure from the US, she wrote. North Korea says it has test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon, its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove secretary of state Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations. The test, which did not appear to be of a banned mid or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle negotiations, allows Pyongyang to show its people it is pushing ahead with weapons development while also reassuring domestic military officials worried that diplomacy with Washington signals weakness. In a separate statement, Pyongyangs foreign ministry accused Mr Pompeo of playing down the significance of comments by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who said last week that Washington has until the end of the year to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy. A TV news show reports on North Koreas test-fire of a `new-type tactical guided weapon (Lee Jin-man/AP) The demand for Mr Pompeos removal from the talks and the weapon test point to Pyongyangs displeasure with the deadlocked negotiations. Mr Kim observed the unspecified weapon being fired on Wednesday by the Academy of Defence Science, the Norths state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Mr Kim was reported to have said: The development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the Peoples Army. The Associated Press could not independently verify North Koreas claim, and it was not immediately clear what had been tested. A ballistic missile test would jeopardise the diplomatic talks meant to provide the North with concessions in return for disarmament. A South Korean analyst said details in the Norths media report indicate it could have been a new type of cruise missile. Another possible clue: One of the lower level officials mentioned in the Norths report on the test Pak Jong Chon is known as an artillery official. The test comes during an apparent deadlock in nuclear disarmament talks after the failed summit in Hanoi between Mr Kim and President Donald Trump earlier this year. President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi earlier this year (Evan Vucci/AP) Some in Seoul worry that the North will turn back to actions seen as provocative by outsiders as a way to force Washington to drop its hardline negotiating stance and grant the Norths demand for a removal of crushing international sanctions. A string of increasingly powerful weapons tests in 2017 and Mr Trumps response of fire and fury had many fearing war before the North shifted to diplomacy. During a speech in Texas on Monday, Mr Pompeo said Mr Kim promised to denuclearise during his first summit with Mr Trump and that US officials were working with the North Koreans to chart a path forward so we can get there. He (Kim) said he wanted it done by the end of the year, Mr Pompeo said. Id love to see that done sooner. Meanwhile, the Kremlin said Mr Kim will visit Russia later this month. It said in a brief statement that Mr Kim will visit Russia in the second half of April on Russian President Vladimir Putins invitation. Russian media have been abuzz in recent days with rumours about the rare meeting between the leaders. Mr Putin is set to visit China later this month, and some media speculated that he could meet with Mr Kim in Vladivostok, the port city near the border with North Korea. BUCHAREST, April 18 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Thursday. DEBT TENDER Romanian debt managers tender 400 million lei ($94.93 million) worth of June 2024 treasury bonds. CRIMINAL CODE, JUSTICE MINISTER Romania's Senate approved changes to the criminal code on Wednesday that could shut down a number of ongoing high-level graft cases in one of the European Union's most corrupt states. The ruling Social Democrats had unsuccessfully been pushing their own government to approve the criminal code revision via emergency decree, as well as a second one that would allow those convicted by the Supreme Court since 2014 to retroactively challenge verdicts. On Wednesday the prime minister said she will fire Justice Minister Tudorel Toader. FIRST BANK Romanian First Bank, owned by U.S.-based private equity fund J.C. Flowers said on Wednesday it has bought Bank Leumi Romania for an undisclosed amount. The sale is pending central bank and competition council approval. ARCELORMITTAL The European Commission has approved the sale by ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer, of plants in several European countries to Liberty House to satisfy regulatory requirements for its acquisition of Italian steelmaker Ilva. CEE MARKETS The forint set a new 3-week high against the euro on Wednesday, outperforming Central European peers as it benefited from increased appetite for emerging market currencies and stocks. For other related news, double click on: --------------------------------------------------------------- Romanian equities RO-E E.Europe equities .CEE Romanian money RO-M Romanian debt RO-D Eastern Europe EEU All emerging markets EMRG Hot stocks HOT Stock markets STX Market debt news DBT Forex news FRX For real-time index quotes, double click on: Bucharest BETI Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ------------------------------------------------------ ($1 = 4.2135 lei) Royal Dutch Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company worldwide. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Oil Products, Chemicals segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen, and sulphur; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Royal Dutch Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. Read More Vesuvius plc provides engineering services and solutions principally to steel and foundry industries worldwide. It operates in two segments, Steel and Foundry. The company offers foundry consumables and equipment, including binders, coatings, feeding systems, filtration and gating systems, melt shop refractories, metallurgical and pouring control systems, die dressings and coatings, melt treatment products, crucibles, and ceramics for the iron, steel, and nonferrous foundries. It also provides nonferrous metals, such as primary and secondary aluminum, copper, and other metals and alloys; cement and lime solutions, iron ore pelletizing and calcination products, and grains and powders; and process heaters, FCC units, hydrogen reformers, boilers, coke calciners, and thermal oxidizers, as well as sulphur, ethylene, and ammonia plants. In addition, the company offers solutions for power generation and incineration; glass products comprising artistic, display, float, hollow, and optical glass; glass tempering, and reheat and forming products; and solutions for solar multi-crystal silicon ingots, thin film and cell processing, and feedstock. Further, it provides solutions for blast furnace stack repair; taphole clay, iron and slang runner, sampler and temperature, tilting runner, and torpedo ladle solutions; iron ladle solutions; lining, taphole system, bath agitation and tuyere system, electric arc furnace and BOF maintenance, and metallurgical sensor solutions; and ladle, ladle to tundish, and tundish solutions, as well as tundish to mold solutions for conventional slab, thin and slim slab, beam blank, flow control valve bloom or billet, and calibrated nozzle billet casters. Additionally, the company offers ingot casting solutions; and reheat furnace, steel hot forming, galvanized steel, and electrical and stainless steel solutions. Vesuvius plc was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More Environmental Officials Rescue 30 Veiled Chameleons Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico - Environmental officials in the state of Jalisco have rescued 30 veiled chameleons from being shipped to Mexico City via a parcel company. Officers from the Federal Procurator's Office for Environmental Protection were called to the parcel company after federal police officers inspected a package and made the discovery. Inside, 30 chameleons were found wrapped in three blankets. All were found to be in poor health, suffering from dehydration and lack of food. All 30 were transferred to medical facilities at a wildlife shelter for proper care and shelter. The veiled chameleon is listed on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and is a protected species. Officials intend to investigate the shipment of the reptiles, noting that the container used for transportation threatened the dignified and respectful treatment of the chameleons. The following companies are subsidiares of Mohawk Industries: A&S Energie NV, A&U Energie NV, Aladdin Manufacturing Corporation, Aladdin Manufacturing Of New York LLC, Aladdin Manufacturing of Alabama LLC, Alsace Logistique S.A., Avelgem Green Power CVBA, Avon Pacific Holdings Ltd, B&M NV, BGE Mexico S. de R. L. de C.V., Berghoef GmbH, Berghoef-Hout B.V., Bienes Raices y Materiales del Centro S. de R.L. de C.V., C.F. Marazzi S.A., Canterbury Spinners Ltd, Carpet Foundation Ltd, Cevotrans BV, Ceramus Bahia S/A Produtos Ceramicos, DT Mex Holdings LLC, DTM/CM Holdings LLC, Dal Italia LLC, Dal-Elit LLC, Dal-Tile Chile Comercial Limitada, Dal-Tile Colombia S.A.S., Dal-Tile Distribution Inc., Dal-Tile Group Inc., Dal-Tile I LLC, Dal-Tile Industrias S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile International Inc., Dal-Tile Mexico Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Operaciones Mexico S. De R.L. De C.V., Dal-Tile Peru SRL, Dal-Tile Puerto Rico Inc., Dal-Tile Services Inc., Dal-Tile Shared Services Inc., Dal-Tile Tennessee LLC, Dal-Tile of Canada ULC, Daltile, Daltile, Dekaply NV, Durkan, Dynea NV, Eliane Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Eliane S/A - Revestimentos Ceramicos, Emilceramica India Pvt Ltd., Emilceramica S.r.l, Emilgermany GmbH, Emilgroup Asia Ltd, Explorer S.r.l., F.I.L.S. Investments Unlimited Company, Feltex Carpets Ltd, Feltex Carpets Pty Ltd, Feltex New Zealand Ltd, Fibremakers Australia Pty Ltd, Flooring Foundation Ltd, Flooring Industries Limited S.a r.l., Flooring XL B.V., Floorscape Limited, Godfrey Hirst & Co Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Australia Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Group, Godfrey Hirst NZ Ltd, Hytherm (Ireland) Limited, IVC BVBA, IVC Far-East Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., IVC France S.a r.l., IVC GROUP LIMITED, IVC Green Power NV, IVC Group, IVC Group GmbH, IVC Luxembourg S.a r.l., IVC Rus OOO, IVC US Inc., International Flooring Systems S.a r.l., International Vinyl Company - Vostok OOO, KAI Group, KAI Keramica Ltd, KAI Mining EOOD, KERAMA CENTER OOO, Kerama Baltics OOO, Kerama Export OOO, Kerama Marazzi OOO, Kerampromservis (LLC), Khan Asparuh - Transport EOOD, Khan Asparuh AD, Khan Omurtag AD, Koninklijke Peitsman B.V., Kraj Kerama OOO, MG China Trading Ltd., MI Finance SRL, MUD (Holding) Brazil Ltda., Management Co EAD, Marazzi Acquisition S.r.l., Marazzi Deutschland G.m.b.H., Marazzi France Trading S.A.S., Marazzi Group, Marazzi Group F.Z.E., Marazzi Group S.r.l., Marazzi Group Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Marazzi Iberia S.L.U., Marazzi Japan Co. Ltd., Marazzi Middle East FZ LLC, Marazzi Schweiz S.A.G.L., Marazzi UK Ltd., Mohawk Assurance Services Inc., Mohawk Australia Pty Ltd, Mohawk Canada Corporation, Mohawk Capital Finance S.A., Mohawk Capital Luxembourg SA, Mohawk Carpet Distribution Inc., Mohawk Carpet Foundation Inc., Mohawk Carpet LLC, Mohawk Carpet Transportation Of Georgia LLC, Mohawk Commercial Inc., Mohawk ESV Inc., Mohawk Europe BVBA, Mohawk Factoring II Inc., Mohawk Factoring LLC, Mohawk Finance S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Acquisitions S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Funding S.a.r.l, Mohawk Foreign Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Investments Inc., Mohawk Global Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Holdings International B.V., Mohawk Industries Inc., Mohawk International (Europe) S.a r.l., Mohawk International (Hong Kong) Limited, Mohawk International Capital N.V., Mohawk International Financing S.a.r.l, Mohawk International Holdings (DE) LLC, Mohawk International Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk International Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk International Netherlands B.V., Mohawk International Services BVBA, Mohawk KAI Luxembourg Holding S.a r.l., Mohawk KAI Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Capital S.A., Mohawk Luxembourg Financing S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Pacific S.a r.l., Mohawk Marazzi International BV, Mohawk Marazzi Russia BV, Mohawk New Zealand Limited, Mohawk Operaciones Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Mohawk Operations Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Pacific Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Resources LLC, Mohawk Servicing LLC, Mohawk Singapore Private Limited, Mohawk Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mohawk Unilin Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk United Finance B.V., Mohawk United International B.V., Mohawk Vinyl Financing S.a r.l., Molber Beheer B.V., Monarch Ceramic Tile Inc., P.F. Onroerend Goed B.V., PF Beheer B.V., Pergo, Pergo (Europe) AB, Pergo Holding BV, Pergo India Pvt Ltd, Polcolorit S.A., Premium Floors Australia Pty Limited, RR Apex LLC, Rata International Pty Ltd, Recubrimientos Interceramica S. de R.L. de C.V., Riverside Textiles Pty Ltd, S.C. KAI Ceramics SRL, Sibir Kerama OOO, SimpleSolutions USA LLC, Soft Step (Australia) Pty Ltd, Spano Group, Spano Invest BVBA, Spano NV, Stroyagromekhzapchast ChaO, Stroytrans OAO Orelstroy, Summit Wool Spinners Ltd, The Flooring Federation Ltd, Tiles Co OOD, Unilin (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Unilin ApS, Unilin Arauco Pisos Ltda., Unilin BVBA, Unilin Beheer BV, Unilin Distribution Ltd., Unilin Distribution Ukraine LLC, Unilin Finland OY, Unilin Flooring India Private Limited, Unilin Flooring SAS, Unilin GmbH, Unilin Holding BVBA, Unilin Insulation BV, Unilin Insulation SAS, Unilin Insulation Sury SAS, Unilin Italia S.R.L., Unilin North America LLC, Unilin Norway AS, Unilin OOO, Unilin Panels SAS, Unilin Poland Sp.Z.o.o., Unilin SAS, Unilin Spain SL, Unilin Swiss GmbH, Unilin s.r.o., World International Inc., Xtratherm, Xtratherm Limited, Xtratherm S.A., and Xtratherm UK Limited. Albert Mining Inc., a junior mining exploration company, acquires, explores for, and develops mineral resource properties in Canada. The company primarily explores for gold, zinc, copper, diamond, base metals, precious metals, and lithium deposits in Quebec. It also offers computer aided resources detection system that enables mineral exploration professionals identify areas with a high statistical probability of similarity to known areas of mineralization. In addition, the company provides data mining, target generation, project management, and financing services. The company was formerly known as Majescor Resources Inc. and changed its name to Albert Mining Inc. in June 2017. Albert Mining Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Read More Brookfield Asset Management, Inc. engages in the management of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It operates through the following segments: Asset Management, Real Estate, Renewable Power, Infrastructure, Private Equity, Residential Development, and Corporate Activities. The Asset Management segment includes the management of its listed partnerships, private funds and public securities. The Real Estate segment is comprised of the ownership, operation and development of core office, core retail, LP investments and other properties. The Renewable Power segment encompasses the ownership, operation and development of hydroelectric, wind, solar, storage and other power generating facilities. The Infrastructure segment consists of the ownership, operation and development of utilities, transport, energy, data infrastructure and sustainable resource assets. The Private Equity segment refers to the broad range of industries, and is mostly focused on business services, infrastructure services and industrials. The Residential Development segment represents homebuilding, condominium development and land development. The Corporate Activiti Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Barclays: Adler Toy Holding Sarl, Aequor Investments Limited, Alymere Investments Limited, Alynore Investments Limited Partnership, Analog Analytics, Analog Analytics Inc, Analytical Trade Holdings LLC, Analytical Trade Investments LLC, Analytical Trade UK Limited, Archstone Equity Holdings Inc, Ardencroft Investments Limited, B D & B Investments Limited, B.P.B. (Holdings) Limited, BB Client Nominees Limited, BBAIL SAS, BCAP LLC, BIFML PTC Limited, BMBF (No.24) Limited, BMI (No.9) Limited, BNC Brazil Consultoria Empresarial Ltda, BNRI ENG 2013 Limited Partnership, BNRI ENG 2014 Limited Partnership, BNRI ENG GP LLP, BNRI England 2010 Limited Partnership, BNRI England 2011 Limited Partnership, BNRI England 2012 Limited Partnership, BNRI Limehouse No.1 Sarl, BNRI PIA Scot GP Limited, BNRI Scots GP LLP, BPB Holdings SA, BVP Galvani Global S.A.U., Barafor Limited, Barclay Leasing Limited, Barclaycard Funding PLC, Barclaycard International Payments Limited, Barclays (Barley) Limited, Barclays Aldersgate Investments Limited, Barclays Alzin Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Asia Limited, Barclays Asset Management Limited, Barclays BR Investments S.a r.l., Barclays BWA Inc., Barclays Bank (Suisse) S.A., Barclays Bank Delaware, Barclays Bank Ireland PLC, Barclays Bank Ireland Public Limited Company, Barclays Bank Mexico S.A., Barclays Bank PLC, Barclays Bank UK PLC, Barclays Bayard Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Bedivere Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Bordang Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Brasil Assessoria Financeira Ltda., Barclays CCP Funding LLC, Barclays Cantal Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Capital (Cayman) Limited, Barclays Capital Asia Holdings Limited, Barclays Capital Asia Limited, Barclays Capital Canada Inc., Barclays Capital Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V., Barclays Capital Derivatives Funding LLC, Barclays Capital Effekten GmbH, Barclays Capital Energy Inc., Barclays Capital Equities Trading GP, Barclays Capital Finance Limited, Barclays Capital Futures (Singapore) Private Limited, Barclays Capital Holdings (Singapore) Private Limited, Barclays Capital Holdings Inc., Barclays Capital Inc., Barclays Capital Japan Securities Holdings Limited, Barclays Capital Luxembourg S.a r.l., Barclays Capital Mauritius Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees (No.2) Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees (No.3) Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees Limited, Barclays Capital Principal Investments Limited, Barclays Capital Real Estate Finance Inc., Barclays Capital Real Estate Holdings Inc., Barclays Capital Real Estate Inc., Barclays Capital Securities Client Nominee Limited, Barclays Capital Securities Limited, Barclays Capital Securities Mauritius Limited, Barclays Capital Trading Luxembourg S.a r.l., Barclays Claudas Investments Partnership, Barclays Claudas Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Commercial Mortgage Securities LLC, Barclays Converted Investments (No.2) Limited, Barclays Corporation Limited, Barclays Direct Investing Nominees Limited, Barclays Directors Limited, Barclays Dryrock Funding LLC, Barclays Electronic Commerce Holdings Inc., Barclays Equity Holdings Limited, Barclays Equity Index Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Europe Client Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Europe Firm Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Europe Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Executive Schemes Trustees Limited, Barclays Financial LLC, Barclays Financial Planning Nominee Company Limited, Barclays Funds Investments Limited, Barclays Funds and Advisory Japan Limited, Barclays Global Service Centre Private Limited, Barclays Global Shareplans Nominee Limited, Barclays Group Holdings Limited, Barclays Group Operations Limited, Barclays Group US Inc., Barclays Index Finance Trust, Barclays Industrial Development Limited, Barclays Industrial Investments Limited, Barclays Insurance Guernsey PCC Limited, Barclays Insurance Services Company Limited, Barclays Insurance U.S. Inc., Barclays International Luxembourg Dollar Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Investment Management Limited, Barclays Investment Solutions Limited, Barclays Investments & Loans (India) Limited, Barclays Korea GP Limited, Barclays Lamorak Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Leasing (No.9) Limited, Barclays Leto Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Long Island Limited, Barclays Luxembourg EUR Holdings S.a r.l, Barclays Luxembourg Finance S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg GBP Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Global Funding S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Holdings SSC B, Barclays Marlist Limited, Barclays Mauritius Overseas Holdings Limited, Barclays Mercantile Business Finance Limited, Barclays Merchant Bank (Singapore) Ltd., Barclays Nominees (George Yard) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Jersey) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Manx) Limited, Barclays Oversight Management Inc., Barclays Payment Solutions Inc., Barclays Pelleas Investments Limited Partnership, Barclays Pelleas Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Pension Funds Trustees Limited, Barclays Principal Investments Limited, Barclays Private Asset Management (Monaco) S.A.M, Barclays Private Bank, Barclays Private Clients International Limited, Barclays Receivables LLC, Barclays SAMS Limited, Barclays Securities (India) Private Limited, Barclays Securities Japan Limited, Barclays Security Trustee Limited, Barclays Services (Japan) Limited, Barclays Services Corporation, Barclays Services Jersey Limited, Barclays Services LLC, Barclays Services Limited, Barclays Shea Limited, Barclays Singapore Global Shareplans Nominee Limited, Barclays Switzerland Services SA, Barclays Tenedora De Immuebles SL., Barclays Term Funding Limited Liability Partnership, Barclays UK Investments Limited, Barclays US CCP Funding LLC, Barclays US Funding LLC, Barclays US GPF Inc., Barclays US Investments Inc., Barclays US LLC, Barclays Unquoted Investments Limited, Barclays Unquoted Property Investments Limited, Barclays Wealth Management Jersey Limited, Barclays Wealth Nominees Limited, Barclays Wealth Services Limited, Barclays Wealth Trustees (India) Private Limited, Barclayshare Nominees Limited, Barclaytrust Channel Islands Limited, Barcosec Limited, Barsec Nominees Limited, Blossom Finance General Partnership, Branchcall Computers (Pvt) Limited, Braven Investments No.1 Limited, CP Flower Guaranteeco (UK) Limited, CP Newco 1 Limited, CP Newco2 Limited, CP Newco3 Limited, CP Propco 1 Limited, CP Propco 2 Limited, CP Topco Limited, CPIA Canada Holdings, CPIA England 2008 Limited Partnership, CPIA England 2009 Limited Partnership, CPIA England No.2 Limited Partnership, CPIA Investments No.1 Limited, CPIA Investments No.2 Limited, CRE Diversified Holdings LLC, CREW Tahoe Holdings LLC, CREW Tahoe LLC, Calthorpe Investments Limited, Capton Investments Limited, Carnegie Holdings Limited, Central Platte Valley Management LLC, Chapelcrest Investments Limited, Charles Schwab Europe, Claudas Investments Limited, Claudas Investments Two Limited, Clydesdale Financial Services Limited, Cobalt Investments Limited, Compania Regional del Sur S.A., Compania Sudamerica S.A., Condor No.1 Limited Partnership, Cornwall Homes Loans Limited, Crescent Crown Land Holding SPV LLC, Crescent Legacy LLC, Crescent Plaza Residential L.P., Crescent Plaza Residential LLC, Crescent Plaza Residential LP LLC, Crescent Real Estate Member LLC, Crescent Resort Development LLC, Crescent TRS Holdings LLC, Crescent Tower Residences GP LLC, Crescent Tower Residences L.P., Curve Investments GP, DBL Texas Holdings LLC, DMW Realty Limited, Desert Mountain Development LLC, Desert Mountain Properties Limited Partnership, Develop Training Group Limited, Dorset Home Loans Limited, Durlacher Nominees Limited, EWRD Summit LLC, Eagle Financial and Leasing Services (UK) Limited, East West Resort Development V L.P. L.L.L.P., East West Resort Development VII LLC, Equity Limited Partnership, Equity Value Investments No.1 Limited, Equity Value Investments No.2 Limited, Erimon Home Loans Ireland Limited, Expobank, FIRSTPLUS Financial Group Limited, Finpart Nominees Limited, First Assurance, Foltus Investments Limited, Full House Holdings Limited, Gallen Investments Limited, Global Dynasty Natural Resource Private, Globe Nominees Limited, Gracechurch Services Corporation, Grays Station LLC, Grupo Financiero Barclays Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hawkins Funding Limited, Heraldglen Limited, Holding Stuttgarter Strae GmbH, Hurley Investments No.1 Limited, Imalivest Mineral Resources LP, Investors In Infrastructure Limited, J.V. Estates Limited, JV Assets Limited, Kirsche Investments Limited, LTDL Holdings LLC, La Torretta Beverages LLC, La Torretta Hospitality LLC, La Torretta Operations LLC, Lagalla Investments LLC, Leonis Investments LLP, Liability Partnership, Long Island Assets Limited, Long Island Holding A LLC, Long Island Holding B Limited, MK Opportunities GP Ltd, MK Opportunities LP, MVWP Investors LLC, Maloney Investments Limited, Marbury Holdings LLC, Menlo Investments Limited, Mercantile Credit Company Limited, Mercantile Leasing Company (No.132) Limited, Meridian (SPV-AMC) Corporation, Mintaka Investments No. 4 Limited, Mira Vista Development LLC, Mira Vista Golf Club L.C., Mountainside Partners LLC, Murray House Investment Management Limited, Naxos Investments Limited, Nile Bank, North Colonnade Investments Limited, Northstar Mountain Properties LLC, Northstar Trailside Townhomes LLC, Northstar Village Townhomes LLC, Northwharf Investments Limited, Northwharf Nominees Limited, OGP Leasing Limited, Oakes Millers Ltd, Ownership Trustee Limited, PIA England No.2 Limited Partnership, Palomino Limited, Pecan Aggregator LP, Pelleas Investments Limited, Pelleas Investments Two Limited, Pippin Island Investments Limited, Preferred Liquidity LLC, Preferred Liquidity Limited Partnership, Procella Investments LLC, Procella Investments No.1 LLC, Procella Investments No.2 LLC, Procella Investments No.3 LLC, Protium Finance I LLC, Protium Master Grantor Trust, Protium Master Mortgage LP, Protium REO I LP, R.C. Grieg Nominees Limited, RVH Limited, RVT CLO Investments LLP, Razzoli Investments Limited, Real Estate Participation Management Limited, Real Estate Participation Services Limited, Relative Value Holdings LLC, Relative Value Investments UK Limited, Relative Value Trading Limited, Roder Investments No. 1 Limited, Roder Investments No. 2 Limited, Ruthenium Investments Limited, SPM GP Limited, Securitized Asset Backed Receivables LLC, Servicios Barclays S.A. de C.V., Societe Civile Immobiliere 31 Avenue de la Costa, Solution Personal Finance Limited, Southern Peaks Mining LP, Standard Life Aberdeen, Surety Trust Limited, Surrey Funding Corporation, Sussex Purchasing Corporation, Sutton Funding LLC, Swan Lane Investments Limited, TPLL LLC, TPProperty LLC, Tahoe Club Company LLC, Tahoe Club Employee Company, The Logic Group Enterprises Limited, The Logic Group Holdings Limited, Third Energy Holdings Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No. 2 Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No.1 Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No.3 Limited, US Secured Investments LLC, Union Center LLC, United Counties Bank, Verain Investments LLC, Walbrook Group Ltd, Wedd Jefferson (Nominees) Limited, Wessex Investments Limited, Westferry Investments Limited, Wilmington Riverfront Receivables LLC, Woolwich Homes Limited, Woolwich Plan Managers Limited, Woolwich Qualifying Employee Share, Woolwich Surveying Services Limited, Woori BC Pegasus Securitization Specialty Co. Limited, and Zeban Nominees Limited. Xem them ... Tin bai cuoi cung Khong con du lieu e load Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. engages in the operation of senior living communities. The firm manages independent living, assisted living and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers. It operates through the following segments: Independent Living Assisted Living & Memory Care, CCRCs, Health Care Services and Management Services. The Independent Living segment is primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors who desire an upscale residential environment providing the highest quality of service. The Assisted Living & Memory Care segment offer housing and 24-hour assistance with ADLs to mid-acuity frail and elderly residents. The CCRCs segment offers a variety of living arrangements and services to accommodate all levels of physical ability and health. The Healthcare Services segment provides home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services, as well as education and wellness programs, to residents of many communities and to seniors living outside communities. The Management Services segment composes of communities operated by the company pursuant to management agreements. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Brentwood, TN. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of General Dynamics: 42SIX LLC, ARMA Global Corporation, Advanced Technical Products, Aeromil (Australia) Pty Ltd, Aeromil Aircraft Engineering Pty Ltd, Aeromil Aviation Services Pty Ltd, Aeromil IT Services Pty Ltd, Aeromil Marine Pty Ltd, Aeromil Pacific Pty Ltd, American Overseas Marine Company LLC, Anteon International Corporation, Applied Physical Sciences, Applied Physical Sciences Corp., Ascend Intelligence, Australian Avionics Pty Ltd, Autonomic Resources LLC, Avion Logistics Limited, Avjet Corporation, AxleTech International, Axsys, BATH IRON WORKS CORPORATION, BP-HP Pte Limited, Bath Iron Works, Bath Iron Works Australia Corporation, Bath Iron Works Canada LLC, Bluefin Robotics Corporation, Blueprint Technologies Inc., Braintree I Maritime Corp., Braintree II Maritime Corp., Braintree III Maritime Corp., Braintree IV Maritime Corp., Braintree V Maritime Corp., Buccaneer Computer Systems & Service Inc., CSC Computer Sciences Venezuela S.A., CSRA, CSRA (Costa Rica) S.A., CSRA (Guyana) Inc., CSRA (Middle East) LLC, CSRA Argentina S.R.L., CSRA BH d.o.o., CSRA Bahamas Limited, CSRA Bahrain S.P.C., CSRA Belgium SPRL, CSRA Bolivia S.R.L., CSRA Brazil Servicos de Tecnologia Ltda., CSRA Canada Inc., CSRA Caribbean Inc., CSRA Chile SpA, CSRA Colombia SAS, CSRA Commerce 2010 LLC, CSRA Consular Services Holding Company LLC, CSRA Consular Services Inc., CSRA France SARL, CSRA Guatemala Solutions Sociedad Anonima, CSRA Honduras Sociedad Anonima, CSRA Inc., CSRA Information Systems LLC, CSRA Information Technology Spain SL, CSRA Ireland Limited, CSRA Italy S.R.L, CSRA Kosovo L.L.C., CSRA LATAM LLC, CSRA LLC, CSRA Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., CSRA Netherlands B.V., CSRA Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CSRA Panama Inc., CSRA Peru S.R.L., CSRA Senegal SARL, CSRA South Africa (Pty) Ltd, CSRA State and Local Solutions LLC, CSRA Systems & Solutions LLC, CSRA Trinidad & Tobago Limited, CSRA Turkey Bilisim Teknolojileri Limited Sirketi, CSRA Uruguay S.R.L, CSRA Visa Services Israel Ltd., CSRAIT - Information Services Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Centauri Solutions LLC, Command System, Computing Devices International, Concord I Maritime Corporation, Concord II Maritime Corporation, Concord III Maritime Corporation, Concord IV Maritime Corporation, Concord V Maritime Corporation, Convair Aircraft Corporation, Convair Corporation, Creative Technology, Customer Services Ecuador CSRA S.A., Devcor, Diamond Fortress Technologies, DynPort Vaccine Company LLC, EB Groton Engineering Inc., EBV Explosives Environmental, ELCS-CZ s.r.o., Eagle Enterprise Inc., Earl Industries - Ship Repair and Coatings Division, Ebv Explosives Environmental Company, Electric Boat - Australia LLC, Electric Boat - UK LLC, Electric Boat Canada LLC, Electric Boat Corporation, Electric Boat France LLC, Electrocom Inc., Engineering Technology, Expro Finance Inc., FBD Fahrzeug und Bremsendienst GmbH, FC Business Systems, Fidelis Cybersecurity, Force Protection, Force Protection Europe Limited, Force Protection Inc., ForeSight Technology Services LLC, Freeman United Coal Mining Company LLC, GD Brazil Holdings LLC, GD European Land Systems - Steyr GmbH, GD European Land Systems Holding GmbH, GDOTS Services Corporation, GM GDLS Defense Group L.L.C., GPS Source Inc., GTE Government Systems, GWA-Datatrac FAST LLC, Galaxy Aerospace Company, Gayston Corporation - Defense Operations, General Dynamics - OTS (Global) Inc., General Dynamics AIS Australia Pty Ltd, General Dynamics Canadian Finance Inc., General Dynamics Canadian Holdings Inc., General Dynamics Commercial Cyber Services LLC, General Dynamics European Finance Limited, General Dynamics European Land Systems - Austria GmbH, General Dynamics European Land Systems - Bridge Systems GmbH, General Dynamics European Land Systems - Czech s.r.o., General Dynamics European Land Systems - Denmark ApS, General Dynamics European Land Systems - Deutschland GmbH, General Dynamics European Land Systems - FWW GmbH, General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag GmbH, General Dynamics European Land Systems Romania S.R.L., General Dynamics European Land Systems S.L., General Dynamics Global Force LLC, General Dynamics Global Holdings Limited, General Dynamics Global Imaging Technologies Inc., General Dynamics Government Satellite Services LLC, General Dynamics Government Systems Corporation, General Dynamics Government Systems Overseas Corporation, General Dynamics Information Technology Canada Limited, General Dynamics Information Technology Inc., General Dynamics Information Technology Limited, General Dynamics Installation Services LLC, General Dynamics International Corporation, General Dynamics Itronix LLC, General Dynamics Land Systems - Australia Pty. Ltd., General Dynamics Land Systems - Canada Corporation, General Dynamics Land Systems - Canada Services Inc., General Dynamics Land Systems - Canadian Services Limited, General Dynamics Land Systems - Force Protection Inc., General Dynamics Land Systems Customer Service & Support Company, General Dynamics Land Systems Inc., General Dynamics Limited, General Dynamics Marine Systems Inc., General Dynamics Mission Systems Inc., General Dynamics Mission Systems International Limited, General Dynamics Mission Systems Overseas Company LLC, General Dynamics Motion Control LLC, General Dynamics OTS (Aerospace) Inc., General Dynamics OTS (California) Inc., General Dynamics OTS (DRI) Inc., General Dynamics OTS (Niceville) Inc., General Dynamics OTS (Pennsylvania) Inc., General Dynamics One Source LLC, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems - Canada Inc., General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems - Canada Valleyfield Inc., General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems - Simunition Operations Inc., General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc., General Dynamics Overseas Systems and Services Corporation, General Dynamics Properties Inc., General Dynamics Robotic Systems Inc., General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies Inc., General Dynamics Satcom Technologies Asia Private Limited, General Dynamics Satellite Communication Services LLC, General Dynamics Saudi Holdings S.L., General Dynamics Shared Resources LLC, General Dynamics Support Services Company, General Dynamics Swiss Financial Management Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited, General Dynamics Worldwide Holdings Inc., General Dynamics-OTS Inc., General Motors Defense, Gulfstream 100 Holdings LLC, Gulfstream Aerospace, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (CA), Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (DE), Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (GA), Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (OK), Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation of Texas, Gulfstream Aerospace Hong Kong Limited, Gulfstream Aerospace LLC, Gulfstream Aerospace LP, Gulfstream Aerospace Ltd., Gulfstream Aerospace Services Corporation, Gulfstream Aerospace Sociedad de Responssabilidad Limitada de CapitalVariable (S. de R.L. de C.V.), Gulfstream Do Brasil Servicos De Suporte E Manutencao A Aeronaves Ltda., Gulfstream International Corporation, Gulfstream Leasing LLC, Gulfstream Product Support Corporation, Gulfstream Services Corporation, Gulfstream Tennessee Corporation, Gulfstream-California Inc., Hawker Pacific (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Hawker Pacific Aircraft Management Pte Ltd, Hawker Pacific Airservices Limited, Hawker Pacific Airservices Pvt Ltd, Hawker Pacific Asia Holdings Pte Ltd, Hawker Pacific Asia Pte Ltd, Hawker Pacific Australia Pty Ltd, Hawker Pacific Aviation Services Pty Ltd, Hawker Pacific NZ Limited, Hawker Pacific Pty Ltd, IPWireless, IPWireless PTE. Limited, Information Services Consulting Limited, Interiores Aereos S.A. de C.V., International Manufacturing Technologies Inc., Itronix, Janteq Australia PTY Limited, Janteq Corp., Jet Aviation, Jet Aviation (Asia Pacific) Pte. Ltd., Jet Aviation (Bermuda) Ltd., Jet Aviation (Hong Kong) Ltd., Jet Aviation (Malaysia) SDN BHD, Jet Aviation 125 Services LLC, Jet Aviation AG, Jet Aviation Brazil Holdings Inc., Jet Aviation Business Jets (Hong Kong) Limited, Jet Aviation Business Jets AG, Jet Aviation Business Jets FZCO, Jet Aviation California LLC, Jet Aviation Dulles LLC, Jet Aviation Flight Services Inc., Jet Aviation France SAS, Jet Aviation Holding GmbH, Jet Aviation Holdings USA Inc., Jet Aviation Houston Inc., Jet Aviation International Inc., Jet Aviation Malaga SA, Jet Aviation Management AG, Jet Aviation Netherlands B.V., Jet Aviation Savannah Holding LLC, Jet Aviation Services GmbH, Jet Aviation St. Louis Inc., Jet Aviation Teterboro LP, Jet Aviation Texas Inc., Jet Aviation of America Inc., Jet Aviation/Palm Beach Inc., Jet Professionals LLC, Kylmar, Longreach Energy LLC, MAYA Viz, Maricom Systems Incorporated, Material Service Resources Company LLC, Matthews Land Company, Mediaware International, Mediaware International Pty Ltd, Metro Machine, Metro Machine co, Midwest Properties Sales LLC, NASSCO, NASSCO Holdings Incorporated, NES Associates LLC, National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, Network Connectivity Solutions Corp., Newberry Holdings LLC, OOO Jet Aviation Vnukovo, Open Kernel Labs, Page Europa Srl, Patriot I Shipping Corp., Patriot II Shipping Corp., Patriot IV Shipping Corp., Plane 79 LLC, Praxis Engineering Technologies LLC, PrimeX Technologies, Prodelin India Private Limited, Proyectos Prohumane Mexico S.A. de C.V., Quincy Maritime Corporation III, Raven Acquisitions LLC, SENTECH INC., SRA International Inc., Saco Defense, Santa Barbara Sistemas S.A., Savannah Air Center LLC, Signal Solutions LLC, Southern Illinois Recovery Inc., Spectrum Astro, St. Marks Powder Inc., Stabilo Pty Ltd, Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug AG & Co KG, Sydney Jet Charter Pty Ltd, Tadpole Computer, Tecnologias Internacionales de Manufactura S.A. de C.V., Tenacity Solutions Incorporated, The Depth of Ideas for General Trading LLC, TriPoint Global Communications, Vangent, Vangent Servicios de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Veridian, Vertex Antennentechnik GmbH, ViPS, Vulnerability Research Labs LLC, and Weco LLC. Deutsche Post AG operates as a mail and logistics company in Germany, rest of Europe, the Americas, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates through five segments: Post & Parcel Germany; Express; Global Forwarding, Freight; Supply Chain; and eCommerce Solutions. The Post & Parcel Germany segment transports and delivers mail, letters, parcels, physical and hybrid letters, special products for merchandize, and registered mail to private and business customers. It also provides additional services, such as registered mail, cash on delivery, and insured items. The Express segment transport and offers time-definite international (TDI) shipments comprising urgent documents and goods. The Global Forwarding, Freight segment transports goods by air, ocean, and overland; and offers multimodal and sector-specific solutions. This segment's business model is based on brokering transport services between customers and freight carriers. The Supply Chain segment provides contract logistics solutions, including warehousing and transport services; and value-added services, such as e-fulfilment, lead logistics partner, real estate solutions, service logistics, and packaging solutions for various industrial sectors. The eCommerce Solutions segment provides parcel delivery and cross-border non-TDI services. Deutsche Post AG is headquartered in Bonn, Germany. Read More HDFC Bank Ltd. engages in the provision of banking and financial services, including commercial banking and treasury operations. The firm also provides financial services to upper and middle income individuals and corporations in India. It operates through the following segments: Treasury, Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking and Other Banking Operations. The Treasury segment consists of bank's investment portfolio, money market borrowing and lending, investment operations and trading in foreign exchange and derivative contracts. The Retail Banking segment provides loans and other services to customers through a branch network and other delivery channels. The Wholesale Banking segment provides loans, non-fund facilities and transaction services to large corporates, emerging corporates, public sector units, government bodies, financial institutions, and medium scale enterprises. The Other Banking Business segment includes income from para banking activities such as credit cards, debit cards, third party product distribution, primary dealership business, and the associated costs. The company was founded by Aditya Tapishwar Puri in August 1994 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Allstate: AIMCO Private Fund I Holding LLC, AIMCO Private Fund I LLC, AIMCO Private Fund II LLC, ALIC Reinsurance Company, ALINV Mosaic LLC, ANIHI Newco LLC, AP Real Estate LLC, AP Riverway Plaza LLC, AP Timber LLC, Allstate Assignment Company, Allstate Assurance Company, Allstate County Mutual Insurance Company, Allstate Digital Ventures LLC, Allstate Distributors L.L.C., Allstate Enterprises LLC, Allstate Exchange Services LLC, Allstate Finance Company Agency Loans LLC, Allstate Finance Company LLC, Allstate Financial Advisors LLC, Allstate Financial Corporation, Allstate Financial Insurance Holdings Corporation, Allstate Financial LLC, Allstate Financial Services LLC (1), Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Global Holdings Limited, Allstate Indemnity Company, Allstate Insurance Company, Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, Allstate Insurance Holdings LLC, Allstate International Assignments Ltd., Allstate International Holdings Inc., Allstate Investment Management Company, Allstate Investments LLC, Allstate Life Insurance Company (2), Allstate Life Insurance Company of Canada, Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York, Allstate Motor Club Inc., Allstate New Jersey Insurance Company, Allstate New Jersey Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Non-Insurance Holdings Inc., Allstate North American Insurance Company, Allstate Northbrook Indemnity Company, Allstate Northern Ireland Limited, Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Settlement Corporation, Allstate Short Term Pool LLC, Allstate Solutions Private Limited, Allstate Texas Lloyds, Allstate Texas Lloyds Inc., Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance Company, American Heritage Life Insurance Company, American Heritage Service Company, Answer Financial Inc., Answer Marketplace LLC, Arity 875 LLC, Arity International Limited, Arity LLC, Arity Services LLC, CE Care Plan Corp, Castle Key Indemnity Company, Castle Key Insurance Company, Complete Product Care Corp, Current Creek Investments LLC, E.R.J. Insurance Group Inc. (3), Encompass Floridian Indemnity Company, Encompass Floridian Insurance Company, Encompass Home and Auto Insurance Company, Encompass Indemnity Company, Encompass Independent Insurance Company, Encompass Insurance Company, Encompass Insurance Company of America, Encompass Insurance Company of Massachusetts, Encompass Insurance Company of New Jersey, Encompass Insurance Holdings LLC, Encompass Property and Casualty Company, Encompass Property and Casualty Insurance Company of New Jersey, Esurance Holdings Inc., Esurance Insurance Company, Esurance Insurance Company of Canada, Esurance Insurance Company of New Jersey, Esurance Insurance Services Company of Canada, Esurance Insurance Services Inc. (4), Esurance Property and Casualty Insurance Company, First Colonial Insurance Company, Identity Protection Strategic Solutions LLC, InfoArmor Aggra Inc., InfoArmor Inc., Insurance Answer Center LLC (5), Intramerica Life Insurance Company, Ivantage Insurance Brokers Inc., Ivantage Select Agency Inc., Kennett Capital Inc., NBInv AF1 LLC, NBInv AF2 LLC, NBInv AF3 LLC, NBInv AF4 LLC, NBInv AF5 LLC, NBInv AF6 LLC, NBInv AP1 LLC, NBInv AP2 LLC, NBInv AP3 LLC, NBInv AP4 LLC, NBInv AP5 LLC, NBInv AP6 LLC, NBInv AP7 LLC, NBInv AP8 LLC, NBInv APAF1 LLC, NBInv Riverside Cars1 LLC, NBInv Riverside Management LLC, North Light Specialty Insurance Company, Northeast Agencies Inc. (6), Pablo Creek Services Inc., Pafco Insurance Company, Pembridge Insurance Company, PlumChoice Business Services Inc., PlumChoice Inc., Protection Plan Group Inc., Right Answer Insurance Agency LLC, Road Bay Investments LLC, ST Product Care Corp, Signature Agency Inc., Signature Motor Club Inc., Signature Motor Club of California Inc., Signature Nationwide Auto Club of California Inc., Signatures Nationwide Auto Club Inc., SquareTrade Australia Pty Ltd, SquareTrade Canada Inc., SquareTrade Europe Limited, SquareTrade Holding Company Inc., SquareTrade Inc. (7), SquareTrade Insurance Services Inc., SquareTrade Limited, SquareTrade Protection Solutions Inc., SquareTradeGo Inc., Tech-Cor LLC, and West Plaza RE Holdings LLC. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. engages in global investment banking, securities, and investment management, which provides financial services. It operates through the following business segments: Investment Banking, Global Markets, Asset Management, and Consumer & Wealth Management. The Investment Banking segment serves public and private sector clients around the world and provides financial advisory services, help companies raise capital to strengthen and grow their businesses and provide financing to corporate clients. The Global Markets segment serves its clients who buy and sell financial products, funding and manage risk. The Asset Management segment provides investment services to help clients preserve and grow their financial assets. The Consumer & Wealth Management segment helps clients to achieve their individual financial goals by providing a wealth advisory and banking services. The company was founded by Marcus Goldman in 1869 and is headquartered in New York, NY. Read More Guyana Goldfields Inc. provides exploration and production of gold. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of gold mineral properties. The company also owns and operates gold drilling rights. The company was formerly known as Chiboug Copper Company Limited and changed its name to Guyana Goldfields Inc. in January 1995. Guyana Goldfields Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As of August 25, 2020, Guyana Goldfields Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited. Read More TC Energy Corporation operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. It operates through Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines, U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines, Mexico Natural Gas Pipelines, Liquids Pipelines, and Power and Storage segments. The company builds and operates 93,400 km network of natural gas pipelines, which transports natural gas from supply basins to local distribution companies, power generation plants, industrial facilities, interconnecting pipelines, LNG export terminals, and other businesses. It also has regulated natural gas storage facilities with a total working gas capacity of 535 billion cubic feet. In addition, it has approximately 4,900 km liquids pipeline system that connects Alberta crude oil supplies to refining markets in Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, and the U.S. Gulf Coast. Further, the company owns or has interests in seven power generation facilities with a combined capacity of approximately 4,200 megawatts that are powered by natural gas and nuclear fuel sources located in Alberta, Ontario, QuAbec, and New Brunswick; and owns and operates approximately 118 billion cubic feet of non-regulated natural gas storage capacity in Alberta. The company was formerly known as TransCanada Corporation and changed its name to TC Energy Corporation in May 2019. TC Energy Corporation was incorporated in 1951 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Read More iShares China Large-Cap ETF's stock was trading at $38.80 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, FXI shares have decreased by 5.2% and is now trading at $36.78. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares MSCI EAFE ETF's stock was trading at $56.05 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EFA stock has increased by 38.5% and is now trading at $77.63. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. KB Financial Group, Inc. engages in providing financial services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Other Banking Services, Credit Card, Life Insurance, Investment and Securities business. The Corporate Banking business segment provides services such as loans, overdrafts, deposits, credit facilities and other foreign currency activities. The Retail Banking business segment offers services such as private customer current accounts, savings, deposits, consumer loans and mortgage loans. The Other Banking business segment provides services relating to banking business besides corporate banking and retail banking services. The Credit Card business segment offers services such as domestic as well as overseas credit and debit card operations. The Investment and Securities business segment provides services such as investment banking and brokerage. The Life Insurance business segment provides products such as life insurance and wealth management. The company was founded on September 29, 2008 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Read More Kinder Morgan, Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company. The firm engages in the operation of pipelines and terminals that transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and other products and stores petroleum products chemicals and handles bulk materials like ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. It operates through the following segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, CO2, Terminals, Product Pipelines and Kinder Morgan Canada. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment engages in the ownership and operation of major interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline and storage systems, natural gas and crude oil gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities. The CO2 segment focuses on the production, transportation and marketing of CO2 to oil fields that use CO2 as a flooding medium for recovering crude oil from mature oil fields to increase production. The Terminals segment consists of the ownership and operation of liquids and bulk terminal facilities located throughout the U.S. and portions of Canada that trans load and store refined petroleum products, crude oil, chemicals, ethanol and bulk products, including coal, petroleum coke, fertilizer, Read More The following companies are subsidiares of InterContinental Hotels Group: 2250 Blake Street Hotel LLC, 24th Street Operator Sub LLC, 36th Street IHG Sub LLC, 426 Main Ave LLC, 46 Nevins Street Associates LLC, Allegro Management LLC, Alpha Kimball Hotel LLC, American Commonwealth Assurance Co. Ltd., Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BHMC Canada Inc., BHR Holdings B.V., BHR Luxembourg SARL, BHR Pacific Holdings Inc., BHTC Canada Inc., BOC Barclay Sub LLC, Barclay Operating Corp., Bristol Oakbrook Tenant Company, Cafe Biarritz, Cambridge Lodging LLC, Capital Lodging LLC, Compania Inter-Continental De Hoteles El Salvador SA, Crowne Plaza Amsterdam (Management) B.V., Crowne Plaza LLC, Cumberland Akers Hotel LLC, Dunwoody Operations Inc., EVEN Real Estate Holding LLC, Edinburgh IC Limited, General Innkeeping Acceptance Corporation, Guangzhou SC Hotels Services Ltd., H.I. (Ireland) Limited, H.I. Soaltee Management Company Ltd, HC International Holdings Inc., HH France Holdings SAS, HH Hotels (EMEA) B.V., HH Hotels (Romania) SRL, HI Sugarloaf LLC, HIM (Aruba) NV, Hale International Ltd., Hoft Properties LLC, Holiday Hospitality Franchising LLC, Holiday Inn Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Holiday Inns (China) Ltd, Holiday Inns (Chongqing) Inc., Holiday Inns (Courtalin) Holdings SAS, Holiday Inns (Courtalin) SAS, Holiday Inns (England) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Germany) LLC, Holiday Inns (Guangzhou) Inc., Holiday Inns (Jamaica) Inc., Holiday Inns (Malaysia) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Middle East) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Philippines) Inc., Holiday Inns (Saudi Arabia) Inc., Holiday Inns (South East Asia) Inc., Holiday Inns (Thailand) Ltd., Holiday Inns (UK) Inc., Holiday Inns Crowne Plaza (Hong Kong) Inc., Holiday Inns Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Holiday Inns Inc., Holiday Inns Investment (Nepal) Ltd., Holiday Inns of America (UK) Ltd., Holiday Inns of Belgium N.V., Holiday Pacific Equity Corporation, Holiday Pacific LLC, Holiday Pacific Partners LP, Hotel Inter-Continental London Limited, Hotel InterContinental London (Holdings) Limited, Hoteles Y Turismo HIH SRL, IC Hotelbetriebsfuhrungs GmbH, IC Hotels Management (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, IC International Hotels Limited Liability Company, IHC (Thailand) Limited, IHC Buckhead LLC, IHC Edinburgh (Holdings), IHC Hopkins (Holdings) Corp., IHC Hotel Limited, IHC Inter-Continental (Holdings) Corp., IHC London (Holdings), IHC M-H (Holdings) Corp., IHC May Fair (Holdings) Limited, IHC May Fair Hotel Limited, IHC Overseas (U.K.) Limited, IHC UK (Holdings) Limited, IHC United States (Holdings) Corp., IHC Willard (Holdings) Corp., IHG (Australasia) Limited, IHG (Marseille) SAS, IHG (Thailand) Limited, IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan LLC, IHG ANA Hotels Holdings Co. Ltd., IHG Bangkok Ltd, IHG Brasil Administracao de Hoteis e Servicos Ltda, IHG Commission Services SRL, IHG Community Development LLC, IHG Cyprus Limited, IHG ECS (Barbados) SRL, IHG Franchising Brasil Ltda, IHG Franchising DR Corporation, IHG Franchising LLC, IHG Hotels (New Zealand) Limited, IHG Hotels Limited, IHG Hotels Management (Australia) Pty Limited, IHG Hotels Nigeria Limited, IHG Hotels South Africa (Pty) Ltd, IHG International Partnership, IHG Istanbul Otel Yonetim Limited Sirketi, IHG Japan (Management) LLC, IHG Japan (Osaka) LLC, IHG Management (Maryland) LLC, IHG Management (Netherlands) B.V., IHG Management MD Barclay Sub LLC, IHG Management SL d.o.o, IHG Management d.o.o. Beograd, IHG Orchard Street Member LLC, IHG PS Nominees Limited, IHG Systems Pty Ltd, IHG Szalloda Budapest Szolgaltato Kft., IHG de Argentina SA, IND East Village SD Holdings LLC, Inter-Continental D.C. Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Investment Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Partner Corp., Inter-Continental Hospitality Corporation, Inter-Continental Hoteleira Limitada, Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Owning Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation, Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Inter-Continental Hotels of San Francisco Inc., Inter-Continental IOHC (Mauritius) Limited, Inter-Continental Management (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental (Branston) 1 Limited, InterContinental (PB) 1, InterContinental (PB) 2, InterContinental (PB) 3 Limited, InterContinental Berlin Service Company GmbH, InterContinental Brasil Administracao de Hoteis Ltda, InterContinental Gestion Hotelera S.L., InterContinental Hotel Berlin GmbH, InterContinental Hotel Dusseldorf GmbH (Germany), InterContinental Hotels (Puerto Rico) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Canada) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Espana) SA, InterContinental Hotels Group (Greater China) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Japan) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (New Zealand) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Shanghai) Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Customer Services Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Healthcare Trustee Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group Operating Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group Resources Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company, InterContinental Hotels Group do Brasil Limitada, InterContinental Hotels Italia S.r.L., InterContinental Hotels Limited, InterContinental Hotels Management GmbH, InterContinental Hotels Nevada Corporation, InterContinental Management AM LLC, InterContinental Management Bulgaria EOOD, InterContinental Management France SAS, InterContinental Management Poland sp. z.o.o, InterContinental Overseas Holding Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited, KG Benefits LLC, KG Gift Card Inc., KG Liability LLC, KG Technology LLC, KHP Washington Operator LLC, KHRG 11th Avenue Hotel LLC, KHRG 851 LLC, KHRG Aertson LLC, KHRG Alexandria LLC, KHRG Alexis LLC, KHRG Allegro LLC, KHRG Argyle LLC, KHRG Austin Beverage Company LLC, KHRG Baltimore LLC, KHRG Born LLC, KHRG Boston Hotel LLC, KHRG Canary LLC, KHRG Cayman Employer Ltd., KHRG Cayman LLC, KHRG DC 1731 LLC, KHRG DC 2505 LLC, KHRG Donovan LLC, KHRG Employer LLC, KHRG Goleta LLC, KHRG Gray LLC, KHRG Gray U2 LLC, KHRG Hillcrest LLC, KHRG Huntington Beach LLC, KHRG King Street LLC, KHRG La Peer LLC, KHRG Miami Beach LLC, KHRG Muse LLC, KHRG NPC LLC, KHRG Onyx LLC, KHRG Palladian LLC, KHRG Palomar Phoenix LLC, KHRG Philly Monaco LLC, KHRG Pittsburgh LLC, KHRG Reynolds LLC, KHRG Riverplace LLC, KHRG SFD LLC, KHRG Sacramento LLC, KHRG Savannah LLC, KHRG Schofield LLC, KHRG Sedona LLC, KHRG State Street LLC, KHRG Sutter LLC, KHRG Sutter Union LLC, KHRG Taconic LLC, KHRG Tariff LLC, KHRG Texas Hospitality LLC, KHRG Texas Operations LLC, KHRG Tryon LLC, KHRG VZ Austin LLC, KHRG Vero Beach LLC, KHRG Vintage Park LLC, KHRG WPB LLC, KHRG Wabash LLC, KHRG Westwood LLC, KHRG Wilshire LLC, KHRG Zamora LLC, Kimpton Hollywood Licenses LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Kimpton Phoenix Licenses Holdings LLC, Kimpton Sedona Licenses LLC, Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., MH Lodging LLC, Mercer Fairview Holdings LLC, PML Services LLC, PT SC Hotels & Resorts Indonesia, Pollstrong Limited, Powell Pine Inc., Priscilla Holiday of Texas Inc., RM Lodging LLC, Regent Hotels and Resorts, Resort Services International (Cayo Largo) L.P., SBS Maryland Beverage Company LLC, SC Cellars Limited, SC Hotels International Services Inc., SC Leisure Group Limited, SC NAS 2 Limited, SC Quest Limited, SC Reservations (Philippines) Inc., SCH Insurance Company, SCIH Branston 3, SF MH Acquisition LLC, SPHC Group Pty Ltd., SPHC Management Ltd., Semiramis for training of Hotel Personnel and Hotel Management SAE, Six Continents Corporate Services, Six Continents Holdings Limited, Six Continents Hotels Inc., Six Continents Hotels International Limited, Six Continents Hotels de Colombia SA, Six Continents International Holdings B.V., Six Continents Investments Limited, Six Continents Limited, Six Continents Overseas Holdings Limited, Six Continents Restaurants Limited, SixCo North America Inc., Solamar Lodging LLC, Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation (BVI) Ltd., Southern Pacific Hotels Properties Limited, Universal de Hoteles SA, White Shield Insurance Company Limited, and World Trade Centre Montreal Hotel Corporation. AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. produces and exports pulses, staple foods, and food ingredients worldwide. It operates through three segments: Pulse and Grain Processing; Bulk Handling and Distribution; and Food Ingredients and Packaged Foods. The company offers lentils, peas, chickpeas, beans, popcorn, canary seed, flax, and other specialty seeds. The company also produces pulse proteins, fibers, starches, and flours for food ingredient and industrial uses; milled durum wheat products, such as semolina and pasta under the Arbella brand; and bulgur wheat, as well as medium grain and long grain milled rice. In addition, it offers retail and foodservice dry packaged and canned foods under the CLIC, Pouyoukas, and Freshpop brands; and distributes durum, sorghum, popcorn, coffee, canola, sugar, spices, and various seeds. The company was formerly known as Alliance Grain Traders Inc. and changed its name to AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. in October 2014. AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Regina, Canada. Read More Manx Telecom plc provides a range of telecommunications services to consumers, businesses, and the public sector in the Isle of Man and internationally. It operates through five segments: Fixed Line, Broadband and Data; Mobile; Global Solutions; Data Centre; and Other. The Fixed Line, Broadband and Data segment offers fixed line, broadband, and connectivity services to approximately 37,000 homes and 4,000 businesses. It provides ADSL and VDSL, fixed line, and private circuit rental and connection services. The Mobile segment offers pre-paid and post-paid tariffs to various market segments; supports inbound roaming traffic; and sells mobile handsets, laptops, and accessories. It provides mobile calls, SMS, data, and mobile rental services. The Global Solutions segment offers wholesale SMS and voice, international traveler market, machine to machine, and signal mobile services, as well as mobile termination products, such as Chameleon. The Data Centre segment offers co-location, managed hosting, cloud, storage, disaster recovery, and business continuity services to corporate clients through three data centers. The Other segment provides phone book and business directory services; and operates MTTV, an online news channel, as well as manx.net portal. It also sells hardware equipment; and offers managed and interconnection services. The company was formerly known as Trafford Equityco Limited and changed its name to Manx Telecom plc in February 2014. Manx Telecom plc is headquartered in Braddan, the Isle of Man. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Kroger: 84.51 HQ Building Company LLC, 84.51 LLC, Alpha Beta Company, Ansonborough Square Investors I LLC, Ansonborough Square Retail LLC, Ardrey Kell Investments LLC, Bay Area Warehouse Stores Inc., Beech Tree Holdings LLC, Bell Markets Inc., Bleecker Ventures LLC, Bluefield Beverage Company, Box Cutter Inc., Brier Creek Arbors Drive Retail LLC, CB&S Advertising Agency Inc., Cala Co., Cala Foods Inc., Cheeses of All Nations Inc., Country Oven Inc., Crawford Stores Inc., Creedmoor Retail LLC, Dillon Companies LLC, Dillon Real Estate Co. Inc., Dillons, Distribution Trucking Company, Dotto Inc., Edgewood Plaza Holdings LLC, Embassy International Inc., FM Inc., FMJ Inc., Farmacia Doral Inc., Food 4 Less GM Inc., Food 4 Less Holdings Inc., Food 4 Less Merchandising Inc., Food 4 Less of California Inc., Food 4 Less of Southern California Inc., Fred Meyer, Fred Meyer Inc., Fred Meyer Jewelers Inc., Fred Meyer Stores Inc., Glasswing Labs LLC, Glendale/Goodwin Realty I LLC, Grubstake Investments LLC, HT Fuel DE LLC, HT Fuel NC LLC, HT Fuel SC LLC, HT Fuel VA LLC, HTGBD LLC, HTP Bluffton LLC, HTP Plaza LLC, HTP Relo LLC, HTPS LLC, HTTAH LLC, Harris Teeter, Harris Teeter LLC, Henpil Inc., Home Chef, Hood-Clayton Logistics LLC, Hughes Markets Inc., Hughes Realty Inc., I.T.A. Inc., IRP LLC, ITAC 119 LLC, ITAC 265 LLC, Inter-American Foods Inc., Inter-American Products Inc., J.V. Distributing Inc., Jondex Corp., Jubilee Carolina LLC, KCDE 2012 LLC, KCDE 2013 LLC, KCDE-2 LLC, KCDE-3 LLC, KCDE-4 LLC, KCDE-5 LLC, KGO LLC, KPF LLC, KPS LLC, KRGP LLC, KRLP Inc., KV Anderson LLC, Kee Trans Inc., Kessel FP, Kiosk Medicine Kentucky LLC, Kirkpatrick West Retail LLC, Kroger Community Development Entity LLC, Kroger Dedicated Logistics Co., Kroger Fulfillment Network LLC, Kroger G.O. LLC, Kroger LM Real Estate Holdings LLC, Kroger Limited Partnership I, Kroger Limited Partnership II, Kroger MC Holdings LLC, Kroger MTL Management LLC, Kroger Management Co., Kroger Management Corryville LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Athens I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Champaign I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Champaign II LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Cincinnati I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Dallas I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Danville I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Logansport I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Missouri I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Oak Ridge I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Olney I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Omaha I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Portsmouth I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Starkville I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Topeka I LLC, Kroger Management NMTC Warrenton I LLC, Kroger NMTC Fremont I LLC, Kroger OZ1 Inc., Kroger OZ1 LLC, Kroger OZ2 Inc., Kroger OZ2 LLC, Kroger OZ3 Inc., Kroger OZ3 LLC, Kroger Opportunity Fund I Inc., Kroger Prescription Plans Inc., Kroger Specialty Infusion AL LLC, Kroger Specialty Infusion CA LLC, Kroger Specialty Infusion Holdings Inc., Kroger Specialty Infusion TX LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy CA 2 LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy CA LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy FL 2 LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings 2 Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings 3 Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings I Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy LA LLC, Kroger Texas L.P., LCGP3 Home Cooking Inc., Latta Village LLC, Local Mkt LLC, Main & Vine LLC, Matthews Property 1 LLC, Mega Marts LLC, Michigan Dairy L.L.C., ModernHealth LTC, Murrays Cheese LLC, Murrays LIC LLC, Murrays Table LLC, Pace Dairy Foods Company, Paramount Logistics LLC, Pay Less Super Markets Inc., Peyton's-Southeastern Inc., Plum Labs LLC, Pontiac Foods Inc., Queen City Assurance Inc., RBF LLC, RGC Southeast Properties LLC, Ralphs Grocery Company, Relish Labs LLC, Rocket Newco Inc., Roundy's, Roundys Acquisition Corp., Roundys Illinois LLC, Roundys Inc., Roundys Supermarkets Inc., Second Story Inc., Shop-Rite LLC, Smiths Beverage of Wyoming Inc., Smiths Food & Drug Centers Inc., Southern Ice Cream Specialties Inc., Stallings Investors I LLC, Sunrise R&D Holdings LLC, Sunrise Technology LLC, TLC Corporate Services LLC, TLC Immunization Clinic LLC, TLC of Georgia LLC, The Kroger Co. of Michigan, The Little Clinic LLC, The Little Clinic Management Services LLC, The Little Clinic of Arizona LLC, The Little Clinic of Colorado LLC, The Little Clinic of IN LLC, The Little Clinic of Kansas LLC, The Little Clinic of Mississippi LLC, The Little Clinic of Ohio LLC, The Little Clinic of TX LLC, The Little Clinic of Tennessee LLC, The Little Clinic of VA LLC, Topvalco Inc., Ultimate Mart LLC, Ultra Mart Foods LLC, Vine Court Assurance Incorporated, Vitacost, Vitacost.com Inc., Woodmont Holdings LLC, and YOU Technology. 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 SunTrust Banks, Inc. operates as the holding company for SunTrust Bank that provides various financial services for consumers, businesses, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit entities in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer and Wholesale. The Consumer segment provides deposits and payments; home equity and personal credit lines; auto, student, and other lending products; credit cards; discount/online and full-service brokerage products; professional investment advisory products and services; and trust services, as well as family office solutions. This segment also offers residential mortgage products in the secondary market. The Wholesale segment provides capital markets solutions, including advisory, capital raising, and financial risk management; asset-based financing solutions, such as securitizations, asset-based lending, equipment financing, and structured real estate arrangements; cash management services and auto dealer financing solutions; investment banking solutions; and credit and deposit, fee-based product offering, multi-family agency lending, advisory, commercial mortgage brokerage, and tailored financing and equity investment solutions. This segment also offers treasury and payment solutions, such as operating various electronic and paper payment types, which comprise card, wire transfer, automated clearing house, check, and cash; and provides services clients to manage their accounts online. The company offers its products and services through a network of traditional and in-store branches, automated teller machines, Internet, mobile, and telephone banking channels. As of December 31, 2018, it operated 1,218 full-service banking offices located in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. SunTrust Banks, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. 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 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. In a moment well gather at the Table of the Lord. Well break bread and share the cup together. Well do this as two congregations from two different denominations. There was a time when this kind of gathering would be impossible. You might gather to sing hymns or hear a preacher, but the Table was different. It was open only to the insiders. There are still traditions that fence the Table, but fortunately that is not true here. We can gather at the Table to remember the meal Jesus established to unite his people in love. This meal of remembrance is rooted in other biblical meals, including Passover and the feeding of the 5000. We might want to add other meals including the meal Abraham and Sarah shared with the three strangers at the Oaks of Mamre. These strangers were received with hospitality, and in return they delivered a promise that the covenant God wished to establish with Abraham would include Sarah, who was to bear a child through whom the nations would be blessed. As I have developed my own understanding of the Table, I, of course, turn to the accounts of the Last Supper. I have also found Jesus own practice of Table fellowship to be insightful to my vision of the Table. Jesus was rather indiscriminate in his table fellowship. He ate with the wealthy and the poor. He ate with sinners and tax collectors. What I find interesting is the criticism Jesus faced not only for his practice of sharing meals with the less respectable kinds of people, but spending time eating and drinking in general. Consider this comparison of Jesus with John the Baptist, both of whom were criticized for different reasons: For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, He has a demon; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! ( For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, He has a demon; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! ( Lk 7:33-34 ). One is an ascetic and the other spends his time eating and drinking with the wrong kind of people. So, as followers of the One known for his practices of eating and drinking, we find the meaning of our faith revealed in a simple meal of bread and juice. The readings for tonight provide a context for our Table gathering. The first reading comes from The readings for tonight provide a context for our Table gathering. The first reading comes from Exodus 12 . It describes the first Passover meal, which launched a movement toward freedom for the people of Israel. The word given to the people of Israel is that this Passover meal should be celebrated as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations, you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance ( Ex. 12:14). Jewish communities around the world will celebrate this meal tomorrow evening, in response to this commandment. The reading from the The reading from the Gospel of John is set during a meal time, though the meal isnt described. Instead, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and then continues teaching them in preparation for his death that lies on the near horizon. Among these teachings is a new commandment that they should love one another, even as Jesus had loved them. This commandment is still in force! Finally, we come to the reading from Finally, we come to the reading from 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul tells the Corinthians that he has it on good authority, that on the fateful night prior to his execution, Jesus broke bread with the disciples and said to them: This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me, and This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. Just as Passover is a meal of remembrance, so is this meal Jesus established. But, like Passover, it isnt just a meal of remembrance. This is what Paul told the Corinthians: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lords death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26). When we read this, we might not catch the urgency of Pauls words. Weve been sharing this meal for nearly 2000 years, and we probably expect that things wont change anytime soon. Time will do that to you, but Paul didnt anticipate the length of this interregnum. It seems clear from reading this letter that Paul assumed he would be around to see the day of the Lord coming in glory. In other words, he thought these things would occur before his own departure, and he was excited about this possibility. He was getting ready for it. In fact, he even recommended that it would be best, considering the situation, if people refrained from getting married and starting families. There wasnt time for such things ( Just as Passover is a meal of remembrance, so is this meal Jesus established. But, like Passover, it isnt just a meal of remembrance. This is what Paul told the Corinthians: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lords death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26). When we read this, we might not catch the urgency of Pauls words. Weve been sharing this meal for nearly 2000 years, and we probably expect that things wont change anytime soon. Time will do that to you, but Paul didnt anticipate the length of this interregnum. It seems clear from reading this letter that Paul assumed he would be around to see the day of the Lord coming in glory. In other words, he thought these things would occur before his own departure, and he was excited about this possibility. He was getting ready for it. In fact, he even recommended that it would be best, considering the situation, if people refrained from getting married and starting families. There wasnt time for such things ( 1 Cor. 7) . Since were still here two millennia later, it seems Paul was off on his calculations. Nevertheless, we continue gathering at the Table proclaiming the Lords death until he returns. What we have before us, therefore, is an eschatological meal. It is, of course, a meal of remembrance, but it is also future oriented. It points us toward another meal, the marriage supper of the Lamb ( What we have before us, therefore, is an eschatological meal. It is, of course, a meal of remembrance, but it is also future oriented. It points us toward another meal, the marriage supper of the Lamb ( Rev. 19:9) . We partake of this meal tonight in anticipation of that future meal when all the fences will come down and the whole family of God will sit for dinner! When that day comes everything that divides us from one another, everything that keeps from loving one another as Jesus loves us, will fade away as we share in the glory of God that heals all our divisions. But we dont have to wait for that day to live into this vision. We can start now by sharing together this meal of unity and wholeness in anticipation of the full revealing of the realm of God. Yes, we must go through Golgotha, but it doesnt have the final word. Golgotha will give way to the resurrection! Let us, therefore, keep the feast! Shared at joint Maundy Thursday Service at Northminster Presbyterian Church of Troy, MI (April 18, 2019) Picture Attribution: JESUS MAFA. The Lord's Supper, from Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48272 [retrieved April 18, 2019]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact). Each spring and fall, I host a series of symposia to dig deeper into popular but fuzzy topics in education (which ensures a long list of potential topics . . .). Anyway, this spring, weve delved into social and emotional learning (SEL). In helping to frame the most recent of our SEL conversations, Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at the Fordham Institute and keen observer of American schooling, offered a powerful caution, arguing that SEL can push us to view children as trauma victims and teachers as therapists. I thought it was a provocative take and well worth sharing more widely. Robert kindly consented to my doing so. Heres what he had to say: There was a book published in the U.K. about 10 years ago that created quite a stir. But I don't think it got much notice or traction on this side of the Atlantic. It was titled The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education. The author, Kathryn Ecclestone, raised concerns about schooling that "embed[s] populist therapeutic assumptions," and which assumes that "emotional well-being, emotional literacy, and emotional competence are some of the most important outcomes of the education system." Therapeutic culture in education, she argued, stemmed from the concept of a "diminished self"the idea that we're all damaged, vulnerable, emotionally fragile, and suffering from low self-esteem. I first heard of the book from a teacher and blogger in the U.K., David Didau, who wrote that "our preoccupation with therapy . . . teaches us that we're damaged and that we need professional help to undo this damage. It leads us to label certain familiesparticularly working class familiesas unable to deal with children's emotions and invites schools to intrude ever further into children's lives." A year or two after Didau wrote that blog post, I started receiving solicitations for a particular kind of professional development session I'd never heard of before, promoting "trauma-informed teaching." Sometimes it was trauma-sensitive, or trauma-aware, or some such. In nearly every case, the same data point was cited: that half of all students in the United States have experienced serious childhood trauma. And every time the same question was raised: "How can we best support these students and their families?" The source of this data point appears to be the National Survey of Children's Health. Its 2011-2012 survey tallied nine "adverse childhood events" or ACEs, including socioeconomic hardship, divorce or parental separation, living with someone who has an alcohol or drug problem, being the victim of or witness to neighborhood violence, having a parent in jail, or being treated or judged unfairly due to race/ethnicity. According to the Survey, nearly half (47.9 percent) of U.S. children ages 0-17 have experienced one or more ACEs. When it's two or more, it drops to 22 percent. I don't want to minimize the seriousness of any of these incidents, but surely the death of a parent is not the same as a divorce, for example. And using the word "trauma" to apply to a range of events, from the unfortunate to devastating, and putting the worst possible statistical gloss on ithalf of all children have been traumatizedsays something, I think, about the current moment and mindset in education. I don't want to overstate it, but I am concerned that we are at least somewhat at risk of pathologizing childhood, and encouraging a therapeutic view of classroom teaching, one that is creeping closer to a branch of social work. Neither do I want to sound jaded, but to those of us who spent a lot of time as classroom teachers, SEL doesn't feel particularly new or revelatory. When I began teaching in 2002, we were focused on "teaching the whole child," for example. And while it's good to hear the Aspen Institute in particular is taking care to call it SEAD (Social, Emotional and Academic Development), it's the mindset more than any implementation challenges that concern me. If you view half your classand in impoverished areas the vast majority of your classas trauma victims, as struggling or vulnerable, it's almost inevitable that low or reduced expectations will take root. It would be surprising, even hard-hearted, if they did not. I just finished writing a book about the Success Academy in New York City, which will be published later this year. I'm not Eva Moskowitz's cheerleader, but once I was in the room when she was pressed about some of these issues by a potential board member. She responded in a way that struck me, expressing fewer concerns about the effects of race and poverty than that her teachers might apply a different set of standards to kids because they might be poor. "There are a lot of sensibilities around the fragileness of children," Moskowitz said. "And I think to myself, 'You're a white girl from Long Island, you're the fragile one. The kids have actually been through a lot. Don't impose your issues on the kids.'" I'll leave it there and merely ask: Are we imposing our issues on the kids? Im a huge fan of schools that are doing much more to address the social and emotional realities of students and teachers (correcting for some bizarre excesses of the No Child Left Behind era), but wed do well to wonder if and when such efforts may do more harm than good. Are we at risk of pathologizing childhood by viewing even normal childhood bumps and bruises as trauma? This is a big question deserving of serious consideration, and Im deeply obliged to Robert for raising it. Retail property developer, Turnstar holdings will see its financial performance go up by approximately 497 percent in the year ended January 2019. Last year the groups comprehensive income was P25.7 million and has now increased to P128 million this year. In a statement,Turnstar Board of Directors pointed out that due to several factors which will be disclosed by April 30th, the groups total comprehensive income for the year will be materially higher than that reported last year. Shareholders and investors are advised to exercise caution when trading in the companys securities until such a detailed announcement as to the results is made, In its half year ended July 2018, the group recorded a total comprehensive income of P108.3 million with a profit of P55 million. Commenting on the results the group Chairman Patrick Balopi explained that rental revenue and operational expenses remain at par with the previous half year. The increase in finance costs are due to interest on loans obtained for the expansion of properties, being capitalized for a part of the previous year, he said.The company highlighted some factors which lead to low performance last year such as the delay in the completion of Game City mall and the trading licenses for foreign retail shops. Turnstar Group Managing Director, Gulaam Abdoola said these issues delayed the leasing of the new wing of Game City. We could no longer hold the stores for the tenants who had signed preleases but could not obtain their trading licenses. We have leased these stores to other tenants and the new tenants needed a period of beneficial occupation before they started paying rent., said Abdoola. Last year the company also purchased an office block in Dubai. In Tanzania the group experienced delay in the completion of the construction, resulting in the delay in leasing of the new developments. Member of Parliament for Selibe Phikwe West Dithapelo Keorapetse came down hard on government like a tonne of bricks on Monday when 20 MPs voted against his Media Practitioners (Repeal) Bill of 2018. Only 14 MPs supported the repeal Bill. Government has for a long time refused to repeal the Act indicating that it is working on making some amendments to the Act. Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration Nonofo Molefhi told Parliament that the process they started in 2015 for the amendment to the existing law was to improve it to take into consideration some of the views from their engagement with private practitioners where they can create a self-regulatory arrangement. The minister stated that at the end they will be able to create an apex organisation that would be the Media Ombudsman. Responding to debates, Keorapetse stated that the challenge is the moment you say that you are legislating on regulation that by itself is at odds with self-regulation. He said it does not matter that government currently has some journalists in your pocketsor that some adverts are skewed towards certain papers as opposed to others - statutory regulation is an anathema of self-regulation. Neither does it matter, he said that government is enticing some journalists with all sorts of things, as long as statutory regulation exists, the media can never be said to be free. He said that publishers, media practitioners and the Law Society made it clear that they subscribe to a principle of self-regulation and do not want any state involvement in their work because they have mechanisms in place. They may be inadequate and need to be improved, but the thing is that legislation now is at odds with the principle of self-regulation, that is why they are saying, there is a need to repeal this law. That is why they say in the first place, there was no need to have this law in place. So, even if you try and panel beat it, it does not take away the argument that they subscribed to self-regulation, he said.But Molefhi responded that it is not a total overhaul, but a significant portion that has to be amended to incorporate the concerns which were previously raised by the private practitioners. During the period of 2014/2015 when we undertook consultations, the private practitioners were heavily involved in the re-orientation of what was going to become the Media Council Bill. That is the discussion that we want to conclude, and ultimately go through to Cabinet, Molefhi said. Keorapetse argued that self-regulation means that the reason why the media is called the Fourth Estate is that the presupposition is that there are three independent arms of Government being; Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary, and the fourth estate is the Media. Now, this media is not supposed to be subservient to any institution, it must be independent and be self-regulatory, he said. Why not leave them to self-regulate? Already there is a Press Council, Editors Forum, and Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana, why do you need the state now to start regulating the media? The media is called the fourth estate primarily because it must be independent. Not just independent in terms of independence, but it must also be seen to be independent. Keorapetse said it is their responsibility as Parliament to guarantee the freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions without being encumbered, and to also explicitly legislate on freedom of the media. That will be enough, we do not have to come up with any law to attempt to regulate the media, he posited. H2X Concept-based entry-level SUV will debut at 2020 Auto Expo. Based on Tatas in-house developed ALFA-ARC platform, same as the Altroz. Likely to share powertrain with the Altroz EV, which will be launched in 2020. Tata promises ALFA-ARC-based EVs will have a range of over 300km per charge. Will rival the all-electric versions of the KUV100 and WagonR in India. Tata Motors had already confirmed that the production-spec H2X will debut at the 2020 Auto Expo. Now, the carmaker has hinted that the micro-SUV will not only be powered by internal combustion (IC) engines but will also get an electric powertrain as well. Guenter Butschek, CEO and MD of Tata Motors, said, We have ensured that future architectures ALFA and OMEGA both are future-protected for EVs. Apart from working on higher range of Tigor and Tiago EV, our first two offerings on the Alpha architecture will have an EV option. Tata has already showcased the electric version of the Altroz, which is the first car based on the ALFA platform. Expect the H2X-based EV (the second car based on Alpha) to debut at the 2020 Auto Expo alongside its IC powered version. When launched, the H2X-based EV will be the fourth EV offering from Tata after the Tiago EV, Tigor EV and the recently revealed Altroz EV. While Tata is yet to launch the Tiago and Tigor EV for the general public, the Tigor EV is already being supplied to the central government. While further details of the H2X-based EV are yet to be revealed, expect the entry-level-SUV to share its electric powertrain with the Altroz EV. If that happens, it will have a range of around 250-300km, similar to what Tata claims for the Altroz EV. As far as design is concerned, the electric version of the H2X-based SUV should look similar to the IC-powered versions, like we have seen with the Altroz EV. Expect it to be priced higher than its IC-powered counterpart. While the IC powered avatar is expected to priced from around Rs 5.5 lakh, the electric variant could be priced just under the Rs 10 lakh mark. Tata is not the only carmaker that plans to launch an affordable electric SUV in the country, Mahindra has already taken a step in this direction. The UV maker debuted the electric KUV100 at the 2018 Auto Expo and is planning to launch it by mid-2019. Mahindra has also confirmed that it will launch the electric version of the XUV300 and it will go on sale by mid-2020. Renault and Maruti are also expected to enter the affordable EV market soon. While Renault is expected to bring in the Kwid EV in a couple of years, Maruti is likely to enter the affordable EV space with the WagonR EV in 2020. Tatas H2X-based EV will rival these cars when launched. Also Read: Renault Kwid-based City K-ZE Electric Car Revealed; Might Come To India Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho. Lenders are carrying out the bidding process for stake sale in Jet Airways, which has a debt burden of more than Rs 8,000 crore. (Photo: PTI/File) New Delhi: With cash-starved Jet Airways suspending operations, aviation regulator DGCA on Thursday said it will ask the airline for a "concrete and credible" revival plan, as well as extend help within the regulatory framework. A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also said the regulator would take action in accordance with due procedure under relevant regulations. After weeks of uncertainty, Jet Airways on Wednesday announced temporary suspension of its operations as it did not receive emergency funds to stay afloat. The DGCA would be asking the company for concrete and credible revival plan to restart the suspended operations, the official said. According to the official, the watchdog would also endeavour to do its best to help the company revive its operations within the set regulatory framework. Also read: Despite inconvenience, passengers say they miss Jet flights Lenders are carrying out the bidding process for stake sale in the ailing airline, which has a debt burden of more than Rs 8,000 crore. Against the backdrop of capacity reduction due to flight cancellations and rise in airfares, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Thursday held a meeting with representatives of various airport operators. It was also attended by Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials. Issues related to slot allocation at airports in the wake of Jet Airways suspending operations were discussed at the meeting, an official said. In the evening, the secretary would be holding a meeting with representatives of airlines. On Thursday, lenders to Jet Airways said they are reasonably hopeful of a successful bidding process for stake sale. The civil aviation ministry, on Wednesday, said it would support the resolution process for Jet Airways within the existing regulatory framework. New Delh: State Bank of India on Thursday said it plans to raise USD 2.5 billion (about Rs 17,000 crore) through bonds to fund the expansion of the overseas business. The executive committee of the central board will take a decision in this regard on April 24, SBI said in a regulatory filing. The committee will decide on long-term fundraising in single/multiple tranches up to USD 2.5 billion through a public offer or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US Dollar or any other convertible currency during 2019-20, it said. Mumbai: Tata Sons former chairman Ratan Tata told the Bombay High Court Thursday that the defamation case filed against him and other directors of the group by industrialist Nusli Wadia was because of the fallout of a corporate dispute. Ratan Tata and the other directors earlier approached the high court, seeking to quash and stay the proceedings initiated against them by a magistrate court in the 2016 criminal defamation case filed by Nusli Wadia. In December 2018, a magistrate court in the city issued notices to Ratan Tata and other directors of Tata Sons in the criminal defamation case filed by Wadia in 2016, after he was voted out of the boards of some Tata Group companies. Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Ratan Tata, on Thursday told a division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre that the entire case was filed with complete non-application of mind. "The case is only a fallout of a corporate dispute between Ratan Tata and Nusli Wadia, who is a strong supporter of Cyrus Mistry (former group chairman of Tata Sons)," Singhvi told the court. He further argued that what the complainant, Wadia, has termed as defamatory is wrong and not "defamatory per se". "The November 2016 letters and minutes of meeting that was circulated by Tata Sons to its group companies only sought for Wadia's removal as he was acting against the company's interest," Singhvi said. After hearing brief arguments, the bench posted the petition for further hearing on June 10. Wadia in his complaint before the magistrate claimed that Ratan Tata and others made defamatory statements against him after they removed Cyrus Mistry on October 24, 2016 as the group chairman of Tata Sons. Wadia was on the boards as an independent director of group companies like Indian Hotels Company that runs the Taj group of hotels, TCS, Tata Motors and Tata Steel, among others. He was voted out by shareholders at a specially convened general meeting between December 2016 and February 2017. Wadia said he approached the magistrate's court as he was not satisfied with the explanation the respondents (Ratan Tata and others) had given him following his letters to them. He, therefore, initiated defamation proceedings against Ratan Tata and others under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code. Mumbai: Ananya Panday, who stole the show with her gorgeous looks and outspoken personality at the song launch of 'The Jawaani Song' from her upcoming film, Student of the Year 2 talks about the importance of watching her debut film for all the good reasons. Talking about the film Ananya Panday says, When we are in school, we have a lot of pressure. There is a lot of stuff going on, so when people go to watch movies, they want to escape from that. We are providing an escape for them through this movie. We are not trying to be role models, we are just trying to provide them a moment of happiness and joy to get away from this stress. The young starlet who made her dashing entry all decked up in shimmer sequin dress along with her co-actors, Tiger Shroff and Tara Sutaria was not only holding a persona of utmost confident but aced the style game as a sylecracker at the launch event. For the starters, while the glimpse of the actress in the trailer gives an insight to the film, Ananya Panday can be seen making a killer entry with a never- seen- before attitude, all decked up in a leather jacket. While the actress is dancing her heart out with her infectious energy in the song, she is sure to get you grooving to the beats, with a promising performance that will make all the heads turn with her entry off-screen as well. The teen sensation hasn't even made her debut yet and is already shooting her second film, proving to be a power packed debutant. Owing to the humongous fanbase, Ananya Panday happens to be the youngest celebrity endorser of Lakme India. The actress is one of the most talked about celebrities on social media and had already stirred a storm with her spottings even before her much awaited Bollywood debut. Ananya will make her acting debut with Student of the Year 2 which is slated to hit the screens on May 10, this year. The actress will also be seen opposite Kartik Aaryan in the remake of the film Pati Patni Aur Woh scheduled for a release in December. Mumbai: While the temperatures of Delhi are shooting with every passing day, Deepika Padukone continues to shoot for her upcoming film Chhapaak in the capital. Beating the heat, Deepika Padukone is taking extensive care to shield herself from the rising heat, along with the help of her team. Interestingly Deepika Padukone has been sipping on "Sattu" at regular intervals. A month-long quota has been organised for our B-Town beauty, who knows how important it is to stay hydrated. The Sattu Sharbat is popular across the country and has its own variations in states like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Deepika is currently leaving no stone unturned in getting into the skin of her character as the actress has now embarked an emotional journey with Chhapaak as she slips into the shoes of an acid victim survivor. The upcoming film of the actress demands her to feel and live the life of an acid attack survivor touching upon all the adversities the victim feels as Malti. After bringing to screen the courage and valour of Rani Padmini in Padmaavat, Deepika Padukone personifies another tale of bravery and human spirit with Malti. Drawing instances from the life of Laxmi Agarwal, Chhapaak is a story of the strength and integrity of a woman. Mumbai: On Wednesday, early morning, two Telugu TV actresses Bhargavi (20) and Anushka (21) died in a road accident in Telangana's Vikarabad district. The victims were accompanied by car driver Chakri and another person named Vinay Kumar. As per reports, Bhargavi died on the spot while Anusha was rushed to government-run Osmania Hospital in Hyderabad where she succumbed to her wounds. Notably, driver Chakri and Vinay survived the crash with injuries. Reportedly, Chakri was driving the late actors back to Hyderabad from Vikarabad as they were shooting in Ananthagiri forest. While coming back home, the driver rammed the car into a tree in which both the actresses killed. Meanwhile, Bhargavi was popular for her work in daily soap Mutyala Muggu whereas Anushka was a newcomer to the industry. Actor Sharwanand recently landed an opportunity to experience scuba diving in Mauritius for a scene from his upcoming movie. And although he is fairly new to the sport, the actor pulled it off quite impressively. Many are aware of Sharwanands portrayal as a wildlife photographer in his forthcoming film, which is a remake of the Tamil film, 96. We have now learnt that in the process of the films shoot, the Mahanubhavudu star landed an opportunity to experience scuba diving for the first time. The films unit recently travelled to Mauritius to shoot a few scuba diving scene with Sharwanand. Since the actor was relatively new to this underwater sport, he had one day to learn the sport and then rehearse his scene after which, they went on to shoot the scenes live. Sharwanand took a quick look at the basics of scuba diving and picked it up almost instantly. The entire unit was impressed by his objective approach as an actor towards the larger interest of the film, informed a source in the know. The films team is currently shooting a music number in Mauritius after which, director C. Prem Kumar shall move on to the movies Kenya schedule. Washington: With its mountains and desert, beach resorts and Berber villages, Morocco is a feast for travellers of all kinds, including those who want to explore the kingdoms deep Jewish roots. The presence of Jews in Morocco stretches back more than 2,000 years. Before the founding of Israel in 1948, estimates put their number as high as about 275,000, which was considered the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, said Roy Mittelman, director of the Jewish studies program at The City College of New York. Today, after vast waves of departures over the years, only about 2,000 Jews remain in Casablanca and about 500 elsewhere in Morocco, but the Jewish presence is still alive in a variety of sights. The Museum of Moroccan Judaism in suburban Casablanca, for instance, is the only museum on Judaism in the Arab world. Jews of Moroccan descent, in Israel and around the globe, return to the North African kingdom often and some maintain second homes in familial regions. Jewish heritage tours to Morocco are abundant and easy to track down. Most cities have a mellah, which is an old Jewish quarter, along with Jewish cemeteries and synagogues. Mittelman, who has spent 40 years absorbing the history, culture and religious practices of Jews in Morocco, leads groups of students on tours of Jewish sights as part of an advanced seminar. He said theres plenty to read ahead of a visit. He recommends Shlomo Dessens The Mellah Society: Jewish Community Life in Sherifian Morocco for more on pre-colonial Morocco, based on the writings of 18th- and 19th-century Judeo-Moroccan sages. To learn more about the spiritual history of the Jewish quarter in Marrakech, he recommends the travelogue of Bulgarian Jewish writer Elias Canetti, The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit. The MLA's convoy was heading towards Kuwakonda from Bacheli area when the Naxalites blew up their vehicle with an IED and opened fire at the occupants. (Photo: AP) Raipur: Two Naxals, allegedly involved in the killing of a BJP MLA and four security personnel, were gunned down in a fierce encounter with police on Thursday in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, officials said. Another rebel was injured in the skirmish that took place around 5.30 am at a forest in Daulikarka village when a team of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on an anti-Naxal operation, Deputy Inspector General (anti-Naxal operations) Sundarraj P told PTI. When the patrolling team was advancing through Daulikarka, located around 450 km from the state capital Raipur, an exchange of fire broke out between the two sides, he said. "After the guns fell silent, bodies of two ultras and a .315 bore gun were recovered from the spot," he said. A militia member of Maoists was also found injured at the spot and was shifted to a local hospital, he said. The killed cadres, identified as Vargese and Linga, were allegedly involved in the ambush in which Mandavi and his four security personnel were killed on April 9, Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava said. The MLA's convoy was heading towards Kuwakonda from Bacheli area when the Naxalites blew up their vehicle with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and opened fire at the occupants. Vargese, a member of the Malangir Area Committee of Maoists, was looking after working of the banned outfit's students' wing in the area, the DIG said. He was also said to be having an expertise in assembling and planting IEDs, he said. Besides, Linga was active as LOS (local organisation squad) member in the Katekalyan Area Committee of Maoists, he said, adding a search operation was still underway in the region. Sixteen hundred candidates fate would be decided by voters across 11 states and one Union Territory. (Photo: AFP) Mumbai: The biggest carnival of democracy, the Indian general elections, entered the second phase of polling on Thursday. Sixteen hundred candidates fate would be decided by voters across 11 states and one Union Territory. The results are on May 23. Ninety-seven seats were scheduled to go to polls but votes in two seats Vellore and East Tripura were cancelled later due to corruption and security concerns respectively. On Tuesday President Ramnath Kovind accepted the Election Commissions plea and cancelled the voting in Vellore, following the seizure of Rs 11.5 crore from DMK cadre. It was suspected that money was being used to influence voters. The deteriorating law and order situation was cited for the rescheduling of polls in East Tripura. Here is a list of hot seats and top contenders in the fray for Phase 2: Tamil Nadu For the first time, Tamil Nadu is seeing polls without the towering presence of its political icons late AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa and late DMK leader M Karunanidhi. Thoothukudi: A high voltage fight is expected between Karunanidhis daughter Kanimozhi and BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan. On Tuesday evening, Income Tax department officials raided the house of the DMK leader, apparently after a tip-off. However, nothing was found. Anti-Modi slogans were raised by Kanimozhis supporters as the raids were going on. Sivaganga: Taking the baton ahead from his father and former Union Minister P Chidambaram, Congress Karti Chidambaram will be facing a triangular contest from this seat. A nail-biting finish is expected to be witnessed between Karti, BJPs national Secretary H Raja and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagams (AMMK) candidate. Kanyakumari: BJPs Pon Radhakrishnan will be locking horns with Congress H Vasanthakumar in the southernmost point in the country. Here religious politics is expected to help the winner. Karnataka Tumkur: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is in the fray from the seat. Gowda has left his traditional turf Hasaan for his grandson Prajwal Revanna. The Janta Dal (Secular) chief will take on BJPs G S Basavaraj. The constituency is considered a stronghold of the Congress. The party picked up the seat in 2014 defying the giant Modi wave. Chikkaballapur: Former chief minister and Congress leader Veerappa Moily would be contesting for the third time from the seat. He will be facing BJPs BN Bache Gowda, a former labour minister during the B S Yeddyurappa-led BJP government in the state. This time, the constituency will also see the first woman candidate, S Varalakshmi, of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Jammu and Kashmir Srinagar: It is test time for National Conference party chief and three-time chief minister Farooq Abdullah. The PDP has fielded Agha Mohsin and the Peoples Conference Partys Irfan Ansari have been fielded to challenge the top leader. Udhampur: Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office BJPs Jitendra Singh would be taking on royal candidate and Congress Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of last Jammu and Kashmir ruler Hari Singh. To avoid the split of votes, NC and PDP have not fielded candidates. Maharsahtra Nanded: This crucial parliamentary constituency has seen political rallies by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi. The high-profile seat was one of the only two seats of Maharashtras 48 Lok Sabha constituencies that Congresss Ashok Chavan managed to grab during the Modi wave in 2014. State Congress chief and former chief minister Chavan will fight against BJPs Pratap Chikhalikar. Uttar Pradesh Mathura: Bollywoods dream girl will be making her statement from the temple town. In 2014, BJPs Hema Malini defeated RLDs sitting MP Jayant Chaudhary with a big margin of 330,743 votes. This time, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has given the ticket to Kunwar Narendra Singh and Congress Mahesh Pathak is another tough competitor in the mix. Fatehpur Sikri: Fatehpur Sikri will witness a fierce triangular battle between Congress Raj Babbar, BJPs Rajkumar Chahar and BSPs Shreebhagwan Sharma. Agrarian crisis and caste equations would be key drivers in the constituency. Break-up of the 95 seats going to polls in Phase 2: Tamil Nadu 39-1= 38 Karnataka 14 Maharashtra 10 Uttar Pradesh 8 Assam 5 Bihar 5 Odisha 5 West Bengal 3 Chattisgarh 3 Jammu and Kashmir 2 Manipur 1 Puducherry (UT) 1 Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. Mallya is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore and is currently facing trial at a London court. (Photo: AFP) New Delhi: Fugitive Businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday cited a statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while taking a dig at him as well as banks over contradictory statements made in British courts regarding recovery of money he owed PSUs. Mallya tweeted: None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe ? One or the other is lying. Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 18, 2019 In an interview to Republic Bharat news channel on March 29, Modi had expressed satisfaction over the fact that Mallyas extradition process was in the last stage and the government has recovered money from him. "We brought in a law that enabled the Indian government to confiscate the property of fugitives in any part of the world. You must've seen in the case of Vijay Mallya. He owed banks Rs 9000 crore but the government has confiscated his properties worth Rs 14,000 crore from across the world. Now, he is in trouble because we are taking double the amount," the Prime Minister had said in an exclusive interview to Republic Bharat news channel's Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. Mallya, who is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore, is currently facing trial at a London court. On April 8, a United Kingdom court had denied permission to the liquor baron to appeal against his extradition order to India to face trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. Swaraj is known for her prompt replies on Twitter to Indians abroad who seek ministrys help. (Photo: File) New Delhi: Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj came across a post by a man who alleged he would commit suicide if he was unable to return to India from Saudi Arabia. The man, identified as Ali tweeted: "Sir, tell me one thing, can you help me or should I kill myself? It has been about 12 months that I have been pleading for help from the embassy. It would be a huge help if you can send me to India. I have four children." Ali has been seeking the help of the Indian embassy in Riyadh for the last one year for getting back to India. Swaraj replied: "Don't think about suicide. We are there for you. Our embassy will help you." 'Khud kusi' ki baat nahin sochte. Hum hain na. Hamari Embassy aapki poori madad karegi. @IndianEmbRiyadh - Pls send me a report on this. https://t.co/ajU8EXyhAK Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 18, 2019 Swaraj then asked the Indian embassy in Riyadh to send a report on mans complaint. When Ali was sked to send a copy of his visa page and phone number, he said he doesn't have a copy of the visa but has an "iqama". "Iqama" is a residential permit given to those who arrive in Saudi Arabia on emploment visa. Swaraj is known for her prompt replies on Twitter to Indians abroad who seek ministrys help. In the past, she has resolved genuine problems related to visas and immigration. Ever since Priyanka dropped a hint during the Ganga boat campaign, there has been buzz about PM Modi vs Priyanka Gandhi fight for contesting elections in Uttar Pradeshs Varanasi. (Photo: File) Lucknow: In an interview to The Hindu newspaper, Congress president Rahul Gandhi did not either confirm or deny the possibility of his sister Priyanka Gandhi taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradeshs Varanasi. He said, I will leave you in suspense. Suspense is not always a bad thing. During an interaction with party workers in Raebareli, Sonia Gandhis constituency, Priyanka steered speculation about contesting polls. When the workers urged her to fight from the Raebareli, Priyanka asked Why not Varanasi? The statement came a day after when Priyanka said she was ready to contest elections. She said, If my party wants me to contest polls then I will definitely do so. Ever since Priyanka dropped a hint during the Ganga boat campaign, there has been buzz about PM Modi vs Priyanka Gandhi fight for contesting elections in Uttar Pradeshs Varanasi. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. An elderly voter is assisted to cast her vote at a polling station in Morigaon district of Assam on Thursday. (PTI) Guwahati: Bogged down by repeated announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party leaders to bring in the citizenship amendment bill, an angry AGP founder-president and two-time chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Thursday boycotted the polls by not casting his vote. However, his daughter and other family members went to cast vote. Mr Mahanta who was in Nagaon said, The AGP was formed after six-year long agitation for which 855 people had sacrificed their lives. Thereafter Assam Accord was signed. The BJP is stubborn on imposing the citizenship amendment bill, which nullifies the Assam Accord. People have expressed their opposition to it but failed to persuade central govce3rnment. What should we do ? This is how I am registering my protest. Clarifying that he has not asked people to boycott poll but appealed them not to vote for the party or candidate who is supporting the citizenship amendment bill, Mr Mahanta said, I have appealed to the people to go for consent vote in the wake of ongoing move to bring in citizenship amendment bill against the wish of the people in Assam. Mr Mahanata said that his wife and former MP Jayshree Mahanata had also decided not to cast her vote. Meanwhile, more than 73 per cent of the 69,10,592 electorate exercised their franchise in five parliamentary constituencies of Assam in the second phase of polling on Thursday. The polling was held in 8,992 polling booths in Karimganj (SC), Silchar, Autonmous Districts (ST), Nowgong and Mangaldoi constituencies to decide the fate of 50 candidates in fray. There has been no report of any untoward incidents so far, the EC official said. Mangaldoi recorded the highest polling of 75.71 per cent followed by Nagaon 75.07 and Autonomous district both at 69.51 per cent, Silchar with 71.79 and Karimganj with the lowest at 71.41 per cent. The EVM glitches were reported initially from several booths in all the five constituencies but polling resumed after they were replaced, the official said. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. The inmates were transported to a polling station in R S Puram and were helped by volunteers at the booth to cast their vote. (Representional Image) Coimbatore: A retired government employee K. Balakrishnan, (81), collapsed while waiting in the queue to cast his vote at the Gandhi Managar Vincent School polling booth here on Thursday. According to an eye witness, he collapsed and was rushed to a near-by hospital where he was declared dead. Meanwhile Mahendran, the founder of a non-profit organisation 'Eera Nenjam' that shelters senior citizens disowned by their respective families ensured that as many as 59 inmates of the home exercised their franchise. The inmates were transported to a polling station in R S Puram and were helped by volunteers at the booth to cast their vote. For a majority of them it was after many years that they participated in an election process. For V. Nanammal, better known as the yoga grandma, her day began by visiting the polling booth in Saravanampatti. "My 100-year-old mother cast her vote as she considers it her duty to do so after which she ate breakfast at home," Balkrishan, one of the son's told DC. Palladam, Sulur, Coimbatore north, Coimbatore south, Kaundapalayam and Singanallur fall under the Coimbatore parliamentary constituency. Of them Coimbatore North has the maximum number of polling stations declared vulnerable. As many as 110 fall under that category. Meanwhile, just 27 polling stations declared vulnerable, Sulur is the constituency with least number of vulnerable polling booths. A total number of 19,31,558 voters including 9,65,120 males, 9,66,239 females and 199 from the transgender community are on the electoral roll in the Coimbatore parliamentary constituency. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. Chennai: The flood of photos and encomia on social media celebrating the arrival of prominent personalities at the poll booths of Tamil Nadu on Thursday had one big howler. One of those pictures that went viral was of Google CEO Sundar Pichai and the caption hailing the son-of-the-soil flying all the way from California to cast his vote in Tamil Nadu. Some even recalled an exciting similarity in a Kollywood hit-the Diwali release Sarkar in which Vijay played the hero Sundar Ramasamy, a role inspired by the Google CEO, coming home in Tamil Nadu just to fulfill his patriotic duty of voting. Even the international media quickly picked up the sensational story of Pichai coming home to vote, but better sense dawned in a few hours as the wise ones clarified it was an old picture of his visiting alma mater IIT-Kharagpur in January 2017; and besides, being a US citizen, he cannot vote in India. It appeared that in all this excitement of a high-stakes and high-decibel election in Tamil Nadu, someone threw in a new element to further excite the atmosphere, perhaps even lend a hand to the hard campaigning to enthuse the citizens to vote. If a celebrity like Pichai is shown as flying down all the way from the U.S. just to cast his vote in Tamil Nadu, that might encourage even the obstinate cynic to come out and head for the poll booth. Born in Madurai, Pichai did his schooling in Chennai and went to do engineering at IIT-Kharagpur before moving to the US for MS at Stanford and MBA at the University of Pennsylvania. Hyderabad: With the Enforcement Directorate (ED) bringing the Musaddilal Jewellers case to its logical end with seizure of 145.89 kg gold jewellery worth Rs 82.11 crore, the agency has now set its eyes on the Nowhera Shaik case, which continues to be a mystery for the investigators. The ED is shortly going to file a petition in the court seeking custody of Nowhera Shaik, managing director of the Heera Group of Companies, who is accused of running a Ponzi-like scam by attracting huge deposits, which investigators say is to the tune of Rs 5,700 crore, from nearly two lakh people. The move by the ED comes even as the Telangana state police is mulling handing over the case to the CBI as it is being investigated by the police of various states. The case also has overseas links. Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the ED will be filing a petition seeking Nowhera Shaiks custody at least for five days to interrogate her on the money laundering angle. Besides, the ED will also look into foreign exchange rules violation on the part of Nowhera Shaiks Heera Group, which has operations in the UAE as well. Though she has been interrogated quite a few times, Nowhera Shaik has not spoken a word about her deals before the investigators. It remains to be seen whether she would reveal anything before the ED. Just like in the case of Musaddilal Jewellers, the ED is likely to initiate proceedings to attach her properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Investigation so far has revealed that Shaik has several properties in Hyderabad, Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bengaluru. It is suspected that she has properties abroad as well. Her properties at Banjara Hills and Tolichowki in Hyderabad and Chittoor are said to be worth about Rs 150 crore. Sources said that the ED is preparing a detailed questionnaire to get some information out of the alleged scamster and confront her with inputs which they have gathered from their sources. Investigators say Shaik has about 200 bank accounts through which she was reportedly carrying out deals. The turnover of her company in 2017-18 stood at about Rs 900 crore and in her business ventures she was making a profit of 90 per cent. Besides, there were foreign currency deposits to the tune of Rs 250 crore in her accounts. Around eight people including women and children have been hospitalized because of the bee-stings. (File/ Representation image) Krishnagiri: In an unexpected twist, wild bees attack stopped the polling for a while in a polling booth coming under Thally Assembly segment of Krishnagiri parliament constituency in this district. The local people in Islampur, Adavisamipuram, Thandarai and Korattagiri villages came to cast their votes in the polling station at Korattagiri village government elementary school. But, the brisk polling had to be stopped for few hours because a swarm of wild bees attacked the people waiting in the queue for their turn to vote. The people tried to shoo away the bees with clothes and running off to the safe places did not help them. Around eight people including women and children have been hospitalized because of the bee-stings. The Denkannikottai fire and rescue services department staffs went to the spot and removed the honey comb found atop a coconut tree. Then, the voting process resumed after few hours delay. Polling in one station each in Hosur, Allapatti village in Bettamugilalam panchayat of Denkannikottai taluk and Natrampalayam in Anchetti taluk and Kottai in Krishnagiri town, polling was delayed due to the defective EVM units. The polls resumed after new EVM units replaced the defective ones. The overall percentage of votes was 67.50 per cent as recorded at 5 pm in Krishnagiri parliament constituency having 1,855 polling stations for 15,10,085 voters. Hosur, where the by-polls were conducted for the Assembly segment has recorded the lowest voting percentage of 57.1 per cent. The Thalli Assembly constituency reportedly recorded highest voting percentage compared to the other assembly segments in Krishnagiri parliament constituency. Thalli recorded 72.60 per cent, Uthanagari (R) 70.30 per cent, Bargur 69.70 per cent, Krishnagiri 63 per cent, Veepanahalli 65 per cent and Hosur 57.10 per cent. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. It said that elections held within the ambit of the Indian Constitution cannot be substitute to promised plebiscite. SRINAGAR: It was a repetition of history. Most Assembly segments of the Srinagars parliamentary constituency witnessed a very low turnout in the face of separatists poll boycott call. Udhampur, the other seat in Jammu and Kashmir for which voting was held in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, recorded moderate to brisk turnout. According to J&Ks Chief Electoral Officer Shailendra Kumar, Udhampur recorded 70.2 per cent polling, with Udhampur district registering the highest of 74.8 per cent polling. Srinagar witnessed 14.1 per cent polling, with highest 21.5 per cent polling in Budgam and lowest 7 percent in Srinagar district. In the by-election for the Srinagar seat held in April 2017, a voter turnout of 7.13 per cent was recorded which was the lowest in 30 years. Unlike in Srinagar spread over three districts (Srinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam) where most polling booths wore a deserted look, the voters in Udhampur were more enthusiastic about voting than usual. Most parts of Kashmir Valley were shut on Thursday in response to a call issued by Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), an alliance of key separatist leaders, terming it an illegitimate exercise un-der military occupation. It said that elections held within the ambit of the Indian Constitution cannot be substitute to promised plebiscite. In contrast to it, Udhampur gave a festive look on the occasion. This has, once again, established the fact that the people of the Valley and those of Jammu are not on the same wavelength on many issues including participation in elections. Many of the voters who had lined up outside the polling stations in Srinagar constituency told this correspondent that they were going to exercise their franchise to chose from those in the fray a person who is capable of addressing their day to day problems. Kashmir is very big and complex issue and its solution needs a great effort. Hence, it should be kept separate from elections be these for Parliament, the Assembly or local bodies, said Abdul Majeed Mir, a voter in Budgam. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. BJP candidate from Mathura Hema Malini interacts with voters at a polling station during the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in Mathura on Thursday. (PTI) New Delhi: The fate of candidates in 95 constituencies across the country was sealed as the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections ended on Thursday, in which a total of 66 per cent turnout was recorded. Puducherry recorded the highest voting percentage of 80.47 per cent while Jammu and Kashmir saw the lowest turnout of 43.4 per cent. The turnout in Bihar was 62.52 per cent, which is an increase from the 61.93 per cent in 2014 for the corresponding region. Maharashtra saw a voter turnout of 62 per cent as opposed to 2014, when it was 62.64 per cent. The polling percentage in Odisha was 64 per cent in comparison to 73.75 per cent in the 2014 polls. Manipur saw 74.3 per cent turnout, against the 75.16 per cent seen in 2014. Several instances of the malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) were reported from across the country, including in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Violence was reported from several places in West Bengal, where polling was being held in three parliamentary constituencies. The most serious incident was the attack on the car of CPM candidate and sitting MP Mohammed Salim, who is up against the Congress Deepa Das Munshi in Raiganj. Mr Salim claimed that the police did not do anything when his car was attacked in Islampur. His party has accused workers of the states ruling Trinamul of being behind the attack. In Chopra, under Darjeeling constituency, security personnel fired teargas shells and lathicharged agitators, who accused workers of the ruling party in the state of obstructing them from casting their vote. Agitators who were blocking National Highway 31 also hurled crude bombs at local police personnel and those belonging to the Rapid Action Force. EVMs were also smashed following a clash between supporters of the Trinamul and the BJP in booth number 112 in Chopra. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, his wife Anitha and son Nikhil after casting their votes at Ketaganahalli Village, Bidadi taluk, in Ramanagara on Thursday (Photo: KPN) Bengaluru: The 14 Lok Sabha seats of the 28 in Karnataka which went to polls on Thursday, registered a moderate turnout of 66.21 percent but the big shock came from the three urban constituencies in Bengaluru, where polling figures could hardly touch 50% with the searing summer heat and the exodus from the city in view of the four-day holiday, cited as the reasons for this pathetic show by voters of the IT City. With the first phase of polls in the state over and the fate of over 241 candidates, including three from the family of JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda sealed in ballot boxes, all eyes are now on the second phase on April 23 when the remaining 14 seats including Kalaburagi from where veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge is contesting, will go to polls. Dakshina Kannada registered the highest turnout of 77.22 percent on Thursday while the three constituencies contested by members of the Deve Gowda family-Mandya, Hassan and Tumakuru- recorded turnouts above 70% indicating that the JD(S) had done its bit in mobilising voters and getting them to the polling booths by whatever means possible. Mandya, where Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Kumaraswamy is locked in a grim battle with Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh registered a turnout of over 71.77 per cent. The low turnout in Bengaluru should no doubt leave the BJP's poll managers worried as all three city seats-Bangalore North, Central and South-were won by the party by comfortable margins in 2014. While Bangalore North where Union Minister Sadananda Gowda is facing a determined challenge from Congress candidate Krishna Byregowda, registered a poor 48.28 percent polling compared to 56.53 percent in 2014, Bangalore Central registered 47.31 percent (2014- 55.46%) and Bangalore South, 49.36 percent (55.75 in 2014). The several campaigns launched on social media and by poll officials to up voter turnout had obviously gone in vain with the only consolation coming from Bangalore Rural which registered 68.06 percent. Among the other seats for which polling got over on Thursday, Tumakuru, where Mr Deve Gowda is contesting, registered 77.03 per cent voting while Hassan (where his grandson Prajwal Revanna is the candidate) registered 76.55 percent. Udupi-Chikkamagalur registered a comfortable turnout of 69.80 percent, Chitradurga, 69.3%, Chamarajnagar, 66.55%, Mysuru, 66.87%, Chikkaballapur, 74.45% and Kolar, 75.61%. In 11 polling stations across the state, people called for a boycott of polling. While poll officials convinced people to withdraw the boycott in nine of the 11 polling stations, voters of Panjanayahatti in Chitradurga and Obanahalli in Holalkere had refused to budge when reports last came in. The polling was by and large peaceful though cases of names going missing from the voters' list were reported from some places. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. Hyderabad: The top brass of the Special Protection Group which is entrusted with the task of providing proximate security to the Prime Minister, former PMs and their immediate family members and the Election Commission of India (ECI) have always had a serious disagreement over inspecting the aircraft used by the Prime Minister during election season. The SPG has the final word over the matter. While the SPG has made it clear that no outsider, including poll observers, would be allowed to enter the aircraft of the Prime Minister due to security reasons, it says the EC could inspect the box, trunk or any other material they found to be suspicious, only after it is brought out of the aircraft. An IAS officer, Mr Mohammad Mohsin of the Karnataka cadre, was suspended by the Election Commission on Wednesday night for checking Prime Minister Narendra Modis helicopter in Odishas Sambalpur. The officer had not acted in conformity: with instructions on SPG protectees, the EC said in its order. Stay away from VVIP security: SPG to babus 1996 batch IAS officer Mohammad Mohsin has been accused of insubordination and dereliction on duty after he carried out a sudden check of Mr Modis copter which delayed the Prime Minister by 15 minutes. This issue often arises during election time and the EC officials and SPG along with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) often disagree on a few aspects. We have made it clear time and again that no one can be allowed to enter the helicopter used by the PM. We do not want the world to know what security equipment and weapons we carry,'' a former top SPG official told Deccan Chronicle. Another former SPG official said the action against the IAS officer was justified. There was never an occasion when a poll observer has had to check the PMs convoy or aircraft, he added. No Prime Minister carries trunks or suitcases or has suspicious things (like cash) in it. During Dr Manmohan Singhs tenure, he hardly carried any personal belonging as he rarely addressed public meetings. Mr Modi often carries a few sets of clothes with him since he addresses four to five public meetings in a single day and needs to change. Besides, he carries some notes too. The SPG must be in the know of everything that the protectee is carrying and it is our job to know, the official said. He said that it was the first time that a poll observer had checked a Prime Ministers helicopter and the SPG bosses did not take it lying down. The SPG works on the motto of zero error and we cannot take any risk with the security detail. Therefore, during election time, any unauthorised personnel other than the SPG are not allowed to inspect the aircraft,'' a former top official of SPG said. The highest vote of 82.76 per cent was polled in Jalpaiguri constintuency of West Bengal. The lowest 14.8 per cent was in J&Ks Srinagar constituency. New Delhi: The fate of candidates in 95 constituencies across the country was sealed as the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections ended on Thursday, in which a total of 66 per cent turnout was recorded. There were reports of an IED blast by the Naxalites in Chhattisgarh. The highest vote of 82.76 per cent was polled in Jalpaiguri constintuency of West Bengal. The lowest 14.8 per cent was in J&Ks Srinagar constituency. Some prominent faces in the fray in the second phase were Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan; former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda; DMKs Dayanidhi Maran, A. Raja and Kanimozhi, Congress leaders M. Verappa Moily and Raj Babbar, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and BJPs Hema Malini. Over 15.80 crore voters cast their votes to decide the fate of 1,600 contestants. Voting was also held in 35 Assembly constituencies in Odisha and in 18 Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats. Polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat was cancelled on Tuesday by the Election Commission after the recovery of huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. The EC had also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law and order situation there was not conducive for the holding of free and fair polls. In the South, besides Tamil Nadu, polling was being held in 14 seats in Karnataka. Ten seats went to the hustings in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Of 95 constituencies, the AIADMK holds the maximum of 36 seats, followed by the BJP, with 27 seats. While the Congress had won 12 of these seats in 2014, the Shiv Sena and the BJD had bagged four each, the JD(S) and the RJD two each and the AIUDF, NCP, JD(U), PDP, AINRC, PMK, CPM and Trinamul Congress one seat each. The Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven phases for 543 seats. Ahmedabad: Congress president Rahul Gandhi continued his attack on Prime Minister Modi on his home turf of Gujarat on Thursday. Addressing two public rallies in the state, Mr Gandhi said, Modi ji had promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in your account. Instead of depositing the money, he made you to stand in a queue by announcing demonetisation. Have you seen any of the industrialists standing in the queue? Mr Gandhi was addressing public meetings in Vanthali and Bhuj covering the Junagadh and Kutch Lok Sabha seats respectively. He will address another rally in Bardoli in South Gujarat on Friday. Reiterating the benefits of the Congress Nyay minimum income guarantee scheme, Mr Gandhi said, I asked my partys think tank how we can help the poor. The think tank gave me a figure of Rs 72,000 and said that we can give this amount to 20 per cent poor families of the country. This scheme will create new employment. Targeting Mr Modi in his home state, Mr Gandhi again mentioned the Rafale deal and said, Modi ji calls you friends but calls Anil Ambani and Nirav Modi bhai. Promising a fisheries ministry if voted to power at the Centre, the Congress president said farmers will get a separate budget for farmers. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. In 2018-19, about 28.53 lakh passengers travelled from Vizag airport, while in 2017-18 the number of passenger footfall was 24.81 lakh. Aircraft movement increased from 20,021 to 24,237 in the corresponding. Visakhapatnam: Vizag airport has registered 15 per cent growth in passenger traffic, 21 per cent and 24 per cent growth in aircraft movement and domestic cargo handling respectively in 2018-19. In 2018-19, about 28.53 lakh passengers travelled from Vizag airport, while in 2017-18 the number of passenger footfall was 24.81 lakh. Aircraft movement increased from 20,021 to 24,237 in the corresponding. Presently, 60 flights are being operated from Visakhapatnam airport in spite of withdrawal of Jet Airways services and shortage of aircraft due to various reasons. Cargo handling registered the highest growth when compared to passenger traffic and aircraft movement. In 2018-19, around 6,013 tonnes of cargo was handled against 4,845 tonnes handled during the previous year. However, AP Air Travellers Association (APATA) is concerned with the high air fares. As some airlines cancelled their operations due to various reasons, grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft and summer vacation has brought more demand for the air tickets. The APATA has decided to take up the matter with the Ministry of Civil Aviation demanding to take necessary measures. The DGCA has recently asked airlines to cut fares on more than 10 domestic routes to a reasonable level. The Home Ministry action came after it received a report from the Bureau of Immigration regarding visa violations committed by the Bangladesh actor. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Bangladeshi actor Ghazi Abdul Noor who had attended a political rally in West Bengal has been asked to leave India immediately, officials said Thursday. Noor is the second Bangladeshi actor, after Ferdous Ahmed, to be served a 'Leave India' notice. Noor was staying in India despite expiry of his visa. "Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his overstay in contravention of visa rules," a home ministry official said. Reports suggest that Noor allegedly campaigned for TMC's Dumdum candidate Saugata Roy. The Centre on Tuesday had issued a 'Leave India' notice to Ahmed and cancelled the business visa given to him for allegedly campaigning for a political party. Ahmed had attended a rally in support of the Trinamool Congress candidate in Raiganj in West Bengal. The Home Ministry action came after it received a report from the Bureau of Immigration regarding visa violations committed by the Bangladesh actor. The BJP Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission after a video surfaced showing Noor purportedly campaigning for Roy in the Dumdum constituency in alleged violation of the poll code. "This act is in violation of the terms of visa and yet another case of a foreigner actively influencing the electoral process. This is a gross violation of the basics of democratic structure," BJP's West Bengal vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said after filing a complaint with the EC. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. 'Please put your valuable vote and don't miss it,' Kumaraswamy said. (Photo: File) Ramanagara: Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said the Congress-JD(S) alliance is expected to win 10-12 seats out of 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka which are undergoing polling today during the second phase of general elections. "Today I request all voters to go to the polling station and cast their vote, whatever decision you will take will form the future of the country. Please put your valuable vote and don't miss it," Kumaraswamy said after casting his vote here on Thursday. "Elections are crucial for protecting the interest of the farming community. Out of 14 Lok Sabha seats, the JD(S)-Congress candidates may achieve 10-12 seats in this election," he added. Later, Kumaraswamy, while speaking to ANI, said, "Dynasty politics isn't an important issue now, country's problems are the main issue. Only because of dynasty politics and regional politics, this country developed in several states. We're not bothered about criticism from BJP." DMK Chief MK Stalin, who cast his vote at a polling booth at SIET College in Teynampet, Chennai, alleged that the Election Commission is in connivance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government, adding that the EC would be reformed if the Opposition is voted to power. "This year election has been full of Rs 500, 1000, 2000 and 10,000 currency notes. All attempts have been made to buy votes but in spite all this I have full faith in voters of Tamil Nadu who will exercise their democratic rights fairly," Stalin told media here. "Regarding the election issues, I can only request the EC but unfortunately the EC itself has become a party to the Modi-led government. People know this, therefore, we will thrive to reform EC once voted to power," he added. DMK Lok Sabha candidate from Thoothukudi, Kanimozhi, cast her vote at a polling station in Chennai's Alwarpet. "People in the opposition have been harassed, raids targeted at opposition candidates. BJP has completely taken over AIADMK," she told reporters after casting her vote. Wheelchair-bound DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan also cast his vote at a polling station in Mylapore, in Chennai South Parliamentary constituency. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh cast his vote at a polling booth in Imphal, BJP candidate for Sivaganga constituency H Raja cast his vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. In Karnataka, RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale cast his vote at polling station number 45 in Seshadripuram at Bengaluru, while Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and his wife Kannika Parameshwari cast their votes at a polling booth in Koratagere, Tumkur. Meanwhile, PWD minister HD Revanna offered prayers at a temple in Paduvalahippe village in Hassan before casting his vote. His son Prajwal Revanna is contesting from Hassan. Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central Prakash Raj cast his vote in Bengaluru. Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy also cast their votes. Polling is being held in Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam (5), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (3), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (10), Manipur (1), Odisha (5), Tamil Nadu (38), Uttar Pradesh (8), West Bengal (3), and a single parliamentary seat of Puducherry. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. Congress on Thursday accused the Modi regime of failure in job creation and said that the best way to describe the 'government of acronyms' is by dubbing it as NPL (Non-Performing Liability). (Photo: File) Mumbai: Congress on Thursday accused the Modi regime of failure in job creation and said that the best way to describe the "government of acronyms" is by dubbing it as NPL (Non-Performing Liability). "This is a government of acronyms. So for the government of acronyms, the perfect acronym is NPL - Non-Performing Liability," Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said at a press conference here. Singhvi said that BJP leaders talked about armed forces, national security and other issues because they were trying to divert the country's attention from their failures on job creation, loss of jobs post demonetisation and slowdown of the economy. Singhvi coined another acronym in Hindi for the BJP while calling it 'Berojgari Jamao Party'. The Rajya Sabha MP cited several reports of the government to claim that government has failed on almost all fronts of the economy. He also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments in which Modi had said that those who fry 'pakodas' are also employed. Singhvi said: "Modinomics started in 2014 and turned into Pakodanomics. That means if you want low profile jobs, only then you vote for the BJP." The Congress leader claimed that around 40 lakh people lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector alone. Questioning Modi government's decision to introduce a new method for GDP calculation, he claimed that demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in 2016 caused a loss of almost 2 per cent to the Gross domestic product (GDP). "He (Modi) is very powerful. He cut our GDP by 2 per cent by merely making an announcement on television. Even if a foreign country attacks us, it cannot cut our GDP by 2 per cent as Modi ji did," Singhvi quipped. The BJP in its manifesto for the last general polls had promised to create 2 crore jobs per year. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. An application has been filed before the NIA court here against Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, seeking a bar on her contesting the Lok Sabha poll. (Photo: File) Mumbai: An application has been filed before the NIA court here against Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, seeking a bar on her contesting the Lok Sabha poll. The BJP has declared her candidature from Bhopal seat in Madhya Pradesh. The applicant has questioned Thakurs candidature citing that she had got bail on the ground of her poor health, but she is healthy enough to fight elections. That intervener would further submit that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur got bail on health ground but clearly healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat which means she has misguided the court, says applicant Sayyed Bilal in his petition, filed in the NIA court on Thursday. NIA will file its reply on April 23 when the court is also likely to hear the petition. Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal lost his son Sayyed Azhar Nisar Ahmed on the spot in Malegaon blast that took place on September 29, 2008. The applicant states that he came to know by electronic, print and social media that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur has joined the BJP and is going to contest parliamentary elections from Bhopal seat. The petitioner has submitted that Thakur was enlarged on conditional bail and she is not attending hearing of this court on the pretext that she is unwell and she is a breast cancer patient. But on the contrary, she has been seen participating in various programmes and giving objectionable and instigating speeches since her release from the jail. Thakur has flayed her duty to the court under false pretense but has submitted herself to the duty of being a parliamentarian. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur has taken a casual outlook to the trial and it casts serious doubt on her non-availability for the trial and the reasons so told. The petitioner has further submitted that during bail hearing in the Bombay High Court Sadhvi Pragya Thakur had filed written statement in support of her health and claimed that she cannot even walk without support, her contention and the High Courts observations are being reproduced here for kind perusal of this court. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur got bail on health ground but is clearly healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat which means she has misguided the court, applicant Sayyed Bilal said in the application. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur may be asked to attend court proceeding here in Mumbai and is barred to contest the election as trial is still in progress and the petition of cancellation of bail is sub-judice before the Supreme Court, the application added. Thakur is among seven accused facing trial in Malegaon blast case, in which six people were killed and a dozen others were injured when a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtras Malegaon on September 29, 2008. Polling in Madhya Pradesh will be held in the last four phases of elections, ending on May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. Counting of votes will be held on May 23. There are 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats in the state. (Representational Image) Bhubaneswar: Over 76.93 lakh voters will on Thursday decide the fate of 279 candidates, including Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union minister Jual Oram, in the second phase of polls for five Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats in Odisha. Out of the total electorate of 76,93,123, there are 37,47,493 women voters. At least 605 electors belong to the third gender. Preparations for the second phase of polls have reached the final stage and necessary steps have been taken to ensure free, fair and peaceful voting to be held in 9,117 booths, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar. Polling will be held in Aska, Kandhamal, Sundergarh, Bargarh and Bolangir Lok Sabha constituencies and 35 assembly segments under them. The polling staff have reached the booths in time, he said. Over 60,000 polling personnel have been deployed to conduct the second phase, Kumar said, adding, 8,700 vehicles will be used for their transportation. "For the first time in the state, the vehicles of all sector officers are provided with GPS tracking facilities to ensure proper monitoring," the CEO said. Out of the total number of 9,117 booths, 3,701 have been identified as critical, and arrangements have been made for deployment of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) in 739 booths, he said. Similarly, steps have been taken for webcasting in 883 booths, providing CCTV in 623 booths and engaging 892 micro-observers, Kumar said. Videography will be conducted in 331 places. As some areas in Kandhamal, Bolangir and Bargarh are Maoist-affected, security has been heightened to ensure smooth conduct of polls in those pockets, a senior police officer said. "Steps were taken for intensifying combing operations, patrolling and flag march in these areas," he said. While CAPF have been deployed in the critical and sensitive booths, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Special Operation Group (SOG) and District Volunteer Force (DVF) personnel have been asked to intensify anti-Naxal operations in several areas, the officer said. Paramilitary forces, police, flying squads, static surveillance teams, poll observers, videography teams and excise sleuths will also be deployed in the constituencies. In order to assist differently-abled voters, vehicles will be deployed to transport them to polling stations, while wheelchairs and volunteers are also being made available to help them cast votes in the stations. The voters include a total of 1,08,458 differently abled persons, and as many as 17,882 volunteers have been engaged to assist them, the CEO said. On the basis of feedback received from the first phase of polls held on April 11, arrangements have been made for providing tents and chairs in the booths, in order to give respite to the voters from scorching heat, he said. The second phase of polls will decide the fate of a total of 279 candidates. There are 35 hopefuls, including five women, in five Lok Sabha constituencies, and 244 candidates, 25 of them women, in 35 assembly seats. Prominent among the contestants in the second phase is chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik, contesting from his home turf Hinjili in Ganjam district and Bijepur in Bargarh. Among others, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram of the BJP, BJD's Rajya Sabha MPs Prasanna Acharya and Achyut Samant, BJP nominee and three-time MP Kharabela Swain are in the fray in the Lok Sabha polls. In addition, senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra is in the fray from the Bolangir Assembly seat, while BJP legislature party leader K V Singhdeo is contesting from the Patnagarh Assembly seat. Lok Sabha and assembly elections are being held simultaneously in Odisha in four phases. While the first phase of polling was held on April 11, the remaining phases are scheduled for Thursday, April 23 and 29. Counting of votes will be held on May 23. There are 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats in the state. Meanwhile, repolling will also be held on Thursday in two polling stations located in Malkangiri (ST) and Berhampur Assembly constituencies, following reports of glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the first phase of polling. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. Gandhi had on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over corruption and asked how all 'thieves' have 'Modi' as the common surname. (Image: File) Patna: Rahul Gandhi was Thursday dragged to court over his "why all thieves have Modi in their name" remark, with Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi filing a defamation suit against the Congress president. The senior BJP leader filed a criminal complaint before the court of Patna Chief Judicial Magistrate Kumar Gujnan under Section 500 of IPC (punishment for defamation) against Gandhi for his comment at a rally in Maharashtra which he claimed was defamatory to the people with Modi surname. Sushil Kumar Modi said in his petition that he "felt hurt" by Gandhi's "sweeping remarks" at the April 13 rally, which was telecast live on TV news channels, as it tarnished the reputation of those who shared the surname, including himself. The matter will come up for hearing on April 22. Gandhi had on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over corruption and asked how all "thieves" have 'Modi' as the common surname as he referred to fugitive businessman Nirav Modi and former IPL chairman Lalit Modi. "I have a question. Why all thieves have Modi in their names whether it is Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi? We don't know how many more such Modis will come out," Gandhi had said. Soon after, the Bihar leader had threatened to sue the Congress chief, saying lakhs of people in the state had Modi as their surname and they felt hurt by his remark. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. The fight in Tamil Nadu has always been bilpolar between the AIADMK and the DMK. (Representational Image) Mumbai: This is the first time that Tamil Nadu is going to vote without the towering presence of its two late politicians J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi. These elections will crucially put to test Karunanidhis younger son and chosen heir M K Stalins popularity among the masses. While Dravida Munnetra Kazaghams Stalin has an edge over opposition AIADMK, it remains to be seen whether he will be able to comfortably guide home his party. The leadership of AIADMKs Chief Minister Edapadi Palaniswami and his deputy O Paneerselvam will also be tested to see if they can harness enough goodwill to post a serious challenge to the DMK. After Jayalalithaas death, the AIADMK was beset by leadership crisis and a fierce struggle for power which saw Jaya aide Sasikalas nephew TTV Dhinakaran leave the party and form his own AMMK. The fight in Tamil Nadu has always been bilpolar between the AIADMK and the DMK. This time, however, the AIADMK is part of the NDAs eight-party alliance. The party, wrought with infighting, is contesting 20 seats. The BJP has got five, S Ramadoss PMK six and DMDK 4 among others. Jayalalithaa in 2014 had, however, declared her party would fight alone in future. In opposition, is the DMK and Congress combine in the nine-party secular progressive alliance. The DMK is also fighting in 20 seats and the Congress in 10 of the total 39 going to votes. Both national parties are piggybacking the Dravidian parties to get enough numbers for possible coalitions at the Centre. Tamil Nadus iconic actors Rajinikanth and Kama Haasan have also bared their political fangs, though only Haasans Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) has entered electoral politics this time. On Thursday, bypolls will also be held in 18 Assembly seats while four more Assembly seats will go to polls on May 29. The AIADMK has to win at least five Assembly seats for a majority in the state Assembly. The two top parties are fighting in 20 seats each but face each other directly in eight seats. TTV Dhinakaran's AMMK and Kamal Haasan's MNM are contesting all 39 Lok Sabha seats and bypolls as well. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. TRS leaders said that in many districts, the party would select the ZP chairperson candidate and this will be made known to the partys contestants. The candidate has to provide financial help down the line. Hyderabad: The TRS and the Congress have left it to local leaders and candidates to pay the election expenditure in the upcoming zilla parishad and mandal parishad elections. Both parties have informed the local leaders not to expect any funding. The state has 535 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencys (ZPTC) and 5,317 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencys (MPTC). Political leaders have estimated that each ZPTC candidate will have to spend up to Rs 50 lakh and each MPTC candidate Rs 10 lakh. The official expenditure limit is Rs 4 lakh for each ZPTC candidate and Rs 1.5 lakh for each MPTC candidate. A senior TRS leader said that an aspiring ZP chairperson will need to spend about Rs 2 crore. Each voter has to cast two votes one for the MPTC and the other for the ZPTC. In the absence of party funding, MPTC candidates will have to raise their own money and depend on the ZPTC candidates for funds. On average, each ZPTC has 10 MPTCs. The ZPTC candidates will depend on the ZP chairperson aspirant for funds. TRS leaders said that in many districts, the party would select the ZP chairperson candidate and this will be made known to the partys contestants. The candidate has to provide financial help down the line. The MLAs are not in a position to help financially the ZPTC and MPTC candidates as three months ago they spent large amounts of money on the Assembly elections. The TRS had spent huge funds for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and decided not spend on the local body elections. For the Congress. the high command provided funds for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The TPCC has no funds for the local polls. At a meeting held by TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy three days ago to discuss the elections, some senior leaders said that when the party was not in a position to provide funds, the responsibility of candidate selection should be handed over to local leaders. The party has decided to go with the select and elect policy. A Congress leader said the TPCC required about Rs 1 crore for the maintenance of Gandhi Bhavan and Rs 10 lakh to pay the salaries for staff. He said TPCC Chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy were providing the funds every month. Against this backdrop, the TPCC has informed the local leaders not to expect ant funds from the party for the elections. Congress president Rahul Gandhi should run tutorials on How Not To Win Elections and How To Contest This Election While Actually Preparing For The Next One. Except that someone may ask for their money back because has not Sakshi Maharaj, BJP member of the Lok Sabha from Unnao, said that these polls will be the last? Campaigning is still underway for five of the seven phases of polling and 354 seats remain up for grabs, while the verdict keeps being anyones guess. Yet, it can be deduced that the lower Index of Opposition Unity than what had appeared possible several months ago is giving the BJP fewer anxious moments. Although the ruling party is not yet out of the woods, there is no mistaking that the commitment of the Opposition parties to join forces has dipped dramatically in recent months. When Mamata Banerjee spelt out last year that the Opposition parties should target one-to-one contests across India, it had appeared that although this was not a realistic target, it was possible to come together in a sizeable number of seats. Even if some of these alliances were not formal or open pacts, the possibility of indirect seat adjustments between major players existed. Ironically, the hopes of alliances across states began declining sharply from January-February, the time that the BJP and Narendra Modi began getting its electoral narrative on a track which suited it. The Twitter spat earlier this week between Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh obviously is demonstrative of the threesome being particularly talentless when it comes to forging political alliances. Even the most politically naive leader has grown up with the adage that no one washes dirty linen in public. By making public their disagreement, these leaders have demonstrated that both parties consider each other the principal foe and not the BJP. Alarm bells had rung in January last week when Rahul Gandhi announced the partys decision to appoint his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as AICC general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, heralding her entry into politics. While making the announcement, Mr Gandhi declared that his partys eyes were set not just on 2019, but also on 2022, when Assembly elections will be held in Uttar Pradesh. This declaration sounded alarm bells in the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance (at that time the Rashtriya Lok Dal was yet to sign up formally for this pact) because the eyes being set on 2022 meant that the Congress was aiming to not just improve its prospects in UP in these elections, but was also taking a shot at forming the next government in the state. Because the Congress can grow in UP beyond a certain level only at the cost of the SP-BSP combine, Mr Gandhis declaration virtually ended whatever possibility existed of the Congress being a part of a Bihar-style Mahagathbandhan in the state. Thereafter, the way the campaign has proceeded and the reports that are emerging from constituencies suggest that the Congress is playing the spoiler in a large number of seats and the BJP is going to be the likely beneficiary. It required no knowledge of rocket science for any practitioner of politics to know that if the Congress was not part of an Opposition front and was setting up candidates in all the seats, the anti-BJP vote would get split. This is what is happening, although it is early to deduce the extent to which it will benefit the BJP. After promising to work for Opposition unity and minimising the division of the anti-BJP vote, the Congress has firmed up alliances only in the following states Kerala (where its decades-old United Democratic Front continues), Tamil Nadu (another old alliance with the DMK, the Communist parties and other regional forces), Karnataka (new alliance but the result of its coalition with the Janata Dal-Secular, Maharashtra (old pact with NCP and smaller parties), Bihar and Jharkhand (old partners). The Congress has been discussing an alliance in Delhi (and possibly in Haryana as well) for several weeks, and while it is reportedly almost a done deal, the long delay and the mixed signals sent to workers and supporters of the two parties will not really help matters come election day. The Congress could have, or should have, also forged pacts in Madhya Pradesh, UP and West Bengal. There are 168 seats from these states and the BJP will be the direct beneficiary in each of the states. In West Bengal, the Congress needed to act as the bridge between the Trinamul Congress and the Left. Such indirect pacts have a history, most notably in 1989, when the Janata Dal had simultaneous alliances with the BJP on the one hand and the Left parties on the other. Effectively, the BJP and the Communist parties, undoubtedly on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, ended up strengthening each other in pursuit of the common objective of defeating the incumbent Congress government led by Rajiv Gandhi. While the need for a pact in UP and Delhi is well known, the Congress also needed to be much more accommodative in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and even Rajasthan, where minor additions to the vote tally of the Opposition parties would have made a significant difference in the final tally. The story in these states is the same as during the Assembly polls in November-December 2018 when the Congress and the BSP adopted a tougher posture vis-a-vis one another, aiding the BJP to salvage the situation. Although the party was voted out in all the three states, the margin of its defeat in MP and Rajasthan was wafer thin, chiefly because of split in the anti-BJP vote. Whereas this should have taught the Congress, BSP and SP a few lessons in electoral mathematics, the leaders of the three parties remained as uncompromising as before. It is certain that if the BJP is able to escape with a scare and return to office, a considerable part of the blame would be apportioned to the Congress and other Opposition parties, which too should have been more yielding when it came to forging an electoral pact. This elections story may eventually be one of what could have been. The writer is the author of Narendra Modi: The Man, the Times and Sikhs: The Untold Agony of 1984 In late 1962 India and China fought a fierce war amidst the swirling clouds of the Himalayan ranges. The collision of two great geopolitical tectonic plates at that point of time threatened to irrevocably change the political map of Asia and tilt the balance in favour of world Communism. When the going got bad for India, it turned to the Western powers for assistance. It was also the time of Camelot in the United States. Under the charismatic and young President John F. Kennedy, friendship with the US was no longer politically undesirable, notwithstanding the fact that he too was no less a cold warrior than his predecessors. China in the meanwhile had also fallen out with the worlds senior Communist state, the Soviet Union. Its internal ideological convulsions and the politics of the Great Leap Forward and its constant tirade of inventive invective, often as much against the USSR as the US, gave it the appearance of an implacable and volatile adversary. Mao Zedongs pronouncements about his willingness to joust with nuclear weapons and his stated belief that China could afford to lose half its population and still come out a winner in a nuclear war gave the worlds political leaders plenty of sleepless nights. Mao was at his inscrutable best when he said: In the end the bomb will not destroy the people, but it will be the people who will destroy the bomb! At another time he jeered that Nikita Khrushchevs scrotum was just an empty bag because the USSR seemed to have backed down in October 1962 when the US had blockaded Cuba. Even after the Russians pulled out of the Chinese nuclear programme it continued to pick up pace. By 1963 it seemed that the Chinese were close to testing a nuclear bomb. All through 1964, intelligence reports kept indicating that China was preparing to test a nuclear bomb at its Lop Nor nuclear installation in Xinjiang. Mind you, those were the days before the advent of spy satellites that could glean masses of information about another country in just a few passes, as they do now. Intelligence-gathering was still a game largely for the intrepid and risk-taking adventurer and far less nerdy than it is now. With information about Chinese nuclear and missile capability acquiring urgency and importance, all sorts of schemes were underway to pierce the secrecy behind the bamboo curtain. In Cold War parlance, post-1962 India was a frontline state and Indo-US interests converged. This sudden change in political alignments led to many material benefits. Some years ago I visited the frontline Indian Army positions in Arunachal Pradesh and was outfitted with a silk-lined US Army greatcoat to protect me from the cold and howling winds. The coat has lasted long after the interests ceased to be convergent! As can be well imagined, there were more lethal benefits as well, of which Indias intelligence community too got its share, having forged a close working relationship with the CIA. In fact, this lasted long after the Chinese threat had receded and even when Indias political relationship with the US was once again headed back for its familiar rocky course. The CIAs relationship with our Intelligence Bureau (RAW came later) was forged soon after the 1962 war, when India and the United States agreed to establish a 5,000-strong commando force of Tibetan fighters. This was the RAWs Special Frontier Force (SFF), which while no longer an all-Tibetan unit is still as secretive as it was in the early 1960s. The SFF was headquartered in Chakrata, near Dehra Dun, and was then commanded by Maj. Gen. Sujan Singh Uban, a serving officer of the Indian Army. All through the 1960s the Chinese used to complain about the depredations of Khampa tribesmen in Tibet, which tells you a little about what the SFF was up to. In October 16, 1964 China tested a nuclear weapon in Xinjiang. It was expected, but not enough details were known. Earlier in May 1964, the CIA launched a U-2 out of Charbatia airfield in Odisha, but its return turned out to be a bit of a mishap. The U-2 overshot the runaway and got stuck in slushy ground. Getting it unstuck and out of India without being noticed by the Indian press, then even much more subject to leftist influences and hence antagonistic to America, was another clandestine operation that might yet result in a book. This gave all concerned quite a scare and it was decided to rely on other technical means. This is where our hero, Capt. M.S. Kohli, comes in. Capt. Kohli must be the last of our truly great adventurer heroes. He began life as an officer in the Indian Navy, and made climbing mountains a passion, the high point of which was the conquest of Mount Everest. The passion for mountaineering and the deep knowledge of the Himalayas took him to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, a tough and muscular paramilitary force, and then into a series of adventures required by the unique geopolitical constellation of that time. The plan to install a snooping device, a veritable looking glass to peer into the Chinese nuclear grounds, on the Nanda Devi mountain was hatched far away in Washington DC, in the offices of the National Geographic Society. Barry Bishop, a photographer with the magazine, interested Gen. Curtis LeMay of the US Air Force in the idea. Gen. LeMay, who was the model for the trigger-happy USAF general played by George C. Scott in the movie Dr. Strangelove, was the author of Americas single integratedoperational plan (SIOP), that began with the chilling objective of turning the Soviet Union into a smoking radiating ruin in a few hours. He was a Cold War Neanderthal with a finger on the nuclear trigger. Gen. LeMay loved the idea and sold it to the CIA. The CIA in turn turned to the Aviation Research Centre, another Indian intelligence outfit, which enlisted the SFF and ITBP, where Capt. M.S. Kohli, rather conveniently, was on deputation. Spies in the Himalayas, by M.S. Kohli and Kenneth Conboy and published by HarperCollins, is the account of the efforts to place a permanent electronic intelligence (Elint) device powered by a nuclear fuel cell. The first attempt to place this device on the Nanda Devi, under the cover of a mountaineering expedition, failed as the team had to retreat in the face of adverse conditions after having hauled the device to just short of the 25,645-foot peak. When another Kohli-led expedition returned the following year to recover the device, it was found to be missing. There are many theories about what happened. Most of them are that the device rolled off the mountain and is now lodged at the bottom of the glacier. More imaginative theories speculate that the supposedly indestructible nuclear power pack with a highly toxic plutonium isotope in its core, with a half-life of many thousand years, is inching its way into the Ganga. Another plausible theory is that another team of Indian mountaineers came up furtively early the next season and spirited away the device for Indian nuclear scientists to study. Many Americans lean towards this, and with R.N. Kao (the legendary founder and long-time chief of RAW) in the picture, anything was possible. Whatever be where the final destination of the missing SNAP 19C power pack, it was not before Capt. Kohli led a particularly arduous search and retrieve mission. In the meantime, the Chinese not only kept testing nuclear weapons at regularly intervals but also ballistic missiles. The urgency to gather information was never greater. Ind ia and the US kept collaborating though the relationship between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and US President Lyndon B. Johnson was increasingly frosty. The Americans were not about to give up so easily. Another mission was launched in 1967 to place a similar device on the Nanda Kot. This mission was successful but another problem cropped up. Snow would pile up over the antenna and render it blind. So off went Capt. Kohli and team once again to bring it down. This time they retrieved it. But the story doesnt end here. In October 1967, the Chinese began testing an ICBM capable of reaching targets 6,000 miles away. There was renewed urgency to find out more. So our intrepid mountaineers went off on one more mission in December 1969 to successfully place a gas-powered device on a mountain peak near Leh. But by the following year, the Americans had the first generation of the TRW spy satellites in place and did not have rely on the old Elint devices. Nor did they have to share the information with India. The writer, a policy analyst studying economic and security issues, held senior positions in government and industry. He also specialises in the Chinese economy. Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on women drivers as a step towards a progressive society in June 2018. After running a pilot program to understand the preference of women drivers in Saudi Arabia, Uber has officially introduced a feature to let the drivers decide the riders. Uber announced the introduction of its Passenger Preference feature in Saudi Arabia for the female drivers. Last year, the pilot program found that 74 per cent of prospective women drivers would only be interested in driving with women riders. Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on women drivers as a step towards a progressive society in June 2018. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Those interested in buying the Redmi Note 7 can get it through Flipkart, Mi.com and Mi Home stores across the country. The Redmi Note 7 was launched earlier this year and it went on sale almost immediately. However, since the demand could not meet the supply, at least in the initial stages, the device was sold through flash sales. Now, if youre planning on purchasing the Redmi Note 7, then you can do so at your own convenience as it is now available on open sale in India. Those interested in buying the Redmi Note 7 can get it through Flipkart, Mi.com and Mi Home stores across the country. The 3GB/32GB variant is available for Rs 9,999 while the 4GB/64GB version is priced at Rs 2,000 more at Rs 11,999. The handset comes in three colour options Saphire Blue, Ruby Red and Onyx Black. The Redmi Note 7 is the budget-conscious variant in the Note 7 series with the top end Redmi Note 7 Pro doing extremely well in the country. The Redmi Note 7 comes loaded with the Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front and rear making it an alluring option for those interested in buying a premium handset without a premium price tag. The Redmi Note 7 features a 6.3-inch FHD+ display that supports a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels and since it uses a Dot display, it comes with a 19:5:9 aspect ratio. The handset comes with MIUI 10 thats based on Android 9.0 Pie. The Redmi Note 7 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC thats paired with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of onboard storage. As far as optics are concerned, the Redmi Note 7 comes loaded with a dual rear camera configuration with the primary sensor rated at 12MP with an F/2.2 aperture and the secondary sensor being rated at 2MP. For selfies, the Redmi Note 7 uses a 13MP sensor thats AI-enabled. The front-facing camera features a variety of modes such as AI Portrait mode, AI Beautify, Face recognition and support for HDR. Apart from this, it also has AI scene recognition for up to 12 scenes. Lastly, the Redmi Note 7 features a 4000mAh battery that features support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 4. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. A skilled orator elected president twice, first as a firebrand leftist and then as a champion of foreign investment and free trade, Garcia had been dogged by allegations of corruption in recent years that he denied. (Photo: AFP) Peru: Perus former president Alan Garcia died in a hospital in Lima on Wednesday, hours after shooting himself in the head to avoid arrest in connection with a bribery probe. He was 69. A skilled orator elected president twice, first as a firebrand leftist and then as a champion of foreign investment and free trade, Garcia had been dogged by allegations of corruption in recent years that he denied. Garcia had been one of nine people a judge had ordered to be arrested on Wednesday for alleged involvement in bribes distributed by Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company that triggered Latin Americas biggest graft scandal when it admitted in 2016 that it had paid kickbacks to politicians across the region to secure lucrative contracts. His party announced the death to crowds outside the Casimiro Ulloa hospital, where he suffered three cardiac arrests and underwent emergency surgery. President Martin Vizcarra said he was consternated by Garcias death. Garcia governed as a nationalist from 1985 to 1990 before remaking himself as a free-market proponent and winning another five-year term in 2006. Seoul: North Korea on Thursday demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, accusing him of derailing discussions. "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of American Affairs at North Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry said, according to the official KCNA news agency. "Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the US, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but... (another) person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us." Kim's Hanoi summit with Trump, the second between the two men, ended abruptly, with North Korea later protesting that the US was being unreasonable in its demands. (Photo: File) Seoul: North Korea's Kim Jong Un has supervised the test-firing of a new tactical weapon with a "powerful warhead", state media reported Thursday, in the first test of its kind since nuclear negotiations with Washington stalled. The test marks a ratcheting up of tensions weeks after a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump collapsed without agreement. It also comes after satellite imagery suggested heightened activity at a nuclear test site. Wednesday's test was "conducted in various modes of firing at different targets" the Korean Central News Agency reported, adding that Kim "guided the test-fire". The report said Kim described its development as one "of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army". The "advantages" of the weapon were "the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead", KCNA said. Its report gave no details of the weapon. South Korea had not detected anything on radar so it was unlikely to have been a missile, a military official told AFP. "When North Korea launches a missile, our radar catches it. But no missile was detected," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Seoul' presidential office said it had no comment. "The description makes whatever was tested sound like a missile, but that could be everything from a small anti-tank guided missile to a surface-to-air missile to a rocket artillery system," said North Korea analyst Ankit Panda. Earlier in the week, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US monitor, said activity had been detected at Yongbyon, the North's main nuclear testing facility. The think tank said evidence suggested Pyongyang may be reprocessing radioactive material into bomb fuel. Kim's Hanoi summit with Trump, the second between the two men, ended abruptly, with North Korea later protesting that the US was being unreasonable in its demands. Since then, North Korea has said it is mulling options for its diplomacy with the US, and Kim said last week he was open to talks with Trump only if Washington came with the "proper attitude". "Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day," said Harry Kazianis, an analyst at the Washington-based Centre for the National Interest. "His regime is becoming frustrated with Washington's lack of flexibility in recent negotiations." Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, agreed the test was a message to the US showing its displeasure over the stalled nuclear talks. But the fact that it was not a long-range missile or nuclear test "underscores Pyongyang wants to keep alive dialogue with Washington", he added. "Pyongyang cannot conduct a nuclear or long-range missile launch at this point unless it wants to totally shatter what remains of the US-North talks," he continued. Pentagon officials said they were aware of the test report but declined to comment further. Last November, KCNA reported that Kim oversaw the testing of a "newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon" months after his first meeting with Trump. It was the first official report of a weapons test by North Korea since Kim and Trump's historic summit in Singapore over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programme. The North's latest weapon test report comes after South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday he wanted a fresh meeting with Kim "regardless of venue and form". Pyongyang has yet to respond to Moon's overture. Moon, who has long backed engagement with the nuclear-armed North, has been pushing for the resumption of inter-Korean economic projects, but doing so would fall foul of international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang. After the Pulwama attack, a fresh proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, the US and the UK. (Photo: File) Islamabad: Pakistan will not be "pressured" by anyone on the issue of banning Masood Azhar, a top official here said on Thursday, a day after China dismissed reports that the US, the UK and France have served an ultimatum to Beijing to lift its "technical hold" on designating the JeM chief as a global terrorist by the UN. Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that Pakistan has a clear stance on Azhar. India says Pakistan-based Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group was behind the deadly February 14 attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Asked about China putting a technical hold to prevent Azhar from being designated a global terrorist at the UN, Faisal said: "Whatever decision Pakistan takes in this regard will be in its national interest. Pakistan will not be pressured by anyone". China Wednesday dismissed reports that the US, the UK and France have served an ultimatum to Beijing to lift its "technical hold" by April 23 on branding Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN but claimed the vexed issue was "moving towards settlement". After the Pulwama attack, a fresh proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, the US and the UK. However, China, a close ally of Pakistan, blocked the bid by putting a "technical hold" on the proposal. Following this, the US, backed by the UK and France, moved directly to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to blacklist Azhar. China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC, opposed the move, saying the issue should be resolved at the 1267 Committee itself which also functioned under the top UN body. China, which has previously blocked bids to blacklist Azhar thrice, stalled it once again at the 1267 Committee of the UN on March 14 by putting a "technical hold". The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement it was 'closely monitoring' their situation. (Photo:Twitter) Tbilisi: Two Saudi sisters have issued a plea for international protection after fleeing to ex-Soviet Georgia in the latest case of women fleeing oppression in the ultra-conservative kingdom. In a post on a Twitter account called @GeorgiaSisters, the women said they were "trapped in Georgia" after Saudi authorities cancelled their passports. The women posted photographs of their passports identifying themselves as 28-year-old Maha Alsubaie and 25-year-old Wafa Alsubaie. "We are in danger," Maha Alsubaie said in one video posted on Twitter. "Please help us." "We want to apply for asylum in any safe country," one of the women said in another video that does not show her face. "If we go back to Saudi we will be killed." "We fled oppression from our family because the laws in Saudi Arabia (are) too weak to protect us," Wafa Alsubaie said in another video. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement it was "closely monitoring" their situation. Human Rights Watch called on the Georgian authorities to protect the two "from anyone who would harm them or force to return to Saudi Arabia against their will". The UNHCR's Georgia office said on Facebook that anyone "requesting international protection in Georgia has access to a fair and effective asylum procedure". China on Wednesday dismissed reports that the US, the UK and France have served an ultimatum to Beijing to lift its "technical hold" by April 23 on branding Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN but claimed the vexed issue was "moving towards settlement". After the Pulwama attack, a fresh proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, the US and the UK. However, China, a close ally of Pakistan, blocked the bid by putting a "technical hold" on the proposal. Following this, the US backed by the UK and France moved directly to UN Security Council (UNSC) to blacklist Azhar. China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC, opposed the move, saying the issue should be resolved at the 1267 Committee itself which also functioned under the top UN body. Reacting to reports that the three countries have fixed April 23 as a deadline for China to lift its technical hold in the 1267 Committee or else they would press for a discussion on the issue at the UNSC itself, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, "I don't know where you get such information." He said both the UNSC and its subsidiary body 1267 Committee have clear rules and procedures. "You need to get clarification from the sources about where you get such information. China's position is very clear. This issue should be resolved through cooperation. We don't believe that any efforts without the consensus of members will achieve a satisfying result," he said. "On the issue of listing Azhar, China's position remains unchanged. We also stay in communication with relevant parties. The matter is moving towards the direction of settlement," he said. "The relevant parties are forcing new resolution through the UN Security Council. We firmly oppose that. In fact, the relevant discussion in UNSC, most member expressed wish that this issue should be discussed within the 1267 Committee and they don't hope to bypass it to handle the issue," he said. Without directly referring to the US, Lu said, "We hope the relevant country can respect the opinion of most members of the UNSC to act in a cooperative manner and help this issue be properly resolved within the framework of the 1267 Committee." Asked to elaborate on his assertion that the issue which had been pending for years due to series of technical holds put by China had moved towards resolution, Lu merely reiterated that the "matter is moving towards the direction of settlement". China which has been consistently blocking India, US, UK and France's moves to blacklist Azhar had stalled it once again at the 1267 Committee of the UN on March 14 by putting a "technical hold". On April 1, China claimed that "positive progress" has been made to resolve the issue and accused Washington of scuttling its efforts by taking it to the UN Security Council. China also came up with similar claims on April 3 responding to US State Department spokesman's comments that Washington will use all available resources to blacklist Azhar to ensure that he will be held accountable. The Supreme Court has stayed an order for release of elephants, seized earlier for having been used by resort owners for joy ride of tourists in Uttarakhand. The top court acted on a plea by an environment activist, who contended that the order for release was passed in violation of the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. A bench of Justices S A Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer suspended the operations of the Uttarakhand High Court's order of March 6, on a petition filed by Gauri Maulekhi. "Until further orders, there shall be stay of operation of the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court," the top court said, issuing a notice to the state government and others for filing their response within four weeks. The top court's order was passed after hearing senior advocate V Giri on behalf of Maulekhi. The counsel contended the high court had disregarded the statutory provisions which barred commercial use of elephants. Before the high court, the activist had challenged the validity of the order of the Chief Wildlife Warden issued on February 28, ordering for release of eight elephants to their owners. She contended that since elephants were to be treated as case property after having been seized and the criminal cases registered, the tuskers should have been housed at their natural habitat in the custody of the Forest Department. The petitioner had then relied upon the division bench order of August 3, 2018, which banned commercial use of elephants in the entire state of Uttarakhand. The Chief Wildlife Warden was directed to take possession of the elephants from their owners by issuing them proper receipt for their treatment, medical examination and proper upkeep within 24 hours. The court also directed that the elephants should temporarily be kept at the Rajaji National Park, Chilla. On March 6, the High Court, however, declined to act on the activist's plea and to interfere with the order for release of elephants, after noting that the division bench's order of August 3, 2018 had been stayed by the top court on January 29, 2019. NEWTOWN >> The Council Rock School Board is back to a full complement following the official re-election of Kristin Marcell to a four year seat on the board. The Wrightstown resident and Council Rock graduate was sworn in on Dec. 16 as a Region 9 School Director, after her election was certified by the county with just one vote separating... By Neil A. Sheehan Times Correspondent NETHER PROVIDENCE >> Township officials could decide in a matter of weeks whether to allow a developer to embark on the review process for its plans for 32-unit duplex complex on Wallingford Avenue. The proposal has generated concerns among some neighbors in the South Media section about housing density, greater stormwater runoff, increased traffic and other issues. Board of Commissioners President Matthew Sullivan said at a recent meeting the 5-acre tract would need to be rezoned and undergo other evaluations before it could reach the approval stage. I want people to have a couple of weeks to think about it before the commissioners render a decision, he said. Sullivans comments came two weeks after the board okayed a proposal by Malvern-based Progressive New Homes to construct 10 single-family homes on the property, which is located adjacent to Sapovits Park. That application was considered a by-right submittal, meaning it was permitted under existing zoning requirements for that area of the township. In a presentation on April 11, Sarah Peck, the companys owner, said some community members asked her to consider a development that did not consist of single-family homes and offered more affordability. As a result, her firm developed a plan featuring 16 duplexes, with units upstairs and downstairs. There are quite a few benefits to doing such a thing, she said. Ill give it the old college try. Peck said she wanted to roll out the concept and open up a discussion regarding it. On the topic of price, she said the base price for the downstairs duplex units would likely be about $250,000 while the upstairs units would sell for about $375,000. By comparison, the single-family homes were estimated to fetch about $500,000. Possible customers for the duplexes could be empty-nesters, singles, couples without children and couples starting families. Peck said her companys analysis showed the duplex development would yield more taxes. With respect to traffic, the developer said an analysis found there would be no notable impacts. Commissioner Micah Knapp said that among some neighbors there is undeniably a sense of loss of place and gentrification stirred up by the project. And then broader than that throughout the community you have concerns about economic displacement due to high taxes. When it was time for audience members to speak, many voiced their worries. Susan Baker, of Manchester Avenue, said she was convinced the duplex plan would lead to higher taxes. Vernon Street resident Elizabeth Cauley said the higher-density plan struck her as too city-like. The feel of this feels wrong. Its too much. Its too compact. Its too dense, she said. Kelly Whitehead, of Shepherds Lane, said she, her husband and 13 neighbors all of whom live on Wallingford Avenue or adjoining streets, had signed a letter to the township raising objections to the duplex plans. We are opposed to rezoning this property to allow high-density housing, she said. This property was zoned for single-family homes for a reason. And if you allow a property to be rezoned for high-density living, you will open a Pandoras box, with other developers also likely to seek such changes. Not all of the statements were negative. Lynette Whitsett, who founded a group that supports an alternative to single-family homes at the site, said she hoped some of the negativity surrounding the project could be put to rest if it goes through the review process. With respect to stormwater runoff, Peck has said underground cisterns, or basins, would be used to capture stormwater and then slowly release it, thereby reducing the velocity of flows. Peck said the undeveloped woods would serve as a buffer between the park and the development, and it would be deed-restricted to guard against other future uses. Progressive New Homes was founded by Peck in the early 2000s, after she served for 15 years as president and CEO of Rouse/Chamberlin Homes in Exton. She said she has attempted to carve out a niche in the development market, which includes working with communities while building homes on properties near train stations. Eighteen years ago today, a massive tornado ripped through downtown Salt Lake City, causing one death, at least 81 injuries and an estimated $170 million in damages. The giant funnel shocked Utahns and weather experts alike by striking before any warning could be issued. Heres a look back at eyewitness accounts of the stunning event and the reasons why no one involved can forget what one Utah climate expert called Salt Lake Citys "biggest weather story of the century." "The ceiling turned to sky" Before the tornado touched down, August 11, 1999, felt like an ordinary summer day. In Salt Lake Citys Avenues district, Grace Wilson and her daughters were watching TV when they heard a ferocious wind. They looked out the window and saw a powerline explode with a flash of lightning, and suddenly a tree crashed through their living room. Then, as one Deseret News reporter described, "the ceiling turned to sky." "I watched the roof blow right off," Emily Wilson said. "That's when I knew this was serious and we needed to get downstairs." Across the street from the Wilsons at the Northcrest Neighborhood outdoor pool, Katherine Bradway was about to start lifeguard duty when she saw the same lightning flash. Thinking it was just a summer storm, Bradway joked with her fellow lifeguards, insisting, Its Utah we cant be having a tornado. But Bradway realized something more serious was happening when hefty garage doors began to fly off their hinges, dogs were launched over fences and she was forced to evacuate the pool. Several blocks southwest of the Avenues, Dick Fernandez, a 52-year-old insurance salesman, was walking to work from a parking lot at the corner of North Temple and West Temple when he felt a powerful gust of wind. Fernandez grabbed a nearby tree for safety, but the tree was quickly uprooted, breaking his leg and causing his face to split open from his forehead to the tip of his nose. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in the hospital. Pandemonium downtown Many of those injured were downtown, setting up outdoor tents for the annual Outdoor Retailers convention at the Salt Palace. The tornado flattened these large wood-framed structures, battering and trapping those inside. Police had to bring in search and rescue dogs to find people buried by the debris. Corran Addison and Jonathan Reeves were hanging signs and setting up gear when someone ran into their exhibition tent, announcing a tornado was coming. Addison had just enough time to grab onto a tree. "My feet were straight out, three feet above my head," he explained. "I'm just hanging on with my head down going, 'What's gonna hit me?'" Fortunately, he avoided being struck by a 17-foot kayak circling in the air above him. When Reeves heard the pavilion snap, he crouched under the same tree. But as panicked as he was, he couldnt resist looking up at the tornado. "You couldn't not look," he said. "You had to see what was gonna kill you, if it was gonna kill you." Rescue crews set up a triage and treatment center in the lobby of the nearby Wyndham (now Radisson) hotel, where paramedics helped the injured and coordinated ambulance runs to the hospital. Jim Sadler, also in town for the convention, said the scene inside the hotel was pandemonium, with crying children separated from their parents and people constantly pushing through the front doors covered in blood. Another man said it looked like a bomb went off. One man did not survive the injuries he sustained when flying debris hit him in the head. Allen Crandy of Las Vegas, an Outdoor Retailers contractor and a 38-year-old father of three, was the tornados only fatality. When the winds finally died down, the city was left reeling, struggling to comprehend what happened. Mike Leavitt, the governor of Utah at the time, spoke to reporters immediately following the storm. "Standing here in the calm of an August afternoon, it's almost inconceivable what happened," hesaid. The perfect storm Despite the magnitude of the damage, the tornado itself lasted only ten minutes. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado first touched down at 12:45 p.m. about two blocks southwest of the Delta Center (now Vivint Smart Home Arena). It took down power lines, several abandoned Union Pacific warehouses and tore off part of the Delta Center roof. It continued ripping up houses and trees in a northeasterly direction for five miles, through Memory Grove and the Avenues. By 12:55 p.m., it was all over. Tornadoes in Utah arent all that rare the Beehive State averages two per year. But a storm as massive as the 99 tornado, with wind speeds between 111 to 135 mph, only happens once every seven years on average. And rarely do they strike a metropolitan area. According to KSL meteorologist Mark Eubank, it took a very unusual combination of conditions to produce this perfect storm. What probably happened is that a couple of gusting thunderstorms collided and created "tremendous upward movement" and "caused it to go crazy" in the right place at the right time, Eubankexplained. "It took just the right, unique type of storm and setting," he said. "But what it did is it kind of woke up Utahns to tornadoes." Previously, experts thought it was impossible for a storm to develop between a 9,000 and 11,000 foot mountain range. Could it happen again? A recurrence is unlikely but "always possible," Eubank said. On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution. The brief 39-word amendment represents the culmination of a long suffrage battle waged by American women (and some men) for nearly a century: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Long road to suffrage While suffrage was on the minds of American women since the country's origin, the women's suffrage movement emerged in the mid-19th century and formally organized at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. In Seneca Falls, New York, about 300 hundred women and men gathered in the first womens rights convention to discuss the "social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman," according to notes from the meeting. After two long days of conversation, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and several other event organizers presented a list of resolutions on women's equality to be signed by attendees. A heated debate about suffrage sprang up, with many arguing against it, including some women. But African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered an eloquent and impassioned defense, saying he could not accept the right to vote as a black man if women didn't also have suffrage. Afterward, the resolution on suffrage passed with a large majority. Despite this victory, national women's suffrage was still a long ways off. After the convention, Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and other activists formed suffrage organizations, held rallies and lobbied the government. Before the 19th Amendments passage, these suffragists launched 484 campaigns asking legislators to submit the suffrage amendment, 47 campaigns encouraging state constitutional conventions to write suffrage in at the state level and 277 campaigns urging state party conventions to include women's suffrage. Winning the vote In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson switched his stance on women's voting rights from objection to support, and when the suffrage amendment came up for vote, Wilson made an appeal to the Senate. The amendment fell short by two votes in the Senate. Yet these discussions garnered enough momentum that, when the suffrage resolution was reintroduced in 1919, it cleared both chambers. Within a few days, the amendment was sent to the states for ratification. By March of 1920, 35 states had approved it one state short of the required two-thirds. Finally, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee tipped the scales in favor of womens suffrage. The deciding vote came down to Harry T. Burn, a 24-year-old representative from East Tennessee, who opposed the amendment himself. His mother, however, convinced him to approve it. On the morning Burn was to vote, Phoebe Ensminger Burn sent her son a letter endorsing the suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt: "Be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the 'rat' in ratification." In the end, Burn followed his mother's counsel. Utahs unique path While most American women had to wait until the 20th century to vote, Utah women actually voted much sooner. They were the first women to vote in a national election when Utah was still a territory. And when Utah became a state, it was the second to extend voting rights to women, following Wyoming. Strangely enough, it was the controversy surrounding polygamy that first allowed Utah women to vote. In the East, antipolygamist activists adamantly argued Utah women should be granted suffrage, convinced that "oppressed" and "downtrodden" Utah women would use it to end the practice of plural marriage. In her book on plural marriage and women's rights, A House Full of Females, American history scholar Laurel Thatcher Ulrich points out that the first mention of enfranchising Utah women occurred in a New York Times editorial, where the writer concluded that empowering Utah women was the key to ending polygamy. Brigham Young and other Utah leaders knew granting women suffrage would not change Utah marriage practices. But they agreed to extend these voting rights because they felt it would reverse the stereotype of submissive Mormon women and help curtail antipolygamy legislation. As soon as they were enfranchised, many Utah women eagerly embraced their new political roles. Women's Relief Societies initiated programs to educate women in the political process. And Emmeline B. Wells, Zina Young Williams and other Mormon women attended national suffrage conventions and formed alliances with eastern suffragists. For 17 years, Utah women could cast their votes until Congress revoked their voting rights as a provision of the 1887 Edmunds-Tucker antipolygamy act. This action prompted a number of Utah women to more fully immerse themselves in the national suffrage fight, petitioning state leaders and even bringing Susan B. Anthony to Utah again she first visited in 1870 to join their local campaigns. Reclaiming the vote The question of womens suffrage became one of the most hotly-debated during the states constitutional convention in 1895. Opponents, including prominent Mormon leader and politician B.H. Roberts, argued women would defile themselves if they entered the "filthy stream of politics." Yet others contended women "would be a purifying and cleansing force in politics," according to the Utah State Historical Society. In the end, the delegates present for the April 1895 vote were unanimous for suffrage, enfranchising Utah women once again. After winning the vote twice, Utah women stayed committed to fighting for national suffrage and connected to their suffragist allies throughout the country. When Susan B. Anthony heard voting rights for women would indeed be included in the state's constitution, she booked a train to Utah to join in a three-day celebration. And after Anthony's death in 1906, her secretary sent Utah Relief Society leaders a copy of Anthony's biography inscribed with the words, "To the women who were loyal and helpful to Miss Anthony to the end of her great work." HIGHLAND Buttons the bunny is getting lots of love and food now in a new home. That's a dramatic change from where he was just days ago: Wandering a park with a dart through his head. An American Fork girl named Katie was at Highland Glen Park in Highland with her brother on Friday when the wounded bunny caught their attention. "We saw Buttons, and we were like, 'Oh my gosh, we have to help him,'" Katie said Monday. The siblings tried to catch the bunny so they could take him to a vet, but Buttons wasn't going to make it easy for them. When the dart stuck in his head eventually caught on some brush, Katie was able to scoop the animal up. "After 4 hours of chasing him through a quite a few obstacles, we caught him," Katie said. A dart had gone through the side of the bunny's cheek, right below his eyes, and it exited out in front of his nose. "He got lucky that it just navigated under the bunny's skin," said Riverwood Pet Hospital veterinarian Yoeny Dobson. The vet was able to gently pull out the dart. "This is a very lucky bunny," Dobson said. Dobson said the 2-month-old domesticated bunny was probably set loose or got out of somebody's house and started living in the park when it got shot. "I hope they catch whoever did it because that's actually abuse," Dobson said. "That's animal abuse." Animal-rights advocates want the case prosecuted. The Humane Society of Utah on Tuesday said it is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever shot Buttons. "The person responsible needs to be held accountable before another animal or a person is harmed," said Gene Baierschmidt, Humane Society of Utah's executive director, in a prepared statement. Killing, torturing or poisoning an animal is a misdemeanor in Utah punishable by up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. Knowingly or intentionally torturing a pet is a third-degree felony. Such a conviction can result in a $5,000 fine and five years in prison. Lone Peak police say it's also a violation of city ordinance to fire a projectile within city limits. Anyone with information about the bunny shooting is asked to contact the Lone Peak Police Department at 801-756-9800. Fifteen-year-old Katie, who wants to be a veterinarian, doesn't understand why anyone would shoot a bunny. "He's so cute," she said. "He's cuddly, even after he got shot." While Buttons is safe has a clean bill of health and a new home with Katie, the teen is concerned for the safety of two other bunnies that were seen in the park at the same time as Buttons but weren't caught. "We assume that most likely they had been shot at, but we have no idea what happened to the other two," Katie said. She plans to keep searching the park. Contributing: Viviane Vo-Duc, Annie Knox Many skeptics, secularists and relativists state with uncanny certainty that the idea of a God in heaven speaking to His children is preposterous and out of touch with people living in a modern society. One man disagrees. Russell M. Nelson, president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, addresses the idea with a poignant question as he speaks to members of his faith as well as many other individuals around the world: Does God really want to speak to you? Yes! CNN religion editor Daniel Burke recently published an article on Nelsons forward-leaning leadership of the Church over the past year and his willingness to talk about the revelations he receives. Burke properly framed the very straightforward way Nelson receives and openly talks about revelation, writing, But more than any Mormon president in recent memory, he (Nelson) speaks openly and often about his divine communications, some of which have significant consequences for the 16.6 million-member church. It has indeed been a year of significant changes, course-corrections, improvements and innovative solutions since President Nelson took the helm of church leadership and what Church members view as the mantle of prophet to the world. Burke went on to describe how Nelson often gets up in the middle of the night to write down the heavenly instruction he receives using a yellow pad of paper. Citing critics of Nelsons declaration of revelation, Burke included in his piece: Some Mormons say Nelson was trying to shore up a man-made decision by calling it a revelation Another skeptic, Mica McGriggs, a psychologist and community activist in New York City, said, "There's this middle ground where less orthodox members are living. And it's like the church is drawing a line in the sand; you're either on the Lord's side or you are not." Such declarations miss the essence of both the man and the mantle. When he was known as Dr. Russell M. Nelson, pioneering heart surgeon, he regularly met with other doctors, scientists and specialists who were also working to perfect lifesaving techniques for the heart. They would come together and share notes, best practices, lessons learned, failures and successes. Sheri Dew, author of a new book about Nelson, Insights from a Prophets Life, once asked him about these meetings with the question, You mean these other doctors, who were your competitors for research money, grants and medical notoriety, would get together and share notes? Werent you afraid they would get the accolades, priceless patents and the prominence of success based on your work? Nelsons response was powerful and without hesitation. He replied, Our competition wasnt with each other. Our competition was with death, disease and ignorance. His ministering and spiritual leadership style is often described by observers inside and outside of the church as side-by-side. Nelson listens to everyone in the room everyone. After others have given their perspective, he will share his own always concluding by inviting those involved to pray and receive their own insight and inspiration before a decision is made. You could say President Nelson comes from the Moses school of prophets. Rather than desiring to amass power to himself, he is determined to disperse it by empowering every single soul to receive revelation for themselves. As Moses himself said in the Old Testament, would God that all the Lords people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them! In one of his first addresses to the worldwide membership of the church, Nelson declared, One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind since my new calling as president of the Church is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will. The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children. Then he described how individuals could access such revelation: Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will grow into the principle of revelation. Then he concluded, I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that if thou shalt (seek), thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. That hardly sounds like a man shutting down debate or begging for blind obedience. It sounds like an ordinary man who has a magnificent mandate and mantle to care for and bless the people of the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ. He knows the greatest blessing he could bestow is the ability for all to connect and commune with their Heavenly Father, who loves them. Dew contrasts todays political and business approach to problem-solving with Nelsons invitation to revelation, saying, I don't want a prophet to lead like everyone else. I wouldnt want him to say, basically, that we had a really great focus group and came up with some smart ideas wed like to propose. As a believer, I love knowing that a prophet receives guidance from God. So many programs and decisions in businesses and governments follow a consultant-certified, pollster-approved solution model. Personally, I would take a humble, thoughtful, prayerful prophet with a pad of paper over any high-powered blue-ribbon committee, task force or government agency. There is something uniquely powerful to the simple revelatory process Nelson shares that many individuals around the world find inspired and inspiring. As a world religious leader, he openly shares his approach to discovering the mind and will of the Lord. Nelsons example and invitation demonstrate to people everywhere that God is still interested in His children on earth. And, for those who are struggling and seeking, it might just provide the confidence and courage that comes from knowing God is still interested in them. PENGUINS 3 stars Narrated by Ed Helms; G; in general release; running time: 76 minutes SALT LAKE CITY The Disneynature series is the perfect solution for anyone who is squeamish about the sight of an animal eating another animal for lunch. This is nature, Disney-fied. Like its predecessors, the new documentary Penguins uses astounding cinematography and storytelling to bring its adorable subject matter to life in a family friendly way, while still making the harsh realities of the animal kingdom clear. Previous films like Born in China (2016) and Monkey Kingdom (2015) built their narratives around single characters trying to make their way in the world, and Penguins follows the same tactic. Narrated by comic actor Ed Helms (The Office), Penguins follows the adventures of a 5-year-old Adelie penguin named Steve as he tries to survive his first season as an adult. Right away, its clear the odds are stacked against him. The film takes place during the comparatively warm spring through fall season of Antarctica, when the sun never goes down and where a daily high of 32 degrees is a toasty heat wave. The first phase of the Adelies annual routine is to trek across the Antarctic ice to its frozen shores, and Steve is already lagging well behind. Once he arrives after an awkward delay lost amid a colony of Emperor penguins Steve has to stake out a spot on a crowded, rocky shore, build a nest and land himself a mate. Assuming he can do that, the next challenge will be to keep his chicks fed until they can get big enough to head back into the ocean with Mom and Dad before winter hits. Watching Steve work his way through this process is both entertaining and insightful, even if it wont be anything new for people who have already seen March of the Penguins (which focused on the Emperor penguins) or one of the high quality BBC nature series you can find on Netflix these days. The antics are cute and often juxtaposed against 80s rock anthems from the likes of REO Speedwagon, and the content is excellent and will still be enjoyable for viewers older than 5 years old. The visuals are simply astounding, matching expert cinematography to a mesmerizing landscape. This is one film where you will want to stick around for the credits, as behind-the-scenes footage gives you an idea of what the crew went through in production. The wildlife footage is amazingly up close and personal, and audiences will delight at one sequence that demonstrates how among penguins, there is apparently no honor among thieves. Penguins also manages to show the danger of nearby predators, including leopard seals and a bird species that has no issue hauling off penguin eggs or attacking vulnerable youngsters. Overall, its hard to find anything not to recommend about Penguins. Even its short 76-minute runtime feels neither padded nor brief. More serious viewers may prefer the iconic tones of Morgan Freeman who narrated March of the Penguins to Helms more kid-friendly delivery and dialogue, but if youre looking for an educational family friendly option for the youngest members of the clan, Penguins should be high on your list. Rating explained: Penguins is rated G, but does contain some scenes of peril. LITTLETON, Colo. A Florida teenager who authorities say was obsessed with the Columbine school shooting and may have been planning an attack in Colorado just ahead of the 20th anniversary was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide after a nearly 24-hour manhunt. The body of 18-year-old high schooler Sol Pais was discovered in the mountains outside Denver with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound after investigators got a tip from the driver who took her there, the FBI said. During the manhunt, Denver-area schools closed as a precaution, with classes and extracurricular activities canceled for a half-million students. Police and the FBI were tipped off about Pais after the Miami Beach high school student made troubling remarks to others about her "infatuation" with the 1999 bloodbath at Columbine High and this weekend's anniversary of the 13 killings, said Dean Phillips, FBI agent in charge in Denver. He did not elaborate on what she said. Pais purchased three one-way tickets to Denver on three consecutive days, then flew in on Monday night and went directly to a gun store, where she bought a shotgun, authorities said. "We're used to threats, frankly, at Columbine," John McDonald, security chief for Jefferson County school system, said when the manhunt was over. "This one felt different. It was different. It certainly had our attention." McDonald described her trip as a "pilgrimage" to Columbine. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said after receiving word that the hunt was over that he and all Colorado parents are "hugging their children a little tighter." In Pais' hometown, Surfside Police Chief Julio Yero asked that the family be given "privacy and a little time to grieve." Pais' parents had reported her missing on Monday night, police said. "This family contributed greatly to this investigation from the very onset. They provided valuable information that led us to Colorado and a lot of things that assisted in preventing maybe more loss of life," Yero said. Authorities said she did not threaten a specific school. But Columbine and more than 20 other schools outside Denver reacted by locking their doors for nearly three hours Tuesday afternoon, and some canceled evening activities or moved them inside. Pais' body was found off a trail not far from the base of Mount Evans, a recreation area about 60 miles southwest of Denver, authorities said. She used the weapon she bought, Phillips said. She had been last seen in a black T-shirt, camouflage pants and black boots. Sheriff Jeff Shrader said the sale of the shotgun apparently followed the state's legal process. Out-of-state residents who are at least 18 can buy shotguns in Colorado. Customers must provide fingerprints and pass a criminal background check. A gun shop that said it sold the shotgun to Pais posted on Facebook that she passed the background check and the purchase was legal. "We had no reason to suspect she was a threat to either herself or anyone else," said the post, which was signed by Colorado Gun Broker owner Josh Rayburn. School officials said events planned to mark the anniversary will go on as scheduled, including a ceremony at Columbine on Saturday. Two teenagers attacked Columbine on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives. They have inspired cult-like admirers and motivated other mass shooters over the decades. Since Columbine, a growing "no notoriety" movement has urged news organizations to avoid naming the perpetrators of mass shootings to deprive them of the notoriety they seek. In Florida, Adam Charni, a Miami Beach High School senior, said Pais dressed in black and kept mostly to herself. He said he was "baffled" to learn she was the person authorities in Colorado were searching for. Another classmate, 17-year-old Drew Burnstine, described Pais as quiet and smart. Phillips said investigators were poring through Pais' social media, including a blog with photos of hand-written journal entries alongside sketches of guns. Denver-area parents faced the difficult job of explaining to their children why they had the day off school without scaring them. "This is definitely a challenge in their generation, and watching my kids learn how to navigate this is really hard. It is really heartbreaking," said Suzanne Kerns, of suburban Arvada, whose children are 8 and 15. Kerns said she was angry about how easy it was for someone reported missing to come from out of state and buy a gun. ___ Associated Press writers Ellis Rua in Miami Beach, Florida and James Anderson and Thomas Peipert in Denver contributed to this report. SALT LAKE CITY Anti-abortion Christians are among those protesting an Environmental Protection Agency proposal that would limit consideration of health benefits in regulating mercury and other toxic emissions from industrial sources like coal-burning power plants. "Today, over 145,000 pro-life Christians from across the country including over 94,000 from states that voted for President Trump are calling on the Trump administration to stop its efforts to dismantle protections that defend children in the womb from mercury pollution," the Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox, president of The Evangelical Environmental Network, wrote for The Hill. "Dismantling these protections is wrong, and it does not square with our faith or the faith of millions of pro-life Americans." Wednesday was the last day for public comment on changes to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which the Trump administration proposed in December. The changes would overturn federal rules imposed by the Obama administration, which the Environmental Protection Agency now says are too costly to justify. "Children in the womb are uniquely vulnerable to mercury a potent neurotoxin because a protective shield around the developing childs brain, called the 'blood-brain barrier,' is not fully formed until the first year of life," wrote the Rev. Hescox. "Mercury passes across the mothers placenta, enters the bloodstream of her child and then into the developing childs brain, causing brain damage, developmental disabilities, neurological disorders, lowered intelligence and learning difficulties." Children exposed to mercury during a mothers pregnancy can experience lifelong IQ and motor function deficits, according to a 2017 study. The EPA calculated it would cost industry between $7.4 billion and $9.6 billion annually to install the necessary technology to cut mercury, while the health benefits ranged from $4 million to $6 million, The New York Times reported. The Obama administration, however, had also factored in "co-benefits" from reduced particulate matter linked to mercury emissions, including reduced premature deaths, sick days and hospital visits, adding an additional $80 billion in health benefits a year, according to the article. Hal Quinn, president of the National Mining Association, praised the EPA's proposed change, calling the mercury limits "perhaps the largest regulatory accounting fraud perpetrated on American consumers," the Times reported. But anti-abortion advocates are less concerned with monetary costs and more concerned with costs to lives. "As an evangelical Christian, I believe that all human life is sacred; that each person conceived is of equal and innate value, and that all human life is worthy of protection," the Rev. Jeremy Summers, chairman of the board of The Evangelical Environmental Network, wrote for The State. "Our commitment to Jesus Christ compels us to do all we can to protect unborn children from mercury poisoning. It is a pro-life concern, plain and simple." Melody Zhang, a member of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action and the Climate Justice Coordinator for Sojourners, a Christian advocacy organization, testified before the EPA on March 15. She wrote that on the morning of the hearing, she gathered together with more than 30 other faith leaders "in prayer and petitioning against the rollback of the Mercury Rule." "We are motivated by our Christian faith to act as responsible stewards of creation and to protect the abundance and diversity of the fullness of life by advocating for alternatives to fossil fuel energy which are more equitable and just, for the sake of the most vulnerable among us," Zhang testified before the EPA. "Any amount of exposure to mercury is a real threat to the development of any child in utero and early in life." There are no known safe levels of mercury. Coal-fired electric utilities are Americas largest source of mercury, according to a 2018 study. When emitted, the mercury deposits in bodies of water, is consumed by fish and enters the human food supply. Any amount of exposure to mercury is a real threat to the development of any child in utero and early in life. Melody Zhang, a member of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action and the Climate Justice Coordinator for Sojourners The Economist reported that coal plants have spent billions in compliance costs and mercury emissions have fallen by nearly 90 percent since the regulation was implemented in 2011. As a result, 11,000 deaths have been prevented each year, according to Harold P. Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association. "The rollback to MATS has galvanized people of different faiths to work together," Ricardo Simmons wrote for Daily Camera. On March 20, 19 national religious organizations joined together in sending a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler opposing the change, according to the Albany Times Union. Signatories included the Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance, Creation Justice Ministries, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Friends Committee on National Legislation, National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., Union for Reform Judaism, United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries; and the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society. They wrote, Limiting the benefits attributed to curbing mercury pollution in its cost-benefit analysis not only shortchanges the health of vulnerable populations but puts the health and well-being of all communities at risk. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also sent a letter to the EPA stating, A human life at any stage of development has inestimable value because all persons are created in the image of God. Given the threat that these particular pollutants pose to unborn children, some of the most vulnerable among us, these principles must be upheld with a special importance. SALT LAKE CITY The recent shift in political power in Monticello, San Juan County, also means a shift in the position the San Juan County Commission takes on public lands. On Tuesday, the three-member commission voted to withdraw San Juan County as an intervener in a lawsuit over the Trump administration's decision in 2017 to shrink the 1.35-million acre Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent and split it into two units. The county was an intervener represented by the Mountain States Legal Foundation supporting the Trump action in a lawsuit challenging the reduction. Now it is not. The political shift happened in the November election that introduced two new members to the commission: Kenneth Maryboy and Willie Grayeyes, both Navajo. Coincidentally, leadership of the Navajo Tribe was part of the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition that sought the monument designation in 2016. Maryboy and Grayeyes were elected after a judge's order last year to redraw voting districts on the basis they had been gerrymandered Rebecca Benally, a conservative Navajo member of the San Juan County Commission, was defeated at the ballot box. Phil Lyman chose not to run after deciding to replace outgoing Utah legislator Mike Noel. Bruce Adams, the remaining member of the commission opposed to monument designation, voted Tuesday against opting out of the lawsuit. Instead, he unsuccessfully argued that any decisions the commission makes on Bears Ears should be done only after the issue is put to a public referendum in the next general election. "This is a countywide vote that deserves to have the citizens of San Juan County vote on it," he said. "You guys have both said you want transparency." Adams said he would accept the vote of the people, even if it goes against his personal opposition to the original monument designation. Maryboy and Grayeyes declined his request to delay a vote to withdraw from the lawsuit without comment. The proposal to put the Bears Ears issue on the ballot may still come up at a future meeting, but a vote was not taken Tuesday given concerns over public noticing requirements. CINCINNATI Federal authorities said Wednesday they have charged 60 people, including a doctor accused of trading drugs for sex and another of prescribing to his Facebook friends, for their roles in illegally prescribing and distributing millions of pills containing opioids and other drugs. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman of Cincinnati described the action, with 31 doctors facing charges, as the biggest known takedown yet of drug prescribers. Robert Duncan, U.S. attorney for eastern Kentucky, called the doctors involved "white-coated drug dealers." Authorities said the 60 includes 53 medical professionals tied to some 350,000 prescriptions and 32 million pills. The operation was conducted by the federal Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force, launched last year by the Trump administration. Authorities said arrests were being made and search warrants carried out as they announced the charges at a news conference. They didn't immediately name those being charged. U.S. health authorities have reported there were more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths in 2017, for a rate of 21.7 per 100,000 people. West Virginia and Ohio have regularly been among the states with the highest overdose death rates as the opioid crisis has swelled in recent years. Among those charged was a Tennessee nurse practitioner who dubbed himself the "Rock Doc" and is accused of prescribing dangerous combinations of drugs such as fentanyl and oxycodone, authorities said. An indictment states that Jeff Young operated a clinic in Jackson, Tennessee, and promoted his practice with the motto "work hard, play harder." The indictment states he prescribed drugs that were highly addictive and at high risk of abuse as he tried to promote a "Rock Doc" reality TV pilot and podcast while obtaining sex and money for prescriptions. A message seeking comment was left Wednesday for his attorney. Another western Tennessee doctor is also accused of often trading drug prescriptions for sex. Others charged include a Kentucky doctor who is accused of writing prescriptions to Facebook friends who came to his home to pick them up, another who allegedly left signed blank prescriptions for staff to fill out and give to patients, and a Kentucky dentist accused of removing teeth unnecessarily and scheduling unneeded follow-up appointments. A Dayton, Ohio, doctor was accused of running a "pill mill" that allegedly dispensed 1.75 million pills in a two-year period. Authorities said an Alabama doctor recruited prostitutes and other women he had sexual relations with to his clinic and allowed them to abuse drugs in his home. Most of those charged came from the five strike force states of Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. One person each was also arrested in Pennsylvania and Louisiana. "The opioid crisis is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region," U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement in Washington. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the so-called "Rock Doc" is a nurse practitioner, not doctor. ___ Associated Press journalist John Minchillo contributed to this report. SANDY The gang problem in the Salt Lake area is not getting any bigger or smaller overall, according to the Metro Gang Unit. But the uptick in youth violence is something that has gang detectives very concerned. "We are seeing a lot more juveniles involved in gangs and involved in the violence. We are seeing juvenile victims and juvenile trigger-pullers, and thats fairly new within the last few years." said Unified Police Lt. Mike Schoenfeld, head of the Salt Lake Area Gang Project, also known as the Metro Gang Unit. "Our violent gang members are starting to get younger. Our older gang members that are growing out of the lifestyle are trying to leave the gang are not nearly as violent. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office is hosting its 29th annual Gang Conference at the Mountain America Exposition Center. The conference brings together law enforcers, school administrators, teachers, mental health experts, probation officers, people from the juvenile justice system and others from across the state. "It helps all of us. It helps the teachers understand what were doing. It helps us understand what theyre seeing in the school. It gives them the knowledge to recognize things they may not have seen before, Schoenfeld said. Several of this year's workshops are geared especially toward problems with youth gang members, such as, "Building Positive Relationships With Youth" and "Catch Me If You Can! Understanding Gang Involved Youth." "Were very focused on youth right now. The last couple of years theyve been our homicide victims and our trigger-pullers for those homicides," he said. The reason for the increase in youth gang violence is due in part to social media and "cyber-banging," as gang detectives call it, or recruiting online. "The promise of glory, the power of money, the drugs, the girls, the cars, the stuff that they see on the YouTube videos, Schoenfeld said of how children in middle schools and even elementary schools are being recruited. The hope of the conference is to give teachers and others the tools they need to promote a gang-free lifestyle among the youth they come in contact with. Other workshops during the conference focus on drug trafficking and cartels using local gang members to distribute drugs. Steven Murphy and Javier Pena, retired members of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who helped take down famed drug lord Pablo Escobar and are the subjects of a series on Netflix, spoke Wednesday at the conference Other workshops focused on ambushes and surprise attacks on police officers. One of the speakers on that topic is an Oklahoma City police officer who was shot six times with an AR-15 during an ambush and survived, Schoenfeld said. HOLLADAY Four years ago, Lydia Martinez, 38, had just taken a huge leap of faith into becoming her own boss after giving up what she thought was her dream job. "I had a career and I planned on being there for a long time," the owner of Salt Lake-based Elle Marketing and Events explained. "I thought I had been looking toward that promotion for years and suddenly when it was handed to me, I just felt sick. It felt wrong." Upon consulting with her husband, she decided to launch her own business. "It was one of those pivotal moments in my life when I turned and walked away from something that I thought I wanted" to pursue her ultimate desire to start her own company. Four years later she said, "every single day" she knows it was the right decision. Martinez was among 150 women at the fourth annual Womens Entrepreneurial Conference hosted by Womens Business Center of Utah and Utah Womens Networking Group at Holladay's City Hall on Wednesday. The one-day conference, presented in conjunction with Utahs Own included breakout sessions and a pitching competition. She said it was about three months after becoming a new businesswoman that she attended the inaugural event that was developed to offer female entrepreneurs exposure to potential resources that could help them become successful. "All of us need to learn how to run businesses better," said Ann Marie Wallace, state director for the Women's Business Center of Utah. "Some need to know how to start businesses, while others need to know how to grow them. Women like to learn, but we find they like to learn together." She said hosting an event that brings women from across the state is an opportunity to become educated and to connect with other like-minded businesswomen. In Utah, there are approximately 84,000 female-controlled businesses and the Beehive State tied (with Texas) for No. 2 in the U.S. in economic clout, according to the 2018 American Express State of Women-owned Businesses Report. Economic clout is defined as the growth in the number of firms and growth in employment and revenues. Wallace said this year, the conference focused on how social media can be used to expand a new business. Attendees also competed for over $19,000 in grants, she said. The event was designed to help women develop skills, access resources and build relationships in order to run more scalable and profitable businesses, a news release stated. All profit from the annual conference funds grants the following year, explained Karin Palle, executive director of Utah Womens Networking Group. The competition was based on a three-minute pitch from each participant who would describe their proposed use of funds and potential growth possibilities. A total of 25 grants ranging from $250 to $5,000 were awarded to 12 quarterfinalists, seven semifinalist and five finalists, she said. Because grant funding for women-run businesses is generally less available, having access to even smaller amounts of free money can be just the thing that can help new startups find their way to success, she said. "These grants have no strings attached," Palle said. "All we ask is that these women grow their businesses. They use the money and invest it in their business." She noted that one previous grant recipients used the money to help grow her startup as a way to help preserve her family's farming enterprise. Kara Lewis, 39, used a grant to create Glen Ray's Corn Maze a fall farm festival located in Spanish Fork that includes various agriculture-related activities geared toward families. After moving back to the area from Nevada a year-and-a-half ago, she wanted to help her father save the family business that had been around for over 100 years and five generations. "My dad has had a considerable amount of stress having the thought of having to sell the family farm to development," she explained. "I went to him and said, 'What can I do to help you out?' He said just help me make some more money." They came up with the idea for the corn maze (named in honor of her grandfather). Last fall, the corn maze produced more than $100,000 in revenue in just six weeks, she said. "We're just trying to keep the farm alive for a few more generations and also provide a place for families to come to bring their children and grandchildren to experience the farm life," Lewis said. SALT LAKE CITY Rep. Chris Stewart will be among members of Congress who receive a less-redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report due to be released Thursday. The Utah Republican said there will be redactions that protect sources and methods, but as a member of the House Intelligence Committee he would have access to that information. "On the other side of that, grand jury information should always be protected, even from any member of Congress, and we wouldn't have access to that," he said. The Justice Department revealed in a Wednesday court filing in the Roger Stone case the once the redacted report is released to the public, a limited number of members of Congress and their staffs would receive a report without certain redactions. Stone is President Donald Trump's longtime friend and political adviser who faces charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering. The Justice Department is scheduled to release a redacted version of the nearly 400-page report Thursday morning. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Ron Rosenstein, who led the investigation after Mueller was appointed in May 2017, will hold a press conference to discuss the release. Stewart said his staff as well as the Intelligence Committee staff is poised to dive into the report. "We obviously want to understand it and understand it very quickly," he said. "It's going to take us more than five minutes but we intend to spend a lot of time on it." Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, had a terse reply when asked about the report Wednesday. "I look forward to seeing it. I don't know whats in it. Havent seen it. Know almost nothing about it. Certainly look forward to reading it. I wish I could give you a better prediction than that," he told reporters at the Amazon fulfillment center opening. I just find it really unlikely that we would find something there that would shock people. Rep. Chris Stewart Stewart said he's confident there won't be any bombshells in the report. "I just find it really unlikely that we would find something there that would shock people," said the four-term congressman who launched his re-election bid Wednesday. Utah Republican members of Congress hailed snippets of the report Barr made public last month, including that Trump's presidential campaign didn't conspire with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Barr wrote that he and Rosenstein concluded that the evidence developed in the investigation is not sufficient enough to establish that Trump committed obstruction of justice. The special counsel states that while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him, Barr wrote. Stewart said "there's no way in the world" Barr whitewashed what he made public in March. "He knew he was going to release the report in a couple weeks," he said. "It would have made no sense at for him to not be accurate in how he characterized this." Stewart said he expects Democrats, who have been "vested in the this story and have been for a couple of years," to look to "exaggerate" part of the report to hurt Trump. "They're certainly going to mull through that and try to find something that's embarrassing or negative towards the president and the administration or his family," he said. "I don't think that some of those people are just going to give this up without dragging this one for a little longer, maybe even a lot longer." Contributing: Art Raymond SALT LAKE CITY Youll probably see the redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report on Thursday morning, according to the Justice Department. What's going on: As The New York Times reported, the Department of Justice will likely drop the 400-page report on Thursday morning with redactions. It will likely be available on the special counsels website. The report will have redactions that will black out sensitive information, according to The New York Times. When: Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will have a press conference on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. MT) to talk about the release of the redacted version of the report, Axios reports. Theres no hint that the report will be unveiled before the press conference, CNBC reports. Prepared: According to The New York Times, the White House and Justice Department officials discussed Muellers findings several times ahead of the release on Thursday. Nearly two years after the special counsel was appointed, the public will get its most in-depth glimpse yet into what Mueller found in his investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to Axios. Flashback: Last month, Barr released a four-page summary two days after he received the report. He said the report did not establish a conspiracy or coordination between President Donald Trumps campaign and the Kremlin, according to CNBC. Barr said Muellers report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, (but) it also does not exonerate him. Barr said that the final decision on obstruction of justice was left to Barr and Rosenstein, according to CNBC. The evidence developed during the special counsels investigation is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense. President Trump and the White House have a plan in place for the report, according to Politico. The goal for Thursday is to use the bully pulpit of the White House to give the appearance of a president consumed by the demands of his office, Politico says. Youll see a lot of strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be doing a press conference. Maybe Ill do one after that, well see, Trump said in a radio interview Wednesday, according to Politico. One unnamed Republican told Politico that the White House will attempt to brush this off and move on as quickly as possible. Utah: Utah Rep. Chris Stewart "will be among members of Congress who receive a less-redacted version" on Thursday, the Deseret News reported. SALT LAKE CITY Pamela Atkinson, a tireless advocate for those experiencing homelessness in Utah, has long called the people she serves her friends. Now, a new permanent supportive housing development to assist them in Salt Lake City will bear her name. "Everyone is her friend, and thats how she treats everybody. That kind of respect and that kind of love is a lesson for all of us, said Gov. Gary Herbert about Atkinson, calling her the Mother Theresa of Utah. Pamela's Place, located at 525 S. 500 West, will include 100 micro-units and a ground floor with medical services, kitchens and a pet area. It will provide housing to people with low incomes or who are coming out of homelessness. Herbert and others celebrated Atkinson on Wednesday as they broke ground for the facility. "Its not just a shelter but a comprehensive affordable housing that gives treatment and counseling. (It) helps people help themselves and have a better future," Herbert said. Atkinson said that when she asks her homeless friends what they need, they often say a roof over their head. They are happy to share a bathroom or kitchen and simply want somewhere to live. "For many of our homeless friends those needs are small, and thats why this project is going to be great because housing does come first and through the housing development we have been able to turn peoples lives around," Atkinson said. Upon learning he was being assigned to the State Homelessness Coordinating Committee, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox recalled he told his staff he didn't know much about homelessness. They introduced him to Atkinson, who showed him homeless services in the state and introduced him to her friends. That day changed my life," Cox said. The $14 million project for Pamela's Place is funded with federal, state, local and private programs. Evelyn Lim, regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said the project is an example of how crucial collaboration is to create affordable housing. She said local communities know best how to use funding. "Im heartened that Utah and Salt Lake City are leading the charge for permanent supportive housing and also creating incentives for the community. The rest of the country is watching and also learning. You should be proud," Lim said. Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski noted Pamela's Place is one of three permanent housing developments that will provide 242 units. Biskupski said she has listened to the people living in similar units tell their stories and has seen that change is possible. "Pamelas Place will be a space of hope and opportunity in Salt Lake City. It will be a place where those in need find the support they need to move forward," Biskupski said. SALT LAKE CITY LDS Living recently profiled four Columbine survivors, three of whom live in Utah, as the anniversary of the tragedy nears. On April 20, 1999, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and one teacher inside Columbine High School. At the time, it was the deadliest shooting at a high school in the history in the United States. In interviews with LDS Living, Sarah Green Bush, Laura Green Hall, Will Beck and Aaron Hancey reflected on how they remembered almost everything from that day, including their attire, the conversations they had and how they felt during the event. Bush, Hall and Beck, who are all from Utah, told LDS Living it was important to share their stories to advocate for schools to improve security and help students share more about mental health. I think each person experiences it so personally and so individually, and I wish that I knew that (then), Hall told LDS Living. I wouldve saved myself years of suffering and comparing and worrying about why I was grieving so much differently than other people. Read more: The Columbine survivors explained their stories and the emotions that ran through them over at LDS Living. SALT LAKE CITY Two of Utah's urban clusters remained among the fastest-growing in the nation last year, but for very different reasons. The St. George metro area added about 16 people a day, new census figures show, and many in the new crop are outdoor enthusiasts and service workers, said Pamela Perlich, director of demographic research at the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Institute. To the north, Provo-Orem took on a daily 43 residents in 2017-18, and the new faces included more than just newborns. A burgeoning high-tech corridor, a growing student population at Utah Valley University and a housing crunch in neighboring Salt Lake County also played a part, Perlich noted. The two areas have slipped a few spots from a year ago, when St. George was first and Provo eighth, according to census data released late Wednesday. "The growth is not what you would call boom growth or unmanageable growth. It's a moderate growth," Perlich said. "For the foreseeable future, Utah continues to be a place of economic and educational and we would argue outdoor recreational opportunity. And people are voting with their feet and moving here from all over the country and all over the world." Still, the Beehive State is not without growing pains as communities plan for the stream of newcomers, and not just in St. George and Provo. Rising home costs on the Wasatch Front are also pushing families and others into outlying counties, Perlich said. Rapid change in red rock country St. George Mayor Jon Pike said its continuously exciting to see the St. George area's high ranking, but he also said he didnt mind slipping from the No. 1 spot. Such rapid growth, after all, comes with its fair share of challenges, he said. Its water. Its transportation. Its infrastructure. Its housing, Pike said. Water availability is perhaps the biggest blockade to Washington Countys boom, the mayor added. The controversial proposal to build the Lake Powell pipeline currently awaits a decision on the federal level. Though expensive at up to an estimated $1-1.8 billion, Pike said, the pipeline is still the lowest hanging fruit in terms of a new water source for St. George. Were not going to permit growth that we cant support with water, so right now were fine. But the Lake Powell pipeline, in my opinion, will be important." The growing St. George region encompasses all of Washington County, where more than 4 in 5 new faces have moved in from outside the county. The Provo-Orem cluster includes Utah County, where babies are responsible for more than half of growth, and the less populous Juab County to the south. A healthy commute Provo Mayor Michelle Kaufusi welcomes the growth in Utah Countys epicenter but said the city must be smart in its planning as it becomes the downtown of Utah County. Were trying to stay ahead of it. We dont want to be caught unprepared, and at this point I can honestly say we are going to be fine as long as we keep up with it and we project it 50 years out, she said. An influx of more daytime visitors is putting its own unique strain on transit and roads an issue Provo and Utah County leaders are highly focused on. That and the continued pressure of the housing market booming in areas including Lehi and Vineyard, close neighbors to Provo and Orem. Meanwhile, Silicon Slopes continues to draw more businesses and people as do Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University. Provo is rapidly becoming more and more what Salt Lake City is to Salt Lake County but with its own culture and business-friendly atmosphere, Kaufusi said. An unexpected move A 2019 report from Perlich's colleagues found that a single-family home in Salt Lake County sold for $355,000 in 2018, up 9 percent from a year earlier. It's part of the reason that so-called ring counties just off of northern Utah's urban corridor, such as Tooele and Wasatch, are expanding, Perlich said. Noelle Hoyne, a 26-year-old administrative assistant at a Salt Lake shipping company, is among those straying from the I-15 corridor in search of a better deal. She and her husband began looking for houses in the south end of Salt Lake County in 2016, but decided to stay with family and save up for another year. When they began searching again, she said, pricetags on homes in the same area had climbed from $220,000 up to $260,000. A realtor urged them to consider Tooele County's Stansbury Park. So they visited and quickly realized they could build their own home for roughly the same cost of an existing one in West Jordan. "I was pretty surprised," Hoyne recalled. "When I grew up in Southern California, in my mind, a new house meant you had a lot of money, and it meant you were on the up and up." They moved into the new three-bedroom house in July, where they have neighbors over for homemade ice cream and plan to grow their family. Crews are building still more homes in their neighborhood, Hoyne said, plus another new community across the way. She and her husband now commute to the Salt Lake Valley for work, passing the Great Salt Lake on the way. "Honestly, we don't mind it," Hoyne said. "It's a pretty drive." A difficult transition Tooele County Commissioner Shawn Milne likened the rapid growth in his county to a workout. To build up muscle, youre going to have some pain, he said and thats what Tooele County commissioners are seeing as they face the brunt of angry neighborhoods protesting against the rural areas changing landscape. Were getting an earful. He has seen firsthand what he calls the cognitive dissonance among residents of counties on the fringes of the Wasatch Front as they see more and more construction crews at work. Tooele County residents love their quality of life their open space, farms, open country roads and yet they also like to have big families, he said. At the same time, they want to have good-paying jobs, but they dont want housing development changing the character of their neighborhoods. Theyre the head, Milne said of the Wasatch Front and were the shoulders. The counties right here, were all facing some of these growth pressures. A symptom of those pressures as seen in other areas in Salt Lake County where high density creeps are more and more voter referendums challenging high-density developments, including a rezone for Kennecott Utah Coppers proposed Adobe Rock Ranch. Critics of the Skywalk development in Erda also are challenging that development in court. The broader picture The data released Wednesday largely confirm the trends that Perlich's team of demographers have traced in recent years. Beyond that, they reveal where Utah fits in the national picture, she said. For example, in parts of the U.S. South and West, other metro areas are growing faster than St. George and Provo-Orem. The West Texas oil town of Midland, which ticked up 4.3 percent in the one-year period, clinched the No. 1 spot this year. Runner-up Myrtle Beach and surrounding towns on the border of North Carolina and South Carolina swelled 3.8 percent as low construction prices and undeveloped land has drawn those seeking to build retirement homes. Even though some Utah communities remain atop the fastest expanding nationally, they are far from the most populous in the U.S. The area around Texas' Dallas Fort Worth and Arlington reached 7 million as of 2018, more than twice the Beehive State's total population. The data show that two smaller Utah cities, Heber and Cedar City, also made the top four nationally among micro areas those with a concentrated population of more than 10,000 and less than 50,000. The population of Daggett County, covered by a swath of national forest in Utah's northeastern corner, dipped 4.1 percent, to a population of 980, after the county's embattled jail shuttered in 2017. Overall, Utah added another 57,987 people an uptick of 1.87 percent to a total population of 3.16 million, the estimates show. Most of the newcomers arrived in Utah County, followed by Salt Lake County. SALT LAKE CITY The Department of Justice released the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday morning on Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election. Attorney General William Barr held a press conference an hour before the report dropped. He defended President Donald Trump in his speech and explained his decision to release the report, according to The New York Times. Barr said there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, and he released the redacted version of the report on Thursday morning. You can read the full report on the DOJs website. SALT LAKE CITY Heres a look at the news for April 18. Two Utah hot spots are among the nations top growing, census data show. The Tiger Woods comeback story teaches us something about forgiveness and redemption. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren stopped in Utah on Wednesday. Utah Rep. Chris Stewart will see more of the Mueller report than the public and most members of Congress. Anti-abortion Christians protested President Donald Trumps initiative to dismantle the EPA pollution standards. Utah Sen. Mike Lee opened up about Trumps veto of ending U.S. aid to Saudi-led war in Yemen. The Utah Jazz did really poorly against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night. Haley Reinhart says being on American Idol improved her career. Amazon robots outnumber the humans at the new Salt Lake City facility. A look at our most-read stories: Read more from our featured voices: Boyd Matheson: Is God still interested in human beings? Lois Collins: Notre Dame, Arch of Palmyra tie us together in grief and joy across generations Tiffany Gee Lewis: Alive at Easter Arianne Brown: Reading an obituary mentioning suicide gave me hope News from the U.S. and world: SALT LAKE CITY President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sent a personal note of sympathy to Pope Francis after the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. President Nelson said he was heartbroken by the damage to the 800-year-old church and that he prays it will rise again in "newness of life," according to a news release. A tweet about the letter was posted on President Nelson's Twitter account. "Upon learning of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral," the tweet said, "I wrote @Pontifex Pope Francis to express that Latter-day Saints are remembering our Catholic brothers and sisters. We pray that Notre Dame will rise again in newness of life." Upon learning of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, I wrote @Pontifex Pope Francis to express that Latter-day Saints are remembering our Catholic brothers and sisters. We pray that Notre Dame will rise again in newness of life. Russell M. Nelson (@NelsonRussellM) April 18, 2019 President Nelson and Pope Francis met for the first time last month at the Vatican, and in his letter, President Nelson said he immediately thought of his new acquaintance when he saw news of the fire. The churchs Europe Area Presidency has also expressed its sympathy to the archbishop of Paris. Elder Paul V. Johnson, Elder Gary B. Sabin and Elder Massimo De Feo told Archbishop Michel Aupetit that they hope Notre Dame will be restored as a symbol of faith for the people of France and the entire Christian world. Additionally, other Latter-day Saint church leaders sent a letter to Bishop Oscar A. Solis, the leader of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City. In the letter, President Ballard and Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, along with Elder Craig C. Christensen of the churchs Utah Area Presidency, expressed to Bishop Solis their deep sadness at the damage done to Notre Dame. The church's Europe Area Presidency released the following statement in French on Facebook. "With the image of flames ravaging the Our Lady of Paris Cathedral fresh in our minds, we share the sadness of our Catholic brothers and sisters, even the whole Christian world, as well as all who see in this magnificent building the greatness of God and what is best in the hearts and hands of all who believe in him and in his son Jesus Christ. "What a symbol the week before Easter to see this cathedral 'die' and to know that it will 'revive' thanks to the gifts of all people of good will. But what a blessing to know that by the greatest gift that was made by the Son of God, who accepted to die and take upon himself the sins of the world and through his resurrection each of God's children, who we all are, will also be resurrected "May this tragic event be for each of us an opportunity to reflect on the profound significance of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and to see in the more or less tragic occasions of our life an opportunity to revive and to turn to the one who gave us life, and even the promise of eternal life. We testify of the resurrection of Christ. He lives and through him death is conquered, we pray that the world will be filled with this hope." The Deseret News will update this story. SALT LAKE CITY Utah members of Congress want to move on from special counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report, but others in the state say not so fast especially when it comes to obstruction of justice questions surrounding President Donald Trump. Republicans and Democrats were digging into the redacted version of the 448-page report the U.S. Department of Justice released online Thursday. Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, said that his staff, as well as the House Intelligence Committee staff, were reviewing the document. Stewart is a member of the committee. "Mr. Mueller conducted a detailed and thorough investigation that mirrors what we found in the House Intelligence investigation no collusion or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia," Stewart said. "Now that the American people know the truth, I look forward to moving beyond the political theatrics and coming together to work on behalf of the American people. Before the Justice Department made the report public, Stewart said he was confident it wouldn't contain any bombshells and that it was "really unlikely that we would find something there that would shock people." Stewart and the rest of the Utah delegation accepted snippets of the report Attorney General William Barr released last month, including that Trump's presidential campaign didn't conspire with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election and that there wasn't evidence to charge him with obstruction of justice. Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, said he's looking forward to fully reviewing the report. I am pleased that special counsel Mueller was able to complete his investigation and is helping bring to justice those who allowed Russian meddling in the 2016 election," he said. "If the conclusion remains that there is no further criminal wrongdoing, I think we should, as a country, move on and ensure that Russia cannot interfere again. Other local Democrats, though, weren't so quick to let Trump off the hook. Utah House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, slammed Barr in a tweet, saying the attorney general simply cannot be trusted as honest. "He is either very sloppy or, much more likely, intentionally works to provide political cover for his superior," King said. "And in this case, he unfortunately perceives his superior to be the president rather than the American people." King, an attorney, said the report is "not by any means a total exoneration" of the president and there are issues raised that need a further look. But he said Democrats need to focus on using the report to make the case against Trump's re-election in 2020, rather than try to remove him from office. "It's not as definitive as many people would like," he said. "That's just the reality of how things work. It doesn't very often happen that a bombshell comes down that changes significantly and dramatically the political landscape." Former Utah GOP Congressman Jason Chaffetz said the report exonerates Trump. "I think the Democrats are scrambling. I don't think they know what to do. I think it is part of their demise and I think it's a big part of why I think Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020," he said on Fox News. In a take on "Game of Thrones," Trump tweeted, "No collusion. No Obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats Game Over." Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, seemed to join Trump on his victory lap, tweeting: "The Mueller report is finally available and it is definitive: there was no collusion." The investigation found that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign in "sweeping and systematic fashion." But it concluded the meddling did not have the cooperation of Trump, his campaign or the "knowing assistance of any other Americans." After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the special counsels report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the president could amount to obstruction. The report recounts 10 episodes involving Trump and discusses potential legal theories for connecting those actions to elements of an obstruction offense. Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel was not sufficient to establish that the president committed obstruction of justice. Still, Barr earlier noted the special counsel found that "while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Stewart said Trump expressed his view and frustration with the investigation but that is not obstruction. "If they didnt bring an indictment, if they didnt bring specific charges against the president, then I think we need to protect that presumption of innocence," Stewart said on KSL Newsradio. "A statement of no exoneration does not imply guilt, but some people are reading that as if it implies guilt." Chase Thomas, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Alliance for a Better Utah, said he still has concerns about the evidence of Trump's obstruction of justice and other "troubling" behaviors. Utah elected officials, he said, should be careful not to "whitewash" the reports outcome. "With the special counsel investigation complete, the baton is now in Congress hands to follow through and inquire further into some of the unanswered questions raised by the report," he said. King said within the special counsel's findings, there's plenty of information that "does give and should give thinking, reasonable people pause and give thinking, reasonable people a reason to say this isn't someone that we should have in the position of president of the United States." Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is ready to move on, calling the matter a "distracting chapter of U.S. history." He said he's satisfied with Mueller's and Barr's conclusion that there was no collusion and obstruction. "I urge all my congressional colleagues to return their attention to legislating and serving our constituents," he said. Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, said Barr released the report in a fair and appropriate way and with as much transparency as possible. He said he looks forward to reviewing the document and "working with my colleagues on the next steps to move the country forward and continue restoring public trust in our government." Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said he would read the report over the next several days. "Any comment I might make about the substance of the report will await that review," he said. Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche LEAMINGTON, Millard County The names of two people killed in a head-on collision on a rural Utah road during foggy conditions Wednesday were released Thursday. Kenneth R. Nielson, 39, and Lena R. Tanner, 39, both of Delta, were killed when their car collided head-on with a large utility truck while they were attempting to pass a semitrailer on state Route 132, according to the Utah Highway Patrol. While the Suburban driven by Nielson was in the westbound lane, it was hit by a Peterbuilt service truck. A child in a car seat in the back was flown by medical helicopter to Utah Valley Hospital in Provo and was expected to survive. The age of the child was not immediately available. The driver of the service truck was not injured. LEHI Some of the most essential generic medications are about to become more available and more affordable, thanks to a new, one-of-a-kind company with a mission to put patients first. Civica Rx, a nonprofit generic drug company headquartered in Utah, has more than 900 hospitals across the United States on board and will begin supplying at least 14 widely used generic drugs before the end of the year, said Civica Rx President and CEO Martin VanTrieste. "I've always felt that serving patients was a privilege and a responsibility," VanTrieste, a retired pharmacist who won't be taking a salary for his work at the local startup, said Thursday. "I've always thought we should do what's best for the patients. I've been fortunate in my life and this is an opportunity for me to give back." Three years in the making, Civica is the "brainchild" of Dan Liljenquist, a former Utah senator and senior vice president at Intermountain Healthcare. He said the realization that major pharmaceutical companies had the ability to pull products from the market and charge whatever they want for them was "just not sitting well with me. " "It's a social injustice, really," Liljenquist said. The idea for Civica Rx, he said, "was like a light turned on, and I could see down the road, this company." Civica will help to address the more than 277 drug shortages tracked by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists across the country, many of which have long made it through the expensive research and patent process and have been available as generics, some at lower costs than they are now. "That practice is bad for patients," said Dr. Marc Harrison, CEO at Intermountain Healthcare, which is backing the Civica team. "We want to make some of these things right." Harrison said doctors are forced to use sometimes unfamiliar and more expensive alternatives for common therapies because of ongoing shortages of medications that would be better for patients, resulting in fewer side effects or errors. Liljenquist said manufacturers for the supply of essential generic drugs will be located throughout the country, as having multiple locations reduces the risk for future problems. For example, hospitals everywhere dealt with major problems resulting from the destruction of the world's foremost saline plant in a Puerto Rico hurricane years ago. Those issues have largely been resolved, though others have taken its place, and the Civica team is aware that health care is an ever-changing marketplace. Civica aims to make essential generic drugs available and affordable to everyone by increasing the competition for older generic drugs, ensuring a robust supply chain, as well as providing long-term volume certainty and pricing stability. It has teamed up with every health system (for-profit and nonprofit) in Utah, as well as dozens outside of the state, with its mission to impact patients. "Like most things in life, it takes many people working together to find a solution," said Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who participated in the official Civica opening on Thursday. He said, according to an American Hospital Association survey, 78 percent of hospitals in America face significant challenges in obtaining very common generic drugs. And 90 percent have had to find alternative therapies for patients. "Health care is such a personal issue and an issue that affects everyone," said Congressman Ben McAdams, D-Utah. "And it's complicated." Harrison said that half of people who are in poor or fair health cannot afford all of the medications they need and about 30 percent don't take medications as prescribed, rationing them to make them last longer. "This is threatening our population," he said. Government leaders congratulated Harrison and his team, which together operate 22 hospitals and 185 clinics in and around Utah, with over 37,000 personnel. "At its best, health care is a team sport," Harrison said, addressing all of the collaboration that has gone into creating Civica Rx. Erin Fox, senior director for drug information services at the University of Utah, said the Federal Drug and Safety Administration can't necessarily be blamed for the problems, as it can't compel companies to create and produce products, but regulates them. She said she is anxious to see Civica Rx help decrease shortages and redirect the "incredible waste of resources that goes into making workarounds for these medications" to patient care. "This is a model we want everyone to participate in," Liljenquist said, adding that the company was designed to never make a profit. "Civica is designed to serve a higher purpose, not a bottom line," Harrison added. The Lehi headquarters, at 2912 Executive Parkway, will house at least 40 employees and its board of directors, made up of leaders from health systems throughout the country, is already talking about expansion in and outside of Utah. "Together we celebrate the reason why Civica Rx exists, in purpose and in brick and mortar, and that is to do what is in the best interest of patients by stabilizing the supply of generic medications," VanTrieste said. "Drug shortages strain hospital staff, lead to delayed surgeries and sub-optimal treatments for patients, and can lead to unpredictable price increases that result in budgetary instability in hospitals." SALT LAKE CITY Christopher Hacon, University of Utah distinguished professor of mathematics, has been elected to the Royal Society of London. Born in London, Hacon is one of 50 eminent scientists elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, along with 10 foreign members, in 2019. The Royal Society, founded in 1660, is the oldest national scientific institution in the world. The society has named around 1,600 fellows and international members, including some 80 Nobel laureates. Of course it is a great honor to be elected to the Royal Society and I am very happy and excited for the positive light it sheds on my research and my department, Hacon said in a statement. Hacon holds the U.'s McMinn Presidential Endowed Chair. According to the Royal Society's biography page, Christopher Hacon is a mathematician who specializes in the field of algebraic geometry which, loosely speaking, is a branch of mathematics that studies the geometric properties of sets defined by polynomial equations. Together with his co-authors, Hacon has proved many foundational results on the geometry of higher dimensional algebraic varieties including the celebrated result on the finite generation of canonical rings. Royal Society president Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, in a press release, said "Over the course of the Royal Societys vast history, it is our fellowship that has remained a constant thread and the substance from which our purpose has been realized: to use science for the benefit of humanity. Ramakrishnan added, It is with great honor that I welcome them as Fellows of the Royal Society. Most recently, Hacon was awarded the 2018 Breakthrough Prize, an award created in 2012 by the founders of Google, Facebook and the personal genomics company 23andMe. The award also recognized Hacon's work in algebraic geometry. The award, shared with James McKernan of the University of California, San Diego, included a $3 million prize. Hacon has also been honored with the 2016 EH Moore Research Article Prize; the 2015 Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award from U.; the 2011 Antonio Feltrinelli Prize in Mathematics Mechanics and Applications and the 2009 Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra and the 2007 Clay Research Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Hacon and other newly elected fellows will be formally admitted to the society in July, when they will sign the Charter Book and the Obligation of the Fellows of the Royal Society. The University of Utah has other connections to the Royal Society of London. Ramakrishnan, its current president, is a 2009 Nobel laureate and taught at the U. from 1995 to 1999. He was elected a Royal Society fellow in 2003. Simon Tavare, who taught at the U. from 1978 to 1981 and again from 1984 to 1989, is director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2011. Philip Maini, director of the Wolfson Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Oxford, taught at the U. from 1988 to 1990. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015. John Knox was a leader in the field of gas chromatography and began working with liquid chromatography after a sabbatical fellowship at the U. in 1964. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984. He died in 2018. Actor Alia Bhatts mother, Soni Razdan, has seemingly responded to allegations made by Kangana Ranauts sister Rangoli Chandel, that she has no right to discuss Indian politics because she isnt a citizen of the country. She questioned Kanganas agenda, and said that it is because of Mahesh Bhatt that she got her big break in Bollywood. Taking to Twitter, Soni wrote that she is a human being first, and then a citizen. She wrote, Urging people to vote against hate has nothing to do with citizenship and everything to do with being a human being. We are all human beings first and citizens of the world we live in. Secularism and democratic principles are values and its those that I stand for. #VoteOutHate. Urging people to vote against hate has nothing to do with citizenship and everything to do with being a human being. We are all human beings first and citizens of the world we live in. Secularism and democratic principles are values and its those that I stand for. #VoteOutHate Soni Razdan (@Soni_Razdan) April 16, 2019 I do actually. My father is Indian. Lived in India since I was 3 months old. Pay taxes. Hold an Overseas Citizen of India card. If my hard earned income is good enough to be used to better this nation then I have a right to voice my opinions too. #VoteOutHate https://t.co/pizCzuTJEQ Soni Razdan (@Soni_Razdan) April 16, 2019 Reacting directly to a comment by a Twitter user, in which they wrote, Get lost British citizen ...u have no place in India to preach, Soni wrote back, I do actually. My father is Indian. Lived in India since I was 3 months old. Pay taxes. Hold an Overseas Citizen of India card. If my hard earned income is good enough to be used to better this nation then I have a right to voice my opinions too. #VoteOutHate. On Tuesday, Kanganas sister Rangoli had attacked Soni and Alia, who are both British citizens and therefore not able to vote in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. She had written on Twitter, These non Indians who are living off this land, using and abusing its people and its resources, lying about intolerance and spreading hatred, time to think about their agenda and not to get carried away with their provocations. Rangolis response presumably came after Alia admitted in a recent interview that she would not be able to vote in the elections, because she doesnt hold an Indian passport, and a tweet by Soni, in which she spoke about mob lynchings. Kangana has been on an unrelenting offensive against Alia, whom she has accused of being a puppet of producer Karan Johars and a mediocre actor. The one-sided feud began after the release of Kanganas Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, which Alia allegedly did not help promote on her personal social media, which Kangana had expected, despite Alia being under no obligation to do so. Alia acknowledged the allegations on Twitter recently, responding to a message from her Highway co-actor, Randeep Hooda. Randeep had written, Dearest @aliaa08 Im so glad you are not letting the opinions of very occasional actors and chronic victims affect you and your work .. kudos to you for your continued efforts to outdo yourself. Alia baby ko bachane ko nepotism gang ki khud ki himmat nahin toh tujhko aage kiya, I know during film Ungli what u did, kitna harass kiya tune Kangana ko aur kitna bada chatukar hai tu Karan Johar ka....(contd) @RandeepHooda Rangoli Chandel (@Rangoli_A) April 16, 2019 In a now deleted tweet, Soni had written that it was her husband who gave Kangana a break in Bollywood, and wondered what her personal agenda was. Shed written, according to Indian Express, Mahesh Bhatt is the man who has given her a break she goes on to attack his wife and daughter. Daughter over and over again. What is left to be said then about abusing and hatred I wonder. Apart from character of course. Agenda ? Whats hers ? Fibre rollout continues, but how do operators deal with the tricky business of bringing fibre to nations made up of many islands? Recent announcements from Indonesia and the Maldives may help to answer this question. Recent reports from Indonesia indicate that mobile operator XL Axiata plans to extend its 45,000km fibre-optic backbone network by a further 2,500km and to add 10,000 base transceiver stations linked to fibre for backhaul. Local press has reported that the upgrades are designed to strengthen data network services to customers. There will also be improvements to the 4G LTE mobile internet network outside the capital in cities such as Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. This is a country made up of over 17,000 islands; Indonesian coverage is not a simple task. The construction of this network infrastructure is supported by inter-island fibre-optic cables. Plans are under way to cover more remote areas or expand networks in Western and Eastern Indonesia. The eventual aim is that the XL Axiata mobile data network will reach more than 95% of the population. Fibre is also in the news in another island nation. Dhiraagu, the leading telecommunications and digital service provider in the Maldives, which boasts over 1,000, mostly uninhabited, islands, recently celebrated expanding its high-speed fibre broadband network to 75% of households across the country. Dhiraagu says it is the only service provider in the Maldives to have linked the country from north to south through a 1,253km-long fibre-optic submarine cable network, which is the backbone of the nations largest 3G, 4G LTE and fixed broadband network. The fibre broadband expansion project is part of an initiative to provide high-speed internet throughout the Maldives. Under the project, Dhiraagu has expanded its network from the capital city to all major population centres, connecting 58 islands with its fibre-to-the-home service. The Indian-origin student used a USB device to destroy the circuitry of 66 computers at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. A 27 year old Indian man, living in the US on a student visa, has pled guilty to destroying computers worth $58,000 or Rs 4,0,26,215 belonging to The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. Vishwanath Akuthota was a former student of Saint Rose where he earned a masters degree in business as well as one in computer information systems. Akuthota was arrested by the FBI back in February for destroying dozens of computers belonging to the college using a USB Killer device, which when inserted into a computer, quickly and repeatedly charges and discharges its on-board capacitors. "This process ultimately renders the host electronic device inoperable by damaging the port, hard disk, and overall electrical system," a US Federal Agent told Timesunion. On February 14, Akuthota entered several locations on campus and destroyed a total of 66 computers, numerous computer monitors and computer-enhanced podiums using the USB Killer device. The Verge (Via US Department of Justice) now reports that Akuthota pled guilty this Tuesday and faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and a term of post-imprisonment supervised release of up to 3 years. He has been in custody since he was arrested in North Carolina on February 22, 2019 and will be sentenced on August 12, 2019 by United States District Judge Mae A. DAgostino. The announcement of Akuthota pleading guilty to the crime was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith; James N. Hendricks, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Chief Eric Hawkins of the Albany Police Department (APD). Akuthota admitted that he intentionally destroyed the computers, and recorded himself doing so using his iPhone, including making statements such as Im going to kill this guy before inserting the USB Killer into a computers USB port, the US Department of Justice stated in a press release. Subscriber content preview By JOSH FUNK Associated Press GLENWOOD, Iowa The federal agency that manages dams along the Missouri River received stern criticism from several U.S. senators Wednesday during a hearing held in Iowa to examine the massive spring flooding this year that caused more than $3 billion in damage in the Midwest. The flooding and actions taken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has been bitterly criticized in the wake of the flooding, are the focus of the U.S. Senate hearing. Critics have demanded that the agency make flood control its top priority, though Congress would have to act to change the Corps' priorities. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE An industrial property at 4501 W. Marginal Way S.W. has sold for $3.5 million, according to King County records. The seller was West Marginal Properties LLC, associated with the Blaine family, which had owned the property for decades . . . Lenders look to investors to bail out grounded Jet Airways A day after cash-strapped Jet Airways decided to halt operations, the airlines lenders said they are pinning hopes on investors wanting to invest in the full service carrier. Jet Airways, Indias largest private carrier, stopped all flights after almost 26 years of operations, on Wednesday. It may now take to the skies only if a new buyer is willing to infuse funds into the airline, say lenders. The airlines closure put at risk 22,000 jobs, including engineers and pilots who were denied salary for months together. "Where is the government when so many jobs are on the line?" a Jet Airways staff asked. Employees of debt-laden Jet Airways, which stopped operations on Wednesday indefinitely, turned up today outside the Mumbai headquarters of the carrier that was once India's biggest private airline, to seek answers from the management on how they plan to pay the staff. "Gratuity, provident fund, nothing is being given. The labour ministry is not doing anything," the Jet Airways staff told reporters. In its statement issued in the morning today, the consortium of lenders said: The lenders after due deliberations decided that the best way forward for the survival of Jet Airways is to get the binding bids from potential investors who have expressed EoI (expression of interest) and have been issued bid documents on 16th April. The group of lenders want a new investor to buy up to 75 per cent stake in Jet Airways. The lenders said they are hopeful that the bidding process will lead to determining fair value of the enterprise in a transparent manner. On Wednesday, Jet Airways announced its decision to stop flying, stating that it is simply unable to conduct flight operations "in a manner that delivers to the very reasonable expectations of its guests, employees, partners and service providers". "Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going," it said. Jet Airways had already cancelled all international flights ahead of the complete pull-out. "The last flight will operate today," it noted. The decision from the cash-stressed company comes shortly after banks refused to provide it with an emergency funding of Rs400 crore. This came as a death blow to the company which has already been operating only a handful of its planes - five from a fleet of 123 aircraft till last December. In a communication to the employees, Jet CEO Vinay Dube said: We must also be realistic that the sales process will take some time and will throw up several more challenges for us, many of which we dont have the answers to, today. For example, we dont have an answer today to the very important question of what happens to us employees during the sale process. Airfares, meanwhile, surged and are expected to go up further in the absence of a key player in the market. Jet is saddled with a debt pile of more than Rs8,000 crore and owes vast sums to lessors, suppliers, pilots and oil companies. The carrier needs an immediate infusion of funds to get its planes back in the air and restore some of its key sectors to start generating revenue. The government, meanwhile, directed the civil aviation secretary to review the issues ailing the airline. On Wednesday, the ministry said it will hold meetings with airports and airlines today. The lenders, after calling for Expression of Interest (EoI), short-listed four potential investors: Gulf airline Etihad Airways, state-owned National Infrastructure and Investment Fund and private equity firms Indigo Partners and TPG. The bid process will conclude on 10 May. Jet Airways stock plummeted 30 per cent after the company announced plans to temporarily suspend all flights, putting passengers also in trouble. Jet Airways shares plunged as much as 34 per cent in morning trade on Thursday. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock fell to as much as Rs158.70 apiece, compared with the previous close of Rs240.50. Reliance looks to acquire iconic British toy brand Hamleys for up to Rs350 cr Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is in advanced talks to acquire Hamleys, the iconic British toy brand, as part of its efforts to expand its retail business, reports citing sources close to the development said. Reliance is said to be looking to acquire Hamleys toy business for anything between Rs250 crore and Rs350 crore. The acquisition, if the deal goes through, will be made through Reliance Retail, its retail arm. As a policy, we do not comment on media speculation and rumours. Our company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis. We have made and will continue to make necessary disclosures, RIL stated in replay to speculative reports. Reliance Retail is the franchisee that holds a licence to sell the British brands products in India. Hamleys was introduced in India in 2010 by Reliance Brands, with its first store opening at the High Street Phoenix mall in Mumbai. Currently, India has more Hamleys outlets than any other market. The acquisition of Hamleys will give Reliance Retail a global footprint and a captive market for its products. The loss-making Hamleys was sold to C Banner for 100 million in 2015. Reliance would be the third owner of the iconic toy business if the deal goes through. Founded by William Hamley as `Noahs Ark in 1760, Hamleys is the oldest and largest toy shop in the world and one of the world's best-known retailers of toys. Like other major toy makers, Hamleys too has been making losses for the past few years and its revenues have also started to decline. Hamleys moved to its current site on Regent Street in 1881. This flagship store is set over seven floors, with more than 50,000 lines of toys on sale. It is considered one of the city's prominent tourist attractions, receiving around five million visitors each year. The chain has ten other outlets in the United Kingdom and also has more than 60 franchises worldwide. RIL arm in JV with MOL to operate 6 very large ethane carriers Japans Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd (MOL) will acquire a strategic stake in six group companies of Reliance Industries for operating six very large ethane carriers (VLECs). MOL is the current operator of all the six vessels owned by RIL. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) through its wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Reliance Ethane Holding Pte Ltd (REHPL), owns 100 per cent stake in the six limited liability companies (LLCs), each owning a VLEC. Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd (MOL) and the LLCs have signed binding definitive agreements for a strategic investment by MOL and the minority investor in the six special purpose limited liability companies (SPVs). The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals. Post closing SPVs will be jointly controlled by REHPL and MOL, RIL stated in a release. Given MOL is currently the operator of all the six VLECs, investment by MOL will deepen our relationship with them and ensure continued safe and efficient operations of the VLECs. We welcome MOL as a strategic partner into the SPVs as they move beyond the current operator role to joint owner and operator role in the SPVs, PMS Prasad, executive director of RIL, said. This investment would enable MOL to add six unique VLECs, which we have been operating for some time now, as owners to its existing fleet of over 850 vessels which include LNG carrier, other tankers, dry bulkers, car carriers, ferries and coastal RoRo ships and cruise ships, Takeshi Hashimoto, member of the board and executive vice president of MOL, said. MOL has detailed knowledge about these assets having supervised the construction and delivery of the six VLECs and subsequently operating them since their delivery. We are therefore happy and look forward to use this strategic opportunity to be a joint owner and to significantly strengthen our existing relationship with Reliance, he added. Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd (MOL), one of the largest shipping companies in the world celebrating its 135th anniversary, provides ocean shipping services internationally. It owns and operates a fleet size of over 850 vessels and is also the largest LNG carrier in the world. MOLs fleet also includes other tankers, dry bulkers, car carriers, ferries and coastal RoRo ships and cruise ships. MOL also own container ships which are chartered by ONE. MOL is listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange and has a market capitalisation of about $2.8bn. Sadhvi Pragya joins BJP to fight Digvijaya Singh in Bhopal In a surprise move Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who was illegally confined to jail by the UPA government accusing her of religious terrorism, today formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party to contest the Lok sabha election from Bhopal where the opposition Congress has fielded its veteran Digvijaya Singh. "I have formally joined BJP, I will contest elections and will win also," Thakur said after joining the party. Thakur, who is out on bail, had joined the BJP only hours before her name was announced as its candidate, underscoring the BJPs attempt to bring the Hindutva plank at the centre stage of polls in the high profile constituency. While Thakur was an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts before being released last year after the NIA said it had no prosecutable evidence against her, she is seen as a deep saffron figure. On 2 December 2017, a special NIA court had dropped stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act charges against Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya, Sameer Kulkarni and other accused in the blast case. Six persons were killed and 101 were injured when an improvised explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off at Malegaon on 29 September 2008. For BJP, she can be considered as a good pick against Singh, who had called the 2008 Batla House encounter of Indian Mujahideen terrorists fake. Immediately after her name was announced as BJP candidate from Bhopal, Sadhvi Pragya told mediapersons that she is ready for the electoral battle ahead. "I have already begun my work. We are absolutely ready." Sadhvi Pragya had also highlighted that she is a local of Bhopal and connects with the people here as she has been in the city since she was 16-year-old. Speaking to Zee News previously, Sadhvi Pragya had said that she does not consider Digvijaya as a serious opponent and if she is chosen to fight him, it would be her honour. "I am a nationalist while he speaks against the nation," she had said. Also, Conrgess has not won from Bhopal since 1989. In 2014, the seat was won by Alok Sanjar of BJP with a margin of 3.7 lakh votes. Indonesian President Joko Widodo looks set for another term Indonesian President Joko Widodo looked set for a second term as quick count results showed a 10-point lead over rival Prabowo Subianto, who challenged the lead and declared victory for himself and claimed widespread cheating in the elections. With a clear lead in Wednesdays elections, Widodo declared victory in the presidential election to the worlds third-largest democracy but his opponent also claimed victory and complained of widespread cheating. Multiple quick counts from different election observers on Wednesday showed Jokowi leading at 55 to 45 per cent, indicating a 10-point lead over his long-time rival Prabowo Subianto, a former general. Unofficial results from private pollsters based on vote samples from the election also pointed Widodo winning about 55 per cent of the popular vote. While the official result will not be announced until 22 May, Widodo told reporters he had received congratulatory calls from 22 state leaders, including Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Widodo, however, urged supporters to wait for official results to confirm the win. Rival presidential candidate Prabowo appeared defiant and said his team had evidence of cheating and claimed to have won 62 per cent of the popular vote based on internal polling. We have declared (victory) because we got evidence of widespread cheating at the village, sub-district and district levels across Indonesia, he said at a separate news conference. Prabowo declared victory, standing next to his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, who looked more subdued. Prabowo had claimed victory in the 2014 election as well, before contesting the results at the Constitutional Court, which confirmed Widodos win. Financial markets surged early on Thursday on Widodos apparent victory, although gains were pared later. The rupiah ended the day up 0.3 per cent from the previous close, and the Jakarta stock index - at one point up 2.4 per cent - closed 0.4. Ryanair celebrated the launch of its summer 2019 schedule from Ireland West Airport on Thursday. Ryanairs Ireland West Airport summer schedule includes 13 routes in total, to exciting destinations such as Cologne (new) Milan Bergamo, Faro and Barcelona Girona. Consumers from across the West, North West and Midlands regions can now book their holidays as far out as March 2020, enjoying even lower fares. Ryanairs Alejandra Ruiz said: Were pleased to officially launch our Summer 2019 Schedule from Ireland West Airport. To celebrate, we are releasing seats on sale from 24.99, for travel until June, which are only available for booking on the Ryanair.com website until midnight Sunday (20 April). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com now and avoid missing out. Joe Gilmore, Managing Director, Ireland West Airport said: "We are delighted to welcome the start of our summer '19 programme with Ryanair which will see Ryanair fly to 13 destinations across the UK and Europe from the airport in what will be their busiest summer programme to date. "We are also looking forward to the start of a brand new twice weekly service to Cologne in Germany on June 1st which will be a great boost for tourism in the West and North West of Ireland. In addition, a season extension on both our Alicante and Barcelona services, which started earlier this month, will bring even more choice and low fares for holidaymakers across the West, North West and Midlands this summer." TV presenter Daithi O Se is calling on the nation to host a Tea Day in aid of The Alzheimer Society of Ireland (ASI). Alzheimers Tea Day, the charitys largest annual fundraising campaign, takes place on Thursday, May 2. The ASI need to raise 500,000 to provide supports and services to help families living with dementia nationwide. It is estimated that there are 1,929 people living with dementia in Donegal and for every one person with dementia three others are directly affected. The number of people with dementia is expected to more than double over the next 20 years to 3,858 in 2039. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Alzheimers Tea Day. This campaign provides vital funds for services, which include: nationwide day care centres, respite, home care, social clubs, carer support groups, Alzheimer cafes and the busy National Helpline. Last year there were 1,200 Tea Day hosts and this year the Charity is looking to double that number. Were looking for people around the country to get involved with local Tea Day events; in their homes, workplaces, schools, local community centres, parishes or somewhere special. The ASI is asking people to invite their friends, family, colleagues and neighbours to have a cuppa, a chat and maybe a treat or two. Become a Tea Day Host Register here: www.teaday.ie to receive a Tea Day fundraising pack. The pack includes: An A3 poster, An invitation book, A collection box, 5 books of raffle tickets, A bank giro Fun tips on hosting a Tea Day event. Registration deadline is Friday, 26th April. All funds that are raised locally stay local to support ASI services. 10 can provide an hour at an Alzheimers cafe for a person with dementia; 25 can provide one hour of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy; 50 can provide a session of Musical Therapy to people with dementia; 100 can run a social club for one day. Daithi O Se said he was elighted to support Alzheimers Tea Day again this year. "On Thursday, May 2nd we want the whole country to have a chat, a cup of tea and donate a few euro to The Alzheimer Society of Irelands Tea Day campaign to help provide essential dementia-specific services for people with dementia in Ireland. Alzheimers and dementia is a nationwide issue it affects so many families right across Ireland. It reaches across generations, genders and affects people of all kinds of backgrounds. So grab your kettle and host your very own tea to help raise much-needed funds for the Alzheimer Society of Irelands Tea Day on May 2nd. "You never know when you might need these services. Remember that no Tea Day party is too small or too big, so join the hundreds of hosts from around the country." Register for your pack at www.teaday.ie The Alzheimer Society of Ireland CEO Pat McLoughlin said: "The Government is not providing enough funding to deliver even a basic minimum level of supports and services in any county and we really need your support to keep our services open. The funds that Tea Day generates make a real and lasting difference to the lives of people in local communities living with dementia and their family carers. This year we need to reach our target of 500,000 to ensure our support services are maintained. We are grateful for all the continued support and we are delighted that Iceland are behind us for this years Tea Day campaign to help us to spread the word far and wide. Managing Director of Iceland Ireland, Ron Metcalfe said: "Were delighted to support Tea Day 2019. Iceland have a long standing partnership with The Alzheimer Society of Ireland. Over the last number of years, we have had first-hand experience of the tremendous work carried out by The ASI and know the importance of events such as Tea Day in order to raise much need funds for dementia services across Ireland. Erin McGreehan Local Election Candidate for Dundalk Carlingford LEA has called for funding to be made available especially for our small towns and villages so that the Council can introduce schemes to disability proof our towns and villages. She states that is incredibly unfair and inequitable that in many places, people with disabilities are prohibited from enjoying our towns and villages. Erin said: "Walking around our towns and villages we all notice areas that are not suitable for people who have disabilities; uneven footpaths, unsteady paving, inadequate kerbing or people parking on footpaths. People who are able-bodied and have all their senses dont realise the difficulties that these cause. "There are 643,131 people in Ireland living with a disability. Thats 13.4% of the population and these citizens a lot of the time are not permitted to partake in activities safely. This is unacceptable if you go into Carlingford, for example, the footpaths are unsafe and unsuitable it is incredibly difficult for some to navigate around the village." McGreehan added: "When people park their cars on footpaths they impede the passing of someone in a wheelchair or put a very dangerous obstacle in place for someone who is visually impaired, I think when people start realising this they will stop parking on footpaths." The DFI Disability Federation of Ireland has recently highlighted that some Polling Stations are not accessible. McGreehan continued: "It is wholly unfair and incredibly wrong that there is still inequitable access for citizens of our state to use their voice and cast their vote." The DFI have highlighted areas of concern: Unity is high on the agenda for Sinn Fein ahead of the annual Easter commemorations across Louth, Cllr Ruairi O Murchu has said. The Dundalk South councillor is the main speaker at the Easter parade in Dundalk on Sunday, April 21, which assembles at Market Square at 2.30pm. Cllr Tomas Sharkey will speak at the Knockbridge event at 2pm on Saturday April 20, while Cllr Anne Campbell will lead a wreath-laying ceremony at Quay Street in memory of the Watters Brothers at noon on Saturday. Cllr O Murchu said: "Easter commemorations provide an opportunity, not only to remember the sacrifices of the past, but to reinvigorate the vision of the men and women of Easter week 1916. "These have been an extraordinary, chaotic 12 months in the politics of these islands, but Irish unity has become, in the past year, a topic of conversation among a wide variety of people in communities in Dundalk and further afield. "People are realising that, with unity, we have the opportunity to build a new, inclusive Ireland from two broken states. We need to continue to discuss and debate what unity means, how it can be achieved and we need to consult with everyone on this island to find the common building blocks for achieving it," Cllr O Murchu concluded. European Parliament Archives The European Parliament has called on both the government [of Cameroon] and the Anglophone separatists to seriously consider supporting the project of an Anglophone General Conference initiated by religious leaders [led by Cardinal Tumi] in order to organise an inclusive national dialogue on the conflict in the Anglophone region and possible solutions to the longstanding grievances. The call is contained in a document titled European Parliament resolution on Cameroon and dated April 16, 2019. It also calls upon the international community to help facilitate an inclusive national peace dialogue by offering a mediating role. They regrets the absence of will from both conflict parties to engage into peace talks; but urged urges the African Union (AU) to push for the organisation of such talks and calls on the EU to stand ready for supporting this process. The European Parliament considers that in the absence of progress, the crisis in the Anglophone regions should be put on the action agenda of the United Nations Security Council." The parliament condemns the human rights violation in the Anglophone regions and called for an immediate investigation of allegations of rights violation by Cameroonian soldiers. Cameroonian authorities (should) ensure accountability for human rights violations by the security forces and to conduct prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights violations, the statement. The EU parliament also called the immediate liberation of unlawfully detained civilians and an immediate end to the use of military trials for civilians and francophone courts for Anglophone detainees, as well as requested an immediate end to the practice of incarceration of convicted civilians in prisons far away from their families, on which prisoners in Cameroon have to rely for medical care and food. On the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, the EU Parliament called for the immediate release of Professor Maurice Kamto and his allies arrested since January and urged the government of Cameroon to respect the right to assembly. They write: Urges the Government of Cameroon to free all those arrested solely on politically motivated charges, among which opposition leader Maurice Kamto and permit protests to go forward, calls for investigating and punishing police violence. The European Parliamentarians enjoined Cameroonian security forces to exert utmost restraint vis-a-vis peaceful demonstrators. Expresses its serious concerns on the high degree of instability in Cameroon due to the persistence of several crises in parallel, deplores the loss of lives during demonstrations during the last months and expresses sympathy to the families of the victims; condemns the human rights violations and attacks committed by Cameroonian security forces on demonstrators and strongly defends the right of Cameroonians to peacefully demonstrate, condemns the crackdown operated by Cameroon authorities on peaceful demonstrators and members of the opposition, the motion read. They also launched a call for separatists to respect the right to education. Demands the armed separatist leaders to immediately direct their fighters and followers to halt all human rights abuses and to stop interfering with childrens education. Des soldats des forces speciales camerounaises dans les rues de Bamenda le 17 novembre 2017 AFP/Archives/STRINGER Many are taking refuge this Thursday evening around major streets in Bamenda II subdivision as a gun exchange frustrates activities marking the celebration of Holy Thursday, a Christian event The serious exchange has seen many hiding in nearby hospitals for safety, on an evening reserved for The Last Supper' of Christ Jesus, with his disciples. A journalist caught up in the exchange narrates how he was almost shot, if not of his professional badge that saved him. " I was lucky. I got caught up in the exchange along with some other guys at Commercial Avenue. As I speak now, I am in a hospital and I intend to sleep there till tomorrow, said the journalist who requested anonymity. " If you saw what we went through. We knelt on the tar road, surrounded by military trucks. The other guy was well tortured and I was threatened with a gun. I pleaded and told them I was a journalist. They asked for my professional card, he continued. After verifying his status, he was allowed to go. He then took refuge in a nearby hospital. No lives have been reported lost, as shooting continues. Meantime other parts of the town like Nkwen in Bamenda III and Bamenda I subdivisions, life is said to be normal. On Holy Thursdays in Bamenda and every where in the world, Christians gather to commemorate the Last Supper of Christ, when he established the sacraments of Holy Communion and Priesthood, prior to his arrest and Crucifixion. Its an important feast especially for Catholics and Presbyterians in Cameroon, as they prepare to celebrate Easter. Although some churches had pushed the hours of marking Holy Thursday from 6pm to 4pm, many were trapped in the gun exchange as it started at about 5.30 pm this evening. As a result of this Holy Week, a public holiday is usually observed on Fridays in Cameroon, a day after Holy Thursday, to mark the death of Christ. EBRD-financed Cibuk and Kovacica windfarms to start operations this year In the small town of Kovacica in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina a 104 MW windfarm will soon be finished. It will be Serbias second large-scale wind energy project, one for which the EBRD provided 48.8 million financing to the project sponsor and developer Enlight Renewable Energy. Less than two years after the beginning of construction, 38 turbines are now rising on the site in Kovacica. Another EBRD-financed windfarm in Serbia - the largest one ever constructed in the country and the wider Western Balkans region - is called Cibuk1. It boasts 57 wind turbines with a total capacity of 158MW, built in Kovin, also in Vojvodina, and only 65 km away. The EBRD and International Finance Corporation supported Cibuk with a 215 million syndicated loan. Cibuk windfarm is fully constructed. Both wind farms have started producing electricity and are now in the final phase before they can be officially connected to the grid. Green energy Every time a turbine turns, it produces enough electricity for one household for 24 hours and it turns 6-7 times in a minute. There is no CO 2 emission and this 100 per cent clean energy is the main benefit of windfarms, explains Tomer Nir, who works on the Kovacica project. It is estimated that the two windfarms combined will produce electricity for close to 180,000 households, while reducing CO 2 emissions by more than 600,000 tonnes annually. In Serbia, where the electricity supply is largely provided by ageing coal-fired plants running on lignite, one of the dirtiest types of thermal coal, reducing air pollution is a significant achievement. Thanks to these pioneering projects, Serbia is approaching its pledged objective set by the National Renewable Energy Action Plan which created a national binding target of 27 per cent share of renewable energy in overall energy consumption by 2020. Investment in renewable energy is at the core of our energy strategy. It is particularly important for the Balkan region, which until recently has depended heavily on coal for electricity generation. We are very pleased to see Serbia making such a strong commitment to renewables, and to have been able to support that commitment, says Harry Boyd-Carpenter, EBRD Head of Energy EMEA. The Cibuk and Kovacica windfarms are a breakthrough for Serbias renewable energy sector. The EBRD has worked closely with the government to develop and refine the regulatory framework for the sector and these efforts have unlocked the first wave of renewable energy projects, adds Zsuzsanna Hargitai, EBRDs Regional Head of Western Balkans. New job and knowledge opportunities Besides clean energy, these projects provide new job opportunities and knowledge which the country previously lacked. Zeljko uric, the director of Vetroelektrane Balkana, the company behind the Cibuk project, joined the company with a law degree from Cambridge University. Being at the forefront of this process was the most interesting side of it for me. Before, there were several smaller windfarms of 10 or so MW, but different legislation applies to them. We had to go through a lot of hoops to make it all work, explains Mr uric. Before Cibuk, it was a challenge to find a local expert in windfarms. The project has helped provide experience for more Serbian engineers. The government is trying to encourage education and a knowledge-based economy. Experts in environmental protection and legislation will be more and more required, as Serbia is transforming itself in line with the EU accession process adds Mr uric. Overcoming administrative challenges While the government is supporting the move towards renewables, administrative procedures for renewable energy projects are still developing. As pioneering projects, Cibuk and Kovacica are helping build the states administrative capacity to implement projects in this new sector. Mr uric says: We have to ensure first that everything works and then we celebrate! On a windy day! Cibuk is at the forefront of wind energy development in Serbia. It helped establish good practice which provided confidence to the authorities. All the initial doubts have been dispelled. Home of Late Baron of CPDM Menchum Whatsapp Few days after the death of Chuo Cyprian Akwo, Menchum I Section President of the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, CPDM party, unknown persons attacked and burnt down his residence in Wum. The news of this attack has been received with a lot of shock and condemnation from friends, sympathisers and family members, who are yet to recover from the passing of this politician and father. A group of armed separatists carrying out most attacks within Menchum known as Tigers, on Wednesday denied claims or links to the incident. In a statement circulated over social media they called the attack barbaric and promised to expose anyone who was behind the attack or who used the name of Ambazonia to perpetrate such act. However, the disclaimer came from one of the separatist leaders abroad. Same leaders had in several occasions declared they had little control over the actions of their soldiers on the ground. Last Thursday, the death of this senior staff at the Ministry of Public Health, was announced. He died at the Yaounde National Social Insurance Fund(CNPS) hospital, after a brief illness. Reports say he was rushed to the health facility from his home in Biyem-Assi early Thursday last week, before he later died. Before his demise last week, Chuo Cyprian had been distinguished severally for his role in development and participation in politics in Menchum division and beyond. In 2016, he was announced winner of The Guardian Post 2015 most devoted CPDM militant of the year. Chuo Cyprian, is said to be down -to -earth and a selfless elite who was animated by the fundamental will to do -good. Recently suspected separatists have warned all politicians who decided to boycott their calls for a boycott on Cameroons political affairs to stay away from home or face the consequences. Even those who die, their corpses are denied from being buried on home soil. Some family members have paid an amount of money to secure a safe burial of their love ones who served in these positions. The case of Late SDF MP, Honourable Banadzem Joseph is yet to see a greenlight, after family declared he would be buried in his home town, Kumbo, Bui Division. Before becoming a physician, I worked as a middle school science teacher in Newark, N.J. My students were constantly forced to navigate immense social challenges, including poverty and violence. However, I often found that the biggest threat to their educational success, especially those with asthma, was their inability to regularly attend school. After all, how could I teach my students if they werent in school to begin with? This spring, after some delay, the Environmental Protection Agency may unravel regulations on existing coal power plants, which has potential consequences for the environment and for human health. The connection to education, though, may not be obvious to everyone. When I think about the likely negative health effects of the rule change, one former science student of mine, who we will call C, leaps to mind. In August 2018, the EPA released a proposal to replace the Obama Administrations Clean Power Plan with the less-strict Affordable Clean Energy Rule , which would relax pollution standards for existing power plants. By the agencys own admission, this plan would lead to the release of more particulate mattertiny particles in the air that are known to cause and exacerbate respiratory disease. This could have a catastrophic effect on the academic success of students across the nation. Back to my former student, C. After my first few interactions with him, I was persuaded that he was set up to succeed. He was naturally curious, always attentive, and scored highly on his in-class assignments. It came as no surprise to me that he achieved the highest score in his class on his first test. But as the year continued, Cs performance slipped. He was still laser-focused in class and completed his homework accurately and on time. But from my vantage point as his teacher, the reason for his decline could not have been more apparent: C was simply missing too many days of school. C had severe asthma, and when he had flares of his disease, his breathing would be so impaired that he would struggle to get to school. Despite all of his giftshis curiosity, his work ethic, his ability to recall even the most insignificant piece of informationC could not overcome an overwhelming loss of instructional time. His respiratory disease, aside from harming his health, played a starring role in undermining his education. It was heart-breaking to watch him try so hard to manage the interconnected challenges of his education and health. The challenge of regularly attending school was not unique to my students. In fact, 8.4 percent of American children suffer from asthma , and about half miss one or more days of school because of it. Collectively, children with asthma miss nearly twice as many days of school as children without asthma , accounting for nearly 14 million missed days annually. Children who must visit the ER or be hospitalized to control their asthma are the worst off: They miss school at a rate that is nearly four times higher than children without asthma. Having seen firsthand the detrimental effects that asthma can have on a students academic achievement, I am concerned that the EPAs proposed rollback of the Clean Power Plan will curtail the education opportunities available to thousands of American students with asthma. In their coverage of the proposed Affordable Clean Energy rule, most newspapers and media around the country understandably have focused on the EPAs projection that the change could lead to an additional 470 to 1,400 premature deaths annually as compared with the CPP. But these headline figures dont include additional worrisome impacts of the rule. The EPA also predicted that the plan could lead to an additional 48,000 asthma exacerbations and 21,000 missed school days in 2030. If the ACE Rule goes forward, students with asthma across the United States stand to suffer. Not only would their health be detrimentally affected, but their opportunity to obtain a quality education would be severely threatened. Given the clear evidence of a link between the amount of direct instructional time and academic achievement , we have an obligation to ensure that all students in America are able to go to class as much as possible. The EPAs proposal works against that goal. If the EPA is truly concerned about the impact of its policymaking on the environment, human health, and the most vulnerable Americans, it should reconsider its rollback of the Clean Power Plan. The Trump administrations Affordable Clean Energy Rule would slow the decline of greenhouse gases, make Americans sicker, and curtail the education opportunities available to students with asthma across the country. The EPA can and must do better. If youre attending a full-time online charter high school, the chances are pretty high that the majority of your classmates are not going to earn a diploma on time. Nearly three-quarters of students enrolled in virtual charters are attending a high school where fewer than half graduated in four years, according to an analysis of the most recent federal data by the Education Week Research Center. Nationally, half of all virtual charter high schools had graduation rates below 50 percent in the 2016-17 school year. Thirty-seven percent of schools had graduation rates at or above 50 percent. Graduation data for the remaining 13 percent of schools was masked for various reasons, such as to protect student privacy. There are about 163 virtual charter schools educating over 30,000 seniors nationally as determined by the adjusted cohort graduation rate, according to federal numbers. Out of the 163 schools, in some states, such as Indiana, not a single virtual charter school operating in 2016-17 had a graduation rate over 50 percent in the past four years. In others, such as Wisconsin, the outlook for the graduating cohort in online charters was better. Only two Wisconsin virtual charters, out of 17 that had available graduation rate data, graduated less than half of their students for the 2016-17 school year. Source: Education Week Research Center analysis of EdFacts and CCD data, 2019 Online charter schools, which are run mostly by for-profit companies, have long struggled with poor academic outcomesfrom test scores, to academic growth, to graduation rates, to attendance rates. The most high-profile study, done by economists at Stanford University in 2015, found that students attending an online charter school made so little progress in math over the course of a year that it was as if they hadnt attended school at all. Findings such as that, as well as numerous media and government investigations into gross mismanagement of schools, has led some prominent charter school advocacy groups to start pushing for increased regulation of virtual schools. Education Weeks analysis of graduation rate data found that many online charter schools have graduation rates that have fallen below that 50 percent benchmark for several years in a row. Out of the schools we identified, about 100 online charter schools have been open and reported their graduation rates since the 2013-14 school year, which is as far back as the federal data goes for this particular type of school. At least 42 of those schools have had graduation rates below 50 percent every year through the 2016-17 school yearthe most recent year data is available. Ohio had 13 such schools, far more than any other state (although, we should note that the largest and most high-profile of these schools, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, has since been closed ). There were only four out of the total of 23 schools in Ohio where the majority of students graduated year-over-year. Are Online Charter Schools Driving Low Grad Rates Among all Charters? Among all charter high schoolsboth those that educate students online and in physical buildingsnearly one quarter fail to graduate even half of their students on time. Thats compared to 3 percent of all other public high schools. But while virtual schools appear to contribute to the overall number of charter schools with low graduation rates nationally, according to the Education Week Research Centers analysis, they are by no means the sole driver. The vast majority of charter schools graduating less than half of their students are brick and mortar schoolsonline charters make up about 12 percent. However, because virtual schools have the capacity to enroll large numbers of students, they account for roughly a quarter of all students attending charter schools with graduation rates below 50 percent. Virtual charter school management companies and advocates contend that many of the students who opt to attend these schools are doing so because they have struggled in more traditional schools and are often academically behind. But some experts question whether online education is the best environment for students who are already academically struggling. While virtual charter school advocates say the schools enroll large portions of credit-deficient students, very few online charter schools were labeled as alternative schools in the federal data. Generally speaking, alternative schools are set up specifically to serve students at risk of failing in a more traditional school. However, that designation is not uniformly applied among states when reporting data to the federal government. Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 17) Nedbank and EE Publishers are hosting a morning seminar on: Ensuring a just energy transition in South Africa. DATE: 7 May 2019 TIME: Breakfast: 09h00 to 10h00; Seminar 10h00 to 13h30; Lunch and refreshments: 13h30 to 14h30 VENUE: Nedbank Main Auditorium, 135 Rivonia Road, Sandton, Johannesburg PARKING: Ample parking is available COST: R150 pp (inc VAT) payable at the door (cash or credit card) The seminar covers the need for a just energy transition in South Africa to ensure environmental sustainability and reduce the carbon intensity of South Africa issues of job creation, education, training, re-skilling and geo-location of clean energy resources for maximum impact and least cost. Click here to book your seat at any of the seminars Click here to book sponsorship opportunities at the seminars Chairman: Thabang Chiloane Presenters Prof. Mark Swilling Zwelinzima Vavi Dr Roediger Lotz Mike Levington Thabang Chiloane Mr. Thabang Chiloane is currently the divisional executive for the Nedbank Group Strategic Relations & Public Affairs division Thabang Chiloane is a well-experienced communication professional whose work in government has provided him with innumerable contacts and invaluable understanding and insights into the working of government. Between 2006 and 2008, Chiloane was in charge of communications for the deputy president of South Africa. Earlier in his career, he headed up communications for the Kwazulu-Natal Provincial Government, the National Department of Housing and the Kwazulu-Natal Department of Transport. He also spent two years as director, news service at the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS). A graduate of the Argus School of Journalism, Thabang also has a Bachelor of Communications degree from the Charles Sturt University in Australia, and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Regenesys Business School in Johannesburg. Thabang serves as a Member of the Council of the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) representing Organised Commerce and Industry. He also chairs the Information Communication, Technology and Governance Committee. He also serves on the Council Executive Committee, Audit Committee, Planning and Resources Committee and the Student Services Council at TUT. Thabangs journalism experience includes stints with Pretoria News and the SABC, where he won the African Journalist of the Year award in 1999. His current work in the private sector at Nedbank completes the proverbial circle. He has no personal investments in the energy space and thus not conflicted. Prof. Mark Swilling Since 1 January 2019, Prof. Mark Swilling has served as Chairman of the Board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), after having been appointed an Independent Non-Executive Director in August 2014. Since 2015, Prof. Swilling has been Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University, and since 2003, he has been Professor of Sustainable Development in the School of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University. From 1998 to 2003, Prof. Swilling was an Executive Director of the Spier Group of Companies, and from 1993 to 1997, he was Director and Professor at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management at University of the Witwatersrand. Prof. Swilling holds a PhD from the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick (1994); an Honours degree from the Department of Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand (1983); and Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (1981). Since 2007, Prof. Swilling has been a member of the International Resource Panel (convened by UN Environment), and an Edward P. Bass Distinguished Environmental Scholar for 2018, Yale University, USA. He is a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Sheffield and Utrecht, and in 2010 he received the Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award for best contribution to sustainability in leadership education. With Eve Annecke, Prof. Swilling is co-author of Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World, and his next book is The Sustainability Age: Just Transitions in a Complex World (2019). Zwelinzima Vavi Zwelinzima Joseph Vavi was born on 20 December 1962 on a farm in Hanover, Northern Cape, the 10th child in a family of 12. He was a child labourer, working on neighbouring farms. He matriculated in 1983 and attended Maritaaz Technical College where he obtained a secretarial qualification. Vavis career in the labour movement started in 1984 when he was working as a clerk on the Uranium plant of Vaal Reefs no 8 shaft, where he joined the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) as an organizer in 1987. Subsequently, he was fired from AngloGold following a massive miners strike. He then joined Congress of the South African Trade Unions (COSATU) as a volunteer in 1988. From 1988 to 1992, he was the regional secretary of COSATU in Western Transvaal. From 1990 to 1992, he was an interim Chair of COSATU in Vaal Triangle sub-region. He also served as COSATUs deputy general secretary from 1993 to 1999. From 1999 to 2015, he served as the General Secretary of COSATU. He served on the International Labour Organisations (ILO) Commission on globalisation. In 1999, Vavi succeeded Mbhazima Shilowa, former the Gauteng Premier, as general secretary of COSATU. In May 2010, the African National Congress (ANC) threatened to charge Vavi with ill-discipline. He has been critical of the ANC and governments economic policies especially the 1996 Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy. In August 2013, Vavi was suspended by COSATU, and in 2015, Vavi spoke out against the expulsion of National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the biggest union in the COSATU federation. NUMSA was expelled for allegedly contravening COSATUs constitution. In March 2015, the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of COSATU voted vote to expel Vavi, his support for NUMSA being one of the major factors contributing to his expulsion. Vavi subsequently formed the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), of which NUMSA is its biggest member union. Vavi currently serves as General Secretary of SAFTU. Dr Ruediger Lotz Dr Ruediger Lotz is Deputy Head of Mission and Head of the Economics and Global Issues Department at the German Embassy, Pretoria, South Africa. He entered the German diplomatic service in 1993. Since then he has worked in various fields both within the Federal Foreign Office in Germany and abroad. From 2013 to 2016, Dr Lotz was head of the Ministrys Department for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Prior to this, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Colombia, Austria (OSCE), Afghanistan and Serbia. He also was assigned to the UN mission in Kosovo, the International Civilian Office in Kosovo and the office of the European Union special representative in Northern Macedonia. Before coming to South Africa, Dr Lotz was posted to the German Embassy Ankara, Turkey, where he held the position of Head of the Embassys Economic Section. At the same time, he was Germanys Regional Coordinator for Refugees and Migration, following refugee-related issues in all countries from Greece to Pakistan. Dr Lotz studied law in Berlin, Lausanne and Leon, and holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government. His PhD thesis covered legal regulations for Dismissals in Labor Law in Germany and Spain, respectively. Besides German, he speaks four other languages: English, French, Spanish and Serbian. Dr Lotz is married and has two children. Mike Levington Mike Levington has over 25 years experience of structuring and marketing commodity and energy transactions in London, New York and South Africa. In 1998, he became head of commodities for Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), a leading South African investment bank. Within that portfolio, Mike was also responsible for managing RMBs interest in Nufcor International Ltd, and the Marketplace Company, a company that specialised in establishing electricity markets and managed the New Zealand and Singapore wholesale electricity markets. Mike established an energy practice for RMB that advised clients, including large corporates and BEE companies, which were interested in investigating opportunities in the South African energy sector. In 2005, he became chief investment officer of Worldwide African Investment Holdings (now Phembani Holdings), a leading BEE investment house that focused on the sub-Saharan energy space. He successfully implemented Worldwides entry into the coal-mining sector, and served for a number of years on the Coal Industry Task Team (CITT), a committee representing stakeholders in the coal mining and beneficiation sector. In 2008, Mike established Navitas Holdings (Pty) Ltd as a general energy investment holding company that is the 100% owner of Kabi Energy (Pty) Ltd, a black-owned and controlled renewable energy development and investment company. Mike been heavily involved in the South African energy sector. Until April 2017, after 3 years as interim CEO and vice chair of the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA), mike chaired its Green Economy Working Group. He also served as a board member of the South African Renewable Energy Council (SAREC) until April 2017. Mike has also represented the solar PV industry on a number of stakeholder working groups as a member of: Expert Reference Group (ERG) for the SIP8 and SIP10 Strategic Environmental Assessment processes. BUSA Energy Task Team making input to the Eskom War Room in 2015 NEDLAC Business Energy Task Team. Ministerial Advisory Council for Energy (MACE), and chairman of the MACE IRP Working Group making recommendations to Minister Joemat-Petterssen on the 2016 Update to IRP. BRICS Energy and Green Economy Working Group. IDC / SANEDI / SAPVIA / SAWEA Steering Committee for the Battery Energy Storage for Solar PV and Wind, to establish the pathway for battery storage to be introduced into South Africa. Related Articles In the future, contact lenses should be able to release medication over time and still be comfortable to wear. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP are currently working with Israeli and German partners to develop contact lenses that specifically release drugs. To keep the active ingredient longer in the eye, it is encapsulated in liposomes and bound to the contact lenses. When eye diseases are treated topically often only about five percent of the drug has an effect on the eye tissue. The German-Israeli research team would therefore like to use contact lenses as a transport system for active substances in order to prolong the contact time of the drug with the tissue in the eye. This system could be used, for example, to relieve pain, improve wound healing and protect the cornea. However, there are a lot of requirements: the active ingredient must be released for as long as possible, the contact lens needs to have excellent lubricating properties and all components must be biologically inert. There is currently no such application system on the market that meets all of these requirements. Liposomes release active ingredients over time The Israeli partner company EyeYon Medical has already developed drug-administering contact lenses that ensure longer residence times of the active substances. Nahum Ferera, CEO of EyeYon Medical, explains: These contact lenses release the drug for approximately 20 minutes. When eye drops are used, only 4 percent of the active ingredient generally reaches its target. We would like to extend this length of time as well as the bioavailability. According to some studies, up to 30 percent of all contact lens wearers complain that wearing contact lenses is generally uncomfortable. With the help of the Fraunhofer IAP and the other partners, we want to improve both parameters - the release time of the drug and wearing comfort. The goal of the German-Israeli research team is to coat the inside of the contact lens with liposomes that carry a drug and release it over time. The liposomes are produced at the Weizmann Institute of Science by a research group led by Prof. Jacob Klein and Dr. Ronit Goldberg. However, the use of liposomes is not the only strategy for optimizing contact lenses. Sugar to enhance comfort Sugars play a key role in this project, explains Dr. Ruben R. Rosencrantz, who heads up the project at the Fraunhofer IAP. Sugars act as lubricants at different locations in our bodies. In the eyes mucous layer, for example, they enable the eyelid to glide smoothly. In order to achieve precisely this effect with contact lenses, we at the Fraunhofer IAP have developed polymers with a high sugar content, so-called glycopolymers. They coat the entire surface of the contact lens, but they can also be structural components of the liposomes carrying the drug. The glycopolymer coating on the contact lens is being developed by the German company Surflay Nanotec. On track to becoming a marketable medical device The five partners and two subcontractors DendroPharm GmbH and Nextar Chempharma Solutions are working closely with one another in obtaining an approved medical device. The three-year project will run until July 2021. The researchers must also ensure that all of the components are biocompatible. Biocompatibility tests are being carried out at the Rostock University Medical Center. The two subcontractors are also checking whether all system components have been manufactured in accordance with GMP (good manufacturing practice) guidelines, a kind of quality seal for the pharmaceutical and medical industries. The project is receiving around one million euros in funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Bells to ring for Notre Dame The bells at Cathedral Isle of Man and St. George's Church will ring out for seven minutes at 7.00pm this evening. The French cathedral caught fire on Monday evening, and was not fully extinguished until around 15 hours later. Most of Notre Dame's roof was destroyed, as was the cathedral's iconic spire. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York asked Cathedrals and Churches across the UK and Diocese of Sodor and Man to toll their bells as a mark of solidarity. Des militants du MRC devant la Cour d'Appel du Centre getty images The Mfoundi High Court sitting in Yaounde has thrown out a suit filed against the decision of the Minister of Territorial Administration banning all activities organized by the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) from April 6 to April 13, 2019. The matter pitting the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) of detained Professor Maurice Kamo and the Minister of Territorial Administration opened on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 and continued on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 following the absence of the MINAT boss. When the matter resumed yesterday, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji Paul was represented by the Head of Division for Judicial Affairs at the Ministry of Territorial Administration. In their submissions before the court, the CRM demanded the annulation of an April 5, 2019 communique signed by Minister Atanga Nji prohibiting all public meetings and protests organized by the CRM from April 6 to April 13, 2019. CRM lawyers argued that Minister Atanga Nji lacked competence, violated form and the law when he signed the communique. They evoked the provisions of Law no. 055/90 of 19 December 1990 giving competence to ban declared public protests and gatherings to Divisional Officers (Sub-Prefects) who according to article 8 of the said law must sign an order prohibiting the public demonstrations thereof. CRM lawyers said if the protests were going to obstruct public peace, like the Minister claimed, the Sub-prefect should have explored other measures as stated in the law, either by changing the itinerary, provide an alternative itinerary or ban the demonstrations as a last resort. MINAT lawyers rubbished the CRM demands, stating that the request should be declared not receivable by the court bearing on the fact that the period April 6 to April 13, 2019 had long passed. After back and forth arguments with CRM lawyers describing the April 5 Atanga Nji communique as an ambush on Kamtos party, the President of the Mfoundi High Court ruled four hours after that the CRM request is irrelevant. CRM supporters describe the judgment as a true denial of justice. They wonder why a court seized before the date of the demonstrations, chooses to decide after the date planned for the demonstrations to declare that the request for cancellation of the prohibition act is now irrelevant. The CRM seized the Administrative Courts on April 9 in Douala and April 10 in Yaounde to reverse the April 5 decision of the Minister of Territorial Administration banning nationwide protests the opposition political party had envisaged from April 6 to April 13, 2019. Yakouba Mamadou, First Vice President of the CRM party said in a statement that instead of going frontal on the Yaounde regime, they have decided to seek legal redress to overturn Minister Atanga Nji Pauls decision. He went on to suspend an April 13 nationwide protest initially planned by the party. It is not known what next step Kamtos party will take, given that Yakouba Mamadou had called on CRM militants to remain mobilized and vigilant especially against those who are organizing a coup against democracy, peace and stability of Cameroon. Meantime, it should be recalled that the Minister of Territorial Administration Atanga Nji Paul had threatened to apply on the CRM the dispositions of Law no. 90/56 of 19 December 1990 which gives him the power to suspend or ban a political party should he be left with no other choice. First Isle of Man Graduate Fair is a success MTTV / Paul Moulton Several hundred students and graduates attended the inaugural Isle of Man Graduate Fair yesterday. The event at Woodbourne House gave graduates a chance to hear from a line up of speakers as well as exploring the benefits of working on the Island. Speaking to MTTV, Andrew Stewart says work will be started on making next year's event bigger: Media Grad Fair CRM Women's wing leader in court Twitter Firebrand lawyer and member of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (known by its French acronym as MRC), Barrister Michele Ndoki finally appeared before a judge at the Mfoundi High Court Thursday, April 18, 2019 for the first time since her arrest on February 26, 2019. Her lawyers had filed a writ requiring Michele Ndoki to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure her release unless lawful grounds are shown for her detention. She was initially supposed to appear in court on Thursday, April 11, 2019 but said she was informed late and as such could not make it. In front of the judge, Barrister Michele Ndoki made a demand for habeas corpus a plea for her immediate release. Her lawyers joined her to say her detention is illegal and arbitrary. Ndokis lawyers hold that her arrest was done without a warrant and she is being detained without a remand warrant. The state prosecutor pleaded for time in order to produce the documents justifying her detention, but would only emerge with the photocopy of a document titled titre de detention [remand warrant]. The joy with which the state prosecutor brandished the document was shortlived when Ndokis lawyers flawed him. He was asked to produce the original which was not readily available. After a spirited submission from Barrister Michele Ndoki, the presiding judge adjourned the matter to April 25 for the state prosecutor to present the original copy of the remand warrant as well as the warrant of arrest. The Vice-President of the Women Organization of the MRC (OFMRC), Departmental Secretary of the MRC of Douala 1 and a key MRC activist was represented in court by a legal team championed by Barrister Claude Assira, Barrister Kari Abdoul Bagui and Barrister Emmanuel Simh. Other lawyers at the Mfoundi High Court in Yaounde for the court hearing included Barristers Soup Sylvain, Hippolyte Meli Tiakouang, Richard Tamfu and a battery of others. The President of the Cameroon Bar Association Barrister Tchakounte Patie had demanded the release of Michele Ndoki who is one of theirs. After meeting in Douala on Thursday February 28, the Cameroon Bar Association condemned the arrest and called for a stop to the circulation of images on social media. The Bar further appointed three lawyers, Barristers Onana Desire, Mang Mayi and Ashu Egbe, to defend them. They have since been meeting to deeply examine the matter, leading them to file for habeas corpus. In a statement signed in Strasbourg on 26 February 2019, Henri DJOKO, Secretary of the Regional European Federation of the MRC described the circumstances that led to the arrest of Barrister Michele Ndoki. She was seriously wounded by three-gun bullets fired at close-range by the regime's soldiers during the 26 January 2019 peaceful protest in Douala. Barrister NDOKI was immediately admitted into a local medical facility, where she was receiving immediate medical attention due to her serious condition, the statement said. It added that: She was later taken away to a family home where she continued to receive medical attention. While still receiving her treatment, she was arrested by soldiers loyal to the illegitimate regime in Yaounde today, 26 February 2019. It should be noted that, this new arrest of a lawyer of her calibre; member of the Cameroonian bar association and a prolific leader of MRC is part of a malicious plan by the dictatorial and illegitimate regime of Yaounde to dismantle the entire governing body of the MRC. This new arrest, and all those that preceded it, is in flagrant violation of the laws of the Republic and the international conventions that Cameroon has ratified. The MRC Europe vehemently condemns this new arrest and demands the immediate and unconditional release of President Maurice KAMTO, Barrister Michele NDOKI, Professor Alain FOGUE, Celestin NJAMEN, Christian PENDA EKOKA, Albert NDZONGANG, Claude ABE (VALSERO), as well as all the other leaders, militants and sympathizers of the MRC and other Cameroonians unjustly and illegally arrested and imprisoned without trial. Michele Ndoki was sent to the Kondengui maximum security prison on March 7, 2019 after she was presented before prosecutors at the Yaounde military tribunal for interrogation. She was held at the Special Operations Unit of the Police in Mvan for several days. At the end of her interrogation which lasted for hours in the presence of her lawyers Barristers Emmanuel Simh and Claude Assira, Michele Ndoki was charged with rebellion, hostility against the Fatherland, insurrection, hindrance to the movement of vehicles and persons and inciting a revolution. Greeks serve US for their self-interests Southern Cyprus leader Anastasiades expressed his sincere thanks to US government on lifting the US arms embargo on Cyprus. US senator Robert Menendez said the time is right for southern Cyprus to strengthen its bonds with Washington in light of new natural gas discoveries in waters off the east Mediterranean island nation and its partnerships with neighboring countries to bolster regional security. "FIND A WHOLE NEW DAY" Menendez also added after talks with Southern Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades that Cyprus can "find a whole new day" in its relationship with the US and the West. US governments attempts towards lifting the arms embargo were greeted with cheers by Southern Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades. He stated that he was welcomed senators statements. Cypriot government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou also said ties are enhancing, referring to proposed legislation Menendez introduced with Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fl. aimed at lifting a 32-year-old arms embargo on southern Cyprus. Prodromou said Cyprus works with countries including Israel and Egypt, serving US interests as ExxonMobil is engaged in a hydrocarbons search of the island. Gun attack on bus killed at least 14 in Pakistan A Pakistani official says gunmen have ambushed a bus and killed 14 passengers after forcing them off the vehicle on a highway in the countrys southwest. Unidentified gunmen killed 14 people in southwestern Pakistan after pulling them from several passenger buses, sifting through their identity cards and kidnapping them, a Pakistani official said on Thursday. 14 DEAD No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack on the passengers who were traveling on a coastal highway from the financial hub of Karachi towards Gwadar, the Arabian Sea port town where China is building a deep-water port. Southwestern Baluchistan province has long been plagued by violence and a stubborn insurgency, with several separatist groups and Islamist militants operating in a region that boasts vast gas and mineral resources. Security has improved considerably across much of Pakistan in recent years but Baluchistan is still plagued by attacks, a major source of concern for Pakistani and Chinese officials who fear it will disrupt plans for a transport corridor through the province as part of Chinas Belt and Road initiative. Baluchistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove said the dead passengers had their legs and hands tied and were found close to the town of Ormara, about halfway between Karachi and Gwadar. Terrorists offloaded 14 persons from different buses after checking their NICs. They took them and killed them, Langove said, referring to Pakistani national identity cards. Langove did not specify how the passengers were selected to be kidnapped and killed or their identities. Ethnic Baloch separatist groups say outsiders are exploiting the regions natural wealth at the expense of local people and have previously targeted foreigners and Pakistanis from other regions. Islamist militants have also singled out minority Shiite Muslims. Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the attack and asked for an urgent report. PM has directed the authorities to make every possible effort to identify and to bring the perpetrators of the barbaric act to justice, Khans office said in a statement. Pakistani media reported earlier that the militants had kidnapped the passengers from a single bus, although Langove said it was from six or seven different vehicles. Notre Dame fire reminds other losses in M. East While Notre Dame fell victim to accidental fire, landmarks in Muslim countries were deliberately destroyed by explosives. Mondays blaze at Paris Notre Dame Cathedral brings to mind other historic landmarks and treasures humanity has lost in recent years during civil wars in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. While Notre Dames roof and steeple fell victim to an accidental fire, the landmarks in the Muslim countries were destroyed deliberately by explosives. PALMYRA, SYRIA Terrorist group Daesh occupied Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, between 2015 and 2017, and destroyed many of its historic monuments. Daesh demolished Palmyras ancient Lion of Al-lat statue as well as several other majestic statues such as the first-century Temple of Baal Shamin, Temple of Bel, and second-century Tower of Elahbel. An oasis of immense history in the Syrian desert, northeast of the capital Damascus, Palmyra is home to the monumental ruins of an ancient city that was one of the most important cultural centers in the first two centuries of the common era. Standing at the crossroads of civilizations, Palmyra is expected to reopen to tourists this summer after extensive renovations. GREAT MOSQUE OF ALEPPO, SYRIA The Great Mosque of Aleppo, also known as Jami Halab al-Kabir or the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, is the largest and one of the oldest mosques in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo. Located in an ancient World Heritage Site, this jewel of Seljuk civilization is believed to be the host site of the remains of the Prophet Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, figures revered in both Islam and Christianity. The colossal mosque was first built in the eighth century BC. The current building, however, dates back to the 11th through 14th centuries. The 114-feet-high stone minaret was built in 1090, and was destroyed by the Syrian regime during fighting in the Syrian civil war in 2013. It has been under renovation since 2017. MOSQUE OF THE PROPHET JONAH (NABI YUNUS) MOSUL, IRAQ In June 2014, Daesh also destroyed the 1,300-year-old Mosque of the Prophet Jonah in Mosul, Iraq, which is believed to be the burial place of the Prophet Jonah. It is believed that the Assyrian King Esarhaddon (681-669 BC) also built a palace at the historic site. GREAT MOSQUE AL-NURI, MOSUL, IRAQ Famous for its leaning minaret, which gave the city its nickname "the hunchback," the al-Nuri Mosque was destroyed by Daesh during the 2017 Battle of Mosul. The 850-year-old historical landmark is currently going through extensive renovation. BUDDHA OF BAMIYAN, KABUL AFGHANISTAN Built in the sixth century in the Bamyan Valley in Hazarajat, central Afghanistan, 230 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of Kabul, two monumental statues of Gautama Buddha were destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban. Second phase of Indian general elections Millions of Indians are voting in the second phase of the country's staggering general elections amid a heightened security presence in Indian-administered Kashmir. Millions of Indians are voting in the second phase of general elections for 95 constituencies spread over 11 states and a union territory on Thursday. EVENTFUL ELECTION PROCESS Incidents of violence in several areas of eastern state of West Bengal have been reported. According to New Delhi Television, the car of a Communist Party candidate Mohammad Salim was attacked, as he was on his way to cast his vote in Raigunj constituency. Violence also erupted near a booth in the same constituency, when voters blocked a highway saying unknown miscreants did not allow them to vote, pushing the police to use batons, local broadcaster NDTV reported. The report further said a group blocked another highway in Chopra town in Darjeeling constituency over same claims. The police used batons and tear gas, and opened aerial fire to disperse the mob. West Bengal has recorded 33.52% voter turnout in the first five hours of polling, while northeastern state of Manipur has clocked 31.52% vote till noon, according to the countrys election commission. Chhattisgarh saw 30.53% and Assam 26.71% voter turnout, the election commission said, adding Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Puducherry have also crossed the 20% mark in the first five hours of polling. Polling also continued in two parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir. With the worlds largest electorate nearly 900 million the elections in India will be held in seven phases through May 19. The counting will be held on May 23, and the results are expected to be announced the same day. The ruling right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is the biggest contender in the elections, with current Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a second term. Spain goes to the polls Polls show 41% of voters uncommitted ahead of general elections. Political parties in Spain have kicked off their campaigns with mutual accusations ahead of general elections on April 28, which could produce unexpected results. COMPELLING ELECTION RICE Parties are looking for ways to persuade a high percentage of undecided voters 41% according to polls. While right-wing political parties are highlighting the Catalonia independence problem, the left wing is highlighting the rising right-wing threat. In previous elections, parties held more moderate campaigns for coalition prospects. However, 2019s campaign started with a declaration of red lines and strong accusations. After Decembers parliamentary elections in the southern Andalusian autonomous region, the conservative Popular Party (PP) established a coalition government with the center to center-right Citizens (C's) Party and the far-right Vox Party. It is expected that the three parties will maintain their alliance post-elections. However, polls published so far in Spains media predict that the total number of deputies of the PP, C's and Vox parties will not be enough consist majority in the parliament. The polls also show that the total votes of the ruling Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and Podemos Party will not be enough to put the leftist bloc in charge. Even though a coalition between PSOE and Cs would secure the majority to form a government, Cs has already rejected forming such an alliance. Cs leader Albert Rivera said "there will be no agreement, no matter what" after elections with PSOE leader and current Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, accusing him of buckling under the demands of "the separatist Catalans". Only a month after the general elections, the Spanish people will head to the ballot boxes once again on May 26 for the European Parliamentary elections, as well as regional and local elections. Trump offers condolences to Pope for Notre Dame fire Donald Trump said he spoke with Pope Francis Wednesday, offering his condolences and the advice of US experts on renovation following the devastating fire at Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral. Donald Trump expressed the US's solace Wednesday to Pope Francis for a fire that ravaged a major portion of France's iconic Notre Dame Cathedral. CONDOLENCES MESSAGE "Just had a wonderful conversation with @Pontifex Francis offering condolences from the People of the United States for the horrible and destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral," Trump wrote on Twitter. "I offered the help of our great experts on renovation and construction as I did in my conversation yesterday with President @EmmanuelMacron of France," he added. Trump spoke Tuesday by telephone with Macron and offered his condolences to the French leader one day after an inferno engulfed the Catholic landmark, destroying its iconic spire and part of its roof, and causing heavy damage to its interior. Macron instructed authorities to rebuild the architectural marvel within five years. Addressing his nation, Macron said Notre Dame's burning was shocking for France and the world. "The fire at Notre Dame reminds us that our history never ends and there will always be challenges we need to overcome," Macron said. Notre Dame was completed in 1345, and is regarded as one of the foremost Christian houses of worship. Every year almost 13 million people visit the cathedral, and its historical treasures including the iconic sculpture of Virgin Mary cradling Jesus' body, as well as its giant rose windows, and medieval furniture. The cathedral described as the symbol of Christianity in France by the Vatican hosts the Paris Archbishopric. PM Dion Ngute and Mrs Vera Songwe ECA Cameroon will ratify the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement, the countrys Prime Minister Chief Dr. Dion Ngute Joseph assured United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Ms. Vera Songwe, Wednesday. Dion Ngute gave the assurance on the first day of Ms. Songwes official visit to Cameroon, at the Star Building that hosts the Office of the Prime Minister in Yaounde, during a charged audience, ECA wrote in a joint statement with Cameroons Ministry of External Relations. Ms. Songwes maiden visit to Cameroon is intended to improve cooperation ties with the country on development issues with focus on macroeconomic policies for poverty reduction, job creation and economic diversification, the African Continental Free Trade Area and programs of the African Unions Agenda 2063. The African Continental Free Trade Area is more than just a trade agreement it is a recipe for engendering domestic growth, Ms. Songwe iterated to Cameroons Head of Government. ECAs Executive Secretary catalogued further advantages of ratifying the continental common market agreement, saying it would be a lever of investments, job creation and tax revenue. The big party for ratification of the AfCFTA will be in July so we keep our fingers crossed that Cameroon becomes one of the founding members by then, she went on. We stand to gain from the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement, Prime Minister Ngute concurred, while clarifying that his Government was getting all stakeholders to appropriate the agreement, and adapt Cameroons national laws and other legal instruments on trade with the spirit of the AfCFTA. This process, he said, would be completed before Cameroons two houses of parliament meet in session in June, just in time to conclude the process ahead of the July African Union meetings. Both personalities also explored the role of the digital economy in driving economic growth, job creation and in serving as anchorage for the continental common market itself. Ms. Songwe argued that Cameroon was a gifted country but needed to further develop the right telecommunications infrastructure on which the digital economy would thrive. The country could become a hub for world-class digital service provision given its important English-French bilingualism, which other countries on the continent do not have. The digital economy is very important for us and we are hoping with can leapfrog from 3G to 5G in good time, Prime Minister Dion Ngute posited, in response. After Ms. Songwe made the case for economic diversification and industrialization, the Prime Minister was quick to point out that industrialization is the hallmark of my leadership in the Government. He said Cameroon was going to overhaul its industrialization masterplan in order to reduce imports while increasing exports. We have the capacity and will put some energy into that, he concluded. His guest from ECA followed up on the question of the importance of beefing up the provision of energy to leverage industrialization. Ms. Songwe also underlined the importance for Cameroon to get aboard the digital identification revolution, taking place elsewhere in Africa, in other to give its less advantaged citizens opportunities to access especially formal education that holds the key to poverty reduction. The Resident Coordinator of the UN system in Cameroon, Ms. Allegra Baiocchi, who accompanied the head of ECA to the audience with the Prime Minister said the UN Country Team in Cameroon would pick up on the digital ID campaign and work with government to bring it to fruition in the country. She said the UN was actively supporting the Cameroon in pursuing the attainment of the SDGs and that creating jobs to stimulate growth was of prime importance. The first day of Ms. Songwes visit to Cameroon also featured meetings with the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations in Charge of Relations with the Islamic World Mr. Adoum Gargoum and the Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Finance Mr. Yaouba Abdoulaye. They discussed governance, the linkage between peace, security and development, improving the climate for doing business as well regional integration, with particular focus again on the AfCFTA. Before returning to ECAs headquarters at Addis Ababa, the visiting Executive Secretary would have met with Cameroons members of Government, civil society leaders and members of the private sector. US publishes map showing Golan as Israeli territory Trumps special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt posted a photo of the map on Twitter welcoming Israels occupation. US President Donald Trumps envoy has issued a new map showing the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as Israeli territory, just three weeks after Trump announced he would recognise the region as belonging to Israel. SCANDAL TWEET US Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, tweeted a picture of the new map with the words welcome to the newest addition of our international maps system after Mr. Trump issued a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Israel has long lobbied the US to recognize its claim over the Golan Heights, but all past administration refused to heed the calls. Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel occupies roughly two-thirds of the wider Golan Heights as a de facto result of the conflict. It moved to formally annex the territory in 1981 - an action unanimously rejected at the time by the UN Security Council. Cutting-edge discovery in the lab of Catherine Hunter, MD, from Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago offers a new direction toward treatment of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) - a devastating intestinal emergency that occurs in up to 10 percent of premature infants. NEC is a leading cause of overall infant mortality in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Hunter and colleagues found that a protein that causes pores in the intestine (called claudin 2) is increased in NEC, which makes the intestinal wall more permeable and allows bacteria to enter, which can result in sepsis or possibly death. They also found that they can prevent this process in an animal model by inhibiting a special molecule (called ROCK) that upregulates claudin 2. They used an inhibitor that is currently in adult clinical trials for prevention of cardiac injury, but has never been studied in intestinal disease. Results were published in Scientific Reports. "Now that we have identified a cellular mechanism that causes this life-threatening disease in premature newborns, we are pursuing a new potential treatment strategy to stop NEC in its tracks," says Dr. Hunter, a Manne Research Institute scientist and pediatric surgeon at Lurie Children's, who also is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Our exciting discovery brings us closer to solving the complex jigsaw puzzle that is NEC." One of the theories on why NEC develops holds that in preemies the intestinal barrier is not strong enough to defend against bacteria that lives in the gut. Findings from Dr. Hunter's lab explain what makes the intestinal wall porous and vulnerable to bacteria, which causes inflammation and intestinal tissue damage characteristic of NEC. These insights will help develop treatments to strengthen the intestinal barrier in premature babies. The study used animal models, cell lines and human intestinal samples, which allowed Dr. Hunter and colleagues to confirm that their findings are relevant to patients. "In our lab, we always try to incorporate human tissue in studies, in order to see if our discoveries in animal models apply to people," says Dr. Hunter. "We are very grateful to families who participate in these studies with us. This is one of the important ways we can move forward in understanding NEC and developing treatment." ### Dr. Hunter will present this research at the NEC Symposium on June 2 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The conference, which brings together researchers and families, is hosted by the NEC Society, a clinician-family collaborative. Research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago is conducted through the Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute. The Manne Research Institute is focused on improving child health, transforming pediatric medicine and ensuring healthier futures through the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Lurie Children's is ranked as one of the nation's top children's hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. It is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Last year, the hospital served more than 212,000 children from 49 states and 51 countries. BINGHAMTON, NY - A newly proposed system of measurement known as the community sustainability assessment system, or CSAS, could be used to define what it means to be a sustainable community as well as evaluate the impact of individual communities on global sustainability, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. An interdisciplinary team that included Pamela Mischen, associate professor of public administration, Carl Lipo, professor of anthropology, and George Homsy, assistant professor of public administration reviewed existing literature about current sustainability assessment systems, and found that a clear definition of "sustainability" was lacking. "This lack of definition makes it difficult to measure the extent to which communities are sustainable or compare sustainability across communities, and then implement proper actions or legislation," wrote the researchers. "Current sustainability assessment systems generalize the sustainability efforts of communities and do not recognize each specific need, thereby making it impossible to deliver a full evaluation." The researchers felt a need to develop a classification system that can be used to comprehensively assess how different factors influence sustainability and determine communities' specific strengths and weaknesses. This led them to their proposal of CSAS to more clearly define sustainability and establish criteria for selecting a set of metrics to measure community sustainability. According to this research, the definition of sustainable communities must address three pillars: economic vitality, environmental quality and social equity. A sustainable community is one that shares resources strategically among its citizens and institutions to support the community's well-being, while not negatively affecting the use of these resources by future generations or other communities, wrote the researchers. A multi-level approach is suggested for measuring sustainability, beginning by looking at the neighborhood, then the region and then continuing up through greater levels. This tiered approach allows researchers and policymakers to determine an appropriate plan of action for each community's specific needs, within the context of their living situation. The team's next steps include working on a specific set of metrics and typology for sustainable communities to be applied within the United States. "Most people have heard the saying - 'Think Globally, Act Locally.' This research helps bridge the gap between the global and local and emphasizes that action needs to occur at many scales," said Mischen. "Once we have a sustainable communities typology, we'll be able to engage in discussions about appropriate sustainability policies. Different communities have different sustainability challenges. Communities need to invest in sustainability policies and programs that make the most sense for the challenges they have." ### Other Binghamton researchers from the following disciplines were involved: environmental studies, geography, geology, biology, economics and electrical engineering. These include: Robert Holahan, Valerie Imbruce, Andreas Pape, Weixing Zhu, Joseph Graney, Ziang Zhang, Louisa M. Holmes and Manuel Reina. The paper, "A Foundation for Measuring Community Sustainability," was published in Sustainability. Is honesty the best policy when it comes to being green? It just might be, according to a new paper by Michel Magnan, a professor of accountancy at the John Molson School of School of Business. In their article for Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Magnan and co-author Hani Tadros of Elon University in North Carolina looked at 78 US firms in environmentally sensitive industries from 1997 to 2010. They wanted to deepen their understanding of the driving forces behind the firms' disclosure of their environmental practices and management. "There is tension out there," says Magnan, the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair in Corporate Governance. "Many people are skeptical and will adopt a cynical perspective regarding what corporations choose to disclose." With public trust in business in general decline, it may be natural to assume that most firms are padding their numbers or deciding to obscure their environmental behaviour. But Magnan says he has found that that is not the case. Many are keenly aware of growing environmental concerns among members of the public, including investors and consumers of their products. In response, some are quite literally cleaning up their act. What is said vs. what is done The researchers separated the firms they studied into two groups based on the data they collected, including public information and the firms' annual disclosure reports and regulatory filings. The companies whose environmental performance scored positively when compared to existing government regulations (meaning they respected guidelines on pollution, emissions and so on) were designated "high performers." Those that did poorly were designated "low performers." "High- and low-performing firms will adopt different patterns when it comes to disclosure," explains Magnan. "High performers will provide more information because they are doing well and want to convey that message to their various stakeholders. Poor performers, meanwhile, will try to manage impressions in some way." The researchers paid close attention to the usefulness of the information firms disclosed. They preferred data that was objectively verifiable and quantitative -- they called that "hard" information. "Soft" information generally consisted of vague statements, unattached to specifics. They found that high-performing corporations were more likely to disclose hard information because they could afford to be forthcoming. They were using their disclosure as a way of building trust and earning public goodwill, which pays dividends down the line. "If more disclosure raises your market value, it makes sense," Magnan says. Look for good, clean facts With stakeholders paying more attention to environmental issues, Magnan says there is added pressure on firms to come clean on their environmental performance. He sees corporate culture heading in that direction already. "Some firms will be more forthcoming because that is their governance model, and they feel that it is better to be forthcoming early on," he says. "The costs will be less, and it shows they are operating in good faith." Companies that engage in practices designed to obfuscate, deny or lie about poor environmental performances are likely to suffer serious consequences, he adds. "In the short run, that kind of behaviour may help you, but in the long run it may come back to hurt you. Everything becomes public at some point." ### Extracts from the seeds of the Ginkgo biloba tree show antibacterial activity on pathogens that can cause skin infections such as acne, psoriasis, dermatitis and eczema, a study at Emory University finds. Frontiers in Microbiology is publishing the results of laboratory experiments showing that the extracts inhibit the growth of Cutibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes. A nearly 200-year-old copy of a 16th-century text on traditional Chinese medicine, the Ben Cao Gang Mu, guided the researchers in their experiments. "It was like blowing the dust off knowledge from the past and rediscovering something that had been there all along," says Xinyi (Xena) Huang, co-first author of the paper. Huang, a native of China, began the project for her senior thesis as a biology major at Emory. She has since graduated from Emory and is now a student at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the antibacterial activity of ginkgo seeds on skin pathogens," says Cassandra Quave, senior author of the paper and assistant professor at Emory's Center for the Study of Human Health and the School of Medicine's Department of Dermatology. "This paper is just one more example of how much we still have to learn about the pharmacological potential of the complex chemistry of plants." Quave is an ethnobotanist, studying how indigenous people use plants in their healing practices, to uncover promising candidates for new drugs. "Our results give validity to the use of ginkgo seeds as a topical antimicrobial as prescribed in this 16th-century text," says Francois Chassagne, co-first author of the paper and a pharmacist in the Quave lab. Many hurdles remain, he adds, before ginkgo seed extracts could be considered for use in a modern-day medical context. In its concentrated form, the main compound that a statistical analysis identified as likely responsible for the antibacterial activity, ginkgolic acid C15:1, has been demonstrated to have skin toxicity. "One possible strategy in the search for new antibiotics would be to investigate ways to modify the structure of the particular ginkgolic acid tied to the antibacterial activity, to try to improve its efficacy and also to reduce its toxicity to human skin cells," Chassagne says. James Lyles, a chemist in the Quave lab, is an additional co-author of the study. The ginkgo tree, a native of China, is one of the oldest tree species, going back at least 270 million years. The tree is known for its distinctive fan-shaped leaves and its long history in traditional Chinese medicine. Modern-day researchers have studied ginkgo extensively in search of medical benefits for everything from memory enhancement to macular degeneration, but there is still "no conclusive evidence that ginkgo is helpful for any health condition," according to the web page of the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Most previous studies have focused on the ginkgo leaves. When walking across campus, pondering what to focus on for her senior thesis, a ginkgo tree caught Huang's eye. She knew that the tree was used in traditional Chinese medicine, although she did not know any details, so she decided to research it. Huang's interest grew when she learned that Emory has an 1826 version of the Ben Cao Gang Mu, or Compendium of Materia Medica. Considered the most comprehensive book on traditional Chinese medicine, it was compiled and written in the 16th century by Li Shi-zhen during the heyday of the Ming Dynasty. The original compendium is vast, encompassing dozens of volumes, but Huang had only seen greatly condensed versions that are sold in Chinese bookstores. Emory's copy resides in the Candler School of Theology's Pitts Theology Library. The 1826 version passed at one stage through a London book dealer. The unnumbered pages are block-printed in Chinese characters, but at some point were rebound into 10 volumes with covers labeled in English. Huang never imagined she would be touching such an old copy of the Ben Cao Gang Mu. "You can feel the history in it," she says. "The paper is so yellow, thin and fragile that I was afraid I would break the pages as I was turning them." A volume labeled "Grains, Vegetables, Fruits" described 17 traditional uses for the ginkgo seed, including eight for skin disorders such as chapped hands and feet, rosacea, crab louse-induced itchiness, dog-bite wound abscesses and pustules. Li Shi-Zhen recommended preparing a paste of ground up seeds mixed with rice wine or other alcohol, or by immersing the crushed seeds in rape seed oil. The paste could then be applied to the affected area. A previous study found that ginkgo seed coats demonstrated antibacterial activity against some intestinal bacterial pathogens. And ginkgo leaves have shown antibacterial activity on both some intestinal bacteria and on the skin pathogen S. aureus. Huang, however, wanted to test the information she had gleaned from the ancient text for the use of ginkgo seeds as a topical treatment for skin disorders. Skin pathogens are of particular interest to the Quave lab, which focuses on finding new approaches to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Huang gathered ginkgo samples for testing. Extractions from the seeds were processed as closely as possible to the recommendations of the Ben Cao Gang Mu, using either water, ethanol or rape seed oil. Huang and Chassagne conducted microbial experiments -- including the evaluation of ginkgo extracts from the seed nut, immature seeds and the seed coat -- on 12 different bacterial strains. The results showed that the ginkgo seed coats and the immature seeds exhibited antibacterial activity on three of the strains tested: C. acnes, S. aureus and S. pyogenes. Statistical analysis also found a positive correlation between the antimicrobial activity of the ginkgo samples and the concentration of ginkgolic acid C15:1, suggesting it was involved in the activity. "Our finding is still in a basic, benchtop phase -- these extracts have not yet been tested in animal or human studies -- but it is still a thrill for me to learn that this ancient story in the Ben Cao Gang Mu appears to be real," Huang says. "As a student pharmacist, this gives me more appreciation for the value of using ancient plant remedies to guide modern-day research." ### In a proof-of-principle study in mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine report the creation of a specialized gel that acts like a lymph node to successfully activate and multiply cancer-fighting immune system T-cells. The work puts scientists a step closer, they say, to injecting such artificial lymph nodes into people and sparking T-cells to fight disease. In the past few years, a wave of discoveries has advanced new techniques to use T-cells -- a type of white blood cell -- in cancer treatment. To be successful, the cells must be primed, or taught, to spot and react to molecular flags that dot the surfaces of cancer cells. The job of educating T-cells this way typically happens in lymph nodes, small, bean-shaped glands found all over the body that house T-cells. But in patients with cancer and immune system disorders, that learning process is faulty, or doesn't happen. To address such defects, current T-cell booster therapy requires physicians to remove T-cells from the blood of a patient with cancer and inject the cells back into the patient after either genetically engineering or activating the cells in a laboratory so they recognize cancer-linked molecular flags. One such treatment, called CAR-T therapy, is costly and available only at specialized centers with laboratories capable of the complicated task of engineering T-cells. In addition, it generally takes about six to eight weeks to culture the T-cells in laboratories and, once reintroduced into the body, the cells don't last long in the patient's body, so the effects of the treatment can be short-lived. The new work, reported April 10 in the journal Advanced Materials, is a bid by Johns Hopkins scientists to find a more efficient way of engineering T-cells. "We believe that a T-cell's environment is very important. Biology doesn't occur on plastic dishes; it happens in tissues," says John Hickey, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and first author of the study report. To make the engineered T-cells' environment more biologically realistic, Hickey -- working with his mentors Hai-Quan Mao, Ph.D., associate director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology and Jonathan Schneck, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology, medicine and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine -- tried using a jelly-like polymer, or hydrogel, as a platform for the T-cells. On the hydrogel, the scientists added two types of signals that stimulate and "teach" T-cells to hone in on foreign targets to destroy. In their experiments, T-cells activated on hydrogels produced 50 percent more molecules called cytokines, a marker of activation, than T-cells kept on plastic culture dishes. Because hydrogels can be made to order, the Johns Hopkins scientists created and tested a range of hydrogels, from the very soft feel of a single cell to the more rigid quality of a cell-packed lymph node. "One of the surprising findings was that T-cells prefer a very soft environment, similar to interactions with individual cells, as opposed to a densely packed tissue," says Schneck. More than 80 percent of T-cells on the soft surface multiplied themselves, compared with none of the T-cells on the most firm type of hydrogel. When the Johns Hopkins team put T-cells onto a soft hydrogel, they found that the T-cells multiplied from just a few cells to about 150,000 cells -- plenty to use for cancer therapy -- within seven days. By contrast, when the scientists used other conventional methods to stimulate and expand T-cells, they were able to culture only 20,000 cells within seven days. In the next set of experiments, the scientists injected the T-cells engineered in either the soft hydrogels or the plastic culture dishes into mice implanted with melanoma, a lethal form of skin cancer. Tumors in mice with T-cells cultured on hydrogels remained stable in size, and some of the mice survived beyond 40 days. By contrast, tumors grew in most of the mice injected with T-cells cultured in plastic dishes, and none of these mice lived beyond 30 days. "As we perfect the hydrogel and replicate the essential feature of the natural environment, including chemical growth factors that attract cancer-fighting T-cells and other signals, we will ultimately be able to design artificial lymph nodes for regenerative immunology-based therapy," says Schneck, a member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. The scientists have filed for patents related to the hydrogel technology described in their report. ### Funding for the study was provided by the Johns Hopkins University Discovery Award from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and funded by support from the National Institutes of Health (5R21CA185819-02, #1s10OD020152-01A1, 5T32CA153952-08,3T32GM007309 and CA2101732. Other scientists who contributed to the research include Yi Dong, Jae Wook Chung, Sebastian F. Salathe, Hawley C. Pruitt, Xiaowei Li, Calvin Chang, Andrew K. Fraser, Catherine A. Bessell, Andrew J. Ewald and Sharon Gerecht from Johns Hopkins. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201807359 LONDON, ON - In a series of studies from Lawson Health Research Institute, Western University and ICES, researchers examined the impact of Canada's only early intervention program for youth with mood and anxiety disorders. Results suggest that treatment at the First Episode Mood and Anxiety Program (FEMAP) at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) leads to improvements in patients' symptoms and functioning, access to psychiatric care in the most appropriate settings and fewer visits to the emergency department (ED). FEMAP is a novel outpatient mental health program that provides treatment to emerging adults, ages 16 to 25, with emotional concerns that fall into the categories of mood and anxiety symptoms. Treatment at FEMAP takes a patient-centred approach in a youth-friendly setting where patients receive care from a multidisciplinary team. For past FEMAP patient and research participant, Kirstie Leedham, the value of programs like FEMAP is clear. "FEMAP helped me to understand that there wasn't something wrong with me and that I wasn't alone in the way that I felt. I learned to cope and deal with things in more constructive ways that made things so much easier. Before entering the program, I had trouble finishing school, no job prospects and couldn't hold down a relationship. Now, three years out of the program, I have a great job, am married and own a house, which are things I never thought would be possible." Through a recent study published in Psychiatric Services, researchers found that treatment at FEMAP leads to improved patient outcomes. The study included 370 youth eligible for FEMAP services. Before beginning treatment at FEMAP, they were, on average, experiencing moderate depression, moderate anxiety and low satisfaction with their quality of health. They also reported poor functioning an average of 4.3 days per week. Of 370 youth eligible for treatment at FEMAP, 322 attended a clinical assessment. Seventy-one disengaged from treatment either before or immediately following the clinical assessment. The research team found that those who disengaged early had less severe symptoms than those who stayed engaged. Follow-up questionnaires were completed by 174 youth approximately six months into treatment. The research team discovered significant improvements in patient outcomes, including reduction in mood and anxiety symptoms, improved functioning and a higher quality of health satisfaction. "These results demonstrate the effectiveness of early intervention programs offering personalized treatment that adjusts to patient's needs and wishes. The data suggests our model is successful in helping patients manage their mood and anxiety disorders," says Dr. Elizabeth Osuch, Clinician-Scientist at Lawson, Associate Professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, and Medical Director at FEMAP. Another study by the team, published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, suggests that FEMAP improves patients' access to care. The team analyzed de-identified public health data from 2009 to 2014. They discovered patients treated at FEMAP were three times more likely to see a psychiatrist, had more rapid access to care and lower rates of ED visits when compared to patients treated elsewhere in the same geographic region. "Our results suggest FEMAP provides access to mental health care in the most appropriate settings by preventing ED visits, demonstrating the health system potential of this novel treatment program," notes Dr. Kelly Anderson, Associate Scientist at Lawson, Assistant Professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, and Adjunct Scientist at ICES. The research team is also investigating FEMAP's impact on costs to the health system. In a study published in Early Intervention in Psychiatry, they examined de-identified public health data from 2009 to 2015 to compare 366 FEMAP patients to a control group of 660 patients who received care elsewhere in the geographic region. They found that over the course of one year, FEMAP patients cost the health system significantly less money for inpatient hospital services, ambulatory services and drug benefit claims, and significantly more money for physician services. Overall the cost of FEMAP was less, but the difference was not statistically significant. "While the total cost difference was not found to be significant, these results might represent FEMAP patients accessing care in settings most appropriate to their needs," explains Dr. Ava John-Baptiste, Associate Scientist at Lawson, Assistant Professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, and Adjunct Scientist at ICES. "Increased use of physician services combined with access to a broader range of treatments, including psychology, counselling and social services, may make FEMAP a worthwhile investment." ### MEDIA CONTACT: Robert DeLaet, Communications and External Relations, Lawson Health Research Institute, t. 519.685.8500 ext. 75664, c. 519.619.3872, robert.delaet@lawsonresearch.com ABOUT LAWSON HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE As the research institute of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care London, and working in partnership with Western University, Lawson Health Research Institute is committed to furthering scientific knowledge to advance health care around the world. ABOUT THE SCHULICH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE & DENTISTRY The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University is one of Canada's preeminent medical and dental schools. Established in 1881, it was one of the founding schools of Western University and is known for being the birthplace of family medicine in Canada. For more than 130 years, the School has demonstrated a commitment to academic excellence and a passion for scientific discovery. ABOUT ICES ICES is an independent, non-profit research institute that uses population-based health information to produce knowledge on a broad range of health care issues. Our unbiased evidence provides measures of health system performance, a clearer understanding of the shifting health care needs of Ontarians, and a stimulus for discussion of practical solutions to optimize scarce resources. ICES knowledge is highly regarded in Canada and abroad, and is widely used by government, hospitals, planners, and practitioners to make decisions about care delivery and to develop policy. In October 2018, the institute formerly known as the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences formally adopted the initialism ICES as its official name. For the latest ICES news, follow us on Twitter: @ICESOntario The CRISPR Journal announces the publication of its April 2019 issue. The Journal is dedicated to validating and publishing outstanding research and commentary on all aspects of CRISPR and gene editing, including CRISPR biology, technology, and genome editing, and commentary and debate of key policy, regulatory, and ethical issues affecting the field. The Journal, led by Editor-in-Chief Rodolphe Barrangou, PhD (North Carolina State University) and Executive Editor Dr. Kevin Davies, is published bimonthly in print and online. See http://www.crisprjournal.com for more information. This press release is copyright Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Its use is granted only for journalists and news media receiving it directly from The CRISPR Journal. For full-text copies of articles or to arrange interviews with Dr. Barrangou, Dr. Davies, authors, or members of the editorial board, contact Kathryn Ryan at the Publisher. 1. CRISPR-Cas9-mediated editing to correct a kidney disease causing mutation A genetic disorder called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) can cause nephrotic syndrome in children and is a leading cause of kidney failure in adults. A missense mutation in the PAX2 gene, which encodes a transcription factor, was recently identified in a family with adult-onset autosomal dominant FSGS. In a new study, scientists from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research successfully corrected the missense mutation in PAX2 in patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This establishes a renewable source of the PAX2-/- iPSC cells with the patient-specific genetic background. This disease model makes it possible to dissect the altered molecular mechanisms causing FSGS and provides significant technical advances in studies into the role of other FSGS-associated genetic abnormalities. Contact: Susanna Tomasoni (Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Italy) 2. The Birth of Base Editing: Alexis Komor and Nicole Gaudelli (Interview) In 2013, graduate student Alexis Komor exchanged a series of emails with Harvard University chemist David Liu, her future postdoc supervisor, outlining potential schemes to engineer base changes in DNA. Komor led the development of the first base editor - a molecular machine that catalyzes the transition of a cytosine to a thymine nucleotide. Her friend and colleague, Nicole Gaudelli, followed that work by developing a companion base editor that can engineer adenine to guanine substitutions. In this interview, Komor (now an assistant professor at University of California, San Diego) and Gaudelli (senior scientist, Beam Therapeutics) exclusively share stories of the ingenuity, tenacity, and serendipity that spurred the development of these powerful gene editing systems. Contact: Alexis Komor (UCSD) and Nicole Gaudelli (Beam Therapeutics) Note: The audio of this interview was released in an episode of GuidePost on April 10, 2019. 3. Base Editors: CRISPR-based editing without the break (Review) The CRISPR-Cas system has revolutionized genome editing over the past 5-6 years, but a new method of genome editing - base editing - offers great promise in engineering precise base substitutions, without having to cleave the DNA. By combining enzymes that modify DNA bases with catalytically inactive Cas variants, nucleotide conversion can be achieved without the need for double-stranded breaks or a donor template. In a review article, Chinese scientists led by Jia Chen at ShanghaiTech University discuss base editing fundamentals, the development and the application of base editors, and the potential future usage of this transformative technology. Contact: Jia Chen (ShanghaiTech University, China) 4. A novel CRISPR-based method for multiplex site-directed mutagenesis Much of our understanding of gene function stems from the study of their mutated counterparts. Often, a PCR-based site-directed mutagenesis (SDM) technique is employed to engineer these variants. While these tools are efficient, they carry limitations, such as off-site mutagenesis, limited scalability and lack of multiplexing capabilities. In a follow-up study to work published in The CRISPR Journal last April, Eric Kmiec and colleagues use the same mammalian cell-free system to catalyze DNA fragment replacement using a CRISPR-Cas12a dual cleavage mechanism to examine the conditions that lead to gene/fragment replacement. Termed CRISPR-directed DNA mutagenesis (CDM), the authors produce molecules with multiple site-specific mutations and site-specific deletions in the same reaction mixture. The method, by comparison to SDM, produces fewer unintended mutations in the target gene. Contact: Eric Kmiec (University of Delaware; Gene Editing Institute, Christiana Care Health System) Also in this issue: 5. CRISPR at the Cinema An early review of Human Nature, the CRISPR documentary directed by Adam Bolt and produced by Elliot Kirschner and Dan Rather, currently playing on the festival circuit. Contact: Courtney Klotz (Managing Editor, The CRISPR Journal) 6. Chipping in on diagnostics (First Cut) Two members of the Feng Zhang laboratory at MIT, Omar Abudayyeh and Jonathan Gootenberg, discuss the recent report of a CRISPR-chip, a graphene-based field-effect transistor device for rapid and precise diagnostic applications. Contact: Omar Abudayyeh and Jonathan Gootenberg (McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT) ### CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The work of a science writer, including this one, includes reading journal papers filled with specialized technical terminology, and figuring out how to explain their contents in language that readers without a scientific background can understand. Now, a team of scientists at MIT and elsewhere has developed a neural network, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), that can do much the same thing, at least to a limited extent: It can read scientific papers and render a plain-English summary in a sentence or two. Even in this limited form, such a neural network could be useful for helping editors, writers, and scientists scan a large number of papers to get a preliminary sense of what they're about. But the approach the team developed could also find applications in a variety of other areas besides language processing, including machine translation and speech recognition. The work is described in the journal Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, in a paper by Rumen Dangovski and Li Jing, both MIT graduate students; Marin Soljacic, a professor of physics at MIT; Preslav Nakov, a senior scientist at the Qatar Computing Research Institute, HBKU; and Mico Tatalovic, a former Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT and a former editor at New Scientist magazine. From AI for physics to natural language The work came about as a result of an unrelated project, which involved developing new artificial intelligence approaches based on neural networks, aimed at tackling certain thorny problems in physics. However, the researchers soon realized that the same approach could be used to address other difficult computational problems, including natural language processing, in ways that might outperform existing neural network systems. "We have been doing various kinds of work in AI for a few years now," Soljacic says. "We use AI to help with our research, basically to do physics better. And as we got to be more familiar with AI, we would notice that every once in a while there is an opportunity to add to the field of AI because of something that we know from physics -- a certain mathematical construct or a certain law in physics. We noticed that hey, if we use that, it could actually help with this or that particular AI algorithm." This approach could be useful in a variety of specific kinds of tasks, he says, but not all. "We can't say this is useful for all of AI, but there are instances where we can use an insight from physics to improve on a given AI algorithm." Neural networks in general are an attempt to mimic the way humans learn certain new things: The computer examines many different examples and "learns" what the key underlying patterns are. Such systems are widely used for pattern recognition, such as learning to identify objects depicted in photos. But neural networks in general have difficulty correlating information from a long string of data, such as is required in interpreting a research paper. Various tricks have been used to improve this capability, including techniques known as long short-term memory (LSTM) and gated recurrent units (GRU), but these still fall well short of what's needed for real natural-language processing, the researchers say. The team came up with an alternative system, which instead of being based on the multiplication of matrices, as most conventional neural networks are, is based on vectors rotating in a multidimensional space. The key concept is something they call a rotational unit of memory (RUM). Essentially, the system represents each word in the text by a vector in multidimensional space -- a line of a certain length pointing in a particular direction. Each subsequent word swings this vector in some direction, represented in a theoretical space that can ultimately have thousands of dimensions. At the end of the process, the final vector or set of vectors is translated back into its corresponding string of words. "RUM helps neural networks to do two things very well," Nakov says. "It helps them to remember better, and it enables them to recall information more accurately." After developing the RUM system to help with certain tough physics problems such as the behavior of light in complex engineered materials, "we realized one of the places where we thought this approach could be useful would be natural language processing," says Soljacic, recalling a conversation with Tatalovic, who noted that such a tool would be useful for his work as an editor trying to decide which papers to write about. Tatalovic was at the time exploring AI in science journalism as his Knight fellowship project. "And so we tried a few natural language processing tasks on it," Soljacic says. "One that we tried was summarizing articles, and that seems to be working quite well." The proof is in the reading As an example, they fed the same research paper through a conventional LSTM-based neural network and through their RUM-based system. The resulting summaries were dramatically different. The LSTM system yielded this highly repetitive and fairly technical summary: "Baylisascariasis," kills mice, has endangered the allegheny woodrat and has caused disease like blindness or severe consequences. This infection, termed "baylisascariasis," kills mice, has endangered the allegheny woodrat and has caused disease like blindness or severe consequences. This infection, termed "baylisascariasis," kills mice, has endangered the allegheny woodrat. Based on the same paper, the RUM system produced a much more readable summary, and one that did not include the needless repetition of phrases: Urban raccoons may infect people more than previously assumed. 7 percent of surveyed individuals tested positive for raccoon roundworm antibodies. Over 90 percent of raccoons in Santa Barbara play host to this parasite. Already, the RUM-based system has been expanded so it can "read" through entire research papers, not just the abstracts, to produce a summary of their contents. The researchers have even tried using the system on their own research paper describing these findings -- the paper that this news story is attempting to summarize. Here is the new neural network's summary: Researchers have developed a new representation process on the rotational unit of RUM, a recurrent memory that can be used to solve a broad spectrum of the neural revolution in natural language processing. It may not be elegant prose, but it does at least hit the key points of information. ### The research received support from the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation, the MIT-SenseTime Alliance on Artificial Intelligence, and the Semiconductor Research Corporation. The team also had help from the Science Daily website, whose articles were used in training some of the AI models in this research. Written by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND PAPER: "Rotational Unit of Memory: A novel representation unit for RNNs with scalable applications." http://super-ms.mit.edu/rum-final-version.pdf ARCHIVE: New system allows optical "deep learning" http://news.mit.edu/2017/new-system-allows-optical-deep-learning-0612 A scientific breakthrough provides new hope for millions of people living with multiple sclerosis. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have developed a compound that stimulates repair of the protective sheath that covers nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The discovery, involving mice genetically engineered to mimic multiple sclerosis, published in the journal JCI Insight. MS is a chronic condition that affects an estimated 2.3 million people worldwide. In MS, the sheath covering nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord becomes damaged, slowing or blocking electrical signals from reaching the eyes, muscles and other parts of the body. This sheath is called myelin. Although myelin can regrow through exposure to thyroid hormones, researchers have not pursued thyroid hormone therapies due to unacceptable side effects. Although several treatments and medications alleviate the symptoms of MS, there is no cure. "There are no drugs available today that will re-myelinate the de-myelinated axons and nerve fibers, and ours does that," said senior author Tom Scanlan, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology in the OHSU School of Medicine. Co-author Dennis Bourdette, M.D., chair of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine and director of the OHSU Multiple Sclerosis Center, said he expects it will be a few years before the compound advances to the stage of a clinical trial involving people. Yet the study provides fresh hope for patients in Oregon and beyond. "It could have a significant impact on patients debilitated by MS," Bourdette said. The discovery, if ultimately proven in clinical trials involving people, appears to accomplish two important goals: Myelin repair with minimal side effects: The study demonstrated that the compound - known as sobetirome - promotes remylenation without the severe side effects of thyroid hormone therapy. Thyroid hormone therapy has not been tried in people because chronic elevated exposure known as hyperthyroidism harms the heart, bone, and skeletal muscle. Efficient delivery: Researchers developed a new derivative of sobetirome (Sob-AM2) that penetrates the blood brain barrier, enabling a tenfold increase in infiltration to the central nervous system. "We're taking advantage of the endogenous ability of thyroid hormone to repair myelin without the side effects," said lead author Meredith Hartley, Ph.D., an OHSU postdoctoral researcher in physiology and pharmacology. Co-authors credited the breakthrough to a collaboration that involved scientists and physicians with expertise ranging across neurology, genetics, advanced imaging, physiology and pharmacology. One patient said the research could be a "total game-changer" for people with MS. Laura Wieden, 48, has lived with multiple sclerosis since being diagnosed in 1995. The daughter of Portland advertising executive Dan Wieden, she is the namesake and board member of the Laura Fund for Innovation in Multiple Sclerosis, which funded much of the research involved in the study published today. "I am really optimistic," Wieden said. "I hope that this will be literally a missing link that could just change the lives of people with MS." Scanlan originally developed sobetirome as a synthetic molecule more than two decades ago, initially with an eye toward using it to lower cholesterol. In recent years, Scanlan's lab adapted it as a promising treatment for a rare metabolic disease called adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD. Six years ago, Bourdette suggested trying the compound to repair myelin in MS. Supported by funding provided through the Laura Fund and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the team turned to Ben Emery, Ph.D., an associate professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine. Emery, an expert who previously established his own lab in Australia focused on the molecular basis of myelination, genetically engineered a mouse model to test the treatment. With promising early results, researchers wanted to see if they could increase the amount of sobetirome that penetrated into the central nervous system. They did so through a clever trick of chemistry known as a prodrug strategy. Scientists added a chemical tag to the original sobetirome molecule, creating an inert compound called Sob-AM2. The tag's main purpose is to eliminate a negative charge that prevents sobetirome from efficiently penetrating the blood-brain barrier. Once Sob-AM2 slips past the barrier and reaches the brain, it encounters a particular type of brain enzyme that cleaves the tag and converts Sob-AM2 back into sobetirome. "It's a Trojan horse type of thing," Scanlan said. Researchers found that the treatment in mice not only triggered myelin repair, but they also measured substantial motor improvements in mice treated with the compound. "The mouse showed close to a full recovery," Scanlan said. Scientists say they are confident that the compound will translate from mice to people. To that end, OHSU has licensed the technology to Llama Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company in San Carlos, California. Llama is working to advance these molecules toward human clinical trials in MS and other diseases. Bourdette said even though it may not help his patients today, he's optimistic the discovery eventually will move from the lab into the clinic. "Right now, what it means is hope," he said. ### The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grant award DK52798; the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, grant awards 5199A4 and RG-1607-25053; the Race to Erase MS; and the OHSU Laura Fund for Innovation in Multiple Sclerosis. In the interest of ensuring the integrity of our research and as part of our commitment to public transparency, OHSU actively regulates, tracks and manages relationships that our researchers may hold with entities outside of OHSU. In regards to this research project, Tom Scanlan, Dennis Bourdette, Meredith Hartley, and Ben Emery have significant interests in Llama Therapeutics., a company that may have a commercial interest in the results of this research and technology. Review details of OHSU's conflict of interest program to find out more about how we manage these business relationships. ATHENS, Ohio (April 18, 2019) - Paleontologists at Ohio University have discovered a new species of meat-eating mammal larger than any big cat stalking the world today. Larger than a polar bear, with a skull as large as that of a rhinoceros and enormous piercing canine teeth, this massive carnivore would have been an intimidating part of the eastern African ecosystems occupied by early apes and monkeys. In a new study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the researchers name Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, a gigantic carnivore known from most of its jaw, portions of its skull, and parts of its skeleton. The 22-million-year-old fossils were unearthed in Kenya decades ago as researchers canvassed the region searching for evidence of ancient apes. Specimens were placed in a drawer at the National Museums of Kenya and not given a great deal of attention until Ohio University researchers Dr. Nancy Stevens and Dr. Matthew Borths rediscovered them, recognizing their significance. "Opening a museum drawer, we saw a row of gigantic meat-eating teeth, clearly belonging to a species new to science," says study lead author Borths. Borths was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Stevens in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Ohio University when the research was conducted, and is now Curator of the Division of Fossil Primates at the Duke Lemur Center at Duke University. Simbakubwa is Swahili for "big lion" because the animal was likely at the top of the food chain in Africa, as lions are in modern African ecosystems. Yet Simbakubwa was not closely related to big cats or any other mammalian carnivore alive today. Instead, the creature belonged to an extinct group of mammals called hyaenodonts. Hyaenodonts were the first mammalian carnivores in Africa. For about 45 million years after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, hyaenodonts were the apex predators in Africa. Then, after millions of years of near-isolation, tectonic movements of the Earth's plates connected Africa with the northern continents, allowing floral and faunal exchange between landmasses. Around the time of Simbakubwa, the relatives of cats, hyenas, and dogs began to arrive in Africa from Eurasia. As the relatives of cats and dogs were going south, the relatives of Simbakubwa were going north. "It's a fascinating time in biological history," Borths says. "Lineages that had never encountered each other begin to appear together in the fossil record." The species name, kutokaafrika, is Swahili for "coming from Africa" because Simbakubwa is the oldest of the gigantic hyaenodonts, suggesting this lineage of giant carnivores likely originated on the African continent and moved northward to flourish for millions of years. Ultimately, hyaenodonts worldwide went extinct. Global ecosystems were changing between 18 and 15 million years ago as grasslands replaced forests and new mammalian lineages diversified. "We don't know exactly what drove hyaenodonts to extinction, but ecosystems were changing quickly as the global climate became drier. The gigantic relatives of Simbakubwa were among the last hyaenodonts on the planet," remarks Borths. "This is a pivotal fossil, demonstrating the significance of museum collections for understanding evolutionary history," notes Stevens, Professor in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University and co-author of the study. "Simbakubwa is a window into a bygone era. As ecosystems shifted, a key predator disappeared, heralding Cenozoic faunal transitions that eventually led to the evolution of the modern African fauna." ### This study was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (EAR/IF-0933619; BCS-1127164; BCS-1313679; EAR-1349825; BCS-1638796; DBI-1612062), The Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society (CRE), Ohio University Research Council, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, SICB and The Explorers Club. This discovery underscores both the importance of supporting innovative uses of fossil collections, as well as the importance of supporting the research and professional development of talented young postdoctoral scientists like Dr. Borths, said Daniel Marenda, a program director at the National Science Foundation, which funded this research. This work has the potential to help us understand how species adapt or fail to adapt in this case to a rapidly changing global climate." For a copy of the study, please visit the Taylor & Francis Newsroom Embargo Area: https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/embargoed-releases/. Additional images can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/44tvz0kyo2b7ag3/AACnASnqSvpaSEZxZXvFl0y-a?dl=0. The article will be freely available once the embargo has lifted via the following link: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02724634.2019.1570222 [[IMAGES ATTACHED: The reconstructions attached were created by and should be credited to professional paleoartist Mauricio Anton.]] A new paper in the European Sociological Review indicates that women's and men's earnings are not affected by the share of female managers in an organization, nor by the sex of workers' individual managers. The past decades have seen a steady increase in women's representation in all levels of management. Women's access to management has been the subject of many studies which have led to insights on how gender inequality in access to power is established. Now that women increasingly occupy managerial positions, the question arises what the implications of the growing number of women in these positions might be. Managers play a key role in organizations and decide on the hiring, wages, promotions, and training of employees. As such, a change in the demographic representation of managers may affect inequalities among employees. Many studies have investigated explanations for the gender gap in earnings, but only a small proportion has concentrated on the influence of women's representation in management. There are reasons to expect that female may managers lack the power or do not have the motivation to enhance the earnings of other women. One reason for this is that female managers may not have sufficient power to significantly influence the earnings of other women in the organization. Female managers may often be stuck at lower levels of management where they do not have enough power to substantially affect the careers of employees. Researchers here investigated whether female managers contribute to greater gender equality in organizations. Specifically, they examine the impact of the share of female managers in an organization, and the influence of direct supervision by a female manager. The researchers used manager-employee linked data from nine European countries to test these hypotheses. The employees studied worked in manufacturing, healthcare, higher education, transportation, financial services, and telecommunication. The results indicate considerable variation of inequality between women's and men's earnings between departments and organizations. Nevertheless, despite the widespread presence of women in organizations there exists a considerable and significant gender gap in earnings. Women in the sample earn on average 7% less than men, regardless of the gender of their direct supervisor and regardless of the share of female managers in the organization. Considering a 40 hour workweek, the gender gap in earnings is about 104 per month (the equivalent of almost $118). Note that this figure is only adjusted for working hours and not for sector, country, educational attainment, job status and other organizational or individual characteristics. Women in management positions do not appear to make a substantial contribution to gender equality in earnings in organizations. While other studies, however, have demonstrated that organizational culture and policies greatly influence the motivation and opportunities of female managers to contribute to gender equality in organizations, these results show that women's and men's earnings are not affected by the share of female managers in their organization. "There are very good reasons to believe women should benefit from having a female manager, so we were surprised to find that this is not the case," said the paper's lead author, Margriet van Hek. "I believe the next step is to dig deeper into the mechanisms of how this occurs." ### The paper, "Are female managers agents of change or cogs in the machine? An assessment with three-level manager-employee linked data," is available (at midnight on April 18) at: https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcz008 Direct correspondence to: Margriet van Hek Postdoctoral Researcher in Inequality and Diversity Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands. M.vanHek@maw.ru.nl To request a copy of the study, please contact: Daniel Luzer daniel.luzer@oup.com Sharing on social media? Find Oxford Journals online at @OxfordJournals Researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Dutch Royal Academy's Humanities Cluster evaluated four state-of-the-art tools for recognising names in text, to assess and improve their performance on popular fiction. They find solutions to boost the tools' capability to recognise names in one novel from an accuracy of 7% to 90%. Natural language processing (NLP) tools are commonly used in many day-to-day applications such as Siri and Google, but the effectiveness of these technologies is not thoroughly understood. Researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Dutch Royal Academy's Humanities Cluster have performed a thorough evaluation of four different name recognition tools on popular 40 novels, including A Game of Thrones. Their analyses, published in PeerJ Computer Science, highlight types of names and texts that are particularly challenging for these tools to identify as well as solutions for mitigating this. In addition, they extracted social networks from the novels to explore differences in story structure. These insights can help make such technologies more robust against genre differences, and can help for example make this technology more useful to journalists wanting to analyse large datasets such as the Panama Papers. Many NLP tools are based on machine learning; that is, a computer program is trained to identify patterns in text based on previously fed examples. To recognise names in text, it is for example fed many newspaper articles in which humans have meticulously marked the names. The program is then tasked to 'learn' what a name looks like based on context (such as, it being preceded by Mr) or the shape of the word (such as that names generally start with a capital letter in English). Now, the problem when applying such a system trained on newspapers to novels, is that authors of novels have much more freedom in their narrative than journalists who need to stick to facts. Fiction authors can make up their own names, such as Tywin or R'hllor, or use descriptive character names straight from the dictionary such as Grey Worm. These names do not behave like 'normal' names, thus NLP systems have difficulty recognising them in a text. The experiments performed by Niels Dekker (Trifork B.V.), Tobias Kuhn (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Marieke van Erp (KNAW Humanities Cluster) also highlight the flexibility of language and how names are contextualised in stories. It is for example possible to refer to Daenerys Targaryen as Daenerys and she, but she is also known as Dany, Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi, the Unburnt and Mhysa. The social network created for A Game of Thrones, illustrates for example that Dany is used by her friends, and her full name Daenerys only by her enemies (in her absence). The research described in this publication shows that more attention should be paid to the performance of NLP tools and that there is still work to do before 'text' can be fully understood by computers. ### Images: Network visualisation showing that Dany/Daenerys is not close to other main characters in `A Game of Thrones'. Image credit: N. M. Dekker, CC BY-SA 4.0 mauricio-santos-503880-unsplash.jpg: Photo by mauRICIO santos on Unsplash (public domain) Full Media Pack including image: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18_dei3tcQD-fuwaqcuskw0D1c2huivUA?usp=sharing EMBARGOED until 18 April 2019: 7 am EST / 12 midday UK local time Link to the Published Version of the article (quote this link in your story - the link will ONLY work after the embargo lifts): http://peerj.com/articles/cs-189 your readers will be able to freely access this article at this URL. Citation to the article: Dekker N, Kuhn T, van Erp M. 2019. Evaluating named entity recognition tools for extracting social networks from novels. PeerJ Computer Science 5:e189 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.189 About: PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of seven peer-reviewed journals and a preprint server. PeerJ's mission is to help the world efficiently publish its knowledge. All works published by PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 4.0). PeerJ is based in San Diego, CA and the UK and can be accessed at peerj.com PeerJ Computer Science is the peer-reviewed, open access journal covering all subject areas in computer science, with the backing of a prestigious advisory board and more than 300 academic editors. PeerJ has an Editorial Board of over 1,900 respected academics, including 5 Nobel Laureates. PeerJ was the recipient of the 2013 ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation. PeerJ Media Resources (including logos) can be found at: peerj.com/about/press Media Contacts: Thijs van der Veen, communications advisor KNAW Humanities Cluster, thijs.van.der.veen@bb.huc.knaw.nl + 31 (6) 46 11 03 99 (English, Dutch; European time zones) For the authors: Niels Dekker, niels.dekker@trifork.nl +31 6 44 03 14 37 (English, Dutch; European time zones) Dr. Marieke van Erp, marieke.van.erp@dh.huc.knaw.nl +31 (0) 20 4628 627 / +31 (6) 499 099 59 (English, Dutch; European time zones) For PeerJ: email: press@peerj.com , https://peerj.com/about/press/ Note: If you would like to join the PeerJ Press Release list, please register at: http://bit.ly/PressList Companies that go public on the stock market provide an economic boost to the local communities where they're based, according to new research from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business. After businesses file for an initial public offering (IPO), ZIP codes close to the company's headquarters see certain home prices and consumer spending rise, according to researchers led by Alexander Butler, professor of finance at the Jones School. New businesses and new jobs are also created in those areas, they found. "An IPO doesn't create a new company," Butler said. "It does, however, generate significant liquidity for the firm, for employees and for other shareholders who go forth into the community to spend their new cash." For the study, "Local Economic Spillover Effects of Stock Market Listings," researchers looked at 1,365 ZIP codes in which at least one company filed for an IPO between 1998 and 2015. They also identified ZIP codes that were 2 miles, 5 miles and 10 miles from a newly public company's headquarters. The team determined that the listing decision, rather than actual raising of capital, boosts local labor markets, business environments, consumer spending and real estate. "Investors' wealth also rises if a firm's stock price climbs after listing, as does a firm's wealth as it raises new capital," Butler said. To reach their conclusions, the researchers compared their selected ZIP codes to other ZIP codes in the same county using a matching process to compare "apples to apples." They compared figures such as changes in home prices, the number of new mortgages, ZIP code business patterns, credit card spending, and income and wages for the two years following an IPO. Analyzing this data, they found that when a company goes on the stock market, each $10 million in proceeds leads to an extra 0.7 new businesses in the surrounding area and 41 new local jobs. And while the price of expensive homes in the new public company's ZIP code didn't increase, the prices of expensive homes in other ZIP codes within 2 miles of headquarters did rise -- by $3,900 for the average home valued at $590,000. Prices were also higher in ZIP codes 2 to 5 miles away from headquarters, but less so. IPOs are not all good news for communities. The study also found IPO activity increases the odds that middle-to-lower-income residents may have to move to lower-income ZIP codes. In the years following Facebook's IPO, for example, workers in the San Francisco Bay Area such as police officers, teachers and firefighters were priced out of the housing market and relegated to long commutes to work. Researchers found the growth of home prices gets a boost after the lockup period ends and shareholders can sell their stock, supporting the hypothesis that changes in investor liquidity cause that spillover. Further evidence of this came when they found that home prices climb even more when a firm's stock price jumps after the IPO. Ioannis Spyridopoulos, assistant professor of finance at American University's Kogod School of Business and co-author of the study, said he and his colleagues are doing this work is, in part, to raise awareness of the positive side of finance. "People have this demonized view of finance," Spyridopoulos said. "They see and remember financial scandals. They think that finance is only about speculating and making profit in the short run, but they forget that finance is more than that. We need a well-functioning financial system. We need to have a functioning stock market that people trust and benefit from selling their stock quickly at a fair price. Our work shows why this liquidity is so important, by documenting positive economic effects in communities where people become flush with liquidity after their firms get listed in the stock market. "It is an important reason why the U.S. is the best economy in the world," Spyridopoulos said. "We have the most developed financial system and a very good framework to protect it." ### The study, which will be published in an upcoming print edition of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, did not receive external funding. It was co-authored by Larry Fauver, associate professor of finance at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7. Rice also has a university backdrop, 1080p web cam, light kit and wireless mic for Skype interviews. For more information or to set up an interview, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327. For more insights from and information about Rice Business faculty research, visit the school's Rice Business Wisdom online ideas magazine at https://business.rice.edu/wisdom. Image for download: https://news.rice.edu/files/2019/04/IPO-1-upir9y.jpg Image courtesy 123rf.com/Rice University This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/. Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews. Follow the Jones Graduate School of Business on Twitter @Rice_Biz. Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Fungi are the most common cause of diseases in crops and other plants, and pose major threats to humans and other animals. The successful treatment of fungal diseases is difficult partly because the mechanisms for fungal pathogenesis remain largely unknown as well as that fungi are eukaryotes as the host cells. Multiple lifestyles have been recruited by fungi to live in different environments. The relevance of fungal dimorphism to fungal infections has been demonstrated previously. Most pathogenic fungi are opportunistic and their lifestyle transition from saprophytes to pathogens is a key point for fungal infections. Among them, Arthrobotrys oligospora, a typical nematode-trapping fungus, can be induced by nematodes to develop adhesive networks which is a key indicator of its transition from saprophytes to predators. The adhesive networks are then utilized to capture nematode preys, followed by penetration and digestion (Figure 1). A. oligospora has thus been considered as nature killers of nematodes which cause great losses in crops. Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the underlying mechanisms for lifestyle transition of A. oligospora. Biologists from the State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan of Yunnan University conducted a pioneer study by exploring the potential roles of small RNAs during the trap induction of A. oligospora. "We started with small RNA sequencing and predicted microRNA-like RNAs using three methods. A total of 863 putative microRNA-like RNAs have been predicted and 7 of them have been confirmed. The target genes of the putative microRNA-like RNAs were predicted using five methods. It is very interesting to find out that the qde-2 gene was in the target list of mil-289." Said Dr. Xinglai Ji, the senior author for this work. "This is a high risk study for that it is not for sure whether microRNA-like RNAs exist or function in trap induction of A. oligospora. Although miRNAs widely exist in animals and plants, they were rarely reported in fungi. Our study suggests the wide existence of microRNA-like RNAs in nematode-trapping fungi and play important roles in their lifestyle transition, which provides new insights into understanding the adaptation of fungi from scavengers to pathogens." Said Xinglai. "This work is a great team work that collaborated by the scientists from different areas. The study was designed with combination of both bioinformatics analysis and experimental confirmation." said the corresponding author Dr. KeQin Zhang, a scientist working on nematode-trapping fungi for many years. After comprehensive analyses, the potential microRNA-like RNAs with high expression were confirmed by experiments. "High-throughput sequencing technologies provided opportunities to screen for targets on genome scale. And then they were confirmed by following experiments. Moreover, further studies showed they were very important in nematode-trapping fungi and how they worked during the induction pathways. Nematode-trapping fungi can keep nematode population in balance in nature, which makes them good potential bio-control agents. The critical role of microRNA-like RNAs and related pathways is of great interests of developing high efficient agents to help prevention of nematodes in agriculture." Said KeQin. "Both RT-PCR and northern blot analysis were carried out for confirmation of the 170 putative microRNA-like RNAs. To explore their functions, the genes encoding the confirmed microRNA-like RNAs were knocked out separately to observe whether the deleted strains can be induced as the wild strains. Besides, the argonaute protein QDE-2 was immunoprecipitated and RIP analysis was performed to verify whether the microRNA-like RNAs and their target genes were associated with QDE-2 and how they worked. Moreover, qde-2 gene was also removed from the genome which led to more serious deficiency in lifestyle transition than deletion of single microRNA-like RNA." Said Dr. Heng Li, the co-first author. "The interesting part is that the inhibition of qde-2 by mil-289 can be confirmed in transient gene expression system in tobacco, which forms a regulatory loop in the RNAi regulation (Figure 2). Further studies are still needed." ### This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB127500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31160021, 31270131, U1502262), Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications Scientific Foundation (NY218140) and State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan (2018KF003). See the article: Ji, X., Li, H., Zhang, W., Wang, J., Liang, L., Zou, C., Yu, Z., Liu, S., and Zhang, K.Q. (2019). The lifestyle transition of Arthrobotrys oligospora is mediated by microRNA-like RNAs. Sci China Life Sci 62, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-018-9437-7 http://engine.scichina.com/publisher/scp/journal/SCLS/doi/10.1007/s11427-018-9437-7?slug=fulltext Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated that the recently developed antidiabetic drug empagliflozin can treat and reverse the progression of heart failure in non-diabetic animal models. Their study also shows that this drug can make the heart produce more energy and function more efficiently. The results were published in the April 23 issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology. "This drug could be a promising treatment for heart failure in both non-diabetic and diabetic patients," said lead author Juan Badimon, MD, Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Atherothrombosis Research Unit at the Cardiovascular Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Our research can lead to a potential application in humans, save lives, and improve quality of life." Empagliflozin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2014. It limits renal sugar resorption and is the first drug in the history of type 2 diabetes proven to prolong survival. While diabetes patients are typically at higher risk of heart failure, past studies have suggested that those who take empagliflozin don't commonly develop heart failure. Those observations led a team of researchers to question if the drug contains a mechanism, independent of anti-diabetic activity that is linked to heart failure prevention, and whether it could have the same impact on non-diabetics. Investigators from the Atherothrombosis Research Unit tested the hypothesis by inducing heart failure in 14 non-diabetic pigs. For two months, they treated half of the animals with empagliflozin and the other group with a placebo. The team evaluated the pigs with cardiac magnetic resonance, 3D-echocardiography, and invasive catheterization at three different points in the study (before inducing, one day after inducing, and at the two-month mark). At two months, all animals in the group treated with empagliflozin experienced improved heart function. Specifically, those pigs had less water accumulation in the lungs (less pulmonary congestion, which is responsible for causing shortness of breath) and lower levels of biomarkers of heart failure. Importantly, the left ventricles had stronger contractions (enhanced systolic function), got smaller (less dilated), and were less thick (less hypertrophy), and the heart was a normal shape (less architectural remodeling). The researchers also found that the drug addressed heart failure by improving cardiac metabolism. The hearts of pigs on the medication were consuming more fatty acids and ketone bodies (three related compounds--acetone, acetoacetic acid, and beta-hydroxybutyric acid--produced during the metabolism of fats) and less glucose, as contrasted with heart failure patients (diabetic and non-diabetic), whose hearts consume more glucose and almost no fatty acids and produces less energy. This boost in metabolism helped the hearts produce more energy and function more strongly and efficiently. "This study confirmed our hypothesis that empagliflozin is an incredibly effective treatment for heart failure and not only an antidiabetic drug. Moreover, this study demonstrated that empagliflozin is useful for heart failure independently of a patient's diabetic status. Importantly, empagliflozin switches cardiac metabolism toward fatty acid and ketone body consumption, thus allowing the production of more energy in the heart," explained co-lead author Carlos Santos-Gallego, MD, postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Empagliflozin may be a potentially effective treatment for heart failure patients. This is extremely important because heart failure is a disease with a mortality above 50 percent at 5 years. This study offers a new therapeutic strategy in heart failure, something badly needed given that there have not been new effective drugs for heart failure since the 1990s." The authors are currently studying whether empagliflozin is an effective heart failure treatment in non-diabetic human patients in the EMPATROPISM clinical trial. ### Mount Sinai Heart is one of the nation's top 10 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in six other specialties in the 2018-2019 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology and 44th for Ear, Nose, and Throat. Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, Mount Sinai West, and South Nassau Communities Hospital are ranked regionally. About the Mount Sinai Health System The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system encompassing (with the addition of South Nassau Communities Hospital) eight hospital campuses, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in six other specialties in the 2018-2019 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology and 44th for Ear, Nose, and Throat. Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, Mount Sinai West, and South Nassau Communities Hospital are ranked regionally. For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/, or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. WASHINGTON -- For the first time, researchers have successfully 3D printed chalcogenide glass, a unique material used to make optical components that operate at mid-infrared wavelengths. The ability to 3D print this glass could make it possible to manufacture complex glass components and optical fibers for new types of low-cost sensors, telecommunications components and biomedical devices. In The Optical Society (OSA) journal Optical Materials Express, researchers from the Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser (COPL) at Universite Laval in Canada, Patrick Larochelle and his colleagues, describe how they modified a commercially available 3D printer for glass extrusion. The new method is based on the commonly used technique of fused deposition modeling, in which a plastic filament is melted and then extruded layer-by-layer to create detailed 3D objects. "3D printing of optical materials will pave the way for a new era of designing and combining materials to produce the photonic components and fibers of the future," said Yannick Ledemi, a member of the research team. "This new method could potentially result in a breakthrough for efficient manufacturing of infrared optical components at a low cost." Printing glass Chalcogenide glass softens at a relatively low temperature compared to other glass. The research team therefore increased the maximum extruding temperature of a commercial 3D printer from around 260 C to 330 C to enable chalcogenide glass extrusion. They produced chalcogenide glass filaments with dimensions similar to the commercial plastic filaments normally used with the 3D printer. Finally, the printer was programed to create two samples with complex shapes and dimensions. "Our approach is very well suited for soft chalcogenide glass, but alternative approaches are also being explored to print other types of glass," said Ledemi. "This could allow fabrication of components made of multiple materials. Glass could also be combined with polymers with specialized electro-conductive or optical properties to produce multi-functional 3D printed devices." 3D printing would also be useful for making fiber preforms - a piece of glass that is pulled into a fiber - with complex geometries or multiple materials, or a combination of both. Once the design and fabrication techniques are fine-tuned, the researchers say that 3D printing could be used for inexpensive manufacturing of high volumes of infrared glass components or fiber preforms. "3D printed chalcogenide-based components would be useful for infrared thermal imaging for defense and security applications," continued Ledemi. "They would also enable sensors for pollutant monitoring, biomedicine and other applications where the infrared chemical signature of molecules is used for detection and diagnosis." The researchers are now working to improve the design of the printer to increase its performance and enable additive manufacturing of complex parts or components made of chalcogenide glass. They also want to add new extruders to enable co-printing with polymers for the development of multi-material components. ### The research is part of the PRinting of exotic multi-maTErial fibers, or PROTEus, project conducted within the frame of the International Associated Laboratory 'Lumiere Matiere Aquitaine Quebec (LIA-LuMAQ). PROTEus brings together researchers from Canada and France to develop new ways to use additive manufacturing and direct laser writing methods to combine multiple materials to make fiber-based photonic components and devices. Paper: E. Baudet, Y. Ledemi, P. Larochelle, S. Morency, Y. Messaddeq, "3D-printing of arsenic sulfide chalcogenide glasses," Opt. Mater. Express 9, 5, 2307-2317 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.9.002307 About Optical Materials Express Optical Materials Express (OMEx) is an open-access journal focusing on the synthesis, processing and characterization of materials for applications in optics and photonics. OMEx, which launched in April 2011, primarily emphasizes advances in novel optical materials, their properties, modeling, synthesis and fabrication techniques; how such materials contribute to novel optical behavior; and how they enable new or improved optical devices. The editor-in-chief for OMEx is Alexandra Boltasseva from Purdue University. For more information, visit: OSA Publishing. About The Optical Society Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional organization for scientists, engineers, students and business leaders who fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned publications, meetings and membership initiatives, OSA provides quality research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its extensive global network of optics and photonics experts. For more information, visit osa.org. Media Contact: mediarelations@osa.org University of Arkansas physics professor Daniel Kennefick writes about the 1919 eclipse, which provided the data to confirm the revolutionary theory No Shadow of a Doubt, a new book by Daniel Kennefick, associate professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, tells the story of two research teams, organized by Arthur Stanley Eddington and Sir Frank Watson Dyson, who tested Einstein's theory of relativity. These expeditions traveled to Brazil and Africa to collect images of stars during the 1919 eclipse, and their results confirmed and brought mainstream attention to the theory. "Einstein was a well-known scientist before, but this made him a celebrity," said Kennefick. Einstein's theory of relativity proposed a new way of looking at gravity. The prevailing theory at the time, Newton's law of universal gravitation, described gravity as a force between massive objects. According to physicists in 1900, starlight, which they thought had no mass, would not be affected by gravity. Einstein contradicted this expectation twice. First he showed, through his famous equation E=mc2, that light has mass, since it clearly has energy, and therefore should be affected by gravity. Then he theorized that gravity actually causes a curving of spacetime. According to his theory, light would follow this curve, so it would be affected by gravity, whether or not it had mass. If Einstein were to be correct, starlight traveling past the sun would follow a curved path as it traveled to Earth. So if someone on Earth viewed a star during the night, when they were facing away from the sun, the star would appear to be in one place. But, according to Einstein's theory, if someone were to look at the same star during the daytime, when the sun is between the Earth and the star, the star should appear to be in a slightly different position than it was when viewed at night. In order to gather data to test this theory, scientists would need to photograph the stars while the sun was present, a situation that was only possible during a total eclipse. The 1919 eclipse presented an opportunity to make the necessary observations, but scientists had to travel to locations where the eclipse was total, which included Sobral, Brazil, and Principe, an island off the coast of Africa. The two expeditions overcame many challenges, transporting large and delicate instruments on the long trips and facing the risk that a passing cloud would ruin the whole experiment. Kennefick explained that he wanted to bring light to the story of these researchers, who have been overshadowed by Einstein's fame. "The passage of time has caused us to lose sight of their cruicial roles," he said in the prologue of the book. "This book aims to correct this oversight, which could cripple serious attempts to understand how the science of the eclipse was accomplished." ### The book will be published by Princeton University Press on April 30. CONTACTS: Daniel Kennefick, associate professor of physics J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences 479-575-6784, danielk@uark.edu Camilla Shumaker, director of science and research communications University Relations 479-575-7422, camillas@uark.edu Two scientists at UC Santa Barbara whose work has contributed in significant ways to our understanding of nature and of our place in it have been recognized by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Brain scientist Miguel Eckstein and evolutionary biologist Todd Oakley are recipients of 2019 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships. The prestigious awards are given to those whose work adds "to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country, and also to provide for the cause of better international understanding." "I am delighted to congratulate both Miguel Eckstein and Todd Oakley on these prestigious fellowships, as they are very competitive awards that recognize exceptional scholarship," said Pierre Wiltzius, dean of mathematical, life and physical sciences. "Eckstein's work in the field of visual perception holds great promise for the future of medical imaging and computer vision systems, while Oakley's research on the evolutionary path of visual systems helps illuminate the origins of incredibly complex traits. We are so proud to call them both members of our faculty." Both honorees conduct research associated with vision, one of the most intimate and powerful ways living things connect to the world. While Oakley studies the evolution of complex and diverse visual systems, shedding light on convergent evolution -- one of the major mechanisms of life on Earth -- Eckstein seeks to understand how the human brain achieves the highly efficient and remarkable ability to see. And in turn he works with engineers to improve the way computers "see." "I am grateful and humbled for being selected from among what are surely many equally deserving candidates," Eckstein said. "The Guggenheim Fellowship is unique and holds a special place -- an honor that scientists share with artists, writers and musicians." Added Oakley, "I am so grateful to the Guggenheim Foundation for this recognition and to many colleagues and students for their support and discussions. The funds from the fellowship will allow me to discover new biodiversity in our oceans and explore how nature created it." In the Blink of an Eye If you've ever picked your friend out from a crowd, found the right key from a ring of similar keys, or sensed a stranger's feelings from their expression, you have accurately performed sophisticated, complex perceptual tasks to which the world's most powerful computers are just starting to catch up. These abilities are a benefit of more than 500 million years of evolution, and are so effortless they go practically unnoticed. Eckstein's research is devoted to breaking down these processes and understanding how the brain -- more than a quarter of which is devoted to seeing -- selects, prioritizes and categorizes information in, well, the blink of an eye. His work has resulted in surprising insights that not only add to our general knowledge of ourselves and our behaviors, but also help to create a foundation from which to develop the next generation of computer vision and imaging technology that could, for instance, assist with medical diagnoses and visual searches. Eckstein has recently been selected by UC Santa Barbara to participate in and lead the campus's new Mellichamp Academic Initiative, a cluster of faculty researchers focused on mind and machine intelligence. As a Guggenheim fellow, he plans to study children recovering from congenital blindness after surgery in order to understand how eye movement behavior during childhood development shapes brain mechanisms mediating face recognition. A native of Argentina, Eckstein came to the United States to study at UC Berkeley, where he obtained bachelors of science in physics and in psychology, and later at UCLA, where he completed his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology. Prior to joining the faculty at UC Santa Barbara, he worked in the Department of Medical Physics and Imaging at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and at NASA Ames Research Center. He credits many people for encouraging him on his path, but Eckstein said he is particularly grateful to be able to combine his research and teaching activities with the opportunity to run a faculty mentorship program for the UC Santa Barbara Dream Scholars -- undocumented students who are working to gain a world-class education despite current obstacles. "Their resilience, in spite of the times, and efforts to carve a bright future are utterly inspiring," he said. Seeing the Light The importance of light and vision to life on Earth cannot be understated. From molecules that react to light to specialized structures that meet an organism's specific needs -- locating prey or a mate, to navigate or to hide from potential predators -- visual systems are not only ubiquitous but also diverse, and can provide a way to answer questions of evolution. Why, for instance, do arthropods have such a large diversity of eyes? Why have some organisms evolved eyes several times in their evolutionary histories? Why have members of different animal species evolved similar eyes? How did animals evolve to use light for communication? To answer these and other mind-boggling questions of evolution, Oakley has studied the development of eyes and visual systems in various organisms, including hydra and jellyfish; chytrid fungi; mollusks, such as cephalopods; and crustaceans. The findings derived from his studies have provided insight into the various strategies organisms have adopted to survive and flourish in their often-changing environments. Increasingly, Oakley's lab is studying not only how organisms sense light, but also how some produce light using bioluminescence. "Learning how animals produce light in diverse ways may inspire new tools to use biological light for biomedical applications," he said. Oakley received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and his doctorate degree from Duke University. He completed his postdoctoral studies at the University of Chicago before joining the faculty at UC Santa Barbara, where he conducts research on multiple projects in evolution, behavior and genomics, and is a member of the campus's Marine Science Institute. ### A prescribed drug to treat high blood pressure has shown promise against conditions such as Parkinson's, Huntington's and forms of dementia in studies carried out in mice and zebrafish at the University of Cambridge. A common feature of these diseases - collectively known as neurodegenerative diseases - is the build-up of misfolded proteins. These proteins, such as huntingtin in Huntington's disease and tau in some dementias, form 'aggregates' that can cause irreversible damage to nerve cells in the brain. In healthy individuals, the body uses a mechanism to prevent the build-up of such toxic materials. This mechanism is known as autophagy, or 'self-eating', and involves 'Pac-Man'-like cells eating and breaking down the materials. However, in neurodegenerative diseases this mechanism is impaired and unable to clear the proteins building up in the brain. As the global population ages, an increasing number of people are being diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases, making the search for effective drugs ever more urgent. However, there are currently no drugs that can induce autophagy effectively in patients. In addition to searching for new drugs, scientists often look to re-purpose existing drugs. These have the advantage that they have already been shown to be safe for use in humans. If they can be shown to be effective against the target diseases, then the journey to clinical use is much faster. In a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, scientists at the UK Dementia Research Institute and the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research at the University of Cambridge have shown in mice that felodipine, a hypertension drug, may be a candidate for re-purposing. Epidemiological studies have already hinted at a possible link between the drug and reduced risk of Parkinson's disease, but now the researchers have shown that it may be able to induce autophagy in several neurodegenerative conditions. A team led by Professor David Rubinsztein used mice that had been genetically modified to express mutations that cause Huntington's disease or a form of Parkinson's disease, and zebrafish that model a form of dementia. Mice are a useful model for studying human disease as their short life span and fast reproductive rate make it possible to investigate biological processes in many areas. Their biology and physiology have a number of important characteristics in common with those of humans, including similar nervous systems. Felodipine was effective at reducing the build-up of aggregates in the mice with the Huntington's and Parkinson's disease mutations and in the zebrafish dementia model. The treated animals also showed fewer signs of the diseases. Studies in mice often use doses that are much higher than those known to be safe to use in humans. Professor Rubinsztein and colleagues showed in the Parkinson's mice that it is possible to show beneficial effects even at concentrations similar to those tolerated by humans. They did so by controlling the concentrations using a small pump under the mouse's skin. "This is the first time that we're aware of that a study has shown that an approved drug can slow the build-up of harmful proteins in the brains of mice using doses aiming to mimic the concentrations of the drug seen in humans," says Professor Rubinsztein. "As a result, the drug was able to slow down progression of these potentially devastating conditions and so we believe it should be trialled in patients." "This is only the first stage, though. The drug will need to be tested in patients to see if it has the same effects in humans as it does in mice. We need to be cautious, but I would like to say we can be cautiously optimistic." ### The study was funded by Wellcome, the Medical Research Council, Alzheimer's Research UK, the Alzheimer's Society, Rosetrees Trust, The Tau Consortium, an anonymous donation to the Cambridge Centre for Parkinson-Plus, Open Targets, the Guangdong Province Science and Technology Program, with additional support from the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. Reference Siddiqi, FH et al. Felodipine induces autophagy in mouse brains with pharmacokinetics amenable to repurposing. Nature Communications; 18 April 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09494-2 Around four million people in the UK carry genetic variants that protect them from obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge. The team say the discovery could lead to the development of new drugs that help people lose weight. Scientists have known for several years that genes can influence a person's weight. One of the genes that is known to play a key role in regulating weight is MC4R, which codes for the melanocortin 4 receptor. This receptor acts like a switch in the brain to suppress appetite. People who have genetic variants that disrupt this receptor gain weight easily. Now, in a study published today in the journal Cell, researchers have shown that other genetic variants in the MC4R gene that increase the activity of this brain receptor can protect people from becoming overweight, a finding that could lead to the development of new medicines that 'copy' the protective effect of these genetic variants to achieve or maintain weight-loss. A team led by Professors Sadaf Farooqi and Nick Wareham and Dr Claudia Langenberg at the Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge looked at the MC4R gene in half a million volunteers from the UK population who have taken part in the UK Biobank study, finding 61 distinct naturally-occurring genetic variants. While some of these genetic variants predisposed people to become obese, other variants provided protection against obesity and some of its major complications, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. To investigate the reasons for this mystery, Professor Farooqi's team, who previously showed that MC4R works in the brain as a 'switch' to tell us to stop eating after a meal, studied the function of these genetic variants in a number of laboratory experiments. They found that MC4R gene variants linked to higher obesity risk stopped the gene from working, whereas variants that offered protection against obesity kept the gene 'switched on'. Around six per cent of study participants carried genetic variants that caused the receptor to remain 'switched on'. People with these variants would eat less, which could explain their lower weight. People with two copies of these particular variants (1 in over 1,000 people) were on average 2.5 kg lighter than people without the variants and had a 50% lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. "This study drives home the fact that genetics plays a major role in why some people are obese - and that some people are fortunate enough to have genes that protect them from obesity," says Professor Farooqi of the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories. The discovery adds to recent work by the team which showed that some slim people have a genetic advantage when it comes to maintaining their weight. "It doesn't mean that we can't influence our weight by watching what we eat, but it does mean the odds are stacked against some people and in favour of others," added Professor Farooqi. When the researchers looked in detail at the genetic variants in laboratory experiments, they found that MC4R can send signals through a pathway - known as the beta-arrestin pathway - that had not previously been linked to weight regulation. Genetic variants that sent signals preferentially through this pathway were the ones driving the association with protection against obesity and its complications and, importantly, were also associated with lower blood pressure. Designing drugs that mimic the effect of the protective variants in MC4R could provide new, safer weight loss therapies. "A powerful emerging concept is that genetic variants that protect against disease can be used as models for the development of medicines that are more effective and safer," said Dr Luca Lotta, Senior Clinical Investigator at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit and joint lead author of the study. "Our findings may pave the way for a new generation of weight loss therapies that activate MC4R preferentially via the beta-arrestin pathway." "Our work would not have been possible without the unique blend of expertise in large-scale genetic epidemiology analysis and laboratory experiments at the Institute of Metabolic Science," says Professor Wareham, Director of the MRC Epidemiology Unit and Co-Director of the Institute. "Genetic studies of thousands of people and a functional understanding of the mechanisms behind protective genetic variants can really help us inform the development of a new generation of medicines for common diseases like obesity and diabetes that affect millions of people globally." ### The work was funded by the MRC, Wellcome, with support from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. Reference Lotta, LA, Mokrosiski, J et al. Human gain-of-function MC4R variants show signaling bias and protect against obesity. Cell; 18 April 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.044 For years, researchers have pursued a strange phenomenon: When you hit an ultra-thin magnet with a laser, it suddenly de-magnetizes. Imagine the magnet on your refrigerator falling off. Now, scientists at CU Boulder are digging into how magnets recover from that change, regaining their properties in a fraction of a second. According to a study published this week in Nature Communications, zapped magnets actually behave like fluids. Their magnetic properties begin to form "droplets," similar to what happens when you shake up a jar of oil and water. To find that out, CU Boulder's Ezio Iacocca, Mark Hoefer and their colleagues drew on mathematical modeling, numerical simulations and experiments conducted at Stanford University's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. "Researchers have been working hard to understand what happens when you blast a magnet," said Iacocca, lead author of the new study and a research associate in the Department of Applied Mathematics. "What we were interested in is what happens after you blast it. How does it recover?" In particular, the group zeroed in on a short but critical time in the life of a magnet--the first 20 trillionths of a second after a magnetic, metallic alloy gets hit by a short, high-energy laser. Iacocca explained that magnets are, by their nature, pretty organized. Their atomic building blocks have orientations, or "spins," that tend to point in the same direction, either up or down--think of Earth's magnetic field, which always points north. Except, that is, when you blast them with a laser. Hit a magnet with a short enough laser pulse, Iacocca said, and disorder will ensue. The spins within a magnet will no longer point just up or down, but in all different directions, canceling out the metal's magnetic properties. "Researchers have addressed what happens 3 picoseconds after a laser pulse and then when the magnet is back at equilibrium after a microsecond," said Iacocca, also a guest researcher at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). "In between, there's a lot of unknown." It's that missing window of time that Iacocca and his colleagues wanted to fill in. To do that, the research team ran a series of experiments in California, blasting tiny pieces of gadolinium-iron-cobalt alloys with lasers. Then, they compared the results to mathematical predictions and computer simulations. And, the group discovered, things got fluid. Hoefer, an associate professor of applied math, is quick to point out that the metals themselves didn't turn into liquid. But the spins within those magnets behaved like fluids, moving around and changing their orientation like waves crashing in an ocean. "We used the mathematical equations that model these spins to show that they behaved like a superfluid at those short timescales," said Hoefer, a co-author of the new study. Wait a little while and those roving spins start to settle down, he added, forming small clusters with the same orientation--in essence, "droplets" in which the spins all pointed up or down. Wait a bit longer, and the researchers calculated that those droplets would grow bigger and bigger, hence the comparison to oil and water separating out in a jar. "In certain spots, the magnet starts to point up or down again," Hoefer said. "It's like a seed for these larger groupings." Hoefer added that a zapped magnet doesn't always go back to the way it once was. In some cases, a magnet can flip after a laser pulse, switching from up to down. Engineers already take advantage of that flipping behavior to store information on a computer hard drive in the form of bits of ones and zeros. Iacocca said that if researchers can figure out ways to do that flipping more efficiently, they might be able to build faster computers. "That's why we want to understand exactly how this process happens," Iacocca said, "so we can maybe find a material that flips faster." ### The research was partly supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences. Co-authors on the study also included researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Tongji University, University of York, Stockholm University, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Temple University, European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility, Nihon University, Radboud University, University of Liege, Sheffield Hallam University and Uppsala University. PHILADELPHIA - Whether a wound--such as a diabetic foot ulcer--heals or progresses to a worse outcome, including infection or even amputation, may depend on the microbiome within that wound. A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found specific strains of the common pathogen Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) are associated with wounds that do not heal. Researchers also identified other common bacteria in these wounds that can impair or even improve healing, suggesting that monitoring the microbes of diabetic foot ulcers could provide doctors with information on how best to treat these wounds. Cell Host and Microbe published the findings today. About 10 percent of Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, and one quarter of these patients will develop a wound that does not heal. In the worst case outcome, which occurs in up to 25 percent of these wound-developing patients, the wounds will require an amputation. Many patients who develop these ulcers may not notice the initial signs, since the high blood glucose of diabetes can lead to a lack of feeling and deformation of the feet. As a result, patients with diabetes commonly develop foot ulcers that may go unnoticed over time. Current treatments are insufficient, meaning patients can live with these wounds for months or even years without healing. The mortality rate associated with diabetic foot ulcers is equivalent to that of breast cancer and prostate cancer combined - higher than 70 percent when they lead to amputation. "While wounds don't receive the attention of other diseases, they're incredibly common, and our study increases our understanding of how microbes impair or promote healing," said the study's senior author Elizabeth Grice, PhD, an associate professor of Dermatology. The lead author, Lindsay Kalan, PhD, now an assistant professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, began this work as a post-doctoral researcher in Grice's lab. Previous studies have used lower resolution techniques to catalogue the microbes that reside in chronic wounds. This study built on that research by using higher resolution DNA sequencing to identify specific species and subspecies and how they are related to patient outcomes. Researchers collected samples from 46 patient ulcers every two weeks for six months, or until the wound healed or was amputated. S. aureus, a common and difficult-to-treat pathogen, was found in the majority of wounds, but researchers note the presence of the bacteria itself did not predict whether or not a wound would heal. However, the high resolution DNA sequencing showed certain strains of S. aureus were only in the wounds that did not heal over the course of the study. Further testing revealed that the "non-healing" strain was better equipped to cause tissue damage and evade antibiotic treatments. Researchers further validated their findings in mice. They also noted that another common microbe found in diabetic wounds, Alcaligenes faecalis, was associated with quicker healing. "It is possible there are bacteria that actually benefit the wound, and we can use what we learned in this study to develop new treatment strategies for non-healing wounds," Grice said. "We hope this research will eventually help identify patients at risk for bad outcomes and lead to treatment innovations that these patients desperately need." ### This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute of Nursing Research (R01-NR-009448, R01-NR-015639, P20 NR018081), the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Disease (R01-AR-006663, R00-AR-060873), the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the Linda Pechenik Montague Investigator Award. Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $7.8 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $405 million awarded in the 2017 fiscal year. The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, a leading provider of highly skilled and compassionate behavioral healthcare. Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2017, Penn Medicine provided more than $500 million to benefit our community. About 3.6 million adults in the United States use a wheelchair to get around, according to census data. But unless you're one of those people, you might not know how hard it is to get around your city. Now people can help map out accessibility here in Seattle. University of Washington researchers have led the development of Project Sidewalk, an online crowdsourcing game that lets anyone with an internet connection use Google Street View to virtually explore neighborhoods and label curb ramps, missing or rough sidewalks, obstacles and more. Project Sidewalk first launched in Washington, D.C., and it's now available in Newberg, Oregon -- near Portland -- and Seattle. The team will present its results from the Washington, D.C., deployment May 7 at the 2019 ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Glasgow, Scotland. "A lot of people think this is something where you walk around your neighborhood and take pictures of accessibility problems with your smartphone," said corresponding author Jon Froehlich, an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. "But Project Sidewalk is not like that at all. There's no assumption that you have any physical experience with what you're reporting on. That is the key difference. Anyone can do it from anywhere, as long as they have a web browser." To get started on Project Sidewalk, the team interviewed people with mobility impairments to learn about how accessibility -- or a lack of it -- affects their lives. From there the researchers came up with a method to use crowdsourcing to collect street-level data about accessibility in cities. Project Sidewalk relies on volunteers to log accessibility issues across a city. So the team used a video game model to make it more fun. Players go on missions where they audit 500 to 1,000 feet of a city at a time. "Your first mission is a guided mission," Froehlich said. "We have to teach you how you walk around and how to label things. But then we also need to help you understand what accessibility means: What is a curb ramp? What does it mean to have a missing curb ramp?" Then players are sent out on solo missions -- they're either dropped into the city in an area where there aren't already a lot of labels, or they can choose to go to a specific part of the city. For their first few missions, players receive helpful tips about the interface and shortcuts to make their labeling faster. Project Sidewalk also displays a progress bar that shows players how far they've gone on a mission. "We've found that people love seeing that progress bar," said first author Manaswi Saha, a doctoral student in the Allen School. "They say it makes it more fun and feel more like a game." After the team launched the Washington, D.C., version of Project Sidewalk in August 2016, 797 players added 205,385 labels to the city's streets over the 18-month deployment. Players placed labels accurately about 72% of the time and were most likely to find and label curb ramps. "We're still working on analyzing the data," Saha said. "But when we look at all the labels on the map, we can immediately start to see which portions of the city might be having issues." Players also made a variety of common errors, such as labeling a driveway as a curb ramp or labeling surface problems on the street when the sidewalks were fine. These errors prompted the team to develop a new verification "minigame" in the Seattle and Newberg versions of Project Sidewalk, in which players verify 10 labels that someone else placed. "I want it to be like Super Mario Brothers 2, which has these fast little minigames that pop up between levels," Froehlich said. "It gives people time to breathe and do something different. It's something you could do on the bus." Because the data from Project Sidewalk is available to anyone, the researchers envision that it could serve multiple purposes, from helping government officials decide which areas to investigate first to enhancing the independence of people with mobility impairments. Data from Seattle's Project Sidewalk could inform other accessibility projects in the area, Froehlich said. For example, AccessMap, which provides directions for pedestrians and wheelchair users looking to avoid hills, construction sites and other accessibility barriers, could use data from Project Sidewalk to be able to create better directions. Eventually the team would like to have computers use machine learning to help people add labels on Project Sidewalk and make accessibility audits go faster. The researchers hope to use the Project Sidewalk data to train an algorithm that would teach computers how to do their own audits. "My ambitious vision is for anyone in the world to click on their city and have our system provide a visualization and an accessibility assessment," Froehlich said. "It shouldn't matter if you live in Paris, France, Beijing, China or Cairo, Egypt. If Google Street View has driven there, you should be able to get a map visualizing the city's sidewalk accessibility." ### This research received a Best Paper award among submissions to the CHI conference. Other co-authors are Michael Saugstad and Aileen Zeng at the UW; Hanuma Teja Maddali, Steven Bower and Anthony Li at the University of Maryland; Aditya Dash at Intelsat, who completed this research while at the University of Maryland; Ryan Holland at UCLA, who completed this research while at Montgomery Blair High School; Sage Chen at the University of Michigan, who completed this research while at the University of Maryland; and Kotaro Hara at Singapore Management University, who completed this research while at the University of Maryland. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, a Singapore Ministry of Education AcRF Tier 1 Grant and a Sloan Research Fellowship. For more information, contact Froehlich at jonf@cs.uw.edu. Grant number: IIS-1302338 Posted online at: http://www.washington.edu/news/2019/04/18/project-sidewalk/ Photos/PDF available (if clicking the link doesn't work, copy and paste it into your browser): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YsrHJugKxJUvqfyUF-VnqzF7OUfvNfIn Project Sidewalk video: https://youtu.be/F3voLirScmY April 18, 2019 - For patients undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff, previous steroid injections into the shoulder don't increase the risk of surgical-site infection - unless the injection is administered within one month before surgery, reports a study in the April 17, 2019 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer. "Infection following arthroscopic rotator cuff repair occurred at a 65 percent to 75 percent greater rate when patients received a shoulder injection within one month of the surgical procedure," according to the new research by Brian Forsythe, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and colleagues. But the study finds no increase in infection risk associated with steroid injections at any other time during the year before surgery. Increased Infection Risk with Shoulder Injection One Month Before Surgery The study included data on more than 60,000 patients who had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff between 2007 to 2016, identified from a large insurer database. About 12,000 patients received a steroid injection in the year before surgery. The remaining 48,000 patients had no shoulder injection during that time. The overall infection rate was almost identical between groups: 0.7 percent for patients who had received a shoulder injection at any time in the year before surgery, and 0.8 percent in those who did not. However, among patients who had a steroid injection one month or less before surgery, the infection rate was significantly higher than that in the control group: 1.3 percent. Injections received at any other interval during the year before rotator cuff repair - from two to 12 months - did not affect the postoperative infection risk. After the authors adjusted for other factors, steroid injection in the month before surgery was the single strongest predictor of postoperative infection. Other risk factors identified were consistent with findings from previous studies: male sex, smoking, obesity, and diabetes. Symptomatic rotator cuff tears are common, occurring in more than 30 percent of the population. Steroid injections can reduce pain and inflammation in patients with rotator cuff tears. If this and other "conservative" treatments (such as physical therapy) don't provide enough improvement, rotator cuff surgery may be recommended. Due to concern over the risk of infection, surgeons may delay rotator cuff repair in patients who have undergone shoulder injection. However, until now there was little evidence on the risks of infection after a preoperative injection. The new findings suggest that infection risk is increased only for patients who have a steroid injection within one month before rotator cuff surgery. Thereafter, the timing of shoulder injections seems to have no effect on the risk of infection. For orthopaedic surgeons, that's an important piece of information, as many patients opt for - and insurers may require - a period of conservative treatment before surgery for rotator cuff tears. Dr. Forsythe and coauthors conclude, "If patients receive a corticosteroid injection to treat symptomatic rotator cuff tears, the results of this study suggest that physicians allow at least one month prior to proceeding with operative management to reduce postoperative infections." ### Click here to read "The Timing of Injections Prior to Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair Impacts the Risk of Surgical Site Infection" DOI: 10.2106/JBJS.18.00631 About The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS) has been the most valued source of information for orthopaedic surgeons and researchers for over 125 years and is the gold standard in peer-reviewed scientific information in the field. A core journal and essential reading for general as well as specialist orthopaedic surgeons worldwide, The Journal publishes evidence-based research to enhance the quality of care for orthopaedic patients. Standards of excellence and high quality are maintained in everything we do, from the science of the content published to the customer service we provide. JBJS is an independent, non-profit journal. About Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the health, tax & accounting, finance, risk & compliance, and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer, headquartered in the Netherlands, reported 2017 annual revenues of 4.4 billion. The company serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research and clinical intelligence. For more information about our solutions, visit http://healthclarity.wolterskluwer.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth. First genetic study of the Crusaders confirms that warriors mixed and had families with local people in the near East, and died together in battle The first genetic study of ancient human remains believed to be Crusaders confirms that warriors travelled from western Europe to the near East, where they mixed and had families with local people, and died together in battle. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators analysed ancient DNA extracted from nine skeletons dating back to the 13th century, which were discovered in a burial pit in Sidon, Lebanon. The results, published today (18 April) in the American Journal of Human Genetics, confirm that while the Crusaders mixed with local people and recruited them to their cause, their genetic presence in the region was short-lived. The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the near East. It's known that nobility led the Crusades, but historical records lack details of the ordinary soldiers who travelled to, lived and died in the near East. In recent years, archaeologists uncovered 25 skeletons dating back to the 13th century within a burial pit in Sidon, Lebanon. All of those found in the pit were male and had been violently killed during battle, as seen by the blunt force injuries to their skulls and other bones. Their bodies had been disposed of in the pit and burned. Nearby, an isolated skull was found. The head may have been used as a projectile that was catapulted into the opposition's camp to spread disease and slash morale, illustrating the brutality of the battles. Clues found alongside the skeletons in the pit, such as European shoe buckles, a coin and carbon-14 dating analysis, led archaeologists to believe the human remains were Crusaders. In a new study, researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute produced whole-genome sequences of the ancient skeletons' DNA and confirm they were in fact Crusaders. The team report that three individuals were Europeans of diverse origins, including Spain and Sardinia, four were near Easterners who had been recruited to the fight, and two individuals had mixed genetic ancestry, suggesting they were the descendants of mixed relationships between Crusaders and near Easterners. Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Historical documents tell us the names of the nobility who led the Crusades, but the identities of the soldiers remained a mystery. Genomics gives an unprecedented view of the past and shows the Crusaders originated from western Europe and recruited local people of the near East to join them in battle. The Crusaders and near Easterners lived, fought and died side by side." However, the researchers believe the Crusaders' influence in the region was short-lived as European genetic traces are insignificant in people living in Lebanon today. When the researchers sequenced the DNA of people living in Lebanon 2,000 years ago during the Roman period, long before the Crusades, they found that today's Lebanese population is genetically similar to the Roman Lebanese, suggesting the Crusades had no lasting impact on Lebanese genetics. Dr Marc Haber, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "The Crusaders travelled to the near East and had relationships with the local people, with their sons later joining to fight their cause. However, after the fighting had finished, the mixed generation married into the local population and the genetic traces of the Crusaders were quickly lost." In the study, the team worked with archaeologists at the Sidon Excavation site to transfer bones of the nine skeletons from Lebanon to a laboratory in Cambridge dedicated to ancient DNA. Here, small portions of the surviving 800 year-old DNA were extracted from the temporal bone in the skulls by DNA extraction experts. An ultra-sterile working environment was set up by the scientists to prevent contamination of the samples with their own DNA, which would render them useless. The ancient DNA samples were particularly difficult to extract and sequence as the bodies had been burned and buried in a warm and humid climate, where DNA degrades quickly. Recent advances in DNA extraction and sequencing technology made studying the ancient and damaged DNA possible. Dr Claude Doumet-Serhal, Director of the Sidon excavation site in Lebanon, said: "I was thrilled to discover the genetic identities of the people who lived in the near East during the Crusades. Only five years ago, studies like this would not have been possible. The uniting of archaeologists and geneticists creates an incredible opportunity to interpret significant events throughout history." ### Notes to Editors: This press release is also available in French and Arabic, on request. Publication: Marc Haber et al. (2019) A transient pulse of genetic admixture from the Crusaders in the Near East identified from ancient genome sequences. American Journal of Human Genetics. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2019.03.015 Funding: This study was supported by Wellcome (098051). Selected websites: The Wellcome Sanger Institute The Sanger is one of the world's leading genome and biodata institutes. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease and to understand life on Earth. Find out more at http://www.sanger.ac.uk or follow @sangerinstitute About Wellcome Wellcome exists to improve health by helping great ideas to thrive. We support researchers, we take on big health challenges, we campaign for better science, and we help everyone get involved with science and health research. We are a politically and financially independent foundation. Researchers have discovered a key clue into the development of the pancreas and brain by studying rare patients born without a pancreas. The study from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Exeter and collaborators also identified a previously unexpected pathway involved in the development of the human pancreas, and confirmed this in mice. Understanding how the human pancreas forms could help researchers develop replacement cells to treat patients with type 1 diabetes in the future. Published today (18th April) in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the study revealed that all three patients without a pancreas and with abnormal brain development had an identical change in the CNOT1 gene. The team went on to show how this genetic change kept stem cells in their original state, preventing them from developing into pancreatic cells. The pancreas is part of the digestive system and makes various hormones, including insulin that controls the amount of sugar in the blood. Problems with the insulin producing cells in the pancreas can cause type 1 diabetes, which affects over 10 million people worldwide. Type 1 diabetes develops when insulin-making cells in the pancreas, called beta cells, are attacked by the immune system. People with this disease need daily injections of insulin to control their blood sugar levels. Replacing the damaged pancreatic cells with cells derived from stem cells could treat the disease, but the pancreatic development pathways are not yet fully known. In very rare cases, the pancreas fails to develop - called pancreatic agenesis - and babies born with this condition need immediate and lifelong treatment with insulin and other hormones to survive. To learn more about the development of the pancreas, researchers from the University of Exeter studied the genetics of 107 international patients with pancreatic agenesis. They discovered that three unrelated patients with very similar clinical features, including a possible neurological disorder, had an identical mutation in the CNOT1 gene. This gene had never been implicated in pancreatic or brain development before. The Wellcome Sanger Institute researchers then bred mice with this mutation in the mouse version of the gene to see how it affected development. They found the mouse embryos with the mutation in Cnot1* had a much smaller upper pancreas than usual, directly linking the Cnot1 gene with pancreas development. They also saw changes in the mouse brain development. Dr Elisa De Franco, co-first author from the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "We found that three patients with pancreatic agenesis had an identical spelling mistake in the CNOT1 gene. This was the first time that anyone had realised that CNOT1 was important in pancreatic and neurological development, and has revealed a new genetic cause for pancreatic agenesis." Dr Ines Barroso, co-senior author on the paper from the Wellcome Sanger Institute** and University of Cambridge, said: "Through a great collaboration between clinical and mouse research disciplines, we have provided compelling evidence that the CNOT1 gene is involved in the formation of the pancreas in both humans and mice. We are now able to investigate the developmental mechanism, to understand how the pancreas develops." The CNOT1 gene had previously been implicated in keeping human and mice embryonic stem cells in a state where they can develop into any type of cell, known as pluripotency. Studying which genes were active in the developing mouse pancreas, the researchers discovered that the Cnot1 mutation changed the levels of a key developmental factor, preventing the stem cells from developing. Dr Rachel Watson, a joint first author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Once we knew the CNOT1 gene was involved in pancreatic development, we wanted to find out how it worked. Changes in some developmental factors in Cnot1 mutant mice indicated that the stem cells remained as stem cells, rather than developing into pancreatic cells. This suggested an entirely new mechanism for pancreatic agenesis, which involved maintaining stem cells in a pluripotent state." Prof Andrew Hattersley, co-senior author on the paper from the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "In the future, therapies that created new pancreatic beta cells, could end the need for insulin injections for millions of people with type 1 diabetes. This type of therapy would require a very good understanding of how the pancreas develops. Our multidisciplinary collaboration has allowed us to unravel a new gene and mechanism involved in pancreas development, and revealed further avenues for investigation." ### Contacts: Dr Samantha Wynne, Media Officer Wellcome Sanger Institute Wellcome Genome Campus Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK Phone: +44 (0)1223 492368 Email: press.office@sanger.ac.uk For further information: Louise Vennells Senior Press and Media Manager University of Exeter Medical School +44 (0)1392 724927 or 07768 511866 l.vennells@exeter.ac.uk Notes to editors: * The symbols for human genes are written in capital letters, eg CNOT1, whereas the symbol for mouse genes only have a capital first letter, eg Cnot1. These two genes are very similar, but not identical. **Dr Ines Barroso carried out the work at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and is now based at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. Selected websites: About the University of Exeter Medical School The University of Exeter Medical School is improving the health of the South West and beyond, through the development of high quality graduates and world-leading research that has international impact. As part of a Russell Group university, we combine this world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Part of the University of Exeter's College for Medicine and Health, the University of Exeter Medical School's Medicine programme is ranked 5th in the Guardian Guide 2018, while Medical Imaging is ranked 2nd, in the Complete University Guide 2018, under Radiography. Exeter has over 19,000 students and is ranked 12th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the University ranked 16th nationally, with 98% of its research rated as being of international quality. Exeter's Clinical Medicine research was ranked 3rd in the country, based on research outputs that were rated world-leading. Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care research also ranked in the top ten, in joint 9th for research outputs rated world-leading or internationally excellent. https://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/ The Wellcome Sanger Institute The Sanger is one of the world's leading genome and biodata institutes. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease and to understand life on Earth. Find out more at http://www.sanger.ac.uk or follow @sangerinstitute About Wellcome Wellcome exists to improve health by helping great ideas to thrive. We support researchers, we take on big health challenges, we campaign for better science, and we help everyone get involved with science and health research. We are a politically and financially independent foundation. The American Bumblebee - a species once more commonly seen buzzing around Southern Ontario - is critically endangered, according to a new study led by York University. The finding, published in Journal of Insect Conservation, found the native North American species, Bombus pensylvanicus, is facing imminent extinction from Canada, considered the highest and most at-risk classification before extinction. Many bumblebee species are rapidly declining across North America, but are important pollinators needed to grow Canada's crops including apples, tomatoes, blueberries and legumes, as well as countless types of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. The researchers assessed the extinction risk of the American Bumblebee, ranking the risk much higher than a federal advisory committee's most recent assessment which classifies the species' extinction risk at special concern. "This species is at risk of extinction and it's currently not protected in any way despite the drastic decline," said Assistant Professor Sheila Colla, an expert in bees and endangered species in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. "Now that we have assessed the extent of the decline and located where the remaining populations are, we can look more closely at threats and habitat requirements to design an effective conservation management plan so that this species does not disappear from Canada forever," said Colla, who co-authored and helped design the study. Colla has been studying bumblebees in Southern Ontario since the mid-2000s. This study relies on the annual data that she and her fellow researchers have collected. The study's research team - led by Victoria MacPhail, Colla's doctoral student, and including a scientist from the University of Vermont - used data from three sources. They analyzed Southern Ontario data from the citizen science program, Bumble Bee Watch, a collaboration of volunteers who submit bumblebee photos through a website or phone app for experts to identify. The researchers used the Bumble Bees of North America database to obtain records of bumblebee species in Ontario and Quebec dating back to the late-1800s. They also used their own field survey work which allowed them to evaluate the status of the species within its Canadian range, using the globally-recognized International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment criteria. The researchers found that the American Bumblebee's area of occurrence has decreased by about 70 percent and its relative abundance fell by 89 percent from 2007-2016 compared to 1907-2006. "This bumblebee species now has a reduced overall range," explained MacPhail. "It used to stretch from Windsor to Toronto, and all the way to Ottawa and into the Quebec area, but it is now only found in some core areas and has experienced a 37 percent decrease in overall range." "It's now a rare sighting in Toronto," said MacPhail. "In terms of relative abundance, compared to other bees, you'd have to catch 1,000 bumblebees to find four of this species, and that compares to finding 37 bees in the past. You could walk out the door and win the lottery and find it, or you could be searching for years and not find any." This study echoes Colla's previous findings with the critically endangered Rusty-patched Bumblebee, once found in Southern Ontario. The species has not been seen in Canada for about ten years and drastically declined towards extinction without receiving protection or conservation management. "The American bumblebee is still found in areas throughout its Canadian range and immediate action may save it from the same fate as the Rusty-patched Bumblebee," said Colla. ### Industry experts say the ban on the video-sharing app will hit its growth but with necessary changes the impact will be short term Video-sharing app TikTok, which has more than half-a-billion users across the globe, has been taken down by tech giants Apple and Google to comply to a ban in India. The app, which features videos with memes and karaoke-style singing and dancing, claims to have more than 12 million users just in India and around 500 million users worldwide. TikTok owner ByteDance has been eyeing the Indian market for some time. We spoke to industry experts about the impact of the ban. According to Shradha Agarwal, COO, Grapes Digital, the growth numbers will definitely get impacted. Parents will now become cautious about not letting their kids use the app. TikTok is already on its toes and has been stating that the ban is temporary. This means they will bring the app back by introducing necessary changes like keeping a tab on pornographic content and ensuring that it does not get uploaded on the app, she said. Shedding light on other aspects of the impact, Gautam Reghunath, EVP & Branch Head, Dentsu Webchutney, Bangalore, said, TikTok has been growing with incredible momentum all over the world. Considering TikToks business model based on advertising and branded content, their revenue growth clearly lagged excitement from an Indian context. In the short term, TikTok still has over 85 million users on the app in India the length of the ban will clearly impact their long-term prospects. Social media services depend on future growth and revenue optimisation. We think the uncertainty in how the policy is applied is the biggest long-term threat to the company. The Supreme Court, which on Monday rejected an appeal by TikTok to suspend the order, is to hear the case again on April 22. The ban was introduced after the Madras High Court pointed out that the app contains pornographic content and is not safe to be used by children. Any content uploaded on the app by users should be scanned regularly and must be removed from the app as soon as it infringes the content policies. This will ensure that content that spreads hatred and is inappropriate does not get viral. The users of this app are much younger compared to that of other social platforms, Agarwal added. Backing TikTok, Sumedh Chaphekar, Co-founder, NoFiltr.Group, said, TikTok is a tremendously powerful platform. A new generation of talent worked extremely hard and took advantage of the platform to create new and innovative pieces of content every day. They further influenced the next generation that looked up to them. Were glad we could help them on their journey. Having said that, we at Nofiltr stand for empowering creators, regardless of the platforms. We love TikTok and we wish them luck in this situation. We believe theyll be back soon. TikTok has also run into trouble in other parts of the world. After being banned in neighbouring Bangladesh, it was also hit with a large fine in the United States for illegally collecting information from children. Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, CEO & Co-founder, Gozoop, spoke about the need to monitor content. Technology is never the problem but the way it is used can be good or bad. Platforms definitely need to take measures to control offensive or vulgar content. I see this impacting brand campaigns on TikTok in the short term. We were also planning TikTok campaigns for our clients at Gozoop, but right now we will be re-evaluating them. TikTok is a fantastic platform for engagement with a highly engaged audience. We are expecting campaigns to restart as soon as the platform abides by the law. Talking about the best strategy forward for TikTok, Reghunath said the app should own up the loopholes and work with the government to reinstate services as soon as possible. Ankit Nalotia, Founder, Mo Mantra backed a limited ban. All things considered, to be completely forthright, ban of TikTok was important to a limited degree as it was genuinely affecting the young generation. No question, TikTok had a good piece of the pie in India and unquestionably the ban would affect the organisation to an extent but considering their reach and presence, they will sustain in the market. The ban has also drawn attention towards the app, Nalotia pointed out. Though youngsters from Tier 1 and 2 cities were widely using it, the ban will now prompt those from lower-tier cities to also try it out. People will forget about this ban over time, but having said that TikTok needs to find a way to expel objectionable content from the platform to come back with a bang. Everything will work to support them if an effective control system is in place for filtering content before it finds its way to the app, Nalotia added. Meanwhile, TikTok has issued a statement saying, We have faith in the Indian judicial system. Unfortunately, due to an interim court order, the TikTok app has been temporarily taken down from online app stores as of April 17, 2019. However, this interim ban does not affect hundreds of millions of existing users of the app. Court Order Talking about the court order, Petal Chandhok, Partner, & Aditya Singh Rathore, Associate, at Trust Legal, Advocates & Consultants, said The High Court of Judicature at Madras at Madurai came strongly against the immensely popular social media video sharing platform namely TikTok (erstwhile Musical.ly), owned and operated by Beijing ByteDance Technology Co Ltd. of China, to protect the young tender children from becoming cyber/online victims and passed an interim order on April 3, 2019, prohibiting the download and usage of the mobile application throughout the nation. Consequently, TikTok moved the Supreme Court, wherein a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjeev Khanna refused to intervene and grant any relief to TikTok. In another development, on April 16, 2019, the High Court of Judicature at Madras at Madurai appointed Senior Advocate Arvind Datar as amicus curiae to examine the implications of the mobile application. The future of TikTok in one of its key market, i.e. India, is uncertain as in furtherance of the order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Madras at Madurai on April 3, 2019, the government of India has taken steps and directed Google and Apple to take down the mobile application from their respective platforms, they added. Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India) Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 5:31PM Embed from Getty Images Mike Myers is returning to his sketch comedy roots for his upcoming original show on Netflix. There isnt much known about the project, except that itll be a limited six-episode series starring the former Saturday Night Live cast member. He will also be one of the shows executive producers. Myers is said to be playing multiple characters on the show. Other than these details, there isnt any other information just yet. Source: Engadget Thursday's eagerly anticipated Euro zone PMI releases prompted the single currency to nose-dive against a basket of peers as measures of both French and German manufacturing activity remained firmly in contraction territory, cancelling out any hopes that Eurozone figures would follow suit of earlier Chinese data in registering an uptick in activity. Above: IHS Markit Flash France PMI French PMIs Key Points: - Flash France Composite Output Index at 50.0 in April from 48.9 in March (2-month high) - Flash France Services Activity Index at 50.5 in April (49.1 in March), 5-month high - Flash France Manufacturing Output Index at 47.4 in April (48.1 in March), 4-year low - Flash France Manufacturing PMI at 49.6 in April (49.7 in March), 32-month low Key Quotes: Commenting on the Flash PMI data, Eliot Kerr, Economist at IHS Markit said: "The stabilisation of output in April is further evidence of the dwindling economic impact of the gilets jaunes demonstrations. Protestor numbers have fallen to approximately 10% of their peak and the remaining disruption has been limited." However, protests aside, an underlying slowdown in demand remains evident in the French PMI data. New orders fell for the fifth month in a row during April, partly driven by a sixth consecutive contraction in exports. Although the rate of deterioration in new business eased, many panellists mentioned a decline in activity at their clients." "More positively, firms were able to brush aside recruitment difficulties and increase staff numbers at a faster pace than in March. Although a mismatch between skills and open vacancies remains apparent, businesses continue to demonstrate the ability to overcome the adverse conditions. Above: IHS Markit Germany Flash PMI Key Points: - The IHS Markit Flash Germany Composite Output Index ticked up from a 69-month low of 51.4 in March to 52.1 in April - The index remained below its long-run average of 53.4 - Flash Germany Services PMI Activity Index at 55.6 (Mar: 55.4). 7-month high - Flash Germany Manufacturing PMI at 44.5 (Mar: 44.1). 2-month high - Flash Germany Manufacturing Output Index at 45.6 (Mar: 43.9). 2-month high Key Quotes: Commenting on the flash PMI data, Phil Smith, Principal Economist at IHS Markit said: "The overall picture for Germanys private sector has changed very little according to Aprils flash data, with strong growth across the services economy continuing to counteract the export-led weakness in manufacturing." "Amid reports of a declining car industry, strong competition across Europe and generally subdued global demand, the data showed another steep drop in German goods exports and the lowest confidence among manufacturers for six-and-a-half years." "The survey continues to highlight strong job creation across the service sector, which is in turn supporting wage growth and means we should see consumer demand continue to rise during the second quarter. RUPIAH UPDATE APRIL 19: The Indonesian Rupiah failed to extend gains through Thursday's session yet remained in the vicinity of a seven-week best amid expectations of a Jokowi election win. In a move which could spark some near-term uncertainty, both leading candidates for the election - incumbent Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and challenger Prabowo Subianto - both declared victory despite a lack of official election results. Speaking to reporters, President Jokowi said "We are still waiting for the General Election Commissions official count. But 12 pollsters have given clear results stating the Jokowi-Maruf ticket got 54.5 per cent of the vote while Prabowo got 45.5 per cent." Meanwhile Prabowo told reporters "I repeat today, I am Prabowo Subianto, stating that Sandiaga Uno and I declare victory as the president and vice-president of Indonesia with 62 per cent of votes." Official results aren't expected to be released until May 22nd, however a confirmation of a Jokowi re-election is expected to bode well for the Rupiah with analysts forecasting the USD/IDR to breach current support at 14000 to target 13895. APRIL 18: Both the Jakarta composite index and Indonesian Rupiah were up during Thursday's session in the wake of unofficial election results which indicated that incumbent President Joko Widodo (aka Jokowi) was on track to secure a second term in office. Currently trading at 14040, the US Dollar to Indonesian Rupiah briefly breached support at 14000 earlier in the session for the first time since late February. Despite the upbeat outlook reflected by currency markets, a number of institutional analysts expressed doubts that Jokowi's radical reforms could be stifled by a divided parliament. They said that a failure to push through major reforms would leave Southeast Asia's largest economy struggling in the face of a tough external environment. Priyanka Kishore, head of India and Southeast Asia economics at research firm Oxford Economic wrote A fragmented parliament and external vulnerabilities have held back Jokowis ambitious reforms and infrastructure spending plans over the last five years, adding "Both of these factors are likely to continue casting a shadow over his second term as well, in a report on Wednesday. While "quick counts" and exit polls suggested that Jokowi is set to widen his lead over former army general Prabowo Subianto, whom he narrowly beat in the 2014 presidential election, Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement Party was also expected to increase its number of seats in parliament, which could increase political friction and make it difficult for the government to pursue their proposed reforms. Head of Southeast and South Asia at risk consultancy Eurasia Group, Peter Mumford, said "Jokowis victory ... will be insufficient to break him free of the constraints of coalition partners and vested interests - elite political, military, religious and state-owned enterprise (SOE) leaders, adding "Thus, we are not optimistic that Jokowi will use his second term to push ahead with serious structural reform. Alternatively, some speculators feel the fact that this is Jokowi's final term put him in a 'nothing to lose' position. Speaking to CNBC, Finance Minister Muhamad Chatib Basri said "He doesnt need to worry whether he will get reelected again by 2024 so he could do something more, but we have to wait (and see)." With the official election results expected to be withheld until May 22nd, markets will have to make do with unofficial results in the interim with the obvious near-term risk that the early releases don't reflect the actual outcome. Once confirmed, the parliamentary make-up could provide some indication as to how much opposition Jokowi is likely to face moving forward with, from an economic perspective, the less the better. On the post-result prospects for the Indonesian Rupiah, Maybank analysts wrote "Should official results confirm the Jokowis win, the IDR should remain buoyed by expectations of policy continuity and acceleration in infrastructure spending together with further fiscal policies to tame the twin deficits." They added that near-term "Market optimism over a Jokowi victory should be market positive and encourage further inflows into both equities and Indonesian government bonds (IndoGB). We watch for the USDIDR to break below the 14000-levels for a revisit of 13895-levels (2019 low)." From: American Evaluation Association (AEA) For Immediate Release: Dateline: Washington , DC Thursday, April 18, 2019 Im Stephanie Chasteen, an external evaluator on NSF-funded projects aiming to improve STEM education at the university level. This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on Theory of Change. Today, Ill share the process I use to help clients develop Theories of Change (ToC). Tomorrow, Ill share how Ive been able to work with an evaluation champion within the organization to develop organizational capacity in Theory of Change development. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has required Theories of Change as part of many educational proposals for some time, but there has been quite a bit of confusion among my clients as to what exactly is meant by a ToC or why it would be useful. Lesson Learned: Ive learned not to back down when a client doesnt want to develop a ToC (or take the time to do it well). When I have not done so, target audiences and outcomes were usually muddy. One client fought me the whole way, feeling it was confusing exercise without practical value. Later, however, she related to me, Now I know why you had me do that, and it was totally useful. Now Im developing one on my own for this new project and it was so much easier. Most clients who develop Theories of Change go on to create (very good!) ToCs to guide other projects, and this gives me pride. Hot Tip: Developing a Theory of Change is confusing the first time around. Emphasize with clients that boxes represent outcomes, not strategies. Get your hands dirty with post-it notes; write down outcomes, move them around, and ask questions about how they connect. (The image is our in-progress diagram; see tomorrows post for the final version.) Give clients permission to do it their way: The test of a good TOC is that it is useful, not that it is perfect or follows a prescribed model. My clients have been very creative in using color coding or organizational elements to help their diagrams. Questions I like to ask are: How do you want the world to be different as a result of your project? (Project vision) Name a few changes that would need to happen to achieve your vision? (Long-term outcomes) What changes would need to happen to achieve those outcomes? (Short-term outcomes) Thus, we essentially work backwards from the project vision. Dont skimp on the project vision! It is such a valuable clarification and inspiration moment for most leaders. During this process I keep my eye open for miracles steps which seem to magically lead to the next step. A common example is High quality materials are developed and People use those materials effectively. Wow, magic! The missing steps might be People find the materials and see that they are valuable and People learn how to use the materials. Such insights lead to valuable additions to the project strategy. Rad Resources: TheoryofChange.org and their examples EstherJames.coms Tutorial: How to write a Theory of Change SMART goals Padlet for virtual sticky notes Theory of Change 3-minute video on YouTube is great for clients Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the About AEA The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association and the largest in its field. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEAs mission is to improve evaluation practices and methods worldwide, to increase evaluation use, promote evaluation as a profession and support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action. For more information about AEA, visit www.eval.org. Im, an external evaluator on NSF-funded projects aiming to improve STEM education at the university level. This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on Theory of Change. Today, Ill share the process I use to help clients develop Theories of Change (ToC). Tomorrow, Ill share how Ive been able to work with an evaluation champion within the organization to develop organizational capacity in Theory of Change development.The National Science Foundation (NSF) has required Theories of Change as part of many educational proposals for some time, but there has been quite a bit of confusion among my clients as to what exactly is meant by a ToC or why it would be useful.Ive learned not to back down when a client doesnt want to develop a ToC (or take the time to do it well). When I have not done so, target audiences and outcomes were usually muddy. One client fought me the whole way, feeling it was confusing exercise without practical value. Later, however, she related to me, Now I know why you had me do that, and it was totally useful. Now Im developing one on my own for this new project and it was so much easier. Most clients who develop Theories of Change go on to create (very good!) ToCs to guide other projects, and this gives me pride.Developing a Theory of Change is confusing the first time around. Emphasize with clients that boxes represent outcomes, not strategies. Get your hands dirty with post-it notes; write down outcomes, move them around, and ask questions about how they connect. (The image is our in-progress diagram; see tomorrows post for the final version.) Give clients permission to do it their way: The test of a good TOC is that it is useful, not that it is perfect or follows a prescribed model. My clients have been very creative in using color coding or organizational elements to help their diagrams.Questions I like to ask are:Thus, we essentially work backwards from the project vision. Dont skimp on the project vision! It is such a valuable clarification and inspiration moment for most leaders.During this process I keep my eye open for miracles steps which seem to magically lead to the next step. A common example is High quality materials are developed and People use those materials effectively. Wow, magic! The missing steps might be People find the materials and see that they are valuable and People learn how to use the materials. Such insights lead to valuable additions to the project strategy.Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. A leading infectious disease scientist at Texas Biomedical Research Institute has been named executive director of the Vaccine Development Center of San Antonio. Joanne Turner, vice president for research at the institute, said Wednesday shes looking forward to her new role as she takes the reins from the groups founding director. Turner, who has a doctorate in immunology, has studied vaccines for decades. Her focus is on understanding how and why elderly people are more susceptible to tuberculosis infection. I was very happy to take it on, she said of her new position. The vaccine center is a collaboration of four research institutions Texas Biomed, UT Health San Antonio, the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Southwest Research Institute. Former Texas Biomed CEO Kenneth Trevett founded the center in 2012 to compete for funding for vaccine development, encourage collaborative research projects and draw attention to the benefits of vaccines through public outreach. The group also hosts an annual conference on infection, immunity and vaccines. With preventable infectious diseases on the rise across the U.S., Turner said shes happy to take on the anti-vaccine movement. However, people who choose not to vaccinate only account for 1 or 2 percent of the population, she said. Really, anti-vaxxers are a very small part of the population, although they are very loud. Turner hopes she can also turn attention to the issue of getting vaccines to the people who need and want them but dont have access. Bernard Arulanandam, one of the centers scientific co-directors and UTSAs interim vice president for research, economic development and knowledge enterprise, said Turner is an excellent choice for the position. "Joanne is an accomplished scientist in TB research and brings a vast and broad knowledge in vaccine discovery that will greatly aid the center in meeting its goals," he said. Laura Garcia covers the healthcare industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her stories and more local coverage on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura Hallmark University is launching a free program on the East Side to introduce people to potential careers in cybersecurity and information technology. The eight-week boot camp, held at the Ella Austin Community Center on North Pine Street, targets locals between ages 18 and 30. Participants will meet for a few hours five days a week, and training will be overseen by DC Industries, a San Antonio organization that offers various courses. At the end theyll test for Network+ and Security+ certifications, and Hallmark will cover the exam costs. Participants will also get help with their resumes and setting up interviews with local companies, and theyre guaranteed admission to the nonprofit universitys cybersecurity and information systems program. On ExpressNews.com: Report: San Antonios cyber, IT firms hurting for trained workers More than 50 people have already applied for 16 spots in the inaugural cohort, which starts May 6. Those who dont make the cut will be put on a wait list for a second round. One of Hallmarks goals for the program, called Eastside Cyberforce Prime, is to raise awareness about the job opportunities in one of San Antonios fastest-growing segments. When you have a new industry like IT and cybersecurity, the chances are pretty good, especially if you've been in an underserved community, that you don't know anybody in IT, said Brent Fessler, Hallmarks chief advancement and institutional effectiveness officer.. You're not thinking, I could do that, I could be that. Its an entry-level initiative, and people wont come out landing six-figure jobs, Fessler said. But hopefully theyll figure out if its something theyre interested in. On ExpressNews.com: SAISD to open cybersecurity early college high school on East Side University leaders started thinking about the initiative about three years ago, after noticing few of their students come from the East Side, Fessler said. At the same time, companies in San Antonio were struggling to find the cyber talent they needed to fill jobs. Other efforts are under way to highlight cybersecurity opportunities in the area, such as Cyber P-TECH, an early-college high school at Sam Houston High School on the East Side. But adults cant take advantage of those, Fessler said. Much of Hallmarks marketing has been a grassroots effort, with visits to churches and barber shops to spread the word, said Brandon Logan, a member of Hallmarks board of trustees and the CEO of Urban Capital Partners. The location was crucial, as was ensuring cost wasnt a barrier, he added. Hallmark spent about $53,000 on the program, a university spokesperson said. They would need to raise around that amount for a second round and are hopeful theyll be able to. We know the potential and the capability are here, Fessler said. madison.iszler@express-news.net Note: This is a full Taste Test review, with a star rating based on multiple visits. As a physical presence, Biga on the Banks stretches back to 2000, when it opened above the River Walk under chef Bruce Auden, to whom many give credit for jump-starting the citys appetite for high-end cooking. But Bigas spiritual reach goes deeper, back to the 80s and 90s, when Auden shepherded a generation of chefs through kitchens at Polos in the Fairmount Hotel and his former Restaurant Biga on Locust Street. Audens in his 60s now, but he glides through the dining room with a young mans swagger, dressed in chefs working blues on his way to the kitchen. How is his River Walk flagship holding up as the citys restaurant scene matures around it? Follow the adjectives. Elegant, solid, confident. Yes. But also expensive, dated and predictable. The modern Biga experience hangs in the balance between those contradictory descriptors. Bigas happy to decant a bottle of California cabernet from a solid wine list an hour ahead of a reservation. And its comfortable charging $45 for a seafood stew or $18 for a margarita. Biga on the Banks ** 203 S. St. Mary's St., 210-225-0722, biga.com Quick bite: New American cooking in a posh setting Hit: Foie gras, axis quail and venison Miss: Pork chop, smoked salmon nachos Hours: 5:30-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 5:30-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday Price range: Appetizers, $14-$24; soups and salads, $9-$11; sides, $6-$8; entrees, $21-$52; desserts, $7-$15 Alcohol: Wine, cocktails and beer **** Superior. Can compete nationally. *** Excellent. One of the best restaurants in the city. ** Very good. A standout restaurant of its kind. * Good. A restaurant that we recommend. (no stars) We cannot recommend this restaurant at this time. Express-News dining critics pay for all meals. See More Collapse And for special occasions, Biga offers one of the most ostentatiously romantic tables in town: Table 10, with a wraparound curtain to create an alcove within the restaurants already escapist landscape of dark reds, flickering candles, River Walk vistas and private dens created by swirls of fabric like a sheiks retreat. On ExpressNews.com: Review: Mixtlis modernist Mexican food earns San Antonio critics first 4-star restaurant rating There are times to be grateful for Bigas extravagance. As an opener, as a dessert hell, as a main course Bigas foie gras presented a hedonists showcase of lush goose liver seared and sweetened and caramelized over French toast with berry chutney, a kind of royal fantasy food except that its real. Wild games an indulgence, not just for sourcing but for the eccentricities of cooking it, and Biga stepped into the breach with a mixed grill of rosy-red axis venison and amber-skinned quail perfumed with an 11-spice blend. A plate that could have veered into eccentric excess with a goat cheese tart, chestnuts, Brussels sprout leaves and chutney instead became a self-contained homage to field and feast. In general, Biga knows its way around big-ticket meat. At $52, a grilled rib-eye might seem lavish, but that price included confit-roasted potatoes and a composed salad of shaved asparagus and arugula. The steak itself gave full voice to the good life, with mahogany flash outside, a velveteen blush inside and an opulent buttery bearnaise over the top. A criss-cross of lamb chops struck a balance between grilled sear and grassy finesse, finished with an intricate tangle of beets, fennel, carrots and feta cheese over respectable Southern-style grits. By contrast, there are times to be confounded by Bigas extravagance. Like when $15 smoked salmon nachos showed up looking bare and sloppy, like theyd already been picked over. Or when an octopus campechana behaved more like a saccharin shrimp cocktail dolled up in a martini glass. Maybe both represented new ideas when they first hit the menu, but others smoked fish fusion dishes and ceviche preparations have long since passed them by. The wild game that did so well roasted and grilled lost its footing in an appetizer billed as Bibb and Radicchio Game Packets, but instead came off like sloppy Joes on lettuce leaves. As if to prove that sometimes simple is better, a Berkshire pork chop that could have been left alone as a full-bodied chop was laid out in slices around the bone that let the overdone meat dry out even more. In a restaurant with an accomplished wine list and an enviable roster of big-time whiskeys and spirits, Biga could and should do a better job with its cocktails, throwback standards that command mixology prices but dont bother with custom-matched glassware or ice thats any better than the stuff in your water glass. Biga thrives largely in the sweet spot between those two extremes. In the solid middle stand bangle-size onion rings in a Shiner Bock batter. Bigas time-honored chicken-fried oysters, the kings of San Antonio appetizers, are comfortable on their thrones of squid-ink pasta with mustard hollandaise. Maybe too comfortable. Reliable openers include a pair of scallops with a disciplined habanero jerk rub and contrasting pineapple chutney and a smart cheese course with quince paste, honeycomb and Marcona almonds. Either ones a nice prelude to duck dressed out like a Sunday dinner with sliced, seared breast and a braised leg with Brussels sprouts and lentils. On ExpressNews.com: Zero-Star Review: Paesanos running on nostalgia and not much else Bigas not a seafood place, per se, but its comfortable with fennel-crusted tuna over Israeli couscous, and its known for a Close-to-Bouillabaisse stew of lobster, shellfish, tuna and snapper although I wanted a more robust broth and more seafood for $45. The comfort zone extended to an English dessert standard of sticky toffee pudding with custard like a hug and a kiss on a spoon and a dense bread pudding with flamed bananas. Service can make or break a restaurant at this level. Or it can leave the customer squarely in the middle. I experienced three levels: glib informality, mannered restraint and educated polish, a kind of Goldilocks progression where just right means a waiter who knows the menu, makes recommendations in each category and pays heed to the pacing of the table so everything doesnt arrive at the same time. I landed in the Goldilocks Zone just once. All told, Bigas a solid performer, a reliable taste of the good life on the River Walk. Theres some work to be done keeping up with the citys more progressive, creative restaurant scene. But whos better qualified to do that than the man who brought it to life? Mike Sutter is a food and drink reporter and restaurant critic in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking The 8-year-old daughter of Andre and Andreen McDonald, the San Antonio woman who has been missing since March 1 and is presumed dead by law enforcement, is at the center of a custody battle between her grandparents, court records show. Paul Anderson, the girls maternal grandfather, filed a petition April 5 in Bexar County district court asking a judge to appoint him the sole managing conservator of the girl and the couples property so he can help support the child, who has high-functioning autism. The child requires substantial care and personal supervision because of a mental or physical disability and/or because recent events surrounding the disappearance of her mother, the suit alleges. Edward Cano, Andersons attorney, said the petition was a routine measure to make sure the child is cared for in the absence of her parents. The girls father, Andre McDonald, faces a tampering with evidence charge in connection with his wifes disappearance and is prohibited from contacting his daughter as a condition of his bond. Authorities believe the girl may have seen something happen to her mother. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio man charged with tampering in wife's disappearance released from jail But Jean Brown, an attorney representing Hyacinth Smith, the girls maternal grandmother, described the custody case in a much different light. She said Smith, who split with Anderson several years ago, was unaware Anderson was seeking custody of the child until Friday, a week after the petition was filed. He did not tell my client about this suit, Brown said. She found out through a third party. Brown said Smith is in a better position to take care of the girl because she has been consistently involved in the her upbringing. She said Anderson, who lives in England, visited the family about once a year. Mom is not in that home. Dad is not in that home, Brown said. The only constant in that girls life is her grandmother. According to Cano, Anderson filed the petition because he did not have access to basic information regarding the girls upbringing and McDonalds household. In the petition, he asked a judge for temporary or permanent conservatorship of his daughter and son-in-laws property. Its important to know if the mortgage and lights will be paid where this girl lives, Cano said. Cano declined to specify why Anderson is a better fit than Smith to take care of the girl. He said he didnt want to disparage anyone, especially given what the family has been through. The only people who have a legal say are the girls mom and dad, he said. That is why this case is being pursued. We cant leave this little girl in limbo. According to Brown, Smith has been the primary caregiver for the girl since she was born in 2011. Smith helped with the couples assisted-living business and lived with them in their Timberwood Park-area home. Thats not to say that the parents werent very involved, helping with homework and whatnot, Brown said. But the grandmother was the primary caregiver. On ExpressNews.com: Missing woman and her husband had a history of fighting, employee says Brown said Anderson moved into the family home with his wife shortly after Andreen McDonald went missing. She said Smith allowed the move because they were both grieving. In recent weeks, Anderson has become withdrawn and rarely comes out of his bedroom, Brown said. She said Anderson has not helped take care of the girl, who began acting out after her mother went missing. I spoke to the girls special education manager and teacher, and they both say that this little girls behavior has changed since this incident, Brown said. She was head of her class. They said it was obvious someone at home spent a lot of time working with her. Subsequent to this incident, this little girl has turned very dark, Brown added. She says things like, Im going to kill you. Im going to cut you up. Im going to burn you. Cano challenged Browns description of Andersons relationship with his granddaughter, saying he has been very involved with her care. He said Anderson has no plans to relocate the child or keep her away from her grandmother. Our main concern is getting her what she needs, he said. Earlier this week, Brown filed an intervention in the custody case, asking a judge to appoint Smith as the sole managing conservator of the girl and the couples property. A custody hearing is scheduled Tuesday, at which time a judge is expected to issue a temporary order regarding custody of the girl and access to the McDonalds property. Cano said he hopes Andre McDonald, who is a defendant in the case, and the grandparents can come to an agreement. Ive been anxious to confer with anyone who will talk to me to ascertain if we can come to an arrangement as to whats in this girls best interest, Cano said. Mr. Anderson has come a long way and plans to be here temporarily to make sure that the girl is OK. Emilie Eaton is a criminal justice reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | eeaton@express-news.net | Twitter: @emilieeaton U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said he still has not made a decision on whether he will run against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in 2020. Ill have an announcement soon, Castro said during a stop at the Texas Capitol Building on Wednesday. Castro, the 44-year-old San Antonio Democrat, pointed out that in past races hes made a decision by May 1. As Castro weighed his decision, other prominent Democrats have said they, too, are looking at jumping into the race. MJ Hegar, a former U.S. Air Force helicopter pilot, has said on social media that she is considering making a bid. When asked about Hegar on Wednesday, Castro spoke more generally about how competitive primaries are likely going to be the norm in Texas politics. I think probably the era of uncontested primaries in both parties in Texas is over, Castro said. In 2018, Hegar narrowly lost a race for Congress in Williamson County, just north of Austin. Hegar was a longshot when the race started, but raised $5 million and nearly defeated U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, who has been in Congress since 2002. Castro may not be in the Senate race, but he used his stop Wednesday to jab at Cornyn and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, both Republicans, for not being more aggressive in opposing President Donald Trumps threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico. The U.S.-Mexico border could be shut down and the response so far from our senators has been very feeble and weak, Castro said. Castro said shutting the border would have a devastating impact on Texas and its economy. Cornyn was also in Austin on Wednesday talking about border security. He said he has advised President Trump against closing the border. I told him I thought there were better alternatives that would not have unintended consequences, said Cornyn, who has been in the U.S. Senate since 2002. In March, Trump told reporters there was a very good likelihood he would close the border. Later he said he didnt think he would need to close the border. At a press conference with Cruz and members of the state Senate, Cornyn stressed that there is a crisis on the border that Democrats are not taking seriously enough. He pointed to data that show that the number of people detained at the border has jumped from 76,000 in February to 103,000 in March. When it hits 200,000 will that be enough for them to acknowledge the obvious? Cornyn asked. There was plenty of pomp and circumstance Friday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lacklands parade field, braced by military discipline but slightly bent from proximity to a certain civic holiday. The Air Force parades its graduating basic trainees most Fridays of the year. Freshly minted airmen march. An all-recruit band performs patriotic tunes. But this one was different. For starters, there were zany uniforms and outlandish medals decorating King Antonio XCVII and Rey Feo LXXI, the ugly king, and members of their entourages among the honored guests. But thats Fiesta for you, infusing sober military tradition with comic opera, or vice-versa. The 808 graduates and their families in the crowd of 7,000 got something extra a taste of San Antonios goofball party style. They stick out, Airman 1st Class Nikolas Gonzalez, 21, said of the Fiesta royalty shortly after graduating, surrounded by family members from Chicago. Military events at Fiesta 2019 Fiesta & Fireworks Celebration: 1-9 p.m. Saturday, Fort Sam Houston's MacArthur Parade Field. Public welcome. Bring your lawn chair for family fun, refreshment and crafts vendors, live music, interactive inflatables, games, youth crafts. Parade ceremony begins at 2 p.m. Fireworks at dusk. Go to jbsatoday.com. Air Force at the Alamo: 11 a.m. Monday. Demonstrations and performances by Air Force units, including a military working dog demonstration. Lackland's Drum and Bugle Corps features men and women still in basic training, on special-duty assignment. Go to www.aetc.af.mil or facebook.com/AirEducationandTrainingCommand. Army Day at the Alamo: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday. Event highlights the 174-year presence of the U.S. Army in San Antonio with the 323rd Army Band and Army Fife and Drum Corps. Go to www.arnorth.army.mil. Navy Day at the Alamo: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday. Meet sailors who describe and demonstrate Navy skills and capabilities, including hospital corpsmen who provide medical care to sailors and Marines worldwide. Go to| www.navy.mil. All Veterans Memorial Service: 1 p.m. April 28 at Veterans Plaza, East Houston & Jefferson streets downtown. Alamo Chapter 366 of the Vietnam Veterans of America holds ceremony honoring all veterans. Bring flowers to place on Battle of Hill 881 South monument. Chapter members include soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who served from 1961 to 1975. Go to www.vietnamveteransofamericaalamochapter366.com See More Collapse There was a lot going on with their uniforms, Aliana Gonzalez, 24, agreed. Is it a circus? laughed Joe Gonzalez, 47, a special needs worker. Fiesta started as a commemoration of Texas fight for independence and evolved into a sprawling constellation of street parties celebrating San Antonios diversity of cultures, communities and traditions. Though folks like to say San Antonio is a city in search of a party, those associated with Fiesta prefer to think of it as a party with a purpose fundraising by scores of nonprofits. Thats the best way to say it, said Alcide Longoria, a commercial real estate broker who is an aide to King Antonio XCVII, noting that groups like the Cavaliers raise money for charitable causes in this case, kids. We definitely have a good time doing it. The military goes all in. An Army unit called the Belknap Rifles marched in the first Battle of Flowers in 1891. Participation has been a constant since then, to honor our long-standing partnership with the city and to show our support to the people of San Antonio, just as they support our service members and their families, said Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan of U.S. Army North. The excitement and fun Fiesta brings is made sweeter because of the many military ties that Fiesta has, said Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, who leads the Air Education and Training Command and was the reviewing official at Fridays ceremony. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the 11-day Fiesta allows civilians to show their appreciation of the armed forces and exposes those in uniform to a host city unlike any theyll experience anywhere else. I think they really enjoy it, too, Wolff said of officers and enlistees. It gives them a better sense of what San Antonios about. And I think the military loves parades, and we do a pretty good parade, ourselves. On ExpressNews.com: Fiesta formula: Keep it local Festivities involving the armed services will run all week. The parade at Lackland included U.S. Rep. Will Hurd and other government and civic leaders along with the military brass and Fiesta royalty. On Saturday, it will be Fort Sam Houstons turn, with its 2019 Fiesta & Fireworks Celebration, featuring the 323rd Army Band augmented by 16 musicians from Fort Hood. The Air Force will be at the Alamo on Monday, the Army on Tuesday and the Navy on Thursday. The military and Fiesta both are part of San Antonios DNA, Mayor Ron Nirenberg observed. Service members from across Joint Base San Antonio are chosen each year to represent their respective military service as part of Fiestas Military Ambassador Program throughout the year, not just during Fiesta. They represent their service and JBSA at events throughout South Texas. On ExpressNews.com: 10 questions: Fiesta history, how much do you know? Nirenberg has been in Lacklands Honorary Commander program for nearly three years, assigned to the 433rd Training Squadron, an Air Force Reserve unit. The program runs at Fort Sam and JBSA-Randolph as well, matching commanders with influential local civic leaders. Honorary commanders see how life works in the military and theyre telling our story for us in their own social and professional networks, said Bob Rubio, the spokesman for the Air Forces 37th Training Wing. At Fort Sam on Saturday, military demonstrations will begin at 2 p.m. with performances from all services, including the Special Operations Black Daggers parachute team, the Army Fife and Drum Corps and the 1st Cavalry Divisions horse troopers. Live music will set the stage for the fireworks finale. Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jonathan D. Ward, commander and bandmaster of the 323rd, called Fort Sam's Own, said the band will play a short concert after the featured artist, Donovan Keith, then finish the evening with the 1812 Overture with cannons and fireworks part of the soundtrack. We're also doing the full gamut of Fiesta parades, river parades and ceremonies, Army Day at the Alamo and the Veterans Memorial Ceremony, the last official ceremony of Fiesta, he added. Its going to be a blast. Sig Christenson covers the military and veterans in San Antonio, Bexar County and the nation. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe Comal County, northeast of San Antonio, has continued to grow at a breakneck pace, ranking second nationally among U.S. counties in percentage gains in population, according to new Census Bureau numbers. The county home to New Braunfels is on the exploding Interstate 35 corridor and has seen rapid development for years, turning its once-rural ranching landscape into a boom region that must cope with growing school enrollment and demands on infrastructure. The countys population grew by 5.4 percent or almost 8,000 residents between July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018, the Census Bureau reported. Comals population is now estimated at 148,373. Jocelyn Jones, 31, is one of the new arrivals. She moved from the St. Louis area last May with her husband and their two young daughters. The family relocated because her husband took a job in insurance sales in downtown San Antonio. They settled in a rural area about 11 miles outside New Braunfels. They looked at houses in the Stone Oak area on San Antonios North Side but preferred the small-town feel of Comal County. Its way less traffic, Jones said. We dont really like a lot of traffic. Of course, my husband, he has to commute during the day. But he was going to have to commute if we lived in Stone Oak. There was going to be traffic regardless. Comal County also seemed like a good place to raise children and has good schools, she said. Jones ticked off a list of the areas positive attributes: All the surrounding towns you have San Antonio, Austin ... The weather. The rivers. The weather is our main thing we came from the cold. On ExpressNews.com: New Braunfels: From small town to suburb Comal County was outranked only by Williams County in North Dakota among U.S. counties recording the largest percentage gains in a single year, according to annual population estimates released by the Census Bureau. The ranking focused on U.S. counties with at least 20,000 residents in both 2017 and 2018. Almost all of Comal Countys population surge can be attributed to people moving there. More than 7,000 new residents migrated there from elsewhere in Texas or the country, while 148 people moved there from abroad during the one-year period. Births barely outnumbered deaths in that time span. Bexar County also continues to show strong population growth, ranking ninth among U.S. counties with the largest increases in raw population numbers. The county gained 27,208 residents between July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018. Part of that increase is due to births outnumbering deaths. A total of 27,700 babies were born in Bexar County, while almost 14,000 people died during that 12-month period, according to the latest census data. That alone boosted the countys population by almost 14,000 people. But part of the surge can be attributed to new residents moving in. Census numbers show 13,308 people moved into Bexar County during the one-year span. Almost 8,200 of them came from elsewhere in Texas or the country, while 5,128 people moved from outside the U.S. Bexar Countys total population is closing in on the 2 million mark. The official estimate is now 1,986,049. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonios growth cant be stopped The ninth-place ranking is a slight drop from the previous year, when Bexar County placed seventh among U.S. counties with the largest increases in raw population numbers. Retired teacher Suzanne Sutcliffe, 68, moved to Bexar County last year to be closer to her children and grandchildren. She had lived in Phoenix for 40 years. Im actually loving living here, Sutcliffe said. This spring was like the first spring that Ive experienced since I was like 25 ... You dont get a spring in Phoenix except for some orange blossoms. Sutcliffe also discovered that housing costs less here. She initially rented an apartment in Universal City, then moved earlier this month into a house she purchased on San Antonios North East Side. I got more house for my money than what I sold in Phoenix, she said. So Im really excited about what I have. Its much nicer than what I had in Phoenix. I had to have a yard with trees. And I do. Bill Goodwyn, 79, and his wife, Judi, 75, are among the many Californians who have flooded Texas. The Goodwyns came to Bexar County from the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles last month. They live in the Oakwell Farms neighborhood, just inside North Loop 410. On ExpressNews.com: Growth in the inner city Goodwyn, who is retired, said he had lived in California for 51 years before the move. He and his wife are happy with their decision. Weve met an awful lot of people through Rotary and through church and other things that have made the welcome especially warm and comfortable, he said. The area we live in is just unbelievable. Its lovely and quiet. We live in a cul-de-sac with six houses. The people are just amazingly friendly, as opposed to Los Angeles ... I dont think we knew anybody on the street more than next door on each side. Sutcliffe, the retired teacher from Phoenix, also has been impressed by how friendly and polite people are in Bexar County. Maybe its called southern hospitality, she said. Everybodys been really nice. I just like that people say Yes maam all the time. Peggy OHare covers housing, demographics and the census in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare Days before the start of early voting in municipal elections, Mayor Ron Nirenberg convinced a bare majority of his colleagues Thursday to stick with an earlier decision to bar Chick-fil-A from the San Antonio International Airport, a move that has drawn national criticism. Nirenberg also persuaded council members not to direct the citys lobbyists to fight a bill that would invalidate the paid sick leave ordinance approved by the council last year. The policy requires most of San Antonios private-sector employers to provide such leave for employees. In both cases, Nirenberg was seeking to keep the lid on controversies that seemed to have been settled. Although the mayor prevailed on both votes Thursday, he had to re-fight old battles over contentious issues during the final stretch of his re-election campaign. Councilman Greg Brockhouse, Nirenbergs most prominent challenger in the May 4 election, used a procedural move under Roberts Rules of Order to try to force the council to vote again on whether to remove Chick-fil-A from the new airport concessions contract. Later, Councilman Rey Saldana proposed defending the citys paid sick leave ordinance at the Texas Legislature. The city has been officially neutral on state efforts to prohibit cities from implementing such policies. Both measures failed, 6-5. On ExpressNews.com: Brockhouse revives San Antonios Chick-fil-A debate While Nirenberg couldnt stop Brockhouses motion and agreed to let Saldanas proceed, some felt it reflected poorly on the mayors leadership that the issues even surfaced Thursday. I find it very offensive that weve put the city in this situation and that the mayor hasnt taken control of this situation early on, Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales said before the Chick-fil-A vote. The highly charged debates brought more controversy to City Hall than normal at this time of the year, when politicians traditionally eschew such hot-button issues. For Nirenberg, the high-profile votes risk alienating the left, which favors the paid sick leave policy, and the right, which sees the Chick-fil-A rejection as a religious rights issue. No public comment With dozens of supporters standing in the council chambers, Brockhouse proposed revisiting the Chick-fil-A decision at the councils next meeting. I consider this opportunity for us today to be a defining moment for the San Antonio City Council, Brockhouse said in introducing the proposal, which he first broached last week. City Attorney Andy Segovia said there would be no public comment on the vote during the session because it was merely a procedural one to place the contract on the next meetings calendar. That meant Brockhouses supporters, including state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, and Cornerstone Church Senior Pastor John Hagee, couldnt express their displeasure. Hagee stood up from his seat and left when Segovia said they couldnt speak. After a few council members spoke about Brockhouses proposal, he amended it to include a briefing session for more discussion after several members, including Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, expressed a desire for one. The briefing session would have been May 1, with a re-vote on the Chick-fil-A decision on May 2. The motion still failed. One of his colleagues questioned the timing of Brockhouses efforts. If his proposal had won approval, the vote would have come two days before his election contest against Nirenberg. It smacks of politics, said Councilman Manny Pelaez, who ultimately supported Brockhouses failed effort. Anybody in this room would be naive to believe this has nothing to do with mayoral politics. Brockhouse denied that assertion. Chick-fil-A, an Atlanta-based fast food chain with franchises across the country, has faced scrutiny in the past for comments its CEO made in 2012 opposing same-sex marriage, and the company faced further criticism for donations its foundation made to groups that are seen as discriminatory against the LGBT community. The company has said it employs and serves people regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Nirenberg, who has framed the Chick-fil-A issue in business terms instead of LGBT discrimination, said no business operating within the law is barred from operating in San Antonio. He suggested having a discussion in the future about the citys contracting process to ensure it operates under the full compliance of local, state and federal laws. Weve spent far too much time letting Councilman Brockhouse try to exploit a fast food subcontract for his own political gain, Nirenberg said in a statement afterward. Ive said from the beginning that I voted in the best interests of passengers and taxpayers, and its important to have something open 7 days a week and preferably local. All Chick-fil-A restaurants are closed on Sundays. Every council member who voted against the contract last month voted in favor of Brockhouses effort, save one: Councilman Art Hall. He said the council should stick to its decisions, even when he doesnt support them. Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, who abstained from the first vote, approved Brockhouses effort, as did Pelaez, who has said he regretted his original comments about Chick-fil-As record. Paid sick leave Unlike Chick-fil-A, the paid sick leave issue had Nirenberg and Brockhouse quietly on the same side. The city adopted the mandatory leave policy last year when faced with the specter of a ballot initiative, after a coalition of organizers collected the signatures required to do so. The policy met immediate resistance in the business community. Nirenberg, who voted in favor of the ordinance, has been clear since then that he doesnt think the city should be dictating the policy. Most seasoned observers expect the Legislature to approve the bill that would kill the citys policy and others like it, and San Antonios lobbyists have been neutral on it. Saldanas measure sought to change that. He said the city shouldnt remain neutral on an issue of local control, in which the Legislature is effectively reversing city action. On ExpressNews.com: Texas Senate OKs bill to strike down local sick leave ordinances But the motion failed, 6-5. Nirenberg, Brockhouse, Hall, and Pelaez voted no, along with Councilmen John Courage and Clayton Perry. Saldana said he thinks the vote reflects poorly on the councils decision last summer to approve the ordinance if its not willing to defend it. We took a very hollow vote in August, he said. My sense of wondering about this council is, do we just take symbolic votes? Michelle Tremillo, the executive director of the Texas Organizing Project, which organized the petition drive for the policy, released a blistering critique of the vote. We are extremely disappointed that our Mayor and City Council today chose to relinquish local control to the state because they dont want to anger large corporate interests, Tremillo said. We are extremely upset that our City Council today chose to sell out the working families that make San Antonio strong to appease their corporate backers. She said the city let San Antonio workers down. The mayor and the council members who voted against this resolution today will soon find out they were on the wrong side of history, Tremillo said. Dylan McGuinness covers City Hall and local politics in San Antonio. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dylan.mcguinness@express-news.net | Twitter: @DylMcGuinness City Council sessions during the run-up to an election usually are sleepy affairs; officials are wary of taking up controversial issues right before voters head to the polls. But Thursdays meeting four days before voters begin casting early ballots in the May 4 elections promises to be anything but sedate. Councilman Greg Brockhouse, whos vying for the mayors seat, will try to force another vote on the contentious airport contract approved last month that excluded Chick-fil-A. I will be making a motion at our City Council meeting to begin the process for a re-vote on Chick-fil-A, Brockhouse posted on Facebook. Make no mistake, this isnt about a chicken sandwich. Its about religious freedom and fairness in the citys contracting process. The issue ignited nationwide controversy that continues to roil social media. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation, and, on Wednesday, there was a protest at the state Capitol by a group of faith leaders and activists who ate Chick-fil-A sandwiches and condemned the San Antonio council. On ExpressNews.com: Brockhouse revives San Antonio's Chick-fil-A debate Separately, Councilman Rey Saldana plans to force a vote on another uncomfortable topic at City Hall: mandatory paid sick leave. Hes at the end of his tenure because of term limits, which relieves him of electoral concern. San Antonio adopted an ordinance last year requiring most businesses to provide a certain amount of sick leave for their employees, a policy that met resistance in the business community. The councils action was widely anticipated, since a coalition of activists had gathered enough signatures to place mandatory sick leave on the November ballot as a referendum if the council hadnt approved it. Most observers in Austin expect the Texas Legislature to ban the ordinance and others like it, and a bill doing that has already passed the Senate. San Antonio has remained neutral on the bill, which Saldana is aiming to change. We need to get on the record about whether we are protecting local control, Saldana said. We cant be neutral on that. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio charts course forward on paid sick leave, as court and legislative threats loom Its unclear whether either measure will pass, but the motions will force what could become prickly conversations just before voting begins for city elections. That is perhaps especially the case for the mayor. Chick-fil-A has emerged as a wedge issue in Nirenbergs re-election campaign against Brockhouse. And while Nirenberg supported paid sick leave last year, he has been clear that he doesnt think the city should be dictating the policy. Nirenberg said last week that the council would consider Brockhouses motion and then move on to important issues. He didnt comment Wednesday on Saldanas proposal. Brockhouse first revealed his move last week, surprising his colleagues. Thursdays vote will solely address whether to reconsider the contract. If approved, the actual reconsideration would likely occur at the next meeting, scheduled for May 2. The councilman said hes confident he can get the six votes necessary to advance the measure. Brockhouse and three other council members voted against the contract when it was approved last month. Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran abstained. Councilman Manny Pelaez has since said he regretted his comments about Chick-fil-As record. Pelaez told the Express-News on Wednesday he hasnt yet decided how he will vote on either issue. But he said hes troubled by the prospect of issues heading straight to the full council instead of making their way through committees. I think its a terrible precedent, Pelaez said. The reason committees exist is to refine policies before its submitted to a full council. Its also possible that members raise competing motions on the Chick-fil-A issue, Pelaez said, which could become the more attractive route. One such motion could send the issue back into a briefing session, where council members have more time potentially after the election to discuss an issue before taking action. During the debate about the vote last month, Viagran proposed doing that. She abstained after her motion failed. At Wednesdays protest, speakers spared little in blasting the San Antonio City Council. Let me remind you, legislators, that the eyes of Texas are upon you, and more importantly than that, the eyes of God are upon you, San Antonio businessman Weston Martinez said. We are going to be here to hold you accountable every step of the way, because weve got a liberal group in San Antonio that really wants to turn it into Sodom and Gomorrah. And were not going to stand by that. Regardless of whether either or both of the motions at Thursdays council meeting pass, they will make for a more lively discussion than normal at this time of year. Nine of the 11 council members will appear on the ballot May 4, with early voting beginning Monday. Only Saldana and Art Hall, who was appointed to fill an unexpired term, arent seeking reelection. I look forward to our council meetings, Pelaez said. This one is just strange. Dylan McGuinness covers City Hall and local politics in San Antonio. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dylan.mcguinness@express-news.net | Twitter: @DylMcGuinness Jerry Lara /Staff photographer San Antonio officials and fire union representatives have agreed to extend their contract talks in mediation, they announced Thursday. The two sides met Wednesday and Thursday in closed-door talks with former Texas Supreme court Justice Deborah Hankinson. They agreed to extend the talks for another 15 days, as allowed under state law, though its unclear how many times they will meet in that span. Sweltering in place 100-plus highs are common in San Antonio. Yet there's no beating the heat in the 40% of public housing units without AC. A lawmaker and a philanthropist say that's got to change. Sweltering in place 100-plus highs are common in San Antonio. Yet there's no beating the heat in the 40% of public housing units without AC. A lawmaker and a philanthropist say that's got to change. Its only April 10, but its already 92 degrees in San Antonio. And 91 degrees inside Margarita Ramos apartment. Rather than sit on her living room sofa, Ramos is sprawled across the linoleum floor. She picks that spot for a reason: Sometimes, she can feel a breeze blowing through the windows and front door. The slight draft and a single box fan in her 13-year-old sons bedroom are the only cooling sources in the two-bedroom apartment. Theres no ceiling fan. Theres no air conditioner, either. Margarita Ramos lies on the floor in front of an open window in her public housing apartment at Alazan-Apache Courts. Ramos lives in the Alazan-Apache Courts, which was San Antonios first public housing community when it opened in 1940. Back then, the apartments were a big step up for West Side residents whod lived in homes with dirt floors and no indoor plumbing. But nearly eight decades later, the units lack basic amenities. Most conspicuous, and potentially dangerous, is the absence of air conditioning. In San Antonio, where temperatures soared to 109 degrees last summer, almost 2,400 public housing apartments about 40 percent of the units arent equipped with air conditioning. Statewide, at least 7,400 apartments subsidized by federal tax dollars lack cooling capabilities, according to a San Antonio Express-News survey. Those uncooled homes are scattered across the state, including 1,364 in humid, coastal Corpus Christi and 598 in Laredo, along the U.S.-Mexico border where temperatures reached 110 degrees last year. Although the federal government mandates that all subsidized housing units have heat even in balmy places such as Florida and Texas cooling has never been required. In fact, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development generally discourages local housing authorities from providing air conditioning, unless it is paid for by tenants. About this story The San Antonio Express-News surveyed Texas public housing authorities that manage more than 250 units. The findings: At least 7,400 apartments subsidized by federal tax dollars aren't equipped with air conditioning, including almost 2,400 in San Antonio, about 40 percent of the total. That figure does not include units controlled by small housing authorities, privately-managed apartments that receive federal assistance or units that tenants rent using Section 8 vouchers. HUD does not require that air conditioning be provided in any of those programs. Government officials in San Antonio want to change that. The city and San Antonio Housing Authority are working with private foundations to purchase and install one window air conditioner in each public housing unit that lacks one, with a goal of finishing the job before summer. But across Texas, theres no state law that requires landlords, including local housing authorities managing government-subsidized housing, to provide air conditioners. That leaves some of the most physically and financially vulnerable Texans to shell out their own cash to install window units and shoulder the electricity costs to chill often outdated, uninsulated homes. For tenants paying rent for those apartments, summer days are spent trying to escape the smothering blanket of heat. Scientists predict itll only get worse. In San Antonio, for example, its estimated the city could see two to three additional weeks a year when temperatures top 100 degrees due to climate change. Medical experts warn some Texans will suffer more than others. Children, seniors and people with pre-existing medical conditions especially those living in urban areas with more concrete and less tree cover are the most at-risk of heat exhaustion and stroke. Those arent the only threats: Heat can exacerbate conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease and mental illness, ailments that arent traditionally tracked as heat-related, according to the federal government. The bottom line is that HUD is supposed to be providing safe and healthy housing, said Maddie Sloan, the director of fair housing projects for Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit that advocates for socioeconomic justice. If youre providing housing in which there is a potential for people to die of heat stroke, then you're not providing safe and healthy housing. HUD doesnt require AC Ramos is no stranger to physical work. As a caregiver for the elderly, shes used to spending her days cooking, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing and lifting heavy objects for clients. Since she doesnt have a car, she often hauls heavy bags of groceries down the sidewalk, on and off the bus. LISTEN: Investigative reporter Marina Riker has details on the almost 2,400 public housing apartments in San Antonio that dont have air conditioning, and how low-income residents suffer through the Texas heat. EN Depth. But lately, the 1-mile round-trip walk between her home and sons middle school has left her out of breath. Shes lived with diabetes for almost two decades, and the intensity of her symptoms seems to mirror that of the Texas heat. Earlier this month, the headaches, leg cramps and nausea got so bad that she had to take two weeks off work. But even though her son is 13 and shes seen children as young as 5 walking alone she drags herself morning and afternoon to walk him to and from school. Armed with a plastic bottle filled with water frozen into a block of ice, she battles the afternoon sun, marching along the sidewalk and squinting as the heat radiates off the pavement. Sometimes, when she feels too light-headed, she and her son stop under a tree. She imagines sprinting back home, away from the heat. But the strength to do so always escapes her. It would be nice to return to an air-conditioned living room, but Ramos doesnt have that luxury. So she collapses on the floor, where the slight breeze feels most noticeable. Ramos thinks the heat worsens her medical conditions. Heat kills usually more Americans each year than all other weather hazards, including hurricanes, floods and tornadoes, according to the federal government. By 2050, rising temperatures in the U.S. could cause an additional 21,000 to 28,000 heat-related emergency room visits each year, with a price tag between $6 million and $52 million, according to a 2018 study. Yet the existence of air conditioning isnt factored at all into whether public housing complexes pass or fail inspections by HUD, designed to make sure the units are decent, safe and sanitary. In San Antonio, the Fair Avenue Apartments, a complex built in the 1970s that only houses seniors and people with disabilities, received 78 out of 100 points on its most recent HUD inspection, even though it has no air conditioning. Because AC is not a requirement, it's not baked into the inspections of public housing, explained HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan. It wasnt until the late 20th century that HUD began allowing local housing authorities to spend federal money on air conditioning. Today, HUD rules say air conditioning systems should be avoided whenever possible if tenants arent paying the costs. Theres been a recent push to change that. Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, filed the Safe Temperature Act, a proposal that would allow the HUD secretary to use federal dollars to pay for air conditioning in federally subsidized housing. Under that proposal, HUD could require temperatures in apartments stay between 71 and 81 degrees. But the bill does not require that units be cooled or provide funding to do so. In recent decades, dwindling federal funding has left local housing authorities without the cash needed to repair crumbling apartments, let alone provide air conditioning. Across the nation, HUD oversees roughly 900,000 public housing units with a total maintenance backlog estimated at more than $40 billion, according to national housing experts. Yet despite the growing list of repairs, the Trump administration's 2020 budget proposal calls for eliminating the fund that pays to maintain and improve public housing, in addition to significantly reducing the fund for operating and administrative costs. In early April, the head of the San Antonio Housing Authority flew to Washington, D.C., to speak against the proposal. David Nisivoccia said the backlog in San Antonio, the largest housing authority in Texas, is estimated at $300 million and $500 million. The housing authority receives $7.5 million to $11 million in federal funding each year to upgrade public housing. Once the authority pays off loans and architectural and engineering fees, only $4 million of that funding goes toward projects, Nisivoccia said. You could see with that amount of backlog $300 to $500 million and we only have $4 million a year, said Nisivoccia. It's going to be a heavy lift. In San Antonio, 19 of roughly 70 public housing projects lack any sort of air conditioning, unless tenants buy the window units themselves. Francisco Sandoval Cueva, 69, lives in an 11-story building called Villa Tranchese on the West Side. The balcony of his seventh-floor apartment offers a panorama of the downtown skyline. It also holds a broken window air conditioner that died last summer. Cueva hasnt had the money to replace it. I suffered the whole year, said Cueva, who lives on monthly Social Security payments. Last July, when Texas temperatures soared above 100 degrees and people tried baking cookies on scorching car dashboards, Cueva escaped the sauna of his apartment by riding his bike to the downtown public library. He reads almost anything short essays, detective novels, mysteries and comedies. Asked how many books he finished last summer while taking shelter in the library, he chuckled, then replied: I dont know, a lot like 20 books. 'It just sounded crazy' It was late summer in 2018, and just a few weeks earlier, the temperatures in San Antonio had reached 109 degrees. State Rep. Diego Bernal was chatting with parents after a community meeting in the Beacon Hill Elementary School library, about 2 miles northwest of downtown San Antonio. I remember talking to this woman she was a Latina immigrant mom, Bernal recalled. The woman said she lived in public housing and didnt have air conditioning. When she told me, I was like, Wait, Im sorry? What my brain processed was that there was an air conditioner that was broken, said Bernal. But he was quickly corrected. "No there's no air conditioning, and there are no air conditioners. It just sounded crazy." Bernal asked his staff to start investigating. He spoke with SAHA representatives, who estimated 2,500 to 2,900 of the citys 6,137 public housing units didnt have air conditioning. It took months for SAHA to nail down a precise number, but eventually officials settled on one: 2,399 units, scattered across 19 complexes throughout the city. Those apartments make up one-quarter of all uncooled homes an estimated 9,600 in the San Antonio metropolitan area, according to census estimates. Bernal forged a partnership with San Antonio philanthropist Gordon Hartman to make sure each apartment would receive a window air-conditioning unit by this summer. Under the agreement, the city of San Antonio will pitch in $500,000; another $500,000 will come from private donors; and SAHA will cover the remaining $500,000. The housing authority agreed. I think they're being forced to remedy a situation, Bernal said. Officials plan to start installing units as soon as the end of April. But that partnership will provide relief only to families in San Antonio. In hopes of addressing the issue on a state level, Bernal recently filed a bill in the Texas Legislature to change the definition of sanitary, decent and safe housing to include a requirement for air conditioning. But the bill didnt pass out of committee. 'We have a court decision that says you can't operate a jail without air conditioning, but you can have an 8-year-old and a 4-year-old in a concrete box.' Bernal was referring to a recent court settlement in which the Texas prison system agreed to cool one hot prison, the Wallace Pack Prison northwest of Houston. In most of the U.S., a federal government website focused on disaster planning defines extreme heat as a period of at least two or three days with temperatures above 90 degrees the daily norm for most Texans in the summer. In San Antonio, the housing authority doesnt know how many tenants have already purchased their own air conditioners. But some tenants without them are concerned they wont be able to afford the increased electricity costs once the window units are installed. According to SAHA, families living in public housing earn on average $9,700 each year, well below the federal poverty level and the citys median income of $49,700. The housing authority said talks are underway with CPS Energy to reduce tenants bills. In general, families living in federally subsidized units pay 30 percent of their adjusted income toward rent. Yes, it's a great thing that they're going to bring ACs, said Jannet Garcia, a mother of two who lives in the Alazan-Apache Courts. But it's like, how scary because what if (people) get evicted because they cant pay their AC bill? Jesse Valdez, left, and Eleuterio Ruelas wait for an elevator at the Fair Avenue Apartments. Jesse Valdez, left, and Eleuterio Ruelas wait for an elevator at the Fair Avenue Apartments. Photo: Bob Owen Photo: Bob Owen Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close I suffered the whole year: Thousands of San Antonio public housing units lack air conditioning 1 / 9 Back to Gallery Before the start of a recent tenants council meeting at the Alazan-Apache, a group of mothers who live there gathered around a table in the complexs community room, discussing the proposal that could provide their families relief this summer. I got here Aug. 31 of last year; and, oh my gosh, I came with just the funds to get into the unit I was without beds, air conditioning, things like that, said Monique Gipson, a mother of two young boys. And it was completely hot the ceiling fans were not enough. It just moved the hot air around, didnt it? added Adrenna Cervantes, who said she was lucky to receive a donated air conditioner a few months after moving in. The women chatted, discussing how it seemed like the heat lingered in their apartments cement walls even after the summer sun set. They exchanged tips and tricks for beating the heat, including covering windows with tinfoil and leaving front and back doors wide open, even at night. You have to sleep naked, take a cold shower in the middle of the night and lay right under the fan, Gipson said. And hope that you feel better. Marina Starleaf Riker is a reporter on the investigative team at the San Antonio Express-News. She grew up in Hawaii and graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2015. She worked for the nonprofit Honolulu Civil Beat, the Associated Press and the Bend Bulletin in Oregon before moving to Texas in June 2017 to join the staff of the Victoria Advocate. Less than three months later, Hurricane Harvey struck. Her reporting showed how a shortage of affordable housing reached crisis levels after the hurricane. Her work was honored by the Headliners Foundation and Texas Associated Press Managing Editors, which named her Texas Star Reporter of the Year for 2018. She joined the Express-News in February. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | marina.riker@express-news.net | Twitter: @marinastarleaf Design by Joy-Marie Scott. A version of this article will appear in print on April 21, 2019, on Page A1 of the San Antonio Express-News. | Today's Paper Subscribe Real news. Real trust. Real community. Subscribe to the San Antonio Express-News to support quality local journalism. By a 6-5 margin, San Antonios City Council on Thursday narrowly rejected a proposal from mayoral contender Greg Brockhouse to revisit a controversial decision last month to remove Chick-fil-A from an airport contract because of its legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior. Brockhouse forced the issue by using a procedural move under Roberts Rules of Order to revive the Chick-fil-A debate. With dozens of supporters standing in the council chambers, Brockhouse proposed revisiting the Chick-fil-A decision at the next meeting. Read more on ExpressNews.com: Nirenberg wins two rounds at San Antonio council meeting, but not without cost I consider this opportunity today to be a defining moment for this council, Brockhouse said in introducing the proposal, which he first broached last week. All the members who voted against the contract last month voted in favor of Brockhouse's effort, save one: Councilman Art Hall. He said once the council makes a decision, it should stick to it, swinging the vote. Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, who abstained from the first vote, approved Brockhouse's effort, as did Councilman Manny Pelaez, who said he regretted his original comments about Chick-fil-A's record. Nirenberg, who has framed the issue in business terms, said before the vote that no business operating within the law is barred from operating in San Antonio. He proposed having a discussion about the citys contracting process to ensure it operates under the full compliance of local, state and federal laws. On ExpressNews.com: City Council approves new airport contract without Chick-fil-A The Chick-fil-A decision has become a wedge issue between Brockhouse and Nirenberg in the mayoral race. One council member recognized the electoral nature of the vote on the dais Thursday. It smacks of politics, Pelaez said of Brockhouses efforts. Anybody in this room would be naive to believe this has nothing to do with mayoral politics. Brockhouse denied that assertion. Read more about reaction from the council and why public comment was not allowed at our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. Dylan McGuinness covers City Hall and local politics in San Antonio. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dylan.mcguinness@express-news.net | Twitter: @DylMcGuinness The late City Councilman Enrique Barrera probably would have abhorred what has happened in his name, literally. Barrera, who died in 2007, represented District 6 on the citys West and Northwest sides. He was also a trustee on the Edgewood Independent School District board and a deacon at San Fernando Cathedral. Together with his wife Leticia, the couple cut elegant figures around town. A memorial to Barrera would have been roundly supported had it not involved erasing the name of a thoroughfare treasured for its heritage and cultural significance. Residents and business owners on Old Highway 90 imagined a scholarship, a park or at least a park pavilion, to honor Barreras memory. Former Councilman Ray Lopez didnt see it that way. As the District 6 councilman in 2015, he proposed naming the remaining six miles of Old Highway 90 after Barrera. Both West Siders and outsiders derive a rich identity linked to several musical and cultural landmarks along that stretch of highway, including the shuttered El Camaroncito night club and El Capitan Drive-In, as well as the still-thriving Del Bravo Record Shop. READ ALSO: Remembering Old Highway 90 Old Highway 90 is now Enrique Barrera Parkway, though some residents refuse to acknowledge it. Some haven't even changed their addresses. U.S. mail still gets delivered, business owners say, though Amazon is among those that use the Barrera Parkway address. Even the citys Planning Commission voted to reverse the decision, but the City Council had the final vote. Local businesses raised the $32,000 necessary to pay for street signs to restore the name. Lopez, now in the Texas House representing District 125, also got the council to agree to a moratorium to not rename streets within five years of a name change. Nos puede mucho, Del Bravo owner Javier Gutierrez said in a mournful tone, It hurts us deeply. Asked to respond to the rancor, Lopez instead sent a one-sentence comment praising Barrera. Changing names hits a nerve anywhere, said Greg Brockhouse, the current District 6 councilman. Its like Route 66 to them. Since the name change, the roadways heritage has been evoked several times. In March of last year, the citys Office of Historic Preservation released a report detailing its historic significance as a Spanish expedition route and as part of the Old Spanish Trail and Southern National Highway systems. In 1925, it became part of the national road-numbering system. The report referenced Club El Morocco as hosting big-band leader Jan Garber and his Orchestra; the Chinese grocers that opened on the street, believed to have come to San Antonio as part of the so-called Pershing Chinese to support the U.S. Armys campaign against Pancho Villa; and El Camaroncito, where an enduring San Antonio urban legend was allegedly born. It tells of an unsuspecting woman who dances with a dashing stranger only to peer down to the dance floor and discover his cloven feet. OnExpressNews.com: Beyond its origins, Fiesta has evolved into a celebration of San Antonio The citys report led to Old Highway 90s recognition last August as a Cultural Heritage District, only the second in the city to be designated. This year the Office of Historic Preservation followed up with an inaugural Legacy Business designation, which went to the iconic Del Bravo. Gutierrezs late father, songwriter and record producer Salome Gutierrez, opened the shop in 1966. His widow Diamantina still works there. Their music publishing house remains open, but its recording studio, remembered for early recordings by Lydia Mendoza and Flaco Jimenez, closed long ago. These recognitions were bolstered in March by a survey spurred by Brockhouse and conducted by Intelliscan, an election polling and survey service. It was underwritten by private donors, his office said. Conducted between March 25 and April 8, the survey got a 16.4 percent response rate and was overwhelmingly in favor of changing Enrique Barrera Parkway back to Old Highway 90. The issue has been part of Brockhouses mayoral bid, too. He has accused Mayor Ron Nirenberg of not getting out to neighborhoods like Old Highway 90, and forgetting about them. Brockhouse announced his mayoral bid outside the record shop, where supporters voiced discontent with a city government that hasnt worked for them and, at times, seemingly against them, which is how they characterize the Old Highway 90 name change. They wont forget it and promise to regroup. They hope a Mayor Brockhouse will help, but whomever is victorious should take up their cause. Its probably what Councilman Barrera would have wanted anyway. Elaine Ayala is a columnist covering San Antonio and Bexar County. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | eayala@express-news.net | Twitter: @ElaineAyala WASHINGTON - Texans in Congress and humanitarian groups are pressing the Trump administration to relent on plans to stop aid to Central America, warning that such a step would trigger even more migration to the United States and destroy alliances built over the years. Already, the administration has declined to spend more than $1 billion Congress appropriated for programs aimed at reducing poverty and stemming violence in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras - reasons most often cited by migrants showing up by the tens of thousands each month at the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, President Donald Trumps declaration that the United States would cease all aid to those countries is sparking bipartisan complaints from Capitol Hill and worries by groups working to create stability in Central America. Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, has been instrumental in securing funding since the Alliance for Prosperity initiative began three years ago in coordination with Central American governments with the goal of promoting security and development in Central America. The Trump administration has hobbled the program with cuts, refusing to spend what Congress ordered and saying he is cutting off the three Northern Triangle countries in retaliation for the continuing arrival of migrants at the U.S. border seeking asylum. No more money is going there anymore, Trump declared on March 30. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican whose district stretches from the Houston suburbs to Austin, called the presidents move ill-advised and reckless at a recent congressional hearing. Both McCaul and Cuellar predict the presidents pressure tactics will backfire, triggering more migration. If were going to try to get to the root of the problem, you dont take the resources away from what youre trying to address, Cuellar said. Quite a shock to Central American allies The arrival of migrants has continued unabated, with some 103,000 migrants turned away or apprehended at the border in March, Customs and Border Protection reported. This week, Mexicos Human Rights Commission said that nearly 9,000 more were moving in several groups through the southern Mexico state of Chiapas. Cuellar disputed Trumps complaints that Mexican authorities are not taking steps to prevent entry from neighboring Guatemala. In his Capitol Hill office, he showed photos of Mexican buses returning people to Guatemala and a video of an angry confrontation when Mexico closed a border entry point. For the new budget, Cuellar is proposing providing $75 million to Mexico to secure its border with Guatemala and doubling, to $200 million, U.S. funds to Mexico to combat the flow of drugs. Related: Fundraising effort launched for 11-year-old girl ordered deported without family Cuellar spoke of what he described as sensitivity in working with Mexico to stop the migrants. They dont want to be seen as doing Trumps dirty work, he said. The Trump administrations handling of Central American assistance is triggering bipartisan worry. McCaul, former chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, was in El Salvador meeting with President Salvador Sanchez Ceren the day Trump announced the cuts. McCaul said Ceren spoke of Chinas desire to fill the void left by American disengagement under Trump. It was quite a shock to an ally, someone who is pro-United Sates, wants to be our ally, McCaul said at a congressional hearing last week. I think its the wrong message and the wrong time. I think its ill-advised. Its reckless. I believe that the decision to cut funding will make the economic and security situation in Central America worse, not better, triggering more migration, not less, to the United States, he added. Other Republicans on Capitol Hill say they understand Trumps motivation but questioned the effects. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, said the president should be commended for acting to curb the flow of migrants but that he doesnt support cutting off funds at this time. I do tend to think that we ought to continue to work with these nations and assist them in improving conditions that cause parents to send their children up here to get away from the cartels and drug gangs, he said. Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn, asked at a forum in Washington whether cutting funds would undermine American policy in Central America, replied that it would. But Cornyn offered a cautionary note to foreign aid that does not yield measurable success. Its hard to go home and say were taking your tax dollars and were sending those to a foreign country and were really not sure its doing any good, he said, speaking at the nonpartisan Wilson Center in Washington after Trumps Central America announcement. I think just saying were sending money to the Northern Triangle, its a little hard for them to accept given the huge influx of humanity coming from those countries and it doesnt look like its going to get smaller any time soon. The link between aid and migration Before Trumps declaration, Congress had appropriated $1.3 billion in unspent money for programs in the three Central American countries. By April 15 - 60 days after the last appropriation the State Department was to have provided Congress with a plan for spending a portion of that money. A spokeswoman with the United States Agency for International Development said this week that a review of State Department and USAID programs is underway and that her agency is carrying out the presidents direction regarding foreign assistance to Central America. We have ceased obligating new funds for those three countries, she said in an email, adding that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the U.S. government will provide a set of conditions to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that they will need to meet before we consider resuming assistance. Rather than payments to governments, the vast majority of the funding in question goes to humanitarian groups, who profess uncertainty about how to proceed. Marcelo Viscarra, who directs Guatemala operations for the international organization Mercy Corps, has been involved in some 70 anti-violence programs in areas with the highest murder rates. Programs range from quelling bullying to keeping boys in school and away from gangs. Mercy Corps future work is threatened, including a rural program expiring in June that teaches farming methods and water conservation in parts of Guatemala where two-thirds of the children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition - the worst in the Western Hemisphere. That program yielded a 30-percent reduction in people who said they were considering leaving for the United States, according to Mercy Corps. Theres a link between everything we do and migration, Viscarra said. Right now, we are carrying out all activities despite the situation, not knowing whats going to happen. Glasswings International, another aid group, works in El Salvador schools along with communities and multinational corporations to help kids acquire skills that can keep them out of trouble. Glasswings CEO Ken Baker said that his organization takes no position on the border wall or other controversial policies of the Trump administration and that his organizations goal is to keep people in El Salvador. But, he said, This is not the way things are done, when a president overrides Congress and changes well-thought out policies. Once these people migrate, the challenges are much greater. Baker said that the Trump White House policies threaten relationships in the Northern Triangle years in the making, alliances that could be difficult to rekindle if programs suddenly end and contracts are broken. I would hope the administration listens to experts, to individuals from both sides of the aisle (in Congress) and understands what this would mean and the negative impact, he said. Scientists from the University of Bristol have modelled the likelihood of flooding in some of the worlds most hazardous zones to an unparalleled degree of accuracy. Their insights could help people and governments better protect themselves against risk and flood losses. As reported in Nature Communications today (Thursday 18 April), experts in flood risk and environmental uncertainty analysed detailed hazard maps of 18 countries across Latin America, Asia and Africa against data developed by Facebooks Connectivity Labs detailing population density in those countries. Previous studies have relied on global population data sets that suggest people settle on flood prone river floodplains. The specificity of the data set used in this study based on satellite images at a resolution of 1.6 metres that detected every single building in the area revealed that this is not the case. Whereas ordinary population data sets assume that people are spread across the landscape, this study accounted for the fact that people live in buildings and urban areas by allocating the total population count only amongst the identified buildings. By then counting all the people living in each modelled area, and intersecting this against their flood hazard data, researchers were able to improve their estimates of the numbers of people at risk from floods in these countries. Co-author Professor Paul Bates from the University of Bristols School of Geographical Sciences and Cabot Institute said: Until now, the science community has tended to focus more on the frequency and nature of flood hazards themselves than on the location of people affected and the impact that hazards have on them. The exciting thing about this study is that it shows how new satellite data sets can be used to transform our understanding of flood risk in some of the most vulnerable countries worldwide. While previous studies have looked at the human impact of floods, the results are likely to be based on miscalculated estimates of flood risk. If either the hazard map or the population map is wrong, then you get poor results, adds Professor Bates. Up until now all the sources of population data had significant problems, and if we use much more realistic information, we get very different answers. Since 2015, Bristol researchers have been able to model flood inundation (the degree and frequency of flooding) to a resolution of 90m across the whole planet, providing an 85% match between observed maps of flooding and their computer models. By applying these techniques, researchers have now shown the real risks faced by countries like Malawi. According to previous datasets, about 80% of floodplain areas here were estimated to be populated. Using the new data this reduces to only 2%. However, in this 2% of floodplain areas the population densities are shown to be much higher, so if these areas do get inundated then the damage caused and the threat to life will be significantly greater. As with the other countries studied, this data paints a more accurate picture of where flood defences and flood warnings are most urgently needed, meaning that limited resources can be directed to the places with highest need. It will also give insurers the confidence they require to offer cover because they will better understand the risk. So another norm of public decency falls, like a historical building demolished to make way for one of Donald Trumps tasteless towers. When the president of the United States goes after an American Muslim in this case Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who came to the U.S. as a Somali refugee using images of the 9/11 attacks, it is cruel, frightening and dangerous in new ways. It is cruel because Trump essentially delivered his political rant while standing on desecrated graves. The images he employed not only included burning buildings but burning human beings, drafted into a sad and sordid political ploy. Is nothing sacred to Trump? When said aloud, the question sounds like an absurdity. Trump has never given the slightest indication of propriety, respect or reverence. His narcissism leaves no room to honor other people or to honor other gods. Both the living and the dead matter only as servants to the cause of Trump himself. This cruelty extends to those who have fled war in Syria. Barack Obama did little to serve their interests. Now, the victims of violence are treated as villains in Trumps fictional version of global threats. Syrian refugees, according to Trump, are trying to take over our children and convince them how wonderful ISIS is, and how wonderful Islam is. On the strength of such calumnies, Trump has essentially destroyed Americas asylum system. This has led to a frightening state of affairs. By all the evidence, Trump is an anti-Muslim bigot. At one campaign event in 2015, a member of the audience stated, We have a problem in this country; its called Muslims. And he went on to ask, When can we get rid of them? Trump responded: Were going to be looking at that and plenty of other things. Imagine a normal politician on the left or right being asked about the possibility of getting rid of all the Christians, or getting rid of all the Jews. They would likely use such a moment to clarify that they arent, in fact, insanely prejudiced monsters. Trump used such a moment to affirm the instinct of mass deportation and to promise a range of other anti-Muslim actions. Could this have been a slip of the tongue? No, it wasnt. Trump has a long history of animus raw animus against one of the Abrahamic faiths. He has said, Were having problems with the Muslims. And: There is a Muslim problem in the world. And: The United Kingdom is trying hard to disguise their massive Muslim problem. And: Islam hates us. The Koran, in Trumps scholarly opinion, teaches some very negative vibe. He has claimed: You have people coming out of mosques with hatred and death in their eyes. He once called for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. He has variously and publicly considered the closing of mosques, warrantless searches, and the creation of a national database to track Muslims. In Trumps view, Were going to have to do things that we never did before. The president claims to have seen thousands and thousands of American Muslims cheering on 9/11 when the towers fell a lie and a libel. He attacked a Muslim Gold Star mother, claiming that she wasnt allowed to speak at the Democratic convention because of her faith a lie and a libel. He has praised General John Pershing for executing Muslim insurgents in the Philippines with bullets dipped in pigs blood a historical myth, but a revealing fantasy of anti-Muslim war crimes. By all the evidence, Trump believes that Islam is incompatible with American ideals and that Muslims are, as a group, threatening to American security. This is not only rank religious bigotry; it is the attitude most likely to alienate some Muslims from American ideals and turn a dangerous few toward radicalism and violence. None of this requires us to believe that Omar is a wise or thoughtful public figure. She isnt. She traffics in the worst anti-Semitic tropes. But Trumps perception of religious liberty as freedom only for the faiths he prefers is a potential threat to every religious group. What if some future leader views Mormonism as incompatible with American democracy, or evangelical Protestantism? By what principle would Trump supporters be able to criticize discrimination against such groups? Religious freedom is either rigorously equal, or it becomes an instrument of those in power to favor or disfavor religions of their choice. And those believers who are currently in favor may someday discover what disfavor is like. michaelgerson@washpost.com As it turns out, we are orbiting a massive back hole which makes perfect sense to me because that is often what it feels like to be a mother. Last Wednesday, a photo of a black hole known as Messier 87 graced the front page of pretty much every newspaper in the world, giving us the first ever glimpse of what one of these bad boys looks like. This particular black hole hails from a neighboring galaxy called M87, which is about 55 million light years away from Greenwich, depending on traffic, and is 6.5 billion times more massive than our sun. We also have a black hole closer to home called Sagittarius A, but theres no photo of it yet. Black holes are nearly impossible to capture because not even light can escape them, as the gravitational pull of these suckers sets pretty such everything we know into motion, including our sun. And so, as the world paused to gaze in wonder at what looks like an orange doughnut with a disproportionate amount of glaze on its bottom half, I found myself waxing philosophical. We finally have proof that everything revolves around a massive black hole that nothing can escape, not even light. I knew it. I am not saying my children are black holes and I am the sun. Not exactly. But when you consider a few of these mathematical facts, now proven with crazy fancy telescopic digital imagery, it gets you thinking. First off, a black hole is actually a collapsed star. It turns out that the absence of a star is more powerful than a star itself. When George did not make it into Advanced Placement Math (ALP) it hurt, I gotta admit. This is a kid whose aptitude for math was off the charts ever since he could talk. But his test scores on some infuriating rubric were just points off what they needed to be, and so even as George continued to amaze us with his number sense, the Greenwich Public School system would not be teaching him on an advanced level. Suddenly everywhere I went, George was being failed in math. The absence of ALP placement was ubiquitous, when before I hardly noticed its existence. The universe was colluding to destroy George, and I was getting sucked in. Calm down, Claire. my mother said. Hes 7. But thats another thing about black holes. You have to make sure you orbit them just right or youre screwed. If you get too far off track, you are cast out into the nether regions of the vast unknown and if you get too close you are sucked into the terrible abyss of swirling void. Sound familiar? My friend Sarahs 12-year-old Oliver developed his first crush, and things started to get a little off orbit. Suddenly everything was all about Charlotte, she told me. Oliver spent all day thinking up the perfect Instagram messages to send to Charlotte, who would not respond although she appeared active on Instagram. Oliver was beside himself and Sarah was going nuts. Charlotte was destroying my son, she told me. So Sarah went Cyrano de Bergerac on the situation. I started writing Instagram messages for him, she confessed. Now Sarah spent all day thinking up the perfect Instagram messages to send to Charlotte. And although Sarah didnt actually send any of her perfectly worded messages, they were suggested drafts, Oliver was furious. This is MY thing, not yours! Oliver hollered. Back off, Mom! I wanted to destroy her, Sarah told me. Playing hard-to-get was something I was an expert in, and Charlotte had met her match. And just like that, Sarah had become that mother. Too close and sucked in. But at least she wasnt bribing her childs way into Yale. Then there is being too far off orbit. I am a great believer in letting my kids figure things out on their own, although Charlotte would have been a goner. But by the time we had George, our third child in three years, we had given up. George is a real free range kid, isnt he? our friend Martin observed, as George ran through our backyard naked with a wombat stick. Every attempt we had to tame our high-spirited son just felt too exhausting. Besides, his strong spirit was kind of adorable until it wasnt. And then it occurred to me: Given how smart this kid was, we had the making of a Unabomber on our hands. We had to reign it in or we would fly way off orbit. Is there a balance? Can you orbit a black hole without total annihilation? But heres the thing. As we come to understand black holes, the once sedate universe becomes more and more a cosmos of wonder and inconceivable energy that can only be understood through Einsteins groundbreaking theory of relativity. Black holes, while elusive, complex and all powerful, changed everything just like having children. I will never forget when I went into labor with my eldest, Louie. My husband and I raced off to the hospital leaving Chinese food containers out in our Harlem apartment. Three days later, we came home with a baby boy and the Chinese food containers were still there. Our universe had permanently changed and there was our half-eaten lo mein on the coffee table. It didnt make sense and yet it did. So, enjoy your orbit, precarious as it may seem, and stand in wonder of the black holes at your center. Because, despite years of toil, we are starting to understand them more and more. Even when theyre carrying a wombat stick. Claire Tisne Haft is a former publishing and film executive, raising her family in Greenwich while working on a freelance basis on books and films. The internationally bestselling author of The German Girl, delivers an unforgettable family saga of love and redemption during World War II, based on the true story of the Nazi massacre of a French village in 1944. Heartbreaking and immersive, Armando Lucas Correas new novel, The Daughter's Tale, is a story of love, survival, and hope against all odds. Correa will sit down in conversation with Sonya Huber, associate professor of English at Fairfield University where she serves as Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. This event will take place at the Fairfield University Bookstore Downtown, 1499 Post Road, Fairfield, on Friday, May 17, at 7 p.m. on the 2nd floor. RSVP: FairfieldUBookstoreEvents@gmail.com . Walk-ins welcome. This event is free and open to the public . Copies of TheDaughters Tale will be available for purchase/signing. Based on true events, The Daughter's Tale chronicles one of the most harrowing atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II: the 1944 massacre of all the inhabitants of Oradour-Sur-Glane, a small, idyllic village in the south of France. Adventure photographer at Museum Acclaimed adventure photographer Jen Edney will speak at the Fairfield Museum on Thursday, April 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. for a special Museum After Dark event. Edney will share her experiences, videos and images from her time as a team photographer for the spectacular and grueling around-the world Volvo Ocean Race. Edney is a photographer and burgeoning filmmaker who takes her viewers on visual journeys. From mountains to seas, her aim is to capture the heart of each situation she shoots. She was named to a list of the Nine Top Female Adventure Photographers by National Geographic and has sailed more than 40,000 nautical miles en route to visiting over 30 countries. An exhibition of her work, The Photography of Jen Edney is currently on display at the Fairfield Museum as part of its IMAGES 2019 photography exhibit. IMAGES 2019 is presented in memory of Marcia B. Saft, a former Fairfield Museum board member and community leader. It is also sponsored by Southport Galleries. The event is open to the public and begins with a reception at 6 p.m. The presentation will start at 6:30 p.m. The exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information visit Fairfieldhistory.org. Senior Breakfast The senior class of 2019 at Fairfield Ludlowe High School would like to invite the senior citizens of the Town of Fairfield to a complimentary breakfast to be held in the Fairfield Ludlowe High School cafeteria from 8 to 9:15 a.m. on Friday, May 31. Attendees will enjoy a delicious breakfast as well as a number of student performances by members of the music department. Attendees are asked to register with the FLHS Main Office at 255-7201 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. beginning now through Thursday, May 23. Shredding Day Clean out your files & bring them to Fairfield Grace on Annual Shredding Day on Saturday, May 4, from 9 a.m. to noon, at Fairfield Grace United Methodist Church, 1089 Fairfield Woods Road. Good for bank statements, checks, income tax forms, etc. The cost is $10 per ten ream box of copy paper. International Taste Fairfield Grace United Methodist Church, 1089 Fairfield Woods Road, is hosting an International Taste on Sunday, May 19 from 4:30-6 p.m. Enjoy an evening of sampling, sipping and mingling at a variety of tasting tables. Bring your family and friends. Donations are appreciated and all proceeds benefit the church. Block Grant Public Hearing The Town of Fairfield's Office of Community and Economic Development, in accordance with its Citizen Participation Plan, will hold a Public Hearing to solicit citizen input on prospective projects for funding under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for Program Year 45 which begins Oct. 1, 2019 and ends Sept. 30, 2020. The Public Hearing will be held on Tuesday, May 7, at 7 p.m. in the 2nd Floor Conference Room in Old Town Hall, 611 Old Post Road, Fairfield. The Town of Fairfield has not received notice to date of its CDBG allocation for upcoming Program Year 45 nor does it anticipate an increase in its present grant of $508,143. The Community and Economic Development Office intends to use the current years grant as the baseline for planning purposes from which it will make adjustments as additional information becomes available. The Office of Community and Economic Development seeks the publics input as to the types of projects and activities it should include within its Action Plan for Program Year 45 that will meet the Town's identified housing and priority non-housing community development needs. These projects may include public improvements; public facilities; public services; and economic development activities. Citizens and representatives of public or private organizations may present a proposed project or public service activity, or discuss program performance or any other aspects of the program at this public hearing. Questions regarding the program may be addressed to the Office of Community and Economic Development, 611 Old Post Road, Fairfield, CT, 06824, 203-256-3120. All proposals received by March 18, 2019, and determined to be in conformance with CDBG regulations, are being considered. FAIRFIELD Stop & Shop workers have reached their first full week on strike in a New England-wide protest as negotiations continue between unions and the shops parent company, Alhold Delhaize. Scott Burns, a strike captain at the Fairfield Stop & Shop at Kings Highway Cut-off and an employee of over 30 years, said he and his team were keeping it together on Thursday morning. Were not doing bad, Burns said. There are no customers coming in, so thats good. With the strike making national headlines, politicians have been visiting the strikes to meet and talk with workers, including some members from Fairfields state delegation. Democratic state Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey was at both Fairfield Stop & Shop locales this week, along with same-party U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal. Ive stood with the workers and will continue to stand with them for a fair contract, Vahey said. Im hoping the negotiations can move to a swift resolution. With a fair deal for these employees, I will continue to support them. Stop & Shop workers are striking over contract negotiations that include hour cutbacks, elimination of Sunday premium pay, increased automation, and decreased health and pension benefits. Stop & Shop President Mark McGowan said on April 17 that he looked forward to negotiations continuing between the unions and Stop & Shop tomorrow (April 18). Republican state Rep. Brenda Kupchick, in a Facebook post April 16, said she talked with Burns and fellow strike captain Sam Farina. Sam is a manager who really loves the work he does, Kupchick said. I think the message of empty parking lots at both Stop & Shops in town says something about how the people of our community feel. State Sen. Tony Hwang, R-28, expressed his support for the workers on strike and pointed out this is a private-sector issue. I think the workers deserve our support for the simple reason that these are hard-working people trying to make ends meet for themselves, Hwang said. The state senator pointed out Alhold has reaped over $2 billion in profits and massive million-dollar tax breaks in the last two years. I know its important that business be done, but we should not shortchange the workers that contribute to this success, Hwang said. State Rep. Laura Devlin, a Republican, called the situation regrettable, but said she hasnt visited workers at the Fairfield Stop & Shop establishments since the strike began. I certainly feel for the workers, many of whom live in the community, Devlin said. I do hope that they resolve it soon, because I cant imagine its not a hardship for the people who work (at Stop & Shop). Regarding company and union negotiations, Burns said besides an exchange of proposals both parties are still talking and that workers will strike for as long they can. It was nice, (some of the Fairfield state representatives) were with us and everything and told us to give them a call if we need anything, Burns said. humberto.juarez@hearstmediact.com When researching Fairfield history, there are few better sources than 92-year-old Bud Schrock. When it came time to dig into the history of Fairfield Ambulance and the Fairfield Volunteer Fire Departments, we asked Bud to give us a view of the early days. We also searched the old issues of the Fairfield Sun Times and this papers predecessor, The Fairfield Times. From what we found, the first use of an ambulance in Fairfield was during the 1918 flu epidemic. No old copies of The Times remain from 1918, but in the March 10, 1938 edition of The Times, publisher Fred Schoensigel gave this account: THE WORST PESTILENCE OF MODERN TIMES Under the above head, Scribners Magazine recently published an account of the flu epidemic of 1918 which took half a million American lives 10 times as many as we lost in battle in the World war which the pestilence so closely followed. In fact, at the time, it was declared to be a trench disease. The account in Scribners recalled to the writer the epidemic in Fairfield. It struck rather suddenly here but there was no hysteria and most people went about their business as usual. But the shadow of peril hung over the town and community. When cases multiplied, the local school was closed and the building (the present school building was already up) was turned into a hospital under the direction of Dr. Bateman with at least one professional nurse (it now seems that there were two or three) in charge. In addition, there were volunteer nurses. One of these was Mrs. Barkemeyer, the teacher of the school who volunteered her services and did excellent work. Some of the precautions we were asked to take was to wear a small sack filled with odoriferous disinfectant about our neck and a mask over our nose and mouth. Mrs. Barkemeyer declined to do either and soon she was herself down with the disease. During one stage of the disease the patient became deathly sick and it is recalled that one local man of the time, while at the hospital, asked to die. It might be mentioned that he was taken to the hospital by his next-door neighbor, a clothing merchant, and four hours later he was himself in the hospital, seriously ill. However, both recovered, and both died in California within the past few years. Mrs. Barkmeyer also recovered. For purposes of an ambulance we had a fresh air taxi. John Zimmerman was then the dray man and he had a Model T chassis on which he had placed a long bed. With this he scurried over the countryside, bringing in the patients. One patient brought in was a relatively young ranch woman. Arrived at the hospital she expressed an urgent wish to see her husband. Word was sent to him, but it took some time to send the messenger and for the rancher to come in. When he did reach the hospital, his wife seemed to be trying hard to tell him something but was unable to do so. She died shortly after, taking her secret with her. One of those who died at the improvised hospital was Mrs. Henry Dale. As we recall the death rate at the hospital was for a short time as high as one a day. The conveyance used to remove the bodies was almost as crude as the conveyance for bringing the patients in. It was a Model T Ford with the top removed. The undertaker, a Choteau man, put the body in a long mortuary basket with a lid and this was set crosswise on the car between the front and rear seat. By way of helping to combat the disease, the state sent special physicians to the rural areas, and Dr. George Landstrom of Helena, a noted physician of the time, and a dabbler in politics came to Fairfield and called on several local patients, among them Joe Crittenden. But the disease subsided almost as suddenly as it came. The hospital broke house, the building was disinfected, and school was resumed. The local fire department or, as Fred Schoensigel used to refer to them, the fire boys, predate the establishment of the incorporated Town of Fairfield by three years. FAIRFIELD COMMUNITY TO HONOR FIRST RESPONDERS Editors Note: In this weeks edition we report on the First Responders Honor & Appreci In the June 23, 1938 issue of The Fairfield Times, it was reported: FIRE PUMP ON WAY Word was received this week from W.S. Darley & Co. of Chicago, by air mail, according to W.G. Henneford, secretary-treasurer of the Fire Department, that they could expect the fire pump some time within the next few days. The cause of the long delay was that a new front end power mounting had to be especially built to fit the fire truck purchased by the local fire fighters These boys are trying to get started and should have all the help possible from the community for this worthy cause. A couple of years later, on May 30, 1940, The Fairfield Times reported that the Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department, along with Dr. Crary, came to the aid of a young child in distress: INHALATOR PUT TO USE The inhalator recently purchased by the Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department has had its first practical use and it proved its value. Last Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Rowley of Bynum were en route to Great Falls to secure medical treatment for their little daughter. On reaching Fairfield the child was found to be critically ill. They brought the child to Dr. Crary who diagnosed the ailment as pneumonia, and knowing that there was an inhalator at the fire house, he sent for it and applied it with good results. The child promptly revived and was taken to a Great Falls hospital where it was placed in an oxygen tent. The little girl has now fully recovered. Dr. Crary believes that the inhalator was a real factor in saving the childs life, although the use of an oxygen tent was necessary as a follow up. He expressed surprise that Fairfield has such an appliance. Bud Schrock recalls that in the early days of his service on the ambulance and fire crews that the town police (yes, Fairfield did have a town cop) handled ambulance duty. At first, a Chevy van was used, but later the town acquired a Ford station wagon that was used as the Fairfield police car and ambulance. According to Bud, the station wagon was lower to the ground, which made it easier to load patients. There was a jump seat where a member of the ambulance crew could sit, although Bud said it was a tight squeeze. In 1972 the Fairfield mayor asked the Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department to take on the duty of the ambulance, and in 1973 the first EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) class was held, with six or eight attending, according to Bud. They all passed, said Bud. Asked if it was hard to find volunteers for the ambulance crew back then, Bud said no, but he went on: There were not many around that would do that [serve on an ambulance crew]. Some of us did a lot of weekends that could have been covered by others, but we didnt have any people. In 1973 a photo appeared in The Fairfield Times of Bud Schrock at the wheel of the original Fairfield Fire Truck. The photo was part of a plea by the then mayor of Fairfield for the town to acquire a new fire truck, which they did by 1975. On the radiator of the old truck can be seen the letters USA. Asked if it was an old Army surplus truck, Bud said the fire truck was an FWD. FWD was the Four Wheel Drive Automobile Company, founded in 1909 in Clintonville, Wisconsin. The company is still in business as FWD-Seagrave. Bud joined the Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department in 1956. Asked to compare his time on the fire crew to his time with the ambulance, Bud said both were challenging, but that he was in contact with more people as a result of his time on the ambulance. The Aragon Fire of 32 years ago is still considered by most long-time Fairfield residents to be the big one. Many old-timers say that if not for the efforts of the Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department and others who came to assist, the entire Fairfield business district would have gone up in flames. That night, Bud was on ambulance duty. He still remembers the Aragon fire, and said it was a tricky one due to a double-floor in the building. Bud also recalls the Eisenmann Seed Company elevator fire of the seventies as a mighty big one, with Malstrom Air Force Base and Choteau Volunteer Fire Department responding. Another big fire in the towns history, according to Bud, was when the original Fairfield Community Hall went up in flames. Featured here just a few weeks back, our Buckeye-based monster catfish King Kat angling team just keeps on pounding the pavement and returning home with winning grins and shiny trophies. Big fish and big awards keep coming for the dynamic local duo of Anthony Murphy and Mike Snyder, who base their highly successful catfish tournament operation in Holmes County, Ohio. After placing high in an Alabama contest last month with a 100-pound five fish limit that included a 65-pound monster cat, the pair now claimed top place just last week at a one-day King Kat tournament on TVAs sprawling Old Hickory Lake. Their five fish catch stretched the scales at just shy of 129 pounds, well ahead of the second place bag of 111 pounds. Murphy and Snyder also nearly walked away with the big fish contest with their best cat of 44.58 pounds, just a few pounds less than the winning 50 pounder. The Bass Pro Cabelas King Kat Tournament Trail is now the nations leading catfish tournament sponsor. The Nashville area Old Hickory Lake contest hosted 40 two-person teams from 11 states. Its likely that catfish hunters got less respect than Rodney Dangerfield before these big-time King Kat tournaments and regional catfish events caught on with TV and print media, sponsors and a faithful following. But now, Big catfish are true trophies, worthy of attention. A long hike Remember David Defer, the young hiker who completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail (AT) last summer? Davids adventure and life-changing accomplishment inspired his father Chuck Defer, also an experienced backpacker, to take on the same personal challenge this year. Inspiration led to Georgia, when and where the 63-year-old set out at milepost one, heading due north on his own adventure. The senior Defer said thru-hiking the AT seemed like a calling, and although he is finding the way a physical challenge, he is confident in his ability and determination to reach the final trailhead by late summer. The Defers lives in Hiram, Ohio, where the terrain is nothing like the ups and downs of the AT, especially in the Smoky Mountains, said Chuck Defer, who at 29 days in is already at milepost 344. Although Defer started the hike cranking out nearly 20 miles each day, he has found his pace to be more doable at about 15 miles per day. Defer said that walking the AT is a most unusual experience, mostly due to the variety of people he meets along the trail. Sunset is midnight on the AT, he said, and that means bedtime. The AT is 2,200 miles long and typically takes from five to seven months to thru-hike. Just one out of four at best complete this extreme endurance test. Count on an occasional update on Defers progress. COLUMBUS The Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation is offering four STEM-based camps, ExploreAg, starting in June. Session 1 will be held June 9-14, while session 2 will be held June 16-21 both on the Ohio State University Columbus Campus. Session 3 will be held June 23-28 on the Ohio State University ATI Campus. Session 4 will be held July 7-12 on the Central State University Campus. The ExploreAg program is a free week-long experience for high school students where they are introduced to various aspects of agriculture, food science, environmental sciences and more, both in the classroom and through opportunities for hands-on learning both on and off campus. ExploreAg students will interact with and learn directly from internationally known teachers, scientist and researchers. Subject areas include food science, precision agriculture, animal science, natural resources, management skills, technology and agricultural business. The deadline to apply has been extended until the sessions are full or early May. Details can be found at exploreag.org. For more information, contact Melinda Witten at info@exploreag.org. WASHINGTON A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel found that China has administered its tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for wheat, corn, and rice inconsistently with its WTO commitments. Contrary to those commitments, the WTO panel said Chinas TRQ administration is not transparent, predictable, or fair, and it ultimately inhibits TRQs from filling, denying U.S. farmers access to Chinas market for grain, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. In a prepared statement, Lighthizer and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue called the panel report is the second significant victory for U.S. agriculture this year and will help American farmers compete. This second important victory for the United States further demonstrates that President Trump will take all steps necessary to enforce trade rules and to ensure free and fair trade for U.S. farmers. The Administration will continue to press China to promptly come into compliance with its WTO obligations, said Ambassador Lighthizer. Chinas grain TRQs have annually been underfilled. The USDA estimates that if Chinas TRQs had been fully used, it would have imported as much as $3.5 billion worth of corn, wheat and rice in 2015 alone. Background Upon accession to the WTO, China made commitments specific to its administration of TRQs, including the commitment to administer its TRQs in a transparent, predictable, and fair basis, using clearly specified administrative procedures and requirements that do not inhibit the filling of each TRQ. In August 2017, the United States requested that the WTO establish a dispute settlement panel to consider whether China administers its TRQs for long-grain rice, short- and medium-grain rice, wheat, and corn in a manner inconsistent with its WTO commitments. The panel report released April 18 agrees with the United States that China administers its TRQs in a manner inconsistent with its Accession Protocol obligations, through its eligibility criteria, allocation and reallocation procedures, public comment process, and processing restrictions. In addition, China allocates a significant portion of each TRQ to a designated state-trading enterprise (STE) and does not subject the STE to the same rules applied to non-state trading enterprises applying for and importing grains under the TRQs. Each finding individually established that Chinas TRQ measures are inconsistent with its obligations. HARRISBURG, Pa. The Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation of Pennsylvania will host a Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow Exploration Experience May 28, at the Food Science Labs at Penn State University. The hands-on experimental learning opportunity will be held from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and will focus on A Taste of Food Science. This years Exploration Experience is designed to cultivate interest in food science and the potential career of a food engineer or food scientist. Students in 10th, 11th or 12th grade with a demonstrated understanding of chemistry and an interest in food science and/or dairy are eligible to apply. Any student attending must have a chaperone or adviser travel with them to the facility, and only 20 students will be accepted to participate. Applications must be submitted by May 6 to be considered and are available at www.dairyleadersoftomorrow.com/on-farm-experiences/exploration-experiences/. There is no cost to apply. The interactive workshop will include a tour of the Berkey Creamery and Food Science Department, a Cheddar Cheese Sensory Evaluation, a Cheese and Ice Cream Hands-on Lab and lunch at the creamery. The program is being held in partnership with the Penn State Food Science Department. A three-part model program, Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow offers classroom instruction, on-farm experiences and scholarship opportunities. For more information about the Exploration Experience on May 28 or the Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow Program, contact Brittany Haag, dairy education program manager at the Dairy Excellence Foundation, by calling 717-346-0849 or emailing bhaag@centerfordairyexcellence.org. BERLIN CENTER, Ohio At their April meeting, members of Western Reserve Rangers 4-H club filled 1,067 eggs for the Community Easter Egg Hunt. Members also signed up to help with the egg hunt April 19. President William Reph was recognized for being elected vice president of the Mahoning County Junior Fair Board. Health Leader Autumn Reed shared facts about the recent measles outbreak in New York State. She also emphasized the necessity of being vaccinated for this disease. Junior Camp Counselors Natalia Kresic, Emma Reph, Olivia Reph and William Reph shared that this years camp theme will be Paradise. On April 23, members with clothing projects will cut their projects out at the home of adviser Kathleen Moser. On April 24 the quilting group will meet at adviser Robin Rephs home for their second workshop. The Small and Exotic Animal Fun Show will be held at the Canfield Fair Junior Fair Complex May 18. The show is open to Cloverbuds and 4-H members. The club will meet again May 9 at the Ellsworth Fire Hall at 7 p.m. REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio Brennan Topp, Orrville, Ohio, and Abigail Grimm, Milaca, Minnesota, received the 2019 Fred Stout Experience Awards. The fund supporting these awards was created in memory of Fred J. Stout Sr., of Illinois, a lifelong Jersey breeder and member of the Jersey Marketing Service (JMS) staff from 1978 to 1997. These awards provide financial support for two internships each year, one on-farm and the other with JMS. Topp will begin his internship with Jersey Marketing Service May 22. He will assist with the preparation, staging and wrap-up work for the companys public auctions, online and private treat sales. He is a student at the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute (OSU-ATI) and will graduate with an associate of applied science degree in dairy production and management. He works on his familys dairy, Toppglen Farms. Since his youth, he has participated in the show ring and dairy judging activities on the local, state and national levels. In 2018, he placed in the overall top 10 in the Post-Secondary Dairy Judging Contest at World Dairy Expo. Abigail Grimms internship will be at Broumley Dairy in Hico, Texas, with a focus on herd management. Grimm is a freshman at Ridgewater College majoring in dairy management. Since 2012, she has worked as an assistant herd manager at Brickton Genetics. DES MOINES, Iowa The National Pork Producers Councils board of directors April 10 announced its decision to cancel World Pork Expo 2019. The decision comes out of an abundance of caution as African swine fever (ASF) continues to spread in China and other parts of Asia. World Pork Expo, held each June at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, hosts approximately 20,000 visitors over three days, including individuals and exhibitors from ASF-positive regions. African swine fever affects only pigs and presents no human health or food safety risks. There is currently no vaccine to treat the swine disease. While an evaluation by veterinarians and other third-party experts concluded negligible risk associated with holding the event, we have decided to exercise extreme caution, said David Herring, NPPC president and a producer from Lillington, North Carolina. Prevention is our only defense against ASF and NPPC will continue to do all it can to prevent its spread to the United States. Border protection To augment the USDAs efforts to protect the United States from ASF and other animal diseases, U.S. pork producers are asking Congress to appropriate funding for 600 new U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture inspectors to further strengthen our defenses against African swine fever. Our farmers are highly export dependent, Herring said. An ASF outbreak would immediately close our export markets at a time when we are already facing serious trade headwinds. U.S. pork producers are already operating in very challenging financial conditions. Herring said the widespread presence of African swine fever in Chinas swine herd, the worlds largest by far, takes the threat of this swine disease to an entirely new level. The council is hoping all farmers, travelers and the general public to recognize the risk since the first outbreak was reported in China last year and to heed biosecurity protocols in support of U.S. agriculture. What is it African swine fever is a viral disease that causes high mortality in domestic and wild pigs. It spreads through close contact with infected animals or their excretions, or through feeding uncooked contaminated meat to susceptible pigs. African swine fever affects only pigs and presents no human health or food safety risks. The Australian government has promised prison terms of up to one year for vegan campaigners who publish private information about farm businesses. Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government, if re-elected in the upcoming elections in May, will convict protesters who invade farms by sharing information about them online. He called vegan and animal rights protesters un-Australian green criminals following recent protests, including a major one in Melbourne which saw 38 people arrested. Others targeted abattoirs and farms in the states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, earlier this month. Morrison said that the nation's farmers are having a hard enough time without the actions of such campaigners. He said: If there are pastoralists and farmers that are in a position to actually bring a civil action against these groups... then the [Australian government] is totally open to supporting them in a test case. It comes as farmers demand animal rights charity Aussie Farms be banned from Facebook and stripped of its charitable status after creating an online, interactive map which shows the location of hundreds of farms across the country. The National Farmers Federation (NFF)'s chief executive, Tony Mahar told the The Guardian it is against the law to publish these addresses. We havent got an issue with people having choices and having the right to consume whatever they want, he said. This is not a farmer versus vegan issue this is people breaking and entering and secretly invading peoples farms in a malicious and invasive way, that is what we have an objection to. Attorney-General Christian Porter said Aussie Farms 'maliciously uses' personal information, including farmers names, addresses and workplaces, to specifically encourage others to trespass on properties and damage businesses. This is not acceptable and the Morrison government will, if re-elected, introduce a new criminal offence specifically designed to protect Australian farmers from the sort of vigilante action we have seen this week, he said. Penalties of up to 12 months imprisonment will apply to individuals who use a carriage service, such as the internet, to disclose personal information with the intention that another person would use that information to trespass on agricultural land. The law would also apply to other primary producers such as abattoirs. Meanwhile, in the UK, an online interactive map created by vegan activists was launched in January, showing the addresses and contact numbers of dairy farms in the UK. It follows over 200 activists from across the UK descending on a pig farm in Lincolnshire in a mass protest. Joint owner of the farm, Sylvia Hook, claimed they were responsible for the deaths of two piglets and subsequent damage to the hut. Farmers have been encouraged to take a safety-first approach to avoid a major financial hit as fees increase for those found to be in breach of regulations. A fee imposed on farm businesses found to be in breach of health and safety legislation has gone up nearly 20 percent to 154 per hour. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) introduced a cost recovery regime in 2012, which means farmers are charged for the costs of an investigation. This is from the point a material breach has been identified through to the point when a decision is made on enforcement action. The charging scheme is known as a Fee for Intervention (FFI). From 6 April 2019, the hourly charge has been increased from 129 to 154. Robert Gazely, health and safety specialist for Strutt & Parker warns that a material breach is something which an inspector considers serious enough that they need to formally write to the business requiring action to be taken. Once an inspector gives a farmer this written notification of contravention (NoC), the farmer will be expected to pay a fee, he says. The final bill will be based on the total amount of time it takes the HSE inspector to identify the breach and their work to help put things right. Mr Gazely adds: But taking a safety-first approach should help farm businesses to avoid a financial hit, as the HSE fees can mount up in the event of an investigation. The number of people who are killed and injured each year on farms remains stubbornly high, and the human cost of these incidents can be incalculable to those affected. Agriculture has the poorest record of any industry in Britain and latest figures show that 33 people were killed in agriculture across Britain in 2017/18 - around 18 times higher than the all industry fatal injury rate. Earlier this year, the Farm Safety Partnership (FSP) and NFU launched a campaign which aims to reduce on-farm deaths and injuries by 50 percent by 2023. The Channel Island of Sark is looking to find a new farmer with 'plenty of experience' to develop local dairy products after the last farmer stopped producing two years ago. The successful applicant would also need to bring over a herd of cows to the island, which is a Crown dependency and is home to just under 500 people. It comes as the island's last dairy farmer, Christopher Nightingale, closed his business down in 2017 after thirty years of trading. He cited increasing costs, a lack of farming subsidies and a lack of land stability as reasons why he quit. At the time, the Sark community said it was a 'huge disappointment' that local milk will no longer be sold on the island. However, Richard Axton, organiser of the Sark community dairy, told the BBC this could now change. Sark needs a new dairy farmer - are you up to the job? pic.twitter.com/a32429qJIH BBC Guernsey (@BBCGuernsey) April 15, 2019 'We need people with dairy farming experience. Ideally, a couple who are wanting to develop a new business,' he said. Home-grown dairy products would benefit local businesses who have been relying on imports since 2017. Sark is located north of the French coast in the English Channel, and forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. Viewers have applauded the BBC for tackling the topic of mental health in the farming industry after a short film was aired on Monday night. Poor mental health is emerging as one of the biggest, yet unspoken challenges in the British farming industry. BBC analysis of the latest figures show that about one agricultural worker a week takes their own life across the UK. The eight-minute long segment, which featured on BBC News at Ten on Monday night (15 April), showed farmers and their families across the UK battling mental health issues. "I nearly did something stupid... the only thing that stopped me was the thought of Jonathan" Allan and his son Jonathan are farmers in Ayrshire and both have struggled with their mental health. Poor mental health is emerging as the biggest challenge facing farmers. #TheNine pic.twitter.com/8tl6CoXcGx The Nine (@BBCScotNine) April 15, 2019 Ayrshire dairy farmer Jonathan McCamley, 22, spoke of his battle with mental health. He told the programme that his life is currently in 'turmoil'. The young farmer spoke of financial difficulties after a milk price crash and his parents' divorce, factors which have taken a toll on his mental health. "To be truthfully honest, I think that too many people go and lift meat off the shelf or milk off the shelf and they never think about where it came from," he said. He said that people don't know what 'heartache or stress' went into making such products. Farmers on social media praised the programme. One farmer called it 'very moving', and urged everyone in the industry to watch and share as widely as possible. Very moving short film. All farmers watch and share as widely as possible. Help is available. BBC News - Farmers struggling with mental health https://t.co/1m5dVLOjWt Thomas Bradshaw (@ProagriLtd) April 16, 2019 Your health is your wealth - great to see BBC covering the issue of good mental health in the farming community and for Ayrshire farmers Jonathan and Allan speaking so openly about the challenges they have both faced. Please watch at: https://t.co/NoRRRNqLpQ NFU Scotland (@NFUStweets) April 16, 2019 Theres no words to explain just how important this is...#mentalhealth affects absolutely everybody in every sector, including sports, finance and especially farming... If youre suffering, speak up - the avenues of support are endless ?? BBC News https://t.co/dt9SEUk2KW Charlotte Cunningham (@CharCunningham) April 16, 2019 It comes as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified stress, depression and anxiety as some the main causes of work-related ill health for farmers. The overall illness rate for agricultural workers is 46% higher than the industry average, and stress, depression and anxiety are significant causes of ill health alongside musculoskeletal disorders and lung disease. But there is help available. Rural-based charities such as the Farming Community Network, the DPJ Foundation and Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) help farmers who are suffering from mental health issues. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Irrfan Khan's fans get crazy at the set of English Medium: Check Out Here |FilmiBeat Irrfan Khan dropped a shocker last year when he revealed that he has been diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumour. After undergoing treatment in London, Irrfan returned to India and is now back to work mode. The actor recently kickstarted shooting for the much awaited 'Hindi Medium' sequel titled 'Angrezi Medium' in Udaipur. Kalank Movie Review: Not Love, It's The Weak Story Which Ends Up As A Bane! Recently we came across a new picture from the sets of 'Angrezi Medium' where Irrfan is seen sharing a light-moment with director Homi Adjania. The actor is seen in the get-up of his character Champak ji sitting on a scooter and indulging in some chat with Homi off-the-camera. While this amazing sneak-peek has brighten up our day, we hear that the makers of Angrezi Medium have beefed up the security on the sets of the film in Brahmapuri. The report quoted a source as saying, "Ever since word spread that Irrfan has been shooting in Brahmapuri, fans have been turning up to catch a glimpse of him. Since it is one of the busiest localities, it is not possible for the team to cordon the area. While Irrfan's 18-member security detail is constantly by his side, the makers too have strengthened security. However, to be fair to the fans, they have not caused any trouble." Angrezi Medium stars Radhika Madan as Irrfan's daughter who wants to go abroad to study further. The film also stars Kareena Kapoor Khan in a pivotal role. The actress will begin shooting for the film once the London shooting schedule begins. The film is helmed by Homi Adajania and produced by Dinesh Vijan. Kangana Ranaut's Sister Rangoli FIRES SALVO At Ajay Devgn: 'These Men Are Intoxicated With Money' Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit starrer Kalank released on April 17, 2019 and the movie has received mixed reviews from all corners. The movie saw Kriti Sanon in a special number Aira Gaira where she shakes a leg with Varun Dhawan and Aditya Roy Kapur. During a recent interview, Kriti Sanon opened up by saying that she always wanted to work with Karan Johar and is glad that her dream came true. "I have always wanted to work with Karan Johar and he has been on my wishlist since a very long time, much before I came to Mumbai. I always wanted to work with him even before this song. I am glad that I got this opportunity to start my relation with Dharma Productions. He gave me such a kickass number. I wish that we sort of do a lot of work together and collaborate on really amazing stuff. Hopefully soon in the near future." Kriti Sanon also revealed that as soon as Karan Johar offered the dance number, she jumped at the opportunity and grabbed it with both hands. Going by her statements, it is pretty evident that Kriti Sanon is a fan of Karan Johar's work and wants to star in his upcoming projects and we hope her dream would turn into reality soon. The lovely Kriti Sanon is currently shooting for Ashutosh Gowariker's Panipat and she plays the role of Parvati Bai. She had to undergo intense sword fighting and horse riding training to prepare herself for the role. The movie also stars Sanjay Dutt and Arjun Kapoor in the lead roles. Apart from Panipat, Kritio Sanon is also shooting for Housefull 4 and Arjun Patiala and all her three movies are scheduled to release in 2019. A Fan Threw Her Bra At Nick Jonas In Front Of Priyanka Chopra & Her Reaction Is UNEXPECTED! The Telangana government, headed by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), recently set up a 25-member committee to examine sexual harassment cases related to the Telugu film industry. As expected, this created a great deal of buzz amongst fans with most of them hailing him for such a big decision. Now, actress Sri Reddy has commented on the development. In an emotional post, she praised the 'real hero' for ensuring the welfare of women and added that her efforts had paid off. "Being a Hyderabadi Proud moment today..Thank u soooooooo much real hero kcr garu..my dream came true today..from mark of bit*h now you made me a heroine to this world..1 year of my pain gave the birth..g.o passed by government against sexual harrassment..for movie industry committee is forming soon on sexual harrassment..now got tremendous result for my removing clothes..main persons who made this true is sandya ,vasudha,sajaya,tej love u all..for this movement heart is "apoorva"..thank u every one," (sic) she added. In case you did not know, last year, Sri Reddy became the talk of the town for a shocking reason when she stripped in public and claimed that several top Tollywood producers exploit aspiring actresses before showing them the door. Thereafter, she levelled several bold charges against the likes of Nani, Koratala Siva and Raghava Lawrence which grabbed plenty of reasons. It seems that Sri Reddy feels that her actions have resulted in the positive change. Sri Reddy Comes Up With BOLDEST EVER Remark On Virginity & It Will Leave You Shocked! Over Half of UK Workers Have Reduced Their Monthly Financial Expenditure in Case They are Made Redundant LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- With the UK set to leave the EU on 31st October, 40 percent of employees in the UK say that Brexit has resulted in their company cutting jobs, according to a new survey1 from Glassdoor, one of the world's largest job and recruiting sites. The online survey, conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Glassdoor, shows the extent to which employees are worried about redundancies at their employer and how concerned they are that their own job might be eliminated. With Brexit constantly in the news, employees are clearly conscious of the impact this is having on their employer. Half of employees (50 percent) say that Brexit has had a negative impact on their company's financial performance. Further, nearly half (49 percent) say they believe their company will make redundancies over the next year. In a sign that many people are fearful for their job security, nearly half of employees (48 percent) say they are worried their job may be made redundant over the next 12 months. Workers aged 18-44 are more likely than those aged 45+ to be worried about job security (59 percent vs. 33 percent). These fears may be leading to a change in spending habits as a precautionary measure. Over half of employees (57 percent) say they have consciously reduced the amount of money they spend every month in case their job is made redundant. Again, this is more prevalent amongst employees aged 18-34 (68 percent) and those aged 35-44 (65 percent), compared to those aged 55+ (35 percent). "Many UK employees are anticipating job cuts and are naturally concerned, prompting them to reduce their financial outgoings. Despite current low unemployment levels, this likely means the UK labour market is experiencing uncertainty and that looks set to continue well into the next financial year," said John Lamphiere, EMEA Managing Director at Glassdoor. "With roughly half the workforce worried about Brexit having a negative financial impact on their employer, it might be a good time for companies to engage with their employees to reassure them about jobs, growth and business momentum." In terms of looking for a new job, about two thirds (62 percent) of employees say they do not plan to search for a new job until the job market looks more positive. "This suggests employers may need to work harder to recruit quality talent in the near term. However, it may well be that knowledge workers, in other words those leveraging specialised skill sets or capabilities and being career-focussed, would be more open to a job move," added Lamphiere. Job seekers and employees can find ideas and advice from Glassdoor with regards to navigating a work environment that may be affected by Brexit and job cuts: 5 ways to stay sane when your company is making redundancies Should you stay or should you go if you are worried about redundancies? How to find a new job after you have been made redundant This survey was conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Glassdoor from March 20-22, 2019 among 1,018 adults aged 18 and older in the UK, of whom 563 are employed full or part time. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact pr@glassdoor.com. About Glassdoor Glassdoor combines all the latest jobs with millions of reviews and insights to make it easy for people to find a job that is uniquely right for them. As a result, Glassdoor helps employers hire truly informed candidates at scale through effective recruiting solutions like job advertising and employer branding products. Launched in 2008, Glassdoor now has reviews and insights for 830,000 companies located in more than 190 countries. Glassdoor is a registered trademark of Glassdoor, Inc. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/449764/Glassdoor_Logo.jpg Last week, St Kitts and Nevis opened Diplomatic Week 2019 by celebrating the 158 countries and territories with whom it has visa-free or visa-on-arrival agreements. Prime Minister Timothy Harris gave a speech after a service where he met with numerous dignitaries from partner countries, including Austria, Canada, Israel, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. Introduced when PM Harris served the country as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Week seeks to honour St Kitts and Nevis' relationships with other nations which, as of 2019, cover over three quarters of the world's territories. This year's theme was Securing a Resilient Future through Strategic Diplomacy and Effective Dialogue. During the opening ceremony on April 9th, the premier noted the importance the Federation has always placed on diplomacy. "Thirty-five years ago, as the world's newest independent sovereign nation and the smallest independent country in the Western Hemisphere, the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis was quickly steeped in strategic diplomacy." The High Commissioner of South Africa to St Kitts and Nevis, Lumka Yengeni, expressed commitment to the countries' shared partnership. "We hope that the relationship that we are cementing today will go a long way, meaning that the two governments will have to look at the areas of cooperation and see where we can strengthen each other." PM Harris also met with St Kitts and Nevis' Honorary Consuls to Belgium and Turkey, Dr Aykut Mehmet Eken and Mrs Fatima Gonul Oray Eken respectively, on Thursday. Ranked 26th worldwide for its passport strength, the small country attracts investors looking to acquire second citizenship for reasons beyond increased mobility. Since 1984, St Kitts and Nevis has successfully run its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme. The world's longest-serving, it is the only CBI programme known to have reached the industry-level Platinum Standard. Upon passing Programme due diligence, which specialists at the Financial Times' PWM magazine awarded full scores in last year's CBI Index, citizenship hopefuls contribute to the country's economy via the Sustainable Growth Fund. The Fund is the newest investment channel under CBI, and is cited as the most straightforward route to St Kitts and Nevis' citizenship. CS Global Partners is the international legal advisory mandated by the Government to promote the Citizenship by Investment Programme worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190417005839/en/ Contacts: Thomas Kohn pr@csglobalpartners.com +(44)2073184343 www.csglobalpartners.com Sales revenue up 19.3%; order intake up 18.7%; earnings margin 28.6% 1) Growth across all product categories and geographies; the Americas particularly strong Guidance for 2019 confirmed Regulatory News: Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB) (Paris:DIM), a leading partner of the biopharma industry, reported strong double-digit growth in sales revenue, order intake and earnings for the first quarter of 2019. Sales revenue increased against relatively moderate comparables in the prior-year quarter by 19.3% to 342.9 million euros (reported: +22.0%); order intake also saw a significant uptick, rising 18.7% to 381.3 million euros (reported: +21.5%). Underlying EBITDA1) rose overproportionately relative to sales by 32.5% to 98.1 million euros. The respective margin reached 28.6% (Q1 2018: 26.3%), with a good half of a percentage point of this increase resulting from a change in accounting rules2), as expected. Relevant net profit after non-controlling interest3) for the Group surged by 32.9% to 62.6 million euros, resulting in earnings per share of 0.68 euros compared with 0.51 euros a year earlier. "Though we anticipated a good start into the year, we are very pleased with this strong set of results," said Dr. Joachim Kreuzburg, Chairman of the Board. "Expansion was driven by high demand across the entire portfolio and all regions. Given the stronger comparables for the next quarters and an increasing dilutive effect due to the modified setup of our cell culture media business, we expect that growth rates will normalize over the course of the year. On this basis we confirm our 2019 full-year guidance." With respect to geographies, the Americas recorded the highest increase in sales, which were up 26.7% to 124.8 million euros. Asia|Pacific once again saw significant growth of 16.9% to 77.5 million euros, whereas in the EMEA region, sales totaled 140.6 million euros, equaling a gain of 14.8%. (All growth rates in constant currencies.) Key financial indicators The financial position of the Group remained at very comfortable levels. Driven by strong earnings, equity of Sartorius Stedim Biotech grew from 1,044.9 million euros as of the end of fiscal 2018 to 1,055.7 million euros as of March 31, 2019. Mainly due to a change in accounting standards2), the equity ratio decreased slightly to 63.6% (December 31, 2018: 66.5%). At 0.3, the ratio of net debt to underlying EBITDA was below the prior year's level of 0.4. The ratio of capital expenditures to sales revenue was 9.4% (March 31, 2018: 9.2%)4) Positive outlook for 2019 Based on its performance in the first quarter 2019, Sartorius Stedim Biotech confirms its guidance for fiscal 2019. Consolidated sales revenue is projected to grow by about 7% to 11%. This forecast reflects the changes to the sales agreement with the Lonza group for cell culture media. Without these changes, sales growth would probably be approximately 3 percentage points higher. Regarding profitability, management forecasts that the company's underlying EBITDA margin will increase by slightly more than one percentage point over the prior-year figure of 28.2%. Of this figure, approximately half a percentage point is expected to be an operational increase, whereas the remainder will result from changes to the IFRS accounting rules2). The ratio of capital expenditures to sales revenue is projected to be around 11%, down from the year-earlier figure of 14.6%4) All figures in this outlook are given in constant currencies. In spite of countermeasures already taken, a disorderly exit of the United Kingdom from the EU may have a certain impact on our supply chain; yet a reliable forecast of possible effects cannot be given at the present time. 1) Underlying EBITDA earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and adjusted for extraordinary items 2) IFRS 16 is required to be applied as of 2019 and regulates accounting of lease contracts. This leads to a somewhat extended balance sheet and thus to a slightly lower equity ratio. Further, this results in reporting longer-term lease payments as depreciation and, accordingly, in a somewhat higher EBITDA, among other things. This does not entail any material changes concerning the Group's relevant net profit or earnings per share. 3) Underlying net profit net profit after non-controlling interest; adjusted for extraordinary items and non-cash amortization, as well as based on a normalized financial result and tax rate 4) As of 2019, CAPEX is based on cash flow instead of balance sheet computation; CAPEX ratio restated: 9.7% for Q1 2018; 14.6% for FY 2018. This press release contains statements about the future development of the Sartorius Stedim Biotech Group. We cannot guarantee that the content of these statements will actually apply because these statements are based upon assumptions and estimates that harbor certain risks and uncertainties. Follow Sartorius Stedim Biotech on Twitter @Sartorius_Group and on LinkedIn. Conference call Joachim Kreuzburg, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Sartorius Stedim Biotech Group, will discuss the company's results with analysts and investors on Thursday, April 18, 2019, at 3.30 p.m. Central European Summer Time (CEST), in a teleconference. You may register at: http://services.choruscall.de/DiamondPassRegistration/register?confirmationNumber=6266464&linkSecurityString=2e6e97fe0 Alternatively, you can dial in without prior registration at +49 (0) 69 566 03 7000 The presentation will be available on April 18, 2019, starting at 3:15 p.m. CEST, on our website at: https://www.sartorius.com/en/company/investor-relations/sartorius-stedim-biotech-sa-investor-relations/presentations Press images https://www.sartorius.com/en/company/newsroom/downloads-publications Financial calendar July 19, 2019 Publication of first-half figures (January to June 2019) October 22, 2019 Publication of nine-month results (January to September 2019) Key performance indicators for the first quarter of 2019 in millions of unless otherwise specified 3 months 2019 3 months 2018 in % reported in cc1) Sales revenue 342.9 281.1 22.0 19.3 EMEA2) 140.6 122.5 14.8 14.8 Americas2) 124.8 93.8 33.0 26.7 Asia Pacific2) 77.5 64.8 19.6 16.9 Order intake3) 381.3 313.8 21.5 18.7 EBITDA4) 98.1 74.0 32.5 EBITDA margin4) in 28.6 26.3 Net profit5) 62.6 47.1 32.9 Earnings per share5) in 0.68 0.51 32.9 1) In constant currencies 2) According to customers' location 3) All customer orders which were legally concluded during the respective reporting period 4) Underlying EBITDA earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and adjusted for extraordinary items 5) Underlying net profit net profit after non-controlling interest; adjusted for extraordinary items and non-cash amortization, as well as based on a normalized financial result and tax rate Reconciliation in millions of 3 months 2019 3 months 2018 EBIT (operating result) 80.1 57.6 Extraordinary items 2.6 3.6 Depreciation and amortization 15.4 12.8 Underlying EBITDA 98.1 74.0 in millions of 3 months 2019 3 months 2018 EBIT (operating result) 80.1 57.6 Extraordinary effects 2.6 3.6 Amortization IFRS 3 3.4 4.2 Normalized financial result1) -1.0 -1.1 Normalized income tax (2019: 26%; 2018: 26%)2) -22.1 -16.7 Underlying net result 63.0 47.5 Non-controlling interest -0.4 -0.5 Underlying net result after non-controlling interest 62.6 47.1 Underlying earnings per share (in ) 0.68 0.51 1) Financial result excluding fair value adjustments of hedging instruments, as well as currency effects from foreign currency loans 2) Income tax considering the average group tax rate, based on the underlying profit before tax A profile of Sartorius Stedim Biotech Sartorius Stedim Biotech is a leading international partner of the biopharmaceutical industry. As a total solutions provider, the company helps its customers to manufacture biotech medications safely, rapidly and economically. Headquartered in Aubagne, France, Sartorius Stedim Biotech is quoted on the Eurolist of Euronext Paris. With its own manufacturing and R&D sites in Europe, North America and Asia and an international network of sales companies, Sartorius Stedim Biotech has a global reach. The Group has been annually growing by double digits on average and has been regularly expanding its portfolio by acquisitions of complementary technologies. In 2018, the company earned sales revenue of 1,212.2 million and currently employs some 5,800 people. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190417006063/en/ Contacts: Petra Kirchhoff; Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations Phone: +49(0)551.308.1686; petra.kirchhoff@sartorius.com Pendragon PLC ("The Company") Appointment and Resignation of Independent Non-Executive Directors The Company is pleased to announce that Mr William Berman has been appointed as an independent non-executive director, to take office on 18 April 2019. Mr Berman will serve on the Company's Nomination Committee, Remuneration Committee and Audit Committee. Mr Berman joins following an extensive executive career with AutoNation, the largest automotive retailer in America, where most recently he served as President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr Berman was responsible for AutoNation's 26,000 associates and the operational performance of the company's 300+ new vehicle franchises, including new and used vehicle sales. Mr Berman's previous roles at AutoNation included Executive Vice President, Regional President Western Region and Market President Northern California. Welcoming Bill Berman to the Board, Pendragon's Chairman, Chris Chambers said: "I am really pleased that Bill has agreed to join our Board. His significant and extensive experience in automotive retail makes him an ideal addition to our board as we continue our own transformation and progress towards achieving our strategic objectives". Given that Mr Berman's agreement to join the Board comes when the notice of the Company's 2019 Annual General Meeting ("AGM") has already been circulated to shareholders, and is so soon before the AGM, the Board does not consider it appropriate to put forward a resolution to re-appoint Mr Berman at the 2019 AGM. Instead, Mr Berman's appointment will lapse at the 2019 AGM, and he will be re-appointed by the Board immediately following the 2019 AGM, with a resolution proposing his re-appointment being proposed to shareholders at the 2020 AGM. The Company further announces that Ms Gillian Kent will be standing down as a non-executive director on 18 April 2019, in order to pursue other interests. Pendragon's Chairman, Chris Chambers commented, "I would like to thank Gillian for her significant contribution since joining the Board. The Board wish her well in her chosen future activities". Consequently, the Board intends to withdraw resolution number 7 set out in the notice of meeting dated 21 March 2019 relating to the re-election of Gillian Kent as a director. The remaining resolutions set out in the notice will be put to shareholders at the AGM to be held on 25 April 2019, with the results being announced following the conclusion of the meeting. The withdrawal of resolution 7 does not affect the validity of any proxy votes already submitted. There is no information in the nature of that required by LR 9.6.13R to disclose in relation to Mr Berman's appointment to the Board. Enquiries: Chris Chambers Non-executive Chairman Pendragon PLC 01623 725 119 Richard Maloney Company Secretary Pendragon PLC 01623 725 119 Howard Lee Headland 0203 805 4822 Henry Wallers Headland 0203 805 4822 AXA Property Trust Limited (a closed-ended investment company incorporated with limited liability under the laws of Guernsey with registered number 43007) LEI Number: 213800AF85VEZMDMF931 (The "Company") APPOINTMENT OF FINANCIAL ADVISER AND BROKER FORMAL RESIGNATION OF EXISTING INVESTMENT MANAGER UPDATE ON SERVICE PROVIDERS CHANGE OF INVESTMENT POLICY AND UPDATED DIRECTOR INFORMATION 18 April 2019 Appointment of Financial Adviser and Broker AXA Property Trust Limited is pleased to announce that Shore Capital and Corporate Limited and Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited (together "Shore Capital") have been appointed as the Company's financial adviser and broker with immediate effect. Formal Resignation of Existing Investment Manager The Company announced on 29 March 2019 that AXA Investment Managers UK Limited ("AXA IM") had indicated its intention to resign as Investment Manager of the Company should the Board take definitive steps towards convening an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company to consider a change to the Company's investment policy. This reflects the proposed change of the Company's investment policy from real estate investment to investment in undervalued British securities, as set out in the Company's announcement of 3 April 2019. AXA IM has now submitted its resignation to the Board, pursuant to clause 15.2.4 of the Investment Management Agreement ("the IMA"), to take effect from the earliest of (i) the date on which a resolution of the Shareholders of the Company is passed to change the Company's investment policy; (ii) the date on which Worsley Associates LLP ("Worsley") is appointed as Investment Advisor of the Company and (iii) 30 June 2019. The termination of the IMA also has the effect of triggering the termination of the Real Estate Advisory Agreement between the Company (and its subsidiaries) and AXA Real Estate Investment Managers UK Limited, as well as the local asset management agreement between the Company's Italian subsidiary and AXA Real Estate Investment Managers Italia srl. Notwithstanding such termination occurring before 30 June 2019, AXA IM has agreed to provide reasonable post-termination assistance to the Company or any replacement service provider until 30 June 2019. The appointment of Worsley is expected to take place on the earlier of Shareholder approval of the change in the Company's investment policy and 31 May 2019. Update on Service Providers On 29 March 2019, it was announced that Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited ("Northern Trust") had tendered its resignation as Administrator and Secretary, such resignation to take effect following the expiration of the 90 day notice period or earlier if by mutual agreement. The Company is pleased to announce that it has provisionally agreed to appoint Praxis Fund Services Limited to replace Northern Trust as Administrator and Secretary, subject to regulatory approval. The appointment is expected to take effect from 31 May 2019. Having been the Company's auditor since its listing 14 years ago, KPMG Channel Islands Limited has tendered its resignation. The Company has commenced discussions with potential replacement auditing firms and will make a further announcement in this regard in due course. Change of Investment Policy As noted above, it is proposed that, subject to Shareholder approval, the Company adopt a new Investment Objective and Policy. Further details and a Notice of the Extraordinary General Meeting at which a resolution to approve the change will be considered, will be set out in a Circular, and it is the Company's expectation that this will be posted to Shareholders in early May. Updated Director Information On 23 January 2019 the Company announced that following an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders Blake Nixon was appointed to the board. On 29 March 2018 the Company announced that Robert Burke and William Scott had been appointed to the board. Pursuant to LR 9.6.13R the Company should also have announced the following information in relation to these appointments: William Scott LR 9.6.13R(1): Mr Scott is currently a director of the following publicly quoted companies: Absolute Alpha Fund PCC Limited Axiom European Financial Debt Fund Limited MAN AHL Diversified PCC Limited Pershing Square Holdings Limited The Flight and Partners Recovery Fund Limited LR 9.6.13R(1): Mr Scott was a director of the following publicly quoted companies during the past five years AcenciA Debt Strategies Limited Sandbourne Fund FRM Customised Diversified Fund Limited FRM Diversified II Fund SPC FRM Sigma Fund Limited FRM Credit Strategies Fund PCC Limited Invista European Real Estate Trust SICAF LR 9.6.13R(3): Mr Scott was a director of the following entities which were each placed into solvent voluntary liquidation on the respective dates shown: Invista European Real Estate SICAF (28 December2015),AcenciA Debt Strategies Limited ( 29 December 2017 ) and Sandbourne Fund ( 28 January 2016 ). Blake Nixon LR 9.6.13R(1): Mr Nixon was a director of Guinness Peat Group plc (now Coats Group plc) during the past 5 years. Enquiries: Blake Nixon (Director) Tel: 02038732288 Shore Capital (Financial Adviser and Broker) Robert Finlay Tel: 0207408 4090 Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited The Company Secretary Trafalgar Court, Les Banques St Peter Port Guernsey GY1 3QL Tel: 01481 745001 Headquartered in Seattle, this is Slalom's second office in the UK MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, April 17, 2019, the modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation, has chosen Manchester as the location for its second UK office. Partnering with over 200 solution providers including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Tableau, Slalom helps companies tackle their most ambitious projects and build new capabilities. Slalom's London office, which opened in 2014, has established the firm's reputation in the UK as helping companies across industries, in the private and public sectors, learn from their data, impress their customers, deliver faster, and transform their organizations. "Manchester is a city of digital enterprise with strengths in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, and consumer services; which perfectly complements Slalom's breadth of expertise," said Dave Williams, Slalom UK Country Managing Director. "We're looking forward to helping our clients solve their biggest challenges while we also invest in the local community." Based at Peter House in the heart of Manchester's innovation and academic district, Slalom is looking to tap into the city's deep talent pool as well as invest in the development of its existing team members to grow its UK reputation. Slalom prides itself on building diverse teams of experienced professionals who have worked with consulting firms, digital agencies, start-ups, and enterprises. The firm plans to employ over 200 people in Manchester by 2025, each of whom will benefit from an international network of more than 6,500 people. "Greater Manchester is a hotbed for collaboration and innovation, making it the ideal location for pioneering businesses like Slalom," said Tim Newns, Chief Executive of MIDAS, Manchester's inward investment agency. "There are strong complementarities between Slalom and Greater Manchester's efforts to collaborate with companies going through digital transformation and supporting them to grow within the region. Establishing operations within one of Europe's largest digital and technology clusters will provide the consulting firm with ample opportunities to join forces with the rapidly increasing number of world-leading brands that are choosing Manchester." Slalom Managing Director Paul Squire, who will move from the London office to head up operations in Manchester, said, "I'm excited about working with our clients in the North West of England, helping them deliver people-centric change, bring strategic solutions to life, and ultimately, love their future." About Slalom Slalom is a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. In cities across the US, UK, and Canada, Slalom's teams have autonomy to move fast and do what's right. They're backed by seven regional innovation hubs, a global culture of collaboration, and partnerships with the world's top technology providers. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Seattle, Slalom has organically grown to over 6,500 employees. Slalom was named one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2019 and is regularly recognised by employees as a best place to work. Learn more at slalom.com . ? "Projeto Sonhar" offers their walls for the artist to paint on and help bring visibility to the Project, located in poverty-stricken neighbourhood in Sao Paulo BRISTOL, United Kingdom, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The NGO Instituto Projeto Sonhar, that assists families in situation of vulnerability in Brazil, has sent out an odd invitation: "Banksy, there is a wall for you!" The ad, which was published free of charge by The Guardian and Metro newspapers, was also seen on outdoors throughout England. The invitation wants to draw the attention of the British artist so he will paint on one of the walls of the social institution located in Capao Redondo, an underprivileged neighbourhood in Sao Paulo. The main idea to invite Banksy consists on a plan to bring visibility to the NGO and raise funds so the Project can still stand. Founded in 2013 by Alex Sandro and Marcos Lopes, Instituto Projeto Sonhar (Dream Project Institute, freely translated) is a program that seeks to rescue families in vulnerable situations, by offering them psychological, medical and legal support, and actively reintegrating those families into society. The NGO maintains its work with the help of donations, partnerships and counts with six employees. With a different kind of advertising, Projeto Sonhar intends to raise donations on their webpage and gather support on social media. You can join the campaign by sharing the hashtags comeBanksy vemBanksy. You can also make a donation at the project's website projetosonhar.org/como-apoiar. Known for his politically engaged art and for keeping his identity a secret, Banksy challenges the limits of social conventions, spreading his art on the most unexpected places and using different, yet equally provocative media. Banksy's interventions, however, are not always welcome by the owners of the walls where he leaves his mark, even though the value of these properties considerably increases after serving as a canvas for today's greatest street artist. Ian Lewis, from Port Talbot, Wales, is one of those owners who's had one of his walls painted by the puzzling artist. Ian has also joined the campaign and is trying to bring Banksy to Brazil. See his message: https://youtu.be/rK-Cwh1vSm4 Contact:debora.bock@almapbbdo.com.br / +55 (11) 2395-4214. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- NetCents Technology Inc. ("NetCents" or the "Company") (CSE: NC) (Frankfurt: 26N) (OTCQB: NTTCF) is pleased to announce that it has begun processing cryptocurrency transactions for its first charity partner, HS Aware. NetCents is a strong believer about being able to invoke change. Change not only on its business side but more importantly throughout our communities with initiatives that positively impact people's lives. On March 7th, the Company launched its Charity Impact Initiative and we are proud to announce our first charity partnership with HS Aware. NetCents is providing all registered charities and non-profits free cryptocurrency processing. Any charity that signs up through this initiative is able to accept donations and sell their merchandise and tickets with zero processing fees. Interested charities can visit https://net-cents.com/partnerspartners-form to learn more and sign up. "HS Aware is excited to remain an innovator in the non-profit space by now accepting cryptocurrency donations to fund our future initiatives and events," stated Maria Goguen, President of HS Aware. "We've had a lot of interest to begin accepting donations in crypto to further support the HS community and now through this partnership, we are able to. We are thankful for any and all support members of the community want to give." HS Aware regularly lobbies and liaisons with the government and medical organizations, hosts events bringing awareness and support to HS (Hidradenitis Suppurativa), and provides an open and safe space for HS patients to discuss living with HS. Founded in Canada, HS Aware is the largest Canadian community and has increased its footprint globally as one of the largest non-profits in the world representing HS with a community of over 15,000 active supporters worldwide. Through their marketing initiatives, HS Aware reaches hundreds of thousands of people globally and engages with tens of thousands of people on a monthly basis. Through their partnership with NetCents, HS Aware will now accept donations to help fund and grow their outreach, community, and engagement efforts globally. About HS Aware HS Aware is a non-profit dedicated to people living with (HS) and is the premier Canadian community representing the voice of patients living with HS living. HS Aware was established to increase disease awareness among patients, health care professionals, caregivers, government agencies, and other stakeholders in Canada and around the world. http://hsaware.com/ https://www.facebook.com/IAMHSaware/ About NetCents NetCents Technology Inc, the transactional hub for all cryptocurrency payments, equips forward-thinking businesses with the technology to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency processing into their payment model without taking on the risk or volatility of the crypto market. NetCents Technology is registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FINTRAC, which ensures our consumer's security and privacy. For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.net-cents.com or Investor Relations at investor@net-cents.com On Behalf of the Board of Directors NetCents Technology Inc. "Clayton Moore" Clayton Moore, CEO, Founder and Director NetCents Technology Inc. Suite 1000 - 1021 West Hastings Street Vancouver BC V6B 0C3 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company 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" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2019) - TransCanna Holdings Inc. (CSE: TCAN) (XETR: TH8) ("TransCanna" or the "Company") announces that it has executed a sub-lease agreement for 10,000 square feet of a multipurpose facility located in Adelanto, CA. The terms of the sub-lease agreement is four years at US$2.00 per square foot per month. The facility is of superior quality and has existing armed security personnel at all times at the complex. "As we've represented since the commencement of TransCanna, it's crucial to have a main facility, which we now have with the acquisition of the 196,000 square foot vertically integrated facility in Modesto, and up to five satellite facilities located strategically throughout the state," stated Jim Pakulis, CEO of TransCanna. "This is in preparation for TransCanna to provide our clients with up to fifteen reliable, consistent branded products in a timely manner. In order to do that to scale, we needed to have a significant size nursery, grow, manufacturing, bottling, baking, extracting, and transportation and distribution facility and satellite offices, which we now have. Separately but related, we negotiated lease terms that are approximately thirty percent below market rates, with the added benefit of a completely fenced complex and armed security guards present at all times." The Company has terminated a previously signed LOI for 15,000 square feet for $2.25 per square foot per month. The landlord of that lease has yet to complete the facility as originally expected. The Company has extended its marketing contract with Rok Marketing (a/k/a Rok Management) on existing terms with the exception of increasing the number of shares issuable per month to 30,000. All securities issuable will be subject to a four month hold period pursuant to the policies of the CSE. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.transcanna.com. About TransCanna Holdings Inc. TransCanna Holdings Inc. is a Canadian-based company focused on providing integrated branding, transportation and distribution services, through its wholly-owned California subsidiaries, to a range of industries including the cannabis marketplace. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.transcanna.com or email the Company at info@transcanna.com. Media Contact TransCanna@talkshopmedia.com 604-738-2220 On behalf of the Board of Directors James Pakulis Chief Executive Officer Telephone: (604) 609-6199 The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward looking statements. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, expectations, achievements or performance may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to: the anticipated timing of the closing of the facility acquisition and the use of proceeds from the financing. Any number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as well as future results. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward looking statements will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward looking statements or otherwise. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44167 New York hedge fund, Kingstown Capital Management L.P, and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on 10 April 2019 in the Southern District of New York against Radovan Vitek, a Czech real estate mogul with business interests throughout Europe, whose fortune Forbes magazine estimates at $3.5 billion. Represented by litigation powerhouse Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, the hedge fund Kingstown Capital Management L.P and Czech investment firm Investhold Ltd allege that Vitek ran an elaborate criminal enterprise that defrauded the plaintiffs out of more than US $1 billion. According to the complaint, Berlin's largest commercial real estate landlord, Vitek engaged in racketeering activity including wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, and other crimes and amassed his wealth at the expense of the plaintiffs, according to the complaint. His commercial interests span multiple jurisdictions including the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Croatia and UK. The complaint alleges that Vitek was aided and abetted by private Czech bank J&T Banka, as well as Luxembourg-based real estate development company ORCO Property Group, S.A., and ORCO Germany, now known as CPI Property Group, which has an US $8 billion real estate portfolio across Europe and nearly 4,000 employees. After Kingstown Capital established a substantial interest in ORCO Property Group, Vitek "secretly took control of ORCO through a series of shell companies and straw owners," according to the complaint. Individuals that are named as "straw owners" include ORCO's former Chief Executive Officer Jean-Francois Ott and Vitek's mother, Milada Mala. The complaint states that "Vitek stripped ORCO of its most valuable real estate assets, using his effective control over the company to cause ORCO to sell real estate at distressed prices to other entities that Vitek secretly controlled." The complaint adds, "Vitek's scheme, which was carried out for nearly a decade and involved numerous investments and entities, was made possible by J&T Banka, a.s., and its affiliates. J&T Banka . financed nearly every one of Vitek's fraudulent schemes, and was a willing participant in Vitek's crimes." Matthew L. Schwartz, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner and former federal prosecutor who represents the plaintiffs, said: "Today's lawsuit painstakingly lays out the existence of a massive, decade-long fraudulent scheme perpetrated by Vitek and his co-conspirators that made him a billionaire with one of the world's biggest property empires. We look forward to justice being done and for the opportunity to present our evidence in open court." The complaint states that in 2017, the Luxembourg financial regulator known as the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier launched an investigation into Vitek, Ott, and CPI Property Group and found that "Vitek and Ott had 'acted in covert concert,' secretly controlled ORCO, and therefore violated Luxembourg and European law." The plaintiffs are now seeking far greater penalties against the defendants for alleged violations of several statutes including the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The defendants "reached deliberately and repeatedly into the United States, and New York in particular, to perpetrate their crimes," the complaint states. A link to the complaint filed on 10 April 2019 is here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005253/en/ Contacts: BOIES SCHILLER FLEXNER LLP Edward Evans Director of Communications 212-446-2354 eevans@bsfllp.com UK's leading travel extras company will use the Dayforce platform to resolve complex payroll challenges and enable compliance Ceridian (NYSE: CDAY; TSX: CDAY), a global human capital management (HCM) company, is excited to announce that Holiday Extras, U.K.'s market leader of travel extras, has chosen Dayforce to tackle their HR and payroll needs, support growth, drive HR efficiencies, and enable compliance. "After an extensive review of the market, Dayforce was a clear choice for Holiday Extras, scoring highly on all our requirements including the quality and scalability of the technology, and the exceptional level of support and service from their experienced team," said Holiday Extras Deputy CEO Simon Hagger. "We sought a single solution that would give our People/HR team a leading system for our group-wide pay and people processes, while providing our employees with a superior user experience to support our open, flexible culture. The introduction of Dayforce comes at an ideal time as we continue to grow and evolve our dynamic organisation." Holiday Extras operates an open, flexible and inclusive working culture and were seeking a solution that would prioritise that cultural fit. They were seeking a partner that would not only support with compliance, but also efficiently and seamlessly integrate changes into the HCM platform. With these changes being coded directly into Dayforce, Ceridian met their requirements and provided them with peace of mind. "Our partnership with Holiday Extras will support their unique business needs, including optimising day-to-day processes while driving employee engagement," said Ross Tracey, Managing Director, Ceridian Europe. "Dayforce was built to provide businesses with a single source of data truth and to eliminate inefficiencies from disconnected HR and payroll applications. We're pleased that they will be able to take advantage of the platform's real-time functionality, helping them act faster based on the people insights critical to their success." Holiday Extras is the U.K.'s market leader for travel extras, providing airport parking, airport hotels, airport lounges, airport transfers, destination car hire, holiday insurance and more as its core offerings to approximately eight million travellers every year. For more information about Dayforce, visit Ceridian.com/UK. About Ceridian Ceridian. Makes Work Life Better. Ceridian is a global human capital management software company. Dayforce, our flagship cloud HCM platform, provides human resources, payroll, benefits, workforce management, and talent management functionality. Our platform is used to optimize management of the entire employee lifecycle, including attracting, engaging, paying, deploying, and developing people. Ceridian has solutions for organizations of all sizes. Visit Ceridian.com or follow us @Ceridian. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005101/en/ Contacts: Teri Murphy Teri.Murphy@Ceridian.com +1 647.417.2117 Annual revenue from smart street lighting will grow at CAGR 31% to reach US$1.7 billion in 2026. Street lighting programs today, and over the next several years, will focus on replacing conventional lamps with LED lamps. However, only 20 percent of LED street lamps will be truly "smart" through integration with lighting controls systems. This imbalance will slowly correct itself and by 2026, central management systems will connect to over two-thirds of all new LED street light installations. "Smart street lighting vendors such as Telensa, Telematics Wireless, DimOnOff, Itron, and Signify have been the most successful in benefiting from their cost-optimized products, market expertise, and aggressive commercial approach," said Adarsh Krishnan Principal Analyst at ABI Research. "And, there are additional opportunities to be had by smart city suppliers leveraging street pole infrastructure by hosting of wireless connectivity infrastructure, environmental sensors, and even intelligent cameras. The challenge is finding a feasible business model that encourages deployment of multi-sensor solutions cost-effectively at scale." Smart street lighting applications that have seen the most adoption are (in order of priority): remote scheduling of dimming profiles based on seasonal changes, time shifts, or special social events; metering individual street light energy consumption for accurate usage-based billing; asset management to improve maintenance planning; and finally, sensor-based adaptive lighting. Regionally, street lighting deployments are unique in a vendor and technology approach, as well as end-market requirements. In 2018, North America has been a leader in smart street lighting accounting for 31 percent of the global install base, followed by Europe and the Asia Pacific. In Europe, non-cellular LPWA network technologies have a dominant share of smart streetlights today but will cede some market share to cellular LPWA network technologies, especially as NB-IoT based end-devices become more commercially available in Q2 2020. By 2026, the Asia Pacific region will have the largest install base of smart streetlights, accounting for over one-third of global installations. This growth is due to China and India, both which not only have ambitious LED street lamp retrofit programs but also are building local LED component manufacturing facilities to lower lamp costs. "In India and China, LED streetlights have seen a very low penetration of lighting control systems due to a nascent domestic solution vendor ecosystem and international vendors that are unable to adapt their solution to meet local market requirements for innovative yet low-cost products, "concluded Krishnan. Low-cost solutions based on cellular LPWA network technologies followed by non-cellular LPWA network technologies will witness the most growth in the APAC region, accounting for a market share of 48 percent and 36 percent respectively of the total install base in 2026. These findings are from ABI Research's Smart Street Lighting market data report. This report is part of the company's M2M, IoT IoE research service, which includes research, data, and Executive Foresights.Market Data spreadsheets are composed of deep data, market share analysis, and highly segmented, service-specific forecasts to provide detailed insight where opportunities lie. About ABI Research ABI Research provides strategic guidance for visionaries needing market foresight on the most compelling transformative technologies, which reshape workforces, identify holes in a market, create new business models and drive new revenue streams. ABI's own research visionaries take stances early on those technologies, publishing groundbreaking studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms. ABI analysts deliver their conclusions and recommendations in easily and quickly absorbed formats to ensure proper context. Our analysts strategically guide visionaries to take action now and inspire their business to realize a bigger picture. For more information about subscribing to ABI's Research Services as well as Industrial and Custom Solutions, visionaries can contact us at +1.516.624.2500 in the Americas, +44.203.326.0140 in Europe, +65.6592.0290 in Asia-Pacific or visit www.abiresearch.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005111/en/ Contacts: Global Deborah Petrara Tel: +1.516.624.2558 pr@abiresearch.com Christopher Leary Tel: +1.516.624.2544 pr@abiresearch.com Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Strategic Independent Technology Advisors Will Specialize in Marketing Technology Optimisation, Utilization and Effectiveness LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Splash Worldwide is excited to announce the launch of NEON Consulting, a specialist Marketing Technology consultancy. NEON will advise clients on the implementation, optimisation and effectiveness of their investment in marketing technology. As one of the world's leading creative technology companies, Splash Worldwide already provides brands with a global platform and creative production services to help manage and optimise the delivery of content as part of global marketing activation. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/873696/Splash_Worldwide_Stonebridge_and_Yates.jpg This expertise in marketing technology solutions for the world's leading brands provided an insight into a rapidly changing technology landscape and an increasing demand amongst its clients for help navigating these changes through independent strategic advice. This independence, agnostic of any specific marketing technology vendor, will be a key foundation of NEON Consulting. NEON Consulting will be led by Sam Yates, a marketing technology consultant with 20 years' experience delivering solutions for brands and businesses throughout the world. "Under-utilization and complexity are just two of the many reasons why marketing technology investments can go fallow, and still, the opportunities for effectiveness and efficiency have never been greater," began Yates, who helped launch Team 6ix in 2015 (and will remain a strategic partner), and also spent over 10 years as a Project Director for Tag Worldwide. "With brands needing to deliver better communications faster, we have the proven ability to help them make the best decisions and unlock their platform's full potential." Leveraging decades of experience in assessing and implementing marketing and advertising technologies, NEON Consulting's product and service offerings will focus on four areas crucial to clients: strategic services, procuring marketing technology, implementing technology and on-boarding within organizations, and providing a managed service for clients. "Technology may only be one piece of the puzzle in terms of marketing campaign optimisation and distribution, but its importance cannot be overstated," Splash Worldwide CEO Paul Stonebridge explained. "Sam has led us and many of our clients to greater understanding of the means for leveraging the full potential of various systems, resulting in making campaigns smarter and faster than ever before. Bringing these capabilities to market for our clients is a great honor." Yates' enthusiasm for providing expert advice often in challenging scenarios is contagious. "Sometimes, genuinely independent advice is all that's needed to make seemingly complicated technology investments pay off," he added. "In short, these are challenging but immensely important areas of business, and we are deeply passionate about making massive impacts for our clients." To learn more about NEON Consulting, please visit http://www.neonconsulting.tech. About NEON Consulting NEON Consulting is Splash Worldwide's independent strategic enterprise specializing in helping the world's biggest brands maximize their technology investments supporting marketing campaign optimisation, localization and distribution. Established in London in 2019, the consultancy diligently supports Splash Worldwide's mission of unleashing creativity for everyone, everywhere. To learn more, visit http://www.neonconsulting.tech. About Splash Worldwide Splash Worldwide (https://www.splashworldwide.com) is a creative technology company that unleashes creativity for everyone, everywhere. With multi-disciplinary insight, creative, production, technology, consulting and innovation teams, we collaborate with clients to create impactful content and distribute it within the right ecosystems. Our offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Singapore serve the world's largest brands and bridge the gap from concept to delivery. NOTE TO EDITORS: Images to accompany this story available here: http://www.darnellworks.com/splashww/neon.html (Copenhagen) - This May 16, 2019, CF&B Communication is organizing the 5th edition of the European 'MidCap Event' Scandinavia, where selected Midcaps travelling to European financial capitals will make a stop in Copenhagen to meet the attending institutional investors. For one day, the top managers of listed companies from Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Italy and Spain, will present fund managers with their activity and perspectives in pre-organized one-to-one meetings. 30 listed companies, as well as about 40 institutional investors are expected to attend this increasingly successful event. DEUTSCHE BORSE Cash Market will be the Partner Stock Exchange for the event. INVEST SECURITIES (Paris) and INTERMONTE (Milan) are the main Partners in this edition, and they will share their analysis, know-how and knowledge on their markets. Registration is free for investors. For further information and queries, please contact Caroline BADER - c.bader@cfbcom.fr (mailto:c.bader@cfbcom.fr) 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: CF&B Communication via Globenewswire 18 April 2019 Asia Wealth Group Holdings Limited ("Asia Wealth" or the "Company") DIRECTOR SHAREHOLDING Asia Wealth announces that it was notified on 12 April 2019, that Richard Cayne, Executive Chairman, has received 2,000,000 ordinary shares in the Company, for nil consideration, from the previous Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Andrew Mankiewicz, on 12 April 2019. The settlement was reached pursuant to a private matter. Following this transaction, Richard Cayne, though his nominee company, Shore Limited owns 9,875,000 ordinary shares in the Company, representing 86.36 per cent. of the issued share capital. The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the content of this announcement. Contacts: Richard Cayne (Executive Chairman) Asia Wealth Group Holdings Limited, +66 2 2611 2561 www.asiawealthgroup.com Guy Miller (Corporate Advisers) Peterhouse Capital Limited, +44 20 7220 9795 Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them. ALBANY, New York, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Transparency Market Research (TMR) says competition in the energy storage systems market is expected to heat up in the near future. This is mainly because of the entry of several new players in the market. Key players are focusing on advanced technologies for energy storage to tap ample of unexplored opportunities in the energy storage systems market. This can be illustrated with the recent move by Alevo, a key player in the energy storage systems market. The company signed an agreement with Customized Energy Solutions to provide 200 MW of GridBank powered frequency regulation services to wholesale market. Some of the prominent players operating in the energy storage systems market are ABB Ltd, EOS Energy Storage, BYD Company Limited, Maxwell Technologies, Inc., Hitachi, Ltd., General Electric Company, Siemens AG, and Tesla. Request a Sample of Global Energy Storage Systems Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=32474 As per a recent report by TMR, the global energy storage systems market is expected to rise at a steady 5.6% CAGR from 2017 to 2025. Rising at this CAGR, the market is anticipated to attain a valuation of US$52.59 bn in 2025. The analyst, noted the global energy storage systems market at a value of US$32.60 bn in 2016. Based on application, transportation segment is anticipated to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period. This is mainly due to a surge in sales of electric vehicles and growing railway networks. Geographically, Asia Pacific is projected to dominate the energy storage systems market with majority of share. This can be attributed with the rising demand for batteries from several commercial sectors. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to attain a valuation of 16.5 bn by the end of forecast period. Request For Multiple Chapters: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=MC&rep_id=32474 Increasing Energy Demand at Peak Hours to Boost Prospects The global energy storage systems market is expected to grow a noteworthy pace during the forecast period. This is mainly because of the factors such as increasing demand for grid-connected solutions, advancement in lithium-ion battery technology, and declining prices of batteries. Apart from this factors like, need for efficient energy management in order to meet rising electricity demand at peak times is likely to facilitate utilization of energy storage system in the years to come. This is expected to fuel the energy storage system market in the years to come. Further, increasing transition from fossil fuels to alternative sources is expected to balloon demand for advanced storage systems over the forecast period. This can be related with the recent report released by to the Energy Storage Association, US. As per the report, the utility-based battery storage installed capacity grew by 221 MW in 2016. Request for Discount on This Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=32474 Shift from Tradition to Flywheel Power Storage Technology to Drive Market Flywheel is an advanced mechanical energy storage system technology. It has several desirable features such as reliability, high shelf life, enhanced efficiency and less maintenance. The technology is poised to experience a high growth as a result of uninterrupted & continuous power supply to the grid with immediate response, quality improvement, and frequency regulation. Increasing demand of flywheel technology in industrial applications is expected to augment the growth of the energy storage systems market over the forecast period. However, high capital investment for installation and maintenance of the flywheel technology is expected to be a major constraint for growth of the energy storage systems market over forecast period. Nevertheless, extensive investments on research and development of the technology by key players is anticipated to fuel the growth. Request a Custom Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CR&rep_id=32474 This review is based on the findings of a TMR report, titled, "Energy Storage Systems Market (Technology - Electrochemical Storage (Lithium-Ion Battery, Lead Acid Battery, Sodium Sulfur (NAS) Battery, and Flow Battery), Mechanical Storage (Pumped Hydro Energy Storage, Flywheel Energy Storage, and Compressed Air and Liquid Air Energy Storage), and Thermal Storage; Application - Transportation and Grid Storage; End-use - Residential, Non Residential, Utilities, and Automotive) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025." Global Energy Storage Systems Market is segmented as below: Technology Electro Chemical Lithium-Ion Battery Lead Acid Battery Sodium Sulfur (NAS) Battery Flow Battery Others Thermal Storage Mechanical Energy Storage Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Flywheel Energy Storage Compressed Air & Liquid Air Energy Storage Other Storage Technologies Application Transportation Grid Storage End User Residential Non Residential Utilities Automotive Geography North America U.S. Canada Rest of North America Europe The U.K. Germany France Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Japan India Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa (MEA) GCC Countries South Africa Rest of MEA South America Brazil Rest of South America Browse Energy & Natural Resources Market Research Reports Popular Research Reports by TMR: Battery Energy Storage Systems Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/battery-energy-storage-system-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/battery-energy-storage-system-market.html Flywheel Energy Storage Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/flywheel-energy-storage-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/flywheel-energy-storage-market.html Lead Acid Battery Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/lead-acid-battery-market.html About Us Transparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals. Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through ad hoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories. TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision. Contact Mr. Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Research Blog: https://cmfenews.com LOGO: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664869/Transparency_Market_Research_Logo.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2019) - EMX Royalty Corporation (TSXV: EMX) (NYSE American: EMX) (the "Company" or "EMX") is pleased to announce that it has received a US $2 million escrow distribution, which in addition to the initial US $65.15 million payment in 2018, brings the total cash paid to EMX to US $67.15 million from the sale of the Malmyzh project. A second distribution of up to US $2 million, subject to certain conditions, is due to EMX later in 2019 as remaining funds are released from escrow. Malmyzh was sold by IG Copper LLC ("IGC") to Russian Copper Company for US $200 million in October 20181. IGC's Malmyzh project was an important EMX strategic investment that exemplifies the portfolio effect of the Company's diversified business model. Proceeds from the sale of Malmyzh, combined with ongoing royalty and pre-production payments, have yielded a robust balance sheet. EMX is utilizing this strong position to take advantage of new royalty generation, royalty acquisition, and investment opportunities to grow the portfolio and build shareholder value. About EMX. EMX is a precious and base metals royalty company. EMX's investors are provided with discovery, development, and commodity price optionality, while limiting exposure to the risks inherent to operating companies. The Company's common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and the NYSE American Exchange under the symbol EMX. Please see www.EMXroyalty.com for more information. -30- David M. ColePresident and Chief Executive OfficerPhone: (303) 979-6666Email: Dave@EMXroyalty.comScott CloseDirector of Investor RelationsPhone: (303) 973-8585Email: SClose@EMXroyalty.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain "forward looking statements" that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding perceived merit of properties, exploration results and budgets, mineral reserves and resource estimates, work programs, capital expenditures, timelines, strategic plans, market prices for precious and base metal, or other statements that are not statements of fact. When used in this news release, words such as "estimate," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "will", "believe", "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which, by their very nature, are not guarantees of the Company's future operational or financial performance, and are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors may include, but are not limited to: unavailability of financing, failure to identify commercially viable mineral reserves, fluctuations in the market valuation for commodities, difficulties in obtaining required approvals for the development of a mineral project, increased regulatory compliance costs, expectations of project funding by joint venture partners and other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date otherwise specifically indicated herein. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified in this news release, and other risk factors and forward-looking statements listed in the Company's MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2018 (the "MD&A"), and the most recently filed Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2018, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the 20-F and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov. 1 See EMX news release dated October 11, 2018. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44165 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2019 / Canarc Resource Corp. (TSX: CCM, OTC-QB: CRCUF, Frankfurt: CAN) announces the filing of the NI 43-101 preliminary economic assessment report ("PEA") which was completed by Moose Mountain Technical Services (Moose Mountain") for the high-grade New Polaris gold mine in northwestern British Columbia. The report has been filed on SEDAR and is also available on Canarc's website at www.canarc.net Highlights of the PEA include: Post-tax internal rate of return of 38% Post-tax net present value at 5% of US$216 million Post-tax project payback of 2.7 years Cash operating cost: US$433/oz Au Initial capital expenditure of US$111 million ROM production of 2.3 Mt of 10.3 g/t over an 8.7-year mine life Mill throughput of 750 tonnes per day with a process recovery of 90.5% producing 693,000 ozs gold Average annual life of mine production: 80,000 oz. gold The estimated project economics for Canarc to build and operate a 750 tonne per day gold mine at New Polaris using bio-oxidation followed by a leaching process to produce 80,000 ounces of gold per year in dore bars at site are reasonably achievable for this project. This new processing option significantly enhances the economics of the project and simplifies transportation logistics at this remote site by eliminating the need for seasonal barging of large quantities of concentrate along the Taku River to a third-party treatment facility. The base case economic model is for the gold price (US$1300 per oz), $CA/$US exchange rate (0.77), cash costs (US$433 per oz) and AISC (US$510 per oz ), for which the Moose Mountain PEA shows an after-tax NPV (5%) of CA$280 million with an after-tax Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") of 38% and a 2.7 year pay-back period. On a pre-tax basis, the undiscounted life-of-mine cash flow totals CA$554 million with a 47% IRR and a 2.3-year pay-back period. Given the conceptual nature of the PEA, there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Moose Mountain concludes that "The Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment indicates that the New Polaris base case has the potential for positive results and therefore further work is recommended to optimize the project and complete a preliminary feasibility study". The Mineral Resources, ROM Production and PEA Economics are Summarized Below: Mineral Resource Indicated resources of 1,686,000 tonnes at 10.8 g/t Au, Inferred resources of 1,483,000 tonnes at 10.2 g/t Au. PEA Production Production Rate Au Grade Au Recovery Average Output Mine life Gold Price Exchange Rate Initial Capital Cost Cash Cost Cash Flow (LOM) NPV (5%) NPV (8%) Internal Rate of Return Payback Period (years) 2,306,000 tonnes (subset of Mineral Resource) 750 tonnes per day 10.3 grams per tonne 90.5% gold into dore 80,000 oz gold per year 8.7years US $ 1300 per oz US $ 1.00 = CA$ 1.30 US $111 million US $ 433 per oz After-Tax CA$ 414 million CA$ 280 million CA$ 222 million Pre-Tax / After Tax 47% / 38% 2.3 / 2.7 Notes for Mineral Resource Estimate: The Mineral Resource Estimate was prepared by Sue Bird, P.Eng. in accordance with CIM Definition Standards and NI 43-101, with an effective date of February 28, 2019. A Mineral Resource is a concentration or occurrence of solid material of economic interest in the Earth's crust in such form, grade or quality and quantity that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade or quality, continuity and other geological characteristics of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge, including sampling. Mineral Resources are reported within an underground mining shape targeting mineralization over 4.0 g/t. This target grade shell includes the following considerations: gold price of US$1,300/oz, exchange rate of 0.77 US$:CA$; Payable gold % of 99.9%, Offsite refining costs of US$7/oz, mining costs of CA$65.20/t, process costs of CA$62.70/t, G&A (General and Administration) costs of CA$37.00, sustaining capital costs of CA$19.83/t, and a 90.5% process recovery. An Indicated Mineral Resource is that part of the Mineral Resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics are estimated with sufficient confidence to allow the application of Modifying Factors in sufficient detail to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. Geological evidence is derived from adequately detailed and reliable exploration, sampling and testing and is sufficient to assume geological and grade or quality continuity between points of observation. An Inferred Mineral Resource is that part of the Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis of limited geological evidence and sampling. Geological evidence is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality continuity. It is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. Factors that may affect the estimates include: metal price assumptions, changes in interpretations of mineralization geometry and continuity of mineralization zones, changes to kriging assumptions, metallurgical recovery assumptions, operating cost assumptions, confidence in the modifying factors, including assumptions that surface rights to allow mining infrastructure to be constructed will be forthcoming, delays or other issues in reaching agreements with local or regulatory authorities and stakeholders, and changes in land tenure requirements or in permitting requirement. Project Description: The New Polaris gold mine project is located in north-western British Columbia about 100 kilometers ("km") south of Atlin, BC and 60 km northeast of Juneau, Alaska. There is no road access at present to the property, but year-round access is available via light aircraft from either Juneau or Atlin to a 400 meter airstrip on the property, and summer access is possible via shallow draft barge from Juneau. The property consists of 61 contiguous Crown-granted mineral claims and one modified grid claim covering 2,100 acres. All claims are 100% owned and held by New Polaris Gold Mines Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canarc, subject to a 15% net profit interest held by Rembrandt Gold Mines Ltd. that can be reduced to a 10% net profit interest. The deposit is an early Tertiary, mesothermal gold mineralized vein system occupying shear zones cross-cutting late Paleozoic andesitic volcanic rocks. It was mined by underground methods from 1938 to 1942, and from 1946 to early 1951, producing approximately 245,000 oz gold from 740,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 10.3 g/t gold. Three main veins ("AB, C and Y") were mined to a maximum depth of 150 m and have been traced by drilling for up to 1,000 m along strike by up to 800 m down dip, still open for expansion. The gold occurs dominantly in finely disseminated arsenopyrite within the stock-work veins and altered wall-rocks. The next most abundant mineral is pyrite, followed by minor stibnite and a trace of sphalerite. Individual mineralized zones range up to 250 m in length and up to 14 m in width but mineralized widths more commonly average around 2 to 5 m. Mineral Resource Estimate: Canarc explored the "C" vein system between 1988 and 1997, and carried out infill drilling in 2003 through 2006, to better define the continuity and grade of the vein systems. The total New Polaris database consists of 1,056 diamond drill holes with a total of 31,514 sample intervals. A Mineral Resource Estimate dated February 28, 2019 was based on ordinary kriging of 174 drill holes and 1,464 gold assay intervals with 1,320 m of drill intercepts within the modelled domains. Targeting mineralization over 4.0 gram per tonne (g/t) gold, a mining shape has delineated a Mineral Resource Estimate: Indicated Mineral Resource totals 1,687,000 tonnes grading 10.8 g/t gold containing 586,000 oz gold. Inferred Mineral Resource totals 1,483,000 tonnes grading 10.2gpt gold containing 485,000 oz gold. The mine plan and ROM production targets mineralization over 6.0 g/t gold within the 4.0 g/t resource shell, and uses a combination of conventional cut and fill and longhole stoping, depending on mineralization thickness and continuity. Development will include a decline from surface, extraction drifts on sublevels across the footwall of the orebody, and ventilation raises to the surface. An onsite mill will produce a float concentrate feeding a bio-leaching and CIL plant to produce dore. Process water will go through the ASTER treatment process and reclaim water will be stored in surface settling ponds near the plant. Tails will be thickened with 42% being pumped underground to a paste plant and dispersal system into mined out voids and the remaining 58% filtered to a semi-dry state and hauled and dumped into a secure co-disposal facility (CDF) with waste rock from the underground development. Sensitivity Analysis: The Net Present Values and life of mine net cash flows are shown at various discount rates. Cash costs include all costs to produce a gold-sulphide concentrate followed by Bio-Oxidation and CIL leaching process to produce dore gold bars at site. This preliminary economic assessment is based on resources, not reserves, and a portion of the modeled resources in the mine plan are in the inferred resource category. Given the inherent uncertainties of resources, especially inferred resources compared to reserves, the New Polaris gold mine project cannot yet be considered to have proven economic viability. Qualified Person The Qualified Person ("QP") pursuant to NI 43-101 for the updated preliminary economic assessment report is Marc Schulte, P. Eng. "Scott Eldridge" Scott Eldridge, Chief Executive Officer CANARC RESOURCE CORP. About Canarc - Canarc Resource Corp. is a growth-oriented gold exploration company focused on generating superior shareholder returns by discovering, exploring and developing strategic gold deposits in North America. The Company is currently advancing two core assets, each with substantial gold resources, and has initiated a high impact exploration strategy to acquire and explore new properties that have district-scale gold discovery potential. Canarc shares trade on the TSX: CCM and the OTCQX: CRCUF. For More Information - Please contact: Scott Eldridge, CEO Toll Free: 1-877-684-9700 Tel: (604) 685-9700 Cell: (604) 722-5381 Email: scott@canarc.net Website: www.canarc.net Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States private securities litigation reform act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Statements contained in this news release that are not historic facts are forward-looking information that involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the future performance of Canarc, and the Company's plans and exploration programs for its mineral properties, including the timing of such plans and programs. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "has proven", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "potential", "appears", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "at least", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the Company's ongoing due diligence review in relation to the Acquisition, risks related to the uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral resources; commodity prices; changes in general economic conditions; market sentiment; currency exchange rates; the Company's ability to continue as a going concern; the Company's ability to raise funds through equity financings; risks inherent in mineral exploration; risks related to operations in foreign countries; future prices of metals; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals; government regulation of mining operations; environmental risks; title disputes or claims; limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of litigation. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could affect the Company and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, do not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All statements are made as of the date of this news release and the Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws. Canarc Resource Corp.View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/542368/Canarc-Announces-the-Filing-of-New-Polaris-Preliminary-Economic-Assessment-Report LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Dessa is an AI company that enables the transformation of enterprises with technology and artificial intelligence. Business Reporter interviewed Stephen Prion, co - founder and co - CEO at Dessa, to find out the mechanisms behind the company's success with implementing AI into organisations. Dessa's overarching mission is to help large enterprises scale AI and create impactful business value. Many of these companies, however, only have a few systems in production. Dessa can help enterprises solve these issues along with the other obstacles that entail scaling AI. The innovative allure of AI may appeal to many enterprises for a plethora of reasons. Stephen highlights the integral nature of using AI as a tool to solve a problem, as opposed to adopting it for aesthetic value. For example, Dessa created an attrition model for a bank to resolve an issue with customers leaving the bank. On a granular scale, the model made predictions on who might leave, and certain ways to incentivise these parties. By implementing these innovations, organisations can work more efficiently and effectively. Click here to watch Stephen outlining the powerful innovation of AI. About Business Reporter Business Reporter is distributed with The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and City AM, each of our publications reaches an average of 1.5 million people. Content is also published through the Business Reporter and TEISS websites, which includes video debates, online articles, and digital magazines. This content is meant to deliver news and analysis on the issues that are affecting businesses to our global audience. In addition to publications, Business Reporter hosts conferences, breakfasts meetings, and exclusive summits. These events bring together some of the most influential decision makers and innovators in modern business. These exclusive events for business leaders complement the content and direction of editorial projects, allowing them to have direct contact with their readers. Above all, Business Reporter's commitment is to make meaningful analysis for every business owner. Whether individuals are running a small business, the head of a local company or an executive in a multinational corporation, there will be something for them at Business Reporter. https://www.business-reporter.co.uk/gsc.tab=0 OneTrust's annual user conference will feature speakers from the Information Commissioner's Office, Airbnb, Cisco, Michelin, Johnson & Johnson and more to break down the latest technology innovations driving global privacy management ATLANTA, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- OneTrust, the largest and most widely-used dedicated privacy management technology platform with over 2,500 customers, today announced featured speakers and session agenda for the second-annual PrivacyTech global user conference in Atlanta and London. Register today for PrivacyTech Americas (May 21-23 in Atlanta) or PrivacyTech Europe (12-14 June in London) Privacy experts from Airbnb, Cisco, Michelin and Johnson & Johnson will share insights on driving global privacy compliance with OneTrust technology. Regulator and industry experts from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and Perkins Coie will share insights on building privacy programs to scale to meet today's shifting regulatory environment. Product deep dive sessions will cover a wide variety of topics, including privacy program management, marketing and consent, vendor risk and incident and breach response. PrivacyTech events in Atlanta and London will feature innovative customers and industry experts including: Airbnb: Ann Staggs , Senior Counsel, Privacy , Senior Counsel, Privacy Akamai: Jim Casey , Chief Data Protection Office , Chief Data Protection Office Cisco: Steve Sigel , Data Protection Manager , Data Protection Manager Gilead Sciences: Lee Darkle, Senior Manager, Privacy & Information Governance Lee Darkle, Senior Manager, Privacy & Information Governance HeartFlow : Demie Bradanini , Director, Privacy Compliance : , Director, Privacy Compliance Information Commissioner's Office : Ali Shah , Head of Technology : , Head of Technology ITV : James Archer , Privacy Champion : , Privacy Champion Johnson & Johnson: Mirza Baig , Senior Privacy Officer , Senior Privacy Officer Michelin : Linda Williamson , Corporate Security Manager and Data Protection Officer : , Corporate Security Manager and Data Protection Officer Perkins Coie LLP: Natasha Amlani , Associate , Associate Provident Financial: Tara Halfpenny , Data Protection Analyst , Data Protection Analyst Secureworks: Kim Fleming , Senior Director, Global Privacy & Enterprise Risk , Senior Director, Global Privacy & Enterprise Risk SunTrust Banks: Ron Whitworth , Senior Vice President, Chief Privacy Officer , Senior Vice President, Chief Privacy Officer Symantec: Todd Manley , Senior Director, Corporate Development & Integration Management Office , Senior Director, Corporate Development & Integration Management Office Turner Broadcasting System: Hanson Wong , Director of Privacy Operations , Director of Privacy Operations Workfront: Meredith DeMaria , Privacy Analyst Product deep dive sessions at PrivacyTech will cross featured tracks including Privacy Program Management, Privacy & Marketing User Experience, Vendor Risk Management and Incident & Breach Response: Introduction to DataGuidance Research Platform Platform Measure Your Privacy Maturity & Benchmark Advanced Tips for PIA, DPIA, PbD Automation Data Mapping , RoPA & Data Discovery , RoPA & Data Discovery How to Implement the CCPA into Your Program into Your Program Getting started with Marketing Privacy Compliance Consumer Rights Automation Workflows Workflows How to Manage User Consent & Preferences Implementing Mobile App Scanning & Consent Cookie Consent Best Practices & New Workflows Best Practices & New Workflows Introduction to Vendor Risk Management Deep Dive into Vendorpedia Risk Exchange Building Incident & Breach Response Workflows Workflows OneTrust Community & Services Programs "We're excited to bring together our customers, prospects, partners and industry experts to share the best practices for using technology to drive global privacy management," said Kabir Barday, OneTrust CEO and Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP). "Our jampacked speaker and session schedule will bring attendees the best in class content and learning experiences for using technology to build and scale their privacy programs, from solo-practitioners to enterprise-level global privacy teams." Register today for PrivacyTech.For additional information, or to request a live OneTrust Privacy Management Software demo, visit OneTrust.com or email Info@OneTrust.com. About OneTrust OneTrust is the largest and most widely used technology platform to operationalize privacy, security and third-party risk management. According The Forrester New Wave: GDPR and Privacy Management Software, Q4 2018, OneTrust "leads the pack for vision and execution." Additionally, Fast Company named OneTrust as one of 2019's World's Most Innovative Companies. More than 2,500 customers, both big and small and across 100 countries, use OneTrust to implement their privacy, security and third-party risk programs, automatically generating the specific record keeping needed to demonstrate compliance with privacy regulations including the EU GDPR, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Brazil LGPD, and hundreds of the world's privacy laws. OneTrust's size and scale allows it to offer the easiest-to-use and most affordable solution for implementing use cases including: Privacy Maturity Benchmarking, Data Protection by Design and Default (PbD), Data Protection Impact Assessments (PIA/DPIA), Third-Party Vendor Risk Management, Incident and Breach Response, Data Mapping (Records of Processing), Customer Preference Management, Consent Management, Website Scanning & Cookie Compliance, Mobile App Scanning, Data Subject/Consumer Rights Management and Policy & Notice Management. The software, available in 60 languages, is backed by 50 awarded patents, integrates with 300 technology partners, and can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise. The platform's intelligence comes from DataGuidance by OneTrust, an in-depth and up-to-date source of privacy and security regulatory summaries, guidance, templates, case law, and analysis. Hundreds of global privacy and security laws and frameworks are built-in, including security frameworks like ISO27001. The database is updated daily by over 30 in-house privacy researchers, along with a network of 500 lawyers across over 300 jurisdictions, and by active input as part of OneTrust's regulatory engagement program. OneTrust's customers are supported by a worldwide team of over 100 in-house privacy implementation and support resources and boasts a customer satisfaction score of 95%. Customers can also access more than 1,000 external individuals who have completed the OneTrust Certified Privacy Management Professional program. The OneTrust Global Privacy Community is the largest, most active and globally available community for privacy technology. Each year, OneTrust brings together over 10,000 professionals across 400 events to share best practices and breakdown the latest technology innovations driving global privacy compliance. Events include PrivacyConnect workshops in 100+ international cities and PrivacyTech, OneTrust's global user conference. OneTrust's 700 employees are located across co-headquarters in Atlanta and in London with additional locations in Bangalore, Melbourne, San Francisco, New York, Munich and Hong Kong. To learn more, visit OneTrust.com or connect on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. About PrivacyTech OneTrust PrivacyTech is a focused user conference event for privacy practitioners to discover new compliance tools and technologies, exchange operational best practices with industry peers and gain the skills required to implement OneTrust in practice to build a scalable privacy program. PrivacyTECH 2019 will take place in Atlanta (May 21-23) and London (12-14 June). To learn more or register for the event, visit PrivacyTech.com. Media Contact: Gabrielle Ferree Public Relations +1 770-294-4668 media@onetrust.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/478210/OneTrust_Logo.jpg DETROIT, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Recreational Fiberglass Boat Market by Boat Type (Outboard Boat, Inboard/Sterndrive Boat, PWC, and Others), by Application Type (Fishing, Watersports, Sailing, and Others), by Power Type (Engine-Powered and Sail-Propelled), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2019-2024. This strategic assessment report, from Stratview Research, on the recreational fiberglass boat market is based on the rigorous study of more than 50 boat manufacturers worldwide. The report provides a complete market assessment for the trend period of 2013 to 2018 and forecast period of 2019 to 2024. The report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market. Recreational Fiberglass Boat Market: Highlights Boating is one of the most dynamic industries in the world and is highly exposed to external economic factors, such as disposable income. Recreational boats are the most popular ones among all types of boats, whose hull is preferably manufactured using two distinct materials: fiberglass and aluminum. Fiberglass boats currently dominate the overall recreational boat market and are even subjected to grow at a higher rate in the foreseen future, driven by their over aluminum boats including corrosion resistance, lightweight, and long life. The last five years were quite promising with almost recovery of recreational boat sales after the steep decline in 2009 due to economic turmoil; however, the sales in the USA has not yet reached its peak (279,800 boats in 2008 in the USA) but it is anticipated that the year 2019 would be iconic for the industry as the sales of recreational boats in the USA is likely to cross its peak of 2008. As per Stratview Research, the global recreational fiberglass boat market is projected to depict a healthy growth over the next five years to reach an estimated value of US$ 9,538.5 million in 2024. Continuous increase in new powerboat sales, increasing number of fishing participants, increasing number of outboard motorboat sales, increasing HNWI population, and affordability of recreational fiberglass boats are some of the major growth drivers of the recreational fiberglass boat market. Click Here and Run Through the Detailed Table of Contents (TOC) of the Report In terms of units, outboard boat is likely to remain the most dominant segment over the next five years, whereas, in terms of value, the inboard/sterndrive boat segment is likely to remain the dominant segment in the market in the same period. PWC is likely to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period, driven by the USA and Canada. Based on the application type, fishing boat is expected to remain the largest segment of the market. Outboard boats are preferably used for fishing use. The watersports segment is likely to be the fastest-growing application type in the market over the next five years, much of this growth is attributed to the excellent growth of PWC. In terms of region, North America is expected to remain the largest recreational fiberglass boat market during the forecast period with the USA being the growth engine. All the major boat manufacturers have their presence in the region to tap the market potential. High outboard activity, especially fishing, is the major driver for the demand for recreational fiberglass boats in the country.Canada is a relatively small market but is likely to witness healthy growth in years to come. Europe also holds a considerable share in the market with France, Germany, Spain, and Sweden being the key demand generators in the region. Asia-Pacific currently holds a diminutive share of the global recreational fiberglass boat market but is subjected to grow at the highest rate in the coming five years, propelled by China, Japan, and New Zealand. Register Here for a Free Sample of the Report Some of the key recreational fiberglass boat manufacturers are Groupe Beneteau, Brunswick Corporation, White River Marine Group, Bombardier Recreational Product Inc., Malibu Boats, Marine Products Corporation, Mastercraft, Kawasaki, and Yamaha Motor Company Ltd. Development of high-performance and valuable recreational fiberglass boat, setting up or expansion of distribution network in unpenetrated markets, regional expansion, and execution of mergers & acquisitions are the key strategies adopted by the major players to gain a competitive edge in the market. Report Features This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report: Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis. Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis. Market trend and forecast analysis. Market segment trend and forecast. Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc. Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities. Emerging trends. Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players. Key success factors. This report studies the global recreational fiberglass boat market and has segmented the market in four ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. Following are the four ways in which the market is segmented: Recreational Fiberglass Boat Market, By Boat Type Outboard Boat (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Inboard/Sterndrive Boat (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) PWC (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Recreational Fiberglass Boat Market, By Application Type Fishing (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Watersports (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Sailing (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Recreational Fiberglass Boat Market, By Power Type Engine-Powered Boats (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Sail-Propelled Boats (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Recreational Fiberglass Boat Market, By Region North America (Country Analysis: The USA , Canada , and Mexico ) Europe (Country Analysis: France , Germany , Spain , Sweden , and RoE) Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: Japan , New Zealand , China , and Rest of Asia-Pacific ) Rest of the World (Sub-Region Analysis: Latin America , The Middle East , and Others) Stratview Research has several high value market reports in the consumer goods industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports: Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Consumer Goods Industry Other premium report from Stratview Research in the Boat Industry: Pontoon Boat Market by Application Type (Family-Fun pontoon, Fishing Pontoon, Cruising Pontoon, Watersports Pontoon, and Others), by Tube Type (Two-Tube Pontoon and Three-Tube Pontoon), by End-Use Type (Private and Commercial), by Size Type (<20 Feet, 20-24 Feet, and >24 Feet), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023. Aluminum Fishing Boat Market by Boat Type (Deep-V Boat, Bass Boat, Multi-Species Boat, and Others), by Size Type (<14 Feet, 14-16 Feet, and >16 Feet), by Engine Type (<200 HP, 200-300 HP, and >300 HP), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World) Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2019-2024. About Stratview Research Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas. We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies. Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making. For enquiries, Contact: Stratview Research E-mail: sales@stratviewresearch.com Direct: +1-313-307-4176 https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660595/Stratview_Research_Logo.jpg ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) today announced it has entered into an agreement to sell two ConocoPhillips United Kingdom (U.K.) subsidiaries to Chrysaor E&P Limited for $2.675 billion, plus interest and customary adjustments. Together, the subsidiaries indirectly hold the company's exploration and production assets in the U.K., as well as associated decommissioning liabilities. ConocoPhillips will retain its London-based commercial trading business and its 40.25 percent interest in and operatorship of the Teesside oil terminal. Proceeds from this transaction will be used for general corporate purposes. "We are extremely proud of the legacy we've built in the U.K. over the last 50 years and are pleased that Chrysaor recognizes the value of this business," said Ryan Lance, chairman and chief executive officer. "This disposition is part of our ongoing effort to hone our portfolio and focus our investments across future low cost of supply opportunities." Full-year 2018 production and year-end 2018 proved reserves associated with the U.K. assets being sold were approximately 72 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBOED) and approximately 99 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), respectively. The effective date for the transaction will be Jan. 1, 2018. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other specific conditions precedent. The sale is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019. The company has posted an investor table that summarizes the impact of this transaction. The table can be accessed at www.conocophillips.com/investor About ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips is the world's largest independent E&P company based on production and proved reserves. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ConocoPhillips had operations and activities in 16 countries, $70 billion of total assets, and approximately 10,800 employees as of Dec. 31, 2018. Production excluding Libya averaged 1,242 MBOED in 2018, and proved reserves were 5.3 billion BOE as of Dec. 31, 2018. For more information, go to www.conocophillips.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE "SAFE HARBOR" PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995 This news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to future events and anticipated results of operations, business strategies, and other aspects of our operations or operating results. In many cases you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue," "could," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should," "will," "expect," "objective," "projection," "forecast," "goal," "guidance," "outlook," "effort," "on track," "target" and other similar words. However, the absence of these words does not mean that the statements are not forward-looking. Where, in any forward-looking statement, the company expresses an expectation or belief as to future results, such expectation or belief is expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. However, there can be no assurance that such expectation or belief will result or be achieved. The actual results of operations can and will be affected by a variety of risks and other matters including, but not limited to changes in commodity prices; changes in expected levels of oil and gas reserves or production; operating hazards, drilling risks, unsuccessful exploratory activities; difficulties in developing new products and manufacturing processes; unexpected cost increases or technical difficulties in constructing, maintaining, or modifying company facilities; international monetary conditions and exchange rate fluctuations; changes in international trade relationships, including the imposition of trade restrictions or tariffs relating to crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, LNG, natural gas liquids and any materials or products (such as aluminum and steel) used in the operation of our business; our ability to collect payments when due under our settlement agreement with PDVSA; our ability to collect payments from the government of Venezuela as ordered by the ICSID; our ability to liquidate the common stock issued to us by Cenovus Energy Inc. at prices we deem acceptable, or at all; our ability to complete our announced dispositions or acquisitions on the timeline currently anticipated, if at all; the possibility that regulatory approvals for our announced dispositions or acquisitions will not be received on a timely basis, if at all, or that such approvals may require modification to the terms of our announced dispositions, acquisitions or our remaining business; business disruptions during or following our announced dispositions or acquisitions, including the diversion of management time and attention; the ability to deploy net proceeds from our announced dispositions in the manner and timeframe we currently anticipate, if at all; potential liability for remedial actions under existing or future environmental regulations; potential liability resulting from pending or future litigation; limited access to capital or significantly higher cost of capital related to illiquidity or uncertainty in the domestic or international financial markets; and general domestic and international economic and political conditions; as well as changes in tax, environmental and other laws applicable to our business. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements include other economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors affecting our business generally as set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unless legally required, ConocoPhillips undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005338/en/ Contacts: Daren Beaudo (media) 281-293-2073 daren.beaudo@conocophillips.com Mark Keener (investors) 281-293-5000 mark.a.keener@conocophillips.com PHOENIX, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2019 / Uptick Newswire Stock Day Podcast welcomed Applied Biosciences Corp. (APPB) ('the Company'), a diversified company focused on multiple areas of the medical, bioceutical and pet health industry. Treasurer and Secretary, JJ Southard, joined Stock Day host Everett Jolly. Jolly began the interview by asking Southard to give listeners an update on the Company's current projects. Southard explained that throughout 2018 the Company focused on the development of their CBD line, Remedi, which has an extensive collection of products including CBD infused creams, drops, gummies, and even newly released Nano CBD Shots. The Company has also launched their Herbal Pet line, which features CBD infused treats and tinctures for dogs, cats, and horses. Southard shared that the quality of the products within their Remedi and Herbal Pet line are of the highest quality available on the market, which is proven by the Company's increasing traffic and distribution. Jolly then asked Southard how the Company has achieved its impressive growth over the past year. Southard explained that growth is a reflection of the success of their retail product line sales. Southard also shared that for 2019 the Company plans to expand on their existing product line, as well as create a new product line focused towards the specialized needs of athletes. 'We're close to launching our Champ Organics line which will expand our addressable market', Southard stated Southard also shared that the Company's partnership with Trace Analytics will also be reflecting revenues for the first quarter of 2019. This partnership represents the Testing & Analytics division of the Company, which they are looking to develop further. To close the interview, Southard shared his excitement for the Company's therapeutic, wellness and spa lines and future product expansion and encouraged listeners to check out their exciting additions to the CBD retail market over the coming months. To hear JJ Southard's entire interview, follow the link to the podcast here: https://upticknewswire.com/featured-interview-secretary-j-j-southard-of-applied-biosciences-corp-otcqb-appb/ Investors Hangout is a proud sponsor of 'Stock Day', and Uptick Newswire encourages listeners to visit the company's message board at https://investorshangout.com/ About Applied BioSciences Corp.: Applied BioSciences Corp. (www.appliedbiocorp.com), is a diversified company focused on multiple areas of the medical, bioceutical and pet health industry. As a leading company in the CBD and Pet health space, the company is currently shipping to the majority of US states as well as to 5 International countries. The company is focused on select investment, consumer brands, and partnership opportunities in the recreational, health and wellness, nutraceutical, and media industries. The company has several strategic partnerships and investments currently in place and is actively pursuing additional partnerships and strategic growth opportunities. Contact: Email: ir@appliedbiocorp.com or info@appliedbiocorp.com To be added to the Applied BioSciences email distribution list, please email info@appliedbiocorp.com with APPB in the subject line. Official Website: www.appliedbiocorp.com Safe Harbor Statement: Except for historical information contained herein, statements in this release may be forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 'anticipate', 'believe', 'estimate', 'expect', 'intend' and similar expressions, as they relate to Applied Biosciences Corp. (the 'Company') or its management, identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the Company's business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and probably will, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements due to numerous factors, including those described above and those risks discussed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include such factors as (i) the development and protection of our brands and other intellectual property, (ii) the need to raise capital to meet business requirements, (iii) significant fluctuations in marketing expenses, (iv) the ability to achieve and expand significant levels of revenues, or recognize net income, from the sale of our products and services, (v) the Company's ability to conduct the business if there are changes in laws, regulations, or government policies related to cannabis, (vi) management's ability to attract and maintain qualified personnel necessary for the development and commercialization of its planned products, and (vii) other information that may be detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Uptick Newswire and the 'Stock Day' Podcast Founded in 2013, Uptick Newswire is the fastest growing media outlet for Nano-Cap and Micro-Cap companies. It educates investors while simultaneously working with penny stock and OTC companies, providing transparency and clarification of under-valued, under-sold Micro-Cap stocks of the market. Uptick provides companies with customized solutions to their news distribution in both national and international media outlets. Uptick is the sole producer of its 'Stock Day' Podcast, which is the number one radio show of its kind in America. The Uptick Network 'Stock Day' Podcast is an extension of Uptick Newswire, which recently launched its Video Interview Studio located in Phoenix, Arizona. Media Contact: Uptick Newswire 602-441-3474 https://upticknewswire.com/ SOURCE: Uptick Newswire View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/542360/Uptick-Newswire-Hosts-Applied-Biosciences-Corp-on-The-Stock-Day-Podcast-to-Discuss-The-Expansion-of-Their-CBD-Product-Lines JACKSONVILLE, FL / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2019 / ARC Group, Inc. (OTCQB: ARCK ), a restaurant holding company with a focus on diversified, full service restaurants and brands, today announced that the Company's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Seenu G. Kasturi, will present at the Planet MicroCap Showcase on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 and will conduct 1-on-1 meetings on May 2, 2019. The conference will be held April 30 - May 2, 2019 at Bally's Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV - 3645 S Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109. For those interested in attending and meeting with management, you can register to attend here: https://planetmicrocapshowcase.com/signup If you have any questions about the Planet MicroCap Showcase, please contact Robert Kraft at rkraft@snnwire.com (424) 227-9018, or visit www.planetmicrocapshowcase.com for more information. About ARC Group, Inc. ARC Group, Inc., headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is a holding company with a focus on the casual dining restaurant industry. ARC is the owner, operator and franchisor of Dick's Wings & Grill, a family-oriented restaurant chain with locations in Florida and Georgia. Now in its 24th year of operation, Dick's Wings serves over 25,000 wings daily, and prides itself on its award-winning chicken wings, hog wings and duck wings spun in its signature sauces and seasonings. ARC operates four company-owned restaurants, three company-owned concession stands, and has 19 franchise locations. ARC also owns the Fat Patty's concept, with four locations in West Virginia and Kentucky. Fat Patty's offers a number of specialty burgers and sandwiches, wings, appetizers, salads, wraps, and steak and chicken dinners in a family friendly, casual dining environment. Safe Harbor Provision This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created thereby. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's future financial position, business strategy, plans and objectives, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as 'may,' 'will,' 'expects,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'projects,' 'estimates,' 'anticipates,' or 'believes' or the negative thereof or any variation thereon or similar terminology or expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from results proposed in such statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can provide no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and its other filings and submissions with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Contact: Crescendo Communications, LLC Email: arck@crescendo-ir.com Tel: 212-671-1020 SOURCE: ARC Group, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/542319/ARC-Group-to-Present-at-The-Planet-Microcap-Showcase-2019-on-May-1st-in-Las-Vegas Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2019) - Ely Gold Royalties Inc. (TSXV: ELY) (OTCQB: ELYGF) ("Ely Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an assignment agreement (the "Agreement") with an arm's length third party (the "Seller") pursuant to which Ely Gold has acquired a 100% interest in a 2% (two percent) net smelter returns royalty (the "Fenelon 2% Royalty") on the Fenelon Mine Property, operated by Wallbridge Mining Company Limited ("Wallbridge"), and located in west-central, Quebec. The Fenelon 2% Royalty is an addition to the 1% net smelter royalty on the Fenelon Mine Property recently acquired from Balmoral Resources Ltd. as announced in the Company's news release dated October 10, 2018. The Fenelon 2% Royalty was created pursuant to an Exploration Agreement dated Oct 31, 1986 by a predecessor company of the Seller. Under the Agreement Ely Gold acquired the Fenelon 2% Royalty for cash consideration of CAN$600,000. The closing date of the transaction was April 15, 2019. In connection with the Agreement, Ely Gold has received all documentation to support the validity and ownership of its newly-acquired Fenelon 2% Royalty. Trey Wasser, President and CEO of Ely Gold commented on the Transaction, "We are very pleased to add another royalty on the exciting Fenelon Property to our asset portfolio. The Fenelon Mine Property is demonstrating remarkable grades in minable intercepts and the project operator has indicated its belief that the resource has significant potential for increased resources. This has become a very high-profile project and we look forward to delivering more news on the Fenelon Property and this new royalty in the near future." The Fenelon Property The 1,052 hectare Fenelon Mine Property hosts the Discovery Gold deposit and surrounding four km strike length of a gold-bearing shear corridor. Wallbridge initiated work on Fenelon in late 2016 and completed a surface drill program of 33 drill holes totaling 6,348 metres in 2017. Results from that program confirmed the high-grade nature of the near surface mineralization at Fenelon and led the identification of new zones of mineralization proximal to the existing mine workings established in 2004. Highlights from Wallbridge's 2017 drill program disclosures include: FA-17-07 intersected three zones including 141.16 g/t gold over 7.06 metres in the Viper Zone FA-17-17 intersected four zones including 311.08 g/t gold over 3.06 metres in the Viper Zone FA-17-26 intersected two zones including 260.44 g/t gold over 7.02 metres in the Viper Zone FA-17-27 intersected 80.42 g/t gold over 4.73 metres in the recently discovered Habanero Zone In early 2018, Wallbridge received permits to proceed on underground work at Fenelon, including dewatering existing workings, advancing ramp and level development for collecting a 35,000 tonne bulk sample and to provide cash flow and access for underground drilling. The bulk sample program is designed to mine selected stopes in several zones, across six levels (see Figure #1). Wallbridge also reports that the cash flow from its bulk sample program will fund the 2019 underground and surface drill programs. Production from five stopes along with low grade ore from a 2004 bulk sample was processed at the Camflo mill from September 2018 to January 31, 2019. Wallbridge included the historical low-grade ore as part of the first mill run to help optimize milling performance; this initial work enabled the next mill runs to achieve recoveries of more than 98%. As of February 25, 2019, approximately 25,000 tonnes of ore with a reconciled average grade of 18.19 g/t gold containing close to 14,700 ounces of gold has been processed at the Camflo Mill in four separate mill runs. Wallbridge drilled over 10,000 metres in 90 holes from underground in 2018. Highlights include: 18-1035-019 intersected 137.62 g/t gold over 4.85 metres in the Viper Zone 18-1035-005 intersected 48.81 g/t gold over 6.13 metres in the Viper Zone 18-1035-017 intersected 50.31 g/t gold over 10.13 metres in the Chipotle Zone 18-1035-013 intersected 144.96 g/t gold over 2.12 metres in the Chipotle Zone 18-0990-011 intersected 74.90 g/t gold over 5.66 metres in the Habanero Zone 18-0990-007 intersected 122.35 g/t gold over 2.95 metres in the Habanero Zone 18-0990-010 intersected 41.02 g/t gold over 5.52 metres in the Habanero Zone 18-5175-021 intersected 144.77 g/t gold over 6.10 metres in the Habanero Zone Wallbridge also drilled 17 holes from surface totaling about 5,800 metres. Of significance from this set of holes was the discovery of a new gold mineralized zone about 300 metres southwest of the main Fenelon deposit, including 12.70 g/t gold over 2.71 metres within a wider interval of 3.93 g/t gold over 9.96 metres in hole FA-18-051. The 2019 underground resource drilling will initially be carried out from the recently established 5130 level (~125 metres depth) and will target the main high-grade shoots down-plunge to 200 metres depth (see Figure #2). Stephen Kenwood, P. Geo, is a director of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Kenwood has reviewed and approved the technical information in this press release. About Ely Gold Ely Gold Royalties Inc. is a Vancouver-based, emerging royalty company with development assets focused in Nevada and Quebec. Its current portfolio includes 31 Deeded Royalties and 19 properties optioned to third parties. Ely Gold's royalty portfolio includes producing royalties, fully-permitted mines and development projects that are at or near producing mines. The Company is actively seeking opportunities to purchase existing third-party royalties for its portfolio, and all the Company's Option Properties are expected to produce royalties, if exercised. The royalty and option portfolios are currently generating significant revenue. Ely Gold is well positioned with its current portfolio of over 20 available properties to generate additional operating revenue through option and sale transactions. The Company has a proven track record of maximizing the value of its properties through claim consolidation and advancement using its extensive, proprietary data base. All portfolio properties are sold or optioned on a 100% basis, while the Company retains net smelter royalty interests. Management believes that due to the Company's ability to generate royalty transactions, its successful strategy of organically creating royalties, its equity portfolio and its current low valuation, Ely Gold offers shareholders a low-risk leverage to the current price of gold and low-cost access to long-term mineral royalties. On Behalf of the Board of Directors Signed "Trey Wasser" Trey Wasser, President & CEO For further information, please contact: Trey Wasser, President & CEO trey@elygoldinc.com 972-803-3087 Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations Officer jjobin@elygoldinc.com 604-488-1104 Forward-looking Statement Caution: This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the Company's acquisition of the Fenelon 2% Royalty relating to Wallbridge's Fenelon Mine Property, Wallbridge's stated plans for further near-term exploration and development of the Fenelon Mine Property, and the Company's outlook for the expected performance of its royalty and option portfolios. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the risk of accidents and other risks associated with Wallbridge's mineral exploration, development and extraction operations, the risk that Wallbridge will encounter unanticipated geological factors, or the possibility that Wallbridge may not be able to secure permitting and other governmental clearances, necessary to carry out its stated plans for the Fenelon Mine Property, the risk of unknown title defects that could impair the Company's inability to enforce the Fenelon 2% Royalty, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal disputes or changes in the jurisdictions where the Company carries on its business that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL, OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY SALE OF SECURITIES OF THE COMPANY IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SOLICITATION OR SALE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL PRIOR TO REGISTRATION OR QUALIFICATION UNDER THE SECURITIES LAWS OF ANY SUCH JURISDICTION. Figure #1 Fenlon Property- Bulk Sample Mine Development To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4181/44173_65eafe44447978be_001full.jpg Figure #2 Fenlon Property- 2019 Resource Expansion To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4181/44173_65eafe44447978be_002full.jpg This press release, required by applicable Canadian laws, is not for distribution to U.S. newswire services or for dissemination in the United States To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44173 Reno, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2019) - Scandium International Mining Corp. (TSX:SCY) ("Scandium International" or the "Company") has received notice from Counsel for the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (the 'Department') that, due to a procedural issue within the Department, the Company's Mine Lease Grant, ('ML 1763'), pertaining to the Nyngan Scandium Project in New South Wales, Australia, previously issued by the Department on 4 October 2017, is invalid. The Department has determined that its internal procedures failed to properly and fully consider an affected landowner's 'Agricultural Land' objection prior to the grant of ML 1763, as specified by applicable Law. The Department has not changed the formal 'granted' status of ML 1763 on its electronic public record system (TAS), but that is now expected to occur. As the Company's mine lease application ('MLA 531') submitted in 2016 covering the entire area originally requested has not been validly determined by the Department, the mine lease application remains in force and pending. The Department has not yet completed its review and determination of the validity of the landowner's objection, as per applicable Law, but has advised the Company that it is continuing with its ongoing formal review. The Department's ultimate decision on validity of the landowner objection will then determine the outcome on the pending application (MLA 531). If the landowner's objection is not upheld by the Department, then the Department will proceed to grant a new Mining Lease to the Company. The Company believes that the viability of the project is not dependent on land related to the current objection and can proceed based exclusively on surface rights owned by the Company. The Company is currently in ongoing discussions with the affected landowner, and is also in process of filing other MLA documents that could potentially address issues central to this matter. George Putnam, CEO of Scandium International Mining Corp. commented: "The determination by the Department as to the validity of the agricultural land objection has not been made, and remains at the heart of this matter. The Company (with Counsel) has provided the Department with extensive comments on the objection and will press for an early, accurate and fair decision in this regard. The Company remains committed to building the Nyngan Scandium Project, regardless of the decision by the Department." ABOUT SCANDIUM INTERNATIONAL MINING CORP. The Company is focused on developing its Nyngan Scandium Project, located in NSW, Australia, into the world's first scandium-only producing mine. The project owned by our 100% held Australian subsidiary, EMC Metals Australia Pty Limited. The Company filed a NI 43-101 technical report in May 2016, titled "Feasibility Study - Nyngan Scandium Project". That feasibility study delivered an expanded scandium resource, a first reserve figure, and an estimated 33.1% IRR on the project, supported by extensive metallurgical test work and an independent, 10-year global marketing outlook for scandium demand. Willem Duyvesteyn, MSc, AIME, CIM, a Director and CTO of the Company, is a qualified person for the purposes of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical content of this press release on behalf of the Company. For inquiries to Scandium International Mining Corp, please contact: Edward Dickinson (CFO) Tel: (775) 233-7328 George Putnam (CEO) Tel: (925) 208-1775 Email: info@scandiummining.com This press release contains forward-looking statements about the Company and its business. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and include, but are not limited to statements regarding any future development of the project. The forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by forward looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, without limitation: risks related to uncertainty in the demand for scandium, the possibility that results of test work will not fulfill expectations, or not realize the perceived market utilization and potential of scandium sources that may be developed for sale by the Company, and risks associated with permitting. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the Company's management at the time they are made, and other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update its forward-looking statements if those beliefs, opinions or expectations, or other circumstances, should change. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44169 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2019) - World Class Extractions Inc. (CSE: PUMP) ("World Class" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has retained the services of Mackie Research Capital Corporation ("Mackie Research") to act as financial advisor to the Company. Mackie Research will provide advisory services to World Class. The Company has agreed to retain Mackie Research for an initial term of three months, and the arrangement may be extended by mutual agreement. As part of the compensation for its services, the Company will grant 3,000,000 common share purchase warrants (the "Mackie Warrants") to Mackie Research. Each Mackie Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one common share in the capital of the Company ("Common Share") at an exercise price of $0.18 at any time up to 36 months following the date hereof. The Mackie Warrants are conditional on vesting if the daily volume weighted average trading price of the Common Shares exceeds $0.18 for 20 consecutive trading days within 6 months of issuance. About Mackie Research Capital Corporation Mackie is one of Canada's largest independent full service investment firms, and proudly traces its roots back to 1921. Mackie is privately owned by many of its 300 employees. As a fully integrated national investment dealer, Mackie offers a full complement of capital markets and wealth management services to private clients, institutions and growth companies. About World Class Extractions Inc. The Company is a Canadian based developer of an innovative extraction process for both the hemp and cannabis industry. The Company intends to provide single step continuous flow extraction services to the hemp and cannabis industry. Using patent pending technology, the Company's results produce higher yields and better quality crude hemp oil at faster rates. The technology allows the extraction of CBD Oil and other related extracts from wet or dried natural plants. The Company can save its clients floor space, utility drying costs, equipment and processing labour costs. For further information please contact: Michael McCombie Chief Executive Officer Email: mike@wcextractions.com Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward- looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE U.S. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44163 FinancialNewsMedia.com News Commentary PALM BEACH, Florida, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- It's a marriage made in heaven in POT heaven that is. In both the U.S. and Canada, the consumer demand for cannabis products continues its steady growth but one obstacle could be the unmet need for more dispensaries. The consumer demand for cannabis products exceeded even the most optimistic projections there are just not enough retail dispensaries (with sufficient supplies also but that is for another time) and Mall owners have too many stores without a tenant so, Dispensaries and Mall owners are entering into a hopefully long and mutually rewarding relationship! An industry publication recently said that, in both Canada and the U.S. "The future is very bright for property owners in North America as cannabis companies are on the hunt for cannabis retail locations." The article said that, "Cannabis retailers aren't very widespread in Canada as most provincial governments are slow to roll out the licenses needed to open the stores. In the US, things are somewhat different. Seeing how cannabis is still illegal on the federal level, making deals with cannabis companies comes with a bit more risk. However, that didn't stop some of the biggest mall operators in possibly making millions of dollars in the states where cannabis is already legal, such as California. "Active companies in the cannabis industry includes: CROP INFRASTRUCTURE CORP. (CSE:CROP) (OTC:CRXPF), HEXO Corp. (NYSE: HEXO) (TSX: HEXO.TO), Canopy Rivers Inc. (TSX-V: RIV.V) (OTCPK: CNPOF), Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) (TSX: ACB.TO), Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF). A recent Forbes article said that after legalization "The (Canadian) rollout hasn't been as smooth as they would have liked. The most pressing problem facing the country's legal weed market is the fact that, in the majority of provinces, suppliers are unable to meet demand. In many areas, the supply shortage may last well into 2019. "A cannabis industry insider said that,"The mall developers are in the business of renting space. They need more food and personal care and less clothing. We fit into one of the categories that's growing. That's not an accident." CROP INFRASTRUCTURE CORP. (CSE:CROP) (OTCPK:CRXPF) (Frankfurt: 2FR) BREAKING NEWS:CROP announced today that its 49% owned Humboldt County farm has received an order of 1,000 4 ft. tall cannabis plants accelerating the company and its farm in to the 2019 cultivation season. These large starter plants are expected to have increased yields as they are much taller and fuller than the previous year's plants. Currently, the farm has five 2000 sq.ft. greenhouses totaling 10,000 square feet and 20,000 square feet of outdoor cultivation space. Additionally, the farm has received approval from the Humboldt County Planning Department for the 2019 expansion, including a 30,000 sq. ft. automated light dep greenhouse facility and additional vault space. The new facility is expected to cost $499,000 in capex at the farm and is expected to yield 12,000 pounds per year, taking the company to year-round cultivation and tripling the output of the existing California infrastructure. CROP's Emerald Heights retail brand has had its licensing fees submitted for phase two of Chula Vista's cannabis retail application process, combined with the company's partial acquisition of a distributer and extraction facility, if licensed the retail location will bring the company to being fully vertically integrated. Read this full announcement and more news for CROP Infrastructure at: https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-crop/ Additional cannabis industry related developments from around the markets: HEXO Corp. (NYSE: HEXO) (TSX: HEXO.TO) recently announced that it has completed the first harvest in its one-million-square-foot expansion, marking an important execution milestone in the company's continuous growth. Since early January, plants have been moving into the greenhouse and the first plants have now been harvested. The company continues to ramp up to full harvest capacity using the continuous harvest methodology, the latest step toward reaching the full annual production capacity of 108,000 kilograms of dried flower per year. "Completing the first harvest in our one-million-square-foot greenhouse expansion showcases the dedication and hard work of the entire Hexo team," said Sebastien St-Louis, Hexo's chief executive officer and co-founder. "We are very proud of our continued ability to execute on our plans, creating value for our shareholders and demonstrating our commitment to our customers. This cultivation milestone means that an expanded Hexo product offering will be available to more Canadians shortly." Canopy Rivers Inc. (TSX-V: RIV.V) (OTCPK: CNPOF) and High Beauty, Inc. recently announced the completion of an investment by Canopy Rivers in High Beauty, creator of industry-leading cannabis beauty brand high. Canopy Rivers has subscribed for US$2.5 million of shares in High Beauty, representing 18.4% of the company on a fully diluted basis, including additional warrant coverage. "Being supported by Canopy Rivers enables us to collaborate within the Canopy Rivers ecosystem and to focus our energy and passion on the creation of a robust new product line using cannabis-derived extracts," said Melissa Jochim, a highly successful formulator and Founder of High Beauty. "Cannabis sativa seed oil is an untapped ingredient resource with amazing skincare benefits. This partnership will allow us to scale High Beauty's business much 'higher' in a short time frame." Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) (TSX: ACB.TO) and Hempco Food and Fiber Inc. ("Hempco") ( HEMP.V ) recently announced that the companies have entered into a binding letter agreement (the "Letter Agreement") in regard to the basic terms and conditions upon which Aurora will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Hempco ("Hempco Shares") not already owned by Aurora. In consideration of the transaction, Aurora has agreed to pay $1.04 per Hempco Share, payable in common shares of Aurora ("Aurora Shares"), reflecting a valuation of approximately C$63.4 million on a fully diluted basis. For more than 12 years Hempco has been a trusted and respected pioneer, innovator and provider of quality, hemp-based foods, hemp fiber and hemp nutraceuticals. Hempco produces and markets the brands PLANET HEMP and PRAISE, hemp-based foods and nutritional supplements for people and animals. Hempco has developed multiple international distribution channels, selling through highly visible platforms, such as Amazon.com, Well.ca and Metro Inc. Through its combined hemp assets, Aurora is well positioned to drive growth through the sale of hemp products to more than 100 countries around the globe. Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) a leading vertically integrated cannabis operator in the United States, recently announced that it completed the acquisition of EC Investment Partners, LLC ("Eureka"). "The acquisition of Eureka cements our foundation in California and positions us well in the largest cannabis consumption market in the U.S.," said Joseph Lusardi, CEO of Curaleaf. "The closing of this transaction marks an important milestone for Curaleaf, enabling us to enter the highly attractive California market as a vertically integrated operator with plans to expand across the state." DISCLAIMER: FN Media Group LLC (FNM), which owns and operates FinancialNewsMedia.com and MarketNewsUpdates.com (FNM) is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. FNM and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. FNM's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. FNM is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed FNM has been compensated forty nine hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press release issued above by CROP Infrastructure Corp. by a non affiliated third party. FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE. This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNM undertakes no obligation to update such statements. Contact Information: Media Contact email: editor@financialnewsmedia.com +1(561)325-8757 -Combined know-how will fuel greater technological breakthroughs - -Customers to benefit from accelerated pace of innovation - CERNUSCO LOMBARDONE, Italy, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Technoprobe, a global leader in the microelectronics/semiconductor test industry, has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Microfabrica Inc., the leader in high-volume production, microscale Additive Manufacturing. This acquisition is part of Technoprobe's $100M USD 2019-2020 self-funded technological investment plan. Post-acquisition, Microfabrica will continue to operate independently out of its headquarters in Van Nuys, California. "This acquisition marks a strategic step in our growth plans," said Technoprobe CEO Stefano Felici. "As technological leaders in our fields, joining forces will accelerate both organizations' development efforts, so we can launch a variety of breakthrough products aimed at the SOC and memory market segments. Our plan to further invest in Microfabrica will help the company expand its capabilities and achieve its global market potential." Microfabrica CEO Eric C. Miller added, "We are very excited to join the Technoprobe family. The acquisition will not only provide a strong foundation for Microfabrica and our employees but will enable us to expand our process and materials capabilities and services, benefiting the entire industry. We look forward to engaging new customers as well as continuing to serve our current base as we have done in the past: satisfying all contracts, NDAs and production commitments." About Technoprobe Technoprobe is an award-winning leader in the microelectronics industry that specializes in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductor test equipment. It was ranked the industry's fastest-growing major supplier in 2017 and No. 1 in customer satisfaction in 2018 by VLSIresearch. The privately held company has offices in Europe, Asia and the United States. For more information, please visit www.technoprobe.com. About Microfabrica Microfabrica is the leader in high-volume production, microscale additive manufacturing. By integrating the flexibility of 3D printing with the precision of advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, the company designs and builds robust microscale solutions that enable new levels of product innovation. Global market leaders in the semiconductor test, aerospace and medical device industries rely on Microfabrica's unique technology to deliver breakthrough products, reduce their time to market, and gain a dramatic competitive edge. For more information, please visit www.microfabrica.com. Carnival Corporation & plc Declares Quarterly Dividend MIAMI, April 18, 2019 -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) today announced that it has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share. The company's boards of directors approved a record date for the quarterly dividend of May 24, 2019, and a payment date of June 14, 2019. Holders of Carnival Corporation common stock and Carnival plc ADSs will receive the dividend payable in U.S. dollars. The dividend for Carnival plc ordinary shares will be payable in U.S. dollars or sterling. In the absence of instructions or elections to the contrary, holders of Carnival plc ordinary shares will automatically receive the dividend in sterling. Dividends payable in sterling will be converted from U.S. dollars at the exchange rate quoted by Bloomberg (BFIX) at 12 noon London time on June 3, 2019. Holders of Carnival plc ordinary shares wishing to receive their dividend in U.S. dollars or participate in the Carnival plc Dividend Reinvestment Plan must elect to do so by May 24, 2019. About Carnival Corporation Carnival Corporation & plc is the world's largest leisure travel company and among the most profitable and financially strong in the cruise and vacation industries, with a portfolio of nine of the world's leading cruise lines. With operations in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia, its portfolio features Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard. Together, the corporation's cruise lines operate 104 ships with 243,000 lower berths visiting over 700 ports around the world, with 19 new ships scheduled to be delivered through 2025. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour company in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices. With a long history of innovation and providing guests with extraordinary vacation experiences, Carnival Corporation has received thousands of industry awards - including recognition by the Consumer Technology Association as a CES 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree for OceanMedallion. A revolutionary wearable device that contains a proprietary blend of communication technologies, OceanMedallion enables the world's first interactive guest experience platform transforming vacation travel on a large scale into a highly personalized level of customized service. The prestigious CES Innovation Awards honor outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products. Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com, www.princess.com, www.hollandamerica.com, www.seabourn.com, www.pocruises.com.au, www.costacruise.com, www.aida.de, www.pocruises.com and www.cunard.com. CONTACT: MEDIA CONTACT, Roger Frizzell, +1 (305) 406 7862; INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT, Beth Roberts, +1 (305) 406 4832 Andersen Global is excited to announce the addition of its first collaborating firm in South Africa. Tabacks Attorneys and Corporate Law Advisors, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, has signed a Collaboration Agreement with Andersen Global, an international association of member and collaborating firms. South Africa marks the tenth country in Africa in which Andersen Global has a presence. Led by Chairman David Woodhouse, Tabacks has a team of 27 lawyers who offer legal assistance and commercial advice to a diverse clientele in construction, manufacturing, energy, mining, explosives, retail, hospitality, logistics, pharmaceutical, property and banking industries. The firm is considered a leading law firm in South Africa, and its practice areas include competition law, commercial law, mining, employment law, environmental health safety law, tax and litigation. "The global economy is rapidly changing, which brings unique challenges to corporate and commercial law," said David. "We help our clients navigate this uneasy environment by tailoring our professional solutions. Coupled with our team's depth of expertise, our success is also the result of our focus on the basics: best-in-class, seamless service, and a promise to bring a passion to everything we do. We look forward to collaborating with individuals who share this same commitment." "South Africa has been the traditional business hub for Africa, and although other regions are expanding, it remains the headquarters for many companies, which makes it a very important market to us and our global clientele," remarked Mark Vorsatz, Andersen Global Chairman and Andersen Tax LLC CEO. "The Tabacks Partner group has a very strong, impressive chemistry, which I believe is a testament to how committed they are about their services and business. We look forward to having strong colleagues in Johannesburg." Andersen Global is an international association of legally separate, independent member firms comprised of tax and legal professionals around the world. Established in 2013 by U.S. member firm Andersen Tax LLC, Andersen Global now has more than 4,000 professionals worldwide and a presence in over 138 locations through its member firms and collaborating firms. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005003/en/ Contacts: Megan Tsuei Andersen Tax 415-764-2700 VICTOR, N.Y., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE: STZ and STZ.B), a leading beverage alcohol company, today announced that it plans to enter into an agreement with Canopy Growth Corporation ("Canopy") (TSX: WEED, NYSE: CGC), a leading diversified cannabis company, to modify certain warrants and other rights. These changes are the result of Canopy's intentions to acquire Acreage Holdings, Inc. ("Acreage") upon U.S. Federal cannabis legalization. Earlier today, Canopy announced (see Canopy press release "Canopy Growth Announces Option to Acquire Leading U.S. Multi-state Cannabis Operator, Acreage Holdings") it has entered into an agreement with Acreage, a U.S. multi-state cannabis operator, where Canopy plans to acquire the shares of Acreage upon U.S. Federal cannabis legalization (the "Triggering Event"), subject to certain conditions. This transaction, as well as proposed modifications to certain Constellation warrants, are subject to approval by Canopy shareholders. Constellation has agreed to waive its veto rights to this transaction subject to certain proposed modifications to the warrants and other conditions as outlined below: In addition to the 18.9 million warrants associated with the November 2017 Canopy investment, Constellation also currently has 139.7 million warrants in Canopy, which upon shareholder approval would become exercisable over a period of five to eight years from November 1, 2018, compared to the previous three-year period. This includes 88.5 million Tranche A warrants, which are exercisable at a price per share of C$50.40 and 51.2 million Tranche B warrants, of which 38.4 million, or 75 percent, are exercisable at a price per share of C$76.68. The remaining 25 percent of the original Tranche B warrants will become Tranche C warrants and will be exercisable at Canopy's five-day volume weighted average price of the common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("VWAP") immediately prior to exercise. If Canopy exercises its right to acquire the shares of Acreage and Constellation were to exercise all of their outstanding Canopy warrants, Constellation's ownership in Canopy is not expected to exceed 50 percent. Current Warrants Revised Warrants Expiry Date Shares Price Expiry Date Shares Price Tranche A warrants Nov. 1, 2021 88.5 M C$50.40 Nov. 1, 2023 88.5 M C$50.40 Tranche B warrants Nov. 1, 2021 51.2 M VWAP (1) Nov. 1, 2026 38.4 M C$76.68 (2) Tranche C warrants -- -- -- Nov. 1, 2026 12.8 M VWAP (1) (1) Five-day VWAP of Canopy common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange immediately prior to exercise (2) 75 percent of original Tranche B warrants priced at Canopy stock 52-week high If Constellation exercises Tranche A warrants in full, Canopy has committed to repurchase the lesser of 25 percent of its issued shares to Acreage or a dollar amount equal to 25 percent of the implied enterprise value of Acreage within 24 months of the date of Constellation's warrant exercise. Constellation would be permitted to purchase up to 20 million Canopy shares in the open market prior to the warrants being exercised or terminated, provided that for each share purchased by Constellation, the number of Tranche B warrants is decreased by one. Constellation will continue to maintain its current level of representation on Canopy's Board of Directors. About Constellation Brands Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ and STZ.B), a Fortune 500 company, is a leading international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits with operations in the U.S., Mexico, New Zealand, Italy and Canada. Constellation is the No. 3 beer company in the U.S. with high-end, iconic imported beer brands such as the Corona and Modelo brand families and Pacifico. Its high-quality, wine and spirits brands include the Robert Mondavi and The Prisoner Wine Company brand families, Kim Crawford, Ruffino, Meiomi and SVEDKA Vodka. The company's portfolio also includes a collection of highly-rated, wine brands such as SIMI and Mount Veeder Winery wine brands, High West Whiskey and Casa Noble Tequila, as well as new wine innovations such as Cooper & Thief and Spoken Barrel. Based in Victor, N.Y., the company believes that industry leadership involves a commitment to brand building, our trade partners, the environment, our investors and to consumers around the world who choose our products when celebrating big moments or enjoying quiet ones. Since its founding in 1945, Constellation's ability to see, meet and stay ahead of shifting consumer preferences and trends across total beverage alcohol has fueled our success and made us the No. 1 growth contributor in beverage alcohol in the U.S. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @cbrandsand visit www.cbrands.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. The word "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These statements may relate to business strategy, future operations, prospects, and plans and objectives of management, as well as information concerning future ownership levels in Canopy and expected actions of third parties, including but not limited to Canopy's potential transaction with Acreage and Canopy's potential repurchase of shares issuable in that potential transaction. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in, or implied by, such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and should not be construed in any manner as a guarantee that such results will in fact occur. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release and Constellation Brands undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The proposed revision of the warrants held by certain Constellation subsidiaries in Canopy (the "Warrants Revision") is subject to various conditions, including approval by Canopy shareholders. Any transaction between Acreage and Canopy would also be subject to various conditions. There can be no assurance either that Canopy's shareholders will approve the proposed Warrants Revision or the intended transaction with Acreage. There also can be no assurance that any transaction between Canopy and Acreage will occur or that the Triggering Event of Canopy's intended transaction with Acreage will occur. In addition to risks and uncertainties associated with ordinary business operations, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are subject to other risks and uncertainties, including the accuracy of all projections and other factors and uncertainties disclosed from time-to-time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2018, as supplemented by the company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended August 31, 2018, which could cause actual future performance to differ from current expectations. MEDIA CONTACTS INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACTS Mike McGrew 773-251-4934 michael.mcgrew@cbrands.com (mailto:michael.mcgrew@cbrands.com) Patty Yahn-Urlaub 585-678-7483 patty.yahn-urlaub@cbrands.com (mailto:patty.yahn-urlaub@cbrands.com) Amy Martin 585-678-7141 amy.martin@cbrands.com (mailto:amy.martin@cbrands.com) Bob Czudak 585-678-7170 bob.czudak@cbrands.com (mailto:bob.czudak@cbrands.com) Tom Conaway 585-678-7503 thomas.conaway@cbrands.com (mailto:thomas.conaway@cbrands.com) A downloadable PDF copy of this news release enhanced with multimedia links can be found here: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/729bff5c-bca9-4a8a-90e1-5ff4c9ab8fb2 HEXO Stock BoostThis has been a year of firsts. The legal marijuana sector has seen more evolution in 2019 than in arguably any other year. The industry's maturation has been kicked into overdrive, with politicians, analysts, and even major banks coming out in support of pot.The latest news comes as Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) (BoA) begins its coverage of marijuana with a note supporting HEXO Corp (NYSEAMERICAN:HEXO). As a result, HEXO stock shot up in trading on Wednesday.BoA's note named HEXO as among the top pot stocks for the analyst at BoA, largely in keeping with my own projections. (Source: ". Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. More than 30,000 predicted to congregate this Saturday in Central London LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- THC The High Club will be hosting the UK's biggest ever 420 event this weekend, Saturday 20th April, in Hyde Park. The protest is against the unjust laws surrounding the use and possession of cannabis in the UK. Attendees to the free event will be entertained and educated by a variety of acts on the day - the line-up remains largely under wraps but will include music from artists such as Dappy and educational talks from speakers such as Tommy Corbyn. Proceedings will kick off at midday hosted by hip hop artist Clement Marfo, who is recognized for his frequently featured TV anthem 'Champion'. Marwan Elgamal, founder of THC The High Club said, "This year has been huge for the cannabis industry, not just for business but also the law itself. In the UK we've seen considerable progression made in regards to medicinal access. To mark what has been an unprecedented year for the cannabis in the UK, we've put plans in place for this to be an unforgettable 420. Last year there were around 15,000 people, this year it will be more than double that." Amelia Amin, founder of CBD company Endoboxes, and head of management at THC The High Club , said, "It's all part of our duty as a company. We support the liberalisation of cannabis laws that this historic protest demands. It's a privilege to provide a platform for key members of the UK cannabis community to speak on. It's our way to engage with the voices of the people and to make sure their collective voices are heard by government." The Head Sponsor of Saturday's festivities is Product Earth, a well-established leader in the Hemp/Cannabis/CBD industry. Product Earth runs an annual Cannabis trade expo and festival - this year's expo is on the 23rd-25th August in Warwickshire. THC The High Club is the leading cannabis lifestyle brand in the UK, and is known for boldly hosting the biggest 420 to date, building on the foundations laid by UK Cannabis Social Club (UKCSC). (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/874112/The_High_Club_Ltd_Logo.jpg ) Clichy, Thursday 18 April 2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND BOARD of DIRECTORS' MEETING OF 18 APRIL 2019 Appointment as Director of Ms Fabienne Dulac Renewal of the tenure as Director of Ms Sophie Bellon Approval of a dividend of 3.85 per share up by +8.5% Resignation of Mr Axel Dumas from his mandate as Director The Annual General Meeting of L'Oreal shareholders was held in Paris, on Thursday 18 April 2019, under the chairmanship of Mr Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The Annual General Meeting adopted all the proposed resolutions, and in particular: approved the parent company financial statements and the consolidated financial statements for 2018; decided on the distribution of a dividend of 3.85 per share. This dividend is increased to 4.23 for shares that have been continuously registered for at least two years. Dividend payment date: Tuesday 30 April 2019; appointed one new Director, Ms Fabienne Dulac for a four-year term; renewed the tenure as Director of Ms Sophie Bellon, for a four-year term. The Board of Directors has taken note of the resignation of Mr Axel Dumas as Director, due to the recent announcement by Hermes of the launch of a cosmetics line that may represent a possible conflict of interest. Mr Jean-Paul Agon and the Board warmly thank Mr Axel Dumas for his contribution to the work of the Board and the Audit Committee. *** The results of the votes are available on the www.loreal-finance.com website. A summary of the Annual General Meeting will be provided in the next L'Oreal "Letter to Shareholders", available on request and on the www.loreal-finance.com website. "This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy L'Oreal shares. If you wish to obtain more comprehensive information about L'Oreal, please refer to the public documents registered in France with the Autorite des Marches Financiers, also available in English on our Internet site www.loreal-finance.com . This news release may contain some forward-looking statements. Although the Company considers that these statements are based on reasonable hypotheses at the date of publication of this release, they are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or projected in these statements." Contacts at L'Oreal (switchboard: +33 1 47 56 70 00) Individual shareholders and market authorities Mr Jean Regis CAROF Tel: +33 1 47 56 83 02 jean-regis.carof@loreal.com Financial analysts and Institutional investors Mrs Francoise LAUVIN Tel: +33 1 47 56 86 82 francoise.lauvin@loreal.com Journalists Mrs Stephanie CARSON-PARKER Tel: +33 1 47 56 76 71 stephanie.carsonparker@loreal.com For further information, please contact your bank, stockbroker or financial institution,the L'Oreal Finance app or call the toll-free number from France: 0 800 66 66 66. www.loreal-finance.com - Follow us on Twitter @loreal Attachment Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2019) - CHC Student Housing Corp. (TSXV: CHC) ("CHC" or the "Company") announces that it has sold the $350,000 principal amount vendor take-back mortgage which it received from the sale of its Kingston, Ontario property in July 2018. The mortgage, which matures on July 31, 2021 and bears interest at a rate of 5% per annum, was sold for $350,000. The mortgage was sold to a family trust of Craig Smith, a director of the Company. Accordingly, the transaction constitutes a "related party transaction" pursuant to TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). In addition to the purchase of the mortgage from the Company, Smycorp Investments Inc., a company owned and controlled by Mr. Smith and his family, has extended a $150,000 loan to CHC which bears interest at a rate of 8% per annum and matures on June 30, 2019. This loan also constitutes a "related party transaction" pursuant to TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and MI 61-101. In completing the sale of the mortgage and the extension of the loan, the Company relied on Section 5.5(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the formal valuation requirements of MI 61-101 and on Section 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the mortgage and the loan, nor the fair market value of the consideration for the purchase of the mortgage and the extension of the loan, exceeds 25% of CHC's market capitalization. A material change report as contemplated by the related party transaction requirements under MI 61-101 was not filed more than 21 days prior to closing of the transaction as the transaction was only recently agreed to in order to provide the Company with needed financial resources and to improve its financial position. The proceeds from the sale of the mortgage and the extension of the loan will be used by the Company for general corporate purposes. About CHC Student Housing Corp. CHC Student Housing Corp. is an owner and operator of student housing properties located in proximity to universities in primary and well understood secondary markets. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For more information, please contact: Simon Nyilassy, President and Chief Executive Officer CHC Student Housing Corp. Telephone: (416) 504-9380 Email: snyilassy@marigoldandassociates.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44174 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2019) - Castle Peak Mining Ltd. (TSXV: CAP) ("Castle Peak" or the "Company") hereby provides a second news release on corporate developments since its TSX Venture Exchange trading halt 60 days ago. The Company is pleased to announce that it has concluded the independent review exercise and due diligence report on the Kunsu PL property, which was conducted by PGeo, Mr. Sam Torkornoo, a registered member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario, registration number 2340. The Company has provided this review report for final TSX Venture Exchange approval. Further, the Company can confirm that a Ghana law firm has finalized the requested title opinion on the Kunsu prospecting license. The title opinion has also been submitted for final TSX consideration and approval. Finally the Company is pleased to announce the following field progress report on follow-up exploration work. This work commenced on the 22nd February, 2019 and has covered the customary community consultation and traditional protocols within the project area. Assessment of Crop compensation, which is to compensate farmers for their farming crops that were affected by operations, for the period is underway. The Field Work includes the 5.8 km Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey at the North Grid zone. 430 m of trenches have been excavated on the geophysical defined targets to establish lateral continuity of the mineralized zone and also provide information on the extent and prospectivity of gold mineralization within the corridor. 362 trench samples have been submitted to ALS laboratories in Kumasi, Ghana for Au analysis by Fire Assay and AAS finish. ON THE KUNSU PROPERTY The Kunsu PL property is located approximately 35 km Northwest of Kumasi and 240 km Northwest of Accra. The property which is situated in close proximity to the Sefwi gold belt is strategically placed on the Asankragua Manso Nkwanta gold belt. The Kunsu concession is about 27 km north of Asanko Gold's mine, and even closer to the Asanko Esaase gold prospect, all of which are inferred to be underlain by similar geology regionally as Kunsu. TECHNICAL DISCLOSURE Castle Peak's technical disclosure in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Sam Torkornoo, P.Geo., who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition in National Instrument 43-101 ('NI 43-101'). ABOUT CASTLE PEAK Castle Peak Mining Ltd. is a Canadian-based junior exploration company focused on advancing greenfields and early stage gold projects. Castle Peak has successfully discovered and sold the high grade Apankrah deposit with an associated strategic land package. The Company is in the process of acquiring the Kunsu prospecting license strategically placed on the Asankragua Manso Nkwanta gold belt in Ghana, West Africa. On behalf of the Board of Castle Peak Mining Ltd.: "Iyad Jarbou" Chief Financial Officer Tel: 604-362-7685 Email: iyadj@castlepeakmining.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD-LOOKING AND OTHER CAUTIONARY INFORMATION This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address the planned operations are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements should not be in any way construed as guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices for metals, the conclusions of detailed feasibility and technical analyses, the timely renewal of key permits, lower than expected grades and quantities of resources, mining rates and recovery rates and the lack of availability of necessary capital, which may not be available to the Company on terms acceptable to it or at all. The Company is subject to the specific risks inherent in the mining business as well as general economic and business conditions. For more information on the Company, Investors should review the Company's Annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities Commission and its home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44177 The high cost of the wine is also due to the scale of manual labour involved. MAD, Hungary: A Hungarian winemaker in the Tokaj region known for its golden dessert wine is selling a vintage for $40,000 a bottle, hoping to revive the royal heritage of a wine revered by kings and connoisseurs. The volcanic Tokaj region in northeast Hungary produces wine made with grapes with noble rot, induced by the Botrytis fungus that shrivels grapes and concentrates their sugar. Tokaji Aszu first appeared in literature in 1576, but it was in the 17th century that the wine, also blended into Hungarys National Anthem by the poet Ferenc Kolcsey, became a favourite of enthusiasts for its richness and complexity. It is said Frances Louis XIV, the Sun King, described the wine as the wine of kings and the king of wines. Winemaker Royal Tokaji says the $40,000 edition is the worlds most expensive wine on release. Other rarities may fetch higher prices at auction. We have made a conscious decision to propel what has always been the most valuable product of Tokaj back into a price range where Tokaj wine belongs, with an exclusive, customised presentation, General Manager Zoltan Kovacs said. A smaller, 0.4-litre bottle of Essencia, the richest and rarest of all Hungarian Tokaj wines according to the producers description, costs about $424 at online retailers. So what justifies the whopping price tag for the 2008 vintagethe equivalent of four years of average take-home pay in Hungary or the price of a house in Tokaj? The bottle is a 1.5-litre hand-blown magnum with a special cork made in Portugal after laser-scanning the neck. It sits in a lacquered black box, which shines light through the bottle at the press of a button. A longer maturation period adds hints of green tea and rose hip to the flavour. There are only 18 bottles offered for sale, with the prospect of an increase in value, the wine will keep maturing in the bottle for decades or longer, said wine expert Matyas Szik. This is what significantly increases the value of this wine as an investment, as the time to deal with these wines in earnest will come 30, 40, 50 years from now, either to taste or to trade, he said. The first buyer did not wait that longshortly after placing the order, an unnamed Chinese investor threw a party for clients where the wine was promptly uncorked, Kovacs said. The high cost of the wine is also due to the scale of manual labour involved. The grapes are hand-picked one by one for a daily harvest of just 8-10 kgs in a good year. They are stored in containers where they produce a rich must. If we take this bottle, it required 180-200 kgs of shrivelled grapes to produce the 1.5 litres. So, all in all, it takes about a tonne of green grapes to make this bottle of wine, Kovacs said. After weeks of uncertainty, Jet Airways on Wednesday announced temporary suspension of its operations as it did not receive emergency funds to stay afloat. New Delhi: With cash-starved Jet Airways suspending operations, aviation regulator DGCA on Thursday said it will ask the airline for a "concrete and credible" revival plan, as well as extend help within the regulatory framework. A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also said the regulator would take action in accordance with due procedure under relevant regulations. After weeks of uncertainty, Jet Airways on Wednesday announced temporary suspension of its operations as it did not receive emergency funds to stay afloat. The DGCA would be asking the company for concrete and credible revival plan to restart the suspended operations, the official said. According to the official, the watchdog would also endeavour to do its best to help the company revive its operations within the set regulatory framework. Lenders are carrying out the bidding process for stake sale in the ailing airline, which has a debt burden of more than Rs 8,000 crore. Against the backdrop of capacity reduction due to flight cancellations and rise in airfares, civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Thursday held a meeting with representatives of various airport operators. It was also attended by Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials. Issues related to slot allocation at airports in the wake of Jet Airways suspending operations were discussed at the meeting, an official said. In the evening, the secretary would be holding a meeting with representatives of airlines. On Thursday, lenders to Jet Airways said they are reasonably hopeful of a successful bidding process for stake sale. The civil aviation ministry, on Wednesday, said it would support the resolution process for Jet Airways within the existing regulatory framework. Former chief of Religare Enterprises Sunil Godhwani has alleged conspiracy of the company's current management and erstwhile promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh against him New Delhi: Former chief of Religare Enterprises Sunil Godhwani has alleged conspiracy of the company's current management and erstwhile promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh against him. In a submission to the corporate affairs ministry, he also said that an investigation should be started into the management change that happened in February 2018. The ministry had sought a response from Godhwani on a complaint filed against him in the case of Religare Enterprises, which is under the scanner for alleged financial irregularities. Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) and Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) have filed a complaint against him. In the submission, Godhwani has claimed that the complaint is part of a conspiracy hatched by the current management out of their ulterior motive to cover up their nexus between the erstwhile promoters and the majority shareholder of the company. Last year, the Singh brothers had blamed him for the troubles faced by the group. Godhwani, who is also under the lens, stepped down as the chairman and MD in 29 July, 2016. He, then assumed charge of the CEO at Religare Enterprises and later quit. The operational creditors of Jet Airways, everyone from its service providers to its workers, can still take the airline to the bankruptcy court. Indias oldest private airline, Jet Airways, has been grounded, after having been in operation for close to 26 years. This happened after the airlines request for more money from banks to which it already owes more than Rs 8,000 crore, was turned down. After this refusal, the airline ran out of funds to continue operations and had to shut down. Lets take a look at the issue pointwise. 1) The problem is that no one is going to buy the beleaguered airline in a hurry. Jets most valuable assets are its slots that it has at airports around the world and bilateral rights. These are going to remain for 90 days. Beyond that they will go and it wont make sense for anyone to buy the airline. 2) Four potential investors, Etihad Airways, government-owned National Infrastructure and Investment Fund and private equity firms Indigo Partners and TPG, have expressed an interest to buy the airline. The trouble is, an expression of interest doesnt mean much. The potential investors will need time to go over the books of Jet Airways and time is something that the grounded airline does not really have. 3) The creditors in this case decided not to go through the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) route to recover their dues. The logic for not taking that route was that IBC is a time-taking process and would have ended up hurting the valuation of the airline, and in turn the total amount of money they would have been able to recover. As things have turned out, not going the IBC route hasnt made a much of a difference. 4) The operational creditors of the airline, everyone from its service providers to its workers, can still take the airline to the bankruptcy court. Whether that happens remains to be seen. 5) More importantly, calls are being made for the government to rescue the airline. How is it good as a country to reduce so much seat capacity," an analyst, told Mint. News reporters who have been on the aviation beat have also made a case for 20,000 jobs at Jet Airways being saved. And so have concerned citizens who have expressed worry at the fact that with Jet Airways being grounded, airfares will go up or for that matter have already gone up quite a lot. The entire Jet Airways story again brings out the point that India's rich and upper middle class wants socialism as soon as things start to hurt them. Economists and analysts, who make a living out of advocating free markets on other days, now want the airline to be rescued. There are multiple reasons why the government should not rescue Jet Airways, the foremost being that its not the business of the government to run businesses in which it has no expertise. (Not that this has stopped the government from doing that). 6) The irony is that the taxpayer-funded National Infrastructure and Investment Fund is one of the potential buyers of the airline. This is beyond bizarre. The physical infrastructure in India needs a lot of money and the last thing an infrastructure fund funded by the taxpayer should be doing is buying a failing airline. It should be investing money for building better roads, railway stations, ports and so on. 7) But what about airline fares going up? This is a question that is worrying everyone. The trouble is, thats how the market operates. With Jet Airways grounding operations, the supply of airline seats has gone down. Given this, prices of other airlines are bound to go up in order to ensure that supply matches demand, and only those who really have to travel, get around to travelling. The rest can make do with travelling by road, if its a short distance (say Delhi to Chandigarh) or simply make video calls to carry out professional meetings. 8) Also, it is worth remembering here that Jet Airways' competitors are not going to sit around doing nothing and not cash in on the opportunity of expanding their market. In fact, I am travelling from Mumbai to Hyderabad and back over the weekend on an Air Vistara flight. The airline did not fly this sector earlier. This expansion will also benefit the employees of Jet Airways, as airlines will need newer employees to fuel their expansion plans. Of course, other airlines will take some time to capture the space vacated by Jet Airways and there will be some short-term pain that cannot be avoided. But thats no good excuse for the government to take over the airline. On the positive side, the competitors will enjoy a higher profit which will help them expand quickly. It is worth remembering here that airlines lease a lot of planes. They dont own them. In this scenario, all that is required for an airplane to change airline is some painting on the outside and some refurbishing on the inside. In fact, the planes that Jet Airways had leased could easily move to other airlines. The government should be facilitating this by not getting too bureaucratic. 9) It is worth remembering here that the government already has Air India to do deal with, an airline that has losses of more than Rs 40,000 crore. Further, if 20,000 jobs at Jet Airways are important, then so are the 1.76 lakh jobs at BSNL. The question is where does this end? 10) In the end, it shouldnt matter to the country whether Jet Airways flies or not. What matters is a robust aviation sector with or without Jet Airways. What matters is whether people can fly from one place to another at a price which is reasonable. Hence, the government should be working towards making it easier for companies to fail. Creative destruction is an essential part of a robust economy. An excellent example here is that of restaurants. They keep opening and shutting down, but even with that people have access to excellent food all the time. (The writer is an economist and the author of the Easy Money trilogy) Kant said that when non-NDA ruled states like Karnataka and West Bengal are claiming that jobs are being created, then it was not possible that at all India level, employment is not being generated New Delhi: Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant Wednesday said India has been growing at more than 7 percent rate and this could not have been achieved without adequate job creation. Speaking on the sidelines of a PHD Chambers of Commerce event, Kant said that when non-NDA ruled states like Karnataka and West Bengal are claiming that jobs are being created, then it was not possible that at all India level, employment is not being generated. "How is it possible that we are having 7.5 percent growth and jobs are not being created? It is not possible. "... If West Bengal and Karnataka are saying that jobs have been created in their respective states, then how it is possible that at the national level there is no employment generation," he pointed out. Recently, finance minister Arun Jaitley had also stoutly defended the growth data saying an economy cannot be growing at 7-8 percent without creating jobs. He had also stated that no major social agitation indicates it hasn't been jobless growth. Kant's statement comes against the backdrop of a report by Azim Premji University suggesting that employment opportunities declined and 5 million men lost their jobs between 2016 and 2018. The decline in job opportunities coincided with demonetisation in November 2016, although no direct causal relationship can be established based only on these trends, the State of Working India-2019 (SWI) report said. According to a leaked National Sample Survey Office's (NSSO's) periodic labour force survey (PLFS) report, India's unemployment rate had hit a 45-year high of 6.1 percent in 2017-18. Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had recently expressed doubts over Indian economy growing at 7 percent when not enough jobs were being created and had said the current cloud over the GDP numbers must be cleared by appointing an impartial body to look at the data. Kant said that India needs to accelerate its growth rate from 7 percent to 10 percent. He said India in the next three years will be amongst the top 25 countries in the ease of doing a business ranking of the World Bank. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Goods and Services Tax (GST) and RERA were major reforms undertaken by the Modi government, Kant said, adding that "real impact of these reforms will start reflecting in next two years." The Niti Aayog CEO also pitched for opening up of mining and coal sectors for boost job creation. TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso will travel to the United States on April 25 to meet with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on the sidelines of a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump, a source said on Thursday. Aso and Mnuchin may discuss provisions against currency manipulation that the United States hopes to include in a trade agreement with Japan, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter. TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso will travel to the United States on April 25 to meet with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on the sidelines of a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump, a source said on Thursday. Aso and Mnuchin may discuss provisions against currency manipulation that the United States hopes to include in a trade agreement with Japan, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter. (Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Chris Gallagher) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Jet Airways owes over three months salaries to 15 percent of the staff comprising senior management, pilots and engineers Mumbai: Hinting at job losses going forward, grounded carrier Jet Airways chief executive Vinay Dube on Wednesday said the airline does not have an "answer" at present on the fate of its 20,000-odd employees during the stake sale process. The SBI-led consortium of lenders has offered prospective bidders ownership of the airline anywhere between 31.2 percent and 75 for which it had run an online bidding process between 8-12 April and had shortlisted fourEtihad Airways, NIIF, private equity funds TPG Capital and Indigo PartnerS, who can submit the final bids by 10 May. "However, we must also be realistic that the sale process will take some time and will throw up several more challenges for us, many of which we don't have the answer today," Dube said in a communication to the harried employees who have not been paid since March. "For example, we don't have an answer today to the very important question of what happens to employees during the sale process," he added. Nevertheless, he said the leadership team is working on answering such questions alongside the lenders. Jet owes over three months salaries to 15 percent of the staff comprising senior management, pilots and engineers. Besides it has also defaulted on the March salary of its entire workforce. Dube, in the letter said the decision to shut the operations temporarily was taken after painstaking evaluation of all alternatives and guidance and advice of the board. "A decision like this is never easy to make, but without the interim funding, which we have been repeatedly requesting for, we are simply unable to conduct flight operations in a manner that delivers to the very reasonable expectations of our guests, employees, partners and service providers," he said. Over the past several weeks and months, the airline has tried every means possible to seek funding, both interim as well as long-term funds, to keep the operations going, but could not succeed, he said. "Late last night we were informed by SBI, on behalf of the consortium of the lenders, that they are unable to consider our request for interim funding of Rs 983 crores," he said adding, however, this was declined. But public statements from the airline, and government officials Tuesday said the management was looking for a lifeline of Rs 400 crore. "But, tomorrow is another day and tomorrow provides us with new hope, new opportunity and new expectations we are worth investing in, you are worth investing in and we confident that we will be back to share the joy of flying with our fellow-guests once again," Dube signed off with an emotional touch. The question of parking fees for 120 aircraft cannot also be wished away but most vitally, Jet Airways could lose its landing slots at international airports. Even as former Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal yo-yos in and out of the multiple deals being chiseled to save the airline from bankruptcy, one major factor is being overlooked in the financials that the rescuers are poring over be they the banks or outside entities. Aircraft are usually grounded when there is an intrinsic defect suspected in a certain type of aircraft and that is then initiated for obvious safety reasons. The Boeing 380 battery issue and the 737 Max safety issue over take off stalls after the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes are cases in point. Other reasons for grounding are bankruptcy and we have had several carriers go under the latest being Wow airline from Iceland and Jet Airways from India. Not that they are the only ones. The list is long and includes carriers like Delta, Primera, Kingfisher, Eastern, Monarch and Swiss Global to name a few of the over 100 carriers that went bust in the past five years not to mention the ten Indian carriers that collapsed between 2007 and now. In these cases, the aircraft fleet is usually sold off to pay debts. But with every passing day of the fleet being grounded, the base cost of getting those planes back to airworthiness rises. Jet Airways 124 aircraft fleet is largely parked outside in the open exposed to the elements. Clearly, what is known as electrical maintenance is not being carried out. The planes are susceptible to heat, dust, wind, humidity and rust. According to Boeing itself, deterioration of the airplane structure, surface finish, airplane systems, and components can occur if preservation procedures to protect the airplane are not followed. If exposed to the outside environment, an airplane can be damaged by heat, humidity, cold, ice, snow, rain, lightning, hail, wind, sandstorms, and insects. In India, there is also the added risk of snakes and rats entering the confines of an aircraft and causing damage. The Boeing instruction manual says that the airplane must also be protected from damage or debris contamination of pitot probes, static ports, total air temperature probes and angle-of-attack sensors. External openings on the airplane such as the outflow valve, relief valves, vents, ports, and openings must be closed and sealed against environmental effects. And it does not stop here. Because of airplane system inactivity and the lack of regular maintenance checks during parking, the following may also occur: component mechanisms may lose lubrication, batteries may discharge, contamination of potable water systems or fuel tanks may occur, and some systems or components (such as oxygen cylinders, tires, hydraulic systems, and landing gear shock struts) may lose pressure. Although the airplane is inactive during parking, it is important to maintain the engine, auxiliary power unit, and cargo fire extinguishing systems and all portable fire extinguishers in fully serviceable condition in case of a fire. The airplane must be electrostatically grounded while it is parked. Even if these protective measures are carried out, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to get an aircraft into the air. With summer upon us, the exposure to temperatures in Delhi and Mumbai in the mid-forties, the internal heat in the cabins would be heightened exponentially. The question of parking fees for 120 aircraft cannot also be wished away but most vitally, Jet Airways could lose its landing slots at international airports. These are highly prized and in trade offs, millions of dollars are spent when carriers buy from each other. An airline can technically lose its slots if it does not use 80 percent of its allocation over 180-day period. In fact, many carriers that go under often fly ghost flights (no passengers) just to retain their rights and sell them when applicable for a stronger final bottom line. Jet Airways would be well-advised to consider such flights to its 20 international routes especially its milk and honey GCC rights and to Europe and the UK. These are not particularly hidden costs, but since they seldom get spoken about their impact on the ultimate solution is massive. Officially, a standard airworthiness certificate remains valid as long as the aircraft meets its approved type design, is in a condition for safe operation and maintenance, preventative maintenance, and alterations are performed in accordance with the rules. The grounded planes include A330s, Boeing 737s, the 737 Max, brand new ATR 72s and Triple sevens. They are all currently white elephants sitting on the groundsoaking up the sun. Goyal was keen on making Jet Airways a premier airline. He wanted American technology, German engineering, Swiss precision, Asian service and Indian hospitality. Jet Airways, the 25-year-old airline, shut down operations on 17 April, 2018 after failing to get much-needed funds to keep it airborne. The Naresh Goyal-founded airline owes more than Rs 8,000 crore to banks. Narayan Hariharan, who worked over three terms as a senior vice-president in Goyal's office, shares anecdotes of his former boss with Firstpost. It is a sad state of affairs to learn that the airline I worked for over 15 years has pulled down it's shutters. Naresh Goyal, founder and Chairman of Jet Airways, with whom I worked with closely for over 15 years must be deeply introspective at the turn of events that has grounded his once-soaring airline in the Indian and foreign skies. When I look back, a few things stand out. For instance, Goyal has a hypnotic quality. He knows what the candidate he is interviewing for a job is capable of and is able to offer just that. I joined as head of the human resources department at Jet Airways in 1993. I was interviewed and hired by Goyal himself. I got a lot of freedom, autonomy and responsibilities commensurate with my talent. To that extent, I would say the expectations of my job at Jet Airways was met. After I joined, Goyal expanded my role to include corporate relations and legal work, too. He would also take me along when he went to meet government officials. I was like an understudy. If there were follow-ups, he would ask me to attend those meetings. He reposed much faith in me. I was also a permanent invitee on board meetings. That is how I was able to closely observe how the company was functioning. The composition of directors on the Jet Airways Board was fantastic. There were former executives from Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Middle Eastern airlines like Royal Jordanian Airways, among others. There were four or five co-directors from these airlines on the companys board. Goyal was keen on making Jet Airways a premier airline. He wanted American technology, German engineering, Swiss precision, Asian service and Indian hospitality. He kept repeating these five characteristics when he referred to the airline. This was Goyals mental construct. Thus we had Boeing, an American airplane that was maintained by German engineers and all the rest as he envisioned. Indian aviation was largely limited to domestic skies until Naresh Goyal entered the sector. India then had East-West Airlines and Damania Airways. Goyal was quite enamoured by Damania Airways service which had a personalised Parsi touch to it. However, it is a different case that Damania felt the same about our service too! Goyal would encourage us to fly on other carriers so that we could give him feedback on our experience which could be utilised for comparison with our service and also to improve it. Until Jet Airways entered Indian aviation space, personalised boarding cards were handwritten and the sole prerogative of business class passengers flying Indian Airlines. All other airlines gave passengers a boarding pass that only had a number and no name of the passenger on it. Goyal thought ahead of the times. He wanted to provide personalised service to passengers and so went in search of a technology that would enable the service for Jet Airways passengers. He got the technology from a US-based firm Sabre. Goyal was the first person in India to introduce boarding cards with passengers' name printed on it. However, it had an issue. It could only print eight alphabets. Once Vijaypat Singhania, chairman emeritus of the Raymond Group of Clothing, was handed his boarding pass with his surname written on it as Singhani. He was furious and told the airline, This name is not reflective of my identity. The complaint reached Goyal when Singhania wrote a mail to him. Goyal soon found a technology that could print more than eight alphabets. On another occasion, a minister of State for Home, Balasubramanian was upset as he was not identified by the Jet Airways crew. He called up Goyals office and made a complaint. I was sent to Delhi along with Suresh Nair, general manager, north to explain and apologise. No complaint was treated lightly, be it from anyone. That was how Goyal took care of his customers. Air Sahara deal I was part of the three-member team that was with Goyal during the Air Sahara deal. I think Goyals decision to actively pursue the Air Sahara deal came out of a sense of insecurity. In my opinion, he was overwhelmed by the possibility of Air Sahara being taken over by Kingfisher Airlines. As Air Sahara was already operating international flights, a takeover meant Jet would enter the international market immediately. The competition during those days was between Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines. I think besides the fear element that pushed Goyal to rush into buying Air Sahara, there was also an expectation of the advantage he would have over Kingfisher Airlines with regard to international routes. There were many discussions and it became a legally fraught battle to acquire Air Sahara. The deal was struck at Rs 1,450 crore. However, Air Sahara was like a black hole as we did not know much about what we had purchased as due diligence was kind of a rushed affair. Goyal soon realised it was a disastrous decision and regretted buying Air Sahara three to four months later. However, he appointed a family member Rajiv Gupta who used to work with him in the London office to turn around Air Sahara. I think, Gupta managed to do a decent job but soon there were other issues. That is the time Goyal realised the decision was catastrophic. I remember asking Goyal in the London office, "Why dont we sort out the matter?" He told me, "it is a business decision that you guys will not understand." Some of the other issues that plagued the airline were a result of Goyals managerial style: a) He would hire people in the belief that they would add value to the firm, if not in the present then in the future. This created a lot of flab and when we would tell him to cut it, he would not agree. He saw value in everyone he personally hired. b) After Goyal shifted his base to London and subsequently to Dubai, his management became a remote controlled affair. For meetings, people would be initially called to London and then when he shifted office to Dubai, employees would be called there. The costs of flying in all these people would not be factored in. This was the age of video conferencing but Goyal preferred one-on-one meetings. c) From 2015, Goyal started frequently using the term disaster in almost every meeting. The company was then losing Rs 2 crore a day and it later went up to Rs 8 crore daily by 2018. I think Goyal had an inclination that this loss would haunt him. A poised and confident boss When the daily losses started mounting, Goyal would continue to maintain his poise in meetings. However, he would be furious at employees. Your performance is a disaster was what departmental heads often heard. Jet Airways' employees got salaries on par with the best in the industry globally. There was never an issue with money. Increments were good or the best in the aviation industry. There were premium payments for pilots and engineers. Goyal wanted his employees to be paid well as he himself had come up the hard way. He was a generous boss. To know that the company Naresh Goyal nurtured and grew with much personal attention has been shut down makes me very sad. Goyal employed the best in the industry. However, I am confident that being a premium brand, it will fetch good value. Goyal will be very reticent for the time being and I think it will take a long time for him to come out of this ordeal. To reach the pinnacle of success and then be thrown off it is very disheartening. I have attended pujas at Goyals home. But he is not a religious person. He has tremendous self-belief and confidence. His strength is in the emotional connect he forges with everyone. Aviation is in his blood. I don't see him doing anything besides being active in this sector. (As told to Sulekha Nair) Some loaders have pledged ornaments of their wives, some engineers have sold vehicles and many have defaulted on their monthly payments. They are among the 22,000-odd employees of the now wingless Jet Airways New Delhi: Some loaders have pledged ornaments of their wives, some engineers have sold vehicles and many have defaulted on their monthly payments. They are among the 22,000-odd employees of the now wingless Jet Airways. As hundreds of employees, highly-skilled as well as semi-skilled, assembled for a "silent appeal" in the national capital on Thursday afternoon, hope was in the air despite an uncertain tomorrow. From being clueless on how to find the money for their children's school and college fees, to paying rent for their accommodations, staff are looking for answers and for most, the answers lie in immediate funding from lenders. "I can't believe that I don't have work today... Hope the airline flies again," Chandrasekar Mandal, who has served the airline for 24 years, told PTI. Mandal, who is a supervisor of loaders at the airport here, has stories of many of his colleagues struggling to cough up money to meet their expenses, including for college admission of their wards. Sunil Kumar, a driver who has also put in 24 years, said it was becoming difficult to manage daily requirements, adding that many of his colleagues have pledged their wives' ornaments to raise money. With prayers on their lips for funds to restart the airline, many employees are optimistic about turning around things provided enough support is coming. About Thursday's gathering at Jantar Mantar, a place known for hosting demonstrations, senior pilot Rohit Chaudhary said the employees' gathering is not a protest but a "silent appeal" for reviving the airline. Chaudhary has been associated with Jet Airways for 21 years and his wife is also a pilot with the carrier for 16 years. According to a senior pilot, one of the reasons for the airline's downfall was a possible lack of transparency in communications between the airline management and the government on funding. Manish, an engineer who has been with the carrier for 19 years, said he did not have any clue that the airline would suspend operations. He also said that some people have sold their vehicles and withdrew their fixed deposits. Quite a few employees did crowd funding for their colleagues in dire need, including for one who is bedridden, Rithesh -- an engineer with 17 years stint at the airline -- said. Loaders and drivers, working on contract, are also bearing the financial brunt with mounting salary dues. One of them, Rajeev Kumar, said paying tuition and admission fees are becoming difficult and that most have taken loans. Not just meeting expenses, some employees staying on rented accommodations have been asked to vacate by their landlords in the wake of the airline crisis, according to Vaishali, who is in the commercial department. Besides impacting the lives of employees, there are also a cascading effect on others in the aviation business. The shutting down of operations is also negatively impacting travel agents and businesses of outlets at the airport, according to Abhijit Angolkar, station manager of the airline here. He has been with the carrier for 26 years. Jet Airways would have completed 26 years of services in May. With substantial number of employees having been with Jet Airways for around 20 years, getting another job is also not easy considering the age factor and the job market situation. A rival airline was offering only around half the salary amount that was paid to a loader at Jet Airways, according to Srinivas, who is into the administration department. Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association (Jamewa) President Ashish Kumar Mohanty said that funds should be immediately given to the airline as efforts should be first made to save existing jobs and then look at generating jobs. Taking to the street, the harried employees are waiting to be heard as reflected in a placard, 'Hear our cry, Let 9W fly'. 9W is the code for Jet Airways flights. The move comes close on the heels of the airline announcing expansion the fleet by 21 more planes-16 B737s and five turboprop Boombardier Q400s Mumbai: Budget carrier SpiceJet Thursday said it will dry lease six more Boeing 737 planes, and roll out of 24 daily new flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi as it seeks to encash void left by the temporary grounding of Jet Airways. The move comes close on the heels of the airline announcing expansion the fleet by 21 more planes-16 B737s and five turboprop Boombardier Q400s, besides connecting the country's financial hub with a host of international destinations. Mumbai was one of the two main bases of Jet Airways before it temporarily halted operations on Wednesday. "SpiceJet will induct six more Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft on dry lease and it has applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for a no-objection certificate (NOC) to import these planes," the airline said in a statement. Subject to regulatory approvals the aircraft would begin joining SpiceJet's fleet in the next ten days, it added. Last week, in two separate announcements, the Gurugram-based airline had said it dry lease 16 Boeing 737s planes, and induct five regional jets in the fleet to fill the capacity deficit, due to the grounding of Jet Airways planes. The total number of planes to be inducted in the immediate future now stands at 27, the airline said. "We will induct as many as 27 planes in a record time of less than two weeks and are hopeful that these inductions will help considerably ease the pressure situation," SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh said in the release. The airline is taking all possible proactive measures to deal with the sudden reduction of aviation capacity in the Indian market, he said. SpiceJet continues to work closely with the government and regulatory authorities to help minimise passenger inconvenience, he added. The airline also announced the launch of 24 new daily flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi with other cities on its domestic network. Of these, 16 will connect Mumbai, four will connect Delhi while the rest will connect the two metros with each other, it said. The new flights from Mumbai include services to Jaipur, Patna, Bagdogra, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Kolkata and Mangaluru. In addition to this, the airline will also launch flights on Delhi-Patna-Delhi and Delhi-Bangalore-Delhi sectors besides two additional frequencies on the Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai sector. The new services will become operational between 26 April and 2 May, it said. SpiceJet operates 516 average daily flights to 60 destinations, including 51 domestic and nine international ones. The airline has a fleet of 48 Boeing 737, 27 Bombardier Q-400s and one B737 freighter. The banks have since filed a bankruptcy petition against Vijay Mallya in the UK courts, which is being challenged by the former Kingfisher Airlines boss and is expected to come up for hearing around December this year. London: Vijay Mallya on Wednesday failed to convince a UK High Court to dismiss an order related to money in one of his London bank accounts, dealing a blow to the embattled liquor tycoon's efforts to prevent a consortium of Indian banks getting access to nearly 260,000 pounds. In one of the many legal cases being faced by the 63-year-old liquor tycoon in the UK, Master David Cook ruled that an interim debt order in favour of State Bank of India (SBI) and other banks seeking access to funds in the ICICI UK bank account "should remain in force" but that the application to make it final should be adjourned until after the hearing of Mallya's pending bankruptcy petition. The funds in the account will meanwhile remain frozen as part of the worldwide freezing order in favour of the Indian banks last year. Mallya's lawyers had argued for the dismissal of the interim order on a number of grounds, including a claim that it was a "deliberate ploy" to prevent Mallya "reasonable" living expenses. "I reject the proposition that the application for a TPDO (third party debt order) was a deliberate ploy to thwart Dr Mallya's ability to meet his ordinary living expenses and reasonable legal expenses which are permitted under the terms of the WWFO (worldwide freezing order)," Master Cook notes in his judgment. "The relevant context here is that Dr Mallya is in a post judgment scenario where the claimants (Indian banks) are attempting to enforce their judgment and discover the true extent of his assets. I note that Dr Mallya has made no voluntary payment to date while continuing to incur substantial legal costs in opposing the Claimants' efforts to enforce their judgment," he said. The case revolves around 258,559.79 pounds held in a bank account with the ICICI UK, which is named as a third party in the High Court case. It is among one of many orders pursued by TLT LLP, the law firm acting for the Indian banks, as part of efforts to recoup some of the 1.142 billion pounds owed to them arising from proceedings in the Bangalore Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) against Kingfisher Airlines and others. The DRT case was registered in the UK under the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933 and went in favour of the Indian banks in an appeal in May 2018. The banks have since also filed a bankruptcy petition against Mallya in the UK courts, which is being challenged by the former Kingfisher Airlines boss and is expected to come up for hearing around December this year. Meanwhile, in yet another legal intervention, Mallya is seeking a stay of all enforcement proceedings which have been commenced since the presentation of the bankruptcy petition by the Indian banks in September last year, a hearing of which is expected next month. The outcome of that hearing will determine the future course of the funds being sought by the SBI, Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd. Mallya, meanwhile, remains on bail after his extradition was signed off by UK home secretary Sajid Javid in February and is seeking leave to appeal against that order in the High Court as well. The killed Naxals, identified as Vargese and Linga, were allegedly involved in the ambush in which Bhima Mandavi and his four security personnel were killed on 9 April Raipur: Two Naxals, allegedly involved in the killing of a BJP MLA and four security personnel, were gunned down in a fierce encounter with police on Thursday in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, officials said. Another rebel was injured in the skirmish that took place around 5.30 am at a forest in Daulikarka village when a team of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on an anti-Naxal operation, Deputy Inspector General (anti-Naxal operations) Sundarraj P said. When the patrolling team was advancing through Daulikarka, located around 450 km from the state capital Raipur, an exchange of fire broke out between the two sides, he said. "After the guns fell silent, bodies of two ultras and a .315 bore gun were recovered from the spot," he said. A militia member of Maoists was also found injured at the spot and was shifted to a local hospital, he said. The killed cadres, identified as Vargese and Linga, were allegedly involved in the ambush in which Bhima Mandavi and his four security personnel were killed on 9 April, Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava said. The MLA's convoy was heading towards Kuwakonda from Bacheli area when the Naxalites blew up their vehicle with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and opened fire at the occupants. Vargese, a member of the Malangir Area Committee of Maoists, was looking after working of the banned outfit's students' wing in the area, the DIG said. He was also said to be having an expertise in assembling and planting IEDs, he said. Besides, Linga was active as LOS (local organisation squad) member in the Katekalyan Area Committee of Maoists, he said, adding a search operation was still underway in the region. Incidents of violence were reported in three West Bengal constituencies while voting in the Lok Sabha polls second phase are underway in the state Incidents of violence were reported in three West Bengal constituencies while voting in the Lok Sabha polls second phase are underway in the state. Islampur CPM candidate Mohammed Salims vehicle was attacked and his driver was forced to flee, according to the Indian Express. He was on his way to vote at a Patagora polling booth in Raigunj constituency. According to Catch News, Salim has alleged that the TMCs workers are on the streets and are not allowing people to vote. West Bengal: CPM candidate from Raiganj Mohammad Salim's vehicle attacked in Islampur; CPM has alleged that TMC is behind the attack. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/TrtdrU7sb7 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Meanwhile, the police resorted to tear-gas shelling and lathi-charges in the states Chopra constituency, where locals blocked the NH-34, allegedly protesting an incident where miscreants were prevented from voting at the Digirpar polling booth, according to ANI. Locals also claimed that they were beaten up and their EPIC cards were snatched. Tensions prevailed as locals also blocked NH-31 and grenades were lobbed at the police after they were not allowed to vote in the Middapara and Dighi Colony polling booths, according to the Indian Express. West Bengal: An EVM was vandalized during a clash between TMC and BJP workers in Chopra; More details awaited. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/pjuEaSuD0p ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 BJP's Raiganj candidate Debasree Chaudhuri also alleged that TMC workers tried to capture a polling booth in the constituency. "TMC workers were trying to capture booth. They were campaigning among Muslims there. This isn't election campaign," she told ANI. In Rajganjs Goalpokhe, a journalist also sustained serious injuries after allegedly being beaten up. Local BJP leaders also accused the TMC of setting fire to a booth in Jalpaigurs Malbazar. Three constituencies in West Bengal Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, and Raiganj are voting on Thursday. The state will also vote on 23 and 29 April and 6, 12 and 19 May. West Bengal has the presence of 41,000 paramilitary presence, the highest ever central security forces deployment for a general election in the state, to ensure peaceful elections. The seizure comes as voting for 10 Lok Sabha seats which fall under Maharashtra's Vidarbha and Marathwada regions is underway in the second phase of polling. Mumbai (Maharashtra): The Election Commission of India's (EC) flying squad seized Rs 11.85 lakh worth of cash from Sion area of Mumbai on Thursday. The seizure comes as voting for 10 Lok Sabha seats which fall under Maharashtra's Vidarbha and Marathwada regions is underway in the second phase of polling. A huge amount of unaccounted money was recovered in raids and searches by authorities across the country since Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into effect with the announcement of the poll dates on 10 March. The central agencies and the EC have been conducting raids and searches across the states to ensure illegal money is not used to influence voters in the ensuing general elections. Over Rs 135 crore of unaccounted cash was recovered from raids conducted by the Income Tax (I-T) department and the EC across Tamil Nadu, the commission said Tuesday. In a related development, the EC cancelled elections in Vellore parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu after over Rs 11.48 crore worth unaccounted cash was unearthed during an I-T raid at a DMK leader's house. The Lok Sabha seat was supposed to go for polling on Thursday. High voter turnout marked polling in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday covering 95 constituencies in 11 states and Puducherry, with both the Union territory and Manipur clocking a percentage of 80 New Delhi: High voter turnout marked polling in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday covering 95 constituencies in 11 states and Puducherry, with both the Union territory and Manipur clocking a percentage of 80. The Srinagar seat in Jammu and Kashmir recorded a percentage of only 14.8. Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 while in Puducherry it was 80.47. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said in Delhi that the overall turnout in the second phase was 66 per cent. Officials said the figures are likely to go up as there are many people in queues even after the scheduled timing for voting elapsed. Except for a few sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal and Manipur and EVM glitches in some seats, polling was by and large peaceful. Tamil Nadu registered 63.73 per cent polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 67.08 per cent in bypolls to 18 assembly constituencies. In Madurai, polling took place till 8 pm in view of the local temple festival. Paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam to disperse crowds. An estimated 61.84 per cent turnout was reported in the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which is witnessing a direct contest between the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the BJP. Dakshina Kannada recorded the highest turnout of about 72.97 per cent, while the lowest was reported in Bangalore Central constituency with 45.34 per cent, poll officials said. Puducherry registered 80.5 per cent polling in the election to the lone Lok Sabha seat while in the by-election to the Thattanchavady assembly segment, 76 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. Srinagar, which in 2014 witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country at 25.86 per cent, saw 12.43 per cent polling, with highest 17.1 per cent recorded in Shia-dominated Budgam district till 3 pm. No untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 70 per cent polling. Polling was also held in 10 seats in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat in Manipur besides 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha. Polling in Tamil Nadu's Vellore LS seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Isolated incidents of violence, road blockades, bombings and police firing marred polling in the three Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal with 76 per cent of voter turnout recorded. Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control a mob, who threw stones at them in Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra area, a senior EC official said. A reporter and a camera person of a local news channel were allegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in Raiganj constituency. CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj, Mohammed Salim, claimed his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur. Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, however, described the voting as "more or less peaceful" with a few isolated incidents reported from places in the three seats. In Manipur, voting was stalled in two polling booths of the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency after violence broke out over alleged proxy voting and dispute among election agents. In one of the booths at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality in Imphal East district, unidentified men stormed into a polling station around 11.30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that "proxy voting" was being carried out in the station, Chief Electoral Officer PK Singh said. In the other booth in the same area, a scuffle broke out between the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3 pm, derailing the voting process. Sources in the election office said that re-polling was likely in the two booths. An average 57.22 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in 10 constituencies of Maharashtra. Around 69 per cent polling was recorded in Chhattisgarh's three Lok Sabha seats, all having Naxal presence, amid tight security. According to police, except for an IED blast triggered by Maoists in Mohla-Manpur assembly segment of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, no other untoward incident was reported in the poll-bound areas. About 64 per cent voters exercised their franchise in five Odisha Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats, some of them in Naxal-affected areas. In Assam, Nowgong recorded the state's highest polling of 75.71 per cent, followed by Mangaldoi and Silchar with 75.07 per cent and 71.79 per cent respectively. In Karimganj, the figure was 71.41 per cent and Autonomous District witnessed the lowest voting at 69.51 per cent. The five seats in Bihar saw an estimated 62.52 per cent voting. The Election Commission put the overall voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh at 62.30 per cent. Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on 11, 18, 23 and 29 April and 6, 12 and 19 May 6. Counting will be held on 23 May. How will a Twitter update or a WhatsApp update tell you if a piece of information is correct or not. Thats not their job. The General Elections 2019 were announced on 10 March 2019 and the Model Code of Conduct came into effect in the country the same day. On 20 March 2019, the social media companies adopted a code of ethics which was presented to the Election Commission of India (ECI). The social media platforms have committed to process any violations reported under Section 126 of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, within three hours. Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) facilitated this code of ethics to be adopted by social media companies and the ECI endorsed it. According to IAMAI, The Code of Ethics has been successful in curbing fake news, as reported by our members and the ECI. It may not have been effective 100 percent but has been effective to a large extent. Companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, ShareChat, Bibo TV, etc., have adopted it. IAMAI also highlighted that there are many challenges, The timeline is a challenge. All these companies have different business models, so trying to club them in a single timeline will be unfair to them also. To the best of their ability, they are doing it. Some are doing it even faster. They are not waiting for ECI to reach with the complaint. On their own, they are working on it proactively. The platforms have sent their own trainers to designated nodal officers of ECI. Now, the process is whenever ECI receives a complaint, the nodal officer vets those complaints about correctness, this is because a lot of it also depends on interpretation. What I find completely offensive may not be the same for you. These nodal officers vet the genuineness of the complaints and raise it to the platform. Each platform has its own grievance officer available 24x7 who takes immediate action on the complaint. It had been reported that Facebook has removed 687 Pages and accounts in India. In addition, it had removed 15 Pages, Groups and accounts linked to individuals associated with an Indian IT firm, Silver Touch. It has also removed 321 pages and accounts in India that violated its rules against spam. According to Nikhil Pahwa, founder of Medianama, Just being able to identify someone does not mean that you will be able to prevent misinformation. Also, keep in mind that incorrect information is not illegal. So there are no legal grounds wherein someone is telling someone some information which is wrong. Platforms are now preventing the automated sign up of individuals. With respect to efforts taken by social media platforms, Pahwa mentions, In case of Twitter, it announced a couple of days before that someone cannot add more than 400 members in a day. Both Google and Facebook are putting information on political advertising on their platforms. Honestly, the ECI is doing what it can do. They are able to map the political advertising. They have asked platforms to give them reports on that. In terms of misinformation, they have ensured that the platforms to take down the misinformation the Election Commission tells them about. They have launched an application which allows people to report misinformation. So that EC itself is looking into the matter. In some cases, there are coordinated call centres of political parties and in some cases, there are legitimate people who are voicing their views." It is not that the companies are not taking steps to curb fake news. Facebook has decided that for any political advertisement to run on its platform, the advertisers have to give their identity and location along with the details for whom the advertisement is being placed. It has also launched an Ad Library where an individual can check the details of advertisers. Apart from it, Facebook has launched a 24x7 centre in Delhi to coordinate with the EC and check fake news. It has also engaged with the independent fact checkers to determine the news is fake or not. It has engaged with Boom Live, AFP, India Today Group, Vishvas.news, Factly, Newsmobile and Fact Crescendo in order to verify news in multiple languages. In the case of Twitter, the company has launched its Ad Transparency Centre whereby details of Twitter ads along with targeted audience and payment information will be published. A Twitter spokesperson mentioned, Platform manipulation is a violation of the Twitter rules and we take a proactive approach to protect the integrity of the public conversation on our service. Twitter is committed to keeping people informed about whats happening in the world. As such we care deeply about the issues of misinformation as well as disinformation, and their potentially harmful effects on the civic and political discourse that is core to our mission. As a part of the Voluntary Code of Ethics for the 2019 General Election, we have worked with the IAMAI and ECI to build a dedicated channel for the Election Commission to send requests to us easily and quickly for the duration of the election period. Everyone has a role to play in ensuring misinformation doesnt spread on the Internet, and we encourage people who use Twitter not to share information unless they can verify that it's credible. WhatsApp is launching educational campaigns and has also limited the number of messages that can be forwarded to five. It has partnered with Digital Empowerment Foundation and NASSCOM for educating the target audience. WhatsApp limits on how many groups an account can create within a certain time period and bans an account with suspicious group behaviour. Prasanto K Roy, an independent tech expert based in Delhi says, "It varies depending on the platforms. WhatsApp is most difficult of the platform because it is encrypted. Removal of news or take-down is not possible in the end-to-end encrypted platforms. Facebook can do differently, as it is semi-open, many of the messages are public and so there is a possibility of intercepting that and doing something. Telegram has a different structure and it does not do end-to-end encryption for groups, so groups may be searchable. WeChat in China is not encrypted at all and messages are filtered, searched and intercepted. It is not possible to put a blanket rule for all. They should look at the origin of the fake news and see whats possible. For WhatsApp, Roy says, With WhatsApp, its possible to do with meta-data of media images. That means they may not be able to intercept text message but if there is a media file that is uploaded and then gets forwarded, it can be traced. The forwarding of media file on WhatsApp does not happen itself going from user to user. It is an internal link with metadata which is getting updated and moved. So potentially, there is one guy who uploads the media file, it is stored in one place in WhatsApp. This is in theory but in practice, WhatsApp says that it does not store that metadata and therefore cant share it with law enforcement agencies. Whether they do or not do is a different thing, but if they start doing it, its a huge issue because meta-data is abused very badly by the Indian law enforcement agencies. There are very few privacy controls over the metadata. Telephone, for example, if they have to intercept, they need a court order. But metadata of the call is there with them in real time because of the central monitoring system (CMS). CMS gets live metadata from the telecom service providers. The abuse of metadata is a serious concern. Therefore coming back to WhatsApp, though, in theory, it may be possible to use that metadata for images and videos, in practice, it will be very problematic if they began to do it. WhatsApp says that it has not retained or shared metadata with any law enforcement agency. However, I have found one incident where they have handed this metadata of a voice call to the FBI." Election Commission on a query from Firstpost regarding WhatsApp replied, Voluntary Code of Ethics submitted by IAMAI also covers WhatsApp. All violations in social media are taken upon complaint basis only. In case of WhatsApp, the complainant has to mail the WhatsApp number of the offender, along with the screenshot of the offence. The same is taken up with WhatsApp for necessary action, citing relevant legal provision being violated. Pahwa says, In case of WhatsApp they have tried to reduce the velocity of information. They are ensuring that you can only forward a message to five people and not more than that. Earlier you could transfer message to 256 people. So the velocity of transfer of information has come down. They have given powers to users to not to be added in the groups. There is a user control that they would be like to be added in a group or not. Roy highlights, I have always maintained that the most important point is the source of fake news. The real challenge which we are facing now is the political fake news. We can easily know which party is spreading fake news. The parties now have very organised IT Cells wherein BJP is the biggest, Congress trying to catch up. I think it is very important that the source of fake news is cracked down on. The thing is to identify what is fake news and what is not. The social media companies also have tie-ups with fake news buster agencies." Pahwa adds, These are IT Cells who are putting content as propaganda. One cannot stop them. You can only stop them from registering thousands of accounts or manipulate trends on Twitter. You can prevent them from mass-messaging people whom they dont know and spamming them. How will a Twitter update or a WhatsApp update tell you if a piece of information is correct or not. Thats not their job. There are billions of messages on these platform at the global level. They cant be expected to determine the veracity of a post. The Election Commission on its part has launched a mobile application called c-Vigil wherein a complaint filed by a citizen is responded within 100 minutes. Any kind of violation of the Model Code of Conduct like distribution of liquor, distribution of freebies, firearm display, intimidation, paid news, voter transportation and fake news can be reported through this application. Based on the location of the complainant the application transfers the complaint to District Control Room within five minutes. District control room transfers the complaint with five minutes to a flying squad is dispatched. It reaches the location within 15 minutes. The fact-finding is completed in another 30 minutes and returning officer give their decision in 50 minutes which is communicated to the complainant. If found correct an FIR is registered and action is taken. In Islampur, the car of sitting MP and CPM candidate Mohammed Salim was attacked with bricks and its window broken. Kolkata: Just as the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal saw acrimony, anger and violence, the second phase of polling Thursday also witnessed untoward incidents in three constituences: Raiganj, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. Though Special Police Observer for West Bengal Vivek Dube maintained that the polls were largely peaceful, he conceded that places such as Chopra in Raiganj witnessed trouble. Chopra voters put up a road blockade in protest against absence of central forces at the polling stations, an official said. Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control a mob, who threw stones at them. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra, a senior EC official in the district said. In Islampur, the car of sitting MP and CPM candidate Mohammed Salim was attacked with bricks and its window broken. The attack occurred at the booth where Salim challenged TMC workers who were allegedly intimidating voters and poll officers. The CPM accused the TMC of being behind the attack. Salim slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and claimed there is no democracy in West Bengal. Salim claimed he discovered that TMC men were intimidating voters and his car was attacked when he attempted to intervene. A booth in Girpar in the same constituency also witnessed violence. Voters blocked National Highway 34, claiming that unidentified miscreants did not allow them to vote, pushing the police to use batons. There were reports of EVMs malfunctioning in a polling booth in Raiganj. A fault in the EVM delayed onset of voting in another booth in Uttar Dinajpur. BJP candidate from Raiganj, Debasree Chaudhuri, alleged that TMC workers were trying to capture the booth at Raiganj Coronation High School. Congress candidate Deepa Dasmunsi expressed her displeasure with security arrangements and blamed the TMC for violence. Although CPM won the seat in 2014, the Congress has won from here 13 times. The seat is closely contested between Deepa Dasmunsi (INC), sitting MP Mohammed Salim (CPM), Kanailal Agarwal (TMC) and Debasree Chaudhuri (BJP). This constituency registered voter turnout of 73.31 percent till 7 pm. BJP Rajya Sabha member Roopa Ganguly, taking a dig at Mamata Banerjee, exclaimed, "Did you see the visuals from Chopra today? There was bombing, stone pelting, lathi charge by the police. Absolute mess all around. I am failing to understand how is this even a democratic situation in West Bengal!" Polling was halted at Upper Bagdogra's 25/47 booth under the Darjeeling constituency after a black tape was allegedly found on the BJP symbol on the EVM. Police had to resort to lathi charge after EVMs were smashed to pieces at booth number 112 in Chopra. BJP Matigara youth president was admitted to Siliguri hospital after being beaten up, allegedly by Trinamool activists at Matigara booth number 286. Reports also said BJP and TMC workers clashed at Dighirpar and Kotgach booth in Chopra. The BJP has been winning the seat since 2009 and looks to retain it amid the anti-TMC and anti-Mamata sentiment among the Gorkha community. The Gorkhas are upset with the state government for an incident wherein a strike by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha saw the police open fire and kill 11 locals. The BJP fielded Raju Bista while the TMC has given a ticket to Amar Singh Rai, the sitting MLA from Darjeeling. The seat witnessed a voter turnout of 72.7 percent till 7 pm. Jalpaiguri registered a turnout of 82.76 percent till 7 pm with polling being largely peaceful except for a few reports of disruption at a few booths due to faulty EVMs. Local BJP leaders accused TMC workers of setting fire to a booth in Jalpaigurs Malbazar. Partho Pratim Ghosh, a journalist from ABP, was seriously injured during a clash in Jalpaiguri's Malbazar. He was taken to Siliguri hospital for treatment. Both the CPM and the TMC are competing for the tribal vote, an important demography in Jalpaiguri, comprising around 15 percent of the population. TMC's Bijoy Chandra Barman will be contesting against the Congress Mani Kumar Darnal, CPM's Baghirath Chandra Roy and BJPs Jayanta Kumar Roy in this constituency in north Bengal. Body of BJP worker found in Purlia Earlier in the day, in Senabana village of Purulia district, body of a 22-year-old BJP worker was found hanging from a tree. The deceased, identified as Sishupal Sahis, was a member of the BJP Yuva Morcha. A BJP delegation met Election Commission Special Observer Ajay Naik and demanded deployment of central forces in areas undergoing polling in the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha election. "We met Special Observer Ajay Naik," said Mukul Roy, BJP election committee convenor. "Eighty percent of booths had central forces and we all saw the violence. There are five more phases in West Bengal. BJP is demanding central forces in every booth for the polls. The Election Commission assured us that more central forces are being brought in. Everyone knows about the Purulia incident. Theres jungle raj in Bengal and we need justice. Who killed the BJP worker? Proper investigation is required." The BJP delegation also raised the issue of free and fair polling and alleged hate speech by TMC leader Ratna Ghosh Kar. With inputs from A Ghose, SS Parveen, Roshan Gupta and PTI The author is a freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com The man, who hurled the shoe at Narasimha Rao, has been detained. He has been taken to IP State Police Station where cops are interrogating him. Chaos at Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) headquarters in Delhi as a man hurled shoes at BJP national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao during a press conference on Thursday. #WATCH Delhi: Shoe hurled at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao during a press conference at BJP HQs .More details awaited pic.twitter.com/7WKBWbGL3r ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 It was not immediately clear why the person, who identified himself as a doctor by profession, threw the shoes. As soon as GVL Narasimha Rao started speaking, the man suddenly stood up and hurled a shoe at him. The BJP workers and security guards immediately took him away from the conference hall. The man, who hurled the shoe, has been detained. He has been taken to IP State Police Station where cops are interrogating him. According to Financial Express, Rao and Bhupendra Yadav were addressing the media and criticised the Congress for defaming Hindus by foisting "false cases" on Hindutva activists, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. The BJP had on Wednesday fielded Sadhvi Pragya from Bhopal parliamentary seat against veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. The concept of India's, or even Kashmir's, urban development has still not reached Budgam, just 27 kilometers from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Thats why Begum said she left early in the morning to vote. But she is not sure, who can deliver. A small, winding road strewn with potholes and smeared with dirt leads to the Budgam Girls Higher Secondary polling station from the house of Shamima Begam. In her late sixties, Begam regularly visits this forlorn stretch to commute to the nearby market to buy grocery or vegetables. On Thursday, as second phase polling began for Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency comprising Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal districts, with total 12,95,304 registered voters the road came to symbolise the decade of abysmal infrastructural development in this district. Twenty years ago, said Begam, the road was bad. And now, its very, very bad. The concept of India's, or even Kashmir's, urban development has still not reached Budgam, which is just 27 kilometers from Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. Thats why Begum said she left early in the morning to vote. But she is not sure about who can deliver. I am voting because I am angry, Shamima told Firstpost. I am angry because children are getting killed. I am angry because we never had good roads. We are so close to Srinagar but still so far. Even getting an electricity pole in your neighborhood from the government is a big task. Budgam, which is part of the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, is home to the influential Shia community. As cult followers, the minority community is known to cast their ballot for their own leaders. I am here to cast a vote in favour of Aga Sahibs son, said a 28-year-old student, referring to the new entrant to Kashmir politics Irfan Raza Ansari. Hes from our community, and he will at least change the condition of the roads. Despite people ensuring to vote here, even during the thickest years of raging insurgency in Kashmir, a dismal picture on ground is making a farce of electoral promises revolving around 'bijli, pani and sadak' (power, water and road). During the early 2017 bypoll for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, eight people were killed in Budgam and clashes erupted all over the area. That is also when Farooq Ahmad Dar, a shawl weaver, was tied to front bumper of a military jeep as it patrolled villages, apparently serving as "human shield". Only 7 percent of voting was recorded then. The Srinagar bypoll necessitated after rebel PDP parliamentarian Tariq Hameed Karra left the party was the first election in Kashmir post the killing of prominent Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, whose death on 8 July, 2016 triggered a massive upheaval in Kashmir. Clashes erupted and curfew remained for over four months with phone and internet services snapped. Hundreds were injured in the clashes and protests. We see no reason to vote, but when we tell politicians to give us good roads, they ask, Did you vote? said Imran Ali, a school teacher. At least if you vote now, tomorrow you can tell him that we did vote for you and you need to at least give us good roads. Despite the regional unionist parties raking the issues of autonomy, self rule and safeguarding the special status of the state during their campaigning, Budgam on Thursday gave away the ground dynamics. A commoner who had turned up to cast their ballot had the local issues revolving around the road in mind. During polling, the clashes erupted between youth and government forces at Nasrullahpora village in Budgam. The force had to fire pellets and tear smoke shells to quell the stone-pelting youth. In another clash in Hafroo village of Chadoora in Budgam district, protesters pelted stones at security personnel deployed in the area for polling. The forces retaliated by firing bullets and pellets, resulting in injuries to three people. Kashmir witnessed a complete shutdown on Thursday following the strike call given by separatists. Major parts of the poll-bound constituency wore a deserted look. Shops and commercial establishments remained closed and there was thin movement of traffic on roads in several districts of the Valley. While the overall voter turnout in Srinagar parliamentary constituency was 14.05 percent, the turnout in Budgam was 18.85 percent, while in Srinagar district it was 7.69 percent, and in Ganderbal it was 12.98 percent. Many polling stations in restive downtown area of Srinagar had recorded zero vote percentage. The Bihar deputy chief minister, Sushil Modi claimed that Rahul had hurt the sentiments of several people who have 'Modi' as their surnames. 'He (Rahul) has referred to crores of people with 'Modi' surname as 'chor' and hurt their sentiments. Is it a crime to have 'Modi' surname?' Sushil asked. Bihar Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday filed a criminal complaint for defamation against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his "all thieves share the Modi surname" remark. In his complaint, the deputy chief minister said, "The speech of Rahul Gandhi, wherein he has made sweeping statement about all the persons having the surname 'Modi' to be a thief, has ridiculed them and left a large number of persons having the title 'Modi' hurt as their reputation in the eyes of the public has been lowered." Criminal Complaint for defamation filed against Rahul Gandhi by Sri Sushil Kumar Modi pic.twitter.com/Yt6jJGsesU Chowkidar Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) April 18, 2019 He further alleged that Rahul is liable to be prosecuted and punished for the offence under Section 500 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). Earlier on Wednesday, the Bihar deputy chief minister had threatened to file a defamation case against Rahul in Patna High Court. The BJP leader claimed that Rahul had hurt the sentiments of several people who have 'Modi' as their surnames. "He (Rahul) has referred to crores of people with 'Modi' surname as 'chor' and hurt their sentiments. Is it a crime to have 'Modi' surname?" Sushil asked. Addressing a rally in Maharashtra on 15 April, Rahul had asked how come all "thieves" have "Modi" as their surname while he sharpened his attack towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of corruption. "But tell me one thing...Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi...how come they all have Modi as a common name. How come all the thieves have Modi as the common name?" Rahul had asked. In a separate case, the Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Congress president on a petition filed against him by BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi for allegedly making contemptuous remarks in connection with its order on the admissibility of the certain document in the Rafale deal. The contempt petition accused Rahul of misquoting the order when he said the apex court had accepted that "chowkidar (a reference to Narendra Modi), is a chor (thief)". With inputs from ANI The Tamil Nadu board is expected to declare the results for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), or Class 12, examinations on Friday, 19 April (today) at 9.30 am. TN Board Result 2019 declared| The Tamil Nadu board declared the results for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), or Class 12, examinations on Friday, 19 April (today) at 9.30 am. Candidates who appeared for the HSC Class 12 exams can check their scores on the official website tnresults.nic.in, dge1.tn.nic.in and dge2.tn.nic.. Students can also can also access their results on examresults.net. The Tamil Nadu board is also expected to release the SSLC, or Class 10, scores on 29 April. CLICK HERE FOR LIVE updates ON TAMIL NADU BOARD RESULT 2019 This year, around eight lakh students appeared for the HSC exams, which was held from 1 March till 19 March by the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations. According to the Tamil Nadu School Education Department, to pass these exams, candidates need to secure at least 30 out of 150 marks in the theory exams and 40 out of 50 marks in the practical exams. The state education board has announced that an instant exam will be conducted for candidates who fail to obtain the minimum pass percentage. This test will be held between 3 June and 10 June. How to check your TN HSC Class 12 results 2019: Step 1: Visit the official website tnresults.nic.in or examresults.net. Step 2: Click on the link that says 'TN HSC Class 12 results' Step 3: Fill in the required details in the window that opens Step 4: Your results will appear on the screen Step 5: Download your results and keep a printout for future reference In 2018, 9,82,097 students had appeared for the TN HSC Class 12 exams. The pass percentage for the Tamil Nadu Education's Class 12 exams was 91.1 percent in 2018, with 87.7 percent boys and 94.1 percent girls having passed. Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's nomination by the BJP marks the total eclipse of the Sangh Parivar's original Hindutva combatants. The Bharatiya Janata Party's decision to field Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur marks the emergence of the new-age Hindutva warrior in the political domain. The "original" sadhvi in politics, Union minister Uma Bharti possibly realised her time was up and announced the decision of not contesting the polls. Viewed alongside the denial of party nominations to former presidents Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and the former Bajrang Dal chief, Vinay Katiyar, Thakur's nomination marks the total eclipse of the Sangh Parivar's original Hindutva combatants. In the coming years, more of Thakur's kind the new-age Hindutva mascots can be expected to be inducted into mainstream electoral politics. Thakur's candidature also marks the demise of the era of genteel campaigns by Hindutva warriors atop Light Commercial Vehicles redesigned as raths or chariots. In its place, we now have motorbike riding, even activists wielding guns or other lethal arms. Thakur, who was considered in the initial part of the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the "fringe force", now symbolises those who have become mainstream in the past five years. The "grandeur" of the past agitations or protest marches, with greying leaders waving courteously to assembled throngs, has yielded to the macho motorcycle-riding Hindutvawadi. The protesting Hindu is not just angry, but among those agitating for redressal of the community's grievances, is the Alpha Protester. Thakur epitomises them, now as a BJP candidate. There could be no better mainstreaming of the politically impatient Hindu, for whom violence is no longer a strict no-no. Those believing in Hammurabi's modified credo bomb-for-bomb need not lurk in dark alleys any more, but can march in daylight on New Delhi's broad avenues which go right up to Parliament. Criminality in Indian elections is not new and there is virtually no party which has not fielded candidates with a criminal past. Yet, Thakur is in a different league. To put the record straight, she is yet to be acquitted of all charges and is currently out on bail. She faces trial under rigorous sections of The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in a Mumbai court. By nominating her to contest from Bhopal against Digvijaya Singh, the BJP has given precedence to its appraisal over a judicial verdict. The party has claimed often in the past, most recently after the Samjhauta blast accused were acquitted, that the UPA government concocted cases against activists of the Sangh Parivar to give Hindus a bad name. Thakur's nomination indicates the BJP's unwillingness to wait for the due process of law to be completed. It also enables the party to feed on Hindu victimhood by showcasing her years in detention as an example of the extent to which "anti-nationals" can go to "put down Hindu interests" and the "nation". In many ways, her nomination is similar to Amit Shah's appointment as party president in 2014 although charges were pending against him in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases. In both instances, the party's verdict has been given priority over that of the judiciary. This obviously contains clever, although questionable, political messaging. The first message is discernible from the different paths of Bharti and Thakur to their political debut. Both began in similar circumstances although separated by couple of decades by delivering religious sermons. But while Bharti was picked out at the initiative of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia solely for oratory and memory, Thakur has been chosen for her vitriolic ability and for what she has come to represent the indomitable Hindu spirit which knows no Laksman Rekha and the characteristics to opt for the extreme without batting an eyelid. There could not have been a better symbolic target than Digvijaya Singh to let loose the new-age Hindutva mascot. He, after all, has been at the forefront of the ideological battle against the Sangh Parivar. In fact, there was a time when he was among the few cocking a snook at the saffron fold when the majority in his party, including the leadership, was found wilting. This is, thus, not a personal war between a recent lateral entrant in politics and someone who has been at it for decades. There are more fundamental issues to this contest and the direction of how these would be resolved would be known only after the people's verdict is known. The Bhopal electorate would not be just choosing its own representative, but much more. Since 2014, the BJP has repeatedly given dramatic twists midway to the electoral campaign. This time such a possibility had appeared remote, because the Pulwama massacre and the subsequent government retaliation has been a major part of the BJP's campaign. But Thakur's nomination has pushed the BJP campaign to a point of no return. Categorical corroboration of this comes in the form of Thakur's words when asked what will be her plank in the polls. "Bhagwa ko samman" (respect for the saffron colour) topped her list of promises. She intends to point out that despite being a sanyasi, she was tortured. Further, Thakur added that people who threaten the country would not go scot free, although she did not elaborate on what she construed as intimidating or terrorising the nation. She also suggested that a dharm yudh (religious war) had started with her decision to join the BJP and enter the electoral fray. Significantly, she made no mention of development or other crises facing the people be it lack of jobs, non-remunerative farm prices or declining non-agricultural rural incomes. Although Modi has been at pains in his recent interviews that his election speeches devote more time to issues of development rather than those related to national security and nationalism, the BJP's mid-level leaders and foot soldiers are focussing on emotive issues centred around religious identity. Although Thakur's induction and subsequent nomination hold the promise of consolidating the core Hindutva base of the party, the move also runs the risk of repelling the last of the right-wing liberals, although many consider this to be an oxymoron. The BJP's electoral chariot in 2014 ran on several wheels, which included development, change, hope and, of course, Hindutva. This time, especially after Thakur's candidature, it appears the party is depending on just one wheel, and is hoping that it will take it home. A complaint was filed with the Election Commission against the candidature of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the Lok Sabha polls from Bhopal A complaint was filed on Thursday with the Election Commission against the candidature of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the Lok Sabha polls from Bhopal. The complaint sought that Pragya be debarred from the polls as she is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. BJP announced its decision on Thursday to field her from the Bhopal constituency against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, inviting widespread criticism. Tehseen Poonawalla, who filed the complaint, said on Twitter that Pragya should not be allowed to contest polls on the same grounds applicable to Hardik Patel, who is an accused in a rioting and arson case during the 2015 Patidar agitation. If Hardik Patel can be barred, even Sadhvi Pragya must be prevented from contesting. This is the duty of the Election Commission. We cannot have two rules. Moreover, by stating this is a dharam yudh, Sadhvi Pragya has violated the MCC. She was granted bail because she was unwell, Poonawalla tweeted. Her (Pragya's) medical reports which were submitted in Court exhibited said that she is suffering from breast cancer and is infirm, that she cannot walk without support. Nonetheless, she is now contesting elections. This is clearly indicated misrepresentation and forged ground of her bail, (sic) his complaint reads. I have filed a complaint with the #ElectionCommission to not allow #SadhviPragyaSinghThakur ji from contesting the #LokSabhaElections2019 as she is a terror accused. Hardik Patel a riot accused was also prevented by the EC. I state: I am not a member of any political party 1n pic.twitter.com/JfaaOH82E2 Tehseen Poonawalla (@tehseenp) April 18, 2019 Sadhvi Pragya faces charges in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, but charges against her under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) have been dropped by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). She was granted bail in 2017 on health grounds. Another application against the Lok Sabha ticket given to Pragya was filed by the father of a Malegaon blast victim. The application questioned her candidature citing her health, which was one of the reasons in her bail application, according to ANI. The 2019 Lok Sabha election will be remembered for what look like indiscriminate raids on the ruling party's political enemies and seizures of huge amounts of cash from them. A thief breaks into the house of a rich man and makes off with a pot of gold. When caught, he tells the judge that the rich man himself had stolen it from elsewhere. So who is guilty the thief or the other guy or both? You can debate on the culpability of the perpetrator and the victim endlessly or "to the last syllable of recorded time" as Shakespeareh put it. But a similar pinch involving tax raiders and election candidates can't have a moral debate till apocalypse comes. An election is not an endless process, and even as argument rages over whether it's the income tax officials or the political money-hoarders who have erred, democracy can lose a level-playing field. The biggest stories of this election season are not just Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav teaming up against the BJP, Narendra Modi talking about something called national security and Rahul Gandhi talking about nothing in particular. The 2019 Lok Sabha election will also be remembered for what look like indiscriminate raids on the ruling party's political enemies and seizures of huge amounts of cash from them. These raids have been going on for a while now in several states, but the one on the premises of an associate of Kathir Anand, the DMK candidate in Tamil Nadu's Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, is especially noteworthy. It's not only because of the amount seized Rs 11.48 crore, but also because it led to the countermanding of the election there. Then there was the raid on the home of DMK leader and Thoothukodi candidate K Kanimozhi that yielded nothing, but another one on the associate of breakaway AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran saw the confiscation of Rs 1.48 crore. The unearthing of huge stockpiles of illegal cash at election time comes as no big surprise in Tamil Nadu, which has been a dubious trend-setter for the country in the shame of notes-for-votes, as discussed in this 2016 article. The state saw the countermanding of elections in the Thanjavur and Aravakuruchi constituencies in 2016 and in the RK Nagar by-election in 2017. In RK Nagar, evidence was apparently found to prove that Dhinakaran was planning to distribute Rs 89 crore to voters. Questions that the raids pose But these crackdowns raise some important questions of political and economic import: - How do some individuals, whichever parties they may belong to, still have access to huge amounts of cash even after the so-called digitisation of transactions following demonetisation? - Does the I-T Department expect people to be daft enough to believe that only non-BJP politicians hoard cash for distribution to voters? - Can the sinister motives of the Modi government in raiding hand-picked politicians absolve them of the crime of stashing currency? To begin with, the cash seizures only make the much-trumpeted demonetisation of November 2016 look like the farce that Modi-baiters have all along said it was. Starting with Modi, the BJP leaders no longer talk of the good things that demonetisation supposedly did . Nor do they admit it was a bad flop in eradicating black money. One argument, the government's supporters continue to parrot, however, centres around the digitisation of the economy that it supposedly brought about. Even that argument sounds spurious in the light of the large-scale seizures of hard currency. After demonetisation, the hoi polloi of the country thinks twice before undertaking any cash transaction even in thousands of rupees. Lesser criminals than politicians are forced to find a dozen subterfuges to deal in cash running into lakhs of rupees. But how do election candidates lay their hands on crores? Before claiming credit, however cockeyed it is, for unearthing crores of rupees of cash in the current sweep of raids, the government must unravel the mystery of how such money came to be in the hands of those being raided in the first place. If it was the result of systemic flaws, which can't be without political connivance, the BJP would find it tough to convince the country that most of its own election candidates are paragons of financial virtue. It's common knowledge that although Modi himself can rightfully boast of a clean personal image, this hygiene hasn't percolated to many among his leaders and cadres. Scams involving its own leaders, including Karnataka's BS Yeddyurappa for example, and its invitations to tainted Congress leaders across India to join its ranks with vote banks in mind make a mockery of the lily-white image that the BJP claims it monopolises. The virtual exclusion of BJP leaders from the ongoing nation-wide raids makes the move anything but above board, even if the government claims it's only doing good by ferreting out unaccounted money. Tip of the iceberg According to Election Commission data, cash, liquor, narcotics, gold and other freebies worth a total of Rs 2,628.43 crore have so far been seized in the country during the run-up to this election as of 17 April. Of this, cash accounts for Rs 694.5 crore, and Tamil Nadu unsurprisingly tops the list with Rs 208.27 crore. Those familiar with India's election process are aware this only represents a tiny fraction of the money used to bribe voters. Cash seized during I-T raids from a handful of rival candidates in Tamil Nadu provides little tactical advantage to BJP. Nor can such dirty tricks gain any significant propaganda mileage for the party in a state where the average voter knows its own alliance partner AIADMK is equally guilty of notes-for-votes, but is untouched by sleuths. At the very same time, shouting blue murder about political motives could in no way lend credibility to the protestations of innocence by victims of the raids. As always in such cases, perceived guilt travels a mile before pretended innocence puts on its boots. The author tweets @sprasadindia Follow all the live updates from Lok Sabha Election 2019 here Originally a Congress bastion, Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon parliamentary constituency has eight Assembly segments Pandariya, Kawardha, Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji and Mohla-Manpur spread over two districts of Rajnandgaon and Kawardha (Kabirdham) Originally a Congress bastion, Rajnandgaon parliamentary constituency has eight Assembly segments Pandariya, Kawardha, Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji and Mohla-Manpur spread over two districts of Rajnandgaon and Kawardha (Kabirdham). Of eight Assembly seats, six are in Rajnandgaon and the other two are in Kabirdham. From 1957 till 2014, the Congress had won nine times, while the BJP six times and Janata Party once. This is probably the first time that the election in this constituency is being held on such a low-profile note. Barring BJP president Amit Shah, there has been no star campaigner this time. Rajnandgaon 80 kilometres from the state capital of Raipur has always been a high-profile constituency in Chhattisgarh. Besides being the home turf of three-term former chief minister Raman Singh, this seat has witnessed members of the royal family like Raja Bahadur Singh, Shivendra Bahadur Singh, Padmavati Devi and Devvrat Singh contesting from here, who went on to become Congress MPs. The other stalwart Congress leader Motilal Vora too had won once from this seat. The sitting BJP MP is Raman Singh's son Abhishek Singh, who has been denied a ticket by the party. He had defeated the Congress candidate Kamleshwar Verma in 2014 by a huge margin of 2,35,911 votes, while Raman Singh in the 1999 election defeated Motilal Vora by a margin of 26,715 votes. "Unlike in the past, this time there's had been a lacklustre campaign, with no star campaigners. Both the candidates from the BJP and the Congress are no match for previous leaders," Rajnandgaon-based senior journalist Alok Sharma told Firstpost. While the BJP has fielded the RSS man Santosh Pandey, the Congress candidate Bholaram Sahu is the ex-MLA from Khujji. The latter was denied a ticket by the Congress during the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls in 2018. After the BJP announced its candidate for this seat, the Congress thought that it would get a walkover. But gradually, instead of being a one-sided affair, the contest has become challenging for both parties. The poll plank for the BJP is now the "Narendra Modi factor and nationalism" that dominates the election landscape in this constituency. Meanwhile for the Congress, it's the Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and the "Nyunatam Aay Yojana" (NYAY) announced by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. "Unlike in the past, this time no party has talked about its respective candidates and issues of this constituency like irrigation, industry etc. While the BJP has been focussing on nationalism, the Congress' trump card is its NYAY scheme and loan-waiver to farmers. Modi has emerged as a dominating factor," added Sharma. The Congress is also looking to garner support from the Sahu community, as there's a population of nearly four lakh Sahus in this constituency. However, caste equation had never been a dominant factor in this belt. Though the BJP's central leadership hasn't given Raman Singh any major responsibility in campaigning, the former chief minister continues to be a popular figure. However, the alleged corruption charges against Raman Singh's son-in-law Puneet Gupta and his son Abhishek whose name appeared in the Panama Papers have dented the BJP's image. The Congress victory in the 2018 Assembly election has been acting as a morale booster for the party. Apart from being a high-profile constituency, Rajnandgaon is one of the several districts in Chhattisgarh battling a Maoist insurgency and falls in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) category. Mohla-Manpur in this constituency is considered one of the most volatile seats in the state, due to which polling will close at 3 pm instead of at the regular time of 5 pm. The other Maoist-affected constituency in this second phase of polling is Kanker. Tamil Nadu reported 62.65 percent voter turnout till 7 pm in phase two of the Lok Sabha election. Chennai: Tamil Nadu reported 62.65 percent voter turnout till 7 pm in phase two of the Lok Sabha election, even as the DMK charged the ruling AIADMK with planning to do "booth-capturing" later in the day. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo said no reports of booth capturing or any other untoward incident regarding law and order has been received so far. Meanwhile, the DMK filed a complaint with the CEO and the DGP (Elections), Ashutosh Shukla, alleging that the ruling AIADMK planned to do "booth-capturing" after 3 pm. They demanded that the officials put in all measures to ensure transparent elections. Responding to this, Sahoo said polling has been peaceful so far. "We have not received any report of booth capturing, neither are there any law and order issues," he said. Earlier, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief MK Stalin waited in queues at Edappadi in Salem district and Chennai, respectively and cast their votes. After casting his vote, Stalin alleged that there has been distribution of cash and accused the Election Commission of being an "ally" of central and state governments. Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi and Karti Chidambaram of Congress are among key contenders. Radhakrishnan told reporters in Kanyakumari, "This is a massive democratic festival which will decide the fate of India. I have exercised my franchise...A silent revolution is happening." AIADMK leader and state minister D Jayakumar said 13 percent voting in the morning "is a joyous thing." "This shows there is a wave for Amma and MGR," he said, exuding confidence that the AIADMK-BJP combine would emerge victorious. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dhinakaran alleged "malfunctioning of EVMs is an achievement of the Modi government." CPI national secretary D Raja expressed confidence that people were voting for the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu as they wanted to see the end of the BJP government at the Centre. Dayanidhi Maran voted here along with his family members. Besides 38 of the total 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state, excluding Vellore, bypolls to 18 assembly segments are also underway. Polling stations were teeming with enthusiastic voters even before 7 AM when polling began and the Chief Minister was among the early electors in his native Salem district. While senior Congress leader P Chidambaram voted at Kandanur in Sivaganga district, Dhinakaran execised his franchise along with his family in Chennai. Top actor Rajinikanth and popular stars Vijay and Ajith Kumar voted in Chennai. BJP's Tamil Nadu unit chief Tamilisai Soundararjan and actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan also cast their votes. DMDK chief Vijayakanth, his wife and party leader Premalatha and Pattali Makkal Katchi chief S Ramadoss voted in Chennai and Tindivanam respectively. The state's electorate is 5.84-crore (after deducting the 14.26 lakh voters in Vellore) strong. Adequate security arrangements, with the deployment of over 160 companies of central police forces and one lakh state police personnel, have been made. In the run-up to the polls, election authorities had seized over Rs 129-crore cash, gold and other precious metals with a total value of over Rs 284 crore from all over the state. Tamil Nadu has a total of 67,720 polling stations and 7,780 booths have been categorised as critical and vulnerable where more Central Armed Police Forces personnel, and micro-observers were deployed. Measures like webcasting and videographing of proceedings are also in place. As many as 1,50,302 ballot units, 89,160 control units and 94,653 VVPAT which allows the electors to cross check the votes they have cast for seven seconds are available. Every constituency has one all-woman polling station. While polling is being held between 7 AM and 6 PM in 37 constituencies, it has been extended by two hours until 8 PM in Madurai Lok Sabha segment, due to the Chithirai festival, which marks the grand entry of Lord Kallazhagar into the Vaigai river. With inputs from PTI Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase 2 Voting LIVE Updates: Dismal turnout in Srinagar, violence in West Bengal between BJP and Trinamool Congress workers and faulty EVM and VVPAT machines slowing down voting, marked the second phase of polling on Thursday. Srinagar has recorded a dismal turnout of just 2.3 percent, while Budgam and Ganderbal have recorded 6.4 percent and 6.5 percent polling. Auto refresh feeds Voting for Phase 2 Lok Sabha Election will take place on 18 April, Thursday. Eleven states and a Union Territory will vote to elect representatives on 95 seats. States which will be voting for Phase 2 Lok Sabha Election are Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Union Territory Puducherry. At least 1,600 candidates are contesting on 95 seats for the second phase of Lok Sabha election 2019. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, BJP lawmaker Hema Malini, Senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily, Rajya Sabha lawmaker Kanimozhi, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar and National Conference President Farooq Abdullah are among the prominent candidates for Phase 2 Lok Sabha election 2019. The voting time for Phase 2 elections will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. The Election Commission also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election on 23 April, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Thirty eight of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu will go to polls today, besides 18 Assembly constituencies. Polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat, which is currently represented by the AIADMK, was cancelled on Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. Besides Tamil Nadu, polling will also be held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Polling to be held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in UP Nearly 15.8 crore voters are eligible to vote in the Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha election. The Congress had won 12 of these seats in 2014, the Shiv Sena and the BJD 4 each, the JD-S and the RJD two each and the AIUDF, the NCP, the JD-U, the PDP, the AINRC, the PMK, the CPI-M and the TMC one seat each. Of the 95 constituencies in fray today, the AIADMK holds the maximum of 36 seats, followed by the BJP which holds 27 seats. For security concerns in some states Odisha and Chhattisgarh in Phase 2 voting in various Lok Sabha constituencies is spread over phases in the Assembly constituencies that fall under them. In Phase 2 on Thursday, over 15,97,34,000 voters will exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 1,629 candidates. The Election Commission has set up 1,81,000 polling booths to ensure smooth conduct of voting. The Income-Tax Department Wednesday seized Rs 1.48 crore cash stashed allegedly by supporters of TTV Dhinakaran's AMMK party to bribe voters in Tamil Nadu's Theni district, where an assembly bypoll is scheduled Thursday. "Once the report is received, we will take a considered view. A decision can even be taken on election day," an official said. Against the backdrop of the Income Tax department seizing cash allegedly meant to bribe voters in Tamil Nadu, the Election Commission Wednesday sought a detailed report from poll authorities there. His son Karti Chidambaram is the Congress candidate from Shivagana. He is contesting against BJP national secretary H Raja. The former finance minister said Tamil people want a change of government both at the Centre and the state. "That's why there's overwhelming support from the secular progressive front of the Congress, DMK and other allies. I have voted for this democratic, secular front. We have to preserve our sovereignty. We believe that all religions are equal and everyone is equal before law." Preparation underway for LokSabhaElections2019 at polling station number 269 in Nanded parliamentary constituency. Voting on 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state for the second phase of elections will be held today. It is also should be noted that all the eight seats in Uttar Pradesh were swept by the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. A close fight is expected between the BJP and the alliance of SP, BSP and RLD in the second phase of polling. With a good number of Jatavs, Yadavs and OBCs in all the seats especially Agra, Mathura, Fatehpur Sikri and Bulandshahr, the coalition seems to be giving a tough fight to the BJP. Shahnawaz Hussain had won this seat two times but this time the seat had been given to JDU under seat sharing formula if NDA. Shahnawaz was not happy as he was denied ticket. Local BJP leaders had also expressed discontent. Ajay is a two-time MLA from Nathnagar Assembly Constituency while Shailesh, fondly referred to as 'Bulo', had defeated BJP's heavyweight leader Shahnawaz Hussain with meagre 9,485 votes. Bhagalpur Lok Sabha Constituency, popularly known as 'Silk City of India' and once represented by JB Kripalani, is going to polls today. Main contenders for this seat are JDU's Ajay Mondal and sitting MP of RJD Shailesh Kumar Mondal. In Agra, voters at booth number 142 complained that the voting has not been started yet due to a technical problem in the electronic voting machine. Voters in several polling booths across the country, including Chennai, Assam and Agra have complained that voting has not begun yet for them. While at some polling booths, voting has yet to begin, voters at other centres have complained that the voting machines are faulty. Putul Kumari had won this seat in 2010 bypoll as an Independent. In 2014 general elections, BJP had given her ticket but she lost with less than 10,000 votes. In 1977 election socialist leader and ardent follower of Ram Manohar Lohia, Madhu Limaye had won from this seat. Putul Kumari Singh is wife of three-times MP Digvijay Singh. Digvijay had once won on the ticket of Samata Party. Second time he was given ticket by the JD(U). And the third time he won as an Independent. Banka Loksabha Constituency will see a three corner fight between sitting RJD MP Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav, Independent candidate and ex-MP Putul Kumari Singh and NDA candidate Girdhari Lal Yadav. Due to EVM snags the voting is yet to start at booth number 201 in Agra and also at booth number 148 in Mathura. EVMs developing technical snag and timely start of the voting procedure has been a challenge for the EC in this Lok Sabha elections. More than 100 EVMs were changed during the polling hours in the first phase of polling in different parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. Polling begins in Silchar. 11,91,289 voters, including 6,13,931 men, 5,77,283 women and 75 third gender are voting for 13 candidates. There are 58 voters who are over 100-year-old and 44,000 first time voters in Assam this time. Sitting MP and Congress candidate from Chitradurga BN Chandrappa sought blessings from a cow before casting his vote in Karnataka. Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidi Rangarajan casts their vote at a polling station in Karaikudi in Sivaganga. Polling was delayed by 20 minutes in several places at Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency too, due to problems in EVMs. Polling has stopped in seven booths in Madurai constituency after a sticker pasted on an EVM, with a suspicious signature mentioning the letters 'AIADMK', sparked confusion among voters. Similar reports came in from three polling booths in Padmanabhapuram of Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency, where polling was delayed due faulty EVMs. Delay in voting at Karisalpatty polling booth in Tirunelveli Lok Sabha constituency. More than 100 EVMs had to be changed during polling hours in the first phase of voting in different parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. Due to EVM snags voting is yet to start at booth number 201 in Agra and booth number 148 in Mathura. EVMs developing technical snags has posed quite the challenge for the EC in these Lok Sabha elections. Election officials monitoring the polling in sensitive booths across Tamil Nadu at the control room at Secretariat. This is done by web streaming facility. Polling in around 30,000 such booths is being monitored directly at CEO office. Over 2,000 people from villages of Venkatapuram and Nachiampayalam of Tirupur Lok Sabha constituency have boycotted voting and no one has turned up to the polling stations. In Krishnagiri Lok Sabha constituency, three villages have boycotted voting. To get the latest updates about voter turnouts from across the country, click here to download the Election Commission's Voter Turnout app. Apart from a few constituencies in which EVM malfunctions have been reported, voter turnouts across the country appear to be good as the two-hour mark approaches. Keep watching this space for 9 am turnout tallies. As of 9.08 pm, overall voter turnout had reached 1.06 percent, according to Election Commission data. The five Lok Sabha seats in Assam have registered a combined turnout of 8.74 percent at the time of writing. Overall voter turnout across India reaches 5.12 percent till 9.30 am. According to official EC data, Assam has registered 11.35 percent, while Bihar is at 10.15 percent in terms of voter turnout. Polling is being held in three districts of Kashmir Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal. In Srinagar, there are highest number of 857 polling stations, which was followed by Budgam with 624 stations and Ganderbal at 235. Last evening about 1,716 polling officials were dispatched to different polling stations to ensure free and fair polls. By 9.30 am, the state of Chhattisgarh had seen 13.09 percent of the electorate coming out to vote: As multiple states are voting in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2019, Maywati took a dig at the BJP and the Congress. In a tweet, she said, "Today is the second phase of polling and the BJP and PM Modi seem to be just as nervous as the Congress was in the last general elections for fear of defeat. The real reason is the narrow thinking and actions against the poor, the labourers, the farmers, as well as Dalit, backward and Muslim of all society. BJP just as nervous as the Congress was in last elections, says Mayawati A polling officer was killed in an IED explosion carried out by Maoists. The Moaists targeted the polling vehicle and later open fired at it, killing officer Sanjukta Digal near Barla village under Gochhapada police limit in Kandhamal district in Odisha yesterday. Minutes after Rahul Gandhi urged voters to cast their vote for NYAY, implying the Congress, senior party leader Randeep Surjewala tweeted saying, "Now, Nyay (justice) will happen". Urging voters to vote in the second phase of polling, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi asked voters to vote for NYAY. "When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay. Nyay for our unemployed youth; for our struggling farmers; for the small traders whose businesses were destroyed by Demonetisation; for those who were persecuted because of their caste or religion," tweeted Rahul. Minutes after Rahul Gandhi urged voters to cast their vote for NYAY, implying the Congress, senior party leader Randeep Surjewala tweeted saying, "Now, Nyay (justice) will happen". "They are distributing money and the police is protecting the ruling party. The police made all this mess to protect the government and everyone in Tamil Nadu knows that the police belong to EPS. The EC is acting on the behest of the government. People are against this government and they know that this govt uses money for votes," Dinakaran said. After casting his vote, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy requested all voters to go and vote for the "future and development of the country depends on them." "It's my personal request, not only for me but this elections is important for everyone, several problems need to be solved. The govt has neglected the farmers' community," she said. Voting underway at polling booth number 3 in Bemina, in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Meanwhile, polling is underway in Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir. In his election speech, Biren made reference to former chief secretary O Nabakishore being unceremoniously removed from his post for being involved in numerous scandals which the latter has claimed as defamatory that could tarnish his image and mislead voters. Following the complaint of the Congress candidate, the returning officer had directed Biren's secretary to offer an explanation. Manipur chief minister Nongthombam Biren cast his vote at a polling station in Heingang in Imphal. The returning officer of inner Manipur parliamentary constituency served a show cause notice to Biren for alleged violations in the model code of conduct by making defamatory statements against Congress candidate Oinam Nabakishore during an election meeting on 29 March at Yumnam Khunou in Imphal East. Opposing BJP's claims, Kumaraswamy said that dynastic politics is "not an important issue" as of now. "Modi lost in Karnataka, Karnataka politics is going to play a major role. After elections results are out, except BJP, other parties are going to form the government," he added. Voters at a polling booth in North Karimganj in Assam decided not to vote after EVM malfunction delayed voting on Thursday. Not a single vote was cast till 10:30 am, News18 reports. However, data from the new EC app showed that voter turnout in Karimganj (till 11 am) was 12.47 percent, and turnout in Karimganj North was 15 percent. Overall voter turnout till 11 am has been recorded at 16.82 percent, according to official Election Commission data. All eyes are on Assam, after reports claimed that Karimganj did not record a single vote till 11 am. EC data says differently. 7 booths in Madurai constituency 33 booths in Kanyakumari constituency 1 booth in Tirunelveli constituency 1 booth in Ramanathapuram constituency 4 booths in Chennai 15 booths in Trichy constituency 3 in Erode constituency 1 booth in Cuddalore constituency These are the first elections in the state after the deaths of Tamil Nadu luminaries M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa. For the first time, voting machines with Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail are being used in all the polling booths, reported NDTV. Here is a list of constituencies from Tamil Nadu which reported EVM glitches since polling began at 7 am today. Eighteen Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu are holding by-elections on Thursday along with Lok Sabha elections in the state. Bye-elections to four more Assembly seats will be held on 19 May. The results will be declared on 23 May. According to latest EC data, the overall voter turnout is 21.15 percent. While Assam recorded a turnout of 26.60 percent, Bihar recorded a turnout of 18.93 percent. Other states are as following: Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah cast their votes at a polling station in Munshi Bagh Area in Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency. Omar Abdullah said, "Now that Lok Sabha polls are due to conclude, we can only hope that Centre along with Election Commission, gives people of Jammu and Kashmir an elected government which is their right." Former chief minister Omar Abdullah talked about Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur after casting his vote. "BJP have given ticket (from Bhopal) to a candidate who is not only an accused in a terror case but is also out on bail on health grounds. If her health condition doesn't permit her to be in jail, how does it permit her to contest polls?" The Indian Express quoted him as saying. Sadhvi Pragya's health doesn't permit her to be in jail, but she can contest polls, asks Omar Abdullah In separate incidents, two old men, who had come to cast their vote, died in Salem and Erode. Both these men were above age of 70. Krishnan, 74, hailed from Vedapatti in Salem, died after casting his vote. The other man fell down while standing in the queue and died. Two men, over 70 years of age, came to cast vote, died standing in the queue The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer's official Twitter handle replied to a video tweeted by a journalist, saying they have asked for more information in this regard. District Magistrate of Bulandhshahr has said that Singh will be under house arrest for one day as he broke the protocol. The Election Commission has taken cognisance of BJP MP Bhola Singh's "forced" entry into a polling booth in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh after placing a call to the District Magistrate who reportedly asked a security officer to let Singh and his supporters in. Jaggi Vasudev and his daughter have cast their votes from the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency. Vasudev postponed his trip to the US to cast vote. BJP and TMC workers clashed inside a polling booth and broke the EVM machine in Kotgach, Chopra. The district in Darjeeling had also witnessed police lathicharge after miscreants tried to stop people from voting. Local police have seized the cash, which was in 11 bundles of Rs 500 currency notes, at Madugiri district Kodagenahalli. A supporter who studies at the CIT Engineering college has been arrested. Basavaraj owns the CIT Engineering college. The complaint has been registered at the Kodigenahalli police station. Janata Dal (Secular) workers have complained against supporters of BJP candidate GS Basavaraj were distributing money and bribing the public to vote in his favour. The cash, Rs 5,47,000, was brought in a car. ABP reporter Partho Pratim Ghosh sustained serious injuries during a clash in Jalpaiguri's Malbazar area. He was taken to the Siliguri hospital for treatment. Special Police Observer for West Bengal Vivek Dube has said that elections are being conducted peacefully in the state. He admitted that there were issues in a few places in Chopra in Raigunj, but peaceful voting has resumed, he claimed. However, latest reports from Chopra, West Bengal's Darjeeling claimed that polling has stopped at booth no 112, where police had to resort to lathi-charge after EVMs were broken to pieces. Reports have also said that a tussle broke out between BJP and TMC supporters in Chopra in Raigunj constituency which led to EVM machines being ransacked in booth number 112. Satyabrata Sahoo,Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer, says, At least, 305 EVMS had technical errors and they have been replaced. At least, 525 VVPAT machines also faced some issues and they have also been changed. Across India, overall voter turnout has been recorded at 37.81 percent. Among all the 11 states in fray today, 46.76 percent have voted in Assam; 38.87 percent in Bihar; 29.88 percent in Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka recorded a 21.47 percent. NCPs Tariq Anwar won the seat defeating BJP's Nikhil Kumar Choudhary, a three-time MP, by nearly 1.15 lakh votes. This election, Tariq Anwars main rival is Dulal Chandra Goswami of the JD(U), which is part of the NDA, also comprising the BJP and LJP. Six legislative assembly segments Katihar, Kadwa, Balrampur, Pranpur, Manihari and Barari together comprise Katihar Lok Sabha constituency, which was one of the few Lok Sabha seats in Hindi belt unclaimed by the BJP in 2014. Katihar LS constituency was one of the few unclaimed by BJP in 2014 Initiating the #VoteMaadi challenge, the 28-year-old nominated three others, encouraging citizens to vote in high numbers. BJP leaders in Assam Rupam Goswami and Subhas Dutta claimed that the BJP will win all five states in the second phase polling in Assam. "State is going to be a Ram Rajya," says Goswami. Due to stone-pelting, the polling percentage was thin. Only 42 votes were cast by 2 pm at Trajbal polling station in Charari Sharief. As the polling was going on, youth pelted the security forces with stones to disrupt the electoral process. The forces retaliated with heavy use of tear smoke shells. A vendor said that his vegetables were scattered on the road and he was robbed of money too by the security forces. India Today TV reported that the polling in Budgam was marred by stone-pelting in the area. Moreover, the overall poll percentage in Jammu and Kashmir till 1 pm is 29.6 percent. One person has sustained injuries. Ariyalur belongs to Chidambaram Lok Sabha constituency from where VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan is contesting elections. In Ariyalur district, a fight has broken out between workers of PMK and VCK. PMK workers have allegedly removed the pots (VCKs party symbol) in public places. Sam Pitroda, Indian Overseas Congress Chief: As an engineer, as technical expert, I'm not satisfied with EVM (Electronic Voting Machine), but I've not been able to pinpoint because we don't have EVM. If someone gives us EVM to study for 1 year, we'll be able to tell you something pic.twitter.com/eAcfcnwNbt "You will have to understand the design, its software. Every little signal will have to be analysed. Then only, you can say something. But one thing is clear that there is some problem, what is the problem we don't know (sic)," ANI quoted him as saying. BJP leader Mukul Roy demanded deployment of 100 percent central forces on polling day in Lok Sabha constituncies where voting is being held. He claimed that polling is being held peacefully in only those areas where central forces are deployed while addressing the media after meeting Chief Observer Ajay Naik.. Citing the examples of Chopra and Raiganj, Roy said voting only began much later in Chopra and only after the central forces arrived. He added they have been assured by the EC regarding this. They appealed for re-polling. An election official was also seen admitting the negligence in the video. People in a polling booth of Kathua district alleged that when the button of EVM is pressed to vote for the ruling party, it remains pressed for long, due to which even the votes polled in favour of other parties are being polled in favour of the BJP candidate. Voting is over in most of the polling booths in Tamil Nadu. Voting in Madurai constituency will go on till 8 pm due to Chithirai festival. According to ANI , Jammu and Kashmir BJP has written to Election Commission and has sought an FIR against Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vikramaditya Singh and Waqar Rasool Wani for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct. Similarly, Mintoo Mawa and four of his family members, who hail from Amira Kadal segment, had to return without exercising their franchise. PTI Bhat said four members of his family could not vote and alleged that there was a conspiracy to deny the migrants their right. "We came to the polling station to cast our vote but found our names missing from the electoral roll. It is a denial of our right to vote," said Radha Krishen Bhat, a migrant Kashmiri Pandit from the Chadoora segment of Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency. Miffed at it, they raised slogans against the administration and the Election Commission at several polling stations. Several migrant Kashmiri Pandits could not exercise their franchise as their names were found missing from the electoral roll at the special polling stations set up for Srinagar constituency in Jammu during the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday. Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase 2 Voting LATEST Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Congress in Karnataka and asked whether the party had its vote bank in Karnataka's Bagalkot or Pakistan's Balakot. Stone-pelting was reported in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam. The overall voting in the state till 2 pm is around 30 percent. Dismal turnout in Srinagar, violence in West Bengal between BJP and Trinamool Congress workers and faulty EVM and VVPAT machines slowing down voting, marked the second phase of polling on Thursday. Srinagar has recorded a dismal turnout of just 2.3 percent, while Budgam and Ganderbal have recorded 6.4 percent and 6.5 percent polling. Satyabrata Sahoo, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer, says, At least, 305 EVMS had technical errors and they have been replaced. At least, 525 VVPAT machines also faced some issues and they have also been changed. Special Police Observer appointed for West Bengal Vivek Dube has said that elections are being conducted peacefully in the state. He admitted that there were issues in a few places in Chopra in Raigunj, but peaceful voting has resumed, he claimed. However, latest reports from Chopra, West Bengal's Darjeeling claimed that polling has stopped at booth no 112, where police had to resort to lathi-charge after EVMs were broken to pieces. Reports have also said that a tussle broke out between BJP and TMC supporters in Chopra in Raigunj constituency which led to EVM machines being ransacked in booth number 112. Srinagar has recorded a dismal turnout of just 2.3 percent, while Budgam and Ganderbal have recorded 6.4 percent and 6.5 percent polling. After peaceful polling for the first few hours, West Bengal is tense with locals blocking National Highway-31 in protest after they were allegedly prevented from voting at Digirpar polling booth in Chopra in Islampur. Police and paramilitary personnel resorted to lathicharge and firing tear gas shells at the crowd. In a separate violent incident in Islampur, CPM MP Mohammad Salims car was attacked with bricks during polling. Salim, who was also injured in the attack, blamed the attack on Trinamool goons. The Election Commission has taken cognisance of BJP MP Bhola Singh's "forced" entry into a polling booth in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh after placing a call to the District Magistrate who reportedly asked a security officer to let Singh and his supporters in. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer's official Twitter handle replied to a video tweeted by a journalist, saying they have asked for more information in this regard. District Magistrate of Bulandhshahr has said that Singh will be under house arrest for one day as he broke the protocol. According to latest Election Commission data, the overall voter turnout is 21.15 percent. While Assam recorded a turnout of 26.60 percent, Bihar recorded a turnout of 18.93 percent. Other states are as following: Jammu and Kashmir: 17.78 percent Karnataka: 19.90 percent Odisha: 18.12 percent Tamil Nadu: 20.12 percent Uttar Pradesh: 24.37 percent West Bengal: 33.52 percent After over four hours of voting cross 11 states and a Union Territory, overall voter turnout till 11 am has been recorded at 16.82 percent, according to official Election Commission data. Here is a statewide breakdown: Assam 18.23 percent; Bihar 12.55 percent; Chhattisgarh 14.18 percent; Jammu And Kashmir 5.86 percent; Karnataka 7.74 percent; Maharashtra 7.37 percent; Manipur 17.40 percent; Odisha 9.01 percent; Tamil Nadu 9.17 percent; Uttar Pradesh 12.84 percent; West Bengal 16.77 percent; Puducherry 12.83 percent. Voters at a polling booth in North Karimganj in Assam decided not to vote after EVM malfunction delayed voting on Thursday. Not a single vote was cast till 10:30 am, News18 reports. However, data from the new EC app showed that voter turnout in Karimganj (till 11 am) was 12.47 percent, and turnout in Karimganj North was 15 percent. Opposing BJP's claims, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said that dynastic politics is "not an important issue" as of now. "Modi lost in Karnataka, Karnataka politics is going to play a major role. After elections results are out, except BJP, other parties are going to form the government," he added. Urging voters to vote in the second phase of polling, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi asked voters to vote for NYAY. "When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay. Nyay for our unemployed youth; for our struggling farmers; for the small traders whose businesses were destroyed by Demonetisation; for those who were persecuted because of their caste or religion," tweeted Rahul. Minutes after Rahul Gandhi urged voters to cast their vote for NYAY, implying the Congress, senior party leader Randeep Surjewala tweeted saying, "Now, Nyay (justice) will happen". By 9.30 am, the state of Chhattisgarh had seen 13.09 percent of the electorate coming out to vote: Rajnandgaon - 15.73 percent; Mahasamund - 11.65 percent; Kanker - 11.69 percent At the same time, West Bengal witnessed a voter turnout of 12.43 percent: Jalpaiguri - 4.36 percent; Darjeeling - 16.14 percent; Raiganj - 17.45 percent Overall voter turnout across India reaches 7.20 percent till 9.30 am. According to official EC data, Assam has registered 11.35 percent, while Bihar is at 10.15 percent in terms of voter turnout. The five Lok Sabha seats in Assam have registered a combined turnout of 8.74 percent at the time of writing. Politicians and leaders, including defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Puducherry governor Kiran Bedi, Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy, Congress leader P Chidambaram and DMK leader Kanimozhi, cast their votes early on Thursday as the second phase of polling began on 18 April. Over 2,000 people from villages of Venkatapuram and Nachiampayalam of Tirupur Lok Sabha constituency have boycotted voting and no one has turned up to the polling stations. In Krishnagiri Lok Sabha constituency, three villages have boycotted voting. Polling has stopped in seven booths in Madurai constituency after a sticker pasted on an EVM, with a suspicious signature mentioning the letters 'AIADMK', sparked confusion among voters. Similar reports came in from three polling booths in Padmanabhapuram of Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency, where polling was delayed due to faulty EVMs. Delay in voting at Karisalpatty polling booth in Tirunelveli Lok Sabha constituency. Voters in several polling booths across the country, including Chennai, Assam and Agra have complained that voting has not begun yet for them. While at some polling booths, voting has yet to begin, voters at other centres have complained that the voting machines are faulty. In Agra, voters at booth number 142 complained that the voting has not been started yet due to a technical problem in the electronic voting machine. The voting for Phase 2 elections for 95 seats has begun across 11 states and one Union Territory. One of the first politicians to cast their vote was P Chidambaram, who spoke to the media outside the polling booth and said that Tamil Nadu will vote for a forward party and against superstitions. "We will vote for a new political change in our country and in Tamil Nadu," he said. Chidambaram's son Karti is going up against BJP's H Raja in Sivaganga. The polling will be held till 6 pm and in some constituencies till 7 pm. At least 1,600 candidates are contesting on 95 seats for the second phase of Lok Sabha election 2019. Thirty eight of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu will go to polls today, besides 18 Assembly constituencies. Polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat, which is currently represented by the AIADMK, was cancelled on Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi are among the 1,600-odd contestants in fray in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls to be held in 95 seats on Thursday across 11 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Thirty eight of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu will go to polls besides 18 Assembly constituencies. Polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat, which is currently represented by the AIADMK, was cancelled on Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. The Election Commission also postponed polling in Tripura East Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on 23 April, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Besides Tamil Nadu, polling will also be held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Elections will also be held in 35 Assembly constituencies in Odisha. Of the 95 constituencies, the AIADMK holds the maximum of 36 seats, followed by the BJP with 27 seats. The Congress had won 12 of these seats in 2014, the Shiv Sena and the BJD 4 each, the JD(S) and the RJD two each and the AIUDF, the NCP, the JD(U), the PDP, the AINRC, the PMK, the CPM and the TMC one seat each. Nearly 15.8 crore voters are eligible to vote in the second phase. Other prominent candidates in fray include Congress leaders Verappa Moily and Raj Babbar, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and BJP's Hema Malini. In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK, contesting as part of the NDA. The alliance comprises among others BJP, PMK, DMDK and Tamil Maanila Congress of former union minister GK Vasan. The DMK has formed a "Secular Progressive Alliance" comprising the Congress and Left parties, among others. The electoral battle in the state is largely among the two fronts led by the Dravidian majors and the AMMK led by TTV Dhinakaran, an AIADMK rival, though parties such as the fledgling Makkal Needhi Maiam of actor-politician Kamal Hassan are also testing their fortunes. Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu are the first ever after the demise of Dravidian stalwarts J Jayalalithaa of AIADMK and M Karunanidhi of the DMK. In Odisha, BJD's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is contesting from his home turf Hinjili in Ganjam district and Bijepur in Bargarh. Among others, Union tribal affairs minister Oram of the BJP, BJD's Rajya Sabha MPs Prasanna Acharya and Achyut Samant, BJP nominee and three-time MP Kharabela Swain are in the fray. Even though security was heightened, Maoists gunned down a polling officer in Kandhamal district of Odisha Wednesday when she was leading a team of poll personnel to a booth in Phulbani Assembly segment. It is a high-stakes battle for the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka as any adverse result is likely to have an impact on the longevity of the coalition government in the state. The BJP is determined to improve its tally compared to last time riding on the Modi wave. A total of 179 candidates are in the fray in Maharashtra in the 10 constituencies spread in parts of Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. Former chief ministers Ashok Chavan and Sushilkumar Shinde of Congress are contesting from Nanded and Solapur seats respectively. Bollywood actors Hema Malini and Raj Babbar are among the 85 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, whose electoral fate will be decided on Thursday. The eight Lok Sabha seats, where polling is scheduled to be held, were won by the BJP in 2014. In Jammu and Kashmir, authorities have deployed over 80 companies for election duty in the twin constituencies of Srinagar and Udhampur. Thursday's polling in Srinagar will be keenly watched within and outside Kashmir as the constituency recorded an all-time low of 7.2 per cent voter turn out in the 2017 bye-election, marred by violence on polling day that left nine people dead and scores of others injured. Fate of 68 candidates will be decided in Bihar by 86.01 lakh voters across Bhagalpur, Banka, Kishanganj, Katihar and Purnea Lok Sabha constituencies. Five seats in Assam will see polling Thursday and one seat in Manipur. The past few days have seen hectic campaigning by top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and a host of Union ministers. There was lot of drama during electioneering as several leaders like Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union minister Maneka Gandhi, BSP chief Mayawati and SP leader Azam Khan made controversial remarks, prompting the Election Commission to bar them from campaigning for varying periods over violations of the Moral Code of Conduct. In West Bengal, the poll panel has deployed 194 companies of central forces in the three constituencies going to polls to cover 80 per cent of the 5,390 booths for free and fair polling. The fight for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Puducherry is expected to be mainly between the ruling Congress, which has put up former Speaker V Vaithilingam and the opposition AINRC's K Narayanasamy. The Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on 11, 18, 23, and 29 April, and 6, 12 and 19 May. The counting will be on 23 May. Faced with criticism for turning the JD(S) into a family enterprise, party supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda on Thursday said people and party workers wanted his grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna to contest from Mandya and Hassan Lok Sabha constituencies. Bengaluru: Faced with criticism for turning the JD(S) into a family enterprise, party supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda on Thursday said people and party workers wanted his grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna to contest from Mandya and Hassan Lok Sabha constituencies. Speaking to reporters after casting his vote in Hassan, Gowda said his opponents accused him of indulging in family politics but his rise in politics was possible because of God and voters, whom his family had served to the best of their ability. "People describe this as family politics. We are the children of farmers. We believe in God. My father was an ordinary farmer. By the grace of God, we grew in stages in politics. "It (growth) is not in anyone's hand. Voters have strengthened us. We, whether it is Revanna (PWD minister), myself or (chief minister) Kumaraswamy have served them to the best of our ability," he said. Justifying the decision to field his grandsons from Mandya and Hassan, Gowda said people were adamant that the two be fielded, which they respected. "In Mandya Nikhil Kumaraswamy is contesting. All the eight MLAs and three ministers of Mandya were adamant that Nikhil Kumaraswamy should contest from there. This is the truth," he added. Regarding Prajwal, the JD(S) supremo said, "Prajwal Revanna is anengineering graduate. He is into social work for many years. People and the party workers have recognised his work." District officials in parts of Uttar Pradesh had a tough time trying to calm agitating voters who had called for a boycott of the election. Lucknow: In the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, polling took place in eight parliamentary constituencies, including Hathras, Aligarh, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Amroha and Nagina, on Thursday in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls 2019. A voter turnout of 61.94 percent was recorded in the state until 7 pm. The second phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh saw boycott calls from several quarters and EVM glitches delaying the polling process at several booths. Voters angry with their incumbent lawmakers over different issues, ranging from lack of irrigation facilities to setting up of polling booths far from villages, boycotted the polls in various regions. Till 6 pm, the voter turnout in Nagina, Amroha, Bulandshahr and Aligarh was 62.10 percent, 68.77 percent, 62.14 percent and 62.80 percent. The turnout in Hathras, Mathura, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri was 61.25 percent, 60.56 percent, 59.60 percent and 61.66 percent. In Gajpura village of Bijnor district, which falls under the Nagina Lok Sabha constituency, people boycotted the elections as their polling booth was set up at a distance of about one kilometre in Dhampur village. About 600 voters from the village boycotted the polls until election officials reached their and tried to explain to them the importance of casting their votes. Polling began at 2 pm in the shifted booth at Dhampur. District officials across these constituencies had a tough time trying to calm agitating voters who had called for a boycott of the election. In Jagatiya village under the Mathura Lok Sabha constituency, about 256 voters boycotted polling claiming that the government and the sitting lawmaker did nothing for their village. Sitting MP and BJP contestant Hema Malini, however, in a media interaction claimed, Development in Mathura is due to my efforts. The SP and BSP are only engaged in fighting with each other. She also said that there is a huge Modi wave across the country this time. In Kyori polling booth under the Agra Lok Sabha constituency, only two votes were cast until 5 pm as the villagers resorted to a sit-in protest demanding development of their area. Kyori village falls under the Chambal division and the villagers' main demand is that of a motorable road to the village. Not even a single vote was cast due to a boycott call made at Kala Gaon in Mathura district over the lack of irrigation facilities. Even after district officials motivated the electorate to participate in the democratic exercise, only two votes were cast. Missing voters In Agra, several voters' names were missing from the electoral rolls. Mohammad Salim, a resident of Agra whose vote was in booth number 256 of the constituency, claimed the voters list did not have the names of his family members, and that names of several others from the same area were missing from the list. I have been living in this area since my birth and have exercised my franchise many times, but the name of my family and many other people of our area is missing from the voters' list. We have all the documents, but the polling officials are not allowing us to cast the votes, Salim said. Shamima, 22, another Agra resident who came to vote at booth no 256, said she waited in queue for hours only to know that her name is missing from the voters list. I have complained about my name missing from the voters list, but no one is helping, she said, adding that she had not been able to vote even in the last elections. Bulandshahr MP Bhola Singh, when stopped by security personnel at the entrance of a polling booth, placed a call to the District Magistrate, who then facilitated the BJP leader and his supporters entry into the polling booth. In a video of the incident, the security officer fielding the call is heard saying that he is not allowed to let leaders go near the EVM. However, in the course of the conversation, he agreed and ultimately allowed Singh inside. The video went viral on social media and the Election Commission swung into action. Bulandshahr DM Abhay Singh, who came in the line of fire after the incident was reported, said that Singh will now be under close scrutiny for the day. A candidate is allowed to inspect booths. But there is a way of inspecting booths. You cannot go inside the booth and ask for blessings from voters, the DM said. Mathuras gathbandhan candidate Kunwar Narendra Singh accused the district administration and the Yogi Adityanath government of being responsible for the EVM glitches across constituencies on Thursday. According to EC officials, over 43 EVMs were replaced in just Amroha. Lucknow-based political analyst Dr Rudra Dubey sees the boycott call as a protest against the political system. If people are boycotting the festival of democracy, then it raises the question as to what development has been done in these areas by the respective members of Parliament. We really need to think about what development model the government is giving to us. Dubey said, "If politicians contest elections on the promise of development, they must perform, as people want an answer for everything. Just visiting the constituencies will not help." Follow updates from phase 2 of the Lok Sabha Election 2019 here The second phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections saw a total voter turnout of 66 percent. Bengaluru: The second phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections saw a total voter turnout of 66 percent. Given that voting in the larger states in the Hindi belt is spread across five to seven phases, the focus at the end of the first two phases has mostly been on four southern states, excluding Kerala. All 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala will go to polls in the third phase on 23 April. A strong showing in the total of 129 seats in these five southern states is crucial for both Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi to achieve their ambitions in Delhi. Both tried with mixed success to stitch alliances in all the states. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where polling was completed on 11 April, neither was able to form an alliance with any of the regional parties. In Tamil Nadu, which had polling on Thursday and saw over 60 percent turnout, the two main Dravidian parties AIADMK and DMK, allied with the BJP and Congress respectively, have a long wait to see which way the voters have swung. Karnataka saw two important firsts. One, for the first time, Congress and JD(S) are contesting as allies. And two, for the first time, two grandsons of a former prime minister are in the fray and both facing strong challenges. The state recorded a voter turnout of 66.63 percent till 7 pm. These 14 seats in Bengaluru, the old Mysore region and the coastal belt were evenly split in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with BJP and Congress winning six each and the JD(S) two. On paper, poll percentage arithmetic would indicate the Congress coalition winning a majority of these seats. But present voting patterns rarely follow past percentages, especially when undercurrents of resentment in the coalition ranks are plainly visible over seat allocation and candidate selection. It is in these 14 seats that the alliance really has to deliver if the Congress is to make a sizeable dent into the BJP numbers. But the automatic transfer of all Vokkaliga votes to the Congress is far from sure. With JD(S) having little clout in the remaining seats going to the polls on 23 April, these 14 seats are critical if the Congress is to reverse the 2014 result which saw BJP winning 17 of the states 28 seats. Countrywide, the second phase covered 95 seats in 11 states and Puducherry, a Union Territory. Maharashtra, where the Shiv Sena-BJP tie up is up against the Congress-NCP alliance, had some big names from all the parties in the ten seats that saw about the same turnout as in the first phase: 57 percent. These big names included former chief minister and MP Ashok Chavan, former Union minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, daughter of senior BJP leader late Gopinath Munde and a sitting MP Pritam Munde, and Shiv Sena's Anand Adsul. During the 2014 elections, NDA had swept these seats. Since the ten seats were spread across Vidarbha, Marathwada and southern Maharashtra, soaring temperatures saw voters reach polling booths early. Political parties and the administration worked hard to get people to vote, wanting to exceed the 56 percent first phase voter turnout. Only three seats saw voting in Chhattisgarh Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon and the reserved Kanker seat. Polling was expected to exceed the first phases 56 percent. Voters did turn out in sufficient numbers, the turnout being 70 percent. Basanta Bai, 65, preferred to vote first and then get admitted to hospital. This festival arrives once in five years, health conditions go up and down, said Basanta. As per latest reports, seven villages of Gariaband district reportedly boycotted the polls, demanding a bridge at Senmunda Ghat on Telnadi. Only four votes were registered from these seven villages. Except for Assam, which saw five seats vote in each of the two phases, all the other north-eastern states are done with voting and have all registered high voter turnout of over 65 percent in both phases, with Tripura, where one seat saw voter turnout of 81 percent in the first phase. The only other constituency which could see voter turnout close to this number is Mandya in Karnataka, where the chief ministers son was pitted against late actor Ambareeshs wife Sumalatha, who had BJPs support. Assam is witnessing some interesting contests in seats like Silchar, where it is a close fight between BJP's Rajdeep Roy and Sushmita Dev, the sitting Congress MP. BJP spokespersons Rupam Goswami and Subhas Dutta claimed the state is going to be a Ram Rajya. EVM malfunction was reported in areas like Nagaon, Karimganj and parts of Dima Hasao district (North Cachar Hills Dist). I am waiting since 9 am, but unable to cast my vote because EVM is not working, said a voter in Mongoldoi. Polling in Inner Manipur constituency saw some incidents of violence in which EVMs were destroyed. Bishesh Huirem, 29, who represented India at the Miss International Queen in 2016, a beauty pageant for transgender women, said she would vote for the right candidate and not for a political party. The transgender beauty queen was chosen as an election icon for the second time in 2019. The worst incidents of violence were reported from Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal, where only three seats voted in the first phase, with a turnout of 76 percent. Some violence took place in all the three seats voting on Thursday Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Raiganj. In Raiganj, the CPM candidates vehicle was pelted with stones. Veteran Left leader and CPM MP Md Salim's car was attacked with bricks. A BJP worker, Shishupal Sahis, was found hanging from a tree in Purulia. The states BJP leaders have filed a complaint with the Election Commission. In Odisha, a female poll officer, Sanjukta Digal, was killed by Naxals in Kandhamal district when headed towards the polling booth along with her team. EC has announced a compensation of Rs 30 lakh to Digals family. In Odisha, the second phase saw polling for five Lok Sabha seats and 35 Assembly segments. EVM malfunction was reported from several places, but did not cause any major disruption in voting. Voter turnout was 57.81 percent. With inputs from Angarika Gogoi, Ashwin Aghor and KN Kishore PIc by: Abdul Kathar (The author is a Bengaluru-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com.) A record high voting percentage in the second phase of voting in Bihar, covering five constituencies on Thursday. Patna: A record high voting percentage in the second phase of voting in Bihar, covering five constituencies on Thursday, indicated that despite comparatively low literacy rate in Seemanchal region, people participated in the festival of democracy with enthusiasm. On the whole, 62.52 percent voting was recorded in five constituencies: Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar, Banka and Bhagalpur, with highest 68.20 percent in Katihar and over 64 percent in Purnia and Kishanganj. In the second phase of voting, Congress, from the mahagathbandhan, and Nitish Kumars JD(U), from NDA, have greater stakes. The BJP did not fight a single seat and had allotted all of them to JD(U) because the saffron party had lost all of them in 2014. Incidentally, all these seats, including three in Seemanchal area, have dominant to sizeable population of Muslims. The poll observers said that high polling in Kishanganj might be attributed to youths attraction towards All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslmin (AIMIM) headed by firebrand Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. Congress is contesting from two seats: Kishanganj and Katihar. The party in 2014 won Kishanganj, which has nearly 70 percent Muslim population, but its MP Asrarul Haq died late last year and Katihar was won by then Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar. He recently joined Congress and was fighting to retain his seat which sent him to Lok Sabha five times. Congress has also fielded another turncoat Uday Singh from Purnia, who quit BJP and got a ticket from Congress. Singh represented this seat once. Another stakeholder is AIMIM, whose president Asaduddin Owaisi camped in Kishanganj where he has fielded Akhtarul Iman. Owaisi had fielded a few candidates, including Iman, in Seemanchal area in 2015 Assembly elections, but couldn't win a single seat despite his high-pitched campaigning. Another important aspect is that BJP allotted Bhagalpur and Banka, the two seats outside Seemanchal region, to JD(U), which led to uneasiness and ripples in the saffron party because its two leaders Shahnawaz Hussain and Putul Devi were left high and dry. Hussain and Devi earlier represented Bhagalpur and Banka respectively. A seething Putul Devi jumped into poll arena as an Independent. Hussain is sulking and accusing Nitish Kumar of taking away his seat, but he doesn't want to challenge BJP's decision. The presence of Putul Devi, who has been suspended from BJP, has caused apprehension in the JD(U) camp also because her daughter Shreyasi Singh, the Commonwealth Games gold medalist in shooting, actively campaigned for her mother. North states Lok Sabha Election voting LIVE updates: BJP candidates from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya alleged that she was tortured by jail officials. She also broke down while addressing the party workers. Auto refresh feeds Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar and BJP's Hema Malini are among the 85 candidates contesting. Fatehpur Sikri will see a triangular battle between Babbar, BJP's Rajkumar Chahar and BSP's Shreebhagwan Sharma, who is a two-time MLA from Debai assembly constituency of Bulandshahr. In Uttar Pradesh, the key constituencies of Nagina (SC), Amroha, Bulandshahr (SC), Aligarh, Hathras (SC), Fatehpur Sikri, Mathura and Agra (SC) will go to polls on Thursday. The Janata Dal (United) is contesting from all the five seats, including Purnea which it had won in 2014 contesting separately from the BJP-led NDA. The BJP had contested all the five seats in the last general elections and lost all of these. Bihar will witness polling in five Lok Sabha seats which are all important for chief minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U). The fate of 68 candidates will be decided by 86.01 lakh voters across Bhagalpur, Banka, Kishanganj, Katihar and Purnea Lok Sabha constituencies. Voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm at all places except Katoria and Belhar Assembly segments under Banka constituency, where it will conclude two hours early. The Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency also consists of eight Assembly segments. One of them Manpur-Mohla will witness polling from 7 am to 3 pm, while voters in rest of them can vote from 7 am to 5 pm. The Kanker Lok Sabha constituency has eight Assembly segments and of these, polling in four Anatgarh, Keshkal, Bhanupratappur and Kanker will be held from 7 am to 3 pm in view of Maoist threat. In rest of the Assembly segments polling time is from 7 am to 5 pm. In Chhattisgarh, Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund all with heavy Maoist presence will go to the polls Thursday amid tight security to decide the fate of 36 candidates. There are 36 candidates in the fray in these seats, but the main fight is likely to be between the ruling Congress and the main Opposition BJP. Authorities have deployed over 80 companies for election duty in the twin constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir. The twin constituencies have 2,981,083 registered electors. Twelve candidates each are in fray for both Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies. In Jammu and Kashmir, over 29.81 lakh voters will decide the fate of 24 candidates, including former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and Union minister Jitendra Singh, contesting the Srinagar and Udhampur seats, which go to polls in the second phase. From the west, only Maharashtra will have polling for ten of its constituencies: Buldhana, Akola, Amravati in Vidarbha and Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur in Marathwada and Solapur in south-western Maharashtra. Polling stations 38 and 39 in Bhagalpur Parliamentary constituency of Bihar have been decorated ahead of the 7 am flagging off of the day's polling. Mobile internet services have been snapped in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley as a precautionary measure, as Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies go to vote today in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections Minutes before polling is set to begin, visuals tweeted by ANI show security personnel in place and polling officials conducting last minute checks at booths in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua. In Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon, an area heavily under Maoist domination, tall spirals of pink and white balloons along with rangoli welcome messages are some of the measures taken to attract voters to the booths. Voters have already gathered at booth number 19 in Mathura, just as polling has started, with great enthusiasm. A close fight is expected between the BJP and the alliance of the SP, BSP and RLD in the second phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh. With a good number of Jatavs, Yadavs and OBCs being fielded from all the seats, especially Agra, Mathura, Fatehpur Sikri and Bulandshahr, the SP, BSP and RLD coalition seems to be giving tough fight to the BJP. It is also to be noted that all the eight seats in Uttar Pradesh which will go to polls today were swept by the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections. Vishesh Goyal, a first time voter in Bijnor says that he will be voting on the issues of terrorism, development and employment. It may be mentioned that the air strike in Balakot and the issue of Pakistan have been consistent issues raked up by the BJP in its campaign speeches. Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde has been one of the first from his party to cast his vote at Solapur. In Maharashtra, 10 Lok Sabha seats go to polls in Phase 2. More than 100 EVMs had to be changed during polling hours in the first phase of voting in different parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. Due to EVM snags voting is yet to start at booth number 201 in Agra and booth number 148 in Mathura. EVMs developing technical snags has posed quite the challenge for the EC in these Lok Sabha elections. A large number of people can be seen waiting for voting to start in the video below, shot at booth number 54. Polling could not be started due to an EVM snag in the booth. It has to be noted that this specific booth falls in Agra district but the Parliamentary constituency is Fatehpur Sikri. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has questioned the Election Commission as to why no action has been taken against Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath who is allegedly "trying to influence voters by visiting temples." Mayawati also accused him of visiting the houses of dalits and having food there, for the same purpose. The 2017 Srinagar bypolls were marked by heavy violence. Eight people were killed and the voter turnout was only seven percent. The bypoll had become necessary with the resignation of Tariq Hamed Karra from PDP in what he termed was the protest against the heavy handedness of forces in 2016 after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Muzafar Wani. Karra has joined Congress, which is supporting Farooq on the seat. A day ago, incidents of stone pelting took place in Beerwah, the Assembly constituency which was represented by former CM and NC vice president, Omar Abdullah. A petrol bomb was also hurled on the residence of an ex NC MLA raising tensions here. Polling has started amid tight security for the Srinagar Parliamentary seat which will see former chief minister and NC president, Farooq Abdullah, pitted against People's Conference candidate, Irfan Ansari, People's Democratic Party candidate, Aga Mohsin, and BJP's Khalid Jehangir. Two suspected Maoists have been killed in an encounter with District Reserve Guard (DRG) in the forest area of Dhanikarka under Kuakonda police station limits. Voter turnout in the five constituencies of Bihar is 5.73 percent until 8 am. Bihar will witness polling in five Lok Sabha seats of Bhagalpur, Banka, Kishanganj, Katihar and Purnea. Polling is being held on Thursday in Kashmir, in the three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal. Srinagar, has the highest number of 857 polling stations, followed by Budgam with 624 stations and Ganderbal with 235. On Wednesday evening, about 1,716 polling officials were dispatched to various polling stations for the elections. Beed District Magistrate Astik Kumar Pandey has said that places have reported EVM and VVPAT malfunctions since polling began at the Beed constituency on Thursday. The places are Georai, Mazalgaon, Kej, Ashti, Parali. "However all those machines have been replaced immediately and polling is now progressing smoothly at all locations," Pandey added to ANI. Not even a single vote has been cast at booth number 166 of Nagla Shadi village in Agra Lok Sabha constituency. The villagers here are boycotting the elections in protest against lack of developmental measures undertaken by the government. Yogesh Nagale from Hatrun village of Akola district exercised his franchise before joining his own wedding, early on Thursday. ANI has reported that a flag bearing the Congress symbol was spotted outside a polling booth at Triveni Nayak School in Bihar's Katihar. In the 2014 general election, BJP had fielded Dilip Kumar Jaiswal who had got 2,93,461 votes. This time JDU is with BJP so their combined votes may challenge the Congress who had won the seat with a margin of around 2 lakhs. This time, AIMIM is contesting from this seat. The party has given a ticket to Akhtarul Iman. Akhtarul had fought the 2014 election on a JDU ticket. AIMIM chief Asadaduddin Owaisi has fan base in the area. JDU has this time given a ticket to Sayed Mahmood Ashraf. All three candidates of Muslim dominated Kishanganj Loksabha Constituency are Muslim this time. BJP leader MJ Akbar had won this seat in 1989 general election. Bhagalpur seat has a sizeable number of Mallah voters who had voted for BJP back then, as the community's poster boy Mukesh Sahani was with NDA. This time, however, Sahani has left the NDA and joined the RJD-Congress alliance as its candidate, making it anyone's guess as to where the community's votes may swing to. Bhagalpur had been a Congress bastion for a long time. After the 1989 riots, however, the party lost its hold over the seat. In the 2015 elections in Bihar, two Assembly seats were won by BJP, two by JDU and the rest two seats were won by the RJD and Congress. SP-BSP-RLD alliance candidate Kunwar Narendra Singh has alleged that administration and the Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh are behind the EVM glitches in the state. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer's Twitter handle has tweeted that turnout among the disabled has soared this time. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer's Twitter handle has tweeted that turnout among the disabled has soared this time. Watch as villagers raise slogans of vote boycott in Jagatiya village of Mathura over lack of development in the area. Miss India West Bengal 2017, Shivankita Dixit, reached Agra from Mumbai on Thursday to cast her vote. She urged them to exercise their franchise. Across booths in north India, senior citizens battled odds to exercise their franchise. In Bihar, 90-year-olds Urmila and Usha cast their votes at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur while in Jammu and Kashmir, 80-year-old Jogindero Devi made a trip from Kathua district hospital to vote on Thursday. UP Congress chief Raj Babbar and party's candidate from Fatehpur Sikri has cast his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College. Bulandshahr MP Bhola Singh when stopped by security personnel at the entrance of a polling booth can be seen in a video as having placed a call to the District Magistrate who then facilitated the BJP leader and his supporters' entry into the polling booth. The security officer fielding the call can be heard saying that he is not allowed to let leaders go near the EVM. However, in the course of the conversation, he agrees and ultimately allows Singh inside. Polling has temporarily halted at booth number 217 in Solapur's Shastri Nagar due to a fault in the EVM, ANI has reported. Shailendra Kumar, the chief electoral officer of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, said full proof arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair election. A mobile internet shutdown, heavy presence of security forces on the road and massive presence of paramilitary forces at all sensitive cites is in place. Comprehensive security arrangements have been put in place for smooth conduct of the polls, SP Pani, the Inspector General of Police said. On Thursday morning, as polling started on a dull note, the streets were deserted and all shops and business establishments remained shut and the traffic was off the roads. As the high profile Srinagar Parliamentary constituency goes to polls in the second phase of ongoing Lok Sabha elections, a complete shutdown is being observed across the Kashmir valley after a boycott call given by Hurriyat leaders. Soon after the incident, Bazaz was taken to Srinagars SMHS hospital for treatment. A presiding officer of polling booth number 85 at Government Middle School Wazah Bagh Amira Kadal, suffered a heart attack on Thursday. Reports said that tthe presiding officer, identified as Zuhaib Bazaz, suffered a heart attack during poll duty. Ten policemen were injured in Bihar's Purnia when their jeep turned turtle while they were on poll duty, patrolling the area. Union Minister and BJP candidate from Buxar, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, cast his vote at a polling station in Bhagalpur on Thursday. At 11 am on Thursday, Bihar recorded 12.55% voter turnout. Ramsharan Sharma, a 70-year-old voter suffered a cardiac arrest while casting his vote in Bulandshahr. Bulandshahr has noted a high voter turnout percentage of over 2$ percent against Uttar Pradesh's cumulative 12.84 percent by 11 am. Protesting against the fact that their polling booth is in Dhampur area, which is far away, villagers of Gajpura which falls under Bijnor have decided to boycott the election. The number of protesters has gone up to nearly 600, prompting officials of the district administration to reach the village in an effort to convince voters otherwise. The Election Commission has taken cognisance of BJP MP Bhola Singh's entry into a polling booth in Bulandshahr after placing a call to the District Magistrate who reportedly asked a security officer to let Singh and his supporters in. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer's official Twitter handle replied to a video tweeted by a journalist, saying they have asked for more information in this regard. NC leader Omar Abdullah after casting his vote at a polling station in Munshi Bagh Area in Srinagar constituency talked about Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. "BJP have given ticket (from Bhopal) to a candidate who is not only an accused in a terror case but is also out on bail on health grounds. If her health condition doesn't permit her to be in jail, how does it permit her to contest polls?" he asked. Kanwar Singh Tanwar, the BJP's MP candidate from Amroha said on Thursday that fake voting was taking place and one way to stop it would be to check women in burkhas for their identity. During the first phase of polling, BJP leader Sanjeev Balyan too had made a similar comment. Gathbandhan candidate from Lucknow and new Samajwadi Party entrant Poonam Sinha, who is also wife of Congress's Patna Sahib candidate Shatrughn Sinha filed her nomination today in Lucknow. RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary said after casting his vote on Thursday that in 2014 people were excited to vote for the BJP but this time the gathbandhan is leading. "People who are associated with the BJP are suffering from a strange shame in rallying behind the party. Measures like the GST move have not done any favours. Voters want development," he said. "A candidate is allowed to inspect booths. But there is a way of inspecting booths. You cannot go inside the booth and ask for blessings from voters," he said. The Bulandhshahr District Magistrate Abhay Singh, in the line of fire after a video showing BJP MP Bhola Singh placing a call to him after being stopped by a security officer from entering a booth went viral, has said that Singh will now be under close scrutiny for the day. DM reacts to MP Bhola Singh incident: 'There is a way of inspecting booths, this was not it' Mahasamund is a high-profile LS constituency in Chhattisgarh from where stalwart leaders of both Congress and BJP have been elected and became cabinet ministers at the centre. The voters of seven tribal villages in the ST reserved assembly seat Bindranawagarh under Mahasamund LS constituency in Chhattisgarh have boycotted polling. They have decided not to vote unless their longstanding demand of having a school in their area is fulfilled. The villages are Supebeda, Khamarguda, Sagaunbhadi, Sendmuda, Motrapara, Pareva Pali and Khokhsara. Polling booth number 193 in Buldhana is being managed by differently-abled staff alone. ANI has quoted the presiding officer of the booth as having said, "I appeal to all specially-abled persons to cast their votes to strengthen democracy." Singh is out of danger and fit to perform duties after receiving first aid on location. Polling in the area is still underway. An IED blast took place between Koracha and Manpur Road at Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh, targeting an ITBP Road Opening Party (ROP) at 11 am on Thursday. ITBP constable Man Singh received minor injuries, reported ANI. SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow parliamentary constituency, Poonam Sinha, is leading a road show through the city after filing her nomination papers a little while ago. Husband and Congress' Patna Sahib candidate Shatrughan Sinha, and SP leader Dimple Yadav are also present. Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister AKhilesh Yadav has filed his nomination from Azamgarh. Akhilesh, this time, is contesting from the seat traditionally held by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. The state of employment in this constituency has hit a new low in the past four months, owing largely to what is believed to be the policies of the government. BJP has pitched UP minister SP Singh Baghel as the MP candidiate, and the gathbandhan has fielded Manoj Soni. The Congress is trying to turn it into a triangular contest by fielding Preeta Harit. Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, brings in considerable revenue through tourism in the country, but has hardly seen any development in the recent past. Sitting Member of Parliament Dr Ram Shanker Katheria, is a great one for stoking controversies, but has led the monkey menace proceed unabated in the constituency. A few months ago, a newborn was stabbed by monkeys. Yet neither the administration nor any lawmaker has paid heed to the problem. NCPs Tariq Anwar won the seat defeating BJP's Nikhil Kumar Choudhary, a three-time MP, by nearly 1.15 lakh votes in 2014. This election, Tariq Anwars main rival is Dulal Chandra Goswami of the JD (U), which is part of the NDA, also comprising the BJP and LJP. The Six legislative assembly segments of Katihar, Kadwa, Balrampur, Pranpur, Manihari and Barari which together comprise Katihar Lok Sabha constituency, have the rare distinction of making up one of the few Lok Sabha seats in the Hindi belt which have unclaimed by the BJP in 2014. Part of Seemanchal region, Kishanganj is prone to floods and has some of the worst development statistics in the country. With a per capita annual income of Rs 9,928 (as per the Economic Survey 2018-19), it has a literacy rate of 57.04%. While nearly 60% of the population lives below poverty line, the dropout rate after high school is as high as 98%, and 84% of districts women are illiterate. In 2015, AIMIM had fielded Akhtarul Iman from Kochadhaman Assembly seat where he stood second. JD(U) had won. Data shows that four out of six constituencies were won by RJD and Congress in the 2015 Assembly election. JD(U) and LJP had each got one seat respectively. Kishanganj Lok Sabha seat comprises six Assembly seats. Analysis of the 2015 Assembly poll results predicts a smooth win for the Congress if the AIMIM vote share does not decrease significantly. Is AIMIM going to cause an upset for Congress in the seat? Reports of clashes have come in from various areas of Budgam in central Kashmir. One policeman has received minor injuries. Voters at booth number 256 in Agra complained that their names had gone missing from the voters' list. "I have been voting for the last 20 years but this time, I did not find my name in the list. I have my voter's ID card here," said one Mohammad Salim. A 100-year-old woman fainted while voting at the Kokola Haibatpur polling station in Aligarh. It has been more than 30 minutes and the ambulance hasn't reached. Due to stone-pelting, the polling percentage was thin. Only 42 votes were cast by 2 pm at Trajbal polling station in Charari Sharief. As the polling was going on, youth pelted the security forces with stones to disrupt the electoral process. The forces retaliated with heavy use of tear smoke shells. A vendor said that his vegetables were scattered on the road and he was robbed of money too by the security forces. India Today TV reported that the polling in Budgam was marred by stone-pelting in the area. Moreover, the overall poll percentage in Jammu and Kashmir till 1 pm is 29.6 percent. As maximum buses have been hired by political parties, voters are risking their lives to reach their villages to cast votes. In Banka, few people were injured and ruckus was reported at booth number 59 and 60 when a security personal fired in the air. The people at the booth accused the security personnel of pressurising them to vote in favour of a candidate. The Election Commission had told Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvis to desist from making references to defence forces for political propaganda. Naqvi made the remark at a public meeting in Rampur on 3 April. SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow Poonam Sinha was accompanied by her husband and Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha and SP leader Dimple Yadav. They held a roadshow before the filing of nomination. According to India Today, the Congress also filed a complaint with the Election Commission against her candidature. The father of a victim in Malegaon blast has filed application against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur after she was declared BJP candidate from Bhopal. According to ANI, the application has questioned her candidature before the NIA court, citing her health, which was one of the reasons in her bail application. People of Dada area in Reasi district held protest after a faulty EVM was allegedly changed by election officials. They also raised anti-BJP slogans like 'gundagardi nahi chalegi' and 'BJP hai hai'. People await to cast vote at Wangath Kangan of Ganderbal district, which is the native village of Mian Altaf, who is a former minister from the National Conference. Polling in Gajupura in Nagina, resumed after being stalled for at least two hours on Thursday. The village was boycotting the election over non development, after which the police resorted to mild lathi charge. The village headman was also injured in the incident. BJP candidates from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya alleged that she was tortured by jail officials. "They wanted me to accept that I was involved in a blast in which several Muslims were killed. Subah ho jati thi pit'te pit'te, log badal jate the peetne wale, lekin pitne wali main sirf akeli rehti thi. (Night would turn into day as they would keep beating me up. The officials would change, but I would remain there)." She also broke down while addressing the press conference. Villagers of Dhanegaon boycotted polling as the issue related to their rehabilitation has remained unresolved for a long time. Residents of Jejala village in Bhum tehsil and Dhanegaon village in Tuljapur boycotted voting. Jejala has around 1,000 voters, but till 1 pm not a single person came to the polling booth. not paid heed to their demands and the issues have remained unresolved so far. Two villages in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra Thursday boycotted voting for the Lok Sabha election, as the villagers felt that the government has At Antagarh polling booth number 186 Kamta, one polling personnel, assistant teacher Tukalu Ram Nareti, died due to cardiac arrest. As per reports, he developed chest pain around 6 am and died in the polling centre. Kanker collector KL Chouhan said that his body was shifted to hospital while other personnel was deputed. People of Dada area in Reasi district held protest after a faulty EVM was allegedly changed by election officials. They also raised anti-BJP slogans like 'gundagardi nahi chalegi' and 'BJP hai hai'. People await to cast vote at Wangath Kangan of Ganderbal district, which is the native village of Mian Altaf, who is a former minister from the National Conference. Polling in Gajupura in Nagina, resumed after being stalled for at least two hours on Thursday. The village was boycotting the election over non development, after which the police resorted to mild lathi charge. The village headman was also injured in the incident. "The Election Commission, which has an anti-dalit mindset, stopped me from campaigning in the capital of Dalits, Agra. Victory of BSP candidates in order to form its government at the Centre will be the appropriate reply to the Commission," Mayawati said at a poll meeting in Gopalganj. She also claimed that BJP leaders are taking the army's name in their poll speeches violating the model code of conduct, but the EC is keeping mum. Mayawati, a dalit leader, also described the proposed NYAY scheme as the 'jumla' of the Congress. BSP supremo Mayawati Thursday alleged that the Election Commission has an anti-dalit mindset and that was why it had stopped her from campaigning in Agra, considered the 'Dalit capital' of northern India. BJP candidates from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya alleged that she was tortured by jail officials. "They wanted me to accept that I was involved in a blast in which several Muslims were killed. Subah ho jati thi pit'te pit'te, log badal jate the peetne wale, lekin pitne wali main sirf akeli rehti thi. (Night would turn into day as they would keep beating me up. The officials would change, but I would remain there)." She also broke down while addressing the press conference. Villagers of Dhanegaon boycotted polling as the issue related to their rehabilitation has remained unresolved for a long time. Residents of Jejala village in Bhum tehsil and Dhanegaon village in Tuljapur boycotted voting. Jejala has around 1,000 voters, but till 1 pm not a single person came to the polling booth. not paid heed to their demands and the issues have remained unresolved so far. Two villages in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra Thursday boycotted voting for the Lok Sabha election, as the villagers felt that the government has At Antagarh polling booth number 186 Kamta, one polling personnel, assistant teacher Tukalu Ram Nareti, died due to cardiac arrest. As per reports, he developed chest pain around 6 am and died in the polling centre. Kanker collector KL Chouhan said that his body was shifted to hospital while other personnel was deputed. Voters in a polling booth of Kathua district alleged that when the button of an EVM was pressed to vote for the BJP, it remained pressed for a while. Due to this, even when the votes were polled for other parties, the machine polled in favour of BJP candidate. They appealed for re-polling. North states Lok Sabha Election voting LATEST updates: BJP candidates from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya alleged that she was tortured by jail officials. She also broke down while addressing the party workers. The father of a victim in Malegaon blast has filed application against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur after she was declared BJP candidate from Bhopal. According to ANI, the application in an NIA court has questioned her candidature, citing her health, which was one of the reasons in her bail application. By 4 pm, Chhattisgarh recorded 60 percent polling, while Jammu and Kashmir saw 38.6 percent voting. The Election Commission had told Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvis to desist from making references to defence forces for political propaganda. Naqvi made the remark at a public meeting in Rampur on 3 April. Till 3 pm, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh recorded 39 percent voter turnout, while Chhattisgarh saw 48 percent polling. As the polling was going on, the youth pelted stones at the security forces to disrupt the electoral process in Charari Sharief area of Budgam. The forces retaliated with heavy use of tear smoke shells. A vendor said that his vegetables were scattered on the road and he was robbed of money, too, by the forces. Due to the stone-pelting, the polling percentage was thin. Only 42 votes were cast by 2 pm at Trajbal polling station in Charari Sharief. The Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance has fielded new SP entrant Poonam Sinha from Lucknow. Sinha filed her nomination papers on Thursday. She is currently leading a roadshow through Lucknow, in which she is joined by her husband, Congress's Patna Sahib candidate Shatrughn Sinha and Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav. Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has filed his nomination from Azamgarh. Akhilesh, this time, is contesting from the seat traditionally held by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. As the high profile Srinagar Parliamentary constituency goes to polls in the second phase of ongoing Lok Sabha elections, a complete shutdown is being observed across the Kashmir valley after a boycott call given by Hurriyat leaders, leading to a paltry turnout of 4.37 percent at 1 pm. On Thursday morning, as polling started on a dull note, the streets were deserted and all shops and business establishments remained shut and the traffic was off the roads. Kanwar Singh Tanwar, the BJP's MP candidate from Amroha said on Thursday that fake voting was taking place and one way to stop it would be to check women in burkhas for their identity. During the first phase of polling, BJP leader Sanjeev Balyan too had made a similar comment. NC leader Omar Abdullah after casting his vote at a polling station in Munshi Bagh Area in Srinagar constituency talked about Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. "BJP have given ticket (from Bhopal) to a candidate who is not only an accused in a terror case but is also out on bail on health grounds. If her health condition doesn't permit her to be in jail, how does it permit her to contest polls?" he asked. Omar's father Farooq is the NC candidate from Srinagar. The Election Commission has taken cognisance of BJP MP Bhola Singh's entry into a polling booth in Bulandshahr after placing a call to the District Magistrate who reportedly asked a security officer to let Singh and his supporters in. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer's official Twitter handle replied to a video tweeted by a journalist, saying they have asked for more information in this regard. Protesting against the fact that their polling booth is in Dhampur area, which is far away, villagers of Gajpura which falls under Bijnor have decided to boycott the election. The number of protesters has gone up to nearly 600, prompting officials of the district administration to reach the village in an effort to convince voters otherwise. Bulandshahr MP Bhola Singh, when stopped by security personnel at the entrance of a polling booth, can be seen in a video as having placed a call to the District Magistrate who then facilitated the BJP leader and his supporters' entry into the polling booth. The security officer fielding the call can be heard saying that he is not allowed to let leaders go near the EVM. However, in the course of the conversation, he agrees and ultimately allows Singh inside. A polling official deputed at polling booth number 186 in Kanker of Chhattisgarh has died of heart attack while he was on election duty on Phase 2 of the polls. Three constituencies of Chhattisgarh have gone to polls on Thursday, including Kanker. BSP chief Mayawati took to Twitter early on Thursday, as Phase 2 of the elections got underway. In successive tweets the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are as nervous as the Congress was during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. She had earlier tweeted on the Election Commission's discrimination against non-BJP leaders. People have begun queuing up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block. Voting is yet to begin here due to EVM malfunction. Problems with EVMs have plagued voting in several stations at Mathura, Hathras and Aligarh across the state. Not even a single vote has been cast at booth number 166 of Nagla Shadi village in Agra Lok Sabha constituency. The villagers here are boycotting the elections in protest against lack of developmental measures undertaken by the government. Polling has started amid tight security for the Srinagar Parliamentary seat which will see former chief minister and NC president, Farooq Abdullah, pitted against People's Conference candidate, Irfan Ansari, People's Democratic Party candidate, Aga Mohsin, and BJP's Khalid Jehangir. A day ago, incidents of stone pelting took place in Beerwah, the Assembly constituency which was represented by former CM and NC vice president, Omar Abdullah. A petrol bomb was also hurled on the residence of an ex NC MLA raising tensions here. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has questioned the Election Commission as to why no action has been taken against Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath who is allegedly "trying to influence voters by visiting temples." Mayawati also accused him of visiting the houses of dalits and having food there, for the same purpose. Due to EVM snags voting is yet to start at booth number 201 in Agra and booth number 148 in Mathura. EVMs developing technical snags has posed quite the challenge for the EC in these Lok Sabha elections. More than 100 EVMs had to be changed during polling hours in the first phase of voting in different parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. Polling at Rithora in Balapur has reportedly been stopped due to snags in the EVM. Mobile internet services have been snapped in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley as a precautionary measure, as Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies go to vote on Thursday in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. In the north, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Jammu and Kashmir will go to polls during the second phase of election on Thursday. From the west, only Maharashtra will have polling for ten of its constituencies: Buldhana, Akola, Amravati in Vidarbha and Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur in Marathwada and Solapur in south-western Maharashtra. Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar and BJP's Hema Malini are among the 85 candidates contesting for eight Lok Sabha seats going to polls on Thursday Nagina (SC), Amroha, Bulandshahr (SC), Aligarh, Hathras (SC), Fatehpur Sikri, Mathura and Agra (SC). Fatehpur Sikri will see a triangular battle between Babbar, BJP's Rajkumar Chahar and BSP's Shreebhagwan Sharma, who is a two-time MLA from Debai assembly constituency of Bulandshahr. In the temple-town constituency of Mathura, Hema Malini is seeking re-election after winning the seat in the 2014 general election. The other candidates in the fray are Kunwar Narendra Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Mahesh Pathak of the Congress. In Amroha, sitting BJP MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar will lock horns with Bahujan Samaj Party's Kunwar Danish Al, who recently joined the party after quitting as the general secretary of the Janata Dal-Secular. The eight Lok Sabha seats were bagged by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014. This time it faces a tough fight from the Samajwadi Party-BSP-RLD alliance. Bihar will witness polling in five Lok Sabha seats which are important for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U). The fate of 68 candidates will be decided by 86.01 lakh voters across Bhagalpur, Banka, Kishanganj, Katihar and Purnea Lok Sabha constituencies. Voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm at all places except Katoria and Belhar Assembly segments under Banka constituency, where it will conclude two hours early. The Janata Dal (United) is contesting from all the five seats, including Purnea which it had won in 2014 contesting separately from the BJP-led NDA. The BJP had contested all the five seats in the last general elections and lost all of these. Purnea MP Santosh Kumar Kushwaha of the JD(U) is in a straight fight with Uday Singh of the Congress who had won the seat on BJP ticket in 2004 and 2009 but quit the saffron party in protest that it is giving "too many" seats to the JD(U). Uday Singh is the younger brother of Nand Kishore Singh, a bureaucrat who is currently chairman of the 15th Finance Commission. Their mother Madhuri Singh had won the seat twice in the 1980s as a Congress candidate. Another major candidate is former Union minister Tariq Anwar who seeks to retain Katihar as a Congress nominee. He had won the seat on an NCP ticket five years ago. A co-founder of the NCP, Anwar returned to the Congress in 2018 after two decades. He had won the seat for the Congress four times in the 1980s and the 1990s. The JD(U) has fielded Dulal Chandra Goswami there. In Jammu and Kashmir, over 29.81 lakh voters will decide the fate of 24 candidates, including former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and Union minister Jitendra Singh, contesting the Srinagar and Udhampur seats, which go to polls in the second phase. Authorities have deployed over 80 companies for election duty in the twin constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir. The twin constituencies have 2,981,083 registered electors. Twelve candidates each are in fray for both Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies. In Chhattisgarh, Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund all with heavy Maoist presence will go to the polls Thursday amid tight security to decide the fate of 36 candidates. There are 36 candidates in the fray in these seats, but the main fight is likely to be between the ruling Congress and the main Opposition BJP. The Kanker Lok Sabha constituency has eight Assembly segments and of these, polling in four Anatgarh, Keshkal, Bhanupratappur and Kanker will be held from 7 am to 3 pm in view of Maoist threat. In rest of the Assembly segments polling time is from 7 am to 5 pm. The Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency also consists of eight Assembly segments. One of them Manpur-Mohla will witness polling from 7 am to 3 pm, while voters in rest of them can vote from 7 am to 5 pm. Of the 2,322 polling stations in Rajnandgaon, 279 have been marked as hypersensitive and 302 as sensitive. The polling time in the Mahasamund constituency is from 7 am to 5 pm except in six hypersensitive booths at Odh, Kamabhaundi, Amammora, Badegobra, Sahbinkachhar and Kodomali villages where the voting time is from 7 am to 3 pm. Malegaon blast-accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, who is contesting Lok Sbaha polls on a BJP ticket from Bhopal, was given bail by the Bombay HC in April 2017 because she was 'suffering from breast cancer' and was 'unable to walk even without support' The BJP on Wednesday announced Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the key accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, as the party's candidate from Bhopal. Thakur was a key accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts in which two bombs fitted to motorcycle went off in the Maharashtra town on 9 September, 2008, killing seven people. Out on bail, Thakur has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 case, but is still facing trial under other criminal provisions including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Thakur was given bail by the Bombay High Court in April 2017 on health grounds. According to the bail order, given by a Bombay High Court bench headed by Justices Shalini Phansalkar Joshi and Ranjit More, she was given bail because she "suffering from breast cancer" and was "unable to walk even without support". In the bail order, the Bombay High Court bench said, "...Medical certificate annexed to the petition and written submissions show that appellant is suffering from breast cancer. The medical report of the Appellant indicates that she has become infirm and cannot even walk without support. The medical certificate further shows that Appellant is being given treatment in Ayurvedic hospital. In our opinion, Ayurvedic Hospital cannot give proper treatment to the Appellant, who is suffering from cancer." The Court further stated: "Taking, therefore, totality of the facts and circumstances of the case mentioned here-in-above, we are of the considered opinion that the Appellant has made out a case for bail under sub-section (5) of section 43D of the UAP Act. We, accordingly, allow the Appeal and Appellant is directed to be released on bail on her furnishing bail bond of Rs.5,00,000/-, with with one or two sureties of like amount...." The conditions under which Thakur received bail were pointed out by National Conference chief Omar Abdullah in a tweet, where he slammed the BJP for making a "mockery of the legal system". "A person, an under-trial, who stands accused of terrorism; out on bail on health grounds but clearly healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat. Hindutva rules!" Omar Abdullah tweeted on Wednesday. What a mockery of the legal system the BJP has made with its candidate for Indore! A person, an under-trial, who stands accused of terrorism; out on bail on health grounds but clearly healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat. Hindutva rules! Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) April 17, 2019 The National Conference leader also questioned the bail order saying, "If her health condition doesn't permit her to be in jail, how does it permit her to contest polls?" On Wednesday, Thakur was ecstatic as she walked into the BJP office in Bhopal to formally join the party. She even gave interviews after her meeting saying, she will "win the election". However, on Thursday, after the 'health reasons' under which she received bail were highlighted, videos of her in a wheelchair began circulating on media. Madhya Pradesh: Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur has arrived at the BJP office in Bhopal and is currently meeting senior BJP leaders Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Ramlal, and Prabhat Jha. pic.twitter.com/9rG7KuLiq0 ANI (@ANI) April 17, 2019 Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in Bhopal: I have formally joined BJP, I will contest elections and will win also. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/siAsXSMm1U ANI (@ANI) April 17, 2019 People's Democratic Party leader Mehboob Mufti also slammed the decision, saying had her party fielded a terror accused, then news channels would have gone berserk. "Imagine the anger if I fielded a terror accused. Channels would have gone berserk by now trending a mehboobaterrorist hashtag! According to these guys terror has no religion when it comes to saffron fanatics but otherwise all Muslims are terrorists. Guilty until proven innocent (sic)," she tweeted. In a terse reaction, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "What else can we expect from the BJP." However, Thakur's candidacy, has elicited enthusiastic reactions from Hindutva votaries and BJP leaders. BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party President Amit Shah have often accused Congress of coining the "Hindu terror" phrase and slapping "false" terror cases on Hindutva activists when the UPA was in power. On Wednesday, at a rally in Odisha, Shah said that the BJP has decided to take the matter (of Hindu terror) to the "people's court" by fielding Thakur against Singh. He also accused Congress of defaming India by coining terms like "Hindu terror" and "saffron terror". BJP national vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said Thakur "symbolises the fighting spirit of a woman, the courage for braving unspeakable torture for victory of truth and above all our relentless struggle to free democracy from crass vote bank politics". Hindutva votary and another party leader Subramanian Swamy said Thakur had "suffered enormously" and was a "victim" of the Congress agenda. Calling the 48-year-old saffron activist innocent and devoted to religion, Swamy played down other charges she is facing, saying "those are in the final stages of being dismissed". With inputs from agencies Varshney, a leader of the BJYM, courted controversy by announcing a bounty of Rs 11 lakh for West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's head after the State Police used batons to disperse a rally on 12 April, raising slogans in praise of Lord Rama on Hanuman Jayanti. The Supreme Court on Thursday reacted sharply while hearing a plea by BJP youth wing member, Yogesh Varshney, who had allegedly put a bounty on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Varshney's plea to stay his prosecution in the case, was dismissed by the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, refused to entertain Varshney's request to transfer all FIRs to one court, News 18 reported. Justice Gupta further said that the statements about bounty on a chief minister's head was a "serious matter". "If you have the guts to threaten someone, then have the guts to face the charges too," said the judge. Gupta added, "You threaten a constitutional authority, put a bounty on her head and then want us to help you. We don't hear such people." Varshney, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), courted controversy by announcing a bounty of Rs 11 lakh for West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's head after the state police used batons to disperse a rally on 12 April, raising slogans in praise of Lord Rama on Hanuman Jayanti. "Mamata government beat up people. If someone was wearing a red shirt or a red pant, they were beaten up brutally by the police. I don't understand... Mamata Banerjee organises Iftar party, she argues for the Muslims. I want to ask her are Hindus not human? If they had any humanity, they wouldn't have beaten up like this. If anyone brings me her severed head, I will give that person Rs 11 lakh," Varshney said while criticising the police action on the rally." TMC leaders had raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha and garnered support from other parties. Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bacchan had expressed anguish on the BJP leader's remark, stating that the BJP was keen on protecting cows, but not women. However, the BJP opted to distance itself from Varshney's comments, stating that the West Bengal government is free to take action against him in accordance with the law. South States Lok Sabha Election voting LIVE updates: At 4 p.m., Tamil Nadu has recorded a voter turnout of 52.18 percent, Karnataka of 49.57 percent and Puducherry of 58.77 percent. Auto refresh feeds In southern India, polling for the second phase of the Lok Sabha election will be held in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and the lone Lok Sabha seat of Puducherry on Thursday. In Tamil Nadu, elections will be held for 38 Lok Sabha seats and 18 Assembly constituencies In the southern Union Terrotiry, where 18 candidates are in the fray, voting will start at 7 am and end at 6 pm. The main battle is between the ruling Congress, which has fielded former Speaker V Vaithilingam and the Opposition All India NR Congress' (AINRC) K Narayanasamy. In 2014, R Radhakrishnan of the AINRC had won the seat, defeating Congress nominee V Narayanasamy, who is the current chief minister. While polling will be held between 7 am to 6 pm in 37 constituencies, it has been extended by two hours to 8 pm in the Madurai Lok Sabha seat in view of the Chithirai festival, which marks the grand entry of Lord Kallazhagar into Vaigai river. In Tamil Nadu, elections will be held for 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats on Thursday, as well as 18 Assembly constituencies. Over 5 crore voters are expected to exercising their franchise to decide the fate of about 800 MP aspirants. On Tuesday, President Ram Nath Kovind had rescinded the notification to hold the election to the Vellore seat based on the Election Commission's recommendation. The poll panel had made the decision based on the district police's complaint against DMK leader Kathir Anand and two party functionaries after around Rs 11.5 crore was seized in cash in I-T raids. While all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu were supposed to vote today, polling in Vellore constituency was cancelled after flying squads, including Income Tax Department and Election Commission officials unearthed in raids crores of rupees that were allegedly meant to bribe voters. It is a high-stakes battle for the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance in the state as any adverse results from the region, considered their stronghold, is likely to affect the longevity of the coalition government in Karnataka. In Karnataka, 14 of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats go to polls on Thursday. They are mostly in Dakshin Kannada, covering nearly the entire old Mysuru region and a few coastal districts. Mandya, from where Nikhil is fighting, saw a bitterly fought campaign with Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy devoting most of his time to the constituency to ensure his son's victory against actress and Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, who has the backing of the BJP and Kannada film personalities. Local Congress leaders are disgruntled about their party supporting JD(S), which has been their arch rival for decades. Prominent contestants in the fray are former prime minister HD Deve Gowda (Tumkur), his grandsons Prajwal Revanna and Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Hassan and Mandya, respectively, as well as Union minister Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North) and senior Congress leaders Verappa Moily (Chikkaballapura) and KH Muniyappa (Kolar). Earlier, he had tweeted saying, "We will vote for a new political change in our country and in Tamil Nadu. His son Karti Chidambaram is the Congress candidate from Shivagana. He is contesting against BJPs H Raja. The former finance minister said Tamil people want a change of government both at the Centre and the state. "That's why there's overwhelming support from the secular progressive front of the Congress, DMK and other allies. I have voted for this democratic, secular front. We have to preserve our sovereignty. We believe that all religions are equal and everyone is equal before law." The Karnataka chief minister urged voters to exercise their franchise. "Everyone must vote. Become an active part of the democracy," he tweeted. Sitting MP and Congress candidate for Chitradurga BN Chandrappa sought blessings from a cow before casting his vote. Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidi Rangarajan cast their vote at a polling station in Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga constituency. Polling agents have stopped voting at seven booths in Madurai constituency after finding a "suspicious" sticker pasted in EVMs that read "AIADMK". Due to defects in voting machines, polling has been delayed at three booths at Padmanabhapuram in Kanyakumari Lok Sabha Constituency. Former AIADMK minister PH Pandiyan is waiting to cast his vote at the Karisalpatty polling booth in Tirunelveli, where voting has been. Polling has been delayed by 20 minutes at several booths in Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency due to problems in EVMs. There are 17,12,012 voters in Mandya, of whom 8,54,758 are male and 8,56,285 voters. There are 822 service voters and 147 third-gender voters. As many as 2,046 polling stations have been established and 4,092 EVMs have been set up for polling. A total of 444 polling stations were identified as sensitive and 132 as hyper sensitive in the constituency. The constituency made headlines as Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil is contesting from Mandya against Independent candidate actress Sumalatha. There are 22 candidates in the fray, but the primary contest is between Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Sumalatha. Voting in Mandya Lok Sabha constituency started amid unprecedented security arrangements on Thursday. As many as 9,904 polling agents and over 5,000 for security personnel have been deployed for the election. No votes have been cast at Guindy Corporation school in Chennai's Maduvankarai due to EVM malfunctioning. Polling stations in Chennai's Ashok Nagar, Virugampakkam and Eldams Road are also facing the same trouble with voting machines. Sources say voters will have to wait for at least an hour before being able to vote. Voting yet to start at many booths in Chennai Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan wait in queue outside a polling station at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai. Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central Prakash Raj waits in queue at a polling booth to cast his vote. They also urged villagers to cast their votes "without fail as it would help uphold the sanctity and values of a democratic system". A group of Sabarimala pilgrims cast their votes at Chikkamulugodu in Mandya district's Malavalli taluk even though they were scheduled to leave for their pilgrimigare on Wednesday night. They left for Samarimala temple in Kerala after voting. Former Union minister TR Baalu cast his vote at Kodampakkam polling booth in Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency. TR Baalu is the DMK candidate from the Sriperumbudur constituency. Voting officials were forced to look into EVM malfunctioning and technical problems in Trichy. Polling has been delayed at several booths across the state due to glitches in voting machines. Kanimozhi added that her brother and DMK chief MK Stalin had been groomed well by their father M Karunanidhi and had been able to fill in his shoes. "People in the Opposition are being harassed. Opposition candidates are being targeted with raids. The BJP has completely taken over AIADMK, which is very sad," she told reporters outside the polling booth. Several prominent faces ventured out to polling booths to cast their votes. The list includes RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale, who voted at Seshadripuram in Bengaluru; Tamil Nadu BJP candidate H Raja, who voted in Sivaganga and DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan, who voted in Chennai's Mylapore. Clashes erupted between AIADMK and AMMK party workers in Madurai Lok Sabha constituency. Sources say the violence broke out as parties were campaigning outside the polling station. In Nagercoil in Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency, voting was stopped at 33 polling booths for EVM repairs. Officials have not been given proper training in connecting the EVMS with VVPATs, which also delayed voting, according to sources. At 13 polling booths, repairs were carried out and polling resumed. In Erode, polling was stopped at three polling booths as EVMs had to be repaired and new machines were not kept in stock, thereby delaying voting. Voting was stopped at 15 polling booths in Trichy as EVMs were facing technical problems. Also, polling was delayed as officials arrived. Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy and their son and JD(S) candidate from Mandya Nikhil Kumaraswamy cast their votes at a polling station in Ramanagara. Over 2,000 people from the villages of Venkatapuram and Nachiampayalam of Tamil Nadu's Tiruppur Lok Sabha constituency boycotted the election. No villager has turned to vote. Voters were forced to wait in a long queue outside a polling booth in Arekadu in Madikeri taluk as EVMs developed technical snags. The officials arrived at 8.45 am, much after polling was scheduled to begin, to replace the EVMs. However, voting has yet to begin. In Bengaluru South, reports of missing names from voters' lists have emerged. Polling agents are looking into the complaints. The Income Tax Department had seized crore of rupees from both Murugan and Anand's houses in raids. DMK treasurer leader Durai Murugan cast his vote from the Arakkonam Lok Sabha constituency. His son Kathir Anand was the party's candidate for Vellore. Polling agents have temporarily suspended voting at Rudrakshipura near Maddur in Mandya after EVMs developed technical snags. Voters are waiting in a long queue at booth number 81, hoping for polling to resume soon. Polling agents halted voting at the Thodarappati booth in Cuddalore Lok Sabha constituency after realising that the Election Commission had not erased the 50 votes polled during mock voting. 7 booths in Madurai constituency 33 booths in Kanyakumari constituency 1 booth in Tirunelveli constituency 1 booth in Ramanathapuram constituency 4 booths in Chennai 15 booths in Trichy constituency 3 in Erode constituency 1 booth in Cuddalore constituency As many as 51 polling booths reported EVM malfunctioning at a number of booths across Tamil Nadu, including: Jaggi Vasudev and his daughter voted in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency. He postponed his trip to the US to cast his vote. Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, after casting his vote in Ramanagara, said , "Dynastic politics isn't an important issue now. The country's problems are the main issue. Only because of dynastic politics and regional politics this country developed in several states. We are not bothered about criticism from the BJP." According to people at the booth, some unknown persons are fraudulently casting the votes of senior citizens by using fake or forged documents. The villagers staged a protest outside the polling station. Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) candidate for the seat and son of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is contesting from Mandya against Independent candidate Sumalatha, wife of late actor-politician MH Ambareesh. Tension prevailed for a while at Teganahalli in KR Pet taluk of Mandya constituency when many senior citizens found that their votes had already been cast by unknown persons. Krishnan, a 74-year-old from Vedapatti in Salem, died after casting his vote. The other man fell while waiting in the queue to vote and died. In separate incidents, two old men who had gone to their polling booths to cast their vote died in Salem and Erode. Both men were above the age of 70. Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and his son Yathindra Siddaramaiah cast their votes at a polling booth in Mysuru. The police in Madugiri district in Kodagenahalli seized 11 bundles of Rs 500 notes. They arrested one Raju, a student of CIT Engineering College which Basavaraj owns. As much as Rs 5.49 lakh in cash has been seized in Tumakuru. JD(S) workers complained that BJP candidate GS Basavarajs people were bribing voters with money to buy their support. They alleged that Basavarajs aides brought the money in a car to distribute among voters. Sharath, a die-hard fan of late actor-politician MH Ambareesh, was seen showing a model-EVM to people heading to the polling station at Ashok Nagar. He was also seen asking voters to elect Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh "to protect the self-esteem of Mandya as well to fight against the dynastic politics" of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda's family. Polling agents and volunteers are hard at work in Karnataka's Mandya to encourage voters to exercise their franchise despite the scorching heat. They are waiting on pavements near polling booths and trying their best to convince voters. Around 200 voters staged a protest at Purasaivakkam, which falls under the Chennai Central constituency, as their names are missing from the voter list. Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said the 305 EVMs that faced "some technical errors" had been replaced. He added that the 525 VVPATS that "also faced some issues" and had been replaced. In its complaint, AIADMK said Stalin had addressed the media at the polling booth with the intention to influence the general public by making false allegations against the Center and state. The party has urged the Election Commission to take against against Stalin. AIADMK has filed a complaint against DMK candidate from Chennai Central Dayanidhi Maran for campaigning at his polling booth. The party had also filed a complaint against DMK president MK Stalin for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct. Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said the Election Commission had changed 384 EVMS and 692 VVPATS till 1:30 pm due to technical errors. Reports of EVM glitches delaying voting have been coming in from across the state since voting began at 7 am. At some places, voting could not resume even till as late as 9 am, two hours into polling. Speaking to reporters after casting his vote in Hassan, Gowda said his opponents accused him of indulging in familypolitics but his rise in politics was possible because of God and voters, whom his family served to the best of its ability. Faced with criticism for turning the JD(S) into a family enterprise, party supremo and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda Thursday said people and party workers wanted his grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna to contest from Mandya and Hassan Lok Sabha constituencies. Chennai South saw the highest turnout among the constituencies in the capital till 1 p.m. Ugly scenes were witnessd outside a polling booth in Karnataka's Mandya. Supporters of JD(S) clashed with supporters of Sumalatha Ambareesh, an Independent candidate, India Today reported. Sumalatha Ambareesh is contesting against Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Gowda. Polling has been stopped in a booth at Panturthi of Cuddalore LS constituency. The polling station was set and ready for polling by 7 am today. A few people who came to vote for the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam candidate found that their gift symbol was missing and a glass symbol was present in its place. MS Pandian, a booth agent of AIADMK and the son-in-law of AIADMK functionary VK Gurusamy was hacked to death near Cinthamani at Madurai. Preliminary investigation says the murder is due to some previous enmity. Election Commission personnel on the rounds have videographed the incident. But, so far no case has been registered. They too attempted to take out a roadshow that was stopped by the police. When Ms. Sumalatha's supporters were questioning the biased attitude of the police, Mr. Nikhil's supporters allegedly intervened. It led to the clash. Both the groups indulged in heated arguments besides attempting to manhandle the opposition group members. Nikhil, who was returning from Malavalli, visited the village and took out a roadshow, which is against the Model Code of Conduct, according to Ms. Sumalatha's supporters. Sumalatha, wife of late actor-politician MH Ambareesh, cast her vote at the village and later interacted with her supporters. Chaos prevailed for a while at Doddarasinakere of Maddur taluk after supporters of Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh and Janata Dal (Secular) candidate Nikhil K. (son of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy) clashed. "Nobody wanted to invest in India before 2014," said the prime minister. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is presently speaking at Bagalkot in Karnataka. He listed out alleged corruption cases during the UPA regime relating to allocation of coal blocks and the Commonwealth Games, among others. Clashes between supporters of Nikhil K of the JD(S) and Sumalatha Ambareesh at Mandya after the former reportedly held a roadshow. "The Congress is not ready to accept surgical strike and Balakot air strike as our victory. The Congress and its allies think about self and not national interest," Modi said at a rally at Balakot in Karnataka. DMK law secretary Girirajan has filed a complaint with the Election Commission alleging that AIADMK workers are trying to capture polling booths. The latest polling figures for Karnataka have come in. Dakshina Kannada constituency has reported the highest figures at 60.46 percent till 3 p.m. As people began thronging booths from 7 AM, the scheduled polling time, they were disappointed as EVMs did not function at Choolaimedu here, leading to a delayed start by 40 minutes. Malfunctioning Electronic Voting machines (EVMs), lack of awareness on the use of VVPAT machines and power cuts were some of the issues that came to the fore in some polling booths in Central Chennai constituency in the Lok Sabha polls here Thursday. In Ariyalur district, a fight has broken out between workers of PMK and VCK. PMK workers have allegedly broken pots (VCKs party symbol) in public places. One person has sustained injuries. Ariyalur belongs to Chidambaram LS constituency from where VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan is contesting the elections. At 4 p.m., Tamil Nadu has recorded a voter turnout of 52.18 percent, Karnataka of 49.57 percent and Puducherry of 58.77 percent. Some people who had voted in the state and previous general elections, have found that their names are missing from the voters list at Egmore in Central Chennai constituency. More than 150 people have returned without voting as their names were missing from the list. 150 people in Chennai return home without voting after names go missing from voters list At 6 p.m., the highest voting percentage in Karnataka was reported in Dakshina Kannada constituency (72.97 percent). Bengaluru city saw a low turnout, with Bengaluru North witnessing a 48.28 percent turnout, Bengaluru Central 42.43 percent and Bengaluru South 49.36 percent. For over 13 years, the family of seven members had been slaving away in bondage as wood-cutters at Veerambakkam village before they were rescued in 2017. As bonded labourers, they were deprived of essentials to lead a decent life. Voting is the right of every citizen, but for this family, the right to choose had been denied. In an anomaly of sorts, Kanniyappan, an 85-year-old man voted for the first time in Maruthadu village of Tiruvannamalai LS constituency. Three generations of the family voted for the first time on Thursday. 85-year-old man votes for the first time; he had worked as bonded labourer for over 13 years DMK law secretary Girirajan has filed a complaint with the Election Commission alleging that AIADMK workers are trying to capture polling booths. "I quickly drove to my polling centre, about 3 km from the hospital, as soon as saw my newborn son," Mishra said. "I had ensured that I carry my voter ID card when I rushed to the hospital with my wife and family at about 3 am after she developed labour pain. Mishra (37), whose wife gave birth to their second son at about 5:45 am at a private hospital, rushed to his polling booth in Horamavu road (Bengaluru North constituency) as soon as it opened at 7 am. The early morning birth of his second child and immediate medical concerns of his family did not deter Sandeep Mishra, a Bengaluru-based techie, from casting his vote for the Lok Sabha polls in the state on Thursday. The latest polling figures for Karnataka have come in. Dakshina Kannada constituency has reported the highest figures at 60.46 percent till 3 p.m. As people began thronging booths from 7 AM, the scheduled polling time, they were disappointed as EVMs did not function at Choolaimedu here, leading to a delayed start by 40 minutes. Malfunctioning Electronic Voting machines (EVMs), lack of awareness on the use of VVPAT machines and power cuts were some of the issues that came to the fore in some polling booths in Central Chennai constituency in the Lok Sabha polls here Thursday. In Ariyalur district, a fight has broken out between workers of PMK and VCK. PMK workers have allegedly broken pots (VCKs party symbol) in public places. One person has sustained injuries. Ariyalur belongs to Chidambaram LS constituency from where VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan is contesting the elections. At 4 p.m., Tamil Nadu has recorded a voter turnout of 52.18 percent, Karnataka of 49.57 percent and Puducherry of 58.77 percent. Some people who had voted in the state and previous general elections, have found that their names are missing from the voters list at Egmore in Central Chennai constituency. More than 150 people have returned without voting as their names were missing from the list. 150 people in Chennai return home without voting after names go missing from voters list According to the most recent figures, the voter turnout in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada constituency was 68.93 percent. At 6 p.m., the highest voting percentage in Karnataka was reported in Dakshina Kannada constituency (72.97 percent). Bengaluru city saw a low turnout, with Bengaluru North witnessing a 48.28 percent turnout, Bengaluru Central 42.43 percent and Bengaluru South 49.36 percent. South States Lok Sabha Election voting LATEST updates: At 4 p.m., Tamil Nadu has recorded a voter turnout of 52.18 percent, Karnataka of 49.57 percent and Puducherry of 58.77 percent. DMK law secretary Girirajan has filed a complaint with the Election Commission alleging that AIADMK workers are trying to capture polling booths. MS Pandian, a booth agent of AIADMK and the son-in-law of AIADMK functionary VK Gurusamy was hacked to death near Cinthamani at Madurai. Ugly scenes were witnessed outside a polling booth in Karnataka's Mandya. Supporters of JD(S) clashed with supporters of Sumalatha Ambareesh, an Independent candidate, India Today reported. The AIADMK has filed a complaint with the Election Commission against DMK chief MK Stalin, claiming that he had addressed the media at his polling booth after voting with the intention to influence the public by making false allegations against the Center and state. Karnataka recorded a voter turnout of 21.47 percent till 1 pm, Tamil Nadu recorded 23.09 percent and Puducherry, 35.27 percent. Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said the 305 EVMs that faced "some technical errors" had been replaced. He added that the 525 VVPATS that "also faced some issues" and had been replaced. After reports of missing names from the Bangalore Central voter list, around 200 voters staged a protest at Purasaivakkam, which falls under the Chennai Central constituency, as their names, too, were found to be missing from the voter list. JD(S) workers in Tumakuru district alleged that BJP candidate GS Basavaraj's aides were bribing voters with money to buy their support. On a complaint from party workers, the police in Kodagenahalli seized Rs 5.49 lakh in cash and arrested one Raju, a student of CIT Engineering College which Basavaraj owns. In separate incidents, two old men who had gone to their polling booths to vote died in Salem and Erode. Both men were above the age of 70. Krishnan, a 74-year-old from Vedapatti in Salem, died after casting his vote. The other man fell while waiting in the queue to vote and died. Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, after casting his vote in Ramanagara, said, "Dynastic politics isn't an important issue now. The country's problems are the main issue. Only because of dynastic politics and regional politics this country developed in several states. We are not bothered about criticism from the BJP." So far, as many as 51 polling booths have reported EVM glitches across Tamil Nadu, including 33 booths in Kanyakumari constituency and four in Chennai. These technical snags have delayed polling at these booths. Voting was stopped across Tamil Nadu, at 15 polling booths in Trichy, three polling booths in Erode and 33 polling booths at Nagercoil in Kanyakumari for EVM repairs. Sources said election officials were not trained to deal with these technical snags, and at several places, they did not have EVMs in stock to replace the malfunctioning ones either. DMK Lok Sabha candidate from Thoothukudi Kanimozhi cast her vote at a polling station in Chennai's Alwarpet area, where she told reporters that the Opposition was being harassed. "Opposition candidates are being targeted with raids. The BJP has completely taken over AIADMK, which is very sad," she said. No votes have been cast at several polling stations in Chennai, including at Maduvankarai, Ashok Nagar, Virugampakkam and Eldams Road due to EVM malfunctioning. Sources say voters will have to wait for at least an hour before being able to vote. Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Edappadi K Palaniswami cast his vote at Tamil Nadu's Salem Lok Sabha constituency. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman voted in Bengaluru, while Puducherry Lieutenant-Governor Kiran Bedi voted at the Union Territory. EVM glitches have delayed polling at several locations, including at several booths in Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency, at the Karisalpatty polling booth in Tirunelveli and at three booths at Padmanabhapuram in Kanyakumari Constituency. Polling agents stopped voting at seven booths in Tamil Nadu's Madurai constituency after finding a "suspicious" sticker pasted on EVMs that read "AIADMK". Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy urged voters to exercise their franchise. "Everyone must vote. Become an active part of the democracy," he tweeted. Former finance minister P Chidambaram cast his vote in Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga constituency. He said Tamil people want a change of government both at the Centre and the state. "That's why there's overwhelming support from the secular progressive front of the Congress, DMK and other allies." Voting has begun in southern India, where polling for Phase 2 of the general election will be held in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and the lone Lok Sabha seat of Puducherry. Sixty-six percent voter turnout was recorded in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Thursday, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said. Auto refresh feeds A few constituencies of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal will vote in Phase 2. In Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha election on Thursday, 18 April, 95 parliamentary constituencies will go to the polls. Voting will take place across 12 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry, including all 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu. To get the latest updates about voter turnouts from across the country, click here to download the Election Commission's Voter Turnout app. As of 9.08 pm, overall voter turnout had reached 1.06 percent, according to Election Commission data. The five Lok Sabha seats in Assam have registered a combined turnout of 8.74 percent at the time of writing. Assam registers 11.35 percent, while Bihar is at 10.15 percent in terms of voter turnout. Overall voter percentage, according to EC, at 10 am is 7.89 percent As of 11.30 am, voting percentage across the country was 20.40 percent, with Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Assam registering 30.53 percent, 33.52 percent and 26.39 percent respectively. Overall voter turnout at 38.28% percent by 2 pm ASSAM 40.17% BIHAR 22.88% CHHATTISGARH 37.60% JAMMU AND KASHMIR 18.26% KARNATAKA 21.47% MAHARASHTRA 22.16% MANIPUR 35.90% ODISHA 22.45% TAMIL NADU 23.09% UTTAR PRADESH 29.68% WEST BENGAL 34.33% PUDUCHERRY 35.27% Fourteen seats in Karnataka also went to polls along with 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Elections were also held in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha while bypolls are being held in 18 assembly segments in Tamil Nadu. Sixty-six percent voter turnout was recorded in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Thursday, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said. Polling was held for 95 Lok Sabha seats in 11 states and the union territory of Puducherry with Tamil Nadu witnessing contest in 38 constituencies. Fourteen seats in Karnataka also went to polls along with 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Elections were also held in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha while bypolls are being held in 18 assembly segments in Tamil Nadu. Sixty-six percent voter turnout was recorded in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Thursday, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said. Polling was held for 95 Lok Sabha seats in 11 states and the union territory of Puducherry with Tamil Nadu witnessing contest in 38 constituencies. Voting percentage election 2019 LATEST updates: Sixty-six percent voter turnout was recorded in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Thursday, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said. At 7 pm, overall voter turnout was 63.26 percent with Uttar Pradesh at 61.12 percent, Assam at 75.61 percent, Bihar at 59.73 percent, Chhattisgarh at 70.31 percent, and Jammu and Kashmir at 43.71 percent. At 6 pm, overall voter turnout at 61.63 percent. Tamil Nadu saw 62.65 percent turnout, Manipur registered 75.69 percent turnout, Chhattisgarh witnessed 68.95 percent turnout, and Maharashtra saw 55.58 percent turnout. At 5 pm, overall voter turnout was at 52.15. Assam saw 62.95 percent turnout, Uttar Pradesh witnessed 51.91 percent turnout, Bihar recorded 47.49 percent turnout, and Jammu and Kashmir saw 38.92 percent turnout. By 4 pm, overall voter turnout was recorded at 51.03 percent. Puducherry recorded 58.77 percent, West Bengal 65.59 percent, Uttar Pradesh 50.12 percent, Tamil Nadu 51.90 percent and Maharashtra saw 45.11 percent turnout. By 3 pm, overall voter turnout was recorded at 39.50 percent. Assam recorded 52.50 percent, Bihar 39.21 percent, Chhattisgarh 47.77 percent, Karnataka 36.72 percent, and West Bengal 34.33 percent. By 2 pm and seven hours into voting, the overall voter turnout across the country was recorded at 38.28 percent In terms of voter turnout, at 1 pm, Assam had recorded 40.17 percent, Bihar 22.88 percent, Chhattisgarh 37.60 percent, Karnataka 21.47 percent and West Bengal 34.33 percent. By 12 pm, the overall voting percentage across the country stood at 21.23 percent, with West Bengal, Manipur and Chhattisgarh recording 33.52 percent, 31.52 percent and 30.53 percent respectively. As of 11.30 am, voting percentage across the country was 20.40 percent, with Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Assam registering 30.53 percent, 33.52 percent and 26.39 percent respectively. By 11 am, India had seen an overall voter turnout of 10.03 percent. Assam registered 18.23 percent, Bihar 12.55 percent, Chhattisgarh 14.18 percent and Uttar Pradesh 12.84 percent. At 10 am, overall voter turnout stood at 7.89 percent. Manipur has seen 16.60% of voting completed, while Assam, Bihar and Chhattisgarh have seen 11.78%, 10.10% and 13.09% respectively. By 9.30 am, the state of Chhattisgarh had seen 13.09 percent of the electorate coming out to vote. At the same time, West Bengal witnessed a voter turnout of 12.43 percent. Assam is the first state to cross the 10 percent mark overall, with voter turnout reaching 10.53%. Meanwhile in Bihar, 8.44 percent of the electorate has come out to vote. By 9 am, the overall voter turnout across all 12 states that are going to the polls today stands at 0.32% Till 8 am, 5 seats in Bihar have recorded 5.73 percent voter turnout. In Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha election on Thursday, 18 April, 95 parliamentary constituencies will go to the polls. Voting will take place across 12 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry, including all 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu. In Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha election on Thursday, 18 April, 95 parliamentary constituencies will go to the polls. Voting will take place across 12 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry, including all 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu. A few constituencies of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal will vote in Phase 2. In addition to these, 35 Assembly segments under five Lok Sabha constituencies of Odisha Bolnagir, Aska, Bargarh, Sundargarh, Kandhamal will also vote in the state polls. The Odisha Assembly election is being held in four phases simultaneously with the Lok Sabha election. Phase 1 saw polling in 28 Assembly constituencies. In Phase 2 on Thursday, over 15,97,34,000 voters will exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 1,629 candidates. The Election Commission has set up 1,81,000 polling booths to ensure smooth conduct of voting. For security concerns in some states Odisha and Chhattisgarh in Phase 2 voting in various Lok Sabha constituencies is spread over phases in the Assembly constituencies that fall under them. The Election Commission on Tuesday deferred polling in the Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to Phase 3 on 23 April, saying that the prevailing law and order situation in the region was not conducive to hold free and fair polls. Citing reports of state chief electoral officer and special police observer, the poll panel said, "The law and order situation prevailing ... is not conducive to the holding of free and fair poll." The returning officer had feared that "miscreant elements" may thwart the polling process in the constituency. Based on the ground and intelligence reports, he had requested for additional central police force. Polling will now be held on 23 April, by which time the law-and-order situation in the constituency would improve and become "conducive to the holding of free and fair election", the EC said. In Tamil Nadu's Vellore, voting was cancelled after the recovery of a huge amount of cash allegedly from a DMK candidate's office a few days ago. President Ram Nath Kovind rescinded the notification to hold the election to the seat based on the recommendation made by the poll panel. Polling in Vellore was scheduled for 18 April. The Election Commission took the decision after the district police had filed a complaint against the accused, Kathir Anand, as well as two party functionaries on the basis of a report from the Income Tax department on 10 April. tech2 News Staff Microsoft's long-awaited digital-only Xbox One S is finally official. The console features all of the same specs as the Xbox One S, including a 1 TB hard drive, but, as the name suggests, it no longer has a Blu-ray Disc player. Pre-orders for the console are already open and those interested will be able to buy the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition from 7 May onwards at $250. The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition will come pre-loaded with three games Minecraft, Forza Horizon 3 and Sea of Thieves. The specs are identical to those of the Xbox One S, which means an 8-core CPU, a 1.4 teraflop GPU and 8 GB of RAM. This also means that you dont get the power of the Xbox One X and its 4K gaming capabilities. While this isn't the cheapest way to enjoy an Xbox console experience, we aren't sure if its really that good a deal either. Based on the prices at which the regular Xbox One S retails at in the US, you only get a $50 discount in return for giving up the system's Blu-Ray player. The standard Xbox One S is also usually available with a bundled game, which means that the All-Digital Edition, despite having three games included, looks less convincing as the budget-friendly option. Commenting on the price of the new console, General Manager of Platform and Devices Marketing at Microsoft told The Verge, "The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition is $50 less than Xbox One S and we expect to maintain at least this price difference between the two consoles." tech2 News Staff For users who preferred the latest performance upgrades but the smaller form factor, Apple released the iPhone SE about three years back. The device is long due for an upgrade and there were rumours flying around last year that an iPhone SE 2 was in the offing. Now it appears that Apple is indeed going to make a small-screen iPhone but it will not have the iPhone SE design language. As per DigiTimes, an iPhone with a 4.7-inch FHD LCD display is in the making and it will share the design elements of the iPhone 8 (Review). The device is set to hit markets in 2020 and will most likely be powered by the Apple A13 chipset made by TSMC. In terms of storage, the phone will likely be available in a single variant of 128 GB. If the report is anything to go by and considering previous reports on the next-gen iPhones, 2020 will see at least four iPhone models wherein three will have OLED displays. However, this smaller iPhone is not going to be announced in with these three OLED iPhones. Instead, the report says it will be announced in March 2020 and Apple has given Taiwanese contract manufacturer Pegatron the order to make 20 million of these devices. In terms of pricing, the report puts the 4.7-inch iPhone at NTD 20,000 which is approximately Rs 45,000. It appears that Apple's main aim right now is to capture the dwindling mid-range smartphone segment. Falling sales in countries such as China and India due to its premium price tag has forced Apple to rethink its pricing strategies. Recently, Apple announced a permanent price drop for the iPhone XR which is not common for Apple. Reuters Google and Amazon will have to tell companies how they rank products on their platforms while Facebook and other tech firms will have to be more transparent about their terms and conditions under new EU rules approved on Wednesday. The platform-to-business (P2B) law, proposed by the European Commission in April last year, is the latest move by Europe to rein in online giants and ensure they treat smaller rivals and users fairly. Lawmakers at the European Parliament gave the green light to the new laws on Wednesday, which will have to be rubber-stamped by the European Council in the coming months before they take effect. Negotiators from all three bodies reached a political deal in February. The new rules, which will cover 7,000 online companies, target e-commerce market places, app stores, social media and price comparison tools. Googles three products Play, Shopping and Search, Apples App Store, Microsofts Store and Bing, Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Fnac Marketplace, Facebooks Instagram, Skyscanner, Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo are some of the companies affected by the rules. As the first-ever regulation in the world that addresses the challenges of business relations within the online platform economy, it is an important milestone of the Digital Single Market and lays the ground for future developments, Andrus Ansip, the Commissions digital chief, said. The rules include a blacklist of unfair trading practices, require companies to set up an internal system to handle complaints and allow businesses to group together to sue platforms. The tech industry, which successfully lobbied for the light regulatory regime, welcomed the lawmakers endorsement. This new regulation will positively contribute to achieving the digital single market, while reinforcing trust and predictability online, tech lobbying group EDiMA said. Its members include Amazon, Apple, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla. tech2 News Staff Just Dial, the easy-to-remember, go-to service for finding out contact details for other services in India, has just been subjected to a massive data breach in which details of more than 100 million users have been exposed. The details that have been leaked include names, email ids, mobile numbers, gender, date of birth and addresses said an independent security researcher in a Facebook post. The researcher, Rajshekhar Rajaharia, claims that . Even if one would not have used their app or website, if you ever called their customer service, your data may have been leaked, he said. Rajaharia said that the revamped website is protected from the data breach, however, the older site which reportedly had four unprotected APIs over these years, was the one that was affected. The company reached out to me today, but has been unable to fix the issue completely as the data is still accessible, said Rajaharia. Just Dial clarifies on reports of data breach. pic.twitter.com/UpygFmLOop BloombergQuint (@BloombergQuint) April 18, 2019 Just Dial has said that there is no data breach as claimed by Rajahria. The company also said that it had implemented adequate encryption for older APIs which were impacted. "All data on our platform is secure and protected" said Just Dial CFO Abhishek Bansal in an interview with ET Now. tech2 News Staff An interim order from the Madras High Court directing the govt to ban TikTok in India has come into effect. Its being reported that Apple and Google have been asked to remove the app from the App Store and Play Store respectively. TikTok is an immensely popular video sharing app that boasts of about 0.5 billion users, over 119 million of whom are in India. The bulk of these users are children and teenagers. The app, which lets users create short, fun videos, has come under fire for allegedly allowing pornographic and sleazy content to propagate, especially among its younger audience. Its also been alleged, in several countries no less, that the app is proving to be a fertile hunting ground for paedophiles. Following a PIL filed earlier this year, the Madras HC on 3 April passed the interim order directing the govt to ban TikTok. The matter was then taken to the Supreme Court, which refused to stay the order on the grounds that the matter was still sub-judice and that it would hear the matter on 22 April. According to an Economic Times report, TikTok has characterised the order as disproportionate, discriminatory and arbitrary and made no comment on the ban. In its defence, TIkTok states that it cant be held liable for the kind of content that third-parties upload on the platform. This is the same argument used by the likes of Facebook and YouTube when defending the content shared on their respective platforms. TikTok's official statement on the matter is as follows: "As per the proceedings in the Supreme Court today, the Madras High Court will hear the matter on ex parte ad interim order. The Supreme Court has listed the matter again for April 22, 2019, to be apprised of the outcome of the hearing on the April 16th, 2019 before the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court. At TikTok, we have faith in the Indian Judicial system and the stipulations afforded to social media platforms by the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011. We are committed to continuously enhancing our existing measures and introducing additional technical and moderation processes as part of our ongoing commitment to our users in India. In line with this, we have been stepping up efforts to take down objectionable content. To date, we have removed over 6 million videos that violated our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines, following an exhaustive review of content generated by our users in India." Blocking TikTok isnt an effective solution Removing the app from app stores isnt really a solution to the problem, though. The app already has a user base in excess of 100 million and the app isnt going to disappear from their phone just because its been banned. And while new iOS users might be left in the lurch, Android users will simply be able to download the app from unauthorised sources, which would, among other things, only serve to exacerbate the problems of hacking and phishing and other cybersecurity issues. This would, in turn, simply make TikToks target audience more vulnerable. Yet another issue is the manner in which the ban has been implemented. Based on an interim order, the government is ordering the removal of an app, effectively killing its business and revenue. The same mechanism could easily apply to PUBG Mobile, YouTube and any other app or service against which a PIL is filed. Update: Here's TikTok India's statement on the Madras HC directive, We welcome the decision of the Madras High Court to appoint Arvind Datar as Amicus Curae (independent counsel) to the court. We have faith in the Indian judicial system and we are optimistic about an outcome that would be well received by over 120 million monthly active users in India, who continue using TikTok to showcase their creativity and capture moments that matter in their everyday lives. Update 2: TikTok has sent a message to its Indian users addressing the ban "Keeping our TikTok India community informed is important to us. Unfortunately, due to an interim court order, the TikTok app has been temporarily taken down from online app stores as of 17 April, 2019. However, the interim ban does not affect hundreds of millions of existing users of the app. During this time, you can continue using TikTok to capture and share moments that matter in your life, making use of various features, stickers and gestures, as well as participating in our in-app challenges. We are currently working hard on ensuring that anyone in India who wants to use TikTok to showcase your creativity, can do so freely. Do stay tuned for updates. Thanks for your support!" tech2 News Staff Since quite some time the Amazon FireTV did not support Google-owned YouTube which was a result of the growing rivalry between the two tech giants as their businesses continue to overlap. Now in a reversal, both Amazon and Google have announced that in the coming months, the two companies will launch the official YouTube app on Amazon Fire TV devices and Fire TV Edition smart TVs, as well as the Prime Video app for streaming to Chromecast and Chromecast built-in devices. This could signify the end of the tech war which has been going on for the better part of the last two years. We are excited to work with Amazon to launch the official YouTube apps on Fire TV devices worldwide, said Heather Rivera, Global Head of Product Partnerships at YouTube. Bringing our flagship YouTube experience to Amazon Fire TV gives our users even more ways to watch the videos and creators they love. FireTV, which is a Chromecast competitor, will be getting the official YouTube app wherein users can log in with their existing account to view their full library of content. YouTube TV and YouTube Kids apps will also be launching later this year on Fire TV devices. In return, Chromecast will get the Prime Video App which had not been available since 31 December 2017. tech2 News Staff When the Universe came to exist, 13.8 billion years ago, space was a sea of undifferentiated, simple, one-atom elements. Molecules were the odd ones out. Stars wouldn't be formed for another 100 million years back then. But 100,000 years after the Big Bang that created the universe, the first molecules emerged. It was a marriage of some involving the lightest elements in space at the time helium and hydrogen. And the very first molecule in the universe, known as a helium hydride ion (or simply HeH+), was formed. Now, scientists have detected HeH+ in space for the first time. "It was the beginning of chemistry," David Neufeld, co-author of the study from John Hopkins University told AFP. "The formation of HeH+ was the first step on a path of increasing complexity in the Universe," he added. This molecule was also the foundation for a parade of other increasingly complex and heavy molecules that later formed. Then came single-celled life and multicellular life on Earth around 3.5 billion years ago. Despite the massive role HeH+ played in the universe, scientists have been restricted to studying versions of this primordial molecule in laboratories for nearly a century (since 1925). It has never been detected in its natural setting until now. "The lack of definitive evidence of its very existence in interstellar space has been a dilemma for astronomy for a long time," Rolf Gusten, lead author from the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, told AFP. But this time around, astrophysicists knew exactly where to look for it. Models of HeH+ from the 70s pointed to significant quantities of the molecule in glowing gas clouds thrown out by dying stars like our Sun. At this stage of a star's life, its conditions (in terms of temperature and the elements it contains) resemble that of the early Universe. The real challenge in spotting them wasn't to do with the molecule's abundance or technological capabilities, it was the Earth's own atmosphere. Protective of us as it is, the water vapour and density of gases in the atmosphere cuts out the range of electromagnetic waves that HeH+ gives out, in the far-infrared wavelength. Effectively, HeH+ was undetectable from the ground. NASA joined forces with the German Aerospace Center to overcome this challenge with an airborne observatory. The results? The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, which could make observations from a cruising altitude of ~14,000 metres. This allowed researchers to avoid 85 percent of the "noise" from the atmosphere picked up by ground-based telescopes when making observations in the distant universe. SOFIA is a massive 2.7-metre telescope, an infrared spectrometer, and a Boeing 747 with a window-like square cut away from its fuselage, from which the instruments peek out. From three flights in May 2016, researchers found molecular evidence for HeH+ in the planetary nebula NGC 7027, 3,000 light-years away. The researchers published their findings Wednesday in Nature after a multi-decade search to catch a glimpse of the universe's oldest molecule. Press Trust of India Wormholes popularised by the 2014 sci-fi film Interstellar as 'shortcuts' to distant points in space and time may actually exist. But pan-galactic travel through these portals would be slower than taking a direct route, according to a Harvard study. Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity supports the existence of wormholes that could connect extremely long distances billion light years apart, different points in time, or possibly different universes. While they have been objects of interest for scientists and science fiction writers alike, whether wormholes actually exist remains to be seen. Daniel Jafferis, from Harvard University in the US, has shown although that wormholes can exist, it is not useful for humans to travel through. "It takes longer to get through these wormholes than to go directly, so they are not very useful for space travel," Jafferis said in a statement. Despite his pessimism for pan-galactic travel, he said that finding a way to construct a wormhole through which light could travel was a boost in the quest to develop a theory of quantum gravity. "The real import of this work is in its relation to the black hole information problem and the connections between gravity and quantum mechanics," Jafferis said. The theory was inspired when Jafferis began thinking about two black holes that were entangled on a quantum level. Although this means the direct connection between the black holes is shorter than the wormhole connection and therefore the wormhole travel is not a shortcut the theory gives new insights into quantum mechanics. "From the outside perspective, travel through the wormhole is equivalent to quantum teleportation using entangled black holes," Jafferis said. Jafferis based his theory on a setup first devised by Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen in 1935, consisting of a connection between two black holes. The term wormhole was coined in 1957. Since the wormhole is traversable, Jafferis said, it was a special case in which information could be extracted from a black hole. "It gives a causal probe of regions that would otherwise have been behind a horizon, a window to the experience of an observer inside a spacetime, that is accessible from the outside," said Jafferis. To date, a major stumbling block in formulating traversable wormholes has been the need for negative energy, which seemed to be inconsistent with quantum gravity. However, Jafferis has overcome this using quantum field theory tools. "I think it will teach us deep things about the gauge/gravity correspondence, quantum gravity, and even perhaps a new way to formulate quantum mechanics," Jafferis said. Agence France-Presse In the middle of China's Gobi desert sits a Mars base simulator, but instead of housing astronauts training to live on the Red Planet, the facility is full of teenagers on a school trip. Surrounded by barren hills in northwestern Gansu province, "Mars Base 1" opened on Wednesday with the aim of exposing teens and soon tourists to what life could be like on the planet. The facility's unveiling comes as China is making progress in its efforts to catch up to the United States and become a space power, with ambitions of sending humans to the moon someday. The white-colored base has a silver dome and nine modules, including living quarters, a control room, a greenhouse and an airlock. Built at a cost of 50 million yuan ($7.47 million), the base was constructed with help from the Astronauts Centre of China and the China Intercontinental Communication Centre, a state television production organisation. The teenagers go on treks in the desert, where they explore caves in the martian-like landscape. The closest town is Jinchang, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) away. On Wednesday, over 100 students from a nearby high school walked on the arid Gobi plains, dressed in spacesuit-esque tracksuits. "There are so many things here that I've not seen before, I'm very interested in it," said 12-year old Tang Ruitian. Closest to Mars The company behind the project, C-Space, plans to open the base currently an educational facility to tourists in the next year, complete with a themed hotel and restaurant to attract space geeks. "We are trying to come up with solutions ... the base is still on earth, it's not on Mars, but we have chosen a landform that matches closest to Mars," C-Space founder Bai Fan told AFP. It follows a similar Mars "village" that opened last month in the Qaidam Basin of neighbouring Qinghai a brutally hot and dry region which is the highest desert in the world, considered the best replica of Mars' surface conditions. As budding astronauts explore "Mars" on Earth, China is planning to send a probe to the real Red Planet next year. Beijing is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022. Earlier this year, it made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, deploying a rover on the surface. But the C-Space project has faced criticism from some quarters of the scientific community. Jiao Weixin, a professor at the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University, said the building and surrounding desert were hardly representative of the truly hostile conditions on Mars. To truly replicate the harsh, toxic conditions of Mars would be to create a truly hostile environment, which is expensive and "completely unnecessary", he said. "From the very beginning, I've been opposed to this," Jiao told AFP. "Tourism doesn't make much sense ... what is the meaning in it?" Press Trust of India NASA astronaut Christina Koch is going to have her mission on the International Space Station (ISS) extended to 328 days, which would set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, the US space agency said. NASA and its ISS partners have set a new schedule and new crew assignments that will include the first flight of NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and an extended stay for NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan. Koch, who arrived at the space station on March 14, and now is scheduled to remain in orbit until February 2020, will eclipse the record of 288 days set by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2016-17. She will be part of three expeditions 59, 60 and 61 during her current first spaceflight, NASA said in a statement. "Christina's extended mission will provide additional data for NASA's Human Research Program and continue to support future missions to the Moon and Mars," said Jennifer Fogarty, chief scientist of the Human Research Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, US. Her mission is planned to be just shy of the longest single spaceflight by a NASA astronaut 340 days, set by former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly during his one-year mission in 2015-16. Koch and fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin will remain aboard the space station and begin Expedition 60. One month down. Ten to go. Today the possibility has become reality: My mission is planned to be extended through a third Expedition onboard @Space_Station! Privileged to contribute my best every single day of it. pic.twitter.com/b9RhhNHZzt Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) April 17, 2019 On July 20, Morgan, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov are scheduled to launch to the space station and join Expedition 60, returning the orbiting laboratory's crew complement to six. The extended missions of Koch and Morgan will help scientists gather additional data about the effects of long-duration human spaceflight beyond those of the normal six-month station expedition, NASA said. Such research is essential to support future deep space exploration missions to the Moon and Mars, according to the US space agency. Our vestibular systems behave differently when we are in microgravity. The VECTION experiment from @csa_asc is helping scientists better understand these changes, and develop ways to adapt. I tested https://t.co/I9NYhEYvZO pic.twitter.com/4XHj8EeBMJ Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) April 16, 2019 NASA has gathered vast amounts of data on astronaut health and performance over the past 50 years and has focused recently on extended durations up to one year with the dedicated mission of Scott Kelly and extended mission of Peggy Whitson. These opportunities also have demonstrated that there is a significant degree of variability in human response to spaceflight and it is important to determine the acceptable degree of change for both men and women. "Astronauts demonstrate amazing resilience and adaptability in response to long duration spaceflight exposure," said Fogarty. "This will enable successful exploration missions with healthy, performance-ready astronauts. NASA is looking to build on what we have learned with additional astronauts in space for more than 250 days," she said. tech2 News Staff "Yesterday, the world watched with despair and enormous sorrow how the Notre Dame burned in Paris...some buildings are more than just buildings", said sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg to the European Parliament. "I hope it has strong foundations and I hope we have strong foundations, but Im not so sure." She went on to urge all the leaders in the room, along with everyone else watching the broadcast, to see the overarching message in how the burning cathedral was dealt with. Acting to save the planet should be done the same way, according to Thunberg, by pledging to rebuild our "burning" planet like people did to rebuild the burnt Notre-Dame cathedral. 16-year-old #climatechange activist Greta Thunberg wants the world to come together to save the planet as we did for #NotreDame . This is powerful. #GretaThunberg pic.twitter.com/Mt2fr1lAOh By InfoClimateCoin Crypto World (@cryptoworldweb) April 17, 2019 .@GretaThunberg gives a shout out to the right wing @EPPGroup @ALDEgroup @ecrgroup! "I have read that some parties do not want me standing here because they so desperately do not want to talk about climate breakdown." pic.twitter.com/9IXY9gLttc The Left in the European Parliament (@GUENGL) April 16, 2019 The cathedral needed a massive rescue effort 400 firemen were needed to tame the inferno in the eight-century-old-cathedral. From around the world, over 700 million euros has poured in in donations to have the monument restored. Notre Dame will be rebuilt despite the extent of the damage. And the planet, too, can be coaxed to recover from all the environmental issues she is plagued with if a similar, urgent effort is undertaken, believes Thunberg. By 2030, we will be in a position where we set off an irreversible chain reaction that could lead to the end of mankind, as well as much of the species that exist today. In the ten years between then and now, we will need permanent and unprecedented changes in every aspect of life to factor in climate change. Cutting emissions by at least 50 percent is only the beginning. Animals and plants are being lost at an alarming rate, 10,000 times above what's considered normal, and put a stop to the rapid extinctions, erosion of fertile soil, deforestation, toxic air pollution and wildlife, ocean acidification, and disastrous trends like it that we're witnessing today, an emotional Thunberg appealed to the EU parliament. "I want you to panic...I want you to act as if your house was on fire," Thunberg said. "A lot of politicians have told me that panicking does not do any good, and I agree. But when your house is on fire and you want to keep your house from burning to the ground, then that does require some level of panic." At age 15, she kickstarted a global movement among teenagers by skipping school and sitting outside the Swedish parliament in protest of inaction towards tackling climate change. Riding her bicycle to parliament last August, taking up a place on the cobblestones in front of Stockholms Parliament House with her school strike for climate" hand-painted sign. The media documented her protest, and ever since, she's become one of the world's foremost voice on climate change. Just weeks ago, a trio of Norwegian lawmakers nominated Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize. By Catarina Demony LISBON (Reuters) - At least 29 people, most of them German tourists, were killed and 27 others injured on Wednesday when their bus veered off a steep narrow road on the Portuguese island of Madeira, authorities said. The white tourist bus -- which was carrying 55 passengers and a tour guide in addition to the driver -- overturned in a residential area in the coastal town of Canico at around 6:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), its mayor, Filipe Sousa, told reporters. By Catarina Demony LISBON (Reuters) - At least 29 people, most of them German tourists, were killed and 27 others injured on Wednesday when their bus veered off a steep narrow road on the Portuguese island of Madeira, authorities said. The white tourist bus -- which was carrying 55 passengers and a tour guide in addition to the driver -- overturned in a residential area in the coastal town of Canico at around 6:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), its mayor, Filipe Sousa, told reporters. TV images showed the vehicle on its side on a bank next to a small road and surrounded by rescuers. The driver reportedly lost control of the bus on a sloping road and the vehicle plunged down, overturning next to a house, according Portuguese news agency Lusa. "I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," Sousa told SIC TV. He said the tourists on the bus were all German but some pedestrians might have been hit by the bus. Other members of the same group of German tourists were travelling on another bus, which was not involved in the accident, a regional civil protection spokesman told a news conference. Those injured were taken to a hospital in Funchal, the capital city of Madeira. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told SIC TV that some of the victims were from Madeira but most were German. A regional civil protection official said the tourists involved in the accident were aged between 40 and 50 years old. Portugal's public prosecutor's office plans to open an investigation into the accident, said Lusa. Madeira is a popular tourist destination. The peak season is during the summer but it also gets many visitors around Easter. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa sent a message of condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "It was with deep regret that I learned about the tragic accident in Madeira," Costa said on Twitter. "To all families involved I send the deepest condolences." The spokesman for the German government Steffen Seibert also expressed his condolences on Twitter. "Our deep sorrow goes out to all those who lost their lives in the bus, our thoughts are with the injured," he said in a tweet. (Reporting by Catarina Demony; writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Cynthia Osterman and Sandra Maler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Barr was addressing the media at the Department of Justice in Washington on the release of Mueller's redacted report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Washington: The nearly two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller found "no evidence" of a "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 US elections, Attorney-General William Barr on Thursday announced Thursday, in a major relief to President Donald Trump. Barr was addressing the media at the Department of Justice in Washington on the release of Mueller's redacted report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller was chosen to head the investigation in 2017 following concerns from US intelligence agencies that Russia had tried to tip the election in Trump's favour. The businessman-turned-politician defeated former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Barr said Mueller investigated a number of links or contacts between Trump campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government. "After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate US law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign," Barr said on the 400-page report. He, however, said the Russian government sought to interfere in US election process. Barr emphasised that the primary purposes of the special counsel's investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. The special counsel's report states that his "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." "I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the special counsel's report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. "But thanks to the special counsel's thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of Trump or the Trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter," he said. "That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed," Barr said. He said the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and e-mails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicising those e-mails. Again, the special counsel's report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations, Barr said. "In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign "collusion" with the Russian government's hacking," the attorney-general said. "So, that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election, but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes," he said. He also said Trump did not commit an obstruction-of-justice offense. Barr said there were ten episodes involving Trump that were scrutinised for possible obstruction of justice. "As I said several times, the report contains limited redactions relating to four categories of information. To ensure as much transparency as possible, these redactions have been clearly labelled and color-coded so that readers can tell which redactions correspond to which categories," Barr said. Most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, he said. These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the special counsel's office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases. The redactions are their work product. The president's personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions, Barr said. Earlier on Thursday, Trump said the Mueller probe was "Greatest Political Hoax of all time!" "Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats (sic)," tweeted Trump, who refers his election rival Hillary Clinton as "Crooked". Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler said he has sent a letter to Mueller requiring his testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee by 23 May. "We cannot take Barr's word for it. We must read the full Mueller report, and the underlying evidence. This is about transparency and ensuring accountability," Nadler said. Democrats in Congress have demanded a full unredacted report, and want Mueller to testify to Congress. HAVANA (Reuters) - The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it was allowing U.S. citizens to file lawsuits against both Cuban entities and foreign companies over property seized and used following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution HAVANA (Reuters) - The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it was allowing U.S. citizens to file lawsuits against both Cuban entities and foreign companies over property seized and used following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. The provision that allowed these lawsuits, Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, had been fully waived by every president since the law was passed 23 years ago due to opposition from the international community and fears it could create chaos in U.S. courts. Here's what the implementation of this legislation means, according to lawyers and experts familiar with the issue: HOW MANY LAWSUITS COULD ARISE FROM THIS MOVE? The U.S. State Department has said Title III could produce up to 200,000 claims reaching a value in the tens of billions of dollars given the scale of expropriation after the Cuban revolution and of exile to the United States. "The people who left in the '60s virtually owned the island," said Washington-based attorney Robert Muse, who specializes in Cuba issues. "There was some U.S. investment but it was principally Cubans that owned most of the factories, retail premises and farmland." Still, some experts say the U.S. government figures could be inflated given the cost of and obstacles to filing suits, as well as doubts over whether claimants could ever get their hands on reparations if they won a judgement. The legislation does not allow claims for residential property still used for residential purposes, for example. Claimants must be able to prove their ownership of a property six decades ago in another country as well as its confiscation. "The real impact of this is going to be more limited than what is being bandied about publicly," said Pedro Freyre, a Cuban-born attorney who heads the international practise at law firm Akerman. "It is a very technical law and other countries have already enacted legislation to protect themselves." WHO ARE THE BIG INVESTORS IN CUBA THIS COULD AFFECT? Any plaintiffs are more likely to sue foreign companies than Cuban entities given a greater likelihood of getting any money back, experts say. Yet, given that Cuba's economy remains heavily dominated by the state, there is only limited foreign investment, restricting the number of companies that could be affected. European and Canadian companies are the top foreign investors in Cuba, with investments focussed on tourism, mining, real estate, rum and cigars. Chinese firms have also made some investments. U.S. companies have increased business on the island since former President Barack Obama eased slightly the decades-old travel embargo on Cuba, although they do not have any major investments there. HOW LIKELY IS IT CLAIMANTS WILL GET ANY MONEY BACK? U.S. citizens suing Cuban state entities are unlikely to get any money back in the near-to-medium term even if they win their case as Cuba's current government does not recognise U.S. courts. Moreover, Cuba no longer has any assets in the United States that could be seized for compensation, experts say. People suing foreign companies for using confiscated property could force them to pay by threatening to attach any assets they may have in the United States. It would be harder for them to convince a foreign court to allow them to attach an asset abroad. Meanwhile, several countries including Canada and the members of the European Union passed so-called blocking legislation in the 1990s requiring their companies not to comply with Title III claims and allowing them to make counterclaims if they are affected. Whether or not this will prove an effective deterrent to claims remains to be seen. WILL TITLE III IMPACT U.S. COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS IN CUBA? The U.S. companies doing business with Cuba could emerge unscathed as most are in the travel or telecommunications industries and Title III includes exemptions for both sectors, lawyers say. The extent of those exemptions - and whether they also apply to foreign companies - will likely be determined in U.S. courts, experts say. U.S. companies that have entered the Cuban market in recent years are airlines like Jetblue and American as well as cruise companies like Carnival and Norwegian . Alphabet Inc's Google signed a deal with Cuba's telecoms monopoly last month to work toward improving connectivity on the island. [nL1N21F15H] WILL THIS HELP U.S. COMPANIES WITH CERTIFIED CLAIMS TO CONFISCATED PROPERTY? The 1959 revolution resulted in the largest expropriation of U.S. assets ever, according to Muse. However, this legislation is unlikely to help reach a settlement for the 5,913 claims held by U.S. companies and individuals that have been certified by the U.S. Justice Department and are estimated to be worth roughly $8 billion, according to experts familiar with the matter. On the contrary, it could make the path toward a resolution more arduous by putting off any normalization of relations that could lead to a settlement, they say. It will also muddy the focus by potentially throwing up thousands more claims by Cuban Americans, which the Cuban government deems violate international law. SO WHAT'S CERTAIN? The only certainties appear to be that the measure will create more tension with the United States' top allies, further hurt the Cuban economy and play well with the anti-Castro Cuban American electorate in the swing state of Florida ahead of the 2020 presidential elections. Cuba has been banking on foreign investment - alongside an update of its state-run companies and an expansion of the private sector - to boost its stagnant economy. However, this move will likely dampen investment in the island. The Trump administration's harsher rhetoric toward Cuba has already translated into financial institutions being warier of any transactions related to the country, according to business and diplomatic sources. Companies with existing investments will have to carefully analyse their legal exposure. That said, they are long used to dealing with the tricky U.S. trade embargo and have weathered many crises in U.S.-Cuban relations, analysts say, betting the eventual reward of the forbidden fruit is worth the risk. (Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Leslie Adler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. In reference to India, the index found an alarming rate of coordinated hate campaigns waged on social networks against journalists who dare to speak or write about subjects that annoy Hindutva London: India has dropped two places on a global press freedom index to be ranked 140th out of 180 countries in the annual Reporters Without Borders analysis released on Thursday, with the lead up to the ongoing Indian general elections flagged as a particularly dangerous time for journalists. The World Press Freedom Index 2019', topped by Norway, finds an increased sense of hostility towards journalists across the world, with violent attacks in India leading to at least six Indian journalists being killed in the line of their work in 2018. "Violence against journalists including police violence, attacks by Maoist fighters and reprisals by criminal groups or corrupt politicians is one of the most striking characteristics of the current state of press freedom in India. At least six Indian journalists were killed in connection with their work in 2018. A number of doubts surround a seventh case," the index noted. These murders highlighted the many dangers that Indian journalists face, especially those working for non-English-language media outlets in rural areas, it said. Attacks against journalists by supporters of ruling BJP increased in the run-up to general elections in the spring of 2019, the analysis alleged. Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, is a non-profit organisation that works to document and combat attacks on journalists around the world. In its 2019 index, RSF finds that hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence, contributing to an increase in fear around the world. In reference to India, it found an alarming rate of coordinated hate campaigns waged on social networks against journalists who dare to speak or write about subjects that annoy Hindutva. "The campaigns are particularly virulent when the targets are women. The emergence of a #MeToo movement in the media in 2018 has lifted the veil on many cases of harassment and sexual assault to which women reporters have been subjected, it noted. "Finally, coverage of regions that the authorities regard as sensitive, such as Kashmir, continues to be very difficult. Foreign reporters are barred from Kashmir and the Internet is often disconnected there," it added. South Asia in general features poorly on the index, with Pakistan dropping three places to 142, and Bangladesh dropping four places to 150. The number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media, RSF concludes. Norway is ranked first in the 2019 Index for the third year running while Finland (up two places) has taken second place from the Netherlands (down one at 4th). An increase in cyber-harassment caused Sweden (third) to lose one place. In Africa, the rankings of Ethiopia (up 40 at 110th) and Gambia (up 30 at 92nd) have significantly improved from last year's Index. At the bottom of the Index, both Vietnam (176th) and China (177th) have fallen one place and Turkmenistan (down two at 180th) is now last, replacing North Korea (up one at 179th). By Zachary Fagenson, Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton MIAMI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new sanctions and other punitive measures on Cuba and Venezuela, seeking to ratchet up U.S. pressure on Havana to end its support for Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. Speaking to a Cuban exile group in Miami, U.S By Zachary Fagenson, Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton MIAMI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new sanctions and other punitive measures on Cuba and Venezuela, seeking to ratchet up U.S. pressure on Havana to end its support for Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. Speaking to a Cuban exile group in Miami, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said the United States was targeting Cuba's military and intelligence services, including a military-owned airline, for additional sanctions and was tightening travel and trade restrictions against the island. Bolton's speech followed the State Department's announcement on Wednesday that it was lifting a long-standing ban against U.S. citizens filing lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties seized by Cubas Communist government since Fidel Castros 1959 revolution. President Donald Trump's decision, which the State Department said could unleash hundreds of thousands of legal claims worth tens of billions of dollars, drew swift criticism from European and Canadian allies, whose companies have significant interests in Cuba. The Cuban government, which could be hindered in attracting new foreign investment, denounced it as "an attack on international law." Taking aim at Venezuela, Bolton said the United States was also imposing sanctions on the country's central bank to prohibit access to dollars by an institution he described as crucial to keeping Maduro in power. Bolton also announced new sanctions on Nicaragua. While accusing Cuba of propping up Maduro with thousands of security force members in the country, Bolton also warned "all external actors, including Russia," against deploying military assets to support the Venezuelan leader. "The United States will consider such provocative actions a threat to international peace and security in the region," Bolton said, noting that Moscow recently sent in military flights carrying 35 tons of cargo and a hundred personnel. However, Cuba appears unlikely to be budged by demands to dump Maduro, a longtime ally of Havana, and Maduro has also shown little sign of losing the loyalty of his military despite tough oil-related U.S. sanctions on the OPEC nation. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded defiantly. "No one will rip the (fatherland) away from us, neither by seduction nor by force," he said on Twitter. "We Cubans do not surrender." ROLLING BACK OBAMA-ERA DETENTE Amid Venezuela's political and economic crisis, opposition leader Juan Guaido invoked the constitution in January to assume the interim presidency. The United States and most Western countries have backed Guaido as head of state. Maduro, backed by Cuba, Russia and China, has denounced Guaido as a U.S. puppet. Bolton, a longtime Cuba hardliner, was frequently interrupted by applause in his address to veterans of the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion on the 58th anniversary of the failed operation to overthrow Castro. His speech was a sequel to one late last year branding Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua a "troika of tyranny." Bolton's announcements included further measures to roll back parts of the historic opening to Cuba, an old Cold War foe, under his predecessor, Barack Obama. The Obama administration's approach, he said, "provided the Cuban regime with the necessary political cover to expand its malign influence." Among the Cuba measures announced by Bolton was reinstatement of limits on U.S. citizens sending remittances to Cuba at $1,000 per person per quarter. Remittances have surged since Obama started easing restrictions, becoming an important part of the economy and fuelling growth of the private sector. "Restricting remittances that can be sent to Cubans will directly hurt the Cuban people," said Ben Rhodes, a former Obama adviser who negotiated the 2014 diplomatic breakthrough with Havana. "This is a shameful and mean-spirited policy." Bolton said the United States would also further restrict "non-family" travel to Cuba and cited military-owned Cuban airline Aerogaviota among five entities being added to the U.S. sanctions blacklist. The Trump administration has previously sought to curtail Venezuela's subsidized oil shipments to Cuba. Also on Wednesday, Bolton announced sanctions on Nicaragua's Bancorp, which he called a "slush fund," and on Laureano Ortega, a son of President Daniel Ortega for what he described as "vast corruption." Trumps toughened stance on Cuba as well as Venezuela and Nicaragua has gone down well among Cuban Americans in south Florida, an important voting bloc in a political swing state as he looks toward his re-election campaign in 2020. Trump has added Cuba hawks to top posts. Bolton brought in Mauricio Claver-Carone, known as staunchly anti-Castro and an outspoken critic of Obama's rapprochement with Havana, as his top Latin America adviser. However, the risk, some former U.S. officials say, is that Trump's team will overdo the targeting of Cuba in their anti-Maduro campaign and alienate some European and Latin American allies who have good relations with Havana but are also needed by Washington to maintain pressure on Venezuela. Over the objections of key allies, Trump decided to allow a law that has been suspended since its creation in 1996 to be fully activated, permitting Cuban-Americans and other U.S. citizens to sue companies doing business in Cuba over property seized in decades past by the Cuban government. Until now, Title III of the Helms-Burton Act had been fully waived by every president over the past 23 years. Among the foreign companies heavily invested in Cuba are Canadian mining firm Sherritt International Corp and Spains Melia Hotels International SA. U.S. companies, including airlines and cruise companies, have forged business deals in Cuba since the easing of restrictions under Obama. Toronto-based Sherritt said it would not be materially impacted by the Trump administration's Helms-Burton decision and would continue to operate as usual focussing on meeting its nickel/cobalt production targets. It was unclear, however, how Cuba property claims, some of which involve complex legal matters, will fare in U.S. courts. The European Union said it will "consider all options at its disposal to protect its legitimate interests." Chrystia Freeland, minister of foreign affairs for Canada, which has coordinated with Washington on Venezuela, said: "Canada is deeply disappointed with today's (U.S.) announcement." Kim Breier, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said a U.S. government commission has certified nearly 6,000 claims for property confiscated in Cuba with a current value of about $8 billion and that there could be up to 200,000 uncertified claims worth tens of billions of dollars if pursued. (Reporting by Zachary Fagenson in Miami and Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Additional reporting by Makini Brice, David Alexander and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Sarah Marsh and Marc Frank in Havana; Philip Blenkinsop and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Julie Gordon in Ottawa; writing by Matt Spetalnick; editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Photo: KGH Foundation The annual Kelowna General Hospital Foundation Day of Giving is just a few weeks away. The day encourages the community to support excellence in healthcare, right here at KGH. Funds this year will go towards the KGH Foundations campaign to complete the cardiac program with the addition of advanced heart rhythm services. Its a cause all too familiar for Darrell and Margaret Porubanec, who witnessed their youngest son Trevor, just 22 years-old, fall to the floor unresponsive, later to be diagnosed with a life-threatening heart rhythm condition. Its called Brugada Syndrome, and it causes the heart to race beyond its ability to pump blood, explains Porubanec. Trained medical staff in Kelowna saved Trevors life, but he required immediate diagnostic attention to determine the cause of his cardiac arrest and treat future episodes. Unfortunately, heart rhythm services are not currently available at KGH, so Trevor had to be airlifted to Victoria. It was a long journey into this world we knew nothing about, and one that was made equally more challenging by being away from home,''Porubanec added. Darrell and Margaret, with the support of their sons Trevor and Murray, will be matching all donations that come in on the KGH Foundation Day of Giving, April 25. Were amazed at the support in this community, especially when a family makes it their purpose to inspire others, said Doug Rankmore, CEO of the KGH Foundation Now serving as the largest referral hospital for specialized care in the BC Interior, Kelowna General is no longer just a community hospital. Of the hospitals 400 beds, an estimated 100 are occupied by patients from out of town, many of them receiving care for cardiac conditions. For more information on the KGH Foundation Day of Giving or to donate, please visit https://www.kghfoundation.com/event/day-of-giving/ By Karen Pierog (Reuters) - Wisconsin's governor said on Wednesday he wants to renegotiate the state's contract with Foxconn Technology Group Ltd because the Taiwanese company is not expected to reach its job creation goals for the state. Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who took office in January, inherited a deal to give Foxconn around $4 billion in tax breaks and other incentives that was championed by Scott Walker, the state's former Republican governor. Announced at a White House ceremony in 2017, Foxconn's 20-million square foot campus marked the largest greenfield investment by a foreign-based company in U.S. By Karen Pierog (Reuters) - Wisconsin's governor said on Wednesday he wants to renegotiate the state's contract with Foxconn Technology Group Ltd because the Taiwanese company is not expected to reach its job creation goals for the state. Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who took office in January, inherited a deal to give Foxconn around $4 billion in tax breaks and other incentives that was championed by Scott Walker, the state's former Republican governor. Announced at a White House ceremony in 2017, Foxconn's 20-million square foot campus marked the largest greenfield investment by a foreign-based company in U.S. history and was praised by President Donald Trump as proof of his ability to revive American manufacturing. Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple Inc., has pledged to eventually create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, but said earlier this year it had slowed its pace of hiring. "The present contract deals with a situation that no longer exists so it's our goal to make sure that the taxpayers are protected and environmental standards are protected and we believe that we need to take a look at that contract," Evers told reporters. Foxconn representatives did not immediately comment. The company has wavered on its goals for the $10 billion project this year. Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn Chief Executive Terry Gou, told Reuters in January Foxconn was reconsidering plans to make advanced liquid crystal display panels. He said Foxconn would hire mostly engineers and researchers rather than the manufacturing workforce originally promised in Wisconsin. Days later, the company said it would build the factory after Gou spoke to Trump. Gou earlier on Wednesday announced he was running for president of Taiwan. He had told Reuters on Monday he planned to step down from Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer, to pave the way for younger talent to move up the company's ranks. Evers said the original footprint of the project is going to be much smaller but the scaled-back project is expected to advance "whether Mr. Gou is part of that enterprise or not." (Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Susan Thomas) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Photo: The Canadian Press A voter arrives with his children to cast a ballot at a rural poling station in Cremona, Alta., Tuesday, April 16, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh An unofficial turnout shows nearly 70 per cent of Albertans voted in Tuesday's provincial election the highest in decades. Elections Alberta said about 2,615,000 people in Alberta were registered to vote. Deputy chief electoral officer Drew Westwater said the unofficial turnout was 69.9 per cent, based on numbers crunched by mid-afternoon Wednesday. "It's very, very high," he said. "We haven't seen numbers this high since the '80s." A report by Elections Alberta shows voter turnout was 66 per cent in the 1982 election. The largest-ever voter turnout was 81.8 per cent in 1935, while the smallest was 40.6 per cent in 2008. Melanee Thomas, an associate professor of political science at the University of Calgary, said she never thought she'd see a 70 per cent turnout in Alberta. "I was born in the '80s, so I became aware of Alberta politics during the (Ralph) Klein era," she said. Voter turnout in the Klein years from 1992 to 2006 ranged between 60 per cent in the 1993 election to a low of 45 per cent in 2004. Thomas said Albertans were just going though the motions during those years. "Low turnout like that is a really good indicator of democratic malaise related directly to not actually having competitive elections that changed parties and government," she said. In 2012, 2015 and 2019, the province saw more competitive elections because there was potential for a change in government. Thomas said she expects people who previously didn't vote, including young men facing unemployment in the oilpatch, were engaged in this year's election. "In order for turnout to be this high, it has got to be people who normally would not have voted at least in Alberta historically would not have voted," she said. The NDP has so far received more than 536,000 votes this election, while the winning United Conservative Party got more than 919,000 votes. The Alberta Party got about 152,000 votes and the Liberals 16,000. Some polls are still being counted. Photo: cfsnowbirds The snowbirds briefly touched down in Kelowna on Wednesday. If you looked up in the sky today you might have just been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds. Two snowbirds landed in Kelowna at about 10 a.m. and another nine landed at noon, but they were only passing through. Social media posts by the Canadian Forces Snowbirds showed them travelling from Saskatchewan today. They briefly stopped in Kelowna and made it to their final destination of Comox for their spring training. At the China Mobile Global Partner Conference in Guangzhou, MediaTek introduced the first 5G baseband chipset, Helio M70. Today, Mediatek has confirmed that the 5G chipset will be arriving in India by this year-end with the shipping happening next year. The Helio M70 is among the industrys first wave of 5G multi-mode integrated baseband chipsets and is in line with the booming 5G market and the enhanced mobile experience. The company says that 5G is a very big focus area for them, and they will launch the 5G chip by end of this year in India and ship it next year. However, the company has not announced an exact launch date yet. MediaTek has also partnered with KaiOS Technologies to power 3G and 4G feature devices with MediaTek chips. KaiOS will be running on the MediaTek 3G MT6572 platform and MediaTek MT6731 which can support dual 4G SIM in mobile phones. The first batch of these devices is expected to arrive in the market in Q2, 2019. MediaTek has three R&D facilities in India with the first one opened in Noida in 2004 and in Bangalore in 2014. The company has a total of 600 employees across these centers and makes it the third biggest R&D in the world for MediaTek. Commenting on this, Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India, said: 5G is a very big focus area for us. The SoC (system-on-chip) will surely be launched by the end of the year and shipped next year. We came up with the M70 modem last year that provides 5G capabilities and it will be shipped later this year with an SoC which combines the modem and the CPU into one single chip. Since 5G is a big focus, a lot of our research and development (R&D) efforts are going into 5G development. India holds an important place as a market and also in terms of the talent pool. We have around 650 people for R&D in India and we look to grow it further. Source What happened Shares of Camping World (NYSE:CWH) briefly fell by nearly 13% on Thursday following a report that the company's celebrity CEO was named in a shareholder lawsuit claiming that he and an associate had manipulated the market while taking the RV retailer public. The stock recovered much of that loss soon after but finished down more than 3% on the day. So what Camping World chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis, a private-equity veteran who's perhaps best known as the host of CNBC's The Profit, is the target of a lawsuit unsealed April 17 in Delaware Chancery Court, according to a Bloomberg report. The suit, which was filed by the Lincolnshire (Ill.) Police Pension fund, alleges that Lemonis and associates used a series of public offerings to cash out of Camping World without relinquishing control and despite knowing that Camping World was "in no way ready to be a public company." The lawsuit alleges Lemonis and his associates made more than $530 million selling shares that they knew were artificially inflated in value. The suit says that last year, as news came out about what the lawsuit calls Camping World's "inadequate controls and true financial health," the shares lost about 60% of their value. Camping World has also been plagued by weak pricing and demand for recreational vehicles. This is at least the second investor lawsuit filed against Camping World. Last October, an investor filed in Illinois federal court seeking class action status, accusing Lemonis and other company officials of misstating Camping World's financial health while selling down their stakes. Camping World went public in October 2016 but is still controlled by Lemonis and private equity firm Crestview Partners. Now what Camping World had no immediate comment on the latest suit, but last fall when the Illinois lawsuit was filed, Lemonis told Crain's Chicago Business, "I can tell you that it will be defended vigorously." I wouldn't assume that the market's quick turnaround following the news of the lawsuit is a judgment on the merits of the case. Given how far the stock has already dropped, it's possible that investors aren't all that worried about what might become of Lemonis and his team. Shares of Camping World are up 26% year to date, thanks to optimism surrounding the company's plan to streamline operations, reduce retail inventory levels, and bring down capital expenditures in order to generate increased free cash flow. The company is also going to need to see a rebound in demand for RVs if it expects to come close to returning to previous highs. At least on Thursday, investors seemed more focused on the company's operations than on litigation. In late 2016, ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) charted a new course. It aimed to transform itself from a highly diversified oil- and gas-producing giant to a company focused on low-cost, high-return energy assets. It has come a long way over the past few years by selling off higher-cost properties and using the cash to pay down debt and buy back stock. These moves have paid big dividends for investors. The oil giant has generated an impressive total return of more than 50% over that time frame, well above the negative 12% total return of oil stocks in top oil ETF SPDR S&P Oil and Gas Exploration & Production EFT. That success could continue after the company agreed to sell most of its remaining assets in the U.K. for $2.675 billion. The deal will further reduce the oil giant's cost structure while giving it more cash to allocate to value-creating initiatives. It also gives investors one more reason to consider buying this market-beating oil stock. Drilling down into the deal ConocoPhillips is selling two subsidiaries in the U.K. to Chrysaor E&P Limited for $2.675 billion in cash. Those business own the company's remaining oil- and gas-producing assets in the country. They pumped out an average of 72,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/D) during 2018 and held an estimated 99 million BOE of reserves. That's a small slice of the company's total output, which averaged 1.242 million BOE/D last year. It's also a fraction of the company's total reserves, which were 5.3 billion barrels at the end of 2018. In commenting on the deal, CEO Ryan Lance noted that, "this disposition is part of our ongoing effort to hone our portfolio and focus our investments across future low cost of supply opportunities." The company deemed these assets expendable because they were higher cost and had lower investment returns compared to others in the portfolio. This sale is one of several the company has announced in the past year. Earlier this month, the company sold its 30% interest in the Greater Sunrise Fields to the government of Timor-Leste for $350 million. Meanwhile, late last year, the company traded its 16.5% interest in the Clair Field in the U.K. to BP. In return, ConocoPhillips received BP's 39.2% interest in the Greater Kuparuk Area in Alaska and a 38% stake in the Kuparuk Transportation Company. In each of these deals, the company has unloaded higher-cost properties for either cash or an increased stake in a core asset. What ConocoPhillips will do with this money ConocoPhillips ended 2018 with $6.4 billion in cash. That adds to an already top-tier balance sheet after the company paid off $4.7 billion in debt last year. That put the oil giant at its targeted debt level, which credit rating agencies rewarded by upgrading it to a single-A rating. Meanwhile, the company can fully fund this year's $6.1 billion capital program at $40 oil. Because of these factors, ConocoPhillips has more cash than it needs to operate its business, especially with crude prices now in the mid-$60s. Given its financial strength, the company will likely use the proceeds to boost its share buyback program. ConocoPhillips already intended to repurchase another $3 billion in stock this year. It planned to fund half of those repurchases with cash flow, assuming oil averaged $50 a barrel, and the rest with cash on hand. However, with both numbers rising thanks to higher oil prices and recent asset sales, the company could accelerate its share repurchase activity. Prior buybacks have already retired about 7% of its outstanding shares, which has helped fuel some of ConocoPhillips' outperformance in recent years. As such, an acceleration of the repurchase program could give it an added boost. The perfect oil stock for today's oil market ConocoPhillips has worked hard to reposition the company into a low-cost oil producer. That allows it to thrive at lower prices while generating a gusher of cash at higher oil prices. The recent sale of the rest of its U.K. oil and gas assets is another step toward reducing costs, which should enhance its ability to generate strong total returns for shareholders. It's another piece of evidence in the thesis that ConocoPhillips is one of the top oil stocks to buy for the long term. Photo: CTV News The Vancouver Police Department has identified the victim of a fatal shooting in Kitsilano Tuesday night as 30-year-old Vancouver resident Manoj Kumar. Police were called to West 4th Ave. and Burrard St. just after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday for a report of shots fired. The suspect fled before officers arrived and Kumar died at the scene. Based on the circumstances surrounding the shooting, this appears to have been a targeted homicide, says Constable Jason Doucette, VPD. Although its very early in the investigation and we are still working to identify a motive, I can confirm that Mr. Kumar was not known to police and does not have any obvious connections to a criminal lifestyle. Police say there were reports of a vehicle driving out of the area immediately after the shooting. Officers were called to a vehicle fire just before midnight on West 22nd Ave. at Yew Street. The vehicle has not been directly linked to the shooting, but officers have seized it pending further investigation. This is the citys fourth homicide of 2019. No arrests have been made. Photo: thestar.com On April Fool's Day, the carbon tax rate in British Columbia was increased from $35 a tonne to $40. This translates to an increase on the carbon tax you pay on your gas home heating bills as well as when you fuel up your vehicle. As a result, I am increasingly hearing complaints from citizens over higher gas bills and the price at the pumps. One recent question I received was, how much higher the carbon tax increases will go. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for a Pan-Canadian agreement on pricing carbon pollution in Canada, it mandated a carbon tax rate of $50 per tonne in 2022. April 1 of each year, B.C.'s carbon tax rate will increase until it hits $50 per tonne, currently forecast for 2021. In terms of revenue, the B.C. NDP 2019 provincial budget over the next three fiscal years reveals that the carbon tax is forecast to generate $1.7, $1.97 and $2.2 billion. That is close to $6 billion of carbon tax revenue collected over the next three years. There has also been some confusion as the federal government imposed a national carbon tax on provinces that did not agree to the Pan-Canadian carbon pricing agreement. In those provinces, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick, the Trudeau government has indicated the intention is to ensure the national carbon tax is revenue neutral to citizens, although there is some debate on the veracity of those claims. Is the carbon tax revenue neutral here in B.C.? While B.C.'s carbon tax will generate close to $6 billion in tax revenue over the next three years, the climate action tax rebate, intended to offset those costs to lower income citizens over the same period, is forecast to return just $928 million. "Clean B.C.," another climate relate provincial program, has a total spending forecast of $679 million over the same three year time frame. Therefore, in order to meet Mr. Trudeau's $50 per tonne carbon tax target, B.C. citizens will pay close to $6 billion in new carbon tax over the next three years. Despite collecting $6 billion carbon tax revenue, only roughly $1.6 billion is being returned in various programs related to climate change. That means, in B.C., the carbon tax is not revenue neutral. I mention this as many citizens are confused when they hear the federal government suggest the carbon tax is revenue neutral when that is not what is being experienced here in B.C. It is also important to be aware that while the federal government has dictated the $50 per tonne carbon tax increase, in B.C., it is the decision of the current NDP provincial government if the carbon tax is revenue neutral or not. My question this week: Do you support the carbon tax increasing to $50 per tonne by 2021-22? I can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free 1-800-665-8711. Jimboys Tacos Celebrates 65th Anniversary By Rebranding Back To Its Roots From 1954 Food Trailer to Todays 40+ Locations, the Iconic California Taco Franchise Announces System-Wide Rebrand That Shines Spotlight on its History SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (PRWEB) April 17, 2019 - Since its humble beginnings as a single beach food trailer, legacy brand Jimboys Tacos has held a deep commitment to its heritage and values. This year, the home of The Original American Taco is celebrating its 65th anniversary by rebranding its restaurants to highlight the brands rich history - while continuing to innovate what it means to create a unique taco experience today. Jimboys Tacos was founded in 1954 by Jim Jimboy Knudson in Lake Tahoe, California. Knudson opened up his food trailer on Kings Beach, creating tacos with fresh, premium ingredients cooked in small batches. Knudsons delicious and flavorful tacos quickly gained a reputation, even enticing celebrities like members of the Rat Pack and the cast from the television series, Bonanza to order up. Sixty-five years later, Jimboys Tacos is getting back to its roots. Jimboys Tacos is now bringing the lively authenticity of that original food trailer to its more than 40 locations across California and Nevada. The brand recently kicked off the rebrand, which puts a modern spin on a vintage metal trailer look that truly transports customers back to the brands first location in 1954. Each revamped Jimboys Tacos counter features a photo of the first food trailer, while a large red wall details the brands storied history next to a black and white photo of its legendary founder. Were so excited to share this time capsule that celebrates how Jimboys Tacos began and narrates the path of how weve gotten where we are today, said CEO Robert Andersen. Were putting a modern twist on that original experience the Rat Pack enjoyed when they ate their tacos, and injecting the history of this great brand back into the customer experience. So far, nearly 20 Jimboys Tacos restaurants in the Greater Sacramento area have undergone the renovation or are in the process of reimaging, as well as four new Jimboys restaurants in Southern California and one new Jimboys in Lemmon Valley, Nevada. While menus differ slightly store-to-store, every Jimboys Tacos serves the Original Ground Beef Taco, featuring fresh premium ingredients in the restaurants signature grilled and crispy stone-ground corn shell dusted with parmesan cheese. Throughout our history, Jimboys has struck a perfect balance between celebrating the good old days and challenging the status quo through innovation, said Andersen. Shining a spotlight on our history and values through this exciting rebrand is the best possible way to celebrate our milestone 65th anniversary. About Jimboys Tacos Jimboys Tacos started out different in 1954 with the debut of The Original American Taco, its signature Original Ground Beef Taco made with seasoned ground beef, freshly shredded cheese, and lettuce encased in a crispy, stone-ground corn shell dusted with parmesan cheese. Jimboys has been committed to using fresh, premium ingredients, cooked in small batches to ensure freshness and great flavor since its inception. A family-owned business, Jimboys Tacos got its start as a food trailer in Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe, CA in 1954, when founder Jim Jimboy Knudson made it his goal to pioneer the best tasting taco on the planet. Today, the almost 65-year-old brand has over 40 locations operating in California and Nevada. Through the enduring passion and commitment to its heritage and values, the brand brings a unique taco experience that makes people happy like nobody elses business. To share in the experience, visit Jimboys Tacos restaurants, go to http://www.jimboystacos.com, and follow @JimboysTacos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Media Contact: Sydney Creagh No Limit Agency 312-526-3996 SOURCE Jimboys Tacos ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Office Evolution Working Its Way To Mount Pleasant Coworking franchisor doubling down on explosive growth with second Charleston-area location April 18, 2019 // Franchising.com // BOULDER, Colo. - Office Evolution, the largest coworking franchisor in the U.S., is further expanding its footprint with a new location in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, which is slated to open in June 2019. Located at 1501 Belle Isle Avenue, the 7,300 square-foot center is operated by Andrew Fry. As a believer in the coworking category and Office Evolution brand, Fry also owns the original Charleston location, which opened in May 2017. The new office space will service small-business owners in the Charleston, Mount Pleasant, North Charleston, West Ashley, Isle of Palms, Sullivans Island and surrounding areas. Office Evolution has been welcomed and well-received in Charleston, and Mount Pleasant should be no different, said Fry. Mount Pleasant, the fourth largest city in South Carolina, is growing rapidly and has become a hub for home-based and professional businesses. With the growing tech and entrepreneurial eco-system in the Charleston area, Office Evolution will fit right into the growth mode of the city. No stranger to hard work and the entrepreneurial spirit, Fry built a 31-year career in institutional banking, working as an executive in institutional trust and global custody. Responsibilities included overseeing large bank operations, client management and global service delivery for institutional investors. Not ready to retire, Fry was intrigued by Office Evolutions unique business model and growth positioned in the booming coworking industry. He is joined by his area manager Beth Sansone, who will operate both Charleston locations. A University of South Carolina graduate, Sansone comes from a career in management and marketing, and has been with Office Evolution for the past two years. I have really enjoyed becoming part of the fabric of the entrepreneurial eco-system in Charleston and look forward to expanding our Office Evolution family, added Fry. Office Evolution, with 62 locations open and nearly 80 in various stages of development, is the largest coworking franchise and the fourth largest network in the U.S. The model is based on local owners who are committed to serving their community, backed by the resources and distribution of a national brand and network is unique to the category. With more than 24 million non-employer businesses in the U.S. and more than 3.5 million U.S. businesses with four employees or less, demand for shared office space is high. We are proud of our Ohana, and we are thrilled to see Andrew continue to grow his business in Charleston, Office Evolution COO and Global Workspace Association Board Member William Edmundson said. With his passion for community, entrepreneurial spirit and professional background positions he will continue to provide Mount Pleasant business owners with workspace and services that enhance business performance. Our rapidly expanding network of workspaces is home for business owners living in the suburbs who need a place to realize dreams. Owners such as Andrew bring the ideal experience set to ensure our members have the space to do their thing! With dedicated work spaces, including private offices, conference rooms and shared workspace, Office Evolution has solutions for every business. There are also phone-answering services, address & mail services and other professional capabilities to make each small-business owner exceed their goals. It is people like Andrew who open not one, but two Office Evolution spaces that help propel the brand further, said Mark Hemmeter, founder and CEO of Office Evolution. We are thrilled to watch him take the next step in his journey and look forward to his continued growth and success. He is living proof of entrepreneurs living out their goals. To learn more about Office Evolution in Mount Pleasant, visit: https://www.officeevolution.com/locations/mount-pleasant About Office Evolution Founded in 2003 and franchising since 2012, the Colorado-based company is the largest coworking franchisor in the U.S. With 62 locations open and nearly 80 in various stages of development, Office Evolution is leading the workplace revolution that is projected to see nearly 30 percent of all office space become shared office space by 2030, according to a JLL report. Office Evolution is currently operating in 23 states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. For more information, please visit https://www.officeevolution.com/ Media Contact: Cami Fannin Franchise Elevator PR 614-561-2400 cfannin@franchiseelevator.com SOURCE Office Evolution ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus The community filled Pentictons Gyro Park Wednesday night to pull together for the victims of Mondays quadruple homicide. The tragic shootings have brought an unprecedented level of grief upon the city. But through the mourning, the communitys resilience has been a bright spot. I said on Monday that it was a dark day for Penticton, but there is also brightness in a community that can stand behind the victims and the families of those victims, RCMP Supt. Ted De Jager told the crowd. The vigil Wednesday saw a series of brief speeches, followed by a candlelight moment of silence. It was organized by the Chamber of Commerce and the Ooknakane Friendship Centre. Im very proud of the community, as Ive never been in 63 years that Ive lived here, Mayor John Vassilaki said immediately prior to the vigil. Ive never seen this community get together as well as they have. During his remarks to the crowd, MLA Dan Ashton said Penticton is a place where you never hear about these type of things. You hear about them elsewhere in the world. But when they do occur, and they have occurred here in Penticton, Penticton is infamous for rallying behind not only the community but those people affected, Ashton added. The victims of the shootings have now been identified as Barry and Susan Wonch, Rudi Winter and Darlene Knippelberg. Rudi Winters nephew, Jeff Schwarz, described him earlier Wednesday as the kind of guy who wouldn't have liked the attention. "Rudi wouldn't hurt a fly. He's the most calm, peaceful guy you'd ever meet. If there was a confrontation, he wouldn't address it," he said, adding that Winter "pretty much" raised him. "I don't know the other victims but I do know Rudi and this guy had a heart of gold." The Wonches moved to Penticton from Osoyoos in recent years, neighbour Wally Murphy told the Canadian Press. "They were probably the best neighbours we ever had," said Murphy, adding he knew Barry for 14 years. "I knew where the tools were in his garage and he knew where the tools were in mine." John Maxwell lived across the street from the Wonches in Osoyoos before they moved to Penticton. He said Susan was a wonderful cook and the couple liked to organize neighbourhood parties. "They were both the nicest people you could ever, ever ask to be with. When we went over, they really made you feel like somebody," he said. The accused, John Brittain, turned himself into police immediately after the shooting and has been charged with four counts of murder. He appears in court next on May 8. with files from the Canadian Press Penn Station East Coast Subs Partners with One Case One Meal Penn Station helps provide 1,325 meals April 18, 2019 // Franchising.com // MILFORD, OHIO - Penn Station East Coast Subs, the fast-casual restaurant known for its grilled, made-to-order sub sandwiches, hand-squeezed lemonade and fresh-cut fries, joined Elara in its One Case One Meal program for hunger relief again last year. Through the program, Penn Station helped provide 1,325 meals to people struggling with hunger. One Case One Meal provides meals in partnership with local food banks to feed people at risk of going hungry. For each case of Elara products purchased by Penn Station, Elara donates the financial equivalent of one meal to the food bank of Penn Stations choosing. This is Penn Stations third year participating in the program. In total, Penn Station has helped provide 8,045 meal. Penn Station has supported Inter Parish Ministry through the One Case One Meal program. We were once again thrilled to continue to partner with Elaras One Case One Meal program and support the Inter Parish Ministry, said Craig Dunaway, president of Penn Station East Coast Subs. Their mission to end hunger is a wonderful cause that we are happy to continue to support. Cincinnati-based Penn Station East Coast Subs serves an assortment of hot and cold deli sandwiches, including the chains renowned Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwich, wraps and salads made to order with high-quality ingredients. The menu also includes fresh-cut fries, hand-squeezed lemonade and chocolate chunk cookies baked daily in the restaurant. Penn Station offers eat-in dining, carry out and catering. About Penn Station East Coast Subs Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1985, Penn Station serves an assortment of hot and cold deli sandwiches, wraps and salads made to order with high-quality ingredients. The menu also includes fresh-cut fries, hand-squeezed lemonade made throughout the day and chocolate chunk cookies baked in the restaurant. Penn Station has more than 300 locations in 15 states including Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. All but one location is franchised. As a franchisor, Penn Station is known for its outstanding profitability and return on investment. Penn Station was named one of the Best Franchises to Buy by Forbes in 2016 and 2018 and one of the Best Franchise Deals by QSR Magazine in 2016 and 2017. Projections call for the opening of 10 to 15 restaurants nationwide in 2019. Penn Station is targeting Kansas City, Atlanta, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Richmond and Raleigh for franchise expansion. For more information, visit www.penn-station.com. Media Contact: Caitlin Thompson 513-659-1183 SOURCE Penn Station East Coast Subs ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Photo: The Canadian Press Concordia University's downtown campus is shown on. A Harvard professor is claiming he was disinvited from speaking at Concordia University because he is white and holds conservative opinions. Harvey Mansfield wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this week saying Concordia's Liberal Arts College had rescinded an offer for him to address students. He says he was to give a commencement speech about the study of great books. Mansfield, a professor of government at Harvard, says he was notified about the decision in a letter from college principal Mark Russell. A college representative was not immediately available for comment. Mansfield says Russell's letter did not specify why the university had changed its mind about his visit. He writes that he learned from someone other than the principal that 12 alumni had demanded the college cancel his speaking engagement. Mansfield says the alumni were allegedly upset about his views on gender and culture. Mansfield's says he was rejected from speaking because he is a white male conservative professor. The Canadian Press was unable to immediately reach Mansfield for comment. Nancy and Denise are not only terrific scientists, they are out there in the trenches working to improve the health of the public, said Groudine. Thats the kind of person who gets elected. Denise Galloway Galloways research helped to establish HPVs link to cervical cancer, a leading cause of cancer death for women worldwide, and her studies of virus-like particles laid the groundwork for the HPV vaccine, which has dramatically reduced cervical cancer rates in countries that have embraced its use. It is terrific to be recognized by your peers, said Galloway, who holds the Paul Stephanus Memorial Endowed Chair and is director of the Hutchs Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center, an interdisciplinary team that is focused on cancers caused by viruses or bacteria. I attribute any success I have to working at the Hutch. Ive been here my whole career, and it is a wonderful environment for science. Galloway continues her research on the HPV vaccine, including a study in Kenya to see if a single dose of the vaccine is protective. If we can show that it is feasible there, it will be a game-changer, she said. We need to get this cervical cancer vaccine to where the problem is greatest. Each year, 53O,000 women worldwide are diagnosed with the disease, and 275,000 die from it. Most cases occur in resource-poor countries. The Hutch scientist has been an advocate for more effective measures to get young people to be vaccinated, such as those adopted by Australia, where HPV infection rates have fallen by 77 percent, and cervical cancer is on track there to be eliminated within two decades. In the United States, only 49 percent girls have received a single dose of the vaccine. Photo: The Canadian Press Supreme Court of Canada Justice Clement Gascon speaks during a welcoming ceremony at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially launched the selection process to replace Supreme Court Justice Clement Gascon today, ignoring calls from the federal Conservatives to delay it. The 59-year-old Gascon, who is from Quebec, announced on Monday that he will step down from the country's top court for personal and family reasons in September. Trudeau says former prime minister Kim Campbell will once again lead the search as the head of an advisory panel whose members have not yet been named. The panel will be responsible for drawing up a short list of between three and five potential candidates, all of whom must be trained in civil law and hail from Quebec. The decision to launch the search to replace Gascon likely means the next justice will be appointed before this fall's federal election. It also comes against the wishes of the Opposition Conservatives who asked Trudeau to put the appointment on hold and conduct an investigation into who leaked information about a dispute between Trudeau and former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould over who should be chief justice of Canada's top court. The Canadian Press and CTV reported last month that Wilson-Raybould recommended Glenn Joyal, chief justice of Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench, as the new chief justice of Canada. According to sources, Trudeau was concerned about her choice because he believed Joyal has a conservative, restrictive approach to interpreting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Trudeau ultimately named sitting Supreme Court Justice Richard Wagner to replace Beverley McLachlin, who retired as chief justice in December 2017. He also appointed Alberta judge Sheilah Martin to fill western Canada's seat on the bench. The leaks, which Trudeau says did not come from his office, landed in the midst of a furor over Wilson-Raybould's contention that she was improperly pressured last fall to stop the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on foreign bribery charges. The reports suggested Trudeau had reasons unrelated to the Montreal engineering giant to move Wilson-Raybould out of the prestigious justice portfolio to Veterans Affairs in a mid-January cabinet shuffle. Wilson-Raybould believes the move was punishment for her refusal to halt the prosecution. She resigned from cabinet a month after the shuffle and was removed from the Liberal caucus in early April. Gascon officially retires Sept. 15, which is after the official start of the fall election. If the House of Commons is to have a chance to hear about the decision and ask questions of the new judge before the election, the advisory committee and Trudeau will have to make a decision before the end of June. Trudeau is not required to select a judge recommended by the advisory panel. Trudeau set May 17 as the deadline for interested to candidates to submit an application package. Photo: Ben Herndon UPDATE 12:06 p.m. Outdoor apparel company The North Face says three members of its Global Athlete Team are presumed dead after an avalanche in Alberta's Banff National Park. The company says renowned American alpinist Jess Roskelley and Austrian climbers David Lama and Hansjorg Auer are missing. The North Face says it is doing what it can to support their family and friends. Parks Canada says the three men were attempting to climb the east face of Howse Peak on the Icefields Parkway on Wednesday. UPDATE 11:42 a.m. Emergency crews search for three men believed to have perished in an avalanche in Banff National Park is being hampered by weather conditions. Rescue crews were alerted to the situation when the three experienced climbers did not check in and were reported overdue. Crews can see the area from the sky and evidence of the avalanche including debris containing climbing equipment is visible. Based on the assessment from the air it is not believed that any of the three climbers could have survived. Parks Canada is being hampered by dangerous conditions and are concerned about the risk of more avalanches. ORIGINAL 11:14 a.m. Parks Canada says three mountaineers are presumed dead after an avalanche in Alberta's Banff National Park. The federal agency says the three men were attempting to climb the east face of Howse Peak on the Icefields Parkway. They were reported overdue on Wednesday. "Parks Canada visitor safety specialists immediately responded by air and observed signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment," the agency said in a news release. Officials say recovery efforts are on hold because of a continued risk of avalanches in the area. Rain and strong winds in the forecast are expected to make conditions worse. One of the men is American and the other two are from Europe. Parks Canada says the three are considered highly experienced and professional mountain athletes. "Parks Canada extends its sincerest condolences to the families, friends and loved ones of the mountaineers," the news release reads. The east face of Howse Peak is remote and Parks Canada says its mixed rock and ice routes make it an exceptionally difficult climb. -with files from Canadian Press and CTV News The live-action Minecraft movie will release on March 4, 2022, after years of delays. A movie based on the smash hit has been in the works since at least 2014, but details about it have always been hard to come by. The movie now has a solid release date of March 4, 2022. A recent post on Minecraft.net says the movie will tell the story of a teenage girl and her unlikely group of adventurers. After the malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, they must save their beautiful, blocky Overworld. Peter Sollett will direct the film, and while he does not have a significant blockbuster release under his belt, he has won awards for his work from the Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and others, according to IMDb. Warner Bros. is the production company behind the film, which could be good news for fans: Its latest release, Shazam!, is a box-office hit, and the upcoming Pokemon Detective Pikachu looks to follow the same path. As promising as an award-winning director and gaming-friendly production studio may sound, the Minecraft movie has dealt with its fair share of hiccups over the past several years. In 2014, Variety reported that Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb) would direct the Minecraft movie. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the movie would release on May 25, 2019, with Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney taking Levys place as director. McElhenney left the production in 2018, according to TheWrap, bringing us to this weeks news that the film will finally release in 2022 with Sollett at the helm. Only time will tell what a live-action version of Minecraft will look like, and with a little luck, the movie might get by without any further delays. Photo: Wayne Moore - File Photo A Lake Country company specializing in factory built homes has issued layoff notices for about 30 per cent of its staff. Darren Bassett, general manager of SRI Homes says the company issued one-week notices to 70 workers Wednesday. He tells Castanet News once everything plays out over the next week, about 50 to 60 of those employees will likely be laid off. "It's been slow coming out of winter, that's part of it," says Bassett. "We are also seeing less activity in the residential market this spring versus last spring without question. So, we basically made the tough decision to reduce our production run rate by 30 per cent." He says the residential market, especially in B.C. has peaked over the last three or four years. "It just couldn't continue," he said. Bassett says the company is looking at other options to try and increase production. "We have started to quote on commercial projects which we weren't able to prior to that because we were so busy with the residential market. "We are hoping to backfill the residential work we're losing with commercial, and obviously hire these people back." The company underwent large layoffs in 2014 and 2015, however, many of those people were hired back within a few months once the market improved. The latest layoffs take effect April 29, and will leave the company with about 140 production employees. Experts say measles outbreak unlikely in Massachusetts Medical providers and public health experts are not concerned that the anti-vaccination movement will cause a local measles outbreak, reporting that it is just a small number of parents who express skepticism over vaccinating their children. I feel that Massachusetts is incredibly successful in their vaccination rates, said Ann Becker, public health nurse for the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Its a lot of work. Our state supports it as best they can. A recent outbreak of measles at Disneyland Park in California has thrust the debate about the risks and benefits of childhood vaccination into the national spotlight, with proponents insisting the practice is vital to protecting public health and opponents claiming it causes other issues such as autism a claim that has been debunked in scientific literature. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the majority of people who contracted measles during the Disneyland outbreak were not vaccinated. Nationally, an estimated 91.9 percent of people have received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, according to the CDC, and in Massachusetts 98.5 percent of students entering kindergarten have received the treatment, according to state health figures. Scott Zoback, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health, said the vaccination rate in Massachusetts is higher than some other states, which puts it at a lower public health risk overall. In California and Arizona, where the recent outbreak is most pronounced, measles vaccination rates among children between 1 and 3 years old are 90.7 percent and 91.4 percent, respectively, according to the CDCs National Immunization Survey both lower than the national average. In Massachusetts, students are required to get two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine for enrollment in college unless they were born before 1957 or can provide a blood test with proof of immunity. There are also vaccination requirements to be enrolled in preschool, kindergarten, elementary and high school. I completely support the process, Becker said. Im really glad that thats one of the programs that our state participates in. Still, at 3.9 percent, Hampshire County has a vaccine exemption rate which includes children both unvaccinated and undervaccinated which is more than double the state average of 1.5 percent, according to a state Department of Public Health survey of kindergartens in the 2013-2014 school year. In Franklin County, the rate is at 5.5 percent, the highest in the state, followed by the Cape Cod counties at 4.9 percent. Hampshire has the third highest exemption rate, followed by Berkshire County at 3.6 percent. Massachusetts allows for exemptions from vaccination requirements due to religious beliefs, while other states allow for exceptions for personal beliefs. Some states allow for both religious and personal belief exemptions. John Snyder, a pediatrician with Amherst Pediatrics, said these are essentially the same, which is what has allowed for the growing numbers of exemptions in some areas. Unfortunately, its extremely easy to get an exemption, he said. All you need to do is say, It is against my religious beliefs on a piece of paper. Snyder, who has written about the topic of vaccinations on the blog Science-Based Medicine, said he believes that Massachusetts should allow no non-medical exemptions to vaccines. The only states in the country currently like this are West Virginia and Mississippi. Children under age 1 cannot be vaccinated, and physicians and health experts note that they are put at risk by those who choose not to be immunized. Snyder said that with the measles outbreak, he has had a few calls from parents asking if they can have their children immunized at 11 months. Public health outreach Merridith OLeary, director of public health in Northampton, said that when the city public health office becomes aware of any uptick in an infectious disease, the staff does outreach in the form of research and facts posted on the city website. She noted that in addition to new emerging diseases, the staff also now keeps an eye out for older diseases that are re-emerging, measles included, due to the population of unvaccinated people. She said she would like parents to know that it is never too late to have their children vaccinated. We need to provide a herd immunity, per se, OLeary said. Youre not only protecting yourself by receiving it. Youre protecting other community members. Northampton drew attention when a Smith College faculty member was linked to a case of the measles in April 2014. That was during several outbreaks last year, when a total of 644 cases from 27 states were reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention the greatest number of cases since measles was believed to be eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to the CDC website. That year, eight cases of the measles were reported in Massachusetts. OLeary said a total of 600 vaccines were administered between Hampshire and Hampden counties after the case was found at Smith. Kevin Cranston, the director of the state Bureau of Infectious Diseases, said maintaining whats known as herd immunity the idea that having immunized the majority of the population surrounding one at-risk person significantly lowers the risk of the virus being transmitted to that person is crucial to preventing outbreaks of diseases such as measles. The point at which the proportion of the population that is unvaccinated reaches a level where it poses a public health risk varies with each disease depending on how infectious it is. Cranston said in the case of measles, 95 percent of the population needs to be immunized. Measles is a serious respiratory disease that causes a rash and fever. An airborne disease, measles is very contagious and typically begins with fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes. Within a few days a red rash appears, usually first on the face and then spreading downward to the rest of the body, according to the CDC. In rare cases, measles can be deadly. Measles is one of the most infectious human-affecting organisms known to exist, Cranston said. He said it can be transmitted merely by entering the same room as an infected person, and the virus remains for up to two hours after that person has left. Additionally, he said an infected person may not show any symptoms for about four days. Internet confusion Many experts link a growing anti-vaccination movement to a paper published in 1998 by British doctor Andrew Wakefield, who linked vaccinations with increasing numbers of children diagnosed with autism. The paper was retracted in 2010, but his beliefs have made an impact on parents in both Britain and the United States. OLeary noted that when measles vaccine and autism are Googled together, references about the debate whether there is a link still appear on the first page of returns, confusing many parents, even if scientific research has since found no cause-and-effect relationship. Local providers said they push for all of their patients to become vaccinated, though they will still treat unvaccinated children. Its fortunate and unfortunate these days that we have the Internet where many people do their own research before seeing doctors, said Jeffrey Corp, operations manager of Northampton Area Pediatrics, which serves more than 11,000 patients across western Massachusetts. Corp said there are a small number of parents who express concerns regarding the safety of vaccines, and that most who do are worried about the ingredient thimerosal, a preservative that contains mercury. The CDC reports no convincing evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site, according to the website. At Hilltown Community Health Center, medical director Jon Liebman said the clinic plans to increase outreach that would encourage all patients to receive the state-required immunizations. The health center, which has clinics in Huntington, Worthington and at Gateway Regional High School, serves around 8,400 people each year primarily in western Hampshire and Hampden county towns. Were trying to really tighten up on all kinds of preventative health services here, Liebman said. Its important that people weigh off the risks and benefits: The risk of vaccinations is very, very, very small, and the risk of a measles epidemic is very real. The risks created by refusing to vaccinate ones children have inspired some parents to become vocal about their beliefs that everyone should be vaccinated. Naomi Shulman, a writer who lives in Northampton and mother of two daughters ages 13 and 10, said she has been making strong statements on Facebook encouraging her friends to vaccinate their children as a result of her frustration with the anti-vaccination movement. Every child and adult who is able has the responsibility to be vaccinated, not just because its incumbent upon all of us to protect our own health, but because its a public health issue, she said. Its not a decision that affects only your own children or your own family even though it feels that way for a lot of people. Gena Mangiaratti can be reached at gmangiaratti@gazettenet.com. Photo: The Canadian Press A fire fighter makes his way on a balcony of Notre Dame cathedral Wednesday, April 17, 2019 in Paris. Paris police investigators think an electrical short-circuit most likely caused the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, a police official said Thursday, as France paid a daylong tribute to the firefighters who saved the world-renowned landmark. A judicial police official told The Associated Press that investigators made an initial assessment of the cathedral Wednesday but don't have a green light to search Notre Dame's charred interior because of ongoing safety hazards. The cathedral's fragile walls were being shored up with wooden planks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak by name about an ongoing investigation. Investigators so far believe the fire was accidental, and are questioning both cathedral staff and workers who were carrying out renovations. Some 40 people had been questioned by Thursday, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The police official would not comment on an unsourced report in Le Parisian newspaper that investigators are looking at whether the fire could have been linked to a computer glitch or the temporary elevators used in the renovation work, among other things. The prosecutor's office said only that "all leads must be explored." Since the cathedral will be closed to the public for years, the rector of the Catholic parish that worships there has proposed building a temporary structure on the plaza in front of the gothic-era landmark, and City Hall gave its approval Thursday "subject to technical restraints." "The rector has no cathedral for the moment. .... But I'm going to try to invent something," Bishop Patrick Chauvet said. A crypt containing vestiges dating from antiquity is located under the vast esplanade. President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants Notre Dame to be restored in five years, a timeline that restoration specialists have questioned as overly ambitious, with some saying it could take three times that long to rebuild the 850-year-old architectural treasure. Macron hopes to reopen the cathedral in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics, which Paris is hosting. Earlier Thursday, Macron held a ceremony at the Elysee Palace to thank the hundreds of firefighters who battled the fast-moving fire at Notre Dame for nine hours starting Monday evening, preventing the structure's destruction and rescuing many of the important relics held inside. "We've seen before our eyes the right things perfectly organized in a few moments, with responsibility, courage, solidarity and a meticulous organization", Macron said. "The worst has been avoided." The cathedral's lead roof and its soaring spire were destroyed, but Notre Dame's iconic bell towers, rose windows, organ and precious artworks were saved. Macron said the firefighters will receive an Honor Medal for their courage and devotion. Paris City Hall also held a ceremony in the firefighters' honour Thursday afternoon, with a Bach violin concert, two giant banners strung from the monumental city headquarters and readings from Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Remarkably, no one was killed in the blaze that broke out as the cathedral was in the initial stages of a lengthy restoration. Photo: The Canadian Press President Donald Trump arrives to begin speaking at a Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride event in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, April 18, 2019, in Washington. With Washington riveted to the Mueller report, a comprehensive economic assessment of the new North American free trade deal quietly emerged Thursday, predicting less-than-stellar economic gains for the United States. Moreover, the much anticipated report of the U.S. International Trade Commission undercut the Trump administration's rationale for forcing a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, said one leading Canadian trade lawyer. The new report arrived in the face of rising doubts in some quarters about the real impact of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, and with political roadblocks to ratification piling up in all three countries. The trade commission tome all 379 pages of it landed Thursday after being delayed months by the 35-day shutdown of the American federal government. Its findings are significant because it is widely viewed as a neutral body that can provide a sober assessment of the economic merits of the new deal, which faces growing opposition primarily from Democrats who want to deny Trump a political victory on a trade deal he sees as positive. The commission predicted modest economic growth in the U.S. as a result of the agreement a 0.35 per cent increase in gross domestic product and 176,000 new jobs, an increase of just 0.12 per cent. "That's it? All this time and all this headache, and the disruption to the North American supply chain and to the companies for the sake of 176,000 jobs?" said Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, a Toronto-based international trade lawyer. The report also predicted that U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico would increase by $19.1 billion, and that U.S. imports from the two countries would also increase by the exact amount $19.1 billion. Todgham Cherniak said the identical figures debunk the American raison d'etre for renegotiating NAFTA that the U.S. was suffering under an unfair trade deficit that needed correcting. "The trade deficit issue is completely neutralized." In the crucial auto sector, the assessment was positive but with one caveat: it might make autos more expensive for consumers because of new content rules that would prevent the use of cheaper, foreign parts something Trump has railed against as being a job killer in the U.S. The complicated content formula for what constitutes a North American-made auto known as rules of origin and updated labour provisions aimed at Mexico were key issues in the contentious NAFTA renegotiation. The new deal "would strengthen and add complexity to the rules of origin requirements in the automotive sector by increasing regional value content (RVC) requirements and adding other requirements." It would increase the production of automotive parts and create new jobs, but also "lead to a small increase in the prices and small decrease in the consumption of vehicles in the United States." Dan Ujczo, a trade lawyer and Canada-U.S. specialist in Columbus, Ohio, said the analysis confirms that the U.S. is never going to get a better deal with Canada and Mexico than the current agreement. But he suggested it's all probably moot given the wider political turmoil unleashed by the Mueller report, which examines whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. "Unfortunately, today's other report is going to consume Washington for the remainder of the spring and likely stall consideration by Congress in 2019," Ujczo said. The Trump administration anticipated the arrival of the trade commission's unvarnished assessment by launching a new charm offensive to sell the merits of the new free trade pact, and to counter growing skepticism about the economic benefits of the deal. The U.S. Trade Representative said Thursday the new, yet-to-be-ratified deal will bring auto jobs back to the U.S. from Mexico. In a new nine-page "white paper," it said the new continental trade deal will generate $57 billion in new auto manufacturing investments and create 76,000 new jobs in the American automotive sector in the next five years. A senior USTR official, who briefed journalists on the condition of anonymity, dismissed a report from the International Monetary Fund last month which said the new rules of origin and the labour provisions would lead to a decline in vehicle production in all three countries. The new USTR report, however, made no mention of the punishing steel and aluminium tariffs that Trump imposed on Canadian and Mexican steel imports duties both countries cite as obstacles to ratifying the new pact. Flavio Volpe, the president of the Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, said that there is no way that the U.S. automakers came meet the new content requirements for autos with tariffs of 25-per-cent and 10-per-cent on Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum still in place. "You can get there, but you won't get there profitably," said Volpe. Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021. A new wristband is available in Germany, designed to detect the 'date rape' drug. Named 'Xantus', the bracelet was invented by student Kim Eisenmann after her friend was drugged and assaulted - and now she's determined to do her part in preventing date rape. The recycleable wristband can detect the most common date rape drug, GHB. All you have to do is secure the wristband (it's similar to most paper wristbands you'd get at a gig or festival), stir your drink, then dab some of the liquid onto one of the two test areas. After waiting 2 minutes, if the test area turns blue your drink has tested positive for GHB. GHB and Rohypnol (roofies) are colourless, tasteless and virtually impossible drugs to detect before the side effects kick in, which is why they're so commonly used by predators as date rape drugs. This is why this bracelet is such an important development - you shouldn't have to worry about what's in your drink while you're out having a good time. As well as actually detecting the drug, the wristbands also offer preventative protection - offenders will be put off from slipping something in your drink if you're wearing one. It also serves as a reminder because every time you see it on your wrist you'll be reminded to be careful and aware. We are so on board with these, and hope they get the funding they need to make it worldwide - safer gigs together everyone. For our mates in the UK you can buy them here. An interstellar space rock hit our planet five years ago News oi-Vishal Kawadkar The object is said to be from outside of our solar system. Last year a cigar-shaped rock now called Oumuamua' flew past our sun. The visitor made it to the headlines across the globe. But it might not be the first instellar object to make a close approach to our planet, a new study claims. A new paper from Harvard astronomers suggests that a meteor hit our planet's atmosphere above Papua New Guinea may also be an outsider for our solar system. The researchers found that the meteor that hit our planet in 2015, by looking for objects that were very swift to be orbiting the sound. The space rock travelled towards our planet at around 37 miles per second, a speed so high suggests it might have originated outside or solar system. The reseachers suggests that the new findings 'implies a possible origin from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy.' 'I think it is reasonable to conclude that this very high speed impactor came from the population of interstellar object,' said Kat Volk from the University of Arizona. 'I expect interstellar objects to be common enough - both from theoretical considerations and from the implications of 'Oumuamua - that I think an interstellar origin is the simplest explanation for this bolide.' Besides, an asteroid known as the NASA Asteroid 2019 GN, skimmed Earth on a so-called "Earth Close Approach" trajectory. The space agency's asteroid trackers said the space rock flew past our planet on April 13. The space agency estimated that the meteoroid was travelling at speeds of around 26,574.8 mph (42,768kph) or 11.88km per second. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Trix the T. rex is ready for her big Glasgow reveal Trix the Tyrannosaurus rex is all ready to meet Scottish and UK audiences at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. Amazing time lapse footage shows the complexity of the build over three days with some 300 individual bones being pieced together to make up the massive skeleton. Now the big build is complete and Kelvin Hall is ready to welcome the public to the T. rex in Town exhibition from Thursday 18 April. With ferocious teeth and short arms, the Tyrannosaurus rex is probably the most well-known dinosaur in the world. The 66 to 67-million-year-old T. rex female is 39-foot long, around 13 feet high and weighs a colossal 5,000 kg. The iconic dinosaur has spent the last year touring European countries as part of an interactive and educational exhibition, T. rex in Town, which explains the story of her life and discovery of her skeleton. She is currently the only real T. rex on tour in the world while her museum in the Netherlands is being redeveloped. Over a million people have already visited the exciting interactive exhibition across Europe. Trix will be in Glasgow for 15 weeks until 31 July 2019. The T. rexs visit to Glasgows Kelvin Hall is the only city in the UK or Ireland to be visited by Trix. After her Scottish stop off she will return to Naturalis Biodiversity Center in her home city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. Once her visit to Glasgow is finished it is unlikely she will go on tour again. Trixs arrival at Kelvin Hall positions the west end of Glasgow as the dinosaur capital of Scotland! T. rex in Town overlaps with the final weeks of Dippy on Tour from the Natural History Museum at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, just across the road from Kelvin Hall. Photos T.rex in Town - Factfile Trix is a female Tyrannosaurus rex. She weights 5000kg (or five tonnes). She is 39ft (12 metres) long & 13ft to 16ft (or 4-5 metres) tall. She is thought to be at least 30-years-old when she died making Trix the oldest T.rex skeleton ever found. The T. rex is one of the biggest predators to have ever walked the planet. Trix lived 66 to 67 million years ago in what is now western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. The fossil was excavated in 2013 in the US state of Montana by a team from the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Dutch city of Leiden. The excavation of Trix took place from 30 August to 8 September 2013. With almost 80% of her bones found and their unique quality, Trix places in the top three ranking of the most complete T. rex skeletons in the world. Trix has her own passport issued by the Dutch authorities when she was transported from the USA to Holland. Trix will be on display at Kelvin Hall from Thursday 18 April to 31 July 2019. The T. rex in Town exhibition is organised by The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Museums and has been supplied by Naturalis. Tickets for the major dinosaur attraction and interactive exhibition are available now https://kelvinhall.org.uk/trex/, Tickets 14\ 8, family ticket 39.50. Concessions are also available. After listening and interacting with books, local children in attendance followed librarian assistant Karen Anderson's instructions in manipulating a parachute. The Glasgow City-County Library celebrated National Library Week April 8 through 12 by having a library-themed weekly story time on April 11. Books about a variety of characters experiencing the library were read to children of all ages in attendance. The library hosts story time weekly, every Thursday at 10 a.m. in the library basement. Congressman Greg Gianforte (fourth from right) attends trade negotiations in China. Gianforte was among those selected to represent Congress on the first trade envoy of 2019. Montana's sole U.S. Representative, Greg Gianforte (R), spoke to the Courier about his recent trip to China as part of the first Congressional delegation of 2019. Gianforte said he was one of only six legislators in the bipartisan group, working to secure a new trade deal with the nearly 1.4 billion person market. Gianforte explained that his reason for going to China was simple. "Trade is so important to our ranchers and farmers," said Gianforte, "and they need certainty and we were there to talk trade." The Congressman described the negotiations as very promising, and reported that the general sentiment from delegates and diplomats alike is that a deal is close. "I would say we had very promising meetings with the U.S. Ambassador there in Beijing and also with Chinese government officials, and we also met with business leaders, both Chinese and American firms operating in China." In meetings with the U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, Gianforte said he delivered a very clear message that the negotiations needed to be done in a timely manner. He recounted the exchange saying, "We need to get this trade deal done. We need certainty for our farmers and ranchers. Please bring these negotiations to a close, so we can get back to fair and reciprocal trade." The Congressman said he had a similar message for the Chinese officials that the governments should be seeking "free, fair, and reciprocal trade." He went on to say that Democrats, Republicans and the administration were all on the same page with China and that in addition to the free, fair and reciprocal trade, China needed to follow the established trade rules shared by the international community. According to Gianforte, that is especially true in regards to intellectual property rights and preventing the forced transfer of technology in return for the ability to do business in China. "We were so encouraged," said Gianforte, "that the administration shared with us that they were close to getting a deal done, and that would be so good for our farmers and ranchers here in Montana." In the Congressman's view, the trade agreement would have to have a number of agreements. Those include fair and reciprocal market access, the prevention of forced intellectual property transfers and an enforcement mechanism to deal with violators on both sides. Gianforte said that although the negotiations are close to securing a deal, the major issue preventing an agreement is the enforcement mechanism and how that mechanism will manifest itself to hold both parties responsible. Gianforte defended the trade conflict with China citing progress made for farmers and ranchers. "We've seen progress over the last few years," explained the Congressman, "We've seen deeper ties, the Chinese market is now open to American beef, that is progress." He went on to describe how issues with the Chinese hog industry has left open an opportunity for American beef to fill a protein void in the largest southeast Asian nation. "I think American producers and Montana producers in particular, can compete with anyone in the world if there is a level playing field," said Gianforte in response to whether he felt Montana producers would have better access to China and other markets once negotiations had finished. "Our focus in these trade negotiations is to get a level playing field. And, I'll leave it to the farmers and ranchers to compete, we just want to make sure the deck isn't stacked against them." Gianforte discussed the major impediments to coal exportation to China as well. He blamed coal capacity and West Coast state policies for the obstacle. "The issue we have with coal is we don't have enough port capacity on the West Coast," explained the Congressman, "This is why just last week I had a chance to visit with Governor [Jay] Inslee [D] in Washington State who has honestly been the primary impediment to exporting coal. I've talked to officials in the Japanese government and they want to buy more coal, but there is a lack of port capacity on the West Coast." Gianforte said he was pleased the President had approved a streamline in the permitting process to build ports that would export coal to markets in Asia. He went on to explain that the Governor of Washington was promoting a "really-extreme leftist" view on energy policy. Gianforte blamed Inslee's hopes to secure the Democratic nomination by running on a climate change platform. "I'll say pretty clearly, the climate is changing and part of it is man's industrial impact on it and we should be acting to apply American ingenuity to all forms of energy. Whether it be renewable energy or traditional fossil fuels. But the extreme approach Governor Inslee is taking will eliminate all coal-fired electricity would have massive detrimental effects on Montana. So I personally, on behalf of Montana, have pushed back hard on that," said Gianforte. Gianforte also said he has supported a reasonable and common sense approach that would allow the U.S. to produce affordable energy from coal and to get port capacity so the U.S. can get coal to trading partners that want to buy it from American producers. For those hopeful that a successful trade deal in China might clear the U.S. for a major multi-lateral trade deal, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, will likely be discouraged. Gianforte said that he thinks it is pretty clear that the administration is seeking to focus on bilateral trade deals rather than expansive multi-lateral deals. "I understand that negotiations are progressing with Japan," said Gianforte. "I would like to see a trade agreement with Japan and these other southeast Asian countries that would have many of the elements of TPP." Gianforte explained that although the administration abandoned TPP, he felt there were many desirable elements in the deal that were beneficial to Montana producers. He said he would continue to push Trade Ambassador Robert Lighthizer to get similar deals signed. "I certainly see it when I meet with ranchers and farmers around the state," explained Gianforte in response to whether he felt agriculture producers were owed an acknowledgment that the loss of access to foreign markets has harmed their livelihood alongside a series of other impacts like weather. "We certainly saw it with weather issues, with the drought, and these trade agreements just add additional issues. When I meet with the grain growers in our state, what they say is they want free and reciprocal access to these markets but they also realize that the President is working to achieve that, but these negotiations can't go on forever. We need to get ink on paper." For those hoping to see Gianforte working in Congress in 2020 may be disappointed. In response to his plans for the 2020 election season, Gianforte said, "I'm talking to people all over the state, and I'm being encouraged to consider a run for governor. I am seriously considering that but have not made a final decision." Until this interview, Gianforte had been non-committal about his 2020 plans. His potential run for governor would leave open the congressional seat he has held since 2017 when he claimed the seat in a special election against Democrat Rob Quist after Ryan Zinke was nominated to become the Interior Secretary. The House of Representatives, in a vote of 263-158, passed an extension of the Violence Against Women Act on April 4, providing protections for survivors of domestic violence. Provisions in the Act center around the crisis surrounding missing and murdered indigenous women. One provision, drafted by Senator Jon Tester, Studying the Missing and Murdered Indian Crisis Act, directs the Government Accountability Office to conduct a full review of how federal agencies respond to reports of missing and murdered Native Americans. Based on findings, solutions would then be recommended. Indigenous women are more likely to experience violence in their lifetimes. This bill builds on the progress of the Violence Against Women Act by expanding protections for Native women and giving Tribes more resources to combat the MMIW crisis, and Im urging Leader McConnell to bring it up for a vote in the Senate so we can put it on the Presidents desk as soon as possible, stated Tester in a release. Senator Daines tells the Courier he supports the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and is working with the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan reauthorization that can pass the Senate, House and then be signed by the President. Another provision in the Violence Against Women Act includes extending tribal jurisdiction over crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence, sex trafficking, stalking and assault against a Native person by non-Natives. It would also require the Attorney General to work with Tribes to create a standardized reporting protocol for responding to cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and improves Tribal access to federal crime information databases. The Violence Against Women Act will now head to the Senate for voting and if passed would be placed on President Trumps desk for signing to become a law. In addition to the provisions in the Violence Against Women Act, Montana legislators are introducing and drafting more Acts in order to face the crisis head-on. Tester, along with Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have also introduced bipartisan legislation to help Tribes, law enforcement and the federal government collaborate to combat the MMIW crisis. The Not Invisible Act, introduced on April 3, would create an advisory committee on violent crimes against Native people composed of multiple federal agencies, Tribal leaders, survivors, support service providers, and state, local and tribal law enforcement organizations. Senator Daines and Senator Tester have also reintroduced Savannas Act in order to improve information sharing between tribal and federal law enforcement agencies and increase data collection on missing persons in Indian Country. The murder rate of native women are 10 times the national average, Daines stated during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., on April 10. During the hearing, he also discussed how the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis needs immediate attention and lawmakers need to raise awareness and bring justice to these cases. From his office in Washington, D.C., Senator Jon Tester took time to speak to the Courier in a phone interview on April 2 about national and local issues. including trade and tariffs; the Keystone XL pipeline; and Special Olympics funding. Healthcare: Healthcare was a defining issue in the 2018 midterm elections, in which Senator Tester was reelected, and is predicted to be a core issue in the 2020 campaign. Much has been made of skyrocketing prescription costs, and Tester touts the bills he's working to push through the Senate. First up is a bill that would require pharmaceutical companies to disclose when they plan to raise prices and "make 'em justify why" they're raising them, creating more transparency. Citing insulin as a drug that has been around for decades and has increased in price, Tester questions, "Why is it necessary to rise the price of insulin?" Tester is also looking to make generic drugs more accessible by making pharmaceutical companies give their drugs to generic companies in a timely manner, noting that some companies hold back on that information even after patents have expired. Getting that information to the generic companies will allow them to make their less expensive versions more efficiently and quicker. Another bills targets pharmacy benefit managers, which as middlemen in the system, drive costs up further. Even as Tester fights to bring down the costs of prescription drugs, he acknowledges healthcare at large is an issue. He notes that payments that had been going to hospitals have been reduced, hurting small hospitals similar to Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow. He wants to make healthcare work in rural communities "doing commonsense stuff." Tester notes the divide between the need for bipartisanship and campaign made promises. Speaking of the current administration's new standpoint that the Affordable Care Act should be struck down in the courts, he said, "The Supreme Court has already stood it up. But nonetheless, they don't have anything to replace it with but the old system. And the old system just had way, way, way too many costs that were paid by somebody else." He calls for real leadership to drive down costs and hold insurance companies accountable, but expresses concern about where government leaders are going. "My concern from a rural standpoint," he said, "is that if we start losing rural hospitals, whether it's in Glasgow or whether it's in Chester or anywhere in between, those communities are put in a world of hurt." Tariffs and Trade: "Look, right now, not a lot." Unfortunately that is what is being done to help bring wheat farmers to parity with soybean farmers impacted by tariffs in the ongoing trade dispute with China. Speaking of the Senator's role in fighting for Montana farmers, Tester says there is not much to be done in his branch of government. "The Congress has given away a lot of the trade authority we had to the executive branch, willingly long before I got here," he told The Courier. He elaborated, "That was a huge mistake and it doesn't leave us a lot of tools to fight back on a lot of this tariff stuff." He stresses the need to hold China accountable for intellectual and patent theft, among other issues that need to be paid attention to from a national security standpoint, but he calls out the administration for using farmers as pawns. Tester claims the best way to hold China accountable is to use the financial sector, not with trade. Tester is pessimistic on what the future may bring for wheat farmers if there is no agreement reached on trade. He predicts many soybean acres will be converted to wheat which will further depress the price wheat farmers are paid for their product. He expresses concern that the federal government will soon find itself in a situation in which they will be looking at another emergency funding program for farmers around the country. A number of mistakes in trade policy, including the pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, have led to a loss of trading partners and markets. While the Senator would like to fix these issues, he says it is in the executive branch's purview right now. "I don't have any ideas on how we can fix it other than the people standing up and saying, 'Whoa, we need these trading partners, especially our international trading partners.'" Keystone XL: An issue of great importance to Valley County, and neighboring Phillips County, is the Keystone XL pipeline. Recently President Donald Trump issued a presidential permit authorizing TransCanada " ... construct, connect, operate, and maintain pipeline facilities at the international border of the United States and Canada ..." Senator Tester supports the construction of the controversial project, saying it needs to be built right, using American steel and the best technology available to protect the Missouri. "I don't see the controversy like a lot of folks do back here," he said before stressing the need for TransCanada and the Army Corps of Engineers to communicate with local tribes and other communities that have concerns about possible pollution above water intakes. "They need to figure out ways they can build this thing so the water supply is bulletproof." Special Olympics Funding: With the local Special Olympic games approaching on May 2, Senator Tester expressed gratitude that President Trump overrode Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' proposed budget which would have eliminated funding for unified schools, of which Glasgow is one, in the Department of Education budget. "For the dollars we spend, I don't think there's a bigger gain for the buck," he said. "I'm glad the President reversed his opinion on that and decided to fund it. It's been a good program. James "Jim" Farstad, 95, passed away on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, at Hi-Line Retirement Center, in Malta, Mont. Memorial services will be Saturday, April 20, at Malta Lutheran Church at 11 a.m. Jim was born Dec. 21, 1923, to Pedar and Julia Farstad in North Dakota. He attended school there and then spent nearly two years in the U.S. Navy where he served on a PT boat in the Pacific. He married the love of his life, Dagmar Hjelmstad, and they were blessed with two children, Deanna and James Jr. (deceased). He began working for grain elevator business in the Glentana-Opheim area of Montana. They moved to Malta where he managed the Equity Coop until his retirement in 1982. He really enjoyed parts and seldom missed a parts event in the area. His favorite hobby was wood working and keeping his yard in great condition. A member of Malta Lutheran church, he was often found volunteering his help and worked tirelessly at helping others. He also served on the committee for Malta Chamber of Commerce. He is proceeded in death by his parents; two sisters; two brothers; and his son James Jr. He is survived by his wife Dagmar; daughter Deanna (Harlem); granddaughter Susan, of Billings, Mont .; son-in-law Rich; and two grandsons, Taylor and Teagan, Billings. Condolences for the family may be left at http://www.kirkwoodfuneralhome.com. President Moreno Reveals REAL Reason His Gov't Revoked Assange's Asylum Sputnik News 11:46 17.04.2019(updated 11:47 17.04.2019) Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno has told the BBC why his government decided to revoke Julian Assange's asylum. The Wikileaks co-founder was arrested in London on 11 April after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy. The South American country's president, Lenin Moreno, explained his decision to revoke the diplomatic asylum granted to the WikiLeaks founder by his predecessor, Rafael Correa, accusing him of "repeated violations of international conventions and daily-life protocols", such as smearing excrement on the embassy walls, BBC reports. Earlier, Ecuador's Ambassador to the UK Jaime Marchan speaking with the Daily Mail also made several claims about Julian Assange's "daily protests" during his seven-year-stay in Ecuador's diplomatic premises in London. The 72-year-old diplomat alleged that the whistleblower's relationship with personnel had deteriorated towards the end of his asylum to the extent that he allegedly left excrement smeared on the walls. "When Assange wanted to be unpleasant, he put excrement on the walls and underwear with excrement in the lavatory. We had to remind him to flush the toilet and clean the dishes. He had to be reminded of normal standards of behaviour all the time," Marchan told the media outlet. Earlier, Lenin Moreno said no other nation had influenced the decision to revoke the WikiLeaks founder's asylum after what he called violations by Assange, adding: "Any attempt to destabilise is a reprehensible act for Ecuador, because we are a sovereign nation and respectful of the politics of each country." However, Julian Assange's lawyer has accused Ecuador of "outrageous allegations", and spreading lies about the whistleblower's behaviour inside its embassy in London. Assange's lawyer, Jennifer Robinson claims the Ecuadorian Government lied to justify expelling Assange from its embassy. Jennifer Robinson told Sky News that Ecuador was making "pretty outrageous allegations" to justify allowing British police into its embassy in order to take Assange into custody. "I think the first thing to say is Ecuador has been making some pretty outrageous allegations over the past few days to justify what was an unlawful and extraordinary act in allowing British police to come inside an embassy," she said. Assange was arrested at the embassy last week after Ecuador withdrew his political asylum status. A judge in London has found him guilty of skipping bail in 2012, when he faced extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges. The whistleblower feared that Sweden would hand him over to the United States, where he could be subject to the death penalty for leaking classified Afghan war logs. The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against him on much milder charges of conspiracy to hack a government computer. Appearing at the Westminster Magistrates' Court on April 11, Assange pleaded not guilty to the charge of failing to surrender to a 2012 arrest warrant and skipping bail after a Swedish extradition order. Judge Michael Snow said Assange faces up to 12 months in jail when he is sentenced at a later date at Southwark Crown Court. The judge added that the United States must present all the necessary documents regarding the extradition request for Assange by 12 June. Meanwhile, Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno set off on a five-day visit to Washington, where he will attend the Inter-American Dialogue. He had no official meetings scheduled with officials from the Trump administration. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Former Spy: Hungary Used as Logistical Base for Russian Intelligence Activity By Jamie Dettmer April 17, 2019 "Is your boss working for Moscow?" It isn't a question any Western counter-intelligence officer wants to be asked by counterparts in agencies from allied NATO countries, but for Ferenc Katrein it wasn't such an infrequent query during his decade-and-a-half at Hungary's Constitution Protection Office. Worst of all, there were grounds for suspicions about Hungary's civilian intelligence services, doubts Katrein himself harbored. Five-and-half years ago Katrein left Hungary's counter-espionage agency, where he'd risen to become executive head of operations and later chief adviser to the director. "There comes a point when you have to say no," he told me as we sipped coffee in a cafe near a railway station. "It was both a matter of being asked to do things I didn't think right and blocked from doing things we needed to do," he adds. The final straw for Ferenc was being obstructed from mounting operations to counter Russian intelligence activity in Hungary by, among other things, targeting Russian officers in a bid to recruit them as double agents. 'Russian' bank relocation Katrein, who now lives outside Hungary, agreed to be interviewed by VOA amid a political storm in Budapest over a controversial decision by the government of Viktor Orban to agree to the relocation to the Hungarian capital of a Russian-controlled development bank steeped in Cold War history. Known now as the International Investment Bank, formerly as Comecon, the obscure Russian-controlled financial institution is headed by Nikolai Kosov, whose parents had storied careers in the Soviet spy agency KGB. Opposition politicians in Hungary, as well as Western security officials, have expressed fear the bank will be used as cover for Russian espionage activities in Europe. Katrein shares the worries, hence his agreement to the interview and his readiness to discuss the politicization of the Hungarian intelligence services and the Russian threat to Europe. "The Russians will use the bank, as they use other state-owned companies and organizations that set up shop overseas, for intelligence purposes," he says. "This hurts me as a former counter-intelligence officer to see this bank being allowed to re-base in Budapest," he adds. The bank has denied it or its director is in any way linked to Russian intelligence. But Katrein says his old agency won't have the resources or manpower to be able to monitor what the bank is up to or the activities of its employees. The Orban government has extended diplomatic immunity to the bank, further shielding it. He believes Orban is anxious to play Russia and the West against each other. "All the Russian [intelligence] services the GRU, FSB and SVR are highly active in Hungary and they have free rein, that was my problem. There was no effort to curtail or control them. We are a member of NATO and we have a responsibility to our allies. The question some of us started asking was, 'Who is our partner, NATO or the Russians? The question was being asked inside the building. We didn't understand what was going on," he says. The original sin in Hungary after the fall of communism was not to effect a root-and-branch clearing of the country's intelligence agencies. "We didn't do what the Czechs did or what happened to the intelligence services in the Baltic countries. They all rebuilt their agencies from scratch, with the help of the British," he says. One of the first triggers for Hungarian agents to question operations in their agencies was in 2007, a decade after Hungary had joined NATO. During the socialist administration of Ferenc Gyurcsany, the then-chief intelligence director Lajos Galambos invited Russian operatives to help him find the source of political leaks to Orban's party, Fidesz. Sixteen Hungarian intelligence officers were polygraphed by two Russian operatives, who pretended to be Bulgarian psychologists, according to documents declassified and released by Hungary's general prosecutor last week. Katrein says the focus was on up-and-coming younger officers, many of whom are now in leadership positions in the agency. "The polygraphs were very deep and probing and they have a lot of information on those people. If I had that information on the leaders of Russian counterintelligence, I'd consider that a big coup," he says. Counterintelligence in crisis The politicization, as well as demoralization, of the counterintelligence agency continued under Orban, who was re-elected in 2010 replacing Gyurcsany, says Katrein. Around 100 experienced intelligence specialists have left the agency in the past eight years, frustrated by having their hands tied when it comes to combating Russian espionage activity. "Hungary is being used as a logistical base to launch operations in other European Union countries," Katrein explains. "They can organize operations and missions in Hungary without many worries," he adds. Asked how he would characterize the Russian espionage and active measures threat to Europe, he doesn't hesitate in replying, "It is grave." Katrein adds, "I have no problems with Russians; I like the culture. But the Russian government is very aggressive against the European Union. You shouldn't underestimate these guys." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address April 16, 2019 News Release Press Operations Release No. NR-092-19 Readout of Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan's Meeting with Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar Acting Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Charles E. Summers Jr. provided the following readout: Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan met with Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar today at the Pentagon. The leaders met as strategic partners. They focused their discussion on interests, rather than positions, and on the importance of U.S.-Turkish cooperation bilaterally and as NATO Allies in achieving mutual security and economic prosperity for both countries and the region. https://dod.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1815865/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 2019 BTF comes to an end By Airman 1st Class Tessa B. Corrick, 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs / Published April 16, 2019 RAF FAIRFORD, United Kingdom (AFNS) -- More than 450 personnel and six B-52 Stratofortresses from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, returned home following a short-term deployment to RAF Fairford in support of U.S. Strategic Command's Bomber Task Force in Europe, April 11. The BTF deployment enabled theater integration and training with joint partners, allied nations and other Air Force units, to further enhance bomber interoperability in the theater. "There's a lot of stuff we don't get to do at home that we learned over here. The procedures are different, the airspaces are different and the things we do are honestly different when we train in the states," said Lt. Col. Mike Esposito, BTF commander. While in the U.K., the Airmen flew missions over areas including Norway, Iceland, Hungary, Latvia and the Baltic Sea. "We have flown over 40 sorties over Europe and have integrated with many of our partners," Esposito said. The combination of U.S. forces coming together with NATO allies not only provided a message of assurance to those global partners, but similarly communicated deterrence. "It also sends a message to possible adversaries that we are going to be comfortable operating in this area, and that we are always ready to deploy quickly should conflict ever arise," said Maj. Gen. James Dawkins Jr., 8th Air Force and Joint-Global Strike Operations Center commander. "Of course, we hope that never happens, but we have got to be able to show that we are able to do it in order to prevent a conflict from breaking out." The BTF rotation enabled a joint training environment for the aircrew members, as well as the support Airmen, which is different than a typical bomber rotation. "It's a modified wing structure that we brought in, not just a squadron. It's different than what we've done at say, Al Udeid, where we just bring airplanes, aviators and maintainers on to a base that is fully built out," Dawkins said. "Yes, there is a good support network here, but we are bringing that wing construct and bringing all the support organizations together and fighting as an entire unit at a much broader level." "I think that is going to set the stage for future operations because we need to be lethal and agile," Dawkins added. "And to be lethal right now we need to be agile - that's agile combat support, agile deployability and that's deploying in small units like a six-ship like we did here." Success for the BTF came from Airmen from Barksdale AFB, as well as members from the 501st Combat Support Wing at RAF Fairford. "The 501st has just been a fantastic mission partner. Everything from standing up billeting for our people to bringing in specialized cooks to run the [dining facility] for us making the great food, to the [petroleum, oil and lubrication] system that they have here to bring the fuel on for the bombers, it is a class act here and its growing in capability," Dawkins said. "Make no mistake, what we have here is fantastic, it's everything we need actually a little bit more." The deployment of strategic bombers to the U.K. helps exercise RAF Fairford as U.S. Air Forces in Europe's forward operating location for bombers. Dawkins and Esposito are grateful for the hospitality of the local community and the U.K. Working together with U.S. allies is a vital part to the success of BTF missions. "For us in the U.S., warfighting is an away game. We also do it as a coalition, we don't do it alone," Esposito said. "Coming out here and getting to integrate with so many different European partners and flying over so many different places is how we can really practice the way we will fight in the future." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hungary, augmented by the United Kingdom and Spain, will lead 50th NATO Baltic Air Policing detachment NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Apr 17, 2019 RAMSTEIN, Germany -- Hungary is scheduled to be the lead nation for NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission at Siauliai, Lithuania, together with augmenting nations Spain and the United Kingdom. From May 2019 Hungary will take over the lead of NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission deploying their JAS-39 Gripen fighter aircraft to Siauliai, Lithuania. This is the second time since 2015 that Hungary will deploy their Gripen fighters and an air force detachment to lead the mission out of Lithuania. The Spanish Air Force will also fly their F-18 fighters out of Siauliai Air Base; their detachment augments the mission under NATO's Assurance Measures. This is the sixth time Spain has deployed under the mission twice as lead nation in 2006 and 2016 and three times as augmenting nation at Amari in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The Royal Air Force is the second augmenting nation and will fly their Eurofighter aircraft out of Amari Air Base in Estonia. The United Kingdom was the third nation to lead the mission in 2004 and have since augmented once in Siauliai in 2014 and twice in Amari in 2015 and 2016. This deployment is a special occasion as it will be the 50th NATO fighter detachment deploying since 2004 to safeguard the airspace over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. NATO Baltic Air Policing is a peacetime defensive mission that binds NATO Allies together to protect each other, setting a spirit of solidarity within the Alliance. The two additional detachments deployed to the region in the next four months demonstrate collective resolve and deter any threat against NATO Allies. These Assurance Measures were introduced in 2014, when NATO authorised additional fighter detachments to deploy to the region in response to Russia's illegal actions in Ukraine. These additional assets allow Allied Air Command, via its Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem, Germany, to employ assets more flexibly providing an Air Policing capability to safeguard NATO airspace in the Baltic Region. Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office, Ramstein, Germany NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Ross Arrives in Varna Navy News Service Story Number: NNS190417-06 Release Date: 4/17/2019 11:03:00 AM By Ensign Drake Davis, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs VARNA, Bulgaria (NNS) -- The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) arrived in Varna, Bulgaria, April 15 for a scheduled port visit. While in port, the ship will host officials from the Bulgarian Navy and local Varna government. Ross will provide tours of the ship before a luncheon in preparation for bilateral naval exercises. These operations enhance regional maritime stability, combined readiness and naval capability with our NATO allies and Black Sea partner. "U.S. 6th Fleet assets routinely operate in the Black Sea, and Ross is part of our long-standing effort to exercise and engage in the region," said Vice Adm. Lisa M. Franchetti, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet. "Having the opportunity to conduct training alongside our NATO allies and partners enhances our ability to work together at sea across the full spectrum of maritime operations." Ross is the fourth U.S. naval vessel to conduct operations in the Black Sea in 2019. The ship entered the Black Sea April 14 to strengthen interoperability with NATO allies and partners and demonstrate the collective resolve to Black Sea security. The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with the Montreux Convention and international law. Ross, forward-deployed at Naval Station Rota, Spain, is conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe. U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests, and security and stability in Europe and Africa. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Nitze Arrives in Souda Bay Navy News Service Story Number: NNS190417-05 Release Date: 4/17/2019 11:03:00 AM By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Madysson Anne Ritter , U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs SOUDA BAY, Greece (NNS) -- The Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG 94) arrived in Souda Bay, Greece, April 15 for a scheduled port visit. "I am excited to set foot in a new country," Electronics Technician Seaman Austin Stanley said. "I really want to try new foods and experience the history [of the culture] while in Souda Bay." During their port visit, Sailors will have the opportunity to take part in a special "grete-greek" evening, where they can try foods, wine and even learn cultural dances. "I am hoping for a very cool morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) tour," said Seaman Catrina Diaz. "I have never been on a tour before but I hear you get to see interesting and exciting things." Nitze has also arranged for Sailors to have the opportunity to enjoy a tour of Knossos Palace through its MWR committee. While on this tour, Sailors will get to see excavations of the Palace as well as the treasures of the Minoan civilization. "MWR and community relations events get people out of their compartments and allow the crew to build comradery, which is good because it makes the deployment more eventful and uplifting," Command Master Chief Sean Bailey said. "Allowing the Sailors to get off the ship gives them the opportunity to get to experience and learn things they wouldn't normally get to see. That is one of the best parts of being in the Navy, is being able to learn something about the cultures, try new foods and get to experience life outside the ship." In addition to the opportunity to experience the diverse culture of Souda Bay, Nitze Sailors will have the chance to dedicate off-duty hours to volunteering "I want to take part in a community service where I am preserving land," Quartermaster Seaman Valeria Olvera said. "I think doing a park clean up or something similar would be really fulfilling." The First Class Petty Officer Association, a professional group of Sailors aboard Nitze, is hosting a beach cleanup, where Sailors are able to walk along the beaches of Souda Bay and pick up trash as a community service. Nitze is underway as part of Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (CSG) deployment in support of maritime security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th, U.S. 6th and U.S. 7th Fleet areas of responsibility. With Abraham Lincoln as the flagship, deployed strike group assets include staffs, ships and aircraft of Carrier Strike Group 12, Destroyer Squadron 2, and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7; as well as Alvaro de Bazan-class frigate ESPS Mendez Nunez (F 104). NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghanistan To Send 250 Delegates To Taliban Meeting In Qatar By RFE/RL April 17, 2019 The Afghan government says it will send 250 delegates for talks with the Taliban in Qatar this week that are seen as a potential breakthrough in efforts to end the nearly 18-year war. The delegates that will attend the talks scheduled for April 19-21 include government officials, powerful former warlords, opposition politicians, tribal and religious leaders, women, and representatives from civil society and the media. It will be the first time Afghan government officials and Taliban representatives meet since failed peace talks held in Pakistan in 2015. "The list of the Afghan government for the Doha conference, which includes members introduced by political parties, independent political figures, and relevant institutions and represents all layers of Afghan society, was finalized today," President Ashraf Ghani's spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri said on April 16. The list was criticized by some powerful opposition figures, including the powerful former warlord, Atta Mohammad Noor, who said it was not inclusive. The three days of talks in the Qatari capital, Doha come amid a push by the United States for a peace settlement with the Taliban. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy seeking a peace deal with the Taliban, has held several rounds of talks with the militants in Qatar in recent months, and a new round of meetings are scheduled later this month. The Taliban long refused to speak officially with Kabul, calling the government a "puppet" of the West. Omar Daudzai, Ghani's peace envoy, has said the Afghan delegation will go to Doha to "exchange views with the Taliban." The Taliban said those government officials attending the Doha talks will only "participate in a personal capacity." Taliban officials met a delegation of powerful Afghan power brokers in Moscow in February, but those talks did not include members of Ghani's government. Those talks marked the most significant contact between senior Afghan political figures and the militant group since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. With reporting by AFP, dpa, and ToloNews Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan -taliban-qatar/29885384.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN: Some Progress In Afghanistan Torture Eradication, But Much Left To Do By RFE/RL April 17, 2019 The United Nations says there has been "encouraging" progress in Afghanistan's efforts to eradicate the torture of people detained in relation to the country's ongoing conflict, but much remains to be done. "The UN documents an encouraging reduction in the number of cases of torture since 2016 but notes its ongoing concern at the high number of detainees who continue to report torture and ill-treatment," the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office said in their latest report issued on April 17. The document says the Afghan government has made progress in enforcing the National Plan on the Elimination of Torture, and achieved a reduction in the torture or ill-treatment of conflict-related detainees across the board. Almost one-third, or 32 percent, of the detainees held by the Afghan military and interviewed by UNAMA gave "credible and reliable accounts" that they had been tortured or ill-treated, said the report, based on statements by 618 detainees held in 77 facilities in 28 provinces across the country between January 1 2017 and 31 December 2018. That represented a reduction of 8 percent compared to the almost 40 percent over the previous reporting period, from January 2015 to December 2016. Beatings reportedly represented the most usual method of torture and ill-treatment, with most detainees saying they had been beaten to force them to confess and that the treatment stopped once they did so. Among conflict-related detainees held by the Afghan National Police (ANP) and interviewed for the report, the percentage of those who said they were tortured or ill-treated fell from 45 percent over the previous reporting period to 31 percent. 'Very Disturbing' However, the reported rate was "a very disturbing 77 percent in the ANP facility in Kandahar," the document said, adding that "allegations of brutal forms of torture, such as suffocation, electric shocks, pulling of genitals, and suspension from ceilings" were made by those interviewed, as well as allegations of enforced disappearances in Kandahar. The report says that, while the reduction represents welcome progress, the "decline in use of torture or ill-treatment is not yet significant enough to indicate that the remedial measures taken are sufficient." It also raises concern about poor conditions of detention in some facilities, including the one run by the military in Parwan. "Overcrowding, inadequate lighting, the use of solitary confinement as the sole disciplinary measure, and restrictions on family visits and access to lawyers" are mentioned in the document. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the conclusions of the report, issued on the first anniversary of Afghanistan's accession to the Convention Against Torture's Optional Protocol, demonstrate that the policies implemented to combat torture and ill-treatment were bearing fruit, but were far from sufficient. "I urge the Government to work swiftly to create a National Preventive Mechanism to ensure independent, impartial scrutiny of the treatment of detainees," Bachelet said. "A well-resourced watchdog of this sort, which is able to make unannounced visits to places of detention and raise awareness of what constitutes torture and ill-treatment according to international human rights law, can go a long way towards the ultimate goal of fully eradicating torture." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-torture-eradication -un-bachelet-report/29885992.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address JIAT Reviews Some Reports on Allegations against Coalition Forces to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen Saudi Press Agency Wednesday 1440/8/12 - 2019/04/17 Riyadh, April 17, 2019, SPA -- Consultant Mansour Ahmed Al-Mansour, official spokesman of the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) on Yemen, held here today a press conference, announcing the results reached by the joint incidents assessment team in Yemen with regard to the latest allegations against the coalition forces military operations in the field. With regard to the fourth report on activities of the National Committee to investigate human rights violations in Yemen, stating that at about 05:45 am on 11/05/2015, the (Dahi) neighbourhood of (Almudhaffar) District was shelled with four missiles by aircrafts belonging to the Arab Coalition. One missile fell on a house and the second missile fell beside (Alsunnah) mosque killing 14 persons and injuring five others. The Joint Incidents Assessment Team has vetted the possibility of the incident, and following verification of all related documents; including procedures and Rules of Engagement, Daily Mission Schedule, After Mission Report, satellite imagery, evidence evaluation, video recordings of the performed mission, satellite images, provisions and principles of the International Humanitarian Law "IHL" and its Customary Rules, and assessment of the evidences including the intelligence relied on and their sources, JIAT found out that on Sunday 10/05/2015, highly reliable intelligence informed of: 1. Gathering of Houthi armed militia combatants and ex-president's forces, 2. The presence of equipment and machinery belonging to Houthi militia, 3. Sites of air defence missiles and armouries at specified locations, all in Taiz Governorate And that, the situation requires neutralizing them, as legitimate military targets which their destruction will achieve a military advantage As stated in Article 52 Para 2 of the first additional protocol of Geneva Conventions. By exercising verification of the military targets as in Article 16 of IHL Customary Rules, the Coalition forces launched an air mission on 4 (specified) targets at 06:10 on Monday 11/05/ 2015, using four guided bombs that hit their targets which were the gathering of Houthi armed militia and ex-president's forces, as well as their equipment, machinery and, air defence missiles and armouries in Taiz Governorate. The nearest to the house clamed was about 240 meters away. By reviewing the documents of the military operation launched, including the video recordings of the performed mission and the satellite imagery of the location, JIAT found that the bombs hit their targets. The Satellite images taken on 23/05/2015 which is 12 days after the allegation's date showed that the houses, which their coordinates are stated in the claim, are free from any effects of aerial bombardment. In the light of that, JIAT concluded that the Coalition air forces have not targeted the claimed (houses) at Almudhaffar District, Taiz Governorate. With regard to Human Rights Watch report issued in June 2015 stating that a Coalition's air raid hit Almunadhel Hassan Fayed School at 08:30 am on 11/05/2015 where the corner of the building sustained an aerial attack, a strike on a field nearby the school, and another strike on an open area at 200 meters from the school, without victims. JIAT has vetted the possibility of the incident, and following verification of all related documents; including the procedures and Rules of Engagement, Daily Mission Schedule, After Mission Report, video recordings of the mission, satellite imagery and evidence evaluation, provisions and principles of IHL and its customary rules, and assessment of evidences including the intelligence relied on and sources of these information, JIAT found that, based on intelligence reports confirmed that the Houthi armed militia use several schools as command and control centers in Saada Governorate, including (Almunadhel Hassan Fayed) School. The Coalition Forces concentrated surveillance and reconnaissance operations, and on Sunday 10/05/2015 the Coalition Forces detected armed vehicles and militiamen coming out from the headquarters of a prominent commander heading to the school of the allegation. They stayed inside the school until late at night. Due to the Houthi armed militia activity and participation of the military operations in the school of the allegation, the legal protection of civil properties accourding to Article 52 para 3 of the first additional protocol of Geneva Conventions. The armed vehicles and Houthi militiamen present in the school of the allegation are a high-value legitimate military target according to Article 52 para 3 of the first additional protocol of Geneva Conventions. JIAT found that the Coalition Forces took the possible precautions to avoid inflicting human losses or damages accidently to civil properties and reduce them to the minimum by choosing a suitable time for targeting and using guided bombs commensurate with the size and type of the target in accordance with Article 57 of the first additional protocol of Geneva Conventions and customary rules number 15 and 17. After reviewing the documents of the military operation and analysing the satellite images of the targeting locations, JIAT found that a bomb fell on a building of the alleged school and two bombs deviated; one fell on a field near the school and the other fell on an empty land about 200 meters from the school causing no damages due to technical fault in the aircraft's targeting system after which the operation was stopped. In the light of that, JIAT concluded that the procedures of the Coalition forces in targeting (Almunadhel Hassan Fayed School) are correct and in accordance the IHL and its customary rules. JIAT recommends that it is proper to provide assistance in view of the bomb that fell on field due to technical fault in the aircraft's targeting system. With regard to the report of the Human Rights Watch dated 21/12/ 2015 stating that the Coalition forces launched 4 aerial attack on Al-Hasba neighbourhood, northern (Sanaa) at 04:30 am on 21/09/2015 that destroyed 4 houses, one of which was occupied by Houthi militia for one year. The air attacks damaged at least 11 houses. The four attacks killed 20 civilians 18 of which were from one family including 6 women and 11 children. The report added: " the Houthis endangered civilians' lives as they deployed their forces at high -density residential area". HRW inspected the sites late October 2015 and saw burnt military vehicles. JIAT has vetted the possibility of the incident, and following verification of all related documents; including the procedures and Rules of Engagement, Daily Mission Schedule, After Mission Reports, video recordings of the missions, satellite imagery, provisions and principles of IHL and its Customary Rules and assessment of evidences. JIAT also reviewed the history of the political and military events in (Sanaa) city and (Al-Hasba) district in particular. JIAT found that the district witnessed a military clashes in which all weapons and ammunitions were used between Yemeni political and tribal forces leading to the control of the district by Houthi armed militia, posting fortifications and barracks at its entrances, and using residential houses and civilians' assets to protect and reinforce their presence in the district. Intelligence confirmed that Houthi armed militia seized a fenced housing compound of a tribal Chief it had four buildings of several storeys and a courtyard, it had stronghold and was used by Houthi armed militia commanders for their meetings, other buildings for storing their military equipment. The compound was considered legitimate military targets, which their destruction would achieve a military advantage according to Article 52/2 of, Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions. As verification degrees are available based on Customary Rule 16 of IHL. Furthermore, ground intelligence confirmed that there were Houthi commanders meeting late at that night in the seized building, this was supported by the dense presence of armed vehicles, and security points along the street eading to the targeted site. The legal protection of the civilian property lost its protection based on being used by the Houthi militia to support their military operations in violation of Article 52/3 of the Additional Protocol I to Geneva Conventions. And on Monday (21/09/2015), at 04:30 am, the Coalition air forces targeted the four fenced buildings using guided bombs. Having examined the documents related to the implemented military operation, JIAT found that there was a military advantage from the implemented operation. However, after reviewing aerial and satellite images, video recordings, and after-mission reports, JIAT found that, due to technical fault with the aircraft guidance systems, one bomb fell on a small one-storey building 80-meter away from the military target, and second bomb fell on another building 150-meter away from the military target. In light of that, JIAT found that the procedures taken by the Coalition forces in targeting the legitimate military target (complex) were correct and in accordance with the International Humanitarian Law and its Customary Rules. JIAT recommends that the Coalition forces reviews and correct the causes of the technical fault with the aircraft guidance systems to prevent future recurrence. JIAT also recommends that the coalition states provide assistance for the human losses and material damages that took place to the two buildings due to the technical fault with the aircraft guidance systems. Regarding the Amnesty International Report issued on October 2015 that on June 8, 2015 an air strike by the Coalition Forces hit a farm at (Bani Muaz) area northwest of Saada city, killing three children and two women, and injuring two other children and an elderly man, leaving a hole of 10-meter diameter. The Joint Incidents Assessment Team has vetted the possibility of the incident, and following verification of all related documents; including the procedures and Rules of Engagement, Daily Mission Schedule, After Mission Reports, video recordings of the missions, satellite imagery, provisions and principles of the international humanitarian law and customary rules, and evidence evaluation, JIAT found out that on Monday 08/06/2015, based on intelligence reports that there was a gathering of Al-Houthi armed militia in big numbers in and around an isolated building at Bani Muaz area 11 km west of Saada city and 45 km from the international border of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This was considered as a legitimate military target of high value which destruction would achieve a military advantage according to Article 52/2 of the Additional Protocol (I) to the Geneva Conventions. With the degrees of verification (intelligence) stating the existence of Houthi armed militia concentrations were in big numbers at the allegation site to support the war efforts based on Customary Rule 16. The building lost its legal protection of the civil properties due to be used by Houthi armed militia in supporting the military effort in a violation of Article 52/3 of the Additional Protocol (I) to the Geneva Conventions. Therefore, on Monday 08/06/2015 at 11:35 am, the Coalition Forces executed an air mission on the target (Concentrations of Houthi armed militia in big numbers in and around a building) with one guided bomb that hit the target. JIAT found that the Coalition air forces has taken the possible precautions to prevent and minimize accidental loss or damage to civilian objects based on Article 57 of Additional Protocol I to Geneva Conventions an Customary Rule 15 by the use of one guided bomb of accurate hit, which was proportion with the target. Before executing the mission, it was checked that there no civilians at the targeted site in remote isolated area. In light of the foregoing, JIAT found that the procedures taken by the Coalition Forces were correct in targeting the gathering of Houthi armed militia in big numbers in and around a building, and that it is in accordance with IHL and its Customary Rules. With regard to allegation from the National Committee of investigation in human rights violations stating that on 09/05/2015 the Coalition forces shelled a house near (Al-Rowaisan) School in (Al-Zaher) Directorate. The shelling led to the death of 1 person and injury of 4 others. JIAT has vetted the possibility of the incident, and following verification of all related documents; including the procedures and Rules of Engagement, Daily Mission Schedule, After Mission Report, video recordings of the mission, satellite imagery and evidence evaluation, provisions and principles of IHL and its customary rules, and assessment of evidences including the intelligence relied on and their sources, JIAT found out that based on intelligence from highly credible sources reporting a weapons storage and a gathering of Houthi leaders with their militiamen at (Al-Hemiqan) area, (Al- Baydhaa) Governorate, which are considered legitimate military targets of high value, and their destruction would achieve a military advantage based on the Article 52 para 2 of the first additional protocol of Geneva Conventions. As there was verification through (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations) according to the Customary Rule 16, and the loss of the legal protection of civil properties (the building) due to being used in effective participation of the military efforts supporting the Houthi militia violating of Article 52 para 3 of the first additional protocol of Geneva Conventions. Thus, on Sunday 10/05/2015 the Coalition Forces conducted an air mission against two targets: the building used as (weapons storege) and (the gathering of Houthi leaders with their militiamen) using guided bombs, which hit the first target (weapons storge). The execution of the second target was cancelled due to escaping of the armed Houthi personnel from the location. Moreover, the Coalition forces taken the possible precautions to prevent and minimize accidental loss or damage to civilian properties, by the use of a guided bomb, which was proportion with the building size in an isolated area. in accordance with Article 57 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions and Customary Rules (15 and 17).In light of that, JIAT found that the procedures taken by the Coalition Forces were correct in dealing with the legitimate military target (the building) in accordance with IHL and its Customary Rules. --SPA 19:31 LOCAL TIME 16:31 GMT 0036 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Army Seeks New Weapons for 'High Intensity' Battles Sputnik News 22:17 17.04.2019(updated 22:23 17.04.2019) The US Army's chief laid out a weapons wishlist to reporters Tuesday, noting the service sought to cancel dozens of programs it says are "not as relevant" to current US strategy and requesting new ones better catered to the Pentagon's primary concern of "inter-state strategic competition" with Russia and China. During a Tuesday roundtable, US Secretary of the Army Mark Esper told reporters that last year's National Defense Strategy (NDS) had changed the Army's priorities enough for it to make substantial adjustments to its planned weapons programs. Esper said that vehicles like the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), which was slated to replace the ubiquitous Hummvee, "were, in many ways, designed for a different conflict. It doesn't mean we won't use them in future conflicts, but now my emphasis has to be rebuilding my armor, rebuilding my fighting vehicles, having aircraft that can penetrate Russian and Chinese air defenses and shoot down Russian and Chinese drones and missiles and helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft." Back in February 2018, the Pentagon's reevaluation of its global strategy concluded in the NDS that "inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in US national security." The Pentagon's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released at the same time, described the geopolitical situation as a "return to Great Power competition." The new disposition has opened the door for the Pentagon to begin a vast new array of weapons programs, including the W76-2, a low-yield nuclear weapon designed to be more politically palatable to use in a conflict, Sputnik reported. Esper's comments further that development, with the Army chief saying Tuesday that what he needed was heavy weapons such as long-range artillery, attack and reconnaissance aircraft, air and missile defenses and command-and-control networks, Defense One reported. "What I don't have right now is an attack/reconnaissance aircraft," Esper told reporters. "That's what I need to penetrate Russian or Chinese air defenses. I'm not going to do that with a CH-47" Chinook heavy lift helicopter, which the secretary announced last week would skip its next round of upgrades as part of the cuts. Senior Army leaders slashed a total of 93 programs from the next five years' budgets that's on top of the 186 programs slashed last year to free up $25 billion for new programs. At the top of Esper's list is the Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) missile, a weapon in development since 2017 that the secretary hopes to use "to hold at bay Chinese ships." Sputnik reported the LRPF is designed to be deployed from the MLRS or HIMARS mobile rocket launch systems and will have "deep strike capability" that can "reach farther than 300 kilometers (186 miles)," according to an Army info sheet. The LRPF is just one of many weapons under Pentagon development that push the limits of the newly discarded Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. When the US Army released its Fiscal Year 2020 budget last month, numerous land-based weapons with ranges banned by the treaty were found on the books, Sputnik reported, including a cruise missile with a range of roughly 600 miles, which the Pentagon will test in August, and an intermediate-range ballistic missile with a range of between 1,800 and 2,500 miles, which will be test fired in November, Sputnik reported. Inside Defense reported that the US Army wants to spend $900 million over the next five budget cycles to develop a "mobile medium-range missile" (MMRM) project that will use "non-traditional" acquisition rules to address an "extremely high-risk capability gap." Defense News notes the MMRM's development is "in response to a need in the Indo-Pacific area of operations to address a medium-range (1,000-kilometer) gap in capability there," which is roughly 620 miles. Details at this point are slim, but the budget documents expect the weapon to be ready by the end of FY 2024. Incidentally, it was at a Hawaii meeting with US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) leadership that Esper spoke of the LRPF's anti-ship value, the results of which the Army chief reviewed with reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday, according to Defense News. Financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey told Sputnik Wednesday that "the gradual privatization of military equipment and operations over the last 50 years has caused a significant shift in how the US military operates and spends money." "When private companies get involved, profit becomes prioritized over national security or the responsible handling of public funds," he said. "It is for this reason that we are considering a military conflict with China and Russia, which would be catastrophic for human life on planet earth. However, such a war would be extremely profitable for companies such as Raytheon and Boeing. Additionally, the US government guarantees profits to private military contractors as a percentage. So, for example, they might guarantee a 5 percent profit rate above costs to a private military contractor which only incentivizes the contractor to charge as much overhead as possible." However, Sankey cautioned not to overstate the power of defense contractors. "US foreign policy is deeply committed to the preservation and expansion of its empire through the military. This is the backbone of our control over our 'allies' and essential to their ability to colonize and extract wealth from other countries deemed to be a threat. If private military contractors were not able to further this foreign policy, they would cease receiving their billions of dollars from the State Department. So this relationship benefits both parties, the enrichment of the war makers and the expansion of US empire," Sankey said. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Bolton: New Venezuela Sanctions Warning to 'External Actors, Including Russia' Sputnik News 21:14 17.04.2019(updated 22:14 17.04.2019) The day before, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Russia and Venezuela for a crippling refugee crisis that has been seen in the Latin American country. US National Security Adviser John Bolton announced on Wednesday that the US was imposing a new round of sanctions against Venezuela, adding the country's Central bank to the sanction list. According to the senior official, the newly-applied sanctions should become a warning to "all external actors, including Russia." "Today, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating Banco Central de Venezuela, or the Central Bank of Venezuela, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850, as amended by E.O. 13857, for operating in the financial sector of the Venezuelan economy," the Treasury said. "Additionally, OFAC designated Iliana Josefa Ruzza Teran, pursuant to E.O. 13692, as amended, who is determined to be a current or former official of the Government of Venezuela." Since the beginning of a political crisis in Venezuela earlier this year, the US has imposed several rounds of sanctions, targeting the country's oil and banking sectors as well as individuals belonging to the country's lawfully elected leadership. The latest sanctions, targeting four Venezuelan companies and nine ships, were imposed last Friday. While imposing the sanctions, the US has also blamed several countries, including Russia, for the political crisis in the Latin American country. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his turn, said that Russia "intervened" and "went against the leadership of the country of Venezuela." Russia has refuted the US claims numerous times, saying that its military personnel that arrived in Venezuela last March was involved in talks on defence cooperation with officials. Moscow has pointed out that Russia's presence was fully legitimate and in accordance with the defence agreement between Moscow and Caracas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in his turn, has stated that the Russian servicemen were helping to carry out maintenance on previously supplied Russian military equipment. On Sanctions Against Nicaragua According to the Department's press release, it has imposed sanctions on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's son and the Nicaraguan bank Banco Corporativo. "Today, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Laureano Ortega Murillo, the son of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, as well as Nicaraguan bank Banco Corporativo SA (BanCorp)," the release said. The move comes after Mike Pompeo said last month that the United States could impose sanctions against the Nicaraguan government if it poses a similar threat as Venezuela. Nicaragua has been in a political crisis since April 2018 when people took to the streets to protest unpopular social security reforms announced by Ortega. Despite the president canceling the reforms a few days later, protests ensued with people redirecting their discontent at Ortega. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Indian Armed Police Base Attacked in Kashmir With Grenade Launchers - Report Sputnik News 19:50 17.04.2019(updated 19:56 17.04.2019) The attack took place in the same district of Kashmir where the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) carried out an attack on a convoy of Indian troops on 14 February, killing over 40 of them. New Delhi (Sputnik): Militants have attacked an Indian armed police base in Tral, Pulwama district on Wednesday evening, Indian media reported. Official sources said that the 180th battalion of the Central Police Reserve Force (CRPF) was attacked with under barrel grenade launchers in the Nowdal area of Tral, resulting in injuries to one Indian soldier. The injured Indian soldier has been identified as Head Constable T L Parshad. "Unknown terrorists lobbed a UBGL grenade targeting camp. The grenade exploded inside the camp causing minor injuries to one Head Constable in fingers," a CRPF official told journalists. Security forces have cordoned off the area and also suspended data services. This is the same area where on Tuesday a grenade was launched at the residence of a local political leader. The 180th Battalion of the CRPF has been targeted on several occasions in the past by the terrorists. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Peruvian Ex-President Garcia Dies After Shooting Himself During Arrest Sputnik News 16:09 17.04.2019(updated 19:25 17.04.2019) Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra has confirmed via Twitter the death of the country's former leader Alan Garcia, who shot himself earlier in the day as police attempted to arrest him. The president's statement comes within an hour after the Telesur TV channel reported that Garcia had succumbed to his injuries. Earlier in the day, local TV broadcaster America reported that Garcia survived after the suicide attempt, though he was in critical condition and was undergoing emergency surgery. According to the broadcaster, his son and supporters arrived at the hospital. Peru's ex-president Alan Garcia shot himself in the neck early on Wednesday shortly after police arrived at his home in Lima to arrest him on bribery charges, local media reported, citing a police source. Commenting on the former official's condition after the incident, Peru's Health Minister Zulema Tomas called it "very critical" and "very serious." Garcia served as president of the Latin American state for two terms, with the first one starting in 1985 and terminating 1990. His second term commenced in 2006 and ended in 2011. Currently, the former president is suspected of accepting bribes from Brazilian company Odebrecht. Alan Garcia is not the only former Peruvian president whose name is linked to the firm and who is being suspected of being involved in corrupt schemes. Ex-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who used to rule Peru before current leader Martin Vizcarra, is charged with receiving a total of $4.8 million in bribes from construction and development company Odebrecht. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sudanese Authorities Detain Parliament Speaker in Khartoum's Airport - Reports Sputnik News 15:52 17.04.2019 CAIRO (Sputnik) - Sudanese authorities have detained the speaker of the country's parliament, Ibrahim Ahmed Omer, in an airport in the country's capital of Khartoum, the al-Arabiya broadcaster reported on Wednesday. No details have been revealed, and the reasons behind Omer's detention remain unknown. Media reports emerged earlier in the day that the ousted Sudanese president, Omar Bashir, had been transferred from house arrest, imposed since April 11 military coup, to the Kober maximum security prison in Khartoum. Sudan has been engulfed by anti-government protests since December. The rallies, becoming more and more violent, took on a new turn as Sudanese citizens started calling for the resignation of the country's long-serving leader. Bashir, who governed the North African country for nearly 30 years, was detained by the country's military on April 11. The transitional military council vowed to hold a new election in two years. However, rallies have continued, with the protesters demanding that the military hand power to a new civilian government. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ousted Sudanese President Transferred to Maximum Security Jail Reports Sputnik News 13:40 17.04.2019(updated 13:41 17.04.2019) CAIRO (Sputnik) - The ousted Sudanese president, Omar Bashir, has been transferred from house arrest to prison in Khartoum, the Akhir Lahza newspaper reported on Wednesday. According to the outlet, special service agents transferred the former president from a guest house, where he had been under house arrest since the military coup, to the Kober maximum security prison on Tuesday evening. Arrest warrants have been also reportedly issued for 11 other high-ranking officials and Bashir's associates. On April 11, Bashir, who had been in power for nearly 30 years, was detained by the country's military. The transitional military council vowed to hold a new election in two years. However, protests, which have been gripping Sudan over the last few months, have continued, with the demonstrators demanding that the military hand power to a new civilian government. In 2009, Bashir became the first ever sitting head of state in history to be wanted by the International Criminal Court. He faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Darfur that broke out in 2003. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Indian Defence Minister Mocks Pakistan's Claims About IAF's New Strike Plans Sputnik News 08:36 17.04.2019(updated 11:50 17.04.2019) The statement comes a few days after Indian and Pakistani troops reportedly once again exchanged fire along the Line of Control in the Rajouri district of the northernmost Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has rejected Islamabad's claims that India plans to launch a new attack against Pakistan before the end of April. "I don't know where he (the Pakistani Foreign Minister) got this date, so good luck to him. God knows whatever it is, but it sounded very fanciful for me and amusing," Sitharaman told the Indian news agency ANI. She commented on a previous statement made by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi that the Pakistani government had "reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan" to attack its western neighbour between 16 and 20 April. "A new mishap could be stagedAnd its purpose will be to justify their (India's) offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," Qureshi claimed. He warned that "if it happens", it will have "an impact on the peace and stability of the region". Meanwhile, the Pakistani military's spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor mocked the Indian Air Force Chief's claim that India has superior technology that had allegedly led to success in the Balakot strike in February, tweeting that "Allah is on Pakistan's side". His remarks came after Indian Air Chief Marshal B. S. Dhanoa said that "in the Balakot operation, we had technology on our side, and we could launch precision stand of weapons with great accuracy". This comes amid ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan over alleged terrorist camps within Pakistani, which New Delhi insists house the militants responsible for the 14 February car-bomb attack in Pulwama, which killed over 40 Indian police officers in Kashmir. Islamabad denies the existence of any terrorist camps on Pakistani soil. India has accused Pakistan of doing little to stop the operations of terrorists located within the country. The India Air Force struck what it described as a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist training camp in Pakistan's Balakot area on 26 February. This prompted a retaliation by Pakistan; Pakistani F-16 warplanes struck Indian military targets in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir and were repelled by Indian warplanes in a dogfight. The 27 February air battle exacerbated New Delhi-Islamabad tensions, resulting in multiple cross-border exchanges of fire and several Pakistani drones allegedly violating Indian airspace. In the latest development, a "heavy exchange of mortar and small arms firing took place in the Nowshera sector of the Rajouri district of Kasmir", according to Indian government officials. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump Vetoes Congressional Resolution to End US Role in Yemen War Sputnik News 02:34 17.04.2019(updated 06:48 17.04.2019) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Donald Trump in a letter to the Senate said he is rejecting a measure passed by Congress to end US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. On April 5, the US House of Representatives passed the Yemen war resolution by a 247-175 vote after it was approved by the Senate by a 54-46 vote in March. The joint resolution calls for ending US support for the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni conflict. "I am returning herewith without my approval S.J. Res. 7, a joint resolution that purports to direct the President to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting the Republic of Yemen," Trump said on Tuesday. "This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future." Trump in the letter said there are many reasons the United States must continue supporting the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen, including that it represented a "cheap" way for Iran to cause trouble for the United States and its ally Saudi Arabia. The measure, the president added, would curtail certain forms of military support that would harm US bilateral relationships and negatively impact the ongoing battle against terrorist organizations in the region including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) (both banned in Russia). Trump urged Congress to focus efforts on helping the administration in ending US involvement in Syria and Afghanistan. "My Administration is currently accelerating negotiations to end our military engagement in Afghanistan and drawing down troops in Syria, where we recently succeeded in eliminating 100 percent of the ISIS [IS] caliphate," Trump said in his letter to the Senate. "Congressional engagement in those endeavors would be far more productive than expending time and effort trying to enact this unnecessary and dangerous resolution that interferes with our foreign policy with respect to Yemen." This is the second time president Trump used veto during his presidency to reject a resolution from Congress. Previously he vetoed a measure from Congress revoking his declaration of a national emergency at the US-Mexico border. Since 2015, the United States has provided members of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen with military assistance such as intelligence sharing, logistics support and, until recently, aerial refuelling. The Saudi-led coalition has been engaged in the civil war in Yemen since March 2015, when it started to carry out airstrikes against the Houthi armed rebels at the request of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Yemeni civil war has claimed over 7,000 lives, while over 20 million people in Yemen are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Naval Forces Worldwide Test Anti-Torpedo Interception Systems Sputnik News 01:25 17.04.2019(updated 01:27 17.04.2019) Several naval forces are testing the idea of anti-torpedo torpedoes, self-propelled weapons with explosive warheads that are used to detonate enemy torpedoes. The technology could change undersea warfare by seriously weakening the threat of enemy submarines. The German Navy, for instance, has experimented with what is dubbed the SeaSpider interceptor torpedo, manufactured by the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems subsidiary Atlas Elektronik. Anti-torpedoes are fired from sponsons (projections on the sides of ships that are mounting points for weapons) fitted on a ship's hull, and are able to detonate torpedoes, cigar-shaped underwater missiles that can be fired from ships or submarines, before they strike the ship. In a statement released earlier this month, the German Bundeswehr Technical Center for Ships and Naval Weapons, Maritime Technology and Research announced that it completed sea trials of the SeaSpider in the Baltic Sea in 2018, Naval Today reported. The Russian Navy is also arming its vessels with the Paket-E/NK anti-submarine/anti-torpedo system. According to its manufacturer, JSC Tactical Missiles Corporation, the technology can be used to "destroy torpedoes," as well as to battle enemy submarines. "Depending on missions assigned to the surface ship, its launching units can house combat modules armed with different combinations of small-sized heat-seeking torpedoes and/or anti-torpedoes," the manufacturer explains. "The small-sized heat-seeking torpedo is designed to engage enemy submarines, and the anti-torpedo is designed to intercept and destroy attacking torpedoes. Both are housed in unified transport-launch containers," the manufacturer adds. Meanwhile, Turkey's leading defense systems producer, ASELSAN, revealed its TORK Hard-Kill Torpedo Countermeasure System back in 2015. According to a report by Navy Recognition, TORK counters torpedo threats by measuring their distance and direction from ships and then deactivating them through detonation. In September 2018, the US Navy suspended its Anti-Torpedo Torpedo Defense System (ATTDS), according to a report released by the Pentagon's Office of the Director of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) in February 2019. The ATTDS consists of the Torpedo Warning System (TWS) and Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo system (CAT). The TWS includes a towed sensor that trails ships in order to detect any incoming threats. In the event that it detects a projectile, it will classify it and provide targeting information for CAT, which will in turn use its "hard-kill" interceptor to neutralize the threat, Sputnik previously reported. According to DOT&E, even after spending more than $760 million on the project, improvements were few and far between, and the system's ability to destroy incoming threats wasn't accurate enough to be fully tested. "Test data were insufficient to assess operational effectiveness and operational suitability of TWS and CAT," the report states. "TWS demonstrated some capability to detect incoming torpedoes. The significance and effect of false target alerts on TWS capability are unknown." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The United States Sanctions the Central Bank of Venezuela Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC April 17, 2019 Today, the United States has taken further action to halt the former Maduro regime's theft of Venezuela's assets and destruction of the economy. The United States has sanctioned the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) for operating in the financial sector of the Venezuelan economy, pursuant to Executive Order 13850. Additionally, Iliana Josefa Ruzza Teran, a director of BCV, has been designated pursuant to Executive Order 13692. As the central bank of Venezuela, the BCV formulates and implements Venezuela's monetary policy, issues currency, and manages the country's international reserves. The regime's failed policies have turned a once prosperous nation into an economic disaster, while Nicolas Maduro used the BCV as a tool to remain in power and enrich himself and his corrupt circle at the expense of the Venezuelan people. These new sanctions do not target the innocent people of Venezuela. They will not prohibit humanitarian assistance or personal remittances, which are desperately needed after years of corruption and mismanagement by the regime. In connection with these actions, the Department of the Treasury is taking several licensing-related actions that are in the interest of a democratic and prosperous Venezuela. These actions include measures to help ensure the regular processing of debit and credit card transactions, and the provision of humanitarian assistance. Licensing-related actions will also include a wind-down period for commercial operations or existing contracts involving the BCV. The United States is committed to helping the Venezuelan people's struggle to restore democracy and prosperity to Venezuela. By defeating Maduro's tyranny, all Venezuelans will be free to rebuild their nation and regain the international standing and stability it deserves. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Treasury Targets Finances of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's Regime U.S. Department of the Treasury April 17, 2019 WASHINGTON Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Laureano Ortega Murillo, the son of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, as well as Nicaraguan bank Banco Corporativo SA (BanCorp). Today's action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13851, targets corrupt financial operations and Ortega regime support networks. The individual and entity designated today support a regime that, since April 2018, has cracked down on political opposition, leading to the death of 325 persons, the injury of more than 2,000, the imprisonment of hundreds of political and civil society actors, and over 42,000 Nicaraguans seeking refuge in Costa Rica. "President Ortega, Vice President Murillo, and members of their inner circle continue to engage in blatant corruption, violence, and violations of basic human rights. The corrupt Ortega regime has ignored the Nicaraguan people's calls for reform, including the freeing of all political prisoners, and early transparent elections," said Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "Treasury is sanctioning Laureano Ortega Murillo and BanCorp for their roles in corruption and money laundering for the personal gain of the Ortega regime. These actions send a message to all who continue to prop up the Ortega regime that there is a steep price to pay for abusing the Nicaraguan economy and its people." As a result of today's actions, all property and interests in property of these persons, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by these persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons. Further details on these designations are included below. Banco Corporativo SA BanCorp is being designated for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, Vice President Rosario Murillo, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13851, and for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, any transaction or series of transactions involving corruption by, on behalf of, or otherwise related to the Government of Nicaragua or a current official of the Government of Nicaragua. Created as a subsidiary to the Venezuelan government-funded Alba de Nicaragua, S.A. (ALBANISA) in 2014, BanCorp is a bank used by the Ortega regime to launder and hide ALBANISA money. BanCorp is also reportedly used by President Ortega's ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party to launder money. Finally, as of 2018, BanCorp has been a haven for OFAC sanctioned persons, allowing designated individuals to continue enjoying banking privileges and their ill-gotten wealth. BanCorp, as a subsidiary of ALBANISA, is ultimately owned by PETROLEOS DE VENEZUELA, S.A. (PdVSA) and, as such, was blocked by operation of law following the January 28, 2019, designation of PdVSA pursuant to E.O. 13850. Laureano Ortega Murillo Laureano Ortega Murillo (Laureano) is being designated for being a current official of the Government of Nicaragua. In his role as the Investment Promotion Advisor of the Nicaraguan government agency, ProNicaragua, Laureano acts as an extension of President Ortega and Vice President Murillo, overseeing investment proposals and projects. However, as of 2018, Laureano engaged in corrupt business deals in which foreign investors paid for preferential access to the Nicaraguan economy. Additionally, Laureano coordinated executive tasks for the Nicaragua Grand Canal project, and was at the center of its creation. Despite the project's loss of momentum, Ortega regime figures, including Laureano, continue to use the Nicaragua Grand Canal Company as a means to launder money and to acquire property along the planned canal route. For identifying information on the entities designated today, click here. #### NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN Concerned About Conflict-Related Torture of Afghanistan Detainees By Ayaz Gul April 17, 2019 A new United Nations report has documented a modest decline in torture allegations in Afghan prisons, but noted its ongoing concern at the "disturbingly" high number of conflict-related detainees still alleging serious abuses. In its biannual report on the treatment of security detainees issued Wednesday, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has found nearly a third of conflict-related detainees interviewed provided "credible and reliable" accounts of having been subject to torture or ill-treatment. The abuses included severe beatings, electric shocks, suffocation, pulling of genitals and suspension from ceilings. UNAMA said its findings are based on interviews with 618 prisoners in 77 facilities across 28 of the 34 Afghan provinces between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018. The report has credited the Afghan government for implementing steps under a national plan on the elimination of torture that led to a reduction in abuses during the monitoring period. But the "decline in use of torture or ill-treatment is not yet significant enough to indicate that the remedial measures taken are sufficient," the report cautioned. Rule of law UNAMA chief Tadamichi Yamamoto stressed that respect for the rule of law and human rights is the best way to create conditions for sustainable peace in Afghanistan. "As our report illustrates, there is still a long way to go to eradicate this horrendous practice among conflict-related detainees," said Yamamoto. The report noted the most significant decreases in abuse occurred in facilities under the control of the Afghan intelligence agency, NDS. But it said there was almost no improvement in other security institutions, especially the Afghan National Police (ANP). UNAMA reported the rate of conflict-related detainees being subjected to brutal torture and other ill-treatment in the ANP facility in southern Kandahar province was a "very disturbing 77 percent. Allegations of enforced disappearances in Kandahar also persisted during the reporting period, it added. The southern Afghan region and adjoining provinces are where Taliban insurgents are in control of large territory. Overall picture remains grim While commenting on the UNAMA report, the New York-based Human Rights Watch appreciated the Afghan government for aligning its legislation on torture with international standards and ratifying related treaties. But the watchdog lamented the overall picture remains grim, citing Kabul's "abysmal" record on accountability. "In the very few cases of torture that have been investigated, the perpetrators have faced at most only minor disciplinary sanctions. Nor have the victims received compensation as required by law. So long as torturers face no real consequences, serious abuse will continue," observed the New York-based watchdog. UNAMA's latest findings give credence to repeated Taliban allegations insurgent prisoners in Afghan jails are being subjected to "brutal and abusive" treatment. The Taliban, late last summer, had briefly withdrawn its security assurances for staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross, accusing the relief agency of not taking steps to deter authorities from inflicting abuses on insurgent prisoners. The Taliban last week again banned ICRC from working in insurgent-controlled Afghan districts, alleging the international aid group was not living up to its pledges. The insurgent group did not elaborate. ICRC officials say they are seeking to engage bilaterally with the Taliban to resolve the issue. "We would like to reiterate that we remain committed to the people and communities of Afghanistan who are our first and foremost concern," the agency said in a statement sent to VOA. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 4 Killed in Mogadishu Car Bombings By Harun Maruf April 17, 2019 At least four people were killed and 13 others were injured when a car bomb exploded Wednesday on a key Mogadishu road, according to witnesses and medical services. The car was parked on the Maka Al-Mukarama road and went off about 3:20 p.m. local time near the Waberi district police station. The militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility. Somali police say four people were killed and five others were injured. It was the second bombing Wednesday in the Somali capital. Earlier, a regional intelligence official survived an explosion from a device fitted to his car on the same road. The officer was not in the car when the explosion occurred, according to security sources but the explosion damaged three other vehicles. The explosion occurred at a time when traffic movement in Mogadishu is restricted by numerous security roadblocks and checkpoints. The presence of al-Shabab has increased in the city following a series of U.S. military airstrikes against the group in rural areas. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Uganda Dangles Asylum for Sudan's Deposed Bashir By Halima Athumani April 17, 2019 Uganda says it will consider giving asylum to Sudan's former president Omar al-Bashir, who was deposed by his country's military last week. "If President Omar Bashir applies for asylum in Uganda, that is a matter that can be considered by the president of Uganda," Okello Oryem, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs, said Tuesday. Oryem, speaking Wednesday to VOA, added that Uganda will not be apologetic if Bashir chooses to come to the country. He also said Uganda does not recognize the International Criminal Court, or ICC, which in 2009 issued a warrant for Bashir's arrest on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. The head of the International Center for Transitional Justice in Uganda, Sarah Kasande, says Oryem's statement is an insult to Bashir's victims. Kasande noted that Uganda ratified the Rome Statute which established the ICC, and says Uganda is legally obliged to arrest and surrender Bashir, should he enter the country. But she stresses the 1951 Refugee Convention, which Uganda also signed, does not allow Bashir to enter that country. "Article 1(f), it clearly excludes persons who are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity from being granted asylum or refugee status," Kasande said. "The same provision is contained in our refugee act, section five, disqualifies persons who are accused of such heinous crimes from benefiting from asylum." If anything, Kasande believes Uganda should prosecute Bashir, who it once accused of backing Lord's Resistance Army Rebel leader Joseph Kony. The LRA killed tens of thousands of people in northern Uganda before moving westward into Congo. "They still have an obligation to prosecute him. How and whether they will do that is another matter," Kasande said. "But either way, he should face justice. But also, I find it quite disturbing that Uganda would dangle asylum to Bashir. He has not asked for asylum from Uganda. It is upon the people of Sudan to determine what happens to the fate of their ex-dictator." Bashir is reportedly being held at a maximum-security prison, after initially being put under house arrest. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sudan Protesters Skeptical of Reports Bashir Transferred to Prison By Naba Mohiedeen April 17, 2019 Reports citing relatives of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir say the ousted leader has been moved from house arrest to prison. But protesters who are demanding civilian leadership, instead of the transitional military council, are skeptical. Reports on Wednesday said the ousted former president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, has been moved from house arrest to federal prison. Unnamed members of Bashir's family told Reuters news agency, the BBC, and others he was moved to Kobar prison in Khartoum late Tuesday, while prison guards told CNN they saw Bashir's arrival at the facility. Kobar prison is where Bashir locked up many of his opponents during his three decades in power. But some of the thousands of protesters remaining camped outside the Defense Ministry since last Thursday's coup are skeptical. Protestor Abubakr Ali said there should be proof that the former president was arrested. He said he doesn't believe that Bashir is in prison and, even if he is in prison, they want a trial for Bashir and his people. The Sudanese Professional Association, the main protest group, also voiced doubts. Mohamed Abbas is with the SPA. He said the news remains unconfirmed unless the military council announces it in a press conference. People in the streets and the sit-in are demanding to see photos of the arrest on national TV as well, adds Abbas. A well-placed source told VOA Wednesday the reports of Bashir's move to the prison were not true and that he was still being held under house arrest. The protesters have been demanding a return to civilian rule since the military announced Bashir was removed from power and a council would rule Sudan for two years before elections. Protesters and the international community are pressing the military for a quicker return to civilian government. The African Union on Monday threatened to freeze Sudan's membership if they do not return civilian rule within two weeks. The European Union echoed that sentiment on Tuesday, refusing to recognize Sudan's military council and urging a civilian transitional government. But not all protest groups are demanding the military be sidelined. Sudan's Gathering of Unionists in Opposition party said it would happy if the military council simply included civilians. Hashim Babiker, a spokesman for the party, said their vision is to form a presidential council with civilians but, they don't mind the military representation as well to protect the demands of the revolution. The SPA called for bigger protests in Sudan starting Thursday, until the military council hands over power to an elected and qualified civilian government. Sudan's protests erupted in December over fuel and food shortages then quickly escalated to massive street protests calling for Bashir to step down. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sudan's Bashir Transferred to High-Security Prison By VOA News April 17, 2019 Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been taken to a prison in the capital, five days after the military removed him from power and put him under house arrest. Relatives of the ousted president say Bashir, 75, was moved to Khartoum's Kobar prison on Tuesday and is being held under tight security. He has not been seen in public since the army toppled him in a coup last Thursday, following months of street protests triggered by escalating prices for food and fuel. Thousands of demonstrators remain outside army headquarters in Khartoum, pressing their demands for a civilian-led transitional government. Coup leaders said last week a military-run council will rule the country for two years. The African Union and several Western countries have called for a fast transition to civilian leadership and elections. Meanwhile, a rebel group in Sudan's Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile says it will cease hostilities until July 31. Rebel leader Abdelaziz Adam al-Helew says the move is to help facilitate the transfer to civilian leaders in Sudan. Bashir seized power in a June 1989 military coup and led the country with an iron fist for 30 years before his ouster. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region. The military council has said it will not extradite the president to the ICC. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Former Peruvian President Garcia Dies After Shooting Himself By VOA News April 17, 2019 Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia died in a hospital Wednesday after he shot himself in the head as police tried to arrest him over bribery allegations. The 69-year-old Garcia was president twice, from 1985-1990, and again from 2006-2011. The South American country's current president, Martin Vizcarra, expressed his sympathy on his Twitter account. "Distraught over the death of ex-president Alan Garcia. I send my condolences to his family and loved ones," Vizcarra wrote. Garcia had been undergoing emergency surgery at a Lima hospital, suffering cardiac arrest three times before dying. He was accused of taking bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht during the construction of Lima's metro while he was serving his second term. He denied any wrongdoing. Garcia contended he was the victim of false testimony by political enemies who accused him of taking more than $100,000 from Odebrecht disguised as a payment to speak at a conference in Brazil. In 2016, the company admitted in a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that it won lucrative public works contracts throughout Latin America by paying nearly $800 million in bribes. As the investigation unfolded, Garcia tried to seek asylum in Uruguay. He stayed there for a little more than two weeks, but Uruguay rejected his asylum request, rebuffing his claim that he was being targeted politically. "In Peru, the three branches of government function freely and autonomously, especially in the case of judicial power," Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez said. All but one living former Peruvian head of state are being investigated in connection to the Odebrecht scandal. A week ago, former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was detained for alleged money laundering linked to the investigation. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Top new turbofan engine to power China's carrier-based stealth fighters: specialist Global Times By Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2019/4/17 18:09:37 The young members of a team of Chinese aero engine designers will be given an award for successfully designing and prototype testing of a new top-class turbofan engine that will help Chinese fighter jets take on their advanced foreign counterparts. Experts said on Wednesday the new engine is likely to be installed on China's new carrier-based stealth fighter jets. With 124 members who are 35 years old or younger, the 193-person development team at the Gas Turbine Research Institute under the state-owned Aero Engine Corporation of China will receive a provincial award during China's Youth Day on May 4, according to a statement released by the government of Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, on its WeChat account on Monday. Without disclosing the designation of the engine, the statement said it is a piece of military equipment that will rival advanced foreign fighter jets and represents China's highest technical level in aero engines. It is one of several major aero engine projects of the country, the statement said. It took the development team only a year to design the engine, and just six months to finish testing the first prototype, and the manufacturing cycle has been reduced by two thirds, the statement said. With the new engine, China's future advanced fighter jets will finally solve the "heart problem," Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday. "This is great, great news," he said. The aero engine is often dubbed "heart of aircraft" as it provides the power the aircraft needs. Military observers said China has made astounding progress in the development of advanced military aircraft, highlighted by the J-20 stealth fighter jet. The industry, however, has been hampered by domestically made engines that previously had sub-optimal thrust and life span. Advanced turbofan engines are difficult to develop, especially the manufacturing of fan blades, which must be built to resist very high temperatures and pressure, Wei noted. The upcoming award is an indication that China has made breakthroughs not only in designing, but also manufacturing, Wei said. Despite the fast pace of development, Wei said the new engine still needs a considerable amount of testing under different situations, before it is confirmed reliable and enters mass production. This turbofan engine is likely to be used on China's stealth fighter jets in the future, Weihutang, a column affiliated with China Central Television, reported on Tuesday. Wei said the engine could be related to China's medium-sized twin-engine stealth aircraft FC-31, which could become China's next generation aircraft carrier-based fighter jet. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China builds landmark projects along the Belt and Road People's Daily Online (People's Daily Online) 09:33, April 17, 2019 The construction site of the Central Business District (CBD) project in the New Administrative Capital, Egypt (Photo by China State Construction Engineering Corporation) Chinese enterprises have built several landmark projects in countries participating in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Central Business District (CBD) project in the New Administrative Capital, about 45 km east of Cairo, Egypt, is one of them. The project is currently being carried out by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC). The 385.8-meter-high Iconic Tower, as part of the CBD project, is expected to become the tallest tower in Egypt and Africa. The Iconic Tower base, made from 18,500 cubic meters of concrete and reinforced iron bars, was poured in late February over a period of 38 hours, a milestone in Egypt's construction history. To ensure smooth construction, CSCEC developed self-compacting concrete suitable for the desert climate and introduced China's advanced techniques in Egypt. Tian Wei, a chief engineer of the Iconic Tower project, said that he and project managers had inspected construction in those 38 hours to guarantee quality, adding that CSCEC was the right choice for the CBD project due to its excellent brand image. The Moscow subway project is another example. China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), a state-owned construction firm, won the bid to build the southwestern sector of the Moscow metro railway and station projects on Jan. 24, 2017. It was the first time that Russia had invited a foreign company to participate in its subway construction. CRCC developed five shield tunneling machines for the project, predominantly used for construction in icy conditions, said Chen Zhencheng, head of the Engineering Technology Department of CRCC's Moscow subway project. Thanks to their outstanding performance in project progress, safety and quality, the team have since won bids for more projects in Russia. The Belo Monte hydropower project is also a landmark project for the BRI in Brazil. Phase II of the project will implement the first ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission overseas line, which the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) invested in independently. The 2,500 kilometer-long power transmission project is also the longest 800 kW UHV line in the world. Cai Hongxian, head of SGCC's Brazil branch, said that it was China's UHV technology that made the Brazilian government chose SGCC for the project. The project will promote the development of upstream and downstream sectors such as electrical equipment and raw materials, and create direct employment opportunities for 16,000 people in Brazil. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un Inspects Sinchang Fish Farm Korean Central News Agency of DPRK Date: 17/04/2019 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source Pyongyang, April 17 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and supreme commander of the Armed Forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, together with his wife Ri Sol Ju Tuesday inspected the Sinchang Fish Farm. Looking round a newly built room for education in revolutionary history, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un said it is necessary to make a profound education in greatness through the leadership history of Chairman Kim Jong Il associated with the fish farm to add eternal luster to the exploits of him who laid a firm foundation for fish farming and opened its bright future. He was told by officials of the fish farm about the implementation of the on-the-spot guidance task and toured fish ponds, fish spawn hatching place and others to learn in detail about the management and operation of the fish farm. Noting that the People's Army did a lot of work for putting the fishing science and technology of the country on a high level, he said the whole country should follow the example of the People's Army in carrying through the Party's policy of fish farming and certainly materialize the desire of Kim Jong Il who worked heart and soul to provide the people and servicepersons of the People's Army with abundance of tasty and nutritious fish. He asked the officials and employees of the fish farm to set a higher goal and make a radical development in fish production so as to supply more fish to the public catering in the capital city and servicepersons true to Kim Jong Il's behests. He said that the Sinchang Fish Farm should live up to the Party's trust and expectation to continue to take the lead in putting fish farming on a Juche, scientific, modern, industrial and intensive basis and perform the mission and role as a standard fish farm showing the development of the fish farming technology of the country, a model and an education unit in developing the fish farming of the country. He pinpointed the problems to be overcome in the overall fish farming of the country and gave important instructions to bring about a revolutionary turn in the fish farming field. He was accompanied by Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, first vice-chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Phyong Hae, O Su Yong, Jo Yong Won and other leading officials of the C.C., WPK. -0- NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address North Korea Tests New 'Tactical Guided Weapon' By William Gallo April 17, 2019 North Korea has tested a new "tactical guided weapon," the latest display of Pyongyang's military capabilities, state media reported Thursday. Kim Jong Un supervised and guided the test, calling it an operation of "very weighty significance," the official Korean Central News Agency said. The report did elaborate on the type of weapon, but the phrase "tactical" suggests it is not a long-range ballistic missile. U.S. officials have not commented on the test. "The design indexes of the tactical guided weapon, whose advantages are appreciated for the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead, were perfectly verified at the test-fire conducted in various modes of firing at different targets," KCNA said. North Korea has not carried out a major provocation such as a nuclear or long-range missile test for well over a year, since Kim began talks with the United States and South Korea. Instead, the North has carried out smaller provocations. In November, Kim oversaw the test of what KCNA also referred to as a newly developed "high-tech tactical weapon." U.S. officials later played down the significance of that test. Stalled talks Nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea have been stalled since a February meeting in Hanoi between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump ended in no deal. Trump wants Kim to completely abandon his nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief. Kim has only offered limited steps toward denuclearization. Last week, Kim said he was open to another summit with Trump, but warned he would only give the U.S. until the end of the year to change its "approach" to the negotiations. Even though North Korea's latest test is not likely a ballistic missile, it is still meant to send a message to Trump, said Vipin Narang, a nuclear expert and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The test amounts to "calibrated signaling to remind us where things can go if we don't moderate our negotiating position," Narang says. A North Korean official said last month that Kim is considering resuming missile tests and pulling out of the talks with the United States. Increase in provocations? Meanwhile, commercial satellite photos from last week showed increased activity at North Korea's main nuclear site, according to a U.S. research organization. The Center for Strategic and International Studies noted the presence of five specialized railcars at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. "In the past, these specialized railcars appear to have been associated with the movement of radioactive material or reprocessing campaigns," the report said. Also Wednesday, Kim carried out a public inspection of a military unit for the first time in several months, reviewing a flight exercise of the Korean People's Army. Kim is expected to meet next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin. With U.S. negotiations stalled, Kim is likely to push Putin to provide economic aid and sanctions relief. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address F-21 Combat Aircraft Will Give India Significant Edge - Lockheed Martin Sputnik News 19:29 17.04.2019 The Maryland-based defence manufacturer claims that the new combat aircraft it is providing to India will have impressive standoff capabilities, greater staying power with lower fuel consumption and state-of-the-art network data-linking capabilities across all platforms. New Delhi (Sputnik): US defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin has said the F-21 multi-role combat aircraft it is producing indigenously for India will address the immediate requirements of the country's air force, besides giving it a "significant edge". The F-21 warplanes will strengthen the Indian Air Force's (IAF) integration into the worldwide network of advanced fighter aircraft technology, a report in the Economic Times quoted the Maryland-based company as saying. The F-21 jet for India was unveiled by Lockheed Martin at the Aero India show in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru in February this year. Lockheed Martin and Tata Advanced Systems will produce the aircraft in India. "While it is inappropriate for us to compare specific capabilities, the F-21 will give India a significant edge with greater standoff capability, greater staying power with less fuel burn, and network data linking capabilities across all platforms. The F-21 will meet all of India's performance, capability and advanced technology requirements the same requirements all other 4th generation competitors are offering. As we pursue cutting-edge technologies for the F-21, some capabilities may be evaluated as discrete, integrated functions," Vivek Lall, vice president of Strategy and Business Development at Lockheed, told the Economic Times. The aircraft will feature Advanced APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars, which has detection ranges nearly double that of previous mechanically scanned array radars and the ability to track and attack more targets with higher precision. In addition to this, its Advanced Electronic Warfare (EW) System, developed uniquely for India, will enhance survivability against ground and air threats. The Long-Range Infrared Search and Track tech will enable pilots to detect threats more accurately, while the Triple Missile Launcher Adapters (TMLAs) will allow the F-21 to carry 40 per cent more air-to-air weapons, Lall specified. India started the process of purchasing 114 fighter jets under a strategic partnership program in 2018. Six foreign firms responded to the request for information. Renowned arms manufacturers Boeing and Lockheed Martin of the United States, Dassault Aviation of France, European consortium Eurofighter, Saab of Sweden and United Aircraft Corporation of Russia submitted their responses in July 2018, while Mikoyan later joined the race with its MiG-35. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Experts Warn IRGC Terror Designation Could Inflame US-Iran Tensions By Mehdi Jedinia, Sirwan Kajjo April 16, 2019 The recent U.S. designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization could increase tensions between the United States and Iran in the Middle East, where both countries have a strong military presence, some experts warn. The designation, which formally took effect this week, adds another layer of sanctions to the elite Iranian military force. The designation makes it a crime for anyone in the U.S. or in a U.S. jurisdiction to provide the group with material support. Following President Donald Trump's decision last week, the Iranian government made a reciprocal move and labeled the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) a terrorist entity. CENTCOM is responsible for U.S. military activities in the Middle East and Central Asia. 'Reciprocal measures' Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGC's commander-in-chief, warned that his elite force has the upper hand in the region over U.S. forces. "If the Americans make such a silly move and endanger our national security, we will implement reciprocal measures based on the policies of Iran's Islamic establishment," he said during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week. Some analysts say that such rhetoric could escalate to a direct military showdown between the two sides. "This designation will bring the risk of confrontation to a higher level," Hooshang Amirahmadi, a professor at Rutgers University, told VOA. "The other side (Iran) is also considering this probability with scrutiny and seriousness, as IRGC has moved some of its proxies, including Iraqi PMF forces, into the Iranian border to strengthen its stance as a precautionary measure." Other analysts believe a direct confrontation is unlikely at this point. "Iran will be cautious and just respond rhetorically for now," said Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington. "The IRGC can pose a threat, but it would most likely not be direct but through an Iran-backed militia group in Iraq, Syria or perhaps Afghanistan." Over the past few years, Iran has formed and funded various Shiite militias throughout the region through which the IRGC has played a major role in conflicts such as in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Legal challenges The terrorist designation also raises some legal challenges, some experts charge. "Current and future U.S. administrations may once again find themselves in a situation, where they are in need of the IRGC's assistance fighting the next terrorist organization posing a threat to both countries. And I am certain there will be another one," said Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, referring to how U.S. and Iranian forces have fought Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. "In the (2014) battle of Tikrit against the Islamic State, the U.S. Air Force provided air support to Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani's Quds Force and the Iraqi Shiite militias under Soleimani's direct or indirect command," Alfoneh said. "I can well imagine this scenario repeat itself in the not so distant future." Alireza Nourizadeh, a London-based Iranian analyst, believes that regardless of whether the terrorist designation potentially leads to direct confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, labeling "IRGC as a terrorist organization would greatly affect Tehran's role in the region, and IRGC commanders would not be able to travel freely across the Middle East to oversee the dirty job being conducted by their proxies." Nourizadeh added that the IRGC has no capability to confront the U.S. in the region. Iranians "aren't in a position to do any harm (to the U.S.), as they know they cannot mess with this administration," he said. "Their decreasing of threats to the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf is a clear sign of their consternation." Tensions erupted last December between Tehran and Washington after the U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, which prompted the IRGC to send vessels to tail it, launch rockets away from it and fly a drone nearby. Ever since, however, the situation has been largely calm. Iran's envoy Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran's envoy to the U.K., said U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region were in a volatile situation and that it wouldn't be wise for the U.S. to take action against the IRGC. Washington would not instruct U.S. forces to confront the IRGC and treat it as a terrorist force, Baeidinejad said during an interview with CNN last week. There are "some terrorist groups on the list that the U.S. has not taken any steps against them," Rutgers professor Amirahmadi said. "For instance, the Lebanese Hezbollah has been sitting there, but the U.S. has not taken any military measures against them so far. And despite their role in the country's parliament, the U.S. continues its relationship with Lebanon and only asked the government to restrain (Hezbollah militants) or limit their activities." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Instant Ban For Iran's IRGC On Instagram: Social-Media Giant Blocks Commanders' Sites By Golnaz Esfandiari April 17, 2019 With some 800,000 followers, the Instagram page of the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force was among the most popular pages of Iranian officials on the photo-sharing website. The Instagram comments, public appearances, travels, and promotional posters of Qassem Soleiman -- who as head of Quds commands the vaunted Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) outside of Iran -- were shared on the Instagram page, which is one of the only major social-media sites that has not been blocked by Iran. On April 16, a day after Washington's designation of the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) came into effect, Soleimani's page, along with the Instagram pages of several other IRGC commanders, were blocked. "Sorry, this page isn't available," a message on the page reads. "The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed." An Instagram spokesman said it was operating "under the constraints of U.S. sanctions laws." "We work with the appropriate government authorities to ensure we meet our legal obligations, including those relating to the recent designation of the IRGC," the spokesman said. Iranian media reported that the English-language Instagram page of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the page of judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi were also blocked. Khamenei's Persian-language Instagram page, with 2.5 million followers, remains available. Khamenei's English-language page was back up on April 17. 'Take Reciprocal Actions' The blockages were condemned in Tehran while prompting renewed calls from hard-liners for a blocking of Instagram, the second-most-popular social-media platform in Iran after the communications app Telegram, which was blocked last year. "When you tear out a man's tongue, you aren't proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you FEAR what he might say," Communications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahrom wrote on Twitter, blocked in Iran since 2019, quoting the cult TV series Games Of Thrones. Others hard-liners, including Hossein Allah Karam, a leader of the paramilitary Ansar-e Hezbollah group, blacklisted by the U.S. for human rights abuses, also agreed that the time had come for the Islamic republic to block Instagram. "Social-media sites use any opportunity to harm national interests, we need to be ready to confront these plots and take reciprocal actions," Allah Karam was quoted as saying by Iranian media. "Under the current conditions it is needed more than ever to filter these social-media sites in support of the IRGC," he said, adding that "the blocking of hostile social-media sites such as Instagram will [prevent] them from doing what they want." The conservative chairman of the parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Alaeddin Borujerdi, said he will stop posting on Instagram to protest the blocking of the pages of Khamenei and the IRGC commanders. In a video posted on Instagram, Borujerdi said the "unwise move" reflected "the depth of America's hostility" toward the Islamic establishment. To Block Or Not To Block? Iranian hard-liners have long called for tighter Internet censorship, including the blocking of Instagram. Earlier this year Javad Javidnia, secretary of Iran's state committee on online censorship and deputy state prosecutor in charge of cyberaffairs, was quoted by domestic media as saying that the country was ready to block Instagram once the authorities agreed. The move has been opposed by the government of President Hassan Rohani, who came to power in 2013 promising people more freedom and less censorship. Iran blocks tens of thousands of websites, including news sites and social-media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but many Iranians access banned sites through virtual private networks (VPNs) and other anti-filtering tools. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/instant-ban-for-iran-s- irgc-on-instagram-social-media-giant-blocks- commanders-sites/29886908.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan's F-35s Made Seven Precautionary Landings Before Fighter Went Missing Sputnik News 00:31 18.04.2019 On Wednesday, Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said that Japan's F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters had made seven precautionary landings before one of the fleet's fighters disappeared from radars on April 9, 84 miles east of the Misawa Air Base in the country's northern Aomori prefecture. A Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) spokesperson also confirmed Wednesday that the search for the aircraft and its highly-experienced pilot, Major Akinori Hosomi who has more than 3,200 hours of flight time is still underway. US Air Force pilots, for example, currently average around 17.8 hours of flight time a month, amounting to around 213 flight hours a year, military.com reported last year. The incident took place during a training flight just before 7:30 p.m. on April 9, marking the first time an F-35A has crashed anywhere in the world. According to Takeshi, six of the precautionary landings (which took place between June 2017 and January 2019) were completed by jets manufactured in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagoya, Japan. The remaining landing was made by a US-assembled aircraft. The missing aircraft, which was the first F-35A assembled in Japan, performed two out of the seven precautionary landings. According to the Mainichi newspaper, the missing F-35 had diagnosed issues with its cooling and navigation systems. Following the crash, US and Japanese search-and-rescue teams were able to find part of the plane's tail about 80 miles offshore from the Misawa Air Base. Last week, Takeshi announced that Tokyo would ground the JASDF's whole fleet of F-35A stealth fighters. However, on Wednesday, Takeshi also announced that, as of now, the country has not changed its F-35 acquisition plan. "The cause has not been identified, and there has not been any specific information that is sufficient to change the policy as of now, which means that there is no change in the acquisition plan decided at the end of last year," he said, Stars and Stripes reported. Takeshi also said Tuesday that "the F-35A is an airplane that contains a significant amount of secrets that need to be protected," Sputnik previously reported. Akira Kato, a professor of international politics and regional security at Tokyo's JF Oberlin University, told AFP Wednesday that China and Russia likely have "a strong interest in collecting even a single screw of the state-of-the-art plane." "Even if Japan and the US find it, they may not disclose details, including its exact location, due to concerns that China and Russia might try to collect it," Kato added. Last August, the nonprofit Project On Government Oversight (POGO) claimed that senior officials developing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for the US armed forces are hiding dangerous flaws in the plane instead of fixing them. According to a document obtained by POGO, F-35 officials have re-categorized major design flaws instead of fixing them in order to claim they had completed the program's development phase. "Several of these flaws, like the lack of any means for a pilot to confirm a weapon's target data before firing, and damage to the plane caused by the tailhook on the Air Force's variant, have potentially serious implications for safety and combat effectiveness," the report states. According to a Pentagon assessment released in January, the F-35 program has multiple vulnerabilities that haven't been remedied and improvements "are still not translating into improved availability," Sputnik previously reported. The F-35B fighter jets, one of three F-35 variants within the program, have issues with its Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), a computerized maintenance tool, which transits "aircraft health and maintenance action information to the appropriate users," according to American aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin. In addition, the jets have "unacceptable" accuracy problems in weapons systems used in air-to-ground attacks, the report states. Other issues with the F-35B jets include tires that wear out too quickly, refueling probes that break off in mid-flight and life support systems that do not provide adequate oxygen to pilots during flights. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN: Fighting in Libyan Capital Intensifies By Margaret Besheer April 17, 2019 The United Nations said Wednesday that the Libyan capital saw its most intense fighting overnight since the forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar began their battle to take Tripoli earlier this month. "Tripoli witnessed the heaviest fighting since the outbreak of clashes, with indiscriminate rocket fire on a high-density neighborhood in the Libyan capital," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. He said that at least five civilians were reportedly killed and several others injured. The U.N.'s top diplomat in Libya, Ghassan Salame, condemned the shelling on Twitter: "Horrible night of random shelling of residential areas. For the sake of 3 million civilians living in Greater Tripoli, these attacks should stop. NOW!" In a statement to the media on Tuesday, Salame renewed his call for international unity to spare Libya from the devastating consequences of a civil war. To that end, the U.N. Security Council has been considering a draft resolution this week calling for an immediate de-escalation and cease-fire. Russian objection Diplomats said Russia had objected to the naming of Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) in the text as originating the new violence. But after a revised draft was circulated Wednesday afternoon, it did not appear to satisfy Moscow, which raised objections, as did council member Equatorial Guinea on behalf of itself and the other two African council members South Africa and Ivory Coast. Negotiations continue in search of a consensus as the fighting goes on. The International Organization for Migration said Wednesday that the offensive has displaced 25,000 people in the capital, with 4,500 displaced in the past 24 hours alone. Humanitarians are also having difficulty evacuating civilians trapped by the fighting. A request for a temporary truce Tuesday to allow civilians to leave volatile neighborhoods in Tripoli was not granted. "Civilians trapped in conflict areas are reportedly running low on basic food items, as well as fuel, and experiencing prolonged electricity and water cuts," Dujarric told reporters. Libya has been in political and economic chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011. The latest cycle of fighting began after forces loyal to Haftar advanced from the east on Tripoli, which is controlled by the U.N.-backed Presidential Council and Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj in a bid to capture the capital. The fighting scuttled a national conference the U.N. had planned this week as part of an effort to secure a political settlement. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Zarif: Iran believes in political solution of Syrian crisis IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, April 17, IRNA -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that Tehran believes in political solution of the Syrian crisis with the regional countries. "We hope to help solve regional problems too," Zarif told reporters upon arrival in the Turkish capital. Prior to his visit to Ankara, Zarif visited Damascus at the invitation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Elaborating on his Damascus visit, Zarif described his meetings with the Syrian officials as very good. "Talks with President Assad were very fruitful," the Iranian foreign minister said adding that good negotiations were held about the upcoming Astana talks on Syria and the bilateral cooperation. In Syria, ways to implement mutual agreements were also discussed by the two sides, the top diplomat noted. Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarif referred to discussion with the Syrian officials about the situation of eastern part of Euphrates and Idlib in northwestern Syria. Expressing concern over such situation, the top diplomat stressed the importance of exit of foreign forces from Syria and halt to the presence of terrorists in the country. Then, he elaborated on his Ankara visit, saying he is due to hold talks with Turkish officials on bilateral cooperation and regional developments including Syria and the issues related to North Africa. The Iranian foreign minister arrived in the Syrian capital Tuesday on a day-long visit. Syrian president visited Tehran in March. 1483**1416 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S.' new arms sales will boost Taiwan combat capabilities: Tsai ROC Central News Agency 2019/04/17 18:56:54 Taipei, April 17 (CNA) An approved arms sale of US$500 million by Washington to Taipei will strengthen Taiwan's overall military capabilities, President Tsai Ing-wen () said Wednesday during a visit to Magong Air Base in Penghu. Under the new package, the training of Taiwan Air Force pilots and maintenance crews will continue at Luke Air Force Base in the U.S., which will allow them to bring back knowledge to the armed services, thus strengthening Taiwan's military, Tsai said. According to a statement issued by the U.S. Department of Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Monday, the State Department has approved a possible deal with Taiwan for the continuation of a pilot training program and maintenance/logistics support for F-16 aircraft at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, at an estimated cost of US$500 million. A security specialist told CNA that the U.S.' announcement of the sales package was different than in the past, as for the first time, the U.S. openly mentioned its training of Taiwanese pilots, which implied military cooperation between Taipei and Washington. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday posted a video on its Facebook page, showing Taiwanese F-16 pilots in training at Luke Air Force Base in 1997, which was regarded as a highly sensitive operation at that time. Meanwhile, during Tsai's visit to Penghu, which lies between Taiwan and Mainland China, she thanked a special Air Force unit there for protecting Taiwan's airspace amid frequent actions by Beijing, which she said were disruptive of peace and stability in the region. On March 31, two J-11 fighter planes from the People's Liberation Army of China crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, prompting Taiwan to scramble several fighter jets to protect its airspace, but the incident did not develop into a conflict. Tsai, who has announced her bid for reelection in 2020, said one of her priorities is to upgrade Taiwan's defense capabilities and the training of its military personnel. At a groundbreaking ceremony at a Fishermen's Association in Tainan after her Penghu visit, she said China's frequent military actions were a threat to peace in the region and she promised to fully support the Armed Forces throughout her presidency. (By Yeh Su-ping, Yang Sz-ruei, Matt Yu and Emerson Lim) Enditem/pc NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Arms sale in line with Taiwan Relations Act: U.S. ROC Central News Agency 2019/04/17 13:51:52 Washington, April 16 (CNA) The U.S. Department of State confirmed Tuesday its latest approval of an arms sale to Taiwan, citing the need to help the island maintain sufficient self-defense capability in the face of growing intimidation from China. The US$500 million arms sale is in line with the Taiwan Relations Act in the face of mounting intimidation from China, a State Department official said at a news briefing in answer to a reporters' question. On Monday, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress of the deal, part of a continuous program which it said will provide Taiwan's Air Force with pilot training/logistics and maintenance services at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. "Today, the Administration formally notified Congress of a proposed arms sale for Taiwan valued at US$500 million under the Foreign Military Sales program overseen by the U.S. Department of State," the State Department said. "Today's notification is consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act, and our support for Taiwan's ability to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability," the State Department said, noting that "the notification does not include the sale of new F-16 aircraft." On Tuesday, Randall Schriver, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, said the arms sale was to help Taiwan substantiate its deterrent capabilities against increasing intimidation from China, when asked by a CNA reporter following a seminar hosted by the Hudson Institute in Washington. (By Chiang Chin-yeh and Flor Wang) Enditem/AW NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ankara Won't Allow Questioning Its NATO Status Over S-400s Official Sputnik News 16:21 17.04.2019(updated 16:42 17.04.2019) MOSCOW (Sputnik) Turkey will not allow NATO to question its status of an alliance member over the decision to buy Russian S-400 air defence systems (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler), Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told the Anadolu news agency in an interview. "Besides, we are not an observer [country] there. We are one of the members. We are a country that has a say in all decisions Therefore, we will not allow the questioning of Turkey's position in NATO," Kalin said. The spokesman pointed out that Turkey must have an opportunity to make the choice itself. "Turkey must choose. Does it want to remain a critical partner in the most successful military alliance in the history of the world, or does it want to risk the security of that partnership?" Kalin stressed. The spokesman added that the Turkish relations with Russia were not an alternative to the development of ties with Europe or the United States, as Ankara wants to conduct a multidimensional foreign policy. Earlier in April, US Vice President Mike Pence said that Turkey had a choice either to remain a key NATO partner or to undermine the alliance by purchasing the S-400, which Washington saw as a threat. In December 2017, Russia and Turkey signed a loan agreement for the supply of S-400 air defence systems. The Russian-Turkish cooperation on S-400 deliveries has been criticized by NATO and the United States, which have cited security concerns and the inability of integration between S-400 and NATO's air defence systems. Ankara, in its turn, has said that purchase of military equipment is its sovereign affair and ruled out the possibility of abandoning its plans. The first shipment of S-400 air defence systems is expected to be delivered to Ankara in July. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Court Keeps Ukrainian Seamen In Jail Through Late July By RFE/RL's Russian Service April 17, 2019 MOSCOW -- A Moscow court has extended the pretrial detainment period for several of the 24 Ukrainian seamen who were jailed after the Russian Coast Guard seized their vessels near the Kerch Strait in a flare-up of tensions in November. On April 17, the Lefortovo district court heard requests by prosecutors to keep the seamen in jail pending further investigation and trial. With relatives of the seamen attending hearings conducted in three separate courtrooms, judges had prolonged pretrial detention until July 24 for 12 of the sailors by midafternoon. Later, the court's press service told Interfax that all 24 would be held in detention until either July 24 or July 26. Outside the courthouse -- which bears the same name as the jail where the Ukrainians are being held, Lefortovo -- a lone protester held a sign that read, "Free the Ukrainian sailors." On November 25, Russian Coast Guard vessels fired on and seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels and their crews while they were on their way from the Black Sea to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov. Moscow accuses them of illegal entry into Russian territorial waters, which they deny, and they are formally charged with illegal border crossing. The incident increased tension over the Kerch Strait, which is the sole passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The strait runs between Russia and Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia seized in March 2014 after sending in troops and staging a referendum deemed illegitimate by Kyiv, the United States, and a total of at least 100 countries. The takeover of the peninsula, and Russian support for separatist militants who seized parts of eastern Ukraine at the start of a conflict that has now killed some 13,000 people, came after pro-European protests pushed Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power in Kyiv. Western leaders have demanded that Russia release the seamen and the incident has led to the imposition of additional sanctions on Russia. With reporting by Current Time, Interfax, and RIA Novosti Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-court- keeps-ukrainian-seamen-in-jail-through -late-july/29886482.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukrainian Authorities Say Russian 'Terror' Group Thwarted, Seven Arrested By RFE/RL April 17, 2019 KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities say they have arrested seven people they claim were sent by Russian security services to carry out political killings and other "terrorist" acts, including the slaying of Ukrainian intelligence agents. Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) cheif Vasyl Hrytsak made the announcement on April 17, four days ahead of Ukraine's presidential runoff vote. At a news conference, Hrytsak said the SBU thwarted "a sabotage and reconnaissance terrorist group of the Russian special services" that consisted of seven people, all of whom have been arrested. One person who assisted the group was arrested on April 17, he said, but it was not clear if that was in addition to the other seven. Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and has given crucial backing to militants who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in a war that has killed some 13,000 people since April 2014. Hrytsak alleged that since early 2017, the Russian security services had sent several "autonomously operating" sabotage groups into parts of Ukraine including the separatist-held section of the Donetsk region. He said these groups were responsible for attacks including a car bombing that killed Ukrainian military intelligence officer Maksim Shapoval in June 2017 and one that missed its apparent target, also a military intelligence officer, in Kyiv earlier this month. Prosecutors said at the time that the man suspected of planting that bomb, on April 4, was killed by the blast. However, Hrytsak said that the suspect, a Russian man, was alive and had given information to the Ukrainian authorities. Hrytsak alleged that "the true organizer" of operations that included the killing of Shapoval was an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Dmitry Minayev. SBU officials identified one of the seven suspects whose arrests were announced on April 17 as Timur Dzortov, who they said was deputy chief of staff to the leader of Russia's Ingushetia region, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, in 2015-17. There was no immediate comment from Russian officials. With reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, UNIAN, and Ukrayinska Pravda Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-authorities -say-russian-terror-group-thwarted- seven-arrested/29886169.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukrainian Presidential Debate Appears On For April 19 By RFE/RL April 17, 2019 Preparations continue for the scheduled debate between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his challenger, the comic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy and Poroshenko are now due to face off in a question-and-answer format at Kyiv's Olimpiyskiy Stadium on April 19, just two days before the runoff vote on April 21. Opinion polls show Zelenskiy with a comfortable lead over Poroshenko, whom many Ukrainians blame for the slow pace of reform and failure to tackle corruption during his five-year term. Zelenskiy, who stars on a TV comedy series about a teacher who becomes president after denouncing corruption, won nearly twice as many votes as Poroshenko in the first round, on March 31. The two candidates had agreed to a debate, but not on details, such as when. Poroshenko showed up at Olimpiyskiy Stadium on April 14, insisting the debate would take place then. Zelenskiy did not appear, and Poroshenko ended up holding a rally there with supporters. Now, both camps say the two candidates will meet at the 70,000-seat stadium on April 19, according to a report by the AFP news agency. The Zelenskiy team is promoting the event on social media, encouraging the public to be "witness to an event that will go down in the history of Ukraine," according to AFP. The two men took drug tests earlier this month at Zelenskiy's insistence in a campaign that has been marked by theatrics on both sides. Poroshenko's campaign team said on April 17 that supporters will be bussed in for free for the event, according to Interfax. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said a crowd of "up to 60,000" was expected to attend the debate, adding he would be discussing security matters with representatives of both candidates. His comments on April 17 come after Ukrainian authorities announced they had captured a Russian military intelligence hit squad responsible for the attempted murder of a Ukrainian military spy ahead of the presidential runoff. The issue of how to deal with Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014 and backs separatists in eastern Ukraine, is prominent ahead of the vote, with Poroshenko casting himself as the commander in chief Ukraine needs to defend the country. With reporting by AFP, Reuters, Interfax, and TASS Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian- presidential-debate-appears-on-for- april-19/29886917.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukrainian Presidential Front-Runner Zelenskiy Hires Washington Lobbying Firm To 'Elevate Profile' By Christopher Miller April 17, 2019 KYIV Ukrainian comedian and presidential front-runner Volodymyr Zelenskiy has hired a Washington lobbying firm to burnish his international image and set up meetings between members of his camp and officials in the U.S. capital. Zelenskiy and his Servant of the People party, which shares the same name as his hit TV sitcom in which he stars as a teacher who accidentally becomes president after a video of him ranting against corruption goes viral, has hired Signal Group Consulting for $60,000, John Procter, who handles media relations at Signal Group, confirmed to RFE/RL in an April 14 e-mail. A Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing made public on April 17 said Signal Group was hired on behalf of the candidate by Marcus Cohen "to elevate the profile of Volodymyr Zelenskiy Servant of the People." According to Procter, the firm began short-term work for Zelenskiy last week that includes facilitating meetings for the candidate's team members with officials on Capitol Hill and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, members of the news media, and the think tank and policy community. The hire shows the importance to Zelenskiy of Western support, a campaign official who requested anonymity to speak about the issue with media told RFE/RL. Zelenskiy has no immediate plans to visit Washington, that campaign official said. But he met President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last week, hours before a separate meeting between the French leader and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The talks at Elysee Palace included prospects for the settlement of the five-year war against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. France and Germany are involved in so-called "Normandy format" talks with Ukraine and Russia to try to end the conflict. But Zelenskiy has said in recent days that he would like to bring Washington and London into the negotiations. According to sources in the Zelenskiy camp and an e-mail obtained by RFE/RL, Signal Group was arranging meetings for Zelenskiy's campaign chief of staff and Servant of the People party leader Ivan Bakanov, as well as senior economic adviser Oleh Dubyna. Dubnya, a former chairman of the board of Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy, as well as energy minister and vice prime minister in Viktor Yushchenko's government, has not previously been named publicly as a member of Zelenskiy's team. Dubyna also served as an adviser to President Leonid Kuchma in 2002-03. In 2007, Dubyna was appointed the head of Naftogaz by then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who allegedly forced him to sign a controversial gas contract with Russia in 2009 under threat of being fired. He resigned his office in 2010 after the presidential election. Zelenskiy faces the incumbent Poroshenko in an April 21 runoff vote. Polls show him way out in front of Poroshenko, whose popularity has plummeted over the course of a five-year presidency in which he has set Ukraine on a Westward course but failed to tackle entrenched corruption. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-presidential -front-runner-zelenskiy-hires-washington-lobbying- firm-to-elevate-profile-/29886941.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Poroshenko Reinvented: Apologies, New Promises, And Slick Moves May Be 'Too Little, Too Late' By Christopher Miller April 17, 2019 KYIV -- There is one presidential candidate Ukrainians have become accustomed to watching sing and dance on stage. It is not incumbent President Petro Poroshenko. And yet there the 53-year-old was, gyrating and pumping his fist beside yellow-overall-clad rockers at a campaign rally at Kyiv's Olimpiyskiy Stadium on April 14. Fighting for his political survival -- one week before the election. Then, in another act his aides said was unscripted, Poroshenko led a gushing crowd of a few thousand people inside the 70,000-seat stadium for nearly an hour, rousing them with patriotic chants and posing for selfies with supporters. Hours earlier, at a press conference that was supposed to be a debate with comedian and presidential front-runner Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Poroshenko made his case for a second term and pleaded for another chance to deliver on promises that many Ukrainians say have been unfulfilled during a presidency that has seen his popularity plummet. Zelenskiy refused to attend Poroshenko's debate, demanding the two go head-to-head at the stadium on April 19 instead. Standing beside an empty lectern bearing his opponent's name, the incumbent president -- who campaigned in the first round on a platform that hailed such achievements as steering Ukraine on a westward path, securing an independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and halting Russian aggression that has cleaved large swathes of his country's territory and caused the deaths of 13,000 people -- apologized for mistakes made during his five-year rule and promised to do better in a second term. "Are there any mistakes? Let's talk about the mistakes," an uncharacteristically contrite Poroshenko said. "There are, and I admit them. But one who does nothing does not make a mistake." After the devastating second-place finish in the first round of Ukraine's presidential election in which Zelenskiy won nearly twice as many votes as him (30.24 percent to 15.95 percent in the final tally), Poroshenko is attempting to reinvent himself and his campaign and thereby reach out to voters frustrated by the slow pace of change, runaway corruption, and the ongoing war in the country's east. But he is also doing it in an unorthodox style more akin to his challenger. Song-and-dance routines onstage? Check. Slick social-media videos and messenger-app sticker packs? Check. Viral-ready one-liners aimed at his opponent? Check. Too Little, Too Late? The attempted reinvention of the confectionery billionaire comes as fresh polling highlights what many experts believe to be an insurmountable gap between him and Zelenskiy, 41, a political novice who has gone to great lengths to avoid talking specifics about his policies and potential cabinet appointments. A poll released this week by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) showed 72.2 percent of decided voters will choose Zelenskiy in the April 21 runoff election, compared to 25.4 percent who will go for Poroshenko. A survey the Sociological Group "Rating" last week showed 71 percent of decided voters in favor of Zelenskiy and 29 percent for Poroshenko. Getting specific during his press conference about his mistakes as president, Poroshenko admitted he was wrong to appoint business cronies to senior positions in his government, but said he had recently fired problematic national security officials and regional governors. He admitted it had taken years to set up an anti-corruption court but said he had appointed judges this month to launch it. Poroshenko also said he should have reached out to civil-society leaders and anti-corruption activists sooner, though he said discussions with them were now under way. And he promised to be more transparent in communicating decisions, pledging to bring more young reformers into the government the next time. If there will be a next time. "I think this was a clear olive branch," Olha Onuch, an associate professor in politics at the University of Manchester who researches Ukraine, told RFE/RL in regard to Poroshenko's activist outreach. While she said some members of the anti-corruption group appreciated the gesture, some "scoffed" at the president's move, which she believed "may be too little too late" to help him win reelection. Mimicking 'Reinvention' Other promises, such as not tapping business partners and close allies for high-level positions, Onuch chalked up to "electoral rhetoric at its best." "We know that he has appointed his business associates and family members to certain posts in the past...and included them on his party list," she said. "The voters would have to turn a blind eye to this, so I am not sure how convinced the voters will be based on past experience [with Poroshenko]." Polling suggests they are not at all convinced by the incumbent's promises. About 50 percent of voters surveyed by KIIS said they would not vote for Poroshenko under any circumstances. The Rating group's study highlighted voters' negative attitude toward him this way: 41 percent of those surveyed plan to vote for the comic actor Zelenskiy not because they support him, but because they want to vote against Poroshenko. And analysts like Volodymyr Fesenko, director of the Kyiv-based Penta Center for Political Studies, say Poroshenko's reinvention isn't sincere. The president, Fesenko said, "is trying to create the impression of a 'new Poroshenko' for voters" ahead of the runoff. However, he added, the president's efforts appear to merely "mimic reinvention." Only Room For One Showman In This Race? Zelenskiy, whose own antics have garnered much attention despite the lack of substance in his messages, also appears to have been unimpressed with the "new Poroshenko." "A showman can become a president but it is sad that a president became a showman," he said in an April 15 video published on his popular social-media accounts. Poroshenko is still holding out hope that his new look and new tactics will close what these polls have shown to be an ever-widening gap between him and Zelenskiy and carry him to an improbable victory in the April 21 vote. But many observers say there simply is not enough time. "The gap with Zelenskiy is so huge that only some extreme measures to rig or disrupt elections," says Volodymyr Ishchenko, a senior lecturer at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute's Department of Sociology. "Yet, in that case he wouldn't be seen as a legitimate president, neither by the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians nor by Western governments." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/poroshenko-reinvented -apologies-new-promises-and-slick-moves-may-be-too- little-too-late-/29886795.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address SEATTLE, April 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- CFN Media Group (CFN Media), the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the North American cannabis industry, announces the publication of an article covering biosynthesis and International Cannabis Corp.s recent biotechnology investment. Biosynthesis is the process of manipulating simple substances to produce the complex molecules found within living organisms. Biosynthetic engineering, as applied to cannabis, means single cell organisms are programmed to synthesize the enzymes for the metabolic pathway that generates cannabinoids from sugars - promising new technology with the potential to shake up the nascent cannabis industry. Guided by an understanding of the potential the technology offers, International Cannabis Corp. (CSE: WRLD.U)(FWB: 8K51)(OTC: WLDCF) announced on April 8th a USD $1.2 million strategic investment in Biotii Technologies Corp. a leading private biotechnology company actively pursuing genetically engineered microorganisms that express cannabinoid profiles identical to those found in nature - at a fraction of the cost of current production methods with more consistent quality and a greatly reduced carbon footprint. Revolutionary Potential Recent advancements in the areas of gene editing, in-silico protein modeling, and semi-automated high throughput robotics has enabled Biotii to expedite its molecular biology research, allowing the company to spearhead into large-scale production with a wide portfolio of intellectual property. This evolving portfolio is expected to consist of synthetic cannabinoids, designer enzymes, proprietary enzyme pathways, and GMO microorganisms. Traditional cultivation of cannabis plants for the purpose of extracting cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), THC and CBD is a time, labour, and resource intensive endeavor which often results in lower yields. By 2020, the Biotii team plans to establish processes to mass-produce CBD/THC in quantities of hundreds of metric tons per annum boasting stable and consistent yields, pharmaceutical grade purities, and the lowest production costs in the cannabis space. Commenting on the investment, Eugene Beukman, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of International Cannabis, said, We are thoroughly impressed with the Biotii team, which consists of proven innovators from world-class institutions, whom we believe are en route to potentially disrupt a very large part of the cannabis value chain. ICC will continue to support Biotiis distinguished team in their pursuit to bring economies of scale using biosynthesis to the cannabis industry. This investment enhances ICCs ability to capture significant IP and market share in the fast-developing biosynthesis market for cannabinoids. In areas with more established cannabis markets, extract-based products have proven to be just as popular, and often more so, than the smoking of flower. Most consumers are new to cannabis and increasingly health conscious, so theyre much more likely to purchase derivatives and consumables. The development of biosynthetic cannabinoids could potentially eliminate the need for companies producing these products to invest in cultivation and processing, substantially lowering input costs and increasing revenues, while also cutting the industrys overall ecological footprint. Industry Investment Enabling Research ICCs investment in biosynthesis mirrors those made by Cronos and Tilray in September of last year. Cronos is working with synthetic biology firm Ginkgo Bioworks in an effort to develop a scalable system for producing synthetic cannabinoids, and if certain benchmarks are achieved, the deal could be worth USD $100 million in cash and stock incentives. This would give Cronos the exclusive right to commercialize key patented intellectual property related to the target cannabinoids in perpetuity. These include THC and CBD, but also lesser-known compounds also produced by the cannabis plant, which are of particular importance to pharmaceutical companies. Tilray is working with IntelGenX Corp. to develop oral film products infused with synthetic cannabis for both recreational and medicinal use, citing a need for the greater consistency synthetics offer, especially for medical cannabis patients, as well as being free of the contaminants sometimes present in naturally-sourced cannabinoids. The US Food & Drug Administration has been slow to approve synthetic cannabinoids, but since 2016, has started to liberalize its approach, a key step in advancing research. ICCs strategic investment with Biotii grants International Cannabis a right of first refusal with respect to all future Biotii financing. Biotii Guided by a Winning Team Dr. John Harrold, Biotiis Chief Executive Officer, said, Biotii looks forward to progressing our technology alongside ICC and their robust cannabis platform. ICC has earned a reputation of being a thought leader in the space and we are excited by the possibilities of tapping into ICCs unique expertise and resources as we look to disrupt the cannabis industry. Dr. Harrold is an MIT instructor with expertise in end-to-end bio-lab management, and a proven entrepreneur, having previously championed four start-ups, including two funded by the National Science Foundation. Biotii has forged mission critical relationships with leading medical research institutions in both the United States and China. Sisi Ni, Biotiis Chief Product Officer, is an MIT trained materials scientist and engineer who was previously named as one of Forbes 30 under 30. Casey Solomon, PhD, the companys Chief Science Officer/Lead Scientist, is a resident expert in yeast engineering, E. coli engineering, and molecular pathway engineering. Biotiis Chief Medical Officer is Ryan Hubbard, MD, a former instructor at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Medicine with over 25 publications, posters, and oral presentations. Nona Tian, PhD is the companys Science Advisor/Affiliated Researcher, a Xiamen University PhD graduate in Cell and Molecular Biology with a B.S. in biotechnology as well as a successful startup co-founder with extensive bioengineering experience. Peter Liu, Biotiis Technology Advisor/Affiliated Researcher also graduated from Xiamen University with a B.S. in biotechnology, and is a seasoned protein engineer and startup co-founder that received various grants from the Chinese Government for bioengineering initiatives. If the biosynthesis of cannabinoids proves to be a scalable technology, many of the companies involved in the production and sale of extract-based products could switch from traditional cultivation and processing to achieve their supplies in this alternative form, which would leave those with the foresight to invest in the technology now in a position to capitalize. Investors would do well to keep an eye on biosynthesis research and the companies like ICC who are making important moves now. For more information, watch this page or visit https://intlcannabiscorp.com/news/ Please follow the link to read the full article: https://www.cannabisfn.com/icc-makes-strategic-investment-in-disruptive-biosynthesis-research/ About CFN Media For Visitors and Viewers CFN Medias Cannabis Financial Network (CannabisFN.com) is the destination for savvy investors and business people profiting from the worldwide cannabis industry. Viewers will see breaking news, exclusive content and original programming involving the people, companies and investments shaping the industry. For Cannabis Businesses & Companies CFN Media is a leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the cannabis industry. We help private, pre-public and public cannabis companies in the US and Canada attract capital, investors and media attention. Our powerful digital media and distribution platform conveys a companys message and value proposition directly to accredited and retail investors and national media active in the North American cannabis markets. Since 2013, CFN Media has enabled the worlds preeminent cannabis companies to thrive in the capital and public markets. Learn how to become a CFN Media client company, brand or entrepreneur: http://www.cannabisfn.com/featuredcompany Disclaimer CannabisFN.com is not an independent financial investment advisor or broker-dealer. You should always consult with your own independent legal, tax, and/or investment professionals before making any investment decisions. The information provided on http://www.cannabisfn.com (the Site) is either original financial news or paid advertisements drafted by our in-house team or provided by an affiliate. CannabisFN.com, a financial news media and marketing firm enters into media buys or service agreements with the companies that are the subject of the articles posted on the Site or other editorials for advertising such companies. We are not an independent news media provider. We make no warranty or representation about the information including its completeness, accuracy, truthfulness or reliability and we disclaim, expressly and implicitly, all warranties of any kind, including whether the Information is complete, accurate, truthful, or reliable. As such, your use of the information is at your own risk. Nor do we undertake any obligation to update the items posted. CannabisFN.com received compensation for producing and presenting high quality and sophisticated content on CannabisFN.com along with financial and corporate news. The above article is sponsored content. Emerging Growth LLC, which owns CannabisFN.com and CFN Media, has been hired to create awareness. Please follow the link below to view our full disclosure outlining our compensation: http://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/ Contact CFN Media Frank Lane 206-369-7050 flane@cannabisfn.com LOWELL, Mass., April 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3), a business-to-business collaborative that drives the commercial adoption of green chemistry, has announced the 10 semi-finalists for the GC3 Startup Networks 4 th Annual Technology Showcase , which will be held May 7, immediately preceding the annual GC3 Innovators Roundtable on May 8-9 in Cincinnati, OH. Through a competitive application process, the 10 startup companies earned the opportunity to pitch their chemicals, materials, products, and manufacturing technologies at the Technology Showcase. The audience will include chemical manufacturers, formulators, brands, retailers, and investors. Representing Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the 10 semi-finalist startups offer an array of technologies and chemistries for industries such as cosmetics and personal care products, building products, apparel and textiles, cleaning products, electronics, adhesives and coatings, bioplastics, pharmaceutical, and energy: The semi-finalists are: The event is organized by the GC3 Startup Network , a program that fosters green chemistry entrepreneurship and accelerates the development of and market pull for green chemistry technologies. GC3 members actively seek to offer products that are not only high-performing and cost-competitive, but also safe for people and the environment, said Julie Manley, Coordinator of the GC3 Startup Network. Nearly 20 GC3 members including Lowes, HP, Inc., Beiersdorf AG, Sherwin-Williams, and Eastman have contributed to a list of sustainable chemistry technology needs to help clarify priority areas. Visolis, Inc., one of the innovators chosen to present at the Technology Showcase, has created a cutting-edge biotechnology platform to manufacture biointermediates from a variety of biomass feedstocks. These unique biointermediates are then converted into a wide array of renewable chemicals for industries ranging from cosmetics and fragrances to solvents and polymers. As a startup company with a technology that has broad applications across diverse sectors, we are thrilled to have this valuable opportunity to present our technology to sustainable design experts in all of our targeted industries at one event, said Paul Petersen, Vice President, Visolis. Its an ideal method of introducing our company to an informed and receptive audience, said Petersen. The winners of the Tech Showcase pitch competition will then pitch their solutions to a panel of business and technology experts on the main stage during the GC3 Innovators Roundtable. The panelists include Stephen Crawford, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Eastman; Danny Haynes, Common Application Team Leader, Corporate RD&I, Nouryon; Al Iannuzzi, Vice President of Sustainability at Estee Lauder Companies; and Martin Mulvihill, General Partner with Safer Made. Eastmans vision is to become the worlds leading material innovation company for the markets that we serve, thereby enhancing the quality of life globally for generations to come, said Steve Crawford, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Eastman. The GC3 Annual Innovators Roundtable and Technology Showcase helps us reach our goals by creating an environment that fosters innovation and collaboration throughout the value chain to bring sustainable chemistry solutions to market. At Safer Made we are dedicated to financing innovative solutions that enable sustainable products in a variety of industries, said Mulvihill. The GC3 Technology Showcase is an ideal setting to find startups creating sustainable chemistry technologies, and to stimulate conversations about potential partnerships and investments, added Mulvihill. About the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3) Started in 2005, the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3) is a business-to-business collaborative that drives the commercial adoption of green chemistry by catalyzing and guiding action across all industries, sectors and supply chains. Over 125 organizations are members of the GC3. For more information, visit www.greenchemistryandcommerce.org . About Eastman Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. The companys innovation-driven growth model takes advantage of world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to grow its leading positions in attractive end-markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables. As a globally inclusive and diverse company, Eastman employs approximately 14,500 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company had 2018 revenues of approximately $10 billion and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. For more information, visit www.eastman.com . About Safer Made Safer Made is a venture capital fund that invests in safer products and technologies to enable brands and retailers to address their safer chemistry needs to bring products to market that resonate with consumers. For more information, visit www.safermade.net . About Visolis, Inc. Visolis combines advanced bioengineering with chemical processing to provide sustainable, carbon-negative materials. The company integrates innovations in synthetic biology, chemical catalysis and process scale-up to enable new bio-based manufacturing platforms. Its unique bio-based process enables true carbon negative chemical synthesis. Visolis is located in Hayward, CA with close collaborations with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the University of California at Berkeley and Davis. It has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To learn more, visit www.visolisbio.com . GC3 Media Contact: Joy Reo Communications Specialist Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3) joy@joyreo.com 617-794-8619 (mobile) A PDF accompanying this announcement is available at http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/2ccaaf50-f5ec-4f2c-aad7-ce2680a8bdb9 MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, April 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Slalom , the modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation, has chosen Manchester as the location for its second UK office. Partnering with over 200 solution providers including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Tableau, Slalom helps companies tackle their most ambitious projects and build new capabilities. Slaloms London office, which opened in 2014, has established the firms reputation in the UK as helping companies across industries, in the private and public sectors, learn from their data, impress their customers, deliver faster, and transform their organizations. Manchester is a city of digital enterprise with strengths in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, and consumer services; which perfectly complements Slaloms breadth of expertise, said Dave Williams, Slalom UK Country Managing Director. Were looking forward to helping our clients solve their biggest challenges while we also invest in the local community. Based at Peter House in the heart of Manchesters innovation and academic district, Slalom is looking to tap into the citys deep talent pool as well as invest in the development of its existing team members to grow its UK reputation. Slalom prides itself on building diverse teams of experienced professionals who have worked with consulting firms, digital agencies, start-ups, and enterprises. The firm plans to employ over 200 people in Manchester by 2025, each of whom will benefit from an international network of more than 6,500 people. Greater Manchester is a hotbed for collaboration and innovation, making it the ideal location for pioneering businesses like Slalom, said Tim Newns, Chief Executive of MIDAS, Manchesters inward investment agency. There are strong complementarities between Slalom and Greater Manchesters efforts to collaborate with companies going through digital transformation and supporting them to grow within the region. Establishing operations within one of Europes largest digital and technology clusters will provide the consulting firm with ample opportunities to join forces with the rapidly increasing number of world-leading brands that are choosing Manchester. Slalom Managing Director Paul Squire, who will move from the London office to head up operations in Manchester, said, Im excited about working with our clients in the North West of England, helping them deliver people-centric change, bring strategic solutions to life, and ultimately, love their future. About Slalom Slalom is a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. In cities across the US, UK, and Canada, Slalom's teams have autonomy to move fast and do what's right. They're backed by seven regional innovation hubs, a global culture of collaboration, and partnerships with the world's top technology providers. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Seattle, Slalom has organically grown to over 6,500 employees. Slalom was named one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2019 and is regularly recognised by employees as a best place to work. Learn more at slalom.com . Dublin, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Hydraulic Workover Unit Market by Application (Onshore, And Offshore), Service (Workover, and Snubbing), Installation (Skid Mount and Trail Mount), Capacity (0 to 50, 50 to 150, and Above 150) and Region - Global Trends and Forecast to 2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global hydraulic workover unit market is projected to reach USD 11.96 billion by 2024 from an estimated value of USD 9.61 billion in 2019, at a CAGR of 3.97% from 2019 to 2024. Workover is a well intervention technique that is used in the upstream oil and gas market. Workover Units are used to recover useful life from wells or to remove any fault in the tubings of a well that interrupts its normal operation. Earlier, workover was done by means of mechanical weights, but nowadays, hydraulic workover is more common because of the advantages associated with it. Various advantages of a hydraulic workover unit include higher efficiency, compact design, shorter operating duration, more controlled operation, and versatility. By virtue, the design of hydraulic workover units makes it operational for both onshore as well as offshore projects with ease in their mobility/transportation. Growth in the levels of oil and gas requirement across the world and investments in infrastructure developments for shale oil and gas are the key factors driving the hydraulic workover unit market. Stringent environmental laws are a restraint for the growth of the hydraulic workover unit market. However, increasing explorations in the Arctic and the Middle Eastern region offer promising new opportunities in the hydraulic workover unit market. The report segments the market, by region, into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa, and South America. North America is estimated to be the largest market for hydraulic workover units in 2018 due to the increased investments in shale oil and gas exploration, especially in the US. North America is also the fastest growing market for hydraulic workover units, followed by Asia Pacific. Countries such as the US, Canada, Indonesia, and Malaysia are expected to grow at the fastest rate in the hydraulic workover market, globally, during the forecast period. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Premium Insights 4.1 Attractive Opportunities in the Hydraulic Workover Unit Market During the Forecast Period 4.2 Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Region 4.3 North American Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Service 4.4 Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Installation Type 4.5 Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Capacity 5 Market Overview 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Market Dynamics 5.2.1 Drivers 5.2.1.1 Growing Shale Gas Production Activities 5.2.1.2 Upsurge in Oil & Gas Production After the Decline in Oil Prices 5.2.2 Restraints 5.2.2.1 Slower Growth in Drilling Activities 5.2.2.2 Increasing Focus on Renewable Energy 5.2.3 Opportunities 5.2.3.1 Increased Focus on Mature Oil & Gas Fields With the Implementation of Digital Technologies 5.2.3.2 Arctic Discoveries 5.2.4 Challenges 5.2.4.1 Low Oil Prices Resulting in Abandoning of Wells 6 Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Service 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Workover 6.2.1 North America is Expected to Have the Largest Market Share in Workover Segment 6.3 Snubbing 6.3.1 Asia Pacific is the Second Market in Snubbing Segment 7 Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Application 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Onshore 7.2.1 North America Held the Largest Market Share for the Onshore Segment 7.3 Offshore 7.3.1 Asia Pacific Hold the Largest Market Share in Offshore Segment 8 Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Capacity 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Up to 50 Tonnes 8.2.1 North America Hold the Largest Market Share for Up to 50 Tonnes Segment 8.3 50-150 Tonnes 8.3.1 North America Holds the Largest Market Share for 50 -150 Tonnes Segment 8.4 Above 150 Tonnes 8.4.1 Asia Pacific Holds the Second Largest Market for Above 150 Tonnes Segment 9 Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Installation 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Skid Mount 9.2.1 North America Holds the Largest Market for Skid Mount Segment 9.3 Trailer Mount 9.3.1 Asia Pacific Holds the Second Largest Market for Trailer Mount Segment 10 Hydraulic Workover Unit Market, By Region 11 Competitive Landscape 11.1 Overview 11.2 Ranking of Players and Industry Concentration, 2018 11.3 Competitive Landscape Mapping 11.4 Competitive Scenario 12 Company Profiles Archer Basic Energy Services CEEM FZE CUDD Energy Services Easternwell Elnusa Halliburton High Arctic Energy Services Key Energy Services Nabors Industries National Oilwell Varco Precision Drilling Superior Energy Services UZMA Velesto Energy ZYT Petroleum Equipment For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/zicye7 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. DENVER, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via CannabisNewsWire -- CannabisNewsWire (CNW), a multifaceted financial news and publishing company, today provides a recap of the recently concluded Cannabis Conference 2019 , which took place April 1-3 at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. CNW was in attendance as a media sponsor and participating exhibitor during this premier cultivation and dispensary education event, which was presented by leading industry publications Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. Cannabis Conference 2019 featured more than 2,100 minutes of in-depth educational programming from 92 speakers offering valuable industry perspectives regarding cultivation and retail management. The conference was filled with informative workshops and keynote addresses as well as invaluable opportunities to network with some of the best and brightest minds in the cannabis industry. Throughout the three-day conference, we were privileged to interact with businesspeople representing virtually all sectors of the cannabis industry. Quality conversations and meaningful exchanges were made possible thanks to the uniquely intimate atmosphere afforded by this high-caliber conference. We came away having enjoyed a highly rewarding experience and having cultivated many wonderful new relationships, said Cami Cox, director of analytics and reporting for CannabisNewsWire. Exhibiting alongside more than 120 vendors showcasing their industry-leading technologies, solutions and services, the CNW team was able to educate conference participants regarding the companys unique amalgamation of cannabis industry-specific corporate communications solutions. For cannabis industry participants who are seeking to increase their visibility before investors, journalists, consumers and the general public, CNWs effective brand awareness strategies include news and content distribution, syndicated placement, direct reach via social media, and more. We appreciate CannabisNewsWires strong support of this years Cannabis Conference at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, stated Kate Pretzlav, Conference Coordinator of GIE Media. By raising the visibility of our event on more than 5,000 outlets and ensuring coverage via dozens of investor-oriented social media brands, we were able to reach a wider audience and bring additional value to our conference sponsors and exhibitors. We look forward to continuing our partnership in 2020. Cannabis Conference will return next year at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, April 21-23. For more information about the conference and to sign up for conference alerts, visit https://www.cannabisconference.com/ . About CannabisNewsWire (CNW) CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is a specialized information service that (1) aggregates cannabis news, (2) provides CannabisNewsBreaks that quickly updates investors in the space, (3) enhances corporate press releases, (4) helps companies with distribution and optimization of social media, and (5) delivers comprehensive corporate communication solutions. CNW is uniquely positioned in the cannabis market with a strong team of journalists and writers who can help private and public companies reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public through our ever-growing dissemination network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets. CNW is bringing unparalleled visibility, recognition and content to the cannabis industry. For more information, please visit https://www.CannabisNewsWire.com . Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer Corporate Communications Contact: SALT LAKE CITY, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lice Clinics of America , the worlds largest network of urgent care clinics for lice treatment and prevention, helped families find eggs of a different kind during the organizations fourth annual Great Lice Egg Hunt. On Saturday, April 13, at select clinics throughout the U.S., Lice Clinics of America provided an estimated 1,100 free head lice screenings and treatment services worth more than $60,000, using the clinics fast and effective AirAlle technology. Hosting our annual Great Lice Egg Hunts each year is a fun way for us to help remove the negative stigma of head lice and provides us an opportunity to dispel myths about how head lice spread, said Dr. Krista Lauer, medical director of Lice Clinics of America. In addition to providing free services, families were educated about the lice life cycle, how they spread, and the best prevention and treatment options available to them. Lice Clinics of Americas annual Great Lice Egg Hunt demonstrates the companys commitment to helping families, schools and organizations prevent and treat lice in the most convenient and effective ways. Lice Clinics of America, with 330 clinics in 35 countries, exclusively offers the FDA-cleared AirAlle medical device treatment that kills lice and 99.2 percent of their eggs in as little as one hour without harmful pesticides. We are grateful to the clinics across the network who contributed to this worthy cause, says Claire Roberts, CEO of Lice Clinics of America. Our fourth annual Great Lice Egg Hunt provided an opportunity to give back to the communities we serve by providing an estimated 1,100 free head lice screenings and treatment services, so no ones Easter gets spoiled by finding unwanted eggs in their childrens hair. The service we provide is an incredible value to anyone we serve, but the fact that we can impact the lives of those who may not be able to afford this level of service is remarkable. About Lice Clinics of America With more than 330 clinics worldwide in 35 countries, Lice Clinics of America ( www.LiceClinicsOfAmerica.com ) is the largest network of professional head lice treatment centers in the world. Its patented heated-air device, AirAlle, has effectively performed more than 500,000 head lice treatments. Lice Clinics of America and AirAlle ( www.airalle.com ) are brands owned by Larada Sciences, Inc., which is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. DALLAS, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE -- Alternet Systems, Inc. (USOTC: ALYI) (ALYI) today published a presentation to provide details on the companys plan to create over $50 million in value from its African strategy. The company announced on Friday last week, the execution of a Letter of Intent (LOI) for a ReVolt Electric Motorcycle assembly plant in Kenya that includes an initial $20 million order of 2,000 ReVolt Electric Motorcycles. The company also announced a second LOI agreement that leads to a potential contract where ALYI secures a leadership role in a global electric vehicle institution that is expected to contribute substantially to the ongoing advance of electric vehicle technology worldwide. The second LOI would also lead to substantial revenue generation in addition to the $20 million order for 2,000 ReVolt Electric Motorcycles. The presentation below and included on the Companys website elaborates further on the overall plan to create over $50 million in value from the ALYI African strategy and how the African strategy fits into the Companys overall business plan. Alternet Systems Energy Storage Innovation Overview In a world proliferating exponentially with demands for more electric energy, electric energy storage demands more innovation. To date, the energy storage market has been dominated by seeking efficiencies within existing technologies or attempts to corner the market on raw materials for constructing legacy energy storage solutions. Batteries are not the long-term solution and lithium is not the ultimate solution. While inventors in energy storage are hard at work, their inventions remain in basements, garages and rarely visited university laboratories. ALYIs management is focused on bring energy storage innovation into the mainstream market. ALYI management believes the best way to innovate is to concentrate on applications of a technology, not the technology itself. Instead of just working on energy storage, ALYI works on applications for energy storage. The best applications to work on are those that can contribute to the biggest change. For instance, when it comes to electric vehicles, instead of working to replace existing transportation solutions in developed markets with new electric transportation solutions, ALYI is bringing electric transportation solutions where there is a transportation shortage in general. Hence the African strategy. African Electric Vehicle Assembly Plant And Initial $20 Million Order ALYIs ReVolt Electric Motorcycle with side care is a good market entry fit for the Africa. Specifically, its a good fit for the shared vehicle market where motorcycle taxis are already a culturally accepted norm. Better yet, with a local assembly plant, ALYI can contribute to the local economy helping to improve future consumer purchasing power. Accordingly, ALYI has entered into an LOI to build an agreement with partners in Kenya to establish an electric vehicle assembly plant in Kenya for producing first electric motorcycles and later additional electric vehicle models all for distribution through the African continent. The intended agreement to result from the LOI includes an initial $20 million order of 2,000 ReVolt Electric Motorcycles to be assembled in the new assembly plant. Brand-Name Partnership And $50 Million African Strategy Total Value Focusing innovation on applications that can make substantial changes is the foundation of a good technology innovation strategy, but garnering the resources requires building investment community interest and demand. Accordingly, ALYI is looking to build partnerships with well know, existing brand name outfits that can contribute to building investment community interest and demand. The second LOI signed by ALYI in Kenya last week is specifically targeted at building such a brand name partnership that can in turn win investment community interest and demand. ALYI has to keep the brand name under wraps at the moment, but management anticipates the LOI will result in an agreement within the next 30 to 60 days where the brand-name will be disclosed. The agreement has the potential to result in substantial revenue generation which would supplement the $20 million revenue anticipated with the motorcycle order bringing the total value of the ALYI strategy in Africa to $50 million. ALYI Hemp Lithium Military And Quarter Of A Million Dollars In 2018 Sales The African Strategy is just one of ALYIs initiatives. ALYI continues with its existing initiatives to improve the efficacy of the prevalent use of lithium as a material for batteries. ALYI also continues with its current initiatives to have hemp utilized as a better resource for energy storage than lithium or other currently utilized materials. ALYIs recent partnership with Nouveau (USOTC: NOUV) to build a hemp cultivation facility in New York State is well underway. ALYI continues with its existing energy storage innovation efforts in the military sector. In fact, ALYI just filed its 2018 annual financial statement reporting a quarter of a million dollars generating from consulting revenue in the military sector. The African Strategy outlined herein, is a major step forward that both compliments and enhances the companys other initiatives. The African Strategy is not the companys only major new project in the works. Look for a lithium sector related acquisition development in the works to soon be disclosed. For more information, please visit: http://www.alternetsystemsinc.com Alternet Systems, Inc. Contact: Randell Torno info@lithiumip.com +1-800-713-0297 MARIETTA, Ga., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlueLinx Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BXC), a leading distributor of building and industrial products in the United States, will release first quarter 2019 financial results on Wednesday, May 8th, with a conference call at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. During the call, Mitch Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, and Susan O'Farrell, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, will discuss the Company's financial results for the first quarter. Participants can access the live conference call via telephone at (877) 873-5864, using Conference ID # 9567129. Investors will also be able to access an archived audio recording of the conference call for one week following the live call by dialing (404) 537-3406, Conference ID # 9567129 . A live webcast of the conference call and accompanying materials will also be available and can be accessed by visiting BlueLinxs Webcasts and Presentations section of their website. You can access this information by going to www.BlueLinxCo.com and selecting "Investors" from the options at the top of the page and then "Webcasts & Presentations" from the drop-down menu. An online replay will be archived and available at the same site shortly after the webcast is complete. About BlueLinx Holdings Inc. BlueLinx (NYSE: BXC) is a leading wholesale distributor of building and industrial products in the United States with over 50,000 branded and private-label SKUs, and a broad distribution footprint servicing 40 states. BlueLinx has a differentiated distribution platform, value-driven business model and extensive cache of products across the building products industry. Headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, BlueLinx has over 2,400 associates and distributes its comprehensive range of structural and specialty products to over 15,000 national, regional, and local dealers, as well as specialty distributors, national home centers, industrial, and manufactured housing customers. BlueLinx encourages investors to visit its website, www.BlueLinxCo.com, which is updated regularly with financial and other important information about BlueLinx. CONTACT: Mary Moll, Investor Relations BlueLinx Holdings Inc. (866) 671-5138 Investor@BlueLinxCo.com English French TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) today announced investment fund net sales and net assets for March 2019. Mutual fund assets totalled $1.53 trillion at the end of March 2019. Assets increased by $27.1 billion or 1.8% compared to February 2019. Mutual funds recorded net sales of $1.8 billion in March 2019. ETF assets totalled $172.8 billion at the end of March 2019. Assets increased by $3.8 billion or 2.2% compared to February 2019. ETFs recorded net sales of $1.8 billion in March 2019. Mutual Fund Net Sales/Net Redemptions ($ Millions) * Asset Class Mar. 2019 Feb. 2019 Mar. 2018 YTD 2019 YTD 2018 Long-term Funds Balanced (273 ) 1,645 1,416 (320 ) 8,396 Equity (887 ) 54 937 (250 ) 3,801 Bond 1,816 1,919 127 4,914 1,369 Specialty 779 442 217 1,578 728 Total Long-term Funds 1,434 4,060 2,697 5,922 14,294 Total Money Market Funds 363 65 (133 ) (52 ) 194 Total 1,797 4,126 2,564 5,870 14,488 Mutual Fund Net Assets ($ Billions) * Asset Class Mar. 2019 Feb. 2019 Mar. 2018 Dec. 2018 Long-term Funds Balanced 786.5 773.3 767.7 737.1 Equity 508.0 500.3 487.4 460.0 Bond 191.3 186.6 188.3 180.2 Specialty 20.1 19.3 14.9 18.3 Total Long-term Funds 1,505.9 1,479.5 1,458.3 1,395.6 Total Money Market Funds 27.6 27.0 24.6 27.5 Total 1,533.5 1,506.4 1,482.9 1,423.1 * Please see below for important information regarding this data. ETF Net Sales/Net Redemptions ($ Millions) * Asset Class Mar. 2019 Feb. 2019 Mar. 2018 YTD 2019 YTD 2018 Long-term Funds Balanced 233 174 112 542 252 Equity 223 555 2,488 1,079 5,886 Bond 1,301 480 295 2,167 1,273 Specialty (41 ) 118 1 110 (179 ) Total Long-term Funds 1,716 1,326 2,897 3,898 7,233 Total Money Market Funds 69 (14 ) 14 102 161 Total 1,785 1,312 2,911 4,000 7,394 ETF Net Assets ($ Billions) * Asset Class Mar. 2019 Feb. 2019 Mar. 2018 Dec. 2018 Long-term Funds Balanced 3.4 3.1 1.8 2.6 Equity 109.3 107.7 97.5 97.5 Bond 55.6 53.7 49.3 52.2 Specialty 2.5 2.6 2.4 2.3 Total Long-term Funds 170.8 167.1 151.1 154.7 Total Money Market Funds 2.0 1.9 0.9 1.9 Total 172.8 169.0 151.9 156.6 * Please see below for important information regarding this data. IFIC ETF data is complemented with data from Morningstar Canada Inc. IFIC makes every effort to verify the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information; however, IFIC does not guarantee, warrant, represent or undertake that the information provided is correct, accurate or current. * Important Information Regarding Investment Fund Data: Mutual fund data is adjusted to remove double counting arising from mutual funds that invest in other mutual funds. ETF data is not adjusted to remove double counting arising from ETFs that invest in other ETFs. The Balanced Funds category includes funds that invest directly in a mix of stocks and bonds or obtain exposure through investing in other funds. Mutual fund data reflects the investment activity of Canadian retail investors. ETF data reflects the investment activity of Canadian retail and institutional investors. About IFIC The Investment Funds Institute of Canada is the voice of Canadas investment funds industry. IFIC brings together 150 organizations, including fund managers, distributors and industry service organizations, to foster a strong, stable investment sector where investors can realize their financial goals. By connecting Canadas savers to Canadas economy, our industry contributes significantly to Canadian economic growth and job creation. To learn more about IFIC, please visit www.ific.ca . For more information please contact: Lisa Hall Senior Manager, Communications and Public Affairs lhall@ific.ca 416-309-2317 English French OTTAWA, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc. ("Tetra" or the "Company") (TSX-V: TBP) (OTCQB: TBPMF), is pleased to announce that, at a special meeting of shareholders held today (the "Meeting"), the shareholders of the Company voted in favor of an ordinary resolution (the "Resolution") to approve the previously announced acquisition of Panag Pharma Inc. ("Panag"), including the approval of the acceleration events, all as more particularly described in the management information circular sent to shareholders of the Company ahead of the Meeting (the "Proposed Transaction"). The Proposed Transaction was announced on January 30, 2019. Panag is a Canadian-based life sciences company focused on the development of novel cannabinoid-based formulations for the treatment of pain and inflammation. In partnership with Panag, Tetra has completed several preclinical studies allowing the selection of lead formulations for the treatment of ophthalmic pain and inflammatory conditions. Dr. Guy Chamberland, CEO and CSO of Tetra stated, "We are very pleased to soon welcome Panag to the Tetra family. We have been working with Panag for over a year and as a combined entity we will have a robust product pipeline of cannabinoid derived drugs for development as prescription or OTC drugs." The Resolution had to be approved by a simple majority of 50% plus one of the votes properly cast by disinterested shareholders present in person or represented proxy at the Meeting, meaning that the votes attached to the common shares held by Bill Cheliak, who is a shareholder of Panag and non-arm's length party to Tetra within the meaning of the rules of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"), were excluded from the calculation of such approval. Approximately 31.98% of the common shares of disinterested shareholders of the Company were represented at the Meeting in person or by proxy of which 99.79% were voted in favour of the Resolution. Completion of the Proposed Transaction remains subject to a number of conditions, including the receipt of the approval of the TSXV and such other closing conditions as are customary in transactions of this nature. The Proposed Transaction is expected to close on or before April 30, 2019. About Tetra Bio-Pharma: Tetra Bio-Pharma (TSX-V: TBP) (OTCQB: TBPMF) is a biopharmaceutical leader in cannabinoid-based drug discovery and development with Health Canada authorized, and FDA reviewed, clinical trials aimed at bringing novel prescription drugs and treatments to patients and their healthcare providers. The Company has several subsidiaries engaged in the development of an advanced and growing pipeline of Bio Pharmaceuticals, Natural Health and Veterinary Products containing cannabinoid and other medicinal plant-based elements. With patients at the core of what we do, Tetra Bio-Pharma is focused on providing rigorous scientific validation and safety data required for inclusion into the existing bio pharma industry by regulators, physicians and insurance companies. For more information visit: www.tetrabiopharma.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-looking statements Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding potential acquisitions and financings) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, the inability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to execute the Company's business plan; competition; regulation and anticipated and unanticipated costs and delays, the success of the Company's research and development strategies, including the success of CAUMZ and its other drug candidates, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion and uncertainties related to the regulatory process including the applications for Orphan Drug Designation, the timing of clinical trials, the timing and outcomes of regulatory or intellectual property decisions and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results or events not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities legislation. Tetra Bio-Pharma Contact: Bernard Lessard, MBA, CPA, CMA Chief Financial Officer 438-899-7575 bernard.lessard@tetrabiopharma.com Investor Contact: Maison Brison Pierre Boucher, CPA, CMA Partner, Executive Vice-President 514-731-0000 ext. 237 Investors@tetrabiopharma.com Media Contact : energi PR Carol Levine, APR, FCPRS CEO 514-288-8500 ext. 226 Carol.levine@energipr.com Source: Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc Vancouver, April 18, 2019 - Providence Gold Mines Inc. . (the "Company") (TSXV: PHD) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Rodger Young to the Board of Directors. Mr. Young has extensive international financial experience with some of his past attributes to include Administrateur Delegue of a Family office in Monaco. President of an International group of Lawyers based in Lausanne Switzerland with offices in London UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, West Indies, and Associate Offices in Cyprus with relationships in other jurisdictions. Previously Chairman and owner of a fully licensed International Trustee Company headquartered in the Channel Islands with offices in both Gibraltar and other jurisdictions. Mr. Young has many years of experience in the Natural resources sector as President of a Natural resource fund, based in Toronto with NAV in excess of C$4.6 billion. Director of various other entities based in London UK with primary activities involved in the raising of finance, administration and subsequent development within both the mining sector and commercial property generally. Ron Coombes states, "the Company is extremely pleased to have Mr. Young join our board of Directors and assistance in moving our Providence Gold Project Forward is very welcomed." We have received John Kowalchuck's resignation to the board of Directors effective as of April 16, 2019. Mr Kowalchuk PGeo. will remain VP of Exploration and the Qualified person. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Ronald Coombes" Ronald Coombes, President & CEO FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Telephone: 1-604-724-2369 Contact: Ronald Coombes rcoombesresources@gmail.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Copyright (c) 2019 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. Vancouver, April 18, 2019 - Deep-South Resources Inc. ("Deep- South" or "the Company") (TSX-V: DSM) announces that Mintek has commenced its metallurgical test work on stockpile material from the Haib Copper Project in Namibia. The test work program is managed by METS Engineering of Australia. Deep-South has provided Mintek with about 1.8 tons of ore sample from a large stockpile that was extracted during a previous sampling campaign. The sample contains chalcopyrite as the main copper mineral. The aim of the program is to test the amenability of the ore to microbially-assisted heap leaching. The test work will produce data for an eventual commercial pilot heap leach campaign. Since 2003 heap leaching technologies have evolved substantially. Codelco has successfully used microbially-assisted heap leaching of copper sulfide ore containing chalcopyrite since 2014 at their Radomiro Tomic mine in Chile. Other operations in Chile have also piloted microbial-assisted heap leaching of chalcopyrite ores. The program will also focus on testing the amenability of High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGRs) and test the acid consumption of the heap leaching process. Test work summary: The bulk head sample will be crushed down to -12.5 mm with a jaw crusher. The jaw crusher product will then be sub-sampled, and crushed with an HPGR to -5 mm, -3.35 mm and -2 mm, respectively. Sub-samples from each crush size will be removed for curing acid optimisation tests, assay-by-size (4 size classes), geomechanical tests and column leach tests. Additional head sample will be milled to 80% passing 75 ?m for chemical head assay by ICP-OES, sequential Cu (acid-soluble, cyanide-soluble and residual copper). Acid consumption (iso-pH) tests and batch stirred tank amenability tests will be performed on the head sample. Mineralogy (XRD and SEM) will be performed on the -2 mm head sample. The column leaching test will be carried out at a temperature of 60 ?C for a total duration of 200 days. However, interim results will be available weekly. About Mintek: Mintek is South Africa's national mineral research organisation established in 1934 to assist in ensuring sustainable growth in the minerals and metal industries through research, development & innovation (RDI). The organisation has grown over the years into an internationally competitive, respected research and development centre of metallurgical and mineral processing technologies. Mintek's Biotechnology Division has been involved in the development of tank and heap bioleaching technologies for over 30 years. Mintek also specializes in hydrometallurgy, including leaching, precipitation, solvent extraction and electrowinning. You can visit Mintek at : https://www.mintek.co.za About METS : Established in 1988, Mineral Engineering Technical Services provides a range of services in the fields of Minerals Processing, Hydrometallurgy and Pyrometallurgy. METS is the engineering company that produced Deep-South's Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) disclosed on February 26, 2018. You can visit METS at : https://www.metsengineering.com About Deep-South Resources Inc. Deep-South Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company largely held by Namibian shareholders and Management with 17% and Teck Resources Ltd. with 28% of Deep-South share capital. Deep-South currently holds 100% of the Haib Copper project in Namibia, one of the largest copper porphyry deposits in Africa. Deep-South's growth strategy is to focus on the exploration and development of quality assets, in significant mineralized zones, close to infrastructure, in stable countries. This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements," as identified in Deep- South's periodic filings with Canadian Securities Regulators that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. More information is available by contacting Pierre Leveille, President & CEO at +1-819-340-0140, email at: info@deepsouthresources.com or Paradox Public Relations at +1-514-341-0408. Copyright (c) 2019 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. Governments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation. For years, Ohio Right to Life, the states largest and oldest anti-abortion group, steered clear of a bill that would ban abortion in the very early weeks of pregnancy after a fetal heartbeat is detected.The reason was simple. The bill, which would have been the toughest abortion restriction on record, would be dead on arrival once it reached an unfriendly Supreme Court.But after seven years of avoiding the ban, Ohio Right to Lifes board gathered in an office building outside Toledo in November and voted unanimously to support it.The reversal is evidence of a fundamental shift in the landscape of abortion in America. The math on the Supreme Court has changed with President Trumps choice of Brett Kavanaugh last year. And now, in the first legislative cycle after the midterm elections last fall, states are rushing to make changes. Newly confident red states are passing some of the strictest prohibitions the country has ever seen. Blue states are enacting ever stronger protections, like ones for later-term abortions in New York and Virginia.Now is our time, said Michael Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life in Columbus. This is the best court weve had in my lifetime, in my parents lifetime.In their sights is overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that established a federal protection for abortion in 1973. And many in the movement believe that the so-called heartbeat bill a ban on abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows she is pregnant is the way to do it. The bill flies in the face of decades of Supreme Court decisions, like a dare to the American legal system. Though it faced a near death in the Senate Rules Committee, a contentious bill aimed at banning so-called "sanctuary cities" is headed to the Senate floor.The bill passed 9-8 Wednesday, as Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, voted no with the seven Democrats.Sen. Tom Lee, a Thonotosassa Republican who met with immigrant advocates Wednesday morning, nearly missed the vote but returned in time to save the bill.The twin bills -- SB 168 and HB 527 -- both passed through their final committees this week. They would create rules relating to federal immigration enforcement by prohibiting "sanctuary" policies and requiring state and local law enforcement to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The bills also would give whistle-blower status to officers who report citizenship violations by undocumented immigrants detained in local jails on unrelated charges.Under these bills, local law enforcement would be required to honor federal law enforcement's request for an "immigration detainer," meaning a request that another law enforcement agency detain a person based on probable cause to believe that the person is a "removable alien" under federal immigration law. The bill would essentially make the "request" a requirement.While there is no such thing as a sanctuary city in Florida, the bill would put a definition of "sanctuary city" into law.Lee said it was a "tough vote," especially after meeting with immigrant families one-on-one. He said, however, that some of their concerns go beyond the scope of the bill."You empathize with their concerns," he said. "In my heart, I believe they are not well-founded concerns. If that turns out not to be the case, I'll be really disappointed."The bill's sponsor, Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, assured the Senate panel that the proposed law would only affect illegal immigrants who were arrested or convicted of a crime."This is really to capture people who have been previously deported ... people with gang activity," he said.Democrats took issue with the argument, bringing up ways the bill would affect those arrested for minor crimes and require government entities like schools and universities to comply with federal immigration enforcement.At Wednesday's committee meeting and committee meetings past, Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, offered amendments rejected by Republicans on the panel, including measures to exempt state welfare workers from being required to share information with ICE, protect victims or witnesses to crime, and require a judicial warrant for a detainer request.After the vote, Rodriguez said his Republican colleagues don't seem to understand the consequences the bill will have. He said he doesn't see the bill being changed much due to partisan politics and the focus on appealing to a base who voted for President Donald Trump.The affirmative vote on the bill comes on the heels of Trump introducing a new proposal to transport undocumented immigrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to "sanctuary cities" across the country, like Chicago, San Francisco and New York."I believe this is for political reasons and not for policy reasons," he said. "What is actually worse is if they actually want to accomplish this. If they actually want to round up people that fit the profile of immigrants, that's even worse. The sponsor didn't seem to say anything to dissuade us from that."During the heated debate Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, cut off a woman who said she was glad she moved to Fort Myers instead of Southeast Florida. She then stopped Democratic Sen. Gary Farmer, who said the bill was motivated by racism and fired back at the woman.The two-hour hearing drew contentious debate among senators and the public alike, who went back and forth on the potential effects of the bill. Bill hearings on both "sanctuary city" bills have been emotional since the proposals were introduced, drawing both immigrant families and "angel families" who have lost loved ones to speak.Bobby Michael shared the story of his son, who he said was killed in a car crash caused by an undocumented immigrant."We lost our son at 21 years of age due to an illegal alien who had been twice deported coming back, ignoring our laws," he said.Jaylee Lopez, 11, and her 7-year-old cousin Isaac also testified, sharing the story of their undocumented parents."My mom moved to Florida after Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras, and even though she didn't want to, she was forced to flee and come here," Lopez said. "She lost everything. I don't understand how people like her, who are forced out of their homes and have to make do with what they got, are later labeled as 'criminals' if they get caught driving without a license."The American Business Immigrant Coalition also recently penned an open letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Senate President Bill Galvano and House Speaker Jose Oliva urging them to reject the legislation -- a letter signed by more than 120 leaders including Coral Gables Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and former Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas. Rodriguez, who has been a staunch opponent of the bill in the Senate, also signed the letter."This bill erodes trust between police and immigrants and thereby threatens the safety of all Floridians," the letter states. "When immigrants are afraid to report and be witnesses of crime, we all lose. We're asking you, as our elected leaders in Tallahassee, to stop this wrong-minded legislation and focus on solutions to real problems in our state."The House version of the bill, which is also ready for a floor vote, builds in a rule that local government employees or elected officials who permit sanctuary-city policies may be suspended or removed from office. The proposal also includes fines of up to $5,000 for each day that a sanctuary-city policy is in place.The Senate proposal does not include the penalties but gives the attorney general authority to bring civil actions against municipalities that do not cooperate. Large Counties Where Migration Has Reversed or Slowed County 2012-16 Average 2018 Net Difference Orange County, Calif. 5,061 -9,818 -14,879 San Diego County, Calif. 11,465 -524 -11,989 San Mateo County, Calif. 3,631 -2,701 -6,332 Dallas County, Texas 12,927 -8,029 -20,956 Santa Clara County, Calif. 9,736 -6,752 -16,488 Davidson County, Tenn. 5,335 -663 -5,998 Cobb County, Ga. 4,975 -543 -5,518 Alameda County, Calif. 13,963 682 -13,281 San Francisco County, Calif. 7,988 1,865 -6,123 Multnomah County, Ore. 6,918 330 -6,588 Contra Costa County, Calif. 9,507 1,852 -7,655 Orleans Parish, La. 4,405 -1,442 -5,847 Harris County, Texas 44,353 -7,717 -52,070 Gwinnett County, Ga. 8,898 2,750 -6,148 Charleston County, S.C. 5,867 2,833 -3,034 County 2018 Migration Rate per 1K Pop. Loudoun County, Va. 6,105 15 Sussex County, Del. 5,526 24 Hamilton County, Ind. 5,008 15 Ocean County, N.J. 4,930 8 Chesterfield County, Va. 4,024 12 Frederick County, Md. 3,706 14 Canadian County, Okla. 3,646 25 Delaware County, Ohio 3,401 17 Bristol County, Mass. 3,329 6 Warren County, Ohio 2,846 12 Hendricks County, Ind. 2,614 16 Clay County, Mo. 2,587 11 Washington County, Minn. 2,408 9 Stafford County, Va. 2,225 15 Dallas County, Iowa 2,150 24 About the Data As the San Francisco Bay area exploded earlier this decade, Alameda County gained a lot of new people. The county, which includes Oakland, welcomed more than 15,000 new residents annually for several years.But Alameda's growth has slowed down significantly. Last year, it only added a few hundred new residents from other parts of the country and abroad. A similar trend is happening in several other areas in the West and in the Sun Belt.New Census Bureau estimates released Thursday depict a slowdown in migration to many parts of the country that had previously been booming. Counties in states like Florida and Texas continue to grow considerably, but not at quite the same pace. The new figures also show strong migration gains for several counties outside the usual growth regions of the coasts and the Sun Belt.In the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, few Americans moved long distances for new jobs or for retirement. That all started to change around 2011. As the economy rebounded, more people began to relocate, especially to parts of the South and the West.But the exponential growth in migration now finally appears to be subsiding. The latest Census estimates show less impressive gains for the second consecutive year.Much of the Sun Belt isnt as booming as it once was. Bycalculations of Census data, the region gained about 125,000 fewer new residents last year than when migration peaked in 2015 and 2016.Consider Texas. The state gained about 83,000 residents from other parts of the country in each of the past two years -- a number that has dropped by half since 2015.One place the dropoff is particularly evident is Harris County, which includes Houston. Total net migration into Harris County has actually turned negative in the past two years.Similarly, Dallas County lost more residents from migration than it gained for the first time in years. In addition to fewer residents moving in, it's also a result of a broader trend of Americans relocating to suburbs . As in Harris County, Dallas County's total population is only still climbing because of births and international migration.Other larger Sun Belt counties where migration has significantly tapered off include Cobb County, Ga., outside of Atlanta, and Nashvilles Davidson County in Tennessee.Migration has slowed in Florida, too, although its generally holding up better than elsewhere. Still, the approximately 133,000 new Floridians from other parts of the country in 2018 represented the lowest annual tally since 2013.Richard Doty, a demographer for the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida, says one reason for the drop is that much of the prior growth reflected a pent-up demand from retirees in the Northeast.In 2011 or 2012, you might have wanted to come down, but if your house in New York wasnt getting what it was worth, you may have been sitting on it and waiting, he says.The story is similar out West. Fewer Americans relocated to Western states last year, and when combined with lower international migration, the totals dropped well below their recent peak.In California, several major counties are now experiencing net migration losses after years of strong gains, including Orange County, Santa Clara County and San Diego County. The Bay Area is experiencing a particularly dramatic slowdown, thanks in part to its extremely tight housing market. The San Francisco-Oakland metro areas total migration came to a near halt after adding about 40,000 residents a year through 2015.Migration to Multnomah County, Ore., which includes Portland, similarly fell to near zero after several years of strong growth.A number of factors may explain the slowdown.In the urban counties, its generally domestic migration, rather than migration from abroad, thats taken a hit. Brookings Institution demographer William Frey says jobs are moving away from the coasts and other areas offer more affordable housing costs.The economy is easing up and people are more willing to look at other opportunities, taking into account both the cost of living and the opportunity for employment, he says.A number of counties outside the Sun Belt and Western U.S. are enjoying steady migration gains despite generally weak growth or losses in their regions. Sussex County, Del., added an estimated 5,500 residents from migration in 2018 -- the most in at least a decade. And the only county in the entire northeastern U.S. that gained more than 2,000 residents from other parts of the country last year was Ocean County, N.J. (Many places added thousands of residents via international migration, though.)Several localities in the middle of the country similarly stood out. The Indianapolis suburb of Hamilton County added more than 5,000 residents. Suburban Delaware County, Ohio, and rural Dallas County, Iowa, also recorded high migration rates.The following counties outside the Sun Belt and the West Coast were outliers with high migration rates:To be certain, the Sun Belt and the West still account for the vast majority of the population growth from domestic migration. The Dallas and Phoenix metro areas both recorded net migration gains exceeding 70,000 last year -- more than any area nationally. The Atlanta, Orlando and Tampa metro areas also continued to add considerable numbers of residents from other parts of the country in 2018, although their totals were down from prior years.And counter to national trends, a few smaller areas of the Sun Belt are still adding residents at increasing rates, such as the Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz., metros. Migration also has yet to subside in much of Idaho, Nevada and Utah.Theres a new deconcentrated movement to smaller areas and places that you wouldnt normally think as the big Sun Belt hotspots, Frey says. Los Angeles Controller Ron Galperin has made a series of recommendations for how to strengthen city oversight of IT projects, contracts and equipment, as investigations into an alleged fraud of more than $3.5 million continue.The alleged improper use of two IT commodity contractors by employees assigned to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safetys (LADBS) Technology Services Bureau was investigated by the agency for about six months beginning in November 2017. As a result of LADBS investigation substantiating allegations of creating fictitious invoices and falsifying the receipt of products and services, the Los Angeles city attorney and district attorney are conducting their own investigations.In "Strengthening Oversight of the Citys Information Technology Contracts," released Tuesday, Galperin has made several key recommendations for how DBS and the city could more closely scrutinize IT, including: Require all city departments to notify the city IT Oversight Committee of all large-scale IT projects expected to exceed $1 million, so it can ensure compatible platforms are used; that theres system and data integration; and that resources are used effectively. Mandate all departments report on IT contracts annually to the Los Angeles City Council.There are a variety of different reports that are already done, but its important to have that regular reporting. Especially because some of these contracts are for multiple years, some of them are for projects that can take years, and so there just needs to be a better accountability, Galperin told Require background checks for all LADBS staff with access to sensitive information and ensure outside business activities are reported to avoid conflicts of interest. Galperin called the former just basic. He also recommended enhancing the agencys management and policies with an eye for accountability, clarifying general consulting, application development and programming services cant be procured through IT commodity contracts. For its part, DBS issued a series of new procurement procedures in May 2018. Among them, it requires all requests for IT products and services clearly describe and justify whats requested; requires requests to salvage any inventory be submitted to Resource Management and include a manager signature; and implements a more detailed process for verifying receipts and tracking new tangible and non-tangible products. Galperin acknowledged there has been a significant improvement, but indicated that his office continues to monitor the situation. In the reports executive summary, Galperin called the IT process cumbersome and said the circumvention of controls that led to the alleged LADBS violations could have come from an attempt to hasten needed IT projects.Theres no question that the process needs to be streamlined when it comes to all forms of government contracting," Galperin said. "But again, how do you streamline in such a way to provide flexibility, but that does not at the same time lose the proper controls that you need to have and the proper accountability that you need to have in contracting. Dependent on US Congress approval If the U.S. Congress eventually approves, Washington residents won't have to switch between standard and daylight savings times, by just not falling back in the fall. OLYMPIA - Legislation to make daylight saving time the year-round standard passed the Senate Tuesday evening in a bipartisan 46-2 vote. The bill would put Washington state on Pacific Daylight Time year-round, pending approval of Congress. Senators Liz Lovelette, D-Anacortes, and Tim Sheldon, D- Potlatch, voted in opposition. House Bill 1196 was introduced by Rep. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, and has gained traction over the course of the session, passing the House on March 9 in an 89-7 vote. The version that passed the Senate clarifies that Washington would simply not change the clocks in November after approval is given by Congress. Sen. Sam Hunt, D- Olympia, cited California and Oregon, who are pursuing the move to year-round daylight saving time and said leaders in British Columbia are supportive of considering a similar change there. Hunt hopes to avoid "gyrating time zones" with this move. Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, has proposed forms of this legislation over the last three years and supported the bill as a whole. Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, put forward an amendment to send this measure to a vote of the people. The amendment failed, mainly due to the costs that are associated with sending a referendum out for a vote. The Senate version will head back to the House for approval before going to Gov. Jay Inslee to be signed in to law. HB 1196: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=1196&Year=2019&Initiative=false Power management company Eaton today will introduce technologies from its eMobility business in China to help automakers meet increased demand for electric vehicles (EVs) in the market. eMobility specializes in three key areas for electric and hybrid vehicles: intelligent power electronics; power systems; and advanced power distribution and circuit protection. More than 60% of the worlds EVs are sold in China, and sales in the region are expected to increase as automakers strive to reduce emissions to meet Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology New Energy Vehicle (NEV) mandate. The NEV mandate is designed to promote NEVs and help auto makers comply with existing fuel economy regulations. To support electric vehicle manufacturers in China, Eaton has production in-country and has expansion plans underway. Eaton has been a trusted supplier of electrification products to vehicle manufacturers in China and around the globe for years, including DC/DC converters, power distribution units (PDUs), hybrid and battery-electric transmissions and high-voltage fuses, with plans to expand the portfolio of technologies even further. Eatons eMobility business was formed in 2018 by combining products, expertise and global manufacturing capabilities from Eatons Electrical and Vehicle businesses to further strengthen its global capabilities and deliver intelligent electrification products and solutions to passenger car, commercial vehicle and off-highway customers. Eaton projects electrified vehicles will increase to 38% of the global passenger car market by 2030, with share dispersed among battery electric, plug-in hybrid, hybrid electric and mild hybrid electric. Eatons inverters can be used in all types of electric vehicles, as well as other alternative fuel vehicles, such as hydrogen fuel cell cars and trucks. Eaton has high-voltage, fast-acting fuses in a number of global electrified cars and power electronics on a leading European battery-electric vehicle platform. Eaton also has more than 15 years of experience in developing commercial vehicle hybrid systems and has a number of vehicle electrification products in the market, including DC/DC converters, power distribution units, battery-electric transmissions, and high-voltage fuses. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has formed the Connected Vehicle Infrastructure Technical (CVIT) Committee to develop a harmonized technical specification for roadside connected vehicle (CV) devices. The standards, to be completed by the end of 2019, are for traffic signals, school zone beacons, pedestrian crossings, and other electronic devices that control the movement of vehicles and pedestrians on the nations roadways. The ability to transmit safety messages, alerts and warnings from the infrastructure to vehicles and vice versa, is a critical function of CV technology. This working group will create the Standards that will give state and local agencies that operate and maintain roadways the confidence to deploy connected vehicle infrastructure to cover the nation and advance this critical safety feature. To be successful, the connected vehicle infrastructure must be interoperable, future proof, reliable, and maintainable by local agencies. Bryan Mulligan, NEMA Transportation Management Systems and Associated Control Devices Section Chairman and President of Applied Information, Inc. The need for Standards and formation of the CVIT Committee is the result of an industry workshop on connected vehicle infrastructure hosted by NEMA. The workshop was attended by thought leaders from the semiconductor industry, intelligent transportation technology providers, traffic technology manufacturers, and infrastructure contractors and installers. The workshop demonstrated a need for developing a harmonized technical specification for roadside CV devices that include practical agency customer needs including maintainability, connectivity, communications interoperability, over-the-air software updates, and the ability to address future advances in communications technology. The benefits of connected, self-driving cars (CAVs) will likely induce vehicle owners to drive more, and those extra miles could partially or completely offset the potential energy-saving benefits that automation may provide, according to a new University of Michigan study. In the coming years, self-driving cars are expected to yield significant improvements in safety, traffic flow and energy efficiency. In addition, automation will allow vehicle occupants to make productive use of travel time. Connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technology is expected to be an indispensable but disruptive factor in the transportation sector, transforming the mobility paradigm, transportation markets, and travelers behavior in the coming decades. It will likely increase transportation safety to an unprecedented level, enhance mobility, provide a higher level of comfort and convenience for travelers, and reduce the cost of driving for individuals, all of which will be welfare-improving for society. At the same time, vehicle connectivity and automation will inevitably and significantly change energy demand in the transportation sector. The extent of these changes is still largely unclear and yet will have major consequences for energy supply and the environment alike. Several characteristics of CAV technology will influence energy consumption, including improvements in route optimization, eco-driving, crash avoidance, and vehicle right-sizing, among others. Many of these improvements will push energy use downwards; however, some will very likely work in the opposing direction. Chief among the factors that will exert upward pressure on energy demand is the marginal cost of driving, which is expected to drop significantly with CAV technology. Higher fuel economy of CAVs will cause the per-mile fuel cost of travel to drop. This, in turn, will induce additional travel that partially offsets the fuel savings of energy efficiencycommonly referred to as a rebound effect. In addition, increased comfort and reduced attention requirements3 will cause the per-mile travel time cost to drop, inducing even more additional travel. The key parameter dictating the magnitude of travel demand induced through these channels is the elasticity of travel demand with respect to the price of travel. In this paper, we use the most recent empirical microdata available to estimate the elasticity of travel demand with respect to the marginal fuel and time costs of travel in a single, unified framework. Taiebat et al. Previous studies have shown that greater fuel efficiency induces some people to travel extra miles, and those added miles can partially offset fuel savingsa behavioral change known as the rebound effect. In addition, the ability to use in-vehicle time productively in a self-driving carpeople can work, sleep, watch a movie, read a bookwill likely induce even more travel. Taken together, those two sources of added mileage could partially or completely offset the energy savings provided by autonomous vehicles, according to a team of researchers at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability led by Dow Sustainability Doctoral Fellow Morteza Taiebat. Conceivably, the added miles could even result in a net increase in energy consumption, a phenomenon known as backfire, according to the U-M researchers. Their study is published in the journal Applied Energy. The core message of the paper is that the induced travel of self-driving cars presents a stiff challenge to policy goals for reductions in energy use. co-author Samuel Stolper, assistant professor of environment and sustainability at SEAS Thus, much higher energy efficiency targets are required for self-driving cars. Ming Xu, associate professor of environment and sustainability at SEAS and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the College of Engineering In the paper, Taiebat and his colleagues used economic theory and US travel survey data to model travel behavior and to forecast the effects of vehicle automation on travel decisions and energy use. Most previous studies of the energy impact of autonomous vehicles focused exclusively on the fuel-cost component of the price of travel, likely resulting in an overestimation of the environmental benefits of the technology, according to the U-M authors. In contrast, the study by Taiebat and colleagues looked at both fuel cost and time cost. Their approach adapts standard microeconomic modeling and statistical techniques to account for the value of time. Traditionally, time spent driving has been viewed as a cost to the driver. But the ability to pursue other activities in an autonomous vehicle is expected to lower this perceived travel time cost considerably, which will likely spur additional travel. The U-M researchers estimated that the induced travel resulting from a 38% reduction in perceived travel time cost would completely eliminate the fuel savings associated with self-driving cars. The possibility of backfire implies the possibility of net increases in local and global air pollution, the study authors concluded. In addition, the researchers suggest theres an equity issue that needs to be addressed as autonomous vehicles become a reality. The study found that wealthier households are more likely than others to drive extra miles in autonomous vehicles and thus stand to experience greater welfare gains. Support was provided by the Dow Sustainability Fellows Program at the University of Michigan. Resources The Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport may receive funding from the county to help pay for design of the commercial terminal. Pending an approval of a budget amendment in the amount of $133,333 at the next Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting, the airport will receive money to help pay for the conceptual design phase portion of a proposed commercial terminal project. During the meeting, airport director Devon Brubaker said the funding was requested of the Commissioners last year in an attempt to try and obtain Federal Aviation Administration funding for the terminal project. At that time, the Commissioners decided not to support giving the airport money for the conceptual design. Brubaker said he is supposed to hear back sometime this week from the FAA on whether the airport will receive the funding. But, Im not holding my breath, Brubaker said about waiting. He said the design phase of the project should be done by the end of May, but the airport will be ready to hit the pause button if the funds dont come through or move quickly if they do. If the airport receives the funding, it will be ready to start construction within one year. Wed definitely have to come back and ask for funding for the project, Brubaker said. It could cost Rock Springs and the county anywhere from $700,000 to $3.7 million for the terminal project if the airport receives the FAA funding. The county could cover two thirds of the cost of the project. Should the airport not receive the funding, the project will still happen, but under a different funding stream, Brubaker said. He said they will need to find 10 to 14 grants instead of two or three grants, which will take longer. He anticipated the project would start in 2021 instead. Brubaker said they will not let the design sit on the shelf. It will be used. Brubaker said the city of Rock Springs wanted him to ask the commissioners if the county has intentions of helping pay for the design portion of the project. Because the county didnt wanted to want to pay their share of $133,333 out of the $200,000 needed to complete the design phase, the city of Rock Springs covered the full amount. The city of Rock Springs wants the county to reconsider and help out with this project. Commissioner Jeffrey Smith, who is the airport boards liaison, said the city of Rock Springs wants its money now so it can get it back into the budget. You havent committed to anything, thats why were here today, Brubaker said. Chairman Wally Johnson said he still wouldnt support the funding request because hes afraid the designs will just end up sitting on the shelf. He also felt the money should be placed in the airports budget for next years budget. The rest of the commissioners disagreed. Smith said the city of Rock Springs carried the project and the commission needs to help pay for it. A motion was made to prepare a budget amendment in the amount of $133,333 to the airport, which would be placed on the next meetings agenda for a vote. The Commissioners passed this motion in a 3-1 vote. Commissioners Randy Wendling, Roy Lloyd and Smith voted in favor, while Johnson voted against. Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County earned a three year accreditation in computed tomography from the American College of Radiology according to a recent release from the hospital. According to Medical Imaging Director Tracie Soller, the accreditation is for the new CT scanner the hospital installed last summer. We have been ACR accredited for CT since 2013, she said. CT scanning, also commonly known as CAT scanning, is a noninvasive test using X-rays to produce a cross sectional image of a persons body. Scanning divides the body up like slices of bread, Soller said in MHSCs media release. Each image is like pulling up one slice of the loaf and looking at it. The image is then created using a computer rebuild the slices and develop an image. The 64-slice scanner employed by the hospital offers more detail than scanners using a lower slice number, which allows doctors better information when making a diagnosis. According to MHSCs release, their 64-slice scanner is the only scanner of its type in the region. According to MHSCs Chief Financial Officer Tami Love, the replacement project spanned nearly one year, from planning and CT selection phases to delivery and construction. The project cost MHSC more than $1.2 million, with the Siemens 64-slice scanner costing $702,000 and construction costs amounting to $573,000. The scanner installed replaced a 13-year-old, 64-slice scanner the hospital previously used. According to the release, the accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. Soller said the ACR maintains a long list of qualifications for the radiologists, physicists and technologists working in CT. Everyone involved in CT operations must meet the qualifications set by the American College of Radiology, Soller said. The accreditation is only awarded to facilities meeting ACRs practices and standards after submitting to a peer-reviewed evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field. It was time to recognize those who give their time to volunteering. To those who may dedicate a lot of time volunteering and for those who volunteer when they can. It didnt matter how much time each one spent. What mattered was that they cared enough to take the time to volunteer. On Thursday, employees of the Golden Hour Senior Center took time to host a volunteer appreciation lunch for their 90-plus volunteers. Irish Kreis, GHSC activities and marketing coordinator, thanked everyone for their time and dedication to the center. She then asked those in attendance to take a look at the centerpieces on tables, which were puzzle pieces and a heart made out of puzzle pieces. Everyone did. Kreis said every volunteer is like a puzzle piece because every puzzle piece is needed to make a whole picture. To paint that picture, Kreis said since last year, about 93 volunteers helped serve 871 GHSC patrons, but thats not all who helped the center. Kreis said volunteers from Expedition Academy, the National Honor Society, Trona Valley Federal Credit Union, the city of Green River, Roosevelt Learning Center, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Best Home Health Care and Western Wyoming Community College all played a role in the successful year the center had. Due to all of the volunteer work, more than 7,000 activities took place at the center. I feel thats a very large number of things to do, Kreis said. It is essential that we have those volunteers. She said not only does the center rely on volunteers for special events, but for day-to-day activities. They wouldnt happen every day, every week, every month, is it werent for volunteers, she said. From those who teach classes, to those who serve on the GHSC board, every person plays a part, she said. Every, single person who volunteers their time is an essential piece for us, Kreis said. Kreis also wanted to thank those who deliver the home-delivered meals to homebound residents. Last year, 34,544 meals were served. Of those meals served, 16,617 were served in the dining room, while 17,927 were served to homebound residents. These 17,927 meals were delivered by just 30 volunteers over the year, Kreis said. The average home-delivered meal volunteer delivered 597 meals last year. She then read comments she had received from the homebound meal recipients. After a few of their comments, it was clear how much of an impact those volunteers make. We know how much those meals mean to our home-delivered meal patrons, she said. Its not just about delivering the meal, but making contact with that person, she said. Sometimes, the only person the homebound patron speaks with is the volunteer who delivers the meal. At the end of Kreis speech, she told the volunteers they could pick up a T-shirt. It was a small gesture to show the seniors how their volunteer work was appreciated. RTHK: US State Dept still 'ready to engage' N Korea The US State Department said on Thursday it remained ready to negotiate with North Korea even after the regime called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to be excluded from future nuclear talks. "The United States remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation," a State Department spokesman said. The spokesman said the United States was aware of the North Korean foreign ministry's demand regarding Pompeo but did not comment directly on it. In a statement carried by state media, North Korean officials called Pompeo "reckless" and warned that future talks would be "lousy" if he returns to the table. Pompeo, one of Trump's most trusted aides, was instrumental in encouraging him to walk away from a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in February in Hanoi. Pompeo, who travelled four times to North Korea last year, has voiced hope for a deal with North Korea, but has stood firm on full denuclearisation before the United States eases sanctions. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Connecticuts new attorney general William Tong is backing legislation that would prevent firms which enroll households for electricity service from renewing those contracts automatically while putting up major new hurdles for those companies to enroll new customers. Sponsored by state Rep. Steve Meskers, D-Greenwich, the bill was finalized entering April and is now up for consideration by the full Connecticut House of Representatives. The bill would make it more difficult for non-utility electricity companies to sign up customers in several ways, including at renewal time after luring them in with introductory teaser rates to get their business. Customers who do not explicitly consent to a new cycle of service with those firms would be put back onto the standard offer rate of Eversource Energy or United Illuminating. As of February, about four in 10 customers with alternative suppliers paid more than standard offer, according to the Connecticut consumer counsels office, with about 24 percent of customers in Eversource Energys territories getting service that month from an alternative supplier, and 30 percent in United Illuminating territory. Consumer Counsel Elin Katz said abuses have been sufficiently rampant that the adage buyer beware has not proven effective when it comes to alternative electricity contracts, speaking at a late-February hearing of the Energy and Technology Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly. Both Tong and Katz have advocated ending third-party service in Connecticut, which has been allowed since 1998 after deregulation of the states electricity markets to increase competition. Between 2015 and 2018, we have seen residential consumers paying $200 million more overall in this market than they would have ... if they had stayed on the standard offer, Katz said. We also know that there is a great and disproportionate impact on our low income consumers. A pervasive problem The Connecticut bill would force companies to record phone calls and face-to-face meetings with customers and maintain those recordings for two years for regulators to use in resolving any disputes. It would mandate a script for representatives of those companies to read that highlight consumer rights, prior to discussing their electricity programs and rates. And it would give the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority explicit authority to demand suppliers provide customers restitution in any probes on overcharging, in addition to fines PURA already has the authority to enact. Speaking at the same hearing as Katz, PURA Commissioner Mike Caron described as a pervasive problem across many suppliers the use of deceptive marketing tactics to win or renew customers. Weve ... found that the order in which information is presented to a potential customer and that which is requested from the customer during the marketing call greatly impacts the customers understanding of the transaction, Caron told legislators in February. Submission of marketing recordings would greatly aid the staff in investigating complaints and reduce the time needed for complaint resolution. While companies are accustomed to reciting boilerplate scripts to investors in advance of solicitations or other communications, a representative of the Retail Energy Supply Association pointed out the hurdle it represents in a marketing context for its member companies. The association has 10 members that sell electric service in Connecticut, including Crius Energy based in Norwalk and Starion Energy of Middlebury. The requirement that all of the information be presented before a conversation can begin and the requirement that that conversation, whether by telephone or face-to-face, must be recorded in full from the very beginning is simply unworkable, said Dan Allegretti, an Acton, Mass.-based consultant testifying on behalf of the Retail Energy Supply Association. Customers have to provide meaningful consent before their conversation can be recorded. ... They cant do that until youve at least begun a conversation until you gain some basis on which they can decide that its in their interest to move ahead and have that conversation continue. Direct Energy filed written testimony in advance of the February hearing to note that it and other companies already face a big hurdle marketing in Connecticut, in that homeowners must have their utility account numbers at hand prior to any switch of service. That makes it next to impossible to market services to them in any other setting save the home where they keep their utility bills. Direct Energy suggested that instead of imposing marketing restrictions, Connecticut levy draconian penalties on suppliers that flout the rules, with the company facing a $1.5 million fine itself after a PURA investigation into its own marketing practices. The shopping experience must be conducted almost completely in the customers home, whether by means of an in-person sales call, an outbound telesales call, (a) direct mail piece leading to an inbound telephone call, or a web-based sale conducted in the customers dwelling, stated Chris Kallaher, a Massachusetts-based government affairs adviser for Direct Energy. Electric customers thus cant have the same kind of customer experience they have for essentially everything else they buy. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman Despite new taxes for online purchases in Connecticut, the states overall sales tax collections dropped in the first quarter from a year earlier the first time that has occurred in six years. Connecticut came up nearly $87 million short of its first-quarter sales tax collections of a year ago, with declines in each of the first three months of 2019 for a combined 7.5 percent drop to $1.07 billion as tracked by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. That nearly wiped out a $97 million gain in Connecticut sales tax collections in December, when DRS began requiring the 600 largest online retailers to charge sales taxes on purchases by Connecticut buyers. It was not the result envisioned by the Connecticut General Assembly in passing the authorizing law last June for online sales tax collections, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision authorizing states to take that step. Through the first six months of the states fiscal year that started last July, sales tax collections were up 10.3 percent, with the past three months chopping that gain to a mere 3.2 percent. A DRS spokesperson noted that year-over-year changes in revenue can be influenced by fiscal periods ending on a weekend, with DRS allowing companies to file tax proceeds on the following business day that could have prompted some companies to delay filing their March sales tax collections until this month. But DRS did not offer immediate analysis otherwise on any impact of the new online sales tax requirement on lower overall sales tax collections in the first quarter. Multiple companies are offering enabling software to help online companies collect sales taxes, including Norwalk-based TaxCloud. The DRS rules apply to online retailers that sell at least $250,000 in merchandise or services delivered to Connecticut residences. Amazon has collected taxes on Connecticut purchases since 2013, contributing to an 8.4 percent increase in sales taxes in the first quarter of 2014. Sales taxes are a major contributor to the Connecticut General Fund, accounting for about a quarter of state revenue the past nine months or nearly $3 billion. Connecticut charges a 6.35 percent tax on most purchases, the 12 highest rate among states as of January according to the Tax Foundation. The state ranked seventh nationally in annual tax collections on a per capita basis, at about $1,180 for each resident. In the first months of his administration, Gov. Ned Lamont has focused on sales taxes as one avenue for Connecticut to increase its revenue, with Lamont proposing the state apply sales taxes mostly across the board, with a significant number of service industries able to avoid charging taxes under current law. Last month in Danbury, Lamont allowed that he expected significant resistance from some of those industries, with his budget chief Melissa McCaw suggesting the same during a mid-March hearing of the revenue committee of the Connecticut General Assembly and saying Lamont had not ruled out an overall increase in sales taxes if his sought-for broadening of the tax base is a dead letter. We spent days and weeks ad nauseum looking at the sales tax broadening the potential impacts on specific industries and what we found ourselves doing was engaging in a conversation again and again of picking those winners and losers, McCaw said. The governor was very open and honest that if this was not a palatable proposal, he would consider an increase in the sales tax rate. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman NORWALK Parents of a Norwalk Public Schools student intend to sue the district alleging that a video was taken of their son during a behavioral incident and posted by his teacher to social media platforms without their consent. On Wednesday, the Shelton-based Forte Law Group filed a preservation of evidence order and statutory notice of claim with the city and with Norwalk Public Schools, alleging that the posting constitutes a violation of civil rights, invasion of privacy, eavesdropping, voyeurism, and unlawful dissemination of intimate images, among other charges. The notice of claim, stemming from a Jan. 18 incident, names the Town of Norwalk and its agents, including the superintendent of schools, school principal, vice principal and others, along with the teacher, in the filings, saying that the video violates Board of Education policy. By definition, town and school officials have pledged and are charged with ensuring that the classroom would be a safe environment for every child under their supervision, said Attorney Jeffrey L. Forte, whose firm represents families and children with special needs. By its negligence in this case, the administration of Norwalk Public Schools and the adults in charge have inflicted emotional distress on this family, and have caused irreparable harm to a young child. Forte said he has not yet seen the video, but his understanding is that it shows the child experiencing a behavioral deregulation in an isolated room, which the teacher recorded and posted. He said he was contacted by the childs parents and has been working with them for several weeks. The preservation of evidence order, addressed to Superintendent of Schools Steven J. Adamowski, is meant to ensure the districts preservation of physical evidence, including, but not limited to videos, social media posts, cell phones, and any and all meta-data related to the video, the order states. Forte said Wednesday afternoon that he had not yet gotten a response from the district. Norwalk Public Schools Chief Communications Officer Brenda Wilcox Williams confirmed that the district received the documents Wednesday and said they will be forwarded to legal counsel for followup. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 BERLIN - Like much of the United States, governments abroad watched closely Thursday as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report was released in a redacted version. U.S. allies and foes may have had very different hopes for that report, which also shed more light on the extent to which Russia was able to disrupt the 2016 U.S. elections. But even though their interests in the Mueller report may be different, they are united on at least one aspect: skepticism of the redactions by Attorney General William Barr. 'I'm fed': Trump's reaction to appointment of Mueller Read the Mueller report here The attorney general said prior to the release that he had restricted only lightly access to information that would violate privacy rights, affect ongoing inquiries, provide insights into sensitive intelligence details or include grand jury material. Key members of Congress were also expected to have access to a more complete version of the report. And yet, the one thing that was almost certain was that there would be a battle over the things that weren't included. Some Democrats suggested that Barr may have deliberately left out crucial details that would cast President Donald Trump in a negative light. Republicans sided with Barr, arguing that redactions are standard practice and necessary to protect other investigations and the integrity of the process. But watching from afar, many Europeans are likely to share the Democrats' concerns: Often, in the past, their own concerns over redactions have proved to be justified. That is especially true for countries where memories of the abuse of such techniques are still vivid. In what was once East Germany, authorities regularly opened letters sent to or from democratic West Germany and redacted passages deemed a threat to socialism, until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. What became known as the "postal war" has deeply ingrained an inherent skepticism of redactions in German public consciousness. Ironically, some of the fiercest recent battles over redactions in Germany and other European countries have involved the United States. In the latest instance, after it was discovered that the National Security Agency had spied on German politicians - including Chancellor Angela Merkel - an investigative parliamentary committee of opposition and government members was tasked with examining the fallout. The panel's final report in 2017 was heavily redacted. But strangely, when readers examined the document, they found that the passages drafted by the opposition had been so sloppily redacted that they could easily be made visible again. In contrast, details provided by the government in the same report had been so thoroughly redacted that many key details remain unknown today. Accidental or not, critics sensed that decisions on whether to properly or sloppily redact had been made as part of a political game. Similar sloppiness did not reveal the deepest secrets of the Mueller report on Thursday. Instead, the black lines across the report are likely to fuel suspicions and doubts - not only in the United States. Many Brits still remember how U.S. redactions helped to hide the involvement of British intelligence services in the CIA's secret detention program, which included waterboarding and other abuses, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2014, the British government for the first time acknowledged that it had asked to redact passages on its services' involvement in the program in a report prepared for the U.S. Senate. The admission at the time raised concerns in Britain that ugly details would soon emerge. Four years later, in 2018, the British Parliament's own reports indeed concluded that British spies were involved in "inexcusable" mistreatment of detainees by the United States. While such information rarely stays secret forever in democratic countries such as Britain and Germany, some U.S. foes like Russia have a far more distorted relationship with the truth. With the Kremlin's largely state-dominated media apparatus, there isn't much need to release inquiries or reports - redacted or not. Regardless, Russia has understood how much of a sore spot redactions are for the United States and other Western countries. The Russian government-funded TV network RT even has a fitting political comedy show: "Redacted Tonight." But in the case of the Mueller report, Russian state media outlets may find themselves inclined to be a bit more cautious than usual about demanding that redacted parts be made public. Recent episodes of RT's "Redacted Tonight" show have been headlined: "Unraveling Russiagate and planting trees to clean the atmosphere" and "The insanity of Trump and Russiagate." Magnets are prone to order. Their basic constituents, individual magnetic moments, tend to align at low temperatures, thus forming frozen magnetically ordered states. A minority of magnets break this trend and reveal peculiar characteristics that can be paralleled to a never-freezing (quantum) liquid. In their recent publication in Physical Review Letters, the researchers from the Chair of Experimental Physics VI/EKM in Augsburg, in collaboration with the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Munich demonstrate experimentally that the chemistry concept of valence bonds can be used to rationalize the behavior of these quantum spin liquids. Magnets are a tough nut to crack, especially when their fundamental buildings blocks, magnetic moments carried by individual electrons, take advantage of their quantum nature and build complex, entangled states. One of such states is quantum spin liquid characterized by the absence of long-range magnetic order in the same sense as ordinary liquids lack long-range order between the atoms. These atoms keep moving, while those in a crystal take fixed positions prescribed by the crystal structure. This analogy does not go any further, though, because ordinary liquids freeze to form crystals, but quantum spin liquids do not become ordered at low temperatures they do not freeze. This peculiar behavior was first rationalized in 1973 by the theorist and eventual Nobel prize winner Philip Anderson who proposed a description of quantum spin liquids in terms of chemical, or valence bonds. In chemistry, valence bonds typically form between two atoms and involve two electrons. These electrons gain energy from being delocalized between those atoms, which in turn requires an opposite arrangement of electron spins, magnetic moments associated with the electrons. Its at this point where the relation to magnetism becomes apparent. Anderson proposed that quantum spin liquids should be built by pairs of electron spins just like crystals are built by chemical bonds due to electron pairs. His concept of valence-bond states has far-reaching implications in magnetism and even gives valuable insights into the enigmatic behavior of high-temperature superconductors. However, no direct signatures of these magnetic valence bonds could be observed in real magnets. Material is the key The majority of magnets enter the frozen (magnetically ordered) state at low temperatures. Finding a quantum spin liquid material is challenging, says Dr. Yuesheng Li, the postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Experimental Physics VI/EKM in Augsburg. We need several ingredients: triangular geometry of the magnetic atoms, robust insulating behavior, and large single crystals to perform experiments on. A tiny bit of structural disorder proved important too and distinguishes YbMgGaO, the system chosen by the team, from several spin-liquid materials studied previously. Disorder is often detrimental and spurs spin freezing, but not in this case. Through careful magnetometry measurements the team showed that the majority of spins are not frozen, thus forming the desired quantum spin liquid state. Neutrons bring light Quantum magnetic states have to be probed indirectly. One typically gives the system a slight push and observes excitations that serve as fingerprints of the underlying magnetic state. Among different external stimuli that can be applied, neutrons are most convenient, as their energy and momenta match characteristic scales of quantum spin liquids. The actual measurement was performed using the PANDA spectrometer installed at the research reactor of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum at Garching, Munich. The name PANDA is merely an acronym but ironically reflects the nature of the quite slow measurement that is needed to access low energies with high resolution. Only a few spectrometers in the world are suitable to study quantum spin liquid, and PANDA at Munich is one of the best, says Dr. Li who performed this experiment together with the colleagues from MLZ within the TRR80 (Augsburg-Munich) collaborative research unit. Break or re-arrange? The team confirmed experimentally two processes foreseen by Andersons theory of magnetic valence-bond states. The first process is breaking of the valence-bond pair with the formation of two unpaired spins. It happens when incoming neutrons carry enough energy to break the valence bond. Similar effects are known for molecules: chemical bonds break upon laser irradiation, thus making the system more prone to chemical reactions. On the other hand, nothing special happens to molecules at low energies, because chemical bonds remain in place. Magnets are again different, as they can undergo another process, the re-arrangement of valence bonds. This process is arguably the more interesting of the two, as it corresponds to the so-called fractionalized excitations that are impossible in conventional magnets but do occur in quantum spin liquids. Fractionalizing magnetic excitations has been a long-standing goal in quantum magnetism, says Prof. Dr. Philipp Gegenwart, the head of Chair of Experimental Physics VI/EKM in Augsburg. We should now see if these fractionalized excitations are truly generic for all triangular magnets, and whether structural disorder plays any important role. After receiving a hefty 4.3 billion fine from the European Commission over unfair practices, Google is issuing a fix by offering EU users alternative search and browser apps through Google Play. In a blog post, Googles Product Management Director, Paul Gennai revealed that you will see the new app recommendations screen when opening Google Play after updates. From there you will have the choice to directly install the recommended apps and will be guided through the setup procedure, including setting the new search engine or browser as default. Google says the recommended apps shown will be based on their popularity in a given region and will appear in random order. From the provided illustrations on the blog post we can see that search options include Qwant and DuckDuck Go while browser recommendations feature Mozilla's Firefox, Opera, Microsoft Edge and Puffin Web Browser. Google has faced a tough battle with EU legislators, which accused the Internet giant of forcing phone manufacturers to preinstall Google apps like Search and Chrome on Android devices. While Google claims phone makers were free to choose what apps they include on their phones, manufacturers were not allowed to include a single Google app like Maps without pre-installing the full Google apps suite which includes Search and Chrome. Google stated it would begin licensing its apps to device makers to combat the issue and offer more solutions in the near future. The new app recommendations will begin appearing on existing and new devices in the coming weeks across Europe. Source | Via Yesterday, China Unicom teased that it will carry the 5G version of the Huawei Mate 20 X in the works, today the CEO of the Consumer division confirmed it. Note the Huaweis first 5G phone is the foldable Mate X and despite the similar names, this is the largest member of the Mate 20 family rather than the foldable phone. China Unicom posted an image of the device, which looks identical save for the 5G logo. As a quick reminder, the Mate 20 X has a 7.2 OLED display, Kirin 980 chipset and the same triple camera as the Mate 20 Pro. There will be one change, however, the battery capacity will be reduced to 4,200mAh (down from 5,000mAh). As a consolation, 40W battery charging will be enabled (up from 22.5W). This means 0-70% charge in just half an hour. Huawei Mate 20 X 5G The Huawei Mate X is coming out in June for 2,300 while the 4G version of the Mate 20 X can be had for around 800. The 5G model is expected to arrive after June and the price will be somewhere in between those two. By the way, China Unicoms post covered more than the Huaweis, it promised a total of 15 5G phones from 12 brands (including Oppo, vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE), plus 5G hotspots. This includes a 5G version of the Oppo Reno 10x zoom. Oppo Reno 10x zoom 5G Theres no info on whether that will feature hardware changes too. The other 5G phones include the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G, a 5G-enabled vivo NEX S and a nubia phone. vivo NEX S 5G nubia 5G phone 5G routers/hotspots too Source (in Chinese) | Via Lenovo is introducing the Z6 Pro on Tuesday in Beijing. We know the phone will have Hyper Video and the announcement was accompanied by a picture, showcasing one camera. Apparently, that image is fake, because today Lenovo revealed the actual camera setup - there will be four shooters on the back, one of them with a 48 MP sensor. Four-camera setup teaser AnTuTu screenshot The teaser, spotted on Lenovo VPs page on Weibo, suggests a vertical setup for all four snappers. One of them will be separated from the others, but we'll see if that's the many snapper or one of the auxiliary ones. The Lenovo executive also posted a screenshot from AnTuTu, where a Lenovo phone with a model number L78051 reached 403,077 score. If this is indeed the Lenovo Z6 Pro, it could outperform any other Snapdragon 855-powered device and could top the performance chart of the Chinese benchmarking platform. Whether it will actually be a monster of a phone, we have to wait until the official unveiling on April 23. Source (in Chinese) | Via Last year, Motorola launched the P30 and P30 Note in China, which it later launched in global markets at the Motorola One and One Power, respectively. Rumors have been rampant about Motorola releasing new versions of the Motorola One and one leakster claims there are four Motorola One devices in total two of which we have yet to see hit the market. Motorola One Motorola One Power Motorola One Vision Motorola One Action Evan Blass (@evleaks) April 17, 2019 Given than the One and One Power were released about a half a year ago, were going to focus on the other two models mentioned in the tweet. Lets start with what we already know about the Motorola One Vision. Weve seen several rumors surrounding the Motorola One Vision over the past several weeks including renders of what the phone will supposedly look like. Its similar to the Motorola One but it no longer screams iPhone X copycat. The One Vision has a holepunch selfie camera in the display which eliminates the need for an iPhone-like notch. To also coincide with the Vision name, its rumored to feature a dual camera setup with at least one high-resolution 48MP camera. Alleged render of Motorola One Vision The One Vision is also going to come with a Samsung-made Exynos 9610 SoC paried with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. This display is expected to be a 6.2-inch panel with 2520 x 1080 px resolution. Also rumored for the One Vision is a 3,500 mAh battery and that it would be sold as the P40 in the Chinese market. Now on to the One Action. This is one device we dont know much about. However, we might be able to speculate on it thanks to two other leaked renders that could represent this unknown device. Earlier this month, two different leaks surfaced one triple camera phone that was more realistic than a supposed four camera One. Possible render of Motorola One Action That brings us to what the Action part of the name could represent. Perhaps it means Action as a director would say when making a film perhaps the phone has superior video capabilities with a triple (or maybe even quad, who knows?) camera setup. We dont really know much about the One Action and we dont know when Motorola plans to launch the One Vision. Given the timing of the rumors, wed say it could be in the next couple of months or so. Christopher Savoie, CEO of Zapata Computing: This financing will allow us to continue to expand our incredible team to take on the challenges of solving real problems with quantum computing. BASF Venture Capital is joining a group of prominent investors in the Series A investment round of Zapata Computing, Inc. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Zapata is developing both a powerful software platform as well as specific applications for Global 1000 companies to effectively utilize a range of emerging quantum computing hardware. By investing in Zapata, BASF Venture Capital supports BASFs strategic goal to take advantage of the opportunities that digitalization offers along the entire value chain. Quantum computing will enable BASF experts to very efficiently investigate complex questions and it will further shorten the time it takes to launch new products. Zapata, which was spun-out of Harvard University in 2017, will use the funds raised to expand its scientific team and further develop its software platform to meet growing customer demand. BASF joins a round led by Comcast Ventures and Prelude Ventures, together with new and existing investors including Pitango Ventures, Pillar Venture Capital, and The Engine. Quantum computing is a next generation approach to computation that utilizes the laws of quantum mechanics to increase the speed of certain calculations. While quantum computing has great potential, it is currently limited by the pace of hardware development. Zapatas hybrid quantum-classical approach is designed to elicit the maximum value from the limited number of qubits that will be available in the next few years. We are happy to support this promising start-up. Zapata is positioned to add value to a wide variety of industries, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, automotive, aerospace, and finance, said Markus Solibieda, Managing Director at BASF Venture Capital. Zapata will fill a growing demand for quantum solutions that address key issues its customers are facing. We are thrilled and honored that BASF selected Zapata as a partner in the growing quantum technology revolution, said Christopher Savoie, CEO of Zapata. This financing will allow us to continue to expand our incredible team to take on the challenges of solving real problems with quantum computing. We are racing to meet an enormous demand. The Oppo Reno will go on sale in China tomorrow. The 6/128GB version is still listed as unavailable on the official site (its supposed to cost CNY 3,000), right now you can only pre-order the 6/256GB and 8/256GB versions (CNY 3,300 and CNY3,600, respectively). Well see if that changes tomorrow. The official launch date and price for Europe are still kept under wraps, but rumor has it that the phone will be unveiled in Zurich on April 24 and it will cost 500 (presumably, this is for the base version). The Oppo Reno 10x zoom will also go global, but Oppo hasn't shared details about that yet. Its expected in China in mid-May at a price of CNY 5,000, which suggests a euro price north of 800. Expect official details about the global launch of both phones at the Zurich event. Its possible well see the 5G version of the Reno as well. Source 1 (in Chinese) | Source 2 PASCAGOULA, Mississippi -- For the first time in over a year, the USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) left drydock at Ingalls Shipbuilding and was successfully relaunched, marking a milestone in the damaged destroyers path to returning to active duty. The guided-missile destroyer had been drydocked since it first arrived at the Pascagoula shipyard in January 2018 after being heavily damaged in a June 2017 collision with a container ship during which seven Fitzgerald crew members were killed and several others injured, including the commanding officer. The relaunch comes after more than a year of restoration and modernization work at Ingalls. Since the Fitzgerald arrived in Pascagoula, the work has focused on restoring the integrity of the damaged hull and topside structures. The complexity of this overhaul has been challenging, but our planning team at Bath Iron Works (Maine) and waterfront team at (Ingalls) is executing repairs and installing upgrades so that Fitzgerald returns to our sailors lethal and mission-ready, said Rear Adm. Jim Downey, deputy commander for surface warfare and commander, Navy Regional Maintenance Center. Were excited to have the ship back in the water where we can begin outfitting and testing efforts in support of getting the ship and crew back underway. According to the Navy, in order to restore the impacted areas of the ship to full operations and functionality, various hull, mechanical and electrical, combat systems and command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C5I) repairs are continuing. The repairs range from partial to complete refurbishment of the impacted areas to replacement of equipment such as the radar and electronic warfare suite. The ship is also receiving hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E), combat systems, and C5I modernization upgrades. Due to the extent and complexity of the restoration, both repair and new construction procedures are being employed, according to the Navy. This undocking is a step forward and brings us that much closer to getting Fitzgerald back out to sea - where the ship belongs, said Cmdr. Garrett Miller, Fitzgeralds commanding officer. Im proud of this crews hard work over the past year and look forward returning to the fleet with enhanced warfighting capability and lethality. The Navy has made it a priority throughout the restoration process to ensure the Fitzgerald returns to combat readiness in peak condition as one of the Navys most capable warships, according to Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Haiti - Guerilla : The PNH will strengthen its police presence in the streets Wednesday Michel Ange Commissioner Louis Jeune, spokesman of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) announced the strengthening of the police presence in the streets, following the wave of insecurity that has been going on for several weeks and the guerrillas what gangs do for the control of a territory. "The PNH is actively working to restore peace in the capital," appealing for calm to the population and collaboration with law enforcement to end the violence and arrest these bandits. Despite the words of the authorities who want to be reassuring the situation for the inhabitants of the working-class neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, such as La Saline, Martissant and Cite Soleil has become more critical in the last two weeks, as clashes between rival gangs that take place are amplified day and night, causing deaths and injuries, without the police being able to stop it. The conflict originated in the takeover of an area where Parliament, customs, major trading companies and one of the largest informal markets in the country are located. Important issues for those who will control this territory and who will benefit from economic and political advantage especially in the run-up to the elections planned until now next October. Civil Society members warn that the situation could become more complex in the run-up to the elections and denounce that some parliamentarians support gangs to their advantage. Recall that on Tuesday, for the first time, the Prime Minister described the situation facing today's security forces "guerrilla" declaring "the country has developed, since 1986, a form of banditry that has evolved until to put the State today in front of an armed guerrilla," https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27490-haiti-security-pm-promises-to-fight-against-urban-guerilla.html and announced in the wake that following a special meeting of the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) that morning, measures would be taken without reveal the details in the name of national security. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27490-haiti-security-pm-promises-to-fight-against-urban-guerilla.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27429-haiti-flash-arnel-challenges-the-pnh-to-reach-the-arrest-him.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27383-haiti-flash-the-gang-leader-arnel-enters-war-with-the-pnh.html SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Politic : The formation of a government of opening in deadlock The acting Prime Minister designated by the Head of State to replace Jean Henry Ceant https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27219-haiti-flash-haiti-has-no-more-government.html , pending to be invited by the Parliament to make the statement of its General Policy, must constitute its ministerial cabinet in agreement with the President Jovenel Moise. This cabinet, originally to be established before Easter, was rejected by the Head of State because of the many disagreements between political parties, some refusing to participate in the proposed Opening Government, others posing their conditions while some still remain in indecision. With this extra time, Moise hopes to break the deadlock and find a compromise to rally the greatest number. The Organization of the People in Struggle (OPL), which advocates dialogue, has not yet made a decision but remains convinced of the need for a real political agreement for the formation of a government. The Fusion Party of the Haitian Social Democrats (FUSION) claims above all a national conference. The Rally of Progressive National Democrats (RNDP) remains open for participation in the next Government, while stating that the RNDP is ready to serve the country but not a Government On the other hand, the party VERITE, second party in importance after the PHTK is not opposed to the Prime Minister Lapin and wants to integrate the next Government, but not without some conditions like the insurance of the holding of the next elections and measures to fight against insecurity and poverty in Haiti. The UNIR-Haiti Party, through its President Clarens Renois, confirmed that he did not plan to be part of the next government and that his party also rejected the idea of taking part. The hard wing of the opposition for its part, remains closed to any participation in the next government and camp on its positions. Fanmi Lavalas, AAA, "Pitit Dessalin" and the sector of the radical opposition known as "democratic and popular" among others have all rejected the invitations to dialogue of the Head of State. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27343-haiti-politic-the-radical-opposition-refuses-any-dialogue-with-the-head-of-state.html See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27485-haiti-politic-lapin-deposits-his-documents-in-the-chamber-of-deputies-first-delay-in-the-senate.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27472-haiti-flash-pm-jean-michel-lapin-deposites-his-documents-at-the-senate.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27465-haiti-portrait-who-is-jean-michel-lapin.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27365-haiti-flash-jovenel-moise-asks-the-un-to-play-the-role-of-observer-in-the-inter-haitian-dialogue.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27343-haiti-politic-the-radical-opposition-refuses-any-dialogue-with-the-head-of-state.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27219-haiti-flash-haiti-has-no-more-government.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27173-haiti-politic-the-senate-speaker-does-not-believe-possible-elections-this-year.html S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... Petit-Goave : Anger at the merchants of the communal market On Wednesday, the merchants of the Petit-Goave Communal Market went to the Town Hall to pay their taxes in accordance with the law where they were expecting a bad surprise. Tax officials refused to receive payments on the grounds that the amount was insufficient, as prices were visibly increased without notifying the parties concerned. The traders shouted at the abuse and objected to any increase "We are not responsible for the high cost of living [...] We will not pay a dime more. We will pay the usual amount. Very angry, they left with their money chanting "Down the Mayor Limongy Samson Jean" HL/ HaitiLibre / Guyto Mathieu (correspondent Petit-Goave) Change in Dominican diplomacy in Haiti The President of the Republic, Danilo Medina, proceeded today to the appointment, through Decree 147-19, of Jaime Santiago Santana Villalona as Minister Counselor in the Republic of Haiti and via Decree 149-19 of Efigenia Solis Rodriguez as vice-consul in Ouanaminthe (North-East of Haiti). BPO : CFI wants to sell Haiti to investors With the aim of selling Haiti as a top destination for investment in Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), the Investment Facilitation Center (CFI) will be taking part from 6 to 10 May 2019 in the "Outsource to the Caribbean" show, which will bring together 300 Caribbean private and public sector entrepreneurs as well as investors seeking investment opportunities in the Caribbean BPO sector. Accommodation for the disabled The construction of housing for the benefit of disabled people is well underway in the central department. Six houses are currently under construction. This is the project implemented by the Office of the Secretary of State for the Integration of Persons and Food for the Poor to provide 100 people with disabilities and their families with a place to live with dignity. It affects beneficiaries in Grand Anse, South, Southeast, Center, Artibonite and North. Prestige Promotion Winner of the first car Tuesday, at the local Hinoto SA in Delmas 2 Israel Pierre, happy consumer of the national beer Prestige, is the first winner of a Toyota Rush car as part of the promotion "anba bouchon" entitled "Men Bon Lo" which offers Prestige beer consumers the opportunity to win 10 cars in addition to Premiums of 50,000 and 100,000 Gourdes cash See promotion details : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-27309-icihaiti-brana-new-promotion-anba-bouchon.html HL/ HaitiLibre Published on 2019/04/17 | Source Ma Dong-seok is going to Hollywood. Advertisement An American media specializing in pop culture called THE WRAP reported on the 17th that Ma Dong-seok will be starring in the Hollywood Marvel movie "The Eternals". This media claimed, "Ma Dong-seok, also known as Don Lee, will be making his Hollywood debut in the Marvel Studios film "The Eternals". It is unknown what role he will play". Marvel Studios is yet to make a following announcement. Based on the original cartoon, "The Eternals" is the story of a tribe called 'The Eternals' who exist in a planet called 'Celestrial'. The film is directed by Chloe Zhao. It has been known that Angelina Jolie will be starring in the film as well. Sartorius started off fiscal 2019 with substantial double-digit growth in order intake, sales revenue and earnings. Consolidated first-quarter sales revenue rose in constant currencies by 16.8% to 435.7 million reported: 19.4%); order intake increased 16.6% to 482.8 million euros (reported: 19.3%). Sartorius underlying EBITDA surged 28.7% to 114.0 million euros. Its respective underlying EBITDA margin for the first three months of 2019 was 26.2% (Q1 2018: 24.3%), with a good half a percentage point of this increase resulting from the change in accounting rules, as expected. Relevant net profit for the Group climbed 30.8% to 48.6 million euros. Earnings per ordinary share were 0.71 euros (Q1 2018: 0.54 euros); earnings per preference share, 0.72 euros (Q1 2018: 0.55 euros). We are very pleased with our first-quarter results, said Dr. Joachim Kreuzburg, CEO and Executive Board Chairman. In Bioprocess Solutions, the relatively moderate prior-year comparables, high order intake in the final quarter of 2018, and the modified setup of our cell culture media business that has not yet shown its full effects on first-quarter figures all contributed to the anticipated above-average growth rates, which are expected to normalize as the year progresses. Considering the softer economic environment especially in Europe, the Lab Products & Services Division showed robust development, which was in line with our expectations. Based on the results of the first three months, we confirm our full-year targets. Business development in the regions Sartorius increased its sales revenues by double digits across all three geographies. The Americas region ecorded the strongest growth, closing the first quarter with a gain in revenue of 24.7% to 152.4 million euros. The Asia | Pacific region saw a 15.3% increase in sales over the first quarter of 2018, to 105.3 million euros. In the EMEA region, the Group earned 178.0 million euros, which equates to sales growth of 11.6%. Business development of the divisions The Bioprocess Solutions Division, which offers a wide array of innovative technologies for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, achieved sales growth of 20.9% (reported: 23.8%) to 326.0 million euros, compared to a moderate prior-year quarter. Strong demand across all product categories fueled this dynamic growth. Order intake also saw a significant uptick, rising 21.1% to 366.0 million euros. Due to economies of scale and a change in accounting rules, the divisions underlying EBITDA rose by 34.0% to 94.2 million euros. The respective margin was 28.9%, up from 26.7% in the year-earlier period. The Lab Products & Services Division, which offers products and technologies for laboratories primarily in the pharma sector and for life science research, developed in line with expectations. The division increased its sales relative to its previous years revenue base by 5.9% (reported: 8.1%) to 109.7 million euros. Order intake rose 4.4% against relatively high prioryear comparables to 116.8 million euros. The divisions EBITDA increased 8.2%, totaling 19.8 million euros; its margin was 18.1%, approximately at the previous years level (Q1 2018: 18.0%). Earnings for this division were likewise positively affected by the change in accounting rules. (All figures on sales revenue and order intake in constant currencies.) Key financial indicators The Sartorius Group continues to have a very sound balance sheet and financial base, even though its equity ratio decreased slightly from 38.5% at the end of 2018 to 36.8% mainly as a result of the change in accounting rules. The Groups ratio of net debt to underlying EBITDA was 2.2 (Dec. 31, 2018: 2.4). After the first three months, the Groups CAPEX ratio, i.e. ratio of capital expenditures to sales revenue, stood at 12.9% and is expected to decrease during the further course of the year after several large expansion projects are completed (previous year quarter: 10.3%). Guidance for the full year confirmed Based on its first-quarter performance, Sartorius confirms its forecast for the full year of 2019. Consolidated sales revenue is thus projected to grow by about 7% to 11%. This forecast considers the changes to the sales alliance with the Lonza group in the area of cell culture media. Without these changes, sales growth would probably be some 2 percentage points higher. Regarding profitability, management forecasts that the company's EBITDA margin will increase to slightly more than 27.0% over the prior-year figure of 25.9%, with the operating gain projected to be about half a percentage point and the remaining increase expected to result from a change in accounting rules. The ratio of capital expenditures to sales revenue is projected to be around 12%, below the 2018 figure of 15.2%. For the Bioprocess Solutions Division, management expects dynamic growth to continue. It anticipates that sales will increase by about 8% to 12% over the previous years high revenue base (without considering the modification of our partnership with Lonza, approx. 3 percentage points higher). Management forecasts that the divisions underlying EBITDA margin will increase to slightly more than 29.5% relative to the prior-year figure of 28.6%. The operating gain is expected to account for around half a percentage point. The Lab Products & Services Division is partly dependent on the development of economic cycles. Against the backdrop of a weakened economy in many regions, management forecasts that the divisions sales revenue will increase by about 5% to 9% and the underlying EBITDA margin to slightly more than 20.0% (previous year: 18.5%), with the operating gain accounting for about half a percentage point. All forecasts are based on constant currencies, as in the past years. A no-deal exit of the U.K. from the E.U. might impact our supply chains in both divisions to a certain degree in spite of the measures already taken to counteract this development. A reliable prognosis concerning possible effects cannot be made at the current time. Ambassador School Program gets kids to see college as a possibility Povertys impact on a students academic achievement is significant. The more poverty you experience, the less successful youre likely to be. Like many suburbs nationwide, Harpers district in recent years has seen a significant increase in low-income residents. In 2003, there were four schools in which 50% or more of students qualified for the federal free and reduced-priced lunch program. As of 2017, that number had grown to 23 elementary and junior high schools in Harpers district. The statistical relationship between poverty and success in education is clear, and when you look at these schools, I know that many of these students are coming from homes that have no higher education, President Ken Ender said. There wasnt much Harper could do to directly impact these young students, Dr. Ender figured, but he wasnt going to do nothing. You cant wait for these kids to get to us, he added. Under Dr. Enders direction, Harper established the Ambassador School Program to spark an early interest in college. Harper partners with 32 Ambassador Schools throughout the district nearly all with a significant population of low-income students to take part in a variety of initiatives each year. Harper representatives visit the schools to help lead events such as STEAM fairs, literacy nights and career day presentations; likewise, Ambassador School students visit Harper for interactive campus tours. The campus tours are especially impactful, since students get to envision themselves in a college setting. Ambassador School students begin the day with a welcome session that provides an age-appropriate introduction to college, myths, scholarship opportunities and campus life. They ask questions and hear from a panel of Harper students, who then escort them to a variety of activities led by faculty and staff in nursing, business, zoology, graphics, manufacturing and other fields. Over the last five years, nearly 20,000 fourth- to eighth-grade students have taken part in the campus tour program. Many of the kids who visit have never stepped foot on a college campus before. They just dont see college in their future, Community Relations Manager Amie Granger said. We get them in the labs and in the classrooms, and th ey start to connect college as the gateway to different career paths. By the time they leave, they see college as something accessible, and something to be excited about. Those messages are reinforced throughout the year by Harper representatives who visit the Ambassador Schools to lead a variety of college planning presentations, career exploration activities, parent nights and family fun fairs. Other Harper initiatives targeting Ambassador Schools include the annual College and Career Expo (this years is April 27) and Restock the Classroom, in which Harper faculty, staff and students collected thousands of school supplies earlier this year in an effort to alleviate some of the personal expenses that teachers incur to keep their classes stocked. Restock the Classroom is a small way we can show our support for the teachers who play such a critical role in our students journeys, Granger said. Dr. Ender acknowledged that its difficult to know what kind of impact Harper is making given that Ambassador School students are several years shy of college. But, he said, Harper and other organizations must work together to build a system that supports a person throughout their education and career. Kids need to imagine a future that includes higher education, Dr. Ender said. Just the fact were getting volunteers into 30-some schools and these kids are coming to campus and seeing Harper and college in general as a place for them its an important start. Dr. Kenneth L. Ender will complete his 10-year tenure at Harper College on June 30. To view photos, video and a timeline of accomplishments, visit Dr. Enders legacy web page at harpercollege.edu/ender. Havre Police Department James Patrick Travis of Havre, 51, was issued a summons on an open container in city charge after someone at a First Street business made a complaint at 2:29 p.m. Wednesday. -- Jacob James Bauer of Havre, 36, was arrested Wednesday at 2:36 p.m. on First Street on a state District Court warrant. -- Danae Infante of Havre, 33, was arrested on charges of endangering the welfare of children and possession of dangerous drugs while officers were assisting Child and Family Services on 15th Avenue Wednesday at 4 p.m. -- A Second Street caller asked Wednesday at 4:59 p.m. to speak with an officer. -- Dasia Nickole Beckman of Havre, 21, was issued a summons on a charge of vicious dog after a 13th Avenue caller reported at 6:18 p.m. Wednesday that her nephew had been bitten by a dog. -- Wednesday at 7:23 p.m., A caller at a Fifth Avenue business reported a vehicle had hit one of the business' sheds. Hill County Sheriff's Office Jennifer Lynn Stratton of Havre, 33, was issued a summons on charges of dog running at large and vicious dog after a caller on 15th Street North reported two dogs running loose at 10:29 a.m. Wednesday. -- A Seventh Street East caller reported a broken window Wednesday at 5:37 p.m. -- An arrest was made at 12:22 a.m. today during a vehicle stop on U.S. Highway 87, but no details on the charges was provided. Havre Fire Department Emergency medical personnel responded to one call Tuesday and five calls Wednesday, and firefighters responded to a 1:21 p.m. Wednesday call to the 10 Block of Third Street West that turned out to be burned toast. Firefighters reset the alarm. Havre Animal Shelter The Havre shelter this morning held three medium-hair cats, one long-hair cat, one short-hair cat, a medium-hair 14-week-old kitten and a medium-hair 8-month-old kitten all of unknown gender, two medium-hair male cats, one short-hair female cat and one medium-hair female cat. Two other cats were being held at a foster as part of the trap-spay/neuter-release program. -- The Havre shelter also held this morning three female mixed-breed dogs, a female shepherd-Labrador retriever dog, a female mixed-breed 14-week-old puppy, a female husky dog, a male pit bull terrier dog and a female Australian cattle dog-blue heeler-border collie dog. A sign announcing the location of the Havre Dog Park rests against a fence Wednesday near the south end of the Havre Ice Dome in Havre. Havre's Dog Park Club continued Wednesday planning work for the new park on land south of town near the Havre Ice Dome that Havre City Council approved leasing to the club for $1 at its Feb. 20 meeting. Board member Renee Pribyl - who resigned from the board Wednesday during the monthly meeting at the HRDC Building because she is moving to Great Falls - said the club's Fundraising and Advertising Committee is discussing selling signs to be displayed at the park. "We are going to be ready to do fence here pretty quick," she said. "We're that close to getting the fence ready to go." The committee discussed selling 2-foot-by-2-foot signs to be displayed in the park. She said that the board would have to approve the initial sale price and the cost of renewal. The signs would be hung on the fence of the dog park. Pribyl said that the club will be responsible for the maintenance of each sign as well as responsible for any damage or theft of sign? The money from each sign will also go toward building the dog park. The board approved that the first-year cost of each sign will be $500 and the cost of renewal will be at $350. Dog Park Club Secretary Karen Datko said that she will also write up a draft of the contract which will be presented to the businesses and get a list of businesses from the Havre Chamber of Commerce. The list has a total of 350 businesses, she added. Montana State University-Northern Civil Engineering Technology student Keith Treece told the club that, for his senior project next year, he and four other students would like to design the dog park. He said the planned design will have to be extensive to fit into the parameters of what the requirements for his class, but the board doesn't need to do everything within the plan. "We would have to do a little bit more than just the dog park," he said. Lanier said that even if the club doesn't want to do the full build immediately, it would still be good to have the plans for the future. "What's nice is that it's an idea or a master plan for the future," he said. Stewart said that the idea sounds good, however the board is bound by some restrictions on what the club can do in terms of building, such as Mayor Tim Solomon requesting the dog park does not encroach on the dyke close to the park. Treece said that the project doesn't have to get going until August or September, when his associates come back to town, and then they can start surveying and testing the soil. Board member Charitee Palmer suggested that Treece make a presentation and speak to members of the club's Planning Committee. The board also discussed a raffle it is holding. The club's Facebook page said that Havre Dog Park is selling raffle tickets to win a personalized painting of a pet, painted by Lindsey Ratlif, with tickets are $5 each or five tickets for $20. People can contact the Havre Dog Park Club to buy their tickets. All money raised in the raffle will go toward building the facility. Pribyl said the drawing for raffle will by on May 28 and tickets need to be returned by May 21. The board also voted to change the date of its monthly meeting. The club originally met on the third Monday of every month at 6 p.m., but in February changed that to the third Wednesday to avoid conflicting with Havre City Council meetings. Stewart said Wednesday that the date has to be changed because of conflicts with board member's schedules. Board voted tentatively to schedule the club's monthly meetings to the third Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m., pending the scheduling information and the availability of a meeting room at the HRDC Building. Stewart said he also wants to require people to attend multiple meetings before they can be appointed to the board. He said he would like to see people more than once before they can be appointed to the board and would like to get to know them before candidates are voted on. The board approved his motion that if people want to be a candidate for the board they will have to attend at least two meetings within three months. Pribyl said that she shared Stewart's concern. Havre Daily News/Ryan Berry From left, Bill Lanier, Chad Stewart and Charitee Palmer laugh during a Havre Dog Park Club monthly meeting Wednesday at the HRDC building in Havre. "I would like a formal introduction of people," she said. "I feel bad talking if I don't know who you are. I want to welcome people who have never been to a meeting before." Board member Bill Lanier agreed. "It is a respectful thing to do," he said. The board moved that at the beginning of each meeting it will start with a welcome and a round of introductions. The board also appointed two new board members Wednesday. Palmer was appointed to the board and elected chair of the Fundraising Committee to take the place of Pribyl. "I like being able to vote on the subjects I find important to the dog park because the dog park is important to me," Palmer said. The board also appointed Tammy Dion, who said that the reason she wanted to be on the board was because she thinks it's important for dogs and their owners. "I want to have a safe and friendly place for my dog and everybody else's dog to go to," she said. From Havre Area Chamber of Commerce The Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Agribusiness Committee is sponsoring two Ag Awards, the Outstanding Agricultural Advocate and Leader awards to be presented at the NARC Field Day/Agricultural Appreciation Dinner at the Northern Ag Research Center on June 27. The day will include the many field day activities and tours along with the BBQ and the Chamber Ag Committees two annual awards. The Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Agribusiness Committee began the Ag Leader and Advocate Awards 19 years ago, in order to celebrate the contributions made by producers in our rural communities and who have contributed to the strength and vitality of agriculture. In 2000, Gregg Carlson was the Advocate award recipient and Leslie and Terri Kaercher received the Leader award. Miller Farms received the Agricultural Leader Award for 2018. The Ag Advocate Award is given to honor those members of our community who may not be actively involved in the day to day operations of farming and ranching, but have shown leadership in helping Agriculture remain Montanas top industry. Lance Johnson received this 2018 award. OUTSTANDING AGRICULTURE LEADER This honor is to recognize a person actively involved in agricultural production and who has a demonstrated record of leadership for Montanas agricultural industry in north central Montana. Examples of qualifications for this award should include, but are not limited to, the following: Accomplishments as an agricultural producer Role the individual has played in Montana agriculture as a leader Scope of the individuals involvement including organizational membership and leadership, agricultural development activities organized and completed, publications, educational programs, and involvement in community service projects Professional accomplishments and recognition on local, state, and national levels Current involvement in agriculture producer as a leader The Outstanding Agriculture Leader Award is for an agricultural producer still actively engaged in agricultural production in north central Montana. OUTSTANDING AGRICULTURE ADVOCATE This honor is to recognize a person involved or retired from business or education or government and who has a demonstrated record of advocacy for Montanas agricultural industry in north central Montana. Examples of qualifications for this award should include, but are not limited to, the following: Length of service to Montana agriculture Role the individual has played as an agricultural advocate Scope of the individuals agricultural involvement including organizational membership and leadership, advocacy activities organized and completed, publications completed, educational programs coordinated, and involvement in community service projects Professional accomplishments and recognition on local, state, and national levels Current involvement in agriculture advocacy The Outstanding Agriculture Advocate award is for a person not primarily involved in agricultural production and who has devoted extraordinary efforts to promote the agricultural industry from outside. Advocates can be educators, business persons, retired agriculture producers, public officials, or public employees, etc. People are asked to submit their nomination by May 10 so the selection committee may review the nominations and select this years winners to recognize at the Northern Agricultural Research Center Field Day/Agricultural Appreciation Dinner at the Research Center June 27. People with questions can call the Havre Chamber of Commerce at 265-4383 or email to [email protected] Nomination forms can be picked up at the Chamber at 130 Fifth Ave. Cody, left, and Eric McLain work on a project in their shop Wednesday at McLain's Cabinets in Havre. The two brothers, along with their father Steve, run the entire operation by themselves. Less than a year after purchasing McLain's Cabinets and Countertops from his father, Steve McLain, Eric McLain is keeping the family business going beside his brother and father - with his 9-year-old son starting to help, as well. Steve McLain said selling to his son seems to be working out well. "It just seemed to be the right thing to do," Steve McLain said. "He's been doing a good job since we've started this thing. ... There is not a lot of people out there who want to buy places like this anymore." McLain said that he started McLain's Cabinets in 2014, buying a cabinet shop at the east edge of town from the former owner, who operated the shop under a different name. He added that his construction company, SM Construction, was already making and installing cabinets. "We thought, 'Why not?'" he said. He added that he sold his business to his son because he would eventually like to retire in the future. Eric McLain said that he has been working side-by-side with his father doing construction his whole life, starting when he was 12, sweeping and cleaning. "It was a job. You went there and got paid and tried to learn something," he said. In 2007 he graduated from Montana State University in Bozeman with a degree in industrial technology then went back to work with his father at SM Construction. He said the goal when he was in school was to graduate so he could step into the family carpentry business. Steve McLain said that after his son got his degree, he asked him what he wanted to do, and his son replied that he wanted to move back to Havre and work with him. "I didn't even invite him yet," he said, jokingly. Eric McLain said that they started doing cabinets in 2010 and when they were offered the shop they thought it was a good idea because they could increase the size of their shop and have a showroom to display what they have to offer. McLain added that his younger brother, Cody, also works with them. "It's all right," he said. "We have our own moments, but it's not too bad really." Steve McLain said that, as a father, seeing both of his sons work together in the business in a great feeling. "It's awesome. It's been really good," he said. For the most part, he and his sons work well together, McLain said. He added that his family has a good work ethic. "They are both good craftsmen and they're nice to people," he said. Eric McLain said that he sees many advantages working with his family, they are reliable and he can always count on them. "It is kind of hard at times because you work with them everyday, but that's just part of how you do it," he said. "... They are good help at the end of the day." Business is good Eric McLain said that since he has bought the business, business has been good, but he has to stay a little more organized than he was expecting. He said that they don't build many of the cabinets themselves, mostly getting them from manufacturers, putting it together and installing them, but they do build, fabricate and install countertops. McLain's serves more than just the Havre area, with the company's reach spanning from the Malta to Big Sandy areas, he said. He added that the difference for him between construction and cabinetry is that the results at the end of the day are a little more flashy. With construction work, the work may be hidden by drywall but with cabinetry, after finishing a kitchen or something similar, people can see a finished product ready for use. "It's pretty satisfying," he said. McLain said that when his father first bought McLain's Cabinets, SM Construction was still working on a number of projects, with five employees and basing operations at the shop. Now, it is only his brother, father and him working at the business. McLain's has done a number of jobs for people around town, residential and commercial properties, he said, including installing and building Corian countertops, which they are certified in installing. Corian is a solid acrylic surface which is commonly used in hospitals as well as homes due to its easy to clean and durable surface. He said that he usually does the majority of the design work, using a program called 20/20, which is a design program the majority of the cabinet companies install their products on. Using the program, he said, he can design a kitchen in three-dimensional rendering and have all the prices estimated through the use of the program. McLain added that he, his father and brother are all able to do everything else needed in the shop. Some people come with interesting ideas of what they want them to design, he said, and he and his family has to figure out how to make their vision into a reality for them. McLain added that they never try pushing any specific products onto their customers. "It's been alright," he added. Old and new Steve McLain said that he has been a Havre business owner since 1980, a year after he graduated from vocational technical school. He added that his father was a railroader, and encouraged him to work for the railroad as well, but after working at the railroad for two months he and a friend decided to go back to school. "I took a chance on a lot of things that nobody else did," he said. After starting SM Construction in 1994, his company built a number of properties such as the Rolling Hills properties, he added. McLain said that he still owns SM Construction and occasionally they will take on new projects around town, but they are able to be more selective on the jobs they work on. He added that he is surprised by how busy the cabinet business always is. "Eric and Cody, they love the cabinet business," he said. "... All the way to building condos and houses to working in the cabinet business, I enjoy all of it." Havre Daily News/Ryan Berry Eric and Cody McLain pose for a photo in their shop Wednesday at McLain's Cabinets in Havre. McLain said that between his four children, his two sons and his two daughters, Haley and Amy, he has 16 grandchildren. He added hopefully some of them want to get involved in the family business. Steve McLain said his son Eric has two boys, Brayden, 9, and Callen, 4, and Cody has one boy, Brooks, 3, and one more child on the way. Brayden sweeps the shop just like his dad did when he was younger, Steve McLain said. He added that it is great to have his grandson willing to work because a number of people aren't willing to do manual labor. "Someday he'll be able to charge the same as a lawyer because nobody does this job," he said. Eric McLain said that he doesn't know if his son will be interested in taking over the family business one day - only the future can tell. "I don't know, we'll see," he said. To see how the phages and bacteria might work together, the researchers took advantage of a quirk of the biology of filamentous phages: When these phages infect the bacteria, they do not kill them; rather, the still-living bacteria incorporate the phage DNA into their own DNA and begin churning out lots of viral particles. The researchers looked at genetic analyses of Pseudomonas bacteria from the lungs of 34 CF patients in Denmark. The patients had had their bacterial DNA sequenced repeatedly over time, allowing the researchers to see whether phage DNA had been persistently incorporated into the bacterial genomes. Patients were more likely to develop consistent phage infections as they got older, supporting the idea that the virus-infected bacteria come to dominate CF patients lungs over time. The average age of patients without the phages was 13, while the average age of phage-infected patients was 19. Burgener and her colleagues also collected sputum samples from 76 people with CF, both adults and children, who were receiving treatment at Stanford. The team tested the sputum for genetic signatures from Pseudomonas and filamentous phages and found that 58 people had Pseudomonas infection. The researchers studied information from the patients medical records on lung function, what bacteria had been growing in their lungs over time and other health indicators. Among the Stanford patients, carrying phage-infected Pseudomonas was more common as patients got older. Phage-infected Pseudomonas bacteria were more likely than bacteria without the virus to be resistant to three antibiotics commonly used to treat CF aztreonam, amikacin and meropenem but not to another antibiotic, ciprofloxacin. The thing that really stood out was that patients with phage and Pseudomonas had significantly more antibiotic resistance than patients that didnt have phage, Burgener said. How does antibiotic resistance happen? The researchers previously showed that phage particles glom together into a liquid-crystal structure, a slimy biofilm, which grabs onto antibiotic molecules. In the new study, they tested whether this could prevent antibiotics from diffusing to bacteria. The phage biofilm sequestered aztreonam, amikacin and meropenem away from bacteria, the team showed. We think the biofilm is protecting Pseudomonas, Burgener said. As the biofilm sequesters antibiotics, the bacteria sees sub-therapeutic levels of the drugs, allowing individual drug-resistant bacteria to grow and gradually take over in the lung. The researchers think the physical properties of the different types of antibiotic molecules such as whether the drugs have charged or neutral surfaces may explain why some antibiotics get stuck in the phage biofilm and others do not. If were able to confirm these results, it may affect how we choose antibiotic therapy for patients who have CF and Pseudomonas, Burgener said. Its shocking how much effect the phages have on the host immune system. The next step is to understand how CF patients bodies respond to the phages, Burgener said, adding, Its shocking how much effect the phages have on the host immune system. Bollyky recently led another study that suggests it may be possible to vaccinate against the phage. Ideally, wed be able to give a vaccine to CF patients when theyre young, Burgener said. Hopefully we can prevent Pseudomonas infection. Other Stanford co-authors of the study are graduate students Johanna Sweere, Michelle Bach and Naomi Haddock; former postdoctoral scholar Xiou Cao, PhD; Lu Tian, ScD, associate professor of biomedical data science; and biostatistician Laurence Nedelec, PhD. Bollyky is a member of Stanford Bio-X and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford. Bollyky and Milla are members of the Stanford Maternal & Child Health Research Institute. Scientists from the University of Montana, Copenhagen University Hospital and the University of Copenhagen also contributed to the research. The Stanford scientists involved in the research were supported by Stanfords Maternal & Child Health Research Institute; the Stanford Training Program in Pulmonary, part of a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (grant T32HL129970); Stanfords Translational Research and Applied Medicine Program; the Ross Mosier Laboratories Gift Fund; the National Institutes of Health (grants R21AI137432 and R01AI12492093); the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; and the Dr. Ralph and Marian Falk Medical Research Trust Bank of America. Stanfords departments of Pediatrics, of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology also supported the work. April 22 is Earth Day. Have you ever wondered why? This year marks the 49th Earth Day celebration. The first one came about during a wave of national activism, as people protested the United States involvement in the Vietnam War and began questioning just how dirty our air and water would become before anyone took action. 1962 Rachel Carsons book Silent Spring comes out, alerting the public to the danger of pesticides and the misinformation chemical companies had spread for years. Rachel Carson's book opened the eyes of many Americans to the real dangers of pesticides. Summer 1969 The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, literally catches on fire as chemical waste that had been dumped in the river burns. This was not the first time that oil-soaked debris floating in the Cuyahoga caught fire. In fact, there were at least 13 documented fires on the river, beginning in 1886. The fire in 1969, however, captured the national spotlight, prompting Americans to wonder just how bad pollution levels might be. This fire indirectly spawned a tapestry of environmental regulations including the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The Cuyahoga River in Ohio routinely caught fire because of the petroleum waste dumped into it. Fall 1969 Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin, shared his idea for a national Earth Day at a conference in Seattle. He was inspired by the peace teach-ins held in protest of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Gaylord Nelson, father of Earth Day The idea really landed. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast, Nelson later said. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes and airand they did so with spectacular exuberance. April 22, 1970 The first Earth Day rallies attracted 20 million people, including A-listers like Ali McGraw, Paul Newman and Pete Seeger. Congress took a recess day so members could talk to constituents about environmental issues. Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself. December 1970 The Environmental Protection Agency was established to protect human health by ensuring clean water, air and land. April 22, 1990 Earth Day goes beyond the US borders and is celebrated around the globe. April 22, 2019 More than a billion people in 192 countries are expected to celebrate the 49th Earth Day by planting trees, picking up trash, signing petitions and otherwise demonstrating their commitment to a clean planet. A MAN was attacked when he confronted fly-tippers he caught red-handed. Dion Sampson, 46, was delivering papers in Peppard early on a Sunday morning when the incident happened. As he drove past the bus stop opposite the Unicorn pub in Stoke Row Road, he saw a man dumping rubbish from a Mercedes van. The waste, which included building rubble and old tiles, was being added to a pile of rubbish bags which were awaiting collection following the villages annual spring clean the previous day. Mr Sampson, who works for Brightons Newsagents, stopped his Citroen Berlingo and approached the man to ask him what he was doing. But as he walked towards him, two other men got out of the van and threw a bottle and some metal at him. Mr Sampson ran back to his vehicle, which was hit by another missile as he drove away. He later discovered a dent. When he was a safe distance, he called the police. Officers arrived about 25 minutes later but by then the offenders had left. The incident happened at about 6am on Sunday, March 31. Mr Sampson, of Path Hill, Goring Heath, said: It all happened in a few seconds. Because of the angle that I approached from, I didnt see the other two guys in the back of their van. I asked them what they were doing. Then things started flying past my head. It was a bit of a shock you dont expect that. Peppard parish councillor Simon Crouch told a council meeting on Monday: He has turned out to be a bit of a local hero by confronting the fly-tippers. Chairwoman Jeni Wood said: The whole clean was done in such a good spirit so for that to happen when everyone has worked so hard is just awful. A spokesman for South Oxfordshire District Council said: While we encourage the reporting of fly-tipping, we urge people not to approach the individuals involved or to put themselves in any danger. The council advises that, if it is safe to do so, note the details of the incident from a distance, including the time and location, vehicle registration as well as a description of the individuals involved and then report it by calling 03000 610 610 or visit southoxon.gov.uk/flytipping. If possible, discreetly film or take photos of the incident as it could help any prosecution. More than 20 villagers took part in the village clean, collecting more than 25 bags of waste, which were collected by Biffa, South Oxfordshire District Councils waste contractor. The volunteers scoured the B481, Shiplake Bottom, Blounts Court Road, Gallowstree Road and Stoke Row Road as well as some of the village woodland. Councillor Wood said she found a bag of broken roof tiles as well as builders waste opposite Peppard Stores in Stoke Row Road. After the clean-up, the volunteers had coffee and cake at the Unicorn. Meanwhile, children from Peppard Primary School cleared the top common off the B481. They were rewarded with a visit to school by the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire Tim Stevenson. He said: I was there to celebrate what the kids had done in terms of keeping Peppard free of litter. There are some significant movements to try to reduce litter. It is a really important issue. Cllr Wood, who accompanied Mr Stevenson, said: He had never toured the village before and thought it was charming. He agreed that it was lovely and clean. After a wet and miserable few weeks, things are set to warm up for the bank holiday weekend. According to Met Eireann, temperatures will hit a balmy 21C. Which is just as well, because there are loads of great activities planned for the Easter break. On Saturday, revellers can try their hands at decorating chocolate eggs with Dollard & Co Irish artisanal chocolate producer Cocoa Atelier. Participants will be able to decorate six small eggs in a takeaway carton, and while their handiwork is setting, they can taste some goodies and indulge in a Cocoa Atelier signature hot chocolate. Sessions take place at 11am and 1pm at Dollard & Co in Temple Bar. Easter egg hunts are taking place across the county, most of them free. However, they are in huge demand and most require booking. One of the hunts is at Ballymun's Rediscovery Centre on Saturday. Follow the trail, find the clues and collect as many as you can. Whoever collects the most wins the special Easter prize. Anyone looking for a laugh should head to the Smock Alley Theatre to watch the hilarious Fur City, an improvised soap opera with puppets. The production, which can be seen tomorrow and Saturday, features some of Ireland's most talented comedy performers and improvisers. Brunch On Sunday, families can enjoy a leisurely two-hour cycle in the Phoenix Park from 2pm and an Easter Egg hunt. Organisers recommend participants wear festive or silly clothes to add to the fun. A Free Gaff Sunday Brunch with live performances from hip hop and electronic acts at an unknown Ballsbridge home from noon to 5pm has been organised by Red Bull (see its website for details). The annual Rock Against Homelessness concert takes place on Tuesday night at the Olympia Theatre. Deirdre O'Kane will join a talented line-up including Camille O'Sulivan, Aidan Gillen, Finbar Furey, Tommy Fleming and Duke Special. Tickets cost 35, with proceeds going to homeless charity Focus Ireland. Met Eireann says tomorrow will be dry and warm with long spells of spring sunshine and top temperatures of 17 to 21C. Saturday will be another warm and mostly dry day, with long sunny spells through much of Leinster and Munster. It will be a cloudy Easter Sunday, with some patches of rain or drizzle, but sunny breaks are expected towards the evening. Easter Monday will be a significantly cooler day, with scattered showers feeding in off the Atlantic as remaining rain in the east clears out. The rest of the week will be generally unsettled with normal to low temperatures. Detectives are investigating if an early morning gun attack at a house in the troubled Corduff estate was carried out by associates of the gangland thug nicknamed 'Mr Flashy'. The house was shot at yesterday at 1.10am and was targeted just over two hours after a Finglas property linked to drug dealer 'Mr Flashy' (26) was shot at. Bitter It comes as a bitter west Dublin feud threatens to spiral out of control. Expand Close SHOT: The Sheephill Avenue, Corduff, house shot at two hours later / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp SHOT: The Sheephill Avenue, Corduff, house shot at two hours later The first shooting was on Deanstown Green, Finglas, at 10.40pm on Tuesday. The house, which is monitored by a number of CCTV cameras, did not appear to be damaged in the attack. Just over two hours later at Sheephill Avenue, also in the Corduff area, another house was targeted in a similar gun attack. At a court hearing earlier this week a 24-year-old man who lives in the Corduff property and is alleged to be involved in a "volatile feud" in west Dublin, was charged with violent disorder at a local bar. He failed to have bail conditions relaxed, his lawyer maintaining that if he had to stay at his family home under curfew, he would be at risk of being killed. His lawyer said his client's life was under threat and he was at risk of being killed if his "movements were predictable". Expand Close RAIDED: The Corduff Road property raided in the early morning yesterday, in a major search operation by gardai / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp RAIDED: The Corduff Road property raided in the early morning yesterday, in a major search operation by gardai He asked for these conditions to be dispensed with but the judge declined after garda objections. Garda Megan Furey alleged the suspect was involved in a "very volatile feud in the Corduff area" and she wanted him to reside at his home address and observe a curfew so gardai could monitor him at all times. However, at Dublin District Court, Judge John Hughes imposed all bail conditions requested by gardai, including that the suspect stay out of Corduff Shopping Centre and its car park. The bail hearing happened before the 24-year-old's family home was shot at yesterday morning. The front living room window was shattered in the attack and yesterday morning it could be seen to have been replaced by a wooden board. "I'd rather have a gun in my hand than a cop on the phone," a sticker sign on the board read. Expand Close Kinahan cartel leader Daniel Kinahan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kinahan cartel leader Daniel Kinahan "What is clear is that the target of the Finglas shooting was blaming a 22-year-old criminal who has links to the Corduff property for the Tuesday night gun attack," a source told the Herald. "It is being investigated whether the Corduff shooting was a revenge attack," the source added. There have been no arrests in either case and gardai do not have evidence as to whether or not the Corduff criminal had any involvement in the Finglas gun attack. As investigations into the shootings continued, gardai raided a house on Corduff Grove at 8.30am yesterday morning in a major search operation. They arrived in four vehicles and gained access to the house. One garda could be seen at the scene with a sledgehammer and a crow bar. There were no reports of arrests. The first shooting in Finglas on Tuesday night targeted Kinahan cartel-linked criminal 'Mr Flashy'. He and his gangland associates are currently involved in a number of feuds in the west Dublin area. This includes a dispute with other criminals from the Finglas area, as well as the provision of support to one of the gangs involved in the Corduff feud. Targeted This gang has been in a bitter dispute with the 22-year-old criminal based in the Sheephill Avenue property that was targeted yesterday and his close associates. The 22-year-old told a previous court hearing that he was the intended target of a feud related shooting outside a school in Corduff, which happened on April 2. In his evidence to the court, he said "shots were fired" at his car. The Blanchardstown gang he has been at war with have close links to the Finglas-based 'Mr Flashy' crew which has led to a "complication and intensification" of feuding in the troubled locality in recent weeks. Gardai have been dealing with serious incidents on a daily basis. On Saturday night, a close associate of 'Mr Flashy' was believed to have been the target of another shooting at a house in Finglas. The incident happened at Cappagh Drive when a number of shots were fired at the house at 10.50pm, while there were people inside. Miley McDonald (37) and Patrick Cawley (20) were intercepted before a crime could be committed, a garda told Blanchardstown District Court. Stock photo Two men who were observed watching a financial institution in west Dublin and following a woman when she left it had false registration plates on their car. Miley McDonald (37) and Patrick Cawley (20) were intercepted before "a crime could be committed", an organised crime unit detective told Blanchardstown District Court. Their plan was for a "stealth theft rather than anything else", defence solicitor Simon Fleming said. Judge Paula Murphy fined Cawley 750, ordered a probation report and adjourned sentencing in the case of McDonald. McDonald, of Ballyowen Lane, Lucan, and Cawley, of Rivermeade Avenue, Swords, admitted possession of false registration places to be used in a theft. The incident took place at Topaz in Lucan last April 26. McDonald further admitted driving without insurance or a licence at Lucan Road on the same date. Det Gda Darren Coller, of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, told Blanchardstown District Court that gardai set up surveillance on the defendants, who were watching a financial institution in Lucan. Intervening Gda Coller said a woman left the institution and travelled out the Lucan Road. The defendants went the same way and then pulled into a garage forecourt. Det Gda Coller said gardai followed the men and intercepted them, "intervening before a crime could be committed". The pair were in a silver Mazda 6 with false registration plates, the court heard. McDonald was the driver, Det Gda Shona Moran said, and he was not insured. The court heard Cawley had three previous convictions while McDonald had 39. He was also driving while disqualified. Defence solicitor Simon Fleming said "a stealth theft rather than anything else" was planned. Cawley was married and his wife was pregnant, Mr Fleming said. He was currently living in the UK. McDonald was married and had three children with a fourth on the way. He had a problem with drink but was addressing it, Mr Fleming added. Through the program, donors can also find out, if they dont already know, if they have sickle cell trait. Thats when a person inherits one copy of the gene, meaning they dont generally have the disease but might pass the disease on to children if they have kids with another person with the trait. People with the trait cant donate blood to sickle cell patients, though they can donate to others. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, has said two decades of peace in Ireland cannot be jeopardised by Brexit. In a historic address at Leinster House, she told current and former Oireachtas members that the Good Friday Agreement is a "beacon to the world". "We treasure the Good Friday Accord," she said. In a contribution that focused mainly on the strong ties between Ireland and the US, Ms Pelosi also gave her backing to the Government's bid to win a seat on the UN Security Council. She urged Irish politicians to be leaders on climate change and praised Ireland as a modern nation that has "blossomed", citing the recent referendums on marriage equality and abortion. The event to mark the 100th anniversary of the first sitting of Dail Eireann was also attended by other member of the US Congress who travelled as part of Ms Pelosi's delegation. She said both Ireland and the US "know the joy of independence" and both "endured the traumatic experience of civil war and the satisfaction of rebuilding our nations". Freedom "It is these mutual experiences that our nations affirm for each other and to the world our democratic values and commitment to freedom," she added. "When Ireland proudly proclaimed its independence, our people stood together." To applause, she repeated her view that there will be no trade deal between the US and UK after Brexit if there is any possibility of the Good Friday Agreement being undermined. "We must ensure that nothing happens in the Brexit discussions that imperils the Good Friday Accord, including but not limited to the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland," she said. Ms Pelosi also praised Ireland's efforts on green technology but insisted that both Ireland and the US could do more on climate change and could do so together. She said they "must do better and must do more and can to it together" with the urgency the issue demands. The speaker described climate change as a national security issue throughout the world. She said it was a public issue in terms of clean air and water, an economic issue in terms of green jobs and reducing income inequality and a security decision "to keep us safe". Welcoming Ms Pelosi and her delegation to Dublin, Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail said it was significant that they came as the Dail celebrated its 100th anniversary. "The past century has seen Ireland change and evolve into a country which would perhaps be unrecognisable to those who sat in the Mansion House in 1919," he said. Peacekeeping "We have taken our place among the free nations of the world, intrinsically linked to the European project and deeply proud of our role in UN peacekeeping. "We are outward-looking and anxious to welcome those coming to our shores, temporarily or long-term. "We have sought to create an inclusive, tolerant society, mindful of our rich heritage but respectful of difference." Mr O Fearghail added: "We still have many challenges facing us, and we have some way to go yet to be the fair and equitable society we all strive for. "We have travelled that path with international friends and allies." A teenager told a female garda she was a "fat pig" when she asked him to move on, a court heard. David Botena (19) was "just being stupid" when he made the comments to Gda Nicola McMorrow, Swords District Court was told. He was ashamed and embarrassed at his behaviour, said Annette Kealy, defending. Judge Miriam Walsh ordered Botena to donate 300 to charity. In return, she left him without a conviction. Botena, of Orylnn Park, Lusk, admitted threatening and abusive behaviour in Station Road, Lusk, shortly before 11pm last July 22. Apologised The court was told Gda McMorrow was dealing with another matter when Botena approached her. When she asked him to move on, he became abusive and said: "Look at her, fat pig." Gda McMorrow said Botena had apologised later that evening for his remarks. Ms Kealy said her client, who had never been in trouble before, was studying hospitality at college. She said he regretted his behaviour, which was out of character. Katherine Zappone called for the babies to be treated with dignity Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has urged people with information on burials at former Mother and Baby Homes to come forward. Her plea comes after a commission of investigation found that the resting place of the "vast majority" of the hundreds of children who died at the Bessborough home in Cork is not known. Responding to the commission's findings, Ms Zappone appealed to those with knowledge of the homes to "let us know where [the babies] are buried". "Maybe then, finally, they could be treated with dignity in death," she said. The commission's fifth interim report also found that many of the 800-plus children who died at the Tuam home in Co Galway are likely to be buried inside a decommissioned sewage tank. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the report as "gruesome reading". Expand Close 'It was not only the clergy who were responsible for the Mother and Baby Home scandal, but also society at large; and the democratically elected governments of the day.' / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp 'It was not only the clergy who were responsible for the Mother and Baby Home scandal, but also society at large; and the democratically elected governments of the day.' He said Irish society inherits a "deep shame" for what was done at the institutions at a time when women and babies were "appallingly treated", often for being unmarried or poor. The report criticised religious orders that ran the institutions. It also criticised Galway County Council which owned the home at Tuam. The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary owned and ran three institutions: Bessborough; Castlepollard, Co Westmeath; and Sean Ross, Co Tipperary. It provided the commission with an affidavit about burials generally and specifically about those at Castlepollard and Sean Ross. Hospital The report said that the affidavit was "in many respects, speculative, inaccurate and misleading". The commission said more than 900 children died in Bessborough - or in hospital after being transferred from the institution - over more than seven decades. The report said the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary do not know where the children are buried. The commission considers it likely that some of the children are buried in the grounds of Bessborough, but has been unable to find physical or documentary evidence of this. The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary issued a statement last night, insisting the commission "has had and will continue to have our fullest co-operation". The commission's report said 802 children died at the Tuam institution. Many of the children are said to have been buried in a chamber structure built within a large decommissioned sewage tank. It is not believed the tank was designed as a burial chamber. The commission said it did not provide for the dignified interment of human remains. The report said the Sisters of Bon Secours - which ran the Tuam home - were "unable to provide any information about the burials there". The commission also said they are "surprised by the lack of knowledge about the burials on the part of Galway County Council" and the nuns. Theory "There must be people in Tuam who know more about the burial arrangements and who did not come forward with the information," it said. It concluded there is little basis for the theory that rather than having died that children were 'sold' to America. A statement from the Bons Secours Sisters said they have "always cooperated fully with the commission of investigation and will continue to do so. "Every piece of information we have on the Tuam home we have shared with the commission." Galway County Council did not respond to a request for comment. Fraud Squad gardai have caught three suspected members of an international crime gang after an 18-month investigation in which they identified at least two dozen members of the Romanian mob flying into and out of Ireland. The three male suspects aged 25, 24 and 31 were arrested on Thursday in Co Donegal, and last night they were still being questioned at Letterkenny and Milford Garda Stations. Some have previous convictions for similar offences, including in Finland. They are being held as part of a major probe by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau who were backed up by local officers and detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations. "A large amount of fraud paraphernalia was seized, including suspected cloned credit cards, credit cards issued in false names, bank account details and false Romanian identity documents," a Garda spokeswoman said. "Credit card machines, till rolls and a number of suspected stolen Irish and UK passports and driving licences along with two cars bought on finance obtained on bank accounts opened in false names were discovered at the location and seized. Cars "Much of the documentation seized relates to suspected frauds in Northern Ireland. "Investigations, which include enquires with Europol and the PSNI, are ongoing." The gang have registered companies in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK and use the internet to trick people into buying cars from them. Duped customers then transfer large sums of cash to buy vehicles that never even existed. The gang are also involved in hacking genuine websites selling goods and infiltrating sites' payments details so that customers inadvertently send their cash to the fraudsters. "This is a major investigation in which gardai have received invaluable help from European police forces," a senior source told the Herald last night. "It is very much an active investigation and not just in Ireland." Photos of some of the seized items were also released as officers continued to question the suspects who are being held under anti-gang legislation. The three arrested men are not considered to be senior members of the international crime network suspected of making millions from crime across Europe. Funds The gang are also believed to be involved in "invoice redirect" frauds. This happens when a business falls prey to requests, purporting to emanate from trusted suppliers or service providers, believing that a beneficiary's bank account details have been changed. As a result, funds that are due to be paid out are transferred to a fraudulent account. Gardai have made a number of arrests in the past year of organised criminals suspected of being directly involved in invoice redirection frauds that has cost Irish companies millions of euro in recent years. The lawsuit was filed by the team winding down what remains of Sears business after Lampert purchased the majority of its remaining assets in a bankruptcy auction this year and formed a new company out of those assets. The complaint, filed Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, seeks to recover the property that was allegedly fraudulently transferred. Why Gov. Tom Wolf says he has no plans to issue new mask mandates news Thats how Chicagoan Linze Rice felt when her biological father reached out in 2018. Years earlier, her mother had told her that although she was her birth mother, the man shed always known as her father had actually adopted her. Rice said she felt no need to establish a reunion with her birth father It wasnt really a huge void in my life, she said but did seek out information on him through contact with a cousin years ago. She knew that he was aware of her, and vice versa. In 2017, Cui emailed Burke asking the alderman to look into an issue he was having over signage at the property, even though the project was outside Burkes 14th Ward, according to the charges. He told the alderman that a retailer leasing space in his building identified by sources as Binnys needed a permit for the large pole sign or Cui would be forced to reduce the rent, costing his company an estimated $750,000. Still, Brodsky said he got the message loud and clear from the executive committee that he needs to clean up his behavior. He said he intends to pay the $50,000 fine as soon as hes able to and then will ask the panel to reconsider his suspension. Last year, in one of the largest clashes between groups of teens and police, officers tried to steer more than 100 teenagers onto Red Line trains that ran express to the South Side on Memorial Day weekend. Officers shut down parks and beaches early amid concerns about fights and vandalism. In one case, a 15-year-old boy was beat up by a group of about eight or 10 teenagers after teens were chased from 31st Street Beach. Of all the governance breakthroughs achieved by the Narendra Modi government, its record in improving welfare delivery has been discussed widely. Under the NDA governments direct benefit transfer (DBT) initiative, enabled by the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which was launched immediately after Narendra Modi entered office, Rs 3 trillion in welfare, both in cash and kind, has been disbursed to over 50 crore identified beneficiaries in the 2018-2019 financial year, according to government data. Since the programmes inception on January 1, 2013, Rs 6.77 trillion has been released directly to beneficiaries. In addition to the measurable outcomes, DBT has eliminated pilferage. Over four crore fake or duplicate welfare beneficiaries (liquefied petroleum gas accounts) and 2.82 crore (food and public distribution accounts) have been weeded out. This rationalisation and clean up across the welfare categories has cumulatively delivered savings of Rs 1.2 trillion since 2013-2014. This systemic change is of enormous importance as the savings and efficiency gains compound over time. Plus, the way welfare is delivered makes life easier for the beneficiaries, and it also has a cascading fiscal benefit. The Modi governments economic strategy has enabled formalisation and financialisation on a scale we have never seen before. The rocket fuel that is powering these two changes is digital technology. Most analysts have a narrow focus on one of these policies and are unable to see the results of the holistic strategy. But whats happening is this: formalisation, financialisation and digitisation are reinforcing each other in a virtuous cycle to transform the economy. The shift to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and concomitant simplification of the patchwork of taxes, replaced along with the incentive to claim input tax credit, has driven smaller firms to get registered. The government informed Parliament in March that over 10.3 million businesses were registered under GST. Of these, 6.4 million migrated from the old tax regime and 3.9 million were new registrants. Instead of operating in cash, small businesses are now in the tax net. This is good for both government revenue and businesses because those businesses can now access low-cost formal credit by virtue of keeping records, tracking cash flows and being in the organised economy. Perhaps for the first time in history, it is now possible in India to move from collateral based lending to cash flow based lending for small businesses. Demonetisation ranks among the most polarising policy decisions made by any government anywhere in the world. The bold and unprecedented act of withdrawing nearly 90% of currency by value is a policy that straitjacketed members of the academia and think tanks would never even contemplate, let alone recommend. These self-appointed authorities on what is credible may say that the policy was not credible and they would thus not recommend it, but the fact is demonetisation has brought a behavioural change in India. A report by investment firm, Omidyar Network, and the Boston Consulting Group, published in November 2018 said that India has leapfrogged 2.5 years ahead on the digital payment curve post-demonetisation in 2016. In October 2016, Rs 0.49 billion was transferred in 0.10 million transactions through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) standard built by the National Payments Corporation of India. For March 2019, the value transferred through UPI had increased over 2,700 times to Rs 1.33 trillion with about 800 million transactions completed, and there is ample room for more growth. There is a reason entrepreneurs and venture investors those who are building products and betting their capital on these structural policy changes (unlike the armchair critics, whove likely never engaged with people outside their academic departments) see India as the most promising financial technology market in the world. It is a mistake to see demonetisation in isolation. It has been the most visible in a series of steps taken to reduce cash use and prevent the accumulation of black money. Other steps include specialised, stronger laws for preventing benami transactions and money laundering, limits on the amount that can be paid entirely in cash and tighter know-your-customer rules in financial services. As it becomes harder to generate and deploy cash, and as more businesses and individuals become tax compliant, Indias aggregate savings is moving to financial assets from physical assets such as real estate and gold. Digitisation has slashed identification and execution costs, and a record number of retail investors are becoming investors in the stock market. This has the benefit of making ordinary Indians stakeholders in the wealth creation that is to come, as well as reducing Indias dependence on foreign institutional investment. These policy changes will bring a higher sustainable growth rate and a fiscal boom like India has never seen before. The next government will have the opportunity to shape the priorities and define the areas that receive capital from the public exchequer. In 2004, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had left a similarly robust economy, but the boom in tax revenues and the fruits of the intense reform efforts were frittered away by the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh government. As India chooses its capital allocator for the next five years, voters should choose wisely: Narendra Modi has demonstrated the ability to take risks and drive policy changes, and deserves a second term as PM. Rajeev Mantri is co-founder of the India Enterprise Council The views are personal Five years after Narendra Modi swept to power in a landslide election victory, and as he again faces the voters, we should ask: has he delivered on his campaign promises of Acche Din and minimum government, maximum governance? In 2014, most commentators, and I include myself, didnt interrogate Modis promises carefully enough, allowing him to get away with catchy slogans that may not have had any substance in them. Be that as it may, its incumbent on us now to move beyond the marketing, at which this government excels, and examine its record. Start with the shiny new Gross Domestic Product (GDP) statistics, which would have you believe that the fastest growth under this government happened in the year of the disruptive shock of demonetisation. Serious economists and now even the International Monetary Fund for the first time have questioned this data. Even if we buy them, 7% growth should be seen as a baseline scenario and not a success. Meanwhile, all other indicators point to an economy stuck in the mud. Consider Modis promise of making India a global trade and manufacturing hub. The reality is that the trade to GDP ratio peaked in 2012 in the supposedly bad old days of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and has been trending down ever since. Its now as low as 44%. Likewise, foreign direct investment (FDI) as a share of GDP peaked at 3% in 2008-9 under the UPA and is hovering a little above 2% under Modi. India has actually been de-globalising on Modis watch, made worse by the ham-handed return to protectionism and import substitution which was tried for decades and then discarded in 1991. In the latter days of the UPA, Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made political hay from the fact that the rupee was going down against the US dollar. Modi even joked that the rupee was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The truth is, even at the height of the taper crisis in 2013, the exchange rate stood at 63.6. Today its roughly at 69. If the rupee was in the ICU in 2013, its now officially dead and buried. Before the 2014 election, Modi was widely hailed by the markets for his supposedly pro-business stance. But the reality is that the Modi government has interfered more with business and commerce even than the UPA, exemplified by the cumbersome and botched GST implementation. Consider that the NIFTY 500 corporate profit to GDP ratio has been sliding ever since Modi and the BJP took power, and is at a 15 year low, even worse than under the UPA in 2013. Likewise, news headlines screaming that the Sensex is hitting record highs misses the fact that annualised average total returns were 8.5% from 2010-2013 and have risen only to 9.1% from 2015-2018, a tiny difference. As for demonetisation, it utterly failed to achieve its goals to reduce corruption, increase tax compliance and move to a less cash driven economy. The main impact was negative: to cause lasting damage to the large informal sector. Yet, perhaps the most insidious and long lasting damage wrought by the BJP in the past five years is the degradation of institutions, to the point where theyve been politicised beyond recognition everything from the armed forces to the central bank. Institutions in India have always been weak, but far from strengthening them, as his campaign rhetoric suggested he would do, Modi has done more to capture institutions than the UPA ever did. With such a bleak record, it is no wonder that the BJP has returned to communal politics like never before, openly pushing a Hindu supremacist agenda. If the BJPs 2014 election campaign was marked by a narrative of hope, aspiration and change, its 2019 counterpart has been angry and polarising. Voters have to ask themselves why, and what this ugly campaign foretells for the nation if the BJP wins again. Rupa Subramanya is an economist based in Mumbai The views expressed are personal In the year 1982, the International Council on Monuments and Sites declared 18th April as World Heritage Day to raise awareness about monuments and other sites which form a part of our history and culture. UNESCO approved of this day in the year 1983 and since then the day is dedicated to informing people about the sites which have achieved the status of heritage, their importance and the problems involved in protecting these sites. World heritage day also aims to seek recognition for the people involved in preserving these sites, especially scientists, archaeologists, geographers and engineers. Also Read: Wonderwalls of India: How St+Art India is changing the way we view and experience art World Heritage site is a natural or man-made site, area, or structure recognized as being of outstanding international importance and therefore as a deserving special protection. Sites are nominated to and designated by the World Heritage Convention (an organization of UNESCO). UNESCO aims to identify, protect and preserve the cultural and natural heritage of the world which is considered to be of outstanding value to the society. Also Read: 10 best cities around the world for young people Theme: World Heritage Day 2019 will explore the theme surrounding rural landscapes. Heritage rural sites form an integral part of our lives especially because they include activities of agriculture and fishing. Hence, it is crucial to protect and preserve these sites which will only be achieved through efforts of combined efforts of the international community. Top 5 UNESCO World Heritage sites Angkor Wat The largest religious temple in the world, Angkor Wat was originally dedicated to Hindu deity Vishnu but then was transformed into a Buddhist temple by the end of the twelfth century. Machu Pichu Located in Peru, Machu Pichu is located at 8000 ft with a natural beauty which is unparalled. Taj Mahal Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India which was built by emperor Shah Jahan to his honour his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Sigiriya Located near the town of Dambulla in the Central Province, Sri Lanka, the Sigiriyan lion rock is a fortress and temple complex build atop a volcanic plateau and is truly a sight to behold. Cinque Terre Located in Italy, the name of this site translates to Five Lands and is a part of the rugged Italian coastline. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Actor Ajay Devgn has finally spoken on working with rape accused Alok Nath in his upcoming film De De Pyaar De, a day after Tanushree Dutta criticised him for the move. Alok was accused of rape by writer Vinta Nanda in 2018. Ajay has now said in an official statement that the makers had already shot the portions starring Alok Nath before the allegations came out in October last year. According to a report in Times Now, Ajay has clarified, This film was supposed to be an October 2018 release. The shoot of the film got over by last September. The portions with Mr. Alok Nath were canned by August in Manali. The said portions were shot over 40 days across various sets and an outdoor location with a combination of over 10 actors. By the time the allegations came out (in October 2018) the actors in the film including me had already started work on other films. It would be near impossible to get all the dates and combinations of the several actors in the film and attempt a re-shoot with some other actor replacing Mr Nath. It would also have been a huge monetary loss for the producers. Everyone is aware that film-making is a collaborative process. Ajay also asserted that he could not have replaced Alok Nath after he was named in the MeToo movement. He said, The decision to replace Mr Alok Nath could never have been mine alone. In this case, I would have to go with the joint-decision of the entire unit. Not to forget, I could not have brought the entire combination of actors back or put up sets again for a 40-day re-shoot because this would mean doubling the budget, which again wasnt my call to make. It would have to be the call of the makers. Had circumstances played out even slightly differently, I would have pushed for a different combination of actors. Unfortunately, this was not to be. The actor also claimed that he stands by his support for the MeToo movement. He said that he respects every single woman at the workplace and would not stand for any unfairness or atrocity against them. Also read: After Alia Bhatt, Kangana Ranauts sister Rangoli sets her target on Ajay Devgn, says these men are intoxicated with money Besides Ajay and Alok, De De Pyaar De also stars Tabu, Rakul Preet Singh, Jimmy Sheirgill and Javed Jaffrey. Tanushree Dutta, who is credit for kick-starting the MeToo movement in India had called Ajay a hypocrite in her statement, Tinsel town is full of liars, show-offs and spineless hypocrites. And it seems by a large public consensus that the signpost is pointing currently at Ajay Devgn, but no, they had to keep the alleged rapist in their film and rub it on not only (accuser Vinta Nandas) but on all our faces. She had also said, Nobody even knew before the posters and trailers that Alok Nath is in the film so if Ajay Devgan and the makers wanted they could have just quietly replaced him and re-shot his portions. Actor Kangana Ranauts sister Rangoli Chandel had responded to Tanushrees statement saying, It is because of these men our country is a black spot on world map as far as crimes against women are concerned,shame on you Bollywood for mocking for mocking #MeToo. Follow @htshowbiz for more Waller said there probably were about 500 teens traveling through the city. Just after 9 p.m. Wednesday, police lined the middle of State Street outside the Chicago Theatre. More than a dozen officers on bikes surrounded a group of teens and blared their sirens. About 15 minutes later, a large of teens group bolted back to the corner of State and Lake streets as two women posed for a photo in front of the Chicago Theatre marquee. Fimmaker Anees Bazmee, who directed Salman Khan in No Entry and Ready and made films such as Deewangee and Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha with Ajay Devgn, is currently working on his next film, Pagalpanti. The director is in London with the entire cast of the film, which he claims will present John Abraham in a never-seen-before avatar. In an exclusive chat with Hindustan Times, Anees spoke about the film, his equation with Anil Kapoor , the success mantra of making a successful comedy and more. You are currently working on your next film titled Pagalpanti. Whats the madness all about? I dont see much of comedy in my films but the audience will see a lot of comedy in this film, which I am doing in a very serious way. I dont follow that style of filmmaking where actors are pulling their hair, making faces, falling down here and there or slapping each other. Its like a torture for the actors when they have to do whats written in the script and dont get to add their input. I do situational comedy and my plus point is writing. I write the screenplay in such a manner that all actors have to play their parts very seriously. There are some scenes where the actors are genuinely crying in the comedy. Pagalpanti is a larger-than-life film with some wonderful songs and a lot of romance, action, thrill and comedy. It is a complete package a full masala commercial film. Have you shot a special sequence in London? We have been shooting songs since March 20. Before that, we were shooting for the talkie portion and have almost completed it. There are three high-octane comedy action sequences and we have been picturized them well. We are also shooting the dance numbers at a massive level and they will be worth a watch. You have worked with Anil Kapoor in five films so far and are working with him again in Pagalpanti. What brings you together again and again? You can say our kundlis match with each other. He is a friend and an honest actor. I have always had a very good tuning with him be it No Entry, Welcome Back or Mubarakan. The audience have liked him and he has had a lot of fun working in these films. When I feel there is a good role and he can play that character then why should I look for someone else. We are both very comfortable with each other and work with a lot of enthusiasm. John Abraham has delivered back to back patriotic films in last two years. You are bringing him back in a comedy. Why did you choose him? I think there was not much of a comedy on Johns part as he was playing the role of a dada (goon). The main comedy was done by Nana Patekar and Anil ji. But there were a few scenes where I saw Johns expressions and felt that he can do fantastic comedy. When I told him the script, he liked it very much and was so excited and happy that he said lets do it. He is working very hard and it will come as a pleasant surprise for the audience to see him in a different avatar. I am sure people will love him. He will be seen in a chiseled look, flexing muscles but plays a common man who is also afraid of everyone. Do you think there is a success formula for making a good comedy film? Not just comedy, when you make a film in any genre, there is just one success mantra -- work on a good script with complete honesty and give it your best. When I write a film and dont feel excited, I think why should I make it at all when I dont feel happy about it. I work for my own excitement. I go outdoors, hardly sleep for 2-3 hours and keep on thinking all night if the scene is good and if people will like it and how can I make it better. My day doesnt end with pack-up at 6pm followed by a picnic. I go back, get ready and sit to write to make it better. I dont know the fate of the film but I should have a satisfaction that I didnt fall short of hard work. It really matters to me if I have written the script with honesty, all the actors are happy and there is a good atmosphere on the sets. It doesnt feel like shooting on the sets, we all sit together and laugh over the shots and it feels like a long picnic. Have you watched a comedy film recently? Which one did you like? I have been working on Pagalpanti since four months and havent watched any film. My problem is when I am working on a film, I dont watch any film. I dont even watch my own previous films in case I like a scene and think of repeating it in my new film. I had watched Bareilly Ki Barfi and really liked it. It was a very normal and natural kind of comedy. Also read: Student of the Year 2 song launch: Ananya Panday was asked who has such school uniforms, she says even I didnt You are one of the very few people who have directed Ajay Devgn and Kajol together, first in your debut film Hulchal (1995) and then in Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998). Will you be able to bring them together on the silver screen again? I love to work with them and I am sure they would love to work with me. We share a great equation. Both Kajol and Ajay are my very good friends. I made the first film of my life with them so they are always special for me. Then I made Pyaar to Hona Hi Tha which was a big hit. Ajay had a very different role in the film and Kajol had delivered a very good performance. They tied the knot around the same time. I know them since then and even now when we meet each other, it feels as if we met just a few days ago. If I have a script which I can make with them, I will definitely bring them together and they will love to be on board. Follow @htshowbiz for more Actor Irrfan Khan was recently mobbed by fans in Udaipur while shooting for his film Angrezi Medium and the makers have now increased the security on the sets. This is the first film of Irrfan after he underwent treatment for neuro-endocrine tumour for almost a year in London. Starring Radhika Madan and Kareena Kapoor, Angrezi Medium is being directed by Homi Adajania. A Mid Day report quoited a source as saying, Ever since word spread that Irrfan has been shooting in Brahmapuri, fans have been turning up to catch a glimpse of him. Since it is one of the busiest localities, it is not possible for the team to cordon the area. While Irrfans 18-member security detail is constantly by his side, the makers too have strengthened security. However, to be fair to the fans, they have not caused any trouble. Angrezi Medium is being shot in Udaipur and is produced by Dinesh Vijan. Also read: Student of the Year 2s The Jawani Song: Tiger Shroff, Ananya Panday, Tara Sutaria reprise the hit Kishore Kumar number A video of Irrfan from the sets of Angrezi Medium surfaced recently and he was seen surrounded by fans who gathered to meet him after the shooting was done for the day. While Irrfan plays a sweet shop owner in the film, Radhika essays the role of his teenage daughter who wants to pursue higher studies in the UK. It is rumoured that Kareena Kapoor maybe essaying the role of his wife. Earlier, he shared his first look from the film. GMB serving since 1900s Its going to be fun to tell another story #AngreziMedium. Coming soon, with Mr Champakji... Aa Raha Hu phir entertain Karne Sabko #ItsTimeToKnowChampakJi #AngreziMedium pic.twitter.com/mC3IL2UMpf Irrfan (@irrfank) April 8, 2019 Angrezi Medium is the sequel to 2017 hit Hindi Medium where Irrfan played the role of a rich businessman from Old Delhi who is struggling to get his daughter admitted to a good, English medium school. Irrfan was last seen in debutant Akarsh Khuranas Karwaan alongside Mithila Parker and Dulquer Salmaan. Follow @htshowbiz for more It was a busy week for the Bollywood celebrities as many of them had either professional commitments or took out time for personal outings. Actor Malaika Arora has left her fans concerned after being spotted at the Lilavati hospital in Mumbai again. Though the former reality judge and fitness enthusiast looked hale and hearty in gym casuals, but her second visit to the hospital in a week has made her fans worried. She was earlier spotted with rumoured boyfriend Arjun Kapoor at the hospital a few days ago. Malaika Arora at Lilavati hospital. (Varinder Chawla) Actor Kareena Kapoor has just wrapped the shooting of her next film Good News and was seen busy with other commitments. The actor was recently spotted at a restaurant in yellow off-shoulder top and matching trousers and happily posed for the paparazzi. Meanwhile, husband Saif Ali Khan was spotted at a gym in Mumbai. Kareena Kapoor at a restaurant and Saif Ali Khan at a gym. (Varinder Chawla) Filmmaker Karan Johar hosted a house party for his Kalank team on the day of the films release. The film opened at around Rs 21.60 crore amid mixed reviews. Among the celebrities spotted at Karans residence were films stars Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. Shweta Bachchan Nanda along with filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Ayan Mukerji were also spotted at the party. Alia Bhatt at Karan Johars house party. (Varinder Chawla) Varun Dhawan at Karan Johars house party. (Varinder Chawla) Ayan Mukerji at Karan Johars house party. (Varinder Chawla) Shweta Bachchan at Karan Johars house party. (Varinder Chawla) Zoya Akhtar at Karan Johars house party. (Varinder Chawla) Deepika Padukone, who was stationed in Delhi for the shooting of her next film Chhapaak, was spotted at the Indira Gandhi International airport in the capital in a black top and high-waist denims. The actor plays an acid-attack survivor in the film and has been seen in a disfigured avatar on the sets. Meanwhile, actor Vivek Oberoi was spotted at the Mumbai airport. Sidharth Malhotra, who just wrapped up the shooting of his film Jabariya Jodi with Parineeti Chopra, was also seen at the airport with family. Actor Jimmy Sheirgill was spotted in a very different look at the Mehboob Studios. He was last seen in Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi and will now be seen in Ajay Devgns De De Pyaar De. Vivek Oberoi at airport and Jimmy Sheirgill at Mehboob studios. (Varinder Chawla) Also read: Neena Gupta on why she discouraged daughter Masaba from acting: The way you look, you will never become Alia Bhatt A new web series Poison was also launched in Mumbai on Thursday. The entire star cast of the show including actors Arbaaz Khan, Riya Sen and Tarun Virwani attended the event. The cast of Poison at the launch of the web series. (Varinder Chawla) Follow @htshowbiz for more With cash-starved Jet Airways suspending operations, aviation regulator DGCA Thursday said it will ask the airline for a concrete and credible revival plan, as well as extend help within the regulatory framework. A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also said the regulator would take action in accordance with due procedure under relevant regulations. After weeks of uncertainty, Jet Airways Wednesday announced temporary suspension of its operations as it did not receive emergency funds to stay afloat. The DGCA would be asking the company for concrete and credible revival plan to restart the suspended operations, the official said. According to the official, the watchdog would also endeavour to do its best to help the company revive its operations within the set regulatory framework. Lenders are carrying out the bidding process for stake sale in the ailing airline, which has a debt burden of more than 8,000 crore. Against the backdrop of capacity reduction due to flight cancellations and rise in airfares, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Thursday held a meeting with representatives of various airport operators. It was also attended by Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials. Issues related to slot allocation at airports in the wake of Jet Airways suspending operations were discussed at the meeting, an official said. In the evening, the secretary would be holding a meeting with representatives of airlines. On Thursday, lenders to Jet Airways said they are reasonably hopeful of a successful bidding process for stake sale. The civil aviation ministry, on Wednesday, said it would support the resolution process for Jet Airways within the existing regulatory framework. Six neighbours of a 22-year-old food delivery boy murdered him by first strangling him with an iron wire and then stabbing him at least six times in the abdomen at an abandoned farmhouse in south Delhis Neb Sarai on Monday night. His body was found buried in a farmland and covered with dry leaves and garbage near the farmhouse, almost 40 hours after he went missing and subsequently murdered, the police said. Four men, including the two prime suspects Sombir Singhal and Vicky Jha, were arrested while two other suspects Ravindra Bisht and Golu were absconding. Police said the suspects told them that Surjit Kashyap, the victim, bullied and threatened them. They also claimed that they held a grudge against him because Kashyap had beaten them up a few years ago. Their interrogation led to the recovery of Kashyaps body on Wednesday morning from the ditch near the farmhouse, about 800 metres from the Neb Sarai police station, said deputy commissioner of police (south) Vijay Kumar. Kashyaps family members, however, rejected polices claims. They said it was the suspects who had been bullying Kashyap. They also claimed that they had stabbed Kashyap a few years ago. They also alleged that the killers mutilated his body by stabbing him in the eyes and cutting open his abdomen. The police dismissed their allegations. They said Kashyaps body had started decaying because being left in the open for over 36 hours. Kashyaps throat was not slit with any sharp weapon. He was in fact strangled with an iron wire, which caused a deep cut around his neck. Victims family reported him missing on Tuesday morning. We cracked the case, arrested the killers and found his body in less than 24 hours , said Kumar. Kashyap is survived by his parents and seven siblings. They lived in Jawahar Park area in Neb Sarai. Victims sister Archana said he left home around 2.30 pm on Monday after someone called him on his cell phone. Around two hours later, Kashyaps mother found his phone switched off. The family panicked and filed a complaint when he did not return home till next morning. Police said during the enquiry, they learnt that a friend of Kashyaps brother had heard an inebriated Jha telling someone over phone about a murder that he and his friends had committed. We interrogated him and he confessed to the crime. He also led us the place where they had dumped Kashyaps body, the DCP said. On Monday, Kashyap threatened Singhal when he was at work. Singhal told his friend about it and they decided to kill him. The six men killed Kashyap at the farmhouse, said Kumar. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set an unhealthy precedent in inducting Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur into the party and making her its candidate in Bhopal . Ms Thakur is the main accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. On September 29, 2008, a blast in Malegaon, Maharashtra, killed six and injured around 100. Ms Thakur, arrested the same year, is now out on bail but still faces charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). She was granted bail in 2017 after the National Investigation Agency said in 2016 that Ms Thakur was not connected to the blast, and also dropped charges against her under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. However, a special National Investigation Agency court in December 2017 refused to drop the charges under UAPA. In late 2018, the court framed charges against Ms Thakur and the six other accused in the case. These charges related to terrorism under UAPA and murder and fanning enmity between communities under the Indian Penal Code. To be sure, none of the charges have been proven in a court of law yet, and Ms Thakur and her supporters maintain that she was framed by a government keen to establish the concept of Hindu or Saffron terror. Still, even if she is innocent, given the magnitude of the charges, the BJP could have avoided making her its candidate in Bhopal (where she will take on the Congresss Digvijaya Singh, whom she and her family hold partly responsible for the case against her). If theres still any doubt about the correctness of the move, imagine for a moment what the reaction would have been had the National Conference or the Trinamool Congress, or just about any other party, given a ticket to a person out on bail on terror charges. Apart from being unprecedented, the BJPs decision regarding Ms Thakur also reflects an extremely cynical approach to the choice of candidates even in the context of several parties picking candidates with serious charges against them. That her running will also polarise the electorate in Madhya Pradesh, maybe even beyond, is certain. Then, this is perhaps what the BJP hopes to achieve that and to send a message to the faithful that it will stand by its own. TS Inter Results 2019: The much- awaited results of Intermediate first and second year examinations (Class 11 and 12) in Telangana has been announced at 5 PM today. The result was declared at 5 PM in the evening. According to an official release from Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) secretary A Ashok, the process of evaluation and tabulation of marks has reached the final stages and it has been decided to declare the results on April 18. Secretary of education department B Janardhan Reddy released the results at Telangana state board of intermediate education office. TELANGANA BOARD INTERMEDIATE RESULTS 2019: Follow LIVE UPDATES here The results will be announced at Vidya Bhavan, the office of TSBIE at Nampally in Hyderabad, the official release said. Over nine lakh students appeared for the Intermediate first year and second year examinations. Nearly 4.7 lakh students were registered for general and 29,000 for the vocational exams for the Intermediate second year examinations. WEBSITES TO CHECK: Here is the direct link to check 1st Year General Results http://results.cgg.gov.in/TS_First_Year_General.do Here is the direct link to check Ist Year Vocational Results http://results.cgg.gov.in/TS_First_Year_Vocational.do Here is the direct link to check 2nd Year General Results http://results.cgg.gov.in/StudentResult2.do Here is the direct link to check 2nd Year Vocational Results http://results.cgg.gov.in/VStudentResult2.do TSBIE MOBILE APP Telangana intermediate board also introduced a mobile app - TSBIE services, which can be downloaded from Google Play Store. Candidates can also check their results using the app. PAST YEAR TRENDS: In 2018, the Telangana Intermediate results for both first and second year were released on April 14. The board conducted the 1st year Intermediate examinations from February 27 to March 16, while the 2nd year examinations from February 28 to March 18. Last year, Telangana Board of Intermediate Education had announced the first and second year exam results on April 13. Girls did better than boys in the intermediate examinations. The pass percentage for the first year was 62.35 and that for the second year was 67.25. Out of 4,55,789 students, who appeared for the first year examinations, 2,84,224 were declared successful. The pass percentage among girls was 69% and that of the boys was 55.66%. In the second year, 2,88,772 students, out of 4,29,378 who appeared for the exam, passed. Girls outscored boys with a pass percentage of 73.25. The pass percentage of the boys was 61%. Updates here: 6:00 PM In the first year Medchal district has topped with 76%, while Ranga Reddy was second at 71% and Medak district came last with 29%. 5: 21 PM Last date for examination fee for supplementary is April 25, 2019. Supplementary exam dates will be announced on Friday 05: 20 PM Advanced supplementary exams will be conducted from May 14, 2019. 5:05 PM 59.5 per cent pass percentage in first year and 65 percent second year are recorded. 5:02 PM The TS Inter result has been declared. 04: 50 PM Candidates should keep ready their admit card and roll number to check their results. 04: 45 PM B Janardan Reddy, the secretary of education department will declare the results in the press conference at TSBIE office premises. 04:30 PM The officials of TSBIE will address the media persons at 5 PM in press conference after which the result will be declared. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Does an older friend or relative have a hard time hanging up on telemarketers? Or get excited about a Youve won a prize voicemail? New research suggests seniors who arent on guard against scams also might be at risk for eventually developing Alzheimers disease. Elder fraud is a huge problem, and Mondays study doesnt mean that people who fall prey to a con artist have some sort of dementia brewing. But scientists know that long before the memory problems of Alzheimers become obvious, people experience more subtle changes in their thinking and judgment. Neuropsychologist Patricia Boyle of Rush Universitys Alzheimers disease center wondered if one of the warning signs might be the type of judgment missteps that can leave someone susceptible to scams. When a con artist approaches an older person, theyre looking for a social vulnerability someone who is open to having a conversation with a complete stranger, said Boyle. Then the older person must interpret that strangers intentions and emotions, with little else to go on, in deciding whether to believe what theyre peddling, she explained. Boyle turned to data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which operates a fraud risk meter, to determine behaviors that could signal scam vulnerability things such as answering the phone when you dont recognize the number, listening to telemarketers, finding it difficult to end unsolicited calls, being open to potentially risky investments and not realizing that seniors often face financial exploitation. Boyle studied 935 seniors, mostly in their 70s and 80s, with no known brain problems who were enrolled in a long-running memory and aging project in Chicago. They took a scam awareness questionnaire and then took yearly brain tests for an average of six years. During the study, 151 seniors were diagnosed with Alzheimers and another 255 with mild cognitive impairment, sometimes a precursor for Alzheimers. The participants whod had what Boyle calls low scam awareness at the studys start were more likely to have developed each of those conditions than seniors who were more aware of scam vulnerability. For a closer look, the 264 participants who died during the study underwent brain autopsies. Sure enough, the lower the scam awareness at the studys start, the more people had a buildup of sticky plaque in their brains that is a hallmark of Alzheimers, Boyle reported in Annals of Internal Medicine. The study cant prove a link between low scam awareness and impending decline in thinking and memory, cautioned Dr. Jason Karlawish of the University of Pennsylvania in an accompanying editorial. Karlawish described one of his own patients who confessed to a grandson, I think Ive been had by a lottery scam that persuaded him to pay taxes up-front so he could receive his purported winnings. It was just too hard to hang up on the polite caller. Three years later, that patient shows no sign of cognitive impairment, said Karlawish, who said hes flummoxed by how the clever crooks managed to rob the man. Still, the study results should be a call to action to health care systems, the financial services industry and their regulators, Karlawish wrote, urging further research into what he called notable findings. The possible scam link isnt surprising, agreed Alzheimers Association vice president Beth Kallmyer, who also said it needs more research. In fact, she said seniors may be reluctant to report fraud for fear family members might suspect they were sucked in because of health problems. Dementia concerns or not, she advises seniors simply to not answer unsolicited calls or emails from people they dont recognize, making it harder for them to be targeted. Previous research has suggested that seniors can begin to have trouble managing their finances even with agings normal cognitive slowing. And the rise in elder fraud has reached such a level that investment firms now are supposed to ask customers for the contact information of a trusted person they can alert if they suspect a case of financial exploitation. Just last week, federal agents broke up a Medicare scam that sold unneeded orthopedic braces to hundreds of thousands of seniors. And every tax season the government warns people not to fall for phone calls from IRS impostors that agency wont call for payment. As older people start making mistakes in financial, health care and other types of complex decisions, we do need to raise awareness and start asking, Do they need some help? Boyle said. It doesnt necessarily mean someone is going to go on to develop dementia. But we should become more aware. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Actors Priyanka Chopra and Mindy Kaling are likely to shoot in India for their upcoming film that is said to be based on Indian weddings. Just days after an official announcement was made, reports now reveal that the upcoming film will be shot in Delhi and Rajasthan. Mindy and Priyanka announced their collaboration last week when Universal bagged the rights for the new project that will be written and directed by Mindy. Co-produced by Mindy and Priyanka, it will feature the Bollywood actor. Also read: Hrithik Roshan shares new workout video after Super 30 shoot, Tiger Shroff calls it beast mode. Watch A Mid Day report quoted a source as saying, Since the script revolves around a desi wedding, the makers are looking at unexplored venues in Delhi and Rajasthan as the two places beautifully capture the essence of India. A luxury villa in Ranthambore has also caught their attention. For now, the team is working on the screenplay. Once the script has been locked by August, a production team will fly down to do a recce across North India. Since there are a few similar themed films in production at the moment, including Mira Nairs series A Suitable Boy, the team will have to scout for unique locations in the cities. The tabloid further said that the film will go on floors by November. Priyanka will be caught up with the promotions of The Sky Is Pink, starring Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim, till October. Only after the Shonali Bose-directed film hits the marquee will the actor be able to dive headlong into the comedy, the source added. Dan Goor, the co-creator and executive producer of the popular sitcom, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, will write the film with Mindy and also co-produce it with Mindy and Priyanka. Follow @htshowbiz for more Police raided the Tarachand and PCB Hostels on the Allahabad University (AU) campus and recovered material used in making crude bombs, a fake pistol and large number of empty liquor bottles, on Wednesday. The raid follows the murder of a former student Rohit Shukla at PC Bannerjee Hostel, late on Sunday night. Accompanied by Rapid Action Force (RAF) jawans, a door-to-door search operation was conducted at the two hostels. AU proctor RS Dubey accompanied the men in uniform and sealed at least 106 rooms, which were occupied by illegal inmates at both hostels. Police arrested the driver of student leader Abhishek Singh alias Michael, who was illegally living at the Tarachand Hostel. The police broke the locks of the rooms, which were found locked and threw away heaters and coolers found there. The Allahabad High Court had taken cognisance of the recent spurt in crimes in the district and expressed concern over the violence at AU and its hostels. Jolted by the courts remarks, heavy police force led by SP city Brajesh Kumar Srivastava and Colonelganj circle officer Shreesh Chandra first reached Tarachand Hostel early on Wednesday morning. SP city Brajesh Kumar Srivastava said at least 58 rooms were sealed in Tarachand Hostel and 20 motorcycles and a car were taken to the police station. At least 13 youths who were found illegally living in the hostel and were found suspicious were also detained for questioning. One of them has been identified as Nirbhay Singh, the driver of student leader Abhishek Singh alias Michael. In room number 2/43, police found crude bombs while explosive powder and other materials used in making crude bombs along with a toy gun was found in room number 4/31. The team later reached PC Bannerjee Hostel and sealed at least 43 rooms, which were suspected to be occupied by illegal inmates and miscreants. Police also seized a car and some motorcycles. Earlier, AU authorities suspended Ashutosh Shahi, a student, at the PCB Hostel from whose room explosive material was recovered in the raid. Spoors family members are still trying to get over the shock of her death. They are confident she received excellent medical care at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. But they are worried that she could not be cured of the infection because it was resistant to traditional antifungal medicines. And they would like to see the state disclose which facilities have cases of the disease, so patients can take safeguards against it. The aviation regulator said on Thursday that it would ask Jet Airways for a concrete and credible plan to restart its operations, a day after the cash-strapped airline suspended all domestic and international flights following the denial of an emergency lifeline by its creditors, who now control the airline. Jet Airways shares slumped 32.2% on the Bombay Stock Exchange to Rs 163.90 apiece at close of trading on Thursday, reflecting investors pessimism about the airlines ability to survive under the weight of $1.2 billion in debt, notwithstanding a statement of hope by the airlines banks and a pledge by the regulator to help the company. In comparison, the broader Sensex index fell 0.34% to 39,140.28 points. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the industry regulator, said in a statement that it would take action following due procedure under relevant regulations following Jets decision to halt operations. It said in a statement: DGCA would also be asking the company for concrete and credible revival plan to restart the suspended operations. DGCA would endeavour to do its best to help the company revive its operations within the set regulatory framework. The decision by Jet Airways, which operated more than 600 flights with a fleet of 119 planes at its peak, to suspend operations has thrown the future of 16,000 employees, many of whom havent been paid salaries for months, into uncertainty. For passengers, the loss of seat capacity in the skies means higher fares in the peak summer season although the government is trying to avert a surge in ticket prices. The crisis prompted state-owned Air India to offer special fares to Jet Airways passengers stranded at international stations. Civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said efforts were underway to minimise inconvenience to passengers. Jet Airways has been feeling the heat for weeks after failing to receive a stop-gap loan of about $217 million from its lenders as part of a rescue deal finalised in late March, prompting lessors to repossess aircraft for non-payment of dues and forcing it to curtail flights. A consortium of 16 lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI), the nations largest bank, is trying to find an investor to infuse funds into the airline launched in 1992 by Naresh Goyal, now 69, who turned entrepreneur after having worked at several international carriers. On Thursday, SBI said in a statement: The lenders after due deliberations decided that the best way forward for the survival of Jet Airways is to get the binding bids from potential investors who have expressed EOI [expressions of interest] and have been issued bid documents on 16th April. Lenders are reasonably hopeful that the bid process is likely to be successful in determining fair value of the enterprise in a transparent manner. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), a grouping of world airlines, suspended Jets membership of its clearing house system, a move that is likely to impact the process of refunding passengers. According to IATA, the system enables airlines and associated firms to settle their passenger, cargo and other miscellaneous billings in a way that reduces cost and risk. Consequently, claims by and against Jet Airways will not be processed by the clearing house with effect from and period 02 of the April 2019 clearing month, the association said in a statement, adding that claims that had already been submitted for clearance were excluded. On Tuesday, founder-chairman Goyal withdrew plans to bid for a controlling stake in the company, according to aviation consultant Mark Martin. Etihad Aviation Group purchased a 24% stake in the company in 2013. Finding new investors was always going to be a tall order for Jet Airways, said Loizos Heracleous, an aviation expert at Warwick Business School in Britain. Increases in industry profitability after 2011 were aided by lower fuel prices. With fuel prices on an upward trend since 2016, the performance of some airlines has taken a hit. Investors according to Shukor Yusof, the head of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics have doubts over whether a successful deal will be completed. Jets value is dwindling with each passing day, he said. Jets last flight after it announced the suspension of operations on Wednesday night took off from Amritsar to Mumbai. With no emergency fund infusion in sight, the airline said it wouldnt be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going, justifying the suspension. The airline had been left with a mere seven aircraft earlier in the week. Employees of Jet Airways staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, and gathered outside its Mumbai headquarters. Zoya Shaikh, a 23-year-old Jet Airways airport agent in Mumbai, said she was still waiting for this months salary. There is no clear idea of what is happening. We have been told by the airline management to wait for what the bidders plan to do, she said. Jet Airways pilots have complained that they havent been paid in four months. In New Delhi, hundreds of employees in uniforms including flight attendants in the airlines signature yellow appealed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step in, some holding signs that read, Save Jet Airways, save our family. My kids are asking for medicine. Who do we go to and beg? If we dont ask the government, who do we ask? Rajender Kumar, a Jet Airways baggage handler, said. Travel agents in New Delhi said Jet Airways grounding was affecting prices and availability of flights in and outside of India. Jyoti Chopra of Sadhana Tours India said there were no seats available on any of the five daily direct flights from New Delhi to London Heathrow anytime in the next six days. One-way flights with one or more stops were selling for around 70,000 rupees ($1,006), about 43% higher than a week ago. A round-trip flight from New Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram,the Kerala capital, would have cost about Rs. 14,000 but showed at Rs. 35,000 rupees on Thursday, Chopra said. A gap in capacity has pushed up fares by 30-40% since September in India, ratings agency ICRA has said. The aviation regulator attempted to allay the concerns of passengers. Our overriding priority remains the safety, convenience, and affordability of our aviation system. We are assisting airlines and airports to bring in capacity rapidly to ensure that fares remain stable and competitive, the DGCA said in a tweet. The crisis at Jet has opened a window of opportunity for other airlines, which are seeking extra slots at airports because of Jets suspension of flights. Jets slots will be allocated to other airlines based on factors including fleet and staff strength, a civil aviation ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Once allotted, an airline can keep the slot for one flying season or six months and Jet can reclaim the slots if it is revived by the end of the flying season, the person said. We are assisting airlines and airports to bring in capacity rapidly to ensure that fares remain stable and competitive, the ministry of civil aviation said on Wednesday. IndiGo has been rapidly inducting new Airbus SE A320neos into its fleet in recent months. Air India wants to take 4-5 wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft of Jet Airways and may hold discussions on the subject with SBI, IANS reported. Low-cost airline SpiceJet has pledged to add 27 planes over the next two weeks, adding it would launch 24 new flights from Mumbai and Delhi over the period. The industry is currently facing severe shortage of capacity and SpiceJet remains committed to make all possible efforts to minimize passenger inconvenience, said Ajay Singh, SpiceJets chairman and managing director. The body of a BJPs 22-year-old youth wing leader was found hanging from a tree in West Bengals Purulia district on Thursday, police said, as the state witnessed polling in three of its 42 parliamentary constituencies. Polling will be held in the area along with seven other constituencies on May 12, the sixth round of the seven-phased Lok Sabha election. The votes will be counted on May 23. The father of Sishupal Sahis, a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader of Arsha area in the district, Jadav Sahis is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) panchayat member of the area. Before this, a BJP worker Trilochan Mahato, 18, was found hanging from a tree in a village of Purulia district on May 30 last year. Seventy-two hours later on June 2, another BJP worker Dulal Kumar, 32, was found hanging from a high tension electric pole about 5 km away from Supurdhi village where Mahatos body was found. The two incidents had triggered such a furore that BJP president Amit Shah visited the district on June 28, 2018, to address a public rally in Balarampur. We have found a body hanging in Arsha area. We are conducting an investigation. We are waiting for the post mortem report to determine whether it was murder or suicide, Purulia districts superintendent of police Akash Magharia said. BJP leaders claimed on Thursday Sishupal Sahis was killed and then hanged. After the panchayat elections last year, our workers were killed in Balarampur area of Purulia district. Now just before the Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool Congress supporters have again murdered a youth leader of ours, the BJPs Purulia district unit president Bidyasagar Chakraborty alleged. However, Trinamool Congress leader Shantiram Mahato said they had nothing to do with the young mans death. The BJP is playing dirty politics ahead of the poll. The youth committed suicide and they are trying to malign before the elections alleging we have killed him, the Trinamool leader said. On Wednesday, the body of a 55-year-old worker of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) Ajay Mandal was found in Patharpratima area of South 24 Parganas district. The CPI(M) leaders have alleged that Mandal was killed by TMC supporters when he had gone to catch fish. However, leaders of the ruling party dismissed the charges. The BJP and the Trinamool have traded similar charges of political violence in West Bengal, with both parties accusing each other of unleashing terror in the state and trying to disrupt peace. The eastern state witnessed wide-scale violence ahead of and during the panchayat elections held in 2018. A Delhi court on Thursday rejected an interim bail plea of British national Christian Michel -- an alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AugustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case -- for celebrating Easter. Michel wished to attend the holy mass on the Easter day and wanted to make religious offerings during those holidays. Special Judge Arvind Kumar dismissed the plea after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed the Michel bail application. Michels counsel Aljo K. Joseph and Vishnu Shankar told the court that the week commencing April 14 to 21 is a holy week for the Christians and Easter falls on April 21. Michel wishes to attend the holy mass on Easter and would like to make offerings during the Easter days, the defence counsel said. The counsel also told the court that Michel has been in the ED custody since before Christmas -- December 22 to 28, 2018 -- and was interrogated by the agency even on the Christmas day. They also apprised the court that despite him being a Christian, he was not allowed to join a holy mass. Michel has been in custody for more than nine months now that has affected his health and he has lost more than seven kilos in the last four weeks, the defence counsel said and urged for a general medical check-up. The CBI has given quiet voluminous documents pertaining to the entire case and ED has also given more than 3,000 pages with regard to the entire investigation and the prosecution complaint filed before this court, Michel said in his plea. The applicant (Michel) intends to file a detailed bail application and the counsels for the applicant/ accused are finding it difficult to carry the said documents every time to Tihar Jail for taking proper instructions with regard to the present charge-sheet. Michel was extradited to India on December 4, 2018 from the United Arab Emirates. Farooq Ahmad Dar, the Kashmiri artisan who was tied to the bonnet of an army jeep during the 2017 by-elections in Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday was posted on election duty in the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency. He, however, did not vote. He (Dar) is with Khan Sahib Hospital on health duty related to polls, Chief medical officer, Budgam, Nazir Ahmad said. Dar, 28, who is from Cheill-Brass village in Beerwah had just come out after casting his vote on April 9, 2017 when stone pelting started in the area. To avoid attack by the stonepelters, Major Leetul Gogoi of the Rashtriya Rifles tied Dar to the bonnet of his jeep as he left the spot parading him through 17 villages after he had voted in the by-election for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Defending his action, Gogoi said the move saved lives including those of election officials from stone-pelters. The incident invoked sharp reactions after the photograph of Dar being used as human shield splashed across the media. The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) ordered the Jammu and Kashmir government to pay him 10 lakh in compensation. Though Dar is yet to get the compensation, the government did give him the job of a sweeper in the Health Department on consolidated wages last year. Dar is now a temporary worker in the health department at Khan Sahib. He left home yesterday (Wednesday) as he had been assigned some work related to elections. He was needed to clean the premises, said his brother Fayaz, adding that He did not vote today. You know what happened to him in last elections. At Chill village, about 55 km from Srinagar, people still remember the incident. Some villagers, however, did come out to vote today and by the time voting ended, 216 out of 890 voters in the polling station at a government middle school in the village had exercised their franchise. We want development. We want water and power. We want water in the washroom of the only school in our village, said a woman waiting in a queue to cast her vote. We are poor people. We dont have a proper road, we drink muddy water and there is no bridge over Nallah Sukhnag passing through our village, said Ghulam Mohammad Chopan, a farmer. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Restrictions on the movement of civilian traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, imposed ahead of elections in light of the Pulwama terror attack that claimed the lives of at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers, are being reconsidered, senior officials in the security establishment said on condition of anonymity. The restrictions had come into effect on April 7 and were to be in place until May 31 . A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a bus carrying CRPF troopers from Jammu to Srinagar on February 14 in the single deadliest terrorist attack in three decades of insurgency in Kashmir. On March 30, another explosives-laden vehicle exploded close to another convoy, but did not cause casualties or damage. The movement of civilian traffic was restricted on Wednesdays and Sundays to allow unhindered movement of convoys. Restriction on movement of civilian traffic was largely imposed to prevent any further attack on the security forces during the elections, a senior official in the security establishment said. Elections to the six Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir will be completed on May 6. The re-think on restrictions was visible on the 270km Jammu-Srinagar highway on Wednesday. Civilian traffic moved freely on the highway. Civilian traffic was allowed to move without any hurdle because there were no troops who required to be moved, a ministry of home affairs official said. In addition, the Indian Army has been moving troops along the highway as and when required irrespective of the restrictions on the movement of civilian traffic. Irrespective of the restriction on civilian traffic, soldiers of the para-military forces are being moved whenever required especially for the forthcoming elections, a second senior MHA official said. Security forces the para-military and even the Indian Army have not been very keen on restricting civilian traffic along the highway. The population is inconvenienced, which is avoidable, the senior official in the security establishment cited above said, explaining the reason for the rethink. New Delhis assessment is that the ground situation in Kashmir is changing for the better, as evidenced by the flow of intelligence from the local population that has led to the elimination of several top terrorists and the fact that recruitment of local men to militant ranks has dried up. Explaining measures to protect security force convoys. another senior official said: Convoys can be protected even without the restriction of civilian traffic. For instance, earlier, only portions of the highway through which the convoy is passing were blocked temporarily and only till the convoy was passing through that stretch of the road. Civilians were less inconvenienced. In January this year, as condemnation of the 106th session of the Indian Science Congress swept across India -- there were statements by scientists at the Congress that gravitational waves should be renamed Narendra Modi waves, stem cell technology was used in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and other such -- a group of students at the Indian Institute of technology, Madras decided to take matters into their hands. Bothered by what they saw as an erosion of scientific values, the students, along with some professors, formed a group on WhatsApp that quickly transformed into a page on Facebook, and then, a group on campus. On January 25, the group now called IITM Students Against Pseudo Science held its first event on the lawns of the main mess hall on campus. We reaffirm that any scientific knowledge in the public domain should be verifiable. We uphold the values of systematic questioning and reform as the fundamental principles for the unfolding of true knowledge, read the literature on the pamphlets distributed before the event, which was attended by about 50 people. In the following months, the group repeatedly found itself in the news over protests against lectures by prominent speakers, whom the students called proponents of pseudoscience, over statements such as severed fingers that had the potential to grow back by themselves, that astrology affected a persons personality and that the universe was filled with ether claims debunked convincingly by science decades ago. Theres something wrong in our education system that even after studying science people believe in astrology. And, hence, only supporting science is not enough and pseudoscience needs to be attacked and eliminated. An organised effort is necessary for the same, explained Yashodharan Manerikar, whos pursuing a MS in physics. Other members explained that also at stake was the scientific credibility of an institution that was recently feted by the government as Indias top educational institution. But this is only one of a crop of new student groups that have mushroomed on the campus in the past five years and transformed student life in the 60-year-institute often considered a gold standard in academics. MANY CONTROVERSIES Located on the southern fringes of Chennai, the 600-acre IIT-Madras campus houses around 8,000 students and 16 departments across science, engineering, humanities and management. For a sprawling campus, visitors are likely to be struck by how quiet it is. But underneath the gentle hum of laboratories, the institute is in a state of churn. It has consistently found itself embroiled in controversy since May 2015, when the de-recognition of a student group, the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC), made national headlines. APSC was formed by a handful of engineering and humanities students on April 14, 2014 the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar as the successor of a more loose and informal cohort of students, many from marginalised castes, who would meet to discuss social issues. Ambedkar and Periyar were two people who fought for basic rights and we felt their perspective is important to bring into campus. So we organised lectures, discussion groups on the relevance of their ideologies and anti-caste politics, explained Arjun, a PhD student of engineering. The backlash was swift. In a campus that prides itself on academic achievements and where students from scheduled caste or tribe backgrounds often complain of hostility, many saw the APSC as divisive and bringing in political ideology antithetical to scientific excellence. Many students are hostile to APSC, and we would get very few members of B Tech, who thought whatever we discussed was bad and unnecessary, especially in bringing up caste, Arjun added. In May 2015 APSC was derecognized by the institute following an anonymous complaint that said the group was trying to make students critical of the central government. The administration initially said that the group had flouted norms but after a two-week tussle, revoked its decision. In June 2017, APSC found itself back in the news again. After the central government banned the sale of cattle for slaughter at animal markets, members of the group participated in a beef festival on campus. The event, attended by around 70 students, deeply polarized the campus and ended in violence, with a PhD student, R Sooraj, thrashed by some engineering students. APSC led the protests and filed a petition in the Madras high court. Outside campus, the news of the attack quickly snowballed into a political controversy with opposition parties such as the Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam extending support to the event and decrying the violence as an attack on Tamil culture. This was also a time of unrest in the institute between September 2015 and July 2016, four students had killed themselves on campus, highlighting a mental health crisis in an intensely competitive environment. A first-generation tribal student who refused to be named because of fear of discrimination noted that students from marginalised backgrounds, who came from villages and regional-medium schools, often found themselves falling behind the class because of rudimentary English language skills, and would withdraw from campus activities and societies owing to subtle biases. For many of them, campus activism is not a choice because they are struggling to survive, added the student. APSC currently has just eight active members, and last December, led a protest against a circular that allegedly called for separate entry-exit points, utensils and washing area for vegetarian and non vegetarian students in the common dining hall. Students said the segregation was reminiscent of the caste system, and the orders were rolled back, with the administration saying that it was done by a private caterer and not by institute policy. CHANGING DYNAMICS Since it was founded in 1959, IIT-Madras has always seen groups formed on regional lines, but over the past few years campus politics here has been increasingly shaped by political ideology, identities and sexualities. Formed on the same day as APSC is a far-more popular student body on campus called Chinta Bar, which organizes film festivals and discussions on popular social issues on campus. The group coalesced around a controversy over activist Teesta Setalvad coming to IIT to deliver an Extra-Mural Lecture ( known as EML in student parlance, a series of lectures organised by the IITs official student body) in February 2014. If you look at the understanding of engineering students on social issues, it is usually very less. Through Chinta Bar, we tried to raise that level, said Pratheesh Rani Prakash, a founding member of the body. They started off with a film festival in 2014 and recently, in March, held a lecture on diversity and social justice in education, where academics from other institutes were invited. The oldest student body in campus is the Vivekananda Study Circle formed in 1997 that says its motto is nation building through character building. The group has by far the largest body of student members cutting across undergraduate and postgraduate disciplines, and organizes lectures on spiritual and mental health by prominent lectures, among others. Then, there is the Vande Mataram student group, formed in 2015, which claims to go beyond self interest and give importance to the Nation First philosophy. Among the groups main activities is the Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Memorial Lecture, which this year is being delivered by Makarand Paranjape, director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. Started the same year is Vannam (the spectrum of colour in Tamil), a group for LGTBQ students that has always remained a tight group of seven to 10 students, and has focused on raising awareness on gender and sexuality on campus through film screenings and discussions. The group made a huge difference for me. Queer people think they are the only people who are different from others, and feel lonely. It is important that every campus has a queer-friendly group, explained K Shiva, a member. Shiva, who identifies as a transman, says he transitioned and got his documents changed while living in a hostel, and that he cannot imagine doing this anywhere other than IIT-Madras. I felt support as a trans person. In the group, we would not talk about queer issues only, we would chat, talk about our lives, it became a safe space. Another member, Meera N Paniker, says she joined the group as an ally and that it helped her come to terms with her bisexual orientation. She also is concerned about the endemic gender disparity on campus most of the leadership positions in campus bodies are filled by men. In the past year, the institute has found itself in the news over allegations of increased surveillance, growing conservatism and pseudo-science, and vigilance teams barging into students rooms. An email and follow-up phone calls to the IIT-Ms communications office elicited no response on this. A flush of new groups has changed student life, but campus politics on IIT-Madras is very different from any other university, where groups have explicit political affiliation and ideologies. The difference is most stark for students coming from other institutes, such as Dayal Paleri, a PhD student in political science and member of Chinta Bar, who came to IIT from the University of Hyderabad, considered the nerve centre of anti-caste student politics. If the kind of suicides or campus vigilance happened elsewhere, there would be huge protests. Earlier, I dont think people responded to issues like this, or talked about it in public. But now, it is slowly changing. Barter trade between India-Pakistan across the Line-of-Control (LoC) has been suspended from tomorrow, a notification of the Union Home Ministry (MHA) issued on Thursday said, ascribing the move to suspicion that the avenue is being used to smuggle weapons, drugs, and fake currency into India. . The cross-LoC trade was started in 2008. Goods worth 5,000 crore have been bartered since. From both sides of Kashmir, traders were allowed to deal in 16 items, including spices, vegetables, dry and fresh fruits, carpets, rugs, embroidery items, shawls, paper mache goods, clothes and wooden furniture. The decision to start cross-LoC barter trade was agreed upon by New Delhi and Islamabad in 2004 but the trade started four years later, in 2008. The cross LoC trade was through Trade Facilitation Centres at Salambad in Uri , Baramulla District and Chakkan-da-Bagh, Poonch District. The trade takes place four days a week. This action has been taken as the Government of India has been receiving reports that the Cross LoC trade routes are being misused by the Pakistan based elements for funnelling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency etc, the statement of the MHA said and added that it has, therefore, been decided by the Government of India to suspend the LoC trade at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Jammu and Kashmir with immediate effect. Meanwhile, a stricter regulatory & enforcement mechanism is being worked out and will be put in place in consultation with various agencies. The issue of reopening of LoC trade will be revisited thereafter. After the Pulwama attack by a terrorist of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed on February 14, that left 40 soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) dead, India withdrew the Most Favoured Nation Status (MNF) from Pakistan. Inputs have also been received that in order to evade the consequent higher duty, LoC trade is likely to be misused to a much larger extent, MHA added in its statement. . Earlier, in 2014-2015, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) investigated the cross- LOC trade. It allegedly found items were under and over-invoiced , generating a huge surplus, part of which was being diverted to fuel protest in the valley. The suspension of cross-LoC trade evoked sharp political reactions in Jammu and Kashmir. Former J&K chief minister and the vice- president of National Conference, Omar Abdullah blamed the BJP government for ending the legacy of former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Modi Govt buries another of the Vajpayee era CBMs (confidence building measures). Cross LoC trade was a legacy of the Vajpayee Govt decision to facilitate greater people to people contact across the Line of Control in J&K. That the LoC trade may have been used by some traders for illegal activities was suspected for years now and it was to plug this that the state has been pleading for the installation of full truck scanners at the trade points, tweeted Omar Abdullah. PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti accused BJP of using Kashmir as a scapegoat. Using Kashmir as a scapegoat to claw its way to power wont help BJP. This is an excuse to worsen ties with Pakistan despite their peace overtures. By doing this PM Modi has dismantled a CBM Initiated by Vajpayee ji . Wont be surprised if an attack on Pak is in the offing. . India will skip the second Belt and Road Forum being hosted by China next week to boost President Xi Jinpings five-year-old flagship connectivity project, people familiar with developments said on Thursday. The reasons behind the decision to decline the invitation for the second iteration of the forum are the same ones that drove a boycott of the first event in May 2017 core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity and the uneven playing field created by the Chinese, the people said. Chinese officials have said about 40 foreign government leaders and representatives of more than 100 countries have confirmed their participation in the forum, expected to be held in Beijing during April 26-27. Among Indias neighbours, Pakistan has said Prime Minister Imran Khan will make a four-day visit to China from April 25 to attend the forum. Khan is set to deliver the keynote speech at the opening ceremony and join a leaders roundtable. Khans role is hardly surprising given Pakistans traditionally close ties with China, though officials in New Delhi are keeping a close eye on the level of participation by Indias neighbours and other countries. Bhutan, for instance, wont attend the event, the people said. The inaugural event attracted 29 heads of state and government, and while the number for this years event is higher, the people quoted above pointed to misgivings among many countries about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the lower level of participation by nations such as Germany and the US. More and more people see the BRI as a form of economic imperialism. While some countries that were starved of funds had welcomed BRI in the past, they now see the pitfalls associated with it, said a person, pointing to a Chinese companys takeover of Sri Lankas Hambantota port in 2017 after the island nation was unable to repay debts associated with its development. For India, the biggest concern remains the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which New Delhi says affects sovereignty and territorial integrity as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Indian officials have also pointed to the uneven playing field created by China to favour its firms in taking up projects under BRI. While Indian firms are capable of meeting accepted international standards, projects under BRI are tweaked in such a way that only Chinese firms can successfully bid for them, they said. India believes connectivity initiatives must be based on universally recognised international norms, good governance, rule of law and transparency. Connectivity initiatives must follow principles of financial responsibility to avoid projects that create unsustainable debt burden, a second person said. Since it was unveiled in 2013 by President Xi, BRI has expanded to cover a vast swath of territory from South America to the Arctic, and includes plans to build a vast network of highways, ports, power plants and other infrastructure. China says BRI offers benefits for all countries but experts have warned of Chinese loans creating debt traps, and countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Pakistan have either cancelled or renegotiated projects under the initiative. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has said that no data was stolen from its servers by any company in connection with the alleged theft of Aadhaar data belonging to 7.82 crore residents of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by a Hyderabad-based firm. The firm was reportedly trying to help the Telugu Desam Party in the recent elections. The Telangana government, in the first week of March, had filed a criminal case against the IT Grid (India) Private Limited following a complaint from one Lokeshwar Reddy, believed to be an activist of the YSR Congress party. The company was charged with gaining access to Aadhaar data of people in the two Telugu states and using the same to help the TDP approach the voters through its Seva Mitra mobile application. The Telangana government also appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by senior IPS officer Stephen Ravindra to probe the case. The companys managing director Dakavaram Ashok has since been at large. In a statement on Wednesday, the UIDAI said its Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) and servers were completely safe and fully secure and no illegal access had been made to its CIDR and no data was stolen from its servers. The SIT of the Telangana police has not found any evidence to show that the Aadhaar numbers, names and addresses of the people have been obtained by stealing them from UIDAI services, it said. The central agency said the IT Grids (India) might have obtained the details directly from individuals for providing services to consumers like other service providers, which are supposed to use the information for their specific purposes. We have requested the SIT to investigate for what purpose the Aadhar data was collected, used and stored by the company and whether any provisions of the Aadhaar Act have been violated, it said. The UIDAI further clarified that mere possession and storage of Aadhaar numbers of people did not put the Aadhaar holders under any harm in any manner whatsoever. For accessing any Aadhaar-based services, biometrics or One Time Password (OTP) is also required, it said. Addressing a rally during the recent election campaign at Rajahmundry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accused Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu of indulging in stealing personal data of the people for his political gains. On Thursday, TDPs official spokesperson Lanka Dinakar said in Vijayawada that the UIDAI clarification completely nailed the malicious propaganda by the YSRC and the BJP against the TDP on data theft. In fact, the Telangana government had confiscated the voters data collected by the TDP through Seva Mitra app and passed it on to the opposition parties, he alleged. The SIT, which confiscated hard discs and other devices from the IT Grids during its raids, handed over the same to the forensic science laboratory for examining. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the company had developed the Seva Mitra mobile application by integrating the digital data of voter IDs, Aadhaar and details of beneficiaries of various state government schemes so as to use the same in wooing the voters, an official familiar with the development said. The SIT had booked a case against Dakavaram Ashok under Sections 120B (Criminal conspiracy), 379 (Theft), 420 (Cheating), 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of IPC, along with Sections 66 (B) and 72 of IT Act. Bihars Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi alleged Wednesday that RJD chief Lalu Prasad had met Union minister Arun Jaitley with the offer to help bring down the grand alliance government and install a saffron party dispensation if fodder scam cases against him were watered down. Addressing a press conference, Modi claimed Finance Minister Jaitley, however, snubbed Prasad, who approached him through his emissary, former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta, and also met him in person. Slamming Prasad for always spewing venom against the BJP-RSS combine but never shying away from seeking our help whenever it serves his purpose, the BJP leader said Jaitley curtly told them that the CBI was an autonomous agency whose functioning the government does not interfere with. Prasads son and Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Tejashwi Yadav rejected the allegation and said it reflected the BJPs worry of an impending electoral defeat. His allegations that we sought help from the BJP at any point of time show his mental bankruptcy and worry of an impending defeat in the elections. The entire country knows it was Lalu who had stopped (LK) Advanis Ayodhya Rath Yatra and has always valiantly fought their communal agenda, he tweeted. After their dismal performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when a Narendra Modi wave swept the country, Nitish Kumars JD(U), RJD and the Congress had formed a grand alliance and stopped the BJPs juggernaut in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls. The three-party alliance was in power till July 2017 when Kumar returned to the NDA following sharp differences with the RJD over allegations of corruption against Tejashwi, who was then the deputy chief minister. Sushil Modi said the Jharkhand High Court had passed an order in 2014 granting Prasad some relief. The court ordered that separate trials will not be held in the six fodder scam cases against him. Separate trials meant more trouble for the RJD supremo and, hence, he sent his emissary Prem Chand Gupta to Jaitley with his offer in exchange for the CBI either not appealing against the High Court order or weakening its arguments before the apex court once the appeal was filed, Modi claimed. Gupta, he claimed, met Jaitley three to four times, and when Prasad realised that the negotiations were bearing no fruit, he himself called on the Union finance minister. Jaitley declined. It has always been the BJPs line never to help those accused of corruption, Modi said. On one hand, Prasad was having an alliance with Nitish Kumars JD(U) and on the other he was approaching Jaitley with the offer of helping finish off the chief minister politically, the deputy CM said. We think the chief minister too must have got a whiff of these shenanigans. Moreover, after they together won the assembly polls in 2015 and RJD emerged as the largest party, Lalu and his cohorts never lost an opportunity to remind the JD(U) leader that he owed his position to them, he said. Sushil Modi recalled how Lalu Prasad won the Patna University Students Union polls in the 1970s with the help of the ABVP, the students wing of the RSS. Modi, who was also associated with the ABVP, said after being elected the president of the union, Prasad visited the local RSS office to thank the Sangh. Sushil Modi said he had learnt about the meetings Prasad and his emissary had with Jaitley from many sources, including Sanjay Jha, a former BJP hand and now a confidant of Nitish Kumar. The following day, on Jan. 15, Radke allegedly struck the same infant in the face with a plastic plate, and also placed food in the mouth of the crying child and tilted her head back, according to a criminal complaint. They lined up patiently to cast their votes in the blazing sun, 156 inmates of a mental health centre here, eager to participate in the electoral process as polling was held in 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu Thursday. The inmates, including 56 women, exercised their franchise in a booth exclusively set up for them at the Institute of Mental Hospital (IMH), Kilpauk, probably the first time such patients are voting in the country. The area comes under Central Chennai constituency where the main fight is between former Union Minister and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran, Sam Paul of PMK under the AIADMK-BJP-PMK combine, Kameela Nasser from Makkal Needhi Maiam floated by actor Kamal Haasan. After casting his vote, a 37-year-old man, battling schizophrenia for the last seven years, said when he stood near the electronic voting machine, he reminisced about the 2001 assembly elections, the last time he voted. I felt special. I am very happy to vote, he said. He was all praise for students of a local city college (Loyola College) and Election Commission officials for conducting awareness programmes and mock polls on the hospital premises ahead of elections. IMH Director P Poorna Chandrika was elated over the exercise being conducted in the hospital. This is the first time in the country that such patients are voting and also for the first time an auxillary polling booth is being set up inside a mental hospital, she told PTI. The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences in Bengaluru and Calcutta Mental Hospital also have voters list, but it is not known if they have done something like this, she added. Also Watch | Lok Sabha elections 2019: The big fights to watch out for in Phase 2 The exercise to add the inmates names to the electoral roll was initiated in February this year, the director said, adding patients were chosen based on their decision-making capacity. The components we considered to screen the patients include knowledge of the election process, their thoughts, language and how relevant conversations they can have, Poorna Chandrika said. The 156 inmates, certified fit-to-vote in their case sheet, have been either cured or are undergoing treatment. Some are employed inside the hospital while others at the Directorate Of Medical and Rural Health Services in the city, according to hospital officials. After casting his vote, another inmate expressed interest to vote in the 2021 State assembly polls. He has a diploma in mechanical engineering and wanted government to offer job opportunities to inmates who are skilled and qualified. Much of the time we are confined to our wards.I want to get out and do something useful.Government must give opportunities for us too, an inmate, who was admitted to the hospital four months ago, said. The Congress on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Modi over the suspension of a poll observer, a Karnataka-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, in Odisha for checking a vehicle in PMs convoy. An official was suspended by ECI for doing his job of inspecting vehicles. The rule cited governs the use of official vehicles for campaigning. It does not exempt PMs vehicle from being searched. What is Modi carrying in the helicopter that he doesnt want India to see?, the Congress tweeted on Thursday, the day 95 seats are voting in 12 states and one UT in phase two of Lok Sabha elections. Follow live updates of Lok Sabha elections Mohammed Mohsin, a 1996-batch IAS officer, was suspended on Tuesday after he checked the vehicle in Sambalpur, where the PM addressed an election rally. It wasnt immediately clear who was travelling in the vehicle that was checked. The ECI order said that Mohsin had not acted in conformity with the ECIs instructions dated April 10, 2014 and March 22, 2019 concerning those guarded by the Special Protection Group (SPG). The order also said the Sambalpur district collector, who is also the district election officer, and the deputy inspector general of police had also sent a written report confirming that Mohsins actions had been contrary to the instructions of the EC and qualified as dereliction of duty. Read: Probe black box removed from PMs chopper: Congress to Election Commission The ECI did not go into the details of the action or what the guidelines for SPG protectees are. PM Modi was reported to have been held up for nearly 15 minutes because of the check. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaiks helicopter was also checked by EC flying squad personnel in Rourkela on Tuesday. A similar check was carried out on Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhans chopper at Sambalpur Tuesday by a flying squad, sources said. Sardar Patels statue not meant to disrespect Nehru: PM Modi On Tuesday, the Congress had alleged that a mysterious box was removed from PM Modis helicopter and taken to a car in Karnatakas Chitradurga. Demanding an EC probe, the Congress asked the poll panel to exercise its constitutional powers under Article 324 of the Constitution of India. The opposition party also mentioned the incident of April 9, when cash worth crores was seized at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. It would not be entirely out of place to assume that the black box which has been transported in a hurried and clandestine manner could be part of the same modus operandi to carry large sums of cash. While this is a hypothesis it is, as stated above, supported by a recent incident in Pasighat, the Congress complaint said. Apart from this, the Congress has also raised four other issues including that of the PMs photograph being used on railway tickets, that no action had been taken against the PM and the BJP chief for their speeches with religious overtones in Nanded and Latur on April 12. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs (RSS) writ ran large in the selection of Malegaon blast-accused Pragya Thakur as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Madhya Pradeshs Bhopal, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Thakur, out on bail after serving nine years in jail in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast that killed six people, has long been the poster girl of the Sanghs Hindutva campaign and is also used to exemplify what the organisation sees as the Congresss witch hunt of the RSS and the Hindus. The Sangh felt that making her a contestant against Congresss Digvijaya Singh would be a befitting reply to the Congress for coining the term saffron terror to not just witch-hunt the Sangh, but also insult Hindus in general. The message [behind picking her] is clear Sadhvi Pragyas victory will wash away the stain of saffron terror, a senior RSS functionary said on condition of anonymity. He said the decision had taken a while as the BJP initially did not warm up to the Sanghs idea on fielding Thakur. The Sangh is the BJPs ideological parent. They agreed after the Sangh dug its heels in and explained why Pragya [Thakur] was the best bet to take on Digvijaya Singh, who has always vilified the Sangh and targeted Hindus, the functionary said, adding that the RSS has not forgotten the slur of saffron terror and was determined to seek justice. She was tortured for nine years in prison that cannot be forgotten, the functionary added. Thakurs candidature also signifies the return of the Hindutva to Madhya Pradesh politics - a state where the BJP narrowly lost the December 2018 assembly election to the Congress. To ensure the BJP repeats its 2014 performance, when it won 26 of the states 29 Lok Sabha seats, the Sangh cadre is out in full strength. Another Sangh functionary, who asserted that the organisation does not meddle with ticket distribution, conceded that the Sangh did not want the BJP to distance itself from its Hindutva core. Therefore, by picking Thakur, it had sent the message that the 2019 general election would not be fought on development issues alone. There are several issues our core constituency has a sentimental connect with - Ram temple, GyanVapi mosque, ban on cow slaughter, and protection of national interests. As a part of the Sangh parivar, the BJP would be failing in its duty if it does not address these in its election campaign, a third functionary said, asking not to be named. A senior BJP functionary from Madhya Pradesh explained why the party agreed to Thakurs candidature. Even if there was some discomfort in some quarters, it did not over ride the fact that by fighting against the people who coined the Hindu terror term, she was fighting for a cause. The party thinks it is the peoples verdict that will prove that Hindus cannot be terrorists and that there is no saffron terror, said the functionary, who asked not to be named. Although the Sangh says Thakurs is important because the the organisation has been pilloried for its nationalistic views, Ajay Gudavarthy, a political science professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said the bogey of Hindus being terrorised is just a tool used by the RSS. RSS believes in the predatory politics of threatening those who oppose them. While I disagree with the term Hindu terror, saffron terror is real we have seen it in universities such as JNU, where anyone who disagreed with the RSS ideology faced threats and intimidation. Giving a ticket to Sadhvi Pragya and not to Sudha Bhardwaj is a message; it proves the politics of Hindutva, he said. Since Thakur was named as the candidate from Bhopal the BJP has won the seat eight times the saffron party has been criticised on social media by other parties. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and ex-BJP ally Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, Imagine the anger if Id field a terror accused. Channels wouldve gone berserk by now trending a mehboobaterrorist hashtag! According to these guys terror has no religion when it comes to saffron fanatics, but otherwise all Muslims are terrorists. Guilty until proven innocent. Another former J&K chief minister, Omar Abdullah, termed Thakurs candidature a mockery of the legal system and questioned how a person out on bail on health grounds was healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat. Pakistan is supplying Chinese-made grenades and sophisticated ammunition in large quantities to terror groups in the Kashmir Valley so that it cannot be blamed for subversive activities in India, an assessment by agencies conducting counter-insurgency operations has concluded. According to an internal document accessed by HT, 70 Chinese grenades (64 in 2018 and six so far in 2019) have been seized by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir since January 1 last year. The document said security forces had recovered pistols, armour piercing incendiary (API) shells and tracer rounds of Chinese origin from terrorists belonging to different groups. The API includes both mild steel core and hard steel core (which can pierce bulletproof jackets used by Indian security forces) and its use brings a new dimension of threat for the security forces, the document stated. Other than the seizures, a dozen incidents documented in the past 15 months involved either trained terrorists or over-ground workers (OGWs) of terror groups lobbing grenades at patrol parties, bunkers, vehicles or camps of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other paramilitary forces, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and the army. The most recent grenade attack in the Kashmir Valley took place on Tuesday, when a terrorist hurled a grenade at a National Conference election meeting in the Tral area. Two people were killed and 32 injured in a grenade attack at Jammus inter-state bus stand on March 7. An Indian Police Service officer involved in counter-insurgency operations, who didnt want to be identified, said: These attacks had a mix of both grenades made in China and Pakistan, but there is a sudden spurt in the use of Chinese ones. Explaining the trend, the officer said, Earlier, Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF)-manufactured grenades were easily available to all terror groups but the Pakistan Army markings on them exposed the western neighbours role in spreading terrorism in the international community. Now, it uses its agencies and terror groups to smuggle ammunition of Chinese origin, which do not have any Chinese ordnance markings. These are low-intensity but still a grenade causes more damage than a bullet. The officer added, The main purpose of using Chinese grenades is that Pakistan doesnt want any weapons used in Jammu and Kashmir to be traced back to it. The use of grenades to target security forces also suits Pakistan and terror groups as there is no need to train anyone to use such weapons. Another official engaged in counter-insurgency operations, who too didnt want to be identified, said: They hire young schoolboys by paying them a few thousand rupees, or task OGWs to throw grenades on security personnel. Grenades are easy to throw, they cause more damage and the suspects cannot be identified from a distance as they dont carry any guns, and easily flee the spot. The second official added, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr and even Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) are now encouraging their OGWs and terrorists to throw grenades at security forces vehicles, camps and bunkers. Most of the Chinese-origin grenades and ammunition, an officer of the Intelligence Bureau said, are entering the state through the Line of Control (LoC) or the international border in Jammu. In the Northeast too, particularly Assam, security forces have recovered a substantive amount of arms, ammunition, grenades and explosives having Chinese markings during operations over the past two years. Defence expert ?Col Sanjiv Kumar (retd) said, There are only two routes for smuggling Chinese arms and ammunitions into India Pakistan or Nepal. Nepals border is not connected to Jammu and Kashmir, so all of it is coming from Pakistan. The fact that Chinese weapons and ammunition are being used by Pakistan-backed terror groups means China is not only overtly supporting Pakistan at the UN Security Council (by blocking JeM chief Masood Azhars listing as a global terrorist) but it is covertly encouraging it to continue its terror activities in India. Vijay Mallya lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again on Thursday, a day after the fugitive liquor baron questioned the Centre for bailing out ailing Air India and not doing enough for private airlines. Vijay Mallya, who is wanted in India for defaulting on crores of rupees in loans, cited a statement by the Prime Minister as he also took a dig at banks over contradictory statements made in British courts regarding the recovery of money he owes them. None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe? One or the other is lying he tweeted. Mallya was referring to an interview Modi gave to Republic Bharat news channel on March 29, saying he was satisfied that the former Kingfisher Airlines boss extradition process was in the last stage and the government has recovered money from him. We brought in a law that enabled the Indian government to confiscate the property of fugitives in any part of the world. You mustve seen in the case of Vijay Mallya, the Prime Minister had said in the interview to the news channels editor Arnab Goswami. He owed banks Rs 9,000 crore but the government has confiscated his properties worth Rs 14,000 crore from across the world. Now, he is in trouble because we are taking double the amount, he had said. The latest tweet came after Mallya extended his sympathies to Naresh Goyal, the founder of crisis-hit Jet Airways, saying that being a PSU is no excuse for discrimination. In a series of tweets, he had also reiterated his offer to pay 100 percent back the money he owes to the banks. Mallya, once known as the king of good times, is facing charges in India of financial irregularities amounting to over Rs 9,000 crore. He has been putting forth his version of events through social media in recent weeks, most recently on March 31. He has reiterated inside and outside the court that he is willing to repay the loans, wondering why authorities in India have not been taking up his offer to settle. The businessman flew to the United Kingdom in March 2016 as a consortium of banks owed the money by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines closed in on him to recover the money. In India, he has been declared a fugitive economic offender. Mallya has filed a renewal application in the appeals court of the high court in the United Kingdom and sought an oral hearing for permission to appeal against the February 4 order of the home secretary to extradite him to India. A court in the UK had on April 8 denied permission to Mallya to appeal against his extradition order to India to face trial for alleged fraud and money laundering. Alliances of the political kind are almost always fragile and the same holds true for Indias northeast. The ongoing Lok Sabha election, polling for which began on April 11, is ample proof of that. An air of uneasiness hangs among allies of the BJP, who are part of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), the central party led platform of anti-Congress parties from the region, formed three years ago. The National Peoples Party (NPP), one of the main constituents of NEDA, is contesting the election alone. The party, which heads the coalition government in Meghalaya and where the BJP is a minor partner, is contesting from 11 Lok Sabha seats in the region. The party also fielded candidates in 29 of the 60 assembly seats in Arunachal Pradesh against the Bharatiya Janata Partys nominees. In Tripura, the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), partner of the BJP-led government in the state and a NEDA constituent, also fielded its own candidates in the two Lok Sabha constituencies, after seat-sharing talks with the central party failed. We decided to contest separately as BJP didnt agree to give us one of the two seats in the state. We are still part of NEDA and are likely to continue the association, said IPFT general secretary and Tripura minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia. Also Read: Voting in phase 2 today, holds key to opposition plans A rosy start NEDA was formed on May 24, 2016, the same day Sarbananda Sonowal took oath as chief minister of the first elected BJP government in Assam. Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Congressman, who switched to the BJP a year back, was made convenor of the platform. Besides Sonowal, chief ministers of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and NagalandPawan Kumar Chamling, Kalikho Pul, TR Zeliangand the BJPs national general secretary Ram Madhav were present at the launch. Though all-round development of northeast and better coordination among the states and central government was stated to be NEDAs prime objective, opposition to the Congress, which had ruled most states in the region for decades, was the main glue that bound the parties. Over the next three years, several other smaller parties of the region joined NEDA and the BJP and its allies were able to form governments in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Problems arise One of the first successes of NEDA was in Arunachal Pradesh when chief minister Pema Khandu and 42 other Congress MLAs switched over to the Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA), a NEDA partner, in September 2016 and assumed office. But three months later Khandu and most of PPA legislators moved to the BJP and formed the second government led by the central party in the state after the 44-day government of Gegong Apang in 2003. The development led to the souring of relations between the PPA and BJP. Though we were part of NEDA from the start, some BJP leaders worked against the platform. They wanted a BJP government instead of one formed by NEDA. We were used as a stepping stone, said Kamen Ringu, chairperson of PPA. In 2017, NEDA partners witnessed another high with the BJP, despite coming second behind Congress in the assembly polls, as they were able to form the government in Manipur with the support of the National Peoples Party (NPP) and Naga Peoples Front (NPF). But problems surfaced again with the NDA government at Centre banning the sale of cattle for slaughter. The move, which evoked negative reactions in poll-bound Christian majority states of Nagaland and Meghalaya, forced the BJP to assure that it will not ban beef in the northeast. Worried it would distance voters, allies like NPP contested the assembly elections independently. The BJP, which won two seats in Meghalaya, joined the NPP-led government after poll results. In Nagaland, the BJP distanced itself from old ally NPF and joined hands with newly launched Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDDP) to form the next government in the state. CAB widens the divide The biggest setback to NEDA came when NDA government decided to push ahead with the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill, which proposes to give citizenship to religious minorities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Parliament. The move led to widespread protests in Assam and other states of the region. In Assam, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) quit the BJP-led government over the issue and in January this year, ten regional parties, several of the partners of NEDA, formed a joint platform against the legislation. With NDA deciding not to table the legislation in the Rajya Sabha and it is set to lapse in June, the protests subsided. But with the BJPs leaders insisting that it would bring it in the next Parliament, fears over CAB remained. In Meghalaya, United Democratic Party (UDP) quit NEDA over the issue. Though the AGP rejoined the BJP-led coalition in Assam, differences over CAB and seat sharing led NPP and other NEDA allies to go alone. In Mizoram, the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) has kept its distance from the BJP and both parties are contesting the election separately. Despite contesting separately, we are still part of NEDA. But if they go against the interests of Mizos like passing CAB, we will consider withdrawing both from NEDA and NDA, said MNF president and Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga. The BJP is hoping to win at least 20 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the region. Whether the party is able to achieve that figure will depend a lot on its allies. The results could also decide the NEDAs fate. Last month, BJPs Ram Madhav said that despite several allies contesting this election separately, NEDA, which is a development alliance will continue to exist. We are very confident that after the polls, all these parties will together support the new government to be formed by NDA, he said. In an interview with HT last month, NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma hinted that several alliance partners deciding to contest separately could be part of a strategy to defeat Congress in the region. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday, slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Air India (AI)s policy of serving only vegetarian foods in the economy classes of its domestic flights. Air India has stopped serving non-vegetarian food in the economy classes. If you want to have chicken, you would have to purchase expensive tickets (in the business class), she said at a public meeting in Kandi under Murshidabad Lok Sabha constituency, where polling will be held on April 23. Expanding the scope of her statement into a political statement, the Bengal chief minister said, They are not allowing the people to eat what they want. They are dictating who would eat what. In July 2017, AI announced that passengers flying economy classes on domestic flights would not be served non- vegetarian foods as the carrier wanted to cut down on costs and stop wastage. Rejecting chief ministers allegation, Sayantan Basu, general secretary of the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said that the AI decision was a business call keeping operating costs in mind. She finds politics in everything and resorts to baseless allegations, Basu said. Incidentally, in the months after May 2016, when her party was re-elected in the state, Mamata Banerjee used to regularly criticise Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for advocating beef ban. On Wednesday, speaking at the rally in Kandi and another one in Raghunathgunj under Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency, the Trinamool chief once again alleged that the Congress candidates -- (former President Pranab Mukherjees son) Abhijit Mukherjee in Jangipur and Adhir Chowdhury in Baharampur -- were getting support from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP. In the panchayat polls last year, the BJP, Congress and Left contested together. In the 2016 assembly elections, Congress and Left Front joined hands. This time, too, all these three parties have struck a clandestine alliance, alleged Mamata Banerjee. She also alleged that the Centre is misusing different central agencies to harass opposition leaders. From Mayawati to Akhilesh Yadav, from Stalin to Lalu Prasad Yadav, they are harassing everyone. The PM has created an air of scare throughout the country, she remarked. Mamata Banerjee is facing a challenge to retain the 34 seats she won in Bengal in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when, despite the Modi wave in the country, she could limit the BJP to two seats. She has vowed a clean sweep of the 42 constituencies in the state, while the BJP president Amit Shah has set a target of 22-23 seats for his party workers. In the 16th Lok Sabha, TMC won 34 seats from Bengal. The BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) won two each and the Congress won four. Two states witnessed complaints of malfunctioning electronic voting and paper trail machines as voters across India began queueing up on Thursday in the second phase of the staggered Lok Sabha election. Initial glitches reported at polling booths in Agra and Mathura delayed polling, which was to begin at 7am. Officials said the EVMs were changed at some places. In Assam, a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine not working properly at a polling station in Silchar. Polling officers trying to fix it. Watch - LS Election 2019: Second phase of voting kicks off across India More than 155 million people are eligible to vote in the second phase, which covers 95 parliamentary constituencies in 12 states including parts of restive Jammu and Kashmir. Voters in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Manipur are voting on Thursday. Along with the Lok Sabha election, Odisha will also vote for 35 assembly seats on Thursday. Follow Lok Sabha elections Phase 2 LIVE Updates here The polling was scheduled to be held in 97 seats but polling in Vellore (Tamil Nadu) and Tripura East constituencies was cancelled by the Election Commission of India. The votes will be counted on May 23. Last week, in the first phase of voting for 91 Lok Sabha seats and assembly elections in four states also saw complaints of malfunctioning EVMs and VVPAT and several voters claimed their names were missing from the electoral rolls. They also said the indelible ink mark came off in some cases. EVM malfunctions were reported from all districts of Andhra Pradesh, eight Lok Sabha constituencies that went to vote in western Uttar Pradesh, the northern-eastern states of Assam and Arunachal, and Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Odisha. Voters in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Noida and Ghaziabad complained of their names not being in the list. And some showed on social media how easily they removed the indelible ink mark. With Priyanka Gandhi Vadra finally making her political debut this election season, the possibility of her contesting from a key constituency has not been ruled out. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that he did not rule out the option of his sister taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. From the time Congress General Secretary for UP East, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hinted that she may contest the Lok Sabha polls, Congress cadres as well as voters have been waiting for a formal announcement by the party. Speaking on whether she will be the Congress candidate from Varanasi, Rahul Gandhi told The Hindu in an interview, I will leave you in suspense. Suspense is not always a bad thing. When pressed for an answer, the Congress chief added, I am not confirming or denying anything. After Priyanka formally entered politics, the possibility of a high voltage contest between her and PM Modi in Varanasi has been the buzz in political circles for weeks. Last month, Priyanka Gandhi herself steered speculation towards the possibility during an interaction with Congress workers in Varanasi. When she told the workers about her mother feeling bad that she could not come down to meet them in Rae Bareli, they urged her to fight from the constituency. Why not Varanasi, she said as reported by news agency IANS. Priyankas statements came just a day after she told reporters that she was ready to contest the election. If my party wants me to contest polls then I will definitely do so, she said in Amethi, Rahul Gandhis constituency. Voting for 95 Lok Sabha seats is underway across 11 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Tamil Nadu holds the key in the second phase of the seven-phased Lok Sabha elections that began on April 11 and will continue till May 19. Glitches in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs) were reported during early hours of polling. Voters in Assams Silchar complained of the VVPAT malfunctioning. In Uttar Pradesh, EVMs glitches are reported from Agra, Mathura and Hathras. Follow LIVE updates here. Thirty-eight of 39 Lok Sabha seats of Tamil Nadu are up for the grabs in Thursdays polling. Polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. Bypolls in 18 assembly constituencies are also taking place in Tamil Nadu. Watch - Lok Sabha elections 2019: The big fights to watch out for in Phase 2 Besides Tamil Nadu, the elections are taking place for 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Voting for 35 assembly constituencies is also taking place in Odisha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the voters to come out in large number and exercise their franchise. PM Modi tweeted, Dear Citizens of India, Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise. I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote! In the early hours of voting, several high-profile politicians and other personalities cast their votes. Among the early voters were Tamil superstar Rajinikanth, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti in Chennai; Congress leaders P Chidambaram in Sivaganga and Sushil Kumar Shinde in Solapur . Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman voted in Jaynagar of Bangalore South constituency, from where the BJP has fielded Tejaswi Surya, 28-year-old lawyer. Manipur Governor Najma Heptullah, who cast her vote in Imphal and Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasami were also among the early voters in the second phase of the polls. Originally, the polling was scheduled in 97 Lok Sabha constituencies but while the polling in Vellore was cancelled after huge cash seizure, the Election Commission deferred voting at Tripura East Lok Sabha seat to April 23, when the third phase of national elections will be held. The poll body cited prevailing law-and-order situation for postponing polling in Tripura. Going by 2014 election results, the NDA holds maximum influence in the constituencies voting in the second phase. Of 95 Lok Sabha seats voting on Thursday, the AIADMK won maximum 36 followed by the BJP with 27. The Shiv Sena holds four Lok Sabha seats while the Janata Dal-United one. This takes the NDA tally to 68 of 95 Lok Sabha seats. In the Opposition camp, the Congress had won maximum 12 seats in 2014 followed by the Biju Janata Dal at four. The Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal-Secular, both allies of the Congress, had won two seats each. The AIUDF, the NCP, the PDP, the AINRC, the PMK, the CPI-M and the TMC had won one seat each in 2014. In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the prominent faces in the second phase of the parliamentary polls contest are Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, and BJP leader Hema Malini. On the Opposition side, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, DMKs Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi; Congress leaders Verappa Moily and Raj Babbar and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah are among the top contestants. Over 15.80 crore voters will decide the fate of the 1,600-odd contestants. The Lok Sabha polls will be held in five more phases on April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. The votes will be counted on May 23. This calls for really hard decision-making on your part, Walsh said. You have to put away all your emotions and you have to look at this (as) has the state proved to you the juror, beyond a reasonable doubt? Overall voter turnout in phase 2 at 66% at 6 pm The overall voter turnout till 6 pm in the 11 states and one union territory that went to polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections stood at 66 per cent. This was announced by the Election Commission at a press conference after the conclusion of the second phase of voting on Thursday. Total cases of paid news in phase two 51: Election Commission Total paid news cases recorded in phase two were 51, in phase one it was 56. In the second phase, there were 25 Facebook take downs, 38 Twitter take downs and two take downs on YouTube and WhatsApp each, said the EC. Seizures worth Rs 2632.73 crore made during phase two:EC Seizures worth Rs 2632.73 crore were made by the election commission. Rs 697 crore in cash, liquor worth Rs 219 crore , drugs worth Rs 1151 crore and metal worth Rs 512 crore was seized, said EC. Voter turnout lower than 2014 in Maharashtra, Odisha: EC Polling percentage in Bihar was 62.52%. In 2014, it was 61.93%. In Maharashtra, the polling percentage was 62% whereas in 2014 it was higher, 62.64%. Odisha recorded a turnout of 64% by 6 pm and in 2014 it was 73.75%. In UP,the polling percentage at 6 pm was 62.3%, and in 2014 it was 61.87, said the Election Commission. One EVM destroyed in Manipur: Election Commission The turnout was 73.32% at 5 pm in Assam. In West Bengal, the polling percentage was 76.07. In Manipur, the poll percentage was 74.3. In 2014, the polling percentage was 75.16. Here, in one of the polling stations, an EVM was destroyed, the Election Commission said. Turnout in Srinagar 13.43% at 5 pm, in 2014 it was 25.07%: EC Peaceful polling took place in J&K. In Udhampur, voter turnout was 66.67% . In 2014 it was 71.48. In Srinagar, the turnout was 13.43% at 5 pm and it was 25.07% in 2014, said the election commission. EC launched voter turnout app to track polling percentage The Election Commission has launched an App called the voter turnout app. All Android users can see the assembly and state wise polling percentage. This app is available on Google Playstore. The link to the app is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.gov.eci.pollturnout Tamil Nadu recorded voter turnout of 72%, EC told the press In Tamil Nadu, the voter turnout was 73.58% in 2014. However, in these elections, the polling percentage was 72%, the EC told the media. Voter turnout in Puducherry 78% these elections: EC In Puducherry, polling was peaceful. There were 9. 7 lakh voters. In 2014, the voter turnout was 82.1% while this year it was 78%, said the election commission. 7.8 crore women, 8.45 lakh PWD voted in second phase: EC Tentatively, 7.8 crore women and 8.45 lakh persons with disabilities voted in the second phase of elections. Some people are still waiting in the line to vote so these figures are tentative, said the EC. Election Commission officials address press after second phase of polling Polling was conducted peacefully. I congratulate all voters, especially women, people with disabilities who came out to vote despite difficulties. I congratulate officials who ensured a smooth conduct of the electoral process, said EC. People will give another chance to Modi: Himachal CM People have made up their mind that once again the reins of the nation should be handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. Polling in 37 out of 38 Lok Sabha constituencies ends in Tamil Nadu Polling ends in 37 out of 38 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu. Those in the queue will be given token and only those with tokens will be allowed to vote. Voting in Madurai constituency ends at 8pm. At 5 pm, 61.12% voter turnout in Phase 2 At 5 pm, the voter turnout of the second phase of polling for Lok Sabha elections 2019, stood at 61.12%. Voter turnout was 73.32% in Assam, 58.14% in Bihar, 68.70% in Chhattisgarh, 43.37% in Jammu and Kashmir,61.80% in Karnataka, 55.37% in Maharashtra, 74.69% in Manipur,57.41% in Odisha, 72.40% in Puducherry, 61.52% in Tamil Nadu, 58.12% in Uttar Pradesh, and 75.27% in West Bengal. 63.73% voter turnout at 5pm in Tamil Nadu Voter turnout in Tamil Nadu at 5 pm was 63.73%. Congress leader P. Chidambarams Lok Sabha seat witnessed highest polling percentage with 70.73% and Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat witnessed the lowest with 55.07%. At 5 pm, 61.84% voter turnout in Karnataka, 73.32% in Assam At 5 pm, the voter turnout stood at 61.84% in Karnataka and at 73.32% in Assam. 60.38% polls cast till 3 pm in Assam An estimated 60.38 per cent of the 69,10,592 electorate exercised their franchise till 3 p m in five parliamentary constituencies of Assam in the second phase of polling on Thursday, EC sources said. Polling is being held in 8992 polling booths in Karimganj (SC), Silchar, Autonmous Districts(ST), Nowgong and Mangaldoi constituencies to decide the fate of 50 candidates in fray and there has been no report of any untoward incidents so far, the EC official said. 3 elderly people die after casting votes in Three senior citizens collapsed and died after exercising their franchise for the Lok Sabha polls in three districts of Tamil Nadu Thursday, police said. Balakrishnan of Coimbatore fainted and fell after coming out of the booth. He was being taken to a hospital when he died, the police said. Similarly, Murugesan collapsed and breathed his last at a booth in Erode, they said. Likewise, Krishnan died after casting his vote in Salem, the police said. All the three were in their mid-60s, they added. 107-year-old Padma awardee casts vote in Bengaluru 107-year-old Padma awardee, Saalumarada Thimmakka cast her vote for the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency, reported news agency ANI. 52.02% voter turnout in Tamil Nadu, 53% in Odisha at 3 pm The voter turnout in Tamil Nadu stood at 52.02% at 3 pm, and at 53% in Odisha. The turnout was 46.63% in Maharashtra, 50.39% in Uttar Pradesh, 59.72% in Chhattisgarh. Bengaluru techie votes immediately after wife give birth to child The early morning birth of his second child and immediate medical concerns of his family did not deter Sandeep Mishra, a Bangalore-based techie, from casting his vote for the Lok Sabha polls in the state on Thursday. Mishra (37), whose wife gave birth to their second son at about 5:45 am at a private hospital, rushed to his polling booth in Horamavu road (Bangalore North constituency) as soon as it opened at 7 am. I had ensured that I carry my voter ID card when I rushed to the hospital with my wife and family at about 3 am after she developed labour pain. I quickly drove to my polling centre, about 3 km from the hospital, as soon as saw my newborn son, Mishra said. The software professional said he was among the first voters at the booth and he cast his vote at about 7:15 am. It is my responsibility to ensure that I vote and also look after my family and hence by voting early I will now be able to take care of the new member in the family and my wife easily, Mishra said. 65.43 % voter turnout in Bengal The voter turn in Bengal was 65.43% till 3 pm. It was 71.32% in Jalpaiguri (SC), 63.14% in Darjeeling and 61.84% in Raiganj . There have been sporadic incidents today in Bengal but they were fewer than those on the first phase of polling April 11. This is attributable to the deployment of central forces in more number of booths. Trouble took place in those polling stations where central forces were not deployed. We urged the Chief Electoral Officer that all polling stations should be manned by central forces in the next five phases in the state, said Mukul Roy, convener of the BJP election management committee in Bengal. AIADMK may capture booths after 3.30 pm: DMK lodges police complaint DMK lodges complaint to DGP of Police saying that the ruling AIADMK may capture booths after 3.30 pm. 38.5% voter turnout at 3 pm in Jammu and Kashmir Voter turnout till 3 pm in Jammu and Kashmir is 38.5%, including 5.7% in Srinagar, reported news agency ANI. At 3 pm, 67.5% voter turnout in Inner Manipur, 49.26% in Karnataka In the inner Manipur constituency, the voter turnout stood at 67.5% and 49.26% in Karnataka at 3 pm. 95-year-old Odisha man collapses, dies while waiting in queue A 95-year-old man collapsed and died while he was waiting in the queue to cast his vote in Kansamari booth of Sanakhemundi Assembly constituency under Aska Lok Sabha constituency. Former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh casts vote Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh and his family cast their vote for the Rajnandgaon parliamentary constituency. Who is behind the burqa? BSP, BJP slug it out in UPs Amroha The BJP and the BSP engaged in a bitter war of words over burqa-clad voters in Uttar Pradeshs Amroha constituency during the second phase of polling for Lok Sabha elections on Thursday All these (burqa clad voters) are fake voters. They are casting fake votes for BSP candidate. I demand their frisking.I have also complained to the DM, Kanwar Singh Tanwar, BJPs sitting MP and its candidate said. Within minutes, the BSP hit back with its candidate Danish Ali alleging that the BJP workers were using the cover of burqa to cast fake votes. All these (burqua-clad voters) are BJP votes the BJP is getting votes cast for its candidate under the cover of Burqua, Ali alleged. EC officials search Karnataka CMs luggage, chopper Election Commission officials today searched the luggage and chopper of Karnakata chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, reported news agency ANI. AIADMK alleges violation of model code by Dayanidhi Maran The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu Thursday alleged violation of the model code of conduct by DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran, the candidate from Central Chennai Lok Sabha constituency, saying he sought votes on polling day. Party spokesperson and advocate R M Babu Murgavel lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, marking a copy to state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo in this connection. Murugavel alleged that Maran addressed the press after casting his vote and said he voted for change of government and he request the people also to do so. 35% voting in 3 constituencies in Vidarbha till 1:00 pm Around 35 per cent polling was recorded in three Lok Sabha constituencies --- Akola, Amravati and Buldhana, in Vidarbha till 1.00 this afternoon. Political leaders whose fate will be decided today, in the second phase of the elections, include the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader, Prakash Ambedkar (Akola), Navneet Rana (Amravati), the former Maharashtra minister and senior NCP leader, Rajendra Shingne (Buldhana) and three-time Lok Sabha member, Sanjay Dhotre (Akola). The election authorities informed that, 36.15 % poll was recorded in Amravati, 34.31 % in Buldhana and around 33 per cent polling was recorded in Akola till 1.00 pm. Karnataka voter comes to polling booth in an ambulance Jayasheela Poojaari Ulthuru of Kundapura came to the polling booth in an ambulance to cast his vote. He had met with an accident 20 days ago was confined to bed for next 3 months. He came in an ambulance, got on to the stretcher and voted, tweeted National Joint General Secretary (Org), BJP, B L Santhosh. He is Jayasheela Poojaari Ulthuru of Kundapura .... Had met with an accident 20 days ago .... Confined to bed for next 3 months .... He came in an Ambulance , got onto stretcher & voted ... @BJP4Karnataka @BJP4India @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/3w3wkFRq3p B L Santhosh (@blsanthosh) April 18, 2019 47% polling till 1 pm in Chhattisgarh Over 47 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 1 pm in Chhattisgarhs three Lok Sabha seats on Thursday as people braved the scorching summer heat to come out and exercise their franchise, an official said, reported news agency PTI. Voting in the second phase of polling in the state began at 7 am in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund Lok Sabha seats, all having Naxal presence, amid tight security, the official at the state election office said. Around 47.02 per cent voting has been recorded till 1 pm, he said, adding that long queues of voters were seen at several polling booths. Over 32% turnout in Bihar till 1 pm Over 32.5 per cent turnout was recorded in five of the 40 Lok Sabha seats voting in the second phase in Bihar till 1 p.m. on Thursday. Voting was on amid tight security in Banka, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar, officials said. The voting has been peaceful so far and there are no reports of violence, except some clashes between supporters of rival parties, said a senior official at the Police Headquarters in Patna. There were also reports of problems in electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Purnea, Katihar and Banka. Manipur CM jumps queue to vote Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh jumped the queues to vote in the election in the states Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat on Thursday, reported news agency IANS. Voters, some of who who had lined up even before the polling stations opened at 7 a.m., were not amused. Some pointed out that many other politicians had stood patiently in queues along with the general people. The Chief Minister and his wife voted in a polling booth under the Heingang Assembly constituency, officials said. Governor Najma Heptullah also voted in the Sagolband Assembly constituency. EVM vandalized in a clash between TMC and BJP workers An EVM was vandalized during a clash between TMC and BJP workers in West Bengals Chopra, reported news agency ANI. More details are awaited. 38.94% voter turnout at 1 pm in Uttar Pradesh The voter turnout stood at 38.94% voter turnout at 1 pm in Uttar Pradesh. The highest was in Amroha- 43.26%, followed Hathras- 41.18, Bulandshahar- 39.70%, Nagina- 38.71%, Agra- 38.24%, Aligarh- 37.60%, Mathura- 36.90%, Fatehpur Sikri- 35.96%. 51.60% voter turnout in Bengal till 1pm At 1 pm, the voter turnout in Bengal (3 constituencies overall) stood at 51.60%. The turn out in Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat was 47.52%, 54.73% in Jalpaiguri, and 52.54% in Raiganj. Polling is overall peaceful. Initially about 150 villagers could not cast their votes in Chopra, but later they could vote with the help of forces. I shall review the situation and take action accordingly, said Ajay V Nayek, special observer for West Bengal. Voting process recorded, posted on Facebook; probe ordered Election officials have ordered an inquiry after some voters recorded their voting process at a polling booth in Osmanabad and posted it on Facebook, police said. As per Election Commission guidelines, voters are not allowed to carry their mobile phones within a 100-metre radius of polling stations on the day of voting, an official said. This action (Facebook video) is a clear violation of the EC guidelines and also against the principles of secret ballot, an official said. Cases are also being registered under Cyber Act against the concerned people, who have been asked to delete the video on Facebbook, an official said. Think before you vote: Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah Think before you vote!! There is a woman abuser standing from @BJP4India in Bangalore South There is a woman cheater standing from BJP in Mysore There is a woman molester standing from BJP in Mangalore Think about your sister, wife, mother &friend before u vote! #VoteMaaDi, tweeted former Karnatak chief minister Siddaramaiah. Villagers in Fatehpur Sikri boycott elections Villagers of Uttar Pradeshs Mangoli Kala in Fatehpur Sikri boycott Lok Sabha Elections 2019 over lack of adequate irrigation facilities in the village. Polling official (pic 3) of booth number 41 says, Nobody has turned up to vote till now, reported news agency ANI. Congress Sushmita Dev casts vote in Silchar Congress Sushmita Dev after cast her vote in Silchar, Assam. At 1 pm, voter turnout in Assam, inner Manipur crosses 46% At 1 pm, the voter turnout in Odisha stood at 33%, in inner Manipur seat at 49.7%, in Assam at 46.42% , in Karnataka at 36.31%, and in Tamil Nadu at 39.49 %. Bengal ministers trying to ensure unpeaceful elections: Congress Pradip Bhattacharya We are getting information of trouble in several areas. We are getting reports from areas such as Chopra and Jalpaiguri. I want to ask why central forces were deployed in areas where they were not needed and kept away from where they were needed, said Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya. He also alleged that ministers of the state are trying their best to ensure the elections are not peaceful. 105-year-old votes in Maharashtra Heads turned when 105-year-old Kabaibai Ganpati Kamble on Thursday reached a polling station to cast her vote in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. Seated on a wheelchair, Kabaibai was accompanied by her grown up children and other fourth-generation relatives to the polling station in Harangul New Colony in Latur. She was cheered by other voters who clapped for her. Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar casts his vote Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar casts his vote at a polling booth in Dodda Halahalli, Kanakapura Taluka. Actor Prakash Raj votes in classroom he sat in 41 years ago I got to VOTE in my school and in the very class room I sat 41 years ago ..NOSTALGIC.. a NEW JOURNEY.. a NEW HORIZON.. feeling blessed by LIFE, tweeted Prakash Raj . 23% voter turnout in UPs Amroha at noon At noon, the voter turnout in Uttar Pradeshs Amroha and Nagina Lok Sabha constituency stood at 23% in the second phase of Lok Saha elections 2019. IED blast in Chhattisgarh IED blast took place b/w Koracha and Manpur road,Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh on ITBP Road Opening Party (ROP) at 1100am today, reported news agency ANI. ITBP Constable Man Singh received minor injuries. He is out of danger and is performing his duty after getting first aid. Polling in the area underway 21.47% voter turnout in Maharashtra In Maharashtra, on an average 21.47% voters turned out to cast their votes for the ten Lok Sabha constituencies till 11am on Thursday. Maximum 26.17% voting was registered on Parbhani Lok Sabha seat followed by Nanded with 24.40% voting in the constituency. For the rest of the constituencies are voting turnout is as follows Hingoli 24.08%, Latur 23.14%, Akola 21.03%, Buldhana 20.49%, Osmanabad 20.09%, Amravati 20.06% and Beed 18.94%. The lowest voting was registered for Solapur constituency 16.50%. At noon, 19.90% voter turnout in Karnataka In the second phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019, the voter turnout in Karnatak stood at 19.90% 12 noon. 305 EVMs faulty replaced in Tamil Nadu: CEO We have changed 305 EVMs in Tamil Nadu as they were malfunctioning, said chief election officerSatyabrata Sahoo. Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah casts vote Former Karnataka chief minister CM Siddaramaiah and his son Yathindra Siddaramaiah cast their votes at a polling booth in Mysuru. 40-year-old with mental disability casts vote for the first time R Illayakanni, a 40 year old with mental disability cast her vote for the first time at Tamil Nadus Mylapore. Her brother R Saravanan accompanied her. 17.8% voter turnout in J-K at 11 am Voter turnout till 11 am in Jammu & Kashmirs Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituency stood at 17.8%, reported news agency ANI. Specially-abled staff manages a polling booth in Maharashtra Polling booth number 193 in Maharashtras Buldhana is being managed by specially-abled staff, reported news agency ANI. Presiding officer, said, This booth is being managed by specially-abled staff only. I appeal to all specially-abled persons to cast their votes to strengthen democracy. BJP candidate Satish Gautam targets AMU over reservation BJP candidate and sitting MP Satish Gautam from Aligarh continued to target AMU. Jinnahs photo can only be placed in Pakistan. He promised reservation for SC/ST at AMU and advocated ending of minority status to AMU, he said after casting his vote. Maoists blast an IED in Manpur area of Rajnandgaon Maoists blast an IED in Manpur area of Chattisgarhs Rajnandgaon constituency. No casualties have been reported so far. One ITBP jawan injured has been injured in the blast, reported news agency ANI. In Chhattisgarh, a teacher on election duty dies of heart attack A teacher, who was on election duty at a polling booth in Chhattisgarhs Kanker district, died of a heart attack on Thursday, an official said. The deceased, Tukalu Ram Nareti, an assistant teacher in a government school, was deputed as the polling officer at Kamta booth (no.186) in Antagarh area of Kanker Lok Sabha constituency where voting was underway, the official from the local administration said. 33.45% turnout in Bengal at 11 am The voter turnout in West Bengals Raiganj seat stood at 34.01%, Darjeeling at 30.12% and Jalpaiguri at 36.22%. 19.90% voter turnout in Karnataka The voter turnout in Karnataka stood at 19.90% at 11 am. The turnout has been highest so far in Karnatakas Dakshina Kannada constituency (32.10%) and lowest in Bengaluru North (14.61%). Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah cast their votes Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah cast their votes at a polling station in Munshi Bagh Area in Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency. Omar Abdullah said, Now that LS polls are due to conclude, we can only hope that Centre together with EC gives people of J&K an elected govt which is their right. BJP candidate and sitting MP Bhola Singh under house arrest District magistrate of Bulandshahar Abhay Singh placed BJP candidate and sitting MP Bhola Singh under house arrest ( Najarband) for entering a booth, and seeking blessings of voters and allegedly campaigning at the pooling booth in J P Janta Inter College. He was also served with a notice. Raj Babbar casts his vote Congress leader Raj Babbar cast his vote in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019. Voter turnout in UP at 11 am At 11 am, the voter turnout in Uttar Pradeshs Nagina constituency stood at 24%, at 26% in Amroha, at 24.51% in Agra, 23.70% in Mathura, at 23.88% Aligarh, at 25.90% at Hathras and at 23.68% in Fatehpur Sikri. Actor and DMDK chief Vijayakanth castes his vote Actor and DMDK chief Vijayakanth castes his vote in Tamil Nadu. Voting is brisk in Udhampur, muted in Srinagar People voted in large numbers on Thursday in Jammu and Kashmirs Udhampur Lok Sabha seat but polling was muted in the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, reported news agency ANI. A healthy voter turnout was reported in Kathua, Reasi, Udhampur, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar districts of Udhampur where over 12 per cent voters exercised franchise during the first three hours until 10 a.m. The main contest in Udhampur is between Jitendra Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress. Eight other candidates are also in the fray. In Srinagar, only 0.9 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first three hours. Most polling stations in the eight voting segments of Srinagar city wore a deserted look although at some places voters came out in ones and twos to exercise their democratic right. Over 1,000 people voted in Chrar-e-Sharief while over 1,200 voted in Khansahib segment in Badgam district. At 11 am, 31.62% voter turnout in Bihar, 30.62% in Tamil Nadu, 26.39%, in Assam At 11 am, the voter turn for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019 stood at 31.62% in Bihar, 30.62% in Tamil Nadu, 26.39% in Assam, and 26.2% in Chhattisgarh. Quick updates at 11 am The car of Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate in Raiganj, Md Salim was attacked in Islampur of North Dinajpur district. Salim is also a politburo member of the CPI (M). While Salim managed to escape injuries and took shelter in the polling station, his driver fled with the car. Voter turnout till 11 AM in Manipur is 32.18% Voter turnout till 11 AM in Manipur is 32.18%, reports news agency ANI. BJP worker killed ahead of second phase of polls in Odisha A 32-year-old BJP leader was allegedly beaten to death by his BJD rivals in Odishas Ganjam district on Wednesday night, police said, hours ahead of Thursdays polling in five Lok Sabha and 35 assembly constituencies in the state. Read here| BJP worker killed ahead of second phase of polls in Odisha WB: BJP General Secretary Debasree Chaudhuri alleges TMC workers trying to capture booth at Raiganj Coronation High School West Bengal: BJP General Secretary and candidate from Raiganj constituency Debasree Chaudhuri alleges TMC workers were trying to capture booth at Raiganj Coronation High School. Says TMC workers were trying to capture booth. They were campaigning among Muslims there. This isnt election campaign, reports news agency ANI. WB: BJP General Secy&candidate from Raiganj constituency Debasree Chaudhuri alleges TMC workers were trying to capture booth at Raiganj Coronation High School. Says "TMC workers were trying to capture booth. They were campaigning among Muslims there. This isn't election campaign" pic.twitter.com/BxQ19MoTxP ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Rahul Gandhi makes appeal to voters Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday appealed to voters to exercise their electoral right as the second phase of Lok Sabha elections was underway. When you vote today, remember that you vote for Nyay, Gandhi said on Twitter, referring to Congress minimum income guarantee scheme NYAY. Nyay for our unemployed youth; for our struggling farmers; for the small traders whose businesses were destroyed by demonetisation; for those who were persecuted because of their caste or religion, he added. Development in Mathura is all due to my efforts: Hema Malini BJP MP Candidate from Mathura, Hema Malini says, Development in Mathura is all due to my efforts. SP-BSP are only engaged in fighting with each other. There is a huge Modi wave here. Uttar Pradesh: Voters in Garhi herbal village of Sadabad boycott election due to lack of development in Hathras Uttar Pradesh: Voters in Garhi herbal village of Sadabad boycotting election due to lack of development in Hathras. Assam: Sushmita Dev casts her vote along with her mother and sister at a polling booth in Silchar Assam: Sitting MP from Silchar and partys candidate from the parliamentary constituency, Sushmita Dev, casts her vote along with her mother and sister at a polling booth in Silchar. Assam: Sitting MP from Silchar & party's candidate from the parliamentary constituency, Sushmita Dev, casts her vote along with her mother and sister at a polling booth in Silchar. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/VWSYlCwkP9 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Polling halted at Maharashtras Solapur booth after EVM glitch Maharashtra: Polling has temporarily halted at booth number 217 in Solapurs Shastri Nagar due to fault in Electronic Voting Machine, reports news agency ANI. Amroha: People of Bilna village boycott polls Amroha: People of Bilna village boycott polls. The polling booth was in the village for the past 35 years and this time it has been shifted to a village 5 km from there. No proper connecting roads, public transport, etc. also added to their woes. Karnataka: Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda and his wife cast their votes Karnataka: Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in Hassans Paduvalahippe. Karnataka: Former Prime Minister and JDS leader HD Deve Gowda and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in Hassan's Paduvalahippe. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/kpBBzwbU7K ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Nirmala Sitharaman urges voters to come out in large numbers and exercise their rights Speaking to reporters after casting her vote, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged voters to come out in large numbers and exercise their rights. Very encouraging to see this kind of a response from citizens. Good candidates being chosen. Clear mandate for Modiji to form government again. Election Commission flying squad has seized Rs 11.85 lakh unaccounted cash in Sion area of Mumbai Election Commission flying squad has seized Rs 11.85 Lakh cash in Sion area of Mumbai City district, reports news agency ANI. Bihar: Ashwini Kumar Choubey cast his vote at a polling station in Bhagalpur Bihar: Union Minister and BJP candidate from Buxar, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, cast his vote at a polling station in Bhagalpur. Bihar: Union Minister and BJP candidate from Buxar, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, cast his vote at a polling station in Bhagalpur. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/6Kg9gwRWi2 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Agra: Raj Babbar casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College Agra: Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar and partys candidate from Fatehpur Sikri casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College, for Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Agra: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar and party's candidate from Fatehpur Sikri casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College, for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/l1rLK9F88C ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 Maharashtra: 105-year-old Kavaibai Kamble along with her family cast her vote at a polling station in Latur constituency Maharashtra: 105-year-old Kavaibai Kamble along with her family cast her vote at a polling station in Harangul Budruk in Latur constituency; Polling is underway at 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state. #Maharashtra: 105-year-old Kavaibai Kamble along with her family cast her vote at a polling station in Harangul Budruk in Latur constituency; Polling is underway at 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state pic.twitter.com/fP3poGXxXW ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Amroha: Kanwar Singh Tanwar has complained to DM regarding fake voting in burqua Amroha: BJP MP and candidate Kanwar Singh Tanwar says he has also complained to the DM regarding fake voting in burqua. West Bengal: Police, RAF fire tear gas shells to disperse agitators blocking NH31 at Chopra under Darjeeling constituency West Bengal: Around 10:15 am, police and Rapid Action Force personnel wielded canes and fired tear gas shells to disperse agitators who were blocking NH31 at Chopra under Darjeeling constituency. Agitators hurled crude bombs at the police. 8.6 percent voter turnout in Maharashtra in 2 hours Lok Sabha polls: 8.6 percent voter turnout in Maharashtra in 2 hours. 10.76 percent polling in Uttar Pradesh during first two hours, reports PTI. J-K: Visuals from polling station number 27-Reshanhar in Srinagar parliamentary constituency Jammu and Kashmir: Visuals from polling station number 27-Reshanhar in Srinagar parliamentary constituency; Polling is underway in Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Jammu & Kashmir: Visuals from polling station number 27-Reshanhar in Srinagar parliamentary constituency; Polling is underway in Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/6eIzKnhydL ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Chhattisgarh: A polling official deputed at polling booth number 186 in Kanker dies of heart attack during election duty Chhattisgarh: A polling official deputed at polling booth number 186 in Kanker dies of heart attack during election duty, reports news agency ANI. Raj Babbar casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College Mathura: Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar and partys candidate from Fatehpur Sikri casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College. Mathura: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar and party's candidate from Fatehpur Sikri casts his vote at the polling booth in Radha Ballabh Inter College, for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/7HoLJ16OCK ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 Voting percentage in Bihar at 10 am is 19.5% Voting percentage in Bihar at 10 am is 19.5%. Lowest turnout so far in Bengaluru Central Lowest turnout so far in Bengaluru Central - 5.41% and highest in Dakshina Kannada - 14.94% J-K: Voting underway at polling station number 2 in Doda, in Udhampur parliamentary constituency Jammu and Kashmir: Voting underway at polling station number 2 in Doda, in Udhampur parliamentary constituency. Jammu & Kashmir: Voting underway at polling station number 2 in Doda, in Udhampur parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/b4ogaWzj8V ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 11 percent voter turnout in Chhattisgarh till 9 am 11 percent voter turnout in Chhattisgarh till 9 am. J-K: 80-year-old patient comes from Kathua district hospital at polling booth number 2 Jammu and Kashmir: An 80-year-old patient, Jogindero Devi, comes from Kathua district hospital at polling booth number 2, in Kathua, to cast her vote for #LokSabhaElections2019. She will return to the hospital after casting her vote. Jammu & Kashmir: An 80-year-old patient, Jogindero Devi, comes from Kathua district hospital at polling booth number 2, in Kathua, to cast her vote for #LokSabhaElections2019. She will return to the hospital after casting her vote. pic.twitter.com/FaN2yMTIvi ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Amroha: BJP MP and candidate Kanwar singh tanwar alleges fake voting in burqua Amroha: BJP MP and candidate Kanwar singh tanwar alleges fake voting in burqua, demands frisking of burqua clad women. Dynasty politics isnt an important issue now: HD Kumaraswamy Ktaka CM HD Kumaraswamy after casting his vote in Ramanagara: Dynasty politics isnt an important issue now,countrys problems are the main issue.Only because of dynasty politics and regional politics,this country developed in several states.Were not bothered abt criticism from BJP. K'taka CM HD Kumaraswamy after casting his vote in Ramanagara: Dynasty politics isn't an important issue now,country's problems are the main issue.Only because of dynasty politicsional politics,this country developed in several states.We're not bothered abt criticism from BJP pic.twitter.com/twOgOyrHKk ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Karnataka: A senior citizen couple cast their votes Karnataka: A senior citizen couple, 91-year-old Shrinivas and 84-year-old Manjula, cast their votes at a polling booth in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency. Karnataka: A senior citizen couple, 91-year-old Shrinivas and 84-year-old Manjula, cast their votes at a polling booth in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/9HBHxdgnQv ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Quick updates at 10 Protest and counter protest erupted in Chopra under Darjeeling constituency after villagers took a person to the police. Villagers alleged that the person, said to be a Trinamool Congress supporter, was obstructing them from casting their votes. The villagers were being led by policemen to a booth after they blocked NH31 alleging they were not allowed to cast their votes. While they were being led to the polling station, the villagers stopped on the way, said that they dont have any faith on the state police and began demanding that central forces escort them. Polling underway in Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies, in Jammu and Kashmir Srinagar: Voting underway at polling booth number 3 in Bemina, in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 ; Polling is underway in Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies, in Jammu and Kashmir. Srinagar: Voting underway at polling booth number 3 in Bemina, in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 ; Polling is underway in Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies, in Jammu and Kashmir pic.twitter.com/4VaSCG3BNG ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 TTV Dinakaran cast his vote at a polling station in Besant Nagar in Chennai South parliamentary constituency Tamil Nadu: Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) chief TTV Dinakaran cast his vote at a polling station in Besant Nagar in Chennai South parliamentary constituency. Tamil Nadu: Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) chief TTV Dinakaran cast his vote at a polling station in Besant Nagar in Chennai South parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/s7PMSsg00r ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Bihar: 90-year-old Urmila and Usha cast their votes at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur Bihar: 90-year-old Urmila and Usha cast their votes at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur. Bihar: 90-year-old Urmila and Usha cast their votes at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/EkKDEasr7W ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Women voters in queue at Kursela Katihar Lok Sabha constituency Women voters in queue at Kursela Katihar Lok Sabha constituency. Women voters in queue at Kursela Katihar Lok Sabha constituency. ( HT Photo ) Polling percentage till 9 am in Agra Lok Sabha seat is 12.36 % Polling percentage till 9 am in Agra Lok Sabha seat is 12.36 percent. Polling percentage in Fatehpur Sikri till 9 am is 11.52 percent. Polling percent in Mathura 8.2 per cent till 9 am. Polling percent in Hathras till 9 am is 13 percent. J-K: People queue up outside Waliwar C polling booth number 105 in Ganderbal district Jammu & Kashmir: People queue up outside Waliwar C polling booth number 105 in Ganderbal district of Srinagar Parliamentary constituency, to cast their votes. Jammu & Kashmir: People queue up outside Waliwar C polling booth number 105 in Ganderbal district of Srinagar Parliamentary constituency, to cast their votes. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/cfmKWQD6kM ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Did you know Did you know that former CM HD Devegowda vacated his pocket borough Haasan for his grandson Prajwal Revanna. Jammu and Kashmir: A newly married couple arrive at a polling station in Udhampur to cast their votes Jammu and Kashmir: A newly married couple arrive at a polling station in Udhampur to cast their votes. Jammu & Kashmir: A newly married couple arrive at a polling station in Udhampur to cast their votes for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/RWTHAmAEwE ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Chennai: DMK President MK Stalin casts his vote at polling booth at SIET College in Teynampet Chennai: DMK President MK Stalin casts his vote at polling booth at SIET College in Teynampet. Chennai: DMK President MK Stalin casts his vote at polling booth at SIET College in Teynampet. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/AQRyKDQLCr ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 HD Kumaraswamy, his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy and their son cast their votes at a polling station in Ramanagara Karnataka: CM HD Kumaraswamy, his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy and their son and JD(S) candidate from Mandya, Nikhil, cast their votes at a polling station in Ramanagara. Karnataka: CM HD Kumaraswamy, his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy and their son & JD(S) candidate from Mandya, Nikhil, cast their votes at a polling station in Ramanagara. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/QPzBzKs2pP ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Polling percentage recorded in Assam - 5 seats Polling percentage recorded in Assam (5 seats)-9.51%,J&K (2 seats)-0.99%,Karnataka (14 seats)1.14%, Maha(10)-0.85%,Manipur(1)-1.78%,Odisha(5)-2.15%, TN(38)-0.81%, Tripura(1)-0.00%, UP(8)-3.99%, WB(3)-0.55%, Chhattisgarh(3)-7.75% & Puducherry-1.62%,till 9am Turn out 14.99% at 9 AM for inner Manipur parliamentary constituency Turn out 14.99% at 9 AM for inner Manipur parliamentary constituency. Tamil Nadu: DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan casts his vote Tamil Nadu: DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan casts his vote at a polling station in Mylapore, in Chennai South Parliamentary constituency. Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh casts his vote at a polling booth in Imphal Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh casts his vote at a polling booth in Imphal. #LokSabhaElections2019 : Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh casts his vote at a polling booth in Imphal. pic.twitter.com/Q01FDttDRc ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 LS Polls: Multiple instances of EVM, VVPAT malfunctions reported across India As the second phase of polling gets underway to elect members to the 17th Lok Sabha, Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and Voter-verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) glitches have been reported at a number of polling booths across the country, reports news agency ANI. Tamil Nadu: H Raja casts his vote at a at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga Tamil Nadu: BJP candidate for Sivaganga constituency H Raja casts his vote at a at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. Tamil Nadu: BJP candidate for Sivaganga constituency H Raja casts his vote at a at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/jaPYBTK9Db ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Bihar: At 9 am voting percentage is 12.27% Bihar: At 9 am voting percentage is 12.27%. G Parameshwara and his wife Kannika Parameshwari cast their vote Karnataka: Deputy CM G Parameshwara and his wife Kannika Parameshwari cast their vote at a polling booth in Koratagere, Tumkur. Karnataka: Deputy CM G Parameshwara and his wife Kannika Parameshwari cast their vote at a polling booth in Koratagere, Tumkur. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/YR7hP1WfoB ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Redefined priorities: My vote first Redefined priorities: My vote first Agra: A groom arrives to cast his vote ( HT Photo ) Kanimozhi casts her vote at a polling station in Chennais Alwarpet Tamil Nadu: DMK Lok Sabha candidate from Thoothukudi, Kanimozhi casts her vote at a polling station in Chennais Alwarpet, says, People in the opposition have been harassed, raids targeted at opposition candidates. BJP have completely taken over AIADMK. Tamil Nadu: DMK Lok Sabha candidate from Thoothukudi, Kanimozhi casts her vote at a polling station in Chennai's Alwarpet, says, "People in the opposition have been harassed, raids targeted at opposition candidates. BJP have completely taken over AIADMK." #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/tWH81q0ewR ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Voters at UPs Birjapur polling station in Mathura complain they are not allowed to vote despite having Aadhar card as identity proof Voters at Uttar Pradeshs Birjapur polling station in Mathura complain they are not allowed to vote despite having Aadhar card as identity proof. Odisha: Voting has now resumed Odisha: Voting procedure was halted at booths 261 and 263 in Bolangir Lok Sabha constituency due to EVM malfunction. The voting has now resumed. Quick updates at 9 BJP Election camp vandalised in Malbazar under Jalpaiguri constituency Journalists beaten up with sticks in Goalpokhor area of Raiganj constituency around 7:30 am Camera smashed, Election Commission passes snatched by the assailants. Mathura: People queue up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block Mathura: People queue up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block. The voting is yet to begin here due to EVM malfunction. Mathura: People queue up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block. The voting is yet to begin here due to EVM malfunction. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/FxM95M7VLi ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 Bihar: Congress symbol seen outside polling booth at Triveni Nayak School in Katihar Bihar: Congress symbol seen outside polling booth at Triveni Nayak School in Katihar; Five parliamentary constituencies in the state are voting in Lok Sabha Elections 2019 today. #Bihar: Congress symbol seen outside polling booth at Triveni Nayak School in Katihar; Five parliamentary constituencies in the state are voting in #LokSabhaElections2019 today. pic.twitter.com/wu8WsXQGMg ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Karnataka: PWD minister HD Revanna offers prayers at a temple in Paduvalahippe village Karnataka: PWD minister HD Revanna offers prayers at a temple in Paduvalahippe village in Hassan before casting his vote. Karnataka: PWD minister HD Revanna offers prayers at a temple in Paduvalahippe village in Hassan before casting his vote for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/LXD8qHnj97 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Mathura: People queue up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block Mathura: People queue up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block. The voting is yet to begin here due to EVM malfunction. Mathura: People queue up outside booth number number 46 in Gantholi village of Govardhan block. The voting is yet to begin here due to EVM malfunction. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/FxM95M7VLi ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 EVM replaced at model polling station in sadabad town of Hathras after technical fault EVM replaced at model polling station in sadabad town of Hathras after technical fault. Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi casts her vote Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi casts her vote. #LokSabhaElections2019: Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi casts her her vote pic.twitter.com/8YNZWWiJlV ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan cast their votes Tamil Nadu: Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan cast their votes at polling station 27 at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai. Tamil Nadu: Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan cast their votes at polling station 27 at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/JQf1IORCkp ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Bulandshahr: Voters queue outside polling booth number 439, where polling has not started due to faulty EVM Bulandshahr: Voters queue outside polling booth number 439, where polling has not started due to faulty EVM. Bulandshahr: Voters queue outside polling booth number 439, where polling has not started due to faulty EVM pic.twitter.com/jqdiVmCVlx ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 18, 2019 Polling centers in Mathura water logged because of heavy rains last night Polling centers in Mathura water logged because of heavy rains last night. Long queues of voters in Mathura since morning. Vehicles not allowed near polling stations. Mobiles prohibited inside polling station. Jawans of Punjab Border wing deployed in Mathura. Bengaluru: Prakash Raj queues up at a polling booth, to cast his vote Bengaluru: Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central, Prakash Raj queues up at a polling booth, to cast his vote in Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Bengaluru: Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central, Prakash Raj queues up at a polling booth, to cast his vote in #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/y93wPMKpxC ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 West Bengal: People queue outside a polling station in Darjeeling, to vote West Bengal: People queue outside a polling station in Darjeeling, to vote in Lok Sabha Elections 2019. West Bengal: People queue outside a polling station in Darjeeling, to vote in #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/04dntABPMg ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 WB: Election camp of BJP was vandalised in Malbazar under Jalpaiguri constituency Around 7:30 am, in Goalpokhor area of Raiganj constituency, journalists of a Bengali TV channels were beaten up with sticks. Their camera was smashed and Election Commission passes were snatched by the assailants. An election camp of the Bharatiya Janata Party was vandalised in Malbazar under Jalpaiguri constituency. Five places have reported EVM and VVPAT malfunction since morning in Beed constituency Beed DM Astik Kr Pandey: Five places have reported EVM and VVPAT malfunction since morning in Beed constituency. Those are Georai, Mazalgaon, Kej, Ashti, Parali. However all those machines have been replaced immediately and polling is going smoothly at all locations, reports news agency ANI. Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy casts his vote at a polling station Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy casts his vote at a polling station. #LokSabhaElections2019 : Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy casts his vote at a polling station. pic.twitter.com/bfW6y7F2pM ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Maharashtra: A pregnant woman and her husband, after casting their vote at polling booth number 164 in Nehru Nagar of Solapur Maharashtra: A pregnant woman and her husband, after casting their vote at polling booth number 164 in Nehru Nagar of Solapur. Maharashtra: A pregnant woman and her husband, after casting their vote at polling booth number 164 in Nehru Nagar of Solapur. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/NXx0zOLcDY ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Lok Sabha Elections 2019 : Voter turnout in Bihar (5 constituencies) is 5.73%, till 8am Lok Sabha Elections 2019 : Voter turnout in Bihar (5 constituencies) is 5.73%, till 8am. Manipur: Governor Najma Heptulla casts her vote at a polling station in Imphal Manipur: Governor Najma Heptulla casts her vote at a polling station in Imphal. Manipur: Governor Najma Heptulla casts her vote at a polling station in Imphal. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/PQFQW9fwbt ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Nirmala Sitharaman casts her vote at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency Karnataka: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman casts her vote at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency. Karnataka: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman casts her vote at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/JEr2Bdtlf8 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palanisamy cast his vote at a polling station in Edappadi Tamil Nadu: CM Edappadi K Palanisamy cast his vote at a polling station in Edappadi, Selam. Tamil Nadu: CM Edappadi K Palanisamy cast his vote at a polling station in Edappadi, Selam. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/mnh6hBLwwx ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Election Commission has permitted Madurai Lok Sabha seat voters to caste their votes until 8 pm Amid polls, Madurai Chitrai festival too started. A huge crowd has thronged before the temple. While others can vote till 6 pm , Election Commission has permitted Madurai Lok Sabha seat voters to caste their votes until 8 pm. Assam: Sahadat Ali, Sector Officer says The VVPAT is fine now, people can now cast their votes. Assam: Visuals from polling station number 200 in Silchar where VVPAT was not working properly earlier today. Sahadat Ali, Sector Officer says The VVPAT is fine now, people can now cast their votes. Assam: Visuals from polling station number 200 in Silchar where VVPAT was not working properly earlier today. Sahadat Ali, Sector Officer says "The VVPAT is fine now, people can now cast their votes." #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/U5Cj8hKi0l ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Tamil Nadu: Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan queue up outside polling station 27 Tamil Nadu: Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan queue up outside polling station 27 at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai to cast their votes. Tamil Nadu: Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan queue up outside polling station 27 at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai to cast their votes. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/ufeYNJ3pdM ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Voters queue up in Farah town of Mathura to cast their votes Voters queue up in Farah town of Mathura to cast their votes. Voters queue up in Farah town of Mathura to cast their votes ( HT Photo ) Nirmala Sitharaman arrives at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency Karnataka: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrives at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency to cast her vote. Karnataka: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrives at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency to cast her vote. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/Gyq9ywrvJR ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Did you know? A former Prime Minister, four Union Ministers, and several high-profile first-timers are among more than 1,600 candidates are contesting in the second round of Lok Sabha elections today. A quick look at top shot candidates in phase 2 Hema Malini-Mathura Raj Babbar-Fatehpur Sikri Dayanidhi Maran-Chennai central A Raja-Nilgiris Kanimozhi-Thoothukudi Karti Chidambaram-Sivaganga HD Devegowda-Tumkur Farooq Abdullah-Srinagar Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami voted at a booth in Siluvampalayam village Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami voted at a booth in Siluvampalayam village near Edappadi at Salem. CPI(M)s Coimbatore LS seat candidate PR Natarajan casts his vote at a school in Coimbatore CPI(M)s Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat candidate PR Natarajan casts his vote at a school in Coimbatore. Polling yet to begin at Booth number 27 in Chennais Eldam road Polling yet to begin at Booth number 27 in Eldam road in Corporation school where Kamal Hassan to cast his vote at Chennai. WB: Polling is yet to begin at booth number 29/134 as EVM is not functioning West Bengal: Polling is yet to begin at booth number 29/134 at Islampur Hindi FP School of Uttar Dinajpur, in Raiganj Parliamentary constituency, as the EVM at the booth is not functioning. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise: PM Modi Dear Citizens of India, Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise. I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote! Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidi Rangarajan cast their vote Tamil Nadu: Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidi Rangarajan cast their vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. Tamil Nadu: Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidi Rangarajan casts their vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/2C5hLVUsPb ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Initial glitches reported at polling booths in Agra and Mathura Initial glitches reported at polling booths in Agra and Mathura delaying polling which was to begin at 7 am in morning .EVM changed at some places. Assam: VVPAT machine not working properly at a polling station in Silchar Assam: Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine not working properly at a polling station in Silchar. Polling officers trying to fix it. Assam: Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine not working properly at a polling station in Silchar. Polling officers trying to fix it. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/UjkaFtMot2 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Maharashtra : Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde casts his vote at a polling station in Solapur Maharashtra : Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde casts his vote at a polling station in Solapur, in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. #Maharashtra : Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde casts his vote at a polling station in Solapur, in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/N3rHPjfZQ9 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Rajinikanth casts his vote at the polling station in Stella Maris College Tamil Nadu: Actor turned politician Rajinikanth casts his vote at the polling station in Stella Maris College, in Chennai Central parliamentary constituency. Tamil Nadu: Actor turned politician Rajinikanth casts his vote at the polling station in Stella Maris College, in Chennai Central parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/NfD3llN4J1 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Tamil Nadu: Congress leader P Chidambaram casts his vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga Tamil Nadu: Congress leader P Chidambaram casts his vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. Tamil Nadu: Congress leader P Chidambaram casts his vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/XUudAsurPw ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 A first time voter in queue at polling station in Agra A first time voter in queue at polling station in Agra. The second phase of polling to take place at Agra Aligarh Mathura Fatehpur Sikri and Hathras today. A first tie voter in Agra ( HT Photo ) As many as 64 booths in the Darjeeling hills are being managed only by women Huge enthusiasm among voters noticed in different booths in the constituencies of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Raiganj. In many booths people lined up from 6 am and even earlier to cast their votes. In Raiganj central forces have been deployed in about 80% of the constituencies. As many as 64 booths in the Darjeeling hills are being managed only by women. Of these 32 are in the hills and 32 are in the plains. Voting begins for second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 in 95 constituencies, across 11 states and 1 union territory Voting begins for second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 in 95 constituencies, across 11 states and 1 union territory. Jammu and Kashmir: People queue up outside polling station number 2 in Doda Jammu and Kashmir: People queue up outside polling station number 2 in Doda under Udhampur parliamentary constituency. Voting begins at 7 AM. Jammu & Kashmir: People queue up outside polling station number 02 in Doda under Udhampur parliamentary constituency. Voting begins at 7 AM. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/cvroaciqet ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Voting on 95 seats in phase 2 begins Voting on 95 seats in phase 2 begins. Karnataka: People queue up outside polling stations 73,74,75,78,79 and 80 in Girinagar area of Bangalore South Karnataka: People queue up outside polling stations 73,74,75,78,79 and 80 in Girinagar area of Bangalore South (Lok Sabha constituency) to cast their votes in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Voting begins at 7 AM. Karnataka: People queue up outside polling stations 73,74,75,78,79 and 80 in Girinagar area of Bangalore South (Lok Sabha constituency) to cast their votes in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019. Voting begins at 7 AM. pic.twitter.com/8ZYC94cgww ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Chhattisgarh: Latest visuals from a polling station in Rajnandgaon Chhattisgarh: Latest visuals from a polling station in Rajnandgaon. Voting on three parliamentary constituencies in the state for the second phase of elections will be held today. Chhattisgarh: Latest visuals from a polling station in Rajnandgaon. Voting on three parliamentary constituencies in the state for the second phase of elections will be held today. pic.twitter.com/dErU9a9bqx ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Assam: Visuals from polling station number 200, in Radhamadhav Balika Vidyalay, in Silchar Assam: Visuals from polling station number 200, in Radhamadhav Balika Vidyalay, in Silchar. 5 Parliamentary constituencies of the state will undergo polling today in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Assam: Visuals from polling station number 200, in Radhamadhav Balika Vidyalay, in Silchar. 5 Parliamentary constituencies of the state will undergo polling today in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/r3mRXEA8V7 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Jammu and Kashmir: Visuals from a polling booth in Kathua Jammu and Kashmir: Visuals from a polling booth in Kathua, ahead of second phase polling for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 today. J&K: Visuals from a polling booth in Kathua, ahead of second phase polling for #LokSabhaElections2019 today. pic.twitter.com/BycGGGJvCD ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Karnataka: Visuals from polling station number 235 in Ramnagara Karnataka: Visuals from polling station number 235 in Ramnagara. 14 Parliamentary constituencies of the state will undergo polling today in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Karnataka: Visuals from polling station number 235 in Ramnagara. 14 Parliamentary constituencies of the state will undergo polling today in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/F2EYCHgG2Y ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Jammu and Kashmir: Mobile internet services have been snapped in Srinagar and other parts of the valley as a precautionary measure Jammu and Kashmir: Mobile internet services have been snapped in Srinagar and other parts of the valley as a precautionary measure, as Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies go to vote today in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019, reports news agency ANI. Bihar: Latest visuals from polling station number 38 and 39 in Bhagalpur parliamentary constituency Bihar: Latest visuals from polling station number 38 and 39 in Bhagalpur parliamentary constituency. 5 parliamentary constituencies of the state will undergo polling today, in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Bihar: Latest visuals from polling station number 38 & 39 in Bhagalpur parliamentary constituency. 5 parliamentary constituencies of the state will undergo polling today, in the second phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/eKBVyZavkF ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Assam: Outside visuals from polling station number 37&38 in Nagaon parliamentary constituency Assam: Outside visuals from polling station number 37&38 in Nagaon parliamentary constituency, ahead of the voting for Lok Sabha Elections 2019. 5 out of 14 parliamentary constituencies of Assam will go to polls today in the second phase of elections. Assam: Outside visuals from polling station number 37&38 in Nagaon parliamentary constituency, ahead of the voting for #LokSabhaElections2019. 5 out of 14 parliamentary constituencies of Assam will go to polls today in the second phase of elections. pic.twitter.com/5mP0RRlmmM ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Karnataka: Visuals from BES Education Society polling station in Bangalore South parliamentary constituency Karnataka: Visuals from BES Education Society polling station in Bangalore South parliamentary constituency, ahead of the voting for Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Voting on 14 parliamentary constituencies in the state for the second phase of elections will be held today. Karnataka: Visuals from BES Education Society polling station in Bangalore South parliamentary constituency, ahead of the voting for #LokSabhaElections2019. Voting on 14 parliamentary constituencies in the state for the second phase of elections will be held today. pic.twitter.com/BXwK7vaw8K ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Maharashtra: Preparation underway for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 at polling station number 269 Maharashtra: Preparation underway for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 at polling station number 269 in Nanded parliamentary constituency. Voting on 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state for the second phase of elections will be held today. Maharashtra: Preparation underway for #LokSabhaElections2019 at polling station number 269 in Nanded parliamentary constituency. Voting on 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state for the second phase of elections will be held today. pic.twitter.com/6JRuBzmnq0 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Voting on 95 seats in phase 2 to begin shortly Voting on 95 seats in phase 2 to begin shortly. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati emerged on Thursday morning from her 48-hour gag order with all guns blazing, targeting the BJP and the election commission. The attack coincided with voting for second phase polls in eight Lok Sabha constituencies of a polarised region of western UP. Her attack was primarily focused on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath who still has one more day to go for his 72-hour poll campaign ban to end. The two prominent Uttar Pradesh leaders had been put on mute by the Election Commission on Monday on charges that they had crossed the line during the election campaign. But Mayawati complained that Yogi Adityanath had walked around the ban but yet, the poll panel had been soft on him. Yogi Adityanath has been on a temple run during this period that also included a meeting with triple talaq victim, lunch at a Dalit house in Ayodhya and visits to a school for visually impaired girl students. Despite the ban, chief minister Yogi is visiting various cities and temples and indulging in antics by having lunch at a Dalit persons house. Yet, the Election Commission is kind on him, Mayawati tweeted. If such biased approach continued, then conduct of free and fair polls would be practically impossible. Who will answer the restlessness of the people on these issues? The BJP leadership continues to be as headstrong as it was before, she said. Click here for full coverage of Lok Sabha elections 2019 Defending Adityanath, his advisor Mrityunjay Kumar hit back at Mayawati asking how can visiting temples and accepting someones invitation be called a poll code violation. Mayawatiji reads written speeches so she must also read a copy of the order of the election commission, Kumar said. However, Mayawati continued to target the BJP saying it appeared to be as nervous during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as the Congress was during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Reason for this is their narrow approach towards backwards, Dalits, Muslims, farmers and labourers, she said. Also watch: Keenly watching if Yadavs will vote for Mayawati, BSP: Yashwant Deshmukh Appealing to people to vote in large numbers in the elections she continued to target the EC. The Supreme Courts observation that the poll watch dog isnt as helpless as it appeared to be is important. However, it still remains to be seen that the EC is actually acting impartially and isnt bent towards the centre, she added. Mayawati also had a word of advice for the opposition leaders. Despite provocations, the opposition must take care to exercise caution else that provides the BJP a handle to divert attention and mislead the masses, she said. She expressed satisfaction at the fact that the BJP candidate in Bulandshahr (reserved) seat was put under house arrest for trying to influence voters. However, she wondered why no action was initiated against the Bulandshahr district magistrate. With talks of an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the upcoming parliamentary elections hitting another roadblock, the Delhi Congress has begun executing plan-B readying its list of candidates. The Aam Aadmi Party , meanwhile, is likely to file nominations of its candidates from Thursday. Senior Congress party leaders said that the party could not keep its Lok Sabha election preparation on hold with just four days left for the last day to file nominations. The partys chief election committee (CEC) had finalised the candidates from four of the seven seats in Delhi last week. Read | Congress wants Delhi-only tie-up, says AAP as it calls off alliance talks Former Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken is slated to contest from New Delhi, Kapil Sibal from Chandni Chowk, JP Agarwal from Northeast Delhi and Raj Kumar Chauhan from NorthWest Delhi. However, the party is yet to make a formal announcement. Also, candidates to the East, West and South Delhi segments are yet to be finalised Talks are on with AAP leaders but with the fate of the alliance wavering every day, we cannot completely bank on them. We are simultaneously finalising on strong candidates to field from our party, who with or without an alliance can win these elections, a senior Congress leader said on Wednesday. Congresss Delhi in-charge PC Chacko and state president Sheila Dikshit met on Wednesday to discuss the names for the remaining three seats. Things are not moving forward on the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party . How long can we wait for? There isnt much time left. The last date for filing nominations is almost here, Chacko said on Wednesday. Senior party leaders privy to the developments said that in case the alliance does not work out, Dikshit, a three-time chief minister of Delhi, is likely to contest from East Delhi, while senior leader Mahabal Mishra, a Purvanchali, is likely to be the partys face from West Delhi. Mishra had won the West Delhi seat in 2009 but lost the next election to Bharatiya Janata Party s (BJPs) Parvesh Verma. Dikshit had contested from the East Delhi parliamentary segment in 1998 and lost to BJPs Lal Bihari Tiwari. Olympic silver medal winner, wrestler Sushil Kumar is the partys likely choice from South Delhi. Sushil wanted to fight the elections from West Delhi because his native village is in Najafgarh and he has also done a lot of social work in the area. But we also need a Purvanchali face and Sushils celebrity status will resonate with the youth in South Delhi, another Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said. He said that in case the alliance does not work out with the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress is likely to announce their candidate list during the weekend. 2019 will be the first parliamentary election in Tamil Nadu after the death of two of the states biggest leaders: J Jayalalithaa of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and M Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The AIADMK created history by retaining power in Tamil Nadu by winning the assembly elections twice in a row, 2011 and 2016, ending a two-decade old trend. Tamil Nadu has flipped between the AIADMK and the DMK since 1989. What is ironical is that the AIADMKs alliance formula is not in keeping with its historic achievement in the 2016 elections. The AIADMK is only contesting 20 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu in these Lok Sabha elections, the lowest since 1996. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting five seats in alliance with the AIADMK, while the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) are contesting seven and four seats respectively. The Puthiya Tamilagam, the Puthiya Needhi Katchi, and the Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) have got one seat each. To be sure, the DMK is also contesting only 20 seats in the state, but this is in keeping with its earlier alliance adjustments. (See Chart 1: Seats contested by AIADMK and DMK in Tamil Nadu) Why has the AIADMK ceded so much ground to its alliance partners? One, it does not have the charisma of Jayalalithaa anymore. An even bigger problem for the AIADMK is that succession battles after Jayalalithaas death might have significantly weakened the party. Eighteen of the 134 AIADMKs MLAs were disqualified by the speaker of the state assembly in September 2017, after they sided with TTV Dhinakaran, the former chief ministers protege. Dhinakaran later established his political clout by managing to wrest RK Nagar, Jayalalithas assembly seat, in a bypoll held in December 2017. He has floated a new party called the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK). How much damage can the AMMK cause the AIADMK? An extrapolation of 2016 assembly results at the parliamentary constituency (PC) level suggests that it could be significant. The AIADMKs PC-wise extrapolated tally would have come down from 34 to 27 if the votes of rebel MLAs were to be subtracted. If these MLAs are able to retain their popular support, it could lead to a significant reduction in the AIADMKs vote share. (See Chart 2: Before and after disqualification) To be sure, the AMMK could also play spoiler for the DMK alliance. The DMKs vote share came down by 19 percentage points between the 2016 assembly election and the 2017 by-poll in the RK Nagar assembly constituency. It is also difficult to say whether other smaller parties in the AIADMK alliance will be able to offset for the loss of votes on account of the AMMK. The results of 2019 polls will not just have a bearing on government formation at the Centre, but also give much needed clarity on the prevailing political uncertainty in the state. Amid chanting of slogans supporting the Samajwadi Party, its president Akhilesh Yadav filed his nomination papers from Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat on Thursday. Yadav said the first phase of parliamentary polls saw good voting in the favour of the alliance in Uttar Pradesh. We worked for development of Azamgarh and will do the same in future too, he said after filing nomination papers in Azamgarh. The SP is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati and the Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh. The SP chief said the second phase would also be favourable for the grand-alliance. Public of Azamgarh will give blessings to Samajwadis (socialists), said Yadav before heading to Baitholi village of the district for his election rally. A huge crowd participated in the nomination procession of Yadav. Supporters came from remote areas of the Lok Sabha constituency. I belong to Mubarakpur. I am a supporter of the SP chief. I reached Azamgarh in the morning to participate in the nomination procession, Ashok Yadav said. Arvind Sahney, an electrician at Azamgarh said, Netaji and Akhilesh Bhaiya did a lot of work (ensured development) in the district. Sathiaon sugar mill came up when Akhileshji was chief minister of UP. The sugar mill helped cane growers in and around the district in a big way because they can sell their produce here. Azamgarh is considered a bastion of the Samajwadi Party. SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat in 2014. He defeated BJP candidate Ramakant Yadav, who recently joined the Congress. Mulayam Singh Yadav is contesting 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat. Mulayam Singh secured 35.43 per cent vote while Ramakant Yadav polled 28.85 per cent votes. BSP candidate Shah Alam received 27.75 per cent votes. The Congress had to content with 1.87 per cent vote. Rashtriya Ulema Council (RUC) Amir Rashid Madani succeeded in securing 1.38 per cent vote at the seat. A total of 56.38 per cent turnout was recorded at the seat. In 2009, the BJP had received 35.13 per cent votes and its candidate Ramakant Yadav emerged victorious. He had defeated BSP candidate Akbar Ahmad Dumpy, who got 28.18 per cent votes. SP candidate Durga Prasad Yadav had polled 17.57 per cent votes. This time SP-BSP is in alliance. The BJP has fielded Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua. There have been 18 MPs from Azamgarh constituency in 16 general elections and two by-elections. Of the 18 MPs from Azamgarh, 12 have been a Yadav candidate. Caste equation favours Yadavs on the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat, where the upper castes constitute 2.90 lakh votes, OBC 6.80 lakh, Dalit 4.50 lakh and minorities 3.10 lakh. Bangladeshi actor Ghazi Abdul Noor who had attended a political rally in West Bengal has been asked to leave India immediately, officials said Thursday. Noor is the second Bangladeshi actor, after Ferdous Ahmed, to be served a Leave India notice. Noor was staying in India despite expiry of his visa. Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his overstay in contravention of visa rules, a home ministry official said. Reports suggest that Noor allegedly campaigned for TMCs Dumdum candidate Saugata Roy. The Centre on Tuesday had issued a Leave India notice to Ahmed and cancelled the business visa given to him for allegedly campaigning for a political party. Ahmed had attended a rally in support of the Trinamool Congress candidate in Raiganj in West Bengal. The Home Ministry action came after it received a report from the Bureau of Immigration regarding visa violations committed by the Bangladesh actor. The BJP Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission after a video surfaced showing Noor purportedly campaigning for Roy in the Dumdum constituency in alleged violation of the poll code. This act is in violation of the terms of visa and yet another case of a foreigner actively influencing the electoral process. This is a gross violation of the basics of democratic structure, BJPs West Bengal vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said after filing a complaint with the EC. Acharya Pramod Krishnam, the Congress candidate for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat, took a jibe at the BJP on Wednesday, saying the party had forgotten Ram. He also said it spoke more and acted less on Pakistan. They brought an ordinance on SC/ST (Act) and triple talaq but forgot Ram Mandir, he said at a press conference on Wednesday, a day before he files his nomination on Thursday. Jo Ram ka na hua wo rashtra ka kya hoga (Those who did not stand by Lord Ram, how can they stand with the nation?) he said. Krishnam said the country wanted Pakistan to be attacked and the entire nation is with you on this but instead of attacks, Modi does politics on Pakistan and also on Article 370. In fact, for five years, they betrayed the countrymen in the name of cow, Ayodhya, Indo-Pak issues and tried to snub those who raised questions by labelling them as anti-nationals, he said. Krishnam, who was Congresss candidate from Sambhal in the 2014 Lok Sabha, said the BJP failed to keep its promises. That was why for the past 20-days, Modi had stopped seeking votes for Skill India, Make in India or even demonetisation. Asked about his candidature against SP candidate Poonam Sinha, wife of Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha, Krishnam said, Parties contesting on 20-25 seats say they will stop Modi, but I would say post-election they stand with either the Congress or the BJP. Hence, they should decide before the election only. They really do not pose a challenge. I do not need any one, but people of Lucknow to vote, he replied to a query whether Shatrughan Sinha would campaign for him in Lucknow. I have travelled the entire country but never found a Muslim who supports Pakistan. They (BJP) see Pakistan among Indian Muslims and I see Hindustan in Muslims in Pakistan too, said Krishnam. Commenting on Rajnath Singh, the union home minister and BJPs Lucknow candidate, he said, We had hope from Rajnath, but he remained a mute spectator all these years and when he came to file his nomination, he only disturbed people. My nomination will be simple and will carry Priyankas message to people on the streets and in the lanes as I will walk with them to file my nomination. The Congress is hoping that the position taken by Sushmita Dev, its Lok Sabha candidate from Assams Silchar, on the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) will put the brakes on the BJPs ambitions in the Bengali-speaking Barak valley. Silchar and Karimganj in the valley will vote on April 18. Dev, the head of the All-India Mahila Congress is vying for a second term in the constituency where the CAB?has won support from Bengali-speaking Hindus for its plans to curtail Muslim immigrants but bestow citizenship upon Hindu, Buddhist and Christians among other minorities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nobody knew me in 2014,?Dev said, during a brisk walk through her constituency that her father, Santosh Mohan Dev, won five times, as compared to the BJP that won it in 1991, 1998 and 2009. As a native of the valley, Dev was pushed into a corner when the Congress decided to shed its earlier ambiguity and launch an all-out attack against the CAB. As far as I am concerned, everybody who is on the 2014 voters list is a citizen, said Dev, who is an outspoken critic of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is currently being updated and also mired in controversy. Unlike elsewhere, most migrants in the Barak Valley are Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. According to locals, they form the majority of the over 2,00,000 names excluded from the NRC draft in Cachar district, whose headquarter is Silchar. However, as a Congress candidate, Dev cannot openly support the BJPs attempt to offer citizenship only to Hindus and other communities and exclude Muslims. NRC is a big issue and the harassment of people has only grown in the last three years, Dev said. Of course it is, she said, when asked whether the NRC?was discriminatory to Bengali-speakers. However, she was careful not to distinguish between Hindu and Muslim Bengalis and restrict herself to random examples. If your surname is Mukherjee, for instance, they ask you for 200 papers, she said. Dev is critical of the seeming U-turn taken by Prime Minister? Narendra Modi on CAB, when he visited the valley earlier in April and offered assurances to the Assamese people that he would bring in the bill only after discussion and consensus with all sections of Assamese society. Earlier, the BJPs dogged determination to push the CAB through without discussion had lost it a vital ally, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in the state. The recent re-alliance between the two parties drew sharp criticism from Dev who said that it indicated the BJP was not serious about CAB. Her enigmatic stand on the CAB seems to have had the desired result. It has blunted the BJPs campaign and provoked the BJPs candidate, Rajdeep Roy, a doctor, to repeatedly question the Congress exact position on the Bill. Devs jibes at the BJP on the CAB and the NRC may have prompted BJP general secretary Ram Madhav to hold a press conference in Silchar on April 16, the last day of campaigning. The NRC and CAB will eventually solve the issue of illegal infiltration. If anyone is left out of the final NRC list, they will have an opportunity to claim citizenship via the CAB, he promised in a veiled bid to assure Hindu migrants that they stand to benefit from the controversial bill. Meanwhile, the Congress seems well aware of the benefits it may reap from Devs position. Our local MP took a strong stand and firmly stood with the people of the Barak Valley, so the balance has tilted in our favour, claimed Harish Rawat, Congress general secretary, in-charge of Assam earlier this week. CAB has no relevance because the BJP already branded 40 lakh persons whose names were not on the NRC draft as infiltrators (ghuspethiye). This hurt the sentiments of Bengali speakers, he said. The list of so-called infiltrators includes both Hindus and Muslims. Congress has made it clear citizenship of those who have come from Bangladesh was never in doubt and will not be in doubt in future, Harish Rawat said. The Congress party has tweaked its strategy in the middle of the ongoing national election to launch an unprecedented phase wise outreach targeted at possible beneficiaries of its much-touted Nyay scheme (Nyuntam Aay Yojana), a move prompted by the daily monitoring of the effectiveness of its campaign, and the need to communicate details of a programme the party thinks is a game changer. The party has started sending personalised letters from Congress president Rahul Gandhi to 12 million poor households which will vote in the third phase of the ongoing national election on April 23, a strategist for the Congress said. It will periodically release similar letters or messages to voters of the remaining four phases. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi is also expected to send such personalised messages directly to voters in the next few days, this person added requesting anonymity. As Nyay (named after its Hindi acronym) gains popularity among constituents, the party is hoping to play on the word (it means justice in Hindi) and use it in the context of jobs, GST, empowerment of women, and the agrarian crisis to underline the partys intent to fix problems. The Congresss campaign committee met here on Wednesday to chalk out how the term Nyay should be used to address raging issues across sectors. Party leaders argued that Nyay is a larger concept and the scheme of minimum guaranteed income is only a part of it. Nyay means justice. So, we want Nyay for GST, for women, in the job sector and for other issues as well, added the strategist. The new approach is starkly different from the traditional campaign of big rallies or road shows aimed at the masses, which will continue. The plan kicked in on Wednesday morning, with 1.9 million people being sent the link of the letter over text messages. In The first 45 minutes after the message was sent, the strategist said, 440,000 actually downloaded the letter. In the one-page letter, addressed to individual recipients, Gandhi explains the concept of Nyay and narrates how the current government has squandered its chances to improve the lives of common people. Gandhi writes: The poor, workers, farmers, small traders, middle class and businessmen contribute to make India. But in the last five years, voices of all these people were throttled and the Modi government ran only for 15-20 industrialists. The policies of the government doesnt take into account the hard work of the farmers, work for the young people, income for the poor, labourers wages and the lives of small traders. Instead of listening to these people, decisions such as the note ban and the Gabbar Singh Tax (a reference to GST) have hit their livelihoods hard. The letter mentions the Nyay word seven times and ends with the slogan, Garibi par waar, bahattar hazar (Attack on poverty; 72000) referring to the Rs 72,000 a year promised to poor families in the Nyay scheme. The party has used SECC data, housing scheme data and other government studies to draw up the list of poor Indians in 5.4 lakh villages. They have been also mapped in the Congress s internal network, Shakti, against their respective constituencies and booths. This makes the work of sending these messages relatively easy, said Praveen Chakravarthy, the head of the partys data analytics cell. In the coming phases, Priyanka Gandhi is likely to send out personal messages to targeted voters. Discussions are still on if that will be a video clip or an audio message or another letter. The party has also prepared a video to explain Nyay after Chakravarthy was grilled by many local women on the scheme at a rally in Maharashtras Ramtek. I went to Ramtek two days before the first phase campaign ended... a lot of women came to me to ask questions. We decided to make a video..., he said . Targeted campaign, like targeted subsidies, can be an innovative idea. But while the Congress wants to focus on Nyay, they must also respond to the issues raised by the BJP, their principal opponent in the run up to the polls, said former parliamentary affairs secretary, Afzal Amanullah. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged voters to go out and vote and strengthen our democracy as 95 parliamentary constituencies across 11 states poll in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election 2019. Dear Citizens of India, Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise, Prime Minister Modi tweeted. I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote! Modi wrote. Follow LIVE updates here. Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Manipur are among the states voting on Thursday. Along with the Lok Sabha election, Odisha will also vote for 35 assembly seats on Thursday. The polling was scheduled to be held in 97 seats but polling in Vellore (Tamil Nadu) and Tripura East constituencies was cancelled by the Election Commission of India. In the 2014 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 27 out of these 95 seats. Another six seats of these 95 went to its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners. The Congress won just 12 seats in the 2014 elections, while other United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partners won three. That means 47 seats went to non-NDA, non-UPA parties. Voting will be held in 115 constituencies in the third, 71 in the fourth phase, 51 in the fifth phase, 59 in the sixth and 59 in the seventh phase. The results will be declared on May 23. But Johnson later alleged torture at the hands of detectives from Burges midnight crew. After winning a hearing into his allegations, Johnson entered into what's known as an Alford plea, a rarely used legal arrangement in which he acknowledged prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him but did not admit wrongdoing. He was then released from custody on time served in 2012, records show. After the first round of elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing a united challenge from the states two main opposition groups, the party has redoubled efforts to reach out to Dalit and Other Backward Class electorates to drive home the message that it does not differentiate between voters on the basis of caste. This, according to people aware of the development, is being done to counter the caste arithmetic of the coalition of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP), arch rivals-turned-allies, which are counting on the support of Dalits, OBCs and minorities. They also have another partner in Ajit Singhs Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in a state where caste faultlines run deep. Ahead of Thursdays second phase of polling in Agra, Aligarh, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Fatehpur Sikri, Hathras, Mathura and Nagina; cadre of the BJP and foot-soldiers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its ideological mentor, have been visiting households, particularly in Dalit- and OBC-dominated areas, to talk about the inclusivity of central schemes such as the Ujjwala Yojna and Jan Dhan. Watch - Lok Sabha elections 2019: The big fights to watch out for in Phase 2 Under Ujjawala, the BJP-led government at the Centre is offering free gas connections to poor households. Jan Dhan is aimed at promoting financial inclusion, to ensure that every household has a bank account and access to basic financial services. Contact programmes have intensified following feedback from the RSS after the April 11 first phase of elections, where the overall polling percentage dipped from 2014s 66.52% to 63.69%. While the BJP is counting the 220 million beneficiaries of its various schemes as a pan-India vote bank; the RSS is learnt to have cautioned the party that a dip in the voter turnout could lower its chances of winning. In 2014, the party won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP. The Sanghs message to the BJP is to take the message of inclusivity to far- flung and even sparsely populated villages. We have been given the instruction to knock on every door, said a volunteer of the RSS on condition of anonymity. The BJP faces a challenge in several key seats from the Jat-dominated RLD, the Dalit-centric politics of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Yadav- and Muslim-dominated politics of the SP. In such a scenario it has to show the voters how selection on the basis of caste will be a wrong choice, said a senior RSS functionary in Mathura on condition of anonymity. In Mathura, where the BJP is eyeing half of the 20% OBC vote share and half of the 20% Jat vote share, the party has to assuage the anger of the farmers and tradinc community. Even as it has promised to double farm incomes by 2022 and claims to have increased the minimum support price of crops to 1.5 times the cost of production, farmers across the state are unhappy over unpaid dues for sugarcane and having to sell their produce in the open market. In Mathura, for instance, farmers complain that the government, despite announcing that it will purchase wheat at 1,840 per quintal, had not done so. They said all purchases will be done by April 1; they have not even begun and we are being forced to sell in the open market for 1,600 per quintal, a farmer in Mathura said. Traders of silver, imitation jewellery and faucet manufacturers complain of business being down by as much as 30-40% after the November 2016 invalidation of high-value banknotes. Although they support Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his muscular policy towards Pakistan and the BJPs overall Hindutva pitch, they also complain that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had put an additional burden on small-scale enterprises. Silver and imitation jewellery is like a cottage industry in Mathura; GST has put a strain on traders, who now have to pay large sums to lawyers and chartered accountants to file returns, said a group of traders in Mandi Ramdass. To defuse anger over the slow delivery or non-delivery of welfare schemes, the Sangh has suggested increasing door-to-door contact programmes. In some villages only a few farmers have received the money under the Kisan Samman Nidhi, so before that is perceived as a false promise or as a discrimination on caste basis; the party and Sangh workers have been asked to set the record straight and explain that all the beneficiaries will be covered, the RSS functionary cited above said. Under Kisan Samman Nidhi, small and marginal farmers are being paid 6,000 per annum in three instalments. Uttar Pradesh power minister Shrikant Sharma said the vote for the BJP will be on the basis of its achievements. In 2014, it was against the Congresss misrule, now it will be for our good governance. All these caste issues dont matter, he said. In a predominantly Dalit neighbourhood in Mathura, this sentiment finds no takers. Even as a few BJP workers tried to draw attention to central schemes, people complained about the lack of jobs and employment avenues. Kishore Choudhary, a graduate preparing for examinations to secure a government job, was among those who made it to the draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which came out on July 30, 2018. His parents did not. Modi sahib (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) came recently and told us not to worry. If Hindus will not come to India because they are being targeted in Bangladesh, where else would they go? he asked, as he chatted outside a BJP election office in Kalibari Char, a slum sandwiched between the Barak River and its embankment in Silchar, the headquarters of Assams Cachar district and one of Bengali-speaking Barak Valleys two Lok Sabha (LS) constituencies which are voting on April 18. Since Modi came (to power), our slum has paved roads. The Congress only works for Muslims who throw stones at us, Choudhary said, claiming that members of the minority community who live on the other side of the embankment, still pelt stones at the Hindu houses as they did during a clash in 2018. The Muslims have similar complaints. Follow Lok Sabha elections Phase 2 LIVE Updates here Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the constituency twice since January, reiterating the BJPs commitment to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), which, unlike in other parts of the Northeast, is the partys main poll plank here. It promises citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Congress has called it unconstitutional. In Silchar, Prime Minister Narendra Modis invocation of sons and daughters of Bharat Mata, when he referred to the non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh and reiterated his commitment to CAB, have assuaged a section of such people who were unhappy being clubbed as ghuspethiye whom the BJP wanted to throw out. Anger against the ruling BJP government among the Bengali speaking Hindus peaked after July 30 when more than 2 lakh people in Cachar found themselves out of the NRC draft. During Durga Puja last year, NRC state coordinator Pratik Hajela was depicted as Mahishasur in Silchar. In Silchar, bustling even at 9 pm with people thronging the shops and many stalls on the pavements on the eve of Bengali New Year, loudspeakers mounted atop campaign auto-rickshaws blare the slogans Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande Matram and attack the Congress for not supporting the Bill. I will vote for Modi. He is the one who is doing so much for the country, said Nyuti Roy, a homemaker, a day after she attended Modis rally in Silchar on April 11. Her father, 102-year-old Chandradhar Das was picked up by Assam Police and put in the Silchar jail detention camp for foreigners in March 2018 after a foreigners tribunal declared him as ex-parte. The ailing Das is now out on bail and battling to prove that he came to India in the 1950s as a Partition refugee. Obviously, the BJP has an advantage since it is giving leap assurances on the Bill, while the Congress is not supporting, said Sadhan Purakayatha, secretary general of citizens rights preservation committee, a local rights body. Also Read | Lok Sabha election 2019: 5 Assam seats up for grabs in second phase of polling However, sitting Congress MP Sushmita Devs stand of supporting the citizenship to Hindu refugees going against her partys stated position have complicated things further for the BJP even as Modi remains popular. To win in Silchar, BJP has to cross multiple barriers - convincing everyone that it will indeed bring CAB, getting a section of the 37 per cent Muslim vote, overcoming the infighting within the party among others. A senior BJP leader explained how the party has won the polls only thrice. All the three times there was a strong third Muslim candidate (who received a healthy share of Muslim votes) making it easy for the BJP, he said. But on the ground, BJPs push for CAB has infuriated the local Muslims and their political preferences are visible as one crosses over to the Muslim part of Kalibari char and Congress flags replace the BJPs. Earlier, we could see the bridge on the Barak clearly. Now see how many thousands of Hindus have come and occupied this space. We cannot allow them to be citizens, said Fatahuddin Laskar, who runs a shop pointing towards the Hindu part of the slum. Even some young Hindus claim that citizenship to refugees would mean more competition and lesser opportunities for them. To make things worse for the BJP, some of its own are not confident if they will bring the CAB. The promise of CAB has neutralised the anger against CAB but it will be very difficult to bring in the amendment now. Prime Minister said he will take Assamese into confidence, But it is difficult to convince them, said BJPs Silchar MLA Dilip Paul, laying out his fears. I am worried what would happen to people who are out of NRC, he said. Perhaps this is what prompted Ram Madhav, the BJP General Secretary reiterating to the media in Silchar on April 16 in what seemed like an assurance to Hindu migrants. He reportedly said, NRC and CAB will eventually solve the issue of illegal infiltration of people. If anyone is left out of the final NRC list, they will have an opportunity to claim for citizenship rights. For now it is an open contest in Silchar. Violence was reported from several places on Thursday in West Bengal, where polling is being held in three parliamentary constituencies during the second phase of the Lok Sabha election 2019. The car of CPI(M) candidate and sitting member of Parliament Md Salim, who is up against the Congress Deepa Dasmunsi in Raiganj, was attacked in Islampur. Salim said police did not do anything when his car was attacked. And his Communist Party of India (Marxist) accused workers of the ruling Trinamool Congress of the attack. Also Watch | Lok Sabha elections 2019: The big fights to watch out for in Phase 2 Deepa Dasmunsi represented Raiganj in the Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014 and her husband and former Union minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi was the MP from 1999 to 2009. In Chopra under Darjeeling constituency, security personnel fired tear gas shells and baton charged agitators, who accused workers of the ruling party in the state of obstructing them from casting their vote. Agitators, who were blocking National Highway 31, also hurled crude bombs at the personnel of the local police and Rapid Action Force, officials said. Electronic voting machines were also smashed following a clash between the supporters of the Trinamool and the BJP in booth number 112 in Chopra. The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress is facing its toughest challenge against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in this election. Lok Sabha seats of Jalpaiguri, Raiganj and Darjeeling which is in the Bharatiya Janata Partys kitty is witnessing a fierce Trinamool-BJP contest as the central party is keen to expand its footprint in West Bengal, the third-largest state in the country in terms of Lok Sabha seats. Follow Live Updates Here - Lok Sabha Elections Polling Though a part of the Darjeeling constituency, Chopra is in the plains. Darjeeling, which is known for its tea and Unesco World Heritage site of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, is voting on Thursday in the second of the seven-phased Lok Sabha election 2019. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has held Darjeeling, one of the 42 Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, for the last two terms. The BJP had won the Darjeeling seat in 2009 and 2014 with the support of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). Businessman Raju Bista is fighting from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, which comprises the hill towns of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong as well as the plains of Siliguri, has a sizeable Gorkha population. The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and a faction of GJM, the major local outfits that have carried out movements demanding a separate state Gorkhaland, offered support to Bista. Amar Singh Rai, who is MLA from GJM from Darjeeling assembly seat, is contesting on a Trinamool ticket. The Congress has fielded Shankar Malakar and the CPI(M)s candidate is Saman Pathak. Congresss Rajya Sabha lawmaker Pradip Bhattacharya alleged that ministers of the state are trying their best to ensure the elections are not peaceful. We are getting information about trouble in several areas. We are getting reports from areas such as Chopra and Jalpaiguri. I want to ask why central forces were deployed in areas where they were not needed and kept away from where they were needed, Bhattacharya said. The BJPs leader Babul Supriyo also accused the Mamata Banerjee-led party of violence in Raiganj. TMC resorted to violence during polls at Raigunj by threatening and beating up people who went out to vote.Voters had to be escorted to the booths by the armed forces present there. Lets put an end to #TMChhis atrocities and attacks against democracy by stripping them of power (sic), Babul Supriyo tweeted. The the Murderer of Democracy sitting as the CM of Bengal, no matter how much of Central Forces @ECISVEEP (Election Commission) deploys, contaminated Bengal Police will disrupt Free&Fair PollsVote shud be conducted after imposing Presidents Rule, throwing out the #TMchhi Govt, he also wrote on Twitter. A short while after midday, central special police observer for West Bengal Vivek Dube, described the situation in the eastern state as peaceful. (The situation is) more or less peaceful. Small incidents will always happen. But there were no big incidents, Dube said while speaking to reporters. Polling is overall peaceful. Initially, about 150 villagers could not cast their votes in Chopra, but later they could vote with the help of forces. I shall review the situation and take action accordingly, said Ajay V Nayek, special observer for West Bengal. The state has so far witnessed around 51.60% polling in the three constituencies. The votes will be counted on May 23. Click here for full election coverage Former chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader, Farooq Abdullah, is seeking re-election from Srinagar, a seat he won in a 2017 by-poll, in Thursdays second phase of the 2019 general election. Abdullah, who won the seat when he defeated his nearest rival, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Nazir Ahmad Khan, by a margin of 10,766 votes, faces a triangular contest this time around. Challenging him are Irfan Ansari of the Peoples Conference and Agha Mohsin of the PDP. A total of 12 candidates are in the fray in Srinagar, which was won in 2014 by PDP candidate Tariq Hameed Karra, who quit the party in 2016 in protest against civilian killings. The Valley went through an intense phase of civil unrest after the killing of militant commander, Burhan Wani. Udhampur will also go to the polls on Thursday. Twelve candidates are also in the fray in the constituency, but the contest is to be seen mainly between Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the Prime Ministers Office, and the Congresss Vikramaditya Singh, grandson of the erstwhile ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh. In 2014, Jitendra Singh defeated the Congresss Ghulam Nabi Azad by a margin of over 60,000 votes. The minister is also up against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebel and former minister Lal Singh, who twice won the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket. Jammu and Kashmir has a total of six Lok Sabha seats, two (Jammu and Baramulla) of which voted in the first phase on April 11. Around 2.98 million voters will decide the fate of the 24 candidates who are in the fray in both Srinagar and Udhampur. More than 50,000 security force personnel will be deployed at 1,716 polling stations. Deputy commissioner of Srinagar, Shahid Choudhary, said all polling stations in Srinagar have been declared hypersensitive. In the 2017 by-election, polling was marred by violence in which eight people were killed. The constituency recorded a low 7.6% turnout. Political analyst, Gowhar Geelani, said the turnout could be better this time around than in 2017 because the regional parties have been able to convey that Article 35A and 370 are in danger. Article 35A gives certain special privileges to permanent residents of Kashmir. Article 370 assures autonomy to the state. Ninety-five Lok Sabha seats across 11 states began voting at 7 am in the second phase of the 2019 general elections on Thursday with long queues seen outside polling booths at several places and Prime Minister Modi urging voters to go out and vote. PM Modi, who had issued a similar appeal in first phase too, tweeted on Thursday: Dear Citizens of India, Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise. I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote! In the first hour of voting, several politicians and leaders cast their votes. Among the early voters were Tamil star Rajinikanth in Chennai, Congress leaders P Chidambaram in Sivaganga and Sushil Kumar Shinde in Solapur. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman voted in Jaynagar of Bangalore South constituency and actor-turned-politician Kamal Hassan in Chennai. Watch - LS Election 2019: Second phase of voting kicks off across India A few voters in Tamil Nadu, Assam and Uttar Pradesh Agra and Mathura complained of glitches in EVMs and VVPAT machines. The original schedule was for 97 seats, but the Election Commission of India has cancelled polling in Vellore (Tamil Nadu) and Tripura East constituencies. In the 2014 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 27 out of these 95 seats. Another six seats of these 95 went to its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners. The Congress won just 12 out of these 95 seats in the 2014 elections, while other United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partners won three seats. That means 47 seats went to non-NDA, non-UPA parties. All of Tamil Nadu except Vellore will go to polls in the second phase. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) swept the state in the 2014 elections, winning 37 out of the 39 seats. The AIADMK, which contested all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu in 2014, has allied with the BJP and five other regional parties in the state this time. While the AIADMK is being perceived as a much weaker force in 2019 due to the death of its leader J Jayalalithaa and subsequent defections over succession issues, a good performance by the NDA in the state could significantly enhance its 2019 prospects. The BJP also has high stakes in Karnataka, another southern state going to polls in this phase. It won six out of the 14 seats in the southern part of the state in 2014, where polling will take place today. Unlike in 2014, the BJP will have to face the combined strength of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) this time. Eight seats in Uttar Pradesh and five seats in Bihar are also going to polls in the second phase. The BJP won all of these eight seats in UP against a divided opposition. It will have to face the combined strength of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) this time. The BJP did not even have one Lok Sabha seat from the five that are going to the polls in this phase in Bihar. Even in 2019, all of these seats have been given to the Janata Dal (United), an NDA ally in the state. Ten parliamentary constituencies in Maharashtra will go to polls in this phase. The NDA won eight of these in the 2014 elections. Even in the 2009 elections, the NDA won six out of these 10 seats. Another state in which the BJP has high stakes in this phase is Chhattisgarh. The party won all of the three Lok Sabha constituencies that are going to polls in this phase. Extrapolating the 2018 assembly results at the parliamentary level shows that the Congress was ahead of the BJP in all of these seats. All major states except Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana will go to polls in more than one phase in the 2019 elections. This excludes hill states such as Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, North-Eastern states and union territories. An HT analysis shows that 79 Lok Sabha seats in seven big states Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh which vote in the first and second phase in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections voted in sync with state-wise outcomes (of the national elections) in both the 2009 and 2014 elections. Simply speaking, this means that unless a party or alliance was ahead of or at par with others in these seats, it could not have finished first in the respective states. The NDA made huge gains at the cost of the UPA in these 79 seats between the 2009 and 2014 elections. Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan were among hundreds of voters who had to wait at a polling station in Tamil Nadus Chennai on Thursday before they could cast their votes after a technical glitch in the EVMs delayed polling. Kamal Hassan, the actor-turned-politician, and others had queued up outside polling station 27 at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai to cast their votes. They had to wait for nearly half an hour before the polling started at the booth after the electronic voting machine was fixed. Voting in other polling booths in Tamil Nadu was also delayed owing to technical problems with EVMs. Follow Live Updates here for Lok Sabha Elections 2019, Phase 2 polling There was also report of an EVM not working at Periyakulam in Theni district of the state where deputy chief minister and AIADMK co-ordinator O Panneerselvam was to cast his vote. In the Kanniyakumari parliamentary constituency, voters had to wait in several booths for nearly an hour to cast their votes. Otherwise, brisk polling was witnessed across the state with political leaders and movie stars casting their votes soon after polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 18 assembly constituencies began at 7am. Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami, Congress leader P Chidambaram, actor-politician Rajinikanth, the BJPs Tamil Nadu unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan and actors Ajith and Vijay were among others who cast their votes. Tamil Nadu is polling in a single phase on Thursday in the staggered Lok Sabha election 2019. About 5.8 crore voters will decide the fate of 822 candidates in the Lok Sabha polls and 269 in the assembly by-polls. Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Manipur are also voting on Thursday. Along with the Lok Sabha election, Odisha will also vote for 35 assembly seats on Thursday. The polling was scheduled to be held in 97 seats but polling in Vellore (Tamil Nadu) and Tripura East constituencies was cancelled by the Election Commission of India. Votes will be counted on May 23. Launching a scathing attack on the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, home minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that it would be wiped out after the elections. Once bitter enemies, two parties with opposite ideologies have come together to counter PM Narendra Modi. They were aware that they will not be able to fight Modi on their own and that is why they have come together, said Rajnath Singh, who was addressing a rally in Shahjahanpur, seeking votes for BJPs candidate Arun Sagar. No party has the courage to counter Modi and that is why parties across India are coming together, he added. The turnout and the trends of the first phase have given a clear indication of a Modi wave and that is why they (other parties) have again started the EVM cry. I cannot understand when they win, the EVMs are perfect and when we win, they start saying that the EVMs are tampered with, he said. On Muslims voters, Rajnath said the BJP will get their votes by instilling confidence in them. Other parties create insecurity amongst them for their vote. It is the BJP that brought the law against triple talaq and ensured that our Muslim mothers and sisters lead a respectable life, he emphasised. Taking potshots at the Congress, Singh said Rahul Gandhi is carrying forward the same promise, which his party could not fulfil in 50 years. Nehru, Indira and Rajiv had the same slogan garibi hatao and now Rahul has taken charge. There were 12.5 crore people living below the poverty line when we took charge. And in the past five years, the figures have dropped to 5 crore, he said. Poverty can only be eradicated if India is made Congress free. Development is the only difference between Congress and BJP. What they could not do in 55 years, we did in 5 years, he said. Earlier governments (Congress) did not have the courage to give a reply to Pakistan. After the air strikes, Pakistan is lying isolated from the world, added Rajnath Singh while in Moradabad to seek votes for the partys Sambhal candidate Parmeshwar Lal Saini. Kashmir leaders Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti got into a twitter spat on Thursday and at the centre of this showdown were these guys. It all started with PDP leader and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti taking to twitter on Wednesday after the BJP announced the candidature of Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur Singh from Bhopal. Imagine the anger if Id field a terror accused. Channels wouldve gone berserk by now trending a mehboobaterrorist hashtag! According to these guys terror has no religion when it comes to saffron fanatics but otherwise all Muslims are terrorists. Guilty until proven innocent, Mehbooba tweeted. Follow Live Updates Here - Lok Sabha Elections Polling The these guys reference was probably to BJP and its decision to field Pragya Thakur. National Conference leader and former CM Omar Abdullah was quick to pounce on this reminding Mufti that these guys were her allies till recently. These guys were your allies until they unceremoniously unseated you. These guys have been this way before they came to power in 2014 but you only noticed their sins after June 2018.The desire to remain in power blinded you to their crimes until these guys forced you to see!, he responded almost a day later. Click here for full election coverage Not the one to back down, Mufti quickly reminded Abdullah that his party was the BJPs first regional ally in the state. As their first ally from J&K youd know their true colours since you served as an MoE under NDA. Oddly enough Ram Vilas Paswan resigned post Gujarat carnage on moral grounds but you chose not to. Consume almonds Omar. Improves memory. The spat continued with Abdullah willing to debate the issue and Mufti advising antacid pills for his stomach burn. This is not the first, and definitely not the last, showdown we have seen between the two political rivals. They have often bitterly debated local issues and stands taken on key issues in the Valley. Eleven states and a union territory will go cast their votes in the second phase of the currently underway Lok Sabha elections on April 18. As many as 15,79,34,000 votes across 95 seats will line up from 7 am in the morning to finalise the fates of 1,629 candidates. Tamil Nadu will witness voting in all 39 Lok Sabha constituencies with three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal participating in the exercise. In Tamil Nadu, the elections to the Vellore constituency have been deferred indefinitely. At the same time, the sole Tripura seat which was to vote in the second phase, the Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency, will now go to polls in the third phase on April 23. The southern state of Karnataka will witness polling in half of its 28 seats. In Karnataka, the run up to the elections has been a dramatic one with allegations and counter-allegations of poaching of legislators. While the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition will be looking to better its numbers in the election - Congress won 9 seats and JD(S) 2 - BJP, which is banking on Modi magic, is hoping to improve its tally from 17. In Uttar Pradesh, the second phase of the elections will be a crucial contest for the alliance comprising the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party and Ajit Singhs Rashtriya Lok Dal. All eight seats from Uttar Pradesh that will vote on April 18 are right now with the BJP. The alliance will be looking to wrest these seats back from the BJP. Two seats in Jammu and Kashmir - Srinagar and Udhampur - will cast their votes. While National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah is seeking reelection from Srinagar, minister of state in PMO Jitendra Singh is hoping to return to the Lok Sabha from Udhampur, from where he is the sitting MP. Interestingly, Farooq Abdullah had lost the 2014 election to PDPs Tariq Ahmed Karra, who quit the PDP in protest against civilian killing and joined the Congress. In the subsequent bypoll in Srinagar from 2017, Farooq Abdullah had won back the seat, albeit by a narrow margin of 10,766 votes. In Odisha, five out of its 21 seats will cast their votes on Thursday. Among the seats is Kandhamal where a woman polling officer was shot dead by Maoists in a brazen attack a day before the voting in the second phase is to take place. The BJP is looking to displace or at least dent the ruling Biju Janata Dals hold in the state where the Naveen Patnaik-led party has ruled for nearly two decades. In 2014, the BJD had swept the elections in the state and had won 20 of the 21 seats. The BJP had won the sole remaining seat. In West Bengal, only three of the 42 seats will line up to cast their votes. The BJP and Trinamool Congress have been embroiled in a bitter electoral campaign. The three seats that will go to polls are Jalpaiguri, Raiganj and Darjeeling. The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, which won 34 of the 42 seats in the 2014 election, is geared up for a tough fight against the BJP. A key issue in the elections in West Bengal is that of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. In Maharashtra, where the BJP has formed an alliance with the Shiv Sena, Congresss state chief Ashok Chavan, senior Congressman Sushil Kumar Shinde and the BJPs Pritam Munde will be testing their luck in the second phase of voting in the Lok Sabha elections. Of the 48 seats in the state, the BJP is contesting on 25 seats while the Sena will field its candidates on 23 seats. The Congress has tied up with Sharad Pawars Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and will be contesting on 26 and 22 seats, respectively. In the 2014 elections, the Sena-BJP alliance had won 41 of the 48 seats in the state. In a subsequent bypoll, the BJPs tally had fallen to 22 with the Sena keeping 18, Congress two and the NCP holding five seats. Five seats each in Assam and Bihar are also going to the hustings on Thursday. Assam has 14 seats, while Bihar has 40 seats. Bihar will witness a fight between the BJP-led and Congress-led alliances. While the BJP has tied up with the Janata Dal (United), Congress has thrown in its lot with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The two central parties will be banking on their allies JD(U) and the RJD to help them win as many seats as possible. The election in Bihar is being seen as a fight between a formidable JD(U) and a resurgent RJD. In Assam, the BJP will be looking to improve its standing from the previous election when it had won seven seats. The Congress and the AIUDF had won three seats each. She started planting trees more than six decades ago for which she was awarded Padma Shri earlier this year. She has a US environmental organisation named after her. She is 107 and cast her vote on Thursday in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections in the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency. Saalurmarada Thimmakka is an environmentalist, who is known for planting and tending to banyan trees along a four-kilometre stretch of highway between Hulikal and Kudur in Karnataka. Los Angeles-based Thimmakkas Resources for Environmental Education is named after her. Saalurmarada has been added to her name by people as a mark to her dedication for afforestation. The word translates into a row of trees in Kannada, her native language. Thimmakka was awarded the Padma Shri by President Ram Nath Kovind in March at an investiture ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency was one of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka that went to the polls on Thursday in the second phase of the national elections. Thursdays polling saw a large number of elderly people standing in queues and cast their votes. MS Swaminathan, the father of Indian green revolution, cast his vote in Chennai. Swaminathan is 93. In Maharashtras Latur, 105-year-old Kavaibai Kamble cast her vote at a polling station in Harangul Budruk. Latur is one of the 10 parliamentary constituencies in Maharashtra where polling was held in the second phase. #Maharashtra: 105-year-old Kavaibai Kamble along with her family cast her vote at a polling station in Harangul Budruk in Latur constituency; Polling is underway at 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state pic.twitter.com/fP3poGXxXW ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 In Jammu and Kashmir, an 80-year-old patient, Jogindero Devi, came from Kathua district hospital to the polling booth number 2 to cast her vote for Lok Sabha elections. She returned to the hospital after casting her vote. Jammu & Kashmir: An 80-year-old patient, Jogindero Devi, comes from Kathua district hospital at polling booth number 2, in Kathua, to cast her vote for #LokSabhaElections2019. She will return to the hospital after casting her vote. pic.twitter.com/FaN2yMTIvi ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 In Karnatakas Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency, a senior citizen couple, 91-year-old Shrinivas and 84-year-old Manjula, cast their votes at a polling booth in Jayanagar. It is the same area where Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier cast her vote. Karnataka: A senior citizen couple, 91-year-old Shrinivas and 84-year-old Manjula, cast their votes at a polling booth in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/9HBHxdgnQv ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 In Bihar, 90-year-old voters, Urmila and Usha cast their votes at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur Lok Sabha constituency. Bihar: 90-year-old Urmila and Usha cast their votes at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/EkKDEasr7W ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Polling was held in 95 Lok Sabha constituencies in the second phase of the parliamentary elections. The Lok Sabha elections will end with voting on May 19 in the seventh phase. Counting of votes for all 543 seats will take place on May 23. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the head and taken in critical condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. He was identified as Dejean D. Parrish of the 7400 block of South Stewart Avenue, according to the medical examiners office. Congress candidate Acharya Pramod Krishnam on Thursday urged actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha to perform his duties for the Congress as well after doing his duty for his wife Poonam Sinha, the Samajwadi Party candidate against Krishnam in Lucknow. Shatrughan Sinha, the Congress candidate from the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, joined his wifes road show and campaigned for her as she filed her nomination papers here. Shatrughan Sinha has performed his Patni Dharm (duty for wife) today. In my opinion, the party is above the family and so Sinha should also perform his duty for the Congress here in the coming days, said Krishnam after filing his nomination papers. WATCH: Time for party dharm after patni-dharm: Shatrughan reminded by Cong neta Krishnam, who addressed a meeting of party workers at Salempur House behind the Quaiserbagh Baradari before going to file his nomination papers, said he was thankful to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary for east UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for fielding him from Lucknow. I have now put the tilak of Lucknows soil on my forehead forever. Those who are contesting the election against me have power as they have chief minister, deputy chief minister or former chief minister with them. I am contesting the election on the basis of the love of Lucknow. I am sure Lucknow will send the message of love in this election, said Krishnam. Also read: Would have loved to contest against PM Modi: Shatrughan Sinha Those who joined Krishnam at the meeting included Swamy Namdev Tyagi, popularly known as Computer Baba and a number of other saints and senior Congress leaders. The Congress ticket to Acharya Pramod Krishnam is an honour to all the saints. We never knew Prime Minister Narendra Modi will become a chowkidar. But now he wants to make all our children chowkidars, said Tyagi amid slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Mandir Nahin To Vote Nahin by the saints and party leaders. Senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said Krishnam was equally respected by all the communities. Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu said the Lok Sabha election was a festival of democracy and the partymen should fan out to all areas of the constituency to mobilise support for the party candidate. Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who joined the Congress after quitting the BSP, said Krishnam was like a father figure for him and party activists should work for his victory. Retired IAS officer Anis Ansari urged people to turn up in large numbers on the polling day to ensure Krishnams victory. As more and more people wanted to speak at the meeting, Krishnam had to leave the venue midway to file his nomination. A procession of saints and workers later followed him to the collectorate where Krishnam filed his nomination. A man hurled a shoe at BJP leader GVL Rao during a media briefing at the party headquarters in national capital Delhi on Thursday. GVL Rao and other BJP leaders were addressing the media on the decision to name Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur as the party candidate from Bhopal when the man threw the shoe. Rao was criticizing the Congress at the briefing, accusing the opposition party of defaming Hindus by framing false cases on Hindutva activists including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. The man who had got himself a front-row seat at the briefing threw the shoe around this time. He was immediately escorted out by security personnel at the BJP office and handed over to the police. Police said the man who hurled shoe has identified himself as Dr Shakti Bhargava from Kanpur. His identity is being verified. Medical examination has been done. A joint team of Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police Special Cell and Security wing is questioning him to ascertain how he gained entry, the purpose of his visit and why he threw shoe on the BJP leader. No complaint has been received from BJP as of now. No case has been registered yet, said deputy commissioner of police (central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa. This is a condemnable act by the Congress. This is yet another attempt by a Congress-inspired person who comes here to show the same kind of mentality, Rao said after the attack. The BJP has fielded Thakur as its candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Thakur is an accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case, which is being heard by a National Investigation Agency court. The case was first probed by Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad. The NIA took over the case in 2011. The NIA, in its chargesheet filed in 2016, said the witnesses on whose testimony a case was made out against her had retracted their statements. The court, however, rejected the NIAs plea to drop charges against Thakur. Thakur is currently out on bail in the Malegaon blast case. She had formally joined the BJP earlier this week and named candidate from Bhopal, which has been a bastion for the party. The BJP has not lost Bhopal Lok Sabha seat since 1989. Bhopal Lok Sabha seat goes to the polls on May 12 in the sixth phase of the parliamentary elections. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, has alleged that she was tortured by the jail officials, who wanted her to confess to killing Muslims in the Malegaon blast case. They wanted me to say that I carried out an explosion and killed MuslimsI was beaten through day and night. They used spiked belts to beat me up in the jail after illegal detention...They abused me and threatened me to strip naked, said Sadhvi Pragya on Thursday, according to news agency ANI. She broke down during her address to the BJP workers in Bhopal, where the party cadres shouted chants of jai shri Ram (glory to Lord Ram). Sadhvi Pragya is an accused in the Malegaon blast case. The blast took place in the Maharashtra town in September 2008. Seven people died in the blast while many others were injured. #WATCH: Alleging torture by jail officials, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal, breaks down while addressing the party workers pic.twitter.com/UVUomvmJZ2 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 She was arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast by the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad, which probed the case before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over in 2011. The NIA gave her a clean chit and filed a closure report in the case against her citing retraction of statements by witnesses and the lack of physical evidence against her. However, the NIA court rejected the plea and ordered the probe agency to file chargesheet against. She had been originally booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act along with other accused that included against Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya and Sameer Kulkarni. The MCOCA charges against Sadhvi Pragya were dropped by the court in 2017. Sadhvi Pragya is currently is out on bail. Before being arrested, she was an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parisha, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. She was also associated with the Durga Vahini, the womens wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. She joined the BJP earlier this week and named the party candidate, reportedly on the suggestion of the RSS, from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat. Sadhvi Pragya faces senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh at the Bhopal parliamentary seat, which is considered a BJP stronghold. The party has held the Bhopal seat since 1989 Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi upped the ante against the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular alliance in Karnataka on Thursday saying national security is not a priority for the Opposition parties. He cited recent Balakot strike and the surgical strike of 2016 across the Line of Control (LoC) to target the Opposition in his public rally. I remember that when air strike was conducted Pakistan was sleeping. Pakistan told the whole world that there was a strike by India and they started crying. There were some people in our country who got hurt when the attack was launched across the border. Pakistan was hurt but people here were crying, the prime minister said at an election rally in Bagalkot Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka. His reference was to the Congress and other Opposition parties which sought clarification from the government amid reports in the international media raising questions about the Balakot strike by the Indian Air Force in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack. Also watch: Lok Sabha Elections | Balakot credit or show proof: Who politicised Army? PM Modi said, These people sat on Google and some even said it was an attack on Bagalkot (Karnataka) and not Balakot (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan). The prime minister hit out at Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy saying, The chief minister said clearly that Balakot should not become a big issue (in the polls) because his vote bank will get angry. Tell me is the coalitions vote bank in Bagalkot or Balakot? The IAF had targeted a terror camp in Balakot on February 26 on the basis of intelligence input that the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which had owned Pulwama attack in Jammu and Kashmir, was planning more incidents in India from its training centre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Forty CRPF jawans had been killed in Pulwama attack on February 14. The IAF said the Balakot strike achieved its objective. The Congress isnt even ready to accept the surgical and air strikes. The truth is that the Congress and JD-S dont think about the nation but only about their vote bank, said PM Modi. India had carried out a surgical strike across the Line of Control (LoC) in 2016 days after Uri terror attack in which 19 army jawans were killed by terrorists. Terror launch pads had been destroyed by a team of special commandos in the surgical strike. At his Bagalkot rally, PM Modi said the previous government under the Congress did not take decisive action against terrorists as it was a majboor (weak) regime. Bagalkot Lok Sabha seat goes to the polls on April 23 along with 13 other parliamentary constituencies of Karnataka. Bagalkot Lok Sabha seat has been with the BJP since 2004. Its sitting MP, Gaddigoudar Parvatagouda Chandanagouda is seeking fourth consecutive term from Bagalkot. The Congress, which is in alliance with the JD-S in Karnataka, has fielded Ajay Kumar Sarnaik from Bagalkot hoping that the coalition will stop the BJPs successful run in this parliamentary constituency. The Congress has targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Election Commission suspended a senior poll observer for checking his chopper in Odisha this week. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Thursday waded into the row, asking the commission to explain how it was okay to search the Congresss SPG protectees but not those from the BJP. Ex-Congress president Sonia Gandhi, son Rahul who succeeded her as party chief and Priyanka Gandhi are guarded by the Special Protection Group, or SPG. Ahmed Patel, who was a political adviser to Sonia Gandhi when she led the party, said there had been instances when election commission was allowed to check convoys of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Why suspend an officer for checking PMs chopper? What message is being sent? Law is special for some, Patel tweeted. The question is simple. If SPG protectees of the Congress party can be subjected to inspection why is the same not applicable to the BJP? he asked. The swipe was aimed at the Election Commission that had suspended a Karnataka IAS officer appointed as a general observer for the high-stakes battle in Odisha. Mohammed Mohsin was suspended because he had checked PMs chopper in Sambalpur, where the PM addressed an election rally. The ECI order said Mohsin had not acted in line with the commissions instructions of 10 April 2014 and 22 March 2019 concerning those guarded by the Special Protection Group (SPG). An EC official said SPG protectees were exempt from being frisked at airports. Earlier in the day, the Congress had wondered what the prime minister was carrying in the chopper that he doesnt want India to see. The Aam Aadmi Party also took a jibe at Modi in a tweet. Suspension of the officer who checked PMs helicopter. The chowkidar lives in his own protected shell! Is the Chowkidar trying to hide something, it asked. Amid the criticism, the Election Commission put out last months circular to underline that the observer had acted in violation. In this, the commission had said all passengers (except those who are exempted under the rules)... will pass through the pre-embarkation security checks of operational airports. It is not clear why this exemption did not apply to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Six constituencies in the Northeast five in Assam and one in Manipur will vote on Thursday in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. In Tripura East, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has deferred polling to the third phase on April 23, citing law and order issues. As many as 50 candidates are in fray for five Lok Sabha seats Mangaldoi, Nawgong, Autonomous District, Silchar and Karimganj in Assam. Eleven are running for election from the Inner Manipur constituency. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won Mangaldoi and Nawgong in 2014, but both sitting MPs have been dropped from by the party. The Congress won Silchar and Autonomous District and Badruddin Ajmals All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) won Karimganj. In Silchar, sitting MP and chief of All India Mahila Congress Sushmita Dev is locked in a tough fight with Rajdeep Roy, BJP candidate who is banking on the partys push for the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to get him votes in the Bengali-dominated Hindu majority constituency. Elsewhere in Assam, the bill has triggered massive protests. The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) would enable minorities from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to get Indian citizenship, prompting concern among Assamese groups that it may open the floodgates for Hindus in Bangladesh to move to Assam, putting pressure on local resources and jobs. The absence of an AIUDF candidate has made it a straight contest between Congress and BJP in the constituency, where Muslims account for more than 35% of the electorate, according to some estimates. The absence of an AIUDF candidate in Nawgong and Mangaldoi, too, could translate into trouble for BJP because the Muslim votes may go to the Congress in a straight contest . In Inner Manipur, where violent protests broke out over the CAB in January, the BJP is hopeful of winning the seat riding on popularity of the 22 MLAs it has in the constituency which consists of 32 Assembly segments. In 2014, Congress won this seat. M Nara of the Communist Party of India (CPI), who finished runner-up to Congresss Th Meinya in 2014, is again in the fray. BJP has fielded Dr RK Ranjan. Sushanta Talukdar, a Guwahati-based political commentator said, Stakes are high for both Congress and BJP. In seats like Nowgong, Mangaldoi, Congress seems to have an upper hand because of the AIUDF not contesting. In Barak Valley, BJPs promise of bringing CAB will be tested if its enough to get votes. Fourteen Karnataka Lok Sabha seats will go to the polls on Thursday, with the states ruling Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition posing a challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Voting in the remaining 14 Lok Sabha seats will take place on April 23. The BJP has won more than half the Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in each of the last three general elections. In Mandya, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamys son, Nikhil, is battling against independent candidate backed by the BJP, Sumalatha, who is the widow of the late film actor and former Union minister Ambareesh. Another grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, Prajwal Revanna, is contesting the Hassan seat as the JD (S) candidate. Deve Gowda himself will contest from Tumakuru. Other significant contenders include former union minister KH Muniyappa, who is attempting an eighth consecutive victory from Kolar, a Scheduled Caste reserved seat. Searches by the Income Tax (I-T) department across the state caused acrimony among coalition leaders, who staged a protest on March 28 alleging that they were being targeted. According to the Election Commission, around Rs 16 crore in cash had been seized by its flying squads and about Rs 15 crore by the I-T department until Tuesday. Controversy has also been in evidence in the BJP camp, especially in the Bengaluru South constituency, where the partys central leadership picked 28-year-old lawyer Tejasvi Surya as its candidate, overlooking the state units choice of Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, the widow of late Union minister HN Ananth Kumar. Political analyst Narendar Pani, who is a faculty at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, said there was really no overarching theme in the state in the current elections. It is really 14 very different elections, where there are no overlaps even between neighbouring constituencies, he said. It is just a question of very localised factors that will determine the final outcome, he added. Gunmen killed at least 14 people after forcing them to disembark from buses in Pakistans restive southwestern Balochistan province, officials said Thursday. The attackers were wearing uniforms from the paramilitary Frontier Corps, provincial home secretary Haider Ali told AFP. The gunmen stopped buses on the Makran Coastal Highway and gunned down 14 people, he said, adding that the vehicles were travelling to the port megacity of Karachi from the coastal town of Ormara. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came less than a week after a suicide blast in provincial capital Quetta killed 20 people. Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistans largest and poorest province, as well as the site of Islamist, sectarian and separatist insurgencies. A naval official and a coast guard member were among those killed, Ali said. US special counsel Robert Muellers investigation had looked at 10 actions by President Donald Trump for potential obstruction of justice regarding the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election - including the firing of James Comey as the FBI director - but it was unable to determine if the US president did or did not commit a chargeable offence. The evidence we obtained about the presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment, said a redacted copy of Muellers much awaited report that was released first to the US Congress and then to the public on Thursday. The report added, At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report did not conclude that the president committed a crime, it does not exonerate him. The 448-page report was divided into two volumes. The first volume dealt with the question of Russian interference and possible collusion by members of the Trump campaign. The report confirmed Russian interference, but found no evidence of collusion, not by the Trump campaign or any other American national. The second volume pertained to the question of obstruction of justice, which had become of key interest since a summary of the report released earlier by US attorney general William Barr had gone ahead and cleared Trump of it. The president had claimed total exoneration from the charges of collusion and obstruction. He repeated that claim on Thursday. No collusion, no obstruction, Trump said in a picture posted on Twitter. For the haters and the radical left Democrats - GAME OVER. The 10 actions by the US president that Muellers investigators looked at for possible obstruction included the firing of Comey in 2017; conduct regarding Comey and Michael Flynn; response to the probe; response to the appointment of the special counsel and efforts to remove him; efforts to curtail the probe; efforts to make former attorney general Jeff Sessions reverse his recusal from the probe; his conduct involving former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. But in 1977, the ship was associated with some luck, when its crew rescued two Wilmette men clinging to their overturned powerboat boat for 15 hours. The captain asked John Findlay, a 51-year old consulting engineer and one of the men rescued, if he recalled the ships name. I said yes and I told him I didnt care if the Medusa Challenger jinxed all of Chicagos bridges for the rest of her life, Findlay replied. After a devastating Royal Navy loss, military authorities felt duty bound to keep a careful eye on a famed Scottish mystic. T he afternoon of November 25, 1941, had been relatively quiet for the 1,350 men aboard the battleship HMS Barham. Along with 12 other ships from the Royal Navys Mediterranean Fleet, Barham was sailing off the coast of Egypt, providing gun cover for cruisers on the hunt for Axis ships en route to North Africa. The fleet thought they were alone in the areas waters. Crewmember Douglas Ralphs went below for a cup of tea. I had just lifted the cup to my lips when the first tin fish hit, Ralphs recalled. There was an enormous explosion, followed by a deathly silence, and an acrid smell of super-heated steam and the stench of cordite. A German U-boat torpedo had struck the battleship; two more quickly followed. The 643-foot Barham rolled to its port side. Crewmembers on the convoys other battleships, the Valiant and the Queen Elizabeth, watched as columns of smoke and water sprang from the ships wounds. They could do nothing to help. Several of the boats four-inch magazines were on fire. The blaze spread, moving to the main 15-inch magazines. There followed a big explosion amidships, from which belched black and brown smoke intermingled with flames, Valiants commanding officer, Captain C. E. Morgan, later recalled. Wreckage peppered the water. Four minutes and 35 seconds after the first torpedo struck the Barham, the battleship disappeared from sight. Though 488 men were saved, 862 others would never return home. The days only saving grace: British intelligence knew that the German navy and high command were unaware of Barhams fate. The British wanted to keep it that way. With German bombs raining down on England, including a raid earlier in 1941 on Portsmouthhome of His Majestys Naval Basethat killed 171, the British people were already reeling from loss. Worried that news of a major German victory over the Royal Navy would sink military and civilian morale even more, the Admiralty clamped down on reports about the Barham. The authorities delayed telling family members the grim news for several weeks, going to the length of mailing them Christmas and New Years messages, seemingly from Barham sailors, including those who had died. Once the Admiralty did notify the families, they asked them to keep the deaths of their loved ones a close secret. Official acknowledgment of the sinking would not be made public until January 27, 1942. Despite the official secrecy, word of the disaster leaked out from a most unusual source: a famous medium named Helen Duncan spoke of the Barhams end during a seance in Portsmouth. Duncana sturdy woman with bluntly cropped hair who wasnt afraid to use salty language now and againhad already captured the attention of the military earlier in the year when she reported another loss, that of battleship HMS Hood. Eyes now again turned to Duncan, who seemed to be making a habit of knowing things she shouldnt. Mystic Helen Duncan reportedly told of the Barhams sinking at a seance while it was still an official secret. (Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo) Mystic Helen Duncan reportedly told of the Barhams sinking at a seance while it was still an official secret. (Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo) BORN IN CALLANDER, SCOTLAND, in 1897, Helen Duncanthen Victoria Helen McRae MacFarlanewas not your average child. The fourth of eight children, Helen claimed by age seven that spirits of the dead visited her. Clairvoyants were no strangers to Helens family; both of her parents had female relatives who professed similar powers. Though her parents didnt discourage Helen from talking about her visions, they urged her not to discuss them outside the family, reasoning that there were people who would take advantage of such a child. But Helen was no pushover, and her independent streak could not be contained. Her family gave the strong-willed and boisterous child a nickname that would stick with her forever: Hellish Nell. At 16, Helens life took a turn that would strip some of the fire from Hellish Nell. She became pregnant out of wedlock and her parents turned their backs on her. They sent her away, disgraced. Helen moved to Dundee, on the east coast of Scotland. After a stint in a sanatorium for tuberculosis, she took a job at the Dundee Royal Infirmary. In 1915, she had her first child, a girl. The next year, Helen met and married Henry Duncan, a coworkers brother. A local man, Henry had been dismissed from the army for rheumatic fever. That misfortune was one of many Henry suffered during his lifeand that would continue through the early years of the Duncans marriage. Illness dominated Helen and Henrys lives, often forcing their hand when it came to taking or quitting jobs. Although she was often sick, Helen went on to have six children. Money problems festered for the young, growing family. After a furniture company that Henry started had failed, Helen added a position at a bleach factory to an ever-growing list of hard physical jobs. Then Henry had a heart attack. His working days were done, and Helen became the sole breadwinner for the family of eight. But Henry, who also had spiritualist leaningsthough only as an interest, not as a skill setrealized Helens visions could be a way out of their money problems. Still reporting to the bleach factory during the day, in 1926 Helen began the work that would make her both famous and infamous: holding seances. Duncan (far left) lived with her parents and seven siblings in the rural town of Callander, Scotland, until she became pregnant at age 16. Young Helen's fiery temperament earned her the nickname "Hellish Nell." (Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo) Duncan (far left) lived with her parents and seven siblings in the rural town of Callander, Scotland, until she became pregnant at age 16. Young Helen's fiery temperament earned her the nickname "Hellish Nell." (Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo) EARLY 20th-CENTURY SPIRITUALISTS and their followers believed that spirits of the dead could be called forth to communicate with the living. Mediums like Helen offered people the comfort they needed, the messages they craved from loved ones. Helens popularity grew; through the interwar years she and Henry traveled throughout the country, hosting seances in spiritualist churches and private homes. By the 1940s, seances were a widespread practicethe Royal Navy approved of their practice aboard ships and in 1941 declared spiritualism an official religion. Its estimated that over the course of World War II up to 50,000 seance circles took place throughout Britain. Much of Helens fame came from the theatrical nature of her seances. Before each performance began, Henry would invite several female audience members to a back room. There, Helen stripped in front of the women, twirling on their demand, to prove she wasnt hiding anything on her body. Then, dressed in black silk, she would sit in a wooden cabinet Henry had fashioned, which he claimed helped harness her power. With a red light casting a glow on her in the otherwise dim room, Helen would enter a trance state. Eventually, a gauzy white substance spilled from her mouth, announcing the arrival of a spirit, and an airy white figure would float into view and move around her. These were Helens spirit guides, who spoke through the medium and helped her summon forth the dearly departed. The voices of Helens spirit guides were softer, more approachable, and easier to understand than the mediums natural, provincial, Callander-accented speech. One of the spirit guides was even a child. In 1928, Helen agreed to let photographer Harvey Metcalfe use flash photography to catch the white substanceectoplasmas it emerged from her body. That must have given her pause, but she suspected that peoples need for her services would inoculate her against any inconvenient truths skeptics could find, and she was right. Though Metcalfe discovered her true skill was the ability to regurgitate muslin she had swallowed previously, her seances continued to fill up. Even after distrustful audience members grabbed at the floating spirits she claimed to summon and exposed them as nothing but papier-mache heads with cloth bodies, she remained popular. In 1931, Helen even allowed the London Spiritualist Alliance to examine her ectoplasm, which showed that shed added egg whites to the muslin to make it slimy. None of these revelations dimmed her star: her true believers, those who had found comfort in supposed visits from dead relatives, stuck by her and stood up for her publicly. In photos taken during seances in 1928, Duncan displays her talent for producing ectoplasm from her body and in summoning spirit guides to communicate with the dead. (Both photos Mary Evans/HARRY PRICE/The Image Works) In photos taken during seances in 1928, Duncan displays her talent for producing ectoplasm from her body and in summoning spirit guides to communicate with the dead. (Both photos Mary Evans/HARRY PRICE/The Image Works) Helens seances probably would have remained nothing but a thorn to her skeptics and a comfort or curiosity to audience members had not her two 1941 demonstrations in Portsmouth focused military authorities attention on the mystic. In late May of that year, a Brigadier Roy C. Firebrace attended one of Helens seances. Helen, speaking in the voice of Albert, one of her regular spirit guides, told those in attendance that a British battleship had just been sunk. The sinking was news to the brigadier. Later that evening he checked with members of the Royal Navy, but nobody had heard anything about a ship going down. The next morning Firebrace found out that HMS Hood had sunk the day before during the Battle of Denmark Strait. Months later, at a seance just after the Barham had sunk but before it was public knowledge, Helens spirit guide told the audience he was in contact with a dead sailor. The sailor had a message for a woman in the audience: he was her son and he had died in a sinking. The grief-stricken woman, unaware that her son had been killed aboard the Barham, contacted the Admiralty. Rumors spread throughout Portsmouth, defying the navys attempt to control the story. IT WASNT UNTIL JANUARY 1944more than two years laterthat the authorities decided it was time to silence the medium. They had been keeping watch over Helen, at times planting police in the seance audiences. With planning for D-Day in full swing, there was no room for more rumorsnot even from a spiritualist who worked in egg whites and muslin. On January 19, 1944, the police raided Helens seance. They arrested and charged her under the Vagrancy Act of 1824, a catch-all, preemptive crime control measure. The medium was so famous by then that BBC Radio broke away from news of the Russian advance on the Eastern Front to report on her arrest. The crime was just a misdemeanor, but it was clear the authorities wanted to keep Helen from working. After her arrest, the police went so far as to ask the court to have her remanded to jail, an unusual request considering the minor charge. The judge agreed. Helen spent four days in one of the most wretched jails in the Portsmouth area, but her real challenge was yet to come. Worried that the Vagrancy Act wouldnt do the job of putting her out of business, the authorities reached into the past for a charge that would lead to a trial. They turned to the Witchcraft Act of 1735, which made it illegal to claim to possess magical powers. Duncan (left) heads into her 1944 London trial. The mystic was charged with violating Britain's Witchcraft Act of 1735, which made it a crime to claim to possess supernatural powers. (Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images) Duncan (left) heads into her 1944 London trial. The mystic was charged with violating Britain's Witchcraft Act of 1735, which made it a crime to claim to possess supernatural powers. (Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images) The raid on the seance hadnt produced any of the physical evidence the authorities needed to prosecute Helenfellow spiritualists most likely had whisked away the ectoplasm and other ghostly materials before the police could grab them. Without any damning material evidence against her to refute, Helens defense focused on demonstrating that her mystical talents were real. During the trial, the defense produced 49 witnesses, most of whom attested that Helen had indeed brought forth the spirits of family and friends. Chief Constable Arthur West, prosecutor for the Crown, declared, She attempted and succeeded in deluding confirmed believers in Spiritualism. She has tricked, defrauded, and preyed upon the minds of a certain credulous section of the public. The prosecution put up only five witnesses, but they also introduced the photographs taken nearly two decades earlier that proved the ectoplasm was fake. The judge, Sir Gerald Dodson, displayed clear amusement at various points in the trial. But West, who had long wanted to take Hellish Nell down, reminded the judge of the seriousness of the charge when he asserted, In 1941, Mrs. Duncan transgressed the security laws, adding that she is an unmitigated humbug and pest. When the seven-day trial ended, the judge ruled that Helen had exploited those who had come to her for help. The sentence of the Court upon her, he said, is that she be imprisoned for nine months in a London prison. With that, Helen fainted. Hellish Nell spent just six months in prison and promised to stop holding seances after her release. She was unable to keep that promise. Helen started up her work again and, in 1956, the police arrested her during another raidbut they were forced to immediately release her when their search again failed to recover any material evidence. It was the last bit of good news in Helen Duncans life. Just six weeks later, at the age of 59, Hellish Nell died a natural death. TO THIS DAY, nobody is certain how Helen learned of the Barhams sinking. Estimates show that between military personnel and the families of the sailors on board, plus the sailors who survived the sinking, up to 20,000 people may have had knowledge of the attack before the Royal Navy officially acknowledged it. In a military town like Portsmouth, keeping such a huge secret would be nearly impossible. In addition, there are several conflicting accounts of the infamous 1941 seance: Some in attendance said Helen had mentioned the Barham by name, while others present said she had not named any particular ship. Still others believed Helen coaxed the ships name from the unsuspecting mother. No matter. Even today, Helen has supporters and grandchildren who are actively working to clear her name, claiming she was a true mystic who was wrongfully convicted. Hellish Nells spirit would be proud. This story was originally published in the June 2019 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here. Shortly before 2 a.m., three people walked into the store in the first block of East Madison Street. Two of them began stuffing food items in their pants, according to authorities. When the clerk confronted them, they began beating him with skateboards, Chicago police said. Sr. Helen Prejean, the Rev. Jack Wall to be honored by Catholic Theological Union: A Roman Catholic nun and activist who has spent a lifetime campaigning to end the death penalty in the United States famously penning the book-turned-movie Dead Man Walking Prejean, who is based in New Orleans, will be given the Blessed are the Peacemakers award at an April 24 fundraiser for the Roman Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry in Hyde Park. Chicagos Rev. Wall, whose Old St. Patricks Church on the Near West Side went from having a smattering of people in the pews each Sunday in 1983 to 3,000 members by 2006, will also be honored at the annual Blessed are the Peacemakers Trustee Dinner. Hes being given the Diakonia award, bestowed on someone in the Chicago community who exemplifies a genuine spirit of service. Harrity, dressed in full uniform and crying at one point during his testimony, said as he and Noor responded to Damond's 911 call, they drove down the alley with their headlights off, using a spotlight to search for any evidence of a woman in trouble. Harrity, who was driving, had the safety hood off his holster, ready to pull his gun if needed. The secrecy reflex is as old as the country: The American government itself was created behind closed doors, and windows. Framers of the Constitution gathered at the Pennsylvania State House from May to September in 1787 and, anxious to speak freely, were so resolved to keep the public away they kept windows shut (in pre-air conditioned times) even on the hottest days. No official transcripts were logged, and much of our understanding of the debate has been shaped by James Madison's (revised) notes, which didn't come out until 1836, after Madison and fellow delegates were dead. Pipeline 18 April 2019 Radisson Hospitality AB, part of Radisson Hotel Group, is adding a new location for the Park Inn by Radisson portfolio with the signing of Park Inn by Radisson Tashkent City Hotel & Apartments in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The newly built hotel and apartment project is due to open in 2021 in the capital of Uzbekistan. The new-build Hotel & Serviced Apartment project, due to open in 2021, will consist of 300 rooms - including 50 serviced apartments, a conference hall, five meeting rooms, a gym, an all-day dining restaurant, a lobby lounge/bar and a Sky Bar. Park Inn by Radisson is an upper midscale hotel brand that delivers stress-free experiences, good food and upbeat environments. This will be 24th Park Inn by Radisson Hotel across the Russia & CIS region bringing the portfolio to 6194 rooms - keeping the brand as the largest midscale brand in the region. The hotel will be located in Tashkent City - the largest and the most ambitious real estate project in Uzbekistan. It will have a prime city center location and is part of the large-scale development called "Tashkent City", consisting of business centers, congress halls, shopping and leisure complexes and residential districts due to be completed by Q4 2021. Tashkent is the most visited city in Uzbekistan followed by the ancient cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. It is the cultural and political center of the country, rich in museums and Soviet-era monuments. The hotel will have easy access to the historical city center and will be located only 6km from International Airport (TAS) named after Islam Karimov and 4km from Tashkent main train station. Appointment 18 April 2019 Child who took helm on March 30, 2019 and succeeded former general manager Bob Daley, was most previously the general manager of the Bethesda Marriott. He joined the iconic Mayflower Hotel in 1993, where he spent seven years in both front and back of the house, in various food & beverage and sales management positions. He then moved to the Renaissance Westchester Hotel in New York as the Director of Food and Beverage and ultimately the Director of Operations. He returned to Washington as the Director of Food and Beverage at the Renaissance Washington D.C. Dupont Circle, rising to the General Manager position. He joined The Ritz-Carlton brand in 2011 as Hotel Manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Washington D.C., where he became a cultural ambassador and presenter for The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center. Dedicated to serving his community, Child has held leadership roles on the Board of Directors for Boys Town of Washington, D.C., Visit Montgomery and the newly formed Foundation of Hospitality and Restaurant Management, in addition to chairing the Suburban Maryland Business Council for Marriott. He most recently joined Greater Bethesda of Chamber of Commerce. Child graduated from the University of Huddersfield in the UK, with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management in 1991. Press Release 18 April 2019 When Conrad Hilton first laid eyes on the two-story, 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas in 1919, it looked "like a convenient place to sleep. Nothing more," he wrote in his memoir, "Be My Guest." Advertisements Hilton had come to oil-crazy Cisco to make his fortune, with plans to a buy a bank. But when the deal fell apart, he thought some rest would help him figure out his next move. He didn't get the rest, as the hotel was full with oil workers, sleeping in eight-hour shifts. But when the owner mentioned the hotel was for sale, he instead heard his wake-up call. While Hilton may not have been dreaming of the international empire with nearly 6,000 hotels that is Hilton today, he did have a vision of what this singular property could one day become. That vision enabled Hilton to resist resting on his laurels and to keep pushing forward, finding new and innovative ways to better serve guests, anticipating their needs before they did themselves. "He was always learning," says Mark Young, Director of the Hospitality Industry Archives at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management, University of Houston. "No matter how old he was, he was always learning things, and he would apply it to the company." As the company grew over the coming decades, it faced countless changes and challenges, ranging from the Depression, to World War II, to shifting traveler tastes and dramatic shifts in technology. But one thing that didn't change was its core pioneering spirit and vision for what hospitality could be, which fueled Hilton's path forward. That spirit of innovation has continued throughout the company's nearly 100-year history, right on until today. While Hilton may not have been dreaming of the international empire with nearly 6,000 hotels that is Hilton today, he did have a vision of what this singular property could one day become. Hilton Here are just some of Hilton's firsts, both in history and throughout the hospitality industry: 1919 Conrad Hilton bought his first hotel , the Mobley Hotel, in Cisco, Texas. Conrad Hilton bought his , the Mobley Hotel, in Cisco, Texas. 1925 Conrad Hilton opened the first hotel to carry the Hilton name , the Dallas Hilton. He also showed an early insight into forward-thinking design: In the pre-central air era, he didn't put any guest rooms on the west wall, where the sun hit hardest in the summer. Conrad Hilton opened the , the Dallas Hilton. He also showed an early insight into forward-thinking design: In the pre-central air era, he didn't put any guest rooms on the west wall, where the sun hit hardest in the summer. 1927 The Waco Hilton added innovations including cold running water and air conditioning to common areas. Later, in the 1950s, Hilton was one of the first to make a major investment in air conditioning. This large, multimillion-dollar bet had an unexpected side effect: It created a year-round convention business for its hotels in Chicago and New York which previously did not exist. The Waco Hilton added innovations including cold running water and air conditioning to common areas. Later, in the 1950s, Hilton was one of the first to make a major investment in air conditioning. This large, multimillion-dollar bet had an unexpected side effect: It created a year-round convention business for its hotels in Chicago and New York which previously did not exist. 1930s Hilton was the first to standardize the concept of room service in hotels, growing it from its origins in the Waldorf Astoria New York throughout the industry. Hilton was the in hotels, growing it from its origins in the Waldorf Astoria New York throughout the industry. 1943 Hilton became the first coast-to-coast hotel group in the U.S. with the purchase of the Roosevelt and Plaza hotels in New York. Hilton became the in the U.S. with the purchase of the Roosevelt and Plaza hotels in New York. 1946 Hilton Hotels Corp. was formed and became the first hotel company post-WWII to sell stock in New York. Hilton was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1947. Conrad Hilton bought his first hotel, the Mobley Hotel, in Cisco, Texas. Hilton 1947 Hilton was the first hotel to install televisions in guest rooms at the Roosevelt Hilton in New York City. Hilton was the at the Roosevelt Hilton in New York City. 1948 Hilton was the first to install multi-hotel reservations system , the beginning of the modern-day reservations system. Hilton was the , the beginning of the modern-day reservations system. 1949 Conrad Hilton was the first hotelier featured on the cover of Time Magazine, following his purchase of the Waldorf Astoria in New York. He later became the first hotelier to make Time's cover twice when he appeared in the July 19, 1963 issue. The Waco Hilton added innovations including cold running water and air conditioning to common areas. Hilton 1950 Hilton created its first special amenity for female travelers - a sewing kit and booklet with helpful names and telephone numbers. This led to the 1965 launch of Lady Hilton, the first hotel concept designed for female travelers. Hilton created its - a sewing kit and booklet with helpful names and telephone numbers. This led to the 1965 launch of Lady Hilton, the first hotel concept designed for female travelers. 1954 Ramon "Monchito" Marrero, the bartender at the Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico, experimented with a new recipe that blended rum, coconut cream and pineapple juice in an icy beverage. After three months of perfecting the recipe, Marrero felt that the drink finally captured the flavors of Puerto Rico and named it the "Pina Colada." The new cocktail was served by Marrero for 35 years and became the official drink of Puerto Rico in 1978. Ramon "Monchito" Marrero, the bartender at the Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico, experimented with a new recipe that blended rum, coconut cream and pineapple juice in an icy beverage. After three months of perfecting the recipe, Marrero felt that the drink finally captured the flavors of Puerto Rico and The new cocktail was served by Marrero for 35 years and became the official drink of Puerto Rico in 1978. 1954 Hilton struck the largest real estate deal in history, at the time, with the purchase of Statler Hotels for $111 million dollars in 1954. Hilton opened its first airport hotel, the San Francisco Airport Hilton, and pioneered the airport hotel concept for the modern, jet-setting business traveler. Hilton 1955 First hotel built from the ground up in Europe after WWII , the Hilton Istanbul. , the Hilton Istanbul. 1957 First in-room direct dial telephones at the Waldorf Astoria. at the Waldorf Astoria. 1959 Hilton opened its first airport hotel, the San Francisco Airport Hilton, and pioneered the airport hotel concept for the modern, jet-setting business traveler. 1967 Conrad Hilton was the first hotelier to be featured in a syndicated cartoon , Batman. Conrad Hilton was the , Batman. 1973 Developed first computerized central reservations system , a breakthrough in customer service. Developed , a breakthrough in customer service. 1974 Globalized the in-room minibar with Hong Kong Hilton. the in-room minibar with Hong Kong Hilton. 2008 First to have a hotel with both LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and Green Seal certifications. First hotel to scale the use of smartphones as room keys with Hiltons Digital Key technology. Hilton Press Release 18 April 2019 It has only been three weeks since the Danish hotel chain, Zleep Hotels, launched its new environmentally friendly drinking bottle, and now the hotel chain is once again ready to fight against plastic pollution. This time, however, the solution cannot be found in sugar cane and bamboo, which the biodegradable drinking bottles are produced from, but instead in strong thigh muscles, good physical strength and tightly laced running shoes. Advertisements How can strong thigh muscles save the environment? The charity organization Ocean Run has the answer. For the second year running, Ocean Run is organizing a charity race in Copenhagen for the benefit of the environment, and yet again Zleep Hotels has chosen to support the race. For every kilometer that someone runs, the environmentally conscious hotel chain contributes with 1 Danish krone supporting the good case. The entire profit from the race goes directly to the international environmental organization Plastic Change. "We are extremely proud to be sponsoring Ocean Run for the second consecutive year. The environment requires our constant focus if we want to limit the pollution and I know the entrepreneurs behind Ocean Run agree on that. In addition to the fact that many Zleep employees will be running, we contribute with 1 Danish krone for every kilometer that someone runs. Hopefully, in this way we can collect a lot of money to combat the plastic pollution of our oceans," says Peter Haaber, CEO of Zleep Hotels. Every kilometer counts The race takes place on May 4th at Amager Strandpark in Copenhagen. Everyone who either walks or runs the 2-kilometer-long route helps to raise money. The number of laps is optional. The person who, when the day has ended, has run the longest number of kilometers, also wins a weekend stay for two at any Zleep hotel. The support for the race is great, and the organizers are delighted: "I think Ocean Run has become such a great success because the race combines two things that are close to many people's hearts. Health and environment. Being able to challenge one's body physically and at the same time raising money for an environmentally friendly charity like Plastic Change is appealing to many," says Katarina Nordstrom, who is one of the entrepreneurs behind Ocean Run. Last year's winner ran nothing short but 21 laps with a total distance of 42 kilometers. About Ocean Run Ocean Run is a charity event that fights to reduce the plastic pollution of the oceans. The organization also encourages the use of environmentally friendly products in everyday life. The concept of the race is simple. The longer the run, the more money is raised. Several sponsors support the good cause by either donating money per kilometer or through a fixed donation. Read more about Ocean Run. External Article 18 April 2019 If you buy into the popular theory that "Demographics are Destiny" (not everyone does) you probably should begin learning Chinese. Korean would be good to learn, too, especially if you expect to work in the future in the travel or hospitality industries. That's because Chinese consumers collectively spent nearly $258 billion on international travel last year. That's more than twice the combined amount spent on international travel by people from the United States and Germany, the next two biggest-spending nations, combined. And the Chinese are relative newcomers when it comes to venturing beyond their nation's borders. A smallish percentage of them travel outside of China each year, though given the size of that nation's population even that small percentage represents well over 100 million Chinese travelers to foreign destinations. Yet Chinese citizens flew, on average, just 65 miles last year vs. the 227 miles flown on average by U.S. residents, the 285 miles flown on average by Germans, the 271 miles flown on average by those from the United Kingdom, and the whopping 632 miles flown by the average Canadian last year. Opinion Article 18 April 2019 Technology in recent years has evolved at such a rapid pace and taken us further into a sci-fi-like future faster than our ancestors could have ever predicted. From smart home-enabled devices that control our thermostats and refrigerators to cryptocurrencies that provide secure stores of value, recent trends have brought many pipe-dream technologies to life. Advertisements Many advancements have been more subtle but equally promising and transformative, from smart analytics in consumer and professional apps to the gradual but complete improvements in artificial intelligence, powering everything from self-driving cars to predictive text on your smartphone. As we study technology trends from the past year, we get a better look into what trend is still reshaping 2019 and beyond. After all, what seemed fictitious a few short years ago is now possible with an average Apple Watch. Just imagine what the next few years will bring. Narrow Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence has long been the holy grail of technological advancement. Far from its depiction in science fiction movies, artificial intelligence (or A.I. for short) is a catchall term for machine learning and other computer solutions to seemingly complex problems that can be processed through a system of computer tasks that result in "learning" or intuiting the solutions to problems. While broad-scale, dynamic learning-style robots overlords like we've seen in movies is still a long way off, Narrow A.I. was one of the biggest trends of 2018 and promises to continue into the new year. Narrow A.I. consists of highly specialized machine-learning solutions that target a specific task like driving a vehicle or understanding written or auditory language. From intelligent advertising to photo searches to self-driving or assisted driving cars, A.I. is continually improving as the technology behind it is improved. A.I. is increasingly tapped into by hospitality organizations to resolve some pain points in travel or optimize the guest experience: IHG collaborated with Baidu in 2018 to launch 100 AI-powered suitesin hotels across China. Intelligent Applications and Analytics As the first wave of A.I.-augmented apps has demonstrated, intelligent applications and analytics are one of the most direct and promising technology trends in recent years. A.I. runs in the background of many pre-existing applications, and is either already invisibly improving the user experience or is in beta testing, as application developers seek to improve the user experience and business potential of these products through A.I. Advanced analytics, automated customer service, and intelligent processes are all on the horizon as intelligent applications continue to improve the services computers can provide. Intelligent apps reduce the amount of input and application expertise required by people and the systems they're using, which will continue to transform the workplace and job descriptions across industries. Virtual customer support, intelligent translation services, and expanded application functionality all promise to reduce the load on workers, as applications provide services that oftentimes used to require a team of dedicated employees. The intention of intelligent applications is not to replace people, but rather to augment their activity and make the user experience and customer-facing experience better than ever. With A.I., the same workforce can be radically more productive and customers can receive more thorough and immediate care than previously possible. Similarly, augmented analytics uses machine learning for data collection and preparation; as well as extrapolation and insight discovery which benefits business users, operations teams, and data scientists alike. Intelligent Things This trend began with the widespread unveiling of "the Internet of Things" (or I.o.T.)which meant incorporating sensors and Bluetooth or wi-fi connectivity into previously static devices, from thermostats to washing machines, industrial sensors and monitoring equipment. By bringing these devices online, developers harnessed the power of the cloud and widespread connectivity to make multiple devices safer, more efficient, and easier to use. The next wave of Intelligent Things promises to combine the first-wave of Internet of Things connectivity with the advances in A.I. that will make connected things smarter. For example, artificial intelligence in a camera that already connects to a smartphone will power stunningly powerful automated shooting modes that far surpass the antiquated "auto" settings on early digital cameras. Autonomous tools like vacuums and farm equipment will also make the leap from using simple sensors and geofences to "visualizing" and processing staggering amounts of data, using cloud connectivity, onboard artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to make decisions that may soon surpass even the most experienced human operator. One of the most interesting future advances is the collaborative nature of intelligent, connected things. Different farm equipment from different phases of preparation, planting, and harvest may work together, or a team of specialized harvesting devices may be able to make intelligent decisions about which rows to work. In hospitality, hotel companies like Best Western or Marriott have been testing voice-controlled customer service as products like Amazon Echo become increasingly adopted within the home environment. Cloud to the Edge Edge computing is an advancement in cloud computing which brings the content collection, processing, and delivery closer to the sources of information. Greater functionality embedded at the edge is a promising advancement that favors local clouds which can be integrated into infrastructure designs with large numbers of intelligent things. Colocation and edge-specific networking will become more common as more things become online and intelligent, and new network designs will reflect the increased number of intelligent things in the coming years. Although hospitality brands have been collecting consumer data from their loyalty programs for years, they simply do not have access to the gigantic amount of data that brands like Amazon or Google are able to collect (and use). Additionally, travelers nowadays are less likely to make booking decisions based on said loyalty points and are above all expecting tailored experiences and seamless UEx. Edge computing provide a unique opportunity for the industry to deliver services on a global scale while still addressing local data needs. Blockchain Blockchain was one of the biggest buzzwords in the last few years, thanks to its use in the cryptocurrency world. Blockchain is a democratized, distributed, and decentralized token ledger that removes friction or ownership from bits of information (hence the name "Bitcoin"). Blockchain allows unverified parties to exchange highly secure information across standard networks and promises to change industries and private transactions alike. While blockchain has mostly been in the news for its financial implications, it is also promising and useful in security and content distribution models, which would have favorable applications in government, healthcare, content sharing, supply chain logistics, and other data-transfer situations. The biggest criticism of blockchain is that the protocol is relatively new and untested - but the billions of dollars in cryptocurrency have demonstrated that the technology is ready for the limelight, even if it isn't ready for rampant speculative investment. Businesses may not be ready to utilize blockchain in their daily processes yet, but the technology is being actively developed and tested and promises to transform data distribution and security across industries. The Future Is Now No matter what industry you work in or what technologies your business or personal life currently involve, the future is full of promise. Self-driving cars are closer to reality now than ever before and smart analytics mean that our emails can just about write themselves. As we look beyond 2019, one thing is clear - whether you run a massive, operations-intensive enterprise or just need a little help replying to customer service emails, the future is very bright indeed. Theres a popular saying that reads, 'prepare and prevent, dont repair and repent.' This seemingly simple sentiment hints at a universally understood and applied concept be pro-active, rather than reactive. Now, lets put this theory to work. Theres a popular saying that reads, prepare and prevent, dont repair and repent. This seemingly simple sentiment hints at a universally understood and applied concept be pro-active, rather than reactive. Now, lets put this theory to work. When students are faced with a major exam, is it best for them to study beforehand or ask their professor for a re-test after the fact? When the objective is to avoid illness, is it best to pro-actively invest in ones good health or treat illness once it comes? In the case of relationships, is it best to value and support our loved ones, or beg for forgiveness later? The logic is rather simple preparation and consideration breed preparedness, and can (in many cases) help to steer individuals away from personal and professional hardship. Dont you think this same principle should apply to workplace safety? No one begins their day at work anticipating the worst case scenario or so, we would hope. Yet for many hospitality workers, the possibility of harm to their person while on the job is far too imminent. In fact, Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2013 shows that hotel and motel workers had a nonfatal injury and illness rate of 5.4 (the rate for all industries was 3.5). Further, sexual assault against hotel workers has become something of an epidemic across the industry, despite often not receiving the media attention it deserves. In fact, a 2016 report in Illinois that found 58% of hotel workers surveyed said they had been sexually harassed by a guest. Also, nearly half of all hotel housekeepers surveyed said guests had at one time exposed themselves or answered their door naked. In 2011, Cicely Phillips and Andria Babbington were among hotel housekeeping staff who held public demonstrations in cities across the continent to demand more be done to stop assaults. Cicely was cornered while making a bed - pinned to the wall and then groped, the man's face so close she could smell the alcohol coming off his breath. Andria was unexpectedly assaulted from behind, by a male guest, while cleaning his bathroom. These women were joined by many others to demand that hoteliers enforce better policies and safety measures to protect their staff from assault. While sharing their own experiences with workplace assault, they brought awareness to the risk that housekeepers in Canadian hotels (especially) face. Theyre overwhelmingly female immigrants. For some, English is a second - or third, or fourth - language. The work itself is menial and often solo, cleaning the most intimate possessions of a total stranger who takes brief possession of a room before moving on, explained York University professor Steven Tufts, at the time. Unfortunately, Andria Babbington went on to admit that she had reported dozen of incidents of harassment over her 17-year tenure as a housekeeper in a luxury Toronto hotel, but was often greeted with laughter rather than help or support. How could this be the case you might wonder? How could our industry be so behind on the widespread implementation of new and improved safety measures to prevent injury, harassment, and assault against hotel workers? It is that precise line of questioning that inspired the 5-Star Promise, a pledge to provide hotel employees across the U.S. with employee safety devices (ESDs) and commit to enhanced policies, training and resources that together are aimed at enhancing hotel safety, including preventing and responding to sexual harassment and assault. In fact, a survey of 487 housekeepers in Chicago found that 96% would feel safer if they were equipped with a wearable panic button. In October of last year, the Hands Off Pants On ordinance was recommended for approval in Chicago, in an effort to protect all Chicago hotel workers, whether union or non-union. During the testimony, a local hotel worker explained, Having a panic button would make me feel safer. To know I can easily call for help if something happens would be such a relief. Im here today not just for myself but for my co-workers. We deserve to be treated with respect and to feel safe at work. In January of 2018, two California state lawmakers introduced a bill that would require hotels to provide housekeepers with panic buttons to prevent violent assaults and sexual harassment. The bill also imposed a three-year ban for any guest accused of violence or sexual harassment against an employee and to keep a list of those accusations for five years. The message is loud and clear panic buttons are the new, long-awaited, industry safety standard. With the widespread implementation of panic button devices and improved safety training, hotel workers can finally feel safe and supported within their roles. The employee safety devices are easy to use, require little to no training and rely on Bluetooth beacon technology to pinpoint the exact location of a distress call both on and off property. And while its no secret that much of the apprehension associated with updated safety measures (for housekeepers specifically) relates to the perceived influx of cost, panic button solutions are cost-effective and scalable. As housekeepers work alone (putting them in a vulnerable position) and sending two employees to each room would increase labor costs significantly, the implementation of panic system technology provides an extra layer of much-needed protection, without the associated cost. Not only are modern panic buttons an affordable solution, but they integrate readily with a hotels existing platforms to ensure a cohesive technological ecosystem and a secure environment for employees. In the case of hotel employee safety, its not just a matter of preparing and preventing its a question of what your employees well-being means to your property. Investing in employee safety breeds a company culture that reminds employees (and guests alike) that hotel staff is valued and protected. About the Author Robb Monkman is the founder and CEO, of React Mobile, Inc. With experience launching multiple products, from idea to exit, Robb previously headed up the sales and marketing of advanced communications solutions to the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Several years ago, Robb was the victim of an armed robbery and hostage situation that left a lasting impression on him. He soon learned that thousands of people every day were in situations where they desperately need help but couldnt make a call. He made it his mission to solve this problem, founding React Mobile to create a simple yet powerful personal safety platform that today is transforming the way people call for help in emergencies. React Mobile is making tomorrow a safer place and already helping people all over the world. About React Mobile Founded in 2013, React Mobile is a global leader in providing panic button solutions for hotels. Their best in class hospitality safety platform helps hotels keep their employees safe. The React Mobile system allows management to deploy response resources to the exact location of an emergency within seconds of an alert, getting help to where they need it fast. In an emergency quick response times are essential. To learn more, visit ReactMobile.com. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Owned by Shanghai Tech University Hotel Management Limited, Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel is the first international hotel located in the central area of Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park Pudong. Aloft Hotels yesterday opened the brand new 191-room Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Hotel. Owned by Shanghai Tech University Hotel Management Limited, Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel is the first international hotel located in the central area of Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park Pudong. Ideally situated within a prime hub for innovation and technology businesses, the hotel is also located within a short drive from the New International Expo Center and Shanghai Disney Resort among other attractions. The hotel embodies the brand's different by design philosophy which is noted for its open, social spaces that connect next generation travelers. It has 191 modern and stylish guestrooms featuring high ceilings and is equipped with keyless mobile check-in system which enables guests to utilize their mobile phones as room keys. The design-forward guestrooms, flexible for both work and play, feature the latest technology and the brand's signature offerings, such as the ultra-comfortable plush bed, walk-in shower, custom amenities by Bliss Spa, fast & free WiFi and 43" LCD TV. Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel is also home to a variety of dining and social spaces. The hotel's signature restaurant, Nook, serves all-day dining ranging from breakfast buffet to a la carte dishes for lunch and dinner. The restaurant can accommodate 100 guests, and also has three private dining rooms. Re:fuel by AloftSM serves up Aloft's signature 24/7 grab-and-go options ranging from light meals, snacks for every craving, healthy selections, beverages and more. The WXYZ Bar is a vibrant bar offering signature cocktails and light bites, which doubles as a live music venue as well for the brand's iconic Live at Aloft Hotels programs. During the day, the W XYZ Bar transforms into a social space where guests and locals can hang out or catch up on work. Guests can also enjoy a good workout at the well-equipped 24/7 Re:chargeSM fitness center. "We're excited to debut the Aloft Hotels brand in Shanghai, bringing the next generation of travelers to an up-and-coming tech and innovation hub in the city. The new Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel will become Shanghai's newest social hub, where creative self-expressers can meet and mingle in a casual, friendly environment over cocktails at the W XYZ bar," said Mike Fulkerson, Vice President, Brand & Marketing, Asia-Pacific, Marriott International. "What's more, travelers and locals alike will be able to see emerging local bands at the Live at Aloft evenings held regularly at the hotel." Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel also features seven on-site Tactic meeting rooms that are equipped with state-of-the-art AV equipment and fast & free Wi-Fi. The 890-square-meter function spaces are ideal for staging events of various scales and formats. "Our entire team is proud to be part of the first Aloft hotel in Shanghai and the first international hotel in Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park Pudong. Our hotel will definitely allow value-conscious travelers in pursuit of a smart travel experience to stay connected, network, and relax in style," said Andy Shen, General Manager of Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel. The hotel is conveniently located 25 kilometers away from Shanghai Pudong International Airport and close to nearby attractions, within a short walking distance from Chamtime Square, Greenland Being Fun Plaza and ZhongKe Road Station of Metro 13. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Thursday night's pivotal Game 3 between the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center will be an intriguing matchup for a number of reasons - including the head-to-head battle between Jared Dudley and Ben Simmons. On Wednesday afternoon, Dudley told reporters that he expects to play "a lot" after sitting out Game 2 with a strained calf. He also offered the following assessment of Simmons' game. "I think that Ben Simmons is a great player in transition. Once you slow him up in the half-court, I think hes average. Hes a player that, when he picks up speed, hes a load." Naturally, reporters had to ask Simmons about that "average" comment today. The 22-year old was clearly aware of Dudley's remarks, as he simply responded with a smirk, "It's coming from Jared Dudley." https://twitter.com/_/status/1118880392168321025 Prior to the start of their first-round series, Dudley told WFAN's Carlin, Maggie and Bart: We will leave him [Simmons] wide open until he proves in this league that he can make it. Right now hes not even attempting it. So we know that hes not going to be able to do that for the most part." The 33-year old journeyman helped lock up Simmons as the Nets stole Game 1 in Philly, but a strained calf kept him on the sidelines for Game 2, as the Sixers evened the series with a blowout victory. Simmons had just nine points and three assists in Game 1, but bounced back with a triple-double in Game 2. Game 3, airing on TNT tonight, is scheduled to tipoff at 8pm ET. https://twitter.com/_/status/1118595368491659267 https://twitter.com/_/status/1118585867260628994 It wasn't just Trump under the microscope. But Mueller wrote that he believed prosecutors would be unlikely to meet the burden of proof to show that Donald Trump Jr. and other participants in the Trump Tower meeting "had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful." Nor did Mueller's probe develop evidence that they knew that foreign contributions to campaigns were illegal or other particulars of federal law. Conor Mcgregor has been dominating the UFC headlines as of late despite not having a fight since back in October. On March 11th, McGregor was arrested for an incident that occurred at a Miami nightclub, where McGregor took the phone out of the hands of a fan and stomped on it. The man, Ahmed Abdirzak, filed a police report against McGregor who was then arrested the same morning at a private residence in Miami. Now, TMZ has obtained footage of the arrest thanks to body cam footage that was taken by a Miami Police officer. As you can see from the footage, McGregor went peacefully and was eventually released later that day. Abdirzak had filed a lawsuit against McGregor for the incident, although the lawsuit was eventually dropped as the two settled out of court. When the incident first occurred, Abdirzak explained how the whole ordeal took him by surprise. "I've got pictures of my son that I didn't even save on my iCloud that I'm gonna lose," Abdirzak told TMZ Sports. "That's really what pissed me off the most. I've got pictures of my son that I'm never gonna get again." Now, McGregor has to worry about an ongoing investigation over a bar fight he allegedly got into while in Dublin. It's been quite a year for Kodak Black and we're barely breaking into the Spring season of 2019. He's tangled himself in controversies involving a number of hip hop figures. His ongoing beef with T.I. has recently escalated with the release of his track "Expeditiously"; his music has been banned from radio stations, including Big Boy's Neighborhood in Los Angeles for what he said about Lauren London and Nipsey Hussle; he was called out for saying that he's on the same level as Tupac, Nas and Biggie; he got tangled into drama with Reginae Carter after speaking ill of her father Lil Wayne; he made some inappropriate comments about rapper Young M.A; and he randomly declared that he punched out Sticky Fingaz and tried to shoot him. And that's not even the half of it. Even with the backlash, Kodak still has fans that have stuck by him no matter what, and as he tours, he continues to sell out shows and perform in front of hyped audiences. According to TMZ, however, Kodak is now missing in action. The rapper was scheduled to perform at the House of Blues in Boston earlier this evening, and TMZ claims that he mysteriously canceled the show at the last minute. Technically speaking, Kodak reportedly just never showed up to the venue. The publication also says that they spoke with Kodak's team who told them that they don't know why the show was axed and can't locate the rapper or those traveling with him. The Florida MC showed up for his show in Detroit on Saturday evening, but between that concert and Wednesday, TMZ claims he has gone off the radar, although they doubt the story that no one on his team knows where the rapper is. Meanwhile, fans in Boston were already allowed into the venue and were awaiting Kodak's performance when the announcement came that the show was canceled, causing irate fans to shout "F*ck Kodak" as they were exiting out into the streets. https://www.instagram.com/p/BwYZcr2Hw8g Kodak has developed a reputation for bailing out on shows without warning, so much so that he's being sued for $500K. Hopefully, this latest cancelation doesn't rope him into more legal troubles. After debuting in 2018, the Nike React Element 87 and React Element 55 became instant hits amongst sneakerheads. Both shoes have the exact same silhouette, although the 87 is made special by its translucent upper that allows the shoe's aesthetic to change based on what kind of sock you're wearing. There have been some pretty dope colorways of the shoe over the last few months and with Spring here, the Beaverton brand is looking to give consumers even more options to choose from. This latest colorway of the React Element 87 has green, brown, orange, and yellow highlights all the way throughout. Much like past colorways, the various different shades are scattered throughout the upper and the midsole, making it hard to pinpoint what the colorway should really be called. The orange 3M laces and yellow Nike swoosh are what truly stands out about this sneaker, all while the upper is split into translucent green and translucent white. According to Sneaker Bar Detroit, these will be coming out in Asia on April 27th and will see a wider release in North America a little while after that. The price will be set at $160 USD. Image via On The Spot Warmer weather, lower prices and more living space might be reasons why Americans are moving south and staying there. Cities and counties in the southern and western regions of the U.S. saw the largest population growth in the past year, according to newly released Census data. One interesting trend we are seeing this year is that metro areas not among the most populous are ranked in the top 10 for population growth, said Sandra Johnson, a demographer in the Census Bureaus Population Division. RENTALS: See where Houston apartment rents are rising most The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area saw the biggest uptick in the number of residents, adding 131,767 people from July 2017 to July 2018. Thats roughly equivalent to absorbing the entire population of New Haven, Connecticut. The Phoenix area was second-highest with an increase of 96,268 people in the period, followed by Houston. New York-Newark-Jersey City, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, the most populous metropolitan areas in 2018, all shrank from a year earlier. Between 2010 and 2018, more than half (52.9 percent) of all U.S. counties lost population. In the Dallas area, natural increases -- births minus deaths -- contributed the most to population growth, whereas domestic migration was the largest source of growth in Phoenix. Houston, Atlanta and Orlando rounded out the top five metro areas with the highest numeric growth. HOUSING MARKET: Houston real estate market sees gains in sales and rentals Population growth on a county level shows a similar geographic trend, with Arizonas Maricopa County in the top spot adding 81,244 more people in the year. Nevadas Clark County and two counties in Texas -- Harris County and Collin County -- followed. Out of 3,142 counties, slightly more than half showed positive net migration in 2018, meaning more people moved into the county than moved out. Of the ten fastest-growing counties, all experienced positive domestic migration. International migrants settled in heavy concentrations along the Acela corridor from Boston to Washington, and in Florida. --With assistance from Cedric Sam, Alex McIntyre, Mathieu Benhamou and Yue Qiu. 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg / Bloomberg WASHINGTON - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the construction Thursday of two new LNG export terminals in Port Arthur and Calcasieu Parish, La, continuing what is exported to be a years long expansion in U.S. natural gas exports. The decision signaled that FERC commissioners had reached a lasting resolution on their disagreement earlier this year over LNG projects' impact on climate change change, something that had delayed a decision on the Calcasieu Pass LNG facility before it was ultimately approved in February. LAREDO Not all liquefied natural gas exports leave the United States on giant ships from the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Coast. Some of them get delivered by 18-wheelers to meet growing demand for energy in Mexico. While the burgeoning U.S. LNG industry has focused on multibillion dollar coastal export terminals, one company from Houston and another from Mexico City have carved out a niche in the market by using tanker trucks to deliver the supercooled fuel to industrial and agricultural customers south of the border. The Houston company, Stabilis Energy, opened a $55 million LNG plant capable of producing 120,000 gallons of LNG a day in the South Texas town of George West in March 2015. The plant initially focused on supplying fuel to portable LNG-powered generators at remote drilling and fracking sites, but it has since added at least 10 Texas frac sand mines, out of reach of pipelines and power grids. Now, Stabilis is tapping into a growing market in Mexico, supplying LNG to a number of industrial customers and greenhouses in Mexico. The Mexican economy and population are growing faster than their oil and gas production, Stabilis Energy Vice President of Sales Steve Stump said. For them to be able to sustain their growth, they need to import energy. Niche market Over the past 18 months, the Mexican natural gas company Enestas has bought truckloads of LNG from the Stabilis plant. Launched in May 2015, Enestas has nearly two dozen customers in Mexico that are outside of local power grids and miles away from natural gas pipelines. Gold, silver and lithium mines in Mexico use the companys natural gas-fired generators to power equipment and in some cases, provide heat in mine shafts deep underground. Industrial-sized greenhouses designed for growing peppers, cucumbers and other vegetables in the mountains of Central Mexico burn natural gas to keep crops warm at night, capturing the carbon dioxide emissions to feed the plants and make them grow faster. On HoustonChronicle.com: Trump signs executive orders to boost energy industry So many people in Mexico and even the United States still dont have access to pipelined natural gas, said Gregory Pilkinton, Enestas vice president of U.S. sales Everyone in that situation is a potential customer for our company and our product. The Stabilis LNG plant is supplied by a pipeline owned by DCP Midstream. The company sells LNG based on the price of natural gas at the Houston Ship Channel. Enestas buys the gas and rolls the cost into in a package price that covers equipment rental, the fuel and its delivery. Pilkinton said LNG is cheaper and cleaner that diesel, commonly used to fire generators. Depending on the location, Pilkinton said, We can deliver LNG for 20 to 30 percent under what our customers are paying for diesel on an equivalent basis." Mexican market outlook Enestas delivered some 4 million gallons of U.S. LNG to its customers in Mexico last year and expects to sell 10 million gallons in 2019. Enestas has plans to use its own LNG-powered trucks to haul shipments someday, but in the meantime, the company is hiring trucking companies to move tankers emblazed with its logo across the border. After leaving the George West plant, a tanker carrying 9,300 gallons of LNG zipped past wildflowers on U.S. Highway 59, the Worlds Largest Rattlesnake statue in Freer and busy truck stops in Encinal before arriving, 130 miles away, at a truck yard in Laredo, just locks away from the international border crossing, where a new driver took over.. Francisco Munoz, a trucker with El Paso-based Cryogenic Trucking, connected his rig to the tanker, responsible for hauling it to another truck yard on the Mexican side of the bridge. From there, another driver would use another rig to haul the shipment to its final destination some 220 miles into the Mexican interior a large greenhouse operation just outside the pine tree-lined mountain town of Arteaga, Coahuila. Although Mexico has large natural gas reserves, its struggling national oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, has failed to unlock them. In addition, Pemex does not have enough pipeline capacity to move product to market. Mexicos natural gas shortage comes when demand is surging as a power plants switch from dirtier fuel oil to the cleaner-burning gas. U.S. producers are filling the supply gap with cross-border pipelines that exported nearly 4.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to Mexico in January, according to the U.S. Energy Department. LNG accounted for another 500 million cubic feet of natural gas exports per day to Mexico. LNG exports to Mexico by truck accounted for nearly 320.5 million cubic feet of natural gas during the first nine months of 2018, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Although thats a tiny fraction of Mexicos overall natural gas imports, LNG exports by truck can command premium prices because they are shipped to markets that dont have access to pipelines. On HoustonChronicle.com: From Boston to Bangladesh: Houston area company emerges as global leader in offshore LNG industry During the third quarter of 2018, natural gas exported to Mexico via pipeline was sold at an average price of $3.08 per million British Thermal Units while LNG by truck was sold for $8.63, U.S. Department of Energy data shows. LNG By Rail A proposal from the Trump administration could unlock another and much larger-scale delivery option. During his April 10 visit to Houston, President Donald Trump signed an executive order asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to look at lifting a nearly 40-year-old ban on LNG shipments by rail. LNG already has been approved as a fuel for locomotives, but shipping LNG by rail using in the same type of cryogenic containers for liquid nitrogen, oxygen, argon and ethane remains banned. Critics fear accidents and explosions, but Enestas CEO Caio Zapata said shipping LNG by rail it is just as safe as moving it by tanker truck. Rail shipments of LNG have been approved by other nations in Europe and Asia. With a Houston office opening in May, Enestas plans to use tanker trucks to deliver LNG to mining, agricultural and other remote industrial operations across the United States. But, Zapata added, LNG by rail could be a game changer on both sides of the border. Transporting LNG by train would lower costs and get it deeper into the country - either in Mexico or the United States, Zapata said. Even with the full support of the Trump administration, Michael Maher, senior program adviser at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice Universitys Baker Institute, said it would take months or years to lift the ban under the federal rule making process, which includes soliciting, receiving and reviewing public comments. If successful, Maher said LNG by rail could be profitable in New England or other niche markets with limited access to pipelines, but is unlikely to be widely adopted. Opening up LNG by rail might not open up big sales, Maher said. Its not the most efficient way to sell natural gas. Its not competitive to any gas supplied by pipeline. sergio.chapa@chron.com Bar Victor, the chic Montrose bar named for "Les Miserables" author Victor Hugo, is reaching its final chapter. The cushy lounge with its twinkling chandeliers and velvet swag curtains announced on Facebook that it is closing Saturday night. "This week-end will be the last one at Bar Victor," the post reads. "This fantastic journey wouldn't have been possible without you!" The post listed Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. as the two final opportunities to enjoy Bar Victor which opened in March 2018 in the former Zimm's Bar space at 4321 Montrose. The French-themed bar sported quotes from famous French citizens stenciled into the walls. French wine and champagne, bar snacks and French music ruled the party nights. The space was leased by Jean-Pierre Gleize, a nightclub owner and restaurateur from Toulouse, and co-founder Vincent Sinard, a Las Vegas real estate broker. Sinard later presided over the opening of La Villa Saint-Tropez, a French restaurant next to Bar Victor at 4315 Montrose, which opened October 2018. Now called La Villa, the French restaurant remains open. THE GREAT STEAK: Pitmaster Aaron Franklin's new project on the perfect steak A spokesman for both Bar Victor and La Villa confirmed that the bar is indeed closing this weekend. No word as to why it was ceasing operations. La Villa, however, is open for business and will begin offering lunch service April 25. La Villa currently is open for dinner Tuesday through Friday from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturday 5 to 11 p.m. and brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bar Victor's deejays will spin every Saturday for brunch at La Villa. Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. He had a real capacity to understand the impact of a foundations grantmaking, and part of his legacy is that he launched the trust on the path of diversity and inclusion, said Terry Mazany, who succeeded Stewart as the foundations CEO in 2004. One of my points of pride is that thanks to Dons start, the trust really does reflect and represent the communities it serves, and it is, I think, a standard for other community foundations. It's April 20, 1969, and we at KHCN-AM 4747 remember the three brave Americans who died in the Apollo 1 fire a little more than two years ago. But first, here's a newsflash: Initially, word was that Buzz Aldrin would be the first man to set foot on the moon. But NASA announced this past week that the man to take that first, historic step will actually be Neil Armstrong. Uncredited, STF / AP Assuming everything goes as planned, the duo will spend 22 hours on the surface, though they won't walk farther than 100 feet from the spacecraft. Now back to the very first Apollo mission, known as AS-204. It was to be a suborbital test of the new command module that would take astronauts to the moon and back. NASA A month before that mission, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were doing a "plugs out" dry run of the mission, working their way through a list of procedures to show that everything would work as expected. But then there was a fire inside the capsule. All three astronauts died. Let's talk about who these American heroes were: Gus Grissom: He was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts tapped in 1959. Grissom flew into space twice before the accident: First, in July 1961, he became the second American to travel in space aboard Liberty Bell 7, and then in March 1965, he flew aboard Gemini 3, in which he and John Young circled the Earth three times. Credit: NASA Ed White: He was in the second group of astronauts selected in 1962 and was from San Antonio. He was the first American to conduct a spacewalk in June 1965 as part of Gemini 4. Roger Chaffee: He was selected in the third group of astronauts in 1963. He was from Michigan, and Apollo 1 would have been his first spaceflight. Credit: NASA But these heroes did not die in vain. Procedures were changed and a newer, safer capsule was designed. The program, likely, was saved. Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and science for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. WASHINGTON - The Justice Department plans to release a lightly redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's 400-page report Thursday, offering a granular look at the ways in which President Donald Trump was suspected of obstructing justice, people familiar with the matter said. The report - the general outlines of which the Justice Department has briefed the White House on - will reveal that Mueller decided he could not come to a conclusion on the question of obstruction because it was difficult to determine Trump's intent and some of his actions could be interpreted innocently, these people said. But it will offer a detailed account of his alleged conduct - analyzing tweets, private threats and other episodes at the center of Mueller's inquiry, they added. Attorney General William Barr plans to hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference to address "process questions" and provide an "overview of the report," a senior Justice Department official said. The report will be delivered on discs to Capitol Hill between 11 a.m. and noon, the official said, and will be posted on the special counsel's website thereafter. Those who spoke to The Washington Post for this report did so on the condition of anonymity, citing the matter's supreme sensitivity. Thursday's rollout plan - and news of the White House's advance briefing, which was first reported by ABC News and The New York Times - led to political uproar Wednesday, with Democrats suggesting the attorney general was trying to improperly color Mueller's findings before the public could read them. "This is wrong," Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter. While the report's light redactions might allay some of their concerns, Democrats are likely to bristle at any material that is withheld. What the Justice Department and Trump's lawyers might view as modest, lawmakers might see as overly aggressive. The redacted version of the report is expected to reveal extensive details about Trump's actions in office that came under scrutiny, but it is unclear how much the public will learn about how the special counsel's team investigated the Kremlin's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and Russian contacts with Trump associates. Barr also is likely to face scrutiny over the Justice Department's talks with the White House - which could help Trump and his attorneys hone their attacks on the report in advance. Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's lawyers, has said he is preparing a counterreport to Mueller's findings, and in a recent interview said his document would explain from the president's viewpoint every episode that could be considered obstructive. Giuliani and others have long feared Mueller's findings on obstruction, viewing them as potentially more damaging than anything Mueller found on the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians. Mueller did not find a conspiracy between Russians and Trump or his campaign, Barr said in a brief letter of the special counsel's conclusions shared with Congress late last month. Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's attorneys, told The Washington Post, "We do not discuss conversations that we may or may not have had with the president." A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to address questions about its briefings to the White House, the report's redactions or Mueller's findings on obstruction. Trump had also apparently been briefed in advance of the planned news conference, which he revealed Wednesday during a radio appearance, which was confirmed later by a Justice Department spokeswoman. Barr will appear alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the spokeswoman said, and he planned to take questions. Barr has faced intense scrutiny from the public and lawmakers on Capitol Hill for his handling of Mueller's report. The Thursday news conference could give him an opportunity to address his critics - and perhaps provide them fresh ammunition. It is sure to be watched closely by Trump, an avid TV viewer whose relationship with his attorney general will almost certainly be colored by Mueller's findings and what Barr says about them. Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said the White House did not ask the Justice Department to hold the news conference scheduled for Thursday, but she declined to discuss White House and Justice Department interactions about the report. "It's the Department of Justice's decision to hold the news conference," Kupec said. She said that doing so is "in the interest of transparency." Trump told the Larry O'Connor show on WMAL that he was pondering having his own news conference. "You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a news conference. Maybe I'll do one after that; we'll see," Trump said. A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment but said Mueller will not be at the news conference. Already, Democratic lawmakers and pundits have alleged that Barr seems to be taking steps to mitigate the political damage Mueller's report might do to Trump, and some members of Mueller's team have told associates they are frustrated by the limited information he has released about their work. A senior White House official said Trump has praised Barr privately for his handling of the report and compared him favorably with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who Trump grew to loathe over his recusal from what would become Mueller's investigation. Since the special counsel's office closed its investigation late last month, Barr and his team at the Justice Department have been reviewing the final report to determine how much of it can be made public. The Justice Department has said it plans to release the document with four categories of information shielded from public view: material from the grand jury, material that reveals intelligence sources and methods, material that is relevant to ongoing investigations, and material that could affect the privacy of "peripheral" third parties. Each redaction will be color-coded so readers know the reason material is being shielded, Barr has said. Any redactions could be controversial, and Democrats have said they won't be satisfied unless they are given the entire, unfiltered document. It is likely House Democrats will attempt to subpoena it, sparking a legal battle that could last for months or even years. Barr has so far disclosed only what the Justice Department terms Mueller's "principal conclusions." In a four-page letter to lawmakers, he declared last month that Mueller did not find that anyone on Trump's campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, and that the special counsel declined to reach a conclusion on whether Trump had sought to obstruct justice. Barr wrote that he and Rosenstein then reviewed the evidence and did not find it sufficient to make an obstruction case. Barr offered only a few quotes from Mueller's report, leaving a curious public with many more questions than answers about what his 22-month investigation had found. White House officials are concerned about damaging testimony from a number of senior aides, particularly former counsel Donald McGahn and former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, according to current and former officials. Their testimony, according to people with knowledge of it, gave a clear, detailed breakdown of some of the most controversial incidents, from the firing of James Comey as FBI director to attempts to oust Sessions. McGahn spoke with the special counsel for dozens of hours, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department generally avoids holding news conferences - or offering any specific information - about cases it closes without charges. In 2016, then-FBI Director Comey was criticized for bucking that principle and declaring at a televised news conference that he was recommending no charges after the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. He took no questions. In an October 2016 piece written for The Washington Post, Barr seemed not to strenuously object, as many other legal commenters did, to what Comey had revealed. "The two critical facts conveyed to the public in July were that the investigation was completed and that, based on that completed investigation, no prosecution was warranted. Disclosing these facts did not run afoul of the policy against commenting on investigations while they are underway," Barr wrote. "There is nothing wrong with conveying such facts; in cases of overriding public interest, it is done all the time, as for example in the House banking scandal and the so-called Iraq-gate matter during the 1992 election." The next year, though, he wrote in another Washington Post column that Trump was right to fire Comey because Comey had "crossed a line that is fundamental to the allocation of authority in the Justice Department" with the July announcement. "While the FBI carries out investigative work, the responsibility for supervising, directing and ultimately determining the resolution of investigations is solely the province of the Justice Department's prosecutors," he wrote. "With an investigation as sensitive as the one involving Clinton, the ultimate decision-making is reserved to the attorney general or, when the attorney general is recused, the deputy attorney general. By unilaterally announcing his conclusions regarding how the matter should be resolved, Comey arrogated the attorney general's authority to himself." At his confirmation hearing in January, Barr publicly distanced himself from Comey's approach. "If you're not going to indict someone, you don't stand up there and unload negative information about the person," Barr said. "That's not the way the department does business." Barr is likely to be pressed long after Thursday to answer questions on Mueller's investigation. He is expected to testify before the House and Senate Judiciary committees in early May, and he has said he is willing to discuss with lawmakers providing more information if they are left unsatisfied by Thursday's release. The Justice Department also revealed in a court filing Thursday in the criminal case against longtime Trump friend Roger Stone that it plans to let a "limited number" of lawmakers and their staff review a Mueller's report "without certain redactions, including removing the redaction of information related to the charges set forth in the indictment in this case." - - - Josh Dawsey, Felicia Sonmez, Tom Hamburger and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report. Harris County could have one less juvenile lock-up by the end of the year, a shift that comes as part of a push by Probation Director Henry Gonzales to keep kids closer to home and out of custody. The county hasnt said publicly which of the four local juvenile facilities officials have in mind for closure, but whatever unit it is wouldnt be shuttered entirely; the lock-up would instead transition from a residential facility to a hub for outpatient services and day reporting. Even as the county is plotting the shift, Gonzales is advocating for change at the state level last week he became one of a few dozen juvenile justice officials across the country to sign onto a letter spearheaded by the Youth Correctional Leaders for Justice that advocates for closing kid prisons. As current and former leaders of youth justice agencies around the country, the co-signers wrote, we believe that the time has come to close down youth prisons, once and for all. But closing juvenile prisons as opposed to county lock-ups isnt really in the hands of local probation officials. Gonzales acknowledged its up to the judges who dole out sentences that land kids in the Texas Juvenile Justice Departments five secure facilities. I dont get to pick who goes there, the courts do that, Gonzales said. In recent years, and especially since the turnover after November elections, local jurists are sending fewer kids to the state facilities - but Gonzales hopes to lower the number even further. What I can do is provide alternatives to TJJD, he said, like our facilities, so the kid is closer to home. Over the past six months, Gonzales said, the county sent 40 percent fewer kids to state facilities as compared to the same six months a year earlier. We are seeing our judges send way, way less kids, he said. Were at six or seven commitments so far this calendar year under the new judges. A great step In part, Gonzales said he would work by offering more programs at the county level, so that high-need kids with a history of problems can still get necessary support, supervision and treatment locally. Gonzales has also made other changes. Until recently some juveniles would get the treatment and programming out-of-state. But after the Glen Mills Schools in Pennsylvania ended up at the center of an abuse scandal in February, Harris County officials decided this year to stop sending kids to facilities in other states. Some of these facilities are really great places, Gonzales said, but you cant engage the parents when you send the kids out of state, and we cannot ignore the importance of family engagement. Though she was not part of the YCLJ letter, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo voiced her support for cutting back on the number of beds in local lock-ups for teens. Moving toward alternatives to juvenile detention is a great step in the right direction, she said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. This is part of a broader, ongoing conversation about reforming our juvenile justice system. We must work toward a future in which our juvenile justice system gives children an opportunity to thrive. No current officials with the states juvenile justice department signed onto the letter, though the agencys executive director, Camille Cain, has repeatedly stressed the value of bringing kids closer to home and has cut the states juvenile prison population since taking the helm of the troubled agency. If that trend continues, it could increase the population here in Harris County. Currently, the county has bedspace for about 300 post-adjudicated kids but as of early April there were only about 180. Now, Gonzales is in the process of moving some of the juvenile programming to begin clearing out one of the countys three post-adjudicated facilities. New building on hold It may seem like a step toward progress, but still some advocates expressed concerns about plans to repurpose one of the facilities. Sarah Guidry, executive director of the Earl Carl Institute for Legal and Social Policy at Texas Southern University, questioned whether decreasing available beds would simply serve as justification to build a new facility. They do need a new facility, she said, but my concern is that they may be building more beds. Until a few months ago, county officials were tossing around the idea of a newer lock-up. But Gonzales put that idea to rest for now. Thats kind of put on hold, he said, noting that the county is reevaluating its needs. Everyone agrees that they dont like our current detention center, but the county judge wants to make sure that any new facility lasts much longer than our past facilities have. So there is really no new building at this point. Dora Alvarado almost dropped the ice cream she was holding in a fast-food restaurant when her lawyer called with a simple message: Little Laura is not going to be deported. An immigration judge had granted a motion to reopen the case of Alvarados daughter, 11-year-old Laura Maradiaga, who had faced the prospect of deportation to El Salvador without her family. Laura, her mother and an older sister came to the United States last October seeking asylum. A judge issued a removal order for Laura on March 12 based on what officials said was a missed court appearance. The immigration advocacy organization FIEL Houston took up the familys case and arranged for attorney Silvia Mintz to represent Laura without charge. The organization noted that Lauras family had faced gang threats in El Salvador. At a news conference Wednesday, Mintz said she would file an asylum application for the family. Their next court date is May 20. Mintz said authorities seem to have recognized that the order to send Laura back to El Salvador without her mother was likely the result of a clerical or translation error. Laura said that she was very happy, thank God, because I will be able to stay with my family; I want to always be with my family. The girl told the Chronicle that she likes Houston and the school she is attending west of the city, where she has learned numbers and how to greet people in English. But one of her biggest thrills so far was going to a zoo for the first time. I loved the monkeys very much; they are so funny! she said. I wish I could stay here with my family. I dont want to go back to El Salvador. Mintz said she hopes Dora Alvarado and her two daughters, Laura and Adamaris, 15, will be granted asylum based on their credible fear for their life. She explained that they were part of a group threatened by gangs in a small town in the south-central La Paz region of El Salvador. Alvarado said her brother was stabbed to death at a restaurant a few years ago, and four other family members have been killed since one of them testified against the killer in court. In addition, she said, her elder daughter was harassed and threatened by an older man involved in criminal activities in her town. I am a single mother with two daughters, and I am in fear to go back, said Alvarado. Although the family and activists celebrated the reopening of the case, We emphasize that this is only the beginning of a very long process for them, said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL Houston. We still have a long fight to keep Laura with her family here. Mintz said the process could take as much as two years. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat who attended the news conference, said Alvarados family is in limbo, unable to rule out deportation or detention, because of constantly changing policies by President Donald Trumps administration. I am going to introduce legislation to protect the asylum process. I asked my colleagues (in Congress) to support the idea that asylum law is the law of the land, Jackson Lee said. She added: We are going to investigate and assess all the clerical errors cases errors in Lauras case have been highlighted, but I am fearful that there are cases around the nation that have not. Jackson Lee said the public should understand that Alvarados family did all they were supposed to do under our laws; they went to every court appointment and did everything they were told. They came to present their asylum case. We do not hurt anyone. We want to live a quiet life free of that fear, Alvarado said, her voice breaking. Ya basta (enough), we have already suffered too much, she said. olivia.tallet@chron.com Its one thing to say the investigation didnt confirm that something occurred, as Barrs letter said, and another to say there is no evidence that it occurred. The phrase no evidence was conspicuously absent from the March 24 letter. If Mueller indeed found no evidence of collaboration, why didnt Barr say so then? Today he appeared to be overstating something he was previously careful not to overstate. Houston mayoral challenger Tony Buzbee followed through his pledge to sue Mayor Sylvester Turner Wednesday, claiming that donated billboards for the city's AlertHouston! campaign violate campaign finance laws because they feature a photo of Turner. The lawsuit, filed in the 281st state district court, names Turner and Clear Channel Outdoor Inc., the company that donated the 27 billboards, as defendants. Buzbee's petition claims Clear Channel is "blatantly supporting" Turner in the November mayoral race "by plastering his smiling face across this city while promoting him as a civic-minded, safety conscious leader." The billboards promote AlertHouston!, a system that sends alerts to Houston residents during emergency situations. Turner spokeswoman Mary Benton said the city's Office of Emergency Management chose Turner to be the spokesperson for AlertHouston!'s promotional campaign because the mayor acts as the city's emergency manager during natural disasters and emergencies. "It is unfortunate that some would choose to politicize this very important public safety message," Benton said. "However, the administration welcomes the media attention given to the AlertHouston campaign, in hopes that it may actually help to save lives." In the petition, Buzbee wrote that Clear Channel's vice president for public affairs, Lee Vela, "works closely with Turner, and routinely convinces him to allow the relocation of billboards that would otherwise be eliminated" through a city policy that limits the number of billboards in Houston. Buzbee further alleged that the company "needs the mayor's help" to allow digital billboards in the city, which Buzbee said Clear Channel has pushed hard for recently. A Clear Channel spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Buzbee is seeking damages worth twice the value of the billboards, a remedy laid out in a section of Texas' Election Code dealing with civil liability. He estimated the billboards are worth $216,000 per month. Buzbee also said he would dismiss the suit if Turner and Clear Channel issue a public apology and remove Turner's photo from each billboard. "Half of the billboard is the mayor's face, smiling. If they really wanted to draw attention to folks to look at this billboard, then maybe they should have used somebody like (Astros player Jose) Altuve or Beyonce," said Chad Pinkerton, Buzbee's attorney. Pinkerton also said the portion of the billboard featuring Turner takes up much more space than the part mentioning AlertHouston! In addition to filing the suit, Buzbee has asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to intervene, writing that the state "has the absolute authority to take action." jasper.scherer@chron.com twitter.com/jaspscherer Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders will hold a rally in downtown Houston on April 24. The U.S. Senator from Vermont was already scheduled to be part of a forum at Texas Southern University with seven other presidential candidates earlier in the day. It will be Sanders first campaign event in Texas since he launched his 2020 presidential campaign. The free rally will be a 5 p.m. at Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney Street, Houston. Starting at 1 p.m. on that same day, Sanders will be among the candidates who will be speaking at a 3-hour presidential forum organized by She The People, a national network focused on issues that are most important to women of color. That sold out event is being held on the TSU campus. Beside Sanders, the forum will include former El Paso Congressman Beto ORourke, former San Antonio mayor and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Whats really going on with Julian Castro? There are two conflicting narratives. One suggests that the presidential bid of the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development who is trailing in fundraising and barely a blip in the polls is dead in the water. The other predicts that Castro could surprise everyone like, say, Donald Trump did and become what the current issue of New York magazine calls the dark horse of 2020 and the candidate to watch. The truth is somewhere in-between. On the one hand, its been a long, hard slog for Castro and its going to get longer and harder. My friend is trapped in a vicious cycle: He cant get the poll numbers that might earn media attention; and as long as the media ignores him, he cant raise money; and unless he shows he can raise money, he wont do better in the polls. Critics say he is too careful, calculating and reserved to get noticed in a field big enough to put together a marching band. In fact, its not clear that hell make it into the first round of debates for whatever thats worth in a bizarre year where the frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, hasnt even entered the race yet. On the other hand, there is a reason that a 44-year-old Mexican-American from the working-class west side of San Antonio has gotten this far. He excels at up-close retail politics, and he continues to impress and charm audiences in Iowa and New Hampshire. He is calm, measured, respectful and thoughtful. Even in a climate where Democratic candidates are trying to outdo one another by saying the most radical and outrageous thing to win the news cycle, Castro holds his tongue and plays it straight. Hes betting the house that after four years of the Tweeter-in-Chief Americans are hankering for an adult to lead them again. Besides the dueling narratives, there has also emerged one clear path for Castro to reach the upper tier of Democratic presidential hopefuls and sling shot to win, place or show in some of the early caucuses and primaries. Well get to that. But first, lets get one thing straight something that the national media always misses: You cant judge the Castro campaign by conventional standards. You need a whole new yardstick. Sure, the candidate has an impressive resume Stanford University and Harvard Law School, local and federal experience, intellect mixed with social skills. It also doesnt hurt that he hails from a red state that looks like its turning purple, or that hes part of an ethnic group (Latinos) that the Pew Research Center predicts will be the largest minority voting bloc in 2020. But Castro also started at a disadvantage. While neither black nor white, he had to get the attention of a national media that only thinks in black and white. Even if the national media were interested in covering Latinos and, with the exception of the immigration debate, theyre really not they wouldnt have a clue where to start. If the major television networks and newspapers were based not in New York and Washington but in Dallas, Phoenix or Los Angeles, this would be a whole different ballgame. Instead, Castro has to suffer the foolishness of being interviewed by white Ivy League reporters from East Coast newspapers who accompany him to Tex-Mex joints to give their stories flavor then invariably ask the same bland question: Why dont you speak fluent Spanish? Castro should say what the other 57 million Latinos in the United States are thinking: Maybe because 80 percent of Latinos speak only English or a mixture of both languages. Hows your German, Italian, French or Hebrew? Write this down. Castro isnt just another white male riding the wave of privilege and acceptance. Hes Neil Armstrong. As the first full-blooded Latino running for president, he can win even if he loses. He just needs to stay sober, and not follow the others as they veer off the rails. No matter what happens, his brand will be intact. And hell live to fight another day. Of course, there is also that path. Those who fly too close to the sun get burned or flame out or crack up. Its early. The Iowa caucuses arent for 10 months. And when the voting starts, the one thing you dont want to be is the frontrunner. Iowans dont like the elites in Washington and New York telling them whom to vote for. They make their own choices. And, as other candidates make mistakes or make wild statements, those folks in the heartland might choose to cast their lot with that nice young man from San Antonio who made such a good impression. Navarrette writes a syndicated column for the Washington Post. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Chicago loves its beer, and one of the citys most beloved local brews will get a special release this weekend to commemorate its 10th birthday. As Daisy Cutter cracks the double-digit milestone, Half Acre invites the city to celebrate with several parties, featuring a special foursome of Daisy Cutter variants available on draft and in limited four-packs two versions of Double Daisy Cutter double IPAs, the quadruple pale ale Quad Cutter and Smoking Daisy, a pale ale mashup. Special merchandise and glassware will also be available for purchase. Both Half Acre taproom locations will have all five Daisy drafts, four-packs, merch and wares, as will Links Taproom, HopLeaf, Sleeping Village, Skylark and The Harp and Fiddle. Several other locations in Chicago will have three of the drafts and some of the swag. Start times at different locations vary Friday, see bar websites for complete details, no cover; halfacrebeer.com/decades Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. U.S. hotel occupancy rose 2.4% to 69.9% during the week of 7-13 April, while ADR increased 4.4% to $136.25 and RevPAR rose 6.9% to $95.22. The U.S. hotel industry reported positive year-over-year results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 7-13 April 2019, according to data from STR. In comparison with the week of 8-14 April 2018, the industry recorded the following: Occupancy: +2.4% to 69.9% Average daily rate (ADR): +4.4% to US$136.25 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +6.9% to US$95.22 Among the Top 25 Markets, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota-Wisconsin, posted the largest increases across the three key performance indicators: occupancy (+9.0% to 73.0%), ADR (+29.5% to US$150.62) and RevPAR (+41.1% to US$109.98). San Francisco/San Mateo, California, registered the second-largest increases in ADR (+27.0% to US$284.79) and RevPAR (+34.7% to US$251.46). Chicago, Illinois, experienced the second-highest rise in occupancy (+8.5% to 80.0%). New Orleans, Louisiana, reported the steepest declines in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (-5.1% to 80.6%), ADR (-2.5% to US$176.47) and RevPAR (-7.5% to US$142.29). Seattle, Washington, saw the second-largest decrease in occupancy (-4.8% to 69.5%) and the only other drop in ADR (-1.7% to US$144.42), which resulted in the second-steepest decline in RevPAR (-6.5% to US$100.30). View U.S. weekly hotel performance review STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest all industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hospitality Trends Bandcamp Adds No-Risk Vinyl Pressing via Pirate Press Bandcamp is expanding its commitment to vinyl with a new offering that eliminates upfront costs for artists and labels. Vinyl on the popular independent music destination has grown 600% in the last 5 years, with 3,500 unique vinyl albums added to the site each month. The new service eliminates all risk, with fan orders financing the pressing, and eliminates hassle with Bandcamp and its partner Pirate Press handling the printing, pressing and shipping to fans. The artist and label retains all control and ownership. Pirate Press is an Emeryville,CA based vinyl broker that contracts with a pressing plant in the Czech Republic to manufacture records. Only 9% of the albums for sale on Bandcamp in 2018 offered a vinyl version. "The reason for this situation and the growing pile of untapped artist revenue it represents is that producing vinyl remains challenging," the indie music destination said in a blog post. "Its a costly and risky undertaking, and dealing with fulfillment and returns can be incredibly time consuming. Layer on top of that the mystery and complexity encountered by many trying to press vinyl for the first time, and its no wonder so few people do it." Order Minimums & More While final details of the service are still being worked out, the minimum order is expected to be 250 copies, which will then be pressed and shipped from the Czech Republic, according to Pirate Press owner Eric Skippy Mueller. "Dealing with fulfillment and returns can be incredibly time-consuming, wrote Diamond. The new service eliminates risk, since fans orders finance the pressing, rather than the artist or label. The Bandcamp vinyl service will open to all artists and labels later this year, but is launching today with four pilot campaigns. via Bandcamp: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, the Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter and composer, is offering a vinyl edition of his most recent album, Ancestral Recall, on a double LP in a gatefold jacket. 10 signed test pressings are also available. Jim Guthrie is well known to Bandcamp audiences for his acclaimed game soundtracks for Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery and Indie Game: The Movie. In late 2018, Guthrie released the soundtrack for Below, an epic and moody masterpiece. For the first time, fans will be able get Below on vinyl, in a beautiful triple-gatefold, color double LP with die-cut foil-stamped inner sleeves. An hour of bonus material from the soundtrack is also offered, as well as a limited-edition 11 x 17 velvet poster. Shredders worldwide know French guitarist Juliette Jade, who has built a cult following for her cover videos on YouTube and original albums on Bandcamp. Juliettes music has never been available on vinyl before, but her new campaign for Constellation will remedy that, complete with signed copies, and hand-numbered, limited-edition custom guitar picks. The mysterious Australian black metal artist Mesarthim has just released a new album, Ghost Condensate, as a color vinyl gatefold LP. A limited edition fold out poster and 10 test pressings are also available. Share on: MCLA President James Birge presents a $10,000 check to challenge winners Nicholas Strezynski and Owen Fitzgerald. Amy Shapiro, entrepreneur in residence, spent 10 weeks mentoring the students. Scotia Bent, Gabrielle Kernozek, Owen Fitzgerald and Nicholas Strezynski. Judges Ben Svenson, Celia Clancy and Richard Alcombright. PreviousNext MCLA Picks Winners of Third Entrepreneurship Challenge The Whet Towel was the winning idea in this year's challenge. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. There were three finalists for the third annual Innovation and Entrepreneurial Challenge on Wednesday night. They were different yet had one thing in common: being eco-friendly or at least all-natural. But it was the pitch about making disposal razors last longer that stood out for the judges and deemed worthy of the $10,000 prize. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts students Nicholas Strezynski and Owen Fitzgerald came up with towel that includes a denim strop designed to extend the life of disposable razors. "For years, I've been using disposable razors to shave. And very quickly I became sick of the process of having to buy more razors all the time, running out of them, getting a poor quality shave," Strezynski said. "And there's no thought process at all actually taking care of it and even thinking about how long could it potentially last me." After he found that using denim could lengthen the lifespan of a disposable razor, he started bringing a pair of jeans into the bathroom with him. "And I just realized this past summer that there's probably a better way to do this," he laughed. Thus "The Whet Towel," an innovation of a regular terry towel created with the help of sewing lessons by Theresa Grieger. "It's harder than we expected it to be," Strezynski said. "We were determined to have a product." Some 2 billion disposable razors are tossed every year because they are difficult to recycle. Using the strop "realigns the blade" in a way that makes it last longer, although Strezynski admitted they were depending on presumed competitor for that information. They were encouraged to get their own testing done and to consider how to bring customers back for more. They're already producing Whet Towels for sale and plan to use the $10,000 for the next phase of expansion. The entrepreneurs will also get advice and space to continue the development of their product from local business incubator Lever Inc., which has partnered with the college in all three challenges. The judges said they had a difficult time determining this year's winner from the other two finalists. Scotia Bent had pitched BUtiful, a line of natural lotions and headwraps. Women of color had often used harmful and painful chemicals to straighten their to align with European notions of beauty, she said. "So I want people of color to have access to products that don't harm their features and I want them to have access to products that enhance them," Bent explained. "BUtiful will provide handmade products that are healthy, and products that cater to everyone no matter what you look like, no matter your skin tone, no matter your hair type or texture. BUtiful was for "be yourself," she said. "I want to show little girls like me that it's Ok to be natural." Gabrielle Kernozek envisioned an online service to bring eco-friendly products "Naked at Your Door" through a subscription service. The term "naked" is commonly used within that community to mean not overly packaged or without packaging, she said, and the goal is to reduce the use of plastics. It can be difficult for consumers to research and find products that are eco-friendly, affordable and accessible, she said. "My solution to this problem is to make reducing plastic simple. Naked at Your Door will serve as a personal eco-friendly shopper who will supply you with product alternatives that you want and need," Kernozek said. "This service will help connect individuals with effective, dependable and impactful products with minimal personal effort." Judges this year were Richard Alcombright, former mayor and a vice president at MountainOne; Celia Clancy, a retail executive and consultant for a number of national chains; and Ben Svenson, a Boston-area real estate developer and principal of the Tourist resort. Amy Shapiro, business assistance director for the Franklin County Community Development Corp., was "entrepreneur in residence." She worked with the students for 10 weeks as they developed their ideas. Tara Barboza, assistant professor of accounting, gave the welcome and President James Birge thanked the students for "giving us the gift of your ideas and your innovation as you present them tonight. ... Congratulations regardless of the outcome tonight." Last year's winner, Shannon Cahill, was also on hand. The MCLA graduate now works for the college in institutional advancement but she's also continuing to develop her winning pitch with a bit of a pivot. Her plan had been to develop marketing and rentals related to booking bands and musicians. That aspect has switched more to doing graphic arts and marketing materials and the named changed to The Think Book. She focuses on marketing, social media analysis and website maintenance, including a flat-rate subscription service, and does consulting. Though she still does some booking and promotion on the side. "And I still work within the arts," Cahill said. "So my main customers are different performing artists, from all authors, musicians, to museums, galleries, nonprofits." Her life's come a bit full circle, she said, because she's planning the upcoming reunion weekend and booked a local band, plus working in social media, graphic design and event planning. "My internship at Lever was crucial to my development as an entrepreneur," Cahill said. "It was an incredible experience." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 18) The Philippines further dropped its ranking in the list of safest countries for journalists by Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Border (RSF). The country placed 134th out of 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index with 43.91 points. Last year, the Philippines placed 133rd after ending at the 127th spot in 2017. Norway topped the index, followed by Finland and Sweden, while Turkmenistan was named as the most dangerous country for journalists. The media watchdog recounted President Rodrigo Duterte's "cryptic but grim warning" against journalists when he took office in June 2016. In one of his speeches, Duterte said journalists are "not exempted from assassination." The group said three Filipino journalists had been killed this year "most likely by agents working for local politicians, who can have reporters silenced with complete impunity." "The government, for its part, has developed several ways to pressure journalists who dare to be overly critical of the summary methods adopted by 'Punisher' Duterte and his notorious 'war on drugs'," RSF said. It pointed out the administration's "grotesque judicial harassment" against the press amid critical media coverage of his war on drugs which have left more than 5,000 dead. Duterte had previously threatened to block the renewal of television network ABS-CBN's congressional franchise, and file tax evasion cases against the family owning broadsheet company Philippine Daily Inquirer. RSF cited the struggles of news website Rappler and its CEO Maria Ressa under the Duterte administration. Rappler, known for being critical of the Duterte administration, is facing various legal battles, including the indictment and arrest of Ressa for a cyber libel case filed against her, the firm and a former researcher. It also faces five tax evasion cases: four filed against Ressa and Rappler Holdings in the Court of Tax Appeals, and another at the Pasig Regional Trial Court. On March 29, the embattled veteran journalist was arrested again for allegedly violating the Anti-dummy Law. She is currently out on bail. "The persecution was accompanied by online harassment campaigns waged by pro-Duterte troll armies, which also launched cyber-attacks on alternative news websites and the site of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in order to block them," it said. The administration had denied having a hand in the arrest of Ressa. Presidential Spokesperson Sal Panelo also previously maintained that the freedom of the press in the country is "robust." I sent along my Passover/Easter meditations and greetings last week to give you all time to consider these immense springtime liberation/salvation holidays. If you read this column before Passover and Easter I am including a spiritual meditation to help you go a bit deeper than brisket and ham in your spiritual journey through springtime. -- For Passover: The story of the Exodus from Egypt requires us, according to rabbinic interpretation, to view ourselves, in our place and time right now, to see ourselves as having personally left Egypt, "Because of what the Lord did for me when I left Egypt." In Hebrew, Egypt is "Mizraim," and it comes from a root word "meitzar," which means "constriction, or a narrow place, or a slot canyon through high rocks." Egypt is the symbol of restriction and fear, of limitation and powerlessness. So try on this question: "In my life right now, what is my Egypt?" -- For Easter: Easter offers Christians the hope of salvation from sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are not all guilty of all sins, so try this question: "In my life right now, what sin am I committing from which I most need Jesus' atoning death?" May this springtime bring you out of Egypt and into a place where nothing is pressing in against you if you are Jewish, and may this season wash away your sins in the blood of Christ if you are a Christian. And if you are neither, may this springtime bring you a deep sense of renewal after a bleak winter and may the lush promise of spring fill your soul with hope and wonder. ------ Q: Recently, you responded to a question from someone named "E" from Bethpage, N.Y. The question was if you were raised in a Christian religion from birth, would you in later life convert to Judaism because you felt that Judaism had the correct answers for your religious beliefs. You did NOT directly answer his/her question in the column. Why not? You left all your regular readers "hanging." Would you convert to Judaism or not? -- From D on Long Island, N.Y. A: I mostly get criticized for questions I do answer, so it is refreshing to be criticized for a question I did not answer. As in all things I follow Albert Einstein whenever possible. Einstein was once asked if he was proud to be born Jewish. He answered, "No. Because being born Jewish did not give me the opportunity to choose to be Jewish." I would like to believe that I would have chosen to be Jewish like Einstein, however, there is a piece of me that believes that whatever faith I was born into and taught to love and respect by my family, I would have embraced. My late God Squad partner Fr. Tom Hartman and I were firm believers in the idea that there are many ways up the same mountain to God. My faith of Judaism teaches that belief explicitly, "The righteous of all nations shall inherit a share in the World To Come." Christianity has that belief but it is also mixed in with, "The only way to the father is through me." (John 14:6) I know that there are many sincere climbers up the same mountain to God who change paths during their ascent. I know that conversion to another faith is possible and I bear no ill will against those who discover that they can come to God more easily through a faith that is different from their family's. The problematic issue for me is evangelization, which is the effort to forcefully solicit converts. This can lead to the view that there is something spiritually deficient in the faith of one's past. I choose to view conversion as a discovery; that what seemed at first to be a song sung by strangers was in fact a song intended to be sung by you. The Dalai Lama wrote a forward to one of our books in which he took up the question of why there are many religions in the world and not just one, "There are many religions for the same reason that there are many kinds of food. Some people eat bread and some eat rice. The main thing is to eat what grows best where you live." Judaism is simply the faith that grows best where I live. I hope that answers the question. Tommy was often asked if he wanted me to convert to Catholicism. He always answered the same way, "Definitely not! Marc complains too much." (Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including "Religion for Dummies," co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman.) (c) 2019 THE GOD SQUAD. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC. The International Energy Agency held a day-long workshop on Wednesday to discuss ways to promote greater energy development across the African continent. More than a hundred senior representatives from governments, energy companies, financial institutions and academia attended the meeting, which was opened by H.E. Dona Jean-Claude Houssou, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Benin, and H.E. Chakib Benmoussa, Ambassador of His Majesty the King of Morocco to France. Findings from the Workshop will provide input to a special report on Africa that will be published later this year in the World Energy Outlook, the IEAs flagship publication. It will also inform the IEAs first ministerial summit with the African Union Commission, which will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in June. Promoting access to energy across Africa is one of the worlds major development challenges and one of the IEAs key priorities, said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEAs Executive Director, during his opening remarks. While the challenges are important particularly with regards to access to energy or clean cooking fuels the continents energy resources are tremendous. With the right policies and investments, they could be harnessed to provide greater economic benefit for all populations across the continent. Developing Africas energy sector potential is an essential step to providing greater economic opportunities and prosperity across the continent, which is home to vast energy resources. Still, today more than 600 million people across the continent remain without access to electricity. The workshop addressed policies, technologies, business models and financing to accelerate the transition to a thriving and sustainable African energy sector, set against a favourable backdrop of declining energy technology costs, increasing digitalisation, and strengthened policy commitment, including through Africas Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The workshop marked an important milestone in the IEAs strengthened engagement with Africa. In recent years, the IEA welcomed Morocco and South Africa to its family and recently forged a strategic partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC). The IEA is also stepping up its collaboration with African countries and regional organisations on capacity building for data and long-term planning, and technical policy dialogues on a range of topics. The workshop was followed by deep-dive sessions on energy access, energy and gender, energy and growth, and power system reliability and sustainability. For more information about the IEAs work on Sustainable Development Goal 7, and country-by-country data on SDG 7 indicators, please see www.iea.org/sdg. Two journalist killers have been sentenced to death for the murder of Afghan journalist Abdul Manan Arghand. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes government action to address impunity but is concerned the case was held in secret and delivered a sentence that does not comply with international standards. According to TOLO News, on April 16 the Attorney Generals Office said in the statement that two suspects had been sentenced to death for killing Abdul Manan Arghand on April 25, 2018. According to the statement the two men murdered Abdul in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan after Abduls name was included on a Taliban hit list. All court proceedings relating to the case were sealed and the public nor the media were able to attend. Abdul worked for Kabul News TV and has also worked for Chinas state-owned Xinhua. He was killed the day before nine journalists and media workers were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul. Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) president, Samandar Khan said: "AIJA leadership is not satisfied and sure that these two sentenced to death is really connected to killing of Afghan journalist Abdul Manan Arghand. Former Kandahar police chief General Raziq arrested some of his enomies and opposite arrmed groups and called them Arghand killers. In whole process; a small part of information, avedance, documents and recoding were not shared with AIJA technical team who is member of inspection and monitoring team in Ministry of Interior. AIJA and other media organizations were kept away from police, attorneys investigations and court procedures. Arghand family rejected the links between these two arrests and Arghand killing in the beginning and now they have rejected again their sentenced to death links with Arghand killing. Same Mr.Ahmadsha family rejecting the links of suspected people arrested linked to his case and punished. In all journalists cases government officials were not able to arrest real connected people and involved in killings or attacks." The IFJ said: We call on the Afghan government to ensure more is done to protect journalists in one of the worlds deadliest countries for journalists. According to IFJ figures, Abdul was one of 16 journalists killed in Afghanistan in 2018. We urge the secondary court and the Supreme Court, which will review the case, to ensure the case is held in public and justice is delivered according to international standards. On May 3, the IFJ and SAMSN will release the annual South Asia Press Freedom Report, which will document cases such as these. Contact the IFJ at alex.hearne@ifj-asia.org for media enquiries and embargo copies. Updated: April 23, 2019 Pakistani journalist has been charged for cyber-terrorism over comments made about the Pakistan Army. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) strongly condemn the charges and demand they be dropped immediately. Shahzeb Jillan, a journalist with Dunya News and former BBC and Deutsche Welle journalist has been charged under Pakistans Penal Code and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. The charges relate to Shahzebs appearance on the Aaj Kamran Khan Show on March 18. During the show, Shahzeb gave his own analysis on the enforced disappearances allegedly carried out by the Pakistan military. In addition, Shahzeb was also charged over a tweet he published highlighting the allegations of political engineering by the Pakistan Army General, Faiz. The case against Shahzeb has been registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The charges against Shahzeb include cyber terrorism and defamation and he is facing over 14 years in jail. PFUJ President GM Jamali said that they condemn the actions taken against Shahzeb Jillan by the FIA. PFUJ is in constant contact with Shahzev regarding this issue and will provide him with all support possible. This is a tough time for Pakistani journalists, Jamali said. The IFJ said: The charges against Shahzeb Jillan for simply voicing his opinion are a blatant attempt to silence critical voices in Pakistan. The Army and Pakistan authorities cannot simply jail journalists for reporting on their activities. Press freedom in Pakistan must be defended. Imperial Valley News Center President Donald J. Trump Is Lifting Up American Communities That Have Been Left Behind Washington, DC - "Were providing massive tax incentives for private investment in these areas to create jobs and opportunities where they are needed the most." ~ President Donald J. Trump ENCOURAGING INVESTMENT: Opportunity Zones will spur private-sector investment to revitalize hurting communities and unleash their economic potential. In 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which established Opportunity Zones to incentivize long-term investments in low-income communities across the country. These incentives offer capital gains tax relief to investors for new investment in designated Opportunity Zones. Opportunity Zones are anticipated to spur $100 billion in private capital investment. Incentivizing investment in low-income communities fosters economic revitalization and job creation and promotes sustainable economic growth across the Nation. LIFTING UP COMMUNITIES: Opportunity Zones help drive economic growth and lift up communities that have been left behind. Opportunity Zones are a powerful vehicle for bringing economic growth and job creation to the American communities that need them the most. On average, the median family income in an Opportunity Zone is 37 percent below the State median. The average poverty rate in an Opportunity Zone is more than 32 percent, compared with a rate of 17 percent for the average United States census tract. More than 8,760 communities in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and 5 Territories have been designated as Opportunity Zones. Nearly 35 million Americans live in communities designated as Opportunity Zones. CREATING OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL: President Donald J. Trump is encouraging investment to create opportunity in distressed communities. Medicare Advantage Provider to Pay $30 Million to Settle Alleged Overpayment of Medicare Advantage Funds Sacramento, California - Sutter Health LLC, a California-based healthcare services provider, and several affiliated entities, Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation, Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation, Sutter Gould Medical Foundation, and Sutter Medical Foundation, have agreed to pay $30 million to resolve allegations that the affiliated entities submitted inaccurate information about the health status of beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage Plans, which resulted in the plans and providers being overpaid, the Justice Department announced Friday. Sutter Health is headquartered in Sacramento. The Medicare Advantage Program provides benefits to a significant portion of federal health care beneficiaries, said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justices Civil Division. The Department of Justice will help ensure that accurate information is supplied to the Medicare Advantage Program by plans and providers, and to pursue appropriate remedies when it is not. Under Medicare Advantage, also known as the Medicare Part C program, Medicare beneficiaries have the option of enrolling in managed healthcare insurance plans called Medicare Advantage Plans (MA Plans) that are owned and operated by private Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs). MA Plans are paid a capitated, or per-person, amount to provide Medicare-covered benefits to beneficiaries who enroll in one of their plans. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the Medicare program, adjusts the payments to MA Plans based on demographic information and the health status of each plan beneficiary. The adjustments are commonly referred to as risk scores. In general, a beneficiary with more severe diagnoses will have a higher risk score, and CMS will make a larger risk-adjusted payment to the MA Plan for that beneficiary. Sutter Health, a non-profit public benefit corporation that provides healthcare services through its affiliates, including hospitals and medical foundations, contracted with certain MAOs to provide healthcare services to California beneficiaries enrolled in the MAOs MA Plans. In exchange, Sutter received a share of the payments that the MAOs received from CMS for the beneficiaries under Sutters care. Sutter submitted diagnoses to the MAOs for the MA Plan enrollees that they treated. The MAOs, in turn, submitted the diagnosis codes to CMS from the beneficiaries medical encounters, such as office visits and hospital stays. The diagnosis codes were used in CMS calculation of a risk score for each beneficiary. The settlement announced today resolves allegations that Sutter and its affiliates submitted unsupported diagnosis codes for certain patient encounters of beneficiaries under their care. These unsupported diagnosis scores inflated the risk scores of these beneficiaries, resulting in the MAO plans being overpaid. Earlier this month, the government filed a complaint against Sutter and a separate affiliated entity, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, alleging that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting unsupported diagnosis scores. That case is captioned United States ex rel. Ormsby v. Sutter Health, et al., Case No. 15-CV-01062-JD (N.D. Cal.), and is still ongoing. Misrepresenting patients risk results in higher payments and wasted Medicare funds, said Steven J. Ryan, Special Agent in Charge with the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. With some one-third of people in Medicare now enrolled in managed care Advantage plans, large health systems such as Sutter can expect a thorough investigation of claimed enrollees health status. The settlement was the result of a coordinated effort by the Civil Divisions Commercial Litigation Branch, the United States Attorneys Office for the Northern District of California, and HHS-OIG. The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability. Presidential Veto Message to the Senate to Accompany S.J. Res. 7 Washington, DC - Presidential Veto Message to the Senate to Accompany S.J. Res. 7: TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: I am returning herewith without my approval S.J. Res. 7, a joint resolution that purports to direct the President to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting the Republic of Yemen, with certain exceptions. This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future. This joint resolution is unnecessary because, apart from counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS, the United States is not engaged in hostilities in or affecting Yemen. For example, there are no United States military personnel in Yemen commanding, participating in, or accompanying military forces of the Saudiled coalition against the Houthis in hostilities in or affecting Yemen. Since 2015, the United States has provided limited support to member countries of the Saudi-led coalition, including intelligence sharing, logistics support, and, until recently, in-flight refueling of non-United States aircraft. All of this support is consistent with applicable Arms Export Control Act authorities, statutory authorities that permit the Department of Defense to provide logistics support to foreign countries, and the Presidents constitutional power as Commander in Chief. None of this support has introduced United States military personnel into hostilities. We are providing this support for many reasons. First and foremost, it is our duty to protect the safety of the more than 80,000 Americans who reside in certain coalition countries that have been subject to Houthi attacks from Yemen. Houthis, supported by Iran, have used missiles, armed drones, and explosive boats to attack civilian and military targets in those coalition countries, including areas frequented by American citizens, such as the airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In addition, the conflict in Yemen represents a cheap and inexpensive way for Iran to cause trouble for the United States and for our ally, Saudi Arabia. S.J. Res. 7 is also dangerous. The Congress should not seek to prohibit certain tactical operations, such as in-flight refueling, or require military engagements to adhere to arbitrary timelines. Doing so would interfere with the Presidents constitutional authority as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, and could endanger our service members by impairing their ability to efficiently and effectively conduct military engagements and to withdraw in an orderly manner at the appropriate time. The joint resolution would also harm the foreign policy of the United States. Its efforts to curtail certain forms of military support would harm our bilateral relationships, negatively affect our ongoing efforts to prevent civilian casualties and prevent the spread of terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS, and embolden Irans malign activities in Yemen. We cannot end the conflict in Yemen through political documents like S.J. Res. 7. Peace in Yemen requires a negotiated settlement. Unfortunately, inaction by the Senate has left vacant key diplomatic positions, impeding our ability to engage regional partners in support of the United Nations-led peace process. To help end the conflict, promote humanitarian and commercial access, prevent civilian casualties, enhance efforts to recover American hostages in Yemen, and defeat terrorists that seek to harm the United States, the Senate must act to confirm my nominees for many critical foreign policy positions. I agree with the Congress about the need to address our engagements in foreign wars. As I said in my State of the Union address in February, great nations do not fight endless wars. My Administration is currently accelerating negotiations to end our military engagement in Afghanistan and drawing down troops in Syria, where we recently succeeded in eliminating 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate. Congressional engagement in those endeavors would be far more productive than expending time and effort trying to enact this unnecessary and dangerous resolution that interferes with our foreign policy with respect to Yemen. For these reasons, it is my duty to return S.J. Res. 7 to the Senate without my approval. DONALD J. TRUMP General Electric Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion Penalty for Concerning Subprime Loans Included in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Washington, DC - The Department of Justice announced that General Electric (GE) will pay a civil penalty of $1.5 billion under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) to resolve claims involving subprime residential mortgage loans originated by WMC Mortgage (WMC), a GE subsidiary. WMC, GE, and their affiliates allegedly misrepresented the quality of WMCs loans and the extent of WMCs internal quality and fraud controls in connection with the marketing and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). FIRREA authorizes the federal government to seek civil penalties for violations of various predicate criminal offenses, including wire and mail fraud where the violation affects a federally insured financial institution. The financial system counts on originators, which are in the best position to know the true condition of their mortgage loans, to make accurate and complete representations about their products. The failure to disclose material deficiencies in those loans contributed to the financial crisis, said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt. As todays resolution demonstrates, the Department of Justice will continue to employ FIRREA as a powerful tool for protecting our financial markets against fraud. General Electric Capital Corporation (GECC), then the financial services unit of GE, acquired WMC, a subprime residential mortgage loan originator, in 2004. WMC originated more than $65 billion dollars in mortgage loans between 2005 and 2007. WMC sold the vast majority of its loans to investment banks, which, in turn, issued and sold RMBS backed by WMC loans to investors. The United States alleged that a majority of the mortgage loans WMC originated and sold for inclusion in RMBS in 2005-2007 did not comply with WMCs representations about the loans, and that certain of WMCs representations were reviewed by, approved by, or made with the knowledge of personnel from GE or GECC. Investors, including federally insured financial institutions, suffered billions of dollars in losses as a result of WMCs fraudulent origination and sale of loans for inclusion in RMBS. In particular, the United States alleged that in 2005-2007, WMC attempted to increase its profits and meet profit goals by increasing originations. WMC loan analysts responsible for underwriting mortgage loans were encouraged to approve loans in order to meet volume targets, even where the loan applications did not meet the criteria outlined in WMCs published underwriting guidelines, and received additional compensation based on the number of mortgages they approved. At the same time, there were significant deficiencies with respect to WMCs quality control, which was viewed by some as an impediment to volume. In 2005, a WMC quality control manager described his department as a toothless tiger with inadequate resources and no authority to prevent the approval or sale of loans his department had determined were fraudulent or otherwise defective. By late third quarter 2006, managers responsible for quality control and risk management at WMC and GECC had expressed concerns that WMCs quality and fraud controls were so lax that WMC received more mortgage applications containing fraud or other defects than its competitors. As a member of GEs Corporate Audit Staff (CAS) involved in audits of WMC observed in April 2007, WMC jacked up volume without controls. The United States alleged that the investment banks that purchased WMCs loans declined to buy certain mortgage loans that WMC attempted to sell due to defects in the loan file or suspected fraud. When it declined, or kicked out a loan, the potential purchaser typically notified WMC of its reasons for rejecting the file, including the defects identified. WMCs general practice was to re-offer certain kicked loans to a second potential purchaser for inclusion in RMBS without disclosing that the mortgage had previously been rejected or the reasons why the first potential purchaser concluded the mortgage had defects. The United States alleged that by late 2005 and early 2006, investment banks were kicking out more of WMCs loans than ever, and investors in RMBS backed by WMC loans raised concerns about the quality of loans originated by WMC because WMC borrowers were failing to repay their loans at unexpectedly high rates. WMC also began receiving increased numbers of requests from investment banks to buy back, or repurchase, loans. In March 2006, WMC reviewed a representative sample of the 1,276 loans it had repurchased in 2005, and concluded that 78 percent of the loan files reviewed contained at least one piece of false information. The results of this review were shared with WMCs senior executive team and discussed on multiple occasions with personnel from GECC. The United States alleged that in fall 2006, GECC took control over the strategic direction of WMC. Even in the face of increasing repurchase demands, kick-outs, and concerns about WMCs underwriting quality, WMC continued selling its loans and making false representations about their qualities and attributes. GECC became closely involved in WMCs whole loan sales and provided WMC with input and direction on how to sell off WMCs remaining loans. Beginning in 2007, GECC also assumed control over WMCs ability to grant repurchase requests. The investigation of WMC, GE, and GECC and this settlement were handled by the Civil Divisions Commercial Litigation Branch, with assistance from the San Francisco Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations only, and there has been no admission of liability. Bureau of Prisons Tests Micro-Jamming Technology in Prison to Prevent Contraband Cell Phones Washington, DC - This week, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) conducted a pilot test of micro-jamming technology at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C. The test the first collaboration of this kind in a state corrections facility was conducted to determine if micro-jamming could prevent wireless communication by inmates using contraband cellphones in a housing unit. This test follows two earlier tests at a federal corrections facility in Cumberland, Maryland. Contraband cellphones present an ongoing safety and correctional security concern for the public as well as for correctional facilities across the country. Contraband cellphones have been used to run criminal enterprises, distribute child pornography, and facilitate the commission of violent crimesall while inmates are incarcerated. In South Carolina, officials attributed the deadly April 15, 2018 prison riot in part to contraband cellphones. And on March 5, 2010, a South Carolina inmate ordered a hit on a 15-year corrections veteran from behind bars. He was shot six times and severely wounded. While I served as United States Attorney of Maryland, my office prosecuted an inmate who used a smuggled cellphone to order the murder of an innocent witness, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said. Contraband cellphones in correctional facilities pose a grave danger. We stand ready to help our state and local partners in their efforts to prevent inmates from using contraband cell phones in jails and prisons. Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams added, Offenders should not be able to continue to threaten the public from behind bars. Because the majority of our countrys inmates are housed in state facilities, it is crucial that we work with our state and local partners to test and determine what solutions work best. Currently only federal agencies can obtain authorization to jam the public airwaves. State and local prisons cannot. This weeks test was a novel collaborative operation between BOP and the South Carolina Department of Corrections allowing the testing of micro-jamming technology at a state prison. The test was authorized by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and coordinated with the Federal Communications Commission. Two NTIA engineers attended the test and performed measurements of the micro-jamming equipments radio emissions to observe and document their characteristics. After the test is complete, NTIA will analyze the data and prepare a report. The BOP will continue to evaluate cell signal detection and interception technologies and work with its federal partners and Congress to achieve cost-effective options to combat this threat to corrections and public safety. The agency does not endorse any specific vendor or product. Like most people with a life, up until a few years ago, Jayme Smaldone had never given much thought to international postal policy. But eventually he could no longer ignore the flood of knockoffs from China that was hurting demand for Mighty Mugs, his line of spill-resistant coffee cups and drinking glasses. "Retailers were saying, 'Why should I buy product from you for fifteen bucks and retail it for thirty bucks when my customers can go online and buy the exact same product, in their opinion, for six or eight bucks?" Smaldone recalls. Seeking to understand how the knockoff makers were able to undercut his prices so dramatically, Smaldone ordered 30 different versions, mostly from eBay. One of them, shipped directly from China, arrived eight days later. The cost: $5.69 -- with shipping included. "That blew my mind," he says. At that price, he had assumed it would be shipped by sea and take weeks to arrive. "How the hell are they getting transpacific air freight for $1.50 or $2?" he wondered. The answer to that mystery goes a long way toward explaining why e-commerce works the way it does in 2019. The abundance of counterfeit and knockoff merchandise, some of it dangerous to children, available for sale on Amazon, eBay, and other online retail platforms stems largely from the low cost of labor and weak intellectual property rights enforcement in China. But it's also a consequence of international agreements that make it absurdly cheap to mail small packages from China to the States -- cheaper, typically, than sending the same package domestically within the U.S. Entrepreneurs like Smaldone say those agreements, a legacy from long-ago eras of international trade, amount to a subsidy for Chinese manufacturers, one that's underwritten by customers of the U.S. Postal Service. The shipping cost disparity has its roots in a treaty from 1874 that created an intergovernmental body called the Universal Postal Union. The purpose of that treaty was to facilitate international mail by establishing the fees various postal services would pay one another for transporting parcels that originated abroad to their final destinations. It was a useful innovation, back then. Among other things, it helped early catalog retailers access foreign markets. Built into the UPU framework was the principle that rich countries should bear more of the cost of moving mail around the globe, and developing countries should get discounts. And, even as it has become the world's second-biggest economy and biggest manufacturer, China has remained on the UPU's list of developing nations, which allows it to pass off much of its postal burden to the U.S. and the European Union. The Trump administration, which has moved to withdraw from the treaty, has estimated the U.S. spends $300 million per year to subsidize shipments from China. Cheap mail alone wouldn't be enough to supercharge China-to-America e-commerce. Customers of Amazon and eBay also expect their orders to arrive quickly and to be trackable. The conditions for that didn't arise until 2011, when the USPS entered into agreements with the postal services of Hong Kong and China to create a new category of first-class mail for parcels up to 4.4 pounds. The new service, called ePacket, was specifically "structured to foster growth in e-commerce," according to USPS. That language implicitly defined "e-commerce" as China-to-U.S. sales, since the equivalent shipments in the other direction remained several times costlier. If you buy a small item from a Chinese seller on eBay, or from one on Amazon's third-party marketplace that doesn't use Amazon's fulfillment service, chances are it's an ePacket shipment. "That's what really made the direct-shipping thing explode," says Smaldone. While USPS doesn't break out the P&L of ePackets as a line item, in a 2018 audit report, it said the service generated an additional $493 million in revenue for fiscal years 2014 through 2016. After he pieced together the puzzle of how the knockoff makers were able to ship their ersatz Mighty Mugs here so cheaply, Smaldone made it his mission to level the playing field. In November 2017, he sent a letter to the chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission and copied President Donald Trump and several members of his cabinet. Within a few weeks, he heard back from a White House official letting him know that Peter Navarro, the president's director of trade and policy and the administration's leading hawk on China, had taken an interest in the matter. The following October, President Trump, reportedly at the urging of Navarro, announced the U.S. would withdraw from the UPU treaty by the end of 2019. Even though the ePacket service agreements were negotiated bilaterally, those rates are pegged to the UPU treaty, so a withdrawal could affect them as well. That would be boon to entrepreneurs like Kevin Williams, who has seen e-commerce sales of his popular car-washing device, the Brush Hero, suffer in response to Chinese imitators. "For me, it should pretty much do away with my direct-from-China counterfeiting problem," he says. "They can still undercut me on price, but the undercutting will be a lot less, and it will make them less competitive." In theory, anyway. For all the tough talk from the Trump administration, it's entirely possible more equitable postal policies will be traded away as a bargaining chip in the ongoing U.S.-China trade talks. Even Smaldone thinks the best outcome would be if the threat of a U.S. pullout leads to a meaningful renegotiation of the UPU treaty rather than a confusing new regime of bilateral agreements, which could introduce new asymmetries and absurdities. Joe Kahn's parents were anti-apartheid activists who impressed on him the importance of fighting unjust systems from which he, himself, benefited. Kahn planned to follow their example by studying economics at Harvard and then returning to his native South Africa to improve early-childhood education. But the year before leaving for college, Kahn got sick. "I was on my back for about a month with an extremely high fever, diarrhea, and vomiting," he says. "I never really got better." Undiagnosed, weak, and depressed, he went to Harvard anyway, hoping to avail himself of Boston medical facilities. But he was bounced around, unable to get answers. Hard as navigating the health care system was for him, Kahn thought, it must be far worse for those without his education and financial resources. Kahn met Yasyf Mohamedali, an MIT student, through a pre-seed investment fund called the Dorm Room Fund. Mohamedali's parents were physicians in rural Canada. "They practiced very relationship-based, community-based medicine," Kahn says. "Everyone knows everyone else. You text the doctor when you need help." The two discussed replacing the complexity and frustration of patient management that Kahn had experienced with the kind of simple, personal interactions Mohamedali's parents were used to. They zeroed in on Medicaid recipients, a patient population that often struggles to get consistent care because of language barriers and financial hurdles. Medicaid patients rely on the roughly 500,000 care managers in the U.S. employed by social-service agencies, community-based organizations, physician groups, and others to coordinate everything from scheduling their appointments to arranging their transportation to doctors' visits. A single care manager may be responsible for 250 such patients, whom they track with spreadsheets and sticky notes, often reaching out through phone calls that never get picked up. Last March, Kahn and Mohamedali launched Karuna Health, an online platform designed to more efficiently coordinate every element of a patient's care in one place. Karuna (that's "compassion" in Sanskrit) integrates with customers' electronic medical record systems and lets users schedule appointments, organize transportation, and repeat messages to patients automatically, such as reminders to take medication. Patients can send and receive messages through email, text, phone, WhatsApp--how ever they are comfortable communicating. "For the care team, it is like a shared inbox to manage every single touch point with patients," Kahn says. "For the patient it is like texting a friend." To date, the company has raised $1.3 million from First Round Capital and several other VCs. Phin Barnes, a partner at First Round Capital, says his firm is excited by the San Francisco-based company's potential micro- and macroeffects. "Karuna has the opportunity to have tremendous impact on the individual patient's experience of the health care system," Barnes says. "But also at the scale of the economy it has the ability to take cost out of the system by making it more efficient." Karuna will initially pursue provider organizations, charging by the number of care managers. (It also plans to sell to insurance companies, for which use of the platform will be priced per patient.) Its first customer is Coordinated Behavioral Care, a nonprofit. The group provides support for more than 50 New York City health and human-services agencies that collectively serve more than 100,000 Medicaid recipients, many with mental illness. "Part of what we are trying to do with Karuna is to allow our care-management staff to be real-time connected to their folks as best as possible," says Jorge Petit, CEO and president of CBC. Petit also expects the system, which will be implemented in the coming months initially on a limited basis, will make CBC more responsive. "If all this information being gathered on folks is residing in one place, we can intervene more quickly, better understand what is going on with that individual, and not be looking at data retroactively," he says. The health care industry's shift from fee-for-service (which rewards volume) to value-based care (which rewards efficiency and quality) should help Karuna's prospects. But the fate of the Affordable Care Act remains unclear and the potential for new regulatory hurdles--particularly those related to privacy--could slow progress. "You can imagine a regulation that tries to force more and more communication to happen through secure patient portals," says Kahn. Kahn's own health, meanwhile, remains uneven. "It does flare up, and it has an impact on my productivity and my mood and my energy," he says. "But I have an amazing support team." Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the origin of the company name, Karuna. It means "compassion" in Sanskrit, not Swahili. EXPLORE MORE Rising Stars COMPANIES "I wish there was a magic test to tell [women] when exactly they should have kids," says Afton Vechery. Until there is, 29-year-old Vechery wants to democratize fertility data for women. Her San Francisco-based company, Modern Fertility, which she co-founded with Carly Leahy, also 29, offers at-home blood-test kits that measure a woman's levels for eight hormones that are associated with fertility. The $159 test, which includes a one-on-one phone consultation with a nurse, is pitched as a tool to help assess, say, how many eggs she has and how close she might be to menopause. Modern Fertility hasn't invented anything new--obstetricians and fertility specialists use the same bloodwork as part of their initial patient evaluations. Nor does the startup aim to diagnose specific conditions. The company's goal is to make access to these tests--which can run as high as $1,500 in a clinic if not covered by insurance--easier to obtain and less costly. The global fertility-testing industry is a nearly $400 million market that is projected to grow to almost $600 million by 2020. Currently, most doctor-prescribed blood tests are handled by heavyweights like Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corporation of America. While Modern Fertility, with its $7 million in venture funding, is still very much a David to those Goliaths, the startup says it can shake up the way testing is done by marketing to young women directly. The pitch? If you have the tools to start monitoring your fertility--the same way you should continuously monitor your credit scores--you can make more informed decisions, whether it's freezing your eggs or trying to conceive sooner rather than later. Proving ground Vechery's interest in fertility began long before she launched her company. After attending Wake Forest University, Vechery took a job in private equity that involved doing due diligence on women's health centers and in vitro fertilization clinics. She quickly learned that infertility rates are on the rise because women are choosing to have children later. The problem, she thought, was women didn't get relevant fertility data until it was too late. By the time they decided to try to conceive, their natural fertility had peaked, and often even advanced procedures to become pregnant were unsuccessful. For the next few years, Vechery headed to Silicon Valley and racked up startup experience at other people's health care companies, including genetics testing startup 23andMe. She joined as a product manager while the company was still battling the Food and Drug Administration to be able to sell its health test to customers. "The biggest thing I learned at 23andMe is that information alone is better than no information," she says. "It empowers patients to take action and take their health in their own hands." Eager to see how women would respond to having that kind of intelligence about their own reproductive health, in 2016 Vechery quit her job at 23andMe to focus on Modern Fertility full time. She wanted to build a company that would not only offer women a snapshot of their fertility but also speak to them like an "ob-gyn who also happens to be your best friend." For that voice, she tapped Carly Leahy--a branding whiz who previously worked at Google and helped Uber launch its delivery program UberEats--as her co-founder. Y Combinator would help them both translate the idea to investors. "This is a very large population--half the population--and women historically are underserved as health care patients," says Phin Barnes, an investor at First Round Capital, which participated in Modern Fertility's $1 million seed round before it launched at Demo Day. "Everyone agrees--patients, health care providers, insurance providers--data empowers patients." Peak fertility? Even so, the founders say they had a hard time getting some investors to realize this point. As Vechery and Leahy met with (mostly male) investors, the No. 1 question they heard was, will women really want to pay for this? Within a month, they had their answer: Modern Fertility had rung up $70,000 in pre-orders. While Barnes didn't doubt the appeal for Modern Fertility's service, he did initially wonder if asking women to use lancets for the at-home blood draws was simply too big an ask. For those who don't want to puncture their own fingers at home, customers can also go to their local Quest Diagnostics lab to have a traditional blood draw. In addition to $7 million in venture funding, the 15-person company boasts a medical advisory panel with board-certified reproductive endocrinologists and pathologists. But the competition in the still-nascent field of at-home blood testing is booming. EverlyWell, Let's Get Checked, Thorne, Adia Health, and other competitors all offer fertility hormone testing. Even so, Barnes says Modern Fertility has an advantage in the form of its thoughtful, community-driven brand, and the clinical expertise on its advisory board. The medical community has mixed feelings on letting patients do their own tests. For some doctors, the proliferation of at-home fertility testing is concerning because hormones offer only a small window into a woman's ability to conceive and patients might not understand that. Reproductive endocrinologists like Ingrid Rodi of Pacific Fertility Clinic in Los Angeles say the eight hormones alone don't offer enough information to interpret a woman's fertility meaningfully. "You really can't expect more than generalizations," Rodi says. She adds that recent research suggests that using such hormones to measure a woman's ovarian reserve may not be a good predictor of whether she may experience infertility. Rodi says more research is needed--and perhaps just as important, "we need to do things as a society to encourage and support women to have children at a younger age, when they're most fertile." Modern Fertility acknowledges on its website that its tests can't predict infertility and can't reveal the whole picture of a woman's fertility. Rather, the startup says the tests are meant to help a patient start a conversation with her doctor and take an active role in her own health. They're also meant to be retaken annually, so that women know how the picture is changing over time. "No one ever told me that fertility declines with age or that in vitro fertilization doesn't always work," Vechery says, noting that, growing up, women mostly just hear about how not to have babies. "Women should be thinking about reproductive health during their whole life." EXPLORE MORE Rising Stars COMPANIES The 2019 Cannes Film Festival has announced its line-up, featuring only four female directors in its 19-strong selection. Jessica Hausner, one of the four women nominated in the main category, is in the running for Little Joe. Mati Diop is in the running for the Palme d'Or for Atlantiques, Celine Schiamma for Portrait of a Young Lady on Fire, and Justine Triet for Sibyl. The last time four women were also nominated at Cannes was in 2011, when that number set a record for the festival. Last year, organisers pledged to raise the prominence of female filmmakers at festivals. Three female directors were selected for the main category last year, as was the case in 2017 and 2016. Best films of 2019 (so far) Show all 49 1 /49 Best films of 2019 (so far) Best films of 2019 (so far) The Favourite Macabre and fraught though The Favourite gets, this isnt so much a film about sex or power as it is about plain mischief. Its a hilarious, buffoonish pleasure, right down to the sets and costume design, and a breeze to spend 120 minutes with. Christopher Hooton Fox Searchlight Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Beautiful Boy Casting Chalamet as Nic was a very clever move. The young actor from Call Me by Your Name and Lady Bird has a natural charm and charisma. He still engages an audiences curiosity and sympathy even when his behaviour is at its most selfish and erratic. Geoffrey Macnab Amazon Studios Best films of 2019 (so far) The House by the Sea Guediguians storytelling style is deceptive. At first, it seems as if this is low-key social realism in the Dardennes or Ken Loach mould, albeit set on the French Riviera. Gradually, though, we realise how stylised and theatrical his approach really is. Geoffrey Macnab Best films of 2019 (so far) Stan & Ollie Director Jon S Baird, whose previous film was scabrous Irvine Welsh adaptation Filth, wrings every last drop of pathos he can from his material. This is very much a case of the tears of the clowns. Geoffrey Macnab Entertainment One Best films of 2019 (so far) Vice Vice is bravura storytelling. McKay isnt only taking us through Cheneys life and career but is giving us a whistle stop tour through US politics from the Nixon administration almost right to the present day. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Can You Ever Forgive Me? Playing Lee Israel, McCarthy manages something very special: she makes a character who is odd, obnoxious, difficult and alcoholic seem lovable and even heroic. The rest of the world is at fault, not Lee. Geoffrey Macnab Fox Searchlight Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Green Book "Green Book flatters the audience about its own good sense and tolerance. It deals with racism and homophobia but still has a fairytale, fantasy feel to it. Whatever humiliations Don endures on their road trip, we know no real harm will ever come to him as long as Tony is at his side. Geoffrey Macnab Universal Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Velvet Buzzsaw The golden age of bonkers horror movies is gloriously evoked by Netflixs latest feature length presentation. Beginning as a satire of the arts world, Velvet Buzzsaw swiftly and gleefully descends into a savage splatter-fest, smeared in paint, viscera and garishly-bright blood. Ed Power Netflix Best films of 2019 (so far) If Beale Street Could Talk The setting is New York in the 1970s. Anyone who has watched Martin Scorseses Taxi Driver knows this was an era of violence, corruption and sleaze on a monumental level, but [Barry] Jenkins somehow makes the city seem like a modern-day Eden. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) All Is True Written by Ben Elton and directed by its star Kenneth Branagh, the film plays so fast and loose with the playwrights final years that they neednt have bothered fitting Branagh with a prosthetic nose accuracy is clearly not the priority here. Alexandra Pollard Sony Pictures Classics Best films of 2019 (so far) The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part "The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is the doomed progeny of a celebrated genius brilliant but slightly stunted by the knowledge they will never live up to their predecessor. Clarisse Loughrey Warner Bros. Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Piercing Nicolas Pesces sleek and stylish horror comedy is repulsive and funny by turns. In adapting Ryu Murakamis cult novel, Pesce strikes just the right balance between humour and Grand Guignol-style shock tactics. Geoffrey Macnab Universal Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Capernaum "The best moments here are remarkable. Labaki elicits an astonishing performance from her young lead. Hes an irrepressible figure with such an inbuilt sense of moral decency the film seems upbeat and optimistic, even at its darkest moments. Geoffrey Macnab Sony Pictures Classics Best films of 2019 (so far) The White Crow "Ralph Fiennes combines thriller elements with poetic flashbacks to ballet legend Rudolf Nureyevs childhood and keeps a tight focus on the dancer. When he is most at risk, Nureyev makes decisions with his artistic future more in mind than his personal safety. As Fiennes reminds us again and again in what is his best film yet as a director, the 'white crow' will do anything to put himself in the limelight, the one place he is convinced he belongs." StudioCanal Best films of 2019 (so far) Border "Border reverses the perspective taken by most other horror films. In more conventional genre fare, Tina and Vore would be portrayed as malevolent outsiders, but in the world conjured up by director Ali Abbasi, the humans are the monsters. Tina is the innocent a visionary who hardly understands her own powers but who can sense human venality and corruption wherever it appears." TriArt Film Best films of 2019 (so far) Fighting with My Family "Certain scenes feel very trite and predictable but the film gets you in a choke hold early on and wont let you go. It is far more gripping than its subject matter might suggest. Who ever would believe a story about a wrestling family from Norwich could have quite such heart and resonance?" James Field Best films of 2019 (so far) Us "Doppelgangers abound in Jordan Peeles weird, creepy and ingenious new horror film. As in his Oscar-winning 2017 feature Get Out, Peele leavens matters with ironic humour but the joking becomes increasingly uncomfortable once the main characters come face to face with dark shadows of themselves which wish them extreme harm." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Avengers: Endgame "The Avengers cycle comes to a rich and very satisfying conclusion with Endgame, surely the most complex and emotional superhero movie in Marvel history. At 181 minutes, this is a veritable epic, but with so many characters and plot strands, it fully warrants its lengthy running time." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Eighth Grade "Its a rare and precious feeling when a film completely dismantles you. Eighth Grade the directorial debut of US comedian Bo Burnham breaks down every delusion we have about ourselves and burrows deep into those parts weve made such an effort to lock away. You may cry. You may shudder as every awkward social interaction thats kept you up at night replays in your head all at once. You may feel the sharp pain associated with those moments when you feel completely isolated from the world. Burnham may have crafted a simple story about the most ordinary of teenage girls, but it speaks with the emotions of a true cinematic epic." A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Vox Lux "Natalie Portman gives her fiercest, most memorable performance since Black Swan in Brady Corbets enjoyably subversive satire about a troubled pop star whose loss of innocence mirrors the fall from grace of the US itself. Portmans character, Celeste, is certainly one of the most objectionable figures she has played: a pampered, hard-drinking drug-taking floozy whose appearance and high-handed behaviour rekindle memories of Liz Taylor and Joan Crawford at their monstrous worst." Neon Best films of 2019 (so far) High Life Robert Pattinson gives one of his most striking performances as Monte, the death-row criminal in outer space, tricked into making a voyage described at one stage as a class-one suicide ride. The former Twilight star makes his shaven-headed, gaunt-faced character seem hyper naturally sensitive and feral at the same time. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Amazing Grace Amazing Grace is as uplifting a film as you will see all year. Its a concert movie filmed over two nights and featuring Aretha Franklin, the first lady of soul, performing gospel standards in a church in Los Angeles in 1972, with a huge backing choir and an enthusiastic congregation. Neon Best films of 2019 (so far) Aladdin Disneys live-action remake of its 1992 animated feature is a rip-roaring, old-fashioned matinee-style spectacle that turns out far better than we had any right to expect. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Booksmart Olivia Wilde is a visually inventive director, who keeps the tempo here so brisk that we hardly notice how glib the storytelling sometimes becomes. We can tell exactly how the film will end, but it still feels original both in its screwball energy and in the deft way it continually reverses stereotypes and gender cliches. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Late Night Late Night is a caustic satirical comedy that turns into an unlikely tearjerker. Its by turns snide and uplifting, and often very funny too. Its writer/producer/star Mindy Kaling makes vicious observations about the inanity, narcissism and corruption of the mainstream US media at the same time as she celebrates the professionalism of many of those who work within it. The film has a glorious performance from Emma Thompson and a very sly one from Kaling. Thompson is at her most imperious as Katherine Newbury, a legendary entertainer, the only female in a male-dominated field, but one whose career is beginning to slide. Geoffrey Macnab Amazon Studios Best films of 2019 (so far) Gloria Bell Gloria Bell is somewhat exhausting both unbearably intimate and at a constant remove but it is endlessly pulled back into focus by Moore, who has a firm understanding of the delicate balance between contentment and yearning, joy and pain, recklessness and spontaneity. In a remake that could have felt indulgent in the hands of people less skilled, she more than justifies its existence. Geoffrey Macnab Curzon Best films of 2019 (so far) Toy Story 4 "The brilliance of the new film lies in the surefooted way it caters both for children too young to have seen its predecessors and for adults whove grown up (or grown older) watching the previous instalments. It takes some kind of genius for the Pixar animators to give such a searing emotional charge to a story in which one of the main characters is a single use plastic spork retrieved from the trash." Pixar/Disney Best films of 2019 (so far) In Fabric In Fabric feels like Peter Strickland at his most free and playful, drawing as much from the British sense of humour dry and morbid to a fault as from Italian glamour. Curzon Artificial Eye Best films of 2019 (so far) The Flood "Perhaps The Flood isnt quite the urgent, profound film a crisis of this scale deserves, but in a culture where refugees are so rarely shown any empathy in mainstream media, maybe this is the film we need right now." Best films of 2019 (so far) Midsommar "Ari Aster's follow-up to Hereditary serves up much of the same: its a break-up movie wrapped up in pagan horror. Its also bound to be one of this years most memorable films, proving that Aster is far from a one-hit wonder." A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) The Lion King "The Lion King is undoubtedly a technological marvel that, much like Avatar, will come to be viewed as a milestone in special effects history, yet its just as interesting to see how all this innovation has been employed." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Varda by Agnes "For a film thats almost entirely narrated by Agnes Varda's own voice, it doesnt feel driven by ego, but by pure intellectual and emotional curiosity." Best films of 2019 (so far) Animals "Animals treats its subjects with patience and generosity. Youll find no life lessons here. Its main characters are free to pursue their desires, to whatever end." Best films of 2019 (so far) Blinded by the Light "Blinded by the Light offers not only a reminder of Springsteens lyrical genius, but of how hes always served as a beacon for the disenfranchised." Warner Brothers Best films of 2019 (so far) Good Boys Lined up against some of this years other more heartfelt offerings, including Booksmart, Good Boys offers further proof that putting a little humanity in our comedy always gets the best results. Best films of 2019 (so far) Hustlers "Hustlers is an electrifying response to the deluge of stories weve had over the years about very rich, very bad dudes. Finally, we can turn the tables on every film thats used women, specifically strippers, as decorative accessories to drape over businessmen as they conduct their illicit backroom meetings. Or, failing that, to shake their out-of-focus tits in the background of a shot." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) For Sama For Sama is one of the most profoundly intimate depictions of the Syrian conflict ever put to film. Its the push to help those on the outside process something so incomprehensible in the depth of its horrors. Republic Film Distribution Best films of 2019 (so far) Ad Astra The real drama here is not whether or not apocalypse can be avoided but whether Brad Pitts character can reconcile himself with his father and overcome his own extreme emotional repression. In other words, in spite of all the jargon and the hardware, this is an intimate family melodrama at heart. Thanks to Pitts performance and Grays delicate direction, it turns into a very moving one. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) The Farewell Wrapped up in all the intricacies of immigrant identity and family politics, The Farewell is a comedy of warmth and bracing honesty. Simply put, its one of the best films of the year. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Judy This is Renee Zellwegers Judy. It doesnt belong to Rupert Goold, its director. Nor does it belong to Tom Edge, its screenwriter. Its a performance of such overwhelming force that it wrests authorship from every other hand that guided the films creation. Pathe Best films of 2019 (so far) Ready or Not As absurd and self-indulgent as Ready or Not can get, it doesnt mess around with its social commentary. The class system is the game we never asked to play, dont get a fair chance at, and have no hope of winning. Its a timeless metaphor. 20th Century Fox Best films of 2019 (so far) A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon Despite its mouthful of a title, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon is an utter delight proof that good storytelling and strong craft are what matters, however familiar the packaging. Studio Canal Best films of 2019 (so far) The Beach Bum Clearly, Harmony Korine is steered by his attraction to the theatrical, the absurd and the grimly nihilistic. The Beach Bum is all of that and absolutely none of it, too a leisurely, neon-soaked stroll through chaos and hazy bohemia, full of slapstick and pathos. It is as much Korines most mature film as it is his most juvenile. Neon/Vice Best films of 2019 (so far) The Last Black Man in San Francisco Its a beautiful, frightening and tragic vignette of the urban nightmare, though The Last Black Man in San Francisco isnt really an angry film. Its less of a rallying cry against gentrification than a rumination on the kind of pained acceptance those who suffer its effects must face. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) The Irishman Scorseses signature camerawork goes down like a glass of fine whisky, as smooth and as elegant as youd expect. The violence arrives in short, sharp shocks. Steven Zaillians screenplay even nails the mobster patter, with arguments about fish, tardiness, and business shorts that feel destined to one day be quoted to death. Netflix Best films of 2019 (so far) Le Mans '66 The films greatest trick is saved for its final reel. For much of its running time, youd be easily fooled into thinking Mangold had made a grand ode to the American dream. Its a film about an immigrant worker who, through perseverance and toil, gains the respect of one of the richest men in the country. And then the rug is pulled right out from underneath you. Le Mans 66 may relish in the high life, but its final moments feel devastatingly hollow. AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Marriage Story The film never loses its sense of humour and absurdity. Somehow, in spite of the bleakness of the subject matter, it feels more redemptive than despairing. Best films of 2019 (so far) The Report Adam Driver plays Jones, Annette Bening Senator Feinstein, and director Scott Z Burns captures the events in a cold, rigorously factual, and largely dispassionate manner. But thats the point. The Report chooses to value the truth over bombastic displays of morality. AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Knives Out Casting an ensemble film is a little like perfecting a cocktail blend, balancing flavours until they sing together in harmony. Knives Out hits the mark here: the actors all feel well-suited to their roles and they bounce off each other with ease. Lionsgate A total of 13 women have been included across all sections of the official selection this year although male artists still dominate. Ken Loach, Pedro Almodovar, the Dardenne Brothers, Jim Jarmusch, Terrence Malick and Xavier Dolan have all been nominated in the main category. All have previously won accolades at the French Riviera festival. The 2019 Cannes Film Festival will take place between 14 and 25 May. Jarmusch's The Dead Don't Die, a zombie comedy starring Adam Driver, Bill Murray and Chloe Sevigny as police officers protecting a small town, will open the festival on a starry and surreal note. JMalick is returning after Tree of Life won the Palme d'Or in 2011 with the long-awaited A Hidden Life, about an Austrian anti-Nazi conscientious objector who was executed in 1943. Memphis-born Ira Sachs will present Frankie starring Isabelle Huppert. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up There was dismay that Quentin Tarantino missed out from being included with the highly anticipated Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Fremaux lamented to critics during the press conference that the movie was still in editing explaining that Tarantino's insistence on using laborious 35mm will delay its completion. Spanish director Almodovar will be back on the festival's red carpeted steps with the new film Pain and Glory a self-referential movie about an aging filmmaker played by Antonio Banderas, alongside longtime muse Penelope Cruz. It's been compared to Italian filmmaker Fellini's masterpiece 8. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Oscar-winning director Alejandro Inarritu will be jury president. Jury members have not yet been announced. The Elton John biopic Rocketman, directed by Dexter Fletcher, will be screened out of competition. Additional reporting by agencies Climate change is the biggest single issue facing our planet, and as frustration over the lack of action in tackling its causes reaches boiling point, thousands have taken to city streets around the world. Swathes of central London have been brought to a halt for a third day as protesters demanding government action have occupied major landmarks and defied police orders to move on. Almost 300 people have been arrested, 55 bus routes through the capital have been diverted, parts of the Tube system have been disrupted, and an estimated half a million commuters have been affected. This week, the Met Office has warned that a heatwave is set to sweep over parts of the UK, with temperatures expected to soar as high as 36C in the south-east on Friday. With the arrival of warmer weather and many still anxious to plan trips abroad, it is welcome news that outdoor swimming pools were allowed to reopen in England from Saturday 11 July as part of the governments ongoing plan to ease lockdown restrictions. Whether youre a lover of alfresco dips, are looking for an alternative way to get fit or want to fill your summer with some family-friendly activities, a trip to one of the UKs many outdoor pools should feature highly on your to-do list. But, as pools begin to reopen, guests should expect some changes, including varied opening times and the need to pre-book. So be sure to check with the venue before visiting. From Brighton to Cornwall and South London, The Independent has put together a list of some of the countrys best outdoor swimming spots that will guarantee you the best of British summer. So, all thats left for you to do is strip off, jump in and enjoy some alfresco fun. Saltdean Lido Saltdean, Brighton Opened in 1938, Saltdean is the only Grade II-listed coastal lido in the country and has even been described as one of the seven wonders of the English seaside by Historic England. After undergoing restoration, the heated pool re-opened in 2017 when it successfully welcomed over 40,000 visitors and picked up two Brighton & Hove Business Awards - Best New Kid on the Block & Best Hospitality Leisure & Tourism. The venue is currently open to guests with social distancing in place to ensure visitors have a safe and enjoyable visit. Visitors must pre-book online a 50-minute slot with the FUSION APP, which will enable the pool to comply with the government's test and trace service and ensure there is plenty of space with no more than the permitted number of users. When booking, swimmers will be given an arrival time which will enable access within a 10-minute time period. Visitors must arrive with swimming costumes already on and with any equipment such as floats or goggles as changing rooms will be closed. There will also be a reduced number of showers available for use. Opening times are Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and weekends from 7am-7pm and tickets cost 8 for an adult swim or 150 for a season ticket option up until Sunday 13th September. Admission: Adult 8.00 Visit the website here Bude Sea Pool Bude, Cornwall A semi-natural amenity that was built in the 1930s to provide a safe environment for people to swim in, the Bude Sea Pool lies under the curve of the cliffs in a picturesque conservation area near the civil parish of Bude-Stratton. Almost 50,000 people visit Bude Sea Pool every year, making it the number one visitor attraction in the town. Access to the pool is unrestricted and free of any admission charge. The pool is currently managed by the Friends of Bude Sea Pool (FoBSP), a local charity that aims to preserve, improve and enhance the site for the benefit of the local community and thousands of people who visit the town every year. Visitors do not need to book slots to visit the pool, however they are asked to respect the venue's social distancing signage around the pool areas. Admission: Free Visit the website here Brockwell Lido Herne Hill, South London One of London's most attractive heated pools the art deco lido built in 1937 celebrated its 80th birthday in 2017. The much-loved local landmark boasts an award-winning cafe, ivy-covered brick and sundecks, making the whole place feel like an oasis amid the urban chaos. The Grade II-listed location was the focus of Lucy Blakstad's documentary Lido, which was first broadcast on BBC Two in 1995, and was the setting for a Libby Page's book called The Lido that was a bestseller in 2018. Visitors are required to pre-book slots for 50 minute swim sessions and will be given a 10 minute entry window. Changing rooms and lockers are currently out of use and they ask that swimmers arrive pre-changed, using the designated areas for towels and bags. There will be an accessible toilet which will be cleaned regularly. Currently, the sessions are for adults only (aged 16+). Under 16's will not be allowed access to the pool, regardless of swimming ability. Admission: Adult 8 Visit the website here Droitwich Spa Lido Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire The Droitwich Spa Lido, like so many others, went through a period of decline in the 20th century, until a massive refurbishment over the period of two years meant it opened its doors once more in the summer of 2007. Now it is one of Britains last remaining inland, open air saltwater pools and is heated to a Mediterranean 23C. The lido also boasts a sun terrace, cafe and childrens wet play area with water cannons and fountains. The venue will be re-opening from 1 August 2020 and will open for a six week period up to 13 September. During this time, the pool will only be allowing a reduced number of swimmers at any one time and sessions will be limited to two hours. Visitors will be able to book up to two days in advance and make all payments online. Admission: Adult 5.50, Child 4 Visit the website here Hathersage Swimming Pool Hathersage, Derbyshire An open-air swimming pool nestled in the hills of the Peak District, Hathersage Swimming Pool first opened way back in 1936. With water heated to 28C, hot poolside showers, lawns and views of Stanage Edge and Hathersage Church, the spot continues to be a popular tourist attraction. Over the last few years the Parish Council and local people have raised over 100,000 to replace the old fashioned changing facilities and install disabled toilets, with further refurbishment planned for the future. The pool is now open and all tickets must be pre-booked online. Guests must arrive ready to swim and to shower post-swim at home to minimise time spent in the changing rooms. Lockers will be available for use and sterilised once a day. Admission: Adult 7, Child 4 Visit the website here Jubilee Pool Penzance, Cornwall Battered by storms in 2014, and following two years of closure and a 3 million restoration, the Jubilee Pool opened its doors wide again in 2016. This spectacularly sited lido down on the foreshore is currently undergoing construction to build a geothermal pool, new all-weather changing room and treatment rooms. Open every day from late May until October. Jubilee Pool is now open to guests but all bookings must be made in advance and no walk-in tickets will be available. Only changing rooms without doors will be available for use this season and there will not be any showers available at the pool. Visitors are asked to arrive at the pool wearing their swimming kit under their clothes. Admission: Adult 5, Child 3.50 Visit the website here Parliament Hill Fields Lido Gospel Oak, North London Built in 1938 and Grade II-listed, the Parliament Hill Fields Lido is the only stainless steel lined outdoor pool in the country which gives the water a metallic shimmer. The lido is unheated, but wetsuits are permitted at the lifeguards discretion. There are two sessions a day (7-9am and 10am-6pm) with an additional adults-only evening session on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. It also boasts a paddling pool for under-fives and a cafe. The venue re-opened to guests on Saturday 18 July and is operating with a pre-booking system online. There is also a phone booking system available for those with additional access requirements or who cannot book online. Each swim session will last 60 minutes and will have a limited number of swimmers. Admission: Adult 4, Child 2.40 Visit the website here Bristol Lido Clifton, Bristol Grade II-listed, and the oldest heated outdoor swimming pool in Britain, Bristol's lido has good reason to feel proud of its heritage. A secluded oasis tucked within a charming courtyard of Georgian terraces, it's a positively chic hang-out, with a restaurant and spa making it feel more like a luxury hotel than your average council pool. It's open daily year-round and is heated to 20-24 degrees. The lido has been open to members only in recent weeks however it has just started taking non-member adult swims. Guests have been pre-booking 40 minute swim and hot tub sessions with a maximum capacity of nine people at a time. Any non-members should call up from 9am and check if there are spaces and pay 10 for a 40 minute session. In the current climate, the venue is not yet allowing children's access to the pool. Admission: Adult 20, Child 7.50 Visit the website here London Fields Lido Hackney, East London London Fields Lido in Hackney boasts a 50m Olympic size, heated outdoor pool thats open all year round. The swimming pool offers lane swimming all day, while swimming lessons for children and adults, and one-to-one swimming lessons are available during its dedicated swimfit sessions. Facilities also include a cafe as well as a large sundeck and sunbathing area. The pool is open to visitors seven days a week. However, its owners have warned guests that activities and facilities offered at the location may experience temporary closures or changes to opening hours and/or services provided during the ongoing pandemic. Admission: Adult 5.10, Child 3 Visit the website here Stonehaven Open Air Pool Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire Stonehaven might have an average summer daytime temperature of 15 degrees, but who cares when the water in this pool which was built in 1934 is heated to a balmy 29 degrees? Britain's most northerly lido, the Olympic-sized 50m pool offers fun sessions for children, lane swimming and even midnight swims that mean you can take a dip beneath the stars to disco music. Unfortunately, the pool will remain closed for the remainder of the 2020 season. However, its owners have said they will update customers on their website with any updates and news of 2021 opening times. Admission: Adult 5.60, Child 3.45 Visit the website here Facebook has banned some of the UKs most high-profile far-right groups from its social network. Britain First, the English Defence League, the British National Party and more will now be blocked from posting on the site. Supporting the groups is also now against the sites community guidelines, meaning users who post about them could be banned too. Facebook said the decision was taken because it bans users who proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence. Individuals and organisations who spread hate, or attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are, have no place on Facebook. Under our dangerous individuals and organisations policy, we ban those who proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence, Facebook said in a statement. Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Britain First: the far-right group in pictures A demonstrator with 'Bring back the rope!' sign during a Britain First Rotherham demonstration in 2015 Rex Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen lead a Britain First demonstration in Rochdale on 22 July, 2017 Rex Britain First: the far-right group in pictures In 2016 they staged a small counter demo at Eros. UN Anti Racism, Refugees Welcome march and rally through central London. Rex Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Here a supporter kisses a badge reading " Speak English or Fuck off " on the jacket of a man at a Britain First demonstration in Telford on 25 February, 2017 Rex Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Britain First lead a demonstration in Dudley with a sign reading 'Britain First. No more Mosques!' in 2015 Alamy Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, the leader and deputy leader of far-right group Britain First were charged with causing religiously aggravated harassment in 2016 PA Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Following the Westminster terror attack on parliament in March 2017, Britain First and EDL protesters marched through central London. AFP/Getty Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Many of the protesters reacted along the route during the Britain First and EDL demonstration held on 1 April, 2017 PA Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Members of the Britain First group and the English Defence League rallied in central London in on seperate marches entitled a "March Against Terrorism" and "We Are Not Afriad" following the terror attack on Westminster Bridge and the British Parliament AFP/Getty Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Paul Golding reacts whilst he leads the protest PA Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Britain First and EDL protesters both marched on the same day PA Britain First: the far-right group in pictures One protester during the march held a sign reading 'Political correctness + migration = chaos' on 1 April, 2017 PA Britain First: the far-right group in pictures Protesters held placards during the protest calling for Britain First leader, Paul Golding, to be mayor Getty Britain First: the far-right group in pictures At a Birmingham Britain First protest in June 2017, supporters had to be contained by police, where an estimated 250 supporters of the party were escorted. PA Britain First: the far-right group in pictures 'Britain First' held a rally in November in support of their leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, who had to sign in at Bromley Police Station as part of their bail conditions. Rex The individuals and organisations we have banned today violate this policy, and they will no longer be allowed a presence on Facebook or Instagram. Posts and other content which expresses praise or support for these figures and groups will also be banned. Our work against organised hate is ongoing and we will continue to review individuals, organisations, pages, groups and content against our community standards. The banning measures are now in effect, and the organisations pages have been removed. Any new accounts they make will be removed too, even if they register as political parties. The crackdown includes many of the most notorious far-right groups in the UK. The EDL, Britain First, Knights Templar International and the National Front have been banned, as well their leaders and spokespeople. The new rules come as a variety of social networks have made efforts to limit the reach of far-right groups. Former EDL leader Tommy Robinson is permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube has restricted the reach of his videos. The full text of the Mueller report has been released and could trigger one of the biggest rushes to download a document ever seen. The 400-page document can be found here and reveals the key findings of a two-year investigation into Donald Trump by Robert Mueller, rocking Washington as soon as it was released. The report was first discussed in a press conference by Trump's attorney general William Barr. It was then be delivered to Congress on CDs, in keeping with the organisation's slightly archaic way of delivering documents. But when it came to the public, it arrive in the form of a PDF, uploaded to the Justice Department website in the first instance. The rush of internet traffic to the site is expected to be significant. Though the US government should have made preparations for such high interest, it is nonetheless possible that the website might not work quickly or at all when it first drops. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS But it will almost certainly be passed around other websites and hosting services as soon as it is made available, meaning that it should be accessible in some form. Recommended William Barr holds press conference ahead of Mueller report release Barnes & Noble is offering the full report as an ebook, free to download for owners of its Nook ereader. "This is a PDF/direct replica of historic The Mueller Report as released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Barr redactions and all, and it is essential reading for all Americans on both sides of the aisle," the overview on its website reads. The retailer said people can pre-order it now from the website and suggested it will arrive as soon as it is released. The report will be widely distributed after it is released, meaning that it will probably be made available for other ereaders, too. Anyone giving away the report should be doing so for free, so while it is likely that links and versions of the PDF will be sold online, such listings are best avoided. When the Starr Report, the final findings of an investigation into Bill Clinton, were published in 1998, they swiftly became one of the most popular documents of all time. Some 12 per cent of all Americans 20 million people headed to the internet to look at the document, according to polling reported by CNN at the time. "It's probably the single highest number of people who have ever used the computer to access a single document," David Webber of the Frank Lutz polling company said then. That time around, the file was made available over seven different US government websites, in an attempt to spread the load. Though those websites and the news organisations that covered the release were swamped by the traffic, the internet nonetheless continued to work, reports at the time said. If you thought buying the latest Game of Thrones merchandise was the ultimate sign of dedication to the show, think again. More than a hundred GoT fans have taken things one step further by paying tribute to the fantasy programmes final season by getting permanent tattoos. Earlier this week, fans of the HBO show which aired its final season on Sunday in the US queued for hours outside Soho-based tattoo parlour The Circle in London. During a two-day pop-up event at the tattoo studio, GoT devotees received a range of inkings, drawing on inspiration from the programmes themes, quotes, and symbols. One particularly popular tattoo was a sword with the phrase not today, referencing master sword-fighter Syrio Forels quote from season one. Meanwhile, others opted for the lion sigil of the House Lannister. Several fans shared photos of their tattoos on Twitter, with some revealing they'd waited up to five hours to get an inking. Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos Show all 8 1 /8 Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos 'Hold The Door' One fan shows off their tattoo, inspired by a rather depressing moment in season six of the show. Tom Nicholson/PinPep Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos 'Not today' This super fan opts for an inking of a sword and the quote 'not today' from season one. Tom Nicholson/PinPep Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos Dire wolf sigil What better way to pledge your allegiance to a Game of Thrones House than with a Stark sigil depicting a dire wolf? Tom Nicholson/PinPep Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos Winter is coming The Iron Throne is inked on this brave fan's calf. Tom Nicholson/PinPep Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos 'The things I do for love' This fan choose GOT character Jaime Lannister's famous quote from the very first episode of season one. Tom Nicholson/PinPep Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos Lion sigil One fan chooses the Lannister sigil which is a golden lion on a field of crimson. Tom Nicholson/PinPep Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos The Seven-Pointed star This tattoo references the holy text of the Faith of the Seven, which is the main religion of the Seven Kingdoms in GOT . Tom Nicholson/PinPep Game of Thrones fans queue for hours to get tattoos 'Not today' Another fan opts for the quote 'not today' on his forearm. Tom Nicholson/PinPep "Got my #GOTink thanks #NowTV and everyone else involved! Long, but great day! #GameofThrones," wrote one fan. "After waiting in for about 5 hours finally got my tattoo," added another. Celebrities including former Love Island contestant Marcel Somerville and reality star Sam Thompson also braved the tattoo chair. The tattoos, offered in association with streaming service NOW TV, were designed by celebrity tattoo artist, Lauren Winzer, who has inked musicians including Miley Cyrus and Post Malone. Last year, Winzer tattooed actor Sophie Turner (who plays Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones) with the quote The Pack Survives, inspired by the show. Click in the gallery above to check out the best GoT-inspired tattoos. Two weeks ago, the big movie studios showcased their 2019 lineups for multiplex executives in a series of elaborate marketing presentations in Las Vegas. Its an annual ritual: here are the potential hits we will deliver. For the first time, the importance of onscreen diversity came across as more than lip service. Paramount presented family adventure Dora the Lost City of Gold with a predominantly Latino cast, while Warner Bros promoted a Shaft sequel starring Samuel L Jackson and Regina King. Universal touted a comedy starring black women, Little, an animated movie about a Chinese girls quest, Abominable, and summer musical Yesterday with an actor of Indian descent playing the lead. But look a little closer at the movies on studio rosters and who is directing them and Hollywoods inclusion narrative falls apart by one crucial measure. Even after years of being called to task for sidelining female filmmakers, studios as a whole continue to rely overwhelmingly on men to lead productions. Why the disconnect? Studios have multiple explanations (some would say excuses), but one big reason involves a lack of economic pressure. Moviegoers have been responding favourably to diverse casting and stories (Us, Crazy Rich Asians, Black Panther), prompting studios to serve up more. Fewer ticket-buying decisions are made based on the gender of the filmmaker, however. Does a consumer care about how something is made versus what they see onscreen? asks Cathy Schulman, Oscar-winning producer of Crash, in an interview. I think that is becoming increasingly more important, but I would say the business is slower to see the connectivity. That most studios employ few female directors would not surprise anyone who has been paying attention to the research from academics such as Stacy L Smith at the University of Southern California. But most reports on Hollywood hiring offer a rearview portrait; compiling comprehensive data requires a lag. So the of-the-moment snapshot provided by the recent studio presentations is striking. Hollywood's (few) female directors Show all 10 1 /10 Hollywood's (few) female directors Hollywood's (few) female directors Elizabeth Banks Banks made her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2 in May 2015 after feeling 'underused' by Hollywood. PA Hollywood's (few) female directors Kathryn Bigelow Director Kathryn Bigelow, winner of Best Director for 'The Hurt Locker' (2008). Also known for Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Getty Images Hollywood's (few) female directors Ava DuVernay Ava DuVernay is best known for her recent Oscar-nominated film Selma (2014). Justin Sutcliffe Hollywood's (few) female directors Lone Sherfig Danish film director Lone Scherfig, best known for Oscar-nominated film An Education (2009). Getty Images Hollywood's (few) female directors Sam Taylor-Johnson Sam Taylor-Johnson, best known for directing Fifty Shades of Grey. Getty Images Hollywood's (few) female directors Sofia Coppola Sofia Coppola is best known for Oscar winner Lots in Translation (2003) and she recently directed The Bling Ring. Hollywood's (few) female directors Jane Campion Jane Campion was the President of 2014's Cannes jury. EPA Hollywood's (few) female directors Angelina Jolie Actress Angelina Jolie had her second experience as director with Unbroken (2014). Unbroken Hollywood's (few) female directors Phyllida Lloyd Phyllida Lloyd, best known for Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady. Getty Images Hollywood's (few) female directors Gurinder Chadha Film Director Gurinder Chadha has directed several award-winning documentaries for the BBC and has an alliance with the British Film Institute (BFI). She's best known for Paris, je t'aime and recenty directed Bend it Like Beckham. AP During its session on 3 April at CinemaCon, a convention staged by the National Association of Theatre Owners, Disney unveiled a 19-film slate for the rest of 2019, including a batch of movies from the newly acquired 20th Century Fox. Two of the 19 come from women: Jennifer Lee co-directed Frozen II and Roxann Dawson directed Breakthrough, a faith-based drama. Warner Bros has 15 films, three of which have a woman behind the camera. The next one is The Sun Is Also a Star, a romance from Ry Russo-Young out on 17 May. Paramount plans to release seven movies by the end of the year; The Rhythm Section, a thriller, is the only one directed by a woman. (That would be Reed Morano, best known as a cinematographer.) Universal Studios has 15 movies with release dates through December. Four come from women, including Little, which arrived over the weekend and was directed by Tina Gordon, and Queen & Slim, a November drama directed by Melina Matsoukas. Sony Pictures opted not to make a presentation at CinemaCon. The studio has 13 movies on the remainder of its 2019 schedule. Women are directing three of them: Charlies Angels (Elizabeth Banks); A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller); and Little Women (Greta Gerwig). Anna Boden, director of Captain Marvel, is one of the few women to have directed a Marvel film (Getty) Disney, Warner, Universal and Sony declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment. Paramount said: We recognise that, as an industry, we need to afford more opportunities to female film directors, and at Paramount we have publicly committed to doing a better job. They add that, under an initiative announced in February, all of the studios film and television projects must submit a diversity and inclusion plan before being accepted. Paramount is also participating in an effort backed by the Times Up movement to boost opportunities for female directors. Adam Fogelson is chair of STXfilms Motion Picture Group, a five-year-old operation that has produced female-focused movies such as the Amy Schumer vehicle I Feel Pretty, directed by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein. Were proud of our track record of making films for, with and by women, Fogelson says. We see it as an important competitive edge. He adds: As a husband, a father and a human being in the world, Im eager for the industry to collectively do better on this front. STX has six films heading to theatres by the end of the year, two of which have female directors. The first is Poms, a comedy from Zara Hayes that arrives on 10 May. But Fogelson said a few months worth of films did not give a sufficient assessment. By his calculation, 18 per cent of all STX movies, past and present, have been (or are being) directed by women and 14 per cent have a woman as lead actor, director, producer and writer. Widening the aperture makes the picture more positive for every studio. Disney recently released Captain Marvel with Anna Boden as a director; in the works are two more Marvel films from women, Black Widow and The Eternals. Warner will release a pair of female-led superhero movies of its own in 2020 Wonder Woman 1984 from Patty Jenkins, and Birds of Prey from Cathy Yan. At least 10 films with female directors are in development at Paramount, including a new Star Trek. The higher the financial risk, though, the less confidence decision makers have in hiring women. So, major studio films remain the slowest to embrace opportunity parity. Schulman, who is a former president of the advocacy group Women in Film, also points to the misconception that women are best at directing personal stories about women and romance, excluding them from opportunities to direct genres associated with men action, adventure, espionage, broad comedy, horror, sci-fi and others. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film and a professor at San Diego State University, cites research showing that women accounted for 8 per cent of directors working on the top 250-grossing movies of 2018, down 1 percentage point from 1998. We have not seen any meaningful increase, she says, in the percentage of women film directors over the last 20 years. New York Times As I predicted a couple of weeks ago, the Competition & Markets Authority has stopped short of recommending a break up of Britains book keepers. Instead its proposing that Britains big four accountants - PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte - ring fence their audit arms from their more lucrative consulting businesses. The fingerprints of Andrew Tyrie, the CMAs chair, are all over what the watchdog prefers to call operational separation. In his role as chair of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, he successfully prodded the government into requiring that banks ring fence their retail arms (savings, lending to the likes of you and me) from their City businesses (advising on floats and deals, underwriting them and rolling the dice in the financial casino). One issue with adopting the same approach for accountants is that it isn't so much whats good for the goose is good for the gander as it is whats good for the goose is good for the yellow tailed warbler. It applies the same solution to different problems coughed up by very different businesses, although they do have in common their involvement in a succession of tawdry scandals which theyve shown scant sign of accepting any responsibility for together with a notable failure to manage conflicts of interest. But perhaps the criticism isnt entirely fair. The CMA has conducted an exhaustive investigation and it isnt just ring fencing that auditors will have to put up with if and when the government has legislated to enforce the conclusions. Big companies will have to engage smaller firms of accountants alongside the big four to jointly audit their books, and their audit committees will face tougher regulation. One set of critics (and I count myself among them) wonder whether the proposals go far enough but another other maintains that they will simply result in higher costs for businesses when theres no evidence that they will result in better book keeping. Thing is, they havent come up with any better ideas. They also typically argue that the sort of break up recommended by MPs on the Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Committee would be too hard, international companies need access to international standard auditors and the consultants they pal around with etc, etc, etc. Far better to do nothing very much and let them get on with it. The fact is that people have been talking about improving big auditors book keeping ever since KPMG signed off HBOS as a going concern in 2007 just six months before it went pop and had to be bailed out by Lloyds in a government sponsored rescue. Since then there have been a succession of reports and nothing much has changed and oh look, theres Carillion, BHS, Interserve. None of these collapses were down to the auditors. The problem has been with their persistent unwillingness to say Houston, we have a problem, leading one to question quite what the point of an audit is. It is indeed an open question as to whether the CMAs proposals will do any good. Its worth noting that the US and the EU have been grappling with the issues, and they havent as yet come up with any answers to the dilemmas posed by the big four and the virtual monopoly they hold when it comes to auditing big company accounts. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. Their responses to the CMA ranged from sharply critical in the case of EY to quite positive in the case of KPMG, possibly a reflection of the fact that it has been taking the most flak. But the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which invests billions of pounds and is mostly on the right side of debates about corporate governance, welcomed the review and said it had been had been impressed by the thoroughness and independence of the CMAs work. I fear well be here again in a few years time, but on that basis the CMAs recommendations have at least earned the right to a run out. The brains of pigs have been reanimated by scientists after they had been dead for nearly four hours. Using a synthetic blood solution and pump which simulates the heart, researchers at Americas prestigious Yale University showed that brain cells presumed dead began showing signs of life, long after they were presumed unrecoverable. The team were clear that this was not the same as bringing the animals back to life. There was no electrical activity across the brain which is the benchmark for brain death, let alone the coordinated firing of the billions of neurons required for consciousness. However, the findings have significant potential for researching brain disease, as well as potentially finding ways to limit brain damage in humans following a stroke. Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary It could also provide insight into increasing the time donated organs remain viable. The intact brain of a large mammal retains a previously under-appreciated capacity for restoration of circulation and certain molecular and cellular activities multiple hours after circulatory arrest, said Professor Nenad Sestan, lead researcher for the study published in the journal Nature. Cellular brain death has typically been considered to be swift and irreversible. Once starved of oxygenated blood, the brains electrical activity dims within seconds and the cells begin sending signals that trigger their death. However in the pig brains, which had been harvested from animals already killed for meat, once the pumping system was attached they saw signs that the cells were taking on oxygen and showing other signs of life. Because of the vast ethical implications of their work, the researchers said they had been concerned their work could be too successful and restore consciousness. The researchers were prepared to intervene with the use of anaesthetics and temperature-reduction to stop organised global electrical activity if it were to emerge, Dr Stephen Latham, another of the authors said. However, while the brains became cellularly active the authors were clear: Clinically defined, this is not a living brain. Brain death is determined using an electroencephalogram (EEG) and there was no flicker from the machines during the test. Included in the BrainEx pumping solution were chemicals designed to inhibit neuronal activity, as this higher activity would mean the cells would be producing waste products that could rapidly turn toxic. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The reactivated brains were kept alive for a total of six hours, at which point the experiment was stopped as the untreated brains they were comparing to had totally died off. During this time the scientists observed a reduction in cell death and the restored functionality of certain nerve, blood vessel and glial cells vital support cells which clear away waste and nourish neurons. While the Yale team said the BrainEx system could work for longer periods, it would need significant changes to be viable for human brains, or even less sophisticated organs. However, any work which sought to revive electrical activity of any brain in a way that even resembled consciousness would need strict ethical approval. Independent experts said the study raised hope for the distant future of technologies to forestall brain death. BrainEx most certainly didnt bring the brains back to life said Professor Derek Hill, from University College London. But this research raises some fascinating questions. Could brains maintained by BrainEx help scientists discover new treatments for brain diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease, which are proving really hard to treat? And, what are the ethical implications for the way we treat animals after slaughter, and humans after accidents? This ingenious experimental work provides challenges and opportunities both to brain scientists and for science policy makers. Bev Kingdon rattles off the names of trumpeter swans and their personalities as if describing her children. Pig Pen was named for her eating habits; 672 cleverly avoided tagging; 206 nearly died of lead poisoning but nursed himself back to health and then fought off his wifes new mate to reclaim their relationship. In the past 30 years, Kingdon has been part of a small coterie of volunteers who have helped restore trumpeter swans to Ontario, Canada. North Americas largest waterfowl, the trumpeter was nearly extinct in Canada and the lower 48 states for the better part of a century brought down by the shotguns of Europeans. Now, these majestic birds are a success story. There are more than 1,000 trumpeters in Ontario that headed north last month, many to raise their next brood. Restoration projects have also been successful in the United States, in the upper Midwest states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio and Michigan, returning swans to at least some of the areas they inhabited before Europeans arrived in North America. The natural population in Alaska, which became a key source for the restoration efforts, also remains strong, with more than 22,000 adults counted in the last aerial survey conducted in 2015. For reasons that are not entirely clear, similar restoration efforts in Western states have struggled. Its been a labour of love for a lot of people all across North America to help bring back the trumpeter swans, says Margaret Smith, executive director of the Trumpeter Swan Society, which has supported restoration efforts for 50 years. Now that conservation agencies efforts have led to a critical mass of animals in a number of states, the swans are spreading naturally. North Dakota, Indiana and New York, which dont have restoration projects, have all reported nesting pairs. Trumpeter swans have also been sighted in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas. Folks get really excited about it, Smith says. One swan got blown to Arkansas in a snowstorm in the early 1990s, and wintered in Heber Springs, north of Little Rock, she says. It returned the next year, and now Heber Springs promotes its winter swan population as a tourist attraction. The birds have a wingspan that can reach 8ft across (iStock) These are all pioneering birds, Smith says. For us, its like watching history as its happening. The birds, whose wingspans can reach 8ft across, need open, fresh water that is not too deep, so they can feed off the bottom. They usually migrate south in winter to find lakes that are not frozen over. Mating for life, they often nest in the same area where the female, known as a pen, was born. Coming in for a landing in winter, the birds sound like a group of enthusiastic four-year-olds with party horns. But once situated, they rarely make much noise, Smith says. Trumpeter swans had been so plentiful in Ontario in the early 1700s that Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who commanded the French settlement that became Detroit, said they might be taken for lilies. But settlers and trappers wiped them out. European settlers in North America killed the swans for food, and turned their down-covered skin into powder puffs for cosmetics and their feathers into quill pens, says Gary Ivey, a past president of the Trumpeter Swan Society. John James Audubon, the famous naturalist, preferred trumpeter swan feather quills to any others, he says. The last wild trumpeter swan in Ontario was recorded shot in 1886. Endangered and threatened species of Britain Show all 10 1 /10 Endangered and threatened species of Britain Endangered and threatened species of Britain Hedgehog In 1950 there were an estimated 36 million hedgehogs in the UK, there are now only one million Getty/iStock Endangered and threatened species of Britain Hazel dormouse The population of the hazel dormouse is thought to have declined by over one third since 2000. It is threatened by loss of habitat Getty Endangered and threatened species of Britain Red squirrel Famously ravaged by the North American grey squirrel, the red squirrel is nowadays very rare with a population of around 140,000 Getty Endangered and threatened species of Britain Mountain hare The population in Scotland stands at 1% of its 1950 level and only one colony remains in England in the Peak District Getty Endangered and threatened species of Britain Natterjack toad Threatened by the disappearance of their coastal habitats, the natterjack toad is now only found at a handful of site across the UK Getty Endangered and threatened species of Britain Water vole Once found across Britain, the water vole is no longer anywhere to be seen in 90% of waterways Getty Endangered and threatened species of Britain Turtle dove On the Red List of conservation concern, the turtle dove population has declined by 97% since 1970 Getty Endangered and threatened species of Britain Small tortoiseshell butterfly Amid a general decline in butterfly population since records began in the 1970s, the small tortoiseshell saw a 38% drop in population in 2018 Getty Endangered and threatened species of Britain Noble chafer beetle Classed as vulnerable, the noble chafer beetle became increasingly rare throughout the 20th century due to habitat loss. Members of the public are encouraged to report any sightings to the People's Trust for Endangered Species gbhone Endangered and threatened species of Britain Stag beetle Their population is not known but due to habitat loss and other threats they are a protected species. Members of the public are encouraged to report any sightings to the People's Trust for Endangered Species Getty Our heritage was missing from Ontario altogether, says Harry Lumsden, who retired from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, in 1988, six years after starting the restoration effort there. At age 95, Lumsden continues to work for trumpeter swans nearly every day. Ill do anything for swans, he says over the phone. The Ontario reintroduction effort started with wild collected eggs from Alberta, which were placed under mute swans, a related species, to hatch. Lumsden found cooperators like Kingdon and her parents who had suitable properties and were willing to host pairs of breeding swans. In the fall, the fledglings would be relocated for the winter and then released in suitable places in the spring. In 1993, swans hatched in the wild in Ontario for the first time in more than a century. There were so few birds that they were quite inbred, and many of their eggs did not hatch, Lumsden says. But when Michigan cut the budget for swan reintroduction in 1992, it gave Ontario the 50 Alaskan eggs from the states program. Three-quarters of the eggs began hatching, instead of only half. By 2002, Ontarios population was self-sustaining and has grown every year since. (Inspired by the swans, Meera Sulaiman, a local photographer, has an exhibit set for June in Mississauga, Ontario.) Trumpeter swans are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but birds are still occasionally killed by accident or on purpose. Power line strikes and illegal shootings commonly cause premature death. In Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state, those problems and a few others have stymied efforts to create a self-sustaining population. Were really struggling here in the western states, Ivey says. The population at Red Rock Lakes near Yellowstone is half what it once was, he says. Yellowstones 30 pairs have shrunk to only a few. Human activity drives the shy birds away, he says, and contributes to a loss of habitat. Its tough for these swans to live with people, he says. The few western flocks are isolated and have lost historic flock knowledge of the landscape, so they dont explore enough to find others, he says. Theyre not connected. Thats the problem. They dont know where the other birds are. Dr Ivey is now planning to start a population in eastern Oregon, hoping it will support the western trumpeter swans. Its part of their historic range and western heritage, and I think we should try to restore them best as we can, he says. And even the successful reintroduction projects still face challenges. Theres hardly a square inch of habitat around the Great Lakes that hasnt been altered by humans, says Liz Benneian, a longtime volunteer with the Trumpeter Swan Coalition in Ontario. We absolutely must maintain habitat if we want to protect species. In Lake Ontarios LaSalle Park, where the largest number of the provinces swans spend the winter and are just now leaving for parts north, marina owners are planning a development that could limit the swans food supply. Swan volunteers have fought the construction project, and managed to win concessions from the developer for now. Theyre still a fragile species, Benneian says. A thousand birds isnt a lot. New York Times A Brexit supporter who sent death threats and racist messages to MPs has been jailed. Jarod Kirkman told police he was just being a stupid idiot after he targeted seven parliamentarians who had opposed the UK leaving the European Union or raised concerns about the consequences. The 51-year-old sent emails with the subject lines Brexit traitor and Brexit loser, Westminster Magistrates Court heard. Using menacing email domains including MPdeadpoliticianwalking.com, he told former Conservative MP Heidi Allen, who has since become a member of Change UK: Your days are f***ing numbered bitch. Will it be polonium or novichok? Either way you will never know, expect it soon. Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Show all 30 1 /30 Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Pro-Brexit leave the European Union supporters attend a rally in Parliament Square after the final leg of the "March to Leave" in London AP Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit The protest march which started on March 16 in Sunderland, north east England, finished on what was the original date for Brexit to happen before the recent extension Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit AP Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit PA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit EPA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter sips a can of Stella in protests outside of the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Dedicated anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray and likewise pro-Brexit campaigner Joseph Afrane go head to head near the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A pro-Brexit marching band in Parliament Square Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Remain supporters wave EU flags from a bus in Parliament Square PA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter shouts slogans outside parliament EPA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter protests outside parliament Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter protests outside of the Houses of Parliament Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters protest outside of the Houses of Parliament REUTERS Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A pro-Brexit flag is waved in Parliament Square AP Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit The March to Leave nears the Houses of Parliament Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit protester holds a sign outside parliament EPA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters carry the coffin of democracy AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters march outside parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters take part in the March to Leave protest in London PA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters protest outside parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter holds a sign outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A man holds satirical paintings of politicians Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit An pro-Brexit float on the March to Leave march in London Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Far-right activist Tommy Robinson addresses protesters outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter outside the Houses of Parliament Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Tommy Robinson supporter arrives at the Houses of Parliament Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A jogger gestures rudely at a Brexit supporter outside of the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter outside the Houses of Parliament PA Kirkman, who was unemployed and lived in Luton, also targeted Labours David Lammy, calling him a n***** and telling him to f*** off and die in the jungle. He told Conservative Nicky Morgan death will be swift. Labour MPs Yvette Cooper and Jenny Chapman were also targetted, along with former Tory Nick Boles and Sarah Wollaston, who later defected from the Conservatives to Change UK. It would appear the defendant was motivated to send these messages by the stance that each of these MPs took towards Brexit, prosecutor Andrea Scott-Lynch told the court. Kirkman was arrested after the messages, sent in December and January via contact pages on MPs websites, were traced to his home IP address. Bedfordshire Police said that when interviewed, he admitted sending the messages and told officers: I was just being a stupid idiot over Brexit. Investigators said the activity started after a House of Commons speech where Mr Boles backed a finance bill for a no-deal Brexit. Det Supt Liz Mead said: These messages instilled genuine terror in not just the people to whom they were addressed, but to the members of their staff who received them. Kirkman thought he could deliver his vitriolic and terror-filled messages while safely hidden behind his keyboard, and by using bogus email addresses via web forms. It is likely he thought he wouldnt be traced. Everyone is entitled to free speech and to voice their opinion, but when those views cross the line into threats of violence or death, then you must expect action will be taken. Labour MP David Lammy says comparison of Tory Brexiteers to Nazis 'wasnt strong enough' Defending Kirkman in court, Gregory Wedge said the accused acted as a carer for his mother, and added: Its very clear this is a stupid man who made a series of stupid decisions. Kirkman, of Torquay Drive in Luton, pleaded guilty to six counts of sending malicious communications at Westminster Magistrates Court earlier this month. He also admitted racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment against Mr Lammy. Independent Minds Q&A session on the Middle East, Trump, Syria and Isis Sentencing him to 42 weeks imprisonment, Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot said: Youre described essentially as a typical troll sending odious messages but presenting as a pitiful figure. You deliberately targeted MPs, from the safety of your home you threatened them. Instead of expressing your views appropriately ... you chose to threaten to kill them. The message needs to go out that people who threaten MPs are threatening our democratic process. Kirkman was handed a five-year restraining order not to contact any of the seven MPs and ordered not to contact any MP in a threatening or intimidating manner. There is a line between robust challenge to MPs and our views and actions and threatening to kill us for the job we are doing, Ms Morgan said after the sentencing. Mr Kirkman crossed that line and I would like to thank the police for their prompt action to track him down and to the Chief Magistrate for her words about such threats being a threat to our democracy. I hope todays sentence sends out a message to anyone else who might think about making such threats that action will be taken. MPs will not be put off doing our best for our constituents and the country. The case comes after police confirmed that an increasing number of MPs have been requesting enhanced security, amid rising levels of abuse over Brexit. A leading member of the UK yellow vests has been charged with harassing Remainer Anna Soubry and a recent protest saw effigies of Theresa May and Sadiq Khan dragged through the streets. 1653 W. Grace St., Chicago: $1,875,000 | Listed: Oct. 18, 2021 This six-bedroom home has four full baths, two half baths, six outdoor decks and an in-ground heated resistance pool. The kitchen is equipped with a Thermador double oven with a custom stainless steel hood, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, a wine refrigerator and a breakfast island with a vegetable sink. The first floor also has a dining room, a family room with a fireplace, a living room, two built-in pantries and deck access. The second floor has four large bedrooms and an office with custom built-ins. The third floor has a bathroom with a skylight, double sink, large soaking tub, and separate shower. The primary bedroom suite, also located on the third floor, has his and her walk-in closets with custom built-ins and a reading nook. A full basement with radiant heated floors, a wine cellar, a three-car garage and a catwalk from the house to the garage deck complete this home. Agent: Nicole Duran, @properties, 773-905-9472 *Some listing photos are virtually staged, meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options. To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com. Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news. Close Extinction Rebellion campaigner Rupert Read accused of being a hypocrite during LBC interview for taking taxi As climate change protests continued for a fourth day on Thursday, leaked WhatsApp messages suggested activists are planning to "shut down" Heathrow Airport on Good Friday. The airport said it was "working with the authorities" to address any threat of disruption over the long Easter weekend. It came after Metropolitan Police updated the arrest figure to 428 on Thursday. Home secretary Sajid Javid offered his support to the police and condemned any "unlawful protests", while London mayor Sadiq Khan suggested cuts to police funding were restricting the Met's ability to cope with the demonstrations. Three activists appeared in court where they pleaded not guilty to charges relating to their alleged involvement in obstructing trains at Canary Wharf station on Wednesday morning. They were remanded in custody for a month until they next appear at Blackfriars Crown Court on 16 May. Follow how the protests develop throughout the day Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Flesh-eating piranhas have been found at a lake in Doncaster amid claims that ducks and other wildlife are mysteriously disappearing without trace. The first razor-toothed predator was spotted floating in the waters of Edlington Brick Pond by a couple enjoying an afternoon walk with their 8-year-old son. Davey White and Lisa Holmes told the Doncaster Free Press they did not recognise the fish was a piranha at first albeit a dead one. My partner is a fisherman and was looking around the edge of the lake when he suddenly spotted this fish floating near one of the pegs, said Ms Holmes. He managed to get it out of the water and although hes a keen angler, he wasnt sure what type of fish it was straight away. Underwater Photographer of the Year Show all 45 1 /45 Underwater Photographer of the Year Underwater Photographer of the Year South Fakarava, French Polynesia Winner: Behaviour and overall winner. "I worry that this image will refuel the public's imbalanced perception of sharks but as an image capturing behaviour it has drama, adrenaline, grace, beauty and finality. That's a very rare combination in one image." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Richard Barnden/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Reunion Island Winner: Wide Angle. "The first moment I viewed this image I knew it would be a strong contender. For me it's the symmetry of the Humpback and the balance between the diver and calf. Everything about it is in perfect alignment. The shape of the tail in relation to the four corners of the frame, not to mention the position of the free diver and calf. Superb imagery at its very best. Many congratulations Francois." - Martin Edge (Judge) Francois Baelen/UPY 2018 Underwater Photographer of the Year Trieste Gulf, Italy Winner: Macro. "Fabios use of long exposure and panning has turned a classic portrait of a Sepiola into an unforgettable one. The sharp and ghosted images of the bobtail squid balance pleasingly in the frame and combined with the outstretched tentacles give the feeling of the cephalopod lunging for its prey. An innovative and most deserving category winner." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Fabio Iardino/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Azores Islands "It is hard to imagine what it must have been like to have experienced such a large scale natural spectacle as this but this image, perfectly composed and timed, gets close." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Mike Korostelev/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Scotland Winner: British Waters Macro. "A mantra of mine is 'It's not what it is. It's where it is' and this long clawed Squat lobster is in a perfect position to make a memorable image. The author, instead of 'blasting' it with light, has gone in the opposite direction by restricting the strobe into a snooted spotlight in order to illuminate just the features of the lobster and the dainty sea loch anemones. It's an example of 'Isolation lighting' at its very best. A great deal of uw photographers invest their time in what they want to illuminate. This is an example which in my opinion illustrates features that they do not want to illuminate, hence the punchy black background and the soft delicate hues of dark sand, facial features topped off by the sea loch anemones." - Martin Edge (Judge) Arthur Kingdon/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Tenerife, Canary Islands Winner: Marine Conservation. "The problems of plastic pollution and ghost fishing are both illustrated by this struggling loggerhead turtle. I am happy to learn this individual was lucky enough to survive this deathtrap thanks to the photographer" - Alex Mustard (Judge) Eduardo Acevedo/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Sado Island, Japan "What a chin, what a forehead, what a character. This picture has portrait written all over it, and such a fascinating species ideally suited to this close focus wide angle approach." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Fabrice Dudenhofer/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Stratoni, Greece Winner: Portrait. "Superb impact from the very first moment it was presented. Perfect composition within the image frame and the understated colours. To top it off the authors comments above say it all... a Smiling Happy Angel's Face. One of my favourites from the entire competition." - Martin Edge (Judge) Nicholas Samaras/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year South Fakarava, French Polynesia Winner: Up & Coming. "Beautiful split shot with both a perfect under and over split. A very strong favourite with all the judges and one of the best examples I have seen of this type of image for some time. Just Superb!" - Martin Edge (Judge) Taeyup Kim/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Isla Espiritu Santo, Mexico Winner: Black & White. "It must be 11 out of 10 for this groundbreaking image. Conception, interpretation and perseverance coupled with black and whites ability to concentrate on the key elements. It gets better with each viewing." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Henley Spiers/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Farne Islands, UK "Grey seals are a perennial favourite in UPY as one of the UK's star wildlife attractions. This upside-down portrait is quirky and cute and easily won the affections of the judging panel. Great to see an overseas photographer coming to the UK to show us how it's done!" - Alex Mustard (Judge) Greg Lecoeur/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Ambon, Indonesia Winner: Compact. "This image was a very popular choice between the panel. Ideal for a split rendition. What makes this a winner for me, not withstanding the double exposure is the sympathetic balance of light & colour connected between the top half and bottom of the image frame." - Martin Edge (Judge) Enrico Somogyi/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Farne Islands, UK Winner: British Waters Compact. "Does British diving get any better than a fun encounter with a grey seal pup? This youngsters relaxed and curious face is captured perfectly by Martin, making us all want to be there too." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Martin Edser/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year St. Ives Harbour, Cornwall Winner: British Waters Living Together. "Images tell stories but well thought out and executed ones speak volumes. This is such an example which feeds the eye with tales of the seaside on summer days, lively marine spectacles and excited human interaction." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Victoria Walker/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Isles of Scilly, UK Winner: British Waters Wide Angle. "Photographers often feel competition shots must be packed with new tricks to win. At UPY we always appreciate classic technique when it raises the bar of what has been done before. Rob's full technicolour wide angle scenic reveals the richness of UK seas with an elegant simplicity that is incredibly challenging to pull off in British conditions." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Robert Bailey/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Malin Head, Ireland Winner: Wrecks. "So simple yet so powerful; the additional lighting of the turret and the main diver perfectly positioned. This was a very strong category this year with a deserved winner and it's refreshing to read the acknowledgement to Leigh Bishop's pioneering work." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Rene B. Andersen/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Lembeh, Indonesia "The iconic silhouette of a seahorse is a graphically powerful picture. Here Zarina has raised that to another level with the addition of a red filter to her snooted strobe, reminiscent of a rim-lit animal at sunset." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Zarina Staller/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Muncar, Indonesia "All the judges found this to be probably the most distressing image to view but its uncompromising message must be seen by as many people as possible." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Joao Rodrigues/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Lembeh, Indonesia "As a subject we have seen our fair share of these colourful characters but this one shone through and the eggs almost look as if they have been individually lit!" - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Igor Bogachenko/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Nottinghamshire "Superb image with a perfect line across the split. Good exposure both above and below the water line and such an ideal subject to cap it all off. Excellent work." - Martin Edge (Judge) Jack Perks/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Belgium "This is an excellent example for this category. It takes a tried and trusted angle but completely lifts it by using the fabric. It becomes more than an image; a concept, a transition, a rebirth." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Martin Gerard/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Isles of Scilly, UK "This image stood out on many levels. Composition, colour vibrancy and contrast combined with an unusual angle kept us coming back to it and helped it rise in the rankings with each viewing." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Malcolm Nimmo/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Indonesia "Perfect control of angle, light and focus. This was always up there with all of the judges. A clear favourite just like Nick Parks genius creations." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) ManBD/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Lembeh, Indonesia "I've seen many images of eel and shrimp around Indonesia, however you have taken this two steps forward. 1) With your excellent idea to snoot the eye and 2) with your backlight on the shrimp. You can expect many photographers to practice your technique in the months to come. Congratulations for your vision. Very well thought out and executed." - Martin Edge (Judge) Fu Liang/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Bristol, UK "Its not what youve got, its what you do with it. The split may have been elusive but well worth the effort. This is a deceptively subtle excellent delivery." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Ian Michael Wade/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Vavau, Tonga "I have witnessed this behaviour from the surface with its high velocity 'testosterone and tonnage' and I remember thinking how happy I was to be in the boat. To have the presence of mind to time this shot whilst one's senses are being bombarded is heroic in my view." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Scott Portelli/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Fakarva, French Polynesia "What an amazing moment. From the expression on the face of the unicornfish fleeing for its life, to the hunting pack of sharks, especially the leader with its mouth snapping open that fan out diagonally across this composition. And that is without considering what a great challenge it is to shoot these images of split second action, in the dead of night, underwater." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Greg Lecoeur/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Red Sea, Egypt "There is so much energy in this image. If you look at it long enough you can begin to see just a hint of movement of all the fish around the coral. The colours are realistic and this top down shot works well." - Martin Edge (Judge) Emily Irving-Swift/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Moorea Lagoon, French Polynesia "A jaw-dropping wide angle scene with sharks, rays and mountains. A winning combination in the Up & Coming category." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Remuna Beca/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Loch Long, Argyll and Bute "This is a subtle image with light and detail that are a delight to explore. The sunset, trees and underwater scene combine to create a wonderful feeling of the place. We particularly like how the composition allows the line of the shore to be continued underwater by the seaweeds." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Mark Kirkland/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Stoney Cove, Leicestershire "Photographing pike underwater is one thing but finding your own underwater artistic stamp is quite another matter. With this particular image the author has done just that! By using a slow shutter speed of 1/8th sec and a panning technique from right to left gives the impression of movement whilst the pike is pin sharp." - Martin Edge (Judge) Nicholas More/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Scotland "Arthurs image scores with both its foreground and background. The deadmans fingers soft coral make an attractive foreground, enhanced by the crab sheltering within, and the striking sunbeams create beauty and atmosphere in the background. I also love the feeling of depth created by the legs of the jetty reaching up for the surface." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Arthur Kingdon/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Swange Pier, Dorset "In recent UPY competitions UK macro images have lacked their overseas counterpart's flair and imagination but this magnificent shot raises the bar for everyone else to follow. World class from the UK at last." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Paul Pettitt/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Island Solta, Croatia "Memorable photographs of people underwater are deceptively difficult and require both the photographer and model to be at the top of their game. The simplicity of the composition works to highlight the delicious details in the girl's pose." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Matej Bergoc/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Eden's Rock, Grand Cayman "This is a timeless scene that communicates a detailed story. The cavern, the silversides sheltering, the tarpon hunting and the diver kneeling reverentially, taking it all in. It is a fabulous use of black and white to tell this story of shadows and light." - Alex Mustard (Judge) Ken Kiefer/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Cabo Douglas, Galapagos Islands "Sometimes it is the small detail which contributes so much. The white of the eye and the row of teeth in what could be construed as a smile convey mischief and menace in equal measures." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Bruce Sudweeks/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Abu Nuhas, Egypt "Once again Tobias you have succeeded in capturing one of the most photographed wrecks in the Red Sea and photographing it in a completely different way. You push the boundaries of wreck photography and I congratulate you for your vision and forward thinking of new ideas." - Martin Edge (Judge) Tobias Friedrich/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Anilao, Phillippines "Perfect composition and framed against the stark black background. However it's the contrast of white on black which attracts the eye again and again every time this particular image popped up to greet us. The colour of the nudibranch was sufficiently bright enough to raise our senses again and again as it proceeded through the competition. The soft delicate treatment of the snooted flash is also very well managed." - Martin Edge (Judge) Flavio Vailati/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Pleneau Bay, Antarctica "This shot puts you right in the picture and records a special encounter in a very special place. Every element contributes and the lucky or intended curve of the split creates great spatial depth." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Jessica Farrer/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Farne Islands, UK "Symmetry, graphic simplicity and for once in UK waters a black background which contributes to a positive outer worldly delivery. A mould breaker." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Kirsty Andrews/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Adams River, Canada "I see and judge many images of the sockeye salmon but this is one of the best. The alignment of the two salmon not to mention the composition within the frame. The surgy peak of the action is in perfect symmetry with the window which provides the viewer with topside influences of the trees against a vivid blue sky. There is so much image depth in this example." - Martin Edge (Judge) Yung-Sen Wu/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Los Gigantes, Tenerife "Such a delicate image yet so full of emotion. There are times when there are no more words needed." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Acevedo/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Minamata, Japan "UPY loves seahorse photos! Especially when they capture a fleeting behaviour, such as this. But we hadn't realised during judging that this was a new species of seahorse, nor did with know the incredible backstory behind this picture, we just loved the moment." - Alex Mustard (Judge) K.Zhang/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Salento, Italy "Whether or not you like fashion photography underwater you would be hard pressed to see a more beautiful combination of complimentary colours and a very elegant pose. A very well executed image." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Virginia Salzedo/UPY 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year Tulamben, Indonesia "A portrait must leave you in no doubt. Simple lighting, illuminating all that is needed, captures this character." - Peter Rowlands (Judge) Fu Liang/UPY 2019 But then we started looking at it more closely and saw the teeth we realised it was a piranha. We went home and googled it and its quite clear its a piranha. It was quite a shock. A second dead piranha was found in the same lake by Toni Hooper while out walking with her family on Sunday. When we realised what it was, it sent shivers down my spine, she said. This is a popular spot among families, dog walkers and fishermen. Its always busy here, she said. Theres a play park nearby, so you get kids here paddling in the water, teenagers will go swimming here. You wouldnt catch me going in the water. Recommended Fish caught eating ducks at Essex shopping centre lake removed The discoveries have prompted concerns about an apparent decline in the number of other fish such as carp, tench and bream, as well as ducks and swans. Ms Hooper added; We came here to feed the ducks and on Sunday we noticed there was only one duck and two ducklings. Im concerned about where the wildlife is. Ive spoken to others who have said theyve noticed there arent as many ducks. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The dead fish have been passed to the Environment Agency for further investigation, but Doncaster council officials believe they were pets that were placed in the lake when they became too big. Piranhas are native to South America and mainly feed on fish, although they have been known to attack humans. Most attacks involve minor injuries to hands and feet, although a 6-year-old girl was reportedly killed by piranhas when her canoe capsized in Brazil in 2015. A large catfish was recently removed from a lake at a shopping centre in Essex after it was caught eating ducks. Britain is set to bask in sweltering temperatures over the Easter weekend, with parts of the country likely to be warmer than the Canary Islands. The mercury could soar as high as 24C in southeastern England on Saturday, hotter than popular holiday spots such as Tenerife, Agadir and Rhodes. Although the southeast is expected to receive the warmest of the bank holiday weather, conditions are also expected to hot up in almost every other corner of the country. Britain can usually experiences heat of around 10 to 13C over the Easter weekend. But widespread temperatures of around 21C are forecast on Friday and Saturday, while many will see highs of 23C by Easter Sunday. Britain's finest urban parks Show all 15 1 /15 Britain's finest urban parks Britain's finest urban parks Regents Park, London A park fit (and designed) for a king. Regents Park is home to a flower display rivalled only by that of nearby St James' Park and hosts over 100 species of bird. If you think that isn't quite enough wildlife, there's always London Zoo in the upper west side of the park Getty Britain's finest urban parks Beaumont Park, Huddersfield A park of tremendous variety. A large open space closes on to a pleasant mall that leads from the more well-kept side of the park towards the wild forest area that winds down a cliff face and features some curious Victorian architecture Darren Wright Britain's finest urban parks Holyrood Park, Edinburgh An urban park that is pointedly rural. Here you do not stroll but ramble and in doing so are treated to exciting historical sites and some spectacular views Getty Britain's finest urban parks Platt Fields, Manchester Sitting at the junction of Rusholme, Fallowfield and Moss Side, Platt Fields is the best that inner-city Manchester has to offer. Beside the abundant green space, there are plenty of facilities such as a skate park, BMX track and a boating lake Sharaf Britain's finest urban parks Nunhead Cemetery, London Might not sound like a park but it is perhaps the most pleasant walk to be had among the dead in all of England Kotomi Britain's finest urban parks Wollaton Park, Nottingham A history lover's park. Not only is it home to a well preserved Elizabethan manor: that manor now houses an industrial and natural history museum Getty Britain's finest urban parks Brandon Hill, Bristol Oldest park in Bristol offering great views of the city and harbour to those who brave the steep incline Getty Britain's finest urban parks Brynmill Park, Swansea Plenty to do in this park with a play area, bowling green and the lake. However it is best enjoyed at a stroll Phil John Britain's finest urban parks Saltwell Park, Gateshead Saltwell Park has all the fittings of a great British park: a manor house, a boating lake and trees galore. What sets it apart is that each of these features are the pinnacles of their sort Getty Images Britain's finest urban parks Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow Classic Victorian park with plenty of facilities and some fancy terraces to admire Getty Britain's finest urban parks Hylands Park, Chelmsford Another manor estate opened into a public park. Lots of trees and plenty of open space, so much so that Hylands Park was host to V music festival Andy Sedg Britain's finest urban parks Greenwich Park, London A varied park to walk around, from the rose garden to the observatory to the seldom seen deer in the lower east side. Greenwich Park also offers outstanding views of Canary Wharf Getty Britain's finest urban parks Sefton Park, Liverpool Great for a nature stroll and home to a vibrant tropical palm house Psyche Delia Britain's finest urban parks Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh One of the smaller parks on the list albeit one that is home to a hilltop castle Getty Britain's finest urban parks Richmond Park, London Famed for its deer, sprawling Richmond Park is a dog walker's paradise Getty Some areas of Northern Ireland and the far northwest of Scotland may have to wait until Monday for clouds to clear, but will still enjoy higher than average temperatures. Its looking fine and dry and things will be warming up considerably over the next few days, Met Office spokesman Richard Miles told The Independent. We are going to see a general pattern of warming and everyone is going to see some sunshine at some point over the weekend. A survey of 1,258 people by tourist board VisitEngland indicates more than seven million people are planning take advantage of the weather with an overnight trip in the UK this weekend. This is up from almost five million last year and is the most since the annual survey was launched in 2013. Research by the RAC and Inrix suggests 4.4 million car journeys for leisure trips will be made on Good Friday. This is expected to cause many major routes to be clogged, with the worst delays between 11am and 4.30pm. Meanwhile, travel trade association Abta expects 2.1 million British holidaymakers to head overseas this weekend, with Spain, Turkey and Egypt all reported as popular destinations. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events This exodus means airports, ferry terminals and the Channel Tunnel are likely to be busier than usual. Easter is always one of the most popular times of year for travel and over the long weekend millions of holidaymakers will be taking either an overseas or a domestic break, said Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer. As always on a busy bank holiday, leave plenty of time to get to your departure port and check for engineering work and line closures if using public transport. Additional reporting by PA Boris Johnson has grabbed himself a highly prized new Commons office in a move designed to help him win a Conservative leadership contest. The leading Brexiteer is moving into spacious rooms big enough to accommodate a campaign team at the heart of the Westminster estate, The Independent has learnt. The switch will allow the former foreign secretary still the bookies favourite to succeed Theresa May to better coordinate efforts to win the backing of Tory MPs in the looming contest. In contrast, Mr Johnsons previous office was both smaller and some distance from Portcullis House, where MPs congregate to eat and hold informal meetings in the large atrium. His move comes as grassroots Tories begin efforts to topple the prime minister after her failure to deliver Brexit on time, by triggering an extraordinary general meeting of the Conservatives National Convention. At the same time, Conservative MPs are gathering signatures to try to force her out within weeks, if, as feared, the 2 May local elections end in defeat for many hundreds of Tory councillors. Mr Johnson was offered the office switch by Mike Penning, a former minister who revealed he is close to endorsing the man he describes as a winner. Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Nigel Farage speaks at the launch of his new Brexit Party's campaign for the European elections Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Brexit Party candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaks at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A supporter waits for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters wait for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage's socks Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage and prospective candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg wait at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters listen as Farage speaks AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Free T-shirts for all attendees AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Posters on the seats for supporters of the Brexit Party AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A safety sign is pictured AFP/Getty If Boris is going to run for the leadership, then he needs to have a full team around him and he needs the office to allow him to do that, Mr Penning told The Independent. He could well be the next prime minister, so it needs to be a credible office at the heart of Westminster not a box in some annexe away from where MPs are most of the time. Mr Johnson is moving from a room in a separate building on the corner of Whitehall to above the busy Portcullis House atrium. Ironically, the office he is vacating was previously used by Michael Gove, after Ms May turfed him out of the cabinet in 2016, before bringing him back in desperation. The help being given by Mr Penning, a working-class Tory, to Mr Johnson an Old Etonian will raise eyebrows, but will also be highly valued. The former home office minister is a renowned Tory fixer who helped propel Iain Duncan Smith to the Tory leadership in 2001 and was an adviser to William Hague before that. Mr Penning added: I have not declared my support for Boris, but it is pretty obvious from my offer that I am minded to do that. He is a winner, as he showed in London. I have offered him the office because it is much more substantial than his current one and I dont really need one that large. The campaign to succeed Ms May is already effectively underway, despite her determination to survive until she wins Commons approval for a deal. Mr Johnson is keen for an early contest, standing on a promise of adopting a tougher stance towards Brussels. Up to eight cabinet ministers could yet launch a bid, in an extraordinarily crowded field to be whittled down, by votes of Conservative MPs, to just two. If Mr Johnson makes that final pairing, he is expected to be difficult to stop when the ultimate choice is made in a ballot of the partys 120,000 members. Close 'The only thing that can save us is Nigel Farage', jokes Guy Verhofstadt A Ukip election candidate has refused to apologise for sending a rape tweet to Labours Jess Phillips, as the anti-EU party kicked off its European election campaign at a chaotic event. Carl Benjamin claimed he was justified in being a giant dick to the MP. He complained she had been a bitch before he sent her a message saying: I wouldnt even rape you. Ukip leader Gerard Batten earlier stormed out of an interview after being challenged over his defence of the tweet. His party faces being eclipsed by its former leader in next months EU vote, with polls showing Nigel Farages Brexit Party is on course for victory. Official figures show consumers have continued to ignore concerns about Brexit to send retail sales surging in March Sales were up 1.1 per cent on February, well above expectations of a fall of 0.3 per cent, driven by food and non-store retailing, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. However all retailers except department stores and household goods stores saw an increase in sales in the three months to March 2019 compared with the previous quarter. Department stores were the only store type to suffer a decrease in sales of 0.3 per cent - when compared with last March. Follow the days political news Please allow a moment for this live article to load Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party is on course for a shock victory at next month's European Parliament elections, another poll has found. The second YouGov survey in two days confirmed yesterday's finding that the party had leapfrogged the Conservatives and Labour, suggesting it could top the ballot in the 23 May vote. The latest poll, set out in an infographic below created for The Independent by statistics agency Statista, places the Brexit Party on 23 per cent, Labour on 22 per cent and the Conservatives on 17 per cent. It suggests a narrower lead for Mr Farage than the first survey, which had the Brexit Party on 27 per cent, Labour on 22 per cent and the Tories on 15 per cent. Change UK, the group of MPs who defected from the Conservatives and Labour earlier this year, are on 8 per cent, just behind the Green Party (10 per cent) and the Liberal Democrats (9 per cent), according to the poll for The Times. Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Nigel Farage speaks at the launch of his new Brexit Party's campaign for the European elections Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Brexit Party candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaks at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A supporter waits for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters wait for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage's socks Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage and prospective candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg wait at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters listen as Farage speaks AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Free T-shirts for all attendees AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Posters on the seats for supporters of the Brexit Party AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A safety sign is pictured AFP/Getty The surveys suggest the Brexit Party has attracted significant support from former supporters of Ukip, which is languishing on 6 per cent. Pollsters said a large number of Tory voters furious at Theresa May's failure to deliver Brexit are also backing the new party. The Brexit Party only launched last week, having been formed in January. European Parliament voting intentions, from YouGov poll (The Independent/Statista) Mr Farage, the former Ukip leader, presented his new party to the public alongside Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of Tory Brexiteer leader Jacob Rees-Mogg. She had twice stood to be a Conservative MP but has now defected to the Brexit Party and is its top pick for a European Parliament seat. Mr Farage told supporters: I do believe that we can win these European elections and that we can again start to put the fear of God into our members of parliament in Westminster. They deserve nothing less than that after the way theyve treated us over this betrayal." Responding to the latest poll, he wrote on Twitter: "There is a long way to go, but it is clear that there is a desire to change politics for good. Positive vibes!" Mr Farage led Ukip to victory in the 2014 European Parliament elections, when it topped the poll with 26.6 per cent of the vote, but the party's popularity has tanked under current leader Gerard Batten. YouGov's director of political research, Anthony Wells, said the Brexit Party's clear name was helping it win over Leave voters. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events He said: "They've got very good branding - it does what it says on the tin. If you want to say 'I support Brexit' you've got a party there that is called the Brexit Party. That probably does help them in away that Change UK does not help The Independent Group." He added: "Some of the surge is that people didn't realise that Nigel Farage is now the Brexit Party not Ukip, but some of it might be that it is in the immediate aftermath of them getting lots of publicity from their launch." A teenager in Wisconsin confessed to killing two of his grandparents and even typed up a plan for the attack, the AP reports. Alexander Kraus was charged on Sunday in Appleton, Wisconsin with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of Dennis Kraus and Letha Kraus, aged 74 and 73 respectively. Alexander Kraus, 17, reportedly typed out several pages outlining his plan to shoot and kill the couple. According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, the pages were found in a red folder and do not include a motive for killing Krauss grandparents. The AP notes that the complaint also mentioned a book found in Krauss camouflage backpack about an executioner. Kraus, who is a junior at Neenah High School in Wisconsin, reportedly told investigators that he was planning to cause harm to his high school, but details of his plans have not been revealed. Police determined that the students and teachers were in no immediate danger, and school proceeded as usual on Monday. Alexander Kraus reportedly spent the night at his grandparents home before killing them. Police found a shotgun with a knife taped to the end of barrel on a bed in the home of the Kraus grandparents, whose bodies were found in their kitchen. A search through the house also revealed a second shotgun, two gun cases, a large amount of various ammunition, and an undisclosed number of other guns in a gun cabinet. Police say Dennis Kraus was shot once in the head, while Letha Kraus was shot once in the arm and once in the head. Each charge carries a life sentence. Alexander Kraus is currently being held on a $2m bond. A Republican lawmakers invitation for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to meet with coal miners in his home state of Kentucky backfired completely after the progressive Washington newcomer accepted without hesitation. Ms Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to serve in the US House of Representatives, has served as a lightning rod across party lines for her Green New Deal resolution, which seeks to provide a comprehensive response to the global threat of climate change. Andy Barr, the Kentucky Republican who initially invited the 29-year-old congresswoman to his state, said at the time that local coal miners would tell her what the Green New Deal would mean for their families, their paychecks, while suggesting the resolution could destroy their industry. To his apparent surprise, the first-term Democrat from New York immediately accepted his invitation, saying she would be happy to meet the coal miners and noted her resolution provides pension payments for those who have worked in the mining industry. We want a just transition to make sure we are investing in jobs across those swaths of the country, she said in her response to Mr Barrs invitation. Suddenly, that invite appears to include some caveats. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez greets fellow lawmakers ahead of the State of the Union address Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez participates in an event with Democratic members of Congress EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures The Democrat senator speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol January 30, 2019 Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democrat Rashida Tlaib AP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Senate chamber to watch two votes on January 24, 2019 Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arrives with Chellie Pingree at a House Democratic Caucus meeting Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez during Donald Trump's State of the Union address Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures New York State Assembly member Catalina Cruz with Ocasio-Cortez AFP/Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Nydia Velazquez talks with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez casts her vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez poses with a campaign worker during a whistle stop in the Queens borough of New York Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez outside the US Capitol AFP/Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez after casting her ballot in the 2018 midterm general election at a polling site in New York EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looks on during a march organised by the Women's March Alliance in Manhattan Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio Cortez looks on at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 16, 2019 AFP/Getty In order to accompany her on a trip to meet with local coal miners, Mr Barr demanded an apology from Ms Ocasio-Cortez towards Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican she has criticised for sharing a false tweet that claimed Ilhan Omar denied the attacks on September 11, 2001 were an act of terror. Ms Ocasio-Cortez has defended the Minnesota Democrat after conservatives and Donald Trump spread false and misleading information about her. On Wednesday, it did not appear she was about to back down from that position. Luckily, we still have open borders with Kentucky, Corbin Trent, a spokesperson for Ms Ocasio-Cortez, told The Courier-Journal. We dont need Congressman Barr to meet with coal miners and have a town hall, he added, though wed love his participation if we do. As GQ Magazine reported Wednesday, Kentucky Republicans are now publicly voicing their opposition to Ms Ocasio-Cortez headed to the Bluegrass State. I think we need to be very prepared when we debate her on issues that we're having a hard time with, James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, told local news outlets, warning Republicans are making a mistake picking on her. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Responding to his comments on Twitter, the lawmaker wrote, GOPs getting scared that up close, their constituents will realize Im fighting harder for their healthcare than their own Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has responded to the publication of the Mueller report by accusing Republicans of double standards on the issue of impeachment. As the White House and Republicans sought to claim the special counsels report contained no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and that Democrats had no grounds to try and impeach Donald Trump, she tweeted a video that contained several members of the GOP explaining why they had censured Bill Clinton two decades ago. Among them was senator Orrin Hatch who said of Mr Clintons 1998 impeachment by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives: This great nation can tolerate a president who makes mistakes. "But it cannot tolerate one who makes a mistake and then breaks the law to cover it up. Any other citizen would be prosecuted for these crimes. Mitch McConnell, how the Republican leader of the senate, said in the months leading up to Mr Clintons impeachment: Our nation is indeed at a crossroads. Will we pursue the search for truth or will we dodge, weave and evade the truth? Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS "I am of course referring to the investigation into serious allegations of illegal conduct by the president of the United States. Donald Trump says he's 'having a good day' following Mueller report release Lindsay Graham, a senator from South Carolina and a staunch defender of the president, said 20 years ago of Mr Clinton: You dont even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job [as president] in this constitutional republic if this body determines your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role. The New York congresswoman posted the video with the words Throwback Thursday Democratic leadership in Congress has slammed attorney general William Barr for his irresponsible and partisan handling of the Mueller report, and has demanded public testimony regarding the investigation into Donald Trump as soon as possible. In a joint statement ahead of Mr Barrs planned press conference and the reports expected release on Thursday, speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer demanded that the attorney speak truth to the American people. Attorney general Barrs regrettably partisan handling of the Mueller report, including his slanted March 24th summary letter, his irresponsible testimony before Congress last week, and his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference later this morning hours before he allows the public or Congress to see it have resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality, the statement read. The statement continued: We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsels investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible. The American people deserve to hear the truth. Mr Barrs planned press conference comes roughly a month after the Justice Department received the Mueller report from the special counsels office, and after the attorney general released a four page letter to Congress summarising the report. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS In that letter, Mr Barr wrote that the investigation had found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential campaign. The attorney general also said in that letter that the special counsel had failed to reach a conclusion on the question of Mr Trumps obstruction of justice. The letter was immediately decried by Democrats in Congress, who questioned whether Mr Barr was accurately describing the evidence against the president, or if he was helping to spin the media narrative around the report. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Mr Barr subsequently testified before Congress, where he largely refused to divulge further details about the Mueller report, but offers his opinion that the FBI had spied on the Trump campaign. The attorney generals office also reportedly briefed the White House on the Mueller report before its release to Congress, leading to further concerns that the Justice Department was not acting independently. The Mueller report has been released, with 400 pages of slightly redacted material detailing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. While attorney general William Barr has said that the report found no evidence of collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia in that effort, plenty of questions remain. Beyond collusion, the investigation looked into whether the president sought to obstruct justice by firing former FBI James Comey over his investigation into Russian meddling a firing that spurred the creation of the Mueller investigation itself. The report was delivered to Congress on Thursday morning shortly after Mr Barr conducted a press conference in Washington, where he doubled down on his decision to declare that there was insufficient evidence of that obstruction. That decision came even though he said the report found ten potential instances where obstruction occurred. Mueller report by on Scribd After being released to Congress, the report was made available on the special counsel's website. That website, and the report, can be accessed here. The Independent's live blog of the report can be found here. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS While the Mueller report made available publicly has been redacted for various reasons, Mr Barr said on Thursday that he would make an un-redacted version of the report available to Congress. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The redacted version, he said, will have notes indicating why information was kept back. But, he also said that the White House did not assert executive privilege. Close US attorney general: 'Special counsel confirmed Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with 2016 election' Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report has finally been released to the public and we're beginning to get a sense of what's inside. The Department of Justice released a redacted version of the report into Russian interference in the 2016 election Thursday following a press conference held by Attorney General William Barr. The Independent's Chris Riotta, Victoria Gagliardo-Silver and Lily Puckett reviewed the report, finding numerous examples of inappropriate contacts between Russian operatives and members of the Trump campaign throughout the 2016 presidential election, as well as extensive business discussions between Mr Trump and his associates to discuss a major real estate project in Moscow as he was running for the White House. Mr Trumps efforts to influence the Russia investigation were mostly unsuccessful, according to the report, but that was because the people surrounding the president declined to carry out orders to accede to his requests. Mr Muellers report details instances by several officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, former White House counsel Don McGahn and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, ignoring or refusing the president's requests to interfere in the investigation. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS The most heavily redacted portion of the report appears in its first section, which covers Russias meddling in the 2016 election and examines contacts between Russian representatives and the Trump campaign. The report concludes there was no criminal culpability by Trump aides. Several pages in that first section are almost entirely blacked out. The reports second section, examining possible obstruction by Mr Trump, appeared more lightly redacted. Recommended Read the Mueller report here The Justice Departments careful excisions begin as early as the fourth page of the report. Mr Barr said he was withholding grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to ongoing investigation and the privacy or reputation of uncharged peripheral people. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events In referencing an oligarch who headed up a team of Russian tech experts who used US social media to exploit American political controversies, Justice officials blacked out details about the mans ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Additional reporting by AP. Check out The Independent's initial live-read of the document below. Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Donald Trump has flown out of Washington to his resort in Florida, falsely claiming Robert Mueller had totally exonerated him, and with Democrats assessing how best to respond to a report that failed to provide them with a true smoking gun. Five hours after the special counsels lightly redacted report was finally made public, the president waved and grinned as he boarded Air Force One for a three-day weekend. He did not speak to reporters, but earlier said at the White House he was having a good day as the report revealed no collusion, no obstruction. Later, apparently tweeting while on his way south, Mr Trump urged people to watch Fox News later and said: It was a really great day for America. In truth, Mr Muellers report did not represent the total exoneration the president claimed it did. While the investigation did not find evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, it uncovered multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Likewise, the full report confirmed what had been conceded by attorney general William Barr, who said Mr Mueller wrote while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. The report contained much damaging information about the presidents behaviour, not least his efforts to fire the person who led the investigation. Indeed, after Mr Mueller was appointed in May 2017 to lead the probe after the presidents firing of FBI Director James Comey, he believed his presidency was over and that he was f***ed. He tried to have him fired or the investigation halted, something White House lawyers lawyers pushed back on. Mr Muellers report contained 11 instances that he and his team examined as possible breaches either of protocol of legality. He provided evidence to find both for and against such a finding. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS For instance, the report noted, in June 2017, Mr Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to tell the then-acting attorney general, Jeff Sessions, that Mr Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed, Reuters noted. It also said there was substantial evidence the president fired Mr Comey as FBI director in 2017 due to his unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation. It also said there was some some evidence suggesting Mr Trump knew about former national security adviser Michael Flynns controversial calls with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office, but evidence was inconclusive and could not be used to establish intent to obstruct. The report said Mr Trump directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to ask Mr Sessions to reconsider the decision to recuse himself from the probe and say the Russia investigation was very unfair. Indeed, large chunks of Mr Muellers report detail the presidents efforts to halt the investigation into Russias alleged election interference and possible collusion. Robert De Niro plays Robert Mueller in SNL sketch When Mr Sessions told the president about his appointment in the spring of 2017, an appointment made following Mr Trumps firing of Mr Comey, he was said to have slumped into his chair and declared: Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im ****ed. He then turned to the one time Alabama senator who had joined his cabinet as chief law enforcement and legal officer, and blamed him. How could you let this happen, Jeff, he said. You were supposed to protect me. He added: Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. Such was the presidents determination to halt the process, he telephoned Mr McGahn, who left the White House in October 2018, and asked him to intervene. Mr McGahn told Mr Muellers team he was told by the president: Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and cant be special counsel. Mueller has to go and: Call me back when you do it. The White House and supporters of Trump were quick to claim a victory. Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway told reporters: Were taking apologies. Mr Trumps 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale, said Republicans should turn the tables and investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation. Meanwhile, Democrats were struggling to find a way forward. They said Mr Barrs decision to hold a preemptive press conference sought to create a false narrative and that the actual report revealed troubling details about Mr Trumps conduct in the White House. In a joint statement, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, wrote: One thing is clear: attorney general Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Muellers report appears to undercut that finding. House judiciary committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said the report outlined disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct. He sent a letter to the justice department requesting that Mr Mueller himself testify before his panel no later than May 23 and said he would be issuing a subpoena for the full special counsel report and the underlying materials. At the same time, Democrats are probably unlikely to pursue Mr Trumps impeachment, jugging that the country is in little mood for another lengthy probe, and that their efforts are better focussed on trying to beat the president in the 2020 presidential election. Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point, Ms Pelosis deputy, Steny Hoyer told CNN. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgement. Among those seeking impeachment is congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who has already tabled a resolution. Among the first Democrats to sign was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She tweeted: "Muellers report is clear in pointing to Congress responsibility in investigating obstruction of justice by the president. It is our job as outlined in Article 1, Sec 2, Clause 5 of the US constitution. As such, Ill be signing onto @RashidaTlaibs impeachment resolution." The chair of the US House Intelligence Committee was in London last year asking questions about people who have been investigating Donald Trump. One of his key targets was Christopher Steele, who had written the explosive dossier on Trump and the Kremlin that was given massive publicity. Devin Nunes was particularly keen on who the former MI6 officer had contacts in the FBI and Justice Department. He asked to meet the head of MI6, Alex Younger, and his counterparts at MI5, Andrew Parker, and GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming. Although it was far from unusual for the chair of the House Intelligence Committee to meet the heads of Britains security establishment, all three refused because they were wary, according to officials, of his motives. He had to make do instead with Theresa Mays deputy national security advisor, Madeleine Alessandri. The visit by Mr Nunes, who was part of Trumps transition team, was at a particularly difficult time for the president. His personal lawyer and consigliere, Michael Cohen, and former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, were in court. Mr Nunes had to recuse himself for a while from the investigation after being caught out making secret visits to the White House. The Republican-controlled House Committee published its report in spring last year, with dissenting notes from the Democrat members, and it was seen as whitewash of Trump. Mr Nunes is no longer the chair of the Intelligence Committee in the Democrat-controlled House, it is Adam Schiff, the former deputy chair who has been a vociferous advocate for investigation. This is a man who can do Trump a great deal of damage, a man he could perhaps have tried to mend fences with. Instead, the president referred to him in a tweet as Adam Schitt just after he took the post. The House Intelligence Committee, under Schiff, said today that it has requested Robert Mueller to testify and it has reopened its investigation into Mr Trump. The Mueller report reveals one reason why the special counsel did not conclude whether Mr Trump was guilty of obstruction Justice Department policy that a sitting president could not be prosecuted for a crime. This, a number of analysts has pointed out, leaves it to congress to make the constitutional decision whether Mr Trump can be charged. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS This House inquiry is possibly the most hawkish in keeping after Mr Trump, but there are about 20 different continuing probes into Mr Trump, his family and associates, by congressional committees and federal and state prosecutors. And no fewer than 14 of these inquiries have received information gathered by the special counsels team and passed it on because it did not fit in with the focus of their task. Just 48 hours before attorney general William Barr gave his press conference claiming that Trump had been cleared, a performance for which he was criticised for acting like the presidents defence attorney, House Democrats were issuing subpoenas for information from Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions in their investigation of Mr Trump. As we know from redacted copies of the Mueller report, when told of the appointment of a special counsel, the president slumped back in his chair and said, Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency, Im f****d. The 675-day inquiry may be over, but Trump and his supporters have long complained that Mueller was going beyond his remit. Now the presidents critics know that what he gathered has not been wasted but taken up by other investigators. The special counsel, we have seen, pointed to 10 episodes in which Mr Trump engaged in potential obstruction of justice. Barr insisted that there was no evidence to bring charges and reiterated that there was no collusion between Russians and the Trump team. But the Mueller report also states that Mr Trump ordered a number of his team, former attorney general Jeff Sessions, lawyer Don McGahn, and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, to sabotage the Russia inquiry but they refused. Recommended Read the Mueller report here The ongoing investigations are looking for evidence of both collusion and obstruction. The Democrats who have launched investigations maintain that just because the president failed in his attempts to obstruct justice, he is not absolved from possible charges of conspiracy to obstruct. The House Intelligence Committee has expanded its scope by looking in particular at Russian organised crime. This is in response to claims that Russian loans received by Mr Trump were in fact illicit funds being laundered. Other lines of inquiry being pursued by the committee include the extent of contact between the Trump team and Russia, influence on Mr Trump and his coterie from other foreign states, and whether Trump obstructed justice. One of the key events which emerged during the Mueller investigation was a meeting at Trump Tower in New York, between Donald Trump Jr, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, his then campaign manager Paul Manafort, and a group of Russians, some of them with links to the countrys security apparatus. The meeting was allegedly arranged so a Russian lawyer could pass on dirt on the Clinton campaign. Michael Cohen claims that Donald Trump knew about the meeting despite his denials that was the case. The Mueller report states that Trump directed aides on multiple occasions not to disclose emails setting up the meeting, and Trump himself dictated a misleading statement. But the special counsel concluded that presidents actions were not criminal acts. The report also states that it did not prosecute Donald Jr and others because it could not be proved that they had wilfully violated the law. The damage to Hillary Clintons campaign through the hacking of her and Democrat party emails is another avenue the House Committee is said to be taking. The information was stolen, according to Mueller indictments, by Russian military intelligence officers, some of whom were in touch with WikiLeaks which then made it public. The committee is said to be looking at allegations against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, who is now in police custody in London after being arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy where he had been granted asylum for seven years. Continuing investigations into Trump are examining what took place from the very start of his presidency. The US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York is examining the finances of Trumps inauguration committee, which took in and spent $107m (80m). The FBI raised concerns about some of the Russians who appeared at the inauguration and other eastern European connections. Sam Patten, an associate of Mr Manafort, has admitted that he helped a Ukrainian businessman put $50,000 into the inauguration. Prosecutors subpoenaed a range of documents from the committee with apparent particular interest in money donated with connection to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel states that have financial ties with Trump or his son-in-law Jared Kushner. They are also believed to be looking at claims that China and Qatar also targeted Kushner, who is a White House senior advisor. Mr Mueller passed on information to New York attorneys about Mr Manafort. They are now looking at whether Mr Manafort, when chair of the Trump campaign, illegally coordinated with a super PAC, Rebuilding America Now, and whether the PAC received money from Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. Michael Cohen has testified to congress that prosecutors are examining his communications with Trump and Trumps representatives following FBI raids on his offices in April 2018. New York investigators are looking at Trumps finances after The New York Times reported that he had benefited from more than $400m in various tax schemes. And the New York attorney general has charged the Trump Foundation with violations of campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign. The attorney general has said, the go-ahead from a judge, that he is expanding his inquiries into Trumps broader business activities. Meanwhile, the attorney generals for Maryland and District of Columbia have sent subpoenas to the Trump Organisation a real-estate company over the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution. This clause bars the president from accepting payments from foreign governments while in office. The case is expected to yield evidence that various countries have done deals with Trumps business for example, the Saudi government booked more than 500 rooms in Trumps hotel in Washington in the months after the election. So this is not the end of the affair as far as Trump and Russia are concerned, not even the beginning of the end. Information Mueller has provided has helped to start other investigations into Trump, and what is revealed in the report, even with its redactions, will be of great help in deciding whether the US president really was the Muscovian candidate for the White House. North Korea has called for US secretary of state Mike Pompeo to be removed from nuclear talks because of his reckless and immature behaviour, according to reports. The official KCNA news agency quoted Kwon Jong-gun, a senior foreign ministry official, as accusing Mr Pompeo of fabricating stories like a fiction writer. Whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in, the talks go wrong without any results even from the point close to success, Mr Kwon said. I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled. Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the US, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us. North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits Show all 16 1 /16 North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, portraits of former supreme leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are required by law to be hung in the home, the classroom, the factory and all manner of other private and public places Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the classroom AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the living room AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the maternity ward of the hospital Alamy North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On board the ship Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the ballot box Mannen av bord North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the office AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On the bridegroom Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On the Pyongyang subway Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On a government building Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the teacher training facility AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the home AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the military parade Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the hall Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the Chinese border AFP/Getty The statement was made shortly after North Korea announced that its supreme leader Kim Jong-un had overseen the testing of a new tactical guided weapon. It was the Norths first weapons test since negotiations over nuclear disarmament and US sanctions broke down at the second summit between Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump in February. Last week the North Korean leader announced that he would only consider a third summit if the US brought the right attitude to talks and changed its hostile policy, including tough sanctions, before the end of the year. On Monday, Mr Pompeo responded by saying that Mr Kim had promised to denuclearise during his first summit with Mr Trump and that officials were trying to chart a path forward so we can get there. The North Korean statement by Mr Kwon accused Mr Pompeo of talking nonsense. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events We cannot be aware of Pompeos ulterior motive behind his self-indulgence in reckless remarks; whether he is indeed unable to understand words properly or just pretending on purpose, said Mr Kwon. However, it is a very dangerous situation if he really did not grasp the meaning. If his behaviour is intended, I think it is none other than silly calculation to be free from the constraint that the US should make a move until the end of the year, misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement as the finalization of the working level negotiation by the end of the year by help of his talented skill of fabricating stories like a fiction writer. Mr Pompeo was also accused of spouting reckless remarks hurting the dignity of our supreme leadership believed to be a reference to the secretary of states agreement that Mr Kim was a tyrant. Additional reporting by agencies Two Democratic-led Congressional committees have issued subpoenas to nine major banks as part of their investigations into Donald Trumps finances, according to the latest reports. Those banks include Deutsche Bank, which was previously reported to have received subpoenas from lawmakers surrounding the presidents financial records, and at least eight others, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The banks include the following: Citigroup Inc, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co, Bank of America, Capital One Financial Corporation, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank. In a statement released earlier this week, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff described the subpoenas as part of an investigation "into allegations of potential foreign influence on the US political process." He did not name the other financial institutions or describe the subpoenas at the time. In a separate statement, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters said "the potential use of the US financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern." Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty She also said her committee is looking into those matters, including whether they pertain to Mr Trump. The investigations are among several House Democrats are conducting into aspects of the president's personal and political life, and Mr Schiff has said he is investigating whether foreign actors, including Russia, have sought to hold leverage over Mr Trump or his family and associates. Eric Trump, the president's son and executive vice president of The Trump Organisation, said in a statement released Monday that the subpoenas were "an unprecedented abuse of power and simply the latest attempt by House Democrats to attack the President and our family for political gain." As part of his investigation, Mr Schiff has said he wants to know whether Russians used laundered money for transactions with the Trump Organisation. The presidents businesses have reportedly benefited from Russian investment over the years. Recommended Washington attorney general subpoenas Trump inauguration committee Deutsche Bank is a German asset management firm that has lent Mr Trump's real estate organisation millions of dollars over time. The two committees have been working with the bank for several weeks, and both Ms Waters and Mr Schiff have said officials have been cooperative. Mr Schiff said in his statement that the subpoena to Deutsche Bank is a "friendly" subpoena, meaning he expects them to continue working with the committees. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The request comes as a third committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, is sparring with the White House over Mr Trump's tax returns. The Associated Press contributed to this report Close Trump says he has not seen or read the Mueller report The explosive, and much-anticipated, release of the Mueller report has come. Just after attorney general William Barr stood behind a podium and largely seemed to defend Donald Trump, the damaging report was released, showing that Mr Trump attempted to fire Robert Mueller multiple times and that he said he thought his presidency was "f****d" after the special counsel was appointed. Mr Barr has declined to prosecute Mr Trump for obstruction, a decision he announced last year. But, the special counsel investigation highlights an incredible amount of damaging nuance to that decision. And, Democrats were quick to challenge the assumption that Mr Trump did not commit a crime, or that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Instead, the 400 page document detailed dozens of interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian officials seeking to flip members of the Trump team. In addition, the report detailed a shocking propensity for White House officials to disregard the president when it comes to the Russia investigation and that willingness to ignore the president could be a saving grace for Mr Trump. According to the report, Mr Trump attempted repeatedly to get his staff to force Mr Mueller's firing. Those staff members just ignored him, though. There's a lot to unpack and we've done most of that work for you below. Please read along for the updates we posted throughout the day from Mr Barr's press conference, to the shocking revelations of the report, to the reaction as Washington transitioned into its next phase of the Trump presidency: Please allow the blog a moment to load. Sarah Huckabee Sanders revealed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller what many of her critics have long claimed: she misled the American public while working for Donald Trump. The White House press secretary revealed in her conversations with prosecutors that she inaccurately claimed to have received messages from FBI members in the wake of the presidents decision to fire ex-FBI Director James Comey. At the time, Ms Sanders said she was receiving messages from countless members of the FBI that said they had lost confidence in the ex-FBI director. In her conversations with the special counsels office, however, it was determined Ms Sanders claims were not founded on anything. Ms Sanders instead described her false statement as a slip of the tongue, also revealing she spoke to the president shortly after the press briefing in which she lied for Mr Trump. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS He told her that she did a good job, the report said, and did not point out any inaccuracies in her comments. The massive, 448-page report was released Thursday with a significant level of redactions. Ms Sanders told the press after Comeys termination that the White House had heard from countless FBI agents who had lost confidence in Comey, the report states. But the evidence does not support those claims. The President told Comey at their 27 January dinner that the people of the FBI really like [him], no evidence suggests that the President heard otherwise before deciding to terminate Comey, and Sanders acknowledged to investigators that her comments were not founded on anything. House Democrats are now calling on Mr Mueller to testify by May 23, describing the attorney generals decision to withhold a full version of the report as regrettable, but no longer surprising. Recommended Read the Mueller report here Congress two top Democrats say the special counsels report appears to undercut Mr Barrs assertion that it lacked sufficient evidence to conclude that Mr Trump obstructed justice. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said theres a big difference between Mr Barrs description of Mr Muellers report and what the document actually reveals. Their joint statement suggests that Democrats are prepared to press the obstruction issue even as the presidential election season approaches. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Meanwhile, Mr Barr announced his intention to provide a small group of lawmakers with a report including fewer redactions than the one released Thursday. Additional reporting by AP Donald Trump has tweeted a Game of Thrones-themed poster just moments after the completion of a press conference by the attorney general derided by critics as an attempt to protect the president ahead of the Mueller report's release. "No collusion, no obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats - GAME OVER," reads the message, which is written in font similar to that used on the popular HBO fantasy drama. The poster, which features an image of Mr Trump turned away and surrounded by mist, appears an attempt by the president to pre-empt the upcoming release of Robert Mueller's report on the Trump campaign's links to Russia, and whether the president obstructed justice. William Barr, the attorney general, had just seconds earlier finished taking questions from reporters following a speech in which he repeatedly parroted Mr Trump's line that the special counsel probe had found "no collusion". Eager to get in the last word ahead of the public release of the special counsel's report, Mr Barr laid out in advance what he said was the "bottom line". While Mr Mueller drew no conclusion about whether MrTrump had obstructed justice in the investigation, Mr Barr said he and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein personally had concluded that while Mr Trump was "frustrated and angry" about the Mueller probe, nothing the president did rose to the level of an "obstruction-of-justice offence". Mr Barr said Mr Mueller's report examined 10 episodes pertaining to Mr Trump and obstruction. He said the president did not exert executive privilege to withhold anything in the report, and he said the president's personal lawyer had requested and gotten a chance to review the report before its public release. The Justice Department will release a redacted version of the special counsel's report later, opening up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country. Earlier, Mr Trump used a tweet to claim the investigation into Russian election meddling was "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!". 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range Show all 6 1 /6 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The mug 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The can cooler 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The can cooler Also minutes after the press conference ended, House judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler released a three-page letter asking Mr Mueller to testify soon before his panel about the 400-page document. The New York Democrat tweeted that Congress and the public need to hear directly from Mr Mueller to "better understand his findings". He wrote in his letter he wants Mr Mueller to testify by 23 May and asked for his "prompt attention" to the request. Mr Barr said at his news conference he did not object to Mr Mueller testifying. Additional reporting by agencies Donald Trump has said a lot of strong things will come out as a redacted version of the report into Russian election interference and the presidents alleged collusion is made public. As it emerged attorney general William Barr would hold a press conference on Thursday morning, a full 90 minutes before a blacked-out rendering of Robert Muellers report is published, the president said he may have his own, a sign the White House intends to go on the attack from the outset. Youll see a lot of strong things come out tomorrow, Mr Trump told Washingtons WMAL radio. Attorney general Barr is going to be doing a press conference. Maybe Ill do one after that, well see. Democrats said Mr Barrs decision to hold a press conference before the report was released, was an attempt to spin a narrative. As The New York Times reported White House lawyers had been in contact with department of justice officials in recent days, conversations that had helped the presidents legal team prepare for the report's release, Mr Trump again went on the offensive. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS He claimed Mr Barr had done a fantastic job in dealing with Mr Muellers report and grabbed it by the horns. He repeated his own, and Mr Barrs claims, that his campaign had been spied on by Barack Obamas administration. This should never happen to a president, or to this country, again, he said. Whats happened has been unthinkable Its been a disgrace to our country. I hope I going to be able to put this down as one of my greatest achievements. Earlier this month, testifying before the Senate appropriations subcommittee, Mr Barr said he believed that spying on a political campaign is a big deal. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Asked to clarify his remarks, he said: I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was adequately predicated and I am not suggesting that it wasnt adequately predicated. It is known that the FBI sought and obtained a warrant from a special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, often referred to as a FISA warrant, to monitor Carter Page, the Trump campaign advisor who was suspected of having ties to Russia. Although Mr Page left Mr Trumps campaign in September 2016, after articles highlighted his Russian ties, the following month the FBI applied for a warrant to surveil him, CNN reported. The warrant was approved and subsequently renewed three times. Mr Page gave testimony on Capitol Hill and sent a letter to Mr Muellers team requesting information about the warrant, but never faced any charges. Asked by WMAL host Larry OConnor if he believed Mr Obama had knowledge of everything that was going on, Mr Trump said he would leave his answer for another day. He added: There are those who say how could it be possible that he did not know I put myself in that category and it certainly would be had to believe that he did not know what was going on. It also emerged two redacted versions of Mr Muellers report will be released. Jessie Liu, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a court filing that some legislators will be able to see a less-redacted version of the report. The justice department plans to make available for review by a limited number of Members of Congress and their staff a copy of the special counsels report without certain redactions, Ms Liu said. Late on Wednesday, House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, said Mr Barrs decision to brief the White House ahead of the reports release and to hold a press conference before the public saw its contents, represented unprecedented steps to spin things. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr Mueller, confirmed to The Independent that neither the special counsel or anyone from his team would attend Mr Barr news conference. He declined to give a reason why. As the highly anticipated Mueller Report was released, we gained some insight as to why the Special Counsels team declined to prosecute Donald Trump Jr. Mr Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and others had participated in the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016 where a Russian lawyer claimed they had dirt on the Clinton campaign, some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. Mr. Trump Jr was offered very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its governments support for Mr Trump, to which he replied, if its what you say I love it. President Trump claimed to not know of the meeting, although his former lawyer Michael Cohen has said differently. Hope Hicks, then communications director, and Jared Kushner were instructed to mislead the public regarding the meeting. The group was not charged as there was no proof that they willfully violated the law. 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range Show all 6 1 /6 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The mug 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The can cooler 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The can cooler The report says Taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Special Counsels team explained The office ultimately concluded that, even if the principal legal questions were resolved favourably to the government, a prosecution would encounter difficulties proving that campaign officials or individuals connected to the campaign willfully violated the law. Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation found at least 10 examples of possible obstruction of justice on the part of Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr announced at a Thursday morning press conference. The attorney general described the special counsels report ahead of its release to an audience who had not yet read its details or had a chance to look at the episodes he was describing. Mr Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein disagreed with some legal theories provided in the report while discussing the portion of it that looked at the presidents alleged obstruction of justice. Ultimately, the two heads of the Justice Department concluded the report did not provide enough evidence to charge Mr Trump with obstruction into the investigation. The special counsel did not exonerate the president over the issue of obstruction of justice, as the attorney general noted in his four-page summary. He frequently echoed the president's claims of "no collusion" throughout the press conference, saying at one point there was "no evidence of collusion with the Russian government's hacking" operations by any members of Mr Trump's 2016 campaign. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS "The report recounts ten episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offence," Mr Barr said Thursday. He added, "After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other department lawyers, the deputy attorney general and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offence. Recommended William Barr holds press conference ahead of Mueller report release Mr Trump did not exert executive privilege over any information included in the report, according to Mr Barr. He said the White House counsel reviewed a redacted version of the report before Mr Trump decided not to invoke executive privilege. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The attorney general said no material has been redacted based on executive privilege. Additional reporting by AP Indian voters queue up to cast their vote at a polling station in Siliguri, West Bengal (AFP/Getty Images) Sporadic violence and some disappointing turnouts have marred the second day of voting in Indias mammoth general election. The worst clashes were seen in West Bengal, where rival party activists came to blows, a candidates car had its windows smashed and a number of electronic voting machines (EVMs) were broken. Unlike on day one of the vote, no one was reported to have been killed in the violence. But the clashes, on a day when only three of the states 42 constituencies were contested, are likely to lead to increased security measures in the coming weeks. The clashes in Chopra, Darjeeling meant that scores of people were unable to reach the polling station. Ajay V Nayek, a police official, said across the state polling was overall peaceful, and that those who were turned away were later escorted by security forces to cast their ballots. More than 155 million people were eligible to vote across the 13 states where polling took place on Thursday, and turnouts varied hugely across the country. In Srinagar, Kashmir, where separatists had called for a boycott of the election, just over 12 per cent of those eligible had cast their votes by 3pm, with only a few hours left before polling closed. That compared to some seats where the number was well over 70 per cent. A police official told Reuters there had been at least 40 separate incidents of stone-pelting directed at the security forces, who are ubiquitous in the valley at the best of times and were on high alert for the days voting. Police deployed tear gas and baton charges in downtown Srinagar as protesters tried to disrupt the vote, officials said. At most polling booths, armed security personnel and election officials vastly outnumbered voters. Away from those hotspots, however, the days voting appeared to pass without serious incident. In Manipur, voters complained that chief minister N Biren Singh turned up in the afternoon and jumped the queue - reportedly skipping past some people who had been waiting since 7am. And at a Delhi press conference to announce a BJP candidate for a later phase, a protester pelted the ruling partys spokesman and MP GVL Narasimha Rao with shoes. Rao immediately dismissed his assailant, who was bundled out by security, as being Congress-inspired. Heres the run-through of the days election events, as they happened. Please allow a moment for the live blog to load. In the fading afternoon light, Gammar Bam glanced down nervously at a fast-flowing river in a corner of north-eastern India. His team had already driven eight hours on one-lane mountainous roads and shaky bridges. Now they were trekking on a slippery path hugging a cliff. Bam looked at the narrow track and tried to gauge if he could clamber over an uprooted tree while carrying a voting machine. Somehow, he would have to make it work. The worlds largest electoral exercise began this month in India and will take place in seven phases over a 38-day period. Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Show all 10 1 /10 Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Workers transport ballot boxes to Bonto Matinggi village, South Sulawesi AFP/Getty Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Army and police guards guide the delivery of ballot boxes in remote East Java AFP/Getty Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Election officials deliver ballot boxes to a remote village in Southern Aceh AFP/Getty Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Workers deliver ballot boxes to Bandung in West Java amidst heavy flooding AP Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Workers deliver ballot boxes to villages outside the city of Bogor EPA Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Election officials load ballot boxes for delivery to a remote village in Southern Aceh AFP/Getty Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Workers deliver ballot boxes to remote villages in Papua province AFP/Getty Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Workers deliver ballot boxes by boat to remote villages in Papua province AFP/Getty Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Workers load ballot boxes onto a lorry in North Sumatra AP Delivering ballot boxes to Indonesia's hard to reach places Army and police guards guide the delivery of ballot boxes in remote East Java Reuters Results will be announced on 23 May. Nearly 900 million people are eligible to vote, and India is committed to reaching them all, no matter where they live. For Bam and his team of polling officers, that meant a four-day journey of over 300 miles to ensure a single voter in a remote border state could cast her vote. There is both excitement and nervousness, said Rupak Tamang, one of the team members, as he set up the voting machines. If the one voter turns up, there will be 100 percent voting, but if she doesnt, then it will be zero percent. Conducting elections in the worlds largest democracy is a Herculean task. Every five years, when national polls are held, the countrys Election Commission grapples with challenging terrain, inclement weather and poor infrastructure to ensure that no voter who wants to cast a ballot is left out. We want to make elections as participative as possible, said Ashok Lavasa, one of the three election commissioners. This is a manifestation of democracys deep roots in India. Rules mandate that no voter should have to travel more than 1.24 miles to vote. In the western state of Gujarat, a team will cross a lion-infested jungle to find a single voter. In the region of Ladakh, high in the Himalayan mountains, teams will be airlifted before trekking for one day with oxygen cylinders to reach voters. Far off the countrys east coast, on the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the teams braved crocodile swamps for nine voters. The lengths to which India goes to reach voters is a reflection of its commitment to universal franchise: unlike in the United States, all adults in India have had the right to vote since the countrys first election. To conduct the poll, the Election Commission relies on more than 11 million government employees and security personnel who temporarily become election officials. Mr Bam, a 35-year old engineer in Arunachal Pradesh, the countrys most sparsely populated state, was one of them. His task: to set up a polling booth in Malogam, a remote hamlet in forested mountains close to the border with China and more than 1,600 miles from the capital of New Delhi. According to the last census, conducted in 2011, Malogam had five residents but only one registered voter this time Sokela Tayang. The journey of Mr Bams team began two days before the first phase of the election on 11 April. They started in Hawai, the district headquarters, a small town nestled high in the mountains at an altitude of 3,600 feet. They carried two sets of voting machines, a thick sheaf of paperwork and utility items, like a bucket and battery-operated lamp. They set out early the next morning, juddering over potholed roads overlooking a shimmering river valley. The drive was only the start. Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Show all 20 1 /20 Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Hindu devotees raise their hands in prayer as they are sprayed with colour by a priest during Holi celebrations in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours A girl smears her friend in colour during Holi festival celebrations at Durgiana Temple in Armristar, India EPA Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Hindu devotees celebrate Holi inside a temple in Uttar Pradesh, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Hindu devotees are sprayed with colour by a priest during Holi celebrations in Ahmedabad, India AP Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours College girls pose during Holi festival celebrations in Bhopal, India EPA Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours A college girl takes part in the Holi festival celebrations in Bhopal, India EPA Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours A young girl smeared with colour during Holi festival celebrations at Durgiana Temple in Armristar, India EPA Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Colour fills the air during Holi celebrations in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours An Indian man is splattered with colour during Holi celebrations in Allahabad, India AP Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Hindu devotees celebrate Holi inside a temple in Uttar Pradesh, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours A vendor sells coloured powder known as gulal prior to Holi celebrations in Siliguru, India AFP/Getty Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours An Indian man is splattered with colour during Holi celebrations in Allahabad, India AP Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours A hindu priest is smeared with colour during Holi festival celebrations at Durgiana Temple in Armristar, India EPA Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours A student is covered in colour on a campus in Chandigarh, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Colour is sprayed from a temple during Holi celebrations in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Students smeared in colour dance during Holi celebrations in Chandigarh, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Hindu devotees are sprayed with colour by a priest during Holi celebrations in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Hindu devotees are sprayed with colour by a priest during Holi celebrations in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours A young man is smeared in colour by his friend during Holi festival celebrations at Durgiana Temple in Armristar, India EPA Holi 2019 in pictures: Hindus celebrate Indian Festival of Colours Women play with powdered colours Holi festival celebrations at Durgiana Temple in Armristar, India EPA In the late afternoon, they began trekking on a narrow forest path barely wide enough for one person. Mr Bam treaded lightly, deftly swatting wild overgrowth while keeping an eye out for snakes. During the hike, a problem emerged. Locals told them that Ms Tayang, the voter they had come all this way to meet, had left the area. But Mr Bam was not deterred: He decided to set up the polling booth closer to the road and try to get word to her through villagers. They zeroed in on a ragged tin shed at the edge of the forest and borrowed rickety plastic chairs and cobwebbed tables from a nearby villager. A local administrator came by to review and approve the preparations. By then, darkness had descended. The team walked to the nearest hutment with no toilet, no electricity, no cellphone signal to bunk down for the evening. They ate a simple meal of rice and lentils, then spent the night on a bamboo floor above a chicken pen. The next morning, the crowing of roosters woke them up at the crack of dawn: election day. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Mr Bams team first had to conduct a mock poll at 5am, per commission rules. The exercise is done for the benefit of candidates or their representatives to show that machines are working properly and no votes are already recorded. Even for a single voter, the practice poll required 50 mock votes. There would be no cutting corners. The polling booth in the tin shed was open for business on time, at 7am, the official start of voting across India. Ms Tayang did not disappoint. Like Mr Bam and his team, the 42-year-old farmer had also put in an effort to vote. Tending to her sick mother, 125 miles away, she returned to Malogam only to cast her ballot. She arrived just after 8:30am She was offered a yoghurt drink and asked to wait under the shade while they dealt with a last-minute glitch with the voting machine. As an election official recorded video, Ms Tayang walked into the shed, showed her identification card and had her finger dabbed with purple ink (all Indian voters receive such a mark to prevent anyone from voting twice). She stepped behind a piece of plywood to cast her vote. The machine beeped loudly. It was over in less than two minutes. She had some requests for her elected representatives. We want to ask for jobs and development through our vote, Tayang said. Looking around at the surrounding wilderness with disappointment, she said, Our area is still a jungle and needs to be developed. After a round of selfies, she thanked the team for the trouble they had taken. But while Ms Tayangs work was over within minutes, Mr Bams task was far from finished. The polling booth was required to stay open until the official close of voting at 5pm. There was tedious paperwork to complete, including a 67-item checklist. Then the voting machines needed to be sealed four times. Even a pencil has to be accounted for, Mr Bam said with a laugh. After wrapping up the paperwork, they packed up the machines and set off once more down the winding road. It would still be another day before they reached home. But for now, their job was done. The Washington Post North Korea has test-fired a new-type of tactical guided weapon, state media in the secretive communist country have reported. The countrys leader, Kim Jong-un, observed the firing by the Academy of Defence Science of the unspecified weapon, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) claimed. Mr Kim was reported to have said that the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the Peoples Army. It is thought the move could be an attempt to register the countrys displeasure with currently deadlocked nuclear talks with the United States without causing those coveted negotiations to collapse. After a failed nuclear disarmament summit between Mr Kim and US president Donald Trump in the Vietnamese city of Hanoi earlier this year, the two sides have had little reported contact. There have been worries among observers that the pariah state would turn to weapons testing which it has largely halted since a series of tests in 2017 had many fearing war. North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits Show all 16 1 /16 North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, portraits of former supreme leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are required by law to be hung in the home, the classroom, the factory and all manner of other private and public places Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the classroom AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the living room AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the maternity ward of the hospital Alamy North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On board the ship Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the ballot box Mannen av bord North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the office AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On the bridegroom Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On the Pyongyang subway Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On a government building Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the teacher training facility AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the home AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the military parade Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the hall Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the Chinese border AFP/Getty The Independent could not immediately verify North Koreas claim of the weapons test, and it was not immediately clear what had been tested. However, it is thought that it was not a banned ballistic missile test, which would jeopardise diplomatic talks meant to provide the North with concessions in return for disarmament. One of the lower level officials mentioned in the Norths report on the test Pak Jong Chon is known as an artillery official. The test comes amid reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research centre and long-range rocket site where the North is believed to build missiles targeting the US mainland. Kim mounted an observation post to learn about the test-fire of the new type of tactical guided weapon and to guide the test-fire. This is the first known time Kim Jong-un has observed the testing of a newly developed weapon system since last November, when North Korean media said he observed the successful test of an unspecified newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon. Some observers have been expecting North Korea to orchestrate low-level provocations, like artillery or short-range missile tests, to register its anger over the way nuclear negotiations were going. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The White House said it was aware of the report and had no comment. Washington has previously said it will not allow the Norths desired sanctions relief until the nation commits to verifiably relinquishing his nuclear facilities, weapons and missiles. Mr Kim has shown no signs that he is willing to give away an arsenal he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival. Agencies contributed to this report Two million bottles of wine are believed to have been destroyed in a huge warehouse fire in south west France. Almost 60 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze, which broke out across storage facility buildings in the suburb of Gironde in Bordeaux around 3pm on Tuesday. Despite extinguishing the flames several hours later, a vast quantity of alcohol owned by the Sovex Grands Chateaux producer was consumed in the fire. Around two million bottles were either destroyed or made unfit by the blaze, according to The Local news sites French edition. Around 80 employees were evacuated from the buildings and no injuries were reported. Notre Dame fire: Global tributes Show all 5 1 /5 Notre Dame fire: Global tributes Notre Dame fire: Global tributes Fenice theatre, Venice The Fenice theatre in Venice illuminated with the colors of the French flag EPA Notre Dame fire: Global tributes The dome of the Chapel of the Shroud, Turin The dome of the Chapel of the Shroud in Turin illuminated with the colors of the French flag EPA Notre Dame fire: Global tributes One World Trade Centre, New York City One World Trade Centre is lit in the colors of the French flag in solidarity with the people of France REUTERS Notre Dame fire: Global tributes Stari Most bridge, Mostar The Stari Most bridge in the Bosnia and Herzegovina city of Mostar lit in colours of the French flag AFP/Getty Images Notre Dame fire: Global tributes Empire State Building, New York City Empire State Building is lit in the colors of the French flag in solidarity with the people of France REUTERS The fire is thought to have started in one of the warehouses false ceilings, which fell onto several pallets and crates of wine. Police have opened an investigation into the cause of the fire and the company is consulting with its insurers on the extent of the damage. Founded in 1982, Sovex Grands Chateaux sells wines in more than 50 countries around the world. Recommended Fund to rebuild Notre Dame cathedral set to reach one billion euros On Thursday, French president Emmanuel Macron thanked hundreds of firefighters who helped save Notre Dame Cathedral. During a ceremony at the Elysee presidential palace, Mr Macron said: Weve seen before our eyes [your] responsibility, courage, solidarity and a meticulous organisation. The worst has been avoided. He said the firefighters would get a medal of honour for their courage and devotion. A former Nazi concentration camp guard has been charged with aiding and abetting at least 5,230 murders during the Second World War. The 92-year-old man, identified only as Bruno D in German media, is said to have spent nine months on duty at Stutthof near Gdansk in modern-day Poland. He was indicted after telling prosecutors he saw people taken to gas chambers to be killed, according to the Die Welt newspaper. What good would it have done for me to leave? Theyd just have found somebody else, he said during a voluntary interrogation last year. I felt bad for the people there. I didnt know why they were there. I knew that they were Jews who had committed no crime. Remembering the Holocaust Show all 16 1 /16 Remembering the Holocaust Remembering the Holocaust 119165.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119169.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119229.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119167.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119162.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119166.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119163.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119224.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119168.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119228.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119152.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119226.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119150.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119151.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119147.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119231.bin Hannah Bills The former SS guard claimed he was not a Nazi sympathiser and only joined the partys paramilitary organisation because a heart weakness restricted him to garrison service. Recommended Auschwitz visitors told to stop posing for disrespectful photos He was a 17-year-old trained baker when he began work at Stutthof concentration camp, where more than 60,000 people, including 28,000 Jews, died. The former guard began work on 9 August 1944 and remained there until 26 April 1945, three days before Germany surrendered to the Allies. He is said to have told prosecutors he saw the gas chambers and dead bodies being taken to the crematorium, according to Die Welt. Asked about the prisoners in the camp, he replied: They have the same right to live and work like any other person. But that was just Hitler or his party who were against it. It will be one of the last ever trials involving Nazi-era war crimes, due to the age and infirmity of the remaining suspects. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Last year the case against another former guard at Stutthof, Johann Rehbogen, was halted because the suspect was too ill to stand trial, and Oskar Groening, known as the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz, died aged 96 before starting his prison sentence. Additional reporting by Reuters The Kremlin and its media allies enjoyed a second chance to celebrate the Mueller reports main conclusions on the absence of collusion. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that there is no evidence substantiated by any facts that Russia interfered in the election, and said stressed that Moscow rejects the accusations. Peskov pointed out that President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied the claims of interference because there was none. In the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament, the chairman of the information committee, Alexei Pushkov, on Friday mocked the Mueller probe for spending millions of dollars of taxpayers money without ever proving there was any collusion between Trump and the Kremlin, instead charging Trumps former campaign chief with illegal lobbying on behalf of Ukraine. On the prime-time evening talk show Time will Tell, journalist Artyom Shenin declared that another bubble had been burst. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS In the United States anti-Russian imperial war, they promised us that Mueller would show us all, would prove everything, he said. They said they would show how Trump was colluding with us. Mr Shenin then repeated US attorney general William Barrs summary that no American citizen had colluded with Russia, to applause in the audience: So there was zero, a void, lies and fibs, he said. News bulletins meanwhile led on the cost. Of course Russia was to blame for everything, but [they decided] Trump nor any other American was involved. And that conclusion cost them $25m State-owned Rossiya television channel said in its report on the Vesti. Economy program late on Thursday that the report is not credible because it has failed to release the content of hacked emails or specific files. The Mueller probe was an attempt to threaten the current government and influence U.S. foreign policy without offering any specific evidence, it said. With additional reporting by the Associated Press Why, asks Carol L, do all the flights this summer to the Canary Islands or Greece either leave the UK or arrive back at antisocial times? They all seem to depart outrageously early or get back extremely late. I was looking for a holiday in September 2019 in the Canaries or Halkidiki, she says. All the return flight times seem to be landing in the UK after midnight. It is difficult enough with a young family without getting home at 3am. Have they stopped doing daytime flights that arrive in the UK early evening, or have all the civilised flights been sold out? For September holidays, there is no possibility that flights will have sold out. To understand why some flights are at antisocial times, you need to look at the challenges from the airlines point of view. Today, the vast majority of holiday flights from the UK originate in the UK. A decade or two ago there were a lot more European players, but formerly significant carriers like Spanair and Olympics offshoot Macedonian Airlines have disappeared. Airlines that went bust Show all 12 1 /12 Airlines that went bust Airlines that went bust Air Berlin Air Berlin, which operated flights to and from Berlin Tegel, went bankrupt in 2017 Getty Airlines that went bust Small Planet Lithuanian airline Small Planet filed for insolvency at the end of 2018 Igor Dvurekov Airlines that went bust Monarch Airlines The airline ceased operations in October 2017 AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust VLM Antwerp-based VLM went bankrupt in September 2018 Flo Weiss Airlines that went bust Germania German airline Germania filed for insolvency in February 2019 Getty Airlines that went bust Kingfisher Founded in 2005 ceased flying in October 2012 AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust Cobalt Cobalt, based in Larnaca, Cyprus, stopped flying in October 2018 Steve Lynes Airlines that went bust Mexicana An airline that had been in operation since 1921, went bust in August 2010. It was Mexico's largest airline AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust WOW Air Icelandic Wow Air ceased operation in March 2019 Getty Airlines that went bust Primera Primera, known for its cheap transatlantic fares, went bust in October 2018 Getty Airlines that went bust Transaero A privately-owened airline founded in Russia, 1990 lasted until October 2015 Getty Airlines that went bust Malev After 66 years, Hungary's national airline went stopped flying in 2012 AFP/Getty British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Thomas Cook Airlines and TUI have the outbound holiday market to the Med and beyond almost to themselves. The only significant foreign airline is the Irish low-cost giant, Ryanair, which incidentally now flies about one in four holidaymakers from the UK to Spain including the Canaries. In summer, airlines like to fit in as many hours of flying for their planes, pilots and cabin crew as they reasonably can. Between May and October, and especially late July and August, is when they make all their profit. They typically lose money for the rest of the year. Consequently that means starting early and finishing late. But there are limits. At the back end of the 20th century, I recall taking too many sleepless flights to and from the Mediterranean in the middle of the night. Airlines would typically do something like Alicante and back, then Faro and back during the day. Then for the graveyard shift they would add a late departure to Athens or Istanbul with departure about 9pm arriving at the destination in the early hours, then turning around to land back in Britain at about 6am, ready for the next days activity. But passengers, it seems, have become less tolerant of flights that get you in to some dismal fluorescent-lit foreign airport at 3am on day one of your holiday, and are waiting at 4am on day seven to take you home. Overnight flights are also a strain for the extremely hardworking cabin crew and pilots. And with even more intense air-traffic control and weather delays forecast for this summer, it helps to have five or six hours buffer to catch up if staff shortage at Karlsruhe control centre or storms over Biscay cause delays. Instead airlines plan for summer operations with departures starting about 6am, and inbound flights designed to touch down at a time when most people (who tend to have their own cars) can get home in time to have something resembling a nights sleep. This also has the bonus of making all arrivals at, and departures from, the overseas airports to be at a civilised time. So, how do these fundamentals work out in practice? Holiday flights from the UK to the Canary Islands and Greek destinations are longer than average. For example, Bristol to Lanzarote and Edinburgh to Thessaloniki (the airport serving Halkidiki) are both about 1,600 miles, which means a flying time of about four hours. (For comparison Bournemouth to Girona is less than half the distance, and just two hours.) Suppose an airline made the times as civilised as it could for those longer journeys. Can we agree on an 11am departure from the UK and a 8pm arrival back (allowing for an hour on the ground at the far end for unloading, loading and refuelling)? Lovely. That would enable someone living an hour from the airport to leave at perhaps 8am before the outbound flight, and be home by 10pm after the inbound leg. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events But such a comfortable schedule would trash the experience for passengers on the same aircraft during the rest of the day. To squeeze in a rotation to somewhere like Alicante or Palma at either end would require a 5am departure from the UK or a 4am arrival back. Better for the airline to use the same aircraft for a couple of long sectors in a single day, which means something like a 7am departure for either the Canaries or Greek destinations, and getting back at 1am for the other location. Hence from the average Canary island or Greek airport, there are two waves of UK-bound flights: one around lunchtime and another in mid-evening. While there are some airport combinations with only late arrivals home, such as Fuerteventura to Liverpool and Thessaloniki to Birmingham, for most other locations you can generally find an early morning out/mid-afternoon back option. Honourable mentions, though, for Jet2s links from Birmingham, Leeds Bradford and Manchester to Paphos in Cyprus out at roughly 9am, back at 8pm. But dont be surprised if you pay a premium for humane flight times. The major Indian airline Jet Airways has suspended all operations after failing to secure emergency funding from its lenders. Its demise was announced on Wednesday evening in Mumbai, its home city. All flights, both international and domestic, have been cancelled. The last Jet flight will operate today. In a statement, Jet said that it hadnt managed to secure the emergency funding for critical services such as fuel to keep the airline flying. Over the last several weeks and months, the company has tried every means possible to seek both interim and long-term funding, it said. Airlines that went bust Show all 12 1 /12 Airlines that went bust Airlines that went bust Air Berlin Air Berlin, which operated flights to and from Berlin Tegel, went bankrupt in 2017 Getty Airlines that went bust Small Planet Lithuanian airline Small Planet filed for insolvency at the end of 2018 Igor Dvurekov Airlines that went bust Monarch Airlines The airline ceased operations in October 2017 AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust VLM Antwerp-based VLM went bankrupt in September 2018 Flo Weiss Airlines that went bust Germania German airline Germania filed for insolvency in February 2019 Getty Airlines that went bust Kingfisher Founded in 2005 ceased flying in October 2012 AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust Cobalt Cobalt, based in Larnaca, Cyprus, stopped flying in October 2018 Steve Lynes Airlines that went bust Mexicana An airline that had been in operation since 1921, went bust in August 2010. It was Mexico's largest airline AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust WOW Air Icelandic Wow Air ceased operation in March 2019 Getty Airlines that went bust Primera Primera, known for its cheap transatlantic fares, went bust in October 2018 Getty Airlines that went bust Transaero A privately-owened airline founded in Russia, 1990 lasted until October 2015 Getty Airlines that went bust Malev After 66 years, Hungary's national airline went stopped flying in 2012 AFP/Getty Unfortunately, despite its very best efforts, the airline has been left with no other choice today but to go ahead with a temporary suspension of flight operations. Jet said it would inform all customers that their flights were cancelled. The airline, which has been operating for 25 years, has debts in excess of 80bn rupees (885m). On Friday the airline suspended international flights, including its three daily flights to and from Heathrow: twice-a-day to Mumbai and once-daily to Delhi. At the time Jet Airways insisted it was merely pausing while a financial rescue was arranged. Politicians were under intense pressure to provide 15bn rupees (165m) in emergency funding to keep the airline aloft. Recommended Essential advice for passengers stranded by Jet Airways collapse The collapse leaved hundreds of thousands passengers stranded and many more holding worthless bookings for future travel. While rival airlines will come in with rescue fares to assist travellers who need to get home, Easter is a very busy time for travel and there are limited seats available on direct flights between the UK and India. For the past week, Jet Airways has been assuring passengers they will be rebooked on future flights or get a full refund. Both look like empty promises. The slots used by Jet Airways for its Heathrow flights were transferred on Friday to Etihad Airways. The Abu Dhabi-based airline owned 24 per cent of the failed carrier. It is one of a series of disastrous investments in failing carriers made by Etihad. Passengers holding forward bookings with Jet Airways will need to talk to the travel firm that sold them the ticket or, if they booked direct with the airline, the credit card company. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Travellers who are owed money by Jet Airways for compensation after delays or cancellations are now unsecured creditors, and are unlikely to see any cash. The same applies to stranded passengers who were urged by Jet Airways staff to buy expensive alternative flights on other airlines with a promise of a refund, or who paid for hotels on the understanding that they would be recompensed. Passengers with insurance against the failure of a scheduled airline or travel supplier should be able to get recompense. Travellers who booked through Virgin Atlantic on a codeshare Jet Airways flight will be refunded or offered alternative flights. I have 30 days to leave my home thanks to Brexit. Last week everything wed been working for since we moved to France turned upside down. Two letters arrived from the French government: one for me, one for my partner. The letters were not unexpected as we were waiting for news on our visa application. What was unexpected was what the letters said. In anticipation of life after Brexit, it has been strongly recommended that British people living in France apply for their Carte de Sejour" residency permit. The French government has emphasised how important it is, as too has the British government, the newspapers, and all the many organisations that exist to offer advice and support to the two hundred thousand or so people that call this country their home. What hasnt been quite so strongly explained, however, is the need to meet the income threshold set by the French government. As current EU citizens, Brits are allowed to spend more than three months in France providing they meet the conditions for legal residence. These conditions dictate that you must either work, be self-employed, able to live self-sufficiently on your own resources or be in education. So far so good, until you factor in that France is one of the few European countries that stipulates a fixed amount which it regards as sufficient resources. However, those sufficient resources vary according to your situation. And, depending on where in France you live, you can be held hostage to the decision makers at your local prefecture (the equivalent of a county council). Indeed part of the challenge that many Brits are facing is that French governance is devolved to the local areas and many of these prefectures have a reputation for acting independently and differently to each other. Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Nigel Farage speaks at the launch of his new Brexit Party's campaign for the European elections Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Brexit Party candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaks at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A supporter waits for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters wait for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage's socks Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage and prospective candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg wait at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters listen as Farage speaks AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Free T-shirts for all attendees AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Posters on the seats for supporters of the Brexit Party AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A safety sign is pictured AFP/Getty The rules state that if you are single you must earn at least 559.74 a month, a figure that increases to 958.237 if you have a child. Likewise for couples, you must earn 839.62 as a household or 1007.55 if you have a child. Pensioners must have an income of 868.20 if they are single or 1,347.88 if they are in a couple. Rumour has it these figures will increase year-on-year. Up until recently, France has rarely followed income checks on EU citizens and so many self-supporting British people have been happily living here, albeit surviving on less than what the France deems acceptable. We have lived in France since September 2016. We moved here with our two children with dreams of buying our own home with some land, so we could grow our own food, learn the language, and hopefully, in future gain citizenship. We dont earn a lot right now but have more than sufficient savings to live off while we build up our businesses. We pay our taxes, our children go to school here, were contributing to the system. But that wasnt enough for our local prefecture, which last week wrote to us to tell us that we had 30 days to leave the country. The reasons they gave is that there was no proof that James is self-supporting (we were not made aware of any missing information from our application if we had wed have provided it) and that my business does not make enough. Between us we need to prove that we have 1175.00 per month to live on. The feeling of panic I got from the moment I opened those letters is still with me now. It sits in the pit of my stomach as a constant reminder of the nightmare we are now living. We are determined to fight this every step of the way. The British Embassy has picked up our case and is talking to the French government on our behalf. We are confident that we do meet the rules and that actually this has been a mistake a perfect storm of an incomplete dossier and a prefecture under pressure to process all the applications (as many as 30 a day in our area.) The response to our case has been overwhelming. Weve received countless messages of support and offers of help. There are the naysayers, of course, and people who have been quick to judge, but on the whole people are stunned by what has happened. Many, who have been burying their heads in the sand are now waking up to the reality of Brexit for Brits living abroad. Our story has also encouraged others to share theirs and we know that we are not the only ones experiencing this situation. According to the Remain in France Together group, in 2017 some 3367 orders to leave France were issued to EU citizens because of failure to meet the legal residence conditions. It is unclear how many of those were British citizens but you can be sure that those numbers will rise as more Brits apply for their Carte de Sejours in anticipation of Brexit. This is in contrast to the UK government which has decided not to include means testing as a condition of applying for settled status. We now have a very clear understanding of what is required and what is at stake. The lesson for us is that we can never take for granted our obligations to our host countries. Lucky for us we can challenge the decision, but others will not be so fortunate. Life is about to get tougher for many UK citizens in the EU and vice versa. As the saying goes, you dont know what youve got 'til its gone The moment the 54-year-old walks up to the car, it is obvious something is terribly wrong. The way he drags his feet, then stamps them on the ground and marches forward like a toy soldier, head lowered; then the way he looks up at you from beneath dark brows, in both greeting and concern. Taamy Wahab Mohamed al-Yasaari should have returned from the Isis battlefront to a land fit for heroes. For the Shia Muslims of southern Iraq, he counts among the heroes. When I ask him when he was wounded, he looks and stares at the wall in a distressed way, dark eyes framed by thick black hair but white beard. Several times I was wounded, al-Yasaari says. And you can tell that the bullets and shrapnel have framed a diary in his mind. On 28 April 2015 at Bayji, on 3 July 2015, again at Bayji, on 5 May 2016 on the Makhoul mountains near Tikrit, then on 3 July 2017 at Khalidiya in Anbar province. It was the last wound which did for him. I was leading a company of the Ali Akbar brigade into an attack on the enemy, and an Isis sniper shot me in the head. His bullet hit me in the back of the brain. And here al-Yasaari puts his left hand to the back of his head. I lost part of my skull and words are very difficult for me now. My memories are very difficult. I regret nothing. I followed the fatwa of our leader [ayatollah Ali al-Sistani]. Look, here are my wounds. And the staring eyes of al-Yasaari look at me as he rolls up his trousers to show scars and great searing cuts across his legs. There is a terrible mark on his calf, as if someone has sawed away at the flesh. He had paid the price of following Sistanis fatwa to fight a defensive war against Isis after the Islamist capture of Mosul in 2014 and it is clear that today he thinks of little else. Timeline of the Isis caliphate Show all 19 1 /19 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Timeline of the Isis caliphate ISIS began as a group by the merging of extremist organisations ISI and al-Nusra in 2013. Following clashes, Syrian rebels captured the ISIS headquarters in Aleppo in January 2014 (pictured) AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the creation of a caliphate in Mosul on 27 June 2014 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis conquered the Kurdish towns of Sinjar and Zumar in August 2014, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Pictured are a group of Yazidi Kurds who have fled Rex Timeline of the Isis caliphate On September 2 2014 Isis released a video depicting the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff. On September 13 they released another video showing the execution of British aid worker David Haines Timeline of the Isis caliphate The US launched its first airstrikes against Isis in Syria on 23 September 2014. Here Lt Gen William C Mayville Jnr speaks about the bombing campaign in the wake of the first strikes Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis militants sit atop a hill planted with their flag in the Syrian town of Kobani on 6 October 2014. They had been advancing on Kobani since mid-September and by now was in control of the citys entrance and exit points AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Residents of the border village of Alizar keep guard day and night as they wait in fear of mortar fire from Isis who have occupied the nearby city of Kobani Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Smoke rises following a US airstrike on Kobani, 28 October 2014 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate YPG fighters raise a flag as they reclaim Kobani on 26 January 2015 VOA Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis seized the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on 20 May 2015. This image show the city from above days after its capture by Isis Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces are stationed on a hill above the town of Sinjar as smoke rises following US airstrikes on 12 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces enter Sinjar after seizing it from Isis control on 13 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi government forces make the victory sign as they retake the city of Fallujah from ISIS on 26 June 2016 Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi forces battle with Isis for the city of Mosul on 30 June 2017 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of the Iraqi federal police raise flags in Mosul on 8 July 2017. On the following day, Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi declares victory over Isis in Mosul Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Female fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim Square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Trucks full of women and children arrive from the last Isis-held areas in Deir ez-Zor, Syria in January 2019 They were among the last civilians to be living in the ISIS caliphate, by this time reduced to just two small villages in Syrias Deir ez-Zor Richard Hall/The Independent Timeline of the Isis caliphate Zikia Ibrahim, 28, with her two-year-old son and 8-month-old daughter, after fleeing the Isis caliphate, on Saturday 26 January 2019 Richard Hall/The Independent He is still dressed in military uniform, constantly stretching his legs in pain, and in the little diwaniya reception room of his home on the outskirts of Kerbala there is a display of coloured photographs of a smiling, younger al-Yasaari, arms round friends at the war front, one of the pictures showing him firing a rocket-propelled grenade. He keeps looking at a camera video of the same scene. He lives in his own war museum. I thought I was dead, he says. So did my comrades. The back of my head was blown away. They called my brother Jassem, and said to him, Your brother has been martyred. Jassem asked them, Are you sure? They said, What do you expect us to say he was shot in the head! I was left for dead but two hours later they noticed my pulse. Jassem was asking if he could come and get me but they said the fighting was too bad. Eventually, they got me onto a helicopter and to the Kadimiyeh hospital [in Baghdad]. Then they took me to a Kerbala hospital where an Indian and Iraqi doctor told me that I had to sign an indemnity for an operation because there was only a 1 per cent chance of success. The bones at the back of my brain had to be taken out and replaced with titanium. There were no more bones behind my brain. I signed. Incredibly, al-Yasaari asked to return to the battle until another holy fatwa was given to leave, because I had to be with my comrades, even if I have to clean the lavatories to be with them. He was not granted his wish, but instead driven to his tiny house with its palm tree in the drive, receiving financial help from the Imam Hussein Holy Shrine group, a Shia organisation, as well as a pittance from the government. Suddenly, he stands up and begins stomping up and down the little room, a toy soldier again. He does not change, one of his relatives says. The Daesh [Isis] were all brainwashed all of them, he shouts. Saudis, Chechens, Turks, yes, there were Iraqis too. Their Islamist beliefs are corrupted by something that comes from the time before Islam from the time of the jahaliya, the time of ignorance before the Prophet. They want to push us back to that. Al-Yasaari knew who his enemies were. And his friends. But and this is a common theme in the Shia south of Iraq does his government care enough for him? The men of the Shia militias who helped to rescue the Iraqi government army as Isis advanced on Baghdad complain bitterly that their government cares little for them, that the most many families of martyrs received is a patch of land far away from the rivers of Iraq where nothing would grow. All armies expect to return from victory to be greeted as heroes. The British failure to keep that promise to the veterans of the First World War led to massive social upheaval. The families of the dead expect that their men will be forever honoured. We are not regretting his death: Abbas Saadi, father of dead Shia soldier Maher Saadi in his home in Kerbala (Maher Soltan) Abbas Saadi lost his 23-year old son Maher on 7 July 2015, at the same battle of Bayji where Al-Yasaari was wounded for the second time four days earlier. I received a call from him 15 minutes before he was killed, Abbas Saadi says. We talked a lot on the phone. I said I missed him. He was a waiter in a local restaurant before he joined the Hashd al-Shaabi [the Popular Army]. Every time he came home on leave, he said he was sorry he had not been martyred on the battlefield. If you do not know the Shia history of martyrdom, of the Imams Ali and Hussein and of Abbas on the eight century fields around where the golden shrines of Kerbala and Najaf now stand, it is tempting to dismiss such remarks. What First World War soldier returned on leave to express his hope for death? But many returned willingly to the trenches, and their gravestones spoke though we might not believe it of giving their lives. So I ask Abbas Saadi about Maher with some trepidation: was it worth it? Killed by an Isis sniper as he brought food to his comrades: a portrait of martyr Maher Saadi on the wall of his fathers home (Maher Soltan) We are not regretting his death because he was following the fatwa, he replies slowly. We dont feel sorry. The fatwa was for all Iraqis. I thought of the word duty in the British military sense although Mahers death was curiously prosaic. There was a lull in the battle and he went to get some food. He was bringing a watermelon when an Isis sniper shot him in the chest, just to the left of his heart. He was pronounced dead after 10 minutes. And Abbas Saadi bewailed his lack of funds. The government, he says, has done little to compensate him for his son. They were supposed to give us a piece of land, he says. But the one we got was in the desert, there was nothing there, just sand. The Iranians look after their martyrs families [from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war]. The holy shrine people look after us. But when we are in Baghdad and go to government offices and produce the papers showing our loss, they just tell us to put it back in our pocket. This is said in a slow, disturbing way. And the message is clear. If Iraq is to be unified, all who fought against its Islamist enemies must be respected by Sunnis and Shias alike especially since those enemies were Sunnis. But politics runs faster than memory, and Iraq is not yet a land fit for all its heroes. Oh my God. This is the end of my presidency. Im f***ked, Donald Trump said when he learned about the appointment of a special counsel, we found out after the release of the Mueller report today. Considering this, its incredible how the president and his fellow Republicans managed to turn the narrative around after William Barrs initial statement. After the release of the minimally redacted report today, it will be more difficult for triumphant crows to echo round Congress (not that the Trump-backing members of the Republican Party wont try.) But because of its nuance something which we should always have expected from the tight-lipped, leak-proof, anti-sensationalist Robert Mueller it will be equally difficult for Democrats to use this report as fodder for impeachment or meaningful sanction. The devil is in the detail, of course. On 11 April 2017, for instance, Trump made a comment during a Fox Business Network interview about James Comey, who was at that point still the FBI director. No, its not too late [for me to ask Comey to step down] but I have confidence in him. Well see what happens, the president said, something which prompted his then-communications adviser Hope Hicks to suggest the comment should be removed from the interview. Trump asked for it to stay in, which Hicks thought was strange. All of this is interesting in itself, but perhaps the most interesting part is that the president and his comms team were apparently confident that they could remove segments from an interview at will, essentially using Fox as a personal propaganda channel. This paints a picture of a press-presidential relationship which should be seen as a little too close for comfort. Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS The report details how the president attempted to influence its details and release, at one point stating: The presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. It is clear that Trump himself saw nothing wrong with throwing his weight around in a way that was purely self-protective and borderline megalomaniacal. He engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation, wrote Mueller. He attempted to remove the Special Counsel; he sought to have Attorney General Sessions unrecuse himself and limit the investigation; he sought to prevent public disclosure of information about the June 9, 2016 meeting between Russians and campaign officials; and he used public forums to attack potential witnesses who might offer adverse information and to praise witnesses who declined to cooperate with the government. In other words, he took every available avenue. It seems like these avenues werent specifically against the law, but they would be against most peoples moral expectations of a president. No obstruction doesnt seem to fit the bill as an accurate descriptor of what occurred during Muellers compilation of the report, even if there is no evidence beyond reasonable doubt of collusion. Whats clear is that the president wanted the release of this report delayed as long as possible. He claimed he didnt recall meetings, details, names and dates over 30 times. He removed as many people as possible and failed to remove others (including Mueller himself) who hed rather have seen gone. The fact that a number of people connected to the executive branch refused to carry out the presidents instructions is important and encouraging; however, the report also makes it clear that there was a struggle to maintain real democracy behind the scenes of the Trump presidency, which is deeply worrying. It reads like Donald Trump, his son Donald Jr, his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner all showed a flagrant disregard for democratic institutions in the way we sometimes see rich and powerful people show flagrant disregard for established business practice when large organisations undergo a crisis. The panic which surrounded news that the president was going to be personally investigated reads like The Apprentice on steroids. At the beginning of his presidency, there was a lot of talk about Trump being muzzled by the executive branch, more sensible officials, and lifelong Republicans sceptical about his leadership. There is certainly evidence that they tried. Theres also evidence that Trump strained against the leash on multiple occasions, and thought little of how this might impact the country as a whole. The report also details how Russias Internet Research Agency used social media to organise rallies and put out pro-Trump content which was retweeted by multiple US political figures. It says that Facebook estimated up to 126 million people could have been contacted through groups on that platform alone; its thought Twitter added an extra 1.4 million. This is the most heavily redacted section of Muellers report, with almost all information about the structure of the Internet Research Agency (IRA) removed. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The IRA pre-dates Trumps campaign and presidency, and its members went on a fact-finding mission to the US in 2014, according to Mueller. In early 2016, internal IRA documents showed support for Trump and an opposition to candidate Clinton, with one stating: Main idea: Use any opportunity to criticise Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump we support them). Its difficult to glean exactly why both Sanders and Trump caught the eye of the Russians (at least for anyone who only has access to the redacted Mueller report), but we can speculate that an anti-establishment candidate with fewer links to the Washington political elite may have been to their liking. It seems that the IRA adopted a scattergun approach to social media initially, creating accounts posing as Black Lives Matter activists as well as right-wingers and even at one point a branch of the GOP in Tennessee, before doubling down on the most convenient (perhaps pliable?) candidate. All of which is to say that Trump probably isnt a mastermind with an evil plot to take over the world. He probably isnt a businessman gone rogue with a secret agenda to hand America to Putin. What he most likely is -- and has been for a while -- is amoral, egotistical, narcissistic, in way over his head. And panicking. For months Donald Trump and his White House staff appeared to be losing the information game over the Mueller Report. At times last year not a week seemed to go by without a former member of Trumps election team or those close to him facing indictments, guilty pleas or court cases as part of the probe or its connected investigations. It only seemed a matter of time, amid regular angry tweets about the probe from the president, before the president found himself in hot water. But the Justice Department, and by extension the White House, has been able to take back control of the narrative in a way that seemed extremely unlikely a few weeks ago. First there was the announcement from attorney General William Barr - with little context from the actual report - that there was no collusion between Mr Trumps campaign and Russians who interfered in the 2016 election. It was made clear that the special counsel Robert Mueller did not make a determination on any potential case for Mr Trump obstructing the course of justice. Democrats cried foul about the wait to release a redacted report, with the question over potential obstruction of justice a key one. Today, Barr - in a measured tone not usually seen by the White House - spoke of the redacted report at least an hour before it was released. He held what could only loosely be called a press conference, where the journalists were unprepared to ask questions of him, or his methods. He was asked about the lack of Muellers presence with him at the podium. He said that Mueller was only required to produce a report for him, the attorney general and no more. Mr Barr was clear it was his report to present. Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Show all 23 1 /23 Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Joe Biden The former vice president - poised to be a frontrunner - has announced his run. He recently faced scrutiny for inappropriate touching of women, but was thought to deal with the criticism well AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Bernie Sanders The 2016 runner-up has announced that he will be running again in 2020 Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Hillary Clinton The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State says she is still considering whether she will run again. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Pete Buttigieg The Indiana mayor and war veteran will be running for president. If elected, he would be the first openly LGBT+ president in American history. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Kamala Harris The former California attorney general will be running for president in 2020. Introduced to the national stage during Jeff Sessions testimony, she has endorsed Medicare-for-all and proposed a major tax-credit for the middle class. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Elizabeth Warren The Massachusetts Senator has formally launched her bid for president in 2020. A progressive Democrat, she is a major supporter of regulating Wall Street. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Beto ORourke The former Texas congressman told Oprah Winfrey that he has been thinking about running for presidency, but stopped short of formally announcing his bid to run in 2020. AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Wayne Messam Mayor of the city of Miramar in the Miami metropolitan area, Wayne Messam has announced his bid. He intends to run on a progressive platform against the "broken" federal government. He favours gun regulations and was a signatory to a letter from some 400 mayors condemning President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. Vice News Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Kirsten Gillibrand The New York Senator formally announced her presidential bid in January, saying that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Cory Booker The New Jersey Senator has announced that he will be running for the presidency in 2020. If he secures the nomination he said finding a female vice president would be a priority. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? John Delaney The Maryland congressman was the first to launch his bid for presidency, making the announcement in 2017. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Julian Castro The former San Antonio mayor announced his candidacy in January and said that his running has a special meaning for the Latino community in the US. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Tulsi Gabbard The Hawaii congresswoman announced her candidacy in January, but is likely to face tough questions on her past comments on LGBT+ rights and her stance on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Andrew Yang The entrepreneur has announced his presidential candidacy, and has pledged that he would introduce a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American over the age of 18. AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Marianne Williamson The author and spiritual advisor has announced her intention to run for president. She had previously run for congress as an independent in 2014 but was unsuccessful. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? John Kerry The former secretary of state has said he is still thinking about whether to run. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Michael Bloomberg The entrepreneur and former New York mayor with a net worth of around $50bn has said he will decide by the end of February whether to seek the presidency. AFP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Howard Schultz Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has not yet ruled out running for president in 2020, despite criticism that his bid could help re-elect Mr Trump by dividing the Democrat vote. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Eric Holder The former attorney general has said he will decide in the next month or so whether to run as a 2020 presidential candidate. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Eric Swalwell The California congressman said he is ready to do this and will decide before April whether to run. MSNBC Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Terry McAuliffe The former Virginia governor, who worked to elect Democratic governors during 2018 midterms, said there was a 50 per cent chance he would run. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Sherrod Brown The Ohio senator is still undecided about whether to run for president in 2020. Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Mitch Landrieu The former New Orleans mayor said he doesnt think he will run for president, but never say never. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin His tone could easily be construed as pro-White House and Democrats, who were still waiting for the report, were quick to call it so. His tone could easily be construed as pro-White House and Democrats, who were still waiting for the report, were quick to call it so. Indeed Barr felt more like an attorney for the president than the attorney general at times during his address. The leading Democrats in both the House, Nancy Peolsi, and the Senate, Chuck Schumer, tore into Barr. And with good reason, his statement was essentially perfect from the White Houses point of view. Schumer called it a campaign press conference for Mr Trump and Ms Pelsoi went further. Barr has confirmed the staggering partisan effort by the Trump administration to spin the publics view of the Mueller report. Mr Barr spoke about 10 episodes in which Mr Mueller had evaluated the potential of instruction of justice. Mr Barr said he, and his deputy Rod Rosenstein, had disagreed with Mr Muellers legal arguments and therefore there was no case to answer on obstruction. With redacted reports there will always be the argument that more has been removed that is needed, but the truth is Mr Trump, his justice department and the White House, own the narrative. Mr Trumps personal lawyer has been able to see the redacted report ahead of the public and Congress, allowing them the time to craft a response. Mr Mueller took 22 months to craft his report, reporters and Congress will have to digest it very quickly to battle Mr Trumps PR machine. While Congressional committees will no doubt call Mr Mueller to testify. Indeed the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jerrold Nadler has already asked for Mueller to appear, saying: We cannot take Attorney General Barr's word for it. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events However, that could take weeks, giving the White House crucial time to flood the airwaves and shape the narrative. There is also a quick-fire counter report - or rather two, a short one in the hours after the release and a longer one a little later - which the White House has a large team working on. The biggest takeaway for the White House is the lack of collusion. But the more that can be done to muddy the waters over Mr Muellers lack of determination over any obstruction of justice, the better for Mr Trump. Democrats will have to work hard to get the deeper conclusions of the Mueller report into the public consciousness - and may not be able to. The president and his team are in a far greater position than they ever could have expected six months ago. Later today, William Barr, the US Attorney General, will release a redacted version of the Mueller Report. Redacted, of course, is a fancy word that means censored for public viewing. Because the nature of Barrs redactions will not be known until the full report is released to Congress, what will appear today is akin to a film adaption of a novel that no one but the director has read. Weve been down this road before. On 24 March, Barr released a summary of the Mueller Report which contained this dependent clause: [T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. For all we know, the beginning of that sentence is the single word although. This did not stop the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and many other outlets from running with some variation of the misleading headline Mueller finds no conspiracy (Trump himself did one better, claiming complete and total EXONERATION on Twitter.) Only later, when members of Muellers famously tight-lipped team leaked their displeasure to the press, did these members of the commentariat begin to walk back their initial assessment. Barrs March summary was a weapon used by Trump to gaslight the American people. There is no reason to expect todays offering to be any different. Given that Muellers team reportedly prepared its own summary, intended for just this sort of general consumption, Barrs second attempt will likely be as clumsy as the first, raising more questions than it answers. There are good reasons not to release the unredacted report to the public. The Special Counsels investigation relies on confidential sources whose identities must be protected. However, in order to determine whether Trumps potentially shady dealings with Russia meet the standard for impeachment to do its Constitutionally mandated job of checking the executive branch Congress must see the full report. With so much bad information in the ether, its especially important to review the facts: Throughout the campaign, during the transition period, and after inauguration, Donald Trump and his surrogates vehemently denied meeting with Russians of any stripe, for any purpose. They all lied. There were, in fact, many meetings between associates of Donald Trump and agents of Vladimir Putin. Not two or three. Not a few. Many. Trump says he has not seen or read the Mueller report Donald Trump and his key associates really did meet with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel on 27 April 2016. Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort really did meet with Russian agents at Trump Tower on 9 June 2016; Trump really did begin tweeting about Hillary Clintons missing emails for the first time that same afternoon. Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page and Jeff Sessions the first senator to endorse Trump really did meet with Kislyak at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that same month, and they really did change the Republican platform to align the GOPs position on Ukraine/Crimea with Putins. Sessions really did meet Kislyak in his offices on 8 September 2016. Kushner and Mike Flynn really did sneak Kislyak into a meeting at Trump Tower in December 2016, and at the time, Kushner really did seek to establish a backchannel to Putin via the Russian embassy. Kushner really did meet with the Russian president of a sanctioned bank in mid-December 2016. Trump surrogate Erik Prince really did meet with a Russian wealth fund manager in the Seychelles in January 2017. And President Donald Trump really did laugh it up with Kislyak and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office on 9 May 2017, the day after firing FBI director James Comey. All of that really happened, despite all the denials, despite all the lies. Later today, I assume Trump will try to spin Barrs document to fit his no collusion, full exoneration narrative. Indeed, his legal team has already prepared a rebuttal. Dont believe him. To my mind at least, a document that doesnt include reference to all of those Trump-Russian liaisons especially if delivered second-hand by a partisan Attorney General with a history of misleading Congress must be viewed as incomplete, and regarded with scepticism. Greg Olear is the author of 'Dirty Rubles: An Introduction to Trump/Russia' * Update: An earlier version of this article identified Elliott Broidy as having attended a meeting in the Seychelles with Eric Prince and a Russian wealth fund manager. We understand that in fact Mr Broidy was not in the Seychelles and did not attend the meeting in question. 21/4/19 An investigation is underway after a prisoner alleged he was sexually assaulted by other inmates at Cork Prison. A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service confirmed it received an allegation from a male prisoner and that the matter has now been referred to gardai. It is understood an official complaint was made to gardai who are now probing the alleged incident. The co-founder and chief executive of Cairn Homes, Michael Stanley, saw his remuneration increase by 123,000 in 2018. Last year Mr Stanley benefitted from a total remuneration of 920,000, which included a basic salary of 425,000 and an annual incentive of 383,000, according to the Cairn Homes annual report. In 2017 Mr Stanleys total pay package amounted to 797,000. Earlier this month the company, which is one of the country's biggest developers, announced it was looking for an institutional investor, or "cuckoo fund", to buy almost 300 apartments at a development outside Dublin. The decision to target such a fund will mean first-time buyers are deprived of the chance to bid on the homes. Meanwhile, last week the founders of Cairn Homes including Mr Stanley sold 22.8m worth of shares in the listed housebuilder. In 2018 Cairn reported revenue of 337m. Its operating profit for the year was 53m. The creation of The Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) in 2012, has been a very positive development for the commercial and residential property markets. Agents were seeking increased regulation for decades, and are very supportive of the new regime. Regulation is proving a strong protection for consumers, but, I believe, is also encouraging estate agents into practices which will benefit their businesses. I spoke with Maeve Hogan, Chief Executive of the PSRA, about some interesting trends that developed in 2018: The mission of the PSRA is to protect the interests of the public by ensuring that high standards are maintained in the delivery of property services. This includes services such as selling and leasing properties, management, and rent collection. The PSRA also maintains the Property Price Register, The Commercial Lease Register, and the Register of Licensees. All service providers in Ireland must be licensed by the PSRA, and Maeve Hogan stresses that consumers should make sure their provider is licensed. The key benefit is that the Authority operates a complaints investigation and redress system, and also a compensation fund. The Authority received 274 complaints in 2018. Most related to the standard of service provided by sales, letting, and management agents. Complaints about the retention of security deposits and booking deposits are common, but, as Maeve Hogan says, there are two sides to an argument, as they sometimes see when the landlord produces photographs of the damage done to a property. The most serious problem last year was the misappropriation of client's funds, by one agent, totalling approximately 200,000. All of the missing money has been repaid by the compensation fund. A number of smaller cases arose, (typically 1,000-2,000 each) where rent had not been paid over to landlords by agents. There are also cases of landlords moving abroad, but not keeping a close eye on rental properties here, and returning to discover that rent is missing. The PSRA took three cases against service providers for trading without a licence last year, and two cases are being prosecuted in the courts this year. Ms Hogan told me that complaints arise where there are disputes about liability for fees, marketing costs and VAT. There is a legal obligation on service providers to provide a letter of engagement, setting out the terms of the contract. This is best practice from the agents' point of view too, as, in my experience, where an agent is not paid their fees or costs, inevitably it is because they do not have a signed contract with their client. An interesting trend, which Ms Hogan says will be a focus for her this year, is "a big misconception" on behalf of purchasers that the agent is working for them. An example of this is where a potential purchaser makes an offer through the agent, but it is refused. The disappointed party later sees on the Property Price Register that the premises was sold for the same amount as their offer, or less, and they complain about the agent to the Regulator. However, what they did not understand is that the vendor is entitled to take a lower cash offer, than to accept their offer, which may have been subject to finance, or a chain of other sales. Similar problems occur in apartment complexes where, for example, owners complain to the Regulator about agents over issues like service charges or clamping. The owner believes the agent is acting for them whereas, in fact, they are employed by, and carrying out instructions for, the Owner Management Company. Problems can arise over "conflicts of interest" where, for example, an agent must declare that he is selling to a party connected to him/her, or to a staff member. The Regulator is drafting new minimum standards and will have new power to examine "conflicts of interest". The strong advice is to ensure that your agent is licensed. Visit psr.ie for full information. Dublin's industrial and logistics property market started the year with a strong first quarter, according to research by property consultants CBRE, with 95,623 sq m of space taken by occupiers. That's a 1pc increase on the previous quarter, which itself was considered strong. Garrett McClean, executive director at CBRE Ireland, says 33 individual industrial transactions were signed in Dublin in Q1 2019. Lettings accounted for 24 of them, with purchases accounting for nine. The most valuable deal saw Eason sell the vacant Unit 1 in the Dublin Airport Logistics Park in Finglas to Irish investment fund Iput for 19m. Iput is undertaking a major refurbishment of the unit which extends to 17,176 sq m (184,886sq ft) and sits on 8.4 acres. Letting agency Harvey is quoting 1.665m, which equates to 9 per sq ft. Prime industrial rents in the capital remained stable at 106 per square metre (9.85 per sq ft) at the end of March. However, Mr McClean expects prime industrial rents to rise by 6.5pc by the end of this year. CBRE's research shows that transactional activity during the first quarter was primarily focused on Dublin's south west corridor around the N7 dual carriageway, as it attracted 33pc of all sales and lettings during the period. The Dublin north corridor (M2) also performed strongly, with 31pc of take-up. A further 27pc was located along the Dublin north east corridor (M1). Larger occupiers led the market as 41pc of deals comprised transactions that extended to more than 9,290 sq m (100,000 sq ft) in size, while a further 20pc comprised transactions that extended to between 1,858 sq m and 4,645 sq m (20,000-50,000 sq ft). Meanwhile, 13pc comprised transactions that extended to between 4,645 sq m and 9,290 sq m (50,000-100,000 sq ft). The emergence of several new expectations in recent months has boosted demand to more than 118,000 sq m at the end of March. A feature of this demand is the strong appetite for good industrial investment opportunities, buoyed in part by further rental growth expectations. However, although there was almost 600m invested in income-producing assets with a value of more than 1m in Ireland, the Irish market did not see any industrial investments of more than 1m completed during the quarter. Subsequently, an industrial property near Rosslare port in Co Wexford sold for 1.05m at a BidX1 auction earlier this month. Let to Advanced Environmental Solutions (Ireland) Limited, it generates annual rent of 120,000, equating to a gross yield of more than 11.4pc. Its lease provides for upward-only rent reviews. Advanced Environmental Solutions is a subsidiary of State-owned Bord na Mona. Located at Kilrane Business Park, the mainly warehouse premises extends to 26,314 sq ft and is located on a 1.36-acre site. Dublin's Creative Quarter, once dominated by back street shops and warehouses, is now seeing new life being breathed into old buildings as well as new hotel developments. Located between the city's prime retail at Grafton Street and its most popular tourist district, Temple Bar, its vibrant night time and day time activity has also attracted the attention of both investors and developers. But under the watchful eye of the city council, the area looks set to retain much of its character as there are a number of protected structures with restricted development and uses. Claire Solon, head of property at Aviva Ireland, explains how she and her team have responded to some of the challenges presented by how planning and building regulations relate to the layouts and format of some of the properties in the area which they have acquired since 2016. Then, she spearheaded Friends First Irish Commercial Fund's purchase for about 30m of the Madrid Portfolio, comprising nine properties including some former Georgian houses assembled by a Bernard McNamara-led consortium and pepper potted in the area. "A large number are protected structures and have magnificent features that need to be carefully reinstated or restored, but this can also create challenges in terms of their reuse," she says. Since then, the fund, now owned by Aviva, has made further strategic acquisitions targeted at enhancing the value of the portfolio and enabling it to create opportunities which might otherwise be restricted by the protection regulations. She cites the example of its recent planning application to extend the restaurant at its Coppinger Row property into the basement area by utilising the property to the rear that faces onto South William Street. "In this way we can ensure that every floor of the building is functional and in active use," she explains. Another of its planning applications seeks to adapt 55 South William Street by providing residential accommodation above a ground floor restaurant, with the kitchen provided at basement level and a terrace at first floor level to the rear. This would effectively create a layout which would provide active use of every floor and create a building that contributed both business and residential space to the area. "Interestingly, the ability to provide residential accommodation above the ground floor of that property was really only made possible by our acquisition of the neighbouring building at No 54 South William Street, as modern requirements to ensure fire compliance are almost impossible to achieve in a single protected structure of this size," she says. "We also recently refurbished nine residential units on the upper floors of two properties. There was significant demand given the location and quality of the units, as shown in the rental level of 2,400 per month per apartment," she says. "The Creative Quarter is a vibrant and thriving area, and it's important that work on these properties continues to provide distinctive offerings as that is part of the character of the quarter. It's a unique part of the city and we are excited to be part of it," she adds. Ms Solon says demand for space in this area remains strong, particularly in the food and beverage sector. "It is important to have a good mix of uses and choice for customers, and the clustering of good quality cafes, bars and restaurants works well. Some recent deals have been agreed at around 100 per sq ft for restaurant use but this depends on the layout and location as a lot of the properties are compromised in terms of layout." Educational use is also in strong demand, with operators looking for city centre locations close to public transport links. While strictly speaking the Quarter stretches from South William Street to South Great George's Street, and from Stephen Street Lower to Exchequer Street, some consider the area to stretch as far north as Dame Street and as far east as Clarendon Street. A number of new hotels are also in the pipeline, most notably a 97-bedroom Premier Inn being developed at 41-46 South Great George's Street, the attractive redbrick former Dockrell Store vacant for more than 20 years. It is due to open in 2021. In addition, Balrath Investments is redeveloping the former Break for the Border venue on Stephen Street Lower to expand to 122 the number of bedrooms at the Grafton Capital Hotel. Last year Irish developer Gerry Conlon was reported to have paid 19.5m for 14-15 Trinity Street, 1-3 Dame Lane and 1-6 St Andrew's Lane, properties which include Pichet's restaurant and Trinity car park. Mr Conlon has long had an interest in other nearby properties including the Central Hotel at the corner of Exchequer and South Great George's streets. Also last year, New Ireland Assurance paid 12m for the building on the corner of 10-12 Trinity Street and 16-17 St Andrew's Street which had at one time been Government's ENFO environmental information centre. One of the few investment opportunities currently on the market in the area is a four storey over basement Georgian town house, 28 South William Street, which generates a combined passing rent of 157,000 from three tenants: a nail bar, a holistic centre and a boutique. Extending to 370 sq m (3,983 sq ft), this is also a protected structure which retains many original features including ornate cornices, ceiling centre pieces, stairs and fireplaces. Estate agent Simon Stokes is currently asking over 2.2m for it. He says that although Dubliners may not be aware of the Creative Quarter branding, it has worked for retailers in the area as it attracts tour groups from the cruise ships who seek out Irish owner/occupier retailers selling art, jewellery and fashion. "They can get the big chain stores in every city so Creative Quarter gives them something different, and Failte Ireland appears to be getting the message across," he adds. Meat processors have said that shipping cattle directly to Britain for processing will not be an 'antidote' to high tariffs that may be imposed on Ireland beef in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on The Future of the Beef Sector this week Meat Industry Ireland (MII) Director Cormac Healy said such a move would be 'counterproductive'. He said not all cuts of beef are sold to the UK and moving the animal for processing in the UK would mean that beef would face even larger tariffs when exported back to the EU. Chairman of MII, Philip Carroll said farmers are not being treated unfairly by processors and claimed that processors are having an extremely tough time in the market. He said the industry needs to know that it will have some degree of support from around government around Brexit mitigation. "There is a serious problem if we hit those tariff levels. They will devalue our product enormously if we have to go into the UK at lower price levels. "All we can do in those circumstances to move product to other higher paying markets but, those markets will also be devalued as a result. "We have been promised by Commissioner Hogan and the Government that they will have the industry's back. We faced Brexit in March and April and we may well have to face it again in May," he warned. ICSA President Patrick Kent said Brexit has happened as far as beef farmers are concerned. "It started happening long ago and has been used as an all-encompassing excuse by the meat industry to cut prices. The impact has been devastating and the agony has only been prolonged." Mr Kent has called for a Brexit support package from Brussels for beef farmers who have struggled, and are continuing to struggle, with the impact of Brexit uncertainty fallout. ICSA estimates that prime beef producers are losing almost 4m a week on steers, heifers and young bulls compared to 2015, the last full year before Brexit. The base price today of 3.70 for an R grade steer is way below the real cost of production estimated to be at least 5/kg if we allow for a farmers own labour cost". Mr Kent said that a package from Brussels should be directly linked to cattle slaughtered by winter finishers. "Their losses in terms of price compared to last year vary but is typically in the order of 75-100/hd on heifers but can be as much as 200/hd on a typical young bull with account taken of price cut and weight penalties". Delays: C&F Groups John Flaherty has been held back by the loss of a trading certificate in Japan Athenry businessman John Flaherty's C&F Group has shut down the wind turbine manufacturing division of the business, the Irish Independent has learned. There will be no job losses associated with the surprising move, and between 15 and 20 employees who worked in the division will be absorbed by other group companies. However, it could see up to 30m that Mr Flaherty invested to manufacture small wind turbines over a number of years effectively now be lost, although some of that will have been recouped from sales in recent years, it is believed. "C&F Group has been a strong believer in the benefits of wind energy and has invested heavily to develop a sustainable Irish small wind business," it said. "However, we have been forced to conclude that, as a result of political and regulatory inaction in our foreign markets, this business is no longer sustainable and, in the circumstances, the broader C&F Group will no longer continue to fund it." Mr Flaherty said Irish turbine owners not being able to sell the electricity to the grid also had an impact on sales. The statement continued: "Unfortunately, there has been a worldwide lack of appetite for sustaining feed-in-tariffs for small wind. "Frequent U-turns affecting them, such as recently occurred in Taiwan, make trading uncertain. We have seen entire markets quickly disappear as a result of rowbacks on tariffs. "Regulatory delay also affected the sustainability of the business. After receiving thousands of site approvals for our turbines leading to hundreds of customer orders in the Japanese market, the C&F trading certificate was temporarily closed by Japanese regulatory authorities due to an installation issue in Japan. "This ongoing restriction has prevented us from trading there while it continues. We have worked diligently to resolve the relevant issues to the satisfaction of the authorities as quickly as possible. However, they have yet to reopen the certificate and management are concerned about the sustainability of the business there." Mr Flaherty focused heavily on success in Japan in recent years, with more than 400 turbines installed there. They underwent rigorous testing to ensure they could withstand earthquakes and 200kmph typhoons, one of which occurred last year. Turbine towers were manufactured locally, while electronic components and nacelles were exported from Galway. A service and maintenance partner was also in place in Japan. The turbines ranged in size from 110kw to 250kw, making them suitable for smaller sites. The US, Australia, Taiwan and the rest of Asia were being targeted for further export sales. Kingspans offer of 700m for two divisions of Recticel is "lacking critical information items", the Belgian group has said. Cavan-headquartered Kingspan earlier this week made a bid for Recticels insulation and flexible foams business. Kingspan said it has already entered into an exclusive back-to-back agreement with a third party who will buy Recticel's flexible foams businesses, should the initial deal go ahead. However, today Recticel said it was seeking information and clarification on a number of items, including clarification on anti-trust risks associated with the potential deal and the reduction of such risks. In addition, it wants further information on the identity, rationale, anti trust risk and consideration in respect to the back-to-back agreement to sell the foams business, as well as information on the implications for Recticels shareholders of a potential transaction with Kingspan. Once it receives this information the board of Recticel will review the offer further. Should the deal go through it would tighten Kingspan's grip on the European insulation market, adding Recticel's manufacturing units in Belgium, France, Britain and Slovenia. Robert Eason, analyst at Goodbody, said the potential deal makes "strategic and financial sense for Kingspan." "However it is important to note that this potential transaction is at a very early stage in the process and as such, we can expect some back and forth near term with consummation of any deal likely being in 2020," Mr Eason added. Stripe, the payments firm founded by the billionaire Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison, has acquired Dublin-based tech company Touchtech. The firm, founded by 20something Shekinah Adewumi and Joseph Kuye and later joined by CEO Niall Hogan, makes it easier and more secure to authenticate payments on smartphones. The company's main technology product was designed partly to ease reliance on passwords. No acquisition price has been announced as part of the deal. Touchtech previously received Enterprise Ireland funding and a small amount of venture finance. It had previously stated an intention to hire 40 people but currently employs eight. The Touchtech staff will join Stripe's Dublin office in its engineering, sales and marketing divisions. Stripe currently employs over 150 people in Dublin but has said that it plans to rapidly increase its headcount after receiving an e-banking licence from the Irish Central Bank earlier this year. It employs over 1,500 people worldwide. Stripe is currently valued at $22.5bn (20bn) after raising $100m (88m) in 'follow-on' finance earlier this year. Founders Patrick and John Collison are regularly cited as being among the youngest self-made billionaires in the world. "Concretely, Touchtech helps banks replace those 3D Secure redirects that ask you what you ate for breakfast in 1993 with a single, secure confirmation on your phone," said Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. The move comes ahead of the EU's Strong Customer Authentication regulation which is aimed at tightening up the security of payments. The new law, which will require 'two-factor' authentication for more online purchases, comes into effect in September. Hundreds of thousands of European online merchants are expected to have to upgrade their payments systems to prepare for the upcoming regulation. According to Stripe, if they don't, their transactions "will be declined outright". "Touchtech adds yet another layer to the economic infrastructure Stripe is building for the internet, which is designed to help businesses comply not only with SCA but also with the entire next generation of regional payment regulations," said Stripe's chief product officer, Will Gaybrick. Touchtech boss Hogan said that the acquisition would allow the small company to affect a bigger market. "Stripe has given us more resources, a bigger reach and a great opportunity to continue what we're doing," he said. "Touchtech's focus is on making it straightforward for banks to provide the best authentication experience to their customers. "Our technology is used on a daily basis by some of Europe's most innovative startups and challenger banks, like N26, Transferwise, and many others, to enable frictionless and secure authentication on mobile and desktop." Stripe has raised $745m (659m) in funding to date, according to Crunchbase. More than half of this ($495m or 439m) has been raised in the last 30 months as the company seeks to expand rapidly around the globe. Claims vulture funds engage better with borrowers in arrears than banks are set to be dismissed as "fairy tales". Advocate for those in mortgage arrears David Hall is set to tell the Oireachtas Finance Committee the funds that have bought up thousands of distressed mortgages refuse to do deals with homeowners. He claims the Central Bank and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe were engaged in "misleading commentary" when they stated recently there was no evidence that firms acting on behalf of vulture funds were not engaging with borrowers in arrears. Mr Hall is set to defend draft laws giving mortgage holders a veto on their loans being sold to vulture funds, the 'No Consent, No Sale' bill promoted by Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty. The bill is necessary, Mr Hall maintains, as vulture funds do not do deals with homeowners in mortgage trouble. And they won't restructure loans in arrears. He is to provide TDs and senators with emails from vulture funds turning down offers from his iCare Housing charities to buy properties off them where the homeowners can't meet mortgage repayments. The mortgages were to be rented back to the families. Offers to purchase the homes with discounts of between 8pc and 12pc of the market value were refused. Mr Hall claims this is despite the vultures buying the loans on the distressed properties for discounts of between 50pc and 60pc of the market value of the properties. He disputed comments from the Central Bank and Mr Donohoe that there is "no material difference" in the level of home repossessions between vulture funds and normal banks. The minister said existing loan terms are being honoured when handled by vulture funds or credit-servicing firms acting on their behalf, and people whose "circumstances have not changed" are not being moved from their existing loan arrangements. Mr Hall will tell the committee it is misleading and untrue to say vultures are good to deal with. "This is simply false and there is a serious question of competency around those making these vulture-friendly comments," he said. Mr Hall said a study of the behaviour of vultures carried out by the Central Bank was completed before large-scale of non-performing loan sales by Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank, rendering its conclusions questionable. The 'No Consent, No Sale' bill is needed to as there will be an avalanche of sales to vultures, he will say. Fine Gael has been accused of helping so-called cuckoo funds to buy up housing developments - making things even harder for families trying to buy their own home. Fianna Fail deputy leader, Dara Calleary, cited a report in Thursdays Irish Independent which showed that another full housing development totalling 295 houses at Leopardstown in Dublin was bought up by an institutional investor. Mr Calleary said last year such funds which benefit from Government tax concessions last year bought up 3,000 homes which they will rent at a handsome profit. That meant 3,000 hard-working families were elbowed out of a housing market where new homes are already very scarce. Its clear Fine Gael is on the side of the cuckoos in this one, Mr Calleary said. Expand Close Dara Calleary (Niall Carson/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dara Calleary (Niall Carson/PA) Is it not time to shout stop and review these tax incentives being given to these funds? the Fianna Fail deputy leader asked. Replying for the Government, Tanaiste Simon Coveney rejected the accusations and said Mr Calleary was mixing up a number of issues. We believe in house ownership and we want everybody to own their own home, the Tanaiste insisted. Mr Coveney said the institutional investors accounted for a very small segment of the housing rental market. He said that overall just 5pc of landlords owned over 100 units while 70pc of landlords owned just one unit. The Tanaiste added that 1pc of sale transactions involved institutional investors. He said that many housing developments were being ordered in advance by big investors and would not be built otherwise so they were in fact adding to housing supply. Mr Coveney said the Government was committed to providing more housing and a series of major programmes were now under way. Expand Close Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins Mr Coveney told Sinn Fein deputy leader, Pearse Doherty, that the Central Bank was supervising the sale of loan books from the main banks to so-called vulture funds. Mr Doherty said these funds were mistreating people in mortgage arrears. Earlier, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe defended the activities of 'cuckoo funds' buying up residential properties in blocks. They have been blamed for pushing rents up to record levels and squeezing first-time buyers out of the market. Mr Donohoe said the funds are the driving force behind apartment units being granted planning permission. His comments come as around another 300 apartments in Dublin are being put up for sale as a single unit. The flats at Clay Farm in Leopardstown in south Dublin have been designed as a build-to-rent development. The offer comprises 295 apartments, with a guide price of 130m. It is expected to be snapped up by a so-called 'cuckoo fund'. These have been described as 'cuckoo funds' because they snap up accommodation before individuals get a chance to purchase, in the way that cuckoos elbow fledgling birds from their nest. It is a trend that is locking many working families out of buying their own homes. Lucrative rents are a key reason big investors will continue piling into the market. Selling homes to big funds which then rent them out en masse has become increasingly common in this country as the housing crisis continues to spiral. Big corporations spent more than 1.1bn buying a record 2,923 housing units in Ireland last year, blasting through previous records and cementing a radical shift in housing patterns. Even with added supply, rents are forecast to increase by a further 17pc over the next three years in Dublin, according to new research from Savills. The UN recently criticised the practise of selling homes to investors en masse. In a scathing assessment of the housing market, UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, wrote to the Government accusing it of facilitating the "financialisation of housing" through preferential tax laws and through weak tenant protections, among other measures. But in a Dail reply, Mr Donohoe defended institutional investors. He said the most up-to-date data shows their activity has been limited. "On a national level, institutional investors remain a small minority of landlords. However, such investors do play an increasingly important role in the private rented sector." He said institutional investment is likely to be the driving force behind a recent increase in the number of apartment units granted planning permission in Dublin. "Increased apartment building is a very positive development, both in terms of boosting overall supply and in relation to the National Planning Framework, which specifically targets more compact growth," he said in reply to a parliamentary question from Independent TD Mattie McGrath. He also defended the tax treatment of big investors. The UN claimed large funds were receiving preferential tax treatment. Mr Donohoe said tax rules have been introduced to facilitate collective investment. "For example, the function of the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) framework is not to provide an overall tax exemption, but rather to facilitate collective investment in rental property by removing a double layer of taxation which would otherwise apply on property investment via a corporate vehicle," he said. REITs don't pay corporation tax on their profits. But Mr Donohoe said they have to distribute 85pc of their property profits each year and a dividend withholding tax is collected on the distributions. Fianna Fail has demanded a review of how the 'cuckoo funds' that buy up homes for rent are taxed. Housing spokesman Darragh O'Brien said many companies pay "effectively no tax" while securing properties that should be available for first-time buyers. "This is the first year on the island where we won't have any first communions." Jerry Early is one of 450 residents of Donegal's Arranmore Island. His family has owned a pub there for decades. But he's worried about the island's future. Measuring about 6km by 4km in size, the beautiful, rugged landmass is 15 minutes from the mainland by the local small ferry. It is the country's sixth largest island, roughly comparable to Cork's Bere Island or Mayo's Clare Island. Like those places, basic infrastructure is present: roads, shops, two schools, a church, even a nightclub. It has a small fishing industry. But as with most islands in Ireland, the population is gradually falling. More than half the island's inhabitants are over 60, like Jerry. And there are few, if any, babies being born. The future of the community is now in the balance. If it wants to avoid the fate of other islands, some of which are now abandoned, it has to do something. "Young people want to go and work in IT and other jobs," says Early. "They leave the island. I don't blame them. But we're supposed to be custodians here. It's our responsibility to make this a place they won't want to leave. And also a place that those who have left might want to come back to." Expand Close Responsibility: Arranmore Councils Jerry Early, main picture, says they have a duty to make the island a place people wont want to leave. Photo: Adrian Weckler / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Responsibility: Arranmore Councils Jerry Early, main picture, says they have a duty to make the island a place people wont want to leave. Photo: Adrian Weckler This month, Arranmore has taken what it believes is a big leap. Through a combination of campaigning, scraping, cajoling and negotiating, it has brought modern broadband onto the island. Specifically, the islanders have struck a deal with the mobile operator Three, which has set up a high-speed wireless connection from the mainland. Three has also invested in a brand new co-working space on the island called 'Modam' with 13 new computer workstations and a Cisco video conferencing facility. The upshot is that the people of Arranmore now believe they have a fighting chance of getting people to work from the island in the same way they might from Letterkenny, Sligo, Galway or even Dublin. "One of the things we heard a lot from people was 'I can't work there, there's no proper facility or broadband'," says Adrian Begley, one of the island's residents and a member of Arranmore's Business Council. Expand Close Eoin MacManus (business director, Three), Adrian Begley (Arranmore Business Council), Elaine Carey (chief commercial officer, Three) and Seamus Bonner (Arranmore Business Council). Photo: Keith Arkins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Eoin MacManus (business director, Three), Adrian Begley (Arranmore Business Council), Elaine Carey (chief commercial officer, Three) and Seamus Bonner (Arranmore Business Council). Photo: Keith Arkins "This digital hub is one of the best ways of showing them now that they can not just survive, but thrive." Is this a template for other islands? Three has invested its own money in the Arranmore broadband project as a way of demonstrating what an island - or other remote rural community - can achieve. But it isn't getting into the business of investing in islands all over the country. The Arranmore infrastructure is seen as a joint venture to highlight the technology as opposed to a purely commercial exercise that washes its own face. "We treated the island as if it was any big enterprise that had lots of big problems to solve," says Elaine Carey, Three's chief commercial officer. "They needed connectivity and, through that, access to education and medical services such as telemedicine. For Arranmore it's very much about the future sustainability of the island. For us it's a demonstration of what we do. It just so happens to be an island." That said, Three has paid for a lot of the Modam digital hub's equipment. The facility wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the operator's interest. Is this a solution for other islands? At present, the Government's National Broadband Plan promise is that every rural home and business in the country will be hooked up to high-speed broadband. Under its current proposal, the majority of this will be fibre-to-the-home, which is the fastest standard at present. However, the Government has repeatedly said that a number of remote homes and businesses in the 540,000-premise intervention area will get a wireless service because it's just too hard or impractical to deliver fibre. It's possible that this will include most of Ireland's islands. So Three's setup in Arranmore may prove to be an example of a likely solution for other islands. Whatever the future, the infusion of decent broadband seems already to be working. Within days of being set up, the Modam digital hub facility is receiving enquiries. "We have people in IT, finance and law who have shown interest," says Adrian Begley. "We have a guy working in HR who has enquired about using one of the desks for a full year." One London-based tech company, Cape Koala, is an early user. The company, founded by Neil Gallagher and Conor Murphy, develops educational apps for kids. Gallagher is a former resident of Arranmore. This, he says, is the moment that his company has been waiting for. "We'd love to see people on the island trained up to work with us," says Gallagher. "There's huge potential there, in my opinion. Having this kind of a facility in place could make a big difference. For me personally, the connectivity on the island will allow me to spend a lot more time there." One of Cape Koala's developers, Matthew Loughnane, has already been working through the new facilities. Although he lives in London, Loughnane is spending a week on Arranmore working and using the new digital hub. He says that he expects to be back to work there again. "My mum grew up here and I still have a lot of cousins on the island," says Loughnane. "I used to come here a lot personally but now I can come back for longer and still work." The 'Modam' digital hub facility on Arranmore will officially open in May and will have daily, weekly, monthly and annual rates for those who want to use the facilities. This will come in at "around the average of what coworking spaces cost around the country", says Adrian Begley. One of the questions islanders have about their new broadband service is whether it can ebb and flow with bad weather. Three's enterprise technology boss, Stephen Mulligan, says that it won't. "This is a microwave line-of-sight connection," he says. "It doesn't depend on good weather. The only thing that could disrupt it might be a wave rose high enough. But that would have to be freakishly big, the site is quite high on the mainland." It's also a separate connection to Three's cellular mobile service, Mulligan says, so there are no 'contention' (or service-sharing) issues. 'Contention' frequently plagues fixed wireless and mobile broadband services, slowing the service down when lots of people use it at the same time. Unfortunately, when it comes to rolling out broadband, islands are particularly hard to connect. To match the sort of service that a fibre service offers, an operator needs to lay a cable under the sea. This not only means that the distance of the island from the shore is crucial, but it's also important that the bit of the mainland closest to the island has high speed broadband infrastructure to begin with. No Irish island has a fibre-to-the-home service at present. In Arranmore's case, Three's solution is a service that delivers a guaranteed 100Mbs download (and upload) speed from a dish on the shore that connects to a receptor on the hub building. This is a single service to a single building. While it's not as fast or as scalable as a fibre-to-the-premises connection (which is typically immediately able to deliver 1,000Mbs), it's much better than anything the island has had before. It's also far more reliable than a cellular mobile service, because it doesn't depend on good weather or others on the island weakening the signal because of 'contention'. And it can be 'dialled up' to two or three times its current speed if the islanders need that (and are willing to pay for it). But if fibre isn't available and services like Three's microwave line-of-sight are narrowly targeted, where is the future fast broadband for islands? "5G is a big opportunity for that," says Three's Elaine Carey. "5G is going to provide fixed wireless access which is the big opportunity that everybody talks about. So 5G for us is our future-proof technology. Our aim is that we'll have our first trial in the next few months and then we'll roll out our first 5G towards the latter part of the year. With a clear goal to provide fixed wireless access as a solution over 5G." Carey says that the operator will be switching its 5G service on by the end of 2019, as opposed to simply building the network. But there is no rollout requirement for 5G from the State: operators can pick and choose where they want to provide the service. Where does that leave a rural area like Arranmore? "From this unique specific partnership we have in Arranmore, I think we'd definitely look at rolling it out here because it's a long-term partnership," says Carey. "And it would be a great demonstration on an island of what 5G could do." This may be a proof point for rural 5G. Right now, operators don't really know what type of customers will want it, beyond those looking for faster mobile broadband. But several, including Vodafone, Eir and Imagine are lining up trial services in rural areas to see what demand is like. Is this an answer for other remote areas? Rural broadband in Ireland is slightly better than it was a few years ago, but is still generally poor. According to the Government, around a quarter of the population do not have access to what is considered decent broadband. Officially, the State counts 540,000 households and business premises as being in locations without proper service. The definition of a sub-standard service, according to the Government, is one that is measured at below 30 megabits per second at the point it reaches the house. (The actual speed that a resident gets from a 30Mbs connection is usually between 10Mbs and 20Mbs because there's a significant drop off as soon as the router converts the incoming broadband signal into usable wifi around the home.) But this bar is rising all the time. The European Commission is moving what it regards as being a decent service from 30Mbs to 100Mbs. Using this as a guide, the proportion of Irish premises considered below par would be close to half. However, there has been progress. While Eir was criticised for splitting the state's National Broadband Plan intervention area, removing 300,000 from the State's target zone of 845,000, almost all of those 300,000 homes and businesses have now been connected to superfast fibre-to-the-home broadband. Those were rural premises that previously had little or nothing by way of broadband. Similarly, Siro (the ESB and Vodafone joint venture) has been building out fibre-to-the-home broadband in and around large towns, although not in remote rural areas. Meanwhile, there is some evidence that 4G mobile reception has improved in rural areas, although there's no definitive map that the operators or ComReg can provide on this score. (ComReg has a useful guide, but it's largely based on operator figures and engineering calculations rather than actual field tests.) A decent 4G signal can act as a stopgap for broadband, with speeds that often reach over 30Mbs. However, it is much less reliable than fixed broadband and varies significantly according to factors such as the weather and the number of others using the service at the same time. What's more, mobile operators have much smaller monthly caps than fixed broadband operators, with most operators offering no more than 20GB or 30GB per month, a fraction of the 170GB that an average urban household uses in the same period. What Three's partnership brings to Arranmore is hope, say locals. Telemedicine is now possible. Distance learning will be a potential activity too. "We're custodians at the moment," says Jerry Early. "But I'd like there to be something to pass on to the next generation. I really think that this can be a turning point for us." Although it may not have seemed remarkable at the time, the 1970s was an era of prodigious output for the world's most significant acts. Releasing an album every year was common. Some brought out two albums per annum in rare purple patches. And a handful, Elton John included, saw fit to release three albums over the course of 12 months during especially hyper-productive periods. Thin Lizzy were prolific, too. They may have released their self-titled debut album in 1971 but by the final year of that decade they were already on to album number nine. And although a handful of other albums would appear in the early 1980s, the one that was released 40 years ago to the day remains their last great long player. Black Rose: A Rock Legend would be a fitting end to a decade in which the group proved themselves to be one of the defining guitar bands of their time as well as the outfit who - with the greatest of respect to Horslips - helped put Irish music on the map more than any other in the 1970s. The Phil Lynott-fronted outfit had become one of the era's most incendiary live bands - something forever captured on the 1978 concert album Live and Dangerous (still considered a landmark in live album releases), but they showed over the course of the decade that they could be adventurous in the studio, too. And Black Rose - with its striking cover designed by long-term collaborator Jim Fitzpatrick - bears all the hallmarks of an album given great care in the studio. Once more, they turned to Tony Visconti - still David Bowie's go-to producer back then - to add a bit of sheen to their thrilling blues and Celtic-inflected rock. It was the last time Visconti worked with the band - something that would be all too apparent on weaker later albums - but he really got the most out of them in studio and it still sounds great 40 years on. And it's an album that bears all the hallmarks of that esteemed Irish guitarist, the late Gary Moore. After brief stints in Lizzy in 1974 and 1977 - when he replaced the departed Brian Robertson - the Belfast native stayed long enough this time to deliver really special work alongside fellow guitarist Scott Gorham. Moore's relationship with Lynott dated back to the late 1960s - both had cut their teeth in the Brush Sheils-led Skid Row - and, later, in 1978, Lynott would lend his vocals and bass to Moore's debut solo album, Back on the Streets, and to its celebrated single 'Parisian Walkways'. It was Moore who helped Lynott fashion the four-part suite, 'Roisin Dubh', that concludes the album. The album's title track (as Gaeilge) is one of the great examples of folk standards being given a rock makeover and his guitar solos remain utterly captivating. First, there's a re-imagining of the ancient American folk song 'Shenandoah'; then a striking vision of the 'Will Ye Go Lassie Go', the Scottish-Irish tune that was made famous by Belfast folk artist Francis McPeake in the 1960s. The Cu Chulainn-referencing suite is concluded by a giddy take on 'Danny Boy' and 'The Mason's Apron', a reel often associated with The Dubliners. Video of the Day In a retrospective review, Rolling Stone magazine declared it to be the best Irish rock song ever: "It's a messily epic, brilliantly exaggerated and melodramatic ode to Ireland by the ur-Irish rock band." Elsewhere on this most varied of Lizzy albums, there were signs of the sort of work Lynott would pursue in his solo years the following decade. The gentle ballad 'Sarah' was written about his infant daughter - who was born in 1978 - and remains one of their most emblematic compositions while the brutally honest 'Got to Give It Up' - which looks at the perils of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle - would prove to be prophetic when he died seven years later of pneumonia and heart failure after a sustained period of drug and alcohol dependency. "I've been messing with the heavy stuff," he sings, "for a while I couldn't get enough." In his memoir The Rocker, Gorham noted that it was during the making of this album that Lynott's drug-taking really intensified and he later talked about how 'Got to Give It Up' was a veritable cry for help from the Dubliner. Producer Visconti later recalled just how out of it Lynott had been back then. "The thing with Phil was that he was visibly dying," he told Irish music journalist Eamon Sweeney last year. "During the recording of the last album, Black Rose, his complexion was ashen. There were a few days when he couldn't even get out of bed. I had more than one chat with him about this. "It is very hard to tell one of your peers that they are doing it too much, when you do a bit yourself. You don't want to come across as a hypocrite. I tried to reach out to Phil, but like a lot of people who have an addiction problem, he said, 'Don't worry, I've got it under control'. "Thin Lizzy," he added, "were probably the greatest rock band I ever worked with." The album debuted at number two in the UK charts - their best showing - and the future looked bright. But it wasn't long before the old 'artistic differences' chestnut was rearing its head again and Moore quit the band while they were in the US on the Black Rose tour. He briefly founded a group - G-Force - and released an album of the same name in 1980 before, ever restless, disbanding them and setting to work with Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. In 2011, on the occasion of his death at the age of 58, Gorham paid tribute to Moore and the part he played in the Lizzy story. "Playing with Gary during the Black Rose era was a great experience," he said. "He was a great player and a great guy. I will miss him." He was not involved in sessions for the Chinatown album, rushed out the following year, and - in retrospect - one can see that Black Rose marked the end of Thin Lizzy as a significant force in rock. The demons that were plaguing Lynott were beginning to take their toll on the music - as well as his health and well-being. The band's output in the 1980s would be largely forgettable and it is Lynott's pair of uneven solo albums - Solo in Soho and The Phil Lynott Album - where the most important of his music is to be found. But back to 1979 and the release of Black Rose. It would be a busy year for Irish music. The Boomtown Rats became the first rock band from these shores to top the singles chart in the UK - with 'I Don't Like Mondays' - and it was also the year that The Radiators released one of the very best Irish albums ever, Ghostown. 1979 was also a crucial year for the embryonic U2: it marked their debut release, the three-track EP, Three, and it was the year that they wrote must of the songs that would appear on their first album, Boy, released in the autumn of 1980. But, in 79, the smart money was on The Blades to become the next big thing. They had already demonstrated what a wonderful live outfit they were, but the big breaks never materialised. Black Rose may need little introduction to Lizzy fans but it's now ripe for reappraisal among those who are more familiar with the band's breakthrough album, Jailbreak. Impressive as that 1976 release is, it is Black Rose: A Rock Legend that demonstrates the true range of Lynott's gifts - and that of his supremely talented band, Moore included. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 18) Photos released by a U.S. based think tank showed vessels believed to be part of Chinas maritime militia in the vicinity of Philippine-occupied island features in the South China Sea. A report by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) on Tuesday showed the vessels drawing as close as less than a kilometer (km) away from Kota and Panata Islands, which are part of the hotly-contested Spratly Island group. The two features are around 44 km away from Pag-asa Island, where a Chinese flotilla was seen from between January to March this year. Satellite images collected on March 12, 16, and 29, and April 7 confirm the presence of Chinese vessels in the area, most of which show every indication of belonging to the maritime militia. In almost every instance, the vessels are riding at anchor, many in large clusters, and without fishing gear in the water, the AMTI reported. On March 12, a single Chinese fishing trawler about 50 meters long was visible near Kota Island (Loaita Island). Four days after, the number increased to eight, and by March 29 there were at least 15 large Chinese fishing vessels and eight small boats spotted. Chinese trawlers near Loaita Cay, March 29, 2019 Two 20-meter Chinese vessels which towed three smaller boats appeared similar to the boats harvesting giant clams through destroying coral reefs around the South China Sea. The most recent incident of Beijings clam harvest was in Scarborough Shoal, which Manila had denounced. Philippine Navy tank landing ship and Chinese fishing vessels east of Loaita Cay, March 29, 2019 This month-long deployment around the two features shows that the flotilla around Thitu Island is not a one-off incident. As prior research has shown, the maritime militia is and will likely remain the most visible arm of Chinas power directed at its neighbors in the Spratly Islands, the report said. Manila and Beijings territorial dispute over the West Philippine Sea was reignited following the presence of Chinese vessels in Pag-asa Island, also known as Thitu Island. The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs is studying filing a case against China over reports of Chinese fishermen harvesting the clams, and the department secretary claimed he has sent diplomatic notes to the East Asian country. Beijings recent actions in disputed territories have prompted the Philippine government to assert the July 2016 arbitration award which recognized the countrys sovereign rights in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. This area is referred to as the West Philippine Sea, which includes some of the islands in the Spratlys. THE family of a young woman killed by a truck driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel said they were "livid" he has now been convicted of drink- driving while banned. Nicola Kenny (26) had been a mother for just one day when the collision happened on the M8 on September 5, 2016. Ms Kenny had given birth in South Tipperary General Hospital to baby Lily Rose, but the child was transferred to Temple Street in Dublin. Truck driver Ciaran McBride, of Listrakelt Road, Derrynoose, Co Armagh, pleaded guilty to careless driving last year. As well as a five-year driving ban, he was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay 10,000 in compensation to Ms Kenny's parents. McBride has been caught drink-driving in the North, leading to a furious reaction from Nicola's mother, Ann. McBride (33) pleaded guilty at Armagh Magistrates' Court to driving while disqualified, using a vehicle without insurance and driving with excess alcohol. The offences occurred on the Derrynoose Road in Keady on February 11. His solicitor told the court McBride's "mental health deteriorated" following the crash and that he had become "dependent on alcohol". But Ann Kenny said: "I am livid. We are devastated and very upset. He could have killed someone else. "We had a choice in deciding if McBride would be charged with the more serious offence of dangerous driving but we didn't want two lives destroyed and gave him the benefit of the doubt. Now I wish we hadn't made that choice. There's obviously no remorse there from him. I wasn't angry before, but I'm angry now. "And as for the 10,000 compensation, we haven't seen a cent of it. We were going to donate it to a children's hospital anyway, but it never came. I'll be demanding it now so I can pass it on to a hospital. "McBride is claiming his mental health since the crash is to blame for him drink- driving. Well, all our mental health is affected. We are all depressed. We all have PTSD. But we're getting on with it, we're raising Nicola's baby. This is a kick in the teeth. It is horrendous." On reading the pre-sentence report, District Judge Brian Archer stated: "This man was involved in a very serious road traffic incident in the Republic of Ireland that resulted in a fatality. Three years later he is drink-driving with a reading of 87mg of alcohol in breath." McBride was sentenced to a combination order consisting of 75 hours of community service and two years on probation, as well as a 30-month driving disqualification. "If you commit any further motoring offences you will be going to prison," the judge warned him. Gardai are to mount the biggest Easter road safety campaign in recent years with traffic fatalities now an alarming 11pc up on 2018. There has also been a startling 24pc hike in the number of drivers caught using their mobile phone while behind the wheel, with 5,000 motorists detected in January and February. Transport Minister Shane Ross described the statistic as "shocking". A total of 50 people have died on Irish roads since January 1, compared to 45 over the same period in 2018, an increase of 11pc. Gardai and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) launched the Easter bank holiday weekend road safety campaign yesterday with the focus on speeding and motorists who still insist on their phones while driving. The campaign is the biggest test of the year so far for gardai, with an estimated two million people taking to the roads for festive journeys. Assistant Commissioner David Sheahan stressed they will have a highly visible enforcement presence over the coming days. This will be bolstered by a significant deployment of unmarked patrol vehicles - particularly aimed to detecting motorists using mobile phones while behind the wheel. RSA chief executive Moyagh Murdock has urged motorists to adhere to the rules of the road. "Using your mobile phone while driving makes you four times more likely to crash. "Despite this, rational, intelligent people continue to text, make phone calls and check their social media accounts," she said. Penalty Ms Murdock pointed out that in the three years to March 2019, a total of 81,199 penalty point notices were issued for using a mobile phone while driving. "Taking a call, sending a text or browsing while driving could kill you or some other innocent road user," she warned. Reinforcing the campaign message, Assistant Commissioner Sheahan said that any interaction with a mobile phone while at the wheel was "killer behaviour". "Alarmingly we have seen a 24pc increase in drivers detected holding a mobile phone in 2019 compared to 2018," he said. Secondary teachers say they dont have enough training or planning time to give students with special educational needs (SEN) the support they deserve. Up to 25pc of second-level students are deemed to have a special educational need, and vast majority are in mainstream classes. But the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) says only 22pc of its members have received the necessary training. The finding comes from a survey of ASTI members against the background of controversy over the bedding down of a new way of allocating extra teaching resources to schools to cater for SEN students. Other findings include: 65p of teachers had not participate in training for SEN students in recent years, and the most frequently cite reason for this was workload. 61pc of those who had not participated in training are willing to do so, while 85pc would like further training 50pc of mainstream teachers said the training was not adequate 68pc said smaller classes would be better for SEN students. The union says that it is embracing the new inclusion model but is concerned about the level of resources to back it up. A key feature of the new model is to support SEN students within the mainstream classroom as much as possible rather than their withdrawal for one-to-one or small group tuition. T The ASTI has advised its members not to engage in what union presIdent Breda Lynch described as the bureaucratic paperwork associated with the new system. ASTI assistant general secretary Moira Leyden said they had been flooded with emails from members since September as a result of the changes. Ms Lynch said the findings showed that the best way to assist teachers in the delivery of education to SEN students was smaller classes and access to training. She said they confirmed that teachers commitment to inclusive education was being significantly undermined by a lack of support at national level. The survey demonstrates that the vast majority of teachers have received no training in special needs education in recent years. It is also evident that schools lack consistent administrative structures to co-ordinate planning for SEN students. She said Education Minister Joe McHugh had acknowledged the negative impact of initiative overload on schools and teachers. This initiative overload includes an overly-bureaucratic SEN model which is not backed by appropriate training and supports for teachers. This must change if the government is serious about inclusive education and equality of opportunity for all of our young people. Secondary teachers are ramping up their campaign for a return of money lost during their dispute over junior cycle reform. Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) is furious that its members are being treated differently than nurses, who were not penalised in the same way when they took industrial action earlier this year. ASTI members were subjected to a pay freeze in 2016-17 because of ongoing industrial action over the curricular changes . ASTI general secretary Kieran Christie said they would be making a substantial announcement on the matter at the unions annual convention next Wednesday. The union has sought legal advice on the matter. Mr Christie said it seemed that nurses escaped the same type of pay penalties imposed on his members in 2016-17, because nurses are more popular than teachers. He referred directly to comments made by Taoiseach Leo Vardakar in this regard during the nurses dispute. He said the outcome of the nurses dispute was a game changer for the ASTI in relation to seeking retrospection for losses suffered by his members . The Government used emergency legislation, known as FEMPI, to impose a pay freeze on ASTI members in 2016-17, on the basis that their industrial action was a repudiation of the public service pay agreement. One of the sanctions was a freeze on increments. When the dispute ended on June 10 2017, the increments restarted, with immediate effect, and became the standard date for increments to apply. However, for teachers whose increment was originally due at a different time of the year, perhaps September, it can mean a considerable time lag and the loss of the money for that period. Mr Christie said the Increments issue the stone in the shoe of the ASTI. Depending on the point a teacher is at in the scale, increments are worth a minimum of about 1,200 Since the dispute ended the ASTI had been seeking the restoration of the original increment dates for members, and now, as a result of the nurses dispute, it is also demanding retrospection. Mr Christie said while they believed FEMPI should never have been enacted, but we take the view that the law of the land is the law of the land and we dont think it is open to Government to apply the law to one section of the community and not to another. The fiance of a young mother who tragically drowned in Carlingford Lough missed a phone call from her - asking for a lift home - on the night she died. James Griffin didn't get the message from Ruth Maguire, his beloved partner of 12 years, until a fortnight after her funeral because she had dialled his work phone which he had mistakenly left at the office. The couple, who have three children - Tyler (10), Lydia (7) and Oliver (5) - were due to marry this August. Ruth (30) lost her life during an accident on a friend's hen night in Co Louth. She went missing after 11.30pm on Saturday, March 16, after becoming separated from her friends. Her body was later recovered between Carlingford and Greenore on March 18, a month ago today. Heartbreakingly, Ruth, who lived in Newcastle, was buried in her wedding dress. In an interview with the 'Belfast Telegraph', Ruth's older sister, Rachel Wilkinson, said her family is still trying to bear the pain of her sudden death. "Everybody is just trying to work through their grieving in different ways," Rachel said. "When Jim went back to work two weeks after the funeral, he turned on his work phone and saw that Ruth had called him twice at 12.06am, so it all makes sense now. She had told her friends that she wanted to go home and I now know she was ringing Jim in the hope he would pick her up... but she'd obviously rung his work number instead of his personal phone by accident. "Jim told me he had to pull over in the car when he saw the missed calls. He was devastated, but in a way it's comforting for us to know that she was trying to get home to her family before she died." Speaking from a family holiday with husband Ben (40) and their boys Louis (7) and Oscar (3) in Lanzarote, which she booked before Ruth went missing, Rachel revealed how losing Ruth, a strong swimmer, in a drowning accident, has left her terrified of the sea. "The water has become a bit of an issue for me," she added. "The other day, down by the beach, I was an absolute mess, I just couldn't relax. Every time the kids went near the water I panicked." Rachel said that Jim (35) has been strong for his children, as he tackles the challenges of being a single-parent head on. "He's trying to look after the kids and he's got a lot to work out... like how he's going to get them all to their various classes," she said. Rachel said her family has reconciled themselves to the fact Ruth had a freak accident that came about partly because there are no barriers in the area near the lough. The mercury is set to rise over the coming days - but so will pollen levels, bringing misery to hayfever sufferers. "With dry, settled and increasingly warm temperatures over the next few days the tree pollen risk will rise to high across all regions," said Met Eireann. However, the grass and weed pollen risk will be low. This weekend will see spells of sunshine and temperatures ranging from 20C to nearly 22C hit the country. Saturday and Sunday will be fine and dry. Temperatures will hit 17C tomorrow and 22C on Friday. But asthma and hay fever sufferers are being urged to start taking precautions. Sarah O'Connor, CEO of the Asthma Society of Ireland said: "People with hayfever really need to start their hay fever management now, especially those with hay fever and asthma. 80pc of people with asthma have hay fever." She added: "Hayfever is very misunderstood in Ireland and people often dismiss you as a hypochondriac or simply a complainer when you mention it. As a hayfever sufferer, I can testify that it is a very debilitating condition that leaves you feeling really miserable and unwell. "The constant runny nose, itchy eyes and sneezing are extremely distracting, and the accompanying headache and fatigue have always really marked out the summer months for me. For me, it felt like a flu all summer long. Hayfever makes it difficult for people to focus, not to mention making people self-conscious when in work or in company." A man has died following a road crash this afternoon in Co Clare. The man, aged in his sixties, was driving the car which crashed on the R352 near the village of Mountshannon. It is understood the car left the road and struck a ditch. A passenger in the car, another man aged in his sixties, was rushed to University Hospital Limerick by ambulance. His injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. Gardai were called to the scene at approximately 2.45pm and the victim was pronounced dead. His body has since been removed to the mortuary at University Hospital Limerick for a post-mortem examination. Gardai in Killaloe are now appealing for witnesses to the collision. Garda forensic collision investigators have been requested to examine the scene. The local Coroner has been notified and local traffic diversions are in place around the crash site. Anyone with information is asked to contact Ennis Garda Station 065-6848100 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111. "He got the death he feared most. He had an aversion to water and couldn't swim." Detective Sergeant Fergus O'Brien is recalling the harrowing death of Csaba Orsos, who drowned in the deep harbour off Arklow's South Quay. Marta Herda, who drove the car through crash barriers into the water and knew her passenger could not swim, was convicted of his murder. Now the senior detective who investigated the crime has spoken for the first time about it as a case that made his job worth doing. Det Sgt O'Brien was involved in the successful prosecutions of 'The Black Widow' Catherine Nevin as well as Herda, convicted in March 2013. He spoke yesterday about the Herda case, which he described as a sad story but an uplifting one. He told his colleagues: "Marta Herda was convicted of the murder of Csaba Orsos. This story is about Csaba Orsos's mother, a person I've never met. "Csaba got the death he feared most. He had an aversion to water and couldn't swim," he said. "He died by drowning. Marta Herda drove her car that night straight through two metal barriers, plunging it into the icy waters of the Avoca River at 6am. "She took a look at Csaba, alighted from the open window of her car, swam to a nearby ladder on a wall and ran along the quay, shouting 'rape, I have been raped'. "So not only did she take Csaba's life by assassinating him in the manner that she did, she now was assassinating his memory for his mother." Describing Csaba's mother's reaction at home in Hungary when she heard about her son's death, he said: "When she heard the police in Ireland were investigating her son's death as a murder, she said: 'Who would hate my son so much that they would want to murder him?'" After a long, lengthy and difficult trial, Herda was convicted and Det Sgt O'Brien was told the victim's mother had said: "A stone has been lifted off my heart." He quoted the Greek poet, Aeschylus who said: "Even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls, drop by drop, upon the heart and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God." Det Sgt O'Brien added: "I was glad that not only did we investigate that case but we redeemed Csaba Orsos' good name for his mother's memory. "I never met [her] but I'm glad we could lift some of the pain that dropped on her heart and I'm glad we could lift the stone off her heart. "To me, that is the meaning of being a police officer and that's what makes the job worth doing." Det Sgt O'Brien retires from An Garda Siochana next week after a career spent fighting crime. The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors presented him with their top accolade, the AGSI excellence award. General secretary John Jacob said he had a remarkable and hugely successful career. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said the Interim Report published on Wednesday by the Commission of Investigation on Mother and Baby Homes has left him with profound distress, even indignation. In his homily for the annual Chrism Mass, which gathers together priests, bishops and laity from Irelands largest diocese, Dr Martin said he found it hard to believe that evidence has simply vanished and that no one can remember. In hard-hitting words, he questioned, What went wrong to give rise to a situation in which children within the Church of Jesus Christ were not cared for with scrupulous dignity, whether in life or in death? He reminded the congregation gathered at the Pro Cathedral in Dublin, The Catholic Church in Ireland has to look constantly at the negative effects of the way it exercised a dominant role in Irish society in the past, while at the same time not renouncing its prophetic role in society today. He also recalled Pope Francis address to the Irish Bishops during his visit to Dublin last August when the Pontiff said, Do not repeat the attitudes of aloofness and clericalism that at times in your history have given the real image of an authoritarian, harsh and autocratic Church. Elsewhere in his homily, the Archbishop of Dublin noted that this was his fifteenth year celebrating the Chrism Mass, which prepares the sacred oils that will be used in parishes at liturgies during the year. Much, he acknowledged, had happened over that fifteen-year period. There have been major actions, positive and negative. We have experienced the dramatic effects of the crisis of sexual abuse. Moving forward did not mean whitewashing the past but recognising how our parish communities have responded with great dedication putting into place and supporting child protection structures of which they could be proud. The diocese of Dublin challenges included an overall growth in population which in some areas was spectacular. Five parishes in the diocese have over 15,000 Catholics. Patterns of ministry, Dr Martin said, have to adapt to changing situations. This includes parishes are working together. He said that while there is strong faith, the culture is changing; 48pc of those in the age group 24 to 29 living in the diocese registered as no religion in the last census. Only a few of the parishes within the two canals have a majority Catholic population. Our ministry and outreach has to take place within that changing reality. We have to identify and recognise that reality. Young people are growing up in a very pluralist culture and have to be supported and accompanied in finding a strong personalised faith. Dr Martin also stressed that the Catholic community in the future will likely become smaller within wider Irish society. The Easter weekend can be a "recipe for disaster" if dogs get their paws on chocolate eggs. Photo: Dogs trust PET owners are being advised to avoid leaving Easter eggs where their canine friends can reach them this weekend, as chocolate is highly toxic to dogs. Dogs Trust said the Easter weekend can be a "recipe for disaster" if dogs get their paws on chocolate eggs. Dogs Trust Veterinary Surgeon, Desre Daly, said that dogs should never be allowed to eat chocolate intended for human consumption, which can have potentially tragic consequences for dogs. "It is the theobromine, a substance found in chocolate, which can be toxic to dogs. An individual dogs sensitivity to chocolate is variable and depending on their body weight (and the type of chocolate ingested), even just a small bite of chocolate can make some dogs very sick, and in significant enough quantities, death could result," Ms Daly said. Expand Close Symptoms of chocolate poisoning in dogs include vomiting and drooling. Photo: Dogs Trust / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Symptoms of chocolate poisoning in dogs include vomiting and drooling. Photo: Dogs Trust "When a dog eats chocolate, the theobromine metabolizes more slowly than it does in humans. Theobromine interferes with the normal functioning of the central nervous system, heart and kidneys. Ms Daly warned that without appropriate and timely treatment, it could lead to death. Symptoms of chocolate poisoning in dogs include vomiting, drooling, excessive thirst, hyperactivity. rapid heart rate, tremors and potentially seizures. Dogs Trust have released the following advice to pet owners ahead of the weekend; - Never feed your dog chocolate intended for humans. - Keep your chocolate in a safe place this means hidden out of sight and out of reach from your dog. - If your egg (or any chocolate) is missing and you suspect that your dog is the culprit, contact your vet straight away. - Look out for any of the following symptoms; vomiting, diarrhoea, a sore tummy, excessive thirst, excitability, racing heart rate, drooling, tremors, or in severe cases, seizures - If your dog is displaying any of these signs, then take him immediately to your vet. - It is helpful if you can tell your vet how much chocolate, and the type of chocolate, you think your dog may have ingested. If you have any packaging, take it with you to the vets - There is no antidote for theobromine poisoning with treatment being symptomatic. Therefore, the sooner treatment is implemented, the greater the chance of recovery. - If you want to treat your dog this Easter, stick to doggy-friendly snacks that are kinder to your canine. Pet specialist retailer Petmania have also warned against hot cross buns and Easter flowers. Raisins in hot cross buns can cause severe acute kidney failure in cats and dogs, the retailer said. "Eating the bulbs, flowers, or even drinking water from a vase with flowers can cause a very sick stomach and can make the pet vomit," a spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the ISPCA is asking consumers to think about where their hen's eggs come from. According to the group, over three million egg laying hens are farmed per year in Ireland, and over half of them, nearly 1.9 million (54pc) are caged. ISPCA CEO Dr Andrew Kelly said: The End the Cage Age initiative is the single biggest and most collaborative animal welfare campaign to be launched in this generation. Over 140 animal welfare organisations across Europe are participating, and we are incredibly close to one million EU Citizens supporting a cage-free future for farm animals. The ISPCA are calling for the Irish government to introduce a legislative ban or phase out of the use of cages for laying hens by 2025. A number of Irish retailers, including Tesco, McDonalds, Aldi and Lidl, have gone cage free for both shell eggs and eggs used in other products. The ISPCA are hosting the 'End the Cage Age' exhibition in Dublins CHQ building, 1 Custom House Quay, North Dock, Dublin from 18th - 23rd April 2019, to highlight animal welfare issues for laying hens. The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has already visited the FAI headquarters as part of its investigation into the finances of the organisation, the Irish Independent has learned. Sources said a number of FAI officials were interviewed when officers from the State's corporate watchdog called to the FAI HQ at Abbotstown in west Dublin. Last night, sources said the investigation was at a "very early stage" and may take years for the probe to be completed. It is understood the ODCE has requested a large amount of financial documentation from the FAI. Sport Ireland has previously said it understood the engagement between the FAI and ODCE was "substantial". Under the Companies Act, if a statement given to auditors is false, directors who knew it was false or failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the report being approved can be fined up to 50,000 or jailed for up to five years. Earlier this week, Deloitte filed a notice with the Companies Registration Office stating proper accounting records have not been kept by the FAI. Auditors Deloitte believes the FAI is contravening section 281 and section 282 of the Companies Act, related to the obligations and requirements to keep adequate accounting records. It was previously revealed the ODCE has received a detailed protected disclosure outlining a number of new concerns about governance at the FAI. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said there needs to be an investigation into the organisation's financial affairs. "Investigations are necessary - investigations by Sport Ireland - into the accounts and finances of FAI and it also may be necessary for the ODCE to carry out investigations under company law," said Mr Varadkar, speaking in the Dail. Meanwhile, plans to create a new governance structure at the FAI are set to take another step forward today when a four-person Governance Review Group is finalised. Aidan Horan, a director of the Institute of Public Administration, will be a central part of the four-person committee. The FAI's interim CEO, Rea Walshe, and board member Niamh O'Donoghue, who joined the top table in 2017, will be part of the group and the final member should be confirmed by Sport Ireland today. They have to figure out a timeline and procedure around an EGM likely to be called ahead of the scheduled AGM in July. As it stands, the FAI's board has to be drawn from the 60-person FAI Council and proposals will have to be drafted for an EGM to consider - even if that means voting on an overhaul of the system. Sport Ireland chief John Treacy said yesterday he is confident a new board structure would deliver the culture change needed to restore public confidence. "They will be laying the framework for what the FAI is going to look like in the future in terms of corporate governance," he said. "What's really important is that we have the right type of skills required for the board going forward. The board of the FAI must lead the organisation and not the chief executive. That's a lesson that everyone has learned. "You need people who know the sport, but you need people of independent mind who can make the right decisions for the right reasons." Mr Treacy said the Governance Review Group will submit proposals to Sport Ireland within the next two months. The Sport Ireland CEO also stated John Delaney is "not a part of the FAI any more" as the association faces a number of investigations. "John Delaney has voluntarily stepped aside," he said. "I can't really comment on that because that is a contractual piece with the FAI." Insurance companies have refused to automatically provide consumers with details of their premium from the previous year as part of the renewal process. Despite more than two years of talks, the Government will now have to legislate for what has been described as "the most basic reform". The revelation came as TDs hit out at insurers for pushing up premiums, particularly on small businesses. Fianna Fail's finance spokesperson Michael McGrath said it was "a joke" that motorists, homeowners and businesses were not shown the price change on their renewal notices. "I got my car insurance quote recently and it did not tell me what I paid last year, and I had to contact the insurance company to check. That is a joke," he said. "We are talking about data and transparency, yet simple information continues to be withheld from consumers that would allow them to make more informed and better decisions. It is not good enough." He demanded that Minister of State Michael D'Arcy "call out" the companies that would not agree to do so on a non-legislative basis. Mr D'Arcy said efforts had been made to establish a voluntary guideline for firms, but it was not possible to do so. "I thought it would be particularly easy for somebody to be able to see last year's quote three or four lines above this year's quote," he said. The Irish Independent understands that Government officials were in discussions with Insurance Ireland, which represents the main insurers here. However, since not all companies fall under its remit, it was not possible to set up a voluntary code that would apply industry-wide. Mr McGrath described the situation as "pathetic", saying he felt sorry for the minister having to deal with insurance companies. Meanwhile, former tanaiste Joan Burton told the same debate that more action needed to be taken to deal with fraudulent insurance claims. "Has any action been taken? It really is affecting every stream of Irish life in a destructive way," she said. "Children will not be able to run in school playgrounds, or play in play centres. Water parks are being charged massive increases in premiums." SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood is to contest the forthcoming European elections in Northern Ireland. A member of the non-sitting Stormont Assembly, he confirmed the move this morning. It will shake up a field which is currently dominated by Sinn Fein and unionist candidates. The sitting MEPs are Martina Anderson (SF), Diane Dodds (DUP) and Jim Nicholson (UUP). Mr Eastwood said: This is an election like no other. In June 2016, a majority of people from communities across Northern Ireland came together to express our clear will that we should remain in the European Union. It was a vote that, unlike many others, saw people break free from their traditional trenches to occupy a common ground and a common identity. Since then, the broad progressive coalition that came together has been sidelined and silenced. Without a government in Belfast and with the DUP aligned to hard Brexit fanatics in London, people here have been ignored. Enough is enough. He called for the European elections to be a referendum on what people in Northern Ireland want from Brexit. As the most pro-Europe party in the North and the only party which joined the official campaign against Brexit in 2016, the SDLP will be a strong voice championing our shared values and opposing the destructive ideology that is leading the British Government toward a hard border on this island, Mr Eastwood said. The SDLP, who recently agreed a working partnership with Fianna Fail, said the electoral maths are clear. Sinn Fein and the DUP are safe but there is a race for the third seat. We are the best chance of returning two Pro-Europe MEPs, Mr Eastwood said. The Health and Safety Authority is investigating two fatal workplace accidents in less than 24 hours. A man in his 70s suffered fatal injuries when emptying a septic tank on a farm on Tuesday morning in Ferrybank, Co Waterford. His body was taken to University Hospital Waterford where a post-mortem examination will be carried out. His name has not been released. The accident happened on the day the Irish Farmers' Association hosted a seminar on farm safety in Tipperary to highlight the ongoing dangers of farm accidents, especially in the early spring. Meanwhile, a funeral service is to be held today for a father of two who tragically died after falling from a height after delivering building materials to a house-building site in Co Carlow. John Doyle (49), from Clonegal, Co Carlow, had been delivering construction materials to a house which is being built in Leighlinbridge, when the accident occurred around lunchtime on Monday. It is understood that Mr Doyle had been unloading the truck and may have fallen from a height as he was checking the vehicle. Strong winds may have been a contributory factor to the freak accident. Emergency services from Carlow town were called to the scene but despite efforts from ambulance paramedics Mr Doyle died later at St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny. Mr Doyle is survived by his wife Elizabeth and two young daughters, Shauna and Rachel. He is predeceased by his parents Bab and John. His funeral mass will be held at 11am today at St Brigid's Church in Clonegal, followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery. The house and yard where eight security guards were allegedly attacked at Falsk, near Strokestown, Co Roscommon. Picture Credit :Frank McGrath Special branch detectives have arrested a suspected dissident republican as part of the investigation into a violent incident at a house in Roscommon last year. A group of around 30 men were involved in an altercation with security workers guarding a property at the centre of an eviction in Falske, Strokestown in December. Last night investigating gardai, backed up by members of the Special Detective Unit (SDU), arrested a 39-year-old man at a property in Navan, Co Meath. This suspect's home was searched the day after the Strokestown incident on December 16 but he was not arrested. The man, who is originally from Dublin and has links to dissident republicans, is suspected by gardai to have been centrally involved in the alleged violent incident at the property. He is currently being held at Castlerea garda station and can be held for a period of up to three days. A senior source last night described the arrest as "highly significant" and that further arrests are expected. "This man is alleged to have been centrally involved and his house was searched in the immediate aftermath last December," the source said. Local gardai based at Castlerea, supported by members of the SDU, arrested the man shortly after 8.30pm last night. He is originally from Dublin but has been living in Meath in recent years. A garda spokesman last night said: "A man in his late 30s was arrested this evening (17/4/2019) in Co Meath as part of ongoing investigations into incidents at Falsk, Strokestown on Sunday 16th December 2018. He is currently detained under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act, 1939 at Castlerea Garda Station. "This is the 8th person to be arrested in connection with this investigation, two are currently before the courts." Last nights arrest follows the questioning of a 50-year-old man as part of the garda investigation. The man, who was arrested in Roscommon, is alleged to have been central to the events at the house around the time of the alleged criminal damage incident. IT has been one of the most puzzling things facing parents in recent years. Just when can you take a photo of your child at a school event? If other kids are present, do you have to ask permission from their parents first? What about posting that photo to Facebook or WhatsApp for the rest of your family to see? And is the principal or bishop actually right if they announce that photos of the confirmation or communion are not allowed "due to GDPR"? The whole thing is a fog of confusion, nervousness and second-guessing. And if it has been unclear for parents, for schools and institutions, it is little short of a minefield. They not only have to consider privacy, but safety and child protection, too. Thankfully, Ireland's highest authority on the topic has shed some light on proceedings. It turns out that Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) doesn't stop anyone from taking a photo at a school event. There is, the DPC reminds us, a "household exception". In plain English, that means that parents will, of course, want to take photos of their kids' big events. And if other kids also happen to be in those photos, that's generally fine, too, unless there is some particular reason why not. It should also put paid to some extreme interpretations, such as the notion that you can't take a photo at a school GAA match. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner's office isn't saying you can follow someone around with a long lens. And it recommends being sensitive to the feelings of others. But that camera phone snap from the back of the church? It's fine. Members of the Corbett family and friends attend the North Carolina Court of Appeal challenge in Raleigh by Tom and Molly Martens. Included are, from left to right, Tracey Corbett Lynch, Dave Lynch, Wayne Corbett, Marilyn Corbett and Lynn Shanahan. Photo: Ralph Riegel Molly Martens with her father Tom on her wedding day Murderer: Molly Martens and her father Tom were sentenced to 20-25 years in jail after a jury unanimously convicted them of murder Jason Corbett and Molly Martens on their wedding day (Inset above: Molly Martens' photo taken after arrest; inset below: Molly Martens' father Tom) US network CBS has released a preview of its upcoming documentary which details how Molly Martens and her father Tom Martens "tried to destroy" Jason Corbett's character after they murdered him. The documentary is due to air this Saturday and includes an interview with Tracey Corbett-Lynch, Jason's sister, who decided to participate in the hour-long episode of '48 Hours' to defend his good name. '48 Hours' investigate Jason Corbetts death, the trial and appeal through interviews with his friends and family, Molly Corbetts friends, investigators, defense attorneys and more. The Martens didnt just murder Jason, they tried to destroy his character, Tracey Corbett-Lynch says in her interview. Molly Martens (35) and Tom Martens (68) were convicted of the second-degree murder of the Limerick-born businessman (39), who was beaten to death as he slept in August 2015. The Tennessee father and daughter are now serving 20-25 years in North Carolina prisons but have appealed their convictions. Tom Martens told a 911 dispatcher that his son-in-law got into a fight with his daughter and he had to intervene. Hes bleeding all over and I, I may have killed him, he said. Molly also told police that Jason, then 39, was screaming Im gonna kill you. Tom Martens, a retired FBI agent, later acknowledged in his trial evidence he had never seen Jason threaten or abuse his daughter. I just couldnt process it, Ms Corbett-Lynch says of her brothers death. It was that, you know, he was my best friend. We were just two of the closest people in the world to each other outside my husband and children. She told '48 Hours' that before his death her brother said he was unhappy and wanted to move home to Ireland. "He said she [Molly Martens] was acting strange. He would open up and say they were having difficulties, and then he would change the subject." Molly and Tom Martens claimed they did not receive a fair trial in North Carolina and have now appealed to have their second degree murder convictions quashed and new trials ordered. Ms Corbett-Lynch, who together with her husband cares for her brother's children in Ireland, continues to fight for Jason. "I would have done anything I needed to do to take justice for Jason." There has been endless discussion and speculation about Ireland's future relationship with Britain since Brexit first loomed ominously on to the horizon. Despite endless coverage of the trivia of Donald Trump's presidency, Ireland's changing relationship with the superpower on the other side of the Atlantic is the subject of less discussion. A visit to Ireland by some of America's top Democrat politicians, whom your columnist met yesterday as part of their fact-finding mission to this island, is a good opportunity to consider the future of Ireland-US relations. Let's start with a positive. Among the group of Democrats visiting this week are Congressmen by the names of Boyle, Higgins, Kildee and Neal. The affinity that US politicians who identify as Irish-American have for this country remains very strong, as was clear from the questions and issues the members of the House of Representatives raised yesterday. That is an important factor in Ireland's future relationship. But it is not reason for complacency. When a small country considers its long-term strategic interests with a much bigger country, the first thing it needs to do is understand that country's interests, orientation and direction of travel. That is challenging now because America is changing fast. Long held-positions on the role of the US in pro-actively shaping the world, shared by both Republicans and Democrats, are shifting. Bi-partisanship on issues such as foreign trade is breaking down. Ever-deepening political polarisation is, among other things, making the US more introverted. This matters to Ireland in multiple ways. Since the 1940s, the US has been central to providing Europe the (costly) security that has given the continent an usually long era of peace. The current US president believes - for good reason - that his country is not getting a good deal on its investment in the defence of Europe. Whether he does something as dramatic as end the US's commitment to defending Europe if it is attacked is moot, but sooner or later American taxpayers will grow tired of footing our security bill. That day has never looked like it will come sooner, both because the US has better things on which to expend its tax dollars, and because it has bigger fish to fry. It is often said that the 20th century was America's. It is conventional wisdom now that the 21st century will be Asia's, a continent that accounts for almost half of the world's population and many of its most dynamic economies. Barack Obama, the last US president, downgraded Europe in the pecking order of American interests - again, for good reason from his country's perspective. His "pivot to Asia" was one of the defining foreign policy shifts of the his presidency. Polarisation, greater introversion and changing global interests are not the only big changes taking place in the world's most powerful country. Immigration from Latin America and Asia are making the US more ethnically diverse and contributing to shifting its centre of gravity southwards and westwards. Among other things, this has further reduced the influence of longer established communities in the north-east, including Irish-Americans. Thankfully, from the perspective of this country, the waning demographic importance of Irish-America does not appear to have lessened the willingness of some US politicians to bat for Ireland. Nancy Pelosi, who led this week's visiting delegation and who is the speaker of the US House of Representatives, said that she and her like-minded elected representatives would vote against any US-UK trade deal if the outcome of Brexit undermined the Good Friday Agreement. From any objective calculation of pure national interests, this position does not make sense. Britain is much more powerful than Ireland in most respects. It is therefore a more useful ally for the US. If US foreign policy were determined solely by interests, American politicians would not take such a position. But, as Ms Pelosi said, values matter in the stance the US takes on international affairs, not just interests. This should provide reassurance about the future of the Ireland-US relationship. While American society and politics is changing, the basic values of a nation as well established as the US may be among its most enduring features. Also reassuring are ever-deepening business ties. The Ireland-US economic relationship has gone from strength to strength in recent decades. It is not as well known as it might be, but the US is Ireland's largest national export market by a distance. Last year, for instance, Irish goods shipped across the Atlantic brought in three times more in earnings than those shipped across the Irish Sea to Britain. Better known is the fact that American multinationals have created and sustained tens of thousands of mostly high-paying jobs in Ireland over decades. It is not an exaggeration to say that without corporate America, the transformation of the Irish economy in the 1990s - from laggard to leader in western Europe - would never have happened. But it is this great success story that may be the biggest challenge for the future of the Ireland-US relationship. Donald Trump is different from all his predecessors in living memory in a number of respects. One of those differences is that he believes countries either win or lose when they trade with each other. Past presidents viewed international trade to be beneficial to both sides. Nor did other presidents come close to taking the sort of aggressively confrontational approach to trade relations with so many partner countries as has the current administration. If the rest of the US political class does not share the starkness of the president's views and approach, both big parties have become a lot less enthusiastic about economic openness. Keeping jobs at home and keeping foreign goods out is the message of more and more politicians. There is little sign yet that the new protectionism has done much economic damage, but if the barriers go up and trade partnerships break down that will eventually change. A more introverted and less engaged America has already changed the way the world works. If the current administration doubles down on that approach and future ones continue it, the future of Ireland-US relations will not be like the recent past. If you're reading this on a laptop, perched on a rock in the far corner of your garden, alas, we cannot help you with the current location of broadband. But we can give Leo Varadkar the exact political location of broadband right now - it is equidistant between the devil and the deep blue sea. On one hand, the Taoiseach knows his Fine Gael troops cannot fight European - and especially local council - elections over the coming seven weeks without a cogent doorstep answer on when and how rural Ireland is going to get connected. Yet another programme roll-out, with targets and colour-coded maps, would simply be political death. Against that, hard commitment to a programme set to cost 3bn - six times the figure being talked about until very recently - carries a serious risk of endorsing another bottomless money pit to be fed by taxpayers into the next generation. And you can add serious questions about why the system developers will keep network ownership despite such a major taxpayer subsidy. On Tuesday, the Taoiseach almost nonchalantly owned up to a ballpark cost of 3bn during close Dail questioning from Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald. The 3bn figure has been in the ether for months and the Taoiseach has repeatedly said the new estimate would be "many multiples" of the long-standing 500m ballpark figure. Tuesday was the day we had expected the Cabinet to seriously tangle on the matter and publicise its decision. But things were delayed, and we are now looking at a new date after Easter, possibly Wednesday, May 1, at a special Cabinet meeting outside Dublin. The Government was taken aback at the huge Opposition barrage of criticism of this latest delay. For its part, the Opposition, impressed by the Government's discomfort, unsurprisingly is keeping up the pressure. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin took up the cudgels yesterday saying the idea of taxpayers paying 3bn and then not owning the system at the end "needs to be fully explained". He accused the Government of trying to "drip feed" information on the National Broadband Plan in a bid to put distance between it and the controversy over costs at National Children's Hospital. He later pushed home his advantage when the Taoiseach argued that a final Government decision was still awaited. How could Mr Varadkar cite the 3bn overall figure in that event, Mr Martin asked in his most reasonable tone. The Taoiseach told the Dail that the consortium charged with bringing high-speed internet to some of the country's most remote areas will in fact own the infrastructure. He defended the 3bn cost for both rolling out a fibre network and maintaining it into the future. "At any point if the contractor fails to deliver the Government can step in," Mr Varadkar said. Mr Martin said the estimates had "ballooned" from the 512m figure quoted in 2014. The Taoiseach repeated his argument that the original bill was for a different project, for connecting 1,100 villages, and the State subvention was never capped at 500m. Mr Varadkar said it was "possibly the biggest ever investment in rural Ireland" - and would be neither cheap nor quick. By now just one bidder, Granahan McCourt, remains in the contest. This suggests that there are no huge sums of money to be made in the immediate term - but an outfit with deep pockets could possibly see longer-term dividends. The Taoiseach clearly believes the Government has few options here. But he is not on such good ground when he argues that the 3bn will be averaged over 25 years. If the roll-out is to gain any kind of momentum, then a huge portion of that will have to be front-loaded in the next few years. But once it is done, and done properly, it will be a huge boon both economically and socially. The Taoiseach rightly argues that Ireland has spent much bigger sums on roads in recent times without too much controversy. But these are longer-term concerns. For now we are looking at the perils of Leo Varadkar's long walk from the 500m estimate, with questions to be answered about future ownership, set against the desire for a local election lift. The latest interim report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission leaves as many questions unanswered as it answers. But it lifts a veil on a chapter in Irish history most of us would rather not face. And it asks piercing questions of those who clearly know more than they're letting on. As well as excavating the site of the former Tuam home, yesterday's report excavates a period where some of the most vulnerable people in our society - including unmarried mothers and their children - got nothing from their friends and families other than a cold shoulder and their marching orders to a life in an institution. Some of the past reporting about this hugely emotive subject, particularly the final resting places of children who died in the homes, has been unhelpful to say the least. Children's Minister Katherine Zappone told the Seanad in February that headlines which "sensationalise" the story cause further pain to former residents and their families desperate to know the full truth. Yesterday's report sees the commission - chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy - echo this concern. "In the light of a great deal of inaccurate commentary about the Tuam site, the commission considers it important to emphasise what it has established and what it has not established," the report says. "The human remains found by the Commission are not in a sewage tank but in a second structure with 20 chambers which was built within the decommissioned large sewage tank." Noting there are instances of deaths in the Tuam home's records which are not on the register of deaths, the report states that there is "very little basis for the theory that the children concerned did not die but were 'sold' to America". But while the commission provides answers to dismiss some of the more lurid claims about the homes, we're still a long way away from getting the full picture - and there are those among us who can tell us more. Take Bessborough, for example, where the burials of children who died at the home are not recorded. There is no certainty about where they are buried and the nuns who ran the home told the commission they do not know where the children are laid to rest. This is hard to fathom and the commission makes it clear that "there must be many people who know more about the burials which are described in this report and who have not come forward with relevant information". That seems beyond dispute. What is not beyond dispute is the fact that basic human decency would dictate that anyone who knows anything about where these little ones are buried has a moral and religious responsibility to come forward. The Ireland of mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and industrial schools may seem like a far distant land now. And it is. But, as the ongoing pain of those whose loved ones were murdered and secretly buried by the IRA - euphemistically called 'the disappeared' - shows, the absence of a grave leaves a deep void that compounds the sense of loss. Before the widespread availability of penicillin and other medicines considered routine today, infections needlessly claimed many lives - particularly those who were young and vulnerable. Infant mortality in Ireland in the 1930s and 1940s was in the region of 70 per 1,000 or 7pc, as high as some countries in sub-Saharan Africa have now. Among those cruelly described as "illegitimate children" it was five times that of the rest of the population. But the only thing they should have been guaranteed was the right to be treated with respect in death and to have a dignified burial and fitting final resting place where their memories could be acknowledged by loved ones as well as passers-by. Tuam, Sean Ross, Bessborough, Castlepollard and Bethany are now bywords for a cruel and uncompromising culture in 20th-century Ireland that published birth out of wedlock in a way that is unimaginable today. We can't undo that, but there are those who know more, and they must come forward if they have a shred of decency. Notre-Dame, like the Eiffel Tower, is such a Parisian icon that its existence barely registers in conscious thought. Architectural monuments like this are so ingrained in a city's identity that it's as though they are as unmoving as the sky itself. Which is why watching Notre-Dame burn was especially painful. The Lady of Paris is no stranger to ruin. Through its 800 years, destruction has been an important and regular part of its story. In the 1790s, at the height of the French Revolution, the group of rebels who had been influenced by the Enlightenment declared Notre-Dame a church no more, and the Christian iconography inside was destroyed. Notre-Dame was ransacked and taken to a point of almost total ruination. The religious statues were decapitated, the guts of the cathedral emptied. For years afterwards, Notre-Dame was just a building - used as a warehouse and even, at one point, to store wine. Then, in 1804, the cathedral was handed back to the Catholic Church. On an order given by Napoleon, Notre-Dame would not only be repaired, he would hold his coronation there. Two hundred years after Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France, I walked by Notre-Dame and sat on a bench at the back of the church to study for an art history test I had the next day. It was just weeks before Easter, and my architecture exam featured the Gothic cathedral in front of me. Tall, back-bending buttresses stood like stacked giraffes. Or like Atlas holding up the world. When Notre-Dame was constructed, only a few buildings in the world had this innovative feature. The flying buttresses meant they could raise the walls higher and add large rose windows, making it the church we know today. They work like the release of a pent-up valve. The cathedral is so massive, the stone walls and immense roof would begin to buckle without additional support for the weight. So the buttresses come in and absorb and remove some of the energy from the building. Then, like blood moving from the heart down through the arms, they take a continuous bearing load and push it down into the ground. Notre-Dame is rooted where it stands. I flipped the pages of my textbook, memorising images while the gargoyles and chimera looked down on me, scowling. Even after only a couple of months, it was easy to take for granted how these buildings have stood for centuries, bearing witness to the most unspeakable things, and the most beautiful. Our Lady of Paris survived the bombings of the Prussian War and both World Wars. Over centuries, random places in Paris have seen violence, natural and manmade. Nearby bomb blasts rattled the church, damaging its windows. Strolling tourists and locals were replaced by troops, sandbags and tanks. It has seen swastikas on the arms of German soldiers standing guard before its doors. Its roof has been injured by lightning strikes and fires and experienced the simple fatigue that comes with age. But it stood still amid a churning, chaotic world. Notre-Dame survived. And it did so again Monday. We still don't know what caused Notre-Dame to catch fire. I felt helpless, watching as the blaze started near the spire of the cathedral and spread across the rooftop, slowly devouring everything in sight. The City of Light was illuminated in a ghastly way. There is no doubt this fire is the worst destructive force Notre-Dame has suffered in its history. Comments online displayed a variety of pain, from those who have been there, watching it nearly destroyed, and for those who have dreamed of going, who were mourning never knowing Paris as it was. But the city is never constant. No city is. Paris is an unspeakably beautiful city. It is like home to me. It is not just the artistry, or that it looks like a postcard or a painting - there are cracks in the cobblestone, to say the least. Like any true love, I didn't fall for its aesthetics - I fell in love with its character. So many times, the City of Light has been darkened but it never stays dark for long. There is something unspoken and unidentifiable about the place that houses such an icon. Some things are too beautiful to be named. Now a huge portion of one of the world's most beloved works of architecture has been damaged. If the heat had lasted much longer, it would have begun to crack the limestone structure dug from quarries around Paris. The church is not just of Paris, it is made from Paris. The French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery once wrote: "A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral." Like anything that survives merely by existing in this world, there are marks left. Proof of existence. Whole parts that have been replaced. Like our cells that regrow over and over during our lifetime. The cells you die with are not the ones you had when you were born. As I watched images of the flames, dissolving the cathedral in real time, I couldn't help but look at those buttresses. They weren't originally supposed to be there, but in the 13th century, builders realised there was too much weight on the walls, and the buttresses were added. I watched those arches, the spine of the queen, trace along the sides and the back, the flowers blowing from the force of the flames. ( Washington Post) Eamon Fitzpatrick (Vote No in divorce poll to avoid more shattered homes, Letters, April 17) is against reforming divorce legislation and that is his prerogative. I grew up in Sligo (1950-1968) where until 1963 a canon of the Catholic Church often compelled young couples to get married. The outcome of many of these marriages was deserted wives and families with little or no income. The women were strong and raised good families as their husbands had no choice but to emigrate. It came to a halt in 1963 when the canon demanded a man and woman visiting Sligo get married despite them both being happily married to different people in London. The following day, the canon spent 24 hours in Sligo garda station, where he quickly learned the errors of his ways. Some marriages do not last; there is no single reason for many marriage breakdowns. No man or woman has the moral right because their own marriage has been good to demand others, in different (unknown) circumstances, should be compelled to remain married. Proper counselling services can assist families to get through the situation. But above all the State cannot and must not legislate for morals. Nor should any religion demand that only its mores be followed by those not of it. The fact is 26 counties of Ireland are a Republic: this means freedom of thought as well as freedom of religion. The brainwashing of children by the Irish Catholic Church began very soon after December 6, 1921. Today we know only too well the effects the narrow-minded thinking and teaching distilled on divorce, contraception and the totally unchristian treatment of single mothers and their children. It is not deterrence those who require divorce need. Rather an understanding of their inability to love one another or live with one another. Declan Foley Berwick, Australia Politicians of integrity will keep EU bosses in check The news Clare Daly and Mick Wallace are to seek election to the European Parliament has been met by a myriad of reactions. In Merrion Street they will surely be clinking the Champagne glasses at the prospect of the proverbial thorns prodding elsewhere. Constituents and the electorate in general have expressed dismay at the prospect of losing their voices in the Dail. Even Leo Varadkar in a recent online interview described them as serious people with well-formed views. However, if Brexit has taught us anything its that the European Union has a huge say in the affairs of our country. Ireland has benefited from our membership but we must be concerned about its direction in terms of increased militarisation and tax harmonisation. We should also not forget the sacrifices Irish people have made to protect unsecured bond-holders at the behest of the EU. It will be reassuring to know that we will have politicians of integrity in situ to keep EU bosses in check and hold the institutions to account. Killian Brennan Malahide Road, Dublin Ivanka Trumps just who we all need in a crisis or is she? Let no one criticise or disparage Donald Trump ever again. His decision to send his White House special adviser, the fashion designer and boardroom judge of (her fathers) show The Apprentice, his daughter Ivanka Trump to meet with the Ethiopian president after the Boeing disaster must rank in the annals of diplomacy with Neville Chamberlains meeting with Hitler in Munich, Julius Caesars final meeting with Brutus, and Trumps own meeting with his North Korean chum Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June last year. But there is even more kudos for Trump. His diplomat extraordinaire, Ivanka, has also been charged with meeting Ethiopian and Ivory Coast womens groups to discuss the plight of women in that part of the world; this, as we know, by the primary sexist in the USA. It cant get any worse, can it? Can it? George Dalzell Stillorgan, Co Dublin Five-star probe tells what we already knew about reviews Consumer group Which? has concluded after a lengthy investigation that most five-star reviews on Amazon are fake, despite the company claiming it has measures in place to detect, identify and remove both fraudulent reviews and bot accounts used to generate them. In other news, grass is green, water is wet, and cats like cardboard boxes. Mark Boyle Johnstone, Renfrewshire, UK The candid moment alone with Harry on the steps of Windsor Castle. Photo: Reuters It captures four generations of the royal family in the gilded surroundings of Windsor Castle, recording for the history books the moment Meghan Markle entered the British royal family on the arm of her Prince. As the world has come to expect from the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex, though, they brought their own unique style to their official wedding photographs. Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Group shot: The family snap with Meghan centre stage. Photo: Getty Images The candid moment alone with Harry on the steps of Windsor Castle. Photo: Reuters Standing to attention: William and Kates more formal pose. Photo: Getty Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Group shot: The family snap with Meghan centre stage. Photo: Getty Images In the splendour of Windsor Castles Green Room, Britain's Queen and her descendants gathered just an hour after the wedding service on Saturday, for a series of images that captured both the importance of the occasion and the joy of a smitten couple. With Britain's Prince Philip (96) on one side, and a beaming Prince George (4), on the other, playful bridesmaids and pageboys scatter cross-legged on the floor. Expand Close This official wedding photograph released by Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shows them in The Green Drawing Room, Windsor Castle, with (left-to-right): Back row: Master Brian Mulroney, Miss Remi Litt, Miss Rylan Litt, Master Jasper Dyer, Prince George, Miss Ivy Mulroney, Master John Mulroney. Front row: Miss Zalie Warren, Princess Charlotte, Miss Florence van Cutsem. Photo: Alexi Lubomirski/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This official wedding photograph released by Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shows them in The Green Drawing Room, Windsor Castle, with (left-to-right): Back row: Master Brian Mulroney, Miss Remi Litt, Miss Rylan Litt, Master Jasper Dyer, Prince George, Miss Ivy Mulroney, Master John Mulroney. Front row: Miss Zalie Warren, Princess Charlotte, Miss Florence van Cutsem. Photo: Alexi Lubomirski/PA Wire The bride, radiant at the very centre of the photograph, is flanked by the two pillars in her life: her new husband and her mother, Doria Ragland. Doria, the only member of the Meghans family who attended the wedding, stands proudly at the heart of the newly-joined family, praised for her dignity and grace on an emotional wedding day. Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close The official family portrait. Photo: Getty Images Its expected the royal children will be involved in the wedding of Harry and Meghan. Photo: Alexi Lubomirski One of two official portrait photographs Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton have chosen to release to mark their engagement / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The official family portrait. Photo: Getty Images The photograph is a striking contrast to even the most recent royal wedding, abandoning the formal lined-up pose chosen by Prince William and Kate Middleton for their 2011 photographs. Instead, the newlyweds opt for an artfully arranged bridal party comprising 10 children, ushered into position around the Queen, which could have come straight from the pages of Vogue. A second image shows Harry and Meghan sitting on low stools with the children, including Prince George and Princess Charlotte who had clearly been practising their smiles for the camera. The third, featuring just the bride and groom, is shot in black and white, capturing the moment they could finally relax in the privacy of the castle after their very public wedding. The picture echoes the luxe style of the couples official engagement photographs. Wedding photos can offer a glimpse into a relationship, and the newlyweds seem besotted in their official shots Harry beaming with his hand resting affectionately on Meghans arm. The couple expressed a freedom within their portrait, laying casually across the steps of Windsor Castle. Set in black and white, Meghan relaxes without her veil, while her attention is drawn out of shot off to her left, lending the photo an almost candid quality. Expand Close In this handout photo provided by Kensington Palace, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pose for one of two official engagement photos at Frogmore House in December, 2017 in Windsor, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alexi Lubomirski via Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp In this handout photo provided by Kensington Palace, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pose for one of two official engagement photos at Frogmore House in December, 2017 in Windsor, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alexi Lubomirski via Getty Images) Video of the Day William and Kate, by contrast, adhered to much more formal stance, maintaining a pose traditional to the royal couple portrait. Standing together in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace, the shot looks almost identical to the hold they encountered in their group portrait. To chronicle the big day, William and Kate chose Hugo Burnand, the long-time photographer for high society magazine Tatlers party pages, and who had also been trusted with commissions for the royal family, including Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles wedding photos. Expand Close Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and her fiance, Philip Mountbatten at Buckingham Palace, after their engagement was announced, 10th July 1947. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and her fiance, Philip Mountbatten at Buckingham Palace, after their engagement was announced, 10th July 1947. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Harry and Meghan, however, opted for Alexi Lubomirski, a New York-based photographer who frequently works with Vogue, Elle and Harpers Bazaar, and has taken portraits of the likes of Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts not to mention the 2016 Harpers Bazaar cover shoot that saw Gwyneth Paltrow shopping for groceries in lingerie. He also shot Harry and Meghans glamorous engagement photos at Frogmore House. The official wedding images span the generations of the royal family, with the Queen and all three of her heirs captured smiling, and 95 years, from Prince Philip, who turns 97 next month, to two-year-old bridesmaid Zalie Warren. The 10 children, full of beans after the wedding, were kept in line by palace aides, as the bride and groom stand serenely in the middle. Expand Close A third official engagement photo released by Kensington Palace of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle taken by Alexi Lubomirski earlier this week at Frogmore House, Windsor. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A third official engagement photo released by Kensington Palace of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle taken by Alexi Lubomirski earlier this week at Frogmore House, Windsor. Although the finished photographs are fresh in their composition, they do contain key elements of the classic official royal photograph. In the most formal picture of the whole family, Meghan honours the Queen with the prominent display of her five-metre-long veil, arranged across the carpet and embroidered with 53 flowers representing each Commonwealth country so close to the monarchs heart. Her father-in-law, Prince Charles, stands next to his son. Prince William, the best man, appears on the other side, in his frockcoat uniform of the Blues and Royals, while Kate Middleton holds a placid Princess Charlotte on her knee. Prince George, who will one day be king, has been given his own gilded chair, smiling confidently for posterity after a series of shy public appearances recently. Expand Close Princess Margaret on her wedding day in 1960 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Princess Margaret on her wedding day in 1960 Harry, beaming with pride, stands behind his wife, allowing her to shine. Meghans mother Doria is given the most prominent position, her outfit coordinating with the Queen and coincidentally matching the decor of the Green Room. The proud mother will soon return to her full-time job as a social worker in Los Angeles after what has proved a whirlwind week with the royal family. She is said to have been warmly welcomed by the family, and is now expected to make regular visits to see her daughter and son-in-law at Kensington Palace. Of course, not everything on the photoshoot went perfectly to plan. One bridesmaid, Meghans goddaughter Remi Litt, appears to have pulled a flower out of her bouquet, while Zalie was absorbed in something more interesting off camera. Victims: People carry coffins of those who were killed in overnight shelling, at Martyrs Square in Tripoli, Libya. Photo: Reuters Shells slammed into a densely populated district of Tripoli on Tuesday night, piling misery on civilians from a two-week assault by commander Khalifa Haftar's forces to take Libya's capital from an internationally backed government. About 10 Grad rockets hit the southern residential area of Abu Salim just before midnight, witnesses and authorities said, killing at least seven people, mainly women, and wounding 17. Some lost limbs. Both sides blamed each other for the attack, the most intense yet on a residential area. Abu Salim is near a main point of entry into the city of about 2.5 million people. Retired public servant Hadia al-Hariri was sleeping next to his wife when a shell hit the dining room of their two-storey house in Abu Salim, wounding her and their three-year-old son in the head. He rushed his other five children to a relative. "We've heard gunfire every night, but now I'm really afraid," Mr Hariri said as neighbours consoled him in a street where remains of a Grad could be seen by his door. "This war can go on for months...I don't know what to do next," he said, clearing debris from burned shelves and shattered window glasses in the dining room with a gaping hole in the front wall. Mr Haftar and his eastern Libyan forces have cast their advance as part of a campaign to restore order and defeat jihadists in a nation gripped by anarchy since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. But the internationally recognised Tripoli government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj views the 75-year-old general as a dangerous would-be dictator in the Gaddafi mould. The UN says thousands of civilians are trapped in southern districts due to the fighting. Rescuers and aid workers are struggling to reach them and electricity, water supplies and telecommunications have been badly disrupted. Nearly 20,000 people have fled homes, some seeking shelter elsewhere in Tripoli but most heading out. At least 14 civilians have been killed - along with scores of fighters - and about 36 wounded during the offensive, according to UN tallies issued prior to Tuesday. UN Libya envoy Ghassan Salame, who lives in Tripoli and has been pushing a peace plan, condemned the shelling. "Killing innocent people is a blatant violation of international laws," he Mr Salame. Abu Salim lies about 8km from the city centre, behind the front line of pro-Serraj forces blocking Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) fighters to their south. It is home to more than 100,000. The area was a battleground during the rebellion against Gaddafi in 2011 and again during battles for Tripoli in 2014 and 2017, given its strategic location next to a highway leading to an old airport that is the gateway to Tripoli from the south. Younes Blis lives in an apartment building on the airport road, where a Grad landed nearby, destroying several cars. He fears further destruction given Mr Haftar has amassed thousands of troops in the biggest mobilisation since 2011. "I lost track of why we are fighting," Mr Blis said. On the other side of the road, four women died when three rockets hit buildings sandwiched between narrow streets. "They didn't stand a chance," said Essam Taha, a neighbour. A homeless man who thought his pet rat had been stolen has been reunited with the rodent thanks to a little help from the police. Chris, 59, and Lucy are a familiar sight to many people in Sydney, Australia. So when, earlier this month, Chris was spotted with a sign saying she had been stolen, police were keen to help. Officers released CCTV images of a woman who appeared to have taken the rat on April 6 when Chris went to use a public toilet, leaving Lucy outside. But it turned out the woman had picked up the rat, thinking it had been abandoned, and taken it home to care for it. Thanks to the publicity from the polices initial Facebook post they were able to retrieve Lucy and reunite her with her grateful owner on Thursday. A video posted by New South Wales Police shows a delighted Chris kissing his pet and telling officers: Sorry to put you all through the trouble of looking for her. He added: This feels wonderful. Thank you very much everybody. Rescue officials attend the scene after a tour bus crashed in Canico on Portugal's Madeira Island, Wednesday, April 17, 2019. (Rui Silva/Aspress/Global Imagens via AP) At least 29 people, most of them German tourists, were killed and 27 others injured on Wednesday when their bus veered off a steep narrow road on the Portuguese island of Madeira, authorities said. The white tourist bus -- which was carrying 55 passengers and a tour guide in addition to the driver -- overturned in a residential area in the coastal town of Canico at around 6.30pm, its mayor, Filipe Sousa, told reporters. TV images showed the vehicle on its side on a bank next to a small road and surrounded by rescuers. The driver reportedly lost control of the bus on a sloping road and the vehicle plunged down, overturning next to a house, according Portuguese news agency Lusa. Expand Close People stand next to the wreckage of a bus after an accident in Canico, in the Portuguese Island of Madeira, April 17, 2019. REUTERS/Duarte Sa / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People stand next to the wreckage of a bus after an accident in Canico, in the Portuguese Island of Madeira, April 17, 2019. REUTERS/Duarte Sa "I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," Sousa told SIC TV. He said the tourists on the bus were all German but some pedestrians might have been hit by the bus. Germany's Bild daily reported that many of the tourists were retirees, and those killed included 18 women and 11 men. The German foreign ministry had set up a hotline and embassy staff were in close touch with local officials about the accident, a spokeswoman said. Other members of the same group of German tourists were traveling on another bus, which was not involved in the accident, a regional civil protection spokesman told a news conference. Those injured were taken to a hospital in Funchal, the capital city of Madeira. Expand Close Rescue workers stand at the scene of a bus accident in Canico, in the Portuguese Island of Madeira, April 17, 2019. REUTERS/Duarte Sa / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rescue workers stand at the scene of a bus accident in Canico, in the Portuguese Island of Madeira, April 17, 2019. REUTERS/Duarte Sa From the 28 injured initially taken to the hospital, one German tourist did not survive the injuries, bringing the death toll to 29, a hospital spokesman told a news conference on Wednesday evening. Three of the injured underwent surgery, 23 were under observation and two were discharged. There were no children among the victims, the hospital confirmed, adding that two of the injured are from Portugal while the others are foreign nationals. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told SIC TV that some of the victims were from Madeira but most were German. A regional civil protection official said the tourists involved in the accident were aged between 40 and 50 years old. Portugal's public prosecutor's office plans to open an investigation into the accident, said Lusa. Madeira is a popular tourist destination. The peak season is during the summer but it also gets many visitors around Easter. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa sent a message of condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "It was with deep regret that I learned about the tragic accident in Madeira," Costa said on Twitter. "To all families involved I send the deepest condolences." The spokesman for the German government Steffen Seibert also expressed his condolences on Twitter. "Our deep sorrow goes out to all those who lost their lives in the bus, our thoughts are with the injured," he said in a tweet. Three days of mourning have been declared by Madeira's regional government. Milly and Toby Savill, who have been named as the British man and woman who died in a buggy accident on the Greek island of Santorini Photo: Press Association A British couple killed in a buggy accident on the Greek island of Santorini have been named as teachers Milly and Toby Savill. The couple, from Vauxhall, in south London, had been driving the vehicle on the Profitis Ilias mountain when it fell into a 200-metre ravine on Sunday afternoon, local media reported. The peak is the highest point on the Greek island, which is popular with British holidaymakers. Mrs Savill's father Steve Coulson, the vicar of St Mark's Kennington Church in south London, paid tribute to the couple on Thursday. He said: "Milly and Toby were married in 2017 and were utterly devoted to one another. "Their families are so proud of them, and although devastated, we are comforted by having shared so many wonderful times of love and joy together. "Toby and Milly were passionate about their Christian faith, and we are being sustained by the same sure hope of Easter Resurrection." Mr Savill, 26, taught history at Ark Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton. Principal Tim Dainty said: "Everyone here at Evelyn Grace Academy is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Toby Savill and his wife, Milly. "Understandably, this news has come as a real shock to us all and so we will be working with counsellors to support those staff and students who require it at this difficult time." He added: "Toby joined our school in September 2018 as a newly qualified teacher of history and quickly established himself as a very dedicated and passionate educator. "His enthusiasm was infectious. He had a very strong relationship with his students and was extremely well-respected by his fellow staff members. "He will be greatly missed by one and all." Mrs Savill, 25, taught at St Anne's Catholic primary school in Vauxhall. Head teacher Catherine Davis said: "Mrs Savill was a dearly, much loved teacher and member of staff at St Anne's." She added: "Such young lives cut short when so young can't be understood, apart from maybe the belief that Milly and Toby's share of god's work had, in his eyes, been completed and he was ready to welcome them into his kingdom." Santorini is in the south of the Aegean Sea, south east of the Greek capital Athens. A spokesman at the Greek fire service's headquarters in Athens said firefighters were called to the incident at 2.27pm on Sunday. Eight firefighters and two vehicles attended the scene, with the fire service response finishing at 2.36am on Monday. A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: "Our staff are assisting the families of two British people who have died on the island of Santorini, and are in contact with the Greek authorities." Charred: A firefighter makes his way on a balcony of the damaged Notre-Dame Cathedral. Photo: Francois Mori/AP France yesterday called on architects of the world to submit ideas on a new spire for Notre-Dame after it burned in Monday's blaze, prompting debate over whether to copy the old or embrace an entirely new design. The launch of the contest came as it transpired that firefighters lost valuable time in tackling the fire after a computer glitch sent investigators to the wrong part of the cathedral, according to French reports. An initial fire alarm sounded at 6.20pm local time, but after failing to find a blaze security services at the landmark called it a false alarm. At 6.43pm, a second alarm went off. Only when they returned to the upper area of the edifice did they call in firefighters, after coming across 10ft flames at the base of the spire. According to 'Le Parisien', the computer glitch had caused the alarm to signal the wrong location. Police are investigating the possibility that the fire was the result of a short-circuit in a restoration workers' lift. Despite the delay, firemen were on the scene within 10 minutes. A few more and the entire edifice would have burned to the ground in a "chain-reaction collapse", a French government official said yesterday. The firefighters took swift action to protect wooden supports in the twin medieval bell towers, averting a bigger catastrophe, said Jose Vaz de Matos, a fire expert with France's culture ministry. Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, yesterday launched an international architecture contest to decide how the partly 850-year-old monument should be rebuilt - a "huge and historic" undertaking that Emmanuel Macron, the president, says he wants to be completed "within five years". The government has named Jean-Louis Georgelin, a former five-star general, to oversee the race to wind up the work before France hosts the Olympic Games in 2024. The devastating fire burned down the Gothic masterpiece's roof, ancient wooden beams and 19th-century spire, sparking global offers of condolence and support. Mr Philippe said: "The international contest will settle the question of whether we should build a new spire, whether we should rebuild the spire that was designed and built by (Eugene) Viollet-le-Duc, in identical fashion, or whether we should... endow Notre-Dame cathedral with a new spire adapted to the techniques and the challenges of our era." Benjamin Mouton, Notre-Dame's former affiliated architect, said it was pointless seeking to restore a building that has already been "heavily altered, modified and reinforced". "On the other hand, we must recreate the cathedral's silhouette and rebuild the spire. That to me is indispensable," he said. Despite the devastation, much of the cathedral, including its famed bell towers, remains intact. To the delight of the French public, the metal cockerel that perched on the top of Notre-Dame's spire has now been retrieved in the rubble. "It is dented but properly restorable," a ministry of culture spokesman said. Stored inside the rooster is one relic of St Denis, one of St Genevieve and one of the thorns from the crown that Jesus Christ is believed to have worn at the crucifixion. Their condition is unknown. The rooster has served as a "spiritual lightning" rod for Notre-Dame, according to the cathedral's website. It is not the only priceless artefact to have been rescued from the flames of Notre-Dame. Jean-Marc Fournier, a fire brigade chaplain, has been declared a hero after he rushed into the burning cathedral to rescue the Crown of Thorns and the Blessed Sacraments. Tributes and words of support continued to stream in from around the world yesterday as the bells of cathedrals around France rang out to mark the exact moment when the fire started on Monday. ( Daily Telegraph, London) White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump said her father asked her if she was interested in taking the job of World Bank chief but she passed on it. In an Associated Press interview, President Donald Trumps daughter said she was happy with her current role in the administration. She spoke during a trip to Africa to promote a global womens initiative. Expand Close White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump speaks during a trip to Africa (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump speaks during a trip to Africa (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) Ivanka Trump said her father raised the job with her as a question and she told him she was happy with the work she was doing. The president recently told The Atlantic: I even thought of Ivanka for the World Bank. She wouldve been great at that because shes very good with numbers. Ivanka Trump worked on the selection process for the new head of the 189-nation World Bank, David Malpass. She said he will do an incredible job. Asked if her father had approached her about other top jobs, Ivanka Trump said she would keep that between them. She said she does not see a run for office in her future. Alan Garcia: The ex-president was under investigation over corruption. Photo: Reuters The former president of Peru, Alan Garcia, has died after shooting himself in the head as police came to arrest him as part of a corruption probe. President Martinez Vizcarra said the former head of state, who was 69, died yesterday after emergency surgery at the Jose Casimiro Ulloa Hospital in Peru's capital. Mr Garcia, who was under investigation in a bribery scandal, was admitted early yesterday with a bullet wound to the head, Peru's Health Ministry said. He had emergency surgery but later died from his injuries. Prosecutors claimed Mr Garcia received more than $100,000 from construction firm Odebrecht, disguised as a payment to speak at a conference in Brazil. Local TV reported Mr Garcia went into a coma after undergoing emergency surgery and broadcast images of his son and supporters arriving at the hospital. Earlier Erasmo Reyna, his lawyer, said Mr Garcia's condition was "delicate". "Right now he's being operated on. Let's pray to God to give him strength," Mr Reyna said. Mr Garcia led Peru's once-powerful Apra party for decades, and governed Peru as a nationalist from 1985 to 1990 before remaking himself as a free-market proponent and winning a new five-year term in office in 2006. He was under investigation in connection with Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which triggered Latin America's biggest graft scandal when it admitted publicly in 2016 it won lucrative contracts in the region with bribes. The company admitted in a 2016 plea agreement with the US Justice Department that it paid corrupt officials across Latin America nearly $800m (708m) in exchange for infrastructure contracts. The scandal has led to the jailing of numerous politicians, especially in Peru, where former president Pedro Pablo Kucyznski was detained last week as part of a money-laundering probe into his ties to the company. Mr Garcia had repeatedly denied wrongdoing. ( Independent News Service) Gunmen in Pakistan have ambushed a bus and killed 14 passengers after forcing them off the vehicle in the country's south-west, an official said. Local official Jehangir Dashti said it was unclear who was behind the killings before dawn on Thursday. He said about three dozen people were travelling to the south-western port of Gawadar when gunmen stopped the bus and killed 14 people after checking their identity cards. The motive behind the killings is not known. No-one has claimed responsibility for the killings. U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he speaks at the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride event after the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election identified 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. Mr Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Mr Trump had committed a crime, or that he had not. Here is a look at the 10 instances: - Pressure on Comey to end probe of Michael Flynn This includes the president's statement to then-FBI director James Comey regarding the investigation into then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. President Trump told Mr Comey: "I hope you can see your way to letting this go." - President's reaction to the continuing Russia investigation Among the evidence is the president telling then-White House counsel Don McGahn to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from the Russia investigation and President Trump's subsequent anger at Mr Sessions. President Trump also contacted Mr Comey and other intelligence agency leaders to ask them to push back publicly on the suggestion that the president had any connection to the Russian election-interference effort. - Firing of Comey and aftermath Mr Mueller's report says "substantial evidence" indicates President Trump's decision to fire Mr Comey in May 2017 was the result of the FBI director's unwillingness to say publicly that Mr Trump was not personally under investigation. On the day after Mr Trump fired Mr Comey, the president told Russian officials that he had "faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off". - Appointment of special counsel and efforts to remove him President Trump reacted to news of Mr Mueller's appointment by telling advisers that it was "the end of his presidency". The president told aides that Mr Mueller had conflicts of interest and should have to step aside. His aides told President Trump the asserted conflicts were meritless. Following media reports that Mr Mueller's team was investigating whether the president had obstructed justice, President Trump called then-White House counsel Don McGahn at home and directed him to have Mr Mueller removed. Mr McGahn refused. - Further efforts to curtail the special counsel's investigation President Trump instructed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to have Mr Sessions publicly announce that, notwithstanding his recusal from the Russia investigation, the investigation was "very unfair" to the president, the president had done nothing wrong, and Mr Sessions planned to meet with Mr Mueller to limit him to "investigating election meddling for future elections". - Efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence In summer of 2017, President Trump learned that the news media planned to report on the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between senior campaign officials and Russians offering derogatory information about Hillary Clinton. The president directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails setting up the meeting. Before the emails became public, the president also edited a press statement for Donald Trump Jr by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was "with an individual who (Trump Jr) was told might have information helpful to the campaign". - Additional efforts to have Sessions take control of investigation At several points in between July 2017 and December 2017, President Trump tried to get Mr Sessions to declare that he was no longer recused from the Russia investigation and would assert control over it. The report says there is evidence that one purpose of asking Mr Sessions to step in was so that the attorney general would restrict the investigation's scope. - Trump orders White House counsel to deny the President tried to fire Mueller In an Oval Office meeting in February 2018, President Trump told Mr McGahn to "correct" a New York Times story that reported the president had earlier instructed Mr McGahn to fire Mr Mueller. President Trump also asked why Mr McGahn had told Mr Mueller's investigators about the directive to remove Mr Mueller. Mr McGahn told President Trump he had to tell the investigators the truth. - Trump's actions towards Flynn, Manafort and other possible witnesses Mr Mueller looked at whether President Trump's sympathetic messages to Mr Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and others were intended to limit their cooperation with Mr Mueller's investigation. When Mr Flynn began cooperating with prosecutors, President Trump passed word through his lawyer that he still had warm feeling for Mr Flynn and asked for a "heads up" if Mr Flynn knew of information implicating the president. President Trump praised Mr Manafort during and after his criminal convictions, and refused to rule out a pardon for his former campaign chairman. - Trump actions towards Michael Cohen Mr Mueller noted that President Trump's conduct toward Mr Cohen, a former Trump Organisation executive, changed from praise to castigation after Mr Cohen began cooperating with prosecutors. The evidence could "support an inference that the president used inducements in the form of positive messages in an effort to get Mr Cohen not to cooperate, and then turned to attacks and intimidation to deter" cooperation and undermine Mr Cohen's credibility, Mr Mueller wrote. There are several aspects of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election campaign that were not previously known until the release of his report on Thursday. 1. Trump's reaction to appointment of special counsel U.S. President Donald Trump believed the appointment of a special counsel to take over an active federal investigation would spell the end of his presidency, according to Mueller's report. When then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Trump of Mueller's appointment on May 17, 2017, the report said, Trump slumped back in his chair and said: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked." Trump asked Sessions, whom he had berated for months for recusing himself from the investigation of Russian interference in the election: "How could you let this happen, Jeff?" and told Sessions he had let him down. Trump told Sessions he should resign, and Sessions agreed to do so. When Sessions delivered his resignation letter to Trump the following day, Trump put the letter in his pocket but said he wanted Sessions to stay on the job. That alarmed chief of staff Reince Priebus and senior advisor Steve Bannon, who worried Trump would use the letter to control the Department of Justice, and they tried to return it to Sessions. Trump took the letter with him on a trip to the Middle East, where he showed it to several senior advisers and asked them what he should do about it. On May 30, he finally returned the letter to Sessions with a note saying: "Not accepted." 2. The presidential interview that wasn't Mueller tried for more than a year to interview Trump, but in the end Trump refused. Trump provided written answers on some Russia-related topics, but did not agree to answer questions about possible obstruction of justice or events that took place during the presidential transition. Mueller said he thought he had the legal authority to order Trump to testify before a grand jury, but he decided not to take that course because of the "substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation." 3. Trump's efforts to fire Mueller Trump tried to get Mueller fired in June 2017, shortly after he was appointed, according to the 448-page report. Trump called then-White House counsel Don McGahn twice and directed him to order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller on the grounds that he had conflicts of interest. McGahn felt "trapped," but did not carry out the order, deciding that he would rather resign, Mueller said. Other White House advisers later talked McGahn out of resigning, and Trump did not follow up to ask whether McGahn had fulfilled his directive. Trump pressured McGahn to deny that these events took place when they surfaced in news accounts in January 2018, but McGahn refused, according to Mueller's report, some of which was blacked out to protect some sensitive information. 4. Trump's efforts to limit the investigation Trump also enlisted his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowksi, to try to narrow the investigation's scope. The report said Trump asked Lewandowski in June 2017 to tell Sessions that he should publicly announce that the Russia probe was "very unfair" to the president, say Trump had done nothing wrong, and limit Mueller's probe into interference in future elections, not the one that had put him in the White House. A month later, Trump asked Lewandowski about the status of his request and Lewandowski assured Trump he would deliver the message soon. Trump then publicly criticized Sessions in a New York Times interview and a series of Twitter messages. Mueller says Lewandowski did not want to deliver the message to Sessions, so he asked senior White House official Rick Dearborn to speak to him. Dearborn also did not want to carry out the task. Ultimately, the message never reached Sessions. 5. Manafort's efforts to monetise the campaign Mueller found that campaign chairman Paul Manafort's efforts to work with his former business partners in Ukraine were greater than previously known, as he tried to use his insider status on the campaign to collect on debts owed for his past work by Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Shortly after he joined the campaign in the spring of 2016, Manafort directed his deputy Rick Gates to share internal polling data and other campaign materials with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former Ukrainian business partner, with the understanding that it would get passed on to Deripaska, the report said. During an August 2016 meeting in New York, Manafort told Kilimnik about the campaign's efforts to win the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the report said. Trump ended up winning three of those states in the November election. Manafort worked with his Ukrainian allies until the spring of 2018, after he had been indicted by Mueller, to promote a peace plan that would have split the country in two. These efforts did not constitute coordination between the campaign and Russian efforts to disrupt the election, Mueller found. Manafort urged Gates not to plead guilty after they were both indicted by Mueller, apparently believing that they would be pardoned by the president if they did not cooperate with investigators. Trump's numerous sympathetic statements before and during Manafort's criminal trial could be interpreted as an effort to sway the outcome, but they also could be interpreted as a sign that he genuinely felt sorry for Manafort, Mueller said. 6. Plan for U.S-Russia reconciliation Relations between Washington and Moscow had deteriorated under two previous administrations and the United States had imposed sanctions on Russia. Following Trump's election victory, Russian financier Kirill Dmitriev worked on a proposal to improve ties with Rick Gerson, a hedge fund manager who is friends with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. Dmitriev runs Russia's sovereign wealth fund and reports directly to Putin. Gerson gave the plan to Kushner before Trump was sworn in, Mueller's report said, and Kushner gave copies to Bannon and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. After Trump took office in January 2017, Dmitriev told Gerson that his "boss" - an apparent reference to Putin - wanted to know if there was a reaction to the proposal, which called for cooperation on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and economic matters. When Putin and Trump spoke by phone, Dmitriev told Gerson that their plan had "played an important role." Gerson told Mueller's team that he acted as an intermediary between Trump and Russia on his own initiative, not at the request of Trump's aides. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report builds upon dozens of interviews, notes and communications to piece together what was happening inside President Donald Trump's White House. Here are some of those scenes: 1. 'I'M F***ED' Attorney General Jeff Sessions broke the news to Trump on May 17, 2017, that Rod Rosenstein had appointed Robert Mueller to be the special counsel. Sessions was with Trump in the Oval Office conducting interviews for a new FBI director but stepped outside when Rosenstein called to give him the news. Trump slumped in his chair after Sessions returned and informed him of the appointment, according to notes taken at the time by Jody Hunt, who was Session's chief of staff, and provided to Mueller's team. "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm f***ed," Trump said. Trump then turned his anger toward Sessions. "You were supposed to protect me," Sessions recalled Trump telling him. Expand Close A passage quotes U.S. President Donald Trump in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A passage quotes U.S. President Donald Trump in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Trump then again bemoaned the potential fallout of a special counsel. "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me," Trump then said, according to both Hunt and Sessions. Expand Close Outgoing US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Outgoing US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP 2. A tense meeting Chief of Staff John Kelly detailed a "tense" Oval Office meeting he convened the morning of Feb. 6, 2018, to try to smooth things over between Trump and White House Counsel Don McGahn. Months earlier, McGahn had been on the brink of resigning when he said Trump told him to get rid of Special Counsel Mueller. Now, Trump was angry because the New York Times and Washington Post had written articles about McGahn's refusal to fire Mueller. "I never said to fire Mueller," Trump began the meeting, according to McGahn's retelling to Mueller. "I never said 'fire.' This story doesn't look good. You need to correct this. You're the White House counsel." McGahn refused, saying that the article in the Times was accurate. "Did I say the word 'fire'?" Trump then said, according to accounts by both McGahn and Kelly. McGahn said he responded, "What you said is, 'Call Rod (Rosenstein), tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can't be the Special Counsel.'" "I never said that," McGahn recalled Trump saying. Expand Close White House counsel Don McGahn (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp White House counsel Don McGahn (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) 3. 'The Russia thing is over' On Valentine's Day 2017, Trump had lunch with then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Trump told Christie, who had become an ally of the president early in the campaign, that the firing of Michael Flynn, the former national security aide, was going to solve his problems. "Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over," Trump told Christie, the governor recalled. Christie laughed and told the president he expected they would still be discussing Russia a year later. "That was the problem. I fired Flynn. Its over," Trump countered. Christie, a former U.S. attorney, then told the president that he should not talk about the investigation, even if frustrated, and that he was going to be stuck with the Flynn story for a long time. "Like gum on the bottom of your shoe, Christie said. Expand Close President Donald Trump speaking at the White House (Andrew Harnik/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Donald Trump speaking at the White House (Andrew Harnik/AP) 4. Sessions resignation letter As Trump flew from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv in May 2017, he reached into his pocket and produced a resignation letter that had been written two days earlier by Sessions. Trump showed the letter to senior advisers, including Hope Hicks, who recalled the scene to Mueller's team. The letter had already become a point of concern among Trump's aides. Sessions had delivered the letter to Trump the day before, but ultimately Trump and the attorney general had determined he would remain in the job. White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus were concerned that Trump was holding on to the letter and that he would use it as leverage against the Justice Department. The two top aides decided to try to get it back. The president had the Justice Department "by the throat," Priebus said. But when Preibus approached Trump on the Middle East trip and asked him to turn it over, the president insisted it wasn't with him. Instead, Trump claimed, it was somewhere in the White House residence. It would take another 10 days - three days after Trump returned from his trip - for the president to finally turn it over. White House officials are reportedly suffering "breakdown-level anxiety" over whether the Mueller report will expose them as a source of damaging information about US President Donald Trump. More than a dozen current and former administration personnel co-operated with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia, according to NBC. The report is expected to be made public in redacted form by Attorney General William Barr today, following pressure from Congress to release the findings in full. Some officials and their lawyers have allegedly asked the Justice Department to clarify if the report will make their identities obvious out of fear over Mr Trump's or his allies' reaction if it reveals they criticised the president or revealed negative information about him. "They got asked questions and told the truth, and now they're worried the wrath will follow," a former Trump official told NBC. One person close to the White House told NBC News there was "breakdown-level anxiety" among current and former officials who spoke with Mr Mueller's office at the direction of the president's legal team. Mr Mueller's report will be redacted upon release today, but the president is already ramping up his attacks on those involved in the probe. "The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax," Mr Trump falsely tweeted on Monday. Expand Close Identity crisis: Officials fear they will be punished by President Trump / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Identity crisis: Officials fear they will be punished by President Trump In fact, Mr Mueller is a registered Republican and there is no suggestion his team engaged in a partisan investigation. Mr Trump yesterday doubled down on his claims, wrongly claiming the Russia probe was initiated by "dirty cops" and Hillary Clinton. Mr Barr, in a four-page summary to Congress last month, reported Mr Mueller had cleared Mr Trump and his campaign of colluding with Russia, but said the former FBI director had steered clear of ruling on whether the president obstructed justice. Mr Trump claimed the investigation exonerated him on both counts, something that was not true. He also pressed Mr Barr to launch an investigation into why the FBI began its probe of members of his campaign team, claiming he was the victim of an "attempted coup". The Justice Department expects to release the report to the public this morning. Mr Trump's lawyers are putting the finishing touches on a rebuttal to the 400-page document. Rudy Giuliani, one of the president's attorneys, said it will be published in the hours after the release of Mr Mueller's report. Mr Barr's department also announced asylum seekers who have proven a credible fear for their safety will no longer be able to ask a judge for a release bond. It means more migrants can be indefinitely detained while they wait for their cases to be heard. The policy will be delayed for 90 days to allow officials to prepare for overcrowding in detention facilities. The move is seen as an effort to end what Mr Trump describes as a "catch-and-release" policy towards illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, Mr Trump has vetoed a US Congress resolution to end military assistance for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, calling the move "unnecessary and dangerous". Using a veto for only the second time in his presidency, Mr Trump knocked back a resolution passed not just by the Democrat-held House but also the Republican-controlled Senate. The president argued giving support to the Saudis and their partners helped protect Americans in those countries from Iran-backed Houthi militias. He claimed the countries "have been subject to Houthi attacks from Yemen". His decision appalled critics who believe the Trump administration is too closely aligned to Saudi Arabia and has not done enough to end the Yemeni civil war, which began in 2015. At least 10,000 people have died in the conflict. The Saudi-led coalition has been accused of pushing Yemen to the brink of famine with a blockade, and of killing and maiming children. ( Independent News Service/Daily Telegraph London) North Korea says it has test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon, its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove secretary of state Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations. The test, which did not appear to be of a banned mid or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle negotiations, allows Pyongyang to show its people it is pushing ahead with weapons development while also reassuring domestic military officials worried that diplomacy with Washington signals weakness. In a separate statement, Pyongyangs foreign ministry accused Mr Pompeo of playing down the significance of comments by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who said last week that Washington has until the end of the year to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy. Expand Close A TV news show reports on North Koreas test-fire of a new-type tactical guided weapon (Lee Jin-man/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A TV news show reports on North Koreas test-fire of a new-type tactical guided weapon (Lee Jin-man/AP) The demand for Mr Pompeos removal from the talks and the weapon test point to Pyongyangs displeasure with the deadlocked negotiations. Mr Kim observed the unspecified weapon being fired on Wednesday by the Academy of Defence Science, the Norths state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Mr Kim was reported to have said: The development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the Peoples Army. The Associated Press could not independently verify North Koreas claim, and it was not immediately clear what had been tested. A ballistic missile test would jeopardise the diplomatic talks meant to provide the North with concessions in return for disarmament. A South Korean analyst said details in the Norths media report indicate it could have been a new type of cruise missile. Another possible clue: One of the lower level officials mentioned in the Norths report on the test Pak Jong Chon is known as an artillery official. The test comes during an apparent deadlock in nuclear disarmament talks after the failed summit in Hanoi between Mr Kim and President Donald Trump earlier this year. Expand Close President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi earlier this year (Evan Vucci/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi earlier this year (Evan Vucci/AP) Some in Seoul worry that the North will turn back to actions seen as provocative by outsiders as a way to force Washington to drop its hardline negotiating stance and grant the Norths demand for a removal of crushing international sanctions. A string of increasingly powerful weapons tests in 2017 and Mr Trumps response of fire and fury had many fearing war before the North shifted to diplomacy. During a speech in Texas on Monday, Mr Pompeo said Mr Kim promised to denuclearise during his first summit with Mr Trump and that US officials were working with the North Koreans to chart a path forward so we can get there. He (Kim) said he wanted it done by the end of the year, Mr Pompeo said. Id love to see that done sooner. Meanwhile, the Kremlin said Mr Kim will visit Russia later this month. It said in a brief statement that Mr Kim will visit Russia in the second half of April on Russian President Vladimir Putins invitation. Russian media have been abuzz in recent days with rumours about the rare meeting between the leaders. Mr Putin is set to visit China later this month, and some media speculated that he could meet with Mr Kim in Vladivostok, the port city near the border with North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will travel to Russia in the second half of this month and meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Thursday. The announcement of the upcoming summit comes as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is pushing for a deal with Kim that would bring an end to nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula. Two earlier summits between Kim and Trump failed to reach an agreement on a denuclearisation deal. Trump administration officials have floated the possibility of a third summit. The Kremlin gave no further details of the summit between Putin and Kim in a statement on its website, but Moscow has been saying for months that it was working on such a meeting. U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun was due in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday to meet Russian officials to discuss ways to advance a "final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea," Washington said on Tuesday. The United States in March imposed a new round of sanctions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, following the collapse of talks between Trump and Kim in February. Longmont, Colorado. First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) today announced 13 new grantees under the second year of its three-year Native Language Immersion Initiative (NLII). First Nations launched the initiative in late 2017 as a three-year project to help stem the loss of Indigenous languages and cultures through community-based programs that support new generations of Native American language speakers. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) provided a $2.1 million challenge grant, which First Nations was required to match with $700,000 of additional funding each year over the three-year period. In the first year (2018), the match was met through the support of Kalliopeia Foundation, Lannan Foundation and NoVo Foundation. In the second year (2019), these three foundations returned to generously underwrite the match again, plus First Nations raised the final $100,000 for the second year from individual donors across the U.S. The United Nations recently declared 2019 The International Year of Indigenous Languages to increase awareness and appreciation of Indigenous languages and their contributions to the worlds rich cultural diversity. There are currently about 150 Native languages spoken in the U.S., many of them spoken only by a small number of elders. Native communities are at a critical juncture when it comes to the retention and perpetuation of their languages, and some suggest that without targeted language preservation and restoration efforts, there may only be 20 Native languages spoken by 2050. The following 13 grantees were awarded up to $90,000 each in funding to build the capacity of and directly support their Native language-immersion and/or culture-retention program: 1. Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, Chickaloon, Alaska, $90,000 This project will expand upon current efforts to revitalize the Ahtna language at the Ya Ne Dah Ah or Ancient Teachings Tribal School. With this grant, the tribe will create new culture and language curriculum to meet Alaskas requirements in the areas of history, science and social studies. 2. Euchee Yuchi Language Project, Inc., Sapulpa, Oklahoma, $90,000 The project will restore the vitality of the Yuchi language through The Yuchi House, a year-round language-immersion program for students grades K-12. Additionally, this grant will be used to produce an archive of Yuchi language videos and assist with tribal language instructor certification. 3. Friends of the Akwesasne Freedom School, Rooseveltown, New York, $89,320 This teacher training program will increase the capacity of current and new teachers of the Kanienkeha (Mohawk) language. Master language educators will develop a training program for 10 new elementary school teachers and teacher aides that focuses on the Akwesasne Freedom Schools unique language curriculum. 4. Keres Childrens Learning Center, Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, $90,000 This project will provide expansive professional development to nine teachers through one-on-one and group training sessions on language acquisition, language immersion, cultural knowledge and advocacy. Additionally, this funding will be used to purchase supplies and other materials for elementary classrooms that have recently doubled in sized. 5. Nisqually Indian Tribe, Olympia, Washington, $70,836 This project will help preserve and promote tribal traditions through the development of a Nisqually Lushootseed-specific language curriculum. With this grant, the tribe will develop and publish 200 new resources, including Lushootseed alphabet and language books. Additionally, the tribe will train up to four more Lushootseed language teachers and create a Lushootseed font application. 6. Northern Arapaho Tribe, Fort Washakie, Wyoming, $90,000 This project will support the development of a master-apprentice language program to educate and empower Northern Arapaho tribal members. Tribal elders will develop Arapaho language curriculum (i.e., Arapaho words, phrases, stories, history and conversational pieces) that they will share with prospective Arapaho language teachers who will, in turn, share that knowledge with students. 7. Oneida Nation, Oneida, Wisconsin, $89,954 This project will increase the number of proficient first-language speakers within the Oneida community by creating an immersion-only classroom that utilizes the current On^yoteaka Tsi Nitwaw^not^ and Head Start As it Happens curriculum. Twenty students will participate in this language program. Their parents are also required to attend bi-monthly classes and pass a basic assessment to foster an at-home language environment for their children. 8. Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, $90,000 This project will build the organizational and professional capacity of the Yaqui Language Immersion Program. Eleven teachers will engage in the study and practicum for their professional development as language instructors. 9. Salish School of Spokane, Spokane, Washington, $90,000 This project will provide Salish training to four interns recruited and hired from among parents of current students at the Salish School of Spokane. Interns will participate in 60 hours of evening/weekend Salish classes per year, with the goal of eventually hiring them as Salish immersion instructors. 10. Standing Rock Community Development Corporation, Fort Yates, South Dakota, $90,000 The project will utilize the newly created immersion curriculum to pilot educational best practices in the classroom, create an immersion teacher training strategy, increase access to high-quality professional development, and leverage existing staff and resources to transition from a program of Sitting Bull College to a community serving school through the Standing Rock Community Development Corporation. 11. Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, Porcupine, South Dakota, $90,000 This project will provide 26 language instructors with professional development training. Additionally, this grant will be used to open a second Lakota Immersion Childcare Center to provide immersion education to 15 more Lakota students. 12. Wolakota Waldorf Society, Kyle, South Dakota, $86,174 This project will utilize new and existing resources to provide language immersion to 50 to 60 children in grades K-8. With this grant, it will set up an outdoor classroom to introduce students to indigenous plants. It will develop curriculum to teach words and phrases about traditional plants, fruits, tools and ecology. It will also be used to provide professional development training, and encourage parent and community engagement. 13. Wopanaak Language Reclamation Project, Mashpee, Massachusetts, $90,000 This project lays the groundwork to expand the Wopanaaks language immersion school to the 8th grade. The school currently serves students from pre-K through 4th grade. With this grant, the school will partner with five regional colleges and universities to provide comprehensive state and tribal language teacher certification. This will allow the school to recruit and hire new language teachers. For nearly 39 years, the First Nations Development Institute using a three-pronged strategy of educating grassroots practitioners, advocating for systemic change, and capitalizing Indian communities, First Nations has been working to restore Native American control and culturally-compatible stewardship of the assets they own be they land, human potential, cultural heritage or natural resources and to establish new assets for ensuring the long-term vitality of Native American communities. First Nations serves Native American communities throughout the United States. It took 200 years to build and has stood for more than eight centuries. Pope Alexander III laid the foundation stone of the cathedral in 1163. It was officially completed in 1345 and many are saying it may take up to a decade for the cathedral to... Advocates work to slow the revolving door of repeat prisoners Cronkite News TEMPE Officials and experts are exploring a vexing question about the revolving bars of the criminal justice system: How can we stop people from ending back in prison? Arizona has the fourth highest incarceration rate in the country, according to speakers at an Arizona Town Hall earlier this month. The Arizona Department of Corrections houses 41,804 inmates That costs taxpayers more than $1 billion a year, including for repeat prisoners 18 percent of those released return to prison within six months. Investing in more opportunities for offenders to get jobs after release, along with other resources to help settle back into society could help slow the revolving door, presenters said. They also recommended hiring more parole officers and reducing or eliminating sentences to keep certain violators out. Reporting out on #criminaljustice findings that came through citizens from all over the state. Can the system be shifted so the $1B spent on it each year be reduced along with better outcomes? Check out the recommendations. https://t.co/ozIjPTXflO pic.twitter.com/V09qKqjiWO Arizona Town Hall (@AzTownHall) April 2, 2019 The corrections department aims to reduce recidivism, or the rate of those who return to prison, by 25 percent in 10 years, according to director Charles Ryan. He said inmates access to meaningful jobs is key and employers should consider the untapped labor pool. Ryan said Hickmans Family Farms is a good example, which works with the Department of Corrections and employs about 400 male and female inmates. The company hires many of them after prison, Ryan said, and even built 40 studio apartments on its property to alleviate housing issues for former inmates who work there. Tara Jackson, president of Arizona Town Hall, said the state lacks enough halfway houses because neighbors resist having convicts nearby, fearing increased crime. Thats a growing barrier to helping former offenders assimilate. In Maricopa County, its almost impossible to open up re-entry centers, Jackson said. Its hard to reintegrate if you cant come back to where your support system is, you cant get a job, and theres no housing for you. Amy Love, deputy director of government affairs for the Arizona Supreme Court, said a large number of offenders coming into state prisons are brought in on technical violations stemming from prior convictions, such as missing a visit with a parole officer. Photo by Hailey Mensik / Cronkite News Amy Love, deputy director of government affairs for the Arizona Supreme Court, said a large number of offenders coming into state prisons are brought in on technical violations stemming from prior convictions, such as dirty drug tests or missed visits with parole officers. We need to make sure folks arent being sent to prison unnecessarily, Love said, recommending bolstering the budget to hire more parole officers to monitor people convicted of minor, non-violent crimes. Bills pushing criminal-justice reform this legislative session have gained little traction, including House Bill 2270, which would have allowed inmates a chance to reduce their sentences by completing education and treatment programs. But the bill failed this session. The laws proposed were too broad said Donna Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform. Instead, she said reforms should be incremental and centered on shortening the sentences of certain kinds of offenders. Also, she said, it makes sense to use resources on prisoners who want to change rather than career criminals. Some people go to prison because its the cost of doing business as a major drug dealer, Hamm said. That person, of course, has to be interested in personal change and growth, and frankly, not every person who goes to prison is interested. We have to have a classification system that separates the people who want to change and will work on it from those who just want to do their time, she said. This story originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license . Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University Join the Conversation Influx of migrants, overstretched charity prompt Yuma mayor to declare a state of emergency Cronkite News YUMA Mayor Douglas Nicholls has declared a state of emergency in response to what he described as an overwhelming flow of migrants dropped off by federal officials, and hes asking for state and federal funds to deal with it. In the past three weeks, nearly 1,300 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who are seeking asylum have been released by U.S. Border Patrol at a Salvation Army shelter in Yuma, according to the citys website There is an imminent threat on having too many migrant releases into our community, Nicholls said at a press conference Tuesday, and its above our capacity to sustain. By declaring a state of emergency, Nicholls is calling on state and federal authorities to provide Yuma with financial assistance in order to maintain the human rights of the migrants, many of whom are fleeing violence and oppression in their native countries. Mayor of Yuma Douglas Nicholls (@MayorNicholls) signed a Proclamation of Emergency in Yuma on Apr. 16, due to the high number of migrant family releases by USBP overwhelming the non-profit shelter system. View a video with his comments here: https://t.co/busj2rpP2Z pic.twitter.com/xNnQEsycKb City of Yuma (@cityofyuma) April 17, 2019 Nicholls encouraged other Arizona border communities to declare states of emergency, which would strengthen the request for federal assistance to deal with the crush of migrants. He said the federal government needs a better organized transportation system for migrants, many who are accompanied by children. Without travel arrangements, migrants end up staying multiple nights at the shelter, causing overcrowding. Capt. Jeffrey Breazeale, Yuma County coordinator for the Salvation Army, is helping run the facility, where the migrants are housed and fed before traveling to join family or friends already in the U.S. The migrants eventually will appear before an immigration judge who will decide on asylum requests. The shelter can comfortably house 150 people, but Breazeale said Wednesday 198 migrants are staying there, and resources are stretched thin. Getting to that 200 mark definitely does put a strain on the volunteers, individuals that are helping with day to day tasks, bathrooms, trash, mopping floors, feeding, showers, he said. He said he has informed Border Patrol that the shelter, which is fully funded by the Salvation Army, is at its capacity, but federal officials continue releasing migrants. We let them know that were at our max, but they are still going to release, he said. It doesnt matter if were at our max or not. The declaration of a state of emergency will not directly affect the operations of the Salvation Army, but he said, it will open up the opportunity for state and federal funding so that volunteers providing basic services to migrants will not have to rely on donations from the community. This story originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license . Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University Join the Conversation I'm running for the Senate and I want you on the team. Senate candidate is all Trump when it comes to a border wall Gavin Clarkson, Choctaw, announces bid for the U.S. Senate in New Mexico. He is the first Republican to enter that race #NativeVote20 Indian Country Today Gavin Clarkson called himself The Energizer Bunny . It was early in the Trump administration and he was working at the Interior Department, tossing out rapid-fire ideas. Only Clarkson, Choctaw, wasnt in office long enough to see that list of ideas come to fruition. He was appointed by former Secretary Ryan Zinke on June 11 and by December he had moved on. Clarkson says he left Interior to run for Congress, something he wanted to do back in New Mexico. He says his resignation had nothing to do with an inspector general's report that was critical of a Bureau of Indian Affairs loan program The report did not name Clarkson directly but he was identified as a "senior official." The inspector general's report said: "We found that in the short time the senior official worked for the DOI, he made several comments that created an appearance to employees that he was planning to give preferential treatment to entities he had relationships with." The report concluded: "The senior official has left the DOI. We provided this report to the Deputy Secretary of the Interior for any action deemed appropriate." ProPublica described Clarkson having a key role in a convoluted transaction that flopped and left the Interior Department fending off a $20 million liability. And said this about the inspector general's probe: A senior official in charge of a federal loan guarantee program resigned after ProPublica reported his prior role in obtaining a guarantee under the same program as part of a deal that failed. ProPublica quoted a senior Interior official who said Clarkson faced pressure to resign because he hadnt disclosed his role in the scandal, according to a department official. Clarkson dismissed ProPublicas reporting as fake news. Gavin Clarkson is seen at the U.S. border with Mexico in a photo posted on social media. Clarkson, a Republican, supports a physical wall along the border except in places where he said physical features, such as a river, would act as deterrent. Photo: Gavin Clarkson Back in New Mexico, Clarkson entered the race to represent the second congressional district as a Republican. He ran on the Trump platform of building a wall , more oil and gas development, and as an anti-abortion rights advocate. He also, like Trump, complained about the Washington swamp. "I know the swamp is deep, I know the alligators bite, he said. But I know where the big alligators align and I'm ready to go alligator hunting." He argues that New Mexico (and the United States) has too many miles of an open border. The reality of remote Antelope Wells, contradicts nonsensical drivel from Chuck & Nancy. Parents should never drag a child through this wilderness. Proposed physical barrier will remove the perverse incentive to even try. Clarkson took third in the Republican primary with just 12.4 percent of the vote. He was defeated by Yvette Herrell, a Cherokee Nation citizen, who lost to now Rep. Xochitl Torres Small , a Democrat, in the November election But there was another controversy that began during the campaign: New Mexico State University said Clarkson's academic leave had ended and he should return to campus or be fired. The university carried out its threat. And Clarkson sued. He claims racial and religious discrimination because he is a pro-life Christian and a tribal citizen. A few weeks after the congressional primary, the Republican nominee for New Mexico Secretary of State dropped out of the general election and Clarkson won a bid to fill the spot. Among the issues, he championed a photo ID requirement because when non-citizens vote, the votes of citizens are diminished. Allowing those who have cheated the system to vote insults both our veterans who fought to protect our democratic institutions and all the immigrants who followed the rules to come here legally. Clarkson lost that race to the incumbent Maggie Toulouse Oliver Justice Gorsuch was 5th vote for @USSupremeCourt striking down dual taxation of Yakama tribal commerce yesterday. Unemployment on NM reservations is 56%. As Reagan once said, dual taxation kills tribal economies. #KillTheTaxWeevil instead! #tcot #nmpol https://t.co/ONz4VkHPPV https://t.co/E4lXLZOj55 Dr. Gavin Clarkson (@DrGavinClarkson) March 20, 2019 On Tuesday Clarkson announced his bid for the U.S. Senate in New Mexico. He is the first Republican to enter the race. On the Democratic side, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan is a candidate. That Senate race is an open seat because of the retirement of Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat. That means there will likely be several challengers at least on the Republican side. The New Mexico Political report says former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, former Lt. Gov. John Sanchez and former U.S. Senate candidate Mick Rich may also run for the seat. Clarkson, like Trump, is a name-calling candidate. He called his Republican opponent in the congressional race too "ethically challenged" to win. He said his secretary of state opponent was guilty of registering zombies, aliens and canines as voters. Or a recent attack on Rep. Alexandria Occasio-Cortez he said new research proves her "mental flatulence is more harmful than her discredited claim regarding #BovineFlattulence." Another favorite opponent: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Clarkson's Twitter feed cites the hashtag "fauxcahontas" with several posts and an op-ed directed at Warren . When the Obama administration blocked efforts to allow Native Americans to explore for energy on their own lands, he tweeted. Elizabeth Warren did nothing to stop it. When the Obama administration blocked a tribe from pursuing a renewable energy project, she didn't speak up. Clarkson said that Warren listed herself as a Native professor at Harvard Law School yet rejected at least 5 invitations to support Native students (I delivered three in person, one as NALSA president). In my 5 years there, she did absolutely nothing to support Native students. At his Senate campaign announcement, Clarkson stuck to familiar themes. He supports the Trump administrations immigration policies. He told the Las Cruces News-Sun that he is not anti-immigration, highlighting that his wife is an immigrant who came to the United States legally. In an interview posted on his campaign web site , Clarkson said, "I want to be New Mexicos next U.S. Senator to bring some sympathy to the Senate for those whose voices are not heard in the halls of Congress -- the victims of illegal immigrant crime, the unborn, and those who are economically disempowered due to federal regulations and corporate welfare schemes that benefit establishment lobbyists at the expense of entrepreneurs and small businesses." The story of Clarkson is different than ones told by most career politicians. I'm a tribal member whose orphaned father went from living out of trash cans to being the first Native American to fly a jet. I have a law degree, an MBA, and a doctorate in Business Administration. Ive taught for two decades as a conservative in higher education and been illegally fired for it, and I've served as an economic development official in the Trump administration in the heart of the swamp. Clarkson also said his campaign will focus on ending the dual taxation on job creation in Indian Country "which could provide a $2 billion economic stimulus in New Mexico alone and up to $40 billion nationwide without costing federal taxpayers a single cent." Clarkson is a longtime advocate for tribal economic development . He has written academic papers , been a speaker at conferences , and has been an advocate for tribes and individual Native Americans working more with Republicans. At a recent meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference he told Cronkite News that conservatives dont fully understand that tribal sovereignty and private property rights are two sides of the same conservative coin Unfortunately, far too much of Indian Country supports Democrats even though its against their sovereign interests. Mark Trahant is the editor of Indian Country Today . He is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes . Follow him on Twitter @TrahantReports This story originally appeared on Indian Country Today on April 18, 2019. Join the Conversation The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians has legalized marijuana for recreational use, becoming the second in Michigan to do so. The tribe's board of directors voted in favor of legalization at a meeting in Munising on Tuesday. The new law takes effect May 15. The wave of legalization of personal or recreational use of marijuana has reached the Sault Tribe reservation for adult Sault Tribe citizens, Chairperson Aaron Payment said in a news release on Thursday. Some will celebrate while others have concerns. Fundamental change is never easy. The move comes after the Bay Mills Indian Community became the first tribe in Michigan to legalize recreational use of marijuana . Citizens of both tribes are now on equal footing with the rest of the states, where marijuana was legalized in an election last November. And like Bay Mills, the Sault Tribe authorizes marijuana use and cultivation of small amounts only by those over the age of 21. Both tribes also allow citizens who were convicted of marijuana offenses in the past to seek to have their records cleared in tribal court. in 2015, a member of the Sault Tribe's board of directors was convicted of marijuana possession in tribal court. The leader was removed from office after refusing to step down. Despite the changes in tribal and state law in Michigan, marijuana is still considered illegal under federal law, which means it's illegal in Indian Country. In some instances, tribes that have cultivated marijuana -- and even hemp, its non-potent relative -- have faced federal and state raids. But tribes located in states where marijuana has been legalized have been able to avoid persecution. The notable examples are Washington and Nevada, where marijuana is legal for recreational, medicinal and commercial purposes. In recognition of the changing landscape, the Department of Justice during the Obama era had issued guidance that seemed to recognize tribal sovereignty over marijuana. The Trump administration has rescinded the policy although enforcement actions do not appear to have been taken against tribes since the January 2018 action. Hemp, on the other hand, is now completely legal thanks to the 2018 Farm Bill , which includes dozens of provisions benefiting Indian Country. The Department of Agriculture is in the process of developing a rule addressing tribal and state production of industrial hemp. Department of Justice Guidance [Since Rescinded] Join the Conversation Related Stories TikTok, a video creating and sharing platform, is the current top of discussion on social media after Madras High Court ordered a ban on the app. Tech giants Google and Apple have removed the application from the Android and iOS play store. Following this, while some of the people expressed joy, others were unhappy. One of them was Kubbra Sait who took to Twitter to write she has never been happier about a ban so much. I cant begin to express my joy to hearing about Tik Tok being banned in India. The state of derangement was exceedingly painful. I havent been happier about a ban. Kubbra Sait (@KubbraSait) April 17, 2019 I cant begin to express my joy to hearing about TikTok being banned in India. The state of derangement was exceedingly painful. I havent been happier about a ban, she wrote. However, this didnt go down well with ex-Bigg Boss contestant Vikas Gupta who slammed her saying that the artistes on the platform are as talented as she is. State of derangement is extremely painful for the people who have to live in the environment of the mentally ill. With all due respect some of the people making these Tiktoks or musically are as talented an artist as you are if not more. Coming from an artist of your caliber its https://t.co/4QlNAi2xtq Vikas Gupta (@lostboy54) April 18, 2019 Very dissapointing. Content made on any platform can be good and bad. Be it Television, Films, Web series or theatre for that matter or Tiktok. Some of the amazing work done by Individuals on Tiktok can be at par with the so called good work on either of the platforms Vikas Gupta (@lostboy54) April 18, 2019 & about the state of derangement, in the search column of #Tiktok type Family and you might find some 2 billion videos including parents kids acting together to 80 years olds dancing to just plain funny videos. Yes there are bad content also but thats on tv films and web aswell Vikas Gupta (@lostboy54) April 18, 2019 & finally coming to the artists working day in and out to create multiple 15 seconder content is one of the toughest things to do. @jannat_zubair29 @HeyAhsaasChanna #AvneetKaur #Faisalshiekh #Ashikabhatia #siddharthNigam list is huge and all of them put their heart and head with Vikas Gupta (@lostboy54) April 18, 2019 For the uninitiated, TikTok has been banned for pornographic and inappropriate content that may be accessible to kids. While new users cannot download the app. However, users who had the app will continue to be able to use it. In a statement, TikTok had said, "We welcome the decision of the Madras High Court to appoint Arvind Datar as Amicus Curae (independent counsel) to the court. We have faith in the Indian judicial system and we are optimistic about an outcome that would be well received by over 120 million monthly active users in India, who continue using TikTok to showcase their creativity and capture moments that matter in their everyday lives." One of the best feelings for anyone who feels stuck in their current 9-to-5 gig, is getting a new offer for the kind of job we had been waiting for and worked so hard to get. In the process, we go through many feelings and probably skip the important things we must consider before switching jobs and paychecks. Considering we spend most of our day at work, there's a whole lot you need to do before blindly stepping in. 1. How is the work culture there? A good work culture should be a priority as it is everything you'll care about once you settle in the new job. You need to have a reason to smile on a daily basis. Unsplash 2. How will you going to commute on a daily basis? How will your productivity increase if it's taking hours for you to reach work? A workplace near to your residence can do wonders to your mental peace. And how much are you spending commuting from home to work and back? Unsplash 3. Let someone do the briefing for you from the same organization. Learn, learn and then learn some more about the place you're going to be joining. Just like you don't eat before learning about the ingredients in the food. Unsplash 4. Reach an understanding with your potential employer of expectations for regular working hours. Working hours should be practical enough to let you have a life outside work too. What is the point of earning if you do not have the time to spend it in your leisure time? Unsplash 5. Do some research to learn a bit about the people who will be your managers. This will not only benefit your relationship with your manager, but you'll also know who are you looking up to. A good manager can make all the difference in your career and personal growth. Unsplash 6. Use a number of holidays as a negotiation tactic. If you don't get your ideal salary package, sweeten the blow by asking HR to increase your annual chutti? We all need a vacation once in a while. Believe it or not, we all care about the number of leaves we are going to get. Unsplash 7. Before you start looking for new opportunities, figure out how you really feel about your current job. From the quality of work you are offering to learning something, ask yourself what you've been doing and what is expected out of you. Unsplash 8. Be sure of learning something new at a new place. There is no point sticking to a job or slogging for nothing. Make sure you pick up new skills at the new job that'll help your profile. Unsplash 9. Find out about the history of the company you are going to work at. Get deep into the economics if you can. Ask around and figure out what your future in the organization will be like. Unsplash 10. Ask the employees how friendly and transparent the management is. You do not want to work in a mismanaged space. It can ruin your mental peace even more than you can imagine. Unsplash 11. Negotiate salary well because you must know your worth. At the end, it's your bank balance that you'll end up caring the most about. And while a good opportunity can be good irrespective of the monies, it's good to know your worth because after all you'll be spending 8.5 hours everyday at your desk. Unsplash 12. Ask HR about the other benefits the company has to offer. From insurance to bonus, a little clarity never hurt anyone. Unsplash 13. Be sure of your responsibilities beforehand. Your key responsibilities should be clear in your head. It'll only make the process smooth and that includes your appraisal. Unsplash 14. Be sure to ask about advancement opportunities within the company. We all want to plan ahead for ourselves. If the company seems to not give you enough opportunities, it's time for you to rethink the offer. Unsplash They had been with the company for years, some even for decades and saw the company in its heyday when it was the largest private airline in India. But late on Wednesday, they received the message that they had dreaded for months now. Jet Airways announced that it is grounding all its flights and temporarily suspending all operations. Read More. Here's More Top News For The Day: 1) Vijay Mallya Says PM Modi Is Lying About The Recovery Of His Debts, Hits Out At Banks Too Fugitive former liquor baron Vijay Mallya who is facing extradition to India has hit out Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the banks accusing them of lying. In a tweet, Mallya alleged that the PM in a recent interview has claimed that the banks have already recovered the amount he owed, but the banks have told something different in the UK court. Read More. 2) This Woman Has Come All The Way From US To Campaign For PM Narendra Modi In Kanpur India is voting to elect its new prime minister and people are doing their bit to campaign for their respective political parties and leaders. Last week, a man had quit his job in Australia to cast his vote in India just to see his favourite leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi return for a successive second term. A week after, an NRI and IT professional, Manjari Gangwar has come all the way from the United States to campaign for PM Narendra Modi, the Times of India reported. Read More. 3) Newly-Wed Couple Puts National Duty First As Second Phase Of Polls Carried Out Across India In Jammu and Kashmirs Udhampur district, a bride and groom clad in wedding attire came to vote for their candidate at the polling booth. On the other hand, in Maharashtra a pregnant woman arrived to get her finger inked at polling booth number 164 in Nehru Nagar of Solapur. Read More. 4) Two Men From Punjab Beheaded In Saudi Arabia, CM Calls It Atrocious And Barbaric Two Punjabi men were recently beheaded by Saudi Arabian authorities and this has called for widespread criticism from Indians. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said he would seek a detailed report from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the matter. Read More. 5) Telangana Now Has A Panel To Look Into Sexual Harassment Of Women Artistes, Something That Other States Can Take Note Of The Telugu Film Chamber (TFC) had constituted a Sexual Harassment Redressal Panel (SHRP) to look into the complaints from the women artists and made it mandatory for all production houses to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). Now, acting upon the demands made by a number of women's organizations, the Telangana Government has constituted a high-level committee to inquire into issues of sexual harassment of women artists in the film and television industry. Read More. India is voting to elect its new prime minister and people are doing their bit to campaign for their respective political parties and leaders. Last week, a man had quit his job in Australia to cast his vote in India just to see his favourite leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi return for a successive second term. A week after, an NRI and IT professional, Manjari Gangwar has come all the way from the United States to campaign for PM Narendra Modi, the Times of India reported. Gangwar is a native of Patiali in Etah and had settled in America about 21 years ago. She hardly knows anything about the BJP candidate contesting from her city nor about any other leaders there except for PM Modi for whom she travelled so far. When asked the reason for her love for PM Modi, Manjari said that he (Prime Minister) had changed image of the country in foreign countries. She reached BJP's city office on Tuesday and interacted with the party leaders. She told them that her father belonged to Etah and was a teacher. After retirement her father had settled down in Kanpur, and she moved to USA 21 years ago after completing her graduation and has been working there since, she added. "My family never had any inclination towards politics, but ever since Narendra Modi became the PM, the country's respect has grown manifold in the US", she was quoted to as saying by the Times of India. AP The air strike by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan's Balakot has further strengthened the country's image in the world. India has emerged as a powerful nation, Manjari said. She told mediapersons that she would urge voters of the city to cast their votes for BJP so that Modi got another chance to lead the country as PM. The Lok Sabha elections began on April 11 and will continue in seven phases. The second phase is taking place today in the states of Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur and others. Polling is being conducted for 49 seats in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, UP, Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur and Puducherry. While EVMs malfunctioned in various states, polling in TNs Vellore seat had to be cancelled after the recovery of a huge amount of cash from alleged associates of DMK candidate Kathir Anand, the son of DMK treasurer Durai Murugan. However, all these obstacles didnt deter the spirit of voters. Young, elderly, disabled even newly married came to cast their vote in the biggest election exercise all around the globe. Photo:ANI/ Newly-wed couple arrives in J&K's Udhampur district to cast their vote For instance, in Jammu and Kashmirs Udhampur district, a bride and groom clad in wedding attire came to vote for their candidate at the polling booth. On the other hand, in Maharashtra a pregnant woman arrived to get her finger inked at polling booth number 164 in Nehru Nagar of Solapur. Bihar: 90-year-old Urmila and Usha cast their votes at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/EkKDEasr7W ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 In Bihars Bhagalpur district, 90-year-old Urmila and Usha were helped by CRPF personnel at the polling booth. In Karnataka also, an elderly couple, 91-year-old Shrinivas and 84-year-old Manjula, cast their votes at a polling booth in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency, reported news agency ANI. Karnataka: A senior citizen couple, 91-year-old Shrinivas and 84-year-old Manjula, cast their votes at a polling booth in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/9HBHxdgnQv ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 In Kathua district, an 80-year-old patient named Jogindero Devi came from the Kathua hospital to elect her representative. In Maharashtra where polling is underway for 10 parliamentary constituencies, a 105-year old Kavaibai Kamble along with her family cast her vote at a polling station in Harangul Budruk in Latur constituency. Jammu & Kashmir: An 80-year-old patient, Jogindero Devi, comes from Kathua district hospital at polling booth number 2, in Kathua, to cast her vote for #LokSabhaElections2019. She will return to the hospital after casting her vote. pic.twitter.com/FaN2yMTIvi ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also cast her vote at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency. Whereas, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi also stood in the queue patiently to cast her vote. The polling will come to an end on May 19 and the counting will be done on May 23. Farmers from Tamil Nadu who held a 45-day long sit-in demonstration in Delhi recently threatened to resume their protest after the E Palaniswami government told the Supreme Court that no farmer had committed suicide in the state due to drought. PTI In a submission in the SC on Friday the Tamil Nadu government blamed "personal problems" and not drought for the farmer suicides in the state. This comes after the Supreme Court on April 13th ordered the Tamil Nadu Government to file a detailed reply in the farmers suicide issue in two weeks. Expressing displeasure on inaction on farmers suicide issue, the apex court lashed out at the government for not taking enough measures to prevent the farmers suicides in the state. As expected the bizarre claim of the government did not go down well with the farmers. BCCL Ayyakannu, who has been leading the now suspended protest in Delhi said the state CM have to explain the statement. "So what was the compensation that Tamil Nadu government sought from the Center. This is a grave mistake that the CM has done. Tomorrow we will counter it with all the FIRS in the court. Farmers committed suicide due to drought. I am meeting TN CM soon. I will ask for convincing explanation. If he doesn't give, we will launch agitation once again in Tamil Nadu." PTI Opposition DMK called it a shame. "It is a shame that the government of Tamil Nadu has filed an affidavit that many died of age, but farmers died due to shock of barren lands. That has been seen as suicide. It can't be taken likely. He is further humiliating saying they have submitted the report of collector. Not sure if he is collector or dawali to the collector," DMK Spokesperson TKS Elangovan said. BCCL Tamil Nadu is going through the worst drought in 142 years, which has resulted in a massive crop failure. 32 lakhs farmers are believed to have been affected by the drought. The farmers are demanding farm loan waiver, a drought relief package of Rs 40,000 crore from the Centre and setting up of Cauvery Management Board. Ayyakannu during the recent protest told Indiatimes that, "In just past six months alone, 400 farmers have committed suicide. If the loans borrowed by the farmers are not waived off, 4 lakhs people in Tamil Nadu will be forced to commit suicide." BCCL The farmers who did everything from displaying the skulls of their loved ones who committed suicide to eating dead rats, snakes and grass, running naked near the parliament and being whipped by a man wearing a Modi mask had on last Saturday suspended their demonstration after an assurance by the Tamil Nadu government. Railway theft is a regular business for criminals in India. Once the train arrives at the platform, it becomes a safe haven for thieves to start robbing on-boarding passengers. Gold, cash, jewellery and other precious items are often stolen at the blink of an eye. At stop-overs or encroachments, robbers get plenty of opportunities to board trains and steal valuable items. They can easily escape the law due to lack of patrolling. Times of India reported that certain stretches in Delhi have become an area of concern for the policemen. Police have now started to suspect the role of interstate criminals in rail thefts. Reportedly, patrolling has now been increased in industrial areas of Mayapuri and Naraina to curb thievery. Criminals are having a free run along Naraina Vihar route because trains have to be slowed down here to prevent accidents. Photo: BCCL/Shakurbasti slums near railway tracks in New Delhi The land around these railway tracks is heavily encroached therefore, criminals can easily hide in these places. Reportedly, forested areas are their ideal hiding place. These stretches are dark and devoid of any lighting which makes it even more difficult for the police to catch them. The railway tracks between Mayapuri and Sarai Rohilla are busy routes that further connect the national capital with neighbouring states like Haryana and Rajasthan. Commuters alleged that criminals climbed on the train when it would slow down in such areas. Photo: BCCL/Railway crossing at Premnagar in Delhi For instance, after Delhi-Cantonment, the drivers are forced to lower the speed below 35-40 kmph to avoid any mishaps. Criminals use such situations to their advantage and flee with bags and other merchandise. The garbage-strewn area is also a safe harbour for drug addicts. Sometimes, criminals even use drug addiction as an excuse for committing a crime. While the tracks remain largely unmonitored, the police are now conducting raids in adjoining colonies to catch petty criminals. Photo: BCCL TOI reported that items worth Rs 11.67 lakh, including 39 stolen mobile phones, two laptops and 70 grams of gold, have been recovered in the last 10 days and 32 snatchers have been nabbed. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has special teams to catch such offenders. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Railways D K Gupta informed TOI that they are also in the process of uploading data online so that Government Railway Police (GRP) can access it and be aware of all the criminals. Two Punjabi men were recently beheaded by Saudi Arabian authorities and this has called for widespread criticism from Indians. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said he would seek a detailed report from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the matter. The deceased were identified as Satwinder Kumar of Safdarpur Kallian village in Hoshiarpur district and Harjit Singh of Ludhiana district. IANS reported that the two men were executed by Saudi authorities on February 28 without any prior information being shared with the Indian embassy in Riyadh. Satwinder's wife Seema Rani had filed a petition before the court regarding her husband following which the Embassy said that they had no information regarding the mortal remains of the two men. Photo: BCCL Satwinder and Safdarpur were arrested on December 9, 2015 in connection with the murder of another Indian national, Arif Imamuddin. All three (Satwinder, Harjit and Arif) had committed robbery and due to a dispute in sharing the loot money, Arif was killed by the other two. During the deportation formalities the two men were found guilty of Arifs murder. Following which they were sent to the Riyadh prison. The embassy officials were following the case against the two Punjabi men and they even used to visit them in prison. The jail list regarding their case was collected till February 18, 2019. Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh said, It is atrocious that such incidents continue to happen in civilised nations in this day and age." He even criticized the MEA for not disclosing the death of two Indians until a petition forced them to. He further termed the beheading as "totally barbaric and inhuman". Photo: Twitter "If the executions were undertaken without prior information even to the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, with the victims not provided legal counsel, it amounted to a grave violation of international human rights," he further added. Just days before the reported beheadings, India had hosted the Saudi Crown Prince, whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi had received personally, in a break from protocol, the Chief Minister pointed out. He said that given the friendly relations between the two countries it wouldnt be difficult for India to get the bodies of the two men back to their country. Singh said he would personally seek External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajs interference into the matter. Fugitive former liquor baron Vijay Mallya who is facing extradition to India has hit out Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the banks accusing them of lying. In a tweet, Mallya alleged that the PM in a recent interview has claimed that the banks have already recovered the amount he owed, but the banks have told something different in the UK court. None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe ? One or the other is lying. Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 18, 2019 Mallya was referring to an interview of PM Modi to a Hindi news channel where he said that, He (Mallya) owed banks Rs 9,000 crore but the government has confiscated his properties worth Rs 14,000 crore from across the world." AFP/ FILE Earlier, he had accused the government of discriminating between state-owned and private airlines and accused them of bailing out Air India while the same was not given to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways which announced the suspension of service on Wednesday. I invested hugely into Kingfisher which rapidly grew to become Indias largest and most awarded airline. True, Kingfisher borrowed from PSU Banks as well. I have offered to pay back 100 percent but am being criminally charged instead. Airline Karma ? Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 16, 2019 Every time I say that I am willing to pay 100 percent back to the PSU Banks, media say I am spooked, terrified etc of extradition from the U.K. to India. I am willing to pay either way whether I am in London or in an Indian Jail. Why dont Banks take the money I offered first ? Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 16, 2019 Even though we were fierce competitors, my sympathies go out to Naresh and Neeta Goyal who built Jet Airways that India should be extremely proud of. Fine Airline providing vital connectivity and class service. Sad that so many Airlines have bitten the dust in India. Why ? Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 16, 2019 Mallya once called the 'King of Good Times,' ran into financial troubles after his Kingfisher Airlines incurred loses after loses and eventually seized operations. He owed around Rs 9,000 crore in loans to the bank tried to reach a settlement with the lenders' consortium, failing which he fled the country to evade arrest. Even while he was fighting the extradition case, Mallya had reached out to the banks and the government to express his willingness to settle the loans. An officer with the Mumbai police has set an example for every citizen in this country by helping an absolute stranger who could've done with a little help. Senior inspector Hemant Sawant with the Charkop police station helped a Kashmiri resident, Shaukat Ali. According to Mumbai Police, Ali worked with a private company in Kashmir in 2013. Throughout his tenure, he accumulated Rs 52,000 in his provident fund (PF) account. However, finances didnt allow him to visit the PF office in Mumbais Kandivali area. A J&K resident with no means to travel to retrieve his PF from a Mumbai company found a saviour in Sr.PI Hemant Sawant of Charkop Pstn, who visited the company office himself and convinced them to release Rs. 52,000 of PF amount Except calls & emails, they'd never met each other. pic.twitter.com/dgrW1sbFFt Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) April 16, 2019 But Ali desperately needed money to pay for his daughters school fees but could not because frequent internet shutdowns and poor speed deterred him from using the electronic medium. Ali could not think of doing anything else, so he called up the Charkop police station in Mumbai which is close to the PF office and contacted Senior Inspector Hemant Sawant. After hearing Alis problem, Sawant agreed to help him and he then sent a form he collected from the PF office to Ali via courier and asked him to fill the form and send back. The process has now been completed and Ali is expecting Rs 52,000 to reflect in his bank account within 15 days. After people read the tweet, they started praising Sawant: 1. Salute and respect. Salman Nizami (@SalmanNizami_) April 18, 2019 2. Congratulations to the Great policeman who did it. I also got death certificate of the husband of our maid. She spent Rs.900 but cudnt get it. I went to MCD office got 2 copies for Rs.20.She got PF of her husband frm a factory in Nepal and ancestral land in BIHAR village. Amrit Lal Rawal (@AmritLalRawal4) April 16, 2019 3. It seems that Mumbai Police have such Officer in service...... Dear sir, you set such a wonderful example for other who are so busy in collection only........ Suniel_Andhale (@andhalesunil) April 18, 2019 4 Very rare these days ..you have kept faith alive in the system ..thank you Mukesh (@mvmaroc) April 16, 2019 5. Gr8 job @MumbaiPolice. Congratulations! And big thank you to Sr.PI Hemant Sawant for this service above and beyond his duty. Keep it up. nitin (@nrawal7) April 16, 2019 6. A little progress each day adds up to big results. Congratulations sr.pi.Hemant Sawant&team Tabrez Shaikh (@TabrezS90864292) April 16, 2019 7. Kudos to Sr PI mr. Hemant Sawant. Superb !! chowkidar rahul (@jaane_do) April 16, 2019 Ali told Hindustan Times that a trip to Mumbai would have cost him Rs 15,000 but Sawant went out of his way and helped him and that he is grateful to the Mumbai Police. We need more people like Sawant in this society! Lok Sabha 2019 elections are underway and people on social media are urging everyone to go and vote. However, many restaurants in Tamil Nadu have found more effective ways to motivate people to vote. According to a report in IANS, Chennai's Clarion Hotel is offering a 50 per cent flat discount on food bills to anyone who's voted in the polls for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 18 Assembly constituencies of Tamil Nadu. AFP We are offering a 50 per cent discount for guests who show the proof of voting. The discount is available for breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet, a hotel official told IANS. The hotel official also added that some eateries in the malls are also offering discounts to voters. Deccan Chronicle On April 18, voters in Tamil Nadu also availed 10% discount on their bill in many restaurants in the state after showing their inked finger and their voter ID card. The Tamil Nadu Hotels Association (TNHA), announced the discount to increase voter turnout. An 81-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly cultivating cannabis on a huge tract of land in Palghar district, Maharashtra on Monday. Is that even legal? NO! The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation said that the accused, Indradev Bajgovind, had been using cannabis (marijuana), for personal consumption, as per the report in Times Of India. Unsplash The police acted on a tip-off and raided the farm in Nevale village, Boisar. The police found nearly 200 plants in the field and seized 905 gm marijuana. "The owner of the land had commissioned the construction of an ashram there and had given the task of running it to Bajgovind. The construction is underway and the accused began growing marijuana," said an officer. What is more interesting is that he said that he was unaware that marijuana is illegal in India. The 81-year-old has been booked under sections 20(a),8(a)(b)(k) of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and remanded in police custody. The investigation is still on and the police said that they will question the land owner. The Indian American IMPACT Fund announced it has endorsed 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. U.S. Senator Harris (D-CA) is seen here speaking during the North American Building Trades Unions Conference at the Washington Hilton April 10, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images) Insurance fraud seems like it might be an easy thing to do. Insurance companies are often so huge, one wonders how they might not even notic... 4 policemen have been attacked by a man who dropped out of college. According to reports, the said man attacked the officers with a kitchen knife and blamed the act on him being high on Indian hemp. The man identified as Alex Traykov, 20, an ex-student at Winchester University, had dialled the emergency line 999 to report a fight he claimed was ongoing at a house in Islington, north London, on October 6, 2018. Yahoo News UK reports that the man then waited with a large kitchen knife, for the police to arrive. The four officers were attacked and sustained several injuries. Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told the court that the officers were not prepared for the extreme violence that they faced. After attacking 3 officers, the 4th officer was able to bring Traykov down by using a taser on him twice. Traykov accepted he did injure the officers but insisted he never meant serious harm. He claimed to have been high on cannabis causing him not to think straight. Judge Wendy Joseph QC speaking on the case said the suspect faces asubstantial prison term. PC Watkins, one of the policemen who had heeded the emergency call, whlei recounting the incident said; When I attended the call that night, it was with the intention of protecting the public, I didnt realise it would in fact be me, and my colleagues, who would be fighting for our lives at the hands of a knife-wielding 19-year-old who had lured us to the address with the intention of carrying out the attack. I have never been subjected to such a violent and determined attack in the entirety of my 16 years of service, and I hope that no other officer ever has to endure such violence. President Muhammadu Buhari received a telephone call from Bill Gates, congratulating him on his victory at the 2019 presidential election. Bashir Ahmad, Buharis aide on New Media made this known in a statement via Twitter on Wednesday. Yesterday night, one of the worlds richest men, Bill Gates called President Buhari to congratulate him on his resounding election victory, winning a second four-year term of office. According to the presidential aide, Mr Gates said he was More than pleased to be associated with Buhari while assuring of his commitment to the success if the administration. Mr Bill Gates said hes happy to be associated with President Buhari, restated his commitment to the success of the administration as well as the progress, prosperity and well-being of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He also expressed willingness to do more for the country. Mr. Bill Gates said hes happy to be associated with President Buhari, restated his commitment to the success of the administration as well as the progress, prosperity and well-being of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He also expressed willingness to do more for the country. When Festus Keyamo, the All Progressives Congress(APC) Presidential Campaign Council for the 2019 Presidential said that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) certificate isnt required for the post of president, many people disagreed. Keyamo had said during a Channels TV programme that in order to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, one doesnt need to a WAEC certificate. The SAN made the statement while dismissing claims that the president doesnt have a WAEC certificate. So is having a WAEC certificate one of the requirements to become president in Nigeria? What the constitution states The 1999 Constitution in Section 131 deals with the educational qualifications required of a person seeking the highest office in the land. A person shall be qualified for election to the office of President, if: He is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; He has attained the age of 40 years; He is a member of a political party He has been educated up to at least school certificate or its equivalent What this section of the constitution refers to a School Certificate or its equivalent as: A Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent or Grade II Teachers Certificate, City and Guilds certificate; or Education up to Secondary School Certificate level; or Primary Six School Leaving certificate or its equivalent and (i) service in the public or private sector in the Federation in any capacity acceptable to the Independent National Electoral Commission for a minimum of ten years and (ii) attendance at courses and training institutions as may be acceptable to the Independent National Electoral Commission for periods totalling up to a minimum of one year, and (iii) the ability to read, write, understand and communicate in the English language to the satisfaction of the Independent National Electoral Commission, and 4. any other qualification acceptable by the Independent National Electoral Commission. This, therefore, means that not owning a WAEC certificate, cannot hinder a person from running for the office of the president in Nigeria says the 1999 constitution (as amended). Spokesman of President Muhammadu Buharis campaign organization, Festus Keyamo (SAN) hailed the president as the friend of that poor a d slayer of corruption. The APC campaign spokesperson said this in a tweet on Wednesday night drawing the attention of Nigerians. However, unlike Keyamo, many Nigerians think Buhari is truly a friend of the poor thats why he has vowed to double the number of Nigerians in other to have more friends. The nightmare of PDP since 2003! The demystifier of old power-blocs! The slayer of the corrupt! The friend of the poor! The one the thieves love to hate! My guy, Keyamo wrote. See post The nightmare of PDP since 2003! The demystifier of old power-blocs! The slayer of the corrupt! The friend of the poor! The one the thieves love to hate! My guy! pic.twitter.com/tIZXTbL0g3 Festus Keyamo, SAN (@fkeyamo) April 17, 2019 The replies from Nigerians @abdulmt99 wrote: The Bringer of poverty The Grandmaster of deception The master of cluelessness The maker of SAN to an agbero The destroyer of Africas Largest Economy @Balatic wrote: The only stark illiterate with a prof as an errand boy The only saintly Abacha protege The only coup plotter that loves democracy The only corruption fighter with Gandollar-type of friends Friend of the poor BH spokesman FH prayer warrior Expert in Nepotism @KingAbsolute wrote; The nightmare of NIGERIA since 2015! The demystifier of DEVELOPMENT! The slayer of the ECONOMY! The friend of the GULLIBLE! The lover of BLOODSHED! The DEAF & DUMB to critical situations! The one the SENSIBLES hate to love! @KingleyMaximo wrote: You forgot to add, the purveyor of poverty . The only man whose integrity only manifests when hunting the opposition, but turns a blind eye to his kinsmen taking bribes in dollars. Oh yes, he is a legendary conman and posterity will judge him accordingly. @ibinwane wrote: He is really a friend of d poor my brother, he has vowed that d poor(his friends) will continue 2 wallows in abject poverty &that more friends will be added to his friends list. Zamfara is bleeding, Plateau is bleeding, Borno, Yobe r bleeding, Abuja-Kaduna exp.way is 4 kidnappers President Muhammadu Buhari has boasted that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has never defeated him in any election in the past or present. According to Lauretta Onochie, Buharis aide on Social Media in a tweet shared via Twitter said the president reveals this in a preliminary objection, which he failed to challenge the competence of a petition that Atiku lodged against his re-election on February 23. In a preliminary objection he filed to challenge the competence of a petition that Atiku lodged against his re-election on February 23, Buhari boasted that he has always defeated the PDP in every past electoral contest. Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and presidential candidate of PDP, had filed a petition at the presidential election tribunal, demanding to be declared the winner of the February 23rd polls As the incumbent president scored lesser votes than him. A young woman has vowed to give the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, a serious fight for detaining her father and his colleagues. According to the lady, her father, and his colleagues(members of Lagos State Polytechnic SSANIP) were invited by the Governor to resolve a conflict bordering on their salaries which were reduced by 30% only to be detained by the governor upon honoring the invitation. She alleged in her tweet that one of the detainees is a woman with a 1-year-old child and the child slept at State Investigation Bureau, SIB, Ikeja. Her tweet: Both my parents are hypertensive @AkinwunmiAmbode I will devote my life to fighting you should anything happen to either of them, and the other 10 people in police custody Gbemisola (@TheGbemisola) April 16, 2019 You people help me beg @AkinwunmiAmbode and Sogunro to release Laspotech SSANIP members they detained since yesterday. I dont know when it became a crime for people to aspire for a better life for themselves and their children Gbemisola (@TheGbemisola) April 16, 2019 Nigerians have taken to their Twitter handle to react to the now-viral news that former chief justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, has been banned from holding public office in the country by the code of conduct tribunal(CCT). The tribunal found him guilty following an accusation of false declaration of assets and money laundering. Reactions: Premeditated judgement. We are not surprised at all, it was expected. Obaino jay (@obaino_jay) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Chab! Hes dead by that time ink! (@khamisnajib) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Insults on top injuries, which public office the man wants hold again? Caleb Adeyeni, ACCA (@Caleb_Adeyeni) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js So this man has finally ruined his career OLAMILEKAN (@Lateefolamilek6) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js How many more years does the old man have to live? Mayorkun (@Olatu125) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js How many more years does the old man have to live? Mayorkun (@Olatu125) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Nigerians have taken to their Twitter handle to fire heavy shots at President Muhammadu Buharis campaign spokesman, Festus Keyamo(SAN), over a comment he shared via his Twitter handle on Wednesday, 17th April, that Buhari is a friend of the poor and the nightmare of PDP since 2003. Festus Keyamos tweet: The nightmare of PDP since 2003! The demystifier of old power-blocs! The slayer of the corrupt! The friend of the poor! The one the thieves love to hate! My guy! pic.twitter.com/tIZXTbL0g3 Festus Keyamo, SAN (@fkeyamo) April 17, 2019 Nigerians Reaction: The only stark illiterate with a prof as errand boy The only saintly Abacha protege The only coup plotter that loves democracy The only corruption fighter with Gandollar-type of friends Friend of the poor BH spokesman FH prayer warrior Expert in Nepotism Hills (@Balatic) April 17, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js When a lawyer starts talking like a runs-boy, you know something is wrong. Engr. Uche Justin Adiele (@iamuchejustin) April 17, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Seeing all the arguments of both APC & INEC over ATIKU will make you understand that APC means, Association Psychiatric Comrades! House Of Hannet (@iretiola80) April 17, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js During GEJ: Petrol = N87/Ltr Fuel Subsidy = N600 Billion Nigerians: GEJ is a thief, GEJ Must Go! Now its PMB: Petrol = N145/Ltr Fuel Subsidy = N2.95 Trillion Nigerians: PMB has integrity he is fighting corruption! fatiu abdulmalik (@AbdulmalikFatiu) April 17, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js How much was fuel before GEJ and were there fuel subsidy before GEJ? Nigeria wasnt good under GEJ biko Fenco (@mrfelixfenco) April 17, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Vanguard The Supreme Court, yesterday, declined to sack Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State from office on the premise that he was not eligible to contest the July 14, 2018, governorship election that he eventually won. The Sun National Coordinator, Pastor for Change, Bishop Kayode Williams, in this interview advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to waste time in constituting his cabinet. Guardian Senate yesterday began the process of overriding President Muhammadu Buharis veto on the budget timeline bill. It arrived at the decision after adopting the report of a technical committee it set up to study bills rejected by the president. Leadership Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has said although he is not afraid to fight, members of the opposition should take advantage of the olive branch he extended to them for the development of the state. The Nation President Muhammadu Buhari has responded to allegations in the petition by Atiku Abubakar and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), before the Presidential Election Tribunal. Daily Trust A Member of the House of Representatives, John Dyegh (APC, Benue), yesterday, formally declared interest to contest for the position of the Speaker of the 9th House. Tribune The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Bill for an Act to phase out petrol vehicles in 2035 and introduce electric cars. Private college Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls has come under massive heat after they took to their official Twitter page to issue a disclaimer about the young lady Lizzy, who was recently saved by Tony Rapu from the clutches of drug addiction and prostitution. Lizzy had revealed that she attended the college before her life went downhill. If you missed the story, read here. Vivian Fowler, not long after Lizzys video went viral, took to Twitter to issue a statement denying that Lizzy ever attended their school. This f course did not go down well with many who immediately took time out to bash the college. Read some of the posts below; A young Nigerian woman, Lizzy(26) has drawn the attention of social media, after a video of her was post on Pastor Tony Rapus page. Lizzy, apparently from a well-to-do home, judging by her primary(Caleb) and secondary school(Vivian Fowler) background was on the brink of self-destruction before help came through the humanitarian pastor. Mr Rapu who picks up drug addicts from the streets and help them overcome their addiction has shared the story of Lizzy, a beggar at the day and a prostitute at night who does these things, just to raise money to fuel her heroin addiction which she got into through an ex-boyfriend. See video Many Nigerians have found it hard to wrap their heads around how a girl from an obviously wealthy home, ended up on the street as a prostitute and a drug addict. Where are her parents, did they ever try to help her, whos to be blamed? These are the many questions, Nigerians are asking. A few reactions How did a parent we who paid this amount of fee at vivian Fowler allow their kid end up in drugs. pic.twitter.com/n7C0v0YwUC Bliss Digital prints (@__blissDigital) April 17, 2019 ''She went to Vivian Fowler'', ''She is from a well to do family''. Heroine and cocaine ain't cheap drugs which makes it a habit that can be cultivated by the wealthy. These drug menace have eaten too deep into the society, how many more Lizzy do we still have out there? Sixty9 (@Ghetto_Overseer) April 17, 2019 Watching that girl that's addicted to Crack and heroine story just made me realise that as a parent you can do your best but your children will still choose their path. She went to Vivian Fowler and Caleb but now she's living on the streets. I'm really really rooting for her. LamLam (@MideMicheals) April 17, 2019 https://twitter.com/RickAnji/status/1118439591340650497?s=19 https://twitter.com/Oluwatomie_ROL/status/1118442413490622466?s=19 Lizzy is so young that i cant hold my self but cry.. Vivian Fowler isn't a poor man's school. But how her parents ignored her, still beats my imagination. Crazy world OMOTOBY (@Tobycriz) April 17, 2019 A fake soldier has been nabbed by the police team in Uvwie local government area of Delta state. The officers were led by the Divisional Police Officer, SP Ibok Asamanyi, to nab the army who had for a while been pretending to be an Army Major. The suspect whose name was given as Blessing Emelor, was arrested, in Warri. Nemesis caught up with him on this fateful day when he gave an unsuspecting junior Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel to shoot almost causing the loss of life of a passerby. The incident was immediately reported causing police authority to arrest the suspect. ASP Chuks Orisewezie, the states police spokesman via a statement revealed that for 3 years, the suspect had to fake his status as an army officer. The suspect has since confessed to the crime and is now being held at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Asaba. He will aslo be charged to court soon. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN) and spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), presidential campaign organization has hailed the president as the friend of the poor and slayer of the corrupt. The APC spokesperson said this in a tweet on Wednesday night. Keyamo in his eulogy described Buhari as the demystifier of old power-blocs as well as the one the thieves love to hate And one who has troubled the former ruling party now opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), since 2003. The nightmare of PDP since 2003! The demystifier of old power-blocs! The slayer of the corrupt! The friend of the poor! The one the thieves love to hate! My guy! See tweet The nightmare of PDP since 2003! The demystifier of old power-blocs! The slayer of the corrupt! The friend of the poor! The one the thieves love to hate! My guy! pic.twitter.com/tIZXTbL0g3 Festus Keyamo, SAN (@fkeyamo) April 17, 2019 This earned the SAN quite a number of backlash from Nigerians, that share opposing views. This comes barely a week after the campaign spokesperson said Buhari doesnt need a West African Examination Council(WAEC) certificate to become president according to the constitution. A statement which equally whipped up a storm and earned him severe criticisms. #EndSars convener, Segun Awosanya popularly known as Segalink has narrated how a Nigerian man is full of regrets for returning to Nigeria, after his encounter with Customs officers at the international airport in Lagos. According to Segalink, the man has not been in Nigeria for many years and had returned to marry his fiancee. The problem, however, started with the customs officers because of the Samsung phone he bought for his wife to be when he got to the airport The Customs officers descended on him, asking for a N200,000 duty fee for the phone, and have delayed him, since then. See statement So this citizen after spending years abroad finally came home to marry. He managed to buy a Samsung phone as a gift for his would-be wife but as soon as he landed at Lagos international airport, the Customs officers pounced on him & demanded to be paid N200K duty for the phone The young man is regretting ever returning to Nigeria as we speak. He was bound to leave for ENUGU but has been delayed for hours since he landed because they want to rob him under the guise that travellers have money to spare. One Phone is the excuse this time. Please for your information, even if he was bringing in 10 units of such phones that are already opened to show that they are gifts and not for sale there shouldnt be any customs duty on these items. I have asked that he demands to know the supervisor and also see the tariff. The supervising custom officer stormed out leaving an instruction that the younger officer MUST obtain N200k or at least N150k from the guy they have now successfully frustrated. Ive told them to make a video of this armed robbery upon entry. We are demonically wicked in Nigeria! Switch the Market flag Open the menu and switch the Market flag for targeted data from your country of choice. for targeted data from your country of choice. The insurance package, known as The Makeover Care, addresses the general concerns of property owners and seeks to provide protection for their rental homes and contents, avoiding the risks traditionally borne by the owners, the firms said in a joint statement. The Makeover Care covers damages to the content built and supplied by The Makeover Guys, including damages caused by tenants negligence, misconduct, or malicious intent. The coverage will kick in even if theres a documented tenancy agreement and rental deposit. Owners of properties in the Klang Valley region who engage The Makeover Guys to remodel their rental property will receive free home content insurance underwritten by Zurich, upon completion of the renovation. The offer will become available in other regions where The Makeover Guys operate, beginning May. Former customers of The Makeover Guys can also apply for insurance. According to Zurich, the partnership is part of its ongoing efforts to provide customers with innovative solutions to meet their evolving needs. Were always exploring out-of-the-box opportunities that would benefit our customers and better secure what they value, said Junior Cho, senior vice president and head of market management, Zurich Malaysia. We understand that any property purchase is a major investment and its important that the property and its contents are well protected. We are confident The Makeover Guys will pave the way for customers to obtain holistic solutions for their property investments right from the start. Two New York state contractors were arrested on charges they filed fraudulent applications for a roofing project in Amsterdam, N.Y., as part of a workers compensation fraud scheme. Jose A. Sanchez, owner of Sanchez Partners Construction, was charged with offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, a felony, and the workers compensation crime of failure to secure compensation, a misdemeanor. Leroy E. Nelson, owner of JRN Construction, was charged with offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, a felony. An investigation by Catherine Leahy Scott, New York state workers compensation fraud inspector general, found that in late October and November 2018, the City of Amsterdam Engineering Department Division of Building and Zoning Enforcement issued stop work orders for a residential roofing project on Pulaski Street for lack of a building permit. On December 5, 2018, Sanchez applied for a building permit from the city and submitted a document indicating he had no employees and therefore was not required to purchase workers compensation insurance. The investigation determined Sanchez actually had several employees working on the roofing project and New York state law requires employers to provide workers compensation insurance for any employees they hire. Subsequent to Sanchez being denied a permit by the city, Nelson applied for a permit for the same project on Dec. 6, 2018, indicating his company, which has workers compensation insurance, would perform the work. The investigation determined Sanchezs company instead continued to perform the work on the roof and Nelsons company was not involved with the project. Separately, in 2016, Nelson pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a forged instrument, a falsified workers compensation certificate of insurance. These two contractors, one of whom with a recent history of fraud, chose a course of deception over honest business practices, said Leahy Scott in a press release issued by her office. My office and our local and state enforcement partners will not tolerate any corruption of a critical benefits program meant to protect honest hard-working employees. Sanchez and Nelson were both arraigned in the Amsterdam City Court and released on their own recognizance pending their reappearance in court on May 29, 2019. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Source: New York State Offices of the Inspector General Topics Workers' Compensation Fraud Talent New York Contractors Vermont state and local officials are assessing damage from flooding caused by heavy rains and snowmelt that led to road closures, some evacuations and a rescue from a flooded parking lot. Some roads remained closed Tuesday, but most of the water had receded. No injuries were reported. Among the hardest hit areas Sunday night and Monday were along the White River in Bethel and Stockbridge, in the Londonderry area and along the Otter Creek in Rutland County, said Mark Bosma, a spokesman for Vermont Emergency Management. If the damage reaches a certain threshold, the state could apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster assistance Oh it was crazy, Herb Kuendig, an emergency management coordinator for the town of Pittsfield, told NECN-TV. It just happened so quickly over the night, he said. No one realized what was going on until the morning. A snowboarder from Niagara Falls, New York, slept in his vehicle in a parking lot in Killington overnight and awoke to rising waters, police said. He had planned to snowboard at Killington Resort Monday. He heard the rain overnight but didnt realize the flooding until it was too late, police said. Emergency crews rescued him by boat. The flooding marked the first time since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 that floodwaters from the White River rose onto Route 107 in the Bethel-Stockbridge area, the Transportation Agencys Ernie Patnoe said Tuesday. The 2011 flooding destroyed much of the major east-west highway in the area. It was rebuilt in 119 days and constructed to withstand future flooding. Patnoe said the highway passed its first test. The roadway performed as expected and received no significant damage, he said. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Flood With insurers shouldering a record $160 billion in climate-related losses from last year alone, a group including 30 central banks called for measures to spur green finance and better assessment of the risks from higher global temperatures. The move led by the Bank of France, Bank of England and Peoples Bank of China draws the group deeper into a controversial area of policy-making where they advocate funding for alternatives to fossil fuels. They set out a road-map for authorities to use in prodding executives and investment funds to weigh up the impact global warming will have on portfolios. The U.S. Federal Reserve and Banco do Brasil were the most prominent institutions not involved in the initiative, reflecting doubt about climate science voiced by Presidents Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. For the central banks involved, which represent most of the worlds biggest monetary policy makers, the need for action is increasingly pressing. A transition to a green, low-carbon economy is not a niche nor is it a nice to have for the happy few, Frank Elderson, executive director of the Dutch Central Bank, wrote in a foreward to the paper released by the group on Wednesday. There is no alternative. The report by the banks participating in the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System, or NGFS, builds on work done in the past few years by BOE Governor Mark Carney and Francois Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Bank of France. It makes recommendations for how central banks and financial services regulators should act. These include: Injecting climate-related risks into the monitoring of broader financial stability and threats to the banking system. Using sustainability criteria to shape the portfolios of assets maintained by central banks. Identifying areas where more data is needed to describe threats coming from environmental issues. Prodding financial market participants to better disclose climate-related risks, an effort that builds on the Group of 20 nations Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosure, known as TCFD. Developing a taxonomy of economic activities, or a common vocabulary for policy makers and companies to use in assessing climate-related impact on finance. The measures are aimed at building awareness about the potential losses as global temperatures increase, making storms more powerful and weather less predictable. Its also seeking to encourage funding for greener projects that would reduce emissions and make renewables more affordable. If some companies and industries fail to adjust to this new world, they will fail to exist, Carney and Villeroy said in a Guardian newspaper article on Wednesday. They warned that a massive reallocation of capital was necessary to prevent global warming, with the banking system playing a pivotal role. The report marks the first time that such a large group of central banks has set out the links between rising temperatures and risk to the economy. It pointed to research done both by academics and financial institutions quantifying the threat and said climate change is a source of financial risk that falls well within the mandate of central banks and regulators. One notable finding attributed to Munich Re showed annual costs for natural disasters topped the 30-year average of $140 billion in seven of the past 10 years and that the number of extreme weather events since 1980 has tripled. These recommendations are aimed at inspiring central banks and supervisors to take the necessary measures to foster a greener financial system, Elderson wrote. We need to take action, and we cannot and will not do this alone. The NGFS was formed at French President Emmanuel Macrons One Planet Summit in December 2017, an event that marked a contrast to resistance by the U.S. under Trump to addressing climate change. With the U.S. reluctant to discuss the issue, work by the G-20 and TCFD stalled. Villeroy proposed the NGFS as a coalition of the willing central banks to press forward on the issue. China has been a key participant. Its institutions have issued more than $100 billion in green bonds from 2016 to 2018, making it one of the biggest markets for the securities in the world. The NGFS report said green loans held by the 21 largest commercial banks in China reached 8.23 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion) in 2018, accounting for 10 percent of their aggregate loan balance. Chinese authorities were first to set down definitions for green loans and green bonds, the report said. Related: Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics USA Climate Change China Everest Insurance Ireland, dac (EIID), a part of the Everest Insurance international platform, has opened a branch office in the United Kingdom. EIID was established in 2017 and is led by CEO Linda Ryan, who manages the strategy and operational development of the company. Ryan previously held the title of EIID chief financial officer. The UK branch is authorized to write general insurance classes including Goods in Transit, Fire and Natural Forces, Damage to Property, General Liability, Credit, Surety-ship and Miscellaneous Financial Loss. After a successful launch in Dublin, we are looking forward to expanding to the United Kingdom, said Ryan. We are confident that our innovative products, flexibility and knowledgeable underwriters will be a great asset to our new United Kingdom clients. This is an important step as Everest continues to expand our international capabilities, commented Everest Insurance International CEO Vincent Vandendael. The United Kingdom is a strategic choice and a logical location for our next branch. Were intent to prove ourselves a valuable asset to the UK insurance community. Source: Everest Re Group, Ltd. Topics Uk Daimler AG and BMW AGs joint car-sharing and mobility business has suspended service in Chicago after a fraud incident. Some vehicles may have been rented using deceptive means through Share Nows mobile app, according to the Chicago Police Department. Multiple vehicles have been recovered, and persons of interest are being questioned, Luis Agostini, a Chicago police spokesman, said in an email. As many as 100 Mercedes and other high-end cars were missing or stolen, and many were being used to commit crimes, Brad Edwards, a CBS Chicago reporter, wrote earlier Wednesday on Twitter, citing unidentified sources. Mike Silverman, a Share Now spokesman, declined to comment on details of the incident due to there being an ongoing police investigation. The Share Now service, formed when Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler and BMW combined their Car2Go and DriveNow businesses earlier this year, wasnt hacked, Silverman said. The company is working with law enforcement to address the issue, which is isolated to Chicago. While members personal information hasnt been compromised, its pausing service out of precaution. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Auto Fraud Authorities in several states are warning about an alleged scam in which people visit senior-living communities and low-income neighborhoods, offering to perform DNA tests and collecting information from people in government health programs. The alleged DNA-testing scams appear to be a new twist on an old tactic, in which people are tricked into giving away personal information or participating in medical services they dont need. Perpetrators of such schemes can bill the government for unneeded medical tests and procedures, or use the information they collect such as Medicare and Medicaid identification data to commit identity theft and fraud. In Kentucky, Attorney General Andy Beshears office said this month that Louisville residents had reported people operating out of a van and offering to pay Medicaid recipients $20 for DNA swabs and their health insurance information. In Nebraska, the state insurance commissioners office said it had heard of questionable DNA swabbing in several communities. It warned on March 27 that it had received multiple reports of groups going to senior living communities, assisted living communities and senior centers offering to swab the cheeks of seniors for genetic material purportedly for DNA checks for cancer. Paying people to participate in medical tests and services would likely violate federal anti-kickback laws meant to stop fraud and abuse at government programs. Its not clear who is behind the reported activity in Kentucky and Nebraska, whether its an organized group or individuals acting alone, and whether it is still ongoing. The alleged scam follows an announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid last year that Medicare would cover genetic evaluation of cancer by FDA-approved tests. It also may capitalize on a growing awareness of popular consumer-marketed genetic tests where people can find out about their ancestry or learn some basic health information. Medicare Fraud Fraud is a significant problem in government health-care programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which cover tens of millions of elderly and low-income people. Since 2007, a Medicare fraud task force has filed more than 1,600 cases against almost 3,500 defendants in Florida, New York, California and other states who are alleged to have fraudulently billed Medicare more than $13 billion, according to a 2018 report by the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the programs for the federal government, declined to comment. In Louisville, DNA swabbers have falsely represented themselves as affiliated with a local Medicaid insurer, Passport Health Plan, setting up in low-income neighborhoods and giving people cash in exchange for DNA swabs, City Councilwoman Barbara Sexton Smith said in a telephone interview. They set up in the most impoverished, predominantly black area in our community, said Sexton Smith. They are preying on poor people. Sexton Smith provided Bloomberg with copies of business cards and fliers promoting the DNA tests that she said were shared by people who were concerned. She said she had been in contact with the state attorney generals office and law enforcement. Its not clear if people ever got a DNA test result back after giving samples, or what their information was or wasnt used for. A business card Sexton Smith said was obtained from one of the testing locations shared listed a company named Freedom Medical, along with a website and phone number. The website didnt work when checked this week, and no one answered or returned calls to the Washington, D.C., area code number listed on the card. Sexton Smith also shared a screenshot of a Facebook post urging Passport Health insurance clients to visit the intersection of Preston and Breckenridge streets for free cancer screenings and $20. Another post on Facebook advertised a similar service, mentioning the name of a company called Genexe Health in the post. David Palladino, Genexes general counsel, said in an email that it was aware of attempts to misuse the companys name, that it wasnt associated with any of the activities described, and that it doesnt operate in Louisville. Genexe categorically denies any/all involvement with any of the activities represented/referenced, Palladino said. Palladino said the company takes multiple steps to combat fraud, and that the people described in the Louisville area are completely unaffiliated with Genexe. Passport Health said the people allegedly collecting DNA and patient information werent associated with the insurer. An April 1 news report by Louisville television station Wave3 shows people at a card table paying residents money in return for what appear to be cheek swabs, operating out of a white van. Passport Health Plan is in no way affiliated with this activity and we urge caution for anyone who may come into contact with them, Ben Adkins, a spokesman for the insurer, said in an email to Bloomberg News. Adkins said Passport had contacted local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A representative for the local FBI office declined to comment. In Nebraska, Department of Insurance Director Bruce Ramge said in a statement emailed by a spokeswoman that his agency had forwarded reports of questionable DNA swabbing to federal officials, since Medicare dollars may have been spent for payment of the swabbing. In response to a public records request, the state declined to provide records of reports, saying it will not provide information or documents that are part of investigations. Ramge said in the emailed statement that his department was also concerned about people being improperly billed for the tests. This may be a scam and should be avoided, the department said in the March warning notice. Want more news about the future of health care? Sign up here for Bloombergs Prognosis newsletter to get great stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Fraud Nebraska Bill Cosbys insurance company has settled another lawsuit filed by a female accuser a week before the imprisoned comedian was set to give a deposition in the case, prompting Cosby to call the insurer complicit in a scheme to destroy him. Former model Chloe Goins had accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her at a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 2008, when she was about 18. Cosby in a statement Tuesday accused American International Group Inc. of egregious behavior in settling what he called a frivolous suit, and said he could prove he was in New York at the time. Goins lawsuit was filed in state court in Los Angeles. Goins lawyers, Craig Goldenfarb and Spencer Kuvin, said their client was pleased with the confidential settlement. An AIG spokesman said the insurer had no comment. Mr. Cosbys legal team provided medical records, which showed that Mr. Cosby had undergone eye surgery and was in New York, recuperating at his home, at the time of the alleged events, he said in the statement, issued by spokesman Andrew Wyatt. Cosby, 81 is serving a three- to 10-year prison term after a Pennsylvania jury last year found he drugged and molested a woman who worked at his alma mater, Temple University, in 2004. Earlier this month, AIG settled defamation lawsuits filed by seven other Cosby accusers in Massachusetts, after losing a legal battle over their duty to defend Cosby in those cases. Cosby had at least $37 million in insurance coverage through AIG, including two $1 million homeowners policies and a $35 million umbrella policy protecting him from personal injury or property damage claims. AIG argued that the policies did not cover sexual misconduct claims. However, a federal appeals court, in a 2018 decision written by former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who was filling in on the court, said the defamation claims were distinct from the sexual misconduct claims underlying them, and must be covered. The Massachusetts plaintiffs said Cosby and his agents had labeled them liars in public comments denying their accusations. AIG declined to comment Tuesday on its decision to settle the lawsuits or on Cosbys ire. Cosby, in the statement, called AIG complicit in this scheme to destroy me and my family. I can only imagine how terribly theyre treating their policyholders, who dont have my means and my resource, Cosby said in the statement. The settlements largely bring a close to what was once a dizzying spate of litigation involving sexual misconduct and defamation accusations lodged against Cosby around the country. There are now two claims remaining in California filed by accusers Judith Huth and Janice Dickinson, Wyatt said. Cosby is appealing his conviction in the Pennsylvania criminal case, insisting the encounter with Andrea Constand was consensual. He had settled a civil lawsuit she filed in 2006, and was arrested nearly a decade later, after a deposition he gave in the case was unsealed, prompting prosecutors to reopen the criminal case. Los Angeles police investigated Goins claims, but said she had come forward months after the six-year statute of limitations ran out. She initially filed the lawsuit against both Cosby and Playboy Mansion owner Hugh Hefner, but Hefner was dismissed from the case before he died in 2017. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are sexual assault victims unless they give their permission, which the Cosby accusers have done. Photo credit: Bill Cosby, AP Photo/Matt Rourke Related: Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Carriers AIG If youre among those who regard environmental, social and governance as just another in a long line of trendy buzz-phrases, then you may want to rethink. ESG standards, which companies use to highlight operations that interest socially conscious investors, will now be officially evaluated and measured by S&P Global Ratings. The ratings giant on April 11 announced the roll out of its ESG Evaluation, describing it as a new benchmark that provides a cross-sector, relative analysis of an entitys capacity to operate successfully in the future. According to S&P, the ratings are based on how ESG factors could impact a companys stakeholders and potentially lead to a material financial impact. The ESG Evaluation is a separate product from credit ratings and will be conducted at the request of the companies themselves, according to Mike Ferguson, director of sustainable finance for S&P Global Ratings. He said to expect the first of the evaluations to be released soon. Theres a lot of interest in this space to be sure, Ferguson said. Assets invested in line with ESG-related strategies reached $30 trillion last year, according to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance. A recent study from BNP Paribas Securities Services shows 90 percent of respondents predicting that more than a quarter of their funds will be allocated towards ESG by 2021. That interest may be driven by socially conscientious investors and consumers who are in part worried about climate change, what can be done about it and what global warming will do to the worlds business climate. The scientific consensus is the physical risks of climate change have grown over time, Ferguson said. He noted that the scientific community and others in recent years have amplified their calls for regulators to take more immediate action, thus creating more risk for companies that are, for example, heavily invested in fossil fuels. One group of climate change activists recently submitted a petition to Californias insurance commissioner urging him to place new regulations on insurers to disclose what projects in the fossil fuel industry they underwrite. ESG Evaluation scores will rank from 1-100, with ratings holding the same weight despite the industry in which a company exists a score of 88, for example, would mean the same for a copper miner in Chile, a utility in the U.S. or a financial institution in Japan. The scores in part will be based on engagement with a companys management team, according to Ferguson. The evaluation is currently available for entities in the corporate, infrastructure and selected public finance sectors (transportation and power), and over the next few months S&P says it expects to roll out evaluations for banks, asset managers, multilateral institutions, public healthcare, water and sewer entities. Next in line after those sectors are insurance, social housing, schools and education sectors, according to S&P. Ferguson said insurance is a bit further down the line because of the large amounts of data to look at. S&P has to pore over the large, long-term investments insurers and reinsurers make, as well as the reams of underwriting data to examine. That exposure, if I was looking at a utility, would be very direct, he explained. Its not as direct or as obvious when were looking at an insurance company, so its an indirect exposure. Along with the evaluation S&P Global Ratings launched its ESG Risk Atlas, an online infographic that charts exposure to environmental and social risk for more than 30 sectors. It also incorporates exposure to natural disasters, corporate governance standards and ESG-related regulations. The Atlas comprises a Sector Risk and a Country Risk component. Sector Risk highlights the relative environmental and social exposures of a comprehensive range of business sectors, while Country Risk considers corporate governance standards, regulations, and exposure to natural disasters in various countries or regions. Ferguson said the new ESG Evaluation will answer the needs of not just investors and society, but also the companies themselves. There has been a market change in the level of interest in ESG in the companies we evaluate, he said. Its almost uniformly become important to management teams. Past columns: Topics California Trends Legislation Climate Change Pollution Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 18) Candidates for the upcoming elections would have to put their campaigning on hold for the next 48 hours, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reminded. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez tweeted on Wednesday that campaigning is strictly prohibited from Maundy Thursday to Good Friday. This includes caravans, motorcades, public speeches, rallies and distribution of pamphlets. Violators can face imprisonment for one up to six years, disqualification from holding public office and deprivation of their right to vote as stated in the Omnibus Election Code. Jimenez earlier said the public may report violations to Comelec online by providing photographic evidence of the offense. A bill the Florida insurance industry says will help reign in assignment of benefits abuse that is plaguing the state and raising insurance costs has passed its final committee in the Florida Senate and is now headed to the full Senate floor for debate. The Florida Senate Rules Committee passed SB 122 on Wednesday, inching AOB reform one step closer to being a reality after seven years of failed attempts by the Florida Legislature. Year after year we have watched the AOB crisis negatively impact our consumers many of which are recovering from hurricanes. Now, more than ever, is the time to pass meaningful reform so we can protect consumers and start recovering from years of compounding abuse, Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier said in a statement Wednesday. The advancement of SB 122 is a significant step towards protecting Floridians from future AOB abuse. The Senate bill, introduced by Senator Doug Broxson, is now identical to Florida House Bill 7065, which passed that chamber last week. This is a great development. For the first time in nearly seven years we are poised for final passage of meaningful AOB reform. The bill will directly address cost drivers that are pushing up rates by reducing AOB abuse and fraud. Florida consumers will benefit, and the insurance market will be healthier as a result, said Michael Carlson, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of Florida (PIFF). The bill includes certain consumer protection provisions such as rescission and emergency services sublimit provisions, and creates a new rate filing requirement for Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which has filed rate increases for the last several years that it has largely blamed on AOB. Barry Gilway, CEO, president and executive director of Citizens, said after HB 7065 passed the Florida House that AOB reform enacted this year would allow the insurer to reassess its 2019 rate recommendations now pending before the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. While not providing immediate premium reductions to all Citizens policyholders, the legislation would go a long way toward stabilizing rates and shortening the time it takes for Citizens to provide rate reductions to its policyholders, Gilway said last week. But most importantly to the industry, the two bills address Floridas one-way attorney fee statute that the insurance and consumer advocates say is fueling the abuse. The statute would be revised to incorporate an attorney fee structure in determining the fee amount awarded in suits by an assignee against an insurer. Service providers would also now be required to give an insurer and the consumer prior written notice of at least 10 business days before filing suit on a claim. SB 122/HB 7065 also allow insurance companies to offer a residential or commercial property insurance policy or comprehensive or combined additional coverage motor vehicle insurance policy restricting, in whole or in part, the assignment of post-loss benefits under certain circumstances. This is a big step forward for consumers, said Edie Ousley, vice president of public affairs for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which spearheads the Consumer Protection Coalition. We are extremely grateful that members of the Senate Rules Committee took a stand against AOB abuse and the harmful impact it is having on Floridas consumers. We hope this vote sends a signal to the entire Legislature that the status quo is no longer acceptable and something must be done to stop unscrupulous vendors from using AOB to boost their profits at the expense of hardworking Floridians. AOB reform for auto glass another facet of AOB abuse that has been increasing was included in a prior version of the Senate bill but was removed to match the House bill. Industry advocates, including the CPC and APCIA, have encouraged lawmakers to include auto glass in the final legislation. Addressing AOB abuse is vital to putting a stop to the number of AOB lawsuits filed in Florida, which are only growing steeper with each passing year and resulting in higher insurance costs, said Logan McFaddin, APCIA regional manager of State Government Affairs. The time is now to end AOB abuse for Floridians. We look forward to working with our elected officials as this good public policy readies for the Senate floor to ensure Florida home and business owners alike are protected from bad actors who are taking advantage of them and our legal system just to put more money in their own pockets. The full Senate is likely to debate the bill next week. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not indicated if he would sign this particular legislation if it passes but has said he would like to see AOB reform passed this year. The 2019 Florida Legislative Session ends on May 3. Elizabeth Blosfield contributed to this report. Topics Legislation Florida Politics wall-street-320x215 The worlds biggest private equity fund has announced plans to become a C corporation as part of a bold new strategy to bolster its stock market valuation. But the first funds to make this move were Ares Management and KKR. The two companies restructured in 2018 to eliminate the deterrent of filing tax returns for investors. We believe the decision to convert will make it significantly easier for both domestic and international investors to own our stock and should drive greater value for all of our shareholders over time, said Stephen Schwarzman, founder of Blackstone. The profits of certain partnership models are taxed at the point of distribution, rather than as corporate income. As a result, the partnership model has traditionally offered a way of keeping taxes lower on such earnings. Investors would put up the cash to help fund operations in exchange for quarterly returns. Such arrangements generally allow entities to pay higher sums at a lower tax rate, but these rewards mean investors must file a 30-page form for the IRS every year. So, many institutional investors avoid partnerships for the sake of convenience. Although the conversion will be effective as of July 1, Blackstone has already seen its share price climb 8.4 percent to $38.95 in pre-market New York trading. If this is anything to go by, the group may have placed its bets well. Why Blackstone has gone for a higher tax rate The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) may have made doing business in the US cheaper as a corporation than ever before, but it was still much more tax-efficient to operate as a partnership. Blackstone may have made its decisions having watched the market for a year. KKR converted from a master limited partnership (MLP) to a corporation on July 1 2018. The company has estimated that it will pay 7% on its income as a result, and the rate will gradually rise to 22% over the next five years. This is after paying 2.8% in US tax in the first quarter of 2018. KKR CEOs Henry Kravis and George Roberts claimed that the conversion was designed to broaden our investor base, simplify our structure and make it easier to invest in our shares. Wall Street tax advisor Robert Willens told International Tax Reviewat the time: A lot of institutional investors were loath to invest in MLPs because it would create more tax headaches. The short-term costs of a massive restructuring of your operations would not be justifiable if the tax structure is not there in the long term and the company wont benefit, he warned. While the corporate tax rate cut from 35% to 21% helped KKR make its decision, the risks might outweigh the rewards for some companies. However, investors responded well to the decision in the case of KKR. The companys shares jumped 8.5% after its conversion went ahead. Apollo, Blackstone and Carlyle watched the move closely. It was clear investors were happy to invest in such a fund once the onerous tax filings associated with the partnership model were out of the way. Blackstone said it was considering its future status in its 10- K filing last month. The company acknowledged that it might have to adopt a new structure if US law changes and the tax advantage of partnerships becomes void. Past legislative proposals would treat certain publically traded partnerships as corporations for federal income tax purposes, Blackstone said on March 1. If similar legislation were enacted and applied to us, we would not qualify as a partnership for US federal income tax purposes. If we were taxed as a corporation our effective tax rate could increase significantly, the company added. Even with more than $500 billion in assets under its management, Blackstone had an effective tax rate of 7.1% in 2018, up from 5.6% in 2016. The group saw its effective rate spike in 2017 after US tax reform first came into force. The partially offset damage was 18%. The exact impact of the [TCJA] is difficult to quantify, but these changes could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition, Blackstone said. The company has plenty of reason to worry about the future of the US tax system. Congress still could still introduce measures to raise the corporate rate, limit interest deductions and raise taxes on carried interest. Nevertheless, this restructure suggests Blackstone is willing to put aside such concerns, at least for the short-term. The material on this site is for financial institutions, professional investors and their professional advisers. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQ. Share this article DENVER - April 17, 2019 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. (OTCQX: MDCL) ("Medicine Man Technologies" or "Company"), a rapidly growing, vertically integrated cannabis operator, today announced its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2018. In addition, the Company will host a 2018 year-end conference call to discuss its financial results and business developments on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 4:15 p.m. ET. During the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company generated operating revenues of $9,442,555, an increase of approximately 168%, compared to revenues of $3,529,584 in the year ended December 31, 2017. Revenues for the year ended 2018 included a one-time consideration for an intellectual property license agreement with Abba Medix Corp. (AMC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly-traded Canada House Wellness Group, Inc. (CHV) for $1.15 million in cash. Other income for 2018 increased to $573,875, compared to $145,222 in 2017. The increase in the Company's overall revenue was driven by an increase in new clients, and new states adopting cannabis legislation and initiatives. Other factors driving the Company's overall revenue was due to an increase in new clients, providing additional services to existing clients, and expanding its geographic footprint by entering into strategic licensing agreements to offer services to new markets with established companies in those areas. The Company reported cost of goods and services totaling $6,865,045 during the year ended December 31, 2018. This is compared to $2,227,303 during the same time period in 2017. The increase is primarily due to an increase in overall product sales volume. Gross profit during the year ended December 31, 2018, increased 208% to $6,865,045 from $2,227,303 for the year ended December 30, 2017. Operating expenses during 2018 decreased by 37% to $4,694,704 from $7,463,253 during 2017, due primarily to stock compensation. The Company reported income from operations of $2,170,341 for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to a net loss of $5,235,950 for the year ended December 31, 2017. The Company's current assets increased significantly, by 149%, for the year ended December 31, 2018, to $3,449,231 from $1,384,687 during the same time period in 2017. The Company expects to continue exploring the deployment of additional capital to accomplish its corporate goals and initiatives. "This is a pivotal year for the Company as we continue to work towards the next phase of our growth strategy," said Mr. Andy Williams, Co-Founder and CEO of Medicine Man Technologies. "In 2018, we invested in our corporate strategy and expanded from being a first mover in the cannabis industry to becoming a major, vertically integrated cannabis brand servicing domestic and foreign markets. Our appointment of our new COO, Joe Puglise, has allowed us to remain efficient and effective as we expand our footprint further and enter into new verticals. Today we are proud to say that we have been able to successfully utilize our expertise and intellectual property to integrate research, retail, cultivation, formulation and distribution operations with active and past clients in 18 states and seven countries. Our focus now is to leverage the entire management and leadership experience as we continue to further develop our growth strategies with the two pending acquisitions of Medicine Man Denver and MedPharm Holdings, LLC, expected to close in late 2019 or Q1 2020, in which post-acquisition is expected to generate a minimum of a $40+ million-a-year run rate." 2018 Year End Conference Call and Update on Business Developments The Company will host a conference call on Thursday, April 25, 2019, after market close at 4:15 p.m. ET. Investors interested in participating in the call can dial 1-877-407-8293 or 1-201-689-8349 (international). Investors are invited to listen via webcast available on the Medicine Man Technologies Investor page of the Company's website at https://ir.medicinemantechnologies.com/. Please visit the website 15 minutes prior to the call to register, download and install any necessary audio software. For interested individuals unable to join the conference call, a replay of the call will be available through May 5, 2019, at 1-877-660-6853 (U.S. toll-free) or 1-201-612-7415 (international). Participants must use the following code to access the call replay: 13690091. The online archive of the webcast will be available on the investor page of the Company's website for two weeks following the call. Chief Executive Officer, Andy Williams will be joined by Chief Operating Officer, Joe Puglise, and Chairman of the Board, Paul Dickman to answer questions during the call. Should participants have any questions prior to the conference call, please send an email to ir@medicinemantechnologies.com with "MDCL Question" in the subject line. For more information about Medicine Man Technologies, please visit https://www.medicinemantechnologies.com/ About Medicine Man Technologies Medicine Man Technologies is a fully integrated operator in the cannabis industry, offering consulting, cultivation supplies and equipment, retail pharma-grade products, and turnkey solutions for cannabis producers, processors, and retailers for nearly a decade. Medicine Man Technologies is leveraging its expertise and intellectual property to vertically integrate retail, cultivation, formulation and distribution operations. The Company's client portfolio includes active and past clients in 18 states and seven countries. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "intends," "may," "will," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "predicts," "estimates," "aims," "believes," "hopes," "potential," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on certain assumptions, and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and cannot be predicted or quantified. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own or in collaboration with third parties; (ii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iii) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (iv) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; and (v) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Investor Relations Contact: ir@medicinemantechnologies.com 1-866-348-1997 SOURCE Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp HOUSTON - April 18, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Companies that go public on the stock market provide an economic boost to the local communities where they're based, according to new research from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business. Image courtesy 123rf.com/Rice University After businesses file for an initial public offering (IPO), ZIP codes close to the company's headquarters see certain home prices and consumer spending rise, according to researchers led by Alexander Butler, professor of finance at the Jones School. New businesses and new jobs are also created in those areas, they found. "An IPO doesn't create a new company," Butler said. "It does, however, generate significant liquidity for the firm, for employees and for other shareholders who go forth into the community to spend their new cash." For the study, "Local Economic Spillover Effects of Stock Market Listings," researchers looked at 1,365 ZIP codes in which at least one company filed for an IPO between 1998 and 2015. They also identified ZIP codes that were 2 miles, 5 miles and 10 miles from a newly public company's headquarters. The team determined that the listing decision, rather than actual raising of capital, boosts local labor markets, business environments, consumer spending and real estate. "Investors' wealth also rises if a firm's stock price climbs after listing, as does a firm's wealth as it raises new capital," Butler said. To reach their conclusions, the researchers compared their selected ZIP codes to other ZIP codes in the same county using a matching process to compare "apples to apples." They compared figures such as changes in home prices, the number of new mortgages, ZIP code business patterns, credit card spending, and income and wages for the two years following an IPO. Analyzing this data, they found that when a company goes on the stock market, each $10 million in proceeds leads to an extra 0.7 new businesses in the surrounding area and 41 new local jobs. And while the price of expensive homes in the new public company's ZIP code didn't increase, the prices of expensive homes in other ZIP codes within 2 miles of headquarters did rise by $3,900 for the average home valued at $590,000. Prices were also higher in ZIP codes 2 to 5 miles away from headquarters, but less so. IPOs are not all good news for communities. The study also found IPO activity increases the odds that middle-to-lower-income residents may have to move to lower-income ZIP codes. In the years following Facebook's IPO, for example, workers in the San Francisco Bay Area such as police officers, teachers and firefighters were priced out of the housing market and relegated to long commutes to work. Researchers found the growth of home prices gets a boost after the lockup period ends and shareholders can sell their stock, supporting the hypothesis that changes in investor liquidity cause that spillover. Further evidence of this came when they found that home prices climb even more when a firm's stock price jumps after the IPO. Ioannis Spyridopoulos, assistant professor of finance at American University's Kogod School of Business and co-author of the study, said he and his colleagues are doing this work is, in part, to raise awareness of the positive side of finance. "People have this demonized view of finance," Spyridopoulos said. "They see and remember financial scandals. They think that finance is only about speculating and making profit in the short run, but they forget that finance is more than that. We need a well-functioning financial system. We need to have a functioning stock market that people trust and benefit from selling their stock quickly at a fair price. Our work shows why this liquidity is so important, by documenting positive economic effects in communities where people become flush with liquidity after their firms get listed in the stock market. "It is an important reason why the U.S. is the best economy in the world," Spyridopoulos said. "We have the most developed financial system and a very good framework to protect it." The study, which will be published in an upcoming print edition of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, did not receive external funding. It was co-authored by Larry Fauver, associate professor of finance at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7. Rice also has a university backdrop, 1080p web cam, light kit and wireless mic for Skype interviews. For more information or to set up an interview, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327. For more insights from and information about Rice Business faculty research, visit the school's Rice Business Wisdom online ideas magazine at https://business.rice.edu/wisdom. The study can be found online here. This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/. Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews. Follow the Jones Graduate School of Business on Twitter @Rice_Biz. Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp A vulnerable young Cork man who was released from custody on Monday to live at a hostel ended up going drinking on Monday night, removing his clothing and threatening to commit suicide. An in camera hearing of Cork District Court was told that the young man had to be arrested. He was taken to the Bridewell Garda Station following his behaviour at the hostel which was described as hostile and suicidal. The accused man faces charges of breaching a safety order by putting his mother in fear at the family home. She has told Judge Olann Kelleher that she cannot take her son back home as he drinks alcohol, self-harms and then attacks her as he blames her for his self-harming. Judge Olann Kelleher has been told that psychiatric services have not admitted him for residential care despite a number of efforts to get treatment. It was with the intervention of a social worker that a hostel bed was arranged for him on Monday. The social worker returned to court today to give evidence on how badly that had worked out for the man. At Cork District Court, the young man pleaded guilty to the three charges of breaching the safety order by putting his mother in fear on April 1. Defence solicitor, Donal Daly, asked for sentencing to be adjourned for a week in order to allow time for urgent psychiatric intervention. Mr Daly said the defendant would be pleading guilty to two other safety order breaches which were not before the court on Wednesday. Judge Olann Kelleher also referred to the urgency of the situation and said that he would finalise it on April 24 with the accused remanded in custody with a recommendation that he would be held at the vulnerable persons unit and be seen urgently by a psychiatrist. Almost 150 asylum seekers have been living in direct provision centres for seven years or more. Department of Justice figures supplied to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) breakdown the amount of time asylum applicants have been resident in emergency accommodation. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service figures shed light on the extremely long periods that applicants must live in direct provision centres, such as Mosney in Co Meath. Figures show 142 residents have been in accommodation for 84 months or more, 65 for between 72, and 84 months and 146 applicants have been in centres for between 60 to 72 months. Thousands more in emergency accommodation have stayed for long periods, including more than 1,700 who have been resident in centres for between 24 and 48 months. Elsewhere, the PAC has also received figures from the Department of Justice which show that some 100 claims have been made by the Irish Prison Service in respect of tuberculosis. The claims have been handled by the State Claims Agency, department secretary general Aidan O'Driscoll has told the PAC by letter. He also tells the committee that, of the 100 claims, 66 were concluded or dealt with by January 25 this year. Mr O'Driscoll said he has sought extra information about compensation levels and will come back to TDs and senators with those figures. Meanwhile, the HSE will today tell PAC by correspondence that there was "no conflict of interest" in picking financial services firm PwC to carry out a review of the escalating costs for the 1.7bn national children's hospital. This is despite the fact that health authorities previously engaged the services of PwC over the second phase of the new hospital build last year, prior to the controversy over the massive rise in the project cost. The HSE letter says: "The HSE has in place a framework for the provision of professional services to assist in the Programme for Health Service Improvement. "This provides resourcing for expertise to be drawn down as required. Under the terms of this framework, it was agreed that PwC would carry out the review of the escalation in the cost of the new children's hospital. "In the context outlined above, the HSE is satisfied there is no conflict of interest." The burial place of well over 800 children who died in the care of Bessborough Mother and Baby Home is unknown - despite "very extensive inquiries and searches". The findings are contained in the long-awaited burials report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission. The long-running inquiry found that some 900 children died in Bessborough or in hospital after being transferred from Bessborough. However, it could only establish the burial place of some 64 children who died between 1922 and 1928 despite "very extensive inquiries and searches". Of these, 53 are buried in St Josephs Cemetery, two are buried in St Finbarrs Cemetery. Five of the remaining children died after being transferred to Cork District Hospital and are "likely" to have been buried at Cork District Cemetery, Carrs Hill. However, the Commission has no documentary evidence of this. The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who owned and ran Bessborough do not know where the other children are buried. The burials of children who died in the three Sacred Heart Homes (Bessborough, Castlepollard and Sean Ross) are not recorded at all. "More importantly, there is no certainty about where they are buried," said the report. The Commission pointed out that it was clear that in the initial years of operation, the Order took responsibility for the children that died in Bessborough and used a number of cemeteries in the locality. However, it speculated that the "abrupt cessation of child burials at St Josephs in June 1928 may have had something to do with costs". Death registers for both Bessborough and Sean Ross Abbey were handed over to the HSE by the Order in 2011 and were later reported on by the Irish Examiner. In the case of Bessborough, the register shows that 470 infants and 10 women died in Bessborough between 1934 and 1953. A total of 273 deaths took place in just a six-year period between 1939 and 1944. The interim report's findings on Bessborough Mother and Baby Home More than 900 children died in Bessborough or in hospital after being transferred from Bessborough. However, the Commission says it has been unable to establish where the vast majority of those children are buried. The small on-site burial ground was confined to the congregation, and the Commission said it seemed only one child was buried there. The Commission has been able to establish the burial place of only 64 children. The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who owned and ran Bessborough do not know where the other children are buried. Bessborough Mother and Baby Home - which opened in 1922 - was owned and run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The Commission said that more 900 children who were born in, or admitted to Bessborough died in infancy or early childhood. Most died either in the Sacred Heart Maternity Hospital soon after birth or in the Bessborough Home itself to which infants were transferred some weeks after birth (many more died in the Home than in the Maternity Hospital). The Commission says it believed it unlikely from an early stage that all the children who died in Bessborough were buried in the estate's small burial ground, which would not have been large enough for the number of children involved and "in any event, it would be unlikely that children would be buried in the same burial ground as members of the congregation". The report says members of the congregation who provided affidavits and/or oral evidence to the Commission were able to provide "remarkably" little evidence about burial arrangements, and that "the congregation does not know where the vast majority of the children who died in Bessborough are buried". The report also deemed it "rather surprising" that a nun who was in Bessborough for most of the 50 years between 1948 and 1998 did not remember any child deaths, although 31 children died in the 10 years between 1950 and 1960 alone. Another congregation member who was in Bessborough from 1978-1985 told the Commission that one baby died during her time there. Maps, site searches, interviews, and a public appeal Forensic archaeologists and the Commissions researchers reviewed all available maps and aerial images as part of their investigations, and conducted a site survey. They interviewed a landscaper who had conducted extensive groundwork on the estate over a 30-year period, including work that required him to dig up to eight feet deep in an area marked 'Children's Burial Ground'. He found no evidence of human remains. Finally, a public appeal for information or evidence of burials on the estate produced no results. Nonetheless, the Commission considers it "highly likely" that children who died in Bessborough were buried within its 60-acre grounds - due in part to how expensive it would have been to arrange off-site burials in the 1940s in particular, when many of the deaths occurred and when petrol was scarce. However, it found "no physical or documentary evidence (of child burials in the grounds)". It also notes the possibility that burials took place in grounds that no longer form part of the Bessborough estate, a total area of about 200 acres. However, without physical evidence of possible locations in the 60-acre grounds of the current estate (and the 200-acre area of the old estate), the Commission said it "did not consider it feasible to excavate 60 acres, not to mention the rest of the former 200-acre estate". The Commission examined the burial records of other possible burial sites in Cork. During the period under review (1922-1998) eight burial grounds were in operation in Cork city and surrounding hinterland. These were: St Josephs Cemetery, Tory Top Road (53 children who died in Bessborough were buried here) St Finbarrs Cemetery, Glasheen Road (two burials) St Michaels Cemetery, Mahon (two burials) Cork District Cemetery (All Saints), Carrs Hill (five likely burials) Douglas Municipal Cemetery, Douglas St Marys Cemetery, Curraghkippane St Catherines Cemetery, Kilcully Rathcooney Cemetery, Glanmire REPORT SUMMARIES Dublin Union/St Patricks, Navan Road (Pelletstown) Pelletstown and the Dublin Union were one institution with separate premises run by the Daughters of Charity. The children who died here were mainly buried in the "Angels Plot" at Glasnevin Cemetery where detailed records are kept. A small number were also buried in Mount Jerome while the Commission is continuing to check others. The burial register records the children as "abandoned", "deserted" and/or "illegitimate". The Commissions report notes the analysis of deaths at the home is complex for reasons including that many of the children were sent there because they were very ill. More than 950 children who died here between 1920 and 1977 were sent to the medical schools at UCD, Trinity and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, for anatomical studies. The sending of the bodies of unclaimed deceased residents from institutions to medical schools was common practice until the mid-60s. The Commission found that the bodies of a number of children were transferred for anatomical studies before the 48-hour period for claiming the body was over. The law states that bodies cannot be sent to medical schools until at least 48 hours after death to enable family members to claim the body and/or object to the body being sent for anatomical studies. All but 18 of the children received as anatomical subjects were illegitimate children. In general, they were buried in Glasnevin more than a year after their death. There was no distinct section of the Poor Ground for these bodies and the usual practice was for the remains of a number of anatomical subjects to be collectively buried in the same plot on the same day. These children were identified in the Glasnevin Poor Ground Burial Registry by the letters AS (anatomical subject). Sean Ross Sean Ross Abbey Records concerning the Sean Ross Mother and Baby Home show that more than 1,000 children and 29 mothers died there or in the District Hospital, Roscrea, where they were sent when they became very ill. There is no evidence that any record of burials was kept by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who owned and ran the Sean Ross home, despite a canon law requirement to keep a record of burials. There is no certainty about where these children are buried. The Commission said that an affidavit about the burials provided by the congregation was "in many respects, speculative, inaccurate and misleading". The affidavit states that all of the children buried in the Sean Ross burial ground received the rites of the Catholic Church and that the congregation did not bury infants in unapproved cemeteries. The Commission says this may well be true but the congregation provided no evidence to support (these assertions). The congregation had said that the child burial grounds were "created within existing by-laws and with the approval of the local Bishops". The Commission said it had no reason to doubt that the bishops were aware of them. The involvement of local bishops and priests in the institutions will be documented in the Commissions final report. The congregation also said the infants buried at Sean Ross were buried without cost to local or central government. The Commission dismissed this, saying it was not true in respect of some, if not all, of the burials, and said it had seen evidence of burial bills being sent to the local authority. The Commission has carried out a geophysical study and a test excavation of the site and is examining the results of the excavation. Bethany Home A memorial at the former Bethany home Bethany Home was located in Blackhall Place, Dublin between the years 1922 and 1934 and in Orwell Road, Rathgar after that. The homes records have been digitally copied and are being analysed by the Commission. Mount Jerome Cemetery in Harolds Cross, Dublin, was the main burial site for the children who died in the Bethany Home. The report notes the cemetery has kept very good records of all burials. The cemeterys burial registers show that 240 children who were born in, or at one time admitted to Bethany, died between September 1922 and October 1964. Of that 240, 213 were recorded as coming directly from the Bethany Home. These, and 18 stillborn children, were buried in unmarked graves at Mount Jerome Cemetery. The Commission notes it seems unlikely that they were buried in the same place as baptised children. The oldest recorded age at death was 36 months; the others were all aged 19 months or under. There are at least 20 other children who died and are not recorded in the Mount Jerome burial register. Bethany Home survivors identified over 310 Bethany children buried there. The Commission said that once a particular grave was full, it was closed and the next available grave with spare capacity was used. The Bethany children were buried in, or next to, those used for other private/public adult or child interments. The burial records show that the children were usually buried within two to three days of their death. There is no evidence of any child from Bethany being used as an anatomical subject before being interred in Mount Jerome. Cork County Home The Commission has established that, between 1922 and 1998, 552 illegitimate children died in Cork County Home/St Finbarrs Hospital. So far, no burial records have been found for these children. It is likely that they are buried in Carrs Hill Cemetery but there is no documentary evidence available. Both the Cork County Home and the Cork District Hospital were renamed St Finbarrs in the 1950s. Castlepollard The Commission has so far established that over 220 children died in Castlepollard (or in hospitals to which they were sent) and there were eight mothers who died from complications of pregnancy/childbirth. There is no evidence that any record of burials was kept by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in respect of burials in Castlepollard, despite a canon law requirement to keep such records. An affadavit from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who owned and ran the institution, was deemed " in many respects, speculative, inaccurate and misleading". The Commission found that the children who died in Castlepollard are likely to be buried in the burial ground there. However, there is no documentary evidence to confirm this. Castlepollard ceased to be a mother and baby home in 1971. The Commission has made digital copies of the records it can find relating to Castlepollard, and is in the process of analysing them. Report summaries compiled by Peter Towe The Government has been accused of being on the side of cuckoo funds rather than struggling families who are trying to find homes. Opposition parties criticised Fine Gael over the rise in professional landlords in this country, claiming the situation is taking thousands of potential homes out of the reach of people in need. During Leaders Questions in the Dail, Fianna Fail deputy leader Dara Calleary referenced revelations that 295 homes in Leopardstown, Co Dublin, have been bought by an institutional investor. Mr Calleary claimed up to 3,000 homes have been purchased by professional landlords in the past year alone and said hard-working families are effectively being locked out of the property market. Its clear Fine Gael is on the side of the cuckoo funds on this one, he said. Mr Calleary said Government-promoted tax incentives encouraging foreign firms to invest in Irelands property market are causing the problem. Is it not time to shout stop and review these tax incentives? he asked. Tanaiste Simon Coveney said Mr Calleary was mixing up a number of issues. He said the Government believes in house ownership and we want everybody to own their own home. Mr Coveney said just 5% of landlords in Ireland own more than 100 homes, while 70% own just one property. He said investment is crucial to helping Irelands housing market and he argued that cuckoo funds and vulture funds are needed to make more homes available. Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the Government is pretending it doesnt matter when foreign funds evict people. Its time to clip the wings of the vultures, he said. Labour leader Brendan Howlin said the Government must act quickly to address the spiralling levels of child homelessness in this country. Mr Howlin pointed to recent figures showing that more than 3,000 children are now living in emergency accommodation, saying that the situation has become modern Irelands answer to the poor house. Fota Wildlife Park in Cork has announced the birth of four Asian lion cubs (Panthera leo persica). The cubs were born in February to second-time parents, mother Gira and father Shanto. The eight-week-old cubs were born along with a fifth cub who was stillborn. The new cubs join their parents first litter who are now one and a half years old Amira, Arya and Loki and aunt Gita in their specially designed habitat in Fota Wildlife Park. As yet the cubs are unsexed and unnamed and Fota Wildlife Park is calling on the public to help name them. Lead Ranger Kelly Lambe said they are thrilled with the arrival of this litter. "This species is endangered and now inhabits only one remaining site in the world the Gir Forest, in India, which means that wildlife parks and zoos play a crucial role in safeguarding the species and maintaining the genetic diversity outside of the pocket of the wild population "Unfortunately, one of the cubs was stillborn however, five in a litter in extremely rare and we are delighted that there are four cubs thriving. "Its Giras second litter with our male lion, Shanto, and she is a protective mum. We vaccinated and weighted them all yesterday and they all weight exactly the same 7.15kg. [gallery]75[/gallery] Fota Wildlife Park opened the Asian Sanctuary in 2015, and it is now home to some of Asia's most endangered species such as the Indian rhino, the Sumatran tiger and the Asian lion. The pride of Asian lions at Fota Wildlife Park features the male Shanto, aged eight, who came from Zoo de Santillana in Spain and two sisters Gira and Gita, both aged five, who came from Helsinki Zoo in Finland in the summer of 2016. The pride was added in to in August 2017 with the birth two females and a male cub - Amira, Arya and Loki. Almost all the worlds population of wild lions live in sub-Sharan Africa except for the Asian lion which inhabits the Gir Forest in India which is now a reserve for this endangered species. Fota Wildlife Park participates in the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme (EEP) for Asian lions. There are now only 500 Asian lions living in the wild. Fota Wildlife Park is set on 100 acres in the heart of Cork Harbour and is open daily from 10am. It is a non- profit conservation organisation and is part of the Zoological Society of Ireland. An RNLI lifeboat rushed to assist four adults and three children after their boat lost steering and ran aground this afternoon on Lough Derg. The alarm was raised at around 3.30pm when the Irish Coast Guard received a report of 60-foot cruiser having drifted onto rocks after suffering a steering failure. The volunteer lifeboat crew, based at Dromineer Co Tipperary, raced to the scene in Coose Bay, between Split Rock and the Hagen Rock on the Galway side of the lake. After reaching the scene, the RNLI crew assessed the situation and found that two marine engineers from the cruise company had also travelled to the scene. The vessel was found to be aground on an extremely hazardous shoal however, all those on board were wearing their lifejackets and were unharmed. During an inspection of the vessel it was found that there was significant damage to the rudder. The lifeboat crew set up for a tow and eased the cruiser off the rocks and out into safe water. The tow was then passed to the cruiser companys rescue vessel. Once the RNLI volunteers were satisfied that all was good with the tow handover, the lifeboat was stood down and the casualty vessel and its occupants were left in the care of the cruise company. The operation was coordinated by watch officers at the Irish Coast Guards marine rescue sub centre on Valentia Island in Kerry. Update April 28: The body of Leonard O'Neill has been found. Gardai seek assistance locating missing Waterford man Update April 18: Gardai in Waterford are appealing for help in finding a 50-year-old man who has gone missing. Leonard O'Neill was last seen in the area of Ballybricken two days ago. When Leonard was last seen in the early hours of Tuesday morning, he was wearing a dark coloured jacket and had glasses resting on his forehead. He has a shaved head and brown eyes and is described as being of stocky build. Gardai are appealing for anyone with any information to contact Waterford Garda Station 051 305300 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111. The Government is treating the public like children and deferred the review of the Local Property Tax (LPT) for naked electoral reasons, Fianna Fail says. Responding to revelations in the Irish Examiner which detailed concerns expressed by the Attorney General, Seamus Woulfe, about deferring the LPT review, Fianna Fail's Housing spokesman, Darragh O'Brien, said it is clear that ministers ignored those concerns for electoral reasons. Everyone wants fair and affordable LPT - the Government has been kicking this around since 2015. Many aspects of the LPT are not fair. "The Government has basically dodged this and fudged it for political reasons because they do not want to make a decision before the local and European elections, he said. They are treating people like children on this and that is not correct. If you look at what the Attorney General advised, he raised some quite serious issues about how this tax would be viewed constitutionally and how it would be seen as arbitrary given the large number of homes now exempt, he said. Attorney General Seamus Woulfe This deferral, even the constitutionality was questioned by the AG, is simply being done for electoral reasons, not for fiscal prudence, Mr O'Brien said. Mr O'Brien pointed to a warning by the Attorney General about the potential loss of income of a quarter of a billion euro a year. In response, Junior Public Expenditure Minister Patrick O'Donovan said it was reasonable for his boss, Paschal Donohoe to take his time to get the right solution. He said suggestions that the government is foregoing 250 million a year is not correct as to collect that amount in tax would result in hikes to bills to people of between 100 and 300 a year. Paschal Donohoe has made it clear that any increases would be modest, fair and affordable, he said. "If no policy change was made and there was a revaluation, about 85% of people would see an LPT hike of up to 300. "He is reflecting the fact we need some policy change. He wants the overall yield to be maintained at about 500 million." In the Seanad, Independent Senator Michael McDowell sought to highlight the inequity of the tax, saying it is highly unfair on people living in Dublin: Somebody in Dublin who lives in a very small house with a limited income and has much higher mortgage obligations than somebody living outside of Dublin in a much larger house but with a greater income pays more to local government in Dublin than a wealthier person living in a much bigger home pays towards local government in his or her county outside of Dublin. "This is an injustice which the Government has to face up to." In response, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar accepted that homeowners in Dublin and in other cities pay more in their local property tax than those living in smaller towns or more counties: That is, of course, true. "There is more to the story than that, people living in urban areas receive more local services from the local authorities, whether it is footpaths or street lighting, local parks and grass cutting and so on. "I think there is a solution. I have suggested it before, that is that the local property tax should be retained locally." THE burial locations of thousands of babies born in mother and baby homes remain unknown after investigators hit unexplained gaps in official records and claims by religious orders that they did not know what went on. The latest shocking report by the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes found that even the presumed final resting place of some of the forgotten children where relatives have gathered in commemoration for years is probably incorrect. But it can not say where the children are and campaign groups now fear they will never find out. The long-running inquiry found that some 900 children died in Bessborough or in hospital after being transferred from the institution. However, despite very extensive inquiries and searches over the past five years, the commission could only find the final resting place for 64 children. It found no significant surface evidence of burials on the grounds of the former mother and baby home, outside of the nuns burial plot, where one child is reportedly buried. However, it said it was likely some children are buried on the property. In relation to the Tuam home, the report confirms that underground chambers in which bodies were found were designed as, and for a time used as, cesspools for wastewater and sewage. Sample remains have been determined to be infants who died during the time the home was in operation but it is not yet known how many are buried there and there are no records that any child was ever left there. It did not provide for the dignified interment of human remains, states the report. Teddies and Flowers were placed at the gates to Bessborough in Cork. The commission did not consider it feasible to excavate the full 60 acres, let alone the rest of the 200-acre estate on which there has been extensive building work since the institution closed. Picture: Des Barry The commission, chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy, said they were surprised by the lack of knowledge about the [Tuam] burials on the part of Galway County Council and the Sisters of Bon Secours. Galway County Council members and staff must have known something about the manner of burial when the home was in operation, they said. The report criticises the Sacred Heart sisters who ran the Bessborough, Castlepollard, and Sean Ross Abbey homes. They had provided the commission with an affidavit that was in many respects, speculative, inaccurate and misleading. Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone acknowledged there would be upset over the failure to trace many of the burial locations. I feel deeply for the families who may not get the answers they are seeking. In a lot of cases, the evidence is not there, she said. I know some families will be very disappointed that some questions have not been answered, we are disappointed too. Galway County Council, the Bon Secours sisters, and the Sacred Heart sisters responded to the criticisms in the report by insisting they had given their full co-operation to the commission and would continue to do so. But Catherine Corless, the amateur historian whose work led to the revelations about Tuam, said she had been hearing that same claim for five years. They are only hiding behind each other, she said. It would be great if the Bon Secours sisters and Galway County Council could just come forward and say this happened and we are sorry it happened, it should not have happened, and what can we do to make amends. Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone Paul Redmond, chair of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Homes Survivors, described the reports findings on Bessborough as shocking. Nobody knows where between 700 and 900 babies are buried and they could be anywhere, he said. The Bethany Home Survivors group said the commission appeared to have omitted 71 of the 310 children the group had identified as having died after transfer from the home. Spokesman Niall Meehan said he was seeking a meeting to reconcile the discrepancy. Sean Sherlock, the Labour Partys spokesperson on justice and children, said the report raised more questions than answers and he called on Ms Zappone to set out her plans for further investigations at Bessborough. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the report made for gruesome reading and provided further insight into a very dark part of Irish history. The report in full can be read here or below. A top detective has revealed that when the mother of Csaba Orsos heard that her sons killer had been found guilty, she said: A stone has been lifted from my heart. Detective Sergeant Fergus OBrien said that not only had Marta Herda taken the life of Csaba but she also tried to destroy his name by claiming he had raped her. Herda was convicted in July 2016 of murdering the 31-year-old Hungarian man in March 2013 when she drove a car they were in into Arklow harbour, knowing he could not swim. Det Sgt OBrien, who retires in two weeks, received an excellence award for his involvement in 25 murder investigations, including the Catherine Nevin case, throughout his 39 years in the force. Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), the Wicklow-based officer said Csaba went the worst way he could. Csaba got the death he feared most, he said. He had an aversion to water. He was allergic to water, he had problems with his ears, and he couldnt swim. He died by drowning. But Marta Herda drove her car that night, straight through two metal barriers, plunging it into the icy waters of the Avoca river at six in the morning. Csaba Orsos got the death he feared most. He had an aversion to water. He was allergic to water, he couldnt swim. However, this was not all, he said. She took a look at Csaba and she alighted from the open window of her car, swam to a nearby ladder on a nearby wall and ran along the quay wall, shouting: Rape! I have been raped! So not only did she take Csabas life by assassinating him in the manner that she did, she now was assassinating his memory for his mother. He said that later in the morning Csabas body was washed up on a nearby beach and brought quayside for identification by his brother Zoltan. The undertaker was trying to be kind to him, he said. He said: You know Zoltan, we can cremate your brothers remains, it will make it easier for you to go back to Hungary with your young family. Det Sgt OBrien said: Zoltan would return to Hungary with his young family and his two sons and he would never return. But he turned to the undertaker and he said: My mother will want to see the body of her son. He said a number of months later he asked Zoltan what did his mother say. Detective Sergeant Fergus O'Brien She said that she would rather that her son had died in a traffic accident. When she heard that the police in Ireland were investigating her sons death as a murder she said: Who would hate my son so much that they would want to murder him?. He said that after a lengthy and difficult trial he was driving Zoltan back to the airport and asked him what his mother said after the conviction of Herda. She said: A stone has been lifted off my heart. Paraphrasing the Greek poet Aeschylus, Det Sgt OBrien said: Even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls hard on the heart. Marta Herda was found guilty in July 2016 of the murder of Hungarian Csaba Orsos. Picture: Courtpix Accepting the AGSI Excellence Award, he said: I was glad that not only did we investigate that case but we redeemed Csaba Orsos good name for his mothers memory. I never met his mother. Im glad we could lift some of the pain that dropped on her heart and Im glad we could lift the stone off her heart. Katie Kim, aka Katie Sullivan, is originally from Waterford but is currently living in Dublin. She is one of the acts playing the It Takes A Village festival in Trabolgan, Co Cork (May 10-12), an event that also features Gilles Peterson, The Herbaliser, Don Letts, etc. Best recent book youve read: Denis Johnsons Angels. As well as novels, Johnson also wrote short stories, plays and poetry and that really comes through in this. It follows a mother of two fleeing her cheating husband. She meets Bill along the way while drifting through a dusty America and what happens to her, helps her fall into madness. Its just written so beautifully. I loved it. Best recent film youve seen: Us, Jordan Peeles latest film. I thought it was great. Maybe an ending that didnt satisfy hugely but hes a bit of a master in tension buiding. Im going to dive right into his new Twilight Zone episodes. Best recent show or gig: Maria Sommerville at the Workmans Club in Dublin. Im so excited for whats coming for Maria. Shes finally got her debut album, All My People out and her live shows are goosebump- inducing. Best piece of music youve been listening to lately (new or old): As well as Marias album, Johnny Greenwoods soundtrack for You Were Never Really Here has been a constant in my ears since it was released last year. I was also just introduced to Scott Walkers soundtrack for Children of a Leader and its a stunning piece of work. First ever piece of music or film that really moved you: The Carpenters. Id be lying if I said I remembered what song it was exactly, but I do vividly remember real tears while lying in bed when I was very young, listening to Karen Carpenter, not really understanding why it is she had to die! The drama of it all. The best gig or show youve ever seen: The Beastie Boys in Dublin. Of the other artists appearing at It Takes A Village, who are you most looking forward to seeing? Junior Brother hes phenomenal live. Tell us about your TV viewing: Im addicted to High Maintenance presently but thats about it. Radio listening and/or podcasts: I listen to a lot of podcasts. This American Life, Blindboy, Desert Island Discs, Kermode & Mayo, 99% Invisible. But I only recently discovered Radio Diaries and I cant stop listening to it. Its people from all walks of life given a tape recorder to document their lives over days or months. Its really fantastic. Anything Radiotopia do is nearly always a safe bet. You can portal back to any period of human cultural history or event where, when, and why? New York City, from 1980 to 1990. Although it was filthy and crime- infested, Im ever fascinated by New York City during this period. It was a time and place for artists of all kinds. Post punk, nu wave, hip hop. Artists could still afford to live there and everybody seemed to be creating. You are curating your dream festival which three artists are on the bill (living or dead)? Scott Walker, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk. Do you have any interesting ancestors or family? Danny Denton is my first cousin and an extremely talented author. His debut novel, The Early King & The Kid In Yellow. was published last year and were all so proud of him and what hes achieved with this book. Im so excited to see whats to come for him. Unsung hero individual or group you think dont get the praise they deserve: Percolator a Dublin based band Ive been a huge fan of for years and I think they should be playing some of Europes festivals largest stages. Their album Sestra came out a year or two ago and its one of the best Irish albums Ive heard. You are queen for a day whats your first decree? Im not a vegetarian, but Im forever trying to be! So Id ban the slaughter of animals, so we didnt have a choice anymore. Des ODriscoll A very special multi-course dinner in aid of two Cork charities will see four Cork Michelin-starred chefs come together, writes Joe McNamee. It all sounded good on paper: the four current Cork Michelin-starred chefs coming together in a city centre pub to cook a multi-course dinner in aid of two of Leesides most prominent charities; surely a certain hit. But when youre deep in the thicket, it can be hard to see the wood for the trees. The ticket price, 225 per individual diner, is quite a bit more than most around these parts are inclined to drop on dinner, no matter how salubrious the scran and how popular and deserving the two charities in question, Cork Simon Community and Cork Penny Dinners (CPD). And even though the organisers had the added insurance of having pre-sold a fair tranche of seats, there was a lingering nervousness in the air would they be left holding a bunch of unsold tickets? Within an hour of an online announcement, two weeks ago, the last tickets were gone. By midnight, there were hundreds more applications, and within a couple of days, almost six hundred on the waiting list, some indication of the unadulterated joy with which epicurean Cork draped in widows weeds since 2001, when a local restaurant, Shiro, in Ahakista, last held a star has continued to respond to an unprecedented Michelin starburst last autumn that saw three new stars handed out to Cork restaurants. On April 29, in the Raven Bar, on South Main Street, Corkonian Ross Lewis, chef-proprietor of Dublins Chapter One, Michelin-starred since 2007, will be joined by Rob Krawczyk (chef-proprietor, Restaurant Chestnut, Ballydehob), Takashi Miyazaki (chef-proprietor, Ichigo Ichie, Cork city) and Ahmet Dede (head chef, Mews Restaurant, Baltimore) to deliver up a four-star feast: two sittings of 70-plus diners with nary a pizza in sight it is no exaggeration to state this will be one of the real highlights of the 2019 Irish culinary calendar. Not having had a star in Cork for so long and then getting three in one year really resonated with me, says Lewis, it was such a wonderful achievementnobody would ever have thought youd get three in one go. "So not long after the awards, I thought it would be lovely to celebrate by getting together the four Cork Michelin stars and provide some money and raise awareness for Cork charities that are so under-resourced. They were all up for it immediately. The two lads in the Raven, [proprietors] Tom ORiordan and Pat OHara, Ive known since school and they were on it as well straight away, very happy to do it. "I wanted CPD because of the association with chefs and with feeding people and obviously the homelessness crisis is at its worst point so Cork Simon is another obvious choice and Pat and Tom thought that as well. Caitriona Twomey with volunteers at Cork Penny Dinners. For ORiordan, the evidence of the homelessness crisis is something he is faced with on a daily basis: I see a lot of it around the place, particularly around North Main St. We are very close to CPD and I see a lot of people going up and down every day and Im in the city at all hours, driving home at all hours, in all weather conditions, and seeing people sleeping on the side of the street and its across all age groups and demographics. "Its not particular to anybody. Cork Simon Community has been working with the homeless in Cork for decades, beginning with their first soup run in 1971, but Cork Penny Dinners was founded during famine times as a soup kitchen and, while it never went away, it has seen a huge resurgence in its public profile, most especially since the havoc wreaked on Irish society by the demise of the Celtic Tiger. Recent recipients of a prestigious social responsibility award from the Irish Food Writers Guild, CPDs work remains as vital as ever. CPD is busy, says Caitriona Twomey, very very busy and getting busier by the minute, its expanding on all fronts big time. People coming from all over, not just the homeless but families looking for help. "We get references from different areas and different services, recognising families are without food, toiletries and other stuff, so they contact us. People working in State sector services are thinking outside the box and recognising people need this extra help and even if they work in the state sector they are getting off their behinds and making the call, closing gaps and every little bit helps to close the gaps. Pat OHara and Tom ORiordan, The Raven proprietors, Caitriona Twomey, Cork Penny Dinners, Takashi Miyazaki of Ichigo Ichie, Paul OLeary and Tom Kalinauskas, Cork Penny Dinners and Caroline Dunne, Cork Simon Community, announce a fundraising evening for April 29 with Michelin-starred chefs. Picture: Dan Linehan "Theyre just ordinary decent human beings doing something for families that cant access or dont know how to access help or are maybe too ashamed to try. It is truly bizarre to hear of a charitable organisation doing what is surely the work of the State? It is, agrees Twomey, but take a look at the frontline services fire officers, GardaI, nurses they cant find the resources for them. "When you see them struggling, can you imagine how other services are struggling for resources? Can you imagine how frustrated those in support services are? "We see it, we hear it, we feel it they all want to go the extra mile and theyre struggling because of their own lack of resources. The boom times may be on the way back but us and other agencies are getting busier, all services are seeing a huge increase, even from middle-class families. "These are not the traditional clients coming into CPD and youd have to admire their strength in coming. Its a survival thing and they need it. If they have problems and they have food worries and are going hungry, they cant even address all the other problems. "And if you have kids who are going hungry thats a horror story for any parent. Keeping all that in mind, 225 a head seems nothing short of a downright steal, cheap at twice the price. The EU saw this coming and is ready for Farage's 'Trojan horse', writes Charlotte O'Brien. The UK has been catapulted into a rather unusual position as a result of the latest Article 50 extension. The European parliament election, which is typically characterised by low turn out and its treatment as a second order event, has suddenly become a hot topic. It now seems inevitable that the UK will be taking part in the vote this May. The government appears to acknowledge as much, having put in place the legislation needed to set the appointed day of poll as May 23. The only way out is for British members of parliament to swiftly approve Theresa Mays Brexit deal and theyve already rejected it three times. Trojan horse? There is not much time to get campaigns rolling. But one party was very quick out of the blocks Nigel Farages newly launched Brexit Party. Frustrated by the lack of progress on Brexit, Farage is threatening to stack the European parliament with eurosceptic MEPs forming a destructive Trojan horse. The aim seems to be for these MEPs to do what they can to disrupt EU business in some kind of protest against being held in the EU against their will. But EU leaders apparently saw this coming. When they met at the European Council to agree to extend Brexit until October 31, they included an unusual caveat. This stipulates that the UK must behave itself during the time in between the election and its departure from the EU. In particular, the council said it expected the UK to act in a constructive and responsible manner throughout the extension and to refrain from any measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the Unions objectives. In some ways, this was rather redundant the duty to sincerely cooperate with the EU and other member states is in fact a legal duty. Enforcing that commitment might be another matter. It would get quite complicated and nightmarish trying to challenge an uncooperative UK. How do you sanction a state that intends to leave anyway? But in any case, there are limited opportunities to actually obstruct EU activity in the time available to Farage and friends. Sabotage through the ballot box might, therefore, not be the best use of a vote. The European parliament is unlikely to decide on many material matters in the months following an election, and if it does, it will do so by majority. Even if one party won all of the 73 European parliament seats allocated to the UK, it would be a long way short of dominating the 751-seat strong parliament. But the make-up of UK seats could influence the position the UK takes in the European council, which is made up of national ministers who will have an eye on domestic politics. The UK membership may wish to avoid being seen to frustrate the will of the electorate expressed through these elections. This might make obstruction more feasible. The council, along with the European parliament, is the main decision-making body in the EU. In the coming months, these bodies are due to make various important decisions. Take, for example, a draft directive on transparent and predictable working conditions. These would limit probation periods and require employers to give more notice to employees in on-demand work about when they will be expected to be available. Even if the UK pushed back as a council member, most matters including this proposed directive are decided by a qualified majority. The UK would only be able to obstruct if it ended up casting the deciding vote. UKIP leader Gerard Batten takes part in the Brexit betrayal rally in London. PA As Steve Peers, a professor in the University of Essexs School of Law, points out, the UK could block everything where it has a veto, which is the case in a few select areas of law, like defence policy and treaty amendment. But first, the chances of such areas being considered any time soon are slight, and second, as Peers argues, member states might sidestep that problem by only agreeing on initiatives in principle, then enacting them once the UK is out of the way. And for some actions, it has been suggested that the EU 27 could get creative and use the rules on enhanced cooperation that sometimes allow groups of some member states to work together on certain measures without including everyone. EU nationals (finally) get to have a say Its fairly clear that troublemaking within the European parliament is probably futile. But it is not clear what can be actually achieved in five months of parliamentary representation for the UK. And thats bad news for the mainstream parties, as it will be difficult to articulate how they would actually represent their constituents. What can Conservative and Labour realistically offer in their manifestos? What will they propose on the campaign trail about what they intend to do in parliament if briefly elected? The primary role of an MEP is playing a part in the EU legislative process but they are unlikely to be in a position to shape the legislative agenda, or have much influence on what are often quite lengthy law-making processes. What this vote does offer is a voice to EU nationals in the UK. In the run up to the 2016 referendum, EU citizens were guaranteed clear and unconditional protection of their rights, by leading Vote Leave campaigners. But those same citizens did not get a referendum vote, and have lived in limbo ever since, with their rights constantly under threat. In Mays elections, EU nationals are entitled to vote in their state of residence. With 2-3m adult EU nationals living in the UK, the Brexit Party will not have a monopoly on discontent. This article was written by Charlotte O'Brien, Professor of Law, University of York. It's republished from theconversation.com under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. Notre-Dames fragility reminds us of the EUs. We must rebuild both, says Bernard-Henri Levy AS I write this, from Berlin, in Germany, I am prostrate before the images of fire, devastation, and ash engulfing Notre Dame de Paris, Our Lady of Paris. She is a treasure of civilisation, both for those who believe in heaven and for those who do not. She represents the Europe of beauty, of holy hopes, of greatness and gentility. Like you, like everyone, I am heartbroken. Debris inside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after the blaze was quenched. Picture: Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP The tragedy invokes a slew of memories. Victor Hugos immortalisation of the cathedral in his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, of course, comes to mind. So, too, does the verse of Louis Aragon: Nothing is as strong, not fire, not lightning, As my Paris defying danger, Nothing is as beautiful as this Paris of mine. Firefighters atop the 12th century Notre Dame cathedral. Picture: AP /Francois Mori One also recalls an opening line from poet Charles Baudelaire: I am beautiful, O mortals, like a dream in stone. It was not written about Notre Dame, but it certainly could have been. The memories extend well beyond the written word. The cathedral itself has borne witness to centuries of French history, including episodes that are now the stuff of legend. It has stood with France through its mystic knighthood, in its glory and in its gloom. I think of the mass in celebration of Pariss liberation in 1944, and of a younger sisters conversion there. Nearly $1bn has poured in from the ordinary and from the rich to restore Notre Dame cathedral. Picture: AP/Christophe Ena I weep with her, as I weep with all Christians who have had to watch their visible church go up in smoke, the plume perhaps taking a part of their invisible church with it. The next morning, I think of Notre Dame as the France of the Resistance. She embodies the Gothic holiness and tranquility of the Seine. She is faith and beauty made manifest. French firefighters battling the blaze, which broke out on Monday. Picture: Douhard/Paris Firefighters via AP And, of course, the words of Hugo and Aragon are still there, dancing in my insomniac head. I ask myself how I will face the day. How will we face tomorrow? Hugo supplies the answer: Time is the architect, but the people are the mason. The cathedrals windows survived the fire. Picture: Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP By noon, I can only hope that the fire is completely out. For a Parisian, it is torture to see the looped images of the citys heart being gripped by the violence of the flames. More than a church has fallen. In a way, Notre Dame is the soul of humanity itself, and a piece of that humanity has now been scarred. We Parisians believed our venerable lady to be immortal. Yet, there she slumps, wounded and helpless against fate, as were we all while watching the inferno. Yet, in the wake of those sorrowful images has come a wave of fellow feeling. French president, Emmanuel Macron, addressing the nation. He wants the cathedral restored in five years. Picture: Yoan Valat, via AP Italians, Swedes, Irish, Spaniards, Chinese, Algerians all have joined in communion with the people of France. As after an attack, all are saying, Je suis Paris. Finally, in burning, Notre Dame reminds us of the fragility of our history and heritage, of the precariousness of what we have built, and of the finite nature of millennial Europe, homeland of the arts, to which Notre-Dame is one of the loftiest testaments. Looking ahead, what are we to think? What should we do? We must hope that Notre Dames sacrifice will awaken slumbering consciences; that, through this disaster, people will realise that Europe is Notre Dame writ large. Paris city hall photo shows artefacts rescued from the Notre-Dame blaze. Picture: Henri Garat/Ville de Paris via AP More than a political union, it is a great work of art, a brilliant bastion of shared intelligence, but also home to an endangered legacy. That legacy is too important to lose. We cannot allow pyromaniacs to divide the people of Europe. We must remember that we, together, are builders of temples and palaces, creators of beauty. That is the lesson of Notre Dame in this Holy Week. Firefighters survey damage atop a tower of Notre Dame cathedral. Picture: AP /Francois Mori French president, Emmanuel Macron, who, for two years, has appealed for unity in rebuilding Europe, now is appealing for unity in rebuilding Notre Dame. Together, we must restore the heart of France. My literary review, La Regle du Jeu, will contribute to the national fund for that purpose. I urge all readers to do the same. We, the people, are the masons. A hole in the dome inside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Picture: Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP Bernard-Henri Levy is one of the founders of the Nouveaux Philosophes (New Philosophers) movement. He is the author, most recently, of The Empire and the Five Kings.Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019. While the emergence of the anti-immigrant Vox movement is alarming, the possible outcomes of the election look benign, says Ferdinando Giugliano Anti-establishment parties have made real inroads in southern Europe in recent years, taking power in Italy and Greece after vowing to jettison mainstream political thinking and challenge the economic consensus in Brussels. As Spain goes to the polls this month, many are worried about the rise of Vox, an anti-immigrant, anti-feminist movement that has emerged as a genuine electoral force. For those troubled by Europes turn toward populism, though, Madrid is a long way from going down the path of Rome, let alone Budapest or Warsaw. Mainstream parties remain solidly in the lead, meaning the next government probably wont be too different from what has come before. Even though this is the third national election in four years, the Spanish economy has withstood the instability. None of this is to downplay the fears about Vox, whose arrival on the scene has so enthused Steve Bannon the former Donald Trump adviser and nationalist rabble-rouser. In December, it became the first far-right party to win seats in a regional Spanish election (Andalusia) since the death of the military dictator Francisco Franco. Its votes were decisive in putting into power a coalition of the center-right Peoples Party and the centrist Ciudadanos, ending the Socialists 36 years of rule in Andalusia. Vox is on course to win about 10% of the votes in the general election. Thats pretty remarkable for an organisation only founded in late 2013. Vox is, of course, not the only anti- establishment party winning votes in Spain. Podemos, the extreme left party led by Pablo Iglesias, is faring much worse than in 2015, when it came close to beating the Socialists in a national election. But polls still give it about 12%-13% of the vote, which might make it a player in the post-election coalition building. Regional parties are strong too, including the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia. As Antonio Barroso, a researcher at consulting firm Teneo, notes, there are lots of undecided voters, perhaps as many as four in 10. But the big theme of this election is the fragmentation of the electorate. The two parties that have dominated Spanish politics for the past four decades, the Socialists and the Peoples Party, are struggling to win more than half the total votes between them. So will Madrid be pulled to the extremes, as Bannon hopes? Fortunately for the more moderate-minded, it looks unlikely. There are three possible outcomes to this election, and none appears particularly alarming. The first outcome would see the ruling Socialist Party, riding high in the polls at about 30%, forming a left-of-centre coalition with the support of Podemos and some regional parties. Alternatively, Pedro Sanchez, the partys chief, might turn toward the centre and try to form an alliance with Ciudadanos, even though its leader, Albert Rivera, has ruled this out. Should Sanchez manage to cobble together either of these partnerships (far from a given), theres not much for the EU or investors to worry about. As prime minister, he has followed a classic left-wing agenda, proposing tax hikes on the rich and the banks to fund benefit spending. Nadia Calvino, the economy minister, is a former senior EU official and is unlikely to want to upset Brussels if she stays in office. Even in partnership with Podemos, Spain would probably behave like Portugal, where Antonio Costas left-wing government has cut the budget deficit by prioritising social spending over areas such as infrastructure. The second electoral possibility is a right-wing government formed by the Peoples Party and Ciudadanos with the support of Vox, as in Andalusia. This is hard to imagine given the Socialists poll lead and the squeamishness within Riveras centrist party about his shift to the right. Still, a centre-right coalition wouldnt be a disaster for the economy. It would almost certainly pursue lower taxes, funded via reduced spending. Thats hardly the same as Italys right-wing League, which wants a flat tax but is unwilling to make cuts to pay for it. The third potential outcome is that the political fragmentation is too great to allow the creation of a government. In that case, Spain would go back to the polls, perhaps as soon as the Autumn. Obviously, it would be far better for the mainstream candidates to compromise on a program to support the countrys recovery, which has slowed but remains robust. Yet even if they dont, the economy has proven itself resilient to the absence of strong government. Investors seem sanguine. The yield on Spains 10-year bonds is only slightly more than a percentage point higher than the German equivalent, and well below Italys. After all the drama thats gripped Southern Europe in this decade, including the Catalan crisis, Spain still looks relatively unexciting. And thats meant as a compliment. Ferdinando Giugliano writes columns and editorials on European economics for Bloomberg View. He is also an economics columnist for La Repubblica and was a member of the editorial board of the Financial Times. Let us join forces to block Assanges extradition from any European country to the US, so that he can travel to Stockholm and give his accusers an opportunity to be heard, writes Yanis Varoufakis My meetings with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange all took place in the same small room. As the intelligence services of a variety of countries know, I visited Assange in Ecuadors London embassy many times between the autumn of 2015 and December 2018. What these snoops do not know is the relief I felt every time I left. I wanted to meet Assange because of my deep appreciation of the original WikiLeaks concept. As a teenager reading George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four, I, too, was troubled by the prospect of a high-tech surveillance state and its likely effect on human relations. Assanges early writings particularly his idea of using states own technology to create a huge digital mirror that could show everyone what they were up to filled me with hope that we might collectively defeat Big Brother. By the time I met Assange, that early hope had faded. Surrounded by bookcases featuring Ecuadorian literature and government publications, we would sit and chat late into the night. A device on top of a bookshelf emitted mind-numbing white noise to counter listening devices. As time passed, the claustrophobic living room, the badly hidden ceiling-mounted camera pointing at me, the white noise, and the stale air made me want to run out into the street. Assanges detractors have been saying for years that his confinement was self-inflicted: He hid in Ecuadors embassy because he jumped bail in the United Kingdom to avoid answering sexual assault allegations in Sweden. As a man, I feel I have no right to express an opinion regarding those allegations. Women must be heard when reporting assault. Only the violence that men have inflicted upon women for millennia is viler than the disrespect and denigration to which women are subjected when they speak up. I recall saying to Julian that, had it been me, I would want to confront my accusers, and listen to them carefully and respectfully, regardless of whether official charges had been brought. He replied that he, too, wanted that. But, Yanis, he said, if I were to go to Stockholm, they would throw me in solitary and, before I got a chance to answer any allegations, I would be bundled into a plane heading for a US supermax prison. To drive the point home, he showed me his lawyers offer to Swedish authorities to go to Stockholm if they guaranteed that he would not be extradited to the United States on espionage charges. Sweden never considered the proposal. During Assanges years in Ecuadors embassy, in circumstances that the United Nations deemed arbitrary detention, many friends and colleagues mocked his fear and lambasted me for believing him. Last September, the historian and feminist intellectual Germaine Greer summed up that belief on Australian public radio: He wont be extradited to the United States, she said derisively, blaming Julians lawyers for misleading him into fearing such an extradition while collecting his books royalties. Now he is languishing in Belmarsh, a notorious English high-security prison, in a windowless basement cell with even less fresh air and light than before. Unable to receive visitors, he awaits extradition to the US. Let him rot in hell, is a frequent response from good people around the world who were incensed by WikiLeaks release of Hillary Clintons emails ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, which blew fresh wind into Donald Trumps sails. Why, they ask, has Assange not released anything damning on Trump or Russian President Vladimir Putin? Before I explain why his detractors should reconsider, let me state for the record my personal frustration with his support of Brexit, his injudicious attacks against his feminist critics, his editorialising in favour of Trump, and, crucially, his communications with Trumps people. I expressed this frustration to his face several times. But castigating WikiLeaks for not publishing leaks that damage all sides equally is to miss the point. WikiLeaks was established as a digital mailbox where whistleblowers could deposit information that is true and whose revelation is in the public interest. This is WikiLeaks sole obligation. By design, it cannot control who leaks what; its technology prevents even Assange from knowing a whistle-blowers identity. If this means that most leaks will embarrass Western powers, that is WikiLeaks great, if imperfect, service to us a service that, to my frustration, was diminished by Julians editorialising. Recent developments prove that his current predicament has nothing to do with the Swedish allegations or his role in aiding Trump against Clinton. With Chelsea Manning in prison again for refusing to confess that Assange incited, or helped, her to leak evidence of US atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan, the best explanation of what is going on comes from Mike Pompeo, Trumps first CIA director and now US secretary of state. Pompeo described WikiLeaks as a non-state hostile intelligence service. That is exactly right. But it is an equally accurate description of what every self-respecting news outlet ought to be. As Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky have warned, journalists who fail to oppose Assanges extradition to the US could be next on the hit list of a president who considers them the enemy of the people. Celebrating his arrest and turning a blind eye to Mannings continued suffering is a gift to liberalisms greatest foes. Besides liberalism, Assanges persecution by the US security-industrial complex has another victim: women. No woman, in Sweden or elsewhere, will get justice if he is now thrown into a supermax prison for revealing crimes against humanity perpetuated by awful men in or out of uniform. No feminist goal is served by Mannings continued suffering. So, here is an idea: Let us join forces to block Assanges extradition from any European country to the US, so that he can travel to Stockholm and give his accusers an opportunity to be heard. Let us work together to empower women, while protecting whistle-blowers who reveal nefarious behaviour that governments, armies, and corporations would prefer to keep hidden. Yanis Varoufakis, a former finance minister of Greece, is Professor of Economics at the University of Athens. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019. Alison OConnor is on holidays Business Authorities Vow Probe as Ivory Coast Destroys Unfit Myanmar Rice Shipment Rice bags are loaded onto a vessel in Yangon. / The Irrawaddy NAYPYITAWThe countrys rice industry received bad news this week when it came out that officials in Ivory Coast had destroyed 18,000 tons of rice from Myanmar on Wednesday. The Ministry of Commerce and the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) said they would investigate the incident and publicize the results soon. On Wednesday, the African News republished a report by BBC Africa that quoted health officials in Ivory Coast as saying they had destroyed tons of rice that had been declared unfit for human consumption. In the report, which included photos, they pointed out that the destroyed rice had come from Myanmar. In the photos, a truck can be seen dumping rice into a landfill. According to the report, the rice shipment had been denied entry to other ports in West African countries including Ghana, Guinea and Togo due to quality issues. Within hours of the report appearing, the destroyed rice issue had become the talk of the town in Myanmar. U Khin Maung Lwin, assistant permanent secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the ministry will check with exporters, the MRF and third party inspection agencies about what happened prior to the shipments departure for Africa in October last year. We received messages from that ship in March, before it took the rice to Ivory Coast, that it would return to Myanmar with some 18,000 tons of rice because it couldnt unload it in Togo. We had been asking them to return to Myanmar since March, but they dropped the shipment in Ivory Coast [despite saying they would return], and [this incident] happened, U Khin Maung Lwin said. The shipment left Myanmar with 22,000 tons of rice in October 2018. After dropping 4,000 tons of rice in Togo, the crew was unable to offload the rest of the rice in other African countries as it had spoiled. Here rice exporters normally export rice using the FOB [Free on Board] system, which means that after sending the rice, they are not responsible; buyers are responsible for the issue. However, we will scrutinize what happened so it does not happen again, U Khin Maung Lwin said. U Ye Min Aung, secretary general of the MRF, the countrys largest rice association, posted on his Facebook account that the federation will scrutinize all the facts and data about what happened in Africa. He wrote that the African market for rice is very competitive as many other countries such as India, Pakistan and Vietnam also ship rice there. The process of exporting Myanmar rice to Africa is somewhat complicated. Rice exporters normally make contracts under the FOB system with buyers outside Myanmar. When the buyers cant sell that rice on time to their target market, the rice can be in storage for a long time on the ship. That can leave the rice unfit to consume. In this case, U Ye Min Aung posted that the fact that the shipment had been delayed and passed through four countries could be the major reason the rice was unfit to consume. He said that the buyer is responsible in most cases. Soe Tun, a member of the MRFs Central Executive Committee and CEO of the Ayeyar Mittar Public Co., told The Irrawaddy that the long storage period was the major problem in this case and he didnt think the problem was connected to the use of chemicals. We have been exporting rice to Africa for a long time, but the rice exported there is low quality because of the low price. I think this has become an issue, he said. He said he heard a ship had been facing problems for the past three months while stopping over in an African country as the rice weight had been reduced. He said it could be caused by a moisture problem. The MRF will be checking this issue and will make a public announcement soon. Yes, it is time to issue a caution on how to produce the best quality rice by using technology, he said. According to Soe Tun, Myanmar exports rice to Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo in Africa. Of the total rice exports of 2 million tons this year, 700,000 tons went to Africa. Some 1 million tons was exported to China through border trade. However, this is not the first time an African country has rejected and destroyed Myanmar rice. A similar problem was experienced five or six years ago, rice industry sources said. Due to the highly competitive situation, Myanmar could lose market share, they said. Some established international traders can easily push out new traders if they want to manipulate the market. However, we must be aware of this and control our quality as well, an experienced rice expert told The Irrawaddy. The MRF said that it would first contact the BBC and African News to ask them how they received the information they reported. The MRF said it is attempting to promote Myanmar rice as a good quality product among exporters and third party inspection agencies before exporting. It will also make an effort to contact end buyers apart from other traders. Myanmar was once known as the rice bowl of Asia and was a major industry player until decades of economic mismanagement by successive military regimes sent exports tumbling. Exports have been shipped to 64 countries including China and Japan, as well as other nations in Asean, Europe and Africa, since 2014. In 2014, Myanmar experienced a similar issue when China officially banned rice imports from this country, demanding that a trade agreement be signed guaranteeing that most rice is milled and meets certain quality standards. China has long been one of Myanmars biggest customers for rice, much of which is harvested in the Irrawaddy Delta and shipped over land borders in Shan and Kachin states. Burma Cardinal Charles Bo Asks Myanmar, Chinese Leaders to Scrap Myitsone Dam Cardinal Charles Bo in Yangon in December 2018 / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy YANGONThe Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Bo, has called on Myanmar and Chinese leaders to permanently terminate the controversial Myitsone Dam project, saying they have a responsibility to protect the rights and lives of Myanmar citizens. On Monday, Cardinal Charles Bo issued a statement on behalf of the people of Myanmar requesting that Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint, and military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping, stop their efforts to revive the dam project. The issue has caused alarm among Myanmar citizens, as China is pushing to restart the dam project, while the Myanmar government has not taken a clear stance. The proposed US$3.6-billion (5.46 trillion kyats) dam on Myanmars lifeline, the Irrawaddy River, in Kachin State was suspended in 2011 due to nationwide opposition amid warnings the project would disrupt the flow of sediment in the countrys main waterway, harming agricultural livelihoods, and flood an area twice the size of Singapore, displacing thousands of people. However, Beijing has recently stepped up its pressure on Kachin leaders, saying that Xi is a strong supporter of the Myitsone Dam project as it is needed to implement his ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. There were a series of protests against the project across the country after Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang claimed that the Kachin people were not opposed to its resumption at the end of December. Prominent environmentalists, activist and writers formed a nationwide committee on April 1 to oppose the project and warned the government of more resistance if it were revived. In a statement in the Jingpho (Kachin) language, Cardinal Charles Bo expressed his concern at the prospect of losing the most sacred symbol of the Kachin people due to the construction of the dam project. Moreover, he stressed that as the Irrawaddy River is the lifeblood of the nation, all citizens who rely on it would face a catastrophe if the dam ever broke. Our hearts are burdened with the impending risk to millions, the cardinal said. State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is scheduled to visit Beijing for the second Belt and Road Forum from April 25-27, where she is expected to discuss controversial Chinese projects in Myanmar including the Myitsone Dam. There is growing concern among people in Myanmar that China will pressure her into restarting work on the dam. Last month, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi urged Myanmar citizens to think from a wider perspective about the Myitsone project. She said the final decision would have to be politically, socially, economically and environmentally sound and sustainable. Her comment sparked concern among the people that the Myanmar government would give in to Beijing on the dam project. In the statement, Cardinal Charles Bo urged Myanmar citizens to pray that all those trying to restart the dam project understand the will of the people and not try to resist it. It is the second time this year the cardinal has issued a statement on the issue. In January he said the dam project must be stopped to ensure a peaceful future for the country. He also warned that construction of the dam would be a death sentence for the people of Myanmar. However, the statement did not name any government officials or leaders. In February, during a meeting with Kachin religious leaders, Sen-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said it would be difficult to oppose the publics will regarding Myitsone Dam. He promised the Tatmadaw would do anything it can, but the final decision would be made by Parliament. Asia Malaysia Begins Inquiry Into 2015 Discovery of Mass Graves, Human Trafficking Camps Policemen monitor as forensic experts dig out human remains near the abandoned human trafficking camp in the jungle close the Thailand border at Bukit Wang Burma in northern Malaysia on May 26, 2015. / Reuters KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia began a public inquiry on Wednesday into the discovery of mass graves and suspected human trafficking camps in the jungles near its border with Thailand, which prompted a regional crisis in 2015, and accusations over obstruction of justice. The dense jungles of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia have been a major stop-off point for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar, most of them Rohingya Muslims who say they are fleeing persecution, and Bangladesh. In January, the government had said it would set up a panel to inquire into claims that authorities mishandled an investigation into 139 mass graves and more than 12 campsites suspected to have been run by migrant-smuggling gangs. Three police from a jungle infantry unit described finding the first of the campsites in January 2015, during a patrol in a heavily forested region on the Malaysian side of the border. The officials found an area filled with tents and structures made of wooden sticks, some as high as two stories, said one of them, Mat Ten. These makeshift houses were surrounded by barbed wire and there were people living inside, he told the panel. The mens testimony confirmed media reports and rights groups statements that authorities had known about the camps four months before going public in May 2015. In a report last month, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission and rights group Fortify Rights said authorities had destroyed one of the camps a day after its discovery, wiping out evidence that could have aided police investigations. The human rights commission was set up by Malaysias parliament but the government is not bound by its findings. Mat Ten said he returned with a team of 10 police to survey the site the day after the first visit, but they were interrupted after a woman they believed to be acting as a lookout alerted others at the camp, who fled. Six Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants who were left behind were detained and handed over to immigration authorities, said Mohamad Mossadique Azni, the officer who led the raiding team. The discovery of similar camps and graves on the Thai side of the border triggered a regional crisis in 2015. A Thai crackdown on the camps prompted traffickers to abandon thousands of migrants in overloaded boats in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. The hearings continue on Thursday. Burma Political Prisoners Miss Out in Presidents New Year Amnesty A prisoner released under the presidential amnesty is greeted by a family member in front of Insein Prison on Wednesday. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy YANGONDespite the release of more than 9,500 inmates under the Presidential pardon for this New Years holiday, many political prisoners remain behind bars, disappointing their families as well as observers. On Wednesday, President U Win Myint pardoned 9,551 prisoners, including two political prisoners and 16 foreigners, under the New Year amnesty. He pardoned 8,541 prisoners last year, including 36 political prisoners and 51 foreigners. The Presidents amnesty order stated that they were given unconditional amnesty, as a gesture for marking the Myanmar New Year, to ensure the peace of mind of the people and taking into consideration humanitarian concerns. According to the presidents order, the remaining prisoners are also under consideration for further releases. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), there are still 44 political prisoners serving time in prisons, 90 detainees facing trial and 228 who are on bail but are required to appear before the courts for their political activities. Two political prisoners released were Maran Gun from Obo Prison and L Zau La from Myingyan Prison in Mandalay Region. Both had served 19 years of their life sentences, according to the AAPP. The two were both members of the Mongko Defense Army from Shan States Special Region No. 1, a splinter group of Kokangs Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army. They were prosecuted in 2000 on narcotics charges. AAPP secretary U Bo Kyi said, Political prisoners are not those destroying society; they are the ones who are trying to build a better society. If [the government] wants genuine national reconciliation, all political prisoners should be released without conditions. He told The Irrawaddy that the National League for Democracy (NLD) government should learn the lessons of the past. The country is now at a turning point, as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was also released from detention and cooperated. Thus, if the incumbent government released the political prisoners and worked with those relevant persons, better results would be achieved for national reconciliation. Most of the prisoners released were serving long sentences on convictions related to illicit drugs, according to U Min Tun Soe, the deputy director and spokesman of the Myanmar Prisons Department under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Although there were 675 prisoners released from Yangons Insein Prison, the two Reuters journalists Wa Lone (aka Thet Oo Maung) and Kyaw Soe Oo, who are serving seven-year prison terms under the Official Secrets Act, were not among them. The pair, who were arrested in December 2017 and convicted in September last year, were on Monday awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, one of the worlds most prestigious journalism prizes. In addition, U Zaw Zaw, the head of Insein Prison, told The Irrawaddy that the Rakhine political prisoner Dr. Aye Maung and author Ko Wai Hin Aung, who are serving 20-year prison terms; and the former child soldier Aung Ko Htwe, who is serving a two-and-a-half-year term, were not included on the pardon list. U Myint Kyaw, the joint secretary of the Myanmar Press Council, said he was not surprised that Reuters journalists were not on the pardon list, although he believed charges not be brought against journalists who are doing their jobs. He said that while the pair has been sentenced to many years behind bars, It seems [the government] does not consider their cases as political. Perhaps they have not yet been released because their appeals are not yet exhausted. Family members of political prisoners and other former political prisoners also expressed their frustration with the amnesty order, seeing it as oppression against journalists, politicians and the activists. U Tin Maung Win, a Lower House lawmaker representing Rathaetaung constituency of Rakhine State and the son of U Aye Maung, said he did not expect a pardon as it is questionable whether Dr. Aye Maung deserved to be prosecuted. He added that the verdict was unfair and the government can do anything, whether its to arrest or to release them. U Aye Maung and Ko Wai Hin Aung were each sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for high treason and another two years for defamation, to be served concurrently, by Sittwe District Court on March. 19. They were both transferred to Insein Prison on April 6. U Thein Win, the brother of Ko Wai Hin Aung, said his family did not expect his brothers release under the pardon, and thus would proceed with his appeal to the higher court this month. Ma Nay Zar, the sister of ex-child soldier Aung Ko Htwe, said while waiting for any news about her brother in front of Insein Prison on Wednesday that she did not expect justice for him. Aung Ko Htwe was sentenced in March last year after the military charged him over a media interview in which he claimed he was abused by authorities during his first trial. She said Aung Ko Htwes term would end in December this year, but another inmate who was sentenced to a longer term than her brother had been released on April 12. The law is different for each person; if we demand his release, we could also face some other charges, she said, referring to an earlier case in which two supporters of Aung Ko Htwe were sued and sentenced to a year in jail for incitement in September. We expected justice, but now we are experiencing unjust laws, she told The Irrawaddy. Daw Lay Lay, who was repeatedly sentenced to prison for her political activities under previous governments as well as the current government, said the government ignored political prisoners even though President U Win Myint himself was once one of them. She questioned whether two different laws or two governments ruled Myanmar, asking, Is the President exercising his authority, or is there any pressure [on him]? U Tin Maung Kyi, a member of the Movement for Democracy Current Force (MDCF) who was released from prison two weeks ago, said Myanmar should not have any political prisoners under the elected civilian government, and said the government was demonstrating its incompetence. The Information Ministry also said that 2,700 people were arrested for drug and weapons possession during this years festival and that police were preparing charges against them. During the 2018 Thingyan, a total 642 people died, 106 of them in road accidents. The figures include the nine people who died when an overloaded ferry headed for a Thingyan event in Sagaing Regions Monywa Township sank on the Chindwin River on the second day of the festival. Unrelated to festival events, the ministry counted 115 deaths and 728 injuries from road accidents, 31 deaths from murder, 113 deaths from downing and other incidents, and 144 injuries from fighting. Road accidents and fights typically spike in the lead-up festivities to Burmese New Years Day as many travel to other parts of the country and celebrate by drinking heavily. The ministry said 29 deaths and 130 injuries were directly related to festival events, including road accidents, fights, murder and drowning. MANDALAY A total 288 people died and more than 1,000 were injured across the country during the four days of this years Thingyan holiday, the Ministry of Information announced Wednesday, marking a significant decrease compared to the year before. Reveles douse each other with water during Thingyan in Mandalay on Monday. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy Reveles douse each other with water during Thingyan in Mandalay on Monday. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy A Week in Korea: Barefoot Hiking, a Brush with History and the DMZ Close Up New Weekend Market to Open in Yangon Next Month India's Modi Rides Nationalist Fervor to Keep Edge in Election that Begins Thursday When Myanmar Said No to Diarchy, Yes to Home Rule Foreign Diplomats, U.N. Officials to Take in Traditional Thingyan in Mandalay The Cards are in the Wa Armys Hands The Day Myanmars Independence Hero and His Colleagues Were Laid to Rest N. Korea's Kim Says Must Deliver 'Blow' to Those Imposing Sanctions KCNA India's Giant Election Gets Underway With Voting in First of 7 Phases State Counselor Blames No One Over Lack of Peace Process: Negotiator Is Bangladesh Really Interested in Justice on Rakhine Issue? At The Pansodan, Sublime Flavors in an Architectural Gem Filmmaker Accused of Insulting Army Is Denied Bail, Sent to Prison Naga Rebels Say Peace Talks May Suffer if Military Does Not Free Leaders Amnesty for Political Prisoners Eagerly Anticipated as Myanmar Ushers in New Year We do not encourage viewing this site in this width. Please increase the size of your window. Thursday, April 18th, 2019 (11:11 am) - Score 3,813 Alternative UK network providers seem to be cropping up like spring flowers and the latest to join that club is Jurassic Fibre, which has an ambition to invest over 250m into building a 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 350,000 premises across Devon, Dorset and Somerset. The target is incredibly ambitious for a provider that only established itself in 2018 and hasnt yet built a full fibre network in the United Kingdom, which might otherwise be ringing alarm bells. However there are several reasons for cautious optimism. Firstly, the CEO of Jurassic Fibre is Michael Maltby, a local resident of Sidmouth in East Devon. Michael is known to have helped build several fibre optic and similar networks around the world, including in Russia and the Caribbean. On the flip side Michaels core skill set, according to Linkedin, is more in business and economics than telecoms. Secondly, the ISP has just secured funding from Fern Trading Limited (Fern), advised by Octopus Investments (Octopus), which has acquired the company and will provide funding for an expansion plan that could over the next few years exceed 250m, creating jobs and essential infrastructure. Exactly how much of that has already been committed is unclear, but we suspect its a much smaller sum. Michael Maltby, CEO of Jurassic Fibre, said: Jurassic Fibre is very pleased that Fern, advised by Octopus, has agreed to acquire the company and fund the roll out of its GPON ultrafast broadband network across the South West of England. It is a strong statement of faith both in the company and future of the region. Over the coming months and years, we look forward to working with communities, businesses and councils to build the digital infrastructure required to put the region at the forefront of the UK economy. Paul Latham, CEO of Fern, said: This is a great opportunity for Fern to back a highly experienced management team with a track record of building full fibre networks across the world, providing stable returns for our investors who want to put their money to work in the UK economy. John Sellgren, Dorset Council Executive Director for Place, said: Dorset welcomes this commercial investment. It will bring fantastic opportunities to the businesses, residents and visitors of Dorset. We recognise the importance of high speed reliable digital connectivity and this announcement gets Dorset well on its way to the Governments ambition of full fibre for the whole country by 2033. We look forward to working with Jurassic Fibre to facilitate their deployment. At present we know very little about what sort of packages and roll-out plan is being envisaged for this previously unknown provider, although their deployment will initially focus upon connecting up an area of East Devon between Exeter Airport and Exmouth (i.e. along the A376 corridor). Specific details should be coming soon. Like all such altnets they will face a challenge from the fact that rival operators (e.g. Openreach (BT), Gigaclear, Wessex Internet and others) are also engaged in the slow process of deploying FTTP broadband networks, around both urban and rural parts of all three counties. However it will take many years for those ISPs to help collectively achieve the Governments aspiration for nationwide coverage by 2033, which should leave plenty of gaps for Jurassic Fibre to fill. Nevertheless its likely to be an uphill struggle, particularly with everybody else gobbling up all of the skilled contractors. You only have to ask Gigaclear, an ISP that spent years building itself up from nothing into a more mature player, about the challenges involved in order to understand why simply throwing money at a roll-out isnt always enough (here). One other concern is that this patch-work of physically separate networks, while bringing more choice, may also create more confusion for consumers when they go shopping around for a new ISP. Inevitably wed expect to see some consolidation further down the road. Britain will become the first country to introduce age-verification for accessing online pornography when it institutes such measures on 15 July. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said in a statement that this meant online porn providers would have to put in place robust age-verification checks for users to ensure they were aged 18 or over. It said 88% of British parents with children aged between 7 and 17 backed the move and agreed there should be robust age-verification controls in place to stop children seeing pornography online. A survey published last month indicated that a majority of the population was unaware of the measure being introduced. Minister for Digital Margot James said: "Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online. "The introduction of mandatory age-verification is a world-first, and weve taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content. "We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this." The DDCMS said all age-verification providers would have to comply with General Data Protection Regulation standards and the British Board of Film Classification "have created a voluntary certification scheme, the Age-verification Certificate, which will assess the data security standards of AV providers". BBFC chief executive David Austin said: "The introduction of age-verification to restrict access to commercial pornographic websites to adults is a ground breaking child protection measure. "Age-verification will help prevent children from accessing pornographic content online and means the UK is leading the way in internet safety. "On entry into force, consumers will be able to identify that an age-verification provider has met rigorous security and data checks if they carry the BBFCs new green AV symbol." Online rights organisation, the Open Rights Group, criticised the measure. Its executive director Jim Killock said: "The government needs to compel companies to enforce privacy standards. The idea that they are optional is dangerous and irresponsible. Having some age verification that is good and other systems that are bad is unfair and a scammers paradise of the governments own making. Data leaks could be disastrous. And they will be the governments own fault. The government needs to shape up and legislate for privacy before their own policy results in people being outed, careers destroyed or suicides being provoked. New European legislation will make it mandatory for Google, Facebook and Twitter to remove extremist content within an hour of it being posted or else face fines up to 4% of turnover for repeat offences. The European Parliament voted 308 to 204 with 70 abstentions to back the proposal meant to solve the problem of internet hosting services being misused for terrorism. The EU move comes in the wake of the killing of 50 Muslims at a mosque in Christchurch by an Australian white supremacist gunman on 15 March. The shooter live-streamed his rampage on Facebook and it remained on the social media site for more than an hour. Numerous copies were uploaded to YouTube and linked off Twitter as well. The Australian Parliament passed similar laws earlier this month to target social media platforms which allow live streaming and broadcast of violent crimes. A new European Parliament is due to be elected between 23 and 26 May and it will finalise the text of the law along with the European Commission and members of EU governments. There is clearly a problem with terrorist material circulating unchecked on the Internet for too long, said Daniel Dalton, rapporteur for the proposal. This propaganda can be linked to actual terrorist incidents and national authorities must be able to act decisively. Any new legislation must be practical and proportionate if we are to safeguard free speech. It ...absolutely cannot lead to a general monitoring of content by the back door. Students Establish Donation Program for Local Homeless Shelters Macey Grant 20 (right) has teamed up with fellow Illinois Wesleyan students, staff and faculty to organize a meal swipe donation program to benefit local homeless shelters. April 18, 2019 BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Rather than letting leftover student meal swipes go to waste at the end of the semester, Macey Grant 20 and Lakshmi (Sravya) Jayam 22 organized a meal swipe donation program to benefit Bloomingtons Salvation Army and Home Sweet Home Ministries. From April 15 through April 19, Illinois Wesleyan University students may pledge up to 10 meal swipes toward this initiative by emailing David Nicholson, general manager of residential dining, at: dnichol1@iwu.edu. Jayam a first-year biology major decided to take action regarding her concern about wasted food. I soon realized that if I want something to change I cannot just complain about the problem, but actually make a plan to make the situation better, she said. Grant and Jayam took the initiative to find a solution for students who end their semesters with excess meal swipes from their prepaid dining packages. The process involved several months of discussion with professors, the Dean of Students Office, Sodexo Campus Services staff, the mayor of Bloomington and other officials. Grant and Jayam were working independently until Tripper Phipps, Sodexos general manager of operations at Illinois Wesleyan, put the two students in contact with each other and with Manish Pathuri 22, another student who shared their concern about food waste. I feel very strongly that we at this university are very privileged, and it breaks my heart to know that there are people all over the world who are hungry on a regular basis when we have so much extra food, said Grant, a junior art major. In order to address this disparity in food distribution, Grant and Jayam decided to donate the meal swipe proceeds to Salvation Army Safe Harbor and Home Sweet Home Ministries, which are two homeless shelters in Bloomington responsible for feeding hundreds of local residents daily. Hundreds of students have already committed to donating their remaining meal swipes to the initiative. I was so excited when I saw how many students were willing to help out with this, said Grant. I honestly cannot believe that this program is being put into place. It seems too good to be true because it is actually making a difference in our community rather than just talking about it, as I had been for so long. Given the success of the meal swipe donation program, Grant and Jayam look forward to finding more opportunities to give back. Im so excited to see how this program will work out, Jayam said. And, I am currently exploring more ways we can help the community. By Rachel McCarthy 21 Summerville, SC (29483) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. High near 75F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Mostly cloudy. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Vancouver, B.C. Canada / TheNewswire / April 18, 2019 - Deep-South Resources Inc. ("Deep- South" or "the Company") (TSX-V: DSM) announces that Mintek has commenced its metallurgical test work on stockpile material from the Haib Copper Project in Namibia. The test work program is managed by METS Engineering of Australia. Deep-South has provided Mintek with about 1.8 tons of ore sample from a large stockpile that was extracted during a previous sampling campaign. The sample contains chalcopyrite as the main copper mineral. The aim of the program is to test the amenability of the ore to microbially-assisted heap leaching. The test work will produce data for an eventual commercial pilot heap leach campaign. Since 2003 heap leaching technologies have evolved substantially. Codelco has successfully used microbially-assisted heap leaching of copper sulfide ore containing chalcopyrite since 2014 at their Radomiro Tomic mine in Chile. Other operations in Chile have also piloted microbial-assisted heap leaching of chalcopyrite ores. The program will also focus on testing the amenability of High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGRs) and test the acid consumption of the heap leaching process. Test work summary: The bulk head sample will be crushed down to -12.5 mm with a jaw crusher. The jaw crusher product will then be sub-sampled, and crushed with an HPGR to -5 mm, -3.35 mm and -2 mm, respectively. Sub-samples from each crush size will be removed for curing acid optimisation tests, assay-by-size (4 size classes), geomechanical tests and column leach tests. Additional head sample will be milled to 80% passing 75 ?m for chemical head assay by ICP-OES, sequential Cu (acid-soluble, cyanide-soluble and residual copper). Acid consumption (iso-pH) tests and batch stirred tank amenability tests will be performed on the head sample. Mineralogy (XRD and SEM) will be performed on the -2 mm head sample. The column leaching test will be carried out at a temperature of 60 ?C for a total duration of 200 days. However, interim results will be available weekly. About Mintek: Mintek is South Africa's national mineral research organisation established in 1934 to assist in ensuring sustainable growth in the minerals and metal industries through research, development & innovation (RDI). The organisation has grown over the years into an internationally competitive, respected research and development centre of metallurgical and mineral processing technologies. Mintek's Biotechnology Division has been involved in the development of tank and heap bioleaching technologies for over 30 years. Mintek also specializes in hydrometallurgy, including leaching, precipitation, solvent extraction and electrowinning. You can visit Mintek at : https://www.mintek.co.za About METS : Established in 1988, Mineral Engineering Technical Services provides a range of services in the fields of Minerals Processing, Hydrometallurgy and Pyrometallurgy. METS is the engineering company that produced Deep-South's Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) disclosed on February 26, 2018. You can visit METS at : https://www.metsengineering.com About Deep-South Resources Inc. Deep-South Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company largely held by Namibian shareholders and Management with 17% and Teck Resources Ltd with 28% of Deep-South share capital. Deep-South currently holds 100% of the Haib Copper project in Namibia, one of the largest copper porphyry deposits in Africa. Deep-South's growth strategy is to focus on the exploration and development of quality assets, in significant mineralized zones, close to infrastructure, in stable countries. This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements," as identified in Deep- South's periodic filings with Canadian Securities Regulators that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. More information is available by contacting Pierre Leveille, President & CEO at +1-819-340-0140, email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Paradox Public Relations at +1-514-341-0408. All amounts expressed in U.S. dollars TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a positive start to the year, Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) (TSX:ABX) (Barrick or the Company) announced today it had made good progress in achieving its short-term goals as well as its full-year objectives during the first quarter. After setting a production record at the Kibali mine in 2018, the Company announced that the operation is on track for another record performance in 2019. Barrick is also rapidly progressing the implementation of the joint venture agreement signed with Newmont in March, which will create the worlds single-largest gold producer and allow both partners to realize the enormous potential of Nevadas mineral endowment. Reflecting a solid operating performance across its portfolio, Barrick announced preliminary first quarter sales of 1.37 million ounces of gold and 103 million pounds of copper, as well as preliminary first quarter production of 1.37 million ounces of gold and 106 million pounds of copperin line with the Companys operating plans and guidance. The average market price for gold in the first quarter was $1,304 per ounce, while the average market price for copper in the first quarter was $2.82 per pound. Barrick will provide additional discussion and analysis regarding first quarter production and sales when the Company reports quarterly results before North American markets open on May 8, 2019, followed by a live presentation by President and CEO Mark Bristow at 11:00 EDT, linked to a conference call and webcast. The following table includes preliminary gold and copper production and sales results from our operations: Three months ended March 31, 2019 Production Sales Gold (equity ounces (000s)) Cortez 262 259 Goldstrike1 233 239 Turquoise Ridge (75%) 77 76 Barrick Nevada 572 574 Pueblo Viejo (60%) 148 142 Loulo-Gounkoto (80%) 128 128 Kibali (45%) 93 90 Veladero (50%) 70 68 Acacia (63.9%) 67 67 Porgera (47.5%) 66 65 Tongon (89.7%) 61 61 Hemlo 55 58 Kalgoorlie (50%) 55 58 Lagunas Norte 35 37 Morila (40%) 10 10 Golden Sunlight 7 7 Total Gold 1,367 1,365 Copper (equity pounds (millions)) Lumwana 61 61 Zaldivar (50%) 28 28 Jabal Sayid (50%) 17 14 Total Copper 106 103 Enquiries: Investor & Media Relations Kathy du Plessis Tel/mobile: +44 20 7557 7738 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Senior Vice-President, Investor Relations Deni Nicoski Tel +1 416 307 7410 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Website: www.barrick.com Technical Information The scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been reviewed and approved by: Steven Yopps, MMSA, Barricks Director - Metallurgy, North America; Chad Yuhasz, P.Geo, Barricks Mineral Resource Manager, Latin America and Australia Pacific; and Simon Bottoms, CGeol, Barrick's Mineral Resources Manager, Africa and Middle Easteach a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. First Quarter 2019 Results Barrick will release its First Quarter 2019 Results before markets open on May 8, 2019, followed by a live presentation by President and CEO Mark Bristow at 11:00 EDT, linked to a conference call and webcast. U.S. and Canada, 1-800-319-4610 UK, 0808 101 2791 International, +1 416 915-3239 Webcast If you wish to attend the presentation in Toronto, please contact Deni Nicoski at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The Q1 2019 presentation materials will be available on Barricks website at www.barrick.com. The webcast will remain on the website for later viewing, and the conference call will be available for replay by telephone at 1-855-669-9658 (U.S. and Canada) and +1 604 674-8052 (international), access code 3107. Endnote 1 Includes our 60% equity share of South Arturo. Cautionary Statements Regarding Preliminary First Quarter Production and Sales for 2019, and Forward-Looking Information Barrick cautions that, whether or not expressly stated, all first quarter figures contained in this press release including, without limitation, production levels and sales are preliminary, and reflect our expected first quarter results as of the date of this press release. Actual reported first quarter production levels and sales are subject to managements final review, as well as review by the Companys independent accounting firm, and may vary significantly from those expectations because of a number of factors, including, without limitation, additional or revised information, and changes in accounting standards or policies, or in how those standards are applied. Barrick will provide additional discussion and analysis and other important information about its first quarter production levels and sales and associated costs when it reports actual results on May 8, 2019. For a complete picture of the Companys financial performance, it will be necessary to review all of the information in the Companys first quarter financial report and related MD&A. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to rely solely on the information contained herein. Finally, Barrick cautions that this press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to: (i) Barricks production; and (ii) the implementation of the proposed Nevada joint venture with Newmont Mining Corporation ("Newmont") and the realization of the potential of Nevada's mineral endowment. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions including material estimates and assumptions related to the factors set forth below that, while considered reasonable by the Company as at the date of this press release in light of managements experience and perception of current conditions and expected developments, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements and information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: fluctuations in the spot and forward price of gold, copper, or certain other commodities (such as silver, diesel fuel, natural gas, and electricity); the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; changes in mineral production performance, exploitation, and exploration successes; risks associated with projects in the early stages of evaluation, and for which additional engineering and other analysis is required; the duration of the Tanzanian ban on mineral concentrate exports; the ultimate terms of any definitive agreement between Acacia and the Government of Tanzania to resolve a dispute relating to the imposition of the concentrate export ban and allegations by the Government of Tanzania that Acacia under-declared the metal content of concentrate exports from Tanzania and related matters; whether Acacia will approve the terms of any final agreement reached between Barrick and the Government of Tanzania with respect to the dispute between Acacia and the Government of Tanzania; the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed Nevada joint venture (including estimated synergies and financial benefits) or implementing the business plan for the proposed Nevada joint venture, including as a result of a delay in its completion or difficulty in integrating the Nevada assets of the companies involved; the risk that the conditions to formation of the proposed Nevada joint venture will not be satisfied; the risk that required regulatory approvals necessary to form the proposed Nevada joint venture will not be obtained, or that conditions will be imposed in connection with such approvals that will increase the costs associated with the transaction or have other negative implications for Barrick following the transaction; the risk that the focus of management's time and attention on the transaction may detract from other aspects of the respective businesses of Barrick and Newmont; disruption of supply routes which may cause delays in construction and mining activities at Barricks more remote properties; whether benefits expected from recent transactions are realized; diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; increased costs, delays, suspensions and technical challenges associated with the construction of capital projects; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities, including geotechnical challenges and disruptions in the maintenance or provision of required infrastructure and information technology systems; failure to comply with environmental and health and safety laws and regulations; timing of receipt of, or failure to comply with, necessary permits and approvals; uncertainty whether some or all of targeted investments and projects will meet the Companys capital allocation objectives and internal hurdle rate; the impact of global liquidity and credit availability on the timing of cash flows and the values of assets and liabilities based on projected future cash flows; the impact of inflation; fluctuations in the currency markets; changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and/ or changes in the administration of laws, policies and practices, expropriation or nationalization of property and political or economic developments in Canada, the United States, and other jurisdictions in which the Company or its affiliates do or may carry on business in the future; lack of certainty with respect to foreign legal systems, corruption and other factors that are inconsistent with the rule of law; damage to the Companys reputation due to the actual or perceived occurrence of any number of events, including negative publicity with respect to the Companys handling of environmental matters or dealings with community groups, whether true or not; the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Companys expectations; risks that exploration data may be incomplete and considerable additional work may be required to complete further evaluation, including but not limited to drilling, engineering and socioeconomic studies and investment; risk of loss due to acts of war, terrorism, sabotage and civil disturbances; litigation and legal and administrative proceedings; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties, or over access to water, power and other required infrastructure; business opportunities that may be presented to, or pursued by, the Company; our ability to successfully integrate acquisitions or complete divestitures; risks associated with working with partners in jointly controlled assets; employee relations including loss of key employees; increased costs and physical risks, including extreme weather events and resource shortages, related to climate change; and availability and increased costs associated with mining inputs and labor. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining, including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding and gold bullion, copper cathode or gold or copper concentrate losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks). Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can affect our actual results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, us. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. Specific reference is made to the most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the SEC and Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities for a more detailed discussion of some of the factors underlying forward-looking statements and the risks that may affect Barricks ability to achieve the expectations set forth in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Barrick disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. JUSTICEINFO.NET IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Sihem Bensedrine Head of the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) in Tunisia In Tunisia, the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) has just concluded its work with a final report of two thousand pages, not yet published in the Official Gazette and which the Tunisian government refuses to officially receive. His four and a half years in office were marked by many controversies. Its president, Sihem Bensedrine, returns for JusticeInfo.net on the obstacles crossed and on its recommendations, which the government should implement within one year, according to article 70 of the law on transitional justice. JUSTICEINFO.NET: In the final report of the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) you describe with force the obstacles encountered during your mandate as president, which started in June 2014. Which were the most difficult to overcome? SIHEM BENSEDRINE: Obstructions encountered with the head of state litigation in the context of the arbitration and conciliation commission, which prevented substantial sums from stolen money being retrieved into state coffers. This is frustrating for us, especially when we see the severity of the Tunisian economic crisis and the fall in purchasing power. For the first time in the history of Tunisia we succeeded in establishing the organizational structure of the Interior Ministry by showing which departments formed the political police. Another thing I regret very much is our sore lack of the documents needed to show that the Tunisian system was surprisingly like that of the Stasi [the former East German political police] in the way it set up denunciation networks. This was at the heart of the abusive system. Access to the archives of the political police would have allowed us to show how this practice deconstructs a society, dislocates it and destroys social and family ties. The archives that we obtained through citizens who managed to get their hands on police documents are unfortunately not enough to demonstrate this predatory practice. However, there is one reason for us to be satisfied: for the first time in the history of Tunisia we succeeded in establishing the organizational structure of the Interior Ministry by showing which departments formed the political police. In fact, political police were in two main departments: the Directorate General of Special Services (DGSS) and the Directorate General of Technical Services (DGST). What I also regret is that State institutions, particularly judicial institutions, for which we have the greatest respect, have not understood transitional justice. I cite as an example the Administrative Tribunal, which treated the IVD as if it were a permanent institution. Procedures concerning us have been dragging on for five years, and are still not decided. Another aspect that this court did not take into account is the IVDs legal obligation to continue its work and complete its mandate regardless of the obstacles. The law stipulates that a Commission member who is absent three consecutive and six non-consecutive times may be dismissed. We couldnt remain hostage to the absentees. Commissioners failed to appear seven times yes, eight times. The Administrative Tribunal accuses us of having revoked them. And the Tunisian Parliament refused to replace the missing members. Criminal justice has been our main ally. Completing the process now rests on their shoulders. I realize that there is in fact a lack of understanding of the mechanisms of transitional justice. I see it when ministers come to protest that a person is being tried again before the specialized chambers: Ah, this is the abuse of Sihem Bensedrine who wants to take revenge on such a person, they repeat, ignoring the law on transitional justice. Fortunately, other institutions have embraced what makes this justice so special, including criminal justice, which has been our main ally. Completing the process now rests on their shoulders. You praise the criminal justice institutions and yet everyone has seen the incredible slowness of the specialized chambers, from which judges expert in transitional justice were moved at the start of the judicial season without asking for it. How do you explain that? Overall, we believe that criminal justice has embraced the process. This does not mean that we consider everything perfect. Justice also needs to be reformed. In the report, we proposed certain reforms through the establishment of the Higher Council of the Judiciary so that the independence of the judiciary, which is now in its infancy, can be sustained over time and become deep-rooted. It is the culture of some judges, who are resorting to old reflexes and have not yet assimilated their independence, that is the problem. To come back to the specialized chambers, let us not forget all the threats that have been made by police unions, who said they would not ensure the courts safety if they tried police officers. And the government hardly reacted. One judge resigned under pressure. The chambers have asked the Justice Ministry for better protection, which they have not yet obtained. When they issue summons for perpetrators, the judicial police sometimes fail to transmit them. Some judges had to issue warrants to move things forward. In my opinion, the course of justice and transitional justice is well underway. But I think we need to look at the whole dynamic and not just the problems. In my opinion, the course of justice and transitional justice is well underway. It is true it took a long time to get off the ground and we have not yet reached cruising speed, but we are seeing things today that human rights defenders did not even dare to dream about some time ago. Finally, the victims are no longer the ones being accused. And those who had power over peoples lives and physical integrity are being summoned to court to answer for their crimes. These are strong signals against impunity. This proves that we are on track. We are moving forward. Some Tunisian media still contest what you said in the report about huge sums of money you could have obtained if the head of state litigation had been willing to recover the public funds that were stolen Indeed, the State submitted 685 cases to the IVD as a victim of corruption. But along the way, the State refused to assert its rights. In an interview, I said that for the two cases of Sakhr Matri [son-in-law of former president Ben Ali] and Belhassen Trabelsi [Ben Alis brother-in-law] alone, we could have had at least 500 million dinars from the former and one billion dinars from the latter [147,500 and 295,000 million euros respectively] on the basis of the files put on the negotiating table and processed by our financial analysts. We were unable to continue the negotiations within the framework of the arbitration commission, although Belhassen Trabelsi put twenty cases on the table at once. Just six cases concerning this brother-in-law of Ben Ali are worth 600 million dinars. He also wrote a five-page letter asking for forgiveness, showing a lot of sincerity. The authorities protested to us loud and clear in the media. The question is why is the Tunisian State, given how indebted and in economic crisis it is today, refusing to recover its money? The question is why is the Tunisian State, given how indebted and in economic crisis it is today, refusing to recover its money? Out of 685 cases, seven cases were successfully resolved where the State accepted the arbitration mechanism within the IVD. We then allowed it to recover 745 million dinars [220 million euros]. It must be said that at the beginning of our work, we were able to work with a head of state litigation, a judge of integrity, who signed an arbitration agreement. However, he was dismissed from his post while abroad on a mission to recover stolen money three months after he started collaborating with us. The ministry then remained for a year without a head of state litigation. It appointed an administrative officer under its authority whose action it dictated. He blocked the arbitration procedures with Slim Chiboub [Ben Alis son-in-law]. From May 2016 to May 2018, the new head of litigation refused to enter into discussion even though his ministry had previously signed an agreement. When he pretended to negotiate, he always found a way to make the transaction fail. We registered 4,000 postponements of hearings with the head of state litigation during the four and a half years of our mandate. It was a tactic to stop arbitration. At the same time the authorities sought to oppress their enemies by trying to put them in prison and ensure that their friends paid a lot less money than they could have been asked. Your arbitration negotiations have been taking place behind closed doors, so what about the truth? The IVD may ask a person signing the arbitration procedure to testify at a public hearing. Ben Alis nephew, Douraid Bouaouina, for example, refused to testify publicly at the hearings on customs corruption, so we stopped the arbitration and handed his case over to the courts. Imed Trabelsi agreed to speak openly. All those who have submitted a request for arbitration with the State have signed a form in which they undertake to testify publicly if requested by the IVD. Ben Ali did not spill blood but killed slowly, inflicting more suffering on his victims. He took the whole society hostage, dislocating it and using insidious methods in his regime of violence. In your view, what distinguishes the violations committed under Bourguiba from those committed under Ben Ali? Bourguiba was more direct in the way he administered repression. When someone bothered him, he would send someone to kill them or sentence them to death. There were more murders under Bourguiba than during Ben Alis regime. On the other hand, Ben Ali did not spill blood but killed slowly, inflicting more suffering on his victims. He took the whole society hostage, dislocating it and using insidious methods in his regime of violence. It forced family members to denounce each other, neighbours to become enemies, it punished human solidarity. He sued people who gave their neighbour five dinars because she didnt have anything to eat. A year in prison for such a small donation! It punished social conscience. This is why Ben Alis crimes in terms of repercussions and damage on society are far more serious than those committed by Bourguiba. Today, the society we have inherited is very individualistic, materialistic and lacking in cohesion. We got our hands on very important documents showing that from the first day Ben Ali set foot in Carthage, he began to benefit from the various mechanisms of corruption and embezzlement. He looted in an organized, inconspicuous way, never putting his hand directly in the till. What allowed the corruption, nepotism and various fraudulent practices under Ben Ali? There is a widespread myth among us, namely that Ben Ali was an honest dictator and that those who did the trafficking were the Trabelsis. Wrong! We got our hands on very important documents showing that from the first day Ben Ali set foot in Carthage, he began to benefit from the various mechanisms of corruption and embezzlement. He looted in an organized, inconspicuous way, never putting his hand directly in the till. He is like the godfather who monopolizes power, distributes money and receives his share and percentage from everyone. And as in any mafia system, there are some little free electrons who do not obey and who are punished. A case was transferred on 31 December 2018 by the IVD to the specialized criminal justice system, Case No. 61. It includes a key investigative file containing all cases of state corruption and racketeering related to Ben Ali and his relatives, some 30 accused in all. They had three main ways to steal public money. First, calls for tenders which were only signed when significant percentages were paid to the President in foreign accounts. Second, privatization of the most profitable companies, which they then sold to their relatives. This is how Marouane Mabrouk [Ben Alis son-in-law and majority shareholder of Orange Tunisia] became exponentially richer. Thirdly, transfer of land. They reclassified land, and what was public became private through a well-honed system. The Ministry of State Domains was created by Ben Ali to manage this and his own properties. Recommended reading Tunisia Truth Commission highlights four arms of oppression In the report, you state that the reparations and rehabilitation programme for victims will not exhaust the States resources, but could instead strengthen them. How? The government has decided to set aside a ridiculous sum of only 10 million dinars [less than 3 million euros] for the Dignity Fund, which will be used to compensate victims. It has decided that the rest of the Funds funding will come from the proceeds of arbitration, which it has blocked. But we still managed to get 745 million dinars. Other possible sources of funding include donations. Friends of our country and Tunisians living abroad are offering to contribute to the Fund. However, to date, no account number has been published by the government. It is the one that manages the Fund, not us. We are trying to explain to those in charge that they should not be afraid of the Dignity Fund, because it will be beneficial to the State, since many victims have decided to choose the life annuity instead of receiving the lump sum. And so they are asking that the State to pay the social security funds the money to which they are entitled, in a current context of total deficit of these funds, so as to receive an annuity in the long term. This fund can also be replenished through reparations that can legitimately be requested from several parties. France is one of them. This country is implicated in the deaths of thousands of Tunisians. This fund can also be replenished through reparations that can legitimately be requested from several parties. France is one of them. This country is implicated in the deaths of thousands of Tunisians, including those who died during the Bizerte War in 1961, nearly 5,000 victims. 300 to 350 people are military personnel who will be removed from the reparations claims, because for the military, death is one of the risks of their profession. But the rest are civilians. In July 1956, French troops pounded the mountains of the south, Agri and Djebel Bouhlel, from east to west, and killed a thousand people when Tunisia had been independent since March. This event also deserves reparations. In 1958, the French bombed the village of Sakiet Sidi Youssef. Claiming that the Algerians were taking refuge in our country, they gave themselves the right to pursue. I remember that at that time I was a child, a primary school student, and this attack shocked me. And then all the victims of Djebel Bargou. These are just a few examples. In the memo that we are going to make, we will list precisely the names of the victims and we will ask France to present financial compensation for these people according to our scale, namely 200,000 dinars per person killed. Another party that we will solicit is the World Bank. It is responsible for the repercussions of the 1978 trade union crisis, in which the countrys difficulties stemmed from the dictatorship of the World Bank, and the 1983-1984 bread riots. Which are the facts revealed by the IVD that have shocked you most? Three events. First, the nightmare of Sabbet Edhalem in the 1950s, a place where men were tortured, cut up and thrown into wells that were covered with lime to dissolve the bodies. Then when during the 1983-1984 bread riots 15- and 16-year-olds were arrested, tried and then spread around in Borj Erroumi prison. Instead of keeping them together, 34 young men were handed over to the adults for two years, like loot. They testified publicly before the IVD recalling how they slept at night with bloody pants on. Finally, the regime used violence in all its forms during the years of persecuting Islamists: not only do we attack the opponent, we rape his wife and children, we drag them into brothels by force. What they did is beyond comprehension. BCE has everything to gain if he apologizes. It could restore his image, which is a bit dented with his party going to pieces, his son and all the rest. Do you think the President of the Republic will one day be able to present apologies to the Tunisian people on behalf of the State, as your final report demands? I think that President Beji Caid Essebsi (ECB) is a statesman, despite everything that can be blamed on him in his management of human rights today and in the past. He is capable of such an act. BCE has everything to gain if he apologizes. It could restore his image, which is a bit dented with his party going to pieces, his son and all the rest. Its a way out through the front door. He can also choose not to apologize, and it must be said that his advisors are not up to their task. The president who succeeds him after the next elections would gain a lot in trust if BCE were to apologize to the victims. It would be an extremely strong symbolic gesture to strengthen social cohesion. You have not yet been received by the head of government to submit the report to him? No. By refusing to comply with the law, the head of government [Youssef Chahed] is showing that he is not up to the task. He is proving that he is not a statesman. That is why, in my opinion, his political future can only be shaky, in line with his incompetence and bias. Tunisians take a negative view of the fact that instead of focusing on issues of public interest, he is interested only in his personal and political future. This is privatization of the state. The IVD and the new Constitution are against that. Are you concerned about the non-publication of the report in the Official Journal of Tunisia? The law is clear in this regard. Article 67 states: The IVD shall make its report public, give it to the three presidents, distribute it as widely as possible and publish it in the Official Journal. Article 70 stipulates that from the date of publication of the report, the government has one year to submit an action plan. Therefore, the official publication of the IVD report took place on 26 March 2019. In our regulations, it can be made available to the public in two ways. The first is the Official Journal and the second is the official IVD website. We are running a campaign to make the report as accessible as possible. Unfortunately, the Chahed government refused to publish it in the Official Journal. This is privatization of the state. The IVD and the new Constitution are against that. An amnesty bill proposed by the government is circulating in the corridors of parliament. If it were adopted, would it not be the failure of the transitional justice process? This is a disaster! It is a law that does not target the IVD, since the Commission has already produced its report and has transferred its files to the specialized justice system. This law, on the other hand, targets specialized chambers. In my humble opinion, this legislative proposal will not see the light of day, because it presupposes that the Constitution must first be amended before it can be adopted. In any case, they will not be able to do so before the election deadlines. This law is lamentable because it advocates impunity and ignores the rights and pain of victims. It deepens the social divide identified in our report. What will you do after your term ends on May 31, 2019? I myself do not know because I am in the process of disseminating and explaining the report! Thats whats important to me right now. I dont want this work to be forgotten. What is certain is that I am not going to run for political office, I am not interested in that. I will probably take my place in civil society again to defend this young democracy, which is still threatened, still fragile, and especially to defend the reforms proposed by the report that the corrupt lobbies are trying to prevent from seeing the light of day. Interviewed by Olfa Belhassine. Crowds are expected to converge Thursday in the Sudanese capital as protesters mark one week since the army ousted president Omar al-Bashir, determined to complete their revolution seeking civilian rule. On April 11, the army removed Bashir as tens of thousands of protesters camped outside its headquarters in central Khartoum demanding support in toppling the veteran ruler. This is the first week in my life that I have lived without Bashir, said Tariq Ahmed, 28, an engineer from Khartoum. Im proud of what my generation has done to the dictator. Bashir, 75, took power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, and headed a brutal regime for three decades. His rule saw conflicts across the country, the south splitting away to become a separate nation, and regular arrests of opposition leaders, activists and journalists. Protests initially began on December 19 in response to the tripling of bread prices, but swiftly turned into nationwide rallies against the autocrat. Cities, towns and villages echoed with chants of freedom, peace, justice, and just fall, thats all. Bashir faces charges from the International Criminal Court of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in Darfur. But despite detaining him, the military has resisted sending him to The Hague, saying his handover is a matter for a promised civilian government. On Tuesday night, he was moved to the capitals Kober prison, a family source told AFP. Dangerous waters Seven days on from Bashirs ouster, the huge square outside army headquarters now reverberates with demonstrators demanding the dissolution of the military council that replaced him. Thousands were in the square on Thursday, and they are expected to be joined by womens groups, trade unionists, engineers and students at around 4:00 pm (1400 GMT). We are sending a message that we are not leaving this area until we achieve our goal, said Ahmed, who has been at the protest since early Thursday morning. The idea is to keep the fire burning. Bashirs defence minister General Awad Ibn Ouf initially took power as council chairman but he too was ousted within 24 hours following intense pressure from the street. The council is now headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a career soldier who is largely unknown outside of the army. Protest leaders say they asked for a joint military-civilian council, but what they got was a full military council with many faces from the old regime. They have now hardened their demands. We want the military council to be dissolved and replaced by a civilian council having representatives of the army, said Mohamed Naji, a senior leader of the Sudanese Professionals Association, the group that launched the anti-Bashir campaign. This civilian council should then make way for a four-year transitional government, protest organisers say. It is increasingly clear that the revolution is still unfinished, Alan Boswell, an analyst with International Crisis Group, told AFP. The security cabal which still has power in Sudan is clearly resisting demands that would force it to cede its own power. In addition to the departure of Bashir and his immediate successor Ibn Ouf, Salah Ghosh, the feared head of the National Intelligence and Security Service, has resigned. He oversaw the crackdown on protesters that left more than 60 people dead, hundreds wounded and thousands jailed. Now the reaction of the military council to the growing pressure from protesters and the international community looks set to be crucial. I dont think we are anywhere close to the end of the road yet, Boswell said. We are hitting pretty dangerous waters. Get rid of regime Both Western and African governments have pushed for greater change in Sudan. The United States, United Kingdom and Norway have urged the military council to hold an inclusive dialogue to usher in civilian rule. And the 55-member African Union on Monday threatened to suspend Sudan if the military fails to hand over power to civilians within 15 days. The continent-wide bloc said a military-led transition would be completely contrary to the aspirations of the people of Sudan. The military council has offered concessions to protesters, including sacking the prosecutor general. But the protesters, singing and dancing outside the sprawling army complex, remain clear about what they want. Its true that Bashir is the symbol of the regime, but I believe that we are still in the middle of the road, said Erij Salah, 23. We have to fight until we get rid of this regime. Huge crowds of protesters on Thursday thronged the Sudanese capital Khartoum a week after the armys ouster of president Omar al-Bashir, determined to complete their revolution seeking civilian rule. Roads leading to a sit-in outside the army headquarters were filled with demonstrators as people converged on the site chanting power to civilians, power to civilians and freedom, peace, justice. On April 11, the army brought Bashirs three-decade rule to an end as tens of thousands of protesters camped by the military complex in central Khartoum to demand its backing. Numbers at the site dwindled in the days following the veterans toppling, but protesters returned in force to keep up pressure for a civilian government to replace the military council now in charge. We are sending a message that we are not leaving this area until we achieve our goal, said protester Ahmed, who had been at the rally since early Thursday morning. The idea is to keep the fire burning. Thursdays rally was not convened by protest organisers who have campaigned for four months against Bashir, but was a result of widespread calls by activists and individual demonstrators on social media networks. Bashir, who took power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, headed a brutal regime that saw conflicts across the country, the secession of South Sudan and regular arrests of opposition leaders, activists and journalists. Protests broke out on December 19 in response to the tripling of bread prices, swiftly turning into nationwide rallies against Bashir. Cities, towns and villages echoed with chants of freedom, peace, justice, and just fall, thats all. The 75-year-old faces charges from the International Criminal Court of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in the western region of Darfur. But despite detaining him, the military has resisted sending him to The Hague, saying his handover is a matter for a future civilian government which it has pledged to deliver. On Tuesday night, he was moved to the capitals Kober prison, a family source told AFP. Dangerous waters Seven days on from his ouster, the huge square outside army headquarters reverberated with demonstrators singing, dancing and demanding the dissolution of the military council. Thousands thronged the area, including teachers who carried pictures of their colleague Ahmed al-Kheir, who died in custody in January after being arrested in connection with protests. He was one of more than 60 people killed before Bashir finally left office. We want the killers of our teacher friend to face justice, they chanted. Hundreds more people marched in from the northern suburb of Bahari, carrying banners reading: Bring Bashir to justice. Bashirs regime was a terrorist regime, a dictatorship. We are happy that we overthrew him, said protester Mohamed Ali. All these decades, we have had wars inside the country. Our relations with the world also suffered under Bashir. All that has to change, thats what this revolution is for. Bashirs defence minister General Awad Ibn Ouf initially took power as council chairman, but stepped down within 24 hours following intense pressure from protesters. The council is now headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a career soldier largely unknown outside of the army. Protest leaders say they asked for a joint military-civilian council, but what they got was a military council with many regime faces. They have now hardened their demands. We want the military council to be dissolved and replaced by a civilian council having representatives of the army, said Mohamed Naji, a senior leader of the Sudanese Professionals Association which spearheaded the movement. This civilian council should then make way for a four-year transitional government, protest organisers say. It is increasingly clear that the revolution is still unfinished, said International Crisis Group analyst Alan Boswell. The security cabal which still has power in Sudan is clearly resisting demands that would force it to cede its own power. The protesters did win the resignation of Saleh Ghosh, head of the feared National Intelligence and Security Service. He oversaw the crackdown on protesters that left dozens dead, hundreds wounded and thousands jailed. But as pressure grows from world powers and the Sudanese street, all eyes are on the military councils next move. I dont think we are anywhere close to the end of the road yet, Boswell said. We are hitting pretty dangerous waters. Remove regime The military council has offered concessions, including sacking the prosecutor general. But both Western and African governments have pushed for greater change. The United States, United Kingdom and Norway urged the military council to hold an inclusive dialogue to usher in civilian rule. The 55-member African Union on Monday threatened to suspend Sudan if the military fails to cede power to civilians within 15 days. A military-led transition would be completely contrary to the aspirations of the people of Sudan, the bloc said. Protester Erij Salah, 23, said Bashirs departure was important but further change was needed. We have to fight until we get rid of this regime. The UNs Libya envoy warned Thursday of a widening conflagration in the North African country, saying international divisions had encouraged strongman Khalifa Haftar to launch his assault on Tripoli. Despite days of heaving fighting, Ghassan Salame told AFP there was a stalemate south of the capital between Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and the internationally recognised government. After the very first successes of the Libyan National Army two weeks ago, we are witnessing a military deadlock, he said. Fighting broke out on April 4 when Haftar and his LNA, based in the countrys east, launched an offensive to take Tripoli, the western seat of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). The GNA on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against Haftar for allegedly ordering deadly air strikes against civilian areas, its press office said. A spokesman for the GNA said it was seeking an international arrest warrant against Haftar for war crimes, as two UN experts were expected in Tripoli later Thursday to investigate the origin of rocket fire that killed six people the previous day. Salame told AFP that international divisions prior to the assault on Tripoli had emboldened Haftar, who is backed by Russia and seen by his allies Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as a bulwark against Islamists. There are countries that have invested in Mr Haftar as a champion of the fight against terrorism, Salame said, without naming any countries. They will not drop him now even if they do not agree with his attack on Tripoli. Haftars offensive forced the UN to postpone a national conference that was to draw up a roadmap to elections in a bid to turn the page on years of turmoil since the 2011 ouster of dictator Moamer Kadhafi. We worked for a whole year to prepare something that has no precedent, he said, saying the plan had been to bring the country out of chaos. Instead, the political process was on hold and these efforts are going up in smoke a little like the attic of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, he said. Heaviest fighting The renewed fighting has killed at least 205 people and left more than 900 wounded, the World Health Organization said Thursday, while more than 25,000 have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration. Fighting continued Thursday on several fronts south of Tripoli, AFP journalists on the ground and security sources said. With both sides dug in, Tripoli this week witnessed its heaviest fighting since Haftar launched his offensive, including what the UN described as indiscriminate rocket fire on a high-density neighbourhood of Tripoli. World powers have long been divided on how to stabilise Libya, wracked by violence since Kadhafis fall. Haftars offensive has again highlighted those divisions. There are interests in Libya. Its a country rich in oil, Salame said. This makes companies oil companies, construction companies, etc salivate. But he added that some countries had supported one camp or another for reasons that are not necessarily economic. UN deeply divided The UN Security Council has been split on how to address the latest crisis. Negotiations this week on a draft resolution demanding a ceasefire in Tripoli have failed to yield agreement. Germany, which holds the council presidency, called for an urgent meeting Thursday, when the council was to hear a briefing on the situation on the ground and consult on the way forward, according to a note seen by AFP. Britain has put forward a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation, but Russia objected to clauses that criticised Haftars offensive as a threat to Libyas stability. Britain put forward a slightly watered-down version on Wednesday but the three African countries on the council Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, South Africa blocked it. They have insisted on including a reference to an African Union statement on the need for all parties fighting in Tripoli to protect civilians, including migrants and refugees, according to documents seen by AFP. Moscow said even the amended version was still far away from accommodating our concerns, according to a note from the Russian UN mission. The revised text did not single out Haftars forces, but instead expressed grave concern at military activity near Tripoli, including the launching of a military offensive by the LNA. Britain had hoped to hold a vote before Friday, but that now looks unlikely. Diplomats said the United States appeared to be dragging its feet rather than pushing for a quick adoption of the draft resolution. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 17) Prosecutors from the Department of Justice have found probable cause to charge former police officer Eduardo Acierto, former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Ismael Fajardo Jr., and former Bureau of Customs (BOC) fixer Jimmy Guban on illegal drug charges in relation to the multi-billion peso illegal drug shipment which slipped past Customs as concealed in magnetic lifters. Excerpts of the resolution dated April 8 were obtained by the media Thursday. The resolution, penned by the four-man prosecutor panel led by Assistant Prosecutor Mary Jane Sytat, recommended the filing of a dangerous drugs importation case against Acierto, Fajardo, Guban and five others under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The three were previously named by the National Bureau of Investigation as "core conspirators" in facilitating the entry of the more than P13 million in methampetamine hydrochloride (shabu) inside two magnetic lifters at the Manila International Container Port in August 2018. They were also tagged in President Rodrigo Duterte's 'special report' of officials involved in the illegal drug trade. The five others indicted were Chan Yee Wah Albert (alias KC Chan/Fhonie Chan/Albert Chan/Chen Fong Hsiang), Zhou Quan (alias Zhang Quan/Zhauq Quan), Vedasto Baraquel, Jr., Maria Lagrimas Catipan, and Emily Liquingan. The prosecutors dismissed the grave misconduct complaint against former Customs Commissioner and current Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director-General Isidro Lapena. However, the dereliction of duty complaint lodged against him was endorsed to the Office of the Ombudsman for preliminary investigation. The other drug smuggling complaints against more than 50 other Customs officials, consignees, brokers and shippers implicated in the shabu shipment mess were dismissed for lack of probable cause. The basic rule is that allegation is not evidence and is not equivalent to proof. Charges based on mere suspicion and speculation likewise cannot be given credence. When the complainant relies on mere conjectures and suppositions, and fails to substantiate his allegations, the complaint must be dismissed for lack of merit, the resolution read. Acierto surfaced recently with accusations against President Rodrigo Duterte's former economic adviser Michael Yang of his links to the drug trade. The Mueller report is coming: Attorney General William Barr is expected Thursday to release a redacted version of Robert Mueller's report detailing the findings of the special counsel investigation. The redacted report, which is nearly 400 pages, will fill in some -- but likely not all -- of the details explaining what Mueller's team uncovered during the 22-month investigation that's hung like a cloud over Donald Trump's presidency while the special counsel investigated possible collusion between Trump's team and Russia and any possible obstruction of justice. Barr will also give a press conference to discuss the report at 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning. About 90 minutes later, some time in the 11 a.m. ET hour, the report will be released to Congress on discs, according to a senior Department of Justice official. After it's been delivered to Congress, it will be posted on the special counsel's website. A source familiar with the report told CNN Wednesday that the publicly released version of Mueller's report is expected to have relatively minimal redactions in the section on obstruction of justice. The Washington Post reported Wednesday evening the report will have an in-depth look at Mueller's investigation into potential obstruction of justice by Trump. The report will show Mueller could not determine Trump's intent and some of his actions could have innocent explanations, the Post reported. Trump and Republicans have claimed total exoneration after Barr released a four-page summary last month, in which the attorney general said Mueller did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Trump's team and Russia and left the obstruction question undecided. But Democrats have demanded to see Mueller's full, unredacted report, charging that Barr cannot be trusted to provide an accurate accounting of Mueller's findings as a Trump political appointee who previously argued against the merits of an obstruction case against the President. Congressional Democrats rose up in anger at Barr's decision to hold a press conference before the release of the report. Five House Democratic committee chairs said in a joint statement Wednesday night that Barr should cancel the press conference and slammed Barr. 'With the Special Counsel's fact-gathering work concluded, it is now Congress' responsibility to assess the findings and evidence and proceed accordingly,' the joint statement read. On Thursday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer jointly called for Mueller to testify before Congress publicly, saying there was a 'crisis of confidence' in Barr's independence and impartiality. 'We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the special counsel's investigation is for special counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible,' they said. Democrats have been particularly suspicious at the fact that Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the decision there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute such a case, especially in light of reports that some on Mueller's team have told others they were unsatisfied with Barr's characterization of the investigation. In a series of tweets on Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler questioned why Barr was having a press conference to explain the report at all, saying he was 'deeply troubled by reports' the White House had been briefed on the report ahead of release, as The New York Times reported. He likewise said it was 'wrong' for the Justice Department to time the release of the redacted report to Congress for after Barr's press conference. Congress will get to see a little bit more of Mueller's report and his findings than the general public once the report is delivered to them. Federal prosecutors said in a court filing related to the case against Trump associate Roger Stone on Wednesday that there would be two versions of the redacted special counsel report, with one for public release and another, less redacted, version for a limited number of members of Congress. Congressional Democrats have already authorized a subpoena for the full report and the underlying evidence, and they urged Barr to change course and provide them an unredacted version. They're likely to move forward now with the subpoena, which could spark a court battle between House Democrats and the Trump administration. After Barr released his summary of Mueller's conclusions, Barr told Congress that he would redact four types of information before making the report public: grand jury material, classified material, material about ongoing investigations and 'information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.' Democrats have argued that some of that information cannot be made public, but it should still be turned over to Congress as part of the legislative branch's oversight role. Nadler made clear the day his panel authorized a subpoena for the full Mueller report that he was willing to take the fight to the courts if the Justice Department would not turn over all of Mueller's materials. 'If the Department still refuses, then it should be up to a judge not the President or his political appointee to decide whether or not it is appropriate for the committee to review the complete record,' Nadler said. (CNN) -- Robert Mueller's investigation into possible obstruction of justice could not clear President Donald Trump, saying that it was unable to determine "that no criminal conduct occurred," according to a redacted version of the special counsel's report released Thursday. Mueller's investigation into possible collusion found that members of the Trump campaign knew they would benefit from Russia's illegal actions to influence the election, but didn't take criminal steps to help, it report said. RELATED: Read the full Mueller report Mueller also makes clear Congress can continue to investigate Trump. "With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice," the report said. In the report, Mueller provided a legal justification for why the special counsel was able to investigate obstruction of justice, even if it could not indict a sitting president. The lengthy section, citing legal precedents, also alludes to Congress' power under checks-and-balances to investigate and potentially impeach the President over obstruction of justice. "The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law," the report states. The investigation has clouded Trump's presidency for nearly two years, and Trump was clearly worried about the potential findings of Mueller, the former FBI director. In May 2017, after Trump learned of Mueller's appointment, Trump "slumped back in his chair and said, 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f***ed.'" Question of collusion On the collusion investigation, Mueller specifically stated Trump's presidential campaign "showed interest" in WikiLeaks' releases of emails that the Russians stole from the Democrats to hurt his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton. "Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in the election interference activities," the report said. Attorney General William Barr released the report Thursday after holding a press conference where he defended his conclusion there wasn't sufficient evidence to prosecute an obstruction case. "After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election, but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes," Barr said. Episodes of potential obstruction by Trump In his evaluation of whether Trump obstructed justice, Mueller looked at a number of issues and areas involving the President and his aides focused on whether they were attempting to curtail the investigation. Those areas include: the Trump campaign's response to reports about Russian support for Trump and conduct involving FBI Director James Comey and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Mueller's report says that after the election, "the President expressed concerns to advisers that reports of Russia's election interference might lead the public to question the legitimacy of his election." Other areas that Mueller probed: the President's reaction to the continuing Russia investigation; the firing of Comey; the appointment of the special counsel and efforts to remove him; efforts to curtail the special counsel; efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence; further efforts to have then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions take control of the investigation; efforts to have then-White House counsel Don McGahn deny that the President ordered him to have Mueller removed; conduct towards Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort; and conduct toward former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Mueller did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on the obstruction question, Barr said. Instead, Barr said he concluded the evidence was "not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense." "The President took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation," Barr said. Barr said the President's lawyers were permitted to read the redacted version of the report, but the President would not assert executive privilege. Trump declares victory At the White House, Trump said Thursday that he's having a "good day." "They're having a good day. I'm having a good day, too. It was called no collusion. No obstruction," Trump said to cheers at a Wounded Warriors event at the White House. "There never was by the way and there never will be. And we do have to get to the bottom of these things I will say. This should've never happened ... I say this in front of my friends, this should never happen to another president again. This hoax -- it should never happen again. Thank you." The President did not answer questions from reporters after the event. No subpoena Mueller declined to subpoena the President because it would "delay" the investigation. The special counsel believed it had the authority to subpoena Trump, but decided against doing so because it would delay the investigation, according to the report. The prosecutors also believed they already had a substantial amount of evidence. "We made the decision in view of the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation," the special counsel wrote in the report. "We had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the President's testimony." The report also says that while the OLC opinion concludes that a sitting president may not be prosecuted, "it recognizes that a criminal investigation during a President's term is permissible." The OLC opinion "also recognizes that a President does not have immunity after he leaves office," the report says. No prosecution of Trump Jr., Sessions Mueller's team declined to prosecute Donald Trump, Jr., and members of the campaign for campaign finance violations for their participation in the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, in part, because they couldn't prove that they "willfully" violated the law. "Taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the Office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting," the report states. They also didn't go after then-Sen. Jeff Sessions for making false statements or committing perjury to Congress during his confirmation hearing for attorney general in part because of the inexact wording of the questions. Sessions testified that he did not have communications with Russians during the campaign. It was later revealed Sessions interacted with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and a campaign event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Previously unknown effort by Trump to get Sessions to curtail investigation Mueller described a previously unknown example of the President's attempts to curtail the investigation involving Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Mueller says that on June 19, 2017, Trump met in the Oval Office with Lewandowski and dictated a message intended for then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who at that point had recused himself from matters involving the probe. In the message, Sessions was told to publicly announce the investigation was "'very unfair' to the President, the President had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the special counsel and 'let [him] move forward with investigation election meddling for future elections.'" Lewandowski told Trump he understood his instructions. A month later, Trump checked back in with Lewandowski on the status of his message. Lewandowski said the message would be delivered soon. Ultimately, Lewandowski declined to deliver the message personally, instead asking a senior White House official -- deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn -- to do it instead. Mueller's report says Dearborn was "uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through." Fight over full report Democrats have demanded to see Mueller's full, unredacted report, charging that Barr cannot be trusted to provide an accurate accounting of Mueller's findings as a Trump political appointee who previously argued against the merits of an obstruction case against the President. Congressional Democrats rose up in anger at Barr's decision to hold a press conference before the release of the report. Five House Democratic committee chairs said in a joint statement Wednesday night that Barr should cancel the press conference and slammed Barr. "With the Special Counsel's fact-gathering work concluded, it is now Congress' responsibility to assess the findings and evidence and proceed accordingly," the joint statement read. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer jointly called for Mueller to testify before Congress publicly, saying there was a "crisis of confidence" in Barr's independence and impartiality. "We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the special counsel's investigation is for special counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible," they said. Democrats have been particularly suspicious at the fact that Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the decision there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute such a case, especially in light of reports that some on Mueller's team have told others they were unsatisfied with Barr's characterization of the investigation. In a series of tweets on Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler questioned why Barr was having a press conference to explain the report at all, saying he was "deeply troubled by reports" the White House had been briefed on the report ahead of release, as The New York Times reported. He likewise said it was "wrong" for the Justice Department to time the release of the redacted report to Congress for after Barr's press conference. Congress will get to see a little bit more of Mueller's report and his findings than the general public once the report is delivered to them. Federal prosecutors said in a court filing related to the case against Trump associate Roger Stone on Wednesday that there would be two versions of the redacted special counsel report, with one for public release and another, less redacted, version for a limited number of members of Congress. Congressional Democrats have already authorized a subpoena for the full report and the underlying evidence, and they urged Barr to change course and provide them an unredacted version. They're likely to move forward now with the subpoena, which could spark a court battle between House Democrats and the Trump administration. Barr said Thursday he would redact four types of information before making the report public: grand jury material, classified material, material about ongoing investigations and "information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties." This story is breaking and will be updated. The-CNN-Wire & 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. SALEM, Ore. Responding to mounting pressure aimed at Oregon's child welfare system, Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order on Thursday in an attempt to create greater oversight on conditions within the state's Department of Human Services (DHS). Oregons child welfare system is overburdened to the point where I have serious concerns about the states ability to sufficiently serve our most vulnerable children, said Governor Brown. While DHS is working on long-term solutions to right-size the foster care system, there needs to be immediate action to protect children in care today. Thats why today I am establishing a Child Welfare Oversight Board and bringing in additional resources and expertise. I've asked DHS to stop placing foster kids in former jails & improve oversight of unregulated county facilities Foster kids don't belong in detention facilities. DHS started this practice w/o a law. They don't need legislation to stop it. They can and should stop today. #orpol https://t.co/s5guN0G4sE Sara Gelser (@SenSaraGelser) April 18, 2019 Brown and DHS officials currently face a class action lawsuit leveled by child welfare advocacy groups, alleging that the state has failed to shield children from abuse and kept them in substandard housing conditions. We filed a lawsuit to transform Oregons foster care system along w/ co-counsel @ABC & @DWT. Roughly half of the 8,000 children in Oregon's system who experience a disability are not getting their needs met in a stable, family-like home https://t.co/p1NfllokFS #ORfostercare pic.twitter.com/2OUn8ayyAZ DisabilityRtsOR (@DisabilityRtsOR) April 16, 2019 Thursday's executive order establishes a Child Welfare Oversight Board to advise the Governor on what measures to take in order to address the state's "child welfare crisis." Brown has asked that the Board examine DHS practices on out-of-state foster child placements, improving capacity within the system for adequate types of foster care, and addressing issues with transparency, communications, hiring and human resources. CLICK HERE for a recent report from OPB outlining claims that a 9-year-old girl in foster care had been sent out of state in the care of a third-party contractor, abandoned, and "drugged." The Governor said that she has also directed DHS and its Child Welfare Program to "suspend or amend any agency policies or rules that make it difficult to address challenges in the child welfare system," including "policies or rules related to hiring or contracting." Oregons challenges in foster care have been long-standing, and our children and families deserve better, said Governor Brown. We need to mobilize quickly if we want to improve the lives of those in Oregons foster care system. I also want to be clear that the child welfare system belongs to all of us as Oregonians, not just DHS or state government. Part of the reform in child welfare is engaging communities in being part of the solution." In a statement commenting on Brown's executive order, DHS Director Fariborz Pakseresht pointed out that the state's Child Welfare program has been "extremely strained" for decades. "During the past two years, there have been multiple internal and independent assessments and audits of the agency and its Child Welfare program that all point to the same list of solutions," Pakseresht said. "We have a clear picture of what must be done, we have defined the strategies to correct the problems, we have been building the foundation for the corrective work and we are making progress." Creating a "robust child well-being system" would take time, he added, voicing his support for Governor Brown's executive order. "Keeping Oregons foster children safe and helping our families heal and thrive takes all of us working together," Pakseresht said. "We look forward to working productively and cooperatively with the Governors designees." Brown and other officials have indicated efforts are underway to bring back foster children being held out of state at third-party facilities, state Sen. Sara Gelser saying that her office had already helped to return a 9-year-old girl highlighted in a damning OPB report from last week. ASHLAND, OR --It's hard for businesses to forget about last year's smoke season. The smoke lasted for weeks. Making some tourists cancel their plans to visit Southern Oregon. Nicholars Bair and his fiance opened up a lavender shop last July. Just weeks before the smoke arrived. Bair says, "the smoke, it was obviously very challenging for us, the numbers were quite down for the tourists coming through." Bair and his fiance have found their success from the support of the local community, instead of tourists. He says, "that's part of the reason why our shop is still here today. What we found was that the local community really embraced us. The whole goal is to be embraced by the local community in Ashland and Medford." Kelly Jean Hammond is one of the owners of Paddington Station. She says, "the smoke season last year was really difficult." Their buisnesses is working with the change of nature instead of fighting it. She says, "we didn't let the smoke stop us and we didn't let the smoke keep us for doing our business." While doing their normal business, the store also created a sort of oasis from the smoke. With smoke masks, cold water and snacks. She says, "we could sit here and say maybe the smoke is going to come in August. so we are going to plan ourselves down 20 percent but who knows, who knows what's going to happen. It's really, it's why it's called nature. we can't really control it." Hammonds plan for the smoke is to keep adding new products in the store even during smoke season. Plus she says Ashland has so many different activities, she is not surprised people said in the SOU survey they want to come back. She says, "I think that while the smoke was a huge deterrent our little town shined through and let tourists know how awesome we are. Bair says, "man I really hope that they do come back." His plan is get the local community involved in his store. By hosting local artists and musicians at his store the first Friday of every month. Something the shop has already started. Evaluation of the airworthiness of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes must be completed and their flight safety guaranteed before resuming operation, according to China's civil aviation regulator. "When to resume the flying of Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes depends on the progress of solving the problems," said Xu Chaoqun, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). "The airworthiness of the airplanes must be checked and approved again, the necessary refit for the airplane and pilot training should be effectively carried out, and safety issues revealed in the investigation results should be addressed so as to ensure 100 percent flight safety," said Xu. Xu said the CAAC has established a special technical group and started reviewing the airworthiness approval of the planes. According to Xu, Chinese experts have been invited by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to take part in a joint technical review group concerning the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8. The CAAC ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operations of all Boeing 737-8 airplanes after the Ethiopian Airlines airplane bound for Nairobi of Kenya crashed minutes after take-off last month, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second deadly crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 model in less than five months. The first occurred in October last year when a plane of this model operated by Indonesia's Lion Air plunged into the waters off western Indonesia minutes after taking off, killing 189 people. 99 Shares Share Late last year the New York Times reported that Dr. Jose Baselga, the chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, had resigned for failing to disclose his conflicts of interest at professional meetings and in scientific and medical journals. The Times report says that Dr. Baselga who also served as physician-in-chief at the center had failed to disclose millions of dollars in payments from health care companies in dozens of research articles. It appears, though, that his wrongful conduct was not the receipt of such munificent sums from the drug industry; instead, it was his failure to disclose them. Writing about this case in a Times opinion piece, Dr. Marcia Angell, a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, says Disclosure is better than no disclosure, but it does not eliminate the conflict of interest. I agree. The main worry about conflict of interest in research is that it tends to bias the research in favor of the company sponsoring that research; there is ample evidence for this. Dr. Angell provides a sound argument for that concern. She explains that one-way conflicts of interest hamper research is by suppressing negative results. Researchers are not required to publish the results of research in which, say, a pharmaceutical companys drug does not show efficacy. She writes that one review found that 37 of 38 positive studiesthat is, studies that showed that a drug was effectivewere published. But 33 of 36 negative studies were either not published or published in a form that conveyed a positive outcome. Eliminating the negative When industry sponsors research, it retains control of the manuscript, reporting the results and what is subsequently published. Another well-known example of the problem at hand is the manipulation of the design of a research study so that one treatment will show more positive effects than the one under comparison. For example, the sponsors drug may be compared with another drug administered at a dose so low that the sponsors drug looks more powerful, Angell writes. Another article about industry support of medical research notes that two systematic reviews found that studies sponsored by industry reported significantly greater benefits and less harm than studies with other sources of funding. Similarly, there are well-known examples where industry has squelched (or attempted to squelch) study results that were unfavorable to their products. How do companies get away with this kind of trickery? After all, research involving human participants has to be reviewed by an Institutional Review Board (IRB), a research ethics committee usually located in the medical school or institution where the companys research is conducted. Most IRB members are medical researchers themselves, and should have the expertise to detect such maneuvers in the protocols they review. Authors and authenticity Another integrity check could occur in the peer-review process when a manuscript is submitted to a journal for publication. But even then, authors may artfully suppress maneuvers designed to favor a companys product. An equally egregious behavior is medical ghostwriting, in which pharmaceutical companies hire an unnamed writer who authors the paper based on company-sponsored research, giving it a favorable spin. The company also finds prominent medical researchers willing to lend their names as authors of paperspossibly people involved in some way in the research, or key opinion leaders in the field. Why would any self-respecting scientist engage in such unethical practices? Its unclear. Yet articles in the medical and bioethics literature over the years reveal how widespread this and other unethical practices are in the world of medical publishing. And even the National Institutes of Health (NIH) may not be completely immune from questionable aspects of research collaboration. An opinion piece in the Washington Post last year argued that the agency doesnt police its conflicts of interest well enough. That op-ed recounts a study sponsored by beer and liquor companies designed to find alcohols benefits but not its potential harms. When these aspects came to light, the NIH director ended the trial. But the author of the Post piece, who spent several years as a Senate investigator studying conflict-of-interest problems at the NIH, says industry ties to NIH go back decades and are never really addressed unless the agency faces media scrutiny and demands from the public and Congress for change. Diminishing corporate influence So how can we remedy the evident bias in research resulting from industry sponsorship? Such sponsorship isnt going away. One step that IRBs in academic institutions can take is to ensure careful review of such research by members of the committee who have no ties to industry. Another more controversial step is one that medical journals might adopt. Instead of merely requesting disclosure of conflict of interest by authors, journals could require authors to disclose any sums of money a sponsor has paid for activities beyond the direct cost of conducting the research. If those sums exceed a certain reasonable amount, the journal could refuse to publish the article. Less controversial would be an instruction to peer reviewers to ensure that the methods used in the research do not bias the conclusions in favor of the sponsors product. That step might require peer reviewers to request more information from authors than appears in the manuscript submitted for publication. Whether these or other remedies are put in place, patients and the public have a right to medical treatment stemming from research results untainted by the actions of for-profit companies that engage in manipulative or dishonest practices. Ruth Macklin is a professor, department of epidemiology and population health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. She blogs at the Doctors Tablet. Image credit: Shutterstock.com EUGENE, Ore. -- A Sutherlin man was arrested in a child prostitution sting in Eugene, police said. Bryan Ray Warren, 38, is accused of responding to a posting by special investigations detectives, who posed online as a 15-year-old girl. Detectives said Warren agreed to meet the girl in the vicinity of a local high school and was arrested by the street crimes unit. Warren is in the Lane County Jail and faces a charge of first-degree online sexual corruption of a child. Police said they want to raise awareness to prevent sexual exploitation and to help children and women who are victimized. A growing backlash against economic globalization and the resurgence of unilateralism and protectionism have added a new urgency to the reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which now stands at the heart of the rules-based multilateral trading system. However, the effort to improve the 164-member organization established in 1995 will not be easy as there have been wide-ranging concerns aired by different parties. Speakers at a round-table discussion on Monday held by the Center for China and Globalization shared their views on the complexity of reform and the action needed to better promote global free trade. Amb. Terry Miller, former ambassador of the U.S. to the U.N., said that one of the problems with the WTO is the concept of special and differential treatment (SDT). He said that the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was designed to serve the U.S. and its major trading partners, which were already engaged in some degree of trade at that time. Miller argued that those trading economies benefitted enormously from the disciplines imposed by the GATT. It aimed to control the tendency to enact protectionist measures, but this was not applied to developing countries. "As for the things that were the most benefit to us, we did not impose as requirements on the developing countries. I think that was a tremendous disservice to them," he said. Amid huge changes in how the global economy is organized, reform of the WTO requires a transformation in many countries' understanding about the nature of trade negotiations and the benefits of trade, Miller continued. "Trade negotiations are now perverse, with each country bringing protectionist measures to the table and saying 'I'm going to hold on to these, but I'll negotiate my protectionist measures away if you negotiate your protectionist measures away'," he said. He warned that "unless we get over the hump in terms of understanding that in trade, it's imports rather than exports that are the main benefits, we are going to have a very difficult time." Chong Quan, former Chinese vice minister of commerce, said that the basic principles and core values of the WTO must be adhered to in the reform process. He said that the needs of countries at different development stages should be considered, and therefore, the SDT principle for developing countries should be upheld. Very hard negotiations lie ahead, with different countries taking different positions, such as the U.S. concern about the SDT and the European Union's focus on subsidies and transparency, Chong added. He expressed the hope that with a forward-looking vision, the parties concerned can find the broadest possible common ground and work together to make the WTO fairer, more equitable, non-discriminatory and transparent. Tu Xinquan, dean of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, said that the classification of more than 100 developing countries posed by many developed nations is not constructive or feasible, but likely to create more conflicts. He said that WTO members should forget about the definition of developed and developing countries, and just make requests for special treatment on specific issues in accordance with their own development level. As the future of the WTO now hangs in the balance, hopes are being pinned on this year's Group of 20 (G20) summit scheduled for late June in Osaka, Japan. The G20 said in its declaration concluding the 2018 summit in Buenos Aires that they support the necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning. They added that they will also review its progress at the next summit. The U.S. arms sale plan unveiled Monday is a dangerous move that will only aggravate the already complex and grim situation across the Taiwan Strait. The U.S. government has approved a possible 500-million-U.S. dollar military sale to Taiwan, claiming that the move will help to improve the security and defensive capability of the recipient. Subsequently, Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen expressed "gratitude," saying that the arms sale was "timely." The situation across the Taiwan Strait, which is already complicated and grim, is worsening as the United States has been using Taiwan to contain China while the Taiwan administration kept seeking foreign intervention. The Taiwan question concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations. The U.S. arms sales to Taiwan constitutes a serious violation of international law, the basic norms governing international relations, the one-China principle and the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques and undermine China's sovereignty and security interests. China's firm opposition to such arms sales is consistent and firm. Since the current U.S. administration took office, it has constantly played the "Taiwan card" to contain China, especially in arms sales to Taiwan and military exchanges between the United States and Taiwan. This has seriously damaged China-U.S. relations and jeopardized peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwan question, which concerns China's core interests and the national bond of the Chinese people, brooks no external interference. The U.S. administration has once again stirred up sensitive nerves in the Taiwan Strait. Its gross interference in China's internal affairs has aroused the strong indignation of the Chinese people on both sides of the Strait. Some Taiwan organizations and people protested outside the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in Taipei, condemning U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and demanding "no war, only peace," and "Taiwan is not a pawn for the United States." Therefore, we would like to advise the U.S. side to clearly recognize the high sensitivity and serious harm of arms sales to Taiwan, correct mistakes, honor its commitments and handle Taiwan-related issues in a prudent and proper manner in accordance with the one-China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques. Taiwan's current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, which is teetering on the brink of collapse, was overjoyed at the U.S. arms sales as if it had been given a "straw to save its life." Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP administration have escalated provocations against the Chinese mainland, created disturbances recently and cooperated with the United States in vigorously clamoring the so-called "military threat" from the mainland. In the face of next year's general election on the island, Tsai and the DPP will not hesitate to let Taiwan serve as a pawn for forces of external interference in order to protect their power, regardless of the safety and well-being of the Taiwanese people. This party has not only misjudged the situation but also deviated from the people's heart. U.S. weapons cannot guarantee Taiwan's security. Tsai and the DPP cannot secure their power and position by seeking foreign interference or threatening the people. Tsai, the DPP and "Taiwan independence" separatist elements should not play with fire or even think about it. They are doomed to be alone in the face of the pressure of their own actions. On April 17, 124 years ago, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, securing foreigner's occupation of Taiwan for half a century. It left lasting, painful memories for all Chinese. Today's China will never allow the historical tragedy of national division to repeat itself. No one and no force should underestimate the determination and capability of the Chinese in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 18) At least 20 Filipinos are returning to the country amid the fighting in Libya, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday. The Philippine Embassy in Libya has started evacuating seven of them, including three hospital workers and four students. They were brought to Tunisia, another North African country some 400 kilometers from the Libyan capital of Tripoli, waiting for their repatriation. Charge d'Affaires Elmer Cato said 13 more Filipinos requested assistance in coming home and will be evacuated in the coming days. This includes a Filipino who was wounded in rocket attacks in Tripoli, as reported by Cato on Wednesday. Cato on Thursday posted on Twitter a video of him with Rolando Torres, another Filipino who wants to go home. He said Torres "narrowly survived the barrage of rockets that struck Tripoli last night." "Rolando Torres had witnessed previous fighting in Libya but he said last night was different," he said. Cato reported that 15 Filipino nurses were safe after the hospital they were working at located south of Tripoli was struck by rockets Wednesday night. "We were assured by hospital owner they will be moved to a safe location today," he said. The Philippine Embassy continues to advise the 2,000 overseas Filipinos in Libya to volunteer themselves for repatriation, assuring them that the government is ready to bring them home. All costs for the repatriation will be shouldered by the government. Alert Level 3 is still up in Tripoli and nearby areas, which means only voluntary evacuations are taking place. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier told CNN Philippines the government could raise the alert to Level 4 "anytime soon," resulting in forced repatriation of all Filipino workers in Libya. The Labor department has also issued a total ban on the deployment of Filipino workers there. As early as the first week of April, the government has offered to bring Filipinos home amid reports of fresh fighting in Libya as rebel forces from the east of the country try to enter the capital. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for greater efforts to win the battle against poverty on time and realize the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects as scheduled. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the statement during an inspection tour to southwest China's Chongqing Municipality from Monday to Wednesday. During the inspection, Xi also presided over and delivered a speech at a symposium to address the problems concerning the basic living needs of rural poor populations and their access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. Visits to the poor After arriving in Chongqing, the president took an over-three-hour trip, by train and then by road, to a mountainous village in Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County on Monday. When visiting a primary school there, Xi promised to ensure children in poor mountainous regions go to school and have a happy childhood. Stopping by the house of Tan Dengzhou, an impoverished villager, Xi learned that Tan and his wife were unable to work due to illness and thus faced financial difficulties. People who still live under the poverty line or slip back into poverty due to illness should be the priority of poverty alleviation projects, Xi said, adding that they should receive support such as minimum-living allowances, medical insurance and medical aid. At the home of Ma Peiqing, a veteran CPC member who has shaken off poverty, Xi sat in the yard, chatting with the villagers, primary-level officials and village doctors. "Not a single person should be left behind in the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Xi said. "Socialism means development. Development must serve the common prosperity for everyone." He told the CPC members and cadres to work on the frontline in fighting poverty. Poverty relief priorities At the symposium Tuesday afternoon, Xi said that the basic requirement and key indicator for the poverty alleviation goal by 2020 are that rural poor people have no worry about food and clothing and have access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. At the crucial stage in winning the battle against poverty, heads of Party committees and governments at the provincial level should take up their responsibilities, he said. Efforts should be made to work out detailed and concrete measures, target genuinely poor households, and prevent the reoccurrence of poverty to those who had been lifted out, according to Xi. In addition to deepening the campaign against corruption and improper conduct in poverty alleviation, Xi also called for timely compensation and long-term support to families of officials who have sacrificed their lives to the cause. Development of western region After hearing the work reports from Chongqing's Party and government officials Wednesday morning, Xi hoped that Chongqing will act as a major drive in boosting the development of China's western region in the new era, play a leading role in promoting the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and become a model in advancing green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Xi asked Chongqing to take the lead in the western region to firmly promote the reform and opening-up and meticulously prepare for and carry out the events celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China. The officials were told to address issues closely related to people's lives, such as education, employment, social security, healthcare, housing, environmental protection, and public security. They were also instructed to foster high-caliber officials that are loyal, clean and responsible, and crack down on the practice of formalities for formalities' sake and bureaucratism. Swallows have been spotted in Kilkenny. Their welcome return from the sunnier climes of South Africa normally heralds the arrival of warmer weather and the summer. I was delighted to see a few of them around Coon yesterday, Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick said. The eagle eyed local representative said they were hovering over a farm building just outside the north Kilkenny village. Ranger with the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Kilkenny, Jimi Conroy said conditions for the return of the birds were perfect and that this weekend should see an influx of the easily identifiable creatures. He advised people to check their barns and the underside of their roofs for the birds. Members of the same family, sandmartins have already arrived. They over-winter in central Africa, while almost all Irish swallows have to fly from Natal Province in South Africa. The male swallows will arrive first, 10 days or so before the females. They have two immediate priorities. One is to capture enough insect food to build up their body weight after the long migration although they already had a feeding spree in Spain and south-western France after the Mediterranean crossing. The other priority is to secure the nest site. Almost all Irish swallows nest in buildings or other man-made structures, such as bridges. They are very faithful to their nesting sites, returning to the same one generation after generation. The disappearance or sealing up of a nest can have deadly consequences for the birds. As this years Trocaire Lenten campaign comes to an end, a young mother from Rwanda has sent a message of thanks to the people of Co Kilkenny for their donations which have helped to completely change her life. Twenty-five years ago, Josiane Umumarashavu, who was aged 3, survived the genocide which saw her father, sister and two of her brothers killed along with almost 1 million other people. With her mother struggling to provide for her three children in the aftermath of this horrific atrocity, Josiane featured on more than one million Trocaire boxes that reached homes in Kilkenny and right across Ireland back in 2004. Thanks to donations from the public during this Lent campaign, Josiane and her family, along with thousands of others, received support and equipment to help them improve their farming. This meant they could feed their families in the long-term, earn an income and allowed the children to continue in school. Today, 15 years later, Josiane, 28, is now a successful businesswoman and is married with a beautiful six-month old baby boy, Gianni. Graduating with a qualification in business management and accounting, she now works in Trocaires office in Rwanda. I am very happy, says Josiane. Trocaire, and the supporters across Ireland, have made my dreams come true. Life was very difficult after the genocide. We didnt have enough to eat and we couldnt afford the fees to allow me to continue my studies after primary school. But thanks to Trocaire supporters, not only was I able to go to secondary school, but I then went to university. I am very proud that I now work for Trocaire and can help others, as well as taking care of my baby son. I want to say a big thank you to Trocaire supporters in Ireland - you have helped to change my life and that of my family, and you should be proud that you are helping so many people. Caoimhe de Barra, CEO for Trocaire explained: Josiane and her family is just one example of how the generous support from the public in Co Kilkenny is having a massive impact on those in the developing world, and how the spare change in the Trocaire boxes can really make a lasting difference for many years to come. This year, our Lent campaign has focused on the millions of families in the developing world who have lost their land and their homes, and are facing hunger, the threat of violence and no access to education and basic medical care. We are also responding to the devastating effects of Cyclone Idai in southern Africa. Your support for our Lenten Appeal can help Trocaire bring urgent life-saving care to people in the worst affected areas, as well as support more than 2 million of the poorest and most vulnerable people across the world over the coming year. We are grateful to everyone in Co Kilkenny who has fundraised and collected coins over Lent and we would urge you to return your boxes as soon as possible so we can begin to put your generous donations into action. Trocaire boxes can be returned to parishes across Co Kilkenny or to donate to the Lenten appeal, call 1850 408 408 or visit trocaire.org. A simulated Mars base officially opened on Wednesday in Gansu province, aiming to popularize science and boost interest in space exploration among youth. The site, covering 67 square kilometers in Jinchang, contains nine main parts, including an airlock module, a general control module and a biological module, and can simulate the Mars environment to teach astronauts how to survive. Five sections, featuring space communication, extraterrestrial survival, space exploration, living in space and space development, will also be established where visitors can fully immerse themselves in the Mars experience. Wang Jiantai, Party chief of Jinchang, said the base is a first in space education for tourists, Mars-themed tourism, astronomical research and moviemaking. The base is a part of the country's C Space Plan, an education project for Chinese youngsters launched in October. Located 20 kilometers from the city center, the base was developed on land that resembles Martian conditions with its unique landscape and climate. "We have designed a series of experiential, interesting and spreadable approaches to kindle people's interest and enthusiasm toward science, exploration and innovation, especially young people," said Zhao Tianshu, director of the project's education system. In addition to allowing visitors to experience a landing on another planet, conduct extraterrestrial experiments and go about routine life in space, the base also creates dramatic scenarios for role-playing. Bai Fan, the founder of the project, said the base is intended to boost courage as its core value and to inspire young people to face unknown challenges. They will have a more interesting and creative study experience by role-playing and teamwork during the visit, he said. "Our science communication needs a more realistic, interactive model to arouse the youth's passion for the starry sky and help them put that passion into practice," Bai said. Feng Chunping, executive deputy director of the China Center for Aerospace Science and Technology International Communications, said youth are key to the future of China's space exploration, and aerospace science education plays a crucial role. But traditional education has tended to focus on displays of scientific results or screening films while failing to provide interactive opportunities, she said. "It is not easy to make science communication attractive and interesting while maintaining precise and informative. Only by combining innovative thinking with precise science will it be possible to produce truly outstanding science communication products. The opening of the base is a new model for popularizing aerospace science." Ma Xi'e, a 12-year-old student from a middle school in Jinchang, said she looks forward to visiting the base and feeling the mysteries of space. "I will be able to try on a space suit, feel the space capsule and experience walking in space. These activities make space less mysterious and fill me with curiosity," she said. * GRAPHIC-2019 asset returns:* China data boosts metals sentiment (Adds official prices) By Zandi Shabalala LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - Copper prices rose on Wednesday as firmer-than-expected economic growth figures from China boosted expectations for higher demand in the world's top metals consumer. China's economy grew at a 6.4 percent pace in the first quarter from a year earlier, defying expectations for a further slowdown, as industrial production jumped sharply and consumer demand showed signs of improvement. "The data is confirmation that there are clear tailwinds to Chinese growth into the second quarter and mid-year," said Deutsche Bank metal strategist Nick Snowdon. Benchmark copper rose 0.6 percent to $6,532 per tonne in official open outcry trading, inching to a near two-week high of $6,545 touched earlier. China, which is in the midst of a trade conflict with the United States, ramped up fiscal stimulus this year to support the world's second largest economy after a slew of disappointing data pointed to a potential slowdown. But some analysts warned it may be too early to say the GDP data was a sign of a full turnaround in the Chinese economy and a break from narrow trading ranges for metals. "Whilst potentially the first quarter represents a key turning point for the balance of 2019, as to whether it presents a panacea to the mean reversion/range trading so evident in our space seems unlikely," said Alastair Munro at broker Marex Spectron. OUTPUT: China's crude steel output grew 10 percent in March compared with the same month a year ago as mills ramped up operations amid a profit margin recovery and less stringent curbs on production in the country's anti-smog crackdown. DATA: China's aluminium production fell 3.6 percent on a daily basis in March from the previous two months to its lowest rate since October, pressured by winter curbs on industry and low prices. This pushed Shanghai aluminium up as high as 13,995 yuan ($2,092.59) a tonne, its highest intra-day level since December. LME ALUMINIUM: LME aluminium rose 0.1 percent to $1,858 per tonne. DOLLAR: The U.S. currency eased against a basket of major currencies. A weaker greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for non-U.S. firms, a relationship used by funds to generate buy and sell signals. AUSTRALIA RAILWAY: A railway that carries zinc from major producers such as Glencore , MMG Ltd and South 32 across Australia's Outback is expected to reopen this month after it was damaged in floods. COLUMN: Zinc is coming under sustained attack from bearish funds. The trigger for the assault was Tuesday morning's London Metal Exchange (LME) stocks report, showing 10,625 tonnes of inflow into exchange warehouses. PRICES: Zinc climbed 0.7 percent to $2,829 per tonne, lead gained 1.6 percent to $1,950, tin was bid up 0.5 percent to $20,400 per tonne, while nickel was bid up 0.5 percent to $13,025 a tonne. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen, editing by Louise Heavens) zandi.shabalala.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))LME price overview COMEX copper futures Base metals news All metals news All commodities news Metals diary Foreign exchange rates SPEED GUIDES )) After strong gains in the previous session sparked by upbeat economic data, traders' attention was returning to the progress of U.S.-China trade talks, with the Wall Street Journal saying a deal may be ready to be signed by late May or early June. Prior to the market opening on Thursday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) lifted its official yuan midpoint to 6.6911 per dollar, 199 pips, or 0.3 percent firmer than the previous fix of 6.7110. It was the strongest fixing since March 21. In the spot market, yuan opened at 6.6860 and rose to a high of 6.6854 at one point, the firmest level since March 21. But, as of midday, it was changing hands at 6.6947, 67 pips weaker than the previous late session close and 0.05 percent softer than the midpoint. The Chinese currency leapt on Wednesday as a raft of stronger-than-expected economic data suggested the slowing economy may be starting to stabilise. Though analysts cautioned it was too early to call a turnaround, the numbers suggested the economy may be bottoming out a bit sooner than expected, and some market watchers bumped up their full-year economic forecasts. Robin Xing, economist at Morgan Stanley, raised his growth forecast by 0.2 percentage point to 6.5 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2020. "(We) maintain our view of a growth upturn in 2Q-4Q19 as fiscal easing fully kicks in, trade tensions ease, and consumer confidence normalizes," he said in a note on Thursday. Traders many offshore institutions started building long yuan positions following the strong data on Wednesday. But in the onshore market, a trader at a Chinese bank said supply and demand was "not in favor of a strong yuan" for now, noting most of the gains in the past two days were tracking the those in the offshore market. "For now, (onshore) corporate client's expectations do not seem to have changed much," the trader said. Economists at BNP Paribas China expect the yuan to remain in a tight range. "While growth stabilization and a possible trade deal support the RMB, weak exports imply a strong currency is infeasible," they said in a note on Thursday. A CNBC report said Chinese officials were identifying travel dates on U.S. President Donald Trump's calendar that might offer potential for a summit between leaders of the two nations. "Our forecast for the USD/CNY of 6.75 by the end of the year essentially tracks the development of trade talks. But we need to closely monitor the yuan's moves post-trade talks to determine if we need to revise up our yuan forecast in 2Q and 3Q," ING's Greater China economist Iris Pang said in a note. The global dollar index rose to 97.052 at midday from the previous close of 97.009. The offshore yuan was trading at 6.6937 per dollar as of midday. China's foreign exchange regulator said on Thursday the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy stance will be favourable for the nation's capital flows, and expected the cross-border capital flows to remain steady despite some uncertainties. The yuan market at 0301 GMT: (Reporting by Winni Zhou and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Kim Coghill) Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! (Kitco News) - Gold prices tumbled to daily lows following better-than-expected retail sales from March, with the yellow metal trading below $1,280 an ounce. U.S. retail sales rose a solid 1.6% in March, marking the biggest increase since September 2017, following a drop of 0.2% in February, according to the latest data from the U.S. Commerce Department. Economists were expecting to see an increase of 0.9% in last months headline number. Immediately following the publication of March retail sales, June Comex gold futures dropped to $1,275.40, down 0.11% on the day. Earlier this week, gold went through a major sell-off, hitting four-month lows and touching $1,273 an ounce. The strongest parts of the retail report were higher purchases of autos, clothing and food, with sales rising 3.1%, 2%, and 0.8%, respectively. At the same time, core sales, which strip out vehicle sales, increased 1.2% last month, beating the expected 0.7% rise. Even the reports control group, which strips out autos, gas, building materials, and food services, was up 1%. The retail sales figure was one of the most important events of the week to watch, said TD Securities head of global strategy Bart Melek, stating that anything stronger than market consensus would prevent gold from breaking out of its range. Marchs sales point to a balanced rebound in consumer activity across the U.S., said CIBC Capital Markets economist Katherine Judge while warning that the market might not see such strong number later in the year. The annualized three month average of core sales at a decent 2.6%, helped by March's rise in sales, which is indicative of a healthy rebound in consumption. While we still expect real consumer spending to decelerate over the remainder of the year, rising wages and a strong labor market should provide ammunition for continued spending, Judge said. Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! (Kitco News) - Gold needs to hold a critical support level for several trading sessions before a bottom can be consolidated, or prices could head even lower, said Todd Bubba Horwitz, chief strategist at bubbatrading.com. The $1,280 level has to hold, and $1,280 could be $1,270, $1,285, somewhere in that area. Thats got to hold for a couple of days and do a little consolidating here. If that doesnt hold, then were bringing $1,260 and $1,240 into play, but if we can hold here, then I would be willing to call this a bottom and I think we can go higher from here, Horwitz told Kitco News. Horwitz added that a big spike up may not mean the end of the selloff, rather, it could potentially signal more selling to come. Despite gold's price weakness of late, Horwitz is still sticking to this $1,400 an ounce gold call by the end of year. "I think that we have a very solid chance to get [to $1,400]. I think there's going to be some selling coming into the equities, I think there's going to be some nerves out there, and I think people are going to go back into the yellow metal," he said. On the recent selling of $400 million worth of gold by Venezuelas central bank, Horwitz said that investors should not read this as a sell signal, as Venezuelas actions had very little market impact. I think theyre selling because they need the money. I think that theyre running out, they have nobody to tax, they have no more money to get anywhere, they cant sell any oil, so they got to take some money from somewhere so theyre going to liquidate their gold, he said. Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! Central banks are still adding gold to their reserves, says Commerzbank, citing data compiled by the International Monetary Fund. Some of the biggest buyers in March were Turkey (17 tonnes) and Kazakhstan (over five tonnes), Commerzbank says. By contrast, Argentina reduced its gold reserves by nearly seven tonnes tons, the bank points out. Last week already saw the Chinese central bank report further gold purchases, Commerzbank says. Russia is also likely to have purchased more gold in March. The relevant data will be published shortly. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com TDS: Investors May Increase Allocation To Gold TD Securities sees potential for investors to increase allocations to gold even though the yellow metal has not been able to benefit lately from a seemingly dovish Federal Reserve. With many in the market dismayed and pondering what it will take to move gold past $1,350/oz, if an uber-dovish Fed can't do the job, we see interest growing from both the official sector and money managers in the cards, TDS says. Growing risks that central banks may again need to follow a nonconventional monetary policy path, when the economy heads south, [are] additional fodder for the view that private-asset allocations would follow the official sector in increasing their allocations to gold and precious metals. For now, prices remain stuck in recent ranges. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Commerzbank: Swiss Data Show Asian Gold Demand Picks Up Asian gold demand has picked up although it remains at a low level historically, says Commerzbank, citing data from the Swiss Federal Customs Administration. Switzerland exported 33.1 tonnes of gold to China and Hong Kong and 24.2 tonnes of gold to India in March. In each case, this was the most since November, Commerzbank says. That said, Indias central bank had recently reported much higher Indian gold imports in March, which suggests that Switzerland is no longer the main supplier of gold to India, Commerzbank says. The same applies to China. Gold demand in China and India is probably somewhat better than the Swiss trade data indicate, in other words. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com BMO Looks For Gold To Remain In Range Of Last Two Years Analysts with BMO Capital Markets look for gold to remain range-bound for the foreseeable future, with global exchange-traded-fund holdings remaining relatively consistent despite recent price weakness in the yellow metal. With improving Chinese data, gold does look to be providing some of the funding source for the current risk-on rally, BMO says. The spot price has dropped to $1,272/oz, down over 5% from Februarys high, and has now been lower for four consecutive weeks. However, while holdings in the largest gold ETF, SPDR Gold Shares, have dropped to a six-month low, overall gold holdings in physically backed ETFs have remained relatively consistent, suggesting macro asset allocators continue to maintain some exposure in the wider risk environment. This points to gold continuing to hold in the relatively tight range we have seen over the past couple of years. Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! (Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are trading not far from unchanged levels in early U.S. action Thursday, following some just-issued U.S. economic data that was better than market expectations. Gold prices touched a fresh four-month low overnight. June gold futures were last down $0.40 an ounce at $1,276.50. May Comex silver was last down $0.009 at $14.93 an ounce. U.S. economic data just out showed jobless claims fell by 5,000 in the latest reporting week. Also, March U.S. retail sales beat expectations and came in at up 1.6%. Gold and silver prices initially down-ticked a bit on the reports releases but have since moved back to near unchanged levels on the day. Asian and European stock indexes were mixed to weaker overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward slightly lower openings when the New York day session begins. The marketplace, especially the FOREX sector, is keeping a very close eye on the Turkish lira, which has weakened significantly against the U.S. dollar recently. There are concerns about Turkeys low foreign currency reserves that would have to be used to defend the lira in case speculative FOREX traders mounted a selling attack on it. The U.S.-China trade negotiations are continuing and apparently the worlds two largest economies are moving closer to a final agreement. There is talk in the marketplace that President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could meet next month to seal the deal. The key outside markets today find the U.S. dollar index higher, as the Euro currency is pressured by some weak manufacturing data coming out of the Euro zone today. Meantime, Nymex crude oil prices are slightly down and trading around $63.75 a barrel. Its a busy day for U.S. economic reports due for release Thursday, including the weekly jobless claims report, the Philadelphia Fed business survey, retail sales, the flash U.S. services and manufacturing purchasing managers indexes, manufacturing and trade inventories, and leading economic indicators. Technically, the gold bears have the overall near-term technical advantage. A downtrend line is in place on the daily bar chart. Bulls next upside price objective is to produce a close in June futures above solid resistance at $1,300.00. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at $1,250.00. First resistance is seen at $1,284.90 and then at Tuesdays high of $1,291.70. First support is seen at todays low of $1,273.00 and then at $1,270.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 4.0. May silver futures bears have the overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a seven-week-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls' next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at the April high of $15.31 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $14.50. First resistance is seen at this weeks high of $15.055 and then at $15.215. Next support is seen at this weeks low of $14.795 and then at $14.70. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 4.0. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Nicolas Maduro is funneling cashflow from Venezuelan oil sales through Russian state energy giant Rosneft as he seeks to evade U.S. sanctions designed to oust him from power, according to sources and documents reviewed by Reuters. The sales are the latest sign of the growing dependence of Venezuela's cash-strapped government on Russia as the United States tightens a financial noose around Maduro, who it describes as a dictator. With its economy reeling from years of recession and a sharp decline in oil production, Venezuela was already struggling to finance imports and government spending before Washington imposed tough restrictions on state oil company PDVSA in January. Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports from the OPEC nation and the lion's share of government revenues. Maduro has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of waging economic war against Venezuela. Since January, Maduro's administration has been in talks with allies in Moscow about ways to circumvent a ban on clients paying PDVSA in dollars, the sources said. Russia has publicly said the U.S. sanctions are illegal and it would work with Venezuela to weather them. Under the scheme uncovered by Reuters, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has started passing invoices from its oil sales to Rosneft. The Russian energy giant pays PDVSA immediately at a discount to the sale price avoiding the usual 30-to-90 day timeframe for completing oil transactions and collects the full amount later from the buyer, according to the documents and sources. "PDVSA is delivering its accounts receivable to Rosneft," said a source at the Venezuelan state firm with knowledge of the deals, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Major energy companies such as India's Reliance Industries Ltd - PDVSA's largest cash-paying client - have been asked to participate in the scheme by paying Rosneft for Venezuelan oil, the documents show. Rosneft, which has heavily invested in Venezuela under President Vladimir Putin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Venezuela's oil ministry, its information ministry, which handles media for the government, and PDVSA did not respond to questions. Asked about the transactions, a spokesperson for Reliance said it had made payments to Russia and Chinese companies for Venezuelan oil. The spokesperson said the payments were deducted from money owed by Venezuela to those countries, but did not provide further details. "We are in active dialogue with the U.S. Department of State on our dealings on Venezuelan oil to remain compliant with U.S. sanctions," the spokesperson said. With the warming of China-Japan relations, 2019 has been designated as the "China-Japan Youth Exchange Promotion Year" by the leaders of the two countries. While Tokyo gets ready to host the Summer Olympics next year, Beijing is busy preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, so the two Asian neighbors share common interests and an increasing level of bilateral interdependence. Although China has replaced Japan as the world's second-largest economy since the end of 2010, China still lags behind Japan in regard to some public services, particularly in the user-friendly design of public facilities. In 2018, Chinese visitors travelling to Japan hit a record high of 8 million, with total spending exceeding 100 billion yuan (US$14.9 billion), according to Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency, accounting for the largest part of the over 30 million foreign visitors to Japan last year. The booming tourism exchange between the two countries also offered more ordinary Chinese people a good opportunity to closely observe, better understand and learn from Japan from more perspectives. The hashtag "#DetailsOfJapaneseToilets" has been trending recently on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. As of April 18, over 130 million people have viewed the topic and more than 11,000 people have made comments, posted photos and videos under the hashtag, expressing their admiration of the multi-functional and environmental-friendly toilets of Japan. I myself was very impressed by Japan's toilet culture during my trip to Osaka and Kyoto last November. Be it in nice hotels, department stores or scenic spots densely covered with tourists, the high-tech integration and user-friendly design of Japan's well-managed public toilets make that necessary journey no longer an awkward experience. You never have to worry about the lack of toilet paper, and flushable paper means the public toilets are kept very clean not to mention perks like self-heating toilet seats and warm water bidets. China launched its own "toilet revolution" campaign in 2015 to upgrade tens of thousands of toilets at tourist sites across the country, and since that time, big improvements have been achieved, but we are still a far cry in this area from developed countries like Japan. This year, Chinese authorities will continue the "toilet revolution," granting 85% of rural households in mid-western areas access to sanitary toilets, according to the office of the central agricultural work leading group and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. There is clearly huge room for China to cooperate with and learn from Japan in this area. Another feature in Japan that greatly impressed me is the advanced accessibility of public transport. Living and working in Beijing for over 17 years, I rarely see people traveling by wheelchair on trains or buses without the company of a companion who can assist them. But I witnessed several such cases during my short trip to Japan. I've heard of the punctuality and the highly efficient public transport system long before arriving in Japan, but I was still amazed when I saw the standard procedures drivers and staff followed to help people in wheelchairs to get off and on trains and buses as crowded as those in Beijing during peak times in minutes, without causing any delay. With the two Asian neighbors hosting Olympics one after the other in the near future, Chinese city management officials can definitely seize this opportunity to learn from their Japanese counterparts, and introduce some Japanese practices to make the visit more convenient for tourists. In addition to more user-friendly public facilities, we can also learn from Japan in their handling of garbage, and can also join hands to tackle the serious issue of aging populations, which both countries currently face. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to achieve the target of 40 million visitors to Japan by 2020, according to the Japan Times. Tourism has become Japan's pillar strategy to boost economic growth, with China playing a key role. Many department stores in Japan have already introduced WeChat Pay and Alipay, plus Chinese-speaking guides to assist Chinese tourists with particular shopping needs. The two countries have also agreed to arrange mutual visits by 30,000 young people from the two countries in next five years. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said on April 14 that "young people are entrusted with the hopes of the two countries and future bilateral ties," speaking in Beijing at the opening ceremony of the China-Japan Youth Exchange Promotion Year" and the 5th China-Japan High-Level Economic Dialogue. Let's hope, in the spirit of Japan's name for its new era, Reiwa (), meaning "pursuing harmony," that the two Asian giants can put aside their differences and work closely together to pursue harmonious development. If they do, they can achieve great progress in maintaining world peace against a backdrop of resurging unilateralism and protectionism. If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn. Flash An aerial view of a tea farm on Mt. Lushan. [photo by Huang Jie] The 2019 Jiujiang International Famous Tea and Spring Expo will be held in Jiujiang, in eastern China's Jiangxi province, from May 29 to 31, with the aim to spread tea culture and boost the tea industry and tea tourism in the region. More than 600 people from the tea industry will attend the expo, together with tea manufacturers and enterprises from Jiangxi. The expo will hold a cultural forum on tea and spring, a black tea development conference, a gala of tea appreciation to be attended by 10,000 people, and an investment and business matching workshop. Jiujiang boasts a time-honored history of 2,200 years and lies in an advantageous location bordering the Yangtze River, China's longest river, to the north, Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the country, to the east, and the picturesque Mt. Lushan, a UNESCO world heritage site, to the south. Jiujiang has also world-famous springs like Gulian, Zhaoyin and Longchishui. In addition, Jiujiang is home to and has been a choice destination for many literary figures, including Tao Yuanming, Li Bai and Chairman Mao Zedong. Jiujiang's cloudy, misty weather and unique geography attribute to its widely-acclaimed Lushan Yunwu Tea (cloud and mist) as well as Ninghong black tea, both of which have won tea prizes and earned a top reputation in China and abroad. The city has been one of the three largest tea markets in China, the other two being Fuzhou, in southeastern China's Fujian province, and Hankou, central China's Hubei province. The expo will be co-hosted by the Jiujiang municipal people's government, the China International Tea Culture Institute, and the China Tea Science Society, and will be supported by the people's government of Jiangxi. Flash A representative of the Vatican will participate in the 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition at the invitation of the event's organizing committee, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, will attend relevant activities as the Vatican's chief representative for the expo, spokesperson Lu Kang told a press briefing. A total of 110 countries and international organizations will attend the expo, which will kick off in late April, Lu added. "We hope to work with all participants to promote green development through the expo." On the ties between China and the Vatican, Lu said the two sides "have maintained contact and consultations" to push forward the improvement of their relations since they signed a provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops last September. Flash There will be no chance of a U.S.-British trade agreement if the Brexit deal undermines the Good Friday Agreement, including but not limited to, the seamless border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, said a top U.S. politician here on Wednesday. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, made this remark while delivering a speech at the lower house of the Irish parliament on Wednesday afternoon. Pelosi is in Dublin for a two-day visit with a U.S. congressional delegation. "We must ensure that nothing happens in the Brexit discussions that imperils the Good Friday Accord (Agreement), including but not limited to, the seams border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland," she told the members of the Irish parliament, both from the lower house and the senate, as well as former politicians who attended the meeting. In her speech, Pelosi also voiced her support for Ireland's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2021-22 term. The Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement is a set of agreements signed between the British and Irish governments as well as the major political parties in Northern Ireland on Good Friday, April 10, 1998, which is viewed as a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process. After the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, all the customs houses and checkpoints along the border between Ireland and Britain's Northern Ireland have been removed and people and goods can travel freely across the border. Ireland is concerned about the possible threat to the Good Friday Agreement if a hard border returns between Ireland and Northern Ireland after the Brexit. Pelosi's remarks are viewed here as a strong support for Ireland over the Brexit issue. Pelosi arrived here on Tuesday with a congressional delegation comprising eight other members from the U.S. House of Representatives. During her stay in Dublin, she held meetings with the Irish President Michael D. Higgins, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and other senior officials and politicians including members from the major opposition parties. Financial Services Commission Chairman Choi Jong-ku, left, speaks at a meeting on consumer protection in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap By Park Hyong-ki The country's financial regulator will use advanced technologies such as big data to preemptively counter and prevent companies from marketing false information about their products and services, Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Choi Jong-ku said Thursday. He stressed that the stronger ecosystem and the big data would ensure consumer protection. "We will use big data analysis to prevent consumer losses, and issue early warning signals to both companies and consumers," Choi said. This will be needed ahead of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will make various financial services more accessible via converged digital platforms, he added. Choi's remarks came at a meeting with associations representing banks, brokerages, insurance companies and mutual savings banks in Seoul. The chairman has urged industry executives to better take care of their customers and help them make better choices in their services and products saying that protecting consumers from making "adverse selections" will help stabilize the financial market. "It will also help companies manage risks," said Choi. "Companies need to maintain a certain level of consumer protection as part of risk management." The protection is especially needed for low-income households, as well as the disabled and the elderly. Otherwise, the financial market could end up in trouble as it did in 2008 when the global financial crisis erupted in part due to weak protection and poor regulatory systems for those in the low-income bracket, the chief regulator added. To this end, the FSC will push to speed up the passage of the revised Consumer Protection Law, which will enable it to strengthen the ecosystem and network of consumers, regulators and the market. The law will furthermore help financial companies to boost their online or mobile sales channels and services. However, they will have to provide more accurate information as consumers could face more risks and complications because of the mass of information. The ultimate goal is to let all consumers feel "safe and convenient" when using various financial services both online and offline, the FSC chief said. The regulator launched a taskforce to survey and listen to both consumers and companies late last year. It said the taskforce will continue operating to ensure its plan for consumer protection is being carried out. FSC Chairman Choi will also begin visiting retail branches of financial companies not only to listen to the market, but also to check whether they are providing services in accordance with its protection policy. The FSC has previously said it will use artificial intelligence and big data with the Financial Supervisory Service to prevent financial fraud and misinformation to boost consumer protection. South Korean Aegis destroyer, the King Sejong the Great, joins a South Korea-U.S. joint military drill on Nov. 12, 2017. Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy North Korean propaganda outlets slammed recent joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States on Thursday, accusing Seoul of having no intent to implement the military agreement it has signed with Pyongyang. Uriminzokkiri, one of the North's propaganda websites, denounced the South's military as "belligerent war maniacs who are instilling a war spirit," referring to a recent landing drill by the South Korean military and another involving U.S. Marines from the Pacific Command. By Lee Suh-yoonKorean and Vietnamese lawyers called on the government to investigate and provide reparations for the alleged killing of Vietnamese civilians by Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War.Several members of the Vietnam Lawyers Association came to Korea and announced a joint statement on the issue with the Seoul Bar Association (SBA), Wednesday."Finding the truth behind the civilian killings during the Vietnam War is necessary for human rights and peace, and it will also strengthen future ties between Korea and Vietnam, allowing them to develop their relationship on the foundations of historical truth," Park Jung-woo, head of the SBA, and Duong Thanh Bac, vice president of the Vietnam group, read in turn from the joint statement at a press conference at the SBA office in southern Seoul."The Seoul Bar Association and Vietnam Lawyers Association call on the Korean government to investigate the truth behind civilian killings in the Vietnam War and provide confirmed victims with proper reparation measures."Civic groups in the two countries have made efforts to find the truth about alleged massacres since 2000, such as filing suits to demand the government disclose related documents, but the administration's response has been insufficient, they said.Former President Park Chung-hee sent around 320,000 soldiers to Vietnam between 1964 and 1973 to aid U.S. forces against the North Vietnamese communist insurgency. There, Korean troops allegedly killed up to 9,000 civilians in 80 different cases, according to one estimate by a Korean researcher who interviewed survivors at over 50 massacre sites and villages, using records left by a North Vietnam war crime investigation committee. Women, children, and the elderly were no exception in the mass killings, their bodies often mutilated or burned afterward, according to the records. The motivation and the chain-of-command behind the massacres still remain unclear.So far, the government has never officially admitted the killings of civilians by Korean soldiers or made an official apology.The closest thing to this was made in March last year, when President Moon Jae-in said he "expressed regret for the unfortunate history between the two countries" during a state visit to Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. Former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun also expressed similar sentiments in the past, but like Moon, avoided directly mentioning the alleged civilian massacres.Earlier this month, 103 Vietnamese survivors submitted a joint petition to Cheong Wa Dae, calling for a direct apology from the government here."I was only eight years old at the time of the massacre but I still remember clearly everything that happened that day," Nguyen Thi Thanh, 59, whose mother, siblings, and aunt were killed by Korean soldiers at the village of Phong Nhi on Feb. 12, 1968, said in front of Cheong Wa Dae before delivering the petition on behalf of other survivors.She also testified at a mock trial organized by civic groups in April last year, which concluded the Korean government should recognize its responsibility for the tragedy and compensate victims."It is known the Korean soldiers killed around 70 civilians at the village of Phong Nhi in Quang Nam Province," Lee Yong-woo, a lawyer director for human rights at the SBA, said at the conference."Last year, Korean lawyers filed and won an information disclosure suit against the Korean intelligence agency for its records on the Phong Nhi massacre, which are the collected testimonies of Korean military commanders who were in Phong Nhi and Phong Hat on Feb. 12, 1968, but the government agency continues to withhold these documents." By Kim Yoo-chul President Moon Jae-in arrived in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the second stop on his three-nation trip centered on cementing economic ties with Central Asia, Thursday. Before arriving in the Uzbekistan capital, he visited a petrochemical plant built by a South Korean company in neighboring Turkmenistan. Moon's trip to the plant located in the western port city of Kiyanly, a symbol of Korea-Turkmenistan economic cooperation, came a day after the two agreed to boost cooperation in the energy sector. Hyundai Engineering owns a 71.2 percent stake in the plant in which some $30 billion was invested. It was completed late last year and is the first petrochemical plant in Turkmenistan, said Cheong Wa Dae. Moon offered encouragement to South Korean workers at the plant, Cheong Wa Dae said. In Uzbekistan, activities planned for Friday include a bilateral summit between the countries, a joint press conference and a South Korea-Uzbekistan business forum. During his three-day stay, Moon plans to meet descendants of Koreans who settled there due to Joseph Stalin's mass deportations more than 80 years ago, Cheong Wa Dae said. South Korea is one of Uzbekistan's top five sources of imports. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 41F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low 33F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Flash At least 28 tourists were confirmed dead on Wednesday in a bus accident on the Portuguese island of Madeira, with three others seriously injured, local media SIC TV reported. The 28 people are 11 men and 17 women of German nationality, Mayor of the municipality Filipe Sousa said, quoted by SIC. The driver and guide are both Portuguese and they are injured. The tourist bus, carrying 55 German tourists, overturned and fell on the roof of roadside residence. Speaking outside the Palace of Belem in Lisbon, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters that it was his intention to travel immediately to Funchal, the capital of Madeira, in a plane of the Portuguese Air Force, "but a priority emerged" that led him to postpone the trip. "I was very sensitive to this priority, which is the need for airplanes, namely the airplane that was to be used by the Portuguese Air Force to transport the injured people," he said. "So I will, but I will not go immediately, because there is this priority," added Rebelo de Sousa. On behalf of the Portuguese government, Prime Minister Antonio Costa conveyed "deep condolences" to the families of the victims of the tourist bus accident in Madeira and expressed his regret and condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "At learning of the tragic accident in Madeira, I feel deeply regret. To all the families involved, I convey on behalf of the Portuguese government the deepest condolences," Costa wrote on Twitter. Auburn, IN (46706) Today A mix of clouds and sun early followed by cloudy skies this afternoon. High 42F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low 33F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Flash An armed American woman who officials said was infatuated with a school massacre 20 years ago was found dead on Wednesday. Her threats had triggered a massive police manhunt and the closing of hundreds of schools in the Denver area, the U.S. state of Colorado. "We can confirm that Sol Pais is deceased. We are grateful to everyone who submitted tips and to all our law enforcement partners for their efforts in keeping our community safe," tweeted FBI Denver on Wednesday morning, noting that there was no longer a threat to the community. After a massive manhunt along the Front Range and foothills west of Denver, Pais was found dead by suicide Wednesday morning near the base of Mt. Evans, a local news outlet, KMGH 7 Denver, reported, citing multiple high-ranking sources. Pais is reportedly a student at Miami Beach High School. She had been hunted by police and FBI since Tuesday. Schools in the Denver area were closed Wednesday as authorities were searching for Pais. The 18-year-old girl who was infatuated with the 1999 Columbine massacre traveled to Colorado on Monday night and then bought a pump action shotgun and ammunition in a store. She was described as "extremely dangerous" by police and FBI. April 20 is the 20th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. Two twelfth grade students attacked Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher. It's the deadliest shooting at a high school in U.S. history at the time. A Sioux Falls program dedicated to helping children get an early education announced their registration goals for the year. The Sioux Falls Hope Coalition is a non-profit with the goal of helping all children attend preschool. Today, they announced a goal of registering 150 kids for the 2019-20 school year. Classes are free for qualified families and available for four-year-olds beginning in September. The classes are offered at six locations around Sioux Falls. "Every study shows that preschool is really a major factor in keeping kids in school, graduating, going on to higher education, getting a better job," said Randell Beck, Sioux Falls Hope Coalition executive director. "It's really an investment in the lifetime." Sioux Falls Hope Coalition also announced a new partnership with the Boys and Girls Club who will offer 20 spots for the program. For more information, parents can visit Sioux Falls Hope Coalition's or call 605-595-3344. Flash A local court in Finland on Wednesday sentenced a 23-year-old man of foreign background to three years and two months in prison for aggravated rape and brutal sexual abuse of a child. The accused was also obliged to pay 7,300 euros to the victim for mental illness and pain, decided the Oulu District Court, according to Finnish national broadcaster, Yle. The victim was an underage girl when the crime took place in November 2018 in Oulu, a major city in northern Finland. Yle said the victim came from another place to Oulu and had no place to stay. For spending the night, she went to a private residence, where the defendant went into. The court said the man took advantage of the defenseless state of the victim. The offender and the victim didn't know each other before. A series of suspected sexual offenses in Oulu were disclosed at the end of last year. The Oulu police reported earlier that they were investigating 29 criminal offenses suspected of serious sexual assault against minors. Some of suspects were Finnish citizens and some with foreign backgrounds. After the series of sexual crimes had been uncovered, Finnish interior minister Kai Mykkanen called for tougher punishment for non-Finnish criminals in January this year. He reiterated his position that dual citizens who are found guilty of aggravated sexual offenses should have their Finnish citizenship deprived. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 18) Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle told Catholics to avoid spreading fake news and hate speech in his homily at the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila on Maundy Thursday. Andami-dami nang tagapagdala ng (Many are delivering) bad news, fake news, hate speech. We, today, all the consecrated, all the baptized, bearing the Holy Spirit, will say I will not deliver fake news, hate speech, Tagle said as he led the Chrism Mass early Thursday morning. I am consecrated by the Spirit. I will bring good news to the poor and the suffering, he added. The Manila archbishop also said many young Filipinos, especially those who cannot afford to study in school, live their lives in bad news and criticisms. Yung iba, binubully. Ang pangit mo, ang taba mo, ayaw kitang kaibigan, nakakahiya kang kasama. Ayus-ayusin mo yang mukha mo para maging kaibigan kita," he said, quoting some of the insults. [Translation: Others are beling bulled. 'You're ugly, fat, I don't want to be your friend, it's a shame to be with you. Fix your face so we can be friends.'] Tagle also emphasized that many kids do not want to go to school anymore out of fear of being bullied, while others are even thinking of taking their own lives. May mga bata na ayaw nang pumasok dahil mabubully sila. May mga batang nag-iisip magpakamatay na lang kasi ang pakiramdam nila, walang nagmamahal sa akin," he said. [Translation: Some kids do not want to go to school anymore because they are being bullied. Some think of committing suicide because they feel no one loves them.] The Catholic leader also called out those parents who have been setting unrealistic expectations for their children, who often are incapable of meeting such. Minsan ang mga magulang din po, masyadong matatayog ang mga hinihingi. 92 lang ang grade mo? 92 lang? Hindi mo ba alam na may 93, 94? Bakit 92 lang? Sayang ang pinag-aral ko sayo, 92 ka lang pala. [Translation: Sometimes the parents are asking for too much. 'Your grade is just 92? Do you not know there's 93. 94? Why did you get only 92? You waste my money by getting 92.] He also said that the youth are unaware that they have already been held captive by different kinds of enslavery, especially through technology like the excessive use of mobile phones. Yang cellphone, ano na yan eh parang guard, para kang binabantayan lagi. Pag tumunog, para tayong mga Yes Lord, speak Lord, I am here. Translation: That cellphone is like a guard watching over you. When it rings, we' re like 'Yes Lord, speak Lord, I am here.' The high-ranking religious leader urged the youth to not let anyone rob their inner freedom. Para sa mga kabataan na nandito: hindi lang kayo mahal ng simbahan (To the youth here: you are not only loved by the church). We want to assure you. You are dearly loved," he said. The Chrism Mass is a ritual where the bishop, in the presence of his priests, blesses the holy oils used in baptism, confirmation, ordination, and the anointing of the sick. The bishop also reminded his priests to stay true to their vows, which they renew on Holy Thursday. Flash Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will pay an official visit to China from April 25 to 28 to attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, the Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday. During the visit, the prime minister will be accompanied by a ministerial delegation and will deliver a keynote speech in the opening ceremony of the forum and participate in the leaders' round table meeting, said the ministry. The ministry said that Imran Khan is also expected to hold meetings with the Chinese government officials and business leaders. Pakistan and China will also sign several MoUs and Agreements to enhance bilateral cooperation in diverse areas, the ministry said. Following the forum, Imran Khan will attend the Beijing International Horticulture Exhibition 2019 and address the Pakistan Trade and Investment Conference in Beijing. You are here: World Flash Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Wednesday met with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi over promotion of bilateral relations, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. The two leaders saw eye to eye on the need to enhance cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Iraq in various fields, SPA said. On the sidelines of the Iraqi prime minister's official visit, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority held a meeting with 70 top Iraqi businessmen in Riyadh to highlight the kingdom's investment opportunities and government facilities to attract foreign investments. Flash Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, held talks with Radhames Camacho Cuevas, president of the Dominican Republic's Chamber of Deputies, in Beijing on Wednesday. The Latin-American country forged diplomatic ties with China on May 1, 2018, joining the mainstream international community of more than 170 countries that adhere to the one-China policy. Li said it was a significant historic decision made by Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of the Dominican Republic Danilo Medina. China stands ready to enhance cooperation with the Dominican Republic in all areas under the guidance of the two presidents and consolidate the foundation of friendship so as to usher bilateral ties into a brighter future, Li said. In the face of the rise of unilateralism, protectionism and populism, President Xi has stated in many international occasions that China firmly upholds multilateralism and liberalization of trade and investment, and takes an active part in global governance, according to Li. The second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be held in Beijing next week. Li said the forum will provide more opportunities for countries to realize common development and help to build a community with a shared future for humanity. He welcomed the Dominican Republic to participate in the forum. The NPC is willing to enhance cooperation with the Dominican Republic's Chamber of Deputies on affairs concerning legislation and governance, Li added. The government, the congress, all political parties and the people of the Dominican Republic supported the establishment of diplomatic ties with China, Camacho said, calling the decision "conducive to both countries and the peace and stability of the world." He said his country will firmly adhere to the one-China policy and be committed to mutually beneficial cooperation with China. Camacho is paying a five-day visit to China from Sunday at the invitation of Li. Perhaps my writing has never really been about me, Cherrie Moraga admits in Native Country of the Heart, her bracing new memoir. Perhaps it was about she all along: she without letters; she fallen off the map of recorded histories; she that is my history and my future with every Mexicana female worker who comes to, or is born into, these lands of ill-manifested destiny. As a writer and activist, Moraga has dedicated her career to the literature of queer women of color. In 1981, she co-edited the feminist anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, a central text for third-wave feminism. In 1983, she cofounded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press with Barbara Smith and Audre Lorde. In Native Country, she is most explicitly her mother, Elvira, the unlettered and domineering family matriarch. Moraga plots her own story within the arc of this maternal narrative: Between scenes of Elvira picking cotton as a child in the Imperial Valley, selling cigarettes in 1930s Tijuana, raising her family in San Gabriel and battling Alzheimers in old age, we watch Moraga confront her Roman Catholic upbringing, grow to understand herself as Mexican, mixed-blood, queer, female, almost-Indian and eventually assume control of Elviras well-being. Elvira Moraga, with friend/coworker at Agua Caliente, Tijuana circa 1932. (Courtesy of Cherrie Moraga) Advertisement Both journeys are a struggle, and each is expertly told in Moragas lucid prose. But the real purpose of these two paths is to provide the structure for Moragas deeper pursuits: how to understand home in this mixed-up, post-colonial landscape? What lessons of belonging might a young queer Chicana learn from a mother who cannot write and whose memory decays? How can a person with so few means of record still relate to ones origins? These questions plague diasporic communities in Los Angeles and beyond. Immigration is always fraught with danger and uncertainty, but Native Country offers some solace for those settling anew. Moraga seeks her answers in the regions geography as much as in her mothers patched-together oral stories. She recounts growing up and grappling with her sexuality in the neighborhood of an old Spanish mission and the sites of unmarked Tongva graves; at the same time, a young Elvira flees from Southern California to Tijuana during the enforced repatriations of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the late 1920s and early 1930s, sacrificing an education to earn an income for a family of alcoholic and itinerant men. These histories converge on the San Gabriel family home. But that small white house, a house for which I believed I held no nostalgia, a house I had to leave in order to live, a house I marked as the site and source of my rebellion, had been country to my mother, writes Moraga. She realizes how a place of great conflict for her (initially, Elvira was not accepting of Moragas sexuality), and of widespread historical amnesia, can also be the locus of authority and personhood for her mother: It allowed her permission to know what she knew and to reign madre over all of it. The whole Moraga clan congregated at their doorstep to eat or pass time or celebrate. Elvira and her daughter Cherrie Moraga, author of Native Country of the Heart, Christmas 2004. (Courtesy of Cherrie Moraga) This conflict plays out repeatedly in San Gabriel, to which Moraga returns after her parents move to an assisted living facility. Are these small plots of lot and land what is left of memory as Mexicans in the United States? Moraga asks. Is this how ancestral memory returns to us, indifferent to the generations and geography of borders? Her old house at first appears empty, but as she goes from room to room and contemplates these questions, she begins to sense the presence of her ancestors. She sees how spirit relations had come to reside in that small white house and increased in meaning as my mothers remembered world lessened in importance. Perhaps, suggests Moraga, this is how ancestral memory returns: through accumulated years, through a mothers ritual prayers regardless of borders. And perhaps small plots are more than they seem: shaped by the late present as well as a distant past. I swallowed our Mexican Indian herencia in hard gulps of conciencia, Moraga writes. It was [Elvira] they missed, she who heard and spoke to them and she who, despite her slipping mind, despite her illiteracy, despite her religiosity or iron rule, kept the family connected to its origins. (In the above, as elsewhere in Native Country, Moragas mix of unitalicized English and Spanish adeptly celebrates and reinforces the culturally specific nature of the work.) An author photo of Cherrie Moraga for her book Native Country of the Heart. Credit: Daniella Rossell (Daniella Rossell) Through sections such as these in San Gabriel, grounded in developed settings and revisited in the text, Moraga best addresses the questions she sets out to answer. At other times, she fails to follow her inquiries. Moraga frequently alludes to her native history in the Sonoran Desert: There is something to be found in those sites where memory calls us. We return as refugees to that forgotten landscape which we somehow recognize as home. Later she mentions a week away in the Sonoran Desert, the site of my ancestral origins, where she kept suffering the question of home. But Moraga never recounts the details of this trip, never shares that something to be found. In a memoir so devoted to places and their histories, this decision is surprising; the absence of a story from the Sonoran Desert is a conspicuous missed opportunity. Thankfully, the same cannot be said of Mexico, her other ancestral land. Moraga recalls a trip with her parents to the countrys capital, where Elvira professes her longing for the Mexico of her past she admitted that in 1939, she had not wanted to return to the Anglo world of the U.S. Elviras regret is presaged by the prior days visit to a curandero, who cures her chronic hand rash relieved by the admission of her sorrow as much as a prescribed tincture. On a solo trip to Mexico two summers later, Moraga faces her own relationship with the country: I was not one of them and I was not gringa, but something/someone other than either. Her mixed roots (Moragas father is white) bring the issue of her membership to the fore. The next morning, she decides to return to the land of her birth, rather than remain in that of her ancestors. I left to go back to California to be Chicana. California: that place of her prior struggles, that place with a shorter past, yet a place with the promise of home. A book jacket for Cherrie Moragas Native Country of the Heart. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Throughout the final chapters, which focus on Elviras decline, Celia, Moragas partner, provides the love and wisdom seen so often from the women in Native Country. Together, they settle in Northern California, where Moraga served for over 20 years as an artist-in-residence in the department of theater and performance studies at Stanford. It came to me that we are as much of a place as we are of a people, Moraga concludes in her epilogue. For her, Elvira may well have been both. :: Native Country of the Heart Cherrie Moraga Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 256 pp., $26 McCoy is a writer from Arizona and the editor of Contra Viento, a journal for art and literature from rangelands. He lives in Los Angeles. Jon Savages This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else documents the formation, brief life and sudden end of the phenomenal Manchester, England, band Joy Division. Much has been written about this band; some of the sharpest music writers have given their best trying to capture its essence. As brilliant as some of this work is, Joy Division seems to remain in the shadows, just out of reach of critical assessment. Joy Divisions music doesnt rock in the classic sense as much as shudder, roar and convulse. The songs are readings of temperature, light and lack of light. They walk silently for hours on city streets and return alone to small rooms with full ashtrays and no messages on the machine. Its a fantastically difficult question to answer: Why do you like Joy Division? The more dedicated the listener, the more likely youll get an inhaled breath held for a few seconds, an exhale and a shrug. Savage is one of those aforementioned very talented scribes, who perhaps understands all too well how difficult it would be for any one person to create a clear picture of Joy Division. What better way to tell the story than to ask others to tell its story? By interviewing remaining members and those who bore witness, Savages oral history of the band carefully connects the dots. Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis at the Lantaren in Rotterdam. (Rob Verhorst / Redferns) Advertisement Joy Division was Peter Hook on bass, Bernard Sumner on guitar, Stephen Morris on drums and Ian Curtis on vocals. The bands first release, from summer 1978, a four-track 7-inch record called An Ideal for Living, could be labeled functionally as post punk, one of the best results of punk musics exhilarating flash-pot bang. The songs are great but show a band only somewhat in control of its talent. Hearing what came next, you wonder if at that time, the four had any idea of what they were capable of. The following year, the band released its first full length album, the brilliant Unknown Pleasures. None of the demos or surviving live recordings hints at what the band would bring to bear with this record. The music seems uninfluenced by any music that came before it but instead by the sheer fact of existence, the sound of your blood rushing through your veins. The members of Joy Division were driven to create something of immense beauty, as if there were no other choice. Henry Rollins The band became immensely popular. The group performed live and recorded new material. On May 18, 1980, Curtis took his life at age 23. A month later, in June, perhaps Joy Divisions most well-known song, Love Will Tear Us Apart, was released. In July 1980, the bands second album, Closer, came out. Joy Division would reach its peak posthumously. Hook, Morris and Sumner carried on as New Order to great success all over the world. I became a fan, never having heard Unknown Pleasures. Many years ago, I was playing my current favorite record for someone, who said I should cut out the middleman and listen to the band it was desperately trying to emulate: Joy Division. Im not aware of anyone in any of the bands I was in having any interest in Joy Divisions music. I knew of the band but had heard only Love Will Tear Us Apart. Then I remembered that in the remaining space of many of the tapes I had received in trades from a fellow cassette enthusiast, he had put on tracks from Joy Division shows. I listened to them and was knocked out by the incredible intensity of the band. Theres no way you would want to go on after Joy Division. Bernard Sumner, left, and Ian Curtis of Joy Division at the New Osbourne Club, 7 February 1980. (Daniel Meadows) A key moment for Joy Division happened at a Sex Pistols show at Manchesters Lesser Free Trade Hall on June 4, 1976. Reportedly attended by fewer than 50 people, the show proved to be quite a night. In the audience were future members of the Fall, Joy Division and two men who would prove to be of great importance to the group: Factory Records partners Tony Wilson and Martin Hannett. The Factory label was almost a perfect reflection of Wilson; rebellious, innovative and fiercely independent. Joy Division and other post-punk art-bands like A Certain Ratio and the Durutti Column found great support at Factory. Post-punk music delivered on punks detonation of rock musics predictability. Joy Division wasnt the only band that started at some point in the punk din and evolved by leaps and bounds. Gang of Four, Killing Joke, the Fall, the Birthday Party and Wire were a few of the great bands that fell under the post-punk heading. (If you want to know more, the go-to book is Simon Reynolds excellent Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984.) And one of the greatest acts of punk-to-post-punk morphing was John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) going from perhaps the most well known punk band of all time, the Sex Pistols, to the completely different Public Image Limited. Yet what has baffled many a Joy Division listener is the bands own evolution; how its members, all novice players, went from rudimentary bashing with songs like Gutz and Youre No Good for Me in 1977 to utterly brilliant tracks like Transmission, Atmosphere and Love Will Tear Us Apart just a few years later. We just completely ignored each other, we were all on our own island, and we just made sure that what we were doing sounded great. Bernard Sumner Without Wilson and Hannett, it could be argued, Joy Divisions potential would have been greatly compromised. Wilson believed in the band completely, allowed it to flourish. But in This Searing Light, Sumner describes an isolated and workman-like environment at practice, where each player was in his own world. We were not bouncing off each other, he says, we just completely ignored each other, we were all on our own island, and we just made sure that what we were doing sounded great, and we didnt pay any attention to what the others were doing, not consciously anyway. While this might sound like the members didnt get along, it is a quite Mancunian posture, when you consider that the greater Manchester area was infused with factories, warehouses and remnants of World War II. Its not surprising that being raised in this environment might engender a somewhat stark outlook and utilitarian work ethic. You were always looking for beauty because it was such an ugly place, whether again on a subconscious level, Sumner says. I mean, I dont think I saw a tree till I was about nine. I was surrounded by factories and nothing that was pretty, nothing. Manchester bands like Joy Division, the Fall and Buzzcocks were greatly distanced from the outrage and fashion that fueled the London punk scene, a little over 200 miles south, and while their surroundings could be grim, it made for quite a creative setting. In This Searing Light, you get the idea that it was a resist or submit proposition.It gave you an amazing yearning for things that were beautiful, Sumner says, because you were in a semi-sensory-deprivation situation because you were brought up in this brutal landscape, but then when you did see something or hear something that was beautiful, you would go, Ooh, new experience, and really appreciate it. Ian Curtis performing circa 1980. (Lex van Rossen/MAI / Redferns) Still, how do four young men from the working class, in one of the toughest parts of a tough country, almost suddenly create not only some of the most enduring music from the late 1970s and early 1980s but also easily one of the most astonishing debut albums ever, Unknown Pleasures? In the pages of This Searing Light, we get many clues from the testimonies of those in close proximity to the band. Peter Saville, Factory co-founder and art director, is responsible for the Unknown Pleasures cover, one of the most recognizably reworked and repurposed music-related images of the last century. Saville isnt the originator; it is a found image, part of the materials in a folder given to Saville by the bands manager, Rob Gretton. There are, no doubt, people all over the world wearing a version of this pulsar spread out on a T-shirt who have no idea what its relating to. That being said, if you had to describe Unknown Pleasures, the image works perfectly; separate, straight lines randomly disrupted; peaks and valleys and then flat again. Such is life. I dont think I saw a tree till I was about nine. I was surrounded by factories and nothing that was pretty, nothing. Bernard Sumner Hannett, who produced Unknown Pleasures, was a true visionary. There is no way the album would sound anything like it does without him. At times, Hannett seemed almost dismissive of his young charges: They were a gift to a producer, because they didnt have a clue. They didnt argue. Hannett was notoriously idiosyncratic and difficult, and the band members endured him as much as worked with him. Hannett was obsessed with isolating and manipulating sound the studio was his world; Joy Division was just hanging out in it for awhile. The studio was Martins, says Morris, and when you were in the studio you were working for Martin and his whims. There was an awful lot of pot smoked: whether Martin was completely stoned or did have a different outlook on what he wanted, he would be obtuse. He wouldnt say to you, I want you to do it like this. It was, Great, do it again but more cocktail party or a bit more yellow. Whether it was pot or whether it was the Zen school of production, it was definitely interesting, because he turned us on to the studio being a musical instrument. Kevin Cummins, the great photographer who took some of the most recognizable images of Joy Division, was witness to the bands rapid growth and the mesmerizing stage presence of Curtis. It always felt dangerous, because you always felt he was slightly out of control, and Id not really experienced that with any other band, Cummins says. Id seen the Clash and the Jam and all these bands, and I never felt that they were more than the sum of their parts. But with Ian, it was dangerous. The only other person who was that dangerous onstage was Iggy Pop. These are some of the nearly 40 people from Joy Divisions inner circle whose accounts Savage, who was also there at the time, has deftly woven into an almost detective-style MRI of the band and the forces and factors that formed it. Almost particle by particle, from descriptions of Manchesters industrial beginnings to the areas cultural void, Savage makes you understand that the members of Joy Division were driven to create something of immense beauty, as if there were no other choice. The music seems uninfluenced by any music that came before it but instead by the sheer fact of existence, the sound of your blood rushing through your veins. Henry Rollins As matter-of-fact as the interviews are, and as carefully as Savage has laid out his case, the how of the bands amazing music is all but impossible to put your finger on. Liz Naylor, a writer at the Manchester fanzine City Fun, captures the bands close distance: My thing about Joy Division is that theyre an ambient band almost: you dont see them function as a band, its just the noise around where you are. Its not up for debate. Joy Division was one of the most original bands of the last century and an influence on countless others that came afterward. This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else brings us a little closer to understanding the band and its incredible music. But still, even after the careful examination of almost every aspect of the bands brief existence, its music still lurks deep in phenomenon and shadow. :: This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division: The Oral History Jon Savage Faber & Faber Social: 272 pp., $28 Rollins is an L.A.-based writer and radio show host. Political observers who want to get their hands on a print version of the Mueller report wont have to wait too much longer. An assortment of publishers are rushing special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs report on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election publicly released Thursday to print, hoping to land them on bookstore shelves within the next several days. The version of the report released to the public contains redactions. The Times reports that one-third of the reports pages contain at least one blacked-out word. That hasnt deterred three publishers who plan to print the report in book form. Among those publishers is Scribner, which plans to release the report with analysis by Washington Post journalists as an e-book and a paperback version. Scribner publicity director Brian Belfiglio told Publishers Weekly on Tuesday that the publisher expected to release the electronic version on Friday, with the print book following later this month. Advertisement In this screenshot taken from the U.S. Department of Justice website, a redacted page from the Mueller Report is seen on April 18, 2019. (Getty Images) Two independent presses are also gearing up for their versions of the report. Melville House, a New York publisher, is planning a mass market version of the report. Dennis Johnson, the publishers co-founder, told Publishers Weekly, Good Lord willing and the creek dont rise, well be shipping to bookstores in no more than 10 days. Skyhorse Publishing, whose version of the report will feature an introduction by Alan Dershowitz, the attorney and defender of President Trump, says it hopes to ship its books to retailers on April 25. As of Thursday morning, Skyhorses version of the report was the No. 46 bestselling book on Amazon, with the Scribner edition at No. 86. Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble has also gotten in on the action, announcing on Wednesday that its offering a free download of the report to readers with Nook tablets or apps. Weve received strong demand from our customers for this report, and want to make it as easy as possible for them to access it for free as soon as possible, Barnes & Noble chief merchandising officer Tim Mantel said in a news release. Audible, the Amazon-owned online audiobook producer and retailer, was planning to release a free audio version of the report shortly after the documents official release. The National Enquirer is being sold to James Cohen, an heir to the Hudson News newsstand chain. American Media Inc. is selling the Enquirer and other tabloids to Cohen, who is part of the family that founded Hudson News Distributors, the leading magazine distributor on the East Coast, according to the Associated Press. The sale is expected to reduce AMIs debt to $355 million, the Washington Post reported, citing a person familiar with the New York companys finances. The Post, which first reported on the sale, said Cohen was paying $100 million for the Enquirer. Cohen and AMI Chairman David Pecker are longtime business friends. Advertisement Representatives of AMI and Hudson Media did not respond to requests for comment. This month, AMI owner of the Enquirer, the Globe and National Examiner said its board had concluded a strategic operational review of its tabloid business, which began in August, leading to the decision to explore strategic options for the brands. The move will likely result in their sale in the near future, the company said in a release. Among the potential bidders was supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle, who controls L.A.-based Yucaipa Cos., according to the New York Times. A spokesman for Burkle denied he was buying the Enquirer. In February, The Times reported that CalPERS, Californias massive pension fund, was a major investor in the National Enquirer. Meghan White, a CalPERS spokesperson, declined to comment other than to say that it is still working to exit the Chatham Eureka Fund, through which CalPERS owned as much as one-third of AMI. Its unclear whether the Chatham Eureka Fund, managed by the New Jersey hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, is still invested in AMI or if CalPERS remains one of AMIs largest indirect investors. The tabloid has drawn the growing scrutiny of federal prosecutors for its ties to President Trump during the 2016 campaign. AMIs decision to sell comes on the heels of the Jeff Bezos scandal in which the Amazon founder accused the Enquirer of extortion using leaked text messages and nude photos that the publication had obtained. Bezos claimed that the Enquirer was threatening him after he attempted to investigate the publication over its earlier articles about his extramarital affair with TV host Lauren Sanchez. Though the Enquirer has long had a reputation for using questionable tactics to score celebrity scoops, the Bezos scandal put a new spotlight on Pecker, a former accountant who took over the company in 1999. Pecker has been a longtime friend of Trump and has admitted employing catch-and-kill techniques to protect Trump from unfavorable stories. American Media paid $150,000 to buy a story from a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump. Times Staff Writer Matt Pearce contributed to this report Stacy.perman@latimes.com @stacyperman Canopy Growth Corp., the worlds most valuable marijuana company, is making a big bet on the U.S. market. Canopy, which was sitting on a pile of cash after a high-profile investment last year from alcohol giant Constellation Brands Inc., has agreed to buy New York-based Acreage Holdings Inc. for $3.4 billion in a cross-border deal that may usher in a wave of consolidation in the burgeoning cannabis industry. But for Canopy, theres one major contingency: The deal by the Canadian firm hinges on the U.S. legalizing weed at the federal level, a thorny political issue that is by no means assured. So far, Canada has been at the center of banking and merger activity in the marijuana business because the drug is federally legal there. But the U.S. market in legal pot is already bigger than Canadas, despite federal prohibition south of the border. That has put pressure on the Canadian companies to find a way into the American market, according to Ken Shea, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Advertisement They know the U.S. is the biggest prize of all, he said. Canopy wont have an active say in Acreages operations until the U.S. legalizes pot at the federal level. Our right to acquire Acreage secures our entrance strategy into the United States as soon as a federally permissible pathway exists, Canopy Chief Executive Bruce Linton said in a statement. By combining Acreages management team, licenses and assets with Canopy Growths intellectual property and brands, there will be tremendous value creation for both companies shareholders. Canopy would initially pay $300 million in cash to shareholders of Acreage, the companies said in a release Thursday. Shareholders would receive a further 0.5818 of a share of Canopy stock for each of their Acreage shares when cannabis becomes legal in the U.S., representing a 42% premium over Acreages 30-day average share price. Acreage, which boasts former U.S. House Speaker John A. Boehner and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as directors, will also have access to Canopys pot brands such as Tweed and Tokyo Smoke and other intellectual property. If weed isnt legalized federally in the U.S. in the next 7 years, the deal can be terminated, according to the statement. That means that Canopy and Acreage are betting that marijuana prohibition will end across the U.S. by 2027. Acreage went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange in November and is now among the largest U.S.-based pot firms, with a market value of about $2.6 billion. It has cultivation, processing and dispensing licenses or agreements with holders in 19 states and manages a chain of retail stores called the Botanist. Having access to Canopy Growths deep resources will enable us to innovate, develop and distribute quality cannabis brands across the U.S. and continue expanding our U.S. footprint, Acreage CEO Kevin Murphy said in the statement. He added that a confluence of factors are making it much more difficult for a multistate operator to achieve its full potential, pointing to the difficulties of doing business in a federally illegal market. Canopy has been looking for an entry point into the U.S. pot market but is restricted by its listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, both of which prohibit trading by companies that are violating U.S. federal law. Canopy is also restricted by its high-profile investment from Constellation Brands, the Victor, N.Y.-based alcohol giant that makes Corona beer. Canopy said Thursday it and Constellation will extend the terms of certain warrants and other rights as part of the arrangement. If completed, the Acreage deal would dilute Constellations roughly 37% ownership stake, but the alcohol giant can now buy Canopy shares on the open market, giving it a path to take majority control if it wants, according to a Constellation spokesman. Constellation believes legalization is only a matter of time. We think its inevitable, but you cant predict the timing, spokesman Michael McGrew said. Constellation, which also owns Modelo beer and several wine and spirits labels, set off a flurry of financial activity in the burgeoning cannabis industry when it announced in August that it had invested $4 billion in Canopy. Owram and Giammona write for Bloomberg. A bankruptcy court judge has approved Corona-based KPC Groups $610-million bid to acquire four of the nonprofit Verity Health System hospitals, including two in Southern California, KPC Group said Wednesday. Veritys board of directors had approved KPC Groups bid Monday, but the state attorney generals office still must sign off on the acquisition. The four hospitals included in the KPC Group bid are St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, St. Vincent Medical Center and St. Vincent Dialysis Center in Los Angeles, Seton Medical Center in Daly City and Seton Coastside in Moss Beach. Veritys six hospitals were originally owned and operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. After years of financial struggles, Integrity Healthcare took over management of the hospitals in 2015. Advertisement NantWorks, the Culver City company controlled by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, purchased Integrity in 2017. (Soon-Shiong, a physician and entrepreneur, purchased The Times last year.) In August, Verity filed for bankruptcy protection, citing mounting losses and debt. The other two Verity hospitals OConnor Hospital in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy were sold to Santa Clara County in a transaction that closed last month. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra had sought to halt the sale until the county agreed to conditions, such as requirements for job security and treatment of the poor, that were initially imposed by then-Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris in 2015. But in February, a federal judge refused to put a hold on the transaction. The attorney generals office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. KPC Group was the initial bidder for the remaining four Verity hospitals and submitted its bid in January. Although there were other bids, none exceeded KPC Groups original stalking horse offer, so no auction was required, KPC Group said in a statement Wednesday. KPC remains very optimistic about the future of these hospitals, their employees, and the value they bring to delivering quality health care to many California communities, Peter Baronoff, managing director of KPC Group, said in the statement. KPC Group already owns several hospitals in Southern California, including in Anaheim and Santa Ana. A new, long-delayed 88-passenger jet from Japan may finally be the right plane at the right time. More cities in Asia and Europe are seeking to link up with one another and the global air travel network. The Mitsubishi Regional Jet, the first airliner built in Japan since the 1960s, began certification flights last month in Moses Lake, Wash., to satisfy that demand. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.s new airliner is testing the skies just as rivals are moving to sell off their manufacturing operations for jets with as many as 160 seats. Boeing Co. is set to buy 80% of Embraers commercial operations in a joint venture, while Bombardier Inc. last year sold control of its C Series airliner project to Airbus and is exploring strategic options for its regional-jet operations. At stake, particularly in the market for jets with fewer seats, is $135 billion in sales over the next 20 years or so, according to industry group Japan Aircraft Development Corp. Advertisement Bombardiers moves do indeed create opportunities for the MRJ, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group. Its the biggest single factor in the MRJs favor. With few seats and smaller fuselages, regional jets are a different class of aircraft from larger narrow-body planes such as Boeings 737 or Airbuss A320. The MRJ has a range of about 2,000 miles, while a smaller variant can haul as many as 76 people for about the same distance. A longtime supplier of aircraft components to Boeing, Mitsubishi Heavy is developing the MRJ to emerge from its customers shadow. After spending at least $2 billion over more than a decade, the manufacturer is looking to get its jet certified and start deliveries to launch partner ANA Holdings Inc. Mitsubishi initially planned test flights in 2012 but blew past that deadline because of production difficulties. Now the company which makes ships, nuclear power plants and aerospace components expects to have the plane ready for customers next year, a timetable that will test the company, said Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. President Hisakazu Mizutani. This coming year is extremely important for us, Mizutani said at a media event Tuesday in the central Japanese city of Nagoya. A lot now hinges on Mitsubishis ability to get the jets ready on schedule, said Sho Fukuhara, an analyst at Jefferies Japan Ltd. who said the companys current 407 MRJ orders arent enough to make the program profitable. Longer term, there should be an opportunity, but right now they have to deliver the very first plane, Fukuhara said. Potential buyers are looking at how they proceed with their schedule. The company announced in October it was adding an extra $1.52 billion in capital to its aircraft units existing capital of nearly $900 million; Mitsubishi also canceled about $450 million of debt owed by the aircraft division. Also adding to Mitsubishi Heavys challenges is a lawsuit filed by Bombardier in Seattle in October, accusing the Japanese company of acquiring secret information and causing Bombardier to suffer irreparable financial loss. Mitsubishi countersued, denying the Montreal companys accusations and saying that it violated antitrust laws through a multifaceted scheme to expand its power within the regional jet market by impeding the entrance of a new competing aircraft. Bombardier denies the allegations and will vigorously defend itself, spokesman Simon Letendre said in an emailed statement. Our views are completely different, and so were looking to get a clear determination in a public forum, Mizutani said. Mitsubishi Heavy isnt the only Asian manufacturer betting that it can build aircraft cheaper and more efficiently. Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd., also known as Comac, has a new regional jet in service, while Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. is studying whether to develop a 100-passenger aircraft. The aviation market in Asia is expected to grow further in the coming years, and there will be demand for these aircraft, said Lee Dong-heon, an analyst at Daishin Securities Co. in Seoul. The shift in the regional aviation segment we have seen over the last year or so has opened opportunities. In order to compete, Mitsubishi cant just rely on its home market. The biggest customers therefore could be in the U.S., where large airlines try to cut costs by outsourcing short flights to smaller carriers that fly regional jets. Trans States Airlines Inc., which operates flights for United Airlines under the name United Express, ordered 50 of the planes, with options for 50 more, in 2010. Trans World didnt respond to requests for comment. The weight and capacity of the MRJ now in testing are too large for many regional carriers, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson, although the company plans to introduce the smaller version in 2021. As part of its preparations to ramp up deliveries and support operations, Mitsubishis aircraft unit separated its sales and marketing divisions this month, created a customer support unit and moved its U.S. headquarters to Renton, Wash., the Seattle suburb where Boeing assembles its 737 jets. The need for regional jets isnt going down, Mizutani said The MRJ is fully capable of competing in the market. As the public pored over the redacted version of special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs Russia investigation on Thursday, celebrities and politicians weighed in on what the report meant for President Trump. The 448-page report divided into sections on collusion and obstruction did not conclude that the president committed a crime but detailed multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations. It also confirmed that Russians interfered in the 2016 election. Read Attorney General William Barrs prepared remarks on Mueller report Advertisement The reports rollout began Thursday morning with Atty. Gen. William P. Barrs press conference, which critics, including 2020 presidential candidates, said focused on presenting Trumps point of view rather than a balanced summary of the Mueller reports findings. Trump also fired off a series of angry tweets calling the Russia investigation the greatest political hoax of all time and characterizing it as presidential harassment. His critics in Hollywood and beyond delighted in specific details found in the report, particularly Trumps furious reaction to learning that Mueller had been appointed as special counsel. That expletive-laden revelation from page 290 of the report, the reports heavy redactions and Barrs appearance were among the topics social media users highlighted Thursday. Heres what they had to say: TOLD YA!!! Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 18, 2019 Sooooooo its not illegal if youre really upset? Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) April 18, 2019 Trump on 1st hearing of #MuellerReport, Oh my God, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im f---ed, Trump said. If only!!! John Leguizamo (@JohnLeguizamo) April 18, 2019 Bottom line: the President tried to cheat in order to win the election and then repeatedly tried to end the investigation into his actions. Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) April 18, 2019 The #MuellerReport perfectly crystallises our age. Those who dislike Trump are leafing through looking for only that which incriminates, those who like him search only for what exculpates and exonerates. Each frantically ignoring what they dont want to see. Im guilty too Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) April 18, 2019 Remember: when you are reading the Mueller Report and see a redaction it is safe to assume thats where Don Jr. said something stupid and incriminating Ike Barinholtz (@ikebarinholtz) April 18, 2019 I wish a reporter would have asked Barr if Mueller finished with his investigation unimpeded or if he was asked by anyone to conclude it or if funding was stopped in any way. Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) April 18, 2019 Regardless of what Barr says, it seems like President Trump is completely Page 290'd. pic.twitter.com/BEnXfNOQwx Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) April 18, 2019 On page 290 of the #MuellerReport, the words of a very innocent and very cool person: pic.twitter.com/clye7tOFGO Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) April 18, 2019 Imagine how many historical texts looked similar to this after awful men came together to edit the reputation of other awful men. #MuellerReport pic.twitter.com/ZJETfiW6Nl Eugene Lee Yang (@EugeneLeeYang) April 18, 2019 Barr is acting more like Trumps defense attorney than the nation's Attorney General. His press conference was a stunt, filled with political spin and propaganda. Americans deserve the unvarnished truth. We need Special Counsel Mueller to testify publicly in Congress. Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 18, 2019 A handy guide to reading the redacted #MuellerReport pic.twitter.com/UjL7s3rVys Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) April 18, 2019 Attorney General Barr has made it clear he is not impartial when it comes to this investigation. Now that we have the report we should hear from Robert Mueller himself in public hearings. Our democracy demands it. Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) April 18, 2019 Its clear AG Barr is acting as Trumps personal attorney, not Americas. Our country demands and deserves full transparency. Thats why we must hear directly from Mueller. #MuellerReport pic.twitter.com/wvkhcDDX4M Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) April 18, 2019 Robert Mueller must testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as soon as possible. Congress & the American people need to hear directly from the person who authored the report. Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBooker) April 18, 2019 Barr auditioned for the job. He said he would protect Trump and that is what he has done. We demand Mueller's public testimony and review of his report NOT Barr's twisted interpretations! Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) April 18, 2019 This report is very bad for Trump. It's very bad for Barr and its very bad for the press who credulously took Barr's word about Trump. Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) April 18, 2019 "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked."- an innocent person Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) April 18, 2019 Just some light redactions pic.twitter.com/Lw25DiAOWr The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 18, 2019 As someone right on the edge of supporting him, I think today would be a great day for @BernieSanders to forcefully denounce this activity by Russia. https://t.co/XxL7Ne6q9b Carter Bays (@CarterBays) April 18, 2019 You can read the #MuellerReport and decide for yourself if there was collusion or obstruction of justice. https://t.co/Thw27Ynhf1 Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) April 18, 2019 #MuellerReport: "...if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment." Also, Mueller: pic.twitter.com/FYzyXraoKE Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) April 18, 2019 Before we listen to the pundits, before we speak about something we havent read, lets read and then make up your own mind. #MuellerReport https://t.co/XNApp3boFV Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) April 18, 2019 Russia attacked us. The Trump campaign let it happen & encouraged it so he could cheat. That's clear in the #MuellerReport. Trump let a foreign govt. manipulate our election so he could win. Then, his team materially impaired the investigation. #Impeachhttps://t.co/jtJxKBx8F4 Misha Collins - GISH IS COMING! JULY 27- AUG 3 (@mishacollins) April 18, 2019 Ok, thats it! I want the report from MY Federal Investigation released. I never committed #HarmToOngoingMatter and Im a ballsy, vulgar comic. Legendary, yes, but... https://t.co/U9dRw9BhGb Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 18, 2019 Follow me: @NardineSaad The fragility and fallibility of history is on display in the illuminating documentary Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache, directed by Pamela B. Green. Early in the film, Green asks a host of Hollywood elites directors, producers, writers if theyve ever heard of Alice Guy-Blache, the first female film director. Almost uniformly, they respond in the negative, and Greens film, produced and narrated by Jodie Foster, dives deep into the frustrating mystery of why Guy-Blache has been nearly erased from film history, while also seeking to correct the record. This biographical documentary quickly details the facts of Guy-Blaches early life in Paris. As a young secretary working for Leon Gaumont, she was the first person to suggest using the new camera and projection technology to film narrative stories, rather than simply documenting real life. For the record: The review misstates the year and location Guy-Blache began running her own studio. It was 1910, not 1908, and it was initially located in Flushing, N.Y., before moving to Fort Lee, N.J. in 1912. Also, a biker identified as Bob is the widower of Guy-Blache's granddaughter, not great-granddaughter. Finally, narrator Jodie Foster is an executive producer on the film, not a producer.This article was originally published Nov. 20 at 2:15 p.m. Guy-Blache started writing and directing her own films, starting with The Cabbage Fairy in 1896. Known for her inventive camera and editing techniques, incisive cultural commentary and excellent humor, she was quickly named the head of production at Gaumont. She influenced young Sergei Eisenstein and later Alfred Hitchcock, and by 1908 she was running her own movie production studio, Solax, in Fort Lee, N.J. So why on earth was this pioneering filmmaker, who essentially came up with the idea for cinema as we know it, lost to the annals of time? Why isnt her name as ubiquitous as Lumiere or Melies or Edison? Green is like a dog with a bone when it comes to this mystery, finding anyone and everyone somewhat connected to Guy-Blache. She tracks down trinkets in the garage of a biker named Bob, the widower of Guy-Blaches great-granddaughter. She Skypes with a family trees worth of cousins related to one of Guy-Blaches cameramen, and interviews seemingly every film professor, historian and preservationist in the state of California. Advertisement What starts as a biography turns into a detective thriller as Green crisscrosses the globe, searching for clues as to why Guy-Blache has been forgotten. The answer: men, mostly. The Depression hit, her philandering husband Herbert ran off to Hollywood, and Guy-Blache retreated with her children to France, where the newly industrialized film business wasnt welcoming to an older woman whod been in America for over a decade. World wars didnt help the archival process, male interviewers didnt track her down and Guy-Blache didnt get a chance to search for her films until the 1950s, after many were already lost. While some historians sought to preserve Guy-Blaches name and influence, all too many miscredited her work and wrote her out of history. Greens film serves as an incredibly necessary tonic, reestablishing the prominent role of women at the advent of cinema, when anything was possible, and there was no notion that directing was necessarily a mans job. As Hollywood grapples with its representational issues, its vital to restore a history that places women behind the camera. Its shocking and sad to realize the ways that Guy-Blache has been overlooked, but Be Natural, so named after the signs the director would hang in her studio, is an important step in rewriting that fluid history. The good news, which Be Natural doesnt mention, is that, perhaps in part thanks to the massive hunt, restoration and preservation efforts detailed in the documentary, 14 of Guy-Blaches films are now included on a massive new DVD box-set from Kino Lorber, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, and also includes films by Lois Weber, Helen Holmes, Mabel Normand, Grace Cunard and Dorothy Davenport Reid. ------------- Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes Playing: Starts April 19, Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica ------------ See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour Movie Trailers calendar@latimes.com @LATimesMovies Fast Color is a nifty little film, a smart, adventurous and surprising production made with visible care and considerable love. Its also a superhero movie with strong science fiction elements, but nothing like the way were used to seeing them. While movies of the Marvel and DC variety are todays movie establishment, the genres origins are raffish and independent, and its good to see director Julia Hart going back to those roots and doing things a little differently. So not only is the protagonist and unwilling tower of Ruth a woman of color, her powers turn out to be multi-generational, passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter. In fact, you could argue that celebrating the power of women is central to what Fast Color is about. But if that sounds as though its edging into soapbox territory, that couldnt be further from the truth. Edgy and disturbing, Fast Color (co-written by Hart and producer Jordan Horowitz) keeps its messaging subtle as it involves us in its story. Advertisement It can do that because of the emotional commitment of the films players, especially star Gugu Mbatha-Raw (doing some of the best work of her career) as well as writer-director Hart, clearly excited about the potent genre-bending story shes been able to pull off. The universe of Fast Color is one very much like our own, contemporary but just a little further down the road, a setting where it makes sense to say the world is a strange place these days. There is, however, a key difference: It hasnt rained in eight years; not a single drop of water has fallen from the sky in all that time. We access this world not in a big city but, as impeccably production designed by Gae Buckley, through its rural small towns, convincingly stark and crumbling. And we meet Ruth (Mbatha-Raw) very much on the run, escaping from a dilapidated building with nameless authorities fast on her trail. She stops at a dilapidated motel, maybe somewhere in the Midwest, where access to water costs almost as much as the room, and suddenly she feels it. Something, some transformation, is about to happen, something she has experienced before and can in no way control. Shaking like a human power surge, Ruth, it turns out, is a powerful energy source all on her own, creating earthquakes and even causing tectonic plates to shift when one of her overpowering fits is upon her. Aware of her power but unable to figure her out, all kinds of government types are after Ruth, eager to take her into custody and imprison her as an unwilling laboratory experiment. If this was an X-Men movie, Ruth would soon find her way to Charles Francis Xavier and the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, but she has no such luck. Very much on her own, Ruth makes her way to the only place that has to take her in, the house she grew up in, located on a remote farm. Living there are the two people she is closest to, the two people she abandoned when she fled years ago but is now determined to reconnect with. That would be her mother Bo (Orange Is The New Blacks Lorraine Toussaint) and her daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney, with Fences and Hidden Figures among her credits). These women, as it turns out, have related but different powers of their own: They can disintegrate objects and then have them re-form, with the bursts of color that accompany the process of reformation giving the film its name. (Chris LeDoux supervised the excellent visual effects.) But the authorities, personified by a scientist known only as Bill (Christopher Denham), are relentless, and they enlist the help of Sheriff Dean Ellis (the veteran David Strathairn), the law in these parts and curious about Ruth for reasons of his own. Key to making this story so involving and intriguing is the quality of the acting across the board, starting with Mbatha-Raw. On critics radars since 2013s Belle and gaining more notice with Disneys live-action Beauty and the Beast and A Wrinkle In Time, she excels here as a troubled fugitive all but overwhelmed by her powers. Were not superheroes, she says when asked by her awed daughter about her gifts. Were just trying to get by. Though most contemporary science fiction is dystopian by design, the thrust of Fast Color is finally anything but. This is a film that leaves you uplifted instead of worn down, and that is another reason, in addition to all the others, to cherish and support it. --- Fast Color MPAA rating: PG-13 for a scene of violence and brief strong language. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. Playing ArcLight Hollywood; Cinemark Crenshaw Plaza 15, Baldwin Hills. kenneth.turan@latimes.com @KennethTuran What happens when an intended one-off publicity stunt escalates into a full-blown movement? The undeniably enticing answer can be found in Hail Satan?, an often surprising documentary about the rise of the Satanic Temple. It all started with three guys in cheap hooded cloaks and robes congregating in front of Tallahassees State Capitol ostensibly backing then-Florida Gov. Rick Scotts proposed law allowing prayer in public schools while they were, in fact, championing religious pluralism. But when the media eagerly took the bait, the Satanic Temple, fronted by savvy spokesman Lucien Greaves (a pseudonym), went from being a gag to an international sensation in three short years, attracting 100,000 activist members who were more about upholding 1st Amendment rights than horns and cloven hooves. Advertisement While director Penny Lane (not a pseudonym) energetically goes about shattering our preconceived notions at every intriguing turn, the film is at its most potent tracing societys history of satanic panic, from the Salem Witch Trials to the rise of the evangelical lobby on the shoulders of the Red Scare to the 1980s when Dungeons & Dragons was viewed as a demonic gateway game. Boasting wild archival clips and a 7-foot Baphomet statue with a goat head and an Iggy Pop torso, Hail Satan? could easily be taken for the impish spawn of Michael Moore and Kenneth Anger. ------------- Hail Satan? Rated: R, for graphic nudity, and some language Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes Playing: Starts April 19, Arclight Hollywood; The Landmark, West L.A. ------------ calendar@latimes.com @LATimesMovies Rapper Kodak Black was arrested Wednesday night near Niagara Falls, N.Y., after he and friends were trying to cross the border from Canada and admitted they had marijuana and firearms in their two vehicles, police said. The 21-year-old, whose real name is Bill K. Kapri, was driving two friends in a Cadillac Escalade across the Lewiston-Queenston International Bridge, followed by a Porsche with three people inside, according to New York State Police, who were called in by border agents at 7:20 p.m. Eastern time. A Glock 9mm handgun that was not registered to Black or his passengers was found in the car, and marijuana was found on the rapper, police said in a statement Thursday. He was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana, as was Jeantony Saintmelus, 22, the other driver. Saintmelus admitted having two loaded handguns, and a third gun was found in the trunk of the car along with marijuana, officers said. Kodak Black at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. (Jordan Strauss / Associated Press) Advertisement Blacks passengers Stetson J. President, 24, and Madarrow D. Smith, 20, were charged only with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, police said. The Wake Up in the Sky rapper, who is from Miramar, Fla., was remanded to Niagara County Jail with bail set at $20,000 cash or $40,000 bond. He posted bond and is due back in court in May, police said. He was previously released from jail in Broward County, Fla., on Aug. 18, 2018, after doing time on a pair of probation violations, the Blast reported. Blacks criminal history is a complex one, resulting in a number of court cases. The rapper was scheduled to perform Wednesday night in Boston, about 400 miles away from where he was arrested. The House of Blues Boston tweeted around 6:30 local time that his shows at 5 and 9:30 p.m. had been canceled due to unforeseen circumstances and, according to Bostons WBZ, posted signs at the venue as well. With sincere apologies, due to unforeseen circumstances, the Kodak Black shows have been postponed. New dates will be announced as soon as possible. House of Blues Boston (@HOBBoston) April 18, 2019 A couple of hours later, Boston police responded to a call complaining about a crowd that was displaying generally unruly behavior as a result of a canceled show, the TV station reported. One man was arrested after allegedly assaulting a security guard, and two people were hospitalized. Kodak Blacks tour schedule had included a show Thursday night at the Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Conn., but that has also been canceled, according to the resorts website. A show set for Friday night at the Met Philadelphia was still on the books in that city. cdz@latimes.com @theCDZ on Twitter and Instagram Earth Day, which falls on April 22 every year, doesnt have to be marked with grand gestures. While beach clean-ups, tree plantings and petition signings might be some ways of honoring the day, its also a time to think about what you buy and what its origins are. From bottle-less shampoo to tees made from recycled beechwood pulp, fashion and lifestyle brands are creating products that have a minimal effect on the environment and giving back in other ways. Here are ideas for greening your wardrobe. Advertisement Hari Mari X Peter Millar Hari Mari uses recycled rubber and natural hemp fibers for its flip-flops. (Hari Mari) Flip-flop brand Hari Mari has teamed with fashion label Peter Millar for its latest spring offering, including this Cognac Woven style with a woven strap. The company uses natural hemp fibers and recycled rubber; send your old flip-flops from any brand to Hari Mari to recycle for a 15% discount. $125. Available at harimari.com. Primal Elements Primal Elements soap-like shampoo and conditioner bars are intended to reduce landfill waste. (Primal Elements) Huntington Beach-based Primal Elements makes shampoo and conditioner bars, so fewer bottles are dumped into landfills and oceans. The bars come in scents, including honey almond and rosemary mint, are not tested on animals and contain essential oils and botanicals. $9.50. Available at primalelements.com. AG Jeans Adriano Goldschmied X Blanda Pieces from AG, including this jacket in collaboration with Swiss artist Blanda, is part of the denim companys recently announced initiative recycle water. (Blanda / AG) The Omaha jacket is part of a limited-edition capsule collection from AG Jeans Adriano Goldschmied and Swiss artist Blanda. AG recently announced initiatives to recycle water used during production in its Los Angeles and Mexico factories. Every purchase from the brand will also provide two weeks of clean water to someone in need. $325. Available at agjeans.com. Marine Layer Made from sand-washed Tencel, this jumpsuit is produced during a closed-loop manufacturing process for minimal waste. (Arturo Torres / Marine Layer) Marine Layer, a San Francisco-based brand that uses recycled beechwood for its ultra-soft tees, applies its eco-conscious principles to this easy-wear jumpsuit. The sand-washed Tencel comes from wood produced during a closed-loop manufacturing process, so there is minimal waste. $125. Available at marinelayer.com. Burton Vermont-based Burton is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 20% and diverting 75% of its landfill waste by 2020. (Burton) Burton, known for its outerwear, has made it its mission to reduce carbon emissions by 20% and divert 75% of landfill waste by 2020. Sustainably produced pieces include this Crown Bonded Full-Zip Hoodie. $89.95. Available at burton.com. Coco + Carmen Recycled cotton is used for these pouches from Coco + Carmen. (Coco + Carmen) A new spring offering from Coco + Carmen includes these pouches made from 100% recycled cotton; available in totes and hobo-styles. The brand also makes animal-print totes from recycled plastic bottles. $25. Available at cococarmen.com. Youth to the People A large glass bottle of Superfood Cleanser from Youth to the People was released in time for Earth Day in packaging designed to minimize waste. (Youth to the People) To celebrate Earth Day, L.A. skin-care brand Youth to the People has launched this special edition of its Superfood Cleanser. Made using kale, green tea and spinach, the cleanser is free of parabens, phthalates and sulfates. The 16-ounce glass bottle is designed to reduce waste. A dollar from every purchase will go to organizations working on environmental issues. $54. Available at youthtothepeople.com. Outerknown A denim trucker from Outerknown is made from decades-old re-purposed Levis denim. (Boris Frantz / Outerknown) Culver City-based Outerknown, co-founded by champion surfer Kelly Slater and designer John Moore, has environmental sustainability as the heart of the brand. This womens Levis Authorized Vintage Trucker Type III jacket is made using denim that dates to the 1980s and 1990s and has been restored. $298. Available at outerknown.com. Sun Child Sari producers leftover fabric as well as recycled saris themselves make up the floaty dresses from Topanga-based Sun Child. (Sun Child) Topanga resident Elissa Kravetz founded Sun Child in 2015 after a trip to Goa, India. Her floaty, colorful dresses are fashioned from recycled Indian sari materials as well as leftover sari fabric, and they can be worn in multiple ways and fit sizes 0 to 16. Shown here is the Morrison dress. $375. Available iamsunchild.com. SVNR The Havana earring ($95) is made from repurposed and upcycled stones and designed to be worn as a single piece. (SVNR) Jewelry from SVNR is created from stones that were found, repurposed and upcycled. This style, the Havana, has shells and stones such as jasper and quartz. (Earrings are generally sold as singles.) $95. Available at svnrshop.com. image@latimes.com For fashion news, follow us at @latimesimage on Twitter. A spot of Parisian elegance arrived in Culver City earlier this month with the opening of a pop-up shop from fashion brand Rouje Paris. Founded in 2016 by influencer, model and It girl Jeanne Damas, the French brand is known for its breezy dresses, basket-style bags and matte lip colors. Damas described the 617-square-foot Culver City outpost as reimagining a Parisian artists atelier infused with our French flair, with unframed artwork hung on the walls and vintage-inspired furniture. The L.A. area, she said, was an obvious choice for her first U.S. retail moment. In late March, the brand opened a corner spot in Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Advertisement When looking to select a city for my first pop-up store in the U.S., I knew I wanted to start with Los Angeles, she said. L.A. has everything that Paris doesnt large spaces, the sun, the sea. The city is the perfect dreamy background for our first Rouje store. Inside the pop-up, shoppers will find a selection of spring/summer styles, including the best-selling Gabin dress, a wrap-front short-sleeved dress in floral prints, and the leather J bag. Prices range from $29 to $300. Rouje pop-up, Platform, 8850 Washington Blvd., Culver City, through June 30, rouje.com The Sak 18 different styles of the 120 Hobo, the original bag from the Sak, are handmade by Balinese artisans. (The Sak) To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the Sak has released limited-edition varieties of its original 120 Hobo style. The 18 iterations are handmade by Balinese artisans and are a nod to our heritage and the first bag that really put the Sak on the map, said Mark Talucci, chief executive of the brand, which began in San Francisco and is now headquartered in New York. The initiative, he said, was to honor and support the women of Bali [and] marks a commitment to sustainability, fair trade practices and an extension of our charitable efforts. Each hand-crocheted bag, priced at $129, takes three days to make. Styles in the line include the Ragam (the Indonesian word for diversity), which Talucci said celebrates Balis rich multicultural identity. The Water style features natural rope and a handmade macrame fringe panel. Overall, the bag styles are casual and made from natural materials such as bamboo and cotton. Talucci said he worked with the brands in-house design team on the patterns, which were sent to the artisans to work from. The capsule collection will be available through 2019, with additional pieces being unveiled each season. The Sak, thesak.com and macys.com Ame Earrings featuring lab-grown diamonds by New York-based Ame, which recently opened a store at Westfield Century City. (Ame) In keeping with the trend in lab-grown diamonds for which Penelope Cruz and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have proclaimed their support New York-based brand Ame opened a Los Angeles location on April 12 at Westfield Century City shopping center. Employees at the 1,075-square-foot store are on hand to educate shoppers about lab-grown diamonds, which creative director Elinor Avni said have no real difference from conventionally mined stones other than the speed at which they are produced. The conditions that make it happen underground over millions of years are recreated in a lab, Avni said. Its a complex, expensive process, but it takes just a few weeks. She said the shift toward ethically sourced, conflict-free stones is driving interest in the brand. In addition, Ame pieces have a streamlined aesthetic designed for everyday wear, meaning they arent so blingy that they can be worn only on special occasions. Ame is making fine diamond jewelry wearable, she said. Its about a transformation from the kind of pieces that are mostly kept in a safe to those that can be worn every day. Avni noted that the laborious process by which lab-grown diamonds are made doesnt make them inexpensive. Prices in the Ame line start at $850 for a single ear cuff to $19,500 for a bracelet containing more than 5 carats of diamonds. The pieces earrings, rings, neckwear and bracelets are designed with a modern, spare aesthetic. For example, a open-ended octagonal pendant is studded with small baguette diamonds. Ame, Westfield Century City, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, ame.jewelry Warby Parker Accessibly-priced eyewear brand Warby Parker opened its newest store in the Point in El Segundo in March. (Warby Parker) Eyewear brand Warby Parker continued its expansion drive in the Los Angeles market with the opening of its newest local store in El Segundo last month. The interior and exterior of the boutique are decorated with works by artist Jeff Canham. (A bold blue Nice to see you sign is painted as a welcoming mural above the entrance.) The new store features the brands latest offerings, including its Butler style for spring/summer 2019, an oval frame made from hand-polished cellulose acetate in colors such as butterscotch tortoise or shoreline fade. (Eyewear is priced from $95.) The store is also debuting select Warby Parker frames for children: Jr. Jr. is for children ages 4 to 7 and Jr. for ages 8 and older. Warby Parker, the Point, 850 S. Sepulveda Blvd., El Segundo, warbyparker.com image@latimes.com For fashion news, follow us at @latimesimage on Twitter. Easter is this Sunday, which concludes my favorite food holiday: Lent. Cuaresma for Mexicans is a time for reflection and penance but its also 40 days of gluttony. Have fun with your fish fries, fellow Catholics: We Mexicans are gorging on tortitas de camarones, shrimp fritters served alongside grilled cactus and doused in a fiery chile de arbol salsa. On gorditas stuffed with refried beans and cotija, dolloped with crema. I especially loved my mom serving crispy potato tacos from a pan filled with bubbling manteca as if she were pulling dishes from the sink. And the showstopper: capirotada, the layered bread pudding thats the de facto Mexican dessert for Lent. Every family bakes their own version; Mexicans on social media fight about whether it should include cheese (duh), nonpareils (of course), coconut flakes (maybe) or apple slices (no). Capirotada from La Chispa de Oro in Boyle Heights. Many Mexican restaurants across Southern California sell the Mexican dessert, but only during Lent Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times My moms is the best, of course. She uses queso anejo from her home state of Zacatecas for a salty touch, and sprinkles a judicious amount of raisins and almonds. The finished product doesnt look elegant: bumpy and brown, and put into Tupperware once its cooled down. But her capirotada is sweet and earthy, crunchy (because of the fried bolillo slices she uses) and mushy (those bolillos get soaked in cinnamon-spiked syrup). Cultura y amor in a baking pan. The only thing I never liked about capirotada is its seasonality. From the time I was a kid, Id beg Mami to make it throughout the year, a request she has always refused. Nomas se hace para Cuaresma, shed always scold only for Lent, and that was that. Once I became an adult, she took pity on me and prepped enough Lenten dishes to tide me over the year. I have enough goodies in the freezer to let me survive whatever comes after the Big One. And this spring, I dug through my freezer and found a small bag of capirotada, from a batch my mom made two years ago. I dont think Ill ever eat that one, though, because its from the last batch Mami ever made. She is about to enter hospice, with weeks to live. Maria de la Luz Arellano Miranda, left, with her siblings Alicia Miranda and Ezequiel Miranda, in El Cargadero, Zacatecas, Mexico in the late 1960s Courtesy of the Arellano family Maria de la Luz Arellano Miranda will pass away at 67, survived by her husband, Lorenzo, daughters Elsa and Alejandrina, sons Gustavo and Gabriel, and one grandson. Food, in complex and myriad ways, beyond the maternal glory of her cooking, defined her life. Her grandfather, Sabas Fernandez, created Fervi, a dry, almond-scented chocolate de metate that makes the Ibarra brand taste like wallpaper. Her father, Jose Miranda (affectionately called Papa Je by his grandchildren), came to Anaheim in the 1920s to pick oranges and work at the Sunkist Packing House, nowadays a hipster food hall. Mami grew up poor but well-fed in her home rancho of El Cargadero. My abuelito moved her and the rest of my aunts and uncles to the United States in the early 1960s because drought and frost had ruined Papa Jes harvest. The Mirandas were part of a zacatecano exodus that has spilled throughout California for over a century. My family first went to Hollister, then Gilroy, where my preteen mom picked garlic and beets, before arriving in Anaheim in 1965. She only made it to the ninth grade before my grandparents pulled her and my other aunts from school to help out la familia by working in the strawberry fields in Orange and Ventura counties. Those backbreaking days are the only time Mami ever admitted to drinking beer, because it offered her instant calories and temporary refreshment. Maria, second from left, on a break at the Hunt-Wesson cannery in Fullerton in the 1990s Courtesy of the Arellano family Deliverance came a few years later in the form of a job at the former Hunt-Wesson cannery in Fullerton. She first packed tomatoes, then learned how to drive a forklift, alternating between morning and graveyard shifts before the plant closed in 1997. It was a union job, so Mami got a living wage, benefits and free boxes of dented or mislabeled Hunts ketchup, puddings and Peter Pan peanut butter that helped her feed us kids. No matter how busy or tired she mightve been, Mami always found time to cook breakfast and dinner for us nearly every day and especially when we needed a feast. I still remember my fourth-grade birthday party. We had just moved to a bigger home in Anaheim, and I invited a bunch of kids from my new school. Only one showed up. Mami saw how crushed I was, so instead of ordering Little Caesars, she pulled out a griddle and began to pat out gorditas for the two of us, entertaining us and making a show of it, a kind gesture my friend still remembers decades later. In our extended family, she was respected for dabbing the right amount of masa in tamales, for a fabulous red pozole, and for her impossibly airy Christmas bunuelos (Mamis secret: using spring roll wrappers instead of flour tortillas). Her enchiladas, chorizo tortas, and papas en crema con rajas spoiled us kids into believing all families ate like that all the time. Gustavo and his sisters in the early '90s, enjoying arroz con leche during Lent Courtesy of the Arellano family As the years passed, we began to realize that our mom was mortal and tried to mine her for recipes. She taught my sisters how to make tamales; my wife learned red pozole. In 2010, I persuaded Mami and her oldest sister, my Tia Maria, to share for this paper their recipe for asado de boda, the luxuriant mole of El Cargadero. Our family still laughs about the morning the two made it. They argued over how much of each ingredient to use; I had to force measuring spoons and cups into their hands to try and cobble together a working recipe. They chastised me, insisting that cooking was better by tanteandole: learned by muscle memory through trial and error instead of measurements. When I asked if maybe they could make a smaller serving portion than 32, Mami and my Tia Maria scoffed that Americans didnt eat enough. The Times went on to deem their asado de boda one of its 10 favorite recipes that year. But her capirotada is better. FROM THE ARCHIVES: Recipe: Jerez-style wedding asado (Asado de boda Jerezano) Mami was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer in February 2018, just as Lent was about to start. She managed to make some chiles rellenos and arroz con leche before surgery but not capirotada. Chemo didnt deter her from cooking, and Mami got better but she still refused to make capirotada. Wasnt the time. Finally, about a week before Ash Wednesday this year, she told my dad to buy bolillos from a local panaderia to air-dry before the first Friday of Lent. My dad never got the chance. The following day, she went to the emergency room. She left the hospital two weeks later. Her digestive tract was shutting down. I told her shed soon get better, but Mami mustve known her days were ending. She asked my Tia Maria to teach me how to make capirotada instead. Gustavo and his parents on his wedding day Matthew William Photography / courtesy of the Arellano family We got together on a Saturday morning, along with two of my aunts daughters. I came home to find a tray of bolillos Mami had put out to stale the day before, the day she told us that she was stopping chemo. That would be her only hands-on contribution to the recipe or so we thought, until, from her bed, Mami shouted out her thoughts on how much piloncillo to use in the syrup that gives capirotada its sponginess. Halfway through, Mami rose to check on our progress, harrumphed her approval, then returned to bed. The capirotada turned out fabulous. Afterward, I sat next to her. She was falling asleep. Mami is now unable to eat solids and allowed only sips of water. I wished I had written down all of her Lenten recipes over the years instead of trying to grasp at them before it was too late, I confessed. Just ask your cousins and aunts for them, she said weakly. But they wont be as good as yours. She stayed quiet for a while, then smiled. Youre right. Gustavo and mom on the day of his christening Courtesy of the Arellano family When Im at my most selfish, I curse God for striking my Mom with cancer during one Lent, then incapacitating her the following Cuaresma. He denied me two years of her cooking me my favorite meals and once she passes, Ill never have the chance to eat with her again. Its not fair, I cry during prayers. But then I remember what my sister Elsa taught me about capirotada years ago. Many Mexican Catholics see symbolism in the desserts construction. The bread represents the body of Christ; the syrup, His blood; the cinnamon, the crucifix; the cloves are the nails (the two use the same word in Spanish, clavos). Every bite is supposed to remind us of sacrifice but also rebirth hence, its Paschal timeliness. I never gave much thought to that folk interpretation but thats all I think about now. Mami found everlasting life through the food she made us, through the memories created and the regrets Ill always carry with me but also the happiness. I wish I jotted down more of Mamis recipes. I wish I could see her beam one more time as I scarfed down her food even after a day of reviewing restaurants. Yet Im forever grateful she found the strength to help me learn how to make her most hallowed treat one last time. Im no cook quesadillas are about as fancy as I get. But now I will make capirotada for my family, so we can remember what a wonderful, giving woman our mom was. And Im only going to make capirotada during Lent because thats how Mami did it. Gaby D'Alessandro For The Times Zacatecas-Style Capirotada (Mexican Bread Pudding) 1 1/2 hours. Serves 8 to 10. Arellanos family typically makes this recipe twice the size Why would anyone want to make a small serving of capirotada? but we scaled it down by half to make it fit perfectly in a more common 9-by-13-inch baking pan. If you want to make Arellanos family-size version, look for an aluminum baking pan at your grocery store that measures roughly 16 1/2-by-10-by-4-inches (typically labeled Extra-Large Rectangular Roaster Foil Pan, Ultra Roaster Foil Pan, or Full-Size Deep Steam Table Aluminum Foil Pan). Buy bolillos in your grocery stores bread case and let them dry out for at least 1 day or up to 1 week. This isnt a make-it-whenever dish, Arellano says. The drying is part of the ritual. 12 ounces (1 1/2 cones) piloncillo 3 tomatillo husks 3 (5-to-6-inch long) sticks canela (Mexican cinnamon) or cinnamon sticks 2 whole cloves 1/8 small yellow onion 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 2/3 cup rendered lard or vegetable oil 1 pound (6 to 8) stale, small bolillo or other white bread rolls, torn into 1 1/2 to 2-inch chunks 5 ounces queso anejo or panela, cut into 2-by-1/2-inch sticks 3 tablespoons whole almonds, toasted 3 tablespoons raisins Freshly grated coconut flakes and multicolored nonpareils, to garnish 1 Heat the oven to 350 degrees. 2 In a small saucepan, combine the piloncillo, tomatillo husks, canela, cloves, onion wedge, salt, and 4 cups water. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and continue cooking until the syrup is reduced by one-quarter, about 15 minutes. 3 While the syrup simmers, heat one-third cup lard or oil in a large, straight-sided skillet or Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add half the bread, stir to coat it evenly in the fat, then spread it out in a single layer and let cook, undisturbed, until lightly toasted on one side, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the pieces and cook until toasted on the opposite side, 2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer the bread to a plate and wipe the skillet clean with more paper towels. Repeat with the remaining one-third cup lard and the remaining bread. 4 Spread one-third of the fried bread in the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, followed by one-third of the queso, then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon each the almonds and raisins. Repeat layering two more times with the remaining bread, queso, almonds and raisins. 5 Pour the syrup through a fine strainer and discard the solids. Slowly drizzle the syrup evenly over the bread and cheese, then lightly press all the bread down to help them absorb as much of the syrup as possible. Cover the pan with a sheet of foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the bread pudding is golden brown and crisp on top, 15 to 20 minutes more. 6 Remove the capirotada from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the top with coconut and nonpareils before serving. Support our journalism Please consider subscribing today to support stories like this one. Get full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks. Already a subscriber? Your support makes our work possible. Thank you. gustavo.arellano@latimes.com Twitter: @GustavoArellano Its 5 a.m. and something hairy and heated is atop my chest, gnawing at my mouth. Slurp. Slurp. Nibble. Nibble. Wake up, wake up, wake up . Did you have a bad dream? I ask the giant dog. Are you scared? Of course White Fang is scared. Were all a little scared. If youre alive, youre slightly scared. Get over yourself. Move on. I was telling someone the other day someone who would listen, which is rare these days a true listener that if you can knit together enough tiny pleasures that you can almost outrun lifes relentless drumbeat of duty and frightful developments. Advertisement You just string together these tiny pleasures a cheesy chunk of cow for lunch, or a neon martini at a very swanky bar as a fence against the worries of the world. Wad these joys together, if you will; crumple them up till you have your sturdy fence. Maybe its the spring air, maybe its the sweetness of Easter, but lately I seem to be on a small-pleasure hunt. Damn the grief and the existential crises. Full speed ahead. Never mind that I am behind on life, that my dogs dont understand me and the kids dont really seem to care the way they once did. As Jim Morrison said: This is the strangest life I have ever known. The cars are filthy, the beagle needs a bath and the same socks and T-shirts have been in the dryer for seven, eight months. I am thinking of sealing off the laundry area with police tape, as you would a crime scene. This, of course, would help solve my problem, lured as I would be by the sight of a crime scene in the house, stepping over the yellow tape, as I did as a young reporter entitled, curious and a little stupid. Obviously, I am behind on my adulting, as millennials like to call it. I just paid my taxes with drugstore vodka and a MasterCard that expired 25 years ago. Well see how the IRS reacts. I suspect they will be impressed, as bill collectors generally are, that I am finally showing any sort of initiative. Well see where all this leads, an IRS agent will tell cynical colleagues. But hes burned us before. Really, the only thing the IRS could seize is three pollen-covered cars and an ancient Yamaha stereo, which a guy up the street dumped on me the other day because he was moving on. I seem to be the collector of old cruddy things, the stuff my daughters left us after college, skeletal and lame IKEA lamps, and tubs and tubs of sweaters, still candied with college perfumes. There are also the Christmas tree stands that I have accumulated in the basement three of them none of which work. In December, I was forced to wire the tree to the wall again after it fell face-first in a rattle-whoosh to the living room floor. Get out the police tape! I yelled to the little guy, which is what passes for a warm holiday greeting at our house. Anyway, the IRS is welcome to all of this rubbish, and a leaky 300-pound beagle that demands to be fed 14 times a day. Take my freedom, seize my savings, but most of all please take this maddening and defective dog. Come get me, coppers! as my buddy Wilson says while waving a chubby cigar. In April, a little civil disobedience always feels right, a gentle pushback against thrumming politeness and thankless obligation. At the Los Angeles Times book fest last week, I was especially struck by a panel exchange featuring essayist Heather Havrilesky. In her panel remarks, and in her book, Havrilesky says her party experiences have become almost too adult, too tame. No music is too loud, no lipstick is too dark, no food is too spicy, no drink is too strong, Havrilesky writes in her terrific book, What If This Were Enough? I cant do it, she writes, the small sips, the half smiles, the polite pauses, the autopilot nodding. So dont. Just dont. Come to my parties, Heather. My buddies and I are undergoing a mild second adolescence, which can be insufferable and inspiring all at once. At the last party, one guy seduced a giant potted palm. They left together, discussing marriage. My buddies and I are a little older, see, and we dont much mind causing a stir or curating lifes small joys, one after the other. Or shaking up too-quiet parties. Getting older is really underrated. With age comes courage and wisdom, small joys and a bit of reborn swagger. Come get us, coppers! Chris.Erskine@latimes.com Twitter: @erskinetimes Through the haze outside our hotel room window, I spotted the white domes and spires of the Taj Mahal, the sight that draws most people, including myself, to Agra. But below, just across the street from our hotel, was another tourist attraction: Sheroes Hangout, a cafe staffed by survivors of acid attacks. This year, my parents and I flew to India for a family wedding and some sightseeing. I have been traveling to India to visit my grandparents every other year for as long as I can remember, yet neither my father nor I had ever seen Indias most famous landmark, so we put Agra on our to-visit list. On the four-hour drive from Jaipur, I started scrolling on my phone, looking up what to do in Agra other than visiting the Taj Mahal. I soon came across reviews of Sheroes, a project created to help acid attack survivors earn money and not feel ashamed of the way they look. Advertisement Im embarrassed to say that I had never heard about acid attacks. I quickly learned that in India they are often a form of domestic violence. The reviews of Sheroes on TripAdvisor were stunning, unlike any online comments I had ever seen. A Canadian tourist said she took her two children to the cafe last fall because she wanted to show them the good and the bad of the countries we see. When we walked in, I wanted to cry. It is very sad and heartbreaking, she wrote. I am so happy we made the time to visit here. A woman from Britain wrote: Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, The Agra Fort and The Sheroes Hangout I just feel so lucky to have met the sheroes. We had to go. I wasnt sure if I would write about the cafe yet, but I could not leave Agra without seeing it. When we arrived in Agra, we discovered our hotel was across the street from the cafe. So the following afternoon, after visiting the Taj Mahal, we darted across the busy road to Sheroes. The cafe was small but colorful, covered in murals and paper art. The space used to be bigger, the staff told us, but the front half was recently demolished because of a road-widening project. My parents and I sat at a table in the back and a waitress handed us menus. Her name was Shabnam. The skin around her mouth was wrinkled, where acid had burned her. Her forehead and nose were unusually smooth from reconstructive surgery. She was quiet but friendly. We ordered coffee and a plate of vegetables fritters known as pakoras. My mom had been searching for green chile pakoras the entire trip and asked Shabnam if any would be included alongside the more traditional potato and cauliflower fritters. Shabnam sympathetically told my mom that no, green chiles werent typically part of the assortment. She walked to the kitchen to place our order. The following day I would return to interview several of the women who work at the cafe. But on this first visit, I looked around silently as they rang up orders and walked food to tables, comfortable in their own skin, chatting with each other and with tourists. When Shabnam brought us our drinks, her eyes passed from my mother to me, and back again. She asked if we were mother and daughter. She seemed pleased with our answer. I would eventually learn that Shabnam came to Sheroes after her boss at a garment factory threw acid on her after she rebuffed his advances. She has a daughter too and works at Sheroes to support her. Coffee and a plate of pakoras at Sheroes. (Soumya Karlamangla / Los Angeles Times) Acid attacks are an incredibly cruel form of violence, intended to maim and embarrass women. That cruelty is often compounded when survivors are ostracized because of their scarred appearance. Sheroes tries to save them from this one-two punch. Tourists flock to the Taj Mahal each year to marvel at the fact that this exquisite structure, its symmetrical, marbled domes unlike anything else in the world, has existed for close to 400 years. People come to Sheroes for similar reasons, I realized: to admire the strength and beauty of these women, who were confronted with the worst parts of humanity yet still remain standing. When Shabnam returned with our food, she set down the plate of pakoras with a smile. There in the middle was a fritter longer than all the rest, a deep-fried green chile. DNA evidence has linked the cold-case rapes and slayings of two women on Californias Central Coast to a man who died of cancer in a Washington prison nearly four decades after the killings, authorities said Wednesday. DNA taken recently from a razor that had belonged to Arthur Rudy Martinez matched DNA left by the suspect in two unsolved killings in Atascadero in the late 1970s, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a news conference. The body of 30-year-old Jane Morton Antunez was found in the backseat of her car on a dirt road on Nov. 18, 1977. She had been sexually assaulted, and her throat had been cut. Less than two months later, on Jan. 11, 1978, 28-year-old Patricia Dwyer was found sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in her home. Martinez moved to Washington from Atascadero shortly after Dwyer was killed. He later was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of numerous rapes and robberies in Washington, but Martinez escaped from prison in 1994, Parkinson said. Advertisement Investigators say DNA evidence has helped solved the rapes and slayings of Jane Morton Antunez, left, and Patricia Dwyer in the late 1970s. (San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Office) Martinez returned to California and lived in Fresno under an alias for more than 20 years. He turned himself in on his Washington convictions after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2014 so he could get medical treatment in prison, Parkinson said. He died about two months later at age 65 in the prison in Spokane. At the time of the slayings, Martinez was working as a welder in Atascadero and was on parole for convictions of attempted murder and rape. At one point, he had been considered as a potential suspect in the killings, but there was no evidence at the time linking him to either crime scene, Parkinson said. The sheriffs office reopened the 41-year-old cold case in 2017 and decided to test Martinezs DNA after one of his family members was connected to the case through a familial DNA search, the sheriffs office said. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and are hopeful the resolution to these cases brings them some closure, Parkinson said in a statement. A baby in Orange County has died of whooping cough, marking the first death from the disease this year in the state, California health officials said Thursday. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, tends to be most dangerous in babies, killing one out of every 100 infants infected, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials recommend that pregnant mothers get a dose of the pertussis vaccine to protect their newborns before they are old enough to be immunized themselves. The last person to die from pertussis in California was a baby in San Bernardino County in 2018. To give babies the best protection, I urge all pregnant women to get vaccinated against whooping cough as early as possible during the third trimester of every pregnancy, state public health officer Dr. Karen Smith said in a statement. Advertisement In 2016, only 52% of new mothers were vaccinated against pertussis, according to a report from the department. Health officials did not provide any further information about the baby or the mother. Whooping cough is highly contagious and spread by coughing, sneezing or simply breathing air around an infected person. The name comes from the noise people make when theyre coughing so much they start gasping for air. The death comes amid warnings that California could be in for an outbreak in 2019. Whooping cough outbreaks tend to hit every three to five years, and Californias last were in 2010 and 2014. Los Angeles County officials announced several pertussis outbreaks this year, including one centered on Harvard-Westlake School. soumya.karlamangla@latimes.com Twitter: @skarlamangla Anticipating a rise in business and property tax revenue, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is looking to spend more money on homelessness, street repairs and police overtime next fiscal year. Garcetti on Thursday unveiled his $10.6-billion proposed budget for the city, a spending plan that relies on increased cannabis sales in Los Angeles and state money to help the citys homeless population. In a sign of the ongoing crisis, the mayor told reporters his budget makes another year of record investment to help the tens of thousands of people who live on the citys streets. Spending on homelessness would reach $457 million, up from $429 million, according to Garcetti and his aides. Those figures include revenue from Proposition HHH, the 2016 voter-backed initiative to build affordable housing, as well as the value of city properties set aside for new housing or sold to raise money. Advertisement Garcetti has acknowledged the publics frustration with the slow pace of progress on ending homelessness and suggested Thursday that turning the crisis around will take time. The first project funded with money from Proposition HHH is expected to open this year. I do expect that things will continue to be flat or even get a little bit worse before they get better, but the investments are now beginning to pay off, Garcetti said. Still, the mayor remained upbeat about the citys job growth rate and its fiscal strength. Property tax revenues are projected to have risen nearly 26% since 2015-16, according to city estimates. Garcettis aides also said they expect the city will receive $64.4 million in taxes paid by cannabis businesses, up from $40 million in the current year. Buoyed by a strong economy, the city plans to set aside 8% of its budget for an emergency or other urgent needs. The mayor said he wants to spend $348 million on fixing streets during the fiscal year that starts July 1, up from $312 million. That money would be used for pavement preservation, alley repairs and more. This years historic rainy season damaged our roads, as you know, Garcetti said. Weve all seen and felt the potholes. Garcettis budget, which now heads to the City Council for review, provides funds to operate a new jail near the Port of Los Angeles that was built years ago but lacked money to open. The plan also allocates $165.5 million for police overtime, a 5% increase over what the city is expected to spend this fiscal year. Craig Lally, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said the rank-and-file officers union is pleased after its initial review of the budget. The mayors proposal should expand our ability to address crime in neighborhoods, and his commitment to open the Harbor Jail will free up police officers to spend more time patrolling our streets and less time doing paperwork and transporting arrestees, Lally said. Despite the mayors rosy financial outlook, pensions and retiree healthcare are expected to consume 19.4% of the citys general fund, which pays for police patrols, fire protection and other basic services. Jack Humphreville, who belongs to the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, said he remains concerned with the citys pension projections. Budget analysts, he said, are relying on overly rosy assumptions for how much their retirement systems will make off their investments. Two city pension funds one for sworn public safety employees, the other for civilian city workers are projected to earn 7.25% annually in each of the next five years, according to the budget. If those earnings are not achieved, taxpayers will have to make up the difference, Humphreville said. Im worried the next generation of Angelenos will have to pay for this, he added. There are also unanswered questions about a new salary agreement with the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, which represents civilian city workers. The mayors aides declined Thursday to talk about the terms of the proposed contract, which is being reviewed by the unions. Meanwhile, Garcettis budget anticipates the continued growth of the citys recreational marijuana industry. His plan sets aside $12.5 million for the targeting of illegal cannabis businesses a move that the mayor said will hopefully increase revenue for legal shops and boosts the citys Department of Cannabis Regulation budget. The mayors budget also includes $117 million for traffic and safety improvements, up from $91 million. Those figures include money set aside under the mayors Vision Zero program to eliminate traffic deaths on city streets by 2025, an initiative that has fallen short of its early goals. Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report. dakota.smith@latimes.com Twitter: @dakotacdsmith Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti used his annual State of the City address Wednesday to make an extended sales pitch for Measure EE, a new tax for public schools that faces sharp opposition from the regions business groups. Garcetti, who has put significant political capital into passage of the tax, said the measure would allow the Los Angeles Unified School District to lower class sizes, keep school libraries open, and staff campuses with nurses and counselors. The alternative, he argued, would be layoffs of teachers and school support staff within the next two years. There will always be those who claim that funding our schools is a waste of money. But our children are not a waste of money, Garcetti told the audience at Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights. The address was the mayors first State of the City speech since he abandoned the idea of a long-shot campaign for president in 2020. And it offered the latest sign of Garcettis shift in emphasis toward issues confronting public schools. Advertisement Garcetti helped broker an end to the six-day strike in January by United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents educators at L.A. Unified. He and two of his top advisors are working to pass Measure EE, which is on the June 4 ballot and would collect an estimated $500 million a year for the school district. The mayor also has been a presence in the race to replace former school board member Ref Rodriguez, who stepped down after pleading guilty to political money laundering, in a district stretching from Los Feliz to South Gate. He endorsed former city commissioner Heather Repenning, a longtime aide and political ally, in her race against Jackie Goldberg, a former member of the school board and council. Wednesdays speech also touched on several City Hall initiatives, including the creation of a new jobs cabinet, an expansion of community policing, a new program to assist vulnerable renters and an array of policies aimed at addressing climate change. Garcetti touted the citys work in developing a Green New Deal within L.A., saying no one will care about potholes if Venice is underwater. He also highlighted his recent decision to have the Department of Water and Power abandon plans for rebuilding three natural gas power plants. That move drew protests outside Lincoln High School from members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, which represents DWP employees. Garcetti also acknowledged the publics frustration with the slow pace of progress addressing homelessness, attributing it in part to neighborhood opposition. Although the city has scores of supportive housing projects with nearly 7,000 units in the pipeline, the city still has not yet opened a project funded with proceeds of Proposition HHH, which was passed in 2016 to help address homelessness. The first is expected to open later this year. Still, the centerpiece of the speech was about education, both rhetorically and in substance. Garcetti defined this years teachers strike as a latter-day incarnation of a struggle for justice and equity. And he noted that 28% of children in Los Angeles County live in poverty. The mayors education efforts are already facing major tests. Goldberg led Repenning by a huge margin in the school board primary election, and is now viewed by many as a strong favorite. Meanwhile, more than a dozen business groups have lined up against Measure EE, which needs a two-thirds majority to pass. Last week, the leader of one of those groups accused a high-level Garcetti advisor of making threats over their opposition to the new tax. The advisor, Rick Jacobs, denied the allegations. Minutes after the speech ended, Chip Ahlswede, chief executive of the Beverly Hills Greater Los Angeles Assn. of Realtors, issued a statement calling Measure EE the wrong solution to the school districts woes. Measure EE does not guarantee that funding goes toward children or into the classroom, he said. In fact, its more likely that our hard-earned tax dollars will be used to fund retiree pension debt and health costs, more bureaucrats and more consultants. Measure EE is structured to fall heavily on businesses and owners of large apartment complexes, because it is based on the square footage of enclosed space. A private hospital, for example, would be taxed for every square foot of every floor. Had the tax been structured as a flat tax on every parcel, more business leaders might have supported it. Instead, opponents have argued that the school district has not taken aggressive internal steps to address its financial problems. Backers of Measure EE say it would result in an additional $160 per year in taxes for the owner of a 1,000-square-foot house. Much of the parcel taxs proceeds would be needed to plug a budget deficit rather than going entirely to such popular measures as shrinking the size of classes. If approved, the tax measure is slated to expire in 12 years. For years, Garcetti mostly shied away from controversial stands on public schools, making a sharp break from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, his predecessor. Villaraigosa, while serving as mayor, won passage of a bill in Sacramento allowing a municipal takeover of L.A. Unified, only to see the legislation struck down in court. Undaunted, Villaraigosa worked to elect a slate of candidates to the school board, who then installed a superintendent he favored. And, with the districts approval, he helped launch a nonprofit to run some of the citys lowest-performing schools. Garcetti, by contrast, focused more in his early years on raising money for city-sponsored after-school programs and summer youth activities. Unlike Villaraigosa, he has tried to avoid being associated with either of the two factions vying for control of the school board the teachers union or backers of charter schools. In his speech, Garcetti highlighted education proposals in line with his well-received but non-controversial past efforts. For younger students, the mayor said the city would be involved with the county and L.A. Unified to train 2,500 early childhood educators, something that he said would help address the school readiness gap between the haves and the have-nots. Garcetti also announced an expansion of L.A.s Best, a longstanding after-school program, to provide activities and tutoring to an additional 20 campuses and some 1,200 students over the summer. In addition, he said, 29 campuses would receive city funding to be open as parks on weekends by 2025. Currently, there are four schools in the program. Times staff writer Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report. A small airplane made an emergency landing Thursday on the northbound 215 Freeway in San Bernardino, authorities said. According to California Highway Patrol logs, the unscheduled landing was reported about 1:45 p.m. near University Parkway. No one was injured, the CHP said, and the Federal Aviation Administration had been called to the scene. Its unclear what caused the emergency landing. CHP officials closed several northbound lanes, causing a lengthy traffic backup, and towed the plane off the freeway, according to the California Department of Transportation and CHP logs. Advertisement By about 3 p.m., all lanes had reopened, according to Caltrans. alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com Twitter: @r_valejandra Public health officials in Silicon Valley said an adult who contracted measles spent time at Googles Mountain View campus last week. The Santa Clara County Public Health Department said at a news conference that there are no signs of other cases in the area. Officials did not say how the person with measles came to be at Google but said the visit was last week. Authorities described the person as a San Mateo County resident. Those most at risk are people who have not been vaccinated against measles, officials said. The majority of people with measles this year in the U.S. were not vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advertisement If a person infected with measles walks into a room, the virus can stay there for two hours after the person leaves, ready to infect. But the measles vaccine is 97% effective against the disease. California is one of 19 states that have reported measles cases this year. Between Jan. 1 and April 4, 465 people nationwide were diagnosed with measles, making it the second biggest outbreak since 2000, according to the CDC. During all of last year, 372 measles cases were reported, according to the agency. Symptoms of measles, which include a rash, can take as long as three weeks to appear. Last month, officials warned that passengers at Los Angeles International Airport may have been exposed to measles after a passenger who had a layover in the airport was diagnosed with the disease. Then, last week, Long Beach officials announced that a traveler diagnosed with measles passed through Long Beach Airport twice while infectious. Travelers who were at the airport March 30 or April 7 between 6 and 8 a.m. could be at risk of catching measles, officials say. The Google measles case was first reported by BuzzFeed News. Attorneys for the suspect in last years Florida school massacre will ask a judge to let them question his former mental health counselors without prosecutors present. Attorneys for Nikolas Cruz are scheduled Thursday to ask Judge Elizabeth Scherer for permission to question the counselors without notifying prosecutors or allowing their attendance. The counselors treated Cruz before the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead. RELATED: Who they were: The victims of the Parkland school shooting The attorneys wanted to question them informally, but their employer said they would only comply if subpoenaed. That would require prosecutors attendance. Cruzs attorneys say that would hinder their ability to prepare his defense. Advertisement Prosecutors say there is no exception to the rule allowing their attendance at any interviews. The 20-year-old defendant has offered to plead guilty for a life sentence. Prosecutors want the death penalty. At about 20 minutes after 11 on the morning of April 20, 1999, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold pulled semiautomatic firearms and sawed-off shotguns from beneath their black trench coats and, standing on an elevated part of their Columbine High School campus in suburban Denver, began shooting. Within minutes, 12 students and one teacher were dead or dying and another two dozen people were wounded. As bad as the massacre was, it could have been significantly worse. Large bombs the two high school seniors had left in the crowded cafeteria and in their parked cars failed to go off, as did most of the pipe bombs they tossed as they strode though the campus. That devastating day at Columbine 20 years ago Saturday has come to represent an inflection point in the public consciousness. The word Columbine itself now conjures up all-too-familiar images of troubled youths, weapons, terror and violence, and the massacre has insinuated itself into some still-developing teenage minds as a nihilistic resolution to post-adolescent problems. In a sick yet unsurprising twist, at least 16 Denver-area school districts including Columbines didnt open Wednesday as police sought an 18-year-old Miami woman infatuated with Columbine who had traveled to Denver and, upon her arrival Monday, bought a shotgun and ammunition and disappeared. She was found dead Wednesday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. While full-scale massacres like the one at Columbine remain rare, school shootings generally are becoming more common and more deadly. While full-scale massacres like the one at Columbine remain rare, school shootings generally are becoming more common and more deadly. According to statistics maintained by the Naval Postgraduate School, 349 people have died in school shootings since Columbine. Among the most horrific were the killings of 26 people, mostly young children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and the deaths of 17 people, mostly students, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. After each incident, stunned and fearful school officials across the country began to rethink campus security. But even as they added armed security guards, fences and gates to campuses, locked exterior doors during school hours, and implemented active shooter drills for students and staff and more aggressive first-response strategies, more mass school shootings came. In fact, a new study from Ball State University found that investing hundreds of millions of dollars nationwide in security upgrades achieved little more than creating a false sense of safety. Advertisement So what are the solutions? Limiting access to firearms and providing better preventive help for troubled students are the obvious ones. Guns, in particular, lie at the heart of the violence. From the time of the Columbine massacre through 2016, the U.S. manufactured 102 million firearms for domestic consumers (and imported an additional 600,000 guns from overseas gun makers). The industry is protected by the stubborn and cynical National Rifle Assn. and its allies, which make even modest attempts to control access to guns nearly impossible. The nation is awash in firearms, but as a culture, were also awash in violence, which we romanticize in movies, television shows and music. Our police amass military-grade equipment as our neighbors build up personal arsenals, and rhetoric over gun control often descends into threats even as our violent crime rates overall have steadily declined. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute Columbine, of course, bears no responsibility for any of that. In fact, it is a symptom. Such shootings outrage society, but not sufficiently to move the political needle on reforms to combat it. In fact, the opposite has happened: Weve normalized the experience. When a shooting occurs, advocates for and against gun control unleash prepared rapid-response media blitzes that reinforce their supporters existing beliefs, but fail to persuade opponents in what has become a ritualized dance around the graves of the newly dead. Its as though as a society we have tacitly agreed to live our daily lives under the gun, despite wide popular political support for steps such as universal background checks and red flag laws allowing the confiscation of weapons from people believed by those closest to them to be a risk to themselves or others. As a nation, we like to view ourselves as the freest society in the world, yet we have more guns and more killings than any other advanced nation, and our solution is to lock our students in their classrooms and arm their teachers. Education in a bunker is not a sane response to this problem. Two decades ago, the nation watched in horror as the unimaginable played out over national television. Now we await the inevitable, having failed, ironically, to have learned much of anything from school lessons delivered in blood. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook. (CNN) Jet Airways has finally been grounded. The once-mighty Indian carrier said in a statement Wednesday that it was suspending all flights after failing to secure emergency funding from the country's banks. The airline has been struggling for months to stay in business and the announcement follows weeks of speculation over its fate. "This has been a very difficult decision but without interim funding, the airline is simply unable to conduct flight operations," Jet Airways said in statement. Shares in the company fell more than 30% in Mumbai on Thursday. The carrier's collapse is the biggest in India since the failure of fugitive billionaire Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines in 2012. It's a huge blow to India's aviation industry as it struggles to meet soaring demand while keeping costs low. It also comes at an inopportune time for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is seeking a second term in a national election due to conclude on May 23. Opposition parties have criticized his government for failing to bring down unemployment among India's millions of young people. Jet Airways said it was informed late Tuesday by a consortium of lenders, led by the government-run State Bank of India, that they would not be able to provide more cash. The company described the suspension of flights operations as temporary, but the absence of funding puts more than 20,000 jobs at risk. "Above all, the airline would like to express its sincere gratitude to all its employees and stakeholders that have stood by the company in these trying times," it said in its statement. Passengers would be informed about the closure via email and text messages, and would be able to claim a refund, it added. The airline's operations had already shrunk to 40 flights on five aircraft by Tuesday, according to local media. The carrier was founded in the early 1990s by Naresh Goyal and went on to dominate India's airline industry, accounting for nearly 20% of passengers carried by Indian airlines in 2018. Yet in recent years it struggled to cut costs to compete with newer budget airlines like IndiGo. Rising oil prices and the increased volatility of India's currency, the rupee, only made matters worse. Goyal stepped down in late March as part of a planned $218 million bailout that handed control to the banks. But that bailout did not materialize, with Jet Airways saying Wednesday the banks were "unable to consider its request" for funds to keep it flying. The banks will continue their search for a private investor to buy 75% of the airline. The deadline for bids is May 10. "We are actively working to try and ensure that the bid process leads to a viable solution for the company," the consortium said in a statement shared by Jet Airways. Etihad Airways, which acquired a 24% stake in Jet in 2013, has been touted as a possible buyer, but Abu Dhabi's national carrier has problems of its own after losing about $4.9 billion in three years. Etihad said it would support passengers affected by the suspension of flights. "We continue to work with Jet management, lenders and key stakeholders in the context of the lender-managed effort to restructure the company," an Etihad spokesperson added. Jet isn't the only Indian airline in dire straits the country's national carrier, Air India, is surviving on billions of dollars of taxpayer money after a failed attempt to privatize it last year. This story was first published on CNN.com, "India's Jet Airways collapses as banks pull the plug." A new ruling by the Department of Justice ordering thousands more asylum seekers to be detained for the duration of their application process which can take years is another reminder of two deplorable aspects of the Trump administrations immigration policy: its obsessive efforts to radically reduce immigration, and its willingness to trample any notion of human decency by jailing people who arrive at the border asking for help. Atty. Gen. William Barrs ruling reversed a 2005 decision by the Justice Departments Board of Immigration Appeals that allowed asylum-seekers to be released into the United States while waiting for their immigration court proceedings. Relying on the 2018 Rodriguez decision by the Supreme Court that immigration detainees do not have a right to a bond hearing, Barr held that immigration law requires some asylum-seekers who have passed the initial threshold for consideration by persuading an asylum officer that they have a credible fear of persecution in their home countries to be jailed while their cases play out. The mandatory detention applies only to adults apprehended between ports of entry, and not minors and families. By the time you read this, legal challenges have likely been filed, joining pending court action in the Rodriguez case over whether the statutes requiring detention are constitutional. Putting aside the legal arguments, it is unconscionable that the U.S. government detains people indefinitely without offering a chance for a bond hearing. Advertisement Putting aside the legal arguments, it is unconscionable that the U.S. government detains people indefinitely without offering a chance for a bond hearing especially when they are asking for our governments help and are not accused of any crime other than the misdemeanor of crossing the border illegally. Such incarcerations run contrary to our notion that the government should not deprive people of their freedom without due cause and court oversight. They also presume, contrary to reality, that people seeking asylum are all criminals or scam artists. The order is of a piece with such previous Trump administration actions as slashing the number of refugees allowed to resettle here, restricting asylum eligibility, requiring all asylum applications to be made at legal points of entry and some applicants to wait in Mexico for a decision, and slow-walking the applications that it does accept. Barr, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, delayed the effective date of his new rule for 90 days so that DHS may conduct necessary operational planning. Thats bureaucratese for saying theres no room in the existing detention system and the government needs time to add more internment camps. It is true that the flow of migrants, mainly families, from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador has created a humanitarian problem at the U.S.-Mexico border. But its a problem that can be handled in better ways than saying, Were full, as Trump did recently, and then ignoring peoples right to petition for asylum. Conditions in those northern triangle countries of Central America are unsettled and dangerous, with gangs controlling territory and terrorizing people within it, criminal justice systems incapable of protecting people and neighborhoods, and endemic, worsening poverty, particularly in agricultural areas wracked by drought and other byproducts of climate change. Some of those conditions may make people eligible for asylum and some may not, but they have a right to ask. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute The order to detain thousands of asylum-seekers primarily to deter others from asking for help is cynical and cruel, especially when studies have found that the vast majority of asylum-seekers who are released into the United States show up for their hearings, and that in recent years the government winds up rejecting only about a third of the requests (though that share likely has increased under the Trump administration). A recent report by a Homeland Security advisory panel, while flawed in many ways, included a reasonable idea: Create several regional processing centers to shelter migrants more quickly and safely while they are screened for medical problems, given credible-fear interviews where requested and evaluated for the risk they pose. That dovetails with a suggestion by the Migration Policy Institute that the same asylum officers who handle the credible-fear interviews be empowered to grant asylum to applicants who meet the legal requirements. Currently, all those who pass the interview are referred to immigration court for a final decision; reserving the court for appeals of denials would speed up the entire system. Both ideas are worth considering. And they prove that there are better and more humane ways of dealing with asylum-seekers than treating them as an invading horde, as Trump has done, and reneging on our legal and international obligations. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook In his remarks on Thursday, Atty. Gen. William Barr said the final report submitted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III found no evidence that any American, including President Trump, had colluded with Russia in illegal activities. But neither Barr nor Muellers report itself has answered a crucial question: Is Trump a threat to U.S. national security? From the beginning, the FBIs investigation triggered bizarre and inexplicable behavior from the president when questions about his campaigns relationship to Russia were raised. The day after firing FBI Director James B. Comey in May 2017, Trump met the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador in the Oval Office, according to the report, and told them Comey was a nut job and I faced great pressure because of Russia. Thats taken off. The FBI was clearly worried about Trumps behavior around the time of Comeys dismissal the event that led directly to Muellers appointment as special counsel. As James Baker, the FBIs former general counsel, testified before Congress last year, Trumps actions presented a national security threat in addition to possible obstruction, because the obstruction itself would hurt our ability to figure out what the Russians had done. Advertisement Muellers report, released Thursday in redacted form, presents abundant evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a massive effort to interfere in the 2016 U.S election. Again and again we have seen that the president puts his own ego before the national security interests of the country. It also notes that the president had a motive to put the FBIs Russia investigation behind him, since a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the president personally that the president could have understood to be crimes. Among these, the report notes, were the campaigns advance notice of the WikiLeaks emails and the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting arranged between Donald Trump Jr. and what was described to him as a Russian government attorney with dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trump fretted that the appointment of a special prosecutor would mean the end of my presidency, according to the report. It also details the presidents attempts to gain control of the investigation, including by ordering White House counsel to fire Mueller and discouraging witnesses from cooperating. Reading the report, its hard not to conclude that the refusal of Trump aides to do as he asked may have saved his presidency. The special counsels report shows in great detail how the Russian government worked so hard to help elect Trump by leaking hacked Democratic Party emails to WikiLeaks and by spending millions of dollars on a social media influence campaign. The reports conclusions about Russia werent news to anyone whos been paying attention. But Muellers report notes that Trump saw the intelligence communitys assessment of Russian interference as his Achilles heel, because it threatened to undermine the legitimacy of his election victory. Heres whats so alarming about all this. Again and again we have seen and Muellers report drives the point home that the president puts his own ego before the national security interests of the country. His failure to fully acknowledge and condemn Russian interference means future elections are at risk and we likely will be dealing with the consequences for years to come. The investigation found what it called multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals connected to the Russian government. But the report doesnt answer the question of how and why Russia involved itself so deeply in the effort to elect Trump. Was Trump simply the lucky beneficiary of the Kremlins animus toward Hillary Clinton? Was Russia encouraged by Trumps warm embrace of Putin, his call for Russia to hack Hillary Clintons emails, and his dismissal of the need for sanctions to curb the Kremlins bad behavior worldwide? Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute Trumps behavior during the campaign led Michael Morrell, a former acting director of the CIA, to declare in an op-ed the summer before the election that Putin had recruited Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation. Indeed, Trumps fragile ego, greed and need for admiration make him ripe for such exploitation. And Putin is a master manipulator, who spent 16 years in the KGB exploiting the vulnerabilities of his targets. James Clapper, a former director of national intelligence, observed in December of 2017 that Putin knows how to handle an asset, and thats what hes doing with the president. If Putin had given Trump a playbook for handling issues important to Russia, it wouldnt have looked much different from the one Trump followed. He has attacked NATO, pledged to withdraw troops from Syria and spared Russia the kind of criticism Trump regularly doles out to Americas closest allies. The threats to national security are not limited to what was looked at in Muellers investigation. A congressional probe of White House security clearances revealed that the administration has disregarded the advice of intelligence agencies about potential threats to national security. These broader issues were never within the scope of Muellers investigation. Even so, the report is far from being the complete and total exoneration that Trump has said it represents. Instead, it points out the need for another investigation: this time into whether and how the presidents actions pose a risk to national security. Seth Hettena is a San Diego-based investigative reporter and the author of Trump/Russia: A Definitive History. President Trump has repeatedly touted his intention to chart a new course for American foreign policy and reduce U.S. military involvements abroad. Great nations do not fight endless wars, he declared in this years State of the Union address. But his administrations record has not matched the presidents rhetoric. On Tuesday, Trump had an important opportunity to begin delivering on his promises by signing a bipartisan bill to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. Instead, he vetoed the measure. Prolonging American involvement in Yemen is reckless. The conflict offers the United States abundant risk and no reward. Trumps national security strategy, published last year, described his administrations approach to matters of war and peace as one of principled realism, prescribing a renewed focus on defending core U.S. interests. But there are no core U.S. interests at stake in Yemen. Withdrawal, on the other hand, would both respect the will of the American people; and maybe even open a path to resolution of the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. It could also avert grave, unintended consequences for U.S. security. Advertisement Most Americans are not aware of this hazard, but they know enough to recognize this is not a conflict in which our country should be involved. Yemen is a small and deeply impoverished nation beset by civil war, in which the Houthi rebels opposed by the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition have distinctly local aims. Their success or victory will have little to no effect on American security. The continuing war, on the other hand, could have devastating effects. The Saudi-led intervention is fostering conditions in which Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a newer branch of the terrorist organization that aims to carry out attacks in the West, has thrived. Most Americans are not aware of this hazard, but they know enough to recognize this is not a conflict in which our country should be involved. Polling data on Yemen is sparse, but a YouGov survey late last year found that just 13% of Americans said they supported the same or increased levels of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other U.S. partners in the Yemen intervention. Among those who had opinions about the conflict, 75% said they opposed U.S. involvement. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute The most compelling case for removing the United States from Yemens civil war is that it could help bring the conflict to an end. As even the presidents veto statement notes, a negotiated solution is what Yemen needs for what is fundamentally a political dispute that has had horrific consequences for the Yemeni people. Every day this war continues exacerbates what is already the most acute humanitarian emergency on the planet. By helping to enable the Saudi coalitions indiscriminate destruction in Yemen, the United States is delaying any chance of a diplomatic resolution. Encouragingly, a study released this month by the International Crisis Group, a nonpartisan think tank, suggests that Saudi Arabia may be looking for a political end to the conflict, too and curtailing U.S. military support could give Riyadh an excuse to end its bombing campaign and push for peace talks in earnest. If that report is correct, the urgency of a shift in U.S. strategy becomes greater still. Trumps decision to veto the Yemen bill lost him an easy political win and the chance to execute a significant and necessary shift in U.S. foreign policy with relative ease. But it is not too late to make that change directly from the Oval Office, which is exactly where this misadventure began under the previous administration. After campaigning on his opposition to our long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pledging complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, Trump has yet to produce an end to the American role in any of these conflicts. Yemen presents him with an opportunity to act swiftly and show that his promises are more than rhetoric. The president should end support for the Saudi coalition and stop U.S. participation in Yemens misery. Bonnie Kristian is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a contributing editor at the Week. The Los Angeles County supervisors are facing a familiar problem: how to oversee the work of a county sheriff whose judgment they dont trust. Since winning an upset electoral victory last fall, Sheriff Alex Villanueva has done little to assure responsible people that he has any business running the nations largest sheriffs department. Hes formed a ridiculous truth and reconciliation commission thats little more than a pretext for reinstating deputies who had been fired. Hes thumbed his nose at reforms that had been improving the management of the jails. And just last week, he allowed the East Los Angeles sheriffs station to resume branding itself as Fort Apache, a moniker his predecessor disallowed for its implication that the station was an outpost in hostile territory not exactly a symbol of community policing. Its clear from his public actions and statements that Villanueva is bullish and not too bright, and that should make anyone who cares about accountability in law enforcement nervous. For the Board of Supervisors, it creates a special challenge. The trouble, as boards of yore long ago discovered, is that the supervisors have an intense interest in the conduct of the sheriff, but they cant do much about it. The supervisors have only one power over the sheriff: They control his budget. Thats a serious lever, but a difficult one to pull effectively. Advertisement Thats in notable contrast to the Los Angeles Police Department. There, the chief of police is appointed by the mayor and serves at the pleasure of the Police Commission, whose five members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. The chief can serve only two five-year terms. LAPD policy is guided by the chief but is the responsibility of the commission, which employs an inspector general with broad authority to investigate allegations of wrongdoing. That structure, important pieces of which were approved by city voters after the Christopher Commission recommended them decades ago, provide the LAPD with imperfect but coherent civilian oversight. Not so for the sheriff. As an elected official, the sheriff is answerable to voters, not the board of supervisors. A county inspector general and citizens commission provide the trappings of civilian oversight, but not the substance. No civilian official or board can discipline the sheriff, much less remove him from office. Thats tested the patience of the supervisors before. Sheriff Sherman Block exasperated the board with his long and sometimes imperious reign before dying after a slip in a bathtub. Sheriff Lee Baca beat the dead Sherman in 1998 (some supervisors supported Block, who was still on the ballot, figuring that if he won, they could name his replacement). Baca touted reform but was charged with obstructing a federal investigation into the jails and convicted of lying in that probe. Hes looking at prison. And Jim McDonnell, who followed Baca, was a seasoned professional and LAPD veteran, but not a political ace: Villanueva came out of nowhere to beat him last November, upending McDonnells efforts to rebuild after Baca and throwing the departments mission and direction into doubt. Still, the supervisors have only one power over the sheriff: They control his budget. Thats a serious lever, but a difficult one to pull effectively. The supervisors cant line-item veto the sheriffs budget. No matter what they think of Villanuevas truth and reconciliation commission and they correctly view it as a joke they cant simply defund it. Yes, the supervisors could threaten to slash the sheriffs total budget unless Villanueva agreed to certain principles of reform and oversight but thats an awfully blunt instrument. Cutting overall spending could affect the departments ability to patrol unincorporated areas or to provide services to its contract cities, places such as Malibu and West Hollywood that hire the sheriffs department to patrol their communities. What, then, is a supervisor to do? To some extent, weve been flummoxed, Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said in an interview this week. So far, she said, the supervisors have focused on two areas: civil service rules and the countys authority over its workforce. Villanuevas goofy truth and reconciliation commission an insult to South Africa, Kuehl called it has circumvented county rules for hiring and firing employees. The supervisors are challenging Villanuevas authority in that area by taking him to court. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Meanwhile, with less fanfare, the supervisors are exploring their legal authority over not just the sheriffs budget but, more specifically, the portion that goes to personnel. Everyone in the county works for us, not the departments, Kuehl said. Supervisors do not choose who gets hired for specific jobs, but they do set the number of positions to be filled and salary levels, giving them significant leverage. The board also has considerable soft power. County supervisors are elected officials, too, with constituents who can be mobilized. That includes the 42 cities that contract with the sheriffs department for law enforcement patrols. Some of those city leaders already have voiced concern about the services they are receiving and about Villanuevas insistence on rehiring deputies with checkered histories. The cities are customers and hold the power that goes with paying for service. The struggle to direct a sheriff is nothing new, but Villanuevas actions call for a creative response by the board. It would be a tragedy if the sheriffs department, so long hampered by misconduct and sloppy management, were to backslide on the progress of recent years because yet another sheriff was allowed to slip the reins of authority. Jim Newton, a former editorial page editor of The Times, is editor in chief of Blueprint magazine at UCLA. He also serves as contributing editor of the Police Assessment Resource Center, which features more of his work on police accountability. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook To the editor: If President Trump decides to send migrants to Los Angeles because it is a so-called sanctuary city, they would be more than welcome at the food pantry put on by my church, the Congregational Church of Chatsworth, every Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. We give out dozens of boxes of food to people in need every week and would be able to help as many refugees as the president would like to send. Since Jesus was a migrant and a refugee his parents, Mary and Joseph, fled with him as a baby to Egypt to escape King Herods attempt on his life we feel compelled to help others like Him. In fact, I hope Trump sends the migrant children in the federal governments custody to our city. I believe Los Angeles would be able to find better accommodations for them and for their parents too, if the president would like to send them also. The Rev. William S. Freeman, Chatsworth Advertisement .. To the editor: Set aside for a moment the presumption that Trump seeks to retaliate against communities that have designated themselves sanctuaries for immigrants. A reasonable alternative explanation is that Trump is simply moving to give the people what they want. If sanctuary communities thereafter protest, it follows that their objection amounts to having the best intentions, so long as people stay out of their backyard. Konrad Moore, San Diego Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: Some residents of the Orange County town of Laguna Beach find their police departments new vehicle paint scheme which has the word POLICE emblazoned in red, white and blue rather aggressive. I would be surprised if any of these people are military veterans. The city should not back down because of some residents sensitivities, since there is no way you can please everyone. If the city were to cave on this, what would be next? Would those big bumper guards be deemed too aggressive? Police cars are supposed to be a bit intimidating. The paint job is tasteful and respectful to the flag while at the same time being eye catching. If you read the U.S. Flag Code, youll see that the paint scheme contains no violation. I have a feeling that if the city had put the colors of the rainbow on their police cars, no one would be complaining. Wayne L. Johnson, Alexandria, Va. Advertisement .. To the editor: Loyalty to our flag and country has nothing to do with loyalty to the police. But, by associating the flag with a police force, one can easily see how people, like the attorney quoted in your article, can make that leap. Police departments are not the United States of America. In many places, theyre an enforcement arm of government with a history of questionable tactics that have made blind loyalty or support of them distasteful to many people. Its easy to see why those who have been victimized by police would be upset at slapping the American flag on a police car. It makes the statement that the police represent America, which they clearly do not. Anthony Blake, Woodland Hills .. To the editor: Thats not an American flag on Laguna Beachs police cruisers, its just a bad graphic. Police cars are not supposed to be pretty, fun or even patriotic. They need to be instantly recognizable as police cars, not circus wagons. Doug Stokes, Duarte Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: The admissions scandals at USC and UCLA are different. USC is a private school and can admit anyone it wants. UCLA is a public school and ought to be a meritocracy. If USC wants to admit rich kids whose parents donate piles of money, it does not owe the public an explanation. In contrast, University of California and Cal State University campuses try to take the most qualified students from the states high schools. What actress Lori Loughlin and her husband are accused to doing to get their children into elite colleges is indeed a scandal. But the public and the media should stop trying to make a private institution like USC into a meritocracy like UCLA. Part of USCs charm is its beautiful spoiled children among all the smart worker bees. Advertisement Mark Walker, Chino Hills .. To the editor: The recent stories of well-intentioned parents who ended up scandalizing their childrens college admissions should be a reminder to any of us who have opportunities to be a role model. Parents who cheat on behalf of their children to get them into elite universities also send the message that they do not have faith in their sons and daughters talents and intelligence. However, whats certain is that todays ultra-low acceptance rates at top universities and colleges place extra burdens on students that did not exist when I was in school. The limited opportunities for admission ought to remind us that timing is everything, especially for those of us who applied to school shortly after World War II. I graduated from Stanford in 1952. Boy, was I riding naively on a pink cloud! Vilma Kennedy Pallette, Santa Clara, Calif. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook In the end, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III never forced President Trump to testify under oath even though he considered Trumps written answers to prosecutors questions inadequate. Instead of following predecessors who compelled evidence from President Nixon during Watergate, and President Clinton in a scandal over his personal behavior, Mueller chose not to subpoena Trump. With the release Thursday of Muellers redacted report of his 22-month investigation, the question remains: Why did Mueller forgo forcing Trump to testify about 10 incidents that came close to and may have crossed the line into unlawfully obstructing the probe? At his news conference Thursday, Atty. Gen. William Barr said the White House fully cooperated with the investigation and provided unfettered access to internal documents. He said Trump at no point deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Advertisement Barr added, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. Full coverage: Robert Mueller finishes his investigation into President Trumps 2016 campaign Yet Trump, through his lawyers, rebuffed Muellers repeated attempts to secure his voluntary sworn testimony. And although Trump responded to some questions submitted in writing, he did not similarly agree to answer any regarding obstruction topics, according to Muellers report. Some legal experts said Trumps intent, corrupt or otherwise, may be impossible to discern because he was never compelled to explain his actions under oath. Whatever truth it would have induced him to tell, whatever force it might have had on Donald Trump not to break the law by being under penalty of perjury, the American people literally will never hear now, said Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh who teaches constitutional law at UCLA. Charles M. Kagay, who served as chief appellate lawyer for an independent counsel investigation of a Clinton administration Cabinet secretary, said Trumps intentions would best be evaluated through his own, sworn testimony. I think for most prosecutors, the oral testimony of the witness is the gold standard particularly a situation where you have an individual [Trump] who often denies things that others said he said, Kagay said. According to his report, Muellers team believed it had the authority and legal justification to issue a grand jury subpoena to obtain the presidents testimony. But Mueller chose not to do so because of the prospect of a protracted legal challenge from Trumps lawyers. We made that decision in view of the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation, the report states. Muellers team sought for more than a year to interview the President on topics relevant to both Russian-election interference and obstruction-of-justice, it adds. Live updates: Do those rumored tapes of Trump in a Moscow hotel exist? What the Mueller report says In March 2018, Mueller broached the possibility with Trumps lawyers of issuing the grand jury subpoena. But he never sought to enhance his leverage with Trump by obtaining the subpoena, and gave only a brief explanation of his reasoning in the report. Recognizing that the President would not be interviewed voluntarily, we considered whether to issue a subpoena for his testimony, it states. We viewed [Trumps] written answers to be inadequate. But at that point, our investigation had made significant progress and had produced substantial evidence for our report. We thus weighed the costs of potentially lengthy constitutional litigation, with resulting delay in finishing our investigation, against the anticipated benefits for our investigation and report. Earlier prosecutors had proceeded differently with Nixon and Clinton. In July 1974, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a subpoena, ordering Nixon to provide the Watergate special prosecutor taped Oval Office conversations and other materials. The tapes helped seal Nixons doom, and he resigned the next month. In 1998, Kenneth W. Starr, who investigated Clintons financial dealings and his affair with a White House intern, negotiated for months to question the president under oath. That July, Starr obtained a subpoena to compel Clinton to testify before a grand jury. No sitting president had ever done so. Clinton promptly agreed to testify if Starr withdrew the subpoena, which he did. Starrs subsequent report to Congress accused Clinton of giving perjurious, false and misleading testimony. Whatever the legal arguments, a president never likes to say, Im defying a grand jury subpoena, said Solomon L. Wisenberg, a deputy to Starr who led the questioning of Clinton on Aug. 17, 1998, adding that absolutely, unquestionably, the subpoena prompted Clintons testimony. W. Neil Eggleston, who was hired in the 1990s to challenge an independent counsels subpoena for White House records related to an investigation of Clintons Agriculture secretary, said Trumps oral testimony would have provided the best evidence of why he took certain actions. The fact that other people may have told the special counsel what they thought about what President Trump was up to, for example, in firing [FBI Director James] Comey, is all interesting, Eggleston said. But the only person who actually knows is the president. Eggleston would not, he said, fault Muellers decision to forgo subpoenaing Trump without knowing all the information available to the special counsel. Times staff writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report. david.willman@latimes.com Congressional Democrats on Thursday claimed ownership of the obstruction of justice investigation into President Trump, vowing to pick up the inquiry where special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs report left off. It was probably written with the intent of providing Congress a roadmap, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). Atty. Gen. William Barr on Thursday released a redacted version of the 448-page report, marking the end of the Justice Departments two-year investigation and the start of a new chapter, this one controlled entirely by Trumps political opponents in Congress. Democrats lambasted Barrs redactions of the report and particularly a four-page summary he released last month. They said Barr acting to protect the president who appointed him masked key findings in the fuller report, omitted evidence of potential obstruction and improperly concluded that the president did not illegally interfere with the investigation into whether his campaign conspired in Russias 2016 election meddling. Advertisement Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Barrs slanted March 24th summary letter, his irresponsible testimony before Congress and the fact that he held a news conference Thursday morning before the report was released have resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality. Barr misled the public, they argue, when he said a Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted did not play a role in Muellers refusal to decide whether Trump obstructed justice. Mueller cited it as one of several considerations. They also said Barr wrongly suggested that Mueller left to the attorney general the decision on whether to prosecute Trump for obstruction. It is now apparent that the special counsel expressed no desire to have Barr make that decision himself, said a joint statement from six House committee chairs. Instead, as the special counsel undoubtedly anticipated, it must fall to Congress to assess the presidents improper, corrupt and immoral conduct in an effort to obstruct the investigation. The immediate congressional response to the long-awaited report was somewhat muted, with Congress out of session and lawmakers scattered around the country and the world on official trips. Many lawmakers released only written or tweeted reactions. Still, Democrats said they will subpoena the full, unredacted Mueller report, demanded that Mueller testify before Congress by next month, and have already begun further investigations into Trump and his political and corporate allies. Many felt emboldened by Muellers legal analysis that Congress has authority to investigate and potentially act upon the information he compiled. Mueller refuted legal arguments asserted by Trumps attorneys that a presidents exercise of any executive power granted under the Constitution, such as pardoning or ending an investigation, cannot constitute illegal obstruction. If done for corrupt reasons, Mueller concluded, even presidential powers can be reviewed. We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice, the report said. Republicans in Congress rallied around Barrs characterization that the investigation found no evidence that Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russians or that the president obstructed justice in the course of the investigation. Democrats want to keep searching for imaginary evidence that supports their claims, but it is simply not there, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield). It is time to move on. The idea of impeachment has largely subsided because Mueller did not find evidence that would prompt bipartisan calls to remove the president, something Pelosi said would be needed for her to pursue it. Nadler on Thursday said impeachment was merely one possibility of where Congress investigations may lead. Its too early to talk about that, he said. We will have to go follow the evidence where it leads, and I dont know exactly where it leads. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) said impeachment should not be the only standard. It is important to note that the facts that are now established by this report are damning, Schiff said. Whether they could or should have resulted in the indictment of the president or people around him, they are damning and we should call for better from our elected officials. Not all Democrats agreed. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said the report squarely put impeachment on our doorstep. She said she would sign on to an impeachment resolution. The coming battle to obtain the full report Nadler said Thursday that he will subpoena it threatens to consume Washington for months. Barr said the law required him to redact from the report any information obtained as part of a grand jury investigation. While Barr said he would provide a select, bipartisan group of lawmakers with a version of the report with fewer redactions, he said he would still not release grand jury material. The fuller version of the report will be shared as soon as next week with the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate judiciary committees including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). It will also go to the so-called Gang of Eight the top Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate, including Pelosi and McCarthy. The grand jury information is a key point of contention with Democrats who argue Congress has a right to view it and has a history of accessing it in prior special counsel investigations. Barr said his offer to share a less-redacted version of the report with select lawmakers as well as his testimony before Congress, slated for May 1 and May 2 should be enough for Congress to conduct its oversight. I believe that this accommodation together with my upcoming testimony before the Senate and House judiciary committees will satisfy any need Congress has for information regarding the special counsels investigation, Barr said. Times staff writers Sarah D. Wire and Janet Hook contributed to this report. The latest from Washington More stories from Jennifer Haberkorn Kamala Harris, who has made her prosecutorial record a centerpiece of her presidential bid, said she now has misgivings about a California law she championed that punished parents of habitually truant schoolchildren. Speaking on the liberal podcast Pod Save America, Sen. Harris said the arrests and, in some cases, jail sentences of parents in multiple California counties were an unintended consequence of the statewide law, which built on her tough-on-truancy approach as San Francisco district attorney. The interview, released on Wednesday, marks the first sign of remorse from Harris about the anti-truancy effort, a signature cause throughout her career that she had steadfastly defended on the campaign trail. Her contrition reflects the difficult politics of running in a Democratic presidential primary as a career prosecutor at a time of widespread discontent within the party about racial disparities in law enforcement. I just think the whole concept of progressive prosecutor is going to strike a lot of people as an oxymoron, said Garry South, a veteran Democratic strategist who is unaligned in the presidential race. Advertisement Harris has cast herself as a pioneer of reformist criminal justice, promoting social programs that aimed to keep first-time offenders from falling into a life of crime. But her background as a prosecutor has provided fodder for skeptics, particularly on the left. When Harris was a district attorney, it was more common to approach social problems with the threat of incarceration, but voters now are far more attuned to criminal justice as an issue of civil rights, said Hadar Aviram, a law professor at UC Hastings College of the Law. Harris crusade on truancy has been particularly fraught. As San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011, Harris issued citations to parents whose children missed more than 50 days of school, but none of them were put in jail. She called truancy a public safety issue, saying high school dropouts had a higher chance of winding up as victims or perpetrators of crimes. Each year, she sent a letter to every San Francisco parent of public school students, warning them of potential prosecution for truancy. During her 2010 campaign for state attorney general, Harris explained her focus on chronic school absences. I believe that a child going without an education is tantamount to a crime, Harris said in a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. So I decided I was going to start prosecuting parents for truancy. Well, this was a little controversial in San Francisco. And frankly my staff went bananas, she recounted with a laugh. They were very concerned, because we didnt know at the time whether I was going to have an opponent in my reelection race. I have a huge stick as a prosecutor to get kids in school, Harris said. The school district has a carrot lets work in tandem. Harris took that advocacy statewide, sponsoring a 2010 law to make it a misdemeanor for parents whose young children miss more than 10% of school days a year without a valid excuse. Parents could be punished with a maximum $2,000 fine, up to a year in county jail or both. Violators of the law could defer judgment by participating in regular meetings with school officials and improving their childrens attendance. With children missing significant amounts of time from kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and no one paying attention or doing anything about it, we were seeing 8-year-old kids having their futures carved into stone which was just tragic, said Mark Leno, who wrote the bill when he was a Democratic state senator from San Francisco. Former Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, another San Francisco Democrat and a former public school teacher, voted against the bill because he believed it wouldnt address the problem. It was a stinker of a law, Ammiano said. Kamala Harris was shaped by the crucible of San Francisco politics Harris and her allies have said the laws purpose was to prod school districts to provide resources to families of truant children, not to lock up parents. But the Huffington Post reported that several counties in California arrested, charged and sometimes jailed parents under the law backed by Harris. In the Pod Save America interview, Harris distanced herself from that approach. My regret is that I have now heard stories where, in some jurisdictions, DAs have criminalized the parents. And I regret that that has happened, she said. And the thought that anything that I did could have led to that, because that certainly was not the intention never was the intention. Never was the intention. Sen. @KamalaHarris on the truancy law she championed as Attorney General that punishes parents if their kids miss too much school. Full interview airs tonight: https://t.co/UJ9G9AzXdD pic.twitter.com/EOtCiKHXm7 Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) April 17, 2019 Leno echoed that sentiment, saying the law explicitly stated that before law enforcement can use this new misdemeanor, every available attention must be brought to the student and the student families. Everyone must join hands to find a way to get this child to class. Robert Dempsie, an assistant district attorney in Tulare County, said he recalled Harris twice presenting the truancy law at meetings of the state district attorneys association. She recommended imprisonment for truancy only in the most extreme cases, he said. Dempsie said he could recall three parents charged under the law in his county; all the cases were settled without jail time. Still, he said, prosecutors could pursue jail time in circumstances when the school district is doing what it can to assist the parents but the parents are doing nothing in return. Kamala Harris releases 15 years of tax returns Ammiano, who is supporting Harris rival Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, said he saw progress in her show of remorse. But he disagreed that harsh punishments for parents were an unforeseen outcome of the law. That is a cop-out, he said. You cant say, I didnt really mean for this to happen. Then what did you mean? Aviram of UC Hastings noted the laws good intention of keeping kids in school, but said the jailing of parents should come as no surprise. This was approached as a criminal justice problem, so its not such a shocker that it has criminal justice consequences, she said. There are all kinds of ways to do this without threatening punishment. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III didnt reach a conclusion on whether President Trump committed a crime by trying to interfere with the Russia investigation. But Mueller outlined the evidence in the redacted report released Thursday. Mueller looked at 10 specific incidents of possible obstruction of justice. Here are the main ones. February 2017 | Pressuring Comey on Flynns case One day after Trump ousted Michael T. Flynn as his national security advisor, the president had a private meeting with FBI Director James B. Comey. Flynn was under investigation for lying about his discussions with the Russian ambassador; he later pleaded guilty. Comey later told Congress that Trump asked him to back off the case comments that Comey interpreted as an effort to quash the investigation. Trump denied it. According to Muellers report, Comey was correct. Trump did ask Comey to close the FBI investigation into Flynn, but he didnt issue a direct order. Evidence suggests the president knew Flynn could be charged for lying to the FBI and that he believed that firing Flynn would end what he described as the whole Russia thing. Advertisement The Presidents decision to meet one-on-one with Comey contravened the advice of the White House Counsel that the President should not communicate directly with the Department of Justice to avoid any appearance of interfering in law enforcement activities. And the President later denied that he cleared the room and asked Comey to let[] Flynn goa denial that would have been unnecessary if he believed his request was a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion. March 2017 | Leaning on intelligence officials Trump also pressed top intelligence officials for help shielding Flynn from the FBI investigation. The president allegedly asked Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and then-CIA Director Michael R. Pompeo to intervene with Comey. According to Muellers report, in the weeks after Comey testified to Congress about the Russia investigation on March 20, 2017, Trump repeatedly asked intelligence officials to push back publicly on any suggestion he was connected to Russias efforts to sway the election. But those officials had different recollections of what the president said. Pompeo said he had no memory of the meeting, but he did recall Trump urging officials to make it clear that he hadnt done anything wrong in regard to Russia. Coats said Trump did not ask him to speak with Comey or to help end the investigation. Comey said Trump asked him to lift the cloud of the Russia probe. Adm. Michael Rogers, who then headed the National Security Agency, said Trump asked him to refute stories in the press linking him to the Russia investigation. Rogers and NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett found the conversation so unusual that they documented it and placed the signed memorandum in a safe. But Mueller concluded Trumps comments did not amount to direct intervention. The evidence does not establish that the President asked or directed intelligence agency leaders to stop or interfere with the FBIs Russia investigation. Former FBI Director James B. Comey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, 2017, one month after being fired. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) May 2017 | Firing Comey Trump asked Justice Department leaders to lay out reasons for firing Comey. At first, White House officials said Comey was dismissed for mishandling the investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. But Trump later told NBC News that he had decided to fire Comey prior to consulting the Justice Department, citing what he called this Russia thing. For Trumps critics, Comeys firing was de facto evidence of obstruction of justice. According to Muellers report, evidence suggests Trump fired Comey chiefly because the FBI director was unwilling to publicly state that the president was not under investigation. The president wanted to put the probe behind him, in part because he was concerned it might grow into an inquiry into his campaign and personal life. The evidence does not establish that the termination of Comey was designed to cover up a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia, the report states. But the evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns. June 2017 | Attempting to fire Mueller After Trump fired Comey, Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel in an effort to protect the investigation from outside interference. One month later, according to news accounts, Trump ordered White House Counsel Donald McGahn to remove him, but McGahn ignored the order. Trump later denied the story. According to the report, Trump called McGahn twice to ask him to remove Mueller. McGahn recalled Trump telling him, Mueller has to go and Call me back when you do it. McGahn said he felt worn down by the president and trapped. He decided to resign rather than carry out the order, but two of Trumps advisors urged him to not to quit. McGahn returned to work, and Trump did not ask if he fired Mueller. The attempted firing reflected Trumps fury at Muellers appointment. When he first learned the news, the report said, Trump slumped in his chair and cursed. Oh my God, the president said. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im fucked. The report states: Substantial evidence indicates that the Presidents attempts to remove the Special Counsel were linked to the Special Counsels oversight of investigations that involved the Presidents conduct and, most immediately, to reports that the president was being investigated for potential obstruction of justice. June 2017 | Trying to limit the investigations scope According to the report, on June 19, 2017, Trump met with Corey Lewandowski and asked him to deliver a dictated message to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, telling him to publicly announce that the Mueller investigation would be confined only to future election inference. The president repeated his request a month later. Sessions ignored the request. The report states: Substantial evidence indicates that the Presidents efforts to have Sessions limit the scope of the Special Counsels investigation to future election interference was intended to prevent further investigative scrutiny of the Presidents and his campaigns conduct. July 2017 | Drafting a false statement In June 2016, during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump Jr. accepted a meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer after being told she had incriminating information on Hillary Clinton. Paul Manafort, Trumps campaign chairman, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and advisor, also attended. When the New York Times revealed the meeting in July 2017, the president worked with his son to draft a statement falsely claiming the purpose of the meeting was to discuss Russian adoption policy. Mueller found that, on three occasions, Trump directed his staff not to disclose information about the meeting, and that he dictated a false account of it for release by his son. These acts could be considered obstructive if aimed at withholding information from or misleading congressional investigators or the special counsel. But Mueller found the president was primarily intent on lying to the press. The evidence does not establish that the President took steps to prevent the emails or other information about the June 9 meeting from being provided to Congress or the Special Counsel, the report states. The series of discussions in which the President sought to limit access to the emails and prevent their public release occurred in the context of developing a press strategy. Michael Cohen, Trumps former lawyer, leaves federal court in New York after pleading guilty for the first time on Aug. 21, 2018. (Bryan Smith / TNS) November 2018 | Pushing out Sessions Trump had long raged against his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, believing Sessions should have kept control to protect the president. On Nov. 7, 2018, one day after the midterm election, Trump finally ousted Sessions and installed a loyalist, Matthew Whitaker, as his temporary replacement. Critics were quickly concerned that Trump was moving to clamp down on the investigation. Muellers report details Trumps efforts to get Sessions to reverse his recusal so that Sessions would retain control of the probe and could restrict its scope. From Trumps statements and actions, the report says, its reasonable to infer that he believed an unrecused Attorney General would play a protective role and could shield the President from the ongoing Russia investigation. December 2018 | Blasting people who cooperate Trump criticized the Russia investigation as a witch hunt and a hoax from the start, but he also targeted witnesses who cooperated with prosecutors. On one day in December, he urged a stiff prison sentence for Michael Cohen, his former lawyer who had reached a plea deal, and praised Roger Stone, a longtime political advisor who pledged not to testify against him, for having guts. Muellers report says Trump repeatedly urged Cohen not to flip. When Cohen ultimately cooperated with investigators, the president called him a rat and publicly suggested that members of Cohens family had committed crimes. The report states: The evidence concerning this sequence of events could support an inference that the President used inducements in the form of positive messages in an effort to get Cohen not to cooperate, and then turned to attacks and intimidation to deter the provision of information or undermine Cohens credibility once Cohen began cooperating. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, in his highly anticipated report, portrayed President Trump as a mercurial leader who repeatedly and frantically sought to undermine the federal investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 campaign. The only thing that seemed to thwart the presidents whims, Mueller wrote, was that advisors ignored his orders. The Justice Department released a redacted version of the report on Thursday. Trumps efforts to obstruct the investigation were often carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the President sought to use his official power outside of usual channels, Mueller wrote. The Presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests, he continued. Advertisement The special counsels office would have exonerated Trump if the facts had supported that conclusion, Muellers report says, but it adds that based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. In fact, the report says Muellers team unearthed multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations. Mueller reached a firmer conclusion that his investigation could not establish that Trump and his associates had conspired with Moscow to tilt the election in his favor. Trumps campaign had expected it would benefit from Moscows meddling, particularly from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the report says. But it also says the 22-month investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. The report indicated that Mueller decided earlier in his investigation that he would not make a specific decision about obstruction charges and would, instead, defer to lawmakers. We determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes, the report said. Because Justice Department policy holds that a sitting president cant be subject to trial, an accusation of criminal conduct would put a president in limbo, under a cloud, but unable to clear himself, he wrote. That problem doesnt apply to congressional proceedings, Mueller wrote, and Congress has full power to judge the presidents conduct. Even if a president exercised powers that came with his office, Congress has authority to prohibit a Presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice, he wrote. Mueller did not express an opinion on whether the evidence would add up to an impeachable offense but noted that the conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said earlier this year that she opposed moving ahead with an impeachment effort, deeming it too divisive. On Thursday, Pelosi criticized Atty. Gen. William P. Barr for his statements that put a positive gloss for Trump on the report, but did not make any immediate comment on the substance of Muellers findings. As we continue to review the report, one thing is clear: Atty. Gen. Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Muellers report appears to undercut that finding, Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York said in a joint statement. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), whose panel would handle any impeachment moves, said at a news conference Thursday in New York that an effort to remove Trump from office was a possibility, but its too early to reach those conclusions. Congress needs to study the report and hear directly from Mueller, Nadler said. Atty. Gen. William P. Barr emphasizes no collusion as he prepares to release Robert S. Mueller IIIs report. Nadler sent a letter Thursday formally asking Mueller to testify, and Barr said he had no objection to the special counsel doing so. The reports release by the Justice Department followed a news conference by Barr who noted that Mueller did not reach a final prosecutorial judgment on whether any of Trumps actions amounted to illegal obstruction of justice. Barr repeated his own conclusion that they did not and said that Trump had non-corrupt motives for opposing the investigation. Prosecution of a charge of obstruction of justice generally requires proof that the defendant acted out of a corrupt intent and that there was an underlying crime. In Trumps case, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, Barr said. As he said from the beginning, the attorney general added, there was, in fact, no collusion. Barrs description of what he called the reports bottom line was a positive one for Trump: After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 president election, but it did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those efforts. The report provides a rare look at often minute-by-minute actions of the presidents interactions with aides and other officials. It even includes Trumps initial reaction to learning Mueller had been appointed on May 17, 2017, to investigate the potential links between his campaign and the Russians. Trump was meeting that day with Jeff Sessions, the attorney generals chief of staff and then-White House counsel Don McGahn. Sessions stepped out of the room to take a call from Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein and returned to inform Trump that his deputy had tapped Mueller to launch the Russia probe. Oh, my God, Trump exclaimed, according to notes taken by Sessions chief of staff. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency, he said. Im fucked. Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency, Trump continued. It takes years and years and I wont be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. How could you let this happen, Jeff? Trump demanded of Sessions. Trump would reiterate that complaint repeatedly over coming months, arguing that Sessions had let him down and he was supposed to have protected him. More than once, Trump asked Sessions to un-recuse himself from the Russia probe or quit. When that didnt work, he directed his staff to fire Sessions or demand his resignation. Staffers either talked him out of it or ignored him. The resignation of the embattled attorney general would not come until November of last year. Several other incidents described in the report highlighted how uncomfortable top officials in Trumps administration were with demands made by the president. At one point, Trump asked Adm. Michael Rogers, then the director of the National Security Agency, to make a statement publicly rejecting news reports linking Trump to the Russia investigation. Disturbed, Rogers and his deputy wrote a memo documenting the conversation and put it in a safe. The deputy described it as his most unusual conversation in nearly 40 years of public service. Former FBI Director James B. Comey also wrote memos about his interactions with Trump because he feared the presidents requests were inappropriate and that Trump would lie about them. The special counsels office closely scrutinized contacts between Trump associates and Russians, which contradicted repeated denials from the president that he had nothing to do with Russia. The contacts included efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, a topic the presidents former lawyer, Michael Cohen, admitted to lying to Congress about. The investigation, however, did not establish that the contacts constituted a conspiracy involving the election. In fact, according to Cohen, Trump seemed to view the campaign as a boost for his business, instead of his business as a boost for his campaign. Cohen told prosecutors Trump viewed his White House bid as an infomercial for his properties. The report also details an extensive timeline of Trumps activities that sought to limit the investigation. Shortly after his election, he expressed concerns to his advisors that reports of Russias election interference may lead the public to question the legitimacy of his election, the report said. Trump sought to influence the FBIs investigation of his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, by asking then-FBI Director Comey to consider letting Flynn go, the report said, siding with Comeys account of a meeting that Trump previously has denied. On a weekend in June 2017, Trump called McGahn at home and directed him to tell Rosenstein that Mueller must be removed because he had conflicts of interest. McGahn did not follow through on the order. He worried it would spark an incident reminiscent of the Saturday Night Massacre in which top Justice Department officials resigned rather than carry out President Nixons orders to fire a special prosecutor investigating Watergate. McGahn decided he would resign instead. In 2018, when news reports recounted the episode, Trump pressured McGahn to deny the allegations. McGahn refused. The president also met privately with Sessions in the Oval Office in October 2017 and suggested, according to notes taken by a senior advisor, that Sessions would be a hero if he withdrew his recusal from overseeing the investigation. Im not going to do anything or direct you to do anything. I just want to be treated fairly, Trump told Sessions. The attorney general did not withdraw his recusal. Muellers report says that one factor in Trumps favor on the issue of obstruction of justice was that the investigation did not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. Mueller also pointed to several unique circumstances surrounding the investigation of Trump: He was president and in charge of the executive branch, and he conducted many of his acts in public. The evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the Presidents conduct, the report said. These include concerns that continued investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his election. The Russia investigation started as a counterintelligence probe in mid-2016, and it eventually examined Moscows broader efforts to use social media, hack emails and influence American voters to depress support for Hillary Clinton, Trumps Democratic opponent for president. The probe led to criminal charges against 34 people, including some of Trumps closest associates. The majority of people charged by Mueller were Russian nationals unlikely to ever see the inside of a U.S. court. They include a dozen military intelligence officers who allegedly hacked Democratic Party computers and released tens of thousands of emails through WikiLeaks during key moments in the campaign. Also indicted was Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and allegedly funds the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg. A dozen employees of the organization were accused of spreading divisive and false content on social media. MORE MUELLER REPORT COVERAGE Live updates as the report is released These are the key things were waiting to learn Our complete coverage of the Mueller investigation For more than two years, President Trump repeatedly ignored his lawyers and scratched an itch that wouldnt go away, responding to developments from the special counsels investigation by trying desperately to bring it to an end. He wanted former FBI Director James B. Comey to end the investigation altogether. Then he fired Comey, prompting the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel. He lashed out at former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions publicly and privately for relinquishing oversight of the probe. He dictated a misleading statement about a key meeting with Russian officials in 2016 and dangled pardons to associates ensnared in the probe. And he went so far as to direct former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller. Advertisement These findings from Muellers 22-month investigation were among those that paint a picture of a president who time and again acted impulsively based on his fears and insecurities and, in so doing, made his situation ever worse. In fact, the report makes clear, the only thing that may have saved Trump from an obstruction of justice charge was the remarkable willingness of many of his subordinates to refuse to act on his directives. The Presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests, the report said. One event seems to have triggered Trump most his attorney generals decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. Even before Sessions announced that action on March 2, 2017, Trump urged McGahn to call Sessions and convince him to not recuse. Sessions replied that he intended to follow the rules. The day after Sessions did recuse himself, Trump laced into McGahn about how he didnt have a lawyer. He said he wished Roy Cohn, a notorious lawyer and figure with close ties to Trump and the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, was his attorney. A few days later, Trump met with Sessions at his resort Mar-a-Lago in Florida and urged him to un-recuse. Sessions told investigators he had the impression that the President feared that the investigation could spin out of control and disrupt his ability to govern, the report says. Sessions action shouldnt have come as a shock to Trump, according to Muellers report. Stephen Bannon, his former campaign strategist, told investigators that before the inauguration they had discussed that Sessions would have to recuse from campaign-related investigations because of his work on the Trump campaign. The other key event provoking Trumps anger came when then-FBI Director Comey testified to Congress in March 2017 and confirmed the existence of an FBI probe into whether links existed between Trump associates and Russia. The president is getting hotter and hotter, said notes from the White House counsels office from that period. Trump pressed McGahn to call top officials at Justice Department to have them correct the impression that the president was under investigation. Then-acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Dana Boente refused. The president then began asking intelligence community officials to issue statements that he had no connection to Russia. They refused to do so or to intercede on his behalf with Comey. Dan Coats, the nations top intelligence official, indicated to staffers that the president had wanted him to speak to Comey to end the investigation. He told a top aide shortly after meeting with the president that Trumps request was somewhere between musing about hating the investigation and wanting him to do something to stop it, the report said. The latest from Washington Trump also called National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers and expressed frustration with the Russia probe and how it was making it difficult for him to govern and get things done with Moscow. He asked Rogers if there was anything he could do to refute news stories about the probe. Rogers said he did not take the presidents irritation and frustration to be an order. His deputy director, who was part of the call, told the special counsel that the conversation was the most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service, the report stated. When Trump eventually fired Comey in May 2017, he claimed he was acting on a recommendation from Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein; the special counsel determined hed simply made up his mind to do so and requested the written recommendation as political cover. Substantial evidence indicates that the catalyst for the presidents decision to fire Comey was Comeys unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation, despite the presidents repeated requests, the report said. Because of his own personal insecurity about his election win and his own internal guilt mechanism, he was constantly nudging people to exonerate him early on, even as no one had said the president was a target, said Clint Watts, a former FBI agent and senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. If Trump had simply done nothing, the Russian interference investigation is probably over in the summer of 2017. He inflicted all of this on himself through a lack of discipline and self-control, Watts said. McGahn remained in his position until October, shortly after he had helped shepherd through the Senate the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. By then, hed already spoken to Muellers team about what took place inside the West Wing. Substantial evidence indicates that the Presidents attempts to remove the Special Counsel were linked to the Special Counsels oversight of investigations that involved the Presidents conduct and, most specifically, to reports that the President was being investigated for obstruction of justice, the report stated. There is also evidence that the President knew he should not have made those calls to McGahn. More stories from Eli Stokols Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe wont run for president in 2020, meaning establishment, centrist Democrats will have one less option in a nominating free-for-all that so far has highlighted the partys leftward shift. McAuliffe said Wednesday night that instead of joining a crowded Democratic field vying to challenge President Trump, he will concentrate his efforts on helping Democrats win this year in Virginia with the possibility that he runs for governor or president in the future. Where can you help people the most and change peoples lives? McAuliffe said on CNN, arguing that he could beat Trump like a rented mule but doesnt want anyone in Virginia to think Ive abandoned them. Im staying home to do what I need to do to help Virginians, he added. Advertisement McAuliffes decision comes as former Vice President Joe Biden considers whether to enter the 2020 Democratic field. McAuliffe is widely viewed as part of the partys mainstream, occupying much of the same political space as Biden. McAuliffe said most of the current Democratic candidates could defeat Trump, though Biden was the only potential contender he called out by name. I love Joe Biden, he said. The former governors decision also follows a series of scandals that weakened Democrats in Virginia during a key election year, when partisan control of the state Legislature is up for grabs. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam and Atty. Gen. Mark Herring both admitted in February to having worn blackface as young men, while Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has been accused by two women of sexual assault, which he denies. Some top Democratic state lawmakers have urged McAuliffe to focus on raising money for Democrats this year and then run for governor in 2021. Virginia bars governors from serving consecutive terms, but McAuliffe could run again after serving from 2014-18. He demurred on CNN when pressed about whether hed run for governor in 2021, saying hes committed to Virginia Democrats first and foremost to help this year and in federal elections next year. One state lawmaker, Democratic Sen. Dick Saslaw, said he had been urging McAuliffe to run for governor. He didnt rule it out, Saslaw told the Associated Press before McAuliffes CNN appearance. McAuliffe, once best known as a top Democratic money man and close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, reinvented his image during a largely successful four-year term as governor that saw him tirelessly market the state, make major transportation deals and restore more voting rights than any other governor in the country. In a presidential race, McAuliffes record as a business-friendly centrist he proposed a corporate tax cut and backed a massive new natural gas pipeline that environmentalists detest would have been a liability with more progressive primary voters. Yet McAuliffe had made clear to friends and associates that he believed hed make a good candidate and an excellent president. Hes been open about his belief that Democrats should not stray too far to the left, particularly on healthcare and other economic issues. He sees himself as a politician in line with the partys positions on social issues while representing a mainstream liberalism that could appeal to more moderate voters. According to aides, McAuliffe had spent the last several weeks meeting with policy advisors talking about how to make concrete economic and healthcare proposals that could appeal across the political spectrum but that would stop short of Sen. Bernie Sanders pitch for single-payer health insurance. Among those he met with was Chris Jennings, a top healthcare policy advisor in President Obamas White House when the Affordable Care Act was passed and implemented. Part of McAuliffes pitch to powerbrokers in early voting states was his ability to make Democratic inroads in Virginia, which has become reliably Democratic in recent elections. In the 2017 elections, the last year of McAuliffes four-year tenure as governor, 15 House of Delegates seats shifted from Republican to Democratic control, reducing the GOPs majority to two seats. I took a red state and made it blue, the former Democratic National Committee chairman said last month during a swing through South Carolina. We had the biggest pickups in 140 years under my four years as governor, and if we did it there, we can do it here in South Carolina. McAuliffe stepped into the national spotlight as governor as a leading voice on certain social issues, winning kudos for undoing a vestige of the states Jim Crow era and restoring voting and other civil rights to felons who have completed their sentences. McAuliffes blunt criticism of the white nationalists who sparked a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., last summer also drew a sharp contrast with Trumps shaky response. Trump gave $25,000 to McAuliffes 2009 gubernatorial bid, and the two were once acquaintances. But McAuliffe has been unsparing in his criticism of the president in the last year or so, telling a national television audience hed knock Trump to the floor if the president ever tried to intimidate him. Another factor in McAuliffes decision is the dissipating shadow of the Clintons in Democratic presidential politics. McAuliffe has been friends with the couple for more than 30 years and served as DNC chairman during part of Bill Clintons tenure. McAuliffe has been unapologetic about his ties with the Clintons and his years as a party money man for them and other candidates, saying he has always worked within the existing campaign finance rules to elect Democrats up and down the ballot, even as he acknowledges that big money particularly from corporations and super PACs has become anathema to many in the Democratic base. The Mueller report reveals more than previously known about President Trumps efforts to conceal details about a controversial June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York. The meeting involved a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer and three senior Trump campaign officials who believed the lawyer was going to give them damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The unusual gathering at the height of the presidential race involved Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and his campaign manager, Paul Manafort. They met with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, plus a Russian-born lobbyist, a translator, a U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate group, and a British music promoter with Russian business ties who helped bring the group together. According to Mueller, Trump was directly involved a year later in trying to prevent details of the meeting from becoming public. Advertisement Trump was alerted at a White House meeting in late June 2017 with Kushner, daughter Ivanka Trump and press aide Hope Hicks that emails written by participants in the meeting looked really bad, as Hicks later put it. Trump directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails written by his son and others. Trump also dictated a statement issued by his son that claimed the meeting was about adoption of Russian children, not about seeking negative material about Clinton. But Trumps action did not amount to obstruction of justice, the report concluded, because he did not try to block evidence about the meeting from being given to Muellers investigators or to lawmakers. The evidence does not establish that the President took steps to prevent the emails or other information about the June 9 meeting from being provided to Congress or the Special Counsel, the report says. Emails written by Trump Jr. and later made public showed he had agreed to the meeting not to talk about adoptions, but because he had been assured that the Russian lawyer had official documents and information that would incriminate Clinton, and be very useful to your father. Rob Goldstone, the music promoter who arranged the meeting, told Trump Jr. that the damaging information on Clinton was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. If its what you say, I love it, Trump Jr. replied. Gov. Gavin Newsoms ambitious plan to rein in prescription drug costs through a statewide purchasing system pooling the power of Californias largest public and private buyers has a new ally: Los Angeles County. In a tentative deal announced Wednesday, the Newsom administration and Los Angeles County said they would sit at the same bargaining table when negotiating prescription drug prices with manufacturers. Newsom said the partnership will hopefully spur other local governments to join the coalition, adding that governors in Rhode Island, Colorado and Illinois have expressed interest in a similar model or joining Californias collective. Newsom made the announcement in front of the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey on his 100th day in office. His call for taking on the influential pharmaceutical industry was met with cheers from medical staff and patients at the high-tech rehabilitation center. I dont want to overstate this, but I dont want to understate this. This is a big deal, Newsom said Wednesday. Advertisement The Newsom administration, however, has yet to release details on how the bulk buying system would work, leaving even the pharmaceutical companies he painted as opponents unable to comment substantively on the plan. I can assure you are going to see the fruits of this in the very near future, Newsom said, adding that the state is within a few months of actually seeing the net direct benefits. Tackling high prescription drug costs was one of Newsoms first initiatives, which he announced in an executive order shortly after being sworn in. His plan would consolidate drug purchases in the state to make California the nations largest buyer. Doing so, Newsom said, would tilt the bargaining power in Californias favor when negotiating prices with drug companies. With the addition of Los Angeles County and with it drug purchases made on behalf of inmates and county hospital patients the coalition grew significantly. Much of the specifics about how the plan would work have yet to be announced. While Newsom said he anticipates a major fight with pharmaceutical companies and lobbyists, so far those groups have been relatively quiet publicly as they wait for details on the plan. Newsom said he would like to shield some aspects of the states plans from the industry giants who will attempt to kill it. Priscilla VanderVeer, a spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said that without details, the lobbying group is currently neutral on Newsoms plan. But much remains to be known, she said. We would like a transparent process that protects patient access to medicine. The nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office said it could not yet assess Newsoms plan to consolidate the states purchases on high-cost drugs because there are too few details on how it will be implemented. The administration has yet to share what specific strategies to expand upon existing bulk purchasing efforts are under consideration other than the broad concept of encouraging participation by private entities in the state negotiations, the analysts office wrote this month. In a meeting Wednesday with the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, Newsom disputed that his plan was short on specifics. It is not that complex. I dont know what more information folks need, Newsom said. The executive order laid out in detail four different actions. However, his executive order from January includes just a broad outline with timelines for status reports that have not been made public. His executive order also called for consolidating prescription drug purchases by January 2021 under the states Medi-Cal program, which provides healthcare to lower-income residents. The Legislative Analysts Office has estimated that plan could save the state hundreds of millions of dollars, but its highly uncertain and comes with trade-offs, such as reduced revenue to hospitals and community clinics that receive federal rebates on their drug purchases. The executive order does not set a timeline for Newsoms plan to create the bargaining collaborative between state agencies, local governments and the private sector. The Department of General Services was tasked with creating a list of high-cost priority drugs the state would like to focus its collective bargaining power on. The agency is in the process of developing a plan for bulk purchases on those medications. Obviously, there are more details to work out in how you use this bigger hammer when it comes to combined purchasing power, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a statewide healthcare consumer advocacy organization. But this is important. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said high prescription drug prices is an issue that Americans want government to deal with and Newsoms plan to create a coalition to leverage their buying power makes sense. She said the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services alone spends $242 million a year on prescription drug purchases. We wanted to be the first, Hahn said. If L.A. County, which is the largest county, joins this initiative, other counties will join in, other states may join in, and it will only help us drive prescription drug prices down. L.A. County spends a lot of money every year on prescription drugs and we think something like this could cut that cost in half. Sign up for the Essential Politics newsletter melody.gutierrez@latimes.com Follow @MelodyGutierrez on Twitter and sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter Gavin Newsoms whirlwind start as California governor has been punctuated by a contemptuous feud with President Trump, a politically risky ban on the death penalty and an occasional backtrack or stumble. But he says his first 100 days as governor have been driven by an in the weeds mind-set and sense of urgency to address the states many needs and intractable ills. Newsom dismissed criticism that a more measured approach focused on a few, select political priorities each year, a hallmark of his predecessor Jerry Brown, may be more effective than launching the weighty progressive agenda all at once. We said we wanted to be bold. We had a platform: Courage for a change, Newsom said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. It wasnt an indictment of the status quo. It was an expression of the willingness to take on some of these vexing issues, to lean in to some of these issues, and to see what we can shape. Advertisement Newsom said the Californians who elected him expect nothing less than immediate and aggressive action on affordable housing, addressing homelessness, expanding early childhood education and other pressing needs in the state. I sweat the small stuff. There is a mayoral mind-set here in terms of recognizing that there are a lot of issues that need to be attended to, and if the chief executive doesnt attend to, often theyre neglected, Newsom, a former two-term San Francisco mayor. We just want to go farther than were expected to go. Newsom went pretty far during his first week in office, when he warned cities and counties that he was coming for their road repair funding if they didnt meet state goals for new housing. Two months later, Newsom set aside those plans for four years. Newsom also stirred up confusion when, in his State of the State speech, he criticized the states $77 billion high-speed rail project by saying it would cost too much and, respectfully, take too long. Just hours after Newsom said there was no path to have the rail line connect San Diego to San Francisco, Trump demanded California return $3.5 billion in federal funds for the project, forcing Newsom to clarify that he supported the entire rail system. Newsom said the majority of his agenda is intertwined with his $209-billion budget proposal, which proposes a vast expansion of Californias safety net for the poor and relies on a record-setting tax revenue estimate to boost public schools and healthcare programs. Newsoms first spending plan is currently contorting its way through the California Legislature, a process that will test the political steel and negotiating prowess of the governor as he bargains with a Democratic leadership feeling unbridled after Browns eight-year reign. I think the budget is going to be the truest test of the success of the first 100 days, Newsom said. Newsom discussed his priorities and biggest surprise in office during an interview with The Times on Monday. The conversation was edited for both length and clarity. You have introduced and announced a lot of major policy proposals, but its hard to tell your priorities. What are they? Theres a lot of things that I think need to be done in the state. Ive never subscribed to the point of view that one should limit themselves to just a few things when there are many things that need to be done. I believe you can go deep into more than one or two things. I got elected on making a lot of commitments on policy proposals, and I want to follow through on those commitments. I think the people who elected me expected nothing less. I said I was going to be bold on housing, I was going to be bold on education, on healthcare. I was going to do more on preschool and early childhood education. I was going to get under the hood on a series of issues. So were doing that. Youve held a lot of different offices. What has surprised you the most so far about this job? The time and attention that Trump has devoted on California. Intellectually, I anticipated, I expected a lot of it. But its interesting. Look Im governing the most un-Trump state in America and his pronouncements [are] almost on a weekly basis, consistent. In some ways it shouldnt surprise because you have some of the most iconic Democratic leaders that emanate from this state in positions of real power and influence, and obviously California played an outsized role in his popular vote defeat and hes still left raw about that. I just wish there was a week that went by where you werent forced to ask me, Im sure you saw Trumps tweet? Thats the beginning of almost every conversation and that surprises me. I get it. And its the right question. Gov. Gavin Newsom in El Salvador. (Salvador Melendez / Associated Press) As ambitious as your agenda may be, there are Democrats in the Legislature who want to do more, on paid family leave and Medi-Cal expansion for example. How do you deal with that? Theyre right, theyre not wrong. Its about building blocks. Its about a system, what it can absorb. Its about quality, not just quantity. On preschool, even if we put up all the money to provide universal preschool, the infrastructure couldnt be built out. Theres physical limitations on childcare and preschool. We actually physically have to build out the facilities. Theres human capital where we actually have to train the caregivers and we need to invest in the workforce. Theres a great sense of urgency. I share it. But theres a need to build out that architecture. I think what we did this year was we made robust investments that were not just symbolic, they were substantive, and with it I announced concurrently these teams of people that are working then to build out the plan over the course of the next few years. So it wasnt just monetary, but it was organizing a narrative where were working with the stakeholders bringing people to the table and saying: Heres what we hope to do next year and the year after, etc. Substantively as well on paid sick leave, and that was one of the first investments we made. Thats led as you know by my chief of staff. That was quite literally her top priority, the predicate for her taking the job. How well has your family transitioned to life in Sacramento and your new home in the suburb of Fair Oaks? Its good. The biggest transition is, theyve never had scrutiny like this, my wife nor the kids. I could show you some emails from teachers at school. Its tough. But its also exciting to them at the same time. Theres a lot of scrutiny. A lot of opinions. Parents have children, and often times parents share their opinions of others to their children, and those are shared. This is not a liberal bastion, Fair Oaks. So its interesting. Gov. Gavin Newsom at his swearing-in ceremony. At left is his son Dutch. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Fair Oaks has reputation for good public schools. Are your kids going to public or private school? Theyre going to preschool and ... private. Why make that decision, private over public? We moved them midyear and it was the best decision for the kids. Because we moved them in the middle of the school year, from a public school, that was the school that was quickest to accommodate that. Theres legislation to increase regulation and oversight over charter schools. The expectation is that you would be friendly to that because of your comments during campaign. Most of the legislation thats been introduced this year has been introduced multiple years, so none of it is particularly surprising. I think the energy around it is. Thats why were very pleased to get that fast-track legislation on transparency to my desk as quickly as we could, which I campaigned on, as you know. Im very proud of that. That shows what government can do when youre committed to something in the short term. There was an 11-year debate just on that issue and we were able to get that over the edge. Im hopeful that we can find areas of commonality and address these issues. The first text I got at 6:33 a.m. this morning was on some backchannel conversations with some of the charter school members about whats going on in areas where we actually may see some commonality. So were working diligently with [state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond] and were hoping to complete those efforts. Gov. Gavin Newsom presents his first state budget at a news conference in January. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) At his point in the interview, Newsom made what amounted to a closing argument. I think its just a shift in the administrations approach. I think were much more proactive earlier on in the process. The budget reflected that. It goes to my approach. Im trying to get in the weeds. Im trying to get into the details. I think the devil is in the details. I think details matter. I know I approach government very differently in this role. And it goes to your question about just one or two big priorities. Ive read a book, Dont Sweat the Small Stuff and then I read an article saying sweat the small stuff. I was persuaded more by the article than the book. I sweat the small stuff. There is a mayoral mind-set here in terms of recognizing that there are a lot of issues that need to be attended to and if the chief executive doesnt attend to, often theyre neglected. I think there are a lot of areas in government that need to be improved. Im not satisfied with the efficiency and the transparency and the efficacy thats reflected in many agencies. DMV is a top example of that. I think the budget is going to be the truest test of the success of the first 100 days. I think the budget will be truly reflective of that, where we come out on that. Im not exaggerating, there are quite literally 70 or 80 things I promised on the campaign trail that are reflected in that budget small things and big things. The most high-profile things, certainly, have been trying to govern California in a Trump administration, and to be a positive alternative, and youre seeing that response on healthcare, on immigration. Ill tell you, we have a budget that contrasts the Trump administration in terms of its fiscal discipline. Were not arguing to run deficits, were actually paying off all our debt. Were paying down pension obligations. It contrasts rather significantly, not just on immigration and healthcare, but our approach is very different than the one being advanced in Washington D.C. phil.willon@latimes.com Twitter: @philwillon What a concept! After blindly giving out generous tax breaks for years, take a hard look to see whether theyre actually benefiting the state. Do they create jobs? Lure businesses to California? Keep them here? Help companies expand? Fight climate change? Our legislators and governors should have been asking these questions all along and demanding answers. Theyve long yammered about conducting more oversight of just about everything the state does, but they invariably lose interest. Theres no political reward in wonky studies. But theres lots of political risk in closing loopholes and requiring certain interests to pay higher taxes. Advertisement It takes only a simple majority vote in the Legislature to create a tax break. But it requires a difficult two-thirds vote to cancel the break and raise a tax. Doesnt make sense. Politicians hate to call anything a tax hike, and theyll twist semantics to avoid it. So all these breaks and loopholes are referred to in government-speak as tax expenditures. Thats because they cost the state treasury money. Once these things are enacted, state Controller Betty T. Yee says, theyre there forever, although they may have outlived their usefulness. Thats assuming they ever had a legitimate use beyond enriching the beneficiaries. Many were brokered in backroom budget deals when state spending plans required a two-thirds vote. There was a lot of vote buying back then. Californians wisely approved a ballot initiative in 2010 that reduced the budget vote to a simple majority. Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) considered a pesky liberal by many moderates and conservatives is trying to shake up the comfy world of tax breaks. She is pushing Senate Bill 468, which would sunset or kill nine tax expenditures in three years unless they could be justified by the Legislative Analysts Office. Those nine tax breaks are costing the state general fund $7.3 billion annually, Jackson says. To put that in perspective, the general fund for the current fiscal year is $144 billion. For too long, Jackson says, California has routinely granted generous tax credits and exemptions, which divert billions of dollars away from the general fund, without asking whether they deliver economic or social benefits to our state. These are dollars that could be spent on classrooms, addressing the housing crisis or combating wildfires and climate change. There needs to be transparency and accountability, she says, so Californians can be sure their taxpayer dollars are being spent prudently, fairly and wisely. This is about shining light into some dark corners of our state budget that havent had sunshine for decades, if at all. Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, says hes all for studying everything, including the tangled web of state regulations. But frankly, for some of these measures like the [research and development] credit you dont have to sunset it to look at it, he says. You dont have to threaten people to have a good evaluation. Jacksons bill is strongly backed by the California Teachers Assn. and the California School Boards Assn. They have gleams in their eyes: Roughly 40% of the state general fund goes to K-12 schools. Few legislators, I suspect, know much about these complex tax breaks. The only real experts are lobbyists for the benefiting interests. One loophole in Jacksons sights is called the waters edge provision. It allows multinational corporations to choose their method of taxation. The states cost is $2.2 billion this year. Another target is that tax credit for research and development a $1.6-billion item. Its a great idea if California wants to relinquish its role as the epicenter of innovation and job creation. Otherwise its a terrible idea, Silicon Valley Leadership Group President Carl Guardino told CALmatters, a nonprofit news group. Jackson wants to investigate a $634-million state sales tax exemption on animals used for human food, and on feed for that livestock. Also covered by the exemption are edible plants and their fertilizers. She also hopes to look at a $172-million sales tax exemption for farm equipment and an exemption for custom computer programs. The state doesnt even know how much its losing on the software, except that its more than $100 million a year. Jackson is barely scratching the surface of state tax breaks. She isnt even looking at all the income tax loopholes. They total $49 billion this year, according to the state Finance Department. But some thankfully are politically untouchable, such as the home mortgage interest deduction. It costs $4 billion. But are interest deductions on vacation homes justified? If were looking for some funding, Yee says, Id say second homes is a place to go when many dont even have a first home. The Finance Department counts up $6.6 billion in corporate tax loopholes and $9.6 billion in state sales tax exemptions. Practically all should be looked at by our elected representatives. Thats a good idea, Jackson told reporters. But rather than take on the whole world, I thought wed take one step at a time. This is low-hanging fruit. Why are we giving tax breaks to these programs? She hopes to cleanse some tax loopholes of waste, fraud and abuse a tough chore. More from George Skelton george.skelton@latimes.com Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter Attendees at a Federal Aviation Administration public workshop this week said the agency is focusing on the wrong issue regarding a proposed 14-gate replacement terminal at Hollywood Burbank Airport. While aviation officials and consultants were trying to gather input regarding the airports new terminal on Tuesday to complete an environmental impact statement on the project, those in attendance mainly residents from Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Studio City and other nearby communities argued that an increased level of aircraft noise and shifting flight paths need to be addressed first. Although the FAA is considering changing the flight departures from Hollywood Burbank, officials said the environmental impact statement for the terminal is a separate project. Written submissions with comments about the project can be mailed to David F. Cushing, manager, Los Angeles Airports District Office, LAX-600, 777 S. Aviation Blvd., Suite 150, El Segundo, CA 90245 The deadline for written submissions is 5 p.m. on March 1. Since March 2017, residents said they have witnessed flights leaving Hollywood Burbank departing at a lower altitude and more frequently over Studio City. In October, the Landrum & Brown consultant firm released a report determining that flights have been shifting farther south toward Studio City, and the change could be due to the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, which started in March 2017. Studio City resident Suellen Wagner said she tried talking to the officials at the workshop, but felt her comments were falling on deaf ears. She said she thinks the proposed replacement terminal, which is planned to be 355,000 square feet, will increase the level of activity at Hollywood Burbank, which has already been steadily on the rise as the economy continues to recover. Theyll have the ability, with a better and bigger terminal, to have more space for general aviation and cargo flights, which will create a lot more noise and a lot more pollution, Wagner said. Theyre going to be incentivized to bring in larger jets because they get paid by the passenger. In addition to thinking she and other concerned residents are not being heard, Wagner said she has yet to hear an answer from FAA officials regarding what they will do to address the shifting flight paths and noise. Burbank resident Audrey Ford agreed with Wagner, adding that residents have been the ones to compromise their lives while the FAA and airport do whatever they want. If they are taking our comments seriously, it doesnt feel like it from our end, Ford said. Nothing is changing. The flights are still turning [north] around the [Studio City] canyons, and flights are lower than they ever used to be. No one seems to be offering a solution. anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com Twitter: @acocarpio A San Francisco judges recent ruling has led to new discussions about religions place in medical treatment. Earlier this month Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith said Mercy Medical Center a Catholic hospital in Redding was not sexually discriminating against Rebecca Chamorro, who had requested a tubal ligation procedure. The judge said Chamorro could get the procedure at another hospital and that Mercy Medical Centers policy against sterilization also applies to men. NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in the 818 >> After the hospital denied the procedure on religious grounds, the would-be patient filed a lawsuit. Dignity Health, which operates Mercy Medical, says the womans tubal ligation is not medically necessary and would violate the hospitals right to freedom of religion. The ACLU is suing on behalf of Chamorro, saying the hospitals refusal violates Californias sexual discrimination laws. In an Op-Ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, Charles C. Camosy put it like this: If you take a professional view of medicine, the following question must be asked: Is intentionally interfering with someones reproductive system (in ways which do not address some injury or disease) an act of healthcare? Q. How should healthcare be defined and how should religion factor in to how medical professionals respond to patients? -- Healthcare is medical treatment practiced with compassion and integrity. Humanism dictates that we put others needs before our own. Unfortunately, there is a recent trend (at least a more recent visible trend) in religion, to place compassion on a lower rung than religious prejudice. This is evidenced by the treatment of groups designated as other including immigrants, people of color, homosexuals, women, atheists and more. In this case, Catholic institutions are putting their desires before the needs of the patient. They are denying often necessary and preventive care by being self serving. I understand there is religious freedom in this country, but when dealing with issues of health, life and death, you must draw the line. The procedure may be elective, but it also provides significant health and other benefits. Doing one surgery rather than two greatly reduces danger and risk of complications. Imposing more expense and forcing the patient to use their time to find another provider and travel to them is also causing the patient undue harm. Catholic hospitals are well aware the likelihood of the patient getting the procedure anyway is incredibly high. So, they are usually preventing nothing and are complicit in putting the patient in a more dangerous and burdensome situation. If it relieves their conscience, that is all it does and, in my opinion, that does not fit the definition of healthcare. Does disallowing all abortion get rid of abortion? Absolutely not. It just makes getting one harder and more dangerous. Does prohibition of certain reproductive care engender healing in society? Absolutely not, it perpetuates cycles of poverty among other adverse consequences. Religious intransigence, as in this instance, may relieve a mental burden (often imposed by religious dictum itself) that weighs heavily on some people, but it blinds them to the often problematic results of their actions (or non-actions) and blinds them to real solutions. Additionally, prohibitive policies of Catholic hospitals in general can cause obstetric complications and could create the potential for grave harm to a women from a future pregnancy. These policies do not serve their intended purpose of preventing abortion, and they run the risk of harming patients. How does this fit into any definition of healthcare or, for that matter, align with the values of empathy and compassion that are supposedly the pride of the Catholic church? Further, by denying this procedure for religious reasons, we set a precedent for denial of other, possibly even more vital treatments. Joshua Lewis Berg Humanist Celebrant Glendale -- I can respect a completely consistent belief in the right-to-life, meaning one which includes opposition to all war, to capital punishment and to economic injustice, and which actively supports caring for the earth and all its creatures. Even so, I reserve for a woman the right to make decisions over her own body. Sterilization for a woman is not the equivalent of a vasectomy for a man, for obvious physical reasons. I believe that the ACLU was grasping at a straw to base their suit on sex discrimination. My definition of healthcare for women is broader than Professor Camosys. Good healthcare is not merely treating injury or disease, as he says, but should support thriving and living life on ones own terms, certainly in as fundamental a decision as how many children to have. Unfortunately, hospitals in our system have been allowed the right to make these very personal decisions based on the beliefs of the religious organization owning the hospital, even when the belief or desires of the patient are otherwise. I do not believe that freedom of religion should allow a person or an organization the right to impose their beliefs on another. Roberta Medford Atheist Montrose -- Rebecca Chamorros health was not in danger. Sexual discrimination is not a factor in this case because of the hospitals policy against sterilization for men as well. In addition, the procedure was readily available for Chamorro at other area hospitals. These facts clearly illuminate the spurious nature of her claims against Mercy Medical Center, whether or not the grounds for denying the procedure were based on religious convictions. Would she sue if they didnt offer the elective procedures of Botox, liposuction or plastic surgery? Would we even be discussing her case if one of these had been the cause of her grievance? Looking at the details of this case, it appears that an opportunistic person is trying to make a quick buck off of a healthcare organizations insurance. And thats nothing but immoral. Service organizations, businesses, nonprofit groups and even hospitals and medical professionals have the right to determine which services they do or dont offer. Every person and organization operates on the basis of a set of values whether or not they are based on religion, and they have the right to do so. Up to this point in our country such freedom, including that of religious exercise, has been one of our nations proper foundational values. Virtually no faith-based healthcare organization in our country denies services in a haphazard manner. The issues are clearly defined and usually concern the procedures of abortion or sterilization. Sometimes the issue is blood transfusion, but usually thats about the conviction of the patient, not the hospital. These are rarely life-or-death situations. In the case of a womans pregnancy threatening her life, we can argue that an abortion would be the guaranteed putting to death of the child in her womb. The childs life is worthy of protection. Matthew 9:35 says that Jesus Christ was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Of Jesus Isaiah 53:5 predicted: He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. God told Moses: I, the Lord, am your healer (Exodus 15:26). When Gods word and Gods ways are honored people will be healed both physically and spiritually. And thats the real goal, isnt it? Religious freedom guarantees and protects peoples healing. Pastor Jon Barta Burbank -- Every doctor swears some sort of oath when they graduate school to take the reins of their educated profession. In the past, and for much of history, the Hippocratic Oath has been the statement of medicine, and in there is the declaration, I will willingly refrain from doing any injury" By the way, it also states, I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art. Now this all had to be amended because the oath was made in the name of mythical deities of ancient Greece, but it has been so amended that the modern version actually affirms the reverse; If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life" The doctor giveth, and the doctor taketh away! So there isnt much medical concern for oaths anymore, really, and today it seems that considerations of health, life and death, holy responsibility, are all up for grabs and convenient reinterpretation. In the case at hand, it seems that the hospital is taking the medical high road and saying that, in effect, sterilization is not healthcare. It is actually destructive, as the point of having ones tubes tied is to cause the malfunction of perfectly healthy body parts. Now, while I am not of the mind that sterilization is any sin against God (especially since the God-given capacity for reproduction had already been exercised) it is the hospitals religious persuasion that forbids the procedure, and so they should not do it. Youd think that all this should have been gone over long before the plaintiff settled on the facility for childbirth, but hey, with the ACLU involved, she might make some bank now. Nice, lady. There are myriad hospitals that exist to meet every known procedure, so taking the scrupulous ones to task, is in my mind, just mean-spirited. We need more like Mercy, not less. Healthcare should care for health. It shouldnt destroy health or life, and if it does optional and unnecessary procedures, it really goes beyond the parameters. I do think that religion should surely factor into how medical professionals address their patients, and if the establishment cannot countenance religion, then swap the term out for morality, as that is what religion is, a moral system. Do I think, then, that morals should play a part in all this? Of course. The Bible says, If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning (Rom 14:23 NLT). Mercy Medical didnt think it right, so it did the morally right thing and denied the procedure. Rev. Bryan A. Griem Tujunga -- If Mercy Medical were the only hospital available to the patient, I would be more sympathetic to the lawsuit, but that doesnt appear to be the case. While the courts decision doesnt not allow Chamorro the convenience of having the procedure at the time of her delivery, she still can have it. The alternative would be to completely disregard the 1st Amendment rights of Mercy Medical to practice according to the precepts of the Catholic Church. This case is the latest and certainly wont be the last challenge to the place of religion in society. Unfortunately, there is no single solution that will satisfy everyone. There may be circumstances, when there is no alternative, in which church-affiliated hospitals would need to perform a procedure that violates religious principle. But when there are clear alternatives, the critics of religion should have the wisdom to stand down. Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the LDS churchs Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, addressed the need for mutual respect and accommodation in remarks earlier this year. We must find ways to show respect for others whose beliefs, values and behaviors differ from ours while never being forced to deny or abandon our own beliefs, values and behaviors in the process, he said. Every citizens rights are best guarded when each person and group guards for others those rights they wish guarded for themselves. To approach these issues from a winner-take-all perspective, as the ACLU and other critics of religion seems to be doing, is a mistake. In suing the hospital, the ACLU is saying that church-affiliated hospitals and by extension religious doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, must perform any procedure that a patient requests. As Camosy points out, accepting this argument would abolish freedom of religion, and conscience, to all medical organizations and individual physicians. I dont believe the consequences of this would be good. Michael White The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints La Crescenta In a move aimed at encouraging environmentally friendly products, the Costa Mesa City Council voted Tuesday to prohibit the use or purchase of expanded polystyrene food service products at city facilities or during city-sponsored events. Restrictions on the use of cups and containers fashioned from the material commonly known as Styrofoam have become increasingly common among California cities in recent years as part of an effort to limit litter and marine pollution. Anybody whos ever participated in a beach cleanup knows how much we need this, Councilwoman Sandy Genis said during Tuesdays meeting. There [are] barges of Styrofoam in the Pacific, so we need to do something, said Mayor Pro Tem John Stephens. Costa Mesas ban does not currently apply to the local SeniorServ Program, which provides meals to older adults. However, at the suggestion of Mayor Katrina Foley and Councilwoman Andrea Marr, the council agreed to put that program in compliance within a year. The vote to approve the prohibition was 6-0. Councilman Allan Mansoor left the meeting before the item came forward. Animal service contracts extended Earlier in the meeting, the council unanimously extended the citys agreements with Newport Center Animal Hospital and Priceless Pet Rescue, which provide animal shelter and adoption services, respectively. The extensions are through June 30, 2021, with three additional one-year options. The annual costs of the contracts are $276,000 for Newport Center Animal Hospital and $31,200 for Priceless Pet Rescue. An Orange County jury Wednesday convicted a Costa Mesa community theater actor of a gruesome double murder that included beheading his neighbor and trying to cover up the crime by killing the mans friend and staging her body to look as if shed been sexually assaulted. Daniel Wozniak, 31, hoped to use his magical acting powers to trick the dumb police, prosecutor Matt Murphy told jurors during his closing argument Wednesday morning. But when detectives grilled Wozniak and the unemployed actor learned police would soon discover the handgun he used in both killings, Wozniak confessed, Murphy said. The plan has now crashed into the rocks of reality, he told jurors, who deliberated for only a few hours before returning guilty verdicts on two counts of murder. After waiting more than five years for the case to begin last week, some family members of Wozniaks victims said they were relieved at the decision. Weve gotten today what weve always known, one victims father, Steve Herr, said, adding later, It was a foregone conclusion he was guilty of murder. Wozniak shot 26-year-old Sam Herr twice in the head on May 21, 2010 in a Los Alamitos theater where Wozniak performed. He then used Herrs phone to lure 23-year-old Juri Julie Kibuishi to Herrs apartment in Costa Mesa where he shot her, placed her body on Herrs bed and ripped away her pants. Hoping police would think Herr raped Kibuishi and fled, Wozniak then used a saw and hatchet to dismember Herrs body and tossed the head, hands and a tattooed forearm in a Long Beach park, according to prosecutors. After Herrs father discovered Kibuishis body, police began looking for Herr, but withdrawals from Herrs bank account led detectives to Wozniak. Prosecutors believe Wozniak was desperate for money to fund his upcoming wedding, cover rent and pay off debts. They said he targeted Herr because the veteran had $62,000 saved up from his service in Afghanistan. That is, for someone like Daniel Wozniak, very tempting, Murphy said. Earlier this week, jurors watched videos of Wozniaks interviews with police, who arrested Wozniak at his bachelor party days after the slayings. In the recordings, Wozniak originally denies any involvement in Kibuishis killing, saying he only had Herrs ATM card as part of a fraud scam he claimed the two were running. If lying was an Olympic sport, that is a gold medalist, Murphy said, motioning toward Wozniak. But Wozniak slipped, according to Murphy, and mentioned details about the crime scene, revealing to detectives that hed been there at some point. OK, I saw the goddamn body, is that what you want to hear? the recording shows Wozniak telling them. He then claimed Herr killed Kibuishi in a drug-fueled rage and hired him to cover up the crime. That story didnt last long, according to Murphy. When Wozniak called his fiancee, Rachel Buffet, from the Costa Mesa jail, she tried to interrupt the conversation by saying she needs to tell detectives about evidence she heard Wozniaks older brother mention, according to a recording of the call. Murphy said that evidence included the murder weapon, shell casings and the clothes Wozniak wore during Herrs slaying. Wozniak later admitted he gave the items to his brother to hide or burn, according to the recorded interviews. Now Im really dead, Wozniak tells Buffet, during the phone call. Baby, youre already dead, she replies. Immediately after that conversation, Wozniak asked a jailer to fetch the detectives and quickly confessed to the killings, according to prosecutors. Buffet and Wozniaks brother, Tim, have both pleaded not guilty to charges of accessory to murder after the fact. Wozniaks lawyers did little to dispute the prosecutions case during their relatively brief closing argument Wednesday. Public defender Tracy LeSage foreshadowed the next step in the trial. Everything is more complicated than it is, she said. Nothing is cut and dry. The proceedings will now move on to the penalty phase where the prosecution will make its case to jurors that Wozniak deserves to be put to death. Murphy told jurors he plans to have family members finally take the stand to describe the aftermath of the brutal slayings. Personally for me, its not over yet because we know the hard part is still coming, Herrs aunt Miriam Nortman said outside the courtroom. Sentenced to death, thats what we want to hear, her husband Mike Nortman said, completing the thought. The tension was palpable in a Huntington Beach classroom as a clock ticked in the corner of a projection screen. Speakers counted down the minutes, relaying to viewers the status of the unmanned Cygnus NG-11 cargo vessel preparing to launch Wednesday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. But even as the lights in the classroom were dimmed and the official countdown began, the students at Brethren Christian School thousands of miles from Virginia were less concerned about Cygnus flight than they were about the cargo it held. Was their project going to work? Would the data it collects prove their hypothesis? There was no way to know for sure, even as their months-long project was launched into space toward the International Space Station. But Paige Coultrup, a sophomore and project manager, was optimistic. The hope is that [its] gonna work, Paige said. Even if it doesnt work, were still gonna gather data so we can do it better in the future and gather more data. Thats the point of scientific experiments. Brethren Christian students plan to send a science experiment to the International Space Station Members of the engineering club at the private school have been working on the project since the beginning of the school year. Team members said they finished around January and shipped it for evaluation in February. The experiment includes two tests. One is based on a crystal oscillator, which uses a vibrating crystal to create an electrical signal with an exact frequency. It will monitor that frequency to see how a clock is affected by the elements of space. Additionally, the experiment will seek to re-prove Albert Einsteins theory of relative time in space, comparing the performance of two identical clocks one in space and one on Earth. Were expecting the clock to come back to be younger, Rick Peterson, a parent volunteer and team facilitator, said in December during the project preparation. The time is going to be less on the clock coming back. Its just a fraction of a second, but its large enough for us to measure with our equipment. Members of the Brethren Christian School engineering club pose Wednesday with Supt. John Moran, right, and parent volunteers Michael Donahoe, left, and Rick Peterson, fourth from left. (Lilly Nguyen) Peterson said Wednesday that Cygnus is expected to arrive at the space station in about a week. Astronauts will execute the experiment and collect data while the project is in orbit for 30 days. Data will be sent to the students about once a week. Their equipment will be returned to Earth on a cargo vessel. Petersons son Colby, a junior and technical lead, said he was mostly relieved now that the project has been launched into space. The day before we finished [the project] and we shipped it, we did the final test and wed all have on our mind-set, Whats next? Whats next? Colby said. And it was that moment when you realize, Were done. Theres nothing left to do. It feels really good. The team partnered with Quest for Space, a San Jose-based organization that trains students on how to create experiments to be tested aboard the space station. The program has launched more than 100 student-designed projects since it began in 2010. This is the first year that Brethren Christian School has participated. Supt. John Moran said he has committed the school for another year. Im so incredibly proud of [the students]. This is not just a fail-complete. Its not that we have a program and we just start it, Moran said. Many schools dont launch their first year so for this tiny group to overcome being the smallest of the groups and all the challenges that they had in the first year to have a successful launch of a successful experiment is really above and beyond what we could have asked or thought. Newport Harbor, Edison and Huntington Beach high schools are among 14 area schools participating in the Congressional Art Competition, which this year has come to the 48th Congressional District for the first time. Each spring the Congressional Institute sponsors the high school visual art competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in the nations congressional districts. For the record: This article originally misspelled Kaira Roudas first name as Kara. Students submit entries to their representatives office in various media, including photography, painting, drawing, prints, collages, mixed media and computer-generated. The 48th District, which stretches from Seal Beach to San Juan Capistrano, is represented by Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Laguna Beach). Panels of district artists select the winners, who are recognized both in their district and at an annual awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. Winners receive scholarship money, and their works are displayed for a year at the U.S. Capitol. Robyn Phillips, left, and her mother, Furnishing Hope founder Beth Phillips, are surrounded by students Congressional Art Competition entries at the new Furnishing Hope Gallery in Newport Beach. (Susan Hoffman) In conjunction with the grand opening of the Furnishing Hope Gallery, student artwork is on display from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Friday and from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at 1062 Irvine Ave., Newport Beach. Saturdays event includes a coffee and croissants open house. Furnishing Hope is a nonprofit that provides furniture and supplies to wounded military personnel and families in crisis. In 2017, founder Beth Phillips opened a home furnishings store bearing that name at Westcliff Plaza at 1100 Irvine Ave. in Newport Beach. Phillips had the idea to bring the Congressional Art Competition to the Furnishing Hope Gallery after seeing an Instagram post about the competition by Roudas wife, Kaira. Congressman Rouda, his wife, Kaira, and a group of 25 constituents volunteered in our store for the day of service in honor of Martin Luther King Day in January, which is how the relationship started, Phillips said. We were excited about bringing the competition to his district, so we responded right away and invited them to use the gallery. Rouda will have a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday to honor the 48th District high school artists participating. The event will be at the Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. Susan Hoffman is a contributor to Times Community News. Daily Pilot staff contributed to this report. A students painting is one of the entries in the Congressional Art Competition on display in the Furnishing Hope Gallery. (Susan Hoffman) UPDATES: This article was originally published at 5:05 p.m. April 17 and was later updated with additional information. Laguna Beach has reached a settlement with the Federal Aviation Administration in the citys lawsuit over departure patterns at John Wayne Airport. As part of the settlement, aircraft will be required to cross the coast south of Laguna Beach at an altitude of more than 10,000 feet. The requirement is expected to decrease airplane noise for residents, according to city officials. The city and the FAA also agreed to work together on possible modifications to the commercial jet approach to John Wayne Airport during Santa Ana winds to lessen noise. For the first time, the FAA has made a formal, written commitment to keep planes on the entire JWA departure path that runs south over the ocean instead of allowing the planes to turn early over the city to get to their destinations to the east, Assistant City Manager Christa Johnson said Wednesday. At the citys urging, Johnson said, the FAA already decreased the percentage of planes turning early over Laguna Beach from 55% of flights in 2014 to 11% of flights in 2017. The settlement agreement should continue that improvement trend, as the planes will only be allowed to deviate from the departure path in certain circumstances such as for safety and weather, she added. The FAA also agreed to provide quarterly reports to the city documenting the percentage of flights that complete the departure path. The reports will allow the city to monitor the FAAs performance in accord with the settlement, Johnson said. The City Council filed suit in 2016, challenging the FAAs plan to alter flight paths for planes leaving John Wayne Airport. The FAA has said the alterations, which are part of the agencys Southern California Metroplex project, would save fuel and reduce inefficiencies, carbon emissions and flight delays. However, Laguna Beach alleged in the lawsuit that the agencys environmental assessment lacked enough information to conclude that the project wouldnt have significant negative effects on the city. In 2016, South Laguna residents claimed to see jets flying lower over their houses, though the FAA maintained that its procedures had not changed. Some residents also voiced concern that flight paths in the Metroplex project would be concentrated over certain areas, exacerbating aircraft noise. Newport Beach, which also filed a lawsuit against the FAA in 2016, announced a tentative settlement agreement earlier this month. Under that agreement, flight paths in Newport Beach would stay between the existing noise monitors on the ground and along Newport Bay. The FAA also would design and study a curved departure procedure intended to allow planes to follow the bends of Upper Newport Bay and avoid as many residential areas as possible. FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said Wednesday that the agency is not commenting about the settlements. Well let them speak for themselves, he said. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @HannahFryTCN Angelica Suarez will be the next president of Orange Coast College following approval of her contract by the Coast Community College District board of trustees on Wednesday, the college announced. Suarezs appointment follows the retirement of former OCC President Dennis Harkins, who was the third-longest-serving president in the seven-decade history of the Costa Mesa community college. Im really excited to be coming onboard and look forward to working alongside faculty, classified staff, administrators, students and community members so we can continue to build on the many successes of OCC and write the next chapter for this campus, Suarez said in an interview Thursday. She will take over July 1 for interim President Kevin Ballinger, who will return to his role as vice president of instruction. I was very pleased by the selection and appointment by the Coast District board of trustees, Ballinger said. Orange Coast College is already a leader among community colleges. Dr. Suarezs background and experience can only make OCC even better. Suarezs contract is for three years with an annual salary of $232,527. Angelica Suarez, the next president of Orange Coast College, appears Wednesday night at the Coast Community College District board meeting, where her contract was approved. (Courtesy of Orange Coast College) Suarez, whose education career spans more than 30 years, was selected following a national search that began in October. She currently is vice president of academic affairs for Southwestern College in Chula Vista. She also has held several administrative and faculty positions at Southwestern College and at Wright College in Chicago. The district will reimburse $10,000 for her relocation expenses. Dr. Suarez is recognized as a collaborative and inspiring leader who is focused on creating equitable and accessible pathways to higher education for all students, district Chancellor John Weispfenning said in a statement. She brings a depth and breadth of experience in student services and academic affairs to lead OCC into the future. Lorraine Prinsky, president of the board of trustees, said in a statement that Suarez was chosen for her great passion and experience with community colleges. Suarez, a first-generation college student who immigrated from Mexico when she was 3, said she plans to engage with students and the campus community to see what really excites them. What are the things theyre especially proud of? I also want to make sure Im familiar with the existing projects, she said. Theres an incredible amount of building and transforming at that institution, and Im really excited about that and look forward to serving OCC. Recent and ongoing projects include a new planetarium, aquatic center and student housing complex. UPDATES: This article was originally published at 2:20 p.m. and was later updated with additional information and comments. It was by chance that Ezugo Ononye found himself on the Sage Hill School campus the same weekend as a womens empowerment summit in April last year. After finishing work on a project, he happened upon GEMFest, a celebration of young women that encourages the pursuit of entrepreneurial interests, and noticed how much fun everyone was having there and the positive impact it had on students. He decided to join the Girls Empowerment Movement chapter on campus to try to make a difference for the young women in his community. He eventually turned his attention to his male peers. Ezugo, a Sage Hill junior, continues to serve on the Newport Coast private high schools GEM team in web development and as a financial co-manager. But he founded Boys Against Rape Culture in November to take on a larger conversation about rape culture and the male role in it. The term rape culture emerged in the 1970s amid the second wave of feminism and is loosely defined as an atmosphere in which dominant societal ideologies trivialize or dismiss violence against women or blame them for it. A lot of people dont look to men as allies to the [feminist] cause, Ezugo said. It shouldnt be unusual to have a guy talk about problems that were perpetuating in our society. So, I felt that by starting BARC and working with GEM, I can show there a lot of male allies to the feminist cause. He said the club is a space for male students to talk about topics that normally would be considered taboo. He knows the conversation can be uncomfortable, but thats necessary, he said. Meetings typically feature experts invited from UC Irvine and elsewhere in the community to speak to groups of about 10 to 15 students about rape culture. Previous topics of the meetings, which occur every two months, focused on sexual harassment in the workplace and at school and on consent and healthy relationships. Members of Sage Hill Schools GEM club work for womens empowerment. Ezugo Ononye, top right, is a member of GEM and founder of Boys Against Rape Culture. (Courtesy of Ezugo Ononye) The Institute for Womens Policy Research reported in late 2018 that a quarter to as many as eight of every 10 women experience workplace sexual harassment. The National Womens Law Center stated on its website that nearly one in five undergraduate women experience sexual violence or attempted assaults in college and that about 31% of females ages 14 to 18 are victims of sexual violence or assault. Feminist movements such as #MeToo and the Womens March have gained traction in recent years. I think men should be very involved with conversations about rape culture, Ezugo said. I dont think they should overpower women and take away from their stories, but I feel that men should have conversations and talk about these situations and give their view on them. Leslie Frankel, a Sage Hill junior and member of BARC, agreed. It is not only women who should be promoting their fellow women, she wrote in an email. If men help women in their path to womens rights, it is a larger support group that is advocating for action. She said she feels safer on and off campus because of BARC, knowing there are males on campus who support the safety of their female peers. She added that the organization has empowered her to speak on behalf of her friends who might not have the courage to do so themselves. For BARC member Zachary Decker, also a junior at Sage Hill, the club was an entry to a deeper understanding of womens struggles. Since joining, he said, he has come to face and understand the movement and his place in helping the cause. A large part of the problem with the rape culture today is the stigma around bringing it up to talk about, Zachary said. I think it was great of [Ezugo] to take the first step in starting the conversation, and Im sure it will inspire others to do the same. Ezugo said he has no plans to try to install chapters of Boys Against Rape Culture at other local campuses but that its a possibility. He said the club and GEM are considering a collaborative event where students could talk about the feminist movement. I feel that men are largely one of the causes of perpetuating rape culture and that the media covers the men that [cause harm], not the men that are helping, Ezugo said. I wanted our Sage Hill community to be highlighted as helping with the #MeToo movement and feminism altogether. Jackson Hinkle grew up in the shadow of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. For years hes surfed the waves at the foot of the beachfront facility, not far from 3.55 million pounds of lethal radioactive material, the progeny of the now-defunct plant. As a child, he heard parents speak in hushed tones about spills, radiation sickness and evacuation plans. I didnt really understand what it all meant, said Hinkle, 18, of San Clemente. But when I started getting older, learning about nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima in class had an effect on me. I was learning these things just a few miles from the San Onofre plant, and I began to worry that something similar could happen to us. Atypical for his age, Hinkle found a way to channel his fear into something positive. This week, the recent San Clemente High School graduate traveled to Washington, D.C., to speak at a congressional briefing on decommissioning nuclear power plants. He also met with congressional members to discuss safe nuclear storage as a representative of activist group San Clemente Green. Jackson Hinkle met with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders this week as part of a trip to Washington, D.C., to speak with congressional members about the nuclear waste crisis. (Courtesy of Jackson Hinkle) Hinkle joined the group about a year ago after meeting its founder, Gary Headrick, at a rally Hinkle organized protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Headrick was immediately impressed with the young firebrand, whose comportment at the gathering seemed of somebody much older. Hes the kind of guy that gives you hope about the future, Headrick said. Its hard to find young people who take these things seriously, but Jackson is fearless and well-informed. Hinkles interest in nuclear safety stemmed from his environmentalism. He started the Team Zissou Environmental Organization during his sophomore year at San Clemente High School The clubs name was influenced by the Wes Anderson movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. We got hundreds of students together and got to work on a number of relevant issues in the city, targeting things like plastic pollution and doing beach cleanups, Hinkle said. Last year, the group partnered with actor Jaden Smith on a movement to end the use of plastic water bottles in the Capistrano Unified School District. Hinkle said the club now has seven chapters nationwide. Jackson Hinkle attends a rally against nuclear waste storage at the San Onofre power plant. (Courtesy of Jackson Hinkle) San Clemente Green was started in 2007 to create a sustainability plan for the city , but has become a local force on the San Onofre power plant issue. The activist group has joined a chorus heralding the demise of the domestic nuclear power industry. San Onofre closed a year after a small amount of radiation leaked in 2012. Owner Southern California Edison decided to begin decommissioning the facility so the U.S. Navy could take back the property. Many nuclear power plants in the country have or are on the verge of closing and no new plants have been built in three decades. While San Onofre is now a mere carcass, its insides seethe with spent nuclear fuel, which Hinkle and Headrick contend isnt being safely stored. SCE disputes this on its website, saying its protocols are indeed safe. About one-third of the fuel is sitting in dry cask storage airtight containers reinforced by concrete. The remaining is in wet storage, in which the fuel is kept cool in a metal rack immersed in a pool of water. Edison is in the process of transferring all spent fuel to dry cask storage. The process is expected to be completed by mid-2019. The tide rushes in as dusk falls on the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Facility. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Headrick and Hinkle argued that the 5/8-inch thick canisters in which that the spent fuel is being stored are inadequate and prone to cracking. They also contend the location of the canisters, just over 100 feet from the shoreline, is hazardous, due to potential sea-rise risks. A 28-foot seawall stands between the plant and ocean. Edison spokeswoman Maureen Brown said the canisters have a proven safety track record of more than three decades and the system will safely store nuclear fuel until it can be relocated to an offsite location. She also said the California Coastal Commission evaluated potential shoreline hazards in 2015 when it approved the storing of nuclear waste at the site, adding that the canisters have been tested and can withstand water submergence if it happens. Edison officials have said in previous interviews with the Los Angeles Times that the dry cask storage is capable of withstanding tornadoes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters. That hasnt persuaded Hinkle, whose action against the nuclear plant has led him to seek a seat on the San Clemente City Council in the upcoming election. While environmentalism will remain an important part of his political goals, Hinkle also hopes to work toward alleviating homelessness through affordable housing and support services. My environmental work is what initially got me interested, but since I have started really digging into politics since my junior year, I have really discovered all these other issues that I care about, Hinkle said. Hinkle recently formed a coalition with young local candidates called Orange County Students for City Council. They are trying to bring a progressive messages to various cities throughout the county. While campaigning, Hinkle plans to attend Saddleback College. 3:27 p.m. Thursday: Updated with comments from Edison spokeswoman Maureen Brown. benjamin.brazil@latimes.com Twitter:@benbrazilpilot Not every theater production begins with a field trip to the far reaches of Alaska. For the director and four cast members of They Dont Talk Back, a play by Frank Henry Kaash Katasse, a journey to a remote Tlingit fishing village somehow seemed essential. The play is the newest production from the Native Voices series at the Autry National Center, which has hosted the Native American theater program since 1999. The programs goal of cultural immersion led to a five-hour ferry ride outside of Juno to a village of 200 people, said Randy Reinholz, who leads the series and is directing the play. NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in the 818 >> By the time They Dont Talk Back opens March 2 at the Autrys Wells Fargo Theatre, all the cultural details will be as accurate as possible. We worked with language experts, he added. There is Tlingit language, Tlingit dancing, theres Tlingit songs, theres a pantomime based on traditional performance and aspects of Tlingit culture. Reinholz compared the plays central story to the traditional City Mouse and Country Mouse, where a city cousin returns to the family village with all his trappings and attitude against the backdrop of grandparents raising their grandchildren. All is not well, with parents suffering from substance abuse, and a military veteran father who is still shaken with PTSD from his tour of duty in the first U.S. war in Iraq. The grandsons there and its as simple as him learning what love is, what a family is, he explained. Its a very tough environment the geography of a small fishing village. Randy Reinholz is the director of They Dont Talk Back and co-founder of the Native Voices theater series. (Courtesy of the Autry National Center) Reinholz, a descendant of the Choctaw tribe, co-founded the Native Voices program with his wife Jean Bruce Scott in 1993, while teaching at Illinois State University. After a career working in theater and television, it was his first work with Native American theater. I realized the reason I havent been involved is there really isnt much going on, he said. That led to: why not? And you see if you can make a difference. The program was created to develop and produce new works for the stage by Native American, Alaska Native and First Nations playwrights, according to the Autry. For the Native American writers who have developed their work through the program, having a production of their play in Los Angeles with professional actors and stage production can be an important boost. Like anything, its a step in a career, said Reinholz. I think it can be empowering to have a greater audience see their work and interpret it back to them. Our audiences are very vocal. Its great to hear the feedback and see people engaged at that level. Audiences who have been drawn to the program are about 35 percent Native American, Reinholz estimated. The rest represents a wide range of backgrounds and interests. A friend put it well: Hey, the audience looks like Los Angeles! said Reinholz, who notes that the Los Angeles area is known to have the largest urban population of Native Americans anywhere about 200,000. The new play is also the first production Reinholz has personally directed since 2009. His increasing duties as an administrator at San Diego State has meant less time to devote to directing. So this has been a real treat, Reinholz said of working on Katasses play. This particular production has great moving images and a really sophisticated soundscape. Its exciting to direct and work with a writer and get his vision of what it should be. -- What: Native Voices at the Autry Presents: They Dont Talk Back Where: Wells Fargo Theatre, Autry National Center, 4700 Western Heritage Way; in Griffith Park. When: Preview performances March 2 and 3, 8 p.m.; regular performances March 4 to 20, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; also Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. More info: (323) 495.4252; theautry.org -- Steve Appleford, steve.appleford@latimes.com Twitter: @SteveAppleford Anna Hakobyan, wife of Nikol Pashinyan, Armenias prime minister, recently joined some 600 dignitaries and community members recently to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Consulate General of Armenia in Los Angeles. Hakobyan shared some of her experiences and improvements in the country after last springs so-called velvet revolution, when her husband rose to lead the country as its prime minister. [California] provides you all with a safe haven with limitless opportunities to live in and create. This consulate general has become a small but solid bridge, linking the homeland with our thriving diasporan community, she said, referring to the dispersion of people from their original homeland. In its 25 years of operation, the consulate has enforced deeper relations between California and Armenia, becoming the core foundation of economic, cultural and diplomatic exchange between the two, according to consulate officials. Furthermore, Hakobyan said she had high hopes that in the coming months and years, the consulate will serve as a useful tool to deepen connections between what she calls one of [Armenias] most important diplomatic missions and the country itself. Hakobyan said she appreciated the work of Armen Baibourtian, Armenias consul general in Los Angeles, for his truthful spirit and dedication to his title. Having witnessed the formation of the consulate in 1994 as the first appointed consul general of Armenia in Los Angeles, Baibourtian said he recognized the communitys tremendous backing in recent months, as it became known that he was returning to the post, some 21 years later. When there is such a wonderful reaction from the Armenian community as well as the American public, difficulties take a secondary role, the consul said. [The consulate] has taken on a crucial mission bridging California with Armenia. Both Hakobyan and Baibourtian continued to praise the Armenian community of Los Angeles for showing their unconditional support before, during and after the days of the revolution during which not a shot was fired. This support was crucial, as it confirmed our belief that we were not alone in our struggle for the future of our children and for the creation of a new Armenia, Hakobyan said. It brought me joy to discover that the scope of the consulate generals activities has greatly expanded since the recent changes [in the country]. Baibourtian confirmed that since the revolution, interest among residents to return to Armenia for permanent residency has increased, claiming that within the last year, the number of Armenian American applicants petitioning for citizenship in Armenia has doubled. I am happy to say that the revolution is already bearing fruit, Hakobyan added. During this visit, Ive had encounters with individuals with stories of either visiting Armenia for the first time or moving to live in Armenia. As the evening progressed, Hakobyan talked about the projects and initiatives that she has been actively promoting. As chairperson of the City of Smiles charitable foundation, the prime ministers wife said she is on a mission to raise funds to provide cancer medication and supplies to children in Armenia. [Hakobyans] political conduct, speech, activity, programs and ways of achieving them are much welcomed by the community, said Gohar Veziryan, editor-in-chief of newsbook.am. Anna is brave, bold and naturally sentimental. Hakobyans positive character went to higher extents, as she began to talk about her initiative to a healthy resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Her Women for Peace initiative encourages women of power to hold conversations about the conflict in hopes of reaching a common ground. She said she thinks that a peaceful approach should be implemented between Azerbaijan and Armenia in order to stop killing soldiers on [both] borders. As it neared to the end of Hakobyans visit, she called upon all community members to take their step by becoming actively involved in the developing stages of the New Armenia. We in Armenia are filled with joy and pride every time we are reminded of how conscious you are of the needs of the homeland, she said. I implore you to continue to love and dote over this small patch of your native soil. Sahakyan is a Glendale Community College student and a contributor to Times Community News. mark.kellam@latimes.com Twitter: @LAMarkKellam La Canada Flintridge City Council members on Tuesday approved spending $30,000 to hire a consultant to gauge public interest in increasing the citys sales tax from 9.5% to 10.25% by placing a measure before voters in an upcoming election. The move which could generate an additional $2.5 million annually is being considered as a way to preempt anticipated sales tax increases proposed by the county and South Coast Air Quality Management District that could push the citys tax rate to its state-mandated 10.25% cap. In a special meeting Tuesday afternoon, City Manager Mark Alexander explained a local increase of .75% would allow collected funds to be used on city projects, instead of their being diverted to county or regional efforts. We do believe other agencies will take advantage of that .75% delta, so the question is does the city of La Canada Flintridge want to take advantage of that opportunity first in order to ensure those funds that would be assessed otherwise would remain local? Alexander posed. The nearby cities of Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena recently passed similar increases in an attempt to keep their sales tax dollars local. From La Canadas current 9.5% sales tax, about 1% is returned to the city. READ MORE: LCF City Council to discuss ballot measure to raise local sales tax to 10.25% A $30,000 contract would allow Los Angeles-based research firm FM3 to conduct a communitywide survey that would collect feedback from residents and business owners on the potential hike and when such a measure might go before voters. A local sales tax measure placed on a November 2019 special election ballot, at the cost of $173,000, would require adoption of an ordinance by two-thirds of the City Council and passage by two-thirds of voters. Funds raised would be restricted and their uses specified to voters in the measure. Waiting for the March 2020 general municipal election would mean the measure could be passed by a simple majority and would allow the city to apply sales tax money to its general fund but could put La Canada in direct competition with other sales tax proposals. In that case, Alexander said, its unclear what the outcome would be if both were to pass. An ad hoc committee comprised of Alexander, Council members Terry Walker and Mike Davitt, City Treasurer Jeff Wang and Finance Director Rebekka Hosken determined funds generated by a boost in the local sales tax might be best allocated toward public-safety enhancements and street repairs. As a council, were doing our due diligence to educate the citizens about this possible opportunity and hear what their input is, said Councilwoman Terry Walker. To do nothing, to us, felt like we werent educating the public properly on the situation. In an interview earlier this week, La Canada resident and owner of Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse Peter Wannier said while he understand the citys position and trusts the councils judgment, increasing an already high sales tax could have a negative impact on his business. Every time it goes up, its a little harder to do business we become less competitive, make fewer sales and have higher costs, Wannier said. The more California charges people for walking down the local street and visiting your store, the less likely people are to do that. Midyear budget review Midway into Fiscal Year 2018-19, city officials have discovered revenues are higher and expenditures lower than projections made when the budget was passed last summer, giving the city an additional $349,275 to spend on projects and programs. Finance Director Rebekka Hosken told City Council members in a special meeting Tuesday general fund revenues may be adjusted upward by $108,025, while expenditures will decrease by $241,250. Considering where to apply the funds, the council decided to dedicate $30,000 toward the FM3 sales tax survey. Additional allocations include: $3,000 for City Council Wi-Fi hot spots; $225,000 for additional L.A. County Building and Safety services; $48,850 to improve the west-facing facade of the new City Hall for use by future tenants; $5,175 on holiday lights for the chambers Festival in Lights; and $24,500 to search for a new city attorney. sara.cardine@latimes.com Twitter: @SaraCardine In an unprecedented step of cooperation, the three major groups that control horse racing and most of the major independent tracks announced an initiative that would eliminate the use of race-day Lasix for 2-year-olds and a year later extend to all horses in stakes races, including the three Triple Crown races. The Stronach Group, Churchill Downs Inc. and New York Racing Assn. Inc, which are normally at odds with one another over revenue from their advance deposit wagering companies, came together along with other tracks including Del Mar and Los Alamitos thoroughbreds to toughen Lasix standards. But the rules are still short of what the Stronach Group has implemented at Santa Anita, Golden Gate Fields and, in the future, its tracks in Florida and Maryland. Under the agreement, 2-year-olds will be prohibited from being treated with Furosemide (Lasix) within 24 hours of racing. In 2021, the ban will extend to all stakes races at any of the participating tracks regardless of the horses age. It means in two years, that the Triple Crown races, at Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont Park, will not allow race-day Lasix for the 3-year-olds. However, once those 2-year-olds become 3-year-olds, they will be allowed to run with Lasix in nonstakes races. Advertisement Lasix is primarily used to treat exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, which occurs when horses bleed from the lungs when running. More than 95% of all horses in the United States run with Lasix on race day. Santa Anitas current rules have lowered race-day Lasix from 10cc to 5cc. Next year, it will be prohibited for 2-year-olds and that rule will carry forward as the horses get older. I believe its the first time in more than 20 years, maybe since the foundation and formation of the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., that owners, breeders, trainers and race tracks from across the country have joined together to move forward, said Rick Baedeker, executive director of the California Horse Racing Board. Everybody probably categorizes this as an important first step in continuing to work together. The industry has been under attack from animal rights groups after the death of 23 horses at Santa Anita since Dec. 26. At Thursdays meeting of the racing board at Santa Anita, a 90-minute public comment period was dominated by animal rights advocates calling for the closure of Santa Anita. Board members, especially Madeline Auerbach, vice chairman, bristled when animal-rights advocates brought up the idea that racehorses were sent to slaughter after their careers were over. Auerbach challenged the first few speakers saying its just not true and pointing out that California has regulations against the slaughter of horses. Auerbach, a longtime owner, is a leading voice in the aftercare of racehorses. A meeting was originally scheduled for last Friday to discuss the moving of dates at Santa Anita in light of the horse deaths. However, it was cancelled and an agenda item was included in Thursdays meeting. The idea of Santa Anita giving up its dates was dispensed with in 1 minute 15 seconds without discussion. My view is that racing since Santa Anita has reopened, it has been really good, Chuck Winner, chairman, said. There have been no accidents. Personally, I see no reason to move the race dates. Actually, Santa Anita did have a death on March 31 when Arms Runner broke his leg on the downhill turf course, which has since been closed since for sprints. Since that death, 502 horses have started without a fatality. There have been 4,195 horses with timed workouts during training since March 14 without a death. Of the 23 deaths, 10 have come in training, seven on the main dirt course during racing and six during turf racing. At the racing board meeting, Baedeker said that the board has four full-time investigators looking at the deaths at Santa Anita. He said all but one of the necropsies have been completed and that more than 70 subpoenas for documents have been issued. He said the racing board is working with the L.A. district attorneys office in its investigation. Sign up for our horse racing newsletter Cooperation has been very good from all responding parties, Baedeker said. As you can guess this is very detailed, very thorough, very complicated process. Investigations take time but I can assure the board, and all interested parties, that it remains the highest priority of the CHRB. The initiative announced Thursday is less stringent than what was announced and approved by Belinda Stronach, president and chief executive of the Stronach Group, in an open letter to fans a couple of weeks ago. Her proposals include greater medication restrictions including the eventual phasing out of race-day Lasix in all races, not just stakes. Asked if she was disappointed that the initiative was not stronger, Stronach defended the collective action. Quite the opposite, Im encouraged by this industry-led movement to address serious issues within our sport, Stronach told the Los Angeles Times. This is a landmark reform that will go a long way towards further protecting the horses that are the lifeblood of our sport. As a strong advocate for the more aggressive medication-based reforms enacted just [Thursday] by the California Horse Racing Board, we will continue to work with our industry partners, elected leaders, regulators and anyone else on additional measures that will add safeguards around racing and training. Other national tracks that have joined the coalition include Keeneland (Ky.), Lone Star Park (Texas), Remington Park (Okla.), Oaklawn Park (Ark.) and Tampa Bay Downs (Fla.). The tracks are said to represent 86% of all the stakes races. More than 20 years ago, a man hurled acid into Madhu Kashyaps face. It melted the skin on her cheeks and forehead and partially blinded her in one eye. For years she would not show her scarred face in public. People stared. She was once told that she looked OK from behind but that from the front, she was a witch. But on a recent morning, her lips glistened with ruby lipstick. She gathered her curly black hair to one side so the details of her face were more visible. And she smiled. Kashyap, 39, was at work at Sheroes Hangout, a cafe in this tourist city that is staffed by survivors of acid attacks. More than 300 attacks are reported each year in India, though human rights groups say the count probably exceeds 1,000. The perpetrators are often men who want to punish women for ending a relationship or spurning unwanted advances. Most attackers aim, experts say, is not to kill, but to maim and embarrass. The cafe in Agra offers a place for these women to earn money and find acceptance. At Sheroes, survivors dont cover their faces. They comfortably discuss the scariest moments of their lives and chat with customers from around the world. They wear makeup to accentuate their features. They laugh. The vibrant murals covering the cafes walls belie the dark stories that brought these women here. Rage flashes in Kashyaps eyes as she recalls her attack. In 1997, she was living in Agra and engaged to be married. One day she saw a man whose marriage proposal she had turned down. He was walking toward her, holding a Coke can. It was filled with acid. Acid can severely burn flesh in just 30 seconds, destroying eyelids, ears and noses. Kashyap has since had several operations to reconstruct her face. Still, she dreaded leaving the house and struggled to find an employer who would hire her. She was once told during an interview for a secretarial job that she was too ugly to work at the front desk. Then in 2016, Kashyap came to work at Sheroes as a waitress. She no longer hides her scars, she said, as a crowd of tourists entered and took in the staffs visages. She feels empowered, she said. Plus, she has become the sole earner supporting her husband her fiance stood by her after the attack and their three children. Sheroes Hangout launched in 2014, the brainchild of an activist group fighting for harsher punishments for attackers and more regulations on the sale of acid. To come forward and say, Actually Im going to carry on living my life thats pretty inspiring. Jaf Shah Under Indian law, perpetrators of acid attacks face a minimum of 10 years in prison. But many attackers arent caught, and women regularly see them, walking free. One cafe waitress attacker showed up at her wedding. The crimes arent always reported, and when they are, police sometimes dont follow up, said Alok Dixit, a former journalist who helped start the group Stop Acid Attacks. When perpetrators are caught, the legal system moves slowly; cases can take 15 years to go to trial, said Dixit, who became involved after a girl from his hometown survived an attack. As the group got to know more and more survivors, Dixit said, it became clear that the women faced long-term economic and psychological hardships. So the group focused on a project to ease their burdens. It raised more than $10,000 online and the cafe was born. Providing steady employment to women can elevate their low status in society, which Dixit said he believes is the root cause of acid attacks. Sometimes wives separate from their husbands for attacking them, but that can also mean leaving their only source of income. Nine survivors work at the cafe in Agra. Another dozen work at a second location in Lucknow, about 180 miles east. Sheroes Hangout is a cafe staffed by acid attack survivors in Agra, India. It was launched in 2014, the brainchild of an activist group fighting for harsher punishments for attackers and more regulations on the sale of acid. Soumya Karlamangla / Los Angeles Times Dixit, who oversees both cafes, said he never asked the women stop to covering their faces. After spending some time at the cafe, each woman appeared to have decided that on her own, as though she had been seeking a chance to show off her resilience. We dont convince anyone to do that, he said. Most of the time, theyre waiting for this. Sheroes Hangout sits in the shadow of the Taj Mahal and attracts a steady stream of foreign tourists. On this morning, a large group of European travelers watched a video on acid attacks on a wall-mounted TV before ordering their snacks. One woman dabbed her eyes throughout. In the video, one young woman told of how her boss at a garment factory threw acid on her after she rebuffed his advances. Another, who said her husband poured acid on her and her daughter, described the burning sensation and shock that followed. The video ended with the statement, We are not victims, we are survivors. Steven Sigillito caught glimpses of the video from his table, under which he had tucked his red backpack. The cafes bright colors, including the blue and yellow Sheroes sign above the door, had drawn in the 18-year-old Coloradan. It looked, he said, like the kind of place he would like. It turned out to be way more than that, he said. Sheroes Hangout, marked by the blue sign, center, is two miles from the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. A second cafe operates in Lucknow, about 180 miles to the east. Soumya Karlamangla / Los Angeles Times When the cafe opened its doors, none of the staff knew how to run a restaurant, Dixit said. So they opted for a pay-as-you-wish model, so customers wouldnt have to pay if the staff made errors. Two years later, the cafe began earning enough money to sustain itself, so it is sticking to not having fixed prices, he said. On this morning, Rukaiya Khatoon rushed between the kitchen and tables, serving customers chai and vegetable pakoras. When she was 14, the brother of her older sisters husband asked her to marry him. Her refusal was met with acid. If I cant have you, no one can, he told her. India has one of the highest rates of acid attacks, along with neighboring Bangladesh and Pakistan. Though some victims are men, the vast majority of those attacked are women. That makes the pride on display at Sheroes particularly powerful, said Jaf Shah, executive director of the London-based nonprofit Acid Survivors Trust International. If women that have been attacked by acid are banished behind a curtain and dont come forward, then I think thats part of what the perpetrator wants to achieve, Shah said. To come forward and say, Actually Im going to carry on living my life thats pretty inspiring. Khatoon, who tends to wear a sly smile, has told her story so many times that she jokes around even while recounting it in the cafe. Her anger has settled deep within her. She filed a police complaint after the attack, but her sisters family pushed for the case to be closed. Nothing happened to the perpetrator. She launched another complaint last year, because she wants him to be punished, she said, her voice growing louder. Still, Sheroes has made her feel strong, she said. Behind the story: Learning the tales and triumphs of acid attack survivors For years after the attack, Khatoon covered her face with a scarf. She stopped when she met a survivor at a wedding. The woman, who didnt cover her face, told her about the cafe. Now 33, Khatoon smiles at customers and drops menus off at their tables. She wears a T-shirt and jeans. She said she never dons a chunni, a scarf that Indian women traditionally wear around their head or shoulders. A few years after she was attacked, Khatoon got married. Now in the cafe, she flicked her cellphone screen until she started grinning, landing on a picture of her 7-year-old son. His big, dark eyes gleamed from underneath a Santa hat. The first recorded acid attacks in the world were in the late 1700s in the United Kingdom, when the country began manufacturing acid to treat metals during the Industrial Revolution, according to Shah. Even today, acid attacks are more common in places where the potent chemicals hydrochloric, nitric and sulfuric acid are easily available, such as near factories, he said. In India, where acid is used as a cleaning agent and is available in stores, officials passed a law in 2013 requiring that stores stocking acid register with their state and that customers show identification before buying acid. But studies have found that the law is not being enforced. Passing of the law becomes almost ineffective, meaningless, if there isnt sufficient enforcement, Shah said. You have to invest money, resources, training, equipment to minimize acid attacks occurring, and thats not occurring. Worldwide, there are probably 10,000 attacks annually, according to Shah, with numbers dramatically increasing in recent years in the U.K., where acid is used as a weapon in gang violence. He said there are acid attacks in the United States as well, but the rates remain lower, perhaps because of the easy availability of other weapons, including guns. The manager of Sheroes Hangout is Rupa Saa, another acid attack survivor. In 2008, when Saa was just 15, her stepmother poured acid on her face while she was sleeping. The older woman went to jail for two years. But when she was released, Saas father did not separate from her. Saa, now 26, moved in with her aunt and uncle. She took up sewing and now sells handmade clothes at the cafe. She no longer speaks to her father. She wanted no association with him so she dropped his surname. Her last name now represents her true community, she said. Saa is an acronym for Stop Acid Attacks. Paris police investigators think an electrical short circuit most likely caused the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, a police official said Thursday as France paid a daylong tribute to the firefighters who saved the world-renowned landmark. A French judicial police official said investigators made an initial assessment of the cathedral Wednesday but havent begun to search its charred interior because of unresolved safety hazards. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, said the cathedrals fragile walls were being shored up with wooden planks. Earlier in the afternoon, French President Emmanuel Macron presided over a ceremony at the Elysee Palace to thank the hundreds of firefighters who battled the fast-moving blaze for nine hours starting Monday evening. Authorities have said Notre Dame, which dates from the 12th century, was in danger of being completely consumed before fire crews stopped the blaze from spreading into a belfry. Advertisement Firefighters also rescued many of the important relics and works of art in the cathedral. Weve seen before our eyes the right things perfectly organized in a few moments, with responsibility, courage, solidarity and a meticulous organization, Macron said. The worst has been avoided. Macron said the firefighters will receive an Honor Medal for their courage and devotion. As the ceremony took place, investigators continued looking for clues to what sparked the fire. The huge cathedral, including the spire that was consumed by flames and collapsed, was in the initial stages of a lengthy restoration. Investigators so far believe the fire was accidental and are questioning cathedral staff and employees working on the renovation. About 40 people had been questioned by Thursday, according the Paris prosecutors office. Fire officials warned that the building remains unstable and extremely dangerous, including for the construction workers who rushed to secure an area above one of the rose-shaped windows and other vulnerable sections of the fire-damaged structure. Workers using a crane were removing some statues to lessen the weight on the cathedrals fragile gables, or support walls, and reduce the risk of their falling, because the section now lacks the support of the massive timber roof that burned. Police, citing important risks of collapse and falling objects, officially closed Thursday a large swath of the island in the Seine River on which Notre Dame sits. The area had been unofficially blocked off since the fire. Paris City Hall also was holding a ceremony in the firefighters honor Monday afternoon, with a Bach violin concert, two giant banners strung from the monumental city headquarters and readings from Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Remarkably, no one was killed in the fire, which began during a Mass, after firefighters and church officials speedily evacuated those inside. Among the firefighters honored Thursday was Paris fire brigade chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who says he was falsely credited with helping salvage the crown of thorns believed by some to have been worn by Jesus at his crucifixion. The chaplain said a team of rescuers broke the relics protective covering and an official who had the secret code to unlock the protection finished the job. Fournier told France Info on Thursday that his own team arrived on the heels of the salvaging and praised the action to preserve this extraordinary relic, this patrimony of humanity. However, Fournier told the daily Le Parisian that he himself was able to save the most precious thing for Catholics from the fire: the cathedrals consecrated hosts. The paper said he climbed on altars to remove large paintings, but that he felt especially proud of another personal salvaging operation: to have removed Jesus from the cathedral. For Catholics, consecrated hosts are the body of Christ. Among others honored was Myriam Chudzinski, one of the first firefighters to reach the roof as the blaze raged. Loaded with gear, she and her colleagues climbed hundreds of steps up the cathedrals narrow spiral staircase to the top of one of the two towers. She had trained at the site for hours for just this moment. We knew that the roof was burning, but we didnt really know the intensity, she told reporters. It was from upstairs that you understood that it was really dramatic. It was very hot and we had to retreat, retreat. It was spreading quickly. The building would have burned to the ground in a chain-reaction collapse had firefighters not moved as rapidly as they did to battle the blaze racing through the building, Jose Vaz de Matos, a fire expert with Frances Culture Ministry, said Wednesday. An initial fire alert was sounded at 6:20 p.m., as a Mass was underway in the cathedral, but no fire was found. A second alarm went off at 6:43 p.m., and the blaze was discovered already consuming the roof. Macron wants to rebuild the cathedral within five years in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics that Paris is hosting but experts say the vast scale of the work to be done could easily take 15 years, because it will take months, even years, just to figure out what should be done. Nearly $1 billion has been pledged for the cathedrals restoration. Benedicte Contamin, who came to view the damaged cathedral from afar Thursday, said shes sad but grateful its still there. Its a chance for France to bounce back, a chance to realize what unites us, because we have been too much divided over the past years, she said. In the shadows of Bangkoks glinting high-rises, the plazas of sprawling shopping malls and the cozy courtyards of simpler neighborhoods sit countless tiny monuments to Thais enduring belief in the supernatural. These miniature shrines, perched on pedestals and topped with sloping roofs, are known as spirit houses. Government buildings have them. So do five-star hotels, apartment buildings, offices, cafes and beauty parlors across Thailands frenetic capital city. Resembling elaborate dollhouses, they shelter the spirits that are thought to watch over that piece of land a deity, guardian of the soil or the ghosts of former inhabitants. More than 90% of Thais practice Buddhism, but the spiritual life of the nation is a rowdy mixture of organized religion and the occult. Astrology, ghosts, Hindu gods, Chinese mythology, magic, superstition and ancient animist beliefs all find a place in modern Thailand and often side by side, their idols and emblems sharing space under sacred trees and in roadside shrines illuminated by candles and incense sticks. Advertisement Some spirit houses are intricate and stunning, carved out of rich teak that signals an owners wealth, and festooned with ribbons and garlands. More modest ones are fashioned from concrete but enlivened with bright paint reds, yellows and blues that fade gently over time in the moist tropical air. A spirit house topped with a prang, or spire, (left) common in Southeast Asian temple architecture and a simple concrete spirit house in a working-class Bangkok neighborhood. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times) Inside can be found figurines that personify residents ancestors, or statuettes of horses or elephants that symbolize good fortune. The faithful leave daily offerings of rice, bananas, glasses of water filled to the brim, booze and bottles of sugary soda with straws sticking out. The drink of choice for spirits, it is said, is strawberry Fanta, because the red color provides a substitute for animal sacrifices, an ancient sign of respect that has fallen out of favor in the modern city. The common belief is that good spirits, if sheltered and treated with care, will watch over the land and keep the bad spirits away. If the spirits live happily, we live happily as well, said Kanokporn Puwasawatt, sitting cross-legged on her weather-beaten porch in west Bangkok, where her family builds some of the only wooden spirit houses still being made in the capital. A genial 54-year-old dressed comfortably in a T-shirt and loose-fitting cotton trousers, Kanokporn lives and works in a simple, two-story house behind a sliding metal gate in a neighborhood of narrow, maze-like streets paved over with concrete. Before World War II, when her great-grandfather built the house, the surrounding area was farmland and most of the residents worked for a sawmill. Employees took home scraps of wood and in their spare time built spirit houses to supplement their income, a cottage industry of artisans who each specialized in a particular part of the house, Kanokporn said. Some built the sturdy pedestals that positioned the house at just the right height enough to mark respect, but not so high that devotees couldnt leave offerings. Others carved the tower-like spires, known as prangs, that adorned more ornate houses or the patterned, multi-tiered roofs that are layered atop one another like sheets of phyllo pastry. The sawmill closed during the war, and the craftspeoples children and grandchildren moved on to other professions. Bangkok boomed, and factories in other parts of Thailand began churning out spirit houses using younger, less sturdy wood, or cheaper concrete. Before, 30 houses in this neighborhood used to be involved in this craft, Kanokporn said. Now its only one. Read this 1985 Times story on Thailands Spirit of Superstition Her parents carried on the tradition, but her father, worried Kanokporn would become what we would today call a hipster, pushed her away from studying carving and into computer science. She was working as the manager of a computer company about 20 years ago when her father was stricken with cancer and died. Kanokporn visited a fortune-teller, who told her she had to take over the family business. I liked my job, she recalled. And I knew nothing about building spirit houses. But I knew I had to do this. A few years later, her husband died of an illness. Her mother was slowed by age. But the Thai government began to promote her business at cultural fairs, and she landed custom orders from top businesses, diplomats and Thais living overseas. Kanokporn Puwasawatt displays a spirit house built in her workshop in Bangkok, Thailand. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times) One day she received a call from the head of one of Thailands largest conglomerates, who relayed the story of an English friend who had just completed a diving expedition to a centuries-old shipwreck off Sattahip, on the gulf coast south of Bangkok. The Englishman said he had been visited in a dream by a ghost who instructed him to build a spirit house near that beach, inscribed with the names of the sailors who had died in the wreck. The tycoon had determined that the apparition was Prince Abhakara Kiartivongse, the 28th child of King Rama V, who ruled Thailand at the turn of the 20th century. The prince founded the modern Thai navy and acquired one of the kingdoms first naval vessels from England as well as designating royal land for a naval base in Sattahip, near the site of the shipwreck. I got goosebumps, Kanokporn recalled. The house she built still stands on the beach, one of her favorite creations. Two other favorite works sit next to each other behind an enclosure in a vast pedestrian plaza outside the MBK shopping center in central Bangkok: a large house standing on one leg and guarded by two elephant statues, and a slightly smaller house on four legs. On a recent afternoon, as shoppers milled about, worshipers stopped in front of each house to light an incense stick or leave food, bowing their heads in a brief prayer. The typical house takes Kanokporn a month to build and costs more than $1,000. As Thai families move into smaller residences, there is less space for spirit dwellings. Kanokporn feared that the family trade, which spans four generations, might not see a fifth. Her two children are seeking careers in tech. She has long searched for an apprentice who might take on the business. Kanokporns spirit house sits outside her home in west Bangkok. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times) In front of the house she shares with her 80-year-old mother and sitting on a thick pillar in the shade of an overgrown tree was the familys spirit house, made from teak, with a severe triangular roof. Inside was Phra Chai Mongkol, an angel-like figurine that resembles a Hindu deity and protector, holding a sword in one hand and a bag of money in the other. Thai spirit houses rest on pedestals and are typically adorned with garlands. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times) Outside, Kanokporn had placed a bundle of incense sticks and small statues of horses and elephants, each presented over the years to Phra Chai Mongkol when the family needed a bit of extra luck. I dont remember now what each of these animals represented, Kanokporn said with a smile and shrug. But the spirit has taken care of us. ALSO In China, tattoos border on illegal and theyre his lifes work Its like a professional game of tag, only with kicks and tackling, and India is riveted As Hong Kong grows, locals contend with a big, fat, hairy wildlife problem Troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) killed 39 Boko Haram terrorists, captured many equipment from them, while 20 soldiers were wounded. The spokesman of the task force, Col. Timothy Antigha, confirmed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, April 17. READ ALSO: President Buhari moves to dissolve cabinet, gives ministers deadline Antigha said the terrorists were killed when they attacked troops position at Cross Kaura on Tuesday. He said the wounded soldiers had been evacuated from the area of operation and now receiving adequate medical attention. Meanwhile, the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has preformed excellently in the area of addressing insecurity and ensuring the country is safer than it was in 2015. Mohammed made this known in Washington DC in an interview with Voice of America (VOA). READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda The information minister said that government has battled Boko Haram and secured the entire country from the insurgent group, adding that clashes in Benue have also been tackled. Mohammed also added that criminal activities in the country, especially in Zamfara and Kaduna states have been solved because of the collaborations between security agencies. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: We have upgraded to serve you better Obasanjo bombs Buhari again, says FG is empowering Boko Haram | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng - The Cameroon government is sending back 4,000 Nigerian refugees - The refugees in Cameroons far north region voluntarily opted to return home - In early April, Cameroon assisted 40,000 out of about 60,000 Nigerians who fled into Cameroon before the elections to return home Cameroon government, on Wednesday, April 17, said it has concluded arrangements with its Nigerian counterpart for the return of 4,000 Nigerian refugees to their country by April 29. According to the regions governor Midjiyawa Bakari, the refugees from Minawao camp, the only official refugee camp in Cameroons far north region, voluntarily opted to return home. Bakari said: We have agreed with the Nigerian government that 4,000 refugees from Adamawa state in Nigeria will be returned. They are the first ones to return but the process will continue after that. READ ALSO: FG to take another external loan of $247.3mn According to him, they will return by air, while Cameroon will provide the security from the refugee camp to the airport. We (Nigeria and Cameroon) are discussing how we will do with their children that have been going to school here and the property they have obtained here, he added. Officials said that the majority of the refugees at the camp were from Borno state in Nigeria except those from Adamawa asked to be taken home because there is calm and security there. In early April, Cameroon assisted 40,000 out of about 60,000 Nigerians who fled into Cameroon before Nigerias February elections to return home. According to the UN, Minawao camp hosts over 57,000 Nigerian refugees who fled from the atrocities of terror group Boko Haram. Meanwhile, recent media reports suggests twenty-three Nigerians are on the death row in Saudi Arabia and they may be behe*ed any time from now. READ ALSO: Complains galore as acute water shortage hits Katsina Eleven others are also said to be serving various jail terms for drug trafficking in the kingdom, while another suspected trafficker is awaiting trial. Already, a Nigerian woman, Kudirat Adeshola Afolabi was executed by the Saudi authorities about two weeks ago. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better BUSTED: Police CP seizes, burns N450m worth of hard drug| Legit TV Source: Legit A drunk man who would not move along is in prison facing serious charges after kicking an officer in the chest and threatening him, Bethlehem police said. Luis Ortiz, of the 600 block of West Allen Street in Allentown, was arrested Saturday and charged with aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, resisting arrest, public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. The 51-year-old Ortiz was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of 10 percent of $50,000 bail, where he remained as of Thursday, records show. Police said they were called Saturday afternoon for a parking complaint in the 1100 block of East Third Street in Bethlehem. Ortiz was intoxicated, yelling profanities and interfering with officers, according to police. After Ortiz refused to leave the area, he was told he was under arrest, police said. Ortiz allegedly refused to turn around and place his hands behind his back. Police said he twisted and flailed being handcuffed and placed into a patrol car. Ortiz allegedly kicked an officer in the chest, and reportedly threatened the officer by saying, Youre going to have a hunting accident. You better wear a vest. I am going to blow your (expletive) up. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Nurses and social workers at the Northampton County-owned nursing facility have reached a tentative contract agreement, according to a union representative. Gracedale nurses were on the verge of a strike authorization vote three weeks ago, according to United Steelworkers Local 2599 President Jerry Green. He represents the nurses union. Weeks of negotiations have led to a tentative pact, Green confirmed Thursday afternoon. The nurses committee of officers is scheduled to vote on the contract April 25, Green said. The three ladies on the committee have indicated theyre going to vote for it, Green said. After that, the contract must be approved by Northampton County Council. I am very pleased that we have a tentative agreement with our hard working RNs and social workers at Gracedale, said Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure. They do fantastic work. They deserve a raise. Im very happy they will be able to participate in the health care plan along with the rest of their fellow employees. The contract covers 50 employees at the county-owned facility in Upper Nazareth Township. Theyve been working without a contract since Dec. 31. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. Former Gov. Chris Christie told investigators that President Donald Trump asked him to act as an intermediary to then-FBI Director James Comey in the early days of the Russia investigation, according to Special Counsel Robert Muellers report. And later, Christie claimed, Trump asked the ex-New Jersey governor whether he should remove Mueller something Christie said he advised against. In fact, Trump repeatedly called on Christie, a longtime friend and ally and former federal prosecutor, for advice on how to handle the probe, according to a redacted version of the long-anticipated and heavily scrutinized report released to the public Thursday. Christie gave his recollections of the incidents during an interview with the special counsels office in February, the documents reveal. The U.S. Justice Department released a redacted version of the report Thursday morning following a press conference convened by U.S. Attorney General William Barr. The report found a sophisticated effort by the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election, but it did not find enough evidence to conclude Trump had colluded with Russian leaders. Muellers team made no determination whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey, but the report provides new details about the events surrounding the FBI directors ouster. It shows Trump repeatedly leaned on Christie for advice. In all, Christies name is mentioned 62 times in the 448-page Mueller report. One of the most notable moments details a Valentines Day lunch Trump had with Christie on Feb. 14, 2017 at the White House. The lunch the same one where Trump famously ordered meatloaf for Christie came shortly after Michael Flynn, the national security advisor, was forced to resign after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his meetings with Russian officials. Christie recalled that Trump, a fellow Republican, told him at one point during the lunch: "Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over, according to the report. Christie said he laughed and responded: No way." This Russia thing is far from over, the former New Jersey governor told the president, according to the report. Well be here on Valentines Day 2018 talking about this. Trump was confounded, the report said. What do you mean? the president asked. "Flynn met with the Russians. That was the problem. I fired Flynn. Its over. Christie, a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said he told Trump that based on his experience, firing Flynn would not end the investigation and that he should refrain from talking about the probe. Christie said there was no way to make an investigation shorter, but a lot of ways to make it longer," the report says. The former governor said he also told Trump he would never be able to get rid of Flynn, like gum on the bottom of your shoe. Toward the end of lunch, Christie said, Trump asked him if he still close with Comey, whom the ex-governor worked with during his time as U.S. attorney. Comey was in charge of the Russia investigation at the time. Christie said he was, and Trump told Christie to call Comey and tell him the president really like(s) him." Tell him hes part of the team, Trump said, according to the report. Christie said Trump repeated his request at the end of lunch. Christie said he had no intention of doing so and he thought the request was nonsensical," according to the report. The former governor also said he did not want to put Comey in the position of having to receive such a call, according to the report. Christie thought it would have been uncomfortable to pass on that message, the report says. Trump fired Comey three months later, in May 2017. In another notable passage in the report, Christie said Trump called him to complain he was getting killed" in the press for firing Comey and asked the ex-governor what he should do. Christie said he asked Trump if he fired Comey because of what Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote in a memo laying out why Comey should be terminated. Trump said, Yes. Christie said he told Trump to get Rod out there and have him defend the decision. Trump told Christie that was a good idea. In yet another key passage, Christie recalled receiving a telephone call from Trump, likely in June 2017, in which the president asked him what he thought about firing Mueller, according to the report. Christie advised against doing so because there was no substantive basis for the President to fire the Special Counsel, and because the president would lose support from Republicans in Congress if he did so, the report says. The conversation came not long after Trump told White House Counsel Don McGahn an Atlantic City native that Mueller has to go, according to the report. McGahn said he took that to believe Trump was instructing Mueller to be fired. McGahn said he refused to follow through and threatened to resign instead. He eventually stepped down in October 2018. Muellers report said firing the special counsel would have been an obstructive act." Christie did not immediately return a message from NJ Advance Media seeking comment Thursday. Trump heralded the report during comments at the White House. Its called no collusion, no obstruction, he said. This should never happen to another president again. This hoax, Trump added. WATCH: Trump reacts to the #MuellerReport: "This hoax" should "never happen to another president" https://t.co/8n7i1sBHVF pic.twitter.com/UKp2gkOBnu The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 18, 2019 NJ Advance Media staff writers Matt Arco and Ted Sherman contributed to this report. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Laos TD and Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan said his early departure from a meeting of Government in Dublin to attend last week's announcement in Portlaoise reflected the importance of the investment. This is an important day for Portlaoise and the midlands. The economic growth of our regions through the creation of sustainable jobs is a priority for Government and I am delighted to see this level of investment. The significant number of jobs being created is a very welcome boost to the economy of Portlaoise and I want to thank the IDA for all they did to secure them. Most of all, however, I want to congratulate Greenfield Global. I look forward to their success, and indeed growth, here in Portlaoise, he said. He said Portlaoise's location was key. In this case, Portlaoise's location was inviting to Greenfield due to our location, our infrastructure, and our commitment to ensure success. Portlaoise's location is perfect. It will give you the opportunity to access your customer base in Cork, Dublin and Limerick, said the TD. Minister Flanagan thanked and wished the company well on their venture in Laois. The company plans 75 jobs at a new plant in the IDA Business Park in Portlaoise. A Status Orange forest fire alert has been issued by the Department of Agriculture for the duration of the bank holiday weekend as temperatures are expected to soar. Forest, gorse and dried grasses in Laois and nationwide are now at risk of fire as temperatures sharply increase over the coming days, the Department of Agriculture has warned. Issuing a Status Orange forest fire alert this Thursday afternoon, the Department of Agriculture said that the warning came into effect on Thursday 12 noon, and will conclude on Tuesday 12 noon, as temperatures are expected to peak on Monday in some parts of the country. Around 180 hectares of forestry was burned in a massive gorse fire that burned for days in the Slieve Bloom Mountains last July after the dry, hot summer. Met Eireann has forecast temperatures of up to 23 degrees in parts of the country this weekend. WATCH: Birds eye view of Slieve Bloom fire from helicopter The Department of Agriculture has issued the following warning: Arising from Easterly High-Pressure conditions and forecast high temperatures, a High Fire Risk exists in all areas where hazardous fuels such as gorse, heather, dried grasses and other dead vegetation exist. In some areas, fire risk condition may be moderated temporarily by scattered light rain during the timeframe of this notice. The projected meteorological fire risk is likely to be further compounded by additional ignition risks arising from the forthcoming Easter Bank Holiday Weekend. Most recent fire incidents appear to have taken place on lands associated with turf cutting, but additional risks may also exist on areas commonly used for public recreation." The government department said the highest degree of vigilance is warranted by forest owners and managers during the long weekend. MORE: Laois man included in Easter weekend RTE Late Late Show line-up Portlaoise councillors have strongly opposed plans by Irelands state agency for roads to introduce a no right turn from Meelick onto the Abbeyleix Road in Portlaoise. Cllr Willie Aird said that he has 'huge reservations' about a no right turn junction for traffic coming from Meelick trying to turn onto the R445 Abbeyleix Road. Farhan Nasiem in Laois County Council's road section said Transport Infrastructure Ireland is considering this for a safety scheme and designs are in progress but no commitment has been given. This no right turn would drive traffic coming from Meelick up onto the motorway roundabout if they wanted to drive into Portlaoise. Cllr Aird said he will push for a roundabout to be installed at this junction instead. I would have huge reservations about a no right turn there because I am convinced without reasonable doubt that if we had a roundabout there everybody would get an opportunity to come out. I think residents in this area have to be respected and if you have no right-hand turn and you want to come into Portlaoise you are going to have to go up to the roundabout and come back down. There is a lot of traffic going in and out at Togher cutting silage and everything all the tractors have to go all the way to the roundabout around, back down and in. There is ample room there for a roundabout and I honestly believe that unless the TII come in here, convince us saying here are five reasons why you cant do that. I would like to meet the TII before they come along and their answer. There is a filling station after been granted in there as well thats going to create another volume of traffic. You are going to end up with a traffic jam if you have everyone turning left up at the roundabout, he said. Cllr John Joe Fennelly agreed. I use that junction a good bit. Cllr Aird is right, the only answer is a roundabout theres no point in putting a no right turn on it, its going to create more hassle when you go up to the main roundabout 100 %. The TII should be told it should be a roundabout, he said. Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald said TII needs to listen to people on the ground and she called for a meeting between councillors and the TII every few months in order to communicate concerns. WATCH Construction starts on new M7 Dublin Cork Limerick motorway filling station in Portlaoise Portlaoise councillors are hot on the canvass trail at the moment and all seven sitting representatives agreed on one topic they are getting it in the neck on doorsteps. The provision of broadband in rural Ireland has come up on many doorsteps on the canvass trail according to councillors. Cllr John Joe Fennelly tabled a notice of motion at the Portlaoise Municipal District meeting on Wednesday asking for an update on broadband services in Portlaoise. He called on the Municipal District to write to Minister Flanagan to address the National Broadband Plan. Cllr Fennelly said it is ridiculous and in Spink, Co Laois you cant even get a telephone reception on your mobile. We are getting it in the face out there on every door in the rural areas. The problem is the national plan is not being provided. We need this. The amount of people that could be working from home instead of travelling to Dublin or different parts of the country is incredible. I cant believe the response we are getting out there, he said. Cllr Mary Sweeney said it is a hot topic in rural towns and villages. Its not just getting it in the face but we are getting it in the neck in a big way about it particularly if you are part of the government party at the moment. Its so frustrating. It really is the hot topic in rural villages and rural towns because everybody has somebody in their family that doesnt want to have to commute to Dublin," she said. Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald said broadband is an essential part of life now and if the lads in Dublin could hear people on the doorsteps there would be action. It is essential nowadays its not like an add-on it's for people who want to work from home, it's for farming communities to run their business and students cant do their work if they haven't got broadband. There's so many parts of the Portlaoise rural area, not even a mile and a half out of the town and they haven't a hope of getting this broadband. If all those lads in Dublin were out canvassing the rural roads they would know how desperate they are for broadband, she said. Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley said it is frustrating for people when some houses on a road get connected but not others. I think the most frustrating thing when you are talking to people the broadband has been brought up just down the road and you are there asking why didnt they go the rest of the way with it doesn't make sense, she said. Angela McEvoy, Senior Planner in Laois County Council, gave a written response to Cllr Fennelly's motion. "Laois Rural fibre network is continuing to be rolled out by Eir throughout Laois and is due to be completed this year. Laois will have over 6,000 rural premises connected under this project. Within the Portlaoise MD, there are 599 premises connected in Abbeyleix, 248 in Ballinakill, 345 in Portlaoise and Shanahoe has yet to be completed. "Portlaoise and urban areas are being facilitated by private providers such as SIRO, Sky etc. The National broadband plan is yet to be announced," she said. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced this week that the plan would cost 3 billion, six times more than the original cost. MORE: A brand new supermarket has opened in Portlaoise Sheila Burroughs (nee Reid) Maryville, Kildare Town April 16 2019, Peacefully, at Naas General Hospital. Beloved wife of Michael and loving mother to her son Lee and her daughter Tanya. Sadly missed by her family, her granddaughter Rayne and Tanya's partner Bernard, her brothers and sisters in Scotland, nieces, nephews, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, relatives, neighbours and many friends. Reposing at Mc Wey's Funeral Home, Abbey View, Kildare Town, on Thursday, 18th April, from 3 o'clock with rosary there at 8 o'clock. Removal on Friday to Newlands Cross Crematorium for Service at 2 o'clock. House private, please. Donations, if desired, to Irish Guide Dogs for The Blind. Evelyn Kierans (nee Uwobakunze) Naas, Kildare / Johnstown, Kildare April 16, 2019, (after a short illness, surrounded by her loving family), Evelyn, beloved wife of Gerald, dear mother of Nathan and Saoirse, loving daughter of Seraphine and Christope and dear sister of Degaulle; Very sadly missed by her loving husband, son, daughter, father, mother, sister, uncles, aunts, mother-in law, brothers-in-law, nieces, relatives and friends. Reposing at Murphy Brothers Funeral Home, Church Lane, Naas on Friday from 6:00pm to 8.00pm with Prayers at 7.00pm. Removal on Saturday to The Church of the Irish Martyrs, Ballycane, Naas arriving for Prayer Service at 11.00am. Funeral immediately afterwards to St. Corbans Cemetery, Naas. Enquiries to Murphy Brothers Funeral Directors Church Lane, Naas Ph: 045 897397. Betty Murphy Kilkea, Castledermot April 17 2019, Deeply regretted by her loving sisters and brother, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives and many friends. Reposing in Dunnes Funeral Home, Mill Road, Castledrmot from 2pm on Thursday with prayers at 9pm. Removal from there on Friday at 10am to The church of The Assumption, Castledermot arriving for Funeral Service at 10:30am followed by Burial in Nicholastown Cemetery. Family Flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to The Friends of Our Ladys Ward, St. Vincent's Hospital, Athy. Donation Box In Church. David Passmore - Newtown Great, Naas April 16 2019. Peacefully at home, surrounded by his family. Husband of Rita, loving father of Julie, Paul and the late Edward John. Will be dearly missed by his family, son-in-law Mark, sister Maureen, brother-in-law Dave, niece Nicola, nephew Martin, grandniece Emily, extended family Catherine, Margaret and Beatrice, relatives and friends. Reposing at his home on Friday from 2.00 pm to 8.00 pm. Removal on Saturday afternoon to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Eadestown arriving for 2 oclock Funeral Service, followed by burial in Eadestown Cemetery. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Leitrim GPs are working past retirement age, restricting their patient list and feeling over stretched due to the lack of new doctors available. Last week it emerged over 2,800 doctors withdrew from the Irish medical register between 2015 and 2017 , with half leaving to pursue their career in a different country. With just 0.75 doctors per 1,000 population in Leitrim, local doctors are feeling the pinch. In Carrigallen it took the HSE over nine months to secure a locum to cover the large area after the retirement of Dr Antoinette Gregan. A new GP is expected to begin in the practice next month. Also read: GP secured for Carrigallen Carrick-on-Shannon GP Dr Jonathan Egan said in the NowDoc region which covers most of south Leitrim and north Roscommon, over 25% of the working GPs are over 65 years of age. He says the main reason for this is doctors are afraid of a situation similar to the one that pertains in Carrigallen where there may be great difficulties securing a replacement for them after they retire which would pose great difficulties for the communities they serve. Dr Egan said several GPs in Leitrim feel they are too thinly stretched and many of them report anecdotally that they have been unable to attract any new doctors to work in their practices, so they have closed " their medical card lists. This means they will look after their existing patients but not take on any new ones. This practice in turn has presented great difficulties for families who have recently moved to the area and cannot access a family doctor in their area. Dr Egan explains the main driving factors behind these doctor shortages is the number of doctors who have left the country in recent years. He says they didn't all leave for the same reason, some left due to financial reasons, the recession, career opportunities or a better work life balance. But he said: Others left because they hated the two tier system of care in Ireland. For example in this area, getting a colonoscopy done for a public patient in Sligo University Hospital can take six months, but under a month in the private hospital in Sligo (Kingsbridge). Referring a woman with a gynaecological issue for a consultant opinion to the out patient department in Sligo Hospital can mean they wait 12 months for an appointment as opposed to a few weeks to a local private gynaecologist. A lot of the job for GPs in this area is trying to figure out ways of getting access to hospital care for public patients who are unwell and seeing them repeatedly so they don't fall through the cracks while they are on these waiting lists. It is not an attractive system to return to if you have been working somewhere where this huge disparity doesn't apply such as in Australia, New Zealand or Canada. The Irish Medical Organisation said Irish qualified doctors are emigrating in droves but, alarmingly, the report confirmed that doctors from other countries are leaving too because they do not like working in Ireland. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association said the report confirms that much-needed consultants are being driven abroad and pointed to the failure to fill 487 hospital vacancies in the public health service. The National Association of General Practitioners said the report provides evidence of what they are seeing on the ground - doctors are going to countries where they feel valued and can achieve their full potential. Also read: Sligo Hospital is restricting inappropriate blood tests from GP clinics A North Leitrim councillor has accused the owners of the now defunct Abbey Manor Hotel development of giving the two fingers to the local community. Speaking at Monday's Municipal meeting, Cllr Mary Bohan said that the owners have done the minimum amount of work possible, adding: It took a long time to get this done. This has been a long saga and it has been very disrespectful to the people of Dromahair, she said, adding there were serious concerns the property could, once again, become a magnet for anti-social behaviour. The owners have put the two fingers up to the people of Dromahair. They have had to be dragged kicking and screaming through this whole process. The comments came after Cllr Bohan called for an update on the status of the site. A spokesperson for Leitrim County Council confirmed that the developers have completed works required under the Section 59 Endangerment of Protected Structure Notice and Derelict Sites Notice issues by the local authority. The council is satisfied with the works to prevent further damage to the hotel and clean up the attendant grounds, said the spokesperson, adding the property will be monitored periodically and the council will continue to engage with the owners/owners agent in respect of the future use of the property. While welcoming plans to monitor the site, Cllr Bohan said barriers around it are undermining the hard work the local community is doing to enhance the village. Vandals have caused extensive damage to the structure since its closure. Here is a pictured of the damage taken in 2018. I would ask that the council step it up a gear and engage with the owners and see if they would put it up for sale so that someone else could make use of the building, said Cllr Bohan. Vacant buildings do attract antisocial behaviour and this site is detracting from the whole village. As far as I am concerned this building is still an eyesore and we need to know what is planned for it. Cllr Frank Dolan seconded Cllr Bohan's call for clarity on the future of the Abbey Manor Hotel. There is absolutely no doubt this remains an eyesore. The barriers around it have complicated parking and make it look like a building site, he pointed out. Cllr Padraig Fallon acknowledged it was vital that a different use be found for the property, so we don't face the same problems again in a short time. Cllr Justin Warnock agreed and noted the status of the hotel has been brought up time and time again. People should be held to account, he argued. Ending the discussion, Cllr Bohan again urged the council to contact the owners and engage with them to determine exactly what plans are being considered for this site. It is in the centre of the village. It can't just be left to sit there or it will just go back to the way it was, she insisted. The Leitrim Observer was unable to contact the owners of the property for comment, as the council has never disclosed their identity. THE DISABILITY Minister needs to set targets to ensure the reduction of waiting lists for speech and language assessment in Limerick, Fianna Fail TD Willie ODea has said. He made the call after receiving new figures from the HSE which reveal that 1,493 people in Limerick are on a waiting list for either an initial assessment, initial therapy or further therapy. Deputy ODea described the figures as shocking and that they illustrate the seriousness of the crises within our health service. These waiting times fly in the face of best practice. It is deeply frustrating for people to be told that they will have to wait months, or even years, before they will be assessed for an essential service. Any delay in assessment will lead to delays in treatment and this could have a detrimental impact on outcomes. Deputy ODea said that while the Government has the biggest budget on record for health this year, we need to see this money used effectively and that cutting waiting lists should be a priority. In a statement this week, Deputy ODea said Minister Finian McGrath said he is urging him to take responsibility for these appalling lists and implement a strategy to ensure that they are dramatically reduced. A PADS and tampons donation box has been set up in the city centre to help homeless people and those experiencing period poverty. Rion ODonovan, a fourth year fashion design student at the Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD), has launched the first dedicated drop off point in Limerick city for donating sanitary products for the homeless. The donation box has been installed at the Stormy Teacup Cafe on Fox's Bow. When you are already in a horrible situation like homelessness and then you get your period, that can be horrible, Rion said. She was inspired to launch the initiative after reading an interview with Homeless Period Ireland, who set up donation points around the country for pads and tampons. I realised that there wasnt one in Limerick city, she explained. The homeless crisis is really bad in Limerick so I was surprised there wasnt one. While there are various donation initiatives underway in Limerick, like toiletry drives for those living in direct provision, this is the first drop-off point for sanitary products to be distributed to homeless shelters in the city centre. People have said to me that everytime they go to buy a box of tampons, theyll buy a second one again and just drop it into the box in the Stormy Teacup, Rion explained. When she officially launched the project, the donation box was almost full to the brim thanks to the number of donations she received, she added. Once a month, workers from the various homeless shelters make their way to the cafe to pick up boxes to be distributed. Rion also provides homeless people in need with donations if they are embarrassed to approach the donation box. All donations to the cause will go to people who are really, really struggling, she added. LIMERICK CITY and County councillors are to call on the Minister for Health to implement an evidence-based mental health awareness programme in all Limerick classrooms. At a recent meeting of the Metropolitan District of Limerick, councillors voted on a motion pledging to call on Minister Simon Harris to implement a programme in both primary and secondary schools here. It is well past time that we put childrens and young adults mental health and wellbeing on the priority list, Solidarity councillor Paul Keller said, putting forward the motion on behalf of fellow Solidarity councillor Mary Cahillane. Surveys carried out show that an average of three in every classroom have diagnosable mental health problems, he added. Depression is the largest cause of disability among those aged between 10 and 24 and suicide is now one of the leading causes of death in Europe, said Cllr Keller Schools are in a unique position to promote mental health and emotional wellbeing, the Solidarity councillor said. The can provide a health-promoting environment and identify young people experiencing emotional stress and being at risk, he pointed out. The motion passed with widespread support. It was seconded by Fianna Fail councillor Sean Lynch who proposed it be extended to include primary schools as well. Limerick has the highest rate of suicide and self-harm, Cllr Lynch said. Early intervention is key, he added. I think the project should be started in primary schools. With the pressures of social media, weve seen the effect that has on young children. Parents need to be educated as well. Metro Mayor Daniel Butler advised councillors that Pieta House is currently working on a classroom-based mental resilience programme. I think its great progress that we are here today discussing mental health openly, when we wouldnt have been six or seven years ago, Mayor Butler said. Councillor Keller thanked councillors for their support. Im glad to see everyone here has an interest. When it comes to mental health, Limericks young adolescents cant wait anymore. If you have been affected by this story, you can contact Aware 1800 80 48 48, The Samaritans 116 123 or Pieta House 1800 247 247. AN UNEMPLOYED father-of-four who is in receipt of Housing Assistance Payments has appeared in court accused of laundering almost 700,000 in cash over a two year period. Anayo Okezie, 37, who has an address at Cois Luachra, Dooradoyle faces three charges under the provisions of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010. The defendant, who is originally from Nigeria, was arrested and charged on Tuesday morning following a garda investigation which has been onoing for several years. The charges before Limerick District Court, which are to proceed on indictment, relate to three different alleged bank accounts in Limerick which were held by Mr Okezie on dates between May 11, 2015 and June 30, 2017. Opposing bail, Detective Garda Fiona OConnell of Roxboro Road garda station said it will be alleged a combined total of more than 691,000 passed through the three accounts with some of the money being transferred to different locations around the World. She told Judge Mary Cashin the accounts were empty when gardai gained access to them in 2017 and that they have been unable to establish where the money is. The accounts which were in Mr Okezies name were opened at Ulster Bank OConnell Street, Limerick; Permanent TSB, Dooradoyle, Limerick and AIB, OConnell Street, Limerick. Detective Garda OConnell said just over 110,000 passed through the Ulster Bank account in the form of 31 lodgments and 33 withdrawals. More than 433,000 passed through the AIB account in 116 separate transactions while there were 59 transactions recorded on the PTSB account relating to just over 147,000. She said she had concerns the defendant represents a flight risk and would flee the jurisdiction if released. The detective told Sergeant Donal Cronin the amount of money involved was a concern as was the fact that Mr Okezie is not known to the Revenue Commissioners in any shape or form. Solicitor Tom Kiely said his client is living with his partner in a modest three-bed semi detached home and that he is not leading a flash lifestyle. He said Mr Okezie, who suffers from poor health, has remained in Limerick despite knowing about the garda investigation for almost two years. Seeking bail, he submitted it was complete nonsense to suggest his client would flee the jurisdiction. He said the suggestion his client knows where the money is was also a red herring which should be ignored. Granting bail, Judge Cashin said she did not consider the objection to be sufficient enough in the circumstances. The matter has been adjourned to facilitate the preparation of a book of evidence. In a departure from tradition the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches will hold a joint procession through the streets of Limerick this Good Friday. The Way of the Cross, will stop off at various locations to highlight forms of poverty and need, care and affection. The procession will be led by Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Richard Clarke; Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limerick Brendan Leahy; Church of Ireland Bishop of the Diocese of Limerick, Kenneth Kearon; Dean of St. Marys Church of Ireland Cathedral Dean Niall J. Sloane; Dean of St. Johns Cathedral Fr. Noel Kirwin along with other priests of the dioceses. It will link the citys two cathedrals in another reminder of the closeness of Christian faith. It also comes in a week in which the significance of cathedrals and faith was brought to the fore as people the world over were shocked and saddened by the fire that ravaged Notre Dame. Bishops Brendan Leahy and Kenneth Kearon have penned a joint letter of support to Archbishop of Paris Michel Christian Alain Aupetit in response to the fire. Fridays ceremony will commence at 12 midday with an opening rite at St. Marys Cathedral and will pause for prayers at various locations to acknowledge services and issues that affect society and the public. The stations will include the Opening Rite at St. Marys Cathedral and stop for prayers at Arthurs Quay where youth mental health service Jigsaw is based, and at Poor Mans Kilkee in recognition of the work of the Samaritans, also on mental health issues. It will also take in Bedford Row where the Bedford Row Family Project engages with families of prisoners; Thomas Street, where it will remember the dead; Brother Russell House at Gerald Griffin Street in recognition of work done there for the homeless, particularly through food distribution; St. Johns Hospital for the sick and then to St. Johns Cathedral for the Closing Rite. Each stop is designed to match one of the stations in a book by Fr. Liam Ryan. People have been, or will be, asked to read the material given at each of the stations. Said Bishop Leahy: This is the first time we will have a significant ecumenical Good Friday procession and we encourage everyone who is in need of support or know someone who needs support to join us in this very special gathering. Many countries have a great tradition of procession at Easter and we have, too, but mostly these stations are in our churches. It is only right that we bring this procession out into the public, to let those people who need support and those who provide support know that they are foremost in our thoughts. The fact also that we are linking our two cathedrals is very pertinent in a week in which the world has been shocked by the fire at Notre Dame. It is one of the great cathedrals of the world but we have our own great cathedrals here and, in fact, St. Marys Cathedral is just five years younger than Notre Dame and the oldest building in Limerick still in use today. Said Bishop Kenneth Kearon: Christ suffered on the cross for us and we do the Way of the Cross in reparation for what he endured. But today there are many, many people who endure suffering, who carry crosses and we want to bring them into our thoughts this Good Friday with this procession. We must pray for them and support them and our Good Friday procession is a statement of solidarity with them at this solemn time as we also remember the ultimate sacrifice made for us by Christ. EVERYTHING the Munster Rugby Supporters Club Choir do they do with passion. Best known for singing on the pitch before Munster home matches in Thomond Park and Irish Independent Park, the choir is also committed to supporting local charities. Mid Western Cancer Foundation is the nominated one this season. Days before choir members will raise the roof in Coventry during Munsters Heineken Champions Cup semi-final clash with Saracens they presented a cheque for 1,900 from fundraising. Helena Joy, choir member, said before performing on the pitch for the Munster v Leinster match on December 29, they entertained shoppers on O'Connell Street. Despite the wet weather, the renditions of rugby anthems and county songs went down very well with the people of Limerick who gave generously to the cause. Bank of Ireland supported the choirs efforts by matching the funds collected on the day through their Give Together initiative, said Helena. Olive Burdett and Lucia Randles, from the Munster Rugby Supporters Club Choir, accompanied by Esther Lynch and Emer McGrath, of Bank of Ireland, presented a cheque for 1,900 to Professor R. K. Gupta and Lisa Tracey, of the Mid Western Cancer Foundation. Everyone is touched by cancer and with the Mid Western Cancer Foundation, all donations are used in the region to enhance services for patients attending the cancer centre at University Hospital Limerick It is deeply rewarding for choir members to be able to connect with the wider community in supporting and raising awareness of such a vital organisation, said Helena. This Saturday, the Munster Rugby Supporters Club Choir will get back to normal duties and back their team to the hilt. Not as many choir members are able to travel as did to Edinburgh for the quarter-final when we gave the team a special send off at Shannon airport with a flash mob of the iconic Munster anthem Stand Up and Fight. Nonetheless those who will travel will raise their voices in the Ricoh Arena on Saturday at 3.15pm C'mon Munster! said Helena. RTE has given no explanation as to why a remark about Minister of State Patrick ODonovan has been cut out of the podcast of the programme in which it was made. It was, the national broadcaster said this Wednesday, an internal editorial decision. But no reason was given for such an internal editorial decision. But Minister ODonovan, said that while the remark may have been intended to be offensive, he was not offended. Last Sunday, Limerick-born author, director and actor Gerry Stembridge, best known for his Scrap Saturday satirical series in the 1990s, was a panel guest on the Marian Finucane programme, hosted that day by Brendan OConnor. Tens of thousands of people around the country heard Mr Stembridge refer to Minister ODonovan as the love-child of Michael Noonan and Margaret Thatcher if they were to have a child. The remark came as he expressed his disgust with the current government, saying it was dangerously controlled by a small group of 40-year-old men. He was, he said, talking about Leo Varadker, Paschal Donohue, Simon Harris and Eoghan Murphy whom he described as very much the kitchen cabinet and very ideologically driven. He then went on to make his comment about Minister ODonovan. However, while the remarks about the Taoiseach and other ministers remain in the podcast, the reference to Minister ODonovan has been edited out. When asked why this was so, RTE said: It was an internal editorial decision and we are not going to comment further. But when pressed as to why such a decision was taken, no reason was forthcoming. It was intended to be offensive but I didnt take offence, Minister ODonovan said this week. It was intended to offend but what came out was unintended humour. And being mentioned in the company of the four main cabinet ministers, I am not going to take offence from that. It is up to RTE to explain why they put up an edited version, he said. The Limerick Leader understands he did not hear the programme himself as he was out canvassing but he was contacted by a number of supporters. It is not the first time the Newcastle West man has been the focus of criticism or colourful language. In November 2016, a radio listener wrote to him complaining about his West Limerick pronunciation. But Minister ODonovan stoutly defended his native accent and declared he would not be taking any elocution lessons.. Instead, he circulated the letter and said he found the whole episode very funny. At he same time, Irish Times columnist Miriam Lord described him thus: The puckish Patrick ODonovan has been described as the Flurry Knox to Shane Rosss Irish RM. (see below) Again Minister ODonovan was unfazed. He even saw it as a compliment.. He is the man who, at the end of the day, always gets his way. THE CHAIRMAN of ICMSAs dairy committee has said that a degree of credit was due to both Dairygold and Kerry for their decision to hold their price for milk supplied in March. Ger Quain, from Colmanswell, said that Limericks milk was supplied to these two processors and that suppliers throughout the county had anxiously awaited the decision on their March product. The calm response in Limerick contrasted with the anger and cynicism expressed by dairy farmers in other parts of the country specifically the massive swathe of the east that is the catchment area of Glanbia, but also the border region that supplied milk to Lakelands. Both of these processors cut their price to farmer-suppliers for March milk in a move that sparked public expressions of resentment from the farmers. Were happy to acknowledge the decision by both Kerry and Dairygold and to note that it demonstrates a commitment to their suppliers, said Mr Quain. However, theres a growing problem - and its very clearly perceived by farmers he said. Where the Ornua PPI goes up steadily, month after month, and either theres no increase in farmer milk price at all, or theres a marginal increase that is hopelessly less than the rise in the Index would justify. The contrast when theres any kind of tiny fall in the Ornua Index is very revealing. When that happens, as it did recently - chiefly on account of Brexit uncertainty the farmer price is cut instantly and substantially. I cant stress enough how important it is for Limericks economy that our critical dairy farmer sector has a decent milk price going into the peak production period starting mow and going through to July. That money goes back into the wider rural economy and its effect is multiplied as it does. Thats the reality and thats why the Dairygold and Kerry decision to hold their price was so important, concluded Mr Quain. A NUMBER of TDs have written a letter to Minister for Health Simon Harris, calling for an urgent and robust external examination of the trolley crisis at University Hospital Limerick. This comes after representatives of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation met with TDs from Limerick, Clare and Tipperary in Leinster House to discuss the escalating overcrowding problem in Dooradoyle. This comes two weeks after UHL set the new overcrowding record with 81 patients on trolleys on April 4. Seven TDs in the Mid-West signed the letter addressed to Minister Harris. They were Maurice Quinlivan, Niall Collins, Willie ODea, Timmy Dooley, Jackie Cahill, Mattie McGrath, and Seamus Healy. The cross-party letter was signed by Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Independent TDs. According to the letter, seen by the Leader, the INMO outlined concerns in relation to significant clinical risks due to severe overcrowding; the hospital being in full capacity protocol; day services and medical assessment areas are being used for patients who are admitted on trolleys waiting for a hospital bed; staff concerns over clinical risks that exist for patients and concerns for their health, safety and wellbeing; staff reports that patients are attending South Tipperary General Hospital and Galway University Hospital instead of UHL; GPs reporting that patients express significant reticence to attending UHL despite their medical situation requiring them to attend; and significant industrial relations problems. Seven TDs in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary wrote to @SimonHarrisTD calling for an urgent and robust external examination into the trolley crisis at University Hospital Limerick. pic.twitter.com/EHm6jwuiwe Fintan Walsh (@FintanYTWalsh) April 18, 2019 The INMO has likened UHLs situation to Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust when a Healthcare Commission investigation into their provision of care in 2009. The combination of the culture, practices and behaviours in University Hospital Limerick combined with the lack of appropriate infrastructure and indeed appropriate planning prior to the reconfiguration of services ensures that the situation outlined in these reports with regard to Mid-Staffordshire may also apply within University Hospital Limerick, the letter stated on Wednesday evening. The TDs added: This requires urgent and robust external examination in order to protect patients and restore the faith of staff in the management of the hospital. The are now calling on Minister Harris to appoint an external expert to investigate: Clinical risk and review the standards of governance and performance within the hospital. This must be done by an external, preferably international clinical expert. Failure to comply with national agreements, collective agreements and good IR practice with regards to all employee relations and HR matters within the hospital. Limerick City TD Maurice Quinlivan, who invited the INMO to speak with the TDs last week, said that he was pleased that his fellow TDs were able to come together to send this important letter to the Minister for Health outlining our serious concern at the current conditions in UHL. The signatories to this letter represent the constituencies of Limerick City, Limerick County, Clare and Tipperary, and the cross-party nature of it indicates the widespread concern from all corners about the conditions in University Hospital Limerick. Deputy Quinlivan added: Urgent action is needed, as it is only a matter of time before a serious incident occurs with this level of overcrowding. The Minister must intervene directly in this situation. Following the meeting last week, Deputy Niall Collins said an independent review of the systems here is urgently required. Meanwhile, clinical directors of the UL Hospitals Group have written an open letter, calling on the community, politicians and activists for support amid the escalating overcrowding crisis in Limerick. The depths of the Indian Ocean are home to some bizarre creatures including one that looks like a balloon on a string. Explorers captured a video of this gelatinous creature in a recent dive to the Java Trench, the bottommost part of the Indian Ocean. This dive was one of many in the Five Deeps Expedition, during which the crew aimed to reach the deepest part of all five of the world's oceans. "We were just watching the video back and saw the thing come out of the darkness," said Alan Jamieson, the chief scientist on the expedition and a senior lecturer at Newcastle University in the U.K. "It drifted right towards the camera... and then drifted off again." [In Photos: Spooky Deep-Sea Creatures] With its long appendage, "almost like a tentacle that holds onto something," it looked like a balloon on a string, he added. After a literature search, Jamieson found a group in Japan that had described something similar about 20 years ago a species of stalked ascidian or sea squirt. But there were key differences between the newly found creature and the one described in the literature the latter had filaments coming off the top of its head, whereas this one doesn't, he said. There's a "high probability" of this being a new species, since there's no record of such a creature that far down at over 6,500 meters (21,300 feet) he said. This creature likely anchors itself to the seafloor with its long tentacle, perhaps to keep still in a seismically active seafloor, he said. (Trenches are "seismically active" because they are dips on the seafloor where one tectonic plate is pushed beneath another). As for why the tentacle is so long, Jamieson suggested it might help the creature filter feed up to 3.3 feet (1 meter) above the seafloor. Because the deepest parts of four out of the five oceans have never been visited by humans before, "it's not a big surprise to our science team that we're spotting some creatures that we are pretty sure are new species," said the creator of the expedition Victor Vescovo, an explorer and businessman, who makes the first dive down to the depths, typically solo, in a small titanium-and-glass sphere submersible. But not all of the critters they came across were alien to the members of the crew. They saw more familiar creatures such as starfish and sea cucumbers and several hadal snailfish palm-size, pinkish, tadpole-like critters with small black eyes and semitransparent bodies, through which their liver is clearly visible. These snailfish "may not be a new species [because they] look much the same," but it's kind of "interesting" that we have seen it in the deep part of every ocean so far, Jamieson said. Before they visited the Java Trench in the Indian Ocean, the team members dove down to the trenches of the Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean around Antarctica both of which are home to similar snailfish. Of all three of the oceans, the Indian Ocean seems to be the one most dense with life, Vescovo said. But, it's also the one that's very undersampled. There's "hardly any record at all," of the creatures down there, Jamieson added. The members of the research group hope to analyze some of the videos and photos they took down in the depths of our world and publish some findings about their research. In addition, their dives are being filmed for a Discovery Channel documentary series set to air toward the end of the year. The next stop, in two weeks, is the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest part of any of the oceans. This trench is the only one that has been explored by humans but only twice before, Vescovo said. U.S. Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard first dove down to the trench back in 1960 and Canadian explorer and filmmaker James Cameron set the record for going the deepest in 2012. Originally published on Live Science. For a few months twice a year, the waters off California are home to graceful gray whales migrating north or south between the coast of Mexico and the Bering Sea. This year, however, it seems that fewer whales are surviving the journey north. Two dead gray whales washed up on the shores of Northern California beaches on Tuesday (April 16), which means eight have been found around California's Bay Area since the beginning of the year; seven in just the past two months. So far this year, a total of 30 dead gray whales have washed up on the West Coast: Eight in Washington, one in Oregon and 21 in California. Those numbers are unusually high, said Justin Greenman, the California assistant marine mammal coordinator for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). "If you just look at historical data for those first four months, we're at our third highest year-to-date," Greenman said. [Whale Album: Giants of the Deep] The search for food Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) make one of the largest migrations of any species. Seeing them on the West Coast this time of year is expected; the whales cruise by California, Oregon and Washington between March and early June on their trip north from the coast of Baja California, Mexico, to the cool, food-rich waters of the Bering and Chukchi seas, north of Alaska. They'll make their return trip south, back to Mexico, in December and January. All along the West Coast, biologists and citizen scientists watch for the dappled whales, recording their numbers and tracking their behavior, Greenman said. This year, there have been far more reports of gray whales swimming closer to shore and spending more time in bays, marinas and harbors. "It seems like they're trying to feed [in those locations] because they're so skinny and emaciated," he said. In Northern California, three out of four of the dead whales that have been examined so far appear to have died of starvation and the fourth was killed by a ship strike, said Barbie Halaska, a research assistant at The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC), a nonprofit organization that rescues and rehabilitates marine mammals in California. Halaska and her colleagues necropsied the four whales three yearlings and one adult male and plan to examine the remaining dead whales in the region in the next couple of days. A stable future? Gray whales were once severely threatened by whalers. There were only around 2,000 of them left in 1946, when an international agreement to stop gray whale hunting began, in order to help the population recover, according to TMMC. Gray whales were removed from the endangered species list in 1994 and TMMC estimates there are now around 26,000 gray whales in the Pacific Ocean, which is about how many there were before the whaling boom gained steam almost 200 years ago. Although the gray whale population has recovered from near-extinction, the number of dead whales washing up this year is alarming, Halaska said. Climate change and declining fish stocks are likely key factors in the whales' poor health, she said. Halaska and Greenman both emphasized that boaters and beachgoers on the West Coast should keep their eyes peeled for gray whales this time of year. If you see a gray whale or other marine mammal that's dead or in distress, notify the U.S. Coast Guard or call 1-877-SOS-WHAL(e) (1-877-767-9425). The Marine Mammal Center can also be reached directly at 415-289-SEAL (7325). "We try to get out there as soon as possible to examine everything," Halaska said. "Every whale will tell a story." Originally published on Live Science A baby in Texas was born without skin on much of his body, according to news reports. The boy, Ja'bari Gray, was born Jan. 1 in San Antonio and weighed only 3 lbs., according to the San Antonio Express-News. He lacks skin on much of his body, with the exception of his head and parts of his legs, and his eyelids are fused shut. Doctors have applied a protective dressing on his body, which needs to be changed frequently, as well as topical ointments to reduce infection risk, Express-News reported. "He's been in the hospital his whole life," Ja'bari's mother, Priscilla Maldonado, told Express-News. "I've been able to hold him twice, but you have to be dressed in a gown and gloved-up. It's not skin-to-skin. It's not the same." [27 Oddest Medical Case Reports] Doctors are still doing tests to confirm Ja'bari's diagnosis. It's quite rare for a baby to be born without skin, said Dr. Ana Duarte, director of the Division of Dermatology at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, who is not involved with Ja'bari's case. "The skin is our largest organ," and has many important functions, such as protecting us from infection and keeping body temperature regulated, Duarte said. "When you don't have a good barrier, especially as a baby, you can run into a lot of different problems." There are several types of skin disorders that can cause babies to be born with fragile or missing skin. One such condition is epidermolysis bullosa, a genetic disorder in which the skin is very fragile and blisters easily, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Blisters can form after minor injury or even friction, such as rubbing or scratching. Technically, people with epidermolysis bullosa have skin, but "shearing forces cause skin to fall apart," Duarte told Live Science. "You actually have skin, but it just shears right off," meaning babies can appear to not have skin at birth, she said. The severity of this condition can vary a lot, depending on the type of genetic mutation the patient has some patients live a pretty normal life, while others are severely affected. "There's a huge spectrum," of symptoms, Duarte said. In the most severe cases, infants with epidermolysis bullosa are born with widespread blistering and areas of missing skin. When the blisters heal, they can create significant scarring. Patients with severe cases can have problems with their airway (due to blistering), which can affect breathing, and can also have problems with their gastrointestinal tract, Duarte said. The condition is rare, with the most severe form affecting fewer than 1 in a million newborns, according to the NIH. Doctors told Maldonado that her son may have epidermolysis bullosa, and both she and her husband will need a genetic test to confirm the diagnosis. Ja'bari does have scar tissue that has caused his chin to fuse with his chest, Express-News reported. Although the treatment for this condition can vary depending on the patient's symptoms, for any patient with epidermolysis bullosa, "you want to avoid trauma, avoid friction, treat skin very gently, [and give] meticulous care to small wounds," Duarte said. Another condition that can cause babies to be born without skin is aplasia cutis congenita. With this condition, the skin never develops in certain areas, Duarte said. Most commonly, patients have a small part of skin missing on their scalp, she said, although symptoms can vary. This condition affects about 1 in 10,000 newborns, according to the NIH. Small areas of missing skin usually heal on their own over time, although larger areas may require surgery to treat. Doctors at the hospital where Ja'bari was born originally thought he could have aplasia cutis, but doctors at his current hospital suspect epidermolysis bullosa. (Ja'bari was recently transferred to a hospital that has more experience treating rare skin disorders, Express-News reported.) Maldonado and her husband are currently awaiting the results of their genetic tests. "It could be two to three weeks before they have an answer," Maldonado said. "They don't want to treat my son for the wrong thing." Originally published on Live Science. Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, a gigantic carnivore known from most of its jaw, portions of its skull and parts of its skeleton, was larger than a modern polar bear. In the "Lord of the Rings" series, author J.R.R. Tolkien invented the fantastical "warg," a wolf-like beast with sharp teeth that lived in the Misty Mountains. Little did Tolkien know that such a creature, perhaps one even more terrifying than a warg, actually existed. This newly discovered but now extinct carnivore lived about 22 million years ago in what is now Kenya. It was larger than a polar bear, the largest land-based carnivore alive today; it weighed up to 3,300 lbs. (1,500 kilograms), measured 8 feet (2.4 meters) long from snout to rump and stood 4 feet (1.2 m) tall at its shoulders. The creature had very sharp, powerful teeth, and is considered a hypercarnivore meaning it got almost all its calories from meat. [Image Gallery: 25 Amazing Ancient Beasts] Researchers are calling the newfound meat eater Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, Swahili for "big lion from Africa." But it was much larger than a modern lion, said study co-researcher Matt Borths, curator of the Division of Fossil Primates at the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina. "Part of the reason we named it 'big lion' in Swahili is because it would have played a lion-like role in its ancient ecosystem," Borths told Live Science in an email. When it was hungry, S. kutokaafrika didn't hold back. "Animals that might have been on the menu were anthracotheres (hippo relatives that were lankier than their modern cousins), elephant relatives and giant hyraxes (today, hyraxes look like grumpy rabbits, but in the past they filled zebra and antelope niches in Africa)." A modern lion's skull (top) from the Nairobi National Museum and the jaw of Simbakubwa kutokaafrika (bottom). (Image credit: Matthew Borths) Besides looking like a warg, S. kutokaafrika would seem weird by today's standards, Borths said. "Compared to modern carnivorous mammals, its head would have looked a little too big for its body, like a very toothy Funko Pop figure," he said. Borths came across the fossil remains of S. kutokaafrika in a museum drawer. He happened to be at the Nairobi National Museum, where he was studying the evolution of hyaenodonts, a group of extinct carnivorous mammals that lived in Africa, Eurasia and North America during the Miocene epoch, which lasted from about 23 million to 5 million years ago. "I thought I had gone through all the meat-eaters from about 20 million years ago," Borths said. "Then, during a lunch break, I decided to open a few other drawers to learn about carnivores from the [last] ice age, and there was this enormous jaw. Based on the structure of the teeth, I knew it was a hyaenodont, but I had no idea this specimen existed." To get an idea of the size of Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, here is the beast next to an adult human. (Image credit: Mauricio Anton) The jaw was so large, it couldn't fit into the cabinet with its close relatives, he said. Keen to learn more, he reached out to Nancy Stevens, who was studying fossils from Meswa Bridge, Kenya, where S. kutokaafrika's remains were originally found. Stevens, a professor of functional morphology and vertebrate paleontology at Ohio University, became the co-author on the study. Matt Borths holds the ancient Simbakubwa kutokaafrika jaw. (Image credit: Nancy Stevens) "Discoveries like this one underscore the importance of museums as troves of information about our planet's past," Stevens told Live Science in an email. In addition to the excitement of finding such a large and previously unknown hypercarnivore, the researchers said they were happy to find such a complete hyaenodont. "Most of the relatives of Simbakubwa are known from pretty scrappy material," Borths said. "The teeth are still pretty sharp! We also have an ankle bone that tells us how Simbakubwa might have moved. With these data, researchers can better interpret fragmentary material of other species, piecing together the evolution of this group of giant carnivores that evolved as continents slammed into each other, landscapes became more open and lineages that originated on different continents started to mix for the first time." The new study was published online today (April 18) in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Originally published on Live Science. Called the Lena horse (Equus caballus lenensis), this ice age foal was found in the Batagaika Crater in eastern Siberia and is thought to have been just 2 months old when it died, likely by drowning in mud. A 42,000-year-old foal discovered frozen in Siberian permafrost contained a surprise: the oldest liquid blood on record. This is the second time that a defrosted Ice Age animal has turned out to contain liquid blood, said Semyon Grigoriev, the head of the Mammoth Museum at North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk. In 2018, Grigoriev and his colleagues extracted liquid blood from a 32,200-year-old mammoth carcass. That makes the foal's blood the oldest ever found by 10,000 years. Grigoriev and his colleagues are set on cloning a mammoth and other Pleistocene fauna, and they're already trying to clone the foal, a member of an extinct species called the Lena horse. It's a long shot, though, Grigoriev wrote in an email to Live Science. [Photos: Perfectly Preserved Baby Horse Unearthed in Siberian Permafrost] "But," he said, "we in Russia say that hope dies last." Lena horse The Lena horse (Equus caballus lenensis) foal was found in the Batagaika Crater in eastern Siberia last year. The foal was 1 to 2 weeks old and stood 39 inches (98 centimeters) at the shoulder when it died, drowning in mud. Remarkably, the icy permafrost preserved the foal's skin and hair down to the tiniest detail. There was even well-preserved urine still inside the foal's bladder, Grigoriev said. The liquid blood was a surprise, he said. Typically, blood coagulates or turns to powder even in well-preserved carcasses, because fluids gradually evaporate over thousands of years, he said. In the mammoth, dubbed "Buttercup" by researchers, the blood was preserved in ice inside the carcass. [Photos: Autopsy of a 40,000-Year-Old Mammoth Named 'Buttercup'] Researchers collect liquid blood from the ice age foal found frozen in Siberian permafrost. (Image credit: courtesy Semyon Grigoriev) The foal autopsy should reveal a lot about Pleistocene Siberia, Grigoriev said. Not only will researchers study the biochemistry of preserved urine, gut contents and organs, but they will also study samples of the soils and paleo plants found in the layer of permafrost where the foal died. Cloning the ice age The blood may not help the researchers reach their goal of reviving an ice age animal. Red blood cells don't have nuclei, so they don't contain DNA, Grigoriev said. For cloning, the researchers are focusing on muscle cells and internal organs, he said. Even there, finding DNA in good enough condition for cloning is a big challenge. DNA starts to degrade soon after an animal's death, even in excellent preservation conditions such as permafrost, Grigoriev said. The team has been trying to extract intact cells and quality DNA from the foal for two months, Grigoriev said, without success. The researchers will continue to try both in Yakutsk and at the laboratory of their collaborator Hwang Woo-suk, the CEO of Sooam Biotech in South Korea, he said. Hwang was found guilty of embezzlement and bioethical violations in 2009 after a set of human stem-cell cloning experiments published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005 turned out to be faked. He then kept a low profile for several years before making headlines for cloning dogs for wealthy clients. According to Vanity Fair, his company has cloned more than 1,000 dogs. He has also been working with Grigoriev and his team on attempts to clone a mammoth. Grigoriev and his colleagues hope that if they can retrieve viable DNA from a mammoth, they can insert the DNA into an elephant embryo cleared of its genetic information, implant the embryo into an elephant and resurrect the woolly mammoth. A similar process could work for the Lena horse, using modern horses as surrogates. A recent documentary on these efforts, "Genesis 2.0," won a prize for cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct the age of the foal. It was 1 to 2 weeks old, not 2 months, when it died. Originally published on Live Science. Julia Elizabeth Jones Rubio and Jose M. Rubio, Jr. will portray our nation's first family at the Society of Martha Washington Pageant and Ball in February 2020. The announcement was made by Kristina K. Laurel Hale, President of the Society of Martha Washington, at a press conference which was attended by members of the Society, family and friends of the honorees. The Society of Martha Washington has selected prominent Laredo couple, Julia Elizabeth Jones Rubio and Jose M. Rubio, Jr. to portray Martha and George Washington for the 2020 Washington's Birthday Celebration. Highly involved in our community, Mr. and Mrs. Rubio are very pleased to have been selected for this honor. Julia Elizabeth Jones Rubio was born in Laredo and educated in public schools. She graduated from J.W. Nixon High School in 1976, after which she attended Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. She returned to Texas to complete her undergraduate studies, receiving a B.A. degree in Spanish and Business Administration, magna cum laude, from Trinity University in San Antonio in 1980. Mrs. Rubio was inducted into the prestigious honor society Phi Beta Kappa. Following her family's long-standing Longhorn tradition, Mrs. Rubio furthered her education at the McCombs School of Business, receiving her MBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1982. Elizabeth began her career as a banker, working in commercial lending. She later commenced a career as an educator, teaching fifteen years at Amparo Gutierrez Elementary School. Currently, she is Director of Events and Operations in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Texas A&M International University. This position is particularly fitting, as Elizabeth's Richter and Watson family have long been involved in the arts, and her aunt, Helen Richter Watson's fine ceramic collection is on permanent display at the University. Elizabeth has enjoyed volunteering with the PTC organizations of both Amparo Gutierrez Elementary School as well as United Day School. In addition, she enjoyed contributing as a J.B. Alexander High School band parent. She is a lifelong active member of Christ Church Episcopal, having served as a vestry member, lector, and Sunday school teacher. She is currently proud to serve on the board of the Children's Advocacy Center of Webb and Zapata Counties as secretary. Elizabeth was presented by the Society in 1976 and has served in numerous board positions. She is particularly pleased to be portraying Martha, as her connection to the Society of Martha Washington goes back to its inception. Her grandmother, Helen Richter (Dolly) Watson, was a founding member of the Society. She served as the Society's fourth president, in 1943, and was an original Colonial Lady. Elizabeth's mother, Julia Richter Watson Jones, is likewise a Colonial Lady. She was presented by the Society in 1949, escorted by Elizabeth's father, James Kenton Jones. In 1979, Elizabeth's mother portrayed Martha Washington, and Elizabeth is proud to follow in her mother's footsteps. Elizabeth's brother, James K. Jones, Jr., was an escort in 1971. Her sister, Margaret Jones Hagelman, was presented in 1978 and was the Society's president in 2013. The Rubios have five children, all of whom have participated in the Colonial Pageant and Ball. Joe, III, a University of Texas attorney who practices law in Dallas, was a page in 2001 and an escort in 2006. The Rubio twins, Julia Victoria and Margaret Elizabeth, were presented in 2008. Julia is also a Longhorn attorney, working for the Webb and Zapata County District Attorney's office. Margaret will graduate from Texas Law in May. Roberto Richter Rubio, who graduates with a B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin in May, was a page in 2011. Diego Julian, an eighth grader at United Day School, was a page in 2017, and will attend Alexander High School next year. Joe Rubio was born in Laredo, Texas. He attended local public schools and graduated from Nixon High School in 1972. Mr. Rubio graduated from Southwest Texas State University in 1976 with a double major in history and political science. He then attended the University of Houston Law School, and after passing the State Bar Exam, returned to Laredo. In 1980, he opened his private practice, concentrating on the areas of family law and criminal defense. In addition, he served as trustee for the Laredo Independent School District and as well as the school district's attorney. In 1988, Joe Rubio launched the first of five successful campaigns for the post of District Attorney for the 49th Judicial District, comprised of Webb and Zapata counties. Upon winning the election at the age of 34, he became the youngest elected district attorney in the history of the district. He was re-elected for four more terms and served a total of twenty years. This makes him the longest serving District Attorney for Webb and Zapata counties. While serving as District Attorney, Joe Rubio fought child abuse by helping create the Child Abuse Coalition. The result of the coalition's efforts was the founding of the Children's Advocacy Center, a facility recognized throughout the state as a model for handling of child abuse victims and prosecution of child abusers. In addition, Mr. Rubio established two new units within the District Attorney's Office: the Child Abuse Unit as well as the Domestic Violence Unit. Mr. Rubio is proud to say that his daughter, Julia, is now a prosecutor in the Special Victims Unit. In keeping with of his mission to make our community safer, Joe established the Safe Haven project which has been of great benefit for parents as it provides a controlled environment for the exchange of children and helps prevent parental conflict during periods of visitation. Mr. Rubio is now practicing privately. His practice consists of criminal defense, both at the state and federal level, as well as family and civil law. He has been married for 35 years to his wonderful wife, Elizabeth Jones Rubio. The Society of Martha Washington fosters patriotism for our country and an appreciation of the leadership qualities of our nation's first family. The Society was founded in 1939 by Monsignor Dan Fanning, and each year since, the Society has invited two deserving Laredoans to portray the President and Mrs. Washington as part of the Washington's Birthday Celebration. The Society also invites young women from Laredo's prominent families to participate in the Colonial Pageant and Ball. This year's Society of Martha Washington Colonial Pageant and Ball will be held Friday, Feb. 21, 2020 as part of the 123rd Washington's Birthday Celebration. A man was arrested and a juvenile detained in connection with the assault of four people, including two children, according to Laredo police. The assault was reported at about 9:40 a.m. Saturday in the 900 block of Monterrey Avenue. A woman stated to police that her grandson and two great-granddaughters had been assaulted. Officers then saw the man with visible injuries to his face, forehead and right knee. The two children also appeared to be shaken up from the incident and had injuries to their hands and knees. Laredo police raided several residences Thursday in connection with a large-scale investigation targeting a well-organized group that was carrying out serious crimes and had a link to a Mexican cartel. LPD Chief Claudio Trevino Jr. said five people were arrested on charges of aggravated robbery, burglary of a habitation and engaging in organized criminal activity. They are part of a group that has a history with home invasions and the smuggling of humans, narcotics and weapons, he said. A family that operated illegal gambling establishments in Zapata and Laredo pleaded guilty to several charges Wednesday in a Laredo court. Hilda Villarreal, 70, Raul Rene Villarreal, 47, Rebecca Villarreal Lopez, 51, and Ruben Rene Villarreal, 31, pleaded guilty in connection to illegal gambling investigations before Judge William Kirkendall in the 406th District Court. Hilda Villarreal, who had $1.5 million seized from her residence in Zapata, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money, a first-degree felony. Prosecutors recommended a probated sentence of 10 years. Raul Villarreal pleaded guilty to keeping a gambling place, and Ruben Villarreal pleaded guilty to gambling promotion, both Class A misdemeanors. Prosecutors recommended they serve one year probated for six months. READ ALSO: LPD: Man wanted for attempting to strangle woman arrested after police chase Rebecca Villarreal pleaded guilty to gambling promotion. She is set to serve a one-year probated sentence. As part of her plea agreement, the state is keeping the $141,000 seized from her home. The cash taken from the home of her mother, Hilda, was recently seized by the FBI. Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said he and his office are satisfied with the plea agreements. "For us, more importantly, it shows that they were violating the law and that money laundering is going on in these establishments," Alaniz said. "This is the culmination of a lot of hard work. To us, it's a victory and credit goes to DPS and law enforcement that was working on this case." Silverio Martinez, the Villarreals' attorney, said this case has gone through a long and arduous process, and the family wants the ordeal to be over with so they can move on. "We fought the money, we won the money," Martinez said. "For some reason or another, that took a long time and ended up with a lot of other complications. At this point, the family just wants the whole process to just be over and so we decided to enter into a very reasonable offer by the state of Texas to just finalize this case once and for all. "They're not getting any prison time and the reasons for that is arguable. There was a lot of give-and-take and a lot of fighting, and I believe we had grounds to continue going, but the clients are tired and a lot of times people just want to put things to rest and that's what happened." He said he will be requesting deferred adjudication for his clients. Deferred adjudication is a form of probation that would leave the Villarreals without a conviction on their records for successfully completing the requirements set by the court. Kirkendall said he would determine deferred adjudication for Martinez's clients after probation officers complete a presentence investigation. In January 2018, warrants were executed at three maquinitas and a home in Zapata County as part of a nine-month illegal gambling investigation conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Laredo Police Department, the Webb and Zapata County District Attorney's Office and the Border Prosecution Unit. The search warrants were executed at Gold Mine, 2132 U.S. 83, Magic Spins, 3002 N. U.S. 83, Lucky Spins, 503 East St. in Falcon, and the residence of Hilda Guerra Villarreal, located in the 1400 block of U.S. 83 in Zapata. While executing the warrants, authorities seized $1.76 million in cash from the four locations. The majority of the money approximately $1.5 million was seized from Hilda Villarreal's home. Law enforcement found the cash in safes, lockers, boxes, suitcases, PVC pipes and various other containers, the District Attorney's Office said. About 545 gambling machines were seized along with facilities where 8-liner machines were manufactured, modified and fabricated. As to the cash seized, a civil forfeiture action is pending in Zapata County, the District Attorney's Office said. Search warrants were also executed at three gambling establishments owned by the Villarreals in Laredo. Law enforcement searched Rebecca Villarreal Lopez's home in the 3000 block of Robert Frost in the D&J Alexander Estates, as well. RELATED: Former Laredo cop pleads not guilty to felony charges of pocketing cash seized in maquinita raids On Jan. 30, the FBI seized about $1.5 million after the Fourth Court of Appeals denied a motion filed by the District Attorney's Office to consider hearing the forfeiture case. In an opinion issued by the appellate court in December, the justices concluded that the forfeiture petition was not filed with the Zapata County District Clerk's Office, but instead it was filed in Bexar County, and thus the trial court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. Alaniz said the case is pending in federal court with the $1.5 million that was seized from Hilda Villarreal, and Wednesday's guilty pleas make the federal case stronger.. "The origin of the money doesn't change," he said. "It's illegal money. There's a plea of money laundering with the state. ... If things go the way I would hope they go, this evidence in today's plea will be helpful to the federal authorities in proving the money are illegal proceeds." Sentencing is scheduled for May 24 in the 406th District Court. Maria Salas may be reached at msalas@lmtonline.com Blue was the theme at Tin Roof BBQ in Atascocita as community members gathered to Raise the Roof on Wednesday. The autism awareness event brought attendees attention to World Autism Awareness Month, which is celebrated in April. Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, according to the Autism Speaks website. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects an estimated one in 59 children in the United States. In a 2016 report, the Texas Council on Autism and Pervasive and Developmental Disorders estimated in 2014 that 399,915 Texas have an ASD diagnosis including 130,316 children below the age of 22. Tin Roof BBQ said they always host events such as this to bring awareness to the community. Including Kids Autism Center contacted us and said they wanted to do an Autism Awareness night and (asked) if we wanted to be a part of it. We said sure, Tin Roof Catering Manager Kacee Richter said. Were just trying to help the parents, if anyone needs guidance. Local autism nonprofits were also there to help parents find external resources and to provide additional information on kids and adults who may be on the autism spectrum. One local nonprofit is the Including Kids Autism Center in Atascocita an organization that helps children and adults on the autism spectrum become a part of their community. A lot of times people think that if they know one person with autism, then they know autism, but its a spectrum, Nichole ODonnell, community outreach director for Including Kids Autism Center said. Were out in the community as much as we are to show the community this is what autism is, this is what our kids and adults can do and that they deserve to be out in the community just like everyone else. Another nonprofit that was at Tin Roof BBQ was Lighthouse Learning & Resource Center. The center offers educational and employment consulting for children and adults with autism and other disabilities. Lighthouse Owner Robin Rettie was there at Tin Roof offering her services and selling sensory items. Sensory items help autistic children and adults process information neurologically and send the messages to the rest of their body. So lets say its time to write and your neurological message for what you want to write and what your hand has to do can be a challenge, Rettie said. That means the neurological message and the body arent in sync. This (sensory item) can wake up that hand and help the individual. Rettie said she started this organization in honor of her sister Laurie Lorraine Rettie. Laurie had autism and died in 1969 when she was 15 years old and in the Willowbrook State School in New York. I think its really important to be present in the community in every way, Robin said. I think having the community see these (sensory) products and realizing the value of them is a benefit to understanding autism. So if you see someone in the store thats stemming, or flapping their hands, or if theyre going to hold some of these (sensory items) people might think, oh that person needs that instead of thinking that person is really odd. kaila.contreras@chron.com The beloved California chain In-N-Out Burger continues to set down roots in Houston. After announcing two locations planned for Katy and Stafford, the popular burger franchise said it will open a third location in northwest Houston at Willowbrook Mall, ABC 13 reported. No timeline for construction has been shared yet, but In-N-Out vice president of real estate Carl Arena told ABC13 the new location could take up to six months to open. The Willowbrook location will feature a drive-thru lane and indoor seating for up to 70 customers, ABC 13 reported. 'WE'RE NOT ON EVERY CORNER': In-N-Out Burger draws the line at Texas In a statement to Community Impact Newspaper, Arena said while the project is still in its early stages, In-N-Out is "really enthusiastic about the site and the opportunity to locate in this vibrant area of Houston." The first chance Houstonians will have to grab an In-N-Out burger will be in November when the Stafford location is expected to open at the Grid, a $500M mixed-use development under way on the former Texas Instruments campus in Stafford. The Katy location will open later this year at 806 Katy Fort Bend Road. Click through the photos above for a look at how we think Whataburger stacks up to In-N-Out... WASHINGTON - The report from special counsel Robert Mueller III lays out in alarming detail abundant evidence against President Donald Trump, finding 10 "episodes" of potential obstruction of justice but ultimately concluding it was not Mueller's role to determine whether the commander in chief broke the law. Submitted to Congress on Thursday, the 448-page document alternates between jarring scenes of presidential scheming and dense legal analysis, and it marks the onset of a new phase of the Trump administration in which congressional Democrats must decide what, if anything, to do with Mueller's evidence. The report suggests - though never explicitly states - that Congress, not the Justice Department, should assume the role of prosecutor when the person who may be prosecuted is the president. "The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law," Mueller's team wrote. Trump once feared Mueller could destroy his presidency, but the special counsel may instead define it. By releasing a thick catalogue of misconduct and mendacity that, if not criminal, is deeply unflattering, Mueller's report may mean long-term political problems for a president seeking reelection next year. Still, Trump's electoral base has not been swayed by such stories in the past, and he has already claimed victory on the investigation's bottom line: no conspiracy with Russia, no obstruction of justice. Since Mueller ended his investigation last month, a central question facing the Justice Department has been why Mueller's team did not reach a conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice. The issue was complicated, the report said, by two key factors - the fact that, under department practice, a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, and that a president has a great deal of constitutional authority to give orders to other government employees. 3 1 of 3 Washington Post photo by Bill O'Leary Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Washington Post photo by Bill O'Leary Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Trump submitted written answers to investigators. The special counsel's office considered them "inadequate" but did not press for an interview with him because doing so would cause a "substantial delay," the report says. The report said investigators felt they had "sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the President's testimony." Trump's legal team declared Mueller's report "a total victory" for the president. It "underscores what we have argued from the very beginning - there was no collusion - there was no obstruction," they said. In their statement, Trump's lawyers also attacked former leaders at the FBI for opening "a biased, political attack against the President - turning one of our foundational legal standards on its head." Trump said little publicly about the report's release. At an event Thursday, he indicated he was having a "good day," and adding that "this should never happen to another president again, this hoax." Ahead of the report's release, the president lobbed a familiar attack on the investigation. "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!" he tweeted. "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats." If Mueller's report was a victory for the president, it was an ugly one. Investigators paint a portrait of a president who believes the Justice Department and the FBI should answer to his orders, even when it comes to criminal investigations. During a meeting in which the president complained about then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, Trump insisted that past attorneys general had been more obedient to their presidents, referring to President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, as well as the Obama administration. "You're telling me that Bobby and Jack didn't talk about investigations? Or Obama didn't tell Eric Holder who to investigate?" Trump told senior White House staffers Stephen Bannon and Donald McGahn, according to the report. "Bannon recalled that the President was as mad as Bannon had ever seen him and that he screamed at McGahn about how weak Sessions was," the report said. Repeatedly, it appears Trump may have been saved from more serious legal jeopardy because his own staffers refused to carry out orders they thought were problematic or potentially illegal. For instance, in the early days of the administration, when the president was facing growing questions concerning then-national security adviser Michael Flynn's conversations about sanctions with a Russian ambassador, the president ordered another aide, K.T. McFarland, to write an email saying the president did not direct those conversations. She decided not to do so, unsure if that was true and fearing it might be improper. "Some evidence suggests that the President knew about the existence and content of Flynn's calls when they occurred, but the evidence is inconclusive and could not be relied upon to establish the President's knowledge,' " the report said. The report also recounts a remarkable moment in May 2017 when Sessions told Trump that Mueller had just been appointed special counsel. Trump slumped back in his chair, according to notes from Jody Hunt, Sessions' then-chief of staff. "Oh my God, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked," Trump said. The president further laid into Sessions for his recusal, saying Sessions had let him down. "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency," Trump said, according to Hunt's notes. "It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me." The special counsel's report on possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russians to interfere in the 2016 election is extremely detailed with only modest redactions - painting a starkly different picture for Trump than Attorney General William Barr has offered, and revealing new details about interactions between Russians and Trump associates. Mueller's team wrote that though their investigation "did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," that assertion was informed by the fact that coordination requires more than two parties "taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other's actions or interests." And Mueller made it clear: Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign was willing to take it. "Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," Mueller's team wrote. The report detailed a timeline of contacts between the Trump campaign and those with Russian ties - much of it already known, but some of it new. For example, Mueller's team asserted that in August 2016, Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the FBI has assessed as having ties to Russian intelligence, met with Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman, "to deliver in person a peace plan for Ukraine that Manafort acknowledged to the Special Counsel's Office was a 'backdoor' way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine." The special counsel wrote that both men believed the plan would require candidate Trump's "assent to succeed (were he elected President)." "They also discussed the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort's strategy for winning Democratic votes in Midwestern states," the special counsel wrote. "Months before that meeting, Manafort had caused internal polling data to be shared with Kilimnik, and the sharing continued for some period of time after their August meeting." Mueller's report suggests his obstruction of justice investigation was heavily informed by an opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that says a sitting president cannot be indicted - a conclusion Mueller's team accepted. "And apart from OLC's constitutional view, we recognized that a federal criminal accusation against a sitting President would place burdens on the President's capacity to govern and potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct," Mueller's team wrote. That decision, though, seemed to leave investigators in a strange spot. Mueller's team wrote that they "determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes." They seemed to shy from producing even an internal document that alleged the president had done something wrong - deciding, essentially, that they wouldn't decide. "Although a prosecutor's internal report would not represent a formal public accusation akin to an indictment, the possibility of the report's public disclosure and the absence of a neutral adjudicatory forum to review its findings counseled against determining 'that the person's conduct constitutes a federal offense.' " Barr said during a news conference Thursday that Justice Department officials asked Mueller "about the OLC opinion and whether or not he was taking the position that he would have found a crime but for the existence of the OLC opinion." "He made it very clear, several times, that he was not taking a position - he was not saying but for the OLC opinion he would have found a crime," Barr said. Mueller did not attend the news conference. Barr addressed the media before releasing the report. He made repeated references to "collusion," echoing language the president has stressed even though it is not a relevant legal term. Barr also described how the nation's top law enforcement officials wrestled with investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice. He and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein "disagreed with some of the special counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law" but that they accepted the special counsel's "legal framework" as they analyzed the case, Barr said. It was the first official acknowledgment of differing views inside the Justice Department about how to investigate the president. Barr also spoke about the president's state of mind as Trump responded to the unfolding investigation. "As the Special Counsel's report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks," he said. The report also said there was a critical distinction to be drawn when analyzing Trump's conduct - what he did before and what he did after The Washington Post reported in June 2017 that he was under investigation for potential obstruction of justice.* "That awareness marked a significant change in the President's conduct and the start of a second phase of action," Mueller's team wrote in their report. "The president launched public attacks on the investigation and individuals involved in it who could possess evidence adverse to the President, while in private, the President engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation."* Mueller's team said those efforts included attempting to remove Mueller as special counsel, pressuring Sessions to unrecuse himself from the investigation, and using "public forums to attack potential witnesses who might offer adverse information and to praise witnesses who declined to cooperate with the government."* The Mueller report is considered so politically explosive that even the Justice Department's rollout plan sparked a firestorm, with Democrats suggesting that the attorney general was trying to improperly color Mueller's findings before the public could read them. Barr is preparing to testify to Congress about the report next month, and Democrats are moving to secure Mueller's testimony soon after. The attorney general also notified Congress after the report's release that a small number of senior members of each party would get a chance to review a less-redacted version of the document next week. Democrats, who have vowed to fight to get the entire report without redactions, as well as the underlying investigative documents, immediately panned the offer, calling it a non-starter. Prompted by a reporter, Barr responded to a call earlier Thursday from the top two Democrats in Congress to have Mueller appear before House and Senate committees. "I have no objection to Bob Mueller personally testifying," the attorney general said. In a letter, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said they wanted testimony "as soon as possible" from Mueller. And after Barr's news conference, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., released a letter to the special counsel seeking an appearance before his panel "no later than May 23." - - - The Washington Post's Greg Miller, Spencer S. Hsu, Karoun Demirjian, Ellen Nakashima, Philip Rucker, John Wagner and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report. - - - Report Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/robert-mueller-s-report-on-the-investigation-into-russian-interference-in-the-2016-election/?noteId=f5fe536c-81bb-45be-86e5-a9fee9794664&questionId=2b6869ce-67e8-47f9-b4d2-ddeeec37f6d4&utm_term=.7d73ce09209b WASHINGTON - The Republican running the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election appears to have passed information regarding the status of the FBI's probe of Russian influence on to the White House Counsel's Office in early 2017, according to special counsel Robert Mueller III's report. The report, a redacted version of which was released to the public Thursday, states that the White House Counsel's Office "appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation" from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., in March 2017, just about a week after former FBI director James Comey briefed the "Gang of Eight" - the congressional leaders privy to the most sensitive intelligence - about the bureau's Russia investigation. Through a spokeswoman, Burr said Thursday that he did not recall any such conversation taking place. "Chairman Burr does not recall this specific conversation with Mr. McGahn in March of 2017; however, any conversations between the two would have been in reference to the need for White House personnel to voluntarily comply with the Senate Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation," intelligence committee spokeswoman Caitlin Carroll said in a statement. "If specific individuals were discussed, they would have been those known to the Committee, the White House, and the media. The Chairman's stewardship over the Committee's bipartisan and fact-based investigation over the last two years speaks for itself." Comey's briefing about the FBI's Russia investigation with the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the heads of the intelligence committees, took place March 9, 2017. On March 20, Comey confirmed publicly during a House Intelligence Committee hearing that the FBI was looking into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin - the FBI's first official acknowledgment that they had been looking into such matters since late July 2017. Burr's conversation with former White House counsel Donald McGahn's office appears to have taken place March 16, 2017, according to information McGahn's chief of staff at the time, Annie Donaldson, provided to the special counsel's investigation. According to Donaldson's notes at the time, Burr told them about the existence of four to five "targets," identified as former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, former Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort, and the "Greek Guy" - presumably former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, Mueller's report surmises. It is not entirely clear from Donaldson's notes whether the "targets" were targets of the FBI's probe or the Senate Intelligence Committee's probe, though the Mueller report noted that the congressional panel "does not formally investigate individuals as 'targets.' " According to Mueller's report, Donaldson "could not rule out that Burr had told McGahn those individuals were the FBI's targets," though she and McGahn both told the special counsel's office that the Senate Intelligence Committee was also interested in investigating these individuals. But "the notes on their face reference the Department of Justice, and Comey," Mueller's report states, "and the notes track the background materials prepared by the FBI for Comey's briefing to the Gang of 8 on March 9." The allegation that Burr may have fed information regarding the FBI's probe to the White House stands in sharp contrast to the independent posture Burr has tried to establish while running the Senate Intelligence Committee's ongoing investigation, which is widely seen as a more consistently painstaking, functional and bipartisan effort than other probes on Capitol Hill. The Senate Intelligence Committee launched its ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election in January 2017. Since then, Burr has taken pains to establish a public firewall between himself and the White House, avoiding attending meetings at the White House, and keeping his distance from President Donald Trump, save for during a September 2018 event in North Carolina to discuss Hurricane Florence relief efforts. Four days before McGahn's office spoke with Burr, Donaldson's notes reveal that on March 12, 2017, the president was "in panic/chaos" and that the pressure was on to give Trump information. As Donaldson wrote in her notes, "need binders to put in front of POTUS. (1) All things related to Russia." A spokeswoman for Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. Though Warner and Burr have disagreed in their assessment of certain evidence uncovered in their probe - including whether there was evidence of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials - Warner has frequently expressed confidence in Burr's leadership of the panel's investigation. WASHINGTON - Elon Musk made a splash almost two years ago when he declared that he had "verbal govt approval" to build an underground "Hyperloop" project that would get people from Washington to New York in 29 minutes, cutting through Baltimore and Philadelphia along the way. Hyperloop passengers would shoot through vacuum tubes in pods traveling more than 600 miles per hour, according to Musk's tunneling venture, the Boring Co. But the electric car pioneer's latest take on that plan, detailed late Wednesday in a report considering environmental impacts, is to build two 35-mile tunnels from Washington to Baltimore that would carry autonomous Teslas or their corporate cousins at 150 miles per hour, on rubber tires, getting from city to city in about 15 minutes. The 505-page environmental assessment from federal and Maryland transportation officials shows how Musk's original vision has advanced. Unanswered in the report, however, are questions on the cost, safety, and practicality of the effort. Among a host of federal, state and local issues yet to be resolved is how Musk would compensate the National Park Service for building under the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The current proposal calls for a "land exchange," in which Musk's company gives the Park Service land "of approximately equal value" in exchange for an easement giving it the right to build the tunnels. The project, while being proposed by the Boring Co., is formally sponsored by the Maryland State Highway Administration, which worked with the Federal Highway Administration in preparing the draft environmental assessment. "Technical information forming the basis" of the assessment "was developed and prepared by" the company, according to the report. There will be a 45-day public comment period. Federal and state officials will review the public responses, and federal highway officials will determine whether the impacts are considered "significant" enough to warrant a more extensive environmental review under federal law. Maryland Transportation Department spokeswoman Erin Henson declined to characterize the potential environmental impacts or project benefits. The report on what is now called Loop is notable for what it says the project will not do. Despite the early talk of transformation, it "would not change travel patterns in the region," the report said. It would open with two stations, one in a parking lot at Camden Yards in Baltimore, the other on New York Avenue NE in the District of Columbia, and expand later. Initial ridership would be 1,000 passengers a day in each direction, according to the report. "These ridership figures are unlikely to greatly impact economic growth, land use patterns, neighborhood character, or traffic congestion," according to the assessment. The Washington metropolitan region had about 4.1 million registered vehicles last year, according to regional planners. About 120,000 vehicles travel on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway daily. As for Musk's original "Hyper" version, the "Loop tunnels could potentially serve as Hyperloop corridors," according to the assessment. "However, the potential future use of Hyperloop technology is currently unknown." The company says it is more confident about that future, arguing that the system is designed for both, and that the Hyperloop would come into play after technical designs are finished and regulatory approvals are received. Construction of the two 35-mile tunnels, including excavating 2,000,000 cubic yards of soil, would take a year to 20 months, the assessment said. Overall construction, including stations, would total 15 to 23 months, it anticipated. The project must first complete its environmental review and obtain regulatory approvals, a process expected to be completed this year, the report said. Skeptics have pointed to Musk's penchant for overpromising, saying this could be another example. Critics have also mocked the concept as conveniently car-centric for an entrepreneur with an electric car company, saying it does not move the needle on needed mass transit. Kevin DeGood, director of infrastructure policy at the Center for American Progress, dismissed the ambitious tunneling schedule on Twitter with a "Hahahahahahahahahahahahah." But Musk and his backers say the privately funded effort would offer widespread benefits. "This transportation system would create a significant public benefit due to decreased commute times, decreased urban congestion, decreased public transportation trip times, decreased transportation costs/fares, and decreased greenhouse gas emissions," the company said. Musk has received backing on the overall project from the White House Office of American Innovation, led by President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well as Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, and it has become part of the Trump administration's broader push to streamline infrastructure approvals. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, visited the Boring Co. in California last years to learn more about the technology. District officials, who have been generally upbeat but noncommittal about the project, are reviewing the assessment. "The publication of a draft environmental assessment for this unique project demonstrates the Department's commitment to preparing for the future of transportation across all modes," U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said in a statement, which also said the Boring Co. was pursuing the "high-speed tunnel facility to help alleviate area congestion." Chao's department created a new group called the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council to smooth the way for such projects. The internal group aims to "identify jurisdictional and regulatory gaps" that come up as the federal officials consider new transportation technologies. "Operational safety issues" with the Loop system "will be addressed in future studies, as will the ultimate engineering and design details," according to the Transportation Department statement. In developing Loop projects, the firm uses Tesla Model X's "modified with alignment wheels," and in some cases "an extended chassis to accommodate up to 16 passengers," the Boring Co. said. Musk's firm is working on similar efforts in Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Musk's plan to build a tunnel in West Los Angeles was the subject of an environmental lawsuit, which the company agreed to settle last year. Now his company is focusing another proposed tunnel project near Dodger Stadium. The environmental assessment looks at how neighborhood aesthetics, wetlands and air quality might be affected, and it describes expected noise and vibration levels, generally presenting a case that such impacts would be limited, given that the tunnels will run more than 30 feet underground and will be in "a heavily trafficked corridor." The company said the technology allows for a network of stations on private land, many with a small footprint the size of a few parking spaces. Others would be bigger. There might also be spurs off the main D.C.-Baltimore tunnel, reaching Maryland communities such as College Park, Greenbelt and Jessup, but the company said there is no final decision on where they might go. There would be four "launch pits," where tunnel boring machines would be put into place to begin digging, and up to 70 "ventilation shafts/emergency exits" between 12 and 24 feet across. Some of the ventilation shafts could end up being turned into future stations. The environmental assessment said that "between one and four" of the launch pit sites could be "repurposed to serve as Maintenance Terminals" and charging stations for electric vehicles used in the tunnels. While outside experts have said costs could prove prohibitive for many, the company said they would be comparable to fares for MARC trains, the commuter rail line that the assessment noted "typically takes one hour at a cost of $8." The father of a 1-year-old boy who was left outside in central Oregon with a broken leg, cracked skull and meth in his system has accepted a plea deal that will send him to prison for over two years. Brandon Blouin agreed this week to enter an Alford plea to criminal mistreatment, endangering the welfare of a minor and felon in possession of body armor. In exchange, charges of custodial interference, child neglect and abandonment of a child were dismissed. Under the plea, Blouins lawyer acknowledged that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to prove the charges. Authorities say Blouin and the childs mother took the boy from his legal guardian in West Virginia. Authorities say Blouin allegedly told authorities hed set the child down in the woods outside Bend but couldnt find him. "Blouin is believed to have been under the influence of a controlled substance when he made the choice set him down and walk away," deputies wrote. The Deschutes County Sheriffs Office launched a massive search effort, utilizing ground and horseback searchers, as well as drones and helicopters with thermal image sensors. More than six hours after he went missing, a detective assisting with the search found the child lying facedown, naked, in the dirt. The boy was sleeping, and covered in dirt and pine cones. Detective Doug Jackson told The Oregonian that he and a sheriff's sergeant had come upon the child by following footprints left by the boy's father. "I don't think we could've gotten a much bigger win than this," said Jackson. "When you have a needle in a haystack situation like this, it could go a number of different ways. It was very much a team effort, and I'm just thankful that we found the kiddo." The Bulletin reports that the boy now lives with his grandmother. WASHINGTON - James McCord, a retired CIA employee who was convicted as a conspirator in the Watergate burglary and later linked the 1972 break-in to the White House in revelations that helped end the presidency of Richard Nixon, died June 15, 2017, at his home in Douglassville, Pennsylvania. He was 93. The cause was pancreatic cancer, according to his death certificate obtained at the Berks County Register of Wills office in Reading, Pennsylvania. McCord's death was first reported in "Dirty Tricks," a 2018 history of the Watergate investigation by filmmaker Shane O'Sullivan. But the news did not appear in local or national media outlets and surfaced online in March, when the website Kennedys and King published an obituary referencing his gravesite in Pennsylvania. McCord served in the CIA for 19 years, including as chief of the agency's physical security division, before his supporting, at times sensational role in the events that precipitated the first resignation in history of a U.S. president. He had retired from the spy agency and was privately employed as head of security for the Committee for the Re-Election of the President - commonly called CREEP - when he became entangled in a scheme to burglarize and bug the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate building in Washington. McCord had once taught a college course on how to protect buildings from intrusions, and he helped lead the operation. Preparing for the break-in, the conspirators rigged door latches at the Watergate complex with adhesive tape to prevent the doors from locking. The tape caught the attention of a security guard, Frank Wills, who alerted the police to suspicious activity in the building. In the early morning hours of June 17, 1972, plainclothes officers entered the Democratic headquarters and found five burglars clad in suits and surgical gloves. Those men - McCord, Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martinez and Virgilio Gonzalez - were carrying bugging devices, cameras, film and a walkie-talkie. McCord initially used the alias Edward Martin but was quickly connected to the reelection committee. His arraignment, covered by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward for one of the newspaper's first articles about the events now collectively known as the Watergate scandal, was memorably dramatized in the 1976 film "All the President's Men." Portrayed by actor Richard Herd, McCord is asked by a court official about his previous line of government work. "C-I-A," he whispers, in an early hint that the break-in was more than a "third-rate burglary attempt," as White House spokesman Ronald Ziegler dismissively described it. In September 1972, a federal grand jury indicted McCord, the other burglars, and Nixon aides Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy on charges stemming from the bugging attempt. Hunt and four burglars pleaded guilty. McCord and Liddy were tried in January 1973 and were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and bugging. John Sirica, the federal judge who presided over the Watergate cases, controversially threatened defendants with stiff sentences if they did not assist investigators. Facing a possible 45 years in prison, McCord submitted to Sirica a letter that The Post described years later as a "bombshell." "There was political pressure applied to the defendants to plead guilty and remain silent," McCord wrote in the March 1973 document, delivered to the court after his conviction and before his sentencing. "Perjury occurred during the trial in matters highly material to the very structure, orientation, and impact of the government's case, and to the motivation and intent of the defendants." He further wrote that "others involved in the Watergate operation were not identified during the trial, when they could have been by those testifying." Days later, McCord appeared before the Senate Watergate committee and testified that Liddy had told him John Mitchell, the reelection committee chairman and former U.S. attorney general, had approved the bugging scheme. McCord further said he had been informed that White House counsel John Dean and Nixon aide Jeb Stuart Magruder knew in advance of the plan. McCord continued to deliver allegations of misconduct at high levels. In a May 1973 memorandum to Senate and other investigators, he wrote that he and the other burglars were pressured to falsely testify that the Watergate scheme was executed at the behest of the CIA - an account that would have exculpated the reelection committee and one that he refused to give. "Even if it meant my freedom, I would not turn on the organization that had employed me for 19 years," he wrote. "I was completely convinced that the White House was behind the idea and ploy which had been presented, and that the White House was turning ruthless." McCord also testified that John Caulfield, a Nixon administration official, relayed an offer for clemency and a future job if McCord would agree to not testify against Nixon officials and to accept a prison sentence. McCord's statements, some of them made in closed-door Senate sessions and reported by the media, were credited with helping to break open the Watergate investigation by connecting the burglary to high-ranking Nixon officials. Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. McCord served four months in prison. "I have no regrets in telling the truth," he said when he reported to the penitentiary in March 1975. "I think in the long run it's been extremely beneficial to the country to have become aware of what occurred. I was probably the first to tell the truth on Watergate." James Walter McCord Jr. was born in Waurika, Oklahoma, on Jan. 26, 1924. He was a second lieutenant in the Army Air Forces, serving as a bombardier during World War II, and graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Texas. He was an FBI special agent before joining the CIA in 1951, and in 1965, he received a master's degree in international affairs from George Washington University. After retiring from the agency, which bestowed on him an award for distinguished service, he ran a security consulting firm in Rockville, Maryland. In subsequent years, he worked in Colorado for a company that promoted alternative energy. His wife, Sarah Berry McCord, died in 2014. He had three children, but a complete list of survivors was not available. Calls seeking comment from his family were not immediately returned. In 1974, McCord self-published a book, "A Piece of Tape - The Watergate Story: Fact and Fiction," that discussed at least one scenario of events that might have been. Shortly before the Watergate break-in, McCord wrote, the burglars considered calling off the plan when they discovered that someone had noticed and removed the adhesive tape they placed on the door latches. Rather than aborting the operation, they rigged the locks again. It was Wills, the security guard, who spotted the tape the first time. He did not overlook it the second. - - - Morgan reported from Reading, Pennsylvania. EDWARDSVILLE A Missouri man is facing a Class X felony after being arrested and charged with his seventh count of driving under the influence in Granite City. Ray L. Yeargain, 48, of Wentzville, Missouri, was charged with two counts of aggravated driving under the influence, one for the previous driving under the influence convictions, and another for allegedly driving under the influence at a time when his license was revoked. His bail is set at $150,000. Hong Kong: SJ visits Vienna Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng met Secretary General of the Federal Ministry of Constitutional Affairs, Reforms, Deregulation & Justice of Austria Christian Pilnacek before concluding her visit to Vienna today. Ms Cheng gave Mr Pilnacek an update on Hong Kong's legal developments and both sides explored collaboration opportunities. She also visited the Vienna International Arbitral Centre to meet the centres president Gunther Horvath and its vice president Nikolaus Pitkowitz who were briefed on the latest developments of arbitration in Hong Kong. Ms Cheng outlined the advantages brought about by the signing of the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings by the Courts of the Mainland & of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Ms Cheng then paid a courtesy call on the Permanent Representative and Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of China to United Nations & other International Organizations in Vienna Wang Qun. She attended the 26th Vis Moot Final as a judge for the final round. Vis Moot is an international moot court competition to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration for the resolution of international business disputes. Upon her arrival in Vienna yesterday, Ms Cheng met Secretary of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Anna Joubin-Bret and called on the Chinese Ambassador to Austria Li Xiaosi. She also delivered a speech at the Vis Moot reception. This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. (CNN) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected and directed a "new tactical guided weapons firing test," according to a report from the country's state media. The report, from news agency KCNA, did not state exactly what kind of weapon was tested, nor its potential range. No missile launch was detected by U.S. Northern Command and Strategic Command, according to U.S. Department of Defense officials. Kim praised the weapon's capabilities, the state-run agency reported. "The development and completion of this weapons system will be a great historic event in strengthening the combat capability of the People's Army," he said, according to KCNA. "I was often completely moved in admiration at the time of strategic weapons development but seeing this it seems our scientists, engineers and the labor class is truly great. If they are willing then no weapon is beyond creation." The report said the North Korean leader, "climbed the observation post to observe the new tactical guided weapons firing test plan and gave directions." It added that the test, which was "conducted by various firing method on each different targets, had perfectly proved the design specifications of this tactical guided weapon which is evaluated to be superior due to its special flight guidance method and powerful warheads." Pyongyang last conducted a "tactical" weapons test in November 2018. A South Korean government source with military knowledge told CNN that weapon was likely a piece of long-range artillery "likely to be a multiple rocket launcher." At the time, South Korean Unification Ministry deputy spokeswoman Lee Eu-gene downplayed the significance of the 2018 event, saying Kim had been continuing his inspections in the military sector "intermittently." Message to United States and its allies? Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies nuclear proliferation, said the weapon likely differs from the long-range missiles the North Korean regime has tested in the past few years. "We don't know what it is but if it's another 'tactical system' like an MRLS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) or a coastal defense system, or air defense, it would seem to be consistent with Kim potentially reminding both the U.S. and (South Korea) in a calibrated way where things could go, if the U.S. especially doesn't moderate its negotiating position. "With rebuilding Sohae, continued activity at ballistic missile facilities and Yongbyon, and this, Kim seems to be suggesting 'I've loaded my gun, but I am not going to fire ... just yet,'" he said, referring to key testing facilities in North Korea. Stalled talks The test comes amid an apparent effort by the United States to re-engage high stakes nuclear talks with North Korea after a failed Hanoi summit earlier this year between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. This week, United States Special Representative for North Korea for North Korea Stephen Biegun is headed to Moscow amid rumors in South Korean media that Kim Jong Un is planning to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon, apparently the latest attempt by Washington to jump-start nuclear talks. In February, Trump and Kim left the Vietnamese capital without a deal, in part due to disagreements over trading sanctions relief for North Korea scaling back its nuclear program. The February summit, the second since the two leaders met in Singapore last June, was expected to build upon their agreement to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." Nuclear talks with Pyongyang have seemingly been stuck in neutral since the abrupt end to a summit. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly characterized this most recent weapons test as a multiple rocket launcher test. This story wasd first published on CNN.com "North Korea tests 'tactical' weapon, report says" TOKYO - North Korea announced Thursday that it had test-fired a new tactical guided weapon, in its first public weapons test since the breakdown of a summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in February. It was not immediately clear what type of weapon the North Koreans fired, but experts said the description of a tactical weapon, with guided flight, capable of carrying a powerful warhead and fired at a variety of targets, suggested a short-range missile rather a longer-range ballistic missile, meaning the move would not violate North Korea's self-declared moratorium on testing. Nevertheless, experts said the action was a calibrated sign of defiance by Kim following a stalemate in the denuclearization talks and a reminder that his country was continuing to develop its conventional weapons program. But they said it does not close the door on diplomacy or negotiations about North Korea's nuclear program. The state-run Korean Central News Agency said Kim oversaw the testing of the weapon Wednesday, explaining that it was tested "in various modes of firing at different targets," had a "peculiar mode of guiding flight," and could carry a powerful warhead. Kim was quoted as saying that "the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army." Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the description suggested a short-range missile that can be launched from the ground, sea and air. "This looks like a new form of cruise missile," he said. "If it's a new form of cruise missile, it's irrelevant to sanctions, because the current U.N. sanctions are about ballistic missiles." The test follows an announcement in November of the firing of what state media called an "ultramodern tactical weapon," noting at the time Kim's "passionate joy" at its success. Lee Jong-Seok, a former South Korean unification minister who is now at the Sejong Institute, said the latest announcement sent a message to Washington but did not cross the line. "What matters in negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. is strategic, not tactical, weapons," he said. "A test of tactical weapons does not constitute a full-on provocation, but North Korea is clearly sending a defiant message to the United States. Kim Jong Un does not intend to walk out of negotiations but shows that he can 'seek a new way' in the worst case." Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation warned against reading too much into the latest announcement, noting that experts still don't even know what system was tested in November. In neither case was anything detected by the United States, he added, implying it was some sort of short-range system. "Pundits and policymakers should refrain from assuming this is a signal of Pyongyang deliberately ratcheting up tensions or closing the door on negotiations," he said. Trump and Kim held a historic first summit in Singapore last June, but their second meeting nearly two months ago in Hanoi ended abruptly without any progress on efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program. In a speech last week, Kim said he would be prepared to meet Trump for a third summit, but only if the United States fundamentally changed its approach. He also warned that his patience was running out and gave the United States until the end of the year to make a "bold decision." That followed a New Year's Day speech in which Kim threatened to seek a "new way" if the United States continued to apply sanctions pressure and demand unilateral concessions. North Korea swore off the testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles after firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at the end of 2017, but it did not promise to halt the testing of all types of weapons. Trump has touted the suspension of nuclear and ICBM tests as proof of the success of his negotiations with Pyongyang. A U.S. official familiar with monitoring operations told the Associated Press that neither U.S. Strategic Command nor the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) had observed any weapons test. That rules out tests that go high into the atmosphere, such as a ballistic missile, but does not rule out tests at lower altitudes. Victor Cha, a North Korea expert at Georgetown University in Washington, said North Korea was continuing to develop its weapons systems, calling it "business as usual, after the failed Hanoi summit." Harry Kazianis, director of Korean studies at the Center for the National Interest, said Kim was sending a signal. "Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day, and that his regime is becoming frustrated with Washington's lack of flexibility in recent negotiations," he said. "Sadly, we are only one ICBM test away from another crisis with Pyongyang, and these smaller tests only bring us closer to such a moment." But Duyeon Kim at the Center for a New American Security said the test was unlikely to affect negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang in any meaningful way. "It's not all about the U.S.," she said. "It's just as much as, if not more, a domestic message to assure the North Korean people and military elite that summitry won't affect their national defense and strength." Kim Jong Un also oversaw drills this week by the military's air and antiaircraft force tasked with defending the capital city of Pyongyang, state-run media reported on Wednesday. - - - Hudson reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Min Joo Kim contributed to this report from Seoul. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Thursday joked about serving more than two terms as president, telling a crowd that he might remain in the Oval Office "at least for 10 or 14 years." Trump made the comments on the same day that special counsel Robert Mueller's report was released to the public. At an event for the Wounded Warrior Project, Lt. Gen. Michael Linnington, CEO of the veterans charity, gave Trump a gift to thank him for his support. "Well, this is really beautiful," Trump told the crowd in the East Room of the White House. "This will find a permanent place, at least for six years, in the Oval Office. Is that OK?" After some laughter from the crowd, Trump continued: "I was going to joke, general, and say at least for 10 or 14 years, but we would cause bedlam if I said that, so we'll say six." Trump also made a joke on the same topic last year. In a speech to Republican donors at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, he praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for doing away with term limits. "He's now president for life. President for life. No, he's great," Trump said, according to CNN. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot some day." Jet Airways India, the second local carrier to ground its entire fleet in the past decade, is casting a shadow on India's booming aviation sector. Once the nation's biggest airline by market value, Jet Airways' shares nosedived by a record 31 percent on Thursday in Mumbai after saying it would suspend operations on a "temporary" basis as it ran out of money. A severe cash crunch had pushed Vijay Mallya's indebted Kingfisher Airlines to ground its planes in 2012. It never flew again and Mallya is still fighting his extradition to India from London. India's aviation sector is an investment conundrum: it's the world's fastest-growing aviation market that has seen 54 consecutive months of double-digit percentage passenger growth and yet it's notoriously difficult to make money in. As Jet Airways' lenders race to find an investor for the debt-ravaged airline, suitors will weigh the sector's prospects against India's high jet-fuel prices and a crushing fare war worsened by the entry of no-frills carriers. "It's a terrible setback for the entire industry. This makes the whole aviation story look doubtful," said Parvez Damania, a Mumbai-based aviation expert. "Grounding of Jet Airways has impacted the credibility of double-digit growth of Indian civil aviation." The crisis at Jet Airways that risks 23,000 jobs, has come at an exceptionally sensitive time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who's seeking re-election in the ongoing national elections, amid concerns on rising unemployment. The Modi administration has in the past few years cracked down hard on India's delinquent borrowers to repair the books of banks that currently have the world's worst soured loan ratio. "Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going," the carrier said in an April 17 statement. "With immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights." The carrier added that the decision was taken after a painstaking evaluation of all alternatives, with the ministries of civil aviation and finance and the aviation safety regulator informed in advance. It'll continue to support a bid process initiated by lenders and that it aims to return to flying "as soon as possible." That mechanism is due to conclude on May 10. State Bank of India, on behalf of all Jet's lenders, said in a Thursday statement that they had decided that "the best way forward for the survival of the carrier is to get the binding bids from potential investors" who were interested. Lenders are "reasonably hopeful" that the bid process is likely to be successful in determining a fair value for the carrier, it said. The banks are said to have shortlisted Etihad Airways, India's National Investment and Infrastructure Fund and private equity firms TPG Capital and Indigo Partners, people familiar with the discussions said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Jet's financial problems are not new, according to Dharmesh Kant, head of retail research at Mumbai-based Indianivesh Securities. "It had been kicking the can down the road but sooner or later the time had to run out and it did," he said over phone. Jet, which broke the monopoly of state-run Air India Ltd. in the early 1990s, has been in decline since budget airlines started offering ultra-low fares that hurt profits and led it to pile up more than $1 billion in debt. It also has unpaid dues to aircraft-leasing firms and employees including pilots, who have been agitating over non-payment of salaries. Jet's founder Naresh Goyal resigned as chairman of the ailing airline last month, caving in to pressure from creditors. Goyal, who started in aviation as a ticketing agent, rose to be among the nation's elite after Jet became India's premier full service carrier. It won't be an easy task for Jet's new owner to turnaround the airline, which has reported losses for four straight quarters and in nine out of 11 last financial years. Grounding the airline means its value is going to erode further, making the revival tougher for any suitor. "With no aircraft, pilots, flight attendants and engineers, I certainly don't see how any bidder will continue to see value in Jet Airways," said Mark D Martin, founder of Martin Consulting. "History and our business dynamics prove that once an airline shuts down in India, it doesn't restart." Indian carriers, including Jet, have seen their profits hurt by the world's highest jet-fuel taxes and a price war worsened by the entry of low-cost, no-frills airlines such as IndiGo and SpiceJet Ltd. that offered dirt-cheap fares with lower overheads. Foreign carriers from Malaysia's low-cost AirAsia Group Bhd. to Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Jet's minority shareholder Etihad, have all learnt how hard it is to make money in Indian skies. Air India, the state carrier, has been propped up on bailouts from the exchequer for years. AirAsia, which entered in 2014 with a vow to break even in four months, is still nowhere close to its goal. Vistara, Singapore Air's joint venture with the Tata Group that started in 2015, has yet to make any money. SpiceJet had almost collapsed in 2014. The only exception in the sector is Indigo, run by Interglobe Aviation, which has reported annual profits since 2011 and whose stock has soared 33 percent this year. Spicejet, which has been on the mend, has also advanced as it leases more aircraft and starts more flights on the New Delhi-Mumbai route. Air fares are expected to rise in the coming weeks, possibly denting the passenger growth story that was making India the world's quickest-growing aviation market. Jet's decision to stop flying will also push the fares higher. Jet's lenders could have done a bit more to keep the carrier up in the air, if only to preserve the value of the asset they have put on the block, according to Martin. "To think that no money was pumped in to resolve liabilities of lessors, fuelers and salaries is unforgiving," he said. - - - Bloomberg's Nupur Acharya contributed. More postal employees were attacked by dogs in Houston than in any other U.S. city in 2018, according to a new ranking by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). While nationwide the number of dog attacks decreased by more than 500 from 2017 to 2018, with a total of 5,714 reported incidents, Houston saw an increase. Up from 71 dog attacks in 2017 to 75 dog attacks in 2018, the Bayou City ranks No. 1 on the list of 20 U.S. cities. Other Texas cities to rank are Dallas at No. 5, San Antonio at No. 6 and Fort Worth at No. 10. To reduce the number of dog attacks, USPS uses Mobile Delivery Devices, or scanners, to indicate the presence of a dog at an individual address. As well, "Package Pickup" applications ask customers to indicate if dogs are at their address when they schedule package pickups. This allows USPS to send alerts to carriers. Houston: Mail carrier accused of pepper-spraying barking dog charged with animal cruelty The release of the USPS national ranking coincides with National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which runs now through Saturday. The Postal Service offers the following safety tips to prevent attacks by dogs, according to the release: When a letter carrier delivers mail or packages to your front door, place your dog in a separate room and close that door before opening the front door. Parents should remind children and other family members not to take mail directly from letter carriers in the presence of the family pet. The dog may view the letter carrier handing mail to a family member as a threatening gesture. If a letter carrier feels threatened by a dog, or if a dog is loose or unleashed, the owner may be asked to pick up mail at a Post Office or another facility. "Our employees have been great at taking preventative measures against dog attacks, but they need help from our customers, too," USPS safety director Linda DeCarlo said in the release. "We are confident we can keep moving the trends of attacks downward, and ramping up overall awareness for everyone is the best way to do that." Marcy de Luna is a digital reporter. You can follow her on Twitter @MarcydeLuna and Facebook @MarcydeLuna. Read her stories on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | Marcy.deLuna@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message The family of the San Antonio firefighter killed battling a massive Northwest Side fire in 2017 filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the manufacturers of a safety device used by firefighters to signal when they are in trouble. According to the lawsuit filed in Bexar County District Court, firefighter Scott Deem was killed after his Personal Alert Safety Systems, or PASS, device did not sound as intended. Deem, along with firefighter Brad Phipps, had entered the Ingram Square Shopping Center on the evening of May 18, 2017 to search for possible victims when they became trapped by the massive blaze. A San Antonio man has been sentenced in a 2017 killing at a Northeast Side mobile home park. Alex Martinez Ortiz was 20 when he was arrested in April 2017 and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Mark Hughes, 29. When authorities arrived around 12:30 a.m. March 29, 2017, at a mobile home park in the 6700 block of Walzem Road, they found Hughes, who had been shot multiple times. He was taken to San Antonio Military Medical Center where he later died. Court records indicate that Hughes was doing carpentry work on fencing around a trailer at the park when he had to cross over onto another trailer's property and got into an altercation with residents. The situation later escalated with Ortiz shooting Hughes, which was corroborated by a witness. RELATED: Last two defendants sent to prison in 2016 killing of bystander in San Antonio drug robbery gone bad At a pre-sentencing investigation hearing Tuesday, Ortiz took responsibility for the shooting and entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors before Judge Ron Rangel in the 379th state District Court for a sentence of 25 years in prison, the maximum under the deal. Because there was an affirmative finding of assault with a deadly weapon, Ortiz, now 22, will have to serve at least half of his 25-year term before he is eligible for parole. Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb, the first woman to pass NASA's astronaut training, has died. She was 88. Cobb, a pioneering female pilot, was a member of the Mercury 13, a group of women who were able to complete in the early 1960s the same, physically demanding astronaut training as male candidates. NASA squashed the program before any of these women could fly in space, but Cobb remained a steadfast advocate for women pilots throughout her lifetime even taking on revered Mercury 7 astronaut John Glenn in Congress to fight for a woman's right to be an astronaut. When that didn't work, she changed course, spending much of her life as a missionary pilot in the Amazon jungle, delivering medicine, food and clothing to extremely isolated regions. This work earned her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 1981. MISSION MOON: Marking the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, on HoustonChronicle.com "Gone, but never forgotten," The Oklahoma Hall of Fame at Gaylord-Pickens Museum tweeted Thursday morning. "A true pioneer, STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] advocate & role model. You will be missed, Jerrie!" She died on March 18 in Florida, according to a statement from her family. The Associated Press reported that she died after a brief illness. "After living sixty-six adventure filled years as a pilot and advocate for female pilots, and sharing over fifty years of her life with the indigenous Indian tribes of the Amazon, Jerrie's humble smile and sky-blue eyes live on in our hearts," the statement read. "It is fitting that Jerrie was born in, and would leave us in, Woman's History Month." News of her death comes just one day after NASA announced Wednesday that astronaut Christina Koch will make the longest female spaceflight in history, at 328 days. More Information About the Mercury 13 Thirteen women - known as the Mercury 13 - were recruited in the late 1950s and early 1960s to be astronauts, but NASA shut the program down. It would be another two decades before women would go into space. Myrtle Cagle: Born in North Carolina in 1925, Cagle learned to fly at age 12 and had earned her private pilot's license by 19. She tried out to be a Women Airforce Service Pilot during World War II. After returning home, she became a flight instructor and, after the Mercury 13 plans were scrapped, she continued to fly in air shows and was the second woman to earn an airframe and powerplant mechanic's rating from Georgia Technical Institute. Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb: Born in Oklahoma in 1931, Cobb was just 16 when she earned her private pilot's license. Before becoming part of the Mercury 13, she spent three years delivering aircraft, such as B-17 bombers, across the world. After being denied her chance in fly in space, she became a missionary pilot in the Amazon jungle, delivering medicine, food and clothing to the most isolated of regions. Because of this work, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1981. Cobb died in March at the age of 88. Jan and Marion Dietrich: Born in 1926 in California, twin sisters Jan and Marion Dietrich were the only girls in their high school's aviation class. They earned their private pilot's licenses early and placed second in the All-Women's Transcontinental Air Race in 1951. Marion worked as a newspaper reporter for the Oakland Tribune and flew charter and ferry flights before she and Jan were selected as part of the Mercury 13. Marion died in 1974 from cancer. Jan died in 2008. Wally Funk: Born in New Mexico in 1939, Funk has been flying professionally since 1957. Her first job at age 20 was in Oklahoma as a civilian flight instructor for U.S. Army officers. In 1970, she received the commercial glider rating and taught aeronautical science at Redondo High School in California. She also went on a goodwill flying tour for three years that covered Europe and the Middle East. In 1974, she became the first female air-safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C. Janey Hart: Born in Michigan in 1921, Hart was an accomplished equestrian and an avid sailor. She earned her pilot's license at age 18 and was the first woman in Michigan licensed to fly a helicopter in the 1950s. Before joining the Mercury 13, Hart served with the Red Cross Motor Corps during World War II, driving trucks from Detroit to military bases. She was married to a senator and was an outspoken activist for women's rights. Hart, a founder of the National Organization for Women, died in 2015 at the age of 93. Jean Hixson: Born in Illinois in 1922, Hixson earned her pilot's license at age 18. She trained with Women's Airforce Service Pilots during World War II and flew B-25 twin-engine bombers as an Air Force pilot. In 1957, she became the second woman to break the sound barrier. After Mercury 13 failed to get accepted by NASA, Hixson moved to Akron, Ohio, where she worked as a teacher and flight instructor. She died in 1984. Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen: Born in Illinois in 1937, Jessen fell in love with flight at a young age. She learned how to fly while attending the University of Oklahoma and was a flight instructor and a commercial pilot when she was selected for the Mercury 13 program. After those plans fell apart, she became a sales-demonstration pilot for the Beechcraft factory in Kansas. She has remained active in aviation as a member of the Boise Airport Commission and president of the Ninety-Nines, a women's flying group. Irene Leverton: Born in 1927 in Illinois, Leverton joined the Civil Air Patrol in 1944, flying the Piper J-3 Cub. She also served as an agriculture pilot spraying crops in Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas. After the Mercury 13 was shuttered, she became an FAA Designated Accident Prevention Counselor, flew in races and flew search-and-rescue flights, as well as flights for the Arizona Border Patrol. She retired from flying in 2010 and died in 2017 at age 90. Sarah Ratley: Born in 1933 in Kansas, Ratley earned her pilot's license at age 17. She became a member of the Ninety-Nines, a women's pilot association started by Amelia Earhart. She was a Whirly Girl helicopter pilot and was working as an electrical engineer at AT&T when she became a member of the Mercury 13. As of 2015, she was working as an accountant but continued to fly. Bernice Steadman: Born in Michigan in 1925, Steadman earned her pilot's license at age 17 before she got her driver's license. Before becoming part of the Mercury 13, she started Trimble Aviation, where she operated her own flight school and charter service at the Bishop Airport in Flint, Mich., and in 1955, she won the All Women's Transcontinental Air Race and the All Women's International Air Race to Cuba. Later in her life, Steadman co-founded the International Women's Air and Space Museum in Ohio. She died in 2017 at the age of 89. Jerri Truhill: Born in Pampa, Texas, in 1928, Truhill fell in love with flying at the age of 4 and started taking lessons at 15 without her parents' knowledge. Before becoming part of the Mercury 13, she flew twin-engine North American B-25s for Texas Instruments alongside her future husband, Joe Truhill. Later, she flew a P-51 Mustang in a pink lycra flying suit for Monsanto. She died in 2013 at the age of 85. Rhea Woltman: Born in Minnesota in 1928, Woltman didn't learn to fly until after several years of teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. She started as a private pilot, then became a commercial pilot and finally became a flying instructor. She was a charter pilot in Houston when she was tapped as one of the Mercury 13. In the early 1970s, she moved to Colorado to do glider training and towing for Air Force Academy cadets. She is a registered parliamentarian, which means she provides oversight of regulations at formal meetings. Sources: National Aviation Hall of Fame, Detroit Free Press, New York Times, Dallas Observer, World Space Flight, Colorado Women's Hall of Fame, The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Gizmodo, International Women's Air and Space Museum, University of Akron See More Collapse The Mercury 13 Cobb, an Oklahoma native, was 12 years old when she learned to fly, earning her pilot's license at 16. By 28, she had logged 7,000 hours in the cockpit more than Glenn. And that's when she was approached in September 1959 by pioneering research scientist Randy Lovelace about taking the space stress test. Lovelace helped NASA choose the first class of astronauts and thought that women would be good candidates: They were lighter, shorter, more resistant to radiation and could handle pain, heat, cold and loneliness better than men. But the testing had to be done in secret. Women were not allowed to be military test pilots a requirement of astronaut candidates at the time. HOME: NASA's longtime presence in Houston, only on HoustonChronicle.com After Cobb was tapped by Lovelace, a dozen more women were chosen, but NASA shut the program down when they learned of it. Cobb and her female colleagues took their fight to Congress in 1962. "As pilots, we fly and share mutual respect with male pilots in the primarily man's world of aviation," Cobb told Congressional members at the time. "We see, only, a place in our Nation's space future without discrimination. ... There are sound medical and scientific reasons for using women in space." But Glenn stood in their way, telling Congress that "the fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order." Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova rocketed into space the following year. It would be another two decades before American women finally got their chance, when Sally Ride strapped into the Space Shuttle Challenger in June 1983. Ride died in 2012. 'Opening the door for us' Cobb went on to fly humanitarian aid missions in the Amazon jungle, a calling she followed for decades. "In what would perhaps become her greatest contribution to humanity, she flew dangerous humanitarian aid missions serving the indigenous people of the Amazon, discovering tribes of Indians never before known to man and helping them sustain life," her family wrote. "Even in the Amazon she faced gender discrimination in trying to fly for humanitarian aid groups." For this work, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1981 and honored by the governments of Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. She even received the Bishop Wright Air Industry Award for "Humanitarian Contributions to Modern Aviation." But she stayed in tune with the fate of female astronauts at the space agency she dreamed of joining. When NASA decided to allow John Glenn in 1998 to fly at age 77, Cobb and others across the nation fought for her to have a chance as well. She was never allowed that chance. FIRST MOON WALKER: Neil Armstrong remembered as humble "nerdy engineer," only on HoustonChronicle.com "So sad to hear of the passing of #JerrieCobb," said Ellen Stofan, the John and Adrienne Mars director at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "She should have gone to space, but turned her life into one of service with grace." Anna Fisher, one of the first six women tapped by NASA in 1978 to join the astronaut corps, told the Houston Chronicle in June that she feels an overwhelming sense of gratitude to the Mercury 13 and an overwhelming sense of guilt. "They worked so hard, and they wanted it so badly, and then we came along and caught the wave at just the right time when society was changing," said Fisher, who flew on the space shuttle just once, in 1984. "I felt so grateful to them and sad, in a way, that they weren't able to achieve their dream. But they did, in a way, by opening the door for us." Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and science for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. Special Counsel Robert Muellers long-awaited report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and allegations that President Trump tried to block the investigation into it was made public Thursday. It didnt settle much, but there is one big takeaway: What happens next is up to Democrats. Trump and his supporters were quick to seize on Muellers determination that no one from his campaign conspired with the Russians and the special counsels refusal to say the president obstructed justice. No Collusion. No Obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats GAME OVER, Trump tweeted. Democrats had a very different take on the 400-plus-page report, arguing there were targets for congressional investigation even if Trump couldnt be charged with a crime. However, Mueller also handed them a political problem. Democrats have spent weeks demanding access to the full, unredacted Mueller report, anticipating that Attorney General William Barr would heavily censor it. The focus on redactions served as a way of deflecting questions about impeachment. But what Barr released was largely understandable and minimally redacted, with plenty of details Democrats could seize on to impugn Trump. Now the pressure is on Democrats to decide whether to consider impeachment, something that would please progressives but take attention away from practically anything else the party would like to focus on heading into the 2020 election cycle. Mueller noted that Justice Department legal advisers have concluded that a sitting president cannot be indicted. As a result, Mueller said, his attorneys decided not to draw any conclusions about whether Trump had obstructed justice but he took pains to make clear that if the evidence had exonerated Trump on obstruction, Mueller would have said so. And he repeatedly said Congress is the proper place for any action against a president. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brushed aside talk of impeachment last month, calling it divisive to the country and saying Trump was just not worth it. Muellers report may revive the issue. Pelosis top deputy in the House, Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, tried to tamp down any such speculation Thursday, in language reminiscent of the speakers earlier dismissal. Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point, Hoyer told CNN. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgment. Other key takeaways from the report: No bombshells, but plenty of juicy details: Most of the main points of Muellers report are familiar to Trump watchers the presidents efforts to fire then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calls to remove Mueller as special counsel, the misleading explanation about the Trump Tower meeting his son, son-in-law and campaign manager held with Russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. For Trump, the section of the report dealing with possible Russian collusion was almost entirely good news. While it detailed numerous contacts between mostly low-level aides and a variety of Russians during and after the campaign, there was almost nothing to suggest that Trump was directly involved. Even when his son Donald Trump Jr. and other top campaign aides met with Russians in Trump Tower, the report showed that the president was involved only after the fact, when he drafted his sons memo on the meeting. Saul Loeb /AFP / Getty Images But many details are new, such as Trumps reaction to the news a special counsel had been named in 2017 to look into the previous years campaign: According to notes written by (Sessions Chief of Staff Jody) Hunt, when Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im fed. Mueller writes. Mueller provides numerous examples of Trump lying publicly, bullying White House staff and telling people to lie to protect him, often to the dismay of those being asked: At a July 27, 2016, news conference, Trump repeated I have nothing to do with Russia five times. ... The Trump Organization, however, had been pursuing a building project in Moscow the Trump Tower Moscow project from approximately September 2015 through June 2016, and the candidate was regularly updated on developments. On April 11, 2017, Trump told advisers that he had spoken twice with then-FBI Director James Comey about the Russia investigation. The President acknowledged that (White House Counsel Don) McGahn did not approve of the outreach to Comey because McGahn had previously cautioned the President that he should not talk to Comey directly to prevent any perception that the White House was interfering with investigations. After the president fired Comey and the Justice Department named a special counsel, McGahn was called twice at home on a Saturday by Trump, who ordered him to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that Mueller has to go. McGahn decided to resign instead of making that call. When he went to the White House to pack up his office, he told Reince Priebus, the chief of staff, that he was leaving because Trump asked him to do crazy s. Priebus persuaded him to stay. In a March 2017 phone call to Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, Trump said that news stories linking him with Russia were not true and asked Rogers if he could do anything to refute the stories. Deputy Director of the NSA Richard Ledgett, who was present for the call, said it was the most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service. What about the Russians? Mueller and his team found plenty of evidence that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, as shown by the indictments of 25 Russian nationals and three organizations on charges that included conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by interfering with the election and hacking into the computers of the Democratic National Committee. The report found that Russian government operatives hacked into computers and stole hundreds of thousands of documents from the compromised email accounts. While the investigation didnt find that any members of Trumps campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government, Muellers team established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts. The report also said that the Russians used social media accounts and interest groups to sow discord in the U.S. political system, an effort that evolved into a targeted operation that by early 2016 favored candidate Trump and disparaged candidate Clinton. Nikolsky Alexei / TNS That leaves Trump in a quandary. While the evidence of Russian election interference may be overwhelming, the president has refused to admit that the Russian government worked secretly to help put him into the White House. It raises questions about his commitment to preventing a repeat in 2020. Barr plays to his boss: At his news conference Thursday, Barr emphasized that Muellers report did not find coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians and explained that allegations of Trumps obstruction had to be taken in the context of the presidents state of mind. Barr spoke at length about how Trump was frustrated and angered by the investigation, yet had given the special counsel access to documents and witnesses, which Barr called evidence of non-corrupt motives. He did not mention the presidents refusal to sit for an interview under oath or lack of written answers to questions about obstruction of justice. The performance had Democrats crying foul. The differences are stark between what Attorney General Barr said on obstruction and what Special Counsel Mueller said on obstruction, Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. One thing is clear: Attorney General Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice, while Muellers report appears to undercut that finding. No ones going to be swayed: Because the report does not contain a smoking gun, it is unlikely to change many voters opinion of Trump. In fact, polls suggest that peoples views of the president already are baked in and there is little in the Mueller report or the news in general that will change peoples minds. Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images Real Clear Politics amalgamation of polls shows that Trumps approval rating was at 43.6 percent on March 24, the day Barr released his summary memo on Muellers report. It was almost unchanged Thursday before the report was released, with 44.2 percent of people approving of the job the president is doing. John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer, and Tal Kopan is The Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com, tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth, @TalKopan The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks! Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics. The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc. The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics. The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates. Access to college recruiters and advisors its harder to line up higher education. Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family. Vote View Results The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., today announced that a further Irish beef plant has now been approved by the Chinese authorities and listed by GACC, the Chinese General Administration of Customs. This announcement follows on from the beef market opening in 2018 and the six Irish beef plants that had already been approved for export. It comes in advance of the Ministerial Trade Mission to China in May. The Minister noted I am very pleased that the Chinese officials in GACC have been able to complete this part of the registration process. Also read: C&D Foods and PAA set targets to achieve sustainable reduction in use of plastic The Minister said This is a testament to my Departments work in pursuing market access through technical, diplomatic and political channels. Increasing market opportunities for our exporters is a key component of the Food Wise 2025 strategy and our response to Brexit. This now brings the total number of Irish meat plants approved for export to China to twelve, five of which are pigmeat plants and the remaining seven are beef plants. Minister Creed says the news will have knock on benefits for farmers throughout the country and says his next mission is securing approval for additional beef plants and gaining access for sheepmeat. This May, Longford will be a literary haven as the county celebrates some of its most recognisable writers, past and present, in the first ever Longford Literary Month. The month of May will be packed with a variety of literary events, trails, tours and workshops ensuring there will be something for absolutely everybody. The inaugural literary month has been organised in conjunction with Creative Ireland and Longford County Council and author of bestseller, The Cow Book, John Connell has been announced as Longford's first Literary Ambassador. Events kick off on Thursday, May 2 with Poetry Day Ireland 2019 seeing a number of readings with a selection of Longford poets take place in Longford Library. The life and work of Longford writer Leo Casey will be the topic of conversation on May 7, with local historian, author and librarian Gearoid O'Brien. The first of three festivals will kick off on Sunday, May 9, as Edgeworthstown plays host to the Maria Edgeworth Literary Festival. Read also: Hilariously insightful comedy Furniture to come to Backstage Theatre Longford This is our 24th Maria Edgeworth literary festival. We started back in 1995, said festival chairperson Angela Tuite at the festival launch on Monday evening. At that time, it was just an idea to celebrate the literary heritage of the Edgeworths here. And I'm delighted to say that 24 years on we're still going strong and not only is it national, but it's internationally recognised. This year's festival will take place over four days from May 9 to 12, with a wide range of activities and workshops including a poetry workshop with well-known author Nuala O'Connor. Born in Dublin, Nuala lives in East Galway and published her fifth short story collection, Joyride to Jupiter, in 2017. Her short story Consolata from that collection was shortlisted for Short Story of the Year at the 2017 Irish Book Awards. Her third novel, Miss Emily, about the poet Emily Dickinson and her Irish maid was shortlisted for the Eason Book Club Novel of the Year 2015 and longlisted for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award. Nuala's fourth novel, Becoming Belle, was published in August 2018. Nuala's poetry workshop is one that will be well worth attending and will take place from 11am until 1pm on Saturday, May 11 in the Green, Edgeworthstown. On the same day, award-winning author Paul McVeigh will give a short story workshop at the Old Schoolhouse in Edgeworthstown. This will also take place from 11am to 1pm and both of these workshops will cost 20 to attend. Paul McVeigh's debut novel, The Good Son, won the Polari First Novel Prize and the McCrea Literary Award and was shortlisted for many others including the Prix du Roman Cezam in France. The Good Son was also Brighton's City Reads 2016 and was given out around the UK for World Book Night 2017. Paul began his writing career as a playwright in Belfast before moving to London to write comedy. His short stories have been read on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 5 and Hollow was shortlisted for Irish Short Story of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2017. He's got a long litany of other accolades and is associate director of Word Factory and the Guardian. He also co-founded the London Short Story Festival. This year, he also chaired a short story strand throughout the Jaipur Literature Festival in India. His creative writing classes have sold out in Australia, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore and around the UK. He also interviews authors and reviews for the Irish Times and his work has been translated into seven languages. So he's more than qualified to deliver a top class workshop to any aspiring short story authors on Saturday, May 11. Read also: Get the sleeping bags ready for Longford's Sleep Out for Simon Nuala and Paul will both stick around for an anniversary celebration at the Manor Church in Edgeworthstown that evening, where there will be poetry and short story readings. Award-winning writer and broadcaster Aidan O'Hara will also be a guest on Saturday night, providing story and song to those attending the evening's celebrations. Also providing music and song will be Eleanor Quaine from Carrickboy. Most importantly, the festival will celebrate all things Maria Edgeworth, with a lot of historical focus on the Edgeworth family who came to the midlands town 400 years ago. And, according to Frank Green of Edgeworthstown District Development, getting the festival this far is a huge achievement that should be acknowledged. The Edgeworths may have been here 400 years, but they were never more alive than they are now. People are more aware of them, he said. There will be a host of other events over the course of the festival including an 18th century costume tea party, an exhibition, the unveiling of art murals on the Granard Road and plenty more. Booking information for the events can be found at www.edgeworthstown.net. Longford Literary month will continue with the Padraic Colum International Gathering from May 17 to May 18, with readings, music and other celebrations to take place over the two days. The annual Goldsmith International Literary Festival will take place in Ballymahon and surrounding areas from May 31 to June 2, bringing the inaugural Longford Literary Month to a fitting end. There will be a range of other events throughout the month, including a talk by author of Ithaca, Alan McMonagle, on getting published. A number of creative writing and story workshops will be given by the likes of John Connell, Dani Gill, Darragh Coady, Eileen Moynihan, Valerie Masters and plenty more. All workshop details can be acquired from Majella at 043 33 41124 or by emailing creativeireland@longford coco.ie. Read next: Ballymahon author Adrian Duncan launches Love Notes from a German Building Site Homeowners in Longford have spent just over 6.3m in total through the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) since its launch in 2013. The incentive has facilitated over 548 home improvement projects in Longford since 2015, with an average spend of 11,514 per project. Although this was well below the national average of 16,766 per project, it still provided a huge boost to the local economy and employment in the construction sector, according to the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). Introduced in 2013, the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) provided homeowners with an income tax credit at 13.5% of qualifying expenditure on home improvement works carried out on a main home or rental property by qualifying contractors. The success of the scheme in Longford and nationally has been evident with the scale of the work undertaken on home improvements and energy upgrades. While the scheme concluded at the end of 2018, it was successful in encouraging significant private sector investment in the upgrading of private and rental property throughout Ireland. Also read: Longford Property: New web platform for land sales announced Nationally the HRI incentive has facilitated homeowners in carrying out over 147,000 home improvement projects over the last five years. Broken down by value, the largest amount of work was carried out completing home extensions (34%), followed by general repairs and renovations (25%) and then window replacement (11%) and kitchen replacement (10%). Shane Dempsey, CIF Communications Director said, A scheme such as the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) has been a significant contributor to construction activity with registered contractors in Longford and elsewhere throughout the country. A total of 548 projects in Longford was a very significant level of private investment over the five years of the scheme from homeowners in Longford. CIF has worked with stakeholders including the SEAI to ensure contractors were in place to support the work required by homeowners." At a time of modest growth in the construction industry, the scheme encouraged investment by homeowners in Longford, which was good news for construction companies and contractors in the county. Sometimes a restaurant surprises you so much that it makes you happy you discovered it. Merou Seafood is one of those restaurants. Ive passed its original location near Sassine Square many times where Gino Khoueiry started his fish market in 2014, but for some reason was never enticed to try it. Late last year, the company rebranded and moved to Armenia Street in Mar Mikhael where it has been welcoming happy customers since December. The restaurant itself could use some design changes to draw people in the door. A giant octopus hangs from the ceiling and turquoise placemats add a splash of color. But it isnt enough to counteract the white walls and light wood. Once once you try the food though, youll realize youve been missing out on a really good spot. The quality should come as no surprise. Merous Sassine location was more or less a distribution center for other seafood restaurants until Khoueiry decided to rebrand after launching Lebanons first oyster bar, Mothershucker. And good thing he did. The staff at Merous new location is friendly and always smiling. The service is fast, and the restaurant is clean. Khoueiry sources his fish from only two locations: way down south in Naqoura or way up north around Tripoli. These are the only parts of the sea close to Lebanon that havent been polluted: clean water equals clean fish. Mouthwatering raw fish When you first sit down, youre treated to a small portion of Harra Traboulsiyyeh, which can be ordered as a main plate as well. The dish is a combination of red, green and spicy peppers blended with tomato, coriander and chunks of sea bass all mixed in a tahini based sauce. Before moving on to the many appetizing mezzes Merou has on offer, start with a choice from their diverse selection of mouthwatering raw fish. We tried the catch of the day, which was sea bream, and a yellowtail ceviche, marinated to perfection with lemon and lime juice, red pepper, red onion and coriander (Pro tip: make sure you keep the dressing on your plate to use as dipping sauce later on). But the showstopper was Merous signature salmon beetroot sashimi. The presentation of the plate, unlike others at the restaurant, was as pleasing to the eye as the taste was to the palate. The raw salmon is marinated in beetroot, creating a brilliant color, and then served on top of crispy beetroot bites and garnished with lemon zest. The effect is so delicious, you may find yourself asking for seconds. We also tried a salad of fresh crab served on top of freshly cut watercress, purslane, small cubes of boiled potato and cherry tomatoes that comes dressed with just enough lemon juice and olive oil to give it a kick. Merou doesnt skimp on the fresh crab, either. Like other dishes at the restaurant, the serving size is generous and theres plenty to share. The spicy shrimp salad was also a good choice, although the sesame dressing needed some more heat to really be considered spicy. The grilled shrimp mixed with tobiko and crunchy beetroot bits were anyway delectable. And the frog legs sauteed in a buttery lemon sauce with just enough garlic and coriander were also finger-licking good. Simple and oh-so-delicious Despite the overall quality of the meal, there were a couple dishes wed advise you to avoid, including the fish kibbe and fried bizri. The fish kibbe just wasnt on par with the rest of the food we were served, and the bizri came from a frozen batch that Merou keeps to satisfy customers with year-round cravings. The taste wasnt the same as fresh bizri, and they were too oily, drowning out the flavor of the fish and cancelling the crunchy texture. We returned our plate to the kitchen. The lobster bisque, served with brussel sprouts, was smooth and creamy, but nothing extraordinary, and the chargrilled calamari was good, but could have been softer. The dish that made the few missteps more than worth it was the truffled octopus and hummus. It was simple and oh-so-delicious: sauteed octopus cut into small pieces, sprinkled over hummus with a few pine nuts and a parika-based dressing with a touch of truffle oilnot too much to overwhelm, but just enough to compliment the other wonderful flavors. Another dish, grilled octopus leg, was also perfectly marinated and served with purslane and a lemon mustard sauce. The shrimp provencal, sauteed in a lemony butter sauce, deep fried battered shrimp, crunchy, breaded calamari and fried mallifa (small barracuda) also all held their own. There were so many dishes to choose from and so many flavors to try. But the grilled fish couldnt be missed. We had brak (red snapper) that was fresh and impeccably white. All it needed was a few drops of lemon and olive oil. We also tried delicious shrimp imported from Iran and baked in the oven. The best is kept for last By the end of the meal we were so full we couldnt eat anymore let alone move from our chairs. But the dessert menu was too mouthwatering to resist. First up was tamriyeh rollsa first for me. They were a bit hard, but still delicious: crispy and filled with semolina with a hint of orange blossom water and dusted with powdered sugar. Next were the halawi rolls coated with chocolate ganache, and mhajrieh (my first time trying it), which was a hybrid between mhallabiyeh and jazriyeh. There was also a delicate milk flan lightly flavored with orange water and topped with sweetened carrots and almonds. But its true when they say that the best is kept for last: the dessert of the week was achta bi achta. I wont say anything other than you have to go try it for yourself. Like many of the dishes we had, it was so good that we ordered seconds, and it was one of the best Arabic desserts Ive ever tried. Merou Seafood has only been open for a few months, and the experience is delectable. But understandably, the restaurant has some fine tuning to do. The drinking glasses could be changed. Their rims are oddly thick and sharp-edged. The restaurant also ran out of cold water after serving four or five tables. But most importantly, the presentation in the fish in the display fridge needs to be improved and expanded to fit more seafoodafter all its the first thing customers see when they walk in the door. Also, the prices of the fresh fish are not written anywhere. Theres no tag next to the fish or blackboard in the restaurant to help you keep track. Merou isnt cheap, but it also isnt as expensive as most other fish restaurants in Beirut. We paid $60 for a multitude of dishes, including seconds of several. Its an acceptable price, especially considering the quality of the food. It would be in the restaurants benefit to display its prices. I hope those changes can be made before our next visit because we have many more plates we still want to try: raw local scallops, shrimp tabbouleh, the octopus experience (sliced table side), lobster bruschetta served on sammoun bread, oysters, siyyadiyyeh... Oh, and Merou is also apparently famous for its grilled eggplant, which we somehow missed. Needless to say, well be back. Location: Armenia Street, Mar Mikhael DATA Sound: Max Level = 105.5 dB, TWA = 67.0 dB Air Quality: 74/100 (moderate), VOC 0.4 ppm, Humidity 42%, Temp +21C NOTES Sound: 2.5/5 Decoration: 3/5 Staff: 3.5/5 Meals: 4/5 Cleanliness: 4/5 Rating: Very Good Price: High In short We like: Truffled Octopus and Hummus, Grilled Octopus Leg, Fresh Crab Salad, Salmon Beetroot Sashimi, Grilled Sea Bass (Brak), Shrimps Provencale, Yellowtail Ceviche, ALL the desserts Not so much: Fish Kibbe, Fried Bizri Our suggestion: Be hungry. Be very hungry. Go as a big group and order everything that I have mentioned: You wont regret it one bit, and leave room for dessert. It tops it all. Cordon COURTINE is the pen name of our undercover food critic on Instagram : cordon.courtine on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/CordonCourtine/ Email : [email protected] You hear of many things about Prague and while the list is long of reasons to love the city, its the prague architecture that really made me fall in love with the city! When we were planning our recent trip to Europe, we werent totally sure where to go. Part of the problem is that we each want to go pretty much everywhere (not just in Europe). We want to revisit some favorites and yet there are just so many new places to visit. One of the places that has been coming up time and time again was Prague. My husband opted for a relaxing week in London, which was wonderful for both of us! My mom knew she wanted to return to Scotland, but we had a few days to fill in. Prague seemed an obvious choice! We absolutely loved Prague. There really is a lot of to do and we didnt really leave the downtown tourist areas. If we had more time, we would have ventured into other parts of the city and taken some day trips to see more of the Czech Republic. While there was much to love about the great city, it was the architecture that I fell in love with not my usual statement, I know! The city is full of so many different kinds of architecture with its incredibly diverse history. Somehow it ALL seems to go together seamlessly. And it gives you that friendly reminder that you should look up as often as possible! We showed up to Prague with little planned, especially when it came to food and coffee and I think it was a fabulous idea. I really wanted to share a ton of photos of the city views, buildings, and so much more. Below are a few items on food, hotels, a few favorite stops, and things to know about visiting the lovely city. I hesitate to call this a travel guide, but maybe its more of a basic guide to letting you discover the city yourself! Where we Stayed in Prague We stayed at the Aria Hotel in the area known as Mala Strana or Lesser Town. Its across the river from Old Town and in a much calmer area. While many of the destinations to visit are in Old Town, its also full of people well, tourists. The Aria Hotel was a lovely little escape from the crowds that wasnt too far away! Where to Eat in Prague So, we enjoyed a variety of cuisines during our stay in Prague. Our first night featured local fare and to say it was delicious, hearty, and filling is an understatement. Past that, however, every meal was mostly happenstance except a few cafes and bakeries Id found researching our trip Instagram. A few places to note In the center of Old Town is the Clock Tower. You (and just about everyone else) will end up here. It seems like one of those crazy places to find a nice place to eat, but there are some wonderful finds that are nearby and not insanely crowded. Where to Eat Near the Clock Tower About a 2 minute walk from the Clock Tower is Skautsky Institute. Its upstairs in the Scout Institute. Look for the Scout Institute on your maps app and then you should be able to find your way up from there! They have a few bites to eat and homemade soup but not a lot of food to offer. Its a great place with coffee, tea, and lots of seating. For a bigger bite to eat, a delectable morsel, and coffee to wander over to Bistro Monk. Its a great, new little cafe thats super delicious. We shared tea and a salad (and fries if were divulging all our secrets)! I will note that the front door wasnt exactly where Google Maps was telling me it was probably about 10 feet further around the corner. So dont fret if you dont see it right away! Other Fun Bakeries + Cafes So, these two others are random, but worth a note. If you visit the Spanish Synagogue, which I think is an absolute MUST its beautiful and so interesting stop by BakeShop. We stumbled on this find between the tram stop and the synagogue. They have great lunch options (soup, salad, and a small bar of deli salads, etc.) and an extensive selection of baked goodies!! And head over to New Town for an afternoon pick me up at Cukrarna Mysak. Its an adorable coffee shop with a wonderful selection of pastries. The area is quite a bit less touristy than Old Town and theres some fun shops in the area, not to mention one of the Franz Kafka statue that I could stare at for hours! Prague Architecture So heres the thing about all that architecture in Prague. Buildings include inspiration and design in the Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and all the way to Modernism. The citys art world is infatuated with geometrical designs and the like. My husband is likely shaking his head at me for that description, but I never claimed to understand art history or architecture! hah! Each era of Pragues history brought its own architecture. Walking around youll find buildings and areas that remind you of Italy, New Orleans, France, and so, so much more! The most astounding part of all this is that it all looks like it was designed together! Its just so seamless! There are a few buildings that stick out Im looking at your TV Tower and the Frank Gehry Dancing House but it all contributes to the city, so it works! Inside Pragues Architecture The other great part of the city is how beautiful the Vltava River is flowing through the city. There are 18 bridges over the bridge (we only crossed 5 during our stay). If youre crossing the Charles Bridge (the big, famous, crowded one) its easy to miss the beauty and solemnity of the river. I suggest crossing the Charles Bridge early in the morning (before 8 or 9) and then crossing the river on the other bridges. Its so, so much better! So the other thing about Pragues Architecture is the interior. The churches and synagogues, museums, and even the Municipal House are surprisingly stunning inside. The St. Vitus Cathedral, Spanish Synagogue, St. Nicholas Cathedral are all incredibly gorgeous and ornate inside. Each is full of gold plating, bronze, and exceptional stained glass windows! Needless to say, the beauty of Prague is all on the exterior! A clip from United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenneys victory speech on April 16, 2019. The next premier of Alberta won 63 of the 87 seats in the legislature. Image: Reuters A 24-year-old Lawrence man has died after the scooter he was driving crashed into a car in Methuen early Thursday morning, police said. The man was driving an Ice Bear scooter west on Pelham Street around 1:45 a.m. when the scooter crossed the center line and slammed into a 2007 Toyota RAV4 traveling in the opposite direction, according to a statement from Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon. He was not wearing a helmet, police said. Officers got to the scene and started helping the man. The victim was taken to Lawrence General Hospital, where he later died, police said. His name has not yet been released, pending notification of his family. Two people were inside the Toyota and were not injured, police said. The crash remains under investigation. Boston firefighters rescued two people from a burning home in Roslindale Wednesday evening. District 12 Fire Chief Scott Whalen told reporters at the scene that two people were disoriented by the smoke, so firefighters went into the home and took them down the stairs. Several pets, including a 6-year-old turtle named ShellShocker, were also rescued. The fire department tweeted that the 2-alarm blaze broke out at 15-17 Delford St. around 6:05 p.m. Heavy fire was showing from the rear of the two-story house when crews arrived. One resident was transported to the hospital with injuries that are not expected to be life-threatening. Damage of the home is estimated at $400,000. The department said seven adults and three children were displaced by the fire. Officials are working to find the cause and origin of the blaze. Massachusetts State Police are asking the public for help in the search for a couple wanted in connection to an iPhone theft in south Boston. The couple is wanted for questioning on an iPhone theft that occurred at Castle Island sometime on Wednesday, state police said in a statement. Anyone with information is urged to contact Trooper Stephen Taylor at 617-740-7710. A lot has changed since Deborah Goldbergs family opened the first Economy Grocery store in Somerville a century ago. The company, now called Stop & Shop, has more than 400 stores across the Northeast. Its no longer run by the Rabinowitz/Rabb family in Massachusetts, but instead is owned by a Dutch company, Ahold Delhaize. The parent company is under scrutiny by Democrats across the region, including former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, over its ongoing contract negotiations with union leaders. When I was a little girl, I could never have imagined that I would have to be standing here today in support of our wonderful families who were part of my family," Goldberg, now the state treasurer, told hundreds of union members, shoppers and politicians who packed the South Bay Center parking lot near the Stop & Shop Thursday afternoon. My grandfather, Mr. Sidney in heaven and there were people here today who knew Mr. Sidney would be wanting to kill himself if he saw this, she said before introducing Sen. Markey to the podium. Goldberg was one of several government officials who voiced support for the 31,000 employees in New England represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The employees walked off their jobs April 11 amid contract negotiations with Stop & Shop. Stop & Shop is the only major food retailer in the region that is unionized, which the company argues is hurting its ability to compete against Walmart, Whole Foods/Amazon and other grocery stores. In a statement delivered ahead of the event, the company wrote, there is nothing we want more than having our associates back in the stores, taking care of customers and our communities. We have offered fair and responsible contracts and remain in active negotiations to reach new agreements as quickly as possible that keep our associates among the highest paid grocery retail workers in New England, while also providing excellent health care and increased contributions to a defined benefit pension plan. The company said its proposed health care coverage, while lower than what it currently offers, remains much higher than what competitors and the federal government cover for their employees. 23 Joe Biden, Marty Walsh rally with Stop & Shop workers at picketing line in Dorchester Goldberg, however, described the tense negotiations between union leaders and the company as a product of Wall Street greed. She described a hostile takeover in 1988 that prompted the Stop & Shop board of directors to work with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to buy the majority of shares. She said her parents were ousted because they resisted orders to fire workers. We brought in the unions ourselves in the first part of the 20th century because we believe in people," she said. "We believe in good benefits. We believe in good salaries. She also delivered a message on behalf of her parents, 88-year-old Carol and 89-year-old Avram Goldberg, who led the company until they were fired in 1988 over differences with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company. They want me to tell all of you, they stand with our families, Goldberg said, eliciting cheers from the crowd. Ahold Delhaizes financial success came up often throughout the rally. Stop & Shops parent company made $2 billion in profit in 2018. A year earlier, the parent company received $225 million in U.S. tax cuts. A news release from April states that the company has repurchased more than 622,000 of Ahold Delhaize common shares this month alone, totaling 13.9 million (about $15.6 million). How can they make that money, buy back all that stock and tell you theyre gonna cut your wages? Biden said Thursday afternoon. The Stop & Shop parking lot at the South Bay Center in Dorchester was packed for a change on Thursday Vice President Joe Biden as he slammed the grocery stores parent company for proposing health care coverage cuts and other changes in its contract. How can they make that money, buy back all that stock and tell you theyre gonna cut your wages? Biden told hundreds of union workers, shoppers and politicians surrounding him on the rainy Thursday afternoon. How in Gods name does that match anything?" Biden, who has hinted at a presidential bid in 2020, insisted he wasnt there to make a political speech. Instead, he said he wanted to show solidarity for the employees at the picket line. He questioned how Ahold Delhaize could have more than $2 billion in profits in 2018, get a $220 million U.S. tax cut in 2017 and propose any cuts. I know youre used to political speeches, and Im a politician. I get it, Biden said, but this is way beyond that, guys. This is way beyond that. This is wrong, he added. This is morally wrong, whats going on around this country, and Ive had enough of it, Im sick of it and so are you. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Sen. Ed Markey and State Treasurer Deb Goldberg were among the politicians who spoke at a rally for striking Stop & Shop workers at the South Bay mall in Dorchester on Thursday, April 18, 2019. (Kristin LaFratta/MassLive) About 31,000 Stop & Shop workers in New England are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International, which has spent months negotiating a contract with the company. The workers last contract expired in February, and they walked off their jobs on April 11. Stop & Shop argues that the labor costs at the company the only major food retailer thats fully unionized in New England are hurting its ability to compete against stores like Big Y, Whole Foods/Amazon and Walmart, which arent unionized. Company officials argue that those non-union stores enjoy both much lower labor costs and access to low prices and great locations, according to the store website. There is nothing we want more than having our associates back in the stores, taking care of customers and our communities," Jennifer Brogan, a company spokeswoman, wrote in a statement. "We have offered fair and responsible contracts and remain in active negotiations to reach new agreements as quickly as possible that keep our associates among the highest paid grocery retail workers in New England, while also providing excellent health care and increased contributions to a defined benefit pension plan. Stop & Shop says it proposes paying at least 92 percent of health premiums for family coverage and 88 percent for individuals. The company currently covers 94.3 percent of premiums for families and 91.4 percent for individuals. The company noted that the proposed health premiums are still lower compared to other large retailers who cover 80 percent of individual premiums and 72 percent of family premiums. The company also noted that the federal government pays 72 percent of employee premiums. Employees have pushed back against the proposed changes to its health care premium coverage, retirement benefits and raises. Union leaders took issue with the companys claims that full-time workers make on average $21 an hour. Yvonne Bento, a prepared foods worker at the Somerset store, said it has taken her 20 years to get to the $20 an hour pay-rate. I just hope they can sleep at night for what theyre doing to us," she said, before wishing the management a Happy Easter. Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, left, and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, right, join hands as they speak out on behalf of the Stop & Shop workers on strike. Biden showed up more than an hour after the rally began, following speeches from employees, union leaders, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. He compared the South Bay Center to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and recalled his father working cleaning furnaces and selling cars. My dad left Scranton because he didnt have work, he said. He described the middle class as not a demographic, but a value set that was built up by unions. He credited unions for taking employers to courts and securing 40-hour work weeks, overtime pay and other labor rights. For a while, a lot of other laborers, non-union, forgot it," Biden said, but now the way theyre being treated by corporate America, theyre beginning to remember it again. Thats why theyre going to support a boycott of this place. Biden is the latest politician to join the union workers at the picket line. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential hopeful, joined workers in Somerville last week. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, delivered doughnuts to union workers in Quincy on Tuesday. He pointed to the handful of cars in the Quincy stores parking lot, suggesting the store was completely empty. The company, however, said the stores are continuing to run as normal. On Thursday, Markey urged shoppers not to cross the picket line. What is happening is wrong, just plain wrong, he said. Biden vowed that people across the country would support the strike until the contract negotiations come to an end. I promise you, theres a lot of folks who support you, he said, theres a lot of folks around the country supporting you. Twelve people have been charged in federal court in Boston as a result of a federal sweep targeting document and benefit fraud. United States Attorney Andrew E. Lellings office said the defendants are accused of stealing the identities of U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico. Ten of the 12 individuals charged Thursday were unlawfully present in the United States, and six have criminal records in the names of the victims whose identities they stole, authorities said. This case is part of our ongoing effort to target federal crime in the Lawrence area, Lelling said in a statement, and we will keep up the pressure for as long as necessary. The 12 men and women charged allegedly stole and used the identities of U.S. citizens to live illegally in the United States, receive government benefits in the names of their victims, and even commit crimes in the names of those victims. This is a rampant problem, and my office is committed to helping those whose identities have been compromised to regain control over their lives. The U.S. Attorneys Office said many of the individuals used the identities to obtain public benefits that they would not otherwise be eligible to receive, including Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles identity documents, Social Security numbers and Medicaid, as well as to engage in suspicious financial transactions. With the exception of one defendant, the following individuals have each been charged with aggravated identity theft and false representation of a Social Security number, authorities said: David Alexander Arias Arias, 31, a Dominican national currently serving a 41-month sentence in federal prison in Pennsylvania. In 2017, Arias Arias was caught on a court-authorized wiretap dealing fentanyl under his stolen identity; he was subsequently charged in federal court in New Hampshire. At the time of his arrest, Arias Arias was known to reside in Lawrence. Jose Miguel Baez, 43, a Dominican national residing in Lawrence. Baez has received more than $8,400 in unemployment benefits in his victims name. Rafael Emilio Cruz Ciprian, 26, a Dominican national residing in Lawrence. Cruz Ciprian was arrested in Lowell on Aug. 4, 2018, on various charges, including giving false name/information to an officer and distribution of a Class A substance. During the arrest, Cruz Ciprian provided law enforcement with the identity of the victim whose identity was stolen. Alejandro Yoel Diaz Diaz, 28, a Dominican national residing in Lawrence. Diaz Diaz has been arrested twice for drug dealing; on both occasions he provided his victims identity to law enforcement as his own. Lilian Fana Martinez, 28, a Dominican national residing in Methuen, who, during multiple arrests, has presented the victims stolen identity to law enforcement as her own. Mirtha Magdalenny Lara Lara, 31, a Dominican national living in Lawrence with lawful permanent residence status. Elluz Yelitza Penalo Aguasvivas, 30, a Venezuelan national residing in Lawrence. Ismael Robles Tejeda, 29, a Dominican national residing in Lawrence. Francisco Antonio Sanchez Bernabe, 48, a Dominican national residing in Methuen. Sanchez Bernabe has been arrested/and or charged three times in Massachusetts: in May 2015, for possession and distribution of heroin; in April 2017, for possession to distribute a Class A substance; and in August 2017, for failure to stop for a police officer. During each of these arrests, Sanchez Bernabe provided the victims identity to the police as his own. Damarys Sanchez Sanchez, 44, a Dominican national residing in Lawrence, was charged only with misuse of a Social Security number. Santo Pascual Soto Diaz, 38, a Dominican national residing in Lawrence. Freddy Tejada-Diaz, a/k/a Freddy Tejada Zapata; a/k/a Freddy Tejadadia; a/k/a Fredy Zapata; a/k/a Fredy Antonio Zapata-Soto, 52, a Dominican national residing in Lawrence. Tejada-Diaz was ordered deported in 1996 by a judge in New York, though Tejada-Diaz failed to appear on the court date the judge ordered him removed. Tejada-Diaz never left; instead, he assumed a new identity and was eventually arrested for shoplifting in New Hampshire under his victims name. The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, a specialized field investigative group comprised of personnel from various local, state and federal agencies. The identity theft committed in these cases is a disrespect to our immigration laws, said Peter C. Fitzhugh, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security investigations in Boston. Todays arrests are the culmination of months of intensive investigative interagency work by our Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force and partner agencies. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, is calling on Congress to hold hearings on special investigator Robert Muellers report, which was released to the public on Thursday. The president wants it to be over, but its not over, Markey said at a Boston press conference. The congressional hearings are going to put a spotlight on the attempts that were made to put an end to the investigation which was being conducted. Muellers investigation found no evidence that President Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with Russians attempts to sway the 2016 election. But Mueller said he was unable to reach a conclusion on whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice. Mueller said Trump on 10 occasions tried to curtail the Russia investigation. These include incidents like the firing of FBI director James Comey. But people around Trump generally refused to follow his requests. Attorney General William Barr said he made the legal judgement not to prosecute Trump for obstruction of justice. Markey said Mueller and others with knowledge of the report should testify before Congress. We cannot short circuit the congressional hearings on the Mueller report until every bit of information is out into the public domain so every American can reach their own conclusion as to whether or not there was an attempt at obstruction of justice that was emanating from the oval office, Markey said. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat running for president in 2020, criticized Barr on Twitter. It's a disgrace to see an Attorney General acting as if he's the personal attorney and publicist for the President of the United States, Warren said. Warren also called redactions in the report a disgrace and called on Mueller to testify before Congress. This is a disgrace. The American people deserve answersand Special Counsel Robert Mueller should testify publicly before Congress. #ReleaseTheFullReport pic.twitter.com/ROG0Bt6JVq Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 18, 2019 U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a 6th District Democrat who is considering running for president in 2020, said Congress should focus on the national security implications of why Russia worked to get Trump elected. Every American, whether we support the president or not, should want to know why Vladimir Putin and Russia worked so hard to get President Trump elected, Moulton said in a statement. That unmistakable conclusion of the report is the real threat to our nation. U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, a 2nd District Democrat, also criticized Barr on Twitter as the Presidents personal attorney and partisan attack dog. In a Boston Public Radio interview, McGovern called the release of the report a sad day for the presidency and a sad day for our nation. U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, a 3rd District Democrat, also criticized Barr for attempting to spin the report in a press conference before releasing it to the public. The Attorney General of the United States is not the Presidents personal defense attorney, but you wouldnt know that based on Mr. Barrs performance today. The sum of his actions bring into question his independence and impartiality, Trahan said in a statement. Trahan also called on Mueller to provide testimony before Congress, in order to restore public trust. I believe that the unredacted parts of the report paint a grim picture particularly in terms of obstruction that must be fully vetted, she said. The Justice Department released a redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report on the investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. 2016 presidential election and the campaign of President Donald Trump. The report follows two years of investigations by Mueller and his team into concerted efforts by Russian entities to influence the 2016 election. The more than 400-page document was shared with the Justice Department last month, but had not been shared publicly before Thursday. Attorney General William Barr shared a four-page summary of the report with Congress on March 24, in which he said the special counsels findings did not accuse or exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice. At a press conference in Washington Thursday morning, Barr offered another briefing on the report before its 11 a.m. release. The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. person knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRAs interference operation, Barr said, referring to the Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg company accused of manipulating online platforms to impact the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The attorney general emphasized that Muellers report found no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with the Russian government. Democrats have criticized Barrs handling of the report, accusing him of trying to shape the narrative of the investigation by offering a summary of the report instead of immediately releasing the documents without redactions. The attorney general said such reports are not typically made public, and that the Justice Department had to make necessary redactions to protect confidential and classified information. On Thursday Barr said any redactions in the report were limited to four categories, including grand jury material, information that could disclose sources and methods, information that would impair the prosecution of other cases, and information that could implicate the privacy of third parties. No material in the report was redacted on the basis of executive privilege, Barr said. Trump and his lawyers had advanced access to the report before it was made public, the attorney general said. The president has denied collusion with Russia since the start of his presidency. Trump and his allies have repeatedly referred to the special counsel investigation as a witch hunt" and hoax." The president unleashed a series of tweets in the days leading up to the public release of the report, writing Thursday morning, The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats. SPRINGFIELD City councilors, during a meeting Wednesday with representatives of Columbia Gas, said they are pleased with reports that the company has accelerated repairs of gas leaks in Springfield. Prodded by community activists, the company pledged in January 2017 to expand its repair program to address hundreds of natural gas leaks in the region. While the company immediately repairs the most serious leaks, known as Grade 1, it accelerated its program to repair the less serious Grade 2 and 3 leaks. There are 162 known Grade 2 leaks in Springfield that will be repaired by Dec. 1, said David Nelson, operations station manager for Columbia Gas. There 233 Grade 3 leaks, which are defined as not posing a risk to life and property, with the utility company currently planning to repair the two that are deemed the highest emitters, Nelson said. City Councilor Jesse Lederman, chairman of the councils Sustainability and Environment Committee, said he recalls there being 590 gas leaks in all categories in 2017. It sounds like there is really great progress, said Lederman, who was one of the community activists lobbying for the accelerated gas repair program. Councilor Adam Gomez also praised the efforts to go after the gas leaks. Councilor Melvin Edwards also took part in the meeting. Columbia Gas said it works the citys Department of Public Works in trying to coordinate the installation of new gas lines to coincide with road paving projects so roads arent torn up twice. The meeting at City Hall also included questions about the companys proposal to build a new meter transfer station near the Longmeadow Country Club, about which many residents have raised health, safety and environmental concerns. Lederman said the project is close to areas of Springfield, and there is also a long-term project being proposed for a major gas transmission line that would cross through Springfield. The plan for the enhanced gas line system was launched in 2014, and is slated for design and construction over a 20-year period, officials said. Columbia Gas officials said natural gas received by Springfield customers now comes from gas lines leading separately from East Longmeadow and Agawam, and the proposed new line would provide for long-term needs to improve aging pipe infrastructure and prepare for any emergency should another pipeline fail, officials said. Lederman said Wednesday's meeting was a good initial discussion of the long-term plans, but he believes there are still "outstanding concerns from constituents" that can be addressed in future meetings. Columbia Gas officials said they are prepared to meet and discuss questions and concerns. When is a tree more than a tree? When its drawn in a circle and used as the logo for a marijuana company. Then, it becomes the center of a federal court case on trademark infringement filed by an Idaho lumber company against a Massachusetts marijuana dispensary. Boise Cascade Company on Wednesday sued New England Treatment Access in U.S. District Court in Boston, alleging that NETA is infringing on the lumber companys trademark by using a similar logo. Attorneys for Boise Cascade say Franklin-based NETA, which sells medical and recreational marijuana at stores in Northampton and Brookline, markets its products under a confusingly similar tree-in-a-circle logo, often presented in a nearly identical green color to the one Boise Cascade has used for decades. NETAs use of the logo is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, and/or to deceive customers and potential customers into seeing some affiliation between NETA and Boise Cascade, the lawsuit writes. Boise Cascade which did $5 billion worth of business last year selling wood products, lumber and office supplies notes in its lawsuit that it is a government contractor that provides a drug-free (including cannabis-free) workplace and requires all its employees to submit to random drug testing. Based in Idaho, the company has a distribution center in Westfield and an administrative office in Billerica. For over 55 years, Boise Cascade has used its trademarked logo featuring a circle around a tree with six branches, presented in either black or green. The logo appears on its products, trucks and marketing materials. A passage from Boise Cascade's U.S. District Court complaint compares the company's logo to the one used by NETA. NETA, which opened one of the states first legal recreational marijuana stores last November, uses a logo that looks like a tree with four branches in a circle, also in green. The branches are curved, while the lumber companys branches are straight. Boise Cascade says the two logos are similar enough that they will cause confusion, harm Boise Cascades reputation and let NETA trade on and receive the benefit of goodwill built up at great labor and expense by Boise Cascade over 55 years. The lawsuit charges NETA with trademark infringement, unfair trade practices, injury to business reputation and other related charges. Boise Cascade is asking a judge to stop NETA from using its logo and award damages and attorneys fees. NETA said in a statement, We will offer any comment through the judicial process. Worcester attorney David Viens, who represents Boise Cascade in the case, said in an email that Boise Cascade has been using its tree-in-a-circle trademark for over half a century. Its trademarks are extremely valuable assets of the company and Boise Cascade will protect its trademarks against infringement, Viens said. As alleged in our complaint, because of the similarity between NETAs tree-in-a-circle logo and Boise Cascades decades-old Tree-in-a-Circle trademarks, Boise Cascade is concerned that NETAs logo will dilute, weaken, or tarnish the reputation and distinctiveness of Boise Cascades Tree-in-a-Circle trademarks. Viens added, We are nevertheless hopeful that the parties can resolve this dispute. This story was updated with Viens comment. On Wednesday, May 8, representatives to South Hadleys Town Meeting will be asked to pass a resolution expressing the towns support for single payer health coverage in Massachusetts. This resolution follows a ballot question in the Nov. 2018 election supporting single payer healthcare that garnered yes votes from 66 percent of South Hadley residents. We encourage all Town Meeting members to vote for this resolution. If passed, the resolution would be used to communicate our towns support for two bills pending in the state legislature: Senate Bill S.683 and House Bill H.1194, both titled An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts." Both bills propose universal, comprehensive, single payer health care coverage for all Massachusetts residents. Currently, the U.S. is the only industrialized nation without universal coverage, and our citizens have poorer health outcomes than residents of those other countries. With universal coverage, monies now wasted on the administration of private insurance could go toward actual care for patients. Unfortunately, reforms in recent years under the Affordable Care Act still leave many citizens with costs beyond their means and care below their needs. Health insurance is becoming an increasing burden on municipal governments. It is estimated that South Hadleys annual cost for insuring its employees could be reduced by more than $1.5 million under the proposed bills, funds that could be used for other needs in our community. Town Meeting representatives and community members can read the resolution at www.wmmedicareforall.org/. Additionally, Fix It, a short documentary about the benefits of a single payer system will be shown on Thursday, April 25th at 6:30 PM, at the South Hadley Public Library, free to all. Susan Newton and Stephanie Strand, South Hadley The writers are associated with Western Mass. Medicare for All ENFIELD, Conn. - Police on Wednesday night arrested two men who were wanted in Vermont in connection with a drug-related shooting on Tuesday that left one dead and sprayed gunfire around a quiet Burlington neighborhood, police said. The two men, Brandon Sanders, 18, and Johnny Ford, 32, are being held on $1 million bond on a fugitive from justice warrant. Sanders was arrested when police stopped his car on Interstate 91 near exit 49 by the Longmeadow, Massachusetts, line. Ford was arrested a short time later without incident at the Motel 6 on Phoenix Avenue in Enfield. Because of the nature of the charges, Enfield deployed a tactical team to assist with the arrest. Hours before his arrest in Enfield, Ford was observed playing poker for several hours at MGM Springfield, according to police. Police obtained a search warrant for the Enfield room and found 107 grams of crack cocaine and $17,000 in cash. According to Burlington police, Sanders and Ford are among 4 four suspects in the shoot out in Burlington Tuesday afternoon in which one man was killed and another critically injured. Police say Ford, Sanders and another man, James Felix, attacked Benzel Hampton on North Willard Street as Hampton was in the middle of a drug transaction with another man. The shooting, just before 3 p.m., sent bullets flying everywhere throughout the residential neighborhood. Burlington Police Chief Brandon Del Pozo said We were pulling them out of walls and pillars. We are lucky no one else was hurt or killed. Before Hampton was fatally shot in the head, he managed to fire several shots at his attackers, striking Felix multiple times, police said. Felix remains hospitalized under guard. Sanders, Ford and the injured Felix fled the scene with the assistance of driver Lesline Woodson, 32, police said. She started driving them toward the hospital but stopped the car and flagged down a passing ambulance instead. By the time police arrived on scene, Ford and Sanders had fled. All four will be charged with second-degree murder in the death of Hampton. Police did not disclose a motive for the initial attack on Hampton. Burlington is about 220 miles north of Enfield, or a 3 hour drive via interstates 89 and 91. Police said that 13 hours after the 3 p.m. shooting, Ford was seen entering the MGM Springfield in Springfield. There he played poker for 11 hours until he got into a dispute with casino staff and was ejected from the casino. He has previous arrests in Florida for armed robbery, assault and battery, resisting arrest and drug offenses. Sanders also has prior arrests for robbery and larceny in Florida. In a cheerful mood, President Trump told a crowd of veterans and their loved ones Thursday, Im having a good day. Trump arrived at a White House event for wounded warriors Thursday morning, minutes after the Justice Department publicly released a redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers nearly 400-page report into Russian interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Trump campaign. He began the event saying he was deeply honored to be in the presence of true American heroes. A few minutes into his remarks, Trump shifted the conversation to the Mueller report. He repeated past remarks, saying No collusion, adding that there never was, by the way, and there never will be. Trump said such an investigation should never happen to another president again. The report was published following a 22-month investigation and found no evidence that Trump or anyone connected to him coordinated with Russian efforts to interfere in the election. Investigators said in the report that several members of the campaign had contact with individuals with ties to the Russian government but the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. It also details 10 episodes in which the president attempted to seize control of the investigation, including the firing of FBI Director James Comey and an attempt to have Mueller fired. Substantial evidence indicates that the catalyst for the presidents decision to fire Comey was Comeys unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation, despite the presidents repeated requests that Comey make such an announcement," the report states. Prior to the reports release, Attorney General William Barr held a press conference to summarize the report. Barr was defensive of the president and offered an explanation for Trumps actions towards the investigation. In assessing the presidents actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation," Barr said. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. He added, And as the special counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. The president declined an in-person interview request from the special counsel but submitted written responses, which were included in the report. Within the 12-page response, Trump said he had no recollection of being told Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to support his campaign or of a 2016 meeting between a Russian lawyer and several people close to Trump. The report details an attempt to limit public disclosure of that meeting on the presidents part. On several occasions, the president directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails setting up the June 9 [2016] meeting, suggesting that the emails would not leak and that the number of lawyers with access to them should be limited, the report states. Before the emails became public, the president edited a press statement for Trump Jr. by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was with an individual who [Trump Jr.] was told might have information helpful to the campaign and instead said only the meeting was about adoptions of Russian children. When the press asked questions about the presidents involvement in Trump Jr.s statement, the presidents personal lawyer repeatedly denied the president had played any role. The Justice Department is expected to release a redacted version of the nearly 400-page special counsels report on the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The report will be made available first to the chairman & ranking members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees at 11 a.m., then the public. Prior to its planned release, Attorney General William Barr held a press conference Thursday morning to summarize the report. I am sure that all Americans share my concern about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our election, Barr said. The Russian government sought to interfere in our election process but thanks to the special councils through investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign. Barr said that the special council did not find evidence of any member of the Trump campaign or associated with the campaign conspired with the Russian effort to interfere with the presidential election but neither accused nor exonerated the president. He added that the report reveals interactions between the president, Trump campaign members and those close to him with Russian election intervention attempts and the following investigation. In assessing the presidents actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation," Barr said. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. He added, And as the special counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. The presidents counsel was given the opportunity to read the report this week, prior to its public release. Barr said no redactions were made at the request of the White House and no claims of executive privilege were invoked. The report to be made available to the public Thursday will feature several redactions, Barr said citing the need to prevent harm from information connected to ongoing criminal investigations, including the Roger Stone case. To ensure as much transparency as possible, those redactions have been clearly labeled, Barr said. Plans for the press conference were shared Wednesday, drawing criticism from Democratic congressional leaders. The process is poisoned before the report is even released," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, adding, of the Thursdays schedule, Barr shouldnt be spinning the report at all, but its doubly outrageous hes doing it before America is given a chance to read it." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr holding a press conference to discuss it calls into question the Justice Departments independence from the White House. As I said during my Senate confirmation hearing and since, Im committed to ensuring the greatest degree possible of transparency concerning the special councils investigation, consistent with the law," Barr said during Thursdays press conference. SPRINGFIELD A 21-year-old city man was sentenced Thursday to four to five years in state prison after admitting to his role in a 2016 armed robbery. Raquan Lopez also admitted to his part, along with co-defendant Derek Fernandes, in running over a city police officer. Hampden Superior Court Judge William Ritter sentenced Lopez to two years probation after the prison sentence. Lopez has 500 days credit on his sentence for time spent in jail awaiting trial. Fernandes, 24, of Rhode Island, pleaded guilty in July 2018 to the same charges and got the same prison sentence, Assistant District Attorney Christopher E. McDonald said. He said the charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon to which Lopez pleaded is for running over city police officer David Olszak. At the time of the Nov. 1, 2016, incident, police said Olszak was treated and released at Baystate Medical Center. Fernandes was struck in the abdomen when an officer fired at the vehicle. The robbery was at the Springfield Street 7-Eleven about 2:30 a.m. McDonald called the store video of that armed robbery chilling. He said police stopped the vehicle driven by Fernandes, with Lopez in the passenger seat, because it matched a car being sought in a drive-by shooting in Enfield. There were two other people in the car. Fernandes shut off the ignition when police stopped him, but Lopez turned it back on, McDonald said. Fernandes stepped on the gas and ran over Olszak, he said. Fernandes sped off onto Memorial Bridge with police in pursuit. He led a number of Springfield and Massachusetts State Police units around West Springfield, then back into downtown Springfield. He finally crashed into a utility pole at the corner of Central and Maple streets. Lopez took off running and was arrested later. Springfield Police performed first aid on Fernandes who was suffering from the gunshot wound at the scene. He was then taken to Baystate Medical Center. The hospital released Fernandes to arresting police at 1:45 p.m. on Nov. 1. A handgun, along with cash and cigarettes stolen from the 7-Eleven, were recovered from inside the SUV. Defense lawyer Brett D. Lampiasi asked Ritter to sentence Lopez to two and a half years to the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow plus five years probation. He said at the time of the robbery and car chase Lopez was only 19 years old, and scientific studies say the brain it not fully developed at that time. He said Lopez had a difficult childhood but, There are really good signs, your honor, that he could be rehabilitated. Lampiasi said, Sending him to state prison is not going to do him one bit of good. When Ritter sentenced Lopez to state prison, Lampiasi asked if Ritter could recommend to the state Department of Corrections that the term be served in the Ludlow jail. McDonald objected and the judge denied Lampiasis request. McDonald said the state sentencing guidelines are higher than his recommended sentence but he was taking into consideration Lopezs young age and lack of adult record. (CNN) Prosecutors investigating the causes of the inferno that tore through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris have interviewed construction workers and security staff, as more details emerged about the effort to contain the blaze. Ten people were interviewed by criminal investigators on Wednesday, the Paris Prosecutor's Office said, adding that interviews would continue on Thursday. On Tuesday, the prosecutor's office had said 30 employees at the Paris landmark had been questioned. "Tomorrow new witnesses will be heard as well as people already interviewed for further information," the prosecutor's office said. The prosecutor's office said that in addition to interviews, forensics teams and the central laboratory for the police department had been able to access some areas of the site and begin inspections. Officials are continuing to pursue the theory that the cause of the fire was accidental but have not ruled out other scenarios at this stage, the prosecutor's office added. "While the prosecutor's office does not rule out any hypothesis, we remind that at this stage, nothing in the investigations highlights a criminal origin. Accidental causes remain our privileged lead," the prosecutor's office said. The Paris fire service, meanwhile, said the nine-hour battle to save the building was one of the most complex it had ever undertaken. At one point, it was feared that the entire structure might be lost. "If the flames had actually got to the timber frames of the belfries then we would have lost the cathedral completely because it would have led to a chain reaction of collapse," said Gabriel Plus, a spokesman for the fire service. Philippe Demay, deputy chief of the Paris Fire Brigade, told reporters on Wednesday that the operation to put out the flames was "complex," and the "most complicated" he had ever encountered. On Wednesday evening, cathedrals across France rang their bells in honor of Notre Dame, marking two days since the fire. Bells tolled at 6:50 p.m. across the country acknowledging what the French Bishops Conference described as "a shock that affects far beyond just the Catholics of our country." The French government said it was committed to rebuilding the cathedral. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced an international architects' competition to replace the building's fallen spire. As the scale of the damage became clear, investigators said they were determined to get to the bottom of how the blaze started. "Investigations continue to search for the truth and identify the origins and causes of the fire," the Paris Prosecutor's Office said. Scrutiny has fallen on the firms undertaking the renovation of the 150-year-old spire, which collapsed Monday as the flames raged around it. Of the four companies contracted to carry out renovations at Notre Dame, two companies, scaffolding firm Europe Echafaudage and art conservationists Socra, had work in progress there at the time of the fire. Neither company had workers on site when the fire broke out, CNN has been told. According to centraledesmarches.com, a website where private companies can bid for public projects, Europe Echafaudage and its parent company, Le Bras Freres, were awarded contracts worth 3,493,766 ($3,951,396) for scaffolding and other services. Julien Le Bras, CEO of Europe Echafaudage, which received a contract to renovate the spire in 2017, told reporters Tuesday that 12 of his employees were working on the project, but that "there were absolutely no workers on site when the fire broke out, and there hadn't been for quite a while before the fire." Mark Eskenazi, a PR representative for Le Bras Freres, said the company is speaking to experts about how to take down the scaffolding and "absolutely" denies responsibility for what happened, saying that its workers had left the cathedral one hour before the fire began. He called the fire a "crisis" for the small business of 20 workers. "They are artisans, it is a very small enterprise." Patrick Palen, a spokesman for Socra, which was brought in to refurbish statuettes from the cathedral, said workers from the company removed 12 statues of the apostles and four of evangelists from the cathedral last week. Those statues were being held safely in an off-site workshop at the time of the fire. Palen said Socra employees were not at Notre Dame during the fire. Questions have been raised about why the blaze was not tackled sooner. Security guards at the 850-year-old cathedral first heard the fire alarm at 6:20 p.m. local time on Monday, and evacuated the cathedral even though they didn't see any sign of fire, a spokesman for the Paris Fire Brigade said. The alarm sounded again some 20 minutes later, at which point the cathedral's security officers noticed the fire, Paris Prosecutor Remy Heitz said. Fire chiefs denied that they were slow to react to the initial reports of the blaze. Despite the intensity of the fire, authorities have said that some of the cathedral's major relics, artifacts and artwork had been rescued. Some of the most valuable artworks are being held at City Hall, while a number of other pieces are being transferred to the Louvre museum. The Crown of Thorns, believed by many to be a relic of the passion of Christ, and the Tunic of Saint Louis were saved. A copper rooster that sat atop the collapsed spire has been recovered intact. Le Parisien newspaper, citing a source from the Ministry of Culture, said it was not yet known if relics contained in the rooster had survived the blaze. Donations toward the restoration have been rising steadily; the total raised so far for the reconstruction of the Gothic masterpiece has topped 800 million ($904 million), including gifts of tens of millions of euros from some of France's wealthiest families. French billionaire Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of luxury good consortium LVMH, pledged $200 million, adding to a purse of $55 million promised by the city of Paris. Cosmetics company L'Oreal, along with The Bettencourt Meyers family and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, has donated 200 million ($226 million) to help fund the repairs. The Vatican said it will offer technical know-how on rebuilding the cathedral. "We have the type of know-how that the whole world recognizes as being of high quality," Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi told reporters. "So I think an eventual future offer by the Holy See will be significant." Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the contest to replace the spire "will be organized in due course." A committee will be set up to oversee the project and will decide whether the spire should be reconstructed or "adapted to modernity," he said. Philippe did not say if the rebuild of the cathedral would be finished in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but said the work would be done as fast as possible. This story was first published on CNN.com "Notre Dame probe ramps up as investigators question workers" Cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) has been referred to as the standard bearer; a standard of care for the diagnosis of maxillofacial imaging. CBCT is a special kind of x-ray tool that is used for when regular facial or dentals x-rays are not sufficient enough. The technology is being used and leveraged upon to produce three-dimensional teeth images, nerve pathways, soft tissues, and bone in a single scan. The global CBCT dental imaging market is expected to reach a valuation of USD 565.3 million in terms of revenue by the end of the assessment period and is projected to attain a Market Growth at A Rate Of 9.8% over the forecast period (2017-2023). The increasing usage of 3D radiographic imaging in orthodontics and burgeoning adoption of CBCT dental imaging by various dental professionals has strikingly affected its market standings. The global market is also driven by the prevalence of dental caries, rise in dental tourism, growing cosmetic dentistry treatments, and increasing dental-related procedures. Get Free Sample at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2203 Additionally, technological advancements in relation to CBCT dental imaging has also accelerated the market in a positive manner. Dental practitioners and professionals have shifted base from 2D scanning and imaging systems to the use of CBCT dental imaging to reap on to the various benefits it offers. This way, the practitioners derive improved and higher quality of data for treating dental disorders. Also, the rising elderly population is also significantly contributing towards the development of the market. However, lack of technological awareness can pose to be a major deterrent to the market growth. CBCT Dental Imaging Market-Segmentation: The global CBCT dental imaging market segmentation is classified in terms of three key dynamics, namely types of detector, end-users, and application. By types of detector, the market divides into image intensifier and flat panel detectors. By end-users, the market comprises of academic & research institutes, hospitals & dental clinics, and others. By application, the market includes orthodontics, dental implants, endodontics, and others. Some of the key players in this CBCT Dental Imaging Market are: Carestream Health Dentsply Sirona FONA Dental R.O. Gendex Imaging Sciences International LLC Morita MFG.CORP. KaVo Dental GmbH NewTom Planmeca OY Prexion Sinclair Dental/Dentaire SOREDEX Vatech Networks (Republic of Korea) and others. Avail an Amazing Discount at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/2203 CBCT Dental Imaging MarketRegional Analysis: The global CBCT dental imaging market is geographically segmented across four major regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and North America. Herein, North America holds the largest share of the market in global standings. The regions dominance is majorly supported by the US, which is expected to attain a CAGR of 11% in the forthcoming years with a calculated valuation predicted to be USD 326.6 million by the end of the forecast period. However, Europe lurks close to the North American region at second-spot for CBCT dental imaging. The region is expected to garner a decent CAGR percentage of 11.7% during the forecast period. The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to be the fastest growing region in the forthcoming years as per the report released by Market Research Future (MRFR). The region is spearheaded by countries like India, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, and others. Even though the regional markets are expected to be mature, the industry is most likely to find stagnant growth in the coming years. Industry Updates: March 13th, 2019, at the 2019 IDS in Cologne, Image Navigation announced the most advanced image guided implant (IGI) dentistry system in the world. The new IGI system extends the usage of CBCT scanners and boasts speed of light, real-time, tracking with absolutely no lag on-screen. March 12th, 2019, Planmeca, a Finnish manufacturer, has announced the introduction of a new addition to its growing Planmeca Viso portfolio of products. The Planmeca VisoTM G5 offers a cutting-edge CBCT imaging experience. Browse Detailed Research Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cbct-dental-imaging-market-2203 About Market Research Future: MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Middle-East and Africa Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Market Information by Product Type (blood pressure monitors, blood glucose monitors, ventilators, personal mobility devices, traction equipment, wheel chairs, respiratory devices, and others), by End User (hospitals and clinics, healthcare institutions, research centers, home healthcare, and others) Forecast to 2022 The Market Research Future presents a complete assessment of the MEA Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Market and contains Future trend, Current Growth Factors, attentive opinions, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry validated market data. Get Free Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2676 Durable medical equipment also known as home medical equipment provides therapeutic benefits to patients. They are very useful for patients who are ill or undergoing some medical procedures. They are widely used by hospitals and clinics. These devices can also be managed by a caregiver or a family member of the patient. Medical professional recommend these devises according to present condition of patients. Due to increasing chronic diseases, high number of geriatric population and accident disability, the demand for durable medical equipment is increasing. Middle East and Africa represents about 2% of global healthcare expenditure since countries in these regions bear a heavy burden of disabilities. Durable medical equipment manufacturers are investing huge amount of money to develop more innovative products. Middle-East and Africa Durable Medical Equipment (DME) market is growing moderately at a CAGR of 4.2% and expected to reach US$ 4.65 billion by 2022. Key Players : Market Research Future (MRFR) recognizes the following companies as the key players in MEA Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Market: There are plenty of large and small market players which operate in this market all over the globe. Some of the key players in this market are: Invacare Corporation (US), Medical Depot, Inc. (US), The Braun Corporation (US), Sunrise Medical (Germany), Permobil (Sweden), Medline Industries, Inc. (US), Compass Health Brands (US), ArjoHuntleigh (Sweden), Hill-Rom (US), GF HEALTH PRODUCTS, INC. (US) Segments : Middle-East and Africa Durable Medical Equipment market has been segmented on the basis of product type which comprises of blood pressure monitors, blood glucose monitors, ventilators, personal mobility devices, traction equipment, wheel chairs, respiratory devices, and others. On the basis of end user, the market is segmented into hospitals and clinics, healthcare institutions, research centers, home healthcare and others. Regional Analysis : Considering the Middle-East and Africa Durable Medical Equipment market scenario, Saudi Arabia is believed to be the largest market. Moreover UAE market is also growing and is the second largest market for DME in ME&A region. On the other hand, Egypts market is expected to grow at a steady pace in the Middle-East and Africa Durable Medical Equipment market during the forecasted period. Rest of the Middle East and Africa region is likely to have a limited but steady growth of the market till 2022. Key Questions Answered In This Report: What will the market size and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors? Browse Complete Report visit https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/durable-medical-equipment-market-2676 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Us: Market Research Future Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Medical aesthetics is an area of medicine, dealing with aesthetics, well-being, peripheral appearance, noticeable skin changes, and image of the patient. Medical aesthetics include high-technology skin care procedures that denote the fusion of beauty and healthcare services. The Global Medical Aesthetics Market Is Expected to Register A CAGR of 11.0% During The Forecast Period (20182023). Factors such as rising acceptance of minimally invasive and noninvasive aesthetic procedures, increasing awareness about cosmetic procedures, and favorable government policies for startup companies are boosting the growth of the market. Free Sample Copy at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6807 Company Profiles Allergan Alma Lasers, Ltd. (A Division of Sisram Medical Ltd.) Anika Therapeutics, Inc. Cutera, Inc. Cynosure (A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Hologic, Inc.) En. S.P.A. Fotona D.O.O., Galderma (A Subsidiary of Nestle) Johnson & Johnson Merz Aesthetics, Inc. (A Division of Merz Pharma GmbH & Co. KGaA) Medytox, Inc. Sientra, Inc. Sinclair Pharma PLC Solta Medical (A Division of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.) Syneron Medical, Ltd. (A Part of Apax Partners) Segmental Analysis The global medical aesthetics market has been segmented on the basis of products and end users. On the basis of product, the market has been classified as facial aesthetic products, body contouring devices, cosmetic implants, physician-dispensed cosmeceuticals and skin lighteners, aesthetic skin devices, physician-dispensed eyelash products, hair removal devices, tattoo removal devices, thread lift products, and nail treatment laser devices. Facial aesthetic products are segmented into botulinum toxin, dermal fillers, chemical peels, and microdermabrasion devices. The dermal fillers sub-segment is further segmented into natural dermal fillers and synthetic dermal fillers. The body contouring devices segment is segmented into nonsurgical fat reduction devices, cellulite reduction devices, and liposuction devices. The cosmetic implants segment is segmented into breast implants, facial implants, and other cosmetic implants. The breast implants segment is further segmented into silicone breast implants and saline breast implants. Skin aesthetic devices are segmented into laser skin resurfacing devices, nonsurgical skin tightening devices, micro-needling products, and light therapy devices. The hair removal devices segment is segmented into laser hair removal devices and IPL hair removal devices. On the basis of end users, the market has been classified as clinics, hospitals, medical spas, beauty centers, and home care settings. Avail an Amazing Discount at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/6807 Industry Updates Jan 2019 Allergan plc has recently launched its new direct-to-consumer campaign, Own Your Look. The campaign has been designed to focus upon the most general misconceptions around BOTOX Cosmetic (onabotulinumtoxinA) and will encourage people to own their look and affirm their aesthetic choices. Regional Analysis: The Americas is projected to lead the medical aesthetics market during the forecast period. Increasing healthcare awareness, advancement in technology, and medical tourism are some other factors that boost the growth of the market. The US medical aesthetics market dominated the industry in 2017, due to the high demand for quality healthcare, vastly developed healthcare infrastructure, as well as the growing occurrence of skin diseases in the region. The European market is expected to hold the second largest market share. The market is expected to witness growth owing to the rising patient population, changing lifestyle, and growing elderly population. This is expected to provide favorable backgrounds for the market to grow. Asia-Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing region for the global medical aesthetics in 2018. Awareness programs and quality assurance of diagnostic procedures have added importance in the developing economies of Korea, Taiwan, China, Sri Lanka, and India since the last few years. The Middle East and Africa accounts for the least share due to stringent government policies and low per capita income. Browse Complete Research Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/medical-aesthetics-market-6807 About Market Research Future: MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Modern hearing aids have to pack a great deal of technology in a tiny package. The batteries, high speed computer chips, speakers, microphones, and antennas have to all fit together and work in unison. They drive multiple sound processing algorithms that can modify how audio is boosted for the unique needs of each individual user. They can connect to other devices, such as TVs and in-car audio systems, and so interact and communicate with others. GN Hearing, a Danish company, is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of hearing aids, best known for the ReSound brand, but they also make the very popular line of Jabra ear buds. We recently had a chance to ask Laurel Christensen, Chief Audiology Officer at GN Hearing, more about the technology inside of the devices that her company manufactures. Medgadget: Hearing aids have come a long way over the decades and the technology within them continues to improve rapidly. Can you give us a sense of what has become possible over the last few years and what capabilities you think hearing aids will have in the future? Laurel Christensen, Chief Audiology Officer, GN Hearing: There is no doubt that hearing aids have completely changed, even in the last 10 years. Everything from the quality, functionality and even the look has changed dramatically, allowing people to seamlessly integrate hearing aids into their everyday life without hassle or embarrassment. There are many things that have become possible for hearing aid users. Today, you can connect them to a TV, iPhone or Android phone, wirelessly streaming anything from a phone call to music straight to your ears. Additionally, the sound quality of todays hearing aid is more natural than ever. Comparing the sound quality to even just a few years ago, the ability and level of personalization that is possible now was not possible then. Today, hearing aids are driven by an app, right on your phone, like your own personal remote control. The level of personalization also goes way beyond just adjusting the volume. Our hearing aids now use artificial intelligence (AI) to suggest an adjustment to the hearing aid wearer based on the environment. Users can now easily switch to their favorite restaurant setting before they even sit down just by using an app on their phone. This advancement is just a beginning. We believe that applications of AI will increasingly be integrated into hearing care solutions to improve personalization and the overall hearing experience. Medgadget: There are a variety of devices out there that help people to hear the world around them better, and yet they are not hearing aids. What is the difference and where is the line drawn? Christensen: Looking specifically in the United States, people use PSAPs, or Personal Sound Amplification Products. There is an enormous difference between PSAPs and hearing aids. Hearing aids are FDA approved medical devices provided and serviced by a hearing care professional. PSAPs are not. In fact, these devices arent allowed to be advertised as a hearing aid, and dont offer nearly the same sound quality, especially in noisy situations. They might amplify speech a little in a quiet environment, but they do not have the level of sophistication that hearing aids have today. In the coming years, over-the-counter hearing aids will start becoming available in the United States. The FDA will finalize the rules around what these might entail, but they will likely be something closer to the hearing aids we have today but are only going to be meant for someone with mild to moderate hearing loss. This option will be better than a PSAP but wont compare to what a true hearing aid system can provide. And they wont come with professional care. Medgadget: Why are hearing aids still considered expensive? What can be done to bring the cost down and improve access? Christensen: Todays hearing aids advancements come from extensive research and development, which, of course, comes with a cost. It isnt simple to build a hearing aid. From signal processing to delivering speech and sound digitally to your ear has taken many years of research to help create solutions to help people hear. Hearing aids have come a long way from the linear amplifiers that you can just buy off the shelf. Extensive research and development also goes into the making of accessories, wireless connectivity and other features that make our hearing systems the most comprehensive on the market. Because hearing is so essential to our health and quality of life, many people are willing to make an investment in their hearing aids. Of course, there are a range of costs for hearing aids depending on the model, the dispenser, the features, or if they are fit for you personally. We also cant forget that the cost of hearing aids often includes service and care of a trained hearing care professional. The over-the-counter products coming to the United States will be aiming to expand access, but will be targeted to people who have more mild hearing loss than traditional hearing aid users. We dont have these products on the market today, but we can assume that they will be less expensive, especially since they wont come with the service and care of a hearing care professional. Medgadget: What are the existing challenges to the adoption of hearing aids? How is technology helping on this issue? Christensen: People associate getting a hearing aid with admitting you are old enough to get a hearing aid. No matter what hearing aids look like or how they change cosmetically, many still see it as having to accept aging. Ultimately, the event that must occur for people to finally get a hearing aid is when they start missing important conversations in their lives. Whether it be their children or grandchildren speaking or what was said in an important business meeting, their quality of life is being impacted. It usually takes a little bit of pain for us to alter our lifestyle. People with mild hearing loss arent experiencing this pain yet and arent missing these important conversations yet, so they have yet to take the step toward adopting hearing aids. But hearing aids dont have to be burdensome. Todays sleek, discreet, high-tech solutions can improve hearing and allow people to hear the things that matter most. Medgadget: What is the outlook for the industry? Is it possible for cheap, readily accessible technology powered by smartphones to eclipse traditional hearing aids? Christensen: The outlook of the industry is extremely promising because of the life changing technology that we are able to make today. While there may be cheaper technology options out there, I dont believe were ever going to see something eclipse todays traditional hearing aid. There will always be a need for a true hearing aid system along with the benefits of working with a true hearing care professional. Medgadget: Can you give us a sense of where GN Hearing is heading in the next few years and what technologies youre researching? Christensen: GN Hearing will continue down the path of where we have headed for many years, asking, What are the problems that are still being experienced by those with hearing loss, and how can we work to solve those problems? Working with hearing care professionals and hearing aid users, GN Hearing is always looking for better solutions to improve hearing, especially in noisy environments. Thats the number one problem of people with hearing loss. Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI). This is an area we have already started to work. We are leveraging AI to personalize hearing care to a specific patient to give them a better hearing experience. Using machine learning and big data analysis, we are taking bigger steps to provide more automatic, natural and personalized solutions for each user. Links: GN Hearing, ReSound, and Jabra by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, April 17, 2019 An federal appellate court has refused to revive a lawsuit that sought to hold Google, Twitter and Facebook responsible for the mass shooting by Omar Mateen at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We sympathize with plaintiffs -- they suffered through one of the worst terrorist attacks in American history, a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling issued this week. But the absence of Mateen and the inability to hold ISIS responsible cannot create liability elsewhere. The lawsuit stemmed from a June 2016 attack by Mateen, who killed 49 people and injured 53. Mateen claimed to be an "Islamic soldier" in phone calls he made to the police, but the CIA found no direct connection between the shooter and ISIS. advertisement advertisement The victims alleged in their complaint that Mateen carried out the attacks after he "was radicalized by ISIS use of social media." U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson in Detroit dismissed the case last year, ruling that the victims had not shown that the tech companies were responsible for the shooting. This week, the 6th Circuit upheld that decision. The appellate judges ruled that even if the companies provided platforms to ISIS, doing so didn't make them liable for Mateen's acts. Plaintiffs only allegation that connects Mateen and defendants is that, at some point before the Pulse Night Club shooting, Mateen viewed online content from ISIS and became 'self-radicalized.' the judges wrote. But this is a tenuous connection at best....The content did not compel Mateens actions. They added: It was not foreseeable that Defendants conduct would lead to the Pulse Night Club shooting. Nor did Defendants conduct play a substantial factor in, or have any direct link to, Mateens appalling act. At the same time, the judges left open the possibility that an online platform could be liable for a terrorist attack in a case with different facts. To be sure, this does not mean that defendants could never proximately cause a terrorist attack through their social media platforms, they wrote. But plaintiffs allege no facts connecting defendants to Mateen or the Pulse Night Club shooting. Facebook, Twitter and Google have been sued numerous times over allegations they facilitate terrorism. So far, the companies have defeated at least 10 of those lawsuits. by Wayne Friedman , April 18, 2019 NBCUniversal is leading a new advertising/sponsorship sales effort for Team USA for four Olympic and Paralympic games, ending with the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. The deal, which spans from 2021 to 2028, will -- for the first time -- combine the selling of Team USA sponsorships and U.S. Olympics TV advertising via one entity. NBCUniversal is working with the joint venture formed by the LA 2028 Organizing Committee and the United States Olympic Committee U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties. Marketers will now have a single point of entry to create a cross-platform Olympic and Paralympic partnership in the United States -- beginning with Beijing 2022; Paris 2024; 2026 (host city to be chosen in June 2019); and Los Angeles 2028, according to the announcement. Los Angeles will be the first Olympics hosted in the U.S. since Salt Lake City 2002, and the first Summer Games in the U.S. since Atlanta 1996. advertisement advertisement This new group will present media and sponsorship opportunities to advertisers to associate their brands with Team USA, as well as supporting the IOCs international sponsorship program. Linda Yaccarino, chairman, advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal will lead this effort in partnership with Casey Wasserman, LA 2028 Chairperson. NBCU booked over $900 million in advertising time for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea; and $1.2 billion in ad revenues for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. by Sara Guaglione , April 18, 2019 s latest issue tackles climate change ahead of Earth Day on April 22, with 24 covers in the magazine each dedicated to overage of the topic. The magazine gathered 24 stories it published in the past year addressing an aspect of climate change and created a cover for each article. The first cover features a globe on fire, with the tagline: A different way to read and think about the peril facing Earth. advertisement advertisement The intro to the magazine reads: It can be tough for even the most conscientious citizen to fully engage with the scale of the crisis." Part of the problem, it notes, is the sheer volume of bad climate news. For Earth Day, we decided to create a different way to read about climate change: an all-cover issue of the magazine. The stunning, bold covers are a mix of photography and illustration, from an image of the Sahara Desert for a story on how it is expanding to an imagine of a home underwater on rising sea levels. Articles also tackle growing wildfires, worsening hurricanes and melting ice caps. Separately, The New York Times is airing a new TV ad on climate change ahead of Earth Day, featuring reporting from correspondent Nicholas Casey and photographer Josh Haner as part of its Truth Is Worth It brand campaign. The campaign aims to educate viewers about the work and resources necessary for in-depth reporting, with the goal of attracting more subscribers. It is part of a growing trend among publishers to communicate to readers the importance of solid journalism, by revealing the reporting process. The Times began these efforts with The Truth Is Hard brand campaign series, its first major brand campaign in decades. This Earth Day ad is the latest in The Times The Truth Is Worth It brand campaign series, which shows independent journalism requires resources, time and commitment, and needs the support of subscribers to fuel this effort. The ad takes viewers through the reporting process that led to its interactive investigation into the impacts of warming seas on the Galapagos Islands. The duo lived on a boat for seven days as they explored the Galapagos Islands ecosystem and wildlife. They uncovered a number of environmental effects of the warming climate, including sea lions dying prematurely, fish disappearing and birds becoming infertile. The ad will air on linear and streaming television and across social channels, as well as The Times' print and online platforms. In 2017, The Times created a team dedicated to Climate coverage and appointed Hannah Fairfield as its Climate desk editor. Last week, the founder-CEO of retail brand Everlane, Michael Preysman, announced a partnership with The New York Times to promote climate journalism. Everlane is selling a Climate Collection of Times branded cotton crew T-shirts and French terry crew sweatshirts that read Truth. It affects us all to make the point. On the back of the shirts is a list, noting how consumers actions impact the environment, such as What we put on our plates and How we travel. China Aviation Daily | Apr. 18, 2019 Enchanting tourist attractions, unique diplomatic stature and a thriving airliner have placed Ethiopia, Land of Origins, on top of the world when it comes to tourism growth. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council's (WTTC) annual review, the country saw the highest tourism growth in the world (48.6%), surpassing the global average growth rate of 3.9% and the African average of 5.6%. During the period, the sector supported 2.2 million jobs and contributed US$7.4 billion to Ethiopia's economy, an increase of US$2.2bn on 2017. The timeless charm of Ethiopia's natural, cultural and historical tourist attractions has been driving an influx of tourists from far and wide. As the land where mankind, coffee and the Blue Nile trace their roots, Ethiopia has always been a fascinating destination for holidaymakers. The country's UNESCO-registered heritages including the majestic obelisks of Axum, the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and the fortified historic town of Harar, among others, have always remained tourist magnets, drawing visitors in droves. And add to this the magnificent scenery and the unique wildlife riches, some of which are found in the country only. As the Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing & Exhibitions (MICE) tourism blossoms around the world, Ethiopia is also uniquely positioned to reap the benefits, owing to its unique place in Africa's diplomatic landscape. Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa hosts African Union headquarters and the offices of UN-ECA among others. Addis is the toast of Africa, and welcomes diplomats and executives from across the continent and the rest of the world. With its remarkable safety record and forward-looking infrastructure boom, today the city stands among the top capitals in the world, hosting major regional and global conferences. As the main hub of the Pan-African carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia also enjoys convenient air connectivity with multiple destinations in Africa and the rest of the world, making travel to the country easier than ever before. The connectivity options the airline offers to travelers has made Ethiopia ever more accessible to the whole world, and has facilitated the influx of tourists. The airline's catalyst role has never been more impactful, especially in promoting tourism, as alluded to by Gloria Guevara, President & CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council concerning the exceptional growth of Ethiopia's tourism. "Ethiopia's Travel & Tourism boom was one of the great success stories of 2018. It has exceeded our sector's global and regional comparisons to record the highest level of growth of any country in 2018", Gloria Guevara notes. "This has been driven by the very strong performance of aviation in the country and the development of Addis Ababa as a dynamic and growing regional hub." Africa's largest carrier today spreads its wings to 120 destinations throughout the world, with half the destinations in Africa. Thanks to Addis Ababa's strategic location at the center of the East-West lane and the ever-expanding service of Ethiopian Airlines, the city has emerged as the major gateway into Africa surpassing Dubai. Besides its wide connectivity and multi-award winning signature services, the flag carrier's cutting -edge technologies are adding a definite wow factor that is enabling the influx of tourists savor the beauty of the nation and designate the east Africa's nation as a home away from home! Ethiopian Mobile App enables international travelers secure e- Visa within 4 hours and elevates travelers to a high degree of personalization and end- to end travel experience through mobile devices. Global passengers can apply e-Visa and book their flights, pay online using credit or debit cards, mobile money, e- Wallet and bank transfer. They can also check-in and issue boarding pass as well as self-board. Passport and Ethiopian App suffice all the way to experience seamless travel to and from Ethiopia. The excellence of Ethiopian is also manifest in its hospitality and award winning service. The carrier has been certified by SKYTRAX as Four Star Global Airline. As Ethiopia keeps leveraging its edge as a destination of choice for holidaymakers, and as Addis Ababa continues to augment its place as the diplomatic capital of Africa and the flourishing hub of Ethiopian Airlines, the sky will be the limit to its tourism growth in the years to come! Contributed by Ethiopian Airlines by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, April 18, 2019 Effie Worldwide is out with its 2019 index of most effective agencies, brands, marketers and holding companies around the world. McCann Worldgroup retained its top ranking as the most effective agency network, followed respectively by BBDO Worldwide, Ogilvy, Wunderman Thompson and DDB. Sancho BBDO in Bogota, Colombia also held its title as the most effective individual agency office, in part, based on the success of campaigns it created for Bancolombia, the Colombia Red Cross and other regional and global brands. Dubai-based FP7/DXB is second for work on brands like Babyshop and Uber. McCann Worldgroups New Delhi office is third, Ogilvy Mumbai ranks fourth and DDB Group New Zealand is fifth. Among independent agencies, Hamburg-based Jung Von Matt was top-ranked followed by second-ranked Interaction (San Jose, Costa Rica) and Special Group (Auckland) in third. advertisement advertisement The top five most effective holding company ranking is unchanged from 2018. In order, they are: WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic, Publicis Groupe and Dentsu. Unilever retained its title as the most effective marketer, the sixth time since 2011 it has held the top spot. Nestle is second ranked and The Coca-Cola Company is third. McDonalds and Procter & Gamble rounded out the top five. Coca-Cola returned as the most effective brand, the fifth time it has held the top spot since 2011. McDonalds is second and Vodafone third. KFC and Ikea round out the top-five spots in the category this year. The rankings are based on cumulative success in 46 national, regional and multi-national Effie Award competitions during 2018. Case study submissions are assessed and debated by industry judges who evaluate strategic communications objectives, results and other criteria. "Despite the pace and rate of change we are experiencing as an industry, effectiveness remains at the heart of everyone's business objectives," said Effie Worldwide CEO Traci Alford. More on this years rankings can be accessed here. by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, April 18, 2019 The red-hot resale market just landed an unlikely booster, with Neiman Marcus announcing its buying a minority stake in Fashionphile, a digital darling that sells pre-owned designer handbags. The news comes on the heels of H&M, the fast-fashion retailer, announcing its own foray into pre-owned fashion. Neiman Marcus is the first luxury chain to make such an investment and says the move will help it connect with younger shoppers. The retailer says there is limited overlap between sellers and buyers in the pre-owned market, and that the deal will let existing customers participate in sales of pre-owned merchandise while also reaching new, younger shoppers ahead of their peak spending years. With Fashionphile, we will engage with customers participating in the secondary market and introduce Neiman Marcus to younger and aspirational shoppers already devoted to luxury brands, says Geoffroy van Raemdonck, CEO officer, in the announcement. advertisement advertisement Neiman Marcus is struggling to turn around its fortunes under a heavy debt load. Last month, S&P lowered its credit rating on the Dallas-based retailer. Neiman Marcus says its research has shown that more than half its customers already engage in pre-owned luxury items, a market dominated by digital brands like The Real Real and Rent the Runway. Fashionphile, based in Carlsbad, Calif., has an inventory of 15,000 bags and accessories. Digital reseller ThredUp estimates that the market for secondhand clothes is set to double in the next five years, moving from $24 billion last year to $51 billion in 2023. For the last three years, its grown 21 times faster than the broader apparel market. Its strongest appeal is with younger shoppers, with millennials and Gen Z about 2.5 times more likely to buy pre-owned apparel than older shoppers. That insight is driving resale experimentation at the budget end of the fashion food chain, with H&M announcing that its & Other Stories brand is developing a test in Sweden, working with Sellpy, the secondhand platform. The pilot will group used items from & Other Stories in a shop-within-a-shop on the Sellpy website. While the sales will be managed by Sellpy, H&M says it intends to encourage customers to explore those pre-loved treasures through its website and social media. The experiment makes a nice fit with H&Ms ongoing efforts to promote sustainability. But environmentalists are increasingly singling out the fast-fashion chains like H&M, Zara and Primark for promoting disposable fashion, a problem that may already be impacting its appeal for environmentally aware young fashionistas. New research from Washington University in St. Louis says the overabundance of fast fashion has sparked an environmental and social justice crisis.From the growth of water-intensive cotton to the release of untreated dyes into local water sources to worker's low wages and poor working conditions, the environmental and social costs involved in textile manufacturing are widespread." ThredUp says that at current growth rates, the resale market is likely to be 1.5 times the size of fast fashion by 2028. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, April 18, 2019 Right-wing activists Laura Loomer and Freedom Watch want a federal appellate court to revive a lawsuit accusing Google, Twitter, Facebook and Apple of conspiring to suppress conservative views. The lawsuit was dismissed last month by U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden. He said the concerns raised by Loomer and Freedom Watch were non-trivial, but that those concerns didn't translate into grounds for a lawsuit. This week, Loomer and Freedom Watch began the process of appealing McFadden's ruling to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the district court complaint, Loomer and Freedom Watch alleged the tech companies violated antitrust laws by conspiring to re-craft the nation into their leftist design. Specifically, the complaint alleged that the tech companies -- along with traditional news media outlets -- intentionally and willfully suppressed politically conservative content in order to take down President Donald Trump and his administration with the intent and purpose to have installed leftist government in the nations capital and the 50 states. (The complaint was only against the tech companies, not traditional media.) advertisement advertisement Among other allegations, Freedom Watch said it experienced a large drop in YouTube viewers after the platforms started suppressing and censoring Freedom Watch's content. Whereas Freedom Watchs YouTube videos often reach over 100,000, with a substantially positive 'like' to 'dislike' ratio, it is losing subscribers each and every day ... which has directly and proximately led to led to a substantial drop in revenue. This is the result of the illegal and anti-competition actions, the company wrote. Loomer was banned by Twitter last November after she allegedly violated the platform's rules against hate speech in a tweet criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Soon after Twitter took action, Facebook also suspended Loomer for 30 days. She alleged in the federal suit that these moves caused her financial injury, and prevented her from reaching her audience with her investigative work. McFadden said in a ruling issued last month that the complaint by Loomer and Freedom Watch didn't support a lawsuit. He said that even though the lawsuit alleged that the companies engaged in a conspiracy, the complaint only contained conclusions -- as opposed to the kinds of factual allegations that would prove a case. It includes no allegations, for example, that any of the platforms met or otherwise communicated an intent to collectively suppress conservative content, he wrote. Loomer and Freedom Watch also alleged that the platforms violated the First Amendment by suppressing speech for political reasons. But McFadden -- like many other judges -- said that the First Amendment prohibits censorship by the government, not private companies. While selective censorship of the kind alleged by the plaintiffs may be antithetical to the American tradition of freedom of speech, it is not actionable under the First Amendment unless perpetrated by a state actor, he wrote. Thus, their claim must be dismissed. In addition to appealing the dismissal of the federal case, Loomer said Thursday that she brought a new lawsuit in Florida state court against Twitter and the Council for American Islamic Relations. Freedom Watch and Loomer aren't the only ones to accuse tech companies of censoring conservative views. Others, including Prager University, have filed similar lawsuits. Despite those complaints, some observers say there is no evidence that tech companies are especially likely to suppress conservative views. New York Law School professor Ari Waldman, who testified on Capitol Hill last year, told lawmakers that a lot of content is filtered, but "no more so from the right than from the left." So far, judges have ruled that web companies have the right to decide how to treat content on their platforms. Last year, for instance, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to revive a lawsuit against Facebook by the group Sikhs for Justice. That organization alleged that its content was blocked by Facebook in India. Recognizing cannabis movement trailblazers NYSE | TSX: ACB EDMONTON, April 18, 2019 /CNW/ - Calling all Canadian budtenders! Aurora Cannabis is kicking off the search for Canada's Top Budmaster through a national competition that will recognize cannabis professionals across the country who are guiding consumers as they navigate the new world of legal cannabis. Canada's Canada's Terry Booth Canada's June 1, 2019 Canada's October 17, 2019 Canada's Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Terry Booth Through a series of skills-based and knowledge-testing events, as well as through digital competitions,budtender community will be able to demonstrate their expertise in cultivar characteristics and histories, product categories and formats, exceptional customer service, and must also showcase how they contribute to the community and culture.Asfirst legal 420 holiday approaches, it's time to recognize the women and men in cannabis retail stores who educate consumers every day. These passionate, knowledgeable budtenders on the front line continue to break stigma and grow the cannabis community by helping more and more Canadians learn about the plant, its properties and how cannabis can fit responsibly into their lives."We wouldn't be where we are today as an industry, and as a company, without the cannabis advocates who fought to break boundaries and challenge perceptions," said, CEO. "Aurora thanks the cannabis leaders of the past, and we applaud the work of budtenders everywhere who are educating Canadians on cannabis, and helping to grow a strong and long-lasting future for the cannabis movement."Aurora invites all professional budtenders who are currently employed by an authorized cannabis retail store to see if they have what it takes to becomeby registering here, (https://pro.auroracann.com/budmasters/) with Aurora's new digital budtender community Aurora Pro, which will help budtenders connect with each other across the country, learn about new products and brands, continuously upgrade their knowledge and skills, and advance their career in the cannabis industry.Interested budtenders are encouraged to register on Aurora Pro beforewill conclude on, the first anniversary of legalization, where Aurora will present the Top Budmaster award to one deserving finalist. Aurora will be providing further details about how you can becomeand participate in the Aurora Pro community soon.Headquartered inwith funded capacity in excess of 625,000 kg per annum and sales and operations in 24 countries across five continents, Aurora is one of the world's largest and leading cannabis companies. Aurora is vertically integrated and horizontally diversified across every key segment of the value chain, from facility engineering and design to cannabis breeding and genetics research, cannabis and hemp production, derivatives, high value-add product development, home cultivation, wholesale and retail distribution.Highly differentiated from its peers, Aurora has established a uniquely advanced, consistent and efficient production strategy, based on purpose-built facilities that integrate leading-edge technologies across all processes, defined by extensive automation and customization, resulting in the massive scale production of high quality product at low cost. Intended to be replicable and scalable globally, our production facilities are designed to produce cannabis of significant scale, with high quality, industry-leading yields, and low per gram production costs. Each of Aurora's facilities is built to meet EU GMP standards, and its first production facility, the recently acquired MedReleaf Markham facility, and its wholly owned European medical cannabis distributor Aurora Deutschland have achieved this level of certification.In addition to the Company's rapid organic growth and strong execution on strategic M&A, which to date includes 15 wholly owned subsidiary companies MedReleaf, CanvasRX, Peloton Pharmaceutical, Aurora Deutschland, H2 Biopharma, Urban Cultivator, BC Northern Lights, Larssen Greenhouses, CanniMed Therapeutics, Anandia Labs, HotHouse Consulting, MED Colombia, Agropro, Borela, and ICC Labs Aurora is distinguished by its reputation as a partner and employer of choice in the global cannabis sector, having invested in and established strategic partnerships with a range of leading innovators, including: Radient Technologies Inc. (TSXV: RTI), Hempco Food and Fiber Inc. (TSXV: HEMP), Cann Group Ltd. (ASX: CAN), Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (CSE: MWM), Choom Holdings Inc. (CSE: CHOO), Capcium Inc. (private), Evio Beauty Group (private), Wagner Dimas (private), CTT Pharmaceuticals (OTCC: CTTH), Alcanna Inc. (TSX: CLIQ) and High Tide Inc. (CSE:HITI).Aurora's Common Shares trade on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol "ACB", and are a constituent of the S&P/TSX Composite Index. For more information about Aurora, please visit our investor website, www.investor.auroramj.com, CEOAurora Cannabis Inc.This news release includes statements containing certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forward-looking statements"), including, but not limited to, statements with respect to the performance of the Company. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include, but are not limited to statements regarding the formalization of the contract associated with the tender, the outcome of the appeal procedure, the construction and completion of the Company's production facility in Germany, and the production capacity of the facility. These statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.SOURCE Aurora Cannabis Inc. MUMBAI DHAKA, Bangladesh April 18, 2019 and/PRNewswire/ -- Two distinctively designed expos focused on - Occupational Safety and Health SAN MATEO, California TEL AVIV, Israel April 18, 2019 $3M Tamir Wolf Yoav Samet Mor Assia April 2019 www.theator.io Tamir Wolf and/PRNewswire/ -- Theator, the AI-powered surgical decision support company, announced today the close of afunding round led by StageOne, iAngels and KdTVC. Theator is helping surgeons enhance capabilities and reduce medical errors by leveraging machine learning and computer-vision to identify, optimize and scale dissemination of best practices. While most companies at the intersection of healthcare and AI are working on static images such as x-rays and CTs for diagnostics, Theator is working to leverage video - a critical missing piece in the sector."Lack of access to objective and widespread data on surgery is a major cause of often life-threatening errors. Today, much of the lack of access to quality care stems from surgery being mostly subjective, still taught and performed as an apprenticeship," said Dr., Co-Founder and CEO of Theator. "Quality of care and outcomes vary greatly depending on the surgeon's 'intuition,' gained from one's particular experience, which is somewhat limited and varies. Theator leverages machine learning and computer vision to analyze surgeries and compile a usable database that can help dramatically reduce biases in surgical procedures."Minimally invasive surgery is performed millions of times annually, yet procedures are not recorded routinely. Still, there is a growing understanding in the surgical community that video assessment is crucial for improving performance and optimization continuity of care. In sports, there is widespread utilization of video analytics as a means to enhance performance, yet to date, this has eluded the field of surgery. This presents a unique opportunity for real-time human surgical support and later, intelligence for robotic platforms.Theator just announced the launch of its first product - a platform called Minutes - at the annual meeting of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). Minutes provides intelligently edited versions of surgical procedures covering surgical steps and outcome-critical components. Hours-long procedures can be reviewed in minutes, helping surgeons prepare and review procedures. AI-powered algorithmic analytics can also inform surgeons on their performance. Videos will be stored in a repository where surgeons access palatable, actionable footage as they prepare for procedures and retrieve crucial information post-operatively to debrief and improve patient care."We are strong believers that computer vision and machine learning will change surgery forever," said, Managing Partner of StageOne and incoming Board Member of Theator. "Identifying best practices to make surgeons better is just the beginning. Eventually, AI-driven insights will enable autonomous robotic platforms. Theator is creating the roadmap that will ultimately aid such platforms navigate complex surgical procedures, and StageOne is proud to support this vision.""We are in the midst of an AI spring where we see AI infiltrating more and more industry sectors. In health tech, we will see significant changes not only in clinical data management but also in the patient interface, as these functions will be able to leverage huge amounts of information gathered and analyzed on a global scale by health care institutions," said, Founding Partner and Co-CEO of iAngels. "We are confident that Theator's AI powered solution will be transformative for the way physicians learn to master surgical techniques and reduce errors, making patient outcomes markedly better."Theator is building a SaaS platform to provide surgeons with AI-powered decision support tools. Theator is helping surgeons improve performance by leveraging machine learning and computer-vision to identify, optimize and scale dissemination of best practices. The company's long-term vision is to enhance surgeon performance in real time and build the future cognitive base to enable autonomous surgical robotic platforms. Launched in, Theator's first product,, is a highlight reel and analytics tool providing intelligently edited versions of surgical procedures. These are presented to surgeons in a palatable and actionable form in order to help prepare and debrief, quickly and efficiently, using AI-powered algorithmic insights. For more information visitFor more information:tamir@theator.io+1-646-935-9217 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/theator-raises-3m-seed-round-to-enhance-surgical-performance-and-reduce-medical-errors-with-artificial-intelligence-300834514.html SOURCE Theator Sushma Swaraj has saved quite a few lives in her tenure as the Union External Affairs Minister, and literally so. Over time, she has turned into a sort of quasi-godmother for Indians residing abroad, who swiftly steps up to help those in need. Swaraj has been actively helping Indians living abroad, who reach out to her in moments of distress through social media platforms such as Twitter. Twitter Earlier today, she pulled a 'Main Hoon Na' move when an Indian national in Saudi Arabia reached out to her and she assured to help him out by saying hum hain na. An Indian named Ali had been trying to leave Saudi and get back to India for the past one year. He had been in touch with the Indian Embassy in Riyadh for the same purpose, however, nothing came out of his efforts even after 12 months of struggle, and as a last resort he reached out to Swaraj for help. 'Khud kusi' ki baat nahin sochte. Hum hain na. Hamari Embassy aapki poori madad karegi. @IndianEmbRiyadh - Pls send me a report on this. https://t.co/ajU8EXyhAK Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 18, 2019 In his plea, he stated that he has tried tooth and nail to get back to India, but the Indian Embassy has shown no seriousness in considering his request. Now, the man said that if help is not sent, he might have to take his own life, as he can see no other way. To this Swaraj promptly replied saying, Khud kusi ki baat nahin sochte. Hum hain na. Hamari Embassy aapki poori madad karegi. @IndianEmbRiyadh - Pls send me a report on this, and asked the authorities to look into the matter. Twitter This isn't all. We have witnessed Sushma Swaraj come to the rescue of many others in the past as well. Last year she also responded to a tweet stating that she personally handled her Twitter account, and it wasn't her ghost doing it for her. She has a great sense of humour and an even greater sense of responsibility and accountability for her duty as well as her position. There is still some amount of compassion and empathy left in this world, where war and hate co-exist. People recognise the dire need for compassion that can change the basic ethos of the current negative situation everywhere and bring about balance in a much needed way. Just recently we saw a prime example of the kind of empathy we're talking about when oil-rig workers rescued an exhausted dog off the coast of Thailand, giving him an absolutely new life. The tan-coloured dog who was later named Boonrod by his rescuers, which means 'survivor from karma' in Thai, was saved amidst heavy waves, in the middle of the sea in the Gulf of Thailand. The oil-rig workers saw the dogs head bobbing up and down, while they were busy at work and they brought him up on the platform. CNN Boonrod was about 220KMS away from the shore when he was spotted by Vitisak Payalaw, who went on Facebook to talk about the rescue. Vitisak works with Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production and he said if there were high waves while the dog was in water, they probably wouldn't even have seen him. He put up a video of the dog when he was found, on Facebook. CNN According to Vitisak, the dog made it to the platform, clinging on to the support structure, without barking, whimpering or showing any resistance to water. The crew then lowered a rope and tied it to his neck to haul him up. The oil-rig workers suspect the dog may have fallen off a fishing trawler and couldn't find his way back to the shore hence. Boonrod has luckily found a home as well and guess where it's going to be? Vitisak has decided to adopt the dog and take him to his home in Northeast Thailand. The richest man in Taiwan has recently thrown himself in the presidential race and has a terrific reason as to why he decided to do so in the first place. Terry Gou, whose company Foxconn is known for building iPhones in China, is now going to run for presidential elections in Taiwan because a sea goddess by the name of Mazu has told him "to step forward and do something for the people of Taiwan" and we're really confused with this piece of information at the moment. CNN If Gou is selected for the opposition party Kuomintang, as a presidential candidate then he will withdraw from daily operations of his $8 billion net worth company Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision. Currently, Foxconn is the largest electronics manufacturer majorly providing parts for Apple and Huawei. The company is widely involved in China where it employs a large amount of people to work for it. If selected as the president in 2020, Gou will works towards strengthening Taiwan's economy and straightening out the complicated relations Taiwan shares with China. Unsplash That's all great for Taiwan we suppose but we're still confused about how he got in touch with the sea goddess who gave him this piece of wisdom in the first place. Apparently Gou announced his candidacy after visiting a temple in Taipei, which is dedicated to the Taoist goddess, Mazu, who is the guardian angel of seafarers. Gou openly declared proudly that MAzu had given him her blessings for candidacy and told him he must stand for the position. Reuters "If Mazu says that you should step up, it is not in order to make money or for personal enjoyment, I tell you, I am like a godson to Mazu ... I will definitely respect and follow Mazu's will." Gou told an international publication in an interview. "I am not willing to accept being appointed (without being elected), I am definitely not willing to accept being appointed. If elected, I will represent the Kuomintang in the 2020 contest," he added. CNN Well, we thought India was ridden by religious overbearing norms and rituals and 'obeying the God' you believe in to put forth ones political agenda's as mere whims but Taiwan isn't far behind either. Well, all we can say is we hope Gou follows through with the presidential elections and if he comes to power uses logic and rationale along with the sea goddess's Talisman's to bring changes in Taiwan as he deems fit. Election Commission (EC) is badass this year. They're banning people left, right and centre for good reason. Certain politicians have (ahem) a history of saying offensive and hurtful things. Remember the guy who blamed horniness of young men on street noodles? While saying whatever they like is usually admissible but during the election campaign, there are certain rules mandated by the EC that need to be followed. These rules have been undermined for years. However, this year in light of extensive campaigns and more access, courtesy social media, Election Commission has been proactive and we really appreciate them for it. Here is a list of ridiculous things that politicians said that got them banned for a short period, but that is also something. 1. Called the Muslim League a green virus that caused the partition of the country Yogi Adityanath, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who is currently the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, made this comment among others in a speech that referred to the Muslim League a virus that spread across the country to the extent that it caused the partition of the country". Adding fuel to the fire, he also said that the opposition party, Congress is infected with the virus and that the Congress government used to serve biryani to terrorists and Modiji's army sends bullets and bombs their way, which basically suggests calling around 14% of the Indian population a green virus. The EC had issued a 72-hour campaigning ban on him. 2. Commented on the opponent's underwear colour Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan is contesting in Rampur against his BJP opponent Jaya Prada, a former member of his own party, in a speech said, I brought her to Rampur. You are a witness that I did not allow anyone to touch her body. It took you 17 years to identify her real face but I got to know in 17 days that she wears khaki underwear. BJP Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj compared it to the mythological character Draupadi being disrobed in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. But, more importantly, this comment triggered a response from the National Commission for Women, whose chairperson Rekha Sharma is requested the EC to bar him from contesting the election entirely. He too was issued a 72-hour ban for making comments considered sexist and derogatory. 3. Threatened Muslims to vote in her favour Sultanpur candidate and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said she would win regardless. However, if Muslims didn't help her, she will not feel good, because then there is a bitter feeling. She also said, If Muslims come for some work after that I will think, "why bother". She also said the most ironical statement considering her name is Gandhi, We are not Mahatma Gandhi's children to keep giving without getting anything in return. EC banned her from polling for 48 hours. It had issued a similar ban before to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati after she asked Muslims to vote for her party instead of Congress to help them defeat the BJP. These are only a few of the things that have come to the limelight. What other ridiculous things have you heard during the election campaign? Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Advertisement Just last month, it was reported that a Vietnamese fishing boat sank after colliding with a Chinese vessel. The strike happened near the disputed Parcel Islands in the South China Sea, amid tensions between the two countries. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The five victims and crew members of the crash clung to the sinking boat for their lives, but it wasnt until two hours later when rescue finally came in the form of another Vietnamese fishing boat. Instead of extending a hand, the Chinese vessel reached out to the Chinese Maritime Search and Rescue Center instead. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in the altercation. Not the first time In truth, this wasn't the first time an incident of this sort had occurred. Five years ago, Chinese vessels encircled a Vietnamese fishing boat before purposely causing another collision and sinking the boat. Both camps cried different stories, with China accusing the Vietnamese ship of prior harassment. For years, the Parcel Islands have been caught in the crossfire of the bilateral tensions between China and Vietnam, which can be traced back several decades. In 1970, China forcefully seized these territories and have since put up military outposts around the area, setting forth a series of maritime disputes in the South China Sea. In this regard, Vietnam isnt the only one with dominion to parts of the area, with the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, and Malaysia also having claims to the territory. Compared to all these countries, however, China continues to hold the biggest slice of the pie, at more than 80%. Over the years, China has made use of its nine-dash line as a geographical marker to establish its hold over the sea. From the Chinese mainland, their supposed territory spans 2,000 km to reach all the way to the waters near Indonesia and Malaysia. An economic advantage Indeed, the tension is more than just a matter of district. The South China Sea is known to be a key commercial thoroughfare that bridges Asia with Europe and Africa. Currently, one-third of global shipping passes through the South China Sea. In addition, 80% of Chinas oil imports also sails across it before reaching their soils. All in all, international trade in its waters clocks in at a total worth of $US3.37 trillion. However, thats not the biggest price tag tied to this corner of the ocean. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the area is a gold mine for natural resources, especially natural gas and oil. It is estimated that it houses at least 100 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. On top of this, 10% of the worlds fisheries can also be found in the South China Sea. In short, to have a piece of this particular pie translates to a significant economic boost and immense possibilities in global trade. Day by day, China grows more aggressive with their efforts in taking over the sea, which could pose serious threats to Vietnam and other nations. Expat Bets feature on the Vietnamese economy states that the country has come a long way from their post-war struggles. They have seen outstanding growth in their manufacturing, agriculture, and information technology industries, all of which have helped propel the nation forward. However, an article on Aljazeera states that the deteriorating US-China bilateral relations bring about both opportunities and challenges for the burgeoning Southeast Asian powerhouse. Despite the US history with Vietnam, it appears the two nations have found common ground in preventing Chinas growing military power in the South China Sea. For this reason, Vietnam has been strengthening its defense relationship with the US in recent years. In response to the recent sea collision between Vietnam and China, experts speculate that the incident may finally set forth a negotiation to create a maritime code of conduct by 2021. This would determine how naval and coast guard vessels can prevent accidents in the sea, though it has yet to be decided how this will apply to private vessels. If signed, the deal would likely include China, Vietnam, and the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations namely, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Twitter Says Goodbye to SPLC NEWS PROVIDED BY Liberty Counsel April 18, 2019 SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 18, 2019 /Christian Newswire/ -- Twitter has finally distanced itself from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) after the implosion regarding the ongoing sexual harassment, racial discrimination and donor deception inside the organization. The SPLC hypocritically labels Christian, pro-family, and conservative nonviolent groups, such as Liberty Counsel, as "hate groups." According to The Daily Caller, an anonymous source from Twitter confirmed that "The SPLC is not a member of Twitter's Trust and Safety Council as a 'safety partner' working to combat 'hateful conduct and harassment' and providing 'input on our safety products, policies, and programs.'" The four major social media companies in Silicon Valley, Facebook, Amazon, Google and Twitter, worked with or consulted the SPLC as early as June 2018 to help police their platforms for "hate speech" or "hate groups." Twitter appears to be the only one to now completely separate itself from the SPLC. The SPLC is on a list of "external experts and organizations" that Facebook works with "to inform our hate speech policies," according to a Facebook spokeswoman. Amazon also grants the SPLC broad policing power over the Amazon Smile charitable program. "We remove organizations that the SPLC deems as ineligible," an Amazon spokeswoman told The Daily Caller in 2018. Google was also exposed in 2018 for secretly using the SPLC to assist YouTube in policing content on its platform. Liberty Counsel recently joined a coalition of 69 other conservative leaders and organizations in releasing an open letter to news organizations, social media platforms and corporate donors to sever their ties with the SPLC and its ongoing effort to defame and slander mainstream conservative organizations. "It is long overdue that social media companies stop using the hypocritical SPLC as a reliable source to police their content and discriminate against pro-family and conservative nonviolent organizations," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "The rest of the tech companies should follow Twitter's lead and divorce from the SPLC. It appears to have taken a major implosion within the SPLC for others to finally see what organizations like Liberty Counsel have been saying all along," said Staver. Find more information that exposes the truth about the Southern Poverty Law Center here. Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics. Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost. SOURCE Liberty Counsel CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org Related Links lc.org/ Attorney General Dana Nessel Joins Coalition to Protect Women's Reproductive Rights Attorney General Dana Nessel Joins Coalition to Protect Women's Reproductive Rights Kelly Rossman-McKinney 517-335-7666 Attorney General April 15, 2019 LANSING Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel late Friday joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general to protect womens rights in filing a brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, supporting Mississippis sole abortion clinic in Jackson Womens Health Organization, et al. v. State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, et al. The case challenges a Mississippi law that prohibits doctors from providing abortion services after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The coalition argues that state laws cannot prohibit a woman from her constitutionally protected right under Roe v. Wade to terminate her pregnancy before viability. Jackson Womens Health Organization the only abortion services provider in Mississippi challenged the ban and requested a temporary restraining order. On Nov. 20, 2018, a Mississippi district court granted a summary judgment for the plaintiffs and issued a permanent injunction. The court held that the proposed state law violated a womans right to due process under the 14th Amendment. The state subsequently appealed the district courts decision. Make no mistake, this is the beginning of a concerted effort to overturn Roe v. Wade and to take states including Michigan back to the dark ages where women were forced to resort to back-alley abortions for fear of criminal prosecution," Nessel said. "We cannot and will not sit idly by. We have an obligation to step up and speak out for the protection of Michigan women and all women." Joining Attorney General Nessel in filing the brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia. ### As the first images of charred wreckage inside the Notre Dame cathedral appeared online Tuesday, engineers around the world said one observation was already clear: To return the ancient structure to its glorious past, builders will likely have turn to cutting-edge technology that many associate with the future. Even before engineers had been able to access the deepest corners of the still-smoldering structure, design experts, preservationists and engineers were contemplating which modern technologies might be brought to bear to restore one of Europe's most iconic structures to its fabled past. It's a speculative exercise, they admit, but one that is to be expected with the future of a UNESCO World Heritage Site at stake. The rebuilding effort will likely draw upon expertise gleaned from disasters like the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan and the Brazilian National Museum fire, where experimental robots and new digital tools have been used to go places people cannot safely venture and replicate detailed artifacts lost to fire. RELATED: Billionaires raced to pledge money to rebuild Notre Dame. Then came the backlash. Throughout the rebuilding effort, experts say, engineers and preservationists will be forced to wrestle with an ever-present question. "How do they meld brand new 21st century technologies with ancient craftsmanship and building trades in ways that keep the cathedral preserved and alive?" said Katherine Malon-France, the interim chief preservation officer of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit based in Washington. "This is going to be a very interesting intersection of technology and craft, and the world will be closely watching how they pull it off." Some of the technology that will be used to restore Notre Dame has already been on display. As a wall of orange flames roared across the cathedral's roof Monday, and hundreds of firefighters mounted their counterattack, high-tech machines had already been brought to the fight. Hovering in the air above the cathedral, a pair of Chinese-manufactured commercial drones equipped with HD cameras - the Mavic Pro and Matrice M210, made by DJI - helped firefighters position their hoses to contain the blaze before it before it destroyed the cathedral's two, iconic belfries, according to the French newspaper Le Parisien. "It is thanks to these drones, to this new technique absolutely unavoidable today, that we could make tactical choices to stop this fire at a time when it was potentially occupying the two belfries," Paris firefighters spokesman Gabriel Plus said. On the ground, Colossus, a robotic fire extinguisher, blasted the nave with water, lowering the temperature of the glass-filled room, the paper reported. In the crucial months ahead, experts say, some of that same technology will likely be used to return the 13th-century cathedral to a place that last year drew 12 million visitors. One way to start, the experts said, will be to bring in other drones to survey locations inside the vast cathedral that are too dangerous or damaged for engineers to reach. Jerry Hajjar, a civil engineering professor at Northeastern University, said drones can be equipped with sensors - such as small cameras and laser scanners - that will allow engineers to document fire damage and create highly accurate three-dimensional visions of specific locations inside the church. Hajjar said other sensors may be able to peer inside the church's walls like an X-ray and estimate the mineralogical properties and the degree of stress the structure is under. But the documentation effort could prove more difficult than it sounds, Hajjar said, noting that the higher a drone must rise, the lower its the battery life and the amount of time it can stay in the air. That could prove especially challenging, he said, in a building that reaches 226 feet off the ground. Another method for testing the cathedral's integrity could involve robots, Hajjar said, pointing out that research is already underway for using climbing robots to inspect and repair steel bridges. "The value of using robots became very apparent after the Fukushima disaster," Hajjar said. "They didn't want to send people inside because it was too dangerous, but realized they could use crawling robots to go inside the site and get valuable images." It's possible that much of the 3D mapping work engineers will be called upon to consult already exists. In 2015, Andrew Tallon, an associate professor of art at Vassar College who died last year from brain cancer, told National Geographic that he'd completed a comprehensive laser scan of the entire cathedral. Experts said Tallon's digital techniques could provide crucial information for any rebuilding effort. There's only one problem: It's not entirely clear where Tallon's scans, which could be stored on a single hard drive, are currently located, according to The Atlantic. A popular video game also could provide another source of digital information about the Notre Dame. In a 2014 article in the Verge, Caroline Miousse - an artist who worked on the video game Assassin's Creed - said she devoted two years to creating a model of the church that captured the inside and outside of the building. Once engineers have a clearer sense of the church's structural integrity, experts said, they'll be able to design a suitable roof. They'll have to decide whether to rebuild the roof framing with timber. If they don't opt for a structurally engineered wood, which could reduce the roof's weight and offer artistic freedom, engineers could choose to work with steel. Though it would depart from the church's original wooden roof, steel would allow engineers to use less material and be even lighter than wood, according to Gary Howes, COO of The Durable Group, a consortium of historic restoration companies. Replacing what was lost may not be the biggest challenge, Howes said. Instead, he said, it will be marrying the old and the new, offering the building's worldwide admirers a window in the past that includes upgrades and meets modern building codes. "This project is going to be more about emotion than structure," he said. "Everybody wants that cathedral to look like it has always looked, the way they remember it." Fortunately, Howes added, France has an advantage over the rest of the world. "Some of the best craftsmen in the world are located in France," he said. "Whether it's restoration or even contemporary work, they haven't lost the historic trades like we did here in the U.S. Each year, we go there to learn from them." James Shepherd, director of preservation and facilities at Washington National Cathedral, where damage from a 2011 earthquake is still unrepaired, said the immediate days after an event like Monday's fire will be a critical time for the Notre Dame. "They'll need expertise there to make sure that they're sorting through the rubble and pulling out things that are salvageable or not," Shepherd said. "You're talking about things that might be 700 or 800 years old that they're trying to pull out that might be partially burned or partially damaged by water." In Brazil, where fire destroyed 90% of the national museum's collection last year, preservationists have used 3D data to re-create precious objects lost in the fire. Assuming they have access to similar data, experts said the same technique could be used in Paris. BAD AXE -- The Bad Axe Free Methodist Church, which is located at 165 Pigeon Road, will be hosting its annual Community Farmer's Prayer & Blessing from 1:30 to 2 p.m. April 28 at the church. Les Roth will be the guest speaker. WASHINGTON - Richard Schneider carefully spread the broken pieces of the glass photo negative on the light table at the National Archives and, wearing green rubber gloves, put them together like the parts of a puzzle. A ghostly image emerged that Schneider recognized. "The face, and the mustache, and those eyes," he said. It was Adolf Hitler, sitting stiffly in an upholstered arm chair, his German shepherd at his side. He wore pinstriped pants, a dark suit coat and a tiny swastika lapel pin. His hair was combed back, and he looked as if he was headed to the opera. A piano, suggesting refinement, sat in the background, and light illuminated one side of his blank face. It was an eerie likeness, apparently dating to 1923, when Hitler was 34, that could be one of the earliest ever published of the infamous Nazi dictator in public life. And it is one of 1,270 images that Schneider has just digitized from a trove of 41,000 glass negatives created by Hitler's personal photographer and key propagandist, Heinrich Hoffmann. Most have probably never been seen before with this clarity, he said. "What makes this digitization project special is that the ensuing image has been reproduced from the original negative, rather than it being a copy or copy of a copy," Schneider said in an email. "This results in unmatched quality." Plans are to make the photographs available online soon, according to Billy Wade, a supervisory archivist. Many of the fragile glass plates were broken and had to be reassembled. "There were more shattered plates of [Hitler] than perhaps any other subject," Schneider said. "I don't know if that was purposeful or coincidental." Putting them back together "was a little scary, as if I could hear him say, 'Danke [thank you] for making me whole again.' " he said. "Anytime I came across a picture of him looking at me, it sent shivers." "And remember, [Hitler] may not have been anything . . . if it weren't for the millions of people that rejoiced in his every word - thus, the foreboding rally shots," he said. Schneider, an Archives special projects preservationist, began studying and digitizing the glass negatives last summer and finished last month. Hoffmann, in whose Munich studio many of the portraits were made, took thousands of Nazi photographs, starting in the 1920s. His pictures helped craft the image of Hitler as the benevolent and heroic savior of Germany who was loved and admired by millions. Children, the working man, young people, dogs, all adored the fuhrer, according to Hoffmann's portrayal. "He single-handedly shaped the personal side of Hitler's 'Fuhrer Image,' " the German historian Heike B. Gortemaker wrote. It helped that he had exclusive access to the Nazi inner circle. In a group photo taken by a different photographer, Hoffmann is seen with Hitler and much of the Nazi political and military hierarchy. In crowded beer halls, concert halls, jammed auditoriums, inside offices, outside buildings, Nazis in all their livery assembled before Hoffmann's camera. Hitler posed, too. In a business suit. In uniform. In a trench coat. In lederhosen. In jack boots. Hoffmann was a seasoned photographer when he joined the Nazi party in 1920 - membership card #427 - and made most of his early pictures using the old-fashioned glass negatives. He had photographed German social, legal and religious figures, as well as actors, painters and musicians. After the war, his negatives were confiscated by the Army and went to the National Archives in 1962, according to Wade. The photographs are frightening examples of early Nazi propaganda - of carefully staged group pictures, portraits and scenes at political rallies as Hitler campaigned for election and the halls were hung with Nazi banners. "Germany Shall Live," the banners say, "Don't Buy from Jews," and "Jews are our Misfortune." Audiences look on, some giving the "heil Hitler" salute, while others do not. Almost always, the venues are full, often standing-room-only. Hoffmann and his assistants later photographed the 1936 Berlin Olympics, taking thousands of pictures, he wrote in his 1955 memoir, "Hitler Was My Friend." He went with Hitler to Poland when the Nazis invaded in 1939. And he chronicled the surrender of France near Compiegne in 1940, in the same railway car where Germany capitulated in 1918, ending World War I. "Now it's our turn," Hoffmann said an exultant Hitler told him. Hoffmann claimed in his memoir that Hitler eluded photographers in the early days and destroyed one of Hoffmann's negatives after the photographer staked him out. Later, Hoffmann, by then an intimate friend and part of Hitler's traveling retinue, agreed not to publish any pictures of him until he got Hitler's OK. But at an outdoor rally in September 1923, another German photographer, Georg Pahl, took a picture of Hitler and disappeared into the crowd. Hitler then summoned Hoffmann and agreed to come to Hoffmann's Munich studio. "The time has now come, and . . . you shall take your photographs," Hoffmann said Hitler told him. The 1923 negative that Schneider reassembled, as well as others featuring Hitler in the same clothes and in the same armchair could be one from that sit-down. (Pahl, meanwhile, reportedly was blacklisted by the Nazis.) Hoffmann took full advantage and made a fortune producing a stream of illustrated propaganda books: "With Hitler in Poland," "With Hitler in Italy," "Hitler Off Duty" and "The Hitler Nobody Knows." Hoffmann claimed in his book that he eventually ran afoul of Hitler's sinister gatekeeper, Martin Bormann, and was edged out of the inner circle around 1944. After the war, Hoffmann was arrested and convicted of war profiteering, and he spent five years in several German prisons. One of them was only 15 miles from his old haunts in Munich. It was the former Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. PIGEON Sempra Renewables recently made a $15,000 gift to the Pigeon Community Fund of the Huron County Community Foundation (HCCF). Sempra Renewables, operator of Apple Blossom Wind LLC, through its partnership with HCCF has given back to the Pigeon community annually. Sempra Renewables is in the process of being acquired by AEP, a company based out of Ohio. While the name will change, the interest in the community will remain strong. Were excited to make a positive impact on the community and we appreciate all of the local support weve had, said Andrew Johnson, Wind Facility manager for Apple Blossom Wind. The gift was given to the HCCF Pigeon Community Fund, a fund dedicated to supporting projects in and around the Village of Pigeon. The Fund is advised by a committee of individuals who live or work in Pigeon, including Dwight Gascho, Susan Meyerseick, Chris Wurst, Don Faupel, Jeff Leipprandt and HCCF Board of Trustee Member Michael LePage. The $15,000 gift supported two community projects, as well as the Pigeon Community Fund endowment: $10,000 was awarded to the Pigeon Events Center, formerly the VFW Hall, for continued improvements to the grounds, including landscaping. In the past two years, the Pigeon Community Fund and Sempra Renewables have provided $15,000 of support to this project for the Village of Pigeon. The facility is currently used for weekly exercise classes, civic club meetings, fundraisers for community causes, and private events An additional $3,500 contribution was awarded to complete the Scheurer Path to Fitness, located in the Village Park. The final $1,500 was invested for the future of Pigeon and was added to the Pigeon Community Fund Endowment at HCCF, to be a source of grants for community projects for generations to come. HCCF Executive Director Mackenzie Price Sundblad noted the foundation has a great partnership with Apple Blossom Wind. Its great to have partners that support the community and see the bigger vision," she stated. "These two projects both enhance public spaces, which is right in line with HCCFs Strategic Priority of creating dynamic and vibrant communities. For additional information on the HCCF, visit huroncountycommunityfoundation.org or look the group up on Facebook. GUILFORD Shoreline Arts Alliance recently announced that the University of Hartford, Hartford Art School awarded $1.74 million in scholarships to 21 high school juniors and seniors, whose work was chosen for Shoreline Arts Alliances Future Choices visual art competition and exhibition. Students from Coginchaug Regional High School, Daniel Hand High School, East Lyme High School, Haddam Killingworth High School, Lyme-Old Lyme High School, and Valley Regional High School had their artwork recognized by Robert Calafiore, the Assistant Dean and Director of Admission at the University of Hartford, Hartford Art School. These awards are born of the belief that artists are an essential part of our world, Calafiore said in a statement. Now, more than ever, the University of Hartford, Hartford Art School is committed to educating young creatives to understand the power they hold. Through creative critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication, innovation and an ability to adapt, artists are positioned to influence, direct and shape the future of our world in every industry. The impact of artists on political, social and cultural issues drives the change that moves us forward. Artists offer all of us a better understanding of who we are, by looking at where we have been and where we are going. We hope to assist young students to follow their passion to build a life in the creative fields. Learn more at www.shorelinearts.org. Poetry workshop planned at library DEEP RIVER Mindful Focus Poetry Workshop with local wordsmith, Jody Kaplan, will be held at the Deep River Library, Monday, May 20, 6 p.m. In this workshop, Kaplan will share his style of poetry; discuss the use of language and syntax as he guides participants through the creation process to pen their own poems. This class is free and open to 15 participants. Registration is required. To register, go to http://deepriverlibrary.accountsupport.com and click on the monthly calendar, or call the library at 860-526-6039. Women in Policing recruitment event set MERIDEN The Connecticut State Police Recruitment and Selection Unit are holding Women in Policing recruitment informational featuring women troopers assigned to various areas of the Connecticut State Police. Women troopers assigned to patrol and specialized units (such as Major Crime, Firearms Training Unit, K9 Unit) will discuss their background, current assignment, challenges and experiences during recruit training, and life as a Connecticut State Trooper. This informational session, featuring all women troopers and open to everyone, is geared toward women who have an interest in law enforcement and becoming a Connecticut State Trooper. Guests will also have an opportunity to speak with troopers individually or in small groups after troopers formally introduce themselves and provide basic information demonstrating their varied backgrounds - what troopers did before becoming troopers. Troopers invite guests to join them Wednesday, April 24, 6-8 p.m. at the Connecticut Police Academy, 285 Preston Ave, Meriden. The Connecticut State Police will be accepting applications for the position of State Police Trooper Trainee beginning April 15. The application period closes May 31. Interested candidates can only apply during the open application process, which will be conducted online only. Once available, the application can be found at www.jobapscloud.com/CT. If interested, go to www.beaconnecticuttrooper.com and follow us on social media on Instagram: @ctstatepolice_academy or Facebook @CTStatePoliceRecruitment for additional information about our selection process, qualifications and hiring process updates. Child actors can audition at Goodspeed EAST HADDAM Goodspeed Musicals is holding local child auditions for its 2019 production of Billy Elliot Sunday, May 19, 12 p.m. in East Haddam, for ballet girls and the Michel understudy. They are looking for candidates with strong dance ability between the ages of 7 and 16. Performances of Billy Elliot are Aug. 13 - Nov. 23. Candidates must be available for four weeks of rehearsal and a 12-week performance run. All auditions are by appointment only. Appointments may be made starting immediately; call 860-873-8664, ext. 721, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Interested performers should bring a resume, photo, ballet shoes (girls), tap shoes (girls and boys) and the sheet music for two 16-bar cuts (an up-tempo song and a ballad). Music must be legible and in the proper key (no lead sheets please). An accompanist will be provided. Shad museum to open for season The Haddam Shad Museum, 212 Saybrook Road, Haddam, behind the Fuel gas station, is open on Sundays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. from April 7 until June 16. The museum, a one-of-a-kind, displays the history of shad on the Connecticut River since colonial times. Groups and individuals who cant visit on Sundays can call for an appointment to visit at 860-267-0388. There is no admission charge. Vocal Chords to give cocnert PORTLAND A Musical Celebration will be performed by the Middlesex Hospital Vocal Chords on Saturday, May 11, at 7 p.m. at Portland High School, 95 High St. Fifteen from the pen of Lennon-McCartney combine to feature a medley extravaganza that hints at the influence the BEATLES have had world-wide over our contemporary music scene. Pieces from "Aladdin", "Chicago", "Pocahontas", "Shrek" and "Frozen" are sure to please our younger concert goers. Music from Irving Berlin, Neil Sedaka and John Fogerty will round out the program. Tickets are $20; call 860-347-2787 or 860-342-3120 to reserve. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door. Visit http://www.vocalchords20.org for a glimpse into the groups 29 year history. (CNN) An armed teenager whose threats forced the closure of 19 school districts in Colorado killed herself in a federal recreation area outside Denver with a shotgun she purchased at a store near Columbine High School, authorities said Wednesday. Police found the body of Sol Pais, an 18-year-old from Florida, at the base of Mount Evans, Dean Phillips, the agent in charge of the FBI office in Denver, said at a news conference. "She appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound," he said. "At this point it looks like she was alone and took her own life with the weapon she procured." Pais was "infatuated" with the Columbine shooting and made threats as she traveled to Colorado this week -- the same week as the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, which left 13 people dead, authorities said. Authorities said Pais arrived Monday in Colorado and immediately bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition. She purchased the shotgun legally at the Colorado Gun Broker, according to a post on the company's Facebook page. The gun shop is less than two miles from Columbine High School. The gun shop says Pais passed two background clearances by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The post goes on to say the store had no reason to suspect she was a threat to herself or anyone else. Phillips said there was no threat to a particular school. Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader said investigators don't think Pais got onto the grounds of Columbine High School in Littleton. Pais had made "credible," but not specific, threats before and after traveling from Miami to Denver on Monday night, Phillips said. She also raised suspicions by purchasing one-way plane tickets for April 15, 16 and 17, the agent said. Police in Florida contacted the Miami FBI office, which alerted the Denver office, Phillips said. Phillips said he didn't know why Pais went to Mount Evans. The driver of a rideshare or some other vehicle dropped her off there, he said, and later helped police pinpoint the location. Mount Evans, which is part of a national recreation area, is about 60 miles west of Denver. Pais was considered a threat to the community and schools, but there was no information on any specific threat to a particular place, Phillips said. Relief and grief in Florida More than 2,000 miles away, in the Miami suburb of Surfside, police Chief Julio Yero broke the news of Pais' death to her relatives. Despite their grief, "they are actually grateful that no one else is hurt," Yero told reporters outside the family's home. "This family contributed greatly to this investigation from the very onset," the police chief said. "They provided us valuable information that led us to Colorado, and a lot of things that assisted in preventing maybe more loss of life." Yero asked the public to give the Pais family privacy as they mourn. At least 19 school districts closed Jefferson County Public Schools, which includes Columbine High School in Littleton, were among at least 19 school districts closed Wednesday as authorities searched for Pais. With the search over, Jefferson County schools will reopen Thursday, Superintendent Jason Glass said. But he said there will be "heightened safety and security procedures" ahead of Saturday's anniversary of the Columbine massacre. The teen was 'really smart,' baffled classmate says Pais was a student at Miami Beach Senior High School, said Daisy Gonzalez-Diego, spokeswoman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Prior to news of Pais' death, a man who said he was Pais' father told the Miami Herald he lost contact with his daughter on Sunday. "I think maybe she's got a mental problem," he told the Herald. During the search for Pais, the teen's classmates said they were stunned that she was wanted for threats. "I actually have my third-period math and my second period with her," 17-year-old Drew Burnstine said. "It's just kinda crazy -- she's so close to me, sitting next to me, and she's making these threats across the country." Drew said he was surprised because Pais was "really smart" and had some of the best grades in the class. But the teen was very quiet and kept to herself, Drew said. "She hadn't really said anything to me other than thanking me for holding a door open for her," he said. "That's it." 'This opens a wound' On April 20, 1999, two students killed 12 of their schoolmates and a teacher in a mass shooting at the high school in the town of Littleton, about 10 miles from Denver. Sheriff Shrader said this week's potential threat of violence adds more pain to a community still grieving. "I know that this opens a wound, especially on an anniversary week, for those families who were most deeply impacted by this," he said. Correction: This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Superintendent Jason Glass' name and the correct location of the gun shop where Pais purchased the weapon. The Marine Corps plans to launch an urban-combat operations experiment this summer, and the service wants defense firms and academia to submit ideas for weapons and fighting technologies aimed at making Marine infantry units more effective in this deadly environment. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory recently released a request for information to search for emerging and mature technologies to be included in a new "limited objective experiment" focused on dense urban operations, according to an April 15 solicitation posted on the government contracting website FedBizOpps. This will be a series of experiments held between August 2019 and August 2023, with the opening experiment set for August 1-30 at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Indiana, according to the solicitation. Marine Corps leaders have for years talked about the importance of preparing to fight in mega-cities as they anticipate a future operating environment. But this may be the most far-reaching effort to date to ready the service for the fight. "The experiment provides warfighters the opportunity to assess the operational utility of emerging technologies and engineering innovations ... for sensing, speed of decision/action and lethality in dense urban environments," according to the solicitation. The goal of the experiment, according to the solicitation is to find improved technologies that support the Marine rifle company and its subordinate elements, with a focus on the ground-pounders prosecuting the fight. The warfighting lab is looking for weapons technologies that will provide Marine units with "mass and precision fires solutions" designed to penetrate urban structures "with or without destruction," the solicitation states. Essential need include obscuring systems and personnel in a cyber-contested environment, as well as damaging and destroying enemy holdings, according to the solicitation. Weapons technologies relevant to the experiment could consist of "fire-and-forget systems operable from enclosed space with variable-attack profiles to defeat active and passive protection," according to the solicitation. Marines are looking for systems with adjustable range that can "arm and achieve effect" at short arming ranges, as close as 20 meters. Indirect-fire systems capable of being employed from concrete or asphalt that can be set up without advance preparation and effectively used to suppress or destroy "are highly desired," the solicitation states. Precision fires that can acquire and track moving targets are also critical, it adds. The Marines also want to evaluate new sensing capabilities to provide situational awareness of factors -- human and environmental -- that could affect a mission, the solicitation states. It notes that Marines must be able to sense, identify and classify humans, equipment, vehicles and infrastructure in their environment, and distinguish "friendly, enemy, and local population signatures and activities." Among the capabilities sought are facial recognition and biometrics. Advanced command-and-control technologies "capable of penetrating urban architecture and subterranean features" will also be needed for the extended support of distributed small units, the solicitation states. "Small units operating within an urban environment require a common operating picture capable of displaying friendly, enemy (indicates criminal, potential enemy, conventional, [special operations forces], militia), and local population," the solicitation states. The experiment will also evaluate capabilities designed to enhance maneuver through crowded urban areas to help Marines gain the upper hand over the enemy. "Movement in urban environments requires the ability to traverse urban canyons, over walls and structures, in subterranean corridors, over buildings, and through structures," the solicitation states. "The warfighter needs the ability to clear the interior of structures that are multi-story, from the bottom up, top down, and/or to create entry breaches in the interior and exterior of these structures." The ability of Marines to carry their fighting tools in this environment will also be a key consideration. "Technology applied to the urban fight must enable, not restrict, or inhibit the individual Marine or sailors' maneuver," according to the solicitation. "It should not add to the load carried, [but] rather lighten, improve ease of employment, and streamline the numbers of systems." Based on the results of the technical and operational assessments from the August experiment, participants may be invited to take part in future experiments designed to progress through more complex scenarios and environments, according to the solicitation. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. A veteran at a VA medical center had been diagnosed with a tumor in his one remaining kidney. Facing possible dialysis for the rest of his life, the former service member was anxious about surgery and wondered whether he should risk removal of the mass. Confused by the CT scans of his diseased organ, the veteran faced difficulty making a decision about the potentially life-altering procedure. But his VA surgeon had another option: the doctor loaded the medical imagery into a 3D printer, which used the information to build an exact replica of the patient's kidney, tumor included. Using the model, the doctor could walk the veteran through the surgery, step-by-step. Then, once the veteran agreed to the surgery, the doctor followed the exact plan in the operating room. "[3D printing] is a total game-changer," said Dr. Beth Ripley, a radiologist at VA Medical Center Puget Sound and chair of the Veterans Health Administration's 3D Printing Advisory Committee. "Often [technology] pushes us further away from our patients ... this technology is allowing our VA staff to really come close to the patient." VA has launched an aggressive campaign to put 3D printers in many of its medical centers. The initiative aims to improve patient care by aiding surgical planning, crafting assistive medical devices and prosthetic limbs and eventually, creating bones and organs for transplant. Related: The department has more than 100 printers at 23 medical centers, up from just three in 2017. And it has plans to expand to even more, making it a leader in the effort to adapt 3D printing for medical use nationwide, where fewer than 100 academic and private health facilities -- mainly at research universities -- use 3D printing, according to Ripley. "VA remains at the forefront of innovative work in 3D printing by expanding our expertise across VA," Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a release. "Through this growing virtual network, VA continues to help define how 3D printing technology will be used broadly in medicine for the benefit of patients." While models may be the most obvious use for 3D printers, which create three-dimensional solid objects by layering various materials slice-by-slice, bottom-up, VA scientists are also looking to bioprinting -- using the technology to create replacement tissues and organs -- to treat diseases. VA Ann Arbor Healthcare Systems in Michigan currently is working on creating an artificial lung that could be utilized while a patient waits for a lung transplant or needs help breathing during recovery from a respiratory illness. The 3D artificial lungs would replicate the structure and size of the blood vessels and would be constructed of substances that would be more compatible with the human body, reducing immune response. According to a VA release, the technology could eventually have long-term applications, such as providing replacement lungs. "This exciting project is the latest in a long string of incredible research and medical advancements developed by researchers over the years," Wilkie said. Other bioprinting initiatives at VA include creating vascularized bones. Ripley said that while the biologics printing is at least eight to 10 years away, VA plans to complete installation of the technology and train staff within the next two years; grow its ability to print prosthetics and other devices using advanced materials such as titanium in the next three to five years; and then, hopefully, be able to start implementing its development of human body parts within a decade. The technology can also help occupational therapists build devices to improve veterans' mobility and create orthotics that can be made and fitted in a day. In one case, an occupational therapist at Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, designed a specialized device that enabled a veteran to balance a pool cue at a billiards table, despite having lost an arm in combat. "He was a world-class pool player ... he could start to play pool again with just one hand. That is so cool," Ripley said. All this work is made possible, in part, through a partnership with GE Healthcare that provides software and work stations for the initiative while VA provides feedback on its medical needs and use of printers. "We have a very comprehensive program that we are building throughout VA to make sure we are using 3D-printing technologies to the fullest," Ripley said. The VA's 3D Printing Center of Excellence falls under what VA calls its VHA Innovation Ecosystem, which encompasses programs that aim to identify best practices at VA medical centers and push them out across the VA's health system. Ripley did not say how much the buildout of the printing network is costing VA, but she said printers, which come in seven different types, range from $3,000 for a basic printer that builds with simple plastics to $300,000 for one that can print with different colors and materials and up to $1 million for a titanium metal printer. She said VA does not have a titanium printer -- yet. "Walter Reed [National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland] has titanium printers ... and we talk with them. But we have [one] is in our three- to five-year plan, so stay tuned," Ripley said. She said for radiologists and physicians using the technology, it's an exciting time to be at VA. "This is happening through a specific program that encourages frontline staff to bring their best ideas forward ... What you see with 3D printing is that the decision of what gets made is happening on the frontlines. These are people that are caring for patients every day, interacting with patients every day, seeing what they need. 3D printing allows them to become innovators at the bedside," she said. -- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @patriciakime. Joyce Raezer's foray into the world of military family advocacy started with a bang. Along with a group of other military parents stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, the now longtime executive director of the National Military Family Association (NMFA) sued the Defense Department's school system for the right to weigh-in on the selection of their local superintendent. The parents won the suit, the DoD Education Activity (DoDEA) settled, and Raezer's life was never the same. Now, more than 25 years later, as Raezer heads into retirement with more than 10 years under her belt as head of a leading military advocacy organization, she has an important message for military spouses and families: Don't be afraid to advocate for yourself, your family and your community. "Military families can do a lot more than military families think they can do," Raezer said during a recent interview in her Alexandria, Virginia, office. "And that's the big piece: Don't be afraid of taking on somebody higher up. Because if you've done your homework and you know you're right, just keep at it." NMFA was founded in 1969 as the all-volunteer Military Wives Association, lobbying for passage of the Survivor Benefit Plan. Over time, the association worked to help create a variety of military benefits rules families still enjoy today, including laws on the treatment of military retirement pay during a divorce, the rollout of dental benefits for military family members and the creation of Tricare. The group established chapters nationwide, hired its first staff member in 1983, started producing reports on family issues to inform legislation and, in 1984, changed its name to NMFA. Raezer said she first encountered NMFA during her 1993 work on the DoDEA suit. An Army spouse and school board member, she had abandoned work on her doctorate after a 1982 move to the now shuttered Fort Ord, California. But working in advocacy came easily, she said. Growing up, her father, a farmer, taught her the importance of civic involvement. And once she found NMFA, she channeled her drive into assisting military families. When Raezer and her husband, Tim, PCS'd to D.C., she stepped into full-time volunteering with NMFA. She eventually was hired to the staff to advocate on Capitol Hill and then, in 2007, took over the job of executive director. Of the many issues she's tackled during her time in the advocacy world, she is most proud of the organization's work to extend the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) to military families stationed overseas. The program, which can provide up to several hundred dollars a month in food assistance on items such as infant formula and cereal and was rolled out overseas in 2000, was previously only available stateside. With retirement slated for July, Raezer said she is encouraging military spouses to step into the advocacy arena -- but to bring with them plenty of grit and patience. "Part of the frustration comes with ... how exhausted you get fighting big bureaucracies who move at their own pace and who are staffed by people who are probably really nice people, but who hide behind silly rules and are really good at waiting people out," she said. "You see it so much. 'If I just hang in here, they'll move. They'll leave the Army. Something will happen.'" But engaged family members paired with advocacy organizations are vital to holding military leaders accountable, she said, especially as the Pentagon heads into an era in which leaders' focus has shifted away from quality-of-life issues. "You have military leaders that are so focused on the material aspects of lethality, that the people who make up the lethal force and the families of the people that make up the lethal force are almost invisible," Raezer said. Instead, she said, advocates and families need to work toward reminding leadership of the importance of family to the health of the force. "It's creating the understanding both within and without the military community of the importance of military family well-being to our national security," she said. -- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com. After becoming exasperated with evidence of low discipline and sloppy appearances, a two-star general overseeing most East Coast-based ground combat Marines has fired off a policy letter mandating when troops must wake up, clean and eat each day. The April 16 policy letter, signed by Maj. Gen. David Furness, commanding general of 2nd Marine Division out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, expresses concern that the Marines within the division have let their standards slide. "In my travels with the Sergeant Major and Command Master Chief throughout the Division spaces, I have noticed a significant decline in the basic discipline of our warriors," Furness wrote. "Because the 2nd Marine Division has the majority of personnel assigned to Camp Lejeune, we will take ownership of this problem and FIX IT immediately." 2nd Marine Division is one of three active-duty Marine divisions worldwide and is made up of some 20,000 troops. The division public affairs office confirmed that a policy letter had been disseminated. Furness wrote that he has seen Marines and sailors with 2nd Marine Division walking around with long hair, "nonexistent or poor shaves," worn-out boots and inappropriate civilian attire. "There are weeds growing around our buildings and work spaces and trash everywhere but the dumpsters where it belongs," he wrote. "These are just a few examples of the lack of discipline seen across the board that will not be tolerated in this Division any longer." He detailed a 24-hour "basic daily routine" that he said he expects every single Marine and sailor in the division to follow, beginning with division-wide reveille every morning at 5:30 a.m. From 5:35 to 6 a.m., troops are expected to conduct hygiene activities and room clean-up, leaving "blinds half-mast," according to the order. Physical training and barracks common area clean-up will follow from 6 to 8 a.m. Mandatory platoon or company formations and inspections will happen from 8 to 8:15 before the workday begins. Troops are allowed an hour to eat from noon to 1 p.m. and then must wrap up the day with another formation, from 4:30 to 4:45 p.m. Furness appealed to the troops' identity as Marines in asking them to embrace the regimented schedule. "Part of what makes us different from our sister services and American society is the regimentation of our daily lives," he wrote. "Adherence to orders and standards helps foster mutual trust in one another and produces the attention to detail required to be effective when called upon to fight as our nation's 911 Force." First Lt. Thomas Kleiber, a division spokesman, said the letter essentially reinforces practices that are already in place. "Obviously, the letter is an internal document and commanders reserve the right to direct their units as they see fit," Kleiber told Military.com. "Commanders have the authority and responsibility to direct their units in the way that it feels appropriate and promotes mission accomplishment. I dont think this order is unusual in its attempt to accomplish that." It's not immediately clear how the daily routine will apply to Marines who live off-base or outside the barracks, although Furness does note that unit leaders will be able to modify the routine based on obligations. It's also not fully clear whether the routine applies only to weekdays, although it appears to. What is clear is that there are stiff consequences for Marines who don't fall in line. "Any dissenters can answer to myself, the Division [sergeant major] or the [command master chief] and will be dealt with accordingly. Can each of you live up to the mantra of 'If I was accused of being a Marine/Sailor today, would there be enough evidence to convict me?'" Furness wrote. "At this time across our force I believe the answer for many is no, and it needs to be corrected immediately." While it's fairly uncommon for a senior military official to get involved in the minutia of troops' daily routines, it's not without precedent. In 2013, Army Command Sgt. Major Dale Perez, the senior enlisted soldier at the Army National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, fired off a sharply worded Facebook post aimed at troops and family members on base, particularly those who shopped at the commissary, demanding they clean up after themselves. "Take your garbage and shop off post if you can't pick up after yourself," he wrote. Furness, who took command of 2nd Marine Division last August, is a career infantry officer who joined the Marine Corps in 1987 after graduating from the Virginia Military Institute. He has led Marines on deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and his awards include two Bronze Stars with combat distinguishing device, according to his official military biography. Editor's Note: This story has been updated with comment from 2nd Marine Division. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. A California lawmaker recently introduced legislation to upgrade an award for a Vietnam-era airman to the Medal of Honor. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., this week presented H.R.2330, which would authorize the president to award the military's highest award for valor to Air Force Col. Philip Conran for heroism in Laos during the Vietnam War. Conran lives in Santa Barbara and is a constituent of Carbajal. "While a Major in the United States Air Force, Philip J. Conran demonstrated extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force as Aircraft Commander of a CH-3E helicopter of the 21st Special Operations Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing, Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, in action in Laos on October 6, 1969," the bill's language reads. Related content: Conran received the Air Force Cross for his actions, although the Pentagon initially recommended him for the Medal of Honor in 1969, according to a report from McClatchy. On the morning of the mission, Conran and his crew, call sign Knife 62, took off from Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand. He was the commander of a group of five helicopters, according to his citation. Making their way into Laos, the lead helicopter was shot down. Low on fuel and circling the area in an attempt to rescue the crew, Conran's aircraft itself, a CH-3E known as "the Jolly Green Giant," was hit by hostile enemy fire and crash-landed. A barrage of small-arms fire covered the area and made the helicopter inoperable, forcing Conran to retreat into open area where he was exposed, McClatchy reported. Conran wasn't just a pilot anymore. For the next six hours, he "defended the crash site against an overwhelming hostile force," running to and from downed helicopters to grab U.S. equipment and supplies, all while directing airstrikes from nearby A-1 fighters, according to his citation and media reports. Before additional rescue came, Conran sustained an injury and was shot in his left leg, McClatchy reported. "In spite of receiving a severe leg wound while exposed to enemy fire and trying to strengthen their position, Major Conran continued to encourage the others and did not mention his wound until he had lost all feeling in his leg," Carbajal's new bill states. "Major Conran's decision to come to the aid of his downed comrades, his heroic actions above and beyond the call of duty while under severe hostile fire, and his positive attitude throughout the ordeal were instrumental in enabling the two helicopter crews and 44 friendly troops to withstand superior odds until a rescue could be made." This will be the second attempt to get Conran the Medal of Honor. In 2016, then-Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., put forth a similar bill to upgrade the valor award. "His story is so compelling, not just for one event, but for a history of events," Capps told McClatchy. "He's an example of the kind of veteran who deserves attention." His actions occurred in Laos, where the United States was not officially in conflict during the Vietnam War. However, the Air Force had troops in country supporting the Laotian military in response to a request for assistance -- an effort to keep a "neutral" Laos from falling to the communist offensive across the Plain of Jars valley. A recent valor medal upgrade has brought more attention to the U.S.'s involvement in Laos. In 2010, then-President Barack Obama posthumously presented the Medal of Honor to Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger, who also first received Air Force Cross for his actions in Laos on March 11, 1968. Etchberger was part of a secret mission to call in airstrikes on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, according to Stars and Stripes. Carbajal said he intends to see the effort through for Conran, who is now 82 years old. Conran retired from the service in 1988. "Col. Conran served our nation with the utmost bravery during the Vietnam War when he risked his own life in combat to save his comrades," Carbajal told Air Force Times in a statement. "It has taken far too long for our country to honor his courage, and I will continue working to help secure this well-deserved recognition." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214. The Marine Corps' Aging Amphibious Vehicle Fleet Will Be Kept Out of the Water Eight Marines and a Navy corpsman died when an AAV sank hundreds of feet into the ocean during exercises on July 30, 2020. Lawmakers and advocates are calling for a detailed review of the battlefield valor of African-American troops in World War I, saying many were denied the Medal of Honor due to racism. Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland and Roy Blount, R-Missouri, announced Thursday that a bipartisan effort had begun in both houses of Congress to pass bills authorizing the review. It's a matter of simple justice, said Dr. Timothy Westcott, a historian who would lead the review if Congress approves. "We should not be determining their valor based on the color of their skin or the circumstances of their birth," said Westcott, director of the George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War at Park University in Missouri. On the House side, the legislation is sponsored by Rep. J. French Hill, R-Arkansas. "To require the review of the service of certain members of the Armed Forces during World War I to determine if such members should be awarded the Medal of Honor," the bills read. The bills would waive the statute of limitations to ensure that any veterans of World War I recommended by the review to receive the Medal of Honor would be legally eligible for it. If this effort is successful, a Valor Medals Review Task Force for World War I would become part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, set to be debated this summer. The effort has been endorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission. "While the United States military has studied Medal of Honor awards to minority service members in WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and subsequent American conflicts, no such systematic review has ever been conducted for minority veterans of the First World War," commission officials said in a release. "Under current law, the exact same act of heroism completed by the exact same veteran would be eligible for review if it occurred in 1941, 1951, 1971, 1991, or 2001, but not 1918." "We at the U.S. World War One Commission, established by Congress in 2013, are aiming to rectify that and ensure our World War One heroes are forgotten no more," the release added. In a statement, Van Hollen said "Hundreds of thousands of minority veterans served their country during World War I, and their sacrifice was essential to our victory. But for far too long, their heroism has not received the recognition it deserves." Blount said the review was essential to making sure "those who were denied the Medal of Honor because of their race or religion finally receive the recognition they have earned." Of 400,000 minority veterans who served during World War I, about 40,000, the vast majority African-Americans, saw combat in France, according to the Department of Defense. No African-American was awarded the Medal of Honor during World War I or its immediate aftermath, but two were posthumously honored many years later after limited investigations. In 1991, Army Cpl. Freddie Stowers, who was killed in combat while serving in a unit under French command, was awarded the Medal of Honor by then-President George H.W. Bush. President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor in 2015 to Army Sgt. Henry Johnson, who fought in France with the New York Army National Guard's famed 369th Regiment, known as the "Harlem Hellfighters." In his statement, Van Hollen singled out the case of Army Sgt. William Butler, an African-American veteran from Salisbury, Maryland. Butler received the Croix de Guerre with Palm from France, as well as the Distinguished Service Cross from the U.S. military and a recommendation for the Medal of Honor. "But he never received that medal before his death," Van Hollen said. At an Association of the U.S. Army event last October to promote the review of World War I awards, Jeffrey Sammons, a history professor at New York University, said his research discovered that Butler, who also served with the 369th Regiment, had been nominated for the Medal of Honor but the award was denied. Sammons also found that Butler had been nominated for the nation's highest award for valor on the same day as 1st Lt. George S. Robb, the namesake of the Robb Centre at Park University. Robb, who received the Medal of Honor, was a white officer who commanded an all-black platoon on the Western Front. "George Robb had written a glowing treatment of William Butler's exploits, in which he saved his commanding officer, 1st Lt. Gorman Jones, and a number of men from being captured by the Germans, who had actually infiltrated their trench," Sammons said at the AUSA event. Westcott and Zachary Austin, adjunct director of the Valor Medals Review Task Force, said the intent was to begin the research with African-Americans who served in World War I and then extend it to other minorities. "There's never been systematic approach to this," Westcott said of the review. He and Austin said the research would be conducted with the aid of donations and at no cost to the government. The main focus for possible upgrades to the Medal of Honor would be on those who were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm, and those who were recommended for the Medal of Honor but never received it, Westcott and Austin said. Once the review is complete, the findings would be presented to the Department of Defense for a determination on whether the Medal of Honor should be awarded, Westcott said. -- Gina Harkins contributed to this report. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. As the Trump administration shops around for a new Air Force secretary, experts warn it may not be so easy to find top-notch candidates, as many may be reluctant to step up for the job. In roughly six weeks, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson will leave the Pentagon for her new position as president of the University of Texas at El Paso. The UT System Board of Regents confirmed her for the position with a unanimous vote April 2. Some had high hopes that Wilson, who was confirmed as the 24th Air Force secretary in May 2017, would instead become the next defense secretary. In the meantime, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan awaits President Donald Trump's decision on whether to nominate him for the permanent position, even as the Defense Department Inspector General investigates his ties to Boeing Co. "I think [SecAF] will be a hard job to fill," said an observer with close ties to the service, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Pentagon is finding itself to be "a highly erratic place in which to exert leadership," the observer added. Since a Shanahan nomination has not been finalized, "not many folks want to sign up without understanding who their boss will be," the observer said. Related content: Wilson had a unique background before she became Air Force secretary. An Air Force Academy graduate, she earned both master's and doctoral degrees as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England while in the Air Force. After leaving the service in 1989, she served on the National Security Council staff at the White House under President George H.W. Bush and later as a Republican in Congress from 1998 to 2009, representing New Mexico's 1st Congressional District. Wilson will resign as secretary effective May 31. If a permanent successor is not named soon, it is likely Matthew Donovan, the current under secretary of the Air Force, will temporarily step into the position. Donovan is a former F-15C Eagle pilot. "This administration has a habit of ignoring advice, but leaving people hanging with the negative after-effects after an ill-advised action fails," the observer said. There is a laundry list of items potential nominees might not want to deal with, including the Space Force and the future F-15EX proposal. "All [are] examples where Air Force leadership was railroaded," the observer said. Wilson told reporters last month at the annual Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida, that the service needs to boost its fighter inventory but had not expected to do so with the F-15EX, confirming speculation that the procurement was forced on the service. The Space Force, meanwhile, has pinballed its way around the Pentagon only to land back in the hands of the Air Force, as lawmakers originally wanted back in 2017. That year, Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, and William "Mac" Thornberry, R-Texas, created language in the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act that would have required the service to stand up a "U.S. Space Corps" in an effort to establish a branch within the service in hopes of taking adversarial threats in space more seriously. (That effort hit a roadblock months later and was ultimately dropped, only for the idea to be resurrected later by the president.) Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, Wilson and even then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis publicly downplayed the Space Corps idea at the time, citing cost and organizational challenges. But Wilson's spurning of the Space Corps idea, followed by the president's proposal of a Space Force months later, reportedly made her appear insubordinate. According to a report from Foreign Policy in October, Trump considered removing Wilson over the service's reluctance to advance his Space Force proposal. He weighed firing her after the midterm elections in 2018, Foreign Policy reported, citing three anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter. But that move never came. Whoever comes into the job next will surely be plagued by Space Force, said Loren DeJonge Schulman, deputy director of studies and the Leon E. Panetta senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. "The establishment of Space Force and Space Command is going to be an extensive bureaucratic exercise requiring a great deal of senior leader time," said DeJonge Schulman, who served as the senior adviser to former National Security Adviser Susan Rice and was a special assistant to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "This might be very appealing to a certain kind of leader, particularly one with an interest in space, but it's also going to place that leader between the White House and Congress in a highly stressful way (as Wilson reportedly found)," she told Military.com on Tuesday. And the strenuous plea for more budget dollars from Congress in coming years isn't necessarily a battle candidates may want to take on, DeJonge Schulman said. "By setting itself up with the goal of 386 squadrons, the Air Force gave itself a metric that is probably unattainable in today's budget environment even as it's presently pretty overstretched," she said. Wilson announced in September that the service wants at least 74 additional squadrons over the next decade. What service brass don't yet know is how they can fill those squadrons. With these seemingly intractable problems, the next Air Force secretary -- and defense secretary -- could become lame duck officials, argued Rick Berger, a research fellow with the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in defense policy and budget appropriations. There's not much these officials "can achieve in two years," Berger said in an interview. "There's almost no way that you can actually create an effective Pentagon leadership team in the time that's available and, at this point, it's all kind of [working] on autopilot." That said, to create any kind of leadership foundation, top spots need to be filled, he said. "And there's only so much you can do until you move someone into the top spot," Berger said, referring to Shanahan and other contenders. Citing the 386 squadron goal, Berger said the Air Force, like the other services, knows what it wants to achieve to execute the National Defense Strategy, regardless of who may be coming or going at the Pentagon. DeJonge Schulman said helping design those future strategies may be the only appealing part of the job at the moment. "These might be appealing challenges for people who understand the Air Force deeply and care about it," she said. "It also might be a deterrent for someone who sees that, in today's political and budget environment, the problems aren't going to get easier." Although no one has publicly put themselves up for consideration to be the next SecAF, there are viable contenders, even some with formidable Air Force experience. Sen. Martha McSally, R-Arizona, served in the Air Force for 22 years before she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014. She was appointed to the U.S. Senate in December as a permanent replacement for the late Sen. John McCain, but will face Democrat Mark Kelly next year in a bid to keep the seat. McSally, who became the service's first female pilot to fly in combat, flew the A-10 Thunderbolt and went on to command the 354th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. She was the first woman to command a combat aviation squadron. She revealed during a congressional hearing March 6 that she had been raped as a junior officer and has since petitioned the Pentagon to improve existing processes to address sexual assault. As a result, the Defense Department this week created a sexual assault task force to study and make recommendations on improving how the armed services handle and prosecute sex crimes. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. He serves as an RC-26 pilot with the Wisconsin Air National Guard's 115th Fighter Wing and deployed with his unit to the border for the security mission in February. The congressman said his two-week deployment opened his eyes to what the border mission means to the U.S., adding that more resources should be devoted to the effort. After his deployment, Kinzinger said he backed Trump's national emergency declaration over border security, citing the influx of migrants as well as the flow of illegal drugs. Kinzinger was commissioned in the Air Force in 2003, according to Air Force Magazine. He flew KC-135 Stratotankers before switching to the RC-26 spy plane, and deployed several times for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He met with Trump on March 6, per the White House schedule. "The Congressman is focused on his current job, but understands the importance of this position, especially at this moment in time," staff with Kinzinger's office said in a statement. "And he trusts that the President will pick the best person for the job." Representatives for McSally did not respond to Military.com by press time. Rep. Don Bacon served nearly 30 years and retired as a brigadier general. A Republican, he won a second term in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District in November and is expected to seek a third term. Prior to his congressional service, Bacon commanded the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, between 2011 and 2012. He specialized in electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, flying the EC-130H Compass Call, RC-135 S/V/W reconnaissance variants, and the Navy's E-6 Mercury airborne command-and-control aircraft, according to his Air Force biography. Before retiring in 2014, he was the director of ISR strategy for the service at the Pentagon. Bacon hasn't expressed immediate interest in the Air Force secretary position. "The congressman loves representing the Second District of Nebraska, and he has not disclosed ... any discussions on the topic," Danielle Jensen, Bacon's communications director, told Military.com on Wednesday. "He respects Secretary Wilson and has confidence the president will nominate a trusted leader as a replacement." If Trump doesn't seek out candidates, or if no one comes forward, the easy choice may already be there, the observer said. "[My] vote is that Matt Donovan is the guy," the observer said. Editor's Note: This story has been updated with comment from Rep. Adam Kinzinger's office. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. If you do not make lifestyle changes as you age, you may find yourself either broken from over-training or out of shape and... As people across the United States and around the world begin digging into the highly-anticipated Mueller report, findings and details are being released concerning the Russian interference into the 2016 election and President Donald Trumps possible obstruction of justice. The 448-page report is split into two volumes, with one volume detailing the interference scheme and the other focusing on Trumps reaction to the appointment of the special counsel and if Trump interfered in the investigation. And while some of the details have been previously reported using anonymous sources, the reports release sheds new light on Trumps efforts to curtail the investigation. Here are five quick takeaways from the Mueller report. President Trump and his campaign did not collude with Russians The president and the members of his campaign had nothing to do with the Russian interference efforts in the 2016 elections, according to Mueller. The efforts to publish misinformation of social media sites and create discord among voters was entirely the work of the Russians involved in the scheme. The report goes on to say that no Americans at all were knowingly involved in helping the Russians with their plot. That also includes the efforts of the Russians to hack into computers and steal information related to the Democrats and Hillary Clintons campaign. Mueller found those efforts were also solely the work of the Russians. While the Russians preferred Trump to win the election and distributed information to help Trumps campaign, none of those actions were supported by anyone from Trumps campaign, the report found. Mueller and his team considered subpoenas for Trump The decision not to subpoena Trump to compel him to interview with the special counsel came down to a possible legal battle. Mueller wrote that he and his team were not satisfied with many of the written answers Trump provided to questions submitted by Mueller. However, counsel elected not to subpoena Trump because there was concern of a lengthy legal battle that could derail Trumps ability to govern and delay the investigation. "We made the decision in view of the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation." reads a portion of the report. "We had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the President's testimony." Trump attempted to remove special counsel Roughly a month after acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to investigate the Russian interference, Trump attempted to have Mueller removed when the investigation also shifted to obstruction of justice issues. Citing a conflict of interest, Trump called the White House lawyer Don McGahn on June 17, 2017 and told him to remove Mueller from the investigation. McGahn refused to do so and even planned to resign, but was eventually talked into staying on by chief of staff Reince Preibus and Steve Bannon. McGahn returned to work Monday and Trump did not mention the request again to McGahn. Around the same time, the report states former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was contacted by Trump, who asked Christie about firing the special counsel. Christie warned that doing so would cost Trump support from Republicans in Congress as there was no clear reasoning for the potential firing. Trump wanted Sessions to meet with special counsel to limit jurisdiction On June 19, 2017, Trump met with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and told him to get in touch with Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding the investigation. Trump dictated a note to Lewandowski with wording he wanted Sessions to use in a statement regarding the investigation. The statement included passages about Sessions being on the campaign trail with Trump and no Russians ever being present and that the special counsel was unfair to the president. Trump then wanted Sessions to say he was going to meet with the special counsel to limit the scope of the investigation to election fraud. Lewandowski attempted to meet with Sessions in person to deliver the message, but Sessions cancelled, and the meeting never happened. Lewandowski kept the handwritten note in a safe at his home. Large portions of the report are redacted The report is broken up into two volumes, one concerning the Russian interference and the other concerning possible obstruction of justice by Trump and those in the investigation. Prior to the release of the report, Attorney General William Barr announced there are four categories of information that are redacted. Those categories included: grand jury material, information that could lead to source disclosures, information pertaining to other pending legal cases which cannot be shared by law and implication of personal information of third parties. The volume concerning the Russian investigation in which many cases are still ongoing features large portions that are completely redacted. The redactions do include a key that tells readers which category the redacted information falls into. However, there are entire pages of the report that are blackened out. Barr has said some members of Congress will receive a less redacted version of the report however, Barr said information pertaining to ongoing court cases that cannot be released by law will be redacted. MARQUETTE, MI - Northern Michigan University honored the memory of a student who died over the weekend by lowering flags on campus, according to WLUC. Keara Ann Bullen, 19, of Mason, died Sunday after she was involved in a car crash on US-127 downstate. Right now, its a tough time on campus, said NMU spokesperson, Derek Hall. We are a large organization, maybe 8,000-9,000 students, and when students pass away, a lot of people are affected by it. We choose to communicate that to our campus when it happens and be open about it. The university sent an email to all students earlier this week alerting them of the plan to lower their flags in honor of Bullen. The university is also offering counseling for students impacted by the incident. Bullen was a freshman at the university. Medical marijuana shops operating without a license would have to become compliant by June 1 or face consequences under legislation passed by the Michigan House Thursday. House Bill 4440 sets the new deadline, and adds punishment for the unlicensed facilities if they dont comply. Bill sponsor Jim Lilly, R-Park Twp., said the idea is to have a firm deadline for fully regulating Michigans medical marijuana industry. Theres a point in time at which we have to move from an unregulated market to a regulated market, from unlicensed operators to licensed operators, and I believe this legislation does that, he said. House members voted 102-4 to advance the legislation, which now heads to the Senate for further review. Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, expressed enthusiasm for the bill, telling reporters hes been begging for that for months. Weve got a new law in place, weve got a bunch of law breakers, and weve got companies...that are deeply investing in Michigan, and were prohibiting them from advancing by not enforcing the law, Shirkey said. The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs opposes the bill. Spokesman David Harns said the department is unable to comment due to pending litigation. Medical marijuana facilities challenged the state's previous attempt to shut down temporary operators after April 1 -- and were successful in gaining a temporary restraining order from Court of Claims Judge Stephen Borrello. State officials are prevented from setting any new compliance deadline due to the pending cases. Borrello is holding a hearing on the issue 1 p.m. April 18. MLive reporter Amy Biolchini contributed to this report. Michigan school districts that called class during Gov. Gretchen Whitmers state of emergency declaration this winter wouldnt have to make up those days this summer under legislation that passed the House Wednesday. In a 101-7 vote, House members approved legislation from state Rep. Ben Frederick, R-Owosso, to make an exception to state rules for snow days called during state emergency declarations. State law allows public schools to cancel classes for up to six days per year, and school superintendents can apply for a state waiver that allows them to cancel three additional days of school. To get the waiver, superintendents must explain why they needed the additional time and why theyre unable to reschedule. But this winter, extreme weather conditions statewide have caused many Michigan school districts to go well past that allotment, meaning most will have to extend their school year into the summer. Frederick said theres a time crunch on his legislation, as many school districts have already made contingency plans for how to deal with their excess snow days. Hes hoping the bill can get to the governor in the next few weeks, or at least before schools close up shop in May and June. A few more days potentially allowed to be off is important, I think, so local districts are making the changes they need to make to make sure critical content and testing prep is still happening, he said. I think common sense should tell us you have a have a diminished return as youre pushing students later and later into the summer. In addition to forgiving snow days on state of emergency days declared by the governor, schools with more than 14 snow days in the 2018-19 school year would be exempt from the 180-day minimum instruction requirement and instead meet the annual hourly requirement by extending instruction time on regularly-scheduled school days in 30-minute increments. State law currently requires attendance to be 75 percent or higher to get full state funding for that day - - House Bill 4206 would also lower that bar to 60 percent on days with documented conditions not under the control of school authorities. Fredericks bill now moves to the Senate, where Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, has introduced similar legislation. Ananichs bill recently cleared a Senate committee. Michigan farmers can plant industrial hemp this year, under a new pilot program announced Thursday by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Michigan is uniquely positioned to grow, process and manufacture industrial hemp. We are one of the nations most agriculturally diverse states -- growing 300 different commodities on a commercial basis -- making it a natural fit, Whitmer said in a statement. This emerging crop not only cultivates new opportunity for our farming community, but it also creates an avenue for new businesses to crop up across the state. Industrial hemp became legal in Michigan as a result of the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act that voters approved in November 2018, just a month before the federal government legalized hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill. While regulations from U.S. Department of Agriculture for industrial hemp are not expected until later this year, Michigan officials are moving forward now to allow farmers, processors and universities to put crops in the ground this year. The 2014 Farm Bill allows state agriculture departments to implement their own industrial hemp pilot programs for research purposes. Previously, Michigan has not launched a program under that provision due to hemps illegal status federally. Michigans pilot program allows our farmers to explore the production and processing for hemp to determine whether or not this is a financially viable crop for them, said Gary McDowell, director of the states agriculture department, in a statement. It also helps pave the way for Michigan growers as we move toward a permanent licensing program next year to identify and expand value-added hemp processing and new market prospects. In order to grow hemp in Michigan this year, farmers will have to register with the state and obtain a license. The grower registration fee is $100, and a license to process and handle hemp costs $1,350. If someone is interested in selling industrial hemp or an industrial hemp commodity/product, then they will need to have a processor-handler license, said Jennifer Holton, spokeswoman for MDARD. Registration forms are available online as of April 18. Applications will be accepted by the state as of April 23. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will be holding hemp licensing events at the Michigan State University Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education in Lansing during the following times: Tuesday, April 23: 8:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.; 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 24: 8:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.; 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Monday, April 29: 8:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.; 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 30: 8:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.; 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. More information is available at www.Michigan.gov/industrialhemp. -- Amy Biolchini is the marijuana beat reporter for MLive. Contact her with questions, tips or comments at abiolch1@mlive.com. Read more from MLive about medical and recreational marijuana. ANN ARBOR, MI - Since she was a child growing up without a stable place to live in Detroit, Krystle DuPree has banked on a college degree helping her escape poverty. She wanted that degree so badly she served four years in the U.S. Army to get help paying for college. She enrolled at Washtenaw Community College while her son Tytus was a toddler, even though the cost of his child care left her struggling at times to afford food. A child care scholarship offered by WCC saved her from dropping out. DuPree, 34, and Tytus, now 7, have moved five times in the five years theyve lived in Washtenaw County. Even with her military subsistence allowance, it was difficult for DuPree to find an apartment in a safe, quiet area that wouldnt trigger the symptoms of the anxiety disorder she developed during her military service. Still, she persisted at WCC, transferred to Eastern Michigan University and completed her bachelors degree in social work in spring 2018. Now enrolled in the University of Michigans Master of Social Work program, DuPrees dream of giving her son a more stable childhood than she had is again in jeopardy because of Washtenaw Countys high cost of living. Its extremely stressful," DuPree said in early March, seated in the townhouse she soon had to move out of. "My whole idea is I dont want my sons life to be as chaotic as mine was. I dont want him to have this constant instability. DuPree and Tytus have lived in a three-bedroom townhouse on a quiet drive in Pittsfield Township for 15 months. Her certificate for an Army commendation medal, college degree and a volunteer award from the local Democratic Party line the ledge of the living rooms bay window. Tytus artwork hangs on the wall immediately inside the front door. But since DuPrees roommate moved out, they cant afford to stay there anymore. They plan to move soon to a more affordable Pittsfield Township apartment complex, but DuPree says shell still be spending about half of her income on rent. Theres just so much cost on top of housing, she said. If youre paying more than half of your income on housing, youre going to be in debt really fast. Someone like DuPree - who was honorably discharged from military service, has a service-related disability and is enrolled full-time in college in Washtenaw County - can qualify for a monthly subsistence allowance of up to $1,818 through a vocational rehabilitation and employment services program, said Michael Smith Jr., Washtenaw Countys Veteran Affairs office director. The subsistence allowance is in addition to the program paying for all of the veterans education-related costs, Smith said, and many veterans who qualify for vocational rehabilitation also are eligible for disability benefits. DuPree also recently accepted a fellowship with Mothering Justice, and she hopes to secure a job as a community organizer for the nonprofit that advocates for family-friendly policy. Even so, the cost of housing in the Ann Arbor area is a burden for DuPree. Average monthly rent in Washtenaw County ranges from $866 in Milan to $1,503 in Ann Arbor, according to RENT Cafe. Even veterans who qualify for extra assistance from a housing voucher struggle to find sustainable housing they can afford, Smith said. We know that Washtenaw County has an affordable housing issue, he said. That housing stock is just not there. In addition to DuPrees income constraints, she also faced resistance from some landlords who didnt consider her military benefits a legitimate source of income, or they confused her subsistence allowance with a Section 8 voucher, which by law, landlords are not required to accept, she said. It stung when they asked how shed pay rent if she dropped out of college and lost her housing allowance. People kind of look down on you, and Im not understanding why, she said. The only reason why I joined the Army was to go to school. To hear people say, What if you quit? I was like, Excuse me, Im not going to quit. Theres also the complication of delays in processing the vocational rehabilitation benefits, which means veterans may not be able to pay their rent or other expenses that month, Smith said. DuPree had to leave Baker College, she said, due to ongoing issues with processing her benefits on time, which meant she was often late paying rent. That was when she moved from Wayne to Washtenaw County in hopes of finding better social services. Washtenaw Countys veteran relief fund can provide financial assistance for rent, utilities, food and gas or bus passes, Smith said. The Buddy to Buddy Volunteer Veteran Program also can help connect veterans with available resources. We have this abundance of resources available in Washtenaw County, but - similar to issues for those on the civilian side - its also an expensive place to live, said Bill Bryan, program manager for the statewide peer mentor and veteran resource network thats affiliated with the University of Michigan Depression Center. DuPree thinks local officials could make zoning changes to prevent further socio-economic and racial residential segregation and allow for more creative affordable housing options, like tiny houses, she said. She also would like to see landlords and other service providers offer veterans more flexibility in making payments when their military benefits are delayed. Its just a lot to navigate, she said. Its easy to make one little misstep, and then oops, I dont have a place to live. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated DuPree is planning to pursue a social work position with the Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System. After completing her masters degree, she plans to work as a community organizer for Mothering Justice. ANN ARBOR, MI Ann Arbor is preparing to add a UV disinfection system to the citys water treatment plant to help keep a diarrhea-causing parasite out of the citys drinking water. City Council voted unanimously Monday night, April 15 to approve a $2.6-million contract with Weiss Construction Co. to build the new system to meet state and federal requirements. In 2017, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality notified the city its drinking water from the Huron River contained levels of cryptosporidium, a waterborne parasite, requiring additional protections to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules. The city must install the UV system by June 2020 to comply. The project includes new piping, ultraviolet light reactors, electrical work and control modifications. Cryptosporidium is a microscopic parasite that can live in the intestines of humans and animals and cause a diarrheal disease called cryptosporidiosis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both the disease and the parasite are commonly known as crypto, and its in Huron River water. City Council adopted a 146-page plan for the UV disinfection system Monday stating the city is not currently in violation in terms of contaminant levels and there have been no disease outbreaks, but the city is required to provide additional crypto control due to high concentrations detected in the past. According to a chart provided by the city last fall, the running annual average of crypto in the citys source water was above the EPA red line level from late 2014 into 2015, but it has stayed below it since 2016. If its above the red line, more treatment is required. Under normal conditions, the city can meet the requirements, but there are times, such as during annual maintenance at the plant, when the city is unable, hence the need for a UV system, said Brian Steglitz, water treatment plant manager. In addition to the $2.6 million base contract with Weiss, the city has a $260,000 contingency for the project. Council also voted to increase a separate engineering contract for the project to $374,315. LG Design Inc. did a $24,500 study for the city and is helping design the system. The new UV treatment is just one of several projects the city has planned to improve its water system. Ann Arbor has a proud history of providing safe, reliable drinking water to its customers, complying with drinking water regulations, and planning for the future, the project plan states. In the 1990s, Ann Arbor implemented ozone disinfection and granular activated carbon to enhance disinfection, reduce disinfection byproducts, and provide better tasting water for its customers. In 2006, the city completed a comprehensive plan to prioritize additional improvements. The city is now planning more than $280 million in upgrades over the next several years, including replacing a large portion of the water treatment plant and aging water mains. The city also has been installing new carbon filters to reduce harmful PFAS chemicals in the citys drinking water. 17 Carbon filtration media installed at Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant The citys staff says water rate increases are needed to fund ongoing improvements, but City Council is divided 6-5 on increasing rates at this time. Council will vote on new rates next month. Council approved another $200,000 contract increase with the Stantec engineering firm Monday for other water system projects. Stantec has been helping the city with work related to the Barton Dam turbines, a survey of Barton Pond where the city gets most of its drinking water, Barton pump station and water intake improvements, an ozone chiller replacement project, Geddes Dam repairs and other miscellaneous engineering work. The firms assistance is needed to maintain an aggressive capital improvement schedule, Steglitz said. Whether the new UV system can treat for dioxane, another threat to the citys water supply, has come up. UV doses for 3-log inactivation of Cryptosporidium are not effective for removal of contaminants such as 1,4-Dioxane, the citys UV system plan states. Much higher UV doses combined with hydrogen peroxide can be used for oxidation of certain chemical contaminants. This is called the UV advanced oxidation process. The citys water system is projected to serve nearly 142,000 people by next year and more than 152,000 people by 2050, including customers in the city and Scio and Ann Arbor townships. ANN ARBOR, MI Halfway through eating her salad at the University of Michigans South Quad dining hall last week, Stephanie Stan looked down at her plate to find a small green worm resting among the leafy greens and tomatoes. She said she wasnt surprised at the discovery, but was taken aback by a conversation she had with a dining hall manager when bringing it to his attention. He told me that if I wanted to make sure there werent insects in my food, I should only eat at Kosher, because theyre the ones who inspect their food, but the rest of the dining (crew) does not, because they dont have time to do it, because theyre serving so many students, Stan said. That was shocking to me, because I think that if you are providing food to that many students, that should be the reason you take the time to inspect it, not the other way around." It was the second time the UM sophomore had discovered an insect while eating in South Quad, she said. During the fall semester of her freshman year, Stan discovered another black bug buried beneath her salad and other fried food items. University of Michigan sophomore Stephanie Stan has become frustrated with the food safety and cleaning procedures by MDining after discovering bugs in her food during both her freshman and sophomore years. She discovered the green bug displayed above last week in a South Quad dining hall.Photo provided | Stephanie Stan When bringing her discovery to the attention of the dining hall manager on that occasion, Stan said she gave the manager her contact information for follow up, but claims she never heard back. Serving approximately 25,000 meals a day and four million meals a year, MDining has recently increased the frequency of staff training to inspect food for foreign objects in the receiving, preparing and serving of meals, MDining Food and Occupational Safety Manager Rachel Christensen said. All full-time staff are required to have ServSafe Essentials training - a food safety training program developed by the National Restaurant Association - at least once a year. Any staff member who manages an MDining location is required to be certified in ServSafe manager training, which is offered as an eight- or 16-hour course. A key factor in avoiding incidents like the one Stan described starts with purchasing food from approved and reputable vendors, Christensen said. UMs Environment, Health and Safety department thoroughly vets the food safety procedures of every vendor it brings on campus, physically inspecting the vendors locations. MDinings stock keepers thoroughly inspect all food received from our vendors for safety, quality and appearance, Christensen said. If it doesnt meet our standards, we reject the product. MDinings vendors use a triple wash process to clean its produce, first with a food-safe rinse to kill bacteria and other harmful pathogens, and then twice with water, she said. MDining also has a dedicated food safety manager who regularly walks through dining halls to ensure food safety protocols are enforced, she said. Any incident (where an insect is found) is immediately reported to the vendor to ensure they are held accountable, Christensen said. This ensures our vendors are aware of an issue, so they can review their food production process and adjust if needed to increase safety precautions. Despite MDinings food safety protocols, other students have shared stories similar to Stans. The Michigan Daily reported students have found bugs and even pieces of metal in their food inside South Quad, Mary Markley and Mosher-Jordan dining halls. The incidents have caused Stan to swear off salads and other fresh produce from South Quads dining hall. We just dont want to take that chance, knowing that they probably dont wash their produce or inspect it well enough, she said. Thats whats frustrating and disappointing, is that with this university, you would expect a little bit more care put into that. FLINT, MI Amor Ftouhi told U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Leitman he was not sorry for stabbing an officer at Flints Bishop Airport. The 51-year-old Ftouhi entered the courtroom Thursday morning chanting Allahu Akbar and telling his interpreter to shut up as he did not require her translation. Do I regret what I did? Never, said Ftouhi. If I have to do (it) one more time, Ill do it but not without a machine gun. I regret I didnt kill that cop. He was found guilty in November 2018 on single counts of committing an act of violence at an international airport, interference with airport security and committing an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. The judge handed down life sentences on the interference and terrorism charges and a 240-month sentence on the act of violence charge. Ftouhi, 51, stabbed Bishop Airport Lt. Jeff Neville the morning of June 21, 2017 while the now-retired officer was on duty in the airport terminal. Defense attorneys had asked for a 25-year prison sentence, arguing Ftouhi had become depressed due to financial circumstances and alleged discrimination that prevented him from finding steady employment upon moving to Canada in the mid-2000s. He hasnt shown any remorse thus far, so Im not really surprised, said Neville after the judge gave his sentencing. It would be hollow if he expressed remorse (now). Neville was released from the hospital five days after the incident. He officially retired in late February from Bishop Airport after serving with there since 2001. Neville worked for the Genesee County Sheriffs Office from 1982-99. He told the court he does suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the attack that has left a noticeable scar on the right side of his neck. When asked how often he thinks about the events of that day, Neville said I think about it constantly because I have a loss of feeling in my face, describing it as a numbness like traveling to the dentists office but it never goes away. I dont hate him. I said that from the beginning, said Neville of Ftouhi, recalling being asked the question during a visit to the Flint Islamic Center one week after the attack. I said that day I dont hate that man. The reason I say that man is because I wont say his name. I dont hate him, but I wont say his name. I just feel theres too much hate in the world. Ftouhi has 14 days to file an appeal. FLINT, MI - Isaiah Oliver, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, has been appointed to Central Michigan Universitys Board of Trustees. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Oliver about the appointment on Tuesday, April 16, he said. Oliver will serve as the eighth trustee on the board. His term will expire after Dec. 31, 2024. Its an honor really a dream come true for me to serve as a CMU trustee, Oliver said. I am passionate about education because education is the most powerful weapon for jettisoning the belief in a hierarchy of human value, dismantling systems of inequity and building trust across our communities. Oliver is the Community Foundations first president and CEO born and raised in Flint and its fifth since it began 29 years ago. He was appointed to the position on March 10, 2017. In order to ensure Michigans success for generations to come, we must provide opportunities for every student in every community to succeed in the classroom, Whitmer stated in a press release. Im confident that Isaiah shares that dedication for opportunity and will make a strong addition to the Central Michigan University Board of Trustees. Oliver graduated from Flint Northwestern High School in 1999 and earned his bachelors degree in applied arts from Central Michigan University in 2003. He is the immediate past president of the Flint Alumni Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and active member of many other community organizations. Going to CMU was a cultural shock," Oliver said. Everything I was, was challenged and I used those challenges to move my career forward. My experience at CMU cemented my core values. Before becoming president of the foundation, Oliver spent four years on the Hurley Medical Center Board of Managers, as well as a total of five years on the Flint Community Schools Board of Education, two of which he served as board president. He also was associate administrator for Workforce, Community and Grant Development at Mott Community College. I have dedicated my life to my time, talent and treasure to public institutions that hold a special place in my heart, Oliver said. I hope to continue CMUs legacy of growth and excellence for current students and future generations looking to put their stamp on the world. UPDATE: FLINT, MI A fourth person has been apprehended in connection to a shot fired outside a Flint school Wednesday morning on the citys north side. Officers with the Flint Police Department were called out shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 17, to Flex High School, 4121 Martin Luther King Ave., near Max Brandon Park for a report of shots fired. Flint Police Deputy Chief Devon Bernritter said there was an altercation of some sort not related to the school amongst a group and a handgun was produced and a shot was fired. He noted the single shot was fired outside the school and it was not an active shooter incident. No injuries were reported at the scene. Three suspects were initially taken into custody. Flint Police Detective Sgt. Tyrone Booth confirmed a fourth person was apprehended at approximately 6 p.m. Wednesday evening. There are no outstanding subjects connected to this incident, he said. A lockdown put in place following the incident was lifted around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. A law enforcement presence remained at the school until all students were released. Marla Banister was one of the people among the crowd awaiting word on what had taken place. Shed been at the school earlier in the day for an appointment with her 15-year-old daughter Marlana, a ninth-grader at the school, but left prior to the shot being fired. As soon as I got to my destination she texted me and said mom..theyre shooting, said Banister. "I said are you kidding me? I said theyre probably shooting around the school." Marlanas texts continued to pour in, telling her mother she was scared and that she loved her. I just fell to pieces. Thats when she called me and we prayed, said Banister. We prayed over all the children in the school and even over the students, even over the staff. I even prayed for the shooter that he would change his mind and not hurt anyone. In the moment, she expressed a feeling of helpless and anger at the situation. Why are they doing this? said Banister. I dont understand why this is happening and I wish that it would stop. There are babies in here as well. Its not fair. MLive-Flint Journal could not immediately reach a representative of Flex High, which operates from the Development Center, which is the former Bunche Elementary School. Flint police are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact the department at 810-237-6800. Anonymous tips can be sent to flintpolicetips@cityofflint.com. UPDATE: UPDATE: BURTON, MI Police are investigating after a man was found dead Wednesday afternoon at his Burton home. Officers were called out around 4:30 p.m. April 17 to a home in the 1400 block of Schafer Drive off Davison Road. They found a man in his 50s dead inside the home. Burton Police Chief said the mans death came under a suspicious circumstance, but no additional information was immediately available. The Michigan State Police Crime Lab out of Bridgeport has been called in to help with the investigation. Family members shared embraces near the scene, while neighbors looked on from their driveways and front porches. Schafer Drive is closed between Clairmoor and Crestwood drives to allow for police to investigate in the area. Anyone with information about the incident may contact Burton police at 810-742-2542. JACKSON, MI Jackson County officials arent happy with new state standards for providing public defenders to people who cant afford an attorney. They may express their displeasure in a lawsuit. The county will comply with Michigan Indigent Defense Commission standards through September 2020, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners decided after much debate at its Tuesday, April 16 meeting. But not because they agree with the system. The new standards require counties to provide continuing education for attorneys, set up a private setting for client/attorney interviews and force attorneys to be present at their clients arraignment. County officials argue the state funds provided to meet the standards dont cover all costs. And the countys current system is sufficient, Commissioner Phil Duckham said. If you dont like the level of defense this countys legal system gives you and you think youre going to get caught, go do your crime someplace else, Duckham said. Thats the hazard of doing a crime you might get convicted. Why are we required to provide an even better legal defense for a person who goes out and intentionally commits a crime? I dont understand. Commissioner Daniel Mahoney disputed Duckhams comments, saying the system doesnt work well for all residents. Were talking about people whove been accused of a crime, not convicted of a crime, Mahoney said. To assume that these individuals should try to commit their crime more discreetly is to assume that theyre already guilty. Thats not how we should be thinking about this. Jackson County must fund the first $567,000 of its $2.1 million plan for public defenders for 2019-20, said Debra Kubitskey, assistant county administrator, while the state provides the rest. We cant just say, We dont agree and were not going to pay it, said County Administrator/Controller Mike Overton, who encouraged the board to approve the plan but pursue legal action. Because they will impose it on us and we will pay (the required costs) and then some. The countys main issue is the requirement that defense attorneys be present at all arraignments because the state isnt covering the cost to have prosecutors there, too. "This plan is a plan to fund defense, not prosecutors," Kubitskey said, citing why the MIDC won't cover prosecutor costs. The board voted 8-1 Tuesday, with Darius Williams dissenting, to have Overton explore legal action against the state and explore potential costs. Oakland County has filed two lawsuits against MIDC mandates including the dispute about needing more prosecutors. Overton has issues with the funding plan for public defense, but agrees with the changes themselves including allowing for privacy between clients and attorneys. We were really negligent in that. We had people discussing personal matters in the hallways, Overton said. So there are some good things coming out of it as well. SOMERSET TWP., MI A North Adams man and woman are facing federal arson and drug charges connected to a man whose body was found burned in his vehicle on the side of a Hillsdale County Road. Damiane Buehrer and Kristy Bumpus were indicted, April 10, on multiple federal charges associated with the Jan. 11, 2017 overdose death of 30-year-old Jonesville resident Tyler Craig Herendeen, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorneys Office Western District of Michigan. Prosecutors allege Buehrer supplied carfentanil, a powerful opioid, to Herendeen in Buehrer and Bumpus North Adams home where Herendeen overdosed and died, according to the indictment. The couple loaded Herendeen into his vehicle and drove it to a secluded area near Voorheis and Waldron roads, records show. They then poured gasoline over the vehicles interior and set the car on fire to destroy any evidence of Herendeens death, prosecutors said. Herendeens body was discovered by Somerset Township firefighters who were called to the vehicle fire at about 9:30 p.m. Jan. 11. The FBI along with the Michigan State Police Fire Investigation Unit determined the vehicle was intentionally set on fire with Herendeen inside, police said. The couple were developed as suspects during the investigation, according to the indictment. Buehrer is charged with one count each of distribution of a controlled substance causing death, inducing arson to commit a felony, conspiracy to commit arson and two counts each possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute heroin and methamphetamine and distribution of a controlled substance methamphetamine. Bumpus is charged with one count each being an accessory after the fact to distribution of a controlled substance causing death, use of arson to commit a felony and conspiracy to commit arson. Due to a previous drug conviction, Buehrer faces a possible life sentence if convicted on distribution of a controlled substance causing death, federal prosecutors said. Bumpus faces a mandatory 10-year sentence if convicted for her role in the incident. Buehrer is currently serving a 46-month sentence in federal prison for a previous conviction of interstate dog fighting. Herendeen was a Jonesville High School graduate who went on to receive an associates degree at Jackson College, according to his obituary. He joined the U.S. Army National Guard in 2009 and served a tour in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. JACKSON, MI A father intentionally shot his 2-year-old son in the face during a fight with the boys mother, prosecutors said. Michael Christopher Glance, 32, was arraigned via video Thursday afternoon, April 18, by Magistrate Judge Fred Bishop on multiple felony charges for the April 16 shooting and attempted murder of his son. Glance is charged with three counts each of assault with intent to murder and felony firearms. Wearing jailhouse orange, he appeared indifferent with the allegations made against him. For whatever reason, Mr. Glance decided to take his anger out on his 2-year-old child that day, Jackson County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kati Rezmierski said. During an argument with the boys mother, Nicole McCarthy, at his Blackman Township home in the 400 block of Barrett Avenue, Glance held a pistol to his sons temple and squeezed the trigger, but it did not fire, Rezmierski said. It was by some divine intervention that gun malfunctioned and his life was spared, but how much of it was really spared? she asked. The mother took the boy to her car, strapped him in his car seat and was getting ready to leave when Glance came out of the house with a shotgun, Rezmierski said. He pointed the gun directly at his son and blew half of his face off, she said. Glance wasnt done with his assault, as he began to chase the boys mother with his malfunctioning handgun, trying to get it to fire, before fleeing the scene, Rezmierski added. The child was taken to Henry Ford Allegiance Health in critical condition and later transferred to C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital in Ann Arbor, officials said. He is still in critical condition. With the assistance from detectives with the Major Crimes Task Force, the Jackson County Sheriffs Office and the Violent Crime Task Force, Glance was located and arrested shortly before 2 p.m., on McCain Road, west of Robinson Road, police said. Glance has no criminal record, though Rezmierski said she attributes that to several instances of unreported domestic violence. Glance is scheduled for a preliminary examination, May 1, before District Judge Michael Klaeren. Bond has been set at $10 million. Assault with intent to murder is punishable by up to life in prison. TEXAS TOWNSHIP, MI -- Residents on two Texas Township lakes are watching water levels as the township waits for a filter to arrive that will allow major flood relief pumping to begin. The filter is required by a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality permit, issued and signed by the state regulatory body and by Texas Township Friday, March 29. The permit allows water from Crooked Lake and Eagle Lake, which have seen high water levels creep onto lakefront properties in recent months, to be pumped out to Bass Lake, the west fork of Portage Creek, Atwater Mill Pond and surrounding wetlands. Before pumping can begin, a filtration system to prevent any invasive species from crossing into Bass Lake must be installed. The filter is in production in Israel, township officials said, with an estimated completion date of May 20. Officials said they hope to begin pumping water no later than early June. Floodwaters encroaching on hundreds of properties have pushed 10 families out of their homes while many residents remain on pins and needles, worrying the situation will worsen during spring rains, township Superintendent Julie VanderWiere said. We all know that the rainy season is almost on us and typically between the winter melt and the spring rain season, both of the lakes go up about 11 inches, VanderWiere said. "Eleven inches from where were at right now, even five inches, two inches from where were at right now -- every little bit, more and more houses are affected. Its just been very traumatic for people. " Many homeowners on the lakes must continue individual flood mitigation efforts, VanderWiere said. Many affected households, she said, have already paid $30,000 to $50,000 to protect their homes. People are living in houses that have mold growing in them," VanderWiere said. "Thats not safe. Thats not healthy. They have nowhere else to go, so it is quite an issue. The extent of the damage we dont even know right now because its all underwater. In March, the DEQ and representatives from Bass Lake and the Crooked and Eagle lake associations went to Bass Lake and found no sign of zebra mussels, prompting DEQ to require a filter that will filter out adult zebra mussels and their larva from water being pumped from the flooded lakes. A map included in a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality permit outlines approximate locations of temporary pumping routs.Prein & Newhof Installation of the filter is the only thing standing in the way of pumping, Crooked Lake Association President Jim Robert said. Roberts said residents had hoped the process intended to lower lake levels would begin in December. Now, lake residents wait with anticipation for the filter to arrive. I dont know, in the scheme of things -- when youve got probably, between Crooked Lake and Eagle Lake about 150 homes pumping water out 24/7 round the clock -- at what point do you say zebra mussels arent that big of a deal? Roberts said. Roberts said that while the process has been a long one he appreciates the work done by VanderWiere and the DEQ. This is a hundred-year event right here, Roberts said. At a public hearing held in February, community members voiced concerns over how pumping could adversely impact Bass Lakes and other downstream water systems. The final permit required quite a bit of compromise on both sides, VanerWiere said. An original draft of the permit asked to pump a maximum of 3,000 gallons per minute. Texas Township engineers believed this rate would not make a significant impact downstream, VanderWiere said. It is expected to raise Bass Lake water levels about 12 inches and the Atwater Mill Pond about six inches. Residents on both bodies of water felt this was too much, VanderWiere said. Now, pumping will start at 1,000 gpm in the first week. After this, pumping can increased to a maximum of 2,000 gpm. Reducing the maximum rate to 2,000 gpm is estimated to raise Bass Lake water levels about six inches and Atwater about four inches. A tentative special assessment district where households in the flooded area will pay the brunt of the flood mitigation costs has been drafted. The second public hearing to establish the special assessment district will be held Monday, April 22, before the Texas Township Board of Trustees meeting. At the meeting, residents in the district can petition in writing or in person to be removed from the special assessment district roll. In the first hearing, nine properties were removed. The tentative special assessment roll includes 630 properties, paying an estimated total of $1,494,216.20 for the pumping system. Properties on the lake were issued a full assessment of $3,157.35, properties with access to a lake but no waterfront property were issued a quarter assessment of $784.34 and a few properties were issued a half assessment of $1,578.86 if determined to be a picnic lot, a non-buildable, lake access lot where owners can keep a boat. Texas Township agreed to spend $125,000 to assist in flood mitigation, which includes some administration expenses, VanderWiere said. A Texas Township flooding task force includes state Sen. Sean McCann and state Rep. Brandt Iden and County Commissioner Christine Morse. In order for the township to ask the county to declare a local emergency, the township would have to have spent 10 percent of its annual budget on infrastructure repair and maintenance. The Kalamazoo County Road Commission raised Treasure Island Drive, the only road leading to 77 households, about six inches, but the brunt of damage has been done to private properties. The emergency declaration is only to help the government repair infrastructure," VanderWiere said. "It would not assist the residents in what they are trying to do to save their houses or repair their houses. It has been a long, very unique process, VanderWiere said. This permit process, while people thought that it took a very long time, theres no template for it, she said. Other municipalities experiencing flooding in Southwest Michigan have reached out to Texas Township to ask about the process officials there have used to address the issue, VanderWiere said. We know that this is a Southwest Michigan area problem," she said. "Were hoping for no rain this summer, thats for sure. Information on the flood mitigation process is available on the Texas Township website. KALAMAZOO, MI -- A couple that once owned a huge Van Buren County farming operation have pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to a multi-million dollar fraud. Mike Stamp, 46, of Decatur, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to commit crop insurance fraud. Stamp once owned Stamp Farms and, in 2011, obtained a $68 million loan from Wells Fargo Bank through misrepresentations of his companys assets and the amount of land he farmed, prosecutors said. Melissa Stamp, 38, has pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony. Federal prosecutors say she was aware of her husbands fraud, did not report it to authorities and helped hide money from creditors. Melissa Stamp already was sentenced to 20 months in 2015 for bankruptcy fraud. Prosecutors then filed additional charges last year. According to a federal prosecutors, Mike Stamp has admitted that he defrauded the federal crop insurance program by filing false claims, falsifying harvested crop records, and obtaining crop insurance in the names of entities with no insurable interest. Bank fraud is a very serious financial crime, said Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation for the Detroit Field Office. Providing false or misleading documents to financial institutions undermines the integrity of our financial system and will not be tolerated. Michael and Melissa Stamp are to be sentenced in Aug. 19 in federal court in Kalamazoo. LUDINGTON, MI A 32-year-old Ludington area man has been charged with open murder for a shooting death at the home where he was staying that resulted in a brief standoff Tuesday morning. Corey Ryan Beekman of Free Soil Township was charged on Wednesday, April 17, with open murder in the shooting death of William Buchanan, 32, of Mears, said Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole. He also was charged with assault with intent to murder in the alleged shooting of a woman inside the same home. The woman called 911 just before 7 a.m. April 16 to report an active shooting at the home in the 10000 block of U.S. 31, Cole said. More than a half dozen officers quickly surrounded the home, coaxed the injured woman to come out with her two young children and began negotiating with the alleged shooter, Cole said. The alleged assailant exited the home without incident around 8:25 a.m., Cole said. More details about what led to the shooting, as well as the relationship of the shooting victims and Beekman, are not yet known, Cole said. Beekman is not cooperating, and detectives are giving the woman time to deal with Tuesdays traumatic events, the sheriff said. It is known that the shooting was not a random act such as a home invasion, and that the gunman and victims knew each other, Cole said. Beekman and the woman who was shot stayed at the home on North U.S. 31 between Hoauge and Koenig roads, he said. Beekman was arraigned on the four felonies on Wednesday, April 17. Hes being held in the Mason County Jail on a $750,000 cash or surety bond. Open murder covers first- and second-degree murder and manslaughter. The prosecutor can choose to try Beekman on one of those specific charges, or to leave it up to a jury to decide if hes guilty of any of them. When the womans call for help came in, the situation was dispatched as a barricaded gunman with hostages, Cole said. We were able to gather some crucial information from the caller -- that there had been multiple people shot at the house, that the shooter was still on scene and that there were small children in the residence, Cole said at a press conference Tuesday. All four Mason County road patrol deputies working at the time raced to the scene as did two deputies with the Manistee County Sheriffs Office, two police officers with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer, Cole said. I cant emphasize enough how valuable their response was, Cole said of the help from other departments. Officers quickly surrounded the home to prevent any escape by the gunman, Cole said. They also were able to communicate with the injured woman inside and coax her to exit the home with her two children who are under age 10, Cole said. Meanwhile, the Michigan State Police sent numerous troopers to the scene as well as its crime lab, he said. After the alleged assailant exited, a search of the home resulted in the discovery of Buchanan, who was dead of multiple gunshot wounds, he said. Officers previously knew a male in the home had been shot, but did not know he was deceased, Cole said. The alleged shooter had barricaded himself in a room with guns and a large amount of ammunition, he said at the Tuesday press conference. Nothing considered suspicious, such as a cache of drugs, was found in the home, he said. The woman and her children were transported by ambulance to Munson Healthcare Manistee Hospital, Cole said. She was treated for the wound to her arm and released, he said. The children were unharmed, he said. BAY CITY, MI The owner of Uptown Grill and Stock Pot Diner is opening a new pizzeria in the growing Uptown Bay City development and he wants your help naming it. Vince Stuart posted about his latest business venture, which he describes as an upscale pizzeria with wood-burning pizza oven and cocktail lounge, on the Uptown Grill Facebook page Monday, April 15. Stuarts Facebook post inviting the community to help name his pizzeria garnered more than 150 comments by Thursday morning, April 18; the most-liked suggestions included A Slice of Uptown and The Crazy Tomato, many others incorporated variations of Stuarts first name. Stuart plans to select several names from among the suggestions and then invite the public vote to determine a winner. Participants who suggest the top names and the winning name will receive an invitation to a pre-opening celebration and other VIP club perks, he said. The Uptown Bay City development, located along the Saginaw River on Bay Citys East Side, is home to Stuarts Uptown Grill, Live Oak Coffeehouse, Michigan Sugar Co., Omoni Boutique, Infinity Bridal, Sushi Remix, Central Michigan University Research Corp., The Bay City Times-MLive and more. The pizzeria is to be located in the Uptown Place building, which also houses Costela Brazilian Steak House. News of Stuarts new restaurant came soon after officials approved a second phase of development at Uptown Bay City, which includes plans for more than 500 new residential housing units. The Bay City Planning Commission on March 20 approved Shaheen Developments site plan, which includes 19 acres of new residential, commercial and mixed-use buildings. During the meeting, Peter Shaheen, vice president of Shaheen Development, said housing options will range from small studio apartments to higher-end waterfront apartments. Preliminary construction work could begin as early as this summer. Stuart said he always hoped to add a pizzeria to his restaurant lineup because everybody loves pizza and Uptown Bay City is desirable because of the continued growth and development happening there. The new eatery, which he aims to open this fall, will offer gourmet pizza made with fresh herbs, fresh mozzarella and other ingredients. Diners can also expect to find made-to-order pasta dishes, nothing out of a box, and specialty wines on the menu. This new Italian menu is a departure for Stuart. He opened Uptown Grill in 2014 offering breakfast dishes, such as a lobster and brie omelet and baklava French toast, and lunch items, such as a salmon BLT, a waffle Cristo sandwich and Cobb salad. Its located at 3 E. Main St. His Stock Pot Diner, a longtime downtown Bay City staple located at 1007 Washington Ave., serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, including country fried steak, diner hash, omelets, Coney dogs and burgers. Stuart is seeking staff for his new pizzeria, including a chef who either has experience cooking Italian cuisine or somebody that really loves what theyre doing and wants to learn how to cook pasta and pizza." Send a resume to stockpot@sbcglobal.net to be considered for employment. BUENA VISTA TWP, MI Police have identified a man whose body was found near a highway interchange in Buena Vista Township. The body of 36-year-old Aaron J. Pickvett was found by utility workers about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, near Interstate 675 and North Outer Drive, just west of Interstate 75. Buena Vista Township police and Michigan State Police troopers responded to the scene, with MSP detectives handling the investigation. Preliminary investigation did not reveal any obvious cause of death, said MSP Lt. Jim Lang. Lang also could not say how long its believed Pickvett was deceased before his body was discovered. An autopsy is scheduled to determine the cause and manner of the Sterling mans death. Pickvett had a lengthy criminal record, including at least 13 felony convictions. The Michigan Department of Corrections discharged him on May 24, after he had served prison time on convictions of unarmed robbery and drug offenses, crimes committed in Bay County. In March, Pickvett had been arraigned on a charge of operating while intoxicated in Bay County District Court. He was freed on a $500 bond. A judge on April 12 issued a bench warrant for Pickvetts arrest when he failed to appear for a court hearing. SAGINAW, MI The parent company of WNEM-TV5 filed a lawsuit three years ago against a former reporter for the station, alleging breach of contract. The ex-employee countersued, alleging he was targeted based on his sexuality. Now, the legal back-and-forth has come to close. On April 11, days before the case was to proceed to trial, Saginaw County District Judge A.T. Frank signed an order of dismissal in the case of Meredith Corp. versus Dominic J. Nick Lulli. Frank dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cant be refiled. The dismissal was requested by Meredith Corp. It proves I was in the right the whole time. They obviously knew they couldnt win at trial and their only option really was to dismiss it," Lulli said Wednesday, April 17. I think it was a total waste of time and money on everyones part. WNEM referred calls for comment to Kara Kelly, Merediths corporate communications manager. Meredith stands behind its contracts; however, given the length of time that has passed, we have agreed to dismiss this lawsuit," Kelly said. In March, a case evaluation panel composed of three attorneys unanimously recommended Meredith pay Lulli $40,000, while Lulli pay Meredith $1,500, according to documents provided by Lulli. The reasoning behind the figures was not provided by the panelists. Meredith rejected the recommendation, though Lulli accepted it, he said. The Iowa-based corporation had filed its suit against Lulli in July 2016. In it, Meredith alleged breach of contract and unjust enrichment and sought damages of $8,674.74 from Lulli. Lulli in March 2015 entered into an employment agreement with WNEM that he was to work for them until March 2019, according to the suit. The station argued Lulli violated this agreement by quitting in June 2016. "As a direct and proximate result of the Defendant's breach of the Employment Agreement, the Plaintiff has not received the benefit of the bargain struck with the Defendant and has sustained economic damages," the suit stated. The requested damages include costs associated with recruiting Lulli and his replacement, the cost of training provided to Lulli, duplicative employment-related taxes, overtime expenses, and productivity loss associated with training a replacement. Lulli initially responded by saying the contract he had signed was void, in part, because he had been the victim of discriminatory practices. He offered counterclaims of assault and discrimination against the company. He also alleged he was sued because he is gay. Lulli, through attorney Victor J. Mastromarco Jr., filed a countersuit against Meredith. That suit was dismissed by Saginaw County Circuit Judge Manvel Trice III in late 2018. Meredith was represented by attorney Brian P. Swanson of Saginaw Township-based Masud Labor Law Group. Lulli, 25, currently resides in Florida and works in public relations. LANSING, MI -- The women running Michigans two major political organizations are equally confident their party will hold the White House in 2020. Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes and Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox made history in February, the first time the two state parties have been led by women simultaneously. Despite their differences, both said having a woman at the helm will help their parties appeal to female voters who will play a key role in choosing the countrys next president. Cox, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and state representative, is focused on delivering Michigan to President Donald Trump. Her sights are also trained on unseating U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, and flipping back two U.S. House seats that went blue last year. Barnes is a veteran political organizer who led a grassroots re-engagement effort in all 83 counties after 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton underperformed at the ballot box. Barnes, the first woman and the first woman of color to lead the state Democratic party, is focused on translating outrage against Trump into votes on Election Day. For the Republicans, its terrific that they are trying to reach out to folks who are feeling disheartened by their president, but they need a new president to do that, Barnes said. Trump is still Trump and that hasnt changed, its gotten worse. Cox said she represents white, suburban, college-educated women, a demographic which contributed to Democratic wins in 2018. She acknowledged some women are turned off by the presidents rhetoric, often characterized as sexist by Democrats, but Cox said women benefited financially under Trump and have plenty of reasons to support him in 2020. When people say thats a difficult demographic, I say I am that difficult demographic and I support the president, Cox told MLive. Who are they? When previous MDP chair Brandon Dillon announced he wouldnt seek re-election to a third term, Barnes, who was chief operating officer for the state party, considered stepping aside to let someone else lead. But having spent time in a leadership position, Barnes decided to take the reins herself. The more we talked about it, the more I came to realize it made sense for it to be my time, Barnes said. Barnes is the first woman of color to lead the Michigan Democratic Party. African-Americans, and black women in particular, are historically strong supporters of Democrats. Barnes comes from a politically active family -- people who marched and protested, she said -- and felt embraced by the Democratic Party from a young age. She served as the Virginia press secretary for President Bill Clintons successful 1992 campaign, going on to work for his administration, and later served as Michigan state director for President Barack Obama in 2012. Cox follows in the footsteps of other women who led the Michigan GOP, including Education Secretary of Betsy DeVos and current Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel. I encourage women, Cox said. The Republican Party has a lot of things to offer women and its my job to make sure we talk about it. Coxs faith in the GOP probably shouldnt come as a surprise. She was born in Jackson, the Michigan city credited as the Republican Partys birthplace. Cox described herself as a patriot dedicated to a lifetime of service. The Livonia resident pursued a career in criminal justice after graduating from Michigan State University, served 13-years as a Detroit ICE agent. She and her husband Mike Cox, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former Michigan Attorney General, and had four children, one of whom is attending the U.S. Naval Academy. At 40, she retired from ICE to enter local politics. Cox served a decade on the Wayne County Board of Commissioners, the lone Republican for most of her tenure. She pushed for more fiscal responsibility as chair of the ways and means committee. It was a great place to learn rough and tumble politics," Cox said, before seeking higher office. Cox served in the state House from 2015-2018, becoming the first woman to lead state budget discussions at the helm of the House Appropriations Committee. She lost a race for Michigans 7th state Senate seat in 2018 before running for state party chair. Moving on from 2016 Michigans Republican and Democratic organizations are taking heart of lessons from 2016 presidential election into the next campaign cycle. Barnes, a Virginia native, remembers feeling uneasy as she counted votes in the boiler room of the Democratic Partys Detroit office. She sensed not enough was done to drive turnout, particularly in Wayne County. Barnes worries were justified; Democratic votes across the state were down by 295,730 from the previous presidential election. Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, a painfully narrow margin for Democrats. Cox said Republicans were left enthusiastic after Trumps many Michigan campaign visits in 2016. On the eve of Election Day, supporters flooded a late-night campaign rally in Grand Rapids that spilled into the next morning. On the ground it was very electrifying, she said. Trumps rise to power was a wake up call, Barnes said, especially for women who felt their voices werent heard. The day after the election, phones at MDP offices started ringing off the hook, she said. Women overall preferred Clinton by a 12-point margin, but women without college degrees were more likely to support Trump. The gender gap in 2016 -- a measure of the difference in a candidates support among men and women -- was among the widest in exit polls dating back to 1972. While Democrats planned their next move, women-led protest movements sparked across the country. Millions descended on Washington D.C. on the day of Trumps inauguration to participate in Womens March demonstrations, widely considered to be the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. Women ran for office and were elected to Congress in record numbers in the next election. An all-female slate of candidates took state-wide offices in Michigan and women flipped two Republican U.S. House seats. Representation was hard-fought, Barnes said. Women are leading conversations about how issues impact them and conversations about sexual harassment, womens health, abortion rights gender equity and representation took a center stage in public discourse. Weve gotten to the point now where women are in the room, speaking up loudly and not allowing themselves to be over-shouted or out-talked," Barnes said. After the election, Barnes helped organize a plan to rebuild relationships with voters across the entire state, including in Republican counties. Democratic party organizers hit the road. In a few places, they were like where have you been? Barnes said. They hadnt seen anyone at their door in years. Cox is focused on what she called the number one rule of politics: You have to keep what you won. She also aims to reverse Congressional losses in 2018 and increase the Republican majority in the state House. She said the Michigan GOP is building a plan to replace Peters and U.S. Reps. Haley Stevens, D-Rochester Hills, and Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly. With opponents yet to be announced, Cook Political Report ratings show Peters is likely to win, but Stevens and Slotkin could face closely contested races. Its about the economy, and security Cox and Barnes recognize Trumps pathway to re-election runs through Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, states long-considered to be locked in for Democrats. Trump won Midwest states in part due to his focus on improving economic conditions for white, working class voters. While Democrats appeal to women based on reproductive rights and other traditional women issues," Cox said women vote based on the economy and security. Shes right, according to a March POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. Womens issues like equal pay and access to birth control and abortion is the top issue of only 3 percent of Republican women. A vast majority of Republican women listed security issues -- terrorism, foreign policy and border security -- and economic issues as their top two concerns when voting. Only two percent of Republican women trust Congressional Democrats to handle the economy. Cox said the president will have no trouble arguing Michigan families are safer due to increases in defense spending and efforts to address border security and the opioid crisis. Keeping a focus on how economic policies improve the lives of families will deliver him Michigan, Cox said. During his State of the Union address, Trump said no one has benefited more" from a strong economy than women, who filled 58 percent of new jobs created in 2018. Trump repeated the statistic during a March 28 rally in Grand Rapids, predicting he would attract more support from women in 2020. While Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the number of women working is the highest its ever been, participation in the labor force remains below its peak in 1999. The participation rate for men 16 years and over is 69.1 percent, compared to 57.3 percent for women. Women also earned less than men in most occupations tracked by BLS. In 2018, women who were full-time wage and salary workers earned 81 percent of the median weekly earnings of men. Still, women are experiencing the lowest unemployment rate since the 1950s. Barnes remains convinced Democrats can take back the state, but knows they have to work for it. An incumbent president hasnt lost their re-election bid since George H.W. Bush in 1992. Cox is equally confident Trump will hold on to the Great Lakes state. He is rocking and rolling, and Michigan is paying attention, Cox said. Advisers to Putin, Trump discuss Russia-US ties in Moscow, summit issue not raised Advisers to Putin, Trump discuss Russia-US ties in Moscow, summit issue not raised Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has held a meeting with special assistant to the US President, Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs on the US National Security Council staff Fiona Hill. The US adviser arrived in Moscow for consultations on Thursday, and a meeting was held in the presidential administration, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. The two presidents advisers discussed bilateral relations issues, Peskov added. The issue of a potential meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump was not raised, according to the spokesman.Source : RT - Daily news Beijing has inked cooperation deals on its multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with 17 Arab countries, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the results of a joint Sino-Arab forum. The second China-Arab Forum on Reform and Development, which was held in Shanghai on Tuesday, attracted more than a hundred businessmen, politicians, and academics from China and Arab states, including Egypt, Lebanon, Djibouti, and Oman. This years meeting, dubbed Build the Belt and Road, Share Development and Prosperity, was dedicated to boosting the project. Also on rt.com Switzerland backs Chinas new Silk Road as Western allies twiddle their thumbs Arab countries have shown great interest in cooperation with Beijing. Apart from joining the Belt and Road Initiative, 12 Arab states established strategic partnerships, including comprehensive ones, with China. The Arab representatives said the BRI cooperation with China brings immense opportunities to Arab countries to advance reform and accelerate growth, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told journalists at a news conference on Wednesday. The Sino-Arab cooperation on the project is to receive another strong impetus as many Arab state leaders are expected to attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, which will be held in Beijing later this month, according to the diplomat. Also on rt.com Just jealous: Italy responds to criticism for joining Chinas Belt and Road Initiative China is the second-largest trading partner for the Arab world with $190 billion trade turnover as of 2017, according to the assistant secretary general of the Arab League, Khalil Thawadi, as quoted by the Jordan Times. The official noted that 21 Arab states signed memoranda of understanding on the new Silk Road in 2018. Chinas ambitious global trade infrastructure project is expanding globally. This week, Switzerland showed its intention to sign up for the BRI. In March, Italy faced criticism from its European allies as it officially became the first G7 nation to join the initiative, and shortly afterwards, Luxembourg signed a memorandum of understanding on participation in the project. Memoranda of understanding were also signed by Greece and Portugal in August and December last year respectively. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section Anti-Islamic terrorism, which involves psychopaths and murderers fueled by racism and nationalism, is on the rise not only in Europe but all around the world, the director of Russias security service has warned. A phenomenon of anti-Islamic terrorism is becoming a serious challenge, Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday. He suggested that deep divides between immigrants and natives are fertile soil for the rise of nationalist sentiments and right wing, neo-racist radicalism. The emergence of cool-blooded psychopaths and murderers who harbor plans to slaughter Muslims is becoming an alarming trend not only in Europe, but in the rest of the world. The official referred to the New Zealand tragedy on March 15, when 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant opened fire on Muslim worshippers at two city mosques as they gathered for Friday prayers. It was the worst shooting in the countrys history, leaving 50 people dead and many more injured. Also on rt.com UK Islamophobic incidents soar 600% in week after Christchurch terrorist attacks Tarrant was apprehended 36 minutes after the first call, but it was absolutely his intention to carry out further attacks. He was mobile and had two other firearms in his vehicle, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters in the aftermath of the gun rampage. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has announced the suspension of trade across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Jammu and Kashmir regions bordering Pakistan as tensions between the two countries intensify. The permanent ban comes into effect on Friday. Indian authorities cite the use of current trade routes by Pakistani elements for illegal funneling of drugs, weapons and money as the key reason for the measure. Also on rt.com India's dynamic economy set to grow even more Goldman Sachs The LoC trade mechanism is therefore being suspended pending the introduction of a tighter regulatory system. This is to ensure that only bona fide trade takes place, for the benefit of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, through this mechanism, the ministry said in a press release. According to New Delhi, the ongoing probe, launched by the National Investigation Agency that was established to combat terrorism in India, revealed that a major part of LoC trade is operated by people closely associated with banned organizations involved in fueling terrorism and separatism. Also on rt.com It is now Pakistans turn to weep: Modi boasts about Indias mother of nuclear bombs at rally The move comes two months after the uneasy bilateral relations between New Delhi and Islamabad faced another serious test, when a suicide-bomb attack on an Indian paramilitary police convoy resulted in the death of over 40 people. The attack was claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Kashmir conflict then escalated to a military standoff between the two nuclear-armed nations which saw air strikes, artillery shelling and an aerial battle. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section Irans military poses no threat to its neighbors, as their only mission is to fend off invaders, President Hassan Rouhani said as the country celebrates National Army Day. I want to tell the regional countries that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not against you and your national interests. They stand against invaders, Rouhani said at the Army Day parade in Tehran. He didnt elaborate, but blamed the roots of our problems on the US and Israel. READ MORE: Irans strategy is to annihilate Israel if they do anything that leads to war top general He also said the US designation of Irans elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization was an abhorrent move and an insult to the nation. Iran listed US Central Command as a terrorist group in response. At the Thursday parade in Tehran which was broadcast live on TV, soldiers passed a podium where Rouhani and top military brass stood. The military showcased heavy armor, ballistic missiles, and locally designed combat aircraft. IRGC units were also filmed taking part in the massive show. The story comes amid heightened tensions after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal last year and reintroduced sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Like this story? Share it with a friend! Despite losing territories in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and Al-Qaeda militants still pose a threat as terrorists cells spread in Europe and Asia, FSB head Alexander Bortnikov has said. Terrorist groups operating on a network basis are taking root in Europe, Central and South-Eastern Asia, the director of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) warned. Organized groups of criminals for instance advance deep into Africa including Libya, the official said adding that the same can be said about Afghanistan. The Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and related terrorist groups still pose a serious threat having structured themselves on a network basis. Interconnected and autonomous cells spread outside the Middle East to Europe, Central and South-Eastern Asia. According to Bortnikov, the driving force behind IS expansion is militants who are now returning to their countries of origin and creating terrorist cells at home. More than 1,500 out of 5,000 jihadists from Europe who earlier joined IS managed to come back from the Middle East, Bortnikov said citing expert estimates. Most of them had no difficulties in reaching their home countries, the official bemoaned. He also hinted that Brussels migration policy might be the reason for such a drastic advance as hundreds of thousands refugees entered EU since 2015, many of which stemmed from the countries with high terrorist activity. Also on rt.com Trump says ISIS to be defeated by tonight but 400 US troops will stay in Syria In March, US President Donald Trump declared victory against IS in Syria after the Washington-backed SDF militia gained control over Baghouz, the jihadists last stronghold in Syria. Trumps claim, however, has been questioned by Syrian envoy to UN Bashar Jaafari who said that the Islamic State is not over yet. French President Emmanuel Macron was also cautious about the matter indicating that the threat persists and the fight against terrorist groups must continue. Like this story? Share it with a friend! The aviation unit of Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi is planning to start deliveries of Japan's first homegrown passenger plane since the 1960s as soon as next year. The 88-passenger jet has a flight range of about 2,000 miles, while a smaller variant can fly up to 76 people for about the same distance. The MRJ (Mitsubishi Regional Jet) made its maiden flight in November 2015 with the first deliveries slated for mid-2020. Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation initially planned the first deliveries of the jet for 2008. However, the date was pushed back five times due to production difficulties. Orders for the aircraft that once totaled 474 units from US and Japanese carriers have been reportedly reduced to 407 jets so far. The Japanese conglomerate, a longtime supplier of aircraft components to Boeing, invested over 600 billion yen ($5.36 billion) into MRJ as of March 2018 with another 200 billion yen ($1.8bn) expected to be pumped into the project by the end of 2020. In October, Mitsubishi announced plans to invest an extra 170 billion yen ($1.5bn) in capital into its aircraft unit, canceling 50 billion yen ($446mn) of the debt owed by the division. The long-anticipated MRJ, which is designed for local air transportation, may become a peer competitor for such mainstays as Canada's Bombardier, whose C Series regional planes are marketed as the Airbus A220, after the 2017 acquisition of the unit by the European aerospace giant. The Japanese jet is also expected to provide keen competition to Brazil's Embraer that announced plans to create a joint venture for Embraer's airliners in 2018. The newcomers in the sector of regional air service, such as the Russian Sukhoi Superjet-100 and the Chinese Comac ARJ21, which are currently undergoing test flights, may also challenge Airbus and Boeing. Mitsubishi is currently involved in legal proceedings with Montrealbased Bombardier. In October, the Canadian aircraft manufacturer filed a lawsuit, accusing the Japanese corporation of stealing secret information and causing Bombardier to suffer irreparable financial loss. Mitsubishi counter-sued, saying that the Canadian aircraft producer had violated antitrust regulations through a multifaceted scheme to expand its power within the regional jet market by impeding the entrance of a new competing aircraft. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section Military deadlock: UN envoy warns of widening conflagration in Libya Military deadlock: UN envoy warns of widening conflagration in Libya The UNs Libya envoy warned Thursday of a widening conflagration in the North African country. Ghassan Salame also said that international divisions had encouraged strongman Khalifa Haftar to launch his assault on Tripoli. For now, there is deadlock in fighting south of the capital between Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), the envoy told AFP. After the very first successes of the Libyan National Army two weeks ago, we are witnessing a military deadlock, he said. Fighting broke out on April 4 when Haftar and his LNA, based in the country's east, launched an offensive to take Tripoli, the western seat of the GNA. The UN has postponed a national conference that was to draw up a roadmap to elections.Source : RT - Daily news Pakistan finance minister steps down amid cabinet reshuffle, IMF talks Pakistan finance minister steps down amid cabinet reshuffle, IMF talks Pakistani Finance Minister Asad Umar said on Thursday he would step down in a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The resignation has raised questions on plans for averting an economic crisis amid bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund, Reuters said. Speculation of the departure was rife for months, with some business groups and investors unhappy at Umars strategy of seeking short-term loans from allies such as China and Saudi Arabia instead of finalizing an IMF rescue package after Khan assumed power in August. Umar has been leading negotiations with the IMF for what would be Pakistans 13th bailout since the late 1980s. The minister has faced criticism over a worsening economic outlook. Umar said he was asked to quit on Wednesday night and turned down the energy portfolio offered by Khan.Source : RT - Daily news Riyadh aims to create a $500 billion mega city possibly funded by the IPO of the nations oil giant Saudi Aramco. The project is part of the kingdoms Vision 2030 initiative to make the country less reliant on crude exports. RT correspondent Alex Mihailovich told Boom Bust its an ambitious and massive project. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made it very clear that he wants to see Saudi Arabia change, move away from oil to high tech, he says. The city will be fuelled completely by renewables (wind and solar) and has already attracted international interest. The process is very progressive and could possibly bring Saudi Arabia into a new day where it could be a progressive leader, something that we havent seen in the past for that country, Mihailovich explained. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section North Korea signaled that it would like to see US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced by someone more careful and "mature in talks with Pyongyang. If he engages in nuclear talks again, the table will be lousy, it warned. Secretary of State Pompeo should step aside from the nuclear talks with Pyongyang in favor of someone who can communicate more cautiously and more maturely, according to Pyongyangs state-run KCNA outlet, cited by a number of agencies. The North Korean media also quoted Kwon Jong Gun, a top Foreign Ministry official, who cautioned that if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled. The unambiguous comment comes on the heels of the failed Vietnam summit in which Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump failed to reach a deal. Also on rt.com North Korea tests mysterious tactical guided weapon after failed Trump-Kim summit DETAILS TO FOLLOW Russia has banned exports of oil and petroleum products among other goods to Ukraine, as well as blacklisting certain imports from the country in response to Kiev's sanctions against Moscow. Apart from oil, the expanded restrictions on specific Ukrainian goods include engineering products, consumer goods, and metal products, worth almost US$250 million as of 2018, according to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The full list of blacklisted imports was published on the government website on Thursday. The embargo, which comes into effect immediately, includes bulldozers, pipes and pipe laying vehicles and other items. Also on rt.com Russia remains Ukraines key trade partner despite Kievs claims of cutting economic ties The document also says that the shipments of coal, gasoline and diesel fuel will be restricted starting from June 1. Supplying these will be possible only under special government orders. The new sanctions also forbid some exports from Ukraine, including clothing, shoes, socks among other goods. The measure comes in retaliation to Kievs new sanctions against Moscow, announced on April 10. Ukraine targeted imports of glass containers, formalin, electric equipment for railway infrastructure, and other products from Russia. Also on rt.com Russia bans $500 million worth of imports from Ukraine in retaliatory sanctions It is not the first time the two sides have expanded economic restrictions against each other, with Russia usually retaliating to Ukrainian moves. The latest tit-for-tat response came in December 2018, when Russia slapped Ukraine with a ban on the imports of more than 50 Ukrainian goods, worth $510 million. It came shortly after Kiev extended its own embargo on Russian foods until the end of 2019, with restrictions targeting baked goods, chocolate, meat, fish, coffee, black tea, and some alcoholic beverages, among other items. Despite bilateral trade restrictions, the turnover between Russia and Ukraine has been increasing in recent years, with Russia enjoying a significant trade surplus. Mutual sanctions have also failed to stop Russia from being the leading trade partner for Ukraine in 2018. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section Hamleys live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Highlights :- - Reliance Industries is in talks to acquire Hamleys worldwide operations- Hamleys is a global retailer of toys, gifts and games- The acquisition could complement Reliance Retails organic expansion in India- Globally, the toys market could be worth over Rs 120 billion by 2023 - The deal could be valued at close to Rs 600 crore -------------------------------------------------- Reliance Retails (RR) multi-product portfolio, large brick-and-mortar store presence and strong omnichannel network have helped it create a niche for itself. Thanks to continued investments in scaling up the business by Reliance Industries (its parent company), RR remains on track to achieve robust top-line growth organically. As reported by Moneycontrol, RR may acquire Hamleys worldwide operations from C Banner, Hamleys promoter and a large Chinese fashion conglomerate. Due diligence for the transaction is underway at this point. RR already has the franchise rights to sell Hamleys merchandise in India. Headquartered in the UK, Hamleys is the oldest retailer of toys, games and gifts in the world. Its outlets (owned and franchise-run) are spread across Europe, Middle East nations, Asia, North America and South Africa. Should the deal get through, RR stands to benefit by way of favourable spending patterns by the masses, augmentation of Hamleys EBO (exclusive brand outlet) network, cross-selling opportunities at existing RR outlets and a large set of prospective buyers to cash in on. The acquisition would also underscore RRs ambition to look at markets beyond India in a bid to achieve the next leg of growth. How does Reliance Retail benefit ? Brick-and-mortar expansion in India Presently, in India, Hamleys has 49 stores that are situated in 21 cities. To capture a higher share of the retail industry, more Hamleys points-of-sale would be opened across the country. As per preliminary reports, RR plans to augment the Hamleys store network to over 200 in the next 2-3 years. Additionally, RR would be able to leverage its strong warehousing and distribution capabilities to ensure that Hamleys products are made available throughout the country. As on Q3 FY19-end, RR has around 8 million square feet warehousing space and its 100 distribution centres spanning 23 states. International foray could gain momentum Amid rapid expansion within India, RR has set its eyes on tapping the potential that foreign regions have to offer. Understanding buying preferences and intricacies in other nations could set the tone for retailing of RRs private labels (across different categories) and its other international licensed brands (such as Marks and Spencer, Superdry and Diesel, among others) that have been sold only in India so far. The takeover of Hamleys, a brand that enjoys recognition globally, could be a starting point. A promising market awaits As per an IMARC (a market research firm) report, Indias toys market was worth Rs 10,500 crore in 2018, growing at an average annual rate of around 16 percent. The market size is anticipated to cross over Rs 23,000 crore in the next 5 years. With a large and young population base that is only growing by the day, industry trends for branded toys appear positive for Hamleys (and consequently RR). Globally, the toys market is slated to reach a revenue size of over $120 billion by 2023, as against $89 billion in 2017. This translates into a CAGR of nearly 5 percent for the 6-year period. In India, celebration of festivals at regular intervals during the course of the year necessitates purchase of premium gifting products. From a worldwide perspective, increased adoption of social media-driven advertisements, use of toys for educational purposes and higher disposable incomes in the hands of consumers are the added growth levers. Expected valuation and conclusion On an average market cap-to-2018 sales multiple of 1.3 times, Hamleys could command a market capitalisation of nearly $86.19 million, which amounts to Rs 598 crore. Hamleys turnover is visibly lower than its global counterparts. Since its margins and profitability have been a cause of concern in the last 2 calendar years, there is a possibility that the deal may be valued at a lower multiple and amount. Though the transaction seems symbolic in terms of RRs growth intent, execution of the same wont move the needle for RR. This is because the contribution of toys to RRs annual sales would be insignificant. For now, this development can be merely regarded as a change in business intent. RR, which has been Hamleys India-focused brand licensee so far, will become an international brand owner. What follows next will be keenly watched. Follow @krishnakarwa152 For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research page Disclaimer: Moneycontrol Research analysts do not hold positions in the companies discussed here Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. Representative Image Asian rice exporting hubs saw tepid activity this week, with prices for the staple from top exporter India dipping on lower demand, while Bangladesh mulled a review of its ban on exports of the grain. India's 5 percent broken parboiled variety was quoted around $377-$380 per tonne, down from last week's $387-$390. Demand from African buyers was weak as they have ample inventories, said Nitin Gupta, vice president, rice business at Olam India. Aggressive selling of old inventories by China at lower prices has also weighing on prices, he added. The country's rice exports for April-February dropped 9.4 percent from a year earlier to 10.57 million tonnes, as leading buyer Bangladesh trimmed its purchases due to a bumper local harvest, a government body said. On Thursday, Bangladesh's commerce minister said a long-standing ban on rice exports will be discussed after strong pleas from traders to lift the restriction. "If we have surplus, we can allow rice exports," Tipu Munshi told reporters after a meeting with the rice traders association. Bangladesh, traditionally the world's fourth biggest rice producer, banned overseas shipments of some common rice varieties in May 2008 following a spike in domestic prices. It banned all rice exports a year later. In 2017, the country was forced to massively increase imports to shore up domestic reserves after floods wrought havoc on local crops and pushed domestic rice prices to record highs, but domestic stocks have since greatly improved. In Thailand, the world's second-largest exporter, the benchmark 5-percent broken rice prices eased slightly to $393-$411 a tonne, free on board Bangkok, from $405-$410 last week. "Overseas buyers have turned to rice from India and Vietnam because their prices have been more competitive compared to ours," a trader said. However, concerns over domestic supply in the country have kept prices steady recently, traders said. "The harvest of the last crop was completed last month and there is no new supply except unsold rice from the mills, this meant prices remain stable with a tendency to rise even though there is no demand," a Bangkok-based rice trader said. Rates for Vietnam's 5 percent broken rice stood flat for a fifth week at $360 a tonne, as supply begins to wane, traders said. However, prices were still at their highest since mid-January, with traders hoping for fresh demand from China. Cash-strapped airline Jet Airways flew its last flight on the Amritsar-Delhi-Mumbai route on April 17 and announced a temporary shutdown as lenders refused to provide it with the much-needed emergency funding. As of Thursday, April 18, all domestic and international flights of Jet Airways stand cancelled. This has led to confusion and panic among the customers who had booked flights with the carrier. The airline has said that it will inform all guests about the suspension of flight operations through text messages or emails to the respective contact details in the bookings. If you have a booking with Jet Airways for a later date than April 18, you will receive a text, email or phone call from Jet Airways authorities. The airline will offer a refund for all passengers affected by the suspension of flight operations. Passengers have to call the airline or visit its office in case their flights have been cancelled within 72 hours of departure. A list of all Jet Airways offices across the country is on their website. If the flight has been cancelled beyond 72 hours, passengers have to fill the form on the Disruption Assistance page of the website, if booked directly with Jet. In case a passenger has booked the flight through an agent, they will have to contact the agent directly. If a ticket has been booked through travel portals like MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, Yatra, etc, they will have to cancel their tickets on those websites of apps and seek a refund for their tickets. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has said that the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) and other regulators are monitoring the situation carefully to ensure that all existing rules regarding refunds, cancellations, and alternate bookings are followed strictly. "Any passenger complaints or issues should be promptly reported to the AirSewa portal or on its mobile app. We will follow up immediately. Our overriding priority remains the safety, convenience, and affordability of our Aviation system. We are assisting airlines and airports to bring in capacity rapidly to ensure that fares remain stable and competitive," it said on Twitter. A meeting between the secretary of MoCA with airports is underway and airlines will coordinate and address any emerging issues on capacity, slots and passenger convenience. The deadline for Jet Airways corporate insolvency resolution process is October 21 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More All India Jet Airways Officers & Staff Association (AIJAOSA), thats representing the employees of beleaguered Jet Airways wrote a letter seeking the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to resolve the ensuing crisis at the debt-laden airlines. We sincerely appeal to you at this hour of crisis and request your urgent intervention to define a blueprint of revival and consolidation thereby avoiding loss of employment and critical damage to the aviation industry of India, wrote Kiran Pawaskar, President of AIJAOSA and a member of Maharashtra Legislative Council of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Moneycontrol viewed a copy of the letter dated on April 17, that was also copied to finance and civil aviation ministries. The cash strapped Jet Airways suspended operations indefinitely, after its lone aircraft that flew from Amritsar to Mumbai, was grounded on April 17. The airlines lenders led by SBI after deliberations decided against fresh lending to the company. Instead, they said they will wait for new investors. The cut-off date for receiving binding bids from potential investors who have expressed interest is May 10. Unpaid salaries Jet Airways has little over 16,000 employees on its roles. While the pilots, engineers and senior management were not getting salaries from January, the company had defaulted the March salary for the rest of the staff, putting severe hardship on the employees and their dependent family members. Jet Airways consists of around 7,000 ground handling staff, the rest are pilots, engineers, cabin crew and management staff. Another 6,000 workers who provide services to Jet Airways through various vendors are also impacted by airline stopping operations. Emotions ran high on April 18 as scores of employees turned up at airlines Mumbai headquarters raising slogans and seeking answers from the management on how they plan to pay the staff. The staff later formed a human chain and blocked the entrance of the Jet Airways office, before dispersing peacefully. Abhasi Amina, a 30-year-old customer service supervisor of Jet Airways told Moneycontrol, she hasnt paid the equated monthly instalment (EMI) of her personal loan and has to borrow money to even pay her house rent and for groceries. Amina has been a Jet Airways employee for seven years and was rated a top performer. Another employee B Prathamesh, 27 said he hasn't paid his EMI in April and is now being hounded by his bank. Prathamesh has been on Jet rolls for five years. He said it was tough to find a new job in other airlines and they were offering a 50 percent lower salary. Another senior cabin crew staffer who has served at the airline for nine years on both domestic and international routes, on the condition of anonymity said: We don't have too many options right now. We are waiting till May 10, a date on which the potential buyer of Jet Airways will be known." Jet Airways has been operating for the last 25 years with a fleet size of 119 aircraft. Trouble for Jet began in October 2018, leading to abrupt flight cancellations becoming the norm. Things went fully out-of-control from February, with airlines grounding most of its aircraft, due to liquidity issues. Employees said there were some instances where ground handling staff were manhandled and abused by angry passengers, whose flights were cancelled. The airline has a debt of Rs 8,000 crore and stopped repaying its loans from January. Founder-Promoter Naresh Goyal was forced to resign in March as a potential investor threatened to back out if he continued. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad that holds 24 percent stake in Jet Airways, is now in the race along with TPG Capital, Indigo Partners and NIIF to acquire Jet Airways. Voters standing in a queue to cast their votes, at a polling booth, during the second phase of General Elections 2019 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. (Image: PIB) Female voters displaying identity cards, at a polling booth, during the second phase of General Elections 2019, in Assam. (Image: PIB) A woman after voting in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. (Image: PTI) Voters casting their vote at a polling booth, during the second phase of General Elections 2019 in Chennai, Tamilnadu. (Image: PIB) Election officials wearing superhero costumes prepare ballots at a polling station during elections in Surabaya, East Java province, Indonesia. (Image: Reuters) A bunch of roses placed near Notre-Dame Cathedral is pictured at sunrise after a massive fire devastated large parts of the gothic structure in Paris, France. (Image: Reuters) US President Donald Trump speaks during an "Opportunity Zone" conference with state, local, tribal, and community leaders at the White House in Washington, US. (Image: Reuters) Models showcase diamond bracelets by Gitanjali group during fashion show in New Delhi (Jul. 2007). Image: REUTERS live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Gitanjali Gems is headed for liquidation as the committee of creditors has voted to end the resolution process citing time over-run. The Mehul Choksi-run firm owes over Rs 12,550 crore to 31 financial creditors and is a key player in the Rs 14,000-crore PNB scam. In just six years' time, Gitanjali Gems went from being one of the most famous jewellers in India to facing liquidation. The promoter Choksi is on the run. He is currently in Antigua, facing extradition. Senior bankers told Business Standard that no other alternative seemed plausible. "Resources (money) are precious to us and no one would like to throw good money after bad. There is no point in keeping a resolution professional and other infrastructure in place for a case like this," one of the bankers said. Some lenders have already filed claims in various forums for recoveries. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the news. Gitanjali Gems was founded by Chinubhai Choksi in 1966, and it was one of the prime jewellers of Mumbai. Mehul took over the company in 1985. Top Bollywood stars including Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor and Bipasha Basu endorsed the brand. A year before September 2018, when Gitanjali was suspended from the exchanges, the company stock was trading at a steady Rs 600. The company's market capitalisation was at Rs 6,000 crore. However, in a year's time, the company's stock nosedived by 90 percent and the market cap worth Rs 5,000 crore vanished. In March 2018, a special PMLA court issued non-bailable arrest warrants (NBWs) against Choksi and his nephews, Nirav Modi and Neeshal Deepak Modi. They were suspected of colluding with two employees of Punjab National Bank (PNB) in the Rs 13,500 crore fraud, the biggest scam in the Indian banking history. Early on, Choksi got muddled in a securities scam being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). In 2012, he allegedly rigged shares in the company with a Mumbai-based brokerage, Prime Securities, along with other firms. He, along with Prime Broking Company (a subsidiary of Prime Securities), was banned from trading on the NSE in 2012. It was also alleged that he ran various shell companies that siphoned funds from the company to be used in illegal trading practices, similar to what his nephew Nirav Modi did. Choksi invested a lot of money in brands, which is what led to the downfall of Gitanjali, according to Atul Merchant, a former consultant at Gitanjali. Merchant was involved in multiple roles at the company. "If you research back to the start of the firm in the 1960s, Gitanjali's forte was diamond trading, not manufacturing and thats the area that has gotten Choksi into trouble because he just didn't have the mindset for it," he told the paper. According to Choksi, it was the strict regulations of the government and not his business strategy that took down the company. He wanted to build many luxury brands in India like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, and launched 30 different brands at once. This included Gili, Maya, Asmi, Nakshatra, and Gitanjali. Most of these brands did not last beyond 2013. As per Gitanjali's filings with the exchanges, it has a debt of around Rs 12,558 crore in the form of working capital loans and external commercial borrowings (ECBs). Commenting on the release of Reliance Industries Q4 FY19 results on April 18, Abhijeet Bora, senior research Analyst at ShareKhan said they expect the the stock would positively react on April 22. Bora said that the company's refinery segment had a good Gross Refining Margin (GRM) of $8.2, which is substantially higher than Singapore's GRM. The consumer-centric business has remained flat, but the margins have surprised and on the core business front, it was expected that the margins on the refining business would come down," said Bora Market expert SP Tulsian said that although the major disappointment has come from the refinery segment, profit booking will not be ruled out in the stock prices on April 22 over the strong performance by the retail and digital verticals. The new generation business of retail and digital has done exceptionally well. So yes maybe the market may probably take a pause, and profit booking will not be ruled out in the stock prices, he said. There has been a fall of Rs 900 crore on a sequential basis on an EBIT level. Petchem has also disappointed by 3 percent, which was more or less expected. But the major disappointment has been seen on the refinery level. Source: CNBC-TV 18 Watch the video to know more. Here are stocks that are in the news today: Results on April 18: Reliance Industries, RBL Bank, DCB Bank, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, Tata Sponge Iron, Jay Bharat Maruti, Uttam Galva Steels, Majestic Auto, Amal, Andhra Pradesh Tanneries, B2B Software Technologies Wipro Q4: IT Services revenue down 0.5 percent to Rs 14,586.5 crore versus Rs 14,665.6 crore. Company approves share buyback worth up to Rs 10,500 crore via tender offer and expects dollar revenue in Q1FY20 in the range of $2,046-2,087 million (a growth of -1% To +1% over Q4FY19). Mindtree Q4: Profit grew 3.8 percent to Rs 198.4 crore, revenue rose 2.9 percent to Rs 1,839.4 crore, dollar revenue grew 4.2 percent to $262 million, constant currency revenue growth of 3.9 percent QoQ. The company crossed $1 billion in annual revenue. Mindtree: Company recommended a final dividend of 40 percent (Rs 4 per share) for the financial year ended March 2019 and a special dividend of 200 percent (Rs 20 per share) to celebrate the twin achievements of exceeding $1 billion annual revenue milestone and the 20th anniversary of the company. Ashoka Buildcon received letter of Award from Rail Vikas Nigam of Rs 443.23 crore Granules Pharmaceuticals Inc. received USFDA approval for Acetaminophen 650 mg, extended release tablets CRISIL March quarter: Consolidated profit fell to Rs 76.64 crore versus Rs 82.21 crore; revenue declined to Rs 415.79 crore versus Rs 419.95 crore YoY. CRISIL: Company approved payment of an interim dividend of Rs 6 per share for the financial year ending December 2019. Reliance Industries: Mitsui O.S.K. Lines will acquire a strategic stake in six group companies (each owning a very large ethane carrier) of RIL. RIL: Saudi Aramco in talks to acquire up to a 25 percent stake in Reliance Industries' refining and petrochemicals businesses - Reuters Reliance Retail in talks to buy out 259-year-old British toymaker Hamleys - Sources Embassy Office Parks REIT to consider issuing NCDs on Private Placement basis on April 23 InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet in focus: Aviation Secretary said Directorate General of Civil Aviation advised airlines to keep fares on check & bring them down after it found air fares on 40 sectors 10-30 percent higher. 90 percent of Jet Airways slots vacant, being re-allotted temporarily. Jet Airways: Company suspends all operations temporarily. Cipla: Company to buy 30 percent share in Brandmed at upfront payment of (South African) 65 million rand. Bandhan Bank: CCI approves merger of Gruh Finance with Bandhan Bank. Eris Lifesciences: Completed consolidation of shareholding in the subsidiary, Kinedex Healthcare completed. Sadbhav Infrastructure Project: Sadbhav Vizag Port Road, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company submitted draft financing documents to NHAI in relation to financial close. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company: ICRA reaffirmed the iAAA rating to the claims-paying ability of the company. Tata Communications appoints Pathmal Gunawardana as its new Americas chief Cadila Healthcare: Zydus received final approval from the USFDA for Acetazolamide for injection. Star Cement received Rs 174.48 crore towards its freight subsidy claims from the Central Government Hindalco Industries: Toyota selected company's subsidiary Novelis as an aluminum supplier for 2019 vehicle RAV4. JM Financial Products' secured NCD issue to open on April 22, 2019 Weizmann Forex: Board considered the appointment of 3 additional directors and resignation of directors. Intellect Design Arena: Ithala SOC, licensed financial services and registered credit provider based in South Africa chose Intellect Digital Core to power their digital transformation. Cadila Healthcare: Zydus announces Phase 3 trial of Desidustat in non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients with anaemia. Foods & Inns fixed May 2 as record date for bonus share issue Sasken Technologies to consider share buyback on April 23 Out of F&O ban: DHFL, Wockhardt Analyst or Board Meet/Briefings Aurionpro Solutions: Earnings Call to be held on May 3. Tube Investments of India: Company will announce its March quarter earnings on April 30. Supreme Petrochem: Company will announce its March quarter earnings on April 26. ABB India: Company will announce its March quarter earnings on May 7. MRF: Company will announce its March quarter earnings on May 2. Bulk Deals on April 16 Reliance Capital: Axis Trustee Services Limited sold 30,02,500 shares of the company at Rs 177.94 per share on the NSE. Suumaya Lifestyle: Sanjeev Harbanslal Bhatia sold 4,32,000 shares of the company at Rs 28.63 per share on the NSE. (For more bulk deals, Click Here) : Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman Here's a quick trivia question to ponder: How many of the 2019 Kentucky Derby contenders have ever shown the ability to win a race in gate-to-wire fashion? The answer is two. Just two horses out of the top twenty-two qualifiers, seemingly an indication that the pace of the 2019 Kentucky Derby will be on the modest side. That would hardly come as a surprise. Horses with tactical speed have dominated recent editions of the Kentucky Derby in part because we've seen some pretty casual pace fractions. The introduction of the Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying series, which has eliminated tried-and-true sprinters from the field, is likely a contributing factor. This effect could be particularly pronounced in the 2019 Derby. Maximum Security, gate-to-wire winner of the Florida Derby (gr. I), is the only genuine front-runner in the expected field, having won three of his four starts while leading all the way. Bizarrely, the only other Derby contender to have ever won a race in gate-to-wire fashion is Code of Honor, a front-running debut winner at Saratoga who has since morphed into a deep closer. And even Maximum Security doesn't possess the speed of a pure sprinter. His Florida Derby victory was aided by a slow pace, and his two other front-running wins came in relatively slow-paced sprints at Gulfstream Park. Of course, the list of pace pressers/stalkers targeting the Kentucky Derby is much longer. Arkansas Derby (gr. I) winner Omaha Beach, Blue Grass Stakes (gr. II) winner Vekoma, the Louisiana Derby (gr. II) runner-up By My Standards, the Risen Star Stakes (gr. II) winner War of Will, the Wood Memorial (gr. II) runner-up Tax, and the UAE Derby (UAE-II) runner-up Gray Magician all figure to battle for prime positions sitting just off the early lead, but with the possible exception of Omaha Beach (who is usually vying for command after a half-mile), none seem likely to aggressively challenge on the front end. Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) winner Roadster and Rebel Stakes (gr. II) winner Long Range Toddy have also shown significant tactical speed at times, but seem more comfortable settling a bit farther off the pace than the likes of Omaha Beach and Vekoma. The same goes for Bodexpress, the Florida Derby (gr. I) runner-up who currently sits in the #21 spot on the qualification leaderboard. Meanwhile, at least half of the expected Derby starters prefer to rally from off the pace. Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) winner Game Winner, Sunland Derby (gr. III) winner Cutting Humor, Wood Memorial (gr. II) winner Tacitus, Louisiana Derby (gr. II) winner By My Standards, and Arkansas Derby (gr. I) runner-up Improbable seem likely to settle somewhere in the middle of the pack, while the above-mentioned Code of Honor plus Gotham Stakes (gr. III) winner Haikal, UAE Derby (UAE-II) winner Plus Que Parfait, Blue Grass Stakes (gr. II) runner-up Win Win Win, Arkansas Derby (gr. I) third-place finisher Country House, and Fukuryu Stakes runner-up Master Fencer have done their best running from far behind. So what kind of fractions can we expect to see in the Kentucky Derby? That could depend to some extent on the condition of the track (wet-track Derbies tend to produce quicker times), but assuming the track is dry, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an opening quarter-mile in about :23 flat, a half-mile in :47.20, and six furlongs in 1:11.50a fifth to two-fifths slower than the average Derby fractions over the last dozen years, as outlined in the chart below: Year First 1/4 First First Last 2018 22.24 45.77 (0.50) 1:11.01 53.19 2017 22.70 46.53 (1.00) 1:11.12 52.47 2016 22.58 45.72 (4.00) 1:10.40 50.91 2015 23.24 47.34 (2.00) 1:11.29 51.73 2014 23.04 47.37 (1.50) 1:11.80 51.86 2013 22.57 45.33 (18.75) 1:09.80 53.09 2012 22.32 45.39 (8.00) 1:09.80 52.03 2011 23.24 48.63 (6.25) 1:13.40 48.64 2010 22.63 46.16 (8.00) 1:10.58 53.87 2009 22.98 47.23 (16.00) 1:12.09 50.57 2008 23.30 47.04 (2.50) 1:11.14 50.68 2007 22.96 46.26 (19.50) 1:11.13 51.04 Average 22.82 46.56 (7.30) 1:11.13 51.67 (Under the column "First ," I have also included in parentheses the number of lengths by which the eventual winner trailed the leader at that point in the race. Please note that the 2009, 2010, 2013, 2017, and 2018 Kentucky Derbies were contested over sloppy tracks, while the 2016 renewal was held over a drying-out track that still featured visible standing water.) Pace figures from Brisnet likewise support the notion that the 2019 Kentucky Derby pace will be on the slow side. Only five of the top 21 qualifiers (Vekoma, Game Winner, Code of Honor, Improbable, War of Will, and Spinoff) have ever posted a triple-digit BRIS E1 pace rating, with Vekoma being the only runner to earn two such figures. Maximum Security hasn't even come close, with his career-best being a 90; in the Florida Derby, he posted a 71. All this is a roundabout way of saying that tactical speed figures to be an important asset in the 2019 Kentucky Derby, and any contender able to secure a clean, forwardly-placed trip is going to have every chance to win the roses. At the moment, I'm thinking that the versatile Omaha Beach will be the main threat with Mike Smith (a bold rider of speed horses) in the saddle, but I still have two weeks to make up my mind, and I won't rush the decision. How do you think the pace of the 2019 Kentucky Derby will unfold? ***** Want to test your handicapping skills against fellow Unlocking Winners readers? Check out the Unlocking Winners contests pagethere's a new challenge every week! ***** The Road to the Kentucky Derby handicapping challenge is back for the fifth straight year! Check out the Road to the Kentucky Derby contest page for more details. J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, blogger, videographer, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. He is the founder of the horse racing website www.theturfboard.com. Representative image Doles, freebies and giveaways are wonderful electoral offerings. The marginalised love them. Bleeding hearts welcome them. But the most ecstatic about these in India, are the politicians. One must add to this list a retinue of players who skim off some of the money before passing it on to their political masters. Sounds outlandish, isn't it? But not really. Former prime minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi has also made a statement about how only 15 percent of government funds reaches the poor. He was right then, except that today there is evidence that it could be significantly less than 15 percent. To understand how diversion of funds takes place, you must understand that India has no standard or foolproof way of determining who is poor and what a household is. Thus, as long as doles, freebies and giveaways are linked to poverty and households, money could actually go to categories that defy definition. QED the perfect opportunity for scams. Proof of this can be found in slums. The chart above provides a bird's eye-view of data that comes from the Census of India it has a special document on slums. The slum population grew faster than national population. The conventional argument is that slum dwellers flock to cities for jobs. But that argument can be fallacious. Almost all migrants come to the city in search of jobs. These include people who stay six to a room, pay rent, and thus stay legally. In sharp contrast are slumdwellers, who are illegal squatters protected by powerful people. This leads one to the conclusion that slums are nothing but vote banks aimed at changing demographic profiles in a region. It is akin to stuffing ballot boxes with bogus voting slips. Clearly, someone is promoting slums. Why else would slum population rise faster than national population? The number of households grew at an even faster pace. This again is counter-intuitive. Normally, one would have expected the household growth in slums to be the same as elsewhere. That is surprising. But the 'Eureka!' moment comes when one looks at the average slum household size which is as low at 0.5. That is a physical impossibility. But statistically, it means that the same person belongs to two households. Thus, a father-mother in a dwelling become one household. The two children and their spouses become two additional families. Each woman can then claim that her spouse has deserted her and get another ration card as independent household. The two siblings can call themselves another household... so on and so forth. What this means is that instead of a normal size of four-five members per household, slums have managed to tweak this to a statistical 0.5. In other words, since all doles and subsidies are given to households, slums gobble up eight times the permissible doles, freebies and subsidies at the cost of the tax paying population. This includes subsidised power, access to Ayushman Bharat, subidised gas cylinders, even free flats with the promise of no property tax payments in perpetuity. No doubt, the additional doles garnered are shared with the protectors of slums. Enter the politicians, law makers and law enforcers as well. What is equally counter-intuitive is the declining growth rate of slum children. This is possibly because most slumdwellers opt to send their children back to their villages. They wanted children to grow in a better environment than in slums. When the children become adults, they re-enter slums under the protection of politician-backed slumlords, and join the ranks of rent-a-mob crowds. The government's answer to this is that diversion can be checked through Aadhaar. Unfortunately, there is now ample evidence that millions of bogus Aadhaar cards are in existence. The government deliberately ignored following the rigorous methodology advocated by the National Population Register (NPR).The Aadhaar matter is currently being heard by the Supreme Court. Anecdotal data of people having two Aadhaar cards one for this city and one for their village is commonplace. And strangely because IT stalwarts like Nandan Nilekani and NR Narayana Murthy were once involved with the entire process the Aadhaar card got linked to the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) in an extremely dubious manner.The government only gives out Aadhaar numbers to NPCI for direct benefit transfer (DBT). NPCI maintains logs of Aadhar numbers and their corresponding bank accounts, and the amount is thus transferred to the bank accounts. NPCI does not keep records, or logs, of transactions. And it "overwrites" the bank account number with a new bank account number if the recipient opens a new bank account in another bank. This offers the unscrupulous a perfect recipe for a scam. A fraudulent Aadhaar holder can open a new bank account each year to avail of benefits under the DBT scheme. Since neither the government nor NPCI keeps a record of bank account numbers against Aadhaar card holders, the scam can continue year after year. The following are the deductions: The government is thus unable to fix the identity of deserving people convincingly in a foolproof manner. It cannot conclusively decide who is poor or the genuineness of the household. Thus there can be no guarantee that doles, freebies and benefits actually reach targeted audiences despite the Aadhaar and DBT schemes. What about ration cards? The author knows the head of a reputed firm whose agent got him an economically weaker section (EWS) ration card instead of the normal one. When asked why, the agent replied, that it was easier to get an EWS ration card. When the person suggested that the EWS card be cancelled, the agent replied that the process was cumbersome, and would involve questions from the police on how the card got issued. The person then locked up the EWS ration card. He does not dare use it. He has been warned about the consequences of cancelling it. And on paper, his name would figure in the state's EWS numbers. Unfortunately, the government is itself a slumlord of sorts. The government decides to protect slums. It begs the courts to regularise slums. It decides that dwellers in regularised slums will get free flats per household. And it then lobbies for non-application of property-tax in perpetuity. So when Rahul Gandhi announces the NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) which will cost the exchequer Rs 3.6 lakh crore annually (Rs 72,000 for 5 crore households) or Prime Minister Modi heralds the Ayushman Bharat which hopes to cover at least 10 crore households with a cover of Rs 5 lakh per household thus involving a cover Rs 50 lakh crore everyone is pleased. But going by the ratio of eight times the increase in the number of deserving households, it is possible that Rs 3 lakh crore will get diverted under NYAY and Rs 437 lakh crore will be skimmed off the Ayushman Bharat schemes. No wonder everyone except tax payers love doles. The author is consulting editor with moneycontrol.com. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Share price of Reliance Industries rose nearly 3 percent intraday on April 18 after a Japanese firm said it will acquire a strategic stake in six group companies. Reliance Ethane Holding Pte. (REHPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries having 100 percent holding in six limited liability companies (LLCs) that own Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLEC), Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOL) of Japan and a strategic minority investor have signed binding definitive agreements for a strategic investment by MOL and minority investor in the six special purpose limited liability companies (SPVs), each owning a VLEC, as per company BSE filing. Also, Saudi Aramco, the world's largest crude oil producer, is in "serious discussions" to acquire up to a 25 percent stake in Reliance Industries' refining and petrochemicals businesses, the Times of India reported on April 17. RIL Q4 preview: Retail, Jio to drive consolidated PAT, refining segment expected to drag A minority stake sale could fetch around $10 billion to $15 billion, valuing the Indian company's refining and petrochemicals businesses at around $55 billion to $60 billion, the report said. The company's board meeting is scheduled on April 18 to consider and approve standalone and consolidated audited financial results of the company for the quarter/year ended March 31, 2019 and to consider and recommend dividend on equity shares of the company. At 1009 hours, Reliance Industries was quoting at Rs 1,374.95, up Rs 29.65, or 2.20 percent on the BSE. Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. With inputs from Reuters For more market news, click here Amid the continuing "flip-flop" over the tie-up for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress Thursday said the prospects of its alliance with the AAP are almost finished. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has "refused" to form an alliance with the Congress in Delhi alone, said P C Chacko, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Delhi. Sources, however, said that the party would wait for any fresh move by the AAP till the announcement of the list of its Lok Sabha candidates in Delhi. "They (AAP) had agreed for an alliance with us in Delhi alone on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, they raised the full statehood issue. I told them we are ready, full statehood was in our manifesto for 2015(Assembly) election. "But, later I received Sanjay Singh's message that Kejriwal had said the alliance was not possible unless it covers Haryana also," Chacko said. Singh, the AAP's Rajya Sabha MP, was authorised by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal to take the alliance talks with the Congress forward. After Singh's message, Chacko met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and apprised him of the development. "I told him about the flip-flop of the AAP leaders. Now, we will give a final touch to the list of our candidates in Delhi. It could be announced on Friday," he said. In the evening, Chacko met Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit and other leaders to take a final call on the list of party candidates. The Congress had proposed a 4-3 formula for an alliance in Delhi, offering four seats to the AAP. It had opted for the Chandni Chowk, North West Delhi and the New Delhi seats for itself. The AAP, however, said that if the alliance was limited only to Delhi, the Congress would have to contest in just two seats. There is no denying that Indians are addicted to the Chinese video sharing platform TikTok and the ban has led to more people searching for an alternate way to get access to the app. And this is probably why banning is not the right solution, feel experts. Talking to Moneycontrol, Roopak Saluja, founder & CEO of The 120 Media Collective, a communications and content group, said: "Whether this ban is permanent or temporary remains to be seen. In general, banning anything is not the right solution. You can't download it from Google App store or from Apple store but it is still there. Around 120 million subscribers still have access to it. So it is not really banned." In fact, after the ban, how to download TikTok was the most searched trend online. While some couldn't believe that the app was banned in the country, others searched for alternate apps like Musical.ly. And this means that there is a huge appetite for such platforms especially TikTok that has around 24 percent of its user base belonging to India. Hence, it is important to take measures other than banning to moderate content on the platform. According to Saluja, the government should tell ByteDance which owns TikTok that if you do not want this platform to have government obstruction or regulation then start moderating content to make it acceptable. "But the government needs to define to ByteDance what it considers unacceptable content. And with practically minimal efforts these guys can actually remove or filter out graphic images, pornography or nudity. It is easiest thing to do with no manual intervention. So, if they really want to do it they can do it," he added. The ban hasn't gone down well with a lot of people including the Internet Freedom Foundation which on Wednesday said that it is concerned that app bans may slowly emerge as a standard practice. Saluja also thinks that the ban will make people more curious about the platform. However, the challenge for TikTok right now is to retain the user base especially with India being a crucial market for social media and mobile digital content thanks to sharp increase in the use of smartphones. "The kind of numbers it gets out of the Indian market there is 600 million plus mobile internet users today so definitely it is a large because they have penetrated 120 million so far. ByteDance has heavily invested in India and they even fund companies. DailyHunt for example and a bunch of other companies are funded by ByteDance. After Alibaba and Tencent, they are one of the largest media entity or tech companies in China," said Saluja. A 90-year-old voter, Urmila, cast her vote at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur, Bihar. (Image: Twitter/@ANI) A groom arrived at a polling station in Maharashtra to cast his vote in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls. (Image: Twitter/@PIBMumbai) A senior citizen couple, 91-year-old Shrinivas and 84-year-old Manjula, cast their votes at a polling booth in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency, Karnataka. (Image: Twitter/@ANI) A bride arrived at a polling station in Dongargaon, Chhattisgarh to cast her votes in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls. (Image: Twitter/@CEOChhattisgarh) An 80-year-old patient, Jogindero Devi, came from Kathua district hospital at polling booth number 2, in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, to cast her vote. She returned to the hospital after casting her vote. (Image: Twitter/@ANI) A newly married couple arrive at a polling station in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur to cast their votes. (Image: Twitter/@ANI) India has dropped two places on a global press freedom index to be ranked 140th out of 180 countries in the annual Reporters Without Borders analysis released on April 18, with the lead up to the ongoing Indian general elections flagged as a particularly dangerous time for journalists. The World Press Freedom Index 2019', topped by Norway, finds an increased sense of hostility towards journalists across the world, with violent attacks in India leading to at least six Indian journalists being killed in the line of their work last year. "Violence against journalists including police violence, attacks by Maoist fighters and reprisals by criminal groups or corrupt politicians is one of the most striking characteristics of the current state of press freedom in India. At least six Indian journalists were killed in connection with their work in 2018. A number of doubts surround a seventh case, the index noted. These murders highlighted the many dangers that Indian journalists face, especially those working for non-English-language media outlets in rural areas, it said. Attacks against journalists by supporters of ruling BJP increased in the run-up to general elections in the spring of 2019, the analysis alleged. Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, is a non-profit organisation that works to document and combat attacks on journalists around the world. In its 2019 index, RSF finds that hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence, contributing to an increase in fear around the world. In reference to India, it found an alarming rate of coordinated hate campaigns waged on social networks against journalists who dare to speak or write about subjects that annoy Hindutva. "The campaigns are particularly virulent when the targets are women. The emergence of a #MeToo movement in the media in 2018 has lifted the veil on many cases of harassment and sexual assault to which women reporters have been subjected, it noted. "Finally, coverage of regions that the authorities regard as sensitive, such as Kashmir, continues to be very difficult. Foreign reporters are barred from Kashmir and the Internet is often disconnected there," it added. South Asia in general features poorly on the index, with Pakistan dropping three places to 142, and Bangladesh dropping four places to 150. The number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media, RSF concludes. Norway is ranked first in the 2019 Index for the third year running while Finland (up two places) has taken second place from the Netherlands (down one at 4th). An increase in cyber-harassment caused Sweden (third) to lose one place. In Africa, the rankings of Ethiopia (up 40 at 110th) and Gambia (up 30 at 92nd) have significantly improved from last year's Index. At the bottom of the Index, both Vietnam (176th) and China (177th) have fallen one place and Turkmenistan (down two at 180th) is now last, replacing North Korea (up one at 179th). Representative Image SoftBank-backed Oyo plans to double its inventory to over 3.4 lakh rooms by December across multiple categories, a top executive told Moneycontrol. "The plan is to double in size this year," said Aditya Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer of Oyo India and South Asia. The company on April 18 also launched a partner engagement network program called OPEN (Oyo Partner Engagement Network) to help its 8,700 asset owner partners with their business goals. Under this programme, Oyo will have a structured way of exchanging ideas, and providing support to the asset owners. Its asset owner partners are there across 260 cities in India and South Asia. Last month, the company had also announced a commitment of Rs 1,400 crore for the India and Nepal markets. Ghosh declined to comment on the investment required for the new initiative. However, he said that this money will come from Rs 1,400 crore outlay itself. Oyo last raised $100 million from China's Didi Chuxing in January which competed its $1 billion fund raise that was announced last year. Globally, Oyo is now present in 10 countries and over 500 cities. BJP president Amit Shah on APril 18 said Kashmir is an integral part of India and cannot be separated from the country till a single BJP worker is alive, irrespective of whether the party is in power or not. Addressing an election rally in Raigarh district headquarters in Chhattisgarh, he said when the Modi government is re-elected at the Centre, infiltrators will be identified across the country and deported. "Election is underway in Jammu and Kashmir and an ally of Congress, leader of National Conference Omar Abdullah had advocated for a prime minister in Kashmir. Do you think it's possible that a country can have two PMs? I have been asking Rahul baba to clarify his stand on the (Abdullah's) statement, but he is silent," Shah said slamming Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. "Rahul baba listen carefully...Presently there is a government headed by Modi ji and it will be re-elected. But even if we are not in power, nobody can separate Kashmir from India till a single BJP worker is alive. Kashmir is an integral part of India and if anyone says that it will be isolated from the country, then people of the country will not tolerate it," he added. Shah also accused the Congress and the National Conference of not being in favour of scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir. "Congress and National Conference don't want to remove Article 370. But the BJP has promised in its poll manifesto that Article 370 will be scrapped," he said. "Another issue is that of NRC (National Register for Citizen). Congress is saying do not bring NRC, but I want to urge you to again elect the Narendra Modi government at the Centre...infiltrators will be identified right from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Gujarat to Assam, and deported," he said. Describing infiltrators as "termites", he said they are a threat to the nation's security. "Our commitment is to throw them out of the country," the BJP chief added. Shah also alleged that the Congress and other opposition parties are unhappy with the success of the Indian Air Force's strike on terrorist camps at Balakot in Pakistan in retaliation to the Pulwama terror attack. "The Modi government has done the biggest work to safeguard the borders of the country. When terrorists attacked in Pulwama and killed our 40 jawans, there was anger and disappointment in the country. But the Modi government is not like the 'mauni baba' (silent) Manmohan Singh government. Barely 13 days after the attack, air strikes were carried out targeting terror camps in Pakistan," he said. "At a time when the whole nation rejoiced, there was grief in Pakistan. But there was also sadness in the office Rahul baba and company," Shah claimed. "The guru of Rahul Gandhi, Sam Pitroda, says some kids have committed mistakes and dialogue should be held with them. Do you think talks should be held with those who killed our 40 jawans? Our policy is clear that reply of the bullets will be given with shells. We will not hold talks with terrorists. BJP has a zero tolerance policy against terrorists." The Congress ruled the country for 55 years, but it did nothing for development of poor, Dalits, tribals, villages and cities of the country, he alleged. In the five years of the Modi government, work has been done for the development of 50 crore poor. Shah also slammed the Congress government in Chhattisgarh and said Ayushman Bharat scheme has been stopped in the state which was meant for welfare of poor people. He also targeted Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel for banning the CBI from investigating any fresh cases in the state without seeking the state's consent. "Why was Bhupesh Baghel so afraid of the CBI that he banned it in the state immediatelyafter coming to power. What he has done?" he asked. The Congress had promised to provide unemployment allowance in the state, Shah said, adding, "Are you (people) getting it? No development work is taking place in the state. The law and order situation has collapsed." Shah was campaigning for BJP candidate Gomtee Sai from Raigarh Lok Sabha constituency which will go to polls in the third phase on April 23. Representative image Around 32 percent of the 9,28,626 voters exercised their franchise till 11 am for the Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency on Thursday. Chief Electoral Officer P K Singh said 32.18 per cent voting was recorded till the first four hours. The electorate comprising 4,80,751 women voters are eligible to cast their votes at 1,300 polling stations in the second phase of polling. Manipur Governor Najma Heptulla, after casting vote at T G Higher Secondary School, urged voters not to waste their democratic right. The governor who has moved her voting constituency to Imphal from her constituency in New Delhi, said, "We should cast our vote in the place where we live". Heptulla is now enrolled in the Sagolband Assembly constituency in Manipurs Imphal West district. She reminded the people that unlike in some other countries where women had to fight for their right to vote, "The Indian Constitution provides adult franchise to both men and women." A total of 12 candidates, including five independents are in the fray from the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat. Outer Manipur constituency, the only other parliamentary seat in the state, went to the polls in the first phase on April 11. \ It is often said that the road to Delhi (read South Block) goes via Uttar Pradesh. As another batch of eight constituencies goes to polls on April 18, lets take a look at what is at play in these seats Nagina, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Mathura, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri. Candidates A total of 85 candidates are in the fray this year as compared to 125 in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Of the 85, there are 26 Independents. In addition, 19 candidates, of the total 85, have declared criminal records against them; 14 of them being serious criminal cases. As per the declaration of their assets, 34 are crorepatis, with BJPs Mathura candidate Hema Malini being the fourth richest candidate having assets worth Rs 250 crore. Among those with lowest assets, Ambedkari Hansuram Ambedkari, who's fighting on an IND ticket from Agra, has declared total assets worth Rs 1,200. Past Patterns In the 2014 general election, the BJP had swept these eight seats with huge victory margins. Bhola Singh, BJPs candidate from Bulandshahr, had a victory margin of over 40 lakh votes. However, if the votes pulled by the SP-BSP-RLD combine in the 2014 Lok Sabha election are taken into account against that of the BJP, the former would have won Fatehpur Sikri, Nagina and Amroha, but would have lost Hathras, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Aligarh and Agra to the saffron party. This time around The BJP has retained five winning candidates including Hema Malini, but has replaced Rajesh Diwakar with Rajvir Diler Balmiki in Hathras, which is a reserved seat. In addition, the saffron party has named Satya Pal Singh Baghel from Agra, also a reserved seat, sending sitting MP Ram Shankar Katehria to Etawah. Banking on Jat votes, the BJP has fielded Rajkumar Chahar from Fatehpur Sikri, replacing sitting MP Chaudhary Babulal, who has been denied a ticket which has irked his supporters. Fatehpur Sikri will be witnessing a three-cornered battle with Chahar, Congress UP chief Raj Babbar and BSPs Guddu Pandit, who is a turncoat. On the other hand, after battling through a series of faux pas in the public relations department, Hema Malini is seeking a second term from Mathura, fighting against RLDs Narendra Singh. Veteran actor Dharmendra also campaigned for wife Malini in Mathura. BJP MP Satish Gautam, infamous for kicking the Jinnah controversy in Aligarh Muslim University, has also been retained by the BJP and is seeking a re-election in Aligarh, banking on the 27 percent upper caste votes. However, the OBCs and Dalits in favour of the SP-BSP combine could upset the apple cart. Split Vote Nagina and Amroha are both dominated by strong Muslim presence 42 percent and 36 percent respectively. They also have a significant population of minorities. It is important to note, although, that the Congress and Shivpal Yadavs Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) are expected to eat into the voteshare of an otherwise favoured SP-BSP-RLD alliance. In fact, the Congress is playing spoilsport in Nagina, a reserved constituency, by fielding former BJP MLA Omwati Jatav, who is expected to split the Dalit vote. However, in Amroha, where BJPs Kanwar Singh Tanwar is in a neck-and-neck battle with gathbandhans candidate Kunwar Danish Ali, the Congress has fielded a less-known Jat candidate Sachin Choudhary. Considering the dominance of Muslims in this constituency, the Congress had earlier fielded Rashid ALvi, but later replaced him to prevent splitting of votes. Issues While falling sugarcane prices posed a threat to the ruling BJP in the sugarcane belt of Uttar Pradesh which went to polls in the first phase, the low prices of potatoes is a major concern for the saffron party in the second phase. In fact, the humble tuber has now become more popular for its political value than its calories, especially with Congress President Rahul Gandhi and UP General Secretary (East) Priyanka Gandhi slamming the BJP over the price of potatoes. The issue is a major concern in Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Hathras and Aligarh. Farm distress is rampant with peasants not getting the adequate price for their produce and merchants not even buying from cold storage. Farmers have collectively voiced their dissent against the ruling BJP in the potato belt. Pradeep Sharma, a farmer from Fatehpur Sikri, told the media, In the last five years, I have accumulated a debt of Rs 35 lakh. I have attempted committing suicide. I took my produce to sell in Maharashtra but could get only Rs 490 for it. I put that money in an envelope and sent it to the prime minister. This debt of mine will definitely cost the BJP in this election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 18 made a pitch for a strong government at the Centre and mocked the "helpless" dispensation of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who is heading the Congress-JDS coalition. "....if you want to see a strong government, look at Delhi; if you want to see a helpless government, see Karnataka," Modi told a rally in north Karnataka. Modi said the Congress wanted a "helpless" government and told the voters to look at the "helpless" Kumaraswamy. He also mocked the frequent emotional outbursts of Kumaraswamy, saying it was "natak" (drama). Modi said the Congress was not ready to accept surgical strikes and the Balakot air strike on terror camps in Pakistan as our victory. The Congress and its allies think about self and not national interest, he said. "....Opponents Googled to find out where Balakot was and went to prove that it was within India. They could not believe that India could attack going inside Pakistan territory...," Modi said. Stating that the Congress-led government went crying around post the Mumbai terror attacks, he said the situation had changed now." ....now, wherever Pakistan goes you hear its cries that Modi is hitting them." Modi said whenever there was a threat to its existence, Congress tried to divide society. eye-on-india Political Bazaar | Lok Sabha polls 2019: All eyes on AIADMK and DMK during phase 2 Tamil Nadu is particularly an important state to watch out for, as it goes to polls for the first time since the death of AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa and DMK supremo Karunanidhi. File image Senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari said that four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family have promised to eradicate poverty without success. Only the poverty of Congress leaders was alleviated in the process, he quipped, addressing BJP workers in Mandrem Assembly constituency in Goa. A by-election will be held in Mandrem on April 23. The Union minister said that Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister, fought elections on the plank of poverty eradication. "But people remained poor...Later Indira Gandhi fought the elections on the same issue but she too could do nothing," Gadkari said. Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister and Sonia Gandhi when she became Congress president repeated the same 'Garibi Hatao' slogan, he said. "In the current election, the great grandson of Nehru (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) is contesting on the same plank of Garibi Hatao (eradicate poverty)," he said. "Why is that the Congress, despite ruling the country, could not eradicate poverty?... (only) the poverty of Congress leaders has been eradicated," he quipped. The Congress kept people poor due to its wrong economic policies and visionless and corrupt governance, he said. Gadkari also took a dig at Priyanka Gandhi, claiming that the Congress general secretary could drink the water of the Ganga because the river was cleaned up by the Narendra Modi government. "And because we created an inland waterway from Allahabad to Varanasi, she could travel by boat," he said. Automation Anywhere a robotic process automation (RPA) company, announced significant ecosystem growth in the first quarter of 2019, with more than 2,800 customer entities and 1,600 enterprise brands using the companys intelligent RPA platform. This growth reinforces the companys position as the industrys most widely deployed, enterprise-grade RPA solution. Automation Anywheres customer list now includes 90 percent of the worlds top healthcare companies, 85 percent of the worlds top technology companies, more than 85 percent of the worlds top banks and financial services companies, and 80 percent of the worlds top telcommunications companies. RPA is now among one of the fastest-growing technologies with the global RPA market emerging as an estimated $100 billion opportunity. The research firm Gartner further estimates that by 2020, 40 percent of large enterprises will have deployed RPA software, up from less than 10 percent today. Automation Anywhere, which raised $550 million in Series A funding in the last year, exemplifies the RPA industrys recent trajectory. Automation Anywhere has executed new business with organizations such as Boston Scientific, KPMG, IBM, Comcast and Bancolombia. With this current rate of increased growth, the company expects to deploy more than three million bots by 2020, a 200 percent increase from today, at which time, Automation Anywhere will become, by todays measure, the biggest employer in the world. Our vision is to unlock new levels of human creativity and ingenuity, harnessing cutting-edge automation and AI to usher in the workforce of the future, and liberate people to focus on what human beings do best innovate, collaborate and use their talent to solve higher order business challenges, said Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-founder at Automation Anywhere. As more customers realize the benefits of our industry-leading intelligent RPA platform, allowing for unconstrained innovation and growth, their success continues to drive our momentum. H Vasanthakumar (Image: Facebook) H Vasanthakumar is the richest candidate in Phase 2 of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He is a Congress candidate contesting from the Kanyakumari constituency in Tamil Nadu, where the party has not come to power since 1967. He has declared assets worth Rs 417 crore in his affidavit along with a 45 per cent increase in his personal income since 2014. Vasanthakumar would earn Rs 19.87 crore annually, as per his 2013-14 Income Tax return form. This rose to Rs 28.93 crore in the last financial year. The Congress candidate owns Vasanth & Co, a chain that deals in consumer electronics and home appliances. The company is popular among locals and ensured him support from the people of Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency. The company chain also owns the Tamil satellite television channel 'Vasanth. Vasanthakumar has an astounding lot of movable assets valued at more than Rs 230 crore, while his immovable assets are valued at over Rs 182 crore in the market. This makes the total value of his assets go beyond Rs 412 crore. In the second phase of the general elections, 27 per cent or 427 candidates have declared assets worth Rs 1 crore and above, 11 per cent above Rs 5 crore and 41 per cent below Rs 10 lakh, as per an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysis. Thus, the average asset per of each candidate contesting in Phase II of elections is Rs 3.9 crore. Here is the party-wise break-down of the richest candidates in phase II of elections. 46 (87%) of 53 candidates from Indian National Congress, 45 (88%) of 51 BJP candidates, 23 (96%) of 24 DMK candidates, 22 (100%) candidates from AIADMK and 21 (26%) of 80 BSP candidates declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore. Priyanka Chaturvedi (Image: File photo) Congress party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi took to Twitter on Wednesday to make her resentment for her own party public. She has been dismayed ever since the party top brass allowed back former workers of the party who were thrown out for misbehaving with her. Deeply saddened that lumpen goons get prefence in @incindia over those who have given their sweat&blood. Having faced brickbats&abuse across board for the party but yet those who threatened me within the party getting away with not even a rap on their knuckles is unfortunate. https://t.co/CrVo1NAvz2 Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) April 17, 2019 Deeply saddened that lumpen goons get preference in @incindia over those who have given their sweat and blood. Having faced brickbats and abuse across the board for the party but yet those who threatened me within the party getting away with not even a rap on their knuckles is unfortunate," read the tweet she posted on Wednesday. Tension arose within the party a few days ago when a few local Congress leaders allegedly misbehaved with Chaturvedi while she was addressing the media in Mathura. While the party had initially removed the misbehavers but they were later re-inducted. To place her point, the disgruntled spokesperson retweeted a journalists tweet, who had commented on an Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee letter that mentioned the workers were being inducted into Congress fold once again, and that senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia gave the move a go-ahead. Scindia is the general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Congress, along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The letter signed by Fazle Masood, member of the disciplinary committee of UP Congress, read: It is expected that you don't do anything to tarnish the party's image. Human resources and education software company ReadyTech Holdings Ltd [ASX:RDY] made waves yesterday when it first listed on the ASX. The company defied its sceptics, posting a 17.9% gain on its first day of trading. The company listed at $1.50 per share, hitting a high of $1.80, before closing the day at $1.78. RDY provides people management software for educators, employers and facilitators of career transitions. The software aims to combine people management, payroll HR admin, work health and safety with behavioural science software. ReadyTechs story RDY started life in the late 1990s, providing technology for companies to help disadvantaged people find work. It has since expanded to offer a suite of products covering student management systems, payroll and HR functions and workplace procurement, with the companys core product being its student management system, which has gained traction with TAFEs and universities. CEO and 5% holder of RDY, Marc Washbourne, expressed concerns about market volatility and negativity towards tech stocks for downcast investor interest in its IPO. Institutional investors expressed early concerns about the software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, arguing there were too many red flags to back its listing. Several fund managers forewent the opportunity to invest, listing several concerns including subdued customer growth and the size of the selldown by ReadyTechs founders and major shareholders as part of the float. Free Report: Three gold-mine investments set to reignite the ASX in 2018. Download now Others expressed scepticism around whether or not there were genuinely enough similarities between the companys flagship student management software and the employee lifecycle. Mr Washbourne said both the education and employment industries were plagued by outdated software and its counting on massive growth in these industries to fuel his own companys growth. Whats ReadyTechs share price outlook? Yesterdays 18% gain would surely have but smiles on the faces over at Readytech but its important not to get caught up in the fanfare. In Australia, the education industry generates about $131 billion per year and has experienced modest growth of 3.5% over the past five years. While its market certainly isnt small, RDYs task will be convincing educators to move on from their existing legacy software. ReadyTech services more than 3600 customers, including the University of Queensland, MECCA Brands and Viva Leisure, with an average retention time of its customers of seven years. In the education sector RDY will compete against ASX listed tech stock TechnologyOne, which is valued at $2.7 billion. The companys prospectus showed it booked $25.6 million in revenue for the 2018 financial year, and a net loss after tax of $5.2 million. It forecasts FY19 revenues will increase to $32.4 million, and has flagged a net loss after tax of $2.4 million. The first four months of 2019 has seen a number for exciting tech IPOs, namely Splitit Payments Ltd [ASX:SPT] and Uniti Wireless Ltd [ASX:UWL], both of which posting returns of over 150%. RDY is likely to be a hotly watched stock throughout the year. Regards, Ryan Clarkson-Ledward, For Money Morning PS: If you manage your own money or simply want to learn the most effective strategies to both grow and protect your wealth, this free report is for you. Click here for details. April 18, 2019 First Thoughts On The Mueller Report Release The report (pdf) by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is out. Russiagaters will now try to find any word in there that they could use to contradict the report's conclusion. While I intend to read the full report and to write about it, that will require more time. For now we are left with the remarks of Attorney General William P. Barr on the release of the report: As you know, one of the primary purposes of the Special Counsels investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. [..] As you will see, the Special Counsels report states that his investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. Barr says that the Mueller report insists that Russia attempted to interfere in U.S. elections: First, the report details efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. How exactly was it established that the IRA intended to "sow social discord". Is there any IRA witness that said so? Any documents? No. It is a made up reasoning. The IRA activities were driven by commercial interests. To get as many page-views as possible IRA personnel posted memes on both sides of the political spectrum simply because that is where the viewership is. Just ask Foxnews or CNN. There was no political intent in the IRA's activity. To claim that it intended to "sow social discord" is baseless nonsense. The claims by social networks that "Russians" did this or that are dubious. Twitter for example recently revised its count of "Russian trolls": On Feb. 8, Twitter removed 228 accounts from the Russian IRA dataset because the social-media company now believes these accounts were operated by a different trolling network located in Venezuela. We initially misidentified 228 accounts as connected to Russia, Yoel Roth, Twitters head of site integrity, wrote in an online post. As our investigations into their activity continued, we uncovered additional information allowing us to more confidently associate them with Venezuela. ... Twitters change to its data undercuts all of these analyses of the troll farms 2017 activity, Clemson researchers said. There was no surge in IRA Twitter activity in mid-2017, and the high-volume accounts that churned out links to ReportSecret were, in fact, being operated by a different, unknown group operating out of Venezuela, according to the updated data. Twitter is reluctant to discuss how it connects accounts to trolling networks. Twitter "is reluctant" because the company has simply no way to find that some real person driven account is a "troll". It is a completely subjective judgement. Barr continues: Second, the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and emails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicizing those emails. Former British Ambassador Craig Murray as well as Julian Assange of Wikileaks were involved in the transfer and publishing of the DNC emails. They both publicly insisted that "Russia" was not involved in the recovering and transfer of these. Neither of them was questioned by the Mueller investigation. The emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Podesta were obtained via password fishing. Russian intelligence might have had a hand in that as might have other intelligence services. No proof has been presented yet to make that case. It may well be that the Mueller report provides some. As for Wikileaks or Assange being culpable for publishing the pilfered emails Barr remarks: Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Barr summarizes the Mueller finding on 'collusion': After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes. Barr then talks about the Mueller finding about obstruction: [T]he report recounts ten episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense. After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General and I concluded that the evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Trump said a lot on Twitter and elsewhere that led people to believe that he was obstructing the Mueller investigation. But as always with Trump (and other politicians) one has to differentiate between what Trump says and what action he takes. Publicly musing about firing Mueller or someone else is different from actually doing it. The first is free speech, the second might be obstruction. As Barr points out: [A]s the Special Counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsels investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. The case is closed. Neither was there a Trump campaign 'collusion' with anything Russia nor was there obstruction by the Trump administration. Unfortunately Russiagaters will not give up on their conspiracy theories anytime soon. They should. Trump's policies are bad. It is high time to get back to real politics and fight him were its is worth to do so. Posted by b on April 18, 2019 at 16:24 UTC | Permalink Comments next page next page One mum was sick of having to explain to her husband what she did at home while he was away, and that fact that he never helped her do any chores around the home. So she created a detailed flipchart that outlined exactly what chores needed to be done each day around their home. Writing on Facebook group Mums Who Clean, she shared her creation and has fast gone viral. "My partner has forever been at me that I only ever have to ask for help with housework & that he never knows what needs to be done (typical male, cant see any mess) SO! I made an easy to read flip chart with my daily cleaning, so if he ever feels like helping out, all he has to do is grab it & take a look!" she captioned her post. The Fairfield Christian Center, 2002 E. 28th St. in Lorain, will host a Good Friday service April 19 in commemoration of Good Friday and Passover. Guests are welcome to Fairfield at 8 p.m. to observe and celebrate Good Friday and the preparation of Passover. Bishop Dennis Johnson, pastor of Fairfield, said Passover celebrates the liberation by God of Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt and freedom as a nation. On Good Friday, guests may enjoy a traditional feast with prepared lamb, a night of praise and unity to love and become closer to God and one another, Johnson said. The week-long celebration of Passover also is a time of looking back on history of slaves; both Israelites and African-Americans. Johnson said the first slaves of African-American decent arrived in North America in 1619. This year marks 400 years since the first slaves were brought to America. Johnson said House Bill 4539 was passed in 2016 to establish the 400 Years of African-American History Commission and to celebrate a historical mark Aug. 19, 2019. The Bible has scriptures that speak of the 400 years of slavery. During the service, Johnson said he wants to focus on celebrating Gods commandments as a community and not necessarily focus on race in slavery. God said If you love me, keep my commandments,' he said. And thats what are we about (we must be) peaceful, loving, productive and unify the people to be the better people. For more information on the Good Friday and Passover celebration, call Johnson at 440-258-1363. Donating time is a key way Lorain community leaders could improve the educational system for students, according to Lorain City Schools turnaround principals. More than 40 people attended April 17 as Lorain City Schools CEO David Hardy reconvened the Community Business Schools Partnership meetings. The session, which took place in the atrium of the Lorain High School Performing Arts Center, was the first since February, but its structure was similar to previous meetings. In The Lorain Promise, Lorain Schools operate under the Big Five Initiatives to improve. They deal with supporting students from birth to a bachelors degree; developing early reading skills; creating opportunity for all; helping great teachers; and building for the future. For the 2018-19 school year, Hardy said the district is focusing on creating a system of excellent schools. There are four parts to that plan: * Ensure that students are engaged in rigorous and relevant standard driven instruction in every classroom. * Build trust through shared expectations and values. * Promote a joyful culture of adult learning, growth and reflection. * Nurture a Titan community support system that is connected, informed and compelled to be a voice for continued improvement. Hardy asked the group to look at those points and ask how they, as community partners, can potentially support or help create more support for schools aligned to each individual point. He encouraged participants to be creative. For example, as community members, they may think they cannot directly influence school curriculum or classroom instruction, which is part of the first point, Hardy said. But they may be part of organizations that can provide help reading to students, he said. The session included thank-you gifts of Easter baskets and flowers for the districts turnaround principals, who lead each building. In turn, they offered suggestions of what each school could use for the 2019-2020 school year. For example, Palm Elementary could use a laptop computer cart to help teachers, said Turnaround Principal Carol Winter. Hawthorne Elementary students would benefit from mentors visiting the school to read to students or listen to students reading to them, said Turnaround Principal Stephanie M. Alexander-Johnson. They also would benefit from college preparedness, Alexander-Johnson said. Garfield Elementary students also would benefit from mentors who could connect with single students, said Turnaround Principal Megan Young. At Toni Morrison Elementary, the Parent-Teacher Organization and the administration have discussed a common reading program around one book and the theme, choose kindness, said Turnaround Principal Brigette Kaiser. The school would benefit from book set donations, Kaiser said. Frank Jacinto Elementary would like to provide support and resources for parents with in-school or after-school workshops. Mentors to help boys in grades three to five would be welcome, said Turnaround Principal Paula Baldwin. Each school also was represented by hanging sheets of paper where participants could write down what they could offer or stick business cards for future contacts. Those resources say a lot about the community, Hardy said, thanking the group. Meanwhile, this month, Lorain Schools administrators have held focus groups with teachers around 14 areas to prepare for the 2019-2020 school year. The goal is to collect feedback so by May, teachers and building leaders will have more clear answers about issues in the upcoming school year, Hardy said. One result is that the middle schools will have a new math curriculum for next year, he said. The focus group areas of discussion are: Professional development; special education, gifted education and English learners; standards based grading; school culture and climate; career advancement; the Lorain Way 2.0, the document that outlines expectations for the 2019-2020 school year; the excellent schools dashboard or data center for school grades; student behavior and discipline; school and student safety; the Family Action Network, the successor group of the Parent Advisory Committee; opportunity for all; school strategy and innovation; and a general listening session. The following is our latest Fund Analyst Report for Vanguard Wellington. Morningstar Premium Members have access to full analyst reports such as this for more than 1,000 of the largest and best mutual funds. Not a Premium Member? Gain full access to our analyst reports and advanced tools immediately when you try Morningstar Premium free for 14 days. An experienced team employing a time-tested, risk-aware process, combined with low fees, underlie Vanguard Wellington's Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold. Edward Bousa has led the equity portion of this balanced fund for more than 16 years, and John Keogh has led the bond portfolio for 12 years. Both have ably served as stewards of this 90-year-old fund that has long employed a conservative, quality-focused process. Keogh is retiring in June 2019 and will pass the reins to seasoned colleagues Michael Stack and Loren Moran, who have worked together on Keogh's team since 2014 and became named managers here in January 2017. This measured transition gives us confidence that the change will be a smooth one. On the equity side, Daniel Pozen was promoted to comanager in March 2019, which suggests that Bousa, who is around 60 years old, is probably considering retirement in the coming years. Pozen has been on Bousa's team since 2015 and is currently a sole manager on a global-equity UCITS. We would expect a similarly paced transition on the equity side. Bousa keeps equity exposure at 65% of the fund's assets. He invests about half of that stake in stout dividend-payers, with the remainder composed of stocks poised to benefit from supply/demand dynamics and growth names that are added when valuations look attractive. The goal of this approach is to participate in up markets and outperform when markets decline. The bond managers, who are in charge of 35% of the portfolio, run a credit-heavy sleeve. They also focus on high-quality issues so the resulting portfolio has a higher credit quality relative to its average allocation--50% to 70% equity Morningstar Category peer. Long-term performance has been strong. Over the trailing 10 and 15 years, its returns have landed in top quintile. While the fund retained a higher equity allocation over fourth-quarter 2018 (65% versus the average peer's 59%), its decline of 6.8% was less than the category average decline of 8.6%, a testament to the all-weather approach. Low fees provide an ongoing edge. Process Pillar: Positive | Patricia Oey 04/10/2019 A time-tested focus on quality drives our Positive Process rating. The process has remained consistent for 40 years. The managers seek to maintain a 65% allocation in large-cap blue-chip equities, with the remainder in a bond portfolio tilted toward high-quality credit. When the equity portfolio rises to around 67% of the fund, Bousa will trim holdings to bring his allocation back to 65%. Likewise, if equity markets exhibit rising volatility, Keogh will hold slightly more highly liquid instruments so he can quickly provide cash to Bousa when the equity portfolio falls below 63% of assets. The managers do not make tactical calls to tilt toward one asset class or another. Across the portfolio, they keep annual turnover low, at around 30%. Bousa sticks to large- to mega-cap stocks with strong balance sheets in an effort to create an all-weather portfolio. About half of the equity portfolio is in companies with above-average dividend yields relative to the S&P 500 and that are competitive enough to grow their earnings and dividends over time. The other half is composed of growth names added when valuations are attractive and companies with improving supply and demand trends. The fixed-income portfolio focuses mostly on investment-grade corporate bonds, though it will own some Treasuries for liquidity and will also hold agency-issued mortgage-backed, asset-backed, and municipal securities. The equity portfolio holds about 100 stocks and has a slight value and larger market-cap tilt relative to the S&P 500. Since 2008, Bousa has gradually built an overweighting in financials, which now accounts for 22% of the equity portfolio, led by top holdings such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC). A notable underweighting is in technology stocks, at 12%, but Bousa will scoop up names such as Apple (AAPL) in early 2013 (which he had trimmed throughout 2018) and Alphabet (GOOGL) at the end of 2014 after a stock-price dip. These names help the portfolio keep up during a growth-led rally. His defensive plays include Verizon (VZ) and American Tower (AMT), which also have enjoyed strong secular growth trends. He decided to hang on to U.K. holding BAE and Diageo (DEO), as he felt their global operations would help offset uncertainty at home caused by ongoing Brexit negotiations. The bond portfolio is benchmarked to the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Credit A or Better Index, so the fund generally has a higher credit exposure and a longer duration relative to category peers. This helps support the funds higher than average yield. Currently, credits account for 65% of the bond portfolio (versus a category average of 25%) and average effective duration is 6.5 years (versus 4.8 years). As for derivatives, Keogh uses Treasury futures for curve positioning and currency forwards to hedge non-U.S. exposures. Performance Pillar: Positive | Patricia Oey 04/10/2019 Strong returns within its category earn this fund a Positive Performance rating. Over the trailing 10 and 15 years through March 2019, the Admiral shares returned 11.7% and 8.0%, respectively, landing in the 11th and fifth percentile among its Morningstar Category allocation--50% to 70% equity peers. Some of this outperformance is attributable to the funds fixed 65% equity allocation, which tends to be higher than the category average, currently at 56%. This can be a tailwind during market rallies but notably has not been a headwind during market declines, as the fund's downside capture ratio consistently remains lower than the category average. During the 2008 market downturn, the funds drawdown of 32.5% was significantly less than the category average of 37.9%. Much of this was due to Bousas decision to trim financial stocks prior to 2007 on concerns about the housing bubble and an impending turn in the credit cycle. The managers seek to provide higher levels of income by investing in strong dividend-payers on the equity side and holding an above-average allocation in credits on the bond side. Currently, its trailing 12-month yield of 2.8% is significantly higher than the category average of 1.9%. They have achieved this without courting additional volatility, as the funds standard deviation over the trailing 10 and 15 years has been in line with that of the category average. People Pillar: Positive | Patricia Oey 04/10/2019 Skilled and well-resourced teams on the equity and bond sides support a Positive People rating. Wellington has been the subadvisor since this funds 1929 inception. Edward Bousa was named sole equity lead manager in January 2003 and joined Wellington in 2000. His team includes senior members Matthew Baker, Nataliya Kofman, Daniel Pozen--each have sector coverage responsibilities and are named managers on other funds. The team works closely with colleagues from Wellington's well-regarded global equity research team and have two dedicated analysts. On March 28, 2019, Pozen was promoted to comanager. Since November 2014, he has been sole manager of Wellington Durable Companies, a global equity strategy, with solid results. He joined Bousa's team in 2015. On the bond side, John Keogh, who has been a named manager since March 2006, will retire in June 2019. The planned transition provided an ample two and a half year period, as Michael Stack and Loren Moran were promoted to comanagers in January 2017. The two have worked together on Keogh's team since 2014 and, like the equity team, have a strong resource in Wellington's global fixed-income research team. Bousa is around 60 years old, so Pozen's appointment suggests that Bousa may retire in the next few years. Vanguard will likely employ a similar, measured transition on the equity side. Parent Pillar: Positive | 06/05/2018 The Vanguard Group is the world's biggest provider of open-end funds and its second-biggest provider of exchange-traded funds. Innovative and iconoclastic from its mid-1970s origins, the firm's mutual ownership structure, commitment to low fees, and sensible active and passive investment strategies are hallmarks that support its Positive Parent rating. Vanguard is committed to serving all investors, not just its own. Indeed, the firm celebrates when its entry into an asset class prompts rivals to lower their fees to remain competitive, as occurred when Vanguard launched index funds in London in 2009 and factor-based strategies in the United States in early 2018. New CEO Tim Buckley, Vanguard's fourth, faces the challenge of expanding the firm's mission to non-U.S. investors, who currently account for less than a tenth of the firm's $5 trillion in global assets under management. He must also navigate the tension between Vanguard's burgeoning discretionary asset-management business, Personal Advisor Services, and financial advisors who may feel threatened by the firm's efforts to lower the cost of investment advice. Perhaps Vanguard's greatest challenge, though, will be keeping pace with its own growth, especially in overcoming the service problems that have bedeviled the firm the past few years. Vanguard's 2017 implementation of client-experience testing labs should help the firm improve there, too. Price Pillar: Positive | Patricia Oey 04/10/2019 Rock-bottom fees earn the fund a Positive Price Pillar rating. The Admiral shares 0.17% expense ratio, which applies to about 85% of the funds assets, is significantly below the 0.83% median for no-load, moderate-allocation peers. The Investor shares' are also cheap, at 0.25%. In 2018, the fund trimmed some technology holdings that had appreciated significantly over the past few years. This contributed to the above-average $4.16 capital gains distribution that year for the Admiral shares. Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram 7-Eleven stores throughout Midland and Odessa and elsewhere in Central and West Texas and New Mexico will soon be no more. Delek US Holdings, which completed its acquisition of Alon USA Energy in 2017, is in the process of rebranding as DK the stores owned by Southwest Convenience Stores. Through its acquisition of Alon, Delek is now the largest 7-Eleven licensee in the United States. It operates about 300 stores and Alon-branded motor fuels in Central and West Texas and New Mexico. A suspected human smuggler led state police and federal agents on a chase on Interstate 35, authorities said. At approximately 12:35 p.m. Monday, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were assisting U.S. Border Patrol with a gold Chevrolet passenger car that failed to stop. The vehicle was traveling south on mile marker 25 of Interstate 35. Authorities said the car almost caused a crash with a motorcycle. READ ALSO: Two men indicted in human smuggling crash that killed mother, daughter in west central Laredo The suspect vehicle stopped in the 500 block of Norwich Loop. DPS identified the driver as Ignacio Alvarez Jr., 48, and arrested him. He was charged with evading arrest with a vehicle, reckless driving, driving while intoxicated (third offense or more), resisting arrest, reckless driving and smuggling of a person. Border Patrol took custody of one immigrant who had entered the country illegally. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence toured Latshaw Drilling Rig in Midland County on Wednesday and took the opportunity to discuss the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. Pence met with employees of Diamondback Energy, who operate the rig, and received a briefing before touring the property. He later gave remarks to Diamondback employees and members of the media. "It is great to be in West Texas in the heart of the American energy renaissance, the Permian Basin," Pence said. He said he spoke with President Trump before arriving in Midland and said the president was "jealous" because "he loves American energy and the state of Texas." Pence said he was told that by 2023, the Permian Basin will produce 5.4 billion barrels of oil a day, which he said will be the third most produced in the world. RELATED: Midland welcomes America's vice president "It's amazing to think what we can accomplish in West Texas if we can unlock the incredible potential of the Permian Basin," which will be possible now that Trump has removed the U.S. from the "job-killing Paris Agreement," he said. In discussing the USMCA, Pence said the agreement will "keep Mexico's energy resources open for development by American companies." He called the agreement a big win for American energy and said Congress should approve it and send it to Trump's desk this year. "The three pillars of America's greatness are our faith, freedom and our vast natural resources," he said in closing. Travis Stice, CEO of Diamondback, also spoke at the rig Wednesday to introduce the vice president. "We tried to do things as perfectly as we could, but we can't really control the wind and the dust," Stice said, in the midst of wind gusts between 25 and 35 miles per hour. Stice said the presence of Diamondback employees, despite the conditions, demonstrated the "resilience of the citizens of the Permian Basin." Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 17, 2019. -- On a windy West Texas day, Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Midland to signal the Trump administrations commitment to energy and the Permian Basin. Minutes after stepping off Air Force Two, Pence was holding a Midland toddler, Winston Braden Joplin. As the boys mother, Stephanie Joplin, said later, Winston stole the show. The encounter was the signature moment of Pences arrival at Midland International Airport. Greeting the vice president were Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton; Railroad Commission Chair Christi Craddick, a former Midlander; oilman and philanthropist Javaid Anwar; and Anwars son, Ryan. From there, the vice president moved to an area where about 60 supporters were waiting. Among them were members of the Joplin family, including Kenny and Carolyn Joplin. Their son, Braden Joplin, died in January 2016 in an auto wreck while working with the Ben Carson campaign. Braden, a graduate of Lee High School, was a student at Texas Tech University at the time of his death. RELATED: Vice president tours Diamondback rig Stephanie told the Reporter-Telegram on Wednesday that Winston, who she said is younger than 1, carries the middle name of Braden in honor of his uncle. And there, on the tarmac of Midland International, was the vice president of the United States with Winston in his arms and a proud Joplin family looking on. I didnt expect (the vice president) to come and shake everyones hand and pick up a baby, Stephanie said. But he took right to Winston, and Winston doesnt know any strangers. He stole the show. Pence is the first sitting president or vice president not named Bush to step foot in Midland since the 1970s, when President Gerald Ford appeared at the opening of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. After leaving the airport, Pence went out to a Diamondback rig. The current administration has worked to reduce regulations on the energy industry. Earlier this month as part of his trip to Texas, President Trump signed a pair of executive orders designed to speed up oil and gas pipeline projects. At the rig location, Pence discussed the administrations efforts to start a new energy revolution in the United States and to advance the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in Congress. Later Wednesday, Pence was to attend a fundraising dinner hosted by Vicky and Javaid Anwar, Terri and Tim Dunn, Paula and Jim Henry, Julie and Bill Kent, Bubba Saulsbury, Amelia and Dick Saulsbury, Jamie and Kyle Stallings, Jo Ann and Farris Wilks and Stacie and Dan Wilks. To attend just the dinner, the donation was $2,800; to have a photo taken with the vice president, the donation was $15,000; and attendance at a VIP reception required a $50,000 donation, according to a flyer from Trump Victory. Covid-19: This is not the right ... MCUSD Superintendent Robin Hopper View Photos Mariposa, CA Officials of a Mother Lode unified school district have released a public statement and are holding a special meeting following a concerning DUI arrest of its superintendent. Mariposa County Unified School District (MCUSD) Board President Wayne Forsythe acknowledged in a statement released Wednesday that he and the board were aware that MCUSD Superintendent Robin Hopper was arrested Sunday and were actively addressing the situation. According to media reports, CHP Merced officers say she crashed into a utility pole while driving along Highway 140 in the Planada area but provided officers with sketchy details as to how it might have happened. Later, at Merced County Jail, she reportedly attacked a deputy who was leading her to a holding cell. In his statement, Forsythe explained that Superintendent Hopper was not on district business when officers arrested her. He also shared that she had previously notified the district of a June 30 planned resignation date. He stated, I will be calling for a Special Board meeting and closed session to be held on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. of this week to address the situation further. I would like to make sure that parents know the education of our students is always our number one concern and any decisions made are in the best interest of the students. Forsythe added, As Board President, I am honored to be surrounded by a very strong Leadership team. We, as a community, are fortunate to have committed teachers and staff that do an amazing job of educating our students. Calaveras High School View Photos San Andreas, CA A 14-year-old Calaveras High School student has been arrested after allegedly making deadly threats regarding the campus a month ago, but it was only reported to administrators today. Calaveras County Sheriffs deputies were called to the school in San Andreas at around 11 a.m. after being called by administrators who had taken steps to secure the campus, but did not lock it down, according to sheriffs spokesperson Sgt. Greg Stark, who details, The threats that were made were to possibly cause harm to students at the school. The student was taken to the office and monitored until deputies arrived. He would not reveal whether those threats included bringing weapons to the campus. Stark would also not divulge those who witnessed the threats and their relationship with the suspect. School officials are working with the Calaveras Unified School District to distribute an email to parents with information regarding the incident, advises Sgt. Stark. The suspects name is not being released because he is a juvenile. He could face felony criminal threat charges. Sheriffs deputies are currently working with school staff, administration, and district officials in the ongoing investigation. Anyone with information regarding this case can call the sheriffs dispatch at (209) 754-6500 or the anonymous tip line at (209) 754-6030. Sacramento, CA California Governor Gavin Newsom celebrated his 100th day in office by unveiling a landmark move aimed at bringing prescription drug costs down. On Wednesday, Newsom traveled to Los Angeles County, where its officials have agreed to, in partnership with the state, create a buying pool for bulk medication purchases through which they will be able to negotiate lower prices. Newsom and L.A. County officials publicly announced the plan during a visit to a rehabilitation center where they say patients are suffering from ever rising drug prices due to corporate greed. He shared that state agencies, including the prison system and Medi-Cal together spend as much as $13 billion annually on drugs. In L.A. County, which has a population of 10 million people, annual expenditures for hospitals and clinics are running at an estimated $250 million. The governor, who estimates the change in purchasing could ultimately save billions of dollars, noted that the first purchases are planned later this year once the purchasing framework is in place. California is leading the nation in holding drug companies accountable and fighting prescription drug prices, he stated. We will use our market power and our moral power to demand fairer prices for prescription drugs and we will continue to move closer to ensuring health care for every Californian. Upon taking his oath of office back in January, Newsom launched a series of what he calls first-in-the-nation actions to make health care more affordable. Those proposals specifically included an executive order to create the nations biggest single-purchaser system for drugs with one of the stated goals of allowing Californians and private employers to be part of drug price negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 18) Just like anybody else, Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray wants to hit the beach to beat the summer heat. The 25-year-old Filipina-Australian beauty on Wednesday posted a photo on Instagram, showing herself sizzling in a blue bikini, with half of her body dipped in clear sea water. The photo comes with the caption "Where I'd rather be to escape the Philippine summer heat (water splash emoji) I unfortunately [wasn't] able to get vitamin sea on my short trip back home to the Philippines but the beach is where my mind will be! (umbrella standing at the shore emoji)." While more than half a million of her 5.3 million followers on the photo-sharing platform liked the photo, it apparently did not sit well with one user. A user named Maecy reacted negatively on the photo, commenting "Holy Week is not about vacationing.." To this, Gray responded politely just like a true queen. While she agrees that Holy Week is not just for leisure, Gray explained that her social media posts are meant to cater to all her fans with different beliefs. "Holy Week is a very meaningful time for Christians (like me), Catholics and other faiths but as I speak to an audience of an array of faiths and beliefs, within and outside of the Philippines I want to be inclusive with the conversations I pose on social media," she replied. As of writing, the comment has drawn over 700 replies from Gray's followers, all slamming the user. Gray is the fourth Filipino to win the Miss Universe title after Gloria Diaz in 1969, Margie Moran in 1973, and Pia Wurtzbach in 2015. She won the title on December 17 last year in Bangkok, Thailand. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) Commission on Elections (Comelec) Spokesperson James Jimenez said it himself, the 2016 presidential election was the first and probably the beginning of the Philippines' internet-driven elections. But back then, no one declared social media expenses in their Statement of Contributions and Expenses (SOCE) submitted after the elections. While Comelec does not prohibit paid and free online endorsements for those running this May, the commission issued a set of guidelines through Comelec Resolution 10488 in monitoring how much was spent in creating and promoting online campaign materials. This is to ensure a level playing field for all candidates whether or not they can afford an expensive campaign. "For social media spending, we are monitoring basically at the end because we have the means to find out which ads came out and to whom they should be attributed," Jimenez said. "As it is now, you've already seen reports of people spending prematurely, right? So kung ganyan na nag 'yung disparity you are only reporting a small fraction of what you actually spent tapos di mo pa irereport and ginastos mo sa social (media) during the campaign period, di ba sobra sobra namang libreng gastos yan?" [TRANSLATION: "For social media spending, we are monitoring basically at the end because we have the means to find out which ads came out and to whom they should be attributed. As it is now, you've already seen reports of people spending prematurely, right? So, if there's that disparity and you are only reporting a small fraction of what you actually spent and you would still fail to report social media expenses during the campaign period, wouldn't that be too much free expenses?] The new resolution includes internet in what constitutes an election propaganda "subject to the limitation on authorized expenses of candidates and parties, observation of truth in advertising, and to the supervision and regulation by the Comelec." This means social media expenses are included in the campaign spending limit set by the Comelec which allows a candidate running under a political party to spend a maximum of 3 per voter, and 5 per voter for independent candidates and party list groups. With 63,665,923 voters both based in the Philippines and overseas, 2019 national candidates may spend a maximum of 190.9 million for those who have political parties, and up to 318.3 million for independent candidates and party-lists. Low compliance Comelec Resolution 10488 also requires candidates to submit Uniform Resouce Locator (URL) or links to their Facebook pages and blog sites. While internet users have been bombarded by obvious candidate endorsements over Facebook and Twitter, only 29 out of 62 senatorial candidates have submitted their URLs to Comelec as of March 25. Meanwhile, roughly half or just 65 out of 134 party lists and 1,088 local candidates running this May have complied. Despite low compliance, Comelec said it could still trace the campaign spending of those who did not submit links. "If a campaign site is behaving like a campaign outlet, then we will look closer into it. Ultimately, whether or not they submit these URLs, we will be able to trace the ads in their name," Jimenez said. While Comelec earlier said they only have 10 warm bodies assigned to monitor social media pages, internet companies have committed to help. "They can help us by identifying the ads and telling us and how much each ads costs.So ibabangga natin ang information na yun sa claim ng candidate [We would compare the rates with what the candidates claim they have spent]. If the candidate says I only spent one million on social ads but the information we get they put out 10 million peso worth of ads, that can be a problem. That can be the grounds now for an election offense," Jimenez added. Tapping social media influencers Under the new Comelec resolution, social media influencers are referred to as "contractors." Comelec expects candidates to include payments for their services in the SOCE. But "Miggy," a social media influencer based in Manila told CNN Philippines some political candidates might get away with big internet-based spending at least for payments to online personalities's endorsements because there are no paper trails. "Wala naman talagang kontrata. Pero kasi itong mga nagpapapromote na 'to, talagang bantay sarado nila kung talagang nagpost ka," Miggy said. "So ang gagawin nila, hindi kasi sila agad magbabayad. Since meron silang mga inassign na parang icheck 'yung mag post. Titingnan muna nila kung talagang ginawa nila ang napag-usapan niyo saka mo makukuha ang compensation," he added. [TRANSLATION: There is really no contract involved. But these people will closely monitor your posts. They will not pay you immediately. Instead, they will assign someone to check your posts to see if you did what you have agreed upon before giving your compensation.] Although anyone is free to express support for candidates, Jimenez insisted Comelec would still find out whether or not the endorsement is paid. "Again we are tracking the URLs and if a particular website or a particular blog is behaving like a campaign outlet, then the person behind it or person drives that blog should be ready to show their records," said Jimenez. The offers to social media influencer 'Miggy' Miggy, not his real name, has around 20,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram. He was separately tapped by two opposing senatorial candidates' campaign teams at the start of the campaign season. They offered him money in exchange of his endorsements on Instagram and Facebook. It was easy money. He could earn up to as much as 10,000 in just one post. But there's a caveat: He just can't simply voice out what he really thinks of the candidate. His post should look and sound personal, so his followers would think he really endorsed the candidate on his own will. The campaign team will give him guidelines on how to do it. "May guidelines kasi hindi mo naman pwedeng ipost yun na parang ibinigay lang sayo. Dapat ikaw mismo ang nagpropromote na ganun pagkakilala mo sa politician," Miggy said. "Medyo nakakatempt siya like in a day magpopost ka ng ganito, nakaupo ka lang kikita ka ng 1,000 to 2,000." [TRANSLATION: There are guidelines. you cannot post about a politician as if it was just handed out to you. You should make it seem like you are promoting the candidate based on how you know him/her. It is really tempting like I will just post this in a day, and I will immediately earn 1,000 to 2,000 while sitting.] But despite the lure of handsome payment, Miggy turned down the jobs. He personally thinks the two candidates he was asked to endorse do not fit the bill of a true public servant. As an influencer, he wanted to set an example. "Kahit papa'no, 'pag nilabas mo, parang binili din ang boto mo," Miggy said. "Kasi botante ako e. Parang di ko magawa na magpromote ako ng candidate, pero at the end of the day during the elections di naman siya iboboto ko." [TRANSLATION: At some point, posting about the candidate would still feel I sold my vote. I am a voter and I could not promote a candidate whom I will not vote for at the end of the day.] How much does social media promotion cost? Advertisement charges on top social media sites Facebook, Twitter and Instagram vary depending on the number of users the client want to reach, and the contents and type of promotion. An advertising agency handling social media promotions told CNN Philippines, the running rate for content creation and promotion ranges from 15,000 up to 35,000 monthly per account. This will reach 60,000 to 100,000 users. They will charge higher if the client wants to add another social media account or reach more internet users. But, is social media campaign worth spending for? University of the Philippines Political Science Professor Rogelio Alicor Panao said social media sites are good for exposure: to introduce candidates, raise issues for debates and highlight campaign platforms. But social media campaign alone is not the ticket to a win. As an example, Panao said there are senatorial candidates who have been active and popular on social media, but still do not make it to the top 12 senatorial candidates survey. Surveys, he said, are more reliable gauge on the candidates' winnability compared to social media popularity. "Sa ating karanasan pag pumasok ka sa surveys, malaki ang chance mo manalo pagkatapos ng eleksyon, hindi pa ganun ang guarantee sa social media," Panao said. [TRANSLATION: In our experience, if you were included in the surveys, you have a big chance to win after the elections, but social media does not guarantee like that yet.] Candidates should also consider the demographics of social media users. Pulse Asia survey in December 2018 shows 47 percent of the population have internet access. A separate annual digital report for 2019 released by We Are Social and Hootsuite states there are 76 million Filipino social media users. But Panao emphasized not all Filipinos have internet access and not all social media users are voters. "Kasi sino ba ang nakakapagsocial media? Ang may access sa internet. Pangalawa, maaaring ang social media ginagamit ng mga hindi naman makakaboto dahil hindi pa sila 18 anyos. Kung survey to isang beses mo lang tinatanong ang tao sa kanilang preference, pero ang social media, maari kang makaboto ng ilang ulit para mahighlight ang kandidato. Pang-apat, hindi natin alam sino nag-organize ng social media (accounts), marami dito hindi naman totoong supporters no?" Panao explained. [TRANSLATION: Who are using social media anyway? Those who have internet access. Secondly, those who use social media may not be eligible to vote. In the surveys, people are only asked once about their preference, but in social media, users may repeatedly vote to highlight a candidate. Fourth consideration, we do not know who organized these social media accounts. It is possible they are not genuine supporters.] Patrick Gonzales, who has been involved in political campaigns in the last five elections, agrees with Panao. He is currently with the campaign team of former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. Gonzales said for social media, they just maximize the use of Facebook live streaming because internet users seem to like seeing what the candidates are doing at the moment. They also paid professionals to create good content like photos and videos to be shared on Facebook. While Enrile initially thought of just running his campaign mostly on social media, Gonzales said they eventually realized their candidate still needs to do traditional campaign. "We had to come up 'yung TV ads. It's not enough because the reach is not enough. I'd like to think it should be a good mix of traditional, then social media and ground," Gonzales said. How the voters would vote Although social media have been added in the long list of campaign strategies, Panao said voters' would still choose who they think will serve them best on election day. Panao said among voter's gauges on choosing a candidate are past performance, name recall, winnability and credibility to commit to campaign promises. "In other words, kahit ganyan siya marami na tayong platforms, maraming paraan para makilala ang kandidato, boboto pa rin naman tayo base sa personal na assessment natin sa kandidato, that includes ano ang ineexpect natin na gagawin ng kandidato para sa atin," Panao explained. [TRANSLATION: In other words, despite having numerous platforms to know a candidate, we would still vote based on our personal assessment of a candidate. That includes our expectations on what the candidates would do for us.] Plainview Mayor Wendell Dunlap was honored Wednesday morning by the local Boy Scouts during the South Plains Council's Friends of Scouting Distinguished Citizens Breakfast. The Council began nominating citizens for its Distinguished Citizen honor earlier this year and Dunlap was selected. "Our choice does not demand someone who has been a Scout or Scoutmaster, but we try to choose someone whose life and service best exemplify the tenants of the Scout Oath," wrote Daniel Garcia, district executive of the Boy Scouts of America South Plains Council, in an email to The Herald. "We selected our Distinguished Citizen to be Mayor Wendell Dunlap, who has been an integral part of the community of Plainview for the past several years." Dunlap was the only individual honored at the event but it was also a showcase of the local Boy Scout troop. According to Garcia, there are more than 50 Scouts in Plainview. Troop 253 has had five Eagle Scouts and has earned more than 100 Merit Badges over the past two years, he wrote. The Cub Scout Pack 252 has also received 118 Rank Advancements, according to Garcia. "The South Plains Council goal is to increase and serve more youth right here in the community of Plainview," he wrote. "There are many reasons as to why the Scouting Movement is such a worthy movementand so important for the times in which we liveI considered what builds character and integrity." He attributes the success of the local troops to the community. "The support from the community is what brings the Scouting Movement alive in Plainview," he wrote. If it's April, it's time for the Houston Art Car Parade. Just like this year's parade, a colorful cornucopia of cars caravan down Houston's streets. Look carefully though and you'll see some differences between then and now. First, there's the "Exxon Valdeath," which referenced the infamous oil tanker that ran aground in Alaska a few weeks earlier. Cleveland ISD will have two school board positions that will be voted on election day May 4. Early voting begins on April 22. Position 4 board member Ronnie Lewis and Sharica Lewis from Position 5 on the school board will be in contested races. Ronnie Lewis will run against Willie Carter while Sharica Lewis will face Amanda Brooks for a spot as a trustee. Early voting will be from April 22-30th at the Cleveland Civic Center. Election day will be from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday May 4 at the Civic Center. The election comes at an important time for CISD. In addition to a bond on the ballot, the district selected a lone finalist to replace retiring superintendent Darrell Myers. The Cleveland ISD board of trustees named Chris Trotter as its lone finalist for superintendent at a special school board meeting this month. Trotter is currently the Chief Administrative Officer at Tomball ISD, a position he has held since 2010. The duties of the CAO is to oversee the daily administration operations of the district. Trotter has 28 years of education experience. He beat out nearly 80 candidates that applied for the job of superintendent of one of the fastest growing school districts in the state. The community will also be voting on the proposed $250 million school bond on election day. marcus.gutierrez@chron.com Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 18) The countrys top diplomat believes Chinas strategy on the West Philippine Sea should prompt the government to invest more on weaponry instead of throwing money at poverty. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Teddy Boy Locsin, Jr. made this statement in response to a tweet from Senator Panfilo Ping Lacson who called his attention to a 2013 article which reads, China boasts of strategy to recover islands occupied by Philippines. (Secretary of Foreign Affairs) Teddy Boy, a wide reader that you are, I just thought you might have skipped this one which shows the mindset of China on WPS. For whatever it is worth, I hope it will further enrich your perspective from the point of view of foreign policy, Lacson said. He was referring to the transcript of an interview with Chinas then Major General Zhang Zhaozhong, who discussed Beijings cabbage strategy during the 2012 standoff with the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal, also known as Panatag Shoal. Zhang recalled how the swarming of Chinese ships forced Filipino fishermen to leave and prevented any other ship from entering. In response, Locsin said, It is a Free World now after the CIA defeated the USSR. Every country can speak whatever is on its mind. He added that what China says should not determine [the Philippines] foreign policy but it should inform the national budgetary process that we gotta stop throwing money at poverty and throw it at weaponry. Lacson later responded that what China did in 2012 is exactly how they are conducting maneuvers in the West Philippine Sea now. He said he is reminded of winning a thousand battles if you know yourself and your enemy from the words of Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu. The Philippines and China recently exchanged arguments and asserted territorial claims over the swarming of over 200 Chinese vessels around Pag-asa Island, one of the biggest islands in the Spratlys and seat of the Kalayaan municipal government under the province of Palawan. Chinese ships were also reported found in Philippine-occupied Kota Island, also known as Loiata Island and nearby Panata Island or Lankiam Cay in the disputed Spratlys. Locsin said he has "fired off (a) salvo of diplomatic notes" against China over the swarming of its vessels in Philippine waters. The Department of Foreign Affairs is also looking at filing a case against China over reports of Chinese fishermen harvesting giant clams in Scarborough Shoal, on top of a diplomatic protest earlier filed. Chinas recent actions in contested waters has also prompted Malacanang to cite the July 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which recognized the country's sovereign rights in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. The government calls it West Philippine Sea and includes Pag-asa Island and the disputed areas in the Spratlys where the Chinese vessels were spotted. Malacanang said President Rodrigo Duterte also "effectively" invoked the Hague ruling when he told China to lay off Pag-asa Island. Earlier, Duterte refused to bring the arbitration ruling which China rejects, saying the Philippines could not go to war against the East Asian giant. Locsin earlier said he is personally not afraid of war since China took [what] is ours. Approximately 21 people were arrested for felony Driving While Intoxicated charges in Montgomery County throughout the month of March, according to records from a public information request filed by the Chronicle. In Texas, a person is charged with DWI if their blood or breath alcohol concentration (BAC) is .08 or higher, according to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT.) PARIS - The eventual reconstruction of Notre Dame is now a foregone conclusion. Within hours of the fire that destroyed much of the cathedral on Monday, donors pledged more than $1 billion to restore the Parisian icon to its former glory. Even before the smoke had cleared, Luxury goods magnate Francois-Henri Pinault announced his family would donate 100 million euros ($112 million) to the effort. Not to remain on the sideline, his rival Bernard Arnault - the chief executive of LVMH and the richest man in Europe - pledged twice that amount on Tuesday morning. The Bettencourt Meyers family, which controls L'Oreal, quickly matched that pledge. And Patrick Pouyanne, chief of excutive of French oil giant Total, offered another $112 million. Officials are still assessing the extent of the damage, so the cost of Notre Dame's reconstruction remains unknown, but these and the many other donations coming in should pretty well cover it. In the meantime, the cascade of cash that materialized overnight to save the cathedral has raised eyebrows in France, still in the throes of a crippling protest over rising social inequality and whose leader is regularly decried as the "president of the rich." "Of course, I find it nice, this solidarity," said Ingrid Levavasseur, a leader of the yellow vest movement that has protested inequality in a series of often violent Saturday demonstrations since mid-November. The stream of donations essentially confirmed the movement's broader social critique, Levavasseur said. "If they can give tens of millions to rebuild Notre-Dame, then they should stop telling us there is no money to help with the social emergency," Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT trade union, said on Wednesday. The cash flow has also furrowed brows abroad, with critics emphasizing that destroyed landmarks in non-Western locales - such as the ancient sites destroyed by the Islamic State in Syria - have hardly inspired such a global groundswell. "In just a few hours today, 650 million euros was donated to rebuild Notre Dame," South Africa-based journalist Simon Allison tweeted. "In six months, just 15 million euros has been pledged to restore Brazil's National Museum. I think this is what they call white privilege." Rio de Janeiro's National Museum was incinerated in a fire in September. Inside and outside of France, the unease has centered on a perceived disparity between concern for the fate of beautiful monuments and concern for the struggles of real people, which can be more difficult to sell to donors. More for you What's inside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris In February, for instance, the United Nations launched a record call for $4 billion dollars in aid for Yemen, in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. "Almost 10 million are just one step away from famine," Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his pitch at a donor conference in Geneva. In the hours after his call, roughly $2.6 billion came in - a feat in itself. But still well short of the goal. Notre Dame offers a striking contrast: No one was killed, no one is starving, but philanthropists likely provided the full amount - if not more - instantaneously and unprompted. There was initial speculation that billionaire donors were contributing to Notre Dame in order to receive a generous tax break from the state. Typically, the French government allows corporations a 60 percent tax deduction on donations made in the realm of culture. "Billionaires should pay taxes," tweeted economist Julia Cage, "not give when they feel like it, benefiting from enormous tax breaks." Amid mounting criticism, some of the big donors defended their contributions. Both Arnault and Pinault said they were not looking for tax benefits. Arnault told shareholders that his family holding company had already hit its ceiling on tax deductions for charitable donations. "It's an empty controversy," Arnault said. "It's pretty dismaying to see that in France you are criticized even for doing something for the general interest." The Pinault family similarly released a statement saying: "The donation for Notre-Dame de Paris will not be subject to any tax deduction. The Pinault family considers that it is out of the question to burden French taxpayers." Pinault's wife, actress Salma Hayek, praised on Instagram the family's "personal and heart felt participation in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris." "My husband and father in law are two generous french citizens, who sincerely understand the importance of this spiritual, cultural and historical treasure from Paris to the world," Hayek wrote. Caroline Fourest, a French feminist and writer, said she thinks she understands the collective outpouring over Notre Dame, even though the nation's mourning is different than after major terrorist attacks - at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and the Bataclan concert hall in 2015, at the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice in 2016 and at a Christmas market in Strasbourg last December. "There are similarities, mostly in the sense that we found a real communion, which was the case in Paris after the attacks," Fourest said. "It's not the same loss or the same anguish, because no one died," she said. "But with Notre Dame, we were afraid of losing a part of the beauty that makes living in Paris so sweet. There's a sadness there." A man accused of using a device to conceal his license plate to avoid paying tolls has slipped away from criminal charges, at least for the moment. 27-year-old Preston Cody Talbot was arrested on April 11, 2019 on the North Sam Houston Parkway. He was found to have an illegal license plate flipper, a souped-up license plate cover designed to temporarily cover a plate with a black sheet, according to the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office. A Houston police officer told jurors that she never picked up the murder weapon left behind at the home of a Bellaire-area couple who was found shot to death in 2016, contrary to another officer's testimony earlier in the capital murder trial. The questioning on Thursday marked the start of defense attorneys' attempts to pinpoint inconsistencies and problems in earlier prosecution witnesses' testimony in the case against Antonio Armstrong, Jr., the teen son accused in the slaying of his parents. After nine days of prosecution witnesses, the defense opened its case, calling Officer Portia Washington to the stand. Washington said that she saw the gun on the table while searching the home the morning of July 29, 2016, after Dawn Armstrong and Antonio Armstrong, Sr. were discovered with gunshot wounds to the head. Armstrong, Jr. was arrested that day. MORNING REPORT: Get the day's best headlines delivered to your email Sgt. Tavis Parkerson told jurors early in Armstrong's trial that an officer, who he identified as Washington, picked up the gun as investigators were clearing the crime scene. He called the incident a "very bad" mistake, because Washington could have cross-contaminated the evidence with her own fingerprints. Washington said on Thursday that she saw the gun, but did nothing else. "No, I did not touch it," she said. Washington's testimony was brief, and she was dismissed after a short period of questioning. "I don't care what her motive is, somebody lied," defense attorney Rick DeToto said after the trial recessed. Prosecutors took their turn afterward and attempted to poke holes in the defense, calling an electronic security expert's entire testimony into question. Jim Parker, the expert who has several patents on alarm-related technology, said that the alarm system in the Armstrong home was not reliable. Armstrong's attorneys contend that an intruder was responsible for the slayings, despite reports that the alarm system did not detect anyone entering or leaving the home the morning of the slayings. Parker said he visited the home several times and shot a video there, testing the system and casting doubt on the accuracy of the alarm records. He said it was entirely possible that someone got through a door in the garage without creating a record. "They're not working properly or there were multiple people in the house," he said. Prosecutors grilled Parker on the consistency of his statements. "There's a problem with your logic here, isn't there?" prosecutor John Brewer asked. Brewer mentioned several times that Parker was being paid nearly $50,000 for his work on the case, including the testimony. He raised his voice, accusing Parker of not being straight-forward in answering his questions. Parker's statements countered earlier testimony from an employee at ADT, the company which operated the home's alarm system. Morgan Harris, the company's representative, spoke on behalf of prosecutors, saying that the alarm and motion detectors were working as intended. While listening to the ADT expert's technical testimony, several jurors smirked at defense attorney Chris Collings' questioning over how someone might be able to bypass the technology. The testimony by the ADT employee lasted close to two hours. Collings presented technical and hypothetical situations to the jurors, possibly to confuse them, eliciting a visible reaction from the jurors for the first time in the trial. A forensic pathologist followed for the prosecutors, testifying as to the causes of death for Dawn Armstrong and Antonio Armstrong, Sr. As prosecutors displayed photos of the parents, Antonio Armstrong, Jr. began softly crying. Dawn Armstrong died instantly after being shot twice in the head, said Ana Lopez, assistant medical examiner at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. One shot was behind the right ear, and the other went through the right ear. She described X-rays and photos of the brain, as well as one that showed severe injury to the brain stem. Lopez outlined the father's injuries, and his son further broke down in loud sobs. His father had an entrance wound and a partial exit wound, where the bullet fragmented. Part of it left the skull and part of it went into the brain, she said. The shots at both of the parents were fired from at least 2.5 or 3 feet away, Lopez said. "It could have been greater but I can't say exactly how far," she said. Antonio Armstrong, Sr. died at the hospital. Neither of the parents had any evidence of other major medical issues. Trial will recess until Monday afternoon. samantha.ketterer@chron.com NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. 77 1 of 77 Central American migrants that were released after being taken into custody and processed are dropped off at the Laredo bus station on Friday, March 15, 2019, where they will board buses to their destinations. Central American migrants that were released after being taken into custody and processed are dropped off at the Laredo bus station on Friday, March 15, 2019, where they will board buses to their destinations. They will go before immigration judges who will decide on their asylum claims. Billy Calzada, Staff / Staff Photographer File Six-year-old Daniela Fernanda Portillo Burgos, sits on the shoulders of her mother, Iris Jamilet, 39, as they look out through the fence of a immigrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. Six-year-old Daniela Fernanda Portillo Burgos, sits on the shoulders of her mother, Iris Jamilet, 39, as they look out through the fence of a immigrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at a state run shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. The family is from Honduras. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Mexican military personnel guard a shelter housing over 1,900 Central American immigrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. The immigrants arrived in the border town on Monday. Most are Mexican military personnel guard a shelter housing over 1,900 Central American immigrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. The immigrants arrived in the border town on Monday. Most are looking to seek asylum in the U.S. The town is across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrants line up for breakfast at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. The shelter is housing nearly 1,900 immigrants most of who arrived on Monday. Their presences Central American immigrants line up for breakfast at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. The shelter is housing nearly 1,900 immigrants most of who arrived on Monday. Their presences has led to an increase of law enforcement presence in Eagle Pass, Texas, across the Rio Grande from Piedras Negras. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrants attempt to sell their Guatemalan quetzales and Honduran lempiras for Mexican pesos at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. They were hoping to acquire pesos Central American immigrants attempt to sell their Guatemalan quetzales and Honduran lempiras for Mexican pesos at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. They were hoping to acquire pesos in order to shop at a nearby convenience store. Over 1,900 immigrants are housed at the former twin plant after they arrived in the border town on Monday. Most are hoping to seek asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Six-year-old Daniela Fernanda Portillo Burgos, sits on the shoulders of her mother, Iris Jamilet, 39, as they look out through the fence of a immigrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. Six-year-old Daniela Fernanda Portillo Burgos, sits on the shoulders of her mother, Iris Jamilet, 39, as they look out through the fence of a immigrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at a state run shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. The family is from Honduras. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer A woman transported to a local hospital from an immigrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. According to medical personnel attending to her, she was suffering an asthmatic attack. The A woman transported to a local hospital from an immigrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. According to medical personnel attending to her, she was suffering an asthmatic attack. The shelter is housing over 1,900 Central American immigrants who arrived in the city on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Lorena Arevalo, 43, from El Salvador, and her five children turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents by Anzalduas Park in Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. A group of 39 immigrant families Lorena Arevalo, 43, from El Salvador, and her five children turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents by Anzalduas Park in Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. A group of 39 immigrant families seeking asylum turned themselves in to U.S. Border patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande illegally. On Tuesday, a group of 99 immigrants was picked up in the area. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Lorena Arevalo, 43, center, from El Salvador, and her five children turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents by Anzalduas Park in Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. A group of 39 immigrant Lorena Arevalo, 43, center, from El Salvador, and her five children turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents by Anzalduas Park in Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. A group of 39 immigrant families seeking asylum turned themselves in to U.S. Border patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande illegally. On Tuesday, a group of 99 immigrants was picked up in the area. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Mekasi Camp Horinek of the Ponca Nation leads a group of Native Americans during a march with supporters of the National Butterfly Center on the levee in the National Butterfly Center on Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Central American immigrant girls listen to music at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Central American immigrant girls listen to music at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrants line up for lunch at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Central American immigrants line up for lunch at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrant families look out through the fence of a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Central American immigrant families look out through the fence of a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer An Honduran couple argue with Mexican Immigration and state police personnel at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group numbering around 1,800 arrived in the city across the Rio An Honduran couple argue with Mexican Immigration and state police personnel at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group numbering around 1,800 arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday. The couple was asking officials to be let out of the shelter but only those with Mexican issued humanitarian visas were allowed outside the facility. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Mexican Federal Police wear riot gear as they guard the outside of a migrant shelter for Central American immigrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,700 is at a Mexican Federal Police wear riot gear as they guard the outside of a migrant shelter for Central American immigrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,700 is at a state run shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. Immigrants with humanitarian visas issued by Mexico were allowed to leave the shelter. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer A Central American immigrant family stands in line for food at a sheltered in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle A Central American immigrant family stands in line for food at a sheltered in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer A Central American family leaves a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants A Central American family leaves a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. Immigrants with Mexican issued humanitarian visas were allowed to come and go at the shelter. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrants gather near the entrance of a shelter at a former maquiladora plant in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Central American immigrants gather near the entrance of a shelter at a former maquiladora plant in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer A Central American immigrant gets a haircut at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Honduran Delia Romero, 24, sits with her sons in their sleeping area at a sheltered in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande Honduran Delia Romero, 24, sits with her sons in their sleeping area at a sheltered in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrants line up to register with Mexican Immigration officials at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Central American immigrants line up to register with Mexican Immigration officials at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer One-year-old Julivet Fernando sleeps on a mattress at a sheltered in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, One-year-old Julivet Fernando sleeps on a mattress at a sheltered in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 is at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Mexican Federal Police wear riot gear as they guard the outside of a migrant shelter for Central American immigrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,700 is at a Mexican Federal Police wear riot gear as they guard the outside of a migrant shelter for Central American immigrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,700 is at a state run shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. The immigrants arrived on Monday and most are seeking asylum in the U.S. Immigrants with humanitarian visas issued by Mexico were allowed to leave the shelter. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer An Honduran couple argue with Mexican Immigration and state police personnel at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group numbering around 1,800 arrived in the city across the Rio An Honduran couple argue with Mexican Immigration and state police personnel at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group numbering around 1,800 arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday. The couple was asking officials to be let out of the shelter but only those with Mexican issued humanitarian visas were allowed come and go at the facility. Without the visa, they would not be able to come back in to the shelter. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer A woman arrives with donations at a shelter housing Central American immigrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across A woman arrives with donations at a shelter housing Central American immigrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrant children are kept entertained at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Central American immigrant children are kept entertained at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers keep watch at the midway point of the Eagle Pass, Texas International Bridge II, Wednesday, February 6, 2019. Law enforcement agencies from local to national level U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers keep watch at the midway point of the Eagle Pass, Texas International Bridge II, Wednesday, February 6, 2019. Law enforcement agencies from local to national level are on high alert after a caravan of around 1,800 Central American immigrants arrived at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrants hang around by the fence line of a shelter guarded by Mexican Federal police in riot gear in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran Central American immigrants hang around by the fence line of a shelter guarded by Mexican Federal police in riot gear in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrant children hang around by the fence line of a shelter guarded by Mexican Federal police in riot gear in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Central American immigrant children hang around by the fence line of a shelter guarded by Mexican Federal police in riot gear in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. A group of around 1,800 mostly Honduran immigrants arrived in the city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American immigrants line up for breakfast at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 arrived at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Central American immigrants line up for breakfast at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The group numbering around 1,800 arrived at the shelter across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Immigrant families seeking asylum are lined up for transportation near Anzalduas Park in Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The families turned themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents after Immigrant families seeking asylum are lined up for transportation near Anzalduas Park in Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The families turned themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Contract transportation employees search adult immigrants before boarding a bus by Anzalduas Park in Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. A group of 39 immigrant families seeking asylum turned Contract transportation employees search adult immigrants before boarding a bus by Anzalduas Park in Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. A group of 39 immigrant families seeking asylum turned themselves in to U.S. Border patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande illegally. On Tuesday, a group of 99 immigrants were picked up in the area. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Border Patrol agents Eric Madore, left, and Hermann Rivera detain three immigrants in northwestern Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 U.S. Border Patrol agents Eric Madore, left, and Hermann Rivera detain three immigrants in northwestern Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Concerned citizens called to report a large group that was picked up by a vehicle in the area and several left behind. With the help of a USBP canine unit, the three immigrants were captured. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Border Patrol agents Eric Madore, left, and Hermann Rivera detain three immigrants, (two hidden by tall grass) in northwestern Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector U.S. Border Patrol agents Eric Madore, left, and Hermann Rivera detain three immigrants, (two hidden by tall grass) in northwestern Hidalgo County, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Concerned citizens called to report a large group that was picked up by a vehicle in the area and several left behind. With the help of a USBP canine unit, the three immigrants were captured. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Border Patrol agent Hermann Rivera pats down a Guatemalan immigrant out of the brush near Abram, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per U.S. Border Patrol agent Hermann Rivera pats down a Guatemalan immigrant out of the brush near Abram, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Border Patrol agent Hermann Rivera moves a Guatemalan immigrant out of the brush near Abram, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day U.S. Border Patrol agent Hermann Rivera moves a Guatemalan immigrant out of the brush near Abram, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Border Patrol agent Hermann Rivera detains a Guatemalan immigrant near Abram, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. U.S. Border Patrol agent Hermann Rivera detains a Guatemalan immigrant near Abram, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American and Mexican immigrants wait to be transported after being captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Hidalgo, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over Central American and Mexican immigrants wait to be transported after being captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Hidalgo, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehension per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Border Patrol agents round up immigrants in Hidalgo, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day U.S. Border Patrol agents round up immigrants in Hidalgo, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Central American and Mexican immigrants wait to be transported after they were captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Hidalgo, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging Central American and Mexican immigrants wait to be transported after they were captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Hidalgo, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The Rio Grande Valley Sector has been averaging over 600 apprehensions per day during January. During the 35-day government shutdown, the sector apprehended nearly 17,000 immigrants according to a press release. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer A Spanish Mexican building in San Ygnacio, TX, owned by the River Pierce Foundation, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Lannie Mecom, a longtime rancher along the Rio Grande, inside the restored fort dating back to 1780, on her property near San Ygnacio, TX. She says she is for the border wall. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Angelica Rodriguez, left, talks with her cousin Melinda Lopez along the banks of the Rio Grande as a Border Patrol unit watches the area in Rio Bravo, TX, on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. "I don't mind the idea of Angelica Rodriguez, left, talks with her cousin Melinda Lopez along the banks of the Rio Grande as a Border Patrol unit watches the area in Rio Bravo, TX, on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. "I don't mind the idea of the wall", said Rodriguez. Adding, "It's good and bad. Bad for the Border Patrol agents if they loose their jobs. Drug dealers will find a way, but it will be harder for them." Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Graffiti and geometrical designs are seen in the fort on the Mecom Ranch along the Rio Grande near San Ygnacio, TX, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News The house owned by Frank "Chip" Briscoe, Jr. in San Ygnacio, TX, along the Rio Grande, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Michael Tracey speaks about his passion for the River Pierce Foundation in a guest house owned by the foundation in San Ygnacio, TX, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Border Patrol Agents stand on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande in Rio Bravo, TX, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Lannie Mecom inside the restored fort on her property near San Ygnacio, TX. She says she is for the border wall. At right is a gun port used to fight off attackers back in the day. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Migratory birds hunt for an early morning meal at the Rio Grande near San Ygnacio, TX, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Michael Tracy with his work called "Para Mexico" in one of his personal showrooms in San Ygnacio, TX, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Tracy started the River Pierce Foundation and he is against the building of a Michael Tracy with his work called "Para Mexico" in one of his personal showrooms in San Ygnacio, TX, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Tracy started the River Pierce Foundation and he is against the building of a wall along the Rio Grande. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Michael Tracy in one of his studios in San Ygnacio, TX, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Tracy started the River Pierce Foundation. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Inside the Trevino-Uribe Rancho which is a restored fort from 1830 in San Ygnacio, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News A Border Patrol vehicle is seen through early morning fog rising from the Rio Grande in San Ygnacio, TX, where a realtor sign is also seen, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Lannie Mecom unlocks the door to a restored fort on her ranch along the Rio Grande dating back to 1780 in San Ygnacio, TX, on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. The building is believed to be the oldest continuously Lannie Mecom unlocks the door to a restored fort on her ranch along the Rio Grande dating back to 1780 in San Ygnacio, TX, on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. The building is believed to be the oldest continuously occupied structure in Texas. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Mauricio Vidaurri walks through the remains of the home his father was born in that dates back to the 1800's. His family cemetery is on his family ranch close to the Rio Grande, Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News A Border Patrol vehicle is seen through early morning fog rising from the Rio Grande in San Ygnacio, TX, next to a surveillance tower, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. The tires are used to drag along the dirt road A Border Patrol vehicle is seen through early morning fog rising from the Rio Grande in San Ygnacio, TX, next to a surveillance tower, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. The tires are used to drag along the dirt road to give agents a clean unmarked surface to check for new footprints. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News A Central American immigrant who signed paperwork to self-deport looks up at the sky after boarding a bus for Mexico City outside a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. Around 30 A Central American immigrant who signed paperwork to self-deport looks up at the sky after boarding a bus for Mexico City outside a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and boarded a bus bound for Mexico City. Around 1,900 are at the shelter with hopes of seeking asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer As a lines form for trips to the grocery store or bank, Central American immigrants complain about some cutting the line at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. The shelter is housing As a lines form for trips to the grocery store or bank, Central American immigrants complain about some cutting the line at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. The shelter is housing around 1,9000 immigrants, most of who arrived on Monday. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and boarded a bus bound for Mexico City. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer A Central American immigrant who signed paperwork to self-deport sits in a bus bound for Mexico City outside a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and A Central American immigrant who signed paperwork to self-deport sits in a bus bound for Mexico City outside a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and boarded a bus bound for Mexico City. Around 1,900 are at the shelter with hopes of seeking asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Mauricio Vidaurri visits his great grandfather's grave in the family cemetery on his family's ranch close to the Rio Grande, Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News A Central American immigrant is guided to a bus after signing self-deportation papers at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and boarded a bus bound A Central American immigrant is guided to a bus after signing self-deportation papers at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and boarded a bus bound for Mexico City. Around 1,900 are at the shelter with hopes of seeking asylum in the U.S. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer A gate to a ranch road is seen in the early morning fog along the Rio Grande in San Ygnacio, TX, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News As a lines form for trips to the grocery store or bank, Central American immigrants complain about some cutting the line at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. The shelter is housing As a lines form for trips to the grocery store or bank, Central American immigrants complain about some cutting the line at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. The shelter is housing around 1,9000 immigrants, most of who arrived on Monday. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and boarded a bus bound for Mexico City. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Military personnel escort a family of immigrants arriving at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. The shelter is housing around 1,900 mostly Central American immigrants that arrived on Military personnel escort a family of immigrants arriving at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. The shelter is housing around 1,900 mostly Central American immigrants that arrived on Monday. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and boarded a bus bound for Mexico City on Thursday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer As a lines form for trips to the grocery store or bank, Central American immigrants complain about some cutting the line at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. The shelter is housing As a lines form for trips to the grocery store or bank, Central American immigrants complain about some cutting the line at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. The shelter is housing around 1,9000 immigrants, most of who arrived on Monday. Around 30 immigrants self-deported and boarded a bus bound for Mexico City. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Mexican Federal Police guard the street by an immigrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. The shelter is housing over 1,800 Central American immigrants who arrived on Monday. Another Mexican Federal Police guard the street by an immigrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. The shelter is housing over 1,800 Central American immigrants who arrived on Monday. Another 110 immigrants arrived on Tuesday night. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety personnel guard the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. Law enforcement agencies from local to national level are on U.S. Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety personnel guard the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. Law enforcement agencies from local to national level are on high alert after a caravan of around 1,800 Central American immigrants arrived at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer U.S. Border Patrol units are parked by the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. Law enforcement agencies from local to national level are on high alert after a caravan of U.S. Border Patrol units are parked by the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. Law enforcement agencies from local to national level are on high alert after a caravan of around 1,800 Central American immigrants arrived at a shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass on Monday. Jerry Lara/Staff Photographer Fr. Roy Snipes, pastor of La Lomita Chapel in Mission, Tx. which sits on the south side of the levee where the proposed wall might be built. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News With Border Patrol watching them, tourists visit La Lomita Chapel in Mission, TX which sits on the south side of the levee, where the proposed border wall is to be built. Fran Van Keulen, right, and his wife With Border Patrol watching them, tourists visit La Lomita Chapel in Mission, TX which sits on the south side of the levee, where the proposed border wall is to be built. Fran Van Keulen, right, and his wife Jean Van Keulen of MN said they saw the heavy machinery that arrived on Sunday saying it "looked like a giant snow mobile with 4 ft. wide tracks". Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Fr. Roy Snipes, pastor of La Lomita Chapel in Mission, Tx. which sits on the south side of the levee where the proposed wall might be built. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News A group of Native Americans stop on the levee with supporters of the National Butterfly Center where the proposed wall will be built on land owned by the NBC, on Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News A group of Native Americans and supporters of the National Butterfly Center raise their fists in protest of the wall, as they enter the National Butterfly Center on Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News A group of Native Americans that have been camped out on the border, march along Old Military Rd. with supporters of the National Butterfly Center to the NBC on Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News Fr. Roy Snipes, pastor of La Lomita Chapel in Mission, Tx. places reading material in the church which sits on the south side of the levee where the proposed wall might be built. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News A Border Patrol vehicle drives along the levee at La Lomita Chapel in Mission, TX which sits on the south side of the levee, where the proposed border wall is to be built. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News LAREDO - Fire Chief Steve Landins cell phone is pinging repeatedly these days with short, perfunctory texts from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. Bus from Del Rio with 32, ETA 1500 hrs, he read on a recent afternoon. He immediately forwarded it to city health officials and nonprofit leaders, sparking a mobilization for resources to assist migrants released by ICE. He received another text soon after, and then another, amounting to the release of more than 100 migrants. Similar waves of migrants are arriving by the day farther south in the Rio Grande Valley as border officials deal with a recent surge that has overwhelmed detention officials. More than 76,000 undocumented immigrants came through ports of entry or crossed the Rio Grande illegally in February, the highest number in more than a decade. In a visit to McAllen last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said migrants are being released, with notices to appear later before immigration judges, because detention facilities are out of space. The Border Patrol has said it is devoting about a fourth of its manpower now to processing migrants for release. The influx in Laredo began unexpectedly on Feb. 5, the day after a large caravan of 1,800 migrants arrived by buses in Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, to request asylum in the United States. After the migrants are processed by border officials there and given court dates, ICE takes them to Laredo, the nearest large bus depot. Piedras Negras hasnt historically been a highly trafficked route for migrants planning to enter the U.S. But immigrants appear to be choosing the city, north of Laredo, after a metering system rolled out at larger ports of entry limiting the number of migrants who would be allowed in. I think that route was discovered, said Benjamin De la Garza, head of Catholic Charities in Laredo. The word spreads very easy. The surge has forced shelters and churches that traditionally served the citys homeless, Catholic Charities and Laredos health department to take on a whole new kind of service. We dont have the power to say no, we dont have the power to say yes, they just show up, said Landin, who also serves as Laredos emergency management coordinator. Theyre dropped in our laps. Little notice of arrivals Sometimes the texts from ICE will give a couple hours notice of the migrants arrival. Sometimes only a few minutes. Sometimes not at all. As soon as they hear from Landin, Catholic Charities officials make calls to pick up sandwiches. The city dispatches medics - if theyre not at the station already, tending to a previous load and the Holding Institute, a local shelter, assembles volunteers and loads up donations. For weeks, the staff and volunteers have been providing humanitarian aid and screening for communicable diseases. Responsibilities are being unfairly passed on to charities that are just trying to love their fellow human being, Landin said. Its a federal issue, but the federal government is just saying were going to drop them off, theyre youre problem, theyre not our problem. Catholic Charities and the Holding Institute have been asking the community for more donations. Local officials say neither U.S. Customs and Border Patrol nor ICE have answered questions about why they began the releases in early February, or how long the situation will last. In lieu of waiting for a response, what weve done is taken action ourselves, said Mike Smith, executive director of the Holding Institute. We would like some clarity, I think we would all like some clarity, but we know this is not coming anytime soon. We just act and respond to the need and well ask later. Strapped for resources, they sought an assist from San Antonios Catholic Charities, which sent volunteers and a mobile unit of supplies this month. The Laredo branch recently opened another shelter, at San Francisco Javier Catholic Church. The agency also sent out a call for support at the national level. Nobody knows who is the responsible party. The city says its the feds responsibility. The feds dont respond, Smith said. A group of city officials flew to Washington, D.C., in early March and met with CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. They asked him to give the city more notice of the migrant arrivals, and that they be dropped off during business hours, not at night. Its been very difficult for us, said Rafael Benavides, a Laredo city spokesman. His (McAleenans) office said that theyre going to look into it. Landin remembers the first out-of-the-blue text he received from ICE about the oncoming influx. It was Superbowl Sunday. Back in December, he said the city had met with ICE and was told that if it was to get an influx of immigrants, the city would be given 72 hours notice. So then I get a text message telling me Heads up, youre going to receive busloads of people starting Monday. So the 72 hours notice was out the window, Landin said. So we just said Why are you sending them to Laredo? Theyre not even coming to our bridge. And they said Thats a decision above our level in ICE. More than 130 immigrants arrived the first day. The daily numbers dwindled for a time at the end of February, but then picked back up in recent weeks, spiking last week to 200 a day, the highest yet. Tickets to freedom Families with small children, many if not most under 5 years old, fill the seats and line the walls at the Laredo bus station. The toddlers knock into each other, playing. The older kids stare wide-eyed at the vending machines as volunteers insert their money and bring them snacks. And the infants some only a few months old whine fitfully in their mothers arms, squinting from the stations bright lights. The families arrived with only the clothes on their backs, plastic bags of their belongings - cell phones, wedding rings, ICE paperwork - in their hands, and initial court dates scheduled a month out. None of them were wearing ankle monitors that ICE places on some migrants to track their movements, an attempt to ensure they make their court dates. Some of the immigrants come with colds, the flu, various infections, and in a couple suspected cases the mumps. A few children were taken directly to the hospital, said Hector Gonzalez, director of the citys health department. Theyre hungry, thirsty and mostly penniless. They use phones from volunteers to call family members across the country, letting them know they made it safely to the U.S. and asking them for a bus ticket to their cities. De la Garzas phone is filled with calls to cities across the country. Theres an 802 area code (Vermont), a 980 (Charlotte, N.C), a 702 (Las Vegas). Theres calls to Chicago, Houston, New York City. Almost all of these migrants are from Honduras. None stay in Laredo. Once theyre here, basic necessities are the first thing, De la Garza said. First you feed them. You clothe them. You provide water and all the toiletries. Some families spend the night at the Holding Institutes shelter nearby. Some, fearful of missing their bus, sleep at the station. The conditions were horrible, said Heidi Guzman, 30, about the processing center she was taken to after she crossed the river and presented herself for asylum. But I am grateful to God and this country because its given me a chance at asylum. The Honduran mother was waiting to catch a bus to Virginia with her 9-year-old son, her cousin, and his 7-year-old son. It looks like the entire country of Honduras has decided to come, De la Garza said to a line of them at the station, a well-worn joke he makes to elicit a few smiles. Across the way, Rosa Villareal was speaking to an immigrants family member over the phone, trying to explain how to buy a bus ticket for them. Laredo. Laredo bus station Villareal repeated over and over. And this is the number for Greyhound. Francisca Martinez, 50, watched Villareal anxiously, biting her nails as she spoke with her relative. When her relative finally had success searching online for how to buy her a bus ticket, the Honduran mother broke into a smile and made the sign of a cross. Im a single mother, and I knew I wanted a better life for my daughter, she said. Her daughter is 11 years old. She and two other girls sat in seats behind her, each with their hair pulled into a long, loose braid. The ends of the braids were tied with shiny, aluminum plastic ripped from the mylar blankets ICE gives them in their facilities, after agents stripped them of hair ties and shoelaces. We had a woman here who was crying and crying, because they had killed her 10-year-old daughter in Mexico, said Elena Arredondo, a volunteer. You hear sad stories here. Also at the station was a father who was waiting for news of his wife and daughter. They had traveled to the border together, then crossed separately and lost contact. He didnt know where they were. Hed been waiting at the station for nearly a week, sitting on the chairs, eyes closed, or standing restlessly near the glass doors, gazing out at downtown Laredo. The Catholic Charities here has six full-time staff members and relies on help from about 15 volunteers. Thank God for them, De la Garza said. We get better every day. The city has begun offering Catholic Charities staff free parking at the station, which is owned by the city but leased by Greyhound. And various organizations have all but taken over a small office next to the vending machines at the station. Ruth Melgar, 23, crossed the border in mid-March with her 4-year-old son Kerim. She was wearing a necklace that she had pulled from the bag of her belongings ICE had given her. It had the letter P, for Perla, her 6-year-old daughter who came with her husband in September. Melgar said she prayed she would make it to the United States safely, so they could be reunited. I miss her, Melgar said. But I will see her soon. Silvia Foster-Frau covers immigration news in the San Antonio, Bexar County and South Texas area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | sfosterfrau@express-news.net | Twitter: @SilviaElenaFF A 53-year-old man died Thursday after he was electrocuted while washing windows of a church, according to New Braunfels police. William Robert Alston, from Bandera, was pronounced dead after paramedics attempted lifesaving measures on him, according to a news release from the police department. (CNN) Facebook has banned a number of far-right groups and their leaders in the United Kingdom after determining that they "spread hate." The social network announced Thursday that it had imposed bans on the British National Party, Britain First, the English Defence League, Knights Templar International and the National Front. Seven individuals associated with the groups were also banned, including former British National Party leader Nick Griffin, and Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen of Britain First. Facebook said the groups had been removed under a policy that bans "those who proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence." The restrictions also apply to Instagram. It's the latest example of social media companies stepping up efforts to police content on their platforms after years of criticism that they were not doing enough to stop hate speech and extremist content. Facebook removed British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, for posting hate speech in February. The company has come under increased scrutiny after a terror attack targeting two New Zealand mosques in March was streamed live on its platform. Following the attack, Facebook announced that it would ban all "praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism." Facebook said that posts expressing praise or support for individuals and groups removed from its platforms on Thursday will also be banned. Griffin responded on Twitter, saying: "How much longer before Twitter follow[s] suit?" He asked his followers to join him on other social networks. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Facebook bans British far-right groups and their leaders." The 60-year-old man who was shot and killed during a SWAT standoff on the South Side was identified Thursday morning by the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office. Lee Roy Bachmeyer Jr. ran outside to see what was happening when a woman left her home in the 200 block of Belden Avenue Tuesday. AS IT HAPPENED: Standoff at burning home ends with 2 dead, 1 injured The gunman, who has not yet been identified by the medical examiner's office, shot at the woman with a rifle as she left her home, but struck and killed Bachmeyer instead, according to police. Police at the scene dragged Bachmeyer out of the line of fire to treat him, but were unable to save him. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said that Bachmeyer and the suspect have a "history" between each other. The suspect was eventually found dead after he set the house on fire and engaged police in a gunfight. It's unclear whether the gunman shot himself, however, or if he was fatally shot by police. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox Once the gunman was determined to be dead, firefighters rushed in to put out the fire, which also damaged a neighboring home. Although the suspect has not yet been identified, police said they have been called to that home several times in the past six months. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | fsabawi@mysa.com|@FaresInSA San Antonio police are investigating a fatal shooting that happened late Wednesday night on the city's East Side. Officers were called to the 2900 block of Rigsby Avenue, where they found a man with a gunshot wound to his stomach. The man is believed to be about 20 years old, police said. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox A witness told police that they saw the man speaking to another man in a white SUV. As the man was walking away, he was allegedly shot by a gunman in the white car, which quickly fled the scene, police said. The man was rushed to San Antonio Military Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | fsabawi@mysa.com|@FaresInSA A San Antonio police officer suffered injuries to his head and back after his car was allegedly struck Thursday morning by an SUV on the city's West Side. Police said that the officer was exiting a 7-Eleven parking lot on Culebra Road and North Zarzamora Street when he was t-boned by the SUV around 1:20 a.m. Traffic in the southbound lanes of Loop 1604 were backed up Thursday morning after an 18-wheeler rolled over, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. The rollover was reported around 8 a.m. near Culebra Road. That Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., went on Fox News for a town hall Monday night was controversial among Democrats. As Sanders told hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, Not everybody thought I should come on this show. Your network does not necessarily have great respect in my world, but I thought it was important for me to be here and have a serious discussion about serious issues. What Sanders painted as a magnanimous gesture was really a calculated move to boost his presidential prospects: He needs Fox viewers to win the White House. According to the massive Cooperative Congressional Election Study, about 12 percent of Sanders primary voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump in the 2016 general election. These Sanders voters appear to have given Trump the margin of victory in the three states that handed Trump the White House. The Fox News town hall was held in Bethlehem, Pa., in a state where some 16 percent of Sanders supporters about 117,100 people voted for Trump; Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes. It was a similar story in Wisconsin, where about 9 percent of Sanders supporters about 51,317 people voted for Trump; Trump won Wisconsin by 22,748 votes. And in Michigan, about 8 percent of Sanders voters or about 47,915 people cast their general election ballots for Trump; Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes. If Sanders wants to win the Democratic nomination, he needs these Trump voters to support him in the primaries. And if he does win the nomination, he needs them to stay in his column and vote for him instead of Trump in 2020. Can Sanders separate his former supporters from Trump? Going on Fox News and making his pitch that Trump has failed them is a smart way to do it. Indeed, Sanders not only participated in the Fox town hall, he published an op-ed on the Fox News website, in which he declared, When Donald Trump ran for president he made a lot of promises to working families. He told them that he would protect their interests while standing up to the Establishment. Unfortunately, he did not tell the truth. During his town hall, Sanders criticized Trump for proposing an $845 billion cut to Medicare and made an impassioned pitch for his Medicare-for-all plan. Selling a government takeover of the U.S. health-care system on Fox may seem counterintuitive, but many of those who defected to Trump in 2016 are nontraditional Republican voters who were attracted to Trump precisely because he promised not to touch Social Security and Medicare. So, Medicare-for-all is not anathema to them the way it is to conservatives. Indeed, when Baier asked the town-hall audience whether, with a show of hands, they would be willing to transition from their employer-provided insurance to the government-run system Sanders is proposing, the pro-Bernie crowd cheered and many hands went up. The biggest challenge for Sanders in winning back Trump-Sanders voters is that Trump is delivering for these forgotten Americans. Since Trump took office, the United States has added 491,000 manufacturing jobs, the fastest pace of U.S. manufacturing growth in almost a quarter-century. The Wall Street Journal reports that The unemployment rate for high school dropouts fell to 5% last year. In the past year, median weekly wages for the group rose more than 6%, outpacing all other groups. As MacCallum pointed out to Sanders, unemployment in Pennsylvania is down and wages in the state are up by 6.6 percent. How, she asked, do you convince those people in this area who youd like to win over this time around that they should change horses and go with you when things are going well? Its a pivotal question. Sanders told her that Trump is not responsible for that progress it began under President Barack Obama and that most of the benefits of the global economic recovery and Trumps tax cuts have gone to the very wealthy, while Republicans refuse to give working families access to health care and a livable wage. He is telling his former voters, in essence, Trump has failed you, and I can do better; Trump claims to be an outsider, but I am the real deal. Will it work? Will these former Sanders voters, having helped put Trump in the White House, stick with the president, or will they switch back to their first love, Bernie Sanders? The answer may well determine who wins the Democratic nomination and the presidency in 2020. @marcthiessen House Bill 3292 is a small bill. One that Rep. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat from San Antonio, filed late in the session. Its also a terrible bill that would open the door for predatory lending through a scheme known as sale-leaseback. Under such a transaction a person sells an item and then leases it back at extremely high cost. For example, a person who needs quick cash might have a television that is worth $300. That person would sell the TV for $200 and then lease it for $60 every two weeks (or even more). At best, a person will buy back his or her TV for $260 after two weeks. But that doesnt always happen. A person can easily get caught in a cycle of debt, making lease payments again and again. Sounds more like a predatory loan than a straightforward lease, right? That was the view in 2000 when problems with these types of transactions hit the radar of state lawmakers. If these short-term transactions were stretched out over the course of the year, their fees were often the equivalent of annual percentage rates of 790 percent. As an interim report at that time from the Senate Committee on Economic Development noted, One industry which has embraced the subterfuge of renaming the loan transaction in order to avoid regulatory oversight by the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner is the sale/leaseback industry. Texas lawmakers saw through this subterfuge and in 2001 designated sale-leaseback transactions as loans, meaning they were subject to consumer protections and limits under state law. Now, Gutierrez wants to roll these protections back. He has said this is for technical reasons. He said his bill will bring the Texas statute in line with other states and the Uniform Commercial Code. He said this will give consumers important finance options. Is Texas out of line? We dont think so. South Dakota singles out sale-leaseback as subterfuge and prohibits people from making loans disguised as a personal property sale and leaseback transaction. And Colorado law says much the same: No person may engage in any device, subterfuge, or pretense to evade the requirements of this article, including making loans disguised as a personal property sale, and leaseback transaction. There are other problems with this bill. Perhaps most significantly it undercuts the Military Lending Act, which was passed in 2006 and protects active duty military from predatory lending practices. But as Ann Baddour, director of the Fair Financial Services Project at Texas Appleseed, told us, the Military Lending Act would not cover sale-leaseback transactions if they are not considered a loan in Texas. The same rationale applies to the city of San Antonios ordinance regulating payday and auto title lending. If sale-leaseback transactions are not loans, then the ordinance would not apply. Gutierrez sits on the Houses Pensions, Investments and Financial Services Committee, and during a recent hearing he heard major pushback about this bill from faith groups from across the state and the United Way of Greater Houston. Speaker after speaker, including Baddour, raised these concerns. Only one speaker, an attorney connected to the payday lending industry, supported the bill. To get around this problem, Gutierrez modified his bill, but the language used is particularly tricky. The updated bill states a sale-leaseback will still be considered a loan except for those sale-leaseback transactions that comply with the Consumer Leasing Act and the Military Lending Act to the extent applicable. What that language really means is these transactions dont have to comply with these laws and therefore are not loans. Its a particularly insidious carveout. Who is asking for more predatory lending in San Antonio and Texas? Gutierrez provided no illumination. Somebody from industry brought it to our office, he said. They dont always come to me. They come to staff. But he has chosen to carry this water, pushing it out of the committee. This bill is bad for Texas consumers. Its bad for San Antonio. It should not be supported by any member of the Bexar County delegation. The devastating damage to Notre Dame has released an emotional outpouring. Unfortunately, there will also be people and organizations seeking to take advantage. There will be several appeals for funds. Many will not be legitimate. Verification is important. Can the cathedral come back? Look at the terrible fire at Our Lady of the Lake University eleven years ago. Our statue fell just as did Notre Dames spire. But, the citizens of the city joined and rebuilt. Look at the university now better than ever. The same will happen in Paris. Star Carey, Canyon Lake Remember the DRT The new plans for the Alamo and Alamo Plaza appear to be grand and good for the city. However, Id like to remind people that the Daughters of the Republic of Texas saved the Alamo from destruction and kept the memories of its role in Texas history alive. If not for them, the Alamo may not exist today. When one San Antonio lady Adina De Zavala decided to save it from destruction and disrespect, the chapel and grounds were run down and uncared for. The state of Texas moved in to take control of the Alamo in 2015, and the Daughters have since been treated shabbily for all their efforts. During Fiesta, the events of the Texas Revolution are honored, but lets also remember whose hard work helped the Alamo be what it is today. Janet Smith DWI solution People with a drinking problem need the kind of help that is certainly not available behind bars. When they repeatedly drive drunk, society has few available choices in which they can offer assistance. In my opinion, the only logical choice is to install a breathalyzer on all commercial and private vehicles. At the very least, those drivers are pulled over for DUI. Did you know kits are available online to prohibit a vehicle from starting when alcohol is detected? Harold Estep Fair Trade Friday Earring of the Month 4.9 overall rating 7 Ratings | 2 Reviews Fair Trade Friday is an organization that helps to empower women and battle poverty through dignified, sustainable industry (craftsmanship). They have three subscriptions to choose from that send fairly traded items from around the world: The Original Box, Bracelet of the Month, and Earring of the Month. I have subscribed to the Earring of the Month box for years now, and I am really excited to be reviewing the Original Box now! MSA paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.) About Fair Trade Friday Subscription Box The Subscription: Fair Trade Friday Original Box The Cost: $32.99 per month. Save with 3, 6, and 12 month subscriptions The Products: 2-4 fairly traded global handicrafts Ships to: US for free; varies to other countries Fair Trade Friday Slow Fashion March 2019 review This booklet is included every month, and it has nice details about the items and the artisans who created them. This months theme is Slow Fashion. HandUp Global Goods, Macrame Earrings Retail Value $16, Listed Value $20 While Ive gone on the record stating that I am tired of the threaded tassels jewelry trend, these are different. These are macrame, and I absolutely love macrame! This is every boho girls dream! I also like that they are white and contrast with my hair. So pretty! They were made by young men at HandUp Global Goods, which is an awesome charity organization in Haiti. It works with teens in orphanages who are aging out of the program so that they have skills and sustainable employment once they are on their own. They have been working on this order for Fair Trade Friday for a year! Thats amazing! Village Artisan, Chay Way Scarf Estimated Value $29.95 (based on a similar item found here), Listed Value $28 I have never heard of a Chay Way before! Its a scarf-like item that you can wear nine different ways! I am showing it here as a scarf and as a shrug. It is so pretty! Its really sheer and delicate. There are buttons down either side so it can be worn as a shrug. I love it! I am also happy that it seems to fit a variety of sizes. This was made by Village Artisan, an organization in North India that provides fair trade, sustainable training and employment to the impoverished of the area. The Verdict: I love my subscription to Fair Trade Friday Original Box! Both items this month are beautiful, and I am sure I will get lots of use out of them. I also like all of the information they provide to show how your subscription directly impacts the lives of others. It makes the subscription seem that much more special. To Wrap Up: If I subscribe today, can I still receive this box? No. In order to receive the box of the month, you must subscribe before the 24th of the previous month. Value Breakdown: This box cost $32.99 + free shipping. It included two items, so the average cost per item is $16.50. The total estimated retail for all items is $45.95, which means the savings on this box is nearly 33%! Check out all of our Fair Trade Friday reviews and our best subscription boxes for women! Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist! What do you think of this months Fair Trade Friday Original box? The Morgan Tsvangirai Legacy pressure group has dismissed the Advocate Nelson Chamisa led MDC congress set for May this year, as null and void saying they are now preparing for an extraordinary congress to elect a legitimate successor to the late Tsvangirai. Cracks within the opposition Chamisa-led MDC continue to widen. Several members of the Morgan Tsvangirai Legacy pressure group gathered in capital and declared Advocate Chamisa as illegitimate president. We are in the process of conducting an audit to restore all official structures which Advocate Chamisa and cabal have replaced with their own people, after that we will hold an extraordinary congress in line with constitution to elect a legitimate successor to Tsvangirai, said the groups spokesperson Webber Chinyadza. The pressure group denounced all the recently held provincial nominations conducted under the orgy of violence as they have nothing to do with MDC. It remains to be seen if the pressure groups resolution to declare the MDC May congress null and void will hold water or mark the beginning of yet another MDC split. ZBC Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Entrepreneur Wicknell Chivayo has appealed for assistance with the famous Chicken Inn Couples contact numbers so he can send them some congratulations present following their recent wedding. Makhosana Mguni (27) and his fiancee Belinda Nyoni (24), who are now famously known across the country as the Chicken Inn proposal couple, held their wedding in Bulawayo last weekend. Wicknell says: Why werent we all invited to this function? Congrats to the CHICKEN INN COUPLE I hope Chicken Inn finds a way to continue to supporting them financially. Love doesnt pay the bills Someone please help me with Makhosanas contact details so I call him and say congrats brother, Chivayo said on Thursday morning. He however thinks the couple is not financially stable because they proposed at a chicken Inn outlet. No disrespect to the couple but using your common sense when someone proposes at a chicken inn outlet can it be assumed that they are financially stable? Chivayo jabbed. Meanwhile, fast-food outlet Chicken Inn has also congratulated the couple. A very big congratulations to our #ChickenInnCouple, Makhosana and Belinda, on tying the knot at their Lobola Ceremony this weekend in Bulawayo! We wish you many more years filled with love, joy and prosperity!, said their tweet. What started off as an act to publicly declare his love and affection for a woman he describes as his everything on December 26, 2018 at Chicken Inn Drive Thru, quickly trended on the Internet as Makhosanas picture on bended knee was plastered on social media platforms When the picture went viral on social media, there were people who ridiculed Makhosana for proposing at a fast food joint. This for him was a shock as Chicken Inn was the ideal place to propose to Belinda as it was the place they met, exchanged digits and held their first date six years ago. After the proposal and pictures were taken, Belinda was sent a WhatsApp text from her sister in the United Kingdom, informing her she was all over the Internet. Fortunately, the Internet trolls were quickly dismissed by the majority and their misgivings were soon drowned in the voices of those who celebrated the newly engaged couple. The proposal, Makhosana said was a culmination of a six-year relationship that is filled with love between neighbours who live in Bulawayos Nketa 6 suburb.. ZOOMZimbabwe Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Thabiso Proud Mlanje also known as Brighton Elliot Moyo was paid R50,000 by South African Pastor Alph Lukaus church Alleluia Ministries International, a South Africa based investigative journalist Mxolisi Ncube has revealed. Writing on his blog African Voice Global Ncube said, He (Elliot) was promised R150,000 for his role in the act, but only got R50,000, which he shared with his sister-in-law at a ratio he did not disclose. Ncube who claims that he interviewed Elliot in Johannesburg before he died says Elliot confessed to have been part of a broader plan which is being orchestrated by Lukau to deceive Christians. Soon after the resurrection stunt, Elliot heard a fraud case had been opened by the South African Police Service and immediately left Pretoria to hide in Johannesburg. His hideout was a house in Yeoville, rented by his wifes elder sister, who also happened to be the person who recruited him to Lukaus church in the first place. Working with some members of Lukaus church, I went to the hideout in Yeoville on March 3 and I found him there, looking unhealthy and having what appeared to be serious chest pains. Possibly to avoid recognition by police and the public, he had cut his hair from the Afro which was trending on the video and social media pages. Ncube further says the sister-in-law who is alleged to have recruited Elliot warned him that he would die if he discloses the deal that the church wanted to do with him. She revealed all this to Elliot, telling him she had recruited more than 100 people who were all well-paid. Before she could tell him what needed to be done, she sought his word that he would never sell her out to the public, as she was under tight surveillance from the church security and could be eliminated anytime. She also told him he would die a painful death if he ever sold out on the pastor, as the church had eyes and ears everywhere, including within the police and the South African government. Desperate for money, he accepted the role. His illness was worsening and he hoped to get something that would help him get better treatment at private hospitals. A day before he went for a briefing in the church, Elliot was seized by a whooping cough from which he passed out and was rushed to a Johannesburg hospital as an emergency case. He was turned away because he did not have proper documents. That became the setting for the miracle which everyone now knows. Ncube added that after the miracle Elliots sister-in-law fled to Swaziland after hearing that the police were investigating the resurrection miracle. Soon after the miracle act, Elliot heard Lukau was angry with the loopholes in his act and that the police were after both the pastor and him, following a fraud case that had been jointly opened by three funeral palours at Jeppe police station. His sister-in-law immediately fled to Swaziland, where she apparently stayed for a week, while he hid with his wife at the Yeoville house. During the interview, he revealed his health was deteriorating by the minute. He wanted to return to Zimbabwe to get better treatment because he feared his life was at risk in South Africa, where he could be arrested and sent to jail, thereby failing to get proper health care. He could however, not go straight to his home, fearing the wrath of his grandmother, who could have heard about his stunt. Police in Zimbabwe, might also have looked for him there, so he was looking for a better place to go, where he would get his treatment and sneak back to South Africa once he got better and the air cooled. Perhaps that explained why he is said to have lived at his in-laws place upon arrival in Zimbabwe. Byo24 Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News By Dina Srinivasan. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website Facebook is always in the news, but not always for edifying reasons. Recently, the Trump administration sued Facebook for targeting housing ads to people in a discriminatory manner. In 2018, a great deal of coverage focused on how the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica misappropriated thousands of Facebook data points on more than 200 million users and may have used that data in efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Meanwhile, publishing executives continue to gripe about Facebook practices that have brought much of their industry to deaths door. As bad news piles up, some politicians and critics have begun to call for a breakup of big tech companies. But thus far, a step-by-step explanation of how its business model works and the relevant economic arguments have largely been missing. My paper, The Antitrust Case Against Facebook, details the quintessential market power fact-patterns that standard economics and competition law have made familiar. Facebooks ability to inflict harm today on both consumers and news publishers rests heavily, though not exclusively, on a single practice that Facebook engages in: surveillance. Facebook not only tracks users while they are on its site; it also follows them after they leave Facebook itself. This singular ability to surveil customersacross millions of independent and sometimes competitive businessesis the source of Facebooks unusually high profit margins in digital advertising, as well as its ability to inflict harm on market participants. Facebook could not get away with this when it faced real competition. It is important to understand what Facebook did to establish its dominant market position. For ten years, privacy (not surveillance) was Facebooks proclaimed competitive advantage. This always included the specific promise not to track users across the Internet. But in 2014, after Facebook locked in the market, and competitors exited, its leadership abruptly changed their minds about tracking. To conduct the tracking, it leveraged an extensive framework for surveillance that it spent years building while deflecting concern that it might have been building up capacities for precisely this purpose. Consumers today face a classic Hobsons choice: Use Facebook and submit to the loss of privacy, or forgo all use of the only social network used by most of their friends, family, and acquaintances. Facebooks monopolistic position implies that familiar economic meanings of the word price undergo a subtle transformation in meaning. When one signs up for a free Facebook account, the price is what the user agrees to in Facebooks terms and conditions. When you use any free media service, somewhere in the fine print, you are made to understand that advertising will a part of that bargain. Today, though, if you use Facebook, you also agree that Facebook will track you. Meaning, Facebook will monitor what you research, read, shop for, purchase, or even input across millions of sites and mobile applications on the Internet. According to a recent Wall Street Journal investigation, agreeing to this tracking includes allowing Facebook to ingest the most sensitive and personal details that you enter on unrelated mobile applications. For example, when you enter your heart rate or information about your ovulation cycle onto one of the many popular health apps, these apps share that data with Facebook almost immediately. For those that use an Android phone, the surveillance goes deeper in a different direction. Facebook apparently scrapes a record of your phone callseffectively rendering use of the Facebook social network the equivalent of having a pen register on your device. If the people would not allow a government to track citizens, why is their free market resulting in the same outcome? What many dont remember is that when the social network market faced competitionwhen dozens of companies competed in an attempt to win market share, and all competing products were priced at zeroprivacy quickly emerged as a key differentiator. When Facebook entered the market it specifically promised users: We do not and will not use cookies to collect private information from any user. Levels of user privacy werent only relevant to Facebooks market entry; they were at the crux of the Facebook-user bargain from 2004 through 2014. Facebook consistently promised consumers it would not track their digital footprints off of Facebook itself. Facebook tried to renege on this promise in 2007 but the market was competitive enough, and had enough consumer choice, to thwart that attempt. Consumer pushback forced Facebooks retreat. Then, when the company launched its like buttons in 2010, consumers were concerned that Facebook might leverage the buttons to conduct surveillance. Facebook placated consumers by assuring them that like buttons would not be used for tracking. Facebooks conduct from 2004 through 2012, provides the benchmark of qualityat least with respect to commercial surveillancethat the restraining forces of competition demanded. Competition didnt only restrain Facebooks ability to track users. It restrained every social network from trying to engage in this behavior. Speaking on behalf of then-competitor MySpace, owned by News Corp., one analyst commented on this dynamic: News Corp. and Fox recognize the importance of allowing people to be alone with their friends, so they do not feel like they are being looked at by Big Brother. They understand how many competitors they have nipping at their heels right now, so they are doing everything they can not to alienate users. In other words, competition protected people from todays Orwellian practices. While competition ensured that the market produced something that was good for consumers, the exit of competition greenlit a change in conduct by the sole surviving firm. By early 2014, dozens of rivals that initially competed with Facebook had effectively exited the market. In June of 2014, rival Google announced it would shut down its competitive social network, ceding the social network market to Facebook. For Facebook, the network effects of more than a billion users on a closed-communications protocol further locked in the market in its favor. These circumstancesthe exit of competition and the lock-in of consumersfinally allowed Facebook to get consumers to agree to something they had resisted from the beginning. Almost simultaneous with Googles exit, Facebook announced (also in June of 2014) that it would begin to track users behavior on websites and apps across the Internet and use the data gleaned from such surveillance to target and influence consumers. Shortly thereafter, it started tracking non-users too. It uses the like buttons and other software licenses to do so. It was only after an historic public offering, the acquisition of more than a billion users who had been promised privacy, and the exit of competitors, that Facebook was finally able to compel consumers to consent to this state of affairs. It is important to note that Facebooks ability to get people to agree to this level of surveillance is also the basis of Facebooks ability to harm consumers and publishers. Surveillance translates into influence: Information gathered about people can be used to try to influence election outcomes, which is now well known. But information gleaned from surveillance can also be used against people in other ways. If Facebook is monitoring usage of the health apps on your mobile phone, and therefore knows intimate details about your health, it can steer housing or job ads away from you based on this knowledge. Facebooks policy of tracking users across the Internet hurts competition, too. Facebook tracks what a publications readers are reading, and then turns around and uses that information to undercut that very publication in advertising markets. For example, if Facebook tracks that you are reading an article about foreign policy on The Economists website, it can turn around and sell ads directed at you for a lower cost than what The Economist could (since The Economist has to pay the writers to create the content). This cross-site tracking is the underlying mechanism that explains why Facebook and Google gain almost every incremental dollar that enters the digital advertising market. Meanwhile, establishment media organizations like The Guardian are now asking readers for donations, while start-ups like BuzzFeed have resorted to layoffs. The problem is that people may not have chosen Facebook as the market winner had Facebook been honest about its intentions. For more than 10 years, Facebook induced users to choose Facebook over other social networks by promising high levels of privacy. But, as I catalogue in the paper, many of those promises were false, even at the time. For example, the company was getting users to choose Facebook based on promises that it would not track them, but at the same time filed a patent to do precisely that. When Facebook toyed with tracking consumers in 2007 but consumer push-back forced it to retreat, consumers became suspicious of the companys long-term privacy intentions. To assuage users, Facebook promised it would let users vote on future privacy changes. Were making it so that we cant just put in a new terms of service without everyones permission, said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. We think these changes will increase the bonding and trust users place in the service. But after Facebook further locked in the market, it revoked users ability to vote on privacy changes. Facebooks course of misleading conduct resulted in precisely the type of harm that antitrust law concerns itself with: the exit of rivals and the subsequent extraction of monopoly rents at the expense of consumer welfare. While deceptive conduct is not usually the concern of antitrust law, it can be a form of anticompetitive behavior in markets that exhibit strong direct network effects. Misleading, deceptive, or otherwise unethical conduct at the early stages can induce market participants to choose the firm that they think increases their welfare, but which actually locks in the market for that firm to their detriment. Under the Sherman Act, the U.S. antitrust law, it is illegal for companies to willfully acquire monopoly power in a market by engaging in behavior that is anticompetitiveincluding behavior that is unethical or deceptive. While politicians and regulators grapple with how to make sense of consumer privacy concerns and the power of Big Tech, competition principles explain why Facebook can today extract this exchange from a democratic peopleand how it might be stopped from doing so. It is time for regulators, judges, or public policy to remedy this momentous case of bait and switch. Yves here This post may seen a bit abstract, but it attempts to map out how to increase democratic accountability and counter the influence powerful private sector interests have over major international institutions. While another response has been to try to bolster national sovereignity, that cant go very far in a world where economies smaller than the US and China (or ones that are or have been forced to autarkies, like India, Russia, and Iran) operate through regional trade blocs. The shortcoming of nationalism as a response to how the global wealthy have succeeded in using their ability to arbitrage markets to foment a race to the bottom in environmental, regulatory, and labor standards is that it often winds up being dominated by right wing interests that play upon xenophobia and by design dont address the problems of mobile capital and long supply chains. So embedded internationalism isnt quite a solution, it at least helps clarify the nature of the problem and where some approaches might lie. By David Adler (@davidrkadler), a political researcher. Originally published at openDemocracy Progressives must urgently develop a new vision for international institutions, or they will be reshaped in the image of our opponents. This article is part of a series by openDemocracy and the Bretton Woods Project on the crisis of multilateralism. The views expressed are those of the authors only, and are not necessarily representative of either organisation. A coup is underway at the World Bank, and no one is watching. On Friday, 5 April, the executive directors of the worlds most powerful multilateral bank voted unanimously to appoint David Malpass a staunch supporter of Donald Trump and fierce critic of globalism as its new president. The decision honoured the gentlemans agreement that allows the US president to install an ally at the helm of the bank despite a hard-fought campaign to allow for an open selection. The direction of the bank will now be set by a man who believes that multilateralism has gone substantially too far to obstruct the America First agenda. But beyond the pages of the Financial Times, these proceedings have barely dented public discourse. Malpass will begin his five-year term without a single street protest or a single press statement by a major political party. The silence is puzzling. The World Bank, like its partner the IMF, has huge costs. The United States alone contributes $155 billion of taxpayer money to the bank more than double what it spends on food stamps each year. These institutions also have huge consequences. As the Bretton Woods Project has revealed, the World Bank and the IMF continue to demand austerity and drive privatization across the global south. The scale and scope of these institutions suggests that their management should invite serious public scrutiny. But they do not and this is not an accident. International institutions are intentionally insulated from democratic demands. A very generous reading would suggest that this is because international institutions must be protected from the vagaries of the electoral cycle. Their democratic deficit is, according to this view, a virtue. International institutions could never withstand grassroots intervention. But this strategy has now clearly and dramatically backfired. By closing themselves off from public view, these institutions made themselves easy targets for political entrepreneurs seeking a scapegoat for their domestic crises. The European Union, the United Nations, NATO international institutions have become the bogeymen of populist movements around the world. There are important reasons to revile these institutions, but they are rarely those cited by the blustering Brexiteers or MAGA chuds. In other words, if democracy once appeared as the great danger to the integrity of international institutions, technocracy has revealed itself as their true existential threat. It is time, then, to bring the politics back in not only as a strategy for building a new internationalism, but also as a necessary defence against the alt-globalist agenda that is climbing its way to the very top of our international institutions, one quiet coup at a time. II. But what, exactly, does this mean? How should we make sense of the struggle to reclaim international institutions? And what are the strategies to get there? To answer these questions, it is helpful to set out the terrain. I map the political economy of this struggle across two axes. The first is embeddedness: the extent to which markets are anchored in society. At one end is laissez faire capitalism, a free market unconstrained by moral considerations and economic regulations. Everything here is a commodity, including human life and the earth itself. The axis therefore moves upward toward decommodification, enshrining protections that limit the exploitation of resources like labour and land. The first axis could also be described by its more modern inverse, financialisation: the extent to which elements of society present themselves as opportunities for financial speculation. To disembed is to financialise. To re-embed is to definancialise. The second axis is scale: the level at which political activity is organized, from the national to the global. Figure 1: The Axes of Internationalism The map tells the story of a century of political conflict. In its first half, the primary conflict occurred along the axis of embeddedness at the national level. A Gilded Age of capitalism witnessed the emergence of a consolidated national bourgeoisie, which built new institutions peak associations, political machines to disembed the economy. New workers movements then organized their own institutions at the national level trade unions, political parties in order to demand that governments combat inequality, provide decent jobs, and enshrine new rights to services like healthcare and goods like housing. Social democracy was born. The latter half of the century activated the second axis. Having been tamed at the national level, capital went global, chasing opportunities in countries where the economy was far less constrained by embedding regulations. Of course, they did not encounter those countries in a natural state of disembeddedness. Rather, this process required the construction and mobilization of institutions that would clear the way for international investors. The World Bank and the IMF, dangling the carrot of development resources, were refashioned to play this role. Promoting their Washington Consensus, these institutions acted as vehicles for a global disembedding of the economy both directly, in the cases of countries that agreed to the terms of structural adjustment; and indirectly, in the cases of countries who were forced to compete with them, applying pressure to undo the progress of the social democratic arrangement. In other words, capital and labour have been caught in a game of cat and mouse across the quadrants of this map. Capital first scurried to enshrine its interests at the national level, then labour caught up and contested. Capital scurried to reconstruct the global economy in its image but no social movement has emerged to contest it at that scale. Indeed, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008, new political movements tended to point toward more familiar quadrants of the map. Right-wing populists from Nigel Farage to Donald Trump heralded a new model of national neoliberalism: shifting back on the axis of scale while demanding a deeply disembedded economy Singapore-on-Thames, or the Trump tax cuts. Their left-wing opponents similarly called to reassert the primacy of the nation, but with much stronger social protections. Globalization, both agreed, had gone too far. But in calling to return to the nation, the new social democrats failed to learn the lessons of the past. Capital, now globalized, has the upper hand against individual nations that hope to contest it. It can slither between borders, and hide out in havens. The mouse is out of the bag now we must train the cat to find it. In other words, our task is to push into the missing quadrant to re-embed the institutions that govern the global economy: an embedded internationalism. Figure 2: Strategies for Embedded Internationalism But how, exactly, do we get there? The map provides some ideas. In particular, it suggests two lines of strategic attack that we must pursue simultaneously. The first is contestation: igniting a transnational debate that links social movements around the world in a single conversation about our international institutions scaling up along the x-axis. The last half-century of globalization has made our national debates increasingly alike in content, focused on transnational issues like trade and finance in a global economy. But they remain fragmented in form: few social movements or political parties coordinate their platforms across borders. Scaling up means integrating these national debates to match the scale of their issues. In a word, we need to get international institutions back on the ballot, calling on progressive politicians to outline their own vision for institutions like the World Bank, IMF, ILO, and the UN. The second is democratization: demanding reforms that shift power away from the technocrats and toward regular people re-embedding along the y-axis. We might start by killing the gentlemans agreement that allows the US and the EU to install their allies at the head of the World Bank and IMF, respectively. But we should also call to introduce democratic representation at the heart of these institutions, allowing countries to elect members of their governing council. These may sound like pipedreams. But the perverse power structure of our international institutions means that a progressive president in the White House or prime minister at Number 10 could radically shift the momentum in favour of these proposals. After all, countries like the US and the UK hold key purse strings. If contestation can push their governments to table serious democratization reforms to raise the voices of small countries around the world these proposals will get a hearing. Of course, not every institution can be salvaged in the process of re-embedding the global economy. Consider the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a wing of the World Bank Group that oversees private sector investment in developing countries. The IFC today acts as little more than an engine for financialisation, turning public wealth into financial products that can be traded across the financial sector. A bold agenda for global re-embedding would simply abolish the IFC full stop. But new institutions can be proposed in its place. Progressives around the world are crying out to coordinate their demands and fight together to constrain the global oligarchy. All it takes is one progressive government with the courage and the imagination to propose new institutions to do so: worker ownership funds, green transition institutions, tax justice authorities. Even proposals that are introduced unilaterally will soon attract international participation. If the US builds it, in particular, they will certainly come. Critics like Adam Tooze suggest that efforts to reclaim and transform the international institutional order are quixotic, because the global economy is too fluid, too volatile to be ordered in this way. But laissez faire was planned, and globalization was, too and now David Malpass is preparing to remould them. Progressives should take a page from the playbook of their opponents and develop a plan to roll out new institutions for the re-embedding of the economy, rather than simply relying on ad-hoc interventions to roll back the mistakes of the past. III. On the eve of Trumps inauguration, the United States was poised to retreat from its role as the driver of global disembedding. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was dead. America First was alive. And virtually every international institution had earned the ire of the incoming president. If the word isolationist has any meaning, [Trump] qualifies as one, the FT reported. But now we can see that the right-wing populist project is more dangerous than it first appeared. Far from rejecting international institutions scaling back from the global level to the national one Trump and his allies are mounting their take-over. The objection to the Washington Consensus, it turns out, was not that it did not serve their interests. It was that it did not serve them well enough. This is what David Malpass means when he says that multilateralism has gone too far. It is all too easy for progressives to dismiss international institutions as the machinery of global capital, and to focus where power appears closer at hand. But we cannot afford to play peek-a-boo politics: just because we dont talk about the World Bank and the IMF doesnt mean that they are not still there. As the mess of Brexit has definitively demonstrated, power at the international level is a prerequisite for sovereignty much lower down, particularly in countries that lack the geopolitical weight to set the international agenda. We must therefore develop our own vision of international institutional change, or else they will be reshaped by our opponents. The first steps of this strategy are now clear. We must contest globally, reminding people and parties around the world that international institutions are theirs for the taking. And we must demand democracy, reigniting our imagination about how to transform them. But the prospects for such a transformation are far better than they may appear. The unanimous appointment of an anti-globalist like David Malpass at the helm of a hyper-globalizing institution like the World Bank should be an inspiration to all of us that radical change may be around the corner. Notre Dame Bald eagles are littering Seattle backyards with landfill trash TreeHugger (resilc) Deer kills man, injures woman near Wangaratta in north-east Victoria abc.com.au (YY) Elusive molecule, first in Universe, detected in space PhysOrg Would life be happier without Google? I spent a week finding out Guardian. Martha r: More interesting than one might expect. Untold History of AI: Algorithmic Bias Was Born in the 1980s Spectrum IEEE (David L) Bad Bots Now Make Up 20 Percent of Web Traffic ZDNet There is no garbage patch in the Southern Indian Ocean, so where is the rubbish? abc.net.au (Kevin W) Brain functions in pigs restored hours after death Financial Times Arsenic in Some Bottled Water Brands at Unsafe Levels, Consumer Reports Says Consumer Reports (David L) Mens beards carry more germs than dog fur, according to science MedicalXpress The Truth About Dentistry Atlantic. There are dental quacks. And a general dentist doing root canals is another red flag.if you are told you need one, go to an endodontist, who should do tests on whether the root is viable. One of my cleaning women had one do five root canals in short succession, and in no way were they warranted. And ironically, what made non-dental medicine more scientific in the US was.drumrollinsurance. Insurers didnt want to pay doctors for treatments that were ineffective or not warranted. However, I beg to differ on their take on checkups. Checkups include cleaning plaque. If you have post;fluoride era teeth, less is probably OK. But if you pre-fluoridation teeth, and/or have a fair number of fillings, you need more frequent checkups. First, those fillings will eventually lead to future fillings. Save for gold, they dont have the same density as teeth and also respond to heat and cold differently than teeth. That means you will eventually get decay, and that decay could well form in spots that are shadowed on X-rays, meaning they could become large or symptomatic before the dentist will find them. Researchers develop new platform that recreates cancer in a dish to quickly determine the best bacterial therapy PhysOrg (Chuck L) China? North Korea Japan starts its kabuki performance with Trump Asia Times (Kevin W) Brexit Pelosi: No US-UK trade deal if Brexit harms Irish peace deal The Hill. Mentioned by PlutoniumKun as pointedly ignored (as of yesterday) in UK press. Sadiq Khan accused by rank and file police of aggravating Extinction Rebellion protests Telegraph Venezuela Big Brother is Watching You Watch Trump Transition Elizabeth Warren praises Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Time 100 list of most influential people Boston (furzy) 2020 Wisconsin Republicans Are Yucking It Up About AOCs Green New Deal While Trade Wars Crush Dairy Farmers Esquire (resilc) Lawyering While Black: Cop Detains Attorney in Courthouse, Accuses Him of Impersonating a Lawyer The Root (Robert H). Wowsers. Gunz Traders wake up to cost of coffee crisis Financial Times Review units of Samsungs folding phone are breaking, and its a potential fiasco that threatens the companys fragile reputation Business Insider (Kevin W) Lyft Investors Sue Over Slump, Claiming IPO Was Overhyped Bloomberg (David L) Pinterest prices IPO at $19, valuing social media company at $10 billion CNBC First Japan-Built Airliner in 50 Years Takes on Boeing and Airbus Bloomberg Class Warfare Antidote du jour (Tracie H): And a bonus (guurst): Furry death noodle / long kitty / procrastination engine > Ozzy the adorable desk weasel, full video > https://t.co/zaPm5d1V9lhttps://t.co/iJXjJavqAH pic.twitter.com/xDqsWIsEmh Fiona Lang (@fiona_lang) March 28, 2019 See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. Nature has manufactured the perfect machines. Only the fastest, toughest, and most cunning creatures have endured. We examine how animals have evolved and how we can benefit from their evolution. Sundays from 8:30pm AEDT. (Natural News) The human body and brain are so complex and amazing that its truly a miracle when we are born healthy and our machine is firing on all cylinders. Many parents are anxious, worried and some even paranoid that the newborn baby might not get enough nutrition or have the proper immunity to fight off infections, germs and diseases. Thats quite understandable; however, mainstream media and junk science (chemical Pharma) take full advantage of these concerns, spreading propaganda and misinformation worldwide across the internet and through the mouths of medical doctors. Sure, medical knowledge and child care has come a long way from a century ago, but lets face it, chemical medicine and processed food have created and spread more diseases and disorders than theyve prevented or cured, so its time to get down to brass taxes with the best ways to take care of a newborn baby who, after all, comes into this world organically. We dont need chemicals to breathe, eat, think or grow, so WHY would we need them to start off and maintain a healthy life? Are you paranoid your new baby will die from some horrific infectious disease if he or she doesnt get every vaccine in the book? What if you found out today that most vaccines contain neurotoxic chemicals that cause a weakened immune system and can attack the gut, the central nervous system and the brain, literally CAUSING disease, autism spectrum disorder, severe allergies, and possibly permanent disabilities? Are you worried that most babies dont get the proper nutrition from conventional American food? You should be. Most food staples in America is genetically modified to contain pesticides and are processed using industrial chemicals that cause malnutrition. This includes baby formula, that often contains chemically-treated corn, soy, and processed oils. Are you concerned about everything your baby eats and drinks, but not so worried about what you spray around the house and put on your babys skin? You better switch your thinking and fast! Millions of Americans spray chemical contaminants around their homes, like cleansers and air fresheners. Others burn toxic candles and exhale cigarette smoke, thinking second- and third-hand smoke isnt so bad, when it definitely is horrific for human health, especially babies. Its time to eliminate the seven most common bad choices for newborn baby health, and make some informed, healthy and wise choices, beginning right now. BAD choice #1: Choosing to have the baby inoculated with every CDC-recommended vaccine Organic food and breast milk provide babies with a resilient immune system thats natural rather than an immune system thats crippled by chemicals. Just because vaccines are recommended by medical doctors and the CDC doesnt mean powerful pharmaceutical companies arent running the show and lying about the safety and efficacy of inoculations. It simply doesnt make sense to inject a baby with 20 or more jabs in their first year of life that contain mercury, deadly pig viruses, blood cells from abortions, infected African green monkey kidney cells, egg protein, dairy protein, peanut oil traces, gelatin, aluminum, formaldehyde, monosodium glutamate, and live strains (they call it attenuated) of multiple diseases at once. Plus, side effects of many vaccines include severe allergic reactions, severe allergies for life, anaphylaxis and death. BAD choice #2: Choosing not to breastfeed (for at least the first six months) Breast milk is the BEST thing you can give your new baby to consume, period. There are long-lasting and wide-reaching benefits of breastfeeding for health of the baby and the mother. Did you know food allergies are less common in babies who are breastfed? Thats because breast milk has the perfect combination of proteins, fats, vitamins and carbohydrates that all have a positive influence on your newborns immune responses and lymphoid tissue, making the baby MORE resilient to germs, viruses, bacteria and pathogens. According to a 2007 study published in the Journal on Developmental Disabilities, breast milk boosts IQ and cognitive development. Breast milk also lowers cancer risk and helps the mother lose the added weight from pregnancy. Lastly, most cows milk (non-organic) contains artificial hormones, antibiotics, pus and blood causing excess mucus formation and inflammation. What baby needs all that? BAD choice #3: Choosing to give your newborn baby formula thats not organic Whats in typical baby formula thats horrible for babies? Well, lets make a quick laundry list, starting with synthetic versions of DHA and ARA (Docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid) that contain petroleum-based solvents that cause gastrointestinal and nervous system distress, sucrose (HFCS sugar from genetically modified, pesticide-laden and mutated corn) that causes tooth decay and obesity, genetically modified soy, carrageenan (a thickening agent thats banned in Europe), melamine, BPA, dioxin, palm oil, fluoridated water, preservatives and perchlorate. BAD choice #4: Choosing to give your baby the influenza vaccine (the dreaded and highly dangerous flu jab) They say theres no such thing as a free lunch, so shouldnt you suspect free medicine? Well, Kroger stores advertise that if you Get a flu shot get a free meal at Kroger. Thats because the Kroger pharmacy bankrolls when you bring your child back for medications when you or your child gets sick from the flu shot and the toxins, like high doses of mercury, in most influenza vaccines. BAD choice #5: Choosing to use tap water to make anything the baby will eat or drink Its absurd how many Americans think municipal water treatment plants in the USA clean the water even close to safe enough for drinking. Most tap water still contains heavy metal toxins, pathogens, bits of toilet paper, other peoples medications, artificial sweeteners, chlorine, and yes sodium fluoride (an insecticide imported from China that is in NO way good for your teeth). Never use tap water to make anything for your baby! BAD choice #6: Smoking anywhere near the baby and thinking second-hand smoke is not so bad Need to learn how to quit smoking now so you can SAVE yourself AND your baby? Heres the Natural Method 14AndOut thats recommended by the Health Ranger for quitting, without medication, within 14 days. BAD choice #7: Putting non-organic skin care, baby powder (talc), sun-block or bug repellent on the babys body The skin is the largest organ, or did you forget? Nearly every single non-organic personal care product sold in America contains dangerous chemicals and carcinogens. Dont let your babys skin eat cancer. Watch out especially for sulfates, dyes, parabens, deet, phthalates and fragrances. Sources include: RodalesOrganicLife.com MerckVaccines.com Top10HomeRemedies.com BabyGaga.com VacTruth.com Baby-Chick.com VaccineImpact.com (Natural News) Up to 60 percent of the human body is made of water. Water is life. If California Democrats get their way, drinking water will be taxed. Thats right, not even hydrogen and oxygen atoms are safe from liberal tax proposals. Californias new tax on drinking water is the latest absurdity in a string of liberal tax proposals that will inevitably bankrupt the state and drive a mass exodus. According to the California Tax Foundation, California lawmakers have proposed more than $6.2 billion in tax increases this year. Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a $209 billion budget that will continue to drive people into homelessness and into tent cities. According to the California Assembly Appropriations Committee, the new drinking water tax may cost residents upwards of $100 million annually. Of course, Democrats have many people convinced that the Democratic Party is all about helping the poor, but the results are never there. City streets in California are riddled with hypodermic needles, human feces, and trash. Governor Newsom supports the new drinking water tax, and he is selling it under the guise of providing safe drinking water for all Californians. The bill would establish the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund in the State Treasury. The new tax scheme would impose a fee on municipal water supplies, charging California residents anywhere from $1 to $10 every month on their water bills. Most new taxes require support from two-thirds of lawmakers. This bill will only require a simple majority to pass. The new multi-million dollar revenue stream would enable the State Water Resources Control Board to set up new programs to provide safe drinking water for all Californians. John Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association writes, California has passed several statewide bonds that have allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for clean water infrastructure improvements. Why arent they being used? Coupal also points out that these water system improvements are a onetime cost that does not require a permanent source of revenue. Lawmakers are basically preying on the problem. According to the Office of the Legislative Analyst, California has budget reserves exceeding $18 billion more than enough to fix the water infrastructure problem that they have ignored for too long. Todays spoiled brat Democrats have been enabled for too long Other Democrat proposals include new taxes on firearms, tires, text messages, prescription painkillers, lawyers, car batteries, and oil and gas extraction. These kinds of people believe that problems can be solved through manipulation, confiscation, and control. Like a spoiled child who convinces their parents to give them everything they want, these kind of people have learned how to manipulate other adults into surrendering their hard earned money. These kinds of people confiscate wealth and take from others instead of generating it honestly. Like an entitled brat, these politicians find a way to get what they want and control peoples lives. Its time for Californians to wake up to the spoiled brats that are controlling their state. Liberals need discipline; their terms need to be shortened and their enabling revenue streams need to be cut off. (Related: Gov. Gavin Newsom commits financial suicide for the state of California by expanding taxpayer-funded health care coverage to illegal immigrants.) How will Californians respond to slew of new taxes? In the late 1700s in Boston, Massachusetts, the red coats from Great Britain imposed taxes on everyday items. The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed colonists for using paper products, from playing cards and business licenses to newspapers and legal documents. The Townshend Acts of 1767 taxed paint, paper, glass, lead and tea. The men of that time period resisted the taxes with great vigor. On December 16, 1773 at Griffins Wharf harbor in Boston, Massachusetts, colonists disguised themselves and dumped more than forty-five tons of British tea into the harbor. In protest they declared, Taxation without representation is tyranny. In 2019 California, the Democratic Party and its entitled politicians are willing to tax plain water and generate new sources of revenue for their enjoyment and power. What will Californians do? Sources include: DailyWire.com DailyWire.com History.com NaturalNews.com HJTA.org USGS.gov (Natural News) When it comes to reporting criminal acts committed by Muslims throughout Europe, the Western media has steadfastly refused in recent years to fully inform citizens with facts and the entire truth surrounding such incidents. The faster the Muslim migrant population throughout Europe grew, the more Western media ignored increasing levels of crime and violence committed against citizens of host countries. Outside of the most obvious (and deadly) attacks committed by Muslim extremists such as mowing down pedestrians with large vans or shooting up French cities, criminal activity rapes and assaults, for instance that did not rise to the level of a major terrorist attack didnt get much attention in European and U.S. media, even when obvious patterns of behavior or criminal activity were apparent. And all to avoid being called racist, bigoted, and anti-Muslim. With that in mind, its worth noting that prior to the fire this week at the centuries-old Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, more than 870 Catholic churches in France were vandalized in 2018, as mega-talker Rush Limbaugh noted during his program on Wednesday, citing published information. Whats more, he said, there were 12 churches vandalized, including a fire, in Paris last month in a single week [emphasis added]. With this well-established factual record of attacks on nearly 1,000 Catholic churches across France and in a years time you would think that common sense informs us there is reason to suspect the Notre Dame fire might have also been intentional. After all, its one of the most important, if not the most important Catholic icon throughout all of Europe outside of the Vatican and Easter is this week. From what we know about Muslim terrorism, the extremists love symbolism (which is why terrorists attacked the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, exactly 11 years to the day after the 9/11 attacks. (Related: Disgusting! Obama and Hillary FIRED Benghazi heroes in Germany after 13-hour assault.) The Left-wing establishment media is no longer curious But no. Such informed speculation isnt permitted (even though you just know French authorities are looking in to the possibility that Muslim extremists may have been responsible for the Notre Dame fire theyd be negligent and monumentally incompetent if they didnt). The American establishment media rivals the European Leftist media in terms of providing cover for bad people who do bad things to both American and European citizens, and the Washington Post is one of the biggest cheerleaders for Muslim extremism. The paper agreed to publish an op-ed by a self-described expert on far-Right extremism, Talia Lavin, a guest instructor for New York Universitys journalism program. In it, she blasted conservative commentator and author Ben Shapiro, claiming falsely that he stoked the flames of racism (the Lefts favorite allegation against conservatives) and was pushing Right-leaning Americans toward a race war regarding the Notre Dame fire. The op-ed, titled, How the far right spread politically convenient lies about the Notre Dame fire, claims that from the moment reports began streaming in that the cathedral was on fire, conservatives were already blaming it on Muslims in the hopes of inciting violence against them (another familiar Left-wing accusation when conservatives criticize people of color or a religious minority). Specifically, she compared Shapiro to Americas most notable neo-Nazi, Richard Spencer, though Shapiro has routinely and unequivocally denounced Spencer and his garbage ideology. But thats how the Left does its business: Take an incident, establish a false narrative, hone in on a villain (the Right, in general, and specific conservatives when possible) and then demonize them. Whats really insulting isnt that our media is trying to change the subject with character assassinations rather than discuss established facts. Its that they are so quick to judge our opinions as wrong while complaining that we are too quick to form our opinions, even when based on established patterns of behavior. That stems from an overabundance of political advocacy and a disturbing lack of curiosity among our media elites. Read more about fake racism at RaceWar.news. Sources include: DailyWire.com RushLimbaugh.com NewsTarget.com TheNationalSentinel.com (Natural News) Everyone owns a smartphone these days, and its not hard to see why. They make our lives easier and make things more convenient, whether it is traveling, doing business, or talking to someone who is miles away. But, like all good things, they also come with disadvantages. So while smartphones give, they also take away. Sure, they enable people to accomplish important tasks, but they also prevent them from enjoying something that really matters: living in the moment. This is what exactly researchers from the University of Milan found in their study which was published in the Journal of Economic Psychology. In their report, they investigated whether smartphone use reduced the quality of face-to-face social interactions. It can also make close people more distant These days, most people see the world through the screens of their gadgets. They seldom take the time to connect with someone or something; not just by talking and listening both of which can be easily done over the phone but by actually being present to experience things. Instead, smartphones do all the work for them. With just a click, they let people exchange words or take them wherever they want to go (but just visually), and people think it is alright amazing, even because it costs less time and effort. No preparation needed, no money spent. And in doing so, they learn to be content with it, not realizing that they miss out on valuable opportunities and experiences. They also start to value social interaction less. To test their hypothesis, researchers asked the participants to answer questions aimed at determining how often they saw their friends, how they used their smartphones, and how satisfied they were with their lives and their relationship with their friends. When the data was compiled, the results suggested that individuals who spent more time socializing rather than using their smartphones were more satisfied with their lives and relationships, while those who spent more time on their phones found less satisfaction with both. The researchers concluded that too much use of smartphones also affected the well-being of the individuals who used them. They were not as happy with their lives as their more sociable counterparts. The smartphone can bring distant people closer together, at least virtually, it can also make close people more distant, the researchers concluded in their report. It can negatively affect the quality of time spent with others, a key determinant of individual well-being. Another study, this time from the University of British Columbia, highlighted the impact of smartphones on social interactions using data from over 300 adults and university students in Vancouver. The researchers asked them to dine at a restaurant with their families or friends. Some of them were allowed to keep their phones with them during the meal, while others were asked to put their phones away in a box. After the meal, they were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the experience and how socially connected they felt, or if they got bored or distracted. Those who had their phones with them at the table were also asked how many times they used them and what they did on them. The participants who used their phones during the meal admitted to being distracted and said that they enjoyed the experience less. On the other hand, the participants who did not have their phones responded positively to the experience. The researchers concluded that although smartphones are very useful, they deprived people of the benefits of real human interaction. Limit how smartphones control your life Cutting back on the use of smartphones can be very difficult for some. But if it means being present and building healthier relationships with the people who matter, its worth the sacrifice. Dr. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, says that if people want to be healthy with their smartphone usage, they should use them no more than two hours per day, provided that they are not spending those two hours with other people. Phones should also be put away at least an hour before going to bed. This ensures that people get to talk to their partners before they sleep and that they get to sleep well. Another tool that helps build healthy habits is setting boundaries and limiting where and when to use them. This allows people to spend some quality time with their loved ones doing activities that involve face-to-face interaction. Using certain features such as FaceTime can also be a way of getting someones attention, especially when they seem too immersed in their phone activities. It doesnt really matter how people do it, what matters is that people learn how to use their smartphones properly and in moderation so that their phones do not command most of their time and attention. (Related: Smartphones are Keeping Kids Up at Night, Damaging Their Development and Alertness During the Day.) For more information about healthy smartphone usage, visit InformationTechnology.news. Sources include: ScienceDirect.com 1 ScienceDirect.com 2 Healthline.com (Natural News) Pre-industrial climate change of the natural variety may have brought down the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled ancient Egypt from 305 to 30 BC given internal strife and its later conquest by the Roman empire. That is part of the conclusion of a new study published in Nature Communications, which was based on evaluating ice core data of volcanic eruptions along with papyrus records chronicling the timelines of civil unrest as well as measurements of summer flood heights. You can read the entire paper here and draw your own conclusions. The Ptolemaic empire, whose Hellenistic dynasty ushered in by Alexander the Great governed Egypt and North Africa from an enclave in the capital of Alexandria and whose final years where ruled by Cleopatra, an historic femme fatale who made an ill-fated alliance with Romans Julius Caesar and later Mark Antony was undermined by intense volcano activity which destabilized the food supply, according to the study findings. The Ptolemaic line came to a halt with its takeover by the military forces of Roman Emperor Octavian, but by then, years of famine had taken its toll. That said, evidently, Egypt lacked the ancient equivalent of FEMA and/or DHS. The Washington Post explains that the Egyptian rulers apparently may have been unaware of the degree to which volcanic activity, Nile flooding or more specifically lack thereof, and violent uprisings were linked, all of which ultimately lead to the end of the reign. Egypt during the Ptolemaic age was a flourishing cultural and military powerhouse... But the Ptolemaic Empire was also deeply dependent on crops watered by the summer flooding of the Nile. During years when that flooding didnt happen, harvests were devastated and there was famine and civil unrest. What the Ptolemaic kings didnt know was that those dry years were often caused by volcanic eruptions, sometimes as far away as the other side of the world, that sent up sulfates into the atmosphere and caused dramatic changes to global weather patterns. Based on all the available evidence, lead author Dr. Joseph G. Manning of Yale University told the Daily Mail that ancient Egypt provided a unique historical laboratory for studying the unraveling of the social fabric as it relates to volcanic shocks. Sooner or later we will experience a large volcanic eruption, and perhaps a cluster of them, that will act to exacerbate drought in sensitive parts of the world, he added. A study co-author pointed out that natural disasters were part of a powder keg scenario in ancient Egypt that also included heavy taxation, ethnic conflict and disease, the New York Times noted. Ptolemaic vulnerability to volcanic eruptions offers a caution for all monsoon-dependent agricultural regions, presently including 70% of world population, the study concluded. Separately on the climate change front, Natural News founding editor Mike Adams wrote that a paper published by Nature Geoscience revealed that global warming climate models widely cited by the mainstream media were based on faulty software projections that failed to take into account actual, real-world measured temperatures. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change under the auspices of the United Nations, as well as other globalist entities, wildly overstated the doomsday effects of carbon dioxide emissions on our planet, Adams added. Sources include: Nature.com WashingtonPost.com NYTimes.com (Natural News) One would think that with so many lingering and unanswered questions about the safety of biosludge that regulatory authorities would, at the very least, require farmers who use the stuff to provide full, public disclosure in the interest of public safety. But unfortunately this isnt the case. According to biosludge truth activist Craig Monk, a local resident of Midlothian, Texas, near Dallas-Fort Worth, farmers and others who apply biosludge to their land are currently not required by laws to disclose this fact even when their use of biosludge has the very real potential to negatively impact their neighbors. This lack of transparency has created an ongoing nightmare in Monks local community, where biosludge odor and residue is negatively affecting peoples homes and personal property. And because biosludge users are apparently given preferential legal treatment, theres been very little they can do to stop this toxic onslaught. Farmers are not required to tell anybody that theyve put out biosolids, Monk told the crew of the new Biosludged documentary film by Brighteon Films during an exclusive, behind-the-scenes interview. And until people who might buy that farm, and the general public becomes aware of what biosolids or sewage sludge is, theyll continue to sell their properties uninhibited. Be sure to watch the full interview at Brighteon.com below: Cattle used for human food being secretly fed biosludge-contaminated feed The subdivision where Monk lives is one such locale where nearby farm fields are being regularly doused in biosolids, creating massive pollution in the form of putrid odors and even contamination of nearby properties with used tampons and condoms. Its difficult to say whether or not the actual land on which Monk and his neighbors houses were built at one time had biosludge dumped all over it. But theres plenty of land around him that is being covered in biosludge and that, one day, will likely be subdivided and have houses built on it, unbeknownst to the lands new owners. There are also obvious risks while the land is still being used for producing food, as both plants and animals uptake whatever mystery chemicals might be lingering in the soil. And once again, none of this is ever disclosed to the public, which means public health is taking a backseat to corporate profits. Cattle that have been foraging on biosolids are taken to feedlots before anybody even knows it and then they dont even have to claim it, Monk warns. And with cattle, if you have a sick cow, as long as it can walk, walk into the feedlot, theyre going to process it. What this suggests is that millions of Americans are consuming biosolids pharmaceuticals, used hygiene products, industrial chemicals and all every time they consume conventional meat and produce thats raised and grown on biosolids-contaminated land. Sewage sludge, or biosolids, whatever you want to call it, was never designed to be put out on top of land, Monk adds, further explaining how hes dedicated much of his time in recent years towards investigating the biosolids situation in the interest of public health. It was designed to be put in a landfill, a lined landfill, because of the contaminants, chemicals, and pathogens that are in it, he says, pointing to official U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) documents that openly admit to the fact that regulatory authorities really dont know for sure whats being dumped on Americas farmland every time biosludge is applied. For more news about biosolids, be sure to check out Biosolids.news. You can also check out the Biosoludged documentary in its entirety for FREE at Biosludged.com. Sources for this article include: Brighteon.com Biosludged.com BrighteonFilms.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) To deny that search engine giant Google is engaged in an unprecedented censorship conspiracy targeting conservatives, Christians, and others who dont conform to official deep state doctrines is to deny reality, at this point. Thats because we now have undeniable proof from Googles own lips that the Silicon Valley enterprise has taken it upon itself to police the content that people are allowed to access on the internet. The Daily Caller, having obtained exclusive access to now-leaked internal documents from Google, recently blew the lid on this massive scandal, revealing a dark plot by Google to blacklist websites that it deems as violating either its misrepresentation policy or its good neighbor policy both of which are Orwellian to the core in their approach to deciding acceptable forms of online speech. According to Google documents, now unsealed, Googles Trust & Safety team actively monitors the websites that are added to Googles XPA news blacklist, ensuring that these websites dont show up in any Google search feature or news product. The deceptive_news domain blacklist is going to be used by many search features to filter problematic sites that violate the good neighbor and misrepresentation policies, one of the Google documents clearly states, indicating the type of manual select protocol of web censorship that Google CEO Sundar Pichai lied about before Congress back in December. The purpose of the blacklist will be to bar the sites from surfacing in any Search feature or news product, the Google document goes on to admit. It will not cause a demotion in the organic search results or de-index them altogether. For more related news about Big Tech censorship, be sure to check out Censorship.news. Googles executive leadership is a whos who compilation of anti-American, anti-free speech tyrants As for the brains behind this criminal operation, Pichai is just one of many at Google whos been trying to steer the narrative by censoring online free speech. Also named in the Google documents as co-conspirators are Ben Gomes, Googles head of search, and a top executive who reports directly to Pichai. Theres also Pandu Nayak, a Google Fellow, and Paul Haahr, a Google software engineer who Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, says was directly responsible for getting Natural News temporarily blacklisted from Google back in 2017. Paul Haahr is explicitly responsible for censoring Natural News and other natural health websites, as he heads up the censorship efforts to target so-called science / medical denial and conspiracy theories,' Adams writes, noting that Google is guilty of carrying out felony election-meddling crimes and various other actions that qualify as racketeering under the RICO Act. Ironically, Paul Haahr is himself carrying out a conspiracy to silence the truth about medicine, vaccines, cancer cures and natural health, yet part of his job is to censor conspiracy theories. Perhaps he tells himself, There are no conspiracies except the ones Im running! Adams further contends. In a nutshell, Google, like many other tech giants these days, has taken it upon itself to police the internet, rather than facilitate unimpeded access to content that people want. Rather than embrace its original ideal of do no evil, Google has morphed into a police state tool of control that looks more like always do evil. It remains to be seen whether or not these criminal conspirators working against free speech and the First Amendment will be held responsible for their crimes. They certainly should be, if theres any semblance of justice left in this country. Its time for the United States Dept. of Justice to launch criminal investigations into the tech giants for their ongoing election meddling, racketeering and systemic violation of human rights of the American people, says Adams. What Google is doing is not merely fraudulent and monopolistic; its also a criminal act to lie to Congress and claim they arent doing these things at all. Sources for this article include: DailyCaller.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) If you are a news junkie, then chances are good youre also a fan of political cartoons, the point of which is to use exaggerated artwork and other techniques to make a strong statement about an issue of the day. But even non-news junkies can understand and appreciate statements behind political cartoons. A good cartoonist can use any number of techniques style, artwork, messaging, text to make his or her point. Ben Garrison is one of the best in the business. A conservative who has a large following because he is so good and because hes been doing his thing for years, hes now been caught up in the purge of right-leaning, pro-Trump voices by the Left-wing speech Nazis who own the most popular social media platforms. As noted by The Gateway Pundit, first Garrison had one of his posts deleted but then Instagram deplatformed him entirely. Your account has been disabled for violating our terms, said a message Garrison received from the platform, along with a link to Instagrams legal terms and polices regarding the censorship of content. The message he received regarding his deleted post said, in part: We want to keep Instagram a safe place for everyone, and we ask that you treat other members of the community with respect. Even if you didnt mean to offend, remember that we created these guidelines to support and protect our community on Instagram The offending post was labeled as hate speech. What is else new? Thats what the easily triggered Left calls all viewpoints it disagrees with, hate speech. You may have heard #BenGarrison #cartoons has been banned from @Instagram for speaking "Truth to Power" (as the left likes to say) -just pointing out the hypocrisy of the #Democrats & challenging their narrative- New instagram account is grrrgraphicscartoons Please follow pic.twitter.com/zOUkW8j2Uu GrrrGraphics Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) April 17, 2019 It wasnt clear which post or which cartoon was deemed hateful by the Instagram speech Nazis, but given Garrisons very pro-Trump style and his spot-on depictions of the presidents political enemies, its safe to say that the content had to do with one of the Democratic Partys minority politicians. But again, that is the point of political cartoons: To lampoon, to mock, and even to ridicule political and cultural figures in a way that makes a sharp, often controversial point. After all, liberal cartoonists do the same to conservatives, Republicans, and POTUS Trump on a daily basis, and yet, none of them are suffering the same fate as Garrison. (Related: Don Jr.: Conservatives face huge Big Tech censorship hurdle in 2020.) Without question, the Left-wing tech giants are moving as rapidly as they can to silence conservatives But is this really a big deal? Does it seriously signal the rapid decline in Leftist tolerance of viewpoints other than their own? You bet it does. To demonstrate the gravity of whats happening to conservative voices and to Garrison in particular, once upon a time the only platforms for political cartoonists were newspapers and magazines. Conservative and liberal cartoonists who were lucky enough to be syndicated were given voices in print publications all over the country, most of which were owned, edited, and staffed by liberals. That, obviously, has changed: The Leftist authoritarians who founded this generations more widely used communications vehicles social media platforms are blocking content they find politically objectionable and to which they disagree. So, unlike their liberal predecessors in the newspaper industry, todays Leftists resemble Adolph Hitlers propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, more than American journalists Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow (both of whom were committed liberals). Without question, the Left-wing tech giants are moving as rapidly as they can to silence conservatives. The examples, by now, are too voluminous to ignore or blow off. Democrats try to dismiss such accusations, of course, but then they are easily refuted by examples like Ben Garrison. In a way, this kind of censorship ought to give conservatives satisfaction in knowing that our ideas are so superior and so rooted in fact and real-world examples that the only way the Left can refute them is through censorship. Read more about the tech giants suppression of the Right at TechGiants.news and Suppressed.news. Sources include: TheGatewayPundit.com PoliticalCorrectness.news (Natural News) If we ever needed proof that all the mainstream medias reports on catastrophic man-made global warming should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt, now we have it. Media outlets around the world have been reporting for several years that climate change is causing a dangerous increase in volcanic activity. Now, a recent study by the University of Leeds would appear to back up what theyve been saying, but are we being given the whole story? Lets first look at the studys findings. According to the study, which was published in the journal Geology, global warming has resulted in less glacier cover in Iceland, and this could lead to an increase in volcanic eruptions in the land of fire and ice. Dr. Ivan Savov, one of the studys authors from the School of Earth & Environment at Leeds, explains, When glaciers retreat there is less pressure on Earths surface. This can increase the amount of mantle melt as well as affect magma flow and how much magma the crust can hold. Even small changes in surface pressure can alter the likelihood of eruptions at ice-covered volcanos. After examining Icelandic ash preserved in peat deposits and lake sediments from between 4,500 and 5,000 years ago, researchers determined that a major decrease in temperature around that time caused an increase in glacier growth, which in turn led to a dramatic decrease in volcanic activity. So, if cooler temperatures led to more ice and less fire, they conclude that warmer temperatures will mean less ice and more fire. Climate change caused by humans is creating rapid ice melt in volcanically active regions, noted Dr. Graeme Swindles from the School of Geography at Leeds. In Iceland, this has put us on a path to more frequent volcanic eruptions. The researchers determined that there was a lag of about 600 years between when the glacier levels increased, and the number of volcanic eruptions decreased. They anticipate that a similar pattern would be true in our time. Interestingly, scientists acknowledge that Iceland is still in the process of recovering from the Little Ice Age which took place between around 1500 and 1850. Since that time, a warming cycle has been causing the glaciers to start melting again, but instead of recognizing this as part of a heating and cooling pattern that has clearly been taking place in Iceland for thousands of years, the researchers stubbornly insist that this particular warming period is being caused by human interference. But heres the part they arent disclosing in studies like these or in the bogeyman articles of the mainstream media: Even if it were true that an increase in temperature could cause more volcanic activity, that would not be a bad thing. In fact, as reported by Deutsche Welle (DW), a liberal German broadcaster that reaches 157 million people weekly, volcanic eruptions can cool the planet. DW explains that one of the largest eruptions in history was the four-month eruption of Indonesias Mount Tambora in 1815. That eruption was so powerful that it shot small particles of ash and sulphate aerosols (SO2) into the air which were distributed across the globe and affected the whole worlds weather, leading to the year without summer and cooling the globe temporarily by 3 C. All that ash being spewed into the air temporarily blocked the sunlight, immediately creating a cooling effect. Then, the SO2 aerosols stayed in the stratosphere for a prolonged period, reflecting incoming solar radiation. DW explains that scientists are actually trying to harness this volcanic phenomenon to combat global warming, Researchers and policymakers have been looking at ways to use this explosive cooling effect to help reverse global warming. Ideas include continuously spraying sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight. But there are currently too many uncertainties regarding the consequences of such climate engineering to take action. So, as usual, we arent being told the whole story. Just remember that next time you read a climate change horror story in the mainstream media. Sources include: BBC.com TheGuardian.com ScienceDaily.com DW.com (Natural News) Yet another day where browsing the news has me shaking my head and realizing that normal simply doesnt exist anymore. The small group of examples discussed below shows us that if we do not reverse certain trends, human beings are headed for extinction. (Article by Susan Duclos republished from AllNewsPipeLine.com) SOY BOYS AND MENS CUDDLING GROUPS All this media promoted talk of toxic masculinity, is producing a nation of pussified men, yes, wimps, betas and outright soy boys, where watching a Star Wars trailer reduces on beta-soy-boy to tears, while others have decided they need men-only cuddle groups to redefine masculinity. When I first saw a short and disturbing clip over at Infowars, I thought it had to be a troll, or a parody, but then while searching YouTube for an version to embed I ran across others, from two and three years ago, where grown men thought it was a good idea to video tape and upload clips of themselves literally crying over Star Wars trailers. Below ladies and gentlemen is the result of years of American men being chemically castrated by chemicals in household products, and the effect of decreasing amounts of testosterone, in conjunction with the attacks on maleness and masculinity. (If you appreciate stories like this, please consider donating to ANP to help keep us in this battle for the future of America.) Anyone doubting the authenticity of the video above, just go to the YouTube search page from keywords men crying over Star Wars trailer, and see how many there are it appears to be a thing now, and it is cringe-worthy how many of them there are over the last 4-5 years. Along with that type of strangeness, we also have been noting talk of another new thing being pushed, where groups of men are gathering for cuddling sessions. Via Campus Reform, we see a Pennsylvania university is promoting the concept of men cuddling as a way to help them deal with stress and redefine masculinity. Dr. Christopher Liang, a counseling psychology professor at Lehigh Universitys College of Education, recently came out in support of a Philadelphia area Mens Therapeutic Cuddle Group, a function advertised by Lehigh University in a news release. The Meetup.com page for the group currently has 69 members and the group has held 46 events so far. The meetups are held once every other week. Organizers have established quite an expansive set of guidelines for attendees. The men attending must be hygienically sound and remain fully clothed at all times. The groups organizers state that all cuddling is non-sexual. However, they do note that participants may become aroused during cuddling and that if that occurs, it should be treated as a normal thing. I disagree, if men become aroused by cuddling other men, it is not a normal thing unless the men are gay. PERIOD. The description is a perfect example of the LGBT agenda being pushed by the media in an attempt to create a gender neutral, society, which will guarantee the extinction of the human race. As I have heard Steve Quayle say on multiple occasions, normal doesnt exist anymore, because we are constantly being hammered with the notion that what was normal is bad, and the examples above are the new normal. They arent. Read more at: AllNewsPipeLine.com (Natural News) People suffering from migraines could benefit a lot from lavender, a study published in the Journal of Herbal Medicine suggests. The study, a multi-university effort from Iranian researchers, looked at the effects of lavender essential oil when used in migraine prophylactics. In the three-month study, the researchers enrolled migraine sufferers in a randomized controlled clinical trial. The participants were asked at the beginning of the trial to answer the Migraine Disability Assessment Score (MIDAS) questionnaire. The MIDAS questionnaire is a test designed to evaluate the impact of a persons migraine in their daily life. While this does not diagnose migraines or rule out other conditions, it is a useful tool for researchers and healthcare professionals alike to objectively assess any adverse effects that migraines have on a persons quality of life, as well as determine if a treatment is effective or not. After the trial, those who received lavender therapy had improved MIDAS scores, which indicate a positive correlation between lavender and improvement of migraine symptoms. In addition, the MIDAS scores of those who were treated with lavender were better than those in the control group. The results of this present study report that the frequency and severity of migraine incidents were reduced in those participants using lavender therapy during the three-month trial, the researchers concluded their report. A disabling and prevalent condition Having a migraine isnt just debilitating, its also common. According to the World Health Organization, at least 12 percent of the global population suffers from migraines. It is also a leading cause of disability: Migraines rank among the 10 leading causes of lost years because of disability. In some cases, people suffer from chronic migraine, a condition marked by a person having headaches for at least 15 days per month. The American Migraine Foundation reports that at least 2.5 percent of those suffering from episodic migraine is at risk of it developing into chronic migraine. Fortunately, many of the risk factors associated with chronic migraine are potentially treatable. These include obesity, anxiety, increased caffeine intake, acute overuse of medications, stressful life events, and even snoring. For people looking for relief from migraine, making a visit to the hospital might not be a good idea. Natural News has covered the dangers of heading to the emergency rooms for migraine treatment, as doctors often prescribe hydromorphone, an opioid which has no randomized, high-quality studies on its use for acute migraine, for over a quarter of all migraine-related visits. Other essential oils for migraine relief While the Iranian study focused on the benefits of lavender essential oil in treating migraines, other essential oils offer similar benefits. Whats better is that these oils offer relief without any adverse effects that are usually seen in prescription drugs. Here are just some essential oils that are known to improve symptoms of migraine. (h/t to Healthline.com) Peppermint oil: Its a remedy known the world over. Peppermint oil is one of the most widely used essential oils for migraine relief, mainly because it contains menthol which helps in easing pain and relaxing muscles. When used with a carrier oil and applied to the temples, it can relieve pain caused by migraines and tension headaches. Its a remedy known the world over. Peppermint oil is one of the most widely used essential oils for migraine relief, mainly because it contains menthol which helps in easing pain and relaxing muscles. When used with a carrier oil and applied to the temples, it can relieve pain caused by migraines and tension headaches. Rosemary oil: Aside from its anti-inflammatory properties, rosemary oil also has analgesic effects, making it a well-known ingredient in folk medicine for pain relief, stress reduction, and improved circulation. Aside from its anti-inflammatory properties, rosemary oil also has analgesic effects, making it a well-known ingredient in folk medicine for pain relief, stress reduction, and improved circulation. Eucalyptus: People who are downed by both migraine and sinus problems benefit from using eucalyptus essential oil the most, as it opens up the nasal passages, clears the sinuses, and relieves headaches. Most essential oils are safe for use, but its important to note that essential oils should be diluted with a carrier oil before applying it to the skin. Otherwise, this can result in irritation, as well as stinging, redness, and skin rash. EssentialOils.news has the lowdown on which oils you should use for headache and migraine relief. Sources include: ScienceDirect.com VeryWellHealth.com AmericanMigraineFoundation.org Healthline.com An international team of researchers presents the first observations of the development of the skull and brain in the living coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae. Their study, published in Nature, provides new insights into the biology of this iconic animal and the evolution of the vertebrate skull. The coelacanth Latimeria is a marine fish closely related to tetrapods, four-limbed vertebrates including amphibians, mammals and reptiles. Coelacanths were thought to have been extinct for 70 million years, until the accidental capture of a living specimen by a South African fisherman in 1938. Eighty years after its discovery, Latimeria remains of scientific interest for understanding the origin of tetrapods and the evolution of their closest fossil relatives - the lobe-finned fishes. One of the most unusual features of Latimeria is its hinged braincase, which is otherwise only found in many fossil lobe-finned fishes from the Devonian period (410-360 million years ago). The braincase of Latimeria is completely split into an anterior and posterior portion by a joint called the "intracranial joint". In addition, the brain lies far at the rear of the braincase and takes up only 1% of the cavity housing it. This mismatch between the brain and its cavity is totally unequalled among living vertebrates. How the coelacanth skull grows and why the brain remains so small has puzzled scientists for years. To answer these questions, researchers studied specimens at different stages of cranial development from several public natural history collections. Although many specimens of adult coelacanths are available in natural history collections, earlier life stages such as fetuses are extremely rare. Scientists hence used state-of-the-art imaging techniques to visualize the internal anatomy of the specimens without damaging them. They notably digitalized a 5 cm-long fetus, the earliest developmental stage available for Latimeria, with synchrotron X-ray microtomography at the European Synchrotron (ESRF). Over the last two decades, the ESRF has developed unique expertise in designing non-invasive techniques widely used for evolutionary biology studies. In addition, the researchers also imaged other stages with a powerful Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner at the Brain and Spine Institute (Paris, France), and a conventional X-ray micro-CTscan at the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle (Paris, France). These data were used to generate detailed 3D models, which allowed scientists to describe how the form of the skull, the brain and the notochord (a tube extending below the brain and the spinal cord in the early stages of life) changes from a fetus to an adult. They also observed how these structures are positioned relative to each other at each stage, and compared their observations with what is known about the formation of the skull in other vertebrates. In contrast to most other vertebrates, where the notochord is replaced by the vertebral column early in embryonic development, the notochord expands considerably in Latimeria. The dramatic enlargement of the notochord likely influences the patterning of the braincase, and might underpin the formation of the intracranial joint. The brain might also be affected by the enlargement of the notochord, as relative size dramatically decreases during development. These results illuminate for the first time the development of the living coelacanth skull and brain, and open up new avenues for research on the evolution of the vertebrate head. Hugo Dutel, lead author and research associate in palaeobiology at the University of Bristol, UK, says, "These are very unique observations, but they represent only a tiny step forward compared to the amount we know on the development of other species. There are still more questions than answers! Latimeria still holds many clues for our understanding of vertebrate evolution, and it is important to protect this threatened species and its environment." Fungi are the most common cause of diseases in crops and other plants, and pose major threats to humans and other animals. The successful treatment of fungal diseases is difficult partly because the mechanisms for fungal pathogenesis remain largely unknown as well as that fungi are eukaryotes as the host cells. Multiple lifestyles have been recruited by fungi to live in different environments. The relevance of fungal dimorphism to fungal infections has been demonstrated previously. Most pathogenic fungi are opportunistic and their lifestyle transition from saprophytes to pathogens is a key point for fungal infections. Among them, Arthrobotrys oligospora, a typical nematode-trapping fungus, can be induced by nematodes to develop adhesive networks which is a key indicator of its transition from saprophytes to predators. The adhesive networks are then utilized to capture nematode preys, followed by penetration and digestion (Figure 1). A. oligospora has thus been considered as nature killers of nematodes which cause great losses in crops. Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the underlying mechanisms for lifestyle transition of A. oligospora. Biologists from the State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan of Yunnan University conducted a pioneer study by exploring the potential roles of small RNAs during the trap induction of A. oligospora. "We started with small RNA sequencing and predicted microRNA-like RNAs using three methods. A total of 863 putative microRNA-like RNAs have been predicted and 7 of them have been confirmed. The target genes of the putative microRNA-like RNAs were predicted using five methods. It is very interesting to find out that the qde-2 gene was in the target list of mil-289." Said Dr. Xinglai Ji, the senior author for this work. "This is a high risk study for that it is not for sure whether microRNA-like RNAs exist or function in trap induction of A. oligospora. Although miRNAs widely exist in animals and plants, they were rarely reported in fungi. Our study suggests the wide existence of microRNA-like RNAs in nematode-trapping fungi and play important roles in their lifestyle transition, which provides new insights into understanding the adaptation of fungi from scavengers to pathogens." Said Xinglai. "This work is a great team work that collaborated by the scientists from different areas. The study was designed with combination of both bioinformatics analysis and experimental confirmation." said the corresponding author Dr. KeQin Zhang, a scientist working on nematode-trapping fungi for many years. After comprehensive analyses, the potential microRNA-like RNAs with high expression were confirmed by experiments. "High-throughput sequencing technologies provided opportunities to screen for targets on genome scale. And then they were confirmed by following experiments. Moreover, further studies showed they were very important in nematode-trapping fungi and how they worked during the induction pathways. Nematode-trapping fungi can keep nematode population in balance in nature, which makes them good potential bio-control agents. The critical role of microRNA-like RNAs and related pathways is of great interests of developing high efficient agents to help prevention of nematodes in agriculture." Said KeQin. "Both RT-PCR and northern blot analysis were carried out for confirmation of the 170 putative microRNA-like RNAs. To explore their functions, the genes encoding the confirmed microRNA-like RNAs were knocked out separately to observe whether the deleted strains can be induced as the wild strains. Besides, the argonaute protein QDE-2 was immunoprecipitated and RIP analysis was performed to verify whether the microRNA-like RNAs and their target genes were associated with QDE-2 and how they worked. Moreover, qde-2 gene was also removed from the genome which led to more serious deficiency in lifestyle transition than deletion of single microRNA-like RNA." Said Dr. Heng Li, the co-first author. "The interesting part is that the inhibition of qde-2 by mil-289 can be confirmed in transient gene expression system in tobacco, which forms a regulatory loop in the RNAi regulation (Figure 2). Further studies are still needed." The former superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, who recently resigned after being cleared of allegations she created a hostile workplace, is taking a new job in San Francisco. Christine Lehnertz oversaw Golden Gate National Recreation area before taking over at the Grand Canyon less than three years ago. Shes returning to the Bay Area next month as president and chief executive of a nonprofit group that supports Golden Gate. "To have Chris return, it feels like a homecoming for all of us, and we couldnt be happier or more confident in her leadership skills and passion for the parks next chapter," said Greg Moore, who Lehnertz will replace at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in mid-May. At the Grand Canyon, Lehnertz had been tasked with overturning a culture of sexual harassment that included male employees in the now-defunct river district preying on female colleagues. She said she was proud of employees progress in becoming more respectful and inclusive, and of clearing a backlog of complaints. In an interview Tuesday, she said she didnt accomplish everything she wanted to and understood the tenure of park superintendents is limited. Lehnertz said her career with the Park Service was enriching and inspiring, and her new role will allow her to work in a similar field. "This is a terrific opportunity to continue to promote the mission of public lands, of national parks and of getting people into these lands that are set aside for them," she said. Her departure from Grand Canyon leaves one of the countrys most popular tourist destinations without a permanent leader during its centennial year. Olympic National Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum, followed by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park Superintendent Woody Smeck, will fill the role temporarily. The Grand Canyon is the second-busiest national park in the country, drawing nearly 6.4 million visitors in 2018, behind Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Golden Gate National Recreation Area reclaimed the top spot in 2018 among the 418 National Park Service units with more than 15.2 million visitors. The recreation area includes the bridge itself, former military posts, Alcatraz, and beaches and trails on 125 square miles (323 square kilometers). The nonprofit that Lehnertz will lead has provided $500 million to the recreation area. Moore said the money has helped maintain old military posts, update buildings at Alcatraz to better withstand earthquakes, and repair roofs, among other things. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Juan Soto and Howie Kendrick hit first-inning home runs, Matt Adams and Kurt Suzuki connected in the seventh, and the Washington Nationals beat the San Francisco Giants 9-6 on Wednesday night. Soto's two-run drive, Kendrick's solo shot and an RBI single by Adam Eaton put Washington ahead 4-0 against Jeff Samardzija (1-1) in the second. Facing rookie Travis Bergen in the seventh, Adams delivered a three-run homer and Suzuki followed a single by Kendrick with a liner inside the left-field foul pole for a 9-2 lead. Gerardo Parra and Steven Duggar each hit two-run homers in the ninth for San Francisco off rookie Austen Williams. Jeremy Hellickson (2-0) allowed two runs and five hits over 5 2/3 innings for the Nationals. It was the 11th straight appearance in which he limited the opposition to three earned runs or fewer. Samardzija struck out seven in five innings but gave up four runs and five hits. The right-hander has lost seven straight starts against the Nationals since beating them in August 2013 as a member of the Chicago Cubs. In this one, two of the first five batters he faced went deep. Soto connected after Eaton drew a leadoff walk, and Kendrick hit a two-out drive to left. San Francisco closed to 4-2 in the fourth. After Brandon Crawford drove in a run with a grounder and Evan Longoria hit an RBI single, an intentional walk put two on with two outs for Samardzija, who bounced out meekly to second base. NBC Bay Area has learned that a failure on the coupler system used on dozens of new Muni trains has prompted the San Francisco transportation agency to order inspections and new restrictions. Until further notice, the fleet of new train cars can only run individually, meaning they cannot be combined to make longer trains. On the same day the coupler system failed, April 12, a woman fell into the trackway when she got her fingers caught in a door of another Muni train, raising questions about the single-door system's failsafe mechanism. Muni officials say they are dealing with both issues. While 68 new rails cars are being inspected Muni will shift around its older model cars to fill in service gaps. So far, inspections have found at least one other failed coupler. Had that coupler failed during regular service, the result could have been far worse. Muni spokesman Paul Rose said the investigation is focusing on the so-called shear pin, which fits into the coupler and links the trains physically and also allows electric current to flow to power the second rail car. "It allows them both to operate as a unit," Rose said. Rose said in the case of the failed coupler, the two-car train had finished its Friday operations when the driver discovered the problem. "It was at the end of service there was a loud popping noise," Rose said. The train had come to stop and so did not separate when the pin failed. Rose says that by design, the pin is supposed to fail on impact, allowing another system to kick in and absorb the shock of a collision. Rose also said that additional inspections found another failed shear pin from another train that had also had finished service for the day. "We are not putting (two car new trains) out on the street until we find out what the root cause is and understand the failures," Rose said. Also on Friday, he said, a woman got her fingers caught in the single door of a train at the Embarcadero station. "We had to stop service because she fell into the trackway," Rose said. The woman was taken to the hospital, and is expected to recover, Rose said. The woman was apparently chasing the train and put her hand in to stop the door from closing, he said. "We know that it appears the person was trying to chase the door as the train was leaving the station," Rose said. "We encourage people not to chase the train and not to stop the doors with their hand." He says while the door does have technology to guard against such accidents, Muni has installed another sensor on the edge of door of some trains to provide "an additional layer of protection." Muni critics believe the system also has several other issues. Some have complained about jerky, uneven movements during operation. Also bench seats, designed to accommodate large crowds, have drawn complaints about passengers sliding out of them, a problem Muni says is being dealt with. Rose says the agency is also investigating reports of incidents involving doors that date to October and December. The coupler failure comes as another 150 new cars are currently on order from the same manufacturer, Siemens. The city is in the process of putting up another $62 million to rush delivery. The president of the watchdog group Save Muni, Bob Feinbaum, said operators have told his group about trouble coupling cars for the last few months. "Were asking for them to hold the procurement of the new 150 vehicles," Feinbaum said, until theres proof that four car trains can be safely and properly coupled together. "This failure shows that they cant be and they should not be ordering more trains until they can show that they be coupled, Feinbaum said. He then added that the key is the trains need to be joined together and separated not only at the yard but during service to better handle downtown crowds. While he has not heard about the door issues, Feinbaum said disabled passengers have long complained about getting through the new car doors, which he believes are slightly narrower than doors on the old fleet. "The doors are supposed to open level with the platform," he said, "and we hear that they dont, for some reason." City Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who heads the transportation oversight committee on the board, told NBC Bay Area that he was informed about the problems on Wednesday by Muni officials. He said he had been assured by the head of Muni, just last week, that the coupler problem had been dealt with. "Obviously, it hasnt they are running one car trains," Peskin said. "The fact that they are taking this seriously and they are looking at all the couplings and all their trains is a good thing. The fact that theyve been acquiring new light rail vehicles that seem to be experiencing performance failures is deeply troubling." A San Jose family says their beloved dog was snatched from their front yard earlier this month, and they say the crime was caught on video. The Nguyen family has canvassed the neighborhood, putting up hundreds of fliers on poles and trees, hoping to find their Boston terrier named Diamond, which has been missing since April 7. NBC Bay Area Vannie Nguyen has been driving through San Jose neighborhoods in a car plastered with her dog's photos. She hopes Diamond will hear the squeak of her favorite dog toy and come running. Nguyen is convinced Diamond was stolen and says home surveillance video supports her theory. The video shows a woman carrying what appears to be a dog walking away from Nguyen's home, and Nguyen said she later confronted a neighbor she suspects. "We said we just want our dog back, and were willing to pay anything to get our dog back," Nguyen said. She reported the incident to San Jose police, who confirm they are investigating but have not identified any suspects. Nguyen also tied her socks to her fence and left broth out to try to lure her dog home. "My dog means so much more to me than just a dog," she said. On Thursday, Nguyen plans to hold a meeting to start a Neighborhood Watch group. "This neighborhood should be a place where dogs and kids roam freely and are not picked up," she said. Nguyen says she hopes that neighbors will join her at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to search the neighborhood near Ranson Street for Diamond. Santa Clara county health officials revealed Wednesday a measles case at the Google campus in Mountain View. The visitor, possibly a worker who came down with the virus, is a San Mateo County resident and was at the Googleplex office at 1295 Charleston Road on April 4. Santa Clara County Public Health Officer Sara Cody confirmed a Google onsite physician contacted the agency to report the case. Health officials then told the Google doctor to share a measles advisory to employees as a precaution. Health officials said they have not seen any sign the case has caused any others in the Bay Area. "The vast majority of the population is protected from measles due to vaccination," Cody said. "We're trying to understand 'is there anybody who might have been exposed who's not protected?'" Since the case is linked to a San Mateo County resident, it is technically not Santa Clara County's case. The latest measles case increases the Bay Area toll to at least eight incidents, and over 20 in California. Google has not returned calls seeking comment and health officials said an investigation is ongoing. Here's a look at other recent measles cases in the Bay Area: Locations Possibly Exposed to Measles The Santa Clara County Public Health Department released the whereabouts of a traveler with a confirmed case of measles. The traveler visited these 20 places from March 16 to March 23. Common symptoms of measles include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and a rash, which can appear 7 to 21 days after the exposure, according to the agency. Uber is rolling out new features it says will keep riders safe, and it unveiled the changes exclusively on TODAY Thursday. Tony West, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary at Uber, told NBC News' Stephanie Gosk that the Uber app will now prominently display in-app safety notifications and will push out an alert for riders to check the license plate, make and model of the vehicle, and name and picture of the driver to confirm it's the correct person picking them up. The changes come just over two weeks after the murder of University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson, 21, who was last seen on March 29 getting into a car she thought was her Uber ride. Her body was later found in a wooded area 65 miles away. The car's driver, Nathaniel David Rowland, 24, faces kidnapping and murder charges. "We are heartbroken about what has happened,'' West told TODAY. "For us, it's a reminder that we have to constantly do everything we can to raise the bar on safety." The South Carolina House of Representatives passed the Samantha Josephson Ridesharing Safety Act on April 9 requiring drivers from ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, to display illuminated signs in their vehicles. .medium .leadMediaRegion.city_module iframe {height:421px;} The bill is now up for approval by the South Carolina Senate.It's not the first time that fake Uber drivers have become an issue. Three women in Los Angeles have filed a lawsuit against the company alleging they were sexually assaulted by men posing as Uber drivers outside bars and nightclubs, leading to questions over whether Uber has done enough to warn riders about fake Uber drivers. Uber's response to Samantha Josephsons death has been to create a new alert system that will begin rolling out in South Carolina on Thursday and then across the rest of its user base in the coming days. "In the app, when you've ordered your Uber, when it's on the way, you will get more persistent, more frequent notifications, push notifications, to your phone that remind you to check your ride,'' West said. When you first open the app, a banner at the bottom says "check your ride every time." .medium .leadMediaRegion.city_module iframe {height:421px;} After ordering a ride, users will be sent a second warning to check the driver's license plate, name and photo. A third notification will then appear before the driver arrives, again reminding the rider to check and make sure its their correct ride. The company says it also will be working with universities nationwide to develop dedicated pickup zones on and off campus and a ride voucher program to provide subsidized rides for students at times when other ways home are limited or unavailable. Uber also has a list of safety tips for anyone using the service, including the following: Request a ride inside and wait as long as you can before going outside to get into your ride. Check the license plate, make and model of the car and the driver's picture that appear in the app. Ask the driver to confirm your name before getting the car by asking, "Who are you here to pick up?" Sit in the back seat so you can easily exit either side and have space between you and the driver. Share your trip status with a friend or family member. Trust your instincts, and if you feel you are in any danger, call 911 by using the emergency button located in the app, which also can provide your real-time location and trip details to share with the dispatcher. This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY: The deaths of three recent patients at the Washington DC VA Medical Center are raising questions about whether the medical center thoroughly checks on its patients after discharge. In each of the deaths, family members reported failures by the VA to follow through on medical issues raised by patients in the days after treatment or consults. Officials at the medical center acknowledge its failures in handling the three cases, but declined to offer details about the cases. Internal VA records obtained by the News4 I-Team and interviews with families of two of the patients reveal how breakdowns occurred. In a February case, a Fairfax County, Virginia, veteran sought to be admitted to the hospital, citing drug withdrawal, panic attacks and acute pain. An internal report on the mans case said the hospital declined to admit the man and scheduled him instead for an outpatient appointment later in the week. The internal report said the man was not a patient of the medical centers suicide prevention team, therefore they didnt follow up on him. The report said the man had not received psychiatric care at the DC VA Medical Center since 2014. According to the report, the mans wife found him dead of a gunshot wound in their home one week later. Police and fire reports said the shooting was a suicide. According to the internal VA report, the mans wife expressed her concern that veteran was not hospitalized on the day of his visit to the medical centers emergency room a week earlier. Through an attorney, the woman declined requests to speak with the I-Team. Medical Center Director Michael Heimall did not discuss the details of the case. That was a veteran who came to us for help, and we failed, he said. We failed that veteran and that family. We have to do better." In a May 2017 case, the I-Team found a patient died of a drug overdose in his car in the medical center parking lot after an appointment at the medical center. According to a police report and interviews with his family, the body of Navy veteran Woodrow Reed went undiscovered in the car for nearly two days after his death. Reeds sister, not medical center employees or police, found the body. I went looking for him, Loretta Funderburk said. I went back to try to see if I could find him. She said she found his car in the farthest parking lot from the main entrance. Funderburk said her family had asked staff to search for her brother when he failed to promptly return home from his appointment. But she said they did not do so thoroughly, so she and a friend went searching. I put my hands on him, Funderburk said. For those two days it had been real hot. He was hard and hot. It was almost like he had regurgitated. Weeks after the death was first reported by the I-Team, a medical center administrator said police would add extra cameras and patrols in the lots to prevent further incidents. VA staffers, who spoke with I-Team under the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with media, said the medical center learned just weeks ago about the 2016 death of a patient who had undergone a lung biopsy. The staffers and the victims daughter said the man died of blood clots in his lungs after being transported by family to a private hospital in D.C. just hours after undergoing lung biopsy at the DC VA Medical Center. The 73-year-old mans death was unknown to medical center officials until spring 2019, when the private hospitals business office sent a bill to the VA seeking payment. The mans daughter said she and her family never received a follow-up call from the medical center after her fathers 2016 procedure, even though at least one relative was listed as an emergency contact. Heimall, the medical center director, told the I-Team he is familiar with the mans case, but said details cannot be released by the VA. A VA spokesperson said, under medical center policies, patients are supposed to receive a follow-up call after undergoing procedures. If we did something wrong, we have to disclose it to the family, Heimall said in describing each of the three cases. That's one of the strengths of the medical center. (Staffers) do a great job sitting down with patients and families and explaining how we made mistakes. The I-Team asked the medical center to describe the procedures undertaken by staff when a patient enters the emergency room with mental health concerns. In a statement, the medical center said, Veterans who present to the Emergency Department are triaged using the Emergency Severity Index, screened for suicidal ideations, and evaluated by an Emergency Department provider. When there is a clinical indication for a mental health evaluation, a psychiatry consult is obtained. This is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Depending upon the results of the evaluation from the Emergency Department provider and Mental Health provider, a care plan could include admission to medicine, admission to psychiatry or discharge from the Emergency Department with a follow up referral. Reported by Scott MacFarlane, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones. All the 29 people killed in a tour bus crash on Portugal's Madeira Island were German, Portugal's foreign ministry confirmed Thursday. The bus carrying 55 people, all German tourists except a Portuguese driver and guide, rolled down a steep hill after veering off the road on a bend east of Madeira's capital, Funchal, on Wednesday evening when it was still light and in fine weather. The crash injured 28 others. A foreign ministry statement reiterated the government's condolences to the families of victims, and said the crash "claimed the lives of 29 German citizens." Authorities said they are investigating the cause and would inspect the bus for mechanical problems. Portuguese officials had previously said they had not yet identified the victims by name or nationality. People at the roadside are also thought to be among the injured. Tomasia Alves, head of the Funchal hospital, said authorities hope to have a list of victims by Saturday. She said the victims were roughly between 40 and 60 years old and included no children. She said 28 people were taken from the accident scene to a morgue, and another person died later in hospital. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he was "deeply shaken by the tragic bus crash." He was due to travel to Madeira on Thursday afternoon and meet his Portuguese counterpart there. German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed "sadness and shock" at the accident. "My sincere sympathy goes especially to all of the families who have lost their loved ones in this tragedy," she said. Rescue services used two cranes before dawn Thursday to pull the bus, which was lying on its side with part of its roof torn off, from the crash site, local media reported. The wall of a house, which appeared to have halted the bus's fall, was smashed in. Parts of the bus, including seats, and items of clothing littered the grassy hillside, which looks out over the Atlantic Ocean. The tourists reportedly were staying at the nearby Quinta Splendida, a hotel restored from a 19th-century manor house. Madeira, off the coast from northwest Africa, is a popular vacation destination for Europeans due to its mild climate and lush, hilly landscape. A German pastor on Madeira praised the medics who cared for the survivors. Ilse Everlien Berardo told German broadcaster n-tv Thursday the survivors she spoke to were "in a state of shock." She said Madeira officials "immediately looked for people on the island who speak German." "Even though the doctors and nurses cared touchingly for the injured it's also always important to hear your mother tongue and get a few words of attention," she said. AP reporter Frank Jordans contributed. As the nation awaits the release of the special counsel's report Thursday, a new poll finds that many Americans aren't ready to clear President Donald Trump in the Russia investigation. Slightly more Americans want Congress to keep investigating than to set aside its probes after special counsel Robert Mueller left open the question of whether Trump broke the law. About 6 in 10 continue to believe the president obstructed justice. The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds greater GOP confidence in the investigation after Attorney General William Barr in late March released his letter saying Mueller found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia but didn't make a judgment on the obstruction question. At the same time, the poll indicates that Americans are mostly unhappy with the amount of information that has been released so far. They'll get more Thursday, when Barr is expected to release a redacted version of the nearly 400-page report. Trump has repeatedly claimed "total exoneration," after Barr asserted in his memo that there was insufficient evidence for an obstruction prosecution. "It's a total phony," Trump said of all allegations to Minneapolis TV station KSTP this week. "Any aspect of that report, I hope it does come out because there was no collusion, whatsoever, no collusion. There was no obstruction because that was ruled by the attorney general." Overall, 39% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, roughly unchanged from mid-March, before Mueller completed his two-year investigation. But many Americans still have questions. "It's kind of hard to believe what the president says as far as exoneration," said James Brown, 77, of Philadelphia, who doesn't affiliate with either party but says his political views lean conservative. "And in my mind the attorney general is a Trump person, so he's not going to do anything against Trump." The poll shows 35% of Americans think that Trump did something illegal related to Russia largely unchanged since the earlier poll. An additional 34% think he's done something unethical. Brown says he remains extremely concerned about possible inappropriate contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, citing Trump's past interest in building a Trump Tower in Moscow, and believes the president committed crimes of obstruction to cover up financial interests. "He's not going to jeopardize his pocketbook for anything," he said. Still, the poll suggests Barr's summary helped allay some lingering doubts within the GOP. Among Republicans, more now say Trump did nothing wrong at all (65% vs. 55% a month ago) and fewer say he did something unethical (27%, down from 37% a month ago). Glen Sebring, 56, of Chico, California, says he thinks the nation should put the Russia investigations to rest after reading Barr's four-page summary of the Mueller report. The moderate Republican credits Trump with helping "double the money" he's now earning because of an improving economy and says Congress should spend more time on issues such as lowering health care costs. "It's like beating a dead horse," Sebring said. "We've got a lot more important things to worry about." Even as Trump blasts the Mueller probe as a Democratic witch hunt, poll respondents expressed more confidence that the investigation was impartial. The growing confidence since March was driven by Republicans: Three-quarters now say they are at least moderately confident in the probe, and 38% are very or extremely confident, up from 46% and 18%, respectively, in March. Among Democrats, about 70% are at least moderately confident, down slightly from a month ago, and 45% are very or extremely confident. Still, 61% of Americans say they believe the Justice Department has shared too few details so far with the public, and 55% think it has shared too few with Congress. About a third think the department has shared too little with the White House, which has argued that portions of the report should be kept confidential if they involve private conversations of the president subject to executive privilege. Democrats have been calling for Mueller himself to testify before Congress and have expressed concern that Barr will order unnecessary censoring of the report to protect Trump. The House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, is poised to try to compel Barr to turn over an unredacted copy as well as the report's underlying investigative files. The poll shows that even with the Mueller probe complete, 53% say Congress should continue to investigate Trump's ties with Russia, while 45% say Congress should not. A similar percentage, 53%, say Congress should take steps to impeach Trump if he is found to have obstructed justice, even if he did not have inappropriate contacts with Russia. "We don't even know what we found yet in the probe. Until we do, Congress should definitely continue to push this issue," said Tina Perales, a 35-year old small-business owner in Norton, Ohio, who describes herself as Republican. "That little letter Barr sent out summarizing the report I think was completely BS. This Mueller thing is hundreds of pages, and he just sums it up like this? These things just don't add up." Deep partisan divisions remain. Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to believe Trump had done something improper and to support continued investigations that could lead to his removal from office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has downplayed the likelihood of impeachment proceedings but isn't closing the door entirely if there are significant findings of Trump misconduct. On investigations, 84% of Democrats believe lawmakers shouldn't let up in scrutinizing Trump's ties to Russia, but the same share of Republicans disagrees. Similarly, 83% of Democrats say Congress should take steps to impeach Trump if he is found to have obstructed justice, even if he did not have inappropriate contacts with Russia, while 82% of Republicans say Congress should not. The AP-NORC poll of 1,108 adults was conducted April 11-14 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont unveiled a new version of his "Medicare for All" plan on Wednesday, shaking up the 2020 presidential election by reopening the debate over his call to eliminate private health insurance. "It is not a radical idea to say that in the United States, every American who goes to a doctor should be able to afford the prescription drug he or she needs," Sanders said. "Health care is a human right, not a privilege." Four of Sanders' fellow senators and rivals for the Democratic nomination are set to sign onto the updated single-payer health care proposal. The bill's reintroduction promises to shine a bright light on Democratic presidential candidates' disparate visions for the long term future of American health care. Under fire from President Donald Trump and Republicans for the astronomical price tag of Medicare for All, some candidates who support the plan tout it as one of several ways to achieve more affordable coverage and lower the number of uninsured people. And others who don't back it are instead focusing on safeguarding popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act, such as the one that protects coverage of pre-existing conditions. "Of course, our No. 1 goal should be to make sure we keep in place those protections so people don't get kicked off their insurance," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who isn't signed onto Sanders' bill, told reporters on Tuesday. "Then we also have to see the Affordable Care Act as a beginning and not an end." Klobuchar supports a so-called public option, versions of which would allow Americans to buy into Medicare or Medicaid. Four other Democratic senators also running for president Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand back Sanders' single-payer plan, which would replace the current mix of private and government health insurance in the U.S. with a new system run by the government. But they also have signed onto at least one version of a public option. Warren pointed to "a lot of different pathways" to universal coverage during a televised CNN town hall last month: "What we're all looking for is the lowest cost way to make sure that everybody gets covered." The debate is unfolding in the early stages of a Democratic primary in which some candidates have pointed to their support of Medicare for All to prove their progressive bona fides. But other Democratic contenders, including former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, have criticized Sanders' measure as politically infeasible. Under Medicare for All, Americans would no longer pay premiums or face insurance deductibles as the government-run system replaced private health insurance offered through employers, the mainstay of coverage for more than 160 million Americans. Big tax increases would be needed to finance such a system. The transition is likely to be complicated, dismantling the private health insurance industry and making major changes for hospitals, doctors, drug companies and other medical providers. "What our system does is get rid of insurance companies and drug companies making billions of dollars in profit every single year," Sanders told CBS News for an interview set to air Wednesday, adding that private insurance would largely exist solely for elective medical care such as cosmetic surgery. With Sanders' idea returning to the forefront, Republicans have a fresh opportunity to slam his plan as too costly and unworkable. "So-called 'Medicare for All' means private insurance for none, kicking 180 million Americans off of their current plans," said Kayleigh McEnany, spokeswoman for Trump's re-election campaign. "'Medicare for all' is a euphemism for government takeover of healthcare, and it would increase wait times, eliminate choice, and raise taxes." She touted Trump's "free market policies" as a better alternative. Trump has said he will take up health care after next year's election , essentially making it a central campaign issue. And his administration is arguing in court for the full eradication of the Affordable Cart Act, former President Barack Obama's signature health care law, often called "Obamacare." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned in a Tuesday floor speech that the cost of Sanders' proposal "is so steep that even left-leaning analysts are quietly admitting that the tax burden is virtually certain to land on the shoulders of the middle class." Sanders' office released a paper outlining options to pay for his last version of Medicare for All, estimated to cost upward of $1 trillion per year, although none of those options was included in the legislation itself. He and other supporters of Medicare for All have generally sidestepped the question of how they would pay for their plan. Instead, they say it offers the best chance for the nation to get control over health care costs by eliminating profiteering. His newest edition of the bill also would cover long term care, an unmet need for most middle class families. Several independent studies of Medicare for All have estimated that it would dramatically increase government spending on health care, in the range of about $25 trillion to $35 trillion or more over a 10-year period. But a recent estimate from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst suggests that the cost could be much lower. Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, noted the emphasis by most Medicare for All supporters on "multiple pathways" to universal coverage as a potential point of contrast and "fodder for debate" with Sanders, who is leading the Democratic field in early fundraising and is campaigning as a front-runner. "I think it really matters what you say to voters," Tanden said. "That's the most important thing." Her group has proposed a Medicare opt-out plan known as "Medicare for America," supported by former Texas congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, that would allow people to choose to keep employer-sponsored insurance. Earlier this year, a poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans like the idea of Medicare for All but that support flips to disapproval if it would result in higher taxes or longer waits for care. What to Know Trump reacted to Mueller's appointment by saying it was the "end of his presidency," according to the special counsel's report Trump's "efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful" in part because staffers "declined to carry out orders" Trump's legal team called the results "a total victory for the president," though top Democrats were far less convinced Public at last, special counsel Robert Mueller's report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. Trump was largely thwarted by those around him. (Read the full report here.) Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which Trump directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsel's appointment in May 2017. Those efforts "were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," Mueller wrote. The report's bottom line largely tracked the findings revealed in Attorney General William Barr's four-page memo released a month ago no collusion with Russia, no clear verdict on obstruction but it added layers of detail about Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation. Looking ahead, both sides were already using findings to amplify well-rehearsed arguments about Trump's conduct, Republicans casting him as a victim of harassment and Democrats depicting the president as stepping far over the line to derail the investigation. Trump's legal team called the results "a total victory for the president" while top Democrats House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement that the report undercut the conclusion from Barr that Trump didn't obstruct justice. The Justice Department posted a redacted version of the report online Thursday morning, 90 minutes after Attorney General William Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings. Mueller was not present at Barr's briefings but is likely to have his own say on his report in public, as he's been asked to appear before multiple congressional committees to discuss it. The report's release came as Trump spoke at the White House during an event for wounded soldiers, offering a unique split-screen for TV viewers as reporters began reading out the findings. Trump said he was having a good day, adding, "It was called, 'No collusion, no obstruction." After nearly two years, the two-volume, 448-page redacted report made for riveting reading. Some takeaways: NO COLLUSION: On the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges." Mueller also said there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge any campaign officials with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. On the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges." Mueller also said there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge any campaign officials with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. OBSTRUCTION FOCUS: Mueller evaluated 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice, including Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president's directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. The president's lawyers have said Trump's conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mueller's team deemed the episodes deserving of criminal scrutiny. When former national security adviser Michael Flynn agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, Trump's lawyers told Flynn's that this decision would reflect hostility towards the president. Prosecutors believed that message could have been intended to prevent Flynn from testifying truthfully, and therefore could constitute obstruction. But, they added, "we could not determine whether the President was personally involved in or knew about the specific message his counsel delivered to Flynn's counsel." Mueller evaluated 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice, including Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president's directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. The president's lawyers have said Trump's conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mueller's team deemed the episodes deserving of criminal scrutiny. When former national security adviser Michael Flynn agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, Trump's lawyers told Flynn's that this decision would reflect hostility towards the president. Prosecutors believed that message could have been intended to prevent Flynn from testifying truthfully, and therefore could constitute obstruction. But, they added, "we could not determine whether the President was personally involved in or knew about the specific message his counsel delivered to Flynn's counsel." TRUMP'S REACTIONS: Mueller reported that Trump had been agitated at the special counsel probe from its earliest days, reacting to Mueller's appointment by saying it was the "end of his presidency." In May 2017, Trump directed McGahn, the White House counsel, to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to have Mueller removed as special counsel. McGahn told prosecutors he was ordered to say "not only that conflicts existed but also that 'Mueller has to go.'" McGahn refused and was prepared to resign over it he told White House chief of staff Reince Preibus that the President had asked him to "do crazy s***," according to the report. Mueller was never fired. Mueller reported that Trump had been agitated at the special counsel probe from its earliest days, reacting to Mueller's appointment by saying it was the "end of his presidency." In May 2017, Trump directed McGahn, the White House counsel, to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to have Mueller removed as special counsel. McGahn told prosecutors he was ordered to say "not only that conflicts existed but also that 'Mueller has to go.'" McGahn refused and was prepared to resign over it he told White House chief of staff Reince Preibus that the President had asked him to "do crazy s***," according to the report. Mueller was never fired. TRUMP'S RESPONSE: A 12-page appendix contains Trump's written responses to the special counsel. They included no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trump's legal team. Trump told Mueller he had "no recollection" of learning in advance about the much-scrutinized Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Hillary Clinton's campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made "complimentary statements" about him. Trump said that his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Clinton's private server was made "in jest and sarcastically" and that he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. A 12-page appendix contains Trump's written responses to the special counsel. They included no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trump's legal team. Trump told Mueller he had "no recollection" of learning in advance about the much-scrutinized Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Hillary Clinton's campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made "complimentary statements" about him. Trump said that his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Clinton's private server was made "in jest and sarcastically" and that he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. TRUMP'S ANSWERS: In December 2017, prosecutors advised the president's lawyers that Trump was the subject of an investigation although Trump repeatedly said since that he was not the subject of an investigation. Mueller's team sought an interview with the president "for more than a year" before the two sides agreed to accept written answers to Russian-related questions. "The President stated on more than 30 occasions that he 'does not recall' or 'remember' or have an 'independent recollection' of information called for by the questions. Other answers were 'incomplete or imprecise.'" And Trump "did not similarly agree to provide written answers to question on obstruction topics or question on events during the transition." In December 2017, prosecutors advised the president's lawyers that Trump was the subject of an investigation although Trump repeatedly said since that he was not the subject of an investigation. Mueller's team sought an interview with the president "for more than a year" before the two sides agreed to accept written answers to Russian-related questions. "The President stated on more than 30 occasions that he 'does not recall' or 'remember' or have an 'independent recollection' of information called for by the questions. Other answers were 'incomplete or imprecise.'" And Trump "did not similarly agree to provide written answers to question on obstruction topics or question on events during the transition." SUBPOENA THE PRESIDENT? Prosecutors called Trump's answers "inadequate" and considered issuing a subpoena for Trump, but decided against it after weighing the likelihood of a long legal battle. They believed their had enough evidence and information from other sources to draw "relevant factual conclusions on intent and credibility." Prosecutors called Trump's answers "inadequate" and considered issuing a subpoena for Trump, but decided against it after weighing the likelihood of a long legal battle. They believed their had enough evidence and information from other sources to draw "relevant factual conclusions on intent and credibility." CAMPAIGN-RUSSIA: While the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian effort to undermine the election, it did find connections between the campaign and the Russians. On multiple occasions, members of the Trump campaign liked or promoted social posts originally posted by the Russian Internet Research Agency, which was indicted in the probe, including Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, Tump campaign staffer Brad Parscale and Flynn, the former national security adviser. IRA employees also posed as Americans to communicate with members of the Trump campaign in efforts to coordinate IRA-organized political rallies in the U.S. While the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian effort to undermine the election, it did find connections between the campaign and the Russians. On multiple occasions, members of the Trump campaign liked or promoted social posts originally posted by the Russian Internet Research Agency, which was indicted in the probe, including Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, Tump campaign staffer Brad Parscale and Flynn, the former national security adviser. IRA employees also posed as Americans to communicate with members of the Trump campaign in efforts to coordinate IRA-organized political rallies in the U.S. INFO DELETED: Some of the people prosecutors interviewed or investigated, "including some associated with the Trump campaign" had "deleted relevant communications" or used encrypted applications that did not provide for long-term retention of data, prosecutors said. In those cases the office could not corroborate witness statements or fully question witnesses about statements that "appeared inconsistent with other known facts." Some of the people prosecutors interviewed or investigated, "including some associated with the Trump campaign" had "deleted relevant communications" or used encrypted applications that did not provide for long-term retention of data, prosecutors said. In those cases the office could not corroborate witness statements or fully question witnesses about statements that "appeared inconsistent with other known facts." NEW THREADS: The investigation found 14 potential cases of criminal activity that it referred to other parts of the Justice Department, because they were outside the scope of the investigation. Twelve are redacted because they are ongoing, while two have already reached the courts: the cases of former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen's admitted wire fraud and former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig's alleged foreign lobbying violation. The department plans to make a largely unredacted version available to a limited number of members of Congress and their staff at a later date, according to a court filing Wednesday. Last month, Barr shared his own "principal conclusions" of special counsel Mueller's findings, releasing a four-page summary less than two days after the nearly 400-page report was submitted to him. Barr said then that Mueller didn't find "members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," but also did not exonerate Trump on the issue with obstruction of justice. Barr said there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge Trump with obstruction. Congress, the White House and the American public anxiously awaited the release of the report itself. Justice Department officials scoured the document to remove grand jury information and details relating to pending investigations, among other materials. Democrats had said they will not accept any redactions and criticized Barr for quickly releasing his summary and for holding a news conference before the report was released. Pelosi said Wednesday that Barr had "thrown out his credibility & the DOJ's independence with his single-minded effort to protect" Trump. Schumer said, "The process is poisoned before the report is even released." Both said Thursday that Mueller should testify in public before Congress "as soon as possible," which Barr said he wouldn't oppose. Barr has defended how he dealt with the report and said portions must remain hidden to comply with the law. Trump took Barr's summary as a full exoneration, despite that it explicitly did not exonerate him on obstruction. He tweeted inaccurately on Monday that Mueller and Barr "ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction," and called for an investigation of the people investigating him. Ahead of the report's release on Thursday, Trump took to Twitter to attack Mueller's investigation, repeating earlier jibes by calling it "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time" and "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!" Three people have been murdered in Boston within the month of April. No arrests have been made in any of the shootings, each of which took place in Mattapan. A group of men who call themselves "20,000 Peacemakers" is looking to inspire men within their community, spreading messages of love and positivity to help reduce violence throughout Boston's urban neighborhoods. Minister Randy Mohammed is among the groups leaders. "We're calling on the men of our community to stand up and be promoters of peace and make our communities safe and decent places to live," he said. Improving conditions in African-American communities is their mission, and talking to people one-on-one is the communication style they've chosen to help get it accomplished. Minister Charles Mohammed, another of the group's leaders, feels they're getting closer to getting their message across. "We're right at the crest with the start of the peacemakers promoting love, promoting peace," he said. "It will be like a disease that will infect the rest of the community." A Massachusetts doctor is facing charges for allegedly paying a 14-year-old boy for sex. Sujan Kayastha, 37, was arrested following a four-month investigation by the Attleboro Police Department. Authorities initiated the investigation after they received information that an Attleboro boy had been sexually assaulted. Kayastha is accused of giving the child cash in exchange for sexual activity. Officials said Kayastha, a doctor at St. Lukes Hospital in New Bedford, had lengthy, explicit communication with the boy. Southcoast Health, which owns St. Luke's Hospital, said in a statement they were "disturbed to learn of the allegations" against Kayastha and that he has been relieved of his duties pending a review of the matter. Attleboro police said Kayasthas communication with the boy included images of child pornography. He allegedly offered the boy drugs, money and alcohol and made arrangements to meet the victim at a hotel in Seekonk. He also allegedly set up transportation for the teen. Kayastha was arrested without incident Wednesday at his home. Investigators from the Homeland Security Investigations Task Force assisted in the arrest. Police said the suspect made incriminating statements and admissions to authorities. During a search of Kayasthas home, investigators seized multiple communication devices and suspect narcotics, police said. Devices seized during the raid contained child porn, according to officials. Kayastha was booked at the Attleboro Police Department and charged with sexual trafficking, possession of child pornography, two counts of electronic enticement of a child for prostitution and two counts of disseminating obscene matter to a minor. Police said he could face additional charges. He was scheduled to be arraigned in Attleboro District Court on Thursday. It is unclear if he has a lawyer. An appeals court on Thursday reversed a judge's decision ordering a temporary restraining order to keep Westlake Hospital open for the remainder of the month. The Cook County Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Village of Melrose Park "did not have standing to request the [temporary restraining order]." "The Village has not identified any ascertainable rights or interest recognized by common law or statute that is at stake in this matter the Village has not established standing, the judges wrote in their decision. The temporary restraining order mandated the hospital remain open until May 1 ahead of a state board hearing review about whether California-based Pipeline Health could shut down the nearly 100-year-old community hospital. We are pleased the appellate court has ruled in our favor, and we are now working to lift the order completely, Pipeline Health CEO Jim Edwards said in a statement. We need to get back to investing in patients and not buildings. Earlier this week, a judge ruled hospital management was in contempt of court and ordered the management to open up its departments and admit patients by 9 a.m. Thursday or face a daily fine. Hospital staff told NBC 5 last week that patients were being turned away, nurses laid off and medical equipment hauled off site, despite a court order mandating services remain in place through the end of the month. Pipeline Health bought the hospital in January and weeks later announced it would close because the hospital has been losing $2 million a month. An NBC 5 news crew watched as workers shuffled medical gear around and hauled off hospital equipment Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, in Springfield, Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico and state Rep. Chris Welch lobbied for legislation that could allow the governor to reverse the state boards decision to shut down. "Today's decision by the Appellate Court does not erase the fact that Pipeline Health broke Illinois law by discontinuing services at Westlake Hospital. Melrose Park has worked tirelessly to hold Pipeline Health accountable to the law," Serpico said in a statement. "Pipeline cannot be allowed to continue to break Illinois law without consequences and Melrose Park is looking at all options to hold Pipeline accountable, including requesting the Attorney General or State's Attorney to intervene to protect health care access to the residents of Melrose Park," he continued. "This decision absolutely does not impact the lawsuit that Melrose Park filed alleging that Pipeline purchased Westlake Hospital under fraudulent terms." Meanwhile, House Bill 123, as its known, did pass in Springfield last week. A 9-year-old boy is in critical condition Wednesday after a relatives dog attacked him in Rosemoor on the South Side. The boy was at the relatives home about 8:10 p.m. in the 9800 block of South Indiana Avenue when the dog attacked him, Chicago police said. A female relative fatally shot the dog, but the boy was badly injured. The boy was taken to Comer Childrens Hospital in critical condition where his condition was stabilized, police said. Another boy was taken to Comer Childrens Hospital four hours later with what was thought to be a gunshot wound to the left leg, police said. Doctors could not determine whether or not the injury came from a bullet, but the victim and his mother have since left the hospital. No other injuries or citations have been reported at this time. A girl who reported a knife attack Tuesday in the west suburbs has admitted to lying about the event, authorities said. The 16-year-old girl who was scrapped on her arms and abdomen in the Timber Ridge Forest Preserve was actually trying to harm herself, according to Tony Martinez, spokesman for the DuPage County Forest Preserve. The teen confessed that the injuries she allegedly sustained from the attack were self-inflicted, Martinez said. [S]he admitted to falsely reporting the crime and fabricating all of the details of the attack. The girl initially claimed on Tuesday that she was approached by a man who attacked her with a kitchen knife, Martinez said. She told police the incident happened about 5 p.m. on a trail near Timber Lake and County Form Road in Winfield. The teen, who was a frequent visitor of the preserve, was taken to Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield for treatment of superficial, minor wounds, Martinez said. The investigation has been turned over to the Forest Preserves police juvenile department, Martinez said. It was unclear if the department would press charges. Chicago saw a slight reduction in dog attacks on mail carriers in 2018, but the United States Postal Service is asking for more assistance to combat the issue. According to data released by the USPS on Wednesday, there were 37 incidents in which a dog attacked a postal worker in 2018, ranking Chicago eighth in the nation in that category. That was one fewer attack than in 2017, according to the service. The downward trend of attacks in Chicago is part of a larger trend nationally, the USPS said in a press release, with technology and other measures helping keep letter carriers safe. Our employees have been great at taking preventative measures against dog attacks, but they need help from our customers too, said Chicago Postmaster Wanda Prater. We are confident we can keep moving the trends of attacks downward, and ramping up overall awareness for everyone is the best way to do that. We very much appreciate that more customers are keeping their dogs confined when the letter carrier is delivering mail. The postal service offered several tips for residents to help prevent dog attacks on letter carriers: -When a letter carrier delivers mail or package, place your dog in a separate room and close that door before opening the front door. Dogs have been known to burst through screen doors or plate glass windows to attack visitors. -Parents should remind children and other family members not to take mail directly from a mail carrier in the presence of a family pet. The dog may view that exchange as a threatening gesture. -If a letter carrier feels threatened by a dog, the owner may be asked to pick up mail at a post office or other facility until the letter carrier is assured the dog has been restrained. Houston, Texas is the most dangerous city in America for letter carriers, reporting 75 attacks last year. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Dallas round out the top five. North Korea said Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of "tactical guided weapon," its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations. The test, which didn't appear to be of a banned mid- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle negotiations, allows North Korea to show its people it is pushing ahead with weapons development while also reassuring domestic military officials worried that diplomacy with Washington signals weakness. Separately, the North Korean Foreign Ministry accused Pompeo of playing down the significance of comments by leader Kim Jong Un, who said last week that Washington has until the end of the year to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy. Both the demand for Pompeo's removal from the talks and the weapon test point to North Korea's displeasure with the deadlocked negotiations. In a statement issued under the name of Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the American Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry, North Korea accused Pompeo of "talking nonsense" and misrepresenting Kim's comments. During a speech at Texas A&M on Monday, Pompeo said Kim promised to denuclearize during his first summit with President Donald Trump and that U.S. officials were working with the North Koreans to "chart a path forward so we can get there." "He (Kim) said he wanted it done by the end of the year," Pompeo said. "I'd love to see that done sooner." The North Korean statement said Pompeo was "misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement" for the negotiations to be finalized by the year's end, and referred to his "talented skill of fabricating stories." It said Pompeo's continued participation in the negotiations would ensure that the talks become "entangled" and called for a different counterpart who is "more careful and mature in communicating with us." In Washington, the State Department said in a short statement that "We are aware of the report. The United States remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation." In a speech at his rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim said he is open to a third summit with Trump, but only if the United States changes its stance on sanctions enforcement and pressure by the end of the year. Kim observed the unspecified weapon being fired Wednesday by the Academy of Defense Science, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Kim was reported to have said "the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army." The Associated Press could not independently verify North Korea's claim, and it wasn't immediately clear what had been tested. A major ballistic missile test would jeopardize the diplomatic talks meant to provide the North with concessions in return for disarmament. A South Korean analyst said that details in the North's media report indicate it could have been a new type of cruise missile. Another possible clue: one of the lower level officials mentioned in the North's report on the test Pak Jong Chon is known as an artillery official. Some in Seoul worry that the North will turn back to actions seen as provocative by outsiders as a way to force Washington to drop its hard-line negotiating stance and grant the North's demand for a removal of crushing international sanctions. A string of increasingly powerful weapons tests in 2017 and Trump's response of "fire and fury" had many fearing war before the North shifted to diplomacy. Russia announced Thursday that Kim will visit later this month for talks at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, but gave no further details. Russian media have been abuzz in recent days with rumors about the rare meeting between the leaders. Putin is to visit China later this month, and some media speculated that he could meet with Kim in Vladivostok, the far eastern port city near the border with North Korea. Trump said last month that he "would be very disappointed if I saw testing." There have been fresh reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research center and long-range rocket site where the North is believed to build missiles targeting the U.S. mainland. North Korean media said Wednesday that Kim guided a flight drill of combat pilots from an air force and anti-aircraft unit tasked with defending the North from an attack. Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said North Korea's descriptions of the test show the weapon is possibly a newly developed cruise missile. The North's report said the "tactical guided weapon" successfully tested in a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" and demonstrated the ability to deliver a "powerful warhead." The analyst said the test could also be intended as a message to the North Korean people and military of a commitment to maintaining a strong level of defense even as it continues talks with Washington over nukes. Melissa Hanham, a non-proliferation expert and director of the Datayo Project at the One Earth Future Foundation, said the North Korean weapon could be anything from an anti-tank weapon to a cruise missile. The North said Thursday that Kim Jong Un mounted an observation post to learn about and guide the test-fire of the weapon. This is the first known time Kim has observed the testing of a newly developed weapon system since last November, when North Korean media said he watched the successful test of an unspecified "newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon." Some observers have been expecting North Korea to orchestrate "low-level provocations," like artillery or short-range missile tests, to register its anger over the way nuclear negotiations were going. North Korean officials accompanying Kim at the test included Ri Pyong Chol and Kim Jong Sik, two senior officials from the North's Munitions Industry Department who have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for their activities related to the country's ballistic missile program. Ri is believed to be a key official involved in North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile development, while Kim Jong Sik has been linked to the country's efforts to build solid-fuel missiles. The Pyongyang-based Munitions Industry Department is sanctioned both by the United States and the U.N. Security Council. "Even if this is not a 'missile' test the way we strictly define it, these people and MID are all sanctioned entities for a reason," Hanham said. The White House said it was aware of the report and had no comment. The Pentagon also said it was aware but had no information to provide at this point. South Korea's presidential office said it has no immediate comment. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it is analyzing the test but did not specifically say what the weapon appeared to be. After the animosity of 2017, last year saw a stunning turn to diplomacy, culminating in the first-ever summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Singapore, and then the Hanoi talks this year. North Korea has suspended nuclear and long-range rocket tests, and the North and South Korean leaders have met three times. But there are growing worries that the progress could be killed by mismatched demands between the U.S. and North Korea over sanctions relief and disarmament. Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim, Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report. Two police officers who were involved in a shooting in New Haven that injured a 22-year-old woman Tuesday have been placed on leave. The shooting did not involve New Haven Police, but rather an officer from the Hamden Police Department and one from the Yale Police Department. Connecticut State Police, who are investigating, said both officers fired during the incident. The Hamden police officer involved has been identified as Officer Devin Eaton, who has been in law enforcement for more than four years, including nearly three years with Hamden police. He has been placed on administrative leave. Yale identified their officer who responded as Terrance Pollock, a 16-year veteran of the department. New Haven Police said Hamden officers suspected the car was involved in the armed street robbery of a newspaper delivery carrier at 4:19 a.m. Tuesday in Hamden that they were investigating. According to State Police, "the suspected party exited the vehicle in an abrupt manner and turned toward officers." Surveillance video that apparently captured the incident does not show those movements. Witnesses saw police ordering both the man and woman to get out after they stopped shooting. On Wednesday night, protesters gathered for a second day to put pressure on city leaders to release body camera footage of the shooting and rallied outside the home of Yale President Peter Salovey. Protesters are demanding that the officers involved in the case be fired immediately, the officers' body camera footage to be released and there be transparency in the ongoing investigation. On Tuesday, Black Lives Matter protesters showed up at Hamden Police Department Tuesday night, demanding answers about the shooting. Another group rallied at the site of the shooting on Argyle Street in New Haven Tuesday night. Police said the officers opened fire on a man and woman inside of a car Tuesday morning on Argyle Street in New Haven. State police said no weapon was found in the car. Earlier Wednesday New Haven and Hamden leaders held a press conference and promised to help rebuild trust with the folks in surrounding areas after the shooting. But concerned citizens who spoke to NBC Connecticut, including some Yale students, still question why the officers fired their guns as the states attorneys office continue the investigation. NBC Connecticut has reached out to Yale for a statement. A police department representative said Yale officers have citywide jurisdiction. I write this evening to assure you that Yale will cooperate fully in the investigation that the Connecticut State Police and the States Attorneys Office are conducting; when they have finished, and we can have access to the evidence, we will also conduct our own investigation into this matter. As the primary investigation proceeds, we will share whatever information we can as quickly as we can about the circumstances of the shooting, Salovey wrote in a statement posted on Yales website Wednesday. "It is vitally important that we refrain from making assumptions about the circumstances of the shooting: the facts of this case will be made clear through the investigation," Salovey wrote in a statement online. As community members express their frustration, city leaders urge anyone who may have seen the situation unfold or who may have video of the shooting to give them a call. In just a matter of days a mysterious Maryland phone number starting with area code 240 has flooded Connecticut cell phones. Ive had at least three or four in the past two or three days, Paige Berscagt said. Berscagt knows all about the new nuisance. Its pretty obnoxious honestly, especially when Im just like doing other things on my phone and then I cant hang up and sometimes Ill just answer and hang up, Berscagt said. Other people are now sharing their experiences taking to social media and posting screen shots of their Oxon Hill, Maryland robocall log. Some posts getting hundreds of comments about the same pestering problem. This time of year is especially ripe for numbers from the DC area, Lora Rae Anderson, with the Department of Consumer Protection said. Anderson says robocallers are preying even more on people after filing their taxes and this one appears to involve insurance. A voicemail left after one of the calls said, Press the number two to be connected to an insurance specialist in your area or press nine to be added to the do not call list. Anderson says robocallers dont have the authority to add numbers to a "do not call" list and interacting with them will only lead to more of their calls. One of the pieces of data that people like this can keep on you is how long you stay on the phone and how much you interact and if youre likely to interact tomorrow youre more likely to get a call back, Anderson said. Anderson says dont pick up and dont follow the robocallers cues. Instead Anderson says call your phone provider to set up blocking or alerts for the number. Hopefully Maryland stops popping up on my random phone calls, Berscagt said. Anderson says the calls could eventually stop as soon as they started but be aware they could come in next with a new number. Often times its very challenging for regulators like us in like the FTC to even find these folks because by the time anyone got their code thats used to mask their location they would be somewhere else, Anderson said. Two men were arrested in Enfield in connection with a homicide in Burlington, Vermont on Wednesday. Brandon Sanders, 18, was arrested without incident after traveling northbound on Interstate 91 near exit 49, police said. Johnny Ford, 32, was arrested without incident in a Motel 6 room, according to police. 107 grams of crack cocaine and over $17,000 in cash was found when police searched the motel room. Police said Sanders and Ford are being held on $1,000,000 bonds on fugitive from justice charges in Connecticut. Anyone with information should contact the Burlington Police Department. A Yale police officer who was involved in a shooting in New Haven that injured a 22-year-old woman early Tuesday morning was also injured during the incident, according to state police. Police have identified the officers involved in the shooting as Yale police officer Terrance Pollock, a 16-year veteran of the department, and Hamden police officer Devin Eaton, who has been in law enforcement for more than four years, including nearly three years with Hamden police. The injury Pollock sustained was not life-threatening and he was released after being treated at a hospital, according to state police. The cause of the injury is not clear. Pollock and Eaton were both been placed on leave from their departments amid an investigation into the shooting. No New Haven police officers were involved in the incident. According to New Haven police, the shooting happened after Hamden police received a 911 call at 4:19 a.m. Tuesday about the attempted armed robbery of a newspaper delivery person at the Gas and Go gas station at 144 Arch St. in Hamden. Eaton and Pollock located a vehicle at Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street. According to state police, "the suspected party exited the vehicle in an abrupt manner and turned toward officers." Both officers opened fire on a man and woman inside the car. Surveillance video that apparently captured the incident does not show those movements. Witnesses said they saw police ordering both the man and woman to get out after they stopped shooting. State police said no weapon was found in the car. Since the shooting, protesters have been putting pressure on city leaders to release body camera footage of the shooting. Officials called what happened "unacceptable" and are trying to reassure the community that Connecticut State Police are doing a thorough investigation. "We're all angry. And I can't ask you to believe it, that we're going to do the right thing ... I ask one thing: I ask you to believe in the actions that are taken," said Hamden Mayor Curt Leng. Yale President Peter Salovey released a statement on the university website about the officer-involved shooting. I write this evening to assure you that Yale will cooperate fully in the investigation that the Connecticut State Police and the States Attorneys Office are conducting; when they have finished, and we can have access to the evidence, we will also conduct our own investigation into this matter. As the primary investigation proceeds, we will share whatever information we can as quickly as we can about the circumstances of the shooting, Salovey wrote in a statement posted on Yales website Wednesday. "It is vitally important that we refrain from making assumptions about the circumstances of the shooting: the facts of this case will be made clear through the investigation," Salovey wrote in a statement online. Officials stress that State Police are continuing their investigation and that the state's attorney's office has made it a top priority. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact State Police. UPDATE: The report has been released. Read more here. Shortly before the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report on Russian election interference, Attorney General William Barr again reiterated his message that Mueller's investigation found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government hackers. In a news conference at the Justice Department, he revealed that Mueller's report examines 10 episodes in its obstruction of justice probe and noted that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the majority of Mueller's investigation, disagreed with Mueller about some of Mueller's legal theories. Mueller drew no conclusion on whether obstruction of justice took place. Barr said he and Rosenstein personally had concluded that while President Donald Trump was "frustrated and angry by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency" about the Mueller probe, nothing the president did rose to the level of an "obstruction-of-justice offense." However, the 448-page document outlines various incidents that show Trump at the very least sought to take control of the Russia probe. Among them, the president told his White House counsel that "Mueller has to go," though the counsel, Don McGahn, did not go through with it. McGahn refused and was prepared to resign over it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said there were "stark" differences between "Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Mueller's report appears to undercut that finding," they said in a statement. The report revealed what Mueller uncovered about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that fell short of criminal conduct. It also layed out the special counsel's conclusions about formative episodes in Trump's presidency, including his firing of FBI Director James Comey and his efforts to undermine the Russia investigation publicly and privately. The report was not expected to place the president in legal jeopardy, as Barr made his own decision that Trump shouldn't be prosecuted for obstruction. But the unflattering details about the president's efforts to control the Russia investigation will cloud his ability to credibly claim total exoneration. Before its release, a final version of the redacted report was already been read by President Donald Trump's personal counsel, following practice outlined in law, Barr said. But none of the redactions were made at Trump's request. Mueller himself was absent from the news conference, but Barr said he has no objection to the former FBI director testifying to Congress himself. Within minutes, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., requested that Mueller testify to the panel "no later than May 23." Asked why Mueller wasn't at the news conference to discuss the report, Barr said, "It's a report he did for me as the attorney general," adding that he wasn't required to release the report to the public. The report, Barr said, "confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes." It was a repeat of what he said in his four-page summary of the report released days after Mueller's nearly 400-page document was submitted. As the news news conference came to an end, Trump tweeted an image that said "No collusion. No Obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats game over." The design appeared to refer to "Game of Thrones," something his Twitter account has done before. The plan for releasing the report quickly spiraled into a political battle Wednesday over whether Barr is attempting to shield the president who appointed him and spin the report's findings before the American people can read it and come to their own judgments. Barr's news conference, first announced by Trump during a radio interview, provoked immediate criticism from congressional Democrats. Pelosi said Barr had "thrown out his credibility & the DOJ's independence with his single-minded effort to protect" Trump. And Schumer said, "The process is poisoned before the report is even released." "Barr shouldn't be spinning the report at all, but it's doubly outrageous he's doing it before America is given a chance to read it," Schumer said. Hours before Barr's press conference, Pelosi and Schumer issued a joint statement calling for Mueller to appear before Congress "as soon as possible." They said Barr's "partisan handling" of the report has "resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality." "The American people deserve to hear the truth," they said. Barr formulated the report's roll-out and briefed the White House on his plans, according to a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The White House declined to comment on an ABC News report that it had been briefed on the contents of Mueller's report beyond what Barr has made public. At a later date, the Justice Department also plans to provide a "limited number" of members of Congress and their staff access to a copy of the Mueller report with fewer redactions than the public version, according to a court filing Wednesday. The report's release will be a test of Barr's credibility as the public and Congress judge whether he is using his post to protect Trump. The report's redactions will open up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country. Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who is running for president, slammed Barr's news conference performance as spin on the report, "what you would expect from President Trumps defense lawyer, not our nation's top law enforcement officer." Barr has said he is withholding grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to ongoing investigation and the privacy or reputation of uncharged "peripheral" people. But how liberally he interprets those categories is yet to be seen. Democrats have vowed to fight in court for the disclosure of the additional information from the report and say they have subpoenas ready to go if it is heavily redacted. Nadler said Wednesday he will "probably find it useful" to call Mueller and members of his team to testify after reading the version of the report Barr releases. Nadler also criticized the attorney general for trying to "bake in the narrative" of the report to the benefit of the White House. Late Wednesday, Nadler joined the chairs of four other House committees in calling for Barr to cancel his news conference. But Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, defended Barr and accused Democrats of "trying to spin the report." Collins said Barr has done "nothing unilaterally," saying he had worked with Rosenstein and Mueller's team "step by step." Mueller is known to have investigated multiple efforts by the president over the last two years to influence the Russia probe or shape public perception of it. In addition to Comey's firing, Mueller scrutinized the president's request of Comey to end an investigation into Trump's first national security adviser; his relentless badgering of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his recusal from the Russia investigation; and his role in drafting an incomplete explanation about a meeting his oldest son took at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected lawyer. Overall, Mueller brought charges against 34 people including six Trump aides and advisers and revealed a sophisticated, wide-ranging Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. Twenty-five of those charged were Russians accused either in the hacking of Democratic email accounts or of a hidden but powerful social media effort to spread disinformation online. Five former Trump aides or advisers pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in Mueller's investigation, including Trump's campaign chairman, national security adviser and personal lawyer. Trump on Thursday morning continued to blast the investigation on Twitter as he has repeatedly. "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time," he tweeted. The Trump administration is stepping up its crackdown again on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. White House national security adviser John Bolton says there's a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send to relatives in Cuba. Bolton announced the policy in Miami Wednesday, during a speech at the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association on the 58th anniversary of the United States' failed 1961 invasion of Cuba, an attempt to overthrow the Havana government. He's also announcing additional economic penalties that target Cuba, as well as outlining new moves against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Bolton called those countries the "three stooges of socialism." "The troika of tyranny Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua is beginning to crumble," Bolton said. Bolton announced a new cap on the amount of money families in the United States can send their relatives in Cuba. The Obama administration had lifted limits on remittances, but the new limit will be $1,000 per person per quarter, Bolton said. Remittances to Cuba from the United States amounted to $3 billion in 2016, according to the State Department. Bolton also announced that the U.S. was sanctioning the Central Bank of Venezuela, which the Trump administration says has been instrumental in propping up the embattled government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He also announced sanctions against financial services provider Bancorp, which he claimed is a "slush fund" for Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega. "The United States looks forward to watching each corner of this sordid triangle of terror fall: in Havana, in Caracas, and in Managua," Bolton said in South Florida, which is home to thousands of exiles and immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. He said Obama administration policies gave the Cuban government "political cover to expand its malign influence" across the region, including in Venezuela. Cuba has trained Venezuelan security forces to repress civilians and support Maduro, Bolton said. "Havana continues to prop up Maduro and help him sustain the brutal suffering of the Venezuelan people," Bolton said. "As President Trump has said, Maduro is quite simply a 'Cuban puppet.'" "Thousands of Cuban doctors in Venezuela are being used as pawns by Maduro and his Cuban sponsors to support his brutal and oppressive reign." Bolton's pledge to "never, ever abandon" the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in their fight for freedom also might ring hollow in light of the historical events he sought to highlight at the event hosted by the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association. Many Cuban Americans to this day resent the late President John F. Kennedy for not deploying American troops at a critical moment in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Meanwhile, with the high stakes of the Cold War a fading memory, some critics of U.S. policy toward Venezuela worry that the Trump administration's stance that all options are on the table, including a military one, to oust Maduro is an empty threat that will only serve to ignite the streets and geopolitical tensions with Russia, compounding the misery of Venezuelan citizens. "Honoring one of U.S.' greatest military fiascos from 60 years back suggests U.S. policy to Latin America owes more now to a perverse Cold War nostalgia than practical benefits for people of the region," said Ivan Briscoe, the Latin American director for the International Crisis Group, a think tank headquartered in Brussels. Bolton spoke just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in Washington a new policy that allows lawsuits against foreign firms operating on properties Cuba seized from Americans after the 1959 revolution. The United States has enforced a trade blockade against Cuba since the early 1960s. The announcement comes at a moment of severe economic weakness for Cuba, which is struggling to find enough cash to import basic food and other supplies following a drop in aid from Venezuela and a string of bad years in other key economic sectors. Pompeo said he won't renew a bar on litigation that has been in place for two decades, meaning that lawsuits can be filed starting on May 2 when the current suspension expires. The decision could cost dozens of Canadian and European companies tens of billions of dollars in compensation and interest. Pompeo's decision gives Americans the right to sue companies that operate out of hotels, tobacco factories, distilleries and other properties Cuba nationalized after Fidel Castro took power. It allows Cubans who became U.S. citizens years after their properties were taken to sue. The Justice Department has certified roughly 6,000 claims as having merit, according to Kimberly Breier, the top U.S. diplomat for the Americas. Those claims have an estimated value of $8 billion: $2 billion in property and $6 billion in interest, she said. In addition, another 200,000 uncertified claims could run into the tens of billions of dollars, she said. Breier said there would be no exceptions to the decision, which has already prompted stern responses from Canada and Europe as they have vowed to protect their businesses from lawsuits. "European companies that are operating in Cuba will have nothing to worry about if they are not operating on properties taken from Americans," she said. The decision deals a severe blow to Havana's efforts to draw foreign investment to the island and comes as Trump steps up pressure to Venezuela's Maduro , who is holding power with help from other countries, including Cuba, China and Russia. Spain, which has large investments in hotels and other tourism-related industries on the island, was the first to react. A senior government official told The Associated Press that Madrid would ask the European Union to challenge the U.S. move in the World Trade Organization. Businesses from Canada, France and Great Britain among other countries also conduct business in properties nationalized after Castro took power. Johana Tablada, Cuba's deputy director of U.S. affairs, said on Twitter: "Before they try to euphorically ride a wave of wickedness and lies, they should take a dose of reality. The world has told John Bolton and the U.S. government to eliminate the criminal blockade against Cuba and the Helms-Burton Act" of 1996. Countries with large investments in Cuba have ferociously protested the law. "The extraterritorial application of the U.S. embargo is illegal and violates international law," said Alberto Navarro, the European Union ambassador to Cuba. "I personally consider it immoral. For 60 years the only thing that's resulted from the embargo is the suffering of the Cuban people." President Donald Trump's reelection campaign is set to report that it raised more than $30 million in the first quarter of 2019, edging out his top two Democratic rivals combined, according to figures it provided to The Associated Press. The haul brings the campaign's cash on hand to $40.8 million, an unprecedented war chest for an incumbent president this early in a campaign. The Trump campaign said nearly 99% of its donations were of $200 or less, with an average donation of $34.26. Trump's fundraising ability was matched by the Republican National Committee, which brought in $45.8 million in the first quarter its best non-election year total. Combined, the pro-Trump effort is reporting $82 million in the bank, with $40.8 million belonging to the campaign alone. Trump formally launched his reelection effort just hours after taking office in 2017, earlier than any incumbent has in prior years. By contrast, former President Barack Obama launched his 2012 effort in April 2011 and had under $2 million on hand at this point in the campaign. Obama went on to raise more than $720 million for his reelection. Trump's reelection effort has set a $1 billion target for 2020. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement that Trump "is in a vastly stronger position at this point than any previous incumbent president running for re-election, and only continues to build momentum." Trump's fundraising with the RNC is divided between two entities: Trump Victory, the joint account used for high-dollar gifts, and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, the low-dollar digital fundraising operation known internally as "T-Magic." The campaign is set to launch a traditional "bundling" program which it lacked in 2016 in the coming weeks. Bundlers are mid-tier donors who bring in contributions from their associates. Together, the Trump entities have raised a combined $165.5 million since 2017. Trump is benefiting from the advantages of incumbency, like universal name recognition and his unrivaled position atop the Republican Party. Among Democrats, dollars are divided across a candidate field of well more than a dozen, while the Democratic National Committee remains in debt and has suffered from being dramatically outraised by the RNC in recent months. Bernie Sanders topped the Democratic field in the first quarter, raising slightly more than $18 million, followed by Kamala Harris with $12 million and Beto O'Rourke with $9.4 million. Trump is reporting a haul of $30.3 million. Republicans have trailed Democrats in online fundraising ever since the medium was invented roughly two decades ago. But Trump has closed the gap, driving small-dollar donors who make recurring donations to the GOP like the party has never seen before. According to RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump's campaign has already had eight seven-figure fundraising days this year, and has taken in money from more than 1 million new online donors since Trump's inauguration including 100,000 this year. The Republican committee said it is planning on spending $30 million on maintaining and growing Trump's email list alone, recently expanded its headquarters space to an annex in Virginia and will soon invest in developing an app. In 2015, Trump swore off outside money, declaring in his opening speech: "I'm using my own money. I'm not using the lobbyists'. I'm not using donors'. I don't care. I'm really rich." He quickly reversed course on high-dollar donations after he won the GOP nomination, bowing to the financial pressures of running a general election campaign, and he'd already raised millions online through the sale of merchandise like his signature red Make America Great Again hats. Trump gave or loaned $66 million to his 2016 campaign, but has yet to spend any of his own cash for his reelection effort. Aides don't expect that to change. Deputies in Portland, Oregon responded to a possible home invasion, but the intruder they found wasn't alive or a person. It was a robotic vacuum cleaner. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports a house sitter in Cedar Hills called 911 Monday, saying someone was inside the bathroom. The Washington County Sheriff's Office says deputies entered the home and ordered the burglar out, but nothing happened. Deputies then opened the bathroom door with guns drawn and discovered the automatic vacuum cleaner. Sgt. Danny DiPietro says this encounter was his first "Roomba burglar" in 13 years on the job. He says the office is still "having a good laugh about it." Pressure from top state and police leaders against Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot's reform plan mounted Thursday, as Mayor Mike Rawlings said that Dallas Police will still enforce all laws, despite Creuzot's plan. Representatives of six Dallas County police agencies at a press conference said Creuzot's plan to not prosecute some "thefts of necessity" puts families in danger and will escalate criminal activity in Dallas County. Travis Hammond, vice president of the 28,000-member Texas Municipal Police Association, said the ramifications of Creuzot's decision not to prosecute those thefts cases and certain possession of marijuana cases were made without the input of law enforcement leadership and were "appalling." "He was elected to protect us and he is failing at his job. Instead of enforcing the laws on the books, the District Attorney is singlehandedly creating his own version of social engineering," said Hammond, who is also an Irving Police Officer. The police leaders asked Creuzot to hold off on his plan and make changes. "The District Attorney should not be in the position of creating his own Penal Code that he is going to enforce," said Richardson Police Association Past President Jimmy Holley. Friday, Creuzot detailed his decision to halt prosecution of certain cases, including food and personal health items with value less than $750. Creuzot said he wants to stop making poverty a crime and reduce the cost to taxpayers of prosecuting minor infractions. "I would hope that he would make good judgement on the small ones and not give the signal to the citizens of Dallas that somehow were going to change our policing, because were not," Mayor Mike Rawlings said Thursday. "Ive talked to the Chief of Police on this, and were going to make sure that those laws are enforced in this town." Rawlings said misdemeanor crimes the DA declines to prosecute could still be handled in Dallas Municipal Court. Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called Creuzot's policy "reckless and irresponsible" and amounted to "legalized stealing." Thursday, Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a joint letter to Cruezot insisting on enforcement of the theft and drug cases, along with tresspassing crimes the DA also intends to drop. Reform is one thing. Actions that abandon the rule of law and that could promote lawlessness are altogether different, the letter said. We hope that you will reconsider your position and will take seriously your oath and your charge to uphold Texas law. Mayor Rawlings said some of Creuzot's reforms are worthwhile and Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata agreed. Mata said he has a lot of respect for Creuzot and supports changes such as bail reform. But he asked the DA to meet with local law enforcement leaders to come up with some better solutions. "I believe in some of the things he wants to do. The North Texas police chiefs need to sit around the table with this DA and find a better way," Mata said, adding that a reasonable compromise would keep the citizens of Dallas County safe and protect the businesses who do business in the county. Creuzot issued a statement Wednesday night clarifying his position on "thefts of necessities" as one where someone commits a theft based on hunger or poverty and not for economic gain. The cap of $750, Creuzot said, was to cover crimes in the range of a Class B misdemeanor of theft where the property was valued between $100 and $750. As evidence of the need for reform, Creuzot mentioned a woman jailed for two months after a theft of property worth $105. Creuzot said taxpayers should not have been burdened with paying $3,300 to keep the woman in jail for that duration. Mata said the woman mentioned by Creuzot as having spent two months in jail wasn't kept there by police, he said she was kept there by a $150,000 bond put in place by the court. "If there is something that needs to be changed legislatively, then DA Creuzot should run for a legislative office and change it in Austin for the whole greater good of the state of Texas. I think we get in a very, very slippery slope when we start to legislate from the bench. Who are we to choose whether this person is poor enough or not poor enough," Mata said. Creuzot's statement said he has not directed any police department to stop making arrests for theft offenses, or any offense where there is probable cause. Creuzot was not available for comment Thursday. Looking to add a new cat, dog, donkey or parakeet to your family? The Humane Society of North Texas is hosting a free adoption event Friday for all of their animals. The Humane Society said the event will be held Friday at all locations except for Keller Regional, along Rufe Snow, because that location is closed for Good Friday. All other locations, including Benbrook Waggin' Tails, Keller Welcome Home and the main shelter at on East Lancaster in Fort Worth, will open to the public at noon. PetSmart locations with HSNT animals at Ridgmar Mall, Montgomery Plaza and along Bryant Irvin Road will open at 9 a.m. The animals available for adoption can be seen here. It started as an idea for a community project for the third graders at Caprock Elementary School in Keller. The project has now evolved into a way to help children 9,000 miles away in Zimbabwe and its all thanks to their profits from selling slime. "We are making slime for kids in Zimbabwe," said third grader Madie McQuitty. "We really want to help them because the kids in Zimbabwe dont have nearly the number of things we have here." Emily Bumpass, their third grade teacher, knew her students wanted to do something to help others, but she never imagined it would turn into a full circle learning experience. "When we found out we could sponsor a child for $480 for the whole year, then they decided that they wanted to do more," said Bumpass. "And so now our goal is $960 so we can sponsor two children there. A boy and a girl." Those children coming specifically from the Village of Aberdeen in Zimbabwe. The money, will go toward their school supplies. Ms. Bumpass said the project is even teaching them about supply and demand. How to price their products in the marketplace. Identifying who their customer base is and selling their slime before and after school and during lunch, to meet their class goal. Some students even sold slime at PTA's Fabulous Friday. On the first Friday, the slime sold out before school even started, raising more than $165. Sales will continue at Caprock and all proceeds will go toward buying school supplies for the children in the Village of Aberdeen. The slime is made of glue, shaving cream, contact solution and baking soda. A recipe for real change -- change that children a world away will no doubt appreciate. Long before Cyclone Idai roared in and tore apart Mozambique's seaside city of Beira, the mayor dreamed of protecting his people from climate change. It would be a huge challenge. Large parts of the city of 500,000 residents are below sea level on a coastline that experts warn is one of the world's most vulnerable to global warming's rising waters. With the World Bank's support, a $120 million project was approved in 2012 to help spare the city's fading Art Deco center and makeshift slums from rising waters. An 11-kilometer (seven-mile) system of drainage canals and water retention basins now snakes from the beach deep into boggy neighborhoods. It meant "the end of suffering of a whole population," Mayor Daviz Simango declared as the project's first phase was completed last year. But the cyclone that struck on March 14 brought a whole new level of pain to Beira, with images of destruction to chill any seaside nation already fearing for its survival. "We were really well prepared for disasters like flooding," Simango told The Associated Press, pausing from his work directing the disaster response in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, Munhava. The new system worked perfectly when there was flooding two months ago, said the mayor, a civil engineer who at times personally oversaw its construction. Residents told him they no longer needed to sleep on their tables. Then "God changed his plan and brought a cyclone," Simango said. Packing winds of some 240 kilometers (150 miles) an hour, the storm ripped apart structures built to withstand less than half that intensity. "This cyclone destroyed everything we built for more than 100 years." It was painful watching the cyclone veer toward Beira, said World Bank staffers involved in the project who kept in touch with people on the ground until the storm severed power and communications. With Idai, "suddenly we have a cyclone category 4 hitting, and it's very vulnerable," Michel Matera, a senior urban specialist with the World Bank, told the AP. "Yes, we were doing the right thing but it was not enough." Long and narrow with a 2,400-kilometer (1,500-mile) Indian Ocean coastline, Mozambique is on the frontline of fighting climate change in Africa, where most nations have little infrastructure and funding to cope. Rapidly growing coastal cities like Beira are especially at risk. The mayor called it unjust that African nations face some of the toughest challenges while contributing little to global warming. People in rich, industrialized nations produce much of the carbon dioxide and other gases that are warming the planet by burning the most coal, diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. But while Simango believes the international community should help African nations, he stressed the continent's leaders must do their part to fight graft and not pocket the aid. "Sometimes we get money, resources but the corruption kills us," he said. "We must be more prepared as leaders, doing our best to use every cent to save lives." Ordinary Mozambicans may not be familiar with the science behind climate change. But the Beira residents who pick their way through inundated streets, and the longtime fishermen who keenly watch the sea and sky, have noticed changes. They note that local temperatures that once topped out at around 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) now reach a sweltering 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). That warming air can hold more moisture, experts say, meaning the potential for heavier rains . For fisherman Nueve Savimbi, who stood with a bamboo fishing pole where Beira's new concrete drainage system meets the sea, it took the raging storm to open his eyes. "I've heard about climate change but didn't believe it until I saw the cyclone," he said. "Without this (drainage system), there would be flooding here. But there is still work to do. Channels like this should be built elsewhere." Without extensive study, scientists cannot directly link a single weather event like Cyclone Idai to the changing climate, but global warming is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather events, as well as droughts, floods and fires. Mozambique ranks third among African nations in vulnerability to weather-related disasters, behind Somalia and Madagascar, and studies say climate change will make those threats more intense and unpredictable , according to the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, a World Bank-managed grant-funding partnership. For residents recovering from the cyclone and those watching with alarm from afar the storm hit as Africa Climate week unfolded across the continent in Ghana, another vulnerable coastal nation the time has come to treat climate change as an emergency. "Cyclone Idai was an uncommonly fierce and prolonged storm, yet another alarm bell about the dangers of climate change, especially in vulnerable, at-risk countries," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday. "Such events are becoming more frequent, more severe and devastating and more widespread, and this will only get worse if we do not act now." The world must deliver on the $100 billion pledged as part of the Paris climate agreement to help Mozambique and other developing nations build climate resilience, Guterres said. Countries around the world, rich and poor, had more than $2.2 trillion in economic losses from climate-related disasters between 1998 and 2017, the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction said in October. In Beira, it is too early to calculate the cyclone's toll, whether in economic losses or even in lives. Some residents say they believe an exodus will begin, with people leaving the port city for higher, safer places. Others argue that eventually, there will be nowhere else to go. "Other districts have flooding," said Julia Castigo, who stood on the beach watching survivors arrive by boat from the badly hit district of Buzi. "The flooding will find us." Another onlooker, Paolo Fernando Machata said a major flood nearly two decades ago didn't reach his village, but this one swallowed it. He spent three days stranded in flood waters, he said, pointing to his bandaged, swollen feet. "I'd never heard about climate change," he said. "What I know is, things are changing. If cyclones like this keep happening, we will lose this town and the people in it, and our society." Still, that society has already shown flashes of resilience amid the destruction. Beira's seaside bars have reopened, pulsing with generator-powered music. Muddy markets bustle again, and shop owners have cleared away broken glass and reopened. Some classes have resumed as children in bright uniforms now share school buildings with displaced people. From the international relief operations base at Beira's airport, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, deputy director of the United Nations humanitarian operation, was frank. "I think the world realizes we haven't done enough about climate change," he told journalists. Disasters "are getting worse around the world. All of us must be prepared." For Beira's mayor, the time to take climate change seriously has come. Standing in a still-sodden neighborhood, he urged U.S. President Donald Trump to come to Mozambique and see for himself. "I think he is living in another world," Simango said of Trump's expressions of doubt about global warming. "I've seen by my own eyes the rising of the sea level. I've seen by my own eyes people suffering. I've seen flooding. Climate change is a reality. Climate change is bringing us trouble." DNA evidence has linked the cold-case rape and murder of two women in California's Central Coast to a man who died of cancer in a Washington prison nearly four decades after the killings, authorities said Wednesday. DNA taken from an old razor belonging to Arthur Rudy Martinez recently matched DNA left by the suspect in two unsolved killings in Atascadero in the late 1970s, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a news conference. The body of 30-year-old Jane Morton Antunez was found in the back seat of her car on a dirt road on Nov. 18, 1977. She had been sexually assaulted, and her throat had been cut. Less than two months later, 28-year-old Patricia Dwyer was found sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in her home on Jan. 11, 1978. Martinez moved to Washington from Atascadero shortly after Dwyer was killed. He later was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of numerous rapes and robberies in Washington, but Martinez escaped from prison in 1994, Parkinson said. Martinez returned to California and lived in Fresno under an alias for more than 20 years. He turned himself in on his Washington convictions after getting diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2014 so he could get medical treatment in prison, Parkinson said. He died just about two months later at the age of 65 in the prison in Spokane. At the time of the murders, Martinez was working as a welder in Atascadero and was on parole for convictions of attempted murder and rape. At one point, he had been considered as a potential suspect in the killings, but there was no evidence at the time linking him to either crime scene, Parkinson said. The sheriff's office reopened the 41-year-old cold case in 2017 and decided to test Martinez's DNA after one of his family members was connected to the case through a familial DNA search, the sheriff's office said. "Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and are hopeful the resolution to these cases brings them some closure," Parkinson said in a statement. Democrats vying for the 2020 presidential nomination are calling on the Justice Department to release an unredacted version of Robert Mueller's 448-page report and for the special counsel to testify publicly on his findings. There were also calls for the resignation of Attorney General William Barr after his pre-release news conference, which they referred to as a political "farce" and a "disgrace." Barr was accused by top Democrats of acting as the president's publicist or personal attorney, rather than the top official in the Justice Department. "This is a disgrace," tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. "The American people deserve answers and Special Counsel Robert Mueller should testify publicly before Congress." She added a hashtag: #ReleaseTheFullReport. Warren attached page 179 of the report to her tweet, which was heavily redacted for "personal privacy." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., tweeted a copy of page 30, which had been fully redacted, with the caption, "Really?" Special counsel Robert Muellers report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election included instances of potential obstruction by President Donald Trump. Here is a rundown of the ten mentioned in the report. Gillibrand demanded Congress receive "the full, unredacted Mueller report." "The American people have the right to know the facts without the spin," she said. "First Page of Mueller report says that Russian government interfered in 2016 presidential election 'in sweeping and systematic fashion,'" Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., tweeted. Now that the report has been made public, she said, the public "should hear from Robert Mueller himself." "Our democracy demands it," Klobuchar said. President Donald Trump celebrated the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russia collusion today, but Democrats say this story isn't over and are already talking about their next step. The report, which totals over 400 pages, neither condemns nor exonerates the president. Before the report was released, the 2020 contenders lambasted Barrs press conference Thursday, saying Barr behaved like a spokesperson for the president. It's a disgrace to see an Attorney General acting as if he's the personal attorney and publicist for the President of the United States, Warren tweeted. Gillibrand said in a statement that the news conference was an embarrassing display of propaganda on behalf of President Trump. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D.-Calif., joined in criticizing Barrs spin. Yet again Attorney General Barr has tried to spin the Mueller report before providing the actual report or the evidence underlying it, Booker tweeted. This is undermining the independence of this entire process. Swalwell later called for Barr's resignation in a tweet and circulated a petition to that end, saying the attorney general acted as President Donald Trump's "defense attorney." Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the early Democratic front-runner for the 2020 nomination, weighed in, calling on Trump and Republican leaders to "stop obstructing the necessary work to protect our democracy." "It is clear that Donald Trump wanted nothing more than to shut down the Mueller investigation," Sanders tweeted. "Congress must continue its investigation into Trump's conduct and any foreign attempts to influence our election." Special counsel Robert Muellers report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election included instances of potential obstruction by President Donald Trump. Here is a rundown of the ten mentioned in the report. The reports redactions were a cause of concern among 2020 candidates, who said the redacted version of the report was not enough for Congress to conduct meaningful oversight over the investigation into Russian interference and possible ties to the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Other presidential primary contenders, including Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and even Republican hopeful Bill Weld, joined in calling for Barr to resign and for Mueller to testify on his team's findings. It is essential that Special Counsel Bob Mueller come before Congress and address the validity of his report that has been redacted and released," Weld, a former Massachusetts governor, tweeted. Attorney General William Barr addressed the media prior to his departments release of special counsel Robert Muellers report to Congress. On MSNBCs "Morning Joe," Buttigieg called the attorney general's news conference really disturbing. If I were advising a president at a moment like this, I would advise being as transparent as you can, he said. And instead it sounds like what they want to do is describe this thing and then hand it over. Harris said Barr was acting "like Trumps defense attorney" and called his press conference "a stunt, filled with political spin and propaganda." "Americans deserve the unvarnished truth," Harris tweeted. "We need Special Counsel Mueller to testify publicly in Congress." Former Texas congressman Beto ORourke, who was canvassing in New Hampshire, was more tight-lipped. As of Thursday mid-afternoon, he had not tweeted about Barr or the Mueller report, and when a reporter asked the candidate to comment, he responded that he didn't have "enough information to share." "But I'm glad that [the report]'s being released, he said. This is a disgrace. The American people deserve answersand Special Counsel Robert Mueller should testify publicly before Congress. #ReleaseTheFullReport pic.twitter.com/ROG0Bt6JVq Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 18, 2019 Whos Running for President in 2020? The race for the 2020 presidential election is underway, and the field of Democratic candidates is packed. Those who have announced presidential bids include a vice president, senators, House members and three mayors. As for the GOP, a single Republican has announced his bid to challenge President Donald Trump for the party nomination: former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who ran for vice president (and lost) in 2016 on the Libertarian party ticket. Click the photos to learn more A 448-page report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller gives an inside look at Donald Trump's tumultuous campaign and presidency and its possible links to Russians who tried to help win him the presidency. The report says there's not enough evidence to charge Trump with a crime, but it details vague responses to questions and staff members deleting key communications. Here are some key takeaways from the Mueller report, the conclusion of a 22-month investigation that looked at the question of the Russian interference and whether the president tried to obstruct the probe. Trump Cursed When Told of Mueller's Appointment After the special counsel was appointed in May 2017, Trump reacted with anger: Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im F*****, according to notes from Jody Hunt, the attorney generals chief of staff. Trump then told Jeff Sessions to resign as attorney general. Sessions submitted a resignation letter the next day, but Trump decided to retain Sessions. Trump Demanded Muellers Removal Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn in May 2017 to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to have Mueller removed as special counsel. McGahn's clear recollection was that the President directed him to tell Rosenstein not only that conflicts existed but also that Mueller has to go, the report says. McGahn refused the directive and was prepared to resign over it he told then White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus that the President had asked him to do crazy sh*t, according to the report. Mueller was never fired. Trump was told he was under investigation In December 2017, the special counsels office advised the presidents lawyers that Trump was the subject of an investigation although Trump has repeatedly said since that he is not the subject of an investigation. Mueller determined that the Trump campaign had not conspired or coordinated with the Russian government, but the presidents team did think it would benefit from the Russian attempts to publish stolen emails. The report found that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign in what it called sweeping and systemic fashion, and also that the Trump campaign expected to benefit from those efforts. "The Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the report said. Nonetheless the investigation did not establish that member of the Trump Campaign conspired and coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities, the report said. Barr in his letter to Congress reported the last sentence but omitted the sentence that the Trump campaign thought it would benefit from the stolen emails released on WikiLeaks. Barr earlier told Congress that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the presidential election, one involving a Russian organization called the Internet Research Agency, that used social media in the United States to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election, and the second involving the Russian governments efforts to hack into the emails of Hillary Clintons campaign and Democratic party organizations and publish them through WikiLeaks and other groups. According to Rick Gates, a top campaign official, "by the late summer of 2016, the Trump Campaign was planning a press strategy, a communications campaign and messaging based on the possible release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks." Trump wanted more Clinton emails After Trump, while a candidate, said on July 27, 2016, that he hoped Russia would find the 30,000 emails that are missing, he asked people affiliated with his campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails. Michael Flynn, later his national security advisor, recalled that Trump made this request repeatedly. Flynn contacted many people in try to obtain the emails. The Trump campaign did have "numerous" contacts with Russians The investigation identified two kinds of connections between members of the Trump campaign and the Internet Research Agency one by linking, retweeting or reposting pro-Trump or anti-Clinton content and two by meeting with agency employees posing as Americans to coordinate political rallies in the United States. Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale and Michael Flynn all liked or promoted social posts originally posted by the IRA. If Mueller could have exonerated the president, he would have Mueller wrote that because the members of his team were determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, they did not draw ultimate conclusions about the presidents actions and his intent. The evidence they obtained would need to be resolved if it were to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, the report said. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, the report said. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Trump associates deleted relevant communications The office said that some of those they interviewed or investigated, including some associated with the Trump campaign, had deleted relevant communications or used encrypted applications that did not provide for long-term retention of data. In those cases the office could not corroborate witness statements or fully question witnesses about statements that appeared inconsistent with other known facts. Therefore, the special counsels office could not rule out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional light on (or cast in a new light) the events described in the report. Trump agreed to respond to written responses on Russian-related questions, but not on obstruction The report notes that Trump did not similarly agree to provide written answers to question on obstruction topics or question on events during the transition. Muellers team sought to interview the president for more than a year, and considered issuing a subpoena for Trump but decided against it because of the likelihood of a long legal battle. Prosecutors also said they believed they had enough evidence and information from other sources to draw "relevant factual conclusions on intent and credibility, the report said. The written answers that Trump did provide were not sufficient, according to the report. The President stated on more than 30 occasions that he does not 'recall' or ' remember' or have an ' independent recollection of information called for by the questions. Other answers were incomplete or imprecise,'" the report said. 12 mystery cases have been referred to other jurisdictions Two cases that were referred included the case against Trumps longtime associate, Michael Cohen, to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York on financial crimes that he pleaded guilty to and another involving lobbyist Gregory Craig, a White House counsel early in President Barack Obamas administration who has been charged with making false statements about work for the Ukrainian government. But information about 12 other cases were redacted on grounds of harm to ongoing matter. Why were no charges brought after the Trump Tower meeting? Muellers office considered whether to charge Trump campaign officials in connection with a now-infamous meeting at Trump Tower in 2016, which Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and others attended after Trump Jr. was told of an offer from Russias Crown prosecutor of official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to [Trump Jr.'s] father." Trump Jr. responded, if its what you say I love it especially later in the summer. But the lawyer who attended wanted to talk about adoptions and the Magnitsky Act, under which a group of prominent Russians were sanctioned for human rights violations. Prosecutors noted in the report that federal election law bans contributions and donations by foreign nationals but they argued that the special counsels office would have difficulty proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the values of the promised documents and information exceeded the $2,000 threshold for a criminal violation or the $25,000 threshold for felony punishment. Although damaging opposition research is surely valuable to a campaign, it appears that the information ultimately delivered in the meeting was not valuable, the report said. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled Thursday honoring Cypress Hill, the first Latino American hip-hop group with a recording to go platinum. Comedian Tommy Chong and the rapper Xzibit joined band members in speaking in the late-morning ceremony in front of the Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop at the Eastown apartment complex on Hollywood Boulevard. The star is the 2,660th since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the first 1,558 stars. The ceremony comes 10 days short of seven months after the release of its the group's latest album, "Elephants on Acid." Senen Reyes (also known as Sen Dog) and Ulpiano Sergio Reyes (also known as Mellow Man Ace) -- brothers who were born in Cuba and raised in South Gate -- teamed with New York City native Lawrence Muggerud (also known as DJ Muggs) and Louis Freese (aka B-Real) in 1988 to form the hip-hop group DVX, short for Devastating Vocal Excellence. Mellow Man Ace left the band a short time later to pursue a solo career and the group changed its name to Cypress Hill, after a street in South Gate. Drummer Eric "Bobo" Correa joined in 1993 and continues to be a member. Cypress Hill's self-titled first album was released in August 1991 and sold more than 2 million copies. Its second album, "Black Sunday," released in 1993, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and earned a triple-platinum certification after selling more than 3 million copies. Cypress Hill received its first Grammy nomination in 1993 for best rap performance by a duo or group for "Insane In The Brain." It was also nominated in the category the following two years for "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That" and "Throw Your Set In The Air." "Insane in the Brain" was 34th on VH1's list of 100 greatest songs of hip-hop released in 2008. The band's third album, 1995's "Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom," and fifth, 2000's "Skull & Bones," went platinum, each selling more than 1 million copies. Its third, 1998's "Cypress Hill IV," went gold, selling more than 500,000 copies. Cypress Hill is scheduled to perform tonight at the Whiskey a Go Go in West Hollywood and conduct a European tour June 19-July 14. What to Know They face 12 1/2 years behind bars for their roles in a drug distribution. A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who worked at Los Angeles International Airport and his ex-wife were each sentenced Thursday to 12 1/2 years behind bars for their roles in a drug distribution ring that moved hundreds of pounds of cocaine, heroin and marijuana from the Southland to Chicago. Manuel Salas, 52, and Sayda Orellana, 50, were also ordered to serve five years each under supervised release following their 151-month federal prison sentences, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The defendants -- who both faced mandatory minimums of 10 years -- were found guilty in December, following a five-day trial, of one count each of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and making false statements to law enforcement. The jury also found Orellana guilty of four additional money laundering counts. Salas, a 25-year veteran of CBP who also worked as an officer at John Wayne and Ontario International airports, and Orellana used a commercial truck driver to move hundreds of pounds of illegal drugs from California to Illinois. For their participation, the defendants -- who divorced in 2011 and most recently lived in Fontana -- received hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation that they laundered through bank accounts held in the name of Orellana and others, according to prosecutors. Orellana also gambled hundreds of thousands of dollars in the narcotics proceeds at a Southern California casino, evidence showed. The investigation began when a commercial truck driver stopped in Gallup, New Mexico, on March 11, 2012, was found to be hauling about 570 pounds of narcotics -- including cocaine, heroin and marijuana -- valued at nearly $1.5 million. In addition to the narcotics, investigators found bank account numbers belonging to Orellana. The truck driver, who later pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, told law enforcement that he worked with Salas and Orellana transporting narcotics to Chicago and had done so on multiple occasions, according to federal prosecutors. The driver said that when he drove a truck to Chicago, he would receive cash for the narcotics, and then Salas and Orellana would direct him to deposit the money into various bank accounts -- including an account in Orellana's name. When interviewed by federal agents, Salas and Orellana lied about their relationship with the truck driver and the source of the money in the bank accounts, evidence showed. What to Know Panel and The Grim Grinning Gala at Midsummer Scream on Aug. 3 in Long Beach Soiree from Regions Beyond, a DoomBuggies event, on Aug. 9 in Fullerton A Swinging Wake, a Haunted Orange County party, on Sept. 28 in Fullerton There are Disneyland Resort events, those official, in-park happenings created by the Disney team for guests visiting The Happiest Place on Earth to enjoy. There are the unofficial events that pop up at the Anaheim destination, the ones that find fans gathering to dress in vintage finery hello, Dapper Day or pay homage to a focus of the fandom. And then there are those Disney-devoted goings-on that happen elsewhere, all to acknowledge a particular ride or attraction or character that a particular group of people particularly adore. And the Haunted Mansion? You could say that the legendary ride's fans way, way outnumber the attraction's famous "999 Happy Haunts." In fact, the planet's best-known haunted house ride has inspired documentaries, Disneybounding costumes, and a host of spirited merch. And, of course, those regulars who must commune with it often, including the people who have to return, each fall, for its annual overlay, Haunted Mansion Holiday. So lower the lights, turn up the flickering candles, and rattle your chains: Everyone's favorite Doombuggie'd destination is turning 50 in August 2019, and the unofficial, beyond-the-park parties are already revving up, with tickets on sale now. Two Fullerton festivities to keep in mind? There's a Fullerton to-do that'll be helmed by the people from DoomBuggies, on Aug. 9. The "night of spooky fun" is called Soiree from Regions Beyond. And on Sept. 28? A Swinging Wake'll summon all sorts of Haunted Mansion-related celebrities to Fullerton, including Disney legend Bob Gurr, for an evening of costumes, live music, and a buffet dinner. Haunted Orange County is the eerie outfit behind this fall-starter of a shindig, and tickets are gettable as of springtime, boo. (That's a ghostly "boo," not a sad "boo," of course.) As for what's happening at the Halloween-loving expo Midsummer Scream? Best catch a ride to Long Beach with your favorite Hitchhiking Ghost for a full-on panel devoted to the Haunted Mansion's 50th anniversary. "A Chilling Legacy: 50 Years of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion" materializes on Saturday, Aug. 3, and will include appearances by a number of major Disney notables. Also notable? There's a second event, that night, at the expo, called "The Grim Grinning Gala." For sure, you'll probably see some Haunted Mansion Brides, as well as more than one Madame Leota, with or without her crystal ball. Producer Don Hahn will also offer live commentary during a screening of the film inspired by the Haunted Mansion. What else will shimmer into being on this mortal plane, ahead of the Haunted Mansion's 50th anniversary? Stay tuned, spirits of Southern California, and keep an ear out for hinges creaking in doorless chambers and strange and frightening sounds, echoing through the halls. More than $2.3 million in wage theft citations were issued to a Culver City car wash for failing to properly pay or provide required breaks to 64 workers, the state Labor Commissioner's Office announced Wednesday. An investigation at Playa Vista Car Wash uncovered a variety of wage theft practices that are common in the car wash industry, according to labor regulators, who said the citations are the largest issued to date against a car wash business by the Labor Commissioner's Office. According to the Labor Commissioner's Office, workers were required to report to an alley next to the car wash 30 minutes before the business opened to be selected to work that day and those not selected were typically sent home several hours later without being paid for the waiting time. Workers were also frequently required to take extended lunch breaks with no split shift premium, or worked up to 10 hours a day with no overtime pay, the regulators determined. They also alleged that managers regularly altered workers' time cards to reduce total hours worked. "Under California law, the Labor Commissioner's Office has authority to cite any individual who causes minimum wage and overtime violations, including owners, corporate officers and managers," said California Labor Secretary Julie A. Su. "Individuals acting on behalf of an employer to steal workers' wages cannot hide behind corporate entities to avoid personal liability, all the while profiting at the expense of honest businesses that play by the rules." In addition to the car wash owner Centinela Car Wash Inc., the corporation's president, Hooman Nissani, and general manager Keyvan Shamshoni were both held jointly and severally liable for the wage theft violations, according to Su. The investigation was opened in February 2018 after the Labor Commissioner's Office received a referral from the Community Labor Environmental Action Network, a nonprofit that assists car wash workers. CLEAN assisted in the investigation by contacting workers who might have been victims of the wage theft, and coordinating with workers so that investigators could interview them about working conditions at the car wash. In March 2018, Centinela Car Wash was cited $10,000 for failure to register with the Labor Commissioner's Office as required by Labor Code sections 2054 and 2060. The $2,365,051 citation amount includes $1,849,151 payable to workers and $515,900 in civil penalties. Of the total due to workers, $487,045 is for minimum wage violations, $146,129 in overtime wages, $688,410 in liquidated damages, $258,394 for meal and rest break violations, $64,905 for split shift violations, $188,450 for itemized statement violations and $15,638 for waiting time penalties. The civil penalties include $124,150 for minimum wage and overtime violations, $49,350 for meal and rest break violations, $49,400 for split shift violations and $293,000 for itemized statement violations. Investigators also issued a demand that Playa Vista Car Wash pay $19,000 to return illegal deductions from workers' paychecks for towels used at the car wash. Enforcement investigations typically include a payroll audit of the previous three years to determine minimum wage, overtime and other labor law violations, and calculate payments owed and penalties due. Civil penalties collected are transferred to the State's General Fund as required by law. A man who set up tents for the homeless in Whittier complete with Wi-Fi said he was just trying to help, but the city said it's clear the tents were put up for profit after a Craigslist ad was marketing them for $400 a month. The manager of the tents, set up on the greenbelt next to busy Whittier Boulevard, said he is not moving them even though the state ordered he pack up by Thursday. "In the morning, we open them up, and they can charge their phone. There's a place to sit down in there and get some water," Mark Gutierrez said. Gutierrez said his tents are providing a service to the homeless. He provides power via solar panels, and Wi-Fi. But the California Highway Patrol sees it as a safety issue, due to the proximity to fast-traveling traffic on the boulevard. CalTrans also owns the land, and jointly with the CHP ordered Gutierrez to remove them. The mayor of Whittier, Joe Vinatieri, and another council member expressed outrage on social media after discovering the ad. Gutierrez however says the order to vacate isn't valid, and he claims he never put up the Craigslist ad, which has since been taken down. The city said it's clear the intent was to rent out the tents for profit, though Gutierrez denies this. "I think this is someone who was taking advantage of a situation for their own profit. My family and I provide some assistance to homeless in different ways, but we definitely do not do it for our own profit," said councilwoman Cathy Warner. The city said it's working with the homeless people who've set up other tents next to Gutierrez's, and those will be relocated. But the souped-up Wi-Fi and solar-powered tents have to be gone by Thursday, according to the state order. New Census Bureau data shows Puerto Rico lost nearly 4% of its population after Hurricane Maria the greatest population drop in the recorded history of the island, according to one demographer. Data released Thursday shows the U.S. territory's population dropped by 129,848 people between July 2017 and July 2018. The hurricane struck two months into that period, in September 2017. The population loss was due to both deaths and people moving away, although emigration accounted for most of the drop. The heaviest population drops occurred in metropolitan areas such as the capital of San Juan, the city of Ponce and surrounding areas. "It's the largest population drop seen in a single year ever registered in Puerto Rico," demographer Raul Figueroa said. The census numbers show there were 6,449 more deaths than births during the 12 months in question, a normal figure, even though there were several thousand more deaths than normal in the months immediately following the hurricane. Many of those excess deaths following the hurricane were of sick and elderly people who would have died sometime in the year in the question, Figueroa said. Deaths for the year may have been concentrated right after the storm due to the lack of electricity, services and fresh water. He said he thinks emigration slowed in 2019 and the population has begun to slowly recover. Many Puerto Ricans left for Florida and New York, home to communities of people from the territory. Sister Carmen Negron of the Society of the Sacred Heart sells handmade rosaries and religious icons in a narrow passage in the Plaza del Mercado in the Rio Piedras area of San Juan. She said she has noticed a drop in sales due to what seem to be fewer people in the area. "This area's been shrinking," Negron said. "Sales are down." The San Juan area lost 81,087 people, a 3.9% drop, in the 12 months covered by the Census Bureau report. Paseo de Diego, the central thoroughfare in Rio Piedras, was filled years ago with stores that are closed and empty today. "You see fewer people around, fewer young people," said Wilfredo Montanez, who was sitting on a bench in the plaza. Magaly Robles has been selling roast potatoes outside the plaza for 15 years. A native of the Dominican Republic, she said that because she has a job, she has no intention of moving again. "Lots of people have left since Maria," Robles said. "Many of my friends have gone and not come back." Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election identified 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed a crime or that he hadn't. A look at the 10 instances: PRESSURE ON COMEY TO END PROBE OF MICHAEL FLYNN This includes the president's statement to then-FBI Director James Comey regarding the investigation of then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump told Comey: "I hope you can see your way to letting this go." PRESIDENT'S REACTION TO THE CONTINUING RUSSIA INVESTIGATION Among the evidence is the president telling then-White House counsel Don McGahn to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from the Russia investigation and Trump's subsequent anger at Sessions. Trump also contacted Comey and other intelligence agency leaders to ask them to push back publicly on the suggestion that Trump had any connection to the Russian election-interference effort. FIRING OF COMEY AND AFTERMATH Mueller's report says "substantial evidence" indicates Trump's decision to fire Comey in May 2017 was the result of the FBI director's unwillingness to say publicly that Trump was not personally under investigation. On the day after Trump fired Comey, the president told Russian officials that he had "faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off." APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL COUNSEL AND EFFORTS TO REMOVE HIM Trump reacted to news of Mueller's appointment by telling advisers that it was "the end of his presidency." The president told aides that Mueller had conflicts of interest and should have to step aside. His aides told Trump the asserted conflicts were meritless. Following media reports that Mueller's team was investigating whether the president had obstructed justice, Trump called then-White House counsel Don McGahn at home and directed him to have Mueller removed. McGahn refused. FURTHER EFFORTS TO CURTAIL THE SPECIAL COUNSEL's INVESTIGATION Trump instructed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to have Sessions publicly announce that, notwithstanding his recusal from the Russia investigation, the investigation was "very unfair" to the president, the president had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with Mueller to limit him to "investigating election meddling for future elections." EFFORTS TO PREVENT PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF EVIDENCE In summer of 2017, Trump learned that the news media planned to report on the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between senior campaign officials and Russians offering derogatory information about Hillary Clinton. The president directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails setting up the meeting. Before the emails became public, the president also edited a press statement for Donald Trump Jr. by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was "with an individual who (Trump Jr.) was told might have information helpful to the campaign." ADDITIONAL EFFORTS TO HAVE SESSIONS TAKE CONTROL OF INVESTIGATION At several points in between July 2017 and December 2017, Trump tried to get Sessions to declare that he was no longer recused from the Russia investigation and would assert control over it. The report says there's evidence that one purpose of asking Sessions to step in was so that the attorney general would restrict the investigation's scope. TRUMP ORDERS WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL TO DENY THAT PRESIDENT TRIED TO FIRE MUELLER In an Oval Office meeting in February 2018, Trump told McGahn to "correct" a New York Times story that reported Trump had earlier instructed McGahn to fire Mueller. Trump also asked why McGahn had told Mueller's investigators about the directive to remove Mueller. McGahn told Trump he had to tell the investigators the truth. TRUMP'S ACTIONS TOWARD, FLYNN, MANAFORT AND OTHER POSSIBLE WITNESSES Mueller looked at whether Trump's sympathetic messages to Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and others were intended to limit their cooperation with Mueller's investigation. When Flynn began cooperating with prosecutors, Trump passed word through his lawyer that he still had warm feeling for Flynn and asked for a "heads up" if Flynn knew of information implicating Trump. Trump praised Manafort during and after his criminal convictions, and refused to rule out a pardon for his former campaign chairman. TRUMP ACTIONS TOWARD MICHAEL COHEN Mueller noted that Trump's conduct toward Cohen, a former Trump Organization executive, changed from praise to castigation after Cohen began cooperating with prosecutors. The evidence could "support an inference that the president used inducements in the form of positive messages in an effort to get Cohen not to cooperate, and then turned to attacks and intimidation to deter" cooperation and undermine Cohen's credibility, Mueller wrote. What to Know Police in Melbourne, Florida, say Hartman told detectives she had left her son in a car for four hours. Authorities say a Florida woman is charged with manslaughter after drinking and using drugs while her 14-month-old son was in a hot car. The boy eventually died from heat stroke. Emily Hartman was arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated manslaughter by neglect, as well as drug possession. Online court records show Hartman was being held in jail without bond Wednesday. She was appointed a public defender, but the name of the lawyer wasn't listed. Police in Melbourne, Florida, say Hartman told detectives she had left her son in a car for four hours while she was inside a house getting cocaine and smoking marijuana. The affidavit also says she had been drinking at a bar and a friend's place with her son in the car before that. After facing a rocky road on its way to Tallahassee, a bill expanding access to medical insurance benefits for Florida firefighters with certain cancers was approved unanimously by a House committee. With a resounding "yes," Florida House State Affairs Committee on Thursday passed House Bill 587. If approved and signed by the governor, it would make firefighters diagnosed with certain types of cancers automatically eligible to receive disability or death benefits. "You go into buildings that are burning to save somebody else," said Rep. Dianne Hart. "How could we not save you?" A CDC study shows that first responders are at a 15% greater risk of developing cancer than the average person. "We've been through a long battle, and what he experienced today was a miracle," said Freddy Delgado of the Miami Firefighters Association. Last week, NBC 6 highlighted two South Florida firefighters who lost their lives to cancer and their loved ones' battle for lawmakers to pass the bill. "I wanted to thank NBC 6, and I wanted to thank you, because I honestly believe that that report touched the Speaker's heart, and I can't say we would've had the same result without that report," Delgado said. The bill was stalled until recently because Speaker of the House Jose Oliva believed this was an issue best dealt with at a local level. He's now backing the bill, tweeting in part, "After many years, this is the year it gets done." "The remedy now is that when you get the cancer and you are a firefighter and you can't do your job, that at least your family will be taken care of," Delgado added. Authorities are searching for a motorcycle rider who opened fire on a driver during a road rage incident in Miami-Dade earlier this month. The victim was traveling on Old State Road 9 near the Golden Glades the evening of April 8 when he was involved in the encounter with the motorcyclist, Florida Highway Patrol officials said. Officials said the two got into a verbal argument, and the motorcyclist hit the driver's side mirror with his hand, cracking it. The victim followed the suspect to get his tag number but the temporary tag was rolled up. At one point, the suspect got off his motorcycle and fired several rounds at the car, officials said. The motorcyclist then fled the scene, but the driver was able to record the biker. NBC 6 spoke with the 27-year-old victim, who didn't want to be identified. He said he was on his way to pick up his fiance when the incident happened. "He shot the tire and he shot the quarter-glass on the driver's side," the victim said on Thursday. "As I opened the door, when I finally got settled and to a tire shop, I saw a bullet casing on my door. And the officer said 'you know it ricocheted, if it didn't ricochet, it would have came straight for your head.'" Authorities are now searching for the biker and are asking anyone with information to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. A South Florida family is breathing a sigh of relief following a federal judge's recent ruling that blocks the Department of Homeland Security from forcing tens of thousands of Haitians to return to their native country. Rony Ponthieux, a licensed practical nurse, has called South Florida home for 20 years. He has a wife and two U.S.-born children. Ponthieux also benefits from Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. On Thursday, a New York judge issued a nationwide injunction that blocks the Trump administration's plan to end TPS. "It's a relief now because we know now that they cannot really deport us, and we have a chance for Congress to pass an immigration bill," Ponthieux said. This has been an ongoing fight for Ponthieux and nearly 60,000 Haitians since the Trump administration terminated TPS for the group. Haitian recipients had until July of this year to leave the U.S. "It was very catastrophic," Ponthieux said. "It was a disaster for us because I was thinking about either going back to my country and leaving my children here." U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz ruled on a lawsuit filed by Haitians in Florida and New York that challenged the Trump administration's decision to end the status granted to Haiti after its 2010 earthquake. The program has allowed about 300,000 people from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Sudan and other countries to stay in the U.S. for years following natural disasters or violence in their home countries. Kuntz said the plaintiffs offered persuasive evidence that the policy change was motivated by "a discriminatory purpose of removing non-white immigrants to the country." The government is expected to appeal the ruling. Ponthieux's 11-year-old daughter Ronyde, who has been very active in her family's fight for permanent residency, said this ruling feels like a boost for her family. "It's gotten me to be smarter mentally, physically, and everything," said the 11-year-old, who has been an active participant in the nonprofit Haitian Women of Miami, and even addressed President Trump in a video message to urge him to reverse his decision. Kodak Black was arrested on drug and weapons charges as the rapper tried to cross from Canada into the United States near Niagara Falls, law enforcement officials said Thursday. Bill Kapri, whose stage name is Kodak Black, was driving two other people in a Cadillac Escalade with temporary California registration across the Lewiston-Queenston International Bridge at 7:20 p.m. Wednesday, according to New York state police. It was unclear where the men were headed, but Black had been scheduled to perform that night in Boston, about 400 miles east. The men admitted to border agents that they possessed marijuana and firearms. State police, who were called in, said Black was found with marijuana and officers discovered a Glock 9mm pistol in the vehicle. The 21-year-old rapper from Miramar, Florida was arrested on charges of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana. Black, who also faces a charge in South Carolina of first-degree criminal sexual misconduct for allegedly raping a woman after a 2016 concert, was arraigned in a town court and remanded to county jail with bail set at $20,000 cash or $40,000. The two passengers in the Escalade face a weapons charge. The driver of a second car, a Porsche, faces the same charges as Black. Black was in jail Thursday morning, and it was not immediately clear if he had an attorney. Representatives at Black's record label and Live Nation didn't reply to emails seeking comment from The Associated Press. Black's hits include "Tunnel Vision," ''Wake Up in the City" with Bruno Mars and Gucci Mane, "No Flockin'" and "Zeze," which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard Hot 100 chart. His last album, 2018's "Dying to Live," debuted at No. 1 on the charts. In Boston, police responded to what they described as "generally unruly behavior" Wednesday night after Black's scheduled shows at a city club were canceled. Department spokesman Officer Stephen McNulty says police responded to the House of Blues at about 8:20 p.m. for reports of a disturbance. One man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a member of the club's security staff and two people required medical assistance. Police say there were about 200 people outside the club and it took about 30 minutes to disperse the crowd. Five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel early Sunday, the Israeli military announced, following a day of mass protests that saw Israeli troops kill four Palestinians near the territory's border. The rocket attack threatens to undermine Egyptian-mediated efforts to cement a deal that the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers hope will ease a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockage of the crowded territory. No casualties were reported and no Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rockets, though they appeared to be in retaliation for the deaths of the protesters. Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in the Gaza Strip on Saturday to mark the anniversary of their mass protests along the Israeli border. Most demonstrators kept their distance from the border, though small crowds of activists approached the perimeter fence and threw stones and explosives toward Israeli troops on the other side. The forces responded with tear gas and opened fire, killing four Palestinians and wounding 64. Hamas had pledged to keep the crowds a safe distance from the fence to avoid inflaming the political atmosphere during negotiations of a possible easing of the blockade. Hamas officials say that Israel is offering a package of economic incentives in exchange for calm along the volatile border. Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, said the group had received "positive signs" from the Egyptians. He added that the Egyptian team was to return to Israel on Sunday to continue the talks. "We will continue our marches until all our goals are achieved," he said. Saturday's protest came at a sensitive time, with Israel and Hamas, bitter enemies that have fought three wars and dozens of smaller skirmishes, both having a strong interest in keeping things quiet. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking his fourth consecutive term in April 9 elections, but is facing a serious challenge from a group of ex-army chiefs who have criticized what they say is his failed Gaza policy. With a lack of alternatives, Netanyahu has been forced at times to rely on Hamas to maintain stability along Israel's volatile southern front. In the final stretch of the campaign, Netanyahu needs to keep the Israel-Gaza frontier quiet, without seeming to make concessions to Hamas. Netanyahu took heavy criticism this week for what was seen as a soft response to renewed rocket fire out of Gaza. Hamas, meanwhile, faces growing unrest in Gaza as a result of worsening conditions after more than a decade of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade. The two countries imposed the blockade in 2007 after Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel's destruction, seized control of Gaza from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The blockade has helped drive unemployment over 50 percent, led to chronic power outages and made it extremely difficult for Gazans to travel out of the territory. Earlier this month, Hamas violently suppressed several days of public protests, staged under the slogan "We want to live," over the dire conditions. Speaking on the group's Al-Aqsa TV station, Hamas' top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, praised the protesters. "With this big turnout, our people say, 'We want to live!" His use of the protesters' slogan appeared to be aimed at diverting the recent criticism of his group. Hamas blames the blockade and punitive measures by its West Bank-based Palestinian Authority for worsening the living conditions. The fence protests, which began exactly a year ago, have been aimed in large part at breaking the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza, but haven't delivered major improvements. Saturday's demonstrations were held at five rallying points along the border with Israel. Dozens of volunteers in fluorescent vests were deployed to restrain demonstrators, and cool rainy weather also appeared to affect enthusiasm. But as the crowds swelled throughout the afternoon in response to Hamas' calls for a large turnout, dozens of protesters approached the fence, unfurling Palestinian flags and throwing rocks and explosives toward Israeli soldiers. The Israeli forces responded with tear gas and live fire. The Israeli military estimated 40,000 Palestinians were gathered at the marches. "The rioters are hurling rocks and setting tires on fire. In addition, a number of grenades and explosive devices have been hurled at the Gaza Strip security fence," it said in a statement. In a statement, Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the army's preparation and performance in maintaining "calm." Gaza's Health Ministry said that a 17-year-old protester died immediately after being shot in the face in east Gaza City. In the evening, the ministry said another 17-year-old died hours after being shot in the chest in a different protest location. A third teenager, also aged 17, succumbed to his wounds and died in the late evening. A 21-year-old Palestinian also died around dawn after sustaining injuries in overnight protests before the main demonstration. While bloodshed was not avoided, it was far less than previous high-profile protests. Over 60 people were killed during intense protests on May 14, the day the U.S. moved its embassy to Jerusalem. As Saturday's protest was winding down, organizers vowed to continue the marches and said they would gather again as usual next Friday. The military released video footage showing large crowds of protesters gathered near the fence and hurling objects. In one scene, a group of activists went up to the fence and hurled stones at the other side. In another scene, a youth could be seen trying to pull apart barbed wire along the fence. The army also said it caught two young Palestinian children who had tried to cross the border with a knife. The children were returned to Gaza through a border crossing. Earlier on Saturday, Gaza health officials said Israeli troops shot and killed a 21-year-old Palestinian man near the perimeter fence, hours before the mass rally. The army said about 200 Palestinians "rioted during the night along the fence" and that the army used riot dispersal means against them. The marches near were initially organized by grassroots activists who were calling for a mass return to ancestral homes in what is now Israel. Hamas quickly took the lead in the protests, using the gatherings to call for an easing of the blockade. The border marches routinely ended in confrontations, with some of the Palestinian demonstrators burning tires, hurling fire bombs or setting off explosives and Israeli troops firing live rounds and tear gas. According to a Gaza rights group and a count by The Associated Press, 196 Palestinians were killed in the demonstrations over the past year, including 41 minors, and thousands were wounded by live fire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in the context of the marches. Israel says the army has been defending the border. The army accuses Hamas of using the large crowds as cover and encouraging demonstrators to hurl explosives, incendiary balloons and grenades across the border. But Israel has come under heavy international criticism for the large number of unarmed people who have been harmed. Egypt has repeatedly tried to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, stepping up efforts in recent days after a Gaza rocket struck a house in central Israel earlier this week, injuring seven Israelis and threatening renewed escalation. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre contributed reporting. The elite academies that educate officers for the nation's armed forces have begun to implement the Trump administration's ban on transgender service members. The U.S. Naval Academy will ban people who are transgender from attending the school, beginning with the 2020 school year. The Defense Department confirmed that change to the Capital Gazette newspaper on Monday. The school in Annapolis, Maryland, currently accepts transgender students and retains midshipmen who transition to another gender. The administration's new policy took effect last week, stripping transgender troops of rights to serve openly and denying servicemen and women medical care if they choose to transition to another gender. The Obama administration had lifted restrictions on transgender service members in 2016, allowing them to serve openly, and covered gender affirmation surgery. A current Naval Academy student, Midshipman Regan Kibby, is one of six service members suing the Trump administration over its ban. The U.S. Coast Guard has also implemented the new policy, as of April 12, the agency states on its website. Coast Guard Academy spokesman David Santos confirmed in an email Wednesday that the policy change applies to the school in New London, Connecticut. A lengthy explanation on the Coast Guard's website states that past medical treatment, such as gender-reassignment surgery or hormone therapy, may disqualify future applicants from joining up. The Trump administration's new policy also bars future applicants who've been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition that can apply to people who identify as another gender and experience distress. Doctors say counseling, hormone therapy or surgery can lessen the anxiety. There are some exceptions for people who've been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. For instance, someone can join the Coast Guard if their doctor says they can demonstrate three years of "stability in his/her biological sex immediately before applying to serve." The Defense Department says transgender people can serve if they remain in their "biological sex." The administration's policy calls for troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria to be medically evaluated before they are discharged to see if they qualify as having a disability. Otherwise gender dysphoria can be considered a "condition that interferes with military service" like sleepwalking, bed wetting, motion sickness and personality disorders. The American Medical Association has blasted the administration's transgender policy for military service. It told The Associated Press last week that the new policy and its wording mischaracterize transgender people as having a "deficiency." The Defense Department said its use of the words "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, Lt. Col. Carla Gleason said. An estimated 14,700 troops identify as transgender. An organization that represents transgender service members said several are attending each academy, although many haven't come out. "The policy turns off access to some of our best and brightest, and that's not what our country needs to win future wars," said B Fram, communications director for Service Members, Partners and Allies for Respect and Tolerance for All, or SPARTA. The nation has five service academies. They include the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. The Air Force Academy will conform with Defense Department policy when admitting future cadets, said Lt. Col. Tracy Bunko, an academy spokeswoman. That means transgender people can serve "in their biological sex" if they meet Defense Department standards for that sex, she said. People who have had cross-sex hormone therapy, sex reassignment surgery or genital reconstruction surgery are disqualified. People with a history of gender dysphoria cannot be admitted unless they meet certain conditions, including having no dysphoria in the previous three years, Bunko said. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security. The Merchant Marine is part of the Maritime Administration, which is within the U.S. Department of Transportation. What to Know A 15-year-old NJ girl who had been kidnapped was found with a man in Ohio, authorities say Few details on the victim were immediately released; it wasn't clear when she was taken and her name wasn't known Troopers say they arrested Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza after a traffic stop near Toledo; the 33-year-old had previously been deported A kidnapped 15-year-old girl from New Jersey has been rescued in Ohio, where authorities say they found her with a man living in the country illegally. Few details on the victim were immediately released; it wasn't clear when she was taken and her name wasn't known. Authorities say she was sexually assaulted. The State Highway Patrol says the girl was found traveling with the man Tuesday on the Ohio Turnpike; they were headed to Chicago. She was listed in police databases as missing from Paterson. Troopers say they arrested Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza after a traffic stop near Toledo. A state patrol official says the 33-year-old man was living in the country illegally and had been previously deported. Morales-Pedraza was being held pending a court appearance Thursday. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney. What to Know Child pornography allegation against Trooper Jeffrey Reitz, 47, stems from recently uncovered 2014 email exchange. Reitz allegedly received a sexually-explicit photo of a prepubescent girl, the attorney general's office said. Reitz is suspended without pay. A New Jersey State trooper is suspended without pay after being charged with child pornography. Trooper Jeffrey Reitz, 47, exchanged sexually-explicit photos while engaged in a sexually-explicit email exchange with an adult woman about a prepubescent girl, a news release from the office of New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said. The allegation against Reitz dates from a Dec. 31, 2014 email exchange where the woman suggested that Reitz sexually assault a prepubescent girl, the AG's office said. Reitz then allegedly asked for a photo of the girl and the woman then sent him a sexually-explicit photo of the minor, investigators said. He also allegedly sent the woman photos of his genitals before and after receiving the photo, the AGs office said. The exchange only came to light much later after a separate Camden County Prosecutors Office investigation, the AGs office said. The Williamstown man was arrested Thursday. The AG offices Division of Criminal Justice Financial and Computer Crimes Bureau charged Reitz with third-degree possession of child pornography, at AGs office said. Reitz is part of New Jersey State Polices Commercial Carrier Safety Inspection Unit. When reached by phone Thursday, an NJSP spokesman said it is department policy not to comment about pending cases and that Reitz is suspended without pay. Reitz faces three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000 if he is found guilty. A message for Reitzs attorney has yet to be returned. What to Know "Real Housewives of New Jersey" husband Joe Giudice has lost his appeal to avoid deportation to Italy His attorneys said Thursday they have appealed to the federal circuit court in Philadelphia Giudice is an Italian citizen who was brought to the U.S. as a baby and says he wasn't aware he wasn't an American citizen "Real Housewives of New Jersey" husband Joe Giudice has lost his appeal to avoid deportation to Italy. His attorneys said Thursday they are "extremely disappointed" by the Board of Immigration's decision and have appealed to the federal circuit court in Philadelphia. Giudice and his wife, Teresa, pleaded guilty in 2014 to financial fraud. Giudice is an Italian citizen who was brought to the U.S. as a baby and says he wasn't aware he wasn't an American citizen. Teresa Giudice served nearly a year in prison and was freed in December 2015. Joe Giudice was released from prison last month and was sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in southeast Pennsylvania. What to Know The man arrested with gas cans and lighters at St. Patrick's Cathedral had booked a flight to Italy earlier that morning, police say Marc Lamparello, 37, also had a run-in with NJ officers two days before; cops say he refused to leave a cathedral after it was closed Lamparello faces resisting arrest and other charges in the NJ case; he was charged with attempted arson and other crimes in the NYC one The man taken into custody Wednesday night after allegedly trying to walk into St. Patrick's Cathedral, in the heart of New York City, with two gasoline cans and lighter fluid had booked a one-way $2,800 flight to Italy for Thursday, police said. He was also arrested days earlier at a New Jersey church, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation tell News 4. Marc Lamparello, 37, would've been out of the country by Thursday night, NYPD officials said in announcing formal charges against him. Police said he had purchased the ticket to Rome Wednesday morning, hours before they say he was found at St. Patrick's Cathedral with gallons of gas and lighting fluid. Authorities are still looking into his possible intentions regarding St. Patrick's; he had told police his minivan, parked nearby, was out of gas but that allegedly wasn't the case -- and he was evasive when asked questions by police. Investigators initially said Lamparello may have been emotionally disturbed. John Miller, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, described him as being "known to police." Two days before the St. Patrick's incident, sources say Lamparello had a confrontation with police after refusing to leave the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey. When an officer told him it was closed, Lamparello said, "If you want me to leave tonight, you're gonna have to handcuff me and arrest me tonight and take me to jail," law enforcement sources tell News 4. He still didn't leave. Other officers arrived, at which point Lamparello threw himself onto a pew and yelled, "No!" then scuffled with police who tried to apprehend him, sources say. As he was being taken out of the cathedral, Lamparello told police he wasn't leaving. "God wants me to be here. I know all the sins the priests have committed," he said, according to law enforcement sources. Eventually he was handcuffed and taken to police headquarters to be booked on charges of defiant trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest. Officials say they called in EMS to do an evaluation because Lamparello wasn't exhibiting rational behavior at the time; they found nothing wrong with him. Then the man's mother showed up, said he had an apartment in Manhattan and said she was taking him to her home in Hasbrouck Heights. The van allegedly involved in the St. Patrick's case was parked outside the New Jersey cathedral, but it was never searched because investigators had no reason to do so. Lamparello now faces charges of attempted arson, reckless endangerment, and trespassing in the St. Patrick's incident in addition to the New Jersey charges. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney. He has no prior criminal history of note. No one was hurt in either case, but some gasoline did spill on the floor of St. Patrick's as Lamparello was leaving; he had been stopped by a security guard. Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Thursday said the incident "in a way, as scary as it is, shows that our security is working." "Now, I hope [Lamparello] is getting mental care, because I think he's emotionally disturbed," he said. Heightened security at St. Patrick's is normal, but the NYPD has ramped up its efforts at the cathedral since the fire that tore through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday, Miller noted. Lamparello, who published a book and teaches at Seton Hall, according to police, is a PhD student at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. As part of that PhD program, students are required to teach on other CUNY campuses. Lamparello taught one course at Brooklyn College, the school said, but was never employed there. He did, however, work at Lehman College, a spokeswoman said. In a statement Thursday, Lehman College spokesperson, Sarah Ramsey said the institution was aware of the arrest and taking action to terminate Lamparello. We are aware that an individual was arrested last night after an incident at St. Patricks Cathedral. The individual was hired at Lehman College during this academic year, and was a part-time, online instructor this semester. We are taking the appropriate steps to terminate the individuals employment with the college, she said. Lamparello had a separate incident in Hasbrouck Heights in December in which he went to police to say he thought he was being stalked by someone while at work and school in New York. He also said he had seen a Hasbrouck Heights police vehicle outside of his New Jersey home in late November and was jarred when it left moments later. Police told him the cruiser had nothing to do with any police business, and he left, apparently comfortable with the explanation, according to the incident report. Former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is quickly parlaying his time in President Donald Trump's cabinet into a lucrative private career. He's landed a more than $100,000-a-year post at a Nevada mining company and is pursuing involvement in natural gas exports that have surged under Trump, Zinke told The Associated Press Tuesday. The rapid transition from the highest levels of the executive branch to the corporate boardroom is raising questions about possible conflicts of interest. It comes fewer than four months after Zinke left a Cabinet position overseeing the country's oil and gas, coal and other natural resources and those companies that profit off their extraction. Zinke told AP that his work for Nevada-based U.S. Gold Corp., which focuses on mining exploration and development, would not constitute lobbying. But the company's CEO cited Zinke's "excellent relationship" with the Bureau of Land Management and the Interior Department in explaining his hiring as a consultant and board member. "We're excited to have Secretary Zinke help move us forward" on two pending mining projects, in Nevada and Wyoming, Edward Karr, head of U.S. Gold Corp., said by phone. The Nevada project, known as Keystone, is on bureau land. A 2017 executive order from Trump said executive-branch appointees cannot lobby their former agency for at least five years after leaving their government post. Separately, criminal statutes impose one- and two-year bans on various kinds of communications between senior federal officials and their former agency, said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit ethics-watchdog. Zinke, who left Interior in January amid ethics allegations, said he sees no conflict in his new role and will have no direct contact with his former colleagues at the agency. "I don't lobby," he said. "I just follow the law, so I don't talk to anybody on the executive side or influence" anyone. Zinke described the inside knowledge he gained at the helm of Interior as an asset as he moves into the corporate world. "I understand the process. There's very few former state senators, congressmen and secretaries that know more about the process than I do," said Zinke, who served in the Montana Legislature and the U.S. House before being appointed to lead Interior. The purpose of federal lobbying freezes by recently departed senior officials is "to make sure there's a cooling-off period ... so the former agency is not subject to the influence of their former head," Canter said. Given the restrictions, she said Karr's comment on Zinke's good relationship with Interior "just raises questions about what he meant." Zinke previously took two other jobs since leaving Interior: managing director and consultant for Artillery One, a North Carolina-based private investment company, and an adviser to the Washington lobbying firm Turnberry Solutions. At U.S. Gold, Zinke will receive a total of $114,000 a year in cash and stock as a board member and under a one-year consulting contract, Karr said. He will also receive up to $120,000 a year in expenses, according to a company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Zinke has a degree in geology from the University of Oregon. He never worked professionally in the field, instead becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL. But he said his education and political involvement in Montana mining projects would be useful at his new company. Regarding natural gas exports, Zinke described his interest in the industry only broadly and declined to disclose any company or entities he's working with. Demand for the fuel has surged in the past two years, driven in part by rising consumption in China and South Korea. Meanwhile, domestic markets are being saturated by the huge amounts of fuel coming out of the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, Zinke said. "So we're looking at overseas markets for LNG (liquefied natural gas)," he said. "With LNG, it's better to ship products made in America with our environmental regulations than watching it get produced overseas with none." He added that he's "involved in some wind (energy) as well. I think the energy piece, made in America, is important." As Interior secretary, Zinke in 2018 floated the prospect of using U.S. military bases or other government installations on the West Coast to facilitate the export of coal and natural gas to Asia. The idea was denounced by Democrats and environmentalists and never appeared to gain much traction within the administration. It's uncertain if it's still alive. During Zinke's time at Interior, the agency's inspector general investigated his decision to stop a major study into the health effects of coal mining, as well as his travel and other issues. Former industry lobbyist David Bernhardt was confirmed to succeed Zinke as Interior secretary last week. On Monday, the agency's inspector general revealed Bernhardt was under investigation for possible conflicts of interest after allegedly involving himself in deliberations involving former clients. An agency spokeswoman said Bernhardt was in compliance with all ethics rules. President Donald Trump abruptly declared Thursday the U.S. will recognize Israel's sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy that gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political boost a month before what is expected to be a close election. The administration has been considering recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the strategic highlands, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, for some time and Netanyahu had pressed the matter with visiting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just a day earlier. U.S. and Israeli officials said Wednesday they had not expected a decision until next week, when Netanyahu is to visit the U.S. But in a tweet that appeared to catch many by surprise, Trump said the time had come for the United States to take the step, which Netanyahu warmly welcomed as a "miracle" on the Jewish holiday of Purim. "After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!" Trump tweeted. The U.S. will be the first country to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, which the rest of the international community regards as disputed territory occupied by Israel whose status should be determined by negotiations between Israel and Syria. Attempts to bring Israel and Syria to the table have failed. It was not immediately clear how a U.N. peacekeeping force in the Golan might be affected by the U.S. move. That force's mandate expires at the end of June. There had been signals a decision was coming. Last week, in its annual human rights report, the State Department dropped the phrase "Israeli-occupied" from the Golan Heights section, instead calling it "Israeli-controlled." Pompeo had brushed questions about the change aside, insisting even earlier Thursday that there was no change in policy. However, in comments to reporters ahead of a Purim dinner with Netanyahu and his wife at their Jerusalem home, Pompeo hailed the shift. "Tonight, President Trump made the decision to recognize that that hard-fought real estate, that important place, is proper to be a sovereign part of the state of Israel," he said. Netanyahu, who is embroiled in a fierce re-election campaign ahead of April 9 voting, smiled broadly while delivering his own remarks. "We have the miracle of Purim," he said. "Thank you President Trump." Netanyahu has for weeks been stepping up longstanding Israeli requests for the U.S. and others to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan. He has bolstered Israel's traditional argument that the area has for all practical purposes been fully integrated into Israel by accusing Iran of trying to infiltrate terrorists from Syria into the plateau. "At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights," Netanyahu tweeted. Trump's announcement came as Pompeo was wrapping up a two-day visit to Jerusalem during which he lauded warm ties with Israel, met with Netanyahu on at least three separate occasions and promised to step up pressure on Iran. Pompeo's events with Netanyahu included a visit to the Western Wall that made him the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the Jewish holy site with any Israeli leader and appeared to further signal the Trump administration's support for Israel's control of the contested city. Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, prompting the Palestinians to sever ties with the administration. Pompeo's presence also appeared to signal Trump's support for Netanyahu the political candidate. Netanyahu, facing a tough challenge from a popular former military chief and reeling from a series of corruption allegations, has repeatedly sought to focus attention on his foreign policy record and strong ties with Trump. "The Trump administration is absolutely endorsing Netanyahu," said Alon Pinkas, former consul general of Israel in New York. "It's very rare for a secretary of state to come visit an Israeli prime minister without any apparent diplomatic reason justifying it, without a peace process, without any regional agenda." Pompeo said his trip had nothing to do with politics or U.S. policy on Jerusalem, although for decades American officials refrained from visiting the Western Wall with Israeli leaders to avoid the appearance of recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the city's most sensitive holy sites. Israel captured east Jerusalem and the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. "I'm going to stay far away from the decisions that the Israeli people will make here in a few weeks," Pompeo told reporters. "It wouldn't be appropriate for the U.S. secretary of state to comment on Israeli domestic politics." The Old City is home to the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where tradition says Jesus was entombed and resurrected. Pompeo, a Christian, also stopped at the church. Next to the Western Wall is a hilltop compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The spot, which once housed the biblical Jewish Temples, is the holiest site in Judaism and today is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. The competing claims to the site are a frequent source of tension and lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, he said it did not determine the city's final borders. But the gesture was perceived as unfairly siding with Israel and prompted the Palestinians to cut contacts with U.S. officials. The Palestinians have already rejected a planned Mideast peace initiative by the administration. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Pompeo's visit added additional obstacles to peace hopes. "While they are claiming to be trying to solve the conflict, such acts only make it more difficult to resolve," he said. While previous secretaries of state have traditionally met with the Palestinians when visiting the region, Pompeo has no such talks planned. UPDATE: William Korzon confessed to the murder and was sentenced. New details here. The once ice cold case of Gloria Korzon, who vanished in 1981, has been reignited suddenly in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Korzon's ex-husband, William Korzon, has been arrested and was arraigned in a county court Thursday on a homicide charge, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's office. Korzon, now 76 and living in central Pennsylvania, allegedly responded to new questioning by investigators this year by asking, "Did you find the body?" according to the criminal affidavit released Thursday. That question, on top of years of alleged abuse and documented injuries during the Korzons' marriage before Gloria disappeared led authorities to charge William with criminal homicide and related charges, the affidavit. Gloria Korzon, who disappeared in 1981 from her home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was on the FBI's "Missing Adult" list. He is being held without bail at county jail. It is unclear if he has a lawyer. The two married in January 1967. In December of that year, William Korzon was arrested in Springfield, Massachusetts, for allegedly threatening to kill his wife. He spent time in a Massachusetts mental institution. In 1968, the Korzons moved to Philadelphia. Three years later, they moved to Pickertown Road in Warrington, Bucks County. From 1968 to 1981, when Gloria Korzon disappeared, the affidavit said law enforcement authorities "investigated and documented numerous violent assaults where William Korzon assaulted and threatened to kill Gloria Korzon." William Korzon has been charged homicide and related charges 38 years after his wife, Gloria, disappeared. "During these incidents of domestic violence, Gloria suffered multiple injuries, including a broken arm, a broken collarbone, damage to her nasal bone and a black eye," the affidavit said. Gloria Korzon vanished March 6, 1981. She was supposed to be on her way to work in Horsham Township. William Korzon then allegedly lied about his wife's whereabouts and forged her signature on legal documents over the course of months and years, the affidavit said. A roommate who moved into the Korzon home after Gloria disappeared also told investigators that Korzon asked for help killing a Warrington Township detective, the affidavit said. "A recent check of all available records and databases by law enforcement show no activity by Gloria Korzon from her March 6, 1981 disappearance to the present day," the affidavit said. "It is as though she has ceased to exist." Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has released her tax return for 2018, reporting that she and her husband paid more than $200,000 in taxes on a joint income of about $900,000 last year. The move by the senator from Massachusetts on Wednesday follows similar tax return disclosures from fellow presidential candidates Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Their front-running rival for the party's 2020 nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has vowed to release his tax returns by Monday amid political pressure. Warren, who previously posted a decade's worth of tax returns online, has proposed legislation that mandates the public disclosure of tax returns for presidential and vice presidential candidates and for sitting White House occupants. "I've put out eleven years of my tax returns because no one should ever have to guess who their elected officials are working for," Warren said in a statement. "Doing this should be law." Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, jointly reported a gross income of about $900,000 on their return, with Warren reporting income of $176,280 for her job as senator and about $325,000 from her writing career. Warren has penned 11 books, including several as a law professor before entering politics. Mann, a professor at Harvard Law School, earned more than $400,000. The couple also claimed a small tax credit for the installation of residential solar electricity equipment. Among the other Democratic presidential candidates who have released past tax returns as they seek the party's nomination to take on President Donald Trump is Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Trump broke with tradition in 2016 by not voluntarily releasing his tax returns. He routinely says he's under audit, but there is no rule prohibiting taxpayers under audit from releasing their tax returns. House Democrats are seeking Trump's tax returns as part of investigations into his business dealings and his Republican presidential campaign. One of Trump's lawyers claims the Internal Revenue Service can't legally release the information. The special counsel's Trump-Russia report will be out on Thursday for all to see. But not all of it. The Democrats' demands for a full, unredacted version of Robert Mueller's report are likely to prompt a political and legal battle that could last for months, if not much longer. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, has said he is prepared to issue subpoenas "very quickly" for the full report on Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign if it is released with blacked-out sections. And that would set the legal fight in motion. Attorney General William Barr has said he is redacting four types of information from the report, which the Justice Department says will be released Thursday. The department said Barr will hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. ET Thursday. Federal prosecutors overseeing the case against Trump confidant and longtime political operative Roger Stone said that the redacted report will redact all sections having to do with Stones case, NBC News reported. This is in response to a court order from the judge that no side should make prejudicial comments before trial. After the redacted report is released to media and to the public, the Justice Department plans to make a less-redacted version of the report available for review by a limited number of Congress members and their staff, NBC News reported. That version will have certain redactions removed, including that of information related to charges set forth in the indictment in the Stone case. No further details were immediately provided, though justice officials stressed that the less-redacted copies of the report would not be disseminated to the public, nor would these less-redacted copies be disseminated to Congress members before the fully redacted copies are distributed publicly. Congressional Democrats cite precedent from previous investigations in saying they want to see it all. But some Republicans defending Barr are also citing precedent, saying it is appropriate to keep at least some of the information from Congress and the public. A look at what types of material Barr is redacting, and why Democrats say it should be released: GRAND JURY INFORMATION Barr has staked out his position on releasing secret grand jury information, saying last week that he would not go to court to request its release. He said Democrats are "free to go to court" themselves, and Nadler has said he is ready to do so. Grand jury information, including witness interviews, is normally off limits but can be obtained in court. Some records were eventually released in the Whitewater investigation into former President Bill Clinton and an investigation into President Richard Nixon before he resigned. Both of those cases were under somewhat different circumstances, including that the House Judiciary Committee had initiated impeachment proceedings. Federal court rules state that a court may order disclosure "preliminary to or in connection with a judicial proceeding." But Democrats have said they are not interested in impeachment, for now, and are likely to argue in court that they don't need to be in an official impeachment proceeding to receive the materials. CLASSIFIED INFORMATION Congress frequently receives classified documents and briefings, and Democrats say there is no reason the Mueller report should be any different. Many Republicans agree, including the top Republican on the intelligence committee, California Rep. Devin Nunes, who wrote a rare joint letter in March with House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff asking for "all materials, regardless of form or classification." In the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Schiff and Nunes also asked for a private briefing from Mueller and his team. Democrat Schiff has argued that some of that information should be released to the public, as well, citing Mueller indictments that have already revealed granular detail about the Russian effort to influence the 2016 election. "All of that information at one point was classified, but the decision must have been made the public interest outweighs that. And I think a similar analysis should be undertaken here," Schiff said on CNN this month. ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS Barr said he will redact information related to investigations connected to the Mueller probe that are still underway. Those include cases handed off or referred to federal prosecutors in Washington, New York and Virginia. Democrats have noted that the Justice Department has released such information before, including some related to Mueller's own investigation while it was in progress. Republicans who were in the House majority last year, obtained documents related to the beginnings of the Russia investigation, arguing that officials were biased against then-candidate Trump. Republicans argued at the time that it was necessary to obtain that information to maintain the integrity of the investigation. DEROGATORY INFORMATION The Justice Department regularly redacts information about people who were interviewed or scrutinized in investigations but not charged. Barr has said he will black out information from the report "that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties." Asked by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., at a hearing last week if that meant he would redact information to protect the interests of Trump, Barr said it did not. "No, I'm talking about people in private life, not public officeholders," Barr said. That means that in addition to Trump, members of his family who work at the White House, such as his daughter Ivanka, could potentially be named if they were somehow entangled in Mueller's investigation. But any information regarding his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., who run his businesses, could be more likely to be redacted. The Justice Department did release information about the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email practices more than two years ago, even though Clinton wasn't charged. But that was after then-FBI Director James Comey made the much-questioned decision to publicly discuss that investigation. Barr signaled in his confirmation hearing in January that he would do things differently. "If you're not going to indict someone, then you don't stand up there and unload negative information about the person," Barr said. "That's not the way the Department of Justice does business." The parent company behind San Diegos Ballast Point Brewing has shuttered the brands brewpub in Temecula, California, and will soon close the 80,000-square-foot Trade Street brewing facility in San Diego. Stephanie McGuane, communications manager for Constellation Brands, told NBC 7 the company is closing the two Ballast Point locations in Southern California to align resources based on declining craft trends. McGuane said Constellation Brands is in the process of working with Ballast Point employees impacted by the closures to help them transition to opportunities either within or outside the company. The brewpub in Temecula located at 28551 Rancho California Rd., in southwestern Riverside County had been open since 2016. It is closed effective immediately. The Trade Street facility a 40-barrel brewhouse located adjacent to Ballast Points Miramar brewpub in San Diego had been open since late 2017. Constellation Brands expects to shutter that facility in the coming months. McGuane assured the closure of the Trade Street facility would in no way affect the Miramar brewpub, which remains open. McGuane also said that no other San Diego-area Ballast Point brewpubs or tasting rooms would close. Ballast Point has been a cornerstone of the San Diego community for more than 20 years, and all other locations will remain in operation with business running as usual, she told NBC 7. Ballast Point will continue to have a robust presence in Southern California, and we remain committed to providing consumers with great tasting, quality products they have come to enjoy. In addition to these latest moves, Constellation Brands is also halting its plans to open a Ballast Point brewpub in San Francisco. In 2018, Ballast Point announced plans to move out of its Scripps Ranch location on Old Grove Road and consolidate its brewing operations to its facility in Miramar. Then, this past February, San Diego-based hard kombucha company JuneShine acquired the Ballast Point Scripps Ranch facility, including all of the brand's brewing equipment at that location, which has the capacity to produce 100,000 barrels. JuneShine planned to open up shop at the Scripps Ranch location either this month or next. Constellation Brands bought Ballast Point Brewing in November 2015. Under the parent company, Ballast Point has added locations in Long Beach, California, Chicago, Daleville, Virginia, the now-defunct brewpub in Temecula, and, most recently, a brewery and restaurant inside Downtown Disney at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Most recently, Ballast Point collaborated with the San Diego Padres to brew the Swingin Friar Ale, a Padres-themed beer inspired by the clubs 50th anniversary in San Diego. Ballast Point Brewing Company was founded in 1996 by a small group of San Diego home brewers. Over the past 23 years, it has grown into San Diegos largest brewery. A jury in a San Diego courtroom Tuesday convicted three South American men of trafficking $28 million worth of cocaine by sea. The Office of the United States Attorney Southern District of California, Robert S. Brewer Jr., confirmed the jurys decision in the drug bust case involving Adrian Andres Cortez-Quinones, 24, and Victor Gaspar-Chichande, 29, both of Ecuador, and Segundo Marcial Dominguez-Caicedo, 35, of Colombia. After a weeklong trial, the jury reached a guilty verdict. The men are each set to be sentenced on July 15, 2019, before U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez in San Diego. According to federal prosecutors, the trio was caught smuggling 2,706 pounds of cocaine on Dec. 31, 2017, in a small boat traveling in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Brewers office said a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter crew spotted the suspicious boat about 100 nautical miles north of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. U.S. Coast Guard officials launched a helicopter and two small boats to intercept the vessel. According to prosecutors, as the Coast Guards chopper closed in on the smuggling suspects, the men stopped their boat to avoid detection. As the chopper circled the boat, the defendants tried to flee but couldnt. When they realized they werent going to outrun Coast Guard officials, Cortez-Quinones, Gaspar-Chichande, and Dominguez-Caicedo, stopped their boat again and began throwing dozens of bundles of cocaine overboard. A photo presented to the jury during the trios trial showed the moment when they threw the drugs into the ocean. After this, prosecutors said the men tried to flee again but a Coast Guard marksman aboard the hovering helicopter was able to disable the boats engines. Coast Guard officials were able to detain the men and recover the cocaine they had launched overboard. The men were brought to the U.S. and turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Cortez-Quinones, Gaspar-Chichande, and Dominguez-Caicedo were each charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine onboard a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, as well as possession with the intent to distribute cocaine onboard a vessel. Brewers office said Wednesday the maximum penalty for the charges is life in prison, plus a $10 million fine. The high seas are not a secret freeway for narco-traffickers to cross with impunity, Brewer said in a press release. This verdict is proof that we are watching, and we will take whatever action necessary to prevent these dangerous drugs from hitting our streets. I appreciate the efforts of prosecutors Kevin Mokhtari, Ari Fitzwater and Emily Gibbons and our partners at the Coast Guard and the DEA. Their hard work has led to this outcome. Eleventh Coast Guard District Commander, Rear Admiral Peter W. Gautier said this drug bust is just one example of the thousands of kilograms of narcotics seized every month by the Coast Guard. In addition to the U.S. Coast Guard and DEA, this case was investigated by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which brings together several federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in an effort to dismantle and prosecute high-level members of drug and weapons trafficking. [DONT CHANGE MAIN HEADLINE] San Diego's Border Busts A strong earthquake shook eastern Taiwan on Thursday afternoon, causing scattered light damage in the capital and along the eastern coast. The 6.1 magnitude quake was centered northwest of the city of Hualien at a depth of nearly 12 miles, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said. Water pipes at the city's train station burst and rail traffic was briefly suspended. Schools along the east coast were evacuated, with students holding their backpacks over their heads for protection. TV news showed at least one landslide in a lightly populated area. Two hikers in the famed Taroko Gorge national park, including one from Malaysia, were injured by falling rocks, the Hualien government reported. Traffic through the gorge has been halted while drones and helicopters check for damage, Premier Su Tseng-chang said. "If it rains, (retaining walls) could fall down, so we urge people not to get close," he said. Su said schools, worksites and water, power and transit lines had also been checked for damage. While no major problems were found, cracked road surfaces on the east coast could become a problem if rain falls soon, he said. In Taipei, about 70 miles from the epicenter, people felt buildings shake, and one multistory building was leaning against its neighbor after its foundation shifted. The city's subway system suspended service. At the leaning building in downtown Taipei, area resident Ayumi Lin said the earthquake's force was considerable. "It was really scary," Lin said. "The quake shook strongly twice." The owner of a travel agency in the adjacent building, who gave only his surname, Huang, said all his employees evacuated safely from their 7th floor office. "No one was hurt," Huang said. People in Chinese cities close to the Taiwan Strait dividing Taiwan from mainland China reported on social media that they also felt the quake. Taiwan is on a string of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean known as the "Rim of Fire" and is frequently rocked by tremors, including a 1999 quake that killed more than 2,300 people. An earthquake in February 2018 in Hualien killed 17 people when four buildings partially collapsed. Two years earlier, an apartment building in the southwestern city of Tainan collapsed in an earthquake, killing 115 people. The government has set up an elaborate system of alerts, inspections and recovery measures to cope with the frequent quakes. Hao Yilin, an exchange student from China studying at Chinese Culture University in Taipei, said he received a notice on his cellphone seconds before the ground began to shake. "I wasn't scared because an earthquake like this is very common and the shaking was tolerable. So I didn't think of going outdoors and continued to eat lunch while watching a TV series," Hao said. Virginia State Police are warning parents about 33-year-old Manasass man accused of finding children online and asking for nude photos. Schuyler Stuart Corado Corado is accused of using popular social media sites including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Musical.ly and TikTok to find his victims. A tip received in February sparked a police investigation that police say revealed hundreds of screen shots featuring child porn and correspondence with juveniles. Police say Corado establishes a friendship with kids between the age of 10 and 13, then asks them to send him nude photos. Investigators are working to identifying additional victims after finding hundreds of screen shots featuring child porn. Police say he goes by the name of Tony Corado on social media and has used these usernames: "kristianna1758," "Tony10256," "Wintergreen109," "Addiction.slime," "tony2590," and "anniefanclub075." Corado was arrested Friday on 12 felony charges, including child pornography and solicitation of a minor under 15. Police are concerned there may be victims that have not yet come forward. Anyone with information is asked to contact Virginia State Police Special Agent Bullock at 571-581-4420 or michael.bullock@vsp.virginia.gov. Police have released a sketch of a man suspected of sexually assaulting a woman in Sterling, Virginia. The woman told police she woke up in the middle of the night on April 9 to discover a stranger had broken into her home and was touching her. The man ran off when she woke up. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said the assault happened in the 120 block of N Duke Drive. Neighbors said they were on edge, especially because there were no visible signs of a forced break-in. "That situation is not normal here. This area is so good," Marian Meija, a neighbor, said. Police describe the suspect as a Hispanic man about 20-years-old with curly dark hair and a slight build. Anyone with information is asked to call 703-777-1021. The suicide of a Florida teenager who authorities say was obsessed with the Columbine shooting and may have planned to carry out her own attack will not end an investigation to determine if she had any accomplices, officials said as Denver schools reopened Thursday and preparations to mark the 20th anniversary of the tragedy resumed. The body of 18-year-old Sol Pais was discovered Wednesday in the mountains outside Denver with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound after investigators got a tip from a driver who took her there, the FBI said. Dozens of schools that closed as a precaution during the daylong manhunt reopened their doors with heightened security measures. Events planned to mark the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine attack will go on as scheduled throughout the week, starting with a church service Thursday night and culminating with a ceremony near the school on Saturday. Two teenagers attacked Columbine on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives. They have inspired cult-like admirers, some of whom committed other mass shootings over the decades. A growing "no notoriety" movement has urged news organizations to avoid naming the perpetrators of mass shootings to deprive them of the notoriety they seek. The details of Pais' travel from Florida to Colorado began to emerge Wednesday along with some classmates' confusion about her involvement. The Miami Beach High School student dressed in black and kept mostly to herself, said Adam Charni, a senior at the school. He said he was "baffled" to learn Pais was the person authorities in Colorado were seeking. Another classmate, 17-year-old Drew Burnstine, described Pais as quiet and smart. Dean Phillips, FBI agent in charge in Denver, said Pais had made troubling remarks to others about her "infatuation" with the assault at Columbine and its anniversary. He did not elaborate. Investigators will try to learn more from Pais' social media and other online activity, largely to ensure that she had no accessories or accomplices, Phillips said. He confirmed the material being scrutinized includes a blog containing hand-written journal entries that occasionally feature sketches of guns or people holding large firearms. In Pais' hometown of Surfside, Police Chief Julio Yero asked that the family be given "privacy and a little time to grieve." Pais' parents had reported her missing on Monday night, police said. "This family contributed greatly to this investigation from the very onset," Yero said. "They provided valuable information that led us to Colorado and a lot of things that assisted in preventing maybe more loss of life." Pais had purchased three one-way tickets to Denver on three consecutive days. She arrived Monday night and went directly to a gun store, where she bought a shotgun, authorities said. They said she did not threaten a specific school. Still, Columbine and more than 20 other schools outside Denver locked their doors for nearly three hours Tuesday afternoon, and some canceled or moved evening activities inside. "We're used to threats, frankly, at Columbine," John McDonald, security chief for the Jefferson County school system, said when the manhunt was over. "This one felt different. It was different. It certainly had our attention." McDonald described Pais' trip as a "pilgrimage" to Columbine, though she is not believed to have been on the campus. The threats and response added an emotional burden for many with ties to the Columbine community ahead of the anniversary. Frank DeAngelis, Columbine's principal at the time of the shooting, said he was on campus Tuesday when the threat prompted the locking of the doors. He immediately went to check on several staff members who still work there 20 years after the attack. "The support was so great," he said. "Everybody came together." Denver-area parents faced the difficult job of explaining to their children without scaring them why they had the day off school. "This is definitely a challenge in their generation, and watching my kids learn how to navigate this is really hard. It is really heartbreaking," said Suzanne Kerns of suburban Arvada, whose children are 8 and 15. Kerns said she was angry about how easy it was for someone reported missing to come from out of state and buy a gun. Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader said the sale of the shotgun apparently followed the state's legal process. Out-of-state residents who are at least 18 can buy shotguns in Colorado. Customers must provide fingerprints and pass a criminal background check. Pais' body was found off a trail not far from the base of Mount Evans, a recreation area about 60 miles southwest of Denver, authorities said. She used the weapon she bought, Phillips said. Associated Press writers Ellis Rua, James Anderson and Thomas Peipert contributed to this report. Artifacts recovered from an 1872 time capsule stashed in the cornerstone of a demolished Masonic lodge in Reno, Nevada include silver dollars minted in Carson City and San Francisco, and a piece of wood from Sutter's Mill where the discovery of gold sparked the California Gold Rush. Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve, leaders of the Freemasons and local experts unveiled materials Tuesday pulled from a lead box inside the cornerstone of what was until recently the oldest standing commercial building in the city founded four years after Nevada was granted statehood in 1864. Other items include a quartz specimen from the drill at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, a harmonica, a business card from the Young Men's Christian Association offering "Spirited Refreshments" for 25 cents and an edition of the Virginia Enterprise in nearby Virginia City where Samuel Clemens began his newspaper career during the 1860s before adopting his pen name, Mark Twain. The Reno Masonic Lodge was built along the railroad tracks when Ulysses S. Grant was president shortly after the Comstock Lode of gold and silver was struck in Virginia City. The cornerstone was laid on Oct. 15, 1872, a block west of where now sits the famous arch over the main casino drag proclaiming Reno "The Biggest Little City in the World." A year later, Jacob Davis, a Reno tailor with a shop a block away, patented the first pair of copper-riveted jeans with Levi Straus & Co. "These materials have been sealed in this time capsule for 147 years," said Catherine Magee, the director of the Nevada Historical Society and art conservator who lead the excavation of the time capsule. "Reno was a tough little commercial town," she said. "This lot was on the bustling corner of Commercial Row across from the railroad platform." The lodge's bottom floor housed a dry goods and grocery store for decades. The developer of the neighboring Whitney Peak Hotel unearthed the cornerstone in February while deconstructing the building and salvaging original wood and bricks in preparation for future expansion. Some papers in the box were waterlogged, but once restored Magee said they'll be able to read pages from the Nevada State Journal, Reno Crescent, Carson Appeal, Sacramento Union, San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner. In addition to the 1872 silver dollars, the capsule included a Mexican dollar, an English quarter shilling and two American 3-cent pieces. There's a silver specimen from a mine in White Pine County near the Utah line, the Constitution of the Masonic Grand Lodge and the names of all the officers of the state of Nevada and Washoe County, as well as members of the California Legislature, 1871-72. "Materials in a time capsule are meant to give the discoverers a window through time into what was happening at the time of the encapsulation as well as what was deemed important by the people who were placing them in the time capsule," Magee said. "It means much more than one piece, one item taken out of context," she said. "For example, the Mexican dollar would simply be an old coin. The fact these coins were chosen to be included tells something about the cultural ties the Masons thought were important." Masons are part of a fraternal organization that traces its roots to stonemason guilds in the Middle Ages. Stephen Robison, grand master of the Masons in Nevada, said they've been laying U.S. cornerstones for 300 years. Now mostly symbolic, they once were the "critical first stone" of a building that had to be set level to ensure square, parallel and perpendicular walls, he said. The cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol was laid in 1793 by one of the most famous Freemasons, President George Washington, he said. Two men were arrested overnight for allegedly taking part in assaulting and robbing a man in Manchester, New Hampshire. Police said an officer was traveling on Elm Street at about 2 a.m. Thursday when he encountered a man who appeared to have been assaulted. The man, whose name was not released, said he was walking near the intersection of Canal and West Brook streets when he was approached by a group of four of five men. The group began to beat the victim and stole his cellphone, police said. The victim suffered minor injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital, officials said. Later that morning, another officer who was checking the area found two men who matched the descriptions of the suspects. As a result, 25-year-old Jason Dejesus and 22-year-old Gene Allende, both of Manchester, were arrested and charged with robbery. Officials are still searching for the other men involved in the assault. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the Manchester Police Department at 603-668-8711 and refer to case 19-5314. The investigation is ongoing. Four people are facing charges in connection with a fatal shootout in Vermont on Tuesday. Police in Burlington said 23-year-old Benzell Hampton was killed and James Felix, 36, was shot several times in an exchange of gunfire on North Willard Street at about 3 p.m. Authorities believe Felix, Brandon Sanders, 18, and Johnny Ford, 32, attacked Hampton as he was completing a drug deal. As Hampton was wrestled to the ground, he and his attackers exchanged gunfire. Police said Lesine Woodson, 32, Sanders, and Ford took Felix to the UVM Medical Center and then fled the scene. Felix's condition remains unclear. Woodson was taken into custody by police shortly after the incident. Enfield, Connecticut police said Sanders was located in a vehicle traveling north on Interstate 91 on Wednesday, and Ford was located in a motel. Ford was taken into custody peacefully around 11:30 p.m. after a two-hour standoff. Crack cocaine along with more than $17,000 in cash was found in the motel room. Authorities said they anticipate that all of the suspects will be charged with second-degree murder in Hampton's death. Sanders and Ford were each held on $1 million bond in Connecticut as fugitives. Their cases were not listed in online court records and it could not be determined if they have lawyers. What to Know A 60-year-old woman died Thursday after she was fatally hit by an MBTA bus in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Authorities did not release the name of the victim, but said she was a "local resident." As per protocol, the driver will undergo a drug and alcohol test and is barred from driving buses until the investigation is over. A 60-year-old woman was killed Thursday morning after she was hit by an MBTA bus in Chelsea, Massachusetts. An MBTA bus Route 111 was traveling inbound on Everett Avenue at about 5:40 a.m. when the crash happened, according to Richard Sullivan, Superintendent of the Transit Police Department. Authorities did not release the name of the victim, but did say she was a "local resident." The preliminday investigation indicates she was in the company of another person at the time of the crash, Sullivan said. The driver, who was not named, has been working with the MBTA for 12 years, according to Sullivan. Although the bus driver was not injured in the crash, he was taken to an area hospital for evaluation. As per protocol, the driver will undergo a drug and alcohol test. He will not be driving any buses until the investigation is complete, according to Sullivan. It is unclear if any passengers were onboard at the time of the incident. Traffic is being diverted at Spruce and Chestnut Streets, according to Kyes. Officials urge commuters to seek alternate routes while the on-ramp remains closed for the investigation. Authorities initially expected to reopen the on-ramp at about 8 a.m. State police announced just before 9 a.m. that the on-ramp reopened. Transit and state police are leading the investigation on the crash. A day care center in Rockland, Massachusetts, will have to move out of the old school it occupies this summer after the town decided to shut down the building in a move that blinded administrators and parents. Rockland Day Care, which serves more than 300 families, has until June 13 to leave the McKinley School on Union Street. The day care director, Janet Tait, said a broken sprinkler system prompted the town to close the school. This was very difficult news to hear, she said. Its not fair to our families to be scrambling for care. Parents said the decision will force them to find other options for their children. It would be a travesty if it did close, said Jennifer Holland, whose kids attended the day care three years ago when it nearly closed over money issues. I wouldve been in so much trouble. I would have had no place to send my kids. My kids pre-school would have been affected. Its unclear whether the day care will be able to relocate by June. The Town of Rockland could not be reached for comment. Tait said the town will hold a meeting on Monday to discuss its decision to close the school. Former U.S. vice president and rumored 2020 candidate Joe Biden visited Stop & Shop employees in Boston Thursday who have been on strike for the past week. Biden appeared alongside Boston Mayor Marty Walsh at a rally for union members and employees at the South Bay Center Stop & Shop location in Dorchester. Speaking to an estimated crowd of thousands, Biden said he was getting sick and tired of the way American workers were being treated. "People who bust their neck, people who go out and make a living, people who play by the rules, people who have done everything they have supposed to do, and people are entitled to be treated with respect and decency and fairness," said Biden. "This is morally wrong what's going on in this country and I've had enough of it. I'm sick of it, and so are you," Biden said. "We gotta stand together, and if we do we will take back this country, I mean it." The potential Democratic presidential candidate had tweeted his support for Stop & Shop employees last week. In the last 5 years, @StopandShop's parent company has bought back billions of dollars in stock. Now they want to cut employee wages & benefits. This is wrong. I stand with the 31,000 @UFCW workers fighting for their healthcare. Join me and support them: https://t.co/D4baO7D5xH Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 12, 2019 Walsh said to the crowd he was there to support the workers as someone who grew up in a labor union family. "The labor was a family, the unions were a family and they still are a family," said Walsh, recalling how union benefits helped his mother after his father passed away. "When I heard about this strike, and I saw some of the papers going back and forth, and one, the company wanted to take away health insurance, that's something we can't stand for." The rally had several United Food & Commercial Workers members address the crowd prior to Biden's appearance. Before Biden's arrival, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey spoke to the crowd saying what the grocery store is doing to the unionized workers is just wrong. He said the chain's desire to replace workers with more self-service checkouts was appalling. "We know that nothing replaces the years of sweat and hard work and the loyalty of Stop & Shop employees," said Markey. "Nothing can replace the friendly face at the butcher counter, on the bakery, nothing can replace the cashiers and baggers who make the end of everyone's day just a little bit easier. And nothing can replace the contract that recognizes your hard work and dedication to providing excellent customer service." Stop & Shop workers said the former vice president attending their rally is proof their picket has gone national. "It's huge," said Vanessa Santiago, a striking Stop & Shop worker. "Having him here will attract more people to come, and we need the attention right now." More than 31,000 employees in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have been on strike for the past week to express their frustration with the companys stalled negotiations with the union that represents them. Fed up employees walked off the job on April 11 over "unreasonable" wage and benefit cuts. UFCW said company shareholders voted to give themselves an 11.1 percent raise in dividends. "We all want to get back to work, we all want to get back inside and do our job," Santiago said. "I'm very passionate about what I do, always have been, and it bothers me very much that I can't get in there and work." Stop & Shop issued a statement Thursday, saying "There is nothing we want more than having our associates back in the stores, taking care of customers and our communities. We have offered fair and responsible contracts and remain in active negotiations to reach new agreements as quickly as possible that keep our associates among the highest paid grocery retail workers in New England, while also providing excellent health care and increased contributions to a defined benefit pension plan." U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has already said she is running for president, met with striking workers on Friday in Somerville. Democratic presidential contender Cory Booker has also voiced his support via Twitter. Vice President Joe Biden will join Boston Mayor Marty Walsh at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers. Police in Berlin, New Hampshire say an 11-year-old boy who had been missing is now safe. Authorities said Thursday afternoon that Korey Darling was last seen in the areas of Hillside Avenue, Winter Street and Prospect Street. A short time later, the boy had been safely located. No other information was provided. Neighbors along a residential street in Methuen, Massachusetts, say they were jolted out of bed by an explosion early Wednesday morning. Police say a mailbox was blown up on Garfield Street around 2 a.m. "It appeared it was some high powered firework that exploded inside of the mailbox," said Methuen Police Det. Sgt. Thomas McMenamon Jr. The impact was so great that a whole row of boxes were damaged, as was a car across the street. Neighbor Krystal Diaz said the whole base of the box actually flew off. "I checked out the car and said, 'What could have hit that?'" she recalled. "And it was actually the lid of the mailbox." Neighbors say a couple with two kids lives in the home. "Young teenage kids, they haven't been in the neighborhood that long, they moved in probably within a couple of years," said Bob Sevigny. "It's been typically a very quiet neighborhood." Police say the family was targeted, and they're now working leads to find out why. They say they're taking this seriously and are just thankful no one was hurt. A new Vermont company is carving out a niche for itself in the world of syrup productionby moving beyond maple. Deep in the woods of Marshfield, you can follow the sap lines not just to maple trees, but now to birches, and other kinds of trees, as well. Mike Farrell sees growth potential in boiling down sap from trees most sugar makers havent consideredlike basswood, walnut, beech, and birchin the state that leads the country in maple syrup production. From its steaming sugarhouse, Farrells New Leaf Tree Syrups produces maple blends and standalone varieties. Its a great way to utilize the woodland and have the healthiest and most diverse forest possible, Farrell said of turning tree sap into different kinds of syrups. The company wants to capitalize on the growth in the specialty food sector and on ever-more adventurous American palates, telling foodies that syrups are versatile. They are for pancakes, sure, but also great in cocktails and in both sweet and savory recipes, Farrell said. The businessman recommended drizzling birch syrup on salmon. Some people say citrusy, some people say fruity, Farrell said, describing the taste of birch syrup. With 3,000 acres of forestland to draw from, another of Farrells goals is strengthening Vermonts working landscaperespecting natural resources while expanding business uses. Yaroslav Khromyak buys big drums of raw birch sap from New Leaf wholesale and ships them all the way to Los Angeles, for bottling under the beverage label Sapp. Birch sap drinks have long been popular in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, noted Khromyak, who was born in Ukraine. Vermont has quite a reputation across the U.S. for its food and beverages, and were aiming to develop that even further, the beverage entrepreneur told necn and NBC10 Boston. Lynn Ellen Schimoler works in agricultural business development for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. I think its unprecedented to see someone doing it on such a large scale, Schimoler said of New Leaf Tree Syrups operation. Im always encouraged to see any Vermont food or farm business that gets out of the box, to be innovativehave a new, fresh approach. In just his first season of production, Farrells taking New Leaf Tree Syrups into northeast retailers in May and online to a nationwide audience, hoping to convince consumers to branch out in their syrup purchases. New England's mostly Democratic Congressional delegation was swift and stern in its reaction to the way the Mueller report was released by Attorney General William Barr on Thursday. Barr held a press conference Thursday morning prior to the report's release in which he defended President Donald Trump and said nothing he did rose to the level of an "obstruction-of-justice offense." "The AG is supposed to serve as the countrys top law enforcement officer someone who stands up for the rule of law & defends the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 presidential candidate, said on Twitter. "William Barr is standing up for only one person: the President of the United States." "Yes, the WH is spinning the Mueller report. Yes, Barr is acting like Trump's personal lawyer. Yes, it's disgraceful," Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey added. "But we also must stay focused on the larger threat: Russia is going to keep trying to influence our elections, Trump or no Trump. And we need a plan to stop it." Another possible 2020 presidential contender, Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, also focused on the way the report was released, specifically Barr's preemptive press conference. "The Attorney General shouldn't be acting as press secretary for the President of the United States," he said. "Sad day for DOJdiminished by an AG who acts like the Presidents lawyer not the people's. He should stand for the rule of law, not the rule of Trump," added Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. "It is now clear that Attorney General Barr is not Americas Attorney General and Chief Law Enforcement Officer, but the Presidents personal attorney and partisan attack dog," Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said. "He has lost the trust and confidence of the American people. Shame on him. What a disgrace." "Barr's press conference was a blatant attempt to spin a report no one has read. Our democracy depends on transparency. The American people deserve the full report so they can interpret the findings for themselves," Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said. "Barr's attempt to make excuses for the President was an irresponsible precursor to report's actual release," Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire added. "Let's see the full report so we can make responsible conclusions about Mueller's work and how to proceed, not have them spoon-fed to us by a biased AG." The Justice Department posted a redacted version of the Mueller report online Thursday morning, 90 minutes after Barr offered his final assessment of the findings. "I will withhold my judgment on the Mueller report until Ive been able to review the document but the pointed political tone of todays press conference did not match the transparent, objective approach needed to restore the American people's faith in our justice system," said Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said she will not be commenting on the 400-page report until she has carefully reviewed it. But she said the thought Barr provided "a straightforward explanation" for the basis of the report's redactions. "Special Counsel Mueller needs to come before Congress and testify on his report," Democratic Rep. John Larson of Connecticut said. "Americans need Muellers account on the record, and his analysis of the report and the conclusions that were reached, not just Attorney General Barrs narrative." Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, also a Democrat, said she is "eagerly awaiting the full Mueller report" and her constituents deserve more than just a summary of the investigation. "Clean and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and we must do everything in our power to protect that process and be transparent," she said. "Like my constituents and most of the country Im still wondering whats in the #MuellerReport and wondering why Attorney General Barr thought it was appropriate to share an advance copy with the White House and not Congress," Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin of Rhode Island said. "I look forward to reading the redacted report." Fears over the increasing spread of Covid 19 have caused the Open Christmas event at Great Yarmouth Minster on Christmas Day to be cancelled this year, but those who would have attended will be receiving goodie bags instead. Fears over the increasing spread of Covid 19 have caused the Open Christmas event at Great Yarmouth Minster on Christmas Day to be cancelled this year, but those who would have attended will be receiving goodie bags instead. Norwich church requires an Administrator Holy Trinity church in Norwich wants to appoint an Administrator to help it introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Norwich. Read more Acle churches unite for carols The churches in Acle held their annual carol concert at the Methodist Church last Sunday, and were evidently visited by the Man in Red! Read more Norwich church giving out 150 food hampers Gateway Vineyard church in Norwich is giving 150 food hampers to individuals and families across the city as part of the Love Christmas initiative. Read more Norwich church invite to sing on Saturday On Saturday December 18, Norwich's oldest chapel close to the city is holding a 'sing on Saturday' at 3pm. There is plenty of space inside to join together to sing some well-known hymns. Read more Norwich church gives city a Wonder-ful show Soul Churchs free Christmas production, The Wonder, was back bigger and better than ever this year, welcoming thousands of people from Norwich and beyond, to enjoy this Christmas extravaganza. Read more Do you have any forgiveness blockages? Jane Walters has discovered a hidden blockage in her vacuum cleaner, which needed to be removed. Read more Tributes paid to amazing Eileen who was 110 Tributes have been paid to amazing St Georges Norwich parishioner and former Test cricketer, Eileen Ash, who was Norfolks oldest woman and has died at the age of 110. Read more Dereham church celebrates Christmas with wreaths Lyn Milns from Dereham Baptist Church has been developing a Christmas wreath festival in the church and through the town. Read more Car Park Christmas for Sheringham church Lighthouse Community Church in Sheringham has held two of its Christmas services in the open air, including a joint carol service with Sheringham Salvation Army band. Read more Kingsley gifts support Lowestoft Christmas lunch Kingsley Healthcare has presented gift bags to the Salvation Armys Lowestoft Citadel to be given out at the churchs Christmas Day lunch this year. Read more The Wonder performed just for Norfolk school Pupils and teachers from The Clare School were treated to a special performance of The Wonder, Soul Church's Christmas spectacular, on Wednesday 8th December. Read more YMCA Norfolk needs a Project Lead Wellbeing Matters YMCA Norfolk is looking for a Project Lead Wellbeing Matters, to build relationships of trust with vulnerable and marginalised parents and families across Norfolk. Read more Norfolk author sheds light on US abortion debate A book about respect for life, written by a parishioner from St Johns Cathedral in Norwich, sheds light on the current US abortion debate being considered by its Supreme Court. Read more Music outreach boost for South Norfolk church St Marys Church in Attleborough has been awarded a grant from Youth Music to employ a music outreach worker for two years as part of the churchs music and building project. Read more Christmas news and opening times at Revelation Merry Christmas from the staff, volunteers and trustees at Revelation Christian resource centre in Norwich. Read more The joy of getting a booster! Andrew Frere Smith reminds us how much a word of encouragement can boost our spirits. Read more Sister Wendy gives a voice to Julian of Norwich A recording of Sister Wendy Beckett reading Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love has been released to the public 28 years after it was first made. Read more A survey conducted by Informa Engage and Data Center Knowledge finds data center workers overall are content with their job, so much so they would encourage their children to go into that line of work despite the heavy demands on time and their brain. Overall satisfaction is pretty good, with 72% of respondents generally agreeing with the statement I love my current job, while a third strongly agreed. And 75% agreed with the statement, If my child, niece or nephew asked, Id recommend getting into IT. [ Also read: 20 hot jobs ambitious IT pros should shoot for ] And there is a feeling of significance among data center workers, with 88% saying they feel they are very important to the success of their employer. Thats despite some challenges, not the least of which is a skills and certification shortage. Survey respondents cite a lack of skills as the biggest area of concern. Only 56% felt they had the training necessary to do their job, and 74% said they had been in the IT industry for more than a decade. The industry offers certification programs, every major IT hardware provider has them, but 61% said they have not completed or renewed certificates in the past 12 months. There are several reasons why. A third (34%) said it was due to a lack of a training budget at their organization, while 24% cited a lack of time, 16% said management doesnt see a need for training, and 16% cited no training plans within their workplace. That doesnt surprise me, since tech is one of the most open industries in the world where you can find training or educational materials and teach yourself. Its already established that many coders are self-taught, including industry giants Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, John Carmack, and Jack Dorsey. Data center workers' salaries Data center workers cant complain about the pay. Well, most cant, as 50% make $100,000 per year or more, but 11% make less than $40,000. Two-thirds of those surveyed are in the U.S., so those on the low end might be outside the country. There was one notable discrepancy. Steve Brown, managing director of London-based Datacenter People, noted that software engineers get paid a lot better than the hardware people. The software engineering side of the data center is comparable to the highest-earning professions, Brown said in the report. On the physical infrastructure the mechanical/electrical side its not quite the case. Its more equivalent to mid-level management. Data center professionals still predominantly male The least surprising finding? Nine out of 10 survey respondents were male. The industry is bending over backwards to fix the gender imbalance, but so far nothing has changed. The conclusion of the report is a bit ominous, but I also think is wrong: As data center infrastructure completes its transition to a cloud computing model, and software moves into containers and microservices, the remaining, treasured leaders of the data center workforce people who acquired their skills in the 20th century may find themselves with nothing recognizable they can manage and no-one to lead. We may be shocked when the crisis finally hits, but we wont be able to say we werent warned. How many times do I have to say it, the data center is not going away. Smart cities require protection. In a smart cities context so does the community and the individual. How do we protect these valuable and lucrative future assets? What is the role of cyber and privacy specialist in this emerging smart eco-system? You would be forgiven for believing the smart cities express has nothing but green traffic lights on its way to its final destination. Conferences are packed with eager smart sellers convincing smart buyers their smart service will address all their current and future woes. Perhaps this is true. We will have cleaner air, improved waste management, and ultimately a more responsive and intuitive society. To many more, the smart revolution will deliver the longest overdue promise of all: a safer community. An example. An IoT smart city sidewalk sensor identifies traces of a prohibited substance in the vicinity of a known citizen. A robotic device is dispatched to investigate the citizen, who is easily identified due to his myriad of network enabled, devices and gadgets. Job done. Sounds great, right? Interestingly, if we break down the steps to the aforementioned robotic law enforcer, we discover the challenges facing societies, individuals and industry professionals immersed in this wave of smart technologies. It is not my intention to elaborate on the possible sensitive interfaces and liberties such technologies may abuse, but rather to highlight what we are at risk of losing. Even selling off. Trust and privacy Thats whats at stake. Maintaining our societys trust models, both implied and explicit, and the protection of our most important personal asset, our privacy. By applying trust and privacy principles to the above example, we can see how the success of these services will depend greatly upon their ability to maintain the value of trust and the right to privacy. In addition, it highlights the complexity of services and institutions such solutions incorporate. This is new territory for cyber security, requiring a collaborative and integrated approach. Unfortunately, at most of these smart industry events the cyber security and privacy speaker is invariably tacked onto the tail end of the show. After a long lunch, often a substantial one, and just before conference wrap-up drinks. It is not the best timeslot to start discussing cyber and privacy responsibilities within a smart cities and critical infrastructure context. Nevertheless, discuss it we must. The truth is, in the ramp up to a smart cities utopia, many societal concerns are often left overlooked. Of course, there are those within the cyber and privacy industry who are making the case that more attention be given to protecting our future states of existence, and interaction. Privacy experts are demanding privacy requirements be reflected in all smart technology deployments, a privacy by design approach, if you will. These voices are becoming loader, but there is still a long way to go. Too often, these professionals are presenting to the converted. The message is not getting out to those who need to listen. In the race to an ever-smarter world, security industry leaders are concerned society, by which we mean its people, will be more vulnerable and susceptible to exploitation and external attack. This is not an inevitable conclusion, we can properly secure our future, and protect our citizens but we need to adopt a time to act approach immediately. We need to acknowledge we cannot speak of smart cities and critical infrastructure and leave cyber and privacy concerns off the agenda. The success or failure of such ambition is not simply about the cost efficiencies and return on investment opportunities, but rather in ensuring the trust and privacy of people, corporations, government services, and communities are put first from design to base build. A meeting of industry vectors Perhaps this is where the problem stems from? Poor communication. The lack of understanding for the imperative at hand? For as long as most can remember, information security was a technology concern, handled by technologists, and discussed by security engineers and associated professionals. The security vendors presented at security conferences, the security professional attended accordingly, Cat people with cat people. You know how it goes. Within a Smart city eco- system, we need to extend the cyber conversation beyond the traditional players. How do we make the City Planner appreciate what we understand? How do we share and apply security best practices to an engineering company providing a Building Information Modelling (BIM) service to a Hospital or Defence project? Moreover, how do we, in the first instance highlight the security concerns? Attending and speaking at numerous cyber conferences I sometimes wonder, is this the right audience? In this digital eco-system, we should be speaking to civic and government leaders about our security concerns facing smart cities and critical infrastructure, not exclusively to other security professionals. They are well aware of the challenges and the resistance experienced. Let us face it the landscape has changed. The job has changed. IoT and IIoT has ushered in a new game. Security and privacy concerns are now and have been for some time in the public arena, under public scrutiny, beyond the corporate firewall, beyond the IT department and its role as the security technology gatekeeper. In other words, technology within an IoT world is not the answer. It is part of the solution. A solution that encompasses, in country, and global legal and regulatory compliance frameworks. Moreover, these concerns have become part of our societal fabric. Social media exploitation, daily data breaches, fraud and ransomware, seem almost daily occurrences. These threats need to be considered and remediated as part of our smart cities design and build specifications. New territory, dangerous territory? Perhaps. Now I understand why some believe such conversations are best left for the late afternoon timeslot. Let us not scare the Punters in this billion-device, billion-dollar IoT market bonanza with all this security stuff. Of course, not scare, but advise accordingly, yes. The way forward Talking the problems is fine, but in the end, we have to do something about it. To effect real smart cities design and implementation change, cyber and privacy professionals need to engage with the new decision makers of the day. Step outside the circle. This includes engaging the municipalities driving change, the architects, urban planners, and design engineers to mention just a few. The conversation needs to address the security issues as they relate to their environments and their communities. Smart cities are information hubs, exchange portals and so much more. A new approach is required to ensure that cyber issues are addressed as they apply to a living environment. A fertile, changing eco-system, which learns from itself, its network of connections, and builds upon its own success. Security has come a long way from protecting the perimeter. Unfortunately, many still think in these terms. Addressing security as an after though or arbitrary plugin. The continuation of such beliefs will not doubt come at a cost. The good news? Working with numerous cyber and privacy professionals, I notice how things have changed within smart technology deployments. The challenges are often approached more on a personal level. Protecting what matters, what if lost cannot be replaced. We can always rebuild a server, but we cannot easily rebuild a compromised identity. These observations leave me positive about our smart futures and reaffirms my belief we are on the right track. On Thursday, May 9, Burning Tree Country Club in Greenwich will host an evening of cocktails and conversation followed by a discussion with Melissa Fleming, head of communications and chief spokesperson for The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and author of A Hope More Powerful than the Sea: One Refugees Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival. Fleming will discuss the story from her book of one Syrian girls journey of survival. A conversation on the resilience of refugee children will follow, led by Marcia Biggs, special correspondent for PBS NewsHour. BRIDGEPORT East End residents already feel they have to live, work and play alongside more noisy, dirty industrial sites than people do in other city neighborhoods. So when a Greenwich land use attorney met with East End leaders Tuesday to ask that they embrace a Stamford-based contractors proposed storage yard for crushed stone, sand, mulch and topsoil, the out-of-town lawyer got a polite but chilly reception. Were a little gun-shy toward things of that nature, said Tom McMillan, a member of the East End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, one of several NRZ community groups that weigh in on economic development proposals around town. Attorney Christopher Bristol did his best, but his unfamiliarity with the nuances of the inner-city sections that make up Connecticuts largest municipality was on display. Is this the East End or the East Side? an apologetic Bristol said as he tried to win over McMillan and his NRZ colleagues. I just dont have the knowledge about all the inner workings of the city. The property Bristols client, JCM Service Inc., wants to purchase for the storage yard 2115 Seaview Ave. is actually at the nexus of three sections of Bridgeport: the East End, the East Side, and Mill Hill. Bristol was advised he should also meet with the East Side and Mill Hill NRZ groups. Is there another one? Bristol asked, trying to make sure he did not leave out an NRZ. I didnt mean that sarcastically. Im trying to understand how these work. Memories of fire But Seaview Avenue is represented by the same City Council members whose district includes the East End, Eneida Martinez and Ernie Newton. Martinez made it clear Tuesday she will do everything she can to see that zoning officials reject the storage yard. Were looking for the East End to become a more beautifying location ... with housing, retail stores, Martinez said. That 2115 address, which made news in 2014 when a five-alarm fire demolished a perfume warehouse there, is directly across the street from a densely packed community of multifamily homes. NRZ members said they were concerned about the noise, air pollution and other quality-of-life issues they believe would be affected if the contractors storage yard were opened. Willene Gibson, an East End NRZ member, worried JCMs plans would worsen the neighborhoods already high asthma rates. And Police Lt. Paul Grech, who attended the East End NRZ meeting for an unrelated issue, added he, too, thought the storage yard was a bad idea because of the truck traffic. We have 2,000 students who walk to school in that area, Grech said. We cant be having these trucks come in and out. Martinez compared JCMs plans to a former storage yard farther down Seaview Avenue that had been run by O&G Industries until political leaders, including Mayor Joe Ganim, in 2017 successfully went to court to force O&G to clean up the land. Bristol said his client is a much smaller operation. ... Hes certainly no O&G. Cleanup plans Bristol argued that the storage yard would actually be a really great first step in helping to revitalize that section of Seaview Avenue following that devastating Sept. 11, 2014, warehouse blaze. The property, though cleared of debris, would be further cleaned up and landscaping and new fencing installed, Bristol said. All things considered, well be improving (the lot), Bristol told the East End NRZ. State Rep. Andre Baker, D-Bridgeport, asked if JCM could store its materials in a hangar-type facility rather than out in the open. Bristol said the storage yard would be well-screened from the public and nothing kept there should be rising up in visible mounds. O&G started small, Martinez said. We do not want to bring another company on to the East End to do what O&G started. ... Once youre there, it will take us years to get you out. The Bridgeport Planning and Zoning Commission had scheduled a public hearing on the storage yard for March, but Bristol and JCM agreed to delay that after learning about the citys NRZs. Bristol apologized Tuesday for proceeding with the zoning application without first engaging the community groups. I had absolutely no idea, Bristol said. I would have come to you guys first. He anticipated Mondays planned zoning hearing would also be put off until he had a chance to meet with the other NRZs. Martinez afterward said the Mill Hill group would be even less open to JCMs storage yard because many of its members are longtime homeowners who do not want more industry in the neighborhood. Mill Hill? Forget about it, Martinez said. Thats a tough NRZ, Im telling you. DERBY Joseph Jeanette Jr. can not thank Derby enough for what its doing. My dad would be crying right now, said Jeanette, who serves on Ansonias Board of Education. Not just for himself but for what this means to everyone who serves. Jeanettes father, Joseph Sr., received the Purple Heart for a stomach wound he suffered while serving as a U.S. Marine Corps corporal during the intense fighting on Bougainville Island in the South Pacific. He also saw action on Guadalcanal. My dad was my hero, Jeanette said. Next to his family, the Marine Corps was his life. In City Hall, Mayor Richard Dziekan, a U.S.Air Force veteran, and Pam Gagliardi, his administrative assistant, are compiling a Purple Heart commemorative book containing the names, biography and injuries suffered by all Derby residents or relatives of Derby residents who received the medal. They are asking anyone with information regarding a Derby recipient to provide information and a photo along with details of the individuals service. There is no definitive number right now of how many Derby residents received the Purple Heart. To assist in their search, Gagliardi, Dziekan and Paul Lutson, the citys veterans service officer, provided notices of the project to the libraries, the senior center, local churches and Veterans organizations seeking the local veterans names. Theyre the reason we have our freedoms in this country, said Dziekan, a member of the state Department of Veterans Affairs board of trustees. This is the least that we can do to give them the recognition they deserve and to keep their memories alive. Once completed, the book will be available free to the families and available at the schools and libraries. I want it to be nice, something people will be proud to have, Dziekan said. The book also will be part of a yet-to-be scheduled ceremony naming Derby a Purple Heart city by the Military Order of the Purple Heart. That order, which now numbers about 45,000 members with chapters in every state, was formed in the Valley on Sept. 22, 1932. The organizational meeting was held in the Ansonia Armory. Members called themselves the George Washington Chapter 1. It still exists and meets in the Veterans Memorial building on Atwater Avenue. The chapter name is a tribute to Washington, who created the medal given for battlefield bravery in 1782. The medal fell into obscurity before being reborn as the Purple Heart by Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1932. The medal is now given to military personnel killed or injured in hostilities, which include acts of terrorism, and received documented medical treatment. So far, Gagliardi received information on Jeanette and Pasquale Pepe as well as the names of Joseph J. Riordan, James Canganelly and Eugene Tiano. Riordan served as a U.S. Army staff sergeant during World War II, according to his obituary. Pepe left Fordham University to enlist in World War II. He was placed in the U.S. Army specialized training program at the University of Detroit shortly after enlisting. He served with the 58th Infantry Battalion of the 8th Armored Division as they rolled through France, Holland, Belgium, Luxenbourg and Germany. He was wounded on April 12, 1945. Pepe returned to Fordham after the war, received his law degree and practiced in the Valley. He served as Ansonias corporation counsel under mayors James Martin and Sturgis Sobin and also on several municipal boards and committees. He died July 4, 2018, at age 94. Jeanette said his father, Joseph Sr., didnt talk a lot about the war or his experiences... I know he lost a good friend in the foxhole... I cant imagine what those three to four years (fighting) was like for him. After he was wounded, Jeanette said, his father was shipped to a hospital in New Zealand while other injured members of his unit went to medical facilities in Australia. When his father returned home, he trained to became an electrician. He worked at B.F. Goodrich in Shelton and Anaconda American Brass in Ansonia, from which he retired. He died in 2010 at age 88. What Derby is doing is very noble, said Pat Henri, a former Ansonia alderman who serves as the adjutant of the American Legion Gordon-Viselli Post 50 in Ansonia and a senior chief petty officer in the Naval Reserve. This gives recognition and shows appreciation not only to those who served but who actually made a physical sacrifice... I hope what Derby is doing inspires more cities to do the same. New exhibit of selected works by Bridgewater artist Walter H. Von Egidy: Runs through May 30. Library, 62 Main St. South. A Collection of Stuff: Photographs Ranging from Insects to Ireland and a Lot of Stuff in Between - exhibit of photographs by Karen Chase: Runs through April 30. Library, Main Street. For more information, call 860-927-3761. KAA annual spring juried show: Runs through May 12. KAA Gallery, 21 South Main St. Hours: Thursdays-Sundays, 1-5 p.m. For more information, call 860-927-3989. SHERMAN Of the Sea - works by mother and daughter, Sylvia Hierro and Dalia Hierro: Artist talk, April 20, 2 p.m. Runs through April 24. Library, 1 Sherman Center. Hours: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursdays, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information, call 860-354-2455. WASHINGTON No Boundaries - new paintings by Chandra Rogers: April 20, noon-2 p.m. Runs through June 1. Library, Wykeham Road. For more information, call 860-868-7586. Music/Dance NEW MILFORD Concerts at Hunt Hill Farm: April 19: with Nick Arne, RivaJean and Emme Kiara. $10. May 25: with vocalist Diane Blue. Hunt Hill Farm, 44 Upland Road. For more information, call 860-355-0300. West Point Band concert alongside NMHS wind ensemble: April 22. New Milford High School, Route 7 South. Free. SPECIAL EVENTS BRIDGEWATER Easter egg hunt: April 20, 11 a.m.-noon. Hosted by Grange at 41 Main St. South. Penny auction: April 21, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. St. Marks Episcopal Church, 5 Main St. South. Drawing, 1 p.m. An American Treasure program about Leonard Bernstein: April 25, 6:30 p.m. Library, 62 Main St. South. For more information, call 860-354-6937. Grange meeting and award presentation: April 26, 7 p.m. At St Marks Episcopal Church, Main Street. GAYLORDSVILLE Earth Day celebration: April 20, noon-4 p.m. The Village Farm, 684 Kent Road (Route 7). Includes egg hunt, potluck lunch, hands-on planting demonstration and tours of farm. Carpool to do clean-ups at two historic sites will be held at 2 p.m. For more information, call 860-354-7008. MARBLE DALE/NEW PRESTON New Preston Womens Club meeting and program: April 18. Happy half-hour, 6:30 p.m. Business meeting, 7 p.m. Program with Elizabeth D. Aleksinas, owner of Bramasole Yoga and Fitness in Morris, who will present The Power of a Quiet Mind, to follow. NEW MILFORD Easter offerings: April 19 (Good Friday): egg dyeing and movie event, 11:30 a.m. Good Friday ecumenical walk on the Green, noon. First Congregational Church, 36 Main St. Exhibit of items from Metichewan Grange: Ongoing. At historical society and museum, 6 Aspetuck Ave. Easter offerings: April 19: Good Friday service of darkness, 7 p.m. April 21: Easter Sunday breakfast, 8:30-10 a.m. Easter Sunday High Holy Festival Eucharist, 10:30 a.m. Trinity Lutheran Church, Route 7 North. Caregivers Support Group: May 7 and 21, 10 a.m. Meets first and third Tuesday each month, 10-11:30 a.m. Senior center, 40 Main St. For more information, call 860-354-2216. Easter egg hunt: April 20, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Harrybrooke Park, off Still River Drive. Bring basket to collect 10 eggs that can be turned in to receive a free Scholastic Book. $5. Patriots Day celebration: April 20, noon. Village Green. Includes drills performed by the 6th Connecticut Regiment, the presentation of an Honorary Patriot Award, visits with representatives from the Daughters, Sons and Children of the American Revolution groups, music by Pat Maguire, a flag ceremony, a regiment salute, refreshments and more. Wake Up with the Dems Budget Conversation and Coffee: April 20, 9 a.m. Barristers, 59 Bank St. Easter events: April 21, Easter worship, 10:45 a.m. Easter egg hunt, noon. Riverview Baptist Church, 126 Kent Road. Session with veterans service officer: April 24, 9 a.m.-noon. Office across from mayors office, town hall, Main Street. With Peter DiMaria. Bring DD214 form and other documents. For more information and an appointment, call 203-805-6340. Screening of Gen Silent and dinner: April 25, 5-7 p.m. Senior center, 40 Main St. Held in conjunction with AARP. Open to memberes of general public who are LGBT and/or advocates of LGBT community. For more information and RSVP, call 877-926-8300 by April 22. ROXBURY Easter offerings: April 19: Good Friday service, 7 p.m. April 21: Easter services, 8 and 10 a.m. Christ Episcopal Church, 4 Wellers Bridge Road. Easter offerings: Roxbury Congregational Church, 24 Church St. April 21: Easter outdoor service at Good Hill Road at Upper Grassy Hill Road on Woodbury town line, 6 a.m. Breakfast, 6:30 a.m. at the church. Easter service, 10:30 a.m. At the church. SHERMAN Deer Pond Farm offerings: April 23: early migration walks with Miley Bull, 8 a.m. April 26: volunteer appreciation day, 11 a.m. April 30: spring ecology walk with Jim Arrigoni, 5 p.m. May 18: early bird walk, 6-8 a.m. May 18: not-so-early bird walk, 8:30-10:30 a.m. May 18: childrens story time with craft and nature walk, 10 a.m.-noon. May 19: bird hot spot hike, noon-2 p.m. Deer Pond Farm, 57 Wakeman Hill Road. Free/member. $5/non-member. $10/non-member families. For more information and RSVP, call 860-799-4074. Program about nighttime breathing problems for children: April 25, 6 p.m. Library, Sherman Center. With breathing specialist Tara Clancy. Screening of Witness and Q&A with Holocaust survivor Maks Etingin: April 27, 7 p.m. JCC, 9 Route 39 South. For more information and RSVP, call 860-355-8050. WARREN Earth Day enviro-magic show for all ages: April 27, 10-11 a.m. Hosted by Warren Land Trust in partnership with Warren Parks & Recreation. At Warren Community Hub, Warren Town Center. WASHINGTON Easter offerings: April 19: Tenebrae service, 7:15 p.m. April 20: Easter bake sale and flower sale, 8:30-11:30 a.m. April 21: community Easter sunrise service, 6 am. at Stone Church, New Preston Hill, New Preston. April 21: Easter service, 10:30 a.m., followed by egg hunt for kids. All events at Salem Covenant Church, 96 Baldwin Hill Road, except for the Easter sunrise service. Gunn Junior Library events: April 20: Easter egg dyeing (bring hard-boiled eggs), 10 a.m.-2 p.m. April 27: origami workshop, 1 p.m. Library, Wykeham Road. For more information, call 860-868-2310. Movie screenings: April 22: The Mule (R), 1 p.m. May 5: Green Book, 1 p.m. May 12: Vice, 1 p.m. May 19: On the Basis of Sex, 1 p.m. Library, Wykeham Road. For more information, call 860-868-7586. Preserve monitoring training session: April 20, 8:30 a.m.-noon. Meet at 116 Christian St. For more information and RSVP, visit https://steeprockassoc.org/events-programs/. Book signing with Rosemary Wells, author and creator of Max & Ruby: April 20, 2 p.m. Hickory Stick Bookshop, 2 Green Hill Road. Will sign copies of latest book Sleep, My Bunny, and some of her former titles. Discussion of Witch Elm: April 25, 6:30 p.m. Librart, Wykeham Road. With English professor Christopher Rempfer. For more information and RSVP, call 860-868-7586. Love Your Mother-Earth Day 5K and 5-mile road/trail race: April 27. Registration day of, 7:30-8:45 a.m. Race, 9 a.m. At Steep Rock Nature Preserve, 2 Tunnel Road. $20 in advanced at www.fastracktiming.com. $25 day of race. Earth Day roadside cleanup: April 27. Volunteers invited to adopt a road in town. Available roads listed at https://www.wec-ct.org/earth-day-roadside-cleanup. Vernal Pools and their Woodland Wonders: A Family-Friendly Adventure: April 28, 10-11:30 a.m. Hosted by Steep Rock Association at Hidden Valley Preserve, at secondary parking area on Sabbaday Lane near Route 109 junction. For more information and RSVP, call 860-868-9131. The First Ladies Coalition: April 30, 6 p.m. Sponsored by Judea Chapter, DAR at library, Wykeham Road. For more information and RSVP, call 860-868-7586. AREA TOWNS Huntingtons Disease Benefit Dinner: The Fred Mahers Family Journey: April 27, 5:30-9:30 p.m. Hosted by Maher family at Bantam Fire Department, 92 Doyle Road, Bantam. $35/adult in advance. $40/adult at door. $15/child 2-10. $325/table for 10. For more information and tickets, call 203-241-9216 or email fmfjourney@gmail.com. Theater NEW MILFORD Quartet: Fridays-Saturdays, April 26-May 18, 8 p.m. May 12, 2 p.m. TheatreWorks, 5 Brookside Ave. $25/reserved seat. $20/student and military personnel. Free preview for senior citizens, April 25, 8 p.m. Pay-what-you-can-night, May 2, 8 p.m. For more information and RSVP, call 860-350-6863. SHERMAN Auditions for The Tempest: April 22-23: auditions for general roles, 6:30-9 p.m. Sherman Playhouse, 5 Route 39 North. General cast of 10 males and five females ages 16 to 65 sought. For more information, email the director at frome@snet.net. New Milford Mayor Pete Bass will hold the next coffee with the mayor April 20 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the E. Paul Martin Meeting Room at Roger Sherman Town Hall at 10 Main St. Residents are invited to come with ideas, questions or concerns, and general conversation. The first annual Patriots Day celebration will be held April 20 at noon the Village Green in New Milford. Activities will include drills performed by the 6th Connecticut Regiment, the presentation of an Honorary Patriot Award, visits with representatives from the Daughters, Sons and Children of the American Revolution groups, music by Pat Maguire, a flag ceremony, a regiment salute, refreshments and more. Meg Shaw knew at a young age hairdressing would be an integral part of her life. This is what I love to do, the Gaylordsville resident said. I was born to do this. She worked in salons for many years but after having her two youngest children twins born nine weeks early several years ago she became keenly aware of the importance of service providers, such as a hairdresser, having flexible hours. That realization prompted her to open a mobile hairdressing business, Megs Mobile Hairdressing and Spray Tanning, two years ago. Shaw said once her twins were home, nurses, physician assistants, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist were among the providers who visited her home for follow-up visits. Everyone came to me because I couldnt get out, she said, referring to her 5-pound newborns and a 5-year-old. I didnt leave the house. Once her children were nursed back to health, she pitched the idea of a mobile business to her husband and friends, who fully supported the idea. Life is busy, and you need to take shortcuts when you can, the licensed hairdresser, who grew up in Danbury, said. Shaw brings all the necessary hairdressing supplies in a suitcase with her to clients homes, where she offers a variety of services: one process color, two process color, low lights, high lights, Keratin treatments, scalp and conditioner treatments, haircuts, blow dry, updos and spray tans. Shes done a really good job, said Sara DiFabbio-Keeler, of New Milford, who first learned of the business through a moms group on Facebook about a year ago and has since been a client. Shes very personable and always done a nice job, she said. Megan is professional and does a fabulous job, said Megan Stifel Nevins, of Ridgefield, who sought Shaws services for a haircut and spray tanning, and for a haircut for her daughter. Nevins cited the convenience of Shaws service for her busy schedule. Shaws clients are mostly women, but she also provides hair services to men and children. She charges a small travel fee to serve clients in New Milford, Kent, Bridgewater, Roxbury, Brookfield, Danbury, Ridgefield, Newtown, Southbury and Woodbury. Shaw said her clients range from moms with young children to clients who work long shifts and find it hard enough to find time to sleep, let along get their hair done. I do it for (the clients), Shaw said of her flexible hours that accommodate her customers schedules. I make myself available. DiFabbio-Keeler said she doesnt like to spend time away from her son, Rowan, 2, when she isnt working. Having her hair cut at home makes it possible for them to spend more time together, and allows Rowan to even run in and give me a hug during a haircut. Shaw, who graduated with a hairdressing license from Henry Abbott Tech, has 18 years experience in the industry. She has taken several continuing education courses for color and cutting in New York City. I have the opportunity to make people feel better about themselves, Shaw said. Clients find having their done at their home enables them to get other things done at the house like throwing a load of laundry in the washing machine, making diner, or helping the kids with their homework all while waiting for, for example, color to set. The hairdresser said many people women, in particular have guilt when they do things for themselves. But having hair done at home is guilt free. Shaw said she understands how precious time is. I can relate (to the clients), Shaw said. I have three kids, a husband, a business. Shaw not only travels to peoples homes. She works at funeral homes, and is available to go to hotels for weddings and tannings. She is also willing to go to businesses that might be interested in offering on-site hairdressing services to their employees. For more information, call Megs Mobile Hairdressing and Spray Tanning at 203-648-0884 or visit the business on Facebook. Lee Raimey and Vickie Williams were two of three Laketran drivers recognized during the Ohio Public Transit Association awards ceremony during the associations annual meeting this month in Columbus. Raimey was honored with the 2019 OPTA Milestone Award for 30 years of accident-free driving at Laketran. He reached that milestone last November. According to a news release, Raimey is the most senior employee in the organization. A fixture along Mentor Avenue, Raimey drives Laketrans busiest route, Route 1, which travels Mentor Avenue between the Painesville Transfer Center and Lakeland Community College in Kirtland. Lees safety record is impressive and really unheard of in the industry, said Laketran CEO Ben Capelle. He has driven close to 400,000 miles without any incidents. Receiving the 2019 OPTA Community Impact Award was Williams, recognized for a heroic act during a Dial-a-Ride pickup that illustrates how bus drivers offer security to the communitys elderly and disabled who are often isolated in their homes. After arriving at the home of a senior citizen for a standard Dial-a-Ride pickup, Williams followed her instincts when she knocked on the front door and no one answered. Williams then walked around to the back of the home, where she found the door open. Her customer had fallen in her kitchen and was not able to get back into her wheelchair. She had been lying on the floor for a few hours not sure what she could do to assist herself. While Laketrans dispatch team contacted EMS for assistance, Williams was able to comfort the resident who was later transported to a local hospital for necessary treatment. Williams has worked at Laketran for eight years, the release stated, and previously worked at Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority for three years. Their efforts are just two examples of the important role bus drivers have in the safety of our community, keeping our roads safe, and providing security and independence for seniors and people with disabilities in our communities, Capelle said. We are very proud of both Lee and Vickie for their awards and how they represent Laketran in our community. Board president Brian Falkowski echoed Capelles sentiments. Their accomplishments reflect the experience and professionalism Lake County has grown to expect from Laketran, he said. They exemplify safety and concern for our customers daily. I hope the community feels safer knowing our drivers are out there taking care of seniors and keeping the roads safe. The soon to be formed Vanuatu Secondary School Teachers held its second meeting recently at Malapoa College in Port Vila. Researchers have designed a new type of adhesive patch that can be placed directly on the heart and may one day help to reduce the stretching of heart muscle that often occurs after a heart attack. The patch, made from a water-based hydrogel material, was developed using computer simulations of heart function in order to fine tune the material's mechanical properties. A study in rats showed that the patch was effective in preventing left ventricle remodeling -- a stretching of the heart muscle that's common after a heart attack and can reduce the function of the heart's main pumping chamber. The research also showed that the computer-optimized patch outperformed patches whose mechanical properties had been selected on an ad hoc basis. The research, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, was a collaboration between computer modeling and mechanics researchers in Brown University's School of Engineering, cardiology researchers from Fudan University and material scientists from Soochow University. "Part of the reason that it's hard for the heart to recover after a heart attack is that it has to keep pumping," said Huajian Gao, a professor of engineering at Brown and a co-author on the paper. "The idea here is to provide mechanical support for damaged tissue, which hopefully gives it a chance to heal." Prior research had shown that mechanical patches could be effective, the researchers say, but no one had done any research on what the optimum mechanical properties of such a patch might be. As a result, the thickness and stiffness of potential patches varies widely. And getting those properties right is important, Gao says. "If the material is to hard or stiff, then you could confine the movement of the heart so that it can't expand to the volume it needs to," he said. "But if the material is too soft, then it won't provide enough support. So we needed some mechanical principles to guide us." To develop those principles, the researchers developed a computer model of a beating heart, which captured the mechanical dynamics of both the heart itself and the patch when fixed to the heart's exterior. Yue Liu, a graduate student at Brown who led the modeling work, says the model had two key components. "One part was to model normal heart function -- the expanding and contracting," Liu said. "Then we applied our patch on the outside to see how it influenced that function, to make sure that the patch doesn't confine the heart. The second part was to model how the heart remodels after myocardial infarction, so then we could look at how much mechanical support was needed to prevent that process." With those properties in hand, the team turned to the biomaterials lab of Lei Yang, a Brown Ph.D. graduate who is now a professor at Soochow University and Hebei University of Technology in China. Yang and his team developed a hydrogel material made from food-sourced starch that could match the properties from the model. The key to the material is that it's viscoelastic, meaning it combines fluid and solid properties. It has fluid properties up to a certain amount of stress, at which point it solidifies and becomes stiffer. That makes the material ideal for both accommodating the movement of the heart and for provided necessary support, the researchers say. The material is also cheap (a patch costs less than a penny, the researchers say) and easy to make, and experiments showed that it was nontoxic. The rodent study ultimately showed that it was effective in reducing post-heart attack damage. "The patch provided nearly optimal mechanical supports after myocardial infarction (i.e. massive death of cardiomyocytes)," said Ning Sun, a cardiology researcher at Fudan University in China and a study co-author. "[It] maintained a better cardiac output and thus greatly reduced the overload of those remaining cardiomyocytes and adverse cardiac remodeling." Biochemical markers showed that the patch reduced cell death, scar tissue accumulation and oxidative stress in tissue damaged by heart attack. More testing is required, the researchers say, but the initial results are promising for eventual use in human clinical trials. "It remains to be seen if it will work in humans, but it's very promising," Gao said. "We don't see any reason right now that it wouldn't work." A traumatic brain injury happens in an instant: a battlefield blast, a car crash, a bad fall. But the effects can last a lifetime - and can leave the survivor dependent on daily care from their loved ones for decades. Now, a new tool seeks to give a voice to those caregivers, who spend countless hours tending to the daily needs of family members whose moods, thinking and abilities seemed to change overnight. Developed by researchers from across the country who worked with hundreds of caregivers of people with TBI, it provides a new standard way to measure the physical, mental and emotional effects of caring for survivors of TBI. The researchers hope it can form the basis for a new wave of research that could inform clinical care for patients and their caregivers, as well as, caregiver training and support programs, and even caregiver reimbursement policies. They've published the results of a rigorous evaluation of the tool in a special supplement to the journal Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and are sharing the tool on several platforms for researchers. They also hope the tool, called TBI-CareQOL Measurement System, could be useful to researchers who want to study caregivers of other patients whose "new normal" is very different from the one they had before, and isn't likely to change. Many TBI survivors suffered their injury in the prime of life, and many during service to the nation. TBI is the most common injury among service members who returned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with nearly 384,000 service members and veterans affected. One-third of them, and another 90,000 civilians who sustain TBIs each year, are left with moderate to severe disability from their injury. "Caregivers of persons with TBI are underserved and overlooked," says Noelle Carlozzi, Ph.D., the University of Michigan Medical School psychologist who led the effort. "The medical system treats the patient and sends them home, but behind many of our severely injured patients are family caregivers who we don't do enough to train, support or study in a scientific way." Carlozzi heads the Center for Clinical Outcomes Development and Application, based in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center. A team effort In the new papers, she and her colleagues from Northwestern University, Wayne State University/the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center/Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Baylor College of Medicine/TIRR Memorial Hermann, and the University of Delaware lay out how they developed and tested the TBI-CareQOL tool. The team worked with 560 caregivers who took care of 344 civilians and 216 military service members or veterans who had suffered a TBI more than a year earlier. They found the caregivers through their own institutions and through outreach efforts from the Hearts of Valor caregiver support network run by the Operation Homefront nonprofit organization, and by the Brain Injury Association of Michigan. By taking time out of their already busy schedules to fill out banks of computerized questionnaires that the research team developed, the caregivers made it possible to create the new tool. The researchers also got permission to look at the medical records of the patients the caregivers were taking care of, so they could know the severity of the injury and other information. Thanks to this help, Carlozzi says, the TBI-CareQOL tool should enable a much stronger form of research on caregivers' health and quality of life. This could help bring new resources to this field of study. Capturing many measures The tool includes measures of how much of a sense of loss the caregiver feels for themselves or the loved one they're caring for, how much anxiety they feel about their ability to tend to their loved one's needs, how trapped they feel in their role as caregiver, and how much strain the daily demands of their loved one's care places on them. This latter measure includes feelings of being stressed, overwhelmed or even downtrodden by caregiver responsibilities. Carlozzi notes that in addition to these new measures, the new tool includes standard measures of health-related quality of life used to study patients with many conditions. Called PROMIS measures, they have been previously validated in other studies; the new papers validate them among caregivers of people with TBI. The team envisions that most caregivers who take part in future studies that use the TBI-CareQOL tool will do so on tablets, smartphones or computers. They've designed it so that caregivers answer questions most pertinent to them based on their answers to previous questions - which means it takes up the shortest time possible but still gets complete information. A paper form will also be available. The computerized version will be available through Assessmentcenter.net, as well as other online data capture systems. They will also make it available through a website that the team is developing. In the meantime, paper forms are available by contacting Carlozzi. Potential uses Measuring caregivers' current state, and how it changes over time, could become part of the routine clinical care for patients with TBI, she says. How well a caregiver is faring can affect how well the patient does, for instance with therapy, medications and behavioral health issues. "We hope that in addition to the TBI-CareQOL being used for research, clinicians will adopt these measures to screen caregivers during office visits by patients with TBI, and figure out who needs additional services," she says, noting that caregivers usually attend their loved ones' appointments because patients with TBI can have trouble remembering or accurately reporting what their clinicians said or recommended. Assessing caregivers could also help fine-tune the financial, social and service support they receive from various sources. Currently, some family caregivers who have lead responsibility for caring for current and former military service members with TBI can receive compensation for their time. So can some caregivers of people injured in automobile accidents in states with no-fault auto insurance. But often these payments are not enough to provide a level of income similar to what they could receive in the workplace, even though many caregivers have to leave their jobs or cut back on their hours in order to care for a loved one with serious lasting issues from their TBI. That financial stress can often compound the emotional stress caregivers feel. In upcoming papers, Carlozzi and her colleagues will report their findings from measures related to disruption of family life - a topic that has special importance to military and veteran caregivers, who often have small children to care for at the same time they're caring for a TBI-survivor spouse. They also hope to do more to measure sleep and activity levels in caregivers. "Thanks to the efforts of all our partners, and our funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, we're glad to share this validated, rigorous tool for assessing the quality of life of caregivers of persons with TBI, which we hope will provide a much-needed understanding of their lives and opportunities to help improve their care," says Carlozzi. One in five Ontario children and youth suffer from a mental disorder, but less than one-third have had contact with a mental health care provider, says the Ontario Child Health Study (OCHS). Although those overall results echo a similar study from 1983, the new study found a much larger proportion of children and youth with a disorder had contact with other health providers and in other settings, most often through schools. The new study, called the 2014 OCHS for when data collection started, found that the patterns of prevalence among different sexes and age groups have changed. Hyperactivity disorder in boys four to 11 years old jumped dramatically from nine to 16 percent, but there has been a substantial drop in disruptive behaviour among males 12 to 16 years old from 10 to 3 per cent. There has been a steep increase in anxiety and depression among both male and female youth from 9 to 13 per cent. At the same time, there was a significant rise in perceptions of need for professional help with mental health disorders, rising from seven per cent in the original OCHS in 1983 to 19 per cent in the 2014 OCHS. However, the study authors say it is difficult to estimate whether it is tied to the growing prominence of anti-stigma and mental health awareness campaigns over the past three decades. In 30 years, the prevalence of any disorder increased in communities with a population of 1,000 to 100,000, rather than large urban areas, and there is strong evidence that poor children are more likely to have a disorder if their neighbourhood is one where violence is more common. The study also found that in the past year more than eight per cent of youth thought about suicide, and 4 per cent reported a suicide attempt. The 2014 OCHS study included 10,802 children and youth aged four to 17 in 6,537 families. It replicated and expanded on the landmark 1983 Ontario Child Health Study of 3,290 children in 1,869 families. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has simultaneously published eight papers on different aspects of the 2014 OCHS results. "This is a very robust study we feel represents the situation in Canada," said Michael Boyle, co-principal investigator of the study. "That means there are more than a million Canadian children and youth with a mental health problem. This needs to be addressed." Co-principal investigator Kathy Georgiades added: "This study underscores the continued need for effective prevention and intervention programs." New Delhi: High voter turnout marked polling in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday covering 95 constituencies in 11 states and Puducherry, with both the Union territory and Manipur clocking a percentage of 80. The Srinagar seat in Jammu and Kashmir recorded a percentage of only 14.8. Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 while in Puducherry it was 80.47. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said in Delhi that the overall turnout in the second phase was 66.63 per cent. Officials said the figures are likely to go up as there are many people in queues even after the scheduled timing for voting elapsed. Except for a few sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal and Manipur and EVM glitches in some seats, polling was by and large peaceful. Two violence-related deaths were reported since yesterday, including that of a woman polling personnel who was killed by extremists on Wednesday in Odisha. Another death was reported Thursday. Two other people, including a voter and a polling officer died of apparent heart attack. Referring to the issue of glitches in EVMs, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain said a total of 1000 ballot units, 769 control units 2,766 paper trail machines were replaced. Tamil Nadu registered 63.73 per cent polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 67.08 per cent in bypolls to 18 assembly constituencies. In Madurai, polling took place till 8 PM in view of the local temple festival. Paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam to disperse crowds. An estimated 61.84 per cent turnout was reported in the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which is witnessing a direct contest between the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the BJP. Puducherry registered 80.5 per cent polling in the lone Lok Sabha seat while in the by-election to the Thattanchavady assembly segment, 76 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. Srinagar had also witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country in 2014 at 25.86 per cent. No untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 70 per cent polling. Polling was also held in 10 seats in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat in Manipur besides 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha. Polling in Tamil Nadu's Vellore LS seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Isolated incidents of violence, road blockades, bombings and police firing marred polling in the three Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal with 76 per cent of voter turnout recorded. Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control a mob, who threw stones at them in Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra area, an EC official said. A reporter and a camera person of a local news channel were allegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in Raiganj constituency. CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj, Md Salim, claimed his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur. Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, however, described the voting as "more or less peaceful" with a few isolated incidents reported from places in the three seats. In Manipur, voting was stalled in two polling booths of the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency after violence broke out over alleged proxy voting and dispute among election agents. In one of the booths at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality in Imphal East district, unidentified men stormed into a polling station around 11.30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that "proxy voting" was being carried out in the station, officials said. In the other booth in the same area, a scuffle broke out between the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3pm, derailing the voting process. Sources in the election office said that re-polling was likely in the two booths. An average 57.22 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in 10 constituencies of Maharashtra. Around 69 per cent polling was recorded in Chhattisgarh's three Lok Sabha seats, all having Naxal presence, amid tight security. According to police, except for an IED blast triggered by Maoists in Mohla-Manpur assembly segment of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, no other untoward incident was reported in the poll bound areas. About 64 per cent voters exercised their franchise in five Odisha Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats, some of them in Naxal-affected areas. In Assam, Nowgong recorded the state's highest polling of 75.71 per cent, followed by Mangaldoi and Silchar with 75.07 per cent and 71.79 per cent respectively. In Karimganj, the figure was 71.41 per cent and Autonomous District witnessed the lowest voting at 69.51 per cent. The five seats in Bihar saw an estimated 62.52 per cent voting. The Election Commission put the overall voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh at 62.30 per cent. Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. (With inputs from PTI) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. April 18, 2019: The global Herbal Powders market was valued at $XX million in 2017, and MAResearch analysts predict the global market size will reach $XX million by the end of 2028, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2028. This report provides detailed historical analysis of global market for Herbal Powders from 2013-2018, and provides extensive market forecasts from 2018-2028 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the sales volume, price, revenue, gross margin, historical growth and future perspectives in the Herbal Powders market. Leading players of Herbal Powders including: Amines Biotech Saillon Pharma Shriji Herbal Products Herbo Nutra JIAHERB Inc. Starwest Botanicals, Inc Download sample Copy of This Report at: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/2013-2028-report-on-global-herbal-powders-market/request-sample Urban Moonshine Dohler GmbH Synthite Industries Ltd. Naurex SA Organic Herb Inc. (China) Plant Extracts International Inc MB-Holding GmbH & Co.KG Kalsec Inc Zhejiang Conba Pharmaceutical Chenguang Biotech Group Guilin Layn Natural Ingredients Corp Market split by Type, can be divided into: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/2013-2028-report-on-global-herbal-powders-market Curry Leaf Powder Manjistha Powder Pomegranate Peel Powder Lemon Peel Powder Aloe Vera Powder Others View Full Report with TOC @ Market split by Application, can be divided into: Food & Beverages Personal Care Pharmaceuticals Others Market split by Sales Channel, can be divided into: Direct Channel Distribution Channel Market segment by Region/Country including: North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Spain etc.) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and Southeast Asia etc.) South America Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile etc.) Middle East & Africa (South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia etc.) About Radiant Insights Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. In addition to over extensive database of reports, our experienced research coordinators also offer a host of ancillary services such as, research partnerships/ tie-ups and customized research solutions. For More Information, Visit Radiant Insights Contact: Michelle Thoras Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Radiant Insights, Inc Phone: 1-415-349-0054 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Blog URL: http://pharmaceuticalshealthcaremarketforecasts.wordpress.com Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. April 18, 2019: The global Wireless Audio market was valued at $XX million in 2017, and MAResearch analysts predict the global market size will reach $XX million by the end of 2028, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2028. This report provides detailed historical analysis of global market for Wireless Audio from 2013-2018, and provides extensive market forecasts from 2018-2028 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the sales volume, price, revenue, gross margin, historical growth and future perspectives in the Wireless Audio market. Leading players of Wireless Audio including: Apple LG Bose SAMSUNG (Harman) Download sample Copy of This Report at: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/2013-2028-report-on-global-wireless-audio-market/request-sample LogiTech Plantronics Sennheiser Electronic Sonos DEI Vizio Boston Acoustics Sony Shure VOXX Philips YAMAHA Jabra Browse Full Report With TOC @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/2013-2028-report-on-global-wireless-audio-market Market split by Type, can be divided into: Sound Bar and Wireless Speakers Wireless Headphones& Earphones Wireless Microphone Market split by Application, can be divided into: Home Use Commercial Automotive Other Applications Market split by Sales Channel, can be divided into: Direct Channel Distribution Channel Market segment by Region/Country including: North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Spain etc.) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and Southeast Asia etc.) South America Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile etc.) Middle East & Africa (South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia etc.) About Radiant Insights Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. In addition to over extensive database of reports, our experienced research coordinators also offer a host of ancillary services such as, research partnerships/ tie-ups and customized research solutions. For More Information, Visit Radiant Insights Contact: Michelle Thoras Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Radiant Insights, Inc Phone: 1-415-349-0054 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Blog URL: http://electronicsmarketweb.wordpress.com GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more (Newser) Scientists say they've managed to revive cellular activity in a group of dead brainsa development that could lead to new health treatments and even blur our notions of life and death, the New York Times reports. The Yale University team obtained freshly decapitated pig heads from a slaughterhouse, removed the brains, and injected them for six hours with a cocktail of synthetic fluids. As described in Nature, the mix served its purpose by restoring metabolic activity in some brain cells without reviving consciousness; it also stirred electrical activity in some neurons. "This is not a living brain," says lead author Nenad Sestan, per LiveScience. "But it is a cellularly active brain." story continues below The scientific world gasped. "This is a huge breakthrough," Duke University bioethicist Nita Farahany tells the Washington Post. "Our belief was there's a point of no return. Certainly we would have believed that four hours after being decapitated, that was a point of no return. It turns out it's not." Others question the ethics of half-reviving an animal's brain, but the scientists did use nerve blockers that prevented consciousness, and planned to stop if the brains became aware. The team hopes their work will inspire new ways to treat brain injuries, strokes, and Alzheimer's, but testing on humans is years away. For now, we know brain-cell death is slower than previously thought. "It's a gradual, stepwise process," says Sestan. (Read more scientific study stories.) (Newser) A tour bus carrying German tourists crashed on Portugal's Madeira Island on Wednesday, killing 29 people and injuring 28 others, local authorities said. The bus, which was carrying 55 people, rolled down a steep hillside after veering off the road on a bend east of the capital, Funchal, and struck at least one house, the AP reports. Local television showed bodies scattered over a rural hillside next to the Atlantic Ocean. Madeira, off northwestern Africa, is a popular vacation destination for Europeans due to its mild climate and lush, hilly landscape. The dead included 18 women and 11 men, one of whom died later at a hospital, local mayor Filipe Sousa told a public broadcaster. story continues below One official said it appeared that all the dead were German, but Tomasia Alves, head of the Funchal hospital, said not all the victims had been identified and refused to confirm the nationality of the dead. The injured were reportedly taken to a hospital. No children were among the dead and injured. In a tweet, the German foreign ministry expressed "great shock" at the accident: "We must unfortunately assume that victims are from Germany," it said. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said in a tweet that he had sent condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I learned of this tragic accident in Madeira with deep sorrow," he said. Madeira's regional government announced three days of mourning, when flags on public buildings are flown at half-staff. (Read more bus crash stories.) (Newser) President Trump's team of lawyers and aides plan to come out swinging Thursday as the Mueller report is released to lawmakers after 11am. Conversations between the White House and Justice Department have helped craft Trump's initial defense strategy, expected to include TV appearances by personal lawyers Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani, reports Politico. Thursday's action kicks off with Attorney General William Barr's 9:30am press conference. One big question is what Trump himself will do. He suggested on Wednesday that he might hold a press conference of his own, but it's also possible he might lie low, strategically. story continues below The idea would be "to give the appearance of a president consumed by the demands of his office," Politico reports, adding that Bill Clinton did much the same at pivotal moments in the Starr investigation"a historical example Trump's lawyers have studied closely." Trump and the first lady are hosting an event for the Wounded Warrior Project's Soldier Ride in the morning, per the Hill, and Trump meets with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later before heading to Mar-a-Lago. At least that's the plan. Politico notes Trump could go off script, particularly if the report indicates current and former aides attacked Trump or his family members during interviews with Mueller's team. The testimony of former top attorney Don McGahn is of particular concern, per the Washington Examiner. (Read more Mueller report stories.) (Newser) Two Saudi sisters appealed for help Wednesday from the former Soviet republic of Georgia after fleeing their country, in the latest case of runaways from the ultra-conservative kingdom using social media to seek asylum. Using a newly created Twitter account called "GeorgiaSisters," they identified themselves as Maha al-Subaie, 28, and Wafa al-Subaie, 25. Like other Saudi women who have fled and turned to social media, they posted copies of their passports to establish their identities. The sisters claim they are in danger and will be killed if they are forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia, the AP reports. They say their father and brothers have arrived in Georgia looking for them. Wafa says they fled "oppression from our family," without elaborating. story continues below The sisters' first post to the Twitter account was Tuesday evening. It read: "We are two Saudi sisters who fled from Saudi Arabia seeking asylum. Yet, the family and the Saudi government have suspended our passports and now we are trapped in Georgia country. We need your help please." In another post, the sisters appear with their faces showing and their hair uncovereda taboo for conservative families in Saudi Arabia. The post says they are showing their faces in order for the world to "remember us" in case something happens to them. In a later video posted on Twitter, Maha said: "We want your protection. We want a country that welcomes us and protects our rights." The UNHCR in Georgia said it does not comment on individual cases, but that it is closely monitoring the situation. (Read more Saudi Arabia stories.) (Newser) Insurance adjuster Michael Honore has been tasked with assessing fire damage to Notre Dame's treasuresand his workload would be a lot bigger if the evacuation plan had failed. Honore, the director of fine art at Sedgwick, tells Reuters that around 90% of the cathedral's treasures were saved because the plan was executed flawlessly, with artworks and relics taken out in order of priority, starting with the crown of thorns thought to have been worn by Jesus Christ. The plan "was adhered to the letter and that is why the contents lost is not as severe as might have been feared," he says. Honore says most of the large paintings in the cathedral "seem to be OK" but they will have to be closely inspected by restorers, as will the cathedral's famous main organ, which appears to have survived unscathed. story continues below The rescued treasures, which were taken out by a human chain of emergency workers, are now at city hall in Paris and will likely be moved to the Louvre while the cathedral is restored. France's culture ministry says the "battered but apparently restorable" statue of a rooster that sat atop Notre Dame's spire was recovered from rubble Tuesday, though it's not clear whether the holy relics inside it also survived, AFP reports. Paris fire brigade chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who personally helped save the crown of thorns, will be honored along with hundreds of other firefighters at a Paris city hall ceremony Thursday, the Guardian reports. The ceremony, part of a day of tributes to the firefighters who saved one of Europe's most cherished buildings, will feature a concert and readings from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (Read more Notre Dame Cathedral stories.) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. April 18, 2019: GPS System and Instrument Report by Material, Application, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China). The report firstly introduced the GPS System and Instrument basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis. Download sample Copy of This Report at: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-gps-system-and-instrument-market-research-report-2019/request-sample The report includes six parts, dealing with: 1.) Basic Information; 2.) Asia GPS System and Instrument Market; 3.) North American GPS System and Instrument Market; 4.) European GPS System and Instrument Market; 5.) Market Entry and Investment Feasibility; 6.) Report Conclusion. Access This Full Report @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-gps-system-and-instrument-market-research-report-2019 Table of Contents Part I GPS System and Instrument Industry Overview Chapter One GPS System and Instrument Industry Overview 1.1 GPS System and Instrument Definition 1.2 GPS System and Instrument Classification Analysis 1.2.1 GPS System and Instrument Main Classification Analysis 1.2.2 GPS System and Instrument Main Classification Share Analysis 1.3 GPS System and Instrument Application Analysis 1.3.1 GPS System and Instrument Main Application Analysis 1.3.2 GPS System and Instrument Main Application Share Analysis 1.4 GPS System and Instrument Industry Chain Structure Analysis 1.5 GPS System and Instrument Industry Development Overview 1.5.1 GPS System and Instrument Product History Development Overview 1.5.1 GPS System and Instrument Product Market Development Overview 1.6 GPS System and Instrument Global Market Comparison Analysis 1.6.1 GPS System and Instrument Global Import Market Analysis 1.6.2 GPS System and Instrument Global Export Market Analysis 1.6.3 GPS System and Instrument Global Main Region Market Analysis 1.6.4 GPS System and Instrument Global Market Comparison Analysis 1.6.5 GPS System and Instrument Global Market Development Trend Analysis About Radiant Insights Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. In addition to over extensive database of reports, our experienced research coordinators also offer a host of ancillary services such as, research partnerships/ tie-ups and customized research solutions. For More Information, Visit Radiant Insights Contact: Michelle Thoras Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Radiant Insights, Inc Phone: 1-415-349-0054 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Blog URL: http://ictmarketforecasts.wordpress.com (Newser) President Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military is beginning to take effect at the US Naval Academy and other military institutions. The Defense Department confirmed to the Capital Gazette this week that the Naval Academy will stop accepting transgender students as of 2020, but those enrolled for the school year starting this fall will be covered by the Obama-era policy that allowed transgender troops to serve openly. The restrictions, which took effect Friday, reverse the Obama policy and deny service members medical care for gender transition, USA Today reports. The Trump policy also bans applicants who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. story continues below The Coast Guard Academy says it has also implemented the new policy and the US Air Force Academy has confirmed it will comply with the new regulations, the AP reports. An academy spokeswoman says transgender people can still serve "in their biological sex" if they have not had hormone treatment or sex reassignment surgery. There are an estimated 14,700 transgender people currently serving, and B. Fram of the SPARTA group, which represents transgender service members, says the new policy "turns off access to some of our best and brightest, and that's not what our country needs to win future wars." Six service members are suing the government over the ban, including Midshipman Regan Kibby, a current Naval Academy student. (Read more US Naval Academy stories.) (Newser) A potential Notre Dame copycat was arrested Wednesday night after walking into St. Patrick's Cathedral with four gallons of gasoline, lighter fluid, and lighters, police say. Authorities say 37-year-old New Jersey resident Marc Lamparello was confronted by a security officer as he tried to enter the building carrying two red gas cans, the New York Daily News reports. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller says some gasoline was "apparently spilled on the floor" as Lamparello was turned around. Counterterrorism officers stopped him as he walked down Fifth Avenue. Miller says the suspect claimed his vehicle had run out of gas and he was taking a shortcut through the cathedral, but police found his vehicle "was not out of gas." story continues below Miller says the suspect, who has not been charged with a crime yet, is "known to police," the New York Times reports. The cathedral was undamaged, but there was a heavy police presence there Wednesday night. The arrest came two days after a fire devastated the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. "Its hard exactly to say what his intentions were. But I think the totality of circumstances, of an individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patricks Cathedral, carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid, and lighters, is something that we would have great concern over," Miller says, per CNN. (Read more New York City stories.) (Newser) As chief of security for Colorado's Jefferson County School District, John McDonald hears of plenty of threats, especially around the anniversary of the April 20, 1999 Columbine massacre. But "this was the real deal," he says of Tuesday's warning about Sol Pais, the 18-year-old South Florida student who traveled to Littleton on Monday and bought a 12-gauge pump-action shotgunthe same gun used by one of the Columbine shootersplus ammunition. "She goes directly from the airport to the gun store," two miles from Columbine school, McDonald tells the Washington Post. "These are the red flags we always talk about." There were others, too. "My views and thoughts [are] becoming more extreme and solidified," reads a Jan. 15 post on a website including scanned, handwritten journal entries signed with Pais' name. "[I'm] on the verge of boiling over." story continues below Per CNN, the author also references wanting "to leave a record of myself before I, well" Noting one entry appears to include drawings of a Columbine gunman, the New York Times also quotes from a recent entry: "The last few days have been especially painful and tumultuous, which kickstarted me again to start reviving my plans." By March, Pais had reportedly made plans to travel to Colorado and buy a gun, according to a post on the website of the National Gun Forum she is said to have written. But classmates at Miami Beach Senior High School didn't see Pais as troubled. As one tells the Times, "She's so quiet. How could someone so quiet be like that?" Another describes Pais as "a genuine person""really smart" with "such a pretty smile." She was found dead Wednesday near the base of Mount Evans, some 60 miles from Littleton, after taking an Uber. (Authorities believe she shot herself.) (Newser) Google employees themselves may be Googling information about measles after a warning from the company and Santa Clara County. It seems a Google worker who was at company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., on April 4 has been diagnosed with measles, reports BuzzFeed News. A company physician sent out a "note of caution" to employeesbut apparently not all employeesinforming them of the information and providing links to CDC facts about the highly infectious disease. Few other details were released because of health privacy issues, notes CNN. story continues below BuzzFeed notes that Google has been previously criticized for allowing anti-vax information to spread on its platform, particularly through YouTube videos. It also points to a 2015 article at Wired about the relatively low rates of vaccinations at Silicon Valley day care facilities. That article notes one Google day care had a measles vaccination rate of only 68%. So far this year, California has seen 21 measles cases, two of which were in Santa Clara County. (Nationwide, the number of measles cases has surged to 555.) (Newser) "She is a rehabilitated, remorseful woman who poses no threat to society." That's the characterization of Judith Clark by one of her lawyers. The New York parole board agreesas do the 11 congressmen, 11 state senators, former DA, former judge, and former superintendent of the prison she's been at during her 37 years behind bars who all lobbied for her release. Clark, 69, will walk free by May 15. She was 31 when she served as the getaway driver in the 1981 attempted robbery of a Brinks armored car in Nanuet, NY. Two police officers and a guard were killed in the incident, which the New York Times describes as "one of the last gasps of the violent left-wing extremism of the 1960s and 1970s." More on her story and the reaction to her being paroled: The Rockland/Westchester Journal News details the crime, in which "a band of self-described revolutionaries"a joint Weather Underground/Black Liberation Army effortkilled Brink's security guard Peter Paige at the Nanuet Mall and stole $1.6 million. The two cops were killed at a roadblock an hour later. Clark ended up crashing the van she was driving, and feigned surrendering but actually reached for a gun. The plan, per the Times, was to use the money to stage an uprising, with the goal of creating the Republic of New Afrika in the southern US. story continues below The news was met with sharply divided opinions. "We're outraged and sickened by this whole decision," said Paige's son. The AP reports Clark had 2,000 support statements to present at her April 3 hearing. The main line of argument seemed to be that she's a model of rehabilitation, and if the corrections system truly believes in rehabilitation, not just retribution, she should be released. That she was even eligible for parole was thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who in 2016 commuted her 75-years-to-life sentence to 35 years, enabling her to seek parole. She was denied it by a unanimous vote in 2017, and gained it this time by a 2-1 vote. The official word from the parole board: "You were wrong. Your behavior was criminal. Your callous disregard for the wellbeing of some, in favor of others, is a disgrace. However, this release decision is granted in keeping with applicable factors" among them her age, time served, the apologies she has made, and her achievements behind barsamong them, earning a master's degree, training service dogs, and counseling mothers. The Times reports three men remain behind bars in connection with the crime. Among them: Mutulu Shakur, who prosecutors characterized as the mastermind; he's the stepfather of the late Tupac Shakur. (Read more parole stories.) (Newser) If the US is willing to come back to the table, North Korea would like one face to be absent from it. A senior foreign ministry official expressed no love for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in comments run by the country's KCNA news agency Thursday. The comments followed the North's announcement that it had test-fired a new tactical guided weapon, in what would be the first weapons tests since denuclearization talks between President Trump and Kim fell apart in February. That collapse is what can happen "whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in," said Kwon Jong Gun per Reuters. "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," he added. story continues below "Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the United States, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us," Kwon continued. The back-to-back stories on the test and Pompeo might not be "directly connected," observes the Washington Post. It flags the fact that Pompeo last week spoke of Kim as a "tyrant" at a Congressional hearing and views that insult as the "main offense" Pompeo committed. Still, the regime "is clearly frustrated" with the status of the talks. The BBC reports Pompeo visited North Korea on four occasions in 2018, once meeting with Kim. CNN notes that Pompeo and Kim were photographed smiling and shaking hands at the time. (Read more Mike Pompeo stories.) (Newser) The big day has begun. At a press conference Thursday morning, Attorney General William Barr reiterated what he views as the "bottom line" of the Robert Mueller investigation: Yes, the Russians meddled in the 2016 election, but no, they did not receive help from the Trump campaign. Barr spoke before turning over a redacted version of the report to Congress, which will happen after 11am. Read a transcript of his full remarks via the Washington Post. Highlights: On collusion: Barr said Mueller found no evidence that Russia had the "cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign." The "bottom line," he said, is this: "After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes." Barr said Mueller found no evidence that Russia had the "cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign." The "bottom line," he said, is this: "After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes." On obstruction: The other key part of the Mueller investigation involved whether Trump obstructed justice, and Barr revealed that Mueller looked into 10 possible instances, reports Bloomberg. Barr did not spell them out, but he said the report discusses "potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense." As Barr previously revealed, Mueller did not come to a conclusion on the matter, writing, "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Barr defended his own decision not to bring obstruction charges, reports the New York Times, saying that he and deputy AG Rod Rosenstein differed with Mueller's "legal theories" on possible obstruction. story continues below Key obstruction quote: "The president took no action that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete the investigation," said Barr. "The president took no action that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete the investigation," said Barr. Further defense: All in all, the Hill depicts Barr as presenting a "robust defense" of the president. It singles out this passage in particular: President Trump faced an unprecedented situation," said Barr. "As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the Presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion." All in all, the Hill depicts Barr as presenting a "robust defense" of the president. It singles out this passage in particular: President Trump faced an unprecedented situation," said Barr. "As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the Presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion." 'Context': Barr went further in defending the president, offering "context" for Trump's anger at the inquiry, notes the Guardian. In assessing the presidents actions discussed in the report it is important to bear in mind the context, Barr said. There is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks. (Read more Mueller report stories.) (Newser) Robert Mueller looked into 10 different instances of possible obstruction-of-justice issues in regard to President Trump, but in the end did not reach a conclusion about whether he was guilty on that front. Why not? Thursday's release of the report allows everyone to read the Mueller team's own words on the issue. Highlights: The 10 issues: Vox lists the 10 issues and has the pertinent excerpts from the report. They include the firing of James Comey, Trump ordering White House counsel Don McGahn to deny reports that Trump ordered the removal of the special counsel, and the president's efforts to get Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal and take control of the investigation. Vox lists the 10 issues and has the pertinent excerpts from the report. They include the firing of James Comey, Trump ordering White House counsel Don McGahn to deny reports that Trump ordered the removal of the special counsel, and the president's efforts to get Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal and take control of the investigation. The tough call: The evidence we obtained about the Presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment, the report said. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Then comes the line Attorney General William Barr had previously quoted in his summary letter: Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." The evidence we obtained about the Presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment, the report said. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Then comes the line Attorney General William Barr had previously quoted in his summary letter: Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Sitting president: One big factor cited by Mueller is the federal legal guidance that sitting presidents can't be charged with crimes, notes the Wall Street Journal. We recognized that a federal criminal accusation against a sitting President would place burdens on the Presidents capacity to govern and potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct." Politico quotes another line on the subject: Fairness concerns counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought." One big factor cited by Mueller is the federal legal guidance that sitting presidents can't be charged with crimes, notes the Wall Street Journal. We recognized that a federal criminal accusation against a sitting President would place burdens on the Presidents capacity to govern and potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct." Politico quotes another line on the subject: Fairness concerns counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought." But: At another point, the report reads, The Constitution does not categorically and permanently immunize the president, per the Washington Post. story continues below Underlings: The report suggests that Trump may have been saved from bigger trouble by staffers who declined to carry out orders, reports the Washington Post. For example, the Mueller report says Trump ordered aide KT McFarland to write a memo saying the president did not order then-national security adviser Michael Flynn to discuss sensitive issues with a Russian ambassador. McFarland didn't do so, in part because she was unsure whether that was true. Some evidence suggests that the President knew about the existence and content of Flynns calls when they occurred, but the evidence is inconclusive and could not be relied upon to establish the Presidents knowledge," says the report. The report suggests that Trump may have been saved from bigger trouble by staffers who declined to carry out orders, reports the Washington Post. For example, the Mueller report says Trump ordered aide KT McFarland to write a memo saying the president did not order then-national security adviser Michael Flynn to discuss sensitive issues with a Russian ambassador. McFarland didn't do so, in part because she was unsure whether that was true. Some evidence suggests that the President knew about the existence and content of Flynns calls when they occurred, but the evidence is inconclusive and could not be relied upon to establish the Presidents knowledge," says the report. Elaborating: What the report says on the underlings issue: "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," per CNN. It then ticks off several examples. What the report says on the underlings issue: "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," per CNN. It then ticks off several examples. Congress: Mueller wrote that while he didn't bring charges, that doesn't mean Congress can't do its own investigation. "With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice," the report says. (Read more Mueller report stories.) (Newser) A US man and his girlfriend wanted to be "seasteading" pioneers. Instead they're now in hiding and could face the death penalty. At issue is a floating home they occupied on a 65-foot platform that sits roughly 12 nautical miles off of Phuket, Thailand, in the Andaman Sea. Or maybe 13. Chad Elwartowski says it's the latter distance, which would put it in international waters and beyond Thailand's jurisdictionand beyond the jurisdiction and laws of any country. Thailand says the two may have violated national sovereignty, a charge than can carry a sentence of life imprisonment or death. Authorities raided the sea home and "found a concrete tank floating on the sea but there was no-one on it," a police official tells the BBC. story continues below The AP has an email from Elwartowski sent Thursday in which he maintains their innocence and says the two are in hiding "in a fairly safe place." Elwartowski is described as a software engineer-turned-Bitcoin investor who belongs to the Ocean Builders group of entrepreneurs who are backing such homes. The group says Elwartowski wasn't actually the builder of the sea home erected in Februaryone that only caught the attention of officials this weekbut that he merely occupied it for a few weeks. The Guardian flags a Facebook post by Elwartowski echoing that statement: "The person(s) who funded the seastead are concerned about losing the seastead but Nadia and I were just tenants. But as long as Nadia and I are able to live through this that is all that matters to us right now. We just want to live." (Read more Thailand stories.) (Newser) A lesson from London: Don't pour concrete down the drain. Otherwise, you might be left with a "concreteberg" like the one currently blocking three central sewers in the Islington borough of the UK capital. It turns out the 115-ton, 330-foot-long mass discovered during a routine check earlier this month is a bit harder to remove than the 140-ton blob of fat, oils, diapers, and condoms that Alex Saunders of the Thames Water utility once battled successfully, per the Evening Standard. "Unfortunately in this case it's rock-hard concrete set to the Victorian brickwork, so we need to chip away at it to get it removed," Saunders tells the BBC. "This is not the first time damage has been caused by people pouring concrete into our sewers but it's certainly the worst we've seen." story continues below While officials look for the culpritssuspicions have fallen on a construction companyworkers are expected to spend up to two months hammering away at the blockage "within the weight range expected of a blue whale," per Utility Week. They'll use pneumatic drills, a step up from the high-pressure hoses and pickaxes used on the so-called "fatberg," which took nine weeks to remove in 2017. Meanwhile, tankers will be on site 24 hours a day to pump out sewage in case of heavy rains or other complications. Prep work begins next week. The BBC puts the cost at nearly $200,000, while the Evening Standard cites Thames Water as saying costs could reach $1.3 million. The utility reportedly spends roughly $23.4 million to clear sewer blockages each year. (Read more London stories.) (Newser) The National Enquirer is being sold to the former head of the airport newsstand company Hudson News, the AP reports. Tabloid owner American Media says it is selling the supermarket weekly to James Cohen. The deal comes after a rocky year for the tabloid in which it was caught up in a federal probe of illegal campaign contributions to Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. The tabloid has also been accused by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos of trying to blackmail him by threatening to publish explicit photos of him. The tabloid denies the charges. Financial terms were not immediately disclosed for the deal, which also includes two other American Media tabloids, the Globe and the National Examiner, but CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post are reporting $100 million. (The word "disgusted" had been used in the lead-up to the sale.) (Newser) After nearly two months, police have called off their search of a Colorado landfill for the remains of Kelsey Berreth. The 29-year-old woman has not been seen since Nov. 22 and is presumed dead. "Her remains have not been found, nor has any evidence relating to her death," Woodland Park police said, per NBC. She was last seen on a neighborhood surveillance camera with Patrick Frazee, her fiance, and their year-old daughter. It was more than a week before she was reported missing, by her mother. story continues below Frazee has been charged in the killing; investigators say he hit her with a bat and burned her body. Police had been searching the landfill since Feb. 25. Although the investigation will continue, the police chief said Wednesday, "This is not the outcome that we hoped for." (Read more Kelsey Berreth stories.) Sorry! This content is not available in your region New Delhi: A day after Jet Airways, the Mumbai-based Indian-international airline, announced temporary grounding of its operations, Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani on Thursday wrote a letter to the State Bank of India (SBI) chief showing interest in operating Jet's five wide-body Boeing 777 aircrafts. Jet Airways, which had a total of 10 Boeing 777 in its fleet, used to operate those for popular destinations in Europe and North America before halting the entire international operations. Speaking to media, a source close to the aviation insdustry, told IANS, "Air India has expressed its interest to take some of the B777s on lease. The initial proposal is there". However, there is no confirmation from the SBI, the lead lender of Jet Airways, on the development so far. The airfare on most of the foreign routes such as India-Gulf, India-UK and Mumbai-London witnessed a sudden surge ever since Jet Airways suspended its international operations earlier in the week. In the meantime, the tactical move by the Air India to deploy the additional capacity is considered to be an attempt to capture the traffic, catering the peak demand on those international routes. Last week, low-cost carrier SpiceJet also announced to induct 16 B737 into its fleet which were earlier operated by Jet Airways. The airline is in talks to take another six aircraft and operate them on domestic routes in near future. After flying for 25 years, Jet Airways on Wednesday announced temporary grounding of operations after the lenders declined a Rs 400-crore lifeline, putting at stake 20,000 jobs and thousands of crores in passenger refunds, dues to vendors and over Rs 8,500 crore to banks. Founded by Naresh Goyal, who began as a general sales agent to a host of international airlines with travel agency Jetair, the full-service carrier served tens of millions of passengers for over two-and-half decades, before becoming the seventh domestic carrier to shutter operations in the past five years. (With inputs from agencies) For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The lenders of Jet Airways are hopeful of the airlines survival even as the airline suspended all the flight operations. Suggesting the "best way" forward for the embattled carrier's survival, the lenders expressed hope that the airline will fetch fair bid in a transparent manner. "The best way forward for the survival of Jet Airways is to get the binding bids from potential investors," news agency PTI quoted the lenders as saying. We hope the bid process is likely to be successful in determining fair value of Jet Airways in a transparent manner, they said. On Wednesday, in a stock exchange filing, Jet Airways announced that it has decided to temporarily suspend all operations. The last flight (S2 3502) from Amritsar to Mumbai landed at Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) at around 12:20 am on Wednesday night. Since the March 25 resolution to infuse Rs 1,500 crore into the airline is yet to fructify, the once leading airline has been defaulting on payments, forcing its lessors to retake almost all its planes. At the time of suspension of flight operations, the airline was operating only five planes from 123 aircraft in the fleet till last December. According to sources, the government is maintaining distance from the Jet affairs citing the matter is a commercial decision of banks. Jet will be the seventh airline to go down since May 2014 and the 13th one after East West was shuttered. During the past five years airlines like Air Pegasus, Air Costa, Air Carnival, Air Deccan, Air Odisha and Zoom Air have all gone belly up even as the government boasts of double-digits growth for more than four years in tow. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex extended its record run by rising over 200 points in early trade Thursday led by gains in index heavyweight RIL ahead of its earnings. Investor sentiment was also boosted by unabated foreign fund inflow, experts said. After hitting a lifetime high (intra-day) of 39,487.45, the 30-share index was trading 136.38 points or 0.35 per cent higher at 39,412.02. The NSE Nifty too soared to another record high of 11,856 in early session. In the previous session Tuesday, the BSE bourse marked its lifetime closing high of 39,275.64. Similarly, the broader Nifty too settled at a new record closing level of 11,787.15. According to Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer at Sanctum Wealth Management, robust foreign inflows have been the primary reason behind a steep rally in Indian markets over the last few weeks. Earnings growth and election outcome will be key monitorables going forward. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equity worth Rs 1,038.58 crore on Tuesday, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities to the tune of Rs 37.22 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed. Shares of RIL rallied over 2.30 per cent, adding more that 100 points to the gains on Sensex. The company is scheduled to release its Q4 results later in the day. Other gainers in the Sensex pack include Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Maruti, TCS, HDFC Bank and HCL Tech, rising up to 2.04 per cent. On the other hand, Yes Bank, Vedanta, SBI, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank and Infosys were the top losers, shedding up to 2.38 per cent Meanwhile, the rupee appreciated marginally to 69.60 against the US dollar in early trade. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, was 0.08 per cent lower at USD 71.56 per barrel. Elsewhere in Asia, benchmark equity indices in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul were trading in the red in early trade. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Mumbai: Budget carrier SpiceJet Thursday said it will dry lease six more Boeing 737 planes, and roll out of 24 daily new flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi as it seeks to encash void left by the temporary grounding of Jet Airways. The move comes close on the heels of the airline announcing expansion the fleet by 21 more planes-16 B737s and five turboprop Boombardier Q400s, besides connecting the countrys financial hub with a host of international destinations. Mumbai was one of the two main bases of Jet Airways, before it temporarily halted operations on Wednesday. "SpiceJet will induct six more Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft on dry lease and it has applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for a no-objection certificate (NOC) to import these planes," the airline said in a statement. Subject to regulatory approvals the aircraft would begin joining SpiceJets fleet in the next ten days, it added. Last week, in two separate announcements, the Gurugram-based airline had said it dry lease 16 Boeing 737s planes, and induct five regional jets in the fleet to fill the capacity deficit, due the grounding of Jet Airways planes. The total number of planes to be inducted in the immediate future now stands at 27, the airline said. "We will induct as many as 27 planes in a record time of less than two weeks and are hopeful that these inductions will help considerably ease the pressure situation," SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh said in the release. The airline is taking taking all possible proactive measures to deal with the sudden reduction of aviation capacity in the Indian market, he said. SpiceJet continues to work closely with the government and regulatory authorities to help minimise passenger inconvenience, he added. The airline also announced the launch of 24 new daily flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi with other cities on its domestic network. Of these, 16 will connect Mumbai, four will connect Delhi while the rest will connect the two metros with each other, it said. The new flights from Mumbai include services to Jaipur, Patna, Bagdogra, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Kolkata and Mangaluru. In addition to this, the airline will also launch flights on Delhi-Patna-Delhi and Delhi-Bangalore-Delhi sectors besides two additional frequencies on the Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai sector. The new services will become operational between April 26 and May 2, it said. SpiceJet operates 516 average daily flights to 60 destinations, including 51 domestic and nine international ones. The airline has a fleet of 48 Boeing 737, 27 Bombardier Q-400s and one B737 freighter. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Board of Secondary Education(JKBOSE) will release the result of Class 12th 2019 exams for summer zone areas in the 4th week of April 2019. Last year, JKBOSE 12th result 2019 was declared on April 25 and the exams were concluded on March 23. This year, the exams were held from March 5 to March 28. This year 12th class exams that were earlier scheduled to be held on February 23 and 26, were rescheduled to March 3rd and 22nd respectively. The board takes approximately one month to declare the result so it is expected that the result may come out in the last week of April 2019. Last year, about 51.77 per cent candidates cleared the examination. The passing percentage of boys was 55% and for girls, it was 59%. Candidates need to enter roll number in the login window and click on View Results button. The result will display on the screen. About Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE) The Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education is renowned as the JKBOSE. This is actually a governmental body that is responsible for the development as well as maintenance of Jammu and Kashmir school education. Under the state government administration, this governmental body acts as the autonomous body of education. Apart from this, the JKBOSE also looks after the quality of the education which is provided to the student at a school level through 10,609 affiliated schools in the state. Besides the responsibility of giving quality education, the board also promotes the equality of opportunity by providing the essential facilities. At the same time, the Jammu and Kashmir State Board also conducts annual 10th and 12th Class Exams every year. Actually, they want to shape up the strong basis of higher education for students of Jammu and Kashmir. Bhopal: BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, facing trial in the Malegaon bomb blast case, Thursday broke down while narrating how she was "tortured" while in custody of the police. Thakur (48) also set the tone for her high-profile poll battle in Bhopal againt Congress candidate Digvijay Singh, whom she accused of using words like "Hindu" and saffron" terror". Out on bail, the saffron activist has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 case, but is still facing trial under other criminal provisions, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Addressing a gathering of BJP workers at Manas Bhawan auditorium Thakur, who spent several years in jail after being arrested in the case, alleged she was illegally detained and beaten up by police personnel. "Jab Mujhe Lekar Gaye, Gair Kanooni Taur Par, 13 Din Tak Rakkha, Pahle Hi Din Bina Kuchh Poochhe, Unhone Mujhe Bulaya, Itna Chauda Belt (showing size by her hand), Ek Belt Se Hath Sooj Jata hai, Doosre Belt Me to Hath Fat Jata Hai. (Police illegally detained me for 13 days. They called me and beat me with a wide belt. Hands get swollen just by one hit of the belt. The second strike can tear hand)," she said. "Ye Jo Belt Marte The, Poora Nervous System Dheela Pad Jata Tha, Sunn Pad Jata Tha, Ye Din Aur Raat Hota Tha. (The strike of belt makes nervous system go blank, this happened day and night)," she said in a choked voice. "They used to hurl filthy abuses, would threaten to hang me upside down, undress me. I am not narrating my pain in front of you, I am just saying no other sister should face this kind of ordeal," Thakur said, wiping her tears. The Hindutva activist claimed the police wanted her to admit that she was involved in the blast in Malegaon, a town in Nashik district of neighbouring Maharashtra. "They want me to accept that I carried out the blast and killed Muslims...they tortured me entire night, the people who beat me changed in the morning but I remained the same," she said. Earlier, in reply to a question, Thakur told reporters, "It was wrong for him (Digvijay) to use words like `Hindu and saffron terror'. "Now, he is forced to call himself a Hindu. His (Digvijays) situation is like a thief who has been caught red-handed." Apparently taking a dig at the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, she said "Those who call terrorists with respect tried to ensnare me in a conspiracy." Reacting to the BJP candidate's statements, state Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said she narrated her ordeal with an eye on the polls. "Pragya Singh was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police in the Sunil Joshi murder case when the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government was in power. She should ask the BJP who conspired against her," Chaturvedi said. In 2017, a Madhya Pradesh court acquitted Thakur of all charges in connection with the 2007 murder of Joshi, a right-wing activist. Addressing the gathering, the sadhvi termed her fight from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat as a "dharmyuddh" (religious war). Reacting to Thakur's statement, Minister for Medical Education Vijaylaxmi Sadho said in Khargone that she should not bring religion into politics. Politics demands development and religion should not be brought into it, Sadho said. "If she wants to practice religion then she should go temples and recite bhajans," Sadho said. The minister said the BJP faced a tough time finding a candidate to take on Singh in Bhopal, a seat the saffron outfit has been winning since 1989. She was declared the BJP candidate from Bhopal Wednesday. New Delhi: In what can be called as a setback for Trinamool Congress, another Bangladeshi actor has been ordered to leave India. Gazi Abdun Noor, seen in Trinamool's Bengal poll campaign, has been asked to leave India. According to news agency ANI, Noor who attended a political rally in Dumdum, has been asked to leave India. The sources said that he was staying in India on an expired visa. Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his overstay in contravention of visa validity, the ANI report said. The Rani Rashmoni fame actor was seen campaigning for the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday. In a video, Noor was seen campaigning for the Trinamool Congress and senior leader and sitting MP Sougata Roy in the Dumdum constituency. He also took part in a road show accompanied by Trinamool leader Madan Mitra. Noor is the second Bangladeshi actor who has been asked to leave India. Earlier, Ferdous Ahmed, another popular actor, was ordered to leave the country and his business visa was cancelled for allegedly campaigning for West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress. Expressing serious concern over foreign nationals campaigning during Indian elections that might influence voters, BJP leader Rahul Sinha said that these actors are coming to India on either tourist or business visa but are indulging in political activities and that is wrong. TMC leader and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said that BJP is deliberately raising this issue because they are sure of their defeat in the state as reported by Zee Media. A video showing Ahmed and Bengali actors Ankush and Payal participating in a roadshow on Sunday to seek votes for Trinamool candidate from Raiganj Kanhaiyalal Agarwal went viral on social media. "All should vote for the Trinamool Congress. All should vote for didi (TMC chief Mamata Banerjee)," Ahmed was claimed to have told voters while sharing the dais with Agarwal. West Bengal BJP leaders Jay Prakash Majumdar and Sisir Bajoria on Tuesday met Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ariz Aftab in Kolkata and demanded that Ferdous should be arrested. "We understand that foreign nationals can't participate in electioneering process in India. When TMC is using Bangladeshi nationals (actor Ferdous) for campaigning, they are breaking the rules. He should be arrested for breach of visa rules," Majumdar said. The Centre Tuesday issued a 'Leave India' notice and cancelled the business visa given to the actor. Ahmed has also been "blacklisted" by the Union Home Ministry, thus jeopardising the prospects of his future travel to India. New Delhi: Shatrughan Sinha, the Bollywood icon and popular politician, is in tight spot. Contesting from Patna Sahib on Congress ticket, the former BJP veteran is facing new home truth. Should he be campaigning for his wife Poonam Sinha, who is fighting the prestigious poll battle from Lucknow? Yes, says the Shotgun. It is my duty as the head of the family and a husband to support my family, Sinha was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. The controversy erupted after a reported displeasure expressed by Congress Lucknow candidate Acharya Pramod Krishnam, who reportedly said that Sinha should not be campaigning for his wife. Interestingly, Sinha was also present when his wife filed the nomination for the Lok Sabha elections. What complicates the situation is both husband and wife contesting the Lok Sabha Elections on tickets of two political rival parties. While it wouldnt be a trouble for them as they are contesting from two different places in two different states, however, the twist in the tale is the campaigning bit. If Shotgun campaigns for his wife, he might be doing his duty as a husband but that would mean going against his party that has fielded a different candidate in Lucknow. With Home Minister Rajnath Singh, SPs Poonam Sinha and Congress Acharya Pramod Krishnam - it will be a 3-cornered battle in Lucknow. Born on July 2, 1962, Krishnam runs an ashram in Sambhal. He was the Congress's candidate from Sambhal in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but finished fifth. He made headlines in 2015 when he equated Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Indian Mujahideen The Lucknow seat is with BJP since 1991 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee won. He broke his own record in 1996 by defeating Raj Babbar (SP) by a margin of 1,18,671 votes. In 1998, SP gave ticket to Muzaffar Ali, who also tasted defeat and Atal's victory margin rose to 2.16 votes. In 1999, Karan Singh of Congress tried to give a tough fight to Vajpayee but ultimately lost by 1.23 votes. In his last polls in 2004 again he again won by defeating Madu Gutpa (SP) by 2.18 lakh votes. The legacy of Vajpayee was taken forward by his old associate Lalji Tandon, now serving as Governor in Bihar. He won the 2009 polls by securing 34.93 per cent votes while rival Rita Bahuguna Joshi (then Congress) got 27.93 per cent votes. New Delhi: Little after 9:30 pm on September 29, 2008, an IED fitted in a gold-coloured bike triggered a massive blast killing six people, injuring 100 in Maharashtras Malegaon. Eleven years later, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the prime accused in the blast has been fielded by the BJP for the Lok Sabha Elections from the prestigious Bhopal seat. Soon after the announcement, Thakur was quoted as saying, Main bhagwa ko samman dila ke rahungi. So, what exactly is the status of the case? Was Thakur acquitted? What happened to Malegaon blast probe? These are some of the poignant questions that we try to answer in following points: 1: Was Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur acquitted in Malegaon blast case? In one word, the answer is no. Thakur is out on bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. The confusion came after Thakur got clean-chit by the National Investigation Agency in the case. Later, on April 27, 2017, Singh was granted bail by the Bombay High Court. She was cleared under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). But the biggest point is that she still faces terror trial in other case. She is still an accused named by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad. At present, her legal status is that she is out on bail and faces charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for terror activities, criminal conspiracy and murder. In simple words, as of today, Thakur is a terror accused. 2: The bike, blast and Hindu terror The aforementioned gold-coloured bike was the key evidence against Thakur. The bike registered under her name was used in the Malegaon blast. The initial probe was led by none other than Hemant Karkare, chief of Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad. Two months later, Karkare was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. He traced the bike to Surat and finally to Thakur. Army officer Lt Col Prasad Purohit and retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay were arrested. This year, a third person associated with the term "Hindu terror", Swami Aseemanand, was acquitted in March by an anti-terror court in the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express that left nearly 70 people dead. 3: Tracing the roots It was in 2007 Allahabad Kumbh that young Pragya Thakur became a sadhvi. She was ordained by the popular seer Swami Avadheshanand Giri, chief of the powerful Juna Akhada. The third of five children, Thakur joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in early nineties. She moved to Madhya Pradesh after her father was transferred from UPs Jalaun to Lahar in Bhind district of the central state in the seventies as an agriculture department employee. Her father again shifted to Surat around 2000 when Thakur was setting out for a post-graduation in History. New Delhi: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi on Thursday filed a defamation case against Congress president Rahul Gandhi in a Patna court for his "all thieves have Modi in their surnames" remark. The BJP leader had accused the Congress president of hurting the sentiments of crores of people with Modi surname. Refering to fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi, former IPL chairman Lalit Modi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi had on Monday said that all the thieves have a common surname. "...Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi...how come they all have Modi as common name. How come all the thieves have Modi as the common name?" Gandhi said addressing a rally in Maharashtra's Nanded Lok Sabha constituency. The remarks of the Congress leader irked several BJP leaders who termed them "undignified" and an insult to a particular section of the society. "The statement of the Congress president is undignified and is also an insult to a particular section," said Rajasthan BJP chief Madan Lal Saini. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also accused the Congress chief of insulting a entire community. Addressing a rally in Korba and Bhatapara, Modi had said, "This shows the narrow mindset of Congress. If people of Chhattisgarh's Sahu community were in Gujarat, they would have been known as Modis, Sahu community members are known as Rathore in Rajasthan and Vanniar in the south. Does it mean all Modis are 'chors'? Is it befitting to use such language?" New Delhi: Terror accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakuras nomination from Madhya Pradeshas Bhopal has sparked condemnation from Opposition parties. Even as the BJP prepares the Malegaon blast accused for epic battle in high-stake Lok Sabha Elections, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi has called it a rehabilitation programme by the ruling party. aA terror accused has been rehabilitated by BJP. The brazenness of must be astounding to outsiders; but we are discussing it like it is routine political strategy This is the BJPas azero tolerancea policy against terrorism,a Owaisi said on Twitter. Earlier, addressing a rally in Maharashtraas Aurangabad, Owaisi also slammed the Prime minister over the issue. A A terror accused has been rehabilitated by BJP. The brazenness of must be astounding to outsiders; but we are discussing it like it is routine political strategy This is the BJPas azero tolerancea policy against terrorism https://t.co/7U3awA6X0n a Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) April 18, 2019 aPM of India you are the king of liars, you don't want to fight terrorism. If you wanted to fight terrorism, if you had class & sincerity then you would not have made a person with terrorism charges a candidate,a Owaisi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. Soon after the BJPas announcement, Thakur was quoted as saying, aMain bhagwa ko samman dila ke rahungi.a A Thakur is out on bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. The confusion over her legal truth came after Thakur got clean-chit by the National Investigation Agency in the case. Later, on April 27, 2017, Singh was granted bail by the Bombay High Court. She was cleared under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). But the biggest point is that she still faces terror trial in other case. She is still an accused named by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad. At present, her legal status is that she is out on bail and faces charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for terror activities, criminal conspiracy and murder. In simple words, as of today, Thakur is a terror accused.A Owaisi is not the only leader who has blasted BJP over this unusual move. National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah also criticised the BJP and said that, aIf Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the BJP candidate from Bhopal and an accused in the Malegaon blast case, is fit to contest election, she is fit to be in jail.a "We are getting to hear new things from the BJP every time. First, they tried to fight elections on Balakot and Pulwama (attacks). Then, they tried speaking about development and when people did not digest it, they tried the religion card," the National Conference leader said. "They know that they will not get votes with 'mandir-masjid' (Ayodhya issue), so they gave the mandate from Bhopal to a person who is an accused in a terror case and is out on bail citing poor health," he said. "I hope the court which gave her bail cancels it as if she is fit enough to contest (election), she is fit to be in jail," he added. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: Alia Bhatt has some big banner films on her plate. Fresh out of promotions for Kalnak that is running sucessfully in theaters, the actress is now all set to start shooting for Snjay Leela Bhansali's Inshallah that also stars Salman Khan in lead role. Alia was also recently spotted visting Bhansali's office. Movie buffs has already expressed their disagreement on the casting and age differenec of the lead actors and even memes began to circuilate on social media. Now, a report in Mumbai Mirror has revealed several character details about the ones Salman and Alia are set to play. According to a source, Salman will play a 40-year-old businessman while Alia Bhatt will portray a 20-year-old aspiring actress. Contrary to the belief that they will play siblings, the source said Salman and Alia will be romantically inclined in the film, but the source confirmed that the storyline will justify the age gap between them. "The story will justify the teaming up of two actors, from different generations, on a romantic journey," the source told the tabloid. The film will be shot around the river Ganga. The production team has zeroed down some locations like haridwar, Rishikesh and Varanasi and the the next schedule will be shot in US. "The Crew was contemplating on several places including Europe but settled on the US after several rounds of recce. Salman and Alia will be there in winters." After making commercially successfull intense period films, Inshallah comes as a much needed breather. Salman will be uniting with Sanjay after 19 years and will start work on his first love story since Sultan after he wraps up Dabangg 3. Alia will be next seen in Rajamouli's RRR and Karan Johar's Takht. Sadak 2 will also go on the floors soon. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Two Maoists, who were allegedly involved in the killing of BJP MLA Bhima Mandvi earlier this month, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarhs Dantewada district on Thursday, the police said. The fierce gun battle took place at a forest in Daulikarka village when a team of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on an anti-Maoist operation, Deputy Inspector General (anti-Naxal operations) Sundarraj P told news agency PTI. The killed Maoists, identified as Vargese and Linga, were allegedly involved in the ambush in which Mandavi and his four security personnel were killed on April 9, Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava said. Another Maoist was injured, who was shifted to the local hospital. Vargese, a member of the Malangir Area Committee of Maoists, was looking after working of the banned outfits students wing in the area, the DIG said. He was also said to be having an expertise in assembling and planting IEDs, he said. Besides, Linga was active as LOS (local organisation squad) member in the Katekalyan Area Committee of Maoists, he said, adding a search operation was still underway in the region. Dantewada SP Abhishek Pallav said," They had come to install IEDs with the intention of executing a major operation. So this (encounter) is a major achievement. Weapons have been recovered." BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi along with four security personnel were killed in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada on April 9. The incident occurred at Shyamagiri hills when the MLA's convoy was heading towards Kuwakonda from Bacheli area. The Maoists blew up a vehicle in the convoy with an IED and opened fire at the occupants. The MLA and four security personnel were killed in the attack. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is known for her prompt response on Twitter, on Thursday assured her full cooperation to an Indian man in Riyadh who threatened to commit suicide. Ali, who was seeking Indian Embassy in Riyadhas help for getting back home for the last 12 months, had said that if the embassy canat help him, he will have no other options left but to commit suicide. His tweet was spotted by Sushma Swaraj, who assured him with her motherly words and sought a report from the Indian Embassy in Riyadh on the matter. "Khud kusi ki baat nahin sochte. Hum hain na. Hamari Embassy aapki poori madad karegi. @IndianEmbRiyadh - Pls send me a report on this," she tweeted.A Later, the tweet threatening suicide was removed by the Twitter. 'Khud kusi' ki baat nahin sochte. Hum hain na. Hamari Embassy aapki poori madad karegi. @IndianEmbRiyadh - Pls send me a report on this. https://t.co/ajU8EXyhAK a Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 18, 2019 Earlier, in an another tweet, Swaraj thanked an Indian citizen in US for pointing out the process of "outdated mode of payment" for a document at the Indian Consulate inA San Francisco. One Twitter user,A Kshitij tweeted, "@SushmaSwaraj Dear Madam @CGISFO has a requirement that attestation be paid thru Money order or Cashieras Check, in this age of digitalization why are GoI ofc abroad insisting on outdated modes of payment? atleast accept card, in India you do, why nt in US (sic),a Kshitij tweeted from his handle @indianatheart13. On this, Swaraj said that the issue will be examined by the her. The Union Minister is known for her proactive response to SOS messages on Twitter. She has helped thousands of Indians across the globe who were in distress and sought the government's help. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Gunmen killed at least 14 people after forcing them to disembark from buses in Pakistans restive southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Thursday. The attackers were wearing uniforms from the paramilitary Frontier Corps, provincial home secretary Haider Ali told AFP. The gunmen stopped buses on the Makran Coastal Highway and gunned down 14 people, he said, adding that the vehicles were travelling to the port megacity of Karachi from the coastal town of Ormara. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came less than a week after a suicide blast in provincial capital Quetta killed 20 people. Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistans largest and poorest province, as well as the site of Islamist, sectarian and separatist insurgencies. A naval official and a coast guard member were among those killed, Ali said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), Hala Al Ansari, has been hosted by the International Peace Institute (IPI) in a meeting to shed light on Bahrains efforts in the advancement of women and the achievement of the sustainable development agenda and goals (SDGs 2030). Ms. Al Ansari pointed out Bahrains activities as an active member of the UN Commission on the Status of Women 2017 2021, UN-Women Executive Board 2017-2019 and the Arab Womens Committee of the Arab League. She noted the impact of the Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa Global Award for Womens Empowerment that has been adopted by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), in addition to the announcement of Manama as the first Arab Womens Capital in 2017. She stated that Bahrain is working towards many of the sustainable development goals related to women and is being monitored by the Supreme Council for Women as the national consultative institution concerned with monitoring policies, plans, and programmes to promote and sustain the presence of Bahraini women in various fields. An Israeli delegation that was supposed to take part in a business event in the Kingdom has canceled its trip amidst controversy, it was revealed. The development comes after Bahraini parliamentarians put up an extensive campaign against Israeli participation at the event. The delegation stated that it pulled out due to security concerns. Thirty Israeli business executives and government officials were scheduled to participate in the 11th Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) 2019 organized by the US-based Global Entrepreneurship Network. While we advised the Israeli delegation they would be welcomed, they decided this morning not to come due to security concerns and a wish not to cause disruption to other 180 nations participating, Jonathan Ortmans, GEN president, said in a statement. Bahrain government had previously denied that it invited the delegation, stating that the invitation to the Israeli delegation was a sole initiative of the Global Entrepreneurship Network. US President Donald Trump has vetoed a congressional resolution that sought to end US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, the White House said yesterday. This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future, Trump said in the veto message. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said the move is a positive signal of US resolve towards Americas allies in a Tweet early on Wednesday. The resolution passed the House of Representatives in April and the Senate in March, marking the first time both chambers of Congress had supported a War Powers resolution, which limits the presidents ability to send troops into action. Neither the 247-175 tally in the Democratic-majority House nor the 54-46 vote in the Republican-led Senate would be enough to override the veto, which would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers. The veto was only the second of Trumps presidency after he overrode a congressional resolution that aimed to reverse the border emergency he declared in order to secure more funding for his wall between the United States and Mexico in March. The resolution by Congress was a harsh bipartisan rebuke to Trump that took the historic step of curtailing a presidents war-making powers - a step he condemned in a statement announcing his veto. WALLINGFORD U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Thursday the nation is in a race with the China in the energy sector it can not afford to lose. Murphy said the Chinese are working with energy technology companies in a variety of areas, including developing new ways to make hydrogen that will be used in such things as power storage and vehicles that run on the fuel. The real danger here is that China gets into this business and essentially creates so much scale that it puts American companies out of business, he said Thursday after touring Proton OnSite, which makes equipment that produces hydrogen. We have to understand what the Chinese are doing. The Chinese are doing direct government-to-business partnerships on this kind of new technology and if we dont do the same, the Chinese are going to own all of these new technologies. Murphy last visited the companys Technology Drive headquarters before Proton OnSite was acquired by Nel, a Norwegian company, for $70 million in February 2017. To be fair, Proton OnSites Technology isnt really new. But the company is fighting to get a stronger foothold in the United States; about 60 percent of its business is with overseas clients, according to Blake Carter, direcetor of quality and HSE for Nel. The companys technology uses electrolyzers to create hydrogen gas. The process takes water and splits it into oxygen and hydrogen. One of the key differences between Protons technology and the traditional way of making hydrogen is the electrolyzer process makes no pollution. Once the hydrogen is extracted from the water, Carter said the oxygen is released into the air. The traditional method of hydrogen production results in carbon dioxide being released into the air. Kathy Ayers, Proton OnSites vice president of research and development, said that by creating an alternative to the traditional method of making hydrogen and using the fuel to make gains in the motor vehicle market, were trying to displace fossil fuels. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com Currently Reading 50 things to do this weekend in Connecticut, Apr.19-21 5 1 of 5 Jason Rearick / Jason Rearick Show More Show Less 2 of 5 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 5 of 5 DANBURY City firefighters helped a mom and her son get back to their car when they were unable to make it back on their own after sunset Wednesday. At 8:25 p.m., Danbury firefighters were dispatched to Tarrywile Park & Mansion, 70 Southern Blvd., after a woman called the dispatch center to report that she and her son were on the parks red trail and were having trouble getting back to their car. NEW FAIRFIELD With the focus on a woman and a sharp weapon the murder-suicide of a local couple is statistically unlike most domestic homicide cases in the state and country. The majority of murder-suicides in the U.S. are perpetrated by men and involve a firearm, according to the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Women were the perpetrators in 6 percent of murder-suicides, compared to 89 percent for men, according to a policy center study of the murder-suicides in the country in the first half of 2017. It is rare that we see the female rise up and kill the male, thats for sure, said Joe Giacalone, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who investigated numerous murder-suicides as a detective sergeant for the New York Police Department. But New Fairfield resident Michael Ciorra died Monday from a blunt injury to the head and stab wounds to the torso, while his wife Jennifer Ciorra died from acute carbon monoxide intoxication, the medical examiners office said. The office ruled her death a suicide. State police have held back information about what led to the couples death and have not released details on the weapon or weapons used. Police characterized the deaths as a murder-suicide. The Violence Policy Center study found 65 percent of murder-suicides in the United States involved an intimate partner, and women were the victims in 96 percent of those cases. Among the incidents where women were killed by intimate partners, 94 percent involved a gun. Using a knife often suggests a significant other killed the victim in crime of passion because it is an up close and personal weapon, Giacalone said. Who else can get you that angry? he said. Strangers dont get you that angry. Sometimes, women who have been the victims of domestic violence become violent toward their perpetrators to protect themselves, said Karen Jarmoc, president and CEO of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. These are really complicated circumstances and relationships, she said. Its important to take a deep breath and consider there could be multiple factors that contribute to this domestic violence homicide-suicide. In Connecticut, there are an average of 14 domestic violence homicides a year. Of those, 30 percent are murder-suicide, according to the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violences latest report. A gun was used in 91 percent of the murder-suicides in the country in the first half of 2017, according to Violence Policy Centers study. But in the Danbury area, it is less common for homicides in general to involve firearms, States Attorney Stephen Sedensky said. He said he saw more homicides with guns when he prosecuted in Bridgeport, than in Danbury. For example, the murder of Susan Guido in New Fairfield in May 2017 did not involve a firearm. Nor did the Sherman homicide of Thomas Conley, whose husband was accused of killing him this March. But in New Milford, a North Carolina man last April shot and killed his daughter, who he had a child with, before killing himself, police said. Still, there are fewer gun cases in the Danbury area, compared to other parts of the state, Sedenksy said. We dont have a lot of people getting caught with illegal firearms the way other parts of the state do, he said. In intimate partner homicides in the state, a gun was used 40 percent of the time, according to the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violences study of these crimes between 2000 to 2017. A knife or another sharp object was used 33 percent of the time, while blunt force or a blunt object was used 8 percent of the time, according to the study. Guns arent used as often as they used to be, even though they still are the majority of circumstances, Jarmoc said. Crimes of passion are also rare, at least for homicides of intimate partners or children. In a study of 150 of these crimes, perpetrators showed signs of premeditation 83 percent of the time, according to a study referenced by Safer Families, Safer Communities, a domestic violence prevention organization. State Rep. Bill Buckbee, R-New Milford, announced Aiden Rustigan as the winner and Shayne Kayfus as the runner-up of an essay contest on Roger Sherman. Buckbee asked students at Schaghticoke Middle School to write about Sherman. He recently visited the school to announce the winners and presented official legislative citations to both, as well as a Connecticut State Flag that was raised over the State Capitol to Rustigan. NEW HAVEN National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka brought a single, simple message to the striking Stop & Shop workers gathered for the seventh day Wednesday outside the Amity store. We have your back today, tomorrow, for as long as it takes to get you a fair contract, said Trumka, noting he represented 55 unions and 12.5 million members. Trumka, joined by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz, state Treasurer Shawn Wooden and Woodbridge First Selectwoman Beth Heller, also Democrats, as well as other union officials, told the crowd of about 100 that the picket line is a sacred thing. Its where we get to show our solidarity, he said. Negotiations continued Wednesday between Stop & Shops parent company, Ahold Delhaize and five United Food & Commercial Workers Local Unions, 328, 371, 1445, 1459, and 919 as no agreement was reached Tuesday. On its website, Stop & Shop said that the UFCW locals and Stop & Shop continued negotiations and Our goal remains the same - reaching a fair new agreement and returning our focus to doing what we do best - taking care of our customers. Our defined benefit pension plan for all union associates - 100 percent funded by the company - is an important part of these negotiations. Given misunderstandings about this topic, we want to provide an overview of the facts. See more here. But Trumka told the union members, to loud cheers, you are fighting for a better life. Youre fighting for an America that respects workers, he said. Blumenthal, who has been at a number of stores across the state over the past week, told workers he was proud to stand with them and you are winning. You are the face and voice of Stop & Shop, Blumenthal said. You are their customer service. You are the ones who earned their $2 billion last year. No robot can do what you do, Blumenthal said, a reference to Marty the robot that patrols some Stop & Shop stores, looking for spills and other messes. Blumenthal said he was glad to see children present watching a history lesson for America. We are not stopping and we are not shopping, he said. Bysiewicz told the union members that they had supported those seeking office during the election and now its our turn to stand with you. Weve got your back, she said. Bysiewicz said the workers voices have been heard loud and clear and Gov. (Ned) Lamont and I are with you. Helen C. Powell, a retired city worker who has been a Stop & Shop employee for 9 years, after pushing to bring it to the city after the Shaws on Whalley Avenue closed, said it was good support to see a national union leader in New Haven. Were not asking for a lot, said Powell, who was carrying a union sign Wednesday night along with co-worker Helen Perry. Powell said union members were contributing to the strike effort, but as today was our last paycheck, she wondered what would happen next week. She predicted there would be no ham and no lamb on many Easter tables Sunday and also noted with Passover about to begin that the Jewish community has fewer places to shop. Powell shared stories of local folks having to take their carts onto buses to get to stores with the Whalley Avenue Stop & Shop closed. She also said some folks had to takes taxis to get to stores in other towns. Were all neighborhood friends, she said. Wooden also told the union members I stand with you in solidarity. Stop & Shops parent company, Ahold Delhaize, saw over $2 billion in profits last year and received a U.S. tax cut of $225 million in 2017. The company is claiming the proposed cuts are necessary but is unlawfully refusing to provide financial information to verify that claim. Brian Rini, the man who allegedly pretended to be missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges related to making false statements to federal agents and aggravated identity theft, federal officials said. A federal grand jury indicted Rini, 23, on Wednesday and the indictment was filed Thursday, federal officials said. Rini was charged by criminal complaint April 6 with one count of making false statements. Thursday's indictment includes two counts of making false statements and one count of aggravated identity theft, federal officials said. The incident began April 3 when Rini was found in northern Kentucky, claiming to be Timmothy Pitzen, an Illinois boy who has been missing since 2011. Federal officials later confirmed Rini was actually an ex-convict from Medina, Ohio. Rini allegedly told officers his name was Timmothy Pitzen and that he was abducted when he was 6 years old and he just wanted to go home. Local authorities confirmed that Pitzen's name was associated with a missing and possibly abducted child. Specifically, in 2011, Pitzen, then 6 years old, went missing from Aurora, Illinois, Pitzen was picked up at his school by his mother, and a few days later, his mother was found deceased in a Rockford, Illinois, hotel room. Several notes were found in the hotel room that claimed Pitzen was with people who loved him and would take care of him. The notes also stated he would never be found. Posing as Pitzen, Rini allegedly claimed he had recently escaped from a hotel room in which two men had been holding him captive. He said he had been sexually and physically abused for years while in captivity and that he was having abdominal pain. Rini was transferred to Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Emergency Room because of the complaint of abdominal pain, and there, FBI task force officers met with Rini to potentially investigate sex trafficking and crimes against children. FBI special agents and a detective from the Aurora Police Department also spoke with Rini. It is alleged that Rini continued to claim to be Pitzen throughout conversations in the hospital. Rini refused to provide his fingerprints to investigators at Childrens Hospital; however, eventually, he agreed to submit a cheek swab for DNA testing. DNA test results confirmed Rinis identity. As a known felon, Rinis DNA was known to the FBI. Ohio Department of Corrections records indicate Rini was released from an Ohio prison March 7. Once law enforcement officers confronted Rini about his true identity, Rini immediately stated he was not Pitzen. He allegedly said he watched a story about Pitzen on ABC's "20/20" and stated he wanted to get away from his only family. When questioned further, it is alleged that Rini stated he wished he had a father like Timmothys. Rini is scheduled for arraignment on the indictment at 1:30 p.m. Friday. North Korea said Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of "tactical guided weapon," its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations. State media said it wants someone who is "more careful and mature in communicating," Reuters reported. President Donald Trump has tasked Pompeo with leading the diplomatic efforts with North Korea. Recognizing cannabis movement trailblazers NYSE |TSX: ACB EDMONTON, April 18, 2019 /CNW/ - Calling all Canadian budtenders! Aurora Cannabis is kicking off the search for Canada's Top Budmaster through a national competition that will recognize cannabis professionals across the country who are guiding consumers as they navigate the new world of legal cannabis. Through a series of skills-based and knowledge-testing events, as well as through digital competitions, Canada's budtender community will be able to demonstrate their expertise in cultivar characteristics and histories, product categories and formats, exceptional customer service, and must also showcase how they contribute to the community and culture. As Canada's first legal 420 holiday approaches, it's time to recognize the women and men in cannabis retail stores who educate consumers every day. These passionate, knowledgeable budtenders on the front line continue to break stigma and grow the cannabis community by helping more and more Canadians learn about the plant, its properties and how cannabis can fit responsibly into their lives. "We wouldn't be where we are today as an industry, and as a company, without the cannabis advocates who fought to break boundaries and challenge perceptions," said Terry Booth, CEO. "Aurora thanks the cannabis leaders of the past, and we applaud the work of budtenders everywhere who are educating Canadians on cannabis, and helping to grow a strong and long-lasting future for the cannabis movement." How to Enter: Aurora invites all professional budtenders who are currently employed by an authorized cannabis retail store to see if they have what it takes to become Canada's Top Budmaster by registering here, (https://pro.auroracann.com/budmasters/) with Aurora's new digital budtender community Aurora Pro, which will help budtenders connect with each other across the country, learn about new products and brands, continuously upgrade their knowledge and skills, and advance their career in the cannabis industry. Interested budtenders are encouraged to register on Aurora Pro before June 1, 2019. Canada's Top Budmaster Competition will conclude on October 17, 2019, the first anniversary of legalization, where Aurora will present the Top Budmaster award to one deserving finalist. Aurora will be providing further details about how you can become Canada's Top Budmaster and participate in the Aurora Pro community soon. About Aurora Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with funded capacity in excess of 625,000 kg per annum and sales and operations in 24 countries across five continents, Aurora is one of the world's largest and leading cannabis companies. Aurora is vertically integrated and horizontally diversified across every key segment of the value chain, from facility engineering and design to cannabis breeding and genetics research, cannabis and hemp production, derivatives, high value-add product development, home cultivation, wholesale and retail distribution. Highly differentiated from its peers, Aurora has established a uniquely advanced, consistent and efficient production strategy, based on purpose-built facilities that integrate leading-edge technologies across all processes, defined by extensive automation and customization, resulting in the massive scale production of high quality product at low cost. Intended to be replicable and scalable globally, our production facilities are designed to produce cannabis of significant scale, with high quality, industry-leading yields, and low per gram production costs. Each of Aurora's facilities is built to meet EU GMP standards, and its first production facility, the recently acquired MedReleaf Markham facility, and its wholly owned European medical cannabis distributor Aurora Deutschland have achieved this level of certification. In addition to the Company's rapid organic growth and strong execution on strategic M&A, which to date includes 15 wholly owned subsidiary companies MedReleaf, CanvasRX, Peloton Pharmaceutical, Aurora Deutschland, H2 Biopharma, Urban Cultivator, BC Northern Lights, Larssen Greenhouses, CanniMed Therapeutics, Anandia Labs, HotHouse Consulting, MED Colombia, Agropro, Borela, and ICC Labs Aurora is distinguished by its reputation as a partner and employer of choice in the global cannabis sector, having invested in and established strategic partnerships with a range of leading innovators, including: Radient Technologies Inc. (TSXV: RTI), Hempco Food and Fiber Inc. (TSXV: HEMP), Cann Group Ltd. (ASX: CAN), Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (CSE: MWM), Choom Holdings Inc. (CSE: CHOO), Capcium Inc. (private), Evio Beauty Group (private), Wagner Dimas (private), CTT Pharmaceuticals (OTCC: CTTH), Alcanna Inc. (TSX: CLIQ) and High Tide Inc. (CSE:HITI). Aurora's Common Shares trade on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol "ACB", and are a constituent of the S&P/TSX Composite Index. For more information about Aurora, please visit our investor website, www.investor.auroramj.com Terry Booth, CEO Aurora Cannabis Inc. Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes statements containing certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forward-looking statements"), including, but not limited to, statements with respect to the performance of the Company. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include, but are not limited to statements regarding the formalization of the contract associated with the tender, the outcome of the appeal procedure, the construction and completion of the Company's production facility in Germany, and the production capacity of the facility. These statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law. SOURCE Aurora Cannabis Inc. For further information: Heather MacGregor, Director of Communications, (416) 509-5410, [email protected]; Laura Gallant, Media Relations Strategist, (437) 992-8429, [email protected] Related Links https://auroramj.com/ Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has ordered flags at state buildings flown at half-staff on Thursday in honor of Sgt. Rachel R. McKay, a Marblehead native. The 23-year-old died unexpectedly at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. Her death remains under investigation. McKay was a graduate of Marblehead High School and went on to receive a degree in political science from William Smith College in Geneva, New York last spring. She enlisted in the Army and recently completed basic combat training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. She graduated second in her company within 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, and went on to attend the U.S. Armys Officer Candidate School. Rachel was a proud, fit, respected and tireless soldier, and a sought after battle buddy by her fellow officer candidates in the highly selective program, her obituary states. She was dedicated to live by and embody the Armys core values: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. Looking past her military, collegiate and high school accomplishments, Rachel was best at being a sister, daughter and friend," the obituary states. "She was a genuine and caring person with extra doses of empathy and admiration for the underdog, and was deeply rooted with a sense of fairness and selflessness. She will be missed more than words can express by the many people she touched during her far too short time with them. McKay is survived by her parents, David and Deborah, sister Halle, as well as a large extended family. Her body was returned to Massachusetts on Monday. Visiting hours will be held at Eustis and Cornell of Marblehead, 142 Elm St., on Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m.. Funeral services will be private. The governors order applies to all state buildings in the commonwealth from sunrise to sunset on Thursday, April 18. This includes the main administration building of each public institution including town and city halls, other state-owned or state-controlled buildings and all state military installations. by Cait Bladt Donations have flooded in to help restore the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris after fire devastated the structure in mid-April. The White House was quick to pledge all necessary support to France in its efforts to rebuild. The White House has not always been so quick to provide financial support after disasters. Flint, Michigan is still without clean running water years after the tragedy started. Puerto Rico is still largely devastated after being hit with natural disasters. Should the White House be focusing aid to the United States? After the fire, the White House quickly put out an official statement pledging to support France in its rebuilding efforts. France is the oldest ally of the United States, and we remember with grateful hearts the tolling of Notre Dames bells on September 12, 2001, in solemn recognition of the tragic September 11th attacks on American soil. Those bells will sound again. We stand with France today and offer our assistance in the rehabilitation of this irreplaceable symbol of Western civilization. Vive la France! Citizens in Puerto Rico are still struggling without resources, food and support. According to NPR, several bills which would provide support for Puerto Rico were recently defeated in Congress at the behest of the president. The political fight intensified last week after President Trump told Senate Republicans in a closed-door lunch at the Capitol that he would not support sending any additional money to Puerto Rico, according to several people familiar with the conversation. Democrats, who had already been pushing for additional federal resources for Puerto Rico, responded by insisting that any disaster spending bill must help victims no matter where they reside. "It is the responsibility of the federal government to stand with all American communities in crisis, and we must do so now," said Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. "The needs are pressing. The people are waiting." ...All but one Democrat, Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, opposed a procedural vote to begin debate on a $13.5 billion spending package for victims of natural disasters. The GOP-backed plan included $600 million in nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico but left out additional money Democrats say is necessary to aid hurricane recovery on the island, where some residents are still rebuilding homes and basic services, like Internet connections and electricity, have not yet been fully restored. The GOP plan also included resources to address damage from recent floods in the Midwest. Republicans then blocked a $14 billion alternative supported by Democrats that passed the House in January. White House Offers Not To Assist Puerto Rico https://t.co/arczjffwpd Kashana (@kashanacauley) April 16, 2019 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reiterated the pledge. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that the U.S. will offer "assistance in the rehabilitation of this irreplaceable symbol of Western civilization." "The United States stands with French citizens, the city of Paris, and the millions of visitors from around the world who have sought solace in that iconic structure," Sanders said. "The Cathedral has served as a spiritual home for almost a millennium, and we are saddened to witness the damage to this architectural masterpiece," she added. "Notre Dame will continue to serve as a symbol of France, including its freedom of religion and democracy. Flint, Michigan, however, still does not have clean drinking water and has been struggling to procure new funding. President Trump responded to the crisis quickly, speaking from an event in Minnesota. President Trump reacts to the Notre Dame Cathedral fire during a tax day event https://t.co/KhpkW9vaOL pic.twitter.com/JoLxdppg3P TIME (@TIME) April 16, 2019 He has not, however, mentioned anything about the several black churches burned in race-fueled attacks across the American South. Whereas Flint doesnt have clean drinking water, Puerto Rico hasnt fully recovered, and 3 black churches burned to the ground without comment, Trump offers money to rebuild Notre Dame. Thats not America first. Thats white people first, even if they live in far away countries. Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) April 16, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. The U.S. Census Bureaus 2018 population estimates are out, and for New York, the states trend of population decline is continuing--and spreading. Upstate New York was previously the focal point of the Empire States population loss, but according the Press & Sun Bulletins analysis, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Nassau and Westchester Counties saw population loss between July 2017 and July 2018 as well. Statewide, 48,500 people left New York, which was one of just nine states to lose population over the previous year. Thats a 0.25 percent decline that still leaves the states population at 19.5 million people. By comparison, the total U.S. population grew by 0.6 percent. Despite this being the third year in a row of population loss in New York, the state still maintains growth of 0.85 percent since the 2010 Census. Here are some population decline highlights of the latest data: From 2010 to 2018, 46 of New Yorks 62 counties reported population declines. Hamilton County, the least densely populated in NY, lost 47 residents, or 1% of its population last year, to drop to 4,434. The Watertown-Fort Drum metropolitan area lost 1.2% of its population last year, placing it among the top 5 declining areas in the country. For the second year in a row, Westchester County saw its population shrink by more than 1,000 people. A few areas saw small population growth during the time frame: Saratoga County added 10,500 people since 2010, and saw an increase of about 20 people per week in the most recent yearly estimates. Orange County saw a 0.6% increase of 2,100 new residents between 2017 and 2018. What does it mean for New York? Artificial Intelligence: Minds, Economies and Systems that Learn with Ken Goldberg (UC Berkeley) and Michael Jordan (UC Berkeley) AI and robots are being adopted by industry after industry, ushering in a new era in technology and services but one that needs to be built as it grows. Berkeleys Ken Goldberg and Michael Jordan discuss the advances that got us here and what comes next. Michael sees a lot more opportunity in business model innovation combined with technology. He thinks a two-way recommendation system will enable great advances in music and other kinds of business. Top recommenders can be monetized and millions of jobs could be created at scale. Michael says Facebook is fundamentally broken. Ken and Michael are AI skeptics. Ken is excited by robot dexterity. They created a company called ambidexitrous.ai. Ambidextrous software can be applied to almost any combination of bins, 3D sensors, robots, grippers, and suction tools without expertise in the physics of robot grasping. Michael is working on deep learning meets microeconomics. He talks about people, data and preferences and economics together in a better way. Here is a link to a presentation deck by Jordan. Artificial Intelligence: Perspectives and Challenges Michael does not think we understand a single neuron completely and we will not understand or create true intelligent neuron networks. Michael sees the other intelligence on earth as the economy. There are interactions that generate the correct inputs and outputs for participants in the economy. Artificial Intelligence The Revolution Hasnt Happened Yet by Michael Jordan, 2018 Michael I. Jordan Interview: Clarity of Thought on AI Ken thinks that we can use AI to enhance human capabilities. Background Michael I. Jordan is the Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests bridge the computational, statistical, cognitive and biological sciences. Prof. Jordan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has been named a Neyman Lecturer and a Medallion Lecturer by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He received the IJCAI Research Excellence Award in 2016, the David E. Rumelhart Prize in 2015 and the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award in 2009. Ken Goldberg, Chief Scientist, Ambidextrous Robotics & Distinguished Chair, Engineering, University of California, Berkeley Ken Goldberg is an artist, inventor, and roboticist. He is William S. Floyd Jr Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley and Chief Scientist at Ambidextrous Robotics. Ken is on the Editorial Board of the journal Science Robotics, served as Chair of the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department, and co-founded the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. Short documentary films he co-wrote were selected for Sundance and one was nominated for an Emmy Award. Ken and his students have published 300 peer-reviewed papers, 9 US patents, and created award-winning artworks featured in 70 exhibits worldwide. SOURCE Live coverage of the Artificial Intelligence: Minds, Economies and Systems that Learn talk at Techcrunch Robotics+AI 2019 Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com An agreement has been reached that will allow people who use wheelchairs to enjoy happy hour specials at a Brookfield restaurant. John H. Durham, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, said his office will issue a Letter of Resolution to Hacienda Don Manuel Restaurant on Federal Road to resolve allegations the restaurant was not operating in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. An ADA complaint was filed by a person with mobility disabilities alleging that the restaurants bar counter was not accessible to individuals in wheelchairs and that Hacienda Don Manuel would not provide happy hour services to individuals in wheelchairs sitting at tables in the restaurant, Durham said in a release. To resolve the complaint, Hacienda Don Manuel will design and construct a fully accessible bar counter with a low section for individuals who use wheelchairs. Edgar Romero, the restaurants owner, said the new 75-seat bar is expected to open next week. Weve been working on it (handicap-accessibility) already, he said. Additionally, the Federal Road restaurant will institute a written policy regarding the provision of happy hour specials to individuals with disabilities, who may need to sit at tables within the restaurant. Finally, Hacienda Don Manuel will train managers, bartenders and staff on the new policy and on the provision of services to individuals with disabilities. Hacienda Don Manuel will perform these obligations within six months. Under federal law, private entities that own or operate places of public accommodation, including restaurants, are prohibited from discriminating on the basis of disability. The ADA authorizes the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate complaints and undertake periodic reviews of compliance of covered entities. The Justice Department is also authorized to commence a civil lawsuit in federal court in any case that involves a pattern or practice of discrimination or that raises issues of general public importance, and to seek injunctive relief, monetary damages and civil penalties. Durham noted the commitment of the owner of Hacienda Don Manuel to work collaboratively with the U.S. Attorneys Office to address the ADA issues and to increase the restaurants accessibility without litigation. We appreciate that Hacienda Don Manuels ownership and management cooperated during our investigation and we commend their prompt action to ensure the restaurants compliance with the ADA, Durham said. Any member of the public who wishes to file a complaint alleging that any place of public accommodation or public entity in Connecticut is not accessible to persons with disabilities may contact the U.S. Attorneys Office at (203) 821-3700. Additional information about the ADA can be found at www.ada.gov, or by calling the Justice Departments toll-free information line at (800) 514-0301 and (800) 514-0383 (TTY). More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt. This matter was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica H. Soufer of the District of Connecticut in coordination with the Disability Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Staff writer Julia Perkins contributed to this report. HARTFORD Passage of a Paid Family and Medical Leave bill seemed inevitable this year, but Wednesday was the 99th day of the legislative session and none of the three bills have made it through either the House or the Senate. Advocates are concerned they may have lost some momentum. Its also been hard adjusting to a new administration that embraces the concept of Paid Family and Medical Leave, but doesnt necessarily agree with its own party on how to get there. On Wednesday, the Connecticut Campaign for Paid Family Leave delivered a letter signed by more than 5,000 people to Gov. Ned Lamonts office as well as to House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz and Senate President Martin Looney. Seven-year-old Winnie delivered it for the coalition. Winnie supports paid leave because she didnt think it was fair that her friend was unable to go to the clinic for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia treatments with her mother because her mother had to work. Winnies mom, Liz Halla-Mattingly, testified about her own struggles balancing work, a new baby, and her mothers cancer diagnosis. The struggle I faced trying to do it all be a new mom, a good employee, and a caregiver but feeling like I was failing at all three. Those were the hardest months of my life, Halla-Mattingly said in her testimony about the legislation. Jessica Ciparelli, a member of the coalition, said she and her three siblings did their best to spend as much time as they could with their mother before she died. We made it work, each in a different way, Ciparelli said. But not everyone has the options we had available. Not everyone has understanding employers. House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said Wednesday that they are negotiating a final version of the bill with Lamonts administration and his goal is to get it up on the board for a vote in the next few weeks. House Majority Leader Matt Ritter admitted that its a complicated bill to draft, but they are working their way through it. The devil is in the details. Theres debate over whether it should be an appointed board that makes decisions about who runs the call center or other parts of the contract related to administering the program. Some believe it should all be done in-house by the Department of Labor. Should a board created by the bill make more of those decisions about how the program is managed? Or should it be spelled out as part of the legislation? Personally, I really dont care who is administering it, Aresimowicz said. I dont care. Public, private, lets find out what works. Lets get the product out to the people who need it. The two bills proposed by the legislature differ from the bill proposed by Lamont. Under all the bills, all employees in Connecticut would contribute 0.5 percent of their weekly paycheck to a state-run trust fund, which would pay them during their approved leave. How much employees would receive while on leave differs. The governors bill, SB 881, says an employee could earn 90 percent of their typical earnings up to $600 per week for anyone making around $15 an hour and 67 percent up to $900 for workers earning more than that. The other two bills passed Monday by the Finance Committee offer a wage replacement level of 100 percent, up to a maximum of $1,000, which is much higher than programs in other states. Thats opened the door to opponents who dont believe the trust fund will remain solvent because everyone will take their full 12 weeks of paid leave every year. Ritter said theres a notion that there will be fraud and abuse and people will just take leave for 12 weeks because they know theyre going to get paid. People go on leave now, Ritter said. What were trying to do is create a process for people who are really sick or have loved ones who are really sick to care for them and not choose between a paycheck and an ability to do that, Ritter said. Catherine Bailey, deputy director of the Connecticut Womens Education and Legal Fund, said people are taking leave now because life happens people get pregnant, people get cancer, and people die. She said this legislation just offers everyone protection from losing their jobs and a paycheck. SHELTON With the state focusing on regionalization for many services, the Southwestern Regional Communications Center is now poised to answer the call for help for even more area communities. SWRCCs recent move from the dark, tight quarters at the old Bridgeport Hospital to 100 Beard Sawmill Road in Shelton has not only provided the organization with upgraded technological capabilities and space but also the amenities necessary to create an improved working environment for the employees whose jobs can be quite stressful. With the move and the new site, the culture of the employees has improved and changed, said Vaughan Dumas, who was hired to head SWRCC last May with an eye toward expanding and rebranding the operation. This is not a run-down, worn-out site it is brand new, with improved technology and a great atmosphere for the employees. It is motivating for the employees. The change in morale has been incredible. SWRCC, founded in 1983, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides telecommunication services to municipal fire, police and EMS services as well as hospitals in southwestern Connecticut. Right now, SWRCC provides the service to 16 communities, including the city of Shelton, and six hospitals. In 2018, SWRCC, which receives the majority of its funding from its municipal clients, but also receives substantial funding from the state of Connecticut as well as individual, foundation and corporate charitable donors, dispatched approximately 105,000 combined service calls. So far this year, SWRCC dispatchers have handled more than 26,000 calls. Being here has definitely boosted morale, said dispatcher Chris Jensen, a Derby resident who also appreciates having a much easier commute to work. In this space, we can definitely communicate better with each other, which makes our jobs easier. Dispatcher Louis Uvino, an Ansonia resident, said the new site is a superior working environment. It is easier to regional dispatch here, said Uvino. Everything is upgraded, said dispatcher Kristen Ostrowski, a Shelton resident. It is just a better environment overall. We are better able to do our jobs and communicate with each other here. And the place is beautiful. We have had many people come to see how we operate. We are proud of this place. The organization had been renting space in the old Bridgeport Hospital for some 25 years, but Dumas noted that the location was tight less than 1,000 square feet with antiquated copper line technology and no place for employees, who can take emotionally trying calls at times, to decompress, since the site had no break room, cafeteria or even windows. There was no room to expand the business there, said Dumas, and, secondly, the environment for the staff was not positive it was dark and run-down. That is when Dumas began searching for a new location finally coming across more than 2,900 square feet of space that was originally outfitted technologically for HealthNet, at 100 Beard Sawmill Road one of the local properties owned by Rob Scinto. The technology here was already in place, which is one of the main selling features in why we chose this site, said Dumas, adding that there is a 24-hour emergency generator system for the entire building as well as redundant fiber-optic lines and redundant phone lines that come into the building. We need all those things for our operation to function the way it should, Dumas said. If there are failures, well already have redundancies in the building. Along with the technology at this site, the amenities for the staff include a gym to promote healthy living; a cafeteria; a child care site in the building; and the location, right off Route 8, provides close proximity for many of the employees. The location itself proved positive for technology and our employees, Dumas said. Dumas said working in the center can be stressful at times, and this building allows for various locations from walking trails to the cafeteria, the gym to the break room for employees to get away from the console. If they are fatigued and stressed, or when they take a bad call, there is now a place to go and decompress, Dumas said. SWRCC presently has 16 full-time employees and 10 part-time employees, and with the new, larger location, the operation, which could have four consoles in the old site, can now have six, meaning hiring more employees is possible. And the lease allows for expansion if necessary. We are focusing on controlled growth, Dumas said. We currently have two positions vacant and available, and we plan to talk to other municipalities to join the organization. The state is promoting regionalization and, us having the space now and improved capabilities, we can help more communities in the area and the region. Dumas said that SWRCC could add three new municipalities right now, depending on the services they require. We are currently negotiating with a municipalities to cover law enforcement, said Dumas, who has a law enforcement background, spending 29 years with the Milford Police Department, as well as time as being a volunteer fire chief and an EMT. I have familiarity in all three aspects of emergency services, and I have four staff members who come from law enforcement dispatch backgrounds. We have the capability to expand to law enforcement fields as well. The new technology which focuses on fiber-optic lines, with a copper line backup also allows Dumas to improve quality control, as staff can monitor calls in real time, or see recordings later, to give employees feedback on performance. We need to receive and dispatch in 90 seconds, Dumas said. We monitor for that, and the new system is a self-development tool. This holds us accountable to the municipalities we serve. Our service is easy to track, and they can see the call process. Some of the services that SWRCC provides its clients include: A direct in the field communication link between first responders in the field and hospital emergency departments for medical control/direction. This includes activation of specialized hospital surgical and medical teams (trauma and burn units). Maintaining recordings of all radio and telephone transmissions pertinent to emergency medical care documentation and support of EMS providers. Coordinating EMS responses for hospital diversions, including making alert notifications, updates and tracking. Coordinating mutual aid provision throughout the region. Maintaining single-source communication infrastructure for interoperability of regional and state EMS and fire assets. Providing communications coordination for mass causality incidents and other major incidents. Maintaining backup radio frequencies in the event of radio system failures. Coordinating, tracking and maintaining independent records for every medical call response (required for state EMS reporting and municipal audits). Coordinating the forward movement of patients in the event of a major incident or hospital evacuation. Notifying and coordinating with hazmat teams and regional fire task forces. Determining jurisdiction of accidents on I-95, Rt. 25, Rt. 8 and Rt. 15 for the Connecticut State Police. Providing cross patching for EMS, fire and police services to all regional hospitals. SWRCC provides services to Bridgeport, Darien, Easton, Fairfield, Greenwich, Milford, Monroe, New Canaan, Norwalk, Shelton, Stamford, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston, Westport and Wilton. In addition, SWRCC provides communications to Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport, St. Vincents and Milford hospitals. We are better served now with this concept of regionalization being promoted, Dumas said. If a municipality comes to our regional center, it is more economically feasible for a community than trying to manage it on their own. If came to me at old center, we could not help. Now we can take on more. But the biggest thing is the employee satisfaction and morale. brian.gioiele@ hearstmediact.com Despite early enthusiasm and a brawny push from the nonprofit health community, lawmakers now say a plan to extend state-sponsored health coverage to about 18,000 undocumented children is unlikely to succeed this year. The proposal, hailed by advocates as crucial in protecting some of Connecticuts most vulnerable people, would open Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program, known as HUSKY A and HUSKY B in the state, to people younger than 19 regardless of their immigration status. Nonprofit groups had estimated the first-year cost to be about $4 million and the second-year expense to be $15 million. The state Department of Social Services, which administers the programs, had warned the annual price tag could reach $64 million, which would not be reimbursed by the federal government. Officials with Connecticuts nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis recently pegged the cost much higher, at $53 million per year for the next two years. That kind of number, given our current efforts to try to just balance the budget, would be a struggle, said Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, a co-chairman of the legislatures Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. I dont see how we generate the revenue to pay for something like that, or how appropriations incorporates that into their budget. We get a lot of requests that have big ticket items and they may be important in terms of affecting folks, he said, but our challenges are significant just in meeting our current obligations. Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, a longtime co-chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, expressed concerns similar to Fonfaras. While she did not rule out the prospect of incorporating the expansion into her committees budget proposal, Walker said finding more than $50 million per year for a new initiative would be very difficult. Though cost was always an issue, proponents of the legislation have noted that the plan could help defray the escalating expense of uncompensated care. Preventative care for children reaps huge outcomes in the long run, Jay Sicklick, deputy director of the Center for Childrens Advocacy, told the CT Mirror in March. It reduces acute care costs that are going to be borne by acute care hospitals down the road if children who are ineligible for health coverage are then forced into emergency situations. In testimony last month, nonprofit and state advocates expounded on the benefits of the plan, including its potential to encourage thousands of young people to seek routine health maintenance. They were joined by undocumented families who pleaded with lawmakers to help their children. Gislene Batista, who fled her native Brazil to avoid violence, said her 11-year-old daughter, Emily, needs special care. Emily has cerebral palsy. Emily has wishes and dreams just like any other child her age, and I know she could be in better health and achieve those dreams if she could have better medical insurance and health care, Batista, who lives in the Bridgeport area, testified through a translator. But these things do not work well for us undocumented immigrants. The bill cleared the Human Services Committee, but was dealt a setback when lawmakers recently received cost estimates for the program. They need to wait until the state is in a much more reliable fiscal position, said Rep. Gail Lavielle of Wilton, the ranking House Republican on the Appropriations Committee. New initiatives arent affordable in states current financial climate, she said. Connecticuts finances, unless they are adjusted, are on pace to run between 9 and 10 percent in deficit in each of the next two fiscal years, according to Gov. Ned Lamonts budget staff. That represents potential deficits of $1.7 billion next fiscal year and $2 billion in 2021. The Appropriations Committee has until May 3 to develop a counter-proposal to the new, two-year state budget that Lamont recommended on Feb. 20. That plan did not include a HUSKY expansion to serve undocumented children. Lamont declined to comment Thursday when asked about his support for the proposal. Lawmakers are striving to adopt a new spending plan before the regular session ends on June 5. EAST HAVEN For the second straight night, just a few members of the public turned out for a public hearing on the $92.02 million budget and no one spoke this time on the $47.99 million Board of Education budget. That didnt stop the Town Council members from making some choice comments of their own, letting those who run the East Haven school system three of the four members of the public in the audience know that the council is not happy with the way things are going. I think were in some serious trouble up there in several different aspects, said Councilman Robert Parente, R-1, who also is the towns Public Service superintendent and chairman of the Republican Town Committee. As he and other council members spoke, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Jennifer Murrihy, Board of Education Chairwoman Michele DeLucia and BOE Secretary Samantha Parlato sat in the East Haven Senior Center and listened. Parente, without citing much in the way of specifics, said he had observed three or four things that are charter violations. Theyre looking for more money, he said, following that with a reference to the $650 a day that someone is getting paid who no longer is working. He was referring to the Board of Educations former interim Chief Operations Officer Richard Huot, who left his job under murky conditions in February. Parente, a former 14-year school board member, also blasted the Board of Education for hiring a Manchester company, rather than a local one, to service the school systems boilers and buying paint from North Branford now instead of from Goodys. He accused the board of a blatant disregard for the Town Charter by not always putting purchases out to bid. What a shame! he said. They should be embarrassed! Just because the town no longer has control over funding once the council approves it for town schools, That doesnt mean we cant have somebody appear before us every month ... to let us know what they do with it and how they do with it, Parente said. The Town Council, meeting as the Hearing Committee, ended up unanimously passing the education budget as amended by Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. to the council for approval. The Town Council will vote on the budget next Wednesday at 7 p.m. Councilman Joe Carfora, D-3, said his concern was with the $1.7 million that Maturo cut from the Board of Educations original request. My biggest concern is what that might do to the children, he said. If shes got to make cuts, Im just concerned that it doesnt come away from the kids. Councilwoman Judy Esposito said that with regard to the school systems purchasing, It should be kept within the community. Councilwoman Linda Hennessey, R-4, said the bottom line is the students, and the school system needs to show results. Money is not going to solve those issues, Hennessey said. Money is not going solve people doing better on their test scores. ... The money is there. We just need everybody to do their jobs. Councilman Nick Palladino, D-2, a retired police officer, said that security in our schools is horrible. ... North Branford, which is the typical one-horse town ... is way, way ahead of us on school security. Yet East Haven has a full-time adult education center, Palladino asid. That money could be spent on security. .... We are too small to have a full-time adult education center. At one point, Chairman Ken McKay, R-1, asked Carfora, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor, Do you want to give additional money? Do you want to raise taxes? Carfora responded, No, I definitely dont want to raise taxes. ... But I think a monthly report is the answer. Town Attorney Joseph Zullo cautioned council members after Parente suggested that parents are afraid to complain when their children are poorly treated that if you have knowledge of something like that, which would amount to malfeasance of the school system, that he would hope they would bring that to the attention of someone in the school system. Because Im looking at stunned faces and I am equally stunned, said Zullo, also now a newly-elected Republican state representative. BOE Chairwoman DeLucia said after the meeting, I honestly can say that theyre basing comments on inaccurate information. She pointed out that some council members suggested the school systems test scores havent improved, when in fact the tests themselves have changed in recent years. East Haven has big problems such as a rising poverty rate and related developmental problems that the school system must cope with, DeLucia said, pointing out that nearly 60 percent of the school systems students now receive free or reduced-rate lunches. Maturos budget shaved taxes by a small amount. He forwarded a $90.02 million 2019-20 budget to the Town Council that would decrease taxes by 0.03 mill. Rizza said the changes the council made wont appreciably change the bottom line. Maturo has yet to say whether he will seek another term in November. The proposed 0.03-mill decrease from 32.45 mills to 32.42 mills contrasts with a proposed 0.2-mill tax increase that the Board of Finance forwarded to Maturo. The original $91.6 million recommended budget that Maturo sent to the Board of Finance last month would have reduced the tax rate by 0.05 mill, from 32.45 mills to 32.40 mills. Each mill equals $1 in tax for every $1,000 in assessed property value. EAST HAVEN The towns most active mayoral race in years got a little more crowded Thursday as Salvatore Maltese a familiar name from past runs both as an Independent and a Democrat announced hell seek the Republican nomination. Yes, I will be running for mayor on the Republican ticket, Maltese, 75, said in a phone call. The town of East Haven as we know it, we need a change to go forward in this town. Our Board of Education is in shambles. The town has surpluses and we have a rainy day fund, but sometimes we have to do more with our surplus, other than sitting on it, Maltese said. Our economic development ... could be better. Beyond that, I think taxpayers have a right to be heard and not just at election time, said Maltese, a former Board of Finance member who has owned the South Shore Laundromat on Coe Avenue for 38 years and also worked for years as a credit manager. Ive been a supervisor for 40 years, Maltese said, citing his experience as credit manager managing a $100 million portfolio for Cascades Folding Cartons and earlier for Simpkins Industries before retiring in 2009. I know what it takes. I know how to lead, and I think I can help, he said. Maltese joins Councilman Steve Tracey, R-4, who previously announced he was running as a Republican, and Councilman Joe Carfora, D-3, who last week became the first person to announce plans to seek the Democratic nomination. Still not clear is what nine-term incumbent Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. will do and whether Maturo, 67, will seek another term. I welcome him back in the race, Maturo said. I ran against Sal as an independent and I ran against him as a Democrat. Now I guess I might run against him as a Republican ... if and when I get into the race. Asked about his own plans, Maturo said, At this point, Im not sure. Theres no reason for me to get in the race prior to the budget being passed. Let everybody whos in this race come after me. That way, theyre not coming after each other. Maltese suggested Maturo is waiting for me to make an announcement ... I have a lot of support. Can I win? Absolutely. Can I lose? Absolutely. Why run against Maturo, assuming he runs again? I think I could do a better job for the town, Maltese said. I know about taxes. I know the drill. Maturo has been in court for a lot of things, Maltese said. Maltese was referring, among other things, to a sexual harassment lawsuit that a former town employee, Francine Carbone, filed against Maturo. The town ultimately settled it for $175,000. Tracey said hes looking forward to the race. This mayors race is really starting to get exciting, he said. Its definitely going to be an exciting one its going to be exciting about ideas, economic development, making sure we use all the resources possible ... to help our children. East Haven needs to heal, Tracey said. We dont need bad press. We dont need any negativity. We need to have positive thinking, and I plan on ... working hard for the nomination, and I wish Mr. Maltese all the best and anybody else. Maltese was recruited to run against Maturo as a Democrat in 2017 after failing to get the Republican nomination and then running against Maturo as an independent in 2015. Maltese has been a member of the East Haven Rotary Club, the Shoreline Greenway Trail board and the Hagaman Memorial Library Board, he has said. He and his wife, Joan, have raised four daughters, all of whom attended and graduated from the East Haven school system, he said. mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com WALLINGFORD A town man pleaded guilty to one count of bankruptcy fraud Wednesday after allegedly securing credit using another individuals name, then declaring bankruptcy on their behalf for those same loans, according to the U.S. District Attorneys Office for Connecticut. Joel C. Reilly, 47, fraudulently applied for and obtained loans and lines of credit in the name of another individual... without the victims knowledge or permission, using her name and personal information, according to a release. The outstanding debt on the loans was approximately $211,142 as of December 2016, spokesman Tom Carson said, which Reilly could not repay. On December 15, 2016, Riley visited an attorney claiming that he had power of attorney for the victim. Riley informed the attorney that the victim was ill and that Riley wanted to file a bankruptcy petition on her behalf, Carson said. The attorney told Riley that the attorney needed to meet with the victim to confirm her identity. After several delays, on June 6, 2017, Riley and a woman claiming to be the victim (the imposter) met with the attorney at his office. Riley had recruited the imposter to impersonate the victim and provided the imposter with the victims Connecticut drivers license, which Riley had taken from the victim without her knowledge or permission, Carson said. During the meeting with the attorney, the imposter presented the drivers license as identification. The victim learned, while attempting to use a credit card, that a bankruptcy petition had been filed in her name later in June 2017, according to the release. On June 28, 2017, the victim met with the attorney and stated that she did not file for bankruptcy, said Carson. That same day, Riley sent an email to the attorney stating I clearly owe you more than an apology and clearly have not been in the right frame of mind. I need to make this right. And I know that exposes myself. You have done so much for me and I betrayed that. Please let me know what I can do to resolve this. The attorney then notified the bankruptcy court. The victim testified that her identification had been stolen and that the debt incurred in her name was not her own, Carson said. The bankruptcy petition was dismissed. Reilly, currently free on $100,000 bond, is scheduled to be sentenced August 8, Carson said. He faces up to five years in prison. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN Two projects involving housing in the heart of downtown on Chapel Street are stalled as negotiations continue as to how many units will be marketed as affordable at a time when state funds to support this have diminished. Paul Denz of Northside Development LLC discussed the specifics of his proposed six-floor apartment complex at 808-810 Chapel St. at the corner of Orange Street this week with the Wooster Square Downtown Community Management Team. The development would have 46 apartments that would be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units, with three commercial spaces on the first floor. The studios would average about 464 square feet; the one-bedrooms will be between 700 square feet and 900 square feet. The two-bedrooms range from 942 to 1,060 square feet. There would be amenities on the first floor and an outdoor courtyard. It would fill the lot at the corner that has been empty since August 2015 when a structurally unsafe building there had to be demolished after a 3-foot decorative cornice tumbled onto the sidewalk. The parcels for a second, larger project, which also has a troubled history, will support 120 units of housing in a 7-story building facing Chapel Street that has already gotten site plan approval from the City Plan Commission. Neither, however, will move forward until there is a signed land disposition agreement between Denz and the city, which owns a small piece of property, 20feet by 100 feet, at 848 Chapel St. that is included in the larger development that extends through the block to Crown Street. The city also owns a larger parcel next to the proposed development at 808-810 Chapel St., with that site split 50/50 between them. Denz said once the three properties (including the facade at what was Foot Locker on Chapel Street ) are up it will more or less stitch the entire neighborhood back together with Ninth Square. The developer said the presence of retail and restaurants in both projects will get everyone walking down the block. He hoped it will actually bring the pin corner of New Haven back to Church and Chapel from Chapel and College. A massive fire in 2007 and subsequent demolition of two buildings left a gaping hole through the block on Chapel Street, one that has remained there for more than a decade. The plans for 120 apartments and 2,079 square feet of retail on the first floor will replace that. The incident generated multiple lawsuits as the city tried to recover the $1.8 million cost to raze the building owned by Denz of Mid-Block Development LLC and a second building, Concord 9 jewelers, that was damaged as a result of the demolition. Denz said they are building the 46 units somewhat smaller to keep the cost down with an estimated $1,100 for the one-bedrooms. They still are working on the rental price points. The mix will be 28 studios, 13 one-bedrooms and five 2-bedrooms. He said they are also hoping to put in some studios he referred to as micro-units, which started a discussion with Anstress Farwell, who heads the New Haven Urban Design League. Ken Boroson, architect for the projects, said he has built these kind of studios before open at the end with lots of glass and taller ceilings. Denz said it will take about a year to build. The larger project will come first because of how tight the lots are, with staging likely set up on the corner lot. It is not going to be uber-cheap, but we are going to try to keep it as affordable as possible, he said. Interim Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli this week said the city is continuing to negotiate the value of the properties being sold to Denz, as well as design values for the plans and the hiring of minority workers and contractors that typically are associated with community benefits. Denz said he has offered to rent 5 percent of the apartments at 808-810 Chapel St. as affordable. He said a discussion with the city on the land disposition agreement will take place Monday. We are having a little difficulty getting an LDA going, Denz said. Alder Delores Colon, D-6, who was one of the residents who was on an affordable housing task force, pushed for as many affordable units as possible. You are going to be making a lot of profit from building multiple units in both buildings ... prime real estate. Could you find it in your heart to make a few of those units affordable for people under the average median income, poor people? Colon asked. She told him he could look for state subsidies like developer Randy Salvatore who applied and got funds to help make 30 percent of his units affordable. Do a socially conscientious effort to help New Haven house people who are struggling, Colon said. Denz said those programs are now closed. They are done, the developer said. He said he offered to do 5 percent of the larger project as affordable out of his pocket. No one has done that, Denz said. The developer said he expects his renters to be students. His theory is that as they move out of East Rock to downtown, those larger apartments will be freed up for families, where rents are dropping because of the competition. Another Wooster Square resident hoped that there would be apartments to support multi-generation needs. Denz said Beacon Communities LLC, which is taking over the 9th Square Residences, which cover commercial space, as well as 335 apartments, got subsidies and a city investment, but that money is gone. He agreed that the need isnt. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.coml 203-641-2577 NEW HAVEN Firefighters responded to a building at 754 Chapel St. for a working fire Thursday morning. The fire turned out to be in a dumpster in the rear parking lot, which is at 300 State St., but smoke from the fire had entered the nearby Post Office. The fire caused heavy, dark smoke that could be seen billowing up over the buildings downtown on from several blocks away. The call came in at approximately 9:29 a.m., Asst. Chief Orlando Marcano said. The fire was extinguished by 10 a.m. and there were no injuries reported, he said. Marcano said the fire broke out on the State Street side of the building. After the fire was extinguished, firefighters stayed on scene checking to see if fire extended into the walls of the building, he said. Asst. Chief Mark Vendetto said the fire extended slightly into the Post Office at 754 Chapel St., largely causing smoke damage. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN The city Thursday filed an appeal of the Superior Court ruling that upheld an arbitration award directing that Nichole Jefferson be reinstated to her job and given back pay. The city had until Monday to appeal the ruling by Superior Court Judge James Wilson Abrams upholding the decision of the Board of Arbitration and Mediation, but filed it early. Jefferson was fired in August 2015 and ordered reinstated by a three-person arbitration panel on April 2, 2018, after 22 days of testimony, which stretched from January 2016 until April 2018. Abrams upheld that award this month on March 27, just shy of a year since the ruling. Jefferson won two appeals of the citys denial of unemployment compensation, where one officer called the case a witchhunt. She was also cleared of any wrongdoing by the U.S. Attorneys Office. In arbitration, she won eight of 11 issues, but the court added that in one of the three the city won, on whether she was cooperative with city investigators, there were mitigating circumstances as she was following the advice of her union. In his ruling, Abrams said the only issue the city dealt with in detail was its claim that the award violated public policy. In such cases, the court must first determine whether the award does, indeed, implicate an explicit, well-defined and dominant public policy and, if so, then the court must determine whether the award violates that policy, Abrams wrote. ... The court concedes that the issues raised implicate strong public policy concerns. While the court finds that there was actual harm sufficient to consider the behavior at issue egregious, it finds insufficient support for the argument that Ms. Jefferson would not respond appropriately to progressive workplace discipline, and as a result, it can not find her incorrigible, one of four factors he had to consider. Based on the foregoing, the court finds that the violation of public policy at issue in this case does not mandate termination and the defendants application to confirm the arbitration award is granted, Abrams wrote. Jefferson was a 19-year employee of the city and headed the Commission on Equal Opportunities for 14 of those years. I am ready to go back to work. Im looking forward to getting the Commission on Equal Opportunities (CEO) back on track working for the well being of our residents fighting for their civil rights and equal opportunities and, more importantly, providing needed services in this critical time. As the oldest municipal civil rights agency in the country, it is an honor to fight for New Havens rights, she wrote. The idea of an appeal generated an exchange between Corporation Counsel John Rose Jr. and Alder Anna Festa, D-10, at a recent workshop before the Finance Committee. Are we going to drop the Nichole Jefferson case? Are we going to stop the appeals of the Nichole Jefferson case? We have spent a lot of money on this case. Appeal after appeal after appeal that we have lost. Isnt it time to give up? Festa asked. Rose testified a year ago at a budget hearing in April that the city had spent $337,207 on the case to that point. Festa said that money could have been spent elsewhere and additional costs will impact Roses budget. She wanted to know whether insurance covers anything. Rose called the conclusion by the judge that Jefferson should not be fired an amazingly, incredible decision, despite calling her behavior egregious. I think the decision of the arbitration panel was as wrong as it could be, Rose said. Jefferson said she did not violate any ethics rules. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577 NEW HAVEN Hours after Yale University released the identity of its police officer involved in the controversial shooting this week on Dixwell Avenue, several hundred people mostly college students staged a protest Thursday night near the campus. A group of more than 200 people, many of them Yale students, shut down the universitys major commercial area on York Street Thursday night, blocking traffic on all sides. Police violence is a crisis in our state, community organizer Kerry Ellington said. Earlier on Thursday, Yale said in a statement that Terrance Pollock, a 16-year veteran of the department, was its officer involved in the shooting. Pollock had been patrolling campus in the Science Park area early Tuesday when he responded to help a Hamden police officer who appears to have been looking for a vehicle based on a 911 call reporting that a person driving the vehicle had a gun, Yale officials said in a statement. Hamden police identified Devin Eaton as the officer involved from their community on Wednesday. Eaton and Pollock fired after the driver of the vehicle exited the vehicle in an abrupt manner, Connecticut State Police Trooper Josue Dorelus said Tuesday. Stephanie Washington, 22, was shot. She was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Activists gathered Thursday night to demand that Pollock and Eaton be fired by their respective departments, that all relevant footage be released to the public immediately and for the resulting investigation to be independent and transparent. But Hamden Police Capt. Ronald Smith said in a news release late Thursday that the Hamden Police Department cannot release any video and/or audio recording related to the shooting, at the request of States Attorney Patrick Griffin. The purpose of this directive is to ensure the integrity of the investigation, Smith said. He added that the department intends to be transparent with Hamden and New Haven residents, as well as the media. We plan to release this information as soon as the States Attorneys Office advises us that the release will not interfere with the ongoing investigation, Smith said. Many of the speakers at the rally in front of Woodbridge Hall on Wall Street affiliated with Yale demanded to know why tuition dollars were funding an officer who would shoot two city residents outside of the universitys campus. Local organizer Norm Clements said that, absent video evidence from a neighbor, he believes police would have accused Washington and driver Paul Witherspoon of having a gun, Pollocks gun injury would have been blamed on them and they would be facing charges for the attempted murder of an officer. Jeannia Fu, a New Haven resident who has organized around police violence in Bridgeport and elsewhere, said everything is wrong about Yale University police and that police abolition is not a pipe dream for peoples liberation, but necessary. Theres no way to reform these people, she said. They serve white supremacy and wealth. From the rally, the group marched to York Street, kneeling in the streets and chanting for justice for the two unarmed victims. As of 8 p.m., organizers said the group would not move until national news cameras, which they were expecting but had not yet arrived, showed up to the scene of the protest. State police confirmed Thursday that Pollock had been injured in the course of the incident on Dixwell Avenue. Further details would be made available after investigators had reviewed medical records stemming from the matter, police said. The driver of the vehicle was a suspect in an alleged armed robbery in Hamden, Dorelus said. No weapon was found in the vehicle, Dorelus said Tuesday afternoon, although a detailed search of the vehicle had not yet been completed when he spoke. Yale officials described Washington being shot as a tragedy in the Thursday morning statement. Officials said the university is fully cooperating in the investigation and would share whatever information it can with the public as quickly as possible. Yale police officers are trained to interact with community members in a respectful and professional manner. Many of our officers are from the New Haven community, and all of them take great pride in how they engage with the community, both on and off duty, said university officials in the statement. Community members have expressed concern and outrage after the shooting. New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, Hamden Mayor Curt B. Leng, New Haven Interim Chief Otoniel Reyes and Hamden Acting Chief John Cappiello addressed the public Wednesday afternoon after meeting with the states attorneys office. They announced a new focus on collaboration and communication between the neighboring communities. This incident betrays police actions gone horribly wrong along the Hamden/New Haven line and now Stephanie, as well as many residents, her family and friends must live with the consequences and resulting uncertainty of what was by every definition an unacceptable response, Harp said. Police activity that spills into New Haven must be consistent with the citys standards, Harp said, so the department will be working on guidelines with neighboring jurisdictions on policy framework regarding cross-jurisdictional policies. It will help address the anger and distrust many now have toward the police, Harp said. Further, Leng said Hamden and New Haven will work together more closely on issues and Hamden police will start attending New Haven police district meetings to work on border issues, which he said likely would make an immediate impact. Its all one community and thats how officers will look at it, Cappiello said during the news conference. Hamden and New Haven are committed to working more closely together, Leng said. The issues that are faced are not Hamden issues, they are not New Haven issues. They are community issues and the more we can work together on them the better we all are. We in law enforcement welcome the oversight, we welcome the accountability, because we realize we need to be held to a higher standard, Reyes said. So were here to promise this community to do better, because thats what were called to do. Reyes said this moment is an opportunity for everyone to do better, to engage each other better in policy, community relations and in healing the community. Weve gained a lot of trust in our community and incidents like this erode the trust the community has in its police department, he said. It doesnt matter that it happened by another officer. When an incident happens it erodes the image of every police officer. Thats whats unique about this profession. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the CT State Police at 860-685-8190. Callers can remain anonymous. Reporter Brian Zahn contributed to this story. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com Editors note: This statement by Yale President Peter Salovey about a Hamden police officer shooting a woman during a traffic stop in New Haven is shared here unedited. A Yale officer also fired shots during the incident, according to Connecticut State Police: Last night, Vice President for Administration Janet Lindner sent an email alerting our community to news of a shooting incident that had taken place early yesterday morning in New Haven, and that involved a Yale police officer. Moments ago, we posted an update on what we know: you can find that here. I write this evening to assure you that Yale will cooperate fully in the investigation that the Connecticut State Police and the States Attorneys Office are conducting; when they have finished, and we can have access to the evidence, we will also conduct our own investigation into this matter. As the primary investigation proceeds, we will share whatever information we can as quickly as we can about the circumstances of the shooting. We will also engage with our fellow members of the greater New Haven community. Our relief that the young woman who was shot did not suffer life-threatening injuries must not signal closure, but rather an opening: now is the time for all of uscity residents, their elected leaders, community organizers, and the Yale communityto come together. I and other Yale leaders and New Haven Mayor Toni Harp are in close touch, as are the Yale and New Haven Police Departments. I know we can work together to make our beloved city safe for all. As is standard protocol for any instance of a police officer discharging a weapon, the Yale police officer involved in this incident has been placed on leave pending the outcome of the investigation. It is vitally important that we refrain from making assumptions about the circumstances of the shooting: the facts of this case will be made clear through the investigation. Many members of the Yale and New Haven communities have reached out to me to express their concern. I am grateful for your commitment to justice, and I share it. As we wait to learn more about this incident, let us treat each other with respect and decency, and with a sense of common purpose. Sincerely, More News Hamden officer involved in shooting identified Peter Salovey President Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology ANSONIA Want to learn how to change a flat tire? Need a lesson in replacing a light switch? How about figuring out how to monitor for computer viruses? If any of those have piqued your interest, you ought to make tracks to Emmett OBrien Technical High School April 25. Thats when students will be offering free, do it yourself workshops for the public ages 14 and up on a wide variety of topics from 5 to 7 p.m. at the school, 141 Prindle Ave. The empower yourself workshops are geared toward health and general wellness, and will feature how to check tire pressure and change a flat tire; replace light switches; monitor computers for viruses; plan furniture layouts; properly use health and beauty products; monitor blood pressure; navigate community resources including the use of 211; and more. There will also be a free yoga session. The event will enable students to show the public what theyve been learning and to share those skills. Those who attend will have the opportunity to cycle between all the DIY stations. Special guests for the program include members of Valley United Way and Griffin Hospital. Our students and staff are excited about sharing their knowledge, said teacher Kimberly Phipps. We hope members of the community will spend time with us and learn something new. The high school offers 11 technical career-focused programs, along with sports, clubs and other extracurricular activities. Principal Laurie LeBouthillier is excited for the community to see what students have been up to. This event allows our students the opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they mastered at Emmett OBrien in their specific field of study, she said. I am most proud of their ability to exhibit their skills and validate teaching and learning they obtained at Emmett OBrien. PTO treasurer Kathy Radin, whose son is an EOB alumnus, encouraged the public to attend the workshops. Emmett OBrien Technical High School is a place that encourages the students to be the best they can be, she said. It gives them the tools to face the future with or without further education in many fields. If you walk down the halls you are addressed with respect from the students and if you need a hand, they lend it. For more information about the event, call 203-732-1800. jean.sos@snet.net SEYMOUR Every time Pearl Street resident Alex Danka takes his new German shepherd Kaija out for a walk, he fears for both their lives. And when Dankas neighbor Bob Love, who has lived on Pearl Street for 41 years, is outside doing yard work, he literally holds his breath. The two neighbors said speeding has become a major problem along the 25 mph Pearl Street, which is home to hundreds of single-family homes, apartment dwellers, dog walkers, kids on bikes and senior citizens taking walks. Its an absolute disaster waiting to happen, Love said. People fly up and down the street. And they are easily going more than 15 or 20 miles over the speed limit. Distracted driving is also a big problem. Danka and Love brought their concerns to the Board of Police Commissioners this week. Ever since I got a dog and started walking her, I see a lot more that goes on now. Its scary and it has gotten a lot worse, said Danka, who has lived there with his family for 26 years. Love said he wouldnt consider walking a dog on the street, because youre constantly looking over your shoulder, waiting for a car careening around a corner at high speed to crash into something or, worse, someone. Love said fortunately there havent been any major accidents on Pearl Street, but that could change. Accident statistics in the area were not readily available from police. The fact that it hasnt happened is just blind luck, he said. Its a heartbeat away from an accident. Danka and Love said of particular concern is people trying to pull out of Stoddard Street, a hilly side street with a stop sign at the top for access to Pearl Street. They suggested police install a couple of stop signs along the road. Board of Police Commissioners Chairman Robert Koskelowski is no stranger to concerns of speeding along Pearl Street, as he has resided there himself for many years. A stop sign was installed several years ago near his home in an effort to slow lead-footed motorists. I had a mail truck crash into my house a few years ago, and I work outside in my yard a lot, too Koskelowski said. But Koskelowski said police cant be faulted for not doing radar on Pearl Street, as he said he sees a regular presence there. He suggested perhaps making Stoddard Street a one-way street and having residents who live there exit via Grand Street, rather than Pearl Street. Love and Danka agreed they, too, see police along Pearl Street, but said thats not always the solution to speeding. The police are doing a good job, but you cant patrol this problem away, Love said. Deputy Police Chief Steve Prajer said efforts are underway to look into speeding and other issues on Pearl Street, including putting up a speed trailer as a possible deterrent, and the possibility of installing stop signs, as a more cost effective solution than, say, speed bumps. Police said speed bumps would require costly engineering of the road, and would hinder emergency vehicles which travel along Pearl Street frequently, especially with two senior living complexes nearby. The cost to do something about this would be far less than losing a life, Love said. jean.sos@snet.net SEYMOUR If Seymour Police Departments K9 officers and their crime-fighting companions should ever get in a jam, they will have a former resident to thank for his donation to keep the duos safer. A $6,700 donation to the K9 unit was made by the Paul Sanford, who died at age 60 in September 2017. Sanford, an avid dog lover, left instructions in his will that one-third of his savings go toward donations, including to the departments K9 unit, according to his brother David Sanford. David Sanford and his wife Marianne, of Stratford, were in attendance at Wednesdays Board of Police Commissioners meeting. David Sanford was gifted with an police department blanket and t-shirt as a way to thank him, and was his sister Donna Attenborogh, who was unable to attend, for their late brothers generosity. The money was used to purchase a portable radio the K9 officers can use not only to stay in touch with their own department on a call, but allows them to tap into other departments that may require assistance from Seymours K9 unit, even in the most remote locations. One of Seymours two K9 officers, John Oczkowski, said the radio is an excellent tool to have, especially if he and his furry partner, Zoar, are deep in the woods tracking a suspect. Paul loved dogs and would often come by the station to talk, Oczkowski said. He was always asking what the department could use. I got to know him over the last few years, and my kids and I would often shovel his driveway because he had a bad back. We are very grateful for his donation. Oczkowski said the department since purchased a second portable for the other K9 officer, Matthew Butler, and his furry companion, Rex. David Sanford said his brother Paul always had at least two dogs and several cats, had a big heart and knew he wanted to help Seymours K9 unit in some way or another. He was such a big dog lover, in fact, that in Paul Sanfords obituary, it read how he would be greatly missed by his loving and devoted dogs; Zoey and Wyatt. Police Chief Paul Satkowski lauded the late Sanford for his generosity and for thinking of the department and the safety of its officers. His legacy carries on with this great donation, and enabled us to buy another piece of equipment to keep our officers safe, Satkowski said. Zoar and Rex, according to Oczkowski, have been invaluable assets to the department, assisting in tracking suspects, motor vehicle stops, narcotics sweeps, building searches and most recently were used at Seymour High School, during an incident where a student brought vaping materials to school, which resulted in several students going to the hospital for becoming ill. New Zealands fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector continues to face disruption. Manufacturers are under pressure to manage this complex environment and address challenges such as bringing growth to categories, managing the in-store experience, and understanding what to do with e-commerceall the while managing financials (doing more with less). Questions around assortment, price, and promotion are at the center of many of these challenges. With shoppers becoming more discerning, promotional strategies need to be shopper-led where price and promotions are expressed as a value equation that shoppers can connect with. By placing the shopper at the center of decision making, manufacturers can better collaborate with their retailer partners to address the inefficiencies of trade spendone of the largest costs of doing business. In New Zealand, for every dollar sold on promotion, approximately $0.50 is truly incremental. This varies across categories depending on the existing promotional dynamic and shopper responsiveness to promotions. By placing the shopper at the center of decision making, manufacturers can better collaborate with their retailer partners to address the inefficiencies of trade spendone of the largest costs of doing business. In New Zealand, for every dollar sold on promotion, approximately $0.50 is truly incremental. This varies across categories depending on the existing promotional dynamic and shopper responsiveness to promotions. In New Zealand, for every dollar sold on promotion, approximately $0.50 is truly incremental. The remaining 50 cents would have occurred anyway, and at a higher non-promoted price point. Theres no doubt that promotional planning can be run in a more efficient and shopper-centric way, but many find it challenging to know where to start when making improvements. In the last six months, Ive met with 30 FMCG companies to discuss ways they can boost their portfolio efficiency. These conversations included building on their shopper understanding, ensuring the right products are on-shelf for that shopper, optimising the use of the shelf space, and managing price and promotional tactics to increase their ROI specific to trade spend. Status quo: sticking with SALY When we look specifically at why existing promotional plans can have a low return on investment for both retailers and manufacturers, SALY (same as last year) budgeting is a prime culprit. Promotion plans are frequently built on a previous years plan with minimal change. In addition, manufacturers are often under pressure to invest at least the same amount of trade spend as they did the year before, if not more. The core challenge is that if you price or promote your products too expensive you could take a hit on share and impact velocity on shelf, risking being delisted. However, too cheap and you could miss out on profit and communicate a lower quality for your brand. Additional challenges in the promotional planning process below can lead to the development of strategies that arent shopper-centric, which run the risk of having a low return on investment. Its a disconnected process: Often, businesses make price and promotional decisions, as well as designing assortment and space strategies, in isolation. This leads to inefficiency when these strategies are not aligned or planned together, despite being inextricably connected. The only way to truly deliver on revenue management and trade promotion optimisation objectives is to first get the right items and facings on shelf, which you then optimise. Often, businesses make price and promotional decisions, as well as designing assortment and space strategies, in isolation. This leads to inefficiency when these strategies are not aligned or planned together, despite being inextricably connected. The only way to truly deliver on revenue management and trade promotion optimisation objectives is to first get the right items and facings on shelf, which you then optimise. Doesnt fully factor in category impacts : Businesses often dont fully understand how individual promotions impact the whole category. As a result, they may develop strategies that steal share from other brands as opposed to driving category impact, which runs the risk of devaluing categories in the long term. Other times, promotions can encourage shoppers to switch to competing stores, which is great for the retailer but not necessarily good for the manufacturer. Understanding promotional strategies that drive shopper behaviour benefiting both manufacturers and retailers allows for the creation of win/win strategies in the planning process. : Businesses often dont fully understand how individual promotions impact the whole category. As a result, they may develop strategies that steal share from other brands as opposed to driving category impact, which runs the risk of devaluing categories in the long term. Other times, promotions can encourage shoppers to switch to competing stores, which is great for the retailer but not necessarily good for the manufacturer. Understanding promotional strategies that drive shopper behaviour benefiting both manufacturers and retailers allows for the creation of win/win strategies in the planning process. Lack of alignment between promotions and shopper response: If shoppers respond more to promotional price changes in the market than shelf price changes for certain items, you could argue that those items are better suited to a hi-lo strategy than an everyday low price strategy. However, a large proportion of items in the market are inelastic where shoppers dont respond significantly to either shelf or promo price, and yet they are still regularly placed on price promotion. In addition, there is a lack of science being applied to understanding promotional mechanics like being in a mailer or on display and how these activities impact shopper behaviour beyond the effect of a price change. A comprehensive understanding of all of this is critical to executing best-in-class price and promotional strategies. New Zealand shoppers are some of the most sensitive to price and promo changes in the world. If shoppers are trained to be increasingly sensitive to shelf and promo price changes, categories will be devalued. NielsenIQ estimates that almost a half a billion dollars annually is eroded in lost value due to promotional activity today. The industry needs to take a shopper-centric view, where strategies are tailored to match how shoppers are behaving and responding to price in the market today. A psychologist whose business works with children was charged Wednesday with multiple sexual assaults of a child under 13 years old. Lorenzo Puertas, 78, faces two counts of sexual assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, Bergen County Prosecutor Dennis Calo announced Thursday. Puertas, of Franklin Lakes, served as executive director of Psych-Ed Services, which has offices in Franklin Lakes and in Lakewood. The health provider officers bilingual psychological services including pre-employment psych screenings and child study team evaluations. In March, the Passaic County Prosecutors Office received a tip about the suspected abuse from the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, the states child welfare agency. Passaic County detectives investigated the tip before learning the alleged assaults all happened in Franklin Lakes, Calo said. The victim was not a patient. Puertas is scheduled for a first court appearance in Hackensack Thursday afternoon. Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Two high schoolers from New York were charged with assault for hazing fellow students at a New Jersey motel during an overnight trip for a military program, officials said Wednesday. The two teenagers are accused of burning another with a hot clothes iron and forcing two other members of their group to engage in humiliating conduct, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said in a statement. The students from Francis Lewis High School in Queens, New York, were on an overnight trip to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for a JROTC competition in April 2018 when the hazing occurred at a Westampton hotel, according to the prosecutor. The abuse involved four male victims. The investigation revealed that one of the victims was burned on his buttocks with a hot iron in addition to suffering other abuse at the hands of the defendants, the prosecutors office said. A second victim in the room was also mistreated. Later, in another room at the hotel, the defendants forced two other members of the group to engage in humiliating conduct. Authorities did not name the two alleged assailants, who were 16 at the time, because of their ages. Officials said they were extradited to Burlington County March 28. Hazing does not bring organizations together; rather, it tears them apart, Coffina said. There is no team-building benefit from injuring and humiliating junior members of a group as a rite of passage. Stripped of whatever ritual it purports to be, this conduct is nothing more than assault and bullying, which we will prosecute just as vigorously as any other case, seeking to vindicate the rights and dignity of the victims who are harmed. Both teens were charged with aggravated assault, child endangerment and other offenses. One of the teens was also accused of aggravated sexual assault, hazing and invasion of privacy. A Burlington County woman was charged with animal cruelty this week after the New Jersey State Police allege they found her running a dog boarding and training facility that was in deplorable and inhumane conditions. On Tuesday, officers arrived at Marissa Corbetts home on Oakshade Road in Shamong Township to assist the Burlington County Health Department with an inspection, police said in a statement. When detectives arrived, they observed evidence of animal cruelty inflicted upon the dogs on the property. The odor of animal feces and ammonia, which spread throughout the residence, police said, caused several of the first responders to get sick. A search of the property lead detectives to discover that Corbett was allegedly maintaining a boarding and training business at her home with 20 living dogs of various breeds. Five of the dogs were in critical condition and had to be transported to an emergency veterinary clinic, police said, and one later died as a result of an illness. The remaining dogs were taken to the Burlington County Shelter to be treated. Corbett was charged with one count of third-degree animal cruelty, 19 counts of fourth-degree animal cruelty, and 40 counts of disorderly persons offense of animal cruelty. She was released from police custody, pending a future court date. Corbett is listed as an employee of Above & Beyond Dog Training, in Mount Holly. A call to the business for comment on her arrest was not immediately returned Thursday. Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip?Tell us. nj.com/tips. Meet my new co-workers for the day. Theres Chara Kraner, Niara Wright and Rick Cayer. And then theres me. Were not crammed into a bland multi-story office complex. There arent rows of cubicles, awful fluorescent lighting overhead, or the canned sound of white noise humming above us. Instead, we each coughed up a fee to work from a reinvented space on the second-floor of the Cherry Hill Mall, sandwiched between a Nordstrom and a Forever 21, overlooking the stretch where the mall-walkers get in their early morning stroll. Welcome to 1776, a new entrepreneurial incubator and co-working facility. Its the type of pay-as-you-go collaborative workspace youd expect to find in the center of Philadelphia not in a suburban mall in a largely retail-driven, bedroom community in South Jersey. The 11,000-square-foot space opened earlier this year with the goal of cultivating and empowering start-up companies, and addressing the evolving landscape of retail malls the intersection of bricks and clicks, as mall owner PREIT described it. So, instead of working from my home office in Camden County where my fairly new kitten, Conella, is a constant distraction or the Wegmans cafe down the road, my bosses sent me to test out the new space. I was fairly apprehensive about it. In the comfort of my home, I work from a fold-out table and find toys for the cat to chase so she leaves me alone. I dont have to worry about being loud on the phone, packing a lunch, or what Im going to wear. So I packed a lunch of leftover tacos (I left out the onions), tossed my laptop in my backpack, put on my hat and headed to the office. For $30, I was given access to a hot desk a seat in a common space, some of which overlooked the malls atrium, or hallway internet, and printing capabilities. Other plans include monthly rates from $199 which gives you 15 days of hot-desk access, and time to use the conference space or $999 for a private office and business address. One of the conference rooms available for rent in 1776, a co-working space in the Cherry Hill Mall. If I needed to step away for a private call, there are phone booths available. Want to skip the food court? Theres a communal kitchenette, too. A complimentary lunch is served once a month. The open floor plan looks like a cross between an Apple store and a Starbucks not entirely unlike the offerings of our office in Mullica Hill. I arrived at 9:30 a.m. but, it took until about 2 p.m. before I became comfortable enough to warm up the taco and fixings I brought along with me for lunch. Until then, I spent most of my day in brief chats with my new coworkers. Its nice to have a place where we can go to work away from home, said Kraner, who works for KENX, a California-based, life-science conference promoter. Kraner lives in Voorhees and works from home two days and three days from here. She meets up with her co-workers, Walsh, who lives in South Philadelphia and Howard Wilewsky of Cherry Hill. Sometimes you just want to be around other people, Walsh said. I agree. Working away from a brick and mortar office can provide a level of freedom and flexibility but plugging into a workspace is also refreshing even if at first, its a little awkward. I discreetly nibbled on some nuts and dried fruit before I wandered into one of the phone booths to make a call for an interview for another story. The small really small space had a desk and a chair, and a sterile brick wall that made me feel a bit claustrophobic. Just enough room to turn around. One of the tiny phone cubicles at, 1776 a co-working space in the Cherry Hill Mall. It allowed me to gather my thoughts but was so quiet and small I found my head nodding with fatigue. I had several more hours to go and decided to pivot to the counter seats near the mall hallway. It was the right move for me, but maybe not for everyone. It provided the right mix of workspace and enough stimulus from the hustle and bustle of the mall to stay awake. Thats when I warmed up my taco, rolled up my sleeves and got some work done. The common space was mostly dominated by the drone of an overhead ventilator and a mash-up of sound, including classical Muzak, dozens of voices and echoing sounds of people walking through the mall, kind of white noise with color. There was also an occasional wail of a small child. The one thing that was particularly distracting was the giant, illuminated revolving sign that appeared to be about 30 feet long and suspended at the top of an atrium the 1776 space overlooked. It reminded me of a scene from the original Blade Runner movie in which images from a giant illuminated screen would tower over head, except this one had a brightly colored giraffe for which you would suddenly be eyeball to eyeball. My coworkers also said a nearby location for a picture with the Easter Bunny also stirred up noise. The bunny appeared to be nowhere in sight on this recent weekday. As much as 1776 tries to feel like an office, its kind of hard to forget youre still in the mall. One of the co-working spaces in 1776 in the Cherry Hill Mall is close to the entrance that overlooks the atrium. Other seating areas aren't far from the noise. Rick Cayer had the same experience at first. Its a nice place to work for a few hours to get out of the house and feel focus more intently, said Cayer who lives in nearby Collingswood but buys and flips residential properties mostly in Georgia a Florida. At first, I thought it was kind of lame to be at a mall. I hate malls. But I like it. Cayer said he often visited 1776s Philadelphia locations they have four in the city, two in the D.C. area and one in Ambler, Pa. before the mall location opened. Members like Cayer also have access to seminars and other training to help launch and maintain businesses. The Cherry Hill site also has a Founders Market, which features items from local makers and artisans, connected to the workspace. Being an entrepreneur its easy for me to come to a workspace where I can feel comfortable and complete my task, said Niara Wright, a maker who works part-time for 1776 managing the Founders Market and has her own custom clothing and jewelry company. She sells her products in the store. Wright said she previously rented a storefront in Haddonfield but said the Founders Market gave her a location to sell her products in one of the areas premiere malls for a fraction of the price she was paying for rent. Maybe shes on to something. Including the handful of new colleagues I met during the day, 1776 has about 40 coworkers enrolled so far, but has the capacity for up to 250. Scott Poris, the 1776 campus director, was finishing a late lunch at the kitchenette counter around 4 p.m. The coworking spaces had cleared out. He said a typical 1776 workspace had up 90 percent capacity within 18 months. He said his pitch is typically to entrepreneurs and remote workers who are tired of working from the kitchen table. Sometimes, I prefer my tacos at home. Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The New Jersey man accused of bringing gasoline cans and lighters into St. Patricks Cathedral in New York on Wednesday was arrested two days earlier for refusing to leave Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, according to Essex County Sheriff Armando B. Fontoura. Marc Lamparello, 37, of Hasbrouck Heights, who faces attempted arson, reckless endangerment and trespassing in the New York incident, refused to leave the famed Newark cathedral, which is the fifth-largest in North America, when a late mass had ended about 10:20 p.m., Fontoura said Thursday. Take me out in handcuffs, arrest me. Im not leaving, Fontoura said Lamparello told sheriffs officers working security at the church. He said, Im not going, this is Gods house and Im not leaving, Fontoura said, recounting what his officers told him. The officers tried to convince him to go and he said, No, no, Im not leaving. A larger-than-usual security presence is seen at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Thursday, April 18, 2019. A New Jersey man was arrested Wednesday night after entering the cathedral carrying two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters, the New York Police Department said, just days after flames ravaged the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.AP Fountoura said the officers called a bishop to the pew who blessed Lamparello. We thought that was it and that he would leave, Fontoura said. But then he threw himself down on the floor between two pews. The officers then handcuffed Lamparello and drove him to police headquarters, where they gave him three summonses charging him with defiant trespass, disorderly persons and obstruction of the administration of justice. Fontoura said the officers were concerned about Lamparellos emotional welfare and called medical personnel for an evaluation. EMS said he was fine and good to go, Fontoura said. The sheriff said Lamparellos 77-year-old mother came from Hasbrouck Heights and the two left together in Lamparellos minivan with Lamparello driving. Shortly before 8 p.m Wednesday, Lamparello allegedly drove his minivan to St. Patricks Cathedral in New York City, parked near the church and walked inside carrying a pair of two gallon canisters and butane lighters. He was stopped and questioned by church security before leaving the church, police said. After his arrest, the NYPD said they found Lamparello had booked a one-way flight to Rome, Italy. Lamparello is a philosophy instructor who has taught at New York Citys Lehman and Brooklyn colleges and Seton Hall University in New Jersey. Lehmans website listed him as a Ph.D. candidate at the City University of New Yorks Graduate Center. In a statement, Lehman College spokesperson Sarah Ramsey said, We are aware that an individual was arrested last night after an incident at St. Patricks Cathedral. The individual was hired at Lehman College during this academic year, and was a part-time, online instructor this semester. We are taking the appropriate steps to terminate the individuals employment with the college. Lamparellos name was no longer on Brooklyn Colleges web site Thursday afternoon. A page on Amazon.com describes Lamparellos 2016 book, Reason and Counterpoint, as offering ambitious and highly creative answers to some of the most vexing philosophical questions, while also using skepticism to question some of the most basic assumptions at the heart of philosophical method and inquiry. Lamparellos father, Leonard, answered the door of the familys home Thursday morning and said the family wanted privacy. We dont know whats going on. Were waiting for the officials to call us," Leonard Lamparello, 79, said. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said police are still investigating the New York incident and police have said there inconsistencies in his story. There was no apparent connection to terrorism, Miller said. The (security officer) asks him where hes going and informs him he cant proceed into the cathedral carrying these things, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller. Some of the gasoline spilled on the floor as he turned after being stopped by security, Miller said. This Sept. 6, 2018, photo shows St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.AP Officers from the NYPD Critical Response Command team were called and were able to locate Lamparello, who told them he had run out of gas and wanted to cut through the cathedral to get to his destination, Miller said. Police checked his car and when they found it still had gasoline in its tank, he was taken into custody. Security then notified officers from the counter-terrorism bureau who were standing outside, Miller said. The officers arrested him after he was questioned. "His basic story was he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue. That his car had run out of gas," Miller said. "We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas and at that point he was taken into custody." "It's hard to say exactly what his intentions were, but I think the totality of circumstances of an individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patrick's Cathedral carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters is something that we would have great concern over," Miller said. "His story is not consistent." Miller said the suspect is known to police, who are currently looking into his background. St. Patricks Cathedral was built in 1878 and had a sprinkler-like system installed during recent renovations. Its wooden roof is also coated with fire retardant. Lamparellos brother, told The Daily Beast he was stunned by news of the arrest. Oh my god. Im shocked this could even be true. Im almost speechless, he said. This is something that is so not him. I dont know what to even say. The Associated Press contributed to this report Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. A New Jersey State Police trooper was arrested Thursday on charges he received a sexually-explicit photo of a 5-year-old girl from the childs mother, who suggested he should sexually assault the child, the state Office of the Attorney General said. Jeffrey Reitz, 47, of Williamstown, faces a third-degree charge of possessing child pornography and has been suspended from the State Police, authorities said. Reitz had an email exchange with the woman on Dec. 31, 2014, during which she suggested he sexually assault her daughter, authorities said. He asked for a photo of the girl, saying he wanted to see if it would get him sexually aroused, according to his criminal complaint. After receiving the photo, he responded with one word: Nice, authorities said. He also sent the woman photos of his genitals before and after the woman sent the image of the girl, authorities said. Reitzs involvement in the email exchange was discovered as a result of evidence seized in a separate investigation by the Camden County Prosecutors Office, authorities said. The woman pleaded guilty to permitting a child to engage in pornography and was sentenced to seven years in prison. A search of her cellphone revealed the emails to Reitz, authorities said in the complaint. The trooper, who is assigned to the State Polices Commercial Carrier Safety Inspection Unit, is currently jailed at the Salem County Correctional Facility. Reitzs attorney, Stuart Alterman, said his client is a 15-year veteran with the state police and has served without incident. I met with my client today. He is going to be entering a plea of not guilty and he should be released very shortly, Alterman said Thursday afternoon. We will take whatever necessary steps in order to have him exonerated and restored to his position. The troopers current salary is $95,198, according to state records. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. JERSEY CITY Last year, the Jersey City teachers union won a new contract after months of escalating drama and a one-day strike that ground the school district to a halt. This year, the citys public school teachers are on the eve of another new labor agreement, but without all the sturm and drang. About 1,000 of the unions members voted to ratify the new contracts terms on Tuesday and the board may finalize the deal later this month. The 30,000-student district has about 2,300 teachers. The details have yet to be revealed, but a major victory for the union, the Jersey City Education Association, would have statewide implications. If the JCEA wins concessions from the district on escalating health-care costs, teachers unions statewide would seek similar deals from their school boards. JCEAs president, Ron Greco, declined to comment, saying he cannot speak publicly about the contract until agreements for the districts other labor unions are ratified. Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas said the contract would not be public until the days before the school board votes on it, but he characterized the deal as containing salary freezes for higher paid employees, small increases for teachers in their second year, a reduction in extra compensation and more. Thomas applauded the nine-member board for coming to an agreement on a new contract for teachers without a strike, like last year, or the intervention of an arbitrator, which occurred in 2014. The boards transformative leadership in this process and collaboration is marked by the ability to conclude the various contracts in time for the budgets to ensure actual costs are captured in the budget and not a fugazi budget like in the past five years, he said. That past five years is an apparent reference to Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles, whose seven-year stint leading the district was cut short in January when the school board placed her on paid leave until her contract runs out in June 2020. Thomas, other board members and the teachers union had sparred with Lyles for years. The teachers vote on the terms of the new deal was overwhelming: 1,019 yes to 133 no, according to the union. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. JERSEY CITY The Sip Avenue site that is home to the VIP Diner, the Journal Square eatery in business for over 45 years, has been sold. Real estate firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler announced the sale of 175 Sip Ave. on Thursday, making public a deal that has been rumored for months. The property is a roughly half-acre lot at Sip Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard, making it prized land for a real estate developer. The Journal Square PATH station and transit hub is a short walk away. HFFs press release announcing the sale calls the area around the VIP rapidly gentrifying. Its not clear what the new owner intends to do with the property or when the diner may close, but the diners manager, Michael Pagonas, said a residential building is likely. Zoning would allow for a high-rise on the site, potentially one 25 stories tall. One of the last classic diners left in Jersey City, the VIP was never known for its cuisine. But its in a good location, its open 24 hours and it has a parking lot. Kaisha, an episode in the sixth season of The Sopranos, was filmed there in 2006. Another diner gone, lamented Councilman Rich Boggiano, who represents the area. HFF did not say who purchased the site, but a source with knowledge of the sale said it was a company tied to Peter de Neufville, a former congressional candidate in New Jerseys 11th district and one of Chris Christies top fundraisers. A phone call seeking comment from de Neufville was not returned. Other companies tied to de Neufville own nearby properties: the two-story building at Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenue that includes Boulevard Drinks, which he purchased in 2015, and the three-story Goodwill building a block from the VIP, bought in 2014. Rumors have spread for years that the VIP was on its way out. In 2010, the diner almost became a Walgreens, with the pharmacy chain applying to the city to tear down the building. Chris Mench lives nearby on Academy Street. Mench, 25, said he visits the VIP at least monthly for the classics: breakfast food, mozzarella sticks. He said he is not surprised by the sale, considering how large the lot is. "It's definitely sad, he said. I love diner culture. It's a very quintessentially Jersey thing. This is Hudson County, so there is a corruption connection in the VIPs past. In 1990, Vincent Michael Morris, its former owner, was busted on an obstruction of justice charge. Morris admitted he used his court contacts to lower the sentence of a convicted racketeer. He was sentenced to one year in prison. Morris had previously been arrested for robbing actress Sophia Loren of $700,000 worth of jewelry at gunpoint in 1970. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. Did New York Waterway pull a fast one on local and state officials in its pursuit of bringing a ferry facility to the Union Dry Dock site? Thats what Hoboken attorneys allege in documents presented to Gov. Phil Murphy last month, in which they called NY Waterways claim that it must move its Weehawken refueling and repair facility to the Union Dry Dock because its being evicted a manufactured crisis. The intention of NY Waterway, which ferries thousands of people daily between New Jersey and New York, is to clear the way for a 280-unit waterfront development, according to documents prepared for a March 15 stakeholders meeting with Murphy, Hoboken, and NY Waterway officials. NY Waterway says that residential development is quickly proceeding and has accelerated its need to move operations from the Weehawken site. The company has been pushing to move the facility to Hobokens Union Dry Dock, on Sinatra Drive between Ninth and 10th streets near the Castle Point shoreline a site NY Waterway purchased for $11.5 million in 2017. Officials and other stakeholders in the Mile Square City fiercely oppose the proposal and now the city is claiming NY Waterway concealed relevant information about an alternative site near its current location. NY Waterway's facility is currently operating on two barges in the Hudson River, near Pershing Road, on water land owned by Romulus Development Corp. NY Waterway and Romulus are operated by the family of Arthur Imperatore. Two adjacent upland properties, which tax records indicate were purchased for a combined in $75 million February by a U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese real estate investment firm, have been used for years as part of the maintenance facility. Officials with the company say an upland portion is critical for the facility's operations. A NY Waterway spokesman said the company was evicted from the property March 29 and is no longer allowed to use the upland. The company acknowledged, however, that it continues to pay rent to the landowner, Hongkun USA, and is still allowed to access the properties to get on and off the dock. They say they are on a "month-to-month basis." It is unclear when construction will begin for the development. But attorneys for Hoboken said NY Waterway's alleged eviction "is a manufactured crisis," and that the company has "made materially false representations" to Murphy, the city and residents "by concealing the existence of the Marina Agreement," a document that include plans for an alternative fueling/repair site in Weehawken. Hoboken attorneys said the agreement was concealed to to create a fictional narrative the (Union Dry Dock) was the only viable site for its operations," according to documents obtained through an Open Public Records Act request. Under the 2016 agreement between Roseland a subsidiary of Mack-Cali Realty Corp. and NY Waterway and Romulus Development Corp., the ferry facility would eventually be moved so the adjacent land could be developed, documents show. It gave the company 18 months to find a new location for the facility, but it also provided an alternative site just south of the current facility, in the event no new location is found. This site was prepared as a stopgap, a spokesman for NY Waterway said, adding that the site is not a viable option for a permanent maintenance facility. It still wouldnt get (the facility) on any land, said NY Waterway spokesman Pat Smith, who noted that adjacent land is critical for the facility to operate. Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla declined to comment for this story. Murphys office did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations made by Hobokens attorneys. The lands adjacent to the current ferry facility in Weehawken were previously owned by Port Imperial South, LLC, a Roseland company, but were sold to Lennar Corporation in 2008. Romulus had a partial ownership stake in Port Imperial South, which it sold in 2016. Hongkun USA then purchased the properties for $27.2 million and $47.7 million in February. Weehawken Planning Board documents show Hongkun USA is planning a 280-unit residential development on the land. Meanwhile, residents, public officials and other stakeholders in Hoboken see the Union Dry Dock land as one of the last pieces to create a contiguous open public space along the Hudson River. Hundreds of people rallied last month against NY Waterways proposed move. Hoboken contemplated seizing the Union Dry Dock land via eminent domain last year when NJ Transit sought to purchase the property and lease it back to NY Waterway. Hoboken backed off upon request from the governor. The city offered $11.6 million for the property last year, but the company chose not to sell. NJ Transit's purchase of the land would have all but ensured the land be used as a ferry maintenance site by protecting the property from city seizure. Hoboken officials, during the March 15 meeting with Murphy and NY Waterway, urged the state not to support the plan to bring the facility to the Union Dry Dock site. "The City urges the Governor not to approve or assist the development of this private industrial facility at the (Union Dry Dock) site... for the sole financial benefit of a wealthy, private corporation," city attorneys said in the letter. Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @cwmcdonald_. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. Dear Annie: My best friend and I agree on almost everything, but something has come up that has caused us to argue, and we decided to turn to you for advice. We both have children who are in their first year of high school, and when they graduate they want to go to college. Our argument has been over the college cheating scandal that has sent shockwaves through the country. My friend says the parents who bribed their kids way into prestigious universities did what any loving parent would do, and that we should show forgiveness to them and their children. We are both Christians, and she says forgiveness is a tenet of our faith. She says that just because some of the parents are rich and famous, they are being unfairly singled out for harsher punishment than usual. My argument is that these parents did a great disservice to their children, to the universities and to the well-deserving applicants who got turned down because the rich kids took their rightful place. I think the students who were admitted under false pretenses should all be kicked out -- no exceptions. They stole something that did not belong to them -- acceptance to a prestigious university. The parents should serve jail time to send a lesson to anyone who wants to cheat or buy their way into a school in the future. You have a great deal of wisdom for your years, and we both read your column regularly and have decided to turn to you for your thoughts. I showed this letter to my friend to make sure that she felt that I was portraying both of our positions accurately, and she agreed. -- Friends in Disagreement Dear Friends: You both make good points, but I agree with you that simply forgiving everyone without any consequences would send a bad message to future cheaters. If I were the judge in these cases, here is what I would do with those parents who are found guilty: I would sentence them to pay a hefty fine -- double the amount of money they spent on bribes. They would pay the fine to the same university they cheated, and the university would be required by law to use that money for scholarships for worthy applicants. That is paying a price, but one with a positive outcome that will improve the lives of hard-working students who are not from rich or famous families. Dear Annie: Ive lived on the American west coast my whole life, but I really want to move east. I feel more at home there. Multiple strangers -- and friends -- have told me I have more of an east coast vibe. But packing up and moving across the country is terrifying. I feel in my gut that its the right thing, but theres not a ton of logic behind that feeling. It would be a good thing to broaden my horizons, branch out, get out of my comfort zone. (All the best things Ive ever done have been scary in the moment.) So should I follow my heart and head East? If you think so, do you have any tips for the move and adjusting to the other side of the country? -- Coast to Coast Dear Coast to Coast: Always trust your gut, but set yourself up to succeed. Life is for living and taking risks. When you are older looking back, you will not regret the experiences that you had outside your comfort zone so much as you will regret the ones you let slip away. Eleanor Roosevelt wisely recommended doing one thing that scares you every day. If you feel in your heart that you are supposed to head east, then head east, but do it with a plan. Try to line up a job. Select an area where you have friends or a support system so that you dont feel too isolated or alone. Research the area youd like to life to have some familiarity with the neighborhood. You dont want to spread your wings and then not be able to take off, or, worse, crash before you start. Ask Me Anything: A Year of Advice From Dear Annie is out now! Annie Lanes debut book -- featuring favorite columns on love, friendship, family and etiquette -- is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. Annie Lane grew up in California and headed east to graduate with honors from New York University, where she majored in English literature and specialized in psychology. She earned her Juris Doctor from New York Law School. Since July 2016, Annie has offered common-sense solutions to everyday problems in her column, Dear Annie. Her advice is unusually perceptive. She is firm, funny and sympathetic, echoing the style of her biggest inspiration, Ann Landers. Annie lives outside Manhattan with her husband, two kids and two dogs. When not writing, she devotes her time to play dates and Play-Doh. COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM First, a shipping company dumped oily waste and other pollution into American waters. Then it lied about it. Now the Italian company, dAmico Shipping Italia S.p.A., is being fined $4 million for all of it. U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Craig Carpenito announced Wednesday that dAmico pleaded guilty in Newark federal court to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. From August 2014 to January 2016, the dAmico-owned ship M/T Cielo di Milano carried petroleum products between the U.S. and Canada. The ship made multiple trips to New Jersey, stopping in Bayonne and Paulsboro, as well as ports in Maryland and Florida. Ships like the Cielo di Milano are required by law to take steps to prevent oil from leaking out of the ship and into the water. The ships crews are also required to keep an Oil Record Book to track the transfer and disposal of oily waste. During the time period in question, the Cielo di Milanos crew ignored the required protocols and illegally dumped oily waste from the ship. The crew also falsified the Oil Record Book to cover up their actions. In January 2015, the Cielo di Milano was inspected by the Coast Guard in Bayonne. During the inspection, the ships chief engineer, Girolamo Curatolo, and second engineer lied to inspectors and ordered their crew members to do the same. Once the Coast Guard left, Curatolo went a step further and burned documents related to the ships tanks in the vessels boiler flame. The $4 million fine includes $1 million to be used for environmental conservation projects around Newark Bay. The ships pollution has been a long running legal battle. In 2016, Curatolo was sentenced to eight months in prison and fined $5,000 for his role in the maritime dumping scheme, according to a World Maritime News report. He had plead guilty to the crimes in Newark federal court earlier that year. The Cielo di Milano was sold by dAmico in July 2018, according to a World Maritime News report. Read the full court filing below: Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MSolDub. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. UPDATE: N.J. man charged with attempted arson at St. Patricks Cathedral was arrested 2 days earlier at Newarks famed Sacred Heart church A man carrying two canisters of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters into St. Patricks Cathedral was arrested Wednesday night, just two days after a massive blaze gutted the Notre Dame cathedral in France, according to New York City Police Department. The 37-year-old man, who has not been identified by police, parked his minivan near the church, walked inside carrying the pair of two gallon canisters at 7:55 p.m. and was stopped and questioned by church security before leaving the church, police said. As he enters the cathedral hes confronted by a cathedral security officer who asks him where hes going and informs him he cant proceed into the cathedral carrying these things, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller. At that point some gasoline apparently spills out onto the floor as hes turned around. Officers from the NYPD Critical Response Command team were called and were able to locate the man, who told them he had run out of gas and wanted to cut through the cathedral to get to his destination. Around 7:55pm, a man walked into St. Patricks Cathedral in Manhattan with gas cans and lighter fluid, and was subsequently apprehended by @NYPDCT without incident. We thank our partners for their help, and remember - if you see something, say something. pic.twitter.com/qEbmklnqzQ NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) April 18, 2019 Police checked his car and when they found it still had gasoline in its tank, he was taken into custody. Its hard to say exactly what his intentions were, but I think the totality of circumstances of an individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patricks Cathedral carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters is something that we would have great concern over, Miller said. His story is not consistent. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Note: Parts of this post were originally published in April 2018. Information has been updated to include the dates and times of the full moon in April 2019. The full April pink moon" will be glowing in the night sky this week. But first things first: A pink moon doesnt look pink, just like a blue moon doesnt look blue and a blood moon has nothing to do with blood. Those realities, however, dont stop astronomy writers and sky watchers from using these alluring nicknames whenever a full moon is drawing near. We had three consecutive supermoons to start out the year. Now we have a full pink moon on the way, gracing the night sky during the religious celebrations of Passover and Good Friday. Here are a few tidbits about the 2019 pink moon, including when it will officially be full, and how its nickname originated. The full April moon, nicknamed the "pink moon," will be rising in the sky on Friday, April 19, 2019. Sky watchers can also catch a glimpse of the almost-full moon on Thursday night, April 18.Photo illustration | Pixabay When to see the full pink moon The April moon will officially be full at 7:12 a.m. on Friday, April 19, which means it will look nearly full on Thursday night, April 18 (Holy Thursday), and completely full on Friday night, when Christians celebrate Good Friday and Jewish people start their Passover celebration. The moon will start rising in the eastern sky over New York City, Newark and Atlantic City at about 6:50 p.m. on Thursday and about 8 p.m. on Friday. Observers in Philadelphia will be able to see the moon start rising in the eastern sky at 6:54 p.m. on Thursday and 8:05 p.m. on Friday. Check the moonrise time in your region on TimeAndDate.com. The full April "pink moon" will be arriving on Friday, April 19, 2019. What color will it really be?Wichita Eagle | AP Will the moon really look pink? Despite its colorful nickname, the pink moon will look just like any ordinary full moon. That means it will appear to be yellowish or golden-orange when it is near the horizon, and give off a whitish glow when it moves higher into the sky. It will not look pink. Why is it called a pink moon? There are several traditional nicknames for the April full moon, but the pink moon is the most popular one. Thats because pink symbolizes the start of spring, a season when many pink-colored flowers are starting to bloom and spread, as noted by FullMoonPhases.com. The so-called "pink moon" will be rising in the night sky on April 19, 2019. The full April moon also has a bunch of other nicknames.Tony Kurdzuk | Star-Ledger File Photo What are other nicknames for the April full moon? In some cultures, people refer to the April full moon as the egg moon, the fish moon and the sprouting grass moon, according to FullMoonPhases.com and the Old Farmers Almanac. The egg moon nickname apparently refers to the egg-laying season. The fish nickname was reportedly coined by coastal American Indian tribes because schools of shad would swim upstream to spawn around the time of the April full moon. And the sprouting grass moniker refers to the obvious those green blades of grass that start getting longer in the spring. Although the full moon in April is known as the "pink moon," it actually does not look pink. Chris Young | AP When is the next full moon? After this months pink moon, the next full moon of 2019 will appear in the sky on Saturday, May 18. The most popular nickname for the May full moon is the flower moon, but some people refer to it as the corn planting moon, the bright moon or the milk moon, according to The Telegraph in the United Kingdom. Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LensReality or like him on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook. By Kumar Dharmarajan Imagine five older adults are at a table, playing cards. Odds are that at least one is living with diabetes, a chronic disease that affects a disproportionate number of seniors. Data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows more than 20 percent of older adults have been diagnosed with diabetes, compared to 9.4 percent of the total population. In New Jersey, diabetes is the eighth leading cause of death. According to the American Diabetes Association, the disease costs the state $7.5 billion in direct health costs and another $2.8 billion in lost productivity costs. These are staggering statistics, and they deserve attention. We must address the alarming prevalence of the disease, much of which is due to the rise in Type II diabetes, the type commonly caused by lifestyle factors. It's also time we ensure those who already have the disease can effectively manage it and live happy and healthy lives. The good news is, Medicare Advantage plans often specifically tailored to help seniors better manage chronic conditions like diabetes can help. Medicare Advantage plans were created to offer additional benefits beyond traditional Medicare, focusing more on preventive care and covering services like dental and vision, which aren't included in traditional Medicare. They often include gym membership incentives, nutrition advice, and other programs like telemedicine to help older Americans live active lifestyles. This high-quality, wrap-around care can help dramatically improve health for people with diabetes. In fact, research shows how Medicare Advantages options for disease management and care coordination can make a difference in health outcomes. One study found beneficiaries with diabetes in a Medicare Advantage special needs plan had 7 percent more primary care visits; 19 percent fewer days in the hospital; and 28 percent less hospital readmissions, compared to traditional Medicare. Its the personal stories that matter, too. As the chief scientific officer at Clover Health and a practicing physician, Ive seen the benefits of Medicare Advantage for patients with chronic diseases like diabetes. At Clover, we use technology to pinpoint when seniors are at-risk, so we can send nurse practitioners to our members homes and intervene before problems get unmanageable. For instance, during a home visit, one of Clovers nurse practitioners visited a member who didnt know how to work his insulin pen or check his blood sugar, even as his doctor kept increasing the insulin dosage. In just a few minutes, the nurse demonstrated how to take the cap off the pen and properly inject the insulin. With this simple fix, he could better manage his diabetes. This more personal look at care is a critical step to helping older people manage chronic disease and stay at home, rather than the hospital. By taking a holistic view of seniors' health, Medicare Advantage is the perfect partner to healthy living habits just how a health plan should be! A 15-year-old Paterson girl who authorities say was abducted by an unauthorized immigrant and forced to perform sex acts as he drove her to Chicago told police he wanted to make her his housewife. An Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper stopped their car outside Toledo for a traffic violation Tuesday and sensed something wasnt right, according to highway patrol Lt. Vern E. Fisher. After the trooper got a translator and other authorities involved, the teen who had been denying anything was wrong admitted that Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza, 35, had forced her to perform sex acts. He told her they would go to Chicago and he would work and she could be a housewife, Fisher said Thursday. He described the girl as brainwashed and said she only confirmed the alleged sexual assaults after police found photos and videos on their cell phones. Fisher said the pair were neighbors in Paterson, and the girls family reported her missing recently. She was treated at an Ohio hospital before the states child welfare agency made arrangements to get her back to her family in New Jersey, he said. Fisher said Trooper Mitch Ross should be credited with following his instincts during the traffic stop Tuesday on Interstate 80 in Swanton. Who knows what was going to happen to this girl when they got to Chicago, Fisher said. Ross stopped the car for failing to move over, Fisher said, and the trooper noted the age difference between the occupants and that neither of them had identification or spoke English. He called a patrol translator to the scene and then contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which confirmed that Morales-Pedraza, a Mexican nationale who had been deported before, was in the country illegally, Fisher said. Police took the pair to a local police department, where troopers involved more investigators as well, and got the warrants for the phones. Their stories didnt match up, Fisher said, and it was odd that they would travel to Chicago with no luggage. Morales-Pedraza swore they were just friends, he said, and the girl initially told police she was 22 years old and denied being held against her will. But when police confronted her about the photos and videos on the phones, she said that Morales-Pedraza had forced her to perform the sex acts, Fisher said. He said Trooper Ross suspicions were accurate. You slow down, investigate and use proper resources to figure it out," he said. "Human trafficking is so hard to find and do anything about because the victims are typically brainwashed to think theyve got to do what the suspect says. Morales-Pedraza is expected to appear in court in Ohio Thursday on an abduction charge, but he could be facing additional charges, police said. Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale said his department is working with Ohio authorities to determine how Morales-Pedraza met the girl and the circumstances in which they left the state. Local charges are possible, he said, but it will be up to the Passaic County Prosecutors Office to determine that. Requests for comment from the Passaic prosecutors office were not immediately returned Thursday morning. Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Download and read the Mueller report. Your browser does not support the iframe HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later. The hour-by-hour updates below detail Thursdays unveiling of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report concerning his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. It includes excerpts from the report, quick-hit analysis from legal experts and other commentators, and a discussion of next steps planned by Congress. 12:20 PM (PT)/3:30 PM (ET): The Final Word -- For Now Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that the redacted Mueller report details disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct and that it directly contradicts several statements [Attorney General William Barr] made during his press conference earlier today. Nadler said the responsibility now falls to Congress to hold the president accountable for his actions. He has formally requested Special Counsel Robert Muellers appearance before his committee and said he will issue a subpoena for the full report and the underlying materials. His complete statement is below: Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct. The report concluded there was substantial evidence that President Trump attempted to prevent an investigation into his campaign and his own conduct. Contrary to the Attorney Generals statement this morning that the White House fully cooperated with the investigation, the report makes clear that the President refused to be interviewed by the Special Counsel and refused to provide written answers to follow-up questions; and his associates destroyed evidence relevant to the Russia investigation. The Special Counsel determined that he would not make a traditional charging decision in part because of the Department of Justice policy that a sitting President could not be indicted. Rather, the Special Counsels office conducted an incredibly thorough investigation in order to preserve the evidence for future investigators. The Special Counsel made clear that he did not exonerate the President. The responsibility now falls to Congress to hold the President accountable for his actions. Today and during the past few weeks, Attorney General Barr appears to have shown an unsettling willingness to undermine his own Department in order to protect President Trump. The redacted report directly contradicts several statements he made during his press conference earlier today. For example, the Special Counsel concluded that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would have risen to personal and political concerns. Barr excluded this critical finding from his version of events. The Attorney Generals decision to withhold the full report from Congress is regrettable, but no longer surprising. If he was willing to release this evidence, which is so clearly damaging to the President, just imagine what remains hidden from our view. Barr has so far refused to work with the Committee to provide us with information which has been customarily provided in the past, and to which we are entitled. These concerns and many others will be addressed when Barr testifies before the Committee on May 2nd. Additionally, I have formally requested that Special Counsel Mueller testify before our Committee by May 23rd. Contrary to public reports, I have not heard from the Department about receiving a less-redacted version of the report. Because Congress requires this material in order to perform our constitutionally-mandated responsibilities, I will issue a subpoena for the full report and the underlying materials. I have been and continue to be prepared to make every effort to work with the Attorney General to find a solution that allows Congress to review the entire record and not merely the fragments he chose to share with us today. 11:15 AM (PT)/2:15 PM (ET): An Early Summing Up U.S Attorney General William Barr declared Thursday that Special Counsel Robert Muellers report about his nearly two-year investigation cleared President Donald Trump of wrongdoing both during his campaign and his presidency. As the special counsels report makes clear, Barr said at a press conference, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. But thanks to the special counsels thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter. The redacted Mueller report, however, offers evidence and conclusions that belie the attorney generals clear-cut statements. For example: The report, released shortly after Barrs press conference, indicates that candidate Trump in 2016 had advance knowledge that anti-secrets organization WikiLeaks would release Russia-hacked emails belonging to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Democratic officials. After the first dump in July 2016, the Daily Beast points out, Trump called [then Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort] and his deputy Rick Gates to tell them more releases of damaging information would be coming, in the reports words. [Then Trump attorney Michael Cohen] told investigators that during a meeting around the same time, Trump said something to Cohen -- but the words are redacted because they could harm an ongoing matter. The Mueller report indicates that the special counsel has referred more than a dozen investigations to other prosecutorial offices. Those cases remain active. [T]he investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government, the report states. Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the Campaign. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the Campaign officials shied away. Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities. Mueller did not reach a conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice, chiefly because he was working within the constraints of the long-standing Justice Department policy that a sitting president cant be indicted. The report suggests that the special counsel expects Congress to take up the question of whether Trump obstructed justice. It lays out significant evidence of potential obstruction. After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in 2017, the report states, the president engaged in ... conduct involving public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both private and public to encourage witnesses not cooperate with the investigation. This conduct included Trump telling then White House Counsel Don McGahn to order Muellers firing. McGahn refused to do so. The Mueller report states: "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests." Democrats in Congress are continuing to demand the release of the full, unredacted special-counsel report. House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff have both said they would seek public testimony from Mueller. Trump, meanwhile, is calling for the FBI to be investigated for launching the investigation of his campaign in the first place. We do have to get to the bottom of these things," he said. "This should never happen to another president again, this hoax. Trumps 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale made that case even more vigorously. Now that the collusion and obstruction conspiracy theories have been exposed for the pathetic hoaxes they always were, the Obama-era DOJ and FBI must answer for their misdeeds and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people, he said. Justice will be served. 10:33 AM (PT)/1:33 PM (ET): Oregons View Reactions from a few members of Oregons congressional delegation: AG Barr proved beyond a doubt he is here to defend Trump at all costs, facts be damned. This kind of spin is unworthy of an Attorney General. Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) April 18, 2019 Who could have seen this coming. Its time for hand-marked #PaperBallots. https://t.co/jIu5OOEBmE Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) April 18, 2019 AG Barr is not deserving of America's attention. This morning he acted more like the president's personal lawyer & spokesman than a top government official. That press conference was nothing but a partisan spin worthy of primetime cable news to display loyalty to the president. Earl Blumenauer (@repblumenauer) April 18, 2019 AG Barrs press event this morning was a deep disservice to the independence of the Department of Justice. The Attorney General is supposed to be the lawyer for the federal government, but he sounded like the Presidents personal attorney. Suzanne Bonamici (@RepBonamici) April 18, 2019 Now more than ever, Congress must see the full, unredacted report and Mueller must come to testify before Congress as soon as possible. Suzanne Bonamici (@RepBonamici) April 18, 2019 10:25 AM (PT)/1:25 PM (ET): But ... Her Emails The Mueller report determined that candidate Trump was very focused on getting Democratic nominee Hillary Clintons emails: In Trump's submission, he said his request for Russia to obtain Clinton emails was "in jest and sarcastically, as was apparent to any objective observer"...yet Mueller reports that Trump repeatedly asked people affiliated with his own campaign to find the emails, and they tried. pic.twitter.com/e1bz9p9252 Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2019 It also shows that the special counsel determined that the presidents press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, does not tell the truth: White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told investigators she lied to the press after Comey firing pic.twitter.com/JNN9ObzKFd Dorey Scheimer (@DoreyScheimer) April 18, 2019 9:54 AM (PT/12:54 PM (ET): Campaign Swing Statement from Brad Parscale, Trump-Pence 2020 campaign manager: President Trump has been fully and completely exonerated yet again. Now the tables have turned, and its time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump, motivated by political retribution and based on no evidence whatsoever. There is simply no denying that spying did occur on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, as Attorney General Barr himself noted in testimony before Congress. Barr went on to testify that there was a failure among a group of leaders there at the upper echelon [of the FBI] ... [and] I feel I have an obligation to make sure that government power is not abused. Now that the collusion and obstruction conspiracy theories have been exposed for the pathetic hoaxes they always were, the Obama-era DOJ and FBI must answer for their misdeeds and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people. Justice will be served. 9:33 AM (PT)/12:33 PM (ET): Trumps Attorney Speaks Rudy Giuliani, President Trumps personal attorney, told Fox News that the president did not obstruct justice because he did not have a guilty motive. The publicly released Mueller report, with redactions made by Attorney General William Barr, details the presidents actions that the special counsel investigated as possible obstruction, including Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey, his ordering subordinates to fire Mueller and his efforts to keep witnesses from testifying. Giuliani did not dispute the facts of those incidents, the Associated Press reports, but argued Trump "was an innocent man reacting normally in the face of ... a heavily biased investigation. 9:05 AM (PT)/12:05 PM (ET): Excerpts From the Report More intriguing tidbits from the Mueller report, according to reporters and others reading through it. Muellers decisions, the report indicates, are based on the special counsel respecting the long-standing Department of Justice policy that states a sitting president cannot be indicted. Starting to think William Barr is not a great summarizer. Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2019 Page 370: "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests." Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 18, 2019 The President ordered his White House Counsel to call DOJ and fire Robert Mueller. But for this order being refused, we would have had another Saturday Night Massacre. This alone justifies impeachment. Now. Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) April 18, 2019 'if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state" Mueller Report Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) April 18, 2019 This reads to me as an impeachment referral: "The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the Presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balanced and the principle that no person is above the law. Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) April 18, 2019 Must look at p2 of Report. Mueller says he applied a legal standard whereby he could NOT accuse Trump of crimes. So there isn't a way the Report exonerates. "we determined NOT to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes" Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) April 18, 2019 Seems worth noting. Red underline is part Barr quoted, blue underline the part he omitted. pic.twitter.com/5UOC22ZsZk Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 18, 2019 8:54 AM (PT)/11:54 AM (ET): Reactions to the Report Quick-hit reactions to the Mueller report are coming in. Here are a few from Twitter: Josh Marshall is the editor of Talking Points Memo. Daniel Dale is the Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star. Richard Painter was chief White House ethics counsel for President George W. Bush. VERY VERY IMPORTANT. Barr didn't tell the truth about reasoning on Obstruction. Report says most of reasoning stemmed from belief Prez can't be indicted OR EVEN FAIRLY ACCUSED without being indicted. https://t.co/G2Cf0yJ13a via @TPM Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 18, 2019 The Mueller report says that the lies to Congress and to the special counsel from "several individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign" "materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference." Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2019 Mueller: After Flynn withdrew from his defense agreement with Trump, Trump's lawyer left Flynn's lawyer a voicemail demanding a "heads up" if Flynn was giving Mueller any info that "implicates the president," and asking Flynn to "remember" that Trump had warm feelings for him. pic.twitter.com/tprVHy5xw8 Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2019 The obstruction of justice section of the report references both impeachment and prosecution of the president after he leaves office. Hes toast. Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) April 18, 2019 8:44 AM (PT)/11:44 AM (ET): No Collusion! President Donald Trump said hes having a good day." It was called no collusion, no obstruction," he said at a White House event. ... There never was, by the way, and there never will be. The president added that his investigators still should be investigated. We do have to get to the bottom of these things," he said. "This should never happen to another president again, this hoax. CNN reports that the Mueller report indicates that Mueller referred 14 related investigations to other Justice Department offices. 8:30 AM (PT)/11:30 AM (ET): The End President Donald Trump reacted to Robert Muellers appointment as special counsel in 2017 by saying, "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency, according to the Mueller report. The Associated Press points out that the report includes Trumps written responses to the special counsels questions. Trump wrote that he had no recollection of several key events in Muellers probe, including a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between top aides and a Russian lawyer offering aid to his campaign. Trump also told Mueller he had no recollection that he was told that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to aid his campaign or hurt Hillary Clintons 2016 effort, or that any foreign leader wanted to help his candidacy. AP added: Special counsel Robert Muellers team was dissatisfied with written responses from President Donald Trump, but decided against issuing a subpoena for an interview. In Mueller's report released Thursday, prosecutors call Trump's answers "inadequate." They considered issuing a subpoena for Trump, but decided against it after weighing the likelihood of a long legal battle. Prosecutors also said they had enough information from other sources to draw relevant factual conclusions on intent and credibility. 8:20 AM (PT)/11:20 AM (ET): Russian Links Are you ready to do some reading? If so, follow this link to download and read the Mueller report. We will provide a rolling analysis roundup as legal experts and journalists make their way through the redacted report. Mueller uncovered numerous links between Trump Campaign and Russian government, but did not have enough evidence to charge people for every serious crimes against US. Reminder that political oversights has different rules and standards than criminal prosecution. pic.twitter.com/S2GQRvNps5 David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) April 18, 2019 7:48 AM (PT)/10:48 AM (ET): Barrs Statement Below is the full text of U.S. Attorney General William Barrs opening statement at his press conference this morning: Good Morning. Thank you all for being here today. On March 22, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation of matters related to Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and submitted his confidential report to me pursuant to Department of Justice regulations. As I said during my Senate confirmation hearing and since, I am committed to ensuring the greatest possible degree of transparency concerning the Special Counsels investigation, consistent with the law. At 11:00 this morning, I will transmit copies of a public version of the Special Counsels report to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The Department of Justice will also make the report available to the American public by posting it on the Departments website after it has been delivered to Congress. I would like to offer a few comments today on the report. But before I do that, I want to thank Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for joining me here today and for his assistance and counsel throughout this process. Rod has served the Department of Justice for many years with dedication and distinction, and it has been a great privilege and pleasure to work with him since my confirmation. He had well-deserved plans to step back from public service that I interrupted by asking him to help in my transition. Rod has been an invaluable partner, and I am grateful that he was willing to help me and has been able to see the Special Counsels investigation to its conclusion. Thank you, Rod. I would also like to thank Special Counsel Mueller for his service and the thoroughness of his investigation, particularly his work exposing the nature of Russias attempts to interfere in our electoral process. As you know, one of the primary purposes of the Special Counsels investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Volume I of the Special Counsels report describes the results of that investigation. As you will see, the Special Counsels report states that his investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the Special Counsels report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. But thanks to the Special Counsels thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter. That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed. The Special Counsels report outlines two main efforts by the Russian government to influence the 2016 election: First, the report details efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. Following a thorough investigation of this disinformation campaign, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian nationals and entities for their respective roles in this scheme. Those charges remain pending, and the individual defendants remain at large. But the Special Counsel found no evidence that any Americans including anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme. Indeed, as the report states, [t]he investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRAs interference operation. Put another way, the Special Counsel found no collusion by any Americans in the IRAs illegal activity. Second, the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and emails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicizing those emails. Obtaining such unauthorized access into computers is a federal crime. Following a thorough investigation of these hacking operations, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian military officers for their respective roles in these illegal hacking activities. Those charges are still pending and the defendants remain at large. But again, the Special Counsels report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations. In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russian governments hacking. The Special Counsels investigation also examined Russian efforts to publish stolen emails and documents on the internet. The Special Counsel found that, after the GRU disseminated some of the stolen materials through its own controlled entities, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the GRU transferred some of the stolen materials to Wikileaks for publication. Wikileaks then made a series of document dumps. The Special Counsel also investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts. Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the Special Counsels report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. Finally, the Special Counsel investigated a number of links or contacts between Trump Campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. After reviewing those contacts, the Special Counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign. So that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes. After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the Special Counsels report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the President could amount to obstruction of the Special Counsels investigation. As I addressed in my March 24th letter, the Special Counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. Instead, the report recounts ten episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense. After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General and I concluded that the evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsels legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision. Instead, we accepted the Special Counsels legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the Special Counsel in reaching our conclusion. In assessing the Presidents actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the Presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the Special Counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsels investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. Now, before I take questions, I want to address a few aspects of the process for producing the public report that I am releasing today. As I said several times, the report contains limited redactions relating to four categories of information. To ensure as much transparency as possible, these redactions have been clearly labelled and color-coded so that readers can tell which redactions correspond to which categories. As you will see, most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, such as the IRA case and the Roger Stone case. These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the Special Counsels Office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases. The redactions are their work product. Consistent with long-standing Executive Branch practice, the decision whether to assert Executive privilege over any portion of the report rested with the President of the United States. Because the White House voluntarily cooperated with the Special Counsels investigation, significant portions of the report contain material over which the President could have asserted privilege. And he would have been well within his rights to do so. Following my March 29th letter, the Office of the White House Counsel requested the opportunity to review the redacted version of the report in order to advise the President on the potential invocation of privilege, which is consistent with long-standing practice. Following that review, the President confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the Special Counsels report. Accordingly, the public report I am releasing today contains redactions only for the four categories that I previously outlined, and no material has been redacted based on executive privilege. In addition, earlier this week, the Presidents personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released. That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government Act, which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an Independent Counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. The Presidents personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions. In addition to making the redacted report public, we are also committed to working with Congress to accommodate their legitimate oversight interests with respect to the Special Counsels investigation. We have been consulting with Chairman Graham and Chairman Nadler throughout this process, and we will continue to do so. Given the limited nature of the redactions, I believe that the publicly released report will allow every American to understand the results of the Special Counsels investigation. Nevertheless, in an effort to accommodate congressional requests, we will make available to a bipartisan group of leaders from several Congressional committees a version of the report with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information. Thus, these members of Congress will be able to see all of the redacted material for themselves with the limited exception of that which, by law, cannot be shared. I believe that this accommodation, together with my upcoming testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, will satisfy any need Congress has for information regarding the Special Counsels investigation. 7:35 AM (PT)/10:35 AM (ET): The Dossier Remember the Steele Dossier? The Mueller report isnt the only consequential document about the Trump-Russia saga. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is investigating how the FBI investigated the Trump campaign in 2016. Politico reports that that there are signs that the inspector generals report is going to try and deeply undermine the work of former British spy Christopher Steele, whose 2016 dossier raised concerns about Trump campaign interactions with Russia and possible leverage Russia had over Trump. Steele was a source for the FBI. Horowitz as the inspector general was appointed by Barack Obama, former GOP congressman Jason Chaffetz told Fox News Thursday. He was confirmed by the Senate unanimously and for the last year hes been looking at what did the senior echelon at the FBI do when they have this highly documented bias toward Donald Trump. Did they take inappropriate action to spy on the president and his campaign team? 7:20 AM (PT)/10:20 AM (ET): Former House Oversight Committee Chairman Speaks I think it is very telling when the attorney general puts out a statement and says, not only did the president rebuff the push by Russia to try to collude, but did so multiple times," former Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz said on Fox News. That was one of the most telling things. The former chairman of the House Oversight Committee added: "I think the Democrats are scrambling. I dont think they know what to do. I think it is part of their demise and I think its a big part of why I think Donald Trump will be reelected in 2020. 7:07 AM (PT)/10:07 AM (ET): Game Over The president has weighed in on Attorney General William Barrs press conference. Now we wait for the redacted report to be released. Now that President @realDonaldTrump's campaign press conference is over: It's time for Congress and the American public to see the #MuellerReport. Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 18, 2019 And the statements on obstruction still more finely parsed and qualified. Best to look at what Mueller actually said. Noah Bookbinder (@NoahBookbinder) April 18, 2019 Possibly the most revealing moment was Barr refusing to answer whether Mueller was invited, except to emphasize that he was his employee. And then quickly ending the press conference. #MuellerReport Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) April 18, 2019 Russia has "more interesting and important things to do" than focus on #MuellerReport, Putin spokesperson says https://t.co/DfbO8IBisw pic.twitter.com/Ua1QsYard7 Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 18, 2019 US Attorney General, William Barr, says the Special Counsel have found 'no evidence that any Americans conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or IRA' Read the latest on the #MuellerReport here: https://t.co/V9SSZkmeOF pic.twitter.com/LdOokDYmpc Sky News (@SkyNews) April 18, 2019 7:00 AM (PT)/10:00 AM (ET): Barr Defends Himself -- and the President Attorney General William Barr said Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not indicate, to Barr or in the report, that his purpose was to leave the decision on obstruction of justice to Congress. Barr has determined that President Trump did not obstruct justice. Barr said he has no problem with Mueller testifying before Congress. Barr pushed back against a reporters assertion that he was generous to the president in his comments today. He said he was being factual and simply outlining the process of the reports release. The statements about his sincere beliefs [that he did nothing wrong and fully cooperated with the investigation] are recognized in the report, that there was substantial evidence for that, so Im not sure what your basis is for saying that Im being generous to the president, Barr said. The press conference has concluded and Barr has left the podium. CNNs Wolf Blitzer called it an almost complete vindication of President Trump by his attorney general. 6:45 AM (PT)/9:45 AM (ET): Russian Interference U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced that Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not establish that the 2016 Trump campaign conspired with Russia. He added that Russia did attempt to secretly undermine the U.S. election but that those efforts did not have the cooperation of President Trump. Barr summarized Muellers conclusion that Russia, partly through a sham organization known as the Internet Research Agency, ran a complex disinformation and social-media operation to impact the 2016 election. He said the special counsel found no evidence that any American knowingly or intentionally cooperated with Internet Research Agencys interference. He said the president cooperated fully with the special counsels investigation and did not have corrupt intent to obstruct Muellers work. Barr said he will make available to members of Congress the complete report except for specific grand jury material. 6:30 AM (PT)/9:30 AM (ET): The Press Conference Attorney General Barrs press conference is getting ready to start. Critics of the Trump administration dont put much stock in Barrs comments adding much to the publics understanding of the Mueller report. They are making Al Capone look straight, a member of the House Judiciary Committee told The Daily Beast off the record. Rep. Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, fears the reports redactions will obscure Muellers conclusions. He said if thats the case, we will most certainly issue the subpoenas in very short order in an effort to receive a fuller understanding of the report. He also says he expects to call Special Counsel Robert Mueller and members of Muellers special-counsel team to testify before his committee. Seth Abramson -- a lawyer, University of New Hampshire professor, Newsweek columnist and Trump critic -- is reporting that Barr, by all accounts, redacted the Mueller report to within an inch of its life -- using four redaction categories, two of which (grand jury testimony and derogatory info) he could have navigated without redaction. We dont have a sense whether the key issue we need answered -- whether the President of the United States is a national security threat, by virtue of being compromised by a foreign power -- will be resolved by Muellers work, or if the FBI/CIA counterintel probes are even over. 6:00 AM (PT)/9:00 AM (ET): The Mueller Report Finally Goes Public The day has arrived. Special Counsel Robert Muellers report detailing his two-year investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election will be released around 11 a.m. ET. U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who has redacted sensitive material from the report, will hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. ET. This post will provide live updates throughout the day as journalists, legal scholars and others read the report, reveal whats in it and provide analysis. What can you expect today? Read Everything you need to know about the Mueller report before you know about the Mueller report (and its fallout). But first, the press conference. The announcement Wednesday that Barr would be talking to the public and the press in advance of the redacted reports release came as a surprise. Democrats such as House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and presidential candidate Eric Swalwell -- as well as various other observers of the political scene -- immediately expressed suspicion that the attorney general is trying to shape the days media narrative to protect President Donald Trump from damaging information in the report. It's a document. It speaks for itself. #ReleaseTheFullMuellerReport. Alt. U.S. Press Sec. (@AltUSPressSec) April 17, 2019 DOJ source leaks text of Barr opening remarks: "President Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 18, 2019 Newsflash: no one wants to hear from Barr. Show us the full report. You should never have been confirmed and at best should be recused. We dont need a statement from the Presidents legal team. We want the full #MuellerReport Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 17, 2019 Attorney General Barr wrote to me on April 1: "I do not believe it would be in the publics interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report." I agree. So why is the AG holding a press conference tomorrow morning to go over the Mueller report? #ReleaseTheReport https://t.co/UA9XyC55v5 (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) April 17, 2019 Before we get started with coverage of the press conference and the reports release, a caveat. The special counsels investigation was complex and wide-ranging, and so the report, apparently around 400 pages, will reflect that. Plus, redactions will make parts of the report difficult to understand. Some redactions very well could lead to misinterpretations of the special counsels findings and conclusions. Throughout the day, pundits, reporters and politicians will be reacting to the report on the fly, tweeting and talking as they read it and even before they read it. There will be significant gaps in their understanding. Journalist and author Garrett M. Graff, whos written more extensively about Muellers career than anyone else, offers a wise warning to those reading the report and those listening to those reading the report. It's so depressing to realize how badly the media will screw up the Mueller Report release tomorrow. Advice for everyone talking about it: Go slow, be careful, use precise language, don't rush to speak. It's a big document and Mueller's team surely chose their words carefully. Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) April 17, 2019 -- Douglas Perry @douglasmperry Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps tax law received support from just over one-third of Americans as his job approval rating dropped to 40 percent in the latest Monmouth University Poll. Only 34 percent approved of the tax law, which targeted New Jersey and other high-tax states by capping the federal deduction for state and local income, property and sales taxes. Most of those states send billions of dollars more to the federal government than they receive in services. In the poll, 43 percent disapproved of the tax law, which Trump has been touting as the number of jobs in the country rises and the unemployment rate drops. Since we passed our historic tax cuts and reforms just over one year ago, wages are rising fast, and theyre rising most quickly for the lowest-income Americans, Trump said Wednesday at the White House. You know, you keep hearing about for the wealthy. Its not the wealthy. Even so, just 14 percent in the Monmouth poll said they paid less taxes, double the 28 percent who said their taxes went up. Almost half, 46 percent, said there was no difference. The perception may not match reality in terms of how many people actually got a tax reduction," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. While fears about a rising tax bill diminished after Americans filed their 2018 returns, very few report seeing any benefit from these reforms. This is not good news for a president who wanted to use this issue as a selling point for re-election." Polls have continually shown that the tax law, which studies showed was tilted heavily toward corporations and the wealthy, was unpopular with the American public, and helped cost the Republicans their House majority in last falls elections. In a Pew Research Center survey released earlier this month, almost half of Americans, 49 percent, disapproved of the law, with 36 percent in favor. Even as most Americans did receive a decrease, taxes went up for a significant number of households, including middle-class homeowners hit by cap on how much you can deduct for property taxes and state income taxes. A report by the Center for American Progress, a progressive research group, said 411,809 New Jersey households were hit with a tax increase, the fifth highest number of any state. An even larger number of New Jerseyans 3.5 million saw their taxes reduced. The Monmouth poll put Trumps job approval rating at 40 percent, its lowest point in that survey in more than a year, with 54 percent disapproving. His approval rating stood at 44 percent last month, its highest level in at least two years. Congress on Thursday is scheduled to receive a redacted copy of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and whether the president obstructed justice. That, combined with the deadline for filing tax returns, helped drive up Trumps negatives, Murray said. The presidents job rating doesnt see huge swings, so we tend to focus on small movements," Murray said. The current reading comes at the end of tax return season and while official Washington eagerly awaits the Mueller report. Neither subject is particularly good for Trump. The poll of 801 adults was conducted April 11-15 and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. It could be a long goodbye. A day after Gov. Phil Murphy called for the resignations of five members of the Economic Development Authority board appointed by his predecessor, only the chairman has stepped down his photo and bio quickly scrubbed from the agencys website. Four others have been silent, and have given no indication that they are going anywhere. The governors office said none had resigned. None returned calls for comment. Meanwhile, former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, lashed out Wednesday at Murphy, calling the move by the Democratic governor to oust those he had appointed to the board a partisan political assassination. Christie charged that Murphy took aim only at Republican commissioners, who he argued had voted the exact same way as their Democratic counterparts on a range of economic development matters before the EDA. Now let me tell you something, everybody. If that had been done in the Christie administration, there would have been mayhem, Christie asserted at a public appearance in Woodbridge. A spokesman for Murphy, in a sharp response, declared that policy and fact-based analysis took a backseat to backroom political deals in the Christie administration, and said the new governor was committed to turning the page from the economic policies of the previous administration. Its no surprise to see Governor Christie defend a program that his own comptroller found improperly awarded, miscalculated, overstated and overpaid tax credits, Murphy spokesman Dan Bryan said in a statement. The dispute over the direction of the states economic development agency already has the business community on edge. Tom Bracken, president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said the EDA is in complete flux. It is decimated. The chairman has resigned, more changes to the board are expected, and the business incentive programs it administers are set to expire on June 30, Bracken said. This is a lot of upheaval in an organization whose mandate is essential to New Jerseys economic health. The EDA assists businesses looking to move to the state or expand with a portfolio of tax credits, grants tax-exempt and taxable bond financing, loans, and loan guarantees. But the tax incentive program has come under attack in recent months. Supporters, including Christies, have argued that it has helped create and retain employers and jobs in a high-cost state facing stiff competition beyond its borders. Opponents have argued the programs lacked proper controls. The authority has been under a harsh spotlight since a scathing audit by the state comptroller in January, which criticized its management of a program it found had handed out billions in tax credit incentives to keep companies that had no real intention of leaving the state, or without verifying that jobs would be created as promised. In the wake of the audit, Murphy quickly convened a special governors task force, which disclosed last week that it had uncovered evidence of "unregistered lobbying on behalf of special interests, and referred the matter to law enforcement. Officials would not provide any details on the nature of the alleged offense. The fight over the EDA all came to a head on Tuesday, when the governor asked for the resignations of all the authoritys board members who serve as gubernatorial appointments. The board includes eight public members four named by the governor, two recommended by the Senate President and two recommended by the Assembly Speaker. Five others make up the board by virtue of their positions in the administration, including the state treasurer, New Jerseys state banking commissioner and the labor commissioner. The positions are unpaid. The gubernatorial appointees asked to step down were Laurence M. Downes, the CEO of New Jersey Resources Corp., a board member and chairman of the EDA; Louis Goetting, a public policy consultant who served as deputy chief of staff to Christie; Bill Layton, a lobbyist who had served as the political director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee; attorney Thomas P. Scrivo; and attorney John T. Lutz, who serves as an alternate. All of those asked to leave had been appointed by Christie. Within hours of the request, Downes a Christie appointee who was actually named chairman by Murphy tendered his resignation. Goettings term does not expire until September 2020. The terms of Layton, Scrivo and Lutz expire in December of this year, according to an EDA spokeswoman. The terms of three board members recommended by the Assembly Speaker and Senate President expired last year and they are serving as holdover appointments. Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University, said Murphy may have a hard time removing the others who do not go voluntarily. He observed that the staggering of appointments to agencies such as the EDA was a good-governance reform that was put in place to allow some institutional memory between administrations and remove politics from decision making. Whether the governor has legal authority to force them out would be set in the state statute that established the EDA and in fact, that statute says commissioners can only be removed for cause. Were clearly a long way from cause to removing these people, suggested Hale. The governor may argue they made bad judgments, but if bad judgment were cause for removal from state government, there would be nobody left. Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. On the final day of his murder trial, Caleb Kai the Hitchhiker McGillvary took the stand and delivered emotional testimony in which he maintained he acted in self defense in the 2013 death of Joseph Galfy, a 73-year-old man who allegedly raped the internet celebrity the day before he was found dead. McGillvary is charged with first-degree murder in the Clark mans fatal beating, and faces up to life in prison. Hes on trial in Superior Court of Union County, in Elizabeth. His testimony Wednesday morning was filled with outbursts, accusations of the prosecution lying or concealing evidence, and extremely wordy answers - leading Judge Robert Kirsch to tell him more than a dozen times during the two-hour testimony to keep his answers concise. McGillvary, who rose to fame in 2012 when an interview on a local news station in California went viral on YouTube, has said Galfy sexually assaulted him after the two met by chance in Times Square. Originally from Canada, the 30-year-old McGillvary illegally crossed the border and spent most of his time in California before making his way to the East Coast. On Wednesday, in a packed courtroom in which people stood to watch, he recounted the days he and the Galfy spent together before Galfy was found dead, face down in his home in just his underwear and socks. The pair met on May 11, 2013 in front of the Red Lobster in Times Square, McGillvary said. Galfy drove him to his Clark home to stay the night - something many people did for the hitchhiker, especially following his internet fame, he said. Caleb 'Kai' McGillvary, pictured here in the 2012 local TV interview that made him an internet celebrity. Months later, in 2013, he made headlines again as a murder suspect. (AP) The two conversed on the ride home, sharing a common interest in construction, since McGillvary had been a carpenter and Galfy, a lawyer who often dealt with construction permits. They went home and had dinner and several drinks before sleeping in separate rooms, McGillvary testified. McGillvary woke up with a metallic taste and bodily fluids in his mouth, he said. Galfy drove McGillvary to the Rahway train station the following day, video surveillance showed. But after realizing he didnt have a place to stay that night, he said he reluctantly contacted Galfy again. Galfy brought him back to Clark, poured McGillvary a beer into a glass, out of McGillvarys sight, he said. The next memory McGillvary remembers is waking up with his pants pulled down and the lawyer on top of him, he said, adding he pushed Galfy away before the 73-year-old body-slammed him to the ground and started grinding and humping him. To escape from Galfys weight, McGillvary started hitting, punching and kicking him away while Galfy attempted to perform oral sex on him, he said. He was suffocating me, McGillvary said, his voice quivering. I thought he was going to kill me. A sexual assault examination, called a rape kit, was not performed on McGillvary. The eccentric YouTube star became visibly shaken while recounting his memory of the sexual assault, often times banging his fist, shouting and arguing with Union County Assistant Prosecutor Scott Peterson. McGillvary says he must have blacked out after the assault, and does not remember changing his clothes or leaving the home. He came to in a parking lot, he said, and went to the White Diamond Diner in Clark. He also said he threw his phone out because it smelled like urine he had urinated in his pants during the alleged assault and had a flashback to Galfy on top of him. The prosecutions case focused on his demeanor at the diner; for someone who had just been raped, he was feeling well enough to take photos with fans, they argued. Prosecutors played phone conversations with his friend, Kim Burns, to argue his emotion or lack thereof on the call. When Burns picked him up, he confessed he was date raped, McGillvary said. Although he told her he contacted the police, he testified he lied because he feared deportation if police became involved. I didnt realize he was dead at the time, he said, adding he was planning on confronting Galfy about the alleged rape the next day. McGillvary was arrested at a Greyhound bus stop in Philadelphia on May 14, 2013. He gave a statement to police on May 16, which was played in court and also included his claims of being sexually assaulted. Peterson noted the statement today in court was different than the statement that day, which led to one of the many contentious disagreements between the defendant and the prosecution. McGillvary accused the prosecution of lying, infringing on his Sixth Amendment rights and not allowing him to provide context. He also explained he was burned out after smoking two grams of marijuana while providing his May 2013 statement. Both the state and defense rested Wednesday afternoon, and closing arguments are expected to begin on Tuesday. Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Daniel Tapia said he just stared when he got news Tuesday (April 16) that one of his clients was shot dead outside his Algiers apartment. In Tapias line of work, coordinating a prison re-entry program in New Orleans, hes encountered clients who have shown red flags. Jamonta Johnson wasnt one of them. NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney said theres no new information to release about the investigation. Those close to Johnson said they are bewildered about who and why someone would kill him. He was absolutely a positively perfect example, from the day he stepped back on the street. Never stopped doing the right thing, Tapia said. And he just got shot down like a dog in front of his house. New Orleans police responding to a shooting after midnight on Tuesday found a 30-year-old man who had been shot more than once lying outside his doorway in the 3100 block of Rue Parc Fontaine, the department said. An ambulance took him to a hospital, where he died. Tapia, a case manager for Orleans Criminal District Courts Reentry Program and a peer mentor for The First 72+, along with Johnsons mother Doris Jones, identified Johnson as the man who was killed. The First 72+ provides housing and other holistic services to people freshly out of prison. Johnson returned to New Orleans from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola about two years ago, after completing a sentence for drug possession, Tapia said. He first met Johnson at Angola, when Tapia went there to meet incoming clients. Based on Tapias first impression of Johnson, Tapia said he thought, "What the hell he did he do to end up in jail? Johnsons small frame, glasses and clean-shaven look reminded him of Steve Urkle, he said, referring to the 1990s TV character in the sitcom Family Matters. The coordinator of the prisons auto mechanic program raved about Johnson as a student. I had to argue with (Johnson) a couple of times to get him to stop calling me Mister, Tapia said. Kelly Orians, First 72+ codirector and cofounder and director of Rising Foundations, which provides zero-interest loans to people whove returned from prison, first met Johnson in a courtroom. Johnson approached her to ask about access to the loan program for his friend. He was professional, Orians said, and she assumed he was a colleague from another re-entry program. She didnt realize he was a client until everyone sat down at the start of court and Johnson took a seat with the other parolees in the re-entry program. Of her 10 children, Jones said, Johnson kept the family grounded. He was my rock. Jones, who works as a parent advocate for a program tied to the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, did not know the extent of her sons injuries when she got a call that he had been shot. Her first thought, she said, was Not my son. Not again. Her older son, Jason Todd, was shot to death in 2007. It wasnt until Jones arrived at the hospital Tuesday that she learned Johnson had died. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Horrible: Algiers man found fatally shot outside his apartment doorway Raising and providing for his 10-year-old son was Johnsons priority, said his mother and the staff at The First 72. Johnson worked two jobs, as a mechanic at Premier Nissan and as a barber. The family grew up in New Orleans, where Johnson attended high school at John McDonogh before they relocated to the Mississippi Delta in 2005 when their home flooded after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina. He attended school in Greenville, his mother said, and earned his GED in prison. A national news outlet was slated to interview Johnson in the coming weeks about Angolas auto mechanic program, Tapia said. He was handpicked for the interview because of all he had accomplished. Johnson rarely, if ever, raised his voice and took on the role of keeping others in the program calm whether they were riled by a judges order or another arduous hurdle of life after prison, Tapia said. When Johnson spoke of his past life dealing drugs, he avoided details or words that would glamorize the lifestyle, Tapia said. He would always refer to it as being dumb. He didnt want to give a name to it, Tapia said. After learning of Johnsons death, Tapia spent Tuesday at Jones home, where he brought the family Manchu chicken and put his arm around Jamonta Jr. when he cried. In the hours since learning Johnson was killed, Tapia said his thoughts almost constantly return to Jamonta Jr. growing up without his father, because Johnson took the role so seriously. Its heartbreaking, Tapia said. Johnson kept his head down and took care of his family, focusing hard on not putting himself or anyone close to him at any risk, Orians said. Tapia said hes trying not to read too much into their star clients death, but has wondered, Is it a curse? Johnson is the third of the First 72+ and/or Rising Foundations clients who has died from gun violence, Orians said. As an organization that helps people rebuild their lives after incarceration, theyre forced to confront the killers fate. Theres another (person) thats out there in the streets now that is responsible for causing this much pain and facing a potential life without parole or several decades in prison, Orians said. Another family thats going to lose somebody because of something awful that happened. Orians said Johnsons death has forced her team to face difficult truths. They tell their clients if they to do the right thing, stay positive, go to all their court dates, pass drug screens, take advantage of programs and get a job, itll all work out, youll stay out of trouble and youll be safe, Orians said. Johnson did all that. While they must preach positivity, she said, situations like this rob of us hope and rob us in the confidence of believing in that. Theres an arrogance, she said, that shes had to face. An arrogance to think we can do everything to protect people, and we cant. Orians set up a Gofundme account to raise money for Johnsons funeral service. (Donate here.) Anyone with information about Johnsons death is asked to contact NOPD Homicide Detective Joseph Jefferson, the lead detective in the case, at 504-658-5300 or provide tips anonymously through Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111. An Orleans Parish jury Wednesday night (April 17) acquitted 28-year-old Lorenzo Conner of second-degree murder in a 2011 Central City homicide. Conner was charged in the Oct. 27, 2011, shooting near Magnolia and Philip streets that killed 25-year-old Nelson Smith. Police spotted him running near the scene and took him down in the middle of the block after a brief foot chase. Conners defense attorneys, Danny Engelberg and Mariah Holder of the Orleans Public Defenders, said Conner was running from the sound of gunfire, which he heard while he was walking to his house on Josephine Street about three blocks from the homicide. New Orleans police officers said they recovered the gun in the 2600 block of First Street where they arrested Conner. They said they saw Conner throw the gun while he was running. Engelberg said Conner did not have a gun. He said at the start of Conners trial this week DNA would prove his clients innocence. In 2011 Central City homicide, defendants DNA wasnt on weapon or at scene: attorney Erica Sparacino, the DNA manager at the Louisiana State Police crime lab, testified Wednesday that her office tested a black T-shirt, a pair of navy pants, a gun, and the handlebars, brake levers and seat of a bicycle connected to the case. There was not enough DNA present on the gun to get a profile, she said, and both Smith and Conner were excluded as matches to the DNA profiles present on the other items. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Sarah Dawkins, Sparacino said its possible for someone to touch something and not leave DNA. Police reports filed in connection with the case show a gunshot residue test performed on Conner shortly after his arrest came back negative. From the witness stand Tuesday, NOPD Detective Timothy Bender, the lead investigator on the case, said the officer who performed the gunshot residue test on Conner at NOPD headquarters shook her head no after she did the test, indicating the results were negative. Bender said when he looked at the test results about 10 minutes later, he noticed blue particles which indicate gunshot residue was present. Bender said he didnt document that in his report, and he wasnt able to secure funding to perform additional gunshot residue tests. Conner also was charged with obstruction of justice and with being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with Smiths slaying. Jurors acquitted him of those charges, also. Criminal District Judge Daryl Derbigny presided over the trial. Assistant District Attorney Jay Meyers prosecuted the case with Dawkins. Conners acquittal is not the end of his legal troubles. He still faces charges connected to his alleged escape while in custody of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals in 2015. Authorities said Conner escaped from a transport van taking him to court for a hearing. He was arrested in Marrero three days later. Conner also has picked up several jail charges. A North Shore neurologist faces federal charges accusing him of dispensing drugs, including oxycodone, without a legitimate purpose, the U.S. Attorneys Office said Thursday (April 18). Anil Prasad, 62, who lives in Mandeville and worked at a pain management clinic in Slidell, was charged in a bill of information with conspiracy to unlawfully dispense controlled substances and conspiracy to commit health care fraud, authorities said in a news release. Prasad prescribed oxycodone and hydrocodone without performing patient examinations to see if there was a medical necessity, the release said. The purpose was to obtain cash payments from patients, enriching himself and the owner of the unnamed clinic, according to the bill of information. The owner is not named in the document but is referred to as co-conspirator 1. Prasad knew some of the patients used Medicare and Medicaid benefits to fill the prescriptions, according to the news release. In total, Medicare and Medicaid paid about $1.6 million for the drugs, it said. According to the charging document, Prasad started working at the clinic on Nov. 1, 2016, receiving a bi-weekly salary of $2,050. Starting around February 2017, he stopped working full days at the clinic and halted patient examinations, it said. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The owner of the clinic had Prasad pre-sign prescriptions for pain meds so the clinic could give them out when the doctor was not in, the charge says. Prasad also pre-signed stacks of prescriptions when he was scheduled to be out of the country for weeks at a time on trips, the bill of information alleges. Patients paid $160 to $240 in cash per visit to the clinic, the charge says. If convicted, Prasad faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine on the drug charge. The fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. The case is being prosecuted by Jared Hasten of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharan Lieberman. Just four days before the ninth anniversary of the catastrophic BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, state coastal officials outlined how they are using the disasters silver lining billions of dollars in fines and other payments to rebuild 5.1 square miles of the states eroding coastline. About $510 million paid by BP and its partners for their roles involving BPs failed Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico already has been used to complete restoration work on seven major projects, Greg Gandy, deputy executive director of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, told authority board members on Wednesday (April 17). And another $6.8 billion will be used on dozens of other projects through 2032, the deadline for the companies to pay money owed under various court settlement agreements. Even though this is just a start, what weve done so far without any Louisiana taxpayers dollars is impressive, and there is much more to come, Grandy told the board. But lets never forget why were getting this funding and why we need it. The loss of life suffered on that rig, and the oil that flowed into the Gulf for months was devastating to our people, our environment, our economy, our fisheries and wildlife. There is much to remedy, and we are working hard to do just that. The state receives money from a variety of funding streams stemming from legal action taken against BP and its partners after the accident: Criminal penalties totaling $1.272 billion, overseen by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, must be used for either rebuilding barrier islands or the construction and design of major sediment diversions on the Mississippi River by the terms of the criminal settlements with BP and Transocean. State hires contractor team to build Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion Louisianas share of Natural Resource Damage Assessment payments required under the Oil Spill Act of 1990, totaling at least $5 billion, were agreed to by BP as part of a global settlement with federal, state and parish governments. And more than $930 million in Clean Water Act civil fines directed to Louisiana under the federal Restore Act. Much of that money is being paid to the state in increments over 15 years ending in 2032. The state also was given $360 million directly by BP in the weeks after the spill in 2010 to use on its plan to build sand berms along existing barrier islands along the coast to capture oil before it moved beyond the islands into more fragile wetlands. When the well was capped, BP agreed to allow the state to use more than $120 million of the remaining berm money for barrier island restoration projects. Projects that already have been completed include: Increment 2 of the Lake Hermitage wetlands restoration project in Plaquemines Parish, including 104 acres of new wetlands, built with $14.4 million in BP NRDA money and completed in 2016. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Future projects include the rebuilding of North Breton Island in Plaquemines, part of the Breton Islands National Refuge, which will be put out to bid this summer; reconstruction of Queen Bess Island in Plaquemines, which is currently out to bid. Both are important bird habitats, Grandy said. Criminal fine money overseen by the NFWF and oil spill damage assessment money also will continue to pay for design of the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton sediment diversions on the west and east banks of the Mississippi in Plaquemines, and possibly a share of their construction costs. Restore Act money also is being used for engineering and design costs for the proposed Houma Navigational Canal Lock Hydraulic Restoration project; a proposed salinity control structure on the Calcasieu Ship Channel; a project to reintroduce Mississippi river water into the Maurepas Swamp to revive cypress-tupelo swamp; and to add engineered oyster reef structures as a living shoreline along the Biloxi Marsh in St. Bernard Parish. Also receiving funding is a project to rebuild marshes in the Golden Triangle area in the northwest corner of Lake Borgne in New Orleans and St. Bernard. Grandy said a number of projects that were on an August 2013 list of spill money projects will now be funded with other money sources. Over the next 15 years we expect to receive more than $3 billion in offshore revenue shared through the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act - GOMESA, said CPRA Chairman Chip Kline. We continue to fund projects with state mineral funds dedicated to our efforts, and we have our valued federal CWPPRA partnerships. The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act, established in 1990, has been used by the state to design or build close to $2 billion in projects, and still receives about $80 million a year in federal funds. Meanwhile, the state continues to work with the federal-state Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group to determine how to use the rest of the $5 billion in NRDA money. The trustees have already approved spending $60 million on 23 recreation-related projects. Mark Schleifstein covers the environment and is a leader of the Louisiana Coastal Reporting Team for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: mschleifstein@nola.com. Facebook: Mark Schleifstein and Louisiana Coastal Watch. Twitter: MSchleifstein. A power pole fell on a vehicle in Gretna Thursday afternoon (April 18), injuring two people, authorities said. Emergency crews have temporarily closed Gretna Boulevard to traffic. The Harvey Fire Department responded to reports of a downed power line on Gretna Boulevard near a Sams Club. A power pole had fallen onto a vehicle driving eastbound and the wires from the pole fell across the street and onto a second vehicle traveling in the opposite direction, according to first responders. Emergency medical services treated two people for minor injuries. Its not clear if the stormy weather moving through the New Orleans-area on Thursday contributed to the pole falling down. Richard Parker, the deputy chief of the Harvey Fire Department, said the wind was very strong at the time of the accident. The fire department and Jefferson Parish Sheriffs office are standing by at the scene as Entergy crews repair the downed pole. Severe storms expected in New Orleans metro: Live updates, photos, school closures Several government offices in southeast Louisiana have announced they will be closed Thursday (April 18) due to the threat of severe weather. State offices will be closed, as will parish government offices in St. Tammany Parish. The Legislature also will not convene. School closures In Orleans Parish, New Orleans City Hall and other city offices will close at 12 p.m. Thursday in anticipation of the weather. Public safety departments and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport remain open. City Hall will remain closed Good Friday (April 19) and resume regular hours Monday, April 22. In Jefferson Parish, the First Parish Court in Metairie and Second Parish Court in Gretna will close at 12:30 p.m. Thursday ahead of the weather. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up St. Tammany government said in a news release that emergency operations personnel will be on duty. The news release said St. Tammany Parish libraries, registrar of voters offices and STAR Transit would also be closed Thursday. Other agencies assessor, clerk of court, district attorney, and 22nd Judicial District Court will close at noon. The sheriffs administrative offices will close at 1 p.m. The closures come as weather forecasts predict severe storms with the potential for tornadoes across southeast Louisiana. Parishes across the metro New Orleans region were advising residents to monitor the weather and take precautions where needed. In addition to warning of a substantial threat of severe storms across the region, National Weather Service forecasters have issued a flash flood watch for parts of the North Shore specifically. That includes St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington parishes. Rain rates in those parishes could reach up to 4 inches an hour, according to an alert. Check back with NOLA.com and other social media sites for any additional closures as they are announced. Severe weather expected Thursday An airplane carrying 86 adoptable dogs from shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi boarded a flight from the New Orleans Lakefront Airport on Thursday morning (April 18) hoping to find their fur-ever homes in Wisconsin. The flight was operated by Wings of Rescue, an organization that transports adoptable pets from crowded shelters and areas that have suffered from natural disasters to shelters across the U.S. Among the pets on board Thursdays flight was a litter of 13 Dalmatian puppies. The organization partnered with GreaterGood.org. We were just missing 88 more of them, Wings of Rescue President Ric Browde joked. The pups were being transferred from shelters in St. Bernard Parish, Baton Rouge, and McComb, Mississippi. They are headed to Waukesha, Wisconsin, which is located about 20 minutes outside of Milwaukee. So far this year, Wings of Rescue has flown 3,500 pets out of overcrowded shelters in the South to shelters in other parts of the country where more space is available. Shelters in the south are always overflowing with pets," Browde said. Within three days these dogs will be on somebodys couch. He said that many of the shelters the organization works with in northern states dont have the same problem with overcrowding and there is a high demand for adoptable pets. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The dogs on Thursdays flight ranged in age from puppies to 7-year-old dogs. Browde said his organization focuses on at-risk animals that arent easily adoptable, either because they are older or havent been properly socialized. The organization evaluates the animals to make sure they can be made ready for adoption, then works to match them with shelters across the U.S. where they may have better chances of being adopted. Different breeds do better in different parts of the country, he said. For example, huskies do better in northern climates. He had high hopes for the Dalmatian puppies on Thursdays flight to Wisconsin. It will be like Black Friday at the shelter, he said. The organization has also flown shelter pets out of hurricane disaster areas in recent years, including transferring pets from shelters in Puerto Rico affected by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Last year, they transported 7,244 pets on 112 flights to shelters across the U.S. In addition to moving animals to locations where they have better chances of being adopted, Wings of Rescue also is working to educate communities to improve care of animals and reduce the population of pets in crowded shelters. This includes informing communities about the importance of spaying and neutering their animals, as well as having pets microchipped, tagged and, most importantly, vaccinated. We are trying to add that educational element to the table," Browde said. Be responsible. Why have a pet if you cant take care of it? Following the deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school last year, the St. Tammany Parish public schools placed an armed school resource officer and mental health provider on each of the districts 55 campuses. School system administrators said last year the district could cover the first years cost, up to $4 million, with money it had from the BP oil spill settlement. Now, the parishs voters are being asked to approve a 2-mill property tax that would be dedicated to covering those salaries going forward. That tax, and another school district referendum seeking voter permission for a $175 million school construction bond issue, highlight the May 4 election ballot in St. Tammany. Early voting begins Saturday (April 20) and continues through April 27. (See St. Tammanys May 4 ballot) In recent months, schools Superintendent Trey Folse has criss-crossed the parish in an effort to drum up support for both proposals. Its been very well received," Folse said regarding the construction bond request. Were very specific, down to the (school) wing. In past issues weve done what we said we were going to do. Our track record serves us well. Proposition 1 on the ballot, the bond issue, would finance $150 million in construction projects at schools across the parish. The other $25 million would be spent on security and technology projects. The bonds will backed by the districts existing construction millage, which the School Board recently reduced by 2 mills to 13.9 mills, and wont require new taxes, officials say. Proposition 2 calls for 2 mills for 10 years, with the expectation the tax would bring in around $4.1 million annually. While school district officials often refer to this proposition as a rededication," referencing 2 mills the board recently rolled back from its construction millage, it is actually listed on the ballot as a new tax. Nonetheless, district officials have stressed to voters that property owners wont pay any more than they do now. In a webpage dedicated to the propositions, the district also says it has trimmed more than $41 million in taxes through millage rollbacks over the years. For the first time, the district last August started the school year with officers and mental health providers on each campus. Prior to that, it had officers only at some sites. St. Tammany confronts rising suicide rate Folse said this week that its too early for any statistical compilation, but that hes heard good things from parents, teachers and administrators about having mental health providers so readily available to help students. The district will look back years from now and view the resource officers and mental health providers as a great decision, he said. It could be a legacy for our school system. The propositions have received endorsements from a wide range of parish law enforcement agencies, the Northshore Business Council, St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce, St. Tammany Federation of Teachers and the St. Tammany chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Schools provide a unique opportunity to identify and treat mental health conditions by serving students where they already are,'' Nick Richard, NAMI St. Tammany executive director, said via email. "School personnel play an important role in identifying the early warning signs of an emerging mental health condition and in linking students with effective services and supports. Folse said the construction program follows the districts general five-year cycle. The most recent large-scale bond issue for the school district was in 2013, when voters approved $135 million in school construction, security and technology work. Folse said replacing modular classrooms will be a focus of a five-year construction plan. Heres the list of schools and projects: Abita Springs Middle: $5.55 million. New classroom wing Abney Elementary: $10.7 million. New gym/music building, classroom wing, parking lot Abney Early Childhood Center: $1.3 million. New modular classrooms, parking lot. St. Tammany top stories in your inbox A weekly guide to the biggest news in St. Tammany. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Bayou Woods Elementary: $5.8 million. New classroom wing Covington Elementary: $9.9 million. New classroom wing Covington High: $22.1 million. New classroom wing Cypress Cove Elementary: $7.8 million. New classroom wing Fifth Ward Junior High: $2.2 million. New agriculture building Florida Avenue Elementary: $7.1 million. Renovate gym, cafeteria, replace main breezeway Folsom Elementary: $3.2 million. Renovate classroom wing, new restroom building Fontainebleau High: $22.5 million. New classroom wing Lee Road Junior High: $9.1 million. New classroom wing, kitchen addition and renovation Little Oak Middle: $17.3 million. New classroom wing Magnolia Trace Elementary: $18.5 million. New classroom building Northshore High: $3.9 million. New classroom wing Salmen High: $2.3 million. Renovate existing building into welding shop, career technical classrooms. Planned spending for the security and technology initiative: $10 million for classroom technology: purchase of electronic devices, licenses and associated items, concentrated in the fourth-12th grades. $12 million for intrusion detection." That includes controls to doors at schools and other facilities, and camera and lock systems at entry points so visitors can be identified and vetted. $2 million for cameras inside schools and facilities. $1 million for upgrades to the central computer room to increase bandwidth and security. Bond, tax issue for schools The word idiot once had a precise, clinical meaning as a label for a person whose mental development never eclipsed that of the typical 2 year old. The minds of idiots were said to be less developed than imbeciles, who were said to be less developed than morons. But health professionals no longer use those terms, and the general public doesnt and for all I know never did, pay attention to those clinical definitions. We use idiot a lot more loosely, hurling it at anybody we believe to have done something stupid. But some people have chosen the word idiot to label those whose actions are hateful, violent, terroristic, even murderous. Last week, after Metairie Sen. Conrad Appel foolishly criticized Gov. John Bel Edwards for calling the incineration of three black churches an evil act and said Edwards should be more concerned about murders, Appel wasnt done sharing his thoughts. He labeled Holden Matthews, the 21-year-old whod been arrested for torching those three St. Landry churches, an idiot. Burning a church is an act of violence against the symbol of black unity and pride, Appel wrote. Violence in any fashion be it an act against a symbol by a white idiot or the murder of a young person is intolerable. Not maniac or terrorist or psychopath or racist or thug or arsonist or one of several choice vulgarities. To Appel, the perpetrator of this horrible crime is an idiot. Authorities say Matthews unwittingly left clues that led to his arrest, but its not like he would have qualified for that old show Americas Dumbest Criminals. The destruction of St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church were not crimes of stupidity but crimes of racist hatred. We need language that indicates the suspect is filled with hatred. Instead, we get language suggesting he isnt bright. Here are some snippets of tweets written by people other than Appel: The idiot has been charged with a hate crime. 3 black churches burned in Louisiana by some white male idiot. Why did that idiot burn black churches? And on it goes. This is not a new phenomenon. In 2015, after the massacre of nine worshipers inside Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., a reader referring to Dylann Storm Roof wrote, I lump this boob with all the other psychopaths with guns who feel the urge to do such despicable things. He called the racist, cold-blooded, heartless murderer of nine welcoming church members a boob. Why? Did Roof look like a simpleton as he was slaughtering the members of Mother Emanuel? In 2016, a reader upset that the New Orleans City Council had voted to remove monuments celebrating the Confederacy and its ideology wrote, These monuments stood for years and some idiot kid goes to a (church) and shoots people and NOW these monuments are a problem? He not only made Roof an idiot; he made him a kid, too. Imagine a 21-year-old black man writing an anti-white manifesto and then walking into the local First Baptist Church for Wednesday night Bible study. Imagine him sitting through a lesson about the Parable of the Sower and joining the congregations circle of prayer. Imagine him pulling his .45-caliber Glock pistol, accusing them of raping black women and taking over the country. And then he shoots one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine people dead. What are the chances hed get called an idiot or a kid? Why do people use language that minimizes horrible, racist acts? Probably because honest language would force them to acknowledge that racism is real. And not just real but violent, a continuing road block to black peoples progress. Then they couldnt ask questions like, What about the murders? because theyd see that generations of racist policies in housing, banking, education and employment created the conditions that make murders more likely. They couldnt keep holding on to the resentment thats fueling so much of todays conservative politics. More people have sent me angry emails about Jussie Smollett, a black entertainer who was arrested but not tried for reportedly pretending to be a victim of a hate crime in Chicago, than have sent emails about the destruction of three black Louisiana churches. A Feb. 22 column about Roland Bourgeois, the white man who was finally sentenced for shooting innocent black men in Algiers Point after Hurricane Katrina, was blasted by some readers who said I should have written about Smollett instead. The Smollett case has nothing to do with Louisiana, but U.S. Sen John Kennedy issued an angry press release denouncing Hollywood privilege when charges against Smollett were dropped. In a tweet, Kennedy correctly called the destruction of the St. Landry churches an act of racism & religious hatred, but apparently Hollywood privilege is more deserving of an official press release. Hollywood privilege is hardly my concern, and its unclear why it should worry anybody in Louisiana. Far more worrisome is the privilege that leads to a racist church-burning terrorist being described by a state lawmaker as an idiot. Jarvis DeBerry is a columnist on the Latitude team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Latitude is a place to share opinions about the challenges facing Louisiana. Follow @LatitudeNOLA on Facebook and Twitter. Write Jarvis at jdeberry@nola.com or @jarvisdeberry. An ugly fight over an audit that found the city of Zachary paid two vendors $3.5 million without having contracts in place has died down some, but the city councilman most upset about the matter has made clear he is not giving up on his quest for Weather Alert ...DENSE FOG ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 AM CST FRIDAY... * WHAT...Dense fog will reduce visibility to 1 NM or less. * WHERE...Portions of Gulf of Mexico, including the tidal lakes and sounds. * WHEN...From 10 PM this evening to 9 AM CST Friday. * IMPACTS...Low visibility will make navigation difficult. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If you must navigate, proceed with caution. Use proper fog signals. Make sure all running lights are on. Remember to use your radar and compass. && ...DENSE FOG ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 AM CST FRIDAY... * WHAT...Visibility one quarter mile or less in dense fog. * WHERE...Portions of southeast and southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana. * WHEN...From 10 PM this evening to 9 AM CST Friday. * IMPACTS...Hazardous driving conditions due to low visibility. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If driving, slow down, use your headlights, and leave plenty of distance ahead of you. && U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette is on a two-state trip through the Southeast this week. Brouillette on Wednesday visited the Savannah River Site and later met with USC Aiken representatives on campus, a U.S. Department of Energy spokesperson told the Aiken Standard. The information confirms details of a story that appeared in the Aiken Standard on Tuesday. At SRS, Brouillette saw "first-hand the progress being made" on the proposed plutonium pit production mission, the spokesperson said. A source previously told the Aiken Standard that Brouillette was scheduled to tour the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility the DOE's new name for the prospective future of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. The National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense last year recommended recapitalizing MOX for a plutonium pit production mission. Plutonium pits are nuclear weapon cores; 80 per year are needed by 2030, according to the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. Brouillette made the trip to USCA to discuss education, careers and workforce development, the DOE spokesperson said. USCA Chancellor Dr. Sandra Jordan met Brouillette around 4 p.m. Wednesday. A banner hanging at USCA on Tuesday and Wednesday thanked Brouillette and the DOE for work on the president's fiscal year 2020 budget request. On Thursday, Brouillette will head to Plant Vogtle in Georgia, the spokesperson said. Plant Vogtle is southeast of Augusta. It's an hour from Aiken. U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry visited Plant Vogtle at the end of last month. Perry spoke to a crowd of workers, standing alongside Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and other energy dignitaries. Plant Vogtle, undergoing an expansion, is critical to "rebuilding a highly skilled U.S. nuclear workforce and revitalizing the U.S. nuclear industry," the DOE spokesperson said. The joint commission of the 2019 regional cooperation between New Caledonia, France and Vanuatu approved Vt40 million to fund 13 education projects in Vanuatu this year. Photo: MOET You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person. Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else. The displays are dazzling, with platforms twirling and lasers dancing off the fenders of the latest and greatest vehicles around. But the New York International Auto Show wont open to the public until Saturday, and the press preview days are still underway. Welcome to the preshow off-site launch circuit. For two weeks, the New York show is the center of the automotive universe. Last year, 61 vehicles made their debuts at the show. To stand out in this crowd, automakers have created satellite events before the official press reveals at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan. This gives companies a jump on the torrent of announcements and adds pearlescent shine to coverage of their new vehicle. Chatter in the car world suggests that auto shows have lost their impact. Many automakers still see the benefits. Stuart Schorr, the vice president for communications at Jaguar Land Rover North America, finds them to be moments in time when cars are a hot subject. The Trump administration extended sanctions to the Central Bank of Venezuela on Wednesday, cutting off the banks access to United States currency and limiting its ability to conduct international financial transactions in order to further squeeze the finances of the government led by President Nicolas Maduro. It is the latest in two years of escalating sanctions primarily aimed at halting the sale of Venezuelan oil to the United States, and American sales of light oil to Venezuela, which the national oil company blends with its heavy oil for export. The Trump administration and dozens of other countries now recognize Juan Guaido, the leader of the National Assembly, as the interim president until new elections can be held. By targeting the central bank, the sanctions close off a few remaining critical paths for financing. Unlike the rest of the government, the central bank does not need approval from the opposition-controlled National Assembly to take out a loan. That loophole allowed it to take a $500 million loan from the Development Bank of Latin America in December. The cost to building owners will be high. Mark Chambers, the director of the Mayors Office of Sustainability, said the cumulative cost to building owners to make the upgrades needed to meet the caps would exceed $4 billion. He added that building owners would eventually recoup those costs through lower operating expenses. Many types of buildings were exempted from the caps, including houses of worship and apartment houses with rent-regulated units and other types of affordable housing. Those buildings are required to carry out several energy-saving measures, such as insulating pipes, but those measures fall well short of the costly steps required to meet the caps. Real estate industry executives say that while they support reducing emissions, they believe too many types of buildings were given exemptions, placing an undue burden for reducing the citys greenhouse gas output on the remaining buildings. Ed Ermler is the board president of a group of four co-op apartment buildings with a total of 437 units in Jackson Heights, Queens. He said that in recent years he has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to install computerized boiler controls and other systems to make the 1950s-era buildings, called Roosevelt Terrace, more energy efficient, and yet the target that the city has set is still totally unattainable. To get down to even 20 percent from where I am today, with the technology that exists, theres nothing more that I can do, Mr. Ermler said. Its not like theres this magic wand. He said that the majority of apartment owners in the complex are over 65 years old. Most are on a fixed income and I have to be very cognizant about anything that I do because I dont want to put an undue burden on people that cant afford it. Carl Hum, the general counsel for the Real Estate Board of New York, which primarily represents large developers, expressed concern that the exemptions given to thousands of large buildings would undercut the goal. [The latest: The man was identified as a philosophy teacher who has had run-ins with law enforcement.] A 37-year-old New Jersey man carrying a pair of full two-gallon cans of gasoline was arrested on Wednesday night after entering St. Patricks Cathedral in New York, the police said. The man entered the cathedral just before 8 p.m. but was turned away by a church security officer, according to John Miller, the Police Departments deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. As the man exited, some gasoline spilled on the floor. The security officer then notified two police officers outside the cathedral, who caught up to the man and began to question him. While he was cooperative, his answers were inconsistent and evasive, Mr. Miller said at a news conference. But the criticism is worrisome. Mexico is ranked one of the deadliest countries for journalists. Six have been murdered since AMLOs inauguration on Dec. 1. At least 124 people have died in connection with their work since 2000, according to the organization Article 19. In a country wracked by violence related to drug trafficking, journalists fall as if they were in a war zone. The president can and must do much more to protect my brave colleagues. The primary social responsibility of journalists is to question those in power. It is up to us to serve as a critical counter-power and to ask difficult questions. But Mr. L o pez Obrador doesnt seem to understand this. He recently praised those journalists he deemed prudent, and declared: If you cross the line, well, you know what happens, right? But its not me its the people. Indeed the wild jungle of social media can be brutal in the face of criticism of Mr. Lopez Obrador. He is a very powerful president he controls Congress and won the presidency thanks in part to a wide popular social support. More than 30 million people voted for him in a nation mired in violence and corruption. After Enrique Pena Nietos disastrous presidency, its understandable that Mr. Lopez Obrador has managed to garner peoples hopes for change. Particularly among the most vulnerable Mexicans. But that doesnt mean that AMLO is untouchable. It would be grievous for Mexico to resuscitate some of the practices of the period from 1929 to 2000, when presidents dictated what could and could not be published. And the only way to avoid that is by being irreverent and disobedient toward authority. Its not a lack of respect; its the way in which vigorous and independent journalism is done. The president is not our boss. As journalists, we are accountable to our readers, viewers, and listeners, and above all, to the truth. In the end, its a simple matter of credibility. And credibility is not achieved by being close to power, or by praising it. He must develop a thicker skin. Mr. Lopez Obrador was out of line when he asked the Mexican newspaper Reforma to reveal its sources. Reforma published the text of a private letter that the Mexican president sent to the king of Spain requesting his apology for the abuses and grievances committed during the conquest. Asking for the disclosure of journalistic sources, I told AMLO at the Mananera on Friday, is an attack on press freedom. No journalist, Mr. President, will reveal their sources. None. He didnt agree, but he hasnt followed up on his request to the newspaper. The day after Buttigiegs announcement speech, he addressed on CNN his campaigns issue with attracting and appealing to a black voter, pledging to do better and saying in part: Ive been on the trail, we found, to some extent, it depends on geography. We had a very diverse crowd at my first stop in Nevada, but less so in South Carolina. Bingo! Among the many different ways the African-American population is diverse in this country is geographic. There is the South, where most black people in this country still live, and there is everywhere else. In a way, I think that you could make a case that there are two black Americas among the people descended of the enslaved in this country: The sons and daughters of the Great Migration and the sons and daughters of the people who stayed in the South. I was born and raised in the South, but have lived the last 27 years in the Midwest and Northeast, and I can tell you that those are not the same black Americas. One difference is religiosity. While black people in general are more religious than the overall population, black people in the South are also appreciably more religious than black people in other parts of the country, according to Gallup data . The data reveals that the percentage of black people who were deemed not religious (based on how important attending church was to them) was 13 percent in the South. It was twice that number in the West, and around 20 percent in the Midwest and East. The Pew Research Center found a similar difference in 2009: While only 9 percent of black people in the South were religiously unaffiliated, that number nearly doubled in the Midwest to 17 percent and was 14 percent in the Northeast and 15 percent in the West. This religiosity translates into a form of social conservatism. Taking that into consideration, a more progressive view may have more resonance among black people outside the South than in it. Messaging, policies and appeals wont necessarily work the same in these different areas. After 17,216 performances, 6.5 million visitors, and who-knows-how-many gargantuan hats, San Franciscos enduring Beach Blanket Babylon is ending its run. The zany spoof show, which has been running since 1974 and claims to be the longest-running musical revue in the world, will play its final performances on New Years Eve, the producer announced on Wednesday. I just felt it was time after 45 years, it was the right time to close, said the producer, Jo Schuman Silver. Its better for us to go out on top than to drag this out. The pun-and-sight-gag-filled show has a feather-thin plot Snow White, looking for love, wanders the world encountering famous people who sing pop song parodies, often about politics and celebrity. It has become a treasured San Francisco staple, renowned as much for its spectacularly sculptural headgear as its content. (A San Francisco skyline hat is 14 feet high, nine feet wide and weighs more than 250 pounds.) It has been performed for a parade of notables, from Liza Minnelli to Queen Elizabeth II. Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts, Ms. Foxx said in the message. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think its indicative of something we should be looking at generally. She added: Just because we can charge something doesnt mean we should. Since January, the peculiar, roller coaster case involving Mr. Smollett has exposed an array of divisions and disagreements among Chicagos leaders, and hundreds of text and email messages released this week from and to Ms. Foxx only underscored those tensions. The messages involving Ms. Foxx and her office also suggested that Ms. Foxx remained aware of developments in the case even as she publicly distanced herself from it. The messages also paint a picture of a prosecutors office that failed at first to grasp the level of attention on the case, appearing overwhelmed by the criticism it faced when it abruptly announced in late March that it was dropping all of the criminal charges against Mr. Smollett. Ms. Foxx, who was elected as Cook Countys states attorney three years ago amid criticism of her predecessors handling of a police shooting case, has faced her own firestorm over the Smollett case, and lingering questions about her role in it and about her offices handling of it. In February, Eddie Johnson, the Chicago police superintendent, held an impassioned news conference to accuse Mr. Smollett, who is black and gay, of staging an attack on himself on Jan. 29 to seek publicity. Mr. Smollett had told detectives that two men placed a rope around his neck, poured a chemical on him and used the phrase MAGA country, referencing President Trumps campaign slogan. But Superintendent Johnson said the report was faked, flatly stating: Mr. Smollett is the one who orchestrated this crime. Mr. Smollett has maintained his innocence. Mr. McAleenan spoke to reporters the day after Attorney General William P. Barr issued an order to immigration judges that they deny some migrants a chance to post bail. The order, which is expected to be challenged in the courts, could keep thousands more in jail indefinitely while they wait for their asylum requests to be resolved, and appeared to be another effort to discourage migrants from seeking asylum. But it could also add to the overcrowding in detention centers on the border when it goes into effect in 90 days. For weeks, federal, local and nonprofit officials along the border have been struggling to handle a spike in asylum-seekers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Mr. McAleenan, on his first trip to the border as acting homeland security secretary, said the numbers have become unmanageable. In March, officials encountered or apprehended more than 103,000 migrants, the most in any single month in more than a decade, he said. Yesterday, in one 24-hour period, we had over 4,800 people cross our border, a new record for the modern era, Mr. McAleenan said. Almost 1,000 of them crossed in just three large groups, 375 people in the largest of those groups. Over all, the flow of migrants is low compared with the record numbers in the 1990s and early 2000s. But the latest surge has raised a host of legal and logistical challenges. In the Border Patrols Rio Grande Valley sector, the number of migrants apprehended so far this month is 8,928, already more than double what it was in April 2018. And in the El Paso sector, the number arriving in April is nearly eight times what it was last April. The federal government has a history of using temporary emergency housing to deal with influxes of migrants. A former Michigan state trooper was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on Wednesday, nearly two years after he fired a Taser at a teenager on an all-terrain vehicle who then crashed and died. The teenager, Damon Grimes, 15, was illegally riding the A.T.V. in a residential area of Detroit in August 2017. State police officers followed in a patrol car to get him to pull over. When he did not immediately do so, the officer in the passenger seat of the patrol car pulled out his Taser and stunned Damon. Video footage of the episode showed the A.T.V. veering toward the side of the road. The teenager crashed into the back of a parked truck and died shortly thereafter. The officer who used the Taser, Mark Bessner, was suspended and then resigned. The Michigan State Police announced it was adjusting its policy so troopers would not pursue vehicles for minor offenses like traffic violations. Criminal charges were filed against Mr. Bessner, but his first trial ended with a hung jury in October. There is an unlikely new hot spot for Democratic candidates: Fox News. President Trumps favorite network is increasingly playing host to hopefuls from the Democratic presidential field, eager for exposure to the vast Fox News audience even as they risk a backlash from others in the party who view the network as an ideological menace. The expedition into what many liberals consider enemy territory picked up this week after Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont appeared at a town hall on the network, drawing the biggest television audience of any 2020 Democratic candidate so far more than 2.5 million people while pitching himself to Trump-leaning viewers who may be willing to cross party lines next year. On Wednesday, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said she had agreed to a Fox News town hall-style event next month. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., is in advanced talks with the network. Julian Castro, the former housing secretary, is close to signing on, and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey say they are open to the idea. The debate over whether to appear on Fox News reflects in some ways a larger divide in the party as it ponders how to retake the White House: Should Democrats focus on expanding and mobilizing the various coalitions that make up their base, or seek inroads with the millions of Americans who supported Mr. Trump in 2016? The move is not the first time the Trump administration has sought to crack down on immigrants using the public safety net. For months, Stephen Miller, one of President Trumps top advisers and the architect of his immigration agenda, has pushed the administration to complete a new regulation that would penalize legal immigrants who rely on public benefits like Section 8 housing vouchers or food assistance. The regulation would give officials more power to declare an immigrant who uses welfare benefits to be a public charge, making him or her ineligible for permanent legal status. Like the administrations other efforts to crack down on immigrants, the public housing rule also fits Mr. Trumps message to his core supporters as he begins his 2020 re-election campaign. The president and his top political advisers believe that no issue better symbolizes their commitment to keeping the United States safe and prosperous than Mr. Trumps pledge to rid the country of undocumented immigrants and drastically reduce the flow of legal immigrants into the country. In addition to a crackdown at the southwestern border, where Mr. Trump has sought to toughen asylum policies, the White House has freed immigration officers around the country to round up and deport undocumented immigrants, regardless of whether they have committed serious crimes. The administration has also moved to limit the highly skilled immigrants whom technology companies bring to the United States and to subject them to much tougher vetting. A recent proposal would also deny the spouses of such immigrants the ability to legally work in the country, a change that could lead many couples to leave. During the 2018 midterm elections, Mr. Trump campaigned on little else, to the dismay of some Republican lawmakers, who argued that the president should have focused more on the booming economy and the passage of a major tax cut during his first two years. But Mr. Miller and Mr. Trump have shown little interest in pulling back on the immigration agenda. WASHINGTON Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia said Wednesday he would not run for president, concluding that his moderate profile would have limited appeal when Democratic voters appear to be choosing between younger, progressive contenders and veteran politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is expected to enter the race next week. I would have loved to have run for president, Mr. McAuliffe said in a telephone interview, but he conceded it would have been a hard primary. A storied political fund-raiser and close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Mr. McAuliffe had visited the early primary state of South Carolina and made calls to his donor network in hopes of lining up support. He said that he would have been able to raise $10 million in his first three months as a candidate. And with a record of job expansion during his tenure in Virginia, which he trumpeted at every opportunity, Mr. McAuliffe believed he could be a formidable candidate in a 2020 primary with no dominant front-runner. But while the exuberant former Democratic National Committee chairman often sounded eager to run, and even tested a centrist message targeting what he called dishonest populism, it became clear to him that there was limited space for a 62-year-old political veteran. The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new restrictions on dealing with Cuba amid a broader toughening of its Latin American policy, limiting nonfamily travel to the island and how much money Cuban-Americans can send to relatives there, and allowing exiles to sue for property seized by the Castro government. In our most fervent dreams, we could not have conceived that a U.S. administration would do this, Nicolas J. Gutierrez, president of the National Association of Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba and whose family lost property there, said in praising the decision to allow the lawsuits. No administration has ever done this. Forget Reagan. Forget Bush. By allowing the lawsuits a departure from nearly a quarter-century of policy the administration dismissed passionate opposition from officials in Europe and Canada who had lobbied in recent weeks against the move, which could unleash a torrent of proceedings against companies and people accused of trafficking in the confiscated property. The decision, announced by Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, was part of a broader set of policies that also targeted Venezuela and Nicaragua and were outlined in a speech in Miami by John R. Bolton, the presidents national security adviser. CARACAS, Venezuela Hundreds of Red Cross volunteers sifted through donated medication, hygiene kits and surgical material in warehouses across Caracas, Venezuela, on Wednesday, as aid workers began to grapple with the challenges of delivering humanitarian supplies in a violent and polarized nation where even basic transportation infrastructure has crumbled. The launch of the large-scale humanitarian campaign by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies also raised questions about how the international community can handle a humanitarian disaster caused largely by the policies of a government intent on staying in power, rather than war or natural disaster. This is a pretty unique situation with no precedent in modern Latin American history, said Tamara Taraciuk, a Venezuela expert at Human Rights Watch who this month helped write a report on the countrys humanitarian crisis. Its a completely man-made crisis. No one can tell you how long it will last or how much will be needed. The arrival of 24 tons of Red Cross supplies to Caracas airport Tuesday had been welcomed by Venezuelans and by local charities, which saw the campaign as crucial. Our guide to dance performances happening this weekend and in the week ahead. ABT STUDIO COMPANY at the Joyce Theater (April 24, 7:30 p.m.; April 25, 8 p.m.; through April 27). This group, directed by the former American Ballet Theater soloist Sascha Radetsky, acts as a bridge between ballet training and a professional career. Proof of its success is evident in the main company: Three-quarters of its dancers started out at ABT Studio. For its Joyce season, the group presents existing and new choreography with repertoire that includes George Balanchines Tarantella and excerpts from Don Quixote and Stanton Welchs Clear, as well as five New York premieres. Doing the choreographic honors are Stefanie Batten Bland, Gemma Bond, Ma Cong, Claudia Schreier and Ethan Stiefel. 212-242-0800, joyce.org COLLECTIVE TERRAIN/S at Danspace Project (April 25, 8 p.m.; through May 4). Jasmine Hearn, Tendayi Kuumba, Samita Sinha and Tatyana Tenenbaum take over Danspace Project with two weeks of events exploring the relationship between the voice and the body. Organized by Hearn and Tenenbaum along with Danspaces associate curator, Lydia Bell, the engagement features performances, a workshop and a launch party for a book created by the collective and published by Danspace Project. For the choreographers, who will each present works during this run, the coming together of ideas, vocalization and dancing is based on their shared interest in vibration as anatomy of human connection, as they explain in press materials. 866-811-4111, danspaceproject.org Its not often that the paintings of an Italian Renaissance master arrive in a New York museum unadorned by the aura of fame and towering talent, but so it is with Giovanni Battista Moroni. The art of this 16th-century painter who excelled at remarkably naturalistic portraits is having its first American survey at the Frick Collection in Moroni: The Riches of Renaissance Portraiture. Partly because Moronis reputation does not much precede him in this country, the shows 23 portraits have a stunning freshness and clarity. We have the sense of seeing for ourselves and there is much to look at. Part of this freshness is inherent: Moronis paintings themselves are unencumbered. He scrutinized reality with a new directness and tried to record what he saw. His relatively low-key style adds to his portraits transparency, the feeling that we are looking at real people as they existed unidealized, meticulously observed and psychologically present, especially in their direct appraising gazes. The grand old man thought to be Gabriele Albani, in a portrait that Moroni painted around 1572-73, wears a lavish lynx-lined robe, but he also has a prominent bump in the middle of his forehead although its suggestion of a third eye is not without a certain grandeur. Even more strikingly honest is the wrinkled face and goiter of Lucrezia Agliardi Vertova, who holds a prayer book in hands that the catalog suggests were painted from a younger model once the paintings subject was no longer available. That Moroni did not add wrinkles here is testament that he could not paint what was not in front of him. On a warm spring day, nine people were gathered inside a cold crypt beneath the Basilica of St. Patricks Old Cathedral on Mulberry Street . This is the size of a standard New York apartment, the tour guide, Brandon Duncan, said to the Texas and Austrian tourists standing in the spacious room the final resting place of a long-forgotten Civil War general. Overhead were polished Guastavino tiles, original Edison light fixtures and space for eight more bodies, marble lids propped up and ready. Its sort of like a hostel situation, Mr. Duncan said, glancing up at the empty bunks. The general, Thomas Eckert, left varying degrees of inheritance to his children, who wound up bickering and perhaps decided not to spend eternity together, Mr. Duncan explained. Eckerts vault doesnt get family visitors anymore, but provides the grand finale of a 90-minute candlelight catacombs tour, opening up one of New Yorks most secret spaces to the public. St. Patricks Old Cathedral often referred to as the other St. Patricks Cathedral recently developed this and other programming to help pay for the churchs upkeep and its historic outdoor cemetery, the only active Roman Catholic cemetery in Manhattan. We have a long way to go in making the grounds the way we want them, Msgr. Donald Sakano, who took charge of the NoLIta parish a decade ago, said. The gravestones are deteriorating as we speak, the soft stone losing inscriptions. No matter how much free time you have this weekend, we have TV recommendations for you. Come back every Friday for new suggestions on what to watch. This Weekend I Have a Half-Hour, and I Like My Humor Bite-Size The New Negroes With Baron Vaughn & Open Mike Eagle When to watch: Friday at 11 p.m., on Comedy Central and BET. The comedian and actor Baron Vaughn and the rapper Open Mike Eagle bring their long-running Los Angeles stand-up showcase to Comedy Central, with a simulcast on BET. The eight-episode series takes its name and mission from the title of a Harlem Renaissance-era book by Alain Locke: As Vaughn jokes in the premiere, This is the stand-up show you get when you say James Baldwin three times into a bathroom mirror. The New Negroes is a platform for comedians of color,with episodes comprised of short sets from three different comics, culminating in a pre-taped video for an original song featuring a new musical guest each week. Hannibal Buress crashes the first episode, which includes sets from Chris Redd, Shalewa Sharpe and Langston Kerman. The shows strength is that, as the title suggests, it tells the story not of a vast group but of one person and the specific people around him. The title character (Youssef) still lives with his conservative parents who are Palestinian and Egyptian immigrants and his adult sister, Dena (May Calamawy) in north New Jersey. [Ramy is a quietly revolutionary comedy.] Ramy Hassan doesnt just happen to be Muslim. He practices his faith earnestly, albeit selectively. He doesnt drink, but he does have a lot of premarital sex. He goes to mosque, but, in the opening episode, a fellow worshiper scolds him for rushing his ritual ablution and not washing between his toes. Ramys spiritual drift is bound up with his young-adult search for identity. Where does he belong? Is he a good person? Can he commit to anything? It echoes in his professional life (he jumped off the med school track and is working for a sketchy tech company) and his love life. (Hes dated mainly non-Muslims, and the show sharply interrogates his double standard about Muslim women who enjoy sex.) Youssefs chill, thoughtful manner suggests a more bright-eyed version of Donald Glovers Earn from Atlanta, with which Ramy shares a slice-of-life perspective and a sense of humor that relies on interactions more than gags. Much of the comedy comes from Ramys sounding boards: Steve (Steve Way), who has muscular dystrophy and a caustic attitude, and his Muslim friends Mo (Mohammed Amer) and Ahmed (Dave Merheje), who have a more comfortable and casual relationship to their faith. They urge him to let his parents set him up with a Muslim woman but mock his newfound passion for the Ramadan fast its as if, Mo says, Ramy wants to all of a sudden turn into Malcolm X. Troubling history lives on, vividly and urgently, in this weeks recommended books. Julian Herberts latest book revisits, with shame and fury, the massacre of 300 Chinese immigrants in the city of Torreon during the Mexican Revolution. Mark Bowden follows detectives as they crack open a 40-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of two sisters. The Lions Den examines how thinkers on the left have grappled with the idea and the reality of Israel. And the starkly titled Hate is about the history and the present of anti-Semitism in France. We also look at one of the years most highly anticipated novels, Normal People, Sally Rooneys follow-up to Conversations With Friends, and at two debut novels: one comic and one terrifying. John Williams Daily Books Editor and Staff Writer NORMAL PEOPLE, by Sally Rooney. (Hogarth, $26.) Rooneys second novel, following Conversations With Friends, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Its about Marianne and Connell, gifted teenagers from different social classes in Ireland. The book tracks them across four years. They are never quite boyfriend and girlfriend in the conventional sense. They merely break each others hearts over and over again, our critic Dwight Garner writes. Rooneys intimate and pared-down style can be reminiscent of Rachel Cusks, Garner says, and her novels are satisfying because there arent dueling narrators or cats cradles of plotlines. You buy Rooneys ticket, you take her ride. THE HOUSE OF THE PAIN OF OTHERS: Chronicle of a Small Genocide, by Julian Herbert. Translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney. (Graywolf Press, $16.) The latest by Herbert, a Mexican writer and musician, tells the story of a massacre that took place in the city of Torreon, over the course of three days in 1911, during the Mexican Revolution. Three hundred Chinese immigrants were shot and bludgeoned to death in the streets. The crime has been misunderstood and misrepresented. But it has never been truly forgotten. Our critic Parul Sehgal writes: The great strength of Herberts book, written with such shame and fury, is that it is not framed as epitaph but as dispatch from a live crime scene, attentive to the silences, the still seething resentments, relinquishing nothing to history. These class conflicts, indicative of the national blue-red divide, can make local politics almost violent, she writes. The farmer who hopes to make some money off his land by developing it, working-class families who have seen employment shrink to nearly nothing but have been offered a meaningful sum by a fracking company such people see landscape preservationists, like environmentalists, as the enemy. Image I see that I myself am a part of that, she acknowledges, recounting a meeting with a deputy sheriff and a garbage collector from where she lives in the country who both farm on the side because well, its hard to say why, she writes. They just do, suggesting to her that they care at least as much about the landscape as the preservationists and second-home owners do. The truth in many poor areas, which Im not sure Lessard fully addresses, is that people also farm for food. Any conclusion about class and landscape, she decides, will be contradicted, maybe within minutes. But she doesnt leave it there. The environmental movement, she notes, born during the era of the moonshot, when earthlings first saw the planet as it is a tiny, vulnerable blue marble dangling in the abyss of space disastrously ignored the implications of those images by pitting people against nature and failing to seek common ground with urbanists, pacifists and social justice advocates. We can see clearly today that, from the point of view of the moon, the distinction between city and country of any kind, or even city and wilderness was meaningless: that it was all our environment. This is a familiar but timely point. Our siloed interests have thwarted collective progress. Crumbling infrastructure and runaway housing prices are ultimately inseparable from sprawl and pollution; climate change accelerates rural desertification and contributes to flooding, wreaking havoc on billions of lives, causing unrest and fueling the refugee crisis. We separate such issues at our peril. Lessard laments that American students, intent on business careers, are not more interested in these things, that they eschew social activism today, a fogyish plaint that seems the exact opposite of true. I wondered how many of them she had interviewed for the book. I found myself wishing for the voices of more local residents when she was on her jaunts into what appeared to her to be the haphazard zones of atopia and on the outskirts of troubled cities that to her seemed the middle of nowhere. Surely these places arent nowhere to all the people who live there. Gates contrasts the iconography of Negrophobia with the New Negroes own cultural productions: family photographs and portraits of well-dressed and inevitably light-skinned African-Americans featured in black periodicals. In this matchup, white supremacy wins in volume and pungency over the vain attempt to confect positive images of noble black people powerful enough to brace against the maelstrom of excruciating images that the white supremacist imagination had spawned. Gatess epilogue explains why. Upstanding New Negroes, no matter how pale, straight-haired, well dressed or impeccably educated, ultimately proved no contest for white supremacy, which had much more than iconography going for it. In the century after the Civil War, when most black men and women could not vote, white supremacy had political power local, state and national. For all its hopeful eloquence, New Negro cultural expression could not overcome disfranchisement. Then, as now, the ballot held the key to a new Reconstruction. Much of the scholarship Gates cites is not new, including W. E. B. Du Boiss 1935 classic, Black Reconstruction: An Essay of the History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880, as well as an abundance of academic articles and books inspired by the civil rights revolution of the 1950s and 1960s (an era often termed the Second Reconstruction) and which effectively undermined the prevailing account of Reconstruction as an era of ignorant and corrupt Negro rule. Image New in Stony the Road is a wealth of visual material related to Reconstruction, a documentary series that Gates produced for PBS and which aired this month. The visual bounty began to emerge in the late 20th century, thanks to the digitization of hitherto scattered archives. In Stony the Road, the vicious imagery postcards, photographs, newspaper cartoons, political broadsides, knickknacks, theater posters, playing cards, childrens books, games of all sorts forms a sickening onslaught that raises a question: Is the book African-American history or American history? The winter of 2017 revealed stark contrasts between a vision of the country held by millions of blinkered Americans who insisted that the presidents attitude toward immigrants and minorities was not the America they knew and a fuller vision of history and society, including what has so often been buried under the rubric of African-American history, as though African-American history had little or nothing to do with American history. Those familiar with African-American history would hardly say, This is not the America I know. For in our current politics we recognize African-American history the spot under our countrys rug where the terrorism and injustices of white supremacy are habitually swept. Stony the Road lifts the rug. Mr. Muellers team ultimately decided not to charge the president, citing numerous legal and factual constraints. But they pointedly declined to exonerate him and they cataloged the attempts by Mr. Trump to escape an inquiry that imperiled his presidency from the start. The special counsel also left the door open to the possibility that Mr. Trump could be charged after he leaves office. Quote of note: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, Mr. Muellers investigators wrote. Barrs news conference: The attorney general defended the president in a half-hour news conference ahead of the reports release. He portrayed Mr. Trump as having been under unprecedented stress from the first days of his presidency from investigations and media scrutiny. Despite his frustration, Mr. Barr said, the White House fully cooperated. Watch the news conference. Mr. Trump claimed vindication at a White House event and on Twitter. Democrats wasted no time in assailing the attorney generals framing of the report. Analysts said the test shows that Mr. Kim is reverting to sabre-rattling as he moves to end the sanctions that are derailing his hopes of rejuvenating North Koreas economy. Whats next: Mr. Kim said recently that he would give the U.S. until the end of the year to come up with proposals that would lift sanctions, an implicit warning that North Korea might resume nuclear and intercontinental missile testing. Todays test suggested that he might raise the stakes sooner. Notre-Dame donations stir resentment Donations from wealthy French families and companies to rebuild the fire-ravaged cathedral in Paris are nearing $1 billion, intensifying the resentment that has been on display during the Yellow Vest protests about economic inequality. If theyre able to give dozens of millions to rebuild Notre Dame, they should stop telling us that there is no money to pay for social inequalities, one labor union leader said. Another angle: The Paris Fire Departments chaplain, the Rev. Jean-Marc Fournier, has emerged as a central figure in the mission to rescue artworks and relics from the blaze. He told our reporter how more than 100 firefighters carried the precious pieces to safety. Yesterday: A man carrying two cans of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and two lighters was arrested after entering St. Patricks Cathedral in New York, the police said. The church was undamaged. On Fox News, Bret Baier broke out his reading glasses. On CNN, Jake Tapper read a website U.R.L. aloud. On NBC, the legal correspondent Pete Williams brandished a three-ring binder stuffed with freshly printed pages, holding up a sheet covered almost entirely by black bars of redacted text. Journalists received their copies of the Mueller report all 448 pages at the same time as the general public on Thursday. Except they had to explain it all on live TV, and the sooner the better. The result, for television viewers, was a halting, if ultimately educational glimpse at the tedious mechanics of real-time reporting: sifting through documents, puzzling over footnotes. Were all going to law school here today, the anchor Savannah Guthrie told NBC viewers. Catherine Herridge of Fox News, speed-reading (and speed-analyzing) on-camera, asked her colleagues for patience. Im going to take a break here, continue reading, and flag headlines as we get them, she said. MSNBC kept its legal analyst, Ari Melber, sequestered at a small desk on-set, occasionally throwing to him for updates. The National Enquirer, President Trumps favorite supermarket tabloid, is about to have a new owner: James Cohen, a son of the founder of the Hudson News franchise. American Media Inc., The Enquirers publisher, announced the deal Thursday. The money-losing title was put up for sale several weeks ago, after its principal owner decided it no longer wanted to be associated with the magazine, according to several people familiar with the matter. The publication attracted the scrutiny of federal investigators for its role in the 2016 presidential campaign. American Media had been in talks with several potential buyers, including the California billionaire Ronald W. Burkle. After those talks fell apart last week, Mr. Cohen, whose father started the chain of Hudson News shops, swooped in to buy the troubled tabloid. As part of the deal, American Media, led by David J. Pecker, a longtime friend of Mr. Trumps, has also agreed to sell two of its other tabloids: the Globe and the National Examiner. The Washington Post first reported the sale, which it pegged at $100 million. The report from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was finally released on Thursday and already numerous publishers were seeking to profit from it. The wait is over, promised Skyhorse, an independent publisher of The Mueller Report: The Final Report of the Special Counsel in Donald Trump, Russia, and Collusion. With a foreword by Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor who has been critical of Mr. Muellers investigation and who has been praised by President Trump, it is already an Amazon best seller, ranked No. 1 in the Biographies of Espionage category. The paperback edition will be available next week, and the digital version will be available on Friday, a representative for the publisher said. Right behind it is The Mueller Report, an offering from The Washington Post and the Simon & Schuster imprint Scribner that promises exclusive analysis by members of the newspapers Pulitzer Prize-winning staff. Brian Belfiglio, vice president and director of publicity at Scribner, said that the imprint expects to publish an e-book on Friday, and that the trade paperback edition would be available on April 26 or earlier. WASHINGTON Senator Mitch McConnell, long one of the tobacco industrys loyal allies, said on Thursday that he would sponsor legislation to raise the minimum age to 21 for the purchase of tobacco and e-cigarettes. Mr. McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader whose home state, Kentucky, is the nations second-largest tobacco producer, said he was motivated by the increasing rate of vaping among teenagers and young adults. Public health agencies have cracked down on e-cigarette companies and distributors in an effort to curb access to the products. For some time, Ive been hearing from the parents who are seeing an unprecedented spike in vaping among their teenage children, Mr. McConnell said at a news conference Thursday in Louisville, Ky. In addition, we all know people who started smoking at a young age and who struggled to quit as adults. Khaldiya why are you standing outside on your own? Im looking at the people coming and going. Arriving at the gate changed a lot of things in my life. It was the first time Id been in a crowded place like this. There were children screaming and crying. It was freezing cold. There was no sleep. There was no warmth. A lot of thoughts were going through my head. From that moment I just felt like a different person. I was able to overcome my shyness. Now I am another kind of girl. A courageous girl. A courageous girl. My siblings didnt use to play with their hands. They would only play if they got a good toy. In the camp their lives completely changed. They started playing with their hands and singing their beautiful childrens songs. This is my sister Shahib, a little lady. Shes always pedaling her feet as if she were riding a bicycle. The nice thing about here is that the kids are always active. My siblings never wanted to do anything at home. What changed their minds in the camp? Honestly, I dont know. I started to teach kids because I was deprived of education. And they shouldnt also be denied. Our kitchen never used to be dark. But in the camp, our kitchen is always dark in the evening. Theres no light at all except what comes in from outside of the kitchen... the light of the caravans. In Syria, I used to be afraid. I needed the lights on in the kitchen. Here I can visit Marah at night with just a small lantern. And I am not afraid. In Syria it was from school to home until 8th grade. When I stopped in 8th grade I just stayed at home. But here we go to the center and we learn photography. We are more open-minded about life. In Syria I didnt have a lot of friends except at school. We never hung out with people in the neighborhood. Here I have many, many friends. They learn from me, and I learn from them. My siblings, my mother, my father, and grandmother... My head has too much going on in it. Khaldiya, imagine yourself 20 years older. What do you think the older Khaldiya would ask the younger Khaldiya? Do you regret the things that youve done at this age? Do you regret what you did at 17? This is what I imagine even though its impossible... Marah and I are in something like college dorms, but not in the same room. We are studying on our own and were comfortable. We would have to be studying on our own, real far away from our parents. Then we could focus on our studying. When I am mad I automatically start filming and it doesnt matter how it comes out as long as I am filming. Especially when I take the shots from weird angles. When I film I feel at ease because I love filming. When I film I feel I am someone very important. I believe the school should not paint over it the murals, but instead have a plaque explaining the history behind these photos. Example, This picture explains how, though he was a valiant general, George also kept slaves or this dead native american shows the hardships the natives have faces and still face to this very day from the white people. I think the murals should stay, and continues to show our ugly but very true american history. George Siokos, Masterman Philadelphia @George Siokos George, but is it worth having to walk under murals of dead kin everyday. Is it worth being reminded everyday that your ancestors were not even considered human. I respect your opinion, but I believe that history can be taught without bringing peoples self esteem down. Tino K., Masterman Philadelphia @George Siokos I think you make a very fair point that these are pieces of history and they definitely had a lot of effort put into them, and that is something that should not be overlooked. This is a very hard question, and I can definitely see how one could take either side. You certainly shouldnt just get rid of something that someone put a lot of work into, especially if it is historically valuable, but is that really more important than making students feel safe and not discriminated against at school, which is supposed to be one of the safest places in a kids life? It would be nice if there were a compromise, a way to preserve the art while also upholding students self confidence. Of course, youre certainly entitled to your own opinion, but in the end, I feel that it is more important that all students feel equal than it is to save paintings that degrade certain racial groups. Sivan Frankel, Masterman School, Philadelphia, PA @George Siokos I totally agree. Even though these murals can be offensive, they express a part of our history. They shouldnt be destroyed. Kaya Perelman, Masterman, Philadelphia I think that the murals should get taken down if people are actually getting offended. Some people might say that kids need to learn about these events, which is true. But they can just learn about them in class. If nobody cared about the murals the if would be different because no one would be harmed by them. But people are feeling dehumanized by the murals and thats not right. So I think that since people really care about these murals and are offended by them then they should be gotten rid of. Sabrina Mintz, Masterman, Philadelphia @Sabrina Mintz While I agree they should be taught about in class, they cant be taught and forgotten about, the events need to be acknowledged and remembered. History is history and it cannot be changed, the best we can do today is learn from them and thats a reason the murals should stay, its so we can remember the events and not repeat them. Benjamin Chiem, J.R. Masterman - Philadelphia, PA @Sabrina Mintz I also agree, the murals are still a part of history no matter how the events are described. Its better to learn about history, compared to just hiding from it and trying to forget about it. People need to be aware of how it used to be, and how far weve gotten in our present time. Benga Oni, JR Masterman, Philadelphia PA I think that the murals should stay in the high schools because the past is the past and there is nothing we can do about it. Not all of history is good, and we need to learn how to accept that. Of course some of these murals may not honor or have a positive purpose, but history was not smooth and either should these murals be. If the artist wanted to create something that depicts a darker time in history, so be it. We cannot sugar coat the past, for it happened. Sophia, Masterman @Sophia Its not about changing the past We are still taught history in our classes after all. I think we should view the situation through scientific point of view. For example, if we just accepted the murals even if people found this offensive, would not this be evolutionary stasis? We wouldnt evolve or gain anything by acceptance which would leave us in stasis. However, if were to remove the murals, we would evolve in a way of intelligence. We would be more intolerant of racism and the such. Yeah it seems small to remove one mural, but what about the kids who go that school? It probably would affect them to some degree at least. Remember the Galapagos islands? It was only one minor change; a drought. To the world, this drought in the Galapagos was nothing. However, to the finches living there, it sure was a big deal! Humans are no longer primitive anymore. I dont think we are dealing with issues of physical evolution anymore, but instead evolution regarding intelligence. G Jap, Masterman School, Philadelphia PA A symbol of resilience For me, The murals remain us a part of the history and help us to be stronger. That remind us to understand how difficult it was for the ancestors to g fought to enjoy the privilege. Together we are strong. Dorrotie 3A, YC CLIP @Dorrotie 3A I agree with you all the way because history makes up what we are now and does make us stronger. True statement. Teddy Santos, Julia R. Masterman Remembering the past to face the future In my opinion, if something happened, there is no point in trying to cover it up under the wraps of time. For example, in the case of the murals, George Washington did fight in (what I believe to be) the 7 Years War, and did command Native Americans, who were, at the time, employed by both the British and French forces. Also, George Washington did own slaves, as did many of his contemporaries, it was just a product of the times. A good example of why we should not try to shield past blemishes from the people of the youth is the Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1917. Adolf Hitler used the reasoning that, if no one remembered the Armenian Genocide, (which they hadnt) no one will remember the Holocaust. He said After all, who today remembers the genocide of the Armenians? All in all, those are my thoughts on why we should not try to get rid of the mistakes of the past, because if we do, history is bound to repeat itself. Jonah A., Masterman School @Jonah A.This is a wonderful comment Hank, Philadelphia, PA @Jonah A. I agree with how you related the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust to this issue. As with both genocides, genocides with these natives should not be forgotten, and it being placed on the walls of the high school, should not be removed to never forget what early Americans did to natives. George Siokos, Masterman Philadelphia @Jonah A. I strongly agree. The past isnt something we should hide and keep in the shadows. It is something we should always pay attention to and grow from. Without knowledge of historical events, we may repeat the same mistakes, which wouldnt have a great result on the later future Abibat Lateef, Julia R. Masterman @Jonah A. Well written, and great background. I definitely agree about not covering up our history, because why hide what has already been shown? Naiima Jabati, Julia R. Masterman, Philadelphia Do these murals belong in a school? I feel like it really does matter that these murals are in high school. We are intended to learn a lot in high school so if we do see murals that depict such bad actions then the students will be influenced more than they are already. As a student i understand that our minds are still developing and very easily manipulated. If these murals would be anywhere else like in a government office building, hospital or a courthouse the adults that are in those places already know right from wrong, they already have a formed opinion of their own. Unlike the teenagers that walk the halls of this school. Ciarah Torres, Iuka Mississippi @Ciarah Torres I agree for the most part, but I believe that if these murals are thought of as offensive it doesnt matter where they are. I also believe that it doesnt matter what your age is, you can still be manipulated or convinced of something if youre exposed to it enough. Besides these minor details I agree with your comment. Samuel Hamilton, Masterman Having these types of murals in a school might be a little harsh especially because teenagers are just developing. Instead of just having a mural, it would be nice to have a little excerpt somewhere explaining what is happening in the mural. During history, students should learn about the murals, too and discuss their views. Jessica H., J.R. Masterman School, Philadelphia, PA @Jessica H. I agree with you. We should not try to cover up historys mistakes. We should try to learn from them. Justin T. Liu, Masterman; in Philly @Jessica H. I totally agree. We cant just ignore these things, no matter how hard they are to accept. Also, having extra information about the murals is an excellent idea. It is important for the students to understand what they are seeing and why it was created. Anya Finlay, Masterman- Philadelphia, PA Learning about the good and bad parts of history I recommend that the school remove the murals from the school. I think they should paint a new mural showing different aspects of George Washingtons life that arent as offensive. Christian, Walla Walla High School @Christian I can see where you are going and it is a good line of thinking yet it still honors George Washington, and to honor a person you must honor them entirely in all that they have done, dont you agree? Really, in my opinion, it would just end up with the same result as Washington was a slave owner and a man who oppressed many people and you cant really ignore that. Still, your point is valid as the murals depict a cruel and offensive part of Washingtons life and evoke emotions amongst the people who are members of the groups he oppressed so it makes sense to immediately want to get rid of it, yet history is history and it is important to acknowledge atrocities done by people whom we honor and revere. Reza Chity-Guevara, Masterman, Philadelphia, PA @Christian I respect your opinion but if you want to glorify a person such as George Washington, you should know his entire personality/beliefs and what he did in his lifetime. By just showing the aspects of Washingtons life that cutting out how he harshly treated others, a false understanding of his personality can be interpreted with his heroic side showing only. Hope A, Masterman, Philly I believe the murals should stay. There are few reasons for this. The first and most obvious one is that they have historical importance. They were painted a long time ago and lots of other buildings and art from the past are still being protected today. Another reason is that it is educational. Lots of teachers and textbooks make George Washington out to be a great person, but learning about the bad things he did is also very important because no one is perfect and we all have our mistakes. The final reason is that we shouldnt sugarcoat history. No matter what happened, we should still learn about it. These murals are in a high school. They are for sure old enough to realize that this is what happened in the world. Thats why they should keep the murals. Tierra G., Walla Walla, WA @Tierra G. I couldnt stress that point enough. I agree with you when you say that these murals carry so much historical importance. This is such an important part of our history and we cant just tear it down. The students need to be able to learn from these paintings and censoring the past wont make it easier. Keeping these pictures up will help us from ever backtracking into our old ways. Maeve McNichol, Masterman, Philadelphia, PA __________ As a photographer, Mr. Cardona, 30, was used to documenting Colombias bloody history as a decades-old civil war inflicted on strangers. But like so many of his countrymen, members of his family were killed after accusations that they were rebel supporters. His great-grandfather, father, mother, uncle and other family members mostly farmers who advocated land reform and labor rights were sentenced to summary executions at the hands of the military. Over the last three years, Mr. Cardona has confronted his familys history, drawing upon portraits, family pictures and re-creations of murder scenes to bridge the past to the present with the hope of making sense of and accepting all that happened. It is so easy to document another persons pain with a camera, he said. But when you document yourself, thats where I began to feel that I also lived through this and hid it. It was either I do this story or let it be forgotten. I cannot allow that. I told myself it was time, even if it hurts. But I must do it. April 14 Helmand Province: a battalion commander killed Major Sher Ahmad, 215 Maiwand Corpss commander of Second Battalion, Third Brigade, was killed in the Chah-e-Anjir area of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, while fighting with the Taliban. Major Ahmad was leading reinforcements against a Taliban assault on an army outpost when he was killed. Two other soldiers were wounded in the fighting. Local authorities claimed that the Taliban also suffered casualties. April 14 Balkh Province: one police officer killed The Taliban attacked the villages of Asiab Gorg and Asia Khan in Chimtal District, killing one police officer and wounding three others. Insurgents were pushed back by security forces. April 14 Badakhshan Province: eight soldiers killed The Taliban attacked the center of Jurm District from several directions, capturing a security outpost in Pul-e-Soch village. Eight soldiers were killed in the outpost, which was later recaptured by security forces. Local authorities claimed that three Taliban fighters were also killed in the attack. April 13 Kunduz Province: 14 security forces and six civilians killed The Taliban attacked Kunduz City, the provincial capital, from three directions, capturing four security outposts in different parts of the city. The attack was repelled by American and Afghan air power. Six police officers, four local police officers, one pro-government militia member and three soldiers were killed in 20 hours of fighting. Six civilians were also killed in the clashes. Eighty-eight were also wounded, including 41 civilians and 47 members of the security forces, who were taken to the regional hospital in Kunduz City. Local authorities claimed that more than 20 Taliban fighters were killed and 20 others were wounded in the clashes and airstrikes. April 13 Ghazni Province: one civilian killed A child was killed and two civilians were wounded when police at the entrance of Ghazni City, the provincial capital, fired into the air as a wedding convoy entered the city, hitting one of the convoy vehicles. The officer who opened fire was arrested and will be prosecuted. April 13 Baghlan Province: eight security forces killed The Taliban attacked and captured the Kokchinar military base in Baghlan-e-Markazi District, where fighting continued for six hours. Four soldiers, two national police officers and two local police officers were killed, and six members of the security forces were wounded in the clashes. Three soldiers were missing after the attack. The base was later recaptured by security forces. April 13 Baghlan Province: seven local police officers killed The Taliban attacked and captured a security outpost in Aabi Mazar area of Nahrin District, killing seven local police officers. Two officers were taken prisoner and a Humvee was destroyed in the three hours of fighting. Reinforcements never arrived despite many requests for backup. Soon after her dismissal, in early 2018, sitting on her couch at home with the latest issues of Science and Nature on the coffee table, Beverly Emerson told me she was not done with science. She showed me the pipettes, painted with her initials, that shed brought home from her lab. Later, a position at Oregon Health & Science University would let her continue to work on her projects. But she wont be getting all the benefits of an elder stateswoman. Emeritus professors often stick around institutions for decades; some former researchers still drop into the Salk for lunch. Jones and Lundblad settled their suits in August 2018, about a year after filing. The details of the settlement are confidential, and both women are forbidden to make any further comments to the media. (All interviews for this story took place before the settlement.) But they both retained their employment at the Salk, and are expected to stay there for the foreseeable future. Emerson continued her suit alone for several more months, but in November 2018 she also settled. The Salk admitted no liability in connection with any of the settlements. Emerson hoped, shed said, that the lawsuit would lead to better outcomes for the current generation of women. There are more now: Clodagh OShea was promoted to full professor in February 2018, the first woman to achieve that rank since Emerson in 1999. And the institute has hired others: Susan Kaech from Yale, and Kay Tye from M.I.T. Nearly everyone who has worked there including the women who sued it say the Salk Institute has lived up to its founders promise in many ways; the lack of bureaucracy facilitates real scientific breakthroughs. But the lawsuits claims suggest the lack of formal governance also made a push for equity impossible, and let a power structure formed in the 60s survive to the present day. On April 21, 2018, Dan Lewis, the chairman of the Salks board, sent a notice to Salk employees announcing that Inder Verma had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of allegations of sexual assault. Dr. Verma has made extraordinary contributions to scientific research, he wrote, but Salk will not condone any findings of inappropriate conduct in the workplace, regardless of ones stature or influence. The stories published soon after suggested otherwise. As reported by Meredith Wadman in Science that month, eight women, including Emerson and Mellon, accused Verma of sexual assault in a variety of professional situations: pinching the buttocks of a woman who had come to interview for a faculty position; forcibly kissing a young scientist in his lab in 1992; grabbing and kissing Emerson in the Salk library in 2001. The incidents spanned four decades, from 1976 to 2016. In the late 1980s, Mellon reported to the Salks human resources department that Verma had once grabbed her breasts at a faculty party, and didnt let go until she kicked him in the shins. She was told she needed counseling, and, she told me, was asked not to share her claim with anyone later. In a statement, Verma wrote that he had never inappropriately touched, nor have I made any sexually charged comments, to anyone affiliated with the Salk Institute, and has since produced a statement of support signed by 56 former students and postdocs. In the same email announcing that the Salk would take these alleged claims seriously, Lewis announced that Rusty Gage, long one of the Institutes stars, would be the next president. Verma resigned two months later. Anila Madiraju came to the Salk in 2015 as a postdoc, after completing her Ph.D. in cellular and molecular physiology at Yale. Since she was 13 when she would tag along with her father, a cancer biologist, to his lab her dream has been a career in academic science, and the Salk seemed like an institution that embodied scientific freedom and creativity. She says she has been treated well there, and her current adviser is one of many excellent male mentors she has had in her career so far. And yet at every stage in her career, the future has seemed less certain. Its hard already, she says, even before you throw gender into the mix. Shes watched successful students fail to land tenure-track positions, or be hired as assistant professors only to struggle with funding. Shell be applying for jobs in a year or two, but worries about a lack of opportunity, even considering alternate careers. When Science reported on the claims against Verma, she read the story three times. DOWNEY My missus always says the one thing shell never forget is watching me watch the footage at Comic-Con. Because she said I was literally trembling with excitement and satisfaction. And then I went to go shoot Tropic Thunder. I was showing Ben Stiller some of the footage from Comic-Con. He just looked at me in the most matter-of-fact way and said: That movies going to be a hit. O.K., lets get back to set and rehearse this scene. I was like, Oh. He doesnt just say that sort of stuff. So that was really cool. Iron Man was released on May 2, 2008. In its opening weekend, it grossed more than $98 million, and future Marvel movies were no longer a possibility but a certainty. DOWNEY We were at Giorgio Baldi, which is a famous Italian joint. We had a little private room there on Friday night as the numbers came in from Paramount. And I felt like we were at a horse race and we were all betting on ourselves, and we kept betting higher. I was like, Were going to break 85 [million]! FEIGE That Monday after the opening weekend, we announced dates for Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and Avengers. I remember being very excited that the movie worked well enough that we could do this. Were gonna do the plan! This is going to be a big deal. And the press did not treat it like a big deal. It was a footnote to an article about the success of the Iron Man opening weekend. And I went, Oh, I guess people dont get it yet. [Laughs] DOWNEY The real daunting thing was, oh, thats right, we have to go do this again. We get a year break, and I stayed very busy that year, and then we had to do it again. The word franchise is a verb, if you ask me. You are iterating something that needs to be recreated in some way and expanded upon every time. Family, Laura Steinels lightweight first feature, relies on audiences buying into the old chestnut that difficult women would be happier (or just easier to be around) if forced to care for a child. In this version, the woman is a tactless workaholic who needs to connect with her feelings; just dont expect those to entail an even greater appreciation for her job. Kate (Taylor Schilling) excels as a vaguely high-powered executive at a New Jersey hedge fund. Socially, though, shes a dud, alienating co-workers by saying exactly what she thinks. So when the brother she barely knows (Eric Edelstein) asks her to babysit her 11-year-old niece, Maddie (Bryn Vale), you can probably write the rest yourself even if you neglect to pointlessly throw the clown-painted music fans known as Juggalos into the mix. At the beginning of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, text onscreen proclaims that what we are about to see has been 25 years in the making. It might be even longer than that. Terry Gilliam has been tilting at this particular windmill since its eventual star, Adam Driver, was in elementary school. (Its not Driver who plays the Knight of Doleful Countenance, by the way, but the Gilliam stalwart Jonathan Pryce.) The legends surrounding the project have made Quixote one of the great films maudits of our time; a documentary on its failure to come to fruition appeared way back in 2003. All of that has perhaps created outsized expectations. Surely a movie so long in gestation, inspired by a doorstop-thick novel that has beguiled and baffled readers for several centuries, would turn out to be either a world-class catastrophe or a world-historical masterpiece. With a mixture of relief and regret, I must report that the movie is neither. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has moments of slackness and chaos (the book does, too), but for the most part its a lively, charming excursion into a landscape claimed by Gilliam in the name of Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish gentleman who gave Don Quixote life back in the early 1600s. The filmmakers devotion to the novelist adds luster and vigor to the images, but this is more than just an act of literary-minded reverence. Its a meeting of minds a celebration of artistic kinship across the gulfs of history, culture and technology. Gilliam, like Cervantes, is a wily inventor who also serves as an analyst and evangelist of the imagination. In his most successful movies Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, imagination is a mighty force and a fragile vessel. Art is a heroic expression of will even as it also stands as poor compensation for human frailty. The only hope is to dream, which is also a kind of doom. Its clear why filmmakers cant resist the allure of Alfred Hitchcock even if they inevitably fall short of him. But his imitators rarely come up with movies as pointless as Naples in Veils, which tips its hat vigorously toward the masters motifs the lost-and-found doubling of Vertigo, the repressed trauma of Marnie, possibly even Salvador Dalis eye design from Spellbound only to wind up as a tedious muddle. Adriana (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), a pathologist in Naples who is shy with men, has a one-night stand with Andrea (Alessandro Borghi), a much younger diver. The sex is rendered with a level of detail that seems more suited to a Euro-art remake of Fifty Shades of Grey than a Hitchcock riff but then again, its supposed to become an obsession for Adriana. They make plans to meet at a museum the next day, except Andrea doesnt show up. Our guide to film series and special screenings happening this weekend and in the week ahead. All our movie reviews are at nytimes.com/reviews/movies. ART OF THE REAL at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (through April 28). Few movies in this annual showcase can be comfortably described as documentaries the goal is to broaden perceptions of what nonfiction filmmaking is and can do. Miko Reverezas No Data Plan (on Friday), for instance, has a hallucinatory quality: Footage of train travel across the United States is used to emphasize the paranoia felt by undocumented immigrants living in America. A major highlight of this years edition is said to be the tribute to the Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab, who died in January. The essay films that constitute her Beirut trilogy (on April 28) reflect on life in that city in the midst of the Lebanese civil war. 212-875-5601, filmlinc.org DOCUMENTARY IN DIALOGUE: WERNER HERZOG at Anthology Film Archives (through April 28). It may be the case that Herzog is eventually better known for his documentaries than his fiction features; they are never simple chronicles of events, but often use a subject to ponder humanitys insignificance in the vastness of nature and the cosmos. Anthologys series pairs various Herzog films with other documentaries that highlight the eccentricities of his approach. Herzogs capital-punishment documentary, Into the Abyss, will play back-to-back with the early-1960s documentary The Chair, which captures events leading up to a parole hearing for the death-row inmate Paul Crump. Both movies show on Saturday and April 27, and Jill Drew, the daughter-in-law of Robert Drew, a director of The Chair, will appear at Saturdays screening. 212-505-5181, anthologyfilmarchives.org It was hard not to get swept up in the anticipation when Rafiki was shown last May at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Kenyan feature to be shown in the events official lineup. The film, a debut feature from Wanuri Kahiu, had just been banned in Kenya for its positive portrayal of homosexuality. This exceedingly modest romance involving two young women Kena (Samantha Mugatsia), who plans to go to nursing school, and Ziki (Sheila Munyiva), a free spirit who yearns to travel and who encourages Kena to set her sights higher in medicine hardly seems designed to withstand outsize expectations. Tirzah Anderson , 18, who is a representative on the Barnard student government, said she hears pretty often from students of color that public safety officers asked for ID when they were walking through campus, even though they just saw other people walk by and they werent asked. Mr. McNab said on Tuesday that he knew there was a rule that students were supposed to show ID entering Barnards campus after 11 p.m., but he wasnt aware it was being enforced, because it often was not. The colleges campus is directly across from Columbia, just south of Harlem . Hungry after dance practice, he said he had checked a Facebook page where students posted when there was food leftover from school events. He said had already entered the Milstein Center , which houses the library, greeted some of the students and had started putting Indian food on a plate, when several public safety officers rushed in. When asked to show ID by the officers, Mr. McNab said he raised his voice so the other students could hear, and then said no, telling them this was the third time he had been asked recently. When asked to leave the building, he also refused, saying he was a student who had a right to be there; Columbia students are allowed to use Barnard facilities. A Barnard spokeswoman said that when Mr. McNab had failed to show his ID at the front gate, the officer had called in a 10-13, meaning he needed immediate assistance. Coupled with the 10-13 call, Mr. McNabs continued refusal to stop and show his ID once inside a building filled with students was alarming, said Rochelle Ritchie, the Barnard spokeswoman. Mr. McNab said he was not asked for ID at the front gate. The video of the encounter begins as the officers start to get physical, holding Mr. McNab down and then pinning him against a counter. Who will pay? The drivers. Cyclists and skateboarders, while on wheels, will not be charged. Who doesnt want to pay? The drivers. At least many of them. But as anyone who has taken Econ 101 knows, the fewer customers you have, the more you might need to charge them to reach your revenue goal. [Who wants a break from congestion pricing? Practically everyone.] What exemptions are planned? Emergency vehicles. Vehicles carrying disabled people. A statement from Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, who support congestion pricing, referred to vehicles operated by or transporting people with disabilities and individuals who have an identifiable hardship or limited ability to access medical facilities in the congestion zone. Drivers who live in the congestion zone. They would not pay when they drive within the zone or when they leave it, but they would when they return. Residents in the zone who earn less than $60,000 a year could receive a tax credit. Drivers using the West Side Highway and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive to pass through Manhattan would not pay. What exemptions are being sought? New Jersey: A congressman there called for federal legislation to guarantee that drivers who already pay tolls to cross between the states are not charged twice. About 115,000 people drive from New Jersey into Manhattan below 60th Street every weekday, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Council. That does not include an additional 150,000 people who drive the George Washington Bridge each day from New Jersey, many of whom are also destined for the congestion zone. Asked about a New Jersey exemption, the M.T.A. chairman, Patrick J. Foye, said on Monday that if New Yorkers were paying the fee, surely people from Missouri and Florida and Illinois and New Jersey should pay it. Police officers: In a recent op-ed in The Daily News, a union leader said the police should be exempted because we require the greatest possible flexibility to get to work. The incident began at 4:24 p.m. when a 911 caller reported that someone was firing a gun at the corner of Wadsworth Avenue and 187th Street, the police commissioner, James P. ONeill, said during a news conference at the Mount Sinai St. Lukes Hospital. Moments later, two plainclothes officers from the 34th Precinct arrived in an unmarked car and spotted Mr. Leizado with a gun fleeing down 187th Street toward Broadway, Mr. ONeill said. Officer Vartanian got out of the car and chased the gunman on foot as he ran around the corner and into a parking lot on Broadway. The fleeing man hid behind a car at the back of the lot and fired three rounds, hitting the officer under his right arm. The wounded officer managed to fire back once. The amount of courage this police officer showed is quite unbelievable, Mr. ONeill said. Then, the second officer, who has not been identified, barreled into the parking lot in the unmarked police car, jumped out and started firing from behind the drivers side door, the commissioner said. He squeezed off three shots at the gunman. One of the gunmans bullets went through the windshield of the police car where the driver sits. This was a fast, intense episode, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. We saw, from the video we observed, a very, very dangerous situation unfold. [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Marc Lamparellos story seemed off from the start. It was nearly 8 p.m. on Wednesday when Mr. Lamparello, a 37-year-old graduate student and lecturer on philosophy, entered St. Patricks Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan toting two gasoline cans, lighter fluid and lighters, the police said. Hours before, he had purchased a $2,800, one-way plane ticket to Rome, which was set to depart the next day. Mr. Lamparello was about 20 feet into the church when ushers approached him and said he could not be inside the building with the cans of gasoline, the police said. He explained that he was trying to take a shortcut through the iconic sanctuary to reach his van, which he claimed had run out of gas. Kazuhiko Kato, the Japanese cartoonist known to his fans as Monkey Punch who created Lupin III, a manga series that has found fans worldwide and inspired television and film adaptations, died on April 11. He was 81. His office, MP Pictures, said the cause was pneumonia but did not say where he died. Created by Mr. Kato in 1967, Lupin III (it has also been rendered different ways, including Lupin the Third and Lupin 3rd) follows the adventures of Arsene Lupin III, a daring thief who travels the world stealing treasures. Mr. Kato conceived the character as a grandson of Arsene Lupin, the gentleman larcenist and master of disguise created by the French novelist Maurice Leblanc. Lupin often commits his capers with help from a sharp-eyed gunman, Daisuke Jigen; a master swordsman, Goemon Ishikawa XIII; and a femme fatale, Fujiko Mine. The gang regularly escapes the clutches of Inspector Koichi Zenigata, an Interpol officer obsessed with capturing Lupin. I took my inspiration for the relationship from Tom and Jerry, Mr. Kato told The Daily Yomiuri in 2007, referring to the American cat and mouse cartoon characters. The mouse, Lupin, is cleverer than Zenigata, who is left gnashing his teeth after failing to get his man yet again. And so it might seem that the Revisionists have finally after nearly 100 years won the fight over what Zionism will look like. But in reality, Prime Minister Netanyahu is more conservative and more extreme than the founder of the movement. Mr. Jabotinskys attitude toward the national aspirations of the Palestinians was, in his own words, one of polite indifference. Mr. Netanyahus attitude is one of active and unrelenting hostility. Mr. Jabotinsky would have been a tough negotiator; Mr. Netanyahu is a non-negotiator. Mr. Netanyahu is the proponent of the doctrine of permanent conflict. He rules out the possibility of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians because he is not prepared to concede their most basic demand: an independent Palestinian state over the West Bank and Gaza with a capital city in East Jerusalem. Far from seeking to bridge the gap, he actually deepens it by turning a political dispute into a clash of civilizations. No Israeli leader before him ever demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. When Mr. Netanyahu demanded in 2009 that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, he knew that no Palestinian leader, however moderate, could possibly accept it. Politics and religion are an explosive mixture, and by emphasizing the religious aspect of the conflict, he makes it more intractable. Nothing illustrates Mr. Netanyahus vision of Israel more clearly than the Nation-State Law passed by the Knesset last July. It states that the right to national self-determination in the country is unique to the Jewish people. It demotes Arabic from it status as an official language. It allows the state to differentiate among its citizens on the basis of race, ethnicity and religion. It is the polar opposite of Israels 1948 Declaration of Independence, which promised social and political equality to all of Israels inhabitants regardless of religion, race or sex. Israels redefinition of itself as an exclusive, ethnocentric Jewish state is now enshrined in law. Mr. Netanyahu has left no room for doubt that this is precisely how he views the country that he has just been re-elected to lead. Israel is not a state of all its citizens, he wrote a few weeks before the election. Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and only it. Three days before Israelis went to the polls, Mr. Netanyahu announced his intention, if re-elected, to formally annex the Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank. The timing was no doubt determined by electoral expediency. But if legislation does follow, it seems likely that it will be with the blessing of President Trump, who has already obliged Mr. Netanyahu by recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital, moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. Annexation of part of the West Bank will sound the death knell of the two-state solution, and it may well ignite a third Palestinian intifada. Now Omars defenders are keen to paint her as a victim of Islamophobia, which no doubt she is. In this case, however, a victim of bigotry is also a major and unflinching bigot in her own right. That the president has chosen to target Omar may smack of rank hypocrisy, but it would be political malpractice for him not to pick the fight. Her views as a public figure, and what they signify for the party she represents, are fair game. All the more so as progressives rush to her defense. Omar is not a significant figure in her own right. And the House of Representatives has never lacked for cranks, knaves, fools and bigots. What is significant is that Omars defenders dont consider her prejudices about Jews as particularly disqualifying, morally or politically, at least not when weighed against the things they like about her (and hate about her enemies). As for her views about Israel, shes practically mainstream for her segment of the Democratic Party a harbinger of whats to come as the old guard of pro-Israel liberals like Majority Leader Steny Hoyer gives way to the anti-Israel wokesters typified by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. What is all this reminiscent of? Oh, right: the early days of Trump, when millions of Republican primary voters heard the candidate denounce Mexicans as drug dealers, criminals and rapists, and said to themselves, We like that. The central lesson of the moral collapse that followed for the G.O.P. isnt that conservatives are a uniquely perfidious bunch. Its that partisans of any stripe are always susceptible to demagoguery, particularly when the demagogue refuses to back down in the face of outrage. Shamelessness has a way of inspiring a following, and Omar is in the process of cornering the market on the left. Still, lets not be entirely negative about the congresswoman. Toward the end of her speech, she said it was vital to make sure that we are not only holding people that we dont like accountable: We must also hold those that we love, have shared values with, accountable. Those words, at least, are wise. The best thing Democrats could do now is apply them to Omar herself. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. The schedule for Thursday said there was a news conference by the attorney general. But there was no news to share, and William Barr behaved more like the presidents defense attorney than the nations top law-enforcement officer. Releasing a censored version of the report compiled by the special counsel Robert Mueller is an important first step toward a full public accounting of what happened during the 2016 election, when the Russian government tampered with American democracy and saw its favored candidate win the White House. The Mueller report described Russian election interference as sweeping and systematic. [Times Opinion will be updating our analysis of the Mueller report throughout the day.] But the Trump administration based on its pattern of dishonest conduct in office simply cannot be trusted to be straight with the nation about what parts of the report need to remain concealed from public view. At the very least, Republicans and Democrats in Congress deserve and are right to demand to see the full and entirely unredacted evidence amassed by Mr. Mueller and his team, which runs to more than 400 pages (exclusive of tables and appendices). There are legitimate reasons for portions of the report to fall under a black marker. Mr. Barr outlined four broad categories: grand jury proceedings, classified material related to sources and methods of acquisition, information related to ongoing cases and material that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties. Second, obstruction of justice cases do not require that the most prominent underlying crime being investigated in this case conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia be proven. To the contrary, the report states that obstruction of justice can be motivated by a desire to protect noncriminal personal interests, to protect against investigations where underlying criminal conduct falls into a gray area, or to avoid personal embarrassment. As the report repeatedly details, the motivation behind Mr. Trumps obstructive conduct seems most likely to have fallen into one of these categories. Indeed, someone seeking to obstruct justice may be looking to avoid detection of conduct he knows to be wrong, whether or not prosecutors ultimately conclude there was a criminal violation which may explain the revelation that the president reacted to Mr. Muellers appointment with an expletive and the statement This is the end of my presidency. And while the report also details some exculpatory considerations, including the fact that the president, in his campaign, did not engage in an explicit or implicit conspiracy with the Russian government, the document paints a picture of a president who repeatedly tried to impede an investigation that he knew would be damaging to him, his family and his associates. Although Mr. Mueller operated under different rules from Leon Jaworski, who investigated President Richard Nixon, and Kenneth Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton, he ultimately reached the same judgment as they did: that Congress, a body composed of elected representatives, is better placed than a prosecutor to determine whether to initiate proceedings that could result in an officials removal from office. Congress is also well equipped to make determinations that the special counsel decided were beyond his purview. Because Congress has the power only to remove, not indict, a president, it does not need to worry, as the special counsel appeared to in the context of a potential criminal prosecution, that its actions will hamper the ability of a president to continue serving as a chief executive. If Congress votes to impeach and convict, it is ending, not hampering, a presidency. Congress, a coequal branch of government, is also well suited to consider whether exercise of a presidents constitutional powers including firing or directing subordinates for the purpose of impeding an investigation amounts to obstruction of justice under the Constitution. The fact that Mr. Mueller explicitly did not resolve whether the president engaged in criminal conduct only reinforces the need for Congress to consider whether Mr. Trump violated his constitutional obligations to the American people. At a rally in Cherkasy, central Ukraine, earlier this year, a local activist asked the president if he was going to fight corruption. Mr. Poroshenko answered, I have a request for you: Light a candle because you are a nonbeliever and God will calm you. He called the man, who had spoken in Russian, a Moscow provocateur. A video of the exchange went viral. Mr. Poroshenkos arrogance was then punished in the voting booths. After that he began to lose his nerve. In the opening move of the campaigning for Sundays runoff, Mr. Poroshenkos team posted billboards that portrayed him facing off with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The move was widely ridiculed: Mr. Poroshenko, having nothing left to offer, appeared to be grasping at nationalist straws and trying to instill fear in a boogeyman. His staff promptly took down the ads. In a poll taken April 914, 17 percent of respondents said they intended to vote for Mr. Poroshenko and more than 48 percent for Mr. Zelensky. And while Mr. Poroshenko has misstepped since the first round of voting, Mr. Zelensky, true to form, has done little except mock his competitor. After challenging the incumbent to a debate, Mr. Zelensky stood him up last Sunday. (The two men disagreed about when to hold the event.) Another debate is scheduled for April 19. Mr. Zelenskys supporters are often accused of confusing the TV comedy series in which he plays the president, Servant of the People, with real life. The charge is paradoxical because the show is ruthless toward everyday Ukrainians: If people vote for Mr. Zelensky hoping this fiction will become reality, they are endorsing a very unflattering portrayal of themselves. The satire isnt only about cynical politicians and corrupt oligarchs. It is also about sycophants who abuse their neighbors but worship ministers parking spaces, and about housewives pressuring husbands to accept bribes so they can buy a fur coat. The series, in a word, is about how the corruption of ordinary citizens translates into the corruption of the political class. And if that is the closest thing Mr. Zelensky has to a political manifesto, then his central message is this: We are all to blame for what we have. When during the campaign, he was asked to share his plans for the presidency, Ze simply said that he would ask the people what they want through popular referendums and ideas crowdsourcing. Whether he meant this or not, such statements alone restore agency to common people and signal that this election may be an occasion for Ukrainians to push for more transparent governance and greater public participation. Periodic uprisings that replace one figurehead with another, hopefully better, figurehead have not been enough. This abnormal election may announce a new model for societal change from the ground up, through daily civic effort and personal responsibility. Put differently: What a Zelensky presidency will look like will depend primarily on ordinary Ukrainians. They have sustained democracy by keeping a check on presidential power. Now, they will need to keep a check on the new president himself. Mr. Zelensky is inexperienced, politically amorphous and thought to have ties to the oligarch Ihor V. Kolomoisky. Clearly, he is no savior. But if Ukrainians can capitalize on this fact, plain as it is, the comedians election to the presidency could be a historic opportunity for them to help themselves. Alisa Sopova is an independent journalist from Ukraine. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. Researchers in France said this week that they found thousands and thousands of microplastic particles raining down on a secluded spot in the Pyrenees, 75 miles from the nearest city. Their study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, suggests that microplastics long known as a source of water pollution may also travel by air, spreading their ill effects far from dense population centers. Deonie Allen, one of the lead researchers, said the five-month study was the first step toward looking at microplastics as an airborne pollutant. Steve Allen, another researcher, called their findings scary. We kind of expected to find plastics there, but we certainly were not prepared for the numbers we found, Mr. Allen said in an interview. It was astounding: 11,400 pieces of microplastic per square meter per month, on average. Mr. Rhinehart first pitched Soylent to the world with a post titled How I Stopped Eating Food. Now his successor Mr. Crowley says that Soylents customers and everyone else should definitely keep eating food. Asked if new customers should consider living solely off Soylent, Mr. Crowley said, We dont recommend it, no. Absolutely. 100 percent. We dont recommend, not because we dont think its healthy or we dont think its there. Its a very difficult thing to do and our research tells us that it happens for a very limited amount of time. (Mr. Rhinehart himself moved the company toward gentler meal replacement messaging before stepping down in December 2017, when he announced Mr. Crowley as his own replacement.) Now Soylent has edged closer to something its customers might recognize as food. There are other reasons to tell a less provocative story. In 2017, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency informed Soylent that its product didnt meet agency requirements for meal replacement, which halted the companys expansion in that country. In 2016, the first attempt at solid Soylent the Food Bar was quickly pulled from circulation after customers reported vomiting and diarrhea. The company is working hard to ensure its products are not merely safe to eat, but also tasty and enjoyable. Thats the big word that we talked a lot about, Mr. Crowley said. Before it was all about function. Original Soylent was function, function, function. Now you hear words like enjoyment in our mission. Innovation, Enjoyment, Expansion Mr. Crowley has made innovation a top priority and this year Soylent will introduce several new products. Squared comes second after Bridge, a carton of low-calorie, protein-rich Soylent, also in beverage form that the chief executive said is helping us bring more females into the fold and still all plant-based, all based on the same platform, 36 essential nutrients. SEATTLE Amazon may dominate online shopping in the United States, but in the worlds second-largest economy it is all but calling it quits. Amazon said late Wednesday that it was closing its domestic e-commerce business in China. The company had long struggled to gain traction in China despite operating there for more than a decade. Instead of buying products sold locally by Amazon and its marketplace of Chinese suppliers, shoppers at Amazon.cn will be able to buy only some products imported by Amazons sites in the United States, Britain, Germany or Japan. Amazons Chinese sales are small enough that the company does not break them out in its financial reports. It sells less in the country than in Japan, the smallest market that it does report, which had $13.8 billion in sales last year, about 6 percent of Amazons business globally. LONDON Few acting legends in their 80s would make a stage comeback with a one-person play lasting 100 minutes without a break. Oh, and dealing with no less momentous a topic than the banality of evil. But its fair to say that history is being made just now at the Bridge Theater here. Maggie Smith, the 84-year-old star seen lately as the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey, is revisiting the medium in which she began. And her performance as the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbelss largely uncomprehending secretary in A German Life represents a new high in a six-decade career with no shortage of peaks. Christopher Hamptons play, at once bleak and exhilarating, is running through May 11. Tickets are tight, made more so by the (understandable) absence of matinees, given the demands on its lone performer. You can imagine Ms. Smith at this stage in her career choosing to be part of a Wilde or Coward comedy, in which she wouldnt have to carry the play. But here, the role of Brunhilde Pomsel draws upon every aspect of her seemingly limitless art. The audience knows it is witnessing something special: Not in a long while have I encountered a crowd so attentive that it seemed hardly to draw breath. A rogue cellphone hell, even a cough would be unthinkable. A flight attendant for El Al, the Israeli national airline, is comatose after becoming ill with the measles on a flight from New York City to Tel Aviv, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health. The woman, 43, is suffering from the measles-related complication of encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, according to Eyal Basson, a spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the condition affects one out of every 1,000 people who get the measles virus, but is more common in children younger than 5 and adults older than 20. It can cause permanent brain damage, deafness or death. Israeli health officials warned people who were on board El Al flight 002 which left John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City on March 26 and landed in Israel a day later to seek medical care if they developed a fever, often the first sign of the highly contagious disease. Symptoms, which may also include a runny nose, cough, bloodshot eyes, sensitivity to light and a dark red rash, usually appear between 10 to 14 days following exposure to measles, with a possible range of 6 to 21 days. As the United States debates the right levels of immigration and whether, as President Trump suggested, there is room for much more of it new census data shows that international migration is keeping population growth above water in much of the country. Although international migration dropped in 2017 and 2018, it accounted for nearly half of overall American population growth in 2018 as birthrates declined and death rates rose. International migration helped rural counties record their second straight year of growth, according to local population estimates for 2018 that the Census Bureau released on Thursday. And immigrants bolstered urban counties that have been losing residents to more affordable areas. Even so, the three largest metro areas in America New York, Los Angeles and Chicago all shrank slightly. Without these international moves, 44 percent of the nations population would be in shrinking counties, instead of the current 27 percent. Dense urban counties and sparse rural areas, despite typically being on opposite sides of the political spectrum, share economic concerns related to population decline. What to read: Books about the border By Concepcion de Leon, New York Times books department I write a column in which I recommend books for readers who want to better understand a topic in the news climate change, immigration or the economy, for instance. To pick the books, I try to understand the questions my selections should answer. In this case: How do we understand life at the border? What happens to those who try to cross it? Is it as dangerous as some fear? These five books offer some answers to these questions, but they stand out because they also complicate and deepen our understanding of the stretch of land where Mexico and the United States meet, and the people who live there. LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE, by Valeria Luiselli (2019) This road-trip novel follows two parents and their children on what may be their last trip together. They travel from east to west, each parents mind set on a different destination. For the mother, it is the border. She is haunted by the news of the unaccompanied minors crossing into the United States alone, and their journey looms throughout the book. Our reviewer wrote: The novel truly becomes novel again in her hands electric, elastic, alluring, new. And the story of the migrant, she believes, insists upon a new form: How else to tell a story that has no end? Read the full New York Times review here. UNACCOMPANIED, by Javier Zamora (2017) Mr. Zamora, who was born in El Salvador, crossed the border alone at 9 to reunite with his parents in the United States. In this collection of poems, he mines his memories of crossing, remembers the country he left behind and imagines his parents journeys. Mr. Zamora wrote an essay about his experience for the opinion section last fall. RETABLOS: Stories From a Life Lived Along the Border, by Octavio Solis (2018) This memoir is told in a series of vignettes that focus on singular episodes formative to the writers identity. Its modeled after the Mexican tradition of retablo painting, folk art that depicts life-altering stories visually on pieces of repurposed metal. Mr. Solis, who grew up just a mile from the Rio Grande in El Paso, writes about experiences such as being ridiculed for mispronouncing an English word in class or once finding a Mexican girl hiding in a cotton field. THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER: Dispatches From the Border, by Francisco Cantu (2018) Tired of reading about the border secondhand, Mr. Cantu decided to join the Border Patrol. This book covers his four years working as an agent in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Though the agents are primed for drug cartels, they more often encounter their victims: bewildered, disoriented, helpless migrants, our reviewer wrote. When it was released last year, Mr. Cantus book drew some criticism from immigrants. Read more about that controversy here. ACROSS THE WIRE: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border, by Luis Alberto Urrea (1993) Mr. Urrea, who is Mexican-American and was born in Tijuana, depicts the suffering of Mexicos poor in Tijuana through a series of vignettes. A Times reviewer compared this book, one of a several Mr. Urrea has written which reckon with border life, to Elie Wiesels Night, about life in an internment camp, and says that its just as difficult to read. But we keep returning to Mr. Urreas prose because it is startling, poetic and razor-sharp; in the midst of the most brutal sequences, we are informed and shaken, made to feel the pain of others as if it were our own, wrote the reviewer. sabrina tavernise So why dont I start if you can introduce yourself and say your name. vivian zwick O.K. Well, my names Vivian Zwick, and Im 101 years old. And I came to this issue quite a long time ago. sabrina tavernise Did you know about abortion? vivian zwick No, Id heard about it, but I really didnt know much about it. I didnt start really working for it until about the early 60s, just the time that Governor Rockefeller in New York signed the bill to have abortion available to everybody not in Missouri, but in New York State. So we were just delighted that there was actually a place where you could get an abortion here in America. You know, before that, if you were a rich woman, you could go to Europe. But if you were a poor woman, you couldnt. So we were sending people to New York. It was pretty underground. sabrina tavernise Does that seem when you look back on it now, does that seem like an earlier time that just feels very old fashioned and distant? vivian zwick Im afraid not. [music] [radio seeking] sabrina tavernise From The New York Times, Im Sabrina Tavernise. This is The Daily. Today: When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court last summer, the future of abortion was thrown into doubt. archived recording So we want to be sure that women, no matter where sabrina tavernise And now, states are sprinting to make changes. archived recording to prohibit abortion of an unborn human individual. sabrina tavernise Red states are getting redder. archived recording Activist in Ohio just pushed through sabrina tavernise Blue states are getting bluer. archived recording A womans right to control her own reproductive health. [APPLAUSE] sabrina tavernise Adjusting their abortion laws before a new conservative court takes a step. And thats happening in real time in the Midwest, where two states right next to each other are moving in opposite directions, Missouri racing to stop abortion archived recording the story last night on new legislation to outlaw all abortion in Missouri. sabrina tavernise and Illinois scrambling to preserve it. archived recording 1 Hes promised to make the state an abortion destination, vowing, quote archived recording 2 Illinois will be the most progressive state in the nation when it comes to standing up for womens reproductive rights. [music] sabrina tavernise Daily producer Lynsea Garrison and I went there to see how this was all playing out on the ground. Our first stop: Missouri. speaker 1 You know, its very hard to go out and be like, oh, I dont believe in this. But I dont believe in it. I dont, and thats why Im out here. speaker 2 I dont think everybody understands how dire a situation that were in. speaker 3 The pro-life movement is winning. I dont know what it is exactly, but were winning, even without having Roe overturned. speaker 4 No abortions are taking place none at all. Praise be to God. speaker 5 Missouri is in The Handmaids Tale. speaker 6 I believe Missouri Right to Life when they say Missouri is going to be the first state to outlaw abortion. [MUSIC] sabrina tavernise Its Wednesday, April 17. [radio seeking] speaker (ON RADIO) God, you must show me what youre up to in my life. gps voice Continue on I-270 South for 12 miles. lynsea garrison Its like Elvis with a cross. sabrina tavernise Highway 70 cuts across the center of Missouri like a belt from the west of the state to the east. [engine revving] sabrina tavernise Semi-trucks roar pass strip malls. There are pastures with cows and silos. Its flat, straight, and kind of boring sometimes. So the billboards really pop out. Theres the Golden Pancake and kickasstrucks.com. lynsea garrison Waffles, advertise your message on mobile. sabrina tavernise They tower over the highway every mile or so. lynsea garrison (WHISPERING) Dairy Queen. sabrina tavernise And mixed in with those or other ones, billboards of babies and anxious women these are about abortion, telling women its wrong. sabrina tavernise More than just a free pregnancy test. gps voice Continue on I-270 sabrina tavernise And theyre here by design, because I-70 is the way to get to the very last abortion clinic left in Missouri, in St. Louis, which is where were headed. So Lynsea and I get off the highway. gps voice Take the next right onto Forest Park Avenue. sabrina tavernise And we drive until we get to the Planned Parenthood. lynsea garrison Oh, here. Whos this? sabrina tavernise The first thing we notice is that the building looks like a bunker. sabrina tavernise No trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted. sabrina tavernise All the windows in the ground floor have been bricked up. We park the car and get out. There are two people in orange vests at the entrance. One of them is greeting everybody that passes through. speaker Hello. lynsea garrison Morning. sabrina tavernise Lynsea will take it from here. speaker 1 Hey, good morning. speaker 2 Good morning. lynsea garrison Chapter 1. The Movement. brian westbrook Hi sir, how are you today? lynsea garrison Brian Westbrook spends a lot of time on this sidewalk. brian westbrook Hey. Good morning, maam. How are you? lynsea garrison Its his full-time job. brian westbrook Its a beautiful day. Would you like a beautiful rose? lynsea garrison He comes here sometimes by himself, sometimes with his interns. And he sits for hours in this camping chair to wait for people to pass through the gate. brian westbrook Whats that? speaker The heat. brian westbrook The heat? Yeah, I know. I know. lynsea garrison Hes young. Hes in his 30s. brian westbrook Yes, maam. lynsea garrison Hes clean-cut, kind of preppy-looking. He kind of looks like an upbeat parking attendant. brian westbrook Im Brian. Ill take care of you out here. No big deal. Oh, I got a rose! Do you want a rose? lynsea garrison But Brian doesnt work for Planned Parenthood. [music] brian westbrook If you dont go where abortions happen, Planned Parenthood might as well hang up a sign saying, open with the blessing of the Christian community. If were not there, theres no one opposing them. And we need to oppose them, because we dont agree. lynsea garrison Brian is the executive director for the Coalition for Life in St. Louis. And over the past eight years, he says hes persuaded hundreds of women to keep their pregnancies. He calls them turnarounds. archived recording The man, the myth, the legend. We all know him the great Brian Westbrook. So put your hands together. [APPLAUSE] lynsea garrison And Brian Westbrook hes kind of a rock star in Missouris pro-life movement. archived recording (brian westbrook) How is everybody? archived recording Good. lynsea garrison In a state thats developed some of the most innovative ways to chip away at abortion access. archived recording 1 Missouri lawmakers passed a law back in May that cuts off all funding for services associated with a abortion facility. archived recording 2 New legislation to outlaw all abortion in Missouri. archived recording 3 It would make it nearly impossible for a woman in Missouri to get an abortion. And just hours ago, it cleared a major hurdle toward becoming a reality. lynsea garrison But Missouri is most famous for one particular invention a requirement that doctors have admitting rights at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic. The latest version of this law passed in 2005, shut down most of the rural clinics in the state who couldnt meet that requirement. It was such a game changer that pro-life legislators around the country used it as a blueprint North Dakota, Utah, Louisiana. archived recording Clinics are fighting the law before it forces many places to close down. lynsea garrison And in Texas, but the law was challenged. And it went all the way up to the Supreme Court in one of the biggest cases on abortion in recent history. archived recording Supporters have said, had the court gone the other way, that essentially wouldve made it almost impossible, certainly in the state of Texas, for most women to have an abortion, because it would have forced those clinics to close. This decision was written by Justice Stephen Breyer. lynsea garrison Since Roe v. Wade was decided, there have been at least 20 abortion cases that have made their way to the Supreme Court. Six of them came out of Missouri, this petri dish of abortion regulation. archived recording (brian westbrook) I encourage you to go out, to evangelize, to pray. lynsea garrison And thats why theres only one clinic left in Missouri. And that clinic is hanging on by a thread. archived recording (brian westbrook) They do about 6,000 abortions right here, right down the street, here in our local community. lynsea garrison It nearly closed last year when it lost its state funding. Right now, its kept open by donors. archived recording (brian westbrook) But my staff is mostly here. Some of them are actually on the sidewalk right now, impacting girls as they drive into that abortion facility. lynsea garrison So to pro-lifers like Brian, that feels like winning. archived recording (brian westbrook) So you want to meet that person where theyre at, say yes, I know its legal and it is absolutely your choice. But I know theres a better choice for you. So I ask you to keep going, be fervent in your resolve. And one day, we will see an end to abortion here in St. Louis. God bless you guys. [APPLAUSE] lynsea garrison And being on the winning team, it shows. brian westbrook How are you, my friend? speaker Fine. How are you? brian westbrook Doing great. Doing great. lynsea garrison In the near-decade of being on the sidewalk, Brian has perfected his approach. He saw the way most anti-abortion protesters were on the sidewalk, the ones who shouted and intimidated women, waving graphic images of aborted fetuses. And he wanted to find a new way. brian westbrook If I was an abortion-bound woman, which Im not, why would I stop? lynsea garrison And this is where he landed. brian westbrook Hey, good morning. Good to see you today. Hi, sir, how are you today? Hey. Good morning, maam. How are you? Oh, I didnt give her a rose! Hey, how about a rose for you? speaker Im going to want some more. Ill take one. brian westbrook White or red? White or red? speaker White. brian westbrook Youve got it. Have a great one, maam. speaker You too. lynsea garrison But for Brian, this isnt just about the image of friendliness. This is a numbers game to get as many turnarounds as possible. brian westbrook Turnaround is defined as a woman who is going there for a pregnancy test, ultrasound or an abortion. Were talking to her, whether its in the driveway or at the fence, and we ask her to leave. And she decides to leave immediately and go receive services from somewhere else. speaker You say, hey, whats up? Im with another organization offering free local resources. This is a coupon for a free ultrasound, free pregnancy tests, and free S.T.D. tests. It helps to talk fast. [LAUGHING] Dont you think? lynsea garrison Brian constantly refines his techniques. He takes meticulous notes on what seems to work. brian westbrook What doesnt work? What would run more efficiently? lynsea garrison Which cars slow down. brian westbrook How many people we can get to stop. lynsea garrison Why they slow down. brian westbrook How many people leave. lynsea garrison Who takes brochure. brian westbrook How many people are lynsea garrison What he was wearing when they took those brochures. brian westbrook That person did not stop and talk to me. Why didnt they stop and talk to me? speaker We just keep track of stats so if people stop and talk to us, things like that. lynsea garrison Is it like an Excel spreadsheet on your iPad? speaker Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. lynsea garrison Oh, wow. speaker Yup. brian westbrook Its an app that already exists, and then we just modified it to fit our needs. lynsea garrison And he calls all of this the data. brian westbrook No, theres actually not very many pro-life sidewalk counseling apps that exist. Who knew, right? lynsea garrison And based on the data, heres what hes figured out. [music] lynsea garrison The first rule of what he calls sidewalk counseling is you do not talk about sidewalk counseling. brian westbrook You shouldnt wear a pro-life T-shirt. Dont wear a bunch of pro-life material while youre out there. Our signage, for instance, doesnt mention abortion. Dont talk about baby or the pregnancy or anything else. lynsea garrison Number two brian westbrook Physics. lynsea garrison Demonstrate authority when approaching a car. brian westbrook A lot of pro-lifers will walk with the car, kind of chase the car, as they go in. Instead, well take one minor step towards the car in kind of an authoritative posture. And so subconsciously, they will slow down. And theyll stop and figure out what we want to talk about. lynsea garrison Number three, be approachable. brian westbrook So there are no graphic images. Theres no yelling. Theres no screaming. Waving with your left hand versus your right hand as theyre driving, theyre making a right-hand turn. My left hand I make myself just a little bit bigger, and Im more approachable. lynsea garrison No hats. No dark makeup. brian westbrook Basic sales and marketing is that you shouldnt shade your eyes. Again, its more about removing versus adding. Simplifying its really about simplifying. Thats what the data tells me. speaker Hey there, were you able to receive any of our information on free resources? O.K., this is a coupon. Im with a local organization. I really like your nails. Those are cute. O.K. brian westbrook Now, if more people stopped with graphic images, then I would use graphic images. But less people stop when you use graphic images. You have to define your strategies, your techniques, everything in terms of your audience. And your audience is the driver. speaker O.K. So thats a coupon for a free pregnancy test. lynsea garrison And he says its working. He points to the fact that abortions are down in the state, and his turnaround numbers are up. They only seem to be getting higher. brian westbrook Our first year, we had 15 turnarounds. Since then, weve had 2,200 turnarounds. lynsea garrison So to Brian, thats 2,200 babies saved. speaker And a lot of people dont consider this a social justice issue, but it is one. lynsea garrison And hes passing those lessons on to the next generation. speaker Yeah. So just let us know if we can help you. All right? brian westbrook Two things so instead of let us know, because thats always, like, the typical thing, more about come out and talk with us. speaker Yes. Yeah. brian westbrook Come out and talk to us, because its more definitive. speaker Right. brian westbrook And then as theyre driving away, give us a call instead of let us know. speaker Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. lynsea garrison As were standing there, one of the clinics doctors pulls through the gate, and Brian spots him. brian westbrook Thats David Eisenberg. So hes the abortionist today. So theyre most likely doing abortions. So lynsea garrison As the doctor parks his car and calmly walks through the parking lot, Brian turns up the charm offensive. brian westbrook Dr. Eisenberg, its good to see you today. Its a beautiful day. lynsea garrison And Dr. Eisenberg doesnt even look up. brian westbrook Have a good one, sir. [music] brian westbrook How are you, my friend? lynsea garrison Its this really weird game. If Brian and his movement are on the offense in Missouri, working to become the first state in the nation to outlaw abortion, the doctors, the staff, the escorts theyre playing this hard defense, fighting as hard as they can. But out here, it feels like only a matter of time. brian westbrook Hey, good morning. speaker Would you like a coupon? brian westbrook Maam, how are you today? sabrina tavernise After the break, the doctors. brian westbrook Dr. Eisenberg, good to see you today. Its a beautiful day. lynsea garrison Chapter 2. The Doctors. david eisenberg David! David! How many babies today? How many women today? You dont have to do this. We can find you another job. Im like, I dont want another job. This is the job I signed up for. This is the job I trained for. Im a board-certified OB/GYN with a medical degree and a masters degree whos been on this career path to provide abortion care and be a medical director of a Planned Parenthood for a decade. lynsea garrison This is Dr. David Eisenberg. Hes the head doctor at the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis. david eisenberg Like, would you tell an astronaut whod been in training for a decade, you know, you really should be a dermatologist. What? No way. lynsea garrison Every day, when he goes to work, he passes the protesters. And theyre not always peaceful like Brian. So Dr. Eisenberg invited us to his house one night to talk, away from the clinic, away from his patients, away from all protesters. erin king Did you want to tell Sabrina and Lynsea anything about yourself? lynsea garrison You know how to laugh? lynsea garrison We met his wife, Erin, whos also an OB/GYN. david eisenberg [TODDLER GIGGLES] You dont know how to laugh? lynsea garrison His two toddlers. erin king Drop it. lynsea garrison And his dog, Cooper. [barking] lynsea garrison After they put their kids to bed, Sabrina and I sat down with them in their backyard. david eisenberg The most regulated thing is a womans uterus. sabrina tavernise And its clear its a political lightning rod, right? david eisenberg Right. And the people being struck by the lightning are the women who need the care. And its really sad. sabrina tavernise Is there a sense that things have gotten worse in Missouri? david eisenberg When you say is there a sense, I can only speak to my own personal opinion. sabrina tavernise For you I mean, in your mind. david eisenberg It is harder to provide abortion care in Missouri than it was in 2009 when I got here. lynsea garrison Missouri legislators have dramatically changed the medical world he operates in, and for no apparent medical reasons at least none that he can see. david eisenberg Said that if you do five or more abortions in your health care facility, you must be a hospital or a licensed ambulatory surgical center. Why five? lynsea garrison Up until 2017, the state restricted the number of abortions a clinic could provide a month. The limit was four four abortions a month. david eisenberg Not five four. lynsea garrison And then, heres another one. If youre a patient in Missouri and you want an abortion, you have to first get consent from a doctor, wait 72 hours, and then have that same doctor administer your abortion. david eisenberg So this past winter, I got sick, had a G.I. bug, you know. I could not leave my house. There were 35 women on the schedule at Planned Parenthood for me to consent that day. Not only could I not consent them, the fact that I couldnt consent them that day meant that they couldnt get their abortion later that week or the following week, when I was scheduled to provide care. In February, we had an ice storm, where the week after the ice storm, I saw a 17-year-old girl with her mother who was now too far along to have a pill abortion, which is what she wanted because during the ice storm the week before, her mom, driving her to the clinic from a hundred miles or more away, got in an accident and slid off the road. Well, the consequence of that was she had to come back the following week or two weeks later, but a long enough interval that she could not get the pill abortion that she wanted. This is a girl whod never been to the OB/GYN before, had no reason to have a pelvic exam, who was now going to have to have a surgical abortion. And the first time she was going to ever have a pelvic exam was with me at the time of her surgical abortion. You know, Ive taken care of young girls who are the youngest girl that Ive ever taken care of is 9 years old. When that girl found herself in the situation she was in and she needed care, there is only one institution in this region where she could go. And we were able to take care of her. And her specific social circumstances were so challenging that if I had to get her to a hospital in Chicago which, by the way, is the next closest hospital-based abortion service that Im aware of I might as well have told her to go to Mars. So thats whats changed, right? I mean, theres all kinds of things that have changed since I got here in 2009 that have made it harder for women to access the care that they need. sabrina tavernise How do keep track of them? I mean, do you put it on a spreadsheet or something, like Post-it notes? david eisenberg I mean, the fact is I live and breathe it every day. You know, I mean, every week, every month, every year that these things come up I mean, Ive lost track of it. Thats true. But you know, this is the reality that I live every day. lynsea garrison Its become so complicated for Missourians that women are leaving the state. Many go across the Mississippi River to Illinois, a state thats recently declared itself the most progressive in the country on abortion. erin king I really enjoy that about my job and lynsea garrison Dr. Eisenbergs wife is a doctor at a place called Hope Clinic, right over the Illinois state line. erin king People ask me all the time why I dont do abortions in Missouri. First of all, its because its really hard to do abortions in Missouri. You have to follow a lot of rules. lynsea garrison Her name is Dr. Erin King. sabrina tavernise Are there patients who are now going to Hope Clinic who would have gotten care in Missouri? erin king Absolutely. Yeah. We have seen more patients say that they would have been seen in Missouri, but were unable to access care. Fortunately, we are available, and fortunately, we are fairly close by. I dont think that its a good answer for patients to have to come see us. It still means a longer time, a longer trip, more time off of work, whatever, more gas money. Its just harder to access us. Theres no public transportation that comes to us. So Im sure there are more patients that cant get to us than can. sabrina tavernise What does it feel like being two doctors doing this in a place where its hard to do it? erin king I think I asked you this question on the way home the other day, didnt I? david eisenberg Yeah. erin king I was driving home, and I was super frustrated about lots of things related to this related to our state, related to peoples attitudes about abortion, our country, just a lot of things. And I think I said, is any doctor happy in their job? And then I said, no, wait, hold on, let me rephrase that. Is any doctor feeling good about whats going on, essentially, in gynecology and, like, womens health care right now? Is anyone happy about this? Can anyone physically say that they enjoy what theyre doing right now? Because I was just so angry. Like, I felt so frustrated that literally, like, everywhere we turn, I just, I cant its almost like, you get tired. Its like one more thing, one more bad restriction coming down the pipeline, or one more way that our patients cant get to us, or whatever. david eisenberg Right. erin king So its just, like, so frustrating. And theres lots of things at anyones jobs that are frustrating. But I feel like you add that, or you add the person standing outside yelling at you that you are a horrible person or a horrible doctor or mean to your patients or hurting them in some way, its just like, you literally like, sometimes I just Im never going to do this. I promise. But sometimes I just want to like, O.K., fine, later. See you. Im done. lynsea garrison So in between juggling their two kids, theyre also juggling an entire region of patients seeking abortions. erin king I dont know, whatever restriction lynsea garrison You might even say whats left of abortion access in Missouri and in this region exists in large part because of them. And they pay a price for that, like the time that protesters showed up at their house. erin king And every once in a while outside of the clinic, when I walk in, protesters will say something pretty close to, if you were to die right now, you are going to hell. And Im like, is that a threat? Like, am I going to die right now? Is that what youre saying? Its every once in a while. And I think, in particular, after having children, we worry a little bit more about their safety. Like, would someone want to do something to them to hurt us, because they feel like were hurting patients or unborn children or whatever that they want to believe? david eisenberg But I mean, I will say that when we did have protesters at our house and we met with the F.B.I. and the U.S. Marshals Service and things, they classify these anti-abortion protesters the way that I classify them as domestic terrorists. But they dont see themselves that way. And that dissonance is hard for me to wrap my head around just as hard as when the protester ends up needing an abortion and we still take care of her. lynsea garrison Has that happened? david eisenberg Yes. It comes with an enormous price in terms of emotional and political and, you know, all kinds of prices we pay. But its worth it. It is more rewarding than anything else I can imagine doing in medicine. You know, you cant fight every fight. So I guess we fight the fight in the way that we are best able to. Im going to go take care of women, because thats what I can do. [getting into and starting car] [music] speaker 1 Dont be a coward. speaker 2 Maam, is that your daughter? speaker 1 Grow a backbone. That thing in the middle of your back its called a backbone. speaker 2 You guys look alike. [INAUDIBLE] your son. One of them two was in your womb once yourself, right? How about it, maam? Think about it, kid. sabrina tavernise Tomorrow, we cross the Mississippi River into Illinois to visit Dr. Kings clinic. speaker 2 Do you think about having a catch with him someday, shooting some hoops, man? How about it, dad? What do you guys need? Maam, if you think carefully about what this abortionist is going to do to that child, hon, thats not going to solve your problems. How about it, guys? Think about that. Youre here to kill somebody. Guys, I can tell you dont want to do this, but you cant just go ahead and do it anyway. Right? Come on, guys. Thou shalt not kill. You know that. lynsea garrison Im here to see Dr. King. Lynsea Garrison and Sabrina Tavernise. speaker Go in the door, all the way to the top stairs. Once you reach the top stairs, push a button on the wall. lynsea garrison Top stairs. O.K. speaker Dr. King will be up there. lynsea garrison Thank you so much. speaker Go ahead. [footsteps] speaker Come on in. [music] sabrina tavernise Heres what else you need to know today. Egyptian lawmakers have approved sweeping changes to the countrys Constitution. They would give its president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, unprecedented power and allow him to remain in office until the year 2030. The changes cement Sisis authoritarian control over Egypt. His regime has already jailed opponents, censored the media, and shut down websites critical of his government. The Egyptian people must now vote on the constitutional amendments, but a fair election is in doubt, given Sisis repeated attempts to suppress the opposition. And archived recording I want to show you again the first picture that we have from inside the cathedral. There it is. And obviously, that cathedral is not something anyone is going to be able to go into for a long time. But that sabrina tavernise Authorities in Paris believe that the cause of a massive fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame was accidental and made worse by the absence of modern fire protections. archived recording And you can still see that heat and fire there at the top of the arches. Of course, its impossible sabrina tavernise He later referred to the investigation as a hoax during remarks at an event to recognize wounded soldiers. This should never happen to another president again, this hoax, he said. As Mr. Barr defended the president, he said the special counsels considerations for whether the president obstructed justice must be taken in context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates, Mr. Barr said on Thursday morning, before his department publicly released the report. At the same time there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability, yet as he said from the beginning, there was, in fact, no collusion. Mr. Barrs views on executive power leave Mr. Trump with a nearly free hand. The Constitution, according to Mr. Barrs interpretation, does not consider it a crime for the president to wield his executive powers corruptly, for instance by firing a subordinate or by pardoning a loyal aide. It is an interpretation favorable to Mr. Trump. He alone is the executive branch, Mr. Barr wrote in an unsolicited June 8, 2018 memo. As such, he is the sole repository of all Executive powers conferred by the Constitution. The document appeared to criticize Mr. Muellers inquiry into whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice, and months later, when Mr. Barr received the Mueller report, which did not take a position on whether the president obstructed justice, Mr. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein concluded Mr. Trump did no such thing. There is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks, Mr. Barr said on Thursday, in what appeared to be a defense of Mr. Trumps relentless attacks on his political opponents, his own Justice Department and the special counsels investigation. As the special counsel report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election process. But thanks to the special counsels thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign. The report details efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. The special counsel found no evidence that any American, including anyone associated with the Trump campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the I.R.A. in this illegal scheme. The special counsels investigation also examined Russian efforts to publish stolen emails and documents on the internet. The special counsel found that after the G.R.U. disseminated some of the stolen documents to entities that it controlled, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the G.R.U. transferred some of the stolen materials to WikiLeaks for publication. WikiLeaks then made a series of document dumps. Under applicable law, publication of these types of material would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the special counsels report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the special counsels report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the president could amount to obstruction of the special counsels investigation. The special counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. Instead, the report recounts 10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting those activities to the elements of an obstruction offense. And as the special counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the special counsels investigation. But again, the special counsels report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with the campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these hacking operations. In other words, there was no evidence of the Trump campaign collusion with the Russian governments hacking. For Democrats vying to unseat President Trump, acknowledging climate change is easy. Deciding what to do about it is the hard part. Among the 18 declared candidates, there is no broad consensus on taxing polluters on their carbon emissions a measure most experts say is needed to slow global warming. And when it comes to building new nuclear power plants or adding federal regulations, there is even less agreement. Those divisions were apparent in the candidates responses to a new climate policy questionnaire from The New York Times. They unanimously supported remaining in the Paris Agreement and restoring Obama-era policies that Mr. Trump has abandoned. But scientists are clear that preventing catastrophic climate change will require going well beyond those policies. While the candidates agreed with that assessment, few offered detailed strategies for getting it done. Some have supported the Green New Deal in principle, but that congressional resolution was more a statement of ideals than a plan of action. CRESTON, Iowa Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York had just finished a speech at a coffee shop in southwest Iowa on Thursday, one that focused on rural issues like expanding broadband and developing the local economy. But the first question from her audience, posed by a man named Matt Brummett, focused on what he saw as a more urgent matter: Should Democrats impeach Attorney General William Barr? Ms. Gillibrand said it was unclear if Congress had that power (though the Constitution grants it). But she took the opportunity to criticize Mr. Barrs handling of the special counsels report. Hes behaving as the presidents personal lawyer, Ms. Gillibrand said. Hes not behaving as the attorney general of the United States. WASHINGTON Gina Haspel, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, made a rare public appearance on Thursday to give a nostalgia-laced recruiting pitch to students at Auburn University. But she was confronted instead by a heckler shouting about her role in torturing suspected militants in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks. Ms. Haspel was recounting the excitement she felt at the start of her own career when the heckling began. Tell these young children, tell them who you tortured. You know their names theyre still in Guantanamo Bay, an unidentified man shouted. Youre a decrepit human being, he continued before being removed by security. The only people you should be talking to is a prison guard in a jail cell. The C.I.A. has strenuously sought to distance Ms. Haspel from the now-defunct torture program since 2017, when she was named the agencys deputy director; she ascended to the top job nearly a year ago. In her speech on Thursday, Ms. Haspel talked about the C.I.A.s efforts to change with the times to diversify, to bring in recruits with new technology and language skills, and to refocus on the business of spying on rival powers after years of being deeply enmeshed in the fight against Islamist militants. speaker Its up. All right. Its up. The reports up. Sorry. [interposing voices] [music] michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. speaker O.K. Mike? mike Yeah. speaker I want you to start on page 215 factual results of the obstruction investigation. michael barbaro Today speaker Sharon, heres what I want you to excerpt. I want you to start on page four. Nick, I want you to start at the bottom of page eight. michael barbaro 448 pages, two years in the making. speaker Thats new. We didnt know that. michael barbaro What we learned from the Mueller report. speaker 1 That quote is new. speaker 2 Its a pretty good quote. michael barbaro Its Friday, April 19. michael schmidt Michael, can you hear us? mark mazzetti Hey, Michael. michael barbaro Yeah. Hey, guys. michael schmidt Hey. mark mazzetti Hey. michael barbaro All right. Mike Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, its 9:15 on Thursday night. Youve both now spent about 10 hours reading the Mueller report. Tell me about this thing. michael schmidt Its a breathtaking document. Its over 400 pages of detailed insights and accounts of enormous issues weve been focused on over the past two years. Its divided into, essentially, two halves one for Russia, one for the presidents actions in office. michael barbaro In other words, collusion and obstruction. Those are the two buckets. mark mazzetti Right. The first half detailing the contact between Russians and Trump advisers isnt enormously revealing, in the sense that we had already heard some weeks ago that there had not been a, quote, criminal conspiracy found by Mueller. At the same time, theres an enormous amount of detail concluding that in the midst of this really historic effort by the Russians to sabotage the election hacking and leaking of emails, social media manipulation, fake news it says that the Trump campaign welcomed this. They saw a real benefit of what the Russians were doing, even if at the end of the day there wasnt an active conspiracy. michael schmidt Hes essentially saying that they were interested, they sought out information about emails, they wanted to know more about how they could get their hands on these messages. They welcomed all this, but they never crossed the line into breaking the law. Just because they sought out the fruits of the Russian hack doesnt mean that they were part of the crime. michael barbaro And just to be very clear, how is what youre describing, collectively, not collusion? mark mazzetti Well, I think we need to be careful, because the attorney general said that there was no collusion. And the president said there was no collusion. But the Mueller report is more nuanced. And the Mueller report says, you know, this collusion word doesnt really mean anything to us. Theres no legal standard of collusion. So what were going to look at is what is a crime, and that is conspiracy. And thats what we have to judge all of this voluminous evidence against. And they said that a conspiracy is two parties acting together in concert to break the law. And what Mueller is very clear about is that there is, quote, insufficient evidence of a conspiracy. He is not saying there was nothing. He is not saying full exoneration. But hes saying there is insufficient evidence to meet the standard that he had established of a criminal conspiracy breaking the law. michael barbaro And what would Mueller have needed to see for this to add up to conspiracy? michael schmidt That would have looked like a conversation between the Trump campaign and the Russians where the Trump campaign was saying, hey guys, can you go break into the D.N.C. and steal some emails so we can then get them out and embarrass the Democrats and help us politically during the campaign? That would have gotten you down the conspiracy path. And they did not find that. michael barbaro O.K. So lets talk about obstruction. Mike, last time we talked, a couple weeks back, Mueller had sent his report to Barr. And Barr had sent a summary of that report to Congress in advance of this full report. And the most confusing thing about that summary was that Mueller had not made a call on whether the evidence added up to obstruction of justice. michael schmidt And today, we get to see what Muellers explanation is for why he didnt make a determination on whether the president broke the law. And its not clear-cut. What it essentially is is that the president, under Justice Department policy, cannot be indicted. And because the president cannot be indicted, its unfair to accuse him while hes in office of breaking the law, because theres no way for him to go to court to defend himself. So, dear American public, Mueller essentially says, I am not going to make a determination on that issue. That could be made after the president leaves office. But for now, that would be unfair. So what I will do is I will lay out for you what I found, what the potential obstruction was, why it may be illegal. And after the president leaves office, the Justice Department could make a determination that he indeed broke the law and bring a case. And at the end of explaining why a determination was not made, Mueller says, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. So Mueller is basically saying, if we felt comfortable that the president had done nothing wrong, we would tell you. And we are not telling you that. michael barbaro Well, Mike, you mentioned the incidents that he was not going to use as a basis for charging the president, because he felt he couldnt charge the president. What were those that he laid out in the report? michael schmidt Well, theres about a dozen. And they follow in chronological order how Trump misled the public about his relationship with Russia, misled the public about his knowledge that Russia was behind the hacks. And as the presidency goes on and Mueller is appointed in May of 2017, right after he takes office, the president starts to sort of lose his grip as he tries to maintain control of the investigation. He was intent on using his power as the head of the executive branch to protect himself and use the tools at his disposal the people running the Justice Department, the F.B.I., the intelligence community to help protect him from this investigation. michael barbaro And what are some examples of that specifics? michael schmidt Well, a lot of them are ones that we know well. The firing of James Comey. His efforts to get his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to un-recuse himself from the Russia investigation, essentially reassert his control over something that he has stepped aside from because he has a conflict of interest. And when the president cant get that done, he basically tries to get rid of Sessions and install a loyalist atop the Justice Department. These are things that had been reported in the press. We get a fuller, richer picture of them. And we really see what the president was saying behind closed doors and the immense pressure he was putting on people to try and use the system to protect himself from the system. But then we learn about incidents that we knew little about, like how the president went completely outside of his administration in government to Corey Lewandowski, his first campaign manager. michael barbaro Mm-hmm. michael schmidt And he leaned on Corey in the summer of 2017 to try and pressure Sessions, his attorney general. So heres the president of the United States using someone who doesnt even work for him to get to Sessions and try and get Sessions out there publicly to help clear Trumps name. Its just a remarkable way of using presidential power. michael barbaro Which suggests that the president was meeting resistance within his own administration, and therefore reached out to somebody who didnt even work for the government to try to get him to achieve this end. michael schmidt I dont think many in the public will want to hold up the presidents aides as heroes, and a lot of them are probably not. But there is a picture here of folks that stopped the president time and time again and thwarted him from doing things that may have actually gotten him into trouble, that may have crossed that line, that may have made a stronger argument for Mueller about why the president did obstruct justice. One of the most detailed ones is on Trumps efforts to get rid of Mueller and how his White House counsel would not do that. He would not call the Justice Department on the presidents behalf and say Mueller has to be removed for what the White House counsel, Don McGahn, thought were some bogus reasons Trump had cooked up about why he didnt like Mueller. And in the document, as Mueller is recounting what happened in this incident, there are Nixonian echoes. It says, on June 17, 2017, the president called McGahn at home and directed him to call the acting attorney general and say that the special counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre a reference to when Richard Nixon fired the special counsel who was investigating him. michael barbaro I recognize that this question is a little bit meta, but if getting rid of Mueller had meant that the report was never completed, wouldnt that have finally been obstruction of justice? Because, literally, an investigation was obstructed. mark mazzetti There does seem to be a determination here about the success of the presidents efforts, or lack of success that the fact that the Mueller investigation continued and finished means there is less of a case that the president obstructed justice. If there had been more of a Nixonian moment, where there was an 18-minute gap in tapes that were deliberately erased, that there was some tangible thing that had happened that had meant that prosecutors couldnt get to the truth, there might possibly have been a different judgment and a different outcome. michael barbaro Right. I keep thinking of that 18-minute deletion when I think about Don McGahn. Its as if nobody had ever said to Nixon what Don McGahn had said to President Trump no, Im not going to delete that tape. Sorry. But thats what Don McGahn did to the president. Thats what happened with Trump over and over again. mark mazzetti Because everyone has seen All the Presidents Men, and they know what happens. And, you know, you dont want to be the guy who carries out the Saturday Night Massacre. michael barbaro So the president really has these people around him to thank, in a lot of ways. michael schmidt At the end of the day, there were these folks that were not going to go that extra inch and go over the line for him. And it looks like those measures probably saved him. mark mazzetti I mean, Mueller lays this point out explicitly. This is a quote from the report. The presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful. But that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or cede to his requests. Comey did not end the investigation of Flynn, which ultimately resulted in Flynns prosecution and conviction for lying to the F.B.I. McGahn did not tell the acting attorney general that the special counsel must be removed, but was instead prepared to resign over the presidents order. Lewandowski and Dearborn did not deliver the presidents message to Sessions that he should confine the Russian investigation to future election meddling only. And McGahn refused to recede from his recollections about events surrounding the presidents direction to have the special counsel removed, despite the presidents multiple demands to do so. michael barbaro Hmm. And Mike, before seeing this report, our understanding of why Mueller may not have reached a conclusion on obstruction of justice was that obstruction has a lot to do with intent. Why did the president take the actions that he took? What did we learn from the report about how Mueller might have been thinking about that? michael schmidt We learn that the president was intent on ending the investigation into himself, but its less clear about what was truly motivating him. michael barbaro I guess I dont quite understand that. If his intent is to end the investigation, how is that not obstruction of justice? mark mazzetti This is the heart of this dispute right now. michael schmidt Yeah. mark mazzetti Its a clash of two theories. I mean, Muellers team clearly indicated that the actions come up to the line of obstruction of justice that the intent to end the investigation to preserve his presidency does, in fact, approach something that is criminal obstruction of justice, even if they did not make that determination. The rub here is that it is at odds with the theory of Robert Muellers boss, Attorney General Barr. He got the job of attorney general, some say, based on his theory that the president cant really obstruct justice. Barr says, today, in his press conference archived recording (william barr) President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office. mark mazzetti At the heart of a obstruction of justice investigation is whether that person has corrupt intent. And his determination is that the president didnt. And in a way, this big debate over the intent of the president Barr kind of goes out of his way today to fill in the blanks, to sort of say, well, lets look at the presidents intent. archived recording (william barr) At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was, in fact, no collusion. mark mazzetti The president felt that this was consuming his presidency. archived recording (william barr) There is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the special counsels investigation. mark mazzetti Yeah. He wanted this thing over. So in a way, what was one of the things that was so extraordinary about Barrs press conference was that he explains the presidents reasoning in a way that the president hasnt himself. michael barbaro So Barr would say that trying to end the investigation to protect the presidency is not corrupt motive. In fact, in his telling, its arguably even important, maybe even a little bit noble. Its in the best interest of the American people. michael schmidt Perhaps patriotic. michael barbaro Hmm. mark mazzetti So theres this totally compelling moment in the middle of the report that paints a scene of the president being told that a special counsel had just been appointed. And Ill quote directly from the report. The president slumped back in his chair and said, Oh, my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im fucked. The president became angry and lambasted the attorney general for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, How could you let this happen, Jeff? The president said the position of attorney general was his most important appointment, and that Sessions had, quote, let him down, contrasting him with Eric Holder and Robert Kennedy. Sessions recalled that the president said to him, You were supposed to protect me, or words to that effect. The president returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels, it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years, and I wont be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. The way this passage reads is the presidents anger about the appointment of a special counsel comes mostly from the recognition that its going to imperil his presidency. It means nothing will get done. It means that hes going to spend the rest of his term fighting it. Its not because hes worried that Robert Mueller might find something that will one day land Donald Trump in jail. Thats one reading of this passage that would bolster the argument made by the attorney general that the president faced this extraordinary situation. michael schmidt I dont think that makes any sense. Or at least I dont understand it. I dont understand how the attorney general can say theres no issue of an underlying crime here when Donald Trump is sitting there acknowledging the potential threat from the depth and breadth of a special counsels investigation. He knew at that point, in May of 2017, that he had had his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, make hush money payments to women. Donald Trump was smart enough to know that a special counsel like in Bill Clinton or any other presidency rummages around on one issue and ends up on another. And what happens? Mueller finds these weird transactions. He refers it to another U.S. attorneys office. And the president is ultimately in a completely separate investigation, named as an unindicted co-conspirator. michael barbaro Hmm. michael schmidt How is there not an underlying crime that Donald Trump was afraid about? In July of 2017, myself and two colleagues go into the Oval Office to interview the president. He says, if Mueller looks at my finances, its crossing a red line. So what were Trumps motivations for getting rid of Mueller? Was he really worried about Russia? Or was he worried that, hey, if this guy rummages around on Russia, hes going to find something else? Indeed, he did. michael barbaro So Mike, youre saying that Barrs argument that the president is just protecting the presidency doesnt really hold up. Because we know for a fact that the president understood, at this point, that when he says, Im effed, that he has these payments made in coordination with Michael Cohen to these women as hush money, which have nothing to do with the Russia investigation, but which obviously could be incredibly damaging to him, and maybe even criminal. michael schmidt Look, no one has questioned the president about this in a law enforcement setting. I dont know exactly what the presidents intentions were, but the idea that there was no underlying criminality in Donald Trumps life in May of 2017, when Mueller got appointed, is bogus. Because there was. Further, in December of 2017, there is a report out there that Mueller has subpoenaed the presidents bank records. michael barbaro Mm-hmm. michael schmidt Before the presidents lawyers are able to get the message to him that the report is wrong, he starts telling White House aides that Mueller has to go. michael barbaro Hmm. michael schmidt I do think theres a decent case to be made that there were underlying issues of criminality within his life. The Justice Department has said that itself. michael barbaro O.K. So regardless of the presidents intent, is it important whether or not he was successful in impeding this investigation, in thinking about the question of obstruction of justice? michael schmidt Well, I think for the folks at the Justice Department who had to make the call about whether the president broke the law, one of the factors that played into their declination decision was the fact that when you looked at the investigation, the efforts that the president took did not significantly damage the inquiry. michael barbaro Right. michael schmidt Despite the presidents best efforts, he was not very good at obstructing justice. michael barbaro Right. The existence of the Mueller report today suggests that the investigation did not get obstructed. michael schmidt Despite all of Donald Trumps huffing and puffing and trying to get this person to do this and this person to do that, Bob Mueller moved ahead unimpeded for two years, finished his investigation, and the entire country got to see the fruits of it. Show us where the obstruction is, is what the presidents defenders would say. [music] michael barbaro Well be right back. So finally, I want to talk about Bill Barrs role in all this. Because the position of many Democrats today was that Barr in reaching a decision on obstruction of justice where Mueller did not, in holding a press conference ahead of the reports release seeming to defend the president, all taken together has undermined any credibility that he had, and that Democrats and the country need to see for themselves what Mueller had found. How are you thinking about Barr in this moment, having now spent time with the Mueller report? mark mazzetti I mean, the one thing is clear is that this has been a lot of red meat for Democrats in Congress to keep investigating. And one of the things that theyre going to keep investigating is Barrs role in this entire process. They are going to try to get him up to testify. They are going to try to get more underlying documents in the Mueller investigation. They now see Barr as a clear target for them. I think a lot of people, because of all these actions, have a much different picture of the attorney general than they did a month or two ago. michael barbaro And theyre going to try to understand the differences between what Bob Mueller thinks about all this the supposedly nonpartisan figure and what Bill Barr thinks about this the presidential appointee whose allegiances are clearly closer to the president. michael schmidt Theres one answer to this. And that is that after this entire investigation in which Bob Mueller has said nothing publicly, including today, when there was a press conference held to talk about his report, we need to hear from Bob Mueller. We need for him to explain to us more how they came to this determination that they couldnt say whether the president violated the law or not. Does Mueller think that Barr has misrepresented some of his findings? What was his relationship with the Justice Department? Did he believe that Congress should deal with this issue and that Barr shouldnt have made a call on whether the president violated the law? We need to hear from Mueller. We have never heard his voice in the past two years. michael barbaro So inadvertently, in seeming to protect the president and not be representing Mueller, Bill Barr may be extending Democrats interest in this investigation and the trouble for the president. mark mazzetti Absolutely. If you look back at what Barr has done in the last month, this could have turned out differently for him if he had put out the report immediately after the letter or as soon after the letter as he could have, if he had characterized the report differently in that four-page letter, and if he hadnt had a press conference on the day of the release before anyone had seen the report that had this appearance of trying to spin it for the president and protect the president. That seems to have created more problems both for Barr and the president than if they had just released the report. michael barbaro Mark, thank you very much. Mike, thank you very much. mark mazzetti Thank you. michael schmidt Thanks for having us. [music] michael barbaro POSTED AT 12:27 PM Barr heavily redacted evidence about the Trump campaigns outreach to WikiLeaks. Vol. I, Pages 53-54: [REDACTED] Manafort also [REDACTED] wanted to be kept apprised of any developments with WikiLeaks and separately told Gates to keep in touch [REDACTED] about future WikiLeaks releases. According to Gates, by the late summer of 2016, the Trump Campaign was planning a press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on the possible release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks. [REDACTED] while Trump and Gates were driving to LaGuardia Airport. [REDACTED], shortly after the call candidate Trump told Gates that more releases of damaging information would be coming. [REDACTED] Mr. Barr said this type of material must be kept secret because it was relevant to a continuing criminal matter. That is probably, at a minimum, the indictment of the former Trump adviser Roger Stone Jr., who is charged with lying about his participation in such efforts. But this raises a larger question: whether the hidden evidence shows that the Trump campaign conspired with WikiLeaks. At his news conference on Thursday morning, Mr. Barr said any campaign collusion with WikiLeaks could not amount to a criminal conspiracy because WikiLeaks publication of the emails was not a crime so long as it did not help Russia hacking them. Charlie Savage POSTED AT 12:25 PM The special counsel found evidence of plenty of other crimes and made 14 referrals. Vol. II, Page D-3: During the course of the investigation, the Office periodically identified evidence of potential criminal activity that was outside the scope of the Special Counsels jurisdiction established by the Acting Attorney General. After consultation with the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office referred that evidence to appropriate law enforcement authorities, principally other components of the Department of Justice and the FBI. Twelve of those referrals remain secret. Two others have been made public, including prosecutions involving Mr. Trumps former personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, and Gregory B. Craig, a White House counsel in the Obama administration. Adam Goldman POSTED AT 12:20 PM Trump ordered the White House counsel to claim that stories about the president wanting to fire Mueller were false. Vol. II, Page 5-6: In early 2018, the press reported that the president had directed McGahn to have the special counsel removed in June 2017 and that McGahn had threatened to resign rather than carry out the order. The president reacted to the news stories by directing White House officials to tell McGahn to dispute the story and to create a record stating he had not been ordered to have the special counsel removed. McGahn told those officials that the media reports were accurate in stating that the president had directed McGahn to have the special counsel removed. The president then met with McGahn in the Oval Office and again pressured him to deny the reports. In the same meeting, the president also asked McGahn why he had told the special counsel about the presidents effort to remove the special counsel and why McGahn took notes of his conversation with the president. McGahn refused to back away from what he remembered happening and perceived the president to be testing his mettle. This is one of the most damning episodes listed in the report, despite having already been reported by The New York Times. It demonstrated an active effort by the president to paint a false narrative about his conduct, both in the news media and with the special counsel. Maggie Haberman POSTED AT 12:08 PM After Michael T. Flynns lawyer refused to share information about what he was telling the special counsels team, Mr. Trumps personal lawyer said the president would be informed of Flynns hostility. Vol. II, Page 6: When Flynns counsel reiterated that Flynn could no longer share information pursuant to a joint defense agreement, the presidents personal counsel said he would make sure that the President knew that Flynns actions reflected hostility towards the president. The report does not state what the president might do in response, if anything. But the episode is part of a pattern, laid out in the report, of the president or his lawyers trying to determine what former aides were telling the special counsel, praising those who refused to cooperate and warning those who did help the special counsels team. Sharon LaFraniere POSTED AT 12:06 PM Mueller explains his decision not to interview the president. Vol. II, Page 13: Ultimately, while we believed that we had the authority and legal justification to issue a grand jury subpoena to obtain the Presidents testimony, we chose not to do so. We made that decision in view of the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation. We also assessed that based on the significant body of evidence we had already obtained of the Presidents actions and his public and private statements describing or explaining those actions, we had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the Presidents testimony. Without an interview, Mr. Mueller never had a chance to question the president about the central question of the obstruction investigation: what was his intention when he took a range of actions that could have impeded the investigation? Michael S. Schmidt POSTED AT 12:05 PM Trump called the appointment of Mueller the end of my presidency. Vol. II, Page 4: On May 17, 2017, the Acting Attorney General for the Russia investigation appointed a special counsel to conduct the investigation and related matters. The president reacted to news that a special counsel had been appointed by telling advisors that it was the end of his presidency and demanding that Sessions resign. Sessions submitted his resignation, but the president ultimately did not accept it. The president told aides that the special counsel had conflicts of interest and suggested that the special counsel therefore could not serve. The presidents advisors told him the asserted conflicts were meritless and had already been considered by the department of justice. The president immediately recognized the threat of the investigation. When he learned of Mr. Muellers appointment, he slumped in his chair and said, Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im fucked. He also lashed out at the attorney general for what Mr. Trump viewed as a failure to protect him. This would ultimately become a key consideration for the special counsel in debating whether the president obstructed justice, or sought to. Maggie Haberman Around that time, Mr. Trump also reached out to Mr. Comey, despite guidance from Mr. McGahn that the president should avoid talking directly to Justice Department officials. The president asked Comey to lift the cloud of the Russia investigation by saying publicly that he was not under investigation, the report said. Mr. Comey refused. May 9, 2017 Firing Comey Mr. Trump struggled to get Mr. Comey to say publicly that he was not under investigation. Those frustrations finally came to a head in May 2017 when the president decided Mr. Comey needed to be fired. The president first said he fired Mr. Comey because of how he handled the investigation into Ms. Clintons emails, but he soon strayed from that explanation. Within days, Mr. Trump appeared to say in an NBC News interview that Russia was on his mind when he dismissed Mr. Comey; at another point, he told senior Russian officials in the Oval Office that, by firing Mr. Comey, he had relieved great pressure on himself. The report said that even though the White House relied on so-called independent recommendations for the dismissal from Mr. Sessions and deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, Mr. Trump had decided to fire Mr. Comey regardless of what they said. The day after firing Comey, the president told Russian officials that he had faced great pressure because of Russia, which had been taken off by Comeys firing, the report said. June 17, 2017 Reacting to the Mueller appointment and trying to fire him After learning in May 2017 that Mr. Mueller had been appointed, Mr. Trump told advisers that it was the end of my presidency and demanded Mr. Sessions resign. Mr. Sessions submitted a resignation letter to Mr. Trump, who began carrying it around and asked advisers what he should do with it. In the weeks after Mr. Mueller began his work, Mr. Trump tried to force Mr. McGahn to have the Justice Department fire Mr. Mueller, citing what the president perceived as conflicts of interest. Mr. McGahn thought the presidents assertions carried little weight and refused to follow his instructions, he has told investigators. On Saturday, June 17, 2017, Mr. McGahn said, the president called him at home and insisted he have Mr. Mueller fired. Fed up with the repeated directive, Mr. McGahn drove to the White House, packed up his office and told senior White House officials that he planned to quit. They advised Mr. McGahn to ignore Mr. Trump, and the lawyer remained in his post another year. The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. Thats why we have scoured the internet for writing from across the political spectrum that you might not have seen. There is no shortage of opinions about the Mueller report, which was released on Thursday. Heres a look at what the writers of opinion articles and editorials are saying should happen next, what they think the report proves and what they say it shows about the United States. What now? Its time for impeachment, some say. For these writers, the report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, simply underscores the need for Congress to oust the president. What the report shows, with crystal clarity, is that today there is a cancer in the presidency: President Donald J. Trump, George Conway, a lawyer and husband to the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, wrote in The Washington Post. WASHINGTON In the months before the 2016 presidential election, Russias military intelligence agency penetrated computer systems in at least one Florida county government and planted malware in systems at a manufacturer of election equipment, the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, said in his offices final report on Russian interference in the election. The report did not cite any evidence that the breaches compromised election results in Florida or elsewhere, and said Mr. Mueller had left further investigation of the incidents to the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security. The disclosure of the suspected breach added to accounts of Russias systematic effort to access voter-registration rolls and other election systems outlined last year by American intelligence officials and in federal indictments. The special counsels report also cited another attack on computers in Illinois, which had already been reported, while the attack in Florida had not previously been disclosed. The penetration of the election equipment manufacturer, identified elsewhere as VR Systems of Tallahassee, Fla., had been known but not that malware specifically had been planted. The company makes electronic pollbooks and other devices that help officials run elections, but does not make voting machines. SAO PAULO, Brazil Amazon is the worlds biggest online retailer. It is also the worlds largest rain forest. The question is who owns the name. This is the core of an epic battle between the tech behemoth Amazon.com and eight South American countries that contain parts of the rain forest. At stake is the domain name .amazon, and who should control it on the internet. Amazon.com could use the name to advance its branding and marketing. But the nations objecting to the companys request are concerned about a corporation symbolically taking control of a name synonymous with their heritage, as well as more mundane matters like whether their own tourism industries would lose the opportunity to use trip.amazon, hotels.amazon and other domain names. Its technical, but its also very emotional, said Achilles Emilio Zaluar Neto, the director of technology issues at Brazils Foreign Ministry, noting that Jeff Bezos, Amazon.coms founder, named his company after the Amazon River. North Korea conducted its last major weapons test in November 2017, when it launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. But Mr. Kim has since declared a moratorium on nuclear and ICBM tests. By testing a short-range tactical weapon, North Korea is playing its cards cautiously, analysts said. Mr. Kim can raise pressure on Washington with such a test but still be able to claim that he has not reneged on the moratorium. Karl Dewey, a senior analyst at Janes by IHS Markit, said that North Koreas stress on the weapons tactical nature was primarily aimed at a domestic audience, rather than signaling a shift in North Koreas strategic approach to U.S. talks. But other analysts said the test was a more ominous signal aimed at Washington. It is a message from Kim Jong-un that he no longer trusts Trump or Moon Jae-in, and that he is ready to go his own way, said Lee Byong-chul, another North Korea expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies. He is showing that there will be no buckling under or compromising under American pressure. This may well be Mr. Kims first step to raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula. In a speech on Thursday at Auburn University in Alabama, Gina Haspel, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said, I am very proud that weve been able to support this administrations efforts to engage the North Koreans in a dialogue. After years of failure, I do think that President Trump has shown a lot of wisdom in reaching out his hand to the North Korean leader and to suggest there might be a different future for the North Korean people, she added. The test by North Korea came amid news reports that Mr. Kim planned to meet President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in the far eastern city of Vladivostok next week. On Thursday, the Kremlin said in a brief statement that the two would meet this month, giving no specific date. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Gunmen killed 14 commuter bus passengers in southwestern Pakistan on Thursday, apparently singling out people who worked for the armed services, in an attack claimed by separatists in Baluchistan province. The killings took place on the coastal highway near Ormara, in Gwadar district, where armed men dressed as paramilitary forces stopped six buses late Wednesday night. They checked the passengers identification papers and separated 16 of them from the group, then let the rest go. The local police found the victims bodies, which had been shot at close range, early Thursday. Two of those pulled from the buses managed to escape, officials said. A separatist group, Raji Aajoi Sangar, claimed responsibility for the killings and said that all of the dead were part of the security forces. It did not reflect a balanced representation of our peoples participation and was a disrespect to our peoples will and decision, the statement said. Qatar was requested to respect the list Afghans had prepared, for the peace conference, the statement added. Qatars government couldnt implement our rightful request and the Qatari government canceled the conference. Messy disagreements over the past couple of weeks have brought to light divisions among Afghanistans political elite about who should lead talks with the Taliban, as well as how tricky it has become to maneuver around the Talibans insistence on negotiating on their own terms. After several rounds of talks, the Taliban and American negotiators seem to be near a deal on major issues, including the withdrawal of American troops and a Taliban guarantee that international terrorist groups will not be allowed on Afghan soil. But that progress cannot be finalized until Afghans negotiate a political future for the country after the American withdrawal. After the latest round of talks with Americans last month, the Taliban had quietly agreed to the participation, in a private capacity, of some government officials in the conference this weekend. But they regarded the final list of participants as essentially a government delegation, according to Taliban representatives and Western diplomats. It did not help that Mr. Ghani office, in announcing the original list on Tuesday, called it the delegation of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Soon after the lists release, the Talibans main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement that the Qatari hosts had made it clear both in written and verbal form that no one at the conference would be representing the government, and that any official who was there would be participating in a personal capacity. The creators of the Kabul list must realize that this is an orderly and prearranged conference in a faraway Gulf country and not an invitation to some wedding or other party at a hotel in Kabul, Mr. Mujahid said, alluding to the large number of participants. Mr. Keating resigned from the New Zealand Defense Force two days after pleading not guilty in March 2018 to a charge of making an intimate visual recording of another person. During his two-week trial this month, Mr. Keatings lawyer disputed that the camera was his, The New Zealand Herald reported. But on Thursday, a jury in Auckland District Court found him guilty after deliberating for four and a half hours. Mr. Keating will be sentenced later this year; the charge carries a maximum of 18 months in jail. Defense officials, when asked to comment on Thursday, noted only that Mr. Keating was no longer a member of the military. No indecent images were found on any devices Mr. Keating owned. But prosecutors detailed a range of evidence that they told the jury pointed toward Mr. Keatings guilt. His laptop, under his login, was used several times between March and July 2017 to view the website of the company that made the covert camera, the prosecutors said. Software for the camera was also installed on the envoys laptop but uninstalled just hours after it was discovered, they said. OTTAWA Three professional mountain climbers were missing and presumed dead on Thursday after an avalanche in Banff National Park in the western province of Alberta. The three were identified as Jess Roskelley, an accomplished American mountaineer, and David Lama and Hansjorg Auer, both Austrian, by the North Face clothing company, their sponsor. When the men failed to return from their climb as scheduled on Wednesday, Parks Canada, the government agency responsible for the park, said that it immediately sent aircraft to search for them. The aerial survey found, the agency said, signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment in the area where the three had been climbing. They are missing and local search and rescue has assumed the worst, the North Face said in an email. We are waiting to learn additional information as the search mission continues. PARIS The ashes have barely settled from the devastating fire that tore through the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, but even as France paid tribute on Thursday to the firefighters who saved the structure and its relics, there was a growing debate about how the Gothic landmark should be rebuilt. Workers are still focused largely on shoring up the damaged structure, but how closely the planned reconstruction should adhere to the original design and materials has become a point of contention in a nation long accustomed to arguing over the balance between modernity and cultural heritage. President Emmanuel Macron gave the debate particular urgency when he said the cathedral would be rebuilt within five years, a time frame that some experts have called too optimistic. Some of Mr. Macrons political opponents have even accused him of wanting to rush the restoration in order to have the cathedral ready in time for the 2024 Olympic Games, which will be held in Paris. [A guide to The Timess coverage, from the first moments to the investigation.] Franck Riester, the French culture minister, said on Thursday that the government would strive to meet the timeline set out by the president, but he also cautioned that rebuilding the cathedral could take more time. ROME Pope Francis dropped in again this week on his predecessor, Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, wishing him happy birthday with particular affection in a now familiar showing of white-cloaked cordiality. But behind the friendly visit, the talk of conspiracies and competing power centers is swirling inside the Vatican and far beyond. Just last week, Benedict, who turned 92 on Tuesday, released a 6,000-word letter holding forth on his views on the origins of the Roman Catholic Churchs clerical sex abuse crisis effectively undercutting Francis on a contentious issue that has roiled his papacy. For many church experts, the letter marked the most recent, and egregious, example of why having two popes whose homes are separated by a few hundred meters but whose style, substance and visions of the church are vastly apart can be so confusing to the faithful. To be clear, Francis is the pope and is in charge. He is the one who can promulgate dogma and whose papal pronouncements when speaking ex cathedra with the authority of the office on questions of faith and morals are considered infallible. Benedict gave all that up including the infallibility when he stepped down. Barry Bennett Zimbabwe has hired Avenue Global Strategies to a $1.1M one-year contract, which went into effect April 5, to foster better relations with the US. Barry Bennett, who was a senior advisor to Donald Trumps presidential campaign, helms and co-founded AGS. He joined Team Trump after working as presidential campaign manager for Ben Carson, now Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Secretary, and organizer of the 2012 Super PAC of Rick Perry, now Energy Secretary. Zimbabwe in March inked Brian Ballard's Ballard Partners to a two-year contract valued at $1M. Ballard led Floridas Trump Victory fundraising group. The firm's job is to encourage a re-examination of Zimbabwe from the State Dept. with a view of "establishing the best possible bilateral relationship with the US and facilitating the restoration of Zimbabwes membership in the good standing with the community of nations. The Trump administration on March 6 extended economic sanctions imposed in 2003 against 100 officials and institutions of the African nation for another year. That punishment stems from human rights abuses commiited during the reign of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's longtime ruler. Current president Emmerson Mnangagwa has been working to restore his countrys diplomatic standing. His government announced April 14 a plan to partially compensate white farmers for land seized from them by Mugabe and redistributed to blacks. The Voice of America reported April 16 that Mnangagwas government hopes that Zimbabwes cold relations with the west with thaw and that the ailing economy will improve. RENUA Ireland leader and Offaly councillor John Leahy has called for a major crackdown on insurance fraud amid spiralling costs for businesses. "Insurance fraud is destroying lives, closing businesses and costing jobs," Leahy said. "It is time to prioritise taking out these fraudsters who have their hands permanently in everyone's trousers." A number of Offaly companies have reported skyrocketing insurance premiums, including one local firm, quoted almost 30,000. Another, Cosmic Bowl in Tullamore was forced to close temporarily after receiving prohibitive premium quotes. Speaking about insurance fraudster making false or exaggerated claims, John Leahy commented: "Instead of seeing these people leaving the courthouse smirking whether they win or lose, Gardai should be waiting at the steps of the court to arrest those who are found to have acted fraudulently." "For this to occur RENUA Ireland believes we need to re-establish the old fraud squad." "We note in this regard that former Justice Nicholas Kearns, who headed up the Personal Injuries Commission has called for the creation of a dedicated Garda unit to prosecute fraudsters," John said. "RENUA Ireland also notes that the Judge has also warned that fraud is now causing people to lose their jobs in areas where, but for this market distortion, would be thriving and prosperous." "RENUA Ireland believes there is no such thing as a victimless crime." "In this case, sloppy political leadership has created the scenario where fraudsters are walking out of the court laughing at those who get up early in the morning to go to work whilst they snooze in their beds." "Its time to wake them up with a series of targeted crackdowns," John concluded. Offaly homeowners have spent over 14.1 million in total through the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) since its launch in 2013. This incentive has facilitated homeowners throughout Offaly in carrying out 1,129 home improvement projects over the last four years. These projects throughout Offaly have had an average spend of 12,506 per project, providing a huge boost to the local economy and employment in the construction sector according to the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). Introduced in 2013, the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) provided homeowners with an income tax credit at 13.5% of qualifying expenditure on home improvement works carried out on a main home or rental property by qualifying contractors. The success of the scheme in Offaly and nationally has been evident with the scale of the work undertaken on home improvements and energy upgrades. While the scheme concluded at the end of 2018, it was successful in encouraging significant private sector investment in the upgrading of private and rental property throughout Ireland. Nationally the HRI incentive has facilitated homeowners in carrying out over 147,000 home improvement projects over the last five years with an average spend of 16,766 per project. The average spend per project in Offaly was 12,506, which was below the national average. Broken down by value, the largest amount of work was carried out completing home extensions (34%), followed by general repair and renovations (25%) and then window replacement (11%) and kitchen replacement (10%). The scheme was introduced initially in late 2013, but the extension of it to rental properties in late 2014 help increase the number of homeowners who used the scheme. Shane Dempsey, CIF Communications Director said: A scheme such as the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) has been a significant contributor to construction activity with registered contractors in Offaly and elsewhere throughout the country. A total of 1,129 projects in Offaly was a very significant level of private investment over the five years of the scheme from homeowners in Offaly. CIF has worked with stakeholders including the SEAI to ensure contractors were in place to support the work required by homeowners. At a time of modest growth in the construction industry, the scheme encouraged investment by homeowners in Offaly, which was good news for construction companies and contractors in the county. Nationally the cost to date to the exchequer form the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) is 169 million, if the maximum credits claimed by homeowners are availed of. The cost to the exchequer has resulted in investment by homeowners of 2.471 billion across 147,369 separate projects. It is estimated that one million homes in Ireland still require upgrading to meet modern energy efficiency targets. The HRI scheme has proven that measures to incentivise homeowners can work, because there is an increase in awareness about energy efficiency and the costs of this on homeowners. Economically it has yielded an in excess of a 12-fold return on state investment by private homeowners in the domestic economy. Separately a nationwide programme, the Deep Retrofit Pilot scheme, devised to upgrade homes to the highest energy efficiency levels, has seen no houses upgraded in Offaly in 2017 and 2018. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers the Deep Retrofit Pilot scheme on behalf of the government. Under this pilot scheme, government funding of up to 50% of the total capital and project management costs for homes than achieve an A3 Building Energy Rating (BER) post retrofit. Up to the end of 2018, a total of 214 homes have been upgraded nationally with a spend of 5.581m under the Deep Retrofit Pilot scheme. It is clear that much more needs to be done to promote this deep retrofit scheme to homeowners in Offaly and throughout the country. The current ambitious target of 30,000 homes upgrades a year as set out by the government in the National Development Plan (NDP), rises to 45,000 homes per year from 2021 onwards. This initiative has the potential to underpin a sustainable and stable construction industry for the next 25 years. Mark Courtney, Managing Director, House2Home Retrofit Ltd said: The Deep Retrofit Pilot Programme has a new innovative approach to upgrading the national housing stock. Historically, homes were encouraged to carry out energy efficiency upgrades in a piecemeal approach, with individual upgrade measures marginally improving the energy efficiency of their homes." "The Deep Retrofit Programme focuses on the entire home as a unit, ensuring that energy efficiency, comfort and a healthy living environment are achieved by the end of the project. A combination of fabric upgrades (insulation) renewable contributions such as solar PV, the elimination of fossil fuels and advanced ventilation systems provides a whole house solution for homeowners, whilst dramatically increasing energy efficiency and decreasing harmful carbon emissions. From a homeowners perspective, Deep Retrofit is now affordable and logical if someone is planning a refurbishment project. Most of our clients have extension and alteration works which they would like carried out along with the deep retrofit works. The ability to combine the 2 projects gives our clients the comfort and reassurance of 1 contractor, 1 start date and 1 finish date. A typical project brings a home from a poor BER rating (C3 or worse) to an A3 or better. Some of our clients have improved their homes from G rated homes to A3 or better. On completion, their homes perform as well as brand new builds which is remarkable! We have seen a surge of enquiries for Deep Retrofit since the scheme was launched and will have completed over 30 projects under the scheme by the end of 2019. "The impact of climate change and the ambitious targets set out by the government in the National Development Plan (NDP) mean that more creativity is required to ensure that homeowners, businesses, government and the construction sector can work together to help reduce carbon usage in the built environment. The success of the Home Renovation Incentive scheme illustrates that such schemes can also ensure that projects are not carried out in the grey or unofficial market, thereby reducing the overall level of VAT collected." Pictured, front row, left to right: Josh Pumphrey, Nathan Floyd, Payton Clark, Alena Blakley and Preston Morris. Back row, left to right: Dr. Kaylene Barbe, Gabi Burke, Isabel Palos and Hannah West. Junior communication studies major Hannah West (gold) discusses her research with Dr. Amy Aldridge Sanford, president of Central States Communication Association (CSCA). Wests research project was titled, I Dont Want to Work Here: Millennials and Their Interest in Corporate Social Responsibility. Senior students from OBU participating in the CSCA conference take time to grab a picture together. Pictured, front row, left to right: Payton Clark, Alena Blakley and Sarah Claibourn. Back Row, left to right: Nathan Floyd, Josh Pumphrey, Ben Cale and Preston Morris. Three OBU professors led the group to Omaha and presented their own research. Pictured, left to right: Dr. Vickie Ellis, professor of communication arts and chair of the Division of Communication Arts; Dr. Kaylene Barbe, professor of communication studies; and Ann McNellis, adjunct professor. Three OBU professors led the group to Omaha and presented their own research. Pictured, left to right: Dr. Vickie Ellis, professor of communication arts and chair of the Division of Communication Arts; Dr. Kaylene Barbe, professor of communication studies; and Ann McNellis, adjunct professor. OBU Students Attend Central States Communication Association Conference April 3-6 April 18, 2019 Eleven OBU students and three faculty attended the Central States Communication Association Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, April 3-6 to present their communication research projects. The group of presenting students included nine communication studies majors, a political science major and a psychology pre-counseling major. The communication studies majors included senior Sarah Claibourn, senior Alena Blakley, senior Ben Cale, sophomore Carly Miller, junior Isabel Palos, junior Hannah West, senior Josh Pumphrey, senior Payton Clark and senior Preston Morris. Senior political science major Nathan Floyd and junior psychology pre-counseling major Gabi Burke rounded out the group of 11 students. Faculty who presented their research included Dr. Vickie Ellis, professor of communication arts and chair of the Division of Communication Arts; Dr. Kaylene Barbe, professor of communication studies; and Ann McNellis, adjunct professor. Students researched various topics in communication classes during fall 2018 and submitted their finished research in January 2019. All 11 students who submitted were accepted into the conference for panel or poster presentations. The mission of Central States Communication Association (CSCA) is to unite and educate people with both an affinity to the central region of the United States and a scholarly interest in all areas of communication for promotion of their mutual goals and advancement of their field. Each year, around 1,000 communication professionals gather at this conference to celebrate the best in communication research, teaching, learning and advocacy. The Great Swamp Conservancy of Canastota would like to graciously thank local communities for their support in our recent fundraiser: the shoe drive. This was extremely successful due to the involvement of many dedicated individuals, businesses, school honor societies and other organizations. The GSC had a motivated and enthusiastic team executing fundraiser efforts to communities such as Canastota, Oneida, Cazenovia, Cicero, Bridgeport, Chittenango, Fayetteville and other surrounding towns. The Funds2Org company based in Florida facilitated the shoe drive and walked the GSC through every aspect of collecting shoes. We met our goal of collecting over 2500 pairs of new and gently used shoes, boots, slippers and sneakers of all sizes. The major goals of the drive were to raise funds for GSC environmental programming, keep useable shoes out of landfills and to allow families from less developed countries to sell the shoes as their own entrepreneurial business. The entirety of the fundraiser raised awareness and thankfulness. We are very fortunate to be surrounded by generous and giving communities that want to help the environment and mankind. Bengaluru: 4 arrested for issuing "fake" RT-PCR test report to first Omicron case in India Ola cabs to offer free rides to polling booths for Disabled voters in Karnataka Bengaluru oi-PTI Bengaluru, Apr 18: Cab aggregator Ola Wednesday said it would provide free rides to persons with disabilities (PWD) to the polling booths in association with the Election authorities in a bid to increase voter participation in the Lok Sabha Elections in Karnataka. The company said it has partnered with the office of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer and others, including the civic bodies in various cities in this regard. As a part of the free service, Ola has assigned 270 cabs to the election commission which will be made available to ferry PWD voters to polling booths, a release said Wednesday. Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase Two: Key contests between top candidates Karnataka is having two phase Lok Sabha polls with 14 of the 28 seats going for polling Thursday. The second phase will be on April 23. This free ride facility would be across Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Mangaluru on April 18 and Ballari, Hubali-Dharwad, Gulbarga and Belgaum on April 23, the release said. We are grateful to Ola and appreciate their efforts in enabling seamless transportation so that every citizen can go out and vote, Surya Sen A V., Joint Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka said. Ola Regional Head (South) Vishnu Bommareddy said availability of convenient transport options had resulted in positive voter turnout in recent past and the company would continue to back initiatives that support the constitutional machinery of the country. "We are glad to partner with the local authorities and facilitate hassle-free mobility for every voter in Bengaluru, he added. Phase 2 of polling will decide on how the opposition shapes up against BJP Ola has set up helpline numbers 9071464553 / 7624915133 to assist the PWD voters and address any issues that arise, the release added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, April 18, 2019, 10:45 [IST] SC tells political parties to upload on website, why tickets were given to criminal candidates West Bengal elections: 35 constituencies to go to polls in final phase, fate of 283 candidates to be sealed 15.80 crore people decide fate of 1,600 candidates India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Apr 18: Polling began on Thursday morning for 95 Lok Sabha seats spread across 11 states and the union territory of Puducherry with Tamil Nadu witnessing contest in 38 constituencies. Voting was also underway in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha and in 18 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. Prominent faces in the fray in the Lok Sabha contest are Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi, Congress leaders Verappa Moily and Raj Babbar, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and BJP's Hema Malini. Over 15.80 crore voters will decide the fate of the 1,600-odd contestants. In Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats. Polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat was cancelled on Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. Phase 2 of polling will decide on how the opposition shapes up against BJP The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Besides Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Of the 95 constituencies, the AIADMK holds the maximum of 36 seats, followed by the BJP with 27 seats. The Congress had won 12 of these seats in 2014, the Shiv Sena and the BJD 4 each, the JD-S and the RJD two each and the AIUDF, the NCP, the JD-U, the PDP, the AINRC, the PMK, the CPI-M and the TMC one seat each. The Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. Future of Congress-JDS alliance to depend on high command, says H D Deve Gowda The Maharashtra twist and an eerie similarity to what Deve Gowda did in 2006 Deve Gowda's JDS may rope in Prashant Kishor to craft strategy on party revival A day of reckoning for Deve Gowda and sons today India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Bengaluru, Apr 18: Voting is underway in 14 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, where the contest is mainly between the ruling Congress-Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) coalition and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the second phase of parliamentary polls. Prominent contestants in this phase include former prime minister H D Deve Gowda (Tumkur), his grandsons Prajwal Revanna and Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Hassan and Mandya respectively, as also Union minister Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), and senior Congress leaders Veerappa Moily (Chikkaballapura) and K H Muniyappa (Kolar). Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase Two: Key contests between top candidates As the polling began, people stood patiently in queues at 30,164 polling stations, most of them in the southern part of the state, covering almost the entire old Mysuru region and a few coastal districts. Many voters arrived early to avoid the summer heat. A total of 2,67,51,893 voters are expected to vote to elect their representative in parliament from among 241 candidates in the fray during this phase. The rest 14 seats in the state are to go to polls in the third phase on April 23. Among the 241 candidates, 224 are men and 17 women. While the highest number of 31 candidates are from Bangalore North, the least is in Hassan with six candidates. Out of total 2,67,51,893 voters in the 14 constituencies, 1,35,45,818 are men, 1,32,03,258 women and 2,817 'others'. A total of 36,196 control units, 52,112 ballot units and 37,705 VVPAT machines are being used for the polls in 14 constituencies, where a total of 2,11,405 polling personnel- including 1,54,262 poll officials, 38,597 police personnel, 7,727 transport personnel and 10,819 other personnel will be on duty. Police have made elaborate security arrangement to avoid any untoward incident. It is a high stakes battle for the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance that is grappling with dissidence among grassroots-level workers over seat-sharing, as any adverse results from the region, considered as their stronghold, is likely to have its impact on the longevity of the coalition government in the state. BJP's big test as Vokkaliga dominated south Karnataka region polls today The BJP is determined to improve its tally compared to last time. Other candidates in this phase include multi-lingual actors and independent candidates Sumalatha Ambareesh (Mandya) and Prakash Raj (Bangalore North), and BJP's Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore South), who is pitted against veteran Congressman B K Hariprasad. Key constituencies to be watched out for include Mandya, that saw a bitter campaign, where Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil from JD(S) is pitted against independent candidate Sumalatha, widow of actor-turned politician M H Ambareesh. Lack of support from local Congress workers is worrying the regional party here. Spotlight is also on Tumkur where JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda is contesting for the first time after vacating his Hassan seat to another grandson Prajwal Revanna, along with Bangalore South where in a surprise move BJP gave ticket to 28 year-old Surya, denying ticket to Union minister Ananth Kumar's widow Tejaswini, causing some resentment. Of the 14 constituencies going to the polls, BJP and Congress had won six each in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and JD(S) in two. While the BJP is contesting in 13 constituencies and supporting independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in Mandya, Congress and JD(S) have fielded their candidates in 10 and four constituencies respectively. The remaining 14 constituencies, mostly in northern districts, will go to polls in the second phase on April 23. 'Should not be misled': Mayawati reaches out to Brahmins before UP polls After 48 hour mute order, Mayawati goes all out against Yogi India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 18: After being put on mute for 48 hours by the Election Commission of India, Mayawati has gone all out to attack Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath. It may be recalled that the EC had barred Mayawati from campaigning for 48 hours for a model code of conduct violation. While her ban came to an end today, Yogi's would be lifted by tomorrow as he had been slapped a 72 hour mute order by the EC. Is the punishment on Azam, Maneka, Mayawati sufficient for poll code violation? "Despite the ban, Chief Minister Yogi is visiting various cities and temples and indulging in antics by having lunch at a Dalit person's house. Yet, the Election Commission is kind on him," Mayawati said in a tweet. If such biased approach continued, then the conduct of free and fair polls would be practically impossible. Who is going to answer to the restlessness of the people on such issues. The BJP leadership continues to be as headstrong as it was before, she also said. Your sacrifice wont go in vain: Nadda on killing of 3 BJP workers in Kulgam BJP in Jammu and Kashmir seeks security after killing of three workers in Kulgam BJP worker dies in clashes with Bengal police, this is murder says Surya Pune: PM Modi bust removed from temple built for him by BJP worker; NCP workers stage mock protest BJP workers to aid vaccination drive on PM's b'day on Sep 17, hope to achieve record numbers BJP worker found dead in West Bengal's Purulia, party alleges Trinamool hand India oi-Madhuri Adnal Kolkata, April 18: A BJP worker was found dead at Senabona village under Arsha police station of Purulia in West Bengal. His body was found hanging from a tree in Senabona village of Purulia district. The BJP has identified the deceased as 22-year-old Sisupal Sahis, a BJP Youth Morcha member. Police have rushed to the spot and investigation is on. Local BJP leaders have alleged that the death is a political murder committed by Trinamool workers. West Bengal: CPM MP Md Salim convoy attacked in Islampur, blames TMC goons The case is eerily similar to the murder of a BJP worker, Trilochan Mahato, in the same district in May 2018. Mahato's lifeless body was also found hanging from a tree. Meanwhile, in February 2019, a Trinamool Congress worker was shot dead in West Bengal's Berhampore area of Murshidabad district. The deceased, identified as Naju Seikh, was the third TMC worker who was killed in a span of 12 hours. Purulia parliamentary constituency in West Bengal will be voting in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election. Besides Purulia parliamentary constituency, Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Bankura, and Bishnupur are also going to polls in the Lok Sabha election 2019. West Bengal has generally been seen as a state more prone to political violence, which earlier used to take place between cadres of the Trinamool and the CPI (M). However, as the BJP has continued to make inroads into eastern state, it has faced stiff resistance from the entrenched local political establishment. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, April 18, 2019, 12:52 [IST] Chhattisgarh, Punjab govts announce Rs 50 lakh to families of farmers run over in UP Chhattisgarh's horrific accident: Nobody will be spared, justice will be done: CM Baghel 4 CRPF jawans killed in a case of fratricide in Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh: 28 students fall ill after consuming 'chikki' at govt school in Durg district Chhattisgarh: ITBP Constable injured in IED blast India oi-Vikas SV Raipur, Apr 18: An ITBP personnel was injured on Thursday in an Improvised Exlosive Device (IED) blast in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon. The injured ITBP personnel has been identified as Constable Man Singh. He was part of ITBP Road Opening Party (ROP), said reports. Singh received minor injuries and is out of danger. In fact, he has resumed his duty. BJP legislator among five killed in Maoist attack in Dantewada The blast is said to have place around 11 am this morning. On April 11, Naxals triggered an IED blast in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district in Bastar Lok Sabha constituency when the voting for first phase pf Lok Sabha election was underway. On April 9, BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi and four security personnel were killed when Naxalites triggered an IED blast that hit their convoy in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada. EC officials watch Modi biopic: Decision on April 19 India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Apr 18: Officials of the Election Commission (EC), drawn from its model code and legal divisions, on Wednesday watched the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the directions of the Supreme Court. The EC had asked the producers of the film to arrange for a screening for its committee. The screening was "longish" as officials also discussed various aspects, sources said. Now the EC will take a considered view on whether the ban should continue and submit its decision to the Supreme Court by April 19 in a sealed cover. The Supreme Court had on Monday directed the EC to watch the full biopic on Modi and take an informed decision on banning its pan-India release. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had said it will consider the EC report and hear the matter on April 22. BJP asks EC to review Mamata Banerjee's biopic Baghini Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for film producers who challenged the EC's ban, said the poll panel had taken the decision after watching just the promo and it did not watch the entire movie. The EC had on April 10 stalled the release of the film until the Lok Sabha polls end, saying any such film that subserves the purpose of any political entity or individual should not be displayed in electronic media. Acting on the complaints of political parties, including the Congress, the poll panel had asserted that any biopic material with the potential to disturb the level-playing field should not be displayed in areas where the model code of conduct was in force. The Modi biopic, starring Vivek Oberoi in the lead, has been the most-talked about movie in this election season. Directed by Omung Kumar, it tells the story of Modi's rise to power from his humble beginnings. EC should rectify EVM problems within 15 minutes: Akhilesh Yadav India pti-PTI Azamgarh (UP), Apr 18: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday expressed concern over reports of EVM malfunctions in some parts of the Uttar Pradesh where polling for the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls are taking place and asked the Election Commission to take immediate steps to rectify them. Akhilesh ,who arrived here to file his nomination papers, said he has been apprised about EVM malfunction in Bulandshahr and some other places. "It is the responsibility of the EC to rectify the problem within 15 minutes where ever there are reports of EVM malfunction so that polling is held undisturbed," the SP president said. Akhilesh said people are not able to depend on the technology and the EC as well as the government should assure the people about it. [Lok Sabha elections 2019: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav files nomination from Azamgarh] "The SP ,BSP and other parties have put their views on the subject before the Election Commission. The reality is the countries where EVMs were earlier used are today conducting elections though the ballot paper, he said. Expressing confidence about his victory, he said the BSP and the SP have worked in Azamgarh and the BJP will have to give a report card about the work they have done here. PTI Army jawans and JCOs to be given quality sport shoes to save their feet Nike comes up with shoes that can be tied with smartphone From George Bush to G V L Narasimha Rao, leaders who were attacked with shoes India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Apr 18: At a presser in the national capital, a shoe was hurled at BJP MP G V L Narasimha Rao. Similar attacks have been reported in the past. Let us take a look at the leaders who have faced shoe attacks: George W Bush: An Iraqi journalist had in 2008 hurled his shoe at Bush, who was then the US president. Before hurling the shoe, the journalist had shouted, "this is a farewell kiss from the people of Iraq." P Chidambaram: An AAP leader, Jarnail Singh, who was working as a journalist in 2009 hurled a shoe at then Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram. He was protesting against the Congress for giving a ticket to Sajjan Kumar. I protest, he said before hurling the shoe. Manmohan Singh: While addressing a rally in 2009, a shoe was hurled at then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. The shoe however missed its mark. L K Advani: A wooden slipper was hurled at Advani in 2009. The attacker, a former BJP office bearer identified as Pawan Agarwal said that he had hurled the slipper as Advani was a fake iron man. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, April 18, 2019, 17:40 [IST] Good Friday 2019: Date, importance and how is it commemorated? India oi-Madhuri Adnal Christians all over the world observe Good Friday 2019 as the most sorrowful and sacred day of the year. It is also referred to as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Black Friday, or Easter Friday. Members of many Christian denominations, including the Anglican, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Oriental Orthodox, and Reformed traditions, observe Good Friday with fasting and church services. When is Good Friday? The date of Good Friday varies from one year to the next on both the Gregorian and Julian calendars. This year, Good Friday falls on Friday 19 April on the Gregorian calendar. Its date coincides with the beginning of the Jewish festival of Passover. According to the Julian calendar, which is still used in parts of the eastern Orthodox church, Good Friday will take place this year on Friday 26 April. What is Good Friday? Good Friday is a Christian holiday held in honor and remembrance of Jesus's death on the cross. It is held after Maundy Thursday, which recalls the Last Supper, and on the Friday before Easter Sunday. Good Friday Food: Most Christians refuse to eat meat on Good Friday and traditionally hot cross buns are baked on this day. How is it observed? Good Friday is meant to be a day of reflection for Christians, a day when you focus on the sacrifice Jesus made. It is also a day of mourning for the church. Many churches also participate in Veneration of the Cross. The holy day is also commemorated by carrying out reenactments of the events which led to Christ's crucifixion, known as the Passion of Jesus. Many countries like Italy, Spain, Malta, The Philippines, and India held parades. Countries like Bermuda flies handmade kites which symbolizes the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Churches in countries like Belgium and Mexico are draped in black. Countries which observes Good Friday - a public holiday Even though Good Friday is celebrated almost in every part of world, these 20 countries mark Good Friday as a public holiday. These few states in US also mark it as a public holiday including New Jersey, Hawaii, Florida, North Carolina, Connecticut. From this year, Good Friday will also be a public holiday in Daman and Diu, as well as Dadra and Nagar Haveli as per the orders of The Bombay High Court. Australia Bermuda Brazil Canada Caribbean Chile Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador Finland Germany Malta Mexico New Zealand Peru The Philippines Singapore Spain United Kingdom Venezuela For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, April 18, 2019, 16:31 [IST] Pakistan uses fake Islam is in danger narrative as main theme of its terror indoctrination India suspends LoC trade with Pakistan India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 18: India has suspended trade along the Line of Control with effect from April 19. The action was taken after it was reported that Pakistan based elements were using the trade route to smuggle weapons, fake currency and narcotics. The decision has been taken after reports of "cross Line of Control trade routes being misused by Pakistan based elements for funneling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency etc", a statement by the Home Ministry read. "During ongoing probe of certain cases by National Investigation Agency (NIA), it has been brought out that significant number of trading concerns engaged in LoC trade are operated by persons closely associated with banned terror organisations involved in fueling terrorism/separatism," the statement also read. Escalating tension as Pakistan mobilises additional troops, weaponry It was found that cross-border traders had been tapped by terror groups to help raise funds for terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir. The NIA had found that a food item would be imported from Pakistan at a very low price and then sold at double the amount in India. For instance, Californian almonds would be imported by the trader at Rs 350 a kilogram and then sold at Rs 700 in the Indian market. The profit investigators say would be used to fund terror. There is a select network of traders that the terror groups have tapped into to further their agenda. These traders work under terror groups such as the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, an NIA official informed. The NIA has also found a list of 21 items that are being imported by traders from Pakistan at a very low cost. Out of this the highest profit margin is for the California almond which sells at double the cost in India, the NIA official also informed. Police given free hand to act against communal elements: Karnataka HM Jnanendra Lockdown in Karnataka only if.. Technical Committee has this advise Congress MLA Ramesh Kumar under fire for his 'enjoy rape' comment: A look at his controversial statements Voting percentage in Karnataka is 61.80 India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Bengaluru, Apr 18: A voter turnout of 61.80 per cent was from 14 constituencies in Karnataka. Many senior senior citizens cast their vote during the morning hours to avoid the summer heat. Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda, the BJP candidate from Bangalore North, was among the early voters. State Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, wife Anita and son Nikhil, the JD(S) candidate from Mandya, cast their vote at Kethiganahalli which comes under Bangalore Rural seat. Speaking to reporters later, Kumaraswamy urged people to exercise their right to franchise. "Voting is your right, please go to polling booths and vote. Your vote will decide the next government of the country," he said. The Congress-JD(S) alliance is fighting against the BJP in Karnataka. Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase Two: Key contests between top candidates Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, Congress candidate in Bangalore (North) Krishna Byre Gowda also cast their vote. Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy and wife Sudha cast their vote in Bengaluru. Polling began at 7 am in 30,164 polling stations that are mostly in the southern part of the state, covering almost the entire old Mysuru region and a few coastal districts. A total of 2,67,51,893 people are expected to vote to elect their representative from among 241 candidates in the fray during this phase. Among the 241 candidates, 224 are men and 17 women. Thirty-one candidates, the highest, are contesting from Bangalore (North) and the least from Hassan (6). Prominent contestants in this phase are former prime minister H D Deve Gowda (Tumkur), his grandsons Prajwal Revanna and Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Hassan and Mandya respectively, as also Union minister Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), and senior Congress leaders Veerappa Moily (Chikkaballapura) and K H Muniyappa (Kolar). Other candidates include multi-lingual actors and independent candidates Sumalatha Ambareesh (Mandya) and Prakash Raj (Bangalore North), and BJP's Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore South), who is pitted against veteran Congressman B K Hariprasad. Of the 14 constituencies going to polls, BJP and Congress had won six each in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and JD(S) in two. While the BJP is contesting in 13 constituencies and supporting independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in Mandya, Congress and JD(S) have fielded their candidates in 10 and four constituencies, respectively. The remaining 14 constituencies, mostly in the northern districts, will go to polls on April 23. List of 28 agreements/MoUs signed during the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi India among most unequal nations; top 1 pc of population holds 22 pc of national income Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Phase 2: 66% voter turnout, polling peaceful barring stray incidents India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Apr 18: The second phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019 ended on Thursday, with over 66 per cent voters exercising their franchise. While West Bengal recorded the highest voter turnout with 75.27 per cent, Jammu and Kashmir recorded the lowest with 43.37 per cent. The polling was by and large peaceful barring some stray incidents and a clash between the TMC and BJP workers in West Bengal. There were some EVM related issues in Odisha and the state electoral officer recommended re-polling in four booths. In West Bengal's Islampur, CPM MP Mohammad Salim's car was attacked. Salim, who was also injured in the attack, blamed the attack on "Trinamool goons". In Karnataka's Mandya, clashes broken out between supporters of HD Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Gowda and Sumalatha Ambareesh, the widow of actor-politician Ambareesh. Gowda is the JD(S) candidate from Mandya, while Sumalatha is contesting as an Independent. All of Tamil Nadu except Vellore went to polls in the second phase today and 14 out of 28 seats of Karnataka voted on April 18. The voter turnout stood at 61.84 percent in Karnataka till 5 pm. Meanwhile, Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019 has begun across 95 parliamentary constituencies spread across 12 states and one Union Territories (UTs). Follow all the updates from second phase polling here: Newest First Oldest First The turnout was 73.32% at 5 pm in Assam. In West Bengal, the polling percentage was 76.07. In Manipur, the poll percentage was 74.3. In 2014, the polling percentage was 75.16, the Election Commission said. Peaceful polling took place in J&K. In Udhampur, voter turnout was 66.67% . In 2014 it was 71.48. In Srinagar, the turnout was 13.43% at 5 pm and it was 25.07% in 2014, said the election commission. The Election Commission has launched an App called the voter turnout app. All Android users can see the assembly and state wise polling percentage. This app is available on Google Playstore. In Tamil Nadu, the voter turnout was 73.58% in 2014. However, in these elections, the polling percentage was 72%, the election commissioner told the media. In Puducherry, polling was peaceful. There were 9. 7 lakh voters. In 2014, the voter turnout was 82.1% while this year it was 78%, said the election commissioner. Tentatively, 7.8 crore women and 8.45 lakh persons with disabilities voted in the second phase of elections. Some people are still waiting in the line to vote so these figures are tentative, said CEC Sunil Arora. Election Commission: 2nd phase of General Elections concluded today...By today, polling has concluded completely in 14 states and Union Territories. West Bengal 75.27 percent voter turnout recorded till 5 pm. Bihar 58.14 percent voter turnout recorded till 5 pm. Assam 73.32 percent voter turnout recorded till 5 pm. Puducherry 73 percent polling in Puducherry till 5 pm. Odisha 64 percent voter turnout recorded till 5 pm. Manipur 74.3 percent voter turnout recorded till 5 pm. Jammu and Kashmir 43.3 percent voter turnout recorded till 5 pm. Uttar Pradesh 58.6 percent voter turnout recorded till 5 pm. Polling percentage at 60.18 per cent as of 5:00 PM across 95 seats in 12 states, say reports. Assam An estimated 60.38 percent of the 69,10,592 electorate exercised their franchise till 3 p m in five parliamentary constituencies of Assam in the second phase of polling. Karnataka 61.84 percent voter turnout recorded in Karnataka till 5 pm. 14 Lok Sabha seats of Karnataka went to polls today. Tamil Nadu Polling percentage in Tamil Nadu as at 3:00 PM reported at 52.02 percent. "Technical problems arose due to lapses on part of the polling officers, action will be taken against those officers for dereliction of duty," says Surendra Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer, Odisha. Odisha Surendra Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer, Odisha has recommended re-polling in booth 213 in Sundergarh, booth 129 in Bonai, and booths 210 & 222 in Daspalla assembly constituency due to technical problems in EVM machines and VVPATs. Maharashtra The net polling percentage in Maharashtra till 3:00 PM is 46.63 percent. Maharashtra Voter turnouts in 10 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra till 3 pm: Buldhana - 45.94 percent, Akola - 45.63 percent, Amaravati - 45.63 percent, Hingoli - 49.13 percent, Nanded - 50.04 percent, Parbhani - 48.45 percent, Beed - 46.29 percent, Osmanabad - 46.13 percent, Latur - 48.10 percent and Solapur - 41.47 percent. Tamil Nadu 50.86 per cent voter turnout was observed till 3 pm. Following episodes of violence across West Bengal today on polling day, the Bengal BJP has written to the EC demanding deployment of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to cover 100 per cent polling booths. The state unit has cited no-confidence by both the BJP and the common people in the West Bengal State Police as they fail to curb violence. Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh records 59.72% polling till 3 pm and Darjeeling sees 59%. Jammu and Kashmir Voter turnout till 3 PM in Jammu and Kashmir is 38.5 per cent, including 5.7 per cent in Srinagar West Bengal The poll percentage in West Bengal stands at 65.43 per cent at 3 pm. Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha constituency stands at 71.32 per cent, Darjeeling at 63.14 per cent, Raiganj at 61.84 per cent voter turnout. Assam Voter turn out in 5 constituencies of Assam that went to polls today stand as follows at 3 pm. The Autonomous District constituency has seen a 62.70 per cent voter turn out despite a grenade blast yesterday. Across India, overall voter turnout has been recorded at 37.81 percent. Among all the 11 states in fray today, 46.76 percent have voted in Assam; 38.87 percent in Bihar; 29.88 percent in Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka recorded a 21.47 percent. Other states, like Uttar Pradesh recorded 38.48 percent, West Bengal at 51.68 percent and Tamil Nadu at 37.93 percent. As per the original schedule released by the Election Commission on March 10, 97 seats were to vote on Thursday, but the election Tamil Nadu's Vellore has been cancelled and the polling in Tripura was deferred. Some crucial seats in eastern India like Silchar and Karimganj in Assam; Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in West Bengal. Silchar and Karimganj are areas where the Citizenship Ammendment Bill (CAB) is said to have support. Sitting MP from Silchar is Congress's Sushmita Dev and the BJP has made it amply clear that winning is Silchar is one of their top priorities in Assam. In the political crucial Uttar Pradesh, important seats like Mathura, Agra and Aligarh are going to vote along with five other Lok Sabha seats. BJP's MP from Mathura, actor turned politician Hema Malini, is not only battling the anti-incumbency but also constant attack from the opposition for allegedly neglecting the constituency. Security personnel in Gujarat have cast their vote through the postal ballot. Voting for 95 constituencies will begin at 7 am. In the 2014 elections, the BJP had won 27 out of the 95 seats. Six seats went to the NDA partners. The Congress on the other hand won only 12 of these 95 seats, while its UPA partners bagged three seats. This means that 47 of the remaining seats went to the non NDA and non UPA parties. This would be the first election in Tamil Nadu which is being held after the deaths Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi. Voting begins for 95 Lok Sabha seats in second phase of voting The voting in Vellore was rescinded, while in Tripura it was re-scheduled. The Election Commission is yet to announce the fresh dates. P Chidambaram has cast his vote at a polling station in Karaikudi, Shivaganga. Sushilkumar Shinde of the Congress who is taking on Prakash Ambedkar in Solapur has cast his vote. The former union home minister is facing a tough battle, but has said that he is confident of his victory. Actor, Rajinikanth had sent out feelers galore that he would be fighting the elections. It was also said that he would ally with the BJP. However at the last minute, he said he would not contest the elections. Meanwhile the actor has cast his vote a polling station at the Stella Maris College in the Chennai parliamentary seat. The first EVM complaint of the day. The VVPAT is not working correctly at a polling station in Silchar. Polling officials on duty are working on it. In the 2014 elections, it may be recalled that the AIADMK had swept the elections in Tamil Nadu. It had won 37 out of the 39 seats. This year the prospects of the party, without Jayalalithaa look bleak. The Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. People of Tamil Nadu want a change in government both in the state and centre. This is why we are getting so much support says P Chidambaram. Bangalore South candidate Tejasvi Surya has cast his vote. He is up against B K Hariprasad of the Congress. Everyone should come out and vote says Rajinikanth after casting his vote in Chennai. Of the 95 constituencies polling today, the AIADMK holds the maximum of 36 seats, followed by the BJP with 27 seats. The Congress had won 12 of these seats in 2014, the Shiv Sena and the BJD 4 each, the JD-S and the RJD two each and the AIUDF, the NCP, the JD-U, the PDP, the AINRC, the PMK, the CPI-M and the TMC one seat each. Modi urges youngsters to vote in large numbers. In a tweet, Modi said, Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise. I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote. Over 15.80 crore voters will decide the fate of the 1,600-odd contestants. Nalini Chidambaram and her son Karti Chidambaram have cast their vote in Sivaganga. There are some delay at Booth Number 27 in Chennais Eldam Road. Voting was delayed at this booth where Kamal Hassan will cast his vote. Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami cast his vote at a booth in Siluvampalayam village. Interesting fact: A former prime minister, four union ministers are among the 1,600 candidates contesting the elections today. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has cast her vote in the Bangalore South constituency. The battle in this constituency is between Tejasvi Surya of the BJP and B K Hariprasad. More EVM trouble: Polling was delayed in booths are Agra and Mathura owing to EVM glitches. EVMs have to be changed in a few places. Prominent faces in the fray in the Lok Sabha contest are Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan; former prime minister H D Deve Gowda; DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi; Congress leaders Verappa Moily and Raj Babbar; National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and BJP's Hema Malini. Mobile internet services have been suspended in several parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary seats in the state are polling today. Tamil Nadu: Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan queue up outside polling station 27 at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai to cast their votes. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/ufeYNJ3pdM ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019 Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan stood in a queue outside polling station 27 at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai to cast their votes. Voting is also underway in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha and in 18 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. The polling is currently underway in 38 seats in Tamil Nadu, 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat in Manipur and Puducherry. Important leaders whose fate would be decided are Union ministers Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, BJP's Hema Malini, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Congress leaders Verappa Moily, Raj Babbar and Tariq Anwar, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, and DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi. The Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. Read more about Lok Sabha elections here: Lok Sabha Elections 2019: A look at second phase polling Lok Sabha elections 2019: How to search your name in voter list Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Here's BJP's full manifesto Congress releases manifesto for 2019, focus on NYAY, farmers and jobs Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Decoding Congress, BJP manifestos Lok Sabha Elections 2019" title="Lok Sabha elections 2019: Stage set for second phase polling, key battles on the cards Lok Sabha Elections 2019: A look at second phase polling Lok Sabha elections 2019: How to search your name in voter list Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Here's BJP's full manifesto Congress releases manifesto for 2019, focus on NYAY, farmers and jobs Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Decoding Congress, BJP manifestos Lok Sabha Elections 2019" />Lok Sabha elections 2019: Stage set for second phase polling, key battles on the cards Lok Sabha Elections 2019: A look at second phase polling Lok Sabha elections 2019: How to search your name in voter list Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Here's BJP's full manifesto Congress releases manifesto for 2019, focus on NYAY, farmers and jobs Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Decoding Congress, BJP manifestos Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Lok Sabha Elections 2019 updates: Anti-BJP front gains momentum, Naidu meets Sonia Gandhi India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, May 19: Andhra Pradesh Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday met BSP chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow, continuing his efforts to put together a coalition to form the next government at the Centre. He reached Lucknow after meetings in New Delhi with Congress president Rahul Gandhi, CPI leaders G Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and LJD leader Sharad Yadav. The Telugu Desam Party chief has already held several rounds of discussions with various opposition leaders, including TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his two-day visit to Uttarakhand today with a visit to Kedarnath shrine. The prime minister is also expected to offer prayers at Badrinath tomorrow before returning to Delhi in the afternoon. The prime minister's visit to the holy shrine came a day before the last phase of the marathon Lok Sabha elections. Fifty nine parliamentary constituencies, including Varanasi, will go to polls in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections and the results will be announced four days later, on May 23. Stay tuned for the Lok Sabha elections 2019 UPDATES: Malegaon to Samjhauta: How politics of terror derailed these cases India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 18: The BJP after selecting Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur as its candidate from Bhopal said that the decision was taken to punish the Congress for its Hindu terror bogey. It was in the year 2008 that the word Hindu terror cropped post the blasts on the Samjhauta Express, Ajmer, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon. Each one of these cases saw a major flip-flop. In all the cases, investigators first blamed groups such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami and Students Islamic Movement of India. The investigations subsequently turned around and Hindu elements were blamed for all these attacks. The case against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur: What is the latest However almost ten years later, while the trials in these cases are still pending, the narrative has changed once again. For instance in the Samjhauta case the accused including Swami Aseemanand were acquitted. In the Malegaon case, the NIA said that there is no evidence against Thakur. The court however in this case said that she would have to face trial. Take the Samjhauta blasts case for instance. When the probe into the case began, Safdar Nagori of the Students Islamic Movement of India had told investigators that the attack was carried out by the members of his outfit with the help of some elements from Pakistan. Nagori, who was arrested in 2008 told the police that the Mumbai train bombings and the Samjhauta attack were carried out by the same set of people. He said that the primary idea of the Samjauta attack was to derail peace talks between India and Pakistan. It was not just Nagori, but two other operates Kamruddin and Amil Pervez who took the same link. All of them spoke about the link between the attack and the SIMI. At around the same time the United States too pointed out about the role of a Lashkar-e-Tayiba financier Arif Qasmani in the attack. Shah defends Sadhvi Pragya's candidature, says she's answer to Congress's Hindu terror coinage The state department said that the blasts were funded by Qasmani. A further probe into this revealed that the SIMI operatives Ehtesham Siddiqui and Abdus Subhan were in touch with the Lashkar cadres and had planned this blast. The investigations also found that the Lashkar orchestrated this blast at the behest of the ISI to derail peace with India. However the case took a sudden turn after 2009. The Ajmer Dargah, Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and Samjhautha Express blast cases were all blamed on the Hindus. Each of these cases had two chargesheets and two sets of accused. Many had even cried foul stating that the UPA had deliberately changed the focus of these probes. The BJP which was in the opposition at that time blamed the UPA's appeasement policy for this role reversal. All these cases were then handed over to the NIA. At the start of the probe, the NIA secured a confessional statement by Swami Aseemanand. In the statement he confessed to be part of the conspiracy to carry out the attacks including the one on the Samjhauta Express. Meet Pragya Thakur, Malegoan blast accused and now, BJP's pick against Digvijaya Singh However, this statement did not pass legal scrutiny as it was made under duress. Subsequently the man the NIA termed as the prime accused in the case was acquitted in most of them. The case one could say is far from over. Recently a team of the NIA had sought information on Qasmani from the United States. The NIA would continue to probe that angle, especially in the wake of the four persons being acquitted by the special court on March 20. Gen Bipin Rawat, others killed in helicopter crash: IAF's Mi17V5 chopper involved in a few incidents in past No Pak soldier or citizen died in Balakot air strike: Sushma Swaraj India oi-PTI Ahmedabad, Apr 18: No Pakistani soldier or citizen died in the air strike on a terror camp at Balakot in Pakistan in February, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday. Addressing women party workers here, she said Indian military was given a "free hand" in the operation but was clearly told that no Pakistani citizen should be killed and also there be "not be even a scratch" on the Pakistani army. "Our armed forces were told to target only Jaish-e- Mohammed which was behind the Pulwama terror attack and they did just that - destroyed their camp and returned," the senior BJP leader said. The IAF had struck a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror training camp in Pakistan on February 26, in response to the February 14 Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Swaraj said the air strike was carried out in self- defence. Draupadi of Rampur being disrobed: Sushma Swaraj seeks Mulayam's response over Azam Khan's remarks "When we carried out the air strike, we had told the international community that we took the step only in self- defence," she said. She said the entire international community supported India over the air strike. Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Swaraj said he has emerged as a top international leader who sets the agenda for the world. On the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, Swaraj said the then Congress-led UPA government had failed to take along other countries to isolate Pakistan despite the fact that 40 persons belonging to 14 countries were also killed in the strike. Pakistan had objected to the invitation extended to India for a meet of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Abu Dhabi last month, but the host county UAE snubbed Islamabad, she said. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, April 18, 2019, 21:43 [IST] Delimitation will happen, J&K statehood to be restored: Amit Shah in Srinagar India requests Pakistan government to allow Srinagar-Sharjah flight to use its airspace Lok Sabha Elections: No vote cast in 90 booths in Srinagar parliamentary seat India oi-PTI Srinagar, Apr 18: As many as 90 polling booths, mostly in downtown city, saw no voting in Thursday's elections to the Srinagar Parliamentary seat, sources said. The Srinagar constituency comprising eight assembly segments recorded zero turnout in as many as 50 polling booths. The majority of these booths were located in Eidgah, Khanyar, Habba Kadal and Batmaloo, sources said. Barring the Sonawar assembly segment, where former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar cast their votes, all other seven assembly seats recorded a single digit voting percentage with Eidgah at 3.3 per cent by the end of the polling. Sonawar recorded 12 per cent polling. Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Phase 2: 66% voter turnout, polling peaceful barring stray incidents In the neighbouring Ganderbal district, which is a part of the Srinagar parliamentary seat, as many as 27 polling booths recorded no votes at the end of the day. The same was the case with 13 booths of Budgam, which witnessed large scale violence in 2017 by-elections to Lok Sabha. In Budgam area, Chadoora saw the lowest turnout at 9.2 per cent among the five assembly segments, while Chrar-e-Sharief recorded the highest turn out of 31.1 per cent. The National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah, who is the sitting MP from this constituency, is again contesting from this seat for the 17th Lok Sabha. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fielded Aga Syed Mohsin, while Khalid Jahangir from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Peoples Conference's Irfan Ansari are also in the fray. The Congress, which is an ally of NC, has stayed away from contesting Srinagar. PTI Phase 2 of polling will decide on how the opposition shapes up against BJP India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 18: Phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 will be crucial to the plans of the opposition parties. In the 2014 elections, the BJP had won 27 out of the 95 seats. Six seats went to the NDA partners. The Congress on the other hand won only 12 of these 95 seats, while its UPA partners bagged three seats. This means that 47 of the remaining seats went to the non NDA and non UPA parties. Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase Two: Key contests between top candidates In the 2014 elections, it may be recalled that the AIADMK had swept the elections in Tamil Nadu. It had won 37 out of the 39 seats. This year the prospects of the party, without Jayalalithaa look bleak. The party is an alliance with the BJP and opinion polls have suggested that the DMK-Congress combine has its nose ahead in Tamil Nadu. The other important state to poll today is Karnataka, where the BJP has pinned its hopes. This year the battle for the BJP is tougher as it is taking on the combine of the JD(S) and Congress in 14 seats, which is in the southern part of the state. In the 2014 polls, the BJP had won 6 out of the 14 seats. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in five and eight seats respectively. In UP, the BJP had won 8 of these seats in 2014, while in Bihar it failed to win any of the five seats. This time, the BJP is up against the SP-BSP combine in UP. In Bihar the JD(U) which fought against the BJP in 2014 had won all the five seats. This year, the JD(U) has teamed up with the BJP and is contesting all the five seats it had won in 2014. Lok Sabha elections 2019: Stage set for second phase polling, key battles on the cards In Maharashtra, the BJP is up against the Congress and NCP and ten parliamentary constituencies will go to poll today. The NDA had won of the 10 seats in 2014. The voting in Chhattisgarh would be keenly watched. The BJP had won all 3 seats in 2014. However, the party was defeated in the 2018 assembly elections and hence it would be interesting to see if the Congress can continue with its winning streak. We must take agriculture out of chemistry lab and connect it to lab of nature: PM Modi Rahul's candidature in Wayanad sign of appeasement politics: PM Modi India oi-Deepika S Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday lashed out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, saying he is not contesting from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency to send a message to the South, but a message for appeasement politics. Canvassing votes for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates here at a rally on Thursday night, he wanted to know why Gandhi was not contesting from either Thiruvanathapuram or Pathanamthitta constituencies in the state. "Congress naamdhaar says he came to Wayanad to give a message to South India. Could he not give a message from Thiruvananthapuram... the state capital or from Pathanamthitta where he could have given a bigger message. This message is not for south, but a message for appeasement politics," Modi charged. Sardar statue not aimed at disrespecting Nehru says Modi PM Modi accused Rahul Gandhi of pretending to side against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, while secretly befriending the party in Delhi. The PM alleged Rahul Gandhi is doing so only to secure his place in Parliament. "Congress president had to come to Wayanad here to secure his place in Parliament. He says he won't speak a word against CPI(M). Kerala main kushti aur Delhi main dosti, yahi inka khel hai," PM Modi stated. "The faith and affection towards the BJP and me has only increased over time. Today I am here to seek your blessings so that we continue to convert your faith and affection to record development," PM Narendra Modi said. He added, "These elections will determine if India will make rules or just follow them. So there is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of voters of Kerala, especially first-time voters." Gandhi has filed his nomination in Wayanad as a second seat in addition to his traditional constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh with the Congress saying it was a message to the southern states that they are deeply valued and respected. Thiruvananthapuram and Pathnamthitta, where the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple is located, is witnessing a fierce triangular contest between the ruling CPI(M) headed LDF, opposition Congress led UDF and BJP-NDA candidate. Widespread rain, thunderstorms likely over Kerala, Karnataka in next five days Rain fury kills 50 in four states India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Apr 17: Nearly 50 people were killed as rains coupled with thunderstorm and lightning hit several parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra overnight, officials said on Wednesday. The unseasonal rains and storm also caused damage to property and crops in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Rajasthan witnessed the maximum casualties with 21 people killed in rain-related incidents following by Madhya Pradesh where 15 were killed. While 10 people were killed in Gujarat, three were killed in Maharashtra. Strong winds, hailstorm in Bengaluru bring respite from scorching heat Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to twitter in the morning to express anguish over the loss of lives in the rains in Gujarat and announce relief. Soon afterwards Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath hit out at the Prime Minister, accusing him of being concerned only about his home state Gujarat. The PMO in a tweet later said,"PM @narendramodi has expressed grief at loss of lives due to unseasonal rains and storms in MP, Rajasthan, Manipur & various parts of the country". "An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to unseasonal rain & storms in MP, Rajasthan, Manipur & various parts of the country has been approved from the PM's National Relief Fund. Rs 50,000 each for the injured has also been approved," the PMO said. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the government is closely monitoring the situation in rain-hit areas and is ready to provide all possible help to states affected by rains and thunderstorm. In Jaipur, Rajasthan Relief Secretary Ashutosh A T Pednekar said 21 people died due to unseasonal rains. "4 deaths were reported in Jhalawar, Udaipur and Jaipur each, two each in Jalore and Bundi and one each in Baran, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Alwar and Hanumangarh, he said. Compensation of Rs. 4 lakh each has been announced to the families of victims. Another official said crops have suffered damage and the assessment is being done. Several cattle were also killed in rain-related incidents. Condoling the deaths, Chief minister Ashok Gehlot said in a tweet, "Deeply pained by loss of lives due to unseasonal rains and storms in various parts of the country including Rajasthan. My thoughts and prayers are with bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of those injured". Of the total 21 deaths, 7 are in Kota division.Heavy dust storm accompanied by moderate to heavy rains, thundershowers also lashed parts of Hadouti region (Kota division) on Tuesday causing damage to crops. Survey of crop damage is underway. Weather forecast for Bengaluru: Pre-Monsoon rains to continue for the next 3 days BJP candidate from the constituency Om Birla demanded the state government declare compensation to farmers for crop damage. Birla also blamed the state government for not issuing alert and taking measures to prevent the crop damage. The department has predicted dust storm/thunderstorm accompanied with high velocity winds and lightning at a few places during the next 24 hours. Officials in Bhopal said unseasonal rain accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning hit various parts of Madhya Pradesh, leaving 15 people dead and injuring some others. Rains claimed three lives each in Indore, Dhar and Shajapur, two in Ratlam and one each in Alirajpur, Rajgarh, Sehore and Chhindwara districts. Nath expressed grief over the deaths and charged that Modi's concerns were limited to his home state Gujarat. "Modiji, you are the PM of the country and not of Gujarat. In MP also, more than 10 persons were killed because of unseasonal rains, storm and lightning. But you have confined your feelings to Gujarat only. Though your party has no government here people live here also," Nath said in a tweet. The BJP hit back, accusing Nath of doing politics over the loss caused by rains and storm. BJP media head and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni said in Delhi that Nath is well aware of the procedure that the state government has to first inform the Centre about the damage in such a natural tragedy to get relief but instead of doing so, he was tweeting and doing politics. "Instead of informing the Centre, he chose to do politics over the tragedy," Baluni charged. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat government's director of relief G B Manglpara, told PTI that at least 10 people have died in the rain and dust storm reported from various areas including districts in North Gujarat and Saurashtra region. Also, a portion of a tent erected for Prime Minister Modi's rally in Himmatnagar town of North Gujarat was also damaged in the dust storm, an official earlier said. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced an aid of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased in the western state. "While the PM has already announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh, the Gujarat government will also give Rs 2 lakh to kin of those who lost their lives," Rupani told reporters in Dahod. "We will also conduct a survey to assess the damage to crops and pay accordingly to affected persons," he added. Apart from rain, the storm also resulted in hailstorm in some parts of Rajkot district of Saurashtra and Banaskantha district of north Gujarat. In Mehsana, farm produce kept in the open in the agriculture produce market committee premises got damaged, an official said. Besides, officials in Banaskantha said the watermelon crop, mainly grown in and around Deesa, got damaged due to hailstorm and thunderstorm. In Maharashtra, a 71-year-old woman, a 32-year-old man and a temple priest died when lightning struck them in Nashik district during rains on Tuesday, police said. No one will be able to destroy Congress, leaders joining TMC 'drama', says Venugopal Row over Bangladeshi actors campaigning: Ghazi Noor's visa had expired India oi-Vikas SV Kolkata, Apr 18: Days after a row erupted over the Bangladeshi actors campaigning for TMC ahead of elections, what has now emerged is that actor Ghazi Abdul Noor, who had come under the EC scanner after the BJP lodged a complaint, had an expired visa. Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) instructed the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Kolkata under the Bureau of Immigration to look into Noor's visa status. The MHA swung into action after the BJP lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against him for allegedly campaigning for the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The BJP's complaint was then forwarded by the office of CEO West Bengal to the EC in New Delhi. BJP worker found dead in West Bengal's Purulia, party alleges Trinamool hand Noor was seen taking part in a road show led by TMC leader Madan Mitra in the Kamarhati area which is part of the Dum Dum constituency from where TMC MP Saugata Roy is contesting for the second time. The BJP had earlier approached the Election Commission over the TMC using Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed to campaign for upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Ferdous Ahmed too had taken part in campaigning for TMC's Raiganj candidate Kanhaiyalal Agarwal. Ahmed was blacklisted by India, which means he will be unable to get a visa for India in the future. BJP alleged that it is a violation of the model code of conduct as the TMC is trying to woo the minorities. BJP Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh had asked if the TMC couldn't find anyone from India worthy enough to campaign. Taking a bitter jibe, Ghosh had said that the day is not far when Banerjee would invite Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to campaign. In Rohtak, PM warns voters, asks them to take note of Sam Pitroda's 'Hua So Hua' remark Something wrong with EVMs, need to study them: Sam Pitroda India pti-PTI New Delhi, Apr 18: Technocrat-turned-politician Sam Pitroda said Thursday that he feels there is something wrong with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). He can not pinpoint the flaw immediately and would need to study the machine for that, the Congress leader said. "As an engineer, as a technical expert, I am not satisfied with EVM," Pitroda said at a press conference here. "But I have not been able to pinpoint it because I do not have an EVM. If someone gives me an EVM to study for a year, then I can say something," he said. "You will have to understand the design, the software .... But one thing is for sure, there is something wrong with it. We do not know what is wrong with it," said Pitroda, who had served as adviser to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Opposition parties recently demanded counting of at least 50 per cent of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips during the Lok Sabha elections, claiming that EVM's reliability was doubtful. On the feasibility of the Nyay scheme announced by the Congress in its manifesto, he said it was framed after consulting experts from across the world, and makes economic sense. "Time has come for our country to think about 50 million poorest families. It is our moral responsibility to uplift them," he said, adding that for a three trillion dollars economy, funding the scheme will not be difficult as the country's economy was growing at 8 per cent annually. "The money will go into economy, will create jobs in rural areas," he said, adding that it will help the economy just as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) did.On Prime Minister Narendra Modi's allegation that the Congress neglected and did injustice to Gujarat, Pitroda said nobody could humiliate the state. "Many chief ministers came and went, but Gujarat has always done well because Gujaratis do well. And they do well not just in Gujarat but also in London, America... They do well everywhere. Nobody can humiliate Gujarat," he said. On Modi's barb that the Congress was "speaking the language of Pakistan" over surgical and air strikes carried out by the Indian forces inside Pakistan, Pitroda said, "Whatever you say, the prime minister and (BJP president) Amit Shah tag you as anti-national. "(That) The Congress party at the right time cut Pakistan into two pieces (in 1971) should tell you enough," he added. SSC CGL Tier-III results 2019 on July 9: Read full notice on cut off marks here SSC 2017 paper leak: CBI readies report, to file it on April 23 India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Apr 18: The Central Bureau of Investigation is all set to submit a fresh report on the SSC 2017 paper leak. The action is being carried out following a directive of the Supreme Court which had directed the CBI to file a fresh status report on investigation into the 2017 Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exam paper leak. CBI sources tell OneIndia that the report would be ready soon and it would be filed in the Supreme Court on April 23. Hearing on the matter would take place on April 24. The SSC is a government body which conducts examinations to recruit staff at multiple levels in various ministries and departments. The court is hearing a plea which has sought probe into alleged paper leak of 2017 SSC Combined Graduate Level (CGL) exam and scrapping of the paper which was purportedly leaked. During the brief hearing on Tuesday, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, told the bench that the court had last time asked CBI to apprise it on the status of probe in the case. To this, the CBI's counsel said they had earlier filed status report in the matter thrice. SSC 2017 paper leak: SC wants status report on probe The bench, however, asked CBI to file a fresh status report and said that its copy be given to the counsel representing the petitioner. The court on April 1 had allowed SSC to declare result of a re-examination of 2017 SSC CGL held last year. It had also set up a high powered committee comprising Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder of tech giant Infosys, and renowned computer scientist Vijay P Bhatkar to suggest reforms for conducting of competitive examinations fairly by the government bodies. The examination papers of the SSC CGL 2017 were allegedly leaked, leading to huge protests from job seekers for several days. Amid the protests, the SSC had recommended a CBI probe into the allegations of paper leak. On August 31 last year, the court had stayed the declaration of result of SSC CGL and combined higher secondary level examination, in which lakhs of students had appeared, saying it seemed that the entire test and system was "tainted". The apex court had then favoured cancelling the 2017 SSC examination, and holding it afresh by National Testing Agency or the CBSE "in the interest of students". However, the Centre had said there was no need for re-examination of entire paper as the leak was "extremely localised" and those behind the leaks were identified and action was taken. Several lakh students appear in SSC examination each year and enter government services in Group C and D Categories of jobs once they qualify. The SSC Combined Graduate Level exam has a four-tier system, in which tier I and tier II are computer-based, while in tier III and IV, job applicants take up a descriptive paper and a computer proficiency test or skill test. Hooch liquor tragedy: death toll reaches 33 in Bihar; Nitish calls for fresh campaign against liquor At least 6 members of Sushant Singh Rajputs family killed in road accident in Bihar Bihar panchayat election result: A man contests and wins the poll after death, result to be nullified Voting percentage in Bihar is 58.14 India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Patna, Apr 18: An estimated 58.14 per cent of over 86 lakh electorate exercised their franchise in the five parliamentary constituencies of Bihar, an election official said. The voting process, which began at 7 am, has largely been peaceful, he said. Altogether 68 candidates are in the fray from the five seats - Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnea, Banka and Bhagalpur - in the second phase of the elections. There were reports of EVM glitches and poll boycott from several booths, but the polling personnel have addressed the issues, the official said. People seeking road connectivity and other basic amenities were seen protesting outside some of the booths, leading to the delay in the poll process, he said. Phase 2 of polling will decide on how the opposition shapes up against BJP Banka recorded the highest turnout till 1 pm at 49.3 per cent followed by Kishanganj at 48 per cent, and Purnea and Katihar at 46 per cent. Bhagalpur recorded the lowest turnout at 40 per cent. In all, 86.01 lakh voters will be exercising their franchise at 8,664 booths to decide the fate of 68 candidates. Prominent among those who cast their votes early in the day are Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and state ministers Ram Narayan and Krishna Kumar Rishi and Congress legislature party leader Sadanand Singh. UP govt beat those seeking employment with sticks, remember this when BJP seeks votes: Rahul Gandhi Section 144 CrPC invoked in Lucknow in view of Christmas, New Year Voting percentage in UP is 58.12 India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Lucknow, Apr 18: Nearly 58.12 per cent of voters exercised their franchise Thursday in the polling for the eight Lok Sabha of Uttar Pradesh in the second phase of elections. According to the Election Commission, the polling percentage till 1.00 PM was 38.71 in Nagina, 43.26 in Amroha, 39.70 in Bulandshahr, 37.60 in Aligarh, 41.18 in Hathras, 36.90 in Mathura, 38.24 in Agra and 35.96 in Fatehpur Sikri. In Gujjupura village, under Nagina parliamentary constituency, residents were upset over absence of a polling booth in their village and boycotted voting in the initial hours of polling Thursday. However, voters later went on to cast their vote following the intervention by the Bijnor district administration authorities. "In Gujjupura, the number of voters is less than 300, and hence under the instructions of the Election Commission, it was merged with the next polling booth located less than two kilometres from the village," Bijnor District Magistrate Sujeet Kumar told PTI. Phase 2 of polling will decide on how the opposition shapes up against BJP "As per standards set up by the Election Commission, if a polling booth is located within two kilometres from a village, and after adding the smaller-size booth (less than 300 voters) to the bigger size, if the number of voters do not exceed 1,400; then they can be merged. This was done in this case," he said. Kumar said the number of voters in the village where residents were demanding a polling booth was in the range of 150-200, which is a small-size booth. The DM said after the sub-divisional magistrate persuaded people to vote, some of them exercised their franchise, and the rest will vote subsequently. Meanwhile, a BJP MLA from Amroha district alleged that burqa-clad women were indulging in fake voting. The the district administration, however, denied the charge. The eight Lok Sabha seats figuring in this phase were bagged by the BJP in 2014. This time it faces a tough fight from the SP-BSP-RLD alliance. In this phase, the BSP has fielded candidates on six of the eight constituencies. The SP and RLD are contesting Hathras and Mathura, respectively, as part of the alliance. The Election Commission has set up 16,162 polling booths in 8,751 polling centres for this phase in the state. There are 85 candidates in the fray for the eight seats, with 15 of them, the highest, in Fatehpuri Sikri. West Bengal voting percentage is 75.27 India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Kolkata, Apr 18: Around 75.27 per cent votes were cast in the three Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal, where polling was held in the second phase Thursday marred by incidents of violence in some areas, officials said. Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, however, described the voting as "more or less peaceful" with a few isolated incidents reported from places in the three constituencies. "Small incidents will always occur but there is no big incident," he told reporters. A reporter and a camera person of a local news channel were allegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in the Raiganj constituency. Voters of Chopra under the same constituency reportedly put up a road blockade in protest against the absence of central forces at the polling stations, the official said. BJP worker found dead in West Bengal's Purulia, party alleges Trinamool hand Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control a mob, who throw stones at them. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra, a senior EC official in the district said. At least three persons were detained by police in this connection, he said. "Our officials are there with state police officers to control the situation. We are talking to the voters to urge them to cast their ballots without any fear. We have assured them of total protection," the official said. "We are scared for our lives ... We have no confidence in the state police and want immediate deployment of central forces here," a voter of Hemtabad (SC) assembly segment under the Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency, said. Meanwhile, CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj, Md Salim claimed that his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur. "I got to know of rigging inside the booth. After I reached the polling station, some people attacked my car. Though I am unhurt, the vehicle has been damaged. I believe the ruling TMC is behind the incident," Salim alleged. The EC removed presiding officer of a booth at Kalimpong govt junior school where Jan Andolan Party (JAP) President Harka Bahadur Chettri was seen casting his vote while talking over his mobile phone. "I had no knowledge that mobile phones were not allowed inside and nobody even told me about it. That's why I entered the booth while talking over the phone. Had I known I would have deposited the phone to the security officers before entering," Chettri said. The EC has deployed 194 companies of central forces to cover 80 per cent of the over 5,000 booths in the three Lok Sabha seats. The Commission has also appointed former Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ajay V Nayak as special observer for West Bengal, while retired IPS officer Vivek Dubey has been sent to the state as special police observer. He is looking into the developements since morning. Cong accuses Mamata Banerjee of 'political opportunism' after her 'no UPA' jibe; Prashant Kishor says Cong leadership not divine right of individual You threatened Mamata Banerjee, now show guts and face trial: SC to BJP youth leader India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 18: If you can put a bounty on the Chief Minister's head, then have the guts to face trial, the Supreme Court told a BJP youth wing leader. The strong observations were made by the court while hearing a plea by Yogesh Varshney, who had allegedly put a bounty on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Varshney had sought a stay on the prosecution, following which a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi made the observations. The Bench also refused to entertain his plea to transfer all FIRs to one court. If you have the guts to threaten someone, then have the guts to face charges too, the Bench comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said. Phase 2 of polling will decide on how the opposition shapes up against BJP You threaten a constitutional authority, put a bounty on her head and then want us to help you, the court said. The Bench also told the lawyer not to further argue the matter, if he did not wish the court to issue more adverse remarks. In April 2017, Varshney while hitting out at police action during a rally held to mark Hanuman Jayanti had put out a bounty of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who brought the head of Mamata Banerjee. Stuck at Attari border for 70 days, Pakistani couple name their newborn 'Border' Is China the reason why Pakistan opted to skip Summit for Democracy hosted by Biden? Pakistan: Cops find woman in deep sleep next to body parts of 70 year old man Pakistan: Gunmen kill 14 in Balochistan after checking identity cards International oi-Vikas SV Islamabad, Apr 18: An attack on a passenger bus in Pakistan's Balochistan province has reportedly left at least 14 people dead. The attack is said to have taken place on Makran Coastal Highway in Balochistan's Ormara area. It was an incident of "targeted killing", reported DAWN quoting officials. Reconsider travel plans to Pakistan: US asks its citizens Gunmen reportedly stopped a few buses, checked the identity cards of passengers, and offloaded about 16 people. At least 14 were shot dead, while two passengers managed to escape the massacre, DAWN reported. A naval official and a coast guard member were among those killed, an AFP report said. Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal condemned the incident and offered his condolences to the victims' families. Prime Minster Imran Khan also condemned the killings in a statement from his office. A probe has been launched to investigate the incident. The motive behind the killings and the identity of the victims are yet to be ascertained. RTHK: Trump declares victory on Mueller report D-Day President Donald Trump, backed by his attorney general, declared himself fully vindicated on Thursday in the investigation into Russian election meddling and alleged collusion with his campaign - before the long-awaited full probe report was made public. "Game Over," Trump tweeted, using a "Game of Thrones" style montage that pictured him standing in dramatic fog. Just about an hour later, the Justice Department released the full - though redacted - report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which nevertheless raised questions about Trump's actions, saying investigators were "unable" to clear him of obstruction. Weeks ago, Attorney General Bill Barr said in a summary of the report that there was no collusion between Trump and Russians seeking to influence the 2016 presidential election in his favour. In a nationally broadcast news conference held right before the report's release, Barr repeatedly drove that point home. "We now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign," Barr told reporters, in a statement that effectively sought to spin the report before it was released. "The special counsel found no collusion by any Americans," Barr said. "That is the bottom line." The extreme secrecy surrounding Mueller's nearly two-year investigation ended abruptly at about 11:00 am (1500 GMT) when the 400-odd pages of the report were made public to Congress, the media and the public. The report's publication marks a new peak in a political storm raging over Washington throughout the first half of Trump's first term in office. While leftist opponents long hoped that Mueller would either charge Trump with crimes or provide evidence for impeachment, the outcome so far has favoured the divisive, right-wing Republican president. "NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION," a triumphant Trump wrote in his "Game of Thrones" pastiche tweet. Later, he said at the start of a speech: "I'm having a good day." Barr emphatically sought to clear Trump of allegations that his actions - including his public attacks on Mueller and firing of then FBI chief James Comey - were not legally actionable. The Trump-appointed attorney general had already asserted this in his summary of Mueller's report a month ago, despite noting that Mueller himself had been unable to rule clearly on the issue. At his news conference, Barr said he was standing by his own ruling, noting that Trump had no intention to obstruct and had merely been "frustrated and angered." "The White House fully cooperated with the special counsel's investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims," he said. "And at the same time, the president took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation." But the report said: "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment." Publication of the report - minus parts blacked out for legal or security reasons - will in theory give everyone a chance to get the full picture on a scandal that has been tangled in conspiracy theories. But given the volcanic political temperature in Washington and the left-right chasm through the rest of the country ahead of Trump's 2020 re-election bid, the debate over what really happened is likely to rage on. At a minimum, the details - based on exhaustive interviews by Mueller's prosecutors with Trump insiders - could paint an unflattering picture of the president and his links to Russia, including a previously undeclared real estate project in Moscow. The deeper analysis of whether he committed obstruction of justice could also provide headaches for the White House. Trump himself is supremely confident that his opponents have failed in what he claims was high-level "treason" to destroy his presidency. "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats," the president said before Barr took the podium, reprising many of his favorite slogans about his opponents. Claiming that Barr has been working to hamper and whitewash the Russia report, Democrats will push for still more details and testimony in the near future - including from Mueller himself. "It is clear Congress and the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler tweeted. Nadler set a deadline of May 23 for Mueller to come to Capitol Hill. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: The investment industry should substantially step up its game when it comes to stewardship, according to a new research paper by Willis Towers Watson. The paper looks at six large asset managers who collectively manage assets in excess of US $17 trillion: BlackRock, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), Northern Trust Asset Management, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), UBS Asset Management (UBS) and Vanguard. The paper looked at these six firms because of their size and the dominance of index tracking firms as significant shareholders within companies. According to the consultant, all of the managers acknowledge their stewardship responsibility and are taking positive actions. For example, BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink is known for communicating 'from the top' through his public annual letters to company CEOs. Meanwhile, SSGA has helped to raise awareness around gender diversity on boards through its Fearless Girl campaign. However, more can be done. Willis Towers Watson says that stewardship still counts for only a small fraction of asset management activities and resourcing is uneven. Stewardship programs often lack specificity or come with specific goals. Creating measurable milestones to be completed with a sense of urgency would improve the investor stewardship picture. The paper also calls out voting. Voting rights are sometimes underutilized and at times there appears to be reticence about voting differen...................... To view our full article Click here Explore Global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators Market forecast 2019 2025 https://www.qyresearch.com/sample-form/form/1102683/global-freezer-on-bottom-refrigerators-market The report is a fine example of comprehensive and accurate research study on the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market. It digs deep into critical aspects of the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market, including market dynamics, competition, regional advancement, and segmentation. It provides verified market figures such as CAGR, market share, revenue, volume, production, consumption, gross margin, and price. The global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market is segmented by type, application, and geography. The report is compiled with the use of latest primary and secondary research methodologies and tools. Buyers can ask for customization of the report as per their needs. You can also purchase specific sections of the report if your requirement is not for the complete research study.Readers are provided with important types of analysis, including manufacturing cost analysis, analysis of marketing channels, distributors, and customers, market forecast, and company profiling. All of the players studied in the report are analyzed on the basis of different factors such as markets served, main business, gross margin, price, production, revenue, product specification and application, areas served, and production sites. Each segment of the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market is assessed in terms of growth rate, value, volume, consumption, and various other factors. The report comes out as a complete set of guidelines for market players to secure a position of strength in the Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators industry. It offers both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market.Competitive AnalysisThe report sheds light on key trends of the competitive landscape and explores go-to-market strategies adopted by leading companies operating in the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market. The authors of the report have examined the competitiveness of some of the prominent names of the Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators industry. As part of their extensive research, the authors have analyzed almost all business tactics of market leaders, which include contracts, affiliations, mergers and acquisitions, increasing market presence, and geographical expansion. Readers can become aware of the specifications of products and services offered by top players of the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market. In addition, they will be able to study about their competitors and global market presence.Major PlayersElectroluxGEHaierLGSamsungWhirlpoolSub-ZeroToshibaV-ZugArcelikBSH Hausgerate GmbHGorenjeLECMielePanasonicSegmentation by TypeTwo-doorFrench-doorMulti-doorSegmentation by ApplicationCommercial UseResidential UseSegmentation by RegionNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRequest a sample of the report atWhat to expect?Market size estimates with bottom-up and top-down approachesResearch assumptionsData triangulation methodologyHolistic overview of the marketSpecial insights and recommendations from QYRIndustry gross marginMicroeconomic and macroeconomic indicatorsMarket determinantsKey InclusionsRegulation and policy changesAnalysis of product cost structurePESTLE analysisProduct comparisonTechnology comparisonKey developments and trendsDrivers, restraints, and opportunitiesMarket ForecastStrategic adviceSnapshot of the vendor landscapeMarket size forecastForecast factors and assumptionsResearch MethodologyOur high-value analysis of the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market is a result of an intelligent blend of primary and secondary research. The analysts consulted and gathered information from subject matter experts, key opinion leaders such as purchase managers, VPs, CSOs, and CEOs, distributors and suppliers, and research and development participants. In order to validate data derived from secondary research, they conducted primary interviews. For further validation of current and future market growth trends and penetration and several other studies, they contacted major distributors and manufacturers and industry experts.Market participants were approached through face-to-face discussions, video conferences, emails, and telephonic conversations. For secondary research, we used paid data sources such as Hoovers, OneSource, Bloomberg, Factiva, and Reuters.Highlights of TOCOverview: The report starts with an overview and scope of the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market and products offered therein. This section also includes a glimpse of market segmentation and market size forecast.Competition: It includes production share, revenue share, and average price analysis of key players profiled in the report. Besides these factors, it brings to light competitive situations and trends including expansion, merger and acquisition, market shares of top three and five players, and market concentration rate.Regional Analysis: Each region studied here is assessed on the basis of gross margin, production growth rate, price, production, revenue, and other factors that define its market position.Production, Revenue, and Price Trend by TypeMarket Analysis by ApplicationCompany ProfilesMarket Dynamics: Here, the authors have focused on market trends, opportunities, drivers, challenges, and influence factors.Market ForecastResearch Findings and ConclusionMethodology and Data SourceQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. the company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience). Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team).The report is a fine example of comprehensive and accurate research study on the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market. It digs deep into critical aspects of the global Freezer-on-bottom Refrigerators market, including market dynamics, competition, regional advancement, and segmentation. Europe Biogas Market Application Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2019 2025 Key player includes Scandinavian Biogas Fuels International, Agrinz Technologies, Viessmann Group https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2070 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2070 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/europe-biogas-market https://www.gminsights.com https://gminsights.wordpress.com http://allnewsmyway.com The shifting trends toward the anaerobic digestion of organic wastes and generation of energy from biogas are all set to impel biogas market in Europe. Having garnered a reputation of making substantial contributions toward the maintenance of green environment & energy conservation, biogas has found immense penetration across the food & beverages, waste-to-energy, power, and technology industries. Regional governments in Europe are encouraging the use of biogas across the region by providing tax benefits, feed-in-tariffs, and rebates to the end-users. Earlier this year, Germany has announced its goal of lowering carbon emissions by 40% till 2020 and by 95% up to 2050.Get a Sample Copy of this Report @It has been projected that renewable energy would account for 60% of the countrys overall energy consumption by 2050, thereby creating a favorable growth path for the country in Europe biogas market. Biogas power stations have also accounted for a major portion of Germanys bio energy industry. The region possessed nearly 8900 of biogas power stations in 2015, which is another positive indicator that Europe biogas market would accrue lucrative gains in the ensuing years.Firms such as Geotech and Ansyco have firmly established their presence across Europe biogas market through the launch of novel gas analysis technologies. Recently, in a bid to expand their product portfolios, both the firms have collaborated to develop an innovative system referred as BIOGAS 3000 capable of effectively & constantly monitoring and analyzing of biogas production processes. In an important breakthrough witnessed across the biogas industry in Europe, DuPont and Bock UK Limited have also made a strategic pact that will help the latter depict DuPonts new biogas enzyme technology referred as OPTIMASH AD-100 for its commercial sale across the U.K, which would certainly augment Europe biogas market.Biogas is inherently deployed across the residential, industrial, and commercial arenas. The mounting demand for power supply, environmental awareness, and the rising preference for renewable energy sources have resulted in commendable demand & large-scale deployment of biogas manufacturing plants in Europe. As per estimates, biogas applications across the industrial sector in Europe will surpass an annual installation of 600 MW by 2024. The escalating requirement for low-power & cost-efficient technologies for treating biodegradable wastes is slated to impel Europe biogas market from commercial applications.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @With the rising trend of using sustainable energy across the continent, Europe biogas industry is expected to have bright growth prospects in the ensuing years. Effective government measures such as providing tax concessions and rewards for the biogas applications are expected to impel the growth of this business sphere in Austria, which would considerably augment the revenue graph of Europe biogas market as well. Germany, on the other hand, is expected to surpass 300 MW by 2024, subject to the rising need for curbing carbon emissions and maintaining a green environment. The numerous efforts undertaken by member countries are certain to stimulate the growth of Europe biogas industry.Rising economies of scale are expected to encourage companies to make heavy investments across Europe biogas industry. With the continent touted to be the hub for renewable energy in the future, it comes as no surprise to note that Europe biogas market has been forecast to surpass a revenue of USD 2 billion by 2024.Browse Full Report @The research process begins with extensive data mining, using authentic sources such as trade magazines, technical publications, independent studies along with paid avenues such as ICIS, Hoovers, etc. Primary objectives of data mining include: Definition and scope of research Market dynamics, growth drivers and industry pitfalls Regulatory and political guidelines for the industry Demographics and statistical dataAbout Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary researchContact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:Explore Our Blog @ Cable Tracer Market 2019 | Worldwide Forecast 2025 | Major Players - Extech Instruments(US), Australian Tel-Tec(Australia), Chauvin Arnoux(France), BEHA-Amprobe(Germany) Cable Tracer Market 2019 | Worldwide Forecast 2025 | Major Players - Extech Instruments(US), Australian Tel-Tec(Australia), Chauvi https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/105408 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/105408 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/105408 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/request_for_discount/105408 www.upmarketresearch.com Cable Tracer Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.Get Exclusive Sample Copy Of this Report @UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Cable Tracer Market Analysis and Forecast 2019 - 2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 113 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Cable Tracer Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2019 2025.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.For More Information On This Report, Please VisitThe generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Cable Tracer Market analysis & forecast 2019 - 2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region- wise Analysis covers:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Major players reported in the market include:Extech Instruments(US)Fluke(US)Australian Tel-Tec(Australia)Chauvin Arnoux(France)Harbor Freight Tools(US)Martindale Electric(US)BEHA-Amprobe(Germany)SA MADE(France)RS Components(UK)Klein Tools(US)Amprobe(US)Allied Electronics,Inc.(US)RS Components(UK)Burger & Brown Engineering,Inc.(US)Product Segment Analysis:Multifunction Cable TesterWire Tracker Network Cable TesterUnderground Wire TracersWire Tracer and Tone GeneratorApplication Segment Analysis:General PurposeGrounding ApplicationsOthersMajor Topics Covered in this Report:Chapter 1 Study CoverageChapter 2 Executive SummaryChapter 3 Market Size by ManufacturersChapter 4 Production by RegionsChapter 5 Consumption by RegionsChapter 6 Market Size by TypeChapter 7 Market Size by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturers ProfilesChapter 9 Production ForecastsChapter 10 Consumption ForecastChapter 11 Upstream, Industry Chain and Downstream Customers AnalysisChapter 12 Opportunities & Challenges, Threat and Affecting FactorsChapter 13 Key FindingsChapter 14 AppendixGet Exclusive Sample Copy Of this Report @Cable Tracer Market Analysis and Forecast 2019 - 2025 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Global Cable Tracer Market: Key Stakeholders:ManufacturersDistributors/Traders/WholesalersSubcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size are as follows:History Year: 2013-2018Base Year: 2018Estimated Year: 2019Forecast Year 2019 to 2025Key Reasons to Purchase:To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Cable Tracer Market Analysis and Forecast 2019 - 2025 and its commercial landscape.Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations.To understand the future outlook and prospects for Cable Tracer Market analysis and forecast 2019 - 2025.Avail Discount On this Report @Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.You can also ask for region wise Cable Tracer Market research report, as below:Global Market Status & Trend Report 2013 - 2025 Top 20 Countries DataNorth America Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025South America Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025China Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025India Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025United States Market Status and Trend Report 2013 2025About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States. Biobank Market 2026 : How it is Going to Impact on Global Industry to Grow in Near Future Appraised By Global Players Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., BioLife Solutions, Inc., Beckman Coulter, Inc. Global Biobank Market https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/896 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-discount/896 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/biobank-market-896 Biobank is a type of repository which collects and store biological samples for biomedical research. The human biological materials include blood, purified DNA, saliva, serum, and other specimens. Preservation of cells and tissues samples is done by cryopreservation at -1960C or using chemicals. The biobanks keep a health related records of genetic information, lifestyle, and family history. Biobank help researchers to detect human diseases and their unspecified causes by conducting various tests on the samples. Biobanks are largely used to access variety of data representing a large number of people for providing personalized medications, minimizing drug reactions, stem cell research, updating age demographic databases. The bio-repositories play a fundamental role in research and development, which is associated with drug development and discovery. Biobanks also provide inevitable assistance in gaining prospective to orphan diseases associated with genome wide studies via single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP).Get Exclusive Sample Report at:Automation Of Storage Processes Is The Latest Trend Adopted By The Key PlayersKey players operating the global biobank market includes Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., BioLife Solutions, Inc., Beckman Coulter, Inc., Panasonic Biomedical Sales and Tecan AG. New product launches, increasing collaborations, mergers and acquisitions and partnerships among the market players are some of the strategies observed in global biobanks market. Biomatrica, IntegenX, radiofrequency identification, and micro electromechanical systems are the innovative reagents and products launched for the storage and stabilization of DNA and RNA at room temperature. The other companies operating in the global biobank market are BioCision, Taylor-Wharton International, VWR International and So-Low Environmental Equipment Co. among others.Establishment Of Drug Efficacy Contributes To The Dominance Of Target Tissue SegmentThe global biobank market is segmented on the basis of bio preservation media types, products, analysis, applications, end user and geography.On the basis of bio preservation media types, the global biobank market is segmented into:Optimized Pre-Formulated MediaNon-Optimized Isotonic Formulation MediaOn the basis of products, the global biobank market is segmented into:ConsumablesEquipmentRefrigerators and Ice MachinesLiquid Nitrogen Supply TanksCryogenic Storage SystemsOn the basis of analysis, the global biobank market is segmented into:Human tissue and tumor cellsBio-fluidsStem cellsUmbilical cordDNA/RNAOn the basis of application, the global biobank market is segmented into:BiobankingRegenerative MedicineDrug DiscoveryOn the basis of end-user, the global biobank market is segmented into:Diagnostic Clinical CentersResearch OrganizationsOthersAsk For Discount Before Purchasing This Business Report @Development Of Personalized Medicine To Develop Effective Therapies Drives The Global Biobank MarketPoor productivity rate of the pharmaceutical industry with 90% failure of proposed drugs during clinical trials, the adherence of human tissue samples, and stem cells to execute pre-clinical trials for reducing high cost associated drug failures are the factors expected to drive the growth of biobank market. Additionally, novelty in cell and tissue disorder treatments, drug discovery, rising incidence of chronic diseases and government initiatives for innovation of regenerative medicines are the key factors driving the global biobank market. The extensive development of personalized treatments by research organizations to develop effective therapies to satisfy medical needs using biological samples is expected to fuel the demand for biobank market during the forecast period. For instance, Illumina signed 4 biobank deals in 2016, with Partners HealthCare, Montreal Heart Institute, University of Colorado and Vanderbilt University with an objective to improve healthcare and develop personalized medicines. However, cost competitive techniques, tissue injury during freezing, reimbursement concerns, lack of standardization, confidentiality and surveillance issues, economic downturn, and ethical issues are the major factors restraining the growth for global biobank market.Increasing funds from National Institute of Health, USA is expected to dominate North America in the global biobank marketRegional segmentation of the global biobank market by Coherent Market Insights comprises North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. According to the research conducted by BioMed Central, United States, stored 270 million specimens in biobanks in 2008, with the rate of new samples collected being 20 million every year. North America is expected to dominate the global biobank market with the increasing funds from healthcare organizations like National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute, which facilitate biobanks across the U.S. Additionally, the rising interest in biotechology has facilitated collaborations of biobanks which is expected to augment the global biobank market in the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is expected to have an opportunistic biobank market owing to the rise in diseases, government initiative to finance the cell-based therapies, substantial investment by pharmaceutical, high number of biotechnology companies, and public awareness.Browse Research Report At:About Coherent Market InsightsCoherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact UsMr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com ABM Market Top Players Analysis | AdDaptive Intelligence, Act-On Software, 6Sense, InsideView, and Demandbase https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=4056 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=4056 The drive for account-based marketing stems from the need for account-level personalization to enable personalized interactions with customers and buyers in modern marketing approach that seeks to integrate sales and advertising. Over the years, account-based approaches have gained traction among sales teams. Account-based marketing (ABM) as an industry has seen rapid evolution over the past few years, witnessed in their rising demand among B2B marketers. The adoption of inbound methodology has made the market more customer-centric. There is a growing shift of companies toward highly targeted accounts, particularly those who want to increase their footprints among high-value customers. The growing pressure among marketing teams to drive revenue growth in the light of growing buying circles is a key factor that has been bolstering the uptake of ABM. The adoption of ABM approach has enabled them to tailor strategy to fit the specific needs of organizations and pursue high-value accounts. The use of various inbound marketing-based technologies has helped end users create content with the right message. The demand for programmatic buying is a case in point. Some of the notable benefits of account-based marketing are in reducing disruption, increasing customer engagement, and better targeting of prospects. The demand for higher return on investment in marketing campaigns is also a compelling underpinning to the adoption of ABM.Get Brochure of the Report @Over the years, account-based advertising (ABA) and account-based sales (ABS) have become an integral part of ABM, increasing the effectiveness and benefits of such an approach. The growing inclination toward avoiding disruptive messaging through better aligning of ABA and ABS is a key trend expected to open new frontiers in the ABM market. Organizations adopting account-based approach have increased their efforts to align sales and marketing strategies. Advances in marketing technology in recent years has increased the affordability of ABM among end users in various parts of the world.Global ABM Market: OverviewThe global account-based marketing (ABM) market is prognosticated to ride on certain positive factors such as improved customer lifetime value to increase its growth. Vendors operating in the global ABM market could bank on the rise of social advertising and social media and need to concentrate on the right audience. However, inaccuracies in datasets and reluctance to move beyond conventional sales practices are foreseen to hamper the demand in the global ABM market. On the other hand, data collection and GDPR practices and difficulties in selecting the right ABM tools could be among certain other challenges of the global ABM market.Nevertheless, increasing impact of big data analytics and AI on ABM is expected to set the tone for significant growth in the global ABM market. Furthermore, rising adoption of cloud-based solutions could create a whole lot of demand in the global ABM market.Global ABM Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThere are various types of ABM techniques used by organizations across the world: programmatic ABM, ABM Lite, and strategic ABM. Among these, the global ABM market could witness the dominance of strategic ABM in terms of growth. Its quicker growth in the global ABM market could be attributed to the rising need to mainly focus on target individuals and larger accounts directly in the organization.Among end-use industries, IT and telecom is anticipated to show rapid progress in the global ABM market. This could be due to the rising need to provide improved IT-enabled solutions and services to customers and generation of large volumes of data owing to rising number of subscribers. The government and public sector could show faster growth in the global ABM market. This could be due to civil and government service agencies focusing on the improvement of customer satisfaction through customer-centric strategies with the adoption of appropriate ABM tools.Global ABM Market: Market PotentialGrowing interest of digital experience vendors in the global ABM market is prophesied to create lucrative prospects for players in the near future. This could be evidenced by Liferays acquisition of a controlling stake in Triblio. The digital experience vendor said in a statement that it would continue to make strategic investment in the expanding ABM business of Triblio. Both the companies are focusing on providing enterprises with enhanced content targeting and customer engagement capabilities. According to Triblio CEO, Andre Yee, the company would like to largely invest in its product development teams and customer success while extending its market reach using Liferays strategic commitment and investment.Global ABM Market: Regional OutlookThe global ABM market is projected to witness the rise of North America as a leading region because of high penetration of ABM solutions. The developed region could bank on high adoption of cloud-based deployment offering enhanced IT security, 24/7 services, and increased speed and scalability. Enterprises of all sizes are expected to shift to cloud-based ABM solutions from conventional on-premises ones due to rising count of applications deployed over the cloud.Asia Pacific could post a higher CAGR in the global ABM market. The developing region is envisaged to benefit from rising number of internet connections and improving internet speed, growing trend of online shopping, and colossal count of social media users. Asia Pacific also accounts for a significant number of mobile users in the world.Get TOC for Detailed Facts and Numbers @Global ABM Market: Competitive LandscapeThe global ABM market includes top players such as AdDaptive Intelligence, Act-On Software, 6Sense, InsideView, and Demandbase. In order to expand their presence in the global ABM market, players are expected to focus on acquisitions, agreements, collaborations, partnerships, product upgrades, and new product launches.Highlights of the report:A detailed analysis of key segments of the marketRecent developments in the markets competitive landscapeDetailed analysis of market segments up to second or third level of segmentationHistorical, current, and projected future valuation of the market in terms of revenue and/or volumeKey business strategies adopted by influential market vendorsOutline of the regulatory framework surrounding and governing numerous aspects of the marketGrowth opportunities in emerging and established marketsRecommendations to market players to stay ahead of the competitionAbout Us:TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Contact Us:Rohit BhiseyHead Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050 Global Smart Washing Machine Market Expected to Witness a Sustainable Growth over 2024 Top Key players like Top Key players like LG,Whirlpool,Samsung,Inc. https://www.marketresearchreportstore.com/reports/440156/global-smart-washing-machine-market https://www.marketresearchreportstore.com/reports/440156/global-smart-washing-machine-market https://www.marketresearchreportstore.com Market Research Report Store offers a latest published report on Smart Washing Machine Market Analysis and Forecast 2019-2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 91 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Click to view the full report TOC, figure and tables:Smart Washing Machine is one kind of washing machine of highly automotive. Compared to the traditional machine, this kind of machine can sense the quality and weight for clothing, judge water level and time, times of washing. It built-in almost four sensors, insuring that water level as clothing quantity,precisely controlling and washing smartly.As the most important part of Smart Home and Smart Appliance (In fact, the market of smart washing machine accounts for about 25% of the total market of smart appliance), the market of smart washing machine has experienced a rapid growth over the past five years, and the trend is forecasted to continue in the following decade.Worldwide, Europe and US are the largest consumption market of smart washing machine, driven by the high consuming capacity and desire for convenient life style. The market in Japan, South Korea, China and etc. are also developing fast.According to this study, over the next five years the Smart Washing Machine market will register a 13.5% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ 15300 million by 2024, from US$ 8130 million in 2019. In particular, this report presents the global market share (sales and revenue) of key companies in Smart Washing Machine business, shared in Chapter 3.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversLGWhirlpoolSamsungGE AppliancesHitachiBoschPanasonicElectroluxFisher&PaykelToshibaHaierLittle Swan (Midea)Whirlpool ChinaMideaQishuaiMarket Segment by Type, coversFront Loader Smart Washing MachineInclined Loader Smart Washing MachineTop Loader Smart Washing MachineMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoHome UseOfficesHotelsOther placesFor More Information On This Report, Please Visit @Related Information:North America Smart Washing Machine Market Growth 2019-2024United States Smart Washing Machine Market Growth 2019-2024Asia-Pacific Smart Washing Machine Market Growth 2019-2024Europe Smart Washing Machine Market Growth 2019-2024EMEA Smart Washing Machine Market Growth 2019-2024Global Smart Washing Machine Market Growth 2019-2024China Smart Washing Machine Market Growth 2019-2024Customization Service of the Report :Market Research Report Store provides customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.About Us:Market Research Report Store (MRRS) is a professional organization related to market research reports in all directions .To provide customers with a variety of market research reports, MRRS cooperates with a large of famous market report publishers all over the world. Owing to our good service and the professional market reports in the wide range, MRRS enjoys a good reputation in the market. In pace with the development of MRRS, more and more customers and market report publishers choose to cooperate with us. As a specialized platform, MRRS upholds the supremacy of customers and aims to provide customers with better service and richer select.Contact USMarket Research Report StoreE-mail: info@marketresearchreportstore.comTel: +86-15521064060 00852-58197708(HK)Add: 17890 Castleton Street Suite 218 City of Industry CA 91748 United StatesWebsite: Precision Medicine Market in Europe to Surpass US$ 106.1 billion By 2026 | Key Players are Pfizer, Inc., Novartis AG, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co., Inc., Qiagen N.V., Ferrer Incode, Nanostring Technologies, Inc Precision Medicine www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/145 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/145 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/145 The two recent FDA drug approvals, Kalydeco (ivacaftor) and Keytruda (pembrolizumab), pertaining to 33 cystic fibrosis mutations and cancer treatment based on a genetic feature respectively, point to an encouraging future for precision medicine. National Cancer Institute (NCI) conducts NCI-COG Pediatric MATCH trial that enrolls children and adolescents by advanced cancer therapy based on their genetic abnormality, where NCI also plans to support new immunotherapy clinical trials, antibody, testing of new combinations of the cell, small molecule, and radiation therapy studies, which include sequencing of tumor specimens.Request Sample Copy Of This Report:In July 2017, NCI has also launched various precision medicine trials, which include Adjuvant Lung Cancer Enrichment Marker Identification and Sequencing Trials (ALCHEMIST), Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP), Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH), and Molecular Profiling-Based Assignment of Cancer Therapy (NCI-MPACT).The cost and time required for developing new precision medicines is expected to reduce due to the development of big data analysis and IT sector. Moreover, the development of new precision medicines will help in providing the right prescription to improve patients health. Huge amount of useful data required for tailored prescription is created by numerous genetic tests and diagnostic tests, which are to be carried out to provide precision medicines. Physicians are able to provide precision medicine, as big data analysis and IT are able to crunch, analyze, and store the necessary data.Request for Customization of Research @Key players in the market who are working towards developing bioinformatics technology for precision medicine research applications are funded by the government. For instance, in August 2017, Armonica Technologies, Inc., an Albuquerque-based company, received US$ 1.5 million as a catalyst fund. The drugs developed by manufacturers are hard to approve and expensive. They are not functional for large number of population, which has built the pressure on pharmaceutical companies to develop an active drug to cure the disease, which can be done with the help of Big Data Analysis and IT sectors to manufacture the precision medicines.Growth restraining factors for precision medicine include unavailability of the insurance coverage on the genetic test, which is a mandatory test to analysis the mutation and according to it precision medicine could be provided. High cost of genetic test also hampers the growth of precision medicine market.Key players in the precision medicine market are adopting strategies such as collaboration to strengthen their product portfolio. In 2016, Precision for Medicine, Inc. signed a deal for the acquisition of ACT Oncology, which will help the company to have a strong foothold in the personalized cancer clinical trial space. In August 2017, Variantyx, a genetic testing company, announced its partnership with FDNA. FDNA has a facial recognition software, which helped in the diagnosis of rare diseases. It is expected to fulfill the demand of patients and offer them precision medicine.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Some major players operating in the precision medicine market includes Intomics, ferrer incode, Nanostring Technologies, Inc.Tepnel Pharma Services, Pfizer, Inc., Novartis AG, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co., Inc., Qiagen N.V., and Quest Diagnostics.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.1001 4th Ave,, #3200, Seattle, WA 98154 Smart Packaging Market Rising Trends and New Technologies Smart Packaging Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1769586-global-united-states-european-union-and-china-smart-packaging-market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1769586-global-united-states-european-union-and-china-smart-packaging-market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1769586 HTF MI newly added the Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market Study that gives meticulous investigation of current scenario of the Market size, share, demand, growth, trends, and forecast in the coming years.The report firstly introduced the Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc.Companies Profiled in this report includes: Jones Packaging Inc., Amcor Ltd., Ball Corp., Tetra Pak International S.A., Basf Se, Bemis Co. Inc., Campden Bri, Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. & 3M CompanyGet the inside scoop of the Sample report @:The research study gives a complete list of all the leading players working in the Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market. Moreover, the financial status, company profiles, business strategies and policies, along with latest expansions in the worldwide market have been mentioned in the research study.Research objectives To study and analyze the Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market size by key regions/countries, product type and application, history data from 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2025. To understand the structure of Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market by identifying its various sub segments. Focuses on the key Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market players, to define, describe and analyze the value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in next few years. To analyze the Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market. To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks). To project the size of Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market, with respect to key regions, type [, Tapes, Bags and Tubing, Cartons & Other] and applications [Pharmaceutical, Food, Electronics & Home Use]. To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches and acquisitions in the market.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @In this report you will also find additional deals into key geographical segments of Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market and deliver details about their current and former share. Ongoing trends, upcoming Challenges, future better regional investments and many other influencing factors have been considered and presented.The regions United States, China, European Union & Rest of World (Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) have been studied in depth to gain better market penetration and assure exact analysis. Top manufacturers have been given prime importance to make sure their strategies are understood and their position in this particular market can be elucidated.Acquire Single User PDF license of this research report @In the end, the report includes Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, investment return analysis, and development analysis. The report also presents a round-up of vulnerabilities which companies operating in the market must avoid in order to enjoy sustainable growth through the course of the forecast period.Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia (China, India, Japan etc) or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].Fundamentals of Table of Content:1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.5 Market by Application1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market Size2.2 Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Growth Trends by Regions2.3 Industry Trends3 Market Share by Key Players3.1 Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market Size by Manufacturers3.2 Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Key Players Head office and Area Served3.3 Key Players Product/Solution/Service3.4 Enter barriers in Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market3.5 Mergers, Acquisitions, Expansion Plans4 Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market by Product4.1 Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Sales by Product4.2 Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Revenue by Product4.3 Global (United States, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Price by Product5 Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging Market by End User5.1 Overview5.2 Global (, European Union and China) Smart Packaging by End UserHTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.com Global Artificial Intelligence Software Market to 2023| Albert Technologies, Megvii Technology, NanoRep(LogMeIn), Astute Solutions, IDEAL.com, Brighterion, Microsoft, Google, Baidu https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/sample/CnM/QBI-BIS-CnM-292188 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/enquiry/CnM/QBI-BIS-CnM-292188 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/buy/CnM/QBI-BIS-CnM-292188/ https://www.qurateresearch.com/ Recent Research and the Current Scenario as well as Future Market Potential of " Artificial Intelligence Software Market in Global Industry: Market Development, Analysis and Overview 2019 "globally.With the slowdown in world economic growth, the Artificial Intelligence Software industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Artificial Intelligence Software market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 15 from XXX million $ in 2014 to XXX million $ in 2018, BisReport analysts believe that in the next few years, Artificial Intelligence Software market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2023, The market size of the Artificial Intelligence Software will reach XXX million $.Request for Free Sample Report:Key Players Analysis:GoogleBaiduIBMMicrosoftSAPIntelSalesforceBrighterionKITT.AIIFlyTekMegvii TechnologyAlbert TechnologiesH2O.aiBrainasoftYseopIpsoftNanoRep(LogMeIn)Ada SupportAstute SolutionsIDEAL.comWiproArtificial Intelligence Software Market report entails detailed description in relation with major companies operating within this industry. Owing to its increasing pace of growth, many companies have entered various markets, however, only few can be identified as key vendors of the Artificial Intelligence Software Market.Conclusive intention of distribution of these noteworthy insights and informative data figures is to enable readers including stakeholders, companies, investors, suppliers, buyers and others to reach smarter decisions within lesser time. While focusing on various segments, the report enlists information in relation with numerous influencing factors such as market share, past performance, revenue numbers, growth driving factors, and more. The study divides the entire market into various segments on the basis of several parameters including type, end user, application, technology, component, regions and more. This helps readers to develop strong business acumen in relevance with Artificial Intelligence Software Market.Make An Enquiry About this Report:In addition, the Artificial Intelligence Software Market report attempts to build familiarity with the market by offering complete panoramic view of market dynamics to readers. Here, it incorporates insights and data associated with various aspects including market growth drivers, challenges, market hinderers, untapped opportunities of the market and more. Also, it adopts futuristic view by sharing estimations and forecast associated with various components including entire market, regions, segments, consumption, revenue and more.Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers: North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia, Spain and Benelux) Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia and Australia) Latin America (Brazil, Argentina and Colombia) Middle East and AfricaProduct Type SegmentationOn-PremiseCloud-basedIndustry SegmentationVoice ProcessingText ProcessingImage ProcessingDirectly Purchase Report:Table of Contents:Global Artificial Intelligence Software Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1: Industry OverviewChapter 2: Global Artificial Intelligence Software Market International and China Market AnalysisChapter 3: Environment Analysis of Global Artificial Intelligence Software MarketChapter 4: Analysis of Revenue by ClassificationsChapter 5: Analysis of Revenue by Regions and ApplicationsChapter 6: Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Software Revenue Market StatusChapter 7: Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Software Industry Key ManufacturersChapter 8: Sales Price and Gross Margin AnalysisChapter 9: Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Global Artificial Intelligence Software MarketChapter 10: Development Trend of Artificial Intelligence Software Industry 2018-2023Chapter 11: Industry Chain Suppliers of Artificial Intelligence Software with Contact InformationChapter 12: New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Software MarketChapter 13: Conclusion of the Global Artificial Intelligence Software Market Research ReportAbout Us:Qurate Business Intelligence delivers unique market research solutions to its customers and help them to get equipped with refined information and market insights derived from reports. We are committed to providing best business services and easy processes to get the same. Qurate Business Intelligence considers themselves as strategic partners of their customers and always shows the keen level of interest to deliver quality.Runwal Platinum,Ramnagar Colony, Bavdhan,Pune, Maharashtra, India-411021IN +919881074592info@qurateresearch.com VVT & Start-Stop Systems Market by Technology & Fuel Type - Global Forecast to 2022 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=1206 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=1206 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/variable-valve-timing-vvt-market-1206.html The report "VVT & Start-Stop Systems Market by Technology (Cam Phasing and Direct Starter), Valvetrain (DOHC and SOHC), Vehicle (PC, LCV, and HC), Fuel Type (Gasoline and Diesel), Electric Vehicle (BEV, PHEV, and HEV), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022", The VVT & start-stop system market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.28% and 18.86% from 2017 to 2022, respectively, to reach USD 46.36 Billion for VVT and 11.10 Billion for start-stop system by 2022. Some of the major factors responsible for the growth of the market are government regulations for reducing emissions levels and increasing electrification of vehicles.Browse 68 Market Data Tables and 75 Figures spread through 164 Pages and in-depth TOC on "VVT & Start-Stop Systems Market"Download PDF Brochure @Cam Phasing plus Changing System: Adoption of VVT Expected to Increase in Developed RegionsOwing to increase in performance-oriented fuel-efficient vehicles and stringent emissions regulations in developed regions, the penetration of advanced VVT systems such as Cam-Phasing plus changing systems is estimated to be higher in Asia-Pacific and North America. The market for VVT systems is further estimated to increase with the increasing production of automobiles incorporated with these advanced technologies. Owing to customers preferences, the regional adoption of these technologies is varied. Europe is projected to witness moderate growth for VVT systems due to saturation of VVT technology in Germany, France, and Spain. High rate of technological adoption in regions like China, Japan, and South Korea is also a driving factor for the growth of these systems in Asian region.Plug-in Hybrid and Hybrid Electric Vehicle (BEV): Promising Electric Vehicle segment for start-stop systemElectric vehicles are mainly divided into three major types on the basis of propulsion technology: battery electric vehicle (BEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). BEVs are totally powered by batteries, whereas HEVs and PHEVs also have the internal combustion engine. As of 2017, PHEV and HEV segments hold the largest share and are projected to grow at higher CAGR compared to other battery electric vehicle segments. The growth in PHEV and HEV segment is mainly driven by government initiatives for promoting emission-free technology.Request Sample Report @Asia-Pacific: The largest market for VVT & start-stop systemAsia-Pacific was estimated to be the largest market for VVT & start-stop system in 2017. This is due to the increasing vehicle production in countries such as Japan, China, and India and stringent emission regulations in these countries. The region has the largest share of VVT systems globally because of increased manufacturing of vehicles equipped with these systems. The Indian market is growing at a rapid pace because of increased preference for diesel-powered vehicles, which has resulted in the demand for VVT system for diesel engines. In addition, improving socio-economic conditions in countries such as India, Thailand, and Indonesia have resulted in the growth of demand for premium segment passenger cars, which in turn has accelerated the market for VVT & start-stop system in these countries.Many automotive manufacturers are focusing on Asia-Pacific region because of various benefits such as easy availability of economic labor, access to advanced machines, lenient regulations for environment & safety, and growing demand for vehicles due to increased FDI for automotive industry in countries like India, South Korea, and China.The report covers all the major players in the global VVT & start-stop system market, such as Continental AG (Germany), Denso Corporation (Japan), Delphi Automotive, PLC (U.K.), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), and Magna International Inc. (Canada).View Detail TOC @MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.MarketsandMarketss flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledgestore" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.Mr. Shelly SinghMarketsandMarkets INC.630 Dundee RoadSuite 430Northbrook, IL 60062USA: 1-888-600-6441sales@marketsandmarkets.com Electrospinning Devices Global Industry Report - History, Present and Future 2025 Electrospinning Devices Global Industry 2025 https://www.research2reports.com/report-machinery-equipment/electrospinning-devices-market/72611 https://www.research2reports.com/sample-report-machinery-equipment/electrospinning-devices-market/72611 https://www.research2reports.com/enquiry-before-buy-machinery-equipment/electrospinning-devices-market/72611 https://www.research2reports.com/category-machinery-equipment The global market size of Electrospinning Devices is $XX million in 2017 with XX CAGR from 2013 to 2017, and it is expected to reach $XX million by the end of 2023 with a CAGR of XX% from 2018 to 2023.There are 3 key segments covered in this report: geography segment, end use/application segment and competitor segment.For geography segment, regional supply, application-wise and type-wise demand, major players, price is presented from 2013 to 2023. This report coverss following regions:*North America*South America*Asia & Pacific*Europe*MEA (Middle East and Africa)Access more details about this report at:The key countries in each region are taken into consideration as well, such as United States, China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, CIS, and Brazil etc.For end use/application segment, this report focuses on the status and outlook for key applications. End users also can be listed.For competitor segment, the report includes global key players of Electrospinning Devices as well as some small players. The compnaies include:Linari Engineering, Elmarco, Inovenso, Oxford Instruments, IME Technologies, Kato Tech, Novarials Corporation, Bioinicia, Royal Enterprises, Holmarc Opto-Mechatronics P Ltd, PSG Industrial Institute et al.Purchase a copy of this premium research report at:The information for each competitor includes:*Company Profile*Main Business Information*SWOT Analysis*Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin*Market ShareInquire further details about this report at:About Research 2 Reports:Research2Reports Market Research Company offers custom syndicated market research reports with market analysis, consulting services Market research reports by Research2Reports depends on survey analysis covers a magnitude of factors, industry research, market size, forecasts, financial growth, pricing trends, competitive insights of market segmentsContact Us:Organization: Research2reportsOffice No. 212/213, B Block 2nd Floor,Parmar Chambers,Sadhu Vaswani Road, Pune 411001Phone Number: 020 - 2612 6969Email: info@research2reports.comRead More Industry News:Research 2 Reports offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Office No. 212/213, B Block 2nd Floor,Parmar Chambers,Sadhu Vaswani Road, Pune 411001 Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem Market to Grow at 14.08% CAGR to Reach USD 32400 Million by 2023 | Top Key Players are Allianz Insurance, AmTrust International Underwriters, Assurant , Asurion, Aviva, Brightstar Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem Market https://www.businessindustryreports.com/sample-request/135836 https://www.businessindustryreports.com/check-discount/135836 Global Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem Market Report 2019 offers elaborated knowledge on the market parts like size, Key Regions, growth, trends, dominating firms, Major Manufactures. The Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem report introduces market competition situation among the vendors, revenue, product & services, latest developments and business strategies.Global Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem Market Overview:According to market analysts, Global Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem Market is projected to grow at a high CAGR value from 2019 to 2023.Sample Copy of Global Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem Market Report Available @with the slowdown in world economic growth, the Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 14.08% from 13200 million $ in 2015 to 19600 million $ in 2018, Market analysts believe that in the next few years, Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2023 , The market size of the Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem will reach 32400 million $.Growth of the global mobile phone insurance ecosystem market is driven by the globally increasing smartphone penetration and the need to secure phones from any kind of damage or theft/stolen or lost.The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors challenges which will define the future growth of the market.Mobile Insurance refers to a type of insurance cover which is available to protect your mobile, iPhone or PDA in the event it is lost, stolen or accidentally damaged, either in the domestic area or overseas. Mobile insurance cover can be taken out on a monthly or annual basis paid by direct debit or in some cases by credit card; some insurers offer an automatic renewal service when the policy expires.The Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem Market is segmented based on insurance type, and regions. On the basis of insurance type, the market is sub-segmented into Accidental, Malicious or Liquid Damage, Electrical or Mechanical Breakdown, Theft or Loss and Others. The theft & loss insurance type segment is expected to contribute largest share in terms of revenue in the global mobile phone insurance ecosystem market, owing to increasing incidence of theft & loss across the globe.Regionally, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with revenue, market share and growth rate of Captioning and Subtitling Solutions in these regions, from 2019 to 2023. The market in US is estimated to dominate the global market in terms of revenue in 2018, owing to availability of insurance plans offered by major cell phone carriers, various domestic companies, retailers, and even banks in this country.Key players covered: Allianz Insurance, AmTrust International Underwriters, Assurant, Asurion, Aviva, Brightstar Corporation, Geek Squad, GoCare Warranty Group, Hollard Group.Grab Your Report at an Impressive Discount @Key Regions:1 North America Country (United States, Canada)2 South America3 Asia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea)4 Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy)5 Other Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC)Key Questions Answered in this Report:1 How has the Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?2 What are the price trends of Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem?3 What is the structure of the Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem industry and who are the key players?4 Who are the key vendors in the global Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem market?5 What are the latest market trends?Points Covered in in table of contents: Market Definition, Market Overview, Business Introduction, Segmentation (Region Level), Segmentation (Type Level), Segmentation (Industry Level), Segmentation (Channel Level), Market Forecast Year, Segmentation Type, Segmentation Industry, Market Cost Analysis, and Conclusion.About us:BusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Media ContactBusiness Industry ReportsPune Indiasales@businessindustryreports.com+19376349940 The Market of Automotive Active Grille Shutter to grow beyond US$ 1078.7 million by 2023 https://www.stratviewresearch.com/477/electric-drive-module-market.html https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/477/electric-drive-module-market.html https://www.stratviewresearch.com/market-reports/Automotive-Transportation.html The new report of Stratview Research analyses the Automotive Active Grille Shutter (AGS) Market over the trend period from 2012 to 2017 and forecast period from 2018 to 2023. The insights of the report shall enable informed decision making and strategy formulation for the near future to capitalize on the opportunities.Salient Features of the ReportThe Research Report offers an in-depth view of the market, its health and growth, the factors shaping the industry, the competitive dynamics and a glimpse of the future.The following are the key features of the report: Strategic segmentation Market analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porters five forces analysis, SWOT analysis Detailed Competitive Rivalry landscaping Market trend and forecast analysis Future Growth BoulevardsClick for detailed description:Get a free sample of the report:An overview- growth prospects of active grille shutter marketActive grille shutter is an advanced mechatronic component, which performs a key function of selectively allowing or restricting airflow with an automatic opening and closing of shutters based on real-time needs. This results in reducing aerodynamic drag to an extent and improving the fuel economy of the vehicle, thereby leading to reduced CO2 emissions. The automotive industry is very keen on adopting technologies, which lead to an improvement in fuel economy and a reduction in harmful emissions.The automotive active grille shutter market is likely to grow at an impressive double-digit rate over the next five years to reach US$ 1078.7 million in 2023. The auto industry has efficaciously been ushering in a new era of aerodynamic vehicles with a meticulous investment into advanced components that can address the changing business requirements in the most effective manner. All the major automakers have vigorously been incorporating active components in their most-renowned vehicle models with the purpose to improve the overall fuel efficiency of vehicles in order to address stringent government regulations, such as CAFE Standards and EU Commission on Carbon Emissions Reduction Targets.Active grille shutter is a key component of active aerodynamic family and has been catching the automakers attention by offering a vast list of advantages. On an average, AGS offers signification weight reduction up to 20% and improvement in aerodynamic performance up to 30% as compared to non-AGS vehicle. Today, AGS has successfully found its presence in both premium vehicle models as well as mass-produced vehicle models of almost all major automakers including Ford, GM, Toyota, BMW, Lincoln, Honda, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, and Rolls Royce.The biggest factor driving the market for AGS is an incessant increase in its penetration in the automotive industry year on year as all the major automakers are incorporating this technology in their major vehicle models. One side, major automakers are working closely with the AGS suppliers in order to make their vehicle more fuel efficient, whereas another side, AGS suppliers are working hard to quickly meet automakers rising demand for a well-engineered, high-quality AGS system that helps to address fuel economy standards.AGS has a disruptive journey so far in the automotive industry and has evolved a lot with changing market needs and designs. However, to maintain the growth momentum, AGS must to adapt itself as per the new business environments including a greater incorporation of ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems) electronics, such as auto-braking and auto cruise control; the development of new diesel and electric engines; and introduction of more stringent regulations regarding pedestrian protection and carbon emission reductions.Development of innovative AGS solutions is an indispensable focus area of the AGS suppliers based on the requirements of auto OEMs. The market for AGS is marked by major global automotive tier players including Rochling Automotive, Magna International Inc., and Valeo SA. Also, it is expected that the excellent growth of active grill shutters may entice other players to enter the market to tap the growth potential.Passenger car: The growth engineThe global automotive active grille shutter market is segmented based on the vehicle type as Passenger Car, LCV (Light Commercial Vehicle) and M&HCV (Medium- and Heavy-Duty Commercial Vehicle). A passenger car is expected to remain the growth engine of the global automotive active grille shutter market during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023. Increasing production of passenger cars coupled with increasing penetration of AGS in passenger car models is likely to elevate the demand for AGS in the passenger car segment.Dominance of: Horizontal vane-based active grille shutterBased on the shutter vanes type, the automotive active grille shutter market is segmented as Horizontal Vanes and Vertical Vanes. Horizontal vane-based active grille shutter is expected to remain most dominant type in the global automotive active grille shutter market during the forecast period. Both horizontal, as well as vertical vane segments, are likely to witness healthy growth rates over the next five years.A highly/moderately/fragment consolidated MarketThe top players are Rochling Automotive, Magna International Inc., Valeo SA, SRG Global, HBPO, and Shape Corporation.Other Important firms are Lanxess AG, Celanese Corporation, and BASF SE, whereas some of the major active grille shutter actuator suppliers are Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., Sonceboz SA, Johnson Electric, and Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. KG.Regional Hegemony of EuropeBased on the regions, Europe is expected to remain the largest automotive active grille shutter market during the forecast period. Stricter emission norms of European Commission have led to a faster adoption of active grille shutter into European vehicles. Ford Focus & Fusion, BMW 5 Series & 7 Series, Renault Twingo & Talisman, Citroen C4 Picasso, and Audi Q7 are some key European models that have active grille shutters. Asia-Pacific is likely to depict the highest growth during the forecast period with China being the key source of growth.Comprehensive Market CoverageClick Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Automotive Industry:About Stratview ResearchStratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.400 Renaissance Center, Suite 2600, Detroit, Michigan, MI 48243 United States of America B2B Telecommunications Market Business Development Analysis to 2024 Top players Comarch SA, Duetsche Telekom AG, NTT Communications, Verizon Communications Inc., Vodafone Group Plc, AT&T https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/sample/CnM/QBI-BRC-CnM-135523 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/enquiry/CnM/QBI-BRC-CnM-135523 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/buy/CnM/QBI-BRC-CnM-135523/ https://www.qurateresearch.com/ Global B2B Telecommunications market is surging adoption of Internet-of-Things (IoT). IoT technology is gaining grip as it is cost efficient and offers various benefit to its users. Reduces cost of broadband data storage and availability of telecom network in remote areas is also a major factors which boosting the market growth of B2B telecommunication. However, the data security & privacy concern and complexity to identifying the opportunities lying beyond the market are the factors which limiting the market growth of global B2B telecommunication market. B2B telecommunication is defines any communication between business to business or opposed to between business and clients or client to client. These communication take many forms. B2B telecommunication providers maintain systems that transmit data, text, sound, voice a video, which allows for direct between businesses.Get Free Sample Copy of This Report@B2B telecommunication offers various benefits such as improved communication quality, enhanced team collaboration, increased flexibility, premier customer service, increases awareness, refined messaging and integration with legacy system.The regional analysis of Global B2B Telecommunications Market is considered for the key regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Rest of the World. North America is the leading/significant region across the world in terms of market share owing to faster adoption of cloud VoIP services. Europe is also estimating to project a major growth in the global B2B Telecommunications market. Asia-Pacific is also anticipated to exhibit higher growth rate/CAGR over the forecast period 2018-2025 due to adoption of advanced telecom services in developing countries such as China, India and South Korea and development in the media and entertainment industry.The major market player included in this report are: Comarch SA Duetsche Telekom AG NTT Communications Verizon Communications Inc. Vodafone Group Plc AT&TMake an enquiry before buying this Report @The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:By Organization Type: Large Enterprises Small and Medium EnterprisesBy Solution: Unified Communication and Collaboration VoIP WAN Cloud Services M2M CommunicationBy Deployment Model: On-Premises CloudPurchase Direct Report@By Application: Commercial IndustrialTable of Content:Global Global B2B Telecommunications Market Research Report 2019-2024Chapter 1: Industry OverviewChapter 2: B2B Telecommunications International and China Market AnalysisChapter 3: Environment Analysis of B2B TelecommunicationsChapter 4: Analysis of Revenue by ClassificationsChapter 5: Analysis of Revenue by Regions and ApplicationsChapter 6: Analysis of B2B Telecommunications Revenue Market Status.Chapter 7: Analysis of B2B Telecommunications Industry Key ManufacturersChapter 8: Sales Price and Gross Margin AnalysisChapter 9: Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of B2B Telecommunications MarketChapter 10: Development Trend of B2B Telecommunications Industry 2019-2024Chapter 11: Industry Chain Suppliers of B2B Telecommunications with Contact InformationChapter 12: New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of B2B TelecommunicationsChapter 13: Conclusion of the Global B2B Telecommunications Market Research ReportAbout Us:Qurate Business Intelligence delivers unique market research solutions to its customers and help them to get equipped with refined information and market insights derived from reports. We are committed to providing best business services and easy processes to get the same. Qurate Business Intelligence considers themselves as strategic partners of their customers and always shows the keen level of interest to deliver quality.Contact Us:Nehal ChinoyRunwal Platinum,Ramnagar Colony, Bavdhan,Pune, Maharashtra, India-411021IN +919881074592info@qurateresearch.com Blood Plasma Market 2018 - 2028 | Shire, Kedrion S.p.A., Biotest, Grifols S.A., Baxter International Inc https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=4347 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=4347 Global Blood Plasma Market: OverviewBlood plasma and its derivatives form a significant source of medicines. Plasma primarily contains immunoglobulin, clotting factor, and albumin and acts as a vital transporting medium for cells and nutrients in the human body. Recovered plasma has gained traction in the healthcare for the treatment of hemophilia and autoimmune disorders. Apart from that, plasma products are increasingly used in treating a range of conditions, including immune deficiency, neurological illnesses, cardiac insufficiency, asthma, and hemorrhages. Hospitals in various parts of the world use around half the recovered plasma for fractionation.Get Brochure of the Report @Advances in fractionating facilities in several countries or the processing donor plasma have increasingly influenced the evolution trajectories of the blood plasma market. Furthermore, blood plasma occupies a vital role in protein therapeutics used for saving lives. Key application areas of blood plasma include rheumatology, oncology, neurology, immunology, pulmonology, hematology, and transplant.The blood plasma market report presents in-depth qualitative assessments and quantitative estimations of the blood plasma market. The analyses shed light on the current avenues and emerging frontiers in various application segments of blood plasma.Global Blood Plasma Market: Key TrendsThe global blood plasma market is driven by the rising demand for plasma for various coagulation disorders. The rising incidence of hemophilia and the growing role of plasma-derived products in the treatment are catalyzing the growth of the blood plasma market. Furthermore, growing awareness about plasma collection centers in developed regions is fueling the uptake of blood plasma-derived products. In this regard, growing network of blood donation centers is providing a robust fillip to the growth of the market. The growing number of plasma transfusions in patients with major blood loss conditions is also bolstering the demand for blood plasma. Rising healthcare expenditure for the management of diseases such as neurological disorders and clotting disabilities is also helping in the rapid expansion of the blood plasma market.Request TOC for Detailed Facts & Numbers @Global Blood Plasma Market: Market PotentialThe advent of specialized plasma-related products, coupled with advances made in blood separation processes, is expected to impart a large growth momentum to the blood plasma market. Rapidly rising geriatric populations is also favoring the growth of the blood plasma market. However, in several countries, there still exist stringent regulations pertaining to collection of blood plasma. Furthermore, the rising instance of misdiagnosis of coagulation disorders is hampering the steady expansion of the market. Nevertheless, the market is likely to witness new, lucrative prospects from constant advances being made in biomedical technologies.Global Blood Plasma Market: Regional OutlookThe study offers a critical assessment of prominent trends in key regions and the prevailing regulatory frameworks supporting the expansion of emerging markets for blood plasma. On the regional front, developed and developing regions, notably North America and Asia Pacific, are expected to be potentially attractive regional markets over the next few years. The growth is fueled by rising spending of biotechnology companies engaged in the separation of blood plasma products. In developing regions, rapid improvements in healthcare facilities are expected to boost the demand for blood plasma.Global Blood Plasma Market: Competitive LandscapeThe study assesses the impact of various recent strategic and tactical measures taken by emerging and established players on the competitive dynamics of the blood plasma market. Some of the players expected to hold sizeable shares in the global market are Sanquin, Shire, Kedrion S.p.A., Biotest, Grifols S.A., Baxter International Inc., China Biologic Products, and CSL Ltd.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050 Herbal Beauty Products Market to hold high potential for growth by 2028. Herbal Beauty Products Market https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-567 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-567 Consumers worldwide prefer herbal beauty products such as skin care products, hair care products, make-up products and others. The market share for herbal beauty products has been increasingly considerably as compared to synthetic beauty products. Companies manufacturing herbal beauty products are primarily focused towards mitigating the adverse effects of synthetic beauty products .There is increasing demand of herbal beauty products owing to the rising consumer awareness regarding harmful effects of the chemical added to the beauty products. Globally, the companies are involved in research and development activities to deliver products that meet the customer need for enhanced beauty products. Exclusive herbal beauty products are available at departmental stores, however, the emergence of various distribution channels including online retailing and tele-home shopping is expected to fuel the growth of herbal beauty products market in the next five to six years.Herbal Beauty Products Market SegmentationOn the basis of product type the herbal beauty products market is segmented into hair care, skin care, make-up, fragrance, oral care and products for baby care. On the basis of distribution channel herbal beauty products market is segmented into supermarkets, department stores, drugstores, beauty salons, specialty stores, direct selling, internet retailing.Get Sample Copy of Report @Herbal Beauty products Market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of regions the herbal beauty products market segmentation includes North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe hold the largest market share for sun care and skin care products. Also, there is increasing demand among consumers in these countries owing to the increasing environmental concerns and carcinogenic nature of synthetic beauty products. Although North America herbal beauty products market includes more than 600 brands. In North America, natural personal care segment exhibits healthy double digit growth .Furthermore, Brazil is expected to reflect a strong growth in the near future.Herbal Beauty Products Market: DriversSome of the factors driving the herbal beauty products market include increasing number of enlightened and well-travelled consumers, increasing inclination of consumer conscious towards enhanced appearance and looks across the globe. In addition, processing of the various ingredients such as jojoba oil and aloe vera in beauty products is fueling the growth of herbal beauty products market. Also, there is a rising trend of using herbal medicines in the skin care industry, which is predicted to bolster the growth of the herbal beauty products market. Regulatory bodies are focused towards creating awareness among the consumers regarding the ingredients of the product, mainly emphasizing on labeling for such products. For instance, in 2010 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) planned to issue first and novel regulations regarding the sunscreen. This proposal was supposed to implement new labelling methods to clear the confusion regarding the quality of sun protection factor.Herbal Beauty products market is also witnessing the increasing usage of nanoparticles in sun care and beauty products, which enhances the quality of beauty products. Therefore, herbal beauty products manufacturing companies are expected to increase the usage of nanoparticle. Product launch and collaboration are the key strategies adopted by the companies in herbal beauty products market. In October 2010, Arbonne International launched latest addition to the RE9 advanced anti-ageing range. It was designed to improve the skin tone. In addition to this Natural Products Association is offering discount pricing for the certification on products in order to help cosmetic product manufacturers to meet the increasing demand for the herbal products.Herbal Beauty Products Market: Key PlayersMajor key players in herbal beauty products markets are Surya Brasil Organic Beauty Products, Weleda AG, INIKA, Bio Veda Action Research Co. (Biotique), VLCC Healthcare Ltd. and Arbonne International LLC.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705 mHealth Market is Expected to Reach at a Healthy CAGR of 34.7% in the Forecast Period 2018 to 2025 by Philips, LifeWatch AG, AT&T, Vodafone, Apple, Allscripts, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Cerner, Medtronic, Others Global mHealth Market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-mhealth-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-mhealth-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-mhealth-market The Global mHealth Market report comprises of all the market shares and approaches of key players in the mHealth industry. The Global mHealth Market report provides an ideal window to the industry which explains what market definition, classifications, applications, engagements and market trends are. The mHealth Market report is bifurcated into several attributes which include manufacturers, region, type, application, market status, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities, challenges, emerging trends, risks, entry barriers, sales channels, and distributors which are again detailed in the mHealth Market report as required to describe the topic and provide maximum information for better decision making.This mHealth Market report makes available the market potential for each geographical region based on the growth rate, macroeconomic parameters, consumer buying patterns, and market demand and supply scenarios. The report estimates 2018-2025 market development trends for mHealth industry. By synchronizing with project managers, the team provide the clients on every strategic aspect including product development, key areas of development, application modelling, use of technologies, the acquisition strategies, exploring niche growth opportunities and new markets. Lastly, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of mHealth Market before evaluating its feasibility.Get Free Sample Report | atSome of the major players operating in the global mHealth market are:Koninklijke Philips N.V., iHealth, LifeWatch AG, AT&T, Inc., Vodafone, Apple Inc., Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Qualcomm Inc., and Samsung Electronics Corporation and mQure, Cerner Corporation, Medtronic PLC, Doximity, Inc., Evolent Health, Inc., proteous, Perfint Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Oscar, Zest Health, Athenahealth, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Omron Corporation, Nokia Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Airstrip Technologies, Biotelemetry, Inc., Agamatrix, Inc., Ihealth Lab Inc. and Alivecor, Inc. among others.Competitive Analysis: Global mHealth MarketThe global mHealth market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of mHealth market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.mHealth market is expected to reach USD 278.12 billion by 2025, from USD 25.66 billion in 2017 growing at a CAGR of 34.7% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The Global mHealth Market, By Product & Service (Connected medical devices, {mHealth solutions, Clinical Devices, Peak Flowmeters, Fetal Monitoring Devices} mHealth Applications {Healthcare Applications [General Health and Fitness Apps,Others]} mHealth Services, {Remote Monitoring, Diagnosis and consultation services, Others}), By Geography (North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025Major Market Drivers and Restraints:Increasing penetration of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile platformsIncreasing utilization of connected devices and mhealth apps for the management of chronic diseasesCost containment in healthcare deliveryRobust penetration of 3G and 4G networks for uninterrupted healthcare servicesRising focus on patient-centric healthcare deliveryInquiry Before Buying atMarket Segmentation:By Product & Service (Connected medical devices, {mHealth solutions, Clinical Devices, Peak Flowmeters, Fetal Monitoring Devices}mHealth Applications {Healthcare Applications [General Health and Fitness Apps,Others]}mHealth Services, {Remote Monitoring, Diagnosis and consultation services, Others}),By Geography (North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa)Table Of Content: Global mHealth MarketPart 01: Executive SummaryPart 02: Scope Of The ReportPart 03: Global mHealth Market LandscapePart 04: Global mHealth Market SizingPart 05: Global mHealth Market Segmentation By ProductPart 06: Five Forces AnalysisPart 07: Customer LandscapePart 08: Geographic LandscapePart 09: Decision FrameworkPart 10: Drivers And ChallengesPart 11: Market TrendsPart 12: Vendor LandscapePart 13: Vendor AnalysisContinue.. For Detailed TOC atAbout Us:Data Bridge set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Data bridge is an aftermath of sheer wisdom and experience which was formulated and framed in the year 2015 in Pune. We ponder into the heterogeneous markets in accord with our clients needs and scoop out the best possible solutions and detailed information about the market trends. Data Bridge delve into the markets across Asia, North America, South America, Africa to name few.Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Steam Compressors Market 2019 | World Market Analysis 2025 | Market Leaders Spiling Technologies, TLV, Dynamic Boosting Systems, Hangzhou Qianjiang Compressor, Etc. Steam Compressors Market 2019 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/68650 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/68650 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/68650 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/request_for_discount/68650 www.upmarketresearch.com Steam Compressors Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.Get Exclusive FREE Sample Copy Of this Report @UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Steam Compressors Market Analysis and Forecast 2019 - 2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 109 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Steam Compressors Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2019 2025.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.For More Information On This Report, Please VisitThe generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Steam Compressors Market analysis & forecast 2019 - 2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region- wise Analysis covers: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Major players reported in the market include: Spiling Technologies TLV Dynamic Boosting Systems Hangzhou Qianjiang Compressor Shandong Mingtian Machinery Aerzen Schutte and Koerting Mayekawa Shandong Huadong Blower Kaishan Compressor HitachiProduct Segment Analysis: Roots-Type CentrifugalApplication Segment Analysis: Chemical Industry Petroleum Industry Oil & Gas OthersMajor Topics Covered in this Report: Chapter 1 Study Coverage Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Market Size by Manufacturers Chapter 4 Production by Regions Chapter 5 Consumption by Regions Chapter 6 Market Size by Type Chapter 7 Market Size by Application Chapter 8 Manufacturers Profiles Chapter 9 Production Forecasts Chapter 10 Consumption Forecast Chapter 11 Upstream, Industry Chain and Downstream Customers Analysis Chapter 12 Opportunities & Challenges, Threat and Affecting Factors Chapter 13 Key Findings Chapter 14 AppendixGet Exclusive FREE Sample Copy Of this Report @Steam Compressors Market Analysis and Forecast 2019 - 2025 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Global Steam Compressors Market: Key Stakeholders: Manufacturers Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream VendorsIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size are as follows: History Year: 2013-2018 Base Year: 2018 Estimated Year: 2019 Forecast Year 2019 to 2025Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Steam Compressors Market Analysis and Forecast 2019 - 2025 and its commercial landscape. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Steam Compressors Market analysis and forecast 2019 - 2025.Avail Discount On this Report @Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.You can also ask for region wise Steam Compressors Market research report, as below: Global Market Status & Trend Report 2013 - 2025 Top 20 Countries Data North America Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025 South America Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025 Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025 EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025 Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025 China Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025 India Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025 United States Market Status and Trend Report 2013 - 2025About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States. Global Cosmetic Pigments Market Expected to Reach USD 1004.03 million by 2025, Industry Says DBMR Review | Top Key Players: Li Pigments, Merck, Miyoshi Kasei, Neelikon, Nihon Koken Kogyo, Nubiola, Sandream Impact LLC Global Cosmetic Pigments Market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-cosmetic-pigments-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-cosmetic-pigments-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/?dbmr=global-cosmetic-pigments-market This GLOBAL COSMETIC PIGMENTS MARKET report also includes data which includes market definitions, classifications, applications, commitments, market drivers and market restrictions obtained through SWOT analysis. Analysis and projections derived from the tremendous information collected in this market report on GLOBAL COSMETIC PIGMENTS MARKET are extremely necessary in order to dominate the market or create a brand as a new emerging market. The purpose of this Global Cosmetic Pigments Market report is to provide a telescopic view of current market trends, situations, opportunities and status as an information source established. Moreover, this market report gives customers an idea of the market drivers and restrictions extracted from SWOT analysis and also provides all of the CAGR projections for the 2016, 2017 base year and forecast period 2018-2025. The geometric and numerical information obtained in order to generate this report is mostly meant by the graphs, tables and charts which make this report more user-friendly. You can rely on this market report from GLOBAL COSMETIC PIGMENTS MARKET for sure when making critical business decisions.Market Analysis: Global Cosmetic Pigments MarketThe Global Cosmetic Pigments Market is expected to reach USD 1004.03 million by 2025, from USD 554.66 million in 2017, growing at a CAGR of 7.7% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025.FREE | Get a Copy of Sample Report Now! @Major Market Competitors/Players:Some of the major players operating in the global cosmetic pigments market are-BASF SE, Chem India Pigments, Clariant, Dayglo Color, Eckart (Altanta), Elemental Srl, Geotech, Huntsman, Kobo Products, Koel Colours, Kolortek, LANXESS, Li Pigments, Merck, Miyoshi Kasei, Neelikon, Nihon Koken Kogyo, Nubiola, Sandream Impact LLC, Sensient Cosmetic Technologies, Sudarshan, Sun Chemical, Toshiki Pigment, Toyal Europe, Yipin Pigments, Nanowerk, TKB Trading, LLC, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Cristal, Specialchem, among others.Market Definition:This market report defines the market trends and forecast the upcoming opportunities and threats of the cosmetic pigments market in the next 8 years. Cosmetic pigments are insoluble compounds extensively used in cosmetic and personal care products.According to Eurostat, the article published in 2017 reports that older population aged above 65 or over had 19.2% share which is increased by 0.3% compared with the 2016 data. The statistics portal, reports the total population size of citizens aged 65 years and older in Europe in 2015, by country. In this report in 2015, Germany had the highest number of over 65s at approximately 17.1 million, which was followed by Italy and France at 13.2 million and 12.2 million citizens respectively.FREE | Request For TOC@Market Segmentation:The global cosmetic pigments market is segmented on the basis of composition, type, technology and application.On the basis of composition, the global cosmetic pigments market is segmented into organic pigments and inorganic pigments. Organic pigments are further sub segmented into lakes, toners and true pigments. Inorganic pigments are further sub segmented into titanium dioxide, iron oxide, chromium dioxide, zinc oxide, mica, ultramarines and others.On the basis of type, the global cosmetic pigments market is segmented into special effect pigments, surface treated pigments, nano pigments and natural colorants. Special effect pigments are further segmented into pearlescent pigments and metallic pigments.On the basis of application, the global cosmetic pigments market is segmented into facial makeup, eye makeup, lip products, nail products, hair color products, special effect & special purpose products and others. Facial makeups are further sub segmented into powder, foundation and blushers.Based on geography, the global cosmetic pigments market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies namely North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and, Middle East & Africa.Report Synopsis:1. Comprehensive quantitative analysis of the industry is provided for the period of 2018-2025 to assist stakeholders to capitalize on the prevailing market opportunities.2. Comprehensive analysis of the factors that drive and restrict market growth is provided in the report.3. Comprehensive quantitative analysis of the industry is provided for the period of 2018-2025 to assist stakeholders to capitalize on the prevailing market opportunities.4. Extensive analysis of the key segments of the industry helps in understanding the trends in types of point of care test across Europe.5. To get a comprehensive overview of the Global Cosmetic Pigments Market.FREE | Speak to Analyst and Get Free Customized Information about Report @About Us:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with an unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact Us-Data Bridge Market ResearchUS: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com 2019 Quilt Market Analysis By Top Key Players: Calvin Klein, Croscill, Echo, Greenland Home Fashions, Lambs & Ivy, Laura Ashley, Nautica, Pem America, Anthropologie, C & F Quilt Market https://www.reporthive.com/enquiry.php?id=1557161&req_type=smpl&utm_source=SP https://www.reporthive.com/enquiry.php?id=1557161&req_type=purch https://www.reporthive.com Quilt Market separates the market by the top manufacturer, end users, and their application according to their respective data including market size & forecast, consumption, sales revenue, price, gross margin, supply and demand by region, and consumer profile. The report also analyze innovative business strategies, value added factors and business opportunities.In consumption market, the growth rate of global consumption is smooth relatively. North America, Asia and Europe are still the mainly consumption regions due to the advanced production technology and rapid development of economy.Download Sample PDF copy of this report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Calvin Klein Croscill Echo Greenland Home Fashions Lambs & Ivy Laura Ashley Nautica Pem America Anthropologie C & F and moreThis report focuses on the Quilt Market in global market, especially in United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and more.Market Segment by Type, covers Cotton Flannel Cotton/Poly Blend Linen SilkMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Residential CommercialThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Quilt market.Chapter 1, to describe Quilt Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Quilt, with sales, revenue, and price of Quilt, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Quilt, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Quilt market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Quilt sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceEnquire before purchase@:Table of Contents1 Market Overview2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Calvin Klein2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Quilt Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Product A2.1.2.2 Product B2.1.3 Calvin Klein Quilt Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Croscill2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Quilt Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Product A2.2.2.2 Product B2.2.3 Croscill Quilt Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Echo2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Quilt Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Product A2.3.2.2 Product B2.3.3 Echo Quilt Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Greenland Home Fashions.12 Global Quilt Market Size Forecast (2018-2023)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixTOC continued!About Us:Report Hive Research delivers strategic market research reports, statistical survey, industry analysis & forecast data on products & services, markets and companies. Our clientele ranges mix of global business leaders, government organizations, SMEs, Individual & Start-ups, top management consulting firms, universities etc. Our library of 700,000 + reports targets high growth emerging markets in the USA, Europe Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific covering industries like IT, Telecom, Semiconductor, Chemical, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Energy & Power, Manufacturing, Automotive & Transportation, Food & Beverages etc. This large collection of insightful reports assists clients to stay ahead of time & competition. We help in business decision-making on aspects such as market entry strategies, market sizing, market share analysis, sales & revenue, technology trends, competitive analysis, product portfolio & application analysis etc.500, North Michigan Avenue,Suite 6014Chicago, IL - 60611United StatesContact UsMike RossMarketing Managersales@reporthive.comPhone Number: +1-312 604 7084 DNA Analysis in Government Market Is Booming Worldwide| Ultra Electronics Forensic, NetBio, EyeLock DNA Analysis in Government Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1530758-global-dna-analysis-in-government-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1530758-global-dna-analysis-in-government-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1530758 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1530758-global-dna-analysis-in-government-market-1 Global DNA Analysis in Government Market Insights by Application, Product Type, Competitive Landscape & Regional Forecast 2025 is latest research study released by HTF MI evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, risk side analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. The study provides information on market trends and development, drivers, capacities, technologies, and on the changing capital structure of the Global DNA Analysis in Government Market. Some of the key players profiled in the study are Lockheed Martin, NEC, M2SYS Technology, MorphoTrust, Ultra Electronics Forensic, NetBio, EyeLock, 3M, A-T Solutions and Stanley Black & Decker.DNA analysis is a scientific technique used by government to identify individuals paternity testing, criminal investigations, disaster victim identification, archaeological research, and determining genetic links to diseases with the help of the characteristics of their DNA. This required DNA samples are collected from blood, semen, vaginal fluid, nasal secretions, and hair with roots. Government sector is getting involved in this DNA analysis due to increase in the number of rape cases, terrorist attacks, sexual assault, kidnapping, homicide, drug-related, and gun violence. Government are providing funds and taking initiatives to support this DNA analysis to investigate and limit criminal activities. On the flipside, high costs of DNA analysis will hamper the growth of market.Enquire for customization in Report @DNA Analysis in Government Market: Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023Research study is to define market sizes of various segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values to the next 5-8 years. The report is designed to comprise each qualitative and quantitative elements of the industry facts including: market share, market size (value and volume 2012-17, and forecast to 2023) with admire to each of the areas and countries concerned inside the examination. Furthermore, the report additionally caters the detailed statistics about the vital elements which includes drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market.Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:Historical year 2013-2017Base year 2018Forecast period** 2018 to 2023 [** unless otherwise stated]Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.The designated segments and sub-section of the market are explained below:The Study is segmented by following Product Type: Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) , Short Tandem Repeat (STR) Analysis , Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) Analysis and OthersMajor applications/end-users industry are as follows: Forensics and Law EnforcementSome of the key Manufacturers Involved in the Market are Lockheed Martin, NEC, M2SYS Technology, MorphoTrust, Ultra Electronics Forensic, NetBio, EyeLock, 3M, A-T Solutions and Stanley Black & DeckerMarket DriversIncreasing number of criminal activities like rape cases, sexual assault, kidnapping and othersGrowing need of security due to terrorist attacksMarket TrendAvailability of mobile applications for DNA analysisInclination towards cloud-based bio-metricsRestraintsDNA analysis is expensiveLack of skilled professionalsYou can get free access to samples from the report here:OpportunitiesRaised funding and initiatives taken by the government and Increment in count of chronic and infectious diseasesKey Target AudienceProfessional service providersIndustry AssociationTechnology investorsGovernments and investment communitiesResearch organizations and associationsFor each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies. If opting for the Global version of DNA Analysis in Government Market analysis is provided for major regions as follows: North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Buy this research report @Key Answers Captured in Study areWhich geography would have better demand for product/services?What are the strategies adopted by big players in the regional market?Which country would see the steep rise in CAGR & year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth?What is the current & expected market size in next five years?What is the market feasibility for long term investment?What opportunity the country would offer for existing and new players in the DNA Analysis in Government market?What is risk involved for suppliers in the geography?What factors would drive the demand for the product/service in near future?What is the impact analysis of various factors in the Global DNA Analysis in Government market growth?What are the recent trends in the regional market and how successful they are?Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global DNA Analysis in Government market.Chapter 1, About Executive Summary to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global DNA Analysis in Government market, Applications [Forensics and Law Enforcement], Market Segment by Regions North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc;Chapter 2, objective of the study.Chapter 3, to display Research methodology and techniques.Chapter 4 and 5, to show the Overall Market Analysis, segmentation analysis, characteristics;Chapter 6 and 7, to show the Market size, share and forecast; Five forces analysis (bargaining Power of buyers/suppliers), Threats to new entrants and market condition;Chapter 8 and 9, to show analysis by regional segmentation[North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc ], comparison, leading countries and opportunities; Regional Marketing Type Analysis, Supply Chain AnalysisChapter 10, focus on identifying the key industry influencers, overview of decision framework accumulated through Industry experts and strategic decision makers;Chapter 11 and 12, Market Trend Analysis, Drivers, Challenges by consumer behaviour, Marketing Channels and demand & supply.Chapter 13 and 14, describe about the vendor landscape (classification and Market Positioning)Chapter 15, deals with Global DNA Analysis in Government Market sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].About Author:HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.com It is often said that maintenance digitalization projects have a very low success rate. Often managed by IT, most CMMS or EAM projects result in systems that maybe work from a technical standpoint (users can login and access the various functions) but cannot be used in practice (data not accurate, no useful reports, inconvenient user interfaces). Obviously such system does not help the company achieve any industrial improvement. This has There was once a time, writes the Portland historian Therese Oneill, when parents were not enslaved to the whims of ultra-confident toddlers. There was no counting to three, no half-hearted threats to suspend iPad privileges. You simply told him to act and he did, respectfully. This golden, pre-permissive-parenting idyll, it turns out, predates not only electronic devices, but household electricity itself. Any parent who makes regular use of the phrase Excuse me, I dont like your tone, has likely been tempted to fire up H.G. Wells time machine and blast back to the Victorian era, when children were meekly obedient. It was a time, notes Oneill, when Dickens Tiny Tim would have wept with gratitude over your heart-smart lentil loaf, not whined and gagged throughout the meal. Contrasted to 21st-century parents, flailing and racked with doubt, Victorian parents basked in moral certitude. We may not be ready for Dickensian day care, but is there anything we can learn from 19th-century parenting? Not really, as it turns out. In Ungovernable: The Victorian Parents Guide to Raising Flawless Children, Oneill delves into the eras highly dubious child-rearing practices. Using a similar format to her previous book, Unmentionable: The Victorian Ladys Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners, Oneill deploys quotes from various 19th-century pundits, archival illustrations and photos, and snarky commentary that informs the reader about discipline, morals, and the devastating repercussions of allowing a child to eat fruit. Using advice that is entertainingly bizarre - and frequently galling - she explores topics such as conception, pregnancy, education and recreation. Chapter titles are acidly funny: My Child Will Eat Neither Mush, Mucilage, Porridge, Pablum, Gruel, nor Loblolly. Is Pickiness Gods Way of Culling the Herd? From the dusty annals of family planning guidebooks, she excavates popular theories, typically mansplained by doctors with ambiguous degrees. One book posits that a woman in a higher state of sexual vigor and excitement at the time of conception will produce a boy. Another claims that when a pregnant woman sees a distressing image, she may directly transfer this maternal impression to the childs appearance; one pregnant woman who beheld pictures of a bear gave birth to a furry baby with bearlike claws (quick, hide the spider pictures!). In the chapter detailing health maintenance, it's surprising the already appalling child mortality rate of the period wasn't even higher, given the ways well-meaning parents could kill their offspring with the popular remedies of the day - a gulp of turpentine for constipation, a dose of the deadly poison strychnine for palsy, a dollop of ground tin to expel intestinal worms. How did anyone survive to adulthood? Oneill's general cheekiness can occasionally be her undoing. Some of the terminology she uses gets too cute (a baby is a "tiny tummy tag-along," breasts are "milk muskets" and so on.) She often uses a Q&A format in which a "reader" asks questions, but the jokey repartee, while funny, can grow wearisome ("How'd the Penisocracy manage to hijack the most sacred tradition of womanhood?" "I think you made that word up, and I like it, though it's rather harsh.") It's unnecessary, because Oneill is so adept at extracting intriguing historical tidbits: Who knew the first official maternity dress was designed in the early 1900s by Lane Bryant, namesake of the plus-size retail chain? Oneill warns early in the book that she wrote it to entertain and inform, and would only address, but not dwell on, how miserable that era was for so many children. When she does veer from the snark, however, it's welcome. Explaining Victorians' avoidance of fresh fruits and vegetables and reliance on brandy for their children, she writes that "plain" food, inadvertently made safe through alcohol or rigorous boiling, were the smartest choices to feed a child. In a chapter devoted to discipline, she recounts the story of New York City orphan Mary Ellen Connolly, who was brutally beaten and starved by her guardians. With the help of Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Connolly testified against them in court. At that time, there were no similar laws that protected children from physical abuse, and her testimony prompted a crusade to prevent it. Ungovernable serves as a reminder that pseudoscience is hardly a relic of the past. And have we fully evolved? A century from now, readers will probably snicker that nearly everything early-21st-century parents fed their children came in nugget or squeeze-pouch form. In the meantime, Oneills irreverent guide is a reality check for those who might romanticize the era of strict self-discipline and unchallenged parental authority. Welcome to the past, she writes. Its quite awful here. Jared Walter, a 32-year-old man convicted, implicated and charged in dozens of instances of cutting, masturbating into or gluing womens hair on public transit during the past decade, was banned from TriMet for life on Thursday. Walter is in jail and charged with two more cases of sexual abuse on TriMet light rail trains, stemming from a March 20 incident. Doug Kelsey, TriMets general manger, issued a statement saying he decided to ban Walter after careful thought. The decision to issue this individual a lifetime exclusion from the TriMet system was not one made lightly, he said in a statement. As a public transit provider, people rely on our buses and trains to get to jobs and services. But we cannot allow Mr. Walter to continue to ride based on his recent actions and behavior that threatens the safety and well-being of our riders and employees. Walters history of attacking women on buses and trains dates to 2009, and his crimes occurred in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. He was placed on probation for five years in March 2018 as part of his conviction for a May 2017 incident, where he cut a womans hair while riding a bus in Washington County. While he was banned from riding trains or buses as part of that probation agreement, those requirements were dismissed upon his release from custody, and he could legally ride TriMet as of last year. In September 2017, TriMets board approved an ordinance giving the agencys top officials the ability to issue life-long bans or other more extensive exclusions. That action was taken in response to Walters continued crimes on TriMet trains and buses. TriMet crafted that code to apply to individuals who committed serious physical offense against another rider or person on the system, or if they pose a serious threat to TriMet employees and passengers or he or she has committed a sexual assault. But that harsh exclusion policy couldnt be retroactive, and TriMet couldnt act to ban one of its most notorious riders until Walter reoffended. The exclusion policy allows for the general manager to make an exception to ban a passenger on first offense. While TriMet worked with authorities to make a ban on riding transit part of Walters parole or probation, we had no control over the ultimate length of his sentences, Roberta Altstadt, a TriMet spokeswoman, said in a statement. With new criminal charges pending just four months after his latest release from jail in November 2018, TriMet has invoked the strongest penalty that we as a transit agency can a lifetime exclusion. He has been banned from TriMet several times, including back in 2013 when he received a five-year ban. Im sorry that I hurt a lot of people the victims, my family, myself," he said at the time. I want help. I just dont know how to get it. According to TriMet, he will be able to seek a modification or end to the lifetime ban if he received treatment and can prove he has been rehabilitated. The ordinance sets out a process allowing individuals to request an appeal hearing once a year. Victims will be allowed to submit statements if or when a banned rider appeals. Walter, who drew the moniker TriMet Barber for his repeated attacks and infatuation with womens hair through the past decade, is scheduled to appear in Multnomah County court on Friday. If Walter is spotted on public transit once hes released, he would face criminal trespassing and interfering with public transportation charges. -- Andrew Theen atheen@oregonian.com 503-294-4026 @andrewtheen Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. Another former inmate has sued the Oregon Department of Corrections and a slate of administrators for failing to protect her from a nurse she alleges had sex with her on multiple occasions while she was incarcerated. The lawsuit is the seventh involving sexual misconduct by Tony Klein, a nurse at Coffee Creek Correctional Institution, the states lone womens prison. The lawsuits depict an abusive prison culture where managers and medical staff looked the other way while Klein coerced women inmates into sex. Inmates who brought the lawsuits say staff controlled women through fear, bullying and retribution. Klein exploited that atmosphere that You do what I tell you to do. You do what I want. We control everything about you.' "The atmosphere allowed him to thrive, said Michelle Burrows, the womans lawyer. The woman is also represented by Leonard Williamson, a Salem lawyer who is the former inspector general for the Department of Corrections. The Oregonian/OregonLive isnt identifying the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed this week because she alleges she is a sexual abuse victim. She is identified in the complaint by an alias. Klein is no longer with the corrections department. He worked for the prison system from October 2010 through January 2018 when he resigned. Klein has not been charged with a crime. His nursing license remains active, according to the Oregon State Board of Nursing. According to the agencys website, he has no record of discipline. An agency spokeswoman said she could not say whether an investigation has been opened into Kleins conduct because such information is confidential. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections said the agency takes all allegations of sexual abuse very seriously. In a statement issued Thursday, spokeswoman Jennifer Black said the department is committed to adhering to the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal law intended to deter sexual assault in prison. Black declined to comment on the specific allegations regarding Klein due to pending litigation. In her lawsuit, the woman alleges that Klein groomed inmates for sexual abuse and had a sexual predator pattern which was known to many staff members. The woman who filed the suit was serving a sentence for an assault conviction. She was 19 when she entered prison. According to the lawsuit, she worked as an orderly in the medical unit where she cleaned exam rooms. Klein, the suit alleges, discussed his marital difficulties, his home life and other highly personal issues. He told the woman she was attractive, the lawsuit states, and eventually took her into hidden areas of the medical unit where he kissed and fondled her. The two had sex, the lawsuit alleges. She was uncomfortable but Defendant Klein told her that if she told anyone about what was happening, no one would believe her and she would be punished, the lawsuit states. She said he admitted to her that he had sex with other women inmates. His behavior was so odd that it was obvious and notorious, the suit states. No other medical or security staff would ever assist in cleaning offices or those types of menial tasks. She alleges that he abused her from 2011 through 2017. The abuse left her fearful and anxious, the lawsuit claims. The woman experienced sexual abuse as a child and did not receive sexual abuse survivors counseling or drug and alcohol treatment while at Coffee Creek. The lawsuit alleges the Department of Corrections violated the federal law intended to protect inmates from rape and sexual assault and that the state failed to provide medical care and failed to supervise its employees. She is seeking $5 million in damages. -- Noelle Crombie 503-276-7184 ncrombie@oregonian.com @noellecrombie Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. Public health officials in Israel are urging crew members on national air carriers to ensure that they have received the proper dosage of the measles vaccine after a flight attendant contracted the deadly disease, possibly in New York. Officials with Israel's Ministry of Health said a 43-year-old flight attendant for the national airline El Al had flown back to Israel late last month from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. New York state has been a battleground for concurrent measles outbreaks in Brooklyn and Queens as well as in Rockland County. However, because of the woman's "impaired mental status," officials said it could not be confirmed where or when she contracted the virus. Eyal Basson, a spokesman for Israel's Ministry of Health, told The Washington Post that the woman, who is believed to have been vaccinated as a child, was admitted to the hospital March 31 and has developed encephalitis, a severe complication from measles that causes the brain to swell. As of Wednesday, Basson said in a statement, the woman was unconscious. Itamar Grotto, associate director general of the ministry, told CNN that the woman has been "in a deep coma for 10 days, and we're now just hoping for the best." Israeli health officials issued an alert earlier this month about a measles patient who had traveled on El Al Flight 2 on March 26 and 27 from New York to Tel Aviv. Officials told passengers and crew members to watch for symptoms and report them immediately to health care professionals. El Al said in a statement to the Jerusalem Post that it "operates according to the Health Ministry guidelines." "The Ministry issued precise instructions for all passengers on the flight. If you have any further questions, contact your family doctor or the Health Ministry," the airline said. It does not appear that the patient spread the virus to others on the flight. Basson said public health experts have not been able to speak with the woman because she is unconscious, but her mother told them that she had received all required childhood vaccinations, which, in the 1970s, would have included one dose of a vaccine intended to protect against measles and other childhood diseases. Israel now recommends two doses of the MMR/MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella and varicella) vaccine, but it's not known whether the woman received the second dose. U.S. public health experts have said that one dose of the MMR vaccine is about 93 percent effective at preventing measles, an extremely contagious virus that can have serious consequences - pneumonia, hearing loss, brain damage and death. The Post's Lena H. Sun reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children receive two doses of the MMR vaccine - the first at 12 to 15 months of age and the second at 4 to 6 years of age. Sun added: "People born between 1957 and 1989 generally only had one MMR dose. One dose is about 93 percent effective at preventing measles, but anyone in that age group can still get a second dose, says Russell Faust, medical director for Michigan's Oakland County health department." " 'There's no downside to getting an MMR, especially during an outbreak," says Faust." Since the introduction of the measles vaccine in the 1960s, measles cases in Israel, as well as in the United States, have declined steadily. But in recent years, amid worldwide measles outbreaks and an anti-vaccine movement - sustained, in part, by fraudulent research that purported to show a link between autism and a preservative used in vaccines - the numbers have spiked. From March 2018 to January, more than 3,400 people have been infected with measles in Israel, the Health Ministry said. The recent outbreak there has largely affected the country's ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, within which there has been more reluctance to vaccinate children, according to the Times of Israel. The United States also has been battling such outbreaks. In 2000 - almost four decades after parents began vaccinating their children - measles was declared eliminated in the United States, according to CDC data. But CDC data shows that from 2000 to 2018, there were 140 measles cases on average per year in the United States. And three fatalities were reported during that time - one in 2002, one in 2003 and one in 2015. Over the past three months, according to the CDC, 555 measles cases have been reported in 20 states, including Oregon and Washington. A Washington County deputy was injured when a car collided with his sheriffs office car Wednesday afternoon, officials said. Deputy Frank Ward and the other driver, Jordan Cutts, 24, both suffered serious injuries, according to state police. Troopers believe Cutts, of Forest Grove, was driving north on Northwest Glencoe Road when he drove into the opposite lane to turn on to Northwest Wren Road. His Mazda Protege stuck Wards car head-on, police said. Ward and Cutts were transported to Legacy Emmanuel Hospital. Ward is assigned to patrol Banks, according to that citys website. The collision occurred two miles from the site of an earlier crash that killed a motorcyclist. -- Molly Young myoung@oregonian.com The citys first sanctioned community for homeless people has become a permanent part of the Kenton neighborhood after an early April move to a new location. The Kenton Womens Village started in 2017 as an experiment where 14 women who had experienced trauma that made them reluctant to go to homeless shelters would live in 8-by-12-foot pods -- essentially just large enough for a bed and some belongings. It attracted national attention because of its backing by the city-county Joint Office of Homeless Services. It also drew ire early in its test phase from some residents. But after more than a year, the project has been considered a success and the city has invested in expanding the village to 23 women in a long-term location with more amenities. Seven pods from the original village were moved to a new site blocks away with 21 new ones built and donated by local contractors and construction companies. The Joint Office of Homeless Services spent about $19,000 on the move. The city has spent almost $350,000 on the village since its inception. Multnomah County pays for operational expenses, including a contract with Catholic Charities to manage the village and provide social services for the residents. The new village has sewer service, water and electricity -- a huge upgrade to the quality of life from the last one. The first homes didnt have heat in the winter, and the women werent allowed to use space heaters, a safety precaution that sometimes made the cold nights miserable. But each newly built home has a radiant heating panel, and the row of port-a-potties will soon be swapped for flush toilets. So far, 24 women have used their tiny home to find work, organize their life and find a permanent place to live. Some women have not made the step to permanent housing, according to Catholic Charities development project manager Deborah Kamprath. Those who have been able to transition are still in the same housing -- a striking fact despite the small sample size. Kamprath said that an average woman who comes to the village has been living on the street for five years -- long past the one year needed to be considered chronically homeless. People who are chronically homeless tend to have the hardest time keeping a room long-term once placed in housing. She attributes the success rate to the intensive support the women receive once in the village. Each resident gets her own space in one of the pods. She can lock the door and decorate to make it her own. But she also must participate in a process to become financially self-sufficient, such as finding a job, getting medical and dental care, obtaining new identification documents and other work that can help her move on from the village. Women who opt out of the services side get asked to leave the village. But that has been the minority, said Kamprath. Most women are like Charm Lauritzen, who moved into the village when it first opened on the new site. Lauritzen likely wouldnt have gone to a large homeless shelter. She didnt really consider herself homeless, just between opportunities. She had come back from a stint in Kosovo with PeaceCorps and couldnt find a room to rent in Portland or a job to pay the rent. Most of her family is out of state, and her daughter was in college. So she parked her car at night in the Mount Tabor neighborhood where she used to live before going overseas and snuck showers at the Catholic Charities day center or the Oregon Tradeswomen program where she was enrolled to become a carpenter. Still, she struggled with the cold January nights cramped into a tiny vehicle with all her belongings. She embraced the womens village because of the tiny house aspect and because it gave her a place to regroup while she figured out her next path. When youre sleep deprived, that makes life that much more stressful, Lauritzen said. When you dont have your own place to go to everythings that much more stressful. Lauritzen completed the eight-week course and then enrolled in a three-week Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute program and is now looking for jobs in her new field. She hopes to stay at the village for a year -- the average length of stay for women at the village -- while she starts a new job, saves money and prepares a plan to buy her own land where she can build her own house. In the meantime, her own home, which she repainted beige, teal and yellow once she moved in, can serve as inspiration. The 21 new pods were all built and donated by local contractors and construction firms in a friendly competition to see how each would improve on one of three designs created by Portland State University School of Architecture students, SRG Partnership and Scott Edwards Architecture. The designs come from insulation and durability tests and interviews with the women who lived in the 14 original pods about what they liked and didnt. Those homes were designed and donated in an architecture competition, so the styles varied. But most women appreciated natural light, porches, recessed storage space that made the space feel bigger and frames that didnt appear like they were trapped in a box. Andersen Construction, which helped prepare the new village site, won as the best in show pod with its use of heavy cross-laminated timber panels on the floor and for a bench outside that give the home a warm, rustic feel. A vertical window runs the length of one side to draw the eye up toward the tall ceilings and make the tiny space feel roomy. High shelves, a pull-down shelf and Murphy bed make the pod more useful for someone who can easily stand and reach and have the benefit of allowing the resident to keep more belongings without it being in the way. Other homes emphasized storage, outside space, ambient lighting or other effects to customize the space. So many firms participated that there are eight extra pods waiting for the next village project. Todd Ferry, a PSU architecture professor and co-founder of the universitys new Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, said that there isnt an immediate project yet, but the Kenton village has generated high interest around the country. His students also helped with the tiny homes for Clackamas Countys homeless veterans village, and he hopes that their work continues to expand. Many of the students got to see their designs in action for the first time at the Kenton village opening after a year of preparation. Ferry said the experience of working within the confines of the assignment and using input from the people who live in the pods forced the students to think specifically about the needs of the people who will live in the pods, but also broadly about what homeless women will need to feel safe. Its transformative for them and makes them, I think, much better designers, Ferry said. As more women move in to the new pods, the city and Ferrys students will be working to beautify the city-owned triangle lot and install a larger kitchen and hygiene facility, which are currently in bright yellow shipping containers only suited for about 14 people. City officials have moved away from endorsing more of these tiny house villages other than the relocation of North Portlands self-governed homeless community Hazelnut Grove. But Ferry and others are enthusiastic that the micro-homes are a good option for certain demographics of people who are living on the street. Its not the silver bullet solution to homelessness, Ferry said. What it seems extremely good at is a place to heal. Subscribe to get the Morning Briefing newsletter delivered to your email inbox weekdays at 7 a.m. The Portland, Oregon sign near the Burnside bridge. (Bruce Ely)LC- The Oregonian GROWTH SLOWDOWN: The Portland areas mid-decade growth spurt has slowed dramatically, new census numbers suggest. Read more. The Kenton Women's Village moved to a new location in April and has expanded, adding 21 new pods built and donated by local contractors and businesses. (Beth Nakamura/Staff) The Kenton Womens Village moved to a new, permanent location in North Portland this month and has expanded, adding 21 pods built and donated by local contractors and businesses. (Beth Nakamura/Staff) Read more. CYLVIA HAYES: Former Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes and the Oregon Government Ethics Commission staff have reached a second potential settlement deal, this time for $50,000. Read more. TUITION EQUITY: Graduate students living in the United States illegally could qualify for in-state tuition rates at Oregon public universities under Senate Bill 859. Read more. GRADUATION RATES: A new report says the Oregon Department of Education hasnt done enough to raise the states high school graduation rate, one of the worst in the nation. Read more. BOOKSTORE TALE: Sometime in the next month, a queer single mom will pack up her kids and comics and move two blocks as part of her embrace of words, pictures and Southeast Portland. Read more. GOOD TIMES: Heres a roundup of 21 things to do in Portland in the week ahead, including Easter egg hunts. Read more. TOP WORKPLACES: Friday is the deadline to submit nominations for the 2019 Top Workplaces competition, which recognizes top employers in Oregon and southwest Washington. Read more. Snap of the Day A $6 margherita pizza special at Pizzeria Otto. Pizzeria Otto, one of Portlands few traditional Neapolitan pizzerias, will open a second location in Southeast Portland later this year. (File photo) Read more. More news Former prison nurse faces another lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct with inmate 25 Easter recipes for ham, lamb, quiche and specialty breads, essential sides Portland Timbers have reportedly acquired striker Brian Fernandez What Hulus Shrill says about Portland Dear Abby: Husband goes to 45th class reunion, hooks up with a classmate, then denies it Ask Amy: Mom says shell be at family events but doesnt show up Carolyn Hax: Bad idea to profile Muslim students even if you think youre being helpful Find more at oregonlive.com Odd in Oregon EXOTIC PETS: The saga of a missing exotic cat in Northwest Portland over the weekend highlighted issues with making pets of wild or semi-wild creatures. Read more. Todays comics Click here to see today's comics Today's obituaries Click here to find area deaths reported recently Today in history AROUND THE WORLD: On April 18, 1983, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber. ... In 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000. On the eve of his sentencing to nearly 10 years in prison, convicted carjacker Darius Trevon Brown was released from the Multnomah County Jail with instructions to return court. No surprise, the 24-year-old was a no-show the next day. Now, warrants are out for Browns arrest. And the prosecutor who handled his case says the plea deal agreeing to nine years and seven months in prison is off the table -- if and when Brown is caught. Brown has been convicted of battery, forgery, stealing identities and car theft and that list only got longer due to his latest crime spree last May. Thats when surveillance video captured him pointing a gun at a stranger on the way to work and taking the mans car, according to court papers. Three days later, Brown was arrested after police tracked him down and they say he responded by ramming the car he was driving into police cruisers, crashing into a telephone pole and then running through nearby yards with a gun, court records say. Brown pleaded guilty on Feb. 8 to his sixth, seventh and eighth felony convictions -- first-degree robbery, car theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm. So why on Feb. 11, the day before his scheduled sentencing, was Brown released to downtown Portland streets? What went wrong? Its unclear, said Sgt. Brandon White, a spokesman for the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office, which operates the countys two jails. The answer is long, complicated and depends on whos talking. White said the Sheriffs Office properly followed a signed order from Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Ramras to release Brown. The order states: Release from custody on this case on Monday 2-11-19 and that Brown was scheduled to be sentenced the following day. We have to follow the order of the judge, White said. We cant just hold him. We cant just keep him in custody. Darius Brown walked out of the Multnomah County Detention Center on Feb. 11, 2019. (File photo) White said defendants are sometimes released from jail before sentencing so they can get their affairs in order or because their sentence isnt going to be lengthy. Jail staff had no information that Brown was supposed to be sentenced to nearly a decade in prison, White said. As a result, the judges order wouldnt have raised any red flags for jail staff, he said. Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet said the judge ordered Browns release only with the understanding that Brown would leave the Multnomah County jail system and go directly into the custody of the Washington County Jail, which had a hold on him. Holds indicate that another jail wants to be notified if an inmate is about to be released. A secure transport van often picks inmates up and brings them to the county with the hold. Overstreet said thats always been his understanding: A hold means an inmate is transferred to another jail. The hold on Brown was linked to a Washington County Circuit Court case for allegedly violating his probation in a third-degree robbery case. Overstreet said the plan was to postpone Browns carjacking sentencing so he could first be sentenced in the Washington County case. Then Brown was to return to Multnomah County for the carjacking sentencing and have his prison term run at the same time as any sentence handed down in his Washington County case, Overstreet said. Darius Brown should have been headed to a jail bed in Washington County, but instead he was released, a prosecutor said. (File photo) But none of that went as planned when the Washington County Jail didnt transport Brown from Multnomah Countys jail system. The prosecution, the judge and the public defender all expected the transfer, Overstreet said. The judge said he couldnt comment because his trial schedule this week prevents him from immediately reading through the case file, and he doesnt remember specifics of the case. Browns public defender, Peyton Lee, declined comment. Washington County Sheriffs Deputy Brian van Kleef said he cant say for certain happened. Van Kleef said Multnomah County jail staff had contacted Washington County staff to say a judge had ordered Browns release, and that Brown would be appearing for sentencing in Multnomah County the next day. Multnomah County then asked Washington County to give Brown a court date for Browns probation violation case. What no one seems able to explain is why Multnomah County didnt just ask to put Brown on the shuttle that runs daily between the jails, as is the usual practice when a defendant has separate cases in the two counties. And why Washington County didnt object to Browns release given that it had a hold on him. They asked for a court date, and we gave them one, van Kleef said. And then Brown was gone. Clearly, van Kleef said, something was lost in translation. -- Aimee Green agreen@oregonian.com o_aimee Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. Urging all Americans: We need to welcome refugees and immigrants into our community. What local governments and communities do defines what a sanctuary city is. This is the perfect time to tell the Trump administration that we are ready and we want to lead the welcome. The Trump administration is trying to stop federal dollars from supporting refugees and immigrants integrating into American society, but we will be ready to fight this in the court. Call your local, state and federal representatives now and tell them you support and welcome refugees and immigrants in your community. Som Subedi, Portland By Paul Waldman, Greg Sargent The Washington Post Waldman and Sargent are opinion writers for the Plum Line blog. A little over a year ago, President Donald Trump grew so frustrated with the failure of Jeff Sessions to protect him from the Russia investigation that he exclaimed: "I don't have an attorney general." Now that Attorney General William Barr gave a news conference marked by a remarkably dishonest effort to pre-spin the Mueller report, and now that we have seen much of the report itself, the upshot of the day's events can be summed up in one, similar sentence: "We don't have an attorney general." On Thursday morning, Barr tried to explain why he declined to bring obstruction of justice charges against Trump, even though Mueller did not exonerate him of it. Barr appealed to us to consider how victimized Trump felt, when considering the extensive efforts to derail the investigation detailed in the report, noting that Trump "was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks." This appeal is stunning, particularly when viewed alongside the report's details, which paint an exceptionally damning picture of Trump's conduct over the course of two years. What's more, in light of all these findings, Barr's four-page letter summarizing Mueller's report looks even more irresponsible in retrospect. Barr's letter merely claimed Mueller had collected evidence on "both sides" of the question of whether Trump had committed criminal obstruction of justice, and said he and deputy Rod Rosenstein had decided charges weren't warranted - without sharing any of the evidence that Mueller had collected so we could evaluate their decision ourselves. That gave Trump and his propagandists a way to spin Mueller's report as full exoneration for two weeks. We still don't have a persuasive or detailed explanation as to why they didn't bring charges. But we do have much of the evidence Mueller collected. And the misconduct is extremely grave. Mueller's report concludes that Trump extensively tried to exert "undue influence" over the investigations into Russian conspiracy and Trump obstruction of justice. Remarkably, Mueller concludes that Trump failed in his mission, not because he didn't try, but because his underlings wouldn't carry out his orders: "Our investigation found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations. The incidents were often carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the President sought to use his official power outside of usual channels. These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney General's recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony. . . ." "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests." Now let's look at some of the specific acts of misconduct the Mueller report details: - Mueller confirmed the accounts that former FBI Director James Comey supplied: Trump demanded his loyalty and pressed Comey to fire national security adviser Mike Flynn. Trump falsely claimed that neither of these things happened, but the report sides with Comey's versions of events. - Mueller details that after Trump fired Comey, the White House flatly lied to cover up the fact it was Trump's decision. Trump called Rosenstein - who had written that memo providing the pretext that the firing was about the FBI's unfair treatment of Hillary Clinton - and asked him to conduct a news conference explaining the firing. But Rosenstein refused, saying that if he did that, he'd have to tell the media the truth, which was that it was Trump's decision, and not his. A White House spokesman subsequently told the falsehood to the media. - The report notes that when Trump became aware he was being investigated for obstruction of justice, Trump's misconduct grew substantially more serious: "At that point, the President engaged in a second phase of conduct, involving public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation." - The report details that Trump repeatedly ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to instruct Rosenstein to fire Mueller. The report says McGahn "decided to quit because he did not want to participate in events that he described as akin to a Saturday Night Massacre," but he ultimately stayed and deflected the requests. - When press reports emerged about Trump telling McGahn to have Mueller fired, Trump instructed McGahn to lie to the public and claim that the president had never ordered him to remove the special counsel. McGahn refused. - The report has new details on how Trump misled the country about the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting. It recounts that top Trump adviser Hope Hicks wanted to disclose that Russians had offered Donald Trump Jr. information helpful to the campaign. But the president nixed that, explicitly ordering Hicks to issue a statement that falsified the true purpose of the meeting. - The report confirms new details about Trump's pressure on top intelligence officials to impede the investigation. It says Trump may have pressed Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to subvert the investigation, with one aide to Coats suggesting (in the report's words) that Trump wanted him to "get it over with" or "end it." - Trump also called a second top official and asked him to publicly refute news stories linking him to Russia. A third official called it (in the report's words) the "most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service." - Trump directed his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to tell then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to give a speech announcing he was directing Mueller to focus his investigation only on "election meddling for future elections." Lewandowski was unable to arrange a meeting with Sessions. It's important to note that in many of these cases, Trump initially lied about this conduct, which has now been confirmed. What we are left with is this: Trump will not be prosecuted for obstruction of justice, but that does not mean he did not obstruct justice. He clearly did. Trump tried to subvert, undermine, discredit, and even halt the Russia investigation - an investigation that was necessary to develop a full accounting of a hostile foreign power's well-organized campaign to help elect him president, an accounting he did not want to happen. Trump's actions were an appalling offense to the integrity of our legal system and the office he holds. One other point: The position taken by the president's team has long been that Trump cannot violate obstruction of justice statutes by definition because any interference in investigations is within his power as head of the executive branch. In Trump's lawyers words, as "chief law enforcement officer," Trump "could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired." This is essentially what Barr told Trump in an unsolicited memo, which is probably why he got the job. But importantly, in his report, Mueller rejected this argument: "In sum, contrary to the position taken by the President's counsel, we concluded that . . . we had a valid basis for investigating the conduct at issue in this report. In our view, the application of the obstruction statutes would not impermissibly burden the President's performance of his Article II function to supervise prosecutorial conduct or to remove inferior law-enforcement offices. And the protection of the criminal justice system from corrupt acts by any person - including the President - accords with the fundamental principle of our government that "no (person) in this country is so high that he is above the law." Mueller also conspicuously declined to conclude that "no criminal conduct occurred," and he declined to reach the judgment that Trump "clearly did not commit obstruction of justice." The report is a clear message from Mueller to Congress and the public. Barr may not prosecute Trump; indeed, his intent to protect the president is why hes attorney general today. But Congress can still conclude that the multitudinous acts of obstruction the report lays out provide more than ample reason to take action. Its just a matter of deciding to do it. The Harney County sheriff, who rose to regional prominence during the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, has announced that hes planning to resign. Dave Ward, sheriff of the rural Oregon county, cited funding concerns in an op-ed announcing his plans to retire at the end of 2019. He said its his opinion that the lone way for Harney County to surmount a current budget crisis is to eliminate employee positions. And he said that if a sheriffs office position needs to be eliminated, it should be his. He recommended a deputy be appointed sheriff and that the deputys position should go unfilled. I am no longer willing to accept the civil liability associated with the failure to appropriately fund/staff our jail, search and rescue, or law-enforcement services to our community, he wrote in the op-ed, which was published online Wednesday by the Burns Times-Herald. These are not frivolous expenditures, they are duties and responsibilities of the sheriff, mandated by law. I am not willing to cut services to the citizens of this community, nor am I willing to continue operating a jail that is not funded to meet the minimum standards required. Ward has served as the sheriff since 2015. The armed occupation of the federal bird sanctuary, spurred by the re-imprisonment of a pair of Harney County ranchers and conflict over federal land management, lasted 41 days beginning in January 2016. -- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. A memorial service for a slain southwest Washington sheriffs deputy will be held next week in North Portland. The memorial service for Cowlitz County Deputy Justin DeRosier will take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Portlands Chiles Center. Newlife Church in Longview will also host a live video viewing. A memorial fund has also been established. The Cowlitz County Sheriffs Office said any leftover donations will go directly to DeRosiers family. DeRosier, a 29-year-old father and husband, was shot after being sent late Saturday to check on a disabled vehicle blocking a road about 3 miles east of Interstate 5. The man suspected of killing him was later fatally shot by police. -- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. SALEM Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order Thursday morning laying out a path for her to take a direct role in day-to-day operations at the states embattled child welfare program. Under the executive order, Brown will lead a new oversight board that will meet at least every other week to decide what the child welfare agency should do. And she will install an on-site crisis management team to ensure Department of Human Services Director Fariborz Pakseresht and Child Welfare Director Marilyn Jones implement the panels recommendations. Brown will also embed one of her senior advisers at the child welfare agency to oversee the work, her order says. Im hoping with this level of oversight we can continue to make progress and ensure our children are safe, Brown said. The governor announced the strategy two days after a national child advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 10 children in Oregon foster care and a week after lawmakers questioned the states decision to send one of those children a 9-year-old girl to a facility in Montana that used physical restraints and Benadryl injections to control her. In recent months, news reports have revealed Oregon child welfare leaders have increasingly housed foster children in institutions, including sending them to out-of-state programs accused of abuse and placing them at residential programs in converted juvenile jails. A legislative hearing on child welfare officials use of foster programs in converted juvenile jails is scheduled for Thursday. Dawn Post, deputy director of the group A Better Childhood which filed the federal lawsuit along with Disability Rights Oregon, acknowledged the governors action in a message on social media Thursday. We are pleased that the state appears to be beginning to treat the care system as being in the crisis it is and we look forward to keeping the pressure on the state to ensure that the state, through whatever means, finally stops hurting children, Post wrote on Twitter. At the same time, Oregon House Republicans said in a press release that Brown had more than enough time to identify problems and start implementing changes in the states child welfare program. Another board wont do, they wrote in a press release. Under Pakseresht, the agency has ignored reporting deadlines spelled out in state law and failed to disclose the deaths of several children killed after the case workers received or investigated reports or abuse, as The Oregonian/OregonLive first reported in November. A proposal now working its way through the statehouse seeks to impose stricter rules on when and how the agency must disclose those deaths. The agency has also failed to accurately communicate and, Browns order says, to comply with the states public records laws. In response to questions about specific cases, the agency gave false information to The Oregonian/OregonLive in December. Its statements asserted the agency had no responsibility to publicly disclose any missteps that may have proceeded the deaths of two children, including the shooting death of a foster child in her foster home by another foster child. In March, accurate information about the agencys responsibility to investigate and report on the deaths became public after The Oregonian/OregonLive received public documents that contradicted what the agency said months earlier. Agency officials then acknowledged they had given out false information. The governors recommendation for a crisis management team is reminiscent of an idea pitched by her Republican opponent in the 2018 election, then-Rep. Knute Buehler. In February 2018, Buehler called for the Legislature to appropriate an additional $50 million to address child welfare problems and bring in a rapid improvement team. At Browns request, the Legislature boosted child welfare spending by $14.5 million but no crisis management team was hired. The executive order highlights the importance of child welfare leaders complying with Oregon public records law and the statutory mandate to review all abuse and neglect deaths of children in state care or who were on child protective services radar. Browns administration has already taken a hands-on approach to the handling of public records and information releases at the Department of Human Services. In 2018, the governors spokespeople routinely made the final call on whether the child welfare program should release even basic information such as the number of children in the system. Brown said her communication staffs micromanagement of DHS information releases was intended to ensure the agency responded expeditiously on public records and information requests. Correspondence between the governors team and child welfare officials, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive, showed no evidence to support the claim this sped up responses. On Thursday, Brown said she recently grew concerned "about information coming to my office, frankly, and to the public, making sure that information (on child welfare) was accurate about both individual cases and systems issues. Brown has been working to fix deep-seated problems in the states foster care system since she took office in 2015, but the lawsuit and latest revelations about the states questionable decisions suggest her attempts at reform have not stuck. In a statement Thursday, Brown said, Oregons child welfare system is overburdened to the point where I have serious concerns about the states ability to sufficiently serve our most vulnerable children. While DHS is working on long-term solutions to right-size the foster care system, there needs to be immediate action to protect children in care today. Thats why today I am ... bringing in additional resources and expertise. In recent years Brown has: Commissioned an independent report, delivered in 2016 on the problems and solutions underlying Oregons foster crisis Appointed an advisory committee to oversee that report Required the Department of Human Services to submit monthly updates to her Hand-picked two different men to lead the Department of Human Services, one of whom Clyde Saiki retired less than two years into the job. Brown notes in the order that the agencys strict compliance with certain rules and practices is hindering its ability to hire and procure services necessary to make improvements in a timely manner, and she says the foster care crisis justifies bypassing some of those regulations. The executive order currently is set to remain in place for six months but Brown could extend it further. Reporter Molly Young contributed to this article. A third developer has abandoned an effort to redevelop Northwest Portlands Centennial Mills, a former flour mill thats now been in the citys hands for nearly two decades. The Lynd Co., a San Antonio condo developer, was the latest to enter negotiations with Prosper Portland to redevelop the site. The economic development agencys executive director, Kimberly Branam, told the Portland City Council this week that Lynd had pulled out. The company cited the cost of reusing the remaining mill structures, environmental clean-up and waterfront development constraints as the reason the project wouldnt come together, Branam said. Lynd and Prosper Portland officials were not immediately available for comment. Portland bought the site in 2000 for $7.7 million, and Prosper Portland then known as the Portland Development Commission recommended tearing down the mill a few years later. The Portland City Council nixed the demolition after residents objected, and the city has since spent millions tearing down pieces of the site and maintaining others. Redevelopment would likely cost tens of millions or more, previous efforts have shown. In 2011, a plan to build a $46 million food hall on the site fell apart, and the California developer behind the proposal sued, eventually getting nearly $700,000 in predevelopment funds and settlement money from the city. Then, in 2015, the economic development agency walked away from a $116 million proposal from developer Jordan Schnitzer, which called for $38.5 million in public money. In an email to the City Council, Branam said there was considerable response when her agency last sought proposals for site in 2017 and that it would try to reconnect with developers who had expressed interest. It said at the time it had received five letters of interest. -- Elliot Njus enjus@oregonian.com; 503-294-5034; @enjus Gordon Friedman contributed to this report. Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. Goose Creek, SC (29445) Today Areas of patchy fog early. A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by increasing clouds with showers developing this afternoon. High 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Delta College plans to kick off construction of a new $13 million learning center in Midland on Monday , with a groundbreaking ceremony set for 3:30 p.m. The "Delta College Midland Center" will be located at 419 E. Ellsworth St. in downtown Midland, enclosed by Ellsworth, Townsend, Buttles and Cronkright streets. The three-story building will include science and computer labs, classrooms, advanced educational and training technology, special use training rooms, multi-purpose rooms and labs, student services and administrative space. Site demolition and construction on the 30,000-square-foot building will begin in early May and the building is expected to be occupied by summer 2020. The first academic classes will be offered in the fall 2020 semester. Delta has owned a Midland facility on Wheeler Road for more than 27 years but faced challenges due to an aging building and infrastructure, according to a school announcement. The new building will offer students an innovative environment with state-of-the-art technology, something Delta said it strives to provide to all of its students. In addition to Midland, Delta College offers educational classes in Saginaw and Bay City. The new Downtown Saginaw Center is nearly complete and will open to students this fall. "Delta College has always been committed to providing local citizens with a college education that's affordable, the highest quality and easy to access," said Delta College President Jean Goodnow. "I believe this Downtown Midland Center will continue to fulfill that commitment to our communities." Also scheduled to launch soon is the Dow Innovation Teacher Fellowship, a development collaborated by Dow, the University of Michigan and Delta College. This initiative will provide area teachers with an immersive learning environment and education hub to "inspire the workforce of tomorrow" and "create sustainable pathways that will have a positive impact on the environment and society." Scheduled speakers at Monday's ceremony include Goodnow, Dow President and Chief Financial Officer Howard Ungerleider and Delta Board of Trustees Chair Diane Middleton. "Delta is very excited to begin construction on what promises to be a great learning environment," Goodnow said in an announcement. "Students, educators and employers have been asking us for this opportunity in Midland, and we are pleased to see it happening." More than $9 million of the $13 million project was provided from community donors including Dow and the Dow Corning Foundation, The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation, the Harry and Margaret Towsley Foundation, the Charles J. Strosacker Foundation and Chemical Bank. The construction project manager is Spence Brothers Construction and the architectural firm is TowerPinkster. (Frank Isaac Wixom, born in 1863, was a jack-of-all-trades and changed the topography of Midland and Gladwin Counties. His story continues.) Frank Wixom's personal diaries have left a permanent record of the years from 1905 to 1925. Riverdale Farms, formed with investors to provide money as Wixom needed it, failed miserably. By 1914 he was living on a farm simply called Red Building Camp (in what today is Francis Shores) and crops and cattle were being raised to help finance the goal of the dams. Unable to hire enough farm help, Wixom worked in the fields in addition to promoting the purchase of the land necessary for his project. In the decade of 1910 to 1919, he suffered a stroke from overwork and emotional turmoil. His diaries give mute testimony to that period with his handwriting becoming illegible for many pages and then ceasing altogether for several weeks. Many times he felt like giving up. He was constantly desperate for money and when he submitted requests to the Riverdale Farms Co. for money, his requests were ignored or less money was sent than was sufficient to keep him going. Letter after letter details how people demanded payment for what they thought was due them having sold their land or optioned it to Riverdale Farms for flowage rights. Distraught over finances and setbacks, Wixom wrote that he was "going to quit. I'm not going to put up with this any longer." Fortunately for Wixom, the Hayhurst family from Detroit came into his life in 1923. James Hayhurst was an investor in various projects. Edgar Hayhurst, the son, was a stockbroker and investor. Alice Maude Hayhurst, the daughter, was employed by several Detroit lawyers and as also an investor with her father and brother. They believed in Wixom's project and put both moral and financial support behind his dream for almost two decades. In 1923 the Wolverine Power Co. came into existence. The Hayhurst family purchased the Elisha Day farm in Edenville and Maude and her father moved there. The home was remodeled extensively and it became home and workplace for Maude and her dad James, Frank Wixom, Amos Secor (superintendent of construction for the dams), a housekeeper, a cook and some of the hired hands who did the work on the farm. One room became the first office of the Wolverine Power Co. Frank Wixom became president of the Wolverine Power Co. and held that position until his death in 1943. Actual construction of the dams began in 1923. They were completed in 1924 and the first power generated in October 1925. Consumers Power signed a 99-year lease with the Wolverine Power Co. to use all the power generated by the new dams. Men and horses and the most primitive of equipment constructed the dams that are still in use today. Men stood in the waters of the Tittabawassee River and the Tobacco River to begin digging for the dams. Horses pulled great scrapers to make the embankments. Men driving tractors packed the soil down and moved the earth from place to place to make room for the enormous structures that were to house the generators to harness the power of the rivers. Water was backed up from Sanford to Edenville to form Sanford Lake. Above Edenville, two larger dams were built on the Tobacco and Tittabawassee Rivers just above their confluence. Those two dams were connected by a large embankment extending about a mile and a quarter between the two rivers. This became Wixom Lake, the largest "fill" in the state of Michigan at that time and covered 3,258 acres, stretching for 10 miles making a fork-shaped lake on what had once been farmland. In Gladwin County, the Smallwood Dam created the Smallwood Lake covering 1,300 acres and the Secord Lake covered 2,087 acres. Wixom's dream resulted in the dams making a series of lakes almost 35 miles long and covered 9,000 acres of ground. The dams not only powered electricity, but they also helped with flood control. In 1930, rainfall for the year saw the rivers at a record low. At about the same time, banks in Detroit and Toledo were having financial difficulties. All of this affected the Wolverine Power Co. and in August 1931 the company was placed in receivership. Wixom was appointed receiver and attorney John C. Shaffer was appointed attorney for the receiver. Litigations, compromises and conferences followed with Frank Wixom and John Shaffer involved in legalities until Jan. 16, 1934 when Judge Tuttle ordered the sale of the company free and clear of all encumbrances. Wixom bought the Wolverine Power Co. assets. Successful in fulfilling his dream of harnessing the power of the Tittabawassee and Tobacco rivers, Wixom turned to other projects. His Lumberjack Picnics began in 1932 and continued until 1941 when ill health at the age of 78 forced him to give them up. He died in 1943. During hits heyday, the Lumberjack Picnics drew enormous crowds. One year, 50,000 people came to enjoy the spectacle. The 155 acres the Hayhurst family purchased to help Frank Wixom were sold after 1943 to Maude Hayhurst's niece Dorothy McGinn Harper and her husband. Still later the property was owned by Dorothy and Stanley's daughter Alice who married David Sias. Frank Wixom and the Hayhurst family have been forgotten. Headlines in the Midland Daily News have recorded the story of what has happened to the Edenville dams. "Winter recreation dries up on Wixom Lake." "Hundreds attend meeting for update on Wixom Lake." "Nobody wants Wixom down the drain." Nobody knows about the long years of heartache and hard work that went into the building of those dams. Alexander Graham Bell said it, "The inventor is a man who looks around upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization." Frank Wixom was such a man and eventually his dream benefitted our small corner of the world. Hopefully his dream will continue. CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - About 24 hours after presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke released his tax returns from the past decade, a University of Virginia student asked him why he didn't donate more money to charities. O'Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso, and his wife reported in their 2017 tax return that they donated $1,166 - which was one-third of 1 percent of their $370,412 of income that year. O'Rourke told reporters on Wednesday that, over the years, he and his wife have donated "thousands of dollars" more that they did not itemize "because it wasn't important for us to take the deduction." The campaign has yet to provide updated numbers. "I've served in public office since 2005. I do my best to contribute to the success of my community, of my state and, now, of my country," O'Rourke said in responding to the student on Tuesday night. "I'm doing everything that I can right now, spending this time with you - not with our kiddos, not back home in El Paso - because I want to sacrifice everything to make sure that we meet this moment of truth with everything that we've got." O'Rourke is not the only Democratic candidate who has had personal finances questioned at a time when many voters are frustrated by the ever-growing economic divide in the country. One by one, Democratic candidates have released their tax returns - something that President Donald Trump has refused to do - in an attempt at transparency. But that openness also invites judgment, most recently about the level of charitable donations by those seeking to lead a party which has taken a sympathetic approach to the needy and criticized Republicans for failing to support them. While many Democratic candidates and the voters who support them are alarmed by attempts to turn government responsibilities over to nonprofits and charities, donating to charity has long been considered a civic duty. "While voluntary charitable donations are commendable, they can never replace ongoing public investments in major social programs and services that improve people's lives," said Arianna Jones, a spokeswoman for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his wife, who donated about 3.4 percent of their income last year, a rate his campaign said does not include proceeds from one of his books that went to charity. Some observers said on Wednesday that it was unfair to look only at the amount of charitable donations given by the candidates. Anand Giridharadas, author of "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World," said on Twitter that the percentage of donations from public officials "who make a living working to improve the institutions we share in common. . ..cannot be compared with that of businesspeople who harm the public good" but are larger charitable givers. Households that earn more than $100,000 give about 2 to 3 percent of their income to charity, according to Ashley Post, spokeswoman for Charity Navigator, the nation's largest independent philanthropy evaluator. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and her husband donated 5.5 percent of their income last year, while Gov. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and his wife donated about 4 percent. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and her husband were just under 2 percent, as was Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and her husband. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and her husband were at 1.4 percent. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., released 15 years of his returns in 2013 when running for Senate but has yet to make more recent years public. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, D, and Julian Castro, D, the former mayor of San Antonio, have yet to release their returns. O'Rourke has not released his 2018 return, which was due on Monday, but his campaign said he will soon do so. Former vice president Joe Biden, a Democrat contemplating a presidential campaign, faced criticism during the 2008 campaign when his tax returns showed he and his wife had donated only $3,690 to charity in total over the previous 10 years. Trump has bragged repeatedly about his generosity - but he has never released his own tax returns or provided other proof of his donations to charity. In 2016, The Washington Post spent months looking for that proof, and found little evidence that Trump had made major charitable gifts in the recent past. Between 2009 and 2015, The Post could only find one donation made out of Trump's own pocket, and that was for less than $10,000. In that period, Trump did not give any money to the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the charity he started in 1987. During the same period, The Post found Trump used the money in the Trump Foundation to buy large portraits of himself, to pay off legal settlements for his for-profit businesses and to make a prohibited political donation. The New York attorney general sued Trump in 2018, alleging he'd allowed "persistently illegal conduct" at that charity. The suit is pending, but Trump has agreed to shut the charity down. Since The Post began covering Trump's charitable giving, it appears to have increased: Trump gave donations for flood relief during his presidential campaign, and since taking office he has donated his presidential salary. The issue of tax returns has been a partisan weapon as the 2020 campaign begins, with Democrats suggesting that Trump's refusal means he must have something to hide. But that in turn put pressure on Democrats to conform to the tradition of releasing their own returns, which spurred the sharp look at their charitable giving. O'Rourke said in addition to the donations listed in his tax returns, he and his wife have donated thousands more dollars that they did not itemize. He said he is in the process of reaching out to charities to calculate the total amount he has donated over the past decade. In O'Rourke's 2017 return, he and his wife itemized $1,166 in donations: $1,000 to the Annunciation House, which assists migrants and asylum seekers; $100 to the college Amy O'Rourke attended; $50 to Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which provides legal services to immigrants who have been detained; and $16 to an organization identified as "FROM K-1 - CAMPR II LIMITED." The campaign has yet to explain what that organization does. In previous years, the couple's itemized donations ranged from $530 in 2008, up to $12,900 in 2013, but were usually in the lower end of the range. Except for 2013, the couple's itemized charity donations totaled less than 1 percent of their income. O'Rourke's donations spiked in 2013 when the government shut down for 16 days and he joined other lawmakers in donating his salary over that period to charity. That year, the O'Rourkes reported giving $5,000 to Annunciation House, $4,800 to four veterans groups, $1,200 to an El Paso addiction recovery center, $1,000 to the El Paso Children's Hospital, $800 to the local public university and $100 to the El Paso Community Foundation. These donations totaled 4.3 percent of the couple's income. O'Rourke - who served on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee for six years - said he cannot remember if he donated to veterans groups in years other than 2013. "The honest answer is I don't know," he said. "I can't remember how much we gave." He added that he devoted much of his time as congressman to veterans issues, trying to increase access to mental health services and reduce wait times at the El Paso VA Health Care System. "Again, beyond the donations measured in dollars, we've donated our effort, our time, and it changed policy and practices and outcomes for veterans in El Paso," O'Rourke said. O'Rourke said he welcomed the scrutiny and hopes all presidential contenders release their returns, including Trump. In addition to questions about his charitable giving, the Wall Street Journal pointed out that the O'Rourkes appeared to have underpaid their taxes by several thousand dollars in 2013 and 2014 - a mistake that the campaign said the couple is correcting. "You deserve to know where we derive our income, how we have spent our money - and we should see that also from the president of the United States. It should be U.S. law, but it's not now, and the best way to move forward on it is to try to lead by example," O'Rourke said. "So I welcome the scrutiny, the questions, the opportunity to respond to them. . . . I think that should be part of anyone's candidacy for the highest, most important office in the country." - - - The Washington Post's David A. Fahrenthold, James Hohmann, Chelsea Janes and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report. Reaching out to Midland County's large population of elderly residents and residents without internet access will be two of the biggest challenges for local organizers of the upcoming 2020 census. Speaking in front of the Midland County Board of Commissioners during its Tuesday meeting, Sharon Mortensen, Midland Community Action Foundation president and CEO, and Chloe Updegraff, Great Lakes Bay Regional Census Hub coordinator, outlined some of the new challenges the area will face. "The census is going to be largely online -- it's an online-first model this time around," Updegraff said. "There's going to be a decrease in regional and local office presence, so folks going door-to-door will still be doing that, but that is going to be pretty drastically scaled back." The recently established Great Lakes Bay Regional Census Hub is a joint effort between Midland County, Bay County, Saginaw County and Isabella County. The Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance, located in Freeland, will house the census hub. Updegraff said ways in which local community leaders can help the census effort include reaching out and educating constituents about the changes in census procedure, as well as documenting new housing for the U.S. Census Bureau. "So much funding is based upon the count that we receive through the census every 10 years," Mortensen said. When she was first contacted by representatives from the Council of Michigan Foundations and Michigan Nonprofit Association gauging her interest in funding a regional census, Mortensen said she questioned where philanthropy fits into the equation. "Philanthropic dollars will end up covering basic governmental dollars if we don't have a complete and accurate count," Mortensen said. The upcoming census will also feature a question asking for citizenship status, though the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to keep the question after a hearing later this month. To the editor: In a recent email sent from Sen. Jim Stamas' office, he expressed disappointment and frustration with Attorney General Dana Nessel's opinion that last year's legislation making Michigan assume responsibility and liability for the Line 5 pipeline tunnel is unconstitutional. He bases his frustration with his statement that the decision will cause the loss of Michigan jobs and energy supply to Michigan. I challenge the senator to move beyond regurgitating lobbyist misinformation and do his own research. I agree that every improvement to the pipeline under the Great Lakes and passing through our inland lake and wetlands areas decreases the chance of a costly and irreversible damaging spill. But, Michigan agreeing to assume the liability of a private, foreign company is akin to someone coming into your house with oil on their feet and you agreeing to foot the bill for cleaning or replacing your carpet. Apparently, Sen. Stamas views that as good government. Regarding the loss of energy supply, Canadian government records show that a vast majority of the Line 5 crude that passes through Michigan never comes back into Michigan for use by Michigan residents. In fact, the Canadian government approved the reversal of flow of a pipeline in Ontario to move more of the Line 5 product from Sarnia to Eastern Canada refineries. The Canadian Energy Board reports significant reduction in the export of refined oil products due to its own domestic demand. Finally, I challenge him to report how many Michigander's gain their employment from this pipeline (excluding those cleaning up the Enbridge southwestern Michigan spill). It is time for our senator to represent us and not out-state, foreign for-profit corporations and the policy of the National Republican Party. Greg Eagle Midland To the editor: I am sending this in support of President Donald Trump and his administration. Really, what has he done wrong? He loves America, the people. I now need to send another part of this letter. A few weeks ago Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 19 other states to sue the Trump administration. Why? Paducah, KY (42003) Today Rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. High 52F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch.. Tonight Showers early, becoming a steady rain late. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 49F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch. Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) Congolese Prime Minister Clement Mouamba Wednesday urged African countries to ensure that cyberspace is first and foremost a place where the exercise of fundamental liberties and the protection of private life are guaranteed, an official source told PANA here Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The European Union on Thursday signed two agreements totaling 7 billion CFAF or 12 million US dollars to finance several projects, including solar and domestic energy, the Burkina ministry of Energy said in a communique received by PANA Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Most health centres in Burkina Faso operated at a slow pace Wednesday following a strike action by the Union of Human and Animal Health Workers (SYNTSHA) to demand better living and working conditions, reliable sources told PANA here Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) on Thursday said its troops killed 39 Boko Haram terrorists and captured many equipment from them in the Lake Chad Basin Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) The opposition Tunisian workers party (PT) has called the Tunisian people to rise up against what it describes as repressive tendency by the government and to show their anger through street demonstrations to defend their rights breached by pro-government hidden groups New Swedish SIGINT Ship Launched in Poland The page you requested is only available to subscribers. 1. If you are a Premium Service subscriber, please log in here to access this story: Log-in : Password : 2. If you are not a subcriber, you can: -- buy access to this page: unlimited access for seven days costs 3.00 EUR + VAT (at 20%) if applicable. Clicking on the "Ok" button below will place the item in your shopping cart and return you to our home page, where you will be able to select additional stories. -- select additional stories and services from our home page and pay for them at the same time. -- see your shopping cart. You can also see the contents of your shopping cart at any time by clicking on the "Order" tab on the navigation bar at the top of any page, or by clicking on the "Your order" light blue link in the top right-hand corner of our home page, immediately under the log-on box. According to Hagazussa: A Heathens Curse, the first feature-length film from director Lukas Feigelfeld, Austrias hinterlands are streaked with clouds like too much milk poured into coffee, carpeted by an emerald canvas of grass and moss. If horror movies werent their business, then Feigelfeld and cinematographer Mariel Baqueiro could make a decent living shooting video diaries supporting Austrias outdoor tourism industry. But horror is very much their gig, so the countrys natural beauty becomes a framework supporting a tale twice as disgusting. Content warning for people with misgivings about cannibalism, vomit, organ splatter, maggoty mushrooms, sexual assault and infinitely worse: Hagazussa provides a minefield of triggers. Its gross. Its also stunning, a hypnotic recreation of its time and its place: 15th century Europe, a land cast into the dark ages long before the advent of the age of reason. In between unsettling and barefaced displays of noxious human ills and pseudo hallucinatory insanity, rests still frames so gorgeous they belong in their own art gallery tableau. Snapshots of Austrias countryside megacosm center on Albrun (Alexsandra Cwen), a woman orphaned as a girl and still alone as an adult, who spends a majority of her time trudging through and taking respite in the forests of her homeland. But Hagazussas idyllic appeal belies evil lurking in its frames, stalking Albrun like a basilisk, turning the woods she inhabits to stone. Albrun is marked from birth, doomed to alienation from and othering by her fellow man: As a child, depicted in the films opening chapter by Celina Peter, she and her mother, Martha (Claudia Martini), are harassed in dead of night by men disguised in fearsome horn-headed costumes, as concealing as they are intimidating. Theyre infernally convinced Marthas a witch. An hour and change later, the audience is given reason to wonder if they were right. To young Albrun, their incursions qualify as nightmares worse than those chronicled in fables. In the present day narrative, the prejudice of her youth follows her. Shes harassed by snotty village boys, then spared their taunts by a seemingly benevolent woman, Swinda (Tanja Petrovsky), then manipulated into serving Swindas own perverse ends. If Albrun isnt a witch, society does a bang-up job giving her incentive to reconsider the calling. Society, after all, has a gift for birthing its own worst enemies; itd be impressive if it wasnt so exasperating. Viewers and critics whose self-proclaimed horror expertise dates back as far as 2015 will trace Hagazussas ancestry to Robert Eggers The Witch, though the comparison isnt exactly unfair. (Of The Witch, Drew McWeeny described the film as so suffocating at times that it feels like were watching something genuinely transgressive, something we should not be seeing. He may wish hed saved that line for Hagazussa, to which its even better suited.) The two films share DNA, made obvious through their folk horror genre crossover. But that family resemblance highlights only Eggers and Feigelfelds shared influences: F.W. Murnau, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman and, perhaps, dashes of Mario Bava sprinkled on top for a bit of additional spiciness. Feigelfeld couches Austrian history in escalating madness, set against the serenity of its backdrop and Cwens two-sided performance. Scene to scene, she plays either shy and guileless or wide-eyed and maniacal, alternating from alluring to alien sometimes in the exact same shot. Her work is deceptively straightforward as Feigelfelds and Baqueiros imagery: They both veil hidden terror beneath placid surfaces. Hagazussa is further distinguished through a patina derived from David Lynch and Panos Cosmatosslow, deliberate, perpetually unsettling. The film takes its time, but it drags the viewer along the way toward a mind-shattering oblivion. Are Albruns visions real, or figments of her imagination? Is witchery truly afoot, or is she just losing her marbles at the business end of ignorant mob persecution? The last of these is the only question with an emphatic yes answer, though the idea that the real monster here is Woman is pedantic bordering on boorish. Movies like this function because the monster exists, not simply because people historically treat outsiders like stray dogs at best, vermin at worst. Director: Lukas Feigelfeld Writer: Lukas Feigelfeld Starring: Aleksandra Cwen, Celina Peter, Claudia Martini, Tanja Petrovsky, Haymon Maria Buttinger Release Date: April 19, 2019 Boston-based culture writer Andy Crump has been writing about film and television online since 2009 (and music since 2018). You can follow him on Twitter and find his collected writing at his personal blog. He is composed of roughly 65% craft beer. Today is the big day. While we already had one mini-freakout over The Mueller Report a couple weeks ago, that was not actually it. That was Trumps Attorney Generals four page summary of the hundreds of pages written by Mueller. Today, William Barr kicked off the festivities with a press conference that was definitely not designed to set the narrative before the release of Robert Muellers report, and there is no point in repeating what Barr said because he has a history of cover-ups with Iran-Contra, and he has already proven that he is still not to be trusted as a Trump Administration official. While redactions hide key classified information, there are still plenty of wildly important revelations, and here are the thirty biggest from this report totaling 448 pages. Note: anything you see in quotes here are Muellers words. This is a key thing to keep in mind: what were talking about here is the legal bar of collusion and obstruction (collusion is not a legal term, conspiracy is what Mueller used). Just because Mueller concludes that there was not sufficient evidence to establish a crime does not mean there was not evidence of a crime. This is not a black and white story and anyone looking at it this way either misunderstands the nature of an investigation like this or willfully misunderstands it (latter phrase is looking at you, Glenn Greenwald and Michael Tracey). Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the [Trump] Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. Note the qualifier at the end: election interference activities. Not generic coordination. This whole sentence looks a whole lot less exonerating in the Mueller Report than the fragment beginning with the investigation did not establish did in the Barr Report. Again, this is about meeting a very high bar for a very opaque offense. You cannot read the rest of the report in good faith without understanding the legal guidelines Mueller used in his investigation, and he said that we understood coordination to require an agreementtacit or expressbetween the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference. That requires more than the two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the others actions or interests. So theres your answer as to why Mueller did not find any evidence of collusion between the Russians and the Trump camp. Whatever happened did not meet that quid pro quo definition. This sentence is why its so important to look at this report only through shades of gray. One of the first things Mueller wrote in his Russian Hacking Operations section was that the Trump camp welcomed this help. The question here is what actions rose to the criminal level in our fundamentally broken justice system, and Mueller concluded that none did despite establishing the Trump camps intent right up front. Again, we see this de jure/de facto issue raise its head again, as Mueller establishes that the Trump camp both welcomed Russias help and had a series of shady contacts at extremely convenient times, but nonetheless, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. Sorry folks, this passage is pretty unequivocal: While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Among other things, the evidence was not sufficient to charge any Campaign official as an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian government or other Russian principal. And our evidence about the June 9, 2016 meeting [ed note: this is the famed Trump Tower meeting] and Wikileakss releases of hacked materials was not sufficient to charge that any member of the Trump Campaign conspired with representatives of the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. For those of you saying that Michael Flynn and the litany of other Trump officials who lied to Mueller is no big deal, Mueller is saying that it was in fact, a big deal and it had a measurable impact on his ability to investigate what went on. A false image of Mueller as an omnipotent demigod emerged during this hysteria, and Mueller has an entire passage detailing how he was unable to obtain vital information due to DOJ processes, defendants pleading the Fifth, people deleting evidence, legal privilege, and the fact that numerous witnesses and subjects lived abroad, and documents were held outside the United States. For those of you holding on to hope that criminal charges may still come from this, Mueller tossed you a lifeline with this sentence: given these identified gaps, the Office cannot rule out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional light on (or cast in a new light) the events described in the report. This is followed up by massive redactions due to what is likely an ongoing case against Wikileaks and/or Julian Assange, but its hard to see how a section that could begin with that sentence and have this much redacted gets any better for Team Trump under the thick layer of black. Mueller opens the Russian Government Links To And Contacts With The Trump Campaign section by stating that while the special counsel did identify multiple contacts between the Trump camp and the Russian government, these contacts did not arise to the criminal level of quid pro quo coordination laid out previously in the report by Mueller (14 investigations are still ongoing though). I could be reading too much into this section, but I found that sentence at the end of a paragraph detailing the financial terms of Trumps Moscow Tower deal to be a bit odd, especially since the very next passage Mueller inserts to end this section details Felix Saters e-mails to Michael Cohen about electing Trump president, and the next section begins with Sater and Cohen believed the project required approval (whether express or implicit) from the Russian national government. This could just be Mueller establishing the facts of the situation, but he certainly demonstrated that Trump had a pretty good deal in place to build Trump Tower Moscow, and his associates believed they needed the Russian governments help to do so, so While the George Papadopoulos portion of this ordeal ultimately bore no fruit, that doesnt mean that nothing came of it. In a meeting with both Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump where Papadopoulos pitched a potential meeting between Trump and Putin, both Papadopoulos and J.D. Gordon confirmed that Trump was more than receptive to the plan, and Papadopoulos told the special counsel that he understood the Campaign to be supportive of his efforts to arrange such a meeting. Normally, a presidential candidate meeting with a head of state is no big deal, but a presidential candidate who is trying to build a massively profitable tower in the head of states country (needing said head of states permission) raises a few red flags. I feel like it should be a bigger deal that one of the first foreign policy advisers hired by the Trump campaign was a known Russian asset since 2008. Its important to note the last sentence about not establishing coordination, but again, remember that has a specific legal term, and the entire previous paragraph about Page working on behalf of Kremlin interests is quite damning in of itself, especially when combined with Muellers last sentence in the Carter Page July 2016 trip to Moscow section: The Office was unable to obtain additional evidence or testimony about who Page may have met or communicated with in Moscow; thus, Pages activities in Russiaas described in his emails with the Campaignwere not fully explained. At some point in the meeting, Kushner sent an iMessage to Manafort stating waste of time, followed immediately by two separate emails to assistants at Kushner Companies with requests that they call him with an excuse to leave. Samochornov recalled that Kushner departed the meeting before it concluded; Veselnitskaya recalled the same when interviewed by the press in July 2017. So the takeaway from the Trump Tower meeting doesnt necessarily seem to be that it was some big nefarious plot, just that Trump Jr.s I love it! email demonstrated an extreme lack of care as to who the Trump camp were dealing with so long as they got what they wanted out of it. Mueller cites the evidence as the basis for that claim, again demonstrating that while Jeff Sessions lying about these contacts with Kislyak make it look like hes guilty of something, no evidence can establish it. Sometimes liars lie, or maybe liars get away with a cover-up. We dont know, all we know is that the evidence Mueller collected does not seem to indicate that Sessions and other Trump officials contacts with Sergei Kislyak at the Republican National Convention were worthy of lying about, nor were they connected to changing the Republican platform towards Ukraine as something more Russia-friendly. Perhaps the most damning thing we know about this whole saga is Manafort handing off highly sensitive internal polling data to what Mueller said the FBI believes to be a known Kremlin asset (and whom both Manafort and Rick Gates both told the special counsel they suspected to be a spy). Konstantin Kilimnik was Manaforts right-hand man in Ukraine, and he was trained by Russian military intelligence. A judge even said that handing off this data constituted a connection to the Russian government, and the fact that Mueller could not establish why Manafort would do something like this (when the obvious seems to be the only explanation) is a good summary of the disappointment that is the Mueller Report. Lastly, because again, some of this is immensely frustrating, its hard to square the bounty of evidence that Mueller himself presents (Manafort working for free, etc) with his uncertain determination in light of wild sentences like this: Gates also reported that Manafort instructed him in April 2016 or early May 2016 to send Kilimnik Campaign internal polling data and other updates, so that Kilimnik, in turn, could share it with Ukranian oligarchs. WHY DO UKRAINIAN OLIGARCHS NEED TO KNOW THE INTERNAL POLLING DATA (and other updates) OF THE UNITED STATES REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE?!? via GIPHY As soon as news broke that Trump had been elected President, Russian government officials and prominent Russian businessmen began trying to make inroads into the new Administration. They appeared not to have preexisting contacts and struggled to connect with senior officials around the President-Elect. While that Manafort section was immensely frustrating, this is pretty cut and dry. Had the Kremlin had robust contacts with the Trump camp, it would not have been difficult to reach them after winning the presidency, and e-mails from Jared Kushner obtained by Mueller prove that Kushner could not even remember Kislyaks name during the transition. The conflicting accounts provided by [Steve] Bannon and Prince could not be independently clarified by reviewing their communications, because neither one was able to produce any of the messages they exchanged in the time period surrounding the Seychelles meeting. Princes phone contained no text messages prior to March 2017, though provider records indicate that he and Bannon exchanged dozens of messages. Prince denied deleting any messages but claimed he did not know why there were no messages on his device before March 2017. Bannons devices similarly contained no messages in the relevant time period, and Bannon also stated he did not know why messages did not appear on his device. Firstly, Mueller concluded that Sergei Kislyak reached out to Trump National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn after the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its election interference. In a meeting with Flynn and another adviser, K.T. McFarland, Trump mused that he could use the Russian sanctions as leverage. According to McFarland, Flynn told her that he believed his phone call with Kislyak had made a difference. This recasts this saga in a less sinister light, but still demonstrates how the Trump Administration set out to placate Russia to a certain degree from the very start. In sum, the investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the Campaign. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the Campaign officials shied away. Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities. This is in reference to the famed Trump Tower meeting. First, the Office did not obtain admissible evidence likely to meet the governments burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these individuals acted willfully, i.e., with general knowledge of the illegality of their conduct. Although the investigation established that Sessions interacted with Kislyak on the occasions described above and that Kislyak mentioned the presidential campaign on at least one occasion, the evidence is not sufficient to prove that Sessions gave knowingly false answers to Russia-related questions in light of the wording and context of those questions. The lesson we learned here: when faced with a Congressional inquiry, just so long as you lean hard on the phrase I do not recall, you wrap yourself in a cocoon of plausible deniability when it comes to perjury charges. With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a Presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice. This is far from an exoneration, and if there was no serious evidence supporting Trumps potential obstruction of justice, there would be nothing to refer to Congress. This seems like a bit of a cop-out on the part of Mueller. Hes an investigator, and while he reportedly did not view his mandate as prosecutorial, he ultimately was put in place to come to some sort of a conclusion about Trump. Punting the question to Congress is either a letdown on the part of Mueller, or an acknowledgement that the evidence is so robust that he must defer to the constitution, and only Congress can make a ruling on what happened. During the course of our discussions, the President did agree to answer written questions on certain Russia-related topics, and he provided us with answers. He did not similarly agree to provide written answers to questions on obstruction topics or questions on events during the transition. We then turn to the key events that we investigated: the Presidents conduct concerning the FBI investigation of Michael Flynn; the Presidents reaction to public confirmation of the FBIs Russia investigation; events leading up to and surrounding the termination of FBI Director Comey; efforts to terminate the Special Counsel; efforts to curtail the scope of the Special Counsels investigation; efforts to prevent disclosure of information about the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians and senior campaign officials; efforts to have the Attorney General unrecuse; and conduct towards McGahn, Cohen, and other witnesses. We already know basically everything in the obstruction of justice section that constitutes half of this 400+ page report. Every entry before this one is from the collusion half of the report. It speaks to how extraordinary this whole ordeal is that we can read a key passage from the most secretive special counsel perhaps in U.S. history, shrug our shoulders and go yeah, we know. Thats our president! No biggie, just Robert Mueller saying some folks told him that Trump was enthusiasticaly aware of upcoming leaks on a former Secretary of State via a laundromat for the intelligence agencies of a foreign adversary. Theres some heavy redacting in this passage (likely stemming from Roger Stones ongoing case, and he was their main Wikileaks point man), and after a redaction, Mueller writes Cohen recalled that Trump responded, oh good, alright. The next heavily redacted paragraph looks oh so much worse for Trump. Yes, that preposterous section of exoneration in Comeys dismissal letter was written by Trump. Per Mueller: As reflected in the notes, the President told Miller that the letter should start, While I greatly appreciate you informing me that I am not under investigation concering what I have often stated is a fabricated story on a Trump-Russia relationshippertaining to the 2016 presidential election, please be informed that I, and I believe the American publicincluding Ds and Rshave lost faith in you as Director of the FBI. Everything is so stupid. In light of the Presidents counsels previous statements that the investigations might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons and that a pardon would be possible if the President come[s] to the conclusion that you have been treated unfairly, the evidence supports the inference that the President intended Manafort to believe that he could receive a pardon, which would make cooperation with the government as a means of obtaining a lesser sentence unnecessary. There are two questions at hand here: collusion and obstruction. Collusion is not a specific legal term, and Robert Mueller painstakingly established the legal bar he needed to reach to qualify that term, and it is indisputable from Muellers conclusions that the actions of the Trump camp did not meet that bar. Much of the evidence obtained by Mueller is in fact exculpatory, as it is clear from reading this report that the Russians were far more aggressive in reaching out to the Trump Campaign than vice versa. Don Jr.s I love it! e-mail is a good summation of how they viewed things: so long as it benefited them, they didnt care where they got their information from. Additionally, its clear from Manaforts section as well as the Trump Tower Moscow section that money was by far the main and perhaps only real motivation on the Trump side. The shadowy collusion angle was being pushed by the Kremlin, and any assistance they received from the Trump camp is likely because they were too stupid, corrupt or indifferent to care about anything that didnt directly affect them. Supposedly major events like the Trump Tower meeting, the Mayflower Hotel meeting and the RNC meeting with Kislyak turned out to be big ol nothingburgers according to Robert Muellers evidence. But on the other hand, obstruction of justice has a wealth of information that I did not go over here because if you have been paying attention to this saga from the moment Michael Flynn was fired, you have already read about all of Trumps efforts to impede the investigation. Mueller noted that Article II of the constitution gives the president broad powers and anything done in public makes it more difficult to claim was done with some nefarious intent. In many ways, the buffoonery of the Trump Administration acted as something of a legal insulation, and Mueller even went as far to say that Trump Jr. could not have possibly known he was potentially breaking the law because that is knowledge that is far too advanced for his tiny pea-brain. Ultimately, the question of how to deal with obstruction of justice was kinda sorta formally referred to Congress, and the Democrats responded by rejecting the notion that they have a constitutional requirement to conduct oversight on the executive branch. If youre holding out hope that the Democrats will impeach Trump, you should study up on the fecklessness and the cowardice of the Democratic Party of the last 40 years. Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgement, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told @DanaBashCNN . Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 18, 2019 Ultimately, in a 448 page report, the last sentence is really all you need to know to understand the entire thing: Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. If only we had a Congress willing to pursue what Robert Mueller handed over to them. Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. Our Patently Mobile IP blog has been covering Samsung's folding and scrollable display patents for smartphones for years and certainly well ahead of the general media ever catching on. So it was a bit of buzz to finally see Samsung introduce their Galaxy Fold back in February. It's a first generation device that will have growing pains to be sure. Huawei's Mate X will be out later this year and that's really a fantastic design that is certain to create more industry buzz, even though for now it's only for the elite who won't blink at the well over $2,000 price tag. Most smartphone players have patents and plans to bring a foldable smartphone to market over the next few years. Even Apple has a few patents that point to such a device, like these (01, 02 & 03). There's a lot of interest out there for folding smartphones. By the end of the day the Unbox Therapy Galaxy Fold review video will have racked up 7.5 million hits if not higher. Below is the review of the galaxy fold by host Lewis Hilsenteger. Clearly the Galaxy Fold has a nasty crease in the phone's fold right out of the box once the film covering the display is removed as noted in the screenshot below ugh! Though to be fair, once Lewis ran a few YouTube videos on the phone, the crease seemed to have zero affect. The videos on the display were smooth and sharp without being distracted by the crease you see when the screen goes black. Obviously Unbox Therapy got the royal treatment from Samsung, as they were sent every color the phone is available in. At US$2000 a pop, that's a nice gift. That aside, the colors are embarrassingly horrible. Maybe it's the video, I don't know, but promoting these colors is seen as a negative, not a plus in my opinion. Perhaps you see it differently. Late yesterday Samsung posted a super silly over-hyped promotional video as presented below. It shows Samsung hand delivering the Galaxy Fold to their favorite Vloggers. None of these "chosen" reviewers had problems with their demo units. Then again, what may have happened behind the scenes could be a whole different story. On the flip side, CNBC's Steve Kovach had a completely different experience with his Galaxy Fold. Things didn't magically go right for Kovach. His video tweet below shows us a damaged jittery display. After one day of use... pic.twitter.com/VjDlJI45C9 Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) April 17, 2019 Although one bad smartphone unit doesn't mean it's a wide spread problem, The Verge's review went out of their way to show us that the problem with the Galaxy Fold display wasn't an isolated incident. One of the worst examples from The Verge is presented below. You could see a round of photos of the Galaxy Fold with nicks and glitches in the phone's display here. In all honesty, The Verge's report wasn't a review except to point out every problem they could find. It was more like someone scratching their nails on a chalkboard. But the message was clear: Don't buy the Galaxy Fold. Bloomberg's reviewer also had similar problems. First impressions are important, and the bad reviews rolling out due to terrible experiences just knifed the Galaxy Fold's chances of being seen in a positive light. Who would want to shell out US$2,000 or close to $2,700 Canadian on a phone that comes out of the box with a creased display and one that might not even work properly? While you want to applaud the many years of R&D Samsung put behind the Galaxy Fold, it was spoiled by a series of bad smartphone units that should have never left the factory floor and given to influential reviewers. What the hell was this last-mile Samsung team thinking of? Samsung went out of their way to make it right for reviewers and it blew up in their face. Samsung can't backstep a mess like this. It's done. It's public. It's a marketing nightmare. At the end of the day, the first edition of Galaxy Fold is a mess with miles to go before it's really ready for prime time. The folding phone holds a lot of promise if the industry could find solutions to do away with display creasing. Although creases were expected over time, it was a little surprising to see that the problem starts right out of the box. Unbox Therapy acknowledged this problem but quickly excused it outright. When it's a free phone, I guess you can excuse it. We'll have to wait and see if Huawei's Mate X fares any better on this front being that they're using folding displays that are manufactured by BOE. There could be more bad news for Samsung if Huawei's folding phone display delivers a superior experience with less of a crease. The day started with Patently Apple posting a report titled "ASML, the World's Largest Chip Machinery Manufacturer, Accuses Samsung of Corporate Espionage." The day ends with Samsung's Galaxy Fold being assassinated by key reviewers in techland. It's clearly a bad day for Samsung. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. Patna: Despite him cozying up to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar after walking out of the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan that allowed him to keep his seat as the Chief Minister of Bihar in July 2017, Nitish Kumar is reportedly considering campaigning against the saffron party in the Karnataka Assembly polls that are to be held on May 15. Janata Dal U National Chief General Secretary K C Tyagi on Thursday said that it was only natural for the leader of the JD-U to campaign in Karnataka where this party was born. "Janata Dal has given four Chief Minister to Karnataka. We have campaigned in the state in the past and there was nothing wrong in JD-U President canvassing for party candidates in this state," Tyagi said. Sanjay Jha, party National General Secretary also came out in defense of the idea of Nitish Kumar campaigning in Karnataka. "We have made it very clear from the very beginning that our alliance with the BJP is only in Bihar and not everywhere. Earlier we campaigned against the BJP in Gujarat and Nagaland so how is Karnataka any different?" Jha asked adding the JD-U will be fielding its candidates in 34 Assembly seats in Karnataka. A motorcyclist being waved down by Pa. state trooper allegedly turned around and then sped toward the trooper, who had to jump out of the way to avoid being struck. Still the fast-acting state trooper managed to crash the motorcyclist by pushing him during their close encounter, which the cop escaped with only minor injuries, state police say. As KDKA-TV reports, it happened Tuesday afternoon near Pittsburghs signature Fort Pitt Tunnels. The motorcyclist, identified as Alexandre Rattes, 61, of Derwood, Maryland, was traveling on the shoulder of busy Interstate 376, passing numerous vehicles, heading into the tunnels. A state trooper witnessing this said he activated the lights on his parked cruiser, got out of the vehicle and then attempted to wave down the motorcyclist. But instead of the motorcyclist pulling over, police say Rattes sped away into the left lane, turned around, then accelerated and nearly struck the trooper. The trooper jumped out of the way in fear of being crushed, but was able to push Rattes, who then crashed his motorcycle, KDKA reports, citing state police. (Story continues below) WILD STORYThis man, Alexandre Rattes, is facing numerous charges after state police say he tried to run over a trooper who was trying to pull him over yesterday on I-376. Rattes was on his motorcycle. Details at noon & 4 on @KDKA pic.twitter.com/DqinzdrkrP Lindsay Ward (@LindsayWardTV) April 17, 2019 At last report, Rattes was lodged in Allegheny County Jail on charges of fleeing or attempting to elude police, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and other traffic violations. The fast-acting trooper suffered some scrapes and bruises in the incident, but managed to bring in his suspect. A bright green fireball was spotted in the nighttime sky on Tuesday by hundreds of people in southern Pennsylvania and 8 other states. According to the American Meteor Society, the fireball raced north to south at 10:57 p.m. and ended its flight in the Atlantic Ocean east of Bethany Beach, Delaware. The AMS defines a fireball as a meteor which is brighter than any planet or star, i.e. brighter than magnitude -4. It was really bright and looked very close, an observer in Willow Street described the fireball in one of the more than 400 reports that have been filed with the AMS. A report from New Holland, noted, How beautiful! I had a big open sky for the fireball to show off its tricks right in front of me. In addition to Pennsylvania, the fireball was reported from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington D.C. and West Virginia. Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earths atmosphere each day, explained the AMS. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them. Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about (a third) as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so. Another fireball was sighted over Germany just before midnight Tuesday. That one was traveling southeast to northwest, ending its flight above Hamburg. Outside magazine asked its writers and editors to suggest a list of the best hike in every state, and for Pennsylvania they came up with Tumbling Waters Trail in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The 3-mile loop offers panoramic views of the Delaware River Valley, according to Outside, and passes a delightful two-tiered waterfall surrounded by black birches. From the Pocono Environmental Education Center (at Dingmans Ferry), hike clockwise to explore groves of red cedar, glacier-scarred bedrock, IMAX-sized views of New Jerseys verdant Kittatinny Ridge and wetlands filled with singing frogs. The National Park Service rates the trail as moderate to difficult with a 254-foot change in elevation. So, Pennsylvania hikers, what do you think? Is Tumbling Waters Trail the best that Pennsylvania has to offer? Do you have some other recommendation in Pennsylvania? Why is your trail a better choice? Share your thoughts in the comments on this story. In the meantime, here are some of Outsides other recommendations for neighboring states. Delaware Connecting trails in Brandywine Creek State Park, 11 miles. Maryland Appalachian Trail from South Mountain State Park to Annapolis Rocks, 7.5 miles. New Jersey Appalachian Trail and Dunnfield Creek Trail to Sunfish Pond, a glacial lake at 1,379 feet, 8 miles. New York Climb Hurricane Mountain in the Adirondacks, 6 miles. Ohio Ledges Trail in Cuyahoga National Park, 2 miles. West Virginia Spruce Knob/Seneca Creek trail circuit in Monongahela National Forest, 16.5 miles. Here are some other looks at trails in Pennsylvania: Each spring, Jews around the world gather to celebrate Passover, which commemorates the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. The spring festival is an occasion to reflect on freedom and liberation - not just from the biblical sense of slavery but from that wrought through spiritual transformation. This year, Passover, which begins Friday evening, takes on a deeper meaning as Jews reflect on how the words of the holidays liturgy resonate in light of horrific recent events, including the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last fall. The Haggadah, the sacred liturgy read at the Passover Seder or meal, contains two texts that frame the story of the Exodus. In each generation, the texts note, someone or some nation rises to destroy Jews and God rescues them from their hands. As Jews prepare to celebrate the first Passover since the Tree of Life shooting, those texts take on even more relevance. I think that the first text was inserted into the Haggadah to offer hope to each generation, that God remained steadfast in Divine support, as Jewish history is filled with too many dark and painful moments, said Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The second text reminds us that it is challenging to understand what it means to be enslaved, and that we speak of it during the Passover Seder to better comprehend and thus remember the stranger, for we were strangers in a strange land. Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life synagogue says every day since Oct. 27, 2018, the day of the massacre at his synagogue, has been impactful. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)AP In October, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was rocked by a horrific hate rampage after a Pennsylvania man stormed the Squirrel Hill synagogue and opened fire, killing 11 people. Federal prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against Robert Bowers, who in addition to allegedly carrying out the rampage, made anti-Semitic statements during the shooting and targeted Jews on social media, according to federal authorities. The Tree of Life massacre, as well as the litany of other anti-Semitic crimes impact not just the respective faith communities, but all Jewish communities worldwide. Indeed, the Haggadah instructs the faithful to individually see himself as personally having left Egypt. Tradition teaches us that every Jew who ever lived, and ever will live, stood at Mt. Sinai to behold God's revelation and the gift of the Torah, Myers said in a written statement to PennLive. This is a reflection of the Torah's eternal viability for all. The Anti-Defamation League considers the attack on Tree of Life the deadliest on the Jewish community in U.S. history. But the tragic mass shooting in Pittsburgh is just one among an increasing number of troubling anti-Semitic crimes and incidents in recent years in the U.S. In recent years, the ADL has documented what it says is a historic 60 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents. From 2016 to 2017, the organization recorded the biggest single-year increase in reported hate crimes against Jews since they started tracking such data almost 40 years ago. Since the presidential election of 2016, the country has seen a resurgence of white supremacist rhetoric, as well as an increase in anti-Semitic crimes and incidents. Among them: the August 2017 demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, where demonstrators chanted Jews will not replace us; the vandalism and desecration at Jewish cemeteries; and bomb threats made to Jewish centers and schools across the state and the country. For many Jews, the Passover Seder is not only a time to remember the past, but to reflect that the experiences of one Jewish community is shared by all other Jews. This year this notion resonates differently as American Jews, said Rabbi Ron Muroff of Chisuk Emuna synagogue in Harrisburg. He noted that legions of Jews lost relatives in the Holocaust or have been impacted by anti-Semitic violence across the world, but that this year, in the wake of the Tree of Life massacre, the message of the Haggadah evoke powerful emotions. There is a sense of vulnerability. Our sense of safety has been shaken and shattered, Muroff said. Those feelings of vulnerability go beyond the Tree of Life shooting, he said. It feels to that in general during the last few years, people have uttered out loud what they perhaps would have been embarrassed to say publicly previously, Muroff said. People feel free speech means being able to say whatever regardless of the consequences. The Haggadah is read at the Passover Seder. (John Munson/The Star-Ledger) SL As he prepares to celebrate Passover, Muroff invokes the words of Martin Niemoller, a prominent 20th-century German Lutheran pastor who penned what has become a universal doctrine of tolerance: First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for meand there was no one left to speak for me. Myers said the Passover Seder remains relevant each and every year. What the inspiration will be for this year is uncertain, he said. Every day of my life since October 27 is impactful. A state Superior Court panel has refused to void the 12- to 24-year prison term of a central Pennsylvania man convicted of two bizarre burglaries where he preyed upon sleeping women. In one case, the woman said she awoke in her bedroom to find Jones holding her hand, Judge Judith Ference Olson noted in the state courts opinion. The other woman claimed she was awakened by Jones fondling her breasts and trying to have sex with her. Neither woman knew Jones. The odd crimes occurred in two separate York City homes on the night of July 17, 2016. Police said Jones climbed into each home through unlocked windows. The woman who awoke to find Jones, 51, of York, holding her hand said she told him to leave and he did, but not before he stole a bottle of tequila, Olson noted. The other woman testified that she had been drinking and had consensual sex with another man earlier that night. At first, she thought that man was fondling until she smelled cigarette smoke and realized that she did not know the person in bed with her, the state judge wrote. When she demanded that her molester identify himself, he replied Im Kevin Jones and acted as if they knew each other, Olson noted. The woman then told Jones to leave, and he did after she handed him a bottle of tequila he had brought to her bedroom. That woman called police, who promptly arrested Jones outside her home. Both women identified Jones as the intruder, Olson noted. A York County jury convicted Jones of burglary, criminal trespass, theft, indecent assault and attempted sexual assault charges following a trial in November 2017. On appeal, Jones claimed county Judge Michael E. Bortner improperly denied his lawyer the chance to question the second woman about her consensual sexual conduct with the other man earlier on the evening of the burglary. Olson found Bortner rightly barred such questioning under the Rape Shield Law. She noted that Jones lawyer never made a motion to allow such questioning before the trial began and such a failure was fatal to (Jones) claim. She agreed with Bortner that Jones lawyer had ample opportunity to challenge the womans credibility during the trial by asking her about her level of intoxication and her recollections of the events of the crime. Olson also rejected Jones claim that prosecutors failed to prove he had a criminal intent when he entered the home of the woman who awoke to find him holding her hand. The fact that (Jones) did not commit any sexual or physical acts against (that woman)did not prohibit a jury from finding that (he) intended to commit a crime against the victim when he entered her home through a window, she found. If you dont want natural gas from Pennsylvania passing through your state, you shouldnt be able to buy it. That is the opinion of state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, who Thursday said he plans to introduce legislation or a resolution that would prevent the sale of Pennsylvania-produced gas in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. Those states have limited the expansion of pipelines that curtails the ability to market gas from Pennsylvania, he said. Its ridiculous that one state can affect the livelihood of so many others, Yaw said in reference to New York. It is so illogical, he said. New York in 2014 banned high volume-hydraulic fracturing, the method used to extract natural gas from rock formations, and state regulators have blocked a pipeline originating in northeastern Pennsylvania. That pipeline would enable more Pennsylvania gas to reach the New England states that are buying liquefied natural gas shipped from Russia to meet their demands, Yaw said. If [Gov. Andrew] Cuomo doesnt want fracking, thats fine, but dont take the benefits of it, he said. We wont sell you any [gas]. New Jersey and Maryland also have worked to limit the expansion of pipelines thus curtailing the ability to market Pennsylvania gas, the lawmaker said. The delay in infrastructure development is contributing to the large price disparity that is putting Pennsylvania gas producers at a disadvantage, he said. Limiting the expansion of pipelines is forcing producers to use trucks to get gas to market. Pipelines are the safest and most efficient means of transport, he said. Yaws idea to retaliate against New York and the other states was well received Thursday, as would be expected, at the fifth annual UpStream Conference. Representatives and experts in the oil and gas field attended the event in State College. Yaw realizes what he advocates is more of a policy statement and not easy to enforce, but he said he wants to draw the publics attention to the situation. You dont hear much about fracking or drilling anymore, so now opponents are focusing on pipelines to stop the business, he said. He also told those at the conference since 2012 the natural gas impact fee has generated nearly $1.7 billion, of which approximately 60 percent had gone to counties and municipalities. If you havent registered to vote and want to cast a ballot in the primary election, time is running out. The deadline to register to vote for the primary is Monday, April 22. The primary elections take place on May 21, but you must be registered by April 22 to cast a ballot. How to register Its easy to register to vote online. Go to the Pennsylvania Department of States online voter registration page. You can also download a voter registration form on that page and mail it to your county voter registration office; it must be postmarked by April 22. Voters with questions can call 1-877-868-3772 (877-VOTES-PA). You can also find information about the elections at www.votespa.com. On May 21, voters will cast ballots in primary contests for judicial, county, municipal and school board races. Republican and Democratic voters will nominate candidates in these races to represent their parties in the general election in November. So yes, you must be a registered Democrat or Republican to cast a ballot in the partys primary. Local elections typically draw a smaller turnout than presidential elections. These local elections help determine who holds offices in your towns and school boards, setting local tax rates and policies in your schools and communities. Absentee ballots If you want to vote but wont be able to get to your polling place for the primary, you can request an absentee ballot. Those who can qualify for absentee ballots include college students; members of the military; those with an illness or disability that will prevent them from going to a polling place; those out of town for work or a vacation; and those with a conflict due to a religious holiday. You must apply for an absentee ballot by 5 p.m., May 14; state officials urge you to apply well in advance to ensure you receive an absentee ballot. Voters guide PennLive is compiling a voters guide as a service to readers. Candidates running for a local office who would like to be included in the voters guide must fill out this form. The deadline to fill out the form to be included in the voters guide is Friday, April 19 at 5 p.m. The executive director of a human services agency in Perry County has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that she embezzled $221,000. Shelley Dreyer-Aurila, 53, of New Bloomfield, executive director of the Perry County Family Center, is accused of stealing the money, including federal funds, between 2010 and 2017, the indictment released in U.S. Middle District Court states. An attempt to reach Dreyer-Aurila for comment on the charge wasnt immediately successful Thursday morning. She is still the agencys chief executive. U.S. Attorney David Freed said the center, a charitable organization, annually receives more than $10,000 in federal funding for its Maternal, Infant & Early Childhood Home Visiting program and its Child Abuse Prevention program. The agency received nearly $1.3 million in federal funding from 2010 to 2017, the indictment stated. Dreyer-Aurila is accused of converting a considerable chunk of that money to her own use. The indictment stems from a probe by the Charitable Investigation Unit of the Pennsylvania Department of State, Freed said. He said the charge Dreyer-Aurila faces carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a 74-year-old Harrisburg man on child pornography charges, according to a U.S. attorney. Robert L. Hayes Sr., 74, is accused of possessing pornographic images of children under the age of 12, according to an announcement from David Freed, the U.S. attorney for the middle district of Pennsylvania. Hayes was in possession of the images in Harrisburg in October and November of last year, according to the indictment. At that time, Hayes was on federal supervised release related to a 2007 guilty plea, according to the announcement. In 2007, Hayes had pleaded guilty in a similar federal child exploitation case," authorities said. According to the announcement, Hayes indictment was the result of a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Hayes case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Probation Office. If Hayes is found guilty of his charges, he could serve a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, authorities said. A special meeting has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on April 22 to "appoint an in-house solicitor and consider other business that comes before the board, according to the Harrisburg School District website. This meeting Monday night will mark the school boards third attempt to hire James Ellison, who has previously worked as the districts solicitor. But, his hire this time around has been mired in controversy. It began publicly with a disagreement between school board President Danielle Robinson and the districts state-appointed Chief Recovery Officer Janet Samuels. Samuels said she didnt think the board had executed an ethical hiring process. Robinson said she thinks hiring Ellison would save the district money in legal fees. And, she told Samuels that the district knows best how to proceed in its day-to-day activities. The argument between them interrupted the March regular school board meeting for about 30 minutes. School board directors Judd Pittman and Carrie Fowler have publicly questioned the process, as well. They noted that Ellison was treated differently than another candidate, Trent Hargrove, was treated during behind-the-scenes interviews. They said it seemed as though Ellison was treated more favorably than Hargrove, who wasnt considered as a candidate at the April regular school board meeting. While it may have appeared that Ellison had the job in the bag, his rehire has been anything but seamless. Pittman nominated Sam Cooper to remain as the districts solicitor at Mondays meeting. Cooper, however, declined. He said he didnt want to be considered as a candidate. That left only one candidate, and one vote for each of the nine school board members. The final tally was 5-to-4 against hiring Ellison. New school board director Joe Brown voted no, along with Brian Carter, Fowler, Lionel Gonzalez and Pittman. Robinson, Lola Lawson, Ellis Roy, and Patricia Whitehead-Myers voted yes. Minutes following the vote, Gonzalez said he didnt mean to vote no, and he said he wanted to change his vote, which should have happened immediately after board members voted, Cooper said. He explained Gonzalez would need a unanimous consent of the assembly," which would allow him to change his vote to a yes in favor of hiring Ellison. The divided school board did not cast another vote about the in-house solicitor hire the rest of the evening. The widening rift in the district was also apparent during public comment. Ellison, a private practitioner with 20 years of history in city politics and government, was supported by those who have relied on him and his pro bono work. They also said his family has attended Harrisburg School District, and he is the right fit because he is African American. Several other residents said the exact opposite, saying those reasons arent strong enough and shouldnt carry more weight when considering an in-house solicitor. Jody Barksdale, the districts teacher union president, said she hopes the school board does whats in the best interest of the district, which includes taking care of its teachers. Robinson said she sought a new solicitor as a way to restructure the districts legal fees. She said it could be a cost-savings. Ellison most recently worked for the Coatesville Area School District, which ended in turmoil. Ellison was named over 200 times in Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogans grand jury report. It was published Dec. 3, 2014. Less than two years later, Ellison and Rhoads & Sinon, his former law firm, agreed to pay the school district $420,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged he provided flawed advice and overbilled the district when he worked as the solicitor. The grand jury report spelled out Ellisons billing practices. Not only was he paid more than previous board solicitors, but he also consistently invoiced the district the same amounts regardless of hours worked, the grand jury report showed. Three weeks after the state Department of Education told Harrisburg School District officials they needed to fully cooperate, with state-hired auditors without delay, the district is still refusing to allow access to its electronic finance system. A majority of the Harrisburg School Board on Monday voted against a resolution to comply with the demands of a March 27 letter from the state Department of Education signed by Secretary Pedro Rivera. Board member Judd Pittman introduced the resolution and said he cant figure out why the district administration would refuse to cooperate with a firm hired by the state to audit the district after a series of financial scandals. He noted previous annual audits had revealed material weaknesses in the school districts practices that had not been corrected. Why would we get in a battle with the state and be issued a subpoena and invite more folks to come in and look? Pittman said. If we have absolutely nothing to hide, then open it up and lets move forward. His comments prompted applause from some members of the audience at Mondays school board meeting. I dont understand why we continued to fight, whether its the recovery plan or any requests we get, Pittman said. Lets just collaborate so we can do what were supposed to be doing, which is educating students and making sure they have opportunities. Pittman voted with Board Members Carrie Fowler, Brian Carter and Joseph Brown, the newest member recently appointed by a judge, to open the districts books to state auditors. Voting no were Board President Danielle Robinson, Vice President Lola Lawson, and board members Ellis Roy, Patrica Whitehead-Myers and Lionel Gonzalez. The measure failed on the 5-4 vote. Simply because theyre the state doesnt mean they are right, Roy said. There are laws that need to be complied with. Once you give someone unfettered access, thats a security breach. But Pittman responded that they are not complying with the law by not complying with state auditors. The Department of Education secretary said in his letter that the department has the authority to look at any and all financial records. Interim Business Manager Bilal Hasan denied state auditors access to the districts eFinance system, saying that legal counsel advised him that the district is under no legal obligation to provide access to the system. Hasan has refused to say which attorney provided him this advice. Board Solicitor Sam Cooper on Monday indicated it was not him, as he said he had just recently become aware of the issue. He declined to answer emails from PennLive to confirm. The majority of the school board is looking to replace Cooper and hire a new solicitor. They want to appoint James Ellison, who formerly worked at the Coatesville School District, where he ended up as one of three subjects of a grand jury report. The report noted Ellison charged thousands of dollars fighting public information requests and then convinced the board to spend $100,000 of public money investigating and targeting two whistle-blowers. The other two employees targeted in the grand jury report were criminally charged. Ellison was not charged. Hasan said the districts decision to keep state auditors out of the eFinance system stems from concerns that the system contains confidential information, such as social security numbers and bank routing numbers of employees. But that excuse is bunk, according to Kenn Medina, the districts former business manager who was demoted from his job in 2017. He is currently suing the district over his demotion, alleging that he was cast aside after asking questions about measurable outcomes for contracts. District officials said he was disciplined for four violations, including failure to make arrangements for mail pickup and delivery at the district properties. Medina said the eFinance system comprises modules, which can be separated. So he said the district could provide auditors with access to purchasing, budget and financial operation modules while restricting access to payroll or human resources modules. Additionally, Medina said if auditors needed access to payroll, for example, the system is capable of masking all social security numbers and bank routing numbers within that module. The system already is set up like that, giving certain employees more access than others, said Medina who used the same eFinance system at Harrisburg and his two previous school district jobs. Youre not going to give a secretary at an elementary school access to social security numbers, he said. But she might need access to the system to order pencils for a kindergarten class. An auditor could have limited access to certain portions. The system is made up of subsystems. As business manager, Medina said even he didnt have access to certain subsystems in human resources. Those settings are available from the IT department, Medina said. Im not going to obstruct a query (from state auditors) based on a falsehood that they would see routing numbers. Thats hogwash. Hasan and Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney declined to respond to repeated follow-up questions from PennLive this week, asking for clarification on the districts position on the state audit. Hasan said during Mondays meeting that previous auditors have not requested access to the electronic system and have instead been satisfied by asking for specific documents and spreadsheets, which were provided. There has not been an audit done on the district where we provided access to an auditing firm to our resources, he said. No one has ever before come to the district and logged into our accounts to see our information. They ask for documentation. Robinson said auditors have refused to say what they are looking for specifically that the district isnt providing. Wayne McCullough, a director with the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, said auditors typically dont ask for unfettered access to electronic databases. A typical audit involves producing documents based on the request of the auditor, he said, when asked by PennLive. A spokesman for the Department of Education would not provide additional information about the nature of the audit or why auditors need access to the system itself. We dont have anything more to add, Eric Levis said. The letter clearly states what is required and expected of the school district. Annette Stevenson, a spokeswoman with the Pennsylvania School Boards Association said she could not speak to the specific situation in Harrisburg, but noted that the states school code gives broad powers to the education department. Section 2402 of the PA School Code conveys that districts must provide auditors with access to what is needed: all books, records, tax duplicates, vouchers, school orders, payrolls, letters and other matters pertaining to the district finances, she said. Section 2403 gives auditors subpoena power to compel production of them if necessaryI would have to surmise that the school district is working with their solicitor regarding compliance. Education Department officials announced the audit in October after a series of financial scandals, including a transportation supervisor accused of embezzling $180,000, the over-hiring of 37 teachers for unbudgeted positions and the continuation of health care coverage for 54 employees who had resigned from the district in recent years. The audit also comes amid complaints from some residents and three board members about transparency by the administration and board majority. Board Member Carrie Fowler said Monday that the March 27 letter from the Department of Education was addressed to the superintendent and board members, yet the letter wasnt shared until Friday, when the chief recovery officer shared it shortly before PennLive published a story about it. Fowler, Pittman and Carter have repeatedly said they cant get information from the administration or board leaders about virtually anything. The state suspended a chunk of federal funds and alerted Superintendent Knight-Burney on Feb. 13, but several board members said they found out about the loss of federal money by reading PennLive on March 1, even though board members are supposed to approve the budget and oversee district operations. Since then, Knight-Burney said she would provide updates about the investigation into the federal funds but Fowler said she has received no information. Board members set a special meeting Monday April 22 to hire a new board solicitor. An effort to hire Ellison at last Mondays meeting failed when Board Member Lionel Gonzalez voted against the resolution but said later he meant to vote yes. The vote Monday ended up 5-4, but if Gonzalez flips his vote at the next meeting then Ellison could be hired on a 5-4 vote. Staff writer Jana Benscoter contributed to this report. LEBANON - Lebanon County Commissioners celebrated what they see as a a wrong made right" Wednesday, in the countys removal from an oft-cited list of so-called sanctuary cities and counties that are said to offer safe harbor to undocumented immigrants. Lebanon this week was removed from the latest list of jurisdictions published by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based research that advocates for policies that admit fewer immigrants but affords a warmer welcome for those... admitted. The CIS list is not official, but it is often cited as the most current list of sanctuary cities, counties and states since the April 2017 suspension of the Declined Detainer Outcome Report issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So when Lebanon County was taken off the CIS list this week, it was seen as good news by county officials who never believed they should be on it in the first place, and took pro-active steps to get off the list nearly two years ago. Im glad that albatross is off our neck. It was an unintended consequence but we worked quickly to fix it. Its good to finally be off the list," said County Commissioner Bill Ames. This was a wrong made right, added Commissioner JoEllen Litz. The cause of the present controversy in Lebanon County was a 2008 county prison policy that DHS argued restricted the countys ability to cooperate with ICE. In Lebanons case, the policy, as reported, barred the prison from holding individuals solely on ICE detainers. County officials said theyd simply adopted the policy in response to a separate court ruling against Lehigh County for detaining someone who was later found to be a U.S. citizen. In subsequent court cases, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled ICE detainers are requests rather than commands from the federal government, leaving local jurisdictions with some liability. To emphasize their intent to cooperate with ICE, Lebanon Countys prison board voted to rescind the language in question in May 2017. And, they noted at the time, persons with ICE detainers who were charged with other crimes were always turned over to the feds, even if they had made bail on the local crime. CIS spokesman Bryan Griffith told PennLive Wednesday the center had missed the policy change at the time, but was informed of it anew this week in response to recent threats by President Donald Trump to ship undocumented immigrants who crossed the border illegally to various sanctuary jurisdictions. Upon further review of the matter, Griffith said, the update was made. In all, CIS lists about 170 American cities and counties on its registry. The state House of Representatives on Wednesday completed work on its response to the four recommendations made by last years grand jury report on child sexual abuse by clergy in Catholic dioceses. The House approved legislation specifying that confidentiality agreements for child sex abuse victims do not ban them from communicating with law enforcement authorities. In addition, mandated reporters who fail to report suspected child abuse would face tougher penalties under another bill approved by the House. This month, the House sent over to the Senate a flurry of bills aimed at empowering crime victims and abuse survivors. The Senate also saw action on five of its own crime victims bills in observation of this being Victim Protection Month. With overwhelming support, the House approved bills enumerating crime victims rights in the state constitution; requiring pension forfeiture for sexual offenses committed by public officials and employees; and addressing the recommendations in the grand jury report. The report stirred worldwide discussions about clergy sex abuse within the Catholic Church. Wednesdays action included a bill, sponsored by Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-Luzerne County, that addresses confusion surrounding non-disclosure agreements. It passed by a 191-0 vote. The grand jury observed the church officials misused confidentiality agreements to silence abuse victims from cooperating with law enforcement, she said. I believe that making a clear statement in legislation that no past or future agreement can prevent an individual from communicating with law enforcement would assist law enforcement in future investigations, Toohil said to her House colleagues prior to the vote. The other bill that won House approval on Wednesday clarifies when greater penalties would apply to mandated reporters who willfully fail to report suspected child abuse sex abuse or have reason to believe an abuser is likely to commit additional crimes, said Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery County, the bills sponsor. The House approved it by a 168-22. The only member who spoke in opposition was Rep. Paul Schemel, R-Franklin County, who argued raising the penalty chipped away at citizens due process rights given the statute of limitations reforms the House passed last week. While the grand jury report recommended reforms regarding mandated reporters and confidentiality agreements, the panels recommendations dealing with the statutes of limitation on child sex crimes have gained the most attention. Yet lawmakers still have yet to agree on changes in the statute of limitations sought by advocates. After bills addressing those reforms failed to pass both chambers in the last legislative session, members of the Senate and House came back this session offering competing proposals addressing statute of limitations reforms. Some Democratic senators last week offered a bill that would lift the statute of limitations for adults who were sexually abused at any age. Meanwhile, the House last week moved a bill that eliminates the criminal statute of limitations involving child sex crimes and raises the age for future abuse victims to file civil lawsuits to 55. Currently, the victims age threshold for criminal charges is 50 and for civil suits is 30. It also passed legislation proposing a constitutional amendment that would provide a two-year window in which civil lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse could be filed even if the statute of limitations has expired. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro has said providing for that window through the lengthy constitutional amendment process, instead of by law, delays justice for victims. Victim advocates have expressed similar concerns. Still, Shapiro indicated he sees the House-passed measures as a step forward. Just as our commonwealth was a leader in investigating and prosecuting clergy sexual abuse, it is imperative that Pennsylvania also now be a leader in enacting reforms to protect victims and ensure this kind of abuse and cover-up can never happen again," he said in a statement. "I stand with survivors as we urge the Pennsylvania Senate to swiftly pass the grand jury reforms. House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County, called the House-passed package its best effort to address the grand jurys concerns. If the Senate chooses not to consider it, he said, we really havent lost anything. We can always look at it and try to modify it or amend it or they could and send it back. Drew Crompton, chief of staff to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, said if the House bills are consistent with the language the Senate Republican Caucus drafted last year to address the grand jurys recommendations, the Senate will likely consider the bills. Cutler said by getting the bills through the House four months into the two-year session, he said it allows time for continued discussions with the Senate to arrive at a compromise to get bills to Gov. Tom Wolf for enactment. After two years of speculation and anticipation, a redacted version of Robert Muellers report on President Donald Trump is now available. The Justice Department has released the nearly 400-page report outlining the investigation of the Trump campaign and any possible ties to Russias attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Earlier Thursday, Attorney General William Barr spoke with reporters. Muellers report recounted 10 episodes involving Trump that were investigated as potential acts of criminal obstruction of justice, Barr told reporters Thursday. Barr said Mueller did not reach a prosecutorial judgment. Barr told reporters that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded there was insufficient evidence to establish the president committed a crime. Last month, Barr said Mueller did not find evidence that Trumps campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 election but reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. In the ensuing weeks, lawmakers have demanded to see the report, with some insisting they want to see an unedited version. Barr said again Thursday some redactions are necessary to protect ongoing investigations. Lawmakers will be poring over the report and offering their statements. Here, you can review the Mueller report and draw your own conclusions. Barnes & Noble announced Wednesday that the book retailer will offer The Mueller Report on the companys Nook e-reader and app. A central Pennsylvania company linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak has failed to convince a federal magistrate judge to void a search warrant the U.S. Food & Drug Administration secured to inspect the firms facility. Yet U.S. Middle District Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson also refused an FDA request to find Spa & Organic Essentials of South Williamsport in contempt because the company owner refused to provide computer passwords so government investigators could access the firms records. The dispute centers on companys distribution of kratom, an herbal supplement it secures from a supplier in Indonesia, Carlson noted in his opinion denying both the Spa & Organic Essentials and FDA motions. According to the National Institutes of Health, kratom, derived from a tree in the coffee family that is native to Southeast Asia, has known mind-altering effects, including relief of fatigue and pain. Investigators said testing determined that kratom supplied by the midstate firm was connected with the salmonella outbreak that sickened nearly 200 people in 41 U.S. states between January and May of last year. At least 50 people had to be hospitalized, Carlson noted. Kratom supplied by Spa & Essential Oils to a vendor in North Dakota was found to be tainted, as was kratom bought directly from Spa & Essential Oils by an undercover FDA investigator, federal agents claimed. Carlson noted the search warrant was secured after agents claimed the Spa & Essential Oils owner refused five times to voluntarily allow inspections. The FDA claimed the owner stated he believed the FDA was trying to destroy his livelihood, the judge wrote. The search warrant was executed in October. Spa & Essential Oils filed a challenge, claiming the warrant was fatally flawed because it did not include an explicit probable cause affidavit. The firms attorney, Aaron D. Martin, also contended in court filings that nothing in the warrant required the owner to surrender his computer passwords. The court records of the case initially were sealed. Carlson concluded the companys challenge to the search warrant plainly fails because the evidence tying Spa & Organics products to a serious public health emergency was clear, compelling and provided probable cause to conduct this search. The necessity of obtaining the warrant was clearly underscored by Spa & Essentials adamant refusal to cooperate with other investigative measures, a refusal that placed this companys personal profits above concerns of public health, the judge added. He did agree with Martin that the warrant didnt specify the owner has to reveal any passwords, however. Carlson also found the FDAs push to compel the release of that information is premature and that investigators must first try other legal means to secure the passwords before again seeking a contempt order. MEDIA COURTHOUSE A Clifton Heights woman has been charged with submitting a fraudulent car insurance claim for an accident that occurred in December 2018. Margaret Towell, 32, of the 200 block of Baltimore Avenue, was released on unsecured bail following a preliminary arraignment Tuesday morning before Magisterial District Judge Kelly A. Micozzie-Aquirre, according to online court records. Towell is charged with three felony offenses: False/fraudulent/incomplete insurance claim; theft by deception involving false impression; and criminal use of a communication facility. It was not immediately known if she had retained an attorney. Here in Delaware County we have zero tolerance for insurance fraud, and individuals, such as Margaret Towell, who commit insurance fraud will be held accountable for their action, Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun Copeland stated in a prepared release. Towells arrest capped a joint investigation by Clifton Heights police, detectives from the countys Criminal Investigation Division Fraud Unit, and a Farmers Insurance investigator. According to the release, Towell filed an accident claim with Farmers Insurance on Dec. 16, 2018, in reference to an accident that occurred at North Springfield Road and Summit Street in Clifton Heights the day before, Dec. 15. She indicated she was driving her Ford Escape on Springfield Road when an unidentified vehicle hit her bumper, causing her to lose control of the Escape, swerve and hit a pole. Towell informed investigators that two children and her boyfriend were in the car with her at the time of the wreck. She also indicated the striking car drove away from the scene without ever stopping. An investigation into the claim revealed that Clifton Heights police responded to an accident at North Springfield Road and Summit Avenue in Clifton Heights on Dec. 15, 2018, at 9:48 p.m. At that time, police saw a vehicle, identified as Towells Ford Escape, with heavy front-end damage. The vehicles driver, later identified as Towells boyfriend, was on scene along with two children. The investigation and witness interviews revealed that Towells boyfriend was driving the vehicle erratically and ran into a utility pole. Based on their investigation, Clifton Heights police charged him with driving under the influence, according to the release. According to the release, Towell was interviewed by Farmers Insurance Investigator Nicole Treadwell on Dec. 31, 2018. l. At that time, Towell admitted that she was not the driver of the 2011 Ford Escape at the time of the accident, but rather her boyfriend. An investigation was subsequently launched by the county Detectives Christopher Sponaugle and Edward Kazlo, who met with Towell in reference to her insurance claim. As a result of the investigation, it was determined that Margaret Towell provided false information when she filed her claim with Farmers Insurance when she reported she was the individual driving at the time of the accident, the release states. Copeland commended investigators for their joint efforts in the case. A preliminary hearing is listed for May 2 in Micozzie-Aquirres court. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. said he would be reviewing Robert Muellers report over the coming days, but he didnt hesitate to say that President Donald Trumps actions are fundamentally inconsistent with American values. The Democratic senator posted a thread of comments on Twitter after the U.S. Justice Department released a redacted version of the 448-page Mueller report Thursday morning. While examining the Mueller report and the underlying evidence will be vital, it will not change what we already know: Russia attacked our election in 2016, President Trump and his closest aides and allies welcomed that attack, Casey said on Twitter. The actions we know that President Trump, his aides and allies took may not violate criminal statutes, but they are fundamentally inconsistent with American values, Casey said on Twitter. The report outlined the investigation of the Trump campaign and any possible ties to Russias attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election. The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with Russian attempts to influence the election. Casey said on Twitter Thursday that Trump made a series of statements and appeared to engage in conduct that interfered with a fair and independent investigation. While examining the Mueller report and the underlying evidence will be vital, it will not change what we already know: Russia attacked our election in 2016, President Trump and his closest aides and allies welcomed that attack. Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) April 18, 2019 Casey also said he would continue to press U.S. Attorney General William Barr to release grand jury information and all the underlying evidence that is not protected due to intelligence concerns. In a statement Thursday, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said, All Americans should be pleased that the Special Counsel concluded there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Val DiGiorgio, chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, issued a statement lauding the conclusions outlined by Barr at a briefing with reporters Thursday morning. Once again, Attorney General William Barr confirmed what we already knew: neither President Donald Trump nor his campaign colluded with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election and there was no obstruction of justice," DiGiorgio said in a statement. DiGiorgio called on Democrats to work with the president on the countrys pressing needs, including affordable health care and immigration. U.S. Senator Pat Toomey has weighed in on Special Counsel Robert Muellers report with high praise for Attorney General William Barr, warnings about continued Russian attempts to interfere with American politics, and limited conclusions about President Donald J. Trump. Toomey, a Republican, noted that he hasnt had a chance to review the report in detail yet, which may explain why he steers clear here of any comments on the obstruction of justice question and stays on the relatively safer ground that Mueller found no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russians. On that issue, Mueller wrote, While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Mueller also said there wasnt sufficient evidence to charge any campaign officials with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. Toomeys statement: Ive repeatedly stated that Attorney General Barr should be as transparent as possible about the Special Counsels findings while being consistent with the law and longstanding Department of Justice policy. "While I have not had the opportunity to review the just-released 448 page report, all Americans should be pleased that the Special Counsel concluded there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. I am pleased that the report does not have any redactions based on executive privilege and that a version of the report with all redactions removed, except those relating to grand jury information, will be made available to a bipartisan group of lawmakers. I appreciate Attorney General Barr agreeing to testify before Congress in public next month to discuss the report. Toomey closed with this: The Special Counsels findings are a stark reminder that Russias goal is to undermine the trust the American people have in our democratic process and government. Freshman Congressman John Joyce, R-Blair County, has offered one of the Pennsylvania delegations most pro-President Donald J. Trump takes to date on the newly-released Mueller Report on Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential campaign. It makes some political sense for Joyce to be definitively in support of President Donald J. Trump; his 13th District gave Trump his largest win (71.0 percent) over Democrat Hillary Clinton (25.5 percent) in the November 2016 general election. Heres what Joyce, a dermatologist by trade from Altoona whose district covers much of the base of the states vaunted Republican 'T', had to say Thursday: "The release of the Mueller Report confirms the top line conclusions issued by Attorney General Barr a couple of weeks ago. "There was no collusion with the Russians by President Trump or his campaign, there was no obstruction of justice committed by the President, and to claim otherwise on either or these fronts would be a direct contradiction of the facts. "Attorney General Barr has complied with the law at every step of this process, fulfilling what Congress called on him to do unanimously earlier this year. The case is closed. It is now our duty as members of Congress to move on and get back to work for the American people and address important issues like the crisis at the southern border, which I witnessed first-hand this week. Casey, Toomey reactions Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., said he would be reviewing Muellers report over the coming days. But he didnt hesitate to say that Trumps actions are fundamentally inconsistent with American values. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said, Americans should be pleased that the Special Counsel concluded there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Lower Allen Township police are still trying to track down two women accused of stealing more than 2,000 panties from the Victorias Secret store in the Capital City Mall earlier this month. On Wednesday, they released two more photos of the suspects in the lacy $21,000 heist. Investigators said the women worked as a team and swiped the lingerie is about two minutes on April 7 while store workers were helping other customers. The duo brought their own bags to the store and stuffed them with all the panties on top of and inside the drawers of the storefront display, police said. These are the first photos police in Lower Allen Township released surveillance footage of two women they say stole nearly 2,000 pairs of underwear from Victoria's Secret in the Capital City Mall. Anyone with information can call police at 717-975-7575. We are now engaged in a battle for the soul of this country. We find ourselves in the most severe political and ideological divide since the Civil War. The fault lines are many, but for me, the core principles that define this divide most sharply are globalism, hope, compassion vs. nationalism, fear and perceived self-interest. When an electronic message can circle the globe in a second, and we can travel to the other side of the earth in less than a day, how can we deny that we are a global society in which the interests of all humans are inextricably intertwined? When our economies are so intricately enmeshed, how can we pretend that we can tend our own economy without tending the economies of our many trading partners? When our global climate depends on all human activity, how can we fail to cooperate with all other governments to address the problem? When nuclear (and other) weapons are widely deployed, and proliferation is a constant possibility, how can we not work with the nations of the world to promote stability and strengthen alliances? You may say that I am talking about globalization, not globalism; thats true. But globalization means that we must think and act in a way that reflects that reality. Thats how I use the word globalism. Unfortunately, like so many words in our modern political lexicon, the word has been purposefully demonized. Globalism doesnt mean we have to submit our every decision to the U.N. or abdicate our leadership. It does mean that we cooperate with other countries on mutually beneficial endeavors whenever we can, and work to build good will and be a good neighbor. We are a great nation, but we occupy less than five percent of the land and population of the planet. We arent masters of the world and cant be its only policeman, but we must be involved in a positive way whenever and wherever it makes sense. The opposite is nationalism America First. This isnt the way to make and keep the friends we need. Indeed, this is easily seen as the Ugly American with imperialistic motives as attributed to us by our fiercest terroristic enemies. Our long-time friends and allies see it as a betrayal of the trust so carefully built by our leaders since World War II. The most strident symbol of this nationalism is a big beautiful wall on our southern border. Not only would this be a monument to division, but it is of little practicality. It would protect less than 20 percent of our total boundary. Most people enter this country by air or sea. A 30-foot wall makes little difference to an airliner at 35,000 feet. This trope of nationalism is a political ploy appealing to the fear and naive self-interest of a significant segment of our population. Our country is changing (It has always been changing), and many of those who have not enjoyed the economic success that appears in the overall measures of wealth, are looking for a scapegoat. Add to that, a changing culture (Our culture has always been changing), and again many want someone to blame. Someone who gives them a clear target, such as immigrants (both illegal and legal), and asylum seekers, makes it possible for fear and perceived self-interest to gain traction against the American traditions of hope and compassion that I grew up with. President Trump says that our country is full and cant take any more people. Anyone who has traveled through Wyoming knows that isnt true. At 13 people/sq. mile, we are among the least densely populated countries of the world. Trump continues to stoke fear of the asylum seekers as dangerous criminals, and mocks them as brash opportunists. He cuts off aid to the northern triangle countries of Central America. He threatens to reinstate his child separation policy as a deterrent to asylum seekers. Then, he threatens to send the asylum seekers to the so-called sanctuary cities - clearly a mean and vindictive threat meant to intensify our division, in order to excite his political base. Yes, we need more order in our immigration situation, but blustering and cruelty isnt the answer. We need more asylum judges, case workers, and humanitarian resources at the border. Most critically, we need a rational and much more determined effort to attack the actual cause of this immigration surge, in the northern triangle countries. Indeed, we are in a battle for the soul of this country. May our better angels prevail. The 1950s is one of those decades that Americans view with nostalgia, contempt or both. For some, it represents ideal family life. For others, it exemplifies restrictive gender roles. Some recall its exciting rock n roll, and others remember its racial oppression. It was a time of unprecedented economic prosperity, as well as Cold War anxiety. During such a tumultuous era, attention naturally turned toward teens, the nations future. Two events from 60 years ago illustrate the Harrisburg areas concerns for youths: a series on teens that appeared in The Evening News in 1959 and 1960 and conversations on youth problems in preparation for the 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth. More from Joe McClure: Fallout shelters sparked controversy in central Pennsylvania during Cold War: 5 facts What messages did the Harrisburg of 1960 send to the future? Harrisburgs first policewoman was appointed 100 years ago Prohibition in central Pennsylvania brought mixed results in first months In these instances, teenagers were presented as exceptions to the juvenile delinquents who then characterized youths in the popular imagination, since they largely seemed to share adults views. They werent a threat to the social order. However, the national White House Conference on Children and Youth, to which central Pennsylvania sent delegates, provided glimpses of youth rebellion and racial concerns that would characterize the later 1960s. The Challenged Generation When Evening News reporter Paul Beers set out to write a 16-part series on Harrisburg-area teenagers, he asked three questions: How will they accept their private, patriotic and professional responsibilities when they become adults? What kind of parents will they be? How will they fare against the Soviet threat? To Beers, these young people faced unique challenges. Thus, he titled the series, The Challenged Generation. Each part of the series profiled a teen from Cumberland, Dauphin or Perry counties. They came from different backgrounds and included boys, girls, minorities and immigrants. Beers came away from the series impressed with his subjects. They were confident that they would accept adult responsibilities, be good parents and stay ahead of the Soviets, Beers wrote. These teens challenged the stereotype that they were a social menace. The delinquents were in the minority, they said. But their criticism of teen trouble makers echoed adults complaints. They said juvenile delinquency had two main causes: poor parenting and a lack of responsibility. A female John Harris High School student said trouble makers are only as interested or uninterested as their parents. Many have no home life or church life. They dont get ideas from their parents or adults. An African American Steelton-Highspire High School student said juvenile delinquents are simply looking for guidance. They dont find help in their families, he said. ". . . To get (the) sympathy they need, they turn to the wrong crowd. Yet if the youths Beers profiled were critical of their peers, they also sought to dispel stereotypes about teens. A Harrisburg girl who immigrated from East Berlin, Germany, said the core characteristics of many American youths are their willingness to learn and accept responsibility. A Camp Hill teen told Beers, You hear this talk about leadership among our youth. Well, its here. I have no worries about that. There are plenty of persons learning the subjects and doing the jobs to keep their country moving. White House Conference on Children and Youth Two months after Beers series ended, the White House Conference on Children and Youth was held in March 1960. In preparation for the conference, the Harrisburg area, like communities across the nation, held mini-conferences. More than 20,000 high school students in Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties took surveys on youth problems. Eventually, the findings were presented by student delegates during a mass meeting in Harrisburg. Students recommendations included giving youths more responsibilities, offering a mandatory parenthood course, enforcing curfew laws and providing better counseling for students who have a penchant for industry instead of college. These midstate teens were clearly not advocating rebellion. But at the national White House conference, precursors to the late 1960s emerged. Delegates and speakers, some of them adults, blamed older people for instilling racial prejudice in youths, causing juvenile delinquency and fostering conformity. They also expressed solidarity with black students who were holding sit-ins at segregated facilities in the South. During the conference, 1,400 youth delegates organized protests against racial discrimination, foreshadowing the widespread demonstrations young people would lead in a few years. Tensions erupt in Harrisburg The evidence from the start of the 1960s indicates that Harrisburg-area teens did not largely represent a threat to the social order. Yet, by the end of the decade, issues raised at the national White House conference erupted in Harrisburg. In 1969, racial tensions broke out in the citys schools that winter and culminated in a riot that summer 50 years ago June 23 in which a black teenager was killed by a white police officer. It was not just a generation that was challenged, but an entire nation. Joe McClure is an embedded editor for PennLive/The Patriot-News. Email him at jmcclure@advancelocal.com, and follow him on Twitter: @jmcclure59. by Cait Bladt Voters consistently list two issues as the most important in determining who they cast their ballots forclimate change and healthcare. As the 2020 primaries approach, 46% of Democratic voters list the climate crisis as the most important issue for them, while 47% say universal healthcare coverage is their top-tier issue. With the Trump administration rolling back climate initiatives and pursuing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, many feel they are racing against the clock to fix the issues. Which is most important? Climate change has long been a fringe issue during elections. As reported by Time, climate leader Al Gore completely skirted the subject during the 2000 election. And Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were not asked about the issue during any of their debates. Yet with numerous natural disasters caused by climate change, the Trump administrations consistent push to rollback climate regulations, and an energized activist movement, many believe climate change will become a defining issue during the 2020 election. Wildfires are ravaging California, heavy rain is flooding communities across the country and drought has killed off crops in the heartland. Meantime, President Donald Trump, who once called climate change a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, has galvanized Democrats and suburban moderates who are worried about his Administrations rolling back of efforts to fight it, which has left the U.S. the only country opposed to the Paris Agreement on climate change. ...Thats where the activists come in. A group of young progressives has pushed their elected officials to prioritize climate change and endorse bold solutions. Most notably, the Sunrise Movement, an activist group led by young people, has hosted sit-ins in lawmakers offices and kept the issue in the medias eye. Were pushing folks not just to pay lip service to the Green New Deal or use it as a sexy buzzword but to put some actual substance behind, says Varshini Prakash, Sunrises executive director. The activists want to ensure that the Green New Deal remains at the top of conversation. RollCall reports many young voters are saying candidates plans to deal with climate change will guide their votes in the primaries. The 2020 elections are still many months away, but 17-year-old Michael Minsk is already following it closely as more candidates enter the race. Eager to vote for the first time next year, the high school junior is looking for a candidate promising bold action on climate change. Climate change is definitely one of the issues I will be voting on along with other social and economic problems, said Minsk, who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. I am tired of corruption in government that prevents politicians from acting on it, so I want someone that will stand up and make changes. ...I want to live in a world when my generation is older that is clean and habitable, said Minsk, the high school junior eager to cast his first vote next year. I do not want the economic problems it will bring, and certainly do not want to have to contend with natural disasters, sea level rise and high temperatures. Its not just activists who are pushing candidates to take hard stances on climate change. Washington governor Jay Inslee has entered the Democratic primary with a campaign built entirely around solving climate change. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Inslee says many candidates address climate change as one of many planks in their platform. He believes the issue is important enough that it should be the basis for all of their policies. His vision, he tells Rolling Stone, is an administration organized around the climate crisis, an entire federal government working in unison to decarbonize the economy and help save the planet. No candidate has his record on the issue, and none of them have said nearly enough about it, he says. A lot of these candidates want to check the box, he tells me. But one sentence in their campaign-launch events doesnt solve this problem. This has to be the number-one priority of the United States, he insists. Every agency has to be on board, and it has to take priority over everything else we do. You have to build a mandate for this during the campaign, and you have to express a willingness to spend your political capital to get this done. I think too many other candidates are going to say, Im for the Green New Deal, and now Im done. That just doesnt cut it. During the 2018 primary, voters delivered a resounding blow to those who sought to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Per the Atlantic: Just over two-fifths of voters in the Election Day exit poll conducted by Edison Research cited health care as the most important issue to their votefar more than the number of voters who picked any other issueand fully three-fourths of them backed Democrats in House elections. On another question, nearly three-fifths of voters picked Democrats when asked which party would do a better job at protecting patients with preexisting conditions. Those same respondents voted Democratic in House races by a crushing margin of 89 percent to 4 percent. Health care, most strategists agree, was especially important in helping Democrats claw back some support from the working-class white voters who stampeded to Trump in 2016. In previously unpublished results provided to me by Edison, non-college-educated white women, usually a solidly Republican-leaning group, split nearly evenly when asked which party would do a better job at protecting patients with preexisting conditions. Fully 90 percent of the blue-collar white women who picked Democrats on that question also voted Democratic for the House. Blue-collar men still leaned more toward the GOP, but even 40 percent of them said that Democrats would better protect people with preexisting conditions, and almost four-fifths who felt that way voted Democratic for the House. At the end of March 2019, the Trump Justice Department filed a legal brief completely reversing their previous stance on protecting the Affordable Care Act. The Justice Department argued the ACA should be found unconstitutional and repealed in its entirety. Vox reports the dramatic about-face is sure to animate millions of voters who depend on the ACA for health coverage. That would mean an end to the private markets where 15 million Americans buy their coverage, an end to the expansion of Medicaid that covers 15 millions more, and an end to protections for people with preexisting conditions. According to the Urban Institute, if the entire law were eliminated, as the Trump administration is now advocating for, nearly 20 million fewer Americans would have health insurance. ...Polling shows Americans strongly disapprove of how Trump has handled health care as president. And now his record on health care heading into his reelection campaign is even more unambiguous: He and his administration have fought to strip health coverage from millions of Americans and to erode protections for people with preexisting conditions and their new move in the courts shows they are keeping it up. Democrats and Republicans alike were quick to rebuke the president and Justice Department. According to the New York Times, Democrats quickly seized on the issue in an attempt to further highlight the differences between the two partys platforms. Speaker Nancy Pelosi who celebrated her 79th birthday on Tuesday had already planned to move to change the conversation with the unveiling of the Democrats own health care plan on Tuesday. The Democrats bill aims to lower health insurance premiums, strengthen protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions and ban the sale of what Democrats call junk insurance. The Justice Departments move gave the unveiling an urgency that not even she could have anticipated. The Republicans did say during the campaign that they werent there to undermine the pre-existing condition benefit, and here they are, right now, saying theyre going to strip the whole Affordable Care Act as the law of the land, Ms. Pelosi told reporters Tuesday, adding, This is actually an opportunity for us to speak to the American people with clarity. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. In a trip through Southeast Alaska, Congressman Don Young (R) stopped in Petersburg on Tuesday to meet with constituents and talk about the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Signed in 1980, the act provided protection to over one million acres of land in Alaska, which includes parts of the Tongass National Forest. Under ANILCA, cabins cannot be built on protected land designated as wilderness. The cabins that were already built prior to ANILCA were grandfathered in; however, the cabins can only be passed down to one generation. After ownership of the cabin has been p... St. Michael High School presents Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' Performances are at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 17 and 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 18 at the Crooked Tree Arts Center. When Estelle Rubens died at age 88 in January 2018, she had no children or close relatives to watch over her. Her husband, Raymond, a lawyer, had died nearly two decades earlier. But Rubens did not die alone. She had the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and memories of her many years there as a volunteer guide for comfort. And she had her art, works by the likes of Alexander Calder and Red Grooms on the walls of her apartment on John F. Kennedy Boulevard. With no immediate heirs, it seemed natural to remember PAFA in her will. She told its officials that she intended to leave the academy a little something. But those officials and her fellow volunteer guides were stunned by the magnitude of her generosity nearly $8 million, all to endow traveling fellowships for students at PAFAs school. We knew the bequest was coming, said David R. Brigham, PAFA president and chief executive. But we had no idea of the magnitude. It far exceeded our expectations. Its one of the largest gifts ever given to the academy. Its exceptional," he continued. She and her husband had no children. So in a way, PAFA was her family. Thats amazing, said Florence Lovitz, a longtime friend of Rubens. Wow! Amazing! Im shocked. She lived simply, nothing fancy. The Raymond D. and Estelle Rubens Travel Scholarship Fund at PAFA will provide selected students $5,000 for travel. A minimum of three scholarships will be awarded each year. At this years commencement in May, PAFA will award fellowships to eight students, based on merit, officials said. In addition, the Rubens fund will cover full tuition for the students for the two semesters after their return to school. It joins seven other endowed traveling scholarships offered by the academy. She was an extremely generous person, said lawyer Joseph McDevitt, co-executor of the Rubens estate. And she loved to travel, McDevitt added. Italy and its museums were a favorite destination. She was interested in helping students, McDevitt said. She didnt have any children of her own, and she grew fond of helping students at the academy. As a volunteer guide or docent for at least 15 years, beginning in the 1990s, Rubens led tours for visitors and talked about the art hanging at the academy, largely works from the permanent collection. The docent of your dreams Estelle Rubens was the kind of volunteer docent every museum dreams of having as part of their family, said Monica Zimmerman, PAFA director of museum education. She loved both the collection and the audience equally, and always brought a fun and funky style to the experiences she created in the gallery for our visitors. She believed that everyone could have a personal relationship with art. And she was hands-down the best-dressed museum guide Ive ever worked with. Rubens was quirky, Zimmerman said, but good quirky. She was eccentric, she was quirky, she was funny, and she was really smart. As a docent, she really knew how to read her audience, Zimmerman said. If Rubens detected an interest in history among her group of visitors, she would accommodate. If the interest was more in the art, she would accommodate that. She didnt give a cookie-cutter tour, Zimmerman said. She loved the historic, and she loved connecting the history of American art with contemporary audiences. And she did it with humor as much as erudition, if not more so. I never met a volunteer docent who could do with humor what she could do, Zimmerman said. She had the extraordinary ability to get people to laugh their way into learning. Not only that, she was a dresser. Everything matched. Her hat. Whatever. Shoes. Dress it all matched, said fellow docent Maxine Brodo, whose father-in-law, Joseph Brodo, was a violinist in the Philadelphia Orchestra and taught the instrument to Rubens when she was a young girl. She was easily the best-dressed volunteer Ive ever met, said Zimmerman. She always had a wild and crazy hat or a piece of jewelry. As serendipitous as that may seem, Zimmerman said, it was a great thing for visitors, who would encounter a lady with some lipstick on, a fun hat, and think to themselves, `Im going to have a good day.' Brodo, the fellow docent, would meet Rubens for lunch now and again, and visited her in her apartment. She had a lot of art in her apartment, Brodo said. She loved art. She was a docent. She was partial to American art. We all are." The Philadelphia Theatre Company, a mainstay on the Avenue of the Arts Read more The two sides in a dispute over diversity at Philadelphia Theatre Company released a joint statement today saying theyve held productive and cordial meetings following last weeks conflict over the No More All-White Seasons open letter posted on Facbook objecting to PTC play selections and staffing. The statement said plans were underway for a private meeting between PTC and its critics, still with no set date. We look forward to continuing positive conversations about the way forward, they said. The scathing letter that started it all was posted on Facebook April 9 by theater professionals Elaina Di Monaco and Haygen-Brice Walker objecting to PTCs recently announced 2019-2020 season of three plays, all by white authors. Signed by 19 Philadelphia theater workers, it sharply questioned what the writers said was the theaters lack of diversity on its staff and lack of transparency in it season-selection process. Paige Price, producing artistic director of PTC, drew praise in the letter for the diversity of the current 2018-2019 season, but severe criticism for seeming to backslide in the coming season. Price responded that she shared many of the writers concerns and was open to meeting with them. Those meetings happened on Monday. Here is the full text of the statement: On Monday, April 15, Philadelphia Theatre Company Artistic Director Paige Price met with the authors of the letter, Elaina Di Monaco and Haygen-Brice Walker. Both of them met separately with Price for face-to-face conversations. The talks were productive and cordial, and centered around Philadelphia Theatre Companys season selection process and also around creating opportunities for underrepresented actors, directors, creative teams, and administrators. A subsequent meeting is being organized, where the signers of the letter will meet in person with additional members of PTCs leadership, to discuss how PTC can develop diversity and inclusion initiatives that can drive change. We also discussed a shared goal of expanding the conversation to other artists and artistic leaders in the city. We look forward to continuing positive conversations about the way forward. No date has been set for the larger meeting, which will not be open to the public. PSEG operates the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power plants on Delaware Bay in South Jersey. The cooling tower is associated with the Hope Creek reactor. Read more With the states nuclear reactors under imminent threat of closure, New Jersey regulators on Thursday voted to approve $300 million in ratepayer subsidies to benefit nuclear power generators, primarily benefiting Newark-based PSEG. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) voted 4-1 Thursday to approve new zero-emission credits for the Salem and Hope Creek power stations in South Jersey. The approval comes two days after PSEG, the plant operator that lobbied lawmakers to approve the subsidy last year, notified authorities that without state support it planned to close the reactors beginning this fall. The subsidy amounts to 0.4 cents per kilowatt hour, or about $4 more on the bill of a residential customer using 1,000 kWh monthly. New Jerseys ratepayer advocate and environmental activists had argued that PSEG had failed to establish that its plants in Lower Alloways Township, Salem County, face financial peril, as required under the zero-emission credit law. The BPU sold out the ratepayers and renewable energy today by going along with this unnecessary nuclear subsidy," Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said in a statement. "This giveaway is about greed and not need. PSEG, which separately owns New Jerseys largest utility, Public Service Electric & Gas Co., maintained that the plants were disadvantaged compared with low-cost natural gas generators and with subsidized solar and wind producers. Supporters of nuclear rescues argue that the closure of reactors would lead to higher electricity costs, as well as the loss of jobs and zero-carbon emissions associated with nuclear plants. The BPU just saved the people of the state hundreds of millions of dollars in what would have been higher energy costs, thousands of jobs lost, and tons of environmentally damaging air emissions, PSEG said in a statement. More than a hundred PSEG employees, wearing orange T-shirts, attended the BPUs meeting in Trenton on Tuesday. New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and Connecticut have approved subsidies to the embattled nuclear industry, which says seven reactors have closed prematurely since 2013 because they could not complete in low-cost energy markets, and a dozen more reactors have announced planned early retirements. The risk of closure is real, Maria Korsnick, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, told New Jersey regulators last year. We are seeing it play out in slow motion across the region. Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland are also considering rescues. The legality of such programs was affirmed Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up challenges to the New York and Illinois subsidies. PSEG said the timing of its notice Tuesday to the regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, that it would begin closing its New Jersey reactors this fall was coincidental to the boards vote and was dictated by an April 16 deadline to notify PJM that the plants would be unavailable to the power grid in the near future. PSEG owns all of the single-unit Hope Creek Generating Station, which can produce 1,172 megawatts of electricity. It owns 57 percent of the older Salem Nuclear Generating Station. Exelon Generation owns a minority share of the twin-unit Salem plant, which can produce 2,327 MW. Exelon has been deeply involved with promoting nuclear rescue bills in Illinois and New York and is leading a contentious effort in Pennsylvania to pass a $500 million nuclear subsidy. New Jerseys nuclear-subsidy program differs structurally from the proposal in Pennsylvania. Both programs require subsidized generators to demonstrate an environmental benefit to their states. But New Jerseys specifically requires the power producer to establish a financial need. The authors of Pennsylvanias legislation say they wanted to steer clear of a means test to avoid accusations that the subsidy amounts to a bailout. The Board of Public Utilities had the legal authority to determine that no plants are eligible for subsidies. Supporters of the nuclear subsidies argued that they are similar to the renewable-energy certificate programs that New Jersey has established for solar and offshore wind generation. Edan Hayhurst (left) and David Tennant in a scene from BritBox's "There She Goes," a comedy from writer Shaun Pye about his and his wife's experiences as the parents of a daughter with special needs, and a talent for mayhem. Read more Sometimes you just have to laugh. For Shaun Pye, a British comedy writer whose daughter, Jo, has a chromosomal disorder that makes it hard for her to communicate and a fierce desire to get her own way in spite of it Facebook was once the place he told stories about his familys sometimes complicated life. My friends would sort of laugh or be moved or whatever. A lot of them said to me, Youre a comedy writer. We just dont see this. Nobody talks about this in mainstream television, " said Pye in an interview in February. They can now. There She Goes, Pyes BBC Four series starring David Tennant and Jessica Hynes as Simon and Emily Yates, made its U.S. debut on April 16 on the streaming service BritBox. Its part of a small but growing number of shows that, like ABCs Speechless and Netflixs Atypical, include characters with disabilities in comedy. Beyond that one fact, those characters have no more in common than anyone else on TV. In Netflixs first 15-minute comedy, the semi-autobiographical, sexually frank Special, creator and star Ryan OConnell plays a gay man with cerebral palsy whod rather people believe his physical limits were caused by a car accident. Hulus Ramy, which premieres on the streaming service on Friday, April 19, stars comedian Ramy Youssef as an Egyptian American from New Jersey struggling to reconcile his Muslim faith with his less-than-pious life. Part of the gang regularly giving him a hard time is Steve, a character with muscular dystrophy, played by Steve Way. Youssef describes Way, who also has the condition, as his best friend, someone hes known since the third grade. Its Way, he told reporters, who encouraged him to do a tough-to-watch (and apparently fictional) scene in which Ramy the character, after swallowing one of his friends cannabis edibles, talks to Steves mother about, among other things, her sons future funeral. When we next see the two together, hes getting Ramy to chauffeur him to a rendezvous with someone he met online and coercing his alcohol-abstaining buddy to buy him booze to bring along. There She Goes is a comedy more in the style of Amazons Catastrophe and Fleabag expect as many gut punches as belly laughs but its as funny as any honest show about life with kids could be while providing an unsentimental glimpse into one familys very specific challenges. Including the tendency of 9-year-old Rosie Yates (Miley Locke) to empty any unattended bottles of liquid she manages to come across. Locke doesnt share Rosies condition, but her performance had me rooting for the character at her most outrageous (and, OK, empathizing with those who had to clean up the mess). We auditioned girls with learning difficulties as well as those without, executive producer Clelia Mountford told reporters at a BritBox news conference in February. A child psychologist, she said, told them it would be far too demanding for such a child because of the schedule and also aping certain behavior, like running out into the road, pouring milk over themselves . ..wouldnt have been advisable. Mileys portrayal of Rosie is very, very similar to Jo," Pye said. The best review Ive had of the show is that Joey loves watching ... Mileys portrayal of her on screen. The two have also spent time together. "Theyre very sweet together, Miley and Joey. Theyre kind of buddies. Tennant also gets to play a character at his most outrageous, in flashbacks to Rosies infancy and later, when Simons shown hanging out in a bar after work, doing everything he can to avoid going home. When Pye first met with Tennant to talk about the show, he told him about rereading the first draft of the script hed written three years earlier, about a guy who had a daughter with a severe learning disability and he was the hero of the piece, and he was holding everything together [with] a wife whos, like, in his ear the whole time." Hed shown that draft to Sarah, his wife. "And she just said, You are not [expletive] making this show, mate. His wife ended up co-writing the series, with the viewpoint changed enough that Pye said Hynes, after filming a scene in which she tells off Tennants character, walked over to him and said, This is basically the most elaborate apology anyones ever made to their wife, isnt it?" I think what was very striking when I read the script was just how honest Shaun had been about his life and about his familys life and about his part in it, and the very fact that he was ready to be so honest about his own shortcomings, I think, means that there is something heroic, actually, about him," Tennant said when I asked how it felt to be the personification of Pyes shortcomings as a father. Still, its Hynes Emily I identified with, in ways I hadnt expected. Though I happen to have a son with Down syndrome, his challenges are far fewer than Rosies, whose condition, like Jo Pyes, falls under the umbrella of conditions medical science cant yet fully identify. Besides bringing back the almost-forgotten loneliness of being surrounded by new mothers whose babies hadnt already been deemed different, what There She Goes nails, for me, is the funny parts of life with any child, and the exhilarating feeling of seeing one demonstrate a skill or an understanding you didnt know he or she had. Even if the result is a bit of a mess. Before the show aired in Britain, there was a screening for an audience that included relatives of people with special needs. I was terrified of that screening," Pye said, and the response just blew me away as people came up to say how much they appreciated that hed made it a comedy. They would tell me stories about their siblings or children ... They were funny stories. And to have that, from those people, was so affirming. Amid the laughter, and, yes, the drama, theres plenty for viewers who bring no personal experience to the show to appreciate. Simon, like Pye, isnt exactly hung up on whats considered correct terminology for his daughters condition. "Its not that people are hostile to Jo in any way, its just that either they dont really understand whats going on, or if they do understand whats going on, they dont really know what to say, Pye said. Since the show premiered, people have said to me, What should I say? Should I come up and say, whats wrong with your daughter? Is saying wrong, is that in itself a judgment on your daughter?' And I think if someones taking the time to come over and ... and show an interest in my daughter, then I dont care how theyre phrasing it or what theyre saying," Pye said. DEAR ABBY: My wife and I have demanding jobs neither of us is crazy about. I sell insurance; she manages a hairdressing salon for a large company. At days end I keep the events of the day good or bad to myself. I have heard the saying Dont bring your family problems to work, and dont bring your work problems home, so I dont carry any baggage home with me. If something positive happens, I may mention it. How do I get my wife to leave her work problems at work? Its the last thing I want to hear about. If I offer an opinion or respond to her, I get criticized and accused of not appreciating how hard she works. She has actually said, No one else in this world works as hard as I do! I would like to have an enjoyable evening or weekend with her and not have to hear about HER work problems. BAGGAGE-FREE DEAR BAGGAGE-FREE: There is another saying that may help you to be more understanding: A joy shared is twice a joy; a burden shared is half a burden. If your wife cant discuss her frustrations with you, who else can she safely confide in? A word to the wise: Women often just need someone to LISTEN. Because this is getting to you to the point that you would write to me about it, rather than offer suggestions or opinions, its time you tell her exactly what you have conveyed to me. Maybe you can agree on a time when these issues can be discussed once you both have decompressed from your demanding jobs. ** ** ** DEAR ABBY: This is my suggestion for Unfulfilled Grandma in Minnesota (Jan. 15), the senior citizen looking to help young children. Schools need help! Contact the local elementary school. Speak with the principal. If the administration agrees with your intentions, you may be required to pay for the background check and fingerprinting. My story: Our youngest daughter sent me a text. She indicated my grandsons kindergarten teacher was asking for help in the computer lab. Being a retired geek, I showed up the following Thursday, working for just an hour. After three weeks the teacher asked me if I would be willing to help her in the classroom for four hours every Thursday. I agreed. It didnt take my grandson long to figure out he got faster help if he addressed me as Mr. . After three months, I told my wife it was the best four hours of my week. Without blinking an eye, she smiled and said, You know, its the best four hours of MY week, too! Wait? WHAT? FULFILLED GRANDPA OUT WEST DEAR GRANDPA: Thank you for writing. Other readers also suggested that volunteering at a school can be a rewarding way for seniors to put their time to good use and help children. I heard from a camp grandma who volunteers at a YMCA summer camp, another who is a reader for 3- and 4-year-olds at a Head Start program, a child care worker in the nursery at a church, and a man who helps to make the children of Afghan refugees feel welcome in their new country through the No One Left Behind organization. Thank you all for these important acts of service, and for sharing the information with me and my readers. Kelly Gerson and Jeffrey Royal March 2, 2019, in Philadelphia Hello there They met thanks to a mutual friend but have no idea who it was. Dating app Hinge, which before a revamp used to connect people based on shared social media acquaintances, introduced Kelly and Jeff suggesting that their shared social media connection might mean they would like each other, too. After a week of great app-based conversation that felt like forever to Kelly, she asked Jeff out IRL. Neither knew anything about many of the beers on Kyber Pass extensive list. We literally spun the menu around and dropped a finger with eyes closed. Where you landed, you had to drink, Jeff said. We made a game of it and had so much fun. Between beers and laughter, we had an easy time talking to one another. Kelly said. He was very cute and very charming. Their bond grew so quickly that both deleted Hinge within days, later realizing they never identified the mutual friend that led the app to introduce them in the first place. Jeff, who is now 32 and a vice president at asset management distribution firm iM Global Partner, grew up in Havertown. He lived in Fairmount when they met, but when his lease expired a few months later, he and his dachshund mix, Steve, moved in with Kelly and her terrier mix, Wrennie, in Old City. She didnt have a television in her apartment, Jeff says with admiration. She was more into experiencing things, being present, living life. Exploring with Kelly remains his favorite thing to do. Ive been to more places and done more things with her than in the 27 years before I knew her, he said. She opened up a different part of me. Kelly, who is now 31, grew up in Madison, Conn. She moved to Philadelphia in 2013 and is now a partner at Luntz Global Partners, a strategic communications firm in Washington. A year after they met, the couple bought a home in Fairmount together. We didnt waste any time, Kelly laughs. We just felt so comfortable in each others presence it was really like meeting somebody you had known for a long time and just picking up where you had left off, she said. There was ease, comfort, and enjoyment from the very start. The engagement The realization that Kellys closest friends and family would be in town for her birthday in February 2018 sent Jeff into a whirlwind of a week: He asked her father for his blessing. He bought a ring. He filled everyone but the guest of honor in on his plan. On the night of the birthday gathering, the couple and four friends went to dinner at Jaxson in Northern Liberties. They ordered. Jeff looked at Kellys friend Jill and chugged a glass of red wine for courage. Here goes nothing, he said as Jill laughed. Jeff stood and raised another glass to Kelly. As he spoke of her charms, she heckled him graciously accepting compliments is not among her strengths. Then Jeff knelt. Will you marry me? he asked. Kelly said yes, and everyone in the restaurant cheered. Then the newly engaged couple and their friends headed to Heritage in Northern Liberties, where her parents, Nancy and Thomas, his mom, Peggy, and other family members and friends were gathered to celebrate with them. It was so them The couple married and celebrated at Front & Palmer, a former pickle barrel factory. The first time we walked in, it felt like a jazz club you didnt want to leave, and we liked that idea, said Kelly. Friend of the couple Sammy is so full of spirit and joy they werent the first pair to ask him to officiate; hed already been ordained online. During the ceremony, Sammy told the couples story and spoke of them as individuals and as a team. Jeffs Uncle Mark and Kellys brother, Tim, did readings, and her godparents, Maureen and Jim, said a blessing. It wasnt a religious ceremony, but we did want to invite God in, she said. Kelly and Jeff wrote their vows together. Among their promises: To create and sustain a marriage that doesnt just make them better people, but that radiates their love and support for each other to those around them. After Sammy read each of the vows, the couple responded in unison, We do. Then it was time to party. We built the reception around the food and the band, because thats really the only two things people care about, said Jeff. They had gone to New York to hear 45 Riots play for a small crowd at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village on a weeknight. A couple of songs in, they had 10 complete strangers dancing together and having a good time, said Jeff. If they could do that, they could get 160 or so of our close friends and family to do the same thing. From Cardi B to modern rap, classic hits to Motown, they covered it all. When the couple visited their venue for the first time, they caught a whiff of something delicious and learned Feast Your Eyes catering is housed in the same building. The caterer nailed the couples concept of delicious-yet-not-too-serious foods and beverages: Dim sum with dumplings and noodles. Cheesesteak eggrolls. A tiny pig in a blanket with a shot-glass-size mug of beer. Little grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup shooters. And the Wrennie Wishes She Were Here champagne mojito and the Steve Sends His Regards spicy margarita. Awestruck The couple saw each other for the first time in their wedding finery at Lokal Hotel in Old City, where they and their wedding party sipped champagne and had photos taken by Peach Plum Pear Photo owner Inna Spivakova. It was a bit surreal, Jeff said. I knew for a long time that Kelly and I were going to get married, but now we were all dressed up, and the day was finally here. And it wasnt a whirlwind yet, so we got to soak it in and appreciate being with each other and our friends. Right after the ceremony and before the cocktail hour, Kelly and Jeff had 10 minutes all to themselves. It was just the two of us in a day where we were otherwise surrounded by friends, family, and loved ones, and to me, thats where everything sank in, Kelly said. I remember being so overwhelmed, and so happy, and Ill remember that forever. The budget crunch A bargain: Jeffs moms best friend, Hugh McHugh, is a florist. The couple didnt know exactly what they wanted but favored simple and clean greens with white flowers. From that, Hugh, who owns Overhill Flowers, crafted a complete vision. He exceeded our expectations on every front, and he handled everything, said Jeff. It was an incredible value. The splurge: The band. Honeymooning Two weeks on Costa Ricas Pacific coast, hiking in the rain forest and on volcanoes, learning to surf, and taking ATVs to otherwise inaccessible beaches for near-private lounging. Behind the scenes: Officiant: Samuel Edandison, friend of the couple, ordained through the Universal Life Church. Venue: Front & Palmer, Philadelphia. Food: Feast Your Eyes Catering, Philadelphia. Music: 45 Riots, New York. Photography: Inna Spivakova, Peach Plum Pear Photo. Flowers: Hugh McHugh of Overhill Flowers, Philadelphia. Dress: The White Dress by the Shore, Clinton, Conn. Hair/Makeup: Aleksandra Ambrozy Makeup & Hair, Philadelphia. Grooms attire: Enzo Custom Suits, Philadelphia. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was interviewed by investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Read more On Feb. 14, 2017, the day after national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned amid a growing controversy over his contacts with the Russian ambassador, President Donald Trump had lunch at the White House with a longtime confidant: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. At the end of the lunch, Trump brought up then-FBI Director James Comey, who had once been Christies boss at the Justice Department. Was Christie still friends with Comey? Trump asked. Yes, the governor replied. Trump told Christie to call Comey and tell him the president really like[s] him, according to the report of special counsel Robert Mueller, released by the Justice Department on Thursday. Tell him hes part of the team. It was one of several episodes, as described by Mueller, in which Trump confided in or solicited advice from Christie as he sought to navigate the investigation he feared might undermine his presidency. While their friendship has been well-documented, the report offers a rare glimpse into their private discussions and suggests Trump thought he could use Christie to bring Comey in line. >> READ MORE: Mueller report did not clear Trump, but says campaign expected to benefit from Russia Investigators for the special counsel interviewed Christie two months ago, on Feb. 13, according to the report, as part of their inquiry into whether Trump had obstructed justice in the Russia investigation. Mueller wrote that while "this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. But if Trump thought he could weaponize Christie, the former two-term governor had no interest in playing the part. Christie had no intention of complying with the President's request that he contact Comey, Mueller wrote, citing an interview with Christie. He thought the President's request was nonsensical and Christie did not want to put Comey in the position of having to receive such a phone call. Christie thought it would have been uncomfortable to pass on that message. The report describes a conversation during the same lunch that Christie wrote about in his book, Let Me Finish, which was published earlier this year. Trump declared to Christie that, with Flynn now out of the picture, the Russia thing is over. No way, Christie said, laughing. The governor told Trump this Russia thing is far from over and [w]ell be here on Valentines Day 2018 talking about this. Trump responded: What do you mean? Flynn met with the Russians. That was the problem. I fired Flynn. Its over. Paraphrasing Christie, the report says he advised the president not to talk about the investigation and that there was no way to make an investigation shorter, but a lot of ways to make it longer. Christie added that Flynn was like gum on the bottom of your shoe Trump would never be able to get rid of him. Mueller considered Trumps remarks to Christie in evaluating whether the president had criminal intent in pressuring Comey to drop the FBIs investigation into Flynn. The evidence showed that the President connected the Flynn investigation to the FBIs broader Russia investigation, the report says. Months later, after Trump fired Comey in May 2017, the president called Christie and complained that he was getting killed in the news media. Trump sought his friends advice. Christie asked if Trump fired Comey because of a memo authored by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had concluded that the FBI director had violated Justice Department protocol during the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Yes, Trump said, according to the Mueller report. Then get Rod out there to defend the decision, Christie counseled. The President told Christie that this was a good idea and said he was going to call Rosenstein right away, Mueller wrote. Trump called Christie again a few weeks later, around the same time the president directed White House counsel Don McGahn to have Mueller removed as special counsel. McGahn refused to follow the June 17, 2017, order and considered resigning, but ultimately stayed. Even as Trump was pressuring McGahn to fire Mueller, the president asked Christie what he thought about the idea. Christie advised against doing so because there was no substantive basis for the President to fire the Special Counsel, and because the President would lose support from Republicans in Congress if he did so, the report says. Library advocate Betty Beaufort stands in front of the Queen Memorial Library in Point Breeze. Read more When Philadelphia threatened to close 11 neighborhood libraries in response to 2008 budget cuts, Betty Beaufort was there, feet on the ground, pushing back against closures. The looming threat swiftly drew hundreds of residents who united to advocate for the 54-branch system. By early 2009, the threat of closure was gone, advocates had prevailed, and Beaufort was named president of Friends of Queen Memorial Library in Point Breeze. Since then, not much has changed for Beaufort, a feisty, crimson-haired grandmother now in her 70s, who still pounds the pavement in the name of full funding for libraries. Shes one of the faces behind the most recent grassroots campaign for more funding Fund Our Libraries circulating petitions, meeting with Council members, assessing branch needs, and establishing a presence. Beaufort said the system faces deteriorating facilities that cause frequent closures, systemwide understaffing, and lengthy wait times for materials. The branches are all in dire need, she said. I know ours is. The elevator needs to be fixed. We need hot water. I cant sit there and know when something is going on, and just not do nothing. On Monday, she and a dozen or so advocates attended a budget hearing before City Council, waving signs that read Not Enough and No Excuses." They watched as Council members grilled library leaders, mostly about bias and discrimination in the system. Council members also asked about the systems crumbling facilities and staff shortages. The librarys current budget is nearly $49 million, with about $40 million from the city and additional support through state funding and private donations. Many point to 2008 as the inception of the systems budget woes. Between 2008 and 2010, the library budget dropped from $55 million to nearly $45 million. At the same time, the citys contribution decreased from nearly $41 million to about $33 million, and continued to dwindle, until 2014, when the city began minor allocation increases. In March, the library asked the city for an additional $15 million, but Mayor Jim Kenney later added only $2.5 million for the library to his budget proposal. Though advocates and City Council maintain that allocation was a drop in the bucket, Kenneys announcement marked progress for the funding campaign that began last year. In December, Beaufort joined hundreds of supporters at a City Hall rally and was at the forefront when advocates delivered a petition for increased library funding, signed by 5,000 people, to Kenneys office. I done fought for this library with tooth and nail, Beaufort said. Shes not the only one with such determination. Dedicated newcomer Two years ago, Erica Zurer moved around the corner from the Ramonita de Rodriguez branch on the edge of Northern Liberties and Ludlow and instantly recognized how important its presence was. One of the things I learned really early on was the literacy rate is so low, she said. Born and bred in New York, the mother of two worked in advocacy and organizing around public education. Before her retirement, she worked with advocacy groups and school boards and helped write the AIDS curriculum for the New York City Department of Education. She left New York for Philly to be closer to family and for cheaper living. On walks through her neighborhood, shed often see the closed branch and a line of people waiting by the gates. Her own branch visits often left her wondering, Why is there water dripping from the ceiling? Why is my library closed that many days? she said. Her experiences and new knowledge pushed her to try to volunteer at the branch, but she was directed to the Friends group, and somewhere along the line it became, this is a systemic issue. Its not just about one library, she said. She and other advocates learned branches across the city suffered from staff shortages and facility emergencies. Zurer soon became heavily involved, and joined the citywide organizing committee. Since then, she has collected petitions, met with Council members, and made dozens of phone calls. This was not an intentional way to learn about the citys neighborhoods, she said, but its the best. Zurer plans to testify before City Council during budget hearings later this month, and said shes encouraged because it seems advocates are on the right road. Our group is ready to be there all the way through [budget hearings] and for years to come," she said. "People are not going to leave after this budget. Looking back to 2008 Beauforts oldest memories of the library begin with her 2008 advocacy, when she started visiting branches and learning of their indispensable value. That year, the people made the difference, she said. Everybody was amazed and could not understand why [the city was] doing this, and everybody came out to fight because you just cant close a library. Thats your knowledge. Word traveled far and fast of the citys plans, and soon, dozens of people gathered in First Unitarian Church on Chestnut Street, where Beaufort said everybody: doctors, lawyers children gathered to form groups that would organize. "Everybody was hot, she said. "People were really, really concerned about the livelihood, which is the libraries, the livelihood in our community, said Beaufort, a Point Breeze resident for more than four decades. She cant help but notice differences between then and now. Today, she said, people dont have that same level of intensity, and she thinks that the threat of closed libraries may have resonated more than the funding issues have. People back then had a different type of mind-set. They could not see our libraries being closed, so they were willing to fight for that, she said. A "Miners for Trump" rally was announced in October 2016 by the @March_for_Trump Twitter account, which was identified by special counsel Robert Mueller as being run from Russia. Read more The announcements on social media all featured the same grim, coal-dust-covered visage of a miner straight from the shafts. The text beneath called on coal workers to turn out in cities across Pennsylvania to show their support for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Reporters were solicited to cover the events. Grassroots organizers and top Republican leaders including a former governor were encouraged to lend their support. But unbeknownst to any of them, the invitations had come from 4,300 miles away. Those planned October 2016 Pennsylvania rallies advertised under the slogan Miners for Trump were just one of the efforts highlighted Thursday in special counsel Robert Muellers report on Russian attempts to use social media to sway the 2016 election in Trumps favor. READ MORE: Mueller report: What we know now READ MORE: Trump sought Chris Christies advice on Comey fallout, whether to fire Mueller Muellers findings made only scant mention of the Russians efforts to organize demonstrations in the Keystone State a lone paragraph in the 448-page tome in a section outlining the well-funded online operation in St. Petersburg aimed at using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to highlight discord, inflame divisions, and spark real-life protests in American cities. But a 2018 Inquirer report analyzing archived social media postings from several accounts flagged by the special counsels team, revealed an active Russian interest in the state if not a sterling record of success. How many PA workers lost their jobs due to Obamas destructive policies? read one Facebook post touting an Oct. 2, 2016, Miners for Trump rally in Philadelphias Marcony" Plaza. Help Mr. Trump fix it! FROM THE ARCHIVES: Paint Philly red: How Russian trolls sought to influence Pennsylvanias 2016 vote Unlike in other states targeted by the Russians, like Florida, there is no evidence that the rallies scheduled in October 2016 for Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Wilkes-Barre, and Erie ever took place. No one applied to City Hall for a permit on the date the Philadelphia rally was supposed to have taken place. No news reports appear to have been published. And a search of social media from the time uncovered no photos or posts depicting such an event in any of the targeted Pennsylvania cities. Still, the Russians apparent failure wasnt for lack of trying. Just hours before the purported rally was to take place in Marconi Plaza, at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue, @March_for_Trump tweeted: Guys, were looking for a coordinator for our event In Philly. If youd like to help, just DM us! #TrumpPence #MAGA. Days earlier, former Gov. Tom Corbett had been asked to spread the word. Please share, @March_for_Trump, an account later identified as one controlled by Russians, tweeted on Sept. 26, 2016. The state Republican Party also got a solicitation. Please DM us, @March_for_Trump said in a tweet sent to the official Twitter account of the Pennsylvania GOP. Were organizing some rallies in support of Mr. Trump in your state. Neither Corbett nor his party appear to have responded to the entreaties. The accounts attempts to garner attention from the media also appear to have fallen flat. According to the archived postings, @March_for_Trump contacted nine reporters in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre media market all employees of WNEP-TV and WBRE-TV a day before the planned rallies. Our community is holding a Miners for Trump rally tomorrow if youre interested in covering it, the messages read. They garnered only one response from WNEP reporter Clay LePard, who wrote in reply: Thanks for letting us know! Neither Philadelphia GOP Chairman Mike Meehan nor Dave Majernik, vice chairman of Allegheny Countys Republican Committee, were able to recall any such rally in their cities when interviewed in 2018. It seems like they just created a presence on the internet without anything actually happening, Majernik said. Staff writer Andrew Seidman contributed to this article. Then-White House counsel Don McGahn listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting in October 2018. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford. Read more President Donald Trump often ran up against a wall as he furiously sought out ways to kill special counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election. It was a wall erected by his own appointees. Mueller put it this way in his report: The presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out his orders or accede to his requests." Notably, early in his presidency, Trump pleaded with then-FBI Director James Comey to go easy on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Comey ignored Trumps request, and Flynn later pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about contact he had with a Russian ambassador. Here is a look at other aides resistance, according to Muellers report. A call from Camp David During his 21 months as White House counsel, Don McGahn frequently found himself at odds with Trump. One such episode followed publication of a Washington Post article in June 2017 that said Mueller was investigating whether Trump had attempted to obstruct justice, prompting Trump to lash out on Twitter. Three days after the story appeared, the president called McGahn from Camp David and urged him to contact Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to argue that Mueller had conflicts of interest that precluded him from serving as special counsel. McGahn recalled Trump saying something along the lines of, You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod. McGahn didnt contact Rosenstein. And Trump called back. Mueller has to go, Trump told McGahn during the second call, and again urged him to contact Rosenstein. Call me back when you do it. McGahn told investigators that he said no to this request, but then gave Trump the impression that he would call Rosenstein. He did so, he told investigators, because he just wanted to get off the phone. A letter to boost the boss Weeks into office, Trump demanded that a top aide, K.T. McFarland, write an internal letter to provide him with cover as scandal flared around Flynn. Trump had been forced to fire Flynn after news broke that Flynn had lied about his discussions with the Russian ambassador to the United States, falsely saying they hadnt talked about U.S. sanctions against the country. The president asked McFarland to put in writing that he had not instructed Flynn, her superior, to bring up sanctions with the ambassador. McFarland, not knowing if Trump was telling her the truth about that, declined to write the letter, according to the Mueller report. About the same time, McFarland was more compliant with another request. At Flynns order, she called the Post to knock down an article reporting there been talk of sanctions between Flynn and the ambassador. Mueller said McFarland knew better, but misled the Post anyway. Trump later nominated McFarland, a former analyst for Fox News, to be U.S. ambassador to Singapore, but she withdrew her name after her confirmation was stalled in the Senate. Lying bastard McGahns June 2017 stalemate with the president resurfaced in late January 2018, when the New York Times reported that Trump had ordered McGahn to have the Justice Department fire Mueller. The newspaper claimed that McGahn refused to follow Trumps order, and instead threatened to resign. Fake news, folks. Fake news, Trump told reporters in response to the story. A typical New York Times fake story. Behind the scenes, though, Trump urged McGahn through their respective attorneys to release a statement denying that hed been told to have Mueller fired, or threatened to resign. McGahn refused, telling White House staffers that while he hadnt told Trump that he planned to resign, the rest of the story was accurate. Trump told then-staff secretary Rob Porter that McGahn was a lying bastard and needed to write a letter for our records making clear that Trump had never told him to have Mueller fired. McGahn again refused to comply, but the matter wasnt settled. Trump revisited the issue during an early February meeting with McGahn at the Oval Office, urging him to issue a correction. McGahn wouldnt budge, so Trump began complaining about McGahns tendency to take notes. Lawyers dont take notes, he said. I never had a lawyer who took notes. McGahn explained to the president that he took notes because he was a real lawyer" and note-taking wasnt a bad thing. Who wants to be attorney general? Trumps unhappiness with Attorney General Jeff Sessions festered for months after Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, opening the door to Muellers involvement as special prosecutor. In May 2017, Trump called Sessions at home and asked his attorney general to unrecuse himself and instead direct the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton. Sessions told investigators he listened to what Trump had to say, but did not respond or follow through on either matter. That July, the president began to consider possible replacements for Sessions. Trump asked Porter whether he thought Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand was tough and on the team and if she would want to become attorney general and oversee Muellers investigation. Trump encouraged Porter to get in touch with Brand and gauge her interest, and asked Porter on several occasions whether hed spoken to her. Porter felt uncomfortable with the task, and never contacted Brand. She resigned in 2018 and accepted a corporate job with Walmart. Porter quit the same year after he was accused of domestic abuse. Constant pressure According to the report, the president also asked a close adviser former campaign director Corey Lewandowski to apply pressure to Sessions. The president wanted Lewandowski to tell Sessions, despite his recusal, to deliver a speech saying that Trump was being treated unfairly by Mueller and that Sessions was going to limit his probe to future election interference. Unhappy with the assignment, Lewandowski did nothing. When Trump repeated the request, Lewandowski asked Rick Dearborn, a White House aide, to deliver the instructions. Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through, Muellers report said. Sessions finally quit last November. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives to speak at the State Department in Washington, Wednesday, April 17, 2019. Read more TOKYO - North Korea's Foreign Ministry no longer wants to talk to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, asking for him to replaced in nuclear talks with someone who "is more careful and mature in communicating," state media reported on Thursday. The Foreign Ministry said "no one can predict" the situation on the Korean peninsula if the United States does not abandon the "root cause" that compelled Pyongyang to develop its nuclear program, according to a statement quoting senior official Kwon Jong Gun, reported by the Korean Central News Agency and picked up by Reuters. Pompeo is "talking nonsense" by trying to finish working-level negotiations between North Korea and the United States by the end of the year, "which subjects him to public ridicule," the statement said. "We cannot be aware of Pompeo's ulterior motive behind his self-indulgence in reckless remarks; whether he is indeed unable to understand words properly or just pretending on purpose. However, it is a very dangerous situation if he really did not grasp the meaning," it said, according to Reuters. This is not the first time Pompeo has felt the heat of North Korean ire: He was accused of making "gangster-like demands" last July shortly after a visit to Pyongyang. But North Korea has been careful to avoid direct criticism of President Donald Trump, perhaps believing he is more likely to make concessions if he is flattered. "While Pompeo is fabricating stories after his own taste ... it is fortunate that the personal relationship between our Chairman of the State Affairs Commission and President Trump is on good terms as usual and our Chairman is pleased to get on well with President Trump," the statement said, referring to Kim Jong Un by his title as head of North Korea's government. The statement is another sign of North Korea's frustration with the progress of denuclearization talks with the United States, after a summit between Trump and Kim ended abruptly in February without an agreement. Earlier Thursday, North Korea announced it had test-fired a new tactical guided weapon, in its first public weapons test since the summit. It was not immediately clear what type of weapon the North Koreans fired, but experts said the description of a tactical weapon, with guided flight, capable of carrying a powerful warhead and fired at a variety of targets, suggested a short-range missile rather a longer-range ballistic missile, meaning the move would not violate North Korea's self-declared moratorium on testing. Nevertheless, experts said the action was a calibrated sign of defiance by Kim following a stalemate in the denuclearization talks and a reminder that his country was continuing to develop its conventional weapons program. But they said it does not close the door on diplomacy or negotiations about North Korea's nuclear program. KCNA said Kim oversaw the testing of the weapon Wednesday, explaining that it was tested "in various modes of firing at different targets," had a "peculiar mode of guiding flight," and could carry a powerful warhead. Kim was quoted as saying that "the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army." Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the description suggested a short-range missile that can be launched from the ground, sea and air. "This looks like a new form of cruise missile," he said. "If it's a new form of cruise missile, it's irrelevant to sanctions, because the current U.N. sanctions are about ballistic missiles." The test follows an announcement in November of the firing of what state media called an "ultramodern tactical weapon," noting at the time Kim's "passionate joy" at its success. Lee Jong-seok, a former South Korean unification minister who is now at the Sejong Institute, said the latest announcement sent a message to Washington but did not cross the line. "What matters in negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. is strategic, not tactical, weapons," he said. "A test of tactical weapons does not constitute a full-on provocation, but North Korea is clearly sending a defiant message to the United States. Kim Jong Un does not intend to walk out of negotiations but shows that he can 'seek a new way' in the worst case." Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation warned against reading too much into the latest announcement, noting that experts still don't even know what system was tested in November. In neither case was anything detected by the United States, he added, implying it was some sort of short-range system. "Pundits and policymakers should refrain from assuming this is a signal of Pyongyang deliberately ratcheting up tensions or closing the door on negotiations," he said. Trump and Kim held a historic first summit in Singapore in June, but their second meeting nearly two months ago in Hanoi ended abruptly without any progress on efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program. In a speech last week, Kim said he would be prepared to meet Trump for a third summit, but only if the United States fundamentally changed its approach. He also warned that his patience was running out and gave the United States until the end of the year to make a "bold decision." That followed a New Year's Day speech in which Kim threatened to seek a "new way" if the United States continued to apply sanctions pressure and demand unilateral concessions. North Korea swore off the testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles after firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at the end of 2017, but it did not promise to halt the testing of all types of weapons. Trump has touted the suspension of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests as proof of the success of his negotiations with Pyongyang. A U.S. official familiar with monitoring operations told the Associated Press that neither U.S. Strategic Command nor the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) had observed any weapons test. That rules out tests that go high into the atmosphere, such as a ballistic missile, but does not rule out tests at lower altitudes. Harry Kazianis, director of Korean studies at the Center for the National Interest, said Kim was sending a signal with the weapons test. "Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day, and that his regime is becoming frustrated with Washington's lack of flexibility in recent negotiations," he said. "Sadly, we are only one ICBM test away from another crisis with Pyongyang, and these smaller tests only bring us closer to such a moment." But Duyeon Kim at the Center for a New American Security said the test was unlikely to affect negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang in any meaningful way. "It's not all about the U.S.," she said. "It's just as much as, if not more, a domestic message to assure the North Korean people and military elite that summitry won't affect their national defense and strength." Kim Jong Un also oversaw drills this week by the militarys air and antiaircraft force tasked with defending the capital city of Pyongyang, state-run media reported on Wednesday. An image made available by Gigarama.ru on Wednesday April 17, 2019 shows an aerial shot of the fire damage to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Tuesday, April 16. (Gigarama.ru via AP) Read more With a wall of red-orange flames rapidly advancing, and Notre Dame's vast chambers reaching oven-like temperatures, the commander of the Paris fire brigade made a painful choice Monday evening. He told his firefighters to retreat. Losing a beloved medieval relic would be devastating, of course, but losing human lives in a hopeless effort to save the building would be even worse. But Jean-Claude Gallet, the commander, had a backup plan: Colossus, a 1,100-pound tank-like robot with the ability to venture into danger zones where conditions would quickly kill a person. Using a motorized water cannon capable of firing more than 660 gallons per minute, Colossus took aim at the stone walls of the ancient cathedral and began spraying. In an interview with the Times of London, Gallet credited the firefighting robot with lowering temperatures inside the glass-filled nave and saving the lives of its human counterparts as an even greater disaster loomed. "Time was against us, the wind was against us and we had to get the upper hand," Gabriel Plus, a spokesman for the Paris fire brigade, told the paper. "The priority we set was to save the two belfries. Imagine if the timber of the belfries had been weakened and the bells had collapsed. That was really our fear. In the beginning, it was not impossible to imagine that the cathedral structure could collapse." The machine's heroic role in the Notre Dame fire may be remembered as the beginning of a new era of robotic firefighting. Over the last decade or so, experts say, different countries and organizations have begun developing machines that fight fires and gather information, potentially offering a sophisticated new tool in a fire department's arsenal. The machines keep people out of harm's way and provide an alternative to the age-old practice of hauling a heavy, unwieldy fire hose into a cluttered building. Colossus is far from the only robotic firefighter available for action. In China, video has emerged of firefighting robots taking part in drills alongside human firefighters. Howe & Howe Technologies a company that specializes in creating military vehicles and robots has developed several firefighting robots that are designed to operate in industrial environments using foam or water. Lockheed Martins Fire Ox, a robotic fire truck that can be controlled using a game style controller, was designed to fight wild fires or structure fires, Myron Mills, who helped develop the vehicle, told Bloomberg in 2014. The U.S. Navy has also begun experimenting with a 5-foot 10=inch humanoid robot to fight fires. The Terminator-like machine was designed to throw propelled extinguishing agent grenades and handle a fire hose, according to CNN. The Colossus robot is deployed "with the Paris Firefighter Brigade and other with many other French or foreign Regional Services of Fires & Rescues," according to Shark Robotics, the French company that created the machine. The robotics company's website doesn't reveal the robot's price tag and the company didn't respond to a request for comment. Shark Robotics says the Colossus which is 2.5 feet wide and 5.25 feet long can carry 1,200 pounds and be operated from almost 1,000 feet away. Controlled using a joystick, the machine is waterproof and fireproof and can even withstand thermal radiation, according to the company. It can crawl up stairs. The machines lithium ion batteries can last for up to eight hours, and the robot can be equipped with cameras, sensors, and a smoke extracting fan. Brian Lattimer. the vice president of research and development at the safety engineering and consulting firm Jensen Hughes, said operating in dangerous environments is only part of the appeal of firefighting robots. In the near future, he said, robots will be equipped with sensors that allow them to see through heavy smoke and steam, locating obstacles and identifying "hot spots" that can be targeted with water. Right now, he said, one of the downsides to robots is they operate best in open environments like a warehouse or a spacious cathedral. Over time, he said, the machines will be equipped with increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence that will allow them to operate with more autonomy, presumably as the machines become more agile. The goal will be for firefighters to be in the loop with these robots to assist and evaluate the hazards so they can plan an effective response, Lattimer said. Eventually, well have collaborative teams of robots in the air and on the ground that will work closely with people and reduce the risk to human life. Deja Mosley holds her son Camren Mosley at her home in Philadelphia Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. Camren Mosley was born with Glaucoma and other vision problems that have rendered him blind. His mother applied for Social Security disability on his behalf but was initially denied. Read more Starting Saturday, anyone in Pennsylvania who is denied federal disability benefits and wants to appeal will go through a new step that the Social Security Administration says is meant to reduce a large case backlog but that advocates fear will do the opposite. For the last 10 years, Pennsylvania and nine other states had a special exception to the rule that a person denied disability benefits after an initial application had to submit to a second examiner for reconsideration before appealing to an administrative law judge. Pennsylvanians could skip that extra step. Even so, wait times for an appeal hearing with a judge were averaging more than two years in some areas, including Philadelphia, as of late 2017. Last year, federal officials decided to bring back the secondary review in hopes of getting appellants a quicker decision and lowering the number of cases awaiting judicial review. Reinstating reconsideration restores a national, unified disability process and consistent due process for disability claimants across the country, said Daniel OConnor, the Philadelphia regional spokesperson for the Social Security Administration. It also leads to earlier allowance decisions for some at a lower administrative cost to taxpayers. Advocates for people seeking Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are concerned, though, that reconsideration will only add more time to the total process. Very few people will likely win at this stage, so most applicants around 85 percent will have to appeal again, said Jen Burdick, an attorney with Philadelphia Community Legal Services, which represents people who are denied benefits. SSI is federal aid for those who are poor and disabled, blind, or elderly. It pays 8.1 million people nationwide an average of $526 a month, often used for rent, groceries, and other basics. After an Inquirer article last year on Philadelphia having the longest wait time in the country for appeals, the federal government added administrative judges to the two Philadelphia appeal offices. Wait times significantly decreased by the end of the year. As of March, the average wait time for an appeal hearing in Philadelphia was 13 months, and the judicial backlog was down to 3,000 cases in one Philadelphia office and 3,500 in the second. In November 2017 each office had about 10,000 cases pending. Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Pa.) said Wednesday that the reconsideration step is adding more red tape to the process. It may prevent some people from being able to access the benefits to which they are entitled, Evans said. OConnor said that 130 employees will be hired to help process the new reconsideration appeals in Pennsylvania. Opening Californias coastal waters to offshore oil and gas exploration as proposed by the Trump administration would be disastrous for this region, North County mayors and county supervisors said in a news conference Monday, April 15. The results of a spill would be devastating to our coast. We already know from history what can happen, said District 3 County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, referring to the explosion and sinking in 2010 of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Nineteen years later that region still hasnt recovered, said Gaspar, a former Encinitas mayor. We cannot afford to take that kind of risk. Joining Gaspar in the conference at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas were the citys mayor, Catherine Blakespear; Del Mar Mayor David Druker; Oceanside Mayor Peter Weiss; San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones; and District 5 County Supervisor Jim Desmond, the former mayor of San Marcos. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Oceana organized the gathering as part of its effort to galvanize opposition to a federal government proposal that would open up nearly all U.S. coastal waters to offshore drilling. In January 2018, the Department of Interior released the draft 2019-2024 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Leasing Program. The program would determine when and where the departments Bureau of Ocean Energy Management can offer leases to the petroleum industry. If adopted, the program would overturn the Obama administrations 2017-2022 program that prohibited new offshore leasing and drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The Ocean Energy Management Bureau is in the process of analyzing comments received from the public earlier this year on the draft proposal. Later this year, the bureau respond to the comments with a revised program, subject to a 90-day public comment period. Then, the bureau will compile a final proposed program, which will undergo a 60-day review by Congress, followed by possible approval. Explore Offshore, a nonprofit coalition sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, is promoting support for the program, based on the organizations position that more production is needed for national energy dependence and affordability. Oceana spokesman Brady Bradshaw, an Encinitas resident who led Mondays proceeding, said U.S. Representative Mike Levin has co-sponsored two Congressional bills aimed at blocking drilling the West Coast Ocean Protection Act (H.R. 310) and the California Clean Coast Act (H.R. 279). Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, is a first-term Congressman representing the 49th District, which encompasses most of coastal North County. San Juan Capistrano Mayor Brian Maryott, who is campaigning as the Republican opponent to Levin in the 2020 election, appeared at Mondays conference to show nonpartisan solidarity with the North County leaders in their opposition to the administrations plan. They contend oil and gas drilling on the coast will lead to pollution, endanger marine life and the coastal environment, and harm the coastal economy. Opening up our coast to offshore drilling is wrong in so many ways encouraging the further use of fossil fuels and exposing our delicate shoreline and marine environment to the risk of oil spills and pollution, Blakespear said. We will do absolutely everything in our power to stop it, she told reporters at the conference. In his remarks, Druker recalled the repulsion he and others experienced 50 years ago during the massive Santa Barbara oil spill that turned seawater and beaches black with oil. After that spill, my assumption was there would be no more drilling off the shores of Southern California, Druker said. This is something that should never happen again off the coast of California. Desmond, the former mayor of San Marcos, added that offshore drilling could interfere with military operations staged from area bases and endanger service personnel. The Marine Corps frequently practices amphibious landings on beachheads at Camp Pendleton. A handful of residents attended the conference, including longtime Encinitas residents Madge and Arturo Torres. The Tamaqua Area School District in Schuylkill County has reinstated a policy providing for teachers and other school employees to carry firearms. Read more Three months after a program to train and arm school employees was put on hold, an upstate Pennsylvania school district has reinstated a policy that allows teachers and other staffers to carry firearms. The disclosure came Tuesday night in response to a residents question at a Tamaqua School District board meeting, thrusting the issue back into the spotlight and prompting some residents to complain that the board kept them in the dark about the policy. Larry Wittig, president of the Schuylkill County board, indicated in an interview with a local reporter that staffers werent carrying weapons yet, but he said at the meeting that he wouldnt give specifics about when the policy would be implemented or who would be armed. He said the decision to reinstate the policy suspended while two lawsuits against the school district worked their way through the court system did not require a public vote. >> Read more: This Pa. school district is set to be first where teachers carry guns Wittig said at the meeting that the lawsuits against the school district had been thrown out and the criteria [had] been fulfilled for the suspension of the policy to be lifted. According to court records, both lawsuits remain in progress. The parents who sued the district plan to file an amended complaint in the coming weeks, said CeaseFirePA, the gun-control advocacy group that worked with the parents, and court records show that on Thursday, a judge granted them until May 17 to do so. Also, the Tamaqua teachers union is awaiting a date for oral arguments on the districts preliminary objections to the unions lawsuit, a representative said. The Tamaqua Education Association is disappointed by the school districts decision to prematurely reinstate this policy while a court challenge remains underway," Christopher Lilienthal, a Pennsylvania State Education Association representative, said Thursday. Cheryl Tennant Humes, a school board candidate who asked Wittig about the policy at Tuesday nights meeting, said the board obviously had no intention of informing the public" that the policy had been revived. Tamaquans dont deserve to be talked down to or to have our views dismissed as political simply because the board finds it easier to sneak through a policy without opposition, she said. Neither Wittig nor school board member Nick Boyle responded to requests for comment from The Inquirer on Thursday. In an interview with a reporter in Tamaqua, Wittig said that people opposed to the policy were creating hysteria for political motives and that the board had never discussed the lifting of the suspension. The re-implementation of the [policy] was not a discussion point at a board meeting or with [school] administration. I was responding to a gotcha question [that was] politically motivated, Wittig told Ben Stemrich, a reporter for BRC13 television in Lehighton who posted the 11-minute interview on Facebook. Even if no one had sued the district, Wittig said, there would not be anybody walking around with a gun up there. Because these training methods take time. It takes time to identify the correct way to do it. The debate in the approximately 2,500-student district has been underscored by national concern about school shootings. Some Tamaqua parents want dedicated security officers to protect the schools, or other safety measures. The school board has said its method is cheaper than hiring full-time officers and means that a potential attacker would not know who in the school was armed. Wittig said in the BRC13 interview that the board has been researching firearm training programs and can look to ways to improve" the policy now that it is no longer suspended. Jenna Turner, who has a son in first grade and a daughter in preschool in the district, said shed prefer less restrictive methods including checking IDs, using metal detectors, and implementing anti-bullying programs before guns are placed in teachers hands. Theyre there to teach. If theres mass chaos, what are they going to shoot? Turner said. What if they shoot my kid? What if a kid gets their hands on a gun in school, or what if a teacher snaps? Theres just so many scenarios. William Korzon, 78, is escorted out of district court in Jamison after his arraignment on Thursday. He's accused of murdering his wife, Gloria, in 1981. Read more After decades of questioning and prodding, William Korzon allegedly let slip a short question that landed him in prison. Did you find the body? investigators in Bucks County said he asked them earlier this year. Korzon, 76, was arrested Thursday morning at his home in York County, charged with the murder of his wife, Gloria, who disappeared in 1981 shortly after leaving work. He also has been charged with forging Glorias name on tax documents and greeting cards to keep up appearances, and soliciting a neighbor to help him, in an aborted plot, to murder a Warrington Township police officer who was investigating Glorias disappearance. Magisterial District Judge Jean Seaman denied Korzon bail, and he was taken into custody after a short arraignment in Jamison. Keith Williams, a Doylestown lawyer, has been appointed Korzons public defender. As he was led out of the courtroom, Korzon told reporters he had no idea where his wifes body is, and denied killing her. She went to Florida, Korzon said in a flat monotone, his eyes cast down. Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub vehemently discredited that claim. Gloria Korzon was declared legally dead by a county judge in 1997. She was 38 when she left the home she shared with her husband for the last time, according to an arrest affidavit filed Thursday. There is absolutely no evidence of her continued existence for 38 years after that fateful day," Weintraub said. There is, however, evidence of her demise and of deception by Korzon." Weintraub said an investigative grand jury served an integral, pivotal role in this case, which was referred to his office last year by detectives in Warrington Township. The prosecutor declined to elaborate on the grand jury, the proceedings of which remain under seal. He voiced disappointment, however, in being unable to locate Gloria Korzons remains, and noted their absence as an obstacle for his office. This prosecution will be difficult, he said, but difficulty in prosecuting is not an excuse. Ralph Kidder, Gloria Korzons younger brother, said Thursday that the news of his brother-in-laws arrest had, finally, given him some hope of closure. All I can say is that I hope justice is going to be served, and that if he is the one that did it, that he tells everybody where she is and what happened to her, so we can finally put it to rest, Kidder, 68, said from his home in Massachusetts. Its been very disheartening that we never knew where she was, and, even after this today, we still dont. The affidavit filed in Korzons arrest lays out a decades-long pattern of abuse and rage in a tumultuous marriage. Just under a year after their wedding day in 1967, Korzon was arrested in Springfield, Mass., for threatening to kill Gloria, the affidavit states. He was committed to a mental hospital in Massachusetts after his arrest and later underwent a surgical procedure on his thyroid in Connecticut to reduce his aggressive tendencies. The couple relocated to the region a year later. Over the next 13 years, Korzon was the subject of multiple domestic-violence investigations. His wife suffered various injuries during these reported assaults, many of which required hospitalizations, the affidavit states. Gloria Korzon documented this abuse in letters to her attorney, and an additional letter was sent to her father with the instructions to not open it unless something happened to her. She filed for a protection-from-abuse order in June 1980, after a domestic assault in which she received fractures to her head and neck, according to her husbands arrest affidavit. She later withdrew it because he "had bought her a ring. She was seen for the last time on March 6, 1981, when she left early from her shift as an assembly-line worker at Bridgeport Controls in Horsham. Days later, William Korzon went to the electronics firm and told her supervisor to fire her because of poor mental and physical health. At the time, police in Warrington served multiple search warrants on the couples home but found no definitive answers. Investigators dug up the Korzons backyard twice, finding only the remains of the familys German shepherd, Max. Meanwhile, William Korzon engaged in a series of actions to lie, conceal, and profit from his wifes disappearance, investigators said. Months after his wife was last seen, Korzon forged her signature on two checks and filed their joint income tax return, the affidavit states. He also sent a Mothers Day card to her mother, a move he admitted earlier this year was done to keep up appearances that Gloria was still alive. In 1986, a former tenant who once lived in Korzons home told police that Korzon had solicited him to help ambush and murder Warrington Police Sgt. Joseph Adams. That same year, Korzons girlfriend handed over Gloria Korzons drivers license, Social Security card, and other personal documents to police. She said she had found them in his home. The following year, Korzon pursued, and was granted, a divorce on the grounds that his wife had deserted him. He later admitted that he had lied during hearings in that case, in which he claimed that Gloria had regularly contacted him after her disappearance. In more recent interviews, earlier this year, Korzon admitted to having battered Gloria for years." He also admitted to forging his wifes last paycheck and other financial documents to illegally access her money, according to his arrest affidavit. And it was also during an interview this year that Korzon asked prosecutors the fateful question about his wifes body. Former Mayor John Street (left) next to mayoral candidate Sen. Anthony Williams before Street endorsed Williams at Venango House in Philadelphia last week. Read more Twice a year since 2016, Mayor Jim Kenney has gone to Temple University to talk about city government and politics with the students in John Streets class. Kenney isnt expecting to be invited back these days since Street, a fellow Democrat who served as mayor from 2000 to 2008, excoriated the incumbent last week while endorsing a primary challenger, State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams. At the heart of Streets animus is a city contract worth more than $14 million each year, awarded during his first term in 2003, renewed several times, and now coming to an end June 30. A subsidiary of PRWT Services Inc., founded and run by friends and political allies of Streets, holds that contract, the largest by a minority-owned business in the city. Kenney this week said he was surprised by Streets turn, even for a former mayor who has never been shy about expressing his opinion. The current and former mayor have not discussed the PRWT contract, which Kenneys staff said is being terminated because the company violated a city ordinance requiring vendors to disclose any political contributions made to Pennsylvania candidates, parties, or committees by their executives and consultants. I had decided, coming into office in 2016, that I was not going to involve myself in any way with contracts, Kenney said. I dont believe a mayor should be directing contracts to anyone. Street, who sat next to Williams in City Councils chambers Monday as the state senator delivered testimony on the proposed city budget, later complained again about PRWTs losing the contract. He shrugged off the companys violation. My understanding is they had a different excuse every other day, Street said of the Kenney administration. First it was this thing. Then it was another thing. The reality is, I think its just making up excuses for doing something the mayor wanted to do. PRWT handles maintenance, janitorial work, security, and other services at City Hall, the Municipal Services Building, One Parkway Building, and the Stout Criminal Justice Center. The contract has meant average annual payments of $14.4 million from 2006 to 2018, according to Deana Gamble, a spokesperson for the mayor. The city discovered in 2018 that company officials had made but not reported donations the previous year to City Council members Blondell Reynolds Brown, Derek Green, and Kenyatta Johnson, Gamble said. Another firm, not minority owned, was also disqualified during that review, she said. PRWT was founded in 1988 to pick up business outsourced by the city. One of the first contracts was to provide parking services. Willie Johnson, who has supported Streets campaigns, was one of four founders and now serves on the companys board. The board also includes Thomas A. Tommy Leonard, an attorney with strong Democratic political ties, former Gov. Mark Schweiker, a Republican, and Robert W. Bogle, publisher of the Philadelphia Tribune. George Burrell, a former top Street administration official, was the companys general counsel from 2007 to 2011 and still serves as its attorney. Joann Bell, another former Street administration official, is the companys lobbyist. Burrell says PRWT supporters are angry that the contract is going to a publicly traded, Chicago-based company, Jones Lang LaSalle, rather than to another minority-run firm. He also thinks that the punishment is too harsh for the violation and that the city could have taken a less severe action. If the outcome of this was this contract was going to another minority business, Latino, African American, or whatever, I would be disappointed but not complaining, Burrell said. The fact [is] that those particular issues could have been waived. Because they have nothing to do with performance. Williams has incorporated Streets larger point into his standard stump speech, casting Kenney as out of touch, especially in the citys African American neighborhoods. Minority contracting in the city has been a major talking point for former City Controller Alan Butkovitz, the third Democrat in the May 21 primary for mayor. Kenney, who last week dismissed Williams and Butkovitz as annoying gnats, didnt rule out speaking to Streets students in the future. Maybe Ill make myself available to some other professor, he said. If Im that much out of touch, maybe he doesnt want me back. Williesha Robinson-Bethel, left (with ponytail), the mother of victim William Bethel IV, is comforted by supporters after the mixed verdicts by jurors on Thursday, April 18, 2019, following the trial against Zahmir White, the teen who fatally shot her 16-year-old son on Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018. Read more A Philadelphia jury on Thursday convicted a 19-year-old South Philadelphia man who admitted to fatally shooting a Boys Latin of Philadelphia High School sophomore on South Street last Easter of voluntary manslaughter, but acquitted him of murder charges. Zahmir White claimed he shot William Bethel IV in self-defense while they were on the 800 block of South in the late afternoon of April 1, 2018. Assistant District Attorney Adam Geer argued to jurors that the shooting was first-degree murder, a deliberate and intentional killing. By their verdict, jurors didnt fully accept either claim. The voluntary manslaughter conviction, based on the instructions given to the jury by Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn Bronson, indicated that jurors found that White acted under an unreasonable mistaken belief of self-defense when he fired four shots, one of which hit the 16-year-old Bethel. When the verdicts were read in the packed courtroom, filled with family members and supporters on both sides, the victims mother, Williesha Robinson-Bethel, and father, Bill Bethel III, sat quietly. Both declined to comment. Outside the courthouse, the mother was hugged by supporters. Evidence suggested the killing grew out of prior disputes between two groups of South Philadelphia teens. Bethel had moved with his family to Roxborough years earlier but was with his past friends from one of the groups when they came across White on South Street. White, who goes by the nickname Pikachu, testified in his own defense Wednesday, admitting he shot Bethel, but claiming he did so because he feared that one of Bethels friends, Christopher Elliott, then 18, had a gun in his book bag. Two friends of Elliotts testified that no one from their group had a gun there that day. The prosecution contended that White intended to shoot and kill Elliott, but hit Bethel in the lower back as both were running away. Geer argued that jurors could find White guilty of first-degree murder through a transfer of intent that White intended to kill Elliott, but that intent was transferred when he shot and killed Bethel. Jurors, who deliberated for 4 hours, rejected that argument, but returned a mixed verdict by convicting White of attempted murder and aggravated assault in relation to Elliott as a victim. White was also found guilty of recklessly endangering another person and of three weapons charges. During the trial, tensions were high inside and outside the courtroom. The judge warned family members and supporters on both sides to stay away from each other, and they obeyed his order to not react when the verdicts were read. White is scheduled to be sentenced by Bronson on June 21. He could face decades behind bars. Geer said afterward that he had not decided what sentence he would seek. We always respect the jurys verdict," he said. "I hope this gives Bills family some sense of justice. Its just sad all around. Defense attorney Billy Ciancaglini similarly said: It was a sad situation all around. Our hearts go out to the other side. Nobodys celebrating here. Morgin Goldberg frequented Phi Psi parties as a freshman at Swarthmore College. For a while, the quaint stone house in the middle of the pastoral campus provided a backdrop for booze-fueled revelry with new friends. Until that night in December 2015, she would report to administrators, when she was raped by a fraternity member after a formal. Now a senior, Goldberg said she was disgusted but not surprised to wake up Thursday and read in two campus newspapers of disturbing internal fraternity documents that describe members derogatory discussions about women, minorities, LGBTQ people, and sexual assault. I think they really think its funny, Goldberg said, and revel in the fact that they can get away with it. On Thursday morning, the campus publications published a trove of internal documents from 2012 to 2016 that they say were anonymously leaked. The publications the Phoenix, the independent campus newspaper, and Voices, a left-leaning alternative publication with an activist bent redacted names and identifying information from the documents, which read like an X-rated newsletter to fraternity brothers chronicling Phi Psi parties and other activities around campus. The Inquirer was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the leaked historical archives, a PDF document that includes dozens of pages of fraternity meeting minutes, chapter history, drinking game directions, and scavenger hunt task lists. The leak came a year after the fraternity hosted its first open party since its fall 2016 suspension for violating the schools drug and alcohol policy, the Phoenix reported. A knock at the fraternitys door Thursday went unanswered. Several former and current members, including the chapter president, did not respond to messages seeking comment. The group posted a statement on its Facebook page Wednesday night saying in part: We wholeheartedly condemn the language of the 2013 and 2014 notes, as they are not representative of who we are today. All our current brothers were in high school and middle school at the time of these unofficial minutes, and none of us would have joined the organization had this been the standard when we arrived at Swarthmore. The tension between Greek life and the rest of the Swarthmore student body has simmered for years. There are just two fraternities Phi Psi, which isnt nationally affiliated, and Delta Upsilon, which is and the administration has faced renewed calls this year to terminate the leases of both organizations from Organizing for Survivors, a student group that advocates for survivors of sexual violence. Goldberg and other Swarthmore students this year started a blog, Why Swarthmore Fraternities Must Go, where users could anonymously post their stories of sexual assault, harassment, and discriminatory behavior by fraternity members. In light of Thursdays articles, there have been renewed calls to disband the fraternities, which blog organizers say are toxic organizations that encourage predatory behavior. I think it squashes any semblance of a moral sense of self, said junior Daria Mateescu, 20, of New York. She, Goldberg, and freshman Amal Haddad said members behaviors havent changed in recent years. Many students are fed up with repeated failed attempts to change the culture of fraternities, they said. I think were now in a moment where its now or never, Mateescu said. >>READ MORE: Swarthmore students rally against mishandling of sexual assaults Last year, a committee of staff, faculty, and students studying campus culture recommended that the college consider a moratorium on leased fraternity houses on campus. President Valerie Smith declined to do so, citing in a letter existing policies for responding to allegations of misconduct by students and student organizations" and saying that "preemptively placing a moratorium outside of the colleges stated policies could be construed as prejudicing the work of the task force before it begins. She commissioned a new task force to review Greek life on campus, whose work is ongoing. The two chairs of the group werent available for comment Thursday. A school spokesperson added that while todays news is concerning, the task force must be allowed to continue and complete its work. Smith said in a statement Thursday afternoon that the behaviors described in the leaked documents are completely antithetical to our values as a diverse community of engaged learners who live and work together for the common good." Maeve Juday, president of the campus lone sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, said she was torn over how the university should respond. She said she worries that if administrators shut down the fraternities, theyll also close the sorority which doesnt have a house or hold parties, and doesnt host events with the fraternities. Its a very tricky situation, Juday, 21, said. Personally, and as someone with the values of our sorority, were not a huge fan of the fraternities. Its unclear who wrote the Phi Psi meeting minutes, dated 2013 and 2014. The document includes crude and detailed descriptions of behavior by fraternity members as well as racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language, plus references to sexual conquests, date rape drugs, and other illegal drug use. There are photos of women both selfies and images taken from afar during what appear to be parties as well as memes and Photoshopped imagery. The minutes also include language reflective of Swarthmores status as a most-selective liberal arts college with a progressive social justice mission: There are jokes about heteronormativity, gender fluidity, and the sexuality spectrum. While there arent descriptions of physical abuse in the hazing of new members as has been documented at other Pennsylvania institutions there is a Philadelphia scavenger hunt that purportedly required pledges to complete embarrassing tasks (like posing publicly in sexually suggestive positions) and photograph them for proof. The student publications report these pledge hunts were used through 2016. According to the schools January 2019 hazing report, now required under Pennsylvania law, there were four reports of hazing over the last five years at Swarthmore, one in 2013 and three in 2016. Its unclear what organizations allegedly hazed. One report led to a semester-long ban of social events; another prompted six weeks of probation. The minutes also include references to a 2013 campus referendum on Greek life which marked the culmination of what became known on campus as the spring of our discontent and jokes about the times urine was found on the door of the schools Intercultural Center. That spring, after national news coverage and highly publicized Title IX complaints alleging Swarthmore mishandled complaints of sexual misconduct, the student body voted to uphold the fraternity presence on campus. The same year, Phi Psi was condemned by school administrators for an inappropriate recruitment flier. It was a collage of photos of naked women. When Nancy Campanella was growing up in South Philly during the Depression, she aspired to become an artist. One of nine children, she worked in her fathers grocery store after school and on weekends. She showed artistic talent while at South Philadelphia High School for Girls, and was offered an art-school scholarship but had to decline it because of family responsibilities. When I was ready to go to kindergarten at age 5, she was the person to take me to school for the first day, said her sister Frances DelCiotto, 76. Any time there was a parent meeting, my mother would send one of the older daughters. Nancy Campanella became Nancy Catelli Frasca after two marriages. She died Friday, April 12, of cardiopulmonary arrest at Buckingham Valley Rehab & Nursing Center in Newtown. She was 92 and lived in Southampton. She never got to train as an artist, but found ways to express her talent. Before and during her marriage to Anthony Catelli, whom she married in her early 20s, she worked at Rembrandt Studios in South Philadelphia, colorizing sepia photographs of high school graduations and weddings. I remember she had boxes of photos [the owner] would drop off at their apartment when she was married, her sister said. She was a stay-at-home mom, and thats how she earned extra money. She was married for 19 years to Catelli, the owner of Catelli Meats in South Philadelphia. The couple had seven children, whom they raised in Huntingdon Valley. When the two divorced in her late 40s, she continued colorizing photos. In her early 50s, she married Alfred Frasca. She had golden hands, DelCiotto said. She always had an art project going. Once the children were grown, Mrs. Frasca worked for 15 years developing film at a Jacks Cameras lab near her home. Her shift was 4 to 11 p.m. She retired at age 79 only because her kids put their foot down, her sister said. Mrs. Frasca talked a mile a minute, her sister said, about, for instance, what it was like to pick asparagus on a farm in Woodstown, N.J., as a teenager. The people they stayed with had strict rules, DelCiotto said. It was a good life and prepared her for many things down the road. When you have tough times in your youth, it makes the road ahead a piece of cake compared to what you lived through. Mrs. Frasca was the first in her Italian American family to file for a divorce. It took a lot of courage to do that, but she had my mothers approval, her sister said. When she later sought a divorce, she had Mrs. Frascas support. She was such a good role model, DelCiotto said. Known for her upbeat personality, Mrs. Frasca enjoyed needlepoint, oil painting, cooking, bowling, jigsaw puzzles, and spending time at the New Jersey Shore. She was a member of St. Albert the Great Church in Huntingdon Valley and its Over 55 Club. Both former husbands died earlier. In addition to her sister, she is survived by children Elissa Fellman, Joseph, Linda Rosanio-Talamo, Anthony, James, Nancy Gattis, and Michael; 14 grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Grace Anela and Marie Macrane. A viewing from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, at Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home, 800 Newtown-Richboro Rd., Richboro, will be followed by a second viewing on Wednesday, April 24, from 10 to 10:45 a.m., and an 11 a.m. Funeral Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, 611 Knowles Ave., Southampton. Burial will be in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon. Donations may be made to the Inspire Moore Annual Fund to Support Scholarships at Moore College of Art and Design, c/o Elizabeth Cahill, 1916 Race St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103. Acme Markets president Jim Perkins at the Bala Cynwyd store in October to kick off a holiday food drive. Read more In the ever-fizzy soda war, the Big Boy has suited up and trotted onto the field. The Big Boy is Acme Markets, born in South Philly in 1891. In January, we heard from ShopRite, which has six stores in Philly. CEO Jeff Brown opened his books for me to prove the sweetened beverage tax was hurting him big time and forced him to close his store in Philadelphias Overbrook section. Big Boy Acme has 16 stores in Philadelphia, more than any other chain, and it, too, is getting clobbered, president Jim Perkins tells me in an exclusive interview. He didnt come forward earlier, he says, because his job is to sell groceries, not to get into fights with mayors. Hes an under-the-radar kind of guy. Two things finally smoked him out. First, the significant harm the soda tax bludgeon has done to his business. Second, the citys spin got on his last nerve. Lets go there first. In answering Browns complaints about the regressive tax, mayoral spokesperson Mike Dunn said Brown and the soda industry "have yet to present any evidence that the tax has had any impact on sales. When he heard that, Perkins felt a little ill, because it is not true. In May 2017, then-Acme president Dan Croce, legal counsel Dan Donsenbach, and communications manager Danielle DElia, met with Deputy Mayor for Policy and Legislation James Engler and Harold Epps of the Department of Commerce. The mayor declined to meet with them, says Perkins, and the mayors people didnt seem to be interested in what we had to say. The Acme Three used a PowerPoint presentation to show the harm caused by the beverage tax that took effect five months earlier, in January 2017. Dunn says no data was presented at that meeting, and at a later gathering with Epps and Commerce officials, data was presented, but Acme would not leave its material, so city officials were "unable to analyze or verify it. But data was presented. That data since has been updated, says Perkins, who adds Acme stands ready to present it to the mayor or his office. Heres what Acmes presentation showed: The beverage tax fell on about 4,000 items. In Acme city stores, soda sales dropped as much as 80 percent. Sales of other items covered by the tax, such as juices, creamers and energy drinks, were down 30 percent, and the number of customers declined by 5 percent. Philly stores cut an average of 150 to 200 employee hours per week, resulting in lighter paychecks for employees. This material was shown to the city, but the city kept talking as if the meeting never happened, Perkins says with annoyance. Why did the city do that? To me, it looks like a reprise of that tune from The Wiz, Dont Nobody Bring Me No Bad News. If reality disagrees with the narrative you have woven, just ignore it. Just as the city refused to believe Jeff Brown when he said the tax was forcing him to close his store, it was dismissive of what Acme had to say. Dont Nobody Bring Me No Bad News. Perkins admits five suburban Acme stores increased sales after the tax was imposed, but says losses at city stores were greater. So its a net loss for Acme, which recently spent millions remodeling seven stores and will do the rest in the near future, Perkins tells me. The Acme commitment to its city of birth continues, even as the mayor treats job-creating businesses, such as Acme and ShopRite, with contempt. Doors are locked at North High School, Wednesday, April 17, 2019, in Denver. Denver-area public schools closed Wednesday as the FBI hunted for an armed young Florida woman who was allegedly "infatuated" with Columbine and threatened violence just days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attack. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Read more When 12 students and one teacher were killed in Littleton, Colo., 20 years ago, it became what at the time was the worst high school shooting in U.S. history. It also marked when American society was first handed a script for a new form of violence in schools. We make that observation as researchers a psychologist and a sociologist who have been studying mass public shootings as part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Since the 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School, we identified six mass shootings and 40 active-shooter incidents at elementary, middle or high schools in the United States. Mass shootings are defined by the FBI as an event in which four or more victims died by gunfire. In 20 or nearly half of those 46 school shootings, the perpetrator purposely used Columbine as a model. The ties that bind to Columbine In our study of school shootings, we only looked at cases where a gun was fired on campus, following the practice of the Washington Posts database on school shootings. Had we included foiled plots, the number would be significantly higher. Several school shooters in our study were fascinated with Columbine and researched the massacre before their own. This includes the Parkland shooter, a 14-year-old who aspired to be the youngest mass murderer, and a 15-year-old who shot at his teacher after she refused to praise Marilyn Manson, the rock singer erroneously blamed for inspiring the Columbine killers. The timing of the April 17 threat to Colorado schools is no coincidence. Prior perpetrators chose the anniversary of Columbine to commit their shootings, including one month and two years after. A different shooter talked of how he was going to pull a Columbine. Others discussed Columbine with classmates, even joked about it. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter idolized the Columbine killers and curated a Tumblr account paying homage, alongside a graphic collage of Columbine victims. A North Carolina shooter was so obsessed with Columbine that he took a vacation there with his mother and fantasized about finishing off any wounded survivors. Perpetrators dressed in trench coats like the Columbine shooters, including those responsible for the 2018 Santa Fe shooting, where 10 people died, and a 2004 nonfatal shooting in New York. Indeed, the trench coat has appeared in subsequent school shootings because Columbine gave it meaning beyond any intrinsic use. Why Columbine? Before Columbine, there was no script for how school shooters should behave, dress, and speak. Columbine created common knowledge, the foundation of coordination in the absence of a standardized playbook. Timing was everything. The massacre was one of the first to take place after the advent of 24-hour cable news and during the year of the net. This was the dawn of the digital age of perfect remembering, where words and deeds live online forever. Columbine became the pilot for future episodes of fame-seeking violence. Separating myth from reality Our research has found that school shootings have nothing to do with jock envy, satanism, video games, or Keanu Reeves, and school shooters are not psychopathic masterminds. In fact, these sound-bite explanations for aberrant behavior only blind us to the reality of school violence. School shooters are almost always current students of their schools. They are students who are in crisis, students who have experienced trauma, and students who are actively suicidal prior to the shooting and expect to die in the act. Such children have always existed. But for 20 years theyve had a new script to follow. And we, the public, have contributed to the production and direction of this script. Again and again and again. Through our obsession with true crime and films, books, memes, and entire websites devoted to Columbine. By releasing CCTV footage of the shooting to the public. By running our children through regular lockdowns and active-shooter drills starting in preschool through 12th grade. By sending them to school through secure entrances with clear backpacks and bulletproof binders. Society and culture have reared a Columbine generation, modeling that this is just part of childhood in America. Flipping the script After 20 years, its time to rewrite the script being rehearsed with young people. It starts with no names, no photos, and no notoriety for mass shooters in media coverage which is why we dont indulge here. The next step is a paradigm shift from homeroom security to holistic violence prevention in schools mental health, supportive environments, strong relationships, and crisis intervention and de-escalation. Teachers should feel as comfortable asking a student about suicide as they feel going into lockdown; empowered to spend as much time teaching empathy and resilience as they do now training to run, hide, fight. The victims and survivors of school violence must not be forgotten, but to prevent another two decades of contagion and copycats, it requires a recognition that it is time to close the curtain on the spectacle of Columbine. Jillian Peterson is a professor of criminal justice at Hamline University. James Densley is a professor of criminal justice at Metropolitan State University. They both receive funding from the National Institute of Justice. A version of this piece first appeared on The Conversation. Shalea Oliver is an Income Maintenance Caseworker for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She recently sued her union. Read more I recently sued my union. Its not something I ever expected to do. But I also never thought an organization that claims to champion workers rights would deny me the opportunity to exercise mine. Ive been working as an income maintenance caseworker for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 2014. My job is to review applications and eligibility for the Commonwealths welfare programs. Not long after I was hired, I learned that my position is covered by a union contract. This meant that whether I was a member or not, Service Employees International Union would deduct money from every paycheck. Union membership dues are roughly $600 a year. Nonmember fees were almost the same, so I became a dues-paying member. By 2016, I had developed a low opinion of the union and didnt want to give it $1 more than it was entitled to, so I asked to pay nonmember fees instead. As a Philadelphia native, I know and appreciate the citys rich union history. Im not against unions and I understand why some people want to be in unions. This union doesnt represent my interests or point of view. It doesnt solicit feedback from workers. It doesnt care about what we want to see in contracts or improving the work environment. Instead, the union exists to push politics hard. The union urges workers to support certain candidates. Union representatives talk about which workers vote and who didnt vote in recent elections to pressure workers to support the union-backed candidates. Peer pressure to toe the union line is tremendous, and as an independent thinker I had enough of it. Unsurprisingly, when I told SEIU representatives I wanted to resign they cared even less about what I had to say than before. The union didnt honor my request to resign membership. I felt stuck. Then in June 2018, I heard about the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case Janus v. AFSCME. As a government employee, this court case impacted me personally. The court ruled that no government worker can be forced to pay money to a union in order to work in public service. The ruling meant I finally was free of the union. I didnt have to be a member. Instead of paying nonmember fees, I wouldnt have to pay anything at all. The union had other ideas. When I told union representatives I didnt want to be a member anymore, they didnt respect my decision. They tried to negotiate with me, intimidate me, and then iced me out. In August 2018, I sent letters to the Commonwealth and SEIU to formally demand union dues stop being deducted from my paycheck, but the deductions didnt stop. Instead, I was told the dues continue until July 2019. By this point I wasnt just frustrated. My rights were being blatantly violated. The Supreme Court had just ruled this summer that no one including me could be forced to give their money to a government union. Yet thats exactly what was happening to me. So, I reached out to the Liberty Justice Center, which fought the Janus case, and asked for help. Only after the union and Commonwealth learned I had lawyers on my side did the deductions stop. This was almost six months after I first attempted to exercise my Janus rights. But I pressed on with my lawsuit, Oliver v. SEIU, because I have not been fully reimbursed for the dues illegally deducted, nor do I want a union that ignored my rights to represent me in contract negotiations in the future. My lawsuit was filed in February and is pending in federal court. No Pennsylvanian should have his or her rights ignored. The Commonwealth, the SEIU and every other government employer and union in the country has a duty to honor workers First Amendment rights. If they do not, my case may not be the only one theyll face. Shalea Oliver is an income maintenance caseworker for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, working on welfare programs such as SNAP and TANF for the citizens of Philadelphia. In 2012, the opioid crisis started to impact the life of Sharon White, now 53, from Lansdowne, Delaware County. White saw loved ones suffering from addiction and struggling to find resources to get better. She scaled back her commercial real estate business and decided to become a recovery specialist. White got involved in the effort to expand access to naloxone a medication that reverses opioid overdose in the Commonwealth. In 2014, the General Assembly passed a law that allowed bystanders to administer naloxone when they witness an overdose. In 2015, Pennsylvania Surgeon General Dr. Rachel Levine signed a standing order for naloxone that allows anyone to buy naloxone without a prescription. White went to a Walgreens next to her home, filled the required forms, and bought two doses of naloxone for $130. A few months later, when White applied for a $50,000 life insurance policy, she was denied. A letter from Minnesota Life, now called Securian Financial, stated: Our decision is based on your medication Naloxone. Securian explained to the Inquirer editorial board that historically naloxone was on the prescription history of people who had addiction and that their physician was concerned that they were at risk of overdose. Times, however, are changing. More than 46,000 people died of an opioid overdose in the U.S. in 2017. Flooding the nation with naloxone has become an integral part of the strategy to prevent overdose deaths. Last April, the surgeon general of the United States, Dr. Jerome Adams, issued an advisory calling on members of the public to obtain naloxone. Both the state and the city are giving out naloxone. In the fall, City Council passed a bill that requires every pharmacy in the city to stock naloxone. But at the same time government entities are encouraging people to buy naloxone, reports suggest private insurers are flagging good Samaritans as high risk and denying them life insurance coverage. The issue first surfaced in Boston in December when WBUR, Bostons National Public Radio affiliate, reported that a nurse at Boston Medical Centers addiction treatment program was denied life insurance because she bought naloxone. Following the reporting, the Massachusetts Division of Insurance instructed insurers to not deny insurance based on naloxone without further investigation. In Pennsylvania, the state Insurance Department says it has not received any complaints on this issue yet. That might be because some companies, such as Securian, changed their practices after the WBUR story. But as more people buy naloxone, without formal guidance from the state, people could be denied insurance down the road. Instead of waiting for complaints, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department should be proactive. Rumors about insurance denial based on naloxone could discourage its purchase when it is needed most. Preventing this problem could be as simple as issuing guidance modeled after Massachusetts. Sharon White kept trying to get insurance. She was rejected a few more times, but after spending hours on the phone with underwriters, last week she finally got the policy that she wanted. She is doing her part to save lives. By issuing a simple guidance, the Insurance Department can do its part. On Wednesday, April 17, 2019, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (left) said that his office would drop its challenge of a judge's ruling in convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal's (right) case, clearing the way for Abu-Jamal to again argue his appeal before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Read more Many Philadelphians remember exactly what they were doing when they learned that 25-year-old police officer Daniel Faulkner had been gunned down on Dec. 8, 1981 at 13th and Locust Streets. Its our local where you were when JFK was shot, an indelible memory that shapes how we understand the city. In the aftermath, Philadelphians learned more about Mumia Abu-Jamal, the man accused of killing Faulkner. A member of the Black Panthers, he stoked racial division with his radical ideas and political activism. In the years since his conviction, questions have been raised about the impartiality of the trial, with some supporters calling him a political prisoner. Its no exaggeration to say that Philadelphians have taken sides when it comes to Abu-Jamal. There are those who think he should be freed from prison and those who think he deserves the death penalty. As the decades have passed, Abu-Jamal and his lawyers have filed copious appeals in an attempt to end his prison sentence. In 2011, Philadelphia prosecutors, under then-District Attorney Seth Williams, announced that they had halted the states effort to execute Abu-Jamal. I stand in support of Faulkner and his wife, Maureen, who has been tireless in her efforts for justice for her murdered husband. In my opinion, it is an abomination that Abu-Jamal is not only still breathing but considered the icon of a social justice movement. But District Attorney Larry Krasner and his groupies disagree. On Wednesday, Krasners office announced that he was dropping his offices opposition to a judges ruling that will allow Abu-Jamal to re-argue his appeal before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, making way for the case to again go before the states highest court and causing more anguish for Faulkners family. Abu-Jamals renewed hope is because of procedural irregularities namely, the fact that a judge found that Ron Castille, who became district attorney after Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1982, did not recuse himself from hearing an appeal from the defendant when Castille became a Supreme Court justice. Krasner initially fought against the ruling that would allow Abu-Jamal to argue his appeal again before the high court, but gave in. In a press release, he said, Although the issue is technical, it is also an important cautionary tale on the systemic problems that flow from a judges failing to recuse himself where there is an appearance of bias. Its hardly surprising to me that Krasner, who has a background as a public defender and has drawn criticism for lacking sensitivity toward victims and their families, would not oppose Abu-Jamals attempt to abuse the system with one more baseless appeal. Krasner has shown that his inclination is to empathize with the accused. Take for example: the young food delivery man who allegedly stabbed real-estate agent Sean Schellenger in Rittenhouse Square, or the man who allegedly shot a South Philly grocery store owner, or the two men who pleaded guilty for killing police officer Robert Wilson III in a North Philly video game shop. Whats especially galling about Krasners refusal to stop Abu-Jamal from victimizing Maureen Faulkner with the agony of yet another appeals process is the fact that his actions perpetuate the myth that Abu-Jamal is a victim of the system despite thousands of pages of transcripts, hours of eyewitness testimony, appeal after appeal, and court ruling after court ruling proving otherwise. Abu-Jamal is not a victim. He is the darling of social justice warriors who see in him a chance to attack the establishment. More important, he and his lawyers have never provided legitimate proof that his conviction was tainted. His legal team has nothing more than bullhorns and grievance in their arsenal. Four decades of fact-finders and legal minds have echoed the same word: guilty. My hope is that if Abu-Jamal does go before the state Supreme Court that the District Attorneys Office will use that opportunity to argue in favor of keeping him in prison where he belongs. Its time to stop the charade that any of this is a search for justice. That search ended the day the courts told Abu-Jamal that his sentence would mirror what hed stolen from Faulkner life. In 2014, a New Jersey lawmaker introduced a bill that would allow certain children under age 6 to attend school without getting vaccinated against hepatitis B, asserting that the vaccine raised the risk of autism. Yet there is no proof that this vaccine, or any other, causes autism. While the proposal did not become law, it represented one of many such attempts to weaken requirements for vaccinating children, according to a new study led by Drexel University researchers. From 2011 to 2017, state lawmakers in 18 states proposed 92 bills that could have reduced the number of children receiving vaccines in most cases by making it easier to obtain exemptions, the study authors reported in the American Journal of Public Health. New Jersey legislators introduced 24 of the bills the most of any state. (None were in Pennsylvania.) One positive sign: During that seven-year period, lawmakers also introduced 83 bills that would strengthen vaccination rules, mostly by making it harder to obtain exemptions, and those proposals were far more likely to become law. Twelve of those bills were enacted, while just one of the 92 bills that weakened vaccine rules became law. That was a 2011 measure in Washington, allowing any health-care provider or naturopath to exempt children from getting vaccines a power that previously had been limited to physicians. The study results suggest that health officials need to increase efforts to promote the value of vaccines, said lead author Neal D. Goldstein, an assistant research professor in Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health. "I was encouraged because it shows that the legislative process works for pro-public health legislation," he said. "But it's discouraging at the same time to see the number of bills that were proposed that would hurt the public's health." The findings come amid worrisome recent outbreaks of diseases that can be prevented with vaccines. New Jersey officials this fall have confirmed 15 cases of measles in Ocean County an outbreak thought to have started with someone who contracted the illness abroad. North Carolina officials have identified 36 cases of chicken pox. Most children recover from these illnesses, but both can have severe complications such as pneumonia and even death. And the varicella virus that causes chicken pox can lead to the painful shingles rash later in life. The New Jersey bill on the hepatitis vaccine, sponsored by Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi (R., Bergen and Passaic), was not taken up by the Legislature in its 2014-15 session or in the following session, when she reintroduced it. In an interview, Schepisi said the reference to a risk of autism originated with a previous version of the bill, sponsored years earlier by a different legislator. "That was not my primary rationale," she said, adding that she was more concerned about other potential side effects of vaccines. For example, she said the chicken pox vaccine had caused a condition in her son called ataxia. But vaccines do not cause ataxia either, according to a review of evidence by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In fact, they can prevent it. Ataxia, a type of brain inflammation that affects muscle coordination, can be caused by infection with mumps or chicken pox illnesses that can be prevented with vaccines. As for the supposed link to autism, language in the bill illustrates the pitfalls that can occur when legislative staffers interpret medical literature, Goldstein said. The bill cites a 2009 study in which boys who got the hepatitis B vaccine were reported to be three times as likely to have an autism-spectrum disorder as boys who did not get the vaccine. There was indeed such a study, but it had severe limitations. Among them: Identification of children as being autistic was based on a parental survey, not medical records. Some of the children in the study were born years before the vaccine was recommended by the federal government. And the authors excluded three-quarters of the children in the study because their parents did not supply proof of vaccination preventing a true determination of any link with autism. The bottom line: No large, well-designed studies have found any proof that vaccines cause autism. Schepisi's bill would have allowed a child under age 6 to attend school without getting the hepatitis B vaccine if the mother had tested negative for the virus during the third trimester of her pregnancy. Transmission during pregnancy is the primary way that young children are infected with hepatitis B, so Schepisi said that if the mother does not have the virus, it is fine for a child to wait until age 6 to get the vaccine. Upon reaching age 6, such a child would have had to get the shot unless a doctor determined it was not "medically suitable." But other ways of becoming infected include: sharing toothbrushes, razors, or needles with an infected person; contact with blood or open sores of an infected person; and sex with an infected person, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It is something where, by putting it off to 6 years old, unless you fall into a category of high-risk behavior, there is no other way of transmission," Schepisi said. Such delays in vaccination make public health officials nervous. True, most young children are not exposed to hepatitis B, but the full protections of vaccines come with communitywide acceptance. Delays in vaccination raise the risk that the parent does not follow through by taking the child for a return visit to the doctor, Goldstein said. And each additional month without vaccination is a month without protection both for the child and others. "If you're postponing vaccination, not only are you putting your children at risk, you're putting the community at risk," he said. Goldstein, who has consulted for Merck on its vaccine against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus, collaborated on the study with Drexel colleague Jonathan Purtle and Joanna S. Suder, a Delaware deputy attorney general with expertise in public health issues. Goldstein said he was at a loss to explain why New Jersey had such a high number of proposals to weaken vaccine protections. Most were sponsored by Republicans, but it was a bipartisan phenomenon. For example, Sen. Shirley Turner, a Democrat who represents parts of Mercer and Hunterdon Counties, introduced legislation three times during that period that would allow students to skip vaccines if they conflicted with the child's or parents' "personal, philosophical or moral belief." The state allows exemptions only on medical or religious grounds, and Turner's proposal, like Schepisi's, did not progress in the Legislature. In response to questions about the bill, Turner's chief of staff, Meredith Rivera, said the politician was out of town and not available to speak. The senator introduced the bill after hearing from constituents who were "concerned about the frequency and timing of vaccines" and wanted New Jersey to join other states that allow philosophical exemptions, Rivera said. This courtroom sketch shows Paul Manafort whose name came up multiple times throughout the Mueller investigation listening to Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the U.S. District Courtroom during his sentencing hearing in March. Read more On May 17, 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The action came eight days after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Trump acknowledged later that the FBIs Russia investigation, which looked into possible collusion by the Trump campaign and which the president called a made-up story," figured in his decision. Here are some key event in the probe, which concluded last month. A redacted version of Muellers report is being released Thursday. 2017 May 17: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead the Russia probe. June 14: The investigation is expanded to include possible obstruction of justice by Trump. Oct. 30: Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates are indicted on charges that include conspiracy against the United States and money laundering. Trumps former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleads guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials. Dec. 1: Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. TIMELINE: Michael Flynns role in the Russia probe 2018 Feb. 16: A federal grand jury indicts 13 Russians and three Russian entities on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States and interfere with the 2016 presidential election. Richard Pinedo, a previously unknown computer expert, pleads guilty to selling bank account numbers to Russians involved in election interference. Feb. 20: Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer working for a New York City law firm, pleads guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with Gates and a Person A related to a report his law firm had prepared on the trial of a Ukrainian politician. van der Zwaan later served 30 days in prison and was deported. Feb. 22: A new indictment charges Manafort and Gates with 32 financial charges, including money laundering and bank fraud. Feb. 23: Gates pleads guilty to charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators outlined in a superseding criminal information filed by Mueller. Manafort is charged in a superseding indictment with secretly paying European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine. April 9: FBI agents raid the home, hotel room, and office of Trumps personal attorney Michael Cohen. June 8: A new superseding indictment charges Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a former Manafort aide with suspected ties to Russian intelligence, with conspiracy and obstruction of justice in an alleged attempt to influence the testimony of others. Manafort also is charged with conspiracy to launder money and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. July 13: A federal grand jury indicts 12 Russian military intelligence officers on charges of hacking and releasing Democratic emails during the 2016 campaign. Aug. 21: A federal jury in Virginia convicts Manafort on eight counts of fraud. Cohen pleads guilty in federal court in Manhattan to eight counts related to tax fraud and campaign finance violations Sept. 7: A judge sentences Papadopoulos to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI. Sept. 14: Manafort pleads guilty to two counts of conspiracy and enters a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. Nov. 8: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose decision to recuse himself from the Russian probe angered Trump, resigns at the presidents request. Matthew Whitaker, Sessions chief of staff and public critic of the Russia probe, is appointed acting attorney general by Trump. READ MORE: Jeff Sessions turbulent tenure as attorney general, as seen by cartoonists | Opinion Nov. 20: Trumps lawyers say theyve submitted written answers to questions from Muellers team. READ MORE: Inside Trumps refusal to testify in the Mueller probe Nov. 26: Mueller files court papers alleging Manafort breached his plea agreement by lying and arguing any deal on prison time was now moot. Nov. 29: Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress about the details of work on plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Individual 1," a person believed to be Trump, makes an appearance in court documents. Dec. 4: Muellers team recommends no prison time for Flynn, citing his substantial assistance and cooperation in the Russia investigation. POLITICAL CARTOONS: From decorated general to federal court: Michael Flynn from the eyes of cartoonists | Opinion Dec. 12: A judge sentences Cohen to three years in prison on charges related to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. In his guilty plea, Cohen says then-candidate Trump directed him in 2016 to pay hush money to two women who alleged affairs with the real-estate developer. 2019 Jan. 25: FBI agents arrest longtime Trump associate Roger Stone after a grand jury indicts him on charges of lying to investigators about communications with the Trump campaign about hacked emails possessed by WikiLeaks, Feb. 22: U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson imposes a gag order in Stones case after he posts an Instagram photo of her with a crosshair symbol near her head. Feb. 23: Mueller, in a more-than-800-page sentencing memorandum, calls Manafort a hardened criminal who repeatedly and brazenly broke the law for over a decade, even after being indicted. March 7: Manafort is sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison for financial crimes, including bank fraud, tax fraud, and concealing a foreign bank account. The term is considerably less than the 19 to 24 years prosecutors had sought. READ MORE: Manafort sentence prompts debate over judicial systems blatant inequities READ MORE: Despite criticism of Manafort sentence as light, he fared worse than average March 13: Manafort is sentenced for his guilty plea to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Since parts of both sentences will be served concurrently, , Manafort will spend about 7 years behind bars for both convictions, including about 9 months already served. March 22: Mueller ends the investigation, sending report numbering hundreds of pages to newly appointed Attorney General William Barr. March 24: Barr sends a four-page summary to Congress. It says the investigation "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. As to possible obstruction of justice, it says that while the report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Barr said he and Rosenstein had determined there was insufficient evidence "to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. March 25: Democrats in Congress begin demanding release of the complete Mueller report. April 18: Barr is set to release a version of Muellers report with sections involving grand jury testimony, classified information, ongoing investigations and derogatory information about private individuals edited out. READ MORE: Mueller report: What we know now READ MORE: Trump sought Chris Christies advice on Comey fallout, whether to fire Mueller READ MORE: End of Mueller probe is only the start of a longer fight READ MORE: A look at Russians who became mixed up in Trump probe READ MORE: March Mueller Madness shows the system that worked in Watergate is broken today | Will Bunch Weeks after special counsel Robert Mueller turned in his lengthy probe to Attorney General William Barr, the redacted report was released to the public Thursday. Two years in the making, the scrubbed reports release signifies the end of Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. And while President Donald Trump and his camp are taking a victory lap, the redacted reports release is almost certainly just the beginning of a bitter bipartisan battle. Heres a look at whats to come. Barr to testify before Congress Barr has volunteered to testify before the Senate and House judiciary committees May 1 and 2, when lawmakers are likely to bombard the attorney general with questions on the investigation. He also spoke before Senate and House subcommittees last week, where he doubled down on his four-page summarys stance on the investigation after some Democrats suggested the memo cast the report as overly favorable to the president. After Muellers report was made public, top Democrats said there were differences between Barrs summary and the actual report, indicating he could face tough questioning next month. Will Mueller testify? If the House Judiciary Committee gets its way, yes. The committees top members have called on Mueller to testify following receipt of the full report and Barrs testimony in early May. Mueller has not made any public statements about the report or his plans to testify. At a news conference Thursday afternoon, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) said it was necessary for the special counsel to testify before the committee as soon as possible so we can get some answers to these critical questions. Because we clearly cant believe what Attorney General Barr tells us. ... Responsibility now falls to Congress to hold the president accountable for his actions. Barr said he expected Mueller would testify in the next couple weeks. Democrats likely to press for unredacted report Saying they believe Barr is protecting the president by not publicly sharing the full Mueller investigation, Democrats are likely to press the attorney general to turn over the full report. The House Judiciary Committee has already voted to authorize a subpoena for Muellers full report and all evidence gathered by investigators. A court battle could ensue. Shortly after the report was released Thursday, Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) also vowed to continue to press to release grand jury information and all the underlying evidence that is not protected due to intelligence concerns. Trump counter-report promised, but not guaranteed While Washington breathlessly waited for the release of Muellers findings, Trumps legal team said it was preparing a counter-report rebutting the special counsels investigation. The president has repeatedly railed against the investigation, referring to the probe as a witch hunt. The counter-report, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Politico, was expected to be 34 or 35 pages long. However, as of Thursday afternoon, the decision to release a counter-report no longer seemed guaranteed, with Giuliani saying there wasnt enough new information for the Trump team to put out a report. Other investigations underway While the Justice Department has indicated no further indictments were expected from Muellers investigation, that doesnt mean those involved in the Russia probe who remain unindicted are off the legal hook. Federal, state, and congressional investigations into potential crimes related to the Mueller probe are underway, including multiple investigations into the presidents inner circle by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. READ MORE: Trump sought Chris Christies advice on Comey fallout, whether to fire Mueller READ MORE: Mueller report: What we know now (From left to right) Attorney General William Barr, President Donald Trump and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Read more A redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and its possible ties to President Donald Trumps campaign has been released to the public by Attorney General William Barr. Here are some of the key findings from the report: Mueller wasnt able to conclude no criminal conduct occurred on claims Trump attempted to obstruct justice. The investigation found that while Trumps campaign didnt take criminal steps to help the Russians interfere with the election, the campaign expected it would benefit from Russias efforts. On several occasions, Trump attempted to interfere with Muellers investigation, but subordinates did not follow his orders. The report describes Trump rallies in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that were organized by Russian agents. Read on for more highlights of the redacted reports findings, and reactions to the long-awaited document. Gang of Eight, House and Senate Judiciary Committees to review less-redacted report Chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees as well as the Gang of Eight a nickname given to the top Congressional party leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees will be privy to a less-redacted version of the Mueller report next week. The review, according to a letter from Barr to the invited parties, must take place in camera and via appointment between Monday, April 22, and Friday, April 26. While still protecting sensitive grand jury information, the less-redacted report will expose previously scrubbed statements, including those that Barr said could compromise ongoing investigations, reveal intelligence-gathering techniques or informants, or violate personal privacy if made public. Schiff says impeachment one possibility, Trump doesnt take questions After formally inviting Mueller to testify before Congress, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff spoke to reporters Thursday, answering a question over whether impeachment is on the table. Thats one possibility, Schiff said. There are others. Schiff added that the acts detailed in the report unquestionably dishonest, unethical, immoral, and unpatriotic and should be condemned by every American. While declining to say whether he though Barr should be removed from his post, Schiff also condemned the attorney general, telling reporters he has done a great disservice to the country. I think it was a grave error by the Senate to confirm him without requiring his recusal" from the Mueller investigation, Schiff said. Meanwhile, Trump, who often stops to talk to reporters on the White Houses South Lawn, remained uncharacteristically quiet on his walk to his aircraft, declining to take questions from members of the media. On Twitter, however, Trump wrote: I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted. I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. The president is expected to spend the Easter weekend at Mar-a-Lago. Mueller report: Russian operatives sought to help Bernie Sanders in 2016 election Muellers findings shed new light on Russian interference in the 2016 election, showing that the Internal Research Agency not only used social media to bolster Trumps campaign, but also that of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. From the report: Main idea: Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary [Clinton] and the rest (except Sanders and Trump we support them). Directions to IRA operators Assertions of a pro-Sanders Russian campaign surfaced in February 2018, when Muellers team indicted 13 people across three companies for subverting the 2016 election in favor of Trump. On Thursday, Sanders condemned both Trump and Russian interference in the election, and called on Congress to continue Muellers investigation. Sanders admitted to Mueller she misled reporters about Comey White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was untruthful when detailing the events following Trump's firing of then FBI Director James Comey, according to the report. On May 10, the day following the firing, Sanders partially attributed the presidents decision to the rank and file of the FBI who had lost confidence in their director. In a reply to a reporter who pointed out that many had in fact supported Comeys leadership, Sanders said, weve heard from countless members of the FBI that say very different things. Trump was pleased by the comments and didnt point out any inaccuracies, according to the report. The report revealed that Sanders reference to hearing from countless members was a slip of the tongue. In what the document cites as a separate press interview, Sanders comments that rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey were made in the heat of the moment and werent founded on anything. On May 11, Foxs John Roberts again questioned Sanders, asking what had the White House to believe that [Comey] had lost the confidence of the rank and file of the FBI when the Acting Director [Andrew McCabe] says its exactly the opposite. She replied that she was speaking from her own personal experience. Im sure that there are some people that are disappointed but Ive certainly heard from a large number of individuals and thats just myself, and I dont even know that many people in the FBI, she said. Pa. Democrat says their investigations will continue U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Pa.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Democrats will continue their own investigations, and expect to have Barr and Mueller testify soon. Dean, of Montgomery County, had not read the report in full but had seen key points from aides. In an interview, she said it showed that Mueller does not exonerate the president of obstruction of justice, and that theres been a PR campaign started with a press conference without a report to try to say yet again that theres some possibility that the report exonerates [Trump]. It does not. An issue as serious as Russian interference in a U.S. election, she said, is not something that should be glossed over. Dean, however, said it would be foolhardy to jump to a pursuit of impeachment at this stage. I dont think were there yet. I think we have to actually do our job and speak to the people and expose to the light of the day, the details of the investigation and other potential wrongdoing by Trump. HBO responds to Trump tweet Ahead of the redacted reports release, Trump tweeted out a photo of himself that said, No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left democrats - game over, borrowing a likeness from HBOs Game of Thrones, which premiered its eighth season Sunday. Though we can understand the enthusiasm for Game of Thrones now that the final season has arrived, we still prefer our intellectual property not be used for political purposes," HBO said in a statement to The Hill. Reactions ranged on the social-media platform, as many continued to dig through the 448-page report. Some pointed at the large voids left by redactions, while other commented on differences between Barrs summary and the full document. Others were satisfied with there being no evidence of collusion and urged for those unhappy to move on. Kellyanne Conway says its time to move on White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said it was time to move on following the release of the redacted Mueller report. Conway, speaking at the White House Thursday afternoon, reiterated Trumps claims of no collusion and told reporters were accepting apologies today, too, for anybody who feels the grace in offering them. Conway also told reporters that she had already finished reading the full-448 page report, even though it had only been released about two hours earlier. I read the full report and I got it very recently," Conway boasted. Democrats call out stark differences between what Barr said and Mueller wrote Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said there were stark differences between what Barr said about Trumps possible obstruction of justice, and what Mueller included in his report. Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Muellers report appears to undercut that finding, Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement. We clearly cant believe what Attorney General Barr tells us," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) told reporters in a Thursday afternoon press conference. Mueller deemed Trumps written answers inadequate Trump repeatedly told Muellers investigators that he could not remember key events in the Russia probe, leading the special counsel to deem the presidents written answers inadequate. Among the nearly three dozen times the president said he had fuzzy recollection: Regarding the June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Russian officials, adding that he had no independent recollection of his personal whereabouts during the meeting. Though Mueller repeatedly requested an in-person interview with Trump, the president declined, instead providing a written responses narrowly focused on any interactions with Russia. From the report: The written responses, we informed counsel, demonstrate the inadequacy of the written format, as we have had no opportunity to ask follow- up questions that would ensure complete answers and potentially refresh your client 's recollection or clarify the extent or nature of his lack of recollection. We again requested an in-person interview, limited to certain topics, advising the Presidents counsel that [t]his is the Presidents opportunity to voluntarily provide us with information for us to evaluate in the context of all of the evidence we have gathered. The President declined. Mueller explains why he didnt prosecute Donald Trump Jr. Mueller declined to prosecute Donald Trump Jr. and other members of the campaign for campaign finance violations, explaining that prosecutors would encounter difficulties proving Trump Jr. willfully violated the law when meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. From the report: Accordingly, taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the Office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting. Report: Pennsylvanias Miners for Trump rallies were organized by Russian trolls The October 2016 pro-Trump rallies, promoted in Pittsburgh and at Philadelphias Marcony [sic] Plaza, were among the dozens of U.S. rallies orchestrated by Russian internet trolls, Muellers report states. Posing as grassroots activists, 80 Russian workers organized and promoted U.S. political rallies from an office in St. Petersburg, backed by millions of dollars and using Facebook and Twitter to fuel the discord, an indictment filed in February 2018 revealed. READ MORE: Miners for Trump: The story behind the Russian-organized Philly rally highlighted in Muellers report In Pennsylvania, a state that proved crucial to Trumps win in the 2016 election, the Russian intelligence agency organized rallies a month before the vote in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. While it remains unclear how many people attended the rallies, the events internet presence was strong. As far as Mr. Trump pursues the goal of creating jobs and supports the working class, a Facebook post from an account titled Being Patriotic read. He said he would put miners back to work. We could help Mr. Trump win Pennsylvania which is a battleground state. Similar pro-Trump rallies were promoted in New York and Florida in the months leading up to the election, with a Miami rally drawing the support of the Trump campaign, the report states. 14 cases have been sent to other jurisdictions. We only know about 2. Special Counsels Office has referred 14 cases to other jurisdictions for investigation, but we only know the details of two, according to the redacted report. All but two of the cases are blacked out because they are ongoing investigations. The two listed are for Michael Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to wire and violations of the federal election campaign laws, and Gregory Craig, who was White House counsel under President Barack Obama and has been indicted on charges of lying and hiding information related to his foreign lobbying work for Ukraine in 2016. Trumps legal team declares total victory Trumps legal team declared total victory in a statement on Thursday following the release of Muellers redacted report. The results of the investigation are a total victory for the President, Trumps legal team which includes Rudolph W. Giuliani, Jay Sekulow, Jane Serene Raskin, and Martin R. Raskin said in a statement. The report underscores what we have argued from the very beginning there was no collusion there was no obstruction. Mueller explains why he didnt subpoena Trump The special counsel said his team sought a voluntary interview with the president, who declined. Ultimately, while we believed that we had the authority and legal justification to issue a grand jury subpoena to obtain the President 's testimony, we chose not to do so, the report said. We made that decision in view of the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation. Muellers report contradicts Barrs claim about Trumps cooperation During his press conference, Barr claimed that Trump took no act that deprived Muellers investigation of the documents and witnesses needed to complete his investigation. But throughout the report, Mueller details several instances where Trump took actions "directed at witnesses, including discouragement of cooperation with the government and suggestions of possible future pardons. The report notes that many of these actions occurred in public. From the report: Our investigation found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney Generals recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony. Toomey: I havent read the report, but all Americans should be pleased Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) said in a statement Thursday that he had not yet read the lengthy report, "all Americans should be pleased" that it found no evidence of collusion. He was also "pleased" that no redactions were granted on the basis of executive privilege and that an fuller version of the report would be shared with select lawmakers in the future. The Special Counsels findings are a stark reminder that Russias goal is to undermine the trust the American people have in our democratic process and government," he said. Trump called appointment of special counsel the end of my presidency Trump thought the appointment of Mueller as special counsel would bring an end to his presidency, according to the Mueller report. Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im fucked, Trump said, according to notes written by Jody Hunt, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions chief of staff. More from the report: The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, How could you let this happen, Jeff? The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I wont be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. Chris Christie called Trumps request to contact Comey nonsensical Trump tried to enlist former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the effort to try to make sure that fired FBI director James Comey felt like part of the team, according to the Mueller report. During lunch with the president on Feb. 14, 2017, Trump told Christie to call Comey, a friend of the former governor, and tell him that the president really likes him. Tell him he is part of the team. At the end of the lunch, the president repeated his request. Christie had no intention of doing the errand, Muellers team said. Christie told investigators that Trumps request was nonsensical and that he did not want to put the FBI director in the position of having to receive such an awkward phone call. Christie was called and served as a sounding board on some of Trumps biggest decisions during the investigation, and footnotes in the report suggest Christie gave his interview with the FBI on his involvement only this February. After Trump fired Comey, he got Christie also a former U.S. attorney on the line and complained he was getting killed in the press. The president asked what he should do. Did you fire [Comey] because of what Rod wrote in the memo? Christie asked, referring to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who authored a memo critical of Comeys handling of the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. Yes, Trump said, according to the report. Christie suggested that the White House should get Rod out there to defend the decision. Trump told Christie it was a good idea and indicated he was going to call Rosenstein as soon as possible. READ MORE: Trump sought Chris Christies advice on Comey fallout, whether to fire Mueller Report: Trumps subordinates did not obey orders to interfere with investigation Muellers report states that Trump attempted to interfere with the special counsels investigation, but his orders were not carried out by subordinates. From the report: The President 's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. Mueller pointed to four instances where subordinates did not obey orders from Trump: Comey did not end the investigation of Flynn, which ultimately resulted in [Former National Security Advisor Michael] Flynns prosecution and conviction for lying to the FBI. [Former White House Counsel Don] McGahn did not tell the Acting Attorney General that the Special Counsel must be removed, but was instead prepared to resign over the Presidents order. [Former campaign manager Cory] Lewandowski and [former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rick] Dearborn did not deliver the Presidents message to [former Attorney General Jeff] Sessions that he should confine the Russia investigation to future election meddling only. And McGahn refused to recede from his recollections about events surrounding the Presidents direction to have the Special Counsel removed, despite the Presidents multiple demands that he do so. Muellers investigation did not clear Trump on obstruction Muellers report states that because the investigation did not make a prosecutorial judgement, they did now draw ultimate conclusions about Trumps conduct. But the report also states the evidence it obtained about Trumps actions present "difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. More from the conclusion of Volume II of Muellers report: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the Presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. READ MORE: Time after time, Trumps team refused to follow his orders to undermine the Mueller probe Report states Trump campaign expected it would benefit from Russian efforts Muellers report states that the Trump campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts but that the investigation did not establish members of the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russians. According to the report, Muellers investigation looked only at conspiracy and not collusion because there is no legal standard for collusion. But Muellers investigation found that Russian interference favored Trump, and identified numerous links between the Russian government and and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign. Mueller report released The redacted version of the Mueller report was posted on the special counsels website shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday. Read Muellers redacted report here. Barr has no objection to Mueller testifying to Congress Barr said he had no objection to Mueller, who was not present at this mornings press conference, testifying to Congress about his report. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) sent a letter to Mueller this morning, requesting the special counsel to testify before the House Judiciary Committee no later than May 23. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) have also called on Mueller to testify. A handful of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Senators Cory Booker (N.J.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), were quick to join their calls. Congress & the American people need to hear directly from the person who authored the report, N.J. Sen. Cory Booker tweeted Thursday. Barr: The Russian government sought to interfere in our election process Barr said during his press conference that the special counsels report shows Russian operatives did in fact attempt to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The Russian government sought to interfere in our election process, Barr said, adding that Muellers investigation found no evidence that any Americans conspired or coordinated with the Russian government. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes, Barr added. Barr criticized for timing of release According to multiple reports, Barr wont release Muellers report until sometime between 11 a.m. and noon, a move that drew harsh criticism from several top Democrats, including Pelosi, Schumer, and Nadler. This is wrong, Nadler told reporters. The fact that the attorney general is not releasing even the redacted report to Congress until after his press conference will again result in the report being presented through his own words, instead of the words of special counsel Mueller." Trump is already on Twitter Ahead of Barrs press conference and the reports release, Trump is on Twitter repeating claims that the special counsels investigation which has led to indictments against 34 people was a hoax. Trump also shared several tweets made by the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, which range from various Fox News video clips to claims about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During an interview with WMAL Radios Larry OConnor on Wednesday, Trump suggested he might hold his own press conference Thursday. Attorney General Barr will be giving a press conference, maybe Ill do one after that, well see, Trump said. Barr to make less-redacted version available to some Congressional leaders The process of redacting Muellers report took Barr and the Department of Justice more than three weeks to complete. Barr said his goal was to limit redactions to four types of information: grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations, and infringements on the privacy rights of peripheral third parties. During two days of testimony on Capitol Hill last week, Barr made it clear he did not intend to release an unredacted version of Muellers report to Congress. But during his Thursday morning press conference, Barr said he would allow a group of bipartisan Congressional leaders to see a less-redacted version of Muellers report. In an effort to accommodate congressional requests, we will make available to a bipartisan group of leaders from several congressional committees a version of the report with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information, Barr said. The House Judiciary Committee voted earlier this month to authorize a subpoena for Muellers full, unexpurgated report and all the evidence gathered by investigators. Chairman Nadler called Barr biased and said Trumps attorney general was entitled to be a defender of the administration, but hes not entitled to withhold the evidence from Congress. If the chairman believes that hes entitled to receive [the unredacted Mueller report], he can move the court for it, Barr said during his testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee. Counter-report in the works Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trumps personal lawyer, has said the presidents lawyers were working on a counter-report to Muellers findings. Giuliani told Politico earlier this week that the counter-report was 34 or 35 pages long. What Barrs summary said Barrs initial four-page memo summarizing Muellers findings was sent to lawmakers March 24 and only contained a few direct quotations from the report, including that the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government. Barr also quoted Mueller directly on the issue of potential obstruction of justice: While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Despite that, Trump has repeatedly cited Barrs memo as a complete and total exoneration, even while referring to Muellers investigation as an illegal take-down that failed. Charges resulting from the probe Over his nearly two-year investigation, Mueller brought criminal charges against six Trump associates former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, senior campaign aide Rick Gates, national security adviser Michael Flynn, former layer and fixer Michael Cohen, political advisor Roger Stone, and campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. In total, 34 people, including 25 Russians, were charged directly as a result of Muellers investigation. TIMELINE: Key dates in Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election Staff writers Jonathan Tamari, Patricia Madej, and Oona Goodin-Smith contributed to this report. A view of the 12-story tower proposed for the site of the Dilworth House. Developer John Turchi Jr. plans to keep the facade of the home, while building the tower behind it. Read more The Philadelphia Historical Commission on Friday approved the demolition of a portion of the Dilworth House, a Washington Square property that has been the subject of a more-than-decade-long fight over its history and potential redevelopment. In a 6-3 afternoon vote, the commission gave Philadelphia developer John Turchi Jr. the ability to proceed with his plan to tear down the rear wing of the Dilworth House and build a 12-story condo tower in its place. Many spoke against the proposal at the meeting, but the panel of historians, architects, and developers was not convinced that demolishing a piece of the property constitutes more than an alteration. The vote by the appointed body represents a significant step for the property, which is regarded as historical not for its age but for its location and symbolism. When Society Hill was languishing in the mid-20th century, Mayor Richardson Dilworth reportedly signified his commitment to the area by moving his family there. He commissioned architect G. Edwin Brumbaugh to build him a house a reconstruction in the Georgian style in the late 1950s, and lived there until his death in 1974. For the last 15 years, Turchi, neighborhood residents, and representatives from adjacent buildings have fought about whether the building is historical and whether new development at the site is appropriate. The house, 223-25 S. Sixth St., is within the Society Hill historic district and is classified as significant. Neighbors have defended the buildings historical significance, while Turchi, in a 2005 interview, said, Its in the wrong place, and it represents the wrong time. The Friday hearing which lasted for more than two hours and was at the end of a nearly eight-hour-long commission meeting grew tense at times as commission members challenged the developments opponents about specifying to what exactly they were opposed. Were all getting kind of to the end of our rope, one member of the commission said shortly after 4 p.m., amid testimony from two opponents who implored the commission not to just reaffirm a previous 2007 Historical Commission decision on the project. This is a new application. This should be considered anew, Paul Boni, chair of the Society Hill Civic Associations Zoning and Historic Preservation Committee, said. Prior decisions were made for this property for different applications by different commissioners. Those decisions have relevance, but only to a point. This is a new application, and you are an entirely new set of commissioners. In 2007, the commission voted to approve a similar proposal by Turchi, allowing him to demolish the rear wing of the property as long as the front portion of the home, including its redbrick facade, was preserved. He planned a 16-story tower. Around that time, Turchi planned 12 condos, which he intended to sell for $4 million apiece. That decision came after more than three years of tug-of-war between neighbors and Turchi. The developer and his wife purchased the property in 2001 for $1.75 million, records show, originally with plans to renovate and move in. Yet those plans shifted a few years later to full demolition, then partial demolition, and then largely no demolition at all, to make room for a high-rise designed by the noted architect Robert Venturi something that some Society Hill members opposed, too. Soon after the 2007 vote, residents appealed the decision, and in 2008, the Department of Licenses and Inspections Review Board sided with them, overturning the historical panel. More appeals continued until 2015, when Commonwealth Court reinstated the Historical Commissions 2007 decision, allowing Turchi to proceed. For more than a decade, the Dilworth House has sat vacant, aging and accumulating violations from L&I. In 2017, Turchis attorney told The Inquirer that he was quietly marketing the property with hope of selling to one of Philadelphias preeminent developers. Ultimately, Turchi applied for permits in December for the 12-story tower, which will contain 10 units, as well as 20 underground automated valet parking spaces to be accessed from Randolph Street, behind the Dilworth House. According to a draft of plans, the tower would be connected to the front portion of the Dilworth House, and some of the units appear to extend into the home. According to Fridays presentation by David Ertz of Cope Linder Architects, the tower will be constructed with clear, nonreflective glass and staggered zinc panels to mimic the slate roof of the Dilworth House. The high-rise will include balconies and roof decks, the December permits show. Ertz said Friday that the new construction would be set back so far that it would not block the windows of the Lippincott condos next door, adding that the tower is designed to not be seen when standing directly in front of the Dilworth House. You will, of course, notice it from [Washington Square] as our renderings show, but we think its back far enough so that it will become a background building to the Dilworth House, Ertz told the commission. Though Turchi now has a partial-demolition approval, he must appear before the Art Commission for final approval in May. (The commission gave preliminary approval in March.) In addition, a zoning appeal from the Society Hill Civic Association is outstanding. According to the city, Turchis plans can be built under current zoning as long as he receives Historical and Art Commission approvals. Before taking a final vote at the end of the meeting, Emily Cooperman, the commissions historian, said, All things being equal, and if this were presented to me without the history [from] before [I would believe] that the rear wing of the building is a character-defining feature of the original design. That is my opinion as a preservationist. That being said, this is a site that clearly begs for redevelopment. It has been begging for redevelopment for a long, long time. After the meeting, Boni said the civic association is going to consider this project in all respects and make decisions about what to do next. (Left to right) Kristen Graham, Gunner the llama, Ellen Dunkel, and Jim-E the llama, take selfies during a llama walk in New Egypt, N.J. Read more A mile into the wooded trail, I looked over at Clemente and thought, I could really get used to walking a llama. I am a fairly serious person with a fairly serious job. Im a mom to two small kids, so my free time is at a premium. But though I have long had a fascination with llamas their soulful eyes, their perky ears, their soft and abundant fur I had never actually touched one. So when a friend mentioned she visited a llama farm (who knew there was such a thing as a llama farm?), I was all-in, with four pals along for the ride. Thats how I found myself an hour north of home, just into Ocean County, N.J. at Second Wind Farm, Bev Vienckowskis blue sky thing. Vienckowski loved horses as a child, but growing up in a Jersey Shore town, she had boats instead. I knew from childrens books that there were llamas, but I had never petted one, she said. Life proceeded: a busy career as a graphic designer, a husband, two children. But when her twins graduated from college, she had a hankering for something different. After seeing a documentary on llamas, she was intrigued by their appearance and gentleness, and by the fact that they were easier and less expensive to keep than horses. She called it her Llamaquest, and even though it wasnt husband Eddies dream, he was supportive of the idea. Eleven years ago, the couple moved to a 3.5-acre farm in New Egypt, N.J, and she bought five llamas: Clemente, Eduardo, Carbon, Jim-E, and Gunner. She says shes happier and healthier than shes ever been. Ive worked in a stressful occupation since I was 18, said Vienckowski. To be here in nature with these gentle souls they just meet you where you are. Llamas are native to South America and were introduced to the United States in the 1920s. Now, there are nearly 200,000 in the country, and theyre having something of a popular culture moment there are llama books, llama T-shirts, llama tchochkes. And then there are people like Vienckowski, a member of the Llama Promotion Committee of the Greater Appalachian Llama and Alpaca Association. (June 21 is Llama Appreciation Day, FYI.) Plenty of other llama owners breed the animals, but Vienckowskis are geldings and were strictly pets at first. But four years ago, Vienckowski launched her llama adventure business, offering everything from meet-the-llama farm visits to hikes with the camelid gang. Driving to the farm, past roadside stands selling fresh eggs, and a church whose sign beseeched passersby to pray for the turtles, I was eager to see up close the animal I had previously known best as a character in a Sesame Street segment where a girl walked her llama through the streets of New York on a trip to the dentist. (Maybe not the most realistic llama situation, but I was a city kid.) I was excited to try something new, but I was also thinking about a million other things: story ideas I needed to check into, a project I am working on, errands I had to fit in somehow. Then we were out of our cars, greeted by the warm and enthusiastic Vienckowski, 64. We met her chickens, then, one by one, the llama boys. They are a handsome lot, with ears that perk up in the most captivating way, and luxurious fur that Vienckowski had spent an hour brushing before our arrival. Vienckowski told us about the guys: Carbon and Gunner can count, and Eddie is a hugger. (Four-legged Eddie, the llama, not to be confused with two-legged Eddie, Vienckowskis husband.) That is, if Eddie Four Legs is feeling so inclined and you lean into his side, he will provide you with the softest llama hug, allowing you to drape one arm around him. Llamas dont bite, and though they can spit (at one another; its a hierarchy thing), they were perfect gentlemen for us. Vienckowski stressed the importance of approaching the llamas gently, showing us their trust was a reward we could earn. She said we would know which llama was right for us to walk. My friend Barbara Laker and Carbon were destined for each other. Theyre both sweethearts who have a way of putting people at ease. They bonded immediately, Barbara petting his fur and declaring, Youre my boyfriend. Carbon did not disagree, touching his nose to her face with a llama kiss. Wendy Ruderman was matched up with Eddie, who was charming, generous with his affection, and who quickly established himself as the no-rules llama. Vienckowski urged us to keep the llamas from feeding during the walk, so, naturally, Eddie wanted to bend down to find all the tasty onion grass he could as soon as free-spirit Wendy took the lead attached to his halter. Wendy was eager to help, leaning over to pluck some treats for Eddie herself. He likes the green ones, she said. I chose Clemente, proper, shy, and a natural-born leader. I wanted very much for him to like me, and I think he did. My friend Nicole Izanec paired up with Jim-E, tall and handsome, and Ellen Dunkel was matched with Gunner, who told the psychic he likes people to take selfies with him, Vienckowski said. He knows hes handsome. (About the psychic: in addition to massages and reiki treatments, the llamas have had a visit from an animal communicator. Vienckowski prides herself on taking good care of the llamas and said she gained valuable insights from the psychic.) When I started walking Clemente through the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area thats basically Vienckowskis backyard, my mind wasnt wandering anymore. I noticed how blue the sky was, and how the air was cool but not cold. I took a lot of deep breaths and felt more relaxed than I had felt in months. It was not so much a vigorous hike as a dreamy amble. I held Clementes lead, but he set the tone and the pace. Before our visit, I had read about the llamas and seen Vienckowskis promise that walking a llama is good for the soul. Well, Im a professional skeptic, born and raised in a city of skeptics, and I thought they would be cute but perhaps not balm for my spirit. When our time with the llamas was over, we were gushing. Ellen likened it to walking a golden retriever. Nicole and Jim-E bonded over the llamas comically loud sneeze. We understood why llamas are used in some settings as therapy animals. That was one of the most therapeutic experiences Ive ever had, Barbara said. Youre out in the woods, its beautiful. I think it was better than a spa day. Llama Adventures: If You Go Where: Second Wind Llama Adventures, 256 E. Colliers Mill Rd., New Egypt, N.J. 08533. 609-286-2521. What: Llama walks, farm visits, and more proprietor Bev Vienckowski also offers parties, corporate retreats, llama photo opportunities, and magical llama bean visits, when you can scoop up llama manure, which is excellent for plant-growing. Llama visits must be scheduled, and the llamas walk Tuesday through Thursday and on Saturday and Sunday. There are no adventures during June, July, or August, when the weather is too hot for the llamas. Who: You must be at least 8 to walk a llama during a llama visit, and 11 to walk a llama during a lake walk. All are welcome, and accommodations can be made for seniors, people with special needs, and groups of 15 or under. How much: Meet-the-llama visits are $10 per person. Lake walks are $35 per person for the standard, two-hour adventure. Whether its a coffee table sized look at Led Zeppelins bootleg vinyl, memoirs by rock and roll legends or tributes to a guitar icon, theres sure to be a title for someone on your list. 1.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Attorney General William Barr is trying to dodge accountability by holding a press conference before reporters have a chance to read the Mueller report. The press conference will happen on Thursday at 9:30 AM: From the Justice Department: "Attorney General William P. Barr will hold a press conference on the release of the Mueller Report." Tomorrow at 9:30am, livestreamed here: https://t.co/UqQn1QvoIC Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 17, 2019 The problem as Maggie Haberman pointed out is that the press conference may happen before reporters have read the report: Unless DoJ releases the report between now 6 am, journalists will not have had time to digest what is in the report before attending this press conference and asking questions about what is in the report. https://t.co/3Iu660YJCp Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 17, 2019 Barr is spinning for Trump instead of presenting the facts An attorney general who was interested in presenting the facts to the American people and being accountable for the presentation of the information would never hold a press conference before the press has had a chance to review the report. If the report is released just before or during the press conference, journalists will not be able to ask Barr any pointed questions, and that seems to be the purpose. Dump the information before the reporters have a chance to read it and challenge it during the press conference. The Trump administration hides information from the American people like no other in recent memory. Why should the presidents hand-picked attorney general be any different? For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 6.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard While the attorney general William Barrs Justice Department has yet to release any version of the Mueller report to Congress or the public, he has been feeding info on the 400-page document to Donald Trump. According to a report in The New York Times on Wednesday, some findings in Muellers final report will not be news to President Trump, because the White House and DOJ have already had numerous conversations on Muellers conclusions. As a result, the presidents legal team has been able to get out in front of the Mueller report which is expected to be damning and craft a rebuttal. More from the report: Justice Department officials have had numerous conversations with White House lawyers about the conclusions made by Mr. Mueller, the special counsel, in recent days, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks have aided the presidents legal team as it prepares a rebuttal to the report and strategizes for the coming public war over its findings. A sense of paranoia is taking hold among some of Mr. Trumps aides, some of whom fear his backlash more than the findings themselves, the people said. The report might make clear which of Mr. Trumps current and former advisers spoke to the special counsel, how much they said and how much damage they did to the president providing a kind of road map for retaliation. The discussions between Justice Department officials and White House lawyers have also added to questions about the propriety of the decisions by Attorney General William P. Barr since he received Mr. Muellers findings late last month. In an interview with MSNBCs Chris Matthews, American Constitution Society President Caroline Fredrickson said it looks like Trump and the DOJ are coordinating in another act of obstruction. We should all be offended that this White House is coordinating with the Justice Department in what seems like another act of obstruction. @crfredrickson #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/6EckYNXHfc PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) April 17, 2019 Barr is a shameless Trump hack There was already little remaining doubt that Bill Barrs purpose as attorney general isnt to protect the rule of law; its to serve as a shield for Donald Trump. It was obvious in the four-page whitewash that he released last month after Mueller concluded his investigation. It was obvious in his refusal to release the public-facing summaries crafted by Muellers own team. It was obvious in his decision to repeat Trumps conspiracy theories about his campaign being illegally spied on. And its also obvious from todays news that Barr is planning to hold a press conference on Thursday before anybody has seen the report a clear effort to dodge accountability and further muddy the waters surrounding the Muellers findings. The latest reporting that Barrs Justice Department has been briefing the White House on the Mueller report in advance of its release only confirms what weve already known: Bill Barr is a shameless Trump hack who cant be trusted. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter 2.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard In a fiery press conference on Wednesday night, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler exposed attorney general William Barrs plan to whitewash the Mueller report and protect Trump. It now appears the attorney general intends to once again put his own spin on the investigative work completed by the special counsel and his team, Rep. Nadler said, responding to the news that Barr intends to spin the report at a press conference before he releases it to Congress. The Democratic congressman added, This is wrong. It is not the proper role of the attorney general. Video: .@JerryNadler goes off on Bill Barr for again trying to shape the narrative around the Mueller report *before* the public gets to see it on Thursday. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/NKuqXrCPps PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) April 18, 2019 The Democratic lawmaker said: The evening before the reports scheduled release, the Department of Justice has informed the committee that it will receive a copy between 11:00 and noon, well after the attorney generals 9:30 A.M. press conference. This is wrong. It is contrary to the attorney generals own words to the committee: I do not believe it would be in the publics interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report or to release it in serial or piecemeal fashion. It now appears the attorney general intends to once again put his own spin on the investigative work completed by the special counsel and his team. The fact that the attorney general is not releasing even the redacted reports to Congress until after his press conference will again result in the report being presented through his own words rather than through the words of special counsel Mueller. The central concern here is that the attorney general Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves, but is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House. Of course, he is doing this just before the holiday weekend so its extraordinarily difficult for anybody to react. This is wrong. It is not the proper role of the attorney general. Rep. Nadler also added that if the Mueller reported released by Barr tomorrow is redacted beyond recognition, the Democrats are ready with subpoenas and are open to calling Mueller and his team to Capitol Hill. Democrats are ready to take on Bill Barr Rep. Nadlers quick decision to hold a presser just to tear Barr to shreds shows that Democrats feel a sense of urgency following the news that the attorney general plans to spin the report (again) before the public and Congress are able to see it. As PoliticusUSAs Jason Easley wrote earlier on Wednesday, this stunt is a clear indication that Barr isnt interested in presenting the facts to the public or upholding the rule of law. Instead, the attorney general knows that there is only one reason he has his current job: to spin for Trump and protect him from any damage the Mueller report may inflict on his presidency. And given Barrs extraordinary efforts, which include feeding information to Trump in advance about whats in the Mueller report, its fair to say the report will be damning. Thats why its more important than ever that Democrats use the power they were given following the 2018 midterms to hold this president and his loyalists accountable. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter 1.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Attorney General Barr refused to answer questions about protecting Trump and got angry when he was asked about spinning the Mueller report for the president. Barr gets called out for protecting Trump Barr was asked, Mr. Attorney general, Democrats have questioned some of the process, a Republican-appointed judge said you have, quote, created an environment that has caused a significant part of the American public to be concerned about these redactions, you cleared the president on obstruction, the president is fund-raising off your comments about spying, here you have comments quite positive for the president including his feelings and emotions. What do you say to people on both sides of the aisle who are concerned youre trying to protect the president. He answered, Actually the statements about his sincere beliefs are recognized in the report that there was substantial evidence for that. Im not sure what your basis is for saying Im being generous to the president. Then things got testy: Q: You face an unprecedented situation to go out of your way to acknowledge Barr: Is there another precedent for it? Q: No. Barr: So unprecedented is an accurate transcription, isnt it? Q: What do you say to people who are concerned youre trying to protect the president? Video: Barr didnt answer the question about protecting the president, and the press conference ended shortly after that. The press conference was a spin job for Trump. Barr spent more time talking about no collusion, even though collusion isnt a crime than he did discussing the obstruction of justice instances than Mueller found. The press conference wasnt an effort to inform the public. William Barr was trying to spin the American people. After this press conference, it is clear that Congress must see the full Mueller report and call on the Special Counsel to testify under oath before the House and Senate. The Barr/Trump sham couldnt hold up to the slightest bit of questioning. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 6.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard There are immediate calls for the impeachment of both Attorney General William Barr and Trump after the Mueller report exposed a cover-up to protect the president. CREDO Action co-director Heidi Hess said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA: Its a cover-up. The entire world just watched as the Attorney General of the United States participated in a blatant cover-up of obstruction of justice. The Attorney General is supposed to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, not the presidents personal publicist. Throughout this process, William Barrs top priority has been to protect Donald Trump at the expense of the rule of law. His behavior today and since his confirmation is well below the dignity of the office he currently holds and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is incapable of being the countrys chief law enforcement officer. We now know that special counsel Robert Muellers report laid out 10 distinct episodes of potential obstruction of justice. But even before today, we already knew that Donald Trump was entirely unfit for office, and has repeatedly acted with a disqualifying contempt for the rule of law. Whether its attempting to ban an entire religion from the United States, firing a law enforcement official investigating his campaign, or personally ordering his lawyer to lie to the American people about an extramarital affair, there is more than enough in the public record right now for Democrats to move forward with impeachment. Any Impeachment Will Die In The Senate The problems with impeachment are that it is a slow process that might not be completed before the 2020 election, and even if the House does impeach Trump and Barr, they will never be convicted in the Senate. Republicans have shown for more than two years now that they will never take a stand against Trump. lt doesnt matter how many crimes Trump commits, or that William Barr is openly lying. Senate Republicans will keep turning a blind eye to Trumps crimes. The only certain remedy for ridding the nation of a criminal president is at the ballot box next November. Unless Republicans have a change of heart and grow a spine, impeachment will go nowhere and accomplish nothing. The people who can fix this are voters who must be determined to get to the polls to hand out swift justice to Donald Trump. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 437 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) Special Counsel Robert Muellers report on his inquiry into Russias role in the 2016 U.S. election detailed a series of actions by President Donald Trump to impede the probe, raising questions about whether Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice. Thursdays release of the 448-page report after a 22-month investigation was a watershed moment in Trumps tumultuous presidency and inflamed partisan passions ahead of his 2020 re-election bid in a deeply divided country. Democrats said the report contained disturbing evidence of wrongdoing by Trump that could fuel congressional investigations, but there was no immediate indication they would try to remove him from office through impeachment. Mueller built an extensive case indicating that Trump had committed obstruction of justice but stopped short of concluding he had committed a crime, though the special counsel did not exonerate the president. Mueller noted, however, that Congress has the power to address whether Trump violated the law. The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the Presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law, the report stated. (Graphic: Redactions in the Mueller report https://tmsnrt.rs/2DnjTvk) Mueller, a former FBI director, also unearthed numerous links between the Russian government and Trumps campaign, but concluded there was not enough evidence to establish that the campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow in its election meddling. The report, with some portions blacked out to protect sensitive information, provided fresh details of how the Republican president tried to force Muellers ouster, directed members of his administration to publicly vouch for his innocence and dangled a pardon to a former aide to try to prevent him from cooperating with the special counsel. The report noted that some Trump aides did not carry out some of Trumps demands, including the one to fire Mueller. The report stated that when former attorney general Jeff Sessions told Trump in May 2017 that a special counsel was being appointed by the Justice Department to look into allegations that the Republicans campaign colluded with Russia, Trump slumped back in his chair and said, Oh my god. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im fucked. Trump appeared to be in a celebratory mood on Thursday, saying at a White House event with wounded U.S. troops that he was having a good day following the reports release, adding, Its called no collusion, no obstruction. Trump has long described Muellers inquiry as a witch hunt. After receiving a confidential copy of Muellers report in March, Attorney General William Barr made his own conclusion for the Justice Department that Trump had not committed obstruction of justice. But he told a news conference on Thursday that Mueller had detailed 10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense. Any impeachment effort would start in the Democratic-led House of Representatives, but Trumps removal would require the support of the Republican-led Senate an unlikely outcome. Many Democrats steered clear of threatening impeachment on Thursday, although a prominent liberal congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, directly brought it up. The House, when it voted to impeach President Bill Clinton in 1998, included obstruction of justice as one of the charges. The Senate ultimately decided not to remove Clinton from office. The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said he would issue subpoenas to obtain the unredacted Mueller report and asked Mueller to testify before the panel by May 23. RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN The inquiry laid bare what the special counsel and U.S. intelligence agencies have described as a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, denigrate 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump, the Kremlins preferred candidate. Russia has denied election interference. In analyzing whether Trump obstructed justice, Mueller looked at a series of actions by Trump, including his attempts to remove Mueller and limit the scope of his probe and efforts to prevent the public from knowing about a June, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York between senior campaign officials and Russians. In June 2017, Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to tell the then-acting attorney general that Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed, the report said, though McGahn did not carry out the order. It also said there was substantial evidence that Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017 due to his unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation. Mueller cited some evidence suggesting Trump knew about former national security adviser Michael Flynns controversial calls with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office, but evidence was inconclusive and could not be used to establish intent to obstruct. The report said Trump directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to ask former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to say the Russia investigation was very unfair. Barr seemed to offer cover for Trumps actions by saying the report acknowledges that there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates, Barr said. Muellers team did not issue a subpoena to force Trump to give an interview to the special counsel because it would have created a substantial delay at a late stage in the investigation, the report said. The report said Mueller accepted the longstanding Justice Department view that a sitting president cannot be indicted on criminal charges, while still recognizing that a president can be criminally investigated. The report also cited Trumps repeated efforts to convince Sessions to resume oversight of the probe after he had recused himself because of his own prior contacts with Russias ambassador to the United States. Mueller said evidence he collected indicates that Trump intended to encourage his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, not to cooperate with the investigation and that the evidence supports the idea that Trump wanted Manafort to believe that he could receive a presidential pardon. The report said the special counsels team determined there was a reasonable argument that the presidents son, Donald Trump Jr., violated campaign finance laws, but did not believe they could obtain a conviction. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan; Additional reporting by David Morgan, Doina Chiacu, davuid Alexander, Susan Cornwell, Richard Cowan, Amanda Becker, Jan Wolfe, Nathan Layne, Karen Freifeld and Makini Brice; Writing by Will Dunham, Editing by Alistair Bell) 1.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are calling on Robert Mueller to immediately testify before Congress. Pelosi and Schumer want Mueller to testify ASAP In a joint statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Pelosi and Schumer said, Attorney General Barrs regrettably partisan handling of the Mueller report, including his slanted March 24th summary letter, his irresponsible testimony before Congress last week, and his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference later this morning hours before he allows the public or Congress to see it have resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality. We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsels investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible. The American people deserve to hear the truth. Muellers testimony is the only way for Democrats to get immediate answers Even if House Democrats sue right away to get the full Mueller report, it will take weeks if not months, for the legal process to play out and the report to be turned over to Congress. The fastest way to get answers is to have Mueller testify under oath in public before Congress. There will be parts of Muellers testimony that will have to happen behind closed doors, but most of it can be done in public. Trump and Barr are trying to undermine Muellers findings and destroy the credibility of the investigation. There is only one person who can stop them, and thats Robert Mueller. Look for Mueller to be testifying shortly. Democrats in Congress arent going to waste time and allow Trump to hide the truth. The strategy to get the facts is already unfolding before the redacted Mueller report is released. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook Editor's note: Two Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) organizations are actively investigating the so-called "trophy train" -- the Conflict Intelligence Team established by a group of investigative bloggers who monitor the Kremlin's military and Bellingcat, the independent collaborative of researchers and journalists which operates in 20 countries. This fact check features their work: In late February, Russias Defense Ministry launched a Russia-wide tour for its so-called trophy train, an 18-car train hauling vehicles and equipment captured from terrorists in Syria. Some of the vehicles were indeed used by terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS), which captured large quantities of American-made military equipment during its 2014 offensive in Iraq, including Humvees like the ones on display on the train. Upon closer examination, however, open source intelligence investigators noticed certain distortions and in some case, fabrications, in the traveling exhibition. In April, a group of independent bloggers in Russia known as the Conflict Intelligence Team evaluated some of the trains exhibits and found that many of them could not be properly sourced, and were in some cases blatant propaganda. According to CIT, some of the weapons can be identified from their specific modifications as well as insignia. One example is a Humvee captured from Iraqs Counter-Terrorism Service, which is readily identifiable by its still-intact insignia and black paint job. Other vehicles are unique, such as the so-called Eagle head improvised armored vehicle captured from the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) by IS, and subsequently captured from IS by Syrian government forces. Curiously, the information display attached to that exhibit claims the vehicle was assembled in Turkey. Given that Turkey views the YPG as an arm of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which Ankara has designated a terrorist group, and that Turkish authorities closed the border with the Kurdish-controlled regions of Syria, it is unlikely that the YPG would assemble a large armored vehicle in Turkey and drive it across the fortified border. The CIT team found two clear fabrications. One is a T-55 tank, which the exhibit claims was delivered to the rebels from Georgia, a country with an ongoing border dispute with Russia and its local proxies. Based on the tanks modifications, the CIT team determined that it was most likely sold to the Syrian government by Ukraine in the 1990s. It was most likely captured by rebels, then recaptured by Syrian government forces. Lastly, the CIT calls a collection of equipment described by the Russian exhibit as a militant chemical lab the most blatant example of deliberate disinformation. Experts from Bellingcat and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) determined that the equipment could not be used to manufacture chemical weapons, and was more likely used for making explosives. This is not the first time Russias Defense Ministry has falsely labeled trophies from Syria. Last year, Polygraph.info published a fact-check showing how the ministry mislabeled a French-made ANPILAS rocket launcher, claiming it was a much more advanced American FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile. Food editor and chief critic Eating all of the chicken livers just as fast as I can. Get the SC business stories that matter. Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free. A major benefactor for the arts and humanities in the U.S. has made a second and much larger contribution to Charleston's International African American Museum. The New York-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation pledged another $1.5 million toward the project, with a third of it going toward the support of its top curatorial job. The group, which has an about $6.8 billion endowment, first contributed to the museum effort in 2017, when it awarded a $150,000 grant. That gift enabled the museum to hire its lead curator one year ahead of schedule. The Mellon Foundation distributes more than $300 million in grants each year. It has a stated mission to "strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend" the arts and humanities. Foundation president and poet Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement that she was particularly interested in how the downtown Charleston museum would tell the global story of slavery through a "regional framework." The foundation specified that $500,000 of the award should go directly to support its chief curatorial position, which is held by Joy Bivins. Bivins joined the museum staff last summer after spending 16 years working at the Chicago History Museum. Lately, Bivins has been working with exhibit designers to edit the text, photos and other details of the IAAM's gallery displays. She's also tasked with putting together a permanent collection of artifacts for the museum. The newly announced contribution follows two other major donations the museum has received over the last few months. In late February, leaders from the Mormon Church announced that they would give $2 million. The church is also providing support for the IAAM's Center for Family History. And last month, Spartanburg arts boosters Susu and George Dean Johnson Jr. pledged $1 million. Though the museum's original $75 million goal was reached in August, the fundraising efforts have continued. In December, officials announced that construction costs for the building and grounds would be higher than anticipated. Those additional expenses were originally estimated to be $10 million, but the actual amount needed is still unclear. Museum officials say they expect to finalize construction cost estimates early this summer and break ground before the end of the year. The effort to build an International African American Museum in Charleston has been underway for almost two decades. The site where the museum will be built was once part of Gadsden's Wharf, an area along the harbor where many enslaved Africans first stepped on U.S. soil. Chloe Johnson covers the coastal environment and climate change for the Post and Courier. She's always looking for a good excuse to hop on a boat. Andrew Chmiel of Mount Pleasant cheers during the 21st Charleston Cup at Stono Ferry on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014. Chmiel was recently charged as part of a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme. File/Grace Beahm/Staff The approved development plans allow enough housing for nearly 270,000 people, enough to push the area's population past 1 million. MYRTLE BEACH The Grand Strand continues to dominate in East Coast population growth; for t Fastest-growing metro areas Census estimates published April 18 showed which of the nations 383 metropolitan areas gained population the most rapidly from July 2017 to July 2018. The top five in the nation were: Midland, TX Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC St. George, UT Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL Odessa, TX The top five in South Carolina, and their rank nationally: Jennifer Berry Hawes is a Watchdog and Public Service team reporter who worked on the newspaper's Pulitzer-Prize winning investigation, "Till Death Do Us Part." Columbia/Myrtle Beach Managing Editor Andy Shain runs The Post and Courier's newsrooms based in Columbia and Myrtle Beach. He was editor of Free Times and has been a reporter and editor for newspapers in Charlotte, Columbia and Myrtle Beach. Angie Jackson covers crime and breaking news for The Post and Courier. She previously covered the same beat for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive.com in Michigan. When shes not reporting, Angie enjoys teaching yoga and exploring the outdoors. Special counsel Robert Muellers report documents in painstaking detail Russias efforts to influence the presidential election and several instances of potential obstruction by President Donald Trump. But in nearly 450 pages, he left unresolved a curiosity in South Carolina political circles: What exactly was that Charleston thing the president discussed with his personal lawyer? Trump was secretly recorded by his former attorney, Michael Cohen, as they talked about buying a Playboy models silence over an alleged affair. I think its probably better to do the Charleston thing, just this time, Trump said just before that conversation, which happened in September 2016, two months before he won the White House. The Charleston connection wasnt explained then and hasnt been since. That recording is mentioned in Muellers report, but only in passing. With the mystery still intact including whether they were even referring to Charleston, S.C., or some other Charleston U.S.A. there were other items with South Carolina connections that surfaced Thursday. Among them was a Hanahan episode illustrating Trumps uncommonly warm embrace of Russia in the early days of his campaign. The report's opening pages reference a news conference Trump gave in February 2016 as an example of how he distinguished himself among Republican candidates by speaking of closer ties with Russia. You want to make a good deal for the country, you want to deal with Russia, Trump said in Hanahan, in one of his first stump comments on the world power. The Lowcountry by way of a College of Charleston alumna emerged again as Mueller documents how after the election, the eventual national security adviser, Michael Flynn, spoke with the Russian ambassador during the transition. Flynn talked to the ambassador about the Obama administrations decision to impose sanctions on Russia over its meddling in the presidential election. He was later charged with lying to the FBI about his interactions with the ambassador, and he pleaded guilty. Mueller found that Trumps team knew about their conversation, though. It was documented in an email his investigators obtained, and the president-elect sat in on a briefing about the sanctions that evening, apparently expressing doubts about Russias role in the election. The meetings attendance was memorialized in an email written by Madeleine Westerhout, who was Trumps personal secretary and became the gatekeeper to the Oval Office. Westerhout graduated from the College of Charleston in 2013. She went on to work for Trump in the White House. Meanwhile, beyond those three ties to the Palmetto State, the reaction from South Carolina politicos to the report broke along predictable political lines. Republicans trumpeted the fact the report found no evidence of collusion by Trump or his 2016 presidential campaign. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was in Africa when the report was released. In addition to being South Carolinas senior senator and a close ally of the president, Graham is also the chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. Graham stated the committee was still reviewing the report, but he praised the reports release. Once again, I applaud Attorney General Barr for his commitment to transparency and keeping the American people informed, consistent with the law and our national security interests, Graham said in a statement. Graham said he looked forward to hearing from Barr when he testifies before the committee on May 1. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., was on a bipartisan trip to South America when the report was released. His office released a statement, saying Scott is confident that there was no collusion and no corruption. Scotts spokesman Ken Farnaso also said the senator participated in an informational call regarding the Mueller report on Wednesday with leaders from Capitol Hill. "No one from the administration was involved, just Congressional leaders," his office said. No other details were disclosed. In other statements, most of the rest of the South Carolina Republican House members all took aim at Democrats. U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens, declared after the reports release, The conclusion: No collusion. No obstruction. In a tweet, Duncan called claims of Russian collusion a lie that grew out of hatred for @POTUS. U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Lexington, urged Democrats to accept the conclusions of the Mueller report and get back to work. U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, called on Democratic leadership to apologize to the American people. In a 278-word statement, Norman defended the redactions even as House Democrats continue to call for the release of the full Mueller report. The purpose of redactions isn't to mask the truth, Norman said. Instead, they're necessary to protect our national interests and security." The office of U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-Charleston, said the congressman wanted to first read the report before commenting on its findings and implications. Meanwhile, House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., focused his comments on criticizing the rollout of the report itself. He tweeted his frustration about Barrs Tuesday morning press conference in which Barr took questions about the report before it was released to the public. Disappointing to see Attorney General Barr acting more like the presidents general counsel than Attorney General of the United States, Clyburn, D-Columbia, said. This just shows that the American people ought to hear directly from Robert Mueller about the contents of this report. Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, a profile figure in the Trump administration until she stepped down last October, tweeted her response, focusing on how the investigation was launched. "You can have as many people testify as you want but it wont change the outcome," she said. "The question that should be asked is on what basis was the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant issued and who knew about it. The American people deserve to know the truth since they paid for this investigation." The quote was supposed to inspire teachers, but Sariah McCall couldn't stand to read it any longer. "A good teacher is like a candle. It consumes itself to light the way for others." The words were printed in a day planner on McCall's desk when she taught in the Charleston County School District, before she quit in November. Like thousands of teachers who drop out of the profession in South Carolina every year, she left early in her career, at age 28, part of a mass exodus that continues to grow more dire. On Tuesday, McCall explained her decision to the world. The Washington Post published a copy of her resignation letter to CCSD Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait, and teachers far and wide have shared it as a document of their ongoing frustrations. "I cannot set myself on fire to keep someone else warm," she wrote, transforming the candle cliche into her own retort. McCall's letter struck a nerve with some teachers as lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state Legislature continued to whittle down a proposed overhaul of South Carolina's education system this week. Teachers have been more outspoken than usual in the Statehouse this year, in part thanks to the statewide activist network SC for Ed, which McCall helped lead in the Charleston tri-county area last summer. Some of teachers' rallying cries, like smaller classroom sizes and more mental health counselors for students, appear nowhere in the bills currently up for consideration. The more strident teacher activists were calling for an across-the-board raise of 10 percent or more to make up for stagnant wages since the Great Recession, but many could end up seeing a 5 percent raise instead. The state education funding formula, which the S.C. Supreme Court has identified as a bedrock problem underlying massive inequities for poor, black and rural children, will likely go untouched this year. South Carolina Education Superintendent Molly Spearman read the letter, too. She said in an email Thursday that teachers across the state list the same complaints. "They need competitive pay, dedicated time to teach and plan, and comprehensive support and wraparound services that lighten their load and responsibilities while in the school building," Spearman said. "I am fighting to make teacher support and pay the states top priority and encourage all of South Carolinas citizens to thank our teachers and speak up for them whenever they can." McCall now lives with her fiance and a golden retriever named Hoover in Savannah, where she waits tables at a bistro near the river. The hours are shorter and the pay is better than in the career she earned a master's degree to pursue, she said. "I dont have to go home and call my tables parents and discuss how they tipped me. I dont have to analyze the data of the appetizers my table has been ordering to see what I could be more effective at selling," McCall said, laughing in a phone interview Thursday. McCall was in her fifth year of teaching when she quit. Her story is not unusual. Of the 5,340 teachers who quit teaching in South Carolina schools last year, about 1,750 had five or fewer years of experience, according to the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement. After a stint working in schools in Savannah, she taught third grade at Sanders-Clyde Elementary in Charleston before taking a lower elementary teaching job at Murray-LaSaine Elementary, a public Montessori school on James Island. Unable to make ends meet on a teacher salary, she worked nights at Snapper Jack's on Folly Beach, taking papers along to grade on the hostess stand. McCall said she hand-delivered her letter to the school district office on Nov. 5. She wrote about long, unpaid work hours after the school day ended, unrealistic expectations, and a lack of time for planning or basic bodily functions like bathroom breaks. In an emailed statement Thursday, Postlewait said she remembers meeting McCall while visiting her school on the first day of the academic year. "Later, she scheduled a meeting with me to discuss the ways in which we might work together on educational reform. I was surprised when I received her letter, and I called her asking her to reconsider and even asked if some time off would help her," Postlewait said. Postlewait wrote that many of McCall's concerns are shared by other teachers, and she said teachers are often not appreciated or paid "at a level that would speak to the important job that they have." "I wish we could have saved Sariah for the teaching profession and for the young students she would have impacted," Postlewait said. "To the best of our ability, we simply must find a way to change the conditions that teachers face in order to have any chance to change the lives of the students we serve." McCall said she sent her letter to The Washington Post but waited a few months before giving permission to publish it. It ran Tuesday in a column by education writer Valerie Strauss. Sarah Jacowitz, a fellow Charleston County teacher who resigned in June, said she was proud to see her friend voicing a familiar set of concerns. Her own resignation was brief and terse, and she said no one from the district gave her an exit interview to explain her departure. "I love teaching, and they made me hate it," Jacowitz said Thursday. Jacowitz came to Charleston County after teaching in Connecticut, taking a $15,000 pay cut despite living in an expensive real estate market. Coming from a state where teachers were represented by unions, she said she was stunned by how afraid South Carolina teachers were to advocate for their own profession. This week in Savannah, McCall says she sat down with a former teaching colleague to reminisce and look at photos from their old classrooms. They laughed and cried, and she missed the children. But she said a lot would have to change before she considered returning to the classroom. That old chestnut, "A good teacher is like a candle," would certainly have to go. "Its like an idealistic martyrdom that isnt helping anybody," McCall said. "The way that some people looked at the job, they said, 'You know, you have to do this in order to be a good teacher,' and I cant. I cant completely burn out, because then whos going to teach the kids? What happens to me and my family?" Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations. Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations. Finalists for University of South Carolina's next president (clockwise from upper left): John Applegate, Indiana Universitys executive vice president for academic affairs; Robert Caslen Jr., a former West Point superintendent who is senior counsel to the president at the University of Central Florida; Joseph Walsh, vice president for research at Northwestern University; and William Tate, vice president of graduate education at Washington University in St. Louis. PIPESTONE, Minn. University of Minnesota Extension, along with the Minnesota Beef Council, will host three Beef Quality Assurance and Secure Beef Supply (SBS) training sessions in southwest Minnesota. These sessions will cover how cattle is handled, the use of pharmaceuticals, feed management practices, and accurate and reliable record keeping. Producers attending these free workshops will receive a three-year BQA certification and will learn the steps needed to begin their own Secure Beef Supply plan. Over the past year, cattle producers have been asked to complete the BQA program in order to market their cattle to certain processors. However, BQA certification is still voluntary. Some companies have chosen to extend their own quality assurance protocol requirements to cattlemen who are a part of their supply chain. A BQA certification is being required by many major industry buyers and processors. When a producer does not have current BQA certification, many packers and feedlots cannot purchase those cattle because their company cannot source cattle from a producer who does not meet their certification requirements. ADVERTISEMENT The 90-minute training and certification sessions are free. Only one person from each operation is required to be certified to ensure the entire operation follows the BQA standards. However, everyone who handles and manages feed cattle is encouraged to become BQA certified. The workshops will be: April 23, 67:30 p.m. April 23 at the Cottonwood County Law Enforcement Center, 902 Fifth Ave, Windom. April 25, 3:305 p.m. at the Pipestone Livestock Auction Market, 1500 Seventh St. SE, Pipestone. Training will be held in the sale barn cafe. June 4, 67:30 p.m. at the Murray County 4-H Building, 3048 Broadway Ave., Slayton. Walk-ins are welcome, but to ensure enough training materials are available, RSVPs are appreciated. Call the Murray County Extension Office at 507-836-6927 to register. Those unable to attend a session can also earn certification online at www.BQA.org. LAKE CITY Like "Billy Shears," or Joe Cocker, if you prefer, I get by with a little help from my friends. Last week on Wednesday, I got a note that thered be a tractor auction at a farm just outside Lake City. Since I know absolutely zero about tractors, I dropped everything, fired up the Brian-mobile and drove to the farm of Marjorie Danckwart and her late husband, Bill, praying the danged snow would hold off long enough for me to get what I needed for a story . For the record, the snow did start as I snapped a few last photos, my gloveless hands stinging in the biting cold of the early afternoon. Yeah, I give it my all for a story. Looking for Marjorie ADVERTISEMENT As I learned about the tractors and the importance of the auction everyone was giddy about the "low hours" on the machines that were for sale I asked Luke Sullivan, one of the owners of Sullivan Auctioneers from Hamilton, Ill., if he knew where Marjorie might be. "Shes a private person," he said, explaining Marjorie had been down to the auction earlier, but he thought she might be back at the house keeping warm. "I dont know if shell do interviews." I was a little saddened by that. Talking to the woman who was selling all this farm stuff was an important part of the story to me. Yes, I know I cant make an elderly woman talk to me if she doesnt want to. Still, as the morning marched along, I kept an eye out for her, just in case. In fact, as the bigger items came up for sale, a bundled-up Marjorie made her way into the crowd, being escorted by a couple of younger women. Willard Rescues Me Before I could approach Marjorie, a TV crew dragged her down a hill to interview her away from all the noise. Part of me was like, "Well, sound matters." The other part of me was like, "You made an old woman walk how far?" That was it, I thought, no way she agrees to an interview now. But when she came up the hill, I approached her and asked if I could ask a few questions. Before Marjorie and I could start talking, Willard Drysdale came up to Marjorie and says, "You have to talk to him. Hes a good one." Seems Willard is good friends with Marjorie and had been good friends with Bill. And, of course, I spent a year writing stories about the Corps of Engineers trying to take a huge chunk of Willards farm , so weve spent some time together. I was grateful that he took the time to sing my praises. ADVERTISEMENT That was all the encouragement Marjorie needed. We chatted, we joked, we laughed. And all the while I thought, "Its good to have friends." Like the High School Cafeteria Monday, I made my way to Eyota for a meeting about community health . Often when meetings are held, there is a presentation or a speaker and a crowd. I just sit in the crowd, take notes and do my thing. But this time, they wanted small discussion groups. I always hate that. Who do I sit with? Its like the cafeteria in high school all over again. Pick the wrong table, and your day is wasted. Fortunately, I spotted former Eyota mayor Wes Bussell and his wife, Donna, at one table. Wes motioned me over and, as it turns out, I ended up sitting with the cool kids. In addition to Wes and Donna, state Rep. Nels Pierson sat at my table. So did a big wheel with the Minnesota Well Owners Organization, Jeff Broberg, whom Id never met, but who knows a source from another story Ive written. Oh, and a nice guy named Ernie. This was better than senior year when my usual lunch companions were Pat, Rob and Erik, three guys who spanned the spectrum of high school society. (For the record, I only sat with them because Pat and Rob were in my physics class.) ADVERTISEMENT Just One of Me When I arrived at the Oronoco City Council meeting Tuesday night , I was greeted with smiles from Mayor Ryland Eichhorst. Itd been a while since I attended a meeting in Oronoco. Thats the thing about making friends across three counties in multiple towns, at dozens of local government units or school districts I cant visit them as often as Id like, which means every time theres a story that seems somewhat interesting. For example, last week the Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments over the Winona County ban on frac sand mining . Unfortunately, a trip to St. Paul wasnt in the cards. Not enough "Brian time" to make it happen. Besides, Ill report the results once the court renders a decision. But that didnt stop representatives from both Minnesota Sands LLC and Land Stewardship Project from reaching out to me. Sorry folks, this time Ill have to pass on a little help from my friends. A taste for nostalgia led a Rochester chiropractor and his sons to line up a new type of mobile food trailer to cool off the Med City this summer. Dr. Nick Krause, owner of the Chiropractic First Wellness Center,was visiting his hometown of Sioux City, Iowa, and saw the stand where he bought flavored, shaved ice in his youth. "I was thinking about doing a side business, but I wanted to do something that could involve my family," he said. "This seemed like something that could work in Rochester." Krause did some research and discovered the SnoBizshaved ice franchise. He took his sons, 17-year-old Collin Krause, 14-year-old Dawson Krause, and 10-year-old Caiden Krauseto learn more. The three boys then went to ONB bankwith a business plan to line up financing. ADVERTISEMENT They hope to have their new, brightly colored trailer, which they are calling Minnesnoda Shaved Ice, on Rochesters streets and parking lots by mid-May. They will have 24 flavors, which can be served in any combination, as well as iced coffees. "The difference between snow cones and shaved ice is night and day" said Krause. "Shaved ice has flavor in every bite. Its like eating fluffy, flavorful snow." The Krauses are talking to area businesses about setting up shop in parking lots as well as lining up gigs at special events and parties. There is a lot to appreciate about living on our island home where there is still a sense of community and where we are still, for the most pa Read more By National Review, April 17, 2019 Amid the weekly cavalcade of campus horrors, its easy to miss a story that will mark a major turning point in the campus free-speech crisis, whether for good or ill. The growing confrontation at the University of Arizona over students who disrupted a Career Day presentation by Border Patrol agents is not your run-of-the-mill campus outrage. Instead its that rare case where student disruptors are facing real consequences for their actions. This is in significant part because of a new Arizona law strengthening discipline for such disruptions. If the university holds fast and the disruptors pay a price for silencing others, the move will carry national implications. Yet if the growing rebellion by anti-free-speech students and faculty at UA gets its way, the university will back down, the border patrol will be permanently barred from campus, and the university president could lose his job. That would be a disaster for free speech, and would mark a new and dangerous turn in Americas campus crisis. NORRISTOWN A jury deliberated about two hours before convicting a Lower Providence man of having sexual and indecent contact with two underage girls while they were in his company at several locations, including Horsham Township. John Andrew Anzalone, 39, of the 700 block of Sunnyside Avenue, was convicted in Montgomery County Court of 31 separate charges including rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, indecent assault, corruption of minors and unlawful contact or communication with minors in connection with incidents that occurred between 2014 and 2018. At the time of the assaults, the girls were between the ages of 9 and 14, according to testimony. Anzalone knew the girls family members and the assaults occurred at times when Anzalone was alone with each of the girls. In addition to occurring in Horsham Township, some of the inappropriate contact occurred when the girls were in Anzalones company in other areas of Pennsylvania, including Waymart, Wayne County, and Forest City, Susquehanna County, according to court papers and testimony. The jury reached the verdict after hearing two days of testimony at the trial presided over by Judge William R. Carpenter. Both victims testified during the trial. Carpenter remanded Anzalone to the county jail without bail to await a sentencing hearing later this year. The judge said Anzalone will undergo a psychosexual evaluation prior to the sentencing hearing. Anzalone potentially faces decades in prison on the charges. That man is the embodiment of evil to (the victims), Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Beeson argued to the jury during his closing statement, characterizing the girls as courageous for confronting their abuser in court. They had the courage to come in and do it. That is no small task for a person of their age. Beeson said one of the girls was disgusted to see Anzalone in the courtroom and attempted to avoid eye contact with him during her testimony. Anzalone did not testify during the trial. He denies it, defense lawyer Geoffrey Hood argued to jurors, pointing out that throughout the investigation and during interviews by detectives Anzalone denied being involved in any inappropriate conduct with the victims. Hood suggested the girls were not telling the truth and fabricated the allegations because they had animosity toward Anzalone. Hood argued the girls gave inconsistent statements during the investigation and that their trial testimony differed from those statements. When you look at the details, thats where things fall apart. They dont hold up under scrutiny, Hood argued during his closing statement to jurors. Credibility is going to be the key in this case. The investigation began in July 2017, when Horsham Police Officer Lawrence Bozzomo received a report that Anzalone had sexually assaulted two girls. The girls subsequently told detectives and child social workers that Anzalone touched them in an inappropriate manner and had various sexual or indecent contact with them. Stanley Kurtz alerts us to a story that, he says, will mark a major turning point in the campus free-speech crisis, whether for good or ill. The case comes from the University of Arizona where students disrupted a Career Day presentation by Border Patrol agents. Normally in these cases, the students doing the disrupting get off with no punishment or, at most, a light slap on the wrist. But thats not how its gone down so far at the University of Arizona. Instead, the UA campus police filed criminal misdemeanor charges of interference with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution against three disruptors, and the leader of the shout-down was also charged with threats and intimidation. Moreover, UA President Robert Robbins backed up the campus police. Student protest is protected by our support for free speech, said Robbins, but disruption is not. Robbins stance should be understood in the context of the new legal landscape in Arizona. A year ago, as I reported here, the state enacted a campus free speech law that includes robust protections against shout-downs. That law is based on a model published by Arizonas Goldwater Institute and co-written by Stanley Kurtz. Unlike more limited laws passed in some states, the Arizona bill includes provisions for the discipline of those who engage in shout-downs. It also establishes an oversight system to ensure that administrators actually enforce the laws provisions. I agree with Stanley that President Robbins must have had the new state law in mind when he refused to withdraw the charges filed by campus police. The criminal case against the disrupting students will proceed in court, not at the University level. The judge probably will not come down all that hard on the students. But that should not end the matter. As noted, under the new Arizona law the students shout-down triggers a disciplinary process by the college and, indeed, UA has initiated an administrative investigation of this sorry incident. But leftist students and approximately 100 professors are demanding that (1) all charges against the disruptors, whether criminal or within the university, be dropped; (2) agents of ICE and the Border Patrol be permanently banned from campus; and (3) if the first two demands are not met, President Robbins resign. In short, the leftists are demanding that UA abridge free speech and violate state law, which explicitly declares the university open to any speaker whom a student, student group, or faculty member has invited. (In this case, the Border Patrol Agents were invited by the schools Criminal Justice Association). Truly, then, we have a test case. As Stanley says: If the University of Arizona follows through and the disruptors face real consequences, we might someday reach the point where shout-downs will stop and discipline will seldom, if ever, be required. The point is not to punish but to prevent speech-suppression from happening in the first place. A few well-handled instances of discipline in the near term could be enough to establish deterrence and render punishments at UA unnecessary down the road. That would send out a signal nationally. On the other hand, should the [leftist protesters] carry the day, it would effectively green-light further shout-downs. And it would show for now that even in the face of a law to the contrary, campus administrators have been completely cowed by the anti-free speech left. Fortunately, as noted, Arizonas new law provides for recourse in the event of such a drastic capitulation. Stanley reminds us that if President Robbins surrenders, and the disruptors face no consequences either in court or within the university, then it is the obligation of the oversight report to condemn this. It is also the obligation of the legislature to respond by cutting back funding for the university. And lets not forget President Trumps new executive order on campus free speech, which puts federal research funding in play when campuses act with hostility to free inquiry. As Stanley warns, UA might want to contemplate the new EO as it works through this conflict [since] the price of surrender to campus shout-downs may soon be about to rise. In sum, the showdown at UA represents an important potential turning point in the campus free-speech crisis. That seems clear. Whats unclear is how it will end. PR-Inside.com: 2019-04-18 13:30:56 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 930 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2019 / Canarc Resource Corp. (TSX: CCM, OTC-QB: CRCUF, Frankfurt: CAN) announces the filing of the NI 43-101 preliminary economic assessment report ("PEA") which was completed by Moose Mountain Technical Services (Moose Mountain") for the high-grade New Polaris gold mine in northwestern British Columbia.The report has been filed on SEDAR and is also available on Canarc's website at www.canarc.net Highlights of the PEA include:Post-tax internal rate of return of 38%Post-tax net present value at 5% of US$216 millionPost-tax project payback of 2.7 yearsCash operating cost: US$433/oz AuInitial capital expenditure of US$111 millionROM production of 2.3 Mt of 10.3 g/t over an 8.7-year mine lifeMill throughput of 750 tonnes per day with a process recovery of 90.5% producing 693,000 ozs goldAverage annual life of mine production: 80,000 oz. goldThe estimated project economics for Canarc to build and operate a 750 tonne per day gold mine at New Polaris using bio-oxidation followed by a leaching process to produce 80,000 ounces of gold per year in dore bars at site are reasonably achievable for this project.This new processing option significantly enhances the economics of the project and simplifies transportation logistics at this remote site by eliminating the need for seasonal barging of large quantities of concentrate along the Taku River to a third-party treatment facility.The base case economic model is for the gold price (US$1300 per oz), $CA/$US exchange rate (0.77), cash costs (US$433 per oz) and AISC (US$510 per oz ), for which the Moose Mountain PEA shows an after-tax NPV (5%) of CA$280 million with an after-tax Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") of 38% and a 2.7 year pay-back period.On a pre-tax basis, the undiscounted life-of-mine cash flow totals CA$554 million with a 47% IRR and a 2.3-year pay-back period. Given the conceptual nature of the PEA, there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Moose Mountain concludes that "The Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment indicates that the New Polaris base case has the potential for positive results and therefore further work is recommended to optimize the project and complete a preliminary feasibility study".The Mineral Resources, ROM Production and PEA Economics are Summarized Below:Mineral ResourceIndicated resources of 1,686,000 tonnes at 10.8 g/t Au,Inferred resources of 1,483,000 tonnes at 10.2 g/t Au.PEA ProductionProduction RateAu GradeAu RecoveryAverage OutputMine lifeGold PriceExchange RateInitial Capital CostCash CostCash Flow (LOM)NPV (5%)NPV (8%)Internal Rate of ReturnPayback Period (years)2,306,000 tonnes (subset of Mineral Resource)750 tonnes per day10.3 grams per tonne90.5% gold into dore80,000 oz gold per year8.7yearsUS $ 1300 per ozUS $ 1.00 = CA$ 1.30US $111 millionUS $ 433 per ozAfter-TaxCA$ 414 millionCA$ 280 millionCA$ 222 millionPre-Tax / After Tax47% / 38%2.3 / 2.7Notes for Mineral Resource Estimate:The Mineral Resource Estimate was prepared by Sue Bird, P.Eng. in accordance with CIM Definition Standards and NI 43-101, with an effective date of February 28, 2019.A Mineral Resource is a concentration or occurrence of solid material of economic interest in the Earth's crust in such form, grade or quality and quantity that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade or quality, continuity and other geological characteristics of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge, including sampling.Mineral Resources are reported within an underground mining shape targeting mineralization over 4.0 g/t. This target grade shell includes the following considerations: gold price of US$1,300/oz, exchange rate of 0.77 US$:CA$; Payable gold % of 99.9%, Offsite refining costs of US$7/oz, mining costs of CA$65.20/t, process costs of CA$62.70/t, G&A (General and Administration) costs of CA$37.00, sustaining capital costs of CA$19.83/t, and a 90.5% process recovery.An Indicated Mineral Resource is that part of the Mineral Resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics are estimated with sufficient confidence to allow the application of Modifying Factors in sufficient detail to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. Geological evidence is derived from adequately detailed and reliable exploration, sampling and testing and is sufficient to assume geological and grade or quality continuity between points of observation.An Inferred Mineral Resource is that part of the Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis of limited geological evidence and sampling. Geological evidence is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality continuity. It is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration.Factors that may affect the estimates include: metal price assumptions, changes in interpretations of mineralization geometry and continuity of mineralization zones, changes to kriging assumptions, metallurgical recovery assumptions, operating cost assumptions, confidence in the modifying factors, including assumptions that surface rights to allow mining infrastructure to be constructed will be forthcoming, delays or other issues in reaching agreements with local or regulatory authorities and stakeholders, and changes in land tenure requirements or in permitting requirement.Project Description:The New Polaris gold mine project is located in north-western British Columbia about 100 kilometers ("km") south of Atlin, BC and 60 km northeast of Juneau, Alaska. There is no road access at present to the property, but year-round access is available via light aircraft from either Juneau or Atlin to a 400 meter airstrip on the property, and summer access is possible via shallow draft barge from Juneau.The property consists of 61 contiguous Crown-granted mineral claims and one modified grid claim covering 2,100 acres. All claims are 100% owned and held b PR-Inside.com: 2019-04-18 01:32:01 Investing in Diplomatic Relations: St Kitts and Nevis Celebrates Diplomatic Week CS Global Partners Thomas Kohn pr@csglobalpartners.com +(44)2073184343 www.csglobalpartners.com Last week, St Kitts and Nevis opened Diplomatic Week 2019 by celebrating the 158 countries and territories with whom it has visa-free or visa-on-arrival agreements. Prime Minister Timothy Harris gave a speech after a service where he met with numerous dignitaries from partner countries, including Austria, Canada, Israel, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. Introduced when PM Harris served the country as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Week seeks to honour St Kitts and Nevis relationships with other nations which, as of 2019, cover over three quarters of the worlds territories. This years theme was Securing a Resilient Future through Strategic Diplomacy and Effective Dialogue. During the opening ceremony on April 9th, the premier noted the importance the Federation has always placed on diplomacy. Thirty-five years ago, as the worlds newest independent sovereign nation and the smallest independent country in the Western Hemisphere, the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis was quickly steeped in strategic diplomacy. The High Commissioner of South Africa to St Kitts and Nevis, Lumka Yengeni, expressed commitment to the countries shared partnership. We hope that the relationship that we are cementing today will go a long way, meaning that the two governments will have to look at the areas of cooperation and see where we can strengthen each other. PM Harris also met with St Kitts and Nevis Honorary Consuls to Belgium and Turkey, Dr Aykut Mehmet Eken and Mrs Fatima Gonul Oray Eken respectively, on Thursday. Ranked 26th worldwide for its passport strength, the small country attracts investors looking to acquire second citizenship for reasons beyond increased mobility. Since 1984, St Kitts and Nevis has successfully run its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme. The worlds longest-serving, it is the only CBI programme known to have reached the industry-level Platinum Standard. Upon passing Programme due diligence, which specialists at the Financial Times PWM magazine awarded full scores in last years CBI Index, citizenship hopefuls contribute to the countrys economy via the Sustainable Growth Fund. The Fund is the newest investment channel under CBI, and is cited as the most straightforward route to St Kitts and Nevis citizenship. CS Global Partners is the international legal advisory mandated by the Government to promote the Citizenship by Investment Programme worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190417005 St Kitts and Nevis marks Diplomatic Week by celebrating the 158 countries and territories with whom it has visa-free or visa-on-arrival agreements. PR-Inside.com: 2019-04-18 14:31:25 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 646 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 INCLINE VILLAGE, NV / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2019 / LithiumOre ( http://lithiumore.net) (the "Company"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oroplata Resources, Inc. (OTCQB: ORRP), a lithium resource exploration and development company, today announced that Chief Executive Officer Doug Cole was recently interviewed by Proactive Investors, a UK-based online investor services company that provides analytics, market reports, and company and industry profiles.Doug Cole tells Proactive Investors that the Nevada-based lithium exploration company has preliminary geophysical survey results that indicate major conductivity from around 1,200 feet down to 3,500 feet. Cole says because of these exciting geophysical results, the mining company will be drilling an extra 1,000 feet to 3,500 feet into its first hole.To see the video interview in its entirety, please visit:Made in America, LithiumOre holds 1,300 lithium mineral claims, totaling 26,000 acres, located in Railroad Valley of Nye County, Nevada. Railroad Valley is approximately 112 miles northeast of Clayton Valley and can be accessed by paved highway directly from U.S. Route 6. Railroad Valley is one of Nevada's largest trapped basins and is noted to hold all the necessary commercial and engineering prerequisites for a massive lithium brine deposit. The Company's claims have been evaluated by experts and the BLM and are in planned on-site exploration.LithiumOre, Corp.LithiumOre ( http://lithiumore.net) , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oroplata Resources, Inc. (OTCQB: ORRP), is a lithium resource exploration and development company, whose primary focus is the establishment of a low cost production base to supply the rapidly growing lithium-ion battery industry for both mobile devises and laptops, as well as the burgeoning EV (electronic vehicle) industry. LithiumOre is focused on becoming a substantial, profitable lithium producer via the timely development of valuable production-grade lithium brine deposits in Nevada.For more information, please visit: http://lithiumore.net Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, including those with respect to the expected project economics for Western Nevada Basin (Railroad Valley), including estimates of life of mine, average production, cash costs, AISC, initial CAPEX, sustaining CAPEX, pre-tax IRR, pre-tax NPV, net cash flows and recovery rates, the impact of self-mining versus contract mining, the timing to obtain necessary permits, the submission of the project for final investment approval and the timing of initial gold production after investment approval and full financing, metallurgy and processing expectations, the mineral resource estimate, expectations regarding the ability to expand the mineral resource through future drilling, ongoing work to be conducted at the Western Nevada Basin (Railroad Valley), and the potential results of such efforts, the potential commissioning of a Pre-Feasibility study and the effects on timing of the project, are 'forward-looking statements.' Although the Company's management believes that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that such expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from those anticipated. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, interpretations or reinterpretations of geologic information, unfavorable exploration results, inability to obtain permits required for future exploration, development or production, general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; fluctuating mineral and commodity prices, final investment approval and the ability to obtain necessary financing on acceptable terms or at all. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2018. The Company assumes no obligation to update any of the information contained or referenced in this press release.Contact Informationp775-434-4744info@ lithiumore.net SOURCE: LithiumOre Fact.MR PR-Inside.com: 2019-04-18 14:28:14 Press Information Fact.MR Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Abhishek Budholiya Marketing Manager +353-1-6111-593 email https://www.factmr.com/ # 652 Words Suite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesMarketing Manager+353-1-6111-593 According to the latest study by Fact.MR , the Hyoscine-N-Butyl Bromide market is expected to bring in more than US$ 50 million in 2019. The study opines that growing prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) will continue to underpin hyoscine-N-butyl bromide sales. Over the past few years, the prevalence of IBS and abdominal pain as the gastrointestinal tract disorder has increased, resulting in the increasing consumption of anti-spasmodic drugs. IBS has emerged as one of the most common causes of abdominal pain in the last few years, according to the International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders, the prevalence of IBS is estimated around 10-15% globally.The study states that the oral consumption of hyoscine-N-butyl bromide has increased with a rise in the instances of abdominal cramps and pain, particularly among the adult population. Additionally, the demand for buscopan a medicine containing hyoscine-N-butyl bromide - as an active ingredient has witnessed an uptick in the treatment of pain and cramps. Buscopan when orally administered, does not cross the blood brain barrier and has minimal systemic absorption, which in turn complements preference for oral consumption of hyoscine-N-butyl bromide.Request For Sample Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=3269 The study opines that growing requirement for on-demand hyoscine-N-butyl bromide for treatment of self-reported functional abdominal pain and cramping has further been driving the demand for oral mode of delivery of hyoscine-N-butyl bromide. On the other hand, in the parasympathetic nervous system, hyoscine N-butyl bromide blocks the transmission of nerve impulses by acetylcholine, which is useful in treatment of spasms in urogenital and gastrointestinal tract. This is driving the sugar-coated tablets consumption that contains 10 mg of the hyoscine N-butyl bromide as an active ingredient.Europe to Remain Most Lucrative for Hyoscine N-Butyl Bromide MarketAccording to the report, Europe is likely to remain the most lucrative region in the hyoscine N-butyl bromide market, owing to the significant growth in the geriatric population in the region that is more prone to abdominal pain and chronic gastrointestinal diseases. In Europe, hyoscine-N-butyl bromide with brand name as buscopan is finding widespread application in the radiology as anti-spasmodic agent. It is also used to freeze the bowel motion as part of MRI and CT studies.Browse Full Report with TOC: https://www.factmr.com/report/3269/hyoscine-n-butyl-bromide-market In the past few years, abdominal pain has gained significance as one of the early signs of meningococcal infection in Europe. This form of infection is becoming increasingly common in Europe, with abdominal pain as one of the key symptoms. According to the latest research study, 10% of patients infected with the meningococcal strain in Europe suffer from stomach pain.Need for More Studies on use of Hyoscine-N-Butyl Bromide to Treat Abdominal Pain in ChildrenIn recent years, acute abdominal pain has been a common complaint among pediatric patients visiting the Emergency Department. Although Hyoscine-N-Butyl Bromide is used widely for abdominal pain in children, no pediatric clinical trial still has explored its efficacy to treat abdominal pain in children in the ED setting.According to some experts, if Hyoscine-N-Butyl Bromide is found to be an effective drug or medication to treat children suffering from acute abdominal pain, it may emerge as a therapeutic option for the painful condition and for acute abdominal pain in children for which there is currently limited options available.The Fact.MR report tracks the Hyoscine-N-Butyl Bromide market for the period 2018-2027. According to the report, the Hyoscine-N-Butyl Bromide market is expected to register 4.6% CAGR between 2018 and 2027.Have Any Query? Ask Our Industry Expert- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=3269 About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports. The federal government says it is restructuring the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) to improve its operating framework and governance structure to enhance its efficiency. The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh, said this on Tuesday at the opening meeting for the recapitalisation of the Bank in Abuja. Mr Okoh said the restructuring became imperative because the bank has performed below expectation since its inception in 1972 due to a myriad of challenges. The process of recapitalisation will lead to the privatisation of the equity of the bank, Mr Okoh said. He said government envisages the total equity shareholding of its agencies in the bank, namely the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (incorporated) will reduce to 40 per cent. After the reduction, he said the bureau will then invite private sector investors to take up 20 per cent of the shares, while the remaining 40 per cent equity will be owned by farmers and their cooperatives. Mr Okoh stated that the new strategy envisages that BoA would be transformed into a true agriculture finance bank modelled after the Agriculture Bank of China and Rabobank of the Netherlands. Upon its establishment in 1972, the bank was to serve as an agricultural and cooperative bank to provide services of a development finance institution. It was vested with the responsibility of providing low-cost credit to smallholder and commercial farmers, he said. However, the DG lamented that the bank was unable to realise its responsibilities due to its current structure. The proposed restructuring and recapitalisation of the bank, he said, are to transform it strictly into an agricultural finance bank with branches in all the local government areas and major towns in Nigeria. The director-general said the model will encourage farmers to form clusters of cooperative and thrift societies throughout the countrys six geopolitical zones so that they can participate in the ownership of the bank. Mr Okoh said the model would fundamentally ensure the BOA becomes a farmers bank owned by farmers. On the sustainability of the strategy and the capacity to attract investment, the BPE DG said measures would be put in place to take non-performing credit facilities off the balance sheet and books of the bank and possibly sell off to a factor agent. He said the measure is to make the bank attractive to investors and also attract cheap funding from multilateral development institutions and other institutional investors with a focus on agricultural financing. Mr Okoh commended the Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, who doubles as the Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Project, for his passion and commitment to the development of agriculture in Nigeria. He congratulated Lead Consortium the adviser for the transaction, and said upon conclusion, BoA would be placed on a platform to optimise its potential to impact the nations natural endowments for arable farming. Last December, the Supervising Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that about N10 billion was set aside by the government to recapitalise the bank and make loans available to farmers at single digits. The minister said this was part of governments strategy to make funding available to support farmers in the country. The trial of the retired Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen at the Code of Conduct Tribunal is expected to end in a few hours. Mr Onnoghen, who became Nigerias 17th Chief Justice in March 2017, was brought before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on January 14. He was arraigned by the Code of Conduct Bureau, following a petition brought against him by a group, the Anti-Corruption and Research Based Data Initiative, headed by a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Enugu State, Denis Aghanya. Mr Onnoghen was charged on six counts, for allegedly failing to declare some of his accounts in the asset declaration form submitted to the CCB in December, 2016. According to the charge, Mr Onnoghen also failed to declare his assets after the expiration of his declaration form filled in 2005. But, Mr Onnoghen, who had noted that he forgot to update the form, told the tribunal that he was not guilty of the charges brought against him. Legal Tussle Mr Onnoghens lawyers told the tribunal the statement made by Mr Onnoghen was not a confessional statement. They based their submissions on the second paragraph of section 3 (d) of the CCB act. According to the two paragraphs in that section, the CCB was empowered to receive complaints about non-compliance with or breach of this Act and where the Bureau considers it necessary to do so, refer such complaints to the Code of Conduct Tribunal established by section 20 of this Act in accordance with the provisions of sections 20 to 25 of this Act: Provided that where the person concerned makes a written admission of such breach or non-compliance, no reference to the Tribunal shall be necessary. Mr Onnoghens lawyers also argued that the CCB act which formed the basis for Mr Onnoghens trial was significantly in conflict with the Nigerian Constitution. Their cited section 153 and 158 (1) of the Constitution, which empowers the National Judicial Council (NJC) to be solely responsible for the affairs of its judicial officers, including their discipline. Mr Onnoghens lawyers also argued that the removal of the CJN , which appeared to be a major request from the prosecution at the tribunal, is only permitted through a decision of the NJC, or by a consensus of two-third majority members of the National Assembly. According to section 292 (1) of the Constitution: The CJN can only be removed from office by the President acting on an address supported by two thirds majority of the Senate for his inability to discharge the functions of his office or appointment (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body) or for misconduct or contravention of the Code of Conduct. Mr Onnoghens lawyers had also questioned the jurisdiction of the CCT to proceed with the matter, since the tribunal itself had suspended a similar matter following the decision of a Court of Appeal. The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal had decided during the trial of another judge, Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, that the only body responsible for the indictment of a serving judicial officer was the NJC. That decision had forced the suspension of the trial of another Supreme Court Justice, Sylvester Ngwuta at the tribunal. Mr Ngwuta was one of seven judges whose houses had been raided by the State Security Service in October 2016, after President Muhammadu Buharis government accused them of fraud. But, the CCT, chaired by Danladi Umar, refused to give a pronouncement on Mr Onnoghens submission that the tribunal was incompetent to proceed with the trial. Mr Umar ruled that the tribunal would decide on the matter, while delivering its verdict on the actual application. Curious Silence Also the Court of Appeal where Mr Onnoghen had gone with a number of applications regarding his trial had suspended the matter after an initial pronouncement in February that it was reserving the ruling for a later date. Advertisements Mr Onnoghen had approached the appellate court to challenge his ongoing trial at the CCT. The retired CJN had also asked the court to nullify the arrest warrant earlier issued against him by the tribunal after questioning the powers of the tribunal. Mr Onnoghen also asked the appellate court to decide whether the refusal of the tribunal to be bound by its previous decision was legal. The Court of Appeal, which had dealt with a number of cases within the period, is yet to announce a date almost two months after it suspended the matter on February, 27. The Court of Appeal is not alone in its decision to maintain a curious silence in Mr Onnoghens matter. The NJC, which had taken a decision on Mr Onnoghens case, had also avoided its usual practice of informing Nigerians about the verdict by stating that it would first communicate same to Mr Buhari. Although the council and the presidency avoided informing the Nigerian people about the decision, Mr Onnoghen decided to retire on April 5, following an apparent request by the NJC. Mr Onnoghens lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo, confirmed the information in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES when he explained the reasons for Mr Onnoghens retirement. His position from day one has been that it is only the NJC that can discipline him. Now that the NJC has spoken, out of respect for the NJC and the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Nigerian Judiciary, he sent his letter of retirement, Mr Awomolo said while explaining the reason for Mr Onnoghens retirement. With the current development, the CCT may not be constitutionally empowered to take any further action on Mr Onnoghen, in the light of the allegations brought before the tribunal, if it finds him guilty. Since the allegations centered mostly on failure to declare his assets, the penalty according to Section 23 of the act was for the tribunal to recommend Mr Onnoghens removal from office, assuming he had not retired. The section states that: the punishment which the Tribunal may impose shall include any of the following- (a) vacation of office or any elective or nominated office, as the case may be; (b) Disqualification from holding any public office (whether elective or not) for a period not exceeding ten years; and (c) Seizure and forfeiture to the State of any property acquired in abuse or corruption of office. However, if the previous decision of the tribunal dictates its expected decision, the CCT will be expected to suspend Mr Onnoghens trial as it had done in previous circumstances. Suspected gunmen on Wednesday attacked Gidan Maidawa community in Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa State. A local government official, Muhammad Abdullahi, who spoke on behalf of the Dutse Local Chairman, Bala Yar-Gaba, said one person was killed and ten others were injured during the attacked. He said the gunmen came around 2:30 a.m. with weapons, shooting sporadically. He said the victims were taken to a hospital in the state while those with severe injuries were referred to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in neighbouring Kano State. The police commissioner in Jigawa, Bala Senchi, also confirmed that one person was killed. He, however, said only five people were injured. The police identified the deceased as 50-year-old Abdulkadir Sale. He said he attempted to rescue a victim and was shot dead in the process. The police commissioner said the gunmen reportedly gathered intelligence about the poor state of roads in the community which made it difficult for the police to respond on time. He said the gunmen specifically targeted a businessman with the intention to rob him. In the process, many people were injured in the attack. He said no arrest has been made. He, however, said more police officers have been deployed to the area to arrest the fleeing armed robbers. A PREMIUM TIMES correspondent visited Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital where some of the victims are receiving treatment, The victims at the hospital included at least two children who sustained gunshot wounds. A victim, Shamsu Husseini, told journalists that the gunmen shot people at sight including women and children. He said the attackers operated for over 40 minutes before they left the community. The inauguration of the board of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has been postponed indefinitely. The inauguration was scheduled to hold by 10:30 a.m. on Thursday at the ministers conference room at the Ministry of Labour. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported the controversy surrounding the inauguration. Although Frank Kokori was named as the chairman-designate by the presidency, the labour minister omitted his name when listing those to be inaugurated. The board membership was constituted by Yemi Osinbajo in October 2017 in his capacity as acting president. Ministers are empowered to inaugurate boards of agencies in their ministries. Mr Kokori, a former labour leader during the Sani Abacha military dictatorship, told PREMIUM TIMES he would, however, attend the inauguration. At about 11:40 a.m, when guests were seated, the Director of Human Resources in the ministry, Ajibola Ibrahim, came in to announce that the inauguration has been postponed indefinitely. The minister has sent me to inform you that the inauguration has been postponed indefinitely. He asked me to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. He said I should tell you that a new date will be announced later, he said. Mr Ibrahim also said many of the members were not present, hence the postponement. A few seconds of chaos followed as members of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and other workers present protested the announcement. They said the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, was planning a secret inauguration. Who are those members that could not make it? Because we are aware that all our members are already seated. Every member is here. People travelled from far and near and we thought that if he is around, he should come and address us. That is what he should do. This board has not been inaugurated for three years, the NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, said. Mr Ibrahim could not respond to this question. He only said the minister is having an official engagement at the villa. Addressing workers and journalists, Mr Wabba said the union will be on standby and if the venue is changed, they will also be there. We learnt that they wanted to change the venue but we will be there. It is our money. It is (the) workers money. Its not the governments money. So, we have a right to demand accountability, to demand transparency and demand that the right thing be done. The law says even in some lesser appointments, NLC shall be consulted. We have waited patiently for three and a half years, he has been the sole administrator. We cant have a situation where people continue to feast on our money and they claim they are fighting corruption. That is not true. Corruption means that we should also interrogate the past one year. Kokori cannot be taken for granted. He is the champion of democracy. His union is very strategic in the economy of Nigeria, the NLC president said. Mr Wabba also said the union will call for an audit for the period that the minister has been there as the sole administrator of the NSITF board. He said the workers are not aware of a new chairman being appointed. For close to three years, they refused to inaugurate the board for one reason or the other. Now, we can see that one of those reasons is because they dont want somebody transparent to manage workers money. If there is nothing to hide, it should be done in the open. First, they said the approval was made by the then acting president, they needed to revalidate from the president, which he did. Second, they said there has been corruption in the place and he needed to clean it up. We said no problem. He later said he wanted to implement the report. After that, he said two weeks and so on Advertisements The NUPENG president, Williams Akporeha, said the group will resist any effort by the minister to secretly inaugurate the board. We will also mobilise Nigerian workers to resist it. If he doesnt come openly to come and inaugurate this board as appointed by the president, Nigerian workers shall rise and we shall resist it. Mr Kokori, who broke down in tears during his remark, accused Mr Ngige of oppressing him because he (Mr Kokori) is regarded as a man of integrity and transparency. My workers, I am proud of you. Ive done my best for my country when nobody raised their voice against the military, I came out with the unions to fight for freedom and democracy of my country. I spent four years in one of the worst prisons in the world, in Bama Prisons, in solitary confinement. In 1997, I was declared a prisoner of war by Saint Pope John Paul. The same year, Nelson Mandela declared me a notable world prisoner of conscience. I stood for this country and I fought for democracy and all my years in this country, there were temptations to take the biggest bribes. I stood my ground for democracy. Twenty years after democracy, Frank Kokori, is being oppressed by somebody like Nigige. The reason is because Frank Kokori is regarded as a man of integrity, a man of honour and a transparent man. And this is a government which talks of integrity and you allow a man like Ngige to humiliate me for two years after the appointment, he said. He further said he has subjected himself to trauma for over two years after being congratulated several times by the minister and assured of inauguration by the president. I feel Ngige is on his own. He is dragging the name of the president. Not the president I know, he added. As at the time of this report, some members of the labour union were at the ministry while others were at Frazier Suites where the workers alleged that Mr Ngige was planning to hold the secret inauguration. They vowed to be on standby until the minister shows up or announces a new date for the inauguration. They also said any inauguration without the presence of Mr Kokori as the chairman, will be null and void and will also lead to mass protest. The Code of Conduct Tribunal has ruled that it has the jurisdiction to allow the trial of a sitting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). The tribunal (CCT) chairman, Umar Danladi, announced the ruling on Thursday afternoon. The ruling was given as part of the trial of the embattled CJN, Walter Onnoghen. Mr Onnoghen is being tried by the federal government for alleged false declaration of assets. The chief justice had argued that he could not be tried at the CCT without a review by the National Judicial Council (NJC). The CCT, however, said it has the power to proceed with the trial without the interference of the NJC. The tribunal also overruled itself in a previous decision where it suspended the trial of another Supreme Court justice, Sylvester Ngwuta. According to the CCT, it has the powers to overrule itself if it finds out that its decision was wrongly reached. In the case of Mr Ngwuta, the tribunal had ruled that it could not proceed with the trial until the NJC reviews the matter. The main ruling on whether or not Mr Onnoghen acted illegally in his assets declaration was yet to be given as at the time of this report. Mr Onnoghen has since submitted a retirement letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on the recommendation of the NJC. Details later The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has convicted the embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, after finding him guilty of false assets declaration. The tribunal headed by Danladi Umar ruled that Mr Onnoghen should forfeit the funds in the five accounts which he was accused of not disclosing. The tribunal said Mr Onnoghen evidently acquired the funds fraudulently since he failed to show how the huge amount was acquired. The tribunal invoked the full provision of Section 23 of the code of conduct law which allows it to remove Mr Onnoghen from office. It ordered that Mr Onnoghen should not return to the office in the next ten years. Mr Onnoghen had weeks earlier sent a notice of retirement to President Muhammadu Buhari in line with the recommendation of the National Judicial Council. The presidency is, however, yet to clarify Mr Onnoghens retirement. Earlier, PREMIUM TIMES reported how the CCT ruled it had jurisdiction to try Mr Onnoghen without clearance of the National Judicial Council. Details later.. President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the new minimum wage bill. The bill, which has now become a law, will usher in a new pay structure for Nigerian workers. The National Assembly had passed the bill approving N30,000 as the minimum wage for workers. State governors had opposed the N30,000 minimum wage with many of them saying they will be unable to pay their workers N30,000 minimum wage. Mr Buharis aide on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, told journalists that the president has signed the minimum wage bill into law. Mr Enang, who briefed State House correspondents after meeting Mr Buhari , said the new law has N30,000 as minimum wage for Nigerian workers. He also said implementation of the new law starts immediately. Mr Enang said the signing of the bill into law now makes it compulsory for all employers of labour in Nigeria to pay their workers the sum of N30,000. The presidential aide, however, said employers with less than 25 workers are excluded from paying the new wage. He said workers of a ship which sails out of the country and other persons who are in other kinds of regulated employment which are accepted by the act are also excluded from the new wage. Mr Enang said with the new law, workers now have the right to sue their employers who fail to pay them the new minimum wage. He said the act empowers the Minister for Labour or his representative to act in the case of such denial of the new wage. The National Assembly passed the minimum wage bill on March 19 and it was transmitted to Mr Buhari on April 2. The Code of Conduct Tribunal on Thursday ordered the forfeiture of five bank accounts belonging to the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, after finding him guilty of false asset declaration. The tribunal announced the forfeiture as part of other punishments it imposed on Mr Onnoghen. In a ruling delivered by the tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, the CCT said the submissions of Mr Onnoghen that he forgot to include some details of his asset in his form was enough evidence to convict him of the charge against him. According to Mr Umar, the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Onnoghen refused to disclose his accounts in the asset declaration form, despite having the five accounts since 2009. It is crystal clear that the defendant was in clear breach of the CCB Act, he said. The tribunal has come to the conclusion that the defendant is in clear breach of the code of conduct for public officers. Mr Umar then asked Mr Onnoghen if he had something to say and the former CJN responded in the negative. Invoking the provisions of section 23 of the Tribunal Act, Mr Umar ordered that Mr Onnoghen be removed from office. He also ruled that Mr Onnoghen must not hold public office for 10 years. The other two members of the CCT panel, William Atedze and Jilie Amabor, did not comment to indicate whether they agreed with the ruling. Earlier Mr Umar had ruled on a number of interim applications regarding the matter. On the application challenging CCTs jurisdiction, Mr Umar said the provisions of the constitution empowered the tribunal to adjudicate on matters relating to allegations of false asset charge without the interference of any external body including the National Judicial Council. The tribunal also ruled that its previous decision in a case of alleged false asset charge brought against another Supreme Court Justice, Sylvester Ngwuta, was wrong. Accordingly, Mr Umar announced that the tribunal was overruling itself in that decision. Mr Umar also submitted that the argument by the defence, suggesting that he was acting on the whims of President Muhammadu Buhari, lacked merit. All judges of superior courts are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the NJC. That does not imply that they are controlled by the president, he said. Mr Onnoghens lawyer, Okon Efut, who addressed journalists after the ruling, said the former CJN would appeal the ruling. We will challenge this to the highest points. And if we dont get judgment on earth we will get in heaven, an angry Mr Efut said. Mr Onnoghen was arraigned at the tribunal in January, following allegations he violated the CCB Act. Read our earlier report today on the ruling: The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has convicted the embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, after finding him guilty of false assets declaration. The tribunal headed by Danladi Umar ruled that Mr Onnoghen should forfeit the funds in the five accounts which he was accused of not disclosing. The tribunal said Mr Onnoghen evidently acquired the funds fraudulently since he failed to show how the huge amount was acquired. The tribunal invoked the full provision of Section 23 of the code of conduct law which allows it to remove Mr Onnoghen from office. It ordered that Mr Onnoghen should not return to the office in the next ten years. Advertisements Mr Onnoghen had weeks earlier sent a notice of retirement to President Muhammadu Buhari in line with the recommendation of the National Judicial Council. The presidency is, however, yet to clarify Mr Onnoghens retirement. Earlier, PREMIUM TIMES reported how the CCT ruled it had jurisdiction to try Mr Onnoghen without clearance of the National Judicial Council. The embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, has appealed the judgement delivered by the Code of Conduct Tribunal in his case of alleged false asset declaration. Mr Onnoghen was convicted by the CCT, led by Danladi Umar on Thursday. The tribunal which ruled that it had jurisdiction in the matter, also dismissed another application by the defence which suggested that Mr Umar should remove himself for alleged bias. According to Mr Umar, the tribunal is a body empowered by section 158 (1) of the constitution to perform its duty without external interference of bodies like the NJC. The section it relied on provides for the independence of the CCT and states that it shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other authority or person. Mr Umar ruled that the relationship between the tribunal and the presidency was purely administrative in nature and insufficient for the defence to accuse him of bias. According to the CCT chairman, all judges of superior courts are appointed by the president, Muhammadu Buhari, on the recommendation of the NJC. The CCT chairman added that the appointment of the said judges is not be regarded as a reason for them to act according to the whims of the president. It is to be noted that without the chairman, there is no CCT, Mr Umar added The tribunal had also dismissed the request against its jurisdiction after submitting that Mr Onnoghen was being tried as a public officer and not as a judicial officer. Mr Umar also said that the CCT had powers to overrule him where it finds that it has taken a decision that was wrongly reached. Subsequently the tribunal overruled its earlier decision which freed another Supreme Court Justice, Sylvester Ngwuta, of a similar allegation. Precedent Mr Ngwuta was one of seven judges whose houses had been raided by the State Security Service in October 2016, after President Muhammadu Buharis government accused them of fraud. He was arraigned on false asset charges at the tribunal by the CCT. But the tribunal, also chaired by Mr Umar suspended the case following a decision of a Court of Appeal in a related matter. The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal had decided during the trial of another judge, Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, that the only body responsible for the indictment of a serving judicial officer was the NJC. That decision had forced the suspension of the trial of Mr Ngwuta at the tribunal. However, on Thursday, Mr Umar regarded the decision on Mr Ngwuta as a wrong judgement and overruled himself. After dismissing the various applications, Mr Umar ruled in his judgement that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Onnoghen was involved in the alleged breach of the CCT act and found him guilty of same. Three major punishments Mr Umar invoked section 23 of the act which allowed the tribunal to issue three major punishments to persons found guilty of such allegations. The provision demands that a convicted person shall be made to vacate his office for a period, not exceeding 10 years. It also allows the tribunal to order that the convict shall forfeit assets found to have been acquired fraudulently. Not satisfied Advertisements But in an appeal to the appellate court, Mr Onnoghen has insisted that the tribunal erred in law when it ruled that it had jurisdiction in the matter. According to Mr Onnoghen, he was arraigned at the time when he was still a serving judicial officer, therefore the tribunal lacked powers to entertain the allegations against him. Although Mr Umar overruled the judgement in Mr Ngwutas case, Mr Onnoghen cited the January 2018 decision of the CCT which freed Mr Ngwuta as reason for the tribunal to have ruled against its jurisdiction. Mr Onnoghen also submitted in his request that the tribunal erred in law when it dismissed the application challenging its jurisdiction. Once an allegation of real likelihood of the bias is raised, the Court or tribunal will have nothing more to say except to wash its hands from further proceedings in the matter, Mr Onnoghen said in his appeal. The embattled CJN also argued that the failure of Mr Umar to recuse himself vindicated the defence in their submission that Mr Umar was a person of interest. Mr Onnoghen said it was against the principle of natural justice for Mr Umar to sit in judgement of his own case. He also argued that there was no way the tribunal could have been fair, since the prosecution and the tribunal are both bodies working under the instructions of the executive arm of government. Mr Onnoghen also submitted that the tribunal erred in law when it ruled that he confessed to have committed the allegations against him. According to Mr Onnoghen, his statement was only meant to clarify the issues raised in the allegations. Mr Onnoghen said he never admitted to not declaring his assets in 2005, as suggested by the charge. The Appellant did not admit the fact of non-declaration of Assets from year 2005 as the Justice of the Supreme Court. The Appellant only stated that he did not declare in 2009 as required because he forgot and did the declaration immediately it realised same. By the evidence of DWI (Defence Witness:1) and exhibit DW2 tendered, it has affirmed the statement of the appellant that he forgot to make a declaration in 2009 but did in 2010 when he remembered showing there was a declaration after all contrary to count one of the charge, Mr Onnoghen said. Mr Onnoghen also argued that the tribunal erred in law when it ruled that the evidence of the first defendants witness did not cast doubts on the submissions of the prosecution in the first count. According to Mr Onnoghen in his appeal, the first defendants witness was able to refute the claims of non-declaration of asset from 2005. The doubt created by DWIs evidence no matter how minute ought to be resolved in favour of the Appellant. Mr Onnoghen also submitted that his statement suggesting that he failed to include the five accounts in the declaration forms for 2014 because he believed they were not functioning, does not amount to an admission of guilt. Mr Onnoghen explained that the forms for 2014 and that of 2016 were both filed the same day. He added that the declaration form for 2016 had all the accounts in it. According to him, the prosecution should not have accused him of false declaration since both forms were filed by him. Mr Onnoghen said the submissions by the prosecution that he made a false declaration, based on the omission of certain details is not backed by the CCT Act. He also argued that the standard procedure for the verification of his forms were not complied with by the prosecution. Confiscation of assets illegal Mr Onnoghen also challenged the order for the confiscation of his assets on the grounds that the assets were legitimately acquired, as against the provisions of paragraph three of the section 23 of the CCB act which only permits the seizure of such assets if they were acquired by fraud. Mr Onnoghen questioned the failure of the prosecution to present the petitioner, Denis Aghanya, before the tribunal. Mr Aghanyas petition had birthed the charges against Mr Onnoghen. According to Mr Onnoghen, all the allegations brought against him constitute no offence and should therefore not have formed the basis for his conviction. Section 36 (12) of the 1999 Constitution Provides: Subject as otherwise provided by this Constitution, a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty therefor is prescribed in a written law. The allegations contained in all the six counts of the charge constitute no offence known to law, as the offence as charged is neither defined in any law nor is any punishment prescribed therefor. Mr Onnoghen made seven requests before the tribunal. They include: An order that the lower tribunal lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the case. An order that the lower tribunal ought to have recuse itself from the proceedings before it. An order that the charge has become academic. An order setting aside the conviction of the Appellant. An order setting aside the order for forfeiture of assets made by the Honourable Tribunal. An order discharging and acquitting the Appellant. The Nasarawa State House of Assembly on Thursday condemned the Sunday night shootings that claimed 17 lives in Numa, a rural community in Akwanga Local Government, and urged security agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice. The House, through its Speaker, Ibrahim Balarabe-Abdullahi, also called for peaceful coexistence among the people, urging them to crave and promote mutual love and tolerance. The lawmakers condoled with the Mada people and the entire people of Akwanga Local Government over the incident, and called on the affected community to leave vengeance to God and allow the law to take its course. Noting that no society could achieve meaningful progress without peace, the lawmakers described the incident as unfortunate and prayed against a recurrence. They prayed to God to expose the killers and comfort relations of the victims. They also called on the people to remain law-abiding, respect constituted authority and embrace peace irrespective of ethnic, political and religious affiliations. Mohammed Akira, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who had confirmed the incident to NAN, said the command had mobilised its men to the area to forestall further breakdown of law and order. (NAN) The Ministry of Labour and Employment has accused the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) of disrupting the inauguration of the new board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF). Rhoda Iliya, Assistant Director, Press in the Ministry said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja. The inauguration of the new NSITF board was scheduled for Thursday but the event failed to take place because the leadership of the organised labour was opposed to the appointment of Austin Enajemo-Isire as NSITF chairman. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported the controversy surrounding the inauguration. Although Frank Kokori was named as the chairman-designate by the Presidency, the labour minister omitted his name when listing those to be inaugurated. Mr Kokori, a former labour leader during the Sani Abacha military dictatorship, told PREMIUM TIMES he would, however, attend the inauguration. At about 11:40 a.m, when guests were seated, the Director of Human Resources in the ministry, Ajibola Ibrahim, announced that the inauguration had been postponed indefinitely. A few seconds of chaos followed as members of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and other workers present protested the announcement. They said the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, was planning a secret inauguration. Addressing workers and journalists, NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, said the union will be on standby and if the venue is changed, they will also be there. We learnt that they wanted to change the venue but we will be there. It is our money. It is (the) workers money. Its not the governments money. So, we have a right to demand accountability, to demand transparency and demand that the right thing be done. The law says even in some lesser appointments, NLC shall be consulted. We have waited patiently for three and a half years, he has been the sole administrator. We cant have a situation where people continue to feast on our money and they claim they are fighting corruption. That is not true. Corruption means that we should also interrogate the past one year. Kokori cannot be taken for granted. He is the champion of democracy. His union is very strategic in the economy of Nigeria, the NLC president said. Mr Wabba also said the union will call for an audit for the period that the minister has been there as the sole administrator of the NSITF board. He said the workers are not aware of a new chairman being appointed. For close to three years, they refused to inaugurate the board for one reason or the other. Now, we can see that one of those reasons is because they dont want somebody transparent to manage workers money. If there is nothing to hide, it should be done in the open. First, they said the approval was made by the then acting president, they needed to revalidate from the president, which he did. Second, they said there has been corruption in the place and he needed to clean it up. We said no problem. He later said he wanted to implement the report. After that, he said two weeks and so on Mr Kokori, who broke down in tears during his remark, accused Mr Ngige of oppressing him because he (Mr Kokori) is regarded as a man of integrity and transparency. Ive done my best for my country when nobody raised their voice against the military; I came out with the unions to fight for freedom and democracy of my country. I spent four years in one of the worst prisons in the world, in Bama Prisons, in solitary confinement. In 1997, I was declared a prisoner of war by Saint Pope John Paul. The same year, Nelson Mandela declared me a notable world prisoner of conscience. I stood for this country and I fought for democracy and all my years in this country, there were temptations to take the biggest bribes. I stood my ground for democracy. Twenty years after democracy, Frank Kokori is being oppressed by somebody like Nigige. The reason is because Frank Kokori is regarded as a man of integrity, a man of honour and a transparent man. And this is a government which talks of integrity and you allow a man like Ngige to humiliate me for two years after the appointment, he said. He further said he has subjected himself to trauma for over two years after being congratulated several times by the minister and assured of inauguration by the president. Advertisements I feel Ngige is on his own. He is dragging the name of the president. Not the president I know, he added. Ministry speaks The ministry in a statement late Thursday said the inauguration was postponed because of security breach occasioned by the siege at the venue of the inauguration by suspected thugs. The postponement was to avoid the degeneration of the situation, where thugs were already manhandling some officers of the ministry and policemen attached to the office of the ministry, she said. She added that the replacement of Mr Kokori and his transfer to the Board of Micheal Imodu National Institute of Labour Studies (MINLS) Ilorin, a diploma awarding institution in Labour Relations as Chairman, followed due process and has the presidents approval. Ms Iliya said the president gave approval for the exercise which was duly communicated to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, saying this is also in line with the Act establishing the NSITF. The violent gatecrashing and the illegal forceful seizure of the conference room of the Minister this morning by thugs was therefore uncalled for. Government, therefore, takes serious exception to the dishonourable actions of the NLC leadership and Mr Frank Kokori as well as his cohorts. The Ministry will not tolerate a repeat of hooliganism clearly unknown to ethos of civilised unionism, she added. She said that Mr Kokori was expected to report at his posting at the MINILS where his experience is more relevant. She also said that President Buhari had also appointed Mr Enejamo-Isere as the chairman of the NSITF to bring his wealth of experience as a senior member of Chartered Institute of Insurance as well as Chartered Institute of Taxation to bear on his new position. Government will not tolerate a situation where labour leaders challenge or vitiate the constitutional powers of the President over appointments, she said. (NAN) A truck stocked with 800 bags of smuggled rice has been intercepted by the Nigerian Customs Service. The truck is believed to belong to one of Nigerias biggest conglomerates, Dangote Plc. The Custom Unit Controller, Aliyu Mohammed, on Wednesday, while addressing journalists announced the seizure. The truck is also seized because it is a means of conveyance of the contraband goods. The truck has become the federal governments property and will be auctioned when necessary, Mr Mohammed said. He said the customs also seized a truckload of codeine syrup worth about N240 million along the Mile 2-Oshodi expressway in Lagos. PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported how Mr Mohammed said between February and March this year, the unit seized 1,000 sachets of Tramadol worth N250,000 around the Sagamu axis of Ogun State; 13,810 of 50-kilogramme bags of rice worth N190,961,320; chest and lung tablet worth N105,600,000, among others. Not aware When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Anthony Chiejina, the spokesperson for Dangote Plc, he said he was also not aware of the development. He promised to contact Customs to verify the information. I would contact the customs unit and get back to you, he said. He was yet to do as at the time of filing this report. Dangote has repeatedly urged members of the public to report any of its truck seeing conveying goods not associated with the firm. Dangote does not produce or import rice. The police in Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria, have arrested a man and his wife for allegedly killing their son. The victim was accused of witchcraft by the parents before he was killed, the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom, Zaki Ahmed, told reporters Wednesday in Uyo. The police said the suspects, Okon Essien, and his wife, Peace Okon, were arrested on March 25 in Oron Local Government Area of the state. The victims name is Joseph David. The police did not mention the age of the suspects and the victim. The police commissioner, Mr Ahmed, painted a bizarre picture of how the victim was killed. Okon David Essien and Peace Peter Okon lured their son, now deceased, into an engine boat with the pretense of going to cut bamboo sticks in a swamp to be used for construction of kitchen. While at the swamp, the suspects removed concoction, prepared with poisonous seed called asene and water, used enema and pumped the concoction into the deceaseds stomach leading to his instant death. The suspects secretly dug a shallow grave in the swamp and buried the deceased, Mr Ahmed said. Mr Ahmed also told reporters that police operatives on April 15 arrested a man, Joseph Michael of Obio Etoi village, Uyo Local Government Area, who pretended to be taking his nine-month-old child to the hospital for treatment but handed the boy over to an agent for sale. The police named one Peter Sunday as the agent who assisted him to sell the child for N200,000. The police also said a commercial motorcyclist, Ubong Uduak, has been arrested for allegedly raping his female passenger. The suspect was said to have diverted the ride from where his passenger was heading to and took her to a village where he raped her and also disposed her of her money, mobile phone, and necklace. The suspect has been charged to court, the police said. An Ikeja High Court on Thursday rendered a copy of the State Security Service (SSS, also called DSS) report to the Nigerian Senate on Ibrahim Magu, the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), inadmissible. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Doris Okuwobi in a ruling during the ongoing N5 billion libel suit filed by Mr Magu against the publishers of The Sun Newspapers held that the report was inadmissible due to the fact that it was not a Certified True Copy. I hereby accept the submission of the claimants (Magu) counsel to the effect that it is only a certified true copy of a public document properly issued by a public officer that is admissible under Section 104(1) of the Evidence Act. There is no provision in the Act making ordinary photocopies of public documents without certification as admissible. I find the document not admissible as it is not in admissible form. The document is hereby rejected and marked as exhibit rejected number one, Justice Okuwobi said. NAN reports that during proceedings on February 28, Charles Ewelunta, the defence counsel for the publishers of the Sun Newspapers while cross-examining Usman Zakari, an EFCC investigator, had sought to tender the DSS report on Magu. However, Mr Magus counsel, Wahab Shittu , objected to the tendering of the report on the grounds that it was not a Certified True Copy (CTC). Following the ruling, Mr Ewelunta continued the cross-examination of Mr Zakari who is the Head of Intelligence and Special Operations Unit of the EFCC. Mr Zakari said he worked closely with the anti-graft boss and that he started to view Mr Magu from a different perspective after reading the allegedly damaging publication. I work with him closely, I know him very well. The claimant is an asset to the EFCC, he is a man of honour and integrity. Due to this publication, I dont hold him in as high regard as before. Im not aware that the claimant associates with certified corrupt Nigerians, it is correct that the DSS investigated the claimant but Im unaware of all the investigations the DSS conducted against the claimant. I read the story which is the subject of this suit online that is why we are here, he said. Mr Zakari under cross-examination denied allegations that Mr Magu had property beyond the shores of Nigeria. The claimant does not have any property out of the country. He has a house in Kano, a townhouse in Karshi area of Abuja and a family house in Maiduguri. I have visited those three properties and he does not have any property outside Nigeria, that publication falsely mentioned he owned two properties in the high brow area of Maitama, Abuja. It is not correct that the claimant is not worthy to be entrusted with responsibilities and it is also not correct that the claimant is lacking in integrity. We are in court because we want the ownership of those Maitama houses be proved and if proved otherwise, the court should grant our prayers, Mr Zakari said. Following the EFCC investigators evidence, Mr Shittu told the court that there were two more subpoenaed witnesses who are to testifiy before the claimant closes his case against The Sun Newspapers. Justice Okuwobi adjourned the case until June 6, for further hearing. NAN reports that the acting EFCC Chairman is suing the publishers of the Sun Newspaper, claiming N5 billion in damages over a publication that alleged that the DSS had uncovered two houses in Maitama, Abuja, which were traced to his wife. The EFCC boss is also demanding that the Sun Newspapers publish an apology and retract the allegedly libellous publication. Mr Magu while giving evidence during proceedings on December 17, 2018, denied owning two houses in Maitama, Abuja. He had said: The publication is totally false. Even if I have the money, I wouldnt buy houses in Maitama. Advertisements They said the houses are located in the Darrubbe and Missouri, Maitama and that they belong to my wife. My wife Fatima Yakaka Magu is a civil servant and cannot afford to buy houses in Maitama. I am an international man and the publication has damaged my reputation. The name Magu does not only end with me, the publication caused a whole lot of trauma for my lineage. (NAN) Justice Abiola Soladoye of an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has denied bail to a student of Babcock University, James Aguedo, accused of involvement in gang-rape of a student of the University of Lagos (Unilag). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Soladoye in a ruling on Thursday said Mr Aguedo, 20, did not provide compelling circumstances as to why the court should grant him bail. The essence of bail is to ensure the defendants attendance at trial. In deciding an application for bail, certain factors must be taken into consideration such as the nature of the charge and the evidence adduced. Grant of bail of a defendant in a criminal offence is not automatic, it is at the discretion of the court. I am, therefore, of the view that the application before the court has not shown any compelling or exceptional circumstances to warrant the court exercising its discretion in favour of the applicant. The application for bail is hereby refused, and the court shall give this case accelerated trial; I so hold, the judge said. NAN reports that Mr Aguedos counsel, Lawal Pedro, had on March 25 prayed the court to grant him bail to enable him to write an examination at the Babcock University in April. He also submitted that the undergraduate suffered from ill-health and needed constant medical attention. He has a recurring back ailment. We brought not just a medical report but the history because he has been attending an orthopaedic hospital. The prison facility is not conducive for him, the SAN said. Mr Pedro had attached Mr Aguedos school identity card and admission letter to the bail application dated March 13. Also attached were a National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Yaba, Lagos, appointment card, history of medical examination and a St Dominics Catholic Churchs letter of recommendation. NAN reports that the student is standing trial alongside Moboluwaji Omowole, 19, Chuka Chukwu, 19, Peace Nwankama, 19 and Osemeka Josephine, 20. The defendants were charged with serial gang-rape of a Unilag student (name withheld). According to prosecution counsel, Fehinti Ogbemudia, the defendants committed the gang rape sometime in 2017 within the premises of Unilag. The alleged victim had on February 26 testified that she was lured by Nwankama who was her roommate to High Rise, a staff quarters hostel, in Unilag. She said she was gang-raped at High Rise by eight students, and that the sexual assault was video-taped. According to the alleged victim, she was also blackmailed with the video and further gang-raped on other occasions by the defendants and their accomplices who are now at large. The five defendants have been remanded in the Kirikiri Prisons since February 26, when they were arraigned. The case has been adjourned until May 2 for continuation of trial. (NAN) Nigerians online have reacted to the judgement of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) which convicted former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, after finding him guilty of false assets declaration. The tribunal led by Danladi Umar ruled that Mr Onnoghen should forfeit the funds in the five bank accounts which he was accused of not disclosing. The tribunal said he acquired the funds fraudulently since he could not provide evidence on how he acquired them. Relying on the provision of Section 23 of the code of conduct law, the tribunal ordered that Mr Onnoghen should not be allowed to occupy public office for the next 10 years. Before now, the embattled justice had sent a notice of retirement to President Muhammadu Buhari in line with the recommendation of the National Judicial Council. While some Nigerians charged the Federal government to probe other corrupt officials in the country, others mocked the ruling. See tweets below: @otolsang said: Waiting for when @SenatorAkpabio will be jailed for corrupt enrichment while in office as Governor of Akwa Ibom state Waiting for when @SenatorAkpabio will be jailed for corrupt enrichment while in office as Governor of Akwa Ibom state Isang Utom Obong (@OtoIsang) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js They should have jail him jare. This judgment is semi served jare. Looters and public funds thiefs are hardened criminals and should be treated as such Well better than what we use to have. We will get there someday @abdul_cutie They should have jail him jare. This judgment is semi served jare. Looters and public funds thiefs are hardened criminals and should be treated as such Well better than what we use to have. We will get there someday CCNA Certified R&S (@abdul_cutie) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js I wish that other regular courts can follow this Code of Conduct Tribunal in making judgment as quickly as possible. @Ubahussein I wish that other regular courts can follow this Code of Conduct Tribunal in making judgment as quickly as possible. Hussain Uba (@UbaHussain) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Reno Omokri: ONNOGHEN convicted and banned from public office by the @Buhari administration. MAINA reinstated, then given double promotion and armed guards by the same Buhari government. Under Buhari, when EFCC see the broom they pass over to the next non @OfficialAPCNg member #RenosDarts ONNOGHEN convicted and banned from public office by the @Buhari administration. MAINA reinstated, then given double promotion and armed guards by the same Buhari government. Under Buhari, when EFCC see the broom they pass over to the next non @OfficialAPCNg member #RenosDarts Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Mr Johnbull Comedy : Not only Walter Onnoghen, pls also suspend those putting Nigerians in hunger and total darkness, we are hungry and suffering. I m pleading @Gidi_Traffic @Nijapolitics Not only Walter Onnoghen, pls also suspend those putting Nigerians in hunger and total darkness, we are hungry and suffering. I m pleading@Gidi_Traffic@Nijapolitics Mr Johnbull Comedy (@MrjohnbullComic) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Baba Buhari is working Walter Onnoghen is gone Lets wait for the next personAkpabio or Kalu? Baba Buhari is working Walter Onnoghen is gone Lets wait for the next personAkpabio or Kalu? WeGlobe (@collinsweglobe) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Another Twitter user said: I am certain Walter Onnoghen would be wishing he never took that Job. It is also important to state that corruption is bad for everyone and one only hopes this treatment can be extended across board. I am certain Walter Onnoghen would be wishing he never took that Job. It is also important to state that corruption is bad for everyone and one only hopes this treatment can be extended across board. WALE (@waleolaN) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Advertisements @Laiseman: Justice Walter Onnoghen banned from Public Office for 10yrs. What Miss. Kemi Adeosun who worked and collected Salaries without NYSC certificate, what of Adebayo Shittu who is still a Minister with out NYSC certificate. Nigeria my Country. Justice Walter Onnoghen banned from Public Office for 10yrs. What Miss. Kemi Adeosun who worked and collected Salaries without NYSC certificate, what of Adevayo Shittu who is still a Minister with out NYSC certificate. Nigeria my Country. Liaiseman (@liaiseman) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js @iamEyene Finally, former chief justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen has been found guilty by the Code of Conduct Tribunal. After 3 years and 11 months in office, the Anti-corruption warrior has successfully fought one case of corruption out of many. Well done, Baba slow motion. Finally, former chief justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen has been found guilty by the Code of Conduct Tribunal. After 3 years and 11 months in office, the Anti-corruption warrior has successfully fought one case of corruption out of many. Well done, Baba slow motion. EnyEnE | #EndSars (@iamEnyene) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Discipline should start from Judiciary, with the kind of remuneration& respect they earned, I think they should lead the fighting of this menace called corruption that has entered our blood which is seriously dragging us backward. Code of Conduct Tribunal Walter Onnoghen Discipline should start from Judiciary, with the kind of remuneration& respect they earned, I think they should lead the fighting of this menace called corruption that has entered our blood which is seriously dragging us backward. Code of Conduct Tribunal Walter Onnoghen Okaula K Ohimini (@Simplyolaedache) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Right thinking citizens should not lose sleep over the Code of Conduct Tribunal conviction of #Onnoghen. Many before him have also been convicted in similar circumstances where the trial fell short of minimum standards. Rather lose sleep for democracy & rule of law under threat. @Kelbiko Right thinking citizens should not lose sleep over the Code of Conduct Tribunal conviction of #Onnoghen. Many before him have also been convicted in similar circumstances where the trial fell short of minimum standards. Rather lose sleep for democracy & rule of law under threat. Kelechi Onwubiko, MPD (@Kelbiko) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js @Sokotocaliphate: While we applauded @MBuhari war on corruption, we equally question the selective nature of its enforcement. We therefore demand full implementation of the war on corruption irrespective of party affiliation. NO TO IMPUNITY BREAKING NEWS. Onnoghen convicted. Banned from holding Public office for TEN Years. One down, Many to go! Ma Su Gudu Su Gudu Lauretta Onochie (@Laurestar) April 18, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Kayode Ogundami Social Media Lawyers and jegudujera activists sent Walter Onnoghen to the point of no return, the guy would have resigned jejely but NO! The corruption is better than incompetence Army gave him false backing and abandoned him. https://t.co/CTcI9SnBpW. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday could not produce a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Godwin Obla, for arraignment in Lagos over alleged money laundering. The commission charged Mr Obla along with former Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court. But Mr Obla was absent before Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court. The EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court that efforts to reach the SAN proved abortive, claiming that his phones were switched off. He said that Mr Oblas counsel could not also confirm his whereabouts. Mr Oyedepo urged the court to allow Mrs Ofili-Ajumogobia to be arraigned alone pending production in court of Obla. The court granted the prayer. Mrs Ofili-Ajumogobia pleaded not guilty to an 18-count charge. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that her re-arraignment followed her re-arrest after an Ikeja High Court struck out a previous charge against her on Tuesday. The money laundering charge preferred by the EFCC was struck out for lack of jurisdiction. Mr Obla, a former EFCC prosecution counsel, is the second defendant in the charge numbered FHC/139C/19. EFCC alleged that the duo conspired on May 21, 2014, to indirectly conceal N5 million in the Diamond Bank account of Nigel & Colive Ltd., which they reasonably ought to have known formed part of proceeds of unlawful act. The alleged offences contravened Sections 15 (2) (a) and 18 (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011. The EFCC also accused Mrs Ofili-Ajumogobia of indirectly concealing N12 million in the same account, adding that she falsely claimed that the money was payment for a sold property. Mr Aikawa will later give a ruling on a bail application by the former judge. (NAN) The Auditor-General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, says the continued poor implementation of recommendations in the auditor-generals inspections and annual reports remains a huge clog in the efforts to rid the countrys public sector of corruption. Mr Ayine was speaking with a delegation from the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) led by its Executive Secretary, Sharon Ikeazor, who paid him a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja. He said implementing the recommendations contained in the reports by the management of government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would deter those determined to perpetuate corruption in the public service. He said this would also promote a more transparent and accountable system. He, however, expressed sadness that such audit findings are largely not acted upon. The impact of audit work we do is in the value it adds by creating improvements in the system, he said. Re-echoing President Muhammadu Buharis words, he said, If we dont kill corruption, by implementing these audit recommendations, corruption will kill us as a country. He said the fight against corruption cannot be won by any single individual or organisation but through collaboration by all. The auditor-general stressed the need for the management of MDAs to live up to their responsibility of exercising strong internal controls in the public service to ensure probity and accountability. He commended the Executive Secretary of PTAD for her efforts in repositioning the office and ensuring the prompt payment of pensions to retirees. Mr Ayine noted that there has been a remarkable improvement since Mrs Ikeazor took over the office and assured her his office would continue to provide relevant support to her work. In her remarks, Mrs Ikeazor told the auditor-general that the pension agency has always acted on the recommendations of the OAuGFs annual report. She said a personnel audit carried out in 2015 resulted in the disengagement of four directors found to have been irregularly employed when they were above the age of 50 years. The official also sought the advice of the auditor-general in implementing the recovery of monies paid to the four dismissed directors during the time of their engagement and to return same to the treasury. She also requested that more auditors be deployed to PTAD to support the ongoing Parastatals Pensioner Verification Exercise, as federal auditors previously sent to the agency were very useful. According to her, the officials helped save the government billions of naira that could have been fraudulently diverted. A former Judge of the Federal High Court, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, was on Thursday re-arraigned before a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, for alleged corruption. The former judge was initially arraigned on Nov. 28, 2016, before an Ikeja High Court, alongside Godwin Obla, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a former prosecutor of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC had arraigned the duo on a 30-count charge bordering on corruption before an Ikeja High Court. During their trial, the 30-count charge was later amended by the EFCC to 31 counts on Feb. 23, 2018. On Tuesday, Justice Hakeem Oshodi struck out the charge against Mrs Ofili-Ajumogobia and Mr Obla on the grounds that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit. The former judge was, however, re-arrested by operatives of the anti-graft commission as she was leaving the Ikeja High Court premises after the charge was struck out. During re-arraignment at the Federal High Court on Thursday before Justice Rilwan Aikawa, Mrs Ofili-Ajumogobia was present but Mr Obla, her co-defendant, was absent. She pleaded not guilty to an 18-count charge bordering on unlawful enrichment, taking property unlawfully, corruption, forgery and giving false information. In a ruling granting bail to the defendant, Mr Aikawa said: I take judicial notice of the Easter holiday and grant bail in the sum of N10 million with one surety in like sum who must have landed property In Lagos. The surety must not be below Grade Level 16 in the federal or state civil service. The defendant must deposit her international passport with the deputy chief registrar of the court at or before 6.00p.m. today. The defendant shall endeavour to fulfill the conditions within 10-days or the bail will be revoked. She shall be released to her lead counsel, Wale Akoni, pending the fulfillment of the other conditions or the expiration of 10 days, whichever comes first. Mr Aikawa also issued summons to compel Mr Obla to appear before the court. For the second defendant, an order is hereby made for issuance of summons compelling Godwin Obla to appear before the court on the May 15, for the purpose of trial. Earlier, lead EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, informed the court of a pending charge against the defendants, and called the attention of the judge to Mr Oblas absence. He told the court that every attempt made to inform Mr Obla of the pending charge proved abortive. Mr Oyedepo, however, urged the court to take the plea of the former judge and give an order to compel Mr Obla to appear before the court on the next adjourned date. Wale Akoni, Mrs Ofili-Ajumogobias counsel, had made an oral application for her bail. He asked the court to take judicial notice of the fact that she was a judicial officer, and admit her to bail on self-recognizance. Objecting to Mr Akonis request for bail, Mr Oyedepo told the court to take further judicial notice that there was a decision of the National Judicial Council (NJC) which recommended her dismissal. He said that considering the nature of the case, it would not be in the interest of justice for her to be granted bail on self recognisance. He, therefore, urged the court to deny her bail or attach conditions which would compel her to be available for trial. Advertisements Mr Aikawa adjourned the case until May 15 for trial. (NAN) The police have confirmed two persons dead in a petrol tanker explosion on Thursday at Sawmill/Onipepeye area of the Ibadan-Lagos Expressway. The tanker fell at about 2 p.m. while trying to overtake a Nissan Micra car. After the petrol tanker fell, some persons went there trying to scoop petrol before the tanker exploded, a witness who identified himself as Saheed told PREMIUM TIMES Another witness, Rauf Ajayi, said due to the lateness of firefighters at arriving at the scene, the fire spread and engulfed some houses. At least two people have been confirmed dead in the incident. The accident happened around 2 p.m, but it was around 2:45 pm before firefighters came. After the tanker fell, people were supposed to run but some decided to move closer and while trying to scoop petrol, the tanker exploded, Mr Ajayi said. Another witness, Kazeem Olawoyin, said seven okada and eight other vehicles were affected. The state spokesperson of the police, Olugbenga Fadeyi, did not respond when PREMIUM TIMES made a call to his phone line. Mr Fadeyi, however, told the News Agency of Nigeria that two people lost their lives in the incident. Mr Fadeyi said four vehicles and two motorcycles were also burnt. Read our earlier story below ============= A petrol tanker has exploded at Sawmill/Onipepeye area of Ibadan-Lagos Express, a witness told PREMIUM TIMES. A witness who simply identified himself as Saheed told PREMIUM TIMES that many people died in the accident. After the petrol tanker fell, some persons went there trying to scoop petrol before the tanker exploded, he said. It was gathered that properties such as cars and houses within the environment were caught in the fire. Meanwhile, neither the fire service nor road safety personnel was seen at the scene as at the time of this report. Details later Former President Goodluck Jonathan has urged Nigerians not to give up on the nation in the face of unabating violence and misery, stressing that Nigeria has all it takes to overcome its challenges. Mr Jonathan, who stated this in his Easter goodwill message, also enjoined Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of love, unity, sacrifice and hardwork as necessary instruments for the fixing of what has gone wrong in our society. He said: Through our faith and collective actions, we will overcome the tempests of violence, misery and insecurity that threaten our nation. Below is the full text of the message: Easter is a time Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who offered Himself as a sacrifice for the remission of the sins of the world. Christs resurrection as a testimony of the new covenant is the justification for Christians commemoration of the triumph of life over death, freedom over bondage and hope over despair, at this time. I, therefore, urge us not to give up on our ourselves and our nation no matter the challenges that confront us today. At all times we must remain resolute on our love for God and our nation and work towards building a country that we can all be proud of. Through our faith and collective actions, we will overcome the tempests of violence, misery and insecurity that threaten our nation. We are more than conquerors and the future of our nation is bright, if we work as one. May God fill our homes with peace, love and joy even as we enjoy the abundance of Grace that Easter brings. Happy Easter! The Presidency has reacted to the conviction of former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, saying the ruling was a major victory for the anti-corruption policy of the Buhari administration. Mr Onnoghen was convicted on Thursday afternoon for false declaration of assets. The tribunal ordered that he forfeit the money in the five accounts he failed to declare in his assets declaration form. The tribunal ordered his removal from office and declared that he should not be allowed to hold public office in the next 10 years. Mr Onnoghen, who denied the charges against him, has appealed the ruling. In his appeal, Mr Onnoghen identified 16 grounds on which basis he wants the appellate court to upturn his conviction. He also sought seven reliefs from the court including an order setting aside the conviction of the appellant (Mr Onnoghen). Reacting to the verdict on Thursday, the Presidency in a statement by spokesperson Garba Shehu said the outcome of the trial demonstrates clearly that the law is no respecter of persons, titles, social or political connections. The statement added that the essence of the rule of law is to hold everyone accountable equally before the law, regardless of their high or law status in the society. According to the Presidency, the war against corruption is all encompassing and is not designed to persecute anyone for political or other reasons. The rule of law would lose its meaning and validity if only the weak, the poor and powerless are punished for their violations of the law. Countries succeed because the rule of law is evenly upheld and enforced. The war against corruption would go nowhere if the high and mighty are spared because of their influence and connections. You cant fight corruption by allowing impunity because the rule of law cannot function where impunity is tolerated, Mr Shehu wrote. The statement said that the conviction of Justice Onnoghen should send a clear message that the dragnet against corruption will be spread widely to hold public officials accountable, whether they are politicians, Judges, civil servants or holding positions of public trust. Troops of the Operation Sharan Daji in Zamfara have arrested the Vice Chairman of Anka Local Government of the state, Yahuza Wuya, for alleged link to bandits. The Acting Information Officer of the operation, Clement Abiade, confirmed the arrest of Mr Wuya in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja Thursday. Mr Abiade said the council vice chairman was picked up on April 13 based on credible intelligence linking him to bandits activities in Wuya and Sunke communities. He alleged that Mr Wuya seamlessly assists in selling rustled/stolen cows and donkeys as well as giving information about troops, other security agencies and vigilantes movement to the bandits. The acting information officer also alleged that the suspect aided the release of a notorious gun runner (Sani Yaro) from the Gusau prison. In another related development, Mr Abiade said troops arrested two suspected informants along Burukusuma-Sabon Birni road in Sokoto State. He named them as Ibrahim Bangaje and Ado Bayero. Mr Abiade said that they would be handed over to relevant security agency for possible prosecution after the initial investigation. Meanwhile, the Force Commander, Operation Sharan Daji, Hakeem Otiki, has restated the commitment of troops toward enduring peace in Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi and Sokoto states. Mr Otiki, a major general and GOC 8 Division Sokoto, appealed to the public to support the operation by reporting suspicious activities and movement of bandits to the nearest security agencies for prompt action. NAN reports that on April 10, Governor Abdulaziz Yari said 3,526 persons were killed by armed bandits in the state in the last five years. Speaking during a Town Hall Meeting attended by the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, Mr Yari said nearly 500 villages had also been devastated and 8,219 persons were injured, some are still in critical condition. He also said that over 13,000 hectares of farmlands were either destroyed or made useless as the farmers can no longer farm them. The economy of the state has seriously suffered because thousands of shops were destroyed by the rampaging bandits who had displaced thousands of our people from their places of abode, many of whom cannot sleep with their two eyes closed because of fear, he added. Mr Yari said the government had written volumes of reports containing over 7,000 pages, giving details of the crises right from the beginning to the infiltration from Libya and Boko Haram. He disclosed that the government was aware of eight prominent bandits camps at different bush locations in the state, and urged that they should all be neutralised in order to decimate the criminals. (NAN) The Delta State Police Command has confirmed the death of a contractor with the Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, who went missing some days ago. The spokesman of the command, Chuks Orisewezie, told NAN on Thursday in Asaba that the corpse of Chukwuedo Iwelu was discovered in a decomposing state inside a structure at the Polytechnic. On April 8, 2019, the family of the deceased lodged a complaint with the police that Iwelu was missing after he left home. However, four days after, the corpse of the missing man was found inside the school premises. The police command has since commenced investigation into the matter and we have taken statements from persons of interest in the matter. Investigations are still ongoing so that is all I can say for now, Mr Orisewezie said. NAN investigations, however, revealed that before his sudden death, Mr Iwelu and the management of the polytechnic had been at loggerheads over a debt of N15 million owed him by the polytechnic. A family source, Austin Obi, told NAN that Mr Iwelu executed some building contracts for the Polytechnic but that the management had failed to pay him. Iwelu had worked as a contractor for the polytechnic for over 10 years now, right from the tenure of former Rector, Prof. Andy Egwunyenga, he said. He built some structures for the polytechnic and before Egwunyenga left, the job was not paid for. So, when Dr Edna Mogekwu took over as the rector, the debt was not paid, a situation that led Chukwuedo to take the polytechnic to court, Mr Obi said. According to him, the matter has lingered for over five years, up till the time Mr Mogekwu left office and the present rector, Prof. Stella Chiemeke took over. Mr Obi said that on the day Mr Iwelu went missing, he had informed his wife that he was going to the Polytechnic to meet with the management. The management of the polytechnic has however, declined comments on the matter. The polytechnics Public Relations Officer, Manfred Oyibogbeye, told NAN on telephone that the polytechnic would not speak on the matter, pending the outcome of police investigations. The polytechnic will not be issuing any statement on the matter because the police are already investigating the case. The rector has told me not to speak on the matter. We dont want to jeopardize police investigations, he said. (NAN) The Federal High Court has declared the Ebonyi South Senatorial District seat being occupied by Sonni Ogbuoji vacant and ordered him to vacate the seat immediately. The judgment was delivered on Tuesday by Justice Akintola Aluko of the Abakaliki Division of the court. It held that Mr Ogbuoji flouted section 68(1)g of the 1999 Constitution by defecting from the party, on which platform he was elected, to another party. The said section 68(1)g bars elected lawmakers from defecting to another party except if the party on whose platform they were elected is divided. The court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to the senator and to conduct a fresh election to fill the seat. Furthermore, the court ordered the lawmaker to refund to the coffers of government all monies, be it salaries, allowances or any order form of payment, he may have received as benefits from the position from the date of his defection. Justice Aluko in the 71-page judgement obtained by this newspaper held that Mr Ogbuoji, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2018, flouted the above section of the constitution. The judgement was in respect of suit number FHC/AI/CS/44/2018 filed by Evo Ogbonnaya Anegu, Oti Ama Ude, Uche Richard Ajali, Una Sunday Okoro and Simon Ajali Ogbadu for themselves and on behalf of the members of the PDP in Ebonyi South Senatorial District. They had sued Mr Ogbuoji and INEC (2nd defendant) asking the court to declare Mr Ogbuojis seat vacant for defecting to the APC when there was no crisis or division in the PDP. They also prayed the court to order the 1st defendant (Mr Ogbuoji) to refund all monies he may have been paid since January 2018 when he defected from The PDP to the APC. The plaintiffs through their counsel, Roy Umahi, said Mr Ogbuojis conduct, if not condemned and upturned, would encourage political prostitution and legislative rascality and destroy the laws made to regulate defections of National Assembly members by the constitution. But Mr Ogbuoji in his defence claimed that he resigned his membership of the PDP and defected to the APC on January 27, 2017, and not January 2018 as claimed by the applicants. He noted that the crisis in the party was finally resolved in July 2017 by the Supreme Court, but that before then he had resigned his membership of the party via a letter of resignation he submitted to the PDP Secretary of his Ebunwana Ward, Ukpo Regina Agwu, on January 27, 2017. But the plaintiffs countered by providing evidence that the said Regina Ukpo was not the secretary of the ward at the time the said letter was allegedly given to her as she had already been by expelled by the party on 23 January 2017. They also said Mr Ogbuoji took an active part in the non-elective and elective congresses of the PDP in August and December 2017 as a delegate. The court, in its findings, said there were discrepancies in the evidence provided by Mr Ogbuoji which rendered them unreliable and doubtful. For example, the court noted that some of the exhibits presented by the defence like signatures of Mrs Agwu, the erstwhile Ebunwana Ward Secretary, were found to be materially different in the various documents submitted to the court. There is no basis to attach any probative or evidential value to the said exhibits. What that means is that the defendants claim of resignation (on January 2017) is shrouded in inconsistency, contradiction and suspicion, the judge said. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that most of the documents provided by the 1st defendant were concocted for the purpose of the suit only. In conclusion, the court said it has been established that Mr Ogbuoji defected to the APC in January 2018 and not January 2017 as he claimed in his defence. It also said that, at the time of his defection, there was no division or faction in the PDP to warrant such defection as permitted by section 68 (1)g of the constitution. Sonni Ogbuoji (Photo Credit: Sun Newspaper) By the evidence before me, I find that the 1st defendant is guilty of unholy political flirtation and coquetry which the makers and drafters of the constitution resolved to outlaw by the enactment of section 68(1)g of the constitution, Justice Aluko declared. The judge further held that having defected to another party when there was no crisis in his original party, Mr Ogbuoji ought to have vacated his seat. Advertisements Having failed to vacate his seat in the Senate, following his unconstitutional defection in a manner that suggests that he ate his cake and still wanted to have it, he is liable to be forced out and refund to the National Assembly all monies in form of salaries, allowances, or whatsoever paid to him by virtue of his unconstitutional holding on to the position as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria beginning from the date of his unconstitutional defection till date. Consequently I hold that the case of the plaintiffs has merit and same hereby succeeds, Justice Akintayo said The judge further ordered INEC to withdraw Mr Ogbuojis Certificate of Return and immediately conduct a fresh election to fill the vacant seat created by his unconstitutional defection. The court also awarded N500,000 in favour of the plaintiff and against the 1st defendant. Mr Ogbuoji, it will be recalled, contested the 2019 governorship election in Ebonyi State against the incumbent, David Umahi. He lost the election to the governor who was on Tuesday issued Certificate of Return and is expected to be sworn in on May 29 for a second term in office. A police inspector, Daniel Ojo, who shot dead one Adaobi Ifeanyi and wounded another, Emmanuel Akomafuwa, in Ajegunle area of Lagos last Saturday, has been dismissed from service and declared wanted. The Lagos State Commissioner of Police (CP), Zubairu Muazu, disclosed this while addressing journalists at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters, Ikeja, on Thursday. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Mr Ojo together with five other policemen had on April 13 accosted their victims and shot Ifeanyi who died on the spot. The five policemen were however subjected to orderly room trial while Mr Ojo escaped. On April 13, 2019 at about 7:00am, police officers attached to Trinity Police Station who were suspected to be involved in the shooting of Adaobi Ifeanyi and Emmanuel Akomafuwa at Akpiri Street, Olodi Apapa, were arrested and detained, he said Mr Muazu gave their names as Insp. Adamu Usman, Sgt. Adeyeye Adeoye, Sgt. Kashim Tijani, Sgt. Lucky Akigbe and Sgt. Paul Adeoye. Inspector Dania Ojo who escaped immediately after the shooting was declared wanted. The other police officers were subjected to internal disciplinary proceedings at the command headquarters Ikeja. Investigation revealed that Inspector Dania Ojo unilaterally carried out the shooting without consideration to laid down procedures on the use of firearm. He is, therefore, found guilty of abuse of power, unlawful and unnecessary exercise of authority. He is thereby dismissed from the Nigeria Police Force and declared wanted. Upon arrest, he will be charged to court for murder, the police commissioner said. Mr Muazu also said that on April 12 at about 6:10 p.m., one Rofiat Ayode of No. 10, Bale Street, Satellite town, reported at Satellite Police Station that one Chisom Obiora, 19, abducted her 3-year-old son. According to the CP, investigation led to the arrest of the suspect and the kidnapped child was rescued unhurt. Investigation is ongoing and the suspect will be charged to court afterwards, he said. (NAN) For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. MUMBAI, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientia Professor David Waite with the third generation MCDI that was built by CTET in China UNSW's Global Water Institute seems to be at the cusp of a revolution in irrigation that could secure water supplies and food production during drought. The quest to provide clean water to Indian villages spurred the need for the innovation that could potentially act as a game-changer for world that is battling global warming and desertification. Countries like India, China and Australia, among others are battling the challenge of producing food for an ever-increasing population amid droughts and increasingly volatile climate conditions. Most of the agriculture practices in these countries rely heavily on groundwater, even though this water source is becoming increasingly saline at many locations, making it impractical to use. To combat this issue and make fresh water readily available to the farming sector irrespective of the quality of the local groundwater supply, UNSW's Global Water Institute (GWI) is developing an innovative, solar-powered version of a desalination technology called Capacitive Deionization (CDI). CDI has significant potential to revolutionise irrigation and ensure that nations can continue to meet growing food production demands and protect against food shortage during drought. CDI removes salt from brackish water by passing water through a stack of electrode pairs with positive ions such as sodium ("cations") attracted to the cathode and negative ions such as chloride ("anions") attracted to the anode. When a voltage is applied across the electrodes, a desalted stream of water is produced. While conventional CDI uses mains power, UNSW researchers have developed prototypes powered by solar energy. These solar-powered CDI units are an energy-efficient alternative with low operating voltage and the possibility of energy recovery, making it ideal for brackish water desalination, especially in remote locations where mains power may not be available. The units are also really easy to maintain, which makes the technology even more suited for use in remote-off grid communities. The idea for the project was born when Sir Ratan Tata, the Chairman of the philanthropic Tata Trusts in India, visited UNSW to receive an honorary doctorate and challenged researchers to help find ways to provide clean water for Indian villages. Scientia Professor David Waite from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering accepted the challenge and, with support from Professor John Fletcher from the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, constructed the first solar-powered prototype. Second and third generation units, in which energy usage was reduced by recovering a portion of the energy used, have been constructed with funding from an ARC Linkage grant with industry support by Goldwind Environmental Technologies, a Beijing-based company that is the largest manufacturer of wind turbines and is now expanding into development of water technologies. "For this project, we innovated in both the mode of operation of the established technology of membrane capacitive deionisation (MCDI) and the use of solar energy combined with energy recovery to power the device," said Professor Waite, Executive Director of UNSW Centre of Transformational Environmental Technologies (CTET). The collaborative team from UNSW's Faculty of Engineering is now working closely with Goldwind to trial the technology in Xinjiang Province in the far north-west of China. Plans are also underway to trial it in glasshouses at Western Sydney University's Hawkesbury campus through the recently announced CRC for Future Food Systems. Professor Waite says that providing dependable water supply options to the agriculture industry that are cost effective, can function independently of the electricity grid and do not carry a significant environmental burden is essential for Australia's future food security. "Scope exists for use of this technology in remote parts of Western Australia and the Northern Territory where the treatment of brackish water - typically the only water available - has been problematic using existing technology." The UNSW Global Water Institute (UNSW-GWI) is a world leader in water research, innovation and problem solving. As the nation's most advanced water knowledge hub, the Institute draws on water expertise from seven faculties and 13 specialist centres across the University. About University of New South Wales, Sydney UNSW, Australia's global university ranked among the top 50 Universities in the world offers programs in engineering, business, law, architecture, art and design, medicine and science. Located in Sydney, a safe and student friendly city, UNSW is home to more than 52,000 students from nearly 130 countries. UNSW has been attracting a growing number of bright Indian students for undergraduate and post graduate studies. As one of the world's leading research and teaching universities UNSW's cutting edge research and innovation facilitated by 3000 faculty is known for acceptance and successful commercialisation. For more details, please visit: www.UNSW.edu.au Media Contact: Parmpreet Kaur [email protected] +91-9870390819 Communicate India SOURCE University of New South Wales PHOENIX, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Arizona is currently among the leading states for job creation in construction, manufacturing, and information technology, and population growth is expected to exceed 100,000 new residents this year. Wage increases in the Phoenix area are now outpacing peer Western metros. Is this stellar growth sustainable in the face of gathering headwinds at the national level? How will the Arizona economy fare in 2020? Can the state build affordable housing to support the population growth? What are the odds of a recession? Top experts will answer these questions about the state and nation at the Annual Outlook Luncheon, presented by the Economic Club of Phoenix. Featured speakers Dennis Hoffman, professor of economics and director of the Seidman Research Institute He examines recent national trends and discusses the factors that will influence those trends going forward. Lee McPheters, research professor of economics and director of the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center He will offer a first look at the year ahead for Arizona and the Phoenix metro area, along with an update on year-to-date performance in 2019. Mark Stapp, Fred E. Taylor Professor in Real Estate and executive director of the Master of Real Estate Development program He will explain the concerns over affordable housing amid the rapid growth in home prices. When: Thursday, May 2, 2019 Luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Where: The Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch 7700 E. McCormick Parkway Scottsdale, Arizona 85258 Register: wpcarey.asu.edu/economic-club/ Media note: Prior to the luncheon, Hoffman, McPheters, and Stapp are available for on-site interviews from 10 to 11 a.m. Reporters and photojournalists are asked to RSVP in advance of the event by emailing [email protected] Managing Editor for ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business. About the W. P. Carey School of Business The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is one of the top-ranked business schools in the United States. The school is internationally regarded for its research productivity and its distinguished faculty members, including a Nobel Prize winner. Students come from more than 100 countries and W. P. Carey is represented by alumni in more than 160 countries. Visit www.wpcarey.asu.edu. Media Contact Shay Moser 480-965-3963 [email protected] SOURCE W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University Related Links http://www.wpcarey.asu.edu SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE: PLAN ) , a pioneer in Connected Planning, today announced the appointment of Suresh Vasudevan to its Board of Directors effective April 14, 2019. Mr. Vasudevan brings a wealth of experience in technology, product development and leadership roles as an executive officer and board member. Mr. Vasudevan is the President and CEO of Sysdig, Inc., a container intelligence company. Prior to joining Sysdig, Mr. Vasudevan was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nimble Storage, Inc. from March 2011 until its acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in May 2017. He was also the Chief Executive Officer of Omneon, Inc. from 2009 to 2011 and previously served at NetApp, Inc. from 1999 to 2008 in a variety of roles, including as Senior Vice President and a member of the executive team overseeing all product operations. Mr. Vasudevan also served at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. early in his career. "We are very excited to attract some of the most distinguished and established Board members to help us continue to deliver impressive results," said Frank Calderoni, Chairman and CEO, Anaplan. "Suresh has extensive experience in the technology industry with deep expertise in scaling technology companies. We are very fortunate to have his caliber of executive leadership join our Board." "I am honored to join the Anaplan Board as this is an exciting time for the company as they experience major growth and momentum," said Suresh Vasudevan. "I'm looking forward to working with the Board and the executive leadership team to help Anaplan achieve many more milestones." Mr. Vasudevan holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering, with honors, from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani, India and an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Calcutta, India. About Anaplan Anaplan (NYSE: PLAN) is pioneering the category of Connected Planning. Our platform, powered by our proprietary Hyperblock technology, purpose-built for Connected Planning, enables dynamic, collaborative, and intelligent planning. Large global enterprises use our solution to connect people, data, and plans to enable real-time planning and decision-making in rapidly changing business environments to give our customers a competitive advantage. Based in San Francisco, we have over 20 offices globally, 175 partners, and more than 1,100 customers worldwide. SOURCE Anaplan, Inc. Related Links https://www.anaplan.com Schlekeway went on to share an exciting new goal that would benefit those in need: "Our ongoing mission has always been to redefine what it means to create value. Together, our goal for the next two years is to raise one million dollars for local Boise area charities." In 2018 Amherst Madison's non profit entity A Giving Circle raised $112,500 for local Treasure Valley charity organizations. Meanwhile, Front Street Broker's non profit Impact Club Boise was able to raise over $100,000. Front Street Principal Broker Mike Turner wrote in his recent announcement : "Now, the great work we've accomplished at Front Street Brokers can be amplified by joining our leadership with Amherst Madison. Through our combined philanthropic efforts, we can give back to our community on a level that fosters real change." Front Street Agent Phil Mount, currently serving as the President of the Boise Regional REALTORS said about the merger: "I could not be more excited for Front Street Brokers to join with the incredible team at Amherst Madison! We share the same commitment to valuing the customer experience with exceptional service and professionalism. Mike Turner and Nick Schlekeway are both inspiring leaders, and together they will be the ones to watch, leading our industry in this Valley. I can't wait to be part of this next generation brokerage!" Agents from both brokerages will be meeting together for their first joint quarterly meeting on Tuesday the 23rd at the Simplot JUMP facilities in downtown Boise. Amherst Madison will maintain occupancy of the prominent Front Street office location along with plans to move its primary office to an all new location currently under construction on Benjamin Street in West Boise later this year. About Amherst Madison: Amherst Madison is a full service Real Estate Brokerage that specializes in custom marketing and representation solutions for our real estate clients. We seek to provide a tremendous value-add to those buyers and sellers of real estate who are seeking a professional and first-class approach in meeting their real estate goals. Amherst Madison is focused on providing excellence in service to the Boise real estate market and throughout the great state of Idaho. Media Contact: Mike Bryant (208) 546-0466 [email protected] SOURCE Amherst Madison Related Links http://www.amherstmadisonlegacy.com REDDING, Calif., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cal/OSHA has cited an agricultural employer and a farm labor contractor more than $100,000 combined in proposed penalties after a worker was fatally crushed by a bin dumper at a walnut processing and packing facility in Tehama County. On October 6, 2018, forklift operators at Crain Walnut Shelling in Los Molinos were filling bins with walnuts, which were then dumped into a hopper for processing. A temporary worker for Cal North Farm Labor, Inc. was instructed to clean the area around the equipment. The worker was under an 800-pound bin dumper when it emptied its load and automatically lowered to the ground, crushing him. Cal/OSHA's investigation determined the employer did not evaluate workplace hazards and the worker did not receive safety training from Crain Walnut Shelling or Fresno-based Cal North Farm Labor, Inc. before being assigned to clean concrete and machinery at the walnut processing facility. "Working near large moving parts of equipment and machinery can be deadly," said Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum. "Employers must identify and evaluate workplace hazards and unsafe conditions and provide effective training to employees before they begin a new job assignment." Investigators found that Crain Walnut Shelling failed to ensure that the walnut bin dumper they designed included proper machine guards or lockout/tagout procedures to protect workers who maintain the machinery. Crain also failed to provide an extension tool for cleaning the area, which would have significantly minimized potential crushing hazards. Cal/OSHA identified four serious violations and issued four citations with proposed penalties totaling $67,500. Citations were also issued to Cal North Farm Labor, Inc. for their failure to ensure that workers are trained on hazards related to cleaning and servicing around the bin dumper. Cal/OSHA issued two citations classified as serious with proposed penalties of $33,750. Failure to develop and follow steps to de-energize or block the use of equipment, otherwise known as lockout/tagout procedures, before cleaning or working on machinery can result in serious or fatal workplace injuries. Cal/OSHA offers an eTool to help employers comply with lockout/tagout regulations and develop an effective safety program. A serious violation is cited when there is a realistic possibility that death or serious harm could result from the actual hazardous condition. Violations are classified as accident-related when the injury, illness or fatality is caused by the violation. Cal/OSHA helps protect workers from health and safety hazards on the job in almost every workplace in California. Cal/OSHA's Consultation Services Branch provides free and voluntary assistance to employers to improve their health and safety programs. Employers should call (800) 963-9424 for assistance from Cal/OSHA Consultation Services. Employees with work-related questions or complaints may contact DIR's Call Center in English or Spanish at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734). The California Workers' Information line at 866-924-9757 provides recorded information in English and Spanish on a variety of work-related topics. Complaints can also be filed confidentially with Cal/OSHA district offices. Members of the press may contact Peter Melton or Jeanne-Mairie Duval at (510) 286-1161, and are encouraged to subscribe to get email alerts on DIR's press releases or other departmental updates. https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDIR https://twitter.com/CA_DIR http://www.youtube.com/CaliforniaDIR http://www.dir.ca.gov/email/listsub.asp?choice=1 The California Department of Industrial Relations , established in 1927, protects and improves the health, safety, and economic well-being of over 18 million wage earners, and helps their employers comply with state labor laws. DIR is housed within the Labor & Workforce Development Agency . For general inquiries, contact DIR's Call Center at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734) for help in locating the appropriate division or program in our department. SOURCE California Department of Industrial Relations; Cal/OSHA Related Links http://www.dir.ca.gov In its first order under the terms of the supply agreement announced on February 14, 2019, Flower One has ordered 50,000 units from the Company for cannabis-product fulfillment in Nevada available in May. This purchase will be distributed into 10 piece and 3-piece bags throughout Colorado and Nevada dispensaries. Additionally, the Company has completed a shipment of new, redesigned packaging and new flavor profile for gummies to its licensee in Colorado, Winkanda, LLC, for 15,000 units for sale in local dispensaries as a transition in that market from bottles to the new bags. To date, CANA has sold 15.5 million gummies (representing 1.5 million units) in both the Colorado and Nevada legal cannabis marketplaces. Dan Anglin, Founder and CEO of CANA, stated "the Company has dedicated nearly a year to creating gummy flavor profiles that are unique with high-quality ingredients. Simultaneously, we have created a packaging solution that is not only bold in its aesthetic qualities, but instantly recognizable as a CannAmerica product. We've gone to great lengths to provide consumers with a package that not only keeps the product fresh but is also a smaller footprint for storage with portability by design." Anglin continues "We've achieved many goals be redesigning our packaging: the packaging is all made in the USA, which is important to our customer base; we've reduced our carbon footprint in an effort to have less impact on the environment by moving to a mylar bag with Child Resistant locking zipper; we've increased the branding real estate on the bag to easily identify the product and the brand; added space on the packaging for test result information as well as retailer information without reducing our branded image, and increased our presence in retail stores without taking up more space, a necessity in stores that want to carry many brands and lines, but have limited shelf space to do so." On new and improved flavors, Anglin stated "we've done extensive research into gummy confections and flavor preferences of adults to create flavor profiles that are not only exciting for consumers, but also the best-selling flavors in the category of gummies globally: Cherry; Blue Raspberry; Peach; Strawberry-banana; and two unique flavors - Orange Sherbet and Freedom Pop (a combination of Cherry, Lemonade, and Blue Raspberry in one gummy)." The company has created a process for edible printing that allows it to enter these food products into any legal market that allows confections, regardless of stamping image requirements, by utilizing edible printing to create the image on the gummies that provide consumers with the knowledge that the product contains cannabis. Anglin stated "with the exciting redesign of our packaging, we will also now enter the medical marketplace in the state of Colorado, which is a new market for CannAmerica. We look forward to sales in that state simply because there is an entire market that has not been exposed to the brand." Anglin continued, "CannAmerica Gummies available on the medical market in Colorado provides the medical patient in Colorado with high quality, full-spectrum distillate edible with 25mg of THC in each gummy. These products are expected to be in high-demand the moment they hit the shelves in May in Colorado." CannAmerica Brands is a Colorado-based, marine-veteran-founded cannabis brand known for its line of top-tier cannabis gummies and edibles currently available in three states. Flower One is now licensed to manufacture, distribute and sell CannAmerica Brands' signature cannabis Fruit Juice Gummies and Super Soft Gummies to all cannabis retailers in Nevada. On Behalf of the Board, Dan Anglin CEO and Director (314) 495-4589 About CannAmerica Brands Corp. CannAmerica Brands is a U.S. marine veteran founded and operated portfolio of cannabis brands with licensing agreements in the states of Colorado, Nevada and Maryland. The Company aims to maximize the value of its brands by employing strong brand management teams, marketing and licensing the brands through various distribution channels, including dispensaries, wholesalers and distributors, in the United States and internationally. The Company's core strategy is to enhance and monetize the global reach of its existing brands, and to pursue additional strategic acquisitions to grow the scope and diversity of its brand portfolio. For more information, please visit www.cannamericabrands.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof, and the Company is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE CannAmerica Brands Corp. The United Kingdom is honoured with a Euro Special Note dedicated to Brexit. It shows different symbolic items like Tower Bridge and Big Ben, but also Queen Elizabeth II and Sir Winston Churchill with his applicable quote: "There's nothing wrong with change, if it's in the right direction." Euro Special Notes have different security features which banknotes also have, like a watermark, microlettering, unique numbering, holografic stripe, fluorescent fibers and invisible ink that glows under UV light. The pre-ordering of the Euro Special Note about Brexit has started today at https://www.eurospecialnote.eu/en_GB/ The Euro Special Note is issued by the company Euro Special Note which is based in Woerden, The Netherlands. More information can be found at the website https://www.eurospecialnote.eu/en_GB/ About the Euro Special Note Since the introduction of the Euro, special 2 euro commemorative coins have been issued to commemorate the anniversaries of historical events or draw attention to current events of historic importance. Now there will also be collectible notes for collecting: the Euro Special Note. These commemorative notes are not legal tender. www.eurospecialnote.eu SOURCE De Bakker Ideas CARROLLTON, Texas, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise, announced that it is seeking franchisees at the upcoming ISA International Sign Expo held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from April 24-26. The annual show is one of the largest gatherings of sign and graphics professionals, and FASTSIGNS is targeting co-brand and conversion prospects, where independent print and sign shop owners can expand their existing business or convert their business to FASTSIGNS. "The ISA International Sign Expo draws more than 20,000 industry leaders annually, and each year we're pleased to meet with business owners from across the nation to introduce them to the unique opportunity of converting or co-branding their existing business to a FASTSIGNS center," said Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development, FASTSIGNS International. "For industry entrepreneurs looking to grow their business, FASTSIGNS is committed to helpings our franchisees stay ahead of industry trends, and provides state-of-the-art technology, unmatched training materials, brand recognition, and operational support, among other resources that have proven to be vital to growing a profitable business. We're looking forward to exhibiting at the event and welcome eager entrepreneurs to visit our booth while on-site." FASTSIGNS will exhibit at Booth #4153 on the trade show floor at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, in Las Vegas. The brand is seeking entrepreneurs with an established business that are interested in diversifying their product lines and services to meet the growing demand for state-of-the-art signage and visual communications solutions. FASTSIGNS has helped countless owners of print shops, photography studios, camera stores, embroidery shops, and more, add a FASTSIGNS to their existing business or fully convert their store to a FASTSIGNS franchise. FASTSIGNS franchisees receive ongoing training and support to stay ahead of the competition and exceed the needs of their local business community. Both the co-brand franchise opportunity and conversion can be started with only $15,000 down on the initial franchise fee. Franchisee Karrie Brock opened her own sign business 21 years ago, which she converted to FASTSIGNS in 2011. She now owns two FASTSIGNS locations in Toledo and Maumee, Ohio. "FASTSIGNS really showed us where we could take our business to the next level," Brock said. "Learning about the industry before everyone knows what's coming is a huge advantage. And having that bigger vision from CEO Catherine Monson has been excellent for our team because it has driven us to do more and be more." FASTSIGNS is known in the industry for equipping its franchisees with tools vital to securing the ongoing success of each individual location. In 2018, FASTSIGNS announced the launch of its partnership with 1HUDDLE, a workforce-training platform that converts unique training content into science-backed, quick-burst training games that are proven to accelerate workforce productivity. Additionally, FASTSIGNS announced the launch of a special incentive for first responders, including paramedics, emergency medical technicians, police officers, sheriffs, and firefighters, which includes a 50-percent reduction on the franchise fee a savings of $24,875. FASTSIGNS International, Inc. was ranked the #1 franchise opportunity in its category and 95 overall on Entrepreneur magazine's 2019 Franchise 500, the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. Acknowledged by entrepreneurs and franchisors as a top competitive tool of measurement, the Franchise 500 recognizes FASTSIGNS, the only sign, graphics, and visual communications franchise to be recognized in the top 100, for its exceptional performance in areas including financial strength and stability, growth rate, and brand power. FASTSIGNS also ranked #2 on this year's Franchise Gator Top 100 list, ranking the best franchises for 2019. FASTSIGNS also has been ranked by Franchise Business Review as one of the "Best of the Best" for franchisee satisfaction for the last 10 years. Additionally, FASTSIGNS also was named to Franchise Business Review's "Innovative Franchises" list in 2017 and a "Best-in-Category" franchise by Franchise Business Review in 2018. In 2019, the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) awarded FASTSIGNS International, Inc. the Franchisees' Choice Designation for the seventh consecutive year for its strong relationship with Canadian franchisees, as well as extensive franchisee training and support. For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson ([email protected] or 214-346-5679). About FASTSIGNS FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the leading sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of more than 700 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in nine countries including the United States, Canada, Chile, England, Grand Cayman, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE). Locations are slated to open in two additional countries - Malta and Spain - in 2019. FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive signage and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, promote their products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points. FASTSIGNS centers provide architectural and interior decor graphics, fleet vehicle graphics, digital signs and digital signage content, event graphics, displays, banners, posters, ADA signage, safety and identification signs and much more, as well as handle everything from design to project management to installation. FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is a recipient of many awards, including being ranked the #1 franchise opportunity in its category in Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500 for the past three years, and Best-in-Category in the business services sector on Franchise Business Review's list of the top 200 franchises for multiple years. Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com . Follow the brand on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/fastsigns , Twitter @FASTSIGNS or Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS . For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson ([email protected] or call 214.346.5679). CONTACT: Chelsea Bear Fish Consulting 954-893-9150 [email protected] SOURCE FASTSIGNS International, Inc. Related Links http://www.fastsigns.com ATLANTA, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia Power continues to make progress towards the closure of seven ash ponds at Plant Yates with the dewatering process scheduled to begin in mid-May. Dewatering marks a significant step towards completing the closure process, and Georgia Power's ash pond closure plan for Plant Yates is specifically designed for the site to help ensure water quality is protected every step of the way. Four of the ash ponds nearest the river at Plant Yates are to be completely excavated with the ash consolidated with the remaining three ponds, which will be closed in place using advanced engineering methods and technologies. Ash pond closures are site-specific and consider multiple factors, such as pond size, location, geology and amount of material; and each closure is certified by a team of independent, professional engineers. "As we begin the dewatering process at Plant Yates, we are pleased with the progress we have made on our ash pond closure process throughout the state at all of our plants," said Dr. Mark Berry, vice president of Environmental & Natural Resources for Georgia Power. "We continue to focus on safety and meeting all compliance requirements throughout the process to fulfill our longstanding commitment to protect the environment and local communities. We have invested in appropriate water treatment systems to help ensure that our dewatering process is protective of the area's rivers. Throughout the process, clear communication to our customers and the community about our progress remains a priority." The ash pond dewatering plan for Plant Yates that has been approved by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) identifies the enhanced water treatment system, controls and monitoring that will be used during the process to help ensure that the water discharged is protective of water quality standards. The planned on-site closure methods will be permitted and regulated by the EPD. To date, the company has removed two of the seven ash ponds at Plant Yates, completed engineering and feasibility studies and filed permit applications with the EPD for the remaining ash ponds on site. Communication regarding the closure plan is provided through EPD notifications, advance public notice of permits and updates to local homeowners and local media. To read more about Plant Yates's ash pond closure and dewatering process, click here. Georgia Power first announced its plans to permanently close all of its ash ponds in September 2015, with initial plans released in June 2016. The company is in the process of completely excavating 19 ash ponds located adjacent to lakes and rivers with the remaining 10 being closed in place using advanced engineering methods and closure technologies. In November 2018, Georgia Power completed the submission of 29 Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) permit applications as required by the Georgia CCR rule for ash ponds and landfills. These permit applications outlined significant and detailed engineering information about Georgia Power's ash pond closure plans and landfill operations plans. The permitting application process was developed and completed with significant internal and external resources supported by multiple third-party consulting and engineering firms. Georgia Power's ash pond closure plans fully comply with the federal CCR rule, as well as the more stringent requirements of Georgia's state CCR rule. Georgia was one of the first states in the country to develop its own rule regulating management and storage of CCR such as coal ash. The state rule, which goes further than the federal rule, regulates all ash ponds and landfills in the state and includes a comprehensive permitting program through which the EPD will approve all actions to ensure ash pond closures are protective of water quality. In 2016, the company announced that all ash ponds will stop receiving coal ash in three years and the significant construction work necessary to accommodate the dry-handling of ash is on track to be completed in 2019. Today, more than 60 percent of the coal ash Georgia Power produces is recycled for various beneficial uses, such as Portland cement, concrete and cinder blocks. Protecting Water Quality Throughout Ash Pond Closure Process Since 2016, Georgia Power has installed approximately 500 groundwater monitoring wells, including 45 wells at Plant Yates, around its ash ponds and landfills to actively monitor groundwater quality. Monitoring is being conducted in compliance with federal and state laws and regulations. The company has also engaged independent, third-party contractors for sampling and accredited independent laboratories for analysis. The company continues to post testing results on Georgia Power's website and report them to the EPD. Based on the extensive data collected, the company has identified no risk to public health or drinking water. Dewatering Process Georgia Power's commitment to protecting water quality of surface waters, such as lakes and rivers, includes comprehensive and customized dewatering processes during ash pond closures. The company's process treats the water to help ensure that it meets the requirements of the plant's wastewater discharge permits approved by the EPD and is protective of applicable water quality standards. The dewatering process marks a significant step towards completing the ash pond closure process and has begun at four of Georgia Power's plants: Bowen, McDonough, McManus and Branch, with Plant Yates scheduled to begin in mid-May. About Georgia Power Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the Company's promise to 2.6 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the Company is consistently recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the Company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power). Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain information contained in this release is forward-looking information based on current expectations and plans that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements concerning the method and timing of planned closure of coal ash ponds. Georgia Power Company cautions that there are certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information that has been provided. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is not a guarantee of future performance and is subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Georgia Power Company; accordingly, there can be no assurance that such suggested results will be realized. The following factors, in addition to those discussed in Georgia Power Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, and subsequent securities filings, could cause actual results to differ materially from management expectations as suggested by such forward-looking information: the impact of recent and future federal and state regulatory changes, including environmental laws and regulations and tax and other laws and regulations to which Georgia Power Company is subject, as well as changes in application of existing laws and regulations; current and future litigation or regulatory investigations, proceedings, or inquiries; the ability to control costs and avoid cost and schedule overruns during the development, construction and operation of facilities; the ability to construct facilities in accordance with the requirements of permits and licenses and to satisfy any environmental performance standards; state and federal rate regulations and the impact of pending and future rate cases and negotiations; catastrophic events such as fires, earthquakes, explosions, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other storms, droughts, pandemic health events, or other similar occurrences; and the effect of accounting pronouncements issued periodically by standard-setting bodies. Georgia Power Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking information. SOURCE Georgia Power Related Links http://www.georgiapower.com LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE: GBX) (the "Company") today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the manufacturing business of American Railcar Industries (ARI) from ITE Management LP (ITE) in a transaction valued at $400 million, after adjustments for net tax benefits accruing to the Company, valued at $30 million. The gross purchase price of the manufacturing business totals $430 million. Included in the gross purchase price is $30 million for capital expenditures on railcar lining operations and other facility improvements at ARI. Also included in gross purchase price are convertible notes issued by Greenbrier to ARI in the principal amount of $50 million. The balance of the gross purchase price is cash consideration. Headquartered in St. Charles, Missouri, ARI was acquired by ITE in December 2018. The acquisition will diversify Greenbrier's American manufacturing presence, as well as broaden its product offerings with the addition of complementary designs. Greenbrier will acquire two railcar manufacturing facilities in Arkansas and five other operations that provide a range of railcar component and parts supply. These operations build hopper car outlets, tank car valves, axles, castings and railcar running boards, among other ancillary railcar products. Significant manufacturing efficiencies and cost savings are expected from the acquisition, along with a skilled workforce and geographic advantages throughout North America. "We expect the acquisition to be meaningfully accretive and position Greenbrier for growth in our core manufacturing and engineering business in North America. Cost synergies and economies of scale are expected to benefit our customers, including shippers, leasing companies and North American railroads," said William A. Furman, Chairman and CEO. "With a broader product portfolio and efficiencies extending from a larger operations base in America, we see this acquisition as a unique opportunity for Greenbrier to extend its position as a global leader in railcar manufacturing, with an increase in our total U.S.-based production and an expansion of our American-based workforce. We are especially pleased to work with ITE on this acquisition, since we already enjoy a strong relationship with them as a valued syndication customer." KEY STRATEGIC BENEFITS The acquisition is expected to: Strengthen core North American product base through complementary and supplementary railcar and component offerings, including vertical supply chain benefits. through complementary and supplementary railcar and component offerings, including vertical supply chain benefits. Enhance production footprint to better serve a geographically diverse customer base. to better serve a geographically diverse customer base. Provide new cost-saving opportunities through use of best practices, increased vertical integration, maximized production runs, improved supply chain efficiencies and lower transportation costs to key markets. through use of best practices, increased vertical integration, maximized production runs, improved supply chain efficiencies and lower transportation costs to key markets. Increase railcar offerings with access to vertically integrated parts and components. with access to vertically integrated parts and components. Broaden the customer base capitalizing on non-overlapping relationships with strategic operating lessors, Class I and short line railroads and shippers. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory reviews and approvals. After receiving the required approvals, Greenbrier expects the deal to close in calendar 2019. BofA Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC are serving as financial advisors to Greenbrier. Conference Call and Investor Information Greenbrier will host a teleconference to discuss this acquisition. In conjunction with this news release, Greenbrier has posted a supplemental presentation to our website. Teleconference details are as follows: April 18, 2019 8:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time Phone: 1-630-395-0143, Password: " Greenbrier " " Real-time Audio Access: ("Newsroom" at http://www.gbrx.com) About Greenbrier Greenbrier, headquartered in Lake Oswego, Oregon, is a leading international supplier of equipment and services to global freight transportation markets. Greenbrier designs, builds and markets freight railcars and marine barges in North America. Greenbrier Europe is an end-to-end freight railcar manufacturing, engineering and repair business with operations in Poland, Romania and Turkey that serves customers across Europe and in the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Greenbrier builds freight railcars and rail castings in Brazil through two separate strategic partnerships. We are a leading provider of freight railcar wheel services, parts, repair, refurbishment and retrofitting services in North America through our wheels, repair & parts business unit. Greenbrier offers railcar management, regulatory compliance services and leasing services to railroads and related transportation industries in North America. Through unconsolidated joint ventures, we produce industrial and rail castings, tank heads and other components. Greenbrier owns a lease fleet of 10,600 railcars and performs management services for 372,000 railcars. Learn more about Greenbrier at www.gbrx.com. UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995: This presentation may contain forward-looking statements, including any statements that are not purely statements of historical fact. Greenbrier uses words such as "affirms," "anticipates," "believes," "forecast," "potential," "goal," "contemplates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "hopes," "seeks," "estimates," "strategy," "could," "would," "should," "likely," "will," "may," "can," "designed to," "future," "foreseeable future" and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, reported backlog and awards that are not indicative of Greenbrier's financial results; uncertainty or changes in the credit markets and financial services industry; high levels of indebtedness and compliance with the terms of Greenbrier's indebtedness; write-downs of goodwill, intangibles and other assets in future periods; sufficient availability of borrowing capacity; fluctuations in demand for newly manufactured railcars or failure to obtain orders as anticipated in developing forecasts; loss of one or more significant customers; customer payment defaults or related issues; policies and priorities of the federal government regarding international trade, taxation and infrastructure; sovereign risk to contracts, exchange rates or property rights; actual future costs and the availability of materials and a trained workforce; failure to design or manufacture new products or technologies or to achieve certification or market acceptance of new products or technologies; steel or specialty component price fluctuations and availability and scrap surcharges; changes in product mix and the mix between segments; labor disputes, energy shortages or operating difficulties that might disrupt manufacturing operations or the flow of cargo; production difficulties and product delivery delays as a result of, among other matters, costs or inefficiencies associated with expansion, start-up, or changing of production lines or changes in production rates, changing technologies, transfer of production between facilities or non-performance of alliance partners, subcontractors or suppliers; ability to obtain suitable contracts for the sale of leased equipment and risks related to car hire and residual values; integration of current or future acquisitions and establishment of joint ventures; succession planning; discovery of defects in railcars or services resulting in increased warranty costs or litigation; physical damage or product or service liability claims that exceed Greenbrier's insurance coverage; train derailments or other accidents or claims that could subject Greenbrier to legal claims; actions or inactions by various regulatory agencies including potential environmental remediation obligations or changing tank car or other railcar or railroad regulation; and issues arising from investigations of whistleblower complaints; all as may be discussed in more detail under the headings "Risk Factors" and "Forward Looking Statements" in Greenbrier's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2018, Greenbrier's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended February 28, 2019, and Greenbrier's other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's opinions only as of the date hereof. Except as otherwise required by law, Greenbrier does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Adjusted diluted earnings per share, free cash flow and Adjusted EBITDA are not financial measures under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). These metrics are performance measurement tools commonly used by rail companies and Greenbrier. You should not consider these metrics in isolation or as a substitute for other financial statement data determined in accordance with GAAP. In addition, because these metrics are not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and are susceptible to varying calculations, the measures presented may differ from and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Adjusted diluted earnings per share excludes the after tax cost of synergies, purchase accounting related amortization, additional GAAP interest expense in excess of the cash interest cost on the convertible notes and the impact associated with other items we do not believe are indicative of our core business or which affect comparability. We believe these assist in comparing our performance across reporting periods. Free cash flow is defined as Adjusted EBITDA, less capital expenditures, adjusted for net changes in working capital and adjusted for taxes. We believe that free cash flow is supplemental information useful to investors as it is important in evaluating our financial performance. More specifically, free cash flow measures cash generated by the business after reinvestment. This measure represents cash available for both equity and debt holders to be used for dividends, share repurchases or principal reduction on outstanding debt. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net earnings (loss) before interest and foreign exchange, income tax expense (benefit), depreciation and amortization, cost of synergies and excluding the impact associated with items we do not believe are indicative of our core business or which affect comparability. We believe the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information as it excludes the impact of financing, foreign exchange, income taxes and the accounting effects of capital spending. These items may vary for different companies for reasons unrelated to the overall operating performance of a company's core business. We believe this assists in comparing our performance across reporting periods. SOURCE The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (GBX) Related Links http://www.gbrx.com CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Indalo Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing integrin antagonists for patients suffering from serious fibrotic diseases such as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), today announced the first healthy volunteer has been dosed in a Phase 1 clinical trial of the company's lead drug candidate IDL-2965. "IDL-2965 reflects true scientific innovation in the biology of treating fibrosis, an area with significant unmet medical need," commented Chief Medical Officer Bill Bradford, M.D., Ph.D. "Despite recent medical advances, median survival for patients diagnosed with IPF is still worse than many cancers, while NASH is rapidly becoming one of the most devastating epidemics of our time." IDL-2965 is an oral, selective antagonist of v1, v3, and v6 that uniquely inhibits multiple fibrogenic processes, including the local activation of TGF- (a central regulator of pathologic fibrosis) as well as the ability of stiff extracellular matrix to promote fibroblast migration and survival. Preclinically, IDL-2965 displays potent antifibrotic efficacy at low once-daily oral doses across multiple models of disease in vital organ systems, including the liver, lung, and kidney. IDL-2965 is being tested in an adaptive Phase 1/2a clinical trial program designed to progress rapidly from assessment of safety and pharmacokinetics (PK) in healthy volunteers to measurement of markers of target activation and disease in patients. The objective of the program is to provide a robust package of data to enable decision making and design for late-stage development in one or more indications as early as next year. "With the initiation of this study, IDL-2965 becomes one of very few direct antifibrotic drugs in clinical development for NASH and IPF, our initial target indications," added President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Jacks. "We are now laser-focused on advancing IDL-2965 rapidly into clinical evaluation in multiple patient populations to demonstrate the potential of our unique approach to treating fibrosis." Indalo's Chief Scientific Officer, Scott Seiwert, Ph.D., will present at the 3rd Annual NASH Summit in Boston, MA, on April 24th. About Indalo Therapeutics Indalo Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing integrin antagonists for patients suffering from serious fibrotic diseases such as NASH and IPF. Indalo's novel chemistry is unique compared to other therapeutic options being explored, as it provides target specificity in small molecules with favorable drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic properties. Indalo's founders have investigated integrin antagonist biology and chemistry for decades, and its R&D leadership team was responsible for the development and approval of Esbriet at InterMune. Atlas Venture and F-Prime Capital co-led the company's Series A financing in 2017. The company has also received funding from BioGenerator, MTC, iSelect Fund, and other investors. Indalo's corporate office is located in Cambridge, MA. For more information, please visit www.indalotherapeutics.com. SOURCE Indalo Therapeutics Related Links https://indalotherapeutics.com SEATTLE, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- iUNU, a computer vision SaaS-based company that launched LUNA, the first artificial intelligence platform for the greenhouse industry, announces the milestone of the LUNA knowledge base surpassing one billion square feet of imaging, in the single most extensive library of greenhouse machine knowledge. iUNU predicts that as it continues to cover more greenhouse square footage, LUNA will surpass the addition of one petabyte per year of imagery. While each grower operation using the LUNA platform owns and is in complete control of their imaging and data, the constant growth of the volume of imaging drives the machine learning and value the system provides. LUNA learns from each photo captured, providing an immeasurable depth of experience and knowledge to LUNA growers. "It's a snapshot in time, adding to recorded history," says iUNU CEO Adam Greenberg. "Every time LUNA takes a photo, it adds to its experience. Over time, it improves that knowledge so the system can better recognize and detect anomalies in the crop so precisely and with such sophistication that growers can let LUNA focus their crop scouting on the analysis of and solutions for the problems instead of manually collecting notes." iUNU built LUNA to be a grower's best friend; a tool that allows them to work proactively instead of reactively to solve plant growth issues in real time. LUNA helps growers redirect the way they use their time by reducing the number of hours dedicated toward scouting crops and walking through greenhouses to check environmental conditions. A lack of predictability heavily constrains greenhouse operations. Most growers still use manual data collection, causing inconsistencies due to inaccurate data, human error and inefficient facility management, which ultimately result in 10 to 25 percent crop loss. With the technological advancements pioneered by iUNU's team of engineers and horticulturalists, the industry now has a quantifiable and data-driven toolset that standardizes the process of commercial growing. The collected data is analyzed and presented in a simple, easy-to-use decision support tool that gives growers actionable insights and granular production management capabilities. In the traditionally labor-intensive and highly competitive greenhouse industry, where educated, experienced growers are in short supply, and high demand and labor resources are scarce, grower operations can't afford to lose experienced employees, yet turnover is high, and jobs are unattractive to younger generations. LUNA helps growers work smarter, not harder, and also provides grower operations with the ability to retain decades' worth of experience and knowledge that is otherwise lost when highly valued team members leave or retire. "LUNA works with your data just like an employee and treats your data as your data. When an employee leaves a greenhouse operation, they can't take proprietary processes with them, but they do take with them the experience and knowledge they have learned working with the plants. LUNA learns the same way," says Matt King, iUNU's Chief Technology Officer. "What we have gained with LUNA is the largest commercial knowledgebase in indoor agriculture that we can apply to your greenhouse, and help growers retain that knowledge over time." Further, the horticulture industry is amid a generational shift. LUNA helps to preserve valuable production and management information that would otherwise be lost. "With 63 percent of greenhouse owners above age 55, we'll soon be turning over two-thirds of valuable experience available to the greenhouse industry," Greenberg says. "We need to be able to capture that tribal knowledge to prevent that loss of experience for individual greenhouse operations and the industry as a whole." iUNU has grown significantly with more than 800 percent increase in greenhouse square footage since the first quarter of 2018, with operations throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company's team offers vast experience and knowledge in bringing the fourth industrial revolution to an industry that is just beginning a transformation similar to the one manufacturing has gone through. "With the greenhouse industry growing at a rate of 20 percent year over year, owners are scrambling to find solutions to manage and scale their growing operations effectively," Greenberg says. "iUNU's solution turns growing operations into data-driven manufacturing facilities." PRESS CONTACT (844) 476-4868 [email protected] www.iUNU.com Press Release Media Kit: https://iunu.com/press-kit SOURCE iUNU Related Links https://iunu.com BOSTON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- "Lift As I Climb~ An Immigrant Girl's Journey Through Corporate America", written by Jackie Glenn, has hit Amazon books. This groundbreaking biography details one immigrant woman's meteoric rise to the top of the business community through championing the importance of diversity and inclusion. Glenn's journey emigrating from Jamaica to nannying to becoming an executive has reminded her to pay it forward and lift, a message she retains throughout the book. Her experiences encourage readers to uplift others around them as they scale the corporate ladder or navigate life. Throughout the book, Glenn outlines ten "gems", or foundations of character, that one should develop for high returns. The book appeals to everyone from a range of backgrounds, promoting timeless values such as self-awareness, integrity, authenticity and boldness. "Jackie gives voice and brings to life the character, tenacity, and compassion that so many immigrants bring to this country, determined to make a better life for themselves and countless others," says Carol Fulp, President & CEO of The Partnership Inc. and author of Success Through Diversity: Why The Most Inclusive Companies Will Win. "As an immigrant, a woman, and a person of color, "Lift as I Climb" is a great example of how a senior executive in corporate America can support, mentor, develop, and sponsor others, both in and out of the workplace. Jackie reminds us that we each have a responsibility to pay it forward by lifting others up as we move up the career ladder," says Colette Phillips, President & CEO of Colette Phillips Communications and founder of Get Konnected! Glenn is the former VP of Global Diversity & Inclusion at Dell Technologies / Dell EMC. She focuses on implementing strategies and policies to unify organizations. While at Dell, she formed partnerships with a variety of institutions, including a STEM-based internship program with HBCU. She was cited one of Boston's 100 Most Influential People of Color (Get Konnected!), one of the Top 10 Influential Women in Diversity (Diversity Global Magazine), and 2018 Mosaic Award by MassTLC among other honors. She serves on the boards of the Children's Services of Roxbury, the Museum African-American, and the board of overseers of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. "Lift As I Climb ~ An Immigrant Girl's Journey Through Corporate America" is available on www.Amazon.com Soft Cover $19.99 & Hard Cover $24.99. Media Contact: Prachi Kabir, 617.357.5777, [email protected] SOURCE Jackie Glenn VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. (CSE: LDS), (OTCQX: LDSYF), (Frankfurt: LD6, WKN: A14XHT) ("LDS" or the "Company") announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Core Isogenics Inc. ("Core Isogenics") has contracted a licensed California cannabis farm consisting of over two acres of outdoor cultivation and three-quarters of an acre of covered canopy cultivation land in Sacramento, CA. Core Isogenics will supply expertise, seedlings and nutrients to the farm. The farm has two years of successful contaminant-free growth and all the necessary infrastructure to immediately begin cultivation of cannabis for Core Isogenics. The planting of seedlings is anticipated in early May 2019, upon completion of soil preparation and drip line irrigation installation scheduled for next week. The farm has already started cleaning and preparing the property in order to put cannabis plants in the ground as soon as possible. The farm is estimated to produce over 12,000 kilos of flower and trim for CannaStrips and for Highway 395 Dispensary. After the first harvest the Company plans on applying for additional cultivation licenses in order to maximize the footprint of the land, another half an acre of covered canopy. The benefits of contracting with the farm are many. The harvest from the farm will generate significant revenue from the crop, as well as clean biomass for CannaStrips and additional products for Highway 395 Dispensary. These products will be acquired well below current market price and without any middlemen. As an additional benefit, Core Isogenics will have access to large-scale outdoor and covered grows in order to prove out the seed genetics in multiple environments, while attracting other growers and farms to Core Isogenics' products and supplying CSPA Group, Inc. with biomass at extremely attractive prices. Casey Fenwick, President of LDS, stated, "We are fortunate to have established a relationship with this farm to contract this cultivation on their property. The contract cultivation on this farm will enable us to compete against black market pricing and still remain profitable. It's becoming apparent that to be competitive in the current cannabis market, companies will need to produce their own biomass on a large scale. With this farm, we have been fast-tracked to be able to accomplish this in a short amount of time because it is already an operating contaminant-free farm." The Company's CEO, Brad Eckenweiler, stated, "This accomplishment is just another milestone in the vertical integration that will support our company and our subsidiaries well into the cannabis future. The most amazing element of our vertical structure is that at every level of operation, each element of the vertical structure is capable of supporting its own operations while adding value to the entire operation. This should result in increased overall profitability for LDS." The Company will continue to update the market on all events as they become relevant. About Core Isogenics Inc. Core Isogenics Inc. holds a cultivation license and a nursery license located in Adelanto, California. Core Isogenics is creating isogenic strains for specific cannabis genetic characteristics, which will be consistent in each and every plant eliminating any variation of ingredients and or results for the customer experience. The strains produced will be genetically specific to the requirements of terpenes and cannabinoid profiles, both in variation and elemental structure, allowing for significant reduction of production cost as a result of extracting the exact formula from one plant vs many. About CSPA Group, Inc. CSPA Group, Inc. is located in Adelanto, California and is a City-Permitted and State-licensed manufacturer and distributor/transporter in the California cannabis industry. The company manufactures extracted oils and distillates, and produces CannaStrips under a license agreement with Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc., a British Columbia company. About Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. is a technology company that licenses its technology to a state-of-the-art production and packaging facility located in Southern California. The Company's technology produces infused strips (similar to breath strips) that are not only a safer, healthier option to other forms of delivery but also superior bioavailability of cannabis constituents. Some strips will also include supplemental co-active ingredients such as nutraceuticals, vitamins and peptides. The technology provides a new way to accurately meter the dosage and assure the purity of selected product. From start to finish, the production process, based on the Company's technology, tests for quality and composition of all the ingredients used in each and every strip which results in a delivery system that is safe, consistent and effective. Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. Brad Eckenweiler CEO & Director FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: [email protected] Cautionary Disclaimer Statement: The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. In addition, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Although Congress has prohibited the US Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws, this prohibition must be renewed each year to remain in effect. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. SOURCE Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. Related Links http://www.lifestyledeliverysystem.com Oller brings 26 years of experience as a Chief and LEAN Underwriter and has produced more than 350 closed transactions involving the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) loan platforms. She brings a deep understanding of FHA, multifamily and affordable housing that will allow Merchants Capital to grow its local presence in Chicago and regionally across the Midwest. "Merchants Capital is well known in the industry for its passion for multifamily and affordable housing," Oller said. "The biggest draw to joining Merchants was the ability to diversify our lending products especially Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The additional tools at our disposal, along with Merchants commitment to growth and innovation with the support from its banking operation, Merchants Bank, made the decision easy because of the direct benefit to clients." Joining Oller in the new Chicago office are three senior vice presidents: Susan Schnoll, Alan Cravitz and Brian Black. Schnoll is recognized in the Wisconsin market for her HUD lending knowledge. Cravitz and Black bring a combined 70 years of multifamily lending experience to the team. "This veteran team complements each other and has worked together for many years," said Oller of the employees joining her in the new Chicago office. "Our expansion to Chicago with this talented group is a very meaningful step in increasing our national lending footprint," said Michael Dury, president of Merchants Capital. "Lee's ability to lead is remarkable. We are very excited to introduce her team to our diverse lending products that will allow them to offer a wide variety of solutions." This expansion follows Merchants Capital's announcement that it is now servicing more than $10 billion in loans and was named No. 10 on the Top 25 Affordable Lenders of 2018 list by Affordable Housing Finance. The company continues to seek driven employees for a number of positions in all four offices, including New York City and Saint Paul, Minnesota. For career opportunities, visit www.merchantscapital.com/careers. For more information about Merchants Capital, visit www.merchantscapital.com. ABOUT MERCHANTS CAPITAL Merchants Capital, formerly PR Mortgage & Investments (and RICHMAC Funding), is a multifamily, affordable, and healthcare lender offering a direct way to access fixed rate, long-term, non-recourse financing via our bank, Merchants Bank, all with a single point of contact. Merchants Capital strives to provide the best origination and service of its loan products with exceptional customer service, accuracy, creativity, speed and conformance to regulations. To learn more about Merchants Capital, visit www.merchantscapital.com. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains forward-looking statements which reflect current views of Merchants Bancorp and its subsidiary, Merchants Capital Corp., with respect to, among other things, future events and our financial performance. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "may," "might," "should," "could," "predict," "potential," "believe," "expect," "continue," "will," "anticipate," "seek," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "projection," "goal," "target," "outlook," "aim," "would," "annualized" and "outlook," or the negative version of those words or other comparable words or phrases of a future or forward-looking nature. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond our control. Accordingly, we caution you that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, assumptions, estimates and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, actual results may prove to be materially different from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. A number of important factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements, including those factors identified in "Risk Factors" or "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Merchants Bancorp's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018 and in its subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements presented herein are made only as of the date of this press release, and we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect changes in assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events, or otherwise. SOURCE Merchants Capital Related Links http://www.merchantscapital.com WASHINGTON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- This Earth Day, April 22, NASA invites you to celebrate our beautiful home planet by participating in a global social media event and local events around the country. Here is a list of the major agency Earth Day activities: #PictureEarth on Social Media Celebrate the planet we all call home with NASA's #PictureEarth social media event. Post a close-up photo on social media of your favorite natural features, such as crashing waves, blooming flowers or stunning sunsets, with the hashtag #PictureEarth. Include the location where the photo was taken in the text of your social media post. On Earth Day, we will share some of NASA's most stunning images of Earth from space to help inspire you. We'll check Instagram, Twitter and our NASA Earth Facebook event page to find your images and select photos to showcase in future videos and composite images. Earth Day in the Nation's Capital Monday, April 22, and Tuesday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT Union Station Main Hall, 50 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington Learn about Earth, and how NASA explores our home planet and beyond, with more than 20 hands-on activities and demonstrations. Activities range from creating your own cloud in a bottle to using your smartphone to become a citizen Earth scientist. Public Talk: The Future Is Cloudy Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m. PDT in the Von Karman Auditorium at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, California Friday, April 19, at 7 p.m. PDT, in the Caltech, Ramo Auditorium at 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, California NASA scientists discuss the critical role clouds play in our planet's interconnected natural systems and in better understanding Earth's future climate. Speakers include Kate Marvel from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and Graeme Stephens and Brian Kahn from JPL. The April 18 talk will stream live on Ustream. NASA Science Live Broadcast: Our Weird Planet Monday, April 22 at 3 p.m. EDT The next episode of NASA Science Live highlights our weird and wonderful home: Earth. Join us for a live 30-minute show as experts discuss what makes our planet so special. Liquid water, a protective atmosphere and an active core that gives our planet a defensive shield are just a few of the features that make our home one of the most unique places in the solar system. Ask questions during the program using #askNASA or by commenting on the livestreams on Ustream, Periscope, Facebook Live and YouTube. The program also will air on NASA Television and the agency's website. Green Facility Grand Opening Monday, April 22, Building 4221 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama Media are invited to Marshall for the grand opening of the center's latest state-of-the-art facility. Building 4221 is an environmentally-friendly, glass and steel structure designed to federal guidelines on energy and water efficiency. The entire facility is specially insulated, and much of the exterior is covered in low-emissivity glass that deflects heat, thereby reducing cooling costs. Rooftop solar panels absorb energy to augment electrical power. Media interested in covering the event should contact Shannon Segovia at 256-544-0034 no later than 10 a.m. EDT Monday, April 22. NASA uses the vantage point of space to understand and explore our home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future. The agency's global observations of Earth's complex natural environment are critical to understanding how our planet's natural resources and climate are changing now and could change in the future. For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/earth SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Ole & Steen opens its second U.S. location in the heart of New York City's Midtown neighborhood. The opening marks the exciting expansion of the beloved Danish bakery in the U.S. after the recent January opening of its flagship NYC store in Union Square. The new Midtown location joins Ole & Steen's 100+ existing locations in Denmark, the UK and now the U.S. Founded in 1991 by bakers Ole Kristoffersen and Steen Skallebaek and originally called Lagkagehuset or "layer cake house," Ole & Steen is a pioneer in the resurgence of artisanal and handcrafted baking practices in Denmark. In New York, Ole & Steen is celebrated for introducing New Yorkers to their modern takes on traditional Danish pastries, while welcoming guests with a sense of Danish hygge and hospitality. Ole & Steen is open throughout the day, offering coffee, salads, soups and open-faced sandwiches, in addition to its signature breads, pastries and cakes. Guests can start the day with savory or sweet grain porridges, skyr pots with seasonal fruits or a traditional Danish breakfast roll with soft cheese. For lunch or dinner, open-faced sandwiches are served on carrot rye bread and topped with smoked salmon, roasted chicken or smoked trout, and salads are composed of seared Yellowfin tuna, heirloom carrots or roasted heritage chicken. To round out the savory options, guests can opt for warm soups and hearty entrees such as spicy butterbean stew or herb-roasted Norwegian salmon. In addition to coffee, hot chocolate and tea, Ole & Steen will also offer wine and beer from Mikkeller, another Danish import in New York City. The bread and pastry menu includes variations of traditional Danish rye, Olander and Skagen loafs, a Danish puff pastry called the Copenhagener and Christanshavner tarts, made with strawberry mousse and fresh berries. Located at 111 East 48th Street on the corner of Lexington Avenue aside the InterContinental New York Barclay, the newest Ole & Steen is in the heart of Midtown, outfitted in sleek Danish style, with Jura grey stone countertops, blackened brass accents, modern light fixtures and seating for up to 60 guests. Ole & Steen is open Monday through Friday from 7am-8pm and weekends from 8am-8pm. ABOUT OLE & STEEN Ole & Steen is a leading Danish bakery with over 100 stores in Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States. Founded in 1991 by bakers Ole Kristoffersen and Steen Skallebaek and originally called Lagkagehuset in Denmark or "layer cake house," Ole & Steen is a pioneer in the resurgence of artisanal and handcrafted baking practices in Denmark. The bakery offers modern takes on traditional Danish sweets, cakes, pastries and savory dishes in friendly environments with a sense of hygge and hospitality. For more information, visit oleandsteen.com. SOURCE Ole & Steen BROOKFIELD, Wis., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- OnCourse Learning Financial Services announced today a partnership with the California Community Banking Network (CCBN) to provide regulatory compliance training for members of CCBN. The CCBN, through its membership, plays a vital role in creating an atmosphere under which all banks in the state can thrive, prosper and continue to serve their communities. In today's highly regulated environment, banking professionals must have expert knowledge of the latest federal regulation changes in order to stay compliant and better serve customers. Partnership benefits "The partnership enables CCBN members to provide the industry's most respected bank training for their employees," said Brett Shively, president and CEO for OnCourse Learning. "Having highly trained bank employees gives bank managers the peace of mind to focus on offering the timely, personalized service their customers have come to expect." The OnCourse Learning 2019 Course Catalog for Banking offers hundreds of regulatory compliance training topics, including Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Fair Lending Overview and Introduction to Human Trafficking. CCBN designs educational programs, promotes connectivity among professional peers and advances legislative issues through boutique services that cultivate a supportive network for community bankers in California. "With this OnCourse Learning alliance, our bankers will now have access to online courses and case studies in a wide variety of formats, including engaging videos on some of the most critical topics in the financial services industry," said SVP of Member Services at CCBN John Lingvall. For media inquiries, contact: Ann Reist, Vice President, Marketing (847) 908-8077 [email protected] About OnCourse Learning OnCourse Learning empowers financial institutions to grow people with comprehensive enterprise compliance, risk management and professional development education. Our consultative partnership approach, flexible, purpose-built learning management platform, and over 600 effective and engaging courses help ensure career success while minimizing and mitigating compliance risk. For the past 40 years OnCourse Learning has worked with over 10,000 financial services institutions and partners and helped over 300,000 mortgage and insurance professionals begin and advance their careers. OnCourse Learning takes eLearning to the next level with personalized learning experiences and by delivering engaging educational content. Our learning, subject matter and compliance experts monitor regulatory changes and update courses to deliver compliance and professional development education that sticks. To learn more, visit OnCourseLearning.com. About California Community Banking Network CCBN connects community bankers to each other through networking opportunities. It arms California community bankers with knowledge through professional training and premier education, helps them shape public policy in Sacramento through advocacy and keeps them competitive in the marketplace through profitable products and solutions. CCBN provides networking opportunities among California community banking professionals through peer opportunities, roundtables and seminars. CCBN has more than 35 years in the community banking industry as a former subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and was previously known as the California Independent Bankers. CCBN's goal is to be responsive to the changing landscape of community banking in California. It was designed to create a sense of togetherness among California community banks and amplify the resources needed to give community banks a competitive edge. SOURCE OnCourse Learning Related Links https://www.oncourselearning.com NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, today announced Osisko Metals Inc. (TSX-V: OM;OTCQX: OMZNF), a Canadian exploration and development company, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. Osisko Metals upgraded to OTCQX from the Pink market. Osisko Metals begins trading today on OTCQX under the symbol "OMZNF" U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com. "We are pleased to welcome Osisko Metals to the OTCQX Best Market," said Jason Paltrowitz, EVP of Corporate Services at OTC Markets Group. "OTCQX companies must meet high financial standards, demonstrate compliance with U.S. securities laws, and have a professional third-party sponsor introduction. Upgrading to the OTCQX Market from the Pink Market is an important milestone for international issuers, and we look forward to supporting Osisko Metals as the company seeks to build visibility among U.S. investors." Christina Lalli, Director of Investor Relation of Osisko Metals added, "This is an important step forward for the Company. We have had much interest marketing in the U.S. over the last 12 months; the OTCQX Best Market will facilitate trading transaction and provide great exposure for U.S. Investors." Nauth LPC acted as the company's OTCQX sponsor. About Osisko Metals Inc. Osisko Metals is a Canadian exploration and development company creating value in the base metal space with a focus on zinc mineral assets. The Company controls Canada's two premier historical zinc mining camps: the Pine Point Mining Camp ("PPMC"), located on the south shore of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, near established infrastructure, paved highway access and with 100 kilometres of mine haulage roads and power substation already in place. The PPMC currently hosts a NI43-101 Inferred Mineral Resource of 38.4 Mt grading 4.58% zinc and 1.85% lead, making it the largest near-surface, pit-constrained zinc deposit in Canada (please refer to the SEDAR-filed Amended Technical Report for further information). The 2018-2019 drill holes, once fully assayed, will be incorporated into the database with the objective of issuing a new resource estimate in H2 2019. The Bathurst Mining Camp ("BMC"), located in New Brunswick, with NI43-101 Indicated Mineral Resources of 1.96 Mt grading 5.77% zinc, 2.38% lead, 0.22% copper and 68.9g/t silver (9.00% ZnEq) and Inferred Mineral Resources of 3.85 Mt grading 5.34% zinc, 1.49% lead, 0.32% copper and 47.7 g/t silver (7.96% ZnEq) in the Key Anacon and Gilmour South deposits. In Quebec, the Company owns 42,000 hectares that cover 12 grass-root zinc targets that will be selectively advanced through exploration in 2019. For further information on Osisko Metals, visit www.osiskometals.com or contact: Christina Lalli Director, Investor Relations Osisko Metals Incorporated (438) 399-8665 Email: [email protected] www.osiskometals.com About OTC Markets Group Inc. OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors. To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com. OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN are SEC regulated ATSs, operated by OTC Link LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Subscribe to the OTC Markets RSS Feed Media Contact: OTC Markets Group Inc., +1 (212) 896-4428, [email protected] SOURCE OTC Markets Group Inc. Related Links http://www.otcmarkets.com RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Nations Security Council on the Humanitarian Situation in Yemen was held in New York on 15 April 2019 to review the current humanitarian situation in Yemen and to secure funding for UN support for Yemen in 2019. At the meeting, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir Mark Lowcock, reviewed the pledge totals and spoke about the cholera epidemic and other issues of urgent concern to humanitarian organizations working in Yemen. "Donors pledged," Lowcock stated, "USD 2.6 billion for humanitarian action in Yemen this year, including a further USD billion joint pledge for the United Nations by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Last year's contribution from these two donors was channeled through the United Nations as a single, unearmarked grant early in the year, which I consider a best practice in humanitarian donorship. That was also a major factor in enabling us last year to stem the cholera outbreak, to enable us to roll back food insecurity in half of the pre-famine districts, and to help us save more children suffering from complicated severely-acute malnutrition more children than we were able to save in any other comparable operation globally." Over the past several years, the Kingdom has responded urgently with support for projects to help fight and contain Yemen's cholera epidemic. Saudi Arabia, through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), and the UAE, funded cholera-control activities in Yemen last year which resulted in a cure rate of 99%. KSrelief provided 550 tons of medicines and medical supplies at a cost of USD 1.2 million to Yemen to diagnose, control and treat the cholera epidemic, strongly contributing to the reduction in cholera mortality rates. In 25 May 2017, KSrelief signed an agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) for USD 8.2 million to help control cholera by strengthening and improving disease control activities, including the identification of infection sources and risk factors and the activation of rapid-response teams. The projects also focused on improving the quality of local water sources through testing water quality, sterilizing and disinfecting polluted water. In 23 June 2017, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman, directed a donation of USD 66.7 million to meet the medical needs of Yemenis affected by the cholera epidemic. Under this directive, KSrelief signed a project with WHO for USD 33.7 million as a response to WHO's anti-cholera appeal for Yemen, and a project with UNICEF for USD 33 million. This funding included projects in the areas of treatment, coordination, diagnosis, prevention, surveillance and other disease-control activities in the WASH and health sectors. At the UN's 2018 High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen in Geneva, Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Supervisor General of KSrelief, announced KSA's pledge of USD 500 million in support of the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan; and at the HRP event in February of 2019, the Kingdom donated another USD 500 million. On 8 April 2019, KSA and UAE announced additional funding of USD 200 million for urgent humanitarian assistance in Yemen part of the USD 500 million "Imdaad Initiative" announced in November 2018; this donation is part of an organized urgent-assistance campaign to support the country's food, nutrition, health and livelihoods sectors. This amount was allocated to UN agencies as follows: USD 140 million to WHO to bridge the funding gap for food needs, and USD 60 million designated specifically for cholera control: USD 40 million for UNICEF and USD 20 million for WHO. The latter two amounts were used to address public sanitation issues and provide urgent funding to control Cholera. The Kingdom's total financial contributions comprise one of the largest grant amounts in the history of the United Nations. Saudi Arabia is committed to providing ongoing support for the people of Yemen, including the fight against epidemic diseases in the country. The funding continues to be generous, however that will never be enough as long as the Red Sea grain mills in Hodeidah and humanitarian food stores continue to be not accessible. This is distributed by Qorvis Communications on behalf of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief). Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. SOURCE KSrelief NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Molecular Diagnostics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Technology, By Test Location, By Product (Instruments, Reagents), By Application (Oncology, Infectious Diseases), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2026 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05768007/?utm_source=PRN The global molecular diagnostics market size is expected to reach USD 19.8 billion by 2026., progressing at a CAGR of 9.1% over the forecast period. Increasing prevalence of infectious diseases, such as human papillomavirus and influenza, is expected to be the primary force driving the market. Instruments such as PCR and next generation sequencing platforms are widely preferred by central laboratories and diagnostic institutes due to rapid nature of these tests in delivering quick and reliable results and high volume of diagnostic procedures in this segment. Associated advantages including user-friendly nature of these tests and quick healthcare delivery are estimated to propel the point-of-care segment growth. In underdeveloped regions of Africa and Nigeria, other infections such as HIV and tuberculosis are increasing at a high rate since the last few years. This is estimated to increase demand for early and accurate diagnostic techniques to curb their surge. Molecular testing tools provide clinicians with better alternatives to detect countless infectious bacteria, virus, and pathogens in a short time while delivering highly accurate results. Initiatives led by organizations such as the WHO to conduct diagnostic programs in regions with high risk areas are estimated to be a high rendering driver. Prenatal genetic testing, performed for the purpose of early detection of abnormalities that develop in the fetuses, is also expected to widen the client base for the molecular diagnostics market. Moreover, high adoption of unhealthy lifestyles resulting in a large patient count afflicted with chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disorders is projected to positively impact the growth. Rising healthcare spending, increasing awareness among patients, and expansion of R&D activities related to drug discovery and development are expected to drive the market in North America and Europe. Rising demand for improved diagnostic technologies employed for the prevention of epidemics, unaddressed clinical needs, and recent activities by key players targeting expansion in this region are the major factors supporting the market growth in Asia Pacific. Key players are advancing strategic collaborations with major technology-based companies and diagnostic centers and tapping developing regions in an attempt to increase their market share and attain stability. Further key findings from the study suggest: On the basis of product, reagents were the largest revenue generating segment in 2018 owing to their elevated usage rates. Reagents are key products used in academic and research institutes to perform various molecular biology protocols, further contributing towards the growth of this segment Based on test location, central laboratories led the market with the largest market share in 2018 owing to their established base in the remote and developing regions. The point-of-care segment is expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period On the basis of application, infectious diseases dominated the overall molecular diagnostics market in 2018. The oncology application segment is expected to exhibit a CAGR of around 11.8% over the forecast period due to rising awareness among people as well as healthcare professionals pertaining to cancer diagnosis Based on technology, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) dominated the market in terms of revenue in 2018, attributed to growing applications of multiplex PCR over the conventional PCR procedure and introduction of easy-to-use PCR handling kits North America emerged as the largest regional segment in 2018, followed by Europe, primarily driven by well-established healthcare infrastructure. Asia Pacific is expected witness the fastest growth over the forecast period Some of the major players are Novartis AG (Grifols); Siemens Healthcare GmbH; Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.; Alere, Inc.; Danaher Corporation; BioMerieux SA; Sysmex Corporation; Becton; Dickinson and Company; Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.; Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.; Bayer AG, Qiagen; Hologic, Inc. (Gen Probe); Cepheid; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd; and Dako. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05768007/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com MCKINNEY, Texas, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Torchmark Corporation (NYSE: TMK) announces the following webcast: What: Torchmark Corporation Annual Shareholders Meeting Webcast When: April 25, 2019 @ 11 AM Eastern 10 AM Central Where: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/904/30326 Live over the internet Simply log on to the web at the address above. If you are unable to participate during the live webcast, the call will be archived on the website http://www.torchmarkcorp.com/ on the Investors/Calls and Meetings page under "Annual Meeting of Shareholders" Torchmark Corporation is a holding company specializing in life and supplemental health insurance for "middle income" Americans marketed through multiple distribution channels including direct response, and exclusive and independent agencies. Torchmark has several nationally recognized insurance subsidiaries. Globe Life And Accident is a direct-response provider of life insurance known for its administrative efficiencies. American Income Life provides individual life insurance to working families. Liberty National Life is one of the oldest traditional life insurers in the Southeast. United American is a consumer-oriented provider of supplemental life and health insurance. Family Heritage Life provides individual supplemental health insurance. SOURCE Torchmark Corporation Related Links http://www.torchmarkcorp.com OMAHA, Neb., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- First Quarter Results Diluted earnings per share of $1.93 increased 15 percent. Operating income totaled $2.0 billion , up 1 percent. Operating ratio of 63.6 percent, improved 1.0 point. Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP) today reported 2019 first quarter net income of $1.4 billion, or $1.93 per diluted share. This compares to $1.3 billion, or $1.68 per diluted share, in the first quarter 2018. "We delivered record first quarter financial results driven by improved operating performance, while dealing with significant weather challenges," said Lance Fritz, Union Pacific chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Unified Plan 2020 created a more resilient and robust network, allowing us to quickly return to normal operations." First Quarter Summary Operating revenue of $5.4 billion was down 2 percent in the first quarter 2019 compared to the first quarter 2018. First quarter business volumes, as measured by total revenue carloads, decreased 2 percent compared to 2018. Volume increases in industrial and premium were more than offset by declines in energy and agricultural products. In addition: Quarterly freight revenue declined 2 percent compared to the first quarter 2018, as increased fuel surcharge revenue and core pricing gains were offset by lower volumes and negative mix. Union Pacific's 63.6 percent operating ratio improved 1.0 point compared to the first quarter 2018. The $2.07 per gallon average quarterly diesel fuel price in the first quarter 2019 was 3 percent lower than the first quarter 2018. per gallon average quarterly diesel fuel price in the first quarter 2019 was 3 percent lower than the first quarter 2018. Union Pacific recognized a payroll tax refund of $42 million , along with associated interest income of $27 million in the first quarter 2019. , along with associated interest income of in the first quarter 2019. Quarterly freight car velocity was 185 daily miles per car, a 7 percent improvement compared to the first quarter 2018. Union Pacific's reportable personal injury rate was 0.90 per 200,000 employee-hours, compared to 0.74 in the first quarter 2018. The Company repurchased 18.1 million shares in the first quarter 2019 at an aggregate cost of $3.5 billion . Summary of First Quarter Freight Revenues Energy down 16 percent Agricultural Products down 3 percent Premium up 3 percent Industrial up 5 percent 2019 Outlook "We look to build on the momentum we had prior to the weather challenges and provide a consistent, reliable service product for our customers, while at the same time improving our operating efficiency," Fritz said. "We remain focused on increasing shareholder returns through appropriate capital investments and returning excess cash to shareholders." First Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call Union Pacific will host its first quarter 2019 earnings release presentation live over the Internet and via teleconference on Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 8:45 a.m. Eastern Time. The presentation will be webcast live over the internet on Union Pacific's website at www.up.com/investor. Alternatively, the webcast can be accessed directly through the following link. Participants may join the conference call by dialing 877/407-8293 (or for international participants, 201/689-8349). ABOUT UNION PACIFIC Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP). One of America's most recognized companies, Union Pacific Railroad connects 23 states in the western two-thirds of the country by rail, providing a critical link in the global supply chain. The railroad's diversified business mix is classified into its Agricultural Products, Energy, Industrial and Premium business groups. Union Pacific serves many of the fastest-growing U.S. population centers, operates from all major West Coast and Gulf Coast ports to eastern gateways, connects with Canada's rail systems and is the only railroad serving all six major Mexico gateways. Union Pacific provides value to its roughly 10,000 customers by delivering products in a safe, reliable, fuel-efficient and environmentally responsible manner. Supplemental financial information is attached. This presentation and related materials contain statements about the Company's future that are not statements of historical fact, including specifically the statements regarding the Company's expectations with respect to economic conditions and demand levels and its ability to improve network performance and customer service. These statements are, or will be, forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements also generally include, without limitation, information or statements regarding: projections, predictions, expectations, estimates or forecasts as to the Company's and its subsidiaries' business, financial, and operational results, and future economic performance; and management's beliefs, expectations, goals, and objectives and other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times that, or by which, such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking information, including expectations regarding operational and financial improvements and the Company's future performance or results are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in the statement. Important factors, including risk factors, could affect the Company's and its subsidiaries' future results and could cause those results or other outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Information regarding risk factors and other cautionary information are available in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2018, which was filed with the SEC on February 8, 2019. The Company updates information regarding risk factors if circumstances require such updates in its periodic reports on Form 10-Q and its subsequent Annual Reports on Form 10-K (or such other reports that may be filed with the SEC). Forward-looking statements speak only as of, and are based only upon information available on, the date the statements were made. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect thereto or with respect to other forward-looking statements. References to our website are provided for convenience and, therefore, information on or available through the website is not, and should not be deemed to be, incorporated by reference herein. UNION PACIFIC CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income (unaudited) Millions, Except Per Share Amounts and Percentages, 1st Quarter For the Periods Ended March 31, 2019 2018 % Operating Revenues Freight revenues $ 5,010 $ 5,122 (2) % Other 374 353 6 Total operating revenues 5,384 5,475 (2) Operating Expenses Compensation and benefits 1,205 1,273 (5) Purchased services and materials 576 599 (4) Depreciation 549 543 1 Fuel 531 589 (10) Equipment and other rents 258 266 (3) Other 305 266 15 Total operating expenses 3,424 3,536 (3) Operating Income 1,960 1,939 1 Other income/(expense) 77 (42) F Interest expense (247) (186) 33 Income before income taxes 1,790 1,711 5 Income taxes (399) (401) - Net Income $ 1,391 $ 1,310 6 % Share and Per Share Earnings per share - basic $ 1.94 $ 1.69 15 % Earnings per share - diluted $ 1.93 $ 1.68 15 Weighted average number of shares - basic 716.8 776.4 (8) Weighted average number of shares - diluted 719.5 779.6 (8) Dividends declared per share $ 0.88 $ 0.73 21 Operating Ratio 63.6% 64.6% (1.0) pts Effective Tax Rate 22.3% 23.4% (1.1) pts UNION PACIFIC CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES Freight Revenues Statistics (unaudited) 1st Quarter For the Periods Ended March 31, 2019 2018 % Freight Revenues (Millions) Agricultural Products $ 1,067 $ 1,098 (3) % Energy 982 1,173 (16) Industrial 1,410 1,340 5 Premium 1,551 1,511 3 Total $ 5,010 $ 5,122 (2) % Revenue Carloads (Thousands) Agricultural Products 259 279 (7) % Energy 358 419 (15) Industrial 429 411 4 Premium [a] 1,041 1,016 2 Total 2,087 2,125 (2) % Average Revenue per Car Agricultural Products $ 4,123 $ 3,942 5 % Energy 2,740 2,799 (2) Industrial 3,292 3,262 1 Premium 1,489 1,487 - Average $ 2,401 $ 2,411 - % [a] For intermodal shipments, each container or trailer equals one carload. UNION PACIFIC CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES Condensed Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (unaudited) Mar. 31, Dec. 31, Millions, Except Percentages 2019 2018 Assets Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,059 $ 1,273 Short-term investments 60 60 Other current assets 2,834 2,830 Investments 1,951 1,912 Net properties 52,856 52,679 Operating lease assets 2,146 - Other assets 413 393 Total assets $ 61,319 $ 59,147 Liabilities and Common Shareholders' Equity Debt due within one year $ 1,703 $ 1,466 Other current liabilities 3,559 3,160 Debt due after one year 23,409 20,925 Operating lease liabilities 1,663 - Deferred income taxes 11,408 11,302 Other long-term liabilities 1,835 1,871 Total liabilities 43,577 38,724 Total common shareholders' equity 17,742 20,423 Total liabilities and common shareholders' equity $ 61,319 $ 59,147 UNION PACIFIC CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (unaudited) Millions, Year-to-Date For the Periods Ended March 31, 2019 2018 Operating Activities Net income $ 1,391 $ 1,310 Depreciation 549 543 Deferred income taxes 103 112 Other - net (84) (64) Cash provided by operating activities 1,959 1,901 Investing Activities Capital investments (752) (910) Purchases of short-term investments (90) (60) Maturities of short-term investments 90 60 Other - net (32) (9) Cash used in investing activities (784) (919) Financing Activities Debt issued 2,992 150 Common share repurchases (2,987) (1,166) Dividends paid (626) (568) Debt repaid (560) (237) Accelerated share repurchase programs pending final settlement (500) - Net issuance of commercial paper 299 636 Other - net (23) (24) Cash used in financing activities (1,405) (1,209) Net Change in Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash (230) (227) Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at beginning of year 1,328 1,275 Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Restricted Cash at End of Period $ 1,098 $ 1,048 Free Cash Flow* Cash provided by operating activities $ 1,959 $ 1,901 Cash used in investing activities (784) (919) Dividends paid (626) (568) Free cash flow $ 549 $ 414 * Free cash flow is a non-GAAP measure; however, we believe this measure is important to management and investors in evaluating our financial performance and measures our ability to generate cash without additional external financing. UNION PACIFIC CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES Operating and Performance Statistics (unaudited) 1st Quarter For the Periods Ended March 31, 2019 2018 % Operating/Performance Statistics Freight car velocity (daily miles per car) 185 173 7 % Average train speed (miles per hour)* 23.3 24.8 (6) Average terminal dwell time (hours)* 26.6 33.0 (19) Locomotive productivity (GTMs per horsepower day) 111 105 6 Gross ton-miles (GTMs) (millions) 210,319 226,929 (7) Workforce productivity (car miles per employee) 812 826 (2) Employees (average) 40,053 41,735 (4) Locomotive Fuel Statistics Average fuel price per gallon consumed $ 2.07 $ 2.13 (3) % Fuel consumed in gallons (millions) 248 267 (7) Fuel consumption rate** 1.182 1.175 1 Revenue Ton-Miles (Millions) Agricultural Products 23,586 25,173 (6) % Energy 35,215 43,962 (20) Industrial 24,318 24,290 - Premium 23,531 23,975 (2) Total 106,650 117,400 (9) % * AAR reported performance measures. ** Fuel consumption is computed as follows: gallons of fuel consumed divided by gross ton-miles in thousands. UNION PACIFIC CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES Non-GAAP Measures Reconciliation to GAAP Adjusted Debt / Adjusted EBITDA* Millions, Except Ratios Mar. 31, Dec. 31, for the Trailing Twelve Months Ended [a] 2019 2018 Net income $ 6,047 $ 5,966 Less: Other income 213 94 Add: Income tax expense 1,773 1,775 Depreciation 2,197 2,191 Interest expense 931 870 EBITDA $ 10,735 $ 10,708 Interest on operating lease liabilities** 77 84 Adjusted EBITDA (a) $ 10,812 $ 10,792 Debt $ 25,112 $ 22,391 Operating lease liabilities*** 2,080 2,271 Unfunded pension and OPEB, net of taxes of $128 and $135 446 456 Adjusted debt (b) $ 27,638 $ 25,118 Adjusted debt / Adjusted EBITDA (b/a) 2.6 2.3 [a] The trailing twelve months income statement information ended March 31, 2019 is recalculated by taking the twelve months ended December 31, 2018, subtracting the three months ended March 31, 2018, and adding the three months ended March 31, 2019. * Total debt plus operating lease liabilities plus after-tax unfunded pension and OPEB obligation divided by net income less other income plus income tax expense, depreciation, interest expense, and interest on operating lease liabilities. Adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and interest on operating lease liabilities) is considered a non-GAAP financial measure by SEC Regulation G and Item 10 of SEC Regulation S-K and may not be defined and calculated by other companies in the same manner. We believe this measure is important to management and investors in evaluating the Company's ability to sustain given debt levels (including leases) with the cash generated from operations. In addition, a comparable measure is used by rating agencies when reviewing the Company's credit rating. Adjusted debt to Adjusted EBITDA should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, net income. The table above provides reconciliations from net income to adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDA. At both March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018, the incremental borrowing rate on operating lease liabilities was 3.7%. ** Represents the hypothetical interest expense we would incur (using the incremental borrowing rate) if the property under our operating leases were owned or accounted for as finance leases. *** Effective January 1, 2019, the Company adopted Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02 (ASU 2016-02), Leases. ASU 2016-02 requires companies to recognize lease assets and lease liabilities on the balance sheet. Prior to adoption, the present value of operating leases was used in this calculation. SOURCE Union Pacific Corporation NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating the proposed merger of Worldpay, Inc. ("Worldpay" or the "Company") (NYSE: WP) with Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. ("FIS"). Click here for more information: www.faruqilaw.com/WP. There is no cost or obligation to you. The firm's investigation focuses on whether Worldpay and its Board of Directors violated federal securities laws and/or breached fiduciary duties in relation to the proposed transaction with FIS, including whether the solicitation material is misleading and whether the merger consideration undervalues the Company to the detriment of Worldpay's shareholders. If you own common stock in Worldpay and wish to obtain free of charge additional information about this investigation regarding your investments, please visit us at www.faruqilaw.com/WP. You can also contact James M. Wilson, Jr., Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (877) 247-4292 or (212) 983-9330. Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP is a national law firm which represents investors and individuals in class action litigation. The firm is focused on providing exemplary legal services in complex litigation in the areas of securities, shareholder, antitrust and consumer litigation, throughout all phases of litigation. The firm has an experienced trial team which has achieved significant victories on behalf of the firm's clients. To keep track of the latest securities litigation news, follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/faruqilaw or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FaruqiLaw. Contact: Nadeem Faruqi, Esq. James M. Wilson, Jr., Esq. FARUQI & FARUQI, LLP 685 Third Avenue, 26th Floor New York, NY 10017 Telephone: (877) 247-4292 or (212) 983-9330 E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. SOURCE Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Related Links http://www.faruqilaw.com The Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize was formally launched in 2018 by Blancpain, the fine watchmaking brand from Switzerland, and The Imaginist, one of the most influential publishing brands in China. The first literary prize accompanied by 300,000 yuan (approx. US$43,675) was won by Wang Zhanhei, a young novelist of the post-90s generation. The Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize, the first of its kind, aims to discover and encourage excellent Chinese authors under the age of 45. The Prize is committed to being impartial, authoritative and professional since its establishment. The Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize, an important and formalized honor that recognizes contemporary young authors, in an effort to establish a reward system independent of the commercial market Yan Lianke, one of the judges, said during the selection process of the 1st Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize: "A serious, formal, and continuing awards program for young authors in China simply did not exist, hence the need for its creation. I think this award will certainly serve to fill this gap in terms of rewarding literary creation in China and will continue to do so." Judge Tang Nuo said when talking about his expectations surrounding the award: "Great literature increasingly needs a reward system that is independent of the commercial market, as the content of such literature may run counter to and even be antithetical to market forces. At this point, we need another way. Literary prizes can play such a role, saving some books from the increasingly powerful and decisive force of the market." Breaking the status quo while creating other opportunities and possibilities for young writers is the original intention of the Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize. Literature is a ritual of life introspection and the advent of the literary prize for young authors is a vehicle by which dedicated and persistent writers can be recognized. Blancpain and The Imaginist jointly set up the rules selecting who would be included in the initial longlist and in the follow-up shortlist in accordance with international practices, as well as the diversity in the composition of the jury and the announcement of the first prize winner at the awards ceremony, in a move to ensure the impartiality and professionalism of the selection, while making the prize something of importance and something to be treated with respect. Both Blancpain and The Imaginist said that the ultimate meaning of the prize is "connection", in the sense of connecting the author's long and lonely road of creativity with the possibility of a successful future, connecting creators of different generations, connecting writers and readers while, at the same time, connecting China and the world. The connection begins with Blancpain's and The Imaginist's shared values: persistence, quality and transparency. Blancpain, the 284-year old creator of mechanical timepieces, is loyal to its tradition of innovation, becoming the most vibrant maker of prestigious top-quality timepieces and tenaciously abiding to the principle of "never a second-class product". Blancpain has been an advocate of cultural projects for many years, with the aim of creating opportunities and platforms for talented, thoughtful and persistent young individuals from different walks of life. The Imaginist, one of the most influential and forward-looking cultural brands in China, has always been committed to an ideal society and has kept an open mind when it comes to the world's diversity and complexity, enabling the existence of more possibilities. The Imaginist is not only a publisher dedicated to nourishing the minds of generations of readers, but also a dynamic community. A jury roster that brings new judges on board each year has become the tradition as well as a highlight of the Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize The jury is the most important element that differentiates this prize from others like it. The composition of the jury reveals the dedication and determination of the Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize committee to deliver something truly meaningful to the authors that have taken the trouble to make a submission. Inclusion of professional authors, critics, scholars, creators of other art genres and literary editors in the jury shows the diversity. In addition, a jury roster that brings new judges on board each year has enabled genuine thought leadership, while complying with the basic principles of impartiality, authoritativeness and professionalism. In addition, the Prize creates a social platform where well-established authors can communicate with and encourage the emerging authors. The jury of the second Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize includes Dai Jinhua, Huang Ziping, Jia Zhangke, Lu Nei and Zhang Dachun. In addition to completing the selection process, the judges will share their opinions on literature, creation, art and other topics. Dai Jinhua is a Peking University Professor of Humanities, doctoral advisor and director of the Center for Film and Cultural Studies at Peking University. Huang Ziping is a former editor of Peking University Press, lecturer in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University and a Honorary Professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University. His representative works include The Imp of a Contemplative Old Tree and The Narration in "Huilan". Huang Ziping, Chen Pingyuan, and Qian Liqun first proposed the concept of "Chinese literature of the twentieth century" in 1985. Jia Zhangke is a famous Chinese film director, producer and writer. His representative works include the films Ash is Purest White, Still Life and Xiao Wu and the book series Jiaxiang I and II and Jia Zhangke's Notes on Films. Lu Nei is a renowned novelist. His representative works include Young Babylon, Mercy and The Flower Street Happenings. He has won awards and honors including the Chinese Literature Media Award-Best Novel of the Year, the Chinese Figure of the Year from Southern People Weekly and the Writer of the Year from GQ Chinese version. Zhang Dachun is an acclaimed writer and calligrapher. He has won many Chinese literature awards. His representative works include non-fiction As One Family, Knowing Your Chinese Characters, Wen Zhang Zi Zai, Interpretation of the Origins of Chinese Characters, as well as his fictional Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty and "Season" series. Now accepting entries, with the grand winner to be announced in September Qualified applicants for the Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize are authors under the age of 45 and who have published works in Simplified Chinese. The Prize consists of 300,000 yuan to be provided to the grand winner with the purpose of giving the recipient the time and space to focus on his or her writing. Entries are restricted to novels of all themes, including pure literature, crime novels, detective stories and science fiction. Entries can be submitted by an author, a publisher or any kind of publishing organization. Publishers/publishing organizations can submit up to two works, one for each of two authors that they represent, while the author can submit one of his or her own works. Entries must be works published between May 1, 2018 and April 30, 2019. The deadline for submission is May 15. On August 1, the review committee will release a shortlist of entries, consisting of two to three nominations from each member of the committee. Then, on September 1, the committee will vote for a final list of 5 candidates. The final winner will be announced at the award ceremony to be held in late September. For more updates, please visit the official website http://www.ilixiangguo.com/literary.html or follow the Chinese-language hashtag for the Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize on Sina Weibo. SOURCE Blancpain Related Links http://www.ilixiangguo.com BRADENTON, Fla., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A newly formed insurance and claims services group has been incorporated in the greater Tampa Bay area. Led by a seasoned board of directors and an experienced leadership team, the organization will reposition and expand a series of fully owned operating companies through a focus on technology delivery and innovative approaches to delivering value to the workers' compensation and P&C insurance sectors. From Left to Right: Maciej (MJ) Giorgi, Jason Hawker, Terry Boling, Jeff Vaughn Accelevant is a new parent company with a broad reach across a wide spectrum of insurance and claims services. Several quickly growing operating companies (organically built or acquired) are positioned under the Accelevant umbrella; Ascential Care (a managed care, telephonic / field nurse case management company), Watchpoint (a private investigations company focused on claims fraud and jury selection science), RMA (a risk management and loss control company), Accelevant Premium Audit (an insurance and PEO audit company) and Accelevant Subrogation Services (a specialty technology and claims subrogation company). Accelevant, with an established nationwide footprint, will service new customers as well as an existing customer base consisting of dozens of nationally recognized Insurance carriers, TPAs and Self Insured Employers. "Synergy across our services platform is the key to our individual companies' successes. That synergy is the product of our open, collaborative culture and commitment to collective thought from our companies' presidents," said Jeff Vaughn, Accelevant CEO. Off To The Races Accelevant has made a big splash in the marketplace through a recent acquisition just weeks after formation. Accelevant purchased CTS Premium Audit from CTS Holdings out of Fort Lauderdale, FL. The asset purchase is the catalyst for heavy investments of financial and human capital supporting a growth strategy, which has already yielded contract commitments from two additional national carriers. "This purchase positions Accelevant to deepen its client relationships and further leverage technology as our competitive advantage. Premium Audit is a highly detailed specialty and will further showcase our technical capabilities, as a former CIO, I can say our tech is the real deal," said Vaughn. Leadership 2.0 The Board of Directors and advisers at Accelevant, consisting of a half-dozen key contributors from the insurance, PEO, claims and workers compensation industries, hand-selected a leadership team with track records of success across key disciplines. Four executive leaders will work to create and drive the strategic vision for each of Accelevant's operating companies as well as act as a core support mechanism for individual company presidents and their teams, currently totaling nearly 200. "Our leadership philosophy might be a bit foreign to some but that's what makes our group special and allows us to be so highly effective," said Vaughn. The four Accelevant executive leaders do not have offices, don't have their names on doors and have collaborated on implementing practices they know to be effective in growing and running modern service companies. "Open collaboration space and sharing ideas -- not leadership from behind closed doors -- is what we practice, and the amount of value coming from simply maximizing contact time and communication is immeasurable," Vaughn said. Jeff Vaughn was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Accelevant in March 2019 having spent 15 years in technology leadership roles within workers' compensation and private equity. Vaughn will oversee enterprise strategy, operating company presidents and related teams consisting of ~185 total employees. Vaughn also co-founded and sits on an advisory board of Acclivity Health Solutions (a patient-centered company focused on the management and improvement of advanced illness). Vaughn spent 11 years at Align Networks (a division of One Call Care Management) focused on workers compensation technology and running M&A workstreams. From 2016-2019 he was a portfolio chief information officer within a private equity company and CIO at Sunz Insurance Holdings. Jason Hawker was named Accelevant's vice president of operations in March 2019. He brings more than 20 years of accumulated technology, operations and project management experience. Hawker's past includes an asset management systems engineer role with Raymond James Financial and a global project leadership role for Sykes Enterprises where he led offshore deployments for Ford motor company and Ameriprise - also held various leadership roles within telecom and Fortune 500 companies such as Home Depot. Most recently he held a senior director of enterprise project management role within a work comp insurance carrier. Hawker will oversee enterprise operations for all fee-for-service companies while supporting Accelevant's marketplace strategies and culture. Maciej (MJ) Giorgi was appointed vice president of Enterprise Business Solutions in March 2019. Giorgi earned his master's degree in finance from the Higher School of Insurance and Banking in Warsaw, Poland. He has 20 years experience in leveraging technology to achieve process efficiency. He managed nationwide insurance programs in the European Union for groups such as AON Warranty and Gras Savoye and served companies such as Centrica PLC (Direct Energy). Terry Boling has been named senior vice president at Accelevant overseeing several internal and marketplace-facing functions. Boling received his education at The University of Tennessee and in 1997, immediately began his career in the insurance industry. Prior to a pivot toward insurance investigations, Boling held positions in business development and underwriting. Throughout his more than 20-year career in the insurance sector, Boling specialized in fee-for-service and internal special investigations and brings a proven track record of success through a focus on culture and a dedication to strong partnerships within the industry. An Uncommon Approach to Insurance Services Accelevant is relentlessly pursuing quality customer partnerships and its continued expansion into the insurance and claims services sectors by looking at the world through a technical lens - which is quite different than most of its competitors. "The way we think about business, our customers' needs and the means by which we engage day-to-day with our people, is certainly outside the norm within insurance services, but our differences are quickly being recognized as strengths in the market," Vaughn said. Vaughn concludes with, "Our clients see us as partners rather than service providers and that starts from the very beginning of the relationship where we focus first on mutual value delivery, rather than a disguised pursuit of revenue." For media or business inquiries, please contact us: [email protected] Or visit us on the web at: www.accelevant.com Related Images accelevant-leadership-team.jpg Accelevant Leadership Team From Left to Right: Maciej (MJ) Giorgi, Jason Hawker, Terry Boling, Jeff Vaughn image2.png SOURCE Accelevant Related Links http://www.accelevant.com Located in a district wherein the Ghanaian Statical Services has reported that 66 percent of the population has never been to school, the Karaga Senior High School has a student population of 1618 persons. It has been located in the Karaga District's Nangung community since 2009, and the average distance traveled to and from school, by its students, daily, is more than 15 miles. Given those distances, some communities in the Karaga District have recently been recording school dropout rates of 90 percent, as students transition from primary school to JHS 1. With a population of 77,706 persons, and an average household size of 10, Karaga is classified among the poorest and most under-served districts in Ghana. In addition, 34 percent of Northern Region households are in the nation's lowest income quintile, and the literacy rate among those who are 15 years of age, or older, is just 33 percent, as compared to Ghana's national literacy rate of 72 percent, as of 2012. Ghana's Northern Region is also notable for its severe forms of chronic and acute malnutrition. Accordingly, 11 percent of Karaga's households are defined as moderately or severely "food insecure." Patricia Marshall Harris, ABCF's executive director, said the foundation was, once again, especially pleased to have purchased the 75 bicycles for the current distribution, from the Kumasi-based Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative (GBBI). She also emphasized that Karaga was probably one of the best places in Ghana to test the Foundation's belief that student academic performance can be improved through better access to far-flung, rural school facilities. Ms. Harris also added, "The future of Ghana, we and GBBI's CEO Bernice Dapaah all believe, is substantially dependent upon how well we can all assist the country's children to have better access to education, no matter where they happen to live, so as to be able to compete and excel throughout the 21st century." ABCF also agrees with the findings in the 2014 Ghana Statical Services report that stressed that, left unaddressed, there will continue to be a huge gap in educational attainment between urban children and their rural counterparts. The report added that only eight percent of Ghana's urban-dwelling children had no education, while almost one in every four of the country's children who live in rural areas had no education. The foundation is also guided by the 2018 report, "Dropout issues and Economic Implications: Evidence from Rural Ghana," which included "poverty" and "long distances to school" among major contributors to the school dropout phenomenon in the country. Ms. Dapaah was also hopeful that the bicycle distribution program might especially improve academic, economic and social outcomes for Karaga's female students, whose achievements in those areas have been negatively impacted by the district's pregnancy rates. The actual bicycle distribution program, which was held at Karaga Senior High School, included: Greetings by program moderator Mr. Kweku Mbeebi, An opening prayer by student Abu Ada Yatasu, An opening address by District Director of Education Hajia Rahamatu Garbah, Remarks by GBBI founder Bernice Dapaah , , A brief speech by Nangung Chief Alhaji Abukari Nangung, The actual presentation of the 75 bicycles to the students, Remarks by Alhassan Abdulai , head teacher, Karaga Senior High School, and , head teacher, Karaga Senior High School, and Closing remarks by Mr Musah Yaya , a Karaga Senior High School teacher ABCF officials are planning to arrive in Ghana, in July 2019, to participate in the distribution of the foundation's 500th free bamboo bicycle. Who Is ABCF? The African Bicycle Contribution Foundation (ABCF) is a 5013 non-profit corporation whose mission is to generate funding to underwrite the distribution of bicycles to under-resourced students, teachers, and transport-dependent small farmers and healthcare workers, in Ghana. The Corporation has made a commitment to finance the free distribution of 2500 bicycles in Ghana, over its first five years of operation. ABCF works in partnership with the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative, which produces the iconic Eco-Ride bamboo bicycle; the Bright Generation Community Foundation, the Respect Alliance, and the U.S.-Ghana Chamber of Commerce. Included among the foundation's corporate and charitable non-profit sponsors are Independence Blue Cross; Google, LLC; PayPal; Amazon Smile; St. Joseph's University (Philadelphia, PA); Omega Omega Chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority; Millennium 3 Management, Inc.; Dr. and Mrs. Colin A. Romero; and Charlie and Elise Pizzi. For further information about ABCF, please contact the ABCF offices: [email protected] . CONTACT: A. Bruce Crawley Tel: 215-751-0140 [email protected] SOURCE African Bicycle Contribution Foundation NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee (AJC) has donated funds to help rebuild three historically black churches in Louisiana destroyed in a series of arson attacks. "Insidious attacks on houses of worship tear at the fabric of communities," said Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations. "On the eve of the Easter holiday, we empathize with the African American parishioners, with their painful loss and with their willful strength to overcome this malicious tragedy." The torched churches -- Mount Pleasant Baptist Church and Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas, and St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre are located in the Landry Parish. Local authorities have arrested Holden Matthews and charged him with setting the fires and with hate crimes allegedly having a racial motive. SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links https://www.ajc.org Precision craftsmanship and high-quality materials throughout the cabin Heritage-inspired center stack complements horizontal dashboard design Push-button start with weatherproof surround Seven-inch thin-film transistor (TFT) instrument cluster LED display can configure information more than 100 ways Fourth-generation Uconnect system includes Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and choice of 7.0- or 8.4-inch touchscreens with pinch-and-zoom capability All-new exclusive rear seats feature segment-leading rear legroom and unique, secure storage design Gladiator Rubicon boasts forward-facing off-road camera for unobstructed trail navigation The all-new 2020 Jeep Gladiator has been named one of Wards 10 Best Interiors for 2019. "The all-new Jeep Gladiator is much more than a Wrangler SUV with a bed attached," said Tom Murphy, WardsAuto managing editor. "Gladiator's second row is completely new, with loads of clever storage options. The second-row seats were redesigned to fold down for storage behind, and for seat bottoms to lift up for storage below. The storage bins can be locked, which is important in the wilderness for those who will leave their vehicles unattended perhaps for days. "Did we mention that every Gladiator is convertible?" Murphy added. "How many midsize pickups in the U.S. have removable tops? Only the Jeep Gladiator." The Wards editorial staff selected the 10 winners after evaluating 33 vehicles. All contenders for the annual award were completely new or significantly redesigned for the 2019 or 2020 model years. Wards editors scored the vehicles on aesthetics, comfort, fit-and-finish, material quality and ergonomics. "The 2020 Jeep Gladiator is a modern take on authentic Jeep design combining versatility and function in a manner that is clearly inspired by our legendary heritage," said Ralph Gilles, Head of Design, FCA. "The Gladiator's rugged interior styling is a subtle balance of premium materials, must-have features and technology that turns the basic daily drive into an adventure. The truck encompasses the spirit of the Jeep brand while checking all the boxes our customers desire." Wards announced this year's winners at the New York International Auto Show. All-new 2020 Jeep Gladiator The all-new 2020 Jeep Gladiator, the most off-road capable midsize truck ever, builds on a rich heritage of tough, dependable Jeep trucks with an unmatched combination of rugged utility, authentic Jeep design, open-air freedom, clever functionality and versatility and best-in-class towing and 4x4 payload. Available with three different powertrain combinations and equipped with a versatile cargo box, Gladiator is built to handle the demands of an active lifestyle while delivering an open-air driving experience in a design that is unmistakably Jeep. Combining traditional Jeep attributes with strong truck credentials, the Jeep Gladiator is a unique vehicle capable of taking passengers and cargo anywhere. A multitude of technology features, such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and safety features, such as Blind-spot Monitoring and Rear Cross Path detection, adaptive cruise control and Forward Collision Warning-Plus, further Gladiator's appeal. All Gladiator models are Trail Rated with a badge indicating that the vehicle is designed to perform in a variety of challenging off-road conditions identified by five key consumer-oriented performance categories: traction, ground clearance, maneuverability, articulation and water fording. Gladiator Rubicon models are equipped with signature red tow hooks, Rock-Trac 4x4 system, featuring a two-speed transfer case with a 4:1 low-range gear ratio, front and rear heavy-duty Dana 44 axles, Tru-Lok electric front- and rear-axle lockers, segment-exclusive electronic sway bar disconnect, cab and bed rock rails and standard 33-inch Falken Wildpeak All-Terrain off-road tires. Jeep Brand Built on more than 75 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV with class-leading capability, craftsmanship and versatility for people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a full line of vehicles that continue to provide owners with a sense of security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle lineup consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Renegade and Wrangler. To meet consumer demand around the world, all Jeep models sold outside North America are available in both left and right-hand drive configurations and with gasoline and diesel powertrain options. Follow Jeep and FCA US news and video on: Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com Jeep brand: www.jeep.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep or www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or www.youtube.com/fcanorthamerica SOURCE FCA US LLC A comprehensive list of specific recommendations provided for both the US and Chinese governments 2019 policy priorities announced for first time BEIJING, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) today releases the 21st edition of the American Business in China White Paper, which sets forth a significant number of policy recommendations -- both cross-sector and industry-specificfor the US and Chinese governments. Additionally, the White Paper unveils AmCham China's three main policy advocacy priorities for 2019, which underlie these more specific recommendations. Crucially, our member companies continue to face an uncertain operating environment in China, as the US-China trade negotiations continue, other tensions in the bilateral relationship intensify, and many of our longstanding concerns about the business environment in China remain unaddressed. At the same time, our members maintain that healthy, balanced, and sustainable economic relations between our two countries are vitally important for the well-being of both countries -- and must be managed wisely and skillfully by our two governments. "Many of our members have been negatively impacted by -- and are not necessarily supportive of -- the use of tariffs as a tool in the current US-China trade negotiations," said Tim Stratford, the chairman of AmCham China. "At the same time, we appreciate that our two governments are now working energetically to address problems that have remained outstanding for many years. We believe that any true resolution of the current dispute requires addressing the structural issues discussed across these many pages that have long hindered importation of US goods and services and operations of US businesses in China." Underlying the recommendations included in this White Paper are three common themes that provide the framework for AmCham China's advocacy during the current year. These "2019 Policy Priorities" include: 1. Restoring Trust through Concrete Actions Leading to Greater Transparency, Predictability, and Evenhandedness in Regulatory Processes. Inconsistent or unclear regulations and uneven enforcement remain the number one challenge for AmCham China members. The stability and predictability provided by a transparent and evenhanded regulatory environment will be important for the continued growth of the Chinese economyboosting the confidence of both domestic and foreign investors that their businesses will enjoy the impartial protection of law, and also aiding the government in its fight against corruption. At present, the gap between policy as stated and as enforced remains significant. 2. Promoting Development through Policies of National Treatment and Competitive Neutrality. Policies that emphasize national treatment benefit the entire economy not just foreign enterprises. We believe that government policy should place all parties in China including both domestic and international firms and public and private companies on an even, competitive footing. Enacting a policy of "competitive neutrality" is especially important given the increasing scrutiny facing the US-China commercial relationship and the questions being raised internationally about the greater market access enjoyed by Chinese companies overseas compared to the access Foreign-Invested Enterprises (FIEs) have in China. 3. Stimulating Innovation through Policies that Promote Global Cooperation and Intellectual Property Protection. Innovation has ripple effects that bring broad benefits to the economies of both China and the US. AmCham China strongly believes that to realize its innovation goals, China should open its digital as well as its physical doors to allow information to flow more freely across borders. Experience shows that creativity is the product of diverse ideas blended in an environment where technology-neutral standards are set, based on broad participation and protection of intellectual property. Download the 2019 American Business in China White Paper (free for members). We hope that this year's White Paper will serve as a constructive tool for both the Chinese government and US administration as they work to recalibrate the bilateral relationship to the benefit of both countries. About AmCham China The American Chamber of Commerce in the People's Republic of China is a non-profit, non-governmental organization whose membership comprises more than 3,300 individuals from 900 companies operating across China. The chamber's nationwide mission is to help American companies succeed in China through advocacy, information, networking and business support services. AmCham China is the only officially recognized chamber of commerce representing American business in mainland China. With offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Shenyang and Wuhan, AmCham China has more than 50 working groups, and holds more than 250 events each year. For more information, visit: www.amchamchina.org SOURCE AmCham China Related Links http://www.amchamchina.org LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Partner marketing analytics firms, Marketscience & Truesight announce today the strategic move of Nitesh Sahay, managing director and associate partner, to the London, UK office from Delhi, India. In the UK, Sahay joins Dr. Peter Cain, founder of Marketscience, to spearhead product development and provide dual support to both UK and India clients. Marketscience and Truesight officiated their partnership last year and since then have continued to develop their advanced, academic marketing analytics solutions together. Pictured: Nitesh Sahay "Sahay's move to London speaks a lot about the way we are growing and what we want to achieve as a company," said David Dixon, company founder and managing partner. What the move signifies is threefold: first, it represents the company's advancement toward a more integrated, global presence Marketscience Truesight is headquartered in NYC, with offices in London, Delhi, and LA as the firm is now in a position to better serve European clients and drive UK business growth. Tighter integration between teams is also being facilitated through Sahay's move as India-client work moves closer to global management. Secondly, it indicates the company's dedication toward R&D, as Mr. Sahay and Dr. Cain continue their work on a proprietary analytical modeling software. "It's excellent to be working with Nitesh in developing our software platform and advancing our academic partnerships," says Dr. Cain. Finally, the move allows Sahay to better enable in-house analytics among Marketscience Truesight's European clients through provision of on-site training. Marketscience Truesight gives clients the unique opportunity to choose a service model DIY (Do It Yourself), DIFM (Do It For Me) and DIWM (Do It With Me) that best suits their needs. In the DIWM model the firm trains clients and analysts on modeling techniques and tools, and how to use them. When asked about what makes enablement training at Marketscience Truesight unique, Sahay comments, "Not only are we bringing transparency to black-box analytics, but we're training clients and helping them successfully integrate marketing analytics software and modeling in-house. We don't just give our clients the best tools to work with, we also help them use and integrate that tool smoothly and effectively to ensure success." Sahay's move places him in a strategic location that allows him to support clients globally in India, London, and New York as this engagement model continues to roll-out. Nitesh Sahay brings close to 20 years of experience in advanced analytics, consulting and research to the firm. Prior to joining the team, he worked with the firm's co-founders, Dixon and Sebastian Shapiro at Ninah Consulting, a former Publicis-owned marketing analytics and management consulting firm. Mr. Sahay's sector expertise spans several domains, inclusive of ecommerce, automotive, pharmaceutical, telecoms and banking. About the Truesight Marketscience Partnership Since 2012 and 2017 Marketscience and Truesight respectively have unified data, modeling, and technology solutions to drive significant results and revenue for clients. The partnership firm is the leader in Consumer Demand Modeling. This evolution of Marketing Mix Modeling makes accessible the advanced sciences of economics and econometrics for the commercial community. As an independently owned company, Marketscience Truesight is transparent and unbiased in approach. Its dedicated and diverse team professionals are committed to servicing clients globally and empowering finance officers and marketers everywhere with confidence. More information at www.truesight.consulting & http://www.marketscienceconsulting.com/ Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Truesight Consulting Related Links http://www.truesight.consulting BERWYN, Pa., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association of Title IX Administrators ( ATIXA ) announces the 2019 ATIXA West Coast Annual Conference and Pre-Conference Training & Certification Courses, October 27th-October 30th at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa Valley, California. ATIXA is hosting this inaugural West Coast annual conference to underscore the essential fusion of compliance and prevention in any conversation about campus sexual violence. Call for Proposals 2019 ATIXA West Coast Annual Conference 2019 ATIXA West Coast Annual Conference Call for Proposals The 2019 ATIXA Conference Committee welcomes concurrent session proposals for the Conference, to be held Tuesday, October 29th & Wednesday, October 30th, 2019 in Napa Valley, CA. Please click here to submit your proposal. Conference Sponsors & Exhibitors Become a Sponsor and/or Exhibitor Thank you for your interest in becoming a conference sponsor and/or exhibitor. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to get your brand and services in front of hundreds Title IX administrators and prevention educators as they come together to "bridge the gap" between prevention, action, and response. Please click here for the Sponsor & Exhibitor Application. Please review our Sponsor & Exhibitor Brochure for information on sponsoring levels and exhibit schedule. Conference Schedule Please click here to register online. Please click here to register by cheque. The conference will begin the evening of Monday, October 28th with an opening keynote and welcome reception. Tuesday, October 29th and Wednesday, October 30th will include a variety of concurrent and featured sessions, as well as roundtables and optional events, such as networking dinner, and a reception. The conference will conclude with another featured session and mid-morning Closing Keynote on Wednesday, October 30th. Pre-conference opportunities will be available Sunday, October 27th & Monday, October 28th; additional fees apply. Tentative Conference Schedule Sunday, October 27th & Monday, October 28th , 9am-5pm : Pre-conference Opportunities & , : Pre-conference Opportunities Monday, October 28th , 7:00pm : Opening Keynote & Welcome Reception , : Opening Keynote & Welcome Reception Tuesday, October 29th & Wednesday, October 30th : 9am-4:30pm : General Conference Sessions & : : General Conference Sessions Wednesday, October 30th , 9:00am-12:30pm : Featured Sessions & Closing Keynote Conference Speakers Opening Keynote Speaker: William Kidder, Esq., Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff to the President at Sonoma State University Preponderance Standards Closing Keynote Closing Keynote Speakers: W. Scott Lewis, J.D., Sandra K. Schuster, J.D., Brett A. Sokolow, J.D., & Daniel C. Swinton, J.D., Ed.D., Partners at The NCHERM Group, LLC (TNG); Advisory Board, ATIXA A Roundtable Discussion of the Title IX Landscape Conference Registration Please click here to register online. Please click here to register by cheque. Early Bird Rates (Register by Friday, August 16th, 2019) ATIXA Member: $519 Non-ATIXA Member: $609 Student (degree-seeking and not a full-time employee of any institution): $109 Regular Registration Rates (Register by Wednesday, October 14th, 2019) ATIXA Member: $539 Non-ATIXA Member: $649 Student (degree-seeking and not a full-time employee of any institution): $109 Pre-Conference Opportunities Sunday, October 27th, 2019; 9am - 5pm - Due Process: Civil Rights Investigator Training Course Note: Course is a one-day non-certifying course occurring on Sunday, October 27th, 2019. Faculty: W. Scott Lewis, J.D. & Brett A. Sokolow, J.D. $749/person Monday, October 28th, 2019: 9am-5pm - OCR-Compliant Procedures Training Course Note: Course is a one-day non-certifying course occurring on Monday, October 28th, 2019. Faculty: W. Scott Lewis, J.D. & Brett A. Sokolow, J.D. $749/person Monday, October 28th - Tuesday, October 29th, 2019: 9am-5pm - Pressures, Politics, Sanctions, Minors & MOUs: Title IX Coordinator and Administrator Level Two Training & Certification Course Faculty: Tanyka M. Barber, J.D. , Daniel C. Swinton, J.D., Ed.D. , & Brian Van Brunt, Ed.D. $1,699/person - Civil Rights Investigator Level One Training & Certification Course Faculty: Anna Oppenheim, J.D. & Joseph Vincent, M.L.S $1,699/person - Title IX Hearing Officer and Decision-Maker Training & Certification Course Faculty: Tammy Briant, J.D., Kim Pacelli, M.Ed., J.D., & Saundra K. Schuster, J.D. $1,699/person Please click here to register online. Please click here to register by cheque. Apply for a Scholarship Please click here to submit your scholarship application. Conference & Training Event Hotel and Location Silverado Resort and Spa 1600 Atlas Peak Road Napa, CA 94558 707-257-0200 ATIXA's discounted room block at the Silverado Resort and Spa will close on September 27th, 2019 or when the room block is filled up. Please click here to be directed to the hotel room reservation discount portal. Contact the Conference Committee For more information, please contact the ATIXA Conference Committee at [email protected] or 610-644-7858. Media contact: Michelle Issadore [email protected] 610-644-7858 SOURCE Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) Related Links http://www.atixa.org LAS VEGAS, April 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Australis Capital Inc. (CSE: AUSA OTC: AUSAF) ("Australis" or the "Company") announces that the Company has adopted amendments to the Company's stock option plan and restricted share unit plan. Under the amended plans, the Company may grant stock options and restricted share units that in aggregate do not exceed a maximum of 15% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. Australis also announces that the Company has granted an aggregate of 6,942,000 stock options and 1,735,000 restricted stock units ("RSUs") to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company. Twenty percent (20%) of these stock options and RSUs were issued to a new director and three new employees who recently joined the Company. The stock options have an exercise price of $0.98 and expire five years from the date of grant, the stock options and the RSUs vest over a three-year period with 1/3 of such stock options vesting each year following the date of grant, consistent with earlier awards. Including the current grant, the Company has issued approximately 13.4% of its currently issued and outstanding common shares in options and RSUs. About Australis Capital Inc. A spin-out of Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB TSX: ACB) in September 2018, Australis identifies and invests in the cannabis industry predominantly in the United States, a highly-regulated, fragmented, rapidly-expanding and evolving industry. Investments may include but are not limited to equity, debt or other securities of both public and private companies, financings in exchange for royalties or other distribution streams, and control stake acquisitions. Australis adheres to stringent investment criteria and focuses on significant near and mid-term high-quality opportunities with strong return potentials while maintaining a steadfast commitment to governance and community. Australis' Board and management team have material experience with, and knowledge of, the cannabis space in the U.S., extensive backgrounds in highly-regulated industries, adherence to stringent regulatory compliance, public company, and operational expertise. In addition to the Company's expertise and strong execution on strategic M&A, which to date includes Rthm Technologies Inc., Body and Mind Inc., Quality Green Inc., Folium Biosciences and Mr. Natural Inc., Australis has developed strategic partnerships with companies such as Wagner Dimas. Australis' Common shares trade on the CSE under the symbol "AUSA" and on the OTCQB under the symbol "AUSAF". For further information about Australis, please visit the website at ausacap.com or contact the Company by e-mail at [email protected]. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Scott Dowty" ______________________________ Scott Dowty Chief Executive Officer Forward-Looking Information Statement This news release contains statements and information that, to the extent that they are not historical fact, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company's management to predict all of such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Company's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect information, events, results, circumstances or otherwise after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law including securities laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities. The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Australis Capital Inc. NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- BLACK ENTERPRISE returns to Charlotte, North Carolina, with FWD, the revamped, rebranded event for entrepreneurs hosted by Nationwide on Wednesday, June 19 to Saturday, June 22, 2019, at the Charlotte Convention Center. The event will bring together more than 1,200 of the nation's leading entrepreneurs, innovators, creators, and founders of color with a special focus on tech-driven innovation, and introduce separate tracks for established businesses and startups, respectively. "FWD: Business on Your Own Terms," will provide the array of diverse entrepreneurs in attendance with networking, partnership, financing, and other business-building opportunities. The summit will allow attendees to gain access to the connections, financing, resources, and strategic insight they need to launch and grow their dream businesses. This is a must-attend event for aspiring business owners, startup founders, established entrepreneurs, and hustlers looking for new money-making and growth opportunities for their business. Confirmed speakers include: John Henry , Partner, Harlem Capital Partners , Partner, Harlem Capital Partners Datari Turner , TV & Film Producer , TV & Film Producer Jennifer Lyle , Owner, Lush Yummies Pie Co. L.L.C. , Owner, Lush Yummies Pie Co. L.L.C. Chase Minnifield , CEO, EZ Turn , CEO, Andrew Nguyen , Co-founder, Build Your Own Brand Inc. , Co-founder, Build Your Own Brand Inc. Charis Jones , Owner, Sassy Jones Boutique , Owner, Sassy Jones Boutique Shay M. Lawson , Attorney, Tenom Noswall L.L.C. , Attorney, Tenom Noswall L.L.C. Mahisha Dellinger , Founder & CEO, Curls Beauty Brands , Founder & CEO, Curls Beauty Brands Ash Cash , Chief Financial Educator, MindRight Money Management , Chief Financial Educator, MindRight Money Management Jasmine Crowe , Founder & CEO, Goodr , Founder & CEO, Goodr Regina Anaejionu , Founder, Beta and Beyond , Founder, Beta and Beyond Erica Barrett , Chef, Entrepreneur & Food Personality , Chef, Entrepreneur & Food Personality Carlos Davis , CEO & Founder, Stand & Deliver L.L.C. , CEO & Founder, Stand & Deliver L.L.C. T. Renee Smith , President & CEO, iSuccess Consulting Inc. and many more. Sessions during the summit will surround three main tracks: Launch, Grow, and Innovate. Each track will focus on different levels of business launch and operation. The Launch track is directed toward attendees with a business idea who may not know the necessary actions needed to get their business up and running. The Grow track is for experienced business owners wanting new ways to exceed their revenue goals and scale up. The Innovate track is for anyone interested in getting their feet into the tech industry. At the end of the summit, each attendee will leave with an FWD Plan that will map out their next steps to launch, grow, or innovate their business. FWD is designed to show millennials and seasoned business leaders innovative strategies, networking opportunities with like-minded attendees and how to think tactically to reach the next level of profitability. FWD is hosted by Nationwide with presenting sponsor Office Depot and Corporate sponsors AT&T and FedEx. For updates, search the #BEintheQC hashtag on Twitter . BLACK ENTERPRISE, your ultimate source to build Wealth for Life, is the premier business, investing, and wealth-building resource for African Americans. Since 1970, BE has provided essential business information and advice to professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and decision makers. Every month, BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine provides 6 million readers with information on entrepreneurship, careers, and financial management. A multimedia company, be also produces television programming, business and lifestyle events, web content, and digital media. Visit www.blackenterprise.com for more information. SOURCE BLACK ENTERPRISE Related Links http://www.blackenterprise.com NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackStar Industrial Properties (www.blackstarip.com), announced that is has a single space left in its state-of-the-art cannabis complex in Southern California. Lease applications are now being accepted for this space as well as for Phase 2, scheduled to begin occupancy later this year. With over 20-years' experience building large-scale communities throughout California, BlackStar worked with some of the leading experts in the cannabis industry to build the world's finest, fully licensed and compliant cannabis complex. BlackStar has been leasing space to responsible and professional businesses seeking to enter or expand in the California market. Laurie Holcomb, President of Blackstar Industrial Properties said that the complex is unique for a number of reasons. "Many start-ups underestimate the challenges ahead. For instance, some companies leased space in a new 'cannabis zone' only to discover the property had not obtained water rights or sufficient electrical capacity, which will be expensive and take years to remedy. "Others found excessive local taxes that could have been avoided if they built in an adjacent city. And some entrepreneurs failed to consider that power rates vary greatly, not only from one region to the next, but sometimes from one side of the street to the other." With years of land building expertise, Blackstar knew how to work through these issues, and developed a fully-licensed indoor facility, designed and constructed by leading architects, engineers and general contractors, geared toward attracting the industry's top compliant cannabis brands and companies. The complex features some of the lowest taxes in California, along with guaranteed power at agricultural rates, fiber optic infrastructure, plenty of parking with easy freeway access, and low lease rates. "We developed the first cannabis campus of its kind, with state-of-the-art technologies, best-in-class innovations, a top line infrastructure, and in a cannabis friendly location," Holcomb said. "This complex is where the industry's best and brightest will go to grow their companies and expand their brands." Those interested in entering or expanding in the California cannabis market, can call BlackStar Industrial Properties for information or a lease application, at (949) 257-1177. For more information, visit: www.blackstarip.com. SOURCE BlackStar Industrial Properties Related Links http://www.blackstarip.com Following the approval of Canopy Growth and Acreage shareholders as well as the Supreme Court of British Columbia, under the terms of the arrangement agreement (the " Agreement "), Acreage Holders (as defined below) will receive an immediate aggregate total payment of US$300 million or approximately US$2.55 per Acreage Subordinate Voting Share (the "Up-Front Cash Premium" ) based on the currently outstanding Subordinate Voting Shares of Acreage and conversion of certain convertible securities described below. In addition, upon the exercise of the Right, holders of subordinate voting shares of Acreage (the " Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares ") will receive 0.5818 of a common share of Canopy Growth (the " Canopy Shares ") for each Acreage Subordinate Voting Share held (the " Exchange Ratio ") at the time of closing of the Transaction. Upon exercise of the Right, the total consideration payable pursuant to the Transaction is valued at approximately US$3.4 billion on a fully-diluted basis, represents a premium of 41.7% over the 30-day volume weighted average price of the Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") ending April 16, 2019 (based on the Exchange Ratio, Up-Front Cash Premium and the 30-day volume weighted average price of Canopy Shares as at April 16, 2019). The Companies will also execute a licensing agreement granting Acreage access to Canopy Growth's award-winning line-up of brands such as Tweed and Tokyo Smoke, along with other intellectual property. Once the Right is exercised, Acreage will become part of a leading global cannabis company with access to markets beyond the U.S. Until then, the two companies will continue to operate independently. "Today we announce a complex transaction with a simple objective. Our right to acquire Acreage secures our entrance strategy into the United States as soon as a federally-permissible pathway exists," said Bruce Linton, Chairman and co-CEO, Canopy Growth. "By combining Acreage's management team, licenses and assets with Canopy Growth's intellectual property and brands, there will be tremendous value creation for both companies' shareholders." "From the first day we created our company, providing exceptional customer care and delivering shareholder value have been our top priorities. This transaction will help accomplish both," said Acreage Holdings Chairman, CEO and President Kevin Murphy. "When the right is exercised having access to Canopy Growth's deep resources will enable us to innovate, develop and distribute quality cannabis brands across the U.S. and continue expanding our U.S. footprint. At the same time, a confluence of factors are making it much more difficult for a multi-state operator to achieve its full potential, including the enormous amount of cash required to scale. Our Board of Directors, management team and I are pleased to deliver significantly increased liquidity to our shareholders and put ourselves in an even stronger position to deliver continued and significant upside." Once the Right is exercised, the combined infrastructure, intellectual property, brands and organizational resources are expected to create a global cannabis powerhouse, with an anticipated leadership position in every targeted international market for legal cannabis sales, including the U.S., Canada, and select markets across Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Additional Information: Canopy Growth earned national visibility in the United States when it listed its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first cannabis company to do so. Canopy Growth's U.S. hemp operations are being established in parallel to the Acreage entrance strategy, and will include hemp cultivation, extraction, processing, and packaging products for sale across the United States , where permissible by regulations. when it listed its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first cannabis company to do so. Canopy Growth's U.S. hemp operations are being established in parallel to the Acreage entrance strategy, and will include hemp cultivation, extraction, processing, and packaging products for sale across , where permissible by regulations. Acreage is a leading multi-state operator in U.S. cannabis. It owns or has managed services agreements in place for cannabis-related licenses across 20 states (giving it the right to develop), including 87 dispensaries and 22 cultivation and processing sites. Its Board of Directors includes former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner . and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, . Upon exercising the Right, the combined operations of Acreage and Canopy Growth would immediately create the undisputed leader in U.S. cannabis, the only relevant market where Canopy Growth does not yet have a major presence. According to the Arrangement, Acreage will be able to issue up to 58,000,000 Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares (implied valuation of US$1.4 billion based on Canopy's closing share price at the Exchange Ratio), together with a further 5,221,905 Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares in respect of certain potential acquisitions, which if the Right is exercised shall become future Canopy Shares, which, combined with an expectation of enhanced liquidity should further accelerate Acreage's ability to fund organic and accretive rapid expansion. based on Canopy's closing share price at the Exchange Ratio), together with a further 5,221,905 Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares in respect of certain potential acquisitions, which if the Right is exercised shall become future Canopy Shares, which, combined with an expectation of enhanced liquidity should further accelerate Acreage's ability to fund organic and accretive rapid expansion. Canopy Growth and Constellation Brands, Inc. ("Constellation Brands") Canopy Growth's largest shareholder and Fortune 500 beverage alcohol leader will, as part of the Arrangement extend the terms of certain warrants and restructure other rights. See Constellation's press release dated April 18, 2019 "Constellation Brands Enters Into Agreement with Canopy Growth Corporation to Modify Warrants and Other Rights". "Constellation Brands Enters Into Agreement with Canopy Growth Corporation to Modify Warrants and Other Rights". Acreage President, George Allen will depart the company effectively immediately. Acreage Chairman and CEO Kevin Murphy will assume the duties of President. Way More Detail The Transaction will be carried out by way of a court-approved plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (the "Arrangement") and will require the approval of shareholders of both Canopy Growth and Acreage at special meetings expected to take place in June 2019. In addition to shareholder approval, the Transaction is subject to applicable regulatory, court and stock exchange approvals and certain other closing conditions. Pursuant to the terms of the Transaction, the Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares, which may be acquired securities holders of proportionate voting shares of Acreage (the "Acreage Proportionate Voting Shares"), holders of multiple voting shares of Acreage (the "Acreage Multiple Voting Shares") and holders of units (the "Acreage Unit Holders") in High Street Capital Partners, LLC and shares of Acreage Holdings WC, Inc. (the "USCo2 Holders"), on conversion or exchange thereof, as applicable, will be subject to the Right and entitled to the Up-Front Cash Premium. Under the terms of the Agreement, Canopy Growth will pay the Up-Front Cash Premium to the holders of Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares, Acreage Proportionate Voting Shares and Acreage Multiple Voting Shares as well as Acreage Unit Holders and the USCo2 Holders (collectively, the "Acreage Holders"). There will be an Up-Front Cash Premium paid to the Acreage Holders based on the currently outstanding securities of Acreage. Following the federal legalization of cannabis in the United States (the "Triggering Event") and certain other conditions to closing, each Acreage Proportionate Voting Share and Acreage Multiple Voting Share will automatically convert into Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares in accordance with their terms and thereafter each Acreage Subordinate Voting Share will be automatically exchanged for Canopy Shares based on the Exchange Ratio. On closing of the Transaction, Acreage Unit Holders will have the right to convert their units, and USCo2 Holders will have the right to convert their shares, into Canopy Shares based on the Exchange Ratio. Acreage Unit Holders will be required to convert into Canopy Shares three years following the closing of the Transaction. If the Triggering Event is not satisfied or waived within 90 months from the payment of the Up-Front Cash Premium, the Agreement will terminate. After giving effect to the Transaction, assuming conversion of all securities of Acreage following a Triggering Event, Acreage Holders will hold approximately 12.1% ownership in Canopy Growth (on a pro forma basis) and up to 16.6% if permitted acquisitions are completed prior to the Trigger Event. Pursuant to the Transaction, Acreage is permitted to issue up to an additional 58,000,000 Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares (or the equivalent number of convertible securities), together with a further 5,221,905 Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares (or the equivalent number of convertible securities) in respect of certain potential acquisitions by Acreage. Constellation Brands Amendments Completion of the Transaction is conditional on the approval by holders of Canopy Shares of the issuance of the Canopy Shares pursuant to the Transaction and certain amendments to the existing warrants held by a subsidiary of Constellation Brands. Due to the scope of the proposed transaction, Canopy Growth and Constellation Brands have amended the investor rights agreement as outlined here: The extension of the expiry date for certain warrants held by Constellation Brands: In addition to the 18.9 million warrants associated with the November 2017 Canopy investment, Constellation also currently has 139.7 million warrants in Canopy, which upon shareholder approval would become exercisable over a period of five to eight years from November 1, 2018 , compared to the previous three-year period. This includes 88.5 million Tranche A warrants, which are exercisable at a price per share of C$50.40 and 51.2 million Tranche B warrants, of which 38.4 million, or 75 percent, are exercisable at a price per share of C$76.68 . The remaining 25 percent of the original Tranche B warrants will become Tranche C warrants and will be exercisable at Canopy's five-day volume weighted average price of the common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("VWAP") immediately prior to exercise. If Canopy exercises its right to acquire the shares of Acreage and Constellation were to exercise all of their outstanding Canopy warrants, Constellation's ownership in Canopy is not expected to exceed 50 percent. Canopy investment, Constellation also currently has 139.7 million warrants in Canopy, which upon shareholder approval would become exercisable over a period of five to eight years from , compared to the previous three-year period. This includes 88.5 million Tranche A warrants, which are exercisable at a price per share of and 51.2 million Tranche B warrants, of which 38.4 million, or 75 percent, are exercisable at a price per share of . The remaining 25 percent of the original Tranche B warrants will become Tranche C warrants and will be exercisable at Canopy's five-day volume weighted average price of the common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("VWAP") immediately prior to exercise. If Canopy exercises its right to acquire the shares of Acreage and Constellation were to exercise all of their outstanding Canopy warrants, Constellation's ownership in Canopy is not expected to exceed 50 percent. If Constellation exercises Tranche A warrants in full, Canopy has committed to repurchase the lesser of 25 percent of its issued shares to Acreage or a dollar amount equal to 25 percent of the implied enterprise value of Acreage within 24 months of the date of Constellation's warrant exercise. Constellation would be permitted to purchase up to 20 million Canopy shares in the open market prior to the warrants being exercised or terminated, provided that for each share purchased by Constellation, the number of Tranche B warrants is decreased by one. Constellation will continue to maintain its current level of representation on Canopy's Board of Directors. With these Amendments, Constellation continues using its cash flow to generate a return for its shareholders while Canopy Growth continues to deploy the USD $4 billion investment made by Constellation in November 2018. Acreage Board Recommendation The board of directors of Acreage (the "Acreage Board"), on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of independent directors of Acreage (the "Acreage Special Committee"), has unanimously approved the Transaction and recommends that shareholders of Acreage vote in favour of the resolution to approve the Transaction. The Acreage Board and the special committee have obtained a fairness opinion from each of Canaccord Genuity Corp. and INFOR Financial Inc. that, as of the date of the respective opinions, and subject to the assumptions, limitations, and qualifications on which such opinions are based, the consideration to be received by Acreage Holders pursuant to the Transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to the Acreage Holders. Acreage Shareholder Approval The Transaction requires approval by at least 66% of the holders of the Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares, Acreage Proportionate Voting Shares and Acreage Multiple Voting Shares. Additionally, pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions, the Transaction requires approval by at least a majority of disinterested holders of the Acreage Subordinate Voting Shares, Acreage Proportionate Voting Shares and Acreage Multiple Voting Shares, each voting separately as a class. Certain Acreage directors and officers have entered into voting and support agreements pursuant to which they have agreed, among other things, to vote in favor of the Transaction. The directors and officers of Acreage have also agreed to certain lock-up terms with respect to their current holdings of Acreage securities. Canopy Board Recommendation Greenhill & Co. Canada Ltd. ("Greenhill") acted as financial advisor to Canopy Growth and provided an independent fairness opinion to the board of directors of Canopy Growth (the "Canopy Board") that the Exchange Ratio payable pursuant to the Transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to Canopy Growth. Upon receipt of the fairness opinion from Greenhill, the Transaction and the Amendments were unanimously approved by the Canopy Board, other than directors who abstained from voting on the transactions as a result of the Amendments. All Board members support the Transaction and the Amendments. Canopy Shareholder Approval The issuance of the Canopy Shares in connection with the Transaction and certain of the amendments will require the approval of a simple majority of the disinterested shareholders of Canopy Growth present at a special meeting (the "Canopy Meeting"). Additional Transaction Terms The Transaction is subject to, among other things, approval from the CSE, the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, the Supreme Court of British Columbia and certain other regulatory approvals and closing conditions. The Agreement contains representations, warranties and covenants, including a termination fee in the amount of US$150 million payable by Acreage in the event that the Transaction is terminated in certain circumstances. The Agreement also includes certain non-solicitation covenants subject to the right of Acreage to accept a superior proposal in certain circumstances, with Canopy Growth having a five-business day right to match any such superior proposal received by Acreage. Additional details of the Transaction and the Amendments will be provided to shareholders of Canopy Growth and Acreage in information circulars to be mailed to shareholders. Advisors Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP and Paul Hastings LLP acted as legal counsel to Canopy Growth. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (Canada) acted as finance advisor to Canopy Growth. Ernst & Young LLP (EY) acted as tax advisors to Canopy Growth. DLA Piper (Canada) LLP and Cozen O'Connor acted as legal counsel to Acreage. Canaccord Genuity Corp. acted as financial advisor to Acreage and INFOR Financial Inc. acted as financial advisor to the special committee of Acreage. Canaccord Genuity Corp. and INFOR Financial Inc. provided a fairness opinion to the Acreage Board and the Acreage Special Committee respectively. Stikeman Elliott LLP acted as legal counsel to the Acreage Special Committee. About Canopy Growth Canopy Growth is a world-leading diversified cannabis and hemp company, offering distinct brands and curated cannabis varieties in dried, oil and Softgel capsule forms. Canopy Growth offers medically approved vaporizers through its subsidiary, Storz & Bickel GMbH & Co. KG. From product and process innovation to market execution, Canopy Growth is driven by a passion for leadership and a commitment to building a world-class cannabis company one product, site and country at a time. Canopy Growth has operations in over a dozen countries across five continents. Canopy Growth is proudly dedicated to educating healthcare practitioners, conducting robust clinical research, and furthering the public's understanding of cannabis, and through its wholly owned subsidiary, Canopy Health Innovations, has devoted millions of dollars toward cutting edge, commercializable research and IP development. Canopy Growth works with the Beckley Foundation and has launched Beckley Canopy Therapeutics to research and develop clinically validated cannabis-based medicines, with a strong focus on intellectual property protection. Canopy Growth acquired assets of leading hemp research company, ebbu, Inc. ("ebbu"). Intellectual Property ("IP") and R&D advancements achieved by ebbu's team apply directly to Canopy Growth's hemp and THC-rich cannabis genetic breeding program and its cannabis-infused beverage capabilities. Through partly owned subsidiary Canopy Rivers Inc., Canopy Growth is providing resources and investment to new market entrants and building a portfolio of stable investments in the sector. From our historic public listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange to our continued international expansion, pride in advancing shareholder value through leadership is engrained in all we do at Canopy Growth. Canopy Growth has established partnerships with leading sector names including cannabis icon Snoop Dogg, breeding legends DNA Genetics and Green House seeds, Battelle, the world's largest nonprofit research and development organization, and Fortune 500 alcohol leader Constellation Brands, to name but a few. Canopy Growth operates ten licensed cannabis production sites with over 4.4 million square feet of production capacity, including over 500,000 square feet of GMP certified production space. For more information visit www.canopygrowth.com. About Acreage Headquartered in New York City, Acreage is the largest vertically integrated, multi-state owner of cannabis licenses and assets in the U.S. with respect to the number of states with cannabis related licenses, according to publicly available information. Acreage owns licenses to operate or has management services agreements in place with license holders to assist in operations in 20 states (including pending acquisitions) with a population of approximately 180 million Americans, and an estimated 2022 total addressable market of more than $17 billion in legal cannabis sales, according to Arcview Market Research. Acreage is dedicated to building and scaling operations to create a seamless, consumer-focused branded cannabis experience. Acreage's national retail store brand, The Botanist, debuted in 2018. Forward-Looking Statement This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements or information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Canopy Growth, Acreage or their respective subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to our expectations with respect to: the timing and outcome of the Transaction; the anticipated benefits of the Transaction to the parties and their respective security holders; impact of the Transaction and anticipated growth of the combined entity; and the anticipated timing of the Meeting. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including assumptions as to the time required to prepare and mail security holder meeting materials; the ability of the parties to receive, in a timely manner and on satisfactory terms, the necessary regulatory, court and shareholder approvals; the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner, the other conditions; the likelihood of the Triggering Event being satisfied or waived by the outside date; the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner, the conditions to closing following the satisfaction or waiver of the Triggering Event; other expectations and assumptions concerning the Transaction; and such risks contained in Canopy Growth's annual information form dated June 28, 2018 and in Acreage's annual information form dated February 14, 2019 and filed with Canadian securities regulators available on Canopy Growth and Acreage's respective issuer profiles on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. In respect of the forward-looking statements and information concerning the anticipated benefits and completion of the Transaction and the anticipated timing for completion of the Transaction, Canopy Growth and Acreage have provided such statements and information in reliance on certain assumptions that they believe are reasonable at this time. Although Canopy Growth and Acreage believe that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information or forward-looking statements in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and Canopy Growth and Acreage do not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking information or forward-looking information to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that the Transaction, including the Triggering Event, will occur, or that it will occur on the terms and conditions contemplated in this news release. The Transaction could be modified, restructured or terminated. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. The Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder, court and regulatory approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circulars to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release. SOURCE Canopy Growth Corporation Related Links canopygrowth.com "With a proven track record of more than 20 years of finance and regulatory experience and a deep knowledge of the energy delivery business, I am confident that Xia will contribute immediately to advancing our vision to lead the nation in delivering energy, service and value," said Prochazka. "Given her background and accomplishments, Xia will be instrumental in providing financial and strategic leadership to help drive CenterPoint Energy's performance following our recent merger with Vectren." Liu joins CenterPoint Energy from The Southern Company and its subsidiary companies where she held roles of increasing responsibility over the past 20 years. Most recently, Liu served as executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Georgia Power Company in Atlanta. In this capacity, she oversaw accounting, financial planning and analysis, budgeting, treasury and internal controls. Prior to this role, Liu was vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer for Gulf Power Company in Pensacola, Fla., where she was responsible for accounting, financial planning and analysis, budgeting, treasury, internal controls, regulatory, rates and pricing, and forecasting functions. She also served as senior vice president of finance and treasurer for Southern Company. "CenterPoint Energy is a strong, diversified company with a commitment to safely meet the needs of a growing customer base and realize financial growth," said Liu. "I look forward to collaborating with the leadership team to drive value for our shareholders, customers and communities, while enhancing growth opportunities for our businesses." Liu earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree in finance from Renmin University of China and a master's degree in business administration from Emory University. She also completed two years of study in the Ph.D. in Economics program at Emory University. Liu is a chartered financial analyst (CFA), an International Woman's Forum Leadership Foundation fellow, and has attended executive programs at Harvard University and INSEAD School of France. Active in her community, Liu has served on numerous boards of directors, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Florida TaxWatch and Gulf Coast Health Systems. Liu currently serves on the board of Public Broadcasting of Atlanta, Georgia Council on Economic Education and the PACT World Organization, a non-profit international development organization that works to improve the lives of those challenged by poverty. She is also a graduate of Leadership Atlanta. This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict," "projection," "should," "target," "will" or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions of management which are believed to be reasonable at the time made and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this news release regarding future events that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this news release speaks only as of the date of this release. Factors that could affect actual results include timing and impact of future regulatory and legislative decisions, effects of competition, weather variations, changes in business plans, financial market conditions and other factors discussed in CenterPoint Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018 and other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. is an energy delivery company with regulated utility businesses in eight states and a competitive energy businesses footprint in nearly 40 states. Through its electric transmission & distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution businesses, the company serves more than 7 million metered customers in Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. CenterPoint Energy's competitive energy businesses include natural gas marketing and energy-related services; energy efficiency, sustainability and infrastructure modernization solutions; and construction and repair services for pipeline systems, primarily natural gas. The company also owns 54.0 percent of the common units representing limited partner interests in Enable Midstream Partners, LP, a publicly traded master limited partnership that owns, operates and develops strategically located natural gas and crude oil infrastructure assets. With approximately 14,000 employees and nearly $29 billion in assets, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. Media: Alicia Dixon Phone 713.207.5885 Investors: David Mordy Phone 713.207.6500 SOURCE CenterPoint Energy, Inc. Related Links http://www.centerpointenergy.com PORTLAND, Ore., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Charter School Capital, the first national financial services provider exclusively focused on charter schools and the students they serve, has named 30 charter schools to its 2019 "Charter School Honor Roll." Winners each receive one complimentary ticket to the National Charter Schools Conference in Las Vegas, Nev., June 30-July 3, 2019, and will be honored at an exclusive event hosted by Charter School Capital at the conference. A total of 177 schools entered the second annual awards program. Honorees are recognized in the categories of school growth, student achievement, community service, school leadership, and positive school climate: School Growth The growth of these schools reflects the growing demand for school choice in communities across the country. Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy Louisiana Opened in 2013 with 420 students, now serving 1,536 students International Leadership of Texas Texas Opened two campuses in 2013 serving 2,500 students, now operating 18 campuses serving more than 10,000 students Manatee School for the Arts Florida The only accredited public middle school in Manatee County , it's one of five Gold Seal Excellence Charter Schools in Florida , serving more than 2,100 students Visions in Education California Opened in 2008 with 2,500 students, now serving 6,500 students Basis- Scottsdale Arizona Arizona Towpath Trail High School Ohio Student Achievement These schools are recognized for overall academic performance some metrics include increases in Advanced Placement students, standardized assessments, SAT scores and high school graduation rates. The Vanguard School Colorado Royal Live Oaks Academy of the Arts & Sciences Charter School South Carolina ASU Prep Poly STEM Academy K8 Arizona D'Arbonne Woods Charter School Louisiana Michigan Math and Science Academy Dequindre Michigan Scholarship Prep-Santa Ana California East End Preparatory Tennessee STRIVE Prep-RISE Colorado Mare Island Technology ( MIT ) Academy California ) Academy Signature School Indiana Community Service These schools activate and nurture student interest in serving their communities through service projects, fundraisers and in-kind donations. Early College High School @ DSU Delaware Leadership Preparatory School Texas East Tampa Academy Florida School Leadership Leaders at these schools have grown their programs, overcome obstacles and/or turned the public tide of opinion in favor of their school communities. DuBois Integrity Academy Georgia Mission View Public Charter California Compass Charter Schools California Amana Academy Georgia Basis-San Antonio Primary Texas Positive School Climate These schools provide positive environments for cultivating critical thinkers and creativity. Learning Foundation and Performing Arts Warner (CAFA) Arizona Imagine Schools-Chancellor Campus Florida Pine Springs Preparatory Academy North Carolina Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School Pennsylvania Presidio School Arizona Bronx Charter School Better Learning New York Administrators, teachers, parents and community leaders were among those who nominated their schools. Nominations were open for one category per person per school. "The Charter School Honor Roll celebrates the top charter schools in America," said Stuart Ellis, president and CEO of Charter School Capital. "We're proud to recognize these schools for their student achievement, forward-thinking leadership and dedicated educators, and for doing everything in their power to support students with innovative education programs that nurture the power of the human mind." About Charter School Capital: Launched in 2006, Charter School Capital delivers access to growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Charter School Capital has invested more than $1.8 billion in funding to 600+ charter schools, helping them provide a high-quality education to more than one million students across the country. For more information, visit charterschoolcapital.org or email [email protected]. SOURCE Charter School Capital Related Links http://charterschoolcapital.org SHANGHAI, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CPhI & P-MEC China (#CPhIChina and #PMECChina) co-organized by UBM EMEA, CCCMHPIE, and UBM Sinoexpo takes place at the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC) on 18-20 June 2019. The event will be co-located with ICSE, InnoPack, bioLIVE, NEX, Labworld, FDF, and EP & Clean Tech. Seen as the bellwether of pharmaceutical trends across the country, CPhI & P-MEC China's agenda is packed with content from over 100 onsite conferences and activities as well as more than 50 seminars, with speakers from China and abroad. One of the key trends to emerge this year is the rise in the number of innovative China-based biotechs coupled with the easing of regulatory pathways and an emerging CDMO sector is fueling a significant growth in manufacturing across China. In view of this, experts at the event will assess the Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) Pilot Program, as well as recent reforms of China's regulatory landscape and the opportunities for international pharma. With the Chinese pharma growing at a ferocious pace, CPhI & P-MEC China is expected to welcome 50,000 attendees in its 19th edition a year-on-year increase of 30% which is further indicative of the buoyancy of the Chinese market. The event is also expected to see a 6% increase in exhibitors, with more than 3,200 from over 120 countries in attendance. "China is issuing new guidelines at a feverish pace and will be harmonized with ICH very quickly. The result is that over the next two to three years' poorer quality manufacturers will drop out of the market and China's manufacturers will look to compete in international markets as well as domestic" CPhI Annual Report Expert, Bikash Chatterjee on outlook of 2019. Wider market data also supports this ongoing boom, with China's pharmaceutical market projected to grow strongly from 115.2bn USD in 2016 to 159.4bn USD by 2021 and 234.2bn USD by 2026. This represents a 10-year compound annual growth rate of 8.8% in local currency terms and 7.3% in US dollar terms. Similarly, bioprocessing in China has been on a trajectory of rapid growth, with a 39% growth in facilities, and total capacity is growing > 8% annually, with biosimilars offering the largest growth potential. At the 2019 edition, for the first time, CPhI & P-MEC China 2019 will launch bioLIVE their new bioprocessing and manufacturing exhibition which has evolved from the previous BioPh China and will run adjacent. This exposition is in response to the large molecule trend within the industry, and arrives at a particularly prominent moment. Within the last year, there has been a proliferation of biosimilars and double-digit approvals of biologics as well as a host of investments taking place in contract services. Marie Lagrenee, Brand Manager at CPhI & P-MEC China, commented: "The growth of the Chinese pharma economy has been exponential in recent years, with regulatory reforms spearheading the increased interest in the region from both domestic and international companies. With a bourgeoning CDMO sector and recent harmonization by ICH, it's pivotal that events such as CPhI & P-MEC China provide a platform to drive growth, exchange new ideas and expedite new deals to help nurture this budding market." The third edition of China Pharma Week will take place alongside CPhI & P-MEC China on June 17-21 2019, focusing on Leadership, Business, Networking, Innovation, Recognition and Knowledge. Activities will include plant visits, a networking dinner, women in leadership forum, summits and the Innovation Gallery Tours, giving a deeper work floor insight and dedicated industry conferences on different sectors. For more information, please visit the official website: www.cphi.com/china Notes to editors Notable features at CPhI China 2019 include: Over 100 onsite conferences and activities with speakers from China and abroad, 50+ seminars and activities with speakers from and abroad, 50+ seminars The renowned Matchmaking Service , an online matchmaking tool, which enables attendees to search for and arrange meetings with exhibitors prior to the show according to their business goals , an online matchmaking tool, which enables attendees to search for and arrange meetings with exhibitors prior to the show according to their business goals The Innovation Gallery Tours will provide 2019 attendees with the latest insight into Functional and Insulin packaging solutions in the Chinese market as well as the opportunity to meet exhibitors will provide 2019 attendees with the latest insight into Functional and Insulin packaging solutions in the Chinese market as well as the opportunity to meet exhibitors The Supplier Finder System , an interactive floor plan via dedicated screen , onsite visitors will be able to discover the location of existing or future business numbers, based on the search by a company name, product name or company's stand number , an interactive floor plan via dedicated screen onsite visitors will be able to discover the location of existing or future business numbers, based on the search by a company name, product name or company's stand number CPhI TV will bring live interviews from the top companies on the show floor and live content onsite to get the best out of the show. About CPhI CPhI drives growth and innovation at every step of the global pharmaceutical supply chain from drug discovery to finished dosage. Through exhibitions, conferences and online communities, CPhI brings together more than 100,000 pharmaceutical professionals each year to network, identify business opportunities and expand the global market. CPhI hosts events in Europe, Korea, China, India, Japan, South East Asia, North America, and the Middle East and Africa. Co-locating with ICSE for contract services; P-MEC for machinery, equipment & technology; InnoPack for pharmaceutical packaging; BioPh for biopharma; and Finished Dosage Formulation for every aspect of the finished dosage supply chain. CPhI provides an online buyer and supplier directory at CPhI-Online.com. For more information visit https://www.cphi.com About UBM (and parent company Informa) CPhI is organized by UBM, which in June 2018 combined with Informa PLC to become a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organizer in the world. To learn more and for the latest news and information, visit www.ubm.com and www.informa.com CPhI North America (30 April - 2 May, 2019 at McCormick Place Chicago, USA); CPhI and P-MEC China (18-20 June, 2019 at SNIEC Shanghai, China). CPhI Korea (21-23 August 2019, COEX Seoul, Korea); CPhI Middle East & Africa (16-18 September, 2019 at the ADNEC Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates); CPhI, ICSE, P-MEC, FDF, InnoPack Worldwide, BioProduction (5-7, November, 2019 at the Messe in Frankfurt); CPhI & P-MEC India (2628 November 2019 at the India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, Delhi NCR Delhi, India); Pharmapack Europe (5-6 February, 2020 at the Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles Paris, France); Pharmapack Europe (6-7 February, 2019 at the Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles Paris, France); CPhI South East Asia (12-14 March, 2019 at the QSNCC Bangkok, Thailand); CPhI, ICSE, P-MEC, BioPh and InnoPack Japan (18-20 March, 2019 at the Big Sight Exhibition Centre Tokyo, Japan) SOURCE UBM Sinoexpo Related Links https://www.cphi.com BOSTON, April 18, 2019 On April 14th, China Telecom Americas hosted a fireside chat, called "Exploration and InnovationFrom China to Overseas," at Harvard College China Forum 2019. Steven Tan, President of China Telecom Americas, attended and interacted with all the participants to discuss how to explore global markets. As the largest international subsidiary of China Telecom Corporation in the world, China Telecom Americas delivers a comprehensive global telecom service based on cutting-edge technology, exceptional customer service, and a visionary approach to international telecommunications. China Telecom Americas remains committed to serving its worldwide customer base through continued investments in expansion and upgrading of its global network infrastructure. "China Telecom Americas is a facilitator in the quick-growth information society. We provide a backbone network to achieve large-scale data transmission between countries and to benefit overseas companies," said Steven Tan. Now, China Telecom Americas has become one of the leading international operators. Gaining an understanding of the different cultures involved in a global team is also an essential part of globalization plans. "China Telecom Americas is an extremely diverse group of people who come from different backgrounds and industries," said Mr. Tan. "With localized management, we want to make sure all members of this global team feel like a true part of it." "Corporate social responsibility is one of the philosophies that help a company be socially accountable in the overseas market. Being a socially responsible company can improve our reputation and help it to stand out from the competition; therefore, giving back to the community has been an integral part of our company," said Mr. Tan. In the past years, China Telecom Americas was actively supportive and involved in a series of community activities. "We believe that, as a leading provider of integrated communications, China Telecom Americas must follow our global operations plans step by step, provide secure, reliable, and global network services that advance global business communications, connecting the world," Mr. Tan concluded. About China Telecom Americas China Telecom Americas is a leading provider of integrated communications and information technology services to customers in over 70 countries. With headquarters in Virginia, the company offers a suite of turnkey services from cloud and data center services to equipment management, security, content delivery, mobility solutions, and more. Learn more at www.ctamericas.com. SOURCE China Telecom Americas Related Links http://www.ctamericas.com MARLBOROUGH, Mass., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Members of the Concentric Energy Advisors, Inc. (Concentric) Future of Energy (FoE) Team are presenting at several upcoming industry events. Concentric's FoE team combines regulatory, operational, financial, and market expertise to address the transformation of the electric industry as it integrates distributed energy resources. Ben Davis is leading a Breakout Session at the Boston University Energy Club Conference on April 19. Ben will be speaking on the evolving role of markets in supporting the goals and expectations of customers, regulators, and other stakeholders in accelerating the transition to a clean and efficient electric grid. Ben will also participate on a panel addressing grid modernization issues, including recent state regulatory activity, at the 37th Annual National Regulatory Conference in Williamsburg, VA on May 16. Robert Yardley will be speaking at the E2Tech/The Nature Conservancy Forum on April 24 in Freeport, ME discussing Energy Transformation and the Changing Role of Electric Utilities. Bob will address the challenges facing regulators as electric utilities integrate distributed energy resources. John Stewart will be speaking before the Maryland Public Service Commission at the Technical Conference on Alternative Forms of Rate Regulation on April 30. John will join a panel that addresses the evolution of alternative regulatory models to align with the transformation of the electric industry. Forrest Small will be speaking at the Advanced Energy Now Eastern Regional Energy Policy Conference in Richmond, VA on June 13. Forrest will join a panel to discuss Emerging Best Practices in Distribution and Generation Planning and Procurement. These events will provide stakeholders with an opportunity to meet our FoE team and hear their perspectives on the transformation of the energy industry. To learn more about Concentric's FoE practice, please email [email protected]. Concentric Energy Advisors specializes in management consulting and financial advisory services with a focus on the North American energy industry. Through its subsidiaries, CE Capital Advisors, Concentric Advisors ULC, and Concentric Energy Publications, Concentric provides capital market advisory support, consulting services in Canada, and publishes The Foster Report. Information about Concentric Energy Advisors is available on the company's website, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which can be accessed via ceadvisors.com. Media Contact: Wendy Preston 508-263-6272 [email protected] SOURCE Concentric Energy Advisors Related Links www.ceadvisors.com THOMPSONVILLE, Mich., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Michigan communities in Huron, Ottawa and Kent counties are receiving a total of $15,000 for projects to energize local residents and attract statewide attention after winning Consumers Energy's first "Put Your Town on the Map" competition. Port Austin received $7,500 for first place. Spring Lake received $5,000 as runner-up, and Sparta received $2,500. Also competing were projects in Greenville, Groveland Township, Pentwater, Quincy, Shelby, Stanton and West Branch. "Consumers Energy is thrilled by the response from communities across the state. We received over 40 submissions for projects of all types that strive to make Michigan a better place to live," said Roger Curtis, Consumers Energy's vice president of public affairs. "This competition shows that innovation, pride and collaboration are strong in communities across Michigan, no matter their size. We hope our funding and the public attention for all 10 finalists provide momentum to make these projects a reality." A panel of judges chose the projects Wednesday after officials from 10 communities made presentations at the 2019 Small Town and Rural Development Conference. The winning projects are: Port Austin First place ($7,500) The Port Austin Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Development Authority and Village are proposing the development of a large vacant lot in the center of town into an interactive and dynamic space where tourists and community members will come together. First place The Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Development Authority and Village are proposing the development of a large vacant lot in the center of town into an interactive and dynamic space where tourists and community members will come together. Spring Lake Second place ($5,000) The Village of Spring Lake is proposing to bring public art to its Lakeside Trail to make the village a destination for visitors and a point of community pride. Second place The is proposing to bring public art to its Lakeside Trail to make the village a destination for visitors and a point of community pride. Sparta Third place ($2,500) The Sparta Downtown Development Authority is proposing a project called The Orchard, an incubator for small businesses. Consumers Energy created the Put Your Town on the Map competition to reward ideas and provide critical dollars for projects that are being developed in small towns throughout Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Communities with a population of up to 10,000 were eligible. The company will sponsor another competition in 2020. Consumers Energy, its charitable foundation, employees and retirees contributed $18.5 million to support nonprofit organizations statewide last year. Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest energy provider, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.7 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. For more information about Consumers Energy, go to www.ConsumersEnergy.com. Check out Consumers Energy on Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/consumersenergymichigan Twitter: https://twitter.com/consumersenergy YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/consumersenergy Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/consumersenergy SOURCE Consumers Energy Related Links http://www.consumersenergy.com ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Drones stand to bolster both safety and efficiency in the construction business, but casually flying them over jobsites carries liability risks that are often underappreciated, LeClairRyan aviation attorney Mark A. Dombroff advises in an opinion piece for constructiondive.com. Mark A. Dombroff "Given that a backhoe loader can have a max operating weight of 25,000 pounds, some construction pros might dismiss the dangers of a 13-ounce quadcopter made of plastic and carbon fiber," writes Dombroff, an Alexandria-based member of the national law firm and co-leader of its aviation industry practice group. "Nonetheless, those risks are real." In the April 10 column ("Why Contractors Should Nix 'Casual Use' of Jobsite Drones"), the attorney notes that a higher volume of drone flights over construction sites inevitably translates into greater risk of accidents and regulatory violations. The industry has already seen at least one crash involving a drone flying over a construction site: In 2018, a survey pilot in the United Kingdom reportedly flew a 3D Robotics Solo drone into a crane. However, Dombroff notes, harder-to-anticipate events also become more likely as the number of flights increases. "In March, a man in Forest Park, Georgia, was electrocuted after trying to use a metal pole to dislodge a drone from a tree," the attorney writes. "It is not difficult to imagine a similar tragedy occurring at a construction site where a drone could snag on exposed rebar or end up in some other hazardous spot." And while direct injury from a lightweight photography drone might seem unlikely, Dombroff cites a federal case in which a bystander at a wedding was partially blinded by a drone. "While the production company had a $1 million liability insurance policy, its insurance provider rejected the claim," he explains. "Drones, it argued, are federally regulated as aircraft, and the policy in question included commonplace provisions that exclude coverage for aircraft- or aviation-related injuries." A federal judge sided with the insurance provider late last year. General contractors need to closely scrutinize and seek to mitigate all potential risks posed by sanctioned, formally commissioned operation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) at the jobsite, Dombroff counsels. Importantly, however, they also need to stay vigilant about the risks posed by casual, perhaps unanticipated, use of drones by subcontractors, marketing firms, real estate brokers or other parties. "Consider the following scenario," Dombroff writes. "The GC hires a subcontractor to roof a 1 million-square-foot industrial building. The head of the subcontracting firm happens to be a drone hobbyist who keeps a DJI Spark quadcopter in his pickup truck. On a whim, he flies the drone over the roof to take some video for his Facebook page and it distracts a fascinated bulldozer operator, who promptly hits someone." Companies should do all they can to make sure all parties understand that drones should not be flown on site without explicit, written permission and understood terms. "Bear in mind that many Americansincluding, no doubt, some who work in constructioncontinue to think of drones as harmless toys, not as aircraft regulated by the FAA," Dombroff writes. Indeed, contractors should even consider getting assurances in writing from their subcontractors and other parties that they will not fly drones on site without a formal agreement, the attorney advises. The goal is not to discourage beneficial drone use but to maximize safety, mitigate liability risk and guarantee full regulatory compliance when drones are used, he explains. "The bottom line here is that accidents happen. For the construction business, with its tight controls on site access and safety-first approaches to heights, debris, trenches, gas and electric lines and the like, that is nothing new," Dombroff concludes. "The ubiquity of drones, though, means that controlling what happens above construction sites is now a risk-management imperative as well." The full column is available at https://www.constructiondive.com/news/why-contractors-should-nix-casual-use-of-jobsite-drones/552470/ About LeClairRyan As a trusted advisor, LeClairRyan provides business counsel and client representation in corporate law and litigation. In this role, the firm applies its knowledge, insight and skill to help clients achieve their business objectives while managing and minimizing their legal risks, difficulties and expenses. With offices from coast to coast, the firm represents a wide variety of clients nationwide. For more information about LeClairRyan, visit www.leclairryan.com. Press Contacts: At Parness & Associates Public Relations, Bill Parness, (732) 290-0121, [email protected] or Lisa Kreda, [email protected] SOURCE LeClairRyan Related Links http://www.leclairryan.com NOVI, Mich., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CPS) will hold a conference call on Thursday, May 2 at 9 a.m. ET. The Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Edwards and Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Banas will discuss Cooper Standard's first quarter 2019 results, provide a general business update and respond to investor questions. The Company expects to release results for the first quarter 2019 after market close on Wednesday, May 1. The Company's earnings results will also be posted to the Cooper Standard website (http://www.ir.cooperstandard.com) once released. A link to the live webcast of the call (listen only) and presentation materials will be available on Cooper Standard's Investor Relations website at http://www.ir.cooperstandard.com/index.cfm. To participate by phone, callers in the United States and Canada should dial toll-free 877-374-4041 (international callers dial 253-237-1156) and provide the conference ID 3077994 or ask to be connected to the Cooper Standard conference call. Representatives of the investment community will have the opportunity to ask questions after the presentation. Callers should dial in at least five minutes prior to the start of the call. Individuals unable to participate during the call may visit the investors' portion of the Cooper Standard website (http://www.ir.cooperstandard.com) for a replay of the webcast. About Cooper Standard Cooper Standard, headquartered in Novi, Mich., is a leading global supplier of systems and components for the automotive industry. Products include sealing, fuel and brake delivery and fluid transfer systems. Cooper Standard employs approximately 30,000 people globally and operates in 21 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.cooperstandard.com. CPS_F Contact for Analysts: Contact for Media: Roger Hendriksen Sharon Wenzl Cooper Standard Cooper Standard (248) 596-6465 (248) 596-6211 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. Related Links http://www.cooperstandard.com NEWARK, N.J., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Credibility Capital, a leading fintech platform, announced that it has surpassed $100 million in lending to small businesses across the country. Credibility offers low-APR loans to high-quality small businesses with terms that are transparent, fair and affordable. In addition to this lending milestone, Credibility continues to transform the small business financing landscape with two key additions to the senior management team focusing on innovation in data science and technology. The company has hired Dennis Carlson as Chief Risk Officer. Carlson brings significant credit strategy and portfolio analytics experience, most recently as Head of Consumer and Small Business Credit at Verizon, responsible for the origination of more than 20 million loans to consumers and small businesses annually. Previously, he served as Deputy Chief Economist at Equifax and led several data science and modeling teams at both First Data and American Express. Credibility has also hired Jordan Schiffer as Head of Engineering. Previously, Schiffer was Director of Technology at ADP Ventures, the arm of one of the largest providers of business processing and cloud-based solutions focused on incubating new business growth initiatives within the company. At ADP, where Schiffer established an innovation lab to combat competitive threats, he designed and implemented front-end and full-stack applications. "We're proud to have provided $100 million to U.S. small businesses, and we continue to invest in credit and engineering to create a delightful borrower experience," said Brett Baris, Credibility Capital CEO & Co-Founder. "We've built our fintech platform to efficiently lend to these great businesses that aren't receiving the funding they need to grow." For more information about Credibility Capital please visit credibilitycapital.com. About Credibility Capital Credibility Capital is a fintech platform sourcing, originating and servicing small business loans for banks and other institutional investors. Launched in 2015, Credibility specializes in affordable financing for the prime SMB space, originating monthly-pay loans up to $350,000 with terms of 1 to 3 years. Proud of its fair, transparent product, the Credibility team genuinely works to help U.S. small businesses grow. Credibility recently relocated to Newark, New Jersey, pursuant to a tax incentive program sponsored by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Credibility Capital Related Links http://credibilitycapital.com KEASBEY, N.J., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- With moving season just around the corner, Crown Relocations, a leading provider of domestic and international destination services, moving and administrative services, is urging consumers to be aware of "rogue movers" who can hold personal belongings hostage, demand ransoms and other extortion activities. Crown offers these tips to avoid criminal activity by spotting common rogue-mover red flags: 1. Watch for fly-by-night companies: No website, no address, no information about the mover's registration or insurance. Telephone answered by generic movers rather than a company name. Moving companies that only provide estimates over the phone. The mover doesn't offer or agree to an on-site inspection of your household goods and gives an estimate over the phone or internetsight-unseen. These estimates often are too good-to-be-true. Doesn't provide an inventory of your items. 2. Be wary of unusual requests: Movers that require large deposits or payment in full in advance. Extremely low rates. While a large down payment may be suspicious, rates that are too low also may be suspicious. Compare competitive estimates from several companies. Contact Better Business Bureau or local law enforcement if you fall into a situation where a company won't return your items without more money than you agreed to pay. 3. Get everything in writing: Confirm insurance coverage. The mover claims all goods are covered by their insurance. Most moves are covered by weight, but many items may not be covered and or may require additional coverage. Consider purchasing full-value protection. If a company doesn't offer this, be wary. Obtain a written contract with pickup and delivery dates spelled out and understand how your rate was calculated. 4. Research the mover's accreditation: Go to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website and find your potential mover's Department of Transportation (DOT) number to ensures that the company is registered with the DOT. Use this tool to check out interstate movers. Work with accredited movers. In the U.S., work with companies that are affiliated with the American Moving and Storage Association (AMSA) and internationally, the International Association of Movers (IAM). 5. Top Three Red Flags Movers who demand cash or a large deposit before the move. Company websites that have no address or information about a mover's registration or insurance. Movers who claim all of items are covered by their insurance. For more information and other moving tips, please visit www.crownrelo.com. Crown Relocations Crown Relocations (www.crownrelo.com) is a division of the Crown Worldwide Group. Crown Relocations operates from more than 200 locations in almost 60 countries, providing end-to-end relocation services. Crown Relocations provides a range of relocation and settling-in services for families on the move that help with housing and education, as well as the physical movement of household effects, online tracking tools, storage, transit protection and cultural support. Customers include employees of multi-national and government organizations, diplomats and private individuals. Crown Worldwide Group's (www.crownworldwide.com) other divisions include Crown World Mobility, Crown Records Management, Crown Fine Art, Crown Logistics and Crown Wine Cellars. Established in 1965, the Crown Worldwide Group is a privately held company with global headquarters in Hong Kong. SOURCE Crown Relocations Related Links http://www.crownrelo.com CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Devo Technology, the data operations company, has been recognized as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave: Intelligent Application and Service Monitoring, Q2 2019 . The report identifies the functionalities Intelligent Application and Service Monitoring (IASM) solutions should provide, as well as the 13 most significant solution providers in the market. According to the report: "Devo's Data Operations Platform can provide 'outside in' user experience monitoring by enriching traditional monitoring data with business data. The product supports combining outcomes-based data (e.g. sales conversion rates, shopping cart abandonments) with traditional technology metrics (e.g. server, application, network performance). Devo's advanced algorithm-driven architecture allows for searching unlimited amounts of historical data and correlating it with real-time streaming data." "We believe our recognition as a strong performer in this Wave validates our approach that traditional technology metrics must be enriched with business data to give customers the full application picture," said Walter Scott, CEO, Devo. "We're thrilled Forrester Research has, in our opinion, recognized both our growth in the intelligent application and service monitoring space and our advanced algorithm-driven architecture. We look forward to continuing to make it easy for customer-obsessed, data-at-scale enterprises to monitor the user experience of their business-critical applications and services." The report also states Devo boasts some unique features to address changing data formats and augment search results with real-time data enrichment, correlation and aggregation. Customers praise Devo for providing fast response times to issues and also feel they have a lot to say in product enhancements. Devo received the highest scores possible in eight criteria, including services and container monitoring; data preparation; data sources and data capacity; metrics; tooling and automation; and security and compliance. To download a complimentary copy of the Forrester Wave, visit devo.com, or learn more about Devo's capabilities in the IASM space. About Devo Devo Technology is the data engine behind today's digitally driven enterprises, helping organizations maximize the economic and operational value of their machine data. The Devo Data Operations Platform delivers real-time analytics on streaming and historical data to turn machine data into actions that help enterprises achieve sustained performance and growth. By collecting, enhancing and analyzing machine data, Devo provides business-driving insights for IT, security, and business teams at the world's largest organizations. For more information visit www.devo.com . SOURCE Devo Technology Related Links http://www.devo.com Inspiring Youth through the Magic of Captain Minnie Mouse Disney characters delight and inspire children around the globe, and Disney Cruise Line is counting on the power of the mouse Minnie Mouse to spread the message of exploring new horizons, both by land and by sea. Captain Minnie Mouse, in her crisp new uniform with smart white trousers or skirt and a bold red jacket emblazoned with captain's insignia, will make the rounds on all Disney ships starting in April. Empowering Women through Maritime Scholarships In 2019, Disney Cruise Line will sponsor four scholarships at the LJM Maritime Academy in The Bahamas for female cadets who aspire to be ship captains and shipboard leaders. The scholarships, one for each of the ships in the Disney Cruise Line fleet, will include tuition to the three-year program. The scholarships will include two years of study at the academy and one year of service aboard a Disney ship. "Our Disney characters have a unique ability to inspire and connect with children, and we know Captain Minnie will encourage young girls around the world to consider a career in the maritime industry," said Jeff Vahle, president of Disney Cruise Line. "We are excited to work with LJM Maritime Academy to offer scholarships for young women who are pursuing their passions and following their dreams in our industry." Nautical Fun for Children at Sea Onboard Disney Cruise Line ships later this year, Captain Minnie Mouse will appear in an all-new youth activity where young captain hopefuls practice STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills in a fun maritime-themed activity. Children will hone their STEM and problem-solving abilities skills that play an important role in the maritime industry in a series of engaging, hands-on activities. The interactive experience will be a journey of discovery, exploration and imagination that will be offered in Disney's Oceaneer Lab aboard all Disney ships. Why Knot Taking Nautical Fun Ashore As part of a commitment to encourage future generations to pursue careers in the maritime industry, Captain Minnie Mouse will visit children in some of Disney Cruise Line's homeports and ports of call. Children will have an opportunity to meet Captain Minnie Mouse and be inspired by her "can do" qualities and ability to tackle any goal she sets her mind to. As part of these local community visits, Captain Minnie Mouse will be accompanied by a female Disney Cruise Line officer or crew member to showcase their roles in the maritime industry and raise awareness about career choices for women aboard a cruise ship. Exclusive Captain Minnie Mouse Merchandise To celebrate the excitement of Captain Minnie Mouse at the helm, Disney Cruise Line is unveiling a special line of merchandise, exclusive to the Disney fleet. Items in the nautical-themed collection of apparel and gifts tout the tagline, "You Can Call Me Captain." A brand-new Captain Minnie Mouse plush will be introduced this summer. Captain Minnie Mouse also takes the spotlight on a new PANDORA Jewelry charm, available for purchase exclusively onboard. In the future, girls will get to dress the part with a Captain Minnie Mouse makeover at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, available exclusively on Disney ships. At this special salon, children can transform into seafaring captains, inspired by their favorite mouse. To learn more about Disney Cruise Line or to book a vacation, visit disneycruise.com, call Disney Cruise Line at 888-325-2500 or contact a travel agent. SOURCE Disney Cruise Line Related Links http://disneycruise.com DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Dover (NYSE: DOV), a diversified global manufacturer, announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019. First Quarter 2019 Financial Results: Three Months Ended March 31, (dollars in millions, except per share data) 2019 2018 % Change U.S. GAAP from continuing operations Revenue $ 1,725 $ 1,638 5 % Earnings $ 106 $ 109 (3) % Diluted EPS $ 0.72 $ 0.70 3 % Non-GAAP from continuing operations Adjusted earnings $ 182 $ 141 29 % Adjusted diluted EPS $ 1.24 $ 0.90 38 % For the first quarter ended March 31, 2019, Dover's revenue was $1.7 billion, an increase of 5.3% over the prior year. The increase in the quarter was driven by organic growth of 8.3% and acquisition growth of 0.5%, partially offset by a 3.4% unfavorable impact from foreign exchange ("FX") and decline of 0.1% due to dispositions. Earnings from continuing operations included acquisition-related amortization costs of $26.7 million and rightsizing and other costs of $3.1 million, representing $0.18 and $0.02 of diluted earnings per share from continuing operations ("EPS"), respectively. In addition, the first quarter included a $46.9 million, or $0.32 of EPS, non-cash after-tax loss on assets held for sale related to Finder Pompe S.r.l. (a supplier of pumps to the upstream oil & gas industry), which was sold on April 2, 2019. Excluding these items, adjusted earnings from continuing operations for the quarter were $182.4 million (+29% over the comparable period in 2018), and adjusted EPS was $1.24 (+38% over the comparable period in 2018). A full reconciliation between GAAP and adjusted measures is included as an exhibit herein. Management Commentary: Dover's President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard J. Tobin, said, "Our solid results for the first quarter of 2019 were driven by our businesses winning with their customers and executing on their productivity and cost structure initiatives. "Revenue growth was driven primarily by constructive trading conditions across our Fluids and Engineered Systems segments, which posted comparable organic growth rates of 15.1% and 5.8%, respectively, as a result of healthy backlogs and increased throughput in our retail fueling platforms. Refrigeration and Food Equipment organic revenue was up 0.7% in the first quarter, with Dover Food Retail posting a 1.9% organic revenue increase as a result of the modestly improved demand conditions as we had forecasted. "As a result of our encouraging start in 2019, Dover is reaffirming our full year 2019 adjusted EPS guidance of $5.65 to $5.85." Conference Call Information: Dover will host a webcast and conference call to discuss its first quarter 2019 results at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time (9:00 A.M. Central Time) on Thursday, April 18, 2019. The webcast can be accessed on the Dover website at dovercorporation.com. The conference call will also be made available for replay on the website. Additional information on Dover's first quarter results and its operating segments can be found on the Company's website. About Dover: Dover is a diversified global manufacturer with annual revenue of approximately $7 billion. We deliver innovative equipment and components, specialty systems, consumable supplies, software and digital solutions, and support services through three operating segments: Engineered Systems, Fluids and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. Dover combines global scale with operational agility to lead the markets we serve. Recognized for our entrepreneurial approach for over 60 years, our team of 24,000 employees takes an ownership mindset, collaborating with customers to redefine what's possible. Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, Dover trades on the New York Stock Exchange under "DOV." Additional information is available at dovercorporation.com. Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. All statements in this document other than statements of historical fact are statements that are, or could be deemed, "forward-looking" statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous important risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, general economic conditions and conditions in the particular markets in which we operate, changes in customer demand and capital spending, competitive factors and pricing pressures, our ability to develop and launch new products in a cost-effective manner, our ability to realize synergies from newly acquired businesses, and our ability to derive expected benefits from restructuring, productivity initiatives and other cost reduction actions. For details on the risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein, we refer you to the documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. These documents are available from the Securities and Exchange Commission, and on our website, dovercorporation.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. INVESTOR SUPPLEMENT - FIRST QUARTER 2019 DOVER CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF EARNINGS (unaudited)(in thousands, except per share data) Three Months Ended March 31, 2019 2018 Revenue $ 1,724,757 $ 1,637,671 Cost of goods and services 1,101,215 1,034,842 Gross profit 623,542 602,829 Selling, general, and administrative expenses 408,466 435,026 Loss on assets held for sale 46,946 Operating earnings 168,130 167,803 Interest expense 31,808 35,640 Interest income (890) (2,057) Other income, net (1,106) (30) Earnings before provision for income taxes 138,318 134,250 Provision for income taxes 32,613 24,841 Earnings from continuing operations 105,705 109,409 Earnings from discontinued operations, net 22,025 Net earnings $ 105,705 $ 131,434 Basic earnings per share*: Earnings from continuing operations $ 0.73 $ 0.71 Earnings from discontinued operations, net 0.14 Net earnings $ 0.73 $ 0.85 Weighted average shares outstanding 145,087 154,520 Diluted earnings per common share*: Earnings from continuing operations $ 0.72 $ 0.70 Earnings from discontinued operations, net 0.14 Net earnings $ 0.72 $ 0.84 Weighted average shares outstanding 146,911 157,090 Dividends paid per common share $ 0.48 $ 0.47 * Per share data may be impacted by rounding. DOVER CORPORATION QUARTERLY SEGMENT INFORMATION (unaudited)(in thousands) 2019 2018 Q1 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FY 2018 REVENUE Engineered Systems Printing & Identification $ 282,086 $ 282,522 $ 299,834 $ 283,232 $ 296,843 $ 1,162,431 Industrials 405,105 389,104 403,155 388,302 399,956 1,580,517 687,191 671,626 702,989 671,534 696,799 2,742,948 Fluids 703,224 628,098 693,666 690,065 785,509 2,797,338 Refrigeration & Food Equipment 334,643 338,235 401,766 386,214 326,878 1,453,093 Intra-segment eliminations (301) (288) (327) (410) (236) (1,261) Total consolidated revenue $ 1,724,757 $ 1,637,671 $ 1,798,094 $ 1,747,403 $ 1,808,950 $ 6,992,118 NET EARNINGS Segment Earnings: Engineered Systems $ 123,074 $ 102,066 $ 126,649 $ 108,714 $ 113,841 $ 451,270 Fluids 1 52,221 67,348 93,028 101,207 128,221 389,804 Refrigeration & Food Equipment 24,807 29,182 51,372 42,434 13,131 136,119 Total segments 200,102 198,596 271,049 252,355 255,193 977,193 Corporate expense / other 30,866 30,763 30,050 30,207 38,704 129,724 Interest expense 31,808 35,640 32,125 31,192 32,015 130,972 Interest income (890) (2,057) (2,563) (2,060) (2,201) (8,881) Earnings before provision for income taxes 138,318 134,250 211,437 193,016 186,675 725,378 Provision for income taxes 32,613 24,841 44,981 35,711 28,700 134,233 Earnings from continuing operations 105,705 109,409 166,456 157,305 157,975 591,145 Earnings (loss) from discontinued operations, net 22,025 (26,497) (16,406) (20,878) Net earnings $ 105,705 $ 131,434 $ 139,959 $ 157,305 $ 141,569 $ 570,267 SEGMENT MARGIN Engineered Systems 17.9 % 15.2 % 18.0 % 16.2 % 16.3 % 16.5 % Fluids 1 7.4 % 10.7 % 13.4 % 14.7 % 16.3 % 13.9 % Refrigeration & Food Equipment 7.4 % 8.6 % 12.8 % 11.0 % 4.0 % 9.4 % Total segment operating margin 11.6 % 12.1 % 15.1 % 14.4 % 14.1 % 14.0 % DEPRECIATION AND AMORTIZATION EXPENSE Engineered Systems $ 17,795 $ 19,239 $ 19,203 $ 18,204 $ 19,233 $ 75,879 Fluids 35,426 34,449 34,981 34,954 36,060 140,444 Refrigeration & Food Equipment 13,011 13,579 13,524 13,533 19,841 60,477 Corporate 1,506 1,358 1,595 1,399 1,428 5,780 Total depreciation and amortization expense $ 67,738 $ 68,625 $ 69,303 $ 68,090 $ 76,562 $ 282,580 1 Q1 2019 includes a $46,946 loss on assets held for sale for Finder Pompe S.r.l. ("Finder"). Excluding this loss, Fluids segment earnings was $99,167 and segment margin was 14.1%. DOVER CORPORATION QUARTERLY SEGMENT INFORMATION (continued) (unaudited)(in thousands) 2019 2018 Q1 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FY 2018 BOOKINGS Engineered Systems Printing & Identification $ 280,658 $ 284,437 $ 306,770 $ 271,367 $ 295,963 $ 1,158,537 Industrials 414,786 466,722 412,780 390,606 481,172 1,751,280 695,444 751,159 719,550 661,973 777,135 2,909,817 Fluids 712,856 703,461 737,340 723,996 734,943 2,899,740 Refrigeration & Food Equipment 376,998 372,701 428,816 331,979 341,221 1,474,717 Intra-segment eliminations (682) (624) 33 (549) (584) (1,724) Total consolidated bookings $ 1,784,616 $ 1,826,697 $ 1,885,739 $ 1,717,399 $ 1,852,715 $ 7,282,550 BACKLOG Engineered Systems Printing & Identification $ 121,374 $ 135,915 $ 137,019 $ 126,609 $ 122,028 Industrials 448,137 376,474 372,525 367,963 438,546 569,511 512,389 509,544 494,572 560,574 Fluids 538,888 544,250 564,959 588,632 523,791 Refrigeration & Food Equipment 311,632 283,250 309,440 255,783 268,991 Intra-segment eliminations (377) (389) (134) (58) (185) Total consolidated backlog $ 1,419,654 $ 1,339,500 $ 1,383,809 $ 1,338,929 $ 1,353,171 DOVER CORPORATION QUARTERLY EARNINGS PER SHARE (unaudited)(in thousands, except per share data*) Earnings Per Share 2019 2018 Q1 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FY 2018 Basic earnings (loss) per common share: Continuing operations $ 0.73 $ 0.71 $ 1.10 $ 1.07 $ 1.08 $ 3.94 Discontinued operations 0.14 (0.17) (0.11) (0.14) Net earnings $ 0.73 $ 0.85 $ 0.92 $ 1.07 $ 0.97 $ 3.80 Diluted earnings (loss) per common share: Continuing operations $ 0.72 $ 0.70 $ 1.08 $ 1.05 $ 1.07 $ 3.89 Discontinued operations 0.14 (0.17) (0.11) (0.14) Net earnings $ 0.72 $ 0.84 $ 0.91 $ 1.05 $ 0.96 $ 3.75 Net earnings (loss) and weighted average shares used in calculated earnings per share amounts are as follows: Net earnings (loss): Continuing operations $ 105,705 $ 109,409 $ 166,456 $ 157,305 $ 157,975 $ 591,145 Discontinued operations 22,025 (26,497) (16,406) (20,878) Net earnings $ 105,705 $ 131,434 $ 139,959 $ 157,305 $ 141,569 $ 570,267 Weighted average shares outstanding: Basic 145,087 154,520 151,744 147,344 146,007 149,874 Diluted 146,911 157,090 153,938 149,457 147,940 152,133 * Per share data may be impacted by rounding. Non-GAAP Reconciliations Adjusted Earnings Per Share (Non-GAAP) Earnings from continuing operations are adjusted by the effect of acquisition-related amortization, rightsizing and other costs, loss on assets held for sale, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to derive adjusted earnings from continuing operations and adjusted diluted earnings per common share as follows: 2019 2018 Q1 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FY 2018 Adjusted earnings: Earnings from continuing operations $ 105,705 $ 109,409 $ 166,456 $ 157,305 $ 157,975 $ 591,145 Acquisition-related amortization, pre-tax 1 35,635 38,150 38,072 34,997 35,078 146,297 Acquisition-related amortization, tax impact 2 (8,964) (9,716) (9,683) (8,785) (8,817) (37,001) Rightsizing and other costs, pre-tax 3 3,963 4,371 6,808 24,201 37,448 72,828 Rightsizing and other costs, tax impact 2 (861) (797) (1,448) (4,477) (7,809) (14,531) Loss on assets held for sale 4 46,946 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 5 (2,832) (2,832) Adjusted earnings from continuing operations $ 182,424 $ 141,417 $ 200,205 $ 203,241 $ 211,043 $ 755,906 Adjusted diluted earnings per common share*: Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 0.72 $ 0.70 $ 1.08 $ 1.05 $ 1.07 $ 3.89 Acquisition-related amortization, pre-tax 1 0.24 0.24 0.25 0.23 0.24 0.96 Acquisition-related amortization, tax impact 2 (0.06) (0.06) (0.06) (0.06) (0.06) (0.24) Rightsizing and other costs, pre-tax 3 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.16 0.25 0.48 Rightsizing and other costs, tax impact 2 (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) (0.03) (0.05) (0.10) Loss on assets held for sale 4 0.32 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 5 (0.02) (0.02) Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 1.24 $ 0.90 $ 1.30 $ 1.36 $ 1.43 $ 4.97 1 Includes amortization on acquisition-related intangible assets and inventory step-up. 2 Adjustments were tax effected using the statutory tax rates in the applicable jurisdictions or the effective tax rate, where applicable, for each period. 3 Rightsizing and other costs include actions taken on employee reductions, facility consolidations and site closures, product line exits and other associated asset charges. 4 Represents a loss on assets held for sale of Finder. Under local law, no tax benefit is realized from the loss on the sale of a wholly-owned business. 5 2018 tax benefits related to additional Tax Cuts and Jobs Act regulatory guidance covered by SAB 118. * Per share data and totals may be impacted by rounding. DOVER CORPORATION ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (unaudited)(in thousands) Quarterly Cash Flow 2019 2018 Q1 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FY 2018 Net Cash Flows Provided By (Used In): Operating activities $ 24,524 $ 15,535 $ 159,205 $ 243,944 $ 370,509 $ 789,193 Investing activities (217,690) (122,597) (51,606) (35,922) (35,355) (245,480) Financing activities 36,067 (289,103) (227,734) (232,476) (148,525) (897,838) Quarterly Free Cash Flow (Non-GAAP) 2019 2018 Q1 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FY 2018 Cash flow from operating activities $ 24,524 $ 15,535 $ 159,205 $ 243,944 $ 370,509 $ 789,193 Less: Capital expenditures (37,122) (44,678) (51,686) (38,192) (36,438) (170,994) Free cash flow $ (12,598) $ (29,143) $ 107,519 $ 205,752 $ 334,071 $ 618,199 Free cash flow as a percentage of revenue (0.7) % (1.8) % 6.0 % 11.8 % 18.5 % 8.8 % Revenue Growth Factors Three Months Ended March 31, 2019 Engineered Systems Fluids Refrigeration & Food Equipment Total Organic 5.8 % 15.1 % 0.7 % 8.3 % Acquisitions % 1.3 % % 0.5 % Dispositions % (0.3) % % (0.1) % Currency translation (3.5) % (4.1) % (1.8) % (3.4) % Total * 2.3 % 12.0 % (1.1) % 5.3 % * Totals may be impacted by rounding. Non-GAAP Disclosures In an effort to provide investors with additional information regarding our results as determined by GAAP, Management also discloses non-GAAP information that Management believes provides useful information to investors. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations, adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, free cash flow, and organic revenue growth are not financial measures under GAAP and should not be considered as a substitute for earnings from continuing operations, diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, cash flows from operating activities, or revenue as determined in accordance with GAAP, and they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations represents earnings from continuing operations adjusted for the effect of acquisition-related amortization, rightsizing and other costs, loss on assets held for sale, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. We exclude after-tax acquisition-related amortization because the amount and timing of such charges are significantly impacted by the timing, size, number and nature of the acquisitions the Company consummates. We exclude the other items because they occur for reasons that may be unrelated to the Company's commercial performance during the period and/or Management believes they are not indicative of the Company's ongoing operating costs or gains in a given period. Management believes this information is useful to investors to better understand the Company's ongoing profitability as it will better reflect the Company's core operating results, offer more transparency and facilitate easier comparability to prior and future periods and to its peers. Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations represents adjusted earnings from continuing operations divided by average diluted shares. Free cash flow represents net cash provided by operating activities minus capital expenditures. Management believes that free cash flow is an important measure of operating performance because it provides management and investors a measurement of cash generated from operations that is available for mandatory payment obligations and investment opportunities, such as funding acquisitions, paying dividends, repaying debt and repurchasing our common stock. Management believes that reporting organic revenue growth, which excludes the impact of foreign currency exchange rates and the impact of acquisitions and dispositions, provides a useful comparison of our revenue performance and trends between periods. SOURCE Dover Related Links http://www.dovercorporation.com BIRMINGHAM, Ala., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) today announced it will participate in the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Health Care Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada being held May 14-16, 2019. Encompass Health Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doug Coltharp will participate in a fireside chat at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on Tuesday, May 14, 2019. The presentation will be webcast live and will be available at http://investor.encompasshealth.com by clicking on an available link. About Encompass Health As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 130 hospitals, 220 home health locations, and 58 hospice locations in 36 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective, integrated care across the healthcare continuum. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com , or follow us on our newsroom , Twitter and Facebook . Media Contact Hillary Carnel, 205 970-5912 [email protected] Investor Relations Contact Crissy Carlisle, 205 970-5860 [email protected] SOURCE Encompass Health Corp. Related Links http://www.encompasshealth.com SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants, a retail property, casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant, announced today that Regional Director of Employee Benefits Tiffany McClellan, CEBS, will present at the Human Resource Executive (HRE) Health & Benefits Leadership Conference on Thursday, April 25 at 11:30 a.m. at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. HRE Health & Benefits Leadership Conference is an annual gathering of the nation's top HR and benefits professionals. Attendees will gain the foresight needed to create the perfect benefits package and discover strategies that help organizations from various industries and sizes thrive. Industry experts and professionals leading the innovation will share their insight on how to keep your programs fresh and competitive. McClellan will present on "Designing Benefits to Compete with the Big Dogs a Tale of a Small-Niche Technology Company" alongside Cari Graham, director of human resources at BlackBag Technologies. In this presentation, McClellan and Graham will describe how to craft a world-class benefits design that's able to educate and engage a virtual workforce in their health and well-being without spending a small fortune. Click here to see the full agenda. About Tiffany McClellan, CEBS, regional director of employee benefits As Regional Director, Employee Benefits, McClellan is focused on growing EPIC's employee benefits consulting practice in Southern California. She believes Human Resource teams bring significant value to their organizations when the HR strategy aligns with the business strategy. The key to developing a successful employee benefits program is determining the types of benefits your unique employee population value and successful employee communication. McClellan helps her clients manage the balance of aggressive financial management and continuing to offer appealing and attractive employee benefits all while remaining in compliance. About EPIC EPIC is a unique and innovative retail property and casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and consulting firm. EPIC has created a values-based, client-focused culture that attracts and retains top talent, fosters employee satisfaction and loyalty and sustains a high level of customer service excellence. EPIC team members have consistently recognized their company as a "Best Place to Work" in multiple regions and as a "Best Place to Work in the Insurance Industry" nationally. EPIC now has more than 1,800 team members operating from 80 offices across the U.S., providing Property and Casualty, Employee Benefits, Specialty Programs and Private Client solutions to EPIC clients. With run rate revenues greater than $575 million, EPIC ranks among the top 15 retail insurance brokers in the U.S. Backed and sponsored by Oak Hill Capital Partners, the company continues to expand organically and through strategic acquisitions across the country. For additional information, including inquiries about employment, please visit https://www.epicbrokers.com/. *LOGO Link for media: Send2Press.com/300dpi/19-0107-epic-insurance-300dpi.jpg This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants Related Links http://www.epicbrokers.com Starting today, you can find their office in the beautiful Maharishi Peace Palace at: 10210 Grogans Mill Rd #262 The Woodlands, TX 77380 In addition to expanding, they recently released their new online booking tool , OBE, which is one distinct way that 3 Men Movers - The Woodlands stands out from the competition. OBE allows you to book your move online from the dog park, while you wait in line at the grocery store, or late at night in between episodes of your latest Netflix show. But wait, there's more: you can choose the time and date of your move, use their "Pick-Your-Price" calendar, add services like packing, and choose the crew you want. How else does 3 Men Movers - The Woodlands stand by its reputation as the movers Texans love? By living and breathing their MOVIFESTO - these are the promises they make to every customer on every move: We do what we say. Always. That's right! If we promised you something, we'll stand by it even if it costs us! We hustle. We wake up earlier than the competition and never drag our feet getting you in and out. We go beyond. Accidents don't happen often on our watch, but if they do, our insurance exceeds state minimum requirements. That means faster fixes and higher payouts to ensure you get what's fair. We don't keep movers that you don't like. That's right - we said it. We believe who moves you matters, and we're only employing the best. We arrive as strangers and leave as friends. Our crews make a big impression with their work and their personalities. New to The Woodlands ? You'll have 3 new friends your first day here. We are The Experts. We're going to ask the right questions to make sure you get what your move needs. Big home? We've got big trucks. On top of getting the right equipment out to your move, the real magic comes with our crews. On average they've got 5 years of experience and some have up to 20! We know surprises are for birthdays. Not move days. Movers have a bad rap for tacking on hidden fees. Not us! You'll know your charges before we arrive. We respect that your home is sacred. We are going into your sacred space as guests and with that knowledge, we will always honor your home, family and way of life. At the core, they believe to have great movers, you must start with good people. So if your move to or from The Woodlands is coming up, visit their website for a free quote, book your move entirely online, read an endless amount of moving tips and tricks , and have peace of mind that you're working with the good guys. For questions please contact: Kate Sanderlin - Marketing Manager 3 Men Movers 713-771-6683 6853 Southwest Fwy Houston, TX 77074 [email protected] SOURCE 3 Men Movers Related Links http://3menmovers.com SANTIAGO, Chile, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Two rarely observed Geoffroy's cats, or Argentinian Wildcats, were spotted near luxury lodge Awasi Patagonia in Chilean Patagonia this past season. Captured on camera by Awasi guide and biologist Eduardo Minte Hess, the sighting highlights the unique biodiversity and health of Awasi Patagonia's private reserve located adjacent to world-famous Torres del Paine National Park. Extremely rare Geoffroy's Cat photographed at Awasi Patagonia by Eduardo Minte Hess. Awasi Patagonia is located within Chile's Torres del Paine National Park with astounding views and abundant wildlife, including elusive felines like the Patagonian Puma and Geoffroy's Cat. Awasi Patagonia is home to an incredible number of endemic flora and fauna, such as llama-like guanacos, soaring condors, and stealthy feline predators including the Patagonian puma and the particularly hard-to-find Geoffroy's cat. Hess describes this special encounter: "I began to walk between the Lenga trees and after about 50 meters I came across some Geoffroy cats. I'm not sure who was more surprised by the sighting, the cats or me!" Even with a discerning eye, such a sighting is extremely rare. Hess explains, "I had waited for this moment for three years." This exciting news verifies the success of Awasi Patagonia's newly launched Puma Foundation. Equal parts wildlife tourism and research endeavor, the foundation allows Awasi guests the opportunity to go "Puma Tracking" on the foundation's 12,300-acre private reserve, accompanied by experts, to learn about their habitat, behavior, and future here in this remote part of Chile. The project has captured an incredible amount of hidden camera and time-lapse footage of pumas on the reserve, affirming Awasi as one of the world's best areas for spotting these elusive creatures. The 14-room boutique lodge draws wildlife aficionados from all over the world to experience up-close-and-personal encounters. Apart from looking for local species, Awasi guests enjoy private guided hikes, horseback and mountain bike rides, wine tasting, and much more in Torres del Paine National Park. Each guest room comes with a private guide and 4x4 vehicle for the ultimate in customized exploration. For more information and assets, visit www.awasi.com or contact Clark Kotula at [email protected]. About Awasi Awasi is the only hotel company in South America that provides a 100% tailor-made experience for visitors, with a private guide and 4x4 vehicle allocated to each guest room. Their three Relais & Chateaux properties are located in South America's most iconic destinations: the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, and Iguazu Falls in Argentina. Media Contact Clark Kotula Representation [email protected] (415) 994-9580 SOURCE Awasi Patagonia Related Links http://www.awasi.com WASHINGTON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Hamilton Pacific Chamberlain (HPC), a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, headquartered in Waldorf, MD, recently announced the garnering of multiple federal construction contracts across the United States. These contracts come just after HPC's recent appointment of Bill Napier to the role of Vice President. The new federal contracts highlights HPC's varied workset including a renovation for Shenandoah National Park where the federal contractor will complete a full roof replacement on the park's wastewater treatment facility. This work will further the preservation and ecological efforts of park employees and facilitators. To learn more about HPC's work with national parks and preserved areas, please see our website. In addition to the national park renovation, HPC has also been awarded a paving and stormwater contract for NOAA's Dickinson, TX facility. This project includes paving the facility parking lot as well as facilitating the parking lots drainage system. HPC's work in Texas continues as the company was also awarded a contract to renovate the road system at Houston National Cemetery. To learn more about HPC's work with National Cemeteries, please visit our website. On April 12th, Bill Napier was named Vice President of Hamilton Pacific Chamberlain under Executive Vice President, Paul Hamilton and President, Griffin Hamilton. Napier is a service-disabled former decorated marine with multiple combat tours. He has dedicated his career with HPC to improving veterans care options and general federal facilities through VAMCs, National Cemeteries, and various military grounds. Of his recent appointment, Napier said, "I'm proud and excited to accept this new position within Hamilton Pacific Chamberlain. I'm confident that our future in federal construction will be just as strong and rewarding as our past and present." Napier has personally overseen many HPC contracts and will continue to play a synergistic role in his new position. Hamilton Pacific Chamberlain is a Federal Government contractor headquartered in Waldorf, Maryland. HPC focuses on renovations, demolition, and new construction of government and military structures. To learn more about Hamilton Pacific Chamberlain and its work with government and military structures, visit www.hpcvet.com. This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com. SOURCE Hamilton Pacific Chamberlain Related Links http://www.hpcvet.com ST. LOUIS, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In late 2018, SmileDirectClub and Dr. D. Blaine Leeds (collectively "SmileDirectClub") filed a lawsuit against the Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama (the "Board") in federal court for the Northern District of Alabama. (See D. Blaine Leeds and SmileDirectClub v. Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama et al., Case No. 2:18-cv-01679-RDP.) The lawsuit arises out of a cease-and-desist letter sent to Dr. Leeds and SmileDirectClub by the Board after SmileDirectClub opened its first Alabama location in or around August of 2018. On January 9, 2019, the American Association of Orthodontists filed a motion seeking permission to file an Amicus Curiae Brief (friend of the court brief) in Support of the Alabama Board's Motion to Dismiss SmileDirectClub's lawsuit; supporting the position of the Board and its members in the lawsuit; and in opposition to the claims and arguments made by SmileDirectClub and Dr. Leeds. The AAO has a significant interest in the outcome of the case as it involves the health, safety, and well-being of patients seeking orthodontic care. On January 11, 2019, the Court granted the American Association of Orthodontists' Motion and allowed the American Association of Orthodontists to file its brief, which referenced alleged "Customer Complaints" regarding SmileDirectClub on the Better Business Bureau's website - https://www.bbb.org/us/tn/nashville/profile/cosmetic-dentistry/smiledirectclub-0573-37111672. (The AAO's Motion and Amicus Curiae Brief can be viewed here.) On April 17, 2019, the Court entered an order on the Alabama Board's Motion to Dismiss, and threw out six of SmileDirectClub's counts against the Board: [The Dental Board's] motion [to dismiss] is GRANTED with respect to the following claims: All [of SmileDirectClub's] claims against Defendant Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama are DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The Clerk of Court is DIRECTED to terminate Defendant Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama . All [of SmileDirectClub's] claims against Defendants Adolphus M. Jackson , T. Gerald Walker , Douglas Beckham , Stephen R. Sticklin , Mark R. McIlwain , Kevin M. Sims , and Sherry S. Campbell (the "Board members") in their individual capacities are DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE for failure to state a claim. [SmileDirectClub's] Equal Protection claims (Counts Five and Six) are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE for failure to state a claim. [SmileDirectClub's] Substantive Due Process claims (Counts Seven and Eight) are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE for failure to state a claim. [SmileDirectClub's] Alabama Due Process claim (Count Nine) is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. To the extent [SmileDirectClub's] claim for a declaratory judgment in Count Ten is based on a violation of Alabama law, it is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Defendants' motion [to dismiss] is DENIED with respect to the following claims: [SmileDirectClub's] Dormant Commerce Clause claims (Counts One and Two) against the Board members in their official capacities may proceed. [SmileDirectClub's] section 1 Sherman Act claims (Counts Three and Four) against the Board members in their official capacities may proceed. (Emphases added). View the full order here. Given the Court's Order, other than SmileDirectClub's count for injunctive relief, the remaining causes of action that SmileDirectClub and Dr. Leeds can legally continue to proceed with, although there have been no findings on the merits, are their Sherman Act and Dormant Commerce Clause claims against the Alabama Dental Board members in their official capacities ( not their individual capacities ). And even then, for SmileDirectClub's Sherman Act claims the Court stated that "[f]urther factual development will be required to determine whether the Board members are entitled to . . . immunity . The Board members may therefore raise the . . . immunity defense at a later stage in this litigation , in a motion for summary judgment, if appropriate." (p. 19) (emphases added). If the Court determines there is immunity, then the Sherman Act claims brought by SmileDirectClub and Dr. Leeds will fail as well. The American Association of Orthodontists' involvement as an amicus party, in the interests of the health, safety, and well-being of patients seeking orthodontic care, did not go unnoticed by the Court, which specifically referenced the American Association of Orthodontists in its Memorandum Opinion: . . . [SmileDirectClub and Dr. Leeds] cannot possibly mount a successful challenge to the Board's regulation under the deferential rational basis standard, and their equal protection and substantive due process claims therefore necessarily fail. Defendants and their amicus [the American Association of Orthodontists] have identified several legitimate goals for requiring the physical presence of a licensed dentist at facilities where [a digital intra-oral scanner] is used. Using [a digital intra-oral scanner] to make digital images of teeth is an intraoral procedure that involves inserting the device into patients' mouths. Hypothetical legitimate goals for requiring a dentist's physical presence at facilities where [a digital intra-oral scanner] is used include: (1) ensuring proper sterilization procedures are followed to prevent the spread of illness; (2) ensuring that a skilled, trained dentist is available in the event of a sudden medical emergency caused by the [digital intra-oral scanner] inadvertently dislodging a patient's crown; (3) ensuring that a licensed dentist has the opportunity to diagnose preexisting conditions that contraindicate the use of clear aligner therapy in the first place, such as gum disease; and (4) ensuring that a dentist can verify in real time that the [digital intra-oral scanner] is accurately capturing a patient's oral cavity, to avoid having the procedure repeated and to prevent patients from receiving clear aligners that were fabricated based on inaccurate images. All of these purposes are legitimate state interests that could justify the Board's regulation. Moreover, a rational basis undoubtedly exists for believing that the regulation would further those hypothesized purposes. Rational arguments exist that requiring a licensed dentist to be physically present at facilities where [a digital intra-oral scanner] is used would advance each of the interests identified above. . . . (pg. 41). View the full Memorandum Opinion here. The American Association of Orthodontists has also submitted an amicus brief in the Georgia lawsuit involving SmileDirectClub. See SmileDirectClub, LLC v. Georgia Board of Dentistry et al., Case No. 1:18-cv-02328 (N.D. Ga.). About the American Association of Orthodontists Founded in 1900, the AAO is the world's oldest and largest dental specialty organization. It represents more than 19,000 orthodontist members throughout the United States, Canada and abroad. AAO member orthodontists have successfully completed an accredited orthodontic residency program, after previously graduating from dental school. As a professional organization, the AAO is dedicated to, among other goals: (a) ethically advancing the art and science of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics worldwide; (b) improving the health of the public by promoting quality orthodontic care, the importance of overall oral healthcare, and advocating for the public interest; and (c) educating the public about the benefits of orthodontic treatment and the educational qualifications of orthodontic specialists. For more information visit aaoinfo.org, which includes the AAO's "Questions to Consider When Researching Direct-To-Consumer Orthodontic Companies." Comprehensive orthodontic treatment is a complex medical process, and the AAO has long held the position that it is in the best, and safest, interest of the public to have that treatment conducted under the direct and ongoing supervision of a licensed orthodontist. SOURCE American Association of Orthodontists Related Links https://www.aaoinfo.org FORT WORTH, Texas, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ben E. Keith Company was honored with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Chairman's Spirit of Enterprise Award. The award was presented at the Chamber's 137 Annual Meeting and luncheon, presented by Frost Bank, at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel on Wednesday, April 17. The Spirit of Enterprise Award is the Chamber's highest honor and recognizes a local organization that has demonstrated a commitment to business growth and community development. "Ben E. Keith has always been focused on excellence with entrepreneurial genius," said Bill Thornton, President and CEO, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. "That's what has propelled this historic Fort Worth company from its origins as a fledgling produce business to its stature today as one of the largest broadline food service and beverage distributors in the United States." "For more than a century, Ben E. Keith proudly has called Fort Worth home," said John H. Hallam, CEO, Ben E. Keith. "As we have grown our beverage division to serve more than 60 counties across Texas and our food division to 15 states, we have stayed true to our Texan roots and the values instilled upon us by our founders here in Fort Worth in 1906. "On behalf of all the Ben E. Keith employees, especially the more than 600 living and working here in Tarrant County, we thank you for the honor. We will continue to give back to this community, support the growth and success of our customers, and promote the economic development and prosperity of the region for years to come." About Ben E. Keith Co.: Established in Fort Worth, Texas in 1906, Ben E. Keith Company is comprised of a food division that is a broadline foodservice distributor, servicing fifteen states, and a beverage division which serves more than 62 Texas counties and is a proud distributor of Anheuser-Busch InBev products, craft and import beer brands, and fine wine. About the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Chairman's Spirit of Enterprise Award: The Chairman's Spirit of Enterprise Award was initiated in 1975 to recognize local companies that have made significant contributions to the development of our community. Selected by the four most recent chairs of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, the recipient is selected for its contributions to the advancement and prosperity of the city, as well as its commitment to the preservation of the American private enterprise system. This award is presented at the Chamber's Annual Meeting and sponsored by BNSF Railway. For more information about Ben E. Keith contact: David Werner, Vice President, Independent Sales and Marketing 817-759-6800 [email protected] SOURCE Ben E. Keith Company Related Links http://www.benekeith.com MINNEAPOLIS, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- General Mills released its 2019 Global Responsibility Report, outlining the company's approach to creating environmental, social and economic value in the countries where it operates. The progress made by General Mills in 2018 demonstrates the company's long-term commitment to protect and restore the resources upon which its business and communities depend, with an increased focus on advancing regenerative practices across its supply chain. "We know that food plays a central role in people's lives and has a profound impact on the environment and communities worldwide," said Jeff Harmening, chairman and CEO of General Mills. "Serving the world as a food company requires innovation at every level, from how we source ingredients and make our food, to how we engage with consumers, our employees and other stakeholders." Improving Soil Health Practices Through 2018, General Mills has invested more than $4 million in soil health initiatives on U.S. agricultural lands. More than 24 billion tons of fertile soil is being lost every year due to erosion (Source: globalagriculture.org) and if we don't have healthy soil, we can't grow food to feed the world. In March, the company announced a commitment to advance regenerative agriculture on one million acres of farmland by 2030. Regenerative agriculture restores soil health by applying farming practices such as diverse crop rotations and cover cropping to capture carbon in the soil and reduce GHG levels in the atmosphere. During fiscal 2018, General Mills developed a Regenerative Agriculture Measurement Protocol, which outlines how to determine the impact of agricultural management on soil health throughout General Mills' network of regenerative farmers and ranchers. The company also launched the General Mills Regenerative Agriculture Scorecard, a self-assessment tool to help farmers understand how their practices influence soil health, biodiversity and economic resilience in farming communities. Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) In 2018, General Mills' greenhouse gas emissions footprint decreased 13 percent compared to 2010, across its value chain in the areas of agriculture, packaging, producing, shipping, converting, selling and consuming. The company's GHG emissions fell 4 percent versus 2017, while net sales increased 1 percent. Responsible Sourcing In 2013, General Mills made a commitment to sustainably source 100 percent of the company's ten priority ingredients by 2020. These priority ingredients represent 40 percent of the company's annual raw material purchases and include cocoa, vanilla, oats, U.S. wheat, U.S. sugar beets, U.S. corn (dry milled), U.S. dairy (raw fluid milk), fiber packaging, sugar cane and palm oil. Six years into the commitment, the company is at 85 percent of its goal. "The health of our business depends on the health of our planet; if she's not healthy, farmers can't grow the ingredients we need to make the food our consumers love," said Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer for General Mills. "With our scale, we truly can be a force for good to drive impact and meaningful change across our entire value chain, from farm to fork and beyond." Strengthening communities The efforts of the General Mills Foundation are tied closely to the company's purpose, core business and food systems knowledge with three global focus areas: Increasing Food Security, Advancing Sustainable Agriculture and Strengthening Hometown Communities. In 2018, the company and its Foundation donated more than $102 million to charitable causes and enabled 29 million meals for food-insecure children and families through General Mills food donations globally. "In the Foundation, our aim is to build flourishing communities and a thriving planet," said Mary Jane Melendez, chief sustainability and social impact officer for General Mills. "We believe we can achieve that by harnessing our collective impact in key areas, while engaging our 38,000 passionate employees through meaningful volunteerism." Other impactful philanthropic contributions in 2018 include: 540,000 children worldwide access to a daily nourishing school meal: General Mills' philanthropy is connecting more children than ever before with school meals, ensuring that they are nourished and ready to learn. General Mills' philanthropy is connecting more children than ever before with school meals, ensuring that they are nourished and ready to learn. 30 countries strengthened through food bank support: General Mills food donations, Foundation grants and employee expertise were used to support and strengthen food banks in more than 30 countries. General Mills food donations, Foundation grants and employee expertise were used to support and strengthen food banks in more than 30 countries. 30,000 food retailers participated in food rescue efforts : In the last 12 months, General Mills empowered 30,000 retailers to recover 4.2 billion pounds of surplus food, through MealConnect in the U.S. and FareShare in the U.K., feeding hungry people rather than going to waste. : In the last 12 months, General Mills empowered 30,000 retailers to recover 4.2 billion pounds of surplus food, through MealConnect in the U.S. and FareShare in the U.K., feeding hungry people rather than going to waste. $42 million to schools: Through the Box Tops for Education program, General Mills donated over $42 million in 2018 to K-8 schools in the U.S. Since 1996, the program has given more than $882 million to over 70,000 participating schools. Employee Engagement Engaged employees create value and drive business performance. Over the past several years, General Mills has worked to build a more agile, engaged organization by listening to employees, taking action on employee feedback and measuring progress. Some highlights from 2018 include: 83 percent of General Mills employees worldwide volunteered in their communities. Enhanced employee benefits, including up to 20 weeks maternity leave and 12 weeks paternity leave. 49 percent of professional positions were held by women globally. This marks the 49th year General Mills has publicly reported back to stakeholders and the community. Learn more about General Mills' economic, environmental and social commitments and progress by visiting GeneralMills.com/Responsibility, to view the full Global Responsibility Report, interactive report and video. About General Mills General Mills is a leading global food company that serves the world by making food people love. Its brands include Cheerios, Annie's, Yoplait, Nature Valley, Haagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki, Blue and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, General Mills generated fiscal 2018 proforma net sales of U.S. $17.0 billion, including $1.3 billion from Blue Buffalo. In addition, General Mills' share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1.1 billion. SOURCE General Mills DUBLIN, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Denim Jeans - Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Rest of World. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2016 through 2024. Also, a five-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Denim Jeans in US$ Million and Million Pairs. The report profiles 159 companies including many key and niche players such as: 7 For All Mankind ( USA ) ) Aarvee Denims & Exports Ltd. ( India ) ) Arvind Limited ( India ) ) Black Peony (Group) Co., Ltd. ( China ) ) Diesel S.p.A ( Italy ) ) Edwin Co. Ltd. ( Japan ) ) Gap Inc. ( USA ) ) Levi Strauss & Co. (USA) Mavi Jeans ( Turkey ) ( ) Nien Hsing Textile Co. Ltd. ( Taiwan ) ) Orta Anadolu ( Turkey ) ) Raymond Group ( India ) ) True Religion Apparel Inc. ( USA ) ) VF Corporation ( USA ) Key Topics Covered: 1. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & PRODUCT DEFINITIONS Study Reliability and Reporting Limitations Data Interpretation & Reporting Level Quantitative Techniques & Analytics Product Definitions and Scope of Study 2. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW Denim Jeans - A Fashion Quintessential Global Denim Industry - Key Facts Leading Denim and Jeans Markets North America - Single Largest Denim Jeans Market Developing Countries Offer Significant Growth Opportunities China - Leading Denim Weaver Growing Popularity of Denim in Developing Countries A Review of the Latest Denim Innovations Denims - A Review of the Latest Trends Strong Growth in Demand from Emerging Markets Export - Import Statistics 2009 - International Year of Natural Fibers Background Denim Industry after the End of Quota System Multi-fiber Arrangement 3. DENIM JEANS INDUSTRY AND MACRO DRIVERS Demand for Apparel and Textile Mirrors GDP Growth Ballooning Middle Class Population Offers Steady Growth Opportunities Expanding Urban Population Spurs Consumption Growth Global Apparel Market - A Macro Perspective Growing Demand for Clothing and Fabrics Bodes Well for the Market Cotton, Key Raw Material for Denim - An Overview Consumption to Remain Stable Cotton Trade 4. MARKET TRENDS, GROWTH DRIVERS AND ISSUES Denim - an Expression of Unique Personal Style World Denim Jeans Market Ranked by Most Popular Jeans Available Distressed Jeans Increasingly in Vogue Denim Consumption Largely Dependent on Street Fashions and Celebrity Styles Denim Jeans Making Inroads into Work Wear/Corporate Wear Growing Fashion Consciousness among Women Drives Growth High-end Premium Denim Jeans to Register Impressive Growth World Premium Jeans Market Ranked by Most Expensive Jeans Available Competition in High-End Denim Jeans Market Growth in Premium Jeans Category Hampered - A Recent Past Recollection Generating Interest in Young Generation - A Challenging Trail to Tread Denim Jeans Face Threat from Substitutes Functional Denim: The Next Big Thing Shapewear Giant Spanx Enters into the Denim Jeans Market Acid Washes on Denim Jeans Gain Popularity Distressed Jeans and Jeggings now in Vogue Athleisure Remains Strong, Providing Competition to Denim Innovations Drive Market Dynamism New Eco-friendly Denim Collection from Patagonia Skinny vs Boyfriend - The Bestselling Styles Hunt for the Right Fit Continues Eco-conscious Consumers Drift towards Natural and Organic Denims Bioindigo: A Greener Way to Dye Denims Levi's Goes Green' Hemp Jeans - A Lighter and Sustainable Alternative Recycled Cotton - A Step towards Sustainability Bangladesh - A Key Denim Jeans Producer India Emerges as an Important Denim Resource for Global Giants Spike in Online Apparel Sales Growing E-commerce Prospects Key Market Players Distribution Channels Disorganized Retail Understates Sales Specialty Stores Continue to Dominate Women's Jeans Sales 5. INNOVATIVE TRENDS Innovation Key to Market Performance in Premium Segment Emerging Innovations in Denim and Jeans Market Fabric Blends Athleisure Trend Drives Growth of Jeans Market Other Select Emerging Trends New Designs and Technologies Keep the Denim Marketing Ticking Key Innovations in the Global Denim Sector Selvedge Denim Jeans Sun-Faded Denim Flared Jeans Cropped Flare Jeans Wide Leg Jeans Two-Tone Jeans Slim and Straight Jeans Black Denims Raw Hem Jeans Deeply Distressed Jeans Black Skinny Jeans Boyfriend Jeans Stretch Jeans Straight-Leg Jeans Embellished Denim Jackets Longer Denim Jackets Bold Colors Acynetic Lycra Hybrid VSEP Technology Sculpt Denim Contrasting Blue Denim Super Soft Denim Jeans Curved Denim Jeans Stain Repelling Denim Jeans in White Stretch Denim Jeans Designer Denim Jeans Skinny Jeans Boyfriend Denim Jeans Curve-Friendly Denim Jeans Maternity Jeans Body Contouring Denim Jeans Eco-Friendly Denim Jeans Novel Denim Fabric Washes Colored Denim Jeans New Designs and Innovations in Preparation of Denim Fabric New Dyeing Technology to Save Water Levi Strauss Launches Project F.L.X. to Automate Denim Finishing Arvind Offers Innovative and Sustainable Denim Range Ikat Denim Zero Numero Uno Makes a Mark in Terms of Sustainability Scented Jeans Antimicrobial Jeans Moisturizing Jeans Yoga Jeans Stain Repellent Jeans 6. PRODUCT OVERVIEW Introduction to Denim Fabrics Types of Fabric Classification of Denim Alternatives to Denim Fabrics Dry Denim Selvage Denim Color Denim Denim Jeans: The Primary Application of Denim History of Denim Jeans 7. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE An Insight into Competition in the Global Market Space Leading Brands in Select Markets Worldwide 7.1 Focus on Select Players 7.2 Product Launches/Introductions Baldwin Launched 2018 Collection Helmut Lang Jeans Introduces a Re-Designed Denim Collection GUESS and ORTA Anadolu Join Hands to Created New Jeans for Women Samuel Ku Launches New Denim Line, Cqy GUESS Jeans Unveils Fall '18 Collection Madewell Forays into Menswear with Denim American Giant Launches Denim Jeans Manufactured in the US Levi's and Liverpool FC Launch New Jeans Collection Outerknow Launches S.E.A. Brand of Jeans Madewell Introduces Eco Collection Boulder Denim Introduces Denim 2.0 Gap Introduces Limited Edition Sarah Jessica Parker Collection G-Star RAW Unveils Renewed Denim 2.0 Mother Denim Launches Men's Collection Carmar Denim Launches Extreme Cut-Out Jeans Jeanswest Launches Jeans in Collaboration with Orta Anadolu Jack & Jones to Launch Sustainable Jeans Good American Launches Maternity Denim Range 7 FOR ALL MANKIND Unveils Spring 2018 Collection Revtown Introduces Hand-Crafted Premium Jeans Madewell Unveils Spring 2018 Denim Collection Revtown Launches New Line of Men's Jeans NEIGHBORHOOD Unveils Fall/Winter 2017 Collection with Japanese Imprints Reformation Launches Sustainable Jeans Collection Gap Unveils Compression-Based Denim Stuarts London Unveils Special Edition Jeans to Commemorate Golden Jubilee AYR Introduces Extended Size Denim for Fall 2017 Edwin Jeans Relaunches Brand in North America Forever 21 Introduces '12x12' Denim Line LiCC Jeaneration Introduces Waterproof Jeans, LiCC Libert Need Supply Introduces "NEED 1996" Denim Collection Tommy Hilfiger Introduces Spring 2017 Tommy Jeans Collection H&M Launches Unisex Denim Collection Edwin Launches ED-30 Atelier GARDEUR Introduces SUPERFLEX Denim Line for Men Wrangler Launches Latest Range of Innovative Traveler Jeans in New Colours Calvin Klein Unveils Denim Silhouette Levi's Re-launches its Most Iconic 505 Jean Sears Launches its Popular Roebuck & Co. Denim Lines for Boys and Girls 7 For All Mankind Launches Bair Denim Diesel Launches First Denim Garment Made with Lightest Microfiber, Dryarn Tommy Hilfiger Launches Tommy Jeans Collection Revisiting the 90s Nostalgia Siwy Denim Launches Range of Jeans for Women in New Spring 2016 Collection 7.3 Recent Industry Activity VF Corporation to Spin-Off Business into Two New Entities Lion Capital Acquires Majority Stake in Paige Denim Milwaukee Denim Co. Established Roo Hsing and JD United Merge Wrangler and Mount Vernon Partner for New Line of Jeans Hudson Jeans Partners with Fashion Data Company, Fitcode Berlin-based brand INAN Partners Lee for a Makeover Levi Strauss and Aquafill, a Nylon Manufacturer, Partner to Manufacture Men's Collection from Waste Materials 8. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE 9. REGIONAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE 9.1 The United States A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis An Overview Brief Review of US Jeans Market Major Factors Driving Purchases of New Denim Jeans among Americans The US Apparel Market - A Macro Perspective Market Trends and Drivers Denim Jeans: Wardrobe Staple Brand Craze Declines American Consumers Extremely Quality Conscious Retailers Grow Weary of New Brands Shift to Skinny Jeans and Jeggings to Add to Price Pressure Women's Denim Wear Market Women of All Age Groups Wear Jeans Premium Denim Wear - A Niche Market Factors Influencing Purchase Decisions: Fit Overrules Price Younger Men Steer Sales Premium Denim Jeans - A Brief Denim Industry and Millennials Typical Customers of Premium Denim Jeans Factors Influencing Purchase Decisions of Premium and Non-Premium Customers US Shifts Sourcing Bases Overseas Import-Export Scenario Distribution Channels Challenges Confronting the US Denim Jeans Market Competition from Other Apparel Categories Performance Issues B. Market Analytics 9.2 Canada A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis Canadian Apparel Market - An Overview Denim Market - Select Statistical Data B. Market Analytics 9.3 Japan A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis Market Snapshots Consumer Profile for Apparel Select Statistical Data B. Market Analytics 9.4 Europe A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis The Legacy of Denims Overview of European Jeans Market Denim Sales Linked to Penchant for Cotton Replacements Driving Men's Denim Jeans Market Own Label Denims Alter Market Structure Distribution Channels Export - Import Statistics Denim Woven Fabric Denim Jeans Imports into the EU - A Historic Perspective B. Market Analytics 9.4.1 France A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis Apparel - A Macro Perspective B. Market Analytics 9.4.2 Germany Market Analysis 9.4.3 Italy Market Analysis 9.4.4 The United Kingdom A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis Denim Faces Competition from Other Categories Premium Denim Makes a Comeback Current Trends A Glance at UK Denim Jeans Market Branded Denims on Rough Waters Growth of Private Labels Emergence of Dresses as New Fashion Fad for Women Economic Pressures Initiatives of Denim Brands B. Market Analytics 9.5 Asia-Pacific A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis An Overview of the Denim Market India and China Dominate Denim Jeans Market in Asia-Pacific A Peek into the Competitive Landscape in Asia B. Market Analytics 9.5.1 China A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis Favorable Demographics Drive the Denim Jeans Market Chinese Apparel Market - An Overview Leading Apparel Brands by Category Denim Market Chinese Denim Market Registers Fast Paced Growth Chinese Retail Sector Turns Sophisticated B. Market Analytics 9.5.2 India A. Market Analysis Current and Future Analysis Shift from Traditional Wear to Western Wear Augurs Well for Indian Denim Jeans Market Robust and Steady Growth of Denim in India Strong Momentum in Domestic Market for Denim Enticing New Players Growth Story Continues Apparel Industry in India - An Overview Expanding Textile and Apparel Demand Spells Opportunities for the Market Factors Driving Growth in the Indian Denim Jeans Market Growth Drivers in the Indian Denim Market - Factors Ranked on Scale of 1 to 10 (10 being Highest and 1 being Lowest) SWOT Analysis of Indian Denim Industry Young India Presents Plenty of Opportunities for Denim Jeans Manufacturers Stretch Jeans Gain Popularity among Men Specialized Denims Offer Stiff Competition to Conventional Blues Tier II and Tier III Cities Demonstrate Robust Growth Denim Giants Continue to Prosper Denim Brands Market in India: An Overview Top Ranking Popular Denim Brands in North India, South India and East India Top Ranking Popular Denim Brands in India for Women, Men, and Children by Popularity Denim Production Denim Manufacturers Unite to Battle Higher Costs B. Market Analytics 9.5.3 Rest of Asia-Pacific A. Market Analysis Current & Future Analysis Overview of Select Asia-Pacific Markets Bangladesh Denim Industry Eyeing International Market Going Green in Denim: The Bangladeshi Way Pakistan Challenges for Denim Makers in Pakistan Thailand - Key Statistics B. Market Analytics 9.6 Latin America 10. COMPANY PROFILES Total Companies Profiled: 159 (including Divisions/Subsidiaries - 163) The United States (72) (72) Canada (5) (5) Japan (5) (5) Europe (41) (41) France (2) (2) Germany (7) (7) Italy (11) (11) The United Kingdom (5) (5) Spain (3) (3) Rest of Europe (13) (13) Asia-Pacific (Excluding Japan) (38) (Excluding Japan) (38) Latin America (2) For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/54n93r/global_denim?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com DUBLIN, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Diesel Engine Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2019-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global diesel engine market was worth US$ 215 Billion in 2018. A key factor driving the demand of diesel engines is the fact that they provide better fuel efficiency compared to petrol engines and are extremely popular in commercial and heavy-duty vehicles. Moreover, the strong growth of the automobile industry, particularly in emerging markets such as India, China, Vietnam, etc. is also expected to create a positive impact on the demand of diesel engines. Apart from this, growth in the non-automotive diesel engine market is also expected to catalyse the market with growth expected to be driven by rising energy demands from infrastructure growth and the manufacturing industry. Strong industrialization in developing economies has also increased the demand of diesel engines driven by an increasing requirement for a reliable and consistent source of power generation to ensure uninterrupted and efficient operations. Looking forward, the market is expected to reach a value of US$ 291 Billion by 2024, exhibiting a CAGR of around 5% during 2019-2024. Key Questions Answered How has the global diesel engine market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years? What are the key regional markets in the global diesel engine industry? What is the breakup of the market based on the power rating? What is the breakup of the market based on the end-user? What are the various stages in the value chain of the global diesel engine industry? What are the key driving factors and challenges in the global diesel engine industry? What is the structure of the global diesel engine industry and who are the key players? What is the degree of competition in the global diesel engine industry? What are the profit margins in the global diesel engine industry? Key Topics Covered: 1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 2.1 Objectives of the Study 2.2 Stakeholders 2.3 Data Sources 2.4 Market Estimation 2.5 Forecasting Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global Diesel Engine Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Market Breakup by Power Rating 5.4 Market Breakup by End-User 5.5 Market Breakup by Region 5.6 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Power Rating 6.1 0.5 MW-1 MW 6.2 Up to 0.5 MW 6.3 2 MW-5 MW 6.4 1 MW-2 MW 6.5 Above 5 MW 7 Market Breakup by End-User 7.1 Automotive 7.2 Non-Automotive 8 Market Breakup by Region 8.1 Asia Pacific 8.2 Europe 8.3 North America 8.4 Middle East and Africa 8.5 Latin America 9 SWOT Analysis 9.1 Overview 9.2 Strengths 9.3 Weaknesses 9.4 Opportunities 9.5 Threats 10 Value Chain Analysis 10.1 Overview 10.2 Research and Development 10.3 Raw Material Procurement 10.4 Manufacturing 10.5 Marketing 10.6 Distribution 10.7 End-Use 11 Porters Five Forces Analysis 11.1 Overview 11.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 11.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 11.4 Degree of Competition 11.5 Threat of New Entrants 11.6 Threat of Substitutes 12 Price Analysis 13 Manufacturing Process 13.1 Product Overview 13.2 Raw Material Requirements 13.3 Manufacturing Process 13.4 Key Success and Risk Factors 14 Competitive Landscape 14.1 Market Structure 14.2 Key Players 14.3 Profiles of Key Players 14.3.1 ACGO Corporation 14.3.2 China FAW Group 14.3.3 Bosch 14.3.4 Deere & Company 14.3.5 Continental AG 14.3.6 Delphi Automotive 14.3.7 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 14.3.8 Ford Motor 14.3.9 General Motors 14.3.10 MAN SE 14.3.11 Wartsila 14.3.12 Cummins 14.3.13 Rolls-Royce 14.3.14 Rubitherm Technologies GmbH For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lpet7s Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com GODIVA's cafes have seen international success, with locations currently open in Japan, China, Belgium and the Middle East. The overall cafe concept has shifted with the New York City location featuring a refreshed design and a wide array of innovative new menu items that will shape and be replicated as part of the cafe expansion over the next few years. By the end of 2019, 10 more cafes are slated to open in New York State and the larger plan is to expand the model to 2,000 locations worldwide, with over 400 planned in the Americas. Leading the new concept is the menu and what GODIVA has seen as the consumer's desire for quality and premium treats. Using GODIVA's Belgian roots and innovative food trends as the inspiration, Executive Chef Chocolatier, Thierry Muret, has created a menu of new and delicious items including the Croiffle, the signature Chocolixir, a decadent cold blended drink, baked items like Belgian liege waffles and chocolate inspired cookies, sandwiches and salads. Available exclusively at GODIVA cafes, the Croiffle is a buttery croissant pressed in a hot waffle iron. The new menu item is available in six flavors including Three Cheese filled with melted Gruyere, Havarti and Swiss; Bacon, Egg & Gouda; and GODIVA dark or milk chocolate all for under $6.00 each. Additionally, the cafe menu offers decadent cookies inspired by GODIVA's iconic chocolate pieces, featuring the white raspberry oatmeal cookie as well as the dark chocolate lava cake cookie. Other new menu items will include GODIVA Mocha and GODIVA affogato with soft serve and more. "This is a very pivotal time for GODIVA as we transition to align with the ever-changing consumer behavior. We have an aggressive growth plan for the next six years which includes expanding our footprint of 2,000 cafes worldwide with a focus on growth in the Americas," said Annie Young-Scrivner, CEO, GODIVA Chocolatier. "We are very excited, as the opening of the GODIVA cafe in New York City is a major milestone for us. We look forward to becoming a part of our consumer's daily life whether it be breakfast, a midday snack or a sweet afternoon treat and creating a destination that they want to visit in order to treat themselves beyond the usual holiday or special occasion." The Lexington Avenue cafe will officially open on Thursday, April 18th. Daily store operating hours will be 6:00AM 9:00PM ensuring that customers will be able to enjoy a GODIVA treat throughout the day. About GODIVA Chocolatier GODIVA Chocolatier is the global leader in premium, artisanal chocolate. The company was founded in Brussels in 1926 by Belgian Chocolatier, Pierre Draps. Nearly a century later, every piece of GODIVA chocolate is still bursting with quality, Belgian craftsmanship, and the world's finest ingredients. GODIVA has distribution in more than 100 countries across the globe. Customers can experience GODIVA at the iconic brand's chocolate boutiques, chocolate cafes, GODIVA.com, and at many fine retailers. GODIVA is committed to innovative and delicious food and beverage products that exceed consumer expectations and create wonderful moments. From its famous truffles and shell-moulded chocolate pieces to its European-style biscuits, individually wrapped chocolates, gourmet coffees, hot cocoa, soft serve and other indulgences, GODIVA is dedicated to bringing the ultimate chocolate experience to the world. As a socially responsible business, GODIVA has global practices and programs designed to provide meaningful support to cocoa farmers, safeguard our environment, and empower the communities where we live and work. To learn more about these powerful initiatives, visit GODIVA Cares. The legend of our namesake, Lady GODIVA When Lady GODIVA, wife of Lord Leofric, protested against the taxation of his subjects, she agreed to ride through the streets of Coventry "clad in naught but her long tresses," and, so long as the residents remained in shuttered buildings, their tax burden would be lifted. The following morning, she made her famous ride and, despite the temptation, the citizens graciously remained indoors. Leofric kept his word and reduced the taxes to the delight of his subjects, ensuring GODIVA's legendary status throughout the centuries. Inspired by the values of Lady GODIVA passion, generosity, and pioneering spirit -- GODIVA's legendary name has become a universal symbol of luxury, quality and the most delicious chocolate. Contacts: Alyssa Ciambriello: [email protected] Keri Madonna: [email protected] P: 212.598.4400 SOURCE GODIVA Chocolatier Related Links http://www.godiva.com PHILADELPHIA, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The investor rights lawyers at Goldman Scarlato & Penny are investigating potential claims on behalf of investors in certain funds sold by GPB Capital Holdings, including GPB Automotive Portfolio, GPB Holdings I, GPB Holdings II, GPB Cold Storage, GPB Waste Management, and GPB NYC Development. The lawyers' investigation includes potential claims against the brokerage firms that sold the GPB funds, as well as claims against GPB itself to recover investor losses. GPB was launched in 2013 and became one of the fastest growing private placement firms selling shares in its funds through independent broker-dealers. In July 2018, InvestmentNews reported that GPB missed the deadline to file financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") for two of its largest funds; GPB Automotive Portfolio and GPB Holdings II. In August 2018, GPB announced it was taking a break from raising new money to focus on straightening out the accounting for the two funds. In September 2018, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth announced an investigation into 63 broker-dealer firms selling GPB Capital private placements. In November 2018, GPB's auditor, Crowe LLP, resigned. In December 2018, InvestmentNews reported that the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") launched investigations into both the broker-dealers and GPB Capital itself. Most recently, it was reported that the FBI made an unannounced visit to GPB Capital's office in New York as part of an investigation into GPB Waste NY, the New York-based trash hauler owned by GPB Capital Holdings. What GPB Investors Should Do If you lost money through your investments with GBP Capital, you should call securities attorneys Alan Rosca, Paul Scarlato, or Doug Bench for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your options, at 888-998-0530 or via email at [email protected]. The Goldman Scarlato & Penny law firm represents investors who lose money as a result of investment-related fraud or misconduct. The firm takes most cases of this type on a contingency fee basis and advances the case costs. There are no fees or costs if no recovery. For more information about the Goldman Scarlato & Penny attorneys and disclosures about their areas of practice and admissions, visit https://investorlawyers.org/ . Attorney advertising. Goldman Scarlato & Penny 2019. Related Links https://investorlawyers.org/ SOURCE Goldman Scarlato & Penny, P.C. Related Links http://www.investorlawyers.org TINTON FALLS, N.J., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- J.F. Kiely Construction Co., a leading utility construction company headquartered in Long Branch, New Jersey, celebrates their newly renovated and updated building. CEO John M. Kiely (left) and Chairman John F. Kiely Cutting the Grand Re-Opening Ribbon at 700 McClellan Street in Long Branch, New Jersey Opened in June 1952, the J.F. Kiely Construction Co. building in Long Branch is where the company was first established. When purchased, the land was cleared by John F. Kiely Sr. and his son, John F. Kiely Jr., the Chairman of the Kiely Family of Companies. The original office for the company, located at 700 McClellan Street, is now joined by seventeen other locations throughout North America and abroad. The once corporate headquarters of the Kiely Family of Companies is now home to J.F. Kiely Construction Co.'s gas operations, safety, training, and fleet departments. John M. Kiely, CEO of J.F. Kiely Construction Co. says, "What we build keeps our nation's infrastructure strong, secure and connected, so technological updates for greater connectivity within our family of companies and with our customer partners was a priority for the relaunch of this facility." The redesign of the building also includes new flooring, office designs, and branded graphics throughout. The iconic tile mosaic at the entrance of the building remains as a welcome to all guests, team members, and customers who visit. About J.F. Kiely Construction Co.: An ENR 600 company, J.F. Kiely Construction Co. provides design - build projects to the natural gas, petroleum and water resources industries. Established in 1952, J.F. Kiely Construction Co. performs work for publicly traded utility companies, energy companies, municipalities, and private entities throughout the Northeast. J.F. Kiely Construction Co. is part of the Kiely Family of Companies. For more information about J.F. Kiely Construction Co. visit kielybuilds.com . Media Contact: James Pagano (732) 222-4400 [email protected] SOURCE J.F. Kiely Construction Co. Related Links http://kielybuilds.com BATESVILLE, Ind., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI) will hold a conference call and simultaneous webcast Thursday, May 2, 2019, at 8:00 a.m. ET. They will discuss the results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2019, which ended March 31, 2019. The live webcast, including a slide presentation, will be available at http://ir.hillenbrand.com under the "Events & Presentations" tab and will be archived on the company's investor relations website through Friday, May 31, 2019. To access the conference call, listeners in the United States and Canada may dial +1 (833) 241-7251, and international callers may dial +1 (647) 689-4215. Please use conference call ID number 5294659. A replay of the call will be available until midnight ET, Thursday, May 16, 2019, by dialing +1 (800) 585-8367 toll free in the United States and Canada or +1 (416) 621-4642 internationally and using the conference ID number 5294659. Hillenbrand will issue a press release reporting its results after the market closes on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. The full text of the release and financials will be available at http://ir.hillenbrand.com. About Hillenbrand Hillenbrand (www.hillenbrand.com) is a global diversified industrial company with multiple market-leading brands that serve a wide variety of industries across the globe. We pursue profitable growth and robust cash generation to drive increased value for our shareholders. Hillenbrand's portfolio is composed of two business segments: the Process Equipment Group and Batesville. The Process Equipment Group businesses design, develop, manufacture and service highly engineered industrial equipment around the world. Batesville is a recognized leader in the North American death care industry. Hillenbrand is publicly traded on the NYSE under "HI". SOURCE Hillenbrand, Inc. Related Links http://www.hillenbrand.com "Jose Munoz has an impressive track record and is proven to be a visionary and motivational leader who is adept at all aspects of our business," said Wonhee Lee, President of Hyundai Motor Company. "His decades of automotive and technology experience make him well suited for this new role as we move the company to the next step. We are looking forward to Mr. Munoz joining the team, and will lean on his leadership skills and vision to achieve long-term sustainable growth and evolve into a Smart Mobility Solutions Provider." "I am excited to join Hyundai Motor at this vital time in its history," said Jose Munoz. "My capabilities around delivering steady profitable growth, managing the entire supply chain, and working together with our dealer partners to find win-win solutions match up well with the opportunity here. I am eager to bring best global practices from the automobile and technology industries to my new role as COO of Hyundai Motor Company and am honored to join this esteemed corporation." Mr. Munoz will report to Hyundai Motor Company's top leadership in Seoul. He will start on May 1 and be based in Fountain Valley, California. Mr. Munoz has also been named President and CEO of both Hyundai Motor North America and Hyundai Motor America. He will be responsible for the entire American market, including Hyundai Motor North, Central and South America, as the Head of Hyundai Motor Americas Region. Mr. Munoz is an important hire in further solidifying Hyundai's overseas business reorganization that was announced last year with the creation of Hyundai Motor North America, among other regional headquarters around the world. He was most recently the Chief Performance Officer for Nissan Motor Corporation and the Chairman of Nissan China. He joined Nissan in 2004 and during his 15 years at the automaker led significant growth and record sales in the regions he managed. Mr. Munoz, 53, a native of Spain, earned his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Polytechnic University of Madrid and has an MBA from Instituto de Empresa (IE) Business School in Madrid. He has also completed executive management programs from Cranfield School of Management in the U.K. and INSEAD Business School in France. He is fluent in English, Spanish and French. Career Highlights 2018 - 2019: Chief Performance Officer and Chairman China, Nissan 2016 - 2018: Chief Performance Officer and Chairman North America, Nissan 2014 - 2016: EVP, Chairman of Management Committee, North America , Nissan , Nissan 2004 - 2014: General Manager Nissan Europe, Managing Director Nissan Motor Iberia, President Nissan Mexico, Nissan 1999 - 2004: After Sales and Dealer Network Development Management roles, Toyota Motor Marketing Europe 1996 - 1999: Network Development Director, Daewoo Motor Iberia 1989 - 1996: Dealer, Citroen About Hyundai Motor Company Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company is committed to becoming a lifetime partner in automobiles and beyond with its range of world-class vehicles and mobility services available in more than 200 countries. Employing more than 110,000 employees worldwide, Hyundai has sold more than 4.5 million vehicles globally. Hyundai Motor continues to enhance its product line-up with vehicles that are helping to build solutions for a more sustainable future, such as NEXO, the world's first dedicated hydrogen-powered SUV. More information about Hyundai Motor Company and its products can be found at: http://worldwide.hyundai.com or http://globalpr.hyundai.com Disclaimer: Hyundai Motor Company believes the information contained herein to be accurate at the time of release. However, the company may upload new or updated information if required and assumes that it is not liable for the accuracy of any information interpreted and used by the reader. SOURCE Hyundai Motor Company Related Links http://worldwide.hyundai.com NEW YORK and TORONTO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. ("iAnthus" or the "Company") (CSE: IAN,OTCQX: ITHUF), which owns, operates, and partners with best-in-class regulated cannabis operations across the United States, is pleased to announce that it is launching the sale of smokable flower and pre-rolled joints in Florida through iAnthus' "GrowHealthy" Florida dispensary brand. The flower sales will commence on Saturday, April 20, commonly known as the cannabis holiday, "4/20". The smokable flower and pre-rolled joints will be available in the three open GrowHealthy dispensaries in West Palm Beach, Lake Worth and Brandon. Customers will initially be limited to five pre-rolled joints or a quarter ounce per customer per day. The Company was granted approval by the Florida Department of Health to commence sales of smokable flower in late-March 2019. To celebrate the 4/20 holiday, the Company's dispensary brands throughout the United States plan to host their own celebrations, events and deals, including the following: Health For Life Arizona plans to host "Four Days of 4/20," across its four retail locations. Each day features its own special deals such as $99 ounces and discounts on vape cartridges. ounces and discounts on vape cartridges. Citiva New York will be hosting celebratory events at its Brooklyn and Hudson Valley dispensary locations. The events are open to the community and will include live music, food & refreshments, local artists and giveaways. and dispensary locations. The events are open to the community and will include live music, food & refreshments, local artists and giveaways. Grassroots Vermont is running specials on certain products throughout the week leading up to 4/20, while hosting a recruiting drive for Green Up/Clean Up VT, a volunteer-based roadside trash removal event. is running specials on certain products throughout the week leading up to 4/20, while hosting a recruiting drive for Green Up/Clean Up VT, a volunteer-based roadside trash removal event. GrowHealthy Florida is giving away free branded t-shirts to the first 50 patients in each of its three retail locations and running discounts on vape cartridges, syringes, and vape pens. Health For Life Maryland will be hosting events at each of its three dispensary locations including live music, food trucks, raffles and local vendors. Health for Life Maryland will also donate 10% of its proceeds to seven different local and national charities, in addition to offering deals and discounts to patients. Mayflower Medicinals in Massachusetts will be hosting a raffle for all patients who come into its Harvard Ave. dispensary on 4/20, in addition to offering various deals and discounts throughout the week. For more details about each of the dispensary's 4/20 celebrations, please visit the dispensary brands websites and social media channels. About iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. owns and operates best-in-class licensed cannabis cultivation, processing and dispensary facilities throughout the United States, providing investors diversified exposure to the U.S. regulated cannabis industry. Founded by entrepreneurs with decades of experience in operations, investment banking, corporate finance, law and health care services, iAnthus provides a unique combination of capital and hands-on operating and management expertise. iAnthus currently has operations in 11 states, and operates 21 dispensaries (AZ-4, MA-1, MD-3, FL-3, NY-2, CO-1, VT-1 and NM-6 where iAnthus has minority ownership). For more information, visit www.iAnthusCapital.com. SOURCE iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. Related Links https://www.ianthuscapital.com/ CHICAGO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --According to the new research report "Industrial Wax Market by Type (Fossil based, Synthetic based, Bio based), Application (Candles, Packaging, Coatings & Polishes, Hot-melt Adhesives, Tires & Rubber, Cosmetics & Personal Care, Food), and Region - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Industrial Wax Market size was estimated to be USD 9.8 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 14.3 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.8%. The increasing demand for industrial wax from applications, such as candles, packaging, and coating & polishes and growing acceptance of synthetic waxes are expected to drive the industrial wax market. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=197935975 Browse in-depth TOC on "Industrial Wax Market" 162 Tables 60 Figures 171 Pages View detailed Table of Content here: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/industrial-wax-market-197935975.html The fossil-based waxes segment is estimated to be the largest type of the industrial wax market. The fossil-based waxes segment is the largest type of the industrial wax market. These waxes are largely used in candle making, packaging, and coatings of commercial products. In addition, these waxes are used in the cosmetics industry as they are considered extensively safe and are derived from various processes of crude oil refining. Petroleum wax has a high-gloss characteristic, which makes it a suitable ingredient for polishes and is commonly used in floors, furniture, cars, and footwear. The market in the tire & rubber application to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The market in the tire & rubber application is projected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. Industrial waxes are added to the compounds of rubbers and tires to protect them from ozone and UV lights. In addition, these waxes are applied to tires and rubbers to protect them from cracking. Moreover, the growing tire and rubber industries are expected to drive the demand for industrial waxes during the forecast period. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=197935975 Asia Pacific accounts for the largest share of the industrial wax market. Asia Pacific was estimated to account for the largest share of the industrial wax market in 2017. China, India, and Japan are among the leading markets for candle making, packaging, coatings & polishes, and tires & rubber. The growth in the application segments has increased the demand for industrial wax in the region. The leading players in the Industrial Wax Market are Sinopec (China), Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands), Petroleo Brasileiro (Brazil), Exxon Mobil (US), Sasol (South Africa), Oil Co. Lukoil PJSC (Russia), Numaligarh Refinery (India), HCl (China), The Blayson Group (UK), and International Group (Canada). Get 10% Free Customization on this Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=197935975 Browse Adjacent Markets: Bulk Chemicals and Inorganics Market Research Reports & Consulting Related Reports: Bio-Lubricants Market by Base Oil Type (Vegetable Oil, Animal Fat), Application (Hydraulic Fluids, Metalworking Fluids, Chainsaw Oils, Mold Release Agents), End Use (Industrial, Commercial Transport, Consumer Automobile) - Global Forecast to 2022 Wax Emulsion Market by Material Base (Synthetic Natural), Type (Polyethylene, Paraffin, Carnauba, Polypropylene, and Others), End Use Industry (Paints & Coatings, Adhesives & Sealants, Cosmetics, Textiles, and Others), Region (Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, and RoW) - Global Forecast to 2021 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Shelly Singh MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/industrial-wax-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com SOURCE MarketsandMarkets LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- International Game Technology PLC ("IGT") (NYSE: IGT) announced today the release of its Notice of the 2019 Annual General Meeting ("2019 AGM") and 2018 Annual Reports and Accounts for the period from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018, and provided updated information for the 2019 AGM, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency London, 30 Portman Square, London, W1H 7BH, on May 17, 2019, at 3:00 p.m. British Summer Time (BST). The Notice of the 2019 AGM, 2018 Annual Reports and Accounts, and instructions to participate at the AGM are available at www.IGT.com, along with IGT's 2018 Annual Report on Form 20-F. These materials can be viewed directly online and are also available for download in PDF format. IGT's 2018 Annual Report on Form 20-F was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 8, 2019 and is accessible through its website at www.sec.gov. About IGT IGT (NYSE:IGT) is the global leader in gaming. We enable players to experience their favorite games across all channels and regulated segments, from Gaming Machines and Lotteries to Digital and Social Gaming. Leveraging a wealth of premium content, substantial investment in innovation, in-depth customer intelligence, operational expertise and leading-edge technology, our gaming solutions anticipate the demands of consumers wherever they decide to play. We have a well-established local presence and relationships with governments and regulators in more than 100 countries around the world, and create value by adhering to the highest standards of service, integrity, and responsibility. IGT has over 12,000 employees. For more information, please visit www.igt.com. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements (including within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning International Game Technology PLC and its consolidated subsidiaries (the "Company") and other matters. These statements may discuss goals, intentions, and expectations as to future plans, trends, events, dividends, results of operations, or financial condition, or otherwise, based on current beliefs of the management of the Company as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, such management. Forward-looking statements may be accompanied by words such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "could," "would," "should," "shall," "continue," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "guidance," "intend," "may," "will," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project" or the negative or other variations of them. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such statements are made and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside the Company's control. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ materially from those predicted in the forward-looking statements and from past results, performance, or achievements. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include (but are not limited to) the factors and risks described in the Company's annual report on Form 20-F for the financial year ended December 31, 2018 and other documents filed from time to time with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on the investor relations section of the Company's website at www.IGT.com . Except as required under applicable law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. You should carefully consider these factors and other risks and uncertainties that affect the Company's business. Nothing in this news release is intended, or is to be construed, as a profit forecast or to be interpreted to mean that financial performance of the Company for the current or any future financial years will necessarily match or exceed the historical published financial performance of the Company, as applicable. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to International Game Technology PLC, or persons acting on its behalf, are expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. IGT Contacts: Phil O'Shaughnessy, Global Communications, (401) 392-7452 Giuliano Frosini, +39 06 51899584; for Italian media inquiries James Hurley, Investor Relations, (401) 392-7190 SOURCE International Game Technology PLC Related Links http://www.igt.com KATONAH, N.Y., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday, April 12th, Joule Community Power issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for energy suppliers to bid a more competitive price relative to the default energy supplier (Central Hudson) on behalf of eight communities in the Hudson Valley the Town of Beacon, the Town of Cold Spring, the Town of Fishkill, the Town of Geneva, the Town of Lima, Marbletown, Philipstown, the City of Poughkeepsie as part of the Hudson Valley Community Power program. The winner of the RFP will provide electricity to the participating communities at a lower price than what residents have historically paid, and is expected to come, at least in part, from cleaner sources. Hudson Valley Community Power is a community-based bulk energy purchasing program (Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA) intended to lower costs and increase the use of renewable energy in the Hudson Valley. The issuance of the RFP marks an historic agreement of the participating communities to join forces in the Hudson Valley Community Power energy program, through the signing of a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) with the Program Administrator, Joule Community Power. Glenn Weinberg, Vice President of Joule Community Power, said, "Following our timeline, residents and small businesses should start seeing savings on their energy bills by July: We aim to designate a supplier by May, with the expectation to begin delivery shortly thereafter. We'll publicly release the name of the winning supplier and the terms of the new contract, as soon as these are determined." Jeffrey Domanski, of Hudson Valley Energy, the program's Local Organizer, said, "This RFP is an historic moment for the Hudson Valley, demonstrating a powerful shared service model in the area of sustainability. Many people have worked hard to make this happen, and we're excited to see the benefits. We are very proud of these communities for choosing a path towards 100% renewable energy, and look forward to helping them meet their carbon reduction goals." New York State's first CCA pilot program across twenty-five municipalities in Westchester County in 2016 has, to date, saved residents more than $17 million on their energy bills. About Joule Community Power Joule Community Power (Joule Community) is leading the energy paradigm shift in New York State by guiding municipalities and residents towards local energy independence and 100% clean energy. Joule Community Power helps municipalities reduce residential energy costs while advancing energy reduction, energy management, and clean energy goals amidst an evolving regulatory environment. With no upfront cost to a municipality or its residents, Joule's first-of-kind, integrated Community Power program helps municipalities and consumers save money and energy by pooling local demand to broker cheaper energy supply contracts for residents and small businesses while creating new revenue opportunities enabled by participation in renewable energy markets, further enabling rapid customer acquisition for solar developers at scale. Joule Community's distinctive expertise in designing and implementing new consumer-protective energy supply contracts was instrumental in the creation of New York State's first Community Choice energy program. Having created the blueprint to guide communities through a smooth and empowering decision process, Joule Community aims to scale its successful CCA model across NY State and beyond. Joule Community is 100% owned and operated by Joule Assets Inc. Learn more about Joule Community at: www.joulecommunity.com. SOURCE Joule Community Power Related Links https://www.joulecommunity.com/ PITTSBURGH, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP) plans to release its first quarter 2019 financial results before the opening of the markets on Friday, May 3, 2019, and discuss its results on a conference call later that day at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Presentation materials will be available at least 15 minutes before the call on www.koppers.com in the Investor Relations section of the company's website. Interested parties may access the live audio broadcast by dialing 833-366-1128 in the United States/Canada, or 412-902-6774 for international, Conference ID number 10130987. Participants are requested to access the call at least five minutes before the scheduled start time to complete a brief registration. The conference call will be broadcast live online at: https://services.choruscall.com/links/koppers190503.html. (Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your internet browser's URL address field.) An audio replay will be available approximately two hours after the completion of the call at 877-344-7529 for U.S. toll free, 855-669-9658 for Canada toll free, or 412-317-0088 for international, Conference ID number 10130987. The recording will be available for replay through June 3, 2019. About Koppers Koppers, with corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals and carbon compounds. Our products and services are used in a variety of niche applications in a diverse range of end-markets, including the railroad, specialty chemical, utility, residential lumber, agriculture, aluminum, steel, rubber, and construction industries. Including our joint ventures, we serve our customers through a comprehensive global manufacturing and distribution network, with facilities located in North America, South America, Australasia, China and Europe. The stock of Koppers Holdings Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KOP." For more information, visit: www.koppers.com. Questions concerning investor relations should be directed to Mr. Michael Zugay at 412-227-2231 or Ms. Quynh McGuire at 412-227-2049. For Information: Michael J. Zugay, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer 412 227 2231 [email protected] SOURCE Koppers Holdings Inc. Related Links http://www.koppers.com BOSTON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- David Long, Liberty Mutual Insurance's Chief Executive Officer, today announced that Jay Hooley, Chairman and former Chief Executive Officer of State Street Corporation, has been elected to the insurer's Board of Directors. "We are thrilled to have a leader like Jay Hooley, who brings a wealth of accomplishments and strong stature, join our board of directors," Mr. Long said. "I look forward to working with him as we strive to make Liberty a top-three global property and casualty company." As former CEO of State Street, Mr. Hooley led one of the world's leading providers of financial services to institutional investors, with 40,000 employees, $31.6 trillion in assets under custody and administration, and $2.5 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2018. "I am delighted to join the Liberty Mutual Board of Directors," Mr. Hooley said. "The company's belief that progress happens when people feel secure is at the core of how it fulfills its purpose of helping people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow. I look forward to working with the Liberty Mutual Board and management team to help achieve the company's goals." Mr. Hooley serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and as a member of the President's Council of the Massachusetts General Hospital. He has received numerous recognitions including: Global Custodian's Lifetime Achievement Award, NICSA Robert L. Gould Award, New England Council's New Englander of the Year Award, the Partnership Inc.'s Bennie Wiley CEO Diversity Award, Lewis Family Foundation CEO Social Leadership Award, and the Boston Municipal Research Bureau's City Champion Award. Mr. Hooley is a graduate of Boston College. About Liberty Mutual Insurance Liberty Mutual's purpose is to help people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow. The promise we make to our customers throughout the world is to provide protection for the unexpected, delivered with care. In business since 1912, and headquartered in Boston, Mass., today we are the fifth largest global property and casualty insurer based on 2017 gross written premium. We also rank 68th on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2017 revenue. As of December 31, 2018, we had $41.6 billion in annual consolidated revenue. We employ nearly 50,000 people in 30 countries and economies around the world. We offer a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, specialty lines, reinsurance, commercial multiple-peril, workers compensation, commercial automobile, general liability, surety, and commercial property. You can learn more about us by visiting www.libertymutualinsurance.com. SOURCE Liberty Mutual Insurance Related Links http://www.libertymutualinsurance.com This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon! Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page? "Email continues to be the strongest marketing channel with unmatched ROI, typically 42-1," said Erik Nierenberg, Litmus CEO. "Companies of all sizes are investing more in core applications like Litmus that make these email programs deliver most effectively for the bottom line. In the last 18 months, we've been focused on releasing enterprise workflow integrations with Oracle, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Marketo, Slack, and Asana along with building deeper engagement analytics, advanced spam testing, and Litmus Proof which enables improved collaboration and productivity across the entire email creation lifecycle. As we advance the product to meet the needs of this growing market, we're taking every opportunity to expand the breadth and depth of the expertise on our team." Board Appointment Stacey Epstein, the newest board member at Litmus, has extensive experience in fueling growth and building companies from stealth startups to brand name, global technology organizations. Currently, Epstein is president of Zinc, which was recently acquired by ServiceMax. Prior to Zinc, Epstein was CMO at ServiceMax where she helped drive five consecutive years of triple-digit growth. Prior to that, she was head of global marketing at SuccessFactors, which was acquired by SAP for $3.4 billion in 2012. Prior to SuccessFactors, she held leadership roles at Oracle, Clarify, and ServiceSource. "Email marketing is a $40 billion market where Litmus remains a clear leader at providing value and insights to businesses of all sizes, including many of the world's leading brands," said Epstein, Litmus board member. "The Litmus platform is a must-have for email marketers, and I look forward to working with the team as they continue their rapid growth and creating value for their customers." Executive Team Expansion Cynthia Price , Vice President of Marketing : Price is a results-driven marketing leader with expertise in the email marketing industry. She previously held vice president of marketing positions with Emma, a leading email marketing platform, and with BTC Media, a distributed technology company. Price, who reports to CMO David Rich (formerly of Adobe), is an expert in email marketing, and has spoken and published on best practices and industry trends. : Price is a results-driven marketing leader with expertise in the email marketing industry. She previously held vice president of marketing positions with Emma, a leading email marketing platform, and with BTC Media, a distributed technology company. Price, who reports to CMO David Rich (formerly of Adobe), is an expert in email marketing, and has spoken and published on best practices and industry trends. Greg Ruh , Head of Global Enterprise Sale s: Ruh is a proven leader in sales and marketing for startups and large organizations. As a veteran of Salesforce and IBM, Ruh is passionate about all aspects of the customer experience that help companies attract and retain customers and grow revenue. s: Ruh is a proven leader in sales and marketing for startups and large organizations. As a veteran of Salesforce and IBM, Ruh is passionate about all aspects of the customer experience that help companies attract and retain customers and grow revenue. Rich Yu , Senior Vice President of Product: Yu served as a member of the executive team at Model N (NYSE:MODN) for 14 years from pre-funding through post-IPO. Prior to joining Litmus, Yu was the vice president of product at Marketo (an Adobe company), where he led the product management and user experience functions. Yu served as a member of the executive team at Model N (NYSE:MODN) for 14 years from pre-funding through post-IPO. Prior to joining Litmus, Yu was the vice president of product at Marketo (an Adobe company), where he led the product management and user experience functions. Praveen Sharma , Director of Information Security and Data Privacy: Sharma brings extensive security expertise to this newly created position which aligns with the increased focus on Litmus as a trusted, enterprise-grade platform for many of the world's leading brands and companies. She previously held leadership positions in technology and security for Philips Healthcare and the IT Cyber Innovations group as well as the MIT Lincoln Laboratory where she worked on large-scale cyber infrastructure for the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Sharma brings extensive security expertise to this newly created position which aligns with the increased focus on Litmus as a trusted, enterprise-grade platform for many of the world's leading brands and companies. She previously held leadership positions in technology and security for Philips Healthcare and the IT Cyber Innovations group as well as the MIT Lincoln Laboratory where she worked on large-scale cyber infrastructure for the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Alice Li , Principal Email Engineer: Li began her career in email marketing at Epsilon, Responsys, and Oracle, and then went on to serve as the sole email developer for Shutterstock. She is a passionate speaker and evangelist on interactive and accessible emails, and was honored with the 2018 eec (Email Experience Council) Stefan Pollard Email Marketer of the Year, and was one of the MTC News Top 25 Most Influential Email Marketers for 2018. As Litmus continues to grow its operations and global customer base, it has also added team members from Box, Atlassian, Logmein, Oracle, Hubspot, Gilt Groupe and Hotels.com. The team, which has grown by 50 percent over the past 18 months, brings a mix of experience across SaaS, email marketing, analytics, user success, and enterprise sales. About Litmus Litmus provides a powerful platform for email creation, testing, analytics, and collaboration, empowering marketing teams to confidently deliver increased subscriber engagement and campaign ROI while ensuring brand consistency. Backed by Spectrum Equity, Litmus is used by major global brands across every industry that trust its Email Creative Platform to make their email better, including nine of the top 10 ecommerce brands, seven of the top 10 technology companies, and 23 of the top 25 U.S. advertising agencies. Learn more about Litmus at litmus.com, subscribe to the Litmus blog, or follow us on Twitter. SOURCE Litmus Related Links http://litmus.com STAINES-UPON-THAMES, United Kingdom, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc (NYSE: MNK), a leading global specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced top-line results from its company-sponsored, proof-of-concept study of nitric oxide gas (gNO) with ex-vivo lung perfusion compared to lung perfusion alone in human lung transplants. The study's primary objectives were to assess the effect of nitric oxide in perfused ex-vivo lungs using an experimental, proprietary grading system to evaluate improvements in lung function including oxygenation and transplantability, as well as the total ex-vivo perfusion time of the lungs through periodic assessments during Ex-Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP) as compared to standard of care alone. Top-line results from the randomized and blinded portion of this proof of concept study showed improvement in lung function and oxygenation of lungs perfused with gNO, and a higher percentage of lungs were able to be preserved for a longer period in EVLP (up to 12 hours). The EVLP time period prior to lung transplantation in this study is longer than the current standard of four to six hours. Matthew Hartwig, M.D., a lung transplant surgeon at Duke University and the study's Principal Investigator, said: "We are very excited about the preliminary results from this proof-of-concept study. We still have a lot of work to do, but in human lungs not suitable for clinical transplantation, the study showed an improvement in oxygenation and a longer duration of out-of-body perfusion time in lungs perfused with gNO, which are both important parts of a successful ex-vivo lung perfusion." EVLP describes a process of evaluating, rehabilitating, and improving possible donor lungs outside the body. At normal body temperature, the lungs are perfused and ventilated to mimic physiologic function prior to transplant surgery. EVLP has the potential to increase the available donor pool through restoring and repairing donor lungs. "Mallinckrodt is focused on providing treatment options for underserved patients' needs, improving outcomes for those with severe and critical conditions. The company has more than 20 years of experience with, and investment in, nitric oxide as a signaling molecule," said Steven Romano, M.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Mallinckrodt. "We are pleased to see these encouraging preliminary, top-line data, and plan to publish the full data set at a future research meeting. This is important research in evaluating the therapy's potential use in lung transplantation as the company seeks to establish and grow its presence in a key therapeutic area." About the Study This proof-of-concept, randomized, multicenter, blinded study assessed the effects of gNO in modified criteria human lung transplants via EVLP. It was conducted at three major U.S. lung transplant centers. The study evaluated extended (modified) criteria bilateral donor lungs, not eligible for lung transplantation. The study is ongoing with a small open-label sub-study in a single center to be completed in the second quarter of 2019. About Lung Transplantation in Humans In the U.S. each year, over 2,200 people receive a lung transplant1 the surgical replacement of either a single or two (double) severely diseased lungs with healthy lungs from a human organ donor. A variety of diseases and conditions can damage a person's lungs and hinder their ability to function effectively, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) including emphysema; scarring of the lungs; pulmonary fibrosis; cystic fibrosis; sarcoidosis; and pulmonary hypertension.2 The major limiting factor to the number of transplants performed is donor lung shortage.3 According to Organ Procurement Transplant Network data, approximately 130.5 deaths per 100,000 persons with severe lung disease occurred in 2014, with about 1400 patients with severe lung disease on the waiting list in the U.S.4 ABOUT MALLINCKRODT Mallinckrodt is a global business consisting of multiple wholly owned subsidiaries that develop, manufacture, market and distribute specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. The company's Specialty Brands reportable segment's areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; and analgesics. Its Specialty Generics and Amitiza reportable segment includes specialty generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients and AMITIZA (lubiprostone). To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com. Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website. Cautionary Statements Related to Forward-Looking Statements This release includes forward-looking statements concerning the study described in this release, including expectations with regard to the study, future research plans and the potential impact on patients. The statements are based on assumptions about many important factors, including the following, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: satisfaction of regulatory and other requirements; actions of regulatory bodies and other governmental authorities; changes in laws and regulations; issues with product quality, manufacturing or supply, or patient safety issues; and other risks identified and described in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of Mallinckrodt's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on its website. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date hereof and Mallinckrodt does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events and developments or otherwise, except as required by law. CONTACTS Media Daniel Yunger Kekst CNC 212-521-4879 [email protected] Investor Relations Daniel J. Speciale, CPA Vice President, Investor Relations and IRO 314-654-3638 [email protected] Mallinckrodt, the "M" brand mark and the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals logo are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company. 2019 Mallinckrodt. US1900533 4/19 1 Valapour M, Skeans MA, Smith JM, et al. OPTN/SRTR 2015 Annual Data Report: Lung. American Journal of Transplantation. 2017;17:357-424. doi:10.1111/ajt.14129. 2 Mayo Clinic Patient Care and Health Information, Lung Transplant. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/lung-transplant/about/pac-20384754 Accessed April 8, 2019. 3 Van Raemdonck D; Neyrinck A; Verleden GM, et al. Lung Donor Selection and Management. Annals of the American Thoracic Society. 2009; 6:28-38. 4 Organ Procurement and Transplant Network Data. https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/data/ Accessed April 8, 2019. SOURCE Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Related Links http://www.mallinckrodt.com CALGARY, April 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - TransAlta Corporation ("TransAlta" or the "Company") (TSX: TA) (NYSE: TAC) announced today that Mangrove Partners has withdrawn its application before the Alberta Securities Commission ("ASC") for a hearing related to TransAlta's recent transaction with Brookfield. As previously released, Mangrove originally filed applications on April 8, 2019 before both the ASC and the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC") complaining about the Brookfield transaction. On April 15, 2019, the OSC issued a decision declining to assert jurisdiction, which left the matter solely within the jurisdiction of the ASC. Within hours of receiving TransAlta's response submissions on April 17, 2019, Mangrove withdrew its application effective immediately. The result is that Mangrove's application before the ASC has been abandoned. The OSC's previous decision declining to hear the complaints, coupled with Mangrove abandoning its application before the ASC, means that this matter before the Commissions is at an end. TransAlta's 2019 annual and special meeting will take place on April 26, 2019 in Calgary, Alberta. As previously disclosed, TransAlta secured a strategic partnership and $750 million financing with Brookfield Renewable which will enable TransAlta to advance its strategy. TransAlta's strategy is focused on converting coal units to gas, investing in renewables and accelerating returns to shareholders. Vote the BLUE Proxy Today TransAlta asks shareholders to read the Company's management proxy circular dated March 26, 2019 (the "Circular") carefully and to vote the BLUE proxy FOR all 12 TransAlta director nominees at our upcoming annual and special shareholders' meeting on April 26, 2019 (the "Meeting"). Shareholder support is critical as we work to build a foundation for long-term, sustainable value creation as a leading clean energy company. A copy of the Circular can be downloaded from the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and the Company's EDGAR profile at www.sec.gov. The Circular is also available at TransAlta's website. A vote FOR TransAlta's director nominees will be a vote to realize the value of TransAlta's diverse and quality assets for decades to come, a vote for an experienced and engaged Board and a vote to share in the upside of TransAlta. Becoming a voter is fast and easy. To support TransAlta's Board, vote only your BLUE proxy or voting instruction form today. If you have any questions about the Meeting, please contact Kingsdale Advisors, TransAlta's strategic shareholder advisor and proxy solicitation agent, by telephone at 1-877-659-1820 (toll-free in North America) or 1-416-867-2272 (collect outside North America) or by email at [email protected].] About TransAlta Corporation TransAlta owns, operates and develops a diverse fleet of electrical power generation assets in Canada, the United States and Australia with a focus on long-term shareholder value. We provide municipalities, medium and large industries, businesses and utility customers clean, affordable, energy efficient, and reliable power. Today, we are one of Canada's largest producers of wind power and Alberta's largest producer of hydro-electric power. For over 100 years, TransAlta has been a responsible operator and a proud community-member where its employees work and live. TransAlta aligns its corporate goals with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and we have been recognized by CDP (formerly Climate Disclosure Project) as an industry leader on Climate Change Management. We are also proud to have achieved the Silver level PAR (Progressive Aboriginal Relations) designation by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. For more information about TransAlta, visit our web site at transalta.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "may", "will", "project", "should", "propose", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly, and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information relating to: the timing, business and anticipated outcomes at the 2019 shareholders' meeting, including as a result of actions by Mangrove/Bluescape; the nature, timing and impact of existing or potential legal actions or regulatory proceedings, including those initiated by Mangrove; the investment by Brookfield Renewable Partners or its institutional partners ("Brookfield") and expected benefits to the Company and its shareholders; the ability of the investment to enhance the Company's financial position and to execute its strategy; the Company's strategy, plans and priorities; the Company's relationship with Brookfield or its affiliates and other shareholders; and the expected timing, costs and benefits of the strategic investment by and partnership with Brookfield or its affiliates. These statements are based on TransAlta's belief and assumptions based on information available at the time the assumptions were made, including assumptions pertaining to: the election of the Company's proposed director nominees and outcome of other items to be voted upon at the 2019 shareholders' meeting; the Company's ability to successfully defend against existing or potential legal actions or regulatory proceedings; the closing of the Brookfield investment occurring and other risks to the Brookfield investment not materializing; no significant changes to regulatory, securities, credit or market environments; the anticipated Alberta capacity market framework in the future; our ownership of or relationship with TransAlta Renewables Inc. not materially changing; the Alberta hydro assets achieving their anticipated value, cash flows and adjusted EBITDA; the anticipated benefits and financial results generated on the coal-to-gas conversion and the Company's other strategies; the Company's and Mangrove's/Bluescape's strategies and plans; no significant changes in applicable laws; and risks associated with the impact of the Brookfield investment on the Company's shareholders, debtholders and credit ratings. The forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual performance, events or results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that could cause such differences include: the failure of any of the Company's director nominees to be elected at the shareholders' meeting; the failure of the Company to obtain approval for other items of business at the shareholders' meeting; the failure of the Brookfield investment to close; the outcomes of existing or potential legal actions or regulatory proceedings not being as anticipated, including those pertaining to the shareholders' meeting and the Brookfield investment; the impact of any withhold campaign or appointment of any slate of directors proposed by Mangrove/Bluescape and the subsequent termination of the Brookfield investment by the Company; changes in our relationship with Brookfield; changes in our relationship with other shareholders; the Brookfield investment not resulting in the expected benefits for the Company and its shareholders; and other risks and uncertainties contained in the Company's Management Proxy Circular dated March 26, 2019 and its Annual Information Form and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2018, filed under the Company's profile with the Canadian securities regulators on www.sedar.com and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on www.sec.gov . Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, which reflect TransAlta's expectations only as of the date of this news release. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking statements might occur to a different extent or at a different time than we have described, or might not occur at all. TransAlta disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. SOURCE TransAlta Corporation Related Links http://www.transalta.com MILWAUKEE, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial Overview: ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN) today reported net earnings of $0.88 per diluted share for the three months ended March 31, 2019 compared to $1.45 per diluted share in the prior year period. Net earnings in the quarter were $53.5 million compared to $97.0 million a year earlier. Revenues for the first quarter were $5.0 billion, a 9% decline from the prior year period. The current year quarter included restructuring costs which reduced earnings per share by 51 cents. Financial results in the quarter were also impacted by the stronger U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies compared to the prior year period. On a constant currency basis, revenues decreased 2% and net earnings per diluted share decreased 34%, or 12% excluding the impact of restructuring costs. Earnings per share in the quarter were negatively impacted 7 cents by changes in foreign currencies compared to the prior year, or 12 cents excluding the restructuring costs. Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO, said, "Our global team executed well and delivered solid first quarter results against the backdrop of a slow global growth environment. Demand for our extensive portfolio of workforce solutions and services across our global footprint provides us with good opportunities for profitable growth going forward." "We anticipate diluted earnings per share in the second quarter will be between $1.96 and $2.04, which includes an estimated unfavorable currency impact of 10 cents." ManpowerGroup purchased the remaining interest in the Switzerland Manpower business with annual revenues of approximately $500 million during April 2019. During the first quarter, ManpowerGroup repurchased 1.2 million shares of common stock for $101 million. The effective tax rate for the first quarter equaled 42.8%, or 36.4% excluding the impact of restructuring costs. The effective tax rate increased in 2019 following the termination of the French tax exempt CICE subsidy in 2018. In conjunction with its first quarter earnings release, ManpowerGroup will broadcast its conference call live over the Internet on April 18, 2019 at 7:30 a.m. CDT (8:30 a.m. EDT). Interested parties are invited to listen to the webcast and view the presentation by logging on to http://investor.manpowergroup.com/ in the section titled "Investor Relations." Supplemental financial information referenced in the conference call can be found at http://investor.manpowergroup.com/. About ManpowerGroup ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the leading global workforce solutions company, helps organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing and managing the talent that enables them to win. We develop innovative solutions for hundreds of thousands of organizations every year, providing them with skilled talent while finding meaningful, sustainable employment for millions of people across a wide range of industries and skills. Our expert family of brands Manpower, Experis, Right Management and ManpowerGroup Solutions creates substantially more value for candidates and clients across 80 countries and territories and has done so for 70 years. In 2019, ManpowerGroup was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the tenth year and one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies for the seventeenth year, confirming our position as the most trusted and admired brand in the industry. See how ManpowerGroup is powering the future of work: www.manpowergroup.com Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements, including earnings projections and the effect of restructuring actions, that are forward-looking in nature and, accordingly, are subject to risks and uncertainties regarding the Company's expected future results. The Company's actual results may differ materially from those described or contemplated in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements can be found in the Company's reports filed with the SEC, including the information under the heading 'Risk Factors' in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, which information is incorporated herein by reference. ManpowerGroup Results of Operations (In millions, except per share data) Three Months Ended March 31 % Variance Amount Constant 2019 2018 Reported Currency (Unaudited) Revenues from services (a) $ 5,044.9 $ 5,522.4 -8.6% -2.2% Cost of services 4,240.1 4,637.0 -8.6% -2.0% Gross profit 804.8 885.4 -9.1% -3.0% Selling and administrative expenses 699.3 731.6 -4.4% 1.9% Operating profit 105.5 153.8 -31.4% -26.0% Interest and other expenses 11.9 16.1 -26.6% Earnings before income taxes 93.6 137.7 -32.0% -26.5% Provision for income taxes 40.1 40.7 -1.4% Net earnings $ 53.5 $ 97.0 -44.8% -40.4% Net earnings per share - basic $ 0.88 $ 1.46 -39.7% Net earnings per share - diluted $ 0.88 $ 1.45 -39.3% -34.5% Weighted average shares - basic 61.1 66.3 -7.9% Weighted average shares - diluted 61.0 66.9 -8.9% (a) Revenues from services include fees received from our franchise offices of $5.6 million and $5.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. These fees are primarily based on revenues generated by the franchise offices, which were $243.0 million and $236.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. ManpowerGroup Operating Unit Results (In millions) Three Months Ended March 31 % Variance Amount Constant 2019 2018 Reported Currency (Unaudited) Revenues from Services: Americas: United States (a) $ 603.6 $ 616.3 -2.1% -2.1% Other Americas 403.7 406.3 -0.6% 10.7% 1,007.3 1,022.6 -1.5% 3.0% Southern Europe: France 1,301.4 1,424.0 -8.6% -1.1% Italy 355.9 413.6 -14.0% -6.9% Other Southern Europe 444.9 474.4 -6.2% 1.5% 2,102.2 2,312.0 -9.1% -1.6% Northern Europe 1,189.7 1,417.6 -16.1% -8.8% APME 699.9 720.2 -2.8% 1.9% Right Management 45.8 50.0 -8.4% -4.5% $ 5,044.9 $ 5,522.4 -8.6% -2.2% Operating Unit Profit: Americas: United States $ 16.4 $ 26.7 -38.6% -38.6% Other Americas 14.8 16.2 -8.4% -5.5% 31.2 42.9 -27.2% -26.1% Southern Europe: France 55.5 57.7 -3.8% 4.1% Italy 20.4 25.2 -18.8% -12.2% Other Southern Europe 11.0 14.8 -26.1% -20.7% 86.9 97.7 -11.1% -3.9% Northern Europe 0.6 16.6 -96.2% -95.3% APME 20.1 25.9 -22.3% -19.1% Right Management 2.1 6.4 -67.7% -66.0% 140.9 189.5 Corporate expenses (27.9) (26.8) Intangible asset amortization expense (7.5) (8.9) Operating profit 105.5 153.8 -31.4% -26.0% Interest and other expenses (b) (11.9) (16.1) Earnings before income taxes $ 93.6 $ 137.7 (a) In the United States, revenues from services include fees received from our franchise offices of $3.6 million and $3.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. These fees are primarily based on revenues generated by the franchise offices, which were $156.9 million and $149.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. (b) The components of interest and other expenses were: 2019 2018 Interest expense $ 10.2 $ 13.6 Interest income (1.5) (1.2) Foreign exchange loss (gain) 2.9 (0.1) Miscellaneous expense, net 0.3 3.8 $ 11.9 $ 16.1 ManpowerGroup Consolidated Balance Sheets (In millions) Mar. 31 Dec. 31 2019 2018 (Unaudited) ASSETS Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 566.3 $ 591.9 Accounts receivable, net 5,186.3 5,276.1 Prepaid expenses and other assets 282.8 129.1 Total current assets 6,035.4 5,997.1 Other assets: Goodwill 1,293.6 1,297.1 Intangible assets, net 238.2 246.3 Operating lease right-of-use asset 432.6 - Other assets 670.8 826.7 Total other assets 2,635.2 2,370.1 Property and equipment: Land, buildings, leasehold improvements and equipment 601.3 613.6 Less: accumulated depreciation and amortization 454.9 461.0 Net property and equipment 146.4 152.6 Total assets $8,817.0 $8,519.8 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable $2,299.9 $2,266.7 Employee compensation payable 185.9 209.7 Accrued liabilities 563.0 411.0 Accrued payroll taxes and insurance 633.7 729.8 Value added taxes payable 490.4 508.6 Short-term borrowings and current maturities of long-term debt 52.6 50.1 Total current liabilities 4,225.5 4,175.9 Other liabilities: Long-term debt 1,003.3 1,025.3 Long-term operating lease liability 309.4 - Other long-term liabilities 628.9 620.1 Total other liabilities 1,941.6 1,645.4 Shareholders' equity: ManpowerGroup shareholders' equity Common stock 1.2 1.2 Capital in excess of par value 3,343.0 3,337.5 Retained earnings 3,211.2 3,157.7 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (401.8) (399.8) Treasury stock, at cost (3,578.0) (3,471.7) Total ManpowerGroup shareholders' equity 2,575.6 2,624.9 Noncontrolling interests 74.3 73.6 Total shareholders' equity 2,649.9 2,698.5 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $8,817.0 $8,519.8 ManpowerGroup Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (In millions) Three Months Ended March 31 2019 2018 (Unaudited) Cash Flows from Operating Activities: Net earnings $ 53.5 $ 97.0 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 19.4 21.7 Noncash lease expense 37.5 - Deferred income taxes 2.0 (11.9) Provision for doubtful accounts 4.3 5.1 Share-based compensation 4.6 7.5 Changes in operating assets and liabilities, excluding the impact of acquisitions: Accounts receivable 29.4 66.7 Other assets (19.3) (72.6) Other liabilities (29.5) (171.9) Cash provided by (used in) operating activities 101.9 (58.4) Cash Flows from Investing Activities: Capital expenditures (10.0) (12.7) Acquisitions of businesses, net of cash acquired - (8.2) Proceeds from the sale of investments, property and equipment 3.5 5.9 Cash used in investing activities (6.5) (15.0) Cash Flows from Financing Activities: Net change in short-term borrowings 2.3 (4.3) Proceeds from long-term debt 0.4 - Repayments of long-term debt (0.1) (0.1) Payments of contingent consideration for acquisitions (0.6) (8.7) Proceeds from share-based awards and other equity transactions 0.9 3.6 Payments to noncontrolling interests - (0.7) Other share-based award transactions (5.4) (16.8) Repurchases of common stock (101.0) (50.1) Cash used in financing activities (103.5) (77.1) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash (17.5) 13.7 Change in cash and cash equivalents (25.6) (136.8) Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 591.9 689.0 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 566.3 $ 552.2 SOURCE ManpowerGroup Related Links http://www.manpowergroup.com Building upon a recently updated reference genome of the Jamaican Lion cultivar, MGC has identified the genetic variations that cause a plant to produce the important cannabinoids of THC, CBD, or a mixture of the two, referred to as chemotypes (I-IV). This information provides a "cookbook" of genetic recipes for different types and cultivars, and is a key to breeding for cannabis yield, potency and a host of other traits. "The pan-genome focuses on whole genome sequencing and de novo assembly using the Sequel II System by Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) to catalog structural variation inheritance patterns in closely and distantly related cultivars. This family of genomes will form the foundation for cannabis breeding programs across the industry," said Medicinal Genomics Chief Scientific Officer, Kevin McKernan. "The economic value of the genetics that govern cannabinoid expression, seed development, and fiber yield is one of the most promising opportunities of the decade. And now, every breeder and grower can use this tool, retaining complete ownership of the results for their own cultivars." The project was seeded with a cryptocurrency grant from the Dash DAO in June of 2018. Since then, over 200 Gb of PacBio sequencing has been performed on Jamaican Lion to assemble the genome and build transcriptome and methylation maps across multiple tissue types. A new standard for cannabis genetics The completeness of a genome assembly is calibrated in a number known as "N50." Assemblies with low N50 numbers are like photographs missing thousands of pixels. Leave out enough pixels and the image is incomprehensible. The longer the N50 number, the more information the assembly contains. The latest MGC cannabis assembly has an N50 of 7.6 megabases with a completeness of approximately 97%, establishing a new industry record. This updated reference is the foundational piece to the Pan Cannabis Genome and is accessible to all MGC partners. Using MGC's assembly of the female Jamaican Lion cultivar as a baseline, genomic DNA from a sibling male plant and multiple offspring were isolated and are being sequenced with the Sequel II System long-read platform to identify structural variations and other types of important genetic variations. This "family" sequencing strategy yields a recombination map and is the basis for creating a pan-genome of cannabis. "The annotation of structural variations in cannabis will be critical to understanding the genetics of yield, seed production, and other desirable traits," said Timothy Harkins, MGC Senior Advisor. "We continue to build new genetic tools for the entire community by using the Jamaican Lion assembly combined with the methylation and transcriptome maps and now the recombination hotspots. This combination of data and technologies are accelerating our insights, which breeders and growers can now take advantage of. None of it would be possible, however, without the extraordinarily long sequencing read lengths generated by the PacBio platform. This genetic tool wasn't available until they came along, and that has made all the difference." The program's progress will be presented at a webinar in June, hosted by PacBio, and at the SMRT Leiden meeting in Leiden, Netherlands this May. About Medicinal Genomics Corporation Medicinal Genomics Corporation is a pioneer in advancing the genomics of cannabis to build a stronger scientific foundation for cannabis-based products. The company's unmatched expertise in genetic science helps cultivators, dispensaries and testing laboratories characterize and understand the quality and consistency of cannabis to ensure patients and consumers access to consistently safe, high quality cannabis. To support this work, Medicinal Genomics also produces CannMed, a gathering of cannabis leaders, dedicated to furthering the state of the art in medicinal cannabis, and Kannapedia, the world's most complete public cannabis strain database. For more information, please visit www.medicinalgenomics.com. MGC media contact: Ben Amirault [email protected] (978) 430-0888 SOURCE Medicinal Genomics Related Links https://www.medicinalgenomics.com $76MM Construction-to-Permanent Loan Transaction Represents One of the Largest Credit Tenant Lease Transactions on the Island over Past Two Years CHICAGO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Mesirow Financial announced that it has successfully structured and arranged Credit Tenant Lease ("CTL") construction-to-permanent financing in the amount of approximately $76,777,000 for the development of a soon to-be-built U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs engaged in a public-private partnership ("P3") with local developer, AJM Management LLC ("AJM"), a division of Arbona Group, to deliver what will be a 134,000 square foot build-to-suit outpatient medical clinic. Upon completion, the facility will be located on a 22-acre parcel of land in Ponce, Puerto Rico. RiskOne Group ("RiskOne") served as an advisor to AJM on the transaction and assisted with the government application, selection and financing process. Joaquin Arbona, president of AJM, commented on the transaction, "At Arbona Group we take pride in what we do, and we are delighted to be able to work with such an adept group of professionals." "We were honored to have participated in this P3 transaction with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, AJM and RiskOne," said Andrew Minkus, managing director of Mesirow Financial's CTL Finance and Structured Debt Products group. David Fishler, senior vice president of Mesirow Financial's CTL and Structured Debt Products group added, "Once construction on this project is complete, local veterans will have the benefit of a newly built, state-of- the-art clinic. We are proud to be responsible for delivering this facility and the quality care it will provide to veterans who have bravely served our country." "This transaction signifies the strength of our CTL Finance and Structured Debt Products business and Mesirow's growing government infrastructure initiative," said Stephen Jacobson, senior managing director and head of Mesirow Financial's CTL Finance and Structured Debt Products group. Mesirow Financial's Credit Tenant Lease Finance and Structured Debt Products group offers clients seeking high leverage, credit-backed financing a unique suite of services including potential access to Mesirow's balance sheet in order to enhance execution certainty with a variety of structured debt and mezzanine solutions. About Mesirow Financial Mesirow Financial is an independent, employee-owned firm founded in 1937. As specialists in investment, risk management and advisory services, we are committed to helping our institutional, corporate and individual clients achieve their objectives. Our professionals are inspired by an entrepreneurial desire to develop tailored solutions designed to deliver measurable results. To learn more, please visit mesirowfinancial.com. About Arbona Group/AJM Management LLC Arbona Group, founded in 1979, is composed of several legal entities, each one with a special purpose, with a solid trajectory in the development and management of industrial and commercial properties in Puerto Rico. AJM Management LLC is a division of the Arbona Group. To learn more, please visit empresasarbona.com. About RiskOne Group RiskOne Group is a multidisciplinary firm with services in Insurance & Risk Management, Health & Benefits, Commercial Real Estate and Human Resources Consulting. RiskOne's boutique approach allows its customers to enjoy the personalized attention and detailed oriented services of a small firm. Each of RiskOne's partners has over 20 years of experience in their respective fields with local/national, as well as international resources through its affiliated partners. To learn more, please visit riskonegroup.com. CONTACT: Rebecca Bailen Mesirow Financial 312.595.7119 [email protected] Michael Herley Kekst 212.521.4897 [email protected] SOURCE Mesirow Financial Related Links https://www.mesirowfinancial.com ST. LOUIS, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Through increased efforts to better manage opioid use, and encourage more appropriate therapies generally, myMatrixx helped workers' compensation plans reduce drug spending by 3.8% in 2018, according to the annual myMatrixx Drug Trend Report released today. For the report, prescription medication use between 2017 and 2018 was evaluated among injured workers in programs managed by myMatrixx, an Express Scripts company, to examine current and future prescription medication use trends for this population. "Our efforts to manage utilization and lower costs are providing workers' compensation programs with an effective combination of clinical and financial oversight," said Mike Cirillo, president, myMatrixx. "We're doing more to help clients balance appropriate care for injured workers while keeping costs down." In 2018, more than half (53.3%) of myMatrixx Workers' Compensation plans reduced drug spending. Unit costs per days' supply of medications decreased by 0.9% in 2018, as a result of myMatrixx's ability to deliver lowest net cost medications for plans, and greater use of lower-cost therapies by patients. Use of compounded medications, once a source of great expense for injured workers' plans, was nearly eliminated in 2018, as the usage is now just 0.2% due to continued proactive efforts across myMatrixx workers' compensation payers to move patients away from these often high-cost medications to less expensive, clinically appropriate alternatives. Improving Appropriate Opioid Treatment Long focused on injured workers' risk for opioid-related adverse events, myMatrixx has implemented solutions that leverage data to create proactive points of intervention, educate injured workers and ensure connectivity across the care continuum. Our efforts to protect injured workers from the misuse and abuse of opioids appear to be working. Nearly 66% of workers' compensation payers spent less on opioids in 2018 compared to 2017. The percent of injured workers using opioids for greater than 30 days also decreased, from 21% in 2017 to 17.6% in 2018. This is particularly significant as the data show that length of opioid use has a direct correlation on a plan's average cost per injured worker. In the first year of opioid use, the average cost per person is $212.98. That cost jumps to nearly $4,000 per person when opioid use continues for up to 10 years. Spending on opioids has declined for four consecutive years. In 2018, average spending on opioids declined 15% for our workers' compensation payers the largest decrease yet -- from $313.40 per patient per year, to $268.88 per patient per year. Prescribers also are turning to non-opioid drugs for pain management. Our analysis indicates that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and gabapentin, the preferred alternatives for pain management, are the only pain medications with an increase in utilization among our payers. Other drugs of concern, such as benzodiazapines and sedative hypnotics, also decreased in use, while use of other pain drugs showed no changes. Better Management of Specialty Therapies Spending on specialty medications used to treat complex chronic conditions such as hepatitis C, HIV, and rheumatoid arthritis -- continues to rise across the healthcare industry. Workers' compensation payers need to be prepared to manage these costs: spending on specialty medications increased 18.5% in 2018 among injured workers' plans, and although just 1.7% of injured workers use a specialty drug, these claims account for 7.1% of spend. Payers who have injured workers with occupational exposure to needle-sticks often include HIV medications on their formulary to ensure quick access to work-related HIV prophylaxis therapy. This therapy class saw the highest spending among specialty medications. Worker populations that are most likely to encounter specialty medication claims include first responders, health care workers, and public safety personnel. The report can be accessed here. About myMatrixx, an Express Scripts company myMatrixx is a full-service workers' compensation pharmacy benefit management company focused on patient advocacy. By combining agile technology, clinical expertise and advanced business analytics, myMatrixx simplifies workers' compensation claims management. Located in Tampa, Fla., myMatrixx has positioned itself as a thought leader in the workers' compensation industry. myMatrixx is part of Express Scripts, a Cigna company. For more information, visit myMatrixx.com Media Contact: Christine Portell [email protected] 314-560-9909 SOURCE myMatrixx Related Links http://www.mymatrixx.com SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- NAVAN Technologies, Inc. (NAVAN), a privately-held biotechnology company enabling scalable cell and gene therapies through a novel, proprietary NanoStraw platform, announced today that Michael J. Nowak, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of NAVAN, will present at the inaugural 2019 Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mediterranean to be held April 23-25 in Barcelona, Spain. Organized by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mediterranean will bring together the entire cell and gene therapy community from Europe and beyond. Covering a wide range of commercialization topics from market access and regulatory issues to manufacturing and financing the sector, the program will feature expert-led panels, extensive one-on-one partnering capabilities, and exclusive networking opportunities. The meeting will feature presentations by 50+ leading public and private companies, highlighting technical and clinical achievements over the past 12 months in the areas of cell therapy, gene therapy, gene editing, tissue engineering, and broader regenerative medicine technologies, as well as 35+ panelists and featured speakers. Dr. Nowak will be presenting on NAVAN's novel, cargo-agnostic and non-perturbative NanoStraw platform transfection technology that enables efficient and sustainable transport into and out of human cells, along with an exploration of NanoStraws' therapeutic applications and scalable delivery. The following are specific details regarding NAVAN's presentation at the conference: Event: 2019 Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mediterranean Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2019 Time: 11:30am 11:45am CEST Location: Room Gaudi 2, Hotel Arts Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain A live video webcast of all company presentations will be available at: http://www.meetingonthemed.com/webcast and will also be published on the conference website shortly after the event. A link to NAVAN's presentation webcast will also be made available on NAVAN's corporate website on the Events & Presentations page at www.navan-tech.com. Please visit www.meetingonthemed.com for full information including registration. Complimentary attendance at this event is available for credentialed investors and members of the media only. Investors should contact Chelsey Hathaway at [email protected] and interested media should contact Lyndsey Scull at [email protected]. About The Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mediterranean The Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mediterranean is a two-day conference bringing together the entire cell and gene therapy community from Europe and beyond. Covering a wide range of commercialization topics from market access and regulatory issues to manufacturing and financing the sector, this program will feature expert-led panels, extensive one-on-one partnering capabilities, exclusive networking opportunities, and 50+ dedicated presentations by the leading publicly traded and privately held companies in the space. Join ARM for what will be Europe's premier conference for advanced therapies. About the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) is an international multi-stakeholder advocacy organization that promotes legislative, regulatory and reimbursement initiatives necessary to facilitate access to life-giving advances in regenerative medicine worldwide. ARM also works to increase public understanding of the field and its potential to transform human healthcare, providing business development and investor outreach services to support the growth of its member companies and research organizations. Prior to the formation of ARM in 2009, there was no advocacy organization operating in Washington, D.C. to specifically represent the interests of the companies, research institutions, investors and patient groups that comprise the entire regenerative medicine community. Today, ARM has more than 300 members and is the leading global advocacy organization in this field. To learn more about ARM or to become a member, visit http://www.alliancerm.org. About NAVAN Technologies NAVAN Technologies, Inc., (NAVAN) is a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company developing and commercializing a proprietary NanoStraw platform that directly, and universally, accesses human cells, including high-value primary human cells, for best-in-class delivery that is viable, repeatable and scalable. The NanoStraw technology is a versatile platform technology, which establishes a direct, physical connection into cells to overcome a huge challenge faced by researchers globally: delivering materials into hard-to-transfect-cells in a gentle, non-perturbative manner. Cargo delivery via NanoStraws drastically reduces the working steps, costs and technical difficulties involved in cell therapy manufacturing. By overcoming viability and manufacturing challenges plaguing traditional viral-based development, NAVAN is actively pursuing innovative therapies in a broad range of indications with strategic collaborations in place. NAVAN is a resident company at JLABS @ SSF located at Oyster Point in South San Francisco, CA, and is supported by the National Science Foundation's Small Business Technology Transfer Program Phase II (award no. 1759075). For more information on NAVAN, please visit www.navan-tech.com. Contact Information NAVAN Technologies, Inc. Sarah Boyatzis, Chief of Staff [email protected] For Investors & Media Inquiries: Tirth T. Patel, Investor Relations Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc. [email protected] (212) 375-2694 SOURCE NAVAN Technologies, Inc. LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Noble Corporation plc (NYSE: NE) today announced that its report of drilling rig status and contract information has been updated as of April 18, 2019. The report, titled "Fleet Status Report," can be found on the Company's Website www.noblecorp.com, under the "Investor Relations" section of the Website. About Noble Corporation plc Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The Company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 25 offshore drilling units, consisting of 12 drillships and semisubmersibles and 13 jackups, focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Noble is a public limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 08354954 and registered office at 10 Brook Street, London, W1S 1BG England. Additional information on Noble is available at www.noblecorp.com. SOURCE Noble Corporation Related Links http://www.noblecorp.com MENLO PARK, Calif., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consulting firm Protiviti announces that Peter Blair Henry has joined its advisory board. The board, formed ten years ago, provides market and business insights to assist Protiviti and its clients in confidently facing the challenges of a dynamic world. Henry is Dean Emeritus and W. R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Finance at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. The youngest person to hold the Deanship, Henry joined the Stern faculty and assumed the role in 2010. During his eight years as Dean, Henry raised over $225 million, more than any dean in the school's history. He joined Stern from Stanford University where he was the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of International Economics, the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Faculty Scholar, and the Associate Director of the Center for Global Business and the Economy at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Henry led the external economic advisory group for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and was subsequently chosen to lead the Presidential Transition Team's review of international lending agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In June 2009, President Obama appointed him to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. Henry is a published author on topics including debt relief, international capital flows and the role of institutions in economic growth. His book, TURNAROUND: Third World Lessons for First World Growth, addresses both economic efficiency for emerging countries and international relations. His expertise in emerging markets and international finance has led to regular invitations to address the IMF and to testify before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and before various ambassadors to the United Nations. Henry received his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to attending MIT, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University where he earned a BA degree in mathematics. He also holds a BA degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Henry currently serves on the boards of Citigroup, Inc., Nike, Inc., the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Economic Club of New York. He is also a member of the Economic Advisory Panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "The Protiviti Advisory Board was formed to assist Protiviti and our clients in anticipating and adapting to change," said Joseph Tarantino, Protiviti president and CEO. "As we witness diverging economic trends across the globe, Peter's expertise in international finance will be instrumental in helping Protiviti and its clients interpret and address these developments." "The role of business in shaping the economy is undeniable and Protiviti's commitment to ensuring the long-term success of its clients, by turning challenges into opportunity, is what drew me to this role," said Peter Henry. "I'm looking forward to joining the other members of the Advisory Board and sharing my experiences and perspectives with Protiviti and its clients." Henry joins current Protiviti Advisory Board members Frances Townsend, former Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and former chair of the Homeland Security Council; and Evelyn Dilsaver, the former president and CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Management. About Protiviti Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that helps companies solve problems in finance, technology, operations, governance, risk and internal audit, and has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500companies. Protiviti and its independently owned Member Firms serve clients through a network of more than 80 locations in over 20 countries. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Named to the 2019 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index. Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services. Editor's note: Photos available on request. SOURCE Protiviti Related Links http://www.protiviti.com Ocean Spray has a long history of connecting farms to families for a better life. The cooperative is owned by 700 family farmers, many of whom have been growing cranberries for more than five generations. In its next phase, Ocean Spray will work to verify Ocean Spray's fruit as sustainably farmed by benchmarking it to the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA), a comprehensive tool for sustainable farming that was developed by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform). "It is important to have companies like Ocean Spray that create sustainable agricultural systems and lead as an example to other companies," said Nick Betts, Director, Americas, SAI Platform. SAI Platform defines sustainable agriculture as the efficient production of safe, high quality agricultural products, in a way that protects and improves the natural environment and the social and economic conditions of farmers, their employees, and local communities, as well as safeguards the health and welfare of all farmed species. "At Ocean Spray, we don't believe that impact is a part of our business, we believe that impact is our business," said Christina Ferzli, Head of Global Corporate Affairs at Ocean Spray. "We are proud of our family farmers who sustainably grow our superfruit, and we are committed to creating regenerative, healthy food with transparency for our consumers." Cranberries are one of only three fruits native to North America that are cultivated in the United States. As a result, Ocean Spray cranberry farmers recreate growing conditions that mimic nature. Ocean Spray's farmers use thoughtful, long-term sustainable growing practices to support not only the health of cranberry farms, but also the well-being of surrounding wetlands, upland forests, and neighboring communities. In some cases, Ocean Spray farmers are actively restoring habitats for native plant and wildlife, including many wetland species like frogs, turtles and cranes. This has positive implications for pest management and pollinator populations. For example, for every acre of cranberry bog, Ocean Spray farmers preserve an average of 5.5 acres of supporting undeveloped lands. "Our farm in Tomah, Wisconsin was first commercially harvested in 1891, and my Grandfather started here in 1939," remarked Ed Grygleski. "We have always approached farming with a nature-first attitude and are thrilled to be working with Ocean Spray on setting these goals to realize all of the hard work many farmers have been putting into maintaining sustainable practices for generations." As Ocean Spray looks toward the future, the cooperative strives to create lasting positive impact for people and the environment from farms to families. "As farmer-owners of Ocean Spray Cranberries, we are always looking for ways to help the business by creating a point of differentiation. We saw an ethical as well as business need to pursue a sustainable agriculture model," said Craige Scott, both a farmer and the Chair of the Growers' Committee at Ocean Spray. "Our goal of certifiable sustainability started more than eight years ago when we sought to highlight the responsible nature of our farming practices, our commitment to community and our obligation to our employees. I am proud to say that after many years of hard work and dedication to purpose, we are ready to take this final step to assure consumers they are buying healthy products grown by families the right way." About Ocean Spray: Founded in 1930, Ocean Spray is a vibrant agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry farmers in the United States, Canada and Chile who have helped preserve the family farming way of life for generations. The Cooperative's cranberries are currently featured in more than a thousand great-tasting, good-for-you products in over 100 countries worldwide. Leading by purpose, Ocean Spray is committed to the health of people and planet. For more information visit: www.oceanspray.com. For PR Inquiries: JONESWORKS Ayla Richards [email protected] 212-839-0111 SOURCE Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. Related Links www.oceanspray.com Rubinstein brings more than 35 years of experience in building and scaling high tech startups. Prior to joining Opti, he held senior executive roles and was responsible for setting the strategy, operations, and structure at several high-growth SaaS organizations, including DataXu, Inc., Resolve Technology, and Invoke Solutions. He was also instrumental in leading Convergent Group to a successful IPO and the subsequent sale of the company to Schlumberger. Mr. Rubinstein graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) with a BS in Management with Computer Science. Formed as an independent company in 2014, Opti has grown to become the industry's leading provider of Continuous Monitoring and Adaptive Control (CMAC) solutions for stormwater management. In this next chapter, the company will be focused on partnering with communities, businesses, and engineering and consulting firms to manage their watersheds more proactively. With the ability to derive actionable insights from the Opti Platform in real-time, communities and organizations can make data-driven decisions that optimize the use of stormwater infrastructure across entire watersheds. "Creating reliable visibility into the performance of environmental systems and augmenting them with dynamic control capabilities is a necessary strategy for meeting the increasing demands they face," said Alex Bedig, Opti's Co-Founder and Vice President of Information & Technology. "Opti's products multiply the performance of existing stormwater assets. At scale, our products enable customers to reprogram how their watersheds handle storm events. I am excited to partner with David, a veteran at piecing together digital partnerships across many industries, to bring together the tools our customers need to enhance their ability to manage their stormwater environment." With Sidewalk Labs as an investor and Microsoft as a partner, Opti provides best-in-class digital solutions with unparalleled processing, security, redundancy, and privacy. Opti's award-winning solutions are utilized by more than 150 facilities across North America and several of their customers and partners have received industry recognition for leveraging the Opti Platform to deliver improved outcomes for their communities. "Marcus has been instrumental in helping build Opti into the company it is today. With our incredible team, we will continue to provide digital solutions which produce great savings to taxpayers, maximize the use of capital resources, and accelerate the benefits to communities," said Rubinstein. "The time is now for the stormwater industry to accelerate the adoption of digital technology solutions in order to proactively manage the mounting challenges brought forth by the legacy of piecemeal development, increasingly powerful storm cycles, and an ever-changing climate." About Opti Headquartered in Boston, Opti provides a cloud-based platform for Continuous Monitoring and Adaptive Control (CMAC) of distributed stormwater infrastructure, enabling communities and businesses to continuously improve stormwater management by delivering real-time visibility, adaptively controlling assets, and supporting smart city initiatives. With over 150 deployments across the US and over 90 million gallons of storage under active management, Opti is the leading provider of CMAC solutions for stormwater management. For more information, visit www.optirtc.com or connect with us on LinkedIn , Twitter , and Facebook . SOURCE OptiRTC, Inc. Related Links https://optirtc.com "Educating the next generation of workers means training more coders, software engineers, web developers and others with skills in computer science," said Governor Phil Murphy. "I am grateful to the Panasonic Foundation and Hispanic Heritage Foundation for partnering to expand computer science education for Newark students and preparing them for jobs in the 21st-century economy." The effort is designed to bridge a gap between the business community's need for talent with technology skills and for students to be exposed to computer science. Among Black and Hispanic students, those who take Advanced Placement Computer Science in high school are 7 to 8 times more likely to take computer science in college, according to Code.org. In the United States, there are 500,000 unfilled jobs in tech, which is estimated to nearly triple to 1.4 million unfilled tech jobs by 2020. "Congratulations to the Hispanic Heritage Foundation on receiving this generous grant from the Code as a Second Language (CSL) Academies in partnership with the Panasonic Foundation," said Superintendent of Newark Schools Roger Leon. "This investment in Newark's children today will provide a good foundation for their future." The Superintendent added, "It is our goal to ensure every Newark student has a computer science education. In Newark, we have developed an aggressive program to ensure all of our students develop computational thinking and problem-solving skills and knowledge through coding and programming in- and out-of-school classes and activities. This initiative with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, Panasonic and The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Newark-Ironbound will afford our students access to the very best in education so that they will become global citizens to meet the growing demand of computer science careers." Through this partnership, Panasonic and HHF will teach middle and high school kids to code and will expose them to tech professionals, who can serve as mentors. "This collaborative partnership helps us address one of the most critical issues minority students are facing today," said Alejandra Ceja, Executive Director Panasonic Foundation. "The harsh reality is that a lot of students of color in predominantly low-income areas do not have access to the full range of stem courses in their schools. Through this partnership, Panasonic is providing more students with hands-on access to innovation and technology that is crucial to the 21st century workforce." The Coding as a Second Language Panasonic Foundation effort will include Coding as a Second Language Academies, which are 6- to 8-week coding courses with students meeting once a week for 1 to 1.5 hour, either as part of their school day or as part of an afterschool program. "Driving CSL is the fundamental belief that all youth deserve access to technology-based programs and the opportunity to enter the workforce in a stronger position which will help America move forward," said Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO of HHF. "The Panasonic Foundation shares that vision and we are grateful their leadership in preparing Latino youth for the classroom and workforce." The students will also be referred to the LOFT (Latinos On Fast Track) Network for ongoing on-line instruction and will connect to other students, mentors, networking, resources, STEM-related events and later potential internships and full-time positions with Fortune 500 companies. By 2020, more than half of all jobs will require technical skills, but a majority of students wouldn't have learned coding in school. Coding will also enable students to be creators, innovators and entrepreneurs rather than just consumers of technology. CSL was established in Los Angeles in 2013 and by the end of this year will be in 75 regions, including Puerto Rico and Mexico, reaching more than 100,000 students. SOURCE Hispanic Heritage Foundation Related Links http://www.hispanicheritage.org HACKENSACK, N.J., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), a nonprofit organization leading the fight to end Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne), announced that Drs. Paul Martin and Kevin Flanigan from the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital have completed work under a $100,000 grant exploring GALGT2 gene therapy technology as a potential treatment for Duchenne. Part of PPMD's ongoing Gene Therapy Initiative, funding for this grant was a result of community support. The grant was awarded to the Research Institute in early 2018. Since the launch of the Initiative, PPMD has funded over $3 million in a variety of gene therapy and related approaches to several institutions, including micro-dystrophin gene transfer, CRISPR/Cas9, Dup2, and GALGT2, as well as research into the effects of gene therapy on the heart and potential immune responses gene therapy may provoke. Duchenne is the most common fatal genetic disorder diagnosed in childhood, affecting approximately one in 5,000 live male births. Duchenne is caused by a change in the dystrophin gene. Gene therapy for Duchenne is centered on the goal of successfully introducing a smaller, but efficient version of dystrophin into the muscle cell. Muscle stabilizing proteins, such as GALGT2, can be introduced via gene therapy with the aim of compensating for the missing dystrophin. Abby Bronson, PPMD's Senior Vice President of Research Strategy, explains what makes this approach to treating Duchenne so unique: "The absence of dystrophin in muscle cells leads to membrane instability, which contributes to Duchenne's progressive muscle wasting. Over-expression of the GALGT2 gene has been seen to improve muscle pathology in pre-clinical muscular dystrophy models. This gene therapy strategy will not restore dystrophin, but recruit dystrophin surrogates to compensate for the lack of dystrophin and protect the cell membrane." Bronson says that GALGT2 therapy, if successful, could be delivered to any person with Duchenne regardless of their mutation (e.g., deletion, duplication, non-sense mutation). Additionally it has the potential to work in combination with other therapeutic strategies. Dr. Paul Martin, the principal investigator of this study at Nationwide Children's, along with Dr. Kevin Flanigan, thanked PPMD for supporting this research: "We are so grateful to PPMD for supporting this innovative approach to treating Duchenne. PPMD's grant helped cover expenses associated with our toxicology study where no significant treatment-dependent safety findings were observed. A toxicology study was needed to show safety at high doses of gene therapy vector. Toxicology studies such as this are both standard practice and a requirement of the FDA before clinical delivery. We look forward to moving this therapy forward to a Phase 1 clinical trial." In January of 2017, Sarepta Therapeutics announced it had entered into an exclusive license agreement with Nationwide Children's Hospital for their GALGT2 gene therapy program. If successful, GALGT2 therapy is intended to help prevent the loss of cardiac function in Duchenne as well. Addressing the significant cardiac issues in Duchenne are another funding priority of PPMD. Updates on this project, as well as other grants awarded as part of PPMD's Gene Therapy Initiative, will be presented at the organization's Annual Conference, June 26-30, in Orlando, FL. To learn more about PPMD's Gene Therapy Initiative, click here. About Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy Duchenne is a fatal genetic disorder that slowly robs people of their muscle strength. Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) is the largest most comprehensive nonprofit organization in the United States focused on finding a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophyour mission is to end Duchenne. We invest deeply in treatments for this generation of people affected by Duchenne and in research that will benefit future generations. We advocate in Washington, DC, and have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. We demand optimal care, and we strengthen, unite and educate the global Duchenne community. Everything we doand everything we have done since our founding in 1994helps people with Duchenne live longer, stronger lives. We will not rest until every person has a treatment to end Duchenne. Go to www.ParentProjectMD.org for more information or to learn how you can support our efforts and help families affected by Duchenne. Follow PPMD on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. SOURCE Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy Related Links https://www.parentprojectmd.org CORAL GABLES, Fla., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Peter Bermont, a Managing Director with Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC, was recently named to the Financial Times Top 400 Financial Advisors list. The list recognizes top financial advisers at national, independent, regional and bank broker-dealers from across the U.S. "Comprehensive wealth management encompasses far more than simply the managing of investments," Bermont said. "First and foremost, we work to do what's in the best interest of our clients." This is the seventh annual FT 400 list, produced independently by the Financial Times in collaboration with Ignites Research, a subsidiary of the FT that provides business intelligence on investment management. Bermont, who manages over $1.9 billion in client assets, specializes in wealth management for high net worth individuals, companies, not-for-profit corporations and endowments. The FT 400 was developed in collaboration with Ignites Research, a subsidiary of the FT that provides specialized content on asset management. To qualify for the list, advisers had to have 10 years of experience and at least $300 million in assets under management (AUM) and no more than 60% of the AUM with institutional clients. The FT reaches out to some of the largest brokerages in the U.S. and asks them to provide a list of advisors who meet the minimum criteria outlined above. These advisors are then invited to apply for the ranking. Only advisors who submit an online application can be considered for the ranking. In 2019, roughly 960 applications were received and 400 were selected to the final list (41.7%). The 400 qualified advisers were then scored on six attributes: AUM, AUM growth rate, compliance record, years of experience, industry certifications, and online accessibility. AUM is the top factor, accounting for roughly 60-70 percent of the applicant's score. Additionally, to provide a diversity of advisors, the FT placed a cap on the number of advisors from any one state that's roughly correlated to the distribution of millionaires across the U.S. The ranking may not be representative of any one client's experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of advisor's future performance. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. The FT is not affiliated with Raymond James. About Raymond James & Associates Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE: RJF) is a leading diversified financial services company providing private client group, capital markets, asset management, banking and other services to individuals, corporations and municipalities. The company has approximately 7,800 financial advisors throughout the United States, Canada and overseas. Total client assets are $725 billion. Public since 1983, the firm is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RJF. Additional information is available at www.raymondjames.com. 2019 Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC. 2333 Ponce De Leon Boulevard, Suite 500. Coral Gables, FL 33134. 305-461-1200. Contact: Jesus Cruz, 305-460-2713 BERMONTADVISORYGROUP.COM SOURCE Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Related Links http://www.raymondjames.com CHEVY CHASE, Md., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- PM Hotel Group, one of the industry's leading hotel management companies, has been selected to operate the new TownePlace Suites by Marriott in Austin, Texas. This new hotel represents the first TownePlace by Marriott property in the PM Hotel Group portfolio and further expands the company's relationship with Marriott International. "We are thrilled to have been selected to manage the TownePlace Suites- Austin, which expands our footprint in Texas," said Joseph Bojanowski, President of PM Hotel Group. "Austin is a rich and exciting city, and with this new project we are thrilled to be broadening our relationship with another valued ownership group, Scenic Capital Advisors." Currently under construction and scheduled to open in October, the 103-room hotel is conveniently located minutes from the Austin International Airport and downtown attractions. The hotel features clean, modern design and playful details that travelers expect from TownePlace Suites, including spacious suites, complimentary breakfast, and loyalty rewards from the Marriott Bonvoy program. "The south Austin corridor is growing rapidly, and we are excited to bring a new extended-stay Marriott product to a location that is conveniently located to all that Austin has to offer," said Thomas Chen, Principal of Scenic Capital Advisors. "Expanding our partnership with PM Hotel Group has been tremendously rewarding, and we eagerly anticipate future opportunities." Recognized as an innovative leader in third-party hotel management, PM Hotel Group manages a diverse portfolio of leading brands and independent hotels, relentlessly focused on achieving our owners' objectives while operating truly great hotels. We utilize proprietary tools and technology to drive more revenue, reduce expenses and maximize asset value for our owners, while delivering great stays for our guests. About PM Hotel Group A Top 20 hotel management company, PM Hotel Group has over two decades of experience building relationships with brands, partners and third-party hotel owners. We have participated in the development and acquisition of more than $2.5 billion in premium-branded and independent hotel properties across the United States. As an operator, PM Hotel Group is committed to its core values of respect- for one another, our guests and the planet. We manage with a dedication to sustainability, a tradition of teamwork and a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. At PM Hotel Group we know that our people are our greatest resource. By focusing on our associates and the communities in which we work, we deliver strong performance for our owners. Learn more at pmhotelgroup.com MEDIA CONTACT Jennifer Diamond Haber [email protected] 202.559.1916 SOURCE PM Hotel Group Related Links http://www.pmhotelgroup.com LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- ProD.N.A. Skincare, Paris Hilton's newly launched skincare line, announces its partnership with Macy's premium department store. Macy's now carries the full, 4-product line in addition to the brand's previously sold out rose water, Unicorn Mist. The skincare line is currently available online at macys.com. ProD.N.A. Skincare is founded upon the revolutionary formula, GenoMatrix, which derives its power from enzymes found in marine microalgae that are scientifically proven to support the skin's natural DNA maintenance process. Additionally, the range of products contain ingredients sourced from all over the world, including diamond powder, Kakadu plum (the world's highest concentration of Vitamin C), and Persian silk tree extract, the only ingredient proven to tighten the upper eyelid area. ABOUT THE COMPANY Hilton Lifestyle Group, manufacturers of ProD.N.A. Skincare by Paris Hilton, is committed to developing innovative and effective skincare products while incorporating the founders' vision of a genuine and transparent consumer/company relationship. With the cooperation of chemists and dermatologists, Paris Hilton and a team of industry experts established the company in 2016 with a focus on formulating effective skincare products for ingredient-conscious consumers. Hilton Lifestyle Group is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California. Available at: macys.com For product information, visit: prodnaskincare.com For press inquiries, contact: [email protected] For distribution inquiries, contact: [email protected] SOURCE Hilton Lifestyle, LLC Related Links http://prodnaskincare.com ROCKVILLE, Maryland, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Presently, the depression drugs market has been struggling to showcase any significant growth. According to Fact.MR study, the concerned market was valued at over US$ 6.5 billion in 2017, and is anticipated to witness falling prices in the near future. This assessment is title "Depression Drugs Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking Global Review 2018 2026", which estimates that revenues across the global depression drugs market are likely to decline at a -2% CAGR. Although frequency of depression has risen in the last decade, but demand for depression drugs has experienced a prominent decline, since different forms of therapies, particularly cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) has received major traction. The research study delivers better insight about the overall market scenario active across the depression drugs sector. Readers can receive precise information associated to crucial market factors such as market outlook, market dynamics comprising drivers, restraints, key trends, opportunities and pipeline analysis. Furthermore, in-depth knowledge associated to market value share and market forecast covering prime geographies, drug class, distribution channel and disease type are diligently discoursed in this study. Request For Sample Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=3215 Demand for Depression Drugs to Receive Higher Traction from Developed Nations Focusing at the geographical expanse of the depression drugs market, North America and Europe are marked as the largest regional markets for depression drugs at the global scenario. This leading status is acquired due to the concentration of leading market players as well as surge in R&D associated to these drugs. On the other hand, the rising problem of mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder in China and India, absence of wide-ranging awareness concerning antidepressant medications (ADMs) is anticipated to adversely affect the growth of depression drugs market across the Asia Pacific region. Furthermore, different therapies of depression are as effectual as ADM, thereby, their effects are seen more lasting, which might cause an interference in forthcoming expansion of depression drugs market, specifically in Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Browse Full Report on Depression Drugs Market with In-depth TOC- https://www.factmr.com/report/3215/depression-drugs-market Growing Fame of Tech-based Mental Health Apps Overrun the Need for Depression Drugs As per this smart Fact.MR study, demand for depression drugs is experiencing a downhill situation since end-users hold more surviving options to promote. To be precise, the growing popularity of mental health apps like Headspace, Moodnotes, Calm, SuperBetter and Pacifica, has offered patients additional control on how they cope depression. In the recent years, propagation of tech apps has witnessed a major surge due to advancing actions of research that primarily uses meditation and cognitive behavior therapy as effective tools. Competitive Surrounding As the report finally leads to closure, readers can attain information about the leading players functioning in the depression drugs market. Each of these corporations are examined and studied in terms of company description, strategic overview, financial overview, and SWOT analysis. Some of major players included in the report are Johnson and Johnson, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Sebela Pharmaceutical Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Pfizer Inc., Novartis AG, Allergan USA Inc., Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company, Alkermes Plc, H. Lundbeck, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Bristol Myers Squibb Co., among others. Request Methodology of this Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=3215 Popular Healthcare Industry Market Reports from Fact.MR Breathalyzer Market- The global breathalyzer market was valued at over US$ 600 Mn in 2018 and is forecasted to clock a Y-o-Y growth of 7.5% in the year 2019 over 2018. Electrosurgery Devices Market- The global electrosurgery devices market is estimated to exhibit a steady growth, to reach approximately US$ 8,000 Mn in revenues by 2022-end. Radiotherapy Devices Market- The Fact.MR report on global radiotherapy devices market projects that by the end of 2022, more than US$ 7 Bn worth of radiotherapy devices will be sold across the globe, reflecting an impressive market expansion at stellar CAGR. About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports. Contact Us: Rohit Bhisey Fact.MR 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.factmr.com/ SOURCE Fact.MR OLD BRIDGE, N.J., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Veteran real estate executive Peter S. Reinhart, Esq. has joined R.J. Brune1li & Co., LLC as Executive Vice President for the retail real estate brokerage's new Mixed Use & Land Division, which will work with homebuilders, developers, owners, buyers and tenants on all aspects of mixed-use developments. Peter Reinhart In addition to his responsibilities at the Old Bridge-based firm, Reinhart will continue in his role as Director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth Universitythe longest running real estate degree program in New Jersey. He is also Of Counsel with the law firm of Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Davis, and a Director of Four Springs Capital, a private REIT. Prior to joining Monmouth University full-time in 2011, Reinhart spent 33 years at Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., including 30 years as Senior Vice-President and General Counsel. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors from 1985 through 2003. During his tenure, K. Hovnanian was the top homebuilder in New Jersey, as well as one of the nation's largest, delivering over 20,000 homes per year. "Peter's extensive experience, knowledge and contacts in all aspects of real estate development are key to R.J. Brunelli & Cos.' efforts to expand our services in the mixed-use arena," said Chairman and Principal Richard J. Brunelli. "Between his many years at Hovnanian and leadership roles in numerous statewide and regional industry groups, Peter will be an invaluable asset to our team members and clients involved in mixed-use projects. Notably, his appointment comes at a time when growing numbers of shopping center owners are seeking to add residential and other non-retail elements to their properties in the wake of department store and other anchor closures." Long active in civic and industry groups and non-profits, Reinhart currently serves as Chair of New Jersey Future; as a member of the special New Jersey Economic and Fiscal Impact Policy Workgroup appointed by New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney; as a Trustee and member of the Executive Committee of Hackensack Meridian Health, Inc.; as a Director for Springpoint Senior Living; and as a founding board member of NJSpotlight.com. He also moderates an annual seminar series that has covered such topics as "The Future of New Jersey Suburbs" and "Redevelopment in New Jersey." Past roles have included Chair of the Community Foundation of New Jersey, as well as President of the New Jersey Builders Association, the Shore Builders Association and the Community Associations Institute. Reinhart was also a member of the Regional Plan Association Steering Committee for the Fourth Regional Plan for the New York metropolitan area. He additionally served on the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) from 1993 to 2004 and as a member of the Site Improvements Advisory Board. A resident of Little Silver, N.J., Reinhart graduated with honors from Rutgers Camden Law School and earned his undergraduate degree at Franklin and Marshall College. About R.J. Brunelli & Co. R.J. Brunelli & Co. serves as exclusive broker for 37 existing retail properties with a combined gross leasable area (GLA) of approximately 2.0 million square feet, and six properties for sale. The properties are located throughout New Jersey. The firm also serves as exclusive or preferred tenant representative for approximately 20 retail, restaurant and service chains. These include representation in various New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania counties for such companies as Dollar Tree, Sally Beauty Supply, TCC Verizon Wireless, Jersey Strong, Urban Bricks Pizza, Modern Acupuncture, European Wax Center, Asian Food Market, Giggles, and Legend Parkthe latter, a national account. Press contacts: At R.J. Brunelli & Co., LLC, Danielle Brunelli, President, (732) 721-5800; at Parness & Associates Public Relations, Bill Parness or Lisa Kreda at [email protected] SOURCE R.J. Brunelli & Co. Related Links http://rjbrunelli.com The digital output from Respiri's systems is easy to share, manage, and interpret; and is well aligned with the growing trend of digital health and Internet of Things LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the European smart healthcare market, Frost & Sullivan recognises Respiri with the 2019 European Technology Innovation Award for its suite of smart products for asthma monitoring. It has leveraged its proprietary Acoustic Respiratory Monitoring (ARM) technology to develop remote monitoring systems that accurately record breathing patterns and predict asthma attacks. These solutions provide both patients and physicians greater control over wheeze monitoring so they may drive improved outcomes. Click here to view the multimedia release: https://best-practices.frost-multimedia-wire.com/respiri "All of Respiri's asthma detectors have contact sensors that detect acoustic signals caused by respiration. As the air crosses the trachea, an acoustic signature is recorded. Any deviation in this signal is an indication of a blockage, which manifests as wheezing. The ARM algorithm can detect these acoustic deviations, quantify the extent of deviation, and present this information as Wheeze Rate," said Bhargav Rajan, Leader, Medical Devices & Imaging Team at Frost & Sullivan. "Respiri's ARM technology requires neither additional effort from the patient nor manual interpretation of data." The company is building its portfolio based on the clinical products that have been approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration and carry the EU's Conformite Europeene (CE) mark. Four out of the five products have the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance. PulmoTrack, Respiri's original flagship product, is used for hospital- and clinical-based real-time monitoring of wheezing and coughing. PulmoTrack helps manage severe asthma attacks in emergency rooms (ER) and intensive care units (ICUs) and is designed for use in pediatric pulmonary function testing and sleep labs. Wholter allows 8- to 24-hour home ambulatory recordings of nocturnal wheezing and coughing. Collecting data over a period of time can help physicians design more effective treatment plans. Respiri is currently developing a new wireless overnight monitoring product. SonoSentry was a stand-alone device with on-board computation that could be connected to a personal computer and to a cloud platform through a personal portal. SonoSentry was the first over-the-counter FDA-approved wheeze-detection device. Respiri is currently developing a new stand-alone device using the latest components and learnings from the development of its new product, wheezo TM . . wheezo launching in 2019, replaces AirSonea as the next generation ecosystem for wheeze monitoring comprising the Bluetooth breath sensor, smart app and cloud server. The app houses machine-learning capabilities that ensure patients take their preventer/controller medication as prescribed and not rely on rescue medication after symptoms are recognised. wheezo is expected to help people better understand and monitor their own asthma to prevent life-threatening attacks. Respiri's early-launch countries constitute 25 to 30 percent of the entire asthmatic population, with children comprising 30 percent. The majority of these children's parents are millennials and are comfortable using digital technologies. The output of Respiri's products readily feeds into the growing network of digital devices. The data aids stratification by age group, geography, and other demographics; paves the way for a deeper understanding of asthma's common triggers; and helps in the development of management plans. "As one of the first companies to offer a diverse portfolio of smart tools for asthma management, Respiri already enjoys a competitive edge," noted Rajan. "For identifying the market need for its solutions and catering to numerous industry requirements through a patient-friendly and digitally scalable solution, Respiri is fully deserving of the 2019 European Technology Innovation Award." Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality that is gaining rapid acceptance in the market. The award recognises the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it enables. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry. About Respiri Respiri's mission is to help improve quality of life for millions of children and adults around the world and dramatically reduce hospital admissions and the economic burden of asthma. The Company offers sensors, mobile apps and analytics to support respiratory health management. Its world first technology detects wheeze, a typical symptom of asthma, COPD and respiratory disease to provide an objective measure of airway limitation. Respiri's innovative platform provides personalised feedback and education based on the user's data and enables the sharing of that data with caregivers and health care providers. Respiri Limited's operations are based in Melbourne, Australia. About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion . Contact: Samantha Park P: 210.247.2426 E: [email protected] Mario Gattino Director & CEO Respiri P: +61 39653 9160 E: [email protected] SOURCE Frost & Sullivan These concerts "20 years with Reza Yazdani" highlighted his 10 rock albums produced. Reza performed selections from each of the albums made. He is an authentic Persian pop-rock musician; melody courses run through his veins. Reza is loved not only for his singing but also for his other talents like composing, acting in television and film, songwriting, musician (electric guitar), Musicema Album Rock of the Year Award winner, as well as, three-time Hafez Award winner for movies, to name a few. Reza Yazdani, born in Tehran, Iran in 1973, is known as "King Reza" by his millions of adoring fans around the world. It has been reported that while everyone else is trying to simplify music in order to make it more accessible, Reza aims to do the opposite by twisting and turning the simple to difficult. In 2012, Regina Swarn, while listening to Radio Javan, heard the voice of a true artist; The sound of a man, not just any man, came across the airwaves. She made it her mission to meet this talented star. She met with top officials who expressed interest in inviting Reza Yazdani to the USA for a series of concerts. "The world deserves to hear him," she says. "His millions of devoted fans are as wonderful as he is." He admits, "It's the fans that keep me going." Reza says, "I often sing of social issues but avoid politics." He finds this highly possible but seldom exercised. When asked about his plans for the future, he said "I want to perform in America." Although he has performed all over the world, America is still on his bucket list. In a few months, he will hit the road again for an upcoming concert tour to promote his soon to be released new album. Its content is a mystery, but according to his producer, Ali Oji, this album will be different and unique. His fans and followers can hardly wait. At the end of his concert, "20 years with Reza Yazdani", he sang a song honoring his homeland entitled "the Persian Gulf". Fans were so moved that they stood to their feet, many with tears in their eyes, and sang along with him, one of the top two Persian pop-rock musicians in the world. King Reza is much more than a handsome face; he is an old soul that knows the secrets of a heart. His fame has kept him humble. You may have heard pop-rock before, but until you've experienced Persian pop-rock, you've listened to with your ears only, not with your heart. Follow @ Telegram tlgrm.in/rezayazdaniofficial SOURCE Reza Yazdani TORONTO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Roxgold Inc. ("Roxgold" or the "Company") (TSX: ROXG) (OTC: ROGFF) is pleased to report today that it has completed the previously announced acquisition from Newcrest West Africa Holdings Pty Ltd. of a portfolio of 11 exploration permits in Cote d'Ivoire ('the Tenements") which includes the Seguela gold project ("Seguela") for a total upfront consideration of US$20 million (the "Transaction"). "We are very pleased to complete this highly accretive transaction that delivers on creating long-term value for our shareholders. The Seguela gold project provides a second key asset with significant growth potential both in the near term through the near-surface Antenna deposit and attractive satellite opportunities as well as a highly prospective large land package. We will be immediately commencing a drilling program and a preliminary economic assessment study at Seguela", stated John Dorward, President and CEO. Paul Weedon, Vice President, Exploration added, "This acquisition will materially increase Roxgold's overall resource inventory, with work already underway to bring the deposit up to National Instrument 43-101 standards. We also believe there is substantial near-term exploration upside at this deposit, and regionally, with the opportunity to significantly advance Seguela in the near term with an initial 28,000 metre drilling program to commence next week". Drilling program Work is scheduled to start on the 24th of April with 4,000 metres of Reverse Circulation ("RC") and Diamond core ("DD") drilling planned at Antenna to extend and infill the known mineralization. Potential exists for additional ounces along strike and at depth. Multiple priority exploration targets within 15 kilometres of the Antenna deposit also have the potential to increase the mineralization and enhance the potential economics of the Seguela project by adding additional low-cost near surface ounces. A 24,000 metre aircore and select RC drilling program is scheduled to start on the 29th of April testing the highest ranked of these targets based on early stage drilling by Newcrest Mining Limited producing results ranging from trace to 14 metres at 58.1 g/t Au from 0 metres, and including several high-grade intercepts from the nearby Boulder, Agouti, Ancien, Gabbro, P3 and Kwenko prospects. Notable drilling results not previously released Boulder (2km ENE of Antenna) Aircore drilling has outlined a >0.3 g/t Au 1.2km long, 30-50 metre wide anomaly with wide spaced RC/DD drilling returning high grade intervals such as: SGRC161 1 : 7 metres @ 9.0g/t Au from 18 metres (incl. 1 metre @ 61.3g/t Au from 19 metres) : 7 metres @ 9.0g/t Au from 18 metres (incl. 1 metre @ 61.3g/t Au from 19 metres) SGRD1621: 6 metres @ 25.2g/t Au from 145 metres (incl. 1 metre @ 106.1g/t Au from 146 metres and 1 metre @ 42.8 g/t Au from 149 metres) Agouti (2km NE of Antenna, 1.5 km along strike from Boulder) Aircore drilling has outlined three >300 metre long, 30 metre wide anomalies: SGRC152 2 : 5 metres @ 20.4g/t Au from 44 metres : 5 metres @ 20.4g/t Au from 44 metres SGRC187 2 : 11 metres @ 5.1g/t Au from 21 metres (incl. 4 metres @ 13.7g/t Au from 23 metres) : 11 metres @ 5.1g/t Au from 21 metres (incl. 4 metres @ 13.7g/t Au from 23 metres) SGRC1902: 8 metres @ 4.2g/t Au from 14 metres Ancien (5km S of Antenna) SGRC1722: 16 metres @ 9.3 g/t Au from 37 metres (incl. 4 metres @ 36.3 g/t Au from 39 metres) Gabbro (5km NE of Antenna) SGAC39073: 12 metres @ 1.14g/t Au from 0 metres P3 (14km NE of Antenna) SGAC54023: 3 metres @ 15 g/t Au from 0 metres SGAC54033: 14 metres @ 4.5 g/t Au from 3 metres Kwenko (5km SE of Antenna) SGRC1792: 41 metres @ 0.44 g/t Au from 47 metres4 Note: Potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a Mineral Resource at the Seguela project in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in such property being delineated as such a Mineral Resource. Qualified Persons Paul Weedon, MAIG, Vice-President, Exploration for Roxgold Inc., a Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, has verified and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release. This includes the QA/QC, sampling, analytical and test data underlying this information. For more information on the Company's QA/QC and sampling procedures, please refer to the Company's Annual Information Form dated December 31, 2018, available on the Company's website at www.roxgold.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. About Roxgold Roxgold is a Canadian-based gold mining company with assets located in West Africa. The Company owns and operates the high-grade Yaramoko Gold Mine located on the Hounde greenstone belt in Burkina Faso and is also advancing the development and exploration of the Seguela Gold Project located in Cote d'Ivoire. Roxgold trades on the TSX under the symbol ROXG and as ROGFF on OTC. This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation: statements with respect to Mineral Resource estimates (including proposals for the potential growth, extension and/or upgrade thereof, the conversion of the deposit at the Seguela project to National Instrument 43-101 standards, and any future economic benefits which may be derived therefrom), the timing and delivery of any future updated resource models, anticipated receipt and maintenance of permits and licenses, proposed exploration plans and the timing and costs thereof, and sufficiency of future funding. These statements are based on information currently available to the Company and the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. In certain cases, forward-looking information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "could", "estimates", "expects", "may", "shall", "will", or "would". Forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the estimation of Mineral Resources, the realization of resource estimates gold metal prices, the timing and amount of future exploration and development expenditures, the estimation of initial and sustaining capital requirements, the estimation of labour and operating costs, the availability of necessary financing and materials, the progress of exploration and development activities as currently proposed and anticipated, the receipt of necessary regulatory approvals and permits, and assumptions with respect to currency fluctuations, environmental risks, title disputes or claims, and other similar matters, as well as assumptions set forth in the Company's technical report dated December 20, 2017, and entitled "Technical Report for the Yaramoko Gold Mine, Burkina Faso" available on the Company's website at www.roxgold.com and SEDAR at www.sedar.com. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include: changes in market conditions, unsuccessful exploration results, possibility of project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, changes in the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, inaccurate resource estimates, changes in the price of gold, unanticipated changes in key management personnel, failure to obtain permits as anticipated or at all, failure of exploration and/or development activities to progress as currently anticipated or at all, and general economic conditions. Mining exploration and development is an inherently risky business. Accordingly, actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by the Company or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. ___________________________ 1 RC or DD drill hole 2 RC or DD drill hole 3 Aircore drill hole 4 Hole ended in mineralization SOURCE Roxgold Inc. Related Links www.roxgold.com SANY, as the largest Chinese exhibitor of bauma 2019, displayed its excavators, cranes, motor graders, rollers, piling machinery and port machinery at SANY Booth: FN.620/9, which covered an area of 4,086 square meters. Excavators get high attention Excavators were the biggest highlight of the SANY booth. At this exhibition, SANY launched 13 brand-new products that meet the emission standards of Europe and the United States. Targeting at European and American markets, these machines, including 8 mini excavators, 3 medium excavators and 2 large excavators, are equipped with environment-friendly engines, high-efficient key components and quick hitches that can freely install more than 10 attachments, which can improve machines' performance while decreasing energy consumption. Among these machines, SANY's first hydraulic wheel excavator SY155W is under the spotlight of the construction industry for its brand-new hydraulic traveling transmission system, gradeability and off-road performance. The SANY excavator has been the top seller of the domestic excavator market for 8 years. As SANY's competitive products enter the European market, these quality and environment-friendly earthmoving machines have received high attention from industrial insiders. Integrated technologies to win the market Besides excavators, the brand-new off-road crane SRC900C was another highlight of the exhibition. Designed with automatic driving technology, Cranemax hoisting simulation and other advanced technologies, SRC900C fully demonstrates SANY's latest achievements in digitalization and other cutting-edge fields. On the first day of bauma 2019, the machine was purchased by a Kuwaiti client. The new concrete machinery integrated with Sino-German technologies also debuted at the exhibition. The brand-new piling machinery SR285RW10 featuring high stability, high reliability and high efficiency was well-received by audience members and clients. The road machinery C8 series products displayed at bauma 2019 demonstrated SANY's strength as the world's leading manufacturer of road machinery. Fruitful achievements in globalization At this exhibition, SANY held a series of activities to express thanks to its global clients and dealers as well as to show its fruitful achievements in the overseas market. In 2018, SANY exported more than 6,000 excavators to the global market, accounting for more than 30 per cent of China's total export volume and ranking as the "export champion" again. During bauma 2019, SANY held a number of high-end events such as SANY 2019 global excavator dealer summit to interpret SANY's international image and ushered in a new era of its internationalization. In recent years, SANY has been ambitiously expanding its overseas market. With the acceleration of its internationalization, SANY has become a world-famous equipment supplier. In 2018, SANY's overseas sales achieved more than 15 billion yuan (2.23 billion USD), year-on-year growth of 27 per cent, hitting the record of its overseas business performance in history. SANY's 10 overseas areas contributed 41 per cent of the corporation's overseas sales. The sales revenue of SANY Europe jumped by 51 per cent, contributing to the 206.1 per cent of growth in excavator sales, 191.7 per cent increase in port machinery sales. SANY Europe is one of the most promising business regions of SANY. For more details: SANY Sales Hotline Tel: 86-0731-84038018 Official website: http://www.sanyglobal.com/ Follow us: Facebook: SANY Group Wechat : SanyWorldwide SOURCE SANY Related Links http://www.sanyglobal.com NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP ("Scott+Scott"), a national shareholder and consumer rights litigation firm, is investigating whether Swedbank AB ("Swedbank" or the "Company") (OTC: SWDBY) or certain of its officers and directors violated federal securities laws. If you purchased Swedbank ADRs, you are encouraged to contact a Scott+Scott attorney at (844) 818-6980 for more information. On or around February 20, 2019, a Swedish TV program reported that it had uncovered documents linking Swedbank to a money laundering scandal with Denmark's Danske Bank and alleged that at least 40 billion Swedish crowns ($4.25 billion) had moved between Swedbank and Danske Bank accounts between 2007 and 2015, and Estonian prosecutors confirmed that they were "checking out the claims as part of [their] Danske investigation." On this news, Swedbank's ADRs fell $3.09, or nearly 14%, to close at $19.57 on February 20, 2019. On March 27, 2019, Reuters reported that Sweden's Economic Crime Authority (EBM) had searched Swedbank's head office and "widened its ongoing probe to include suspected aggravated fraud" and that the Company is also under investigation by the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). On this news, Swedbank's ADRs fell $2.96, or nearly 16%, to close at $15.88 on March 27, 2019. On March 28, 2019, news outlets reported that Swedbank fired its CEO, Birgitte Bonnesen, for reasons related to the money laundering allegations. What You Can Do If you purchased Swedbank ADRs, and you wish to discuss this investigation, please contact attorney Rhiana Swartz at (844) 818-6980, or at [email protected], or visit the Swedbank investigation page on our website at https://scott-scott.com/investigation/swedbank-ab/. About Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP Scott+Scott has significant experience in prosecuting major securities, antitrust, and employee retirement plan actions throughout the United States. The firm represents pension funds, foundations, individuals, and other entities worldwide with offices in New York, London, Connecticut, California, and Ohio. Attorney Advertising CONTACT: Rhiana Swartz Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP 230 Park Ave, 17th Fl, NY, NY 10169 (844) 818-6980 [email protected] SOURCE Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP Related Links http://scott-scott.com BOSTON and SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Second Avenue Capital Partners, LLC "(SACP") (www.secondavecp.com), and White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC ("White Oak"), an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, LLC, announced today the closing of a $35,000,000 asset-backed revolving credit facility for Charming Charlie, a Houston-based women's specialty retailer. The new facility will be used to finance the company's working capital needs. Chris O'Connor, President of SACP, expressed his excitement about working with Charming Charlie and its impressive leadership team. "The Charming Charlie stores occupy a unique and important niche within women's specialty retailing, and with SACP's retail-centric focus and White Oak's tailored financing structures, we were able to provide the support and flexible capital the Charming Charlie leadership team needs to execute its vision." Robert Grbic, President and Chief Executive Officer of White Oak, stated, "Charming Charlie has demonstrated unparalleled progress in re-establishing a strong business amid many challenges, and we are pleased to work with SACP to help this iconic retail brand reach for new levels of success." Charming Charlie, a source of style for women since 2004, is an award-winning company with an inspiring in-store experience. With 262 stores throughout the country, Charming Charlie is known for offering a wide array of women's apparel and fashion accessories, beauty, gifts and more, all ingeniously arranged by color. "Both Second Avenue Capital Partners and White Oak took time to understand the nuances of our business and helped us structure a capital solution that matched our needs," said Lana Krauter, Chief Executive Officer of Charming Charlie. "With the assistance of partners that understand the opportunities and challenges of retail today, Charming Charlie is well-positioned to continue delivering on-trend, high quality product to our growing customer base." About Charming Charlie Charming Charlie is a Houston-based specialty retailer focused on fashion jewelry, handbags, apparel, gifts and beauty products. Charming Charlie brings value to their customers by providing them with high quality, style and a broad assortment of fashion product at affordable price points. The company currently operates 262 stores in the United States, and can be found online at www.CharmingCharlie.com. About Second Avenue Capital Partners, LLC Second Avenue Capital Partners, LLC (www.secondavecp.com), a Schottenstein Affiliate, is a finance company specializing in asset-based loans for the broader retail and consumer products industry. Focused on serving middle-market companies, SACP leverages the experience of retail operators, product merchants, and lenders to provide an array of customized, capital solutions for businesses. This unique merchant perspective gives SACP the ability to recognize and unlock value in assets other capital providers often overlook or don't understand. The firm's tailored financial solutions are a vital resource for clients as they seek the capital necessary to effectuate strategy and achieve financial objectives. Headquartered in Boston, Second Avenue Capital Partners also has offices in New York, Columbus, and Los Angeles. About White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC is a global financial products and services company providing credit facilities to middle market companies between $1- $40 million. WOCF's solutions include asset-based lending, full-service factoring, invoice discounting, supply chain financing, inventory financing, U.S. import/export financing, trade credit risk management, account receivables management and credit and collections support. WOCF is an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, LLC, and its institutional clients. About White Oak Global Advisors, LLC White Oak Global Advisors, LLC is a leading global alternative asset manager specializing in originating and providing financing solutions to facilitate the growth, refinancing and recapitalization of small and medium enterprises. Since its inception in 2007, White Oak Global Advisors' disciplined investment process focuses on delivering risk-adjusted investment returns while establishing long term partnerships with our borrowers. More information can be found at www.whiteoaksf.com. SOURCE Second Avenue Capital Partners, LLC Related Links http://www.secondavecp.com HOLLAND, Mich., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Genesis Innovation Group's Shoulder Innovations (SI) is focused on human centered design. Stephen Gunther, M.D., from Charlottesville, VA and the team at Shoulder Innovations have developed an innovative solution for the glenoid, called the InSet Glenoid, which simplifies the surgical technique for surgeons, minimizes the instrumentation handled by OR staff and improves fixation and surgical outcomes for patients. The impressive results of Dr. Gunther's work can now be found in the latest Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (JSES), the peer-reviewed official publication for eight leading specialty organizations. In the group of study patients presented, all subjects treated had challenging C-type glenoids, with severely deficient bone. In the 9+ years follow-up there were no revision surgeries, surgical complications or infections reported. In the patients presenting for follow-up, there was no evidence of glenoid loosening. David Blue, Chief Commercial Officer of Shoulder Innovations, said, "Dr. Gunther has diligently studied and developed the InSet product and technique providing for the opportunity for improved patient outcomes. This recent publication provides a very encouraging data set supportive of Dr. Gunther's original concepts. Together with a world class group of surgeons, Shoulder Innovations has already further improved the product and technique so that the technology can be available to a broader patient population." Shoulder Innovations' customer base has embraced the InSet Glenoid technology wholeheartedly in the past 24 months leading to 1,000 glenoid surgical cases. The company now also offers the FDA cleared InSet Short Stem Humeral component as part of the InSet Total Shoulder System. Rob Ball, Executive Chairman of Shoulder Innovations said, "Shoulder Innovations' passion has been to deeply engage shoulder specialists in the development of innovative shoulder products that will pave the way for the future. The primary focused goal for SI is to provide improved treatment of patients, with higher reliability of outcomes, at a lower cost, while providing simpler implantation than existing methods. We've used a rigorous risk-based approach to achieve these goals, and the results speak for themselves." For more information on Shoulder Innovations, visit www.shoulderinnovations.com SOURCE Shoulder Innovations Related Links http://www.shoulderinnovations.com PALMER LAKE, Colo., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Video evidence recently surfaced that well known Internet sites and services have been using wording similar to the SohoStar Corporation's trademark to shadow-ban, deboost, and censor posts, including product announcements and advertising. David Roland, SohoStar's president, claims the launch of the security product "The Red Pill" has been censored by many Internet applications by blocking searches, posts, and even suggesting false reports of potential data theft, what do they fear? The Red Pill is a complete Internet Communication Appliance for Home or Small Business which protects your information and offers an alternative to Facebook, MeWe and other compromised Social Media platforms. Visit http://TheRedPill.us Social media has censored posts and access to the Innovative Privacy Product, The Red Pill by limiting access and blocking previews to the SohoStar website http://TheRedPill.us The Red Pill is a US made personal Internet appliance (PCS) designed to provide privacy, cyber-security and enhanced social media. SohoStar developed The Red Pill family of products to make Internet communications more convenient, secure, and private. The PCS not only provides a single point of control for your email and social media, but the built-in social media application - Fifth, coordinates all of your contacts, sharing, web hosting, email, VoIP, and chats in a single easy to use interface which stores your information in your Home or Small Business network where it is legally protected. Roland goes on to say, "we are being trained to accept insecurity as the status quo, but not at SohoStar! We have designed products to change the paradigm to put the user back in control of who has access to information and content." "The way to keep pedophiles and identity thieves away from your home and family is to not store information on third party servers and not give unprotected access to social media where your personal information is sold on the open market and that includes sharing Geo-located posted photos of your children, their schools, and their friends," Roland states. "People don't realize that the sites you use most often have collaborated to build a complete financial, social and political profile on every user. This is exploited to sway your perceptions of political candidates, influence elections, affect your buying decisions, and shame you into actions, compromises, and practices you wouldn't do without social pressure. To claim 'I have nothing to hide' is pure ignorance when the Mueller investigation's indictments are mostly based on prior-evidence perjury traps. Shouldn't you care about protecting your home, family and reputation?" For information about SohoStar or to find out more about The Red Pill brand of products visit our site at http://TheRedPill.us, consider donating to our GoFundMe project at https://www.gofundme.com/save-private-social-media or contact us at [email protected]. Media contact: Suzanne Peterson [email protected] 720-279-3100 SOURCE The SohoStar Corporation WICHITA, Kan., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. [NYSE: SPR] will release its first quarter 2019 financial results at 6:30 a.m. Central Time Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Spirit AeroSystems President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Gentile will be joined by Spirit's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jose Garcia on a conference call presentation to securities analysts about first quarter 2019 results and company outlook at 10 a.m. Central Time. That presentation will be broadcast online. It will include charts and a question-and-answer session. The company's news release detailing the results will also be available. The live audio stream and slide presentation can be accessed May 1, 2019, at http://investor.spiritaero.com/. Individuals are urged to check the web site in advance to ensure their computers are configured for the audio stream and slide presentation. About Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. Spirit AeroSystems designs and builds aerostructures for both commercial and defense customers. With headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, Spirit operates sites in the U.S., U.K., France and Malaysia. The company's core products include fuselages, pylons, nacelles and wing components for the world's premier aircraft. Spirit AeroSystems focuses on affordable, innovative composite and aluminum manufacturing solutions to support customers around the globe. More information is available at www.SpiritAero.com. SOURCE Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. Related Links http://www.SpiritAero.com LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The St. Baldrick's Foundation, the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants, announces the addition of Corey Hutchison, U.S. Vice President of Enterprise Sales at VMware, to its board of directors. Corey is a longtime supporter of St. Baldrick's. His involvement dates to 2008 when he attended his first St. Baldrick's head-shaving event. Since then, he has been a regular participant in head-shaving events and was a team captain in 2014-2018. He also organized this year's St. Baldrick's VMware Sales Kickoff for US Private Sector event, which raised over $41,000 in donations. Having created a culture of philanthropy from the top down, VMware and its staff played an integral role in the success of the event and continue to find new ways to give back. "I'm very intrigued by St. Baldrick's mission to attach itself to the best science in the world and its constant search for the best research. I'm also impressed with St. Baldrick's advocacy work and their success in pushing legislation forward," said Hutchison. "Cancer affects everyone at some point. The better science gets, the more progress there is against the disease." As the only board member working in the technology sector, Corey looks to help diversify the board by bringing in additional members from different industries. His goal is to assist in the expansion of St. Baldrick's events beyond the annual head-shaving, finding new ways to bring in new donors and integrating more partnerships into St. Baldrick's business model. "We are thrilled by the addition of Corey Hutchison to the St. Baldrick's Foundation board as we continue to diversify the way we serve our mission," said Kathleen Ruddy, CEO of the St. Baldrick's Foundation. "Corey brings entrepreneurial and sales acumen which will help us engage people of different backgrounds and new industries in our goal to take childhood back from cancer." Corey brings more than 15 years of experience in executive management and enterprise software to the Foundation. Currently, he is responsible for the field sales and operations team serving VMware's most strategic customers in the United States. Prior to joining VMware, Corey built and managed a global business unit for SafeNet, a data-encryption and data protection company offering cloud-based solutions. He also served as CEO of an infrastructure as a service company, leading the company's growth into a leader in the e-commerce service space by securing finances from venture firms, re-branding the company, reducing costs and increasing revenues by 80 percent over 18 months. To learn more about St. Baldrick's, visit www.StBaldricks.org, and connect on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Vimeo. About St. Baldrick's Foundation As the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants, the St. Baldrick's Foundation is leading the charge to take childhood back from cancer. St. Baldrick's funds some of the most brilliant childhood cancer research experts who are working to find cures and better treatments for all childhood cancers. Kids need treatments as unique as they are and that starts with funding research just for them. Join us at StBaldricks.org to help support the best childhood cancer research, no matter where it takes place. SOURCE St. Baldrick's Foundation Related Links http://www.stbaldricks.org MENLO PARK, Calif., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert Half Legal and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) have named William Tanner Allread as the Robert Half Legal Scholar and a member of MCCA's Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. Scholarship Program, Class of 2021. He has been awarded $10,000 to use toward law school tuition expenses, in addition to the opportunity to work with MCCA leaders and mentors as he prepares for a legal career. Currently enrolled at Stanford Law School, Allread graduated with distinction from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and certificate in Education Studies. During his senior year, Allread received the James Andrew Haas Memorial Prize in acknowledgement of his intellectual achievements, class leadership and service. He also earned recognition as an Institution for Social and Policy Studies Director's Fellow. As an undergraduate, Allread was a member of the inaugural advisory board for the Yale Native American Cultural Center Executive Board and served as an officer for the Association of Native Americans at Yale. He was a summer fellow for Oklahoma Indian Legal Services and held an internship with the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, among other activities. After graduating from Yale, Allread taught science in Oklahoma City at an under-resourced public school as a Teach for America corps member. He is interested in directing his legal career to advocate for Native American tribes and federal and state education policies. "Tanner's passion for social justice issues, combined with his demonstrated commitment to leadership and academic excellence, serve as important building blocks for a successful legal career," said Jamy Sullivan, executive director of Robert Half Legal. "We take great pride in having the opportunity to partner with MCCA to support remarkable students like Tanner as they seek to fulfill their legal career goals." "We are honored to recognize Tanner as a Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. Scholarship recipient this year," said MCCA President and CEO Jean Lee. "The program is designed to develop and strengthen diversity and inclusion within the next generation of legal leaders. It enables us to nurture and support the academic and professional legal careers of promising law students like Tanner, who are helping to build a more diverse legal community." Open to diverse students interested in a corporate law career and diversity and inclusion issues, MCCA's Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. Scholarship Program provides financial support for first-year law students who are financially disadvantaged and pursuing a Juris Doctor degree. Program recipients receive a $10,000 award for their first year of law school. In addition, MCCA offers scholars mentoring opportunities and helps place them in paid internship positions with corporate law departments during the summer immediately following successful completion of their first year of law school. Each scholarship recipient also receives ongoing professional development. About MCCA The Minority Corporate Counsel Association was founded in 1997 with the purpose of making the next generation of legal leaders as diverse as the world we live in. From publishing research insights to providing professional development opportunities to offering advisory services, today MCCA is the preeminent voice on diversity and inclusion in the legal industry. MCCA empowers members with the tools needed to disrupt business as usual and to blaze a path forward for their company, industry and corporate America. About Robert Half Legal Robert Half Legal is the premier provider of legal staffing and consulting solutions for law firms and corporate legal departments. With North American and global locations, Robert Half Legal provides a customized approach, including managed review, legal project management and eDiscovery services, to help organizations handle constantly changing workloads. The company offers in-demand expertise across practice areas, as well as highly skilled legal professionals on a temporary, project and full-time basis. More information about our full suite of legal staffing and consulting solutions can be found at roberthalf.com/legal. SOURCE Robert Half Legal Related Links http://www.roberthalflegal.com Though the Bible is an ancient book, engagement with it can have impact on modern lives. The study shows that Bible-engaged people are more financially generous than those who are unengaged. When asked to recall the total gifts they gave to charity in 2018, Bible-centered respondents recalled contributing $1,000 on average, while the Bible-disengaged gave $20 on average. Volunteerism also increases with Bible engagement. Beyond financial contributions, Bible-engaged people are more generous with their time: 57 percent of Bible-centered adults are inclined to be more generous with their time, compared to just 2 percent of the Bible-friendly and 3 percent of the Bible-neutral. Almost 60 percent of Americans believe that the message of the Bible has transformed their lives. Specifically, Bible users feel peaceful, encouraged and hopeful and have a sense of direction, in that order. Results also show that Bible engagement has a positive influence on behaviors including: How they treat people of a different race than themselves Their support for refugees Their decisions at work or school "Our research shows that when people engage with the Word, their lives are bettered," said Roy Peterson, president and CEO of American Bible Society. "They find wisdom, hope and healing. In today's sometimes turbulent times, the Bible can provide welcome answers." For Americans who are curious to know more about what the Bible says (63 percent), the Bible and clergy rank as the top resources (28 percent each). Expectedly, the Bible becomes the primary resource for those who already engage with it. More than half of Bible users have also used the Internet on a computer to read Bible content (55 percent) or searched for Bible verses or Bible content on their phone (56 percent), and another 44 percent have downloaded or used a Bible app on their smartphone. The study also identified where Americans feel comfortable asking questions or seeking guidance about the Bible. Most adults see churches in their city or town as welcoming (83 percent) and a place where people can go for help (81 percent). They also see church leaders as advocates for the vulnerable and afflicted (75 percent). "For those who are growing in their relationship with the Bible, the church is best positioned to help curious people find answers to their questions," said Peterson. "For others whose ties to the Bible may have loosened in recent days, the church can help them establish a lifelong practice of Bible engagement that will sustain them through life's storms." American Bible Society is influencing the way Americans interact with and view the Bible in a modern world by studying people's motivations, sentiments and habits. Publication of the "State of the Bible" is powered by Barna Group. For more about the latest "State of the Bible" research, visit StateoftheBible.org. Survey Methodology The 2019 "State of the Bible" report contains findings from a nationwide study commissioned by American Bible Society and conducted by Barna Group. Two research methodologies were used. The first included 1,001 telephone interviews (including by cell phone) with adults in all 50 states, and the second consisted of 1,012 online surveys using a nationally representative panel. The use of two methodologies provided a larger sample size for key questions and ensured greater representation among all age groups. The telephone interviews, conducted Jan. 29 to Feb. 7, 2019, included U.S. adults aged 18 or older. The online surveys were conducted Jan. 15 to Jan. 30, 2019. About American Bible Society Since 1816, American Bible Society has worked to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford, so all people may experience its life-changing message. One of the nation's first and most enduring nonprofit organizations, American Bible Society provides resources across a variety of platforms, enabling first-time readers and seasoned theologians alike to engage with the best-selling book of all time. For more information, visit American.Bible. SOURCE American Bible Society AUSTIN, Texas, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. (NYSE: INN) (the "Company") reported today that it has completed the disposition of six hotels totaling 815 guestrooms for an aggregate gross sales price of $135.0 million which resulted in an estimated net gain of $36.6 million. The portfolio of six hotels sold included: Hotel State Rooms Hampton Inn Boston-Norwood MA 139 Hampton Inn Santa Barbara/Goleta CA 101 Hampton Inn & Suites Minneapolis St. Paul Airport Mall of America MN 146 Hyatt Place Dallas/Arlington TX 127 Residence Inn Salt Lake City Downtown UT 189 SpringHill Suites by Marriott Minneapolis St. Paul Airport Mall of America MN 113 Total 815 The aggregate gross sales price of $135.0 million, plus estimated future capital improvements, represented a 12.8x EBITDA multiple and 6.9 percent capitalization rate for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2019. The Company estimates that the hotels would have contributed approximately $9.5 million of EBITDAre through the remainder of 2019. Net proceeds from the sale were used to reduce the outstanding balance of the Company's unsecured revolving credit facility, which now has $395.0 million available to borrow. About Summit Hotel Properties Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. is a publicly-traded real estate investment trust focused on owning premium-branded hotels with efficient operating models primarily in the upscale segment of the lodging industry. As of April 18, 2019, the Company's portfolio consisted of 69 hotels with a total of 10,714 guestrooms located in 24 states. For additional information, please visit the Company's website, www.shpreit.com and follow the Company on Twitter at @SummitHotel_INN. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements that are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "intend," "expect," "seek," "anticipate," "estimate," "approximately," "believe," "could," "project," "predict," "forecast," "continue," "plan," "likely," "would" or other similar words or expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and can include future expectations, future plans and strategies, financial and operating projections or other forward-looking information. Examples of forward-looking statements include the following: the Company's ability to realize financial and operational synergies; projections of revenues and expenses or other financial items; descriptions of the Company's plans or objectives for future operations; forecasts of EBITDAre; and descriptions of assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing expectations regarding the timing of their occurrence. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, not all of which are known to the Company and many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the state of the U.S. economy, supply and demand in the hotel industry, and other factors as are described in greater detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Unless legally required, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. For information about the Company's business and financial results, please refer to the "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" sections of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, filed with the SEC, and its quarterly and other periodic filings with the SEC. The Company undertakes no duty to update the statements in this release to conform the statements to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations. SOURCE Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. Related Links http://www.shpreit.com CERNUSCO LOMBARDONE, Italy, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Technoprobe, a global leader in the microelectronics/semiconductor test industry, has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Microfabrica Inc., the leader in high-volume production, microscale Additive Manufacturing. This acquisition is part of Technoprobe's $100M USD 2019-2020 self-funded technological investment plan. Post-acquisition, Microfabrica will continue to operate independently out of its headquarters in Van Nuys, California. "This acquisition marks a strategic step in our growth plans," said Technoprobe CEO Stefano Felici. "As technological leaders in our fields, joining forces will accelerate both organizations' development efforts, so we can launch a variety of breakthrough products aimed at the SOC and memory market segments. Our plan to further invest in Microfabrica will help the company expand its capabilities and achieve its global market potential." Microfabrica CEO Eric C. Miller added, "We are very excited to join the Technoprobe family. The acquisition will not only provide a strong foundation for Microfabrica and our employees but will enable us to expand our process and materials capabilities and services, benefiting the entire industry. We look forward to engaging new customers as well as continuing to serve our current base as we have done in the past: satisfying all contracts, NDAs and production commitments." About Technoprobe Technoprobe is an award-winning leader in the microelectronics industry that specializes in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductor test equipment. It was ranked the industry's fastest-growing major supplier in 2017 and No. 1 in customer satisfaction in 2018 by VLSIresearch. The privately held company has offices in Europe, Asia and the United States. For more information, please visit www.technoprobe.com. About Microfabrica Microfabrica is the leader in high-volume production, microscale additive manufacturing. By integrating the flexibility of 3D printing with the precision of advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, the company designs and builds robust microscale solutions that enable new levels of product innovation. Global market leaders in the semiconductor test, aerospace and medical device industries rely on Microfabrica's unique technology to deliver breakthrough products, reduce their time to market, and gain a dramatic competitive edge. For more information, please visit www.microfabrica.com. SOURCE Technoprobe Related Links https://www.technoprobe.com The campaign is built on the premise that there can never be too much good in our world, and encourages others to not only celebrate good, but let good guide the choices we make. To bring this to life, the heartwarming spot tells the story of a young boy learning sign language to connect over lunch with a deaf classmate. "Whether it's choosing no artificial ingredients and no artificial flavors, or choosing to be more imaginative, generous, kind or loving, there can never be too much good in our world," said Beth Fehrenbacher, senior brand manager for Hormel Natural Choice deli meats. "Through this spot, and in the continuation of this campaign, we seek to support the good people do in their communities, and the connections we can all make." To do just that, the brand will incorporate a Good Feeds Us All national tour, designed to put a spotlight on individuals and organizations who have made it their mission to choose good. The tour will kick-off this summer at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf and includes a feature story with the nonprofit Be Strong and its We Dine Together program, a student-led movement aiming to provide a proactive and comprehensive solution to schools and communities by creating a more inclusive world. Dates and additional tour stops will be announced shortly. The campaign, developed in collaboration with BBDO Minneapolis, includes 15- and 30-second spots airing on national television as well as select digital and social channels. Media planning and buying was done by PHD Worldwide. For more information on Hormel Natural Choice products or to view the spot, visit www.makethenaturalchoice.com. ABOUT HORMEL FOODS INSPIRED PEOPLE. INSPIRED FOOD. Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Austin, Minn., is a global branded food company with over $9 billion in annual revenues across 75 countries worldwide. Its brands include SKIPPY, SPAM, Hormel Natural Choice, Applegate, Justin's, Columbus, Wholly Guacamole, Hormel Black Label and more than 30 other beloved brands. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, was named one of "The 100 Best Corporate Citizens" by Corporate Responsibility Magazine for the tenth year in a row, and has received numerous other awards and accolades for its corporate responsibility and community service efforts. In 2016, the company celebrated its 125th anniversary and announced its new vision for the future Inspired People. Inspired Food. focusing on its legacy of innovation. For more information, visit www.hormelfoods.com and https://csr.hormelfoods.com. ABOUT BE STRONG Be Strong is a national non-profit organization focused on preventing bullying, social isolation and suicide. Be Strong uses a comprehensive student-led approach to: encourage ALL students to reveal challenges they are facing, train and equip students to become more resilient, arm them with access to local services and organizations that can help, and unite them to change their families, schools, communities, states, and country. For more information, visit www.bestrong.global and www.wedinetogether.org. SOURCE Hormel Foods Corporation Related Links https://www.hormel.com Representatives from building architect Gensler as well as the general contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie, were also on-hand for the historic event. When completed in 2021, the 420-foot-tall elevator qualification and test tower will be the tallest building in Cobb County and the tallest elevator test tower in the U.S. "The Innovation and Qualification Center is going to be a true differentiator in our industry thanks in part to its prominent, high-visibility location and its state-of-the-art design," said Steve Wedge, Interim CEO and CFO of thyssenkrupp Elevator North America. "And our new North American headquarters for thyssenkrupp Elevator will enable us to further foster partnerships within the local business community, while expanding on our valuable relationships with the Atlanta Braves and Georgia Tech University, to name a few." With 18 shafts, the elevator test tower will be used to trial new concepts and product pilots, including high-speed elevators and TWIN, thyssenkrupp's unique elevator system that features two cabins working independently in one shaft. The IQC will also test MULTI, the revolutionary rope-less and sideways-moving elevator system. In addition, the test tower will also conduct robust tests to ensure compliance with stringent safety requirements on standard elevators. The thyssenkrupp Elevator North American headquarters will be home to more than 900 full-time employees across three facilities. Last month, employees started moving into the Business Headquarters (BHQ) in nearby Pennant Park, and a Corporate Headquarters (CHQ) will be built adjacent to the IQC. Both the IQC and CHQ will be built on property owned by the Atlanta Braves Development Company. "Today marks an exciting step towards changing the Cobb County skyline and welcoming our wonderful new neighbor, thyssenkrupp, into the state of Georgia," said Mike Plant, President and CEO of the Braves Development Company. General contractor Brasfield & Gorrie is no stranger to the area, having also constructed the Omni Hotel at the Battery Atlanta as well as One Ballpark Center, a nine-story, 250,000-square-foot office building that serves as Comcast's Central Division headquarters. The general contractor also served as the managing partner of American Builders 2017, the joint venture that built SunTrust Park. "Brasfield & Gorrie has completed more than $760 million worth of construction within a half-mile radius of this project's site, and since 2009 we have successfully completed 182 contract projects with thyssenkrupp," said Brasfield & Gorrie Regional Vice President and Division Manager Chris Britton. "Our three decades in the Atlanta area have led to extensive relationships with partners including Collins Project Management and Gensler, and those will be an asset to this project." Press Images: To view renderings of the Innovation and Qualification Center, please click the hyperlinks (credit: thyssenkrupp Elevator). Videos are available for download here. About us: thyssenkrupp Elevator thyssenkrupp Elevator brings together the Group's global activities in passenger transportation systems. With sales of 7.6 billion in fiscal 2017/2018 and customers in 150 countries, thyssenkrupp Elevator built its position as one of the world's leading elevator companies from scratch in a mere 40 years' time applying thyssenkrupp unique engineering capabilities. With more than 50,000 highly skilled employees, the company offers smart and innovative products and services designed to meet customers' individual requirements. The portfolio includes passenger and freight elevators, escalators and moving walks, passenger boarding bridges, stair and platform lifts as well as tailored service solutions for all products. Over 1,000 locations around the world provide an extensive sales and service network to guarantee closeness to customers. thyssenkrupp thyssenkrupp is a technology group with traditional strengths in materials. Over 160,000 employees in 78 countries work with passion and technological know-how to develop high-quality products and intelligent industrial processes and services for sustainable progress. Their skills and commitment are the basis of our success. In fiscal year 2017/2018 thyssenkrupp generated sales of 42.7 billion. Together with our customers we develop competitive solutions for future challenges in their respective industries. With our engineering expertise we enable our customers to gain an edge in the global market and manufacture innovative products in a cost- and resource-friendly way. Our technologies and innovations are the key to meeting diverse customer and market requirements around the world, growing on the markets of the future, and generating strong and stable earnings, cash flows and value growth. About Brasfield & Gorrie Founded in 1964, Brasfield & Gorrie is one of the nation's largest privately held construction firms, providing general contracting, design-build, and construction management services for a wide variety of markets. We are skilled in construction best practices, including virtual design and construction, integrated project delivery, and lean construction, but we are best known for our preconstruction and self-perform expertise and exceptional client service. Brasfield & Gorrie has 12 offices and approximately 3,000 employees. Our 2018 revenues were $3.3 billion. Engineering News-Record ranks Brasfield & Gorrie 27th among the nation's "Top 400 Contractors" for 2018. Contact: Dennis Van Milligen Communications Specialist thyssenkrupp Elevator North America Tel: +1 312 525 3190 E-Mail: [email protected] Web: www.thyssenkruppelevator.com SOURCE thyssenkrupp Related Links http://www.thyssenkruppelevator.com NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- It is well known how random number generators play an important role in the blockchain ecosystem, requiring random number services that are safe, unpredictable and reliable. Existing public chains such as EOS have provided random number services in the past but are often attacked by hackers due to unpropertied design. Ultrain designed a new random number generator architecture to solve this problem, providing service to both consensus and Dapps. So how does Ultrain guarantee the security and randomness of the random numbers on the chain? The answer lies in the following two mechanisms: 1. The process of generating random numbers is fully decentralized and open to all so that everyone can participate in generation and verification while ensuring the minimum probability of manipulation by carefully designing the incentive mechanism. 2. The result of the random number passes the highest level of cryptographic randomness check: The National Institute of Standards and Technology SP800-22 test. This result indicates that no one can predict any of the future random numbers, with the random result able to be used directly. No additional processing is required, such as increasing entropy. To further explain point one: verifiable random function is used to compute a random number, which the blockchain verifies and aggregates to generate the final result. This mechanism is enhanced with high penalties and a reasonable incentive model to prevent malicious behavior. Secondly, Ultrain's random number process passes the NIST SP800-22 random number test. This certification is the most strict random test in the industry, used to be a requirement for traditional financial transactions and information communication, guaranteeing the security and randomness of the many services built on top of Ultrain. Let's explore the specific content of the NIST SP800-22 test: This test includes 15 different sections as follows: Frequency Test and Block Frequency Test 1. These two tests count a random number of binary digits. If one of the numbers is obviously more than the other, then the test will not pass. The test checks any sequence of length M for the sequence. If there are any discrepancies, the test will not pass. 2. Run Test and Longest Run Test (continuous 0/1 test) These two tests will count consecutive sequences of binary. Strings that do not conform to statistical characteristics are considered to fail the test. The Longest Run test counts the longest 0 or 1 in any specific sequence of arbitrary length. Demonstrating results outside of the standard distribution will fail. 3. Binary Matrix Rank Test The entire sequence is divided into several non-adjacent sub-matrices, and then the order of the matrix is tested. The purpose of this test is to find out if there is a correlation in the sequence. That is, whether other sequences can be inferred by another sequence, which would seriously affect the predictability of random numbers. 4. Discrete FFT Test Certain sequences can sometimes appear too often, such as 01011. If there are too many instances of this sequence, it will allow attackers to predict future outcomes. For example, after 0101 appears, the next bit is more likely to be 1. This test performs a discrete FFT transformation of the sequence into the frequency domain and then observes if there is a specific number that will appear with an abnormal peak. 5. Non-Overlapping/Overlapping Template Matching Test (overlap or non-overlapping template test) The test moves the window one bit at a time to find a periodic or non-periodic sequence. Generally, it is possible to traverse all possible length of sequence at a certain length. For example, for a width of 4, a total of 16 types of 0000, 0001, 0010, ..., 1111 can be found. If any one of the frequencies is abnormal, it will fail. 6. Universal Statistical Test The test is made by compressing a specific sequence. If a specific sequence can be compressed to a shorter extent, then the sequence itself is redundant and autocorrelated, which is predictable, so it cannot be considered random. 7. Cumulative Sums/ Random Excursion (Variant) Test If 0 is regarded as -1, then starting from 0 o'clock, left and right, such as 010 is equivalent to walking to -1. This series of tests will study the maximum length of any sequence walked and the frequency of staying at the point where the walk passes. Any situation that does not match the statistics will fail. Ultrain random number testing results 1.21 million data points were collected from the Ultrain random number generator and then binarized to form binary data such as the following sequence: 1000011010001010001100000010001101011000100010101110101110001000 0101000001000010111101100111111110101011001011011111010101101000 0010111010001100100111000001010111110101110110110111111101001011 0111101001001001111100110010110100011101111001100010001100100000 1111011110101110010110110000111001011110101111101001000010000100 0110110111000111111100100101010111011011110101011110010000011100 RESULTS FOR THE UNIFORMITY OF P-VALUES AND THE PROPORTION OF PASSING SEQUENCES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ generator is ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9C10 P-VALUE PROPORTION STATISTICAL TEST ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 7 6 9 8 5 6 10 4 6 0.602458 64/64 Frequency 8 7 7 6 3 4 7 5 6 11 0.568055 63/64 BlockFrequency 3 7 6 6 7 11 9 4 5 6 0.500934 64/64 CumulativeSums 4 8 10 9 4 7 5 7 7 3 0.500934 64/64 CumulativeSums 6 4 8 8 6 5 5 7 5 10 0.804337 63/64 Runs 10 4 6 10 8 1 5 6 9 5 0.178278 63/64 LongestRun 3 7 7 8 2 6 10 6 7 8 0.468595 64/64 Rank 4 9 13 4 7 5 4 11 6 1 0.015963 64/64 FFT 10 8 7 6 8 5 5 7 4 4 0.739918 63/64 NonOverlappingTemplate 9 4 5 7 9 9 6 5 7 3 0.602458 64/64 NonOverlappingTemplate 6 8 3 16 7 5 6 5 4 4 0.014216 62/64 OverlappingTemplate 8 2 5 8 9 4 9 6 6 7 0.534146 64/64 Universal 4 5 6 7 9 7 6 7 5 8 0.931952 63/64 ApproximateEntropy 6 4 5 3 8 5 3 4 3 3 0.689019 43/44 RandomExcursions 6 2 4 5 4 4 3 6 6 4 0.875539 43/44 RandomExcursions 10 4 4 5 8 7 12 5 5 4 0.213309 62/64 Serial 10 8 7 6 7 3 5 7 5 6 0.772760 63/64 LinearComplexity For each test case, a pass rate of 60/64 and 41/44 was achieved, which means that it passed all tests. All test data has been uploaded to Ultrain's Github library (https://github.com/wanghs09/randgen), so anyone can repeat the test. In addition, Ultrain will display the random number in the near future via Ultrain.io. Anyone will be able to generate their own random number data set from Ultrain through this webpage and repeat the test. Conclusions Passing the NIST SP800-22 test demonstrates that Ultrain's random number generator is safe, reliable and sufficiently random. This also implies that all random numbers generated by the service can be used without additional processing since they already guarantee enough randomness. Soon, everyone will be able to generate random numbers of the same security level, thanks to Ultrain. Ultrain continues its work with partners to apply for random numbers in the blockchain industry, contributing to fairness and security for all. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Ultrain Related Links https://ultrain.io Partnering with MACALLINE, the Fair introduced a new model that aligns trade fair hosts and industry-leading enterprises, effectively combining their resources to form a strong, far-reaching network, base on which, the Fair host more high-profile conferences and forums and created more opportunities of intensive communication between exhibitors and buyers. The updated Fair also included an international pavilion for the first time, introducing representative ceramic kitchen and bathroom brands from Germany, Spain, Italy, US, Demark and more. By adding more categories including, high-end imported building materials, ceramic tiles, electrical appliances, lighting, and other new themes, the Fair became a platform that covers the whole industrial chain of architectural and home decoration. "The latest CBD-IBCTF (Shanghai) took on a new look under the promising cooperation between the two hosts," said Liu Xiaomin, President of CFTE. "CBD-IBCTF (Shanghai) has become one of the most overarching building decoration exhibitions in China, covering a wide range of sub-industries. A total of 58,000 visitors came to the Fair on opening day, a 92.7% increase from last year." "This year's CBD-IBCTF (Shanghai) has, for the first time, featured an International Pavilion, Design and Life Pavilion, and Smart Home Pavilion," commented Che Jianfang, Executive Director of Red Star Macalline Group Corp Ltd. "We discovered through the Fair that customized services are on the rise, while the smart home industry is growing. I believe that the Chinese furnishing industry will see many transformative opportunities in 2019, and the enterprises who seize them will usher in broader market prospects." For more information, please visit: http://en.cbd-china.com/ About CBD Fair Founded in 1999, CBD Fair is hosted twice every year, with CBD-IBCTF (Shanghai) held in March and CBD Fair (Guangzhou), the world's largest building decoration exhibition, held in July. Its latest session, hosted in March 2019, attracted over 600 exhibitors and 84,000 visitors. SOURCE The China (Guangzhou) International Building Decoration Fair Related Links http://en.cbd-china.com LEXINGTON, Ky., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Valvoline Inc. (NYSE: VVV), a leading worldwide supplier of premium branded lubricants and automotive services, today announced that it plans to report financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 after market close on May 1, 2019, and to host a live audio webcast with analysts and investors at 9 a.m. ET on May 2, 2019. The webcast and slide presentation will be available on the company's Investor Relations website at http://investors.valvoline.com. Shortly after the call concludes, a replay of the webcast will be available on this same website. About Valvoline Valvoline Inc. (NYSE: VVV) is a leading worldwide marketer and supplier of premium branded lubricants and automotive services with sales in more than 140 countries. Established in 1866, the company's heritage spans more than 150 years, during which it has developed powerful brand recognition across multiple product and service channels. Valvoline ranks as the No. 3 passenger car motor oil brand in the DIY market by volume. It operates and franchises more than 1,300 quick-lube locations and is the No. 2 chain by number of stores in the United States under the Valvoline Instant Oil Change brand and the No. 3 chain by number of stores in Canada under the Great Canadian Oil Change brand. It also markets Valvoline lubricants and automotive chemicals, including the new Valvoline Modern Engine Full Synthetic Motor Oil, which is specifically engineered to protect against carbon build-up in Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI), turbo and other engines manufactured since 2012; Valvoline High Mileage with MaxLife technology motor oil for engines over 75,000 miles; Valvoline Synthetic motor oil; and Zerex antifreeze. To learn more, visit www.valvoline.com. Trademark, Valvoline or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries SM Service mark, Valvoline or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Sean T. Cornett Senior Director, Investor Relations & Communications +1 (859) 357-2798 [email protected] SOURCE Valvoline Inc. Related Links http://www.valvoline.com TAMPA, Fla., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- It's awards season, and the WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG) (WellCare) Legal team is celebrating being named Legal Department of the Year by the Daily Business Review in the 2019 Florida Legal Awards. This well-deserved award highlights WellCare's Legal department for their hard work in representing WellCare nationwide, protecting the company's interests and serving as a trusted advisor across a multitude of matters. The Florida Legal Awards spotlight the state's top in-house legal departments in distinct categories. The awards are based on success stories: how a given corporate counsel's office, regardless of its size, came up with innovative programs, used ingenuity to solve problems or surmounted a scarcity of resources and still delivered a high quality of client service. "I'm incredibly proud of the amazing work that our team has accomplished over the last few years to ensure that WellCare's reputation and commitment to our members are consistently protected and represented," said WellCare's Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Anat Hakim. "Our talented and diverse team of attorneys and support staff across the country are dedicated to the company's values and are invaluable business partners for our leadership and their teams, who work tirelessly to position WellCare as a healthcare leader." Hakim joined WellCare in 2016 and began transforming the Legal department. Under her leadership, the company undertook a strategic review of the structure, talent and culture across the Legal department. One of the first changes implemented was a restructuring, which moved over 50% of the department's attorneys into markets outside Tampa and created a regional attorney support model. This resulted in increased collaboration between Legal and WellCare's markets. Improvements in the approach to litigation resulted in a significant reduction of the litigation docket, an overhaul of WellCare's outside litigation counsel panel, and the use of alternative billing arrangements, all of which led to increased efficiencies, reduced litigation costs and quality improvements. Likewise, technology enhancements implemented by a newly-created Legal Operations team automated several legal processes that were previously handled manually, resulting in further increased efficiencies and productivity within the department. Finally, on the mergers and acquisitions front, the WellCare legal department was front and center leading the company's multiple acquisitions over the last two to three years, helping to drive WellCare's growth. In March, Hakim and Corporate Counsel Rachelle Sico received the Tampa Bay Business Journal's 2019 Top Corporate Counsel and Top Corporate Counsel Rising Star awards, respectively. Hakim was also named to The Legal 500 GC Powerlist, which recognizes the nation's most influential and innovative General Counsel. About WellCare Health Plans, Inc. Headquartered in Tampa, Fla., WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG) focuses primarily on providing government-sponsored managed care services to families, children, seniors and individuals with complex medical needs primarily through Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans, as well as individuals in the Health Insurance Marketplace. WellCare serves approximately 5.5 million members nationwide as of December 31, 2018. For more information about WellCare, please visit the company's website at www.wellcare.com . SOURCE WellCare Health Plans, Inc. Related Links http://www.wellcare.com ST. PAUL, Minn., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nothing But Hemp continues its mission to educate and provide award winning CBD oil throughout Minnesota, opening yet another new location on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul. Nothing But Hemp Store Nothing But Hemp LLC, on April 22, 2019 will have a soft opening at its new location on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul. It is the first dedicated CBD and hemp specialty store of its kind in city of Saint Paul. Nothing But Hemp LLC, has generated a big name for itself already and has been featured on: Marijuana Ventures, City Pages, Twin Cities Magazine, Southwest Journal, Minnesota Public Radio, Star-tribune, Fox and ABC. An Industry Background Steven Brown, the CEO of Nothing But Hemp & Founder of the Minnesota Hemp Association, has consulted for top-tier dispensaries out West and is now bringing his knowledge to the Twin Cities, where he resides. The Grand Avenue Nothing But Hemp location will carry over 100 hemp products including: CBD tinctures, CBD bath bombs, CBD dabs, CBD vape pens, hemp clothing, hemp flower and much more. The store will also carry hemp flower, which is smokeable and looks like marijuana, but doesn't have the same mind-altering aspect - but our customers say it makes their bodies feel really good. Because of Brown's vast experience working in the cannabis industry out West, he has acquired direct relationships with leading hemp cultivators. This has enabled him to provide his clients with CBD products that have undergone strict quality controls. Low Prices and Award Winning Products Nothing But Hemp's top quality product pricing is typically a whopping 50% to 70% less expensive than competitors for premium hemp products. Further, the company only carries products that have won prestigious cannabis awards, including: Leaf Link Awards, Cannabis Cup Awards, Cannabist Awards, and more. Some of their products have been featured in Woman's Health Magazine, Forbes, Herb, Buzz Feed, Times and High Times. When Nothing But Hemp talks quality, it means quality. It does not carry any products from China, Europe and all of the products are 3rd party lab tested by certified cannabis ISO/ IEC labs or licensed lab facilities. The CEO, Steven Brown, makes the point that: "We are not here to just sell you something, we are here to make a difference in your lives. We are excited to provide customers with the care they need, and what I mean by this, is using Mother Earth to feel better. We want quality products to be accessible to everyone, and we want our clients to feel good, and feel like champs." Trained Staff Nothing But Hemp believe in giving the best quality service possible. To that end, it goes as far as ensuring that every owner and employee attains certification of the endocannabinoid system and all of our products. That way, they can explain to customers exactly how CBD works in the body. Consumers will not find this level of expertise anywhere else in the Twin Cities. Ecology Not only does Nothing But Hemp care about what goes into their client's bodies, it is also very proud to be a green company. It does not believe in giving out plastic bags, and instead promotes reusable bags, just like the co-ops. Further, it does not print receipts - so it saves on paper, and just emails or texts them to customers instead. Nothing But Hemp cares about the environment and the future of the planet, as much as it cares about clients' bodies. The address of the new CBD | Hemp specialty store is 844 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105. Find out more at http://www.nothingbuthemp.net Media Contact: Steven Brown [email protected] 708-214-8464 SOURCE Nothing But Hemp Related Links https://www.nothingbuthemp.net NORFOLK, Va., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- To bring a much needed option for secure, high quality warehousing space close to the Port of Virginia, World Distribution Services (WDS) has announced that it will invest $6.2 million in collaboration with Lingerfelt Commonwealth Partners to renovate a large facility in Virginia Beach. Artistic rendering of the future World Distribution Services warehouse at 1537 Air Rail Avenue in Virginia Beach. The refurbished warehouse will be 320,000 square feet with 20,000 square feet of dedicated food-grade space. A World Distribution Services employee operates a forklift, receiving goods from an inbound truck at the current 180,000 square foot WDS facility in Norfolk. The renovation, which will be completed in March 2020, will create a substantial 320,000 square feet of warehousing space at 1537 Air Rail Avenue, less than 15 miles from the port's container terminals. The $6,225,000 in renovation costs will support overall infrastructure upgrades, technology enhancements, and new machinery. The company will also create 35 new jobs. "With seventy-five percent of the U.S. population living within a two-day drive of Virginia, and all of the infrastructure improvements happening at the port, we wanted our customers to be able to take full advantage of this strategic gateway to American commerce," said WDS SVP John Morrow. The warehouse will be designed to fit the needs of retail, manufacturing, and food and beverage industries, equipped with high bay racking for high-value goods, 40 dock doors, 20,000 square feet of dedicated food grade space, ESFR sprinklers, and remotely monitored security cameras. "Our new warehouse will feature a top tier Warehouse Management System (WMS) with RF scanning technology. Our WMS gives our clients 24/7/365 access to their inventory data, and seamlessly integrates with their ERP systems," said Morrow. "What this means is that we can easily handle inventory management and order fulfillment services for our clients, and provide them with extremely accurate tracking, tracing, and reporting that fits their needs." To help with the renovation, WDS received a grant from the Virginia Beach Development Authority (VBDA). "This company will be nearly doubling its warehousing space [in Virginia], which speaks to its success and its expectations for the future," said VBDA Interim Economic Development Director Taylor Adams. The VBDA approved an EDIP grant of $35,000 for WDS based on the number of new jobs it will create. "We are very excited to be expanding our warehouse operations into Virginia Beach in 2020. We wanted to bring high quality facilities close to the Port of Virginia to better serve our customers and to improve the work environment for our employees. Thanks to the Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development, we were able to find a facility that will meet both of those objectives," said Duncan Wright, President of WDS. To inquire about distribution services in Norfolk, please call John Morrow at 757-301-4533. About World Distribution Services World Distribution Services (WDS) is a leading provider of creative supply chain solutions and offers strategic warehousing locations across the United States near most major East Coast and Gulf ports. Media Contact Information: Kellie Lynch Email: [email protected] Phone: 757-301-4533 SOURCE World Distribution Services Related Links https://www.worldds.net Lisbon, April 18 : At least 29 people have died after a bus carrying German tourists plunged off a road and overturned on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Another 27 were injured in the accident near the town of Canico. The accident happened on Wednesday evening when the driver lost control of the bus at a junction and went off the road, the BBC reported on Thursday citing Portuguese news agency Lusa. The overturned vehicle came to rest near houses. "I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," Mayor Filipe Sousa told broadcaster SIC TV. He said all the tourists on the bus were German but some local people could also be among the casualties. Eleven of the fatalities were men and 17 women, Sousa added. The bus was reported to be carrying 55 passengers, as well as the driver and a tour guide. Another woman later died of her injuries in hospital. The scene of the crash has been sealed off and the injured transferred to a hospital in the island's capital, Funchal, Lusa said. An investigation into the crash has been launched. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is flying to the island to visit the scene. Prime Minister Antonio Costa has sent a message of condolence to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Bengaluru, April 18 : Voting was underway on Thursday in the first phase of polling for Karnataka's 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state's central and southern regions amid tight security, an election official said. "Voting began at 7 a.m. in all the 30,164 booths across the 14 parliamentary seats of the state under tight security," the official told IANS here. The constituencies where polling is underway are Udupi-Chikmagalur, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga (SC), Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajnagar (SC), Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikkaballapur and Kolar (SC). Of the 2.67-crore electorate in the first phase, 1.35-crore male and 1.32-crore female voters will decide the fate of 241 candidates, including 15 women and 133 Independents. In all, 52,112 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are in use with 36,196 controlling units and 37,705 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPATs) that allows voters to verify that their vote is cast correctly. "Over 1.54-lakh personnel are on duty in all the polling stations across the 14 seats with 38,597 police personnel providing security to ensure free and fair polling," said the official. Of the total booths, 16 per cent or 4,826 of them are considered critical in Bangalore Rural, Hassan, Mandya and Tumkur, additional police have been deployed to maintain and law and order for peaceful voting. "Five companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have also been deployed in sensitive and hyper-sensitive booths across the region," the official added. Among the constituencies, Bangalore North has the highest number of 31 candidates, followed by 25 in Bangalore South and 22 each in Bangalore Central, Mandya and Mysore. Lowest number of candidates is six in Hassan, followed by 10 in Chamarajnagar, 12 in Udupi-Chikmagalur and 13 in Dakshina Kannada. Key constituencies in the first phase are all the three seats in Bangalore, Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur. Unlike in the past elections, the main parties - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress is locked in straight contests in this election, as the latter has entered into a pre-poll tie-up with the ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to field joint candidates as part of their seat-sharing arrangements. Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Congress is in fray 21 and seven by JD-S. Of the 14 seats in the first phase, Congress is in fray from 10 and JD-S from four seats. Polling in the remaining 14 parliamentary seats in the western and northern regions of the state will be held on April 23. Vote count for all the 28 seats will be on May 23. Pyongyang, April 18 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has supervised the test-firing of a new tactical guided weapon, calling its development an "event of very weighty significance" in beefing up its military power, state media reported on Thursday. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the test took place on Wednesday but did not specify what the newly developed weapon was, reports Yonhap News Agency. It was the first time since November 2018 that the North's leader oversaw a weapons testing, and the visit to the testing centre came a day after he visited an air force unit. "The development and completion of this weapons system will be a great historic event in strengthening the combat capability of the People's Army," the KCNA quoted Kim as saying. "I was often completely moved in admiration at the time of strategic weapons development but seeing this it seems our scientists, engineers and the labour class is truly great. If they are willing then no weapon is beyond creation." The report said the North Korean leader "climbed the observation post to observe the new tactical guided weapons firing test plan and gave directions". Kim also set the "phased and strategic goals" for maintaining the country's munitions production, putting national defence science and technology on a "cutting edge level", and ordering "detailed tasks and ways to attain them". Meanwhile, no missile launch was detected by US Northern Command and Strategic Command, according to US Department of Defence officials. Experts have said that the new weapon could be a newly developed short-range guided or cruise missile. They also said that Kim's attendance at the test-firing could be aimed at sending a warning message to the US without becoming overly provocative. The test-firing came after Kim suggested a year-end deadline for denuclearization negotiations following the breakdown of his February summit with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam. February's summit fell apart as the two leaders failed to find common ground over how to match Pyongyang's denuclearization steps with Washington's sanctions relief. Patna, April 18 : Voting was on amid tight security on Thursday in five of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in the second of seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. More than 85 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 68 candidates in the fray in this round. According to officials, more than 50,000 security personnel have been deployed in the second round of polling in Bhagalpur, Banka, Katihar, Kishanganj and Purnea constituencies. Three helicopters have been requisitioned to provide air cover to security forces. "It is a slow start but polling will pick up in the next three hours," one official said. Prominent candidates in the fray are Congress leader Tarique Anwar from Katihar, RJD leader Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav from Banka and Bulo Mandal from Bhagalpur. There were reports of problems in electronic voting machines (EVMs) machines in Purnea, Katihar and Banka. Paris, April 18 : Prosecutors investigating the causes of the inferno that ripped through the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris have questioned construction workers and security staff, as more details have emerged about the effort to contain the blaze, the media reported. Ten people were interviewed by criminal investigators on Wednesday, the Paris Prosecutor's Office said, adding that interviews would continue on Thursday, CNN reported. "Tomorrow new witnesses will be heard as well as people already interviewed for further information," the prosecutor's office said. Following the disaster on Monday evening that destroyed the Cathedral's spectacular Gothic spire and its wooden roof structure which dated back to the 13th century, the office had said 30 employees at the Paris landmark had been questioned. It also said that in addition to interviews, forensics teams and the central laboratory for the police department had been able to access some areas of the site and begin inspections. Officials are continuing to pursue the theory that the cause of the fire was accidental but have not ruled out other scenarios at this stage. "While the prosecutor's office does not rule out any hypothesis, we remind that at this stage, nothing in the investigations highlights a criminal origin. Accidental causes remain our privileged lead," the office added. The Paris fire service, meanwhile, said the nine-hour battle to save the building was one of the most complex it had ever undertaken. At one point, it was feared that the entire structure might be lost. "If the flames had actually got to the timber frames of the belfries then we would have lost the cathedral completely because it would have led to a chain reaction of collapse," said Gabriel Plus, a spokesman for the fire service. Philippe Demay, deputy chief of the Paris Fire Brigade, told the media on Wednesday that the operation to put out the flames was "complex", and the "most complicated" he had ever encountered, CNN reported. On Wednesday evening, cathedrals across France rang their bells in honour of Notre Dame, marking two days since the fire. Bells tolled at 6.50 p.m. across the country acknowledging what the French Bishops Conference described as "a shock that affects far beyond just the Catholics of our country". As the scale of the damage became clear, investigators said they were determined to get to the bottom of how the blaze started. "Investigations continue to search for the truth and identify the origins and causes of the fire," the prosecutor's office added. New Delhi, April 18 : Hours after denying a lifeline to Jet Airways which suspended its operations for want of cash, the airline's lenders led by the State Bank of India on Thursday said they are "reasonably hopeful" that the stake sale process would succeed and determine a fair value of the enterprise. "Lenders are reasonably hopeful that the bid process is likely to be successful in determining the fair value of the enterprise in a transparent manner." a statement said. The official statement said the lenders after due deliberations decided that the best way forward for the survival of Jet Airways was to get the binding bids from potential investors who have shown expression of interest (EOI) and have been issued bid documents on April 16. Late on Wednesday night, Jet Airways in a regulatory filing to BSE had announced temporary suspension of its domestic and international operations. The decision was taken by the airline as no emergency funding came from its lenders. "Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel and other critical services to keep the operations going. Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights," the airline said in its filing. Over the last few weeks, the crisis-hit airline tried to secure interim funding to keep the business going but its request did not find favour from its lenders. Unable to meet expenses, the airline gradually scaled down its operations and was flying just 6-7 aircraft from the peak of 119 a few months back. It finally shuttered down on Wednesday night, leaving its over 16,000 employees in the lurch. Saddled with debt and losses, the airline is unlikely to come back on its feet any time soon. The airline's total liabilities are said to be about Rs 20,000 crore which includes Rs 8,400 crore owed to banks. Islamabad, April 18 : The process for the release of Pakistani prisoners from jails in Saudi Arabia was underway, Islamabad's Ambassador to Riyadh Raja Ali Ejaz has said. "The Saudi Crown Prince's announcement on release of Pakistanis from Saudi jails is under process and in the holy month of Ramazan, we expect some good news regarding this announcement," an official statement said on Saturday quoting the Ambassador. "Discussion on the transfer of prisoners agreement is in process and once the agreement is signed, the prisoners will be able to complete their sentences in their respective countries," Ejaz added. He visit of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to Pakistan in February as "a major success", that started a new era of relations between the two countries. The Crown Prince had issued the order to release Pakistani prisoners a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan made a "special request" to him to look into the hardships of Pakistani labourers working in the Kingdom, and to "look upon them as your own people". Mumbai, April 18 : Around seven per cent of the electorate had voted for the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies till 9 a.m., officials said. The highest turnout was in Parbhani (9.30 per cent) and the lowest (6.40 per cent) was in Amravati. The voting percentage, described as 'dull' by political activists, was attributed mainly to scorching temperatures in many constituencies. The anticipated long queues of voters were missing in many polling stations though local candidates and political activists appealed to the electorate to come out and vote in large numbers. The constituencies where polling is on are: Buldhana, Akola, Amravati (SC), Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur (SC) and Solapur (SC). Today's polling was lower than the average 10 per cent notched in the first two hours of polling for seven constituencies which voted in the Phase I on April 11. Mumbai, April 18 : National Award winning actor Rajkummar Rao has praised his girlfriend and actress Patralekhaa. He says the "Citylight" actress makes him proud. Rajkummar on Wednesday night shared a poster of Patralekhaa's next film titled "Badnaam Gali" along with a poster of his forthcoming film "Mental Hai Kya". In the image, Patralekhaa can be seen with a blooming baby bump and actor Divyendu Sharma in a shocked expression. Cheering for the actress, Rajkummar captioned: "It doesn't happen quite often that both our posters come out on the same day. You wonder girl Patralekhaa. You make me proud." The Zee 5 original film "Badnaam Gali" is set to release on May 10. Rajkummar's "Mental Hai Kya", however, has been postponed to June for release. Directed by Prakash Kovelamudi, it will release on June 21. Lucknow, April 18 : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has alleged that the Election Commission was turning a blind eye to "blatant violation of the model code of conduct" by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In a statement, Mayawati said that Adityanath was visiting temples and eating food in the houses of Dalits during the period he was banned from campaigning. "The Chief Minister's activities are being widely published in the media which amounts to campaigning. Why is the Election Commission so generous towards him?" she asked. She accused the poll panel of wrongly favouring BJP leaders. "It is impossible to have free and fair elections if the EC continues to turn a blind eye to the activities of BJP leaders," she said. Mayawati alleged that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed nervous and the real reason for this was the party's anti-Dalit and anti-Muslim deeds. Chennai, April 18 : Nearly 31 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in Tamil Nadu's 38 Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly constituencies on Thursday and polling is continuing at a brisk rate, an Election Commission (EC) official said. In the first three hours till 11 a.m., 30.62 per cent voting was recorded, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told the media here. He said voters who do not have the booth slips can cast their ballots by showing any one of the permitted identity papers. Sahoo said there were reports of technical glitches involving EVMs in some centres, but the issues were sorted out. About 5.8 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 822 candidates in the Lok Sabha battle. Polling started at 7 a.m. and would continue till 6 p.m. Notable political personalities including Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, DMK President M.K. Stalin, actor-politician Rajinikanth, DMDK leader Vijayakanth, PMK's S. Ramadoss and Anbumani Ramadoss, Congress' P. Chidambaram, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararjan, Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan and DMK leaders Kanimozhi as well as Duraimurugan voted. Actors like Ajith, Vijay, Surya and others too voted. Lucknow, April 18 : Poonam Sinha, wife of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, on Thursday filed her nomination as a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Lucknow against Union Minister and BJP leader Rajnath Singh. After filing her nomination papers, she held a road show in which hundreds of SP workers participated raising slogans against the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state. Poonam Sinha joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday in the presence of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav. Considered a BJP stronghold, the party has not lost a single election in Lucknow since 1991. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee represented the constituency from 1991 to 2004. After Vajpayee retired from active politics, BJP's Lalji Tandon won the high profile seat in 2009. Rajnath Singh retained Lucknow for the party in 2014 by defeating Congress leader Rita Bahugna Joshi with a huge margin. Joshi later switched sides ahead of the Assembly elections in the state and joined the BJP. The seven-phase Lok Sabha is scheduled from April 11 to May 19. Counting votes will take place on May 23. New Delhi: Jet Airways employees stage a demonstration to press for their various demands on April 18, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News New Delhi: The employees of debt-ridden Jet Airways stage a demonstration to press for their various demands in New Delhi, on April 18, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, April 18 : India's civil aviation regulator has asked Jet Airways to submit a "concrete and credible revival plan" to restart operations suspended by the debt-laden airline. "DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) would endeavour to do its best to help the company revive its operations within the set regulatory framework," the regulator said in a statement on Thursday. The development comes a day after Jet Airways announced the temporary suspension of all its flight services from Wednesday night as it failed to secure interim funding for maintaining even bare minimum operations. Late Wednesday evening, the Civil Aviation Ministry tweeted that: "DGCA and other regulators are monitoring the situation carefully to ensure that all existing rules regarding refunds, cancellations, and alternate bookings are followed strictly". "Our overriding priority remains the safety, convenience, and affordability of our aviation system. We are assisting airlines and airports to bring in capacity rapidly to ensure that fares remain stable and competitive," the DGCA said in another tweet. The Civil Aviation Secretary will convene a meeting with airports and airlines on Thursday to coordinate and address any emerging issues on capacity, slots and passenger convenience arising out of Jet suspending operations. On its part, Jet said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that the state-run State Bank of India (SBI) told the airline that its consortium of lenders are unable to consider the private carrier's request for critical interim funding. "Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going," the filing said. "Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. The last flight will operate today (Wednesday)." Hyderabad, April 18 : In a bid to speed up the development of drones in India, Japan-based Terra Drone Corporation, Terra Drone India and the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, on Thursday announced that they have signed a pact to establish a first-of-its-kind Centre of Excellence for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in India. According to the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the centre will be set up at IIT Hyderabad. "We are creating a unique educational ecosystem that combines interactive learning with cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration and entrepreneurship," said Dr UB Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad. "We are excited about developing drone-based solutions for domains like 5G communication, agriculture, transportation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), said Desai. With its presence in six continents and more than 20 countries, Terra Drone Corporation is one of the world's largest providers of industrial drone solutions. The company is at the forefront of several innovations in the aviation industry, including promoting the application of AI technologies in drones and providing advisory services to the ongoing 'flying car' project in Japan. "As the world's fastest-growing major economy, the potential for commercial drone market in India is huge," noted Toru Tokushige, CEO, Terra Drone Corporation. Part of the Terra Drone Group, Terra Drone India offers a complete sales-service-support module for the drone ecosystem in India. "The UAV ecosystem in India is rapidly evolving and drones are set to become an integral part of future working environments in several industries," said Prateek Srivastava, CEO, Terra Drone India. Terra Drone will support IIT Hyderabad to organise workshops, seminars, lectures and joint projects that leverage cutting-edge unmanned technologies and drone LiDAR systems. Terra Drone India would also offer internship programmes to talented students and prepare them for the real-world technology applications. Kishanganj: People stand in queue to cast vote during the second phase of Lok Sabha polls, in Bihar's Kishanganj, on April 18, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News Kishanganj: Women shows their forefinger marked with indelible ink after casting vote during the second phase of Lok Sabha polls, in Bihar's Kishanganj, on April 18, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News Patna, April 18 : Over 32.5 per cent turnout was recorded in five of the 40 Lok Sabha seats voting in the second phase in Bihar till 1 p.m. on Thursday. Voting was on amid tight security in Banka, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar, officials said. "The voting has been peaceful so far and there are no reports of violence, except some clashes between supporters of rival parties," said a senior official at the Police Headquarters here. There were also reports of problems in electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Purnea, Katihar and Banka. According to officials, more than 50,000 security personnel and three helicopters have been deployed for the second round of polling. More than 85 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 68 candidates in this round. "Braving scorching heat, people came out in large numbers to cast their votes since morning. Long queue of voters were seen at polling booths," an official said. However, in more than a dozen villages in the five constituencies boycotted the elections for lack of development including roads, school and health centres. Prominent candidates in the fray are Congress leader Tarique Anwar from Katihar, RJD leaders Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav from Banka and Bulo Mandal from Bhagalpur. Jaipur, April 18 : A retired IAS officer, who adopted Islam three years back while serving as Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) in the Rajasthan government, has again introduced himself as a Hindu while filing his nomination papers as the BSP candidate for the Jaipur Parliamentary seat. On December 31, 2015, the then Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Umrav Salodiya triggered a controversy by converting to Islam in protest against not being promoted as Chief Secretary of the state. He also took a new name - Umraav Khan. Alleging bias against him on caste grounds since he belongs to the Dalit community, the officer also quit government service six months before he was due to retire. However, this retired officer has again introduced himself as a Hindu when he filed his nomination papers here on Tuesday. Speaking to the media on Wednesday, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate explained this contradiction, saying "I could not get permission from the Central government to issue the gazette notification for a name change and hence have to submit my earlier name." "I have written to the concerned officials but could not get any answer from them," he added. He also asserted that he remains firm on his conversion and considers himself a follower of Islam. "I am contesting the elections to ensure that Dalits get their due rights. Looking at my seniority, I should have been appointed as the Chief Secretary of the state which was not done," he added. Sultanpur, April 18 : Union Minister and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi on Thursday filed her nomination from the Sultanpur parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh and said she does not want to criticise the Election Commission for banning her from campaigning. She also held a five-km long road show. Maneka Gandhi is a Member of Parliament from the Pilibhit constituency. Sultanpur is represented by her son Varun Gandhi at present. The BJP has swapped their seats this time. Maneka Gandhi told the media: "I will go among the people and ask them to vote for the party." Asked how she spent 48 hours, when she was banned by the EC from campaigning, she said: "I don't want to criticise the Election Commission. I got the time for writing columns and spend some time for my hospital." On Monday, the EC banned Maneka Gandhi for campaigning for 48 hours. Polling in Sultanpur will be held on May 12. Wellington, April 18 : New Zealand's former top attache in the US was found guilty on Thursday of planting a hidden camera in a bathroom at the country's embassy in Washington. Alfred Keating, 59, has been on trial in Auckland District Court this month and faces up to 18 months in prison for attempting to make an intimate visual recording, the New Zealand Herald reported. The jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict after four and a half hours of deliberations. Keating will be sentenced on June 25. He was New Zealand's top Defence Force official when a covert camera was found in the embassy in Washington on July 27, 2017. Because he was a foreign official, New Zealand was responsible for Keating's trial, despite the crime taking place in the US. The Auckland District Court earlier heard that the camera had been hidden in a heating duct and was found by an embassy worker when it fell onto the floor. The man initially thought it was a memory drive, but then noticed a tiny camera lens and the brand of the camera, BrickHouse Security. Keating's DNA matched traces found on the SD card in the camera, which appeared to have been in place for many months. A homemade mount was also found taped under the radiator, covered in a layer of dust. Investigations of his laptop showed he had accessed the website of BrickHouse Security, a company which sells hidden video cameras. The camera was sent back to New Zealand for investigation by the police, who found over 700 deleted files and 20 existing files on the memory card. They found 19 images of people using the bathroom over a period of five hours. Keating had pleaded not guilty to the charges. He also sought to have his name suppressed, arguing that revealing his identity would cause his family "extreme hardship". The request was dismissed. Lisbon, April 18 : At least 28 people were killed and another 28 injured when a bus crashed on Portugal's Madeira Island, authorities said. Most of the casualties were German tourists, Carmo Silva, a press officer for the Regional Health Department, told CNN on Wednesday. In total, 56 people were onboard the bus when it crashed, she said. Claudia Veloso, a spokeswoman for Portugal's Interior Minister, confirmed that 28 people had died. "The German Embassy in Lisbon is talking to local authorities and there possibly are German fatalities, but we cannot confirm at this moment," a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson told CNN. According to Silva, the bus was going down a steep road when the driver apparently lost control and it went down a cliff. Madeira is located approximately 1,000 km off the Portuguese mainland. In March 2019, Transparency International Canada released a comprehensive report examining the ways in which Canadas lack of beneficial ownership transparency contributes to money laundering (or snow-washing, as its known up North) within the Toronto real estate market. The report points to serious weaknesses in anti-money laundering policies (AML) in the real estate sector, through which Canadas property registers allow real estate purchases to be made through straw men, including shell companies and nominee buyers. Additionally, large-scale real estate purchases are often made through cash transactions, thereby circumventing scrutiny from lenders. The report found that 35 percent of the properties acquired by corporate entities in the Greater Toronto Area between 2008 and 2018 were paid for through cash transactions; and the overall percentage has been rising: in 2018 nearly half of these purchases were made in cash. As the report points out, the lack of AML policy in the Canadian real estate market makes cities such as Vancouver and Toronto attractive destinations for dirty money. Furthermore, the situation creates perverse incentives for launderers to overstate the value of properties, causing negative effects in already tight real estate markets, and posing serious risks to unknowing partners. The report gives the example of CLJ Everest Ltd, a shell company controlled by disgraced fund manager and alleged fraudster Clayton Smith. Reportedly, CLJ Everest acquired a sprawling CAD 2.7 million ($2 million) dollar estate in a Toronto suburb with misappropriated investor funds in January 2015. Reportedly, the property was later sold by court appointed receivers in 2018 for a substantial loss. Second Act. On March 29, 2019, The National Law Review blog posted part two of an analysis on a trio of bills proposed by the House Financial Services Committee to reform and modernize the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money-Laundering law, and Combating the Financing of Terrorism law. The post focused on the proposed bill for the Corporate Transparency Act of 2019. The Act, which was previously introduced in 2017 with bipartisan support, would reportedly amend the BSA to compel the Secretary of Treasury to set minimum standards for state incorporation practices such that all US states would be required to collect beneficial ownership information from LLCs and corporations and report this information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Reportedly, the goal of the proposed Act is to bolster the beneficial ownership identification requirements to prevent the use of shell companies for various illicit reasons, including facilitating tax and money laundering schemes as seen in the Panama Papers scandal. On March 13, 2019, The Real Deal reported on Congresswoman Carolyn Maloneys decision to reintroduce the Corporate Transparency Act, which she also championed in its 2017 form. Maloney stated that the Act is meant to empower law enforcement in the investigation of financial crimes: Law enforcement tells me that whenever theyre following the money in an investigation, they always hit a dead end at an anonymous shell company. The article noted that this bill follows other regulations designed to reduce anonymous activity in the real estate sector. For example, in November 2018, the Treasury Department expanded the Geographic Targeting Order, which requires that LLCs provide the identities of buyers who spend $300,000 or more in 12 major real estate markets, including the New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco metro areas. Rotten Onion. While the abovementioned study by TI Canada and the proposed Corporate Transparency Act address the use of shell companies in hiding the ownership of assets, a recent court filing out of Texas highlights one way in which shell companies can be used to obscure a lack of assets. On March 28, 2019, The Houston Chronicle reported that a federal jury in Houston awarded $15 million to SED Holdings, who purchased a pool of nonperforming residential mortgage loans five years ago from a shell company that didnt actually own the loans. As described in the complaint, which was initially filed in a Durham, NC Superior Court, the Defendant, 3 Star Properties LLC, sold over 1,000 non-performing mortgage loans to the Plaintiff, SED Holdings LLC. During negotiations, 3 Star represented itself as the owner of the loans, which it characterized as in good shape and consistent with appropriate industry standards. The deal required that SED Holdings use the Defendants TMPS LLC and Mark Hyland as the loan servicer and document custodian for processing the loans in question. As stated in the complaint, following the completion of the deal, SED came to discover that the loan files were in horrible shape: many of them were missing critical paperwork, many of them were basically empty, and for many of them being offered, there were no loan files whatsoever or the notes had actually been released before the sale to SED. Furthermore, many of the loans sold to SED by 3 Star were actually owned by TMPS and Hyland. According to the Houston Chronicle, the jury found that 3 Star was serving as a pass-through entity to flip the assets for cash, concealing the true owners. In a press release following the verdict, SEDs trial attorney, Jared Levinthal, described the discovery of the scheme as like peeling back layers of a rotten onion. * * * As seen in the above media reports, shell companies can pose a number of problems for prospective investors or partner companies, as opaque ownership structures obscure the true nature of the parties and assets in question. While policy changes may be on the horizon, for now, companies must protect themselves when interacting with unnamed owners. Due diligence regarding beneficial ownership can assist in overcoming these issues in a number of ways. First, a robust compliance program will often include a questionnaire in which the prospective partner company is asked to supply the names of its beneficial owners. A comprehensive due diligence review can fill in the details regarding these reported beneficial owners, their other business affiliations, possible government or political affiliations, and any unseemly derogatory information in their pasts, providing valuable context for a business engagement. Even when due diligence is unable to determine a beneficial owner, the investigation may reveal some noteworthy features of the company in question. A comprehensive compliance review of an entity whose ownership is unknown should seek to address the following questions: Does the company appear to function as a part of a larger group of companies? If so, does this group of companies appear to rely on a scaffolding of various shell organizations for the majority of its deals? Is there any media information regarding the groups other business relationships or investments? What is the overall reputation of the group? Who is the purported management of the shell company? Do these managers have any other noteworthy business affiliations? Does a legal, regulatory, and media review of the managers suggest any compliance issues or other risk factors? The answers to these questions can go a long way in assessing the risks in dealing with black-box shell entities. _____ Lauren Caryer, pictured above, is an investigator for the Kreller Group. She conducts domestic and international due diligence with an emphasis on high-risk industries and received a PhD in Philosophy from Emory University in 2016. She can be contacted here. Washington, April 18 : An Indian-American political action committee (PAC) has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris of Indian and Jamaican descent for the US presidential race. "In such a critically important election, one that will shape policy and politics for generations to come, Indian Americans can't afford to stay on the sidelines," the Indian American Impact Fund's co-founder Raj Goyle said in a statement on Wednesday. Goyle, also a former Kansas state lawmaker, said it was for that reason that the organisation chose to be "the first Indian-American or Asian-American political organisation to endorse" Harris, whose mother was from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, reports the American Bazaar. "In the coming months, we look forward to mobilising our network of resources to ensure Senator Harris secures the Democratic nomination and is elected the next President of the US," Goyle said. Harris thanked the Impact Fund for the endorsement. "This endorsement and the support of the Indian American Impact Fund and its members means so much to me," she said in a statement on Wednesday. "Together, we will fight for an America that restores the values of truth and justice and works for working people, from raising incomes to expanding health care." The Impact Fund Executive Director and former Maryland state delegate Aruna Miller said her group was "proud to endorse" Harris. "She is a tested leader who has demonstrated, throughout her career, a strong commitment to our community's progressive and pluralistic values," Miller said. Harris, one of the first Democrats to launch the presidential campaign in this election cycle, is also one of the front-runners at the moment. If elected, she will become the first woman, the first Indian American, the first Asian American, and the first African American woman to serve as President. Pyongyang, April 18 : North Korea on Thursday called on the US to replace Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as head of its team negotiating for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, state-media said. North Korean Foreign Ministry official Kwon Jong-gun said in the event that bilateral talks resume, Pyongyang would like Pompeo to be replaced with a "more careful and mature" negotiator, Efe news quoted the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying. He said talks could become complicated if Pompeo was involved in the discussions, adding whenever the US Secretary of State "pokes his nose talks between the two countries go wrong, without any results". Kwon also said relations between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un were good, and Kim was pleased about that fact. Pyongyang's request came the same day that KCNA announced that Kim had overseen the testing of a new tactical guided weapon -- a short-range weapon designed for battlefield in combat scenarios. Experts believe the weapon could be a cruise missile, the use of which has not been banned by the UN resolutions against North Korea. The failure to reach an agreement at the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi in February revolved around the number of North Korean nuclear assets to be dismantled against the volume of sanctions that the US would alleviate as a corresponding measure. Washington wanted the North Korea to dismantle its missiles and chemical and biological weapons programmes before granting concessions, while Pyongyang called for the lifting of much of the sanctions in exchange for dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear facility, which the US considered insufficient. Since then, Washington and Pyongyang have been firm on their respective positions, although each have expressed willingness to keep the dialog open to work out their differences gradually, including a possibility of organising another Trump-Kim summit. Hyderabad, April 18 : Happi Mobiles, a leading multi-brand mobile retail chain, plans to open 150-200 new stores in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh during the current financial year and is also looking at expanding its footprint to western parts of the country. With 50 stores in both the Telugu states in the first year of operations, Happi has become one of the fastest growing mobile retail chains. Krishna Pavan, Chairman and Managing Director, Happi Mobiles, told the media on Thursday that they had set a target of Rs 500 crore turnover during 2019-20 against Rs 250 crore clocked during the previous fiscal. He said after January 2020, the company plans to open stores in Maharashtra. Happi Mobiles aims to capture 8-10 per cent of the mobile market share in the two Telugu states. The total market size is estimated to be Rs 8,200 crore, of which Rs 7,000 crore is offline market. Kota Santosh, Executive Director, Happi Mobiles, said they created record of sorts by opening 22 stores in Hyderabad in a single day on June 8, 2018. With 50 stores, 35 of them in Telangana, the retail chain has 5 lakh customers and it is selling a mobile phone every minute. The company, who signed leading Telugu actor Ram Charan as its brand ambassador, is investing Rs 40 lakh to Rs 50 lakh in each store. Pavan said they a mix of equity by the promoters and debt from banks would fund the expansion. With 600 employees, Happi Mobiles sells mobile phones of 12-13 top brands. It also plans to sell LED TVs, vacuum cleaners, CCTV cameras and other lifestyle products at its stores. He said they could register high growth because of their attractive offers like 40 per cent savings on Paytm, price drop protection, one time screen replacement, two year warranty, exchange offers, EMI options and branded gifts. New Delhi, April 18 : Millions voted across 95 Lok Sabha seats in 12 states and Puducherry on Thursday in the second phase of the staggered battle for a new Parliament, marred by stray violence in West Bengal and muted polling in Srinagar. CPI-M MP and candidate Mohd Salim was attacked allegedly by Trinamool Congress activists in Raiganj constituency where he is seeking re-election when he went to a polling booth to check reports of vote rigging, officials said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also accused the Trinamool Congress of unleashing violence on its opponents, a charge denied by the ruling party in West Bengal. A total of 15.7 crore electorate can pick 95 Lok Sabha members out of 1,606 contestants on Thursday. Stone pelters targeted a polling station in Srinagar city, injuring a policeman. Most Srinagar polling booths reported sparse polling following a call from separatists to boycott the nationwide seven-phase polls that will end on May 19 and whose outcome will be known on May 23. Polling in all other places was reportedly peaceful although complaints of glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs) came from several states, briefly halting the electoral process. Unfazed by the summer heat and dust, voters turned out in large numbers in Karnataka. There was nearly 40 per cent polling between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. spread across 14 parliamentary constituencies, the main fight between the ruling Congress-JD-S alliance and the BJP. Polling was also brisk in Tamil Nadu where people will be electing 38 of 39 Lok Sabha members -- voting in Vellore has been postponed -- and 18 members to the state Assembly. Tamil Nadu, where the main contest is between the coalitions led by the AIADMK and the DMK, too reported nearly 40 per cent voting till 1 p.m. Puducherry voted for its lone Lok Sabha seat. After initial dull moments, the voting picked up dramatically in Odisha, which is electing five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly members. The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said it was confident of retaining power but the BJP said it was looking forward to a victory. In Bihar, 32 per cent voting was reported till 1 p.m. in five of 40 Lok Sabha seats. But people in about a dozen villages in all five constituencies boycotted the elections to protest against lack of development. Uttar Pradesh's voting percentage was racing towards 40 per cent in all eight constituencies: Mathura, Hathras, Amroha, Agra, Fatehpur-Sikri, Aligarh, Nagina, Bulandshahr. While brisk voting was reported in the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, with over 32 per cent polling in just five hours, polling in Srinagar was muted. A police constable was injured in stone pelting by youths trying to disrupt the election in Chrar-e-Sharief in Badgam district, which falls in the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Despite several incidents of violence including an attack on CPI-M's Salim and the smashing of an EVM, Bengal registered over 51 per cent polling in the three northern constituencies of Jalpaiguri, Raiganj and Darjeeling. After a dull start, voting zoomed in Maharashtra which will elect 10 of the 48 Lok Sabha members on Thursday. Voting also took place on Thursday in Chhattisgarh and Manipur. Washington, April 18 : Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said the company was making "steady progress" toward certification of a software update for the 737 MAX aircraft, grounded worldwide following two crashes within five months. "We're making steady progress on the path to certification for our 737 MAX software update, thanks to the work of our Boeing pilots, engineers and technical experts," Muilenburg said in a video posted on Twitter on Wednesday. In the video, where he is standing in front of a 737 MAX plane at Boeing Field in Seattle, the CEO said the company carried out flight test of the updated software with its technical and engineering leaders on board the airplane on Tuesday. "That was the final test flight prior to the certification flight," he said. Boeing's test pilots, he said had conducted 120 flights, amounting to 203 hours of airtime, with the anti-stall software fix for the Manoeuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Muilenburg also said he participated earlier on Wednesday in another demonstration flight and witnessed this software's operating in its final form as designed across a range of flight conditions. "Around the world more than 85 per cent of our 50-plus MAX customers and operators have now experienced the new software through a series of simulator sessions," said the Boeing CEO. Boeing is working desperately on the software update of MCAS of 737 MAX aircraft, one of which crashed in October 2018 and other in March this year, killing 346 people on board. Investigators have zeroed in on the MCAS flight control system as a possible factor behind the two tragedies. Many countries, including the US, grounded the aircraft after the March crash. Chennai, April 18 : Polling in the 38 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu crossed the half way mark on Thursday with 52.02 per cent of the total 5.8 voters casting their vote. Speaking to reporters here, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said 52.02 per cent of the eligible voters had voted by 3 p.m. In 2014, polling of about 73 per cent was registered. Sahoo said 55.97 per cent polling was recorded in the 18 Assembly seats where by-elections were being held. He said a total of 384 faulty electronic voting machines and 692 faulty Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced across the state. Polling was smooth and there were no reports of voting being stalled due to faulty machines, he said. He said voters who do not have the booth slips could vote showing any one of the permitted identity papers. About 5.8 crore voters will decide the fate of 822 candidates in the Lok Sabha battle in the state. Polling started at 7 a.m. and would continue till 6 p.m. Among the early voters were Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, DMK President M.K. Stalin, actor-politician Rajinikanth, DMDK leader Vijayakanth, PMK's S. Ramadoss and Anbumani Ramadoss, Congress' P. Chidambaram, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararjan, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan and DMK leader Kanimozhi as well as actors Ajith, Vijay and Surya. New Delhi, April 18 : The Indian government on Thursday asked one more Bangladeshi actor, Ghazi Abdul Noor, who was seen at a Trinamool Congress rally in West Bengal earlier this week, after it was found that his visa has expired. "One more Bangladeshi actor, Ghazi Abdul Noor, who attended a political rally in Dumdum, West Bengal, has been asked to leave India. In any case his visa had expired," said an official of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The MHA added that appropriate action was also being taken with regard to Noor's overstay in contravention of visa validity norms. On Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moved the Election Commission (EC) seeking strong action against Noor for allegedly campaigning for Saugata Roy, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency. The government had on Tuesday cancelled the visa of Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed after he campaigned for Kanhaiyalal Agarwal, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Raiganj in West Bengal. The government also asked Ferdous to leave the country besides blacklisting him, an MHA statement said. Jaipur, April 18 : The members of Rajput community staged a dharna in front of Sikar District Collector (DC)'s residence in Rajasthan on Thursday to protest against the abduction of a bride by armed men in the small hours of Wednesday. At the call of BSP MLA Udaipurwati Rajendra Guda, thousands of people gathered in front of the District Collector's residence. Bansidhar, a police officer at Dhodh Police Station in Sikar, said: "Four accused in the case have been arrested and police teams are on the lookout for the main accused Ankit Sevada and the bride. Sevada was bride's neighbour." The police have dispatched our teams to Jaipur and Ghaziabad to trace the accused, he added. Earlier, MLA Guda also attempted a self-immolation at the office of the Superintendent of Police in presence of several protesters by pouring kerosene to protest delay in the arrest of accused. However, he was stopped by other protesters. Two sisters Sonu Kanwar and Hansa Kunar, after their wedding were going to their in-laws' place when they were stopped by armed men who gheraoed their vehicle, smashed the window panes of the car, whipped out a pistol and abducted Hansa near Mordunga village in Sikar district. Although the police have registered a case and investigating the abduction, the Rajput community is quite anguished as there has been no trace of the missing bride even after passage of 40 hours of the incident. Meanwhile, around 200 people were seen protesting at District Collector C.R. Meena's residence until filing of this report. Chennai, April 18 : The DMK on Thursday complained to the Election Commission that the ruling AIADMK and its allies planned to capture polling booths in Tamil Nadu. In a complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer and the Director General of Police (Elections), the DMK said it had received information about the plans of the AIADMK and its allies. The DMK said the AIAMDK was not able to tolerate the large crowds thronging the meetings of the DMK and its allies. Mumbai, April 18 : Sensex and Nifty ended lower on Thursday after advancing for four consecutive sessions as investors took to profit booking. Investors also treaded with caution ahead of Q4 results from index heavyweight Reliance Industries. Jet Airways was in the spotlight throughout the day over its steep fall. Jet's scrip closed 32 per cent lower on the BSE, 32.23 per cent lower at Rs 163.90 apiece after it fell up to Rs 158.10 after "temporary suspension of domestic and international operations" over the refusal of lenders to provide emergency funding. "Negative Asian markets impacted the market sentiments as Japanese manufacturing activity contracted at a slightly slower pace in April thanks to a pick-up in hiring, a flash PMI survey showed, but new export orders fell at the fastest pace in almost three years in a sign slow global demand remains a major pressure point," said Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities. The BSE Sensex closed 135 points or 0.34 per cent lower at 39,140.28 and the broader Nifty settled 34.35 points lower or 0.29 per cent to 11,752.80. "Investors turned cautious ahead of announcement of results from key index heavyweights including large corporate banks. Consolidation was broad-based with PSU banks and metals underperforming," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services. "Despite mixed flows from DIIs, the downside was capped by positive flows from FIIs given a good start to Q4 results." "The accelerating scenario of a slowdown in global growth as also the definitive prospects of higher fuel prices and a weaker currency may also be working on the minds of the market participants at this juncture," said Joseph Thomas-Head Research, Emkay Wealth Management. The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries followed by Tata Motors, Tata Motors (DVR), Asian Paints and TCS. The laggards were Yes Bank declining over 4 per cent followed by Vedanta, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel and Larsen and Toubro. New Delhi, April 18 : Astrology has come in the way of preventing closure on a missing person's case in the capital. In a bizarre turn of events, a probe into the disappearance of Air India official Sulakshana Narula, missing since September 2018, cannot be completed because of what is called 'Maha Dosh' in astrological terms. Delhi Crime Branch was handed over the investigation last year, but it cannot find the woman "until her bad phase or 'maha dosh' ends". The personal astrologer of Delhi CB officer Vijay Samaria has said that the 'maha dosh' in his case, too, ends on April 19. Until then, Samaria has refused to probe the case. What makes the case even more intriguing is that Samaria has conveyed to Narula's family that Sulakshana's "bad phase" too "ends" the same day - April 19. Samaria reportedly convinced Sulakshna's son Anubhav to provide him his mother's horoscope which he then showed to his astrologer along with his own. The conclusion was that the woman's horoscope had 'maha dosh' written all over it. The police officer is confident that he will find Sulakashna anytime after April 20 when the stars bear good tidings. The family is flabbergasted at the way things have been handled. Anubhav was even told to visit a Chattarpur temple, where Goddess Baglamukhi rests, to perform an 'upaya' (a way out). Family members say despite an FIR being registered three days after 58-year-old Sulakshana went missing, nothing has happened. In October, the case was handed over to Crime Branch, but the case remains unsolved. Moscow, April 18 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will pay a visit to Russia later this month for his first meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Thursday. Kim will make the visit at Putin's invitation, TASS news agency and other Russian news outlets quoted the Kremlin as announcing in a press release. The report did not give further details, including dates and the venue of the summit between Kim and Putin. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the two leaders would hold their first summit in Russia's Far East city of Vladivostok next week when Putin travels to the Far East on his way to China for an international conference. Japan's Kyodo News, citing unidentified officials sources, reported that Kim plans to make a three-day visit to Russia beginning on Wednesday. Kyodo said that Kim plans to travel by train and hold a summit with Putin on Russky Island off the city of Vladivostok. Russian media reported on the widely expected summit, citing some restrictions being imposed at facilities in the city bordering the North. Japan's Fuji News Network also aired footage of a man presumed to be leader Kim's protocol chief, Kim Chang-son, checking around a train station in the Russian city. If the summit takes place, it will be the first meeting between leaders of the two countries in eight years, after Kim's late father, former leader Kim Jong-Il, met then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2011. New Delhi, April 18 : Technical glitches in electronic voting machines (EVM) marred voting in seven of the 12 states that went to polls in the second phase of the staggered Lok Sabha elections. Faulty EVMs delayed polls in several constituencies in Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. In Odisha, EVM glitches in many booths in Talsara Assembly constituency were reported while polling was delayed in six booths in Bonai Assembly constituency. Odisha saw both Lok Sabha as well as Assembly elections. Booths in Kendudihi, Bolangir and Kandhamal, G.Udayagiri and Baliguda in Odisha were also affected. In Uttar Pradesh, EVMs malfunctioned and disrupted polling in Mathura, Bulandshahr and Amroha. In Fatehpur Sikri, voters created a ruckus at booth no 201 and 54 where polling was on hold for more than 30 minutes due to EVM troubles. There were also reports of snags in the VVPAT (voter-verified paper audit trail)-EVMs in Nanded, Latur and Solapur in Maharashtra which either delayed polling or stopped it midway. Unofficial reports said at least 75 EVMs were replaced with spare ones in polling stations in Nanded alone. Admitting that there were complaints against EVMs in some booths in Karnataka, Joint Chief Electoral Officer A.V. Surya Sen said they were replaced soon. "We have given extra EVMS to all the polling booths to replace any machine having glitches or malfunctioning. Technical officials have been stationed at the booths to replace them at the earliest to avoid voters waiting for their turn," added Sen. In the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu, voters stood in queue in several booths for nearly an hour to vote. Similarly, at a booth in Chennai, there was a technical glitch that delayed voting for about an hour. Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told reporters that 384 faulty EVMs and 692 faulty VVPAT machines were replaced across the state. After that, polling went on smoothly. EVM problems were also reported in Bihar's Purnea, Katihar and Banka seats and in Ramban in the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency in Jammu and Kashmir. Chandigarh, April 18 : An initiative by the Congress party in-charge for Haryana, Ghulam Nabi Azad, backed by a firm message from the high command to the highly factionalised party leadership in Haryana, has brought the warring Congress leaders together - at least for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. With the Congress facing an uphill task of trying to recover lost ground from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the 'unity' of the Congress leaders is being seen as the only hope for the party as all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana go to the polls on May 12. Azad, a former Union Health Minister and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, had his task cut out after he was named the Congress in-charge for Haryana as late as January this year. He took over from another senior Congress leader, Kamal Nath, who is currently the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. With just three months to go for the Lok Sabha polls and less than 10 months for the assembly elections in Haryana, Azad hit the ground running to ensure that the party presented a picture of unity before taking on other political parties. Last month, Azad made all the top leaders from the party come together on a common platform - a bus - for a six-day (March 26-31) whirlwind tour of Haryana called the "Parivartan Yatra". Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who led the state from 2005 till 2014, and is considered the strongest leader in the party with a pan-Haryana appeal, could be seen sharing his seat on the bus journey with Haryana Congress President and former MP Ashok Tanwar. Leaders of others factions in the party - Kiran Chaudhary, Kumari Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Ajay Singh Yadav - were also part of the bus tour. "We have followed the Andhra-Karnataka model in taking all leaders around the state in one bus. The Congress is united in Haryana. We had people waiting eagerly even past midnight. The Yatra got an overwheliming response," Azad said. As a fallout of the Azad initiative, the leaders of the various factions have stopped working as cross-purposes in the run-up to the elections. "We will repeat our earlier performance of winning the Lok Sabha elections. The party leadership is united," Hooda told IANS. One leader missing on the bus tour was former MP Kuldip Bishnoi, the younger son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. Bishnoi, however, had turned up at Congress President Rahul Gandhi's rally in Jagadhri town in Yamunanagar district on March 29, to end speculation about his leaving the Congress fold. Tanwar said that the unity effort by Azad had "energised" the party leadership and the cadre. "He (Azad) has made all the leaders sit in one bus and has energised everyone," Tanwar said. The Congress had won only one seat in the 2014 general elections - Rohtak - through its candidate Deepinder Singh Hooda. With Bhupinder Singh Hooda as Chief Minister during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the party had won nine out of 10 seats in the state. The BJP won seven Lok Sabha seats in 2014, while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) bagged two seats. (Jaideep Sarin can be reached at jaideep.s@ians.in) New Delhi, April 18 : Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company MediaTek on Thursday said it is set to introduce a 5G-enabled chipset in India by the end of this year to step up the competition around faster wireless data connections. "5G is a very big focus area for us. The SoC (system-on-chip) will surely be launched by the end of the year and shipped next year," Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India, told IANS here. The company is busy working on 5G-enabled chipsets. "We came up with the M70 modem last year that provides 5G capabilities and it will be shipped later this year with a SoC which combines the modem and the CPU into one single chip," Jain added. The company, however, did not reveal an exact timeline for the SoC launch. The chipset manufacturer announced its Helio M70 5G modem at the China Mobile Global Partner Conference in Guangzhou early last year. The modem is among the industry's first batch of 5G multi-mode modems with integrated baseband and 5Gbps download speeds. The Taiwanese firm has three facilities in India which focus on R&D. It opened its first R&D-focused centre in Noida in 2004 while the one in Bengaluru was opened in 2014. "Since 5G is a big focus, a lot of our research and development (R&D) efforts are going into 5G development," said Jain. With a headcount of 650 employees across these centres, the India R&D is the company's third biggest in the world. The chipset making major said it was also looking to boost its R&D strength in the country to more than 800 staffers. "India holds an important place as a market and also in terms of the talent pool. We have around 650 people for R&D in India and we look to grow it further," informed Jain. The company has also joined hands with KaiOS Technologies -- the maker of KaiOS mobile operating system (OS) for smart feature phones. The partnership with KaiOS would help MediaTek chips to power 3G and 4G feature devices. As part of this collaboraion, the KaiOS OS would run on the MediaTek 3G MT6572 platform and MediaTek MT6731 -- a newly announced platform that can support dual-4G SIM cards in mobile devices. The first batch of KaiOS-powered MT6572 and MT6731 3G/4G smart feature phones are expected to hit the market in the second quarter of this year. (Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at krishna.s@ians.in) New Delhi, April 18 : Honda Cars India (HCIL) has voluntarily recalled 3,669 units of its premium brand Honda Accord to replace faulty driver side front airbag inflators. An inflator system is used to pump-in gas at a high-speed to inflate airbag in case of an accident. Accordingly, the company will replace the "Takata driver side front airbag inflators" of 3,669 vehicles manufactured between 2003 and 2006 as part of a precautionary global recall campaign. "The replacement will be carried out free of cost at HCIL dealerships across India from 18th April, 2019 and the company will communicate with the customers directly," the company said in a statement. The company further said that Takata airbag inflator recalls have impacted several carmakers globally and that HCIL continued to urge owners of Honda vehicles affected by the recall to get their vehicles repaired by authorised dealers as soon as possible. "HCIL reiterates the importance of replacing the affected Takata front airbag inflators urgently as they may deploy with excessive internal pressure when activated," the statement said. "The airbag inflator casing might rupture, which may result in injury or safety risk to the vehicle occupants," it added. Lucknow, April 18 : Eight Lok Sabha constituencies that went to polls in the second phase of polling on Thursday in Uttar Pradesh recorded an average voter turnout of 62.30 per cent till 6. p.m., according to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). The percentage is expected to increase further since voters were still in queue in many places when the figures last came in. According to CEO L. Venkateshwarlu, the highest polling percentage (68.77) was reported from Amroha whereas Agra recorded the lowest of 59.6 per cent. He said that there was no case for a repoll in any of the constituencies. Polling was held on Thursday in Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Fatehpur Sikri, Nagina, Amroha, Mathura and Agra. Glitches in EVMs were reported from over 150 polling stations and polling had to be stopped for some time till the EVMs were replaced. Two villages in Fatehpur Sikri did not cast their votes in protest against lack of development. Efforts to persuade the voters proved futile. The CEO denied complaints that certain caste groups were prevented from casting their votes. Chennai, April 18 : Curtains came down on polling in 37 of 38 Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly constituencies, where by-elections were held on Thursday, at 6 p.m. As many as 384 faulty electronic voting machines and 692 faulty Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced across the state. Polling will continue in Madurai Lok Sabha seat till 8 p.m. owing to the annual Chithirai festival. While gates of the polling booths were closed at 6 pm, those who were present there for voting will be allowed to exercise the democratic right. Speaking to reporters in the state capital, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said 63.73 per cent of the eligible voters had voted by 5 p.m. In 2014, 73 per cent polling was registered. Sahoo said 67.08 per cent polling was recorded in the 18 Assembly seats where by-elections were being held. Polling was smooth and there were no reports of voting being stalled due to faulty machines, he said, adding 384 faulty electronic voting machines and 692 VVPAT machines were replaced across the state. About 5.8 crore voters will decide the fate of 822 candidates in the Lok Sabha battle in the state. Polling started at 7 a.m. and continued till 6 p.m. Among the early voters were Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, DMK President M.K. Stalin, actor-politician Rajinikanth, DMDK leader Vijayakanth, PMK's S. Ramadoss and Anbumani Ramadoss, Congress' P. Chidambaram, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararjan, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan and DMK leader Kanimozhi as well as actors Ajith, Vijay and Surya. New Delhi, April 18 : The next government at the centre is likely to inherit a rural economy in bad shape as the "informal" sector in many parts of agrarian India is yet to recover from the multiple disruptions over the past several months, a report said on Thursday. The JM Financial report titled Rural Safari, "Still on a bumpy road" has said that even with the possibility of a short burst of growth in discretionary consumption like in two- and four-wheelers after the general election, "a market-led sustained recovery may be more gradual than earlier estimated". "We have already trimmed our estimates for the auto sector and are beginning to see earnings cuts for staples. In our view, a 'pure' rural portfolio could underperform in FY20," the report said. The survey report noted that rural growth is currently weak in 10 out of 13 states visited when compared to September last year. It also highlighted that rural incomes are impacted by subdued realisations and stress on non-farm income. "Slackening of rural demand due to agrarian income challenge is now more widespread vis-a-vis only in western regions earlier. This is largely due to crop prices being deflationary," the report noted. "Stress on non-farm income due to various reasons - ban on sand mining, closure of brick kilns and disruption in NBFCs - further aggravated the situation." Rural income growth in the last fiscal has been adversely impacted by weak agri-pricing as overall crop production has not been disappointing. In terms of agri-related income, the expected rise of 13 per cent year-on-year (YoY) for paddy and 5-53 per cent YoY for other crops in the Kharif season clearly did not materialise, barring few states which have good procurement infrastructure, the report said. "From the income perspective, a clear disappointment has been the steady decline in prices for most food crops, notably the continued downtick in fruits and vegetable prices, particularly in 2HFY19," it said. The survey highlighted a mixed trend in output across states given the lack of rainfall in western India and a weaker North East monsoon (October-December) impacting southern India. On a historical note, the report said that safer crops (wheat, paddy, sugarcane) continue to find favour with farmers and have much lower volatility. On the other hand, there was high volatility in income for farmers growing vegetables and fruits, pulses and cotton, and barring cotton, income declined for a large section of commercial crops in fiscal 2018-19 due to weak pricing levels, it added. Moreover, the difference in output, and hence in income, from irrigated and non-irrigated farms continue to rise given the patchy and erratic rainfall pattern (9.4 per cent below normal in 2018). The prices of associated products such as milk had also been weak in the first half of 2018-19. However, going into 2019-20, there have been reports on abatement of output, prices have stabilised and could see an uptick going ahead aided by government subsidy, the report said. From the income perspective, therefore, agri-income suffered in the last fiscal, and decline was higher for small farmers, while large farmers were still able to get better prices because of their ability to store and also have better market access, it added. Islamabad, April 18 : Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar was removed on Thursday amid a wave of criticism over the government's handling of the financial crisis the country is facing. The change in the Finance Ministry comes at a time when Pakistan is in the middle of negotiating a new relief package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a tweet, Umar said the move was "part of a cabinet reshuffle" and that Prime Minister Imran Khan offered him the energy portfolio. "As part of a cabinet reshuffle, (the) Prime Minister desired that I take the Energy Minister portfolio instead of finance. However, I have obtained his consent to not take any cabinet position." "I strongly believe @ImranKhanPTI is the best hope for Pakistan and Insha Allah will make a Naya Pakistan," he tweeted. There was no immediate statement from Khan's office or confirmation of who would replace Umar and it was not clear how his absence would impact the deal, according to the Express Tribune. Umar has said often that "a deal is coming soon, and that it will be the last one". Following his tweet, Umar addressed a news conference in which he said "it was time to make some difficult decisions to stabilize the economy" and that he hopes his replacement would be supported in his efforts. "This does not mean I am not available to forward PTI's vision for 'Naya Pakistan'. I am and will always be available to forward the interests of the country." Asked whether there had been a conspiracy in the government to remove him, Umar said: "I don't know if there has been a conspiracy or not, but all I know is that my 'captain' wanted to see me in the role of the Energy Minister. I did not think that would be a great idea so I refused. "We have finalized the IMF agreement on much better terms than before. It is the time to take difficult decisions; I have made these decisions, I refused to take the decisions that would have crushed the nation." Defending his performance, he said: "Who says that I have failed in achieving what I wanted to achieve? I had left my job to join the party (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) when we weren't even in the Parliament, let alone in the opposition. Pakistan has gone to the IMF repeatedly since the late 1980s and last received an IMF bailout in 2013 to the tune of $6.6 billion. Earlier this week Hammad Azhar, a state minister for revenue, tweeted that Umar had reached an "agreement in principle" on an IMF deal during a recent trip to Washington, with the agreement to be finalised later this month. The United Arab Emirates had signed with Pakistan a $3 billion support package in January to boost the liquidity and foreign exchange reserves of the cash-strapped country. Islamabad had also secured $6 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia. Alsid, a Paris, France-based Active Directory protection solution provider, raised 13m in Series A funding. The round was led by Idinvest Partners. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the international expansion following France and Hong Kong. Founded in 2016 by Emmanuel Gras and Luc Delsalle, both experts at the ANSSI (NCSC Frances National Cyber Security Center), Alsid provides a solution that detects the appearance or exploitation of vulnerabilities in real-time and then proposes contextualised resolution plans. This system can be deployed either locally or via the Cloud and works without the need for an agent or any particular access privileges and allows Active Directory users to ensure the resistance of their infrastructure against cyber-risks without any specific knowledge of security techniques. The company now protects more than 3 million Active Directory users across the globe. The client portfolio includes Lagardere, Groupe Accor, Orange, Saint-Gobain, Sanofi, Sodexo Unibail-Roadmco, VINCI Energies, and HKBN in Hong Kong. Beginning in 2019, Alsid will be expanding its business to include the United Kingdom, Singapore, the whole of the Middle East, Germany, Northern Europe, and Benelux, and will be actively preparing its entry into the US and Japanese markets, planned for 2020. FinSMEs 18/04/2019 Washington, April 18 : US Attorney General William Barr said on Thursday the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller "found no collusion" between the Donald Trump's campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Addressing a press conference before Mueller's report was made public, Barr said he gave Trump's lawyers advance access this week to the special counsel's report before it was to be sent to the Congress and that the President's lawyers did not ask for any redactions. Trump did not even wait for the report to be released and began lashing out with a barrage of tweets denouncing the investigation. He posted a takeoff of "Game of Thrones" on Twitter that said: "For the Haters and Radical Left Democrats: Game Over." Summarising the report, Barr said Mueller "found no evidence" that any member of the Trump campaign team conspired with Russia in its effort to interfere in the 2016 election, the New York Times reported. "The special counsel found no collusion by any Americans," he said. Barr also defended his decision to clear Trump on obstruction of justice even though Mueller said he was neither charging nor exonerating him on the matter. The Attorney General said the President faced an "unprecedented situation" in the course of Mueller's investigation as well as "relentless speculation" in the media surrounding Trump's own possible culpability in Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Barr also said Mueller's report acknowledged the existence of "substantial evidence" showing Trump was "frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fuelled by illegal leaks". The Justice Department was expected to send the redacted report to Congress at 11 a.m. (local time) on Thursday and later it will be posted on the department's website. Mueller's report analysed 10 episodes in the obstruction inquiry, according to Barr, most of which are said to have been subject to public reporting. Mueller is said to have examined Trump's firing of James Comey as FBI Director as well as the President's desire to remove the special counsel. New Delhi, April 18 : The Chandigarh Consumer Commission recently ordered Bata India Ltd to pay Rs 9,000 in fine for charging Rs 3 from a customer for a paper bag to carry the shoebox. Legal experts say the order is legally valid across the country and that stores cannot charge consumers additional charges for the bag if the product is purchased from the same store. The forum's order came on a complaint filed by a consumer, Dinesh Prasad Raturi. Raturi told the consumer panel that he had purchased a pair of shoes on February 5 from the shoe store located in Sector 22D. The store charged Rs 402, which also included cost for the bag. Raturi contested that by charging him for the bag, Bata was also endorsing its brand on the bag which was not justified. Raturi sought a refund of Rs 3 and compensation for deficiency in services. The forum slammed Bata for charging an additional amount for the paper bag. The forum ordered that a customer cannot be compelled to pay for the bag, and that it was a clear deficiency in service. The consumer forum ruled that it was the store's duty to provide a free bag to the customer who purchased their product. Sagar Saxena, an advocate based in Delhi, said: "This consumer court's decision is legally valid across India. People can cite this order anywhere in the country and have the bag charges waived. The order establishes that even if the bag is environment-friendly, the retailer cannot charge an additional amount for the bag." The consumer forum observed that if the companies are eager to protect the environment, they should provide free environment-friendly bags to the customers. Nikhil Majithia, an advocate in Delhi, said: "After this order, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs should come out with guidelines to protect consumer rights. Shopkeepers are not allowed to charge extra from consumers, as they brand the bag with their logo, so it becomes part of their advertising." The Chandigarh commission in its decision directed Bata India Ltd to refund the cost of the bag (Rs 3) and litigation charges, i.e. Rs 1,000 along with Rs 3,000 as compensation to the customer for the mental agony caused by deficiency in services. The forum also directed Bata to deposit Rs 5,000 in the legal aid account of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. (Sumit Saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in) New Delhi, April 18 : Air India will offer "special" fares to Jet Airways passengers stranded at international stations, informed sources told IANS on Thursday. Jet Airways had on Wednesday said that it was forced to stop all operations as it failed to secure interim funds from the lenders. "As a gesture of goodwill and to mitigate the hardship of the 9W stranded passengers at international stations, Air India will be offering special fares to such passengers," an Air India official said. "Passengers holding confirmed RT tickets on Jet Airways will be allowed to avail a Special Stranded passenger fare from the destinations common with Air India," he added. New Delhi, April 18 : A turnout of 66 per cent was recorded in 95 Lok Sabha constituencies across 12 states and a Union Territory on Thursday in the second phase of polling which was marred by stray incidents of violence in West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir and EVM glitches in seven states. Srinagar constituency in Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the lowest polling at around 15 percent while the highest was recorded in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada at 77.6 per cent. "The preliminary figure for polling percentage in the second phase polls is 66 per cent. It was 69.62 per cent for the second phase polling in 2014," a senior Election Commission official said here. An electorate of 15.7 crore sealed the fate of 1,606 contestants in the fray. Except for some incidents of clashes between stone pelters and security forces, polling ended peacefully in the Srinagar while eliciting overwhelming voter turnout in the Udhampur constituency. Clashes broke out between security forces and stone pelters who tried to disrupt the voting process in Batmaloo area of Srinagar city, Pandach area of Ganderbal district and at four other places in Badgam district in the Srinagar seat, officials said. One civilian and four policemen, including two officers, were injured in these clashes but the security forces said they exercised maximum restraint to ensure that the violence did not overshadow the voting in Srinagar. However, in Udhampur, over 65 per cent people cast their votes, including a newly-married couple who turned up in their wedding finery. Polling in all other places was reportedly peaceful although complaints of glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs) came from several states, briefly halting the electoral process. Over 76 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in the three northern West Bengal constituencies in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, amid several incidents of violence including an attack on CPI-M MP and candidate Mohammad Salim in Raniganj and the smashing of an EVM in a clash inside a polling booth in Darjeeling. Unfazed by the summer heat and dust, voters turned out in large numbers in Karnataka. There was over 67 per cent polling in 14 of the state's 28 parliamentary constituencies, that went to polls in the first phase with the main fight between the ruling Congress-JD-S alliance and the BJP. Over 66 per cent polling was recorded in Tamil Nadu where people elected 38 of 39 Lok Sabha members -- voting in Vellore has been postponed -- and 18 members to the state Assembly in bypolls. After initial dull moments, the voting picked up dramatically in Odisha, which is electing five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly members, to reach around 64 per cent. In Bihar, over 62 per cent voting was reported in five of 40 Lok Sabha seats that went to polls in the phase. According to officials, polling was peaceful, save a reported incident of a paramilitary trooper at a polling booth opening fire and clashes between supporters of different parties. People in about a dozen villages in all five constituencies boycotted the elections to protest against lack of development. Uttar Pradesh's voting percentage was 62.3 per cent in all eight constituencies: Mathura, Hathras, Amroha, Agra, Fatehpur-Sikri, Aligarh, Nagina, Bulandshahr. After a dull start, voting zoomed in Maharashtra to elect 10 of the 48 Lok Sabha members to around 57 per cent though it was expected to go up. A voter smashed the EVM while casting his vote in the state's Akola Lok Sabha constituency. The voter, Shrikrishna Ghyare, was taken into custody. The motive behind the action was not immediately known, police said. However, the EC official said that Ghyare had only broken the ballotting unit and the control unit or the VVPAT, placed a foot away with the election officials were safe. In Chhattisgarh, Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon and Kanker, which went to polls on Thursday, recorded nearly 71 percent turnout. Polling was largely peaceful, save in Kanker where an assistant school teacher who was on election duty at Antagarh booth died of cardiac arrest. Maoists made a failed attempt to disrupt polling at Mohla area under Rajnandgaon seat by triggering an IED blast. Polling was held in five seats in Assam, and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. New Delhi, April 18 : Amid complaints of glitches in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in several states, the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday said the overall performance of EVMs was satisfactory with only 0.37 per cent of ballot units being replaced across the 95 constituencies where voting took place during the second phase. In over 1.8 lakh polling stations, only around 1,000 ballot units, 769 control units and 2,766 VVPAT machines had to be replaced, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain told the media. "That is 0.37 per cent ballot units, 0.40 per cent control units and 1.45 per cent VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) machines," he said. Jain added that one must consider that VVPATs have to be replaced in all those EVMs where control unit or ballot unit is replaced. Polling in the second phase of seven-phase elections was reportedly peaceful barring stray incidents of violence and complaints of glitches in EVMs coming from some states, briefly halting the electoral process. Bengaluru, April 18 : A record 67 per cent voter turnout was reported from Karnataka's 14 Lok Sabha seats when polling ended at 6 p.m., peacefully, said an official on Thursday. "The estimated voter turnout at the end of 11-hour polling in 30,164 booths spanning 14 parliamentary seats is 66.59 per cent, which may go up slightly, as there were still many in queues when gates were shut at 6 pm," a senior poll official told IANS. The highest polling -- 77.60 per cent -- was registered in Dakshina Kannada, followed by 76 per cent in Tumkur, 75.94 per cent in Hassan, 75.65 per cent in Kolar (SC), 75.13 per cent in Udupi-Chikmagalur, 74.56 per cent in Mandya and 74.28 per cent in Chikkabalapur. The lowest polling was recorded in India's tech hub with 45.97 per cent in Bangalore Central, followed by 48.64 per cent in Bangalore North and 51.55 per cent in Bangalore South. In contrast, Bangalore Rural, 40km from the city centre, witnessed a high of 68.72 per cent when polling concluded. Polling percentage in the remaining seats are Chamarajanagar 73.07 per cent, Chitradurga (SC), 69.03 per cent and Mysore 66.87 per cent. Though polling began on a dull note in the rural areas, it was brisk in cities and towns with hundreds of voters queuing up at the booths to exercise their franchise. An estimated 2.67-crore voters, including 1.35-crore males and 1.32-crore females were on the electoral rolls to decide the fate of 241 candidates, including 15 women and 133 Independents. AIn all, 52,112 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used, with 36,196 controlling units and 37,705 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPATs) that allowed voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly. Among the constituencies, Bangalore North had the highest number of 31 candidates, followed by 25 in Bangalore South and 22 each in Bangalore Central, Mandya and Mysore. The lowest number of candidates is six in Hassan, followed by 10 in Chamarajnagar, 12 in Udupi-Chikmagalur and 13 in Dakshina Kannada. Key constituencies in the first phase were all the three seats in Bangalore, Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur. Unlike in the past elections, the main parties - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are locked in straight contests this time, as the latter entered into a pre-poll tie-up with the ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to field joint candidates as part of their seat-sharing arrangement. Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Congress is in fray 21 and seven by JD-S. In the first phase, Congress has contested from 10 and JD-S from four seats. The BJP is in fray in 13 seats and supported multi-lingual South Indian actress Sumalatha Ambareesh contesting as an Independent in the high-profile Mandya seat where JD-S has nominated Nikhil Gowda. Nikhil, an upcoming Kannada film star, is the son of state chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, who shifted to contest from Tumkur, paving the way for his other grandson Prajwal Gowda from Hassan, a bastion of the powerful dynastic Gowda clan. In India's tech hub, BJP and Congress are again locked in straight contests. The BJP's outgoing member Union Minister D.V. Sadananada Gowda has re-contested from Bangalore North for the second time, while its two-time sitting member P.C. Mohan is trying for a hat-trick from the prestigious Bangalore Central. The Congress has fielded Krishna Byre Gowda against Sadananada Gowda in the Bangalore North, where the politically dominant Vokkaliga community are present in large numbers. In the high-profile Bangalore South, the BJP has fielded Tejasvi Surya, in place of former Union Minister A.H. Ananth Kumar, who died last November. Kumar represented the seat for a record six times since 1996. Surya, a 28-year-old lawyer in the Karnataka High Court and a member of the RSS, is pitted against B.K. Hariprasad, a Congress Rajya Sabha member. Former Congress ministers in the UPA government - M. Veerappa Moily and K.H. Muniyappa contested from Chikkaballapur and Kolar. BJP's Nalin Kumar Kateel and Pratap Simha re-contested from Dakshina Kannada and Mysore to retain the seats for the third and second time. Polling in the remaining 14 parliamentary seats in the western and northern regions of the state will be held on April 23. Vote count will be on May 23. Hyderabad, April 18 : The Indian Meteorological Department on Thursday issued thunderstorm warning to both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for the next four days. Thunderstorm, accompanied with gusty winds up to 40 to 50 km per hour, and lightning is very likely to occur at isolated places in several district of Telangana till April 21, the met office said. A similar warning was issued to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Unseasonal rains lashed parts of Telangana on Wednesday and Thursday, uprooting trees and damaging crops and electricity lines. The mango crop was damaged to gusty winds. The farmers suffered huge losses as the paddy they stored in various market yards for sale got soaked due to unseasonal rains. They alleged that the officials failed to take necessary measures to protect their produce. Meanwhile, the Telangana Civil Supplies Department assured the farmers that their damage paddy will be purchased. Civil Supplies Commissioner Akun Sabharwal on Thursday visited Medak and Suryapet districts and inspected paddy procurement centres. He asked officials to keep sufficient tarpaulin sheets at paddy procurement centres and shift paddy to rice mills immediately after purchase. Meanwhile, Mahabubnagar and Khammam were the hottest places in Telangana with the maximum temperature of 41.4 degrees Celsius. In Andhra Pradesh, the temple town of Tirupati was the hottest place with maximum temperature of 43 degrees Celsius. Other places in Rayalaseema region recorded high temperature. The mercury in Kadapa touched 42 while Nandyal, Kurnool, Anantapur also recorded maximum temperature of 41 degrees Celsius. Kolkata, April 18 : The second phase of Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal on Thursday was "peaceful" except for a few incidents which have been addressed, state Chief Electoral Officer Aariz Aftab said here. Three constituencies - Jalpaiguri (SC), Darjeeling and Raiganj - voted in during the day with the polling figure up to 5 p.m. being around 76.07 percent. "The second phase election in West Bengal was conducted peacefully except for a few incidents. We have received 56 complaints at the CEO's office and all of them have been addressed," Aftab told reporters. He said in Chopra (under the Darjeeling constituency), around 100 to 150 voters protested in the morning saying that they are unable to vote and the police observer assured to escort them to the polling booths. A few people had put up a road blockade there and some police officers were injured, he said, adding: "Polling process inside the booth was not disrupted." Aftab also said that in polling station 112 of Chopra, a case of some people entering and damaging Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) has been reported. Action would be taken as per law, he said. Regarding Jan Andolan Party President Harka Bahadur Chettri entering the booth with his mobile phone, he said: "An FIR has been filed against the person entering booth this way. The presiding officer has already been changed." Sharing details of the action taken after the attack on a journalist in Goalpokher under Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency in North Dinajpur district, Additional Director General of Police Siddhi Nath Gupta said an FIR has been filed against unknown persons. On Raiganj candidate and CPI-M leader Mohammad Salim's vehicle being vandalised when he arrived at a booth in Islampur after receiving reports of booth capturing, Gupta said: "As soon as we receive a complaint, we will file an FIR." "In total, eight FIRs were filed today (Thursday). In Kalimpong, three arrests have been made in relation to specific cases and there were 30 preventive arrests," he said. About the complaint in Jalpaiguri regarding some people entering a booth and opening fire, the police officer said: "The presiding officer said there was no such incident but we are looking into the matter." Asked about opposition parties' allegations about inappropriate distribution of the central forces, Aftab said: "The final deployment is done by the District Electoral Officer, the SP and observers. They do take a report from the political parties but the final decision is taken by them." New Delhi, April 18 : In the midst of the election season, a teaser of Bollywood film 'India's Most Wanted' has generated curiosity on the social media about the real inspiration behind the film, with people interpreting it in different ways. The teaser, released last week, highlights: "52 blasts, 810 injured, 433 killed. Hyderabad. Jaipur. Ahmedabad. Bangalore. Pune. Delhi. Mumbai." It is followed by gun shots and the sound of bomb blasts. In the teaser, the terrorist says, "Aatma kabhi nahin marti, shareer marta hai. Main logon ko maar nahin raha. Bas unki aatma ko doosre shareer mein bhej raha hoon. Ye main nahin keh raha. Gita mein Shri Krishna ne kaha hai. (The soul never dies, only the body dies. I am not killing people, but only transferring souls from one body to another. It is not me saying this but it was said by Lord Krishna in Gita)." Director Rajkumar Gupta, who has earlier helmed films like 'Aamir', 'Raid' and 'No One Killed Jessica', does not tell who the terrorist is, but he mentions the film is "inspired by true events". The film's makers have teased the terrorist as a 'nameless' and 'faceless' person, but described him as "India's Osama". A section of social media users slammed the makers of the film for citing the Bhagavad Gita, while others conjectured the story may be based on Indian Mujahideen terrorist Yasin Bhatkal who was arrested from the India-Nepal border in August 2013, and topped the Delhi Police list of 15 most wanted terrorists involved in bombings across the country. "Blast in 8 cities and 400+ died and still he's not in media. Why don't we know about him," wrote one Twitter user, with several others raising the "who is he" question. Another discussion is about how one blast after another kept taking place during the Congress rule. "Was the UPA government sleeping when India's Osama planned attacks after attacks, and killed 433? Clearly, their policy of 'kadi ninda' was a flop," wrote one user. However, Congress leader Tehseen S. Poonawalla raised a question by tweeting: "One of the key aspects of BJP campaign has been their stance on terrorism, but why such lenience in case of 'India's Most Wanted' terrorist?" One user wrote: "A regime where one nameless and faceless man orchestrated serial blasts across the country killing 433. We need accountability for India's Osama. Why such a big failure in dealing with India's Most Wanted." With the teaser trending on Twitter and netizens interpreting the theme in different ways, IANS tried to get a comment from Gupta but he was unavailable. A source close to the film said Gupta will talk only after the trailer is out on April 30. According to Arjun Kapoor, a lead actor in the movie, the film is a story of "guts and pride". "It's about the 5 men who save the lives of a billion people by hunting down India's Osama," he tweeted. New Delhi, April 18 : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said his party affirms its belief in the competitive banking sector and promised that it will merge all the public sector banks and create six-eight big banks, if his party is voted to power. "Congress affirms its belief in the competitive banking sector. Congress will merge all the public sector banks and create six-eight big banks," Gandhi said in his Facebook post. He further added that "Congress will review the system of running government banks, and to make it competitive, healthy, efficient and profitable, an 'independent commercial banking organisation' will be created". He also promised to encourage new banks to provide long-term credit facilities to development and infrastructure projects. In his other post, he promised to improve education, health and housing facilities to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel and their families. As CAPF is the first line to protect our borders, Gandhi assured that his party will make them equal to the rank of armed forces. He also promised to open schools for children of CAPF personnel. Elliott Robinson has joined venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners to complement its growth-stage investments. Robinson brings deep expertise to the firm in the San Francisco office and portfolio companies with his many years leading growth investments at M12 and Georgian Partners. His addition, along with increased focus on growth investing from many of its existing team members including Byron Deeter, Alex Ferrara, Brian Feinstein, Kristina Shen, Mary DOnofrio, and former Oracle CFO, Jeff Epstein, will allow the firm to support growth stage companies even more. This will allow Bessemer to work with companies they may have missed in the early stages, and to avoid adding to its famous anti-portfolio. The firm usually aims to work with disruptive companies as early as possible and to support them throughout their full journeys ahead. Often that happens at the seed or very early venture rounds, as was the case with Twilio, Pinterest, Shopify, and most of its other 122 IPOs. In other cases where Bessemer was not able to work with companies at the early stages, it looks to be active partners in their growth stages to provide these leaders what they need to build, grow, and scale. Elliott Robinson focuses primarily on growth investments in SaaS and cloud companies. He looks to partner with companies and management teams that are defining their market category while also maintaining a set of core values that will allow them to grow their leadership position. Robinson started his career with Syncom Venture Partners, investing in both early and growth stage enterprise software and frontier tech companies such as CLEAR and Iridium Satellite (IPO). After six years with Syncom, he joined Georgian Partners, investing in a number of successful growth stage software companies such as Kinnser (acquired by Mediware), TurnItIn (acquired by Advance), and eSentire. Prior to joining Bessemer, Robinson was a partner with M12, leading investments in companies such as Livongo, BlueVine, Trusona, and Cooler Screens. FinSMEs 18/04/2019 Kolkata, April 18 : West Bengal's opposition parties on Thursday accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of resorting to proxy voting in a number of booths of the high-profile Raiganj constituency. A TV grab also showed two of the electors carrying voter slips failing to exercise their democratic right as their votes had already been cast. The polling officials manning the booth started passing the buck when they were confronted by the television correspondent. "The Trinamool tried to cast proxy votes in around 150 polling booths in the rural segments of the constituency. We are analysing the inputs from our workers and polling agents. We can asecertain the exact figure after studying all the inputs," BJP candidate and party's state general secretary Debasree Chaudhuri told IANS over phone. Chaudhuri also alleged that the Trinamool activists captured a few booths and indulged in rigging. Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Pradip Bhattacharya alleged the Trinamool had cast proxy votes in around 14-15 booths in rural areas of Mohua as also the Islampur sub-division. "They have committed such irregularities in around 14-15 booths," said Bhattacharya, a former state Congress president. Earlier in the day, Bhattacharya had lodged a complaint before the Election Commission alleging violence in many polling stations of Raiganj where the central forces were not deployed. "The Central forces were deployed mostly in urban areas like Raiganj town while state police personnel were deployed in many sensitive areas," he told reporters. Speaking to IANS, Bhattacharya alleged that the election authorities had ignored the lists sent by the opposition parties where they presented their logic about declaring particular booths as sensitive. "The officials discarded those lists, and only took cognisance of the lists sent by the Trinamool Congress. As a result, Central forces were deployed only in those booths where the Trinamool was weak. In areas, where the Trinamool has a strong organisation, they deployed the state armed police," he said. The CPI-M also demanded repoll in 22 booths accusing Trinamool backed goons of indulign in rigging. The star constituency of Raiganj in North Dinajpur district witnessed four-cornered battle between sitting MP and CPI-M candidate Mohammad Salim, Union Minister and Congress nominee Deepa Dasmunsi, Chaudhuri and Trinamool candidate Kanaia Lal Agarwal. Ten other candidates, including five Independents, are also in the fray. New Delhi, April 18 : A day after Jet Airways suspended all flights, the government on Thursday asked domestic airlines to advance their aircraft induction plans for capacity augmentation and to keep air fares in check. Apart from fleet induction, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has formed a committee comprising airport operators, Airport Authority of India and DGCA to temporarily re-allocate Jet's slots. The development comes after Civil Aviation Secretary convened two separate meetings, one with airport operators and the other with the airlines to coordinate and address issues on capacity, slots and passenger convenience. Briefing the media after a series of meetings, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said that with grounding of Jet a" 280 slots in Mumbai and more than 160 slots in Delhi a" are left vacant. The slot re-allocation committee will meet next week to take the process forward. "This will be an interim allotment of three months only and after that depending on situation these slots can be extended," Kharola said. "These allocations will be done in a very rational, transparent, fair and equitable manner... the preference would be given to those airlines which bring in extra planes." According to Kharola, in the last 5 months Jet grounded 75 aircraft, whereas other airlines inducted 58 planes thereby leaving a deficit of 17. "All airlines have said that in the months of May, June and July they will be able to induct more than 30 planes," Kharola said. The official further said that some airlines are in talks with lessors to induct 20-30 grounded aircraft of Jet Airways and that these agreements are expected to be finalised within next week. This comes a day after Jet Airways announced temporary suspension of all its flight services from Wednesday night as it failed to secure interim funding for maintaining even bare minimum operations. On its part, Jet in a regulatory filing on Wednesday said that the state-run State Bank of India (SBI) told the airline that its consortium of lenders are unable to consider the private carrier's request for critical interim funding. "Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going," the filing said. "Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. The last flight will operate today (Wednesday)." Chennai, April 18 : Polling concluded in 38 of 39 Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly constituencies, where by-elections were held on Thursday, in Tamil Nadu. About 69.55 per cent of about 5.8 crore voters cast their vote pressing the button in the electronic voting machine (EVM) at the last count. The final poll percentage is expected to go up by about five per cent. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 73 per cent polling was registered. A total of 822 candidates are in the fray to enter the Lok Sabha. Polling which started at 7 a.m was peaceful except for some stray incidents that happened towards the evening in some parts of the state. According to police, stray incidents of violence were reported at a village in Ariyalur. In Arakkonam, para-military troopers fired in the air to disperse a mob and in Kanniyakumari, five Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) men were injured in a clash after the polls. In some places voting began a bit late owing to faulty EVMs/ Control Units/ Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. Speaking to reporters here, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said as many as 375 EVMs, 228 Control Units and 766 VVPAT machines were replaced across the state. Though there are 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday, the Election Commission (EC) rescinded polling for Vellore Lok Sabha constituency after the Income Tax (IT) Department seized unaccounted cash from the cement warehouse of a DMK functionary. The EC said the cash was kept for distribution to voters and the situation was not conducive for holding free and fair elections in Vellore. Sahoo said the three Lok Sabha seats in Chennai -- Chennai South (58.14 per cent), Chennai North (61.46 per cent) and Chennai Central (57.05 per cent) -- registered lower voter turnout. In fact, the three Chennai seats brought down the overall polling average. Along with the polls for Lok Sabha in Tamil Nadu, a sort of mini-Assembly elections were held with the conduct of by-elections to 18 out of 22 vacant Assembly seats. A total of 269 candidates were in the fray for the by-elections. Sahoo said 71.62 per cent polling was registered in the by-polls. The by-elections for the remaining four Assembly seats will be held on May 19. The results of both Parliamentary and by-elections for 22 Assembly seats will be declared on May 23, deciding the fate of the BJP-led Central government and also that of the Tamil Nadu government. In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the ruling AIADMK has 114 members (including the Speaker), DMK 88, Congress 8, and the IUML and Independents one each. To attain a simple majority, the AIADMK has to win just four seats in the by-elections. Factoring in the switching of camps by some of the lawmakers, the AIADMK has to win seven or eight seats in order to be safe. On the other hand, the DMK needs to win all the 22 seats to take the tally, along with its allies -- the Congress and the IUML -- to 119, just one number more than simple majority. DMK President M.K. Stalin in his campaign said there will be a change of government in Tamil Nadu once there is a change in the Central government. Analysts are of the view that even if T.T.V. Dhinakaran's AMMK wins a couple of seats, the DMK's dream of coming to power by toppling the AIADMK government may not come true. The two major fronts in the fray are AIADMK-led front comprising the PMK, BJP, DMDK, TMC, PT, PNK and others, and the DMK-led front consisting of the Congress, MDMK, IUML, CPI, CPI-M, VCK, KMDK and the IJK. With the cancellation of election for Vellore, both AIADMK and DMK are contesting in 19 seats in Tamil Nadu leaving the remaining to the alliance partners. The AMMK and the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), floated by Kamal Haasan, are fighting it alone. While the AMMK candidates are contesting under the common symbol "gift box", they are classified as Independent candidates as per the Supreme Court order. For the first time in several decades, both AIADMK and DMK will be fighting the polls without their iconic leaders J. Jayalalithaa and M.Karunanidhi, who are no more. Arithmetically, the AIADMK-led front has an advantage. But the electoral landscape has changed after Jayalalithaa passed away. The AIADMK had split into two and the BJP is facing a negative mood in the state. New Delhi, April 18 : A turnout of 66 per cent was recorded in 95 Lok Sabha constituencies across 12 states and a Union Territory on Thursday in the second phase of polling which was marred by stray incidents of violence in West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir and EVM glitches in seven states. Srinagar constituency in Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the lowest polling at 13. 43 percent while the highest was recorded in Puducherry at 80 per cent. "The preliminary figure for polling percentage in the second phase polls is 66 per cent. It was 69.62 per cent for the second phase polling in 2014," Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha told reporters here. An electorate of 15.7 crore sealed the fate of 1,606 contestants in the fray. Except for some incidents of clashes between stone pelters and security forces, polling ended peacefully in the Srinagar while eliciting overwhelming voter turnout in the Udhampur constituency. Clashes broke out between security forces and stone pelters who tried to disrupt the voting process in Batmaloo area of Srinagar city, Pandach area of Ganderbal district and at four other places in Badgam district in the Srinagar seat, officials said. One civilian and four policemen, including two officers, were injured in these clashes but the security forces said they exercised maximum restraint to ensure that the violence did not overshadow the voting in Srinagar. However, in Udhampur, 66.67 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise, including a newly-married couple who turned up in their wedding finery. Polling in all other places was reportedly peaceful although complaints of glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs) came from several states, briefly halting the electoral process. Over 76 per cent of the electorate, including a 90-year-old woman, cast their votes in the three northern West Bengal constituencies in the second phase in the state, amid several incidents of violence including an attack on CPI-M MP and candidate Mohammad Salim in Raniganj and the smashing of an EVM in a clash inside a polling booth in Darjeeling. Unfazed by the summer heat and dust, voters turned out in large numbers in Karnataka. There was over 67 per cent polling in 14 of the state's 28 parliamentary constituencies, that went to polls in the first phase with the main fight between the ruling Congress-JD-S alliance and the BJP. In Tamil Nadu where people elected 38 of 39 Lok Sabha members -- voting in Vellore has been postponed -- and 18 members to the state Assembly in bypolls, the turnout was 72 per cent. In neighbouring Puducherry's sole Lok Sabha seat, the poll percentage was 80 per cent. After initial dull moments, the voting picked up dramatically in Odisha, which is electing five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly members, to reach around 64 per cent. In Bihar, 62.52 per cent voting was reported in five of 40 Lok Sabha seats that went to polls in the phase. According to officials, polling was peaceful, save a reported incident of a paramilitary trooper at a polling booth opening fire and clashes between supporters of different parties. People in about a dozen villages in all five constituencies boycotted the elections to protest against lack of development. Uttar Pradesh's voting percentage was 62.3 per cent in all eight constituencies: Mathura, Hathras, Amroha, Agra, Fatehpur-Sikri, Aligarh, Nagina, Bulandshahr. After a dull start, voting zoomed in Maharashtra to elect 10 of the 48 Lok Sabha members to 62 per cent. A voter smashed the EVM while casting his vote in the state's Akola Lok Sabha constituency. The voter, Shrikrishna Ghyare, was taken into custody. The motive behind the action was not immediately known, police said. However, the EC official said that Ghyare had only broken the ballotting unit and the control unit or the VVPAT, placed a foot away with the election officials were safe. In Chhattisgarh, Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon and Kanker, which went to polls on Thursday, recorded nearly 71 percent turnout. Polling was largely peaceful, save in Kanker where an assistant school teacher who was on election duty at Antagarh booth died of cardiac arrest. Maoists made a failed attempt to disrupt polling at Mohla area in Rajnandgaon by triggering an IED blast. In five seats in Assam which went to polls in the second phase, the turnout was 73.32 per cent, and in Manipur, it was 74.3 per cent. Chandigarh, April 18 : Officials from five northern states and the Union Territory of Chandigarh on Thursday took stock of the preparations for Lok Sabha elections. The Inter-state Coordination Committee held a meeting with various law enforcement agencies for the Lok Sabha elections. Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S. Karuna Raju and Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta were also present at the meeting. Officials from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Chandigarh participated in the meeting. Raju emphasised that Punjab and neighbouring states should ensure an effective set-up of interstate police barriers to check vehicles passing through the "nakas" (check-posts). He said that all vehicles, including government vehicles and ambulances, should be checked. He also directed to ensure checking of Volvo buses and trucks entering the state from Delhi side by setting up surprise police posts equipped with CCTV cameras at these points. Polling for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana will take place on May 12, while 13 seats in Punjab and one seat in Chandigarh will go to polls on May 19. "Polling in Punjab is to be held in last phase and the people from other states can come to influence the voters, so adequate and necessary preventive measures should be timely put in place," Raju said. DGP Gupta asked the officers of law enforcement agencies to share information relating to law and order. He said that it is the need of the hour for security agencies to remain more vigilant in view of the attempts of foreign hands to disrupt the law and order of this border state. "There would be no smuggling of allopathic medicine, country-made liquor and opium, especially from Baddi and Damtal in Himachal Pradesh, into Punjab and Haryana. Officers from Rajasthan have assured that they would also strictly control the smuggling of poppy husk and opium," a spokesman said here. Haryana officials said that they have made elaborate arrangements to check the smuggling of illegal arms from Uttar Pradesh border areas. Thiruvananthapuram, April 18 : Slamming Congress President Rahul Gandhi for contesting from Wayanad in Kerala, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out that the only message that's being sent out is appeasement politics. Modi arrived in the state capital on Thursday night to campaign for the NDA candidates contesting in the state. Taking on Gandhi, Modi said what's happening now is not politics, it's only self-interest and opportunistic politics. "The Congress says there is a message behind his (Rahul Gandhi) choosing to contest from Wayanad. But the message could have been sent if the contest was from Thiruvanathapuram. If not, the contest could have taken place in Pathanamthitta (where Sabarimala temple is located). Had it happened, an even bigger message could have been sent out," said Modi. Modi assured the gathering that when votes are counted on May 23 and the new government assumes office, the faith, culture and traditions will be protected through democratic means. "The BJP stand is very clear while the Congress is playing a double game. They say one thing in Delhi and another in Kerala. The CPI-M has no belief in faith, culture or tradition. What they have done here is to register false cases against those who protested to protect the culture and tradition. As long as I am the 'chowkidar', I will not allow these to be destroyed ," said Modi. He also took on the Pinarayi Vijayan government and pointed out that it's a corrupt one. "Even the Chief Minister is caught in the midst of the Lavalin case and so are other ministers. It has now come out that the floods that hit the state was manmade. Even the compensation for those affected has been diverted. Such a government cannot remain in office anymore," said Modi. He also reminded the people that his government in the past five years has put country on the fast track of development, be it in land, sea, air or space. "The 'chowkidar' of the country has empowered the scientists of the country who have come out with technology which will ensure the country's protection. The Congress never had the courage to take such decisions and when it came to hounding scientists, they did that. Your own scientists Nambi Narayanan was a victim of the Congress party," said Modi. He pointed out that the elections are not meant for just putting up a new government. "This election will determine the aspiration of building a new India. It's whether India should pave the way forward or it should follow others," said Modi. Modi said for a strong government which will protect the country, a 'chowkidar' is needed and for that, all should vote for the NDA. Modi arrived almost two hours late and left after his speech. The BJP does not have a single Lok Sabha member from Kerala. It is expecting to open its account this time: It has high hopes from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, where the party has fielded former Mizoram governor Kummanem Rajasekheran. He is pitted against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor who is aiming for a hat-trick of wins. Also in the fray is senior CPI legislator C. Divakaran. In 2014, BJP candidate O. Rajagopal finished a close second, while in all the remaining 19 constituency , the NDA candidates finished a distant third. Kolkata, April 18 : The son of a Bharatiya Janata Party gram panchayat member was on Thursday found hanging from a tree in West Bengal's Purulia district, police said. The body of 22-year-old Sishupal Sahis was found in Purulia's Bagmundi area on Thursday morning with the saffron party claiming that he was murdered and hung from Atree to make it look like a suicide. "Based on information, we recovered the body of Shishupal Sahis from a village in Bagmundi. He was found hanging from a tree. His body has been sent for an autopsy to determine the cause of death," Purulia Superintendant of Police Akash Magharia told IANS. The officer said no official complaint has been lodged in the case. BJP leader Mukul Roy claimed the youth was murdered and indrectly accused the state's ruling Trinamool Congress for the killing. "Sahis, the son of a BJP gram panchayat member in Purulia, has been killed and hung from a tree in a similar way six of our activists were killed earlier. A jungle-raj is prevailing in West Bengal," Roy alleged. "Polling was held in 95 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country. Can anybody show any pictures or video footage of any unrest or violence in any of the constituencies barring the three seats in Bengal? There is no democracy here," he said. A youth BJP activist, Trilochan Mahato, was found hanging from a tree in Purulia in May last year. Kolkata, April 18 : Delegations of Left parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party approached the Election Commission on Thursday detailing various irregularities and incidents of vioence in the second phase of Lok Sabha election in West Bengal and demanded more number of central forces for the subsequent rounds. "In the second phase, 80 percent of the booths have been managed by the central forces. Incidentally the booth where a journalist was attacked was not manned by the central forces. So again we approached the CEO demanding eployment of central forces in all the booths, " BJP leader Mukul Roy told reporters here. "There are specifically 22 booths in Raiganj where the polls were not conducted fairly. Another 8 booths faced disturbances and voting is still going on," Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Surjya Kanta Mishra said. Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya alleged violence in many polling stations where the central forces were not deployed. "Unfortunately, several incidents of violence have been reported in three constituencies. Central forces were deployed mostly in urban areas while state police personnel were deployed in many sensitive areas," he said. New Delhi, April 18 : Astrology has come in the way of preventing closure on a missing person's case in the capital. In a bizarre turn of events, a probe into the disappearance of Air India official Sulakshana Narula, missing since September 2018, cannot be completed because of what is called 'Maha Dosh' in astrological terms. Delhi Crime Branch was handed over the investigation last year, but it cannot find the woman "until her bad phase or 'maha dosh' ends". The personal astrologer of Delhi CB officer Vijay Samaria has said that the 'maha dosh' in his case, too, ends on April 19. Until then, Samaria has refused to probe the case. What makes the case even more intriguing is that Samaria has conveyed to Narula's family that Sulakshana's "bad phase" too "ends" the same day - April 19. Samaria reportedly convinced Sulakshna's son Anubhav to provide him his mother's horoscope which he then showed to his astrologer along with his own. The conclusion was that the woman's horoscope had 'maha dosh' written all over it. The police officer is confident that he will find Sulakashna anytime after April 20 when the stars bear good tidings. The family is flabbergasted at the way things have been handled. Anubhav was even told to visit a Chattarpur temple, where Goddess Baglamukhi rests, to perform an 'upaya' (a way out). "Sulakshna's family members consulted their astrologer and believed that she would be found in Haridwar, Mathura or Virandavan. The investigating officer of the case, Vijay Samaria, visited these places more than twice, without any result," said ACP Jasbir Singh. Family members say despite an FIR being registered three days after 58-year-old Sulakshana went missing, nothing has happened. In October, the case was handed over to Crime Branch. "We believe in scientific investigation, but if an inspector supports victim's family members with a personal touch, it affects the ongoing probe. I don't know about any horoscope and bad phase theories," said Jasbir Singh. "We have searched all shelter homes in adjoining states and also coordinated with interstate police. We continuous our efforts to find her," said the ACP. New Delhi, April 18 : A day after Jet Airways temporarily suspended operations, the government has strictly advised domestic airlines not to indulge in predatory pricing and keep air fares affordable, a senior official said here on Thursday. After meeting with airlines representatives, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said: "We have given a strict advice to the airlines that they should not resort to predatory pricing and as far as possible the prices have to be kept at affordable levels." The official said that Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is closely monitoring the air fare situation. Last Tuesday the government had advised domestic airlines to keep air fares in check after high prices were found on around 10 routes. The revelation that time was made as DGCA monitored 40 high-density routes. The regulator compared current prices with those between March 7 and 14 and found high fares on 10 routes. Besides, Kharola said that Air India has already introduced rescue or special fares to Jet Airways stranded passengers at international stations. "We also suggested to the airlines that sometimes for the help of stranded passengers, they can have something called rescue fairs which is especially applicable to international passengers whose flights have been cancelled," Kharola said. "Air India is the first airline to respond to it and they have already introduced special fares for passengers stranded at international destinations." The development comes a day after Jet Airways announced the temporary suspension of all its flight services from Wednesday night as it failed to secure interim funding for maintaining even bare minimum operations. A JumpStart program that provides startups with mentoring from experienced entrepreneurs will broaden its reach through a $1m grant from the Hudson-based Burton D. Morgan Foundation. The grant provides continuing support for JumpStarts Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program, which connects startups and small businesses with teams of up to four mentors who offer invaluable advice on everything from sales and marketing to raising capital and forming a board of directors. With the funding, the mentoring program will not only provide ongoing assistance to entrepreneurs, but also work to engage entrepreneurs in the community in new ways, including: Engaging with more student entrepreneurs by holding office hours at local universities. Creating easier access and greater visibility for the program across Northeast Ohio by introducing new office hours at partner locations and by increasing the number of ask a mentor panel events throughout the community to reach more entrepreneurs. Launched in 2012, the program has served more than 200 companies to date with 180+ mentors volunteering more than 10,000 hours to help entrepreneurs. The companies served by the program have gone on to raise $74.9M in capital and generate $109.6M in revenue, and they currently employ nearly 200 people across the region. JumpStart Inc. is a Cleveland, OH-based investing, entrepreneurial support and economic development organization dedicated to nurturing entrepreneurs to economically transform entire communities. FinSMEs 18/04/2019 Tripoli, April 18 : Military prosecutors in Tripoli have issued an arrest warrant for eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar and six of his aides, the Defence Ministry of Libya's internationally recognised government said in a statement on Thursday. A day earlier, Libya's Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj called on the International Criminal Court to investigate "crimes and violations committed by the forces of warlord Khalifa Haftar and bring them to justice," the Libya Observer reported. In a letter addressed to the court's prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, Sarraj said his government would provide the ICC with the documents and evidence needed to corroborate Haftar's alleged war crimes. The United Nations says over 200 people including dozens of civilians have been killed in fighting during the past two weeks between Haftar's militia and forces aligned to the UN-backed government which began when Haftar ordered the assault on Tripoli. Haftar is aligned with a rival government based in the country's east and has support from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. EXPERT OBSERVER Employment rose for the eighth straight month, up by 25,700 in March after a revised 10,700 increase in jobs in February (previously reported as a 4,600 increase in jobs). Full-time jobs rose by 48,300, but part-time jobs fell by 22,600. Economists had tipped an increase in total jobs of around 15,000. Hours worked rose by 0.7 per cent in the month to be up 3.0 per cent over the year. The unemployment rate rose from 4.9 per cent to 5.0 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms. In trend terms the jobless rate remained steady at a 10-year low of 5.0 per cent. Participation rate: The participation rate rose from 65.6 per cent to 65.7 per cent. In trend terms the 65.6 per cent participation rate remained at record highs. Unemployment across states in March: NSW 4.3 per cent (February 4.3 per cent); Victoria 4.6 per cent (4.7 per cent); Queensland 6.1 per cent (5.4 per cent); South Australia 5.9 per cent (5.7 per cent); Western Australia 6.0 per cent (5.9 per cent); Tasmania 6.7 per cent (6.5 per cent). In trend terms, Northern Territory 4.4 per cent (4.5 per cent); ACT 3.6 per cent (3.5 per cent). A raft of companies is affected by the employment data but especially those dependent on consumer spending. Amongst stocks affected are Fairfax, West Australian Newspapers, Seek Limited, McMillan Shakespeare and Skilled Group. What does it all mean? Given the recent softening reported by a raft of business surveys, many analysts had been braced for a weaker job result in March. But they neednt have feared. Yet another month where more people were looking for jobs with more people finding work. The jobless rate ticked up from 4.9 per cent to 5 per cent. But that is part of the normal monthly volatility. In trend terms the jobless rate remains locked at a decade low of 5 per cent. Get used to seeing a jobless rate around 5 per cent there isnt sufficient positive or negative economic momentum to drive the jobless rate away from 5 per cent. It is worth noting that the proportion of people in jobs or looking for work (participation rate) is at all-time highs in trend terms with the jobless rate at decade lows. There was good news for Queensland with the trend jobless rate at 5-year lows. And the West Australian trend jobless rate is at 15-month lows. The Reserve Bank expects further tightening of the job market to lead to higher wages and higher prices. That expectation remains on track with SEEK today reporting that national wage growth had ticked up to 2.6 per cent. Yet another bad month for the gloomsters. More people are finding work and more are people feeling secure in their positions. In turn, this will lead to stronger spending growth, boosting the outlook for consumer and housing-dependent businesses. The Reserve Bank can rest easy for another month. Rate cuts are not on the near-term horizon, neither are rate hikes. The Reserve Bank believes the best contribution it could provide is to leave the cash rate steady at record lows. And we heartily agree. The Aussie dollar rose from US71.70 cents to US71.93 cents before settling back near US71.75 cents. Currency markets are comfortable with the economic state of play. CRAIG JAMES is the Chief Economist of CommSec GUEST OBSERVATION Among the many recommendations of the banking Royal Commission was a Board of Oversight for the two regulators in charge of financial institutions; the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority: ASIC and APRA. Since then APRAs own internal review conducted by deputy chairman John Lonsdale and NSW Supreme Court Judge Robert Austin, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission commissioner Sarah Court and UNSW professor Dimity Kingsford-Smith has found APRA to be soft on enforcement and timid by comparison to its international peers. Nonetheless, and to demonstrate that APRA still doesnt get what it doesnt get, its chairman used Tuesdays release of the review to announce a new mantra. From now on, APRA is to be: constructively tough. Constructively tough? It sounds like tough but flexible, a contradiction in terms if ever there was one. Despite its Royal Commission hammering, APRA still seems not to have internalised the message: fraud and theft are not up for negotiated settlement. This is why a board of oversight is so necessary. I have frequently argued in favour of such a reform: a regulator to regulate the regulators. Along with colleagues Karen Fairweather and John Tarrant, I was invited to make a submission to the Royal Commission detailing egregious examples of regulator inefficacy, and capture by, and subornation to, the industries they are meant to regulate. Included was a body of theoretical and empirical international scholarship suggesting that financial sector regulators are more susceptible to capture than regulators of other industries. We argued that the gravity of the potential harm from crises, superimposed with the frailties both observable and theoretical of regulators, required enhanced safety in the form of an overseer to police the corporate police. So it was encouraging to see our submission reflected in the commissions recommendation for a board of oversight: Final Report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, February 2019 Of concern, however, is that the commissioner elected to leave the details of how the board would work to parliament. It is here that the process faces its greatest risk: the risk of clumsy albeit well-intentioned implementation, all the way to purposefully bad implementation, fully intended to undermine the fundamental goals of the whole endeavour, and facilitated by equally captured and suborned politicians. Politicians have a history of backing down It has happened before. The 1991 report of the The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration entitled Pocket Full of Change recommended a banking code of practice, which was ditched at the last minute to be replaced by a different code written by the Australian Bankers Association. The result was a code that protected banks against their customers, while allowing them to virtue signal. So far Treasurer Frydenberg has refused to commit to one of the single most necessary powers that such a board can possess: the power of public opprobrium. As far back as the late 1860s Charles Francis Adams Jr wrote of the need to subject captured and corrupted railroad commissions to the disinfecting power of sunlight; what Thomas McCraw, writing in the mid-1980s referred to as a Sunshine Commission. The anti-viral power of public exposure has been amply demonstrated by the banking royal commission already. Heads have rolled: the chair, chief executive and group counsel at AMP. The chair and chief executive of the National Australian Bank (albeit after significant procrastination). Some entities have self-selected out of their business model. Others have self-selected out of the market entirely. Retail Super funds have haemorrhaged well in excess of one million members, and over $11 billion in funds. But none of this fallout, none of it, is due to post-royal commission enforcement measures. It is all thanks to public opprobrium: sunshine. Few things are as powerful as the power to shame So it is of concern that the treasurer hasnt yet made an unequivocal commitment to make public the board of oversights reports into the performance of our regulators, performance which to date has been weak enough, feckless enough, and incompetent enough to more than justify the royal commission. Speaking to the ABC on February 4 in what might be some sort of Orwellian newspeak, Frydenberg would only say: "this new oversight board will be reporting to government and governments dont operate in secret." Sometimes they do, and especially when dealing with banks. APRA reports are routinely withheld form the public, making use of the secrecy provisions of the Banking Act. Frydenberg should instead be mindful of the extensive protection his government has provided to the banking and retail super industry over the past five years, shielding them from the threat of inquiry by a royal commission up until the point when it was impossible to resist. It will serve no purpose to replace one protection racket with another. And that applies to both banks and super, something Labors Chris Bowen should keep in mind should he become treasurer. Put simply, as we emerge from this dark, decade-long night of the most appalling dishonesty and wickedness in our financial sector, more than anything else, now we must ensure the sun shines. Andrew Schmulow, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Wollongong This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Consumers continue to mark down their expectations for house prices albeit with a choppy profile in recent months, according to Westpac's latest Red Book. A very weak March was followed by a surprising strong lift in April. Overall, the Westpac Melbourne Institute Consumer House Price Expectations Index is down a further 0.3% since January. Westpac economists suggest that likely understates the weakening with the first few months of the year typically seeing a seasonal rise in price expectations. At 95.6 the Index remains around the lowest levels since we began compiling it in 2009. Earlier figures from a survey by Mortgage Choice suggest current reads are above GFC lows. Of those consumers with a view, 32% now expect prices to rise over the next year, 32% expect no change and 36% expect falls. The state breakdown continues to show a more bearish mix in NSW (30%:29%:41%) and Victoria (26%:29%:45%). Notably, the price weakening in Perth does not appear to have weighed as heavily on price expectations. The biggest downgrade in expectations over the last three months has been among Queenslanders. Prices have continued to weaken in early 2019 albeit with some hints of milder declines in the last three months, although some of this may reflect seasonality with prices typically a touch firmer early in the year. The Bank Customer Experience Awards honor financial institutions and fintech providers whose unique strategies and technologies are heightening the consumer experience. The best of the best always seem to manage to come up with smart, creative new solutions that add value to their brand by making the banking experience easier, more convenient and, in some cases, I would actually say fun for the consumer. The Bank Customer Experience Awards honor financial institutions and fintech providers whose unique strategies and technologies are heightening the consumer experience in four categories: Best Branch Experience Best ATM/Self-Service Experience Best Mobile/Online Experience (financial institution) Best Mobile/Online Experience (non-traditional FIs or fintech provider) Judges, including the editors of ATM Marketplace and Mobile Payments Today, will weigh the merits of each entry on the basis of: Innovation Originality Quality Usefulness Consumer experience Qualifying entries must represent fintech products, processes or services introduced between May 1, 2018, and May 1, 2019, either in a pilot deployment or as a full rollout. Entrants must provide: A brief (100 words, maximum) description of the consumer experience An explanation of attributes and capabilities that make the offering unique to the market A link to a website or video about the submitted technology or financial institution "The judges always look forward to reviewing each year's entries," said Suzanne Cluckey, senior editor of Networld Media Group publications ATM Marketplace and World of Money. "It's great to see how financial institutions are seamlessly and strategically incorporating amazing new technologies into their retail product offerings." "The best of the best always seem to manage to come up with smart, creative new solutions that add value to their brand by making the banking experience easier, more convenient and, in some cases, I would actually say fun for the consumer. We're excited to see what's new this year!" Winning entries will be selected and winners notified by July 15. Awards will be presented at a dinner party on Sept. 24, at the 2019 Bank Customer Experience Summit, Sept. 2325, at the Loews Chicago Hotel just one block away from the Magnificent Mile, the Chicago Riverwalk and Navy Pier. All award winners will receive complimentary tickets to the Sept. 24 dinner. Winning financial institutions will additionally receive one complimentary registration for the full conference. Entries will be accepted through Friday, June 14, 2019. Enter the 2019 Bank Customer Experience Awards competition. View the agenda for the 2019 Bank Customer Experience Summit. Register for the 2019 Bank Customer Experience Summit, Sept. 2325, at Loews Chicago Hotel. About Networld Media Group Founded in 2000, Networld Media Group is a leading business-to-business (B2B) global media communications company specializing in digital media, associations and events in the mobile, self-service, digital signage, retail, food service and financial services industries. Online properties include ATMmarketplace.com, BlockchainTechNews.com, DigitalSignageToday.com, FastCasual.com, FoodTruckOperator.com, KioskMarketplace.com, MobilePaymentsToday.com, PizzaMarketplace.com, QSRweb.com, RetailCustomerExperience.com and BiblicalLeadership.com. Networld event properties include the Fast Casual Executive Summit, CONNECT: The Mobile CX Summit, Interactive Customer Experience Summit, Bank Customer Experience Summit and the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit. Networld also operates the ICX Association. BOOM! Creative, provides clients with digital creative, custom media and brand collateral. Its newest offering, World of Money, is a daily e-newsletter that provides a fun and informative look at the trends, technologies, and ideas shaping the future of money and payments. Our partnership with Advancement Courses has provided significant professional development to educators and now through this joint degree, we will continue to keep transformative teachers in the classroom, Dr. Lisa Amundson, Dean of the School of Education at Greenville University. Advancement Courses, a Wiley brand and leader in online K-12 professional development, today announced the renewal of their agreement with Greenville University (GU). Over the past three years, nearly ten thousand practicing teachers have completed Advancement Courses through GU as part of their ongoing professional learning. Building on this success, the expanded partnership will now allow Advancement Course learners to apply 6 credit hours towards the universitys 30-hour, online Master of Arts in Education program. The cost of this joint degree will be $11,674. Advancement Courses offers over 240 graduate and continuing education credit professional development courses in 19 different subject areas covering foundational topics and emerging trends in K-12 education. Through this partnership, educators will optimize the time that they already devote to professional development and apply it directly into a full degree pathway, tailored to their grade level, content area, or level of expertise. In addition to being practical, Advancement Courses are research-driven and rooted in over three decades of experience in learning and higher education, said Dr. Lisa Amundson, Dean of the School of Education at Greenville University. Our partnership with Advancement Courses has provided significant professional development for educators and now through this joint degree, we will continue to keep transformative teachers in the classroom. Were proud to partner with Greenville to support the continuous learning and skills development for educators, said Todd Zipper, Co-President of Wiley Education Services and Learning House, a Wiley brand. We know that there is no more important job in the world, and that for every teacher that we support there are dozens of kids who will benefit. Greenville Universitys online MAE is a degree-eligible graduate program accredited in Illinois and by the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation and is applicable in most states. About Greenville University Greenville University is an accredited Christian liberal arts university with more than 1,200 traditional undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree completion students. Founded in 1892 and affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, the University is located in Greenville, Illinois, 45 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. For more information visit http://www.greenville.edu. About Advancement Courses, A Wiley Brand For over 30 years, Advancement Courses, a Wiley brand, has been a leader in professional development, providing expertly-crafted, classroom-applicable courses to thousands of teachers across the country. Our catalog includes over 240 graduate-level courses in 19 different subject areas covering both foundational topics and emerging trends in K-12 education. Designed to be meaningful and engaging, courses combine innovative techniques with a focus on developing practical tools that are immediately applicable in the classroom. For more information, visit http://www.advancementcourses.com. About Wiley Wiley is a global leader in research and education. Our online scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, and our digital learning, assessment, certification and student-lifecycle services and solutions help universities, academic societies, businesses, governments and individuals to achieve their academic and professional goals. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to our stakeholders. The company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com. Media Contacts Advancement Courses Alyssa Miller alyssa@ammediaworks.com 973-615-1292 Wiley Dawn Peters (US) +1 781-388-8408 Tom Griffin (UK) +44 (0)1865 476 213 newsroom@wiley.com Follow us on Twitter @WileyNews Project team members from left to right: Ken Johnson, Brian Davis, Tiffanie Moore, Chris Smith, John Hall, and Matt Davis This is a really exciting opportunity because were really breaking new ground. This will be one of the first times we can successfully transfer advanced technology capability from a government client to the commercial space, said Al Wofford, founder and president of CDO Technologies. CDO Technologies, based in Dayton, Ohio, will now support the Air Force Research Laboratory 711th Human Performance Wing Airman Systems Directorate Warfighter Interface Division, based at WPAFB, by managing the facility operations at the Aeroacoustic Research Complex (ARC) at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. A cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) is an agreement between a government agency and a private company on research and development. Relatively rare, this particular CRADA agreement will make the facility available to commercial aerospace companies to test their aircraft for a fee. This is a really exciting opportunity because were really breaking new ground. Were taking something very specific weve been doing for the Air Force for years and commercializing it, said Al Wofford, founder and president of CDO Technologies. This will be one of the first times we can successfully transfer advanced technology capability from a government client to the commercial space. The team anticipates commercial organizations using the specialized facility, unique research capability and high fidelity 3-D modeling results to design quiet aircraft technologies. As an Acoustic Signature Capture and Modeling Research and Development facility, the ARCs primary purpose is to characterize air vehicle audibility signatures. The facility consists of a control system, a full-scale outdoor sensor array of 50 microphones calibrated down to 20 micropascals positioned on the ground and on two vertical towers sampling at a rate of 48 kilohertz and 24 bit in addition to five miles of buried cable. The ARC enables high-fidelity, 3-D modeling of aircraft sound signatures in the environment when aircraft overfly the array. The facility has been operational since 2009 modeling the audible footprint of over 50 military aircraft to include fixed wing, rotary wing, manned, and unmanned aircraft. Weve got this facility that is capturing this fine fidelity on the acoustics of aircraft so we can provide customers data they can use to quiet aircraft and comply with noise abatement at commercial airports or even for drones as they become more prevalent, said John Hall, Research Scientist for the Air Force Research Laboratory. If you look at companies delivering packages with drones, we have the facilities to make sure those drones arent disrupting peoples daily lives in urban and even rural areas. As part of the CRADA agreement, CDO Technologies will be responsible for managing and maintaining the facility while scheduling and conducting testing on aircraft that will be provided by third-party entities. The ARC has relied on CDOs technical expertise and qualifications for the past six years to manage the facility and develop the software for processing and delivering of the final product, often in a classified environment. The Air Force was really looking for an organization that had a solid history of developing sophisticated software and effectively managing large data sets, said Don Ertel, senior vice president of operations at CDO Technologies. Over our 25+ years of working with the Air Force, we have really proven ourselves up to the task by building complex algorithms in the time frame needed with the level of accuracy required to develop the application needed to process the information we gathered. About CDO Technologies, Inc. CDO Technologies provides data-collection, advanced technology communications, and managed services solutions to help commercial and federal organizations operate more efficiently and effectively. Visit cdotech.com to learn more or call (937)258-0022. Several standards related case studies were presented by GKN, Parker, Birken Manufacturing, PCC and Collins Aerospace. In addition, Mr. Ludovic Chevet, Lead Supply Chain Manager, Airbus, focused his remarks on human factors and their role in supply chain issues. The AESQ Hartford Supplier Forum attracted a record attendance of 130. The Aerospace Engine Supplier Quality (AESQ) Strategy Group Supplier Forum was hosted by Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, Connecticut on April 10, 2019. The Welcome Address was presented by Jill M. Albertelli, VP Quality, Pratt & Whitney. Richard Gallagher, Supplier Quality Leader, Boeing, presented a Voice of the Customer perspective. Several standards related case studies were presented by GKN, Parker, Birken Manufacturing, PCC and Collins Aerospace. In addition, Mr. Ludovic Chevet, Lead Supply Chain Manager, Airbus, focused his remarks on human factors and their role in supply chain issues. Supplier Forum attendees learned the latest information on the SAE G-22 Committees AS13xxx series of aerospace engine supplier quality standards. This series was developed to set common quality requirements for the global aerospace engine supply chain to operate more efficiently. Those in attendance were able to share their views and experiences with the current set of standards as well as provide feedback for inclusion in new standards focused on problem solving, quality audit requirements, supplier management and quality management requirements. About AESQ The Aerospace Engine Supplier Quality (AESQ) Strategy Group, a program of the SAE ITC, was established to develop, specify, maintain, promote and deploy quality standards specific to the Aerospace Engine supply chain. This work is intended to reduce customer specifics through a focused set of standards that integrate industry best practice and aerospace engine unique elements. AESQ member companies include GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, Safran, Honeywell, GKN, PCC, MTU and Arconic. Further information about AESQ including G-22 standards, future events, training opportunities and supporting documents can be found on AESQ's website at: http://aesq.sae-itc.com/ The SAE ITC team specializes in establishing and managing consortia by providing proven processes, tools and resources. SAE ITC enables public, private, academic and government organizations to connect and collaborate in neutral, pre-competitive forums thus empowering the setting and implementation of strategic business improvements in global highly engineered industries. (http://www.sae-itc.com) SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for the engineering profession. By engaging nearly 200,000 engineers, technical experts and volunteers, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our philanthropic SAE Foundation, including programs like A World in Motion and the Collegiate Design Series. http://www.sae.org Dr. Tomas D. Morales, President, California State University, San Bernardino will be honored for his extraordinary contributions to the cause of equal opportunity and diversity We are pleased to honor Dr. Morales for his outstanding leadership in higher education, spearheading the effort to cultivate our nations future leaders from K-12 through college, said AAAED President Richard Anthony Baker. The American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity (AAAED), an organization of equal opportunity, diversity and affirmative action professionals, announced that Dr. Tomas D. Morales, President, California State University, San Bernardino, will be the honoree for the associations Cesar Estrada Chavez Award for 2019. We are pleased to honor Dr. Morales for his outstanding leadership in higher education, spearheading the effort to cultivate our nations future leaders from K-12 through college, said AAAED President Richard Anthony Baker. The Awards Luncheon will take place at the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, June 12, 2019. The award is named for Cesar Estrada Chavez, an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, along with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later the United Farm Workers union, UFW) in 1962. The Cesar Estrada Chavez Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated leadership in support of workers' rights and humanitarian issues. Previous recipients include Dr. Rogelio Saenz (2018), Dr. Harvey Kesselman (2017), Dr. Havidan Rodriguez (2016), and Dr. Marie T. Mora (2015). Selected by Latino Leaders Magazine as one of the 100 most influential Latino Leaders in the country, Dr. Morales has served as president of the board of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Dr. Morales was selected as the president of California State University, San Bernardino in May 2012. He is the university's fourth president since it opened in 1965. His commitment to student success has led to various innovatory summer bridge and orientation programs for area students. In addition, he has spearheaded the first truly bi-county initiative to address education and career preparedness beginning with K-12 through baccalaureate degree attainment. This effort resulted in a successful $5 million California Governors Innovation Award. Previously, Dr. Morales was president of the College of Staten Island, The City University of New York (CUNY), since 2007. From 2001 to 2007, Morales served in various capacities at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, including Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Student Affairs, and professor of education. While at Cal Poly Pomona, he established the Kellogg Honors College, realigned the division of Academic Affairs and played a key role in completing a $23 million expansion of the Bronco Student Center, among other projects. Prior to joining Pomona, Morales was Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at The City College of New York/CUNY from 1994 to 2001. From 1992 to 1994, Morales was Assistant Dean of the School of Education at the State University of New York (SUNY), New Paltz. Dr. Morales holds a B.A. in history from SUNY, New Paltz and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in educational administration and policy studies from SUNY, Albany. Having served as an educator and administrative leader in higher education for more than 37 years, Dr. Morales is one of the few higher education administrators in the United States who has held senior administrative positions at the three largest public university systems in the nation: The California State University, The State University of New York, and The City University of New York. Themed Moving Beyond Diversity Towards Equity and Inclusion, the AAAED 45th National Conference and Annual Meeting is open to the press. For more information or to register for the Conference, go to: https://www.aaaed.org/aaaed/Conference_Agenda1.asp. To purchase a luncheon ticket for the awards ceremony or a table, click here: https://www.aaaed.org/aaaed/Sponsorship.asp. Founded in 1974 as the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA), AAAED is a national not-for-profit association of professionals working in the areas of equal opportunity, compliance and diversity. AAAED has 45 years of leadership in providing professional training to members, enabling them to be more successful and productive in their careers. It also promotes understanding and advocacy of affirmative action and other equal opportunity laws to enhance the tenets of access, inclusion and equality in employment, economic and educational opportunities. The Honorable Gregory W. Porter, State Representative, State of Indiana We are delighted to honor such an outstanding icon of social justice, diversity and equal opportunity, said Dr. Richard Anthony Baker, president of AAAED. The American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity (AAAED), an organization of equal opportunity, diversity and affirmative action professionals, announced that Indiana State Representative Gregory W. Porter will be the honoree of its Drum Major for Justice Award for 2019. The awards celebration will be held on Wednesday, June 12, 2019, during the AAAEDs 45th National Conference and Annual Meeting. Themed Moving Beyond Diversity Towards Equity and Inclusion, the meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis. The Hyatt is located at One South Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46204. The awards program is open to the press. We are delighted to honor such an outstanding icon of social justice, diversity and equal opportunity, said Dr. Richard Anthony Baker, president of AAAED. The Drum Major for Justice is the highest award the association confers. The Award is a special acknowledgement of the extraordinary contributions that an organization or individual, including a public servant or one who has held an elective office or appointment to public service, has made to the cause of access, equity and diversity. Previous recipients include Rev. Dr. CT Vivian (2018), Dr. Shirley A Jackson (2017), U.S. Rep. G. K. Butterfield (2016), and U.S. Representatives August F. Hawkins and Parren Mitchell (deceased) (2008). The 2019 AAAED Drum Major for Justice Award Recipient is the Honorable Gregory W. Porter, State Representative, State of Indiana. Gregory W. Porter is a member of the 120th Indiana General Assembly. He is now serving his 13th term for the 96th House District in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is currently ranking minority member of the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee. Based on his distinguished record of achievement over a period of twenty-five years in elected office, Mr. Porter was elected by his colleagues and peers across the nation to serve as President of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), an organization that leads nearly seven hundred African American state legislators across forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and the U. S. Virgin Islands. NBCSL is designed to enhance the effectiveness of legislation that impacts, either directly or indirectly, the general welfare of African American constituents within their respective jurisdictions. Mr. Porter also holds the position of Sr. Vice President of External Affairs for the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County. As Sr. Vice-President of External Affairs, Porter advises the president on strategies from communicating to and involving the community at large within the corporations goals, facilitates relationships between the corporation and external stakeholders, and acts in the capacity of a community liaison. As member of the Indiana General Assembly he and his legislative colleagues authored Resolution No. 56 that renames the section of Interstate Highway 65 from Seymour, Indiana to Johnson County the Tuskegee Airmen Highway. Mr. Porter has received numerous awards not limited to but including the 2018 Dr. Mozel Sanders Drum Major for Political and Social Justice, NAACP 2015 Pathfinder Award, Martin Center Distinguished Sickle Cell Champion Award, Indianapolis Urban League 2015 Servant Leadership Legacy Award, Prevent Child Abuse of Indiana Leadership Award, and the Indiana Early Care Education Legislative Award. He also received the Black Caucus of State Legislators Award, plus an Eagle Award from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. The AAAED 45th National Conference and Annual Meeting is open to the press. For more information or to register for the Conference, go to: https://www.aaaed.org/aaaed/Conference_Agenda1.asp. To purchase a ticket to the awards ceremony or to sponsor a table, go to: https://www.aaaed.org/aaaed/Sponsorship.asp. Founded in 1974 as the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA), AAAED is a national not-for-profit association of professionals working in the areas of equal opportunity, compliance and diversity. AAAED has 44 years of leadership in providing professional training to members, enabling them to be more successful and productive in their careers. It also promotes understanding and advocacy of affirmative action and other equal opportunity laws to enhance the tenets of access, inclusion and equality in employment, economic and educational opportunities. Lendified Holdings, Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based financial technology company, closed a $15m funding round. Backers included CI Financial Corp., Windsor Private Capital Limited Partnership, FirePower Capital, Glenn Murphy, the founder of FIS Holdings and former CEO of Gap Inc. and Shoppers Drug Mart. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations. Launched in 2015 and led by Kevin Clark, President, and led by Troy Wright, CEO, Lendified offers online loans to small businesses across Canada and a SaaS credit platform to financial institutions across North America (used by credit unions, community banks, and other financial services companies) featuring tools for managing cash flow, and advanced credit adjudication software to financial service providers across North America. Through its lending business, the company offers loans up to $150k for terms up to two years. Its advanced underwriting process is powered by Judi, its credit adjudication platform which enables users to assess, price, and monitor credit risk, and in-turn provide the best possible services to customers. FinSMEs 18/04/2019 Kevin Harrington, one of the original Sharks from the hit reality series Shark Tank, and the Product Managers of AsSeenOnTV.pro are pleased to announce their DRTV campaign with GreenTree Natural Wellness Center. The pursuit of whole-body health and wellness is what everyone strives for. Unfortunately, people are given few natural options while being bombarded with pharmaceuticals whose side effects list is longer than what the drug is promising. People need to nurture their bodies with nature and can achieve optimal whole-body wellness with organic, pure CBD from GreenTree Natural Wellness Center. Physician recommended; GreenTree Natural Wellness Center offers CBD products to help those Nurture with Nature. GreenTree Natural Wellness Center provides the highest quality CBD that is completely worry-free because it contains no THC. GreenTrees team consists of medical professionals, scientists, and agriculturists who are dedicated to producing the purest broad-spectrum CBD, while never compromising on quality. GreenTrees unique products help with pain, anxiety, energy, hormone balance, anti-inflammatory and so much more. All of the products are 3rd party independently lab tested for potency and purity. They are organic, non-GMO, vegetarian, gluten-free, and dont contain any pesticides. With consistency, CBD has been a life changer for my family, especially being able to eliminate their ADD medications, says Dawn Hackney, CEO of GreenTree Natural Wellness Center. And I know CBD can be a life changer for other families, too. Thats why GreenTree Natural Wellness Center has partnered with AsSeenOnTV.pro, to expand our audience and help others in need. GreenTree Natural Wellness Center helps cultivate health and wellness, says Douglas Scott, Executive Producer at AsSeenOnTV.pro. Theyre really making the world a more beautiful place. As part of its DRTV campaign with AsSeenOnTV.pro, GreenTree Natural Wellness Center will be appearing in 60 second spots set to air nationwide and feature the original Shark himself, Kevin Harrington. AsSeenOnTV.pro is comprised of an award-winning team of producers, writers, videographers, and editors as well as industry veterans dedicated to finding the latest, most innovative products and ideas, and putting them on the DRTV map. About AsSeenOnTV.pro Headquartered in South Florida, AsSeenOnTV.pro is a full-service production, branding, and marketing company that specializes in direct response television, short- and long-form commercials, and brand building. Based out of a 25,000+ sq ft, state-of-the-art studio, the companys creative team handles every aspect of production from script to screen to airing. For nearly two decades, AsSeenOnTV.pros veteran staff of writers, producers, videographers, and editors has amassed more than 50 Telly Awards, thousands of prestigious clients, and over $20 million in television placements. About Kevin Harrington As the inventor of the infomercial, founder of As Seen on TV, and one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington has worked with some of the worlds biggest celebrities and launched some of the best-selling DRTV campaigns in history. Since producing his first 30-minute infomercial in 1984, Harrington has been involved in over 500 product launches that have resulted in over $4 billion in sales. Now, in his latest venture with AsSeenOnTV.pro, Harrington is on the hunt for the best new products and ideas, bringing them to homes everywhere through personalized DRTV campaigns featuring the Shark. For more information on GreenTree Natural Wellness Center, please visit http://www.greentreewellnesscenter.com. Menopause affects different women in different ways. From hot flashes, to mood swings, to a range of other symptoms, perimenopause and menopause can all majorly impact your quality of life in a negative way. If youre looking for a natural, drug-free way to relieve the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, you may be very interested in LadyCare. Used by hundreds of thousands of women worldwide, LadyCare naturally relieves the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause in 71% or more cases. LadyCare is a safe, natural alternative to Hormone replacement therapy. It safely helps rebalance the part of the nervous system that typically becomes imbalanced during this time. LadyCare is both comfortable and discreet. You too can help improve your balance and serenity, with LadyCare. Theres no product like LadyCare, says Robert Jellows, Co-Owner of LadyCare. There are supplements or drugs that have negative side effects, but if youre looking for a more natural route, LadyCare will be there. Were proud to be expanding our audience with the help of AsSeenOnTV.pro. LadyCare is spectacular, says Lisa Vrancken, Executive Vice President of Business Development at AsSeenOnTV.pro. So many women can benefit from this revolutionary device. Right from the moment I saw this product, I knew working with them was the right thing to do. As part of its DRTV campaign with AsSeenOnTV.pro, LadyCare will be appearing in 60 second spots set to air nationwide and feature the original Shark himself, Kevin Harrington. AsSeenOnTV.pro is comprised of an award-winning team of producers, writers, videographers, and editors as well as industry veterans dedicated to finding the latest, most innovative products and ideas, and putting them on the DRTV map. About AsSeenOnTV.pro Headquartered in South Florida, AsSeenOnTV.pro is a full-service production, branding, and marketing company that specializes in direct response television, short- and long-form commercials, and brand building. Based out of a 25,000+ sq ft, state-of-the-art studio, the companys creative team handles every aspect of production from script to screen to airing. For nearly two decades, AsSeenOnTV.pros veteran staff of writers, producers, videographers, and editors has amassed more than 50 Telly Awards, thousands of prestigious clients, and over $20 million in television placements. About Kevin Harrington As the inventor of the infomercial, founder of As Seen on TV, and one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington has worked with some of the worlds biggest celebrities and launched some of the best-selling DRTV campaigns in history. Since producing his first 30-minute infomercial in 1984, Harrington has been involved in over 500 product launches that have resulted in over $4 billion in sales. Now, in his latest venture with AsSeenOnTV.pro, Harrington is on the hunt for the best new products and ideas, bringing them to homes everywhere through personalized DRTV campaigns featuring the Shark. For more information on LadyCare, please visit http://www.ladycareusa.com. The FLEX loan is an open line of credit that gives customers the freedom of withdrawing cash at any time (up to their credit limit) then paying it back at their own pace with conveniently scheduled payments aligned with their normal cash flow. Financial services company Advance Financial announced today that it is now offering online FLEX loans to residents in South Carolina. The FLEX loan is an open line of credit that gives customers the freedom of withdrawing cash at any time (up to their credit limit) then paying it back at their own pace with conveniently scheduled payments aligned with their normal cash flow. The loans, which range from $610 up to $4,000, carry no prepay penalties, and customers can access funds anytime they need cash. South Carolina is the 12th state to offer Advance Financial FLEX loans online. The other 11 states include Alabama, California, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Our FLEX loan is helping families and individuals all across the country, and we are excited to add South Carolina to the growing list of states to help provide customers the money they need, said Tina Hodges, Advance Financials Chief Executive and Chief Experience officer. We look forward to working with South Carolina residents to help them reach financial stability and independence, all from the comfort of their own homes. The application and approval processes are entirely online and take only minutes from start to finish. Advance Financials customer care department is open 24/7/365 to answer questions and help customers with their applications. Once approved, customers with bank participation can access funds on the same or next business day. To learn more about Advance Financials FLEX loan, visit: https://www.af247.com/services. About Advance Financial Founded in 1996, Advance Financial is a leading fintech company based in Nashville, Tennessee. With more than 100 stores in Tennessee and online services in 12 states, Advance Financial provides fast lending decisions on line-of-credit loans and other financial services, 24/7/365. Recent recognition includes 2018 Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies (7 straight years); A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau; Nashvilles 4th fastest growing company (2018, Nashville Business Journal); Forbes Best Employers for New Graduates (2018); and, Indeed Top-Ranked Workplace for Compensation/Benefits (2018). For more, visit http://www.af247.com. BOSS Coffee will be available in the US in two varieties: black and cafe au lait For over 25 years BOSS Coffee has been a favorite in Japan, the worlds largest RTD coffee market. Now, were excited to introduce Japanese style flash-brew to American consumers. Suntory Beverage & Food North America LLC is proud to announce the US launch of BOSS Coffee, its ready-to-drink (RTD) flash-brewed coffee brand. BOSS Coffee is currently Japans third best-selling beverage, with dozens of unique products and over 100 million cases sold in 2018. BOSS Coffee now aims to serve the United States rapidly growing RTD coffee market, which has averaged over 10% year-over-year category growth since 2013. The Suntory family of companies are well known across the US for their high-end Suntory brand Japanese whiskeys, as well as American brands Jim Beam and Makers Mark. Internationally, Suntory Beverage & Food Limited also has an extensive portfolio of non-alcoholic beverages; BOSS Coffee will be the first non-alcoholic Suntory brand available nationwide in the US. For over 25 years BOSS Coffee has been a favorite in Japan, the worlds largest RTD coffee market. Now, were excited to introduce Japanese style flash-brew to American consumers. said Keishi Fukata, BOSS Coffees US brand manager. Flash-brew may be new to the US, but it has old roots in Japan, where it is revered by coffee aficionados for its distinct flavor profile and silky mouthfeel. Weve spent decades refining BOSS Coffee, and we believe our time-tested production process offers a rich cold coffee that American coffee drinkers will love. Flash brewing involves brewing coffee hot to maximize the extraction of flavor compounds, then cooling it rapidly to preserve them. This as opposed to cold brewing, in which coffee grounds are steeped in unheated water. This flavor difference has a scientific explanation; a 2018 study published in Nature found that hot-brewed coffee contains acid compounds not found in cold brew extracts, as well as higher concentrations of antioxidants. These additional compounds contribute to a more well-rounded and complex flavor. BOSS Coffee has been a breakout favorite in its Colorado test markets since launching in 2018, where it can be found on the shelves of Safeway, Albertsons, and King Soopers stores. Elizabeth Fischer, VP of Business Development for Suntory B&F N.A., commented, Its been fantastic to see BOSS Coffees reception in Colorado. People are blown away because they dont expect such full, fresh flavor from a canned coffee. Now, were excited to bring BOSS Coffee to Americans everywhere. BOSS Coffee is currently available nationwide in two flavors: black and cafe au lait. BOSSs black coffee is bold, robust, and unsweetened - great for coffee purists. The cafe au lait is creamy and lightly sweetened take on a coffee house brew. Coffee drinkers can purchase 12-packs of BOSS Coffee on Amazon.com for $29.99 (Price as of April 2019). BOSS Coffee has plans for retail expansion in 2019. They hope to usher in a new wave of quality to the US RTD coffee market through their superior quality Japanese flash-brew. About Suntory Beverage and Food (SBF) Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd (SBF) is a global soft drink company with consolidated revenue of approx. 1.3 trillion yen in 2018. Headquartered in Japan and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange since 2013, SBF is expanding its business with a diverse portfolio of soft drinks and globally integrated platform in five key regions: Japan, Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. SBFs vision is to enrich our drinking-experiences to be more natural, healthy, convenient, and fulfilling, by leading the next drinks revolution. SBF is a core company of Suntory Group, which was founded in 1899 with consolidated revenue of approx. 2.5 trillion yen in 2018. For further information please visit http://www.suntory.com/softdrink/index.html Summer is the best time to focus on college entrance test prep, said Ed Kim, VP of Education Development & Curriculum at C2 Education. Summer is a great time for students to get ahead academically, and C2 Education (C2), the nations fastest growing network of subject tutoring, SAT , ACT, and PSAT test prep and college admissions consulting centers is offering a choice of three special Boot Camps to help students do just that. Summer is the best time to focus on college entrance test prep, said Ed Kim, VP of Education Development & Curriculum at C2 Education. "Free from the daily grind of schoolwork and after school activities, students can dedicate their extra time to mastering the content and skills critical to scoring well on these tests." All three summer camps offer intensive learning using C2s proprietary curriculum and custom content. Interim testing is also built into the schedule to measure progress and build confidence. Available as 50-hour and 80-hour programs and tailored to meet each students needs, all camps include 2-hour sessions with individual attention for each student. The three camps include: SAT Boot Camp: This program is for students preparing for the summer or fall SAT or PSAT and focuses on high-yield skills to maximize each students time with expert teachers who have mastered the SAT. ACT Boot Camp: The ACT summer program accelerates a students preparation for summer or fall test dates with custom content and workbooks designed for summer study. Book Boot Camp: This program is built for 4th - 8th graders who could use a boost in reading comprehension and writing skills. Space is limited. To register, parents and students can visit https://www.c2educate.com/summer-boot-camps/#top or stop by their local C2 Center. About C2 Education C2 Education (http://www.C2education.com) was founded in 1997 by David Kim and Jim Narangajavana, two Harvard students offering private tutoring programs from their dorm room. Now one of the nations leading Tutoring, Test Prep, and College Admissions Counseling organizations, the company has grown to over 180 centers nationwide serving over 13,000 students and their families. C2 utilizes a unique approach that combines individualized instruction, customized curriculum, and dedicated education experts that helps students on the path to their dream college. C2 Education is headquartered in Johns Creek, Georgia. Follow the company on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/c2education. Media Contact: Kenny Fried Email: kfried@aboutbwf.com Phone: 202-468-8200 Chris and Rafael are channel innovators and we are thrilled that they will champion our West Coast and Midwest region channel programs. CallTower is growing at an unprecedented rate and the addition of these team members are instrumental in our continued channel success plan CallTower, a global leader in delivering cloud-based enterprise-class unified communications and collaboration solutions is proud to announce today that Chris Le and Rafael Renteria will support strategic growth initiatives in the West Coast and Midwest regions. Chris Le is a proven sales leader with 18-years of direct and channel sales experience in UCaaS, SIP, IP/MPLS, SD-WAN, Cloud Connect and Managed Security in the Midmarket and Enterprise sectors. Chris vast background enables him to quickly solidify partnerships and Chris is an expert in aligning partner customer goals with the appropriate technology to deliver the desired business outcome. Prior to joining the CallTower team, Chris previously worked with GTT, Masergy and XO Communications. "CallTower's vision and expansive growth in the unified communications and collaboration industry is truly remarkable, says Chris Le. I am thrilled to be joining an organization that delivers Cisco, Microsoft, and CT Cloud UCaaS solutions - all tailored to meet the needs to todays competitive global environment. With more than 20 years in channel, wholesale and direct telecommunication sales and leadership, Rafael has an expansive background as in sales drives growth in Channel Sales. A testament to his dedication, he has been a Presidents Club winner for the last 12-years running for exceeding revenue goals. Rafael drove all the strategic decisions and expansion for First Communications including product development. Prior to joining the CallTower team, Rafael previously worked with First Communications/Globalcom, and XO Communications. According to Rafael Renteria, CallTower is not only differentiated by their ability to deliver ground-breaking solutions; they have the ability to enhance and customize solutions to meet the needs of any organization. They further simplify this process with the use of a proprietary tool, CallTower Connect, which enables organizations to set up and manage their services within one easy-to-use web or mobile application. They are not only set apart by their ability to deliver ground-breaking solutions - they have exceptional technical and customer support. Chris and Rafael are channel innovators and we are thrilled that they will champion our West Coast and Midwest region channel programs. CallTower is growing at an unprecedented rate and the addition of these team members are instrumental in our continued channel success plan, says CallTowers Chief Revenue Officer, William Rubio. Both Chris and Rafael have impeccable reputations, and their motivation to get things done fits perfectly into our culture. CallTower CallTower exists to enable people to easily connect to transact business communications. Since its inception in 2002, CallTower has become a leading provider of cloud-based, enterprise-class Unified Communications solutions for growing organizations worldwide. CallTower provides, integrates and supports industry-leading, cloud-based, Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions, including Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Native Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, CT Cloud, CT Cloud Boost, Office 365 and CT Cloud Meeting, powered by Zoom Video Communications for business customers. CallTower enhances our clients strategic and operational capabilities by integrating VoIP service, mobile applications, email hosting, unified messaging, instant messaging, audio, web and video conferencing, collaboration tools, contact center, cloud services and global networks solutions into one reliable platform. Were exposing the growing problem of fraud in our industry because it impacts everyone. Regional councils affiliated with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) held over 100 events in the U.S. and Canada April 13 15, protesting against the costly epidemic of construction industry tax fraud. But this isnt just a problem for the construction industry, said Frank Spencer, General Vice President of the UBC. Were exposing the growing problem of fraud in our industry because it impacts everyone. The UBCs best estimate, based on studies done at the state level, is that the underground economy (which includes the amount of wages paid to workers off the books) in the construction industry amounts to some $148 billion in the U.S. The lost state and federal income and employment taxes add up to $2.6 billion. According to Statistics Canada, the residential construction industry is the largest contributor to the underground economy there, accounting for just over a quarter of the total, or $13.7 billion. During our Tax Fraud Days of Action, thousands of carpenters were joined by allies and elected officials, said Spencer. We all spoke in a unified voice to declare that basic employment and tax laws need to be enforced for the welfare of workers, responsible employers and all taxpayers. Im sure most of us would prefer to see missing tax revenues properly collected and put to work building better roads, bridges and schools, Spencer said. Most of us would like to see our veterans better cared for, too, and Medicare and Social Security funding made more secure. But rampant cheating in the construction industry makes all of that harder to do. Spencer urged the public, policymakers and the media to learn more about widespread tax and insurance fraud and wage theft in the construction industry at a special UBC website, StandingUpToTaxFraud.net. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters represents over 500,000 members and strives to build a strong construction industry with contractors across the United States and Canada. Im confident that the judges will see the positive impact Recovry Central and its technology has in enabling a new path forward for all parties to be able to navigate the ins and outs of a workers comp system thats long overdue for change. -Joe Rubinsztain, CEO of ChronWell ChronWell, a technology-enabled injury management program for the workers' compensation industry, today announced it has been invited to participate in the inaugural RIMS Tech, the Insurtech Competition at RIMS 2019 Annual Conference & Exhibition, which will be coming to Boston April 28th through May 1st. The competition, which aims to award innovative start-ups for their efficiency-enhancing solutions, will allow select companies to pitch their technologies in a Shark Tank-styled showdown. The judges include expert risk managers and professionals from prestigious companies, including Walt Disney World Resorts, General Motors Company, Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., Groupon and BlackRock, Inc. In a competitive market, the RIMS Tech competition provides a platform for these start-up companies, as well as a valuable opportunity for risk professionals to familiarize themselves with potentially game-changing solutions, said Audrey Rampinelli, OnRamp Risk, LLC CEO and sponsor of the event. ChronWell will demonstrate its Recovry Central injury management platform. The platform uses advanced technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), mobile apps and cloud-based computing, to address on-site injuries, engage injured workers and help deliver a unified care experience throughout the entire accelerated cycle of the claim. This minimizes the impact of workplace accidents on insurers, employers and injured workers. Its an honor to demonstrate our product alongside other innovative start-ups, said Joe Rubinsztain, CEO of ChronWell. Im confident that the judges will see the positive impact Recovry Central and its technology has in enabling a new path forward for all parties to be able to navigate the ins and outs of a workers comp system thats long overdue for change. In April, ChronWell announced the positive results of its pilot with California Farm Management (CFM), a self-insured collective of farms. By empowering skilled humans and deploying ChronWells Recovry Central care navigation solution to a pool of several thousand agricultural workers, CFM achieved 28% fewer workers compensation claims and a one-third reduction in litigated claims, resulting in an overall 30% savings in claims costs over a 28-week period. At RIMS 2019, ChronWell will exhibit in the Start-Up Stadium, a section of the RIMS Marketplace dedicated to emerging start-up exhibitors. To learn more about ChronWell and its Recovry Central technology, visit http://www.chronwell.com. About ChronWell Based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and founded in 2017 by health care and insurance technology veterans, ChronWell has developed a unified care navigation platform for the workers compensation system in America. Combining breakthrough technology, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and empathy-driven services, ChronWell minimizes the impact of workplace accidents on workers, employers and insurers. ChronWell helps navigate care from the onset of an injury through the resolution of a claim by efficiently establishing lines of communication and bridging the gap between employee, employer and insurance company. ChronWell will also leverage technology to expand adjuster capabilities. For more information, visit http://www.chronwell.com. About RIMS Annual Conference & Exhibition Launched in 1963, RIMS Annual Conference & Exhibition attracts some 10,000 risk and insurance professionals at all experience levels, business executives with risk management interests, brokers, insurers and service providers for the ultimate educational and networking experience. The four-day event offers more than 200 educational sessions, keynote presentations, special events and an expansive Marketplace Exhibit Hall with nearly 400 exhibitors. Following Boston, the event will be hosted in Denver in 2020. For more information, visit http://www.RIMS.org/RIMS2019. About OnRamp Risk, LLC Strategically positioning risk for opportunity. OnRamp Risk, LLC is a unique industry hybrid leveraging deep risk management expertise with an ever-expanding knowledge of the creative InsurTech ecosystem. A leading advocate for innovation in risk management, OnRamp Risk creates value through strategy by providing innovative solutions that bridge tech and risk. For more information, please visit http://www.OnRampRisk.com. His experience on Wall Street, coupled with his leadership style, will help position Coherix for its next step our stock to be quoted on a National Exchange. Mr. Pruette attended the University of Michigan and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree, majoring in economics, with specific studies in international trade and game theory. He has been licensed by the NASD as a Series 7 broker, and he played an instrumental role in growing the financial services start up Egan-Jones Ratings Company from three guys with a dream to a global concern. The firm was ultimately recognized by the SEC as an NRSRO, whose research is on par with Standard & Poors, Moodys and Fitch for use in pricing underwriting transactions. Christopher has been a long-term supporter of Coherix as an early investor and financial consultant. His professional interests include financial markets, digital assets, and online capital formation. The addition of Christopher to the Coherix Team, allows Coherix to present a global financial presence to existing and potential investors as we raise critical growth capital to fill out the distribution of our Predator3D, Robust3D and Saber3D products and expand our sales, marketing and product development resources globally, Dwight Carlson (CEO and Chairman) announced. About Coherix, Inc. Coherix, Inc. develops and manufactures high-speed, high-definition 3D machine vision products that enable our customers to manage high-volume precision manufacturing processes. Coherix products are designed for inspection and error-proofing in the automotive, semiconductor, and electronics industries. Coherix is committed to producing the highest performing 3D machine vision products at the lowest Total Cost of Ownership. Coherix customers and partners include global end users, system integrators, and distributors, who demand 100 percent reliability that Coherix products provide. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the company has offices in the United States, China, Germany, Singapore, and Japan. For more information on Coherix, please visit http://www.coherix.com or contact Christopher Pruette at investorquestions@coherix.com We are continually looking at ways to improve the experience for passengers of both CBX and Tijuana International Airport, said Jorge Goytortua, CEO of CBX. The expansion and renovations will save valuable time for travelers." Cross Border Xpress (CBX) together with Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (GAP) have announced the completion of a $95.3 million dollar renovation at the Tijuana International Airport (TIJ). The renovation features upgrades to terminal infrastructure and technologies as well as consumer-facing areas such as expanded check-in desks, security checkpoints and baggage claim. The project, which has been underway for the past five years, marks the largest investment made by GAP to date. Upgrades include the modernization and extension of the main terminal building. Airport infrastructure improvements include a new turbo pipeline to supply and service aircraft more efficiently, as well as expanded aircraft parking positions to improve the boarding process. The investments were made to accommodate the immense increase in passenger traffic that Cross Border Xpress has brought to Tijuana International Airport, said Eduardo Gonzalez Perez, administrator of the airport. Since CBX opened in 2015, weve seen a cumulative growth of more than 60 percent. Additional renovation features include: New check-in area with 12 additional counters Five new baggage claim belts with extended capacity New security check point with two lanes for CBX passengers A total of 91,493 square feet of expanded space and 182,986 square feet of renovated space We are continually looking at ways to improve the experience for passengers of both CBX and Tijuana International Airport, said Jorge Goytortua, CEO of CBX. The expansion and renovations will save valuable time for travelers. Were incredibly proud of the work thats been done in partnership with Tijuana International Airport and GAP to see this project come to life. Opened in 2015, CBX was designed to streamline international travel as the first-ever U.S. facility to connect directly into a foreign airport terminal. Designed in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection, the 390-foot-long enclosed pedestrian skybridge connects a state-of-the-art passenger building in San Diego directly to TIJ, servicing more than 6,000 ticketed airline passengers daily. In 2018 CBX registered over 2,260,000 users, resulting in an increase of 18 percent as compared to the previous year. In an effort to manage and reduce its carbon footprint within the airport industry, TIJ also recently received a certification granted by Airports Council International (ACI) as part of the Airport Carbon Accreditation process. For more information on the Tijuana International Airport expansion, please visit https://www.aeropuertosgap.com.mx/es/. For more information on CBX, or to purchase tickets and sign up for special offers, visit the CBX website: http://www.crossborderxpress.com. About Cross Border Xpress: Launched in December 2015, Cross Border Xpress (CBX) streamlines the means of travel for Tijuana International Airport (TIJ) passengers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The sleek terminal and 390-foot-long enclosed pedestrian skywalk bridge services more than 6,000 travelers daily. As the first ever U.S. facility to connect directly into a foreign airport terminal, CBX offers a faster, more secure and hassle-free alternative for ticketed airline passengers to cross the border, eliminating additional traffic from the already congested San Ysidro and Otay Mesa land ports of entry. TIJ passengers can use the skywalk to connect from Southern California to more than 30 destinations in Mexico and around the world. Many of the flight routes are either direct or at a reduced cost as compared to other Southern California airports. CBX is headquartered in Otay Mesa, Calif. and located at 2745 Otay Pacific Drive, San Diego, Calif. For more information on CBX, or to purchase tickets and sign up for special offers, visit the CBX website: http://www.crossborderxpress.com. Travelers can also join the conversation on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/crossborderxpress), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/CrossBrdrXpress) and Instagram (http://www.instagram.com/crossborderxpress). About Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) operates 12 airports throughout Mexicos Pacific region, including the major cities of Guadalajara and Tijuana, the four tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, La Paz and Manzanillo, and six other mid-sized cities: Hermosillo, Guanajuato, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali and Los Mochis. In February 2006, GAPs shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PAC and on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GAP. In April 2015 GAP acquired 100% of Desarrollo de Concesiones Aeroportuarias, S.L., which owns a majority stake of MBJ Airports Limited, a company operating the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. For more information, visit http://www.aeropuertosgap.com.mx. MS Pharma, a pharmaceutical company based in Amman, Jordan, is to acquire Genepharm, a Athens, Greece-based pharmaceutical company. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Following the close, expected by the end of April, Genepharms senior management will remain with the business and guide the company through the next phase of its growth. This acquisition: will expand MS Pharmas geographic presence, will allow it to reach more patients and customers in Europe and the rest of the world, will complement its existing chronic disease portfolio with the addition of several important products in cardiovascular, CNS and oncology. Founded in 1967, Genepharm develops, manufactures and out-licenses high-value generic pharmaceutical products. The company retains a strong portfolio of products and an extensive network of over 223 customers across 70 countries worldwide. It combines R&D capabilities with manufacturing capacity in conventional solids, sterile liquid (oncology) and oncology oral solids. Genepharm will access MS Pharmas manufacturing facilities and products portfolio and will be part of a group employing over 2000 employees. Its portfolio will be strengthened with sterile injectable products and biotechnology candidates and plans are in place to increase the development resources in Athens. Led by Mr Ghiath Sukhtian, Chairman, MS Pharma is a pharmaceutical and healthcare solutions provider with a presence in 12 countries and exports to over 20 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Europe. The company, which has the capability to manufacture branded generics in oral, topical and injectable form, has manufacturing facilities in Algeria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. FinSMEs 18/04/2019 James Poleto (left) of 5x Systems, and Dr. Edward DeVilliers (right) of DeVil-Tech, demonstrate V-TACS at CABSEC in Barbados on March 30, 2019. V-TACS/Locorum is well suited for maritime operations due to its ability to geolocate and track boats on a global network..." Edward DeVilliers, President DeVilliers Technology Solutions and 5x Systems introduced their new command and control (C2) system designed to enhance maritime domain awareness at the recent at the Caribbean Basin Coastal Surveillance and Maritime Security Summit (CABSEC) held recently in Barbados. The two companies partnered to develop V-TACS (Vector Target Acquisition and Communications System) with a graphic user interface called Locorum: Latin for location. Dr. Edward DeVilliers, President DeVilliers Technology Solutions (DeVil-Tech) said, V-TACS/Locorum is well suited for maritime operations due to its ability to geolocate and track boats on a global network. The satellite datalink provided by V-TACS enables users the ability to communicate via voice, data, or text. With an integrated laser range finder, users point and shoot at targets of interest, and then Locorum automatically places an icon representing that targets precise geolocation on a shared map view. DeVilliers went on to say, We designed Locorum to be simple and intuitive. The entire system was optimized for coastal patrol aircraft and patrol boats. The system has to be easy to use, reliable, and equally important affordable. Interest in the V-TACS/Locorum system was high and very well received by CABSEC summit attendees, mostly military and government officials from Caribbean and Central American countries. The exciting and unique thing about this system is that it can work with other C2 systems and other commercially available hardware. This not only makes V-TACS/Locorum more affordable, but also allows our customers to leverage previous investments, said DeVilliers. Both 5x Systems and DeVilliers Technology Solutions are privately owned start-up companies founded by former military officers and defense industry executives. Both companies also employ defense industry engineers with decades of experience. We recruited the best engineers and operators because they both understand the importance of mission-critical systems and so designed V-TACS/Locorum to be robust and reliable every time, said Dr. DeVilliers. About DeVil-Tech DeVilliers Technology Solutions LLC (dba DeVil-Tech) is a minority- and service-disabled Veteran-owned systems engineering and software development company in Stafford, Virginia. Founded in 2012 by Dr. Edward M. DeVilliers, DeVil-Tech provides engineering services, consulting and product development. DeVil-Tech is a registered vendor to Federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense (DoD), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as well as State and commercial firms. The companys experience in complex DoD command and control systems also translates into valuable solutions for the commercial world. For more information about DeVil-Tech visit the website at https://devil-tech.com or connect with them at Facebook/DeVilTechSolutions, Twitter/DeVilTechSolns, and LinkedIn.com/devilliers-technology-solutions-llc. John Kearney and Enrique Mar, CEO and COO of Advanced Training Systems, describes the impact of the new truck driver center in Baja, California. This center provides dynamic world class simulator-based effective training for new drivers. It will mean better prepared drivers resulting in safer deliveries and highways on both sides of the border. On April 6, officials from the municipality of Mexicali, CANACAR (Camara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga, Mexicos counterpart to the American Trucking Association), Cecati 84 (workforce/training agency for the State of Baja California), Kenworth Mexicana, and U.S.A. de C.V. a subsidiary of truck manufacturer Kenworth Trucks, gathered in Mexicali, Baja California for the inauguration of a new heavy truck driver training center. John Kearney, CEO of Advanced Training Systems LLC (ATS), which supplied CECATI 84 with 2 Fleetmaster - KW 680 motion-based simulation technology and ATS's Quadrant Driver Training Methodology for the new center, and Enrique Mar, COO, ATS, issued a joint statement that This center provides dynamic world class simulator-based effective training for new drivers. It will mean better prepared drivers resulting in safer deliveries and highways on both sides of the border. Funding and support for the new training center was made possible by the leadership, oversight and management by the business trust of CANACAR presided by Enrique Armando Gonzalez and represented locally by Luciano Jimenez Laveaga. It includes funding from the educational institution CECATI 84, Kenworth Mexicana, S.A. de C.V., and the business trust of CANACAR. The center is a model for future centers throughout Mexico, intended to standardize and raise the level of training received by heavy truck drivers. Luciano Jimenez Laveaga of CANACAR noted that the students at the facility will receive a total of 97 hours before graduation, whereas before they received less than 19 hours.[1] The director for the new Mexicali center CECATI 84, Jesus Omar Bon Campos, notes that its training will be provided through the ATS Quadrant methodology of integrating adaptive training into a time-tested three-element approach: instructor-led training, computer-based training, and simulator-based training. He pointed out that aspiring drivers can learn the basics of driving, as well as develop the skills necessary to deal with adverse weather and road conditions before boarding a real truck. They have five simulators, two trailers, and a maneuvering track of 20 hectares (about 50 acres).[1] What is being offered at the new center in Mexicali, says ATSs Kearney, is a terrific example of the kind of training that should be the rule on both sides of the border. ATS's COO Enrique Mar Jr. and CANACAR's president Enrique Armando Gonzalez have agreed to highlight the attributes integrated in the CECATI 84 Heavy Truck Training Center in forthcoming driver training forums within the Republic of Mexico in an effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of a well-integrated "dynamic" driving simulation laboratory. John Kearney explained, Learning to drive a big modern truck is a lot like learning to fly a plane: theres a lot of technology involved, the job requires both judgment and experience, and public safety is an important consideration. With a simulator and virtual reality, you can teach the skills to deal with, say, a patch of black ice or a drive wheel blowout. You cant do that with conventional behind-the-wheel training, any more than you could teach pilots to deal with an engine failure by letting them crash real planes. Simulation is mandatory for training pilots, and it should be for training truck drivers as well. About Advanced Training Systems LLC: Advanced Training Systems (ATS) is a high-tech simulator technology and engineering firm that has revolutionized the design and manufacture of advanced training systems to improve training and create safer drivers. ATS, the holder of multiple patents in high-tech training simulation, has as its mission to provide this cutting-edge adaptive training to all involved in the transportation industry at an affordable cost, resulting in safer drivers/operators. For more information, visit http://www.atstrainingsystems.com 1. Cecati Mexicali Opens a Training Center for Operators, Transporte Mexicano, April 3, 2019. Rendering of 35 Eden Avenue Eden & Main will give its residents an opportunity to live in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood right in the heart of downtown Southington, said Michael J. Kokes, Managing Principal of Homestake. Homestake Capital is proud to announce that construction has begun on the first building of its newest townhome community in Connecticut. Eden & Main will give its residents an opportunity to live in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood right in the heart of downtown Southington. Based on the high volume of prospect inquiries, early indications seem to suggest that this project will be well-received, said Michael J. Kokes, Managing Principal of Homestake. Eden & Main is being developed by Lovley Development, one of Connecticuts most reputable homebuilding companies. We are thrilled to have such an experienced builder overseeing this community for us. Mark Lovley and his team have established an award-winning reputation for delivering high-quality homes around the Greater Hartford region. With over 450 units completed in recent years, Mark has distinguished himself as an industry leader, and we are confident that his involvement at Eden & Main will only serve to enhance demand for our product, Kokes said. The new home market in Hartford County remains underserved. At $229,900, Eden & Main offers buyers a rare opportunity to enjoy new construction at an affordable price. In an area where most of the existing housing stock is more than 40 years old, thats a very compelling value proposition. Pre-construction pricing from $229,900 is now available for a limited time only. Prospective buyers seeking to take advantage of this special are encouraged to call 860-302-5173 or email info(at)EdenandMainTownhomes(dot)com. About Homestake Capital, LLC Homestake Capital, LLC, a boutique real estate investment firm located in Monmouth County, New Jersey, is focused on providing direct investment and non-traditional lending to residential and commercial developers. Homestake further adds value by providing development and building experience to the sponsor or borrower. Homestakes unique niche is providing capital for projects that are too big for one investor, but too small for a traditional institutional investor. To learn more, visit https://homestakecapital.com. Eden & Main A Place to Call Home Elastic Path, the worlds leading provider of enterprise API commerce solutions, has been selected as one of Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers 2019. The judges at Mediacorp Canada Inc. named Elastic Path to this esteemed list due to its strong growth and generous benefits. Elastic Path, the worlds leading provider of enterprise API commerce solutions, has been selected as one of Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers 2019. The judges at Mediacorp Canada Inc. named Elastic Path to this esteemed list due to its strong growth and generous benefits. Elastic Path was featured in a special section of the Globe & Mail distributed nationally on Friday, April 12. The selection committee was impressed by Elastic Paths rapid acceleration. The company created over 80 new opportunities in the last year, a YoY growth of 31%. Other employee support programs noted by the judges included the companys $1,500 yearly training benefit, flexible and distance work opportunities, individual performance bonuses and peer-to-peer recognition awards. Its great to see the Elastic Path team recognized for our culture and continued team expansion, said Elastic Path CEO Harry Chemko. We prioritize great employee support programs to support our amazing talent. Benefits like our yearly $1,000 health and wellness account and three weeks of vacation after one year of employment ensure everyone is supported while building technology to transform the future of commerce. Now in its sixth year, Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers recognizes the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that offer the nation's best workplaces and forward-thinking human resources policies. Employers must have less than 500 employees worldwide with headquarters or a main business office located in Canada. The companies that make this list are fast-growing employers that need to innovate rapidly, says Richard Yerema, managing editor of the Canadas Top 100 Employers project. Some have doubled in size over the past year, but all of them are looking for new ways to attract the best and brightest employees so they can keep growing. Many compete in high technology fields, where the race to scale-up isnt just a matter of ambition its a matter of survival. In recent months, they have also made key strategic hires including former Forrester senior analyst John Bruno as Vice President of Product Management to support their growing and increasingly sophisticated customer base. Elastic Path encourages technology and ecommerce professionals to apply for open roles at https://www.elasticpath.com/ecommerce-jobs. About Elastic Path Defining the future of commerce, Elastic Path pioneered the worlds leading API-oriented commerce solution for enterprises. The companys flagship product, Elastic Path Commerce, has helped the worlds top brands generate over $60 billion in over 170 countries. Customers from industries as diverse as travel, telecoms, publishing, software, and retail enjoy the benefits of a flexible, open architecture that monetizes brand-defining customer experiences, facilitates business agility and eliminates commerce system silos. Elastic Path is a private company based in Vancouver, Canada with offices in the UK and US. For more information, visit http://www.elasticpath.com. Were excited to enhance our fulfillment business with the help of VeraCore. VeraCore Software Solutions, Inc. has announced that GAM Graphics and Marketing, a full-service print and communication leader, will be implementing VeraCore to strengthen its fulfillment service offering. GAM Graphics and Marketing began in 1976 in Northern Virginia under the name of G.A.M. Printers. It was started to provide students of Grace Christian Academy an opportunity to learn a marketable job skill. The company quickly became known in their region for their high-quality print work. The business has since evolved to offer design and fulfillment services, but their philosophy of commitment to relationships with customers, employees, and the community has remained constant. The GAM team was eager to put a fulfillment system in place to reduce the amount of manual processes in their operation and bolster their fulfillment offering. As business has grown, having a system that can handle kit assembly, shipping system integration, inventory control, and reporting was essential. Another important must-have was the ability for customers to place orders online. Having modern solutions in place will help create a seamless experience between our customers and our team, said Nathaniel Grant, GAM President. Were excited to enhance our fulfillment business with the help of VeraCore. VeraCore will provide GAM with OMS and WMS solutions to help manage their print fulfillment services. Garrett Lunden, VeraCore President, said, Because of the flexibility of VeraCores software, the GAM team can rest assured that their current needs will be met, and any future customer requirements can be easily addressed. Were confident that VeraCore will help satisfy their business objectives and those of their customers. About VeraCore Software Solutions, Inc. VeraCore has been providing order fulfillment and warehouse fulfillment management software to fulfillment companies, printers, e-retailers, and marketing service providers for over thirty years. Their software solutions are found at the center of thousands of fulfillment programs across a wide range of industries. Visit http://www.veracore.com for more information. About GAM Graphics and Marketing GAM is a full-service design, print, and fulfillment service provider located in Northern Virginia. The company was built on a commitment to strong customer relationships through high-quality and fairly priced services. Learn more at https://www.graphicsandmarketing.com. Philadelphia Business Journal named Greenberg Traurig, LLP Shareholder Jennifer Hermansky to its 2019 40 Under 40 list. Were proud of the contributions Jennifer has made and continues to make in her practice, said Curtis B. Toll, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurigs Philadelphia office. Noting her strong track record of leadership in the field of immigration law, the Philadelphia Business Journal named Greenberg Traurig, LLP Shareholder Jennifer Hermansky to its 2019 40 Under 40 list. Were proud of the contributions Jennifer has made and continues to make in her practice, said Curtis B. Toll, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurigs Philadelphia office. She is a great example of the smart, dynamic, and thoughtful attorneys that serve our clients, both in this city and throughout the firm. While Jennifer has been developing a national reputation for some time, its always special to be recognized in your hometown. Philadelphia has a great deal of legal talent, so the competition here is fierce. The publication reports fielding nearly 400 nominations this year for the 40 coveted slots. Hermansky joined Greenberg Traurig in 2013 and was elevated to shareholder in 2017. She holds undergraduate and law degrees from Drexel University. Hermansky is a member of the firms Immigration & Compliance Practice and the team that handles matters related to the EB-5 program. She first began working on EB-5 investor cases in 2009 and subsequently added regional center matters to her repertoire. She has since been involved in more than 100 regional center projects and has handled thousands of investor petitions. With a degree in finance and a background handling entrepreneurial cases for clients seeking E-2 or L-1 visas, Hermansky is intimately familiar with the business immigration process and applies this knowledge to all her EB-5 cases. Hermansky assists EB-5 program participants from when they decide to file until they become U.S. citizens, as well as provide counseling of regional centers on the legal aspects of management, staffing, and compliance. She has been recognized as a leader in the industry, most recently as one of the Top 25 EB-5 Attorneys for EB5Investor magazine. The 40 under 40 list is designed to recognize a cross-section of current and future leaders in a variety of industries in the city and region. The Philadelphia Business Journal will honor the 2019 winners on May 30 at the Event Center at SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia. A full feature article profiling the honorees will be published in the May 31 edition. About Greenberg Traurigs Philadelphia Office Founded in 1997, Greenberg Traurigs Philadelphia office is home to nearly 50 attorneys with award-winning practices that include Real Estate, Public Finance, Litigation, Labor & Employment, Environmental, Government Law & Policy, Restructuring & Bankruptcy, Corporate & Securities, Intellectual Property, Business Immigration & Compliance, Investment Regulation, and Tax. The Philadelphia office represents clients in the manufacturing, health care, real estate, energy, financial, and insurance industries, state and local governments, professional service, and energy firms and individuals. About Greenberg Traurig's Immigration & Compliance Group Greenberg Traurig's Business Immigration & Compliance Group is a multidisciplinary business immigration practice representing businesses, organizations, and individuals from around the world on a wide range of immigration-related matters. The group has achieved international recognition for legal advocacy, results-oriented service, and responsiveness to its clients. About Greenberg Traurig, LLP Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has more than 2,000 attorneys in 39 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law. Kemal Hawa of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, will moderate two panels at Datacloud Global Congress 2019, the premier international conference that focuses on data center and telecom infrastructure investments and mergers and acquisitions. Greenberg Traurig is the exclusive legal sponsor of Finvest, a special one-day transactional summit at Datacloud Global Congress 2019. Datacloud Global Congress 2019 is a three-day summit, June 4-6 in Monaco, that provides thought leadership across the IT infrastructure ecosystem. The agenda covers cloud challenges, edge evolution, and data center infrastructure, and attracts investors, financiers, business leaders, and their customers. On June 5, 2019, Hawa will moderate a panel at Finvest comprised of global leaders in data center and telecom transactions. The panelists will discuss the key factors that drive telecom and data center investment and M&A. On June 6, 2019, Hawa will moderate a panel at Datacloud Global Congress 2019 entitled Legal and Regulatory Developments for the Global Cloud and Communications Infrastructure Sector. This panel will address some of the recent global legal and regulatory developments impacting data center and communications infrastructure and their implications on investment in the sector. Hawa focuses his practice on corporate and securities law, with an emphasis on the telecommunications, media, and technology industries, domestically and internationally. He regularly advises public and private companies, private equity firms, investment banks, and creditors committees on a variety of matters, including mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and restructurings, investments, financing arrangements, licensing agreements, and commercial transactions. Hawa assists clients with the negotiation of transactions in the cloud computing space, including the negotiation of data center and co-location leases, globally. He also has significant experience in the negotiation of network infrastructure transactions, including submarine cable systems (builds, financing, and capacity procurement), as well as terrestrial fiber optic network transactions. About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has more than 2,000 attorneys in 39 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law. High Performance Polymers: Meet the Experts at OTC 2019 in Houston, TX Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials formerly known as Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products (EPP), the leading global manufacturer of high-performance thermoplastic materials, visits the 2019 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) this May to showcase the latest innovations in advanced engineering grade plastics, polymers, and composites for offshore technology. Known as the energy industrys premier global event, the annual petrochemical conference drew over 60,000 professionals from more than 100 countries in 2018. Finished part solutions and stock shapes available from Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials help global clients in the compressor, valve and pump markets to find the right material for their specific applications. Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials polymer labyrinth seals, for example, have been specially designed for the turbo compressor market. The seals have 15+ years proven performance, reducing tolerance or maintaining original tolerance over their lifetime, providing improved compressor efficiency. Testing has shown that Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials Duratron seals virtually eliminate tooth deformation and mating shaft damage during shaft rubs, common in metal and alloy seals. Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials comply with many common industry specifications, including NORSOK, ISO, ACME, API, and NACE, delivering reliability, safety, and efficiency. In an industry with strict requirements for temperatures, loads, and chemicals, Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials delivers a superior and vast portfolio of products. Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials is committed to the accuracy of thermoplastics data for more successful specification writing. Our in-house lab machine-tests samples from the actual post-process stock shapes to ensure our customers receive materials that are on-spec and comply with ASTM/ISO standards. In the oil and gas industries, where part failure can be particularly disastrous (leaks leading to environmental damage; lost revenue due to downtime; and even death), specifying the right material is critical. OTC is sponsored by 13 different industry organizations and societies. Founded in 1969, the annual conference is the leading forum to exchange ideas and opinions advancing the safe, environmentally friendly, and sustainable development of offshore resources. The conference consists of panel sessions, keynote presentations, technical paper presentations, and networking events. Visit Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials at the 2019 Offshore Technology Conference (booth # 173) at NRG Park in Houston, Texas from May 6th 9th, 2019. Application specialists and technical experts will be on-site to answer questions. About Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials: Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials technology is backed by a global team of application development and technical service engineers, specializing in evaluating designs and fabrication techniques. Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials expertise is available through a worldwide network of branch offices, technical support centers, and authorized dealers. Learn more about Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials at mcam.com or connect with Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. Acetron, CleanStat, Duraspin, Duratron, Erta, Ertalyte, Ertalene, Ertalon, Extreme Materials, Fluorosint, Ketron, MC, Monocast, Nylatron, Nylasteel, Polypenco, Proteus, Sanalite, Semitron, Techtron, TIVAR and Vibratuf are registered trademarks of the Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials group of companies. Grapevine6 is committed to innovating social selling. To be recognized as a Leader by a trusted organization like Forrester is truly validating," said Mike Orr, COO and Co-Founder of Grapevine6. Grapevine6, a mobile-first, enterprise content engagement platform for digital selling, is designated a Leader by Forrester in The Forrester New Wave: Sales Social Engagement Tools, Q2 2019. Download the report here. Forrester evaluated the eight most significant players in the sales social engagement tools space against ten criteria in two categories: Current Offering & Strategy. In its first participation in an independent evaluation, Grapevine6 received a differentiated rating in six of ten criteria and leads the pack with its seller focus and AI functionality. The report states that Grapevine6s tool leverages AI to help sellers enhance their personal brands and recommend the most relevant content to their audiences and unique contacts. As the buying journey becomes increasingly complex, buyers need to rely on trusted advice from knowledgeable sales professionals, said Wayne Gomes, CEO and Co-Founder of Grapevine6. Our patented content engagement platform was built for sales professionals to deliver relevant and personalized content to nurture and develop meaningful relationships with prospects and clients. The Grapevine6 solution received a differentiated rating in six criteria including AI, Content and Privacy, Risk and Compliance and Product Vision, Product Road-Map and Category Vision. Grapevine6 is recognized as the best fit for companies that want to avoid risk. According to the report, Grapevine6 has focused on acquiring big-brand financial services and high-tech customers such as Guardian Life and SAP. Both early adopters of social selling, SAP and Guardian partnered closely with Grapevine6 to achieve stellar sales results. Their successes led to a wave of fast followers adopting Grapevine6 including leading financial services and high-tech providers. We are dedicated to helping sales professionals drive business results from digital channels and are extremely proud of the results our clients are experiencing, said Mike Orr, COO and Co-Founder of Grapevine6. Grapevine6 is committed to innovating social selling. To be recognized as a Leader by a trusted organization like Forrester is truly validating. Visit Grapevine6 at Sirius Decisions B2B Conference, Booth #K26, May 5-8 To learn more about how digital selling can support your business, Grapevine6 will be attending the Sirius Decisions B2B Conference from May 5-8 in Austin Texas. The company will demo their solution in Booth K26 and offer sales professionals complimentary, one-on-one digital selling consultation sessions. Sign up here. About Grapevine6 Grapevine6 is a patented social and digital sales engagement platform that accelerates sales and marketing efforts. Launched in 2013, Grapevine6 uses artificial intelligence to provide the content that moves sales opportunities through the pipeline in a more efficient and effective way. Grapevine6 solves the content challenges faced in deploying employee advocacy, content marketing and social selling, and works with existing sales and marketing investments to increase ROI. Headquartered in Toronto and led by an award-winning team of engineers, Grapevine6 is now powering the global social selling program at some of the largest technology and financial services companies in the world. For more information visit Grapevine6.com. Theator, a San Mateo, CA and Tel Aviv, Israel-based AI-powered surgical decision support company, closed a $3M funding round. The round was led by StageOne, iAngels and KdTVC. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and development efforts. Led by Dr. Tamir Wolf, Co-Founder and CEO, Theator is building a SaaS platform to provide surgeons with AI-powered decision support tools. It plans to help surgeons enhance their capabilities and reduce medical errors by leveraging machine learning and computer-vision to identify, optimize and scale dissemination of best practices. Launched in April 2019, the companys first product, Minutes, is a highlight reel and analytics tool providing intelligently edited versions of surgical procedures. These are presented to surgeons in a palatable and actionable form in order to help prepare and debrief, quickly, using AI-powered algorithmic insights. FinSMEs 18/04/2019 Alice Hunt and Jack Harrell III The Florida Polytechnic University Foundation Board of Directors is comprised of community leaders and industry experts who see the potential to fuel dreams, boost the economy and put Florida Poly on the map as a high-tech leader. The Florida Polytechnic University Foundation Board of Directors has elected Lakeland businesswoman Alice Hunt as its new chair. The new vice-chair is Jack Harrell III, senior vice president of marketing, sales and R&D at Harrells LLC in Lakeland. Hunt has an extensive path of industry expertise and community involvement. She founded Hunt Construction of Central Florida with her husband, Chuck Hunt, 34 years ago in Lakeland. She is the second recipient of the Eagle Award presented by the Polk County Builders Association. She was chairwoman of the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce in 2011 and was recognized with the George Jenkins Award in 2018. Hunt also chaired the Charter review Commission for Polk County last year. Ive been an advocate for Florida Poly for many years and Im excited to take on this leadership role within the Foundation, said Hunt, who joined the Board of Directors four years ago and served the last two as vice chair. Im looking forward to continuing to engage the community and to grow philanthropic support for the University. Hunt will begin her new role immediately and its effective for two years, replacing Ford Heacock who will remain a member of the Board. Her nomination was supported unanimously and confirmed by Dr. Randy Avent, president of Florida Poly. Alices remarkable leadership and tenacity make her the perfect fit to lead the Foundation Board, said Avent. Her community engagement and true commitment to Florida Poly will be essential for the Foundations efforts to promote and support the University. Harrell, who joined the Board of Directors last year, said that as the new vice-chair, hes determined to fully support Hunt and the Foundation, whether its advocating for the Universitys mission or fundraising to see its continuous growth. Florida Polys vision for growing the job market and the economy in Florida benefits everyone from Polk County and as far as the entire I-4 Corridor, said Harrell. This University will play a vital role in transforming the states economy, so I believe everyone should support it. The Florida Polytechnic University Foundation Board of Directors is comprised of community leaders and industry experts who see the potential to fuel dreams, boost the economy and put Florida Poly on the map as a high-tech leader. The Foundation Board works closely with university leadership to align fundraising efforts with Florida Polys future path. For the most recent university news, visit Florida Poly News. About Florida Polytechnic University: Florida Polytechnic University is an accredited member of the State University System of Florida, dedicated exclusively to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). The University is a powerful economic engine within the state of Florida, blending applied research with industry partnerships to give students an academically rigorous education with real-world relevance. The campus is located in Lakeland, Florida along the I-4 High Tech Corridor. Connect with Florida Poly online at http://www.floridapoly.edu. "We truly appreciate our key stakeholders our employees....Weve taken a lot of care to purposefully create a culture that treats our employees with the same value and concern that we would our next invention. Bluedog Design has become a stand out as an innovative brand and growth consultancy for the countrys top consumer packaged goods brands, but it is the companys innovative intention on culture, and employee-forward approach, that puts it in the top 1% on Crains Chicago Business list of Best Places to Work in Chicago 2019. This is the second year Bluedog has made the list and was also named one of the Top 10 Best Small Businesses in Chicago. Creating a culture that empowers, supports, shapes and provides for employees requires intention, says Michelle Hayward, CEO of Bluedog Design. We truly appreciate our key stakeholders our employees and the value they create and build into the organization, and our clients success in the marketplace. Were thrilled to be recognized again by Crains Chicago Business as one of the Best Places to Work in Chicago. Weve taken a lot of care to purposefully create a culture that treats our employees with the same value and concern that we would our next invention. Bluedogs unique approach to culture is helping the growing company attract top talent from around the country to help solve its clients toughest challenges and provide clarity for growth. Through a number of services such as health & wellness, a Concierge to take the stress away of basic errands like dry cleaning, the Bluedog Bodega which is open all day to provide fuel and energy, a parenting expert, Curiosity U funded learning, Organizational Navigation Tools, inspirational sabbaticals and one-of-a-kind employee engagement tool, Bluedog proves that investing in employees works. The Bluedog leadership team believes that we are in service to our employees, and our culture, said Hayward. Our job is to empower, support, shape and provide. When we do our job well, theres a palpable response of positivity and commitment to the organization, the work and its clients. To generate this prestigious list, Crains partnered with Best Companies Group to survey 14,000 Chicago employees about everything from their workplace and benefits to company culture. This survey and awards program is designed to identify, recognize and honor the 100 best companies to work for in Chicago. To be considered for participation, companies had to: Be a publicly or privately held business Be a for-profit or not-for-profit business, or government entity Have a facility in the Chicago area (including the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake in Illinois, Lake in Indiana, McHenry and Will) Have a minimum of 25 full-time or part-time employees working in Chicago Have been in business a minimum of one year Determining the Best Places to Work in Chicago involved a two-step process. The first step consisted of evaluating each participating companys workplace policies, practices, and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25% of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of employee surveys aimed at assessing the experiences and attitudes of individual employees with respect to their workplace. This part was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the best companies and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process, and also analyzed the data and used its expertise to determine the final ranking. For more information on the Best Places to Work in Chicago program, visit https://www.chicagobusiness.com/html-page/840356. About Bluedog Design We Deliver Growth Through Purpose-Led Transformation Bluedog Design delivers clear and enabling strategies that grow markets, businesses and the most highly valued brands in the world. Bluedogs repeatable, scalable methodologies are rooted in the principles of Design Thinking. While delivering decades of returns for our clients, we've mastered the art of uncovering insights, the discipline of iterative design and innovation, the practice of organizational buy-in and adoption, and the gift of translating complexity to clarity. We are known not just for inspiring progress, but for throwing ourselves into each client's context to make it happenall within a journey that brings our partners a more intuitive understanding of their consumers, businesses, and organizations. http://www.BluedogDesign.com ANE CEO John Tiene (center) with ANE founders Raymond J. Pavese, CEO and Director of Sales, Pavese-McCormick Agency and Michael J. Varvar, President, Valvano Insurance Agency. ANEs growth in the last 10 years shows the tremendous value we bring to our members through our consultative approach and strong carrier relationships that drive revenue and organic growth - John Tiene, CEO of ANE. ANE, Agency Network Exchange, the fastest growing network of insurance agencies in the Mid-Atlantic U.S., celebrated 10 years in operation at its annual conference on April 11. The event brought together more than 250 insurance professionals representing member agencies, carriers, vendors and industry experts. ANE has grown rapidly from just three independent agencies in 2009 to more than 70 agencies across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, including three of the top 100 agencies in the U.S. according to Insurance Journal. Last year, ANE added another 17 members with plans to expand into Connecticut and New York. ANE member agencies wrote over $730 million in property/casualty premiums in 2018. ANEs growth in the last 10 years shows the tremendous value we bring to our members through our consultative approach and strong carrier relationships that drive revenue and organic growth, said John Tiene, CEO of ANE. I am extremely proud of all the work the ANE team has done and I look forward to working with our members to build on our success. In the last three years, ANE members wrote more than $92 million in new business premium to carrier partners and paid more than $10 million in profit sharing to members. 10 Years of ANE ANE was formed in 2009 by the Pavese-McCormick Agency and Valvano Insurance Agency. United Assurance joined as the third founding member in 2010. In 2012, ANE added three equity partners: Bogle Agency Insurance, Merwin & Poalazzi Insurance and JGS Insurance. Liberty Insurance Associates joined as an equity partner in 2014. ANE founding member Michael J. Varvar, President, Valvano Insurance Agency, said In 2008 we came up with the concept of ANE based on the model of like-minded agents that are growing organically. When United joined us as a founding partner in 2010, they validated our model. Agencies have the same problems whether its a small mom and pop agency with revenues of less than a million or a large agency with revenues over $10 million. We all struggle with the same issues, just on a different scale, said ANE founding member Michael McCormick, CFO and COO, Pavese-McCormick Agency. By banding together, we create synergy so that an individual agency can still create growth, meet and exceed carrier expectations, but also remain independent. We work with our agencies to be more efficient and increase revenue to reinvest into their agencies and propel growth at a much higher rate. Its what makes ANE different, said founding member Raymond J. Pavese, CEO and Director of Sales, Pavese-McCormick Agency, Inc. Its amazing to go from a concept to a functioning, thriving organization that helps independent agents remain a viable force in insurance distribution. Annual Meeting ANEs annual meeting brings member agents together to exchange ideas and best practices and to explore innovative, new ways of doing business. The event featured breakout sessions for agency owners, producers, account managers and CSRs. This years keynote speaker was Chris Burand, president of Burand & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in the property/casualty insurance industry. Burands presentation The Future of Agency Distribution explored the history and future of insurance agency distribution, and best practices for agency networks. If you build your best practices for today, it's not going to work. The industry's changing way too fast for that. We have to address and build best practices to help you succeed tomorrow, Burand told agents. The world's becoming a safer place. [Carriers] will do anything to partner with agents that provide organic growth. About ANE ANE, Agency Network Exchange LLC, is a regional network of independent agencies that gives members increased strength in the marketplace, based in Monmouth Junction, N.J. ANEs innovative and flexible model responds to the individual needs of independent agencies of all sizes. ANE helps agents increase agency revenue by pooling premiums to increase contingent revenue, increase new business sales, and provides support to help agents be better business owners. Visit http://www.ane-agents.com for more information. New Iron Edison 4LiFe Lithium Battery Iron Edison is proud to introduce its NEWEST lithium battery for solar, the 4LiFe Lithium Ion Battery. The 4LiFe Lithium Battery can be used as a direct replacement for lead acid batteries. The 4LiFe Battery is designed to simplify battery installation with it's plug-and-play design. The 4LiFe battery can add battery to an existing solar installation, and can be used for a new off-grid or grid-tied solar system coupled with energy storage. What makes these batteries great is the variety of sizes available. The 4LiFe battery starts at 100Ah at 48 Volts (4.8kWh), and is also available in 200Ah 48 Volts (9.6kWh) and 300Ah 48 Volts (14.4kWh). Unlike the LG RESU battery, the 4LiFe battery can operate in parallel from two to twenty units to achieve up to 6,000Ah at 48 Volts - that's 288kWh of energy storage! The 4LiFe batteries come with an integrated battery management system, that allows the battery to charge and discharge at a super fast rate. Iron Edison's 4LiFe lithium battery utilizes the safest type of lithium-ion chemistry, Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4). Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are the safest and most stable of the Lithium battery chemistry types, making it ideal for residential use. The Iron Edison 4LiFe batteries can be used in commercial solar applications, residential solar with battery, boats, and RV's. The 4LiFe lithium batteries from Iron Edison are compatible with all industry-leading inverters and charge controllers such as Schneider Electric, Outback Power, Magnum Energy, MidNite Solar and SMA. This helps solar installers to save time hunting for compatible parts, giving them a faster and more convenient installation experience. From a practical perspective, the 4LiFe batteries are lightweight (about 1/2 the weight of lead acid) and can be easily moved around. This Iron Edison 4LiFe battery has an expected cycle life of 7500+ cycles at 80% depth of discharge. Like all other Iron Edison batteries, the 4LiFe lithium battery also comes with a 10 year warranty, and lifetime technical support. Unlike the Tesla Powerwall, which requires an Internet connection to qualify for warranty coverage, the Iron Edison 4LiFe battery can provide energy security without online monitoring. Based in Denver, Colo., Iron Edison Battery Company offers Nickel Iron and Lithium Iron batteries for solar energy storage, as well as complete solar system design services. The Iron Edison team has designed thousands of off-grid and battery backup systems ranging from large-scale commercial systems in the US to rural solar energy systems for small mountain villages in Nepal. Both its Nickel Iron and Lithium Iron batteries are longer-lasting, more durable alternatives to lead acid batteries. Iron Edison is dedicated to educating people on the benefits of advanced storage battery technology. For more information, contact Iron Edison at (720) 432-6433 or at info(at)ironedison(dot)com. Magnolia Run: a moving, eerie story of a family haunted by its past, is the creation of published author Kimberly Filkins, a corporate accountant from Woodruff, South Carolina, who writes her novels when she isnt reading, napping, or traveling the globe on international church missions. Filkins writes, Theres something wrong at Magnolia Run. Twelve-year-old Claire Moran can feel it as soon as she arrives at her new home: a crumbling farmhouse in rural South Carolina. Claire has just lost her mother and has been shipped off to live with her only relative, Louise, an aunt she has never met. As Claire attempts to settle into a new life and new school, all she wants is to be normal and to avoid thinking about her mother. But soon frightening events start happening in the house. The door at the end of the hall bleeds, Claire hears whispers when shes alone, and shes losing large amounts of time. Then she learns that nearly everyone in town is talking about her aunt and their haunted house. It seems the whole community knows more about her family than Claire does. Why had her mother moved so far away? Why had she never mentioned her sister? Who are these relatives Claire has never known? And what is really going on at Magnolia Run? As Claire digs into her family history, decades-old secrets begin to emerge. Its clear Magnolia Run is in danger, and Claire must untangle the mystery and save her aunt and their home before its too late. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Kimberly Filkinss new book is an absorbing tale looking into the making and breaking of a family, a story that spans generations and involves witches and curses, but ultimately closes with a happy ending and a new beginning for the small family in Magnolia Run. View a synopsis of Magnolia Run on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Magnolia Run at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Magnolia Run, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. This panel is an opportunity to help Maryland businesses look beyond the uniform. Lucas Group, ranked sixth on Forbes Best Professional Recruiting Firms list for 2019, announced that Jim Lose, Managing Partner Military Transition, will speak at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce Veterans in the Workplace Spotlight. Held at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on April 24, the event will feature three panels and a keynote address. Lose will speak on the first panel at 1:05 pm, Valuing our Veterans. Over 200,000 service members transition out of military service into the civilian sector each year, said Lose. Companies do not always realize veterans tremendous potential or the best way to harness this potential in the workplace. This panel is an opportunity to help Maryland businesses look beyond the uniform. Lose served in the Marine Corps for eight years as an Intelligence Officer, executing deployments in the Middle East and throughout the Asian-Pacific rim. He was recalled to active duty for one year during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Recognized as an expert on the recruitment and hiring of military veterans, Lose has been a participant and interviewee on C-SPANs Washington Journal and National Public Radios Marketplace. He has spoken at the United States Naval Academy, Virginia Military Institute, and various Army and Marine base officer transition programs. Jim understands that hiring veterans is just the first step, said Bryan Zawikowski, Lucas Group General Manager Military Transition. Companies must also be prepared to incorporate and support veterans in the workplace. At Lucas Group, we are proud to be setting the gold standard for military transition by developing consultative relationships with both Candidates and companies that ensure long-term placement success. With 40+ years of proven experience, Lucas Groups military transition division specializes in finding and filling outstanding jobs for retired military officers, including Senior Military Officers, Junior Military Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, highly-skilled Military Technicians and Veterans with Corporate Experience. About Lucas Group Lucas Group is North Americas premier executive search firm. Since 1970, our culture and methodologies have driven superior results. We assist clients ranging in size from small to medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies find transcendent, executive talent; candidates fully realize their ambitions; and associates find professional success. To learn more, please visit Lucas Group at http://www.lucasgroup.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. New Website Homepage Although the world feels smaller, offshoring manufacturing remains complex and difficult. We're excited to offer a community of resources to help industry professionals manage all of the details necessary for successful overseas production. Altraco, a contract and private label manufacturer based in California, has launched a new website for category buyers, suppliers, brands, and sourcing specialists who want to learn more about effectively navigating overseas manufacturing. The site offers practical information and resources for brands looking to produce goods overseas. More information can be found at http://www.altraco.com. Visitors can learn tips for streamlining or consolidating their processes, or talk with industry experts about challenges faced when designing, producing, shipping and receiving products from overseas factories. The website also provides visitors with tips for choosing a trusted advisor who will partner with them to overcome various challenges, from inventory management to tariff strategy. The new site was designed to help companies who produce goods overseas whether theyre new to the process, or theyre simply trying to become more efficient or drive higher quality, says Al Brenner, co-owner of Altraco. One of the most popular topics Altraco has seen in the marketplace has been the conversation about tariffs and their impact on overseas production as well as the economy as a whole. In response to this demand, the new site features a helpful ebook specific to supply chain managers, sourcing specialists, and category buyers, titled, "Outsourced Manufacturing: The Guide to Navigating US Tariffs". Although the world feels smaller, offshoring manufacturing remains complex and difficult. Weve spent the last 38 years helping our clients build a reliable supply chain, support expansion, and minimize headaches that can plague overseas production. Were bringing what weve learned to the digital community and look forward to building this out even more to drive value for the industry. Additional topics that are planned for future content include tips for producing products for private label, identifying and producing store branded products to effectively compete with online retailers like Amazon, and maintaining quality control in overseas production. About Altraco Founded in 1980, Altraco simplifies the process to provide companies with quality products and on-time delivery at a compelling price. Altraco leverages decades of experience to provide reliable and cost-efficient solutions for contract and private label manufacturing, trusted by Fortune 500 companies. Through proven factory relationships in multiple countries and 38 years navigating the complexities of overseas manufacturing, including tariffs, Altraco finds innovative solutions to supply chain challenges. Mikayla Reilly Dr Zelinsky prescribed eyeglasses that totally changed Mikaylas life. She went from learning disabled to honor roll all because of some goofy tests and a pair of eyeglasses, said her mother, Cheryl Reilly. Those goofy tests, performed by Deborah Zelinsky, O.D., founder of the Mind-Eye Institute in Northbrook, Ill., suggested that Mikayla Reilly, then 12 years old, had such narrow range of visual awareness, she could only see what was directly in front of her -- a diagnosis no physician had previously determined, noted Cheryl, a resident of Lake Zurich, Ill. Dr Zelinsky prescribed eyeglasses that totally changed Mikaylas life, Cheryl added. That change transformed Mikayla from a struggling elementary-school student with difficulty concentrating and completing her work to an early graduate with honors at Lake Zurich High School. Mikayla had been having problems all her life. Her handwriting was terrible. She drew [rudimentary] pictures stick people on a slant. Even her walking seemed uncoordinated. She would trip over her own feet, bump into things, stated her mother. In fact, from age 3 on, Mikayla had been on an individualized education program (IEP), which included occupational therapy and physical therapy. Teachers complained to Cheryl that her daughter failed to pay attention and did not listen in school. Doctors checked Mikayla but found nothing unusual. Her central eyesight was evaluated as a normal 20/20 in each eye, and the pediatrician said her clumsiness was probably due to her tall, skinny stature. But something more seemed to be going on with her, said Cheryl. Thats when a friend suggested a visit to the Mind-Eye Institute. During the first appointment, Dr. Zelinsky asked Mikayla to walk around, sometimes wearing special goggles, sometimes without. Then she had her reading. Cheryl did notice that, during the reading test, her daughter moved her entire head rather than just her eyes as she read line by line. Later, Dr. Zelinsky conducted her patented Z-Bell Test, in which she had Mikayla reach out and try touching a nearby ringing bell with her eyes closed while wearing different lenses. Initially, Mikayla was unable to hit the bell. Her hand was going in a direction completely opposite the sound, Cheryl noted. But, as Dr. Zelinsky began putting colored filters on the lenses Mikayla was wearing over her closed eyes, she started hitting the bell spot on. It was truly amazing. The Z-Bell Test is recognized by eye experts and scientists globally for evaluating patients ability to integrate spatial localization in both visual and auditory systems. The test is mentioned in the upcoming second edition of Patricia Lemers book Outsmarting Autism. The right mix of filters, lenses and/or prisms can re-adjust a patients visual balance and eye-ear connection by altering the way light disperses across the retina, Dr. Zelinsky stated. Dr. Zelinsky determined Mikayla had problems using her peripheral eyesight, causing her brain to limit its focus. Mikayla was prescribed a set of special brain glasses. Unlike eyeglasses that merely correct central eyesight, eyeglass prescriptions developed through the Z-Bell Test are therapeutic designed for sensory integration bringing patients like Mikayla relief for a range of symptoms caused by eye-ear imbalances, brain injuries and other neurological issues, including learning problems. I remember the day Mikayla put on her new eyeglasses. She marveled at how the windows and the seams between the walls and ceilings were so straight, not slanted, Cheryl concluded. As her eyesight improved, Mikayla went through several sets of Mind-Eye Institute glasses, while being transformed from a student criticized by teachers for lack of concentration and focus to an honor-roll student, early high-school graduate and, eventually, a certified veterinarian technician. About Mind-Eye Institute The Mind-Eye Institute is an optometry practice with an emphasis on neuro-optometric rehabilitation that provides world-class care by prescribing state-of-the-art therapeutic lenses based on peripheral eyesight and depth perception testing, rather than central eyesight. Through groundbreaking research and innovative treatments, Dr. Zelinsky and her team have been creating life-changing experiences for nearly 30 years, by viewing patients on an individual basis. For more information, please call 847-501-2020 or visit http://mindeye.com. Mission Control Marketing and Engel & Volkers Americas have been jointly nominated as finalists for the 2019 North American SABRE Award in the real estate and construction category. The SABRE Awards, one of the most prestigious awards programs for marketing communications globally, recognizes superior achievement in branding reputation and engagement. The campaign, titled Reimagining a Brand for the Americas was selected to the shortlist from a pool of more than 2,000 entries. We are thrilled that our work with Mission Control Marketing has received recognition by the SABRE awards, said Katelyn Castellano, vice president of communications, Engel & Volkers Americas. With the unique opportunity to bring an iconic European brand into the competitive North American real estate market, our strategic public relations and marketing work with Mission Control Marketing can be directly linked to helping us achieve our ambitious business goals at every level of our franchise network. The campaign served to reach two main business goals: to grow brand awareness among U.S. consumers and promote the company in the real estate industry with the purpose of driving expansion of the network across North America. To reach these goals, Engel & Volkers Americas and Mission Control Marketing executed a strategic campaign that incorporated creative design, public relations and lead generation activities. Highlights of the campaign include: More than 150 media placements secured in lifestyle, business and real estate trade publications, including Mansion Globals Top Residential Real Estate Listing in the World in 2018. Launch of an industry focused microsite, EVfranchise.com, to serve as the hub for the companys lead generation campaign. Creation of two research reports: State of Recruiting Agents and Meet HENRY: Influencing the Next Generation of Wealth. Engel & Volkers Americas has been an amazing partner for us during the last three years, said Elliot Schimel, Chief Executive Officer of Mission Control Marketing. This nomination is a testament to our collaboration with the Engel & Volkers Americas team and shared vision that strategic marketing can drive business results. The 2019 North American SABRE Awards winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on May 7, 2019 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. About Mission Control Marketing Mission Control Marketing is a full-service marketing agency that specializes in partnering with mid-sized B2B organizations to develop strategic marketing campaigns that grow their businesses. Taking a holistic approach, we provide strategic marketing counsel and execution through a combination of earned, owned and paid media with a focus on increasing sales. Founded in September 2015, Mission Control Marketing is proud to partner with innovative brands including Bose Corporation, Engel & Volkers Americas, Prevedere, among others. To learn more about us, visit http://www.missioncontrol.marketing. We help mothers at LFCS, including adoptive moms, biological moms, and other women who are primary caregivers. When they are struggling, we offer resources to help. Lutheran Family and Childrens Services (LFCS) is celebrating Mothers Day this year by raising awareness about the support women need in their roles as moms, mother figures, and caretakers. This includes biological mothers, adoptive moms, foster moms, grandmothers, and other women who are raising the next generation. Community members who would like to support LFCS in these efforts can do so through this years Mothers Day gift campaign. With a minimum of a $25 donation, LFCS will send a card to the donors chosen recipient that includes a message about how the gift will benefit mothers throughout Missouri. On average, LFCS touches the lives of 15,000 women each year through services including foster care, adoption, pregnancy and parenting, home visitations, behavioral health and community prevention, and child care. Mothers Day is a time when we honor the vital role women have in a childs lifea role that comes in many forms, said Mike Duggar, President and CEO of LFCS. We help mothers at LFCS, including adoptive moms, biological moms, and other women who are primary caregivers. When they are struggling, we offer resources to help. With the goal of assisting women and their families to achieve a safe and stable home environment, LFCSs Pregnancy, Parenting and Adoption Services program has the most direct impact on Missouri mothers. The program offers resource referral, education, home visitation, direct assistance, emergency financial aid, and positive parenting skills. An important part of this program is helping pregnant women make positive choices, resulting in a healthy baby and mother. Clients receive flexible education and support around the options of parenting, adoption, and caregiving in general. Children living in stable families with adults better able to address lifes stresses have reduced risks of child abuse and neglect. Education and resource referral is powerful for adults who find caregiving challenging. Were able to help mothers and expectant women in crisis all across Missouri free of charge thanks to gifts from the community, Duggar added. From employing highly qualified social work and counseling staff members to funding baby necessities, food, and shelterevery dollar counts. Donations will be accepted throughout the entire month of May at lfcsmo.org/donate-now. If gift givers would like their cards to be received by Mothers Day, donations must be received by May 5. To learn more about the services provided by LFCS, visit lfcsmo.org. About Lutheran Family and Childrens Services (LFCS) LFCS, a proud member of the United Way, is a statewide agency with headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, three regional offices, and numerous satellite service sites. The mission of LFCS is to empower children and families to overcome challenges today so they can build a better tomorrow. As a nonprofit social services organization, its vision is to make generations of children and families safer and stronger together. LFCS opens doors for people who face poverty, unexpected pregnancy, violence, unemployment, illness, homelessness, and more. To tackle these challenges, LFCS programs are delivered in two key services areas: Family Services and Behavioral Health Services. A dedicated staff delivers professionalism and personal care in equal measure to every situation and each client who visits one of the many offices in Missouri. LFCS services are open to anyone regardless of race, faith, national origin, gender, or age. For more information, call 314-754-2785 or visit lfcsmo.org. . . 37- 2013 . ... OpiSafe We believe this level of innovation is necessary to be successful in creating changes in both acute and chronic prescribing settings, said Chris Ennis, OpiSafe's Chief Technology Officer. OpiSafe, a national leader in the development of platforms and services that address the country's ongoing opioid epidemic, announces the opening of an innovation center designed to meet a wide variety of challenges associated with state and local opioid responses and the need for comprehensive frameworks for tackling substance use disorder and behavioral health at-large. The National Opioid Response Laboratory is an initiative to advance the work that is already being conducted with a number of state and federal agencies. The laboratory will be housed in OpiSafe's offices in the Catalyst HTI campus in Denver. Catalyst is a 180,000-square-foot industry integrator of health-tech startups and innovators. It will be available to stakeholders from the public, non-profit and for-profit sectors. The laboratory's advisors and subject matter experts include doctors, pharmacists, policy experts, and representation from government agencies, medical associations, technology providers and health systems. "By bringing together the policy and subject matter experts and matching the existing needs with some of healthcare's most innovative technology companies, we will see the development of new tools and services. We believe this level of innovation is necessary to be successful in creating changes in both acute and chronic prescribing settings, said Chris Ennis, OpiSafe's Chief Technology Officer. He added, Ultimately, solutions will come to the forefront that will have a broad impact over time, not just on reducing the risk of an opioid use disorder, but in improving access to treatment for a variety of addiction and behavioral health scenarios." With its proximity to other healthcare leaders in Catalyst HTI, more than 50 companies will have access to the laboratory, including MGMA and its thousands of small and large practice members. OpiSafes opioid response lab operating within Catalyst HTI gives the healthcare community here a great resource for expertise and collaboration on addressing our biggest healthcare emergency, opioid misuse, said Mike Biselli, president of Catalyst HTI. Guests who visit the lab will also have access to our entire community of healthcare innovators. Opening the door to those potential collaborations will help our community improve healthcare for everyone. Paul Melean Colombian engineer is a leading expert in strategic planning, management control, and design improvement processes that increase the productivity of a company. Skills that have earned him international recognition, working with companies of great importance in the industry, which has managed to specialize to the point of being able to advise others in the area. Therefore, since 2006 it has been dedicated to business advice in different countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Panama, Venezuela, England, Spain, and the United States. "Strategic planning is a systematic process, i.e., step by step, which designs, develops, and implements action plans to achieve a common purpose," said engineer Paul Melean reference of strategic planning in the world. Notably, another important activity of engineer Paul Melean is the new release of three new books that complement their professional work as an advisor to success. These books are a manual of success in strategic planning your first business, strategic planning for the design, development, and execution of business productivity tools, and finally, strategic planning management tools for increased business productivity. All published in 2018, they are considered a huge contribution to business communities. Currently, the engineer Paul Melean is an independent entrepreneur who is engaged in consulting corporate America, while construction and real estate business, commercial and residential developments in the United States that go. QuisLex As law departments continue to face increased pressure to do more with less, the panel provides an opportunity to learn from industry leaders who recently drove a decision to buy or build and to learn how things are different now than they were just a few years ago. QuisLex, a leading alternative legal service provider, announced today that it is hosting a panel discussion and presenting a tech talk at 2019 ACC Xchange in Minneapolis. QuisLex AVP of Corporate Solutions Chase DAgostino will lead a panel titled Buy or Build? An Old Question Takes on New Meaning for Law Departments. He will also present a Tech Talk featuring the Contract App, a turnkey solution to Non-Disclosure Agreements. The panel session will discuss key considerations and frameworks to help law departments make the right decision on whether to select an off-the-shelf tool or build their own solution based on the specifics of their companys use case. Joining DAgostino on the panel will be Nitin Batra, Head of Global Legal Services & Productivity at Citibank, N.A., Reese J. Arrowsmith, VP, Head of Legal Operations at Campbell Soup Company, Cade Lobodzinski, Legal Operations Specialists at McAfee, and Carol Simcox, Manager of Operations-Law Department at TE Connectivity. As law departments continue to face increased pressure to do more with less, the panel provides an opportunity to learn from industry leaders who recently drove a decision to buy or build and to learn how things are different now than they were just a few years ago, says DAgostino. At the Tech Talk, DAgostino will discuss the Contract App, an application built to quickly negotiate and execute NDAs with no pre-work, setup or configuration. What is really exciting about the Contract App is that it was built entirely using off the shelf no code tools, yet is packed with functionality, including a novel workflow for pre-negotiating with a counterparty before an agreement is generated. Its a great example of how technology is easy if you start with building the right content and process. The inaugural ACC Xchange combines ACCs Mid-Year Meeting and Legal Operations Conference into a single event for in-house counsel and legal operations professionals. It includes three days of networking opportunities and peer-based learning. For more information about the 2019 ACC Xchange, please visit https://www2.acc.com/education/xchange19/. About QuisLex QuisLex is an award-winning legal services provider that specializes in managed document review, contract management, compliance services, legal spend management, and legal operations consulting. Our full-time highly trained attorneys, process experts, legal technologists, statisticians and linguists work closely with our clients to reduce cost, mitigate risk and maximize efficiency. QuisLex is regularly acknowledged as a leader in the legal services industry, and is proud to be recognized by the Financial Times as an FT Intelligent Business 35, ACC as an ACC Value Champion, Chambers and Partners as a Band 1 Legal Process Outsourcing Provider, New York Law Journal as a Top Managed Document Review Services Provider and the IACCM as its Outstanding Service Provider for contract management solutions. To learn more, visit http://www.quislex.com. RedTrack.io, an ad performance tracking and analytics tool, recognized by affiliates and media buyers worldwide, today has announced the release of their brand new feature Fraud Report. Fraud Report by RedTrack enables marketers to protect their advertising budgets by providing a holistic overview of the traffic they buy. This solution evaluates the quality of every click and reports whether the money is being served to bots and non-human traffic. In-depth reporting and 13 anti-fraud metrics, ranging from proxied connections and hijacked devices to cookie stuffing, etc, helps marketers to detect suspicious traffic and make justified decisions on whether to reject or block it. Fraud Report allows RedTrack to be one of a very few ad tracking solutions that provide a professional anti-fraud solution for their customers within their own platform. RedTrack offers their customers to benefit from a wide range of functionalities and 3rd-party integrations. Among them, online marketers and media buyers get access to: No-redirect tracking: empowers marketers to effectively advertise with ad networks and sources like Google and Facebook that require non-redirection tracking method. Multiuser management: serves media buying teams and agencies who want to involve several members to have better control over ad campaign performance. The set of features, like access level restrictions and team member management, helps to increase overall ROI. Granular reporting with 30+ data points: provides users with an in-depth traffic analysis, including source, network, offers, landers, geo (country, region, city), OS type and version, browser type and version, connection type, date and day parting, IP, ISP, referrer and referrer domain, proxy type, user agent, language, among others. About RedTrack.io RedTrack.io is a Lithuanian based ad tracking software that provides cutting-edge solutions for ad campaign management, analysis, and optimization. The tracker was repeatedly recognized for its customer support and equal applicability for starters and advanced users. Learn more: http://www.redtrack.io. Roving Blue, Inc. Honored to be a Finalist for the 2019 Insight Innovation Awards We are honored to be in such great company and feel like winners already simply because we were considered."--Marianna "Yana" DeMyer, CEO of Roving Blue, Inc. Roving Blue, Inc., the Wisconsin company that is the Home of the O-Pen, a pocket water purification device, was recently announced as a finalist for an Insight Innovation Award. The awards are given out annually by Insight Publications, publishers of business and manufacturing magazines in Wisconsin. The winners are announced at the annual Thinc Technology and Innovation Conference, which will take place May 9th at UW-Fox Valley in Menasha. According to the publisher, the awards are given to honor businesses and organizations in the New North (NE Wisconsin area) that come up with an idea thats a game changer and then develop a way to implement it. "The timing on this is perfect, as we are getting ready to announce an exciting new product, and whether or not we win, this might be just the occasion to announce it. We are honored to be in such great company and feel like winners already simply because we were considered." --Marianna "Yana" DeMyer, CEO of Roving Blue, Inc. Insights confidential judges panel looks through nominations to determine a winner, based not only on the idea, but the results as well. Awards are handed out in four categories: Planet, Product, Process and People. The 2019 tax season is upon us, which means the average American taxpayer has just spent, or will spend, an average of 13 hours preparing their 2018 tax returns, with four hours devoted to actually completing the forms, according to figures from the Internal Revenue Service. Or, perhaps, those pesky unpaid back taxes from previous years are still proving to be stressful this year. If thats the case, Platinum Tax Defenders tax resolution services can step in and help you determine a plan to handle your back taxes before you tackle this years taxes. What weve learned this month about future tax seasons is that a new bill introduced on April 12 by 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic lawmakers seeks to make the process easier. Titled the Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2019, the bill would require the IRS to offer a free, online tax preparation tool and filing software to tax filers, allow filers to download third-party provided return information, and allow individuals with simple returns to opt for a return-free service that would provide them with a pre-prepared tax return with a pre-calculated refund amount or amount due. Taxpayers waste too many hours and hundreds of dollars on tax preparation each year, said Warren in a statement. This bill will require the IRS to offer easy, free, online tax-filing for all taxpayers. This is a simple idea with a long history of support from both Republicans and Democrats, and its time to make it a reality. Warrens introduction of the Tax Filing Simplification Act arrives on the heels of another bill that was approved on April 9 by the House Ways and Means Committee the Taxpayer First Act, which intends to fortify and modernize the IRS, expand taxpayer services, and protect taxpayers from identity theft. Here are some of the provisions in the bill: Establish the IRS Independent office of Appeals to resolve federal tax controversies without litigation. Exempt certain low-income taxpayers from payments required to submit an offer-in-compromise (OIC). Modify tax enforcement procedures that address issues such as the seizure of property, issuing a summons, tax relief from joint liability for married couples, referral for private debt collection, and contacting third parties. Establish requirements for cybersecurity and identity theft protection. Increase the penalty for failing to file a tax return. Ensure resources continue be made available that offer free tax help and free filing options for certain taxpayers, including low-income populations, persons with disabilities, taxpayers with limited English proficiency, and other underserved communities. However, the Taxpayer First Act has come under some scrutiny from media outlets and members of organizations such as the National Consumer Law Center, who have criticized the bill because, though it would continue the Free File program, it would also permanently prevent the IRS from developing its own free electronic tax filing system. This could be a disaster, said Mandi Matlock, a tax attorney who does work for the NCLC, in an article posted by ProPublica. It could be the final nail in the coffin of the idea of the IRS ever being able to create its own program. Since the early 2000s, the government has required that tax-filing companies like Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, and H&R Block to offer free tax-filing software to the 70% of taxpayers with the lowest incomes (those who make less than $66,000). However, according to ProPublica, only 3% of eligible U.S. taxpayers use the free program each year, and critics say that these tax-filing companies use the free program as a tool to upsell paid products. According to ProPublica, there exists a memorandum of understanding between the IRS and private industry group Free File Alliance wherein the IRS pledges not to create its own online filing system as long as the companies continue to offer these free filing services. The Taxpayer First Act, which goes to the Senate next, received bipartisan support when it was approved last week. Members of the media have speculated that the bill received bipartisan support because of its positive provisions, such as banning the IRS from using private debt collectors and allocating millions in funding for tax-filing clinics for low-income taxpayers. However, there are still some consumer protection advocates who argue that the system is antiquated, like Warren, whose Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2019 was co-sponsored by fellow presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker. Are Americans in store from some relief in the pain, sweat, and tears that can go along with filing tax returns each April? According to experts, the current U.S. system for filing tax returns remains worlds behind other developed regions such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and many other European countries where governments provide taxpayers with software to fill out their returns online, resulting in a free and faster way to file compared to the U.S. If you or your family is struggling to settle back taxes before diving into your 2018 taxes, get in touch with a specialized tax consultant at Platinum Tax Defenders. Platinum Tax Defenders offers a variety of variety of tax resolution options and help with back taxes that includes working with the IRS directly on the clients behalf in order to come up with a reasonable payment and settlement plan. Call today and save 10% off your tax relief case 1-800-991-3242. Use code PR101. Ron "Fij" Fijalkowski, SVP of Digital Supply Chain Solutions @ SDI Companies of virtually any sizeand not just those in manufacturingnow have the opportunity to transform the way they use organizational data to streamline operations, slash operating costs, and improve product and service quality. SDI, the leading provider of Digital Supply Chain services and technology in Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO), is pleased to announce the launch of ZEUS, the Companys cloud-based B2B technology platform. ZEUS provides industrial manufacturers, universities, and other asset/facility intensive organizations Supreme Power over their Digital Supply Chain. The cornerstone of the platform, which includes modules for Data and Analytics, eProcurement, Storeroom Technology, and Inventory management, is a dynamic marketplace enabled by AI-automated item categorization, intelligent part recognition and identification, and buying automation through the use of bot technology. Leading the technology solution offering is industry visionary, Ron Fijalkowski, who has been recognized by Computerworld Magazine as a Premier 100 IT leader and was a guest speaker at Computerworlds Mobile & Wireless World Conference, as well as a member of the Rutgers Big Data Advisory Board. For over 18 years, Ron has connected SDIs enterprise-wide IT operations with related technology that supports supply chain, operations, global strategic sourcing and central planning, as well as been responsible for related activities including Strategic Sourcing, Procurement and Site Operatiopns. During his tenure, Ron has led the creation of SDIs technology built expressly for the nuances of MRO with SDiXchange, SDiMS, and various other applications and lead the development of SDIs integrated cloud solution for the Company's clients, providing a hands-on approach for the technological biosphere that enables and enhances their clients MRO supply chains. To help achieve their growth targets through digital solutions, the Company announced that Fijalkowski will be taking on the role of Senior Vice President, Digital Supply Chain Solutions. Industrial technology has revolutionized the engineering and manufacturing sectors, said Fijalkowski about the evolution of supply chain, And industry 4.0 promises to have an even greater impact. Lowering hardware costs and greater availability of powerful cloud computing capabilities has brought it within reach of a wider range of companies than ever before. Companies of virtually any sizeand not just those in manufacturingnow have the opportunity to transform the way they use organizational data to streamline operations, slash operating costs, and improve product and service quality. Visit SDI to learn about how SDIs ZEUS technology offering enables better business outcomes through data-driven insights. Ron Fijalkowski recently published an article on Industry 4.0 on LLR Partners website, Philadelphias top private equity firm for growth capital, and their Growth Bits blog. Read the full story on LLR Partner's website. About SDI, Inc. By helping organizations understand how each link in their MRO supply chain impacts the entire enterprise, SDI helps them achieve year-over-year savings, enterprise-wide efficiencies and newfound control. Using a custom suite of products, services and tools, SDI's platform coordinates, aligns and optimizes every step of the digital supply chain. Lower costs, smarter inventories and more reliable production are all natural results from a more connected MRO supply chain. To learn more visit: http://www.sdi.com or contact info(at)sdi.com Charlie Youakim, CEO and Paul Paradis, CRO head to Australia upon securing $5.6 million in funding from fintech investing group, Continental Investors. We believe in the Sezzle team because they have the industry experience and vision necessary to build a leading company in an active sector with larger competitors. Sezzle, the leading US-based buy now, pay later company, announces it has raised a $5.6 million funding round led by Continental Investors, a US Fintech investor. The funding will serve as pre-IPO capital for Sezzle as it advances to an IPO on the Australian Stock Exchange, where it expects to raise an additional $20m to fund its continued growth. Sezzle experienced tremendous growth through 2018, with revenue increasing 30% month over month. Sezzle continues to grow at a rapid pace and it plans to use this financing to progress its growth in North America, fund future product innovations, and invest in additional sales and marketing resources. We are excited to have the Continental team as partners. Phil Purcell's experience spinning Discover out of Sears, his public company experience as the long-tenured CEO of Discover and Morgan Stanley, and Paul Purcell's expertise with fintech startups make Continental a perfect fit, said Charlie Youakim, Sezzle co-founder and CEO. "The capital will also accelerate our growth plans ahead of our upcoming IPO and give us support from a well-respected institutional investor here in the US." Continental Investors Managing Director, Paul Purcell, who will be joining the Sezzle board, said his firm's mission is to find young fintech companies with exceptional products and strong management teams and to help those companies successfully grow and better serve their customers. We're excited by what Sezzle is building in an exciting payments and commerce sector. We think Sezzle is perfect for young prime-to-be Millennial and Gen Z consumers that are just getting started with their finances. Their focused and energetic company culture has created the foundation for their success, and their industry-leading product reviews are a testament to their intense product focus, Purcell added. We believe in the Sezzle team because they have the industry experience and vision necessary to build a leading company in an active sector with larger competitors. About Sezzle Sezzle is a cutting-edge, rapidly growing fintech company whose mission is to financially empower young consumers. Only one in three millennials own a credit card, and the vast majority of millennials possess a sub- or non-prime credit score or no score at all. To address these problems, Sezzle has built a payment platform that increases purchasing power for consumers by enabling merchants to offer interest-free installment plans. This increase in purchasing power for consumers leads to increased sales and basket sizes for the thousands of eCommerce merchants that currently work with Sezzle. About Continental Investors Continental Investors is a strategic source of capital founded in 2006. We leverage a combined 70+ years of investing and operating expertise in and around financial services and commerce. We seek emerging and established growth platforms where our expertise beyond capital can be utilized. More than the companies we invest in, we look for good people and great partnerships. Superior Controls, its customers and employees will all benefit from the synergies of working with our new sister companies. We will continue our efforts to grow, open new offices, and obtain new clients while continuing to provide tremendous service to our existing clients. Superior Controls, Inc., a leading Life Sciences control system integrator of custom industrial automation and IT solutions with 135 engineers and professionals on both the east and west coasts, today announced the company has been acquired by E-Technologies Group (ETech), an Ohio-based control system integration firm founded in 1993. ETech is owned by Falfurrias Capital Partners (FCP), a Charlotte-based private equity firm. ETech has also purchased Glenmount Global Services, headquartered in Austin, TX, in October of 2018. In April 2017, Superior Controls merged with Banks Integration Group, and the acquisition of the combined company is a strategic move by FCP to enhance the strengths and growth opportunities of its three industrial automation subsidiaries. Superior Controls Co-founder and President Rick Pierro will continue as president of Superior Controls life sciences solutions vertical, reporting to ETech CEO Ralph Carter, and will also join the ETech board. Superior Controls will retain its name and maintain the companys focus in serving the life sciences industry. The addition of Superior Controls significantly expands the breadth and depth of ETechs engineering talent and capabilities as well as our ability to serve customers regardless of where they are located and whenever their needs arise, said Carter. We are thrilled to welcome Rick and Superior Controls to the ETech team. With the addition of Superior Controls, ETech becomes one of the nations leading providers of automation software and systems integration and engineering design services with approximately 400 employees, including 350 engineers. We are excited to join the ETech family of companies, said Pierro. Superior Controls, its customers and employees will all benefit from the synergies of working with our new sister companies. Following this acquisition, we will continue our efforts to grow, open new offices, and obtain new clients while continuing to provide tremendous service to our existing clients. As the leading control systems automation provider in the U.S. life sciences industry, Superior Controls was a key acquisition for ETech, who has seen an increasing demand for industrial automation due to rapid adoption of automation technology and robust growth in the industry. ETech has developed an excellent formula for growth and stability, Pierro said. The new corporation pairs a portfolio of multiple successful system integrators with complementary markets and strengths, strong management, and talented engineering teams who serve an increasing demand for automation amongst our clients. About Superior Controls, Inc. Since 1993, Superior Controls, Inc. has reliably delivered professionally executed automation and control systems integration services to leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies in 36 states and 15 countries. In addition to being seven-time certified by the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA), Superior Controls has passed over fifty quality management and validation audits and is a Rockwell Automation Solution Partner. With the 2017 addition of Banks Integration Group, a ten-year Rockwell Automation Solution Partner on the West Coast, the company works nationally with industry leaders such as Pfizer, Biogen, GE Healthcare, Genentech, Gilead and more. Superior Controls and Banks Integration Group have four engineering offices located in Seabrook, New Hampshire, Albany, New York, Vacaville, California and South San Francisco, California. To learn more, visit http://www.superiorcontrols.com. About E-Technologies Group ETech is a West Chester, Ohio-based provider of software and automation systems integration founded in 1993 by Steve Veldhuis and Doug Fagaly. The firm provides innovative high value engineering solutions to global manufacturing and logistics fulfillment customers. The firm specializes in automation, information systems, machine safety, machine and process modeling, and simulation across multiple industries utilizing current and emerging technologies. ETech propagates a partnering mentality with its customers, drives a best-in-class strategy amongst its vendors, and cultivates its high-performance staff, whom is dedicated to delivery of measurable business results to meet or exceed customers needs. To learn more, visit, http://www.etech-group.com. About Falfurrias Capital Partners Falfurrias Capital Partners is a Charlotte-based private equity investment firm founded in 2006 by Hugh McColl Jr., former chairman and CEO of Bank of America, and Marc Oken, former CFO of Bank of America, and Managing Partner Ed McMahan. The firm is focused on acquiring or investing in a diverse portfolio of growth-oriented middle-market companies. By leveraging the extensive strategic and operational experience and business relationships of the firms principals, Falfurrias Capital Partners is positioned to be a value-added partner for both its portfolio companies and its limited partners. For more information, visit http://www.falfurriascapital.com. Stephen Hanton Synergy Global Housing is proud to announce that it has named Stephen Hanton as President of the companys International Division. Hanton will report to co-founding partner Henry Luebbert and will be based in Synergys new European office in London. In this new role, Hanton will be responsible for leading Synergys ambitious expansion in the EMEA and APAC regions. Hanton, an award-winning leader in multinational operational hospitality management with expertise in multiple operating models, rapid growth and leading teams through transitions joins Synergy from SACO (The Serviced Apartment Company), where he served as CEO Commercial from 2015, having previously been Managing Director. His responsibilities at SACO included full leadership of the business as it expanded into the Aparthotel category, managing it through its first sale, merging with a property team, and then taking a lead role in the subsequent second sale. Hanton has also served in a variety of management and executive roles ranging across hotels, serviced apartments, property management and corporate housing. He served as Managing Director, EMEA at BridgeStreet Accommodations Ltd., having first joined the sector as General Manager of Hyde Park Residence on Londons Park Lane. Prior to this, Hanton held General Manager roles with Marriott and Holiday Inn. Hantons appointment comes at a pivotal time as Synergy continues its international expansion to support its mission to reset the hospitality ecosystem. A core part of the organizations growth strategy is to build world-class teams to serve clients at the highest service level in the regions where they operate. Hantons focus will be to grow the International business outside the U.S., while Debra Christopher will serve as his counterpart in the U.S. and will be Synergys President of the Americas. Both Hanton and Christopher have stellar reputations for their leadership qualities and for developing corporate cultures where exceptional talent wants to work. Stephen is coming aboard at an exciting time for Synergy, as we divide and conquer with new team members so that we can further develop our global business and integrate with our parent company, The Ascott Limited, said Luebbert. I couldnt be more proud to have Stephen and Debratwo icons in the corporate housing industrypowering the company. Both exceptional leaders have a reputation for building strong teams and driving national and global expansion at the highest level. Their leadership styles are similar collaborative, great listening skills and the ability to lead from behind. Working together, these leaders will enable Synergy to deliver on our value proposition, scale globally and serve our clients better than ever before. I am excited to become part of the Synergy teama team that instinctively believes that success in hospitality starts and ends with happy customers and happy staff, said Hanton, Synergys co-founders Henry and Jack are the smartest people in the sector, and Im honored to partner with Debra Christopher in our respective parts of the world to bring our extensive collective experience to the table, helping to create an organization and team that reflect Synergys proud culture and ambitions. Hanton earned his Bachelors degree with honors in Modern History and Politics from the University of Liverpool. He is married with two adult children. About Synergy Global Housing Synergy Global Housing (Synergy) brings a superior furnished housing experience to the business travel and workforce mobility industry; providing best-in-class serviced accommodations in more than 80 countries across the globe. Synergy has Global Solutions Centers in: Dublin, Ireland; Hyderabad, India; Singapore; Shanghai, China; New York, New York; and San Ramon, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County, California. Through people, passion and innovation, Synergy delivers boutique services, custom-tailored to meet each clients individual needs, on a worldwide platform. To learn more, visit http://www.synergyhousing.com. Synergy is a member of The Ascott Limited (Ascott), a Singapore company that has grown to become one of the leading international lodging owner-operators. Spanning more than 170 cities across over 30 countries, Ascotts serviced residence and hotel brands include Ascott, Citadines, Citadines Connect, Somerset, Quest, The Crest Collection, lyf, Preference, Vertu, Harris, Fox, Yello and POP!. Ascott is a wholly owned subsidiary of CapitaLand Limited (CapitaLand), one of Asias largest real estate companies headquartered and listed in Singapore. Ascott boasts over 30 years of industry track record and award-winning brands that enjoy recognition worldwide. For more information on CapitaLand and Ascott, please visit http://www.capitaland.com and http://www.the-ascott.com. The Naderi Center receives the TALK AWARD 2019 for Excellence in Customer Service and Satisfaction. The surgeons at The Naderi Center focus on their patients unique needs and take both their goals and natural features into account when designing a treatment plan. The Naderi Center, a renowned plastic surgery center with locations in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Herndon, Virginia was recently recognized with a 2019 Talk Award for excellence in customer satisfaction. Patients consistently rate The Naderi Center and its surgeons very highly, resulting in a perfect 5-star rating from the Talk Awards in 2019. Talk Awards are given each year to businesses achieving 4 and 5 stars in customer satisfaction based on a rigorous combination of criteria, including reviews, online star ratings and surveys, blogs, and accolades. The aim of the Talk Awards is to help consumers identify top-notch businesses while helping companies dedicated to excellence earn new business. The Talk Award designation is a tribute to The Naderi Centers stellar reputation in the Washington, D.C. region and northern Virginia. The practice has earned many accolades thanks to its team of dedicated board-certified plastic surgeons, its expert staff and welcoming facilities. The surgeons at The Naderi Center focus on their patients unique needs and take both their goals and natural features into account when designing a treatment plan. Earning 5 stars in the demanding Health & Medical category is an honor for the practice and an affirmation of its goals and values. Plastic surgery is extremely complex and requires a high level of skill to deliver results that patients are happy with. The Naderi Centers consistently stellar online ratings are a testament to the skill and care provided by the surgeons at the Center. Founded by Dr. Shervin Naderi, a nationally-respected and double board-certified rhinoplasty specialist, the award-winning Naderi Center offers patients the benefits of specialization with the convenience of several procedure options under one roof. Each surgeon at the practice has their specialty: Dr. Naderi in rhinoplasty and injectables, Dr. Jessica Kulak in facelifts and facial plastic surgery, and Dr. Erica Anderson in breast and body surgery. In plastic surgery, specialization indicates a high level of skill, and patients know they can trust the surgeons at The Naderi Center to deliver unparalleled results. At The Naderi Center, patients can choose from a range of surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The surgeons tailor a treatment plan to meet the patients individual needs and are known for their high ethical standards. Dr. Naderi is known for talking patients out of procedures that he does not feel are appropriate for their needs and draws on his in-depth knowledge to give patients all the information they need to make the decision that is right for them. The surgeons do not believe in pressuring or up-selling patients and offer a safe and comfortable atmosphere throughout the cosmetic surgery process. For more information about The Naderi Center, visit https://www.virginiafacialplasticsurgery.com/. Prospective patients can fill out the online contact form to schedule a consultation with one of the surgeons or call either location at 703-481-0002 (Chevy Chase) or 301-222-2020 (Herndon) XXX Contact: The Naderi Center April 15, 2019 5454 Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1655 Chevy Chase, MD 20815 (301)222-2020 Entrepreneurs developing new technologies to treat blood clots, congestive heart failure, incontinence and more were the big winners at the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center $200,000 Challenge, an annual pitch competition that showcases cutting-edge innovations in the medical-device and biotech fields. The center, known as M2D2, is a partnership between UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School that assists inventors and startups with all aspects of the process behind moving new products and technologies from concept to commercialization. Now in its eighth year, the challenge drew entrants from around the world and recognized winners on Wednesday, April 10 at an event held at the Boston offices of Mintz law firm. Nineteen finalists, chosen from a field of 143 entrants, had competed in the challenges pitch-off on Wednesday, March 27 at UMass Lowell; two weeks later, 12 of them were awarded shares of a $200,000 purse of sponsor-provided, in-kind services, including lab and office space, and engineering, product development, legal, regulatory, clinical and business assistance. In a change from previous years, the winners were grouped into tiers for first, second and third places. The judges agreed that this years finalist field was the strongest ever, making it nearly impossible for them to rank the winners one through 12. By grouping them in tiers, we feel were recognizing every winning innovation in the most appropriate manner and acknowledging that the difference between two great ideas may be by just a small degree, said Mary Ann Picard, M2D2s director of operations. The winners are: First Place UroMonitor, from Cleveland, received the Hologic Award for a device to simplify and improve diagnosis and treatment of stress urinary incontinence; Respirix, from San Francisco, received the Boston Scientific Award for a non-invasive cardiac monitor for congestive heart failure patients; Endovascular Engineering, from Ann Arbor, Mich., received the Johnson & Johnson Award for a novel platform for mechanical thrombectomy in stroke; EnClear Therapies, from Cambridge, received the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Award for a treatment device to stop progress of neurodegenerative diseases; ARO Medical, from North Andover, received the MPR Award for a minimally invasive treatment device for orthopedic surgery. Second Place Neurovascular Diagnostics, from Buffalo, N.Y., received the Ashai Intecc Award for an RNA expression diagnostic to detect biomarkers of unruptured intercranial aneurysms; EnLiSense, from Allen, Texas, received the Amgen Award for a clinically relevant wearable electrochemical biosensor system; BuzzArk Simulations, from Chennai, India, received the Deshpande Award for a virtual reality simulation of natural orifice surgery procedures. Third Place UroRelief, from San Francisco, with a non-invasive device for treatment of overactive bladder; NPT Rapid Testing, from Lowell, with a novel diagnostic for accurate and early detection of bloodstream infections; Kinnos, from Brooklyn, N.Y., with an innovative infection control device; Dynocardia, from Lowell, with a wearable cNIBP (continuous non-invasive blood pressure) monitor for outpatient monitoring and hypertension management. The quality of the medical devices and technologies presented in this years competition was exceptional and inspiring. We are grateful to our sponsors for their support in helping these early-stage medical device, diagnostic and biotech startups bring their ideas from concept to commercialization, said M2D2 Founder and Director Stephen McCarthy, who also serves as director of UMass Lowells Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology Program. The innovations presented at this pitch contest are reshaping the quality of care as they transform the medical and biotech marketplace. Over the past eight years, the M2D2 $200,000 Challenge has become a vital showcase for the pioneering work being pursued all over the globe. I cant wait to see whats next, said M2D2 Co-Director Nate Hafer, director of operations at the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science at UMass Medical School. Challenge Sponsors The M2D2 $200K Challenge is made possible by the generous support of these sponsors: Amgen Asahi Intecc Boston Scientific Deshpande Foundation Hologic Johnson & Johnson Innovation Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Mintz MPR Product Development R&Q Regulatory & Quality Solutions About M2D2 M2D2 is a lifeline for the states smaller medical device companies, offering inventors and executives easy, affordable, and coordinated access to world-class researchers and resources at the Lowell and Worcester campuses of the University of Massachusetts. M2D2 leverages the engineering, business and clinical strengths of the UMass campuses in Lowell and Worcester to provide fee-based services in the areas of business planning, product prototype development, and clinical pathway assistance. M2D2 is proud to be the only BARDA DRIVe accelerator in New England. BARDAs DRIVe aims to empower people and give them a greater role in their health outcomes. The initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is seeking better ways to detect threats, point-of-use indicators, biological and physiological sensing technologies. Thanks to a recent $7.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), M2D2 is also playing a large role in the development of CAPCaT, a new Center for Advancing Point-of-Care Technologies focused on heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders. Contact for M2D2 business information: Mary Ann Picard, M2D2 Operations Director MaryAnn_Picard(at)uml.edu Contact for media inquiries: Nancy Cicco, UMass Lowell media relations Nancy_Cicco(at)uml.edu or 978-934-4944 Twitter: @UMassM2D2 Facebook: UMassM2D2 LinkedIn: UMassM2D2 # # # It is an extraordinary honor to be recognized as one of the winners of the Wisconsin Top Workplaces Award for the ninth year in a row, which is a rare feat. Receiving this award is a true testament to the high quality of both the WorkWise employees and the company culture that go hand in hand. WorkWise, a leading Wisconsin-based ERP and CRM software developer, has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2019 honor by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for the ninth consecutive year. Top Workplaces are determined solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by Energage, LLC, a leading provider of technology-based employee engagement tools who partners with The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 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. Becoming a Top Workplace isnt something organizations can buy, Claffey said. Its an achievement organizations have worked for and a distinction that gives them a competitive advantage. Its a big deal. The honored workplaces come from a variety of industries including real estate, retail, technology, healthcare and retail, with employee sizes ranging in size from as small as fifty to thousands. Achieving this special recognition for the ninth year in a row serves as a reflection of WorkWises enduring company culture and committed staff. WorkWise President and CEO Wayne Wedell states, It is an extraordinary honor to be recognized as one of the winners of the Wisconsin Top Workplaces Award for the ninth year in a row, which is a rare feat. Receiving this award is a true testament to the high quality of both the WorkWise employees and the company culture that go hand in hand. About WorkWise WorkWise is a leading developer of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions along with comprehensive implementation and support services. Our flagship products, WorkWise ERP and OnContact CRM are easy-to-use, quick to implement, provide a high return on investment and are offered either in a Cloud or on-premise deployment. Use of WorkWise applications provide more accurate and timely information that helps enable companies to grow and increase productivity. OnContact CRM is a full-featured, award-winning, browser-based CRM software solution that automates a companys sales, marketing and customer service areas. OnContact CRM has been named as one of the best CRM products on the market in 2019 by Business.com in recognition of its unique design, customizability and superior features. WorkWise ERP offers make-to-order, repetitive and mixed-mode solutions to manufacturers to shorten cycle times and optimize manufacturing information, supply chain management, and manufacturing execution and planning. WorkWise ERP enhances operations by taking time out of the business processes and increasing value-add in products and services. In addition, WorkWise has pre-configured integration between WorkWise ERP and OnContact CRM, which is unavailable from other ERP and CRM suppliers. WorkWise is headquartered in the greater Milwaukee, WI area and has been inspiring companies to achieve new levels of success for over 15 years. WorkWises proven business philosophy is customer inspired because they put customers first, listen to their requirements and deliver innovative business solutions. Inspire Your Growth to new levels of success with WorkWise software. For nine consecutive years, WorkWise has been recognized by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for being a Top Workplace. More than 7,000 librarians, 450 exhibitors and nearly 300 authors and illustrators participated in the 2019 Texas Library Association Annual Conference, held April 1518 in Austin. The show floor, which offered space for exhibitors ranging from the Big Five publishers, to library seating vendors, to affiliated educational institutions was busiest on Monday night, with numerous publishers reporting that they were already out of galleys after the first few hours of the show. One joked that the free books "simply evaporated" the moment they put them out. A big feature of the event, aside from educational panels for librarians, are the signing sessions with authors. Much of the focus was on children's and young adult literature, with a particular emphasis on diverse representation and inclusion of the authors featured. The highlight of the conference is the annual TLA Bluebonnet Award lunch, which this year featured the 2019 winner, author Patricia McCormick, who was awarded the prize for Sergeant Reckless: The True Story of the Little Horse Who Became a Hero (HarperCollins), the story of a horse that served with the U.S. military during the Korean War. "People like the book so much because people in the armed forces are our heroes," said McCormick at the awards lunch, "and that horse is a stand-in for anyone who was overlooked or ever wanted to belong to a group but didn't fit in." Landing on the 20-strong title shortlist for the Bluebonnet Award, which focuses on books for children in grades 3-6, can be a big boon for sales, and the Texas Library Association now requires publishers to sign a contract that guarantees they will have at least 10,000 copies printed and available for purchase by Texas libraries. Other promotional programs from the TLA are also significant drivers of revenue. The Lariat List, for example, is an annual curated list of two dozen books that are deemed a "pleasure to read" for adults. For many of the publishers exhibiting, the conference is one of their best chances to reach the all-important library market. "It's among the most important events of the year for us and is a key driver of annual sales," said Lee Byrd, co-publisher of Cinco Puntos Press of El Paso, Tex., who was promoting They Call Me Guero by David Bowles, a novel-in-verse about growing up on the border between Texas and Mexico. "I'm a former middle school teacher and I know just how important this event is for our librarians," said Bowles, who was participating in the conference. Several Canadian publishers made the trip to Texas to exhibit, including Owlkids Books and House of Anansi Press, both from Toronto. Fred Horler, marketing manager of House of Anansi, noted that though his publishing house's titles originate in Canada, they still found a large audience among Texas librarians and readers. "We have a strong list of children's titles that focus on universal themes," he said, noting that many of the publishing house's authors are Americans, as well as at least one Texan. The TLA is also the occasion where the Texas Book Festival, which operates as a nonprofit to raise money for Texas libraries. announces the recipients of their annual Texas Library Grants. This year the organization was able to offer collections enhancement funding to 41 public libraries across 36 Texas counties in an amount totaling $100,500. Carmen Pena Abrego, assistant manager for library events and community programs at Houston Public Library, interviewed actor and screenwriter Thomas Lennon about his new middle-grade novel, Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles (Abrams/Amulet), at one of the conference's featured events, and moderated a panel discussion on independent publishing, with Cinco Puntos Press and Arte Publico Press, from Houston. "[TLA] is a must-attend event for any Texas librarian and my favorite conference each year," Abrego said. Next year's TLA conference is scheduled for March 2427 in Houston. Below are further scenes from the event. Arcadia Publishing hit its sales budget for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, and made investments in new systems that laid the groundwork for future growth, CEO David Steinberger said in a letter to employees. The company also achieved another of its first year goals, acquiring another publisheralbeit slightly past the end of the fiscal yearwhen it agreed to buy Pelican Publishing in early April. Steinberger, with the financial backing of Michael and Lili Lynton, acquired Arcadia last May. He said Arcadia will continue to look for additional acquisitions as well as for new areas of growth. To that end, he announced a number of new hires and promotions, as well as the publisher's intention to outsourcing Arcadias warehousing function. Among the new hires is someone returning to Arcadia. Christen Thompson will be rejoining the company on April 29 in the newly created position of director of special projects. She had been an editor at the publisher, and is now also the co-owner of the North Charleston bookstore Itinerate Literate, which opened last year. A second person returning to the company is Cameron Haines, who is now production editor. On the sales side, Leigh Scott will take on the newly created role of independent sales manager for strategic growth and will be the team leader for Arcadias field sales reps. Newly promoted are Mike Nieken, who is now independent sales manager east, and Elysia Walton who is now independent sales manager west. The outsourcing of its warehousing operation was brought on by two factors, Steinberger said. Arcadias warehouse had been sold prior to the acquisition of the company, and Steinberger was looking for a place that could accommodate Arcadias growth. As a result, Arcadia has signed a contract with RRD, which has long been its printer through its Wentworth facility in Columbia, S.C., to now also handle warehousing for Arcadia, which is located in nearby Mount Pleasant, S.C. The decision to sign with RRD came after a year-long process of evaluating our different options for how best to move forward," Steinberger wrote. The move to the new warehouse is expected to be completed by the summer. Steinberger noted that every member of our warehouse team will be invited to interview to join the expanded team at Wentworth. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Akina Inc., a life sciences research company located in the Purdue Research Park, is planning a free scientific networking symposium in August. The Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Cancer and Research (BPCR) Conference will include presentations on scientific research, scientific posters, as well as presentations by businesses that supply researchers. The idea of the symposium is to bring people from the scientific community together to make the connections that enable businesses to grow, said John Garner, Akinas general manager. Garner said the connection could be an investor, a key consultant or a company that can supply a needed component or provide access to an expensive piece of equipment. Those kinds of connections have a great deal of value in the scientific industry, Garner said. About 80 people attended the inaugural conference last year. Akina officials anticipate that attendance will reach more than 100 this year. The conference will be 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Kurz Purdue Technology Center, 1281 Win Hentschel Blvd., West Lafayette. Those interested can register as an attendee, an exhibitor or a presenter at http://www.bpcrconference.com. Those wishing to make scientific presentations or enter a scientific poster must submit abstracts (50-word maximum). Registration isnt required to attend, but those who preregister will attend a lunch at no cost. The event is open to the public. Garner said Akina is sponsoring the event with the goal of enhancing collaborations among Purdue Research Park businesses, researchers and startups, as well as others in the area. Garner said being located in the Purdue Research Park helps because of support services supplied by the Purdue Research Foundation. Akina provides research products and services that assist in controlled releases, medicinal-delivery and biomedical applications. BPCR Conference Summary The BPCR Conference will be a free scientific networking symposium for Greater Lafayette-based businesses, research companies and startups that want to network with potential customers, investors and partners. The free event will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Kurz Purdue Technology Center. About Akina Inc. Akina Inc. is a life sciences company located in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette, Indiana. Founded in 2001 by Kinam Park, Showalter Distinguished Professor in Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Akina provides a variety of research products and services with a focus on controlled release, medicinal delivery, and biomedical applications. Akina consists of two divisions: PolySciTech, product development, and Akinalytics, laboratory services. About Purdue Research Park The Purdue Research Park is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation and is the largest university-affiliated business incubation complex in the country. The Purdue Research Park manages the Purdue Technology Centers in five sites across the state of Indiana with locations in West Lafayette, Indianapolis, Merrillville and New Albany. The nearly 240 companies located in the park network employ about 6,000 people. In 2016, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities co-named the Purdue Research Park a top recipient for an Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Designation for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about leasing space in the Purdue Research Park, contact 765-588-3470 or click Purdue Research Park. Writer: Tom Coyne, 765-588-1044, tjcoyne@prf.org Source: John Garner, jgakinainc@gmail.com By speaking the brains language, the material is a portal between electronics and the brain WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. What if the brain could detect its own disease? Researchers have been trying to create a material that thinks like the brain does, which would be more sensitive to early signs of neurological diseases such as Parkinsons. Thinking is a long way off, but Purdue University and Argonne National Laboratory researchers have engineered a new material that can at least listen. The lingua franca is ionic currents, which help the brain perform a particular reaction, needed for something as basic as sending a signal to breathe. Detecting ions means also detecting the concentration of a molecule, which serves as an indicator of the brains health. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers demonstrate the ability of a quantum material to automatically receive hydrogen when placed beneath an animal models brain slice. Quantum means that the material has electronic properties that both cant be explained by classical physics, and that give it a unique edge over other materials used in electronics, such as silicon. The edge, in this case, is strong, correlated electrons that make the material extra sensitive and extra tunable. The goal is to bridge the gap between how electronics think, which is via electrons, and how the brain thinks, which is via ions. This material helped us find a potential bridge, said Hai-Tian Zhang, a Gilbreth postdoctoral fellow in Purdues College of Engineering and first author on the paper. In the long run, this material might even bring the ability to download your brain, the researchers say. Imagine putting an electronic device in the brain, so that when natural brain functions start deteriorating, a person could still retrieve memories from that device, said Shriram Ramanathan, a Purdue professor of materials engineering whose lab specializes in developing brain-inspired technology. We can confidently say that this material is a potential pathway to building a computing device that would store and transfer memories, he said. The researchers tested this material on two molecules: Glucose, a sugar essential for energy production, and dopamine, a chemical messenger that regulates movement, emotional responses and memory. Because dopamine amounts are typically low in the brain, and even lower for people with Parkinsons disease, detecting this chemical has been notoriously difficult. But detecting dopamine levels early would mean sooner treatment of the disease. This quantum material is about nine times more sensitive to dopamine than methods that we use currently in animal models, said Alexander Chubykin, an assistant professor of biological sciences in the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, based in Discovery Park. The quantum material owes its sensitivity to strong interactions between so-called correlated electrons. The researchers first found that when they placed the material in contact with glucose molecules, the oxides would spontaneously grab hydrogen from the glucose via an enzyme. The same happened with dopamine released from a mouse brain slice. The strong affinity to hydrogen, as shown when researchers at Argonne National Laboratory created simulations of the experiments, allowed the material to extract atoms on its own without a power source. The fact that we didnt provide power to the material for it to take in hydrogen means that it could bring very low-power electronics with high sensitivity, Ramanathan said. This could be helpful for probing unexplored environments, as well. The researchers also say that this material could sense the atoms of a range of molecules, beyond just glucose and dopamine. The next step is creating a way for the material to talk back to the brain. The work was supported by multiple entities, including Gilbreth Fellowship by the College of Engineering at Purdue University, the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office for Scientific Research, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. This research also aligns with Purdue's Giant Leaps celebration, acknowledging the universitys global advancements made in AI and health as part of Purdues 150th anniversary. This is one of the four themes of the yearlong celebrations Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues. Writer: Kayla Wiles, 765-494-2432, wiles5@purdue.edu Sources: Shriram Ramanathan, 765-494-0546, shriram@purdue.edu Hai-Tian Zhang, HTZhang@purdue.edu Alexander Chubykin, 765-496-0064, chubykin@purdue.edu Note to Journalists : The paper is available open-access at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09660-6. ABSTRACT Perovskite Nickelates as Bio-Electronic Interfaces Hai-Tian Zhang1,2 , Fan Zuo1, Feiran Li3, Henry Chan4, Qiuyu Wu5, Zhan Zhang6, Badri Narayanan4, Koushik Ramadoss1, Indranil Chakraborty7, Gobinda Saha7, Ganesh Kamath4, Kaushik Roy7, Hua Zhou6, Alexander A. Chubykin5, Subramanian K.R.S. Sankaranarayanan4, Jong Hyun Choi3 and Shriram Ramanathan1 1School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA 2Lillian Gilbreth Fellowship Program, College of Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA 3School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA 4Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA 5Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA. 6X-ray Science Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA 7School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09660-6 Welcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. OK Rantoul, IL (61866) Today Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 38F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy. Some light rain is likely. Low 34F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Netflix has announced its second original Middle East series will be a high school drama produced entirely by female Arab cast and crew. Called Al Rawabi School for Girls, the young adult show is written and directed by Jordanian director Tima Shomali (pictured, right), in collaboration with writer Shirin Kamal (pictured, left).The suspense drama centres on a bullied girl exacting her revenge, and how good and bad can co-exist within each person. It will be shot in Jordan this summer.Al Rawabi School for Girls is a very dear project to my heart. It depicts the stories and struggles of young Arab women in a light that we hadn't yet seen before in the region, particularly with this age group, said Tima Shomali, director.Simran Sethi, director of international originals at Netflix said: We are extremely proud to partner with Tima again to produce what is essentially the first Middle Eastern young adult series that celebrates the role of women, not only on screen, but behind the scenes as well.The story brings a fresh perspective to Middle Eastern content, and we are absolutely excited to share Al Rawabi School for Girls with our global audiences in over 190 countries.The Netflix originaloriginal will be made by the US streaming giant in partnership with Shomalis film and TV production company Filmizion, whose credits include hit Jordanian show The Femaleshow.Al Rawabi School for Girls will follow Netflix first Arabic original series Jinn on to the subscription video-on-demand (VOD) platform later this year.The Middle East has a multitude of stories and layers that other parts of the world may have not encountered, and I hope that Al Rawabi School for Girls not only resonates with women in the Middle East, but women from all over the world, said series co-writer Shirin Kamal. California has become central to the world-wide climate change debate, as some local officials, spurred on by trial attorneys and activists have waged an aggressive legal campaign against energy manufacturers. The public deserves to know the high cost of this litigation, who is behind this assault on Californias business climate, and why. The European Unions Parliament recently invited a man named Geoffrey Supran to testify about a paper that he wrote accusing ExxonMobil of misleading the public about global warming. His co-author is Naomi Oreskes, and she has a long history of pushing for litigation against the energy industry. Conveniently, shes made a career providing tailor-made research to bolster her cause. In Washington, as Congress begins planning for hearings in support of its Green New Deal agenda, it may invite Oreskes or Supran to testify there tooproviding another platform for their brand of activism. But, its simply an anti-fossil fuel crusade dressed up in academic clothing for trial lawyers looking to get paid. Beginning in July 2017, several California communities - notably Oakland and San Francisco - filed so-called public nuisance lawsuits in federal court, alleging that energy manufacturers should be held financially accountable for climate change impacts such as rising sea levels and wildfires. Local officials in these cities, teaming with trial attorneys, hoped they could score both political victories and new streams of revenue. The attorneys themselves stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars. Thankfully, public nuisance lawsuits have fallen on deaf ears in the courts so far. This past June, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California a Clinton appointee - dismissed the lawsuits filed by San Francisco and Oakland, arguing the issue of climate change deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case. The lawsuits are now under appeal. To their credit, some California mayors have denounced these lawsuits as legal wild goose chases. Huntington Beach Mayor Mike Posey, for example, wrote that his coastal community has no plans to go down the public nuisance path. Posey explained that such lawsuits only serve to hurt manufacturing and could eventually be aimed at cities themselves. Leaders like Mayor Posey are acting as voices of reason. Others, like Naomi Oreskes, are simply stirring the pot. She was part of a group who in 2012 met in La Jolla, California to hatch the public nuisance lawsuit strategy against energy manufacturers. Alongside the Union of Concern Scientists and trial attorney Matt Pawa, Oreskes was the brain trust for how to use lawsuits to damage the fossil fuel sector and make money for attorneys, all in the name of climate change. But while Oreskes masquerades as an academic, shes really just another anti-energy fanatic. A Professor of the History of Science, Oreskes never earned an academic degree in the field of climatology, meteorology, or atmospheric sciences. She is a geologist by training, with a Ph.D. from Stanford, a B.S. in mining geology from the University of London, and work experience as a mining geologist in Australia. Her climate change work has been bankrolled by The Rockefeller Family Fund as part of a campaign to damage U.S. energy companies. Despite her leading role in climate circles, Oreskes's work has been characterized by at least one leading expert as unreliable, invalid, and biased. For example, Oreskes co-authored a paper in 2017 alleging ExxonMobils public statements on climate change were misleading. And although she claims to have examined ExxonMobils communications from 1977 to 2014, there was no ExxonMobil until 1999. In reality, most of the advertorials Oreskes claimed misled the public on climate change were published by Mobil before the companies merged in 1999, while the internal climate research was largely conducted by Exxon. An error this obvious is troubling, but even more so considering that Oreskess deeply flawed study has repeatedly been cited by those suing energy manufacturers. Oreskes even added her name to a legal brief filed this year with other academics urging the California lawsuits be moved to state court, hoping for more favorable judges. These lawsuits are dangerous. They threaten the 30,000 manufacturers that call California home. They also target a state that is literally an energy production powerhouse, with abundant supplies of crude, sunshine, geothermal resources, and hydropower electricity generation. Instead of seeking to run even more companies out of California, adding to the 10,000 employers who have already left in recent years, we should focus instead on common sense approaches to climate change. If we really want to create positive change for California, we should devote our attention to looming challenges such as unfunded pension obligations, affordable housing, and water resources, rather than on misguided approaches like public nuisance lawsuits spurred on by agenda-driven voices like Naomi Oreskes. That strategy is a win for all of us, not just for trial attorneys. Theresa Harvey is the President & CEO of the North Orange County Chamber of Commerce The world has seen this pattern before. Rich bankers take advantage of a developing nation, providing it loans it doesnt need and then skimming some of the proceeds for themselves. Accusations like these are swirling in Mozambique. Credit Suisse employees have been charged with crimes related to the financing of ships and systems for the southeastern African nation. The systems arent working and the country is in default on $2 billion in loans. That situation sounds familiar, but it requires selective amnesia to fit it all neatly into the usual pattern. While parts of the transactions might have been questionable, there is evidence that Mozambique bought and received equipment and systems that it really needed and, in fact, still needs. It is reasonable to question whether Mozambique took advantage of the benefits it received. The story starts in 2010. The government decided, based on its intelligence service findings and endorsed by the World Bank, that Mozambique needed to build a modern fishing fleet and a coastal monitoring and surveillance security system to control its offshore Exclusive Economic Zone. Few questioned this desire. It was widely recognized at the time that the impoverished nation needed to take advantage of its valuable fisheries and its newly discovered, huge offshore oil and gas reserves. Mozambique also needed to protect territorial waters from piracy, illegal fishing, and drug and arms traffickers, not to mention terrorists. To advance these goals, the Mozambican government set up state-owned enterprises to purchase and operate the necessary tools. After receiving multiple offers from companies to provide the systems and equipment, the Mozambican companies chose Privinvest Group. This also wasnt a surprise. Privinvest, a leading shipbuilder with yards in Germany, France, and the Middle East, had and still has a reputation for reliability. It has built ships for 40 navies around the world. Mozambican officials contracted the company to design and build an integrated maritime system, including naval patrol and tuna-fishing vessels, patrol aircraft, satellite coverage and related equipment, maintenance, and training. Mozambique also asked for and received technology and intellectual property so that its citizens could maintain and build ships for themselves and their neighbors as an ongoing business. Was this too much for the developing nation to absorb and use? Should it never have been so ambitious? Did Mozambique order a seafaring program that it didnt really need? Looking back, it would seem so. But at the time, the effort made perfect sense. Mozambique was seriously talked about then as the next Qatar in energy resources, with a fishery that needed only protection to produce huge profits. The government and the International Monetary Fund wrote or talked publicly about the loans. The projects were celebrated with public ceremonies in France and a parade in Maputo, Mozambiques capital. Privinvest delivered 65 vessels and a range of systems and services. Credit Suisse, which gave the project financing a green light after a thorough vetting, did an audit and verified that the ships and systems had been delivered. Then the problems began. Privinvest tried to operationalize its deliveries by providing training and other services, but the Mozambicans didnt respond well. Eventually, they all but abandoned the effort. Ships and radar systems sit unused to this day. Worse, Mozambique didnt pay its bills. The main reason: Oil and gas prices plummeted. What had looked like a sure bet on a steady source of money became an impossible dream. Mozambique ultimately defaulted on $2 billion in loans for the projects and was accused of hiding most of the debt from the IMF, which suspended its assistance to the country. The deal now looks tainted, and some of it probably was. Charges have been filed in New York and Mozambique against a range of people, including two Privinvest employees (who deny the charges) and Mozambiques former finance minister. Litigation is likely on three continents. In the end, someone will bear the blame. But until the bottom fell out of commodity prices, people forget that Mozambique was genuinely on the rise. It was seen as a place with a real chance to end decades of stagnation and poverty with petro-wealth and boundless fisheries. All it needed was a way to protect its good fortune. Who knows? In the end, the story of Mozambiques unused navy might fit the pattern of a developing nation being taken advantage of. But a little history lesson raises legitimate questions about that. Eugen Iladi is a freelance reporter based in Virginia who covers politics, conflict, business and development in emerging markets. The views expressed are the author's own. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is beset by scandal. He is accused of interfering in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec-based engineering firm and major employer. The controversy has erased the Liberal Partys lead over the rival Conservatives in this years election campaign. But Trudeaus popularity is not the only victim of the affair. His political troubles have distracted the prime minister from the deepening Venezuela crisis, just as Canada was showing a willingness to shape the international response. Prior to the SNC scandal, Canada, a founding member of the Lima Group, was at the forefront of regional efforts to bring about a peaceful and democratic transition in Venezuela. Ottawa rarely wades deeply into Latin American controversies. But this time around, Trudeau was a key actor. Unlike the Trump administration, Trudeaus approach was in line with the majority of the countries of the region that are committed to a non-military path away from President Nicolas Maduros rule. In February, after an international humanitarian convoy failed to enter Venezuela, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivered a bellicose speech to the Lima Group in Bogota, repeating Trumps threat that all options are on the table. By contrast, the Lima Group -- an informal collection of Latin American governments and Canada created to address the Venezuela crisis -- rejected the U.S. approach, saying any transition should be conducted by Venezuelans themselves, peacefully and within the framework of the constitution and international law. That was consistent with Canadas posture: aggressively pro-sanctions, but resolutely against military action. After the Bogota summit, Canadas foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said that Ottawa was coordinating with allies to give sanctions against Maduro more bite. On Monday, Canada announced new sanctions against 43 Venezuelans. Indeed, before the SNC scandal, Canada was a leading voice in the hemisphere on this issue. Earlier in February, Lima Group foreign ministers gathered in frigid Ottawa to discuss the future of Venezuela -- and witness Canadas announcement of tens of millions of dollars in foreign aid. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido participated by videoconference . Despite their interest in the subject, President Trump and his saber-rattling aides were absent. That was probably by design. Given the history of U.S. interventions in Latin America, and Trumps unpopularity in the region, White House leadership on the Venezuela crisis has always sparked a mix of reactions and results. Trudeau had no such baggage. For that reason, from the start of the latest push against Maduro, Canada has been a critical and underappreciated actor. Last May, after Maduro won a second term in a fraudulent election, Canada rejected the results, which Freeland dismissed as a caricature of democracy. Prior to Maduros January inauguration, Canada joined a Lima Group declaration that formally rejected Maduros second term, demanded new elections, threatened sanctions, and called on Maduro to resign. Days later, when Guaido, the National Assembly leader, declared himself interim president -- citing a constitutional provision regarding presidential vacancies -- Canada promptly offered its support, triggering a cascade of global recognition for Guaido. Today, dozens of democratic governments consider Guaido to be Venezuelas rightful leader, including Great Britain, France and Germany. But at the time, Canadas decision was bold and consequential -- an expression of support from one of the worlds most respected democracies, and evidence that Guaido was not merely a U.S. puppet. Trudeau was regarded as one of the few principled and liberal leaders still standing, as he demonstrated in his feud with Saudi Arabia over its imprisonment of a human rights activist. But the SNC affair has distracted his administration and muddied his credentials as a defender of the rule of law and liberal values. Even before the scandal, Canadas role in the international response to Venezuela was not without blemish. Trudeau had been unwilling to offer refuge to many Venezuelans, even as the number of those displaced by the crisis exceeded 3 million. It may reach 5 million this year. (Trudeaus government recently announced plans to limit asylum claims and increase border security.) Still, Canadas rapidly decreasing profile on Venezuela is a great loss. Without Trudeau, the international coalition will be increasingly subject to the White Houses pressure tactics, including threats of a military intervention. Over time, that could fracture the coalition and help Maduro portray his repressive regime as a victim of foreign aggression. Fortunately, Canada need not retreat entirely. Freeland is a capable diplomat and rising star in the Liberal Party. She is well positioned to maintain Canadas leadership and help prevent Maduro from branding the international response as a hostile ideological campaign. Benjamin N. Gedan is a former South America director on the National Security Council and the senior adviser to the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Nicolas Saldias is a researcher at the Wilson Center. The views expressed are the authors own. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/18/2019 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. debuted with 11 reality-star teams kicking off their race around the world and Art Velez and J.J. Carrell getting eliminated during Wednesday night's episode on CBS.Former racers Art and J.J., who are 49-year-old friends from California, arrived at the first Pit Stop of Season 31 in Tokyo, Japan in last place due to a four-hour time penalty and were therefore eliminated from the competition."I'll be thinking about [our loss] for a while. I still think about Season 20 and that was seven years ago," Art said following his team's ouster."But there's nobody out there I would rather do this with than [J.J.], because I love to let him down!"broadcast, featuring a "Reality Clash" theme of former Survivor and Big Brother contestants as well as veterans, began at the starting line in Hermosa Beach, CA.All 11 of the teams met with host Phil Keoghan for the start of a very unique race between "fierce competitors who all think they have what it takes to race more than 25,000 miles around the world and win $1 million," according to Phil. Rachel Reilly , who is the only participant this season to have competed in the Big Brother house as well as ran , admitted Big Brother alums would probably be surprised by how "physically demanding" the Race tends to be.Rachel also pointed out they wouldn't be eating on the run, which is a comment Eliza Orlins and Corinne Kaplan scoffed at since they are coming from a Survivor background in which the castaways must survive for 39 days with little to no food.Rachel, who previously ran with her husband Brendon Villegas , chose to race this time around with her sister Elissa Slater from Big Brother."Big Brother immensely, definitely, prepares you for strategy," Elissa pointed out.Phil then asked the Racers to dig into a massive octopus sand sculpture to retrieve their first set of clues.Rachel and Elissa found their clue in first place, followed by former Survivor castaways Rupert Boneham and wife Laura Boneham , and former Big Brother houseguests Nicole Franzel and fiance Victor Arroyo The teams were then instructed to fly to Tokyo, Japan.Former racers Becca Droz and friend Floyd Pierce found their clue in the octopus in fourth place, and behind them were former Big Brother houseguests Janelle Pierzina and friend Britney Haynes Former racers Leo Temory and friend Jamal Zadran found their clue in sixth place, followed by former Survivor castaways Chris Hammons and friend Bret LaBelle in seventh place.Former racers Colin Guinn and life partner Christie Woods found their clue next, with former racers Tyler Oakley and friend Korey Kuhl on their heels.Eliza and Corinne discovered their clue in the sand in tenth place, so that left Art and J.J. in eleventh -- and last -- place.All of the teams hopped on the same flight to fly more than 5,000 miles west across the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo, where they must take a bus ride to Shibuya, home to the busiest pedestrian crossing.Once at Shibuya, teams had to travel on foot to one of two locations -- ACB Lock & Security or Tokyo Tokyo Restaurant to find their next clue. There were a limited number of clues, however, at each location.It was chaos, as the Racers had trouble finding people who spoke English, and the street names were in Japanese.Rupert and Laura arrived at the restaurant in first place and were told to walk to the Edge of Shibuya Building and head up to the fifth floor. Chris and Bret received their clue in second place.Leo and Jamal found ACB Lock & Security in third place but pretended they were fighting so teams around them would stop following them.The guys' plan worked, as both Tyler and Korey and Rachel and Elissa decided to head in a different direction.Janelle and Britney found their clue in fourth place, followed by Colin and Christie, Becca and Floyd and Nicole and Victor.Rachel and Elissa found the restaurant next, but there were no more clues, so they had to search for the lock and security place. This also happened to Tyler and Korey.Rachel and Elissa quickly found the lock and security place, however, and they told Tyler and Korey about it.Corinne and Eliza found their clue in tenth place, leaving Art and J.J. in eleventh place looking for ACB Lock & Security, which they eventually found.Rupert and Laura got lost trying to find the next building.Leo and Jamal therefore made it to the fifth floor and found their next clue before any of the other teams.The guys were then followed by Colin and Christie, Janelle and Britney, Nicole and Victor, Rachel and Elissa in fifth place, Tyler and Korey, Becca and Floyd, Chris and Bret, Rupert and Laura in ninth place, Corinne and Eliza, and Art and J.J.It then became time for one member of each team to complete a Roadblock task called "Who Wants A Sweet New Pair Of Shoes?" inspired by game shows in Tokyo.The participating Racers had to bite wooden flip flops to find one of only 12 shoes made of white chocolate.The Racers who chose to take on the task were Jamal, Christie, Janelle, Victor, Elissa, Tyler, Floyd, Chris, Laura, Eliza, and J.J.Leo and Jamal completed the Roadblock task in first place. They were then followed by Britney and Janelle -- who seemingly bit into the correct shoe on the first try -- and Colin and Christie after her twelfth attempt.Victor finally bit into a chocolate shoe on his 43rd attempt. Tyler and Korey completed the Roadblock next, and they were then followed by Rachel and Elissa in sixth place, Becca and Floyd in seventh, and Chris and Bret in eighth place.Rupert and Laura left the Roadblock in ninth place, and behind them were Corinne and Eliza and finally Art and J.J. in last place.Teams were then instructed to travel to Onarimon Station and then proceed to Shiba Koen, where they must search for their next clue.Leo and Jamal stayed in the lead and began the next Roadblock task, which required one member from each team to climb a slippery 20-foot slide called "Mount Fiji" and retrieve one of the clues at the very top.Once again, this Roadblock was modeled after a Japanese game show.Janelle and Britney got lost on the way to the slide, as did Rupert and Laura.Colin and Christie arrived at the second Roadblock task in second place, followed by Tyler and Korey, Nicole and Victor, Rachel and Elissa, Becca and Floyd, Chris and Bret, Janelle and Britney, and Corinne and Eliza.Since Rupert and Laura got so lost -- for about two hours in the park -- Art and J.J. had a chance to catch up and attempt the Roadblock task in tenth place.The Racers who did not attempt the first Roadblock task had to do this one, so Leo changed into a blue unitard with a wig and got climbing.He was later joined by Colin, Korey, Nicole, Rachel, Becca, Bret, Britney, Corinne, Art, and Rupert.Leo and Jamal, of course, got the job done in first place, and their next set of clues sent them to the Pit Stop at Atago Jinja, a shrine built on the highest hill in central Tokyo.Colin and Christie finished the slide Roadblock in second place, followed by Tyler and Korey, Nicole and Victor, Rachel and Elissa, Becca and Floyd, Chris and Bret, Janelle and Britney, and Corinne and Eliza in ninth place.Art was in much better physical shape than he was seven years ago -- as he lost about 40 pounds -- so he didn't think anything was going to stop him.However, he struggled to reach the top of the slide and appeared to get serious muscle cramps or a Charley horse in his leg that needed medical attention.Things got so bad that J.J. suggested his team stop the task and accept a four-hour time penalty. Neither guy had hope Art was going to get the job done.The guys therefore decided to wait it out, and then Rupert magically got the task done in one attempt. Art and J.J. were shocked Rupert was physically capable of doing so.Rupert and Laura therefore left the second Roadblock task of the leg in tenth place, leaving Art and J.J. in the dust.Art and J.J. realized in that moment their time on was "over" and it was such a horrible way to end their stint on the show.Leo and Jamal completed the first leg of 's 31st season in first place. As a result, they won a seven-day cruise in Tahiti.Colin and Christie arrived at the Pit Stop in second place, and Tyler and Korey finished in third place.Rachel and Elissa claimed fourth place, and then Becca and Floyd made it to the Pit Stop in fifth place. On their heels were Nicole and Victor in sixth place.Chris and Bret completed the leg in seventh place, and then Janelle and Britney met Phil in eighth place. Corinne and Eliza placed ninth.Because Art and J.J. took a time penalty, Rupert and Laura arrived at the Pit Stop in tenth place, and then Art and J.J. were eliminated."It was very frustrating," J.J. told Phil."We were going to win it this time because we came so close last time," Art said."It just felt a little bit out of sync for us today," J.J. reasoned. "We just couldn't finish the last challenge." Porterville, CA (93257) Today Mostly cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. High near 50F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight A few clouds. Low near 35F. Winds light and variable. Only a couple of months after opening her first CBD store near Athens Square Mall, Jacklin Parker is opening up another Your CBD Store in East Athens In January of 2019 Parker and her husband opened up a franchise location of Your CBD Store in west Athens. Parker said this franchise is unique in the CBD market because it isnt tied to marijuana or smoking at all, and instead sells products with the emphasis on medical applications of CBD, or Cannabidiol. The incident on South Milledge has been classified as two apparent armed robberies of UGA students, according to a UGA Archnews alert sent at 10:08 a.m. One of the students has been hospitalized. 'The BJP certainly has an edge as the BJP has gone ahead of the Congress in pleasing the trading community.' On Friday, April 19, Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi will address the Rashtriya Vyapari Dhanyawad Sammelan -- a national traders convention -- in New Delhi. Earlier this month, 200 leaders of the Confederation of All India Traders from 26 states met in Puducherry and said traders would play a crucial role in 195 Lok Sabha seats this election. The trader leaders said the trading community would group together as a vote bank and vote for the party that would address the problems India's traders face. After the BJP released its Sankalp Patra, the CAIT said it was happy that the BJP had finally listened to their long-pending demands. "The BJP has succeeded in garnering the support of the trading community by including our issues in their manifesto," Praveen Khandelwal, below, secretary general, CAIT, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier. After the Puducherry meeting, you said traders would play a major role in 195 Lok Sabha seats all over India. Was the meeting organised to find out the kind of influence traders have in the election? You must understand that traders are the only community present everywhere, in every nook and corner of all the parliamentary constituencies in India. Even in the remote areas where it is difficult to go, our traders are there to cater to the needs of the people of that area. It is the largest network of trading community across the globe. So, traders are in a better position to influence voters. Even in a small shop, there is a footfall of a minimum of 30 consumers per day. If the trader starts talking about the good or the bad of a candidate or a political party, it can lead to forming an opinion -- good or bad -- about the particular candidate or the political party. Another interesting statistics is 40% of the 30 consumers every day are new entrants. You mean, traders can influence people of a particular area.. Absolutely. You have to understand the fact that there are over 7 crore (70 million) traders across the country. Around 30 crore (300 million) employees are dependent on these 7 crore traders. This number does not include their family members. This 37 crore (370 million) people are the largest vote bank in the country. That's why we feel traders play a very crucial and vital role in any election if it consolidates itself into a vote bank. This is what we want to do in the election. We have conducted a campaign called 'One Nation, One Trader, 10 Votes' for the last three months. This campaign included workshops, seminars and conferences across the country. We saw an overwhelming response to the campaign from the trading community. The truth is, traders all over the country have been feeling cheated because many core issues concerning us have not been addressed at all. This neglect has been there for the last one decade. I would say, neither the governments nor the political parties found the need to have the trading community in its priority list. Did demonetisation and GST affect the trading community in a negative way? No. Certainly, traders felt many problems in the initial months of demonetisation, but as soon as cash flow returned, problems faced by traders were solved. Most traders in India are dependent on cash even now. In the case of GST, we submitted many memoranda again and again to the government and the trading council. Finally, our voice was heard and now the rates of more than 200 commodities were toned down. Also, the GST tax structure was simplified and rationalised. So, now GST is also not a big issue. How responsive was the BJP to the traders's demands? Frankly speaking, not very responsive. Though our many issues were taken care of by various ministries, no priority was given to traders. Traders are supposed to be the BJP's core supporters. Does that mean traders are no longer with the BJP? That was before the BJP released its manifesto. From our side, we had released a charter of our demands and waited for all the political parties to respond to our demands. We also made clear that the party or parties which accepted our charter would get the support of the traders. We went through the Congress manifesto and we found that they had totally neglected the trading community. They summarised traders's issues in two points: Abolition of e-way bill and introduction of a one point GST. They also said that new businesses did not need permission in the first three years, which is not possible as traders were governed by several rules and regulation passed by Parliament. Unless amendments are passed, it will not absolve traders from the responsibility of obtaining licenses of permission. You said the BJP had been neglecting the trading community... I think the BJP has realised that keeping the core supporters in good humour is essential for the party. We are happy that most of the crucial issues were taken care of in the manifesto. Like? They have promised to set up a National Traders Welfare Board and a National Policy for Retail Trade, and provide accidental insurance of Rs 10 lakh to every trader registered under GST, pension for traders, and also a Vyapari Credit Card on the pattern of a Kisan Credit Card. The seed start-up fund of Rs 20,000 crores (Rs 200 billion) and collateral free credit to MSME up to Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million) will also benefit the trading community. Above all, promise to simplify GST by consultation with stakeholders to rationalise GST tax structure. Setting up of a Farmers Producer Organisation will definitely boost the sentiments of the trading community engaged in agricultural products. Naturally, the traders are happy. Of course, e-commerce and FDI in retail are yet to be dealt with. We will continue to work with the BJP so that these issues are also given adequate importance. Overall, the BJP Sankalp Patra is good for the trading community. It is for the first time that any political party has given such weightage to the trading community. You had said because traders were looked upon as BJP supporters, other political parties ignored traders... It is a fact. Other political parties kept a distance from us as traders were perceived as core supporters of the BJP. It became difficult for us as the BJP was not giving us any importance and other parties were keeping a distance from us. That is why I said we felt like orphans. Now that the BJP's manifesto talks about your issues, has the feeling gone? Yes, the BJP has come forward to handhold the trading community. Let them implement these promises. Only after that, the feeling will go. Which way will the 37 crore trading community vote? We are waiting to hear the response to our charter from other political parties also. Then, we will decide who to vote for. This time, traders of India will vote collectively. I admit that the BJP certainly has an edge as the BJP has gone ahead of the Congress in pleasing the trading community. Do you feel the BJP has now realised the mistake of not taking their core supporters along with them? I will not call it a mistake; it is for the BJP leadership to say anything on that. But I will definitely say the BJP has succeeded in garnering the support of the trading community by including our issues in their manifesto. What kind of feedback are you getting regarding the election? In general, there is a perception all across the country that in the given circumstances, Modi can deliver things in a better way in comparison to his opponents. With substantial number of employees having been with Jet Airways for around 20 years, getting another job is also not easy considering the age factor and the job market situation. Some loaders have pledged ornaments of their wives, some engineers have sold vehicles and many have defaulted on their monthly payments. They are among the 22,000-odd employees of the now wingless Jet Airways. As hundreds of employees, highly-skilled as well as semi-skilled, assembled for a "silent appeal" in the national capital on Thursday afternoon, hope was in the air despite an uncertain tomorrow. From being clueless on how to find money for their children's school and college fees, to paying rent for their accommodations, staff are looking for answers and for most, the answers lie in immediate funding from lenders. "I can't believe that I don't have work today... Hope the airline flies again," Chandrasekar Mandal, who has served the airline for 24 years, told PTI. Mandal, who is a supervisor of loaders at the airport in New Delhi, has stories of many of his colleagues struggling to cough up money to meet their expenses, including for college admission of their wards. Sunil Kumar, a driver who has also put in 24 years, said it was becoming difficult to manage daily requirements, adding that many of his colleagues have pledged their wives' ornaments to raise money. With prayers on their lips for funds to restart the airline, many employees are optimistic about turning around things provided enough support is coming. About Thursday's gathering at Jantar Mantar, a place known for hosting demonstrations, senior pilot Rohit Chaudhary said the employees' gathering is not a protest but a "silent appeal" for reviving the airline. Chaudhary has been associated with Jet Airways for 21 years and his wife is also a pilot with the carrier for 16 years. According to a senior pilot, one of the reasons for the airline's downfall was possible lack of transparency in communications between the airline management and the government on funding. Manish, an engineer who has been with the carrier for 19 years, said he did not have any clue that the airline would suspend operations. He also said that some people have sold their vehicles and withdrawn their fixed deposits. Quite a few employees did crowd funding for their colleagues in dire need, including for one who is bed ridden, Rithesh -- an engineer with 17 years stint at the airline -- said. Loaders and drivers, working on contract, are also bearing the financial brunt with mounting salary dues. One of them, Rajeev Kumar, said paying tuition and admission fees are becoming difficult and that most have taken loans. Not just meeting expenses, some employees staying on rented accommodations have been asked to vacate by their landlords in the wake of the airline crisis, according to Vaishali, who is in the commercial department. Besides impacting the lives of employees, there are also the cascading effects on others in the aviation business. The shutting down of operations is also negatively impacting travel agents and businesses of outlets at airport, according to Abhijit Angolkar, station manager of the airline here. Jet Airways would have completed 26 years of services in May. With substantial number of employees having been with Jet Airways for around 20 years, getting another job is also not easy considering the age factor and the job market situation. A rival airline was offering only around half the salary amount that was paid to a loader at Jet Airways, according to Srinivas, who is into the administration department. Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association (Jamewa) president Ashish Kumar Mohanty said that funds should be immediately given to the airline as efforts should be first made to save existing jobs and then look at generating jobs. Taking to the street, the harried employees are waiting to be heard as reflected in a placard, 'Hear our cry, Let 9W fly'. 9W is the code for Jet Airways flights. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo Jazeera Airways started flying to India 18 months ago, servicing Ahmadabad, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi and Mumbai. Kuwaits Jazeera Airways is opening six new routes and seeking additional traffic rights from India to grow its presence in the country. One of its new destinations is London, and Jazeera Airways will become the first low-cost airline from a Gulf state to fly to the British capital from June, said airlines chief executive officer Rohit Ramachandran. The airline, however, is not interested in acquisitions and will grow organically. Jazeera Airways is the region's first non-government-owned airline and is operating to India for the past one year and a half. It flies to five Indian cities - Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Mumbai. Ramachandran said India was the biggest single market for the airline and the company was looking to increase its seat entitlements. Currently, Indian and Kuwaiti carriers are entitled to 12,000 seats per week. The last time seat revision was done in 2007. There is a need to increase the allocation. Even if it is tripled, it will not be enough, he said. The lowest seat factor on Indian routes is 86 per cent and the airline gets mix of both migrant workers, corporate, and leisure tourist traffic from India, he said. Only around 11 per cent of its traffic from India flies onward from Kuwait, and Ramachandran hopes to attract budget travellers from India on its London service. "We will offer hot meals on the six-hour-long Kuwait-London flight," he said. Currently, the airline flies to 27 destinations and along with London it will launch flights to Kathmandu, Dhaka, Al Ain (UAE), Bodrum, and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen airport (Turkey). Photograph: Reuters Alleging some "motives" behind the series of developments at the carrier, Jet Airways Officers & Staff Association president Kiran Pawaskar demanded a probe, preferably by CBI. IMAGE: An employee of Jet Airways is consoled by her colleagues during a protest demanding to "save Jet Airways" in New Delhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters The officers and employees union of the grounded Jet Airways on Thursday sought government intervention to avert a Kingfisher-like collapse of the carrier, which could not take off after halting operations temporarily in October 2012. Alleging some "motives" behind the series of developments at the carrier, which eventually forced it to shutter services, Jet Airways Officers & Staff Association president Kiran Pawaskar also demanded a probe, preferably by the national investigation agency CBI. After flying for over 25 years, Jet Airways was grounded Wednesday night when its final flight, a Boeing 737, touched down at the Mumbai airport early Thursday after departing from Amritsar. The country's oldest private airline flew its maiden flight nearly 26 years ago from the city airport to Ahmedabad as an air taxi operator. "The situation is very bad for employees. As many as 16,000 permanent employees don't have work today. I told the management that efforts should be made to resume operations as early as possible," Pawaskar, who is also an NCP lawmaker, said asking why the airline did not clear employees dues before suspending services. Airlines' chief executive Vinay Dube had Wednesday said the airline did not have an "answer" at present on the fate of its employees during the on-going stake sale process. The airline senior management, pilots and engineers have not be been paid since January while the other categories of employees have also not received their March salaries. "Employees are ready to work. They are experts at what they do because they have been working for 25 years. We are not going to run away. We will remain here," Pawaskar said. He said the SBI-led consortium, which now the controls the management, can resume operations after requesting the Prime Minister's Office or finance ministry for the required funds. The consortium had rejected the airline's appeal for Rs 983 crore lifeline, of which Rs 240 alone were to be used to disburse pending salaries, Pawaskar added. He also asked why banks have not cleared the promised Rs 1,500 core loan to the airline even two weeks after chairman Naresh Goyal stepped -- the main condition of the lenders to lend more money. He also said none of the jobs are lost so far and that the employees will continue to claim salaries as long as they are with Jet Airways. Can the Election Commission step up to the plate and exert its Constitutional powers with non-partisan conviction, asks Mitali Saran. IMAGE: Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announces the dates of the 2019 Lok Sabha election in New Delhi, March 10, 2019. Photograph: PTI Photo If the Election Commission were not a vital institution, you might feel a bit sorry for it, because it really does have a lot on its plate. There has been such large-scale abuse of its guidelines in the run-up to the 2019 election that the EC has had, to put it charitably, a hard time keeping up with all the violations. But it's too important an institution to feel sorry for. When it comes to safeguarding the people's right to vote in free and fair elections, it should expect only the sharpest public scrutiny. The EC has not covered itself in glory under the Modi government, having been inexplicably accommodating of the PM's schedule, and faced criticism of its handling of EVMs and voter rolls. The governing party defies it so much that it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the EC is its creature. Like many other institutions by now, the EC is widely perceived as toothless. Now, it will need to hold the line against a tidal wave of propaganda, fake news, and overt communalism. The EC has dealt with the easy stuff, like the Indian Railways serving customers in cups provided by the NGO Sankalp, emblazoned with 'Main Hoon Chowkidar', and Air India printing tickets and boarding passes with Modi's image and 'Vibrant Gujarat' on them. It took up a complaint from traders in Delhi about Gujarati cloth in Delhi's wholesale markets being sold in wrappers emblazoned with the prime minister's image and the BJP's party symbol. It has written to Doordarshan about airing the PM's 'Main bhi chowkidar' programme. It has pulled up Ajay Singh Bisht for calling the army 'Modiji ka sena', though it has not pulled up the PM for saying that Rahul Gandhi was contesting in Wayanad because it is a Hindu minority constituency -- a statement factually incorrect. The EC remains oddly unsure, at the time of writing, about whether a movie about Mr Modi's life and accomplishments, whose makers have links to the BJP, should or should not be allowed to run just before voting begins. (It has since ruled that the film will not be released till after the election) The thorny issue of NaMo TV, which spews propaganda 24/7, remains to be sorted. The channel has recently resurfaced after its pre-election run last year. Its content -- compilations of the PM's speeches and promotions of the BJP's schemes and programmes -- is available to all channels on the direct to home network. NaMo TV is on air despite having no licence or certification. The EC sought a report from the I&B ministry, which said it was merely an advertising platform paid for by the BJP; the Tata Sky CEO tweeted that the feed comes from the BJP. He also said that the earlier Tata Sky tweet describing the channel as a 'Hindi news service' was wrong, that it is a 'Special Services' channel, and that for more information approach the client -- the BJP. These contortions make it look shady, even though it may well be within the rules for NaMo TV to operate. However, its ownership, and liability for content, remains unclear. But the Election Commission's greatest challenge probably lies in the governing party's vast network of social media pages and handles, which purport to be independent citizens' groups with no visible link to the BJP, but which receive funds from the party and are an integral part of its campaigns. The Huffington Post's excellent investigation into Association of Billion Minds should be required reading this election season. Association of Billion Minds sees itself as Amit Anilchandra Shah's team, and serves as one of the BJP's political consultants. It helps design and advertise party campaigns, but runs them from what look like fan pages and fan accounts. Much of Association of Billion Minds's content is communal, much of it is fake, and all of it is about the relentless promotion of Narendra Damodardas Modi. The Election Commission is playing whackamole already; it cannot possibly rein in all of the hydra's heads. But it can, when there is a financial link involved, consider it part of ele&ction campaign funding. As the Huffington Post story points out, the BJP is not the only political party engaging in these tactics -- it is only the largest and best funded. It's not just tragic, but also dangerous, that 'professionalised' elections, with data profiling, marketing 'innovations' like Association of Billion Minds, and complete comfort with spreading hate and fake news, as well as utterly complicit media, have destroyed voters' access to truthful information, and distorted their perspectives on candidates and the quality of their representation. Can the Election Commission step up to the plate and exert its Constitutional powers with non-partisan conviction, to see us through a free and fair election? Upon its credibility hangs the credibility of this democracy. 'Rahul Gandhi was given the impression that if the seat was given to me, then the alliance would be broken in all 40 seats.' IMAGE: Congress President Rahul Gandhi, flanked by former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, right, and United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, left, release the Congress manifesto. The Mahagathbandhan of Opposition parties got a jolt when senior Congress leader and former Union minister Dr Shakeel Ahmad filed his nomination papers from Madhubani constituency in Bihar as an Independent candidate. Dr Ahmad was unhappy after his traditional seat of Madhubani went to the Vikassheel Insaan Party under the Mahagathbandhan's seat-sharing formula. Ashok Yadav, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav's son, is the BJP candidate in Madhubani. "If we allow the Mahagathbandhan candidate to contest the election in Madhubani, then the BJP will win this seat easily," Dr Ahmad, below, tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf. You have put the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar in a crisis of sorts after deciding to contest elections as an Independent. There is no crisis among alliance partners in Bihar. If we allow the Mahagathbandhan candidate to contest the election in Madhubani (the Lok Sabha) seat, then the BJP will win this seat easily. Our alliance in Bihar is to ensure the BJP's defeat. At the moment the alliance candidate (the Vikassheel Insaan Party's Badri Kumar Purbey) is weak. He is an outsider to Madhubani. He has not even contested elections ever. Therefore, I am contesting the elections, so that the BJP should not get a cakewalk. Now, the word in my constituency is that it is a fight between Shakeel Ahmed and the BJP candidate. But.. (Interrupts). I have filed my nomination as a Congress candidate. In Chatra, we have alliances with the JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) and the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal). In Jharkhand, there are 14 (Lok Sabha) seats. Seven seats are with the Congress, the JMM has got four seats, Babulal Marandi's party (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha) has got two seats and one seat is with the RJD. But the RJD still has put its own candidate, Subhash Prasad Yadav, in Chatra against Congress candidate Manoj Kumar Yadav. They say it is a friendly fight. Therefore, I have requested the Congress president (Rahul Gandhi) that I should also contest in a friendly fight from Madhubani. There is a constituency in Bihar, Supaul, where we have a sitting MP Ranjit Ranjan. She is the wife of Pappu Yadav. In Supaul, the RJD has fielded its Independent candidate (Dinesh Prasad Yadav) by supporting him openly. So while filing papers as an Independent candidate, I have said to my party that let me contest the election like in Chatra or like that in Supaul. Therefore, I am not against the Mahagathbandhan. Even if I win, I will not leave the Congress and join the BJP. I want to strengthen the hands of Lalu Yadav and the Congress. Which symbol will you contest the election on? I am asking for the Congress symbol. I am surprised that despite being a big Congress leader, you had no idea about your ticket being given to another party in Madhubani. I was not involved in the Mahagathbandhan negotiations. Rahul Gandhi tried his best for my candidature, but it was too late. He was given the impression that if the seat was given to me, then the alliance would be broken in all 40 seats. But now the RJD has put up its own candidate in Chatra and also an Independent candidate in Supaul. Here in Madhubani, there is no RJD presence. They (RJD) had no candidate, so they got an outsider to contest polls. What is the reason that their candidate is contesting the election in Madhubani in spite of your presence? This answer can be given only by those who have given them a ticket. But the people of Madhubani know the fact. It is better that I don't speak about this issue. Have you resigned from the Congress? I am very much a part of the Congress. I am in the Congress and will be in the Congress. Don't you think the party will take action against you as you are going against its diktat? Why should I think negative? I am requesting my party that I want to contest an election. I resigned as the senior spokesperson of the party. I did not resign in protest. I resigned as spokesperson because I am going to speak on the local issues of Madhubani. If I don't do that, then people will think this is the national stand of the Congress party. There should be no confusion on this matter. Therefore, I resigned as senior spokesperson of the party. When you have not contested elections for the last 10 years, why are you insisting on doing so now? In 2014, the RJD got the Madhubani seat. The Mahagathbandhan was stuck because of me. I refused to contest the election then as I didn't want the Congress-RJD alliance to suffer in Bihar. It is known to one and all. This time I am concerned because the alliance candidate is weak and the BJP will not even need to campaign for the elections and yet they will win. He is the weakest possible candidate in the Mahagathbandhan. I was the sitting MP and did not contest in 2014. The RJD got Abdul Bari Siddiqui in this seat and the BJP won here. This time he (Siddiqui) has gone to Darbhanga to contest the polls. If the RJD had a candidate I would have not contested this election. Let me tell you, Lalu Prasad Yadav's supporters will all support me. Doesn't your move give an impression that the Congress does not give ticket to Muslims -- just like the BJP? It is not true. The Congress is fighting to save secularism in India. Even if I am going to contest elections as an Independent, I will work for the Congress and the alliance. My grandfather was a Congress MLA in 1937. My father was a five-term Congress MLA. I have been three-time Congress MLA and two-time Congress MP. I have put my prestige at stake. I have done this to save secular forces. It is being said RJD leader Mohammad Ali Ashraf Fatmi will also contest against you as an Independent. He is not a fool, but a very samajdhar (wise man). He keeps changing his statement every hour. He has only one ambition, that I must withdraw from Madhubani so that he can come and contest elections. He wants to do that just to disturb Muslim votes in Madhubani. I am a local man and a two-time MP from here. Now if he has not got a ticket from Darbhanga on a RJD ticket, then he must contest elections from there as an Independent. Why should he come here and contest as an Independent candidate? On Tuesday, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu said Muslims must vote for the Congress and not for people like (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief) Asaduddin Owaisi.. He said it because Owaisi is only a one-member party. Owaisi's party is restricted only to Hyderabad. When he goes to other parts of the country to campaign, then the entire atmosphere of India gets communalised. Owaisi must understand that. I play badminton and go to gymnasium with him. But at the same time he must know that the country should not get communalised because of him as it only benefits the BJP. A man hurled shoes at Bharatiya Janata Party leaders addressing a press conference at the party's headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday and was detained by police. The middle-aged person identified himself as Shakti Bhargava and claimed to be a doctor by profession, but he did not speak about the reason behind his action as he was being bundled out by BJP staff and security guards. The Delhi Police, which questioned him for several hours, said they were letting him off as no complaint was lodged against him. Nothing incriminating was found against him and he just wanted to grab attention, they said, adding that he hails from Kanpur and is facing legal cases related to property and Income Tax. The incident took place when a scheduled press conference of BJP leaders Bhupendra Yadav and G V L Narasimha Rao was on. The person threw a shoe and flung another after stepping close to the dais when Rao was attacking the Congress, accusing it of 'defaming' the Hindu religion by linking it to terrorism during its rule at the Centre in 2004-14. It is an attempt by a 'Congress-inspired' person but it will not deter the BJP, Rao said and carried on with his attack on opposition parties after being left momentarily surprised as one of the shoes brushed past him. Though it is unclear if the person involved in the incident had any political motivation, shoe-throwing has often been a show of protest, political or otherwise, by people seeking to bring attention to themselves or their issues. Jarnail Singh, then a journalist, had thrown a shoe towards the then Union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram in 2009 to protest against the party's ticket to anti-Sikh riot case accused Sajjan Kumar, now convicted. Though he lost his job, Singh went on to become an MLA on a Aam Aadmi Party ticket. Political leaders cutting across party lines have been at the receiving end of show-throwers. L K Advani, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and Nitish Kumar are among those targeted with shoes, which have more often than not missed their mark. Some leaders have suffered much worse with the likes of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar even slapped. There is buzz that the PM, confident of an election victory, will introduce 25 new ministers. Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi recently confided to his confidants that the Bharatiya Janata Party will return to power on May 23, 2019. And so confident is the PM of victory that he is already looking to the future -- his council of ministers. Modi plans on introducing 25 new and young faces as ministers. BJP national President Amit Anilchandra Shah will not be added to the Union Cabinet as he wants to continue in his current post. Sushma Swaraj, India's present external affairs minister, who has announced that she will not contest the Lok Sabha election, could be sent to the United States as India's ambassador. Rajnath Singh will continue as home minister whereas Arun Jaitley will be handed another portfolio -- perhaps, external affairs. Nirmala Sitharaman, the current defence minister, will be shifted to another key portfolio and the high performing Nitin Gadkari could be given defence. Currently serving as the railway minister, Piyush Goyal will be India's next finance minister -- that is, if the BJP wins a majority in the Lok Sabha when votes are counted on May 23. The swearing-in of the new BJP government could be moved from New Delhi to the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi, which is also Modi's Lok Sabha constituency. Modi and Shah have discussed plans to introduce new faces as governors across the country. Modi is keen to bring in Dr Hasmukh Adhia, who retired as the economic affairs secretary, as his principal secretary during his second term. There is also buzz in the capital about a new national security advisor being appointed in Ajit Kumar Doval's place. The nearly two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller found 'no evidence' of a 'collusion' between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 United States elections, Attorney General William Barr announced on Thursday, in a major relief to President Donald Trump. Addressing the media at the Department of Justice here on the release of Mueller's redacted report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller was chosen to head the investigation in 2017 following concerns from US intelligence agencies that Russia had tried to tip the election in Trump's favour. The businessman-turned-politician defeated former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Barr said Mueller investigated a number of links or contacts between Trump Campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government. "After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate US law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign," Barr said on the 400-page report. He, however, said the Russian government sought to interfere in US election process. Barr emphasised that the primary purposes of the Special Counsel's investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. The Special Counsel's report states that his 'investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities'. "I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the Special Counsel's report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. "But thanks to the Special Counsel's thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign -- or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter," he said. "That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed," Barr said. He said the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and e-mails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicising those e-mails. Again, the Special Counsel's report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations, Barr said. "In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign 'collusion' with the Russian government's hacking," the Attorney General said. "So that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes," he said. He also said President Trump did not commit an obstruction-of-justice offence. Barr said there were 10 episodes involving Trump that were scrutinised for possible obstruction of justice. "As I said several times, the report contains limited redactions relating to four categories of information. To ensure as much transparency as possible, these redactions have been clearly labelled and color-coded so that readers can tell which redactions correspond to which categories," Barr said. Most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, he said. These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the Special Counsel's Office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases. The redactions are their work product. The President's personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions, Barr said. Earlier on Thursday, President Trump said the Mueller probe was 'Greatest Political Hoax of all time!' 'Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats,' tweeted Trump, who refers his election rival and former secretary of state Clinton as 'Crooked'. Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler said he has sent a letter to Mueller -- requiring his testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee by May 23. "We cannot take Attorney General Barr's word for it. We must read the full Mueller report, and the underlying evidence. This is about transparency and ensuring accountability," Nadler said. Democrats in Congress have demanded a full unredacted report, and want Mueller to testify to Congress. A 67.84 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Thursday in 95 seats spread in 11 states and a Union Territory, the Election Commission said. Barring sporadic incidents of violence, the polling went off peacefully, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said. Polling was held for 95 Lok Sabha seats in 11 states, with Tamil Nadu voting in 38 of its 39 constituencies, and the union territory of Puducherry. While elections were cancelled in Tamil Nadu's Vellore constituency over fear of abuse of money power, poll was postponed to April 23 in Tripura (East) seat as there were apprehensions that law and order could be disturbed by miscreants. Two violence-related deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, including that of a woman polling personnel who was killed by suspected Maoists on Wednesday in Odisha. Another death was reported Thursday. Two other people, including a voter and a polling officer, died of apparent heart attack. There was reports of the electronic voting machines being damaged in Manipur and Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal. The interim voter turnout stood at 43.4 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir, the lowest, and 78 per cent, the highest, in Puducherry. Udhampur and Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir went for polls in this phase. West Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu reported a turnout above 70 per cent. Referring to the issue of 'glitches in EVMs', deputy election commissioner Sudip Jain said, a total of 1,000 ballot units, 769 control units 2,766 paper trail machines were replaced. One control unit and at least one ballot unit make up for an EVM.. -- INDIA VOTES Maharashtra IMAGE: First-time voters take a selfie after casting their votes at a polling station in Solapur, Maharashtra, on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo An average 61.22 per cent voter turnout was recorded across 10 constituencies in Maharashtra which went to the polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday, an official said. The final turnout of Thursday's polling in the state will be known later and could be higher, the official said. In 2014, the average voting in these seats was 62.39 per cent. Nanded Lok Sabha seat recorded 60.88 per cent voting, the highest in the second phase, followed by Hingoli at 60.69 per cent. Parbhani recorded 58.50 per cent voting, Beed 58.44 per cent, Latur (SC) 57.94 per cent, Buldhana 57.09 per cent Osmanabad 57.04 per cent, Amravati (SC) 55.43 per cent, Akola 54.45 per cent and Solapur (SC) 51.98 per cent, he said. In Nanded, there were complaints that as many as 78 electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioned. A total of 179 candidates were in the fray in these constituencies. IMAGE: A pregnant woman and her husband, after casting their vote at polling booth number 164 in Nehru Nagar of Solapur. Photograph: ANI Photo Beed had the maximum number of contestants -- 36 -- while 10 candidates contested from Latur. Prominent figures in the fray were state Congress chief Ashok Chavan who is seeking another term from his home turf Nanded, and former Union home minister and Congress veteran Sushilkumar Shinde who is contesting his last election from Solapur. In Beed, the hometurf of late Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart Gopinath Munde, his daughter Pritam Munde is seeking another term. She faced Bajrang Sonawane of the Nationalist Congress Party. In the 2014 elections, the National Democratic Alliance had won eight out of these ten seats, whereas the Congress had won two -- Nanded and Hingoli. A total of 62,700 EVMs and around 27,000 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines were used in Thursday's polling, the official said. Karnataka IMAGE: First time voters show their inked fingers after casting votes at a polling station in Bengaluru on Thursday. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo An estimated 61.84 per cent turnout was reported in the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which is witnessing a direct contest between the ruling Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Dakshina Kannada recorded the highest turnout of about 72.97 per cent, while the lowest was reported in Bangalore Central constituency with 45.34 per cent, poll officials said. The officials who gave the polling percentage as of 5 pm said it was likely to go up. In other constituencies of city that has the history of low voter turnout, Bangalore North recorded 48.19 per cent, Bangalore South 49.36 per cent and Bangalore Rural 58.39 per cent. Polling of 70.23 per cent was recorded in Mandya, where Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil is pitted against multi-lingual actress SumalathaAmbareesh in what is perceived to be a cliff-hanger contest. IMAGE: A woman holds a child as she casts her vote at a polling station during the second phase of general election. Photograph: Reuters In Tumkur, where former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is locked in a tough contest with G S Basavaraj of BJP, 70.28 per cent turn out was reported. Hassan where Gowda's other grandson Prajwal Revanna is contesting against A Manju of BJP, reported 71.20 per cent voting till 5 pm, a hour before the poll ended. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's home turf of Mysore where sitting MP Prathap Simha of BJP is fighting against Vijayshankar of Congress saw 61.32 per cent polling. Mandya, Mysore, Tumkur and Hassan are the constituencies where the ruling Congress-JD(S) faced dissidence among the grass root workers of their party who are not happy with the seat sharing arrangement. Both parties that have been fighting against each other for decades, joined hands to form the government after assembly polls last year, as the election threw up a hung verdict. As per the alliance arrangement, both parties decided to fight the Lok Sabha polls together, which is some thing that the leadership of Congress and JD-S has not been able to convince their party men on. IMAGE: A newly-married couple show their fingers marked with indelible ink after they cast their votes at Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency in Chikmagalur on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo In Mandya, the rebellion within Congress is open to an extent that many of them locally supported Sumalatha. The BJP, which has set a target of bagging at least 22 out of total 28 seats, is hoping to win the maximum number of seats in the first phase riding on the Modi wave. Of the 14 constituencies that went to the polls, the BJP and Congress had won six each in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and JD-S in two. While the BJP is contesting in 13 constituencies and supporting Sumalatha, Congress and JD-S have fielded candidates in 10 and four constituencies respectively. Udupi-Chikmagalur recorded 69.83 per cent polling, Chitradurga 61.75 per cent, Chamarajnagar 66.51 per cent, Chikkaballapur 69.33 per cent and Kolar 69.99 per cent till 5 pm. Voting began at 7 am in 30,164 polling stations that are mostly in the southern parts of the state covering almost the entire old Mysuru region and a few coastal districts. A total of 2,67,51,893 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the first phase with 241 candidates in the fray. The remaining 14 constituencies, mostly in northern districts, will go to polls in the second phase on April 23. Odisha IMAGE: : Elderly voters show their marked fingers at Adabadi polling booth in Kandhamaal. Photograph: PTI Photo About 64 per cent voters exercised their franchise in five Odisha Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats, some of them in Naxal-affected areas. The electoral fortunes of 279 candidates, including Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union minister Jual Oram, will be decided in the second phase of voting. WATCH: Filled with enthusiasm, senior citizens cast their votes While Patnaik is in the fray from Hinjili and Bijepur assembly seats, Oram is contesting from the Sundargarh Lok Sabha constituency. Over 76.93 lakh voters will decide the fate of 279 candidates in Thursday's polling. Out of the total electorate of 76,93,123, there are 37,47,493 women voters. At least 605 electors belong to the third gender. IMAGE: A security personnel stands guard as voters queue to cast their vote at a polling station in Ganjam district of Odisha on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo Long queues of voters were seen at polling stations in Aska, Kandhamal, Sundergarh, Bargarh and Bolangir Lok Sabha constituencies, and the 35 assembly segments coming under these areas, as polling commenced at 7 am. Glitches in EVMs caused delay in start of polling in around 50 booths in different places under Aska, Sundargarh, Kandhamal, Sundergarh and Bolangir constituencies, the officials said. Manipur IMAGE: An old woman shows the indelible ink after casting her vote, at a polling booth at East District Imphal in Manipur. Photograph: ANI Photo Over 80 per cent turnout was reported from one Lok Sabha constituency where polling was held Thursday in the second phase amid violence in two booths were voting was stalled for sometime, officials said in Imphal. State Chief Electoral Officer PK Singh said 80.47 per cent of the over 9 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency. "This is not the final figure as report from all the centres are yet to reach here," Singh said. The turnout for the 19 polling stations where re-poll was held on Thursday is 84.80 per cent, he said. However, this figure does not include record of one polling station at Churanchandpur district. IMAGE: A specially-abled being escorted to a polling booth to cast his vote in Manipu. Photograph: ANI Photo The Election Commission on Tuesday ordered re-poll in 19 polling stations of Outer Manipur, the second parliamentary seat of the state, following complaints of voter intimidation by militants and destruction of EVMs and VVPATs during the first phase voting on April 11. Violence was reported in this phase too. Voting was stalled in two polling booths of Inner Manipur constituency on Thursday after violence broke out over alleged proxy voting and dispute among the election agents, the CEO said. A group of men stormed into a polling station at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality in Imphal East district around 11.30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that 'proxy voting' was being carried out in the station, Singh told PTI. It was only after the security personnel opened fire in the air, the mob dispersed, Singh said. In another booth in the same area, a scuffle broke out between the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3 pm, derailing the voting process. The reason behind the skirmish between the agents was not clear as yet, the CEO said. Sources in the election office said that re-polling was likely in the two booths of East Imphal district. Manipur Governor Najma Heptulla cast her vote in the day at T G Higher Secondary School in Imphal West district. Tamil Nadu IMAGE: A first-time voter shows her inked finger after casting her vote at a polling station in Salem. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo Elections to 38 Lok Sabha seats and bypolls for 18 assembly segments in Tamil Nadu Thursday was by and large peaceful and the tentative turnout for Parliamentary polls stood at 69.55 per cent, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said. The turnout figure is likely to go up as data was still being collated, he said. When the figure goes up, it is expected to be more or less correspond to the final tally of 73.68 per cent recorded in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The turnout in the 18 assembly segments recorded 71.62 per cent (both LS and Assembly polls turnout were based on available data at 7 pm) and with Lok Sabha elections in Madurai segment ending at 8 pm, the data collation was still on, Sahoo told reporters in Chennai. There was no major law and order issues and a Central Armed Police Force jawan fired one round in the air to disperse crowds (near Arakkonam), he added. Director General of Police (Elections) Ashutosh Shukla said when the crowds tried to enter a polling station at Kilvisharam under Arakkonam Lok Sabha segment, a Central Armed Police Force jawan opened one round of fire in the air. IMAGE: Toda tribal women show their fingers, marked with indelible ink, after casting their votes at a polling station, during the 2nd phase of Lok Sabha elections, in Nilgiris District. Photograph: PTI Photo "Superintendent of Police, Vellore rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control," he added. Minor incidents of violence were reported from five towns, including Gudiyatham and Ariyalur, and the situation was brought under control immediately, he added. Police said four BJP men were allegedly injured in a clash with workers of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Congress in Kanyakumari. On complaints of technical glitches, Sahoo said 375 ballot units, 228 control units and 766 VVPAT were replaced. "Based on the low replacement rates, we can say the EVM performance has been very good." The EVMs and VVPATs will be moved to counting centres by poll authorities and police in the presence of political parties, the CEO noted. On allegation of deletion of about a lakh of voters names in Kanyakumari by the Congress, he said they could give a complaint and it will be acted upon. Tamil Nadu brought out the many colours of elections when several centenarians like 102-year-old Jegadambal of Nagapattinam and lakhs of first time voters braved the scorching sun to cast their vote. IMAGE: Voters stand in a queue to cast their vote during the second phase of general elections, at a polling station in Nagercoil of Kanyakumari district. Photograph: PTI Photo From Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, DMK chief M K Stalin, Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan were among those who exercised their franchise standing in queues. Party leaders and top film stars including Rajinikanth, Ajit and Vijay were among the prominent personalities who turned up to vote. Indisposed 96-year-old DMK veteran, K Anbazhagan, a colleague of late M Karunanidhi was wheeled in at a booth in Chennai to cast his vote. Just after tying the knot, several couples arrived in their traditional bridal attire at the polling stations in areas including Nallampalli (Dharmapuri) and Srivilliputhur (Virudhunagar) to cast their votes. Rain and shine played spoilsport to an extent in some parts of the State in keeping voters away from the polling stations for sometime. While Chennai and other northern parts of Tamil Nadu was blazing hot, some southern parts of the State including Kanyakumari received showers. People switched to protest mode as well in a couple of regions like the villagers of Top Station in Kurangani hill ranges of Theni District to protest lack of basic amenities. "Of the 185 voters of this village, none came forward to cast their vote," Theni District Collector M Pallavi Baldev told PTI. Two elderly men died after casting their votes in Sivagiri (Erode) and Vedappatti (Salem) respectively. A 65-year-old man, who collapsed after emerging from a polling station, was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead in Coimbatore while an 85-year woman died while she was standing in a queue at a booth there. Deletion of names from voters list, non-issuance of voters' slips, malfunctioning of EVMs and technical glitches delaying polling process were among the key complaints of the people. After casting his vote, Stalin alleged that there has been distribution of cash and accused the Election Commission of being an ally of central and state governments. Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi, and Karti Chidambaram of Congress are among key contenders. Radhakrishnan told reporters in Kanyakumari: "This is a massive democratic festival which will decide the fate of India. I have exercised my franchise... A silent revolution is happening." All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and state minister D Jayakumar said 13 per cent voting in the morning is a joyous thing. "This shows there is a wave for Amma and MGR," he said, exuding confidence that the AIADMK-BJP combine will emerge victorious. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dinakaran alleged malfunctioning of EVMs is an achievement of the Modi government. About 1.40 lakh police personnel and 160 companies of CAPF were deployed in 17,720 polling stations to manage law and order. Jammu-Kashmir IMAGE: An elderly voter is assisted as she arrives at a polling station to cast her vote in Kathua. Photograph: PTI Photo Srinagar, which in 2014 witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country at 25.86 per cent, saw 12.43 per cent polling, with highest 17.1 per cent recorded in Shia-dominated Budgam district till 3 pm. No untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 70 per cent polling. WATCH: Newly-married couple turn up for voting in Udhampur Voting began on a peaceful note Thursday in two Lok Sabha constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, with voters in border district of Kathua and Udhampur turning up early morning to exercise their franchise, officials said. Amid tight security, polling began across the constituency at 7 am and has been peaceful so far, the officials said. IMAGE: A voter shows her finger marked with indelible ink after casting vote in Kathua. Photograph: PTI Photo Over 29.81 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 24 candidates, including former Chief Minister and National Conference chief Dr Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh contesting for Srinagar and Udhampur Parliamentary seats. A newly married couple was seen in their wedding finery at a polling station in Udhampur town. The enthusiastic couple said youth should come out to vote. There was a problem with EVM at a polling station in Ramban district but it was later rectified. A 95-year old Raj Devi voted at a polling station in Chenani in Udhampur district. Two-time Minister Lal Singh, who is contesting election from Udhampur LS seat, cast his vote in Kathua town. Twelve candidates each are in the fray for both Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies, they said. Bihar IMAGE: 90-year-old Usha casts her vote at polling booth number 39 in Bhagalpur. Photograph: ANI Photo A total of 62.52 per cent of 86.01 lakh voters exercised their franchise in five Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in the second phase on Thursday, amid incidents of police firing and poll boycotts. Katihar Lok Sabha constituency witnessed the highest voter turnout of 68.20 per cent, followed by Purnea (64.50 per cent), Kishanganj (64.10 per cent), Bhagalpur (58.2 per cent) and Banka (58.0 per cent), Chief Electoral Officer Bihar H R Srinivasa said. The poll percentage of the five constituencies may increase once the final figures reach the state election office in Patna. Polling passed off 'peacefully' with one exception of a police firing at a village in Shambhuganj area under Banka Lok Sabha constituency in order to control a mob that wanted to carry out bogus voting, he said. When the attempt was foiled by the paramilitary forces, the mob started brick batting them using women as shield, forcing the security personnel to fire four rounds in the air, the CEO said. IMAGE: A security person stands guard as voters wait in queues to cast their votes at a polling station in Katihar district. Photograph: PTI Photo Six persons were arrested during the polling but Srinivasa did not explain whether all of them were involved in the incident at Banka. Re-poll has been ordered in a single polling station in Jamui assembly segment of Banka Lok Sabha constituency after some anti-social elements damaged the ballot unit of the EVM, the CEO said. Re-poll will be conducted on April 20. People of Naugachhia in Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat and Banka in Banka Lok Sabha constituency boycotted the election for lack of road and water facilities in their areas, he said. There were some minor incidents of EVM malfunctioning, the CEO said. Fates of 68 candidates will be decided in the second phase of polling. Uttar Pradesh IMAGE: Voters stand in a queue at a polling station in Mathura. Photograph: PTI Photo Over 62 per cent of the votes were cast in the eight constituencies which went to the polls in Uttar Pradesh in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday. The Election Commission figures put the overall voter turnout at 62.30 percent till 6 pm, when polling closed. However, voters in the queue at the closing time will be allowed to vote, EC officials said. Polling was held in four reserved constituencies of Nagina, Bulandshahr, Hathras and Agra, besides four general constituencies of Amroha, Aligarh, Fatehpur Sikri and Mathura. According to the EC, the polling percentage till 6 pm was 62.10 in Nagina, 68.77 in Amroha, 62.14 in Bulandshahr, 61.25 in Hathras, 59.60 in Agra, 62.80 in Aligarh, 60.56 in Mathura, and 61.16 in Fatehpur Sikri. There are 1.4 crore registered voters in the eight constituencies. IMAGE: A polling station in Siyana, Bulandshahr, which had witnessed violence over cow slaughter last year in which Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was murdered. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo In Gujjupura village, under Nagina parliamentary constituency, residents were upset over absence of a polling booth in their village, and boycotted voting in the initial hours of polling. However, following an intervention by the Bijnor district administration authorities, the voters exercised their franchise. BJP MLA from Hasanpur in Amroha district, Mahendra Singh Khadagvanshi alleged that burqa-clad women were indulging in fake voting. The district administration, however, denied the charge. In Bulandshahr, a video of the sitting BJP MP Bhola Singh 'seeking blessings' inside a polling booth went viral on social media, following which the district administration restricted his movements. IMAGE: Voters at a polling station in Bulandshahr. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo "His movement was restricted till 4 pm and he was not allowed to move out from his house. He was seen seeking blessings from the people at a polling centre, which is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct," Bulandshahr District Magistrate Abhay Singh told PTI. "A candidate cannot speak to people inside a booth. They (candidates) can visit and see things but cannot talk," he added. When contacted UP Chief Electoral Offficer L Venkateshwar Lu said, "We have sought a report from the district magistrate in this regard." IMAGE: A voter shows her inked finger at a polling station in Siyana. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo The eight Lok Sabha seats where polling was conducted on Thursday were bagged by the BJP in the 2014 general elections. This time it faces a tough fight from the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance. In this phase, the BSP has fielded candidates on six of the eight constituencies. The SP and RLD are contesting Hathras and Mathura, respectively, as per the terms of the alliance. IMAGE: An elderly woman shows her finger marked with indelible ink at a polling station in Aligarh. Photograph: PTI Photo Under their seat-sharing pact, the BSP is contesting 38 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the SP 37 and Ajit Singh's RLD three. The alliance has left two seats, Amethi and Rae Bareli, for the Congress. The EC has set up 16,162 polling booths in 8,751 polling centres for this phase in the state. There are 85 candidates in the fray for the eight seats, with 15 of them, the highest, in Fatehpuri Sikri Chhattisgarh IMAGE: A bride shows her finger at Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh. Photograph: PTI Photo An impressive 71.09 per cent voters exercised their franchise in three Lok Sabha constituencies having Naxal presence, during second phase of Lok Sabha election in Chhattisgarh Thursday, election officials said. Voting began in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund constituencies at 7 am. "Altogether 71.09 per cent voting has been recorded in three constituencies," state's Chief Electoral Officer Subrat Sahoo told reporters in the evening. The number may go up as final data was yet to be received from over 100 polling booths, he said. In naxal-hit Kanker constituency 72.37 percent voter turnout was recorded while 68.23 per cent was recorded in Mahasamund and 71.76 per cent in Rajnandgaon. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, 73.02 per cent voter turnout had been recorded in these three seats, he added. As many as 59 polling teams were ferried to polling centres by helicopters in sensitive areas, he said. Drones were used to monitor security. Residents of four villages -- Supebeda, Sendhmuda, Parevapali and Kokhsara -- in Bindranawagarh assembly segment in Mahasamund seat boycotted voting, demanding construction of a bridge on Tel river, he said. Sukalu Ram Nareti, a polling officer at Kamta polling station in Antagarh segment in Kanker Lok Sabha seat, died of heart attack before polling began, Sahoo said. In Rajnandgaon constituency, a newly-married woman exercised her franchise before heading for her husband's house, while in Mahasamund, a groom voted in Dhamtari assembly segment before the marriage procession began. The fate of 36 candidates was locked in EVMs across three seats where the main fight is between the Congress and BJP. The BJP has fielded Santosh Pandey, general secretary of the party's state unit, in the high-profile Rajnandgaon seat, denying ticket to sitting MP Abhishek Singh, son of former Chief Minister Raman Singh. Pandey is pitted against Congress' Bholaram Sahu, a former MLA. In Kanker, the BJP denied ticket to sitting MP Vikram Usendi, president of its state unit, and fielded a fresh face, Mohan Mandavi. The Congress has pinned its hopes on Biresh Thakur, also a greenhorn. In Mahasamund, the BJP chose former MLA Chunnilal Sahu over two-time MP Chandulal Sahu against Congress MLA Dhanendra Sahu. Assam IMAGE: An elderly voter shows her inked finger at a polling station in Kamalpur in Kamrup district on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo Over 73 per cent of the 69,10,592 voters were cast in five Assam Lok Sabha constituencies Thursday during the second phase of polling, an election department communique said. The communique said that 73.32 per cent votes were polled across 8,992 booths in Karimganj (SC), Silchar, Autonomous Districts(ST), Nowgong and Mangaldoi constituencies to decide the fate of 50 candidates. "This is the initial voting percentage at 5 pm. It will increase further as people are still in the queue at the polling booths," state chief electoral officer Mukesh Chandra Sahu told PTI. All those who had queued at the booths before 5 pm will be allowed to cast their votes, he said. Nowgong recorded the highest polling of 75.71 per cent at 5 pm, followed by Mangaldoi and Silchar with 75.07 per cent and 71.79 per cent respectively. In Karimganj the figure was 71.41 per cent and Autonomous District witnessed the lowest voting at 69.51 per cent, the election office said. Repolling was conducted during the day at polling station number 165 at Dhemaji Town High School (EW), where voting took place in the first phase on August 11, due to non-erasing of the mock poll data and 69. Sahu said there were reports of malfunctioning of EVMs during the poll from some booths and those machines were been replaced. "As per the initial reports, around 120 VVPATS were replaced, while 20 units of control and ballot units were changed during the main polling. Some more machines were changed at the time of mock polling. These figures may go up slightly as we have not received the final numbers from the centres yet," the CEO said. IMAGE: : Voters stand in a long queue at a polling station in Diphu, Karbi Anglong district of Assam. Photograph: PTI Photo Sahu termed reports of votes going to only one particular party despite the voters pressing different buttons as 'fake'. Brisk polling was reported since the beginning at 7 am with women and first time voters queueing up at the the booths even before the exercise began. The 84 model polling stations wore a festive look with balloons and flowers used to decorate them and the voters were welcomed by volunteers wearing traditional dresses. Arrangements for drinking water, baby feeding rooms and resting place for the elderly were made in them. Many volunteers were seen escorting the elderly and people with disabilities in their wheel chairs. The 137 polling stations in the five constituencies which were under women personnel saw voters queuing up since early morning. Among the prominent voters were All India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal, AIUDF sitting MP Radheyshyam Biswas and Congress sitting MP Sushmita Dev. Former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta did not cast his votes in protest against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and the alliance of his party Asom Gana Parishad with the BJP. Congress Rajya Sabha MP Bhubaneswar Kalita could not vote as his name was figured in the electoral rolls of Mangaldoi and Gauhati. The prominent candidates in the fray on Thursday included sitting Congress MPs Sushmita Dev from Silchar and Biren Singh Engti from Autonomous District, sitting AIUDF MP Radheshyam Biswas from Karimganj, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Bhubaneswar Kalita, two BJP MLAs - Rupak Sharma from Nowgong and Rajdeep Roy from Silchar, assembly deputy speaker Kripanath Mallah from Karimganj and former Congress minister Prodyut Bordoloi from Nowgong. Besides Dev, the two other women candidates in the fray are Nazia Yasmin Mazumdar of National Peoples' Party in Silchar and Swarnalata Chaliha of the SUCI(C) in Mangaldoi. A total of 78.27 per cent of the 76,03,458-strong electorate had voted during the first phase in which election Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaliabor, Lakhimpur and Tezpur seats on April 11. The third and last phase of voting in Assam will take place on April 23 for the Gauhati, Barpeta, Kokrajhar (ST) and Dhubri seats. West Bengal IMAGE: Security personnel take away miscreants after clashes in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal. Photograph: PTI Photo Stray incidents of violence marred the second phase of polling in West Bengal on Thursday which saw 76.07 per cent of the 4938346 electorate exercising their franchise in three seats where voting took place. The highest polling of 82.76 per cent was recorded in Jalpaiguri (SC) seat, 73.31 per cent in Raigunj seat and 72.14 per cent in Darjeeling seat, state chief electoral officer Ariz Aftab said. Aftab described the elections as 'peaceful' with only a few isolated incidents of violence. "It was a peaceful elections today. There are a few isolated incidents of violence at a few places -- Chopra in Raigunaj, Kalimpong in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri but nothing major," Aftab said. The EC till 5 pm received 56 complaints from the three constituencies and 'all were responded to properly', he said. At least 30 people were arrested as a preventive measure while another three were nabbed for specific reasons. Eight first information reports were lodged in different cases, he added. Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey described the voting as 'more or less peaceful' barring 'a few isolated incidents'. Reports from Uttar Dinajpur district, where Raiganj is located, said majority of the incidents were reported from Chopra and nearby Islampur. Voters of Chopra put up a road blockade in protest against absence of central forces at the polling stations, an official said. State police rushed to the spot and when the protesters threw stones at them, fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control them. Bombs were also hurled by miscreants, a senior EC official in the district said. Several police personnel were injured in the incident, he said adding . Polling in the area resumed when voters were escorted to their respective polling booths by security personnel, ADG (Law and Order) S N Gupta said. A reporter and a camera person of a local news channel were manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in the Raiganj constituency, he said adding an FIR was lodged in connection with it. IMAGE: A voter gets her finger marked after casting vote for Darjeeling Lok Sabha Constituency in Kalimpong. Photograph: Press Information Bureau/PTI Photo In another area of the constituency EVMs were damaged by miscreants and were immediately replaced. "The voting was not stopped and we have lodged an FIR in this regard," said an EC official. Dubey said, "Small incidents will always occur but there was no big incident." Special Observer for West Bengal Ajay V Nayak also echoed Dubey's views. Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate from Raiganj, Md Salim claimed that his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur. "I got to know of rigging in that booth. After I reached the polling station, some people attacked my car. Though I am unhurt, the vehicle has been damaged. I believe the Trinamool Congress is behind the incident," Salim alleged. The EC lodged an FIR against Jan Andolan Party president Harka Bahadur Chettri for entering a booth at Kalimpong government junior school and casting his vote while talking on his mobile phone. It also removed the presiding officer of the booth. According to rules, mobile phones are not allowed within 100-metre of a polling booth. "I had no knowledge that mobile phones are not allowed inside polling booths. Nobody told me about it. Had I known I would have deposited the phone to the security officers before entering," Chettri, a prominent leader in the Darjeeling Hills, said. The EC had deployed 194 companies of central forces to cover 80 per cent of the over 5,000 booths in the three Lok Sabha constituencies. Trinamool Congress has fielded Bijoy Chandra Barman against BJP's Jayanta Kumar Roy in Jalpaiguri constituency, where Moni Kumar Darnal of Congress and Bhagirath Chandra Roy of CPI-M are also in the fray. In Darjeeling the TMC nominated Amar Singh Rai to take on Raju Bisht of BJP, Sankar Malakar of Congress and Saman Pathak of CPI-M. Kanhaiyalal Agarwal was nominated by the ruling party in the state in Raiganj seat against Md Salim of CPI-M, Deepa Dasmunshi of Congress and Debashree Chowdhury of BJP. IMAGE: BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur addresses a party workers' meeting for Lok Sabha polls, in Bhopal, on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, facing trial in the Malegaon bomb blast case, on Thursday broke down while narrating how she was 'tortured' while in custody of the police. Thakur, 48, also set the tone for her high-profile poll battle in Bhopal againt Congress candidate Digvijay Singh, whom she accused of using words like 'Hindu' and 'saffron' terror. Out on bail, the saffron activist has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 case, but is still facing trial under other criminal provisions, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Addressing a gathering of BJP workers at Manas Bhawan auditorium in Bhopal, Thakur, who spent several years in jail after being arrested in the case, alleged she was illegally detained and beaten up by police personnel. "Police illegally detained me for 13 days. They called me and beat me with a wide belt. Hands get swollen just by one hit of the belt. The second strike can tear the hand," she said. "Ye jo belt marte the, poora nervous system dheela pad jata tha, sunn pad jata tha, ye din aur raat hota tha. (The strike of belt makes nervous system go blank, this happened day and night)," she said in a choked voice. "They used to hurl filthy abuses, would threaten to hang me upside down, undress me. I am not narrating my pain in front of you, I am just saying no other sister should face this kind of ordeal," Thakur said, wiping her tears. The Hindutva activist claimed the police wanted her to admit that she was involved in the blast in Malegaon, a town in Nashik district of neighbouring Maharashtra. "They want me to accept that I carried out the blast and killed Muslims...they tortured me entire night, the people who beat me changed in the morning but I remained the same," she said. Earlier, in reply to a question, Thakur told reporters, "It was wrong for him (Digvijay) to use words like 'Hindu and saffron terror'. "Now, he is forced to call himself a Hindu. His (Digvijay's) situation is like a thief who has been caught red-handed." Apparently taking a dig at the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, she said, "Those who call terrorists with respect tried to ensnare me in a conspiracy." Reacting to the BJP candidate's statements, state Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said she narrated her ordeal with an eye on the polls. "Pragya Singh was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police in the Sunil Joshi murder case when the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government was in power. She should ask the BJP who conspired against her," Chaturvedi said. In 2017, a Madhya Pradesh court acquitted Thakur of all charges in connection with the 2007 murder of Joshi, a right-wing activist. Addressing the gathering, the Sadhvi termed her fight from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat as a "dharmyuddh" (religious war). Reacting to Thakur's statement, Minister for Medical Education Vijaylaxmi Sadho said in Khargone that she should not bring religion into politics. Politics demands development and religion should not be brought into it, Sadho said. "If she wants to practice religion then she should go temples and recite bhajans," Sadho said. The minister said the BJP faced a tough time finding a candidate to take on Singh in Bhopal, a seat the saffron outfit has been winning since 1989. She was declared the BJP candidate from Bhopal on Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's imposing statue in Gujarat has not been built to "belittle" former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves at supporters during an election campaign in Amreli, Gujarat. Photograph: PTI Photo Speaking at an election rally here, Modi said though the Congress says Patel was their leader, no leader of that party has visited the statue so far. "Don't you feel proud when the Statue of Unity and Gujarat's name appear when you search for the world's tallest statue on Google? I have not built Sardar Patel's statue to belittle Pandit Nehru. Patel's stature is so tall that you don't have to try too hard to make others look small," Modi said in his speech, most of which was in Gujarati. The 'Statue of Unity', dedicated to Sardar Patel, was unveiled by Modi on October 31 last year at Sadhu Bet island on Narmada river. The 182-metre tall statue was built at a cost of Rs 2,389 crore. Modi also said his government has managed to contain terrorism to only "two and a half" districts in Jammu and Kashmir and that no bomb blast took place elsewhere in the country in the last five years. He blamed policies of the Congress-led governments for the Kashmir issue remaining unresolved. "In the past, bomb blasts used to happen at regular intervals, be it Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kashi and Jammu. But, have you heard (of) a single blast in the last five years? Don't you think it's a service to the nation? Are you not feeling secure now?" he asked the gathering. "Terrorism has been contained to only two and a half districts of Jammu and Kashmir. There is absolutely no problem in other parts of that state also. There was about 75 per cent voter turnout during the recent panchayat polls in Kashmir and not a single incident of violence was reported," he said. Targeting the Congress, he sought to know what it did after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack when it was in power. "Weren't you all angry at that time? But, do you think the Congress has improved now? Can we trust the Congress? And what Modi did after the Uri attack? You must be aware how we taught a lesson to Pakistan through the surgical strike," he said addressing the people. Modi said before the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign, people asked him what he will do (to deal with terrorists). "At that time, I said instead of me saying anything, the soldiers' fingers (on the trigger) will give a reply,"he said. "Am I responsible for the present situation in Kashmir? Just because of the policies of Congress, we could not solve the Kashmir issue even after 70 years," he said. Referring to the Balakot air strike after the Pulwama terror attack, Modi said, "They (Pakistan) forgot that this is Modi...For the first time, you must have seen Pakistan crying. They were urging Modi to pick up the phone...we have put Pakistan in such a situation." On Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's statement of trying to approach India after the Balakot air strike, Modi said the leader "had to make a public plea to us to pick up the phone". Modi said his "grooming" in Gujarat made him stand firm during the Doklam standoff with China in 2017. Then, people from other parts of the country used to call and ask him to take extra care, Modi said. "On the other hand, people from Gujarat used to boost my morale," Modi said and thanked his home state for grooming him to handle the tough situation. Troops of India and China were locked in the 73-day-long standoff after the Indian side stopped construction of a road in the disputed tri-junction by the Chinese Army. "This is not an election rally for me, but a rally to say thanks to people of Gujarat for the grooming I received here," Modi said. He slammed the Congress over its poll promise to review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), scrap the sedition law and reduce security forces in Kashmir. "In their manifesto, Congress has promised that they will withdraw forces from Kashmir. Imagine what will happen then. Don't you think terrorists would kill Amarnath pilgrims without the presence of Army? What will happen to Vaishnodevi pilgrims or tourists going to Srinagar?" Modi said. "In that situation, do you think the Army will be ready to fight? The Congress also wants to repeal the sedition law. Can we give a free hand to those who want to break the country into pieces...the 'tukde tukde' gang?" he said. He said the Congress "dreaming" to rule the country again even as it is fighting on the lowest number of seats in the current Lok Sabha polls since Independence. "After Independence, the Congress won the lowest number of Lok Sabha seats in 2014. They set a new record by coming down from 400 to just 40. It happened because you gave us (BJP) 26 out of 26 (Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat)," he said. "In 2019, the Congress is contesting the lowest number of seats since Independence and even want to rule the country. This is the power of a tea-seller from Gujarat," he said. In 2014, the Congress came to its lowest tally after Independence and in 2019, it is fighting on the lowest number of Lok Sabha seats but still "dreaming" of becoming the ruling party, he said. The NDA candidate tells the Election Commission that the Maoists plan to kidnap him. Rediff.com's Nikhil Lakshman reports from Wayanad where Rahul Gandhi is contesting the Lok Sabha election. Seema Pant for Rediff.com IMAGE: A tribal hamlet in Wayanad. Waving his scary automatic rifle, the trooper, dressed in camouflage fatigues, asks the car not to enter the district police officer's office compound. Twice, we enter our names, phone numbers and addresses in police log books. In the waiting area outside district police chief R Karuppasamy's office, police officers watch us suspiciously. One logs into Rediff.com to verify that our site exists while another hovers around, trying to gauge if my Kiplinger sling bag contains a weapon. In one corner, below a map of Wayanad, is placed a kind of rogue's gallery with mug shots of wanted Maoists, apparently taken without their knowledge by village informants. Hours earlier, the Maoists had planted posters in a forest enclave in Wayanad, calling for a boycott of the election. A month earlier, Karuppawamy and Special Protection Group officers had reportedly nixed Rahul Gandhi's visit to a Pulwama martyr's home in Thirikkai, citing a Maoist threat. Days before that decision was taken, a Maoist had been killed by the police at a resort in Vythiri when the Maoists apparently tried to extort money and food from the resort staff. On April 13, Thushar Vellapally, the National Democratic Alliance candidate for the Lok Sabha election in Wayanad, shot off a mail to the Election Commission, citing 'Kerala police intelligence', stating that the Maoists plan to kidnap him, seeking protection for his life. Photographs and Video Editor: Rajesh Karkera/ Video: Nikhil Lakshman/ Rediff.com Photographs and Video Editor: Rajesh Karkera/ Rediff.com VIDEO: A glimpse of the dense forests in Wayanad. The Wayanad-Naxalite word association is an unfamiliar one for the current generation in the district, but to those who grew up in a different time, like me, it revives memories of a gory time when policemen and landlords were hacked to death under the spurious banner of revolution. Wayanad's dense forests provided sanctuary for the Naxalites who emerged from the jungles to wilfully spread terror in Malabar. My parents were originally natives of Kannur, the heart of the region, my father's younger brother was the DIG in charge of anti-Naxalite operations -- a young IPS officer, Ajit Kumar Doval, then served as SP in the region -- and as a child, one overheard macabre stories of what the Naxalites had done. Unlike Bengal, where the Naxal reign of terror endured through the early 1970s, until Siddhartha Shankar Ray's Congress government crushed it with a pulverising display of State force, the Naxal spring in Kerala didn't last long. Many of its leaders were captured and the movement lost its momentum after A Verghese -- its Che Guevara-like figure -- was killed in a police Che-meeting-his-end-in-Bolivia encounter. Wayanad still has its dense forests. Its tribals -- for it is a tribal district -- still live in startling poverty. As C K Janu, the tribal leader, told my colleague Shobha Warrier in May 2016, 'I will show you 100 Somalias in Attapady'. Photograph: Nikhil Lakshman/ Rediff.com IMAGE: A showroom for pre-owned cars in Wayanad. But modernity has slunk into Wayanad as it has in many small towns in south India. Even though Wayanad may figure among India's most backward districts, prosperity is on show in Kalpetta and Sulthan Bathery, the two towns I visited last week. All the auto majors, unhindered by the real estate prices of the big cities, have huge showrooms. There are pre-owned car retailers with countless cars on display and even the owners of tiny clothing stores in Kalpetta travel in spanking new cars. The business boom in Wayanad has been led by the Muslims. Malabar -- as Professor John Mathai Nooranal, bursar and head of the department of political science at St Mary's College in Sulthan Bathery, explains -- traded with the Romans and Arabs for millennia until the arrangement was disrupted by the Europeans. "Business is in the Muslim blood," says the professor," you go to any side road in the district and you will find young Muslim boys selling sugar candy. The trade in Sulthan Bathery is dominated by Muslims, they run all the mobile shops, for instance." Muslim entrepreneurship in Wayanad -- and indeed, all of Kerala -- has been encouraged by its expat community's ardour to reinvest money earned in the Gulf in enterprises back home, unlike Christians and Hindu expatriates. Photograph: Seema Pant for Rediff.com IMAGE: A shopping complex in Kalpetta. The Muslim profile in businesses in Wayanad has not provoked social resentment as it has done in parts of north India. Everyone we spoke to in Wayanad cited the area's communal harmony. Shahnavas, a young jeweller in Kalpetta town, is bewildered by our question about religious tensions. "That is my best friend," he says, pointing to a young man lounging outside the tiny store, "He is a Hindu and his name is Santosh." "Wayanad's only hope is small scale business," says Professor Mathai, "and the Muslims do it peacefully." Communal amity is one reason why Wayanad's residents believe the Bharatiya Janata Party will be unable to make political inroads in the district. The other is what Professor Mathai calls "Kerala's democratised Communism." "Indian Communists don't realise its potential, but democratised Communism (by which a Communist party participates in genuine elections) is very different from Communism in China," explains Professor Mathai. "Democratised Communism is what hold Kerala's political topography together." "The north India template is very unlikely to work here," he argues. "There, the BJP filled a lacunae left by the Congress. That lacunae does not exist here." Photograph: Nikhil Lakshman/ Rediff.com IMAGE: Huge billboards of Marxist leaders Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala's chief minister, and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, secretary, Communist Party of India-Marxist's Kerala unit, greet visitors to Wayanad. In Kerala -- unlike Bengal which the Communists ruled for 32 years -- political power has oscillated between the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front every five years, sometimes with a mere 1.5% vote share separating the loser from the winner. In Bengal, the BJP has currently moved in to gain from the political void relinquished by the Communist and Congress parties. No such void presently exists in Kerala. An important constituent of the UDF is the Indian Union Muslim League whose green flags fluttered along the route of Rahul Gandhi's road show in Wayanad on April 4, and which the Bharatiya Janata Party's Amit Anilchandra Shah was quick to claim were Pakistani flags. The League, Professor Mathai points out, has played a stellar role in holding Kerala's Muslims together, keeping most of them away from being lured by the call of radical Islam. Though extremist Islamist groups have sprung up in recent years to challenge the League's suzeranity over the state's Muslim population -- some Muslims from Malabar also traveled to Syria to join ISIS -- the League has retained its relevance, by cleverly championing Muslim causes and dispensing old style political patronage. Photograph: Nikhil Lakshman/ Rediff.com IMAGE: St Mary's College in Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad. Interestingly, professors at St Mary's College and Pazhassi Raja college in Pulpally highlight how young Muslim women are the toppers at their institutions. Many of them marry during their ungrad courses, even have children, then return to resume their education, often emerging top of their class. Sadly, says Dr Sheba M Joseph, the principal of St Mary's College, many tribal students drop out of college after the first year. "They return to the forest, collect firewood." It is not an assessment Professor Saleel from Pazhassi Raja college -- an institution named incidentally after the only warrior the Duke of Wellington, the general who vanquished Napoleon Bonaparte, could not defeat -- agrees with. "Not only tribals, but other students too leave if they find something else promising," he says. Photograph: Nikhil Lakshman/ Rediff.com IMAGE: A scene from Payeri village in Wayanad. Agriculture, the district's primary source of employment, Professor Saleel asserts, is in crisis. "Agriculture cannot support a lifestyle in Wayanad," he says though District Collector A R Ajayakumar does not agree that falling agricultural prices has created a 'Vidarbha-like' situation, as one recent newspaper report stated. Professor Saleel also believes that the issue of Left Wing Extremism is overstated. "Some people calling them Maoists are in remote forests," he says. "Posters appear now and then. We cannot call it a terrorist element." R Karuppasamy, Wayanad's young district police chief, agrees. "There is no ecosystem for Naxalism to grow," says the 2013 batch Indian Police Service officer. "The State's reach is everywhere. There are anganwadis, schools, water, electricity, roads." Moreover, asks Karuppaswamy, a native of Tirunelveli in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, "Rs 650 is the minium wage in Kerala. Which other state has such a minimum wage? Anyone who works 20, 25 days here can earn Rs 16,000." Photograph: Nikhil Lakshman/ Rediff.com IMAGE: An NDA election office in Wayanad. The Maoists, Karuppasamy believes, do not have the strength to disrupt the polls in Wayanad. The extremists, says the police officer who took charge of the district in May 2018, use the forests in the Karnataka-Kerala-Tamil Nadu as a sanctuary rather than to mount operations. Nevertheless, he is prepared for any eventuality. 72 booths in the district have been classified as 'sensitive'. An Indo Tibetan Border Police company has arrived in Wayanad, ready to be deployed if Karuppaswamy needs their support. Every officer entering the IPS these days, he adds, is trained in dealing with Left Wing Extermism even if s/he is assigned to a state outside the Red Corridor where the Maoists operate. "The Maoist situation in Wayanad," asserts Karuppaswamy, "is not like Gadchiroli or Bastar." Cookbook authors Lucinda Scala Quinn and Angela Davis recently joined The Washington Post Food section staff in answering questions about all things edible. Here are edited excerpts from that chat. Q: My family loves cauliflower, and occasionally I hit on just the right alchemy when roasting it only to come up short the next time. I've dismantled whole heads into florets, sliced slabs, and emptied bags of frozen. I've parboiled it before roasting or gone straight in with just salt and olive oil. Like Goldilocks, I don't want it too tough or too mushy. We all love the crispy bits. Is there a most reliable strategy? A: Crank up the heat to 450 or even 500, and put the baking sheet in the oven while it's heating. Toss the cauliflower (I do like slabs, for creating more flat surfaces to sear on the baking sheet) in a bowl with olive oil, salt and whatever spice you like - I'm a smoked-paprika freak, but also za'atar. Make sure you aren't overcrowding the cauliflower - you want space between all the pieces, so it roasts rather than steams. That should get you there. - Joe Yonan Q: How long do you think an unopened vacuum-sealed package of smoked salmon is good? I've searched the package for an expiration date and I cannot find one. I also don't remember when I bought it, but it was a really long time ago. A: If the package doesn't indicate a specific date, a safe bet is 2 to 3 weeks from the time of purchase, unopened. - Angela Davis Q: I'm on tap to make a frittata for a celebration this weekend, with a travel time (car) of about 45 minutes between our house and the destination. Should I cook it ahead of time and let it sit (room temperature in the car or on ice?) and reheat when I arrive? Cook fully, refrigerate, then transport & reheat? Or attempt to assemble and fully cook on site, although that's more of a pain? I'm super conscious of food temps and safety, so want to make sure I choose the right course and am not heating, cooling, reheating, etc. too many times. Also I've never made a frittata, so this will be an experiment on many levels. A: I've made so many frittatas and traveled. They are very hearty and will be fine fully cooked for an hour in the car. Don't make it on site, as you never know what last minute things come up! Reheat low temperature. I even love it room temperature! Good luck. - Lucinda Scala Quinn Q: Why can't I find baking or boiling potatoes that have not been sitting out under bright store lights, getting green? I love potato skins, but as we know, green skins are nasty. Does any grocery store handle potatoes to reduce greening? A: Ugh! I think the problem is that they put out huge piles of potatoes and shoppers don't go through them quickly enough, so yes, they turn green. The green itself, by the way, isn't a problem, just an indication of chlorophyll development from the light exposure, but the same light also causes potatoes to develop the digestive irritant solanine, so the green is a good indicator of that. I never see green potatoes at my favorite grocery store in the Washington area, Mom's, which seems to put out fewer potatoes at a time, leaving the rest stored, I assume, in boxes or another method that keeps them in the dark. - J.Y. Q: After a belated cleaning of our freezer I realized we need a better system to organize things and keep track of what we have in there. My husband loves to get deals on meat and then not eat it in time. This is even more important as we currently need some space for breast milk, too. Our freezer is the drawer on the bottom of the fridge with one top drawer and then a vast space below. Any tips? A: In The Washington Post kitchen, we label and date every single item that goes in there, and have a list (written on easily removable tape) of every item in every drawer. At home, I just have a list of what's in my fridge, freezer and pantry. You can try taping a list of what's in your freezer on the door. Or, get a small, magnetic whiteboard (with an attachable marker, found at any office supply store), and stick it on the door. You can list what's in there, expiration dates, etc. - Kari Sonde Q: I plan on roasting a turkey and I was wondering if you guys had any fresh spring takes on turkey recipes. A: I think what you serve alongside the turkey can shift the menu toward spring and away from winter holiday food. Instead of gravy consider white wine pan sauces or something herbaceous like chimichurri or Italian salsa verde. Potato salad can replace mashed potatoes, candied carrots, a pea salad with lemon and mint, etc. Think fresh and seasonal! - A.D. Q: I need to take a black bean salad to a potluck, but there will be at least 15 hours between making it and eating it. Cilantro is one of the ingredients. Is there any way to keep the pre-chopped cilantro looking fresh? I was thinking about waiting until the potluck to add it into the salad. A: I'd keep leaves on stems, wrap in barely damp paper towels, stash in an open plastic bag and then just tear them to bits at the potluck. - Bonnie S. Benwick Q: Do I have to keep butter in fridge? Should it be in special dish if on counter? A: Gosh, I get this all the time because you can see my antique butter dish on my counter in instagram stories! Unless it's blazing hot, I keep mine in that dish on the counter, but we are a daily butter-using family! - L.S.Q. File photo / Hearst Connecticut Media State Police at Troop L in Litchfield and Troop B in Canaan, in partnership with the Northwest Corner Prevention Network, will host a Community Prescription Drug Take-Back Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kent Town Hall, 41 Kent Green Boulevard, and State Police Troop B Barracks, Route 7, 463 Ashley Falls Road, North Canaan. The event, held twice yearly, provides families and community members with a free, safe and confidential way to dispose of unused and unwanted prescription drugs and medications. NCPN will distribute free handouts, including prescription drug lock bags. Cambodias ruling party has backed off of earlier threats it would request that the government of South Korea extradite members of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) as they gather in Gwangju this weekend in protest of Prime Minister Hun Sens regime. The CNRPs youth president in South Korea Yim Sinorn recently said in a post on his Facebook account that he is organizing a candlelight demonstration in Gwangju on Saturday led by acting party president Sam Rainsy to liberate Cambodias democracy from dictator Hun Sen, following a meeting on Friday of the partys top officials and activists from Europe, North America and Australia. In response to the post, Cambodias government spokesman Phay Siphan claimed that Hun Sen would orchestrate the arrest of Sam Rainsy and other CNRP leaders and supporters during their visit to South Korea, saying Cambodia can take legal action against demonstrators overseas, if need be. The CNRP is banned in Cambodia but has regrouped and is active outside the country. On Thursday, ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) spokesman Sok Ey San walked back the threat, telling RFAs Khmer Service, We dont intend to cause any harm to themwell allow them to have rights. Sok Ey San dismissed the planned demonstration in Gwangju as insignificant and suggested that only a few people will turn out in support of the opposition party, which was banned by Cambodias Supreme Court in November 2017 for its role in an alleged plot to overthrow the government, paving the way for the CPP to win all 125 seats in parliament in the countrys July 2018 general election. Phay Siphans threat to extradite demonstrators from South Korea came after the Phnom Penh Municipal Court ordered authorities earlier this month to arrest Sam Rainsy and seven other former CNRP lawmakers on charges of incitement after they pledged to raise money to support Sam Rainsys return to Cambodia this year from self-imposed exile to lead CNRP supporters inside the country. On Thursday, analyst Lao Mong Hay told RFA that the government threats amounted to propaganda aimed at discouraging people from attending the demonstration, adding that South Korea would never honor a request to extradite opposition leadership and supporters. South Korea doesnt work like CambodiaCambodia has no rule of law, he said. Even if Seoul would consider such as request, Lao Mong Hay said, Cambodias government would have to first submit it through South Koreas court system. Cambodias National Assembly adopted an extradition agreement between Cambodia and South Korea in 2010, under which each party pledged to repatriate any person facing criminal accusations or trial. Cambodia has also signed extradition agreements with China, Australia, Laos, and Thailand. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. A retired military doctor who recently wrote to the leaders of the ruling Chinese Communist Party calling the Tiananmen massacre a crime is incommunicado ahead of 30th anniversary of the bloody crackdown that ended the 1989 pro-democracy movement, RFA has learned. Jiang Yanyong, 87, is believed to be under house arrest at an unknown location after he wrote to President Xi Jinping during the annual parliamentary sessions in Beijing last month, friends told RFA. In 1989, Jiang was a surgeon in active service at the Chinese People's Liberation Army 301 Hospital in Beijing, where he took part in the rescue and treatment of the injured during the massacre, which began on the night of June 3. Jiang later shot to fame in 2003 as the doctor who blew the whistle on a massive cover-up by Chinese health authorities of the extent of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in the city that year. On Feb. 24, 2004 he threw the full weight of his fame behind renewed calls for an official reappraisal of the Tiananmen Square protests as a "patriotic movement," risking a happy and peaceful retirement to do so, according to his family. Beijing-based independent journalist Gao Yu said Jiang's family home is now cut off from all communication with the outside world. "It's pretty obvious why," Gao said. "This year, he wrote a letter to the highest levels of the party Central Committee during the National People's Congress, and clearly stated in the letter that [the] June 4,1989 [massacre] was a crime." "He demanded a resolution, and asked the authorities to apportion blame and responsibility," she said. "His letter was the most direct expression regarding June 4 this year." More security this year Gao said this year's security measures were tighter than in previous years, in recognition that the 30th anniversary is more powerfully significant in people's minds. "The defensive measures they have in place for this year's June 4 are much stronger," she said. Gao said she had herself been placed under surveillance for several weeks after she visited the home of late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang on Jan. 16, to pay her respects on the anniversary of his death. Zhao was ousted after showing too much sympathy with the student-led democracy protesters, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest at his Beijing home. Jiang was forced to retire in 1993 from his position at the People's Liberation Army 301 Hospital in Beijing. During the SARS epidemic of 2002-2003, Jiang sent statistics collected from several hospitals to media organizations in a bid to blow the whistle on a government attempt to cover up the extent of the epidemic. However, state broadcaster CCTV and Chinese-owned Phoenix TV failed to report the story, so Jiang spoke instead to Time magazine. Jiang had previously tried to leave China, but was secretly detained in Beijing June 1, 2004, together with his wife Hua Zhongwei. The couple had been on their way to apply for visas to visit their daughter in California. 'Counterrevolutionary rebellion' The 1989 protests, which took over Tiananmen Square for several weeks, were sparked by a spontaneous outpouring of public mourning following the funeral of ousted liberal premier Hu Yaobang on April 22 that year. The government styled the 1989 student-led democracy protests a "counterrevolutionary rebellion," and the families of victims and pro-democracy campaigners have since focused their efforts on a re-evaluation of that verdict, as well as demanding compensation and the apportioning of blame and responsibility for the massacre. Public memorials and discussions of the events of June 1989 are banned in mainland China, with activists who seek to commemorate the bloodshed often detained, with veteran dissidents placed under police surveillance or detention during each anniversary. Reported by Xi Wang for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Press freedom in Hong Kong is at a new low in the eyes of its residents and journalists, with the growing influence of the ruling Chinese Communist Party cited as the main factor in the decline, a new survey has found. The survey, commissioned by the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) and conducted by the University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme, found that one in five journalists had come under pressure not to write so much about people wanting independence for the city. Eighty-one percent of journalists who responded to the survey said press freedom in Hong Kong had worsened since last year, while 25 percent described it as "much worse" since last year. "Self-censorship and pressure from the Central Government are listed as the top factors in their assessment of press freedom," the HKJA said in a report on its website. "What is worrying is that 112 journalists, or 22 percent of the 516 respondents, said their seniors had exerted pressure on them to drop or reduce reporting on Hong Kong independence," the report said. Nearly 70 percent of respondents said that China's ever-expanding influence over Hong Kongs affairs had made them uncomfortable in reporting dissenting voices, an increase of six percent compared with a survey from last year. Meanwhile, public perceptions of press freedom in the formerly freewheeling city have fallen to their lowest level since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule, according to a public opinion portion of the survey. Chief among public concerns was "pressure exerted by the central government" in a number of incidents, including the denial of a work visa to Financial Times Asia Editor Victor Mallet, after he hosted an event at the Foreign Correspondents' Club where a pro-independence politician was the speaker. "Some have used the fable about slowly cooking a frog to describe the environment of press freedom in Hong Kong. Now, the water is no longer simmering but boiling," said an HKJA spokesperson. HKJA chairman Chris Yeung said the report sounds a warning bell over press freedom in Hong Kong, and that political pressure should never result in less reporting on any topic. Citing public concerns over the banning of the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party (HKNP) after its founder Andy Chan gave his address at the FCC event, Yeung said the Hong Kong government had a responsibility to defend the city's traditional freedoms, as stipulated by Chinas 1984 handover treaty with the United Kingdom and Hong Kong's Basic Law. But Yeung said attempts to raise such concerns with Hong Kong officials had fallen on deaf ears. "We had the opportunity to reflect some of these problems to officials, but after talking to them, we found that the government really didn't grasp the nature of the problem," he said. "This will make the media feel powerless," said Yeung, adding, "I think the public will also be feeling a bit powerless, and be worrying about the future of the freedom of speech and press freedom [in Hong Kong.] Journalists and public participants in the survey also cited a fall in confidence in the media's capacity to act as a watchdog, the adequacy of legal safeguards for access to information and the overall diversity of viewpoints expressed in media reporting. "The Central Government was listed for the first time by the public as the top most important factor in their assessment of press freedom in Hong Kong," the HKJA said. About 70 percent of respondents regarded the decision to bar Victor Mallet from entering Hong Kong damaging to the citys press freedom. Other events seen as threatening to freedom of expression included the retraction by major Hong Kong media outlets of remarks made by China's propaganda chief, Huang Kunming. In a live video, Huang told a delegation of Hong Kong media bosses that "Hong Kong media should not become a political base for interfering with the rest of China. Huang's comments were relayed to the media by the boss of Singtao media group, Siu Sai-wo, who headed the delegation, but some media outlets, which were represented in the delegation, later changed their original reports, deleting Sius comment, the HKJA said at the time. Last November, two venues in Hong Kong pulled out of hosting a literary event by dissident Chinese author Ma Jian, an incident that was also raised by respondents to the survey. The Tai Kwun Arts and Heritage Centre canceled Ma's event, in which he was to discuss his latest book, China Dream, a biting satire of President Xi Jinping's concept of a resurgent China. It later reinstated the event after a public outcry. Physical attacks by Chinese public servants on members of Hong Kongs media in Beijing and Sichuan province were also cited as having a deleterious effect on press freedom, the HKJA report found. The public opinion survey ran from Jan. 21-24 and interviewed a total of 1,033 Cantonese speaking Hong Kong residents aged 18 or older. The HKJA based its findings on questionnaires sent to journalists between Jan. 5 and Feb. 28, receiving 535 responses. Reported by Lee Wang-yam for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Tightened political controls in China and Vietnam caused both countries to see further declines in press freedoms during the last year, with each dropping another point to 177 and 178 respectively in a 180-country ranking released by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders on Thursday. In each country, the ruling elite suppresses all debate in the state-owned media while cracking down relentlessly on citizen-journalists who try to make a dissenting voice heard, the Paris-based monitoring group said in its 2019 annual report. Around 30 professional and citizen journalists are now held in custody in Vietnam, with nearly twice that number jailed in China, Reporters Without Borders said, calling the two Asian communist states black holes for the free and uncensored reporting of news. Chinas president Xi Jinping, who is serving an unlimited term in office after forcing an amendment to Chinas constitution in March 2018 establishing the change, has now succeeded in imposing a social model of control based on Orwellian high-tech information surveillance and manipulation, the press freedom group said in its report. More than 60 journalists and bloggers are currently detained in conditions that pose a threat to their lives, according to the report, with Chinese citizens now threatened with jail under tougher internet regulations for comments they make online or even for sharing politically sensitive content on social media. China also blocks the work of foreign correspondents gathering news inside the country, and is attempting to spread its model of controls to other countries in a new world media order under Beijings control, Reporters Without Borders said. Harsh persecution In Vietnam, all media follow the orders of the countrys ruling Communist Party, so citizens wanting uncensored news must rely on bloggers and citizen-journalists, but these independent sources of information are routinely subjected to harsh forms of persecution, including violence from plainclothes police, Reporters Without Borders said. To justify jailing them, the Party resorts increasingly to articles 79, 88 and 258 of the criminal code, under which activities aimed at overthrowing the government, anti-state propaganda, and abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state are punishable by long prison terms, according to the report. Repression has sharply increased in the last two years, and at least 30 journalists and bloggers are now held in Vietnams jails, where mistreatment is common, Reporters Without Borders said. Meanwhile, a new cyber-crime law requires foreign media platforms to store Vietnamese user information on servers in the country, and to surrender it to police on demand. Nguyen Van Hoa, who blogged and produced videos for RFAs Vietnamese Service, was jailed for seven years in November 2018 after filming protests outside the Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group steel plant that caused a catastrophic toxic spill in 2016. Another Vietnamese blogger for RFA, Truong Duy Nhat, disappeared in Bangkok in late January amid suspicions he was abducted by Vietnamese agents. Nhat's family confirmed last month that he was arrested on Jan. 28 and thrown into a jail in central Hanoi district on the same day. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, a country under growing influence from China, suppression of independent media in the run-up to a national election last year has left 30 radio stations shut down and newspapers unsympathetic to Prime Minister Hun Sen either closed or taken over by pro-government business figures. Cambodians now only have access to news provided by major media groups directly linked to Hun Sen, such as the online news agency Fresh News, which pumps out pro-government propaganda, Reporters Without Borders said. Visitors tour the 21st Kimilsungia flower festival during its opening marking the birthday anniversary of President Kim Il Sung at the Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia Exhibition on Friday, April 12, 2019, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The North Korean regime, in an effort to elevate the status of leader Kim Jong Un, has held a nationwide flower presentation event April 13 to celebrate his uncontested re-election as the chairman of the countrys State Affairs Commission. Flowers were part of the state-contrived personality cults around North Koreas first two generations of hereditary leaders. The Kimilsungia, a hybrid orchid, and Kimjongilia, a begonia, were bred and named after Kims grandfather and father, respectively, and are used in festivals to revere national founder Kim Il Sung and his reclusive successor Kim Jong Il. North Korean defectors living in South Korea say a 'Kimjongunia' flower idolizing Kim Jong Un has yet to make an appearance in North Korea. But the younger Kim was feted in a flower presentation ceremony ordered to celebrate his re-election to the states highest position, while simultaneously putting him on equal footing with the previous two leaders, who are so revered that they are called the peoples Sun and Shining Star. We officially held a national flower presentation for Kim Jong Un for the first time ever, said a source from North Hamgyong province. North Korean state media reported On April 12 that Kim Jong Uns re-election took place during a parliamentary meeting. The source said that on April 13 workers from every organization and people from neighborhood watch units attended the event in Chongjin, the provinces capital. They visited the Image of the Sun [a large monument in Chongjin with huge portraits of the late leaders] and other important locations and presented flowers and pledged their loyalty, said the source. The source said that the people were getting ready for Day of the Sun, a national holiday that falls on the April 15 birthday of Kim Il Sung that experts have described as being as significant as Christmas is in the West. The Central Committee ordered us to hold a separate flower presentation event to celebrate Kim Jong Uns re-election day ahead of the [already planned] flower presentations for Kim Il Sung, the source said. According to the source, the people are surprised that they have to hold a ceremony for Kim Jong Un, who in their minds is still a relatively new leader. He took over in 2012, following his fathers death in late 2011. Some of them are saying that they somewhat understand holding flower presentation for Kim Jong Il, because he represents the inheritance of the revolutionary heritage, but it is hard for them to understand the reasoning behind holding a flower ceremony for Kim Jong Un, said the source. As preparations for the grandfather Kims celebration were underway, fresh flowers for the grandson Kims ceremony were harder to come by for some. Because of the short notice, some people didnt have enough time to prepare fresh flowers, so they used artificial flowers that cost 1 or 2 Chinese yuan [15-30 cents], said a second source, also from North Hamgyong. The source said that the timing of this ceremony was significant. Since this is the first time that the Central Committee has officially organized a flower ceremony for Kim Jong Un, [it makes sense that] it is being held close to the Day of the Sun, our most important holiday. They are trying to raise Kim Jong Un to the same level as his grandfather, the source said. While there is currently no official holiday on January 8, the 36-year-old Kim Jong Uns birthday, the source noted that this year the government gave candies to every North Korean child, as well as giving people the day off a practice followed for Kims father and grandfathers birthdays. People expected that North Korea would idolize Kim Jong Un just like his forefathers, said the source. It has become a reality. Reported by Jieun Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. A mock of North Korea's Scud-B missile, left, and South Korean missiles are displayed at Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea. North Korea said Thursday it test-fired a tactical guided weapon, while in a separate move, the reclusive state demanded the removal of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from negotiations over its nuclear program. Experts believe both moves are a return to Pyongyangs strategy of brinkmanship: extreme, yet calculated actions that show the countrys resentment with the stalled negotiations with Washington. The weapons test on Wednesday, followed by the bold demand on Pompeo, simultaneously show outsiders that North Korea wont back down, and to show strength domestically amid internal worries that diplomacy with the U.S. indicate the regimes weakness, analysts said. North Korean leader Kim Jong was present at the weapons test, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. The development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the Peoples Army, he reportedly said. During the South Korean Ministry of National Defense's regular press briefing Thursday, Seouls Joint Chiefs of Staff did not give details of North Korea's new tactical guided weapon. The weapon, mentioned by North Korean media today is currently under review. It is not appropriate to give details of military information," said Kim Jun-rak, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs public information office. In Washington, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters at the Pentagon that North Korea conducted a test, but said it didn't involve a ballistic weapon and didn't trigger any change in U.S. military operations, the Associated Press reported. While it is not totally clear what weapon was tested, analysts say it is highly not likely that that it is a long-range missile, as that would spell an end to negotiations entirely. The BBC pointed out that testing a different kind of weapon allows Kim to say that he isnt breaking any agreements not to test ICBMs, but still show North Korea has the capacity and will to develop new weapons. In essence it is a creative way to irritate North Koreas detractors as if it tested the prohibited weapons without actually doing so. According to one U.S. congressman it appears that Kims strategy is having the desired effect. Make no mistake about it: North Korea remains a clear and present danger to the safety and security of the American people, said Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) in a statement Wednesday night. These alleged actions underscore that sanctions must remain in place and new sanctions must be levied until there is complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of the North Korean regime, he said. Meanwhile, Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, said through his twitter account Thursday that the weapons test should not be taken as an indication of North Koreas unwillingness to negotiate. Pundits and policy makers should refrain from automatically presuming this is an indicator of Pyongyang deliberately ratcheting up tensions or closing the door on negotiations, said Klingner. He said, however, that the regime was unhappy that negotiations were not proceeding smoothly in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trumps second summit with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam in February. The meeting ended in disagreement over competing U.S. demands for movement on denuclearization by Pyongyang and North Korean expectations for relief from punishing economic sanctions. That said, there are already plenty of negative signs that negotiations arent going well. Kims speech to the Supreme Peoples Assembly is a clearer signal of North Korean intentions than yesterdays military activity, Klingner said. Of the weapons test, Kim, Dong-yeop, a research professor at the Kyungnam University Institute for Far East Studies in South Korea posted on his social network site, "It seems like North Korea is strengthening selective conventional weapons and have intentions to hold conventional deterrence to protect the state." North Korea made the demand for Pompeos replacement following a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing in which he confirmed that in the past he has called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a tyrant. Pompeo also said Monday during a speech that Kim made a promise to denuclearize during the first U.S.-North Korea summit last year in Singapore. He said he wanted it done by the end of the year, Pompeo said during the speech. Id love to see that done sooner. North Koreas Director General of the American Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry Kwon Jong Gun said in a statement that Pompeo misrepresented what Kim had said, that negotiations should be finalized by the years end. Kwon said that Pompeo "spouted reckless remarks, hurting the dignity of our supreme leadership... to unveil his mean character". While Pompeos remarks suggested that a third U.S.-North Korea summit could happen soon, others in the administration were doubtful. U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg News that Washington needs more concrete indications that Kim is ready to give up his nuclear arsenal before a third summit could occur. The president is fully prepared to have a third summit if he can get a real deal, he said. Additional reporting by RFAs Korean Service. Translation by Leejin Jun. UPDATED at 3.45 P.M. EDT on 2019-04-18 Three U.S. citizens held in Laos since last week on suspicion of disseminating bibles and Christian material without government approval have been released and deported to neighboring Thailand on Thursday, their organization told RFAs Lao Service. The volunteers for the Wyoming-based Vision Beyond Borders--identified only by their given names, Wayne, Autumn and Joseph--were picked up by police in a scenic corner of northern Laos Luang Namtha province on April 8, after handing out religious materials to villagers, a policeman and a witness told RFA. The three had their passports seized and were being kept in a guesthouse in the provincial capital of Luang Namtha, 60 kms (36 miles) from where they were arrested. We have just received word that Wayne, Autumn, and Joseph, our volunteers who were detained in Laos from April 8, have been deported and crossed the border into Thailand a few minutes ago, Eric Blievernicht, operations manager of Vision Beyond Borders, told RFA by e-mail. Our prayers for their release and that they might be home for Easter are being answered, he wrote. Easter falls on Sunday, April 21. A State Department spokesman in Washington issued a statement saying "We can confirm the deportation of three U.S. citizens from Laos. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment." The trio crossed by land to Thailand and were scheduled to spend the night in the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai, before making their way by rail to Bangkok, said Blievernicht. The flight arrangements for their return to the United States were not immediately available. The detention of the three, who were able to move about the guesthouse and surrounding village, played out as Laos observed the traditional New Year holiday and government offices were closed, slowing down negotiations on their fate. Speaking to RFA on Tuesday, a police officer from Sing district said the three didnt get approval from the relevant departments. Their activity of disseminating religion was wrong. Usually this kind of activity must go through many steps to get approval. You cant do whatever you want, said the officer. The Casper, Wyoming-based Vision Beyond Borders says on its website that it has carried over 1 million Bibles and 15,000 hand-wind tape players containing the Gospel into closed countries." "With donors' support, we have also provided for over 800 children (and) nearly 200 native pastors in Gospel-resistant nations," said the group. It also has administered humanitarian aid and medical care to refugees from Burma, Syria, and Iraq, and provides vegetable seed packets to poor villages. While the constitution of Communist-run Laos technically protects freedom of religion, conflicts between Christians and local authorities often flare up because authorities in the traditionally Buddhist nation consider Christianity a foreign religion. Lao government laws and policies that regulate peaceful religious practice and expression are unnecessarily bureaucratic, vaguely worded, and selectively enforced," Kristina Arriaga, vice chair of the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, said in an emailed statement. Todd Nettleton, spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs USA, said that with bibles available in Laos only at government-sanctioned churches, "a group from America that is just freely distributing Christian materials is going to get the attention of the Lao authorities. "A lot of the persecution that happens, happens at the village level. If somebody becomes a Christian, the other people in the village may say we dont want any Christians in our village because that might anger the spirits of our ancestors, so if youre going to be a Christian, youre going to have to leave,'" he told RFA. In December, seven Lao Christians were arrested for attending an illegal church service. They were later allowed to return home. In a 2017 report, the U.S. State Department said that Lao local authorities often arrested or detained members of minority religions during the year, with a district-level official in Houaphan province expelling 26 Hmong Christians from their village, advising them they could return only if they renounced their faith. Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert. An elderly Myanmar woman (C) is hugged by a colleague after being released from Insein Prison as part of a presidential amnesty for prisoners during the Buddhist New Year, in Yangon, April 17, 2019. Human rights activists and press freedom advocates in Myanmar on Thursday voiced strong criticism of President Win Myints decision not to include more political prisoners, as well as two Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters journalists jailed for violating the countrys Official Secrets Act, among the roughly 9,500 criminals pardoned during a traditional amnesty marking the Buddhist New Year. The president on Wednesday granted the pardons on humanitarian grounds to 9,551 prisoners most of them serving time for narcotics offenses including 16 foreigners and only two political prisoners, in commemoration of the Buddhist New Year festival known as Thingyan, according to a post on Win Myints Facebook page and to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP), a human rights NGO based in Mae Sot, Thailand. Win Myint serves under de facto Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi herself a former political prisoner released from detention who has been widely criticized for failing to free all political prisoners and backpedaling on freedom of speech and press freedom in the developing democracy. Political prisoners in jail or undergoing trial include those who allegedly criticized government officials or the powerful Myanmar military and peaceful protestors such as ethnic minorities who demonstrated against armed conflict in Myanmar. I want all prisoners with lengthy prison sentences and political prisoners freed, said Min Lwin Oo, a legal advisor at the Norway-based Asian Human Rights Commission. During Thingyan in 2018, Win Myint pardoned more than 8,500 mostly drug offenders, including about 50 foreigners detained in the country and three dozen political prisoners. Though rights activists and press freedom advocates said they welcomed this year's presidential amnesty, some said that the release of only two political prisoners contradicted the governments declared goal of national reconciliation, a process through which Myanmar is trying to end internal armed conflict, forge peace, confront injustice, and restore faith in creating a federal union. AAPP secretary Bo Kyi said a denial by the ruling civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government that there are too many political prisoners in the country was the reason only two were freed. The government still denies that there are many political prisoners behind bars. This is a denial of reality. This denial will only worsen the problem, he told RFAs Myanmar Service. Of Myanmars current 364 political prisoners, 44 have been sentenced, 90 are being tried while they are in prison, and 228 are in the process of being charged, according to the AAPP. Aung Myo Min, a human rights activist and the director of Equality Myanmar, said the presidential pardons did not include prisoners who have been arrested for exercising basic rights. The two Reuters reporters, ethnic Kachins who held peaceful protests for an end to armed conflict in their state, and the former child soldier Aung Ko Htway, who is serving two years in jail with hard labor following a conviction for describing his abduction and forced military service, were not supposed to be arrested in the first place, he said. They were just exercising the very basic rights freedom of expression and freedom of information, he said. [The] presidential amnesty excluded prisoners from cases related to military and security issues, he added. We feel that we cannot welcome this presidential amnesty because it doesnt include the prisoners who actually deserve it. Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo still held Zaw La from Myingyan Prison and Maran Gun from Obo Prison, both in central Myanmars Mandalay region, were the two political prisoners freed on Wednesday, the AAPP said. The men are former members of the Mongko Defense Army from Shan states Special Region No. 1, a splinter group of the ethnic Kokangs Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, who have been jailed since 2000 on narcotics charges, the online journal The Irrawaddy said. Though nearly 680 prisoners, including the two foreigners, were freed from Yangons notorious Insein Prison during the current amnesty, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were kept behind bars where they are serving seven-year sentences for possessing classified government documents about a massacre of ethnic Rohingya men and boys in Rakhine state during a brutal crackdown by security forces in 2017. Their convictions in September 2018 drew widespread condemnation from the international community, rights groups, and media watchdogs over lack of proof of a crime and testimony that pointed to a police set-up of the pair. On Tuesday, the staff of Reuters, with notable contributions from Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, was awarded a prestigious Pulitzer Prize in the category of international reporting for their expose. A week earlier, the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, awarded the pair its annual press freedom prize for their reporting on the killings. Other activists indicated deep disappointment with government officials and lawmakers both at the Union level and at the state and regional levels for not doing more to release all political prisoners. Tun Kyi, a spokesman for the Yangon-based Former Political Prisoners Society (FPPS), called on former political prisoners now serving as lawmakers in parliament to demand that the government release those who remain behind bars. There are more than 100 former political prisoners in parliament as well as in the government at both the Union and state and regional levels, but when it comes to the release of political prisoners, they are all silent. A Myanmar woman (R) greets her son (L) after he is released from Insein Prison as part of a presidential amnesty for prisoners during the Buddhist New Year, in Yangon, April 17, 2019. Credit: AFP Intolerance for satire In a related development, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called on Myanmar authorities to drop charges against four holiday performers and a prominent filmmaker for criticizing the government and the military. Myanmars authorities are demonstrating once again their intolerance of criticism, even in satirical form, said Linda Lakhdhir, HRWs Asia legal adviser, in a statement. Rather than arresting their critics, the government should listen to what they have to say. HRW cited the arrests of four members of the thangyat troupe in Yangon on Monday after they livestreamed a satirical performance criticizing the military on Facebook. They were charged with violating Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Act, which prohibits use of the telecom network to defame people, but later released. HRW described thangyat as a form of slam poetry traditional performed during Myanmars April New Year holiday that has long been a vehicle for humorous criticism of everything from politics to social behavior. Zeyar Lwin, one of the troupes arrested performers, said the decline in freedom of expression under the NLD government mainly stems from the 2008 constitution drafted by a military junta. Freedom of expression and political activities declined to below the average level after the NLD government took over, he told RFA, citing the administrations suppression of such undertakings and the militarys interference in the judicial process. In our case, the prosecutor is the military, and the government has no say about it, he said. Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told RFA that the four performers will be prosecuted for violating Section 505(b) of Myanmars Penal Code, which criminalizes the circulation of statements and reports with the intent to cause public alarm and induce people to commit an offense against the state. The charge carries a maximum two-year jail sentence. As far as I know, they will be sued under Section 505(b), he said. The reason for the prosecution is that they wore military uniforms during their performances. HRW also took issue with the detention of filmmaker and human rights activist Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi on criminal charges for allegedly insulting and defaming the armed forces in Facebook posts, and specifically for criticizing the political clout they are guaranteed by the countrys 2008 constitution. At a hearing on April 12, the court denied him bail even though he is suffering from liver cancer. In response to HRWs statement, NLD spokesman Monywa Aung Shin said, however, that freedom of expression has improved under the current government. Before, the condition of freedom of expression was much worse, he said. During our administration, peoples freedom to speak out and the medias freedom to publish have improved. We have to compare it with the past instead of analyzing it during one segment of time. Myanmar drops on RSF index Also on Thursday, Myanmar slid one spot on Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2019 World Press Freedom Index to 138 out of 180 countries, because of the jailing of the two Reuters reporters and the spread of disinformation and anti-Rohingya hate messages on Facebook. Journalists are still often prosecuted under Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Act, which criminalizes online defamation and hampers investigative reporting, RSF said in an analysis on its website. Dozens of journalists have been subjected to criminal prosecution in connection with their work since Aung San Suu Kyi took over. Myint Kyaw of the Myanmar Press Council said there have been more cases of reporters being sued by government and military officials than in previous years. In terms of the trials, we dont see independent trials, he said. In the cases where the government or military prosecutes the media, we feel that the prosecutors are influencing the judicial system. I think these reports are reflections of these perceptions. According to Athan, an organization that advocates freedom of expression in Myanmar, there have been 174 cases that have been prosecuted under Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Act during the NLD governments tenure. In 2018 alone, there were 14 cases of prosecution by the military under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code, while 124 people faced prosecution under the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law, which requires demonstrators to obtain permission from authorities to stage a protest. These are statistics that you cant deny, said Athan founder and research manager Ye Wai Phyo Aung. These statistics show that freedom of expression is in decline. Reported by Wai Mar Tun and Kyaw Lwin Oo for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. The Arakan Army, which is battling the Myanmar military for autonomy in turbulent Rakhine state, has grown in both force strength and firepower since its formation in 2009 to the level that the rebel group can now launch successful offensives on police or military outposts. And its message is drawing as many young female recruits as men. After hundreds of Arakan fighters carried out deadly attacks on police outposts in northern Rakhine in early January, striking on Myanmar's Independence Day, hostilities between the two sides escalated, prompting the government to brand the Arakan Army, commonly referred to as the AA, a terrorist group and to order its troops to eliminate it. So far this year, the AA and Myanmar forces have engaged in more than 100 battles in Rakhine state. The AA, which draws most of its recruits from ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who support its mission, has trained with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), another ethnic armed group that has fought government forces in Kachin and northern Shan states, at KIA headquarters in the remote mountainous town of Laiza, with AA soldiers playing a supporting role in those regions. The AA engaged in its first real clash with Myanmar Army troops in March 2015 near Rakhines Kyauktaw township. It was one of three ethnic armies excluded from the governments nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA), which eight ethnic organizations signed, later that year. Ethnic armies are known to exaggerate their member numbers, and AA leaders have refused to divulge the exact number of soldiers in its ranks. A January report on women in ethnic armies by the Norway-based Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), however, put the total number of both male and female AA troops at 1,000, while another report published the same month by the online journal The Irrawaddy put it at 7,000. Like the national military and other ethnic armies in Myanmar, the AA is focusing its recruitment efforts on signing up young women to fortify its ranks and prepare them for future combat to fulfill the AAs mission of self-determination for ethnic Rakhine people in Rakhine state. There are now as many young women as there are male recruits training at a military facility in Laiza in northern Myanmars Kachin state near the border with China, signaling growing support for the rebel army among Rakhine civilians as the conflict intensifies. Most of the young women training there are about 20 years old. RFAs Myanmar Service has given them aliases because they declined to be identified by name while speaking on the record during a recent reporting trip to Kachin state, citing security and other reasons. We want self-governance The female soldiers say they have been motivated to join the AA by the rebel forces credo that armed revolution is the only way to achieve ethnic Rakhines goals of self-governance, self-determination, and equality in their state. We want self-governance, said female recruit Hla Hla Kwye. We can address our problems and decide what we need only when we have self-governance and self-determination. Now, it is all messed up since we are governed by others. We are discriminated against as if we are parented by a stepfather or a stepmother. She said she wants to deliver the gift of independence to her fellow ethnic Rakhines before 2020, so that they will no longer be oppressed. They will no longer be a second-class ethnic group, Hla Hla Kwye said. Others said they decided to join the AA to fight the ethnic-based discrimination and unfairness they face from the ethnic Bamar majority that dominates the national military and the countrys ruling, civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government. Myo Myo Thet, a female recruit who has been stationed at AA headquarters since 2018, said this unfairness has been evident in the extraction of natural resources in Rakhine state. When we interacted with the environment, we came to realize that we only got unfair shares of profits from natural resources extracted from our own state, she said. So, I learned that an armed revolution is unavoidable in order to achieve a Rakhine Nation. I then pledged to become a female Rakhine soldier. Many ethnic Rakhines believe they have been sold short on benefits they should have received as part of the central governments natural resources and infrastructure deals with Myanmars larger neighbors China and India namely, dual pipelines that export their states oil and natural gas to China and a massive transportation corridor to ship cargo from India to Rakhines Sittwe seaport and then on to northeast India via river and highway routes. Other female recruits said they have been motivated to join the AA by more practical reasons, namely lack of employment opportunities especially for women in the impoverished and underdeveloped state. Before, I liked to make myself look beautiful, said recruit Soe Soe. I liked to eat a lot and sleep a lot. I didnt have any employment either. We had to go to Yangon to get a job. There are no job opportunities in Rakhine state. We only have chores like cooking and carrying water. After she joined the AA, Moe Moe found a job and learned how to make better use of her free time. Ive learned how to spend time wisely how to spend leisure time wisely, she said. Ive been able to read books. Only here, Ive learned that I should read books. Training female soldiers takes two months, during which time they are also required to learn skills such as office administration, management, accounting, and sewing. Though shes proud of her work with the AA, Soe Soe said she is ready to return home to be with her family. I want to go home, she said. But although Im separated from my whole family, Im proud that Im now working for the sake of the entire Rakhine state. Female Arakan Army recruits exercise as part of their training regimen in northern Myanmar's Kachin state in an undated photo. Credit: RFA video screenshot Political negotiations Some political analysts in Myanmar questioned why female soldiers want to get involved in armed conflict. Retired military officer Aung Myo said Rakhine states problems do not stem from inequality between the Bamar majority and ethnic minorities or from racism, but have been created by the centralized administrative system practiced by successive governments. The ethnic minorities think they are being discriminated against, [and] they feel that they are victims of racial supremacy, he said. I dont want to judge whether their narrative is right or wrong because it is so broad, he said. But what we cant disagree on is that the problems stem from the resistance to decentralization and suppression of the ethnic states autonomy, which have not changed up to today. Author Mi Sue Pwint, a member of the Womens League of Burma, a community-based organization promoting womens rights and participation in Myanmar politics and its peace process, said that although female soldiers are receiving necessary combat training, they may not be getting training in negotiation skills that members of armed groups need to participate in political discussions. They are all using the women to showcase their strength, but the real question here is how well the women are prepared and trained for political engagement, she said, adding that the success of a democratic society, such as the one Myanmar is striving to build, will be judged in part by the extent of womens political power. Myanmars peace process, in which the national military and ethnic armed organizations are key stakeholders, is a fundamental part of the countrys transition to democracy that began in 2011. Both sides must be able to engage constructively in talks to address political problems that are the root causes of the countrys warfare in an effort to end decades of armed conflict and forge peace and stability. Political negotiations are the next step we need to go through, said Mi Su Pwint, a former soldier with the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), an opposition group founded in 1988 after a series of nationwide popular pro-democracy protests and civil unrest. Only after we pass that step will we be able to achieve the goal of a federal union that guarantees equality among all ethnic groups, she said. Those involved in the peace process have an agreed-on target that women should account for 30 percent of representatives, though the actual number of female negotiators is much lower. Because women are not well represented in ethnic armed organizations, they are not offered attractive leadership positions, and the roles available to them are marginal, PRIO said it its report. Propaganda purposes The current trend of recruiting female soldiers primarily serves propaganda purposes rather than practical ones, Mi Su Pwint said, noting that ethnic Karen, Kachin, and Wa armed groups as well as the Myanmar military have been recruiting more women in recent years. In military parades such as the one on Armed Forces Day, female troops are shown as the highlight, Mi Su Pwint said. Thus, the ethnic armed groups are doing the same thing, showcasing their own women troops at their anniversary occasions. The AA has been trying to grow its base, [and] it has its own political ambitions, so I have no doubt that the AAs public campaign policy would focus on recruiting young females because their target is within the Rakhine population, she said. Once young, educated, female Rakhines join them, it will be easier for them to persuade more people, she said. Aung Myo pointed to a downside of the AAs efforts to recruit young women, saying that their involvement with the rebel force bodes ill for civilian women in Rakhine state. In the battles, they will not be spared because they are female, he said. They will be treated as enemies. But the impact goes beyond the realm of real female soldiers, he said. Now, all women in Rakhine state will be viewed with suspicion as potential informers, AA members, or [AA] supporters. This is a completely wrong move because it drags the entire population of Rakhine women into the armed conflict. Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. U.S. lawmakers are threatening Turkey with sanctions, and blocking the sale of U.S. F-35 fighter jets, if it ends up buying a Russian air-defense system. John Walker Lindh, an American who pleaded guilty in 2002 to fighting for the Taliban, is to be released in May after serving 17 years in prison. Court papers filed this month said the 38-year-old, dubbed the "American Taliban," will be released from a prison in Indiana on May 23. Documents filed last week with the federal court in the state of Virginia showed Lindh has agreed to restrictive conditions during a three-year probation period after his release. Those restrictions include accepting that he cannot have an Internet-capable device without permission from his probation office, cannot view or access extremist or terrorism videos, and must allow the probation office to monitor his Internet use. Lindh, born to a Catholic family, traveled to Yemen to study Arabic in 1998 and then moved to Afghanistan four months before Al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States. Lindh was captured by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in December 2001, just two months after a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, and handed to U.S. forces. In 2002, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to supplying services to the Taliban and carrying explosives in commission of a felony. His jail term has been shortened for good behavior. Based on reporting by AFP, NBC, and The Washington Post Disappearing seals, plummeting fish stocks, and a falling water level all point to the deteriorating health of the Caspian Sea. Ahead of Earth Day, observed on April 22, environmentalists in Azerbaijan have warned that it will take rapid action to save the Caspian from the fate of its eastern neighbor, the dying Aral Sea. QUETTA, Pakistan Fourteen passengers have been killed after unidentified attackers halted their bus on a remote coastal highway in the restive southwestern Balochistan Province, officials said. Hours after the ambush on April 18, a new separatist group claimed responsibility for the killings. The attack sparked national outrage, with Prime Minister Imran Khan calling it an act of terror. Officials and local media said the gunmen forced passengers off the bus, which was traveling from Karachi to Gwadar. Survivors told police the gunmen selectively killed the passengers after going through their identities. The motive behind the killings is not known. Mir Zahoor Buledi, a provincial government spokesman, told RFERL's Radio Mashaal on April 18 that the incident took place on the Makran Coastal Highway. Jehangir Dashti, identified as a local official, told AP that dozens of gunmen were involved in the attack. Security forces from the nearby town of Buzi Top were dispatched and had reached the area, about 600 kilometers from the provincial capital, Quetta, he added. The Pakistani Navy said its sailors and officers who were travelling to work were also among the slain men. In a statement, Khan ordered authorities "to make every possible effort to identify and to bring the perpetrators of the barbaric act to justice." Separatists have for years waged a low-level insurgency in oil-rich Balochistan, complaining of discrimination and demanding a fairer share of the province's resources and wealth. The newly formed separatist group Baloch Raji Aajoi Sangar claimed responsibility for the attack. Other militant groups also operate in Balochistan. On April 12, a suicide bomber targeted an open-air market in Quetta, killing 20 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State extremist group. With reporting by AP, Reuters, dpa, and AFP KYIV A fresh opinion poll shows Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedic actor with no political experience, far ahead of incumbent Petro Poroshenko just days before Ukraines presidential runoff. The poll issued on April 18 by the research group Reiting showed Zelenskiy with 57.9 percent of the vote and Poroshenko at 21.7 percent. Reiting polled 3,000 voters in all regions, except annexed Crimea, from April 12-16. A previous poll by Reiting from April 5-10 gave Zelenskiy 61 percent while Poroshenko received 24 percent. Zelenskiy, who stars on a TV comedy series about a teacher who becomes president after denouncing corruption, won nearly twice as many votes as Poroshenko in the first round of voting on March 31. Poroshenkos popularity has plummeted as many Ukrainians blame him for the countrys slow pace of reform and for failing to tackle corruption. The fresh opinion poll comes a day ahead of a key debate between the two candidates at Kyivs 70,000-seat Olimpiyskiy Stadium. Writing on Twitter on April 17, Zelenskiy said 12,000 seats had been booked just a half hour after the free tickets were made available to the public. The two men took drug tests earlier this month at Zelenskiys insistence in a campaign that has been marked by theatrics on both sides. Poroshenkos campaign team said on April 17 that supporters will be bused in for free for the event, according to Interfax. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said a crowd of up to 60,000 was expected to attend the debate and that security would be beefed up. His comments on April 17 come after Ukrainian authorities announced they had captured a Russian military intelligence hit squad responsible for the attempted murder of a Ukrainian military spy ahead of the presidential runoff. The issue of how to deal with Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014 and backs separatists in eastern Ukraine, is prominent ahead of the vote, with Poroshenko casting himself as the commander in chief Ukraine needs to defend the country. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit China next week to meet its leaders and deliver a keynote speech at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. China has pledged about $60 billion in the form of loans and investments as part of its Belt and Road initiative, which aims to build road and maritime trading routes across the world. The high-profile meeting on April 26-27 will bring together dozens of heads of states, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. "In addition to participating in the Belt and Road Forum, the prime minister would also hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 17. The two countries will sign several pacts to enhance cooperation, and Khan will meet business leaders, the ministry added. Khan's visit to China comes as Pakistan faces a deepening economic crisis. Pakistan has reached an "agreement in principle" with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a $6 billion bailout package. Islamabad has recently secured billions of dollars in loans from allies China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Based on reporting by Reuters and The News Hostility toward journalists often expressed by political leaders is putting media at risk globally, the watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual report published on April 18. Hatred of the media spread by politicians had "incited increasingly serious and frequent acts of violence that have fueled an unprecedented level of fear and danger for journalists," it said in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index. A "hostile climate that goes beyond [President] Donald Trump's comments" meant the United States had fallen three places to number 48 in the index, according to RSF. Norway topped the index for the third year running. At the other end, Turkmenistan replaced North Korea in the bottom spot at 180. The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul also "sent a chilling message to journalists well beyond the borders of Saudi Arabia," down three to 172, the report said. In other countries, threats, insults and attacks had become "occupational hazards," RSF said, noting that in India, ranked 140, six journalists were murdered last year. RSF said the number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media. Norway topped the index for the third year running. At the other end, Turkmenistan replaced North Korea in the bottom spot at 180. Russia, ranked 149, continues to persecute independent media outlets, the RSF report said. Uzbekistans rating rose five spots to 160, after freeing all the journalists who were imprisoned under Islam Karimov, an autocrat who ruled for a quarter-century until his death in 2016. Armenia's ranking was up 19 spots to 61. This, RSF said, was a result of the velvet revolution, which has loosened the governments grip on state-owned broadcasting. Iran, on the other hand, was down six places to 170. RSF noted Iran is one of the worlds biggest jailers of journalists. Afghanistan, ranked 121, and Pakistan, ranked 142, were noted in the RSF report for the extremely high number of murdered journalists. With reporting by dpa The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Russian police detained 11 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activists taking part in an annual Day of Silence protest in St. Petersburg on April 17. Around 50 protesters sealed their mouths with red tape and marched through the city's streets. Russia passed a law in 2013 banning the spread of gay "propaganda." Serbia says it wants its ally Russia to play a larger role in EU-mediated talks with Kosovo. Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said after talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow that "Serbia cannot defend its state interests without the assistance of the Russian Federation." Dacic said Serbia "would not do anything without consulting Russia," adding that "Russia is our biggest friend." Russia has strong cultural and political ties to Serbia, which has campaigned to keep Kosovo out of the United Nations since it declared independence in 2008. Kosovo, whose population is mostly ethnic Albanian, broke away from Serbia after a 1998-99 war and bombing campaign by NATO. Lavrov said there were "demands" on Serbia to recognize Kosovo's independence, "primarily on the part of the U.S." The EU-sponsored talks on normalizing ties have stalled over Pristina's refusal to repeal a 100 percent tariff on imported Serbian goods. Belgrade wants the tariff lifted before resuming negotiations. Based on reporting by AP and TASS An adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump has traveled to Russia for talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on April 18. Fiona Hill held talks in Moscow on April 17 with several Russian officials, including Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, according to Peskov. A U.S. Embassy official -- who asked not to be named because statements about Hill's visit should be made by the National Security Council -- confirmed the visit to the Associated Press. Hill is senior director for European and Russian affairs at the U.S. National Security Council. Peskov said Hill and Russian officials discussed bilateral issues but did not discuss a potential meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The news comes on the day that the U.S. Justice Department is expected to release a redacted version of the special counsel's report on alleged Russian election interference and Trump's campaign. Moscow has denied any role and Peskov on April 18 dismissed the report as unimportant. "This is not an issue for us, Peskov said. It is not a thing that interests us or causes us concern. All the reports on the matter that have been released so far contain nothing but cursory statements, Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin has more interesting and important things to do. Based on reporting by Interfax, TASS, AP, and Reuters Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has warned that a court decision declaring the nationalization of a major bank was illegal could pose great risks to Ukraine if the bank is returned to its previous owner, oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskiy. A Ukrainian court ruled on April 18 that the government's decision in 2016 to nationalize the country's biggest lender, PrivatBank, violated the law. Poroshenko called the court verdict "a reckless move" and said it could cause Ukraine to default on its loans and create a "new economic crisis." Kolomoyskiy's chances of receiving compensation for the loss of the bank or even of having the bank returned to him increased due to the court decision. "That means I won. I won the lawsuit," Kolomoyskiy said after receiving word of the decision. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) vowed to appeal the ruling, arguing it would be impossible to reverse the nationalization of PrivatBank, which was founded by Kolomoyskiy, who in the past filed multiple court cases against the decision. "Therefore the government and the national bank are doing the right thing to challenge this decision," Poroshenko said. Kolomoyskiy is also a backer of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the comic actor facing off against incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the country's presidential runoff on April 21. The government took PrivatBank from Kolomoyskiy in 2016 and then propped up the lender with billions of dollars. The government wants to recover money it says was siphoned out while Kolomoyskiy owned it. Kolomoyskiy denies any wrongdoing and says the bank was forcibly nationalized without proper justification. "The court ruling has yet to come into effect and will be appealed by the NBU," Viktor Hryhorchuk, head of litigation at the central bank's legal department, said in a statement. Lawsuits challenging the nationalization of PrivatBank "deal irreversible damage to Ukraine's international image," the central bank said in the same statement. With reporting by UNIAN, Reuters, AP, and AFP Ukrainian presidential front-runner Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pledged to hold a referendum on whether or not Kyiv should join NATO if he is elected president. Zelenskiy, a comic actor who is far ahead in the polls ahead of the April 21 election pitting him against incumbent Petro Poroshenko, said on April 18 that "we have clearly chosen our path to Europe." But he said it was critical to build a nationwide consensus on joining the alliance. "It's obvious that NATO means security and a high level of [our] military, but I want to unite the country," he told RBK Ukraine. Zelenskiy added that he would work to convince people in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern parts of Ukraine to overcome their negative view of NATO. "I will record daily video appeals to the eastern regions of Ukraine to tell them that NATO isn't a beast that is going to swallow you," he said. Poroshenko has pushed for Ukrainian membership in NATO and the European Union, though membership in either grouping is unlikely due to the country's rampant corruption and five-year-long conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, Zelenskiy also said he would push for early parliamentary elections if elected president as the unicameral Verkhovna Rada is controlled by Poroshenko's ruling party. The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for October. He said early elections were part of his idea of a "renewal" of Ukraine's ruling class. Zelenskiy added on April 18 that he would include former Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk in his government if he was elected president. Danylyuk was fired from his post in 2018 and joined Zelenskiy's campaign team earlier this year. The latest opinion poll, conducted by the Rating agency, shows Zelenskiy with 58 percent support while Poroshenko has just 22 percent. With reporting by AP and Ukrinform Colombians released in Cancun found dead in Mexico City Cancun, Quintana Roo Two Colombians released from police custody in Cancun have been found dead in Mexico City. On Sunday, a man and a woman of Colombian nationality were found shot to death in colonia Obrera de la Alcaldia Cuauhtemoc in Mexico City. The pair were part of a trio of Colombian nationals picked up by Cancun police in February for petty theft. The three were accused of robberies, in particular, home robberies and an assault that took place at the Cancun Costco when a person was robbed of their cash. Since no formal complaints were filed against the three, they were released from police custody. Two of the three were discovered deceased around 11:00 a.m. Sunday along Isabel la Catolica and Juan A. Mateos streets in CDMX next to the red car they allegedly traveled in. Police in Mexico City are using public surveillance cameras in their investigation. Fifi la True being fabulous STRIKE a pose! Renowned drag queen performer Jamie Campbell took to the stage to thank fashion students for their hard work creating his alter ego Fifi la Trues costumes. Jamie (22) visited the college to put on a fabulous catwalk showcase and outfit reveal for students and staff at Rotherham College last Friday. The stage star has been working with them to create a variety of outfits for new UK drag tour Why Isnt Everybody Talking About Fifi? The shows name is inspired by recent hit musical Everybodys Talking About Jamie, which was based on a 2011 BBC show about him. The documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 followed the teenage Jamie as he discovered his alter-ego and eventually unveiled her at his school prom. Jamies first ever drag tour follows Fifis journey after the documentary. The fun show combines choreography, dancers and quick costume changes. Jamie said: Im fortunate enough to have been given a platform to work with college and university students. It was through a mutual friend and a chance conversation with the fashion tutor at Rotherham College that we had the opportunity to work together. The idea was to create a real-life industry brief for a number in my tour that has six different costume changes in it. I wanted to keep the direction quite vague, because I wanted the students to develop their own interpretation. They did a fantastic job by creating mood boards and worked so hard to get the pieces finished to a tight deadline. I think the design of each costume is so clever, for example by being able to fit my big blue poufy dress into the first top layer purple dress. The purple dress is shaped so well that it makes my body look so amazing, even though Ive got so many other dresses underneath! Jamie, who defied bullies to wear a dress to his school prom, has worn the designs throughout his tour and invited the students to see the garments in action at his recent Sheffield show. Student Lauren Jeffers (22), of Rotherham, said: We first got the brief from Jamie, including measurements and style, which we then worked into our pattern cutting and repeating the process with alterations until we achieved the final piece. Some of the outfits, including the fishtail dress, needed a lot of fabric and at times could be a challenge to work with. However, seeing the outfits in action at Fifis performance in Sheffield, I felt so proud to see them on stage and then get compliments from people about your creations. Its worth all the hard work. Fellow fashion student Jessica Crompton (22), of Swallownest, added: After finishing my course I want to start a career in costume design, and this project with Jamie has helped me develop the skills I need to start working towards my career goals. County Durham-born Jamie, who came out as gay aged 14, also plans to collaborate with media students on a new radio station, Rockingham Radio, which will be broadcast at the college and focus on topics such as mental health and the LGBT community. The coming-of-age musical about Jamies courageous and outrageous school years is now being made into a film by Warp Films, who made This Is England. Jamie will return as Fifi la True on the second tour leg in June. To find out more visit www.jamieandfifi.co.uk. Billionaire Jack Ma again encouraged tech workers to embrace the industrys extreme-overtime culture, defying a growing social media backlash. The Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder once more endorsed the sectors infamous 12-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week routine as de rigueur for passionate young workers. In a lengthy last Sunday blog post, Chinas richest man expanded on comments from last week, in which he dismissed people who expect a typical eight-hour office lifestyle. As I expected, my comments internally a few days ago about the 996 schedule caused a debate and non-stop criticism, Ma wrote. I understand these people, and I could have said something that was correct. But we dont lack people saying correct things in the world today, what we lack is truthful words that make people think. Mas earlier comments stoked a fierce ongoing debate over tales of programmers and founders dying from unrelenting stress. Chinese tech workers protested labor conditions on the online code-sharing community GitHub in March under the banner 996.ICU, which quickly became the sites most popular topic. The term 996 refers to a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six-day a week work schedule. Beyond Ma, several of Chinas most prominent industry figures have also weighed in on the controversy. Richard Liu, chief executive of Alibaba arch-foe JD.com Inc., said in a recent post on his WeChat moments that, while he would never force staff to work a 996 schedule, people who slacked off were not considered his brothers. On last Sunday, Ma said forcing employees to work gruelling hours was inhumane but that some wanted to do so. Those who can stick to a 996 schedule are those who have found their passion beyond monetary gains, Ma wrote. A WORLD leading auctioneer from Canada has made the former Maltby Colliery site its UK headquarters. Ritchie Bros, which buys and sells heavy machinery, will host live auctions at the former pit land, off Tickhill Road. This will create 20 permanent jobs plus another 40 temporary ones for each of the events, the firm said. Rupert Craven, Ritchie Bros UK sales director, said: Were extremely proud and excited about moving to this unique location. The Maltby Colliery and Rotherham region have a long and rich industrial heritage. With our auctions and events at this new site, we look forward to becoming part of the Maltby community, contributing to the local economy and industrial spirit. Ritchie Bros, with an annual turnover of $4.5 billion, has been active in Europe since 1987. It recently outgrew its previous UK home at Donington Park, East Midlands. Mr Craven added: The Maltby site will be better equipped for our future growth and will have great additional advantages for our customers. Planning permission has been granted for an initial 12 months, with a 25-year application expected later this year. Cllr Denise Lelliott, cabinet member for jobs and economy, said: This investment is very good news for the borough and presents a fantastic opportunity for job creation. Ritchie Bros joins a number of high profile companies that have chosen to locate in the borough in recent years, including McLaren and Boeing. To deliver the regeneration and re-use of a recently vacated pit site is an excellent success story for Rotherham; similar sites in neighbouring areas have been vacant for more than ten years in most instances. (The Jing Daily) - During the Sothebys & Jing Daily Future of Luxury Conference in Hong Kong, I witnessed one of the most interesting moments of my entire business life. I asked the audience, made up mostly of managers working in Hong Kong and China (including senior executives of Louis Vuitton and Tencent), during my panel on AI-powered luxury management three simple questions. The first: Who in the audience is responsible for brands, either as CEO, CMO, or senior brand director? Almost everyone raised their hands. The second: How many of them do digital marketing campaigns in China? Practically all raised their hands again. But then, the answer to my third question shocked me. I asked: How many of you can link sales precisely to your digital marketing, sponsoring, event, or social media activity? In other words, how many of those audience members who run marketing campaigns in China many for massive luxury brands know their ROI? Not one hand was raised. Zero. After that, everyone agreed that there was a need for a different approach. The 43-year-old woman has encephalitis. She is on a respirator, unable to breathe on her own, in the intensive care unit at Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba. There are measles outbreaks in both New York and Israel, leaving health officials to believe she may have contracted measles from a passenger. The measles cases in Rockland County, New York, and in Brooklyn have been traced to unvaccinated members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community who traveled to Israel. The woman received only one dose of measles vaccine as a child. In New York, Mayor Bill De Blasio has declared a state of emergency and has threatened to fine any families that dont get their children vaccinated in light of the outbreak. Last week, a state of emergency was declared and all schools in four ZIP codes, including Williamsburg, were ordered to exclude any unvaccinated children. New York City health officials shut down United Talmudical Academy, a daycare center in Brooklyn, after the school refused to hand over medical records to confirm all their children were vaccinated. The national measles outbreak is continuing to spread in 25 US states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. The highly infectious disease has been spreading among people who are unvaccinated or live in states that allow non-medical exemptions for vaccines. The CDC recommends children receive the first dose at 12 to 15 months old and the second dose at four to six years old. Captain Amarinder Singh Chandigarh, April 17: Condemning as totally barbaric and inhuman the recent beheading of two Punjabis by the Saudis, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said he would seek a detailed report from Indias Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the matter. Expressing shock and grief over the vicious act, which has been confirmed by MEA to have taken place on February 28, Captain Amarinder said it was atrocious that such incidents continued to happen in civilised nations in this day and age. The Chief Minister also flayed the MEA for failing to prevent, and then not disclosing the execution of the two men, identified as Satwinder Kumar of Hoshiarpur and Harjeet Singh of Ludhiana, till it was forced to do so by a petition filed by Satwinders wife in Hoshiarpur district. Captain Amarinder said he would approach Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to secure more details about the execution of the two men, allegedly in connection with a murder case. Advertisement He would seek from the MEA information regarding the charges and would also question them on whether due legal representation was provided to the two men. If the executions were undertaken without prior information even to the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia, with the victims not provided legal counsel, it amounted to a grave violation of the international human rights, the Chief Minister said. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj He called upon the UN and other global human rights organisations to take serious cognizance of the incident and put pressure on Saudi Arabia to end its ancient and blatantly illegal practices, which were against all norms of humanity. Referring to media reports that the families of the victims would not get their bodies due to restrictions in place in Saudi Arabia, the Chief Minister said he would seek Sushmas personal intervention to take up the matter with the Saudi authorities at the highest level on this count. Advertisement That the families should be deprived of the chance even to see their deceased kin and perform the last rites makes the whole affair even more appalling and shocking, he added. Pointing out that just days before the reported beheadings, India had hosted the Saudi Crown Prince, whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi had received personally, in a break from protocol, the Chief Minister said given the friendly relations between the two leaders, getting the bodies of the two men back to India should not be difficult for the MEA. If needed, the prime minister himself should intervene to ensure the return of their mortal remains, he added. The Indian government should also take steps to ensure that such incidents are not repeated and no Indian is denied justice or his/her legitimate right in any manner in the future, said the Chief Minister. Bhagwant Mann Chandigarh, April 18: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament from Sangrur and Punjab Unit chief Bhagwant Mann has welcomed the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for redeeming the honour of Shaheed Bakhshish Singh, an associate of Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha, after 72 long years, saying it was a tight slap on the faces of the Congress party and Akali Dal. In a statement issued from the party headquarters in Chandigarh, Mann said that the court, in its landmark judgment, had redeemed the honour of the great martyr by allowing compensation of Rs 25 lac. for 33 acres of land reported to have been confiscated by then British Government, a rare instance of honour accorded to a martyr who fought against the tyranny of the alien dispensation. Advertisement Mann further said that the historic court order had not only unearthed the hollow claims of the preceding governments which had been laying tall claims in favour of the martyrs but did nothing on the ground when it came to redeeming their honour. The injustice meted out to the members of Bakhshish family for more than 33 long years under the suzerainty of was fit case of highhandedness on the part of the subsequent governments. Punjab and Haryana High Court Mann further said that it was more disgraceful on the part of the dispensation heaping humiliation on the martyr Shaheed Bakhshish Singhs family who fought a relentless battle against the injustice. He said that the 33 acres of land belonging to the martyr was priced at Rs 13000 after a lapse of 73 years in 1988 by the government was a disgrace to the martyr and his family. Mann said that had the preceding governments in the state and the centre been a tad serious, they wont have to suffer ignominy for such a long time. Advertisement The subsequent government could had shown a gesture of visiting the families of martyrs after independence and allotted land to their families in lieu of the one confiscated by the Britishers so that the families would not have been left to suffer in silence for such a long time. The gesture would have saved them from the financial straits they had been subjected to all these years by allowing them special compensation. Mann said that the government had played a cruel joke with the martyrs who fought for their country. Scoffing at the way the governments were indulging in perfunctory rituals of paying them homage by offering tributes to them on their anniversaries just earn some political brownie points. By giving them a pittance (Rs13000) as compensation, the dispensation had humiliated the martyrs. Welcoming the decision of the court, Mann said the for the Congress and SAD-BJP governments ruling the state for long time, the families would not have to shuttle between various courts to secure justice. Arvind Kejriwal Advertisement Mann demanded that the preceding governments should tender their unconditional apologies to the aggrieved families for denigrating the honour of the martyrs and humiliating their families. Mann further added that some of the martyrs of 1965, 1971 battles and others, whose families had been allotted land around the riverbeds had been fighting for justice for a pretty long time now. The captain government should immediately intervene and secure them justice for them without further loss of time thus restoring their honour. He said that the Punjab government should take a cue from the Delhi government led by Arvind Kejriwal which delivers a cheque for Rs one crore at the homes of those from Army paramilitary or police force on attaining martyrdom. HOWALD -- A local grandmother says shes eager to meet the new owners of the house next door, and that shes baking them one of her famous apple cakes to welcome them to the neighbourhood. Madeline Driscoll, 79, says she was delighted that only days after the four-bedroom house was put on the market, it was bought by someone named KLD Capital. Ill certainly miss the Neumanns, she said of the family that lived in the house for 22 years. They were lovely, but when their children grew up, it only made sense for them to sell the property and move elsewhere. Driscoll went on to say that ever since she and her husband George relocated to Luxembourg and moved into their house in 1971, theyve always had marvelous neighbours. Before the Neumanns, it was Mr. and Mrs. Romero, who were just so kind, and they lived in the house through the 1980s until they decided to move back to Italy, she said. And prior to that, the house belonged to Mr. Hoffman, a Luxembourgish eye doctor who became our dear friend. I have no doubt well get on wonderfully with Mr. or Mrs. Capital, whichever the case may be, she added, and that well be inviting each other over for tea in no time. However, a source has indicated that after a dozen unsuccessful attempts to deliver the apple cake, a disappointed Driscoll gave up. The source is also claiming that a week later, a demolition crew began taking the house down, the first step in replacing it with an eight-unit apartment building that will only contain furnished studios that will start at 1,550 euros per month and will cater to temporary residents. Read more at wurst.lu Photo credit: Pixabay Satisfied that she had reached the Anaheim office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Tuesday afternoon, the caller uttered her threat. Im going to bomb the [expletive] building up, she said. Leaders at the CAIR-LA, the largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization in Southern California, called the Anaheim Police Department. Officers evacuated the building and swept it for threats. No bomb was found. Advertisement Authorities have asked anyone with information about the threat to contact the Anaheim Police Department. There is a difference between using your First Amendment right to express your opposition to an organization and threatening violence, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in a statement. Threatening harm to innocent people is absolutely unacceptable. We will not allow hatred and fear-mongering to prevail. The call comes less than a month after CAIR-LA received an anonymous bomb threat made shortly before its annual banquet, which featured Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the first Somali-American member of Congress and one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress. Omar has been a target of threats because she has publicly criticized the treatment of Palestinians by the state of Israel, according to CAIR. An anonymous person called the Hilton Woodland Hills hotel on March 19, the site of the banquet March 23, threatening to bomb the hotel for allowing CAIR to host Omar, as first reported by celebrity news site The Blast. What would you do if I told you your hotel was going to be bombed? the caller is alleged to have said in a message. That is exactly whats going to happen if you allow the likes of Ilhan Omar into your hotel. She is a danger to American society and your hotel. You are not to allow her foot into there if you value your own safety. Do not allow her in there. Cancel the event. Hotel staff reported the call to the Los Angeles Police Department, who investigated the message. Leaders say the threats are part of a larger trend in anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry. CAIR California recorded an 8% increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2017, compared to 2016. In the greater Los Angeles area, there were 1,551 incidents reported, including hate crimes, hate incidents online, employment discrimination, immigration issues and travel-related problems. The CAIR L.A. office receives hate-fueled calls daily, ranging from people strenuously not approving of our mission to blatant hatred, the organizations spokesman Eugene Fields said. As anti-Muslim hate has exponentially increased over the past few years, we have warned against the danger of how normalizing hate speech leads into hate threats and hate attacks, Ayloush said. The increase in threats and violence are the direct result of irresponsible attacks from the highest levels made against Rep. Omar and other members of marginalized communities. Voting in the second phase of Indias general election on Thursday remained largely peaceful amid massive security and a lockdown in parts of the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Indian officials said the turnout was more than 60% across 13 Indian states where voting took place. Kashmiri Muslim separatist leaders who challenge Hindu-majority Indias sovereignty over the disputed region urged a boycott of the vote, calling it an illegitimate exercise under military occupation. Most polling stations in Srinagar appeared deserted, with more police, paramilitary soldiers and election staff than voters. Srinagar was one of 95 constituencies that voted Thursday. A majority of residents heeded the separatists call for a boycott, with only about 8% voter turnout in Srinagar, the urban heart of the anti-India revolt. Advertisement Anti-India protests and clashes erupted at several places during the voting, officials said. At least four people were injured when government forces fired bullets, shotguns and tear gas to quell protests by stone-throwing residents. This is not our vote. Our vote will be on the day were allowed to exercise a plebiscite on Kashmirs status, said Intizar Ahmed, a young trader in Srinagar. Another resident, Abdul Hamid, said he only voted in the hope that a Kashmiri representative in Indias Parliament will seek a resolution of the disputed regions status. Authorities shut down mobile internet service and closed some roads with steel barricades and razor wire as soldiers and police in riot gear patrolled the streets. However, men and women in long queues voted briskly in Kashmirs Hindu-dominated Udhampur constituency, where turnout was roughly 65%, officials said. The Indian election is taking place in seven phases over six weeks in the country of 1.3 billion people. Some 900 million people are registered to vote for candidates to fill 543 seats in Indias lower house of Parliament. Voting concludes on May 19 and counting is scheduled for May 23. RELATED: In Indias election, male politicians have a new mantra: women first The election, the worlds largest democratic exercise, is seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The campaigning has been marred by accusations, insults and unprecedented use of social media for fake news. Also voting Thursday was Tamil Nadu state in the south, where tens of thousands lined up to cast their ballots for 37 seats. Voting was postponed for the Vellore seat following the seizure of $1.57 million in unaccounted cash allegedly from the home of a local opposition politician, Kathir Anand. His party accused federal tax authorities of raiding the homes and offices of party leaders running against Modis party. The governing party in the state, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is an ally of Modis party. The Election Commission said authorities had recovered $29 million from leaders, workers and supporters of various political parties in the state in the past month. They suspect the money was for buying votes. In vote-rich Uttar Pradesh state, election officials directed authorities to provide drinking water and sun shelters at polling stations to cope with the scorching summer heat, said Vekenteshwar Lu, the states chief electoral officer. Modi promised big-ticket economic reforms, but with unemployment rising and farmers distress aggravated by low crop prices, his party has adopted a nationalist pitch trying to win the majority Hindu votes. RELATED: Indias Narendra Modi, battling for reelection, gets a questionable Bollywood boost A report by Azim Premji University in Indias southern state of Karnataka, released on Wednesday, said 5 million men lost their jobs between 2016 and 2018, coinciding with Modis demonetization program aimed at curbing black market money by taking high currency notes out of circulation. The decision ultimately hurt the poor, while most of the illicit funds re-entered the banking system. The report said the overall unemployment rate in India was around 6% in 2018, double the average between 2000 and 2011. Modi has used Kashmir to pivot away from his economic record, playing up the threat of rival Pakistan, especially after the suicide bombing of a paramilitary convoy on Feb. 14 that killed 40 soldiers, in a bid to appear a strong, uncompromising leader on national security. The bombing brought nuclear rivals India and Pakistan close to the brink of war. Opposition parties have consistently said that Modi and his party leaders are digressing from the main issues such as youth employment and farmers suicides. The main opposition Congress party has dubbed him a national disaster. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebels demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. Anti-India unrest has risen significantly since Modi came to power in 2014 amid a rise in Hindu nationalism and attacks against Muslims and other minorities. Modi supporters say the tea sellers son from Gujarat state has improved the nations standing. But critics say his partys Hindu nationalism has aggravated religious tensions in India. The death of a Florida teenager who authorities say was obsessed with the Columbine school shooting and may have planned to carry out her own attack in Colorado did not end an investigation into the 18-year-old, authorities said as they examined whether the young woman acted alone and Denver-area schools prepared to reopen their doors. The body of Sol Pais was discovered in the mountains outside Denver with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound Wednesday after investigators got a tip from the driver who took her there, the FBI said. Dozens of schools that closed as a precaution during the daylong manhunt planned to reopen Thursday with heightened security measures. Events planned to mark the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine attack will go on as scheduled throughout the week, including a ceremony near the school on Saturday. Two teenagers attacked Columbine on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives. They have inspired cult-like admirers, some of whom committed other mass shootings over the decades. A growing no notoriety movement has urged news organizations to avoid naming the perpetrators of mass shootings to deprive them of the notoriety they seek. Advertisement The details of Pais travel from Florida to Colorado began to trickle out Wednesday along with some classmates confusion at her involvement. The student at Miami Beach High School dressed in black and kept mostly to herself, said Adam Charni, a senior at the school. Charni said he was baffled to learn she was the person authorities in Colorado were searching for. Another classmate, 17-year-old Drew Burnstine, described Pais as quiet and smart. But the Miami Beach high school student made troubling remarks to others about her infatuation with the 1999 assault at Columbine High and this weekends anniversary, said Dean Phillips, FBI agent in charge in Denver. He did not elaborate on what she said. Investigators will seek to learn more from Pais social media and her other online presence, largely to ensure that she had no accessories or accomplices, Phillips said. He confirmed that the material being scrutinized includes a blog containing handwritten journal entries that occasionally feature sketches of guns or people holding large firearms. In Pais hometown, Surfside Police Chief Julio Yero asked that the family be given privacy and a little time to grieve. Pais parents had reported her missing on Monday night, police said. This family contributed greatly to this investigation from the very onset. They provided valuable information that led us to Colorado and a lot of things that assisted in preventing maybe more loss of life, Yero said. Pais purchased three one-way tickets to Denver on three consecutive days, then flew in on Monday night and went directly to a gun store, where she bought a shotgun, authorities said. Authorities said she did not threaten a specific school. But Columbine and more than 20 other schools outside Denver reacted by locking their doors for nearly three hours Tuesday afternoon, and some canceled evening activities or moved them inside. Were used to threats, frankly, at Columbine, John McDonald, security chief for Jefferson County school system, said when the manhunt was over. This one felt different. It was different. It certainly had our attention. McDonald described her trip as a pilgrimage to Columbine, though Pais is not believed to have been on the campus. The threats and response added an emotional burden to the Columbine community ahead of this weekends anniversary . Frank DeAngelis, Columbines principal at the time of the shooting, said he was on campus Tuesday when the threat prompted officials to lock the high schools doors. He immediately went to check on several staff members who continue working there 20 years after the attack. The support was so great, he said. Everybody came together. Denver-area parents faced the difficult job of explaining to their children why they had the day off school without scaring them. This is definitely a challenge in their generation, and watching my kids learn how to navigate this is really hard. It is really heartbreaking, said Suzanne Kerns of suburban Arvada, whose children are 8 and 15. Kerns said she was angry about how easy it was for someone reported missing to come from out of state and buy a gun. Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader said the sale of the shotgun apparently followed the states legal process. Out-of-state residents who are at least 18 can buy shotguns in Colorado. Customers must provide fingerprints and pass a criminal background check. Pais body was found off a trail not far from the base of Mt. Evans, a recreation area about 60 miles southwest of Denver, authorities said. She used the weapon she bought, Phillips said. A fire at one of Bangkoks biggest mall complexes spread smoke over the citys central commercial district, caused a large evacuation during the Wednesday evening rush and killed at least two people. Officials said 20 others were hurt. The extent of the fire was small and flames were quickly extinguished, but it forced hundreds of people to evacuate the shopping mall in the CentralWorld complex, which includes a hotel, a convention center and an office tower. Firefighters with masks and oxygen tanks entered the building afterward to clear smoke from several floors. Smoke was seen still coming from the building several hours later, but the skyline was clear after daybreak Thursday. Bangkok Gov. Assawin Kwanmuang initially told reporters that three people died, one at the scene and two at a hospital. He later said that two people were confirmed dead, but did not explain the discrepancy. The citys Erawan Emergency Radio network said around midnight that 20 people had been injured. Advertisement The company that operates CentralWorld said in a statement that the two people who died were company employees. Assawin said the fire was believed to have started in a document storage room in one of the buildings that is part of the complex. Video posted on social media soon after the fire began showed a person jumping from one of the complexs buildings. Thai media reported that at least one of the people who died had jumped from a building. Images showed large flames raging out of what appeared to be a rear portion of the complex. Other video showed hundreds of evacuated shoppers filling a large open square next to the mall. Ambulances and other vehicles with their emergency lights on and trucks filled with firefighters could be seen. In another video, a woman is seen directing shoppers out of the mall during the evacuation. I was in the mail and there was a burning smell and smoke started to come out, said Suthep Damgjiam, who was with a friend. A fire alarm started to ring and there were announcements on the PA system telling people to evacuate. We came out. There was a lot of smoke, but we didnt see the fire itself. CentralWorld posted on social media that the fire started around 5:40 p.m., it immediately began evacuating the building and that firefighters brought the blaze under control within half an hour. The fire broke out during Bangkoks evening rush. Sirens wailed as emergency vehicles tried to move through the congested citys gridlocked traffic. CentralWorld sits at a major intersection surrounded by shopping complexes, shrines and high-rise hotels popular with foreign tourists. Its near the main junction for Bangkoks elevated train lines, as well as the Erawan Shrine, which was the site of a deadly bombing in 2015. The mall typically would have been busy with shoppers as well as diners headed to the many restaurants inside. CentralWorld was among several Bangkok buildings set on fire by arsonists during mass anti-government protests in 2010 and it was closed for months for rebuilding. The mall is part of one of Thailands best-known chains of shopping centers controlled by the Central Pattana property development company, which operates retail complexes across Thailand. It is a division of the family-owned Central Group holding company. ___ Associated Press journalists Tassanee Vejpongsa, Annika Wolters and Kaweewit Kaewjinda contributed to this report. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Middle school students in Poland took important exams Wednesday even though a nationwide teachers strike entered its third day, forcing exam authorities to ask for help from retired teachers, religion tutors and those not on strike. The exam in humanities for around 350,000 students was held in all schools but one, in the western village of Owinska, where extra help for the exam team wasnt provided in time. Tests in mathematics and foreign languages will be held Thursday and Friday. The indefinite strike began Monday after pay negotiations with the government failed. Teachers monthly net earnings range from 1,800 zlotys to 3,000 zlotys ($470 to $780). Deputy Prime Minister Beata Szydlo thanked school directors for making the exams possible and urged striking educators to accept the governments offer, which unions have repeatedly rejected. Advertisement Teachers want an immediate 30% pay increase. But the government has said it will accelerate a planned increase of around 15% and introduce a new remuneration system, which would substantially raise salaries but also increase the number of lessons a teacher gives a week to 24 from the current 18. The teachers unions warned that the nonstandard way the tests were being held could undermine their validity. Students at a school in Warsaw who spoke to The Associated Press didnt think that the strike added to their stress and said they supported the teachers demands for higher pay. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The U.N. population agency chief said Wednesday she regrets the U.S. governments decision to cut funding for programs that help ensure safe pregnancies worldwide. The United States used to provide about $70 million per year toward UNFPA programs to protect the health and lives of women and girls in developing countries. More than half of those funds were used for life-saving humanitarian programs, said Dr. Natalia Kanem, the agencys executive director. The Trump administration announced in 2017 it was cutting all funding to the agency. The move was seen as a gesture to American conservatives and anti-abortion activists, though UNFPA doesnt provide abortions. We do regret the decision of the United States to deny funding to UNFPA as we saved so many lives of women and girls together, Kanem told reporters in Berlin at the launch of the agencys annual report . Advertisement She cited the agencys work in parts of the world wracked by unrest, where medical care for pregnant women is often not available. Even in a place like Venezuela UNFPA is at work every day trying to supply hospitals with desperately needed supplies for safe birth, to train the few doctors that remain on how to deliver babies safely and also to provide contraception to women who do not wish to become pregnant under such circumstances, Kanem said. UNFPAs report reviews progress made in the half-century since its founding. In 1969, only a quarter of married women worldwide were able to decide whether and when to become pregnant, the agency said. Now, three in five have that choice. Availability of contraception, improved education and efforts to end child marriage also mean that whereas the average woman had five children throughout her lifetime 50 years ago, now the figure is half that. Still, populations in poor countries particularly in Africa continue to grow at a rapid rate. Kanem said more family planning options could help mothers in places like Niger, where fertility stands at 7.1 children per woman, have smaller families. Germanys development minister, Gerd Mueller, linked cutting the number of unwanted pregnancies in poor countries to efforts to tackle climate change and hunger. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 prisoners Thursday and urged them to serve one another as brothers, as he ushered in the solemn pre-Easter rituals made more poignant this year following the devastation of Paris Notre Dame Cathedral. Francis travelled to a prison in Velletri, outside Rome, for the Holy Thursday service that re-enacts the biblical story of Christ washing the feet of his disciples. The Mass opens the most solemn period in the liturgical calendar, leading up to the commemoration of Christs crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter. Francis has frequently performed the Holy Thursday ceremony at prisons to reinforce his message that even the most important figures must serve the most marginal like slaves, as Jesus did in washing the feet of his disciples. The bishop isnt the most important. The bishop must be the most servant-like, Francis said. Advertisement Directing his message at the prisoners themselves, Francis urged them to not try to dominate one another, and to make the fights that break out between them a fleeting thing. The biggest must serve the smallest. He who feels biggest must be the servant, Francis said. May this gesture that I make help us to be more servant-like with one another, more friendly, brothers in service. He then proceeded to wash, dry and kiss the feet of the inmates: nine Italians, and one each from Brazil, Ivory Coast and Morocco. Francis, who suffers from sciatica, needed help from his aides to stand up and kneel down before each prisoner. This year, the final days of Holy Week have taken on particular resonance following the fire at Notre Dame, a symbol of French Catholicism. Francis has offered his condolences repeatedly to the French faithful, and French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that during a call to Francis after the blaze, he had invited the pontiff to visit Paris. On Wednesday, Francis fielded a call from U.S. President Donald Trump offering the sympathy of the American people over the loss, the Vatican spokesman said. Francis started the day by celebrating the Chrism Mass to bless the holy oils that will be used during the year. On Friday, he presides over the Way of the Cross procession at Romes Colosseum re-enacting Christs crucifixion, followed by the Easter Vigil in St. Peters Basilica and Easter Sunday in a flower-decked St. Peters Square. ___ This version corrects the spelling of Chrism. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A Republican state senator from Oregon said on Tuesday that the designation of slaves as three-fifths of a person was not racist, drawing condemnation from at least two black lawmakers. Sen. Dennis Linthicum, from Klamath Falls in southern Oregon, said during floor debate that the intent of the Three-Fifths Compromise, which classified a slave as three-fifths of a person in the U.S. Constitution, was a way to prevent slave states from gaining too much power in Congress. The three-fifths vote was actually to eliminate the overwhelming influence the slave states would have in representative government, he said, adding that the move wasnt because the founders thought three-fifths was an appropriate measure of a man. Linthicum referred to the compromise while speaking against a measure to add Oregon to the National Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement between states to pledge all electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote. Its a way to bypass the Electoral College, which opponents say is a form of voter disenfranchisement that has its roots in the countrys founding. Advertisement The 1789 Constitutional Convention determined that slaves would be considered three-fifths of a person when apportioning taxes and states representatives in Congress. Historians largely agree that the compromise gave slave holding states inordinate power over choosing the president and in the Continental Congress. That political stronghold, however, eventually faded when population in northern states began to rapidly increase. At least two black senators personally confronted Linthicum following the hearing. Democrat Sen. James Manning, of Eugene, told reporters that Linthicum provided an offensive mischaracterization of events, and that his comments were an example of people trying to rewrite history. It diminishes how we are going to move forward, he said. If you dont recognize and accept the events of the past then we cant move forward because then we live in a fantasy world. Linthicum called slavery a stain on our nation, and added that his conversations with Manning and with Sen. Lew Frederick, a Democrat from Portland, helped him see the racist legacy that the Three-Fifths Compromise left behind. But he still maintains that doesnt negate that the intent of the move was to strip power from slave states. Sen. Sara Gelser, a Democrat from Corvallis who has previously spoken out against a perceived hostile culture in the capitol, publicly criticized Linthicum on the floor. Lets not compromise the humanity of our people, she said. This is not an appropriate compromise. It was never an appropriate compromise. -- Follow Sarah Zimmerman on Twitter at @sarahzimm95 Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Illinois Department of Agriculture plans to honor former state agriculture director and former U.S. Agriculture Secretary John Rusling Block. The agency said Wednesday that it plans to dedicate a plaque with Blocks likeness on Monday morning at the Illinois Department of Agriculture building in Springfield. Block served at U.S. agriculture secretary under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1986. He was born in Gilson in west-central Illinois in 1935 and graduated from West Point. After serving in the Army he returned to his family farm, which had expanded from about 300 to 3,000 acres. He was appointed to lead the state agriculture department in 1977 under then-Illinois Gov. James Thompson. Advertisement Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The state transportation board has approved grants that will help provide safety improvements to six North Carolina airports. The N.C. Department of Transportation says more than $2.1 million will be used to provide upgrades such as new lighting and improved aprons for aircraft parking. More than $562,000 will go to Davidson County Airport to replace a system which tells pilots if they are approaching the runway at too steep or too shallow of an angle. Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport is getting close to $691,000 to design the runway, taxiway and apron rehabilitation with apron expansion. Grants also have been awarded to Duplin County Airport, Kinston Regional Jetport, Mount Airy-Surry County Airport and Richmond County Airport. Advertisement Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Atty. Gen. William Barr plans to publicly reveal today how much advance knowledge the Justice Department has given White House officials about the redacted version of special counsel Robert S. Muellers confidential report. At the news conference he is scheduled to hold Thursday morning, Barr plans to talk about contacts with the White House, the process of blacking out some portions of the report and whether executive privilege was invoked to withhold any information, a department spokesperson said. The report itself will be released later in the morning, Justice Department officials say. The nearly 400-page document titled Report on the Investigation Into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election is the culmination of 22 months of work by Mueller and his team. Advertisement Its long-awaited release, even in redacted form, could be one of the pivotal moments of Trumps presidency and is likely to reverberate into the 2020 campaign. The case has already spawned a series of legal and political threats that will continue to shadow Trump. Other federal investigations remain underway in several jurisdictions most notably New York and House Democrats have launched inquiries into Trumps finances, business dealings, relationships with foreign banks and other concerns. Republicans are pushing the Justice Department to investigate alleged abuses in the early stages of the Russia investigation. Trumps legal team is also preparing to release its own counter-report on the Russia inquiry. Barr is scheduled to hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. Hell be joined by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and supervised the investigation. The Justice Department plans to send copies of the redacted report to Capitol Hill between 11 a.m. and noon, at which time its expected to be released publicly as well. The timing has sparked criticism from House Democrats who fear Barr is trying to put his own spin on the investigation before the report is public. The attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump, said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. In the weeks since March 22, when Mueller filed the report, lawyers from the Justice Department and the special counsels office have trimmed details involving secret grand jury evidence, classified intelligence, ongoing investigations and peripheral third parties. Even in its censored form, the report will provide a much wider window into the investigation than the four-page letter that Barr gave to Congress on March 24. Barrs letter said Mueller did not establish the existence of a criminal conspiracy between Trumps campaign and the Russian government as Moscow attempted to sway the 2016 election. Barr also wrote that Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether the president had obstructed justice. However, Barr and Rosenstein decided the evidence was insufficient to demonstrate that Trump had committed a crime. The Russia investigation started as a counterintelligence probe in mid-2016, and it eventually examined Moscows broader efforts to use social media, hack emails and influence American voters to depress support for Hillary Clinton, Trumps Democratic opponent for president. It also looked into whether any of Trumps campaign aides directly coordinated with the Russian operation. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which operates in secret, repeatedly authorized surveillance against a former campaign aide, starting before the election. When Trump fired James B. Comey as FBI director in May 2017, Mueller was appointed as special counsel to lead the investigation and protect it from political influence. The probe led to criminal charges against 34 people, including some of Trumps closest associates. His first national security advisor, Michael Flynn, admitted lying to federal agents about his conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for tax evasion, bank fraud and conspiracy charges related to his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. The presidents longtime lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about negotiations for a Trump Tower in Moscow. He was also ensnared in a parallel investigation into election-year payments of hush money to two women who said they had slept with Trump. The majority of people charged by Mueller were Russian nationals who are unlikely to ever see the inside of a U.S. court. They include a dozen military intelligence officers who allegedly hacked Democratic Party computers and released tens of thousands of emails through WikiLeaks during key moments in the campaign. Also indicted was Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and allegedly funds the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg. A dozen employees of the organization were accused of spreading divisive and false content on social media. MORE MUELLER REPORT COVERAGE Live updates as the report is released These are the key things were waiting to learn Our complete coverage of the Mueller investigation 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. La Trobe University researchers have found the heaviest drinking 10 per cent of Australians drink over half the alcohol consumed in Australia, downing an average of six standard drinks per day. Published today in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, the study also found Australia's heaviest drinkers are more likely to consume cheap alcohol, such as beer and cask wine. The study was led by La Trobe's Centre for Alcohol Policy and Research (CAPR), and funded by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE). Lead author from La Trobe University, Dr Michael Livingston, said the findings are concerning. "We found that the heaviest drinking 10 per cent of Australians drink 54.4 per cent of all alcohol consumed in Australia," Dr Livingston said. "This group are drinking well above the NHMRC's low-risk drinking guidelines, which not only jeopardises their health, but has negative flow-on effects for families and communities." Dr Livingston said the study also showed that heavy drinkers are more likely to be middle-aged men living in rural and regional areas. advertisement "We know that rural areas have disproportionately high levels of consumption and alcohol-related harm compared to metropolitan areas." "We found that 16 per cent of this heavy-drinking subset live in outer regional and remote areas, compared with 10 per cent of other drinkers." The study also found that the heaviest drinkers were more likely to drink cask wine and beer as their main drinks, and they were more likely to drink at home. Significantly, cheap alcohol is the standout common factor among Australia's heaviest drinkers. "Surprisingly, we found drinking patterns didn't correlate strongly with other socio-demographic factors such as employment status and neighbourhood disadvantage," Dr Livingston said. advertisement FARE Chief Executive, Michael Thorn said the CAPR study reinforces the important role of regulating alcohol prices as a population-wide measure to reduce alcohol harm. "This research provides important evidence that addressing cheap alcohol is a highly targeted way to reduce harm among Australia's heaviest drinkers," Mr Thorn said. This study further supports governments overseeing or considering introducing a floor price on alcohol, which is one of the reforms underway in the Northern Territory. "The trend towards packaged liquor sales continues apace, with more than 80 per cent of the alcohol consumed in Australia now sold as packaged liquor," Mr Thorn said. The alcohol industry maximises profits through this business model, which includes discounting, special offers and other point-of-sale promotions like shopper-dockets. "This is concerning as packaged liquor stores are linked with high rates of assaults, domestic violence, chronic disease and road crashes," he said. Mr Thorn said chain superstores such as Woolworths' Dan Murphy's contribute to this harm, particularly in relation to the risk of trauma. "An earlier study found that each additional chain outlet is associated with a 35.3 per cent increase in intentional injuries (including assaults, stabbing, or shooting) and a 22 per cent increase in unintentional injuries (including falls, crushes, or being struck by an object)," Mr Thorn said. Mr Thorn said the superstore model enables Woolworths to sell as much alcohol as possible, as cheaply as possible, to the most vulnerable people in our country. "Clearly government has a responsibility to address the problem of cheap alcohol by fixing the way alcohol is taxed, introducing floor prices and halting the proliferation of harm-causing packaged alcohol sales," Mr Thorn said. Data for the study came from the 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey and the 2013 International Alcohol Control Study. However, researchers have identified that this process -- the biological gravitational pump (BGP) -- cannot account for all of the carbon reaching the deep ocean, and a range of additional pathways that inject a much wider range of particles have been explored. Led by IMAS Professor Philip Boyd and including scientists from France and the US, the Review article in the journal Nature proposes that the additional pathways known as particle injection pumps (PIPs) move just as much carbon as the BGP. Professor Boyd said the research, based on a review of previous studies and new modelling, could reshape understanding of how carbon reaches the seafloor and what happens while it is there. "Our study goes a long way to finally solving one of the real puzzles that oceanographers have grappled with for a number of years," Professor Boyd said. "The ocean stores huge amounts of carbon indirectly absorbed from the atmosphere and in doing so plays a major role in moderating the climate impacts of anthropogenic carbon emissions. "We can measure the sinking flux of carbon-rich particles and compare it with the gradient of dissolved inorganic carbon from low levels near the surface to high levels in the deep ocean. advertisement "But until now we haven't been able to 'balance the books' in explaining the mechanisms that transport and store carbon, as the BGP only explains around half of the carbon that is present." Professor Boyd said new ocean observation technologies and the datasets they provide have shown in unprecedented detail the way in which PIPs contribute to the carbon cycle. "PIPs are a range of physical and biological mechanisms that move carbon, including ocean eddies and zooplankton which feed on phytoplankton and excrete carbon-rich faeces as they migrate to deeper water. "By combining the effects of the biological gravitational pump with PIPs we can, for the first time, balance the books and fully account for ocean carbon storage. "This breakthrough is vital in allowing us to establish a baseline against which we can measure and understand future changes in ocean carbon and its effects on the global climate. "It also highlights a number of areas that require further research, so we can better understand the mechanisms involved and their relative contribution to the ocean carbon cycle. "The more we discover about the ocean the more we are coming to appreciate how complex and four dimensional it is, with multiple processes interacting and feeding back on each other over time. "As the ocean is such a major influence on global climate it is vital that we improve our understanding of the multi-dimensional mechanisms at work," Professor Boyd said. Artificial intelligence (AI), a branch of computer science that is transforming scientific inquiry and industry, could now speed the development of safe, clean and virtually limitless fusion energy for generating electricity. A major step in this direction is under way at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University, where a team of scientists working with a Harvard graduate student is for the first time applying deep learning -- a powerful new version of the machine learning form of AI -- to forecast sudden disruptions that can halt fusion reactions and damage the doughnut-shaped tokamaks that house the reactions. Promising new chapter in fusion research "This research opens a promising new chapter in the effort to bring unlimited energy to Earth," Steve Cowley, director of PPPL, said of the findings, which are reported in the current issue of Nature magazine. "Artificial intelligence is exploding across the sciences and now it's beginning to contribute to the worldwide quest for fusion power." Fusion, which drives the sun and stars, is the fusing of light elements in the form of plasma -- the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei -- that generates energy. Scientists are seeking to replicate fusion on Earth for an abundant supply of power for the production of electricity. Crucial to demonstrating the ability of deep learning to forecast disruptions -- the sudden loss of confinement of plasma particles and energy -- has been access to huge databases provided by two major fusion facilities: the DIII-D National Fusion Facility that General Atomics operates for the DOE in California, the largest facility in the United States, and the Joint European Torus (JET) in the United Kingdom, the largest facility in the world, which is managed by EUROfusion, the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy. Support from scientists at JET and DIII-D has been essential for this work. The vast databases have enabled reliable predictions of disruptions on tokamaks other than those on which the system was trained -- in this case from the smaller DIII-D to the larger JET. The achievement bodes well for the prediction of disruptions on ITER, a far larger and more powerful tokamak that will have to apply capabilities learned on today's fusion facilities. advertisement The deep learning code, called the Fusion Recurrent Neural Network (FRNN), also opens possible pathways for controlling as well as predicting disruptions. Most intriguing area of scientific growth "Artificial intelligence is the most intriguing area of scientific growth right now, and to marry it to fusion science is very exciting," said Bill Tang, a principal research physicist at PPPL, coauthor of the paper and lecturer with the rank and title of professor in the Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences who supervises the AI project. "We've accelerated the ability to predict with high accuracy the most dangerous challenge to clean fusion energy." Unlike traditional software, which carries out prescribed instructions, deep learning learns from its mistakes. Accomplishing this seeming magic are neural networks, layers of interconnected nodes -- mathematical algorithms -- that are "parameterized," or weighted by the program to shape the desired output. For any given input the nodes seek to produce a specified output, such as correct identification of a face or accurate forecasts of a disruption. Training kicks in when a node fails to achieve this task: the weights automatically adjust themselves for fresh data until the correct output is obtained. A key feature of deep learning is its ability to capture high-dimensional rather than one-dimensional data. For example, while non-deep learning software might consider the temperature of a plasma at a single point in time, the FRNN considers profiles of the temperature developing in time and space. "The ability of deep learning methods to learn from such complex data make them an ideal candidate for the task of disruption prediction," said collaborator Julian Kates-Harbeck, a physics graduate student at Harvard University and a DOE-Office of Science Computational Science Graduate Fellow who was lead author of the Nature paper and chief architect of the code. advertisement Training and running neural networks relies on graphics processing units (GPUs), computer chips first designed to render 3D images. Such chips are ideally suited for running deep learning applications and are widely used by companies to produce AI capabilities such as understanding spoken language and observing road conditions by self-driving cars. Kates-Harbeck trained the FRNN code on more than two terabytes (1012) of data collected from JET and DIII-D. After running the software on Princeton University's Tiger cluster of modern GPUs, the team placed it on Titan, a supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, and other high-performance machines. A demanding task Distributing the network across many computers was a demanding task. "Training deep neural networks is a computationally intensive problem that requires the engagement of high-performance computing clusters," said Alexey Svyatkovskiy, a coauthor of the Nature paper who helped convert the algorithms into a production code and now is at Microsoft. "We put a copy of our entire neural network across many processors to achieve highly efficient parallel processing," he said. The software further demonstrated its ability to predict true disruptions within the 30-millisecond time frame that ITER will require, while reducing the number of false alarms. The code now is closing in on the ITER requirement of 95 percent correct predictions with fewer than 3 percent false alarms. While the researchers say that only live experimental operation can demonstrate the merits of any predictive method, their paper notes that the large archival databases used in the predictions, "cover a wide range of operational scenarios and thus provide significant evidence as to the relative strengths of the methods considered in this paper." From prediction to control The next step will be to move from prediction to the control of disruptions. "Rather than predicting disruptions at the last moment and then mitigating them, we would ideally use future deep learning models to gently steer the plasma away from regions of instability with the goal of avoiding most disruptions in the first place," Kates-Harbeck said. Highlighting this next step is Michael Zarnstorff, who recently moved from deputy director for research at PPPL to chief science officer for the laboratory. "Control will be essential for post-ITER tokamaks -- in which disruption avoidance will be an essential requirement," Zarnstorff noted. Progressing from AI-enabled accurate predictions to realistic plasma control will require more than one discipline. "We will combine deep learning with basic, first-principle physics on high-performance computers to zero in on realistic control mechanisms in burning plasmas," said Tang. "By control, one means knowing which 'knobs to turn' on a tokamak to change conditions to prevent disruptions. That's in our sights and it's where we are heading." Support for this work comes from the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Program of the DOE Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration; from Princeton University's Institute for Computational Science and Engineering (PICsiE); and from Laboratory Directed Research and Development funds that PPPL provides. The authors wish to acknowledge assistance with high-performance supercomputing from Bill Wichser and Curt Hillegas at PICSciE; Jack Wells at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility; Satoshi Matsuoka and Rio Yokata at the Tokyo Institute of Technology; and Tom Gibbs at NVIDIA Corp. Scientists report the first cases of foot disease for endangered huemul deer in Chilean Patagonia in a study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of California, Davis' One Health Institute, with partnering institutions in Chile and the United States. In the study, published April 17 in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers found foot lesions in 24 huemul deer in Chile's Bernardo O'Higgins National Park between 2005 and 2010. The park remains one of the few strongholds for the species, which lives in the rugged mountainous terrain of southern Argentina and Chile. The foot disease causes severe pain, swelling, partial or complete loss of the hoof and in many cases, death. Affected animals become unable to move and forage, leaving them susceptible to starvation and predation. Researchers identified parapoxvirus as the likely cause of the disease. About 40 percent of the 24 affected deer died, suggesting the virus could pose a considerable conservation threat to the already vulnerable species. "We knew that deer were getting sick and dying from this disease for many years, but we didn't know what was causing it," said corresponding author Marcela Uhart, a wildlife veterinarian with the UC Davis One Health Institute and director of the Latin America Program within UC Davis' Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center. "We're really excited that we found a potential cause for this disease. Now we need to learn from it so we can be better prepared to help this species." ICONIC SPECIES Culturally iconic, the huemul deer appears alongside the condor on Chile's coat of arms and symbolizes biodiversity in the region. advertisement While only about 2,500 remain in the wild today, huemul deer were once widespread in Patagonian forests. Then, in the 19th century, habitat loss, poaching and livestock disease began contributing to their decline. Today, the huemul deer is the most endangered deer in South America. "Considering the critical situation of huemul deer, this finding is a significant first step toward identifying and implementing solutions," said lead author Alejandro Vila, the Scientific Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Chile. "We will continue to work closely with all relevant stakeholders for the recovery of this flagship species." CATTLE CONSIDERATIONS The lab analysis provided some indication that this disease may have originated with livestock, as well, but more research is needed to confirm. Parapoxvirus DNA present in the sample was highly associated with bovine viruses. Three-quarters of the deer affected by the foot disease were found in the Huemules Valley, where cattle were introduced in 1991 before being removed in 2004. The remaining quarter of affected deer were found in the more isolated Bernardo and Katraska Valleys, which were always free of cattle and had no cases of the foot disease until six sick deer were found between 2008 and 2010. advertisement BETTER MONITORING COULD HELP The study said a better system for monitoring the population, collecting high-quality samples and ensuring their delivery for lab analysis could help researchers, land managers and wildlife veterinarians more quickly identify problems huemul deer face and find ways to help them. "It's very rare to link an endangered species with the cause of a disease," Uhart said. "Disease is one reason this species is not doing well. A collaborative framework that involves the different stakeholders can help us put the right pieces in place to diagnose and help the species." Such a framework requires collaboration among academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and government agencies, the authors emphasize. "We are very pleased with the outcome of this collaborative investigation," said Alejandra Silva, Regional Director of the National Forestry Service (CONAF) for Magallanes and Antarctica. "Given how complex it is to work in remote and isolated locations and the costs involved in pursuing sophisticated diagnostics, we recognize the value of partnering with academia and the non-governmental sector to solve problems threatening our wild species." Additional coauthors for the study include Cristobal Briceno of University of Chile; Denise McAloose and Tracie Seimon from Wildlife Conservation Society in New York; Anibal Armien from University of Minnesota; Nicholas Be from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Elizabeth Mauldin and James Thissen from University of Pennsylvania; Manuel Quezada from University of Concepcion in Chile; and Ana Hinojosa, Jose Paredes, Ivan Avendano, and Alejandra Silva from CONAF in Chile. The study received financial support from CONAF, Michel Durand, Weeden Foundation, Agnes Gundt, Wuppertal Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The transition from hunting and gathering to farming and herding is considered a crucial turning point in the history of humanity. Scholars think the intensive food production that came along with the Neolithic Revolution, starting around 10,000 B.C., allowed cities to grow, led to technological innovation and, eventually, enabled life as we know it today. It has been difficult to work out the details of how and when this took place. But a new study published in Science Advances begins to resolve the scale and pace of change during the first phases of animal domestication at an ancient site in Turkey. To reconstruct this history, the authors turned to an unusual source: urine salts left behind by humans and animals. Whereas dung is commonly used in all sorts of studies, "this is the first time, to our knowledge, that people have picked up on salts in archaeological materials, and used them in a way to look at the development of animal management," says lead author Jordan Abell, a graduate student at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The team used the urine salts to calculate the density of humans and animals at the site over time, estimating that around 10,000 years ago, the density of people and animals occupying the settlement jumped from near zero to approximately one person or animal for every 10 square meters. The results suggest that domestication may have been more rapid than previously expected. They also support the idea that the Neolithic Revolution didn't have just one birthplace in the Fertile Crescent of the Mideast, but rather occurred across several locations simultaneously. Connecting the Dots At the ancient settlement of Askl Hoyuk in central Turkey, archaeological evidence suggests that humans began domesticating sheep and goats around 8450 BC. These practices evolved over the next 1,000 years, until the society became heavily dependent on the beasts for food and other materials. advertisement As it happened, co-authors Susan Mentzer from the University of Tubingen and Jay Quade from the University of Arizona, where Abell worked on this project as an undergraduate, had previously documented some unusually high levels of salts around Askl Hoyuk, and were perplexed by what they meant. Using this data and others, the new study supports the idea that the salts likely came from the urine of humans, sheep and goats. The study uses the abundance of the salts over time to track the growth of the community and its animals over a period of 1,000 years. A Rapid Transition Working with Turkish archaeologists, including Istanbul University's Mihriban Ozbasaran, who heads the Askl Hoyuk dig, the team collected 113 samples from all across the site -- from trash piles to bricks and hearths, and from different time periods -- to look at patterns in the sodium, nitrate and chlorine salt levels. They found that, overall, the urine salts at Askl Hoyuk increased in abundance over time. The natural layers before the settlement was built contained very low levels of salts. The oldest layers with evidence of human habitation, spanning 10,400 to 10,000 years ago, saw slight increases but remained relatively low in the urine salts. Then the salts spike during a period from 10,000 to 9,700 years ago; the amount of salts in this layer is about 1,000 times higher than in the preceding ones, indicating a rapid increase in the number of occupants (both human and animal). After that, the concentrations decrease slightly. Abell says these trends line up with previous hypotheses based on other evidence from the site -- that the settlement transitioned first from mostly hunting sheep and goats to corralling just a few, then changed to larger-scale management, and then finally shifted to keeping animals in corrals on the periphery of the site as their numbers grew. And although the timing is close to what the study authors expected, the sharp change around 10,000 years ago "may be new evidence for a more rapid transition" toward domestication, says Abell. advertisement Using the salt concentrations, the team estimated the number and density of people plus sheep and goats at Askl Hoyuk, after accounting for other factors that might have influenced the salt levels. They calculated that around 10,000 years ago, the density of people and animals occupying the settlement jumped from near zero to approximately one person or animal for every 10 square meters. By comparison, modern-day semi-intensive feedlots have densities of about one sheep for every 5 square meters. Although it is not currently possible to distinguish between human and livestock urine salts, the urine salt analysis method can still provide a helpful estimate of sheep and goat abundance. Over the 1,000 year period, the team calculated that an average of 1,790 people and animals lived and peed on the settlement every day. In each time period, the estimated inhabitants were much higher than the number of people that archaeologists think the settlement's buildings would have housed. This indicates that the urine salt concentrations can indeed reflect the relative amounts of domesticated animals over time. The researchers plan to further refine their methods and calculations in the future, and hope to find a way to differentiate between human and animal urine salts. They think the methodology could be applied in other arid areas, and could be especially helpful at sites where other physical evidence, such as bones, is lacking. A Broader Revolution The study's results also help shed light on the geographic spread of the Neolithic Revolution. It was once thought that farming and herding originated in the Fertile Crescent, which spans parts of modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories, then spread outward from there. But mounting evidence, including today's study, indicates that domestication and the transition to Neolithic lifestyles took place concurrently over a broad and diffuse swath of the region. Anthropologist and co-author Mary Stiner from the University of Arizona said that the new method could help to clarify the larger picture of humanity's relationship to animals during this transitional period. "We might find similar trends in other archaeological sites of the period in the Middle East," she said, "but it is also possible that only a handful of long-lasting communities were forums for the evolving human-caprine relationships in any given region of the Middle East." Gunes Duru and Melis Uzdurum from Istanbul University were also authors on the paper. Excellence in Derivatives Award winner says no matter what you accomplish, there's always more to learn and always more to do. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the filing of insider trading charges against a former engineer at Skyworks Solutions, Inc., a Massachusetts-based company with executive offices and a design center in Irvine, California that designs, manufactures and sells wireless analog semiconductors. The SEC's complaint alleges that Yuh-Yue Chen, while working as an engineer at Skyworks in Irvine, traded multiple times in advance of the company's earnings announcements. The complaint further alleges that Chen improperly accessed the company's accounting and finance area, reviewed non-public financial reports, and used that information to purchase Skyworks securities in advance of the company's announcements of financial results for the second and third quarters in 2014. The SEC charges that after Skyworks announced positive quarterly financial results on April 22, 2014 and again on July 17, 2014, Chen sold Skyworks securities for a total profit of at least $739,959. The complaint further alleges that in September 2014, Chen fled the country after Skyworks' security found him loitering in the office restricted area designated for the accounting and finance staff. He recently returned to the United States for a visit at the end of March, when he was interviewed and subsequently served with the SEC's complaint prior to his planned departure. The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, charges Chen with violations of the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and seeks a permanent injunction, disgorgement plus interest and penalties. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Janet Rich Weissman and supervised by Ansu Banerjee in the Los Angeles Regional Office. The SEC's litigation will be conducted by Amy Jane Longo. Nintendo and Tencent have joined forces in an attempt to bring the Switch to China, and the pair are making significant headway. As reported by Reuters, Chinese tech giant Tencent recently received approval from regulator in the southern province of Guangdong to distribute the Switch and a test version of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe in the country. The Chinese video game market is currently the largest and most lucrative in the world, making this a big victory for both companies. According to "people familiar with the matter," the Guangdong approval will eventually lead to the Switch being sold nationwide, although no timeframe for the rollout was given. Launching the Nintendo Switch in China is a massive opportunity for both Nintendo and Tencent, said Newzoo analyst Gu Tianyi, explaining the significance of the news to Reuters. What sets Nintendo apart [from competitors like Sony and Microsoft] it that its intellectual property roster -- including Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon -- is already extremely popular in the market. Whats more, the mobile aspect of the Switch is a great fit for Chinas mobile-first culture." Nintendo's new partner Tencent was one of the companies affected by China's recent licensing freeze, which saw the new State Administration of Press and Publication halt approvals in an attempt to weed out games that didnt abide by the governments values. The freeze prevented companies big and small from launching their games in China, and created a massive approvals backlog that regulators have only recently begun to wade through. Fortunately for Tencent, test versions of games like New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe can be distributed without a license, meaning it can effectively skip the queue (for now). Some architectural landmarks demand our attention. Others are content to hide in plain sight, only telling their stories if we bother to ask. Such as the Bourdette Building at Second and Mission streets San Francisco Landmark 271, to be exact, and as visually humble as any survivor of the 1906 earthquake and fire can be. The structure fills the northwest corner of the ever-busier intersection with two stories of simple brick painted a now-muddy beige. Theres a bright new lobster-themed cafe on the ground floor, serving a young crowd far different than the patrons of the cafeteria that once filled the space, and dusty wood-framed windows up above. Its the very definition of a background building, the type thats easy to ignore when youre pushing to cross the street amid gridlocked automobiles. So inconspicuous, in fact, that its significance was forgotten until the arrival of ever-taller towers nearby forced us to pay attention. The Bourdette received landmark status in 2016 as a direct and tangible link to a precise moment in time ... a unique and near-miraculous survivor of the disaster, according to the report prepared by San Franciscos Planning Department for the Historic Preservation Commission. Its not like the Old Mint at Fifth and Mission or the Audiffred Building on the Embarcadero, noteworthy structures even then that were defended by people battling the flames. Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle No, this was a saloon that emerged from the destruction of April 18, 1906, fully intact save one small chartreuse glass, according to a baffled article two months later in the San Francisco Call. Back then, the area known as South of the Slot was nothing much, and the two-story newcomer fit right in. The Call reported that the foundation was capable of holding a 12-story building, but what opened in 1904 was the saloon and a dry goods merchant. Next door was a 10-story structure that emerged from the conflagration as a burned-out shell; the Call speculated that perhaps it blocked the flames that followed the 7.9 temblor. Within a few years, the fire-ravaged landscape had filled back in with buildings not much different than those that had been destroyed. The Bourdette no longer stood out. It shuffled back into the chorus, pleasantly nondescript. The same can be said for the nearby blocks, a terrain of modest businesses that served the Financial District and the port, and faded as the citys economy changed after World War II. The saloon gave way to tenants including cigar stores and barber shops as well as the cafeteria that survived with various names for nearly 50 years. Tenants upstairs over the years sold everything from school globes to office supplies. Fast-forward to 2008. South of the Slot was now the center of the action. Not only had the Financial District crossed Market Street, the Bourdette Building was a block from where city leaders wanted to raise zoning heights to allow the extra-tall towers that would help fund construction of a new transit center at First and Mission streets. Courtesy of California Historical Society While working on what it calls the Transit Center District, the Planning Department had a historic resources survey done of the area. In the process, architectural historian Christopher Verplanck realized by looking at post-1906 photos that the modest building at Second and Mission deserved attention. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Not for the architecture though it has satisfying depth in our thin, glassy age but for how buildings allow us to gauge larger cultural shifts. Take a look at the first block of Second Street: Tenants include Alexanders, a treasured three-story bookstore, and a marijuana dispensary. Theres a two-story building from 1907, occupied in part by a bar that serves wicked mezcal cocktails, and a 25-story office tower from 2002. City workers have just installed wide bike lanes. At Lukes Lobster, an offshoot of a chain that started in Manhattan in 2009 and now has outposts in Miami and Las Vegas, $23 buys a jumbo roll with lobster from Millbridge, Maine. Chalk-like sketches of fishing boats dot the once-unadorned brick wall. Two Skip scooters are docked outside. The Chronicle / John King All this, I suspect, would have been unimaginable to attorney John W. Bourdette when he purchased the small building at 90 Second St. in 1905. Nor could he have conceived that his structure would now be hailed by San Franciscos Historic Preservation Commission as the only remaining pre-1906 small-scale commercial building within the downtown area. Cities are places of sudden tumult and slow decay, grand political tensions and everyday people struggling to get by. Amid all this are the buildings and the more we pay attention, the more they have to say. John King is The San Francisco Chronicles urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron A new government order that would prohibit some asylum seekers from posting bail as they await a decision in their cases has infuriated immigration advocates throughout the country who claim its a violation of the immigrants constitutional rights. The policy, announced Tuesday by U.S. Attorney General William Barr, would keep asylum seekers with credible fear claims in ICE detention for months or even years, until their cases are resolved. Advocates say the order could impact more than 15,000 asylum seekers, though exact numbers arent clear. Its devastating, said Michael Tan, an attorney with the ACLUs Immigrants Rights Project in New York. There are thousands of asylum seekers who, prior to this decision, had been getting bond hearings before an immigration judge. The ACLU said it plans to sue the administration, arguing that the policy which goes into effect in 90 days violates immigrants constitutional rights. A bedrock principle of our country is that you cant take peoples freedom away without due process of law, Tan said. The most fundamental aspect of due process is the right to go before a judge to determine if you will be locked up or not. Immigrants determined to have a credible fear of persecution are typically allowed to request a bond hearing where a judge determines if they can be released on bail as they wait for their cases to be resolved. In a written decision Tuesday, Barr directed immigration judges not to release immigrants on bond once their cases are approved for full removal proceedings, a status granted to asylum seekers after an asylum officer has approved their claim of credible fear, when theyre waiting to go before a judge. Typically, an asylum seeker who crosses between ports of entry would have the right to ask a judge to grant them bond for release. Under the new ruling, they will have to wait in detention until their case is adjudicated, the Associated Press reported. Im shocked that this is just another attempt at further trying to discourage or deter legitimate asylum seekers, said Bill Hing, a longtime social justice advocate and director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic at the University of San Francisco. Mandatory detention is for people who commit crimes and who are suspected terrorists. Theres not a statute that requires detention for these folks. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Its the latest push by the Trump administration to end catch and release policies and deter undocumented immigrants from seeking asylum at the border. President Trump recently threatened to shut down the border and cut off aid to Central American countries, and suggests the government get rid of the whole asylum system. The president has also accused some migrants of faking credible-fear interviews and criticized those who support asylum seekers. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday said Barrs order will roll back the progress the U.S. has made to protect vulnerable populations over several decades. Vulnerable individuals and families who face horrific conditions should be welcomed in our country, not turned away or locked up, Feinstein said in a statement. Attorney General Barrs decision will have a brutal effect on refugees, some of whom will now be detained for years before they have their day in court. This policy stands in sharp contrast to the due process protections enshrined in the Constitution. Tatiana Sanchez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez Good morning, Bay Area. Its Thursday, April 18, and a long-awaited report is released while a long-running San Francisco treasure will be closing its doors. Heres what you need to know to start your day. End of an era Beach Blanket Babylon will hold its last performance on Dec. 31. Co-founder Jo Schuman Silver tells The Chronicle she no longer wants to run the musical revue and is too protective of it to let someone else take the reins. Theater critic Lily Janiak takes a look back at the history of the show, complete with photos from The Chronicles archives. No second salary Chris Preovolos / SFGATE Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou wont double dip for now. He postponed plans to retire at the end of the month instead hell stay on as chief until June 30. He had planned to retire April 30 and start his new gig as interim police chief the next day, a move that would have allowed him to pull his pension and a salary at the same time. Questions remain about whether the city will still hire him as interim chief after he retires in June, which could trigger the double-dipping. East Bay columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. reported on Bidous unique retirement plan last week which came amid ongoing criticism of his departments conduct after a fatal police shooting. Remembering the quake The Chronicle 1906 One hundred and thirteen years later, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire looms large in the citys imagination. Were still finding new stories to tell and preparing for the next Big One. Our brand new quake tracker, which shows significant quakes that have occurred in the past 30 days, focusing on epicenters in California, is live. Bookmark it for the future. A quake story lost in time but the houses are still here. The saloon that miraculously survived and is now a lobster roll shop tells the story of a changing San Francisco. The 10 biggest earthquakes in California history. What a quake the size of the 1906 temblor would do to San Francisco today. Our measles advantage Todd Trumbull / The Chronicle The United States is in the middle of what may end up the largest measles outbreak in two decades. But in California, its a different story. Though the state has seen a handful of small outbreaks this year, including seven Bay Area cases, none are nearly as dramatic as whats happening in other parts of the country. And that, public health experts say, is largely due to the state tightening its vaccination requirements three years ago after learning a hard lesson of its own when an outbreak at Disneyland sickened at least 80. Reporter Erin Allday compares Californias experience with measles across the U.S. this year and describes the history of how the vaccine changed public health. How much redaction? Attorney General William Barr is expected to release the Mueller report with redactions early this morning. Reporter John Wildermuth details how we got to this moment, what to expect and how Democrats have tried to pressure the attorney general into releasing an unredacted version. Well have full coverage on SFChronicle.com throughout the day. Sign up for Bay Briefing Like what you're reading? Subscribe to The Chronicle's Bay Briefing newsletter and get the Bay Area's best journalism in your inbox every weekday. See More Collapse Around the Bay Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Twist of fate: The Berkeley Symphony taps a surprise candidate for director. Dried up: Ballast Point Brewing has canceled plans for a San Francisco brewery near the new Warriors stadium. Price drop: Gov. Gavin Newsoms bid to negotiate lower drug prices gets a boost from L.A. County. No bail: California advocates prepare a legal battle against a new Trump adminstration order that would keep asylum seekers with credible-fear claims in ICE detention for months or even years, until their cases are resolved. Vanity Fair: Adam Magill on his debut with the American Conservatory Theater and being an actor on the autism spectrum. The Saracevic Finite Dynasty Theorem: Is the Warriors dynasty coming to an end? It stands to reason entropy unravels even the best system. Mental health: Patients and family members protested outside Kaiser Permanentes Oakland headquarters, calling for shorter wait times for mental health appointments and demanding a meeting with the CEO. Visual Spotlight Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle Its one of the most photographed locations in San Francisco, so how can you take a different look at Lombard Street? Chronicle staff photographer Gabrielle Lurie did just that by turning the camera around on the photo takers on a recent spring afternoon. The story was about a state bill to levy a toll on the street and Luries photographs show how lively (and crowded!) Lombard can be. See more photos from the story here. Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle Bay Briefing is written by Taylor Kate Brown and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here and contact Brown at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com Jonathan Wolman, who over more than 45 years in journalism served as editor and publisher of the Detroit News and previously worked as a reporter, Washington bureau chief and executive editor at the Associated Press, died Monday in Detroit. He was 68. His family told the News that Wolman died of complications from pancreatic cancer. Wolman had been editor and publisher of the News since 2007, running the newspaper during a financially challenging period that included staff layoffs, a cutback to only two days a week of home delivery, and a relocation from the massive headquarters building that it had occupied for nearly a century. However, Detroit even as it careened into and then out of bankruptcy in 2013-14 has survived as one of a shrinking number of U.S. cities with more than one major daily newspaper. The News has a joint operating agreement with its rival, the Detroit Free Press, in which the newspapers consolidate business operations while fielding separate editorial staffs. Earlier, during a three-decade AP career that he began in 1973 as a reporter in Madison, Wisc., he worked at the new services Washington bureau, from 1975 to 1998, rising from reporter to news editor to a powerful bureau chief who focused coverage squarely on politics, the White House and campaigns. He held that post for nearly 10 years before moving to New York to become APs managing editor, and was promoted to executive editor in May 2000. Jon came to Detroit at a time of incredible uncertainty, not only for the News, but for the industry, said the News managing editor, Gary Miles. He was a steadying, calming influence who put a priority on the big picture: the accuracy and fairness of our news report. Miles recalled Wolmans painstaking analysis as the papers management grappled with budget cuts and staff reductions. Even amid the austerity, Miles said, Wolman oversaw expansion of the papers investigative and projects unit, and maintained a strong focus on national and world news at a time when many regional papers were cutting back. He was incredibly kind, Miles said. Some decisions clearly pained him. But he kept the long-term interests of the News, its staff and its readers, paramount. Peter Bhatia, editor of the Free Press, praised Wolman as a magnificent person and an outstanding journalist. He has kept his newspaper relevant and engaged in the community and has been a fierce and appropriate advocate for the News in its partnership with the Free Press, Bhatia said. Wolmans tenure in Detroit encompassed one of the most turbulent periods in the citys history. The bankruptcy filing was preceded by years of plummeting population and tax base; more recently theres been an incomplete but inspiring recovery. Wolman came to Detroit from Denver, where for three years he was editor of the Denver Posts editorial page. Prior to his job in Denver, Wolman was with the AP for nearly 31 years. In 1981, he was praised by AP managing editor Wick Temple for overseeing coverage of the space shuttle Columbias first flight. Jon pulled it together from all sites, got no bylines and worked 22 hours a day, Temple wrote to other AP managers. He was a delight. Later, Wolman helped oversee APs 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning report about the 1950 No Gun Ri massacre during the Korean War, as well as APs coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But it was political coverage that was Wolmans career-long obsession and his focus as a journalist. Some colleagues suggest that one of his finest moments came late on election night in 2000, when it was clear that the presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore had come down to the closely fought state of Florida. At 2:16 a.m. on Nov. 8, Fox News Channel declared Bush the winner in Florida, and within minutes NBC, CBS, CNN and ABC did the same. The AP said the race was still too close to name a winner. Wolman, then APs New York-based executive editor, was in the Washington office at the time while his successor as bureau chief, Sandy Johnson, faced intense pressure to join the networks in calling the election for Bush. But based on input from experienced colleagues, Johnson knew the Florida outcome wasnt clear and stood her ground; Wolman backed her completely. Many news organizations, including AP, had already had to backtrack once after exit polls and an analysis of early returns wrongly indicated that Gore had won Florida. He could have pulled rank on Sandy and called it but that night he knew he was working for her, said Ron Fournier, whose byline was on the main election story. Jon deserved credit for knowing to trust his people. APs non-call was vindicated as the nearly deadlocked election outcome became entangled in a long legal battle before being decided in Bushs favor by the U.S. Supreme Court. Johnson credited Wolman with building a strong AP staff in Washington. He took a chance on people, putting them in roles that perhaps they werent obviously ready for, including me, she said. He created an esprit de corps in Washington that in turn set the bar higher for all of us. Louis D. Boccardi, APs president from 1985 to 2003, said that Wolman for all his versatility in management was at heart a reporter. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. I never saw him happier than when he was working with writers on a big story or with a team shaping a report on a major investigation, Boccardi said. He was a newsman, through and through. Carole Feldman, a veteran reporter and editor at the Washington bureau, described Wolman as a supportive boss who mentored new people coming into the bureau and put his trust in them to handle the biggest story. Terry Hunt, whose 46-year AP career included 25 years as chief White House correspondent, said Wolman was incredibly smart, very analytical and had a solid grasp of politics. He read more than anyone I know. He didnt sleep much, Hunt recalled. He was demanding, sometimes blunt and direct. But always fair. APs current executive editor, Sally Buzbee, who worked for Wolman in APs Washington bureau, said he never lost his intense interest in national politics, remembering a coffee after Donald Trump won the presidency where Wolman cited election results, county-by-county, in Michigan. He lived and breathed politics, and he made the Washington bureau a strong, competitive force in national political coverage, Buzbee said. Wolman grew up in a newspaper family. His father, Martin Wolman, sold papers as a boy and was publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison from 1968 to 1984. Jon was among five children of Martin and Anne Wolman. One of his siblings, Jane, died in a car crash in 1967; the others include Nicky, Lewis and Ruth. Wolman attended the University of Colorado for two years before transferring to the University of Wisconsins main campus in Madison, where he received his bachelors degree in 1972. He is survived by his wife, Deborah Lamm; three children: Jacob, Emma and Sophia, and Emmas husband, Ian Irvine. Donations in Wolmans name may be made to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Jewish Family Services of Metro Detroit. David Crary is an Associated Press writer. A redacted version of the Mueller report into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election and President Trumps possible links to those efforts was released Thursday, nearly two years after the investigation began. Several members of Californias congressional delegation accused Attorney General William Barr of acting as Trumps spokesman and demanded Special Counsel Robert Mueller testify. Trumps defenders commended Barr. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield released a statement saying it is time to move on. Americans deserve better than this partisan quest to vilify a political opponent and I urge our Democratic colleagues in the House to put their emotions and opinions aside, McCarthy said. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale (Butte County), repeated Trumps witch hunt slogan. Democrats did not agree. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, pointed to Barrs strong defense of the president and refrain of no collusion. In addition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said Mueller must testify before Congress. Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, and Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, aired their thoughts in real time as they read through the findings both suggested the report is not good news for Trump. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, said the report suggested the decision to indict Trump should be left to Congress. Others, including Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said they needed reading time before reacting. But he went on to live-tweet his thoughts anyway. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, waited a few hours before weighing in on the report. She tweeted a statement that Trump tried to obstruct the investigation. Swalwell, whos seeking the Democratic nomination for president, called on Barr to resign. Harris, also running for president, used the occasion to beef up her campaigns email list. Shortly thereafter, Swalwell did, too. And Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, expressed annoyance with the scope of the Justice Departments redactions. Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov The ambitious plan to turn Fort Winfield Scott in San Franciscos Presidio into a WeWork-managed Campus for Change should be rejected, according to the preliminary recommendation by the staff that manages the unusual national park. The proposal in its current form is a nonstarter that asks the Presidio Trust to pay the costs of services such as transit access and utility upgrades for the remote setting. Those two requirements were among the obligations spelled out as the responsibility of the developer when the competition for the 30-acre, 22-building site was announced early last year. Instead, the proposer is expecting the Presidio Trust to cover a significant portion of these costs while seeking to reap a financial return themselves, according to the five-page review Presidio Trust CEO Jean Fraser sent to the board of directors. The trust manages most of the 1,491-acre park. Frasers staff also argues that the development team a partnership that includes nonprofits focused on research into such topics as climate change and artificial intelligence is ignoring the competition requirement that Fort Scott have a higher calling than simply making a profit for a developer. The proposed financing structure and business terms do not ensure a long-term commitment to a campus of mission-driven organizations, the preliminary report states. The emphatic tone of the preliminary report startled the team, according to the local developer involved. We were surprised its premature to reach those (negative) conclusions without appropriate dialogue, without us being able to sit down and walk through the details, said John Clawson of Equity Community Builders, which has done several other projects in the Presidio. We feel we have a team thats really committed to the mission of the place. Though harsh, the preliminary staff report isnt a death knell for the proposal. The board is scheduled to vote on Fort Scotts fate next month. Theres also a public meeting Wednesday where the developers will have their say and members of the public may comment. Whatever happens next, the current tension captures the dilemma of trying to revive a unique but problematic setting. Once an independent army post within an army post, Fort Scott consists of a horseshoe-shaped string of Mission-style barracks circling a central parade ground thats now a mix of weeds, native grasses and wildflowers. The trust has renovated two of the barracks, but estimates that the full cost of bringing the buildings and landscape back to life could exceed $200 million. The current proposal is the work of the four finalists in last years competition. They joined forces in January, the idea being that a unified approach would allow them to pool resources while also creating a ready-made clientele for the historic barracks. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Public meeting The Presidio Trust will hold a public meeting on the proposed restoration and reuse of Fort Winfield Scott at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Golden Gate Club, 135 Fisher Loop in the Presidio of San Francisco. The trust's board of directors is scheduled to vote on accepting or rejecting the proposal on May 23. For more information on the Fort Scott competition, go to www.presidio.gov/fort-winfield-scott/proposal See More Collapse The team includes WeWork, the co-working giant with outposts in cities across the country, and the World Economic Forum, which holds an annual high-profile conference in Davos, Switzerland. OpenAI, a think tank focused on artificial intelligence, has Silicon Valley roots while EPIC Institute is a recently created nonprofit that would focus on climate change. In addition to Equity Community Builders, the other developer on the team is Lela Goren Group of New York. The Presidio Trust is required by Congress to be financially self-sufficient. It is the only national park with that requirement. John King is The San Francisco Chronicles urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron The ground shook violently and woke up the Bay Area on April 18, 1906, but 113 years later, few of the citys residents stirred for Thursdays annual commemoration of the great earthquake at Lottas Fountain. City officials and residents on Thursday gathered just before 5:12 a.m. at the base of the cast iron monument to sound sirens and hold a moment of silence for the 3,000 souls lost in the 7.9 shaker, which also destroyed 60,000 buildings and left 250,000 people homeless. In the hours before dawn, nearly 100 attendees arrived in front of the golden fountain at the intersection of Market, Geary and Kearny streets, which was illuminated by spotlights and decked with a colorful floral wreath. No jolts were felt Thursday morning as current Mayor London Breed and city officials sounded the ceremonial alarm in commemoration of the 1906 earthquake. Now Playing: Lottas Fountain Quake Commemoration Video: San Francisco Chronicle Also in attendance were San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, Police Chief Bill Scott, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy and former Mayor Willie Brown. The ceremony honored the retiring fire chief and Donna Ewald-Huggins, who for years has helped organize the celebration in costume as Lillie Coit. Bob Sarlatte, the master of ceremonies, read a history and timeline of the catastrophic quake and fires. Elevated on a black platform, high above a mix of history buffs clad in period pieces and shivering city natives donning hoodies and jeans, Sarlatte and Breed reminded residents to be vigilant about earthquake safety. Its not a matter of if, but when, said Breed, who in her first commemoration as mayor was dressed in an emerald dress and black velvet coat of early 20th-century fashion. In 1906, San Franciscans gathered at the fountain following the quake to look for survivors, said Countess Lola Montez, also known as Drag Me Along tour guide Rick Shelton. Shelton has attended the commemoration for years dressed as the late entertainer, who taught 19th century actress Lotta Crabtree how to dance. Crabtree commissioned the fountain for the city in 1875. Im very proud of Lotta, Shelton said. She became the darling of San Francisco. Shelton also noted the late Mayor Ed Lees contributions to the fountain. Ed Lee got the fountain operational, Shelton said, gesturing with white gloves at the gilded monument. The countess gathered her skirts fruitlessly, tulle spilling out into the aisle of a vintage streetcar, which took attendees to the fabled golden fire hydrant that saved the Mission District during the fires. Vipul Gupta, who has lived in the Bay Area for 23 years, made the 40-plus mile trek from Los Altos to San Francisco for the commemoration. He crashed at a friends house to make sure he was able to attend the opening ceremony at 4:45 a.m. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. As a hush fell over the crowd during a moment of silence punctuated by the wail of mournful sirens the startup employee and tour-guide-in-training basked in the moment. When we had that moment of silence, I felt for a moment that I was part of San Francisco history, he said. Aboard the streetcar to Dolores Park, natives soon turned into tourists as they gawked at the cars varnished mahogany accents and looked out the glass windows. Gupta leaned against its metal walls and gazed at the wall explaining the vintage streetcars history as it chugged along to the golden fire hydrant. Its a privilege to sit in here, Gupta said. That streetcar got here, but I have to say, its slightly delayed, Hayes-White ribbed Muni director Ed Reiskin, as he approached the hydrant with a canister of golden spray paint. Officials gild the hydrant every year as a testament to its importance in saving historic San Francisco. The last survivor of the 1906 earthquake died in 2016. San Francisco residents and city officials said they would return to the fountain next year to commemorate another anniversary of the fateful temblor. Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu A provocative mailer by a deep-pocketed Los Angeles activist equates a state housing bill with Negro removal, a comparison that prompted state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Mayor London Breed to fire back Thursday. The ad, paid for by Michael Weinsteins foundation, appeared on cable television, snowballed on social media and popped up in mailboxes throughout the city this week. It features a picture of famous black author James Baldwin with a quote about San Franciscos urban renewal policies, which displaced thousands of African Americans from the Fillmore. San Francisco is engaging ... in something called urban renewal, which means moving the Negroes out. It means Negro removal, says the quote, attributed to Baldwin in 1963. Its juxtaposed with a picture of Wiener, whose bill, SB50, seeks to put more housing near transit stations and job centers. SB50 is a handout to greedy developers by Senator Scott (Wiener) that would make our housing affordability crisis even worse, the ad says. Wiener, D-San Francisco, has long been embroiled in a feud with Weinstein. The senator traces that beef to 2014, when he stopped the foundation from opening a chain pharmacy in the Castro neighborhood without a proper permit. The two have also sparred over HIV-prevention treatment PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), which allows people to have unprotected sex without the risk of getting HIV. Wiener champions PrEP; Weinstein, whose AIDS Healthcare Foundation manages clinics and pharmacies that serve HIV patients, has called it a party drug. Now the two are clashing over housing. AIDS Healthcare Foundation presents itself as a community-based nonprofit with AIDS and Foundation in its name, but in reality, it is a chain pharmacy and insurance company, labeled nonprofit but with a budget in excess of $1 billion, Wiener wrote Thursday in an email to constituents. He described Weinstein as a mean bully obsessed with using HIV healthcare funds to engage in politics, settle political scores, and increasingly, oppose new housing in California and fund anti-housing NIMBY organizations. Those remarks drew a sharp response from Rene Christian Moya, director of Housing Is a Human Right, a housing advocacy division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Theres this meme online that the only thing that drives AIDS Healthcare Foundation is NIMBYism...that were just here to battle Scott Wiener on Twitter, Moya said. He argued that the foundation is looking out for the interests of people with HIV, many of whom need affordable housing. Political advocacy accounts for a very small portion of its operating budget thats well within the law, Moya said. The foundation sponsored the James Baldwin ads through a related group, Healthy Housing Foundation. But if the fight is personal, the image and messages touch on a larger debate about SB50. Some critics say the bill doesnt do enough to protect residents from displacement amid a construction boom, while others fear it will allow the state to supersede local control of development. San Francisco supervisors marshaled those arguments when they passed a resolution opposing SB50, taking a stance that set them against the mayors of Oakland, San Jose, Stockton, Sacramento and Los Angeles, as well as BARTs Board of Directors. The Los Angeles City Council voted to oppose the bill this week, deepening a rift over how to solve the statewide housing crisis. I think the gentrification concerns are warranted, said Laura Raymond, director of Los Angeles Alliance for Community Transit, a coalition of housing and tenant rights groups that worked closely with Wiener on SB50, though it hasnt taken a position on the bill. The alliance was among 55 organizations that submitted a letter to Wiener last month, expressing significant concerns that SB50 would not generate enough affordable housing. Even so, Raymond dismissed Weinsteins rhetoric, noting that his foundation has a history of sending inappropriate mailers. Two years ago, he backed an ill-fated Los Angeles ballot measure to halt construction of tall, dense buildings. To drum up support, the campaign mailed fake eviction notices, which confused some voters and prompted a cease-and-desist letter from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Ultimately, the stunt flopped, Raymond said. We saw in that instance that voters are smart Weinstein wasnt able to confuse the conversation, she said. Many of Wieners allies see the anti-SB50 mailer blitz as a similar sideshow. Yet the appropriation of Baldwin stings: the near-decimation of a vibrant African American neighborhood is still raw, half a century later. Some chided Weinstein for conflating that painful history with an effort to house people closer to their jobs. SB50 is about tackling our housing crisis, plain and simple, tweeted Breed, who grew up in the Western Addition and Fillmore neighborhoods. She has endorsed the bill. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. It has nothing to do with urban renewal, and suggesting it does is deeply offensive to communities like mine that are still living with the consequences, Breed continued. Scott Wiener is an ally to the African American community in San Francisco. Wiener views the ads as a personal attack on his credibility, rather than a policy attack on SB50. Moya disagreed, citing the historical relevance of the Baldwin quote. It was prescient of the displacement of communities of color that weve witnessed for decades, in cities like San Francisco, he said. Asked whether the ad would persuade people to challenge the bill, Moya paused a beat. I think weve already started to get a reaction. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan The further back in time scientists look, the harder it is to pinpoint the date, place and magnitude of earthquakes. But understanding long-term earthquake behavior and recurrence has important applications for modern risk analysis. Scientists estimate earthquake probabilities in 30-year increments so insurance companies and home buyers securing mortgages can account for the danger. We scientists try to understand how the earth behaved in the past to try to forecast how the future might look, said David Schwartz, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. A whole branch of scientific inquiry paleoseismology is dedicated to hunting for ancient earthquakes that rumbled before the time of news reports and seismographs and diary entries. The work often involves digging a trench along a fault and looking for disturbances in sediment layers. Where theres a rupture, paleoseismologists can carbon date things like wood, seeds and leaf pieces to determine when the ground shaking occurred, Schwartz said. Understanding the threat, if put to good use, can yield benefits. In the early 1980s, for instance, officials with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission wanted to know the earthquake potential of the Cascadia subduction zone an offshore fault that stretches from Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino, where the Juan de Fuca plate is diving beneath the North American plate to decide where to locate a pair of nuclear power plants, said Brian Atwater, a USGS seismologist and affiliate professor at the University of Washington. The query led to a groundbreaking discovery: Atwater and his colleagues found that an earthquake of roughly magnitude 9 emanating from the subduction zone rocked California and the Pacific Northwest around 1700, plus or minus 20 years. They relied on geologic evidence such as dead trees and coastal mud inundation, indicating a tsunami. Using written records from Japan, where the tsunami also washed ashore, scientists determined an exact date: Jan. 27, 1700. Until the discovery, no one knew the subduction zone was capable of releasing such a powerful earthquake. In recent centuries, no quake close to that magnitude has rocked California. Here are the states 10 biggest earthquakes by magnitude since 1800, according to the USGS and California Geological Survey. Fort Tejon, 1857 Magnitude 7.9 The earthquake, centered 45 miles northeast of San Luis Obispo, ruptured a length of 225 miles along the San Andreas fault on the morning of Jan. 9, 1857 and shook the ground for an estimated one to three minutes. One person was killed when an adobe house in Los Angeles County collapsed. At Fort Tejon, an army post four miles from the fault, two buildings were completely destroyed, and others were badly damaged. Elsewhere, trees were uprooted and structures collapsed. San Francisco, 1906 Magnitude 7.9 photographer unknown / The Chronicle 1906 One of the greatest losses of life in U.S. history, the San Francisco earthquake and firestorm killed more than 3,000 people, according to some estimates. The quake ruptured 296 miles of the San Andreas fault at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906. The disaster marked the beginning of a scientific revolution in understanding earthquakes and the forces that drive them, the USGS says. The catastrophe also led to a rebuilding boom. Some of the citys best museums, theaters and Art Deco skyscrapers were constructed in the recovery period. Owens Valley, 1872 Magnitude 7.8 The earthquake, centered near Lone Pine (Inyo County), struck about 2:30 a.m. on March 26, 1872. It destroyed most of Lone Pine and killed 27 of its residents, about 10 percent of the towns population. People throughout California and in parts of Nevada, Oregon, Arizona and Utah reported feeling the earthquake. West of Eureka, 1980 Magnitude 7.4 Six people were injured when the earthquake, centered about 40 miles northwest of Eureka, struck on Nov. 8, 1980. Aftershocks continued for another two days. The main earthquake was felt from San Francisco to Salem, Oregon. The damage was minor relative to the size of the earthquake, according to the USGS. The quake caused some minor landslides, the partial collapse of a road overpass and broken chimneys. Santa Cruz Mountains, 1838 Magnitude 7.4 Scientists do not know the exact magnitude of this earthquake, on the San Andreas fault in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but estimated it to be 7.4. In 2014, researchers used tree-ring analysis and radiocarbon dating of redwood chips they found in a trench to help find the time and place of the June 1838 quake. The quake is believed to have stretched from San Francisco to San Juan Bautista. Imperial Valley, 1892 Magnitude 7.3 The Feb. 24, 1892 earthquake near the California-Mexico border destroyed adobe buildings and knocked down chimneys in San Diego County. Other parts of Southern California had reports of rock slides and ground fissures. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Wrightwood, 1812 Magnitude 7.3 Forty Native Americans were killed inside Mission San Juan Capistrano, which collapsed during the mid-morning earthquake of Dec. 8, 1812 centered in San Bernardino County. Other missions, including San Gabriel Arcangel, reported damage as well. Landers, 1992 Magnitude 7.3 One child was killed and about 400 people were injured in the early morning earthquake on June 28, 1992 centered about 130 miles east of Los Angeles. Buildings, roads, and power and water systems were considerably damaged across desert communities. There were about 25 small foreshocks and thousands of aftershocks, according to the USGS. Kern County, 1952 Magnitude 7.3 A dozen people were killed in the July 21, 1952 earthquake that hit just before 5 a.m. along the White Wolf fault, about 30 miles south of Bakersfield. It caused $60 million in property damage and was felt as far away as Reno, Nevada. The quake was tied to an aftershock a month later near Bakersfield, when two additional people were killed and dozens were injured. The aftershock caused another $10 million in property damage, mostly in downtown Bakersfield. Petrolia, 1992 Magnitude 7.2 More than 350 people were injured in the April 25, 1992 earthquake and ensuing fire that caused some $50 million in property damage. The quake, centered in Humboldt County, was felt as far away as Oregon and Nevada. A sensor near the epicenter recorded an acceleration of 2.2 times g, the standard gravitational acceleration on Earths surface, which was the strongest ever measured in an earthquake at the time, according to the Berkeley Seismology Lab. Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov Lowenthal is serving his fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives and has been in elected office for 30 years, starting as a Long Beach City Councilman. He announced his decision to not run again in a Thursday morning email. The United States is in the middle of what may end up the largest measles outbreak in two decades. Dozens of new cases are being reported each week. As of April 11 date of the most recent data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 555 cases had been confirmed. Thats just 112 shy of the number of cases reported for all of 2014, the worst year on record since measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. The current outbreak was triggered at multiple spots around the country, but its being fueled almost entirely by one source: large pockets of unvaccinated people. In states like Washington and New York, public health authorities have been racing to immunize children in vulnerable communities, and bumping up against large clusters of parents who refuse to vaccinate. But in California, its a different story. Though the state has seen a handful of small outbreaks this year, including seven Bay Area cases, none are nearly as dramatic as whats happening in other parts of the country. And that, public health experts say, is largely due to the state tightening its vaccination requirements three years ago after learning a hard lesson of its own. Before the vaccine: half a million cases a year Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. People generally show symptoms about a week or two after exposure, and will first have a high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. A few days later, the characteristic red rash appears, usually starting on the face and spreading down the body. Before the vaccine was approved and became widely available in the mid 1960s, measles was a common childhood illness, with half a million cases reported every year. Though most people recover without any complications, measles can be deadly; before the vaccine, about 500 people per year would die. About as many would suffer permanent injuries like hearing loss and brain damage. After the vaccine, the number of measles cases fell sharply. By the 1980s, it had disappeared in most parts of the country. Measles was declared eliminated when the CDC reported that it was no longer circulating naturally in the U.S., meaning any new outbreaks were sparked by the virus being carried in from another country. Since then, annual cases have ranged from a low of 37 to a high of 667. The last measles death was reported in 2015. Post 2000: the anti-vaccination era In 1998, a since-disgraced British doctor published a report suggesting the measles vaccine could cause autism. The report, which was a simple case study of a dozen children, was immediately criticized by many experts in autism and vaccines, and 12 years later it would be fully debunked, and retracted from the science journal that published it. But by then, the damage had been done and a global anti-vaccination movement had taken off. Less than a decade after measles was eliminated in the United States, cases began creeping up again, largely due to expanding clusters of parents refusing to vaccinate, infectious disease experts said. Misinformation and measles in California Todd Trumbull The anti-vaccination movement got an especially strong foothold in California, where state law allowed parents to easily opt out of vaccinating their children. As vaccination misinformation spread among parents at schools, in playgroups and especially on social media, childhood immunization rates fell statewide eventually below 92 percent, the level needed to prevent community spread of measles. At the same time, measles cases picked up slowly, at first. Then there was the Disneyland outbreak. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. By late 2014, a decade of falling vaccination rates had left California vulnerable, with large pockets of unimmunized people up and down the state. A person with measles, most likely contracted somewhere in Asia, went to a hugely popular amusement park and exposed the virus to tens of thousands of people, who then went back to their own communities across the state. Within the first two months of 2015, California had more measles cases than the previous 10 years combined. Rise and fall of vaccination rates Todd Trumbull The Disneyland outbreak prompted fierce public pushback against the anti-vaccination agenda. By summer 2015, the state Legislature had passed a new law doing away with rules that allowed parents to opt out of vaccinating their children for any reason other than strict medical exemptions. And by the 2016 school year the first after the new vaccine policy was implemented vaccination rates statewide had climbed well over 92 percent. This year, as other communities around the country are struggling to control massive waves of new measles cases, California has been reaping the rewards of its strict vaccination laws, public health experts say. New York state has had more than 300 cases so far this year. California: 21. Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday Butte County prosecutors have collected equipment from several additional towers along the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power line suspected of starting last years deadly Camp Fire, a sign that the countys criminal investigation into the historic disaster is progressing. An attorney for PG&E told lawyers representing wildfire victims and others on Monday that the company had recently assisted local prosecutors in their collection of parts from four towers along the high-voltage Caribou-Palermo transmission line. He said the Butte County district attorneys office wanted to have the Federal Bureau of Investigation test on cross-arm sections and suspension hooks from those towers which appears to be the same kind of equipment that malfunctioned on another Caribou-Palermo tower right at the origin point of the Camp Fire. PG&E has admitted the state probably will find it responsible for the inferno, Californias deadliest and most destructive wildfire to date. The companys mounting liabilities from that disaster and 2017 blazes prompted it to file for bankruptcy protection in January. The evidence collection along additional transmission towers, revealed in a Bankruptcy Court filing on Tuesday, could indicate that local prosecutors are digging into PG&Es maintenance of the overall line as they consider criminal charges against the utility, said Millbrae lawyer Dario de Ghetaldi. Theres a lot of possibilities, but one of them is that they identified other components that were about to or likely to fail, de Ghetaldi said. They knew that there were problems with that line before the fire. They knew there were problems with that component before the fire. Jeff Chiu / Associated Press PG&E is already on probation because of criminal convictions arising from the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion. A federal judge recently expanded the probation terms by imposing several new wildfire-prevention requirements on the utility. De Ghetaldi, whose clients include Camp Fire victims, said in another Bankruptcy Court hearing last week that a Butte County grand jury was investigating potential criminal actions against PG&E. Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey would not confirm or deny the existence of a grand jury. But his office, working with state prosecutors and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, has been conducting a criminal investigation since shortly after the Camp Fire started, Ramsey said. Its plodding along, he told The Chronicle on Wednesday. Were taking it step-by-step. Were putting a lot of resources into this. Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle 2018 PG&E spokesman James Noonan said in an email that the cause of the Camp Fire was still under investigation and any related inquiries should be directed to the appropriate agencies. PG&E acknowledged in February that it had turned off the entire 56-mile Caribou-Palermo line after the company found repairs that required action. After learning about the recent transmission line collections from PG&E attorney Kevin Orsini, attorneys for insurance companies with claims against the utility raced to Bankruptcy Court. The insurers lawyers wanted to delay shipment of the evidence to the FBIs laboratory in Quantico, Va., hoping to inspect the equipment themselves or at least require PG&E to look at it and report back to them. They were concerned that the evidence could be out of their reach and of people who lost homes in the Camp Fire for too long. Orsini had told the attorneys that Butte County wanted the FBI to conduct partially destructive testing on the recently collected equipment in addition to cross arms and suspension hooks from the tower by the Camp Fire origin point that Cal Fire has possessed since November. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Once the equipment was sent to the FBI lab, it will not be available for any further examination for the foreseeable future, Orsini said in the email. Butte County offered to let PG&E inspect the equipment on Wednesday and the company planned to do so, Orsini said. Yet PG&E decided not to accept Butte Countys offer after all in order not to have unequal access to the evidence, one of the companys lawyers told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali on Wednesday. Insurers asked Montali to order PG&E to attend the inspection and relay the information back. Deputy California Attorney General Nicholas Fogg told the judge that any delay could have cascading effects on other areas of the complex Camp Fire investigation. The attorney generals office is partnering with local prosecutors in their investigation, according to Ramsey. While the insurers promised to move quickly, the state was wary of allowing any intrusion into the criminal investigation, and ultimately Montali was persuaded. I cant take the risk today of disrupting a criminal prosecution, he said in deciding against the insurers. Ramsey would not say one way or the other whether the transmission tower equipment had already been sent by Wednesday afternoon. He said the investigation and processing of evidence was confidential at this time. J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com, Twitter: @thejdmorris Hundreds of Google employees may want to search measles symptoms on the slog home from work, after learning that one of their own has been diagnosed with measles. David Kaye, an occupational medicine physician who works on Googles campus, told workers in an email sent last week that the Googler had been in an office building at 1295 Charleston Road in Mountain View on April 4. We have been working with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department and they would like us to share this measles advisory, which contains information on measles, exposure risks and actions to be taken, Kaye wrote in an email obtained by BuzzFeed News. Google did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The diagnosed employee works in Santa Clara County but is a resident of San Mateo County, according to a statement from the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department. It said this case is unrelated to previously reported cases of measles in the area. There is no additional risk to the public, the department said. The Centers for Disease Control has said 2019 appears to be the worst year for measles cases in a quarter-century. People are at risk of exposure only if they were present in the building at specific times. Measles start to present symptoms seven to 21 days after exposure, and include fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed by the signature red rash. People who believe they have measles should contact their doctor by phone before visiting a medical office or hospital. The email from Kaye directed workers to frequently asked questions on the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions web page on measles. Seth Wenig / Associated Press Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes BuzzFeed News reported that the email was sent initially to workers at 1295 Charleston Road, but has since spread across campus as workers forward it to colleagues and post in private groups. The 70,000-sq. ft. office building on the eastern side of Googles headquarters campus, which the company bought in 2006, has 462 employees, public records show. Its unclear which teams are housed in the building, though the company has held some meetings related to its Google Cloud business there. Melia Russell is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: melia.russell@sfchronicle.com A San Francisco jury convicted a Richmond man of first-degree murder Wednesday in an execution-style killing in the citys Sunnydale public housing development, ending a more than 5-year-old case that was marked by a series of legal complications. Zuri Wilson, 42, who prosecutors once described as a hit man, was also found guilty of the special circumstance of lying in wait along with being a felon in possession of a firearm in the Aug. 23, 2013, killing of Shawnte Otis, 34. The special circumstance made the case eligible for the death penalty, which prosecutors did not seek. Instead, Wilson faces life is prison without the possibility of parole. A dangerous man has been taken off the streets, and were all safer for it, District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement. Violence simply has no place in our community. Wilsons court-appointed attorney, Stuart Hanlon, said his client will appeal the decision on two matters that he said could well lead to a reversal. Hanlon brought up the issues in court, but San Francisco Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan denied his motions. One challenge involved the Police Departments use of a secretive Stingray cell phone surveillance device. The devices are closely guarded by law enforcement and trick cell phones into transmitting their location and other identifying information by mimicking cell phone towers, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Hanlon said the Police Department doesnt have any Stingray devices, but during the investigation into Wilson, investigators borrowed one from federal law enforcement officials. In order to use the device, he said police investigators signed a non-disclosure agreement with the federal government to protect the technology. When investigators sought a search warrant from a judge, they didnt disclose that they used a Stingray, Hanlon said. Judge Chan made prosecutors produce the agreement letter between the police and federal authorities and read it into the court record, but he did not dismiss the case, Hanlon said. The second issue centered around the district attorneys offices failure to turn over evidence to the defense. Under Californias discovery laws, prosecutors are required to disclose all evidence including any potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense. Assistant District Attorney Andrew Ganz acknowledged in court that he failed to turn over eight pages of investigative materials he had received in an email from Inspector John Burke, the lead homicide investigator on the case. Ganz later was taken off the case, and the prosecution and Hanlon alike apparently were unaware of the missing evidence. It wasnt until the case was in trial that Hanlon learned about the missing pages. He said they contained exculpatory material, like names of witnesses, that could have been essential to his case. Chan, though, ruled that although Ganz was negligent in failing to turn over the evidence, it wasnt intentional and he declined to grant a mistrial. Ganz previously has been in trouble for failing to turn over evidence in a murder case. In November, a State Bar Court judge ruled that Ganz was grossly negligent and should be suspended for failing to turn over evidence in a 2012 case he prosecuted while working for the Solano County district attorneys office. The state Supreme Court must approve the recommendation that Ganz be suspended for 90 days and placed on probation for two years before it becomes final. Ganz has not been handling cases in San Francisco since the ruling. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. There were serious and tough issues that the judge decided that could well lead to a reversal, Hanlon said of the Wilson case. They are both serious constitutional issues. Nevertheless, the motions were denied during the trial and the jury found Wilson guilty. Prosecutors said the defendant shot Otis in cold blood as the victim unsuspectingly knelt near the passengers side of his car. Wilson and another unidentified accomplice had been waiting in a vacant housing unit on Blythedale Avenue for more than an hour before bursting out in masks and shooting Otis in the back and head, prosecutors said. Investigators later identified Wilson as the killer, spotted him in San Pablo on Oct. 3, 2013, and arrested him the next day. At Wilsons home, police found a mask, beanie and clothing similar to the ones worn by the killer, along with the second shooters gun and the same kind of ammunition used in Otis killing, prosecutors said. Wilson is a person of interest in several Bay Area homicides and has prior convictions for being a felon in possession of a firearm, as well as being a felon in possession of a silencer and ammunition, officials said. Prosecutors described Wilson as a hit man when he was arrested in 2013. While Im pleased with the verdict and the fact our community is now safer, we must remember that a family lost a son and will never be whole again, Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai, who prosecuted the case at trial, said in a statement. Their painful and vigilant presence in the courtroom served as a constant reminder of how important it was to put Shawntes murderer behind bars. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky San Pablo police released video footage Wednesday of an incident in which two officers ordered a customer to leave a Starbucks and threatened her with arrest after mistaking her for a banned patron. Police said they responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle and a complaint from Starbucks employees that a woman who was banned from the coffee shop was in the establishment at 3300 San Pablo Dam Road on March 18. Body camera footage from one of the responding officers shows the pair approaching a woman police identified only as Ms. Tamayo and man sitting and talking over cups of coffee, with laptops on the table. One of the officers tells the man, So, from my understanding, they dont have a problem with you being here. The seated man gestures toward his companion, No, this is not her. She already left, apparently referring to the banned woman. OK, well, but I just spoke to the employees here and they are saying that they dont want her here either, the officer responded. The woman, who rested her elbow on her laptop and positioned her cell phone toward the officers to record the interaction, told the officer, I just got here a few minutes ago. Its somebody else, she said. The officer spoke over the womans response, saying thats beside the point. Beside the point. So you can get up and go, or youre going to be arrested for trespassing, he said. Up to you. The woman, still recording the police, repeated the word lawsuit and chuckled before asking her friend if the suspect was Latina like me? Now all Latinas look the same? she said. Im not leaving. You got the wrong person. The other officer told the woman that its not going to be a lawsuit with us. Its them who wants you to leave, apparently referring to Starbucks employees who called police. The officers repeated threats to arrest her for trespassing if she refused to leave the coffee shop her own recognizance. One of the officers walked away from the woman after asking his colleague to keep his eyes on her and walked to the counter and asked one of the baristas to talk privately in the rear area of the coffee shop. Youre sure thats her, right? the officer said. The barista shook her head, telling the officer, No thats not the lady. She left. She ran away when we called. The officer walked back into the cafe and apologized to the woman. Miss, I apologize, there was a miscommunication, he said. The woman stood up and told the officers, You said you were going to arrest me. Go ahead. The officer told the woman that there was nothing to arrest her for, repeating that a miscommunication had led them to try to detain her. They said you are free to stay. I clarified it with them, he said. You guys can have a nice day. You guys are good. San Pablo Police said in a statement Wednesday that a conversation with a Starbucks employee led them to believe that the woman was the individual banned from the coffee shop. Our officer asked her to leave the establishment and she verbally resisted that order, police said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. After roughly three minutes of conversation aimed at a peaceful resolution of the situation, police said the officer realized the mistake, apologized and left the coffee shop without incident. But Guadalupe Tamayo, a Twitter user who identified herself as the woman who was falsely accused, wrote on the platform that she believes a Starbucks employee racially profiled her by calling the police, thinking she was the banned customer. And she believes police mishandled the situation by not listening to her when she explained she was not the banned customer. The (Starbucks) racial bias training obviously didnt help or make it to San Pablo, the woman wrote on Twitter, citing the Philadelphia incident last year where Starbucks employees called police on two black men waiting for a friend. In that case, the men were handcuffed and detained for several hours before police released them. Starbucks officials responded to the Philadelphia incident by closing more than 8,000 of its stores for an afternoon last year so its employees could participate in racial-bias education training. Officials with Starbucks could not be reached for comment Wednesday on the San Pablo incident. Guadalupe Tamayo could not be reached, either. On Twitter, the woman recounted what happened that afternoon in March. She wrote she had sat down with a friend just minutes before the officers ordered her to leave. (Police) only listened to the Starbucks baristas allegations which were... simply mistaken identity because apparently all Latinas look the same, she wrote. What else are we supposed to think when Starbucks is still doing profiling even after what happened in Philadelphia in 2018. She later wrote that she called Starbucks corporate office to file a complaint, but said she did not immediately receive a response. Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor When the spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral tottered, then fell earlier this week, I watched in horror and sorrow. Though authorities believe the cause was accidental, potentially linked to renovations, the scene was eerily reminiscent of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 the smoke, the crowds, the shock as the centuries-old medieval cathedral went up in flames. People flooded social media with their memories and photos from the famed tourist attraction, a Parisian symbol of faith, strength and beauty. Almost a quarter century ago, before I headed off to college, I visited Notre Dame with my sister. Like so many before me, and so many after, I stood in awe under the soaring arches and the jeweled light from the stained glass windows, and marveled at the soaring buttresses and the gargoyles looming above. At the time, Id wondered what it must have been like for the workmen to spend their lives on a project they themselves wouldnt see finished in the nearly two centuries the cathedral was under construction. Blink, and its gone. The devastating fire served as a sobering reminder of how quickly what seems eternal and unchanging can disappear. Id already been thinking about the vastness of time, and humanitys brief role in it, after scientists recently revealed the mesmerizing first-ever image of a massive black hole, located 55 million light-years from Earth. To see it is to see into the universes past, and it serves as an opportunity to try to imagine Earth long before the first hominids showed up 6 million years ago. I dont know if we can fathom a time so distant, given that we plan our days by the hour, sometimes by the minute. We mark our lives with milestones when we turn 16 or 21 or 40 or 60 years old. We think in terms of anniversaries, with the passing of decades, and not the turn of centuries or millennia. And yet, as our collective grief for Notre Dame reveals, humans have been drawn toward monuments that outlast us, no matter the era or civilization. Earlier this month, while traveling on business, I came upon a beautiful sarcophagus in a glass case at Harvard Universitys Semitic Museum. The wood was richly adorned, with black, green and yellow stripes and aqua triangles, a reddish-brown face, lined eyes and an enigmatic smile. Thousands of years ago, a man had died; someones brother or son or husband had been loved and prepared for his journey into the underworld. Could the deceased or his family ever have imagined that the sarcophagus could end up halfway around the world in a city that couldnt be more different from those in ancient Egypt? Later that day, I encountered more legacies. Strolling through Harvard Yard on a chilly spring day, with trees still barren, I climbed the grand steps of the Beaux Arts library, where a plaque at the entrance explains that Harry Elkins Widener, a graduate of the university, was born Jan. 3, 1885, and died at sea April 15, 1912, upon the foundering of the steamship Titanic. As a memorial to him, his mother funded Widener Library, which opened three years after his death. I didnt have access to the 3.5 million books housed inside, and so, after a peek at the lobby, I turned back toward Harvard Square and the nearby Old Burial Ground. Opened in 1636, the peaceful site has interred early university presidents and slaves alike, with 1,218 known graves. Pedestrians hurrying by paid no attention to it, headed to their next classes, their next appointments, their next shifts at work. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. And yet, the desire toward legacy remains. We learn from our past, and build toward the future. Notre Dames main structure has been saved, according to officials, and talk has begun on how to reconstruct what was lost. The cathedral is featured prominently in a charming French childrens book given to us by my mother-in-law. Quand la nuit tombe, les rues et les monuments de la capitale silluminent Des tours de Notre-Dame, on peut admirer le coucher du soleil en compagnie des gargouilles de pierre Cest beau, tu ne trouves pas? This week, I reread it to the boys. From the towers of the Notre Dame, we admire the sunset in the company of the stone gargoyles. Dont you find it beautiful? I translated, and explained what happened at Notre Dame and why so many of us grieved. Someday, after it has been rebuilt, I promised we would go together as a family. The boys agreed. Vanessa Huas column appears Fridays in Datebook. Email: datebook@sfchronicle.com Commonwealths days look to be numbered at least in its current location. Since opening nine years ago, Commonwealth has been one of the best restaurants in the Mission District, if not all of San Francisco. Led by chefs Jason Fox and Ian Muntzert, the Michelin-starred restaurant has offered modernist California cuisine at prices that are a fraction of those charged by its peers (a la carte items run $16 to $24; the tasting menu is $95). Beyond the unique food, the restaurant has made a name for itself in several other ways: a portion of tasting menu proceeds goes to charity (over $400,000 raised so far) and perhaps most importantly, the interior features a disco ball. There was no text in the email except the signature of David Gersh of Emeryville. The subject line: I just ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon. Ill let you know. So Happy Easter to all. Leah Garchik / The Chronicle Guests in vintage clothes, wine, music, dancing and historical tidbits were among the many appealing features of the Maritime Museum Buildings 80th anniversary party last Friday, April 12. But really they paled in the radiance of the big show: the building and its setting. Built as the Aquatic Park Bathhouse by the city of San Francisco and the Works Progress Administration, the boat-shaped structure is in the shadow of Ghirardelli Square where even on the chilliest night, ice cream cone-licking tourists are whiling away their vacations poking around tchotchke shops and a few steps away is Fishermans Wharf, a place to which many snotty locals (OK, thats me) refuse to accompany even the most beloved visiting cousins. Leah Garchik / The Chronicle On Friday night, the vista to the north of the building Aquatic Park, the Golden Gate, hills of Marin County, Alcatraz lured us straight through the lobby to the veranda, where silhouettes of ladies in hats were outlined against the silhouettes of hillsides on the other side of the bay. As dusk fell, each element of the landscape seemed outlined in light. We snapped a few pictures, got drinks, then wandered back to the lobby, where a ranger was leading an in-depth historical tour. His talk was fascinating, but here, too, it wasnt words that I wanted. I turned off my brain and ceded control of my senses to my eyes. The spectator is under sea, in a fantastic watery dance hall undulating to unheard music, swaying with the fishes and the sea grass. Every wall of the lobby some 5,000 square feet in the building is painted with murals of undersea scenes painted in the 1930s by Hilaire Hiler (and restored by Ann Rosenthal). Leah Garchik / The Chronicle Carl Nolte introduced me to Barbara Gilmore, granddaughter of longtime San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi. Gilmore was 8 years old when she attended opening day festivities at the place, and she remembers her grandmother breaking a bottle of Champagne on the building. Leah Garchik / The Chronicle As one of Rossis 13 grandchildren, particularly as the blond and photogenic one, she went everywhere with him, Gilmore said. In keeping with that, take the cousins to Fishermans Wharf and let them go look for T-shirts. While theyre so occupied, get yourself over to the Maritime Museum and have a look around. The renowned pastry chef Emily Luchetti, having shared all kinds of delicious treats from her kitchen, is sharing savory advice, too. In So Whos Counting? The Little Quote Book About Growing Older and Still Kicking Ass, she and Erin McHugh have compiled the wisdom of others on growing older (a rather common experience, and actually a lifetime goal). But is one ever too old for dessert? Never, Luchetti says. If anything, you give yourself permission to have fun and live a little. On the flip side of that, Im not going to waste any time eating desserts that dont taste amazing. After a lifetime around sugar, I do get satiated more quickly than I used to, so hold out for the really good stuff. On Sunday, April 14, at the end of the celebration of the life of art collector, music lover and ardent social activist Lorraine Honig, who died in January, her grandson, Jesse Tai Honig, stood before the crowd to add a comment. The back page of the program included a recipe for Lorraines birthday cake. If you make this cake, said Jesse, let it cool before you frost it. If its not cooled sufficiently, he said, it will likely break up into tiny crumbs. But if you do get the crumbles, he said, think of my grandma. Put it in a casserole dish and cover it with whipped cream. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The framework: Lorraine Honig met her husband on a blind date to the 1948 May Day March in New York. Their last years were spent at the Towers, where she (successfully) waged a campaign to make the complimentary coffee offered in the lobby available and complimentary for staffers as well as residents. All hail a life based on idealism and topped with whipped cream. PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING Toddler: Daddy, I want you to hold me. Father: Im holding the pizza. Thats more important. Conversation overheard at Goat Hill Pizza in San Francisco by Rachel Huysentruyt Le Roux Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, 415-777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik The said purpose of lunch at Johns Grill on Wednesday, April 17, was to honor longtime Lillie Coit fan/role-player Donna Ewald Huggins and retiring San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, and indeed they were honored (plaques, hats, speeches, that sort of thing). But the event was really a survivor-less version of the annual Earthquake Survivors Lunch that used to take place on April 18. It had been organized by Lee Houskeeper, definitely an old-fashioned press agent rather than a newfangled communications specialist. In keeping with Houskeeper tradition, the George Washington High School band played (I wondered why they werent back at school arguing over the murals), fire trucks were parked outside the restaurant, ladies in bonnets and sweeping skirts dressed up the Ellis Street sidewalk, brass buttons of police officers and firefighters gleamed in the sunlight, and John Konstin, who owns the restaurant, invited everyone in for a free meal. This is old San Francisco; I didnt spot one tech executive in a black T-shirt. Huggins was praised for being Lillie for 25 years, all the while working to preserve city landmarks. Donna, you make sure that we dont forget our history, said Mayor London Breed. Hayes-White was praised for 29 years of service in the fire department, 15 of them as chief, the epitome of what it means to be a true and honorable public servant, added the mayor. Huggins got a splendid survivor award fire hat, and Breed was presented with a helmet not a fire hat, but a hard hat that had belonged to the late Ed Lee, emblazoned on its side with the word Mayor. My favorite part, however, was the little stuff: Mayor Breed noting the presence of Huggins, Hayes-White, incoming Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy and Department of Emergency Management Executive Director Mary Ellen Carroll raised her arms, flashed her biggest smile and proclaimed, Girl Power. When I asked Hayes-White about her last official day, she said it is May 5, noting it was Lees birthday. Also, thats 5/5, which is Fire Department code for out of service. ... Also, its Cinco de Mayo. I dont drink much, she said, but when I do, I like margaritas. The next day, there may have been fewer people than in previous years who attended Thursday mornings earthquake commemoration ceremonies at Lottas Fountain, but that made the stalwarts even prouder of their sticking with it. Theyd pried themselves out of bed, some were dolled up in vintage outfits, they listened attentively to the speeches, and a few even knew all the words to San Francisco, which is always sung after the sirens have been sounded. Mayor Breed was the showstopper, perfectly gussied up in 1906 splendor, complete with chapeau and big bow at the neck. Willie Brown, all in red, noted that it was quite an occasion when London Breed outdresses Donna Ewald Huggins. The always-resplendent Huggins was a good enough sport not to mind that. Speeches by city officials praised San Franciscos resilience after the 1906 earthquake and stressed the need to be ready for future calamities, and then a floral wreath was laid on the fountain. (For years, Houskeeper paid the florist a few extra bucks for the ribbon imprinted with the memorial tribute; with the death of the last survivor a few years ago, hes now saving a few bucks.) If youre worried on Earth Day about climate change and the future of the planet, turn your attention instead to natural disasters taking place right now. At Andronicos last week, shopper Denise McEvoy was startled by the dire announcement booming over the PA system: Assistance is needed in the vegetable department. There is a broccoli avalanche. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Irresistible invitation of the week (but I resisted because it was in Minneapolis): Get some custom nail decals in blue and white with patterns of the Venus of Willendorf, peaches, uteruses, and more because, girl, you can. Mails of the City is Rincon Annex, says Ben Stiegler; Pails of the City is the Sand Castle Classic at Ocean Beach, says Elizabeth Manning, and Wails of the City could refer to just about everything. Lawyer Karen Clopton celebrated a big birthday at the Metropolitan Club on Tuesday, April 9, and gave her guests the gift of music. First up was Paula West, who began her set with what seemed right for the day: I Love Paris. PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING Pretend were sisters ... and we control the world. Five-year-old girl to five-year-old girl, overheard during a playdate by Elizabeth Holt Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, 415-777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik WASHINGTON Attorney General William Barr on Thursday offered a strong defense of President Donald Trump in advance of releasing special counsel Robert Muellers report, saying that investigators found no collusion with Russia and taking it upon himself to clear the president of obstruction of justice. Barr said during a news conference that he gave Trumps lawyers advance access this week to Muellers report before it was to be sent to Congress and made public. Trumps lawyers did not ask for any redactions, he said. Summarizing the report, Barr said Mueller found no evidence that any member of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in its effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. He also defended his decision to clear the president of obstruction of justice, even though Mueller said he was neither charging nor exonerating Trump on the matter. The special counsel found no collusion by any Americans, Barr said at a news conference. The Justice Department planned to send a redacted version of the report to Congress at 11 a.m. on Thursday and was to post it on the departments website, Barr said. Trump did not even wait for the report to be released to begin responding aggressively, lashing out with a barrage of tweets denouncing the investigation. He posted a takeoff of Game of Thrones on Twitter that said For the Haters and Radical Left Democrats: Game Over. Barr speaks before the report is released In his news conference Thursday morning, Barr at times sounded like a defense lawyer, making no criticism of the president and instead offering an understanding interpretation of actions that Trumps critics have said amounted to obstruction of justice. In addressing obstruction, Barr said the president had no corrupt intent and was understandably frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks. The attorney general said the White House made no claims of executive privilege over any information in the Mueller report and none of the redactions were made at the request of the White House, but he did give the presidents lawyers the opportunity to read the report in advance. Earlier this week, the presidents personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released, Barr said at the news conference. The presidents personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions. Democrats, including the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, harshly criticized Barr for holding a news conference before releasing the report. At the news conference, Barr made sure to include Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who first appointed Mueller. Mueller examined 10 episodes for possible obstruction Barr said that investigators examined 10 episodes in which the president may have obstructed justice. It has been reported that among the incidents that Mueller examined was a June 2017 effort by Trump to have his White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, fire Mueller. After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other department lawyers, the deputy attorney general and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense, Barr said. Barr said he would not stand in the way of Mueller testifying on Capitol Hill about his findings. I have no objection to Bob Mueller testifying, he said. Barr says even if the Trump campaign colluded with WikiLeaks, that is not a crime Barr provided an important qualifier to the determination that the president and the Trump campaign did not engage in illegal collusion not with the Russian government that stole the Democratic emails, but with WikiLeaks, which published them. The special counsel also investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts, he said. Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the special counsels report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. In other words, since WikiLeaks did not participate in Russias underlying hacking of the emails, its actions were no crime. Thus, any Trump campaign collusion with WikiLeaks could not be an illegal conspiracy. Lawmakers will study Muellers discussion of obstruction The special counsels report was expected to describe a series of actions that Trump or his team took that could be interpreted as impeding the Russia investigation, even though Mueller did not come to a definitive conclusion about whether they add up to a crime of obstruction. Many of the actions were taken publicly or have been reported before, including the presidents decision to fire James B. Comey, then the FBI director, who was leading the investigation into Russias interference and possible links to the Trump campaign. But Barrs letter suggested that the report would cite other actions not previously disclosed. Trumps defenders have said a president cannot be accused of a crime for exercising the powers granted to him under the Constitution, while his critics have argued that otherwise legal actions can still be construed as obstruction if they are motivated by corrupt intent. While Mueller evidently opted not to make a decision, Barr did, telling Congress that he and Rosenstein agreed that Trump committed no obstruction offense. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The report may illuminate Russias campaign to sway the election Mueller has already established through indictments of Russian individuals and organizations he linked to the Kremlin that Russia sought to intervene in the 2016 election on Trumps behalf. But even if Mueller established no illegal conspiracy by the Trump campaign, the report might offer additional information on contacts that might not rise to the level of a crime in his view. Previous court filings and public reports have already documented that Trump and at least 17 campaign officials and advisers had more than 100 contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, before his inauguration. Muellers report will be examined to see if he offers any further insight into what was going on behind the scenes or any additional details on the proposed Trump Tower that Trump and his associates were secretly negotiating to build in Moscow through much of the 2016 election year. The public may get a look at Trumps own account Trump tweeted a dramatic photo resembling a Game of Thrones poster that depicted him staring into a cloud, saying No Collusion. No Obstruction. For the haters and radical left Democrats: Game Over. The tweet was the latest of a barrage that the president posted starting early Thursday morning, long before the report was released. He was scheduled to attend an event with wounded warriors at 10:30 a.m., where he would likely speak with reporters. The report may for the first time provide Trumps official responses to Muellers specific questions, which have remained secret since he responded in writing in November. With his lawyers worried that he would make a false statement and expose himself to criminal charges, the president refused to be interviewed in person, and Mueller did not try to force the issue with a subpoena. By drafting the answers in writing in consultation with his legal team, Trump may have sidestepped what his lawyers feared would be a perjury trap. This article originally appeared in The New York Times JAKARTA, Indonesia Indonesian President Joko Widodo has won a second five-year term, preliminary election results showed Wednesday, in a victory for moderation over the nationalistic rhetoric of his rival, Prabowo Subianto. Vote counts from five independent survey groups showed Widodo with a clear lead over Subianto, a general during the era of the Suharto military dictatorship who warned Indonesia would fall apart without his strongman leadership. The so-called quick counts from reputable survey organizations that use a sample of polling stations have been reliable in past elections. With an average of 80% of sample polling stations counted, the five survey organizations showed Widodo winning 54% to 56% of the vote, a modest improvement on his 2014 showing. Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority nation, is an outpost of democracy in a Southeast Asian neighborhood of authoritarian governments and is forecast to be among the worlds biggest economies by 2030. A second term for Widodo, the first Indonesian president from outside the Jakarta elite, could further cement the countrys two decades of democratization. Addressing jubilant supporters a few hours after polls closed, Widodo said he was aware of his lead and called for the nation to reunite after the divisions of the campaign. Subianto, who also lost to Widodo in the 2014 presidential election, had not yet conceded defeat. He said his campaigns exit poll and quick count showed that he had won but urged his supporters not to cause chaos. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The balloting was a huge logistical exercise with 193 million people eligible to vote, more than 800,000 polling stations and 17 million people involved in ensuring the polls ran smoothly. Niniek Karmini and Stephen Wright are Associated Press writers. In front of Bonn railway station : Steps at Poststrae in Bonn meet with criticism Bonn The municipal building authority has had two steps built at the end of Poststrae. The disabled community calls the new tripping hazard at the main station a catastrophe. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken Silke Fischer was astonished when she was out and about in Bonns city centre on the newly designed part of the Poststrae between the almost completed Maximiliancenter and the construction site for the Urban Soul office building. At the end of the street opposite the main station, she suddenly stood in front of two steps. GA reader Fischer speaks of a bungled job, as the street had previously been flat at this point and only the curb had to be overcome. When asked, the city of Bonn said that it was by no means an act of bungling, but a temporary measure, which would be removed at the latest after the planned reconstruction of the Am Hauptbahnhof street. During the course of the reconstruction, the tram tracks must also be diverted and renewed, similar to the tram stop there. Noone in the authorities can say exactly when this will take place. For structural reasons, the Am Hauptbahnhof street must therefore be developed further, explained Monika Gehrmann, deputy head of the responsible civil engineering office. For this reason, the level of the Poststrae has been raised to the future level of the Am Hauptbahnhof street. To make it easier for wheelchair users, handicapped people and parents with prams to cross the street, the civil engineering office has also installed a temporary small ramp on the southern side of the steps. Handrails for the ramp However, reader Fischer nevertheless wonders why the city of Bonn has not introduced a slight gradient into the street in order to make the transition completely barrier-free. The disabled community in Bonn also considered this a good question, after it looked at the area and criticised the solution with the steps together with the ramp. Johannes Wiedemann, who works voluntarily for barrier-free planning in the city for the community of disabled people, even speaks of a catastrophic situation. If a lot of people are standing at the traffic lights, it is hardly possible for wheelchair users and people with walking disabilities to cross the street safely. Thats why the community of disabled people has suggested installing a handrail on the ramp so that no one ends up falling into the street. He has been negotiating with the administration for several weeks, without success so far, Wiedmann complains. The social networks are already firing off criticism concerning the new steps on the Poststrae. One contribution by a Facebook user says, among other things, that the administrations plans are as if no wheelchair users or people with walkers exist. When asked, Andrea Schulte from the press office explained: the civil engineering office is in talks with the disabled community. But a handrail would be problematic at this point due to the large number of pedestrians. According to a council decision, in addition to track renewal, the Am Hauptbahnhof roadway itself is to be renewed. The pavements are to be provided with light grey concrete blocks to match the new surface of the Poststrae. The planning approval procedure for the construction project is currently underway. According to the city, a decision can be expected in the course of the next few months. However, it is questionable whether the city will now begin another major construction in the middle of Bonn in view of the Beethoven anniversary year in 2020. The long-awaited release of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report thoroughly debunked President Trumps claim of complete and total exoneration by the two-year investigation. Attorney General William Barrs ludicrously rose-colored and misleading characterization of the Mueller report, from his initial four-page summary to his Thursday news conference, seriously undermined his stature as the nations chief law enforcement officer. While Mueller did not conclude Trump committed a crime, the special counsels 448-page report laid out a detailed, damning portrayal of a truth-challenged president with open contempt for the American ideal that law enforcement should be free to do its work without political interference. If justice was not obstructed, the report showed beyond a doubt, it was not for lack of trying by Donald J. Trump. One heartening upshot of the investigation is that the antidote to this rogue presidency has been Trump subordinates and associates who refused to carry out his demands to shut down the Mueller investigation. The other positive bottom line from the special counsels investigation is its conclusion that there was no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow even though the campaign was aware of and welcomed the Russian interference on his behalf. The report noted Trumps confidence that no collusion would be uncovered. These findings raise the fundamental question: If neither Trump nor his campaign broke the law in collaborating with the Russians, why did he go to such extraordinary lengths to hinder or even stop the probe? The Mueller report suggested a motive. The evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the president personally that the president could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns, it stated. Among the facts that candidate Trump was lying about to the American people: He was still doing business in Russia until June 2016, including plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow. When Mueller was appointed, the report said, Trump told advisers that it was the end of his presidency. He tried to make Attorney General Jeff Sessions unrecuse from the Russia investigation and to have the special counsel removed, the report recounted. It noted that particularly after Trump learned his own conduct was the subject of an obstruction investigation, he began a campaign of public attacks on the investigation, non-public attempts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation. Mueller explicitly stated that he could not clear the president of criminal obstruction of justice. If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, the report said. Included in the compelling evidence of obstruction: Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and tell him that Mueller must be dismissed because of conflicts of interest. McGahn threatened to resign rather than carry out an order that he believed would cause a crisis tantamount to Richard Nixons Saturday Night Massacre. McGahn was one of several aides and advisers who did not carry out presidential orders to impede the investigation. Beyond the reports account of the presidents reckless and authoritarian behavior, one of the disturbing aspects of the conclusion of the Mueller investigation was the way its findings were spun and distorted by Attorney General Barr. He seemed to be acting as Trumps press agent in accentuating passages that cleared the president while misrepresenting key details. For example, the special counsel said he decided not to determine whether the president could be prosecuted for obstruction partly because Justice Department guidance forbids indicting the president. Barrs public statements gave the clear impression that was not the case. Yet Mueller noted at the very outset of his obstruction analysis the department policy that a sitting president cant face criminal prosecution, and added that a federal criminal accusation against a sitting president would place burdens on the presidents capacity to govern and potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct namely, impeachment proceedings. Also, regarding the relationship of the Trump campaign and the Russians, the report stated, Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. The attorney generals summary conveniently quoted only the last clause of that sentence. Now Americans have had a chance to read the Mueller teams own words and they are very different from Barrs characterizations. Both the president and the attorney general have disgraced their offices. The Mueller investigation has proved its necessity and professionalism. The need for congressional pursuit of the obstruction allegations has been established. This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters. We know firsthand that incarceration is harmful to youth, with consequences that can last a lifetime. Yet, for far too long, San Francisco has relied on cages instead of care and community for young people like us. Research shows that putting young people behind bars doesnt make communities safer it does just the opposite. A recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University found that incarcerating young people increased the likelihood they would go to jail as adults by 23% in fact, time in juvie is the single largest predictor of future offense. Thats why we have joined other young people, families and communities from throughout San Francisco to call on elected leaders to transform the youth justice system and take the historic step of shutting down juvenile hall. We did so on behalf of young people whose stories we hold as our own. Young people who end up in juvenile hall at age 13, 14 or 15, trapped in a system that keeps us in a cycle of harm and isolation. Young people who, after experiencing trauma, are forced into a system that is not rehabilitative. Young people who are kept behind bars instead of having a space to heal through support and services. Jana Asenbrennerova / Special to The Chronicle It is young people like us who are paying the highest price for San Franciscos stubborn reliance on arrests and incarceration black, Latino or Pacific Islander young people, and youth who come from a handful of select neighborhoods in San Francisco that have historically seen the most disinvestment. More than 70% of those detained are serving time for a nonviolent offense and do not belong behind bars. The organization with which we are affiliated, the Young Womens Freedom Center, interviewed more than 100 young people and found that youth are incarcerated in San Francisco juvenile hall for three reasons school, foster care and crimes of survival like shoplifting. This is the moment to reimagine how we can support and rehabilitate young people. San Francisco is home to many programs that support youth and address the underlying problems and behaviors that lead to crime. We can invest more in these efforts instead of a system that only brings more harm and more trauma to young people, our future and our families. San Francisco is spending nearly $300,000 per young person every year to warehouse vulnerable children in juvenile hall. That adds up to $11 million to $13 million a year, even at a time when juvenile hall sits two-thirds empty. Could you imagine what we could do with $300,000 a year rather than spending it to lock up young people? We did the math. We could spend that same amount to provide housing for 16 young people at the median rental rate in the city for a year. Or we could give seven young people full-time jobs for a year. Or we could pay for individual or family therapy for 28 young people. San Francisco Supervisors Shamann Walton, Hillary Ronen and Matt Haney have introduced legislation to close Juvenile Hall by December 2021. In its place, the city would develop an array of alternatives to incarceration for young people who do not need to be legally detained. For the very few who have to be in a secure facility due to state law, the legislation would create a small rehabilitative, noninstitutional center. A work group, including experts from the juvenile justice system and community organizations, would convene to support implementation of the plan. Make no mistake these proposed reforms are due to years of advocacy by formerly incarcerated young people and advocates like us calling for alternatives to incarceration and punishment. Some say the decline in detentions at juvenile hall and similar facilities is proof that juvenile probation departments are successfully diverting young people from custody. But that is not true. The real reasons why juvenile hall has become a costly throwback from an earlier time are the decline in youth crime and a rise in community-based programs that are wrapping their arms around youth with compassion and care. Our youth and communities must not wait another day for freedom. It is time for San Francisco to break from the idea of cages as the means to social rehabilitation. We believe we are the ones who need to define, create and build healing for our youth, families and elders. Lets work together to close juvenile hall and, in its place, create an approach that is grounded in community care so our young people can be healthy, safe and thriving. Tenaya Jones and Kandy K.I. Ifopo are organizers with the Young Womens Freedom Center, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco committed to decriminalizing and de-carcerating women and girls of color. The long-awaited Mueller report into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election and President Trumps possible links to those efforts was set for Thursday morning release. What we dont know is how much of that report well see. Attorney General William Barr has already said parts of the report grand jury testimony, classified material, details of ongoing cases and information about peripheral third parties would be redacted, leaving the possibility that large chunks of the nearly 400-page document will remain hidden. In Congress, even Democrats and Republicans who have fought over almost every aspect of Special Counsel Robert Muellers 22-month-long investigation joined forces to try to keep that from happening. Your browser does not support the iframe HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later. In a three-page letter to Barr last month, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, and Tulare Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the committee, demanded that Barr provide them with everything Muellers team collected, without redactions. The investigation is of surpassing national importance and public interest, Schiff and Nunes, typically bitter adversaries, wrote. To fulfill its constitutional oversight responsibility, they said, the panel requires full visibility into the special counsels offices report, findings and underlying evidence and information. That full, unedited version of the report, which includes the results of nearly 500 search warrants, more than 2,800 subpoenas, 500 witness interviews and hours of grand jury testimony, is something that Barr has refused to say he would release. During hours of often pointed questioning during his confirmation hearing in January, Barr would only say that he would provide as much transparency as I can when it came to the report, which was far from enough for Democrats. While I respect Mr. Barrs past public service, I do not believe he will defend independent investigations from attacks, California Sen. Kamala Harris said in announcing her opposition to Barrs nomination. It was not even clear exactly when Barr would release the report Thursday. He scheduled a news conference for 6:30 a.m. PDT, but reports Wednesday said Muellers findings might not be delivered to Congress until at least 8 a.m. PDT. Democrats concern about Barrs approach is a simple one, said Robert Weisberg, a law professor and co-director of Stanford Universitys Criminal Justice Center. All the redactions may be entirely proper, but how do you know unless you know what was redacted? he said. If Barr says, Trust me, I dont think Democrats will go for it. Mueller report day Attorney General William Barr scheduled a news conference to discuss the special counsel's report at 6:30 a.m. PDT Thursday. The Justice Department reportedly was to deliver the findings to Congress after 8 a.m. PDT. Follow the story on sfchronicle. com. The report will be available later on the special counsel's website, www.justice.gov/sco See More Collapse There are potential problems with making every word of the report public, Weisberg said. By law, grand jury testimony is secret, with only the individual witnesses typically allowed to release information about what they said. But it is legally possible to release basic facts about the grand jury process and background information. A judge can do a little balancing, Weisberg said. Expect the Democrats to test that theory. Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, already has a subpoena prepared that demands Barr provide the panel with both the unredacted report and evidence collected by Muellers investigators. Democrats feared Barr had his thumb on the scale in deciding what to make public. Hes a professional, but hes also a partisan looking to show Trump in the best possible light, said Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College. Democrats had their concerns about Barr even before Trump selected him to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general. In June 2018, Barr, then a private attorney, sent an unsolicited 19-page letter to the Justice Department, suggesting that Mueller was overstepping the bounds of his investigation by looking into the presidents conduct. The memo is very troubling, suggesting that Barr believes the president is above the law, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in December. Theres no reason for a lawyer in private practice to (write) this unless he was trying to curry favor with President Trump and convey that he would protect the president. The four-page summary Barr wrote on the Mueller report last month also infuriated Democrats, who complained that the attorney general bent over backwards to give the president every benefit of the doubt. While quoting Muellers finding that his investigation did not establish that members of Trumps campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities, Barr also said he had determined that the evidence is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Thats despite Muellers finding that while the report didnt find Trump had committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. For Trump, Barrs take on the report was an undisputed victory for his long-running argument that the investigation was a partisan witch hunt. No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION, Trump tweeted after Barr released his summary. KEEP AMERICA GREAT! Despite that, in recent days the president has returned to his attacks on Mueller and the report, setting the stage for Trump to argue Thursday that any suggestion of wrongdoing is only a sign that the Democrats are out to get him. Expect a rapid response from the president after the reports release. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for Trump, says the presidents team prepared a 30-plus-page rebuttal to Muellers investigation. The New York Times and Washington Post reported that the Justice Department had briefed the White House on at least some of the report. If the report was a total exoneration, why is the president preparing a rebuttal? asked Pitney, the Claremont McKenna professor. Giulianis response suggests theyre expecting something less than total exoneration. Polls suggest that when Democrats call for a full, unredacted version of the report, they have the public on their side. In a Monmouth University poll released Wednesday, 60 percent of those surveyed said Congress should be given the full report, while 30 percent said the Justice Department should be able to redact information it considers sensitive before providing the report to Congress. About the only thing guaranteed was that the reports release would not end the battle between Trump and the Democrats over his purported connections to Russia. What happens after Thursday? In this crazy situation, who the hell knows? Weisberg said. John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth Like many people of her generation, Gina Mercurio documented much of her 20s on social media. But when she became a parent, she realized that stories and photos she posted of her baby had the potential to travel beyond her immediate circle even to potential predators. Nothing is sacred on the Internet, says Mercurio, 33, the mother of a 3-year-old in Petaluma. I didnt want to give (social media companies) private information on my child, like their favorite color or school. That can all be weaponized by the wrong person. As Facebook turns 15, were watching babies turn into teenagers over social media. However, some Bay Area parents, even those with active Facebook and Instagram accounts, are now saying no to putting images of their kids online. They cite reasons ranging from preserving childrens safety to giving their children agency over their own online presences. I dont know if my kid wants their life on the Internet, says Mercurio. Overposting about your children on social media has a name: sharenting, a term coined by law professor Stacey Steinberg. In a 2016 article, Steinberg called parents who choose to post about their children on social media gatekeepers of their childrens personal information. The opposite behavior not sharing pictures or details of your childs life online does not yet have a name. Susan Shay, who works on social media campaigns in the nonprofit and political worlds, says that on her private accounts, she doesnt refer to her three kids by name; she uses animal nicknames for them. Im vocal about not putting my kids on posts, she says. Initially, she took a lot of flack. Friends and family members would reach out to her to say how glad they were that her children were in her holiday card photo because she wouldnt put them on Facebook. Mercurio says its common for her friends, playgroups and even well-meaning relatives to post pictures of her kids online, assuming its all part of the process of documenting their childhood. We have had to take photos off social from people who didnt know my stance, Mercurio says. While her requests are usually honored, Mercurio says people often react to her familys no child on social media policy with surprise. Some were supportive, some didnt understand, some thought it was weird, she says. Jackie Davey, a Sebastopol doula and the mother of a 3-year-old, says she considered a social media ban on kid pics long before she was a mother. Photos of her friends and clients babies made both her and her husband uncomfortable. I dont have my childs consent or control, and yes, Im also worried about predators, she says. Yet a social media ban isnt a photography ban. All three parents said they willingly send baby photos to any relative or friend who wants to see them via email or text. The emails are like a family album, Mercurio says. And theyre just for the people we decide should see them. For some families, the nature of social media itself, with its attention-seeking mentality and culture of overexposure, was a consideration. In the age of Insta-celebrity and viral-shaming, theres a definite dark side to online life. We dont want our children to grow up thinking its normal or desirable to publicize every bit of their life, says J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of San Mateo, father to a 2-year-old. The chef, author and Chronicle food columnist has a large presence on Twitter. The approval-seeking nature of social media is a problem even for adults, so we want to make sure that (our daughter) grows up with confidence in herself before she decided whether she wants to also share parts of her life with other people. Shay also mentions a discomfort with the way parents inadvertently shade and shape their childrens online narratives. What you put out about your child on social is the impression people get of them, she says. Its hard to get a realistic portrayal. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Ultimately, she adds, its about more than just baby photos and anecdotes. Its about their lives. This isnt going away. What we want to share about our children is probably different than what they will want to share themselves. Will these parents let their children have their own social media profiles once they are of age to join Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat? When shes legally able to enter a contract at 13 well talk about it, says Mercurio. I would like to keep her off Facebook her teen years, ideally. Right now Im riding the wave of what feels right and re-evaluate my own beliefs often. Davey says she already has anxiety about online predators and bullying. An aggressive monitoring plan will be a must, but shes resigned to a certain inevitability. You want them to have their own autonomy and engage with social media not just because its how their peers engage, she says. There will be many more conversations. Shay, who plans to allow her children to make the decision for themselves about joining social media when theyre teenagers, has a warning for other parents. It isnt just about what they will eventually put on their pages, says Shay. Theyre going to go back and see all the things youve posted about them on your page, all the things that could follow them, even as far as future employers Googling them. For young people just entering the workforce today, that could include their parents embarrassing toddler pictures. Better be more considerate, parents. Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com Goats are having a moment right now. Last weekend, San Francisco's Ferry Plaza Farmers Market transformed into a goat utopia: a goat petting zoo, goat cheese tastings, a goat milk cooking demonstration, and goat arts and crafts took over the farmers market. This was the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture's (CUESA) Tenth Annual Goat Festival. Tonight, the California Academy of Sciences is hosting its own goat-themed NightLife (the San Francisco museum's weekly after-dark event for the 21-plus). Naturally, one would assume these events might have some correlation, but CUESA and CAS actually were unaware of the others' goat-related plans until recently. California Academy of Sciences chose its goat theme based on a crowd-sourced poll in celebration of the 10-year anniversary of NightLife. They asked the people what they wanted, and the people answered: goats. "We gave them five choices and one was goats, just because I had seen goat yoga before, and animals tend to do really well with our audience," said Cate Van Dyke, the NightLife program manager. "So we put that one amongst some other choices, and goat NightLife ran away with it." Goat NightLife will include opportunities to meet and pet goats from Goatlandia and Little Explorers, goat cheese tastings, and a kickoff for the City Nature Challenge 2019, in which San Francisco residents can get involved with documenting nature in their urban environment. From baby goat yoga in Half Moon Bay to the proliferation of goat memes in the past few years, there's a huge demand for goats in the year 2019. "There's a rising interest in goats both with the sort of cultural fascination, but also the milk and cheeses," explained Brie Mazurek, CUESA's communications director. CUESA's Goat Festival was a little ahead of the curve, having initially launched ten years ago. According to Mazurek, it really grew in popularity three years ago, when the Facebook event for the 2015 festival went viral. Thousands of people followed the event and started posting funny goat memes and videos. "When we first started, it was just one tent of goats and a couple of food tastings," she recalled. "Now, we have to have ticketing for goat petting, and there's a lot more activity. It's been great." So, why are goats so trendy right now? "There's something about them being kind of these carefree, goofy animals that are still cute, that people really respond to similar to the internet cat video," speculated Van Dyke. "Also, springtime brings images of goats, farms, green grass and rolling hills." And then there's the environmental aspect: grazing goats are a sustainable form of groundskeeping, and are lighter on the earth than other livestock. For CUESA, Mazurek said this enthusiasm for goats is a great energy they've been able to channel into educating people about sustainable agriculture. "I think what it really speaks to, particularly in San Francisco, is that people are really hungry for a connection to nature, to agriculture, and to animals," she explained. Farmers markets, she added, are a wonderful way to bridge that gap between city dwellers and local farmers. Plus, baby goats are just plain adorable. "Baby goats are really sweet they're almost like puppies. People just light up holding a baby goat," said Mazurek. If you're starting to feel baby goat fever, the California Academy of Sciences might be able to fill that void tonight. And if you miss it, don't worry this certainly won't be the last goat event you'll see in the coming months. "Goats are not going anywhere," predicted Mazurek. "People really love them." Six months after agents from Saudi Arabia murdered and dismembered writer Jamal Khashoggi, companies are no longer shying away from the Arab kingdom. Movie theater giant AMC says it is moving ahead with ambitious expansion plans for dozens of cinemas there. Hundreds of investors thronged last week to place $100 billion in orders for the first international bond sale tied to Saudi Arabias state-backed oil company. Google has a major data center in the works. Many companies contend that they are, in part, helping to open up the deeply conservative society. A screening of Marvels Black Panther at a repurposed concert hall in early 2018 lifted a 35-year ban on movie theaters, with men and women attending the showing together. But the math is simple: There is serious money to be made from working with the kingdom that lives off the worlds most profitable company, Aramco. A few weeks ago, Aramco disclosed that it generated $111.1 billion in net income last year. That was more than Apple, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil combined. It is nothing personal, J. Robinson West, managing director of the BCG Center for Energy Impact, a Washington consulting firm, said about why investors and banks flocked to the bond sale. To corporations around the world, the October death of Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post who was strangled when he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, was a controversy to avoid. Business leaders pulled out of a high-profile, government-sponsored conference in Riyadh, and have since largely kept quiet about their companies ties to the kingdom. But global businesses and Saudi Arabias de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, recognize a need for each other. Saudi Arabia fortunes fall and rise with the price of oil. Increasingly, it wants fresh investment and businesses to support its fast-growing population 33 million people, most of whom are younger than 30 and to winnow a nearly 13% unemployment rate. The crown prince released a grand promotional campaign in 2016 to woo investors but the results have been meager. Direct foreign investment fell to a decade low in 2017, to just $1.4 billion, according to the Institute for International Finance, a research organization in Washington. Investment fell, in part, because of concerns about how the kingdom which increasingly means Crown Prince Mohammed confronts problems. In fall 2017, hundreds of Saudi businessmen and princes were detained, essentially under house arrest, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh and other locations amid corruption allegations. About a dozen female activists were arrested in May for campaigning for broader rights, including driving. Some are still being held on suspicion of harming Saudi interests and their court hearings have been delayed multiple times, including this week. Things certainly got worse after the fall of 2017 and have not significantly improved, said Karen Young, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, referring to investment levels. The promise of Saudi Arabia, which saw oil prices rise by a third this year to about $71 a barrel for Brent crude, has been too rich for many big companies to pass up. Google, JPMorgan Chase and Japanese technology giant SoftBank are among the businesses that have kept Saudi Arabia as a partner. We thought long and hard, and concluded that the best course of action was to go forward, Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, said in an interview describing his companys decision to open at least 40 new theaters there over the next five years. Its the right thing to do for the people of Saudi Arabia, he said this month. They have been deprived of going to the movies for decades. Google has been working on a Saudi data center, its first in the Middle East and an important hub for its cloud computing services, for more than a year. Revelations about Khashoggis killing had not derailed its plans. When asked about its business with the kingdom, Google said that it had signed a memo of understanding with Saudi Aramco in early 2018 to explore potential establishment of cloud services to serve our customers in the Middle East. There are no further updates to share at this time. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon canceled an appearance at the Riyadh conference in October, but showed up to pitch Saudi Aramcos bond deal to investors in New York two weeks ago. Investment firm Blackstone is still planning to spend money from a $40 billion infrastructure fund, of which $20 billion is meant to come from Saudi coffers, according to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly about the firms investment plans. And SoftBank, whose nearly $100 billion Vision Fund for technology investments counts the Saudi government as its biggest backer, has had little difficulty crafting deals using Saudi cash. It has participated in 20 investments since the Khashoggi news emerged, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Some analysts said that floating Aramcos bonds was a shrewd move by the crown prince. Aramco raised $12 billion from its first bond offering on the international market. Investors placed tens of billions of dollars in orders on the same day that the State Department barred 16 Saudis from the United States for their suspected role in killing Khashoggi. Everyone in Saudi will be celebrating that they have actually pulled this through and made it a success story, Ayahm Kamel, head of Middle East at Eurasia Group, a political risk firm, said of the bond deal. Many Western companies were tight-lipped about their continued investment in Saudi Arabia for weeks after Khashoggi disappeared. But in November, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son publicly articulated what many corporate titans have quietly used as their justification for working with the kingdom. As horrible as this event was, we cannot turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernize their society, Son told analysts and investors at an earnings presentation in Tokyo. Companies also have taken cues from the Trump administration, which has repeatedly stressed that it considers the crown prince a crucial ally in a long-awaited Middle East peace proposal and other issues. Saudi Arabia is likely to be active, not only as a place to invest but as a borrower and an investor. The countrys sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, has assembled a nearly $300 billion portfolio of assets that includes stakes in technology companies like Uber and electric carmaker Lucid. Its chief, Yasir al-Rumayyan, said in February that the fund planned to open investment offices in New York and San Francisco as it stepped up investments. Still, some companies have decided to back away. Hollywood talent agency Endeavor returned a $400 million investment from the Saudis this year and severed its relationship with the kingdoms leaders. British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who returned from a 2017 visit to the kingdom wowed by Crown Prince Mohammeds vision, recoiled after Khashoggis murder. Branson suspended his directorships in Saudi tourism ventures and cut off conversations with the Public Investment Fund. In the unlikely event that more Western companies follow suit, the kingdom has a contingency plan: working increasingly with allies in Asia. Countries including China, South Korea and Thailand have become key customers for the Saudis as the United States reduces its dependence on imported oil because of domestic shale production. Chinese oil giant Sinopec has become a high-profile investor in the kingdom, with a refining joint venture with Aramco and a research and development facility at a science park called Dhahran Techno Valley, in eastern Saudi Arabia. The science park represents an effort by the Saudis to create a technology hub around Aramco and the nearby King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. Other companies listed as tenants on the parks website include Halliburton, Honeywell, Schlumberger, Emerson Electric, General Electric and Baker Hughes, a GE company. This week, Aramco said that it is spending $1.25 billion for a stake in Hyundai Oil Bank, a South Korean refiner, creating what it called a dedicated outlet for Saudi crude. The question now is whether and how Saudi Arabia can use the momentum from the Aramco bond sale. For people to invest in Saudi Arabia, they need a belief that this country is moving in the right direction, said Roger Diwan, a vice president at IHS Markit, a research firm. The last 12 months have not been stellar. Michael J. de la Merced, Stanley Reed and Daisuke Wakabayashi are New York Times writers. The National Enquirer and its sister publications are reportedly being sold to James Cohen, CEO of Hudson Media Inc. America Media Inc. is selling the Enquirer and other tabloids to Cohen, who is part of the family that founded Hudson News Distributors, the leading magazine distributor on the East Coast, according to the Washington Post. The sale is expected to reduce AMIs debt to $355 million, the Post reported, citing a person familiar with the companys finances. Representatives of AMI and Hudson Media did not respond to requests for comment. This month AMI, owner of the Enquirer and the Globe and National Examiner, said its board had concluded a strategic operational review of its tabloid business, which began in August, leading to the decision to explore strategic options for the brands. The move will likely result in their sale in the near future, the company said in a release. Among the potential bidders was supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle, who controls Yucaipa Cos., according to the New York Times. A spokesman for Burkle denied he was buying the Enquirer. The tabloid has drawn the growing scrutiny of federal prosecutors for its ties to President Trump during the 2016 campaign. AMIs decision to sell comes on the heels of the Jeff Bezos scandal in which the Amazon founder accused the Enquirer of extortion involving leaked text messages and nude photos that the publication had obtained. Bezos claimed that the Enquirer was threatening him after he attempted to investigate the publication over its earlier articles about his extramarital affair with TV host Lauren Sanchez. Though the Enquirer has long had a reputation for using questionable tactics to score celebrity scoops, the Bezos scandal put a new spotlight on AMI Chairman David Pecker, a former accountant who took over the company in 1999. Pecker has been a longtime friend of Trump and has admitted employing catch-and-kill techniques to protect Trump from unfavorable stories. American Media paid $150,000 to buy a story from a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump. Stacy Perman is a Los Angeles Times writer. At the talks, the two PMs expressed their joy at the fine development of the relations of traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation over the past nearly 70 years since the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic relations in 1950. The host affirmed importance of relations with Vietnam and described his guests ongoing visit as an important landmark in the bilateral relations. A close friend of Vietnam and an active member of the European Union (EU), the Czech Republic supports the intensification of the Vietnam-EU relations and will push for the early completion of EU procedures so that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement can be signed within one or two months to come, PM Andrej Babis stressed. For his part, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed that the Vietnamese people always bear in their mind the valuable help and effective cooperation from the Czech Republic to Vietnam in their national defence, construction and development. An overview of the talks (Photo: VNA) The two PMs agreed to strengthen the exchange of delegations between sectors and localities of the two countries. They also concurred to closely coordinate their work to organise activities marking the 70th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties. The two held that the economic cooperation, trade and investment between the countries are developing in a dynamic way but have yet to match their potential and expectation. They agreed to continue to effectively implement the mechanism of the Vietnam Czech inter-governmental committee on economic cooperation and push up cooperation in the fields of security, national defence, technology, mining, and tourism. The host expressed his joy and belief that the early opening of the Hanoi Prague direct air route will help further push up the bilateral relations in trade, investment and tourism, and spoke highly of the role and contributions by the Vietnamese community to the socio-economic development of the Czech Republic. Host and guest also exchanged ideas on international and regional issues of mutual concern, and pledged to further bilateral cooperation at international forums and organisations. The Czech Republic PM affirmed that his country supports Vietnams bid to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 term. The two also stressed the importance of the maintenance of peace and stability, the promotion of security, navigation and aviation safety and freedom in the East Sea, and the settlement of disputes with peaceful means in line with the international law, especially the UN Charter and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc invited the Czech PM to visit Vietnam, and the invitation was accepted. Following the talks, the two PMs witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in mining between authorities of the two sides, and held a joint press conference./. We knew the Kalalau Trail, the classic hike on Kauai's Na Pali Coast, could be treacherous. After all, the wettest place on on Earth is on Kauai. Add water and the Kalalau becomes the world's longest Slip 'N' Slide. So we prepared accordingly. Trail runners with good tread for me. Hiking boots with good tread for her. Trekking poles for both of us. Mud and gravity, do your worst. We were ready. Although we got up early, the AV club beat us to the trailhead. A group of frat bros apparently planning to make a movie were gearing up with professional video cameras, stabilizer rigs and extra-long selfie sticks. Some packed Bluetooth speakers on their backs so they could share their taste in music with the world as they hiked. Thankfully, Katy Perry and Dr. Dre kept the volume down as we climbed up. That's the thing about Kauai. It's such a beautiful place that it's hard not to be in a good mood, even in the rain and ankle-deep mud. And happy travelers are usually respectful of others. Kauai offers visitors an assortment of wonders to put a smile on your face. The guidebooks say there is no place on Earth like it, and that's no exaggeration. But it's not cheap. You can spend several hundreds of dollars a night at many of the better resorts. The fancier restaurants rival San Francisco's in prices, but often not in quality. If you want to take a helicopter tour of the island billed as the best way to see the Na Pali Coast expect to shell out $200 per hour and up. But there are dozens of places you can go for free where you can have Kauai almost to yourself. For example, everyone visits the spectacular Waimea Canyon overlook, but relatively few hike the spur trails off the canyon. Or Glass Beach in Hanapepe Bay. Probably because of its industrial surroundings, the beach was deserted before a couple of trinket hunters showed up. There were a few people relaxing on sprawling Kekaha Beach on the western shore, but they were spread out by hundreds of yards. You could yell out to your nearest neighbors down the beach, and they wouldn't hear you. I body-surfed alone in the warm water until a gang of teenage boogie boarders, fresh from school, arrived by pickup truck. They tumbled out and bolted to the surf to join the haole (white guy tourist) bobbing in the waves. For lodging, we went the Home Away/ VRBO route and reserved rooms with kitchenettes or kitchen privileges at homes in Princeville in the north and Kalaheo in the southwest. Cooking meals instead of eating out every night is a good way to cut back on expenses. On the other hand, don't expect many bargains at supermarkets. Like all of Hawaii, Kauai imports much of its food, which of course drives up prices. I grudgingly paid $7 for a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter. No wonder one of my SFGate colleagues, who often vacations in Kauai, always makes the Costco in Lihue his first stop after landing in Kauai. Among the reviews (averaging 4-1/2 stars) at this Costco: "Definitely bring your costco membership when you go to Kauai and are staying at a place with cooking facilities." Not that you'll want to cook everything you eat, of course. You'd miss out treats like JoJo's in Waimea, which serves the best shave ice on the island. While our first Home Away rental, in Princeville, was a unit adjacent to the host's quarters, our second stay was a room in a single-family home. We shared the kitchen with our host, a friendly, 60-something woman with her own landscaping business and lots of stories to share. Two days before we were to leave the island, she told us that she had to leave the next morning for a two-week trip to Australia. We assumed she wanted us to at least lock up and hide the key under one of her many planters, but she told us not to bother. A friend would stop over in a few days to check the place. So she left her home in the hands of strangers, who in turn left it unlocked, while she went on vacation for two weeks on a continent 5,500 miles away. No worries. That's Kauai for you. For a tour of Hawaii's emerald isle, including some-off-the-beaten-path attractions, click on the above slideshow. An entirely futuristic movie-going experience is headed to the heart of San Francisco, courtesy of CJ-CGV, a South Korean cinema company. The new 14-auditorium movie house will take over the space that formerly housed the beleaguered AMC Van Ness 14, which had been operating at 1000 Van Ness since 1998 before it closed in early February. CGV is reportedly executing substantial renovations to the space a good idea, considering the spate of bad reviews around the theater's cleanliness and even bedbugs to premiere a cinema with some brag-worthy sensorial upgrades. RELATED: AMC's Van Ness 14 theater closing: 'It has become a dump in the last few years' For starters, in at least one auditorium they're installing a 4D screen with "synchronized motion seats and environmental effects such as wind, rain, snow, fog and lightning." In another, they'll build a ScreenX, which the Hollywood Reporter describes as a "270-degree, three-screen multi-projection system that uses a proprietary technique to expand select key scenes of feature films to the left- and right-side walls." RELATED: AMC closes on Carmike deal, future for Sundance Kabuki theater 'uncertain' Now to answer the question on everyone's mind: The theater won't open until early 2020, so unfortunately, it won't be ready in time for "Avengers: Endgame" or "Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker." It may, however, help to reinvigorate the Van Ness corridor, which has been the victim of incessant (and extremely delayed) street construction for years. Its opening also underscores an increasing corporate interest in premium movie-going experiences. The Mission's often-bustling Alamo Drafthouse offers creative dishes, snacks and locally-made craft beer to patrons, and AMC Theaters and other local chains have begun supplanting old folding seats with leather recliners and installing full bars beside auditoriums. CJ-CGV's new Van Ness operation only its third in the U.S., after other locations in Los Angeles and Buena Park, Calif. appears primed to bank on the trend. Edit: This article previously stated that the AMC Van Ness opened in 1988. It has been corrected to read that it opened in 1998. Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Legislation that would require consent from a parent or guardian before a girl under 18 could obtain an abortion passed the Florida House on Wednesday night after a lengthy debate and amid questions about its constitutionality. The Republican-led House voted 69-44 largely along party lines for the bill, which now moves to the Senate where a similar bill is pending. The measure sponsored by GOP Rep. Erin Grall of Vero Beach would require that a minor get written, notarized permission from a parent or a legal guardian to obtain an abortion. Florida now requires only that parents be notified that their child is seeking an abortion. The reason that a child should seek the consent of their parent is because the parent is in the most unique and beneficial position to advise that child, Grall said during more than three hours of debate. Overwhelmingly, parents could offer a perspective, and advice and counsel, that is not available from any other person. The measure also provides that a minor could ask a circuit court judge to waive the parental consent provision under certain circumstances, such as when a girl is a child abuse or sexual abuse victim. That is similar to the current parental notification law; in 2017, out of about 1,500 abortions in Florida involving minor girls there were 205 judicial waivers granted, Grall said. The bill would allow girls to be represented by an attorney for free when seeking a waiver. Democrats generally opposed the bill, contending among other things that not all children are comfortable with telling parents they are pregnant and in some cases might face reprisals, ridicule or even violence. If shes old enough to become a mother, shes old enough to make the decision of the right path for herself, said Rep. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat. A previous such law was ruled unconstitutional in 1989 by the Florida Supreme Court on privacy rights grounds and many Democrats said this bill might meet the same fate. But the high court now has a more conservative bench with three new justices appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could change a future outcome. Simply put, this bill is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Florida has already ruled on this exact point, said Democratic Rep. Joe Geller of Dania Beach. Why are we doing it again? Curt Anderson is an Associated Press writer. WASHINGTON The Trump administration proposed a rule Wednesday night intended to prevent immigrants in the country illegally from receiving federal housing assistance, the latest step in its efforts to ramp up enforcement of the nations immigration laws. The proposal, according to an administration official, is intended to overturn what the official described as a Clinton-era loophole that allowed some immigrants to obtain public housing without revealing their citizenship status. The rule would ensure that the social safety net is awarded only to verified U.S. citizens and legal residents. The long waiting lists for public housing prompted the crackdown, the official said, adding that the rule would affect about 25,000 households. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which proposed the rule, would require expanded use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program, known as SAVE, a program administered by the Department of Homeland Security. SAVE is meant to help federal and local government agencies quickly verify a persons immigration and citizenship status and determine whether people are eligible for benefits. It was not immediately clear whether HUD was also targeting immigrants who are in the country illegally and are living in public housing with a spouse or a family member who is a U.S. citizen. A HUD spokesman, Raffi Williams, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment. Julian Castro, the former housing secretary under President Barack Obama and a current Democratic presidential candidate, criticized the proposal. Once again, the Trump administration is using the immigrant community as a punching bag to distract his base from his own political troubles, he said. The bottom line is that our government is terrorizing families first with ICE raids, now with evictions. The rule was delivered to Congress on Wednesday night for a 15-day review period. After that, there will be 60 days for public comment. If the rule goes into effect, such immigrants living in public housing would not be immediately removed, the official said. They would be given up to 18 months, through three six-month waivers, to relocate. The move is not the first time the Trump administration has sought to crack down on immigrants using the public safety net. For months, Stephen Miller, one of President Trumps top advisers and the architect of his immigration agenda, has pushed the administration to complete a new regulation that would penalize legal immigrants who rely on public benefits like Section 8 housing vouchers or food assistance. Annie Karni and Michael D. Shear are New York Times writers. WASHINGTON For nearly two years, President Trumps lawyers and defenders have argued that it was impossible for him to illegally obstruct the Russia investigation, no matter his intentions, because he has full authority over federal law enforcement as head of the executive branch. But in his highly anticipated report, Special Counsel Robert Mueller rejected that sweeping view of executive power. Muellers team systematically dissected and repudiated such arguments, concluding over more than a dozen of the reports 448 pages that obstruction laws did indeed limit how Trump could use his presidential powers. The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law, they wrote. Still, Mueller concluded that it would be inappropriate for now for prosecutors to make a decision one way or the other because analyzing the evidence could potentially result in a judgment that the president committed crimes. He reasoned that the Justice Department has for a half-century interpreted the Constitution as barring the indictment of a sitting president, so Trump could not get a trial and a chance to clear his name while he is running the country. The special counsels rationale left the door open to the possibility that after Trump leaves office, prosecutors could re-examine the evidence Mueller gathered and charge the president. Attorney General William Barr tried to slam that door shut last month when he announced that in his view, the evidence did not support charging Trump regardless of any constitutional issues about charging sitting presidents. Barr defended this decision in a news conference Thursday morning and said that some of Trumps actions were understandable given the context of his situation. There is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks, he said. The report is a sometimes gripping account of a presidency consumed by a sprawling investigation, and of a president seized by paranoia about what it might unearth. Barr noted that Mueller had not found sufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. But months before the president nominated him as attorney general, Barr wrote a lengthy memo for the Trump administration laying out the very arguments that Mueller rejected. Last months release of Barrs primary conclusions seemed to blunt any momentum on Capitol Hill to initiate impeachment proceedings against Trump, and it appears unlikely that the far more detailed accounting of the special counsels work will change that dynamic. Muellers report, which Barr made public Thursday with deletions, laid out an effort by Trump to undermine the Russia investigation, painting a damning portrait of a president determined to wield his power to protect himself and his associates. Many of the 11 episodes Mueller detailed had been reported in the media. The president consistently sought to install a loyalist to oversee the investigation; tried to pressure Attorney General Jeff Sessions to retake control of the inquiry after he recused himself; and asked the FBI director to end the investigation into his first national security adviser. Mueller also revealed other presidential attempts to thwart the inquiry. In mid-2017, Trump enlisted Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign manager, in another bid to impede the inquiry. Trump wanted Sessions to declare that the special counsels investigation was very unfair to the president and asked Lewandowski to convey the message. Lewandowski never directly spoke to the attorney general about the request, according to the report. The contrast between Muellers rationale and the impression Barr had created last month was a central takeaway from Muellers report. Barr had not explained why Mueller declined to decide whether the evidence met the standard for charging Trump. Instead, he cited a fragment of Muellers rationale in what appears to be a misleading way. In his letter, Barr wrote that Mueller had cited difficult issues of law and fact preventing him from deciding the obstruction question. Barr portrayed that murkiness though he was not specific as the barrier to Muellers ability to draw a conclusion one way or the other. In fact, Muellers report contained a subtle but important difference from that impression. The special counsel cited those difficult issues as preventing him from exonerating the president of illegal obstruction not as preventing him from accusing Trump of that crime. If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, Mueller wrote. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Instead, Mueller decided it would be unfair to analyze the evidence for now because it created the risk that he would conclude that Trump committed a crime with no possibility of a speedy trial to resolve whether that was true. An individual who believes he was wrongly accused can use that process to seek to clear his name, Mueller wrote. In contrast, a prosecutors judgment that crimes were committed, but that no charges will be brought, affords no such adversarial opportunity for public name-clearing before an impartial adjudicator. He added: The concerns about the fairness of such a determination would be heightened in the case of a sitting President, where a federal prosecutors accusation of a crime, even in an internal report, could carry consequences that extend beyond the realm of criminal justice. Michael S. Schmidt and Charlie Savage are New York Times writers. Fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, who was indicted along with his wife Lori Loughlin for allegedly paying bribes to get their daughters into USC, may have misrepresented his own college education to his father in an attempt to get money. CNN uncovered a 2016 article on a fashion blog that states that Giannulli "not only convinced his dad that he was a student by falsifying report cards, Mossimo got him to fork over fees with fake tuition bills." The article states that he told his father he was studying at USC, but "used this seed money to initiate his foray into the T-shirt biz." "SC was expensive, so that was how I was starting my company. I used all that cash," Giannulli is quoted as saying "unapologetically" to the author. RELATED: Lori Loughlin reportedly thought prosecutor was 'bluffing,' just now realizing 'how serious this is' "I used to have hundreds of thousands of cash in my top drawer in my fraternity house," he said. "And I was like, 'this is kind of too easy. I need a bigger platform. If I had a bigger account base, I could really kill it.'" This T-shirt business eventually turned into Giannulli's prominent clothing company "Mossimo." According to CNN, Giannulli was never a fully matriculated student at USC, and was there for the spring semester in 1984 for a non-degree program that had "no formal admission requirements." USC did not share if Giannulli actually took any classes there. ALSO: Bay Area parent charged in college admissions scandal blocked from going on Mexico vacation Giannulli and Loughlin's daughter Olivia Jade told the story of her father's apparent deception during a podcast that was released four days before her parents were charged in the college admissions scandal. "I don't know if I am supposed to say this, sorry dad," she said. "But he was like, never enrolled in college, he faked his way through it. Yeah, so then he started his whole business with tuition money that his parents thought was going to college." Giannulli and Loughlin have pleaded not guilty to the bribery charges, and both of them could face jail time if found guilty. Eric Ting is an SFGATE staff writer. Email him at eric.ting@sfgate.com and follow him on Twitter Start receiving breaking news emails on floods, wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Affinor Growers Inc. (AFI or the Company) (CSE:AFI, OTC:RSSFF, Frankfurt:1AF) is very pleased to announce that it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire manufacturing assets that make up the Cobotix Manufacturing Inc.s (Cobotix) business, undertakings and goodwill in Port Coquitlam (the Acquisition). The Company and Cobotix will have thirty (30) days to complete the due diligence process and determine a closing date for the Acquisition. In consideration for the assets, the Company will pay to Cobotix up to $2,900,000, subject to a valuation of the assets (the Consideration). The Consideration will be satisfied by certain cash payments and the issuance of up to 38,000,000 common shares (the Common Shares) in the capital of the Company at a deemed price of $0.05 per Common Share. Upon completion of the Acquisition, it is anticipated that Ron Adolf will be appointed to the board of directors and become an officer of the Company. No additional changes will be made to the Companys board of directors or management based on the Acquisition. Cobotix is the current manufacturer of the Companys Patented Vertical Farming Technology. As a result of the Acquisition, the Company will be able to consolidate the intellectual property associated with the manufacturing and design aspects of the Vertical Farming Towers, and will be able to extend its reach, diversification and stability, which are fundamental to the growth and profitability of the Company going forward. Cobotix is currently developing multiple cell manufacturing opportunities throughout North America, building on the success of current operations. The Company and Cobotix act at arms length. Cobotix brings over 30 years of expertise to the design and manufacturing of the Vertical Farming Towers. Over the past six months, Cobotix has been working directly with the Company to develop and test the new designs that were unveiled at the 2019 BC Tech Summit. Randy Minhas commented, This is a great opportunity for the Company to move to the next level with its Vertical Farming Towers and to be involved directly with design and manufacturing going forward. We will now be in a position to capitalize on the extremely talented team at Cobotix, who have been instrumental in our new tower designs. Ron Adolf commented, Were excited to be joining AFI and collectively working to commercialize the new Vertical Farming Towers while continuing to work on new designs and technologies in the vertical farming industry. Over the past six months, we have been very pleased with the great strides AFI has made in advancing their technology. Our business model of collocated manufacturing cells is a great fit in the evolution of Cobotix and AFI. Randy Minhas President and CEO About Affinor Growers Affinor Growers is a publicly traded company on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol ("AFI"). Affinor is focused on developing vertical farming technologies and using those technologies to grow fruits and vegetables in a sustainable manner. Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain assumptions, estimates, and other forward-looking statements regarding future events. Such forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and are subject to factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control that may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. AFFINOR GROWERS INC. www.affinorgrowers.com For More Information, please contact: Randy Minhas, CEO contact@affinorgrowers.com ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM P. BARR DELIVERS REMARKS ON THE RELEASE OF THE REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION INTO RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Washington, D.C. Remarks as prepared for delivery Good Morning. Thank you all for being here today. On March 22, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation of matters related to Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and submitted his confidential report to me pursuant to Department of Justice regulations. As I said during my Senate confirmation hearing and since, I am committed to ensuring the greatest possible degree of transparency concerning the Special Counsel's investigation, consistent with the law. At 11:00 this morning, I will transmit copies of a public version of the Special Counsel's report to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The Department of Justice will also make the report available to the American public by posting it on the Department's website after it has been delivered to Congress. I would like to offer a few comments today on the report. But before I do that, I want to thank Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for joining me here today and for his assistance and counsel throughout this process. Rod has served the Department of Justice for many years with dedication and distinction, and it has been a great privilege and pleasure to work with him since my confirmation. He had well-deserved plans to step back from public service that I interrupted by asking him to help in my transition. Rod has been an invaluable partner, and I am grateful that he was willing to help me and has been able to see the Special Counsel's investigation to its conclusion. Thank you, Rod. I would also like to thank Special Counsel Mueller for his service and the thoroughness of his investigation, particularly his work exposing the nature of Russia's attempts to interfere in our electoral process. As you know, one of the primary purposes of the Special Counsel's investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Volume I of the Special Counsel's report describes the results of that investigation. As you will see, the Special Counsel's report states that his "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the Special Counsel's report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. But thanks to the Special Counsel's thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter. That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed. The Special Counsel's report outlines two main efforts by the Russian government to influence the 2016 election: First, the report details efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. Following a thorough investigation of this disinformation campaign, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian nationals and entities for their respective roles in this scheme. Those charges remain pending, and the individual defendants remain at large. But the Special Counsel found no evidence that any Americans including anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme. Indeed, as the report states, "[t]he investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA's interference operation." Put another way, the Special Counsel found no "collusion" by any Americans in the IRA's illegal activity. Second, the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and emails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicizing those emails. Obtaining such unauthorized access into computers is a federal crime. Following a thorough investigation of these hacking operations, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian military officers for their respective roles in these illegal hacking activities. Those charges are still pending and the defendants remain at large. But again, the Special Counsel's report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations. In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign "collusion" with the Russian government's hacking. The Special Counsel's investigation also examined Russian efforts to publish stolen emails and documents on the internet. The Special Counsel found that, after the GRU disseminated some of the stolen materials through its own controlled entities, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the GRU transferred some of the stolen materials to Wikileaks for publication. Wikileaks then made a series of document dumps. The Special Counsel also investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts. Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the Special Counsel's report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. Finally, the Special Counsel investigated a number of "links" or "contacts" between Trump Campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. After reviewing those contacts, the Special Counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign. So that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes. After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the Special Counsel's report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the President could amount to obstruction of the Special Counsel's investigation. As I addressed in my March 24th letter, the Special Counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. Instead, the report recounts ten episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense. After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General and I concluded that the evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision. Instead, we accepted the Special Counsel's legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the Special Counsel in reaching our conclusion. In assessing the President's actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the President's personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the Special Counsel's report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel's investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. Now, before I take questions, I want to address a few aspects of the process for producing the public report that I am releasing today. As I said several times, the report contains limited redactions relating to four categories of information. To ensure as much transparency as possible, these redactions have been clearly labelled and color-coded so that readers can tell which redactions correspond to which categories. As you will see, most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, such as the IRA case and the Roger Stone case. These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the Special Counsel's Office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases. The redactions are their work product. Consistent with long-standing Executive Branch practice, the decision whether to assert Executive privilege over any portion of the report rested with the President of the United States. Because the White House voluntarily cooperated with the Special Counsel's investigation, significant portions of the report contain material over which the President could have asserted privilege. And he would have been well within his rights to do so. Following my March 29th letter, the Office of the White House Counsel requested the opportunity to review the redacted version of the report in order to advise the President on the potential invocation of privilege, which is consistent with long-standing practice. Following that review, the President confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the Special Counsel's report. Accordingly, the public report I am releasing today contains redactions only for the four categories that I previously outlined, and no material has been redacted based on executive privilege. In addition, earlier this week, the President's personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released. That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government Act, which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an Independent Counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. The President's personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions. In addition to making the redacted report public, we are also committed to working with Congress to accommodate their legitimate oversight interests with respect to the Special Counsel's investigation. We have been consulting with Chairman Graham and Chairman Nadler throughout this process, and we will continue to do so. Given the limited nature of the redactions, I believe that the publicly released report will allow every American to understand the results of the Special Counsel's investigation. Nevertheless, in an effort to accommodate congressional requests, we will make available to a bipartisan group of leaders from several Congressional committees a version of the report with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information. Thus, these members of Congress will be able to see all of the redacted material for themselves with the limited exception of that which, by law, cannot be shared. I believe that this accommodation, together with my upcoming testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, will satisfy any need Congress has for information regarding the Special Counsel's investigation. Once again, I would like to thank you all for being here today. I now have a few minutes for questions. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glance Technologies Inc. (CSE:GET / OTCQB:GLNNF / FKT:GJT) (Glance or the Company) today announced financial results for the three month period ended February 28, 2019. Overview Glance realized its first ever net income in Q1 2019. Glances net income was $4,816,906 or $0.04 per share in Q1 2019. A significant contribution to this result was an increase in the value of Glances investments combined with a decrease in its expenses. Glances working capital as at February 28, 2019 was $11,204,000 and it has no long-term debt. During the quarter, Glance continued to focus on developing its recently announced innovations including Real-Time Bill and Order-from-Table. Glance launched Real-Time Bill to the public in the first Quarter of 2019 and anticipates launching Order-from-Table soon. Subsequent to the quarter, Glance also announced its upcoming Order-From-Bar product. All of these innovations utilize Glances proven anti-fraud technology to protect merchants as well as leveraging Glances powerful promotion and loyalty platform to help increase sales and loyalty. Glance has received strong interest from many of its signed merchants and new prospects to adopt these new features and is currently rolling out Real-Time Bill to these merchants. Glance believes these new capabilities significantly improve the value proposition of its platform to both consumers and merchants and thus believes they increase our revenue potential. Glance has increased its sales team and is focused on signing up new merchants with these products and targeting its marketing efforts around merchants adopting these features. We are convinced that products like our Real-Time Bill, Order-From-Table, and Order-From-Bar are the future of paying and ordering, says Desmond Griffin Glance CEO. We believe they have the potential to disrupt the industry, including leapfrogging the adoption technologies such as chip and PIN machines in the US. Q1 2019 Financial Highlights (all figures are rounded to the nearest thousand): Net income increased to $4,817,000 or $0.04 per share, compared to a Comprehensive loss of $4,869,000 or $(0.04) per share in Q1 2018, which was an increase of $9,686,000. Revenue of $43,000 in fiscal 2019 decreased 96% from $1,174,000 in Q1 2018. In the previous year, a $1 million royalty was received. As anticipated, licensing revenues have fluctuated significantly due to changes made to existing license agreements. A review was also carried out over the recognition periods of the licensing agreements. Operating expenses of $1,925,000 decreased 63% from $5,224,000 in Q1 2018, reflecting the efficient spend on operations this quarter. Working capital at February 28, 2019 was $11,204,000 (November 30, 2018: $6,962,000) and no long-term debt ($nil at November 30, 2018). Overall, the Company continues to work to reduce costs in many categories and has made significant changes to better utilize its cash resources going forward. Costs incurred on operating activities were approximately $1.7m in Q1 2019, compared to $4.9m in Q1 2018. We have continued to focus on spending efficiency and we expect some of the recent changes we have adopted to be reflected in further cost reductions in future quarters. Q1 2019 Highlights: Launched the Real-Time Bill feature. Previewed its new Order-From-Table feature. Filed a provisional patent for Blockchain Technology with USPTO. The Companys complete financial results for the first quarter of 2019 are available in its Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements and Managements Discussion and Analysis, each of which are filed with Canadian securities regulators at www.sedar.com . Outlook Management intends to pursue a number of technology, product, sales and marketing initiatives to continue to drive growth in 2019. The Companys strategic priorities include: Grow monthly recurring revenue through a tiered Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription model by adding new merchants and consumers, and generate new revenue from advertising, promotions and consumer fees for premium features; Rollout Glances new Real-Time Bill feature broadly to existing and new customers; Launch and rollout Glances upcoming Order-From-Table broadly to existing and new customers; Continue to develop Glances Order-From-Bar product; Expand our footprint through both direct sales and joint efforts with our business partners; and Investigate new geographic markets for Glance Pay. IFRS The operational and financial information in this release is based on the consolidated figures in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) and with the exception of information on investments and behaviour of markets, quarterly financial statements are reviewed by the Companys independent auditors. About Glance Technologies Inc. Glance owns and operates Glance Pay, a streamlined payment system that revolutionizes how smartphone users choose where to shop, order goods and services, make payments, access digital receipts, redeem digital deals, earn great rewards & interact with merchants. Glance offers targeted in-app marketing, geo targeted digital coupons, customer feedback, in-merchant messaging and custom rewards programs. The Glance Pay mobile payment system consists of proprietary technology, which includes user apps available for free downloads in iOS (Apple) and Android formats, merchant manager apps, a large-scale technology hosting environment with sophisticated anti-fraud technology and lightning-fast payment processing. For more information about Glance, please go to www.glance.tech . For more information, contact: Laura Burke Desmond Griffin Chief Financial Officer Chief Executive Officer 778-819-1352 833-338-0299 laura@glancepay.com investors@glancepay.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: may, "believe", thinks, "expect", exploring, expand, could, "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", plan, pursue, "potentially", projected, should, will and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. These forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, relate to, among other things, the discussion of Glances business strategies and its expectations concerning future operations (including advancing its technological roadmap); the expectation that products like our Real-Time Bill, Order-From-Table, and Order-From-Bar are the future of paying and ordering; that there is strong interest from many of its signed merchants and new prospects to adopt the Companys new product features; the expectation that Glance will sign up new merchants with its new features and will target its marketing efforts around the launch of new features and merchants adopting those features; that Glance continues to work to reduce costs in many categories and will better utilize its cash resources going forward, the expectation that some of the recent changes the Company has adopted will be reflected in further cost reductions in future quarters; the expectation that Glance will launch its new product features over the coming months, improve its capacity for monetization, the expectation that Glance will grow monthly recurring revenue through a tiered Software-as-a-Service subscription model by adding new merchants and consumers, and generate new revenue from advertising, promotions and consumer fees for premium features; the expectation that Glance will roll out its new Real-Time Bill feature broadly to existing and new customers; the expectation that Glance will launch and rollout its upcoming Order-From-Table feature; that Glance will continue to develop its Order-From-Bar feature; and Glances plans to expand into new vertical markets through both direct sales and joint efforts with our licensing partners. Although Glance considers these forward-looking statements to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, among other things, the risk that Glance is unable to continuously add new merchants as planned, risks related to expansion, both internationally and in North America, risks related to unforeseeable expenses, and risks related to Glances licensing partners, and risks that the Companys software and applications may contain security problems, security vulnerabilities, or defects in design or manufacture, including bugs and other problems that could interfere with the intended operation of its software, and risks associated with the adoption and development of blockchain platforms. The forward-looking information in this press release is also based on certain estimates, forecasts and projections, as well as expectations, beliefs and assumptions, including, among other things, that Glance will be able to achieve its business objectives, that Glance will be able to develop proprietary software to implement its plans, Glance will be successful in obtaining and retaining clients and licensees for its software, and that Glance will be able to expand its operations successfully in new markets. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements in this press release, see the section entitled Risk Factors in the most recent Annual Information Form and Prospectus of Glance, which may be accessed through Glance's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Glance cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by Glance is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking information, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A federal appeals court in San Francisco today upheld most of a lower court ruling that left in place the bulk of California's three so-called sanctuary laws aimed at protecting undocumented immigrants. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said that two of the laws were within California's authority to enact, but that part of a third law should be blocked. One of the laws the appeals court upheld was SB 54, entitled the California Values Act, which bars local officials from informing federal officials about immigrants' release dates from jail except in serious criminal cases. The U.S. Department of Justice challenged the laws in federal court in Sacramento, and appealed after a district judge declined to grant a preliminary injunction blocking most provisions. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO, April 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP reminds investors in American Renal Associates Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ARA) of the pending securities class action and the May 28, 2019 Lead Plaintiff deadline. If you purchased or otherwise acquired American Renal securities between August 10, 2016 and March 27, 2019 (the class period) and suffered losses contact Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. For more information about the case or to inquire about serving as Lead Plaintiff click https://www.hbsslaw.com/cases/ARA or contact Reed Kathrein, who is leading the firms investigation, by calling 510-725-3000 or emailing ARA@hbsslaw.com . According to the complaint, throughout the class period Defendants misled investors about American Renals accounting for revenues, collections and related matters. Then, on March 27, 2019, Defendants announced investors should not rely on the Companys previously issued consolidated financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 or on several interim quarterly period financial statements. Defendants also announced the Companys CFO resigned effective March 26, 2019. In response to the March 27 and earlier partial disclosures, the price of American Renal shares has significantly fallen. Were focused on investors losses, the admitted improper revenue accounting that might have been intentional, and the extent to which investors may have been misled, said Hagens Berman partner Reed Kathrein. Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding American Renal should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 510-725-3000 or email ARA@hbsslaw.com . About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a national investor-rights law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington with 78 attorneys in 9 offices across the country. The firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com . For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw . Contact: Reed Kathrein, 510-725-3000 SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) The attorney for a an Australian man charged with kidnapping said Thursday his client may have had a "disengagement from reality" when he allegedly grabbed a 2-year-old boy and tried to run off with him last week in San Francisco's Castro District. During his arraignment, Roscoe Holyoake, 34, pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and child endangerment charges related to the incident, which happened on the afternoon of April 12 near Noe and 17th streets. At the request of prosecutors, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Vedica Puri ruled to keep Holyoake in custody without bail. Outside of court, Deputy Public Defender Stephen Olmo said he's been in touch with Holyoake's family and friends back in Australia who all say, "it's not in his character." Holyoake, who works as a DJ under the name DJ Roski, previously served a board member for Pride Western Australia and once hosted a radio show in Perth. "There was no evil intent," Olmo said, adding that Holyoake's alleged actions may have been the "result of having some kind of break ... a mental disengagement from reality." Olmo said Holyoake was staying at a hotel at the time and had come to San Francisco to visit friends. "This is just a shock, this is not the man everybody knows," he said. "It makes no sense." According to court documents, the toddler victim was walking behind his mother, 32, who was pushing a stroller. When the mother turned around, she allegedly saw Holyoake holding her son, with his arms wrapped around the boy's rear. The boy's mother then screamed and a tug-of-war struggle ensued between her and Holyoake for the child, court documents allege. Once the boy was back in his mother's arms, she called for help. As Holyoake tried to run away, witnesses chased him and were able to detain him until police officers arrived, according to court records. The boy suffered redness in his left and right arms, but was ultimately unharmed. Holyoake, an Australian citizen, is reportedly in the U.S. on a visa through 2023, according to court records. If convicted of the charges, Holyoake could face up to eight years in prison, prosecutors said. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Thursday marks the 113th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco. To commemorate the event, Mayor London Breed is set to join Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, Police Chief William Scott and city supervisors, among others, for an early morning wreath-laying event. The wreath will be dedicated to the victims who lost their lives in the quake and subsequent fires. Hundreds of San Franciscans are also expected to attend the event, which starts at 4:30 a.m. at Lotta's Fountain at Kearny and Geary streets. At 5:11 a.m., the exact moment the large quake struck 113 years ago, the crowd will pause for a moment. After that, at 5:15 a.m., city officials will head to 20th and Church streets for the annual gilding of the fire hydrant that saved the city's Mission District. To get there, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will be providing a free streetcar ride aboard Vintage Streetcar No. 1, Muni's very first streetcar, first put into service in 1912. Later on Thursday, at 11 a.m., the city's Department of Emergency Management will issue an AlertSF (emergency alert) test message to commemorate the anniversary. The messages are typically used to send alerts and provide instructions to subscribers after major natural disasters. On Wednesday, Breed and Hayes-White attended a Survivors Luncheon at John's Grill, where Breed presented a special vintage fire helmet to Donna Huggins, who has been involved in keeping the history of the 1906 quake alive since 1974. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A San Francisco jury on Wednesday found a man accused of shooting and killing another man more than five years ago guilty of first degree murder, prosecutors announced. In addition to the murder charge, the jury also found Zuri Wilson, 42, guilty of the allegation of lying in wait as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to prosecutors, on the evening of Aug. 23, 2013, Wilson waited for over an hour inside a vacant apartment unit in the city's Sunnydale public housing development, along with another suspect, for the victim Shawnte Otis to come outside. When Otis came outside and began unloading items from his rental car, two masked men rushed out of the vacant housing unit, located at 129 Blythdale Ave. The two suspects, both armed with guns, then ran up behind Otis and shot him the head and back. The suspects immediately fled through a courtyard and large hole in a fence that led to Carrizal Street, prosecutors said. A witness told investigators the two suspects then got into a Nissan Altima and fled the scene. Otis was taken to a hospital, where he died. Investigators were able to obtain surveillance images that showed Wilson driving the suspect vehicle in the area prior to the shooting. Investigators were also able to figure out that Wilson had placed a cellphone call in the area just minutes before the shooting. Weeks later, homicide investigators obtained a search warrant for Wilson and when they tried to arrest him at an apartment complex in San Pablo, Wilson escaped through the back of the building. About an hour later, however, officers arrested Wilson at a BART station, where they found him with about $14,000 in cash, prosecutors said. Inside Wilson's home, investigators found a mask and hat similar to those worn by the suspects during the murder. They also found a button-down shirt similar to the one Wilson was seen wearing in surveillance images prior to the shootings. Furthermore, investigators found the gun of the second shooter, prosecutors said. Investigators were never able to identify the second suspect involved in Otis' killing. After Wilson was initially arrested, prosecutors called him a "hit man." He was previously arrested in 2004 for a 1999 killing in San Francisco and was allegedly on the Police Department's 10 Most Wanted list. Police said at the time that he had a previous conviction for possession of a machine gun and may have been responsible for multiple other murders in the city and the East Bay. Prosecutors, however, did not end up charging him in the 1999 case, citing insufficient evidence. "A dangerous man has been taken off the streets, and we're all safer for it," District Attorney George Gascon said Wednesday in a statement. "Violence simply has no place in our community." Wilson's attorney Stuart Hanlon said he plans to file an appeal on behalf of his client, on the grounds of insufficient evidence and that police may have failed to disclose that they used a Stingray phone tracker during the investigation. "I think there was some serious holes in whether my client was guilty or not," Hanlon said. "There was no direct evidence saying he did the crime." Referring to the alleged use of a tracking device, Hanlon said, "It was used in this case, it was a big issue and how it'll play out in the court of appeals, I don't know." Wilson, who is set to be sentenced on another date, is facing life without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. OAKLAND (BCN) The attorney for a Vallejo man who was convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2015 fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy in Oakland rejected a proposed deal on Wednesday that would have reduced his potential maximum state prison term by at least 35 years. Shiheim Johnson was convicted on March 13 in connection with the shooting death of Torian Hughes, who Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney considered to be her grandson, in the 900 block of Mandela Parkway in West Oakland at about 1:40 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2015. Johnson was 19 at the time and is now 22. Johnson faces up to 60 to 80 years in state prison when he's sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rhonda Burgess. But on Wednesday prosecutor Tim Wagstaffe, with the blessing of Hughes' mother Audrey CandyCorn, who wanted to show mercy to Johnson, offered Johnson a deal that would have removed his prior robbery conviction for sentencing purposes if he pleaded no contest to the charges for which he's already been convicted. In addition to murder, Johnson was convicted of second-degree robbery and two counts of unlawfully possessing a gun, as he wasn't supposed to own one because of his conviction for robbery in 2012. One catch is that Johnson would have had to waive his appellate rights. By accepting the deal, and having his prior conviction removed, Johnson would have faced a term of 25 years to life and been eligible for parole when he's in his 40s. By rejecting the deal, Johnson now faces up to 60 or 80 years to life when Burgess sentences him on July 11 if she chooses to impose the prior robbery conviction for sentencing purposes. Johnson's lawyer Omid Khalilnaji said he didn't want to accept the deal because he didn't want to give up Johnson's appellate rights and he anticipates that the sentencing laws for youthful offenders such as Johnson will be changed within a few years. Gibson McElhaney, who helped raise Hughes, attended most of Johnson's trial but missed its conclusion because she had to go to Los Angeles to deal with another tragedy, which was the fatal shooting of her 21-year-old son Victor McElhaney in Los Angeles on March 10. Hughes was allegedly shot by a teen who is being prosecuted separately in the juvenile court system. Although Johnson didn't pull the trigger, jurors convicted him of first-degree murder because they found that he was a major participant in the shooting and acted with reckless indifference to human life. Wagstaffe said in his closing argument in the trial that Johnson and a boy who was 15 at the time had "a harebrained idea to commit an armed robbery" but it went wrong and led to the fatal shooting of Hughes. Wagstaffe said Hughes wanted to buy a gun from the 15-year-old and Johnson because he had recently been assaulted on BART and felt that he needed to protect himself. Wagstaffe alleged that Johnson pointed a gun at the head of Hughes' cousin, Joe Billy Green, who was with Hughes, took a cellphone and cash from him and then directed the 15-year-old boy to shoot Hughes. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) -- Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise in San Francisco with the number of women infected with syphilis increasing by 144 percent between 2017 and 2018, the city's Department of Public Health announced Wednesday. Because syphilis has re-emerged as a significant public health concern, public health officials are encouraging young women, pregnant women, men who have sex with men and transgender people to get tested. In 2017, 283 infants were born in California with syphilis, health officials said. Also, between 2013 and 2017, the number of cases of chlamydia in San Francisco spiked by 79 percent. Chlamydia is preventable and can be treated, but if left untreated it can cause health problems and possibly result in infertility, according to public health officials. ALSO: Measles case reported on Google campus In order to reduce the risk of getting infected with an STD, health officials recommend using a condom during sex and getting tested regularly. "Quite often, someone can have an STD and not show any symptoms. An important way to stop the ongoing spread of STDs is for more people to get checked regularly and talk to their partners about getting checked as well," Dr. Susan Philip, STD Controller of San Francisco, said in a statement. Public health officials also recommend getting vaccinated against Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Human Papillomavirus, which can also be transmitted through sex. Although STDs are on the rise, the number of HIV infections in the city is going down, with fewer people diagnosed in 2017 than in any other year since the disease was first identified, public health officials said. The recent low HIV infection rates can be attributed to HIV-positive people using treatment to help prevent the spread and also people who are HIV-negative using PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) to prevent infection. More information about STDs and sexual health, as well as a list of free or low-cost STD testing and treatment services in San Francisco, can be found at www.sfcityclinic.org. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. A San Mateo County resident who visited Google has been confirmed to have a case of measles, Santa Clara County public health officials said Wednesday. The case is not connected to two previous measles cases reported in March or others in the Bay Area, according to county spokeswoman Marianna Moles. She said there's no additional risk to the public due to the case at Google. Officials did not confirm whether the individual who contracted measles visited Google headquarters in Mountain View, or a satellite office elsewhere in Santa Clara County. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Thursday marks the 113th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco. To commemorate the event, Mayor London Breed is set to join Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, Police Chief William Scott and city supervisors, among others, for an early morning wreath-laying event. The wreath will be dedicated to the victims who lost their lives in the quake and subsequent fires. Hundreds of San Franciscans are also expected to attend the event, which starts at 4:30 a.m. at Lotta's Fountain at Kearny and Geary streets. At 5:11 a.m., the exact moment the large quake struck 113 years ago, the crowd will pause for a moment. After that, at 5:15 a.m., city officials will head to 20th and Church streets for the annual gilding of the fire hydrant that saved the city's Mission District. To get there, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will be providing a free streetcar ride aboard Vintage Streetcar No. 1, Muni's very first streetcar, first put into service in 1912. A San Mateo County resident who visited Google has been confirmed to have a case of measles, Santa Clara County public health officials said Wednesday. The case is not connected to two previous measles cases reported in March or others in the Bay Area, according to county spokeswoman Marianna Moles. She said there's no additional risk to the public due to the case at Google. Officials did not confirm whether the individual who contracted measles visited Google headquarters in Mountain View, or a satellite office elsewhere in Santa Clara County. The attorney for a Vallejo man who was convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2015 fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy in Oakland rejected a proposed deal on Wednesday that would have reduced his potential maximum state prison term by at least 35 years. Shiheim Johnson was convicted on March 13 in connection with the shooting death of Torian Hughes, who Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney considered to be her grandson, in the 900 block of Mandela Parkway in West Oakland at about 1:40 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2015. Johnson was 19 at the time and is now 22. Johnson faces up to 60 to 80 years in state prison when he's sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rhonda Burgess. But on Wednesday prosecutor Tim Wagstaffe, with the blessing of Hughes' mother Audrey CandyCorn, who wanted to show mercy to Johnson, offered Johnson a deal that would have removed his prior robbery conviction for sentencing purposes if he pleaded no contest to the charges for which he's already been convicted. Experts from the University of California at San Francisco and the University of California at Berkeley will analyze the procedures used to test for radiation on a portion of the former Naval Shipyard at San Francisco's Hunters Point, city officials announced. The independent review comes after Mayor London Breed, City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Supervisor Shamann Walton requested it to determine whether the testing procedures established by state and federal regulatory agencies is sufficient. "We have requested an independent and thorough analysis of the testing procedures at the Shipyard so that the community can have clarity on whether or not the testing that has been done is appropriate and sufficient for this site," Breed said in a statement. "This community deserves transparency and accountability. We are deeply appreciative that UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, two of our most trusted public institutions, have stepped up to take on this important task," she said. The review is set to start immediately and will include interviews with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Navy, the California Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The review will also include a community listening session in which the researchers will hear directly from Hunters Point residents and community members. The Oakland City Council voted on Tuesday night to provide $1.2 million to the city's school district to save schools' restorative justice programs and foster care managers and restore library services. Those programs were threatened when the Oakland Board of Education voted on March 4 to cut nearly $22 million from the district's budget for the 2019-20 school year. The school board said it made the cuts so the district could remain fiscally solvent and afford to pay for raises it agreed to give to teachers to end their seven-day strike in late February and early March. The City Council approved a resolution authored by Councilmembers Sheng Thao, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Noel Gallo and Council President Rebecca Kaplan that allocates up to $690,000 to fund the restorative justice program and $510,000 to restore funding to district libraries and foster youth case managers. The money, which is being provided immediately, is coming from the city of Oakland's higher-than-usual real estate transfer tax revenue. A high-end Italian restaurant in Lafayette may be closed for months after a stubborn grease fire spread to the attic and took several hours to fully extinguish Thursday night. The fire at Postino, listed at 3565 Mt. Diablo Blvd., was initially reported around 6:50 p.m., according to Contra Costa County Fire Protection District spokesman Steve Hill. Postino co-owner Parry Tong said Wednesday evening that the fire happened above the hood over the kitchen's grill. "It was a grease fire that ignited," Tong said. The grill has a safety system in place to put out fires on the grill, but this started above that system and spread into the walls. Santa Rosa police arrested a man Wednesday who is suspected of dealing heroin and methamphetamine in Santa Rosa and surrounding Sonoma County areas. Gersain Martinez-Chavez, 22, of Santa Rosa, was under investigation since February for narcotics trafficking. He was detained Wednesday while walking to his vehicle outside his Arcacia Lane residence, Sgt. Brian Boettger said. During a search of Martinez-Chavez and his home police found three pounds of methamphetamine and two pounds of heroin packaged for sales, $8,500 in cash wrapped in sandwich-style bags, two digital scales and packaging material, Boettger said. Martinez-Chavez was booked in the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of possession for sale and transportation of the two drugs and selling them within 1,000 feet of a school zone. The longest running musical revue in the world will stage its final performances New Year's Eve in San Francisco, the producer said Wednesday. Jo Schuman Silver announced that "Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon" will end its 45-year run on Tuesday, Dec. 31 following 17,216 performances. Hundreds of dignitaries, such as Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Secretary of State George Schultz and David Bowie, have enjoyed the show, which became famous for its iconic hats and spectacular costumes and spoofs of characters in politics and pop culture. Schuman Silver said, "Audiences have embraced "Beach Blanket Babylon" since the day it opened on June 7, 1974." When it opened, performances were scheduled for only six weeks, Schuman Silver said, and then it became a must-see show in San Francisco and an international phenomenon. Thursday will be sunny. Highs will be in the lower 60s to mid 70s. Southeast winds will be around 5 mph, before becoming west winds at 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Thursday night will be mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly cloudy with patchy fog after midnight. Lows will be in the mid 50s. Southwest winds will be 10 to 20 mph. Friday will be partly cloudy with patchy fog in the morning. Highs will be in the 50s to upper 60s. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Experts from the University of California at San Francisco and the University of California at Berkeley will analyze the procedures used to test for radiation on a portion of the former Naval Shipyard at San Francisco's Hunters Point, city officials announced. The independent review comes after Mayor London Breed, City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Supervisor Shamann Walton requested it to determine whether the testing procedures established by state and federal regulatory agencies is sufficient. "We have requested an independent and thorough analysis of the testing procedures at the Shipyard so that the community can have clarity on whether or not the testing that has been done is appropriate and sufficient for this site," Breed said in a statement. "This community deserves transparency and accountability. We are deeply appreciative that UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, two of our most trusted public institutions, have stepped up to take on this important task," she said. The review is set to start immediately and will include interviews with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Navy, the California Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The review will also include a community listening session in which the researchers will hear directly from Hunters Point residents and community members. A report on the findings could be ready as early as fall, at which point the researchers will present it to city officials and community members, according to Breed's office. Of the review, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said, "This will allow an impartial panel of health experts to look at the information and reach their own conclusions about whether the testing of Parcel A and the rest of the shipyard has been adequate. That way everyone gets the facts and the public has confidence in the analysis." Last year, state public health officials began retesting Parcel A-1 at the former naval shipyard, which has since been developed into housing. In February, they released a report concluding, "no radiological health and safety hazards to the residents of Parcel A-1 were observed." Longtime Hunters Point residents however have complained of suffering from illnesses such as cancer and asthma because of alleged contaminated soil. Tetra Tech, EC, Inc., the firm hired in 2002 by the U.S. Navy to rid roughly 20 percent of the former shipyard of radiation has been accused by whistleblowers of falsifying soil samples to minimize the evidence of radiation. Tetra Tech maintains that it stands by the work it performed at the site. According to Tetra Tech, radiological safety issues with the soil were first pointed out in 2012 as part of a quality control process by the Navy. After they were identified, Tetra Tech, at their own cost, went back and remediated the issues, with direct oversight from the Navy and environmental regulators. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A federal appeals court ruled in San Francisco on Thursday that most of three California laws aimed at protecting residents from federal immigration enforcement can remain in place. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld most of a lower court decision that rejected a bid by the administration of President Donald Trump for a preliminary injunction blocking the measures, sometimes known as sanctuary laws. A three-judge panel said California had the authority to enact two of the laws and most of the third law. The state passed the statutes in 2017. A key law upheld by the panel, Senate Bill 54, entitled the California Values Act, bars local officials from informing federal officials about immigrants' release dates from jail except in serious criminal cases. The court said SB 54 is constitutional under a doctrine defined by the U.S. Supreme Court, known as the anti-commandeering rule, which provides that the U.S. government can't commandeer state and local resources to enforce federal law. Circuit Judge Milan Smith wrote in the ruling, "SB 54 may well frustrate the federal government's immigration enforcement efforts. "However, whatever the wisdom of the underlying policy adopted by California, that frustration is permissible, because California has the right, pursuant to the anti-commandeering rule, to refrain from assisting with federal efforts," Smith wrote for the court. The appeals court also left in place a provision of Assembly Bill 450 that requires employers to let workers know when their business has received a three-day notice of an immigration inspection of employee records. The court approved part of a third law, Assembly Bill 103, that directs the California attorney general to inspect the county jails and private facilities in which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security holds undocumented immigrants during civil immigration proceedings. But the appeals court said there should be a preliminary injunction blocking a part of AB 103 that requires the state attorney general to look into the circumstances of the apprehension and transfer of immigration detainees. The panel sent the case back to the court of U.S. District Judge John Mendez in Sacramento for further proceedings. The U.S. Department of Justice sued California over the laws last year, claiming the measures were "a deliberate effort by California to obstruct the United States' enforcement of federal immigration law." The government appealed after Mendez declined to grant a preliminary injunction blocking most provisions of the laws. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. CONTACT - Media: CONTACT - Investor Relations: Amsterdam +31.20.721.4488 Brussels +32.2.620.15.50 +33.1.70.48.24.17 Dublin Paris +353 1 617 4221 +33.1.70.48.24.45 Lisbon +351.210.600.614 EURONEXT P&L IMPACT OF IFRS 16 APPLICATION IN 2019 Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, London and Paris 18 April 2019 Euronext, the leading pan-European exchange in the Eurozone, today announced the expected impact of IFRS 16 on its 2019 P&L. Due to the adoption of IFRS 16 on 1 January 2019, Euronext expects in Q1 2019 a 2.7m positive impact on its EBITDA, a slightly positive impact on its operating profit (0.1m) and an unsignificant impact on its net income. This impact in Q1 2019 is expected to be similar for the four quarters of 2019. Unaudited, In m QUARTERLY expected impact of IFRS 16 in 2019 (based on Q1 2019 impact) Revenue - Operational expenses excluding D&A -2.7 Salaries and employee benefits - Other Operational Expenses -2.7 System & Communication -0.3 Professional Services -1.2 Clearing expense - Accommodation -1.2 Other Operational Expenses - EBITDA +2.7 Depreciation & Amortisation +2.7 Operating Profit before Exceptional items +0.1 Exceptional items - Operating Profit +0.1 Net financing income / (expense) -0.1 Results from equity investments - Profit before income tax -0.1 Income tax expense -0.0 Share of non-controlling interests - Net income -0.0 Euronexts 2019 cost guidance (In 2019, Euronext expects to limit the growth rate of its operating costs to a low single digit1, despite the consolidation of Euronext Dublin for the full year of 20192), remains unchanged, and does not include IFRS 16 impact mentioned above. For more information on the opening balance sheet impact, please refer to Page 167 of the 2018 Registration Document available on www.euronext.com . CONTACTS - Media Pauline Bucaille +33 1 70 48 24 41; pbucaille@euronext.com Analysts & investors Aurelie Cohen +33 1 70 48 24 17; ir@euronext.com About Euronext Euronext is the leading pan-European exchange in the Eurozone, covering Belgium, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal and the UK. With 1,300 listed issuers worth 3.5 trillion in market capitalisation as of end March 2019, Euronext is an unmatched blue chip franchise that has 24 issuers in the Morningstar Eurozone 50 Index and a strong diverse domestic and international client base. Euronext operates regulated and transparent equity and derivatives markets and is the largest centre for debt and funds listings in the world. Its total product offering includes Equities, Exchange Traded Funds, Warrants & Certificates, Bonds, Derivatives, Commodities and Indices. Euronext also leverages its expertise in running markets by providing technology and managed services to third parties. In addition to its main regulated market, Euronext also operates Euronext GrowthTM and Euronext AccessTM, simplifying access to listing for SMEs. Disclaimer This press release is for information purposes only and is not a recommendation to engage in investment activities. This press release is provided as is without representation or warranty of any kind. While all reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content, Euronext does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Euronext will not be held liable for any loss or damages of any nature ensuing from using, trusting or acting on information provided. No information set out or referred to in this publication may be regarded as creating any right or obligation. The creation of rights and obligations in respect of financial products that are traded on the exchanges operated by Euronexts subsidiaries shall depend solely on the applicable rules of the market operator. All proprietary rights and interest in or connected with this publication shall vest in Euronext. This press release speaks only as of this date. Euronext refers to Euronext N.V. and its affiliates. Information regarding trademarks and intellectual property rights of Euronext is located at www.euronext.com/terms-use. 2019, Euronext N.V. - All rights reserved. The Euronext Group processes your personal data in order to provide you with information about Euronext (the "Purpose"). With regard to the processing of these personal data, Euronext will comply with its obligations under the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR), and any applicable national laws, rules and regulations implementing the GDPR as provided in its privacy statement available at: https://www.euronext.com/en/privacy-policy . In accordance with the applicable legislation you have rights as regard to the processing of your personal data: for more information on your rights, please refer to: https://www.euronext.com/data_subjects_rights_request_information , , for any request regarding the processing of your data or if you want to unsubscribe to this press release, please use our data subject request form https://connect2.euronext.com/form/data-subjects-rights-request or email our Data Protection Officer at dpo@euronext.com . 1 Compared to Group operating costs excluding D&A for 2018 of 260.8m 2 For 2018, Euronext Dublin costs were only consolidated for 3 quarters. As a reminder, the operating costs for Euronext Dublin for Q1 2018 were 5.8m Attachment NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global mHealth market is being driven by the increasing penetration of tablets and smartphones, and growing adoption of connected healthcare devices and mHealth apps. Rising geriatric population prone to chronic diseases, increasing focus on patent-centric healthcare, and growing demand for remote patient monitoring are also helping in this regard. Generating a revenue of $23.0 billion in 2017 as per a P&S Intelligence study, the market is predicted to advance through the forecast period 20182023 at a CAGR of 33.5%! Request to get the sample pages of the report: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/mobile-healthcare-market/report-sample mHealth refers to the collection of medical data and delivery of healthcare services via mobile phones and tablets. On the basis of offering, the mHealth market can be divided into mHealth apps, connected devices, and services. Among these, the connected devices category led the market in 2017 with 57.2% share, due to a growing demand for remote patient monitoring solutions. In places, where peoples houses and healthcare centers are distant, these collect patients medical data and send it to medical practitioners via the internet, thus allowing for real-time disease management and improved patient outcomes. Among the several types of connected devices available are blood pressure monitors, blood glucose monitors, multiparameter monitors, echocardiography (ECG) monitors, sleep apnea monitors, pulse oximeters, and others. In 2017, blood pressure monitors held the largest revenue share (28.7%) in the mHealth market owing to an increased prevalence of chronic disease and the easy mobility of such devices. While blood pressure monitors will still be the market leader during the forecast period, blood glucose monitors will witness the highest CAGR (31.9%) due to the increasing number of diabetes patients. Browse report overview with 186 tables and 34 figures spread through 203 pages and detailed TOC on mHealth Market at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/mobile-healthcare-market Thus, we see that chronic diseases will be one of the major growth factors of the mHealth market in the future. As per a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, dated July 2017, 30.3 million people in the U.S. already had diabetes, while 84.1 million more were suffering from prediabetes, which can lead to type 2 diabetes, if not treated. Other common chronic diseases include cardiovascular diseases, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer. With mHealth apps, doctors can help patients manage these diseases via remote monitoring and e-consultation. Further, by monitoring patients condition, such apps also help in medical adherence, which is crucial to managing chronic issues. This feature, coupled with their easy availability and cost-effectiveness, is increasing their demand in high-income countries as well as low and middle-income countries. This gives mHealth market players a lucrative growth potential, as they could benefit by launching advanced chronic disease management apps. This is supported by the study finding that during the forecast period, mHealth apps category within the offering segment will advance with the greatest CAGR (38.9%). Make enquiry before buying the report: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/send-enquiry?enquiry-url=mobile-healthcare-market By recording and sharing medical data, connected devices and mHealth apps also lower the healthcare expenditure by minimizing hospital readmissions, clinic revisits, medical tests, and other physical examinations. A study, conducted by New York University, Harbin Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University between 2015 and 2016, showed that mHealth helped reduce the glycated hemoglobin and blood glucose levels, hospital visits, and medical expenses of type 2 diabetes patients. Therefore, it is clear that the growing prevalence of chronic diseases and the need to reduce healthcare costs will take the domain forward. More Related Reports by P&S Intelligence Blockchain in Healthcare Market Geographically, Asia-Pacific (APAC) is anticipated to be the fastest growing blockchain in healthcare market, with at a CAGR of over 70.0% during the forecast period. This fastest growth is primarily attributed to the growing focus on blockchain technology in this region as well as unmet need in areas of clinical data exchange and interoperability, and drug supply chain management. For example, in July 2018, Singapore Innovate Pte. Ltd. (SGInnovate), Singapores government-owned technology development firm, invested in MediLOT Technologies, a blockchain and healthcare analytics start-up. https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/blockchain-in-healthcare-market Electronic Health Record Market The electronic health record market is forecasted to witness the fastest growth in Asia-Pacific (APAC), at a CAGR of 5.7%. This growth is attributed to the aggressive investments by governments, non-profit entities, and the private sector in EHR systems; growing aging population; and rising incidence of chronic diseases in various countries, such as India and China. https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/electronic-medical-records-market About P&S Intelligence P&S Intelligence is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. Contact: P&S Intelligence Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada) International: +1-347-960-6455 Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com English French Paris, April 18, 2019 Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, announces that it has offset 100% of its 2018 CO 2 emissions worldwide, through a dedicated wind farm program. In addition to offsetting emissions from its data centers, which it has done since 2014, Atos now ensures that this program also includes the offsetting of carbon emissions1 produced by its offices and business travel. This initiative is part of Atos global environmental program supporting Advance 2021 strategic plan. As part of the world effort to tackle climate change, Atos is working to continuously reduce its environmental footprint through the implementation of its environmental program with multiple initiatives, including modernizing its data centers, increasing the use of renewable energies, reducing its carbon footprint and improving its overall energy efficiency. To offset its CO 2 emissions from all its activities, Atos has invested in three wind farms located in India. The project , which was started in 2010 across three states in India (Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra), promotes the use of renewable energy and has led to the installation of a total of 137 wind turbines generators. Every year, the three wind farms produce 109.6 megawatts and power approximately 40,000 households in rural areas. They improve the production capacity of the local industries and businesses and contribute to the development of the local economy providing new jobs and to education and healthcare initiatives. Atos is supporting businesses in their journeys towards more sustainable operations. Going forward, Atos clients can report ZERO in their own carbon reporting for the solutions they host in Atos datacenters2. Since 2008, Atos has rolled-out a major environmental program that encompasses the modernization of our datacenters and the reduction of their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)3, the increasing use of decarbonized electricity and a global offsetting program. Within our Advance 2021 strategic plan, we are committed t to reducing our carbon emissions by revenue up to 20% (2016 baseline) in order to help tackle climate change. We are therefore proud to be now delivering fully compensated hosting services to our clients. says Philippe Mareine, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Atos. So that this project conforms to the VCS4 standard, Atos has chosen to work with EcoAct. As a leading carbon neutrality advisory company, EcoAct is very proud to support Atos in the implementation of its carbon neutrality strategy especially as they expanded the scope of their carbon offsetting in 2018 to their offices and business travel worldwide, in addition to their datacenter emissions says Arnaud Dore, Executive Director at EcoAct France. Over the long-term, Atos carbon reduction targets have been approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as in line with the global effort to limit the rise of climate change below 2C. For further information on Atos Environmental Sustainability approach and performance: *** About Atos Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 120,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of over 12 billion. European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, the Group provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions through its Digital Transformation Factory, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting-edge technologies and industry knowledge, Atos supports the digital transformation of its clients across all business sectors. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Syntel, Unify and Worldline. Atos is listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index. Press Contact Lucie Duchateau lucie.duchateau@atos.net - +33 (0)7 62 85 35 10 1 Emissions evaluated at 222 137 teqCO2e in 2018 for the GHG Protocol Scopes 1, 2 and 3 (energy and travel) 2 Scope 3 GHG Protocol - outsourced services 3 Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a ratio that describes how efficiently a computer data center uses energy; specifically, how much energy is used by the computing equipment. 4 Verified Carbon Standard - standard for certifying carbon emissions reductions Attachment PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed that Vietnam always treasures and wishes to enhance the friendship and multifaceted cooperation with traditional friends in East-Central Europe, and the Czech Republic is a priority among them. He noted with satisfaction the recent progress in bilateral relations in multiple spheres, adding that the two countries have maintained delegation exchanges at all levels, including a State visit to the Czech Republic by then President Truong Tan Sang in 2015 and a similar trip to Vietnam by President Zeman in 2017. The Vietnamese Government leader applauded the encouraging developments in bilateral economic, trade and investment partnerships. He called on both sides to promote collaboration in the fields they have potential for such as tourism, air transport, and mining. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets with Czech President Milos Zeman in Prague on April 17th (Photo: VNA) He also thanked leaders and all-level authorities of the Czech Republic for creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese people to settle down in the country, thereby helping to bolster the countries friendship and cooperation. At the meeting, PM Phuc also asked the Czech Republic and President Zeman to support the early signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement. For his part, President Zeman affirmed that the Czech Republic attaches importance to the traditional friendship and cooperation with Vietnam. He appreciated PM Phucs visit, voicing his belief that with the nearly-70-year relationship, the large number of Vietnamese who used to study in the Czech Republic, and the community of over 65,000 Vietnamese in the country, bilateral relations boast huge potential for stronger development in the future. He also expressed his delight at the two sides active implementation of the deals signed during his trip to Vietnam in 2017, including the launch of a direct air route linking Hanoi and Prague. With the signing and ratification of the EVFTA, which the Czech Republic completely supports, the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the countries will enjoy stronger and more substantive and effective strides in the coming time, the President added./. Dublin, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Kuwait Express Delivery and E-Commerce Logistics Market Outlook to 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. It is expected that Kuwait E-commerce logistics will grow at a robust CAGR of 21.1% in the market in terms of revenue in the 5 years till the year ending 2022. Kuwait Express Logistics Market Overview and Size Express delivery systems have been considered as a crucial segment of the Kuwait logistics market, utilized for faster delivery of shipments in comparison to general services. Express delivery companies have created a door to door linkage across domestic and international markets and have developed advanced shipment tracking facilities to cater time-sensitive needs of the logistics sector. The gradual shift of the population from retail shopping to online shopping of electronic items, high internet penetration, daily grocery needs, apparels and others in the country has triggered the demand for express logistics in the country. The geographical location of Kuwait has aided the overall market growth majorly due to good connectivity with Asia Pacific countries and GCC regions. Kuwait Express Logistics Market Segmentation Mode of Transport Road express has dominated the express delivery market in terms of revenue and has accounted for maximum revenue share during the period. Road infrastructure is highly developed which ensures majority of the express logistics player to use roadways to transport goods within the Kuwait as compared to air express as shipment through air is more costly. In order to transport the goods internationally, the air cargo takes lesser hours as compared to road express logistics. Delivery Type Kuwait express delivery market has been dominated by international express in 2017. Factors such as high volume of international trade, shipments from expats and increase in business activities have resulted in a higher volume of international express shipments in Kuwait. Domestic players have contributed through effective collaborations with global companies in order to enhance their reach to the remote areas of the country. B2B segment has dominated the Kuwait express logistics during 2017. These express logistics services are used by businesses to deliver goods within a specific time frame. Competitive Landscape in the Kuwait Express Delivery Market The domestic express and logistics firms have a strong presence in several cities nationwide. In Kuwait express delivery market is largely dominated by major global players such as DHL, FedEx, Aramex, UPS and others which collectively contribute to the majority of revenues in the international express delivery market. Kuwait Express Logistics Market Future Outlook and Projections The use of information technology is anticipated to increase in the express delivery services in Kuwait with rising competition among the express delivery players in the country. The last mile delivery step to the consumer will gain more importance in future due to the rising share of B2C parcel logistics in the market. Kuwait E-Commerce Logistics Market Overview and Size The Kuwait E-commerce industry has witnessed a positive growth over the past three years. Rise in the smart phones shipments in the country has augmented the growth of E-commerce sector in the country. Various logistics service provider offers additional services and offer discounts for online orders as they help in reduction of additional management processes. Kuwait E-Commerce Logistics Market Segmentation E-commerce merchant through in-house logistics have captured the majority of the market share in terms of the total number of shipments in the year 2017. It has been observed that logistics companies in the Kuwait prefer to manage operations on their own which has resulted in the supremacy of this segment. On the other hand, it was witnessed that international E-commerce companies prefer to outsource logistics to 3PL companies to avoid the obstacles in establishing their own operations. Same day delivery within five hours has dominated the market in terms of number of orders owing to increasing focus of the companies on providing better services coupled with increasing customer needs for better service. Clothing, Fashion Accessories, White Goods, Furniture and Others are the major products which are delivered through same day delivery beyond five hours duration. Comparative Landscape in the Kuwait E-Commerce Logistics Market The E-commerce logistics industry of the Kuwait was observed to be concentrated with the presence of major players such as Aramex, DHL and FedEx covering around majority of the market share in 2017. These companies were witnessed to compete on parameters such as shipping points, coverage area, delivery assistance (last mile) and others. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Research Methodology 2.1. Market Definitions 2.2. Abbreviations 2.3. Consolidated Research Approach 2.4. Variables (Dependent and Independent) 2.5. Correlation Matrix 2.6. Regression Matrix 2.7. Limitations and Conclusion 3. Kuwait Express Logistics Ecosystem 3.1. Supplier Side 3.2. Demand Side 4. Kuwait Express Logistics Market Overview and Genesis 5. Value Chain for Kuwait Express Logistics Market 6. Express Logistics Market 6.1. Market Size by Revenue, 2012-2017 6.2. Market Segmentation by Express Movement (Air Express and Road Express), 2017 6.2.1. Cross Comparison by Express Movement, 2017 6.3. By Delivery Type (International Express and Domestic Express), 2017 6.4. By Business Mode (B2B, B2C and C2C), 2017 7. Pricing Analysis for Kuwait Express Logistics Market 8. Issues and Challenges in Kuwait Express Logistics Market 9. Government Role in Kuwait Express Logistics Market - Customs Clearance Process 9.1 Government Role in Kuwait Express Logistics Market - Documentary Requirements for Customs 9.2 Government Role in Kuwait Express Logistics Market - For Vehicles 10. Competitive Scenario of Kuwait Freight Forwarding Market 11. Directory of Major Players in Kuwait Express Logistics Market 12. Company Profile of Major Express Logistics Companies 12.1. DHL Express Kuwait 12.2. ARAMEX Kuwait 12.3. FedEx Express 12.4. UPS Express 12.5. SKYCOM Express and OCS ANA GROUP 12.6. Jeezan Cargo and Frontline Express 13. Future Outlook and Projections 13.1. Kuwait Express Logistics Market - Future Outlook and Projections, 2017-2022 13.2. Kuwait Express Logistics Market - Future Segmentation by Express Movement and By Delivery Type, 2022 14. E-Commerce Market 14.1. Overview and Market Size, 2015-2017 14.2. Segmentation by Time Duration (Same Day delivery Beyond Five Hours, Delivery Within Five Hours and Others), 2017 14.3. Segmentation by Distribution Channel (E-Commerce Merchants and 3PL Companies) and Mode of Payment, 2017 15. Competitive Scenario for Kuwait E-Commerce Logistics Market 16. Kuwait E-Commerce Logistics Market - Future Outlook and Projections, 2017-2022 17. Kuwait Express Logistics Market - Analyst Recommendations Companies Mentioned ARAMEX Kuwait DHL Express FedEx Express Frontline Express Jeezan Cargoa OCS ANA GROUP SKYCOM Express UPS Express For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/v9div5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. MOSCOW, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mechel PAO (MOEX: MTLR; NYSE: MTL), a leading Russian mining and metals company, reports that the Supervisory Board of Russias Industry and Trade Ministrys Industrial Development Fund approved a low-interest loan to Mechel Groups Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant for upgrading its wire and rope production facilities. The projects cost will total 1.5 billion rubles, with the Industrial Development Fund footing the bill for 50% of this sum, or 750 million rubles. The loans maturity is five years. The project includes a large-scale technical upgrade of Beloretsk Metallurgical Plants wire and rope production facilities and installation of new level-type wire drawing equipment. The upgrade will enable the plant to produce the types of wire Russia is currently importing, with high quality characteristics including plastic properties, surface finish and full-length mechanical uniformity. Springs, ropes and other products made from such wires will have a longer life expectancy. The project also includes implementing best available technologies which will yield additional effect of minimizing the facilities impact on the environment as the new equipment will be compliant with the most stringent ecological standards. The mills will be equipped with the mechanical descaling line which will enable the plant to stop using chemicals for rod descaling. Beloretsk Metallurgical Plants new products will be widely in demand in aviation, shipbuilding, automobile, construction, oil and gas, electronic, furniture and chemical industries. Upgrading our wire and rope production facilities will help us dramatically improve our outputs quality and efficiency, make our production safer and more environmentally friendly. We plan to complete this upgrade in 2023. We are grateful to the Industrial Development Fund for their loan support of our project. I am sure that our new output with its improved quality will be in demand not only domestically, but internationally as well, Mechel PAOs Chief Executive Officer Oleg Korzhov commented. Mechel PAO Ekaterina Videman Tel: + 7 495 221 88 88 ekaterina.videman@mechel.com Mechel is an international mining and steel company. Its products are marketed in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa. Mechel unites producers of coal, iron ore concentrate, steel, rolled products, ferroalloys, heat and electric power. All of its enterprises work in a single production chain, from raw materials to high value-added products. Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Mechel, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not intend to update these statements. We refer you to the documents Mechel files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned Risk Factors and Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in our Form 20-F, that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the achievement of anticipated levels of profitability, growth, cost and synergy of our recent acquisitions, the impact of competitive pricing, the ability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and licenses, the impact of developments in the Russian economic, political and legal environment, volatility in stock markets or in the price of our shares or ADRs, financial risk management and the impact of general business and global economic conditions. ATLANTA, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CommisionTrac , a software company serving the commercial real estate industry, announces significant growth in its staff size, customer base and platform use. As of April 1, commercial real estate brokers had used CommissionTrac to process over 4,700 deals and $3.4 billion in real estate transactions worth more than $125 million in commissions an 885% increase over April 1, 2018. CommissionTrac was founded by Turner Levison (CEO) and his father, Dan Levison (COO), to make deal management and accounting easier for commercial real estate brokers. The cloud-based platform automates everything from deal approval and invoicing to deposits and commissions. Brokers use CommissionTrac to run production, financial and comp reports, and CommissionTrac integrates with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop and Salesforce. Some CommissionTrac customers have reported savings of 4-5 hours per week in time spent on deal management and accounting. Since Fall 2018, CommissionTrac has doubled the number of people and brokerages using its platform, while making key hires on its technical and customer success teams. The company recently moved into a larger office space near Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, and this month named local entrepreneur, investor and former Techstars Atlanta managing director Michael Cohn as a Board Observer; Techstars is an investor in CommissionTrac. CommissionTrac raised a seed round in July 2018, and last month added $1.15 million in capital to accelerate sales, marketing and product development. The past six months have been a whirlwind of activity and growth, says Turner Levison. Customers are telling us that the system not only saves them considerable time but more importantly, it helps them understand their businesses better so they can make more informed decisions about which deals to pursue and how to approach them. Our use of modern technologies, such as cloud and accounting automation, are making deal analysis and financial management faster, easier and smarter than ever before. Ive been an enthusiastic supporter of CommissionTrac since we welcomed the company into Techstars last year, says Cohn. Turner and Dan have a clear vision, steeped in real-world experience, for how to make brokers more efficient and effective. Whats more, continues Cohn, the commercial real estate market, which is dominated by legacy software built on old architecture, is ripe for disruption. Early leaders like CommissionTrac in vertical SaaS markets such as commercial real estate often face less competition and have an opportunity to dominate their market. CommissionTrac is on its way to establishing itself as the industry paradigm, and Im excited to support its work in my role as a Board Observer. About CommissionTrac CommissionTrac is the first brokerage transaction management, accounting automation platform for commercial real estate brokers. It fills the need for technology that manages everything that happens after the deal and helps brokers get paid faster. For more information visit www.commissiontrac.com . NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ITE Management L.P. (ITE) is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, American Railcar Industries, Inc. (ARI or the Company), has entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of the manufacturing business assets of ARI to The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (Greenbrier). The transaction contemplates the sale of certain assets and assumed liabilities of ARIs manufacturing business for $430M (subject to balance sheet adjustments) consisting of cash and convertible debt. ITE Rail Fund L.P. completed the acquisition and take-private of ARI five months ago, on December 5, 2018, and will continue to own the maintenance and servicing, and leasing businesses, along with the more than 14,000 railcars associated with the leasing business, which is part of its portfolio of over 30,000 railcars. Through the sale of ARIs manufacturing business, ITE and Greenbrier will continue to grow their respective businesses to create a better long-term leasing and operating platform to provide best-in-class railcars and services to North Americas industrial companies. Jason Koenig, a Partner of ITE, commented, We think this transaction will provide great long-term benefits for ARIs customers and employees. The sale of the manufacturing business to Greenbrier is the next phase of ITEs broad strategic operating plan in the freight railcar business. We now have one of the larger railcar fleets in North America, top tier maintenance and servicing operations, and a great relationship with a leading manufacturer in Greenbrier. ITE continues its focus on working with great people, companies, and partners to build and move Americas infrastructure. The transaction is subject to regulatory review prior to closing. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. acted as financial advisor and Willkie Farr & Gallagher acted as legal counsel to ARI in connection with the proposed transaction. About ITE Management L.P. ITE Management, an affiliate of ITE Rail Fund L.P., is an investment firm targeting industrial and transportation assets and companies, and related industries and services with a critical focus on investments that generate current cash. ITE Managements investment strategies focus on broad macro-economic themes. The principals of ITE Management are seasoned industry professionals in investments, investment management, banking, manufacturing and leasing with an average of over 25 years of experience. Forward Looking Statement Disclaimer This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, many of which are beyond our ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as expects, anticipates, intends, plans, believes, seeks, estimates, will or words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements involve risks, assumptions, and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, risks related to the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the transaction; the ability to retain certain key employees of the Company; and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made and are not guarantees of future performance. The Company expressly disclaims any duty to provide updates to any forward-looking statements made in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Investor Relations: 636-940-6000 Read the redacted Mueller report as released by Attorney General William Barr: Your browser does not support the iframe HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later. Public at last, special counsel Robert Mueller's report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump had tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. In airport news, San Francisco International gets a new long-term parking garage and offers a deal; international arrivals at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson are confronted with a shortage of Customs and Border Protection staff; Los Angeles International wants to build a Terminal 9; CLEAR raises prices for SkyMiles members; and the shared-use Club LAS lounge at Las Vegas McCarran's Terminal 1 moves to a new location. San Francisco International is marking the opening of a new long-term parking garage with a discounted $18 daily rate effective May 1. (Standard rates are $25 per day.) The six-story garage, with 3,600 spaces, is at 794 South Airport Boulevard, next to the existing long-term garage. The airport said the new garage offers "vehicular interconnectivity" with the existing garage as well as a camera-based parking guidance system. "Upon entry to the facilities, variable-messaging signage communicates real-time parking space availability and lets drivers know where to turn and park," a spokesman said. Three percent of the parking spots are equipped with EV charging stations, and more will be added as demand increases. The new facility effectively doubles the number of long-term parking spaces at SFO. The old surface lots near the United hangar will be used for overflow parking when needed. Eventually, the airport's AirTrain will reach the new parking lot-- you will see the pillars under construction on your way in. Some international travelers arriving at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport are encountering "hours-long waits" to go through Customs, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The newspaper said it was told by airport officials that Customs and Border Protection staffing at the airport has been cut back because a number of its agents have been re-assigned to the southern U.S. border to help out with the immigration situation there. It said Customs and Border Protection has confirmed that it is sending CBP officers from airports on "temporary assignments to the southwest border" but didn't estimate how long they might be away. Airport officials said they are urging their congressional delegation to get more CBP staff assigned to ATL. If you don't already have Global Entry, now's the time to get it! All of those ongoing construction and expansion projects at Los Angeles International might not be sufficient to meet future demand. The Los Angeles Times reports that Los Angeles World Airports has a plan to build an entirely new passenger terminal Terminal 9 on the east side of Sepulveda Boulevard in space currently taken up by airplane hangars, maintenance facilities and an American Eagle concourse. It said the proposed new terminal would have up to 21 gates, with the final number depending on how many gates are designed to handle long-haul international flights vs. single-aisle domestic aircraft. An airport official said those gates wold mostly replace existing remote gates at LAX, and that the proposed terminal would reduce the traffic impact on local roads. The facility would be linked to LAX's central terminal area via a pedestrian bridge above Sepulveda Boulevard, and it would have its own parking garage and security screening. It would also require another stop to be added for the new intra-airport people-mover currently under construction. Don't miss a shred of important travel news! Sign up for our FREE bi-weekly email alerts CLEAR, which uses biometric technology to let its members skip the lines at TSA security checkpoints, is raising prices for new enrollees from the Delta SkyMiles program. Prices for SkyMiles members who joined CLEAR before April 5 will be maintained at previous levels -- $99 for general SkyMiles members; $79 for Silver, Gold and Platinum Medallions and SkyMiles credit card holders; and free for Diamond Medallions. Those members can continue to renew their CLEAR membership at those prices as long as they maintain their SkyMiles status. For those who are new to CLEAR, the new pricing is $119 for general members, $109 for Silvers, Golds, Platinums, and SkyMiles credit card holders; and free for Diamonds. The membership price for travelers who don't belong to SkyMiles is $179 a year. SkyMiles members get discounted memberships because Delta is a part owner of CLEAR. Airport Lounge Development, which operates shared-use passenger lounges at major airports, has replaced its Terminal 1 Club lounge at Las Vegas McCarran with a new one. The new McCarran Club LAS lounge in Terminal 1 is accessible from the concourse level between Brooks Brothers and TUMI. The 7,000-square-foot lounge can accommodate 149 travelers, and is divided into five zones: a Replenish Zone with a bar, hot and cold buffet, and selection of daily snacks; a Productivity Zone for business travelers with electrical outlets, ergonomic chairs and access to a computer and printer; a Relax Zone with comfortable seating and a chance to socialize with other travelers; a Resting Zone with recliners and ottomans as well as reading lamps; and a Refresh Zone with private restrooms and shower suites. The lounge is available with the purchase of a $40 day pass, and is also open to Priority Pass members, including Lounge Pass and Lounge Key members. The company also operates a Club LAS lounge in McCarran's Terminal 3. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis. PATERNA, Spain When archaeologists in Spain unearthed layers of human bones from a mass grave last year, the remains of one body emerged draped in a shirt that had the letters MG embroidered on it in red. The initials spoke volumes to Daniel Galan. They sparked hope he would be able to provide a proper burial for his grandfather, Miguel Galan, a village mayor who disappeared eight decades ago along with tens of thousands of others summarily executed by the forces of Gen. Francisco Franco during and after the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. Galan is among a small number of descendants promised provincial government funds for DNA tests to confirm that their ancestors were tossed into a mass grave at Paterna Cemetery in Valencia. But with Spains national election this month exposing an ideological divide that has echoes of the clash of left and right during the civil war, some Spaniards worry they may lose the chance to recover their dead. The far-right Vox party, which recently exploded onto Spains political scene, wants to scrap efforts to exhume and identify Francos victims. Its ambition counters the pledge by the ruling Socialists to remove Francos remains from a huge, publicly maintained mausoleum near Madrid so they no longer attract nationalists celebrating the dictator as a hero. Depending on who wins, logically there would be a change. If the right wins, well, all this will just stop or worse, said Galan, 61. For other Spaniards, digging up bodies just stirs up a painful past unnecessarily and runs counter to the desire for reconciliation that made it possible for Spain to have a bloodless transition from dictatorship to democracy after Francos death in 1975. They also fear that the exhumations could lead to a shaming of those who had relatives on the side of Francos right-wing forces. Activists and relatives pushed for the excavations after the then-Socialist government passed the 2007 Law of Historical Memory, which allowed exhumations of mass graves and condemned atrocities committed during Francos leadership. But the law did not guarantee funding, and the conservative Popular Party that governed between 2011 and 2018 included none in the national budget. Experts have estimated for the Spanish government that 740 mass graves and 9,000 bodies have been exhumed nationally since 2000. That leaves an estimated 114,000 bodies still hidden in 2,500 mass graves, they added. Renata Brito and Joseph Wilson are Associated Press writers. DALLAS, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cambium Learning Group, Inc., a leading educational solutions and services company committed to helping all students reach their full potential, announced today that two of its business unitsLearning A-Z, offering preK6 literacy resources, and ExploreLearning, offering online math and science solutions for grades K12garnered 11 Best Educational Software (BESSIE) Awards in 2019. The companys business units were honored in the following categories, making this the fifth consecutive year Cambium Learning Group has won multiple awards. In addition, ExploreLearning Gizmos was featured in the 2019 product review page. Early Learning, Literacy Skills Website: Learning A-Z Headsprout Early Elementary, Reading Skills Website: Learning A-Z Headsprout Early Elementary, Science Website: Learning A-Z Science A-Z Upper Elementary, Critical Thinking Skills Website: Learning A-Z Raz-Plus Upper Elementary, ELL Website: Learning A-Z Raz-Plus ELL Edition Upper Elementary, Language Arts Website: Learning A-Z Writing A-Z Upper Elementary, Math Fluency Website: ExploreLearning Reflex Upper Elementary, Science and Literacy Website: Learning A-Z Science A-Z Multi-level, Critical Thinking Skills Website: Learning A-Z Raz-Plus Multi-level, Math and Science Online Simulations: ExploreLearning Gizmos Teacher Tools, Online Blended Reading Platform: Learning A-Z Raz-Plus ELL Edition Its an honor to be recognized this year with 11 BESSIE Awards, said John Campbell, Chief Executive Officer of Cambium Learning Group. We strive to offer high-quality learning technologies that make a positive difference in the lives of teachers and students every day. In addition to teachers confirming that our solutions work in the classroom, these awards further validate our mission. The 25th annual BESSIE Awards are sponsored by The ComputED Gazette, a leading online educational resource created by educators who have provided the finest computer education to children and adults for more than 20 years. The awards target innovative and content-rich programs and websites that provide parents and teachers with the technology to foster educational excellence. Winners are selected from titles submitted by publishers worldwide. About Cambium Learning Group Cambium Learning Group is an award-winning educational technology solutions leader dedicated to helping all students reach their potential through individualized and differentiated instruction. Using a research-based, personalized approach, Cambium Learning Group delivers SaaS resources and instructional products that engage students and support teachers in fun, positive, safe and scalable environments. These solutions are provided through Learning A-Z (online differentiated instruction for elementary school reading, writing and science), ExploreLearning (online interactive math and science solutions), Voyager Sopris Learning (blended solutions that accelerate struggling learners to achieve in literacy and math and professional development for teachers), and VKidz Learning (online comprehensive homeschool education and programs for literacy and science). We believe that every student has unlimited potential; that teachers matter; and that data, instruction, and practice are the keys to success in the classroom and beyond. Come learn with us at www.cambiumlearning.com. About Learning AZ Learning A-Z is a literacy-focused PreK6 educational provider of technology-enabled learning solutions. Our products blend traditional teacher-led instruction with robust online resources to make teaching more effective and efficient, practice more accessible and personalized, assessment more strategic and automated, and learning more informed and proactive. Our suite of products includes: Raz-Plus, Reading A-Z, Raz-Kids, Headsprout, Science A-Z, Writing A-Z, and Vocabulary A-Z. Learning A-Z products are used by more than 8 million students in more than 170 countries. For more information, please visit www.learninga-z.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter. About ExploreLearning ExploreLearning believes all students can have success in math and science. Our online solutions bring effective, research-proven instructional strategies to classrooms around the world. Gizmos (www.explorelearning.com) is the worlds largest library of interactive, online simulations for math and science in grades 312; Reflex (www.reflexmath.com) is the most effective solution available for math fact fluency development; and Science4Us (www.science4us.com) is an award-winning program that gives K2 students a head start in STEM. For more of the latest news from ExploreLearning, please visit https://blog.explorelearning.com/. Investor and Media Contact ExploreLearning Tammy Weisman, Vice President, Marketing tammy.weisman@explorelearning.com Page Content An employee is entitled to pursue her case for violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), despite her conceded noneligibility for FMLA leave, after the employer erroneously indicated that she was eligible for the leave, according to a federal district court. The plaintiff began working for the city of Houston in May 2017. Upon hire, the plaintiff received the city's policies and procedures manual, which included the city's FMLA policy. The policy clearly stated that only employees who have worked for the city for one yearin addition to meeting other statutory requirementsare eligible for FMLA leave. In February 2018, after her daughter was hospitalized, the plaintiff requested FMLA leave and asked the city's FMLA coordinator to send her an FMLA packet. The coordinator sent the plaintiff a packet, which included a Notice of Eligibility and Rights and Responsibilities, on which the coordinator checked a box stating that the plaintiff was eligible for FMLA leave. Several days later, the coordinator sent a corrected notice, indicating that because the plaintiff had not been employed for one year, she was not eligible for FMLA leave. The plaintiff was terminated soon thereafter. The plaintiff sued the city of Houston for violations of the FMLA, including both a claim for interference with FMLA rights and for retaliation based upon the exercise of FMLA rights. Among other defenses, the employer argued that it was entitled to summary judgment as to the plaintiff's claims because she was not eligible for FMLA leave under the statute, based upon her tenure with the city. [SHRM members-only toolkit: Managing Family and Medical Leave] The plaintiff argued, and the district court agreed, that the city could not rely on the plaintiff's ineligibility in light of the erroneously provided notice informing the plaintiff that she was eligible for FMLA leave. The court applied a three-part test adopted in an earlier decision of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: "An employer who without intent to deceive makes a definite but erroneous representation to [an] employee that she is an 'eligible employee' and entitled to leave under FMLA, and has reason to believe the employee will rely upon it, may be estopped to assert [prevented from asserting] a defense of noncoverage, if the employee reasonably relies on that representation and takes action thereon to her detriment." The court concluded that the first element of the test, an "erroneous representation," was clearly satisfied by the written notice indicating the plaintiff was eligible for FMLA leave. The second element, foreseeable reliance on the erroneous representation, was likewise met because the city was aware the plaintiff was requesting the leave to care for her daughter and could conceivably have made alternate arrangements for other family to provide care had she known she was not eligible for FMLA-protected leave. As to the third elementthat the plaintiff reasonably relied on the erroneous informationthe court held that a factual dispute was presented that precluded summary judgment in favor of the employer. Specifically, the court rejected the employer's argument that, as a matter of law, the plaintiff could not have reasonably relied on the notice given that the city's stated FMLA policy was that an employee had to have one year's service in order to be eligible for FMLA leave. Accordingly, the employer's motion for summary judgment was denied. Byrd v. City of Houston, S.D. Texas No. 18-cv-778 (Jan. 29, 2019). Professional Pointer: The notices required under the FMLA are important legal documents and must be prepared with the utmost care and attention to detail. Karen Rhodes is an attorney with Swerdlow Florence Sanchez Swerdlow & Wimmer, the Worklaw Network member firm in Beverly Hills, Calif. [Visit SHRM's resource page on the Family and Medical Leave Act.] Page Content VANCOUVERWhile pay for Canadian women in the past 50 years has inched closer to that for Canadian men, the gap between what men and women earn for doing the same jobs continues to be a source of concern across the country, including in British Columbia, Canada. As a result, lawmakers proposed the Equal Pay Reporting Act to the British Columbia legislature on March 8International Women's Day. If passed, it would require British Columbia businesses that employ 50 or more people to provide an annual breakdown of bonuses and mean and median regular pay offered to all male and female employees. "Pay inequality is an issue often talked about and infrequently acted on," Stephanie Cadieux, a member of the legislative assembly from South Surrey, British Columbia, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, these issues affect around 50 percent of the workforce who are not compensated in line with their male counterparts." A gender pay gap persists in Canada's provinces and territories. The country's current gender pay gap is at 16.1 percent, with women earning around 84 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to a March 2019 survey by Glassdoor. "The gender pay gap has an impact on women in the tech sector," said Elizabeth "Libby" Stewart, head of professional services and research at 7Geese, an HR tech company in Vancouver. She spoke April 3 at the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources of British Columbia & Yukon's HR Conference and Tradeshow 2019. "There's no magic pill in closing the pay gap." Case Study: 7Geese British Columbia's technology sector generates more than $23 billion Canadian dollars in revenue and $15 billion in gross domestic product, according to the Vancouver Economic Commission. 7Geese is a part of Vancouver's burgeoning tech scene. Talent Collectivea Vancouver-based organization focused on helping tech companies develop, grow and reward talentrecently teamed up with 7Geese to gather employee feedback on fair and equal pay. It also assessed that data to learn what the company could do to make compensation more transparent. "Companies are seeing a benefit in being more transparent about pay inequality," Talent Collective's co-founder Annika Reinhardt said. Stewart said 7Geese has a young workforce, as most of its employees are in their late 20s and early 30s. The tech company's gender breakdown is 63 percent men and 37 percent women. According to the data, around 42 percent of 7Geese employees say they feel fairly compensated. The company's unadjusted pay gapthe raw difference between men's and women's earningshovers around 17 percent. Both percentages leave room for improvement, Stewart noted. In response, 7Geese's leadership is reviewing its current salary structure and will assess where in the range employees are positioned and why, Stewart stated. It will also use career success profiles to help employees understand how to grow and develop in their jobs and within the organization. "A success profile is a job description on steroids," Stewart explained. Success profiles "are a stronger set of guidelines that take into account the necessary motivations, skills, behaviors, knowledge and experiences that define success." [SHRM members-only toolkit: Introduction to the Global Human Resources Discipline] The Importance of Negotiation Another way to close the gender wage gap is to train women on how to negotiate better salaries and benefits. A recent Langer Research Associates survey report, based on the What Women Want poll of more than 1,000 women in the U.S., showed that 64 percent of respondents said they did not try to negotiate their pay the last time they were hired. But out of those who did negotiate, 71 percent said they were successful. A notable statistic from the 7Geese data showed that both male and female employees at the company said they felt comfortable speaking about and negotiating compensation with their managers. "This is a big piece of 7Geese's cultureit pays off to negotiate," Reinhardt added. Catherine Skrzypinski is a freelance writer in Vancouver, British Columbia. Page Content The recent measles outbreak, resulting in mandatory vaccinations in parts of New York City, raises the question of whether employers can require that workers get the vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) or prove immunity from the illness. The answer generally is no, but there are exceptions. Offices and manufacturers probably can't require vaccination or proof of immunity because the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) generally prohibits medical examinationsunless the employer is in a location like Williamsburg, the neighborhood in Brooklyn where vaccinations are now mandatory. Health care providers, schools and nursing homes, however, probably can require them because their employees work with patients, children and people with weak immune systems who risk health complications from measles. But even these employers must try to find accommodations for workers who object to vaccines for a religious reason or because of a disability that puts them at risk if they're vaccinated, such as having a weak immune system. Proof of Immunity Proof of immunity includes one of the following: Written documentation of adequate vaccination. Laboratory evidence of immunity. Laboratory confirmation of measles. Birth before 1957. The measles vaccine first became available in 1963, so those who were children before the late 1950s are presumed to have been exposed to measles and be immune. Measles, which is contagious, typically causes a high fever, cough and watery eyes, and then spreads as a rash. Measles can lead to serious health complications, especially among children younger than age 5. One or two out of 1,000 people who contract measles die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreak Has Spread to 20 States As of April 11, 555 cases have been reported in the United States this year. This is the second-greatest number in any year since the United States proclaimed measles eliminated in 2000; 667 cases were reported in all of 2014. On April 9, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public health emergency in Williamsburg, requiring the MMR vaccine in that neighborhood. Those who have not received the MMR vaccine or do not have evidence of immunity may be fined $1,000. Since the outbreak started, 285 cases have been confirmed in Williamsburg, including 21 hospitalizations and five admissions to intensive care units. If a city requires vaccinations, an employer's case for requiring them is much stronger, said Robin Shea, an attorney with Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete in Winston-Salem, N.C. But employers usually should not involve themselves in employees' health care unless they are making an inquiry related to a voluntary wellness program, or the health issue is job-related, she cautioned. The measles outbreak has spread this year to 20 statesoutbreaks linked to travelers who brought measles to the U.S. from other countries, such as Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines, where there have been large outbreaks. Strike the Right Balance Health care employers typically require vaccinations or proof of immunity as a condition of employment, said Howard Mavity, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Atlanta. He noted that most schoolchildren must be immunized, so many employees can show proof of immunity years later. If an employee provides current vaccination records when an employer asks, the ADA requires that those records be kept in separate, confidential medical files, noted Meredith Shoop, an attorney with Littler in Cleveland. All employers must balance their health and safety concerns with the right of employees with disabilities to reasonable accommodations under the ADA and the duty to accommodate religious workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under the ADA, a reasonable accommodation is required unless it would result in an undue hardship or direct threat to the safety of the employee or the public. The direct-threat analysis will be different for a registered nurse than for someone in a health care provider's billing department, for example, who might not work around patients. [SHRM members-only toolkit: Accommodating Employees' Disabilities] Even if the ADA permitted mandatory vaccines in a manufacturing setting in limited circumstances, such as in Williamsburg now, any vaccination orders may need to be the subject of collective bargaining if the factory is unionized. Shoop has seen manufacturers shut down because employees were reluctant to come to work when their co-workers were sick on the job. An employer does not have to accommodate someone who objects to a vaccine merely because he or she thinks it might do more harm than good but doesn't have an ADA disability or religious objection, said Kara Shea, an attorney with Butler Snow in Nashville, Tenn. If someone claims to have a health condition that makes getting vaccinated a health risk, the employer does not have to take the person's word for it. The employer instead should ask the person to sign a consent form allowing the employer to learn about the condition and get documentation from the employee's doctor, she said. Before accommodating someone without an obvious impairment, the ADA allows employers to require medical documentation of the disability. Courts don't closely scrutinize religious objections to immunizations, Mavity remarked. "Some people have extremely strong beliefs that they don't want a vaccine in their body," said Kathy Dudley Helms, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Columbia, S.C. If the employer works with vulnerable people but can't find an accommodation for a worker who refuses vaccination, the employee may have to work elsewhere, she said. Page Content A California bill, SB 188, would provide a broader definition of race in the state's anti-discrimination law. The bill defines "race" as "inclusive of traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles." The bill is expected to become law, and employers may want to plan accordingly. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has long held that the meaning of race is not limited to skin color. Color discrimination is itself a protected category, which can be defined as discrimination based on pigmentation, complexion or skin shade or tone. Race has a broader meaning and can include physical characteristics associated with race (such as a person's hair, facial features, and height and weight), as well as cultural characteristics related to race (including a person's name, cultural dress and grooming practices, or accent or manner of speech). New York City Comparison Recently, the New York City Commission on Human Rights released new guidance regarding the application of the New York City Human Rights Law to characteristics and cultural practices closely associated with race. The commission focused in particular on discrimination against hair texture and hairstyles associated with being black because of the frequency of such discrimination. The commission explained that "[r]ace discrimination based on hair and hairstyles most closely associated with black people has caused significant physical and psychological harm to those who wish to maintain natural hair or specific hairstyles but are forced to choose between their livelihood or education and their cultural identity and/or hair health." California's SB 188 further reflects this development in civil rights law. SB 188 makes a series of findings and declarations, including that discrimination against "'blackness,' and the associated physical traits" is pervasive in society and has "permeated societal understanding of professionalism." The bill states that this "Eurocentric image of professionalism disparately impact[s] black individuals." The bill expressly includes protections of traits historically associated with race, including protective hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists. Key Employer Takeaways California employers are likely to see this new standard become law, so they may want to consider taking steps to ensure that their discrimination- and harassment-prevention programs, as well as their grooming policies, comply with this new standard. For example, companies could train management that the following policies and practices would likely violate the standards set forth in SB 188: Having a grooming policy that prohibits twists, locks, braids, cornrows, Afros, Bantu knots, or fades. Having a grooming policy that requires employees to alter the state of their hair to conform to the company's appearance standards, including a policy that requires employees to straighten or relax hair (which involves the use of chemicals or heat). Having a grooming policy that bans hair that extends a certain number of inches from the scalp. Having a grooming policy that requires "professional hair" or "clean and tidy hair" but is applied to mean that employees cannot wear Afros, locks, twists or braids. Forcing black employees to obtain management approval prior to changing hairstyles but not imposing the same requirement on other employees. Requiring only black employees to alter or cut their hair or risk losing their jobs Telling black employees with locks that they cannot be in a customer facing role unless they change their hairstyle. Refusing to hire a black applicant with cornrows because his or her hairstyle does not fit the image the company is trying to project to customers. Mandating that black employees hide their hair or hairstyle with a hat or visor. Instead, employers may want to consider adopting the following policies and practices: Adopting a grooming policy based on rules that are valid, nondiscriminatory, have no disparate impact and are uniformly applied. For example, the policy may include a race-neutral rule requiring employees to keep their hair neat and clean. Similarly, a company could adopt a rule requiring all employees to secure their hair for bona fide safety or hygienic reasons. Revising discrimination- and harassment-prevention policies to broadly define race to include physical and cultural characteristics associated with race. Supplementing harassment-prevention training programs with hypotheticals that further illustrate the broad meaning of race-based harassment and discrimination. These examples may include, as the EEOC has explained, unfair height and weight standards that have an adverse impact on Asian employees and hairstyling rules that have an adverse impact on black employees. Emphasizing in harassment prevention trainings that a respectful workplace does not condone teasing or joking about traits that have historically been associated with an employee's race or ethnic identity. Michael J. Nader is an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Sacramento, Calif. 2019 Ogletree Deakins. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tanzanian Gold Corporations, formerly known as Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation (TSX:TNX) (NYSE American:TRX) (the Companys) Board of Directors is pleased to announce the entering into subscription agreements for the sale of 606,165 common shares at $0.5774 per share raising $350,000 in the aggregate with three investors. The proceeds from the sale of common shares will be used in furtherance of the Companys Three-Phase Drill Program at the Buckreef Project previously announced. The common shares are being offered pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form F-3, which was previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and declared effective on September 5, 2018. The sale of the common shares is expected to close on or before on April 22, 2019, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including acceptance of the listing of the common shares by the NYSE American and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Respectfully Submitted, James E. Sinclair James E. Sinclair Executive Chairman For further information, please contact Michael Martin, Investor Relations, m.martin@tanzaninaroyalty.com , 860-248-0999, or visit the Company website at www.tanzanianroyalty.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements Certain of the statements made herein may contain forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information can be identified using words such as plans, expects, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, or believes or the negatives thereof or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, ,occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements or information herein include, but are not limited to the Positive Feasibility Study on Buckreef, the timing and the results of the proposed drilling program. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. We have made certain assumptions about the forward-looking statements and information and even though our management believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statement or information will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, 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 statements or information. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others, the following: gold price volatility; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries; mining operational and development risk; litigation risks; regulatory restrictions, including environmental regulatory restrictions and liability; risks of sovereign investment; currency fluctuations; speculative nature of gold exploration; global economic climate; dilution; share price volatility; competition; loss of key employees; additional funding requirements; and defective title to mineral claims or property, as well as those factors discussed in the sections entitled Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors in the Companys Form 20-F Annual Report dated November 29, 2018. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements or information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements or information contained herein. Except as required by law, we do not expect to update forward- looking statements and information continually as conditions change and you are referred to the full discussion of the Companys business contained in the Companys reports filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and the U.S. Cautionary Note Regarding Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources The terms Mineral Reserve, Proven Mineral Reserve and Probable Mineral Reserve used in this release are Canadian mining terms as defined in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects under the guidelines set out in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (the CIM) Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council on August 20, 2000 as may be amended from time to time by the CIM. These definitions differ from the definitions in the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Guide 7. In the United States, a mineral reserve is defined as a part of a mineral deposit which could be economically and legally extracted or produced at the time the mineral reserve determination is made. The terms Mineral Resource, Measured Mineral Resource, Indicated Mineral Resource, Inferred Mineral Resource used in this release are Canadian mining terms as defined in accordance with National Instruction 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects under the guidelines set out in the CIM Standards. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. For a detailed discussion of Buckreef resource and reserve estimates and related matters see the Companys reports, including the Form 20-F Annual Report dated November 29, 2018 and technical reports filed under the Companys name at our website at: www.TanzanianRoyaltyExploration.com. Cautionary Note to US Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources Note to U.S. Investors. While the terms mineral resource, measured mineral resource, indicated mineral resource, and inferred mineral resource are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, they are not defined terms under standards in the United States and normally are not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. As such, information contained in this report concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources under Canadian standards may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S companies in SEC filings. With respect to indicated mineral resource and inferred mineral resource there is a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and a great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an indicated mineral resource or inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. CONNECTICUT OFFICE: TORONTO OFFICE: PO Box 577 Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower U.S.A. 06784 22 Adelaide Street West, Suite 3400 Sherman, CT Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3 Canada U.S.A. 06784 Toll Free (844) 364-1830 investors@TanzanianRoyalty.com www.TanzanianRoyaltyExploration.com STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Prior to the murder of Jeanine Cammarata, the elementary school teacher confided in a co-worker that she feared a parent at the school was trying to steal her life. Jeanine told me, this woman wants to become me, said Jose Perez, a former co-worker at PS 18 in West Brighton. The parent, Ayisha Egea, was hired as a babysitter and developed a relationship with Cammaratas husband, Michael. Last week, Michael and Egea were indicted in connection with the homicide. Egea pleaded not guilty, while her attorney has said investigators on Staten Island illegally questioned her after refusing her requests for legal counsel. A WARM WELCOME Egea, a mother of six, became known at the West Brighton school as the pie lady" for the baked goods shed sometimes drop off. With Jeanine working two jobs and Michael working as a postal worker in Manhattan, it was agreed that Egea, 41, would provide care for their two children at their Midland Beach home, according to multiple sources. Egea also advertised childcare services last year on social media, according to a post on Staten Island Online Garage Sale. What Jeanine and Michael might or might not have known at the time was Egeas criminal background in Florida. Authorities say she was arrested for allegedly helping a convict escape from a halfway house, according to an Ocala Star Banner report. At some point after her childcare for the Cammaratas began, a relationship developed between she and Michael and the two started dating. According to multiple sources, Jeanine was aware of the relationship and viewed it as an opportunity to back out of what had become an allegedly abusive marriage without making Michael angry and putting their children in danger. Stories about Michaels unrelenting behavior over the years from police and friends of the couple include allegations of physical violence, threatening texts, explosive confrontations at Jeanines school and Facebook messages to Jeanines friends which they believe were sent by Michael. Jeanine was reluctant at first to file for divorce or go to authorities because she feared him and didnt want to rock their custody situation at the time, those close to her said. She always expressed that she was quite afraid of her husband, said her family court attorney, Eric Gansberg. So she did not seek physical and legal custody at that time. The decision to move into an apartment nearby and visit the children frequently aligned with what friends described as a non-confrontational personality, in the midst of an abusive relationship. SHUTTING OUT MOM Both Jeanine and Michael had custody of their two children, but on at least two occasions Egea blocked Jeanine from visiting them, according to the accounts of witnesses and Egea herself. A neighbor recalled an attempt by Jeanine about six months ago to pick up her children. But that girlfriend didnt let her, and was screaming at (Jeanine)," he said. The teacher was very calm, and went back in her car and was crying. Michael and Egea were evicted soon after the incident and moved to an apartment in Rockaway Queens, about an hour drive from Staten Island. Property records list the apartment under Egeas name. It was at that location a near identical scenario happened with the children, on the night police believe Jeanine was killed and her body concealed by the couple. In Egeas own words, three days after the disappearance: She came very late and they were already sleepingshe was saying crazy stuff and acting strange. SHIFT IN POWER It took multiple attempts to serve Michael Cammarata with divorce papers after he and Egea moved to Queens, according to Gansberg. She said, I have to get going on this case because theyre now cramped in an apartment in Far Rockaway Queens, said Gansberg. But there was some difficulty serving him." The documents meant Jeanine could as some point gain full custody, based in part on Egeas criminal background and the couples recent eviction from their Staten Island home. It also meant Michael Cammarata could be forced to pay child support. According to his conversations with Jeanine, (Egea) wanted Jeanine to pay child support so she could get more money, said Perez. And Jeanine told me, Im not giving her my money. On March 29, he was served at his childs school. Two days later, Jeanine parted from her boyfriend at about 9 p.m. and according to him, drove to see her children. "Shes spent thousands of dollars getting a lawyer and getting him served, said her boyfriend, Aaron. [That] weekend he finally agreed to let her see the kids, and she goes missing that night. QUESTIONED BY POLICE According to a Daily News report, Egea helped police locate Jeanine Cammaratas remains at the storage facility in the days after the teachers disappearance. Michael Cammarata was indicted last week in connection with the homicide by a grand jury on Staten Island. Prosecutors announced Egea also was indicted, but wouldnt reveal in front of the defense or a criminal court judge what the charges were. Fundamental fairness and the constitution in this state and this country dictates that anyone charged with a crime should know what theyre being charged with, said Fonte at a press conference outside the St. George Courthouse. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- City Councilman Joe Borelli proposed a bill Thursday that would put a city watchdog under the jurisdiction of the public advocate -- a position hell be vying for in November. He proposed the bill that would move the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) from the the mayors office to the public advocate. There have been too many ethical lapses in the part of this administration and, after the firing of former DOI Commissioner Mark Peters, the integrity of the citys investigative branch is paramount to public trust, Borelli said in a statement. In non #Mueller news: Today, Im introducing a bill to place the Dept. of Investigation under the purview of the Public Advocate, & not the mayor. No mayor, not just Bill de Blasio, should be allowed to fire the DOI commish on a whim when they dont like what theyre investigating pic.twitter.com/bt9UXuei1s Joe Borelli (@JoeBorelliNYC) April 18, 2019 The non-profit news organization The City reported Wednesday night that the mayor fired Peters four weeks after a DOI investigation found de Blasio violated conflict of interest rules in donation solicitations. It was unclear if the mayor was briefed on the investigation report before firing Peters, who had recused himself from the investigation. Mayoral spokesman Freddi Goldstein said de Blasios office looks forward to reviewing the bill. The office of recently-elected Public Advocate Jumaane Williams could not be reached for comment. DOI spokeswoman Diane Struzzi said the city deserves an independent oversight agency run by a commissioner who is an attorney with substantial experience in law enforcement. It is noteworthy that this proposed bill that makes the Public Advocate the Commissioner of Investigation is being sponsored by someone who is running for the office of Public Advocate, she said. Williams beat 16 other candidates in a February special election for the position that was left vacant after former Public Advocate Letitia James won the the November election for New York attorney general. The Public Advocate position was created in 1993, and was meant to ensure that city government meets the needs of the public. The position holds little power, often acting as a political stepping stone, but would replace the mayors office in the event of a vacancy. Borelli co-sponsored a council bill in November that would abolish the position. He announced April 11 that he will be running for Public Advocate with the support of all five chairmen of the borough Republican parties. Theres a good reason weve had an independent attorney general at the state level, he said. It wouldnt hurt to have that same independence at the city level. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A man tried to bring gas cans and lighters into St. Patricks Cathedral in Manhattan, but his efforts were thwarted by security and the NYPD at the historic Roman Catholic church, according to police. The man went to his minivan parked near the cathedral and took out two, two-gallon cans of gasoline and a plastic bag containing two bottles of lighter fluid and two extended, trigger-controlled butane lighters at about 7:55 p.m. on Wednesday, said John Miller, NYPD deputy commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, at a news conference at the cathedral. The suspect headed for the cathedral and as he entered the church, he was confronted by a parish security officer who told him that he couldnt proceed into the house of worship with those items. Some gasoline spilled as the suspect was leaving, Miller said. The officer then notified two Critical Response Command officers from the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau who were outside the church. The suspect fled south on Fifth Avenue and onto 50th Street, Miller said. Officers located the suspect who was still carrying the gas cans and gave inconsistent and evasive answers. His story was that he was taking a short-cut through the cathedral en route to Madison Avenue to refuel his car that ran out of gas, police said. He was arrested when police checked his car and found that the tank was not empty, Miller said. The suspect was taken to the Midtown North Precinct stationhouse, Miller said. The New York Post identified the man as Marc Lamparello, 37, of New Jersey. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island residents are no longer represented on the MTA Board. During a recent shake-up of the board, four members were replaced, including Staten Island representative Peter Ward. The changes were a result of Gov. Andrew Cuomos proposal to reform the MTA, which included modifying appointments so that board members terms aligned with those of the appointing elected official. Ward, along with another Cuomo-appointed board member, were replaced by Haeda Mihaltses of Queens County and Michael Lynton of Kings County. The other two new members, Rhonda Herman of Westchester County and Kevin Law of Suffolk County, were recommended by Westchester County and Suffolk County respectively. In response to the changes, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) penned a letter to Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio to express her discontent with Staten Island no longer being represented on the board. I cant express how disappointing it is that with these changes, there is no board member from Staten Island to effectively represent our community, Malliotakis wrote. Staten Island is the the most transportation-starved borough in New York City, the only borough that lacks a subway system and is the only borough that requires a bridge toll to connect to the rest of the city. Malliotakis went on to discuss the importance of having a Staten Island resident on the board in order to fight for the transit improvement projects the borough desperately needs. There are important projects that the community has been fighting for, such as the Staten Island North Shore Bus Rapid Transit and the West Shore Rail, and it is critical that we have a voice on the board to advocate for their fruition, Malliotakis added. She went on to discuss the large role that the MTA Board will have in setting the congestion pricing fees and exemptions next year, an issue that directly impacts Staten Island drivers. I implore you to appoint a representative from Staten Island to the MTA Board at the next opportunity to meet the needs of a community that has historically been shortchanged and often ignored by this transportation authority, Malliotakis concluded. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Starting Sunday, New York Citys public transit riders will be paying more than ever before. The fare for MTA express buses, responsible for transporting tens of thousands of Staten Islanders to and from Manhattan on a daily basis, will increase from $6.50 to $6.75. Additionally, coins will no longer be accepted as payment on express buses, a point of contention for Staten Island commuters whove continually voiced frustration with the boroughs limited MetroCard machine options. With just three MetroCard dispenser locations available on Staten Island, some residents fear that the elimination of the cash option will put an unnecessary strain on Staten Island commuters. Im more concerned with no coins. They are changing it so you cant pay with change. With very few places to refill your MetroCard on Staten Island, said rider Brian Austin Padua. We have the most fare beaters on the Island for a reason, the MTA really needs to take more responsibility with that, Padua continued. Very few places to refill MetroCards on the Island, plus no more paying in change, will make the situation worse. Sorry, but not sorry, its not our fault for the lack of support the MTA provides the Island." While residents will still be paying the same $2.75 base fare for local buses and the Staten Island Railway, the elimination of the pay-per-ride bonus will leave commuters paying the MTA a higher effective fare. In late February, The MTA Board voted to maintain the base fare for New York Citys subways, buses and paratransit at $2.75, while eliminating the 5 percent bonus value received with the purchase of multiple trips. With the 5 percent bonus, the effective fare when purchasing a multiple-trip card is $2.62 per ride. With the bonus eliminated, the effective fare will match the base fare of $2.75. In addition to the per-ride increases, seven-day passes will increase from $32 to $33. Seven-day express bus passes will increase from $59.50 to $62. And thirty-day passes will increase from $121 to $127. TOLL INCREASES In March, the MTA implemented toll increases on all bridges under the jurisdiction of the MTA Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, including the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The cash toll for the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has risen from $17 to $19, with the E-ZPass rate increasing from $11.52 to $12.24. The Staten Island Resident E-ZPass (three or more trips per month) rate increased from $6.48 to $6.88, with the Staten Island Resident E-ZPass (one or two trips per month) rate increasing from $6.84 to $7.26. The Staten Island Resident Carpool rate also increased from $3.20 to $3.40. The effective toll rate for Staten Island residents was set to increase from $5.50 to $5.90. However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, working alongside Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island), Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-North Shore) and State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn), secured state funding that maintains the $5.50 effective toll rate for the next two years. Although Staten Island residents will now be charged $6.88 or $7.26 depending on their amount of monthly trips, the Staten Island Resident Rebate Program will issue rebates making the effective rate the aforementioned $5.50. To qualify for the resident discount plan, vehicles must be registered to a valid Staten Island residential address. Commercial vehicles are not eligible for the program and residency status is subject to periodic review. For more information, visit the MTA website. The following toll increases also took effect on the MTAs other tunnels and crossings. Robert F. Kennedy Bridge Bronx-Whitestone Bridge Throgs Neck Bridge Hugh L. Carey Tunnel Queens Midtown Tunnel E-ZPass: Increase from $5.76 to $6.12 Tolls by Mail: Increase from $8.50 to $9.50 Henry Hudson Bridge E-ZPass: Increase from $2.64 to $2.80 Tolls by Mail: Increase from $6.00 to $7.00 Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge E-ZPass: Increase from $2.16 to $2.29 Tolls by Mail: Increase from $4.25 to $4.75 The approval of the fare and toll increases is expected to net the MTA an additional $336 million in annual revenue, according to the agency. This additional funding is critically important to the MTA but it is not enough to allow us to fund our capital plan or close our operating deficit, said former-MTA acting chair Fernando Ferrer. Weve seen dramatically improved performance of our system recently and in order to keep that up we are making major internal reforms, seeking additional recurring revenues from our state and city partners, and urging the legislature to pass the governors congestion pricing proposal. On April 23 at 10 a.m., the United States Supreme Court will hear one of the most important cases to come before it in decades. The implications of Department of Commerce v. New York are so far-reaching that the court, in an unusual move, reassigned other cases previously scheduled to be heard that morning so that, if necessary, oral arguments can extend beyond the 60 minutes traditionally allocated to them. The U.S. Constitution mandates that an actual enumeration of the population be ascertained every 10 years to apportion representatives in Congress among the respective states, and vests in Congress the authority to conduct the census in such manner as they shall by law direct. To that end, Congress passed the Census Act, which delegates to the secretary of Commerce the responsibility to conduct the decennial census in such form and content as he may determine. Acting pursuant to that authority, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. decided in March 2018 that the 2020 census should include a question about the respondents citizenship.There was nothing remarkable about that decision. Questions about citizenship, country of origin, or both have been included in every decennial census, but one, from 1820 to 2000. Moreover, the questionnaire routinely seeks other demographic information such as a respondents sex, relationship status and race. The Census Act requires all who receive the questionnaire to answer each question truthfully. In a March 26, 2018 memorandum, the Commerce secretary said that he had been asked by the Department of Justice three months earlier to include the citizenship question because that data is critical to enforcing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The DOJ also asserted that the census is the most appropriate vehicle for collecting that data. Legal challenge A group of states, cities, municipalities and civil rights organizations thereafter initiated suit in federal court to block inclusion of the citizenship question in the 2020 census. They claimed that the question violates the Constitutions enumeration clause, denies racial and ethnic minorities equal protection of the law, and is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. All three arguments are based on the assumption that undocumented immigrants in general, and those who are Hispanic in particular, fearing deportation, would be reluctant to respond to the census questionnaire if it included the citizenship query. This, they say, would produce an inaccurately low population count which, in turn, would translate into fewer representatives in Congress and less federal funding for Democratic-leaning states where the number of undocumented immigrants is highest. On Jan. 15, U.S. District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman, an appointee of President Barack Obama, issued an order barring inclusion of the citizenship question in the 2020 census. While rejecting the challengers enumeration clause claim, Furman concluded that Ross directive was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. Last month in California, Judge Richard Seeborg, another Obama appointee, also ruled against the citizenship question, agreeing that its inclusion was arbitrary and capricious, but also finding that it violated the enumeration clause. Arguments in support of the citizenship question are straightforward, and rest on the long history of its inclusion, the constitutional right of Congress to implement the decennial census, and that bodys express delegation of that authority to the Commerce secretary. The arguments of the challengers, on the other hand, are based on assumptions about the questions effect, suspicions about the governments motives and the usual claims of racial and ethnic bias. Pivotal vote Its a foregone conclusion that the Supreme Courts four liberal justices will side with the challengers. In cases with major political implications, they invariably vote together in favor of the liberal position. On the other hand, conservative-leaning Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch will likely vote in favor of the government. The vote of newly-appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh is difficult to predict. Despite his solid conservative track record as a federal appellate judge, hes been voting more often with Chief Justice John Roberts than with any other judge on the court. This may well be a consequence of the vicious, almost maniacal personal attacks that Democrats launched against him during his confirmation hearings. Roberts, therefore, looms even larger here. Thats worrisome for the government since hes been moving leftward steadily, seemingly positioning himself to replace the recently-retired Justice Anthony Kennedy as the courts swing vote. While theories abound as to why, the most sensible one is that he, as chief justice, is invested in promoting the image of the court as an impartial judicial tribunal, not just another political organ of government. The government has the better legal arguments here and should logically prevail before the Supreme Court. Whether it does or not, however, will almost certainly depend on its chief justice. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- For 13 years, Aysha Malimage worked in her native Sri Lanka as a teacher and tailor -- and later opened a beauty salon -- while her husband built a new life for them in America. Three-and-a-half years ago, she joined her husband, and made a home on Staten Island. I was so happy to come here to America, said Malimage, who has one son. When it was time to choose a career in the United States, she said she considered becoming a teaching assistant, but her husband encouraged her to use her beauty talents honed in Sri Lanka. I had a salon in my country with five or six girls working for me, she said. When I came here, my husband said, You have your own talents you should use. Malimage soon found work at a local salon, and fell into eyebrow threading. Before, I just did the shaping and my girls did the threading at my salon in my country. Then I came here [To America] and everyone loved my threading, she explained. Earlier this year, she heard Sola Salons, which is a franchise that includes 29 individual studios, opened in Port Richmond. Soon after, Aysha Eyebrow Studio opened at the location. Aysha Eyebrow Studio opened at Sola Salons in Port Richmond earlier this year. (Staten Island Advance/Tracey Porpora) LIVING THE AMERICAN DREAM This was my dream, because I had a big salon in my country. I came here and I was sad I didnt have that any more. Then I heard about here [Sola Salons] and it made my dream come true, said Malimage. Some women come in, hug me and cry because they have [bad eyebrows], and then I shape them and they are happy, she said. Everyone has a nice natural shape. I always try to follow the natural shape. Thats why they are happy with my work. She offers full face threading, which includes special cream, massage and hot towel service, she said. In addition to threading, she offers waxing services. Aysha Malimage, who opened Aysha Eyebrow Studio earlier this year, works on a customers eyebrows. (Staten Island Advance/Tracey Porpora) AYSHA EYEBROW STUDIO AT A GLANCE Website: https://www.solasalonstudios.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Aysha-Eyebrow-Studio-Threading Instagram: https://www.instahats.com/u/aysha_eyebrow_studio_threading New Businesses in Focus is a weekly column that relates the stories of new Staten Island businesses owners. If you have a new business on Staten Island, e-mail porpora@siadvance.com. MORE NEW BUSINESSES IN FOCUS COLUMNS: FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A team of students from the Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School, New Springville, won second place in a citywide hackathon competition for a proposed mobile app that focuses on reducing the booming deer population on Staten Island. City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced the winners of the Computer Science for All Hack League Final on Wednesday. About 130 students in 28 teams spent the day building their projects and presenting to a panel of guest judges and City Council members. The Computer Science for All Hack League gives our students a meaningful and fun way to apply computer science skills to issues that matter in their communities, said Carranza. The competition is a creative way to drum up excitement for STEM while increasing equity in computer science learning and civic engagement. Five students in the Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School team, dubbed the Biogramming iDeers, won second place in the intermediate school category for their proposed Oh, Deer! mobile app. The goal was to find a local problem, back it with data and try to solve it, said teacher Francesco Portelos. They [the students] want to educate the public and help by building safe water barriers at the Staten Island/New Jersey border to reduce the influx [of deer]. The mobile app was created to help New York City as it continues to battle the booming deer population. The city announced it is looking spend at least $2.5 million more for another five years of its vasectomy program that ended in January. The city announced last year that the three-year vasectomy program was working -- reporting an 8 percent drop in the boroughs deer population in the second year of the program. According to White Buffalo, the company that performed the deer vasectomies for three years, it is estimated that the boroughs deer population decreased from 2,053 in 2017 to 1,884 in 2018. The mobile app has three sections to choose from on its home page, including an information center, a game and an option to report deer sightings. The reporting deer section asks residents to take a photo of a deer, allow the mobile app to find your location, and send the information to the city Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Students at Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School developed an app, "Oh Deer!" to lessen the deer population on Staten Island. (Courtesy of Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School) Team members said they believe the app would help educate the public and monitor herds of deer in the borough. Students will evaluate their progress of reducing the deer population by comparing information with the DEC and the city Parks Department, along with monitoring local health and traffic reports. Along with our water barriers, we hope to see a 75 percent decrease [in deer] in the next decade, said student Melanie Cortez. Student Lora-Mei Panepinto cited data from the U.S. Forest Service, which said a healthy number of deer per square mile is 20. Therefore, considering Staten Islands undeveloped land, we should aim for approximately 775 deer in the next decade. Down from the current 2,500, said Panepinto. The three other team members included Nathaniel Amshen, Briaden Shen, and Michael Capasso-Ragusa. A proposal would to place water barriers to prevent deer from crossing into Staten Island from New Jersey. (Courtesy of Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School) HACK LEAGUE Students from all district intermediate and high schools were invited to participate in this years Hack League -- a program that is part of the Computer Science for All initiative, in partnership with BetaNYC. Students used computer science concepts and open data from their school neighborhoods to solve problems impacting their communities. About 1,700 students across all five boroughs participated in the league this year. To make it to the final competition, teams had to win their school-based competition and their borough-wide competition. Tech is a burgeoning industry on Staten Island, so I am glad to see the Staten Island middle schools and high schools that are involved with Computer Science for All, said Borough President James Oddo. This is a very important step for our Boroughs schools that will ensure our students are prepared and educated for the future of our workforce. Other Hack League finalists from Staten Island include: Totten Intermediate School (I.S. 34), Tottenville; Port Richmond High School; Susan E. Wagner High School, Sea View; Staten Island School of Civic Leadership, Graniteville; and Staten Island Technical High School, New Dorp. Students across New York City competed during the Hack League. Students from Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School won second place for their deer mobile app in the intermediate school category. (Courtesy of NYC Department of Education) FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Microbix Biosystems Inc. (TSX: MBX, Microbix), an innovator of biological products and technologies, announces that it has appointed Dr. Kenneth (Ken) Hughes as its Chief Operating Officer (COO) and that Mrs. Kathryn Froh, its Vice President, Diagnostics is retiring from her full-time role, but will be remaining an employee and will be available to assist with special projects. Ken Hughes has been in the life sciences industry for more than 25 years and has worked as a CEO, senior executive, consultant and corporate director. Ken received his PhD from the University of London (UK) and has previously served as VP of Scientific Affairs at Microbix. Prior to his appointment as COO, he was a consultant to Microbix helping to optimize operational processes and with the ongoing partnering program for Kinlytic urokinase. Ken will fully undertake his new responsibilities in June. Kathryn Froh joined Microbix in 1996 and has since fulfilled a series of increasingly senior positions, culminating with her directing much of the companys revenue-generating operations. Among many accomplishments, she was responsible for the completion of the multiple facility upgrades undertaken by Microbix over the past 18 months and has supported the accelerating sales growth and work on enhancing margins. Kathryn will now bear the title of Vice President Emeritus and retires with great affection and respect from everyone at Microbix. Cameron Groome, CEO and President of Microbix, commented on the two changes, We are delighted to have Ken rejoin Microbix after having gained additional breadth and depth of experience in the diagnostics, hospital and drug development sectors. His expertise and energy are expected contribute greatly to achieving our corporate goals. In turn, we congratulate Kathryn on a well-earned retirement and are very pleased to be continuing a close relationship with her in her new role. About Microbix Biosystems Inc. Microbix specializes in developing proprietary biological and technology solutions for human health and well-being. It makes a wide range of critical biological materials for the global diagnostics industry, notably antigens used in immunoassays or quality assessment products. Its products are sold to more than 100 customers worldwide, primarily to multinational diagnostics companies and laboratory accreditation organizations. Microbix also applies its expertise and infrastructure to create proprietary new products and technologies. Currently it has two; (1) Kinlytic urokinase, a biologic thrombolytic drug (used to dissolve blood clots) and (2) LumiSort cell-sorting, a technology for ultra-rapid and efficient sorting of cells or particles that can be used to enrich cell populations of interest, such as in sexing semen. Established in 1988, Microbix is a publicly traded company, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Forward-Looking Information This news release may include forward-looking information, as such term is defined in applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, discussion of management changes, financial results or the outlook for the business, risks associated with its financial results and stability, its biologicals business, development projects such as those referenced herein, sales to foreign jurisdictions, engineering and construction, production (including control over costs, quality, quantity and timeliness of delivery), foreign currency and exchange rates, maintaining adequate working capital and raising further capital on acceptable terms or at all, and other similar statements concerning anticipated future events, conditions or results that are not historical facts. These statements reflect managements current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward looking information is inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Companys control. Accordingly, actual future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. All statements are made as of the date of this news release and represent the Companys judgement as of the date of this new release, and the Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking information. Please visit www.microbix.com or www.sedar.com for recent Microbix filings. For further information, please contact: Cameron Groome, CEO (905) 361-8910 Jim Currie, CFO (905) 361-8910 Deborah Honig, Investor Relations Adelaide Capital Markets (647) 203-8793 ir@microbix.com Copyright 2019 Microbix Biosystems Inc. Microbix, Kinlytic and LumiSort are trademarks of the Company STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In wake of a college student losing her life after entering a vehicle she mistook for her Uber, the e-hail company is partnering with the University of South Carolina to launch a nationwide Campus Safety Initiative. We were heartbroken by the recent crime committed by a fake rideshare driver in South Carolina. While no words can alleviate the loss felt by the Josephson family, we are committed to continuing to take action to make our communities safer, said Andrew Macdonald, Uber vice president of operations, Americas. Uber has been working with law enforcement since 2016 to develop safety tips for the companys Check Your Ride campaign. By partnering with universities and communities around the country, Uber hopes to bring these potentially life-saving tips to the public. Riders are advised to check the license plate number, vehicle make and model, and driver photo provided in the app to ensure they are getting in the right vehicle. Riders can also ask the driver who they are picking up, ensuring that the driver is in fact there for them. I am pleased to partner with Uber on a new Campus Safety Initiative along with other important advances. By promoting essential safety tips such as Check Your Ride and the universitys Whats My Name campaign, I truly believe we can help ensure ridesharing is safe for all students," said University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides. As part of the national awareness campaign, every Uber rider in the United States will receive an email with the Check Your Ride steps. Additionally, Uber is launching a social media campaign and placing ads in college newspapers and on billboards across the country. The company is also partnering with the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) and making a $100,000 grant to help the organization educate students nationwide on rideshare safety. Uber will also expand its #DontStandBy intervention partnership with NO MORE to encourage the nightlife community to look out for each other. In addition to the national awareness campaign, Uber will also be adding push notifications and in-app alerts to remind riders to ensure theyre getting in the right car. Uber will also work with universities to develop Designated Pickup Zones, where riders can wait for their cars in a safe, well-lit environment. Our goal is to make checking your ride before you get in the car synonymous with using Uber. There is nothing more important than the safety of the people we serve and were constantly working to improve, said Macdonald. After more than two years of investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the American public finally had the opportunity to see a redacted version of Robert Muellers report. While the report did find significant efforts on the part of the Russian government to interfere in the election, it did not determine anyone from President Donald Trumps campaign conspired or coordinated in those efforts, and it did not make a conclusion as to whether Trump obstructed justice during the investigation. Pundits and politicians on both ends of the political spectrum were quick to provide their own reactions to Muellers more-than-400-page report. >> READ THE FULL MUELLER REPORT ONLINE. << President Trump As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION! pic.twitter.com/BnMB5mvHAM Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 The president posted a video on Twitter that transitioned from late-night host James Corden to several news outlets Trump constantly lambasts as fake news reporting the findings of Muellers report after its submission to the Attorney General William Barr. As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION! he wrote on the social media platform. Regarding obstruction of justice, Muellers report said that the special counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the President 's conduct. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi The differences are stark between what Attorney General Barr said on obstruction and what Special Counsel Mueller said on obstruction. Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 18, 2019 Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives and Senate took issue with Barrs handling of the report. The differences are stark between what Attorney General Barr said on obstruction and what Special Counsel Mueller said on obstruction, Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in joint statement. "As we continue to review the report, one thing is clear: Attorney General Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Muellers report appears to undercut that finding. Laura Ingraham Muellers team didnt have the stomach to try to wage a legal fight over subpoenaing the President. If they thought @realDonaldTrump was a criminal, they would have fought for a face-to-face. Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) April 18, 2019 Laura Ingraham pointed out that Muellers team declined to subpoena the president, settling for his written responses to their investigation questions instead of subjecting him to face-to-face questioning. However, she failed to mention that the report said many of the presidents written responses were incomplete or imprecise. They wrote to Trumps lawyers that the responses demonstrate the inadequacy of the written format, as we have had no opportunity to ask followup questions that would ensure complete answers and potentially refresh your clients recollection or clarify the extent or nature of his lack of recollection. The president was repeatedly asked to be interviewed in person, but declined, according to the report. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn) It is clear Congress and the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings. We are now requesting Mueller to appear before @HouseJudiciary as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/Mmo6PA4KPt (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) April 18, 2019 Just ahead of the reports release by Barr, Congressman Jerry Nadler released a letter to Mueller asking him to testify before the House Judiciary Committee before May 23. Nadler and Trump have repeatedly feuded publicly. Preet Bharara Ive had screen down & just reading but this I found unbelievable even though FAR from the most important thing. Sarah Sanders told special counsel that her slander of Comey (rank & file FBI had lost confidence) was a slip of the tongue and was not founded on anything. Liars. Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) April 18, 2019 Preet Bharara, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, pointed to testimony from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders that showed she fabricated information about why Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey. She told reporters at a press conference following the decision that launched the Mueller probe that she had heard from countless FBI agents that they no longer supported Comey. According to the report released Thursday, Sanders testified that the comment was made 'in the heat of the moment" and was not founded on anything. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE -- Jupiter Gold Corporation (OTC: JUPGF) (Jupiter Gold or the Company) today reported that it now has a new 100%-owned area for gold, palladium, and platinum in the state of Bahia in Brazil with a surface area of 4,821 acres. This areas potential was originally identified by Jupiter Golds team during exploratory visits to the Chapada Diamantina region of Bahia, as the Company also has a claim for gold nearby. This overall district had been previously studied by the CBPM, Companhia Baiana de Pesquisa Mineral, the Mining Research Service of Bahia. Their researchers collected sample material and first identified the gold-palladium-platinum occurrence. Areli Nogueira, the senior Jupiter Gold geologist on this project, stated: Our area has all of the characteristics necessary for a primary deposit for gold, palladium, and platinum. We intend to plan for exploratory drilling to be potentially followed by a detailed campaign. This region of Bahia is known for rock formations associated with auriferous mineralization which percolates quartz veins and breccias. An example of this geological setting is the Lavra Velha gold mine. Two photos from Jupiter Golds area are attached to this release. Marc Fogassa, the chief executive officer of the Company, added: Bahia has diverse and rich geology, with many new important mineral findings. We are very excited with the addition of this project to Jupiter Golds asset base, which expands its portfolio of valuable precious minerals claims. About Jupiter Gold Corporation Jupiter Gold Corporation (OTC: JUPGF) (Jupiter Gold) is focused on gold, palladium, and platinum projects in Brazil. Its first royalty-generating gold project, Pindaiba, is expected to be in production in 2019. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements are based upon the current plans, estimates and projections of Jupiter Gold Corporation's management and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from the forward- looking statements. Such statements include, among others, those concerning market and industry segment growth and demand and acceptance of new and existing products; any projections of production, reserves, sales, earnings, revenue, margins or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; uncertainties related to conducting business in Brazil, as well as all assumptions, expectations, predictions, intentions or beliefs about future events. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: business conditions in Brazil, general economic conditions, geopolitical events and regulatory changes, availability of capital, Jupiter Gold Corporations ability to maintain its competitive position and dependence on key management. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. We advise U.S. investors that Jupiter Golds properties and projects, as of now, are exploratory and do not have measured reserves as such term is defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact: Marc Fogassa, CEO Jupiter Gold Corporation ir@jupitergoldcorp.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9652dc1f-c2ba-42a8-989b-63e1f6f67f2d The construction and engineering giant building the delayed NorthConnex project in Sydney has been hit with a class action from investors over its November share price plunge, caused in part by it revealing it was behind schedule on the multibillion-dollar road development. Maurice Blackburn on Thursday filed an open class action in the New South Wales Supreme Court against Lendlease. The company behind the delayed NorthConnex development has been hit with a class action from investors. Credit:Brook Mitchell The class action will cover all shareholders who bought shares in the group between November 2017 and Lendlease's shock November 2018 announcement regarding issues in its engineering department. The class action alleges Lendlease breached the Corporations Act by failing to properly inform the market of serious issues in its engineering and services business, leading to a loss of shareholder value. Boeing is closer to getting grounded 737 Max planes back in the air as it updates the "MCAS" anti-stall system linked to two fatal crashes. Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive, said a final engineering test flight before certification had been conducted. Boeing 737 MAXs around the world have been grounded since March 13. Credit:Bloomberg "Our test pilots have completed 120 737 Max flights totalling more than 203 hours with the updated MCAS software," the Boeing chief said in a video shot with one of the aircraft in the background. Boeing's "technical and engineering leaders were on board" the latest flight and Mr Muilenburg had also been up in one of the jets to see the new system in action. Tom Culver and Emily Taylor are helping younger investors invest according to their values and the pair have raised more than $100,000 in a few short days to grow their startup Goodments. "There's this frustration that people see responsible lending as a trade off on returns that you're going to invest for good but it's not going to give you enough money. But you can invest to do good and make money," Culver says. Tom Culver says people using ESG need to make sure they're doing it for the right reasons. Credit:James Brickwood Goodments lets users subscribe to invest only through the US at this stage, including the option for fractional share ownership so users can buy a small slice of companies like Tesla if it fits with their social impact priorities. It's geared towards millennial investors wanting to design their portfolios around aims like reduction of fossil fuels or supporting human rights. When Martin Herbst heads out on the water in the double kayak he bought from the online marketplace Gumtree, like many of the sites 7 million monthly visitors he often contemplates what a great buy it was. But as Gumtree Australias general manager, Herbsts thoughts about his purchase rarely stop there. Part of his role is to help the company (owned by eBay) tap into its local potential, so hes usually then found considering how the buyer or sellers experience could be improved. Martin Herbst, general manager of Gumtree Australia. The task seems well in hand given that, along with around 100 local staff, Herbst has managed to both triple Gumtrees annual revenue and significantly scale up operations since his arrival from eBays head office outside San Francisco six years ago. Still, he sees plenty of opportunity for more growth, despite competition from platforms like Facebook. Parents' fears that the education system cannot meet their children's special learning needs has overtaken educational philosophy as the main reason why families are opting for home schooling. In the five years to 2018 the number of children in NSW being educated by their parents surged by two thirds, with 5429 students taught at home last year, according to new data published by the NSW Education Standards Authority. Louise Kuchel and her son Liam at their Balgowlah home. Credit:James Brickwood A quarter - or 24.6 per cent - of those families did so because of their child's special learning needs, outnumbering for the first time those who chose home schooling because of their educational philosophy, at 23.6 per cent. Families were far less likely to cite religious reasons - six per cent - or bullying, which affected less than one per cent. About 27 per cent said they home schooled for a range of different, unspecified reasons, and 18 per cent did not respond. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Serengeti Resources Inc. (SIR: TSX-V) is pleased to announce that it has filed on SEDAR the NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Kwanika Project; Resource Estimate Update 2019. The mineral resource estimate was previously announced March 3 rd , 2019 . A copy of the report is also available on Serengetis website. The Kwanika Project is controlled by Kwanika Copper Corporation (KCC), a private company jointly owned by Serengeti Resources Inc. (65%) and Posco International Corporation (35%). Pre-Feasibility Study Update Serengetis pre-feasibility study (PFS) is targeting a proposed open-pit and bulk underground copper-gold mine at Kwanika and is scheduled for completion in early Q3, 2019. The current status of the PFS is outlined briefly below. Mine Design The independent mining engineering consultants are currently working on the open pit design, incorporating geotechnical data from the 2018 drill program into the detailed design work. A trade-off study has established the optimal bottom limit of the open-pit relative to the top of the proposed block cave underground mine, and a preliminary assessment of the nature and extent of any subsidence from the block cave operation is also underway. The underground ore transportation study is also well advanced and near completion. Metallurgical Test Work Metallurgical test work on copper-gold mineralized core samples has focused on comminution via SAG mill simulation and Bond Work Index testing, which has demonstrated that the ore is medium hardness and only moderately abrasive. Flotation test work on three composite samples from the areas of the proposed open pit and underground block cave has focused to date on process condition optimization, and open-cycle testing; work continues and will be reported when definitive results are available. Infrastructure The projects infrastructure requirements are a crucial aspect of the PFS. The Company has held positive preliminary discussions with the owners of the nearest grid-connected powerline. To access the project, the use of existing forestry service roads is feasible, requiring only modest local upgrading. Waste Rock and Water Management Preliminary design of the preferred tailings storage site is underway. The consultants have completed geochemical testing of the potential waste rock types. The results will be used to design the appropriate waste rock storage facilities at a site adjacent to the mine. Surface water management concepts will be developed once the waste rock management scheme has been set out. Environmental Baseline Studies Data from a baseline program initiated in 2018, consisting of surface and groundwater hydrology and water quality studies, fish and benthic studies, terrain and ecosystem mapping has been integrated into project planning. A continuation of hydrology, water quality and climate programs is planned for 2019. The Takla Nation, our First Nations partner at Kwanika, has been involved in the collection of environmental data, associated with the baseline program. The Company will provide additional updates as the study progresses. Qualified Persons Resource Statement In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, the Independent and Qualified Persons for the Kwanika Technical Report are as follows: 1) Central Zone mineral resource update; Sue Bird, P. Eng., of Moose Mountain Technical Services (Cranbrook, British Columbia) who has reviewed, validated and approved the Resource Estimate Update for the Central Zone of the Kwanika Project; 2) Marek Nowak, P. Eng. of SRK Consulting Inc. (Vancouver) who has reviewed, validated and approved the restatement of the South Zone resource on the property which was previously reported on October 14, 2016; 3) Tracey Meintjes, P. Eng., of Moose Mountain Technical Services (Cranbrook, British Columbia) who reviewed the metallurgical aspects of the current report. Other Technical Content David W. Moore, P. Geo., President and CEO of Serengeti Resources Inc has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information in the Pre-Feasibility update section of this news release. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD David W. Moore, P. Geo. President, CEO and Director About Serengeti Resources Inc. Serengeti is a mineral exploration company managed by an experienced team of professionals with a solid track record of exploration success. The Company is currently advancing its Kwanika copper-gold project in partnership with Posco International and exploring its extensive portfolio of properties in north-central British Columbia. A number of these other projects are available for option or joint venture and additional information can be found on the Companys website at www.serengetiresources.com . Cautionary Statement This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities regulations. All statements other than statements of historical fact herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding exploration plans and other future plans and objectives, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and future events and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations as well as a comprehensive list of risk factors are disclosed in the Companys documents filed from time to time via SEDAR with the Canadian regulatory agencies to whose policies we are bound. Forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the date the statements are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should conditions or our estimates change, other than as required by law and readers are further advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information, please contact: Serengeti Resources Inc. Suite 520 800 West Pender St., Vancouver, BC, V6C 2V6 Tel: 604-605-1300 / Email: info@serengetiresources.com / Website: www.serengetiresources.com If you're one of those holding an Iggy Pop ticket for his Sunday night performance in Melbourne, consider yourself one of the fortunate few because that same night at Festival Hall - the night the legendary Stooges frontman turns 72 - you're in for a real wild treat. Pop kicked off his Australian tour, which includes a headline performance at Byron Bay's Bluesfest, with a Monday night, no-holds barred trip down memory lane that had a packed Concert Hall inside the Sydney Opera House on its feet less than 10 seconds into the opening rush of I Wanna Be Your Dog. It was the first of two Concert Hall shows, the first time Pop has performed at the Opera House and left no doubt whatsoever why tracks such as Real Cool Time and No Fun, also from 1969's self-titled album from the Stooges, have stood the test of time and more. Iggy Pop performing at the Sydney Opera House. Credit:Prudence Upton The Asheton brothers, Ron and Scott, who created that unholy, magnificent blast of power that first had Pop hurling his half naked body around stages, have left this mortal coil but Pop and his six-piece band, including a sizzling two-piece horn section, faithfully belted through Gimme Danger, I'm Sick Of You, T.V. Eye, and Down on the Street, while Lust For Life, co-written by David Bowie and released in 1977, was among the many highlights, including a mighty cover of Bowie's The Jean Genie and a knockout version of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Red Right Hand to send us on our way. Pop was in top shelf form and reached to the crowd numerous times throughout the night, thanking everyone for making him happy. Fifty years since the Stooges amped themselves up and came sprawling out of Ann Arbour in Michigan, Iggy Pop is still making audiences very happy. Another party operative says some MPs and political staffers have "had a gutful" of particular newspapers and cable news channel Sky News, which has become a hub of conservative commentary since News Corp took full control in late 2016. One News Corp employee observes that Shorten is the first Labor leader to seek the prime ministership without working hard to keep Murdoch on side. Former leaders Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard sought to woo the billionaire before relations soured in government. Today, party strategists are confident they can get away with thumbing their noses at publications suffering from declining circulation and relevance. Social media offers politicians a way of bypassing the filter and accountability of traditional media outlets. "With the rise of digital channels, you have other means of getting a message through to supporters and people youre seeking to persuade," one Labor source says. The party also regards Murdoch's platforms as less important for its side of politics, compared with the Coalition which sees them as a key way of speaking to a conservative voting base. One paper attracting particular ire is Sydney's Daily Telegraph. Recent front pages have warned of Labor's "tax time bomb" and called the party's electric vehicle policy "Bill's $5k car-bon tax". Another target is Brisbane's Courier Mail. The front page of its federal budget edition depicted a road sign promising "REWARD" if the Coalition was re-elected and "RISK" with Labor. It was in Brisbane that Shorten addressed a gathering of News Corp editors earlier this year. The meeting was said to have been cordial with perhaps a hint of irritation from Shorten about some of the treatment of his party. One person who was present says the Labor leader was relaxed, enjoyed the interactions and has stronger relationships with News Corp figures than his public comments suggest. Loading "It obviously plays better for those on his left for him to demonise News and be publicly at war with our papers," a company insider says. It is well-known that Labor and Shorten generally enjoy a better relationship with the Herald Sun in Melbourne than some other mastheads in the Murdoch stable. Ben English, the editor of The Daily Telegaph, says it's business-as-usual and rejects the idea there has been a conscious hardening of coverage. "Its certainly not a considered strategy on our behalf to become more polemical or more strident one way or the other," he says. "Thats not really what drives us. What drives us is to cover the stories and the issues that matter to readers." English sees Shorten's comments as a run-of-the-mill political tactic as the pressure of the election campaign grows. Chris Dore, the editor-in-chief of The Australian, says Shorten should be straightforward about the cost of Labor's climate change policy instead of attacking the media. "Its a curious tactic one week into the campaign to question the motives of an inquisitive media who are simply asking questions and examining policies that will have a deep and lasting impact on our readers," he says. But some media and political observers say there is growing polarisation of the news and opinion environment, with outlets increasingly catering to a core audience that craves validation of their pre-existing views. Chris Mitchell, a former editor-in-chief of The Australian, argues this has been happening globally, including in the United States where President Donald Trump has made a sport of bashing outlets that publish unfavourable stories. The Coalition reckons it has a not-so-secret weapon in Tasmania: its Premier, Will Hodgman. He was on-hand to warm up the crowd for Scott Morrison at a campaign rally on Thursday, and rarely does the Prime Minister speak in the Apple Isle without a hat tip to the Premier. Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman at Prime Minister Scott Morrison's rally. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer A "revved up" Morrison delivered his most confident speech since calling the election, as he chases a major electoral upset by trying to win back seats in Tasmania. It remains a difficult task, with national polls predicting a decent swing to Labor and the citizens of Braddon - the most marginal of Tasmania's five federal electorates - backing in Labor's Justine Keay as recently as July. Although partly recorded in official war histories, no mention is made of the use of Jewish refugees, alien internees or disabled soldiers, and details of the work were scattered after 1946. These included personal medical files of soldiers and former internees that Australian authorities later said could not be found. The Age has pieced together details of the unit's work from interviews with former guinea pigs and staff and documents held at the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian War Memorial, army personnel records, the Archive of Australian Judaica at the University of Sydney, international medical journals and the Australian Government Archive. A six-month investigation by The Age has found that some of those experimented on included German and Austrian Jewish refugees interned and forcibly sent to Australia by Britain on board the ship Dunera in 1940. The Dunera men were recruited for the experiment after joining the army's 8th Employment Company, where they were reduced to menial manual work on the docks after being prevented from volunteering for active duty. At least some were used to test a new anti-malarial drug developed by the giant British chemical company ICI. Microscopic examination of infected mosquitoes in entomology laboratory. Credit:Australian War Memorial, 119087 Official records questioned the ability of an apparently Italian volunteer from a different internee-based labor company to understand English. The volunteer, who "does not speak the English well" was experimented on after the war. Drugs tested during the experiments were later marketed internationally by ICI and manufactured by the American chemical company Winthrop. When new British and US drugs needed testing, the Australian Army trawled convalescent depots and military hospitals for volunteers. Records obtained by The Age refer to men with a range of physical disabilities being used, including those with amputated limbs. The experiments, which continued long after the immediate threat of high malaria casualties in Australian troops in New Guinea had been overcome, involved abnormally intense malaria infections. Some men were given doses equivalent to being bitten by 13,000 normally infected mosquitoes. The infections were inflicted by using specially bred mosquitoes or giving men transfusions of up to 800cc of infected blood. One man received 35 doses of infected blood. Replacing adult mosquito cages in racks after mosquitoes had been infected with malaria and removed for microscopic examination. Credit:Australian War Memorial, 119073 Other volunteers were given excessively high doses of experimental drugs to test for toxic side effects. Volunteers have told of continuing health problems, which they say resulted from the experiments conducted at Cairns and Rocky Creek in Queensland between June 1943 and April 1946. But in many cases requests for disability pensions or gold cards for free medical treatment for health problems allegedly caused by the experiments have been rejected by the Department of Veteran Affairs. None of those interviewed received follow-up medical checks after they left the army. Some have been told by the army that medical records relating to their roles in the experiments cannot be found. Documents show American authorities were prepared to use only small numbers of volunteer prisoners in state penitentiaries as guinea pigs for malaria research. British authorities thought it was too risky to deliberately infect its own soldiers with recurring malaria. One of the Cairns researchers criticised the reluctance of the Americans and British to use their own men as guinea pigs as "shortsighted" after visiting both countries in 1944. Examination of blood pigments by staff at the Medical Research Unit. Credit:Australian War Memorial, 119080 Dr Max Swan, who helped establish the Medical Research Unit in 1943 and worked as a laboratory technician during the experiments, said calculated risks were taken with volunteers, including delaying treatment to allow severe malarial infections to develop. He said former guinea pigs now deserved greater recognition and war service benefits, either in the form of an ex gratia payment or higher pension payments. OUR WARTIME HUMAN GUINEA PIGS - AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS USED BY THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT FOR MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS. The men who made their way to Cairns from all corners of Australia to act as human guinea pigs in army malaria experiments went for the very best of reasons. They believed they were helping to win World War II. And initially they were. But long after the casualty rates among Australian troops fighting in New Guinea had been dramatically reduced - and for six months after the end of the war - the volunteers kept arriving. They were there to be used to test American and British experimental drugs. What they were not told was that the American and British authorities were not prepared to put their own troops at risk by deliberately infecting them with malaria. Sterilising mosquito cages in boiling water after mosquitoes had been infected with malaria. Credit:Australian War Memorial, 119069. Exactly how many made the journey to the Australian Army's Medical Research Unit remains a mystery, but is believed to be more than 850. Records of three years of experiments were taken to London by the head of the unit, Brigadier Neil Hamilton Fairley, after the war. (Hamilton Fairley die in 1966) Other documents were scattered among various federal government and defence departments. After the war some of the volunteers or their widows wrote to the army asking for medical records of the experiments to use in applications for pensions. They were told that no records of their parts in the experiments were on their medical files. The Age has pieced together details of the unit's work from interviews with former guinea pigs and staff and documents held at the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian War Memorial, army personnel records, the Archive of Australian Judaica at the University of Sydney, international medical journals and the Australian Government Archive. Documents show that as the unit's work expanded and the need for guinea pigs grew, increasing numbers of volunteers were found in convalescent depots, where men were recovering from illnesses, injury and surgery. One report from army headquarters, stamped secret, said: "Owing to the shortage of A class personnel, it is desired to draw...volunteers from convalescent depots. About 100 have already been obtained from depots in southern Queensland, but this source is becoming exhausted. Probably another 200 will be required." Another report said volunteers included men "not fit for front line duty on account of certain physical disabilities". "Several men with one arm, one leg or one eye missing ... were used," it said. In the first 12 months of its work, the MRU was involved in a race to find an effective drug to replace quinine, which became virtually unobtainable after the Japanese overran Java. Malaria took a heavy toll of Australian troops until the unit proved in 1944 that the drug Atebrin, which had been developed by German scientists in 1931, was an effective suppressant if taken regularly. Troops undergoing treatment, line up for Atebrin parade inside mosquito proof ward, 1945. Credit:Australian War Memorial, 119070 But the pace of experimentation at the MRU at Cairns and the unit's other station at Rocky Creek in Queensland did not slacken. Nor was the news of Atebrin's success shared with those courageously volunteering to be human guinea pigs. Those who took part in experiments after late 1944 have told The Age that when appeals were made for volunteers they were told that Allied troops were still "dying like flies" from malaria. These volunteers were used to test new drugs developed by the Americans and British, who were reluctant to risk deliberately infecting their own troops with malaria. American research was limited to using small numbers of volunteer prisoners in civilian jails. British research surrounded the use of returned soldiers already suffering from malaria. "In both countries a short-sighted policy of unwillingness to use service volunteers has seriously curtailed the experimental human material available," one senior Australian researcher reported on his return from a trip to the US and Britain in 1944. Communiques between Hamilton Fairley and the Australian military mission in Washington show the Americans were worried that the Cairns project might be shut down before the new drugs could be tested. "The only fear here is that the unit might disband on completion of the Atebrin studies ..." the mission in Washington told Hamilton Fairley in August 1944. But the fear expressed by the military mission in Washington was short-lived. Australian authorities agreed to allow the Cairns unit to run human trials on two new American drugs, Sontoquine and Chloroquine. And in early 1945, during a visit to London Hamilton Fairley enthusiastically offered the same opportunity to Britain, where a new drug called Paludrine had been successfully tested on birds. In August 1944, the Australian military forces adjutant-general in Melbourne notified the headquarters of all state commands of the urgent need for human guinea pigs for the American drugs. It set allotments for the number of men each state command would have to provide over the coming six months - a total of 160. "B class men with certain types of defective hearing or vision or those with mechanical disabilities...will be accepted," the instructions said. In February 1945 Hamilton Fairley messaged one of his subordinates from London that one hundred more guinea pigs should be collected as soon as possible at Cairns because the British "urgently desire" to have the new ICI drug Paludrine tested. Eventually more than 200 men were used in the Paludrine experiments, including Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany. "Actually the results on experimentally infected volunteers have come out extraordinarily well, but I hope nobody calculates the cost," Hamilton Fairley wrote to a British colleague in December 1945. "About 200 volunteers have been used in different capacities to date quite apart from the large number of malignant tertian infections and relapsing benign tertian patients receiving treatment." In the final weeks of the MRU's work, with the supply of volunteers drying up, the unit's staff used themselves for tests on Paludrine. Twenty-one years after the death of a man in a Redfern alleyway known as a drugs "supermarket", an alleged bank robber has been charged with his stabbing death. New Zealand national Robert McPherson, 38, and a friend were walking through a Redfern alleyway in 1998 when they were set upon by a group of men armed with baseball bats, a knife, a chain and a stick. Mr McPherson's daughter Teela, then 11, looking at the vehicles suspected of being involved in her father's death. Credit:Andrew Meares He died of a stab wound to his chest, while his friend survived with minor injuries. "I've been stabbed," he told the friend, before he died in hospital. Two brothers linked to a fringe Islamic group in Sydney have been convicted of contempt of court and fined more than $100,000 after claiming they were "exempt" from Australian law. The NSW Land and Environment Court heard Mustapha Kara-Ali and his brother Diaa Kara-Ali had a "religious issue with the court" and had ignored court orders to cease construction at a site in Colo in north-west Sydney, for which they did not have development consent. Mustapha Kara-Ali, described as the Imam or spiritual leader of fringe Islamic group Diwan Al Dawla, told the court it was "religiously repugnant and obscene" to be ordered by Hawkesbury City Council to do or not do anything on the land, as it related to "a matter of religious practice". He claimed the council was trying to "coerce us" by using the courts and it amounted to an "outright violation of our religious freedom" because the court was not a "secular body". Eire becomes republic Eire became an independent republic, severing centuries old ties with the British Crown. More than 100,000 people cheered, sang, and danced in Dublin streets hung with green, white and orange tricolours. The salvo announcing that the Republic of Ireland Act had come into force was fired from O'Connell Bridge, timed to take place immediately after midnight, marking the 33rd anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Australians "wide open to smallpox" According to the senior health officer of the Victorian Health Commission, Dr. R. E. Harris, Australians were wide open to smallpox as there had never been a bad epidemic so few Australians regarded the disease seriously or knew what a horrible disease it was. He said the recent smallpox deaths of Australians in England showed the seriousness of the disease and the need for all Australians to be vaccinated. Cut in beer deliveries A French citizen with an extensive criminal history who has lived in Australia for more than 40 years has had his visa revoked and will be deported to France after his appeal to the federal court was dismissed. Gilles Roger Pallas came to Australia aged 11 with his parents in 1973 under a permanent entry visa. The French citizen had never applied for Australian citizenship despite living in the country for almost all his life. Credit:Louie Douvis The federal court in Brisbane heard that, while he lived in Australia on a later Class BF transitional permanent visa, Pallas didnt obtain Australian citizenship. As an adult he racked up years of jail time for drug, wounding and receiving tainted property charges. Queensland researchers will be able to expand their horizons when it comes to projects fuelled by satellite data, with a major new national body set up to take advantage of Australias move into space. The SmartSat Co-operative Research Centre has been officially launched this week featuring 84 research and industry partners from around the country. Professor Kerrie Mengersen and Dr Erin Peterson from QUTs Institute for Future Environments will be working in one of the SmartSat CRCs key programs of Earth Observation and Analytics. Queensland researchers are joining new national body SmartSat CRC to gather and utilise satellite data for a range of projects Professor Mengersen said the work they do uses satellite data to make a range of models on all sorts of systems, from the Great Barrier Reef to farming and even urban planning. English French TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Noranda Income Fund (TSX: NIF.UN) (the Fund) announced that it will hold a conference call to discuss its 2019 first quarter results on Friday, April 26 at 8:30 a.m. ET. Liana Centomo, Chief Executive Officer, and Paul Einarson, Chief Financial Officer, of the Funds manager, will host the call. The Fund expects to report its financial results after the market closes on Thursday, April 25, 2019. The Fund also announced that it will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday, April 26, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. ET. First Quarter 2019 Results Conference Call: When: April 26, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. E.T. Dial-in number: 647-788-4919 or Toll-free North American number: 1-877-291-4570 To access the webcast and view the slide presentation from the Noranda Income Fund website: http://www.norandaincomefund.com/investor/conference.php or click on this link: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/4wnb56tr . Conference Call Replay: Dial-in number: 416-621-4642 or Toll-free North American number: 1-800-585-8367 The conference ID is 7390798 and you will be prompted to provide your name and company. The recording will be available until midnight on May 3, 2019. Annual General Meeting: When: April 26, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. E.T Location: Gallery at the TMX Broadcast Centre, The Exchange Tower, 130 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario To access the webcast and view the slide presentation from the Noranda Income Fund website: http://www.norandaincomefund.com/investor/presentations.php or click on this link: https://bit.ly/2FSG0tY . Noranda Income Fund is an income trust whose units trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol NIF.UN. Noranda Income Fund owns the electrolytic zinc processing facility and ancillary assets (the Processing Facility) located in Salaberry de-Valleyfield, Quebec. The Processing Facility is the second-largest zinc processing facility in North America and the largest zinc processing facility in eastern North America, where the majority of zinc customers are located. It produces refined zinc metal and various by-products from sourced zinc concentrates. The Processing Facility is operated and managed by Canadian Electrolytic Zinc Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Glencore Canada Corporation. Further information about Noranda Income Fund can be found at: www.norandaincomefund.com . A computer-generated image of a man who allegedly stabbed another driver in Hallam on April 10. Credit:Victoria Police A man was stabbed and his car rammed several times during a brutal road-rage attack on a busy road in Melbourne's south-east. A white Daihatsu Delta truck rammed a blue Mitsubishi Pajero on Belgrave-Hallam Road about 2.25pm on Wednesday, April 10, police have been told. The drivers then got out of their cars and started fighting near the Monash off-ramp. After the fight, the Pajero driver tried to leave the scene but was allegedly rammed in his car twice more. A $300 million proposed upgrade to Southern Cross to help ease platform overcrowding has been knocked back by the Andrews government. The government's decision to reject the proposal comes days after a broken escalator at Southern Cross station caused train diversions and lengthy commuter queues on the platforms for several days, at a time when many of the citys key train lines were closed in the states biggest ever rail shut down. In 2016, the stations owners Civic Nexus put forward a market-led proposal to build a wide, elevated footbridge, providing extra access to platforms, which would also be lengthened. The broken escalators at Southern Cross Station. Credit:Zach Hope The government has been sitting on the proposal since then, as passengers passing through the station has steadily increased to about 280,000 a day. Male deer see all males as competition during the autumn mating season, and will take out anyone who threatens their dominance, experts have told The Age. Paul McDonald, 46, was killed by his pet deer when he went to feed it at his Mohyu property near Wangaratta in north-east Victoria on Tuesday morning. His wife Mandi McDonald, 45, is still fighting for her life in The Alfred hospital after trying to save her husband. The couple have two children. Paul and Mandi McDonald were attacked by their pet deer at their property in Moyhu, near Wangaratta, on Wednesday morning. Credit:Mandi McDonald/ Facebook "Any male animal, you can't really trust them," Andrew McKinnon, the president of the Deer Industry Association of Australia (DIAA) said. Environment Minister Melissa Price ordered a sudden meeting between scientists and her department over the Adani mine the day her Queensland colleagues demanded the government progress a critical federal approval, it has emerged. The Department of the Environment and Energy has confirmed that Ms Price, rather than bureaucrats, requested controversial meetings between senior department staff and two scientific agencies, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, to discuss changes to Adani's contentious groundwater management plan. Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price was under pressure to sign off on the Adani project before the election. Credit:AAP The department said the request came on April 4 the same day News Corp reported that a delegation of Queensland MPs had met Prime Minister Scott Morrison over concerns that Ms Price was refusing to sign off on the plan. Ms Price has insisted her decision was not the result of political pressure and was based purely on advice from the scientific agencies, which had been commissioned to provide independent technical oversight. Mrs. Petrov, the two Russian men, and the two airport officers balanced for a minute on the narrow, swaying platform 15 feet above the ground before police could push the gangway back. As Mrs. Petrov was dragged through the plane's doorway about 20 people began swarming after her up the steps. THREAT TO TURN- ON HOSES Firemen threatened to turn hoses on the crowd to quell the riot. Some New Australians in the crowd threw stones at the plane. Mrs. Petrov is the wife of Vladimir Petrov, a Russian Embassy Third Secretary, who has been granted political asylum in Australia. Mr. Karpinsky and the Russian Embassy official dragged Mrs. Petrov, who was weeping and dazed, for 200 yards along the tarmac and pushed her up the gang-way. About 20 people clung to the side of the gangway and punched at Mr. Karpinsky and the Embassy official and two uniformed airport officers who were helping to drag Mrs. Petrov aboard the plane. Angry crowds at the airport on April 19, 1954. Credit:R. L. Stewart The plane left the airport at 9.38 p.m., eight minutes later than scheduled. At the height of the riot Civil Aviation authorities announced over the public address system that the plane would not be able to get away to schedule. While the crowd was struggling to stop officials taking Mrs. Petrov up the gangway two airport fire engines arrived and connected up hoses ready to turn them on the crowd. An officer in charge of the engines called out to the crowd to stand clear of the gangway or water would be turned on them. By the time the hoses were fully run out Mrs. Petrov had entered the plane and the crowd fell back from the plane. When officials, dragging and carrying Mrs. Petrov, neared the plane, ground staff first ran a gangway up to the pilot's cabin for her to go aboard. The mob surged round the gangway and barred Mrs. Petrov's path and attempts to use the gangway were abandoned. Officials finally succeeded in thrusting a way to the main gangway but a fighting crowd thwarted for two minutes the attempts of officials to mount it. Every inch of the progress up the gangway was bitterly contested by the crowd. Men and women jumped and clung to the gangway on either side using their free hands to drag Mrs. Petrov and officials down and swinging punches. The Russian courier, Mr.Karpinsky, one of Mrs. Petrov's escorts, was punched and kicked frequently in the melee and the Russian commercial attache, N. Kovalev, another escort and a small man, received a continuous battering. He screamed out and was almost in tears at the height of the fracas. Statutory declarations Statutory declarations were made by some of the people at the airport after the plane had left. They claimed that they heard Mrs. Petrov say she wanted to stay. One ot these, signed Konstantyn Salwarosky, of 33 Pitt Street, Waterloo, read: To-night as Mme. Petrov was leaving Mascot, I saw her coming round the back way on to the entrance into the plane. "She was struggling against the Russians trying to push her in. "I heard her say in Russian: 'Ja nie chat chu, (I not want to go).' A second, signed N. P. Hakkoff, 126 Regent Street, Redfern, said: "To-night I stood under the gang-plank as Mme. Petrov, accompanied by Russians, was being forced up. "She screamed about half-way, up the plank but someone put his hand over her mouth and forced her head down. "I heard her say in Russian: 'I don't want to go.' A Labor government would not reconsider the decision to exclude Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from Australia's rollout of next-generation 5G networks, even as senior figures expect Beijing to test the party's resolve if it wins the federal election. Displaying its ongoing frustration with the government's 5G policy, China raised the ban at a World Trade Organisation meeting last week, complaining about Australia's "discriminatory market access prohibition on 5G equipment". Huawei has also signalled it will renew its Canberra lobbying efforts after the May 18 poll. Huawei and China are expected to renew their lobbying efforts on 5G access following the May election. Credit:AFP Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said the government stands by its policy and was "confident in our compliance" with global trade rules. The WTO questioning has occurred on the eve of next month's election, foreshadowing a challenge for a widely predicted Labor government. Huawei's global head of cybersecurity, John Suffolk, also hit out at the ban on Tuesday, saying it would drive Australia to "mediocrity" and more expensive technology. Mr Suffolk said the company was being treated as a possible criminal without any evidence and he would directly lobby the next government to overturn the policy. Tokyo: North Korea's Foreign Ministry no longer wants to talk to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, asking for him to replaced in nuclear talks with someone who "is more careful and mature in communicating," state media reported on Thursday. The Foreign Ministry said "no one can predict" the situation on the Korean Peninsula if the United States does not abandon the "root cause" that compelled Pyongyang to develop its nuclear program, according to a statement quoting senior official Kwon Jong Gun, reported by the Korean Central News Agency and picked up by Reuters. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ahead of their meeting in Pyongyang in October 2018. Credit:AP Pompeo is "talking nonsense" by trying to finish working-level negotiations between North Korea and the United States by the end of the year, "which subjects him to public ridicule," the statement said. "We cannot be aware of Pompeo's ulterior motive behind his self-indulgence in reckless remarks; whether he is indeed unable to understand words properly or just pretending on purpose. However, it is a very dangerous situation if he really did not grasp the meaning," it said, according to Reuters. London: The potential for Huawei to spy for Beijing is the reason Chinese telco should be banned from building Britain's 5G network, a prominent Australian academic has told officials in London. Huawei's Cyber Security Transparency Centre in Brussels, Belgium. Credit:Bloomberg Speaking to a high-powered roundtable discussing China for the think tank British Foreign Policy Group, Andrew MacLeod, a visiting professor at King's College in London, urged Britain to follow Australia's more nuanced public debate on China. "I think the British would be served well by looking at Australia because with due respect, Australia is a lot more advanced in this argument than the British are," he said. Europe needed to come to grips with the fact that China was not rising but returning and that the new centre of the world would be based in the Asia-Pacific, he said. Paris: The eventual reconstruction of Notre-Dame is now a foregone conclusion. Within hours of the fire that destroyed much of the cathedral on Monday, donors pledged more than $1.5 billion to restore the Parisian icon to its former glory. Even before the smoke had cleared, luxury goods magnate Francois-Henri Pinault - the chairman and chief executive of Kering - announced his family would donate 100 million ($157 million) to the effort. Not to remain on the sideline, his rival Bernard Arnault - the chief executive of LVMH and the richest man in Europe - pledged twice that amount on Tuesday morning. The Bettencourt Meyers family, which controls L'Oreal, quickly matched that pledge. And Patrick Pouyanne - chief of executive of French oil giant Total - offered another 100 million. Officials are still assessing the extent of the damage, so the cost of Notre-Dame's reconstruction remains unknown, but these and the many other donations coming in should pretty well cover it. Washington: US Attorney-General William Barr has been accused of trying to protect President Donald Trump and "bake in the narrative to the benefit of the White House" by holding a news conference about the highly anticipated special counsel's Russia probe report hours before the report's due release on Thursday, US time. Attorney-General William Barr on the eve of the report's release. Credit:AP In a hastily assembled news conference of his own on the eve of the release of the redacted findings of Robert Mueller's investigation, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a democrat, said he'd been informed by the Justice Department that Congress would receive the report between 11am and noon. Barr was scheduled to speak to the press at 9.30am. "The Attorney-General appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump - the very subject of investigation at the heart of the Mueller report rather than letting the facts speak for themselves," Nadler said. Nadler noted that Barr's decision to characterise the report in public remarks runs counter to what Barr said after he released a four-page summary of Mueller's 400-page report last month. Barr had defended that action by saying it wouldn't be in the public's interest for him to summarise the entire thing. Disappearing bumblebee species under threat of extinction The American Bumblebee - a species once more commonly seen buzzing around Southern Ontario - is critically endangered, according to a new study led by York University. The finding, published in Journal of Insect Conservation, found the native North American species, Bombus pensylvanicus, is facing imminent extinction from Canada, considered the highest and most at-risk classification before extinction. Many bumblebee species are rapidly declining across North America, but are important pollinators needed to grow Canada's crops including apples, tomatoes, blueberries and legumes, as well as countless types of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. The researchers assessed the extinction risk of the American Bumblebee, ranking the risk much higher than a federal advisory committee's most recent assessment which classifies the species' extinction risk at special concern. "This species is at risk of extinction and it's currently not protected in any way despite the drastic decline," said Assistant Professor Sheila Colla, an expert in bees and endangered species in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. "Now that we have assessed the extent of the decline and located where the remaining populations are, we can look more closely at threats and habitat requirements to design an effective conservation management plan so that this species does not disappear from Canada forever," said Colla, who co-authored and helped design the study. Colla has been studying bumblebees in Southern Ontario since the mid-2000s. This study relies on the annual data that she and her fellow researchers have collected. The study's research team - led by Victoria MacPhail, Colla's doctoral student, and including a scientist from the University of Vermont - used data from three sources. They analyzed Southern Ontario data from the citizen science program, Bumble Bee Watch, a collaboration of volunteers who submit bumblebee photos through a website or phone app for experts to identify. The researchers used the Bumble Bees of North America database to obtain records of bumblebee species in Ontario and Quebec dating back to the late-1800s. They also used their own field survey work which allowed them to evaluate the status of the species within its Canadian range, using the globally-recognized International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment criteria. The researchers found that the American Bumblebee's area of occurrence has decreased by about 70 percent and its relative abundance fell by 89 percent from 2007-2016 compared to 1907-2006. "This bumblebee species now has a reduced overall range," explained MacPhail. "It used to stretch from Windsor to Toronto, and all the way to Ottawa and into the Quebec area, but it is now only found in some core areas and has experienced a 37 percent decrease in overall range." "It's now a rare sighting in Toronto," said MacPhail. "In terms of relative abundance, compared to other bees, you'd have to catch 1,000 bumblebees to find four of this species, and that compares to finding 37 bees in the past. You could walk out the door and win the lottery and find it, or you could be searching for years and not find any." This study echoes Colla's previous findings with the critically endangered Rusty-patched Bumblebee, once found in Southern Ontario. The species has not been seen in Canada for about ten years and drastically declined towards extinction without receiving protection or conservation management. "The American bumblebee is still found in areas throughout its Canadian range and immediate action may save it from the same fate as the Rusty-patched Bumblebee," said Colla. ### This story has been published on: 2019-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Platinex Inc. (CSE: PTX) announces assignment of its ownership rights, under an option agreement with Skead Holdings Ltd and Ashley Gold Mines Limited respecting a 50% interest in claim L4212960, to Goldeye Explorations Ltd., a subsidiary of Treasury Metals Inc. The terms include proceeds of $25,000 in cash and shares of Treasury Metals Inc and a 1% NSR royalty on 50% of the claim. Claim L4212960 comprises eight claim units for approximately 128 ha (320 acres) and is equivalent to less than 1% of Platinexs Shining Tree property. Giving consideration to this transaction Platinexs remaining 100% owned Shining Tree gold property comprises 14,058 ha (34,720 ac). Previous exploration has revealed a very large and significant gold in till dispersion train across the Shining Tree camp in over 450 till samples. As a result Platinex has increased its property holdings and now holds a 21 km strike length of the Tyrrell-Ridout deformation zone, a suspected source of the gold dispersion train, which has received sparse past attention from explorers. The IAMGOLD Cote Lake ad Gosselin deposits and the Tahoe Resources Juby deposit are recent discoveries along strike to the west and east respectively. An Exploration Plan for the Shining Tree property and Exploration Permit have been approved for a three-year period. A NI43-101 technical report was completed in June 2018 on the expanded property holdings. Mr. James R. Trusler, Chairman and Interim CEO of Platinex Inc., states, Glacial till prospecting still accounts for a large number of major discoveries in Canada and abroad and has revealed a large prospective target on the property. Platinex is currently seeking other interested parties to participate in the exploration of the property. Lori Paradis, Corporate Secretary Tel: (416) 268-2682 Email: lparadis@platinex.com Web: www.platinex.com About Platinex Inc. Platinex is currently focusing efforts on developing various strategies to capitalize on the lucrative growth of the cannabis sector in North America. At the same time Platinex has been focusing its mining business efforts in assembling a very large property in the Shining Tree gold camp, which has received little modern exploration compared to other gold camps in the Abitibi greenstone Belt. Shares of Platinex are listed for trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "PTX". To receive Company press releases, please email lparadis@platinex.com and mention Platinex press release on the subject line. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Such statements include submission of the relevant documentation within the required timeframe and to the satisfaction of the relevant regulators, completing the acquisition of the applicable assets and raising sufficient financing to complete the Company's business strategy. There is no certainty that any of these events will occur. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Investing into early stage companies, inherently carries a high degree of risk and investment into securities of the Company shall be considered highly speculative. Furthermore, the Company seeks to enter the cannabis market in the United States, where some states have legalized cannabis for medical or adult recreational use, while cannabis remain illegal under United States Federal law. As such, the Company may become subject to additional government regulation and legal uncertainties that could restrict the demand for its services or increase its cost of doing business, thereby adversely affecting its financial results. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any province in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities issued, or to be issued, under the Private Placement have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not passed upon the merits of the Private Placement and has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. ~ Where is the Dutch and SMCP on Integrity matters? PHILIPSBURG: --- Information reaching SMN News states that a doctor working for the Social Insurance Bank, SZV was threatened if she did not comply with the requests of the Prime Minister of St. Maarten Leona Romeo Marlin and backdate certain documents that will benefit convicted detective Jerry Gerardus. According to the well-placed source, Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin instructed the Director of SZV Glen Carty to have the documents backdated for Gerardus who is currently on sick leave (A/O) but is still receiving his government salary even though convicted. Jerry Gerardus was an advisor to the Prime Minister prior to his arrest on July 4th, 2018. Gerardus had to remain in pre-trial detention until his court date. However, the stained police officer fell ill while in pretrial detention and had to be released on special conditions. The source said the SZV control doctor refused to commit the fraud and forgery and as such she was threatened. It is not clear if the documents were doctored after the threats were made. On October 19th, 2018 the Prosecution requested 3-years prison sentence for Gerardus who was charged with theft and embezzlement. Details on the charges are as follows: theft of diamonds, cut stone, or jewelry and embezzling proceeds of the sale, bribery in service as a police officer, forgery and breach of confidently. More on the Prosecution case against Gerardus can be found here (https://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/30323-3-years-requested-for-police-officer-jerry-gerardus-suspected-of-theft-and-embezzlement.html). While the stained cop had several brushes with the law while working in the Police Force of St. Maarten only in 2018 actions such as charges and prosecution was ever brought against Gerardus. At the time he was working in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin, while in detention the Prime Minister is the one that met several times with the Attorney representing Jerry Gerardus compromising the integrity of the cabinet of the Prime Minister. Besides meeting with Gerardus Attorney Romeo Marlin allegedly went to the Philipsburg Police Station and created a commotion there when Gerardus was in custody. It is further alleged that was not the first time the Prime Minister tried to use the power of her office to interfere with judicial proceedings. On February 13th, 2019 the Court of First Instance handed down its decision on the WHALE investigation whereby Jerry Gerardus was convicted to 3 years in prison while he was banned from holding any position in the Korps Politie for a period of 8 years While the Court of First Instance pronounced its decision the Prosecutors Office is yet to make the decision of the Court public while the published decisions of the Court have been manipulated in order to save the face of the justice system. It is should also be known that Gerardus has been in the pockets of several business people where it is alleged, that he was leaking information regarding criminal investigations. Besides that, Gerardus has been the pockets of several persons and has used the office of the Police to threaten several persons. Some employees of Government-owned company GEBE has had their share of harassment and threat from the stained cop who is a friend of GEBE Internal Auditor and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SZV Sharine Daniel. It should be noted that Jerry Gerardus has been convicted so is Regina Labega and both persons are still working in the cabinet of Ministers and Prime Minister while other civil servants have become targets if they were even questioned by police or suspected of committing any type of crime. The UD/ SMCP coalition government seems to think that the people of St. Maarten and those in the outer world are not taking notes on their flip-flopping when it comes to matters of integrity. Government chooses to go against the principles of good governance, integrity and the LMA to keep their cronies on the government payroll and in office. Bear in mind, the Public Relations Officer for the Minister of TEATT Stuart Johnson and Perry Geerlings was also convicted in his native country St. Kitts for murder/ manslaughter. While the people of St. Maarten seem to understand and have accepted the modus operandi of the UD/ SMCP Government the very people are still wondering what the point of views of the Dutch Government regarding matters of integrity are and if they have raised any concerns with the countrys Chief Minister. Did the Dutch Government use their power to silence the Prosecutors Office and the Court of First Instance on releasing the Courts Verdict that was rendered on February 13th, 2019? The very Dutch Government have been using microscopic lenses to target certain politicians and high ranking business people on St. Maarten however, they seem to have some type of agreement with the current Government of St. Maarten since they have allowed these blatant integrity breaches to continue even though the former Government were forced to accept their conditions for the Recovery Funds, one being the Integrity Chamber. Is there an agreement with the Council of Ministers of St. Maarten and the Dutch Government regarding matters of integrity especially since the present COM have to decide to sell the assets of the country to the Dutch Government one being the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) in order for them to take over supervisory and management of the Government-owned company for it secure a loan through the World Bank and the European Investment Bank are only some of the questions that are being asked. Millennial Lithium Announces Approximately 100 percent Increase to 4,200,000 Tonnes in Measured and Indicated Lithium Resources at Pastos Grandes Posted by Publisher Internet Millennial Lithium Corp. (the \Company\) (TSX-V:ML https://www.commodity-tv.net/c/search_adv/?v=298888), is pleased to report an updated? lithium (?Li?) and potassium (?K?) resource statement for its Pastos Grandes brine project in? Salta province of Argentina.? The NI 43-101 resource statement, detailed in Table 1 below, includes 4,120,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate (?Li2CO3?) equivalent (LCE) and 15,342,000 tonnes of potash (?KCl?) equivalent in the Measured and Indicated Resource categories, with an additional 798,000 tonnes of LCE and 2,973,000 tonnes KCl in the Inferred Resource category.? Compared to resource estimates completed by Montgomery & Associates in its previous report titled Measured, Indicated and Inferred Lithium and Potassium Resource Estimate Pastos Grandes Project Salta Province, Argentina and dated December 22, 2017, the updated resources represent an almost 100% increase in the Measured and Indicated LCE tonnage (2017 value of 2,131,000 tonnes LCE). Farhad Abasov, President and CEO of Millennial Lithium, commented on the updated resources for the Pastos Grandes Project, ?We are very excited to see from calculations by our hydrogeological consultants Montgomery & Associates, an approximately 100% increase in the Measured and Indicated lithium resources estimate over the 2017 Measured and Indicated Li resources. This sizable increase in our resource positions Millennial as one of the most prospective lithium brine projects in the world with the potential for a significant lithium operation. The Company now has significant Measured and Indicated lithium resources which, on the completion of ongoing studies, have the potential to be converted to Probable and Possible reserves in support of our Feasibility Study on the Company?s planned lithium carbonate processing operation.? Our development work continues with the Feasibility Study and the construction of the pilot processing plant, both slated for completion in Q2.? The resource estimate was prepared in accordance with the guidelines of National Instrument 43-101 and uses best practice methods specific to brine resources, including a reliance on core drilling and sampling methods that yield depth-specific chemistry and effective (drainable) porosity measurements. The resource estimation was completed by independent qualified person Mr. Michael Rosko, M.Sc., C.P.G. of the international hydrogeology firm E.L. Montgomery and Associates (M&A). The resource is defined over a 45 square kilometer footprint using results from rotary and core drilling and depth-specific packer sampling. In addition, the brine was also sampled during long-term (21 days) and short-term pumping (72 hours) tests. The new measured, indicated, and inferred resource was derived from geological and grade/width block models derived from 15,135 metres of core and rotary drilling. The average spacing between core holes is less than 1 km.? Geophysical surveys were used to assist with location and anticipated depths for the core holes, but also to identify potential fresh water and to extend the inferred resource. Over most of the basin, the brine resource occurs to within 1 metre of surface and its thickness is defined by the extent of drilling. The maximum depth drilled was 641 metres near the center of the mining concessions, bottoming in a sandy aquifer.? The deepest brine sample was obtained at a depth of 641 metres and had a Li concentration of 495 milligrams per litre.? The chemistry of the Pastos Grandes brine is judged to be very favourable.? Brine density and the ratios of magnesium and sulfate to lithium are: Density of the brine ranges between 1.20 and 1.22 g/cm3 Average Magnesium/Lithium ratio: 2 Average Sulphate/Lithium ratio: 3 Based on the geologic model, approximately 76% of the brine volume in this resource is hosted by predominantly silty and sandy units and 21% by mixed halite.? The balance is hosted in gravel or clay dominated units. The total contained lithium and potassium values are based on measurements of effective (drainable) porosity distributed throughout the aquifer volume that defines this resource. This method of porosity determination is designed to estimate the portion of the total porosity that can theoretically be drained by pumping; however, these in situ estimates may? differ from total extractable quantities.? The porosity of the resource volume varies with geology but to date effective porosity has been predictable within distinct hydrostratigraphic units; the average for the entire saturated aquifer considered in the resource is approximately 11%. Portions of the resource located in the clastic sediments at the margins of the salar have been demonstrated to have fresh and brackish water overlying brine.? In these areas, fresh water inflow from the surface mixes with salt water in the basin; the resulting lower density fresh water and brackish fluid float on top of the more dense brine before entering the salar margins. Resource Estimation Methodology A total of 15,135 metres of drilling from 33 holes was evaluated for this resource estimate calculation.? Other core holes and wells were drilled but were shallower.? A total of 144 drainable porosity results and 311 depth-specific brine sample analyses were used in the computations, not including QA/QC samples or composite samples obtained during pumping tests.? The average spacing of vertical samples for brine chemistry analysis was variable with an average of 25 metres for depth-specific brine samples.? Of the 33 holes used for the resource analysis, all were terminated due to drill limitations (hydrogeologic basement was not encountered). ?The total thickness of the basin and the total thickness of saturated sediments are unknown.? Based on drilling, additional brine-bearing aquifer material is likely to exist below 600 metres in the concession area. The consultants chose to estimate the updated resource using Leapfrog Edge, a well-known 3-dimensional block modeling software tool. Hydrostratigraphic units have variable thickness and were determined by the consultants based on observed lithology and anticipated similar hydraulic properties.? The values for drainable porosity and grade (lithium and potassium values) for each hydrostratigraphic unit were derived from direct measured values from the well. The unit thicknesses combined with the areas yield a volume. The volumes combined with the drainable porosity values, representing the amount of fluid available from the formation yield the volume of brine. Applying the grade, represented as lithium carbonate and potassium chloride equivalents reported as weights by volume of brine then provides the estimated resource for each block, which are then summed. The primary analytical laboratories for the data used in this resource are NORLAB in Jujuy, Argentina and SGS Laboratory in Buenos Aires, Argentina.? Both laboratories are accredited to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO14001:2004 for their geochemical and environmental labs for the preparation and analysis of numerous sample types, including brines. The porosity determinations were made by Core Laboratories of Houston, Texas and Geosystems Analysis (GSA) of Tucson, Arizona.? Core Laboratories is a leading provider of proprietary and patented reservoir description, production enhancement and reservoir management services.? Core Laboratories has demonstrated that its Quality Management System is in compliance with certification to?ISO 9000:2008. ?The scope of this registration is:? providing state of the art petrophysical and geological analysis and interpretation of core samples from rock. ?GSA has gained abundant experience since 1994 in methods used by Core Laboratories and has provided services to various other lithium projects located in Argentina and globally. Qualified Person The resource evaluation work was completed by Mr. Michael Rosko, M.Sc., C.P.G. of Montgomery and Associates Consultores Limitada (?M&A?).? Mr. Rosko is a Registered Geologist (C.P.G.) in Arizona, California, and Texas, a Registered Member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, and is a qualified person (QP) as that term is defined by NI 43-101.? Mr. Rosko and hydrogeologists from M&A have been on site multiple times during the various phases of drilling and sampling operations.? Mr. Rosko has extensive experience in salar environments and has been a QP on many lithium brine projects. Mr. Rosko and M&A are completely independent of Millennial Lithium.? Mr. Rosko has reviewed and approved the content of this news release. Program design and exploration support was provided by Mr. Iain Scarr, (B.Sc. Geology, MBA, CPG) of Millennial Lithium.? Mr. Scarr is a Certified Professional Geologist (CPG) with the American Association of Professional Geologists (AIPG) and a QP as defined in NI 43-101.? Mr. Scarr has spent significant time on site at Pastos Grandes during all drilling and sampling operations and has extensive experience with lithium projects at other lithium bearing salars. A Technical Report prepared under the guidelines of NI 43-101 standards describing the resource estimation will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of this release. To find out more about Millennial Lithium Corp. please contact Investor Relations at (604) 662-8184 or email info@millenniallithium.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.? Forward-Looking Statements This document may contain ?forward-looking information? within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (hereinafter referred to as \forward-looking statements\). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation statements relating to the Preliminary Economic Assessment, estimated capital and operating costs, productions rates, cash flows, rates of return, mine life or mineral resources, securing of debt for future project construction, purchase of future mine production, the timing for completion of an Feasibility Study and other matters related to the exploration and development of the Project, are forward-looking statements.? These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management?s expectations or beliefs regarding future events.? By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.? Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include unsuccessful exploration results, changes in metals prices, changes in the availability of funding for mineral exploration, unanticipated changes in key management personnel and general economic conditions, title disputes as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company?s interim and annual financial statements and management?s discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.? In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as ?plans?, ?expects? or ?does not expect?, ?is expected?, ?budget?, ?scheduled?, ?estimates?, ?forecasts?, ?intends?, ?anticipates? or ?does not anticipate?, or ?believes?, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results ?may?, ?could?, ?would?, ?might? or ?will be taken?, ?occur? or ?be achieved? or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology.? Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.? Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. ? Sibanye-Stillwater and AMCU conclude gold strike Posted by Publisher Internet Sibanye-Stillwater (Tickers JSE: SGL and NYSE: SBGL https://www.commodity-tv.net/c/search_adv/?v=298805 ) is pleased to report that the five month strike by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at its SA gold operations, has been resolved. Both parties have acknowledged that it is in their interest to re-base and develop a constructive relationship going forward. The parties agree that in acknowledgement of the need for a constructive working relationship they will foster a safe and sustainable business that creates value for all stakeholders. The parties therefore agree to a facilitated ?post-strike conflict? relationship building program aimed at aligning leaders of both organised labour and management. As part of the agreement reached with Sibanye-Stillwater, AMCU has committed, inter alia to the following conditions: signing the 2018 three-year wage agreement* previously signed with National Union of Mineworkers (the NUM), Solidarity and UASA in respect of wages and conditions of service for the period 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2021 affirm commitment to conclude a peace pact within 30 days abide by the decisions of the court and that no further appeals will be instituted or pursued developing and implementing, along with other stakeholders, a plan to ensure a safe start and ramp-up of production post-strike, and to promote and ensure sustainable safe production together with the company Sibanye-Stillwater has agreed to, inter alia: an ex gratia payment of R4,000 for all employees at its gold operations in the form of cash or a voucher, to alleviate hardship offer a cash advance of R5,000 upon request of the employees which will be repayable over a 12 month period assistance with debt consolidation and counselling as part of the existing ?Care for iMali? program waive its rights to reclaim costs incurred on behalf of employees during the strike including contributions to medical aid and pension/provident funds, accommodation and feeding costs provide transport for employees to return to work any employees who were dismissed for strike related misconduct will be subject to normal disciplinary proceedings in line with the Company?s disciplinarily code and procedures which include the right to lodge a complaint in line with the formal grievance procedures As a result of the agreement, the AMCU strike is no longer protected and all employees will been notified to report for work as per a build-up schedule which will be communicated internally in due course.? The safety and wellness of our employees is our first priority and in line with our CARES values, the immediate focus will be on ensuring that the gold operations re-commence safely. Initial shifts will consist of fit-for-work medicals, training and assessing work places before mining activities can re-commence. Sibanye-Stillwater CEO, Neal Froneman commented: ?We are pleased that the extended strike at our gold operations has ended, without undermining other stakeholders or compromising their rights. We are encouraged by AMCU?s commitment to peace and safety. We are hopeful that the relationship can now be rebuilt in a constructive manner, for the future benefit of all stakeholders. It is with sadness that we reflect on the losses and hardship resulting from the strike, which include lives lost and serious injuries sustained.? We are fully committed to restoring the gold operations to profitability, for the benefit of all stakeholders including employees, the local communities and those dependent on the regional economy.?? Joint media briefing scheduled for this afternoon at 15h00 CAT. A joint media briefing by Sibanye-Stillwater and AMCU will take place this afternoon at 15h00(CAT) at Sibanye-Stillwater?s Libanon Business Park at 1 Hospital road, Westonaria. *For more details on the three year wage and non-wage increases of the three year wage agreement, please refer to the announcement on 14 November 2018 available at https://www.sibanyestillwater.com/investors/news/company-announcements/2018. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the ?safe harbour? provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this announcement may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as ?will?, ?would?, ?expect?, ?may?, ?could? ?believe?, ?anticipate?, ?target?, ?estimate? and words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements, including among others, those relating to our future business prospects, financial positions, ability to reduce debt leverage, business strategies, plans and objectives of management for future operations and the anticipated benefits and synergies of transactions, are necessarily estimates reflecting the best judgement of our senior management. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sibanye-Stillwater that could cause Sibanye-Stillwater?s actual results and outcomes to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. As a consequence, these forward-looking statements should be considered in light of various important factors, including those set forth in the Group?s Annual Integrated Report and Annual Financial Report, published on 30 March 2018, and the Group?s Annual Report on Form 20-F filed by Sibanye-Stillwater with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 2 April 2018 (SEC File no. 001-35785). These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement. Sibanye-Stillwater expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise these forward-looking statements, save as required by applicable law. Fincons Group and the Municipality of Bari deliver Smart Working Part of the European Commission funded CITADEL project for Public Sector transformation, the partnership delivers innovative agile working London, April 2019 ? Fincons Group, a leading IT business consulting company with over 35 years? experience internationally, and the Municipality of Bari have formed a partnership for a pilot Smart Working project as part of H2020 CITADEL (Empowering Citizens to Transform European Public Administrations, funded by the European Commission) ecosystem. The project envisages the development of a prototype using Blockchain and the involvement of some Municipality employees that will perform some of their duties in ?agile working? mode. In Italy, the Public Administration system has pledged to meet specific quantitative, organisational and technological objectives relating to Smart Working for its staff. Specifically, Art. 14 124/2015 demands that public sector organisations enable at least 10% of workers to use innovative time-space modes of working (agile work) should they request it. Public sector institutions are called upon to adapt their performance measurement and evaluation systems by adopting adequate organisational, technological and security measures, to verify the latter?s impact on the quality of service, effectiveness and efficiency of administration, on employee work-life balance, on process and worker security, including data protection in light of the introduction of the new GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). The Municipality of Bari has officialised the introduction of this new mode of working and is looking to experiment with innovative ICT solutions that enable the management of Smart Work and of employees within a specific framework. This framework mandates the following conditions: at least one day of flexible working a week between 6am and 10pm with 2 hours compulsory availability, the ability for workers to freely structure the day in an agile way by working some of the time from the office and in part remotely (or entirely remotely in Smart Working), as well as the ability to introduce interruptions and re-starts throughout the working day. Fincons Group?s solution is based on Ethereum DLT technology (Distributed Ledger Technology) combined with sophisticated and innovative encryption techniques that guarantee the integrity, reliability and traceability of information managed as provided by DLT, as well as full GDPR compliance. Initially, the pilot phase, starting in March 2019, involves 5 General Accounting Department employees, while the second phase, starting in July, will involve another 10 employees from other departments. The pilot will reach completion in September 2019. The partnership between Fincons and the Municipality of Bari further confirms Fincons? strong connection with the Apulia region where the company has a feather in its cap: the Fincons Group Delivery Center. Based in the Bari main site, this Centre of Excellence houses over 500 employees and continues to grow. It supports the Group?s clients in Italy and abroad by offering solutions and innovative highly-level end-to-end projects bringing value directly to the local area. The Smart Working project sits well within the CITADEL objectives whose aim is to improve strategies and processes within public administration to offer increasingly efficient digital services that are more inclusive and citizen-centred. Fincons and the Apulia Region are two of 12 partners from 5 European nations that cooperate in this project and that together create an ideal mix of different ideas and perspectives, by bringing their own specific capabilities and backgrounds: from social research and technology to the development of industrial prototypes that are applicable in real-life. With this initiative, the Municipality of Bari perfectly combines smart contracts and smart working and positions itself yet again as a pioneer in innovative solutions to increase value and worker well-being. The authority is proving how the introduction of work-life balance policies that reconcile personal and professional life enables the implementation of DLT-based solutions that comply with art. 8 ter D.L. 135/2018, the so-called ?Simplification Decree?. The latter is the first national law to begin to outline a legal framework for the use of Blockchain technology-based solutions. TORONTO and KELOWNA, British Columbia, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Flywire , a company that solves complex payment problems for educational institutions and their students around the world, today announced the next strategic step in its partnership with TRUE North, a Canadian-based provider of online systems for information management, tracking, collaboration, and reporting for international student programs. The companies have integrated their solutions connecting the application, enrollment and cross-border payment and receivables processes to provide schools, international agencies and student families increased transparency and convenience. Together, the companies will serve school districts in Canada to better support the recruitment of international students. As Canadian School Districts continue to experience international program growth, so too come the complexities of supporting the application and payment process from many foreign countries. The TRUE North / Flywire solution integration, which is available today, enables schools to simplify the international application enrollment, payment and receivables processes for both themselves and prospective student families. TRUE Norths secure, multi-user, web-based system manages the information tracking, reporting and collaborative needs of international education programs. Flywire complements this by providing a payment experience that is familiar and local to families, offering flexible payment options from over 240 countries and backed by around-the-clock multilingual support. With Flywire, institutions can offer students and families a convenient and secure payment experience customized by country and currency while accelerating funds flow and streamlining operational expense. To date, the company has processed over $10 Billion for over 1,800 clients worldwide. At TRUE North we are committed to helping international students who want to study in Canada. We are excited to be partnering with Flywire and are confident this integration will simplify the complexities of international payments and add value for international students, agencies and schools, said Blair Hope, who co-founded TRUE North along with Jason Schaad. By enhancing student activity visibility from the time of application through enrollment and payment, we help eliminate the manual effort typically required on the part of the schools, said Sharon Butler, EVP Global Education of Flywire. At the same time, we provide a seamless payment experience for student families that enables them to put more focus on ensuring a smooth transition for their students. About Flywire Flywire solves complex payment problems for institutions to empower new opportunities globally and locally. The company processes billions in payments per year, connecting all the entities involved to make those transactions faster, more secure, less expensive, and more transparent. Clients in business, education and healthcare use Flywires full-service platform to tailor the payment experience for their customers and to create a single point of visibility and control for payer engagement and receivables management from invoicing and payment through reconciliation. Flywire also supports its clients with end-to-end customer support including multilingual servicing via phone, email, and chat, as well as around-the-clock online payment tracking. The company is headquartered in Boston and has offices in Toronto, Chicago, London and Manchester (UK), Valencia (Spain), Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Cluj (Romania), and Sydney. For more information, visit www.Flywire.com . About TRUE North TRUE North is a secure, multi-user, web-based system to manage the information tracking, reporting and collaborative needs of international education student programs across Canada. Built from the ground up to be a hosted solution, security and protection of student information is our highest priority. TRUE North mirrors best practices in the online banking industry using state-of the-art encryption technologies and offsite backups. TRUE North is fully compliant with the Canadian FOIPPA, ensuring all student data and backups are stored entirely in Canada. Access your student data with confidence, on any device, at any time, from anywhere in the world. Why cellular connectivity is the smart choice for CCTV deployments Businesses large and small rely on their CCTV systems to deter intruders and provide recorded evidence of security incidents. Overtime, CCTV has evolved to offer real-time intrusion detection and monitoring, and businesses now expect easy, secure and anytime access to cameras, and data. For that, they need connected CCTV systems. These modern installations can benefit from cellular connectivity, helping businesses protect their sites, while also supporting enhanced capabilities for CCTV to deliver more. Widespread use of CCTV systems So widespread is the use of CCTV cameras now that London, United Kingdom has over 600,000 cameras, according to Surfshark, while IHS Markit expects over a billion to be operating around the world, by the end of 2021. CCTV often sits at the heart of a business on-site security arrangements CCTV often sits at the heart of a business on-site security arrangements. Yet, despite this, traditional set-ups fail, to take advantage of the full capability, such physical security can provide. Real-time feeds with anytime access Nominated personnel must physically go to premises to access CCTV video, when it is recorded and kept only on-site. This causes loss of valuable time, when a potential crime must be reported and investigated. Whats more, it can put those who arrive first at the site at risk, if intruders are still present. Nowadays, CCTV installations can take full advantage of connected capabilities. They can provide real-time feeds, which authorised users can access securely from anywhere. That expands the security credentials of CCTV systems, beyond just recording. Detected intrusions can trigger alerts and provide a real-time visual of whats happening, so that required action can be taken. Of course, to realise these CCTV capabilities, systems must be connected and use the right type of connectivity at that. Connectivity must be resilient, so that it provides a continuous feed, even if a primary connection is lost, secure for authorised users, scalable and cost-effective. Traditionally, connectivity has come from wired connections and WiFi, but now cellular connectivity provides an attractive alternative. The benefits of cellular connectivity There are a number of reasons for this. To start with, fixed line connectivity isnt always available in all locations. If the infrastructure isnt there, particularly at remote sites, cables have to be laid. Thats expensive and takes time. CCTV towers in the construction and building industry, for example, require CCTV that can be rapidly deployed in areas that most likely dont have fixed line connectivity. A cellular connection can be quickly arranged to get a CCTV system up and running in the shortest possible time. Relying on third-party infrastructure, such as fixed line networks, can also be an issue for CCTV solution providers, because any policy changes can make integration difficult. Issues that may require changes from the third-party network administrator can take longer to resolve and if the fixed line network goes down, there is usually no backup. Cellular connectivity offers end-to-end control Cellular connectivity, delivered by a solution provider, gives end-to-end control of the connectivity Cellular connectivity, delivered by a solution provider, gives end-to-end control of the connectivity. In the rare event that something goes wrong, the solution provider can manage a resolution quickly. Where a number of sites are involved, cellular connectivity can provide a single solution, simplifying overall management of the complete installed CCTV system and reducing total cost of ownership for connectivity. Single connectivity management platform Through a single connectivity management platform, businesses can oversee an entire security installation, viewing and managing data usage, and using the information to assist decision making, as security needs evolve. This brings us to the fourth benefit - The ability to easily scale up. This might be because additional cameras are needed at a site or additional sites need to be catered for. It could even be because the CCTV installation is being enhanced to support additional capabilities. Simple plug-and-play to get cameras online securely Whatever the reason, being able to roll out connections rapidly, to a range of locations will be critical to existing and new installations. Ideally, connectivity should be possible within a matter of days and end users should be able to simply plug-and-play to get their cameras online securely. Resilience is the next factor to consider. Pre-configured routers, or embedded SIM cards in cameras, can reconnect to the most readily available alternative cellular network in the event of a network outage. In this way, cellular connectivity can form part of business continuity options. In some cases, it can work together with fixed line connections, as part of robust installations, which have mitigation built-in, should primary connections fail. Expanding CCTV capabilities 4G and now 5G too, allows for easy access and remote monitoring for CCTV applications 4G and now 5G too, allows for easy access and remote monitoring for CCTV applications. It can be deployed rapidly, supports an always on approach and can stream high volumes of data and imagery. Live video feeds can be viewed by authorised users on any device and they can receive alerts, and notifications direct to their mobiles too. The high speed, high bandwidth and lower latency of 5G connectivity also provides the opportunity for enhanced CCTV system capabilities, such as live feed analytics. This is ideal because it helps businesses build on the primary function of security with, for example, occupancy monitoring. This has very much come to the fore, over the past 18 months+, as businesses have had to concern themselves more than ever with occupancy levels in their buildings. ANPR in crime detection and traffic enforcement Retailers, meanwhile, have built on the real-time nature of CCTV technology, to monitor customer numbers in their stores, in line with social distancing guidelines. Another CCTV application can be found with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) in crime detection and traffic enforcement. Combined with software, the feed from CCTV cameras is used to help find and track vehicles for law enforcement or traffic monitoring. For most CCTV applications, the speed and functionality that comes from 4G is more than sufficient. However, it is likely 5G will drive new applications and ways to expand CCTV capabilities to the benefit of businesses. CCTV systems offer remote monitoring and high quality visuals Once a single application installation, CCTV use to provide only on-site recording capabilities. Now, CCTV systems can support remote monitoring and higher quality visuals. They can deliver alerts, and back them up with access to real-time video feeds, so that authorised users can assess a situation and take action rapidly. These additional capabilities support enhanced use cases for CCTV. The data that CCTV systems generate is valuable to businesses. Businesses that capture and analyse the data can fully capitalise on its potential. Cellular connectivity provides a resilient and scalable way of connecting single or multiple sites. Through a connectivity management platform, businesses can consolidate CCTV connectivity, managing connections across networks and deployments. Dublin, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Tourism Source Market Insight: Canada - Analysis of tourist profiles & flows, spending patterns, destination markets, risks and future opportunities" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Tourism Source Market Insight: Canada provides a detailed insight into Canada's domestic and outbound tourism market. The report looks at the profiles of Canadian tourists and summarizes the key reasons that they travel. The report offers an in-depth analysis of traveler flows, spending patterns, main destination markets and current and future opportunities for tourism businesses seeking to tap into the Canadian outbound travel market. Select Findings Canada's international expenditure on tourism is growing at an expansive rate. Total international expenditure grew from US$39.2billion in 2017 to US$41.5billion in 2018. Canadian tourists spend an average of US$154 per domestic trip. Canadians between the age of 50 and 64 are taking the most holidays with 51.8 million international and domestic trips being taken in 2018. Reasons to Buy This report provides clear insight into developments in Canada's domestic and outbound tourism markets. The report uses data and analysis to discuss future trends related to domestic trips, international departures, traveler spending, and main destination markets. The report explores the different profiles of Canadian tourists and the reasons that they travel, hence providing an insight into the trends in different segments of the market. The reader gains a strong understanding of the opportunities in the country, as well as the risks, to support better business decisions. Companies Mentioned Air Canada SpiceJet Air Asia Hainan Airlines KAYAK Key Topics Covered Overview Country Snapshot At a glance: The Canadian tourist market in 2018 Risks to outbound Canadian tourism Main findings Tourists profiles Which types of holiday do Canadians take and which do they not? Which factors motivate/de-motivate Canadians when choosing a holiday? Insight into Canadian tourists Domestic tourism Domestic flows Domestic spending Outbound tourism Outbound flows Outbound spending Main and developing destinations Where did Canadians travel to in 2018? Main destinations Developing destinations Outlook Opportunities to attract Canadian tourism Appendix References Terminology and definitions For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/f6s6ti Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. This classic image of the Pillars of Creation inside of the Eagle Nebula reveals a stellar nursery where new stars may be hatched. In 1995, the world was astounded by the Hubble Space Telescope's beautiful images of the Eagle Nebula, a cloud of interstellar gas and dust 7,000 light-years from Earth. When Swiss astronomer Philippe Loys de Cheseaux discovered the Eagle Nebula in the mid-18th century, he described only the cluster of stars surrounding it. Charles Messier independently rediscovered it in 1764 as part of his catalog, dubbing it M16. The first image of the nebula appears to have been made by American astronomer Edward Barnard, in 1895. Now, astronomers know that the Eagle Nebula is a 5.5 million-year-old cloud of molecular hydrogen gas and dust stretching approximately 70 light-years by 55 light-years. (A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, which is about 5.9 trillion miles, or 9.5 trillion kilometers.) Inside the nebula, gravity pulls clouds of gas together to collapse inward. If enough gas is present, nuclear fusion ignites in the center, and the compact cloud becomes a shining star. Scientists suspect the Eagle Nebula has several star-forming regions within it. A tower of cold gas and dust rises from the Eagle Nebula. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)) Looking at the Eagle Nebula gives us hints about our solar system's formation. The gas and dust that ultimately collapsed into the sun 4.5 billion years ago likely resided in a structure similar to the Eagle Nebula. [ Spectacular Photos From the Revamped Hubble Telescope ] This enormous stellar nursery lies 7,000 light-years away in the inner spiral arm of the Milky Way, known as the Sagittarius Arm, or the Sagittarius-Carina Arm. In Earth's sky, the Eagle Nebula is found within the constellation of Serpens. Amateur astronomers can view the nebula with low-powered telescopes or with a pair of binoculars. They'll be able to see approximately 20 stars clearly, surrounded by gas, dust and the light of dimmer stars. Under clear and dark viewing conditions, observers may also glimpse the nebula's famous three pillars. The Pillars of Creation One of the best-known pictures of the Eagle Nebula is the Hubble Space Telescope image taken in 1995, highlighting three giant, gaseous columns called the "Pillars of Creation." The three columns contain the materials for building new stars, and stretch 4 light-years into space. In 2010, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory peered inside the pillars and snapped images that revealed only a handful of X-ray sources. Because new stars are a hotbed of X-ray activity, scientists speculated that the star-forming days of the pillars were coming to an end. [ VIDEO: Inside the Pillars of Creation ] Similarly, research from 2007 suggested that a stellar supernova 6,000 years ago could have already blown the pillars out of formation and into space. Because light takes time to travel, it may be another thousand years before we can confirm their demise. Chandra's X-ray Observatory reveals x-ray images in the Eagle Nebula, although few are visible within the Pillars of Creation (Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Colorado/Linsky et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/ASU/J.Hester & P.Scowen) In 2015, 20 years after Hubble's first iconic photo of the Pillars of Creation, the space telescope photographed the region once again , this time with upgraded equipment. The new images were sharper and the telescope's advanced equipment allowed it to capture an image of the region in infrared wavelengths that penetrate beneath the gas and dust to see stars embedded in the pillars. The images revealed that the pillars had changed over the past two decades. For example, the long jets of gas shot out by still-developing stars were now at different spots in the pillars. The Eagle Nebula is so giant and bright that amateur astronomers don't need equipment as sophisticated as the Hubble Space Telescope to view this magnificent star cloud. Check out this impressive example sent to Space.com in 2013 by astrophotographer Terry Hancock. Peering inside of the Pillars of Creation reveals hot young stars sculpt the pillars of gas and dust that form baby stars. (Image credit: far-infrared: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium; X-ray: ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger) The columns are really gassy Evaporating gaseous globules, or EGG s, are dense pockets of gas that lie at the top of the columns of the Eagle Nebula. Some EGGs appear as tiny bumps on the surface, while others have been completely uncovered or even cut off from the pillars. The EGGs persist for 10,000 to 20,000 years. Although some EGGs will eventually collapse into new stars, others lack enough gas to create a new stellar candidate. The EGGs aren't small they stretch across about 100 times the Earth's distance to the sun (the Earth-sun distance is about 93 million miles, or 150 million km). Each EGG is about the same size as our solar system (counting the faraway Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud of icy objects). Additional resources: This article was updated on April 18, 2019, by Space.com contributor Elizabeth Howell. A flying observatory has pinpointed the first type of molecule that formed in the universe after the Big Bang. Helium hydride a combination of helium and hydrogen was detected roughly 3,000 light-years from Earth by NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The molecule was found in a planetary nebula , NGC 7027, which is the dusty remnant of a sun-like star. For hundreds of thousands of years after the Big Bang , the universe was too hot and too full of radiation for atoms to bond together. At that time, only a few types of atoms existed, including hydrogen, helium and lithium. However, the new study shows that 100,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled enough for helium and hydrogen to combine, forming the molecule known as helium hydride. Related: The Universe: Big Bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps Scientists have detected the universe's first molecule, helium hydride, in a distant planetary nebula called NGC 7027. (Image credit: NASA/SOFIA/L. Proudfit/D.Rutter) While helium hydride has been produced and tested in a laboratory setting, this discovery marks the first time that the molecule has been detected in space which sheds light on the chemistry of the early universe , according to a statement from NASA. "This molecule was lurking out there, but we needed the right instruments making observations in the right position and SOFIA was able to do that perfectly," Harold Yorke, director of the SOFIA Science Center in California's Silicon Valley, said in the statement . Once the universe cooled down, hydrogen atoms started to interact with helium hydride, creating molecular hydrogen, which set the stage for star formation. From that point on, stars created the other elements of the cosmos, according to the statement. "The lack of evidence of the very existence of helium hydride in interstellar space was a dilemma for astronomy for decades," Rolf Guesten, lead author of the study from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, said in the statement. NGC 7027 has been a location of interest for helium hydride since the late 1970s. Ultraviolet radiation and heat from the aging star led scientists to believe that its environment would be suitable for helium hydride to form. However, astronomers were unable to confirm this theory until now. The SOFIA instrument is a telescope that is flown on a Boeing 747-SP airplane at up to 45,000 feet, where its observations are not impacted by interference from Earth's atmosphere. SOFIA returns to Earth after every flight, allowing scientists to regularly update the instrument with the latest technology. One of the most recent upgrades included adding a specific channel to detect signatures of helium hydride, which previous telescopes did not have. "This flexibility allows us to improve observations and respond to the most pressing questions that scientists want answered," Naseem Rangwala, SOFIA deputy project scientist, said in the statement. Their findings were published April 17 in the journal Nature. Warning: This story contains spoilers for "Captain Marvel" and the trailer for "Avengers: Endgame." Looks like Captain Marvel will have a key role to play in the upcoming "Avengers: Endgame" movie. And here's the plot twist: It involves a situation that looks a lot like Einstein's theory of special relativity in action. Captain Marvel (aka Carol Danvers) travels close to the speed of light and arrives at a key destination unaged, even though she leapt a generation into the future. How she did it Captain Marvel's origin story movie, also called "Captain Marvel," shows how in the 1990s, Danvers accidentally acquires the ability to travel at very high speeds, close to the speed of light. Danvers and her supervisor are testing an aircraft that uses special technology to travel close to light speed. The aircraft is destroyed in an accident, and in the incident, Danvers picks up the same speedy powers as the aircraft. (To see exactly how this happens, we'll let you watch the movie.) Related: 'Captain Marvel' Is Full of Space (and 90s) Easter Eggs In the Marvel universe, the only way ships can rapidly move from place to place is by using portholes locations where you can jump across long distances. That means that nobody is using warp drive or flying faster than the speed of light; it's not a "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" kind of universe here. That's super important to the plot of the film. At the end of the movie, Captain Marvel zooms far off from Earth into a distant part of the universe, in a zone without these portholes, to help an alien race. Then, if you stick around for the credits, you see the Avengers (in the present day) calling Captain Marvel for help to confront Thanos , the enemy who killed many of their allies as well as half the population of the universe. In a trailer for "Avengers: Endgame," which happens in the present day or the near future, the Avengers glumly sit in a laboratory on Earth and consider their options. Suddenly, Captain Marvel appears in the same laboratory and asks what's going on. She doesn't look a day older than she did in 1995, when she left Earth for the last time. Meanwhile, the other superheroes in the scene have clearly been aging. How real is Captain Marvel's situation? Paul Sutter is a cosmologist at The Ohio State University who is known for his podcast ( and video series ) "Ask A Spaceman." While he hasn't seen "Captain Marvel," when the plot was described to him, he said that sounded exactly like how Einstein's theory of special relativity works. Just briefly, special relativity says that space has a speed limit the speed of light and thus, space and time and mass are intricately linked. If you move faster through space, you gain mass and you also age more slowly than somebody who is on Earth. It's a situation that has been proved time and time again, as counterintuitive as it may sound. Sutter cited clocks on GPS satellites whose signals must be calibrated since the clocks move more slowly in orbit as an example. Another example is the muon , a tiny particle that usually lasts only a few moments after forming that is, unless it's moving at close to the speed of light, where it can persist for minutes or hours. "Moving clocks run slow," Sutter told Space.com. "The faster you move in space, the slower you move in time. It's a consequence of the connection between space-time ... if you go more in one direction, you go less in another direction." He noted that there is no engineering solution yet available to get humans close to the speed of light. But ignoring that practical problem, he said that a human traveling in a spaceship (or bodysuit) at that speed would experience the exact same effects that Captain Marvel went through. "You feel totally normal," he said. "You eat breakfast, you go for a walk in your spaceship, you do your work, everything feels normal you go out on your journey and you futz around the galaxy. When you come back, you find out that you and the clock on your wrist has only gone by a few days or a few weeks. Meanwhile, the clock back on Earth has gone by years, decades, centuries, millennia, depending on how fast you were going and how fast you've gone." When reminded about 2014's "Interstellar" a film where one fast-traveling character returns to Earth and encounters the consequences of that travel Sutter said it and many science fiction movies commonly play with the implications of relativity. "If you really want to get away from your family," he joked, "go at the speed of light, and when you come back, no one will know who you are anymore." "Avengers: Endgame" opens in United States theaters on April 26. The asteroid 2016 HO3 has an orbit around the sun that keeps it as a constant companion of Earth. China is expanding its robotic space-exploration plans far beyond the moon. The nation, whose Chang'e 4 spacecraft pulled off the first-ever soft landing on the lunar far side this past January, aims to launch a bold mission just three years from now that will explore both an asteroid and a comet, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. The current plan, which is still under discussion, calls for a probe to visit and collect samples from the small near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 (also known as Kamo'oalewa). Related: Chang'e 4 in Pictures: China on the Moon's Far Side "Then, the probe will fly back to the proximity of Earth, and a return capsule will be released to bring the samples back to Earth," Xinhua reported today (April 18), citing a China National Space Administration official. "After that, the probe will continue its journey. With the assistance of the gravity of Earth and Mars, it will finally arrive at the main asteroid belt and orbit the Comet 133P to explore it." Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro is not your typical icy wanderer. Rather, it's an odd hybrid beast known as a "main-belt comet" an asteroid-belt body that has displayed comet-like activity in the past. Indeed, 133P also has an asteroid designation: 7968 Elst-Pizarro. The object may in fact be an "active asteroid," a cosmic class with just a handful of known members. A recent addition to this list is the near-Earth space rock Bennu, which NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe has been exploring up close since late last year. OSIRIS-REx has observed numerous ejections of dust particles from the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) Bennu, the cause of which remains a mystery. The planned Chinese mission will likely last about 10 years, Xinhua reported. During that time, the spacecraft will gather a variety of data, which will help scientists better understand the two objects' composition, structure, orbit, rotation, shape and size, among other characteristics. China is not alone in its desire to return samples from an asteroid. OSIRIS-REx will return pieces of Bennu to Earth in September 2023, if all goes according to plan. And Japan's Hayabusa2 mission has already snagged bits of the 3,000-foot-wide (900 m) asteroid Ryugu. This material is scheduled to land on our planet in late 2020. (The original Hayabusa mission brought tiny pieces of the stony asteroid Itokawa home in 2010.) China also intends to snag some moon rocks, as part of its ambitious and ongoing Chang'e lunar program. The Chang'e 5 sample-return mission will launch toward Earth's nearest neighbor this December, if all goes according to plan. Transformational Partnership with Developer and Manufacturer of Cavitation-Based ShockWave Xtractor Technology, Disruptor of Several Multi-Billion Dollar Industries Alameda, CA, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- NewBridge Global Ventures, Inc. (NewBridge or the Company), (OTCQB: NBGV), a company focused on the emerging and dynamic legal and regulated cannabis industry, today announced that it has signed a Technology License and Partnership Agreement with Hydro Dynamics, Inc., that gives NewBridge an exclusive license to all of Hydro Dynamics Intellectual Property and patented technology and creates a partnership to bring their patented controlled cavitation process to the cannabis industry. This agreement expands on the previously announced License and exclusive rights to controlled cavitation through Hydro Dynamics Shockwave Power Reactor (SPR) license agreements for mixing and Heating, Hydrogenating Substances, Continuous Hydrodynamics cavitation crystallization, and four other patents. This gives NewBridge a pipeline of defensible capabilities to build upon in the future. NewBridge issued Hydro Dynamics 2,125,000 shares of its common stock and will make additional cash payments of $60,000 in 2019, $250,000 in 2020 and 2021 and $100,000 per year thereafter as a License Maintenance Fee. Additionally, Hydro Dynamics will receive a 3% royalty on net revenues derived from the Companys sales of SPRs. Hydro Dynamics is a global name and their Shockwave Power Reactor has already disrupted several multi-billion dollar industries. We look forward to working closely with them to bring more efficient and profitable operations to the cannabis industry, said Bob Bench, Interim President and CFO. We believe that the partnership that weve formed with them is game changing for NewBridge Global Ventures, especially when viewed in combination with the joint venture agreement we announced yesterday for the farming and production of industrial hemp with the King Family of New Mexico, which together will allow us to accelerate the execution of our strategic business plan. Throughout Hydro Dynamics 25-year history, we have sought to apply our patented Shockwave Power Technology to an industrys most challenging applications, allowing customers to operate more efficiently and profitably, commented Kelly Hudson, CEO of Hydro Dynamics, Inc. Hydro Dynamics is very excited to join with NewBridge Global Ventures and their great team as Strategic Partners. We look forward to leveraging both companies experience, knowhow, and expertise to achieve the same processing breakthroughs in the cannabis industry, as Hydro Dynamics has had in other industries such as hops extraction in breweries, biofuels, and micro-mixing chemicals. Dr. John MacKay, the Companys Chief Technology Officer, the leader of the project for NewBridge, and a noted scientific expert on extraction, added, During my 29 years with the Waters Corporation, I witnessed the powerful impact of disruption technology. UltraPerformance Chromatography and Supercritical Fluid Extraction and Chromatography meaningfully changed processes that took hours to a few minutes. The cavitation-based Shockwave Power Reactor is reminiscent of those incredible technologies because it is accelerating extraction processes, changing processing from batches to continuous flow, and can be optimized due to its tunability. While other cavitation technology is either on or off, we can modulate and extract from cannabis and hemp what we want to extract and when we want to extract it, at scale. This scalability, the ability to process biomass fresh, and modulation are core attributes of the cavitation-based disruptive technology that are particularly suited for cannabis. About Hydro Dynamics Hydro Dynamics, Inc., founded in 1991 and located in Rome, Georgia, is the developer and manufacturer of the cavitation-based Shockwave Power Technology. The Shockwave Power equipment uses the physical phenomenon of cavitation, normally known as a destructive force, and harnesses it to solve critical industrial mixing, extraction and heating problems. The technology can now be found on five continents in applications ranging from biodiesel production to hops extraction for beer. Learn more at: www.hydrodynamics.com About NewBridge Global Ventures NewBridge Global Ventures, Inc. (OTCQB: NBGV) is a US public company acquiring and currently operating a vertically integrated portfolio of California cannabis and hemp companies. Our vertical structure includes genetics, cloning, cultivation, processing, and distribution. We believe by focusing on compliance, industry best practices, standardization, and corporate governance, NewBridge Global Ventures, Inc. will be squarely positioned for rapid sales growth in the legal California cannabis and industrial hemp Industry. For more information go to: www.newbridgegv.com Forward-Looking Statements Statements about the expected timing, and all other statements in this press release, other than historical facts, constitute forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and are based on current expectation and involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. A number of the matters discussed herein that are not historical or current facts deal with potential future circumstances and developments that may or may not materialize. This press release speaks only as of its date, and except as required by law, we disclaim any duty to update. Contacts: Bob Bench, Interim President bob@newbridgegv.com 801-362-2115 Investors: Kirin Smith / Stephanie Prince PCG Advisory Group sprince@pcgadvisory.com 646.863.6519 NASA astronaut Christina Koch arrived at the International Space Station in March and will remain there for nearly a year. NASA's next long-duration spaceflight mission has already begun, and doctors are excited about what it could teach them. Astronaut Christina Koch will spend nearly a year aboard the International Space Station, NASA announced on Wednesday (April 17), with her return trip delayed to February 2020. During her 11 months in space, she will monitor how her body responds to the mission, producing much-needed data about how well human bodies can withstand the dangers and hardships of long-term spaceflight. So far, that data has been difficult to come by. Standard space station missions last about six and a half months, and only a handful of NASA astronauts have stayed in orbit longer than 200 days in a single spaceflight. That's problematic for an agency that has its sights set on human journeys to Mars a six- to eight-month flight in each direction within a decade or two. Koch's long mission in Earth orbit could offer peace of mind about what the impacts of such a journey might be; it could also shed light on how men and women respond differently to spaceflight, NASA officials said. "It's a very exciting development. I think it's a positive step toward an understanding of how the body adapts in space," Saralyn Mark, a women's health specialist who led a NASA-requested set of reports examining potential sex differences in response to spaceflight, told Space.com. "Every piece of information you get is valuable, and certainly the longer-duration missions will give us greater insight into what it takes to keep people healthy through missions to the moon and to Mars." Related: Landmark NASA Twins Study Reveals Space Travel's Effects on the Human Body Although the extended mission came about to accommodate the week-long visit of an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, NASA was eager to jump on the opportunity of having a crewmember on board the station for an extended stay. "Astronauts demonstrate amazing resilience and adaptability in response to long-duration spaceflight exposure," Jennifer Fogarty, chief scientist of the Human Research Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement about Koch's assignment . "This will enable successful exploration missions with healthy, performance-ready astronauts." To date, just three NASA astronauts have remained on board the space station for more than 200 days straight . Scott Kelly holds the NASA record after a 340-day visit, Peggy Whitson completed a 289-day spaceflight and Michael Lopez-Alegria flew 215 days straight. (Russia's spaceflight program has more long-term missions under its belt, with the Soviet Union and Russia combined having sent a dozen men on spaceflights longer than 200 days.) And while long-term spaceflight data is rare enough, doctors said Koch's mission extension could offer something even rarer: a better understanding of how sex-based differences affect a body's response to spaceflight. About 12% of spacefarers to date have been women . But men's and women's bodies are built differently and have different chemical balances. "It's really important to look at both men and women, because the physiology of men and women are very different," Brinda Rana, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego who studied compounds in Kelly's blood during his mission, told Space.com. "There's data that shows that men and women have a different response to spaceflight." Related: Expedition 59: The Space Station Mission in Photos Coincidentally, the new flight schedule was announced just a week after dozens of researchers published a detailed analysis known as the Twins Study . That research was based on measurements taken before, during and after Scott Kelly's nearly year-long spaceflight and compared his health with that of his brother, Mark Kelly, who is also a NASA astronaut but who remained on Earth during the study. As identical twins, the Kellys offered NASA a rare opportunity to compare how each brother's cells manufactured proteins from the same basic genome, but in very different environments. "The twins were important because we had genetically identical individuals," Susan Bailey, a professor at Colorado State University who tracked a genetic structure called telomeres during the Twins Study, told Space.com. "Any kind of changes that we saw during spaceflight really could be attributed to spaceflight." Most astronauts don't come with a twin, but doctors say that Koch's experience during a mission of nearly the same length can still teach them a lot. And although spaceflight studies don't have the large sample sizes that scientists truly want, there's still plenty to learn from the experiences of the few who do make long stays. "You're never going to have extraordinarily large numbers of people in space, and yet you need to take care of people who do explore," Mark said. "There is power in the small numbers. You also have to understand that there are individual differences." A NASA spokesperson couldn't confirm the precise set of tests and measurements that Koch will face during her long flight. But since her arrival at the orbiting laboratory in March , Koch has already gathered data for a range of different experiments being conducted on the space station, according to NASA reports about her daily activities. Those projects include an experiment known as VECTION, which studies how the vestibular system processes an individual's movements in microgravity. Koch has also taken measurements and blood samples for Myotones, which looks for changes in muscle tone, stiffness and elasticity during a flight. And she has measured her brain's ability to control blood flow, her oxygen uptake and her vision. NASA astronaut Christina Koch testing her vision on board the space station. (Image credit: NASA) She is also likely taking part in a standardized set of measurements targeting astronauts' sleep, brain response, compounds in the blood and psychological response to spaceflight that all NASA astronauts can volunteer to participate in during missions, John Charles, a former chief scientist of NASA's Human Research Program and a co-author on the Twins Study who is now retired from NASA, told Space.com. But chances are Koch won't be taking part in any tailor-made studies of the sort of scope that Kelly did during his long mission, Charles said, because scientists and doctors didn't have advanced notice of her extended mission. Nevertheless, he said the mission is a good opportunity to further hone what he sees as the real takeaway from the Twins Study: that while spaceflight is rough on the body, one-year missions aren't much worse than standard six-month stays. "We got, I think, some good news from Scott Kelly. It means we do understand what happens to the human body in spaceflight," Charles said. "I'm cautiously optimistic: if Christina's results support the findings from Scott's study, I think we're in a good position [to embark on even longer missions]." Studying people on the space station can't address all of doctors' questions about the risks future missions could pose. Astronauts in orbit are still somewhat protected from the worst of the harmful radiation that fills outer space. And returning to Earth isn't quite the same as landing in the reduced gravity of the moon or Mars for a surface stay. But still, it's better than nothing, Bailey said. "I think really what the ISS represents is helping us to establish a baseline that isn't on Earth." And with Koch's experience included, it will be a more inclusive baseline than it has been in the past, she added. "It really is an important step that we're going to have a woman up there for nearly as long as Scott Kelly was." An asteroid the size of a house gave Earth a close shave today (April 18), passing nearer to our planet than any other space rock will for the rest of this year that is, as far as we know. Named 2019 GC6, the asteroid was discovered by NASA's Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, just last Tuesday (April 9), nine days before it flew by Earth. The giant rock made its closest approach this morning at 2:41 a.m. EDT (0641 GMT), when it whizzed by our plant at a safe distance of about 136,000 miles (219,000 kilometers), or slightly more than half the average distance between Earth and the moon . At the time, the asteroid was traveling at a relative speed of about 12,600 mph (20,300 km/h), according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory . NASA estimated that the speeding space rock's diameter is "within a factor of two" of 49 feet (15 meters), which means it may be up to 98 feet (30 meters) wide. Related: See the Dramatic Increase in Near-Earth Asteroids NASA Has Discovered (Video) NASA has classified 2019 GC6 as a "potentially hazardous" near-Earth object (NEO), but that doesn't mean that Earth was in danger when it flew by. The agency uses that term for any NEO that comes within 5 million miles (8 million km) of Earth's orbit and is massive enough "to cause significant damage on Earth," according to NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office . Still, the fact that many asteroids go undetected until the last minute or even after they have already made a close flyby of our planet makes NASA's loose definition of a potentially hazardous object seem a little less reassuring. The closest asteroid flyby so far this year happened a day before astronomers first detected the asteroid, named 2019 FC1. That space rock, when it flew by on March 28, was less than half as far away from Earth as the asteroid 2019 GC6 was today, according to EarthSky.org . To help keep Earth safe, NASA and other organizations around the world are constantly scanning the skies for new threats, cataloguing every space rock near Earth's orbit and studying new ways to stop an Earthbound asteroid before disaster strikes. Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. New York, April 13, 2019 (SPS) - Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres deplored the restrictions imposed by Morocco to freedom of movement of his Personal Envoy, Horst Kohler and the MINURSO (the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara). The MINURSO cannot meet local interlocutors west of the wall of sand and this situation continues to limit its ability to independently assess the situation in Western Sahara for analytical or security purposes, wrote the Secretary General in his final report on the situation of Western Sahara, submitted to the Security Council. The deadlock imposed by Morocco prevented the MINURSO from fulfilling this part of its mandate, which consists in providing assistance, Kohler. These restrictions have only aggravated during the considered period although my personal envoy asked my special representative to help him to keep contacts with some local interlocutors, said the UN Secretary General. Morocco categorically rejected this request on the grounds that these contracts would be incompatible with the MINURSO mandate, said Guterres in his report. In the past, Morocco has adopted a confrontational approach with Christopher Ross, the predecessor of Kohler, limited his freedom of movement and declared him as persona non-grata in the Sahrawi occupied territories. (SPS) 062/SPS/APS Paris (France), April 13, 2019 (SPS) - French senator Christine Prunaud said Wednesday that France encourages Morocco which is preventing any political settlement in Western Sahara (as part of the UN peace process). "Proclaiming that it will use its veto power against any resolution that is not approved by Morocco, by giving a green light to a European Union-Morocco trade agreement including Western Sahara, in violation of the international and European legality, France encourages Morocco in its attitude towards the UN peace process, without compromise," the French senator said in a written question to the minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to be published Thursday in the Senate's Official Gazette. "Morocco's intransigence hinders the political settlement and lead to the worsening of the conflict, which has resulted in grave consequences." The French senator cited, among other impacts, the difficult situation of Saharawi refugees, "permanent tensions between Algeria and Morocco, lack of integration among Maghreb countries, armament race." France, which "is influential in the region and does not conceal its friendship with Morocco," she added, "does not contribute to resolving tensions." Senator Prunaud asks the minister to clarify the role France intends to play to "uphold the inalienable rights of the Saharawi people." (SPS) 062/SPS/APS Durban, April 13, 2019 (SPS) -South Africas Deputy Minister for International Relations and Cooperation, Luwellyn Landers reiterated his countrys commitment to a just, acceptable and sustainable solution to the Western Sahara issue based on the self-determination of the Sahrawi people. Speaking at a conference in Duran on the priorities of South Africas mandate within the United Nations Security Council, Landers reiterated his countrys commitment to a just, acceptable and sustainable solution to Western Sahara. This solution should meet the aspirations and will of the Sahrawi people so that they can exercise their right to self-determination. South Africa will advocate the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) by the Security Council and the broadening of its prerogatives to the monitoring of human rights in the territories occupied by Morocco, affirmed South Africans FM. Africa was elected by the UN General Assembly, along with Germany, Belgium, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic, to serve on the Security Council as a non-permanent member from January 2019 for a two-year term, with a view to promoting multilateralism. Known for its constant stances on the decolonization of African countries, Pretoria had always called for the Sahrawi peoples inalienable right to self-determination. In late March, Pretoria hosted the conference of solidarity with the Sahrawi people initiated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). (SPS) 062/SPS/APS Bir Lahlou (Liberated Territories), April 15, 2019 (SPS) - The Sahrawi National Committee for Human Rights (CONASADH) condemned Sunday the arbitrary detention of Sahrawi political activist Ali Salem Buyemaa Saaduni by the Moroccan forces, calling for his immediate and unconditional release. In a communique published Sunday, CONASADH demanded the cessation of reprisals and suppression against the Sahrawi citizens in the occupied areas of Western Sahara. In this respect, it also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all the Sahrawi political prisoners and activists, to quash all the trials, unveil the fate of all the missing Sahrawi people and to open the occupied territory of the Sahrawi Republic to media and international observers so that they can check the human rights situation in these occupied territories, constantly violated by the Moroccan occupier. CONASADH said to be deeply concerned about the worrying health condition of several Sahrawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik group, because of the repercussion of hunger strikes to protest against ill-treatments and abominable practices contrary to the law and international conventions. The Sahrawi non-governmental organization expressed its support and solidarity with all the Sahrawi political prisoners in hunger strike and their families. (SPS) 062/SPS/APS Apr 17th, 2019 At FIBO this year in Germany, Dedicated Nutrition brought all of the revamped supplements it announced and unveiled in the weeks leading up to the major expo. The list of products included the muscle builder Epic, pump pill Vaso Grow, and the latest version of its pre-workout Unstoppable. Much to our surprise, Dedicated Nutrition also introduced an essential amino acid supplement at FIBO, with the creatively named YEAAH. The product comes loaded with over 10g of amino acids, including all nine essential aminos and electrolytes, as well as 1.6g each of citrulline and taurine. Dedicated Nutrition did confirm at FIBO that YEAAH would be its first supplement to launch in both Europe and the US. This week the amino formula has done the latter, and is now available for purchase in America through dedicatednutrition.us for $34.99 per tub in all four of its fruity flavors. For those of you that are fans of Dedicated Nutrition and located in Europe, the brand has said you can expect to see YEAAH in that part of the world in about a month featuring the same formula and in the same four flavors. STAMFORD Connecticut Attorney General William Tong plans to file later this month an expanded lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and its owners, whom the state accuses of fueling the opioid crisis with deceptive and aggressive marketing of pain drugs such as OxyContin. The complaint was filed last December by Tongs predecessor and fellow Democrat, George Jepsen, but Tong has made the litigation a top priority since being sworn in last January. Connecticut comprises one of more than 30 states to sue Purdue and stands with Massachusetts and New York as the states that have also named, as defendants, eight members of the Sackler family who own the company and, until recently, served on the companys board. Its going bigger and wider and deeper, and were going to be focusing on more specific acts of misconduct by the company and its officers, directors and shareholders, who are named as defendants, Tong said in an interview Thursday, after announcing his plan earlier in the day in an open letter, which recapped his first 100 days in office. There will be more specifics, more details and also a deeper dive on not just the depth of the misconduct with respect to opioid sales and pushing addiction, but also the depth of the financial misconduct. Purdue and the Sacklers have denied the lawsuits allegations. The complaint is part of a continuing effort to try these cases in the court of public opinion rather than the justice system, Purdue said, in a statement Thursday. Such allegations demand clear evidence linking the conduct alleged to the harm described, but we believe the state fails to show such causation and offers little evidence to support its sweeping legal claims. Connecticuts amended litigation which would remain in the states superior court, but could include additional defendants would follow recently updated versions of Massachusetts and New Yorks complaints. Since an un-redacted version was filed in January, Massachusetts complaint has garnered particular attention, largely due to the unprecedented amount of detail it gives about the Sacklers control of Purdue. Much of the information draws from internal company documents. Tong said Massachusetts and New Yorks moves did not influence his decision-making. The process of amending the complaint and expanding it is a normal process of litigation, he said. Purdue is part of our role as a national leader in taking on the addiction industry. More than 1,000 municipal, county and state lawsuits have been filed against Purdue in the past few years. Most of the local governments complaints have been consolidated in a multidistrict litigation process in a federal court in Cleveland. The first MDL trial is scheduled to start in October. Trial, settlement on the table In its largest payout of the past 10 years, Purdue agreed last month to a $270 million settlement of Oklahomas lawsuit. About $200 million including $75 million donated by the Sacklers will help establish the National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State Universitys campus in Tulsa. Tong did not rule out a settlement of Connecticuts complaint, but he said the case was more likely to go trial. Were full-steam ahead; no one is playing for a settlement, Tong said. We are pushing as hard as we can to hold wrongdoers accountable, to the fullest extent of the law. At the same time, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York are members of a joint investigation by more than 40 states that focuses on Purdue and several other pharmaceutical firms. Like the litigation, the multistate inquiry could end with a settlement. As it grapples with the legal pressure, Purdue has undergone sweeping changes in the past year and a half. At the beginning of this year, the last of the Sacklers named in the lawsuits left the companys board. Seven of the eight Mortimer D.A. Sackler, Kathe Sackler, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, Theresa Sackler, Richard Sackler, Jonathan Sackler and Beverly Sackler took seats on the board in the early 1990s, according to the litigation. The eighth David Sackler joined in 2012. Last year, the company laid off several hundred employees after it stopped the controversial opioid marketing to medical professionals and then disbanded its sales force. More recently, the company has explored bankruptcy. Connecticut would still be in a very strong position to take on Purdue, if the firm pursued Chapter 11 proceedings, Tong said. Meanwhile, a growing number of museums are distancing themselves from the family, which is also known for its prolific philanthropy. In the past few weeks, New Yorks Guggenheim museum and Britains Tate galleries and National Portrait Gallery have said that they would turn down new donations from the Sacklers. Connecticut-based beneficiaries of the Sacklers include the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Greenwich Hospital and the Palace theater in Stamford. So far, those institutions have not cut ties with the family. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott SHERMAN - Too much blood was soaked through the mattress and spattered on the walls and stained into the clothes of James Maharg for police to believe that his husband died from hitting his head on a cabinet. After homicide investigators arrived, Maharg kept to his story that the gaping gash atop the victims head was accidental, according to an arrest warrant obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media. Maharg changed his story only after police told him that they had learned all about the married men abandoning their Manhattan business, and losing their 20-acre farmhouse to foreclosure, and being hospitalized multiple times for alcoholic incoherence, the March 20 warrant says. I killed my husband, Maharg told police, according to the warrant. The warrant, which makes the case for charging 65-year-old Maharg with evidence tampering and the murder of his husband, Thomas Conley, 63, is also a window into the final winter of the couples marriage, which in the words of a neighbor was spiraling downward with alcohol, debt and spousal abuse. It was a violent end to the story of two retail fixture designers, who made their name as good neighbors in this genteel town of gentleman farms. Maharg and his husband had been drinking tequila all day - as the two had done habitually since mid-December, when they stopped tending to their failing Manhattan business, police said. The victim walked into the kitchen and said something nasty to Maharg, and Maharg pushed the victims chest, causing him to fall backward into the kitchen cabinet shelf, the warrant reads. Maharg stated he must have struck the victim in the head at some point during this time, however he could not provide us with the object or the exact time frame, the warrant says. [He] stressed he must have struck him in the head with a significant object to create the large gash. Maharg, who has not yet entered a plea, was arraigned March 22 in Waterbury Hospital, where he was undergoing detoxification treatment and was on suicide watch, according to his arrest file. He is currently being held at the Bridgeport Correctional Facility. His attorney, John Walkley, declined to comment on the arrest warrant. Maharg is due April 23 in state Superior Court in Danbury. State police responded to Maharg s predawn 911 call to find Conleys body already cold. (State police) observed that (Conley) was lying naked against the wall at the bottom of the staircase and had two wounds to the top of his scalp, the more pronounced of the two being a gaping gash approximately two inches wide and four inches long, reads the arrest warrant. The official cause of death from the Connecticut Chief Medical Examiners Office was chop wounds. Alcohol and abuse The warrant shows that the mens trouble began months before they stopped going to their Manhattan retail fixture business, and started drinking three bottles of tequila between them each day. That coincides with observations of townspeople who said the couples relationship had grown noticeably tense in recent months. A neighbor quoted in the warrant who is described by police as extremely close to the couple said the problems started in October when both men were hospitalized for alcohol detoxification. It would be the first of four times that the pair would be hospitalized because of alcoholic incoherence, another friend told police in the warrant. The men said they were deep in financial debt and had missed mortgage payments on their hilltop farmhouse at 99 Church Road. They also owed back taxes, according to the warrant. Conley told a friend quoted in the warrant that Maharg had beaten him. (Conley) had bruises all over his body but Maharg explained the bruises as being from a fall on the ice outside, the arrest warrant says. It was against this backdrop that the couple spent their final day together on March 19. Maharg went to buy tequila at 8 a.m. in Danbury and the men began drinking as soon as he returned, he told police. When Maharg called 911 to say My husband is dead troopers arrived to find three empty tequila bottles, and a half-drunk fourth bottle. (State police) concluded that an injury such as the one (Conley) had on his head would have yielded copious amounts of blood that were not present in the area where the body was located, and the circumstances surrounding the incident appeared suspect, the warrant says. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342 Estonian English Notice is hereby given that the Management Board of AS Ekspress Grupp (registry code 10004677, official address Parda 6, 10151 Tallinn) convenes the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held on 17th of May, 2019 at 10:00 at the seat of AS Ekspress Grupp, in the city of Tallinn, Parda 6, 6th floor. The registration of participants in the Meeting will commence at 9:30 at the location of the Meeting. Pursuant to the decision of the Supervisory Board of AS Ekspress Grupp, the Agenda of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders is as follows: The approval of 2018 annual report. The approval of the proposal for distribution of profits. Extension of the mandate of the Members of the Supervisory Board The management board of AS Ekspress Grupp makes the following proposals to the shareholders about the items of the agenda: 1. The approval of 2018 annual report. To approve the 2018 annual report of AS Ekspress Grupp for the financial year from 1st of January 2018 to 31st of December 2018. 2. The approval of the proposal for distribution of profits. To approve the Profit Distribution Proposal for 2018. To distribute total 6491 euros as following: to increase statutory reserve by 325 euros; remaining 6166 euros to be allocated to the retained earnings. 3. Extension of the mandate of the Members of the Supervisory Board To extend the mandate of Supervisory Board Members Hans H. Luik, Indrek Kasela and Harri Helmer Roschier from 21th May 2019 for five years until 20.05.2024. The circle of shareholders entitled to attend the Annual General Meeting will be determined 7 days prior to the General Meeting, i.e. on 9th May, 2019 at the end of the working day of the settlement system. All documents concerning the Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders of AS Ekspress Grupp, including draft resolutions, are available on the homepage of AS Ekspress Grupp at www.egrupp.ee , as well as at the seat of AS Ekspress Grupp, Parda 6, Tallinn, 6th floor, on business days from 10:00 to 16:00 starting from the date of notification of the Annual General Meeting until the date of the Annual General Meeting (inclusive). At the Meeting, the shareholders are entitled to receive information on the activities of AS Ekspress Grupp from the Management Board. If the Management Board of AS Ekspress Grupp refuses to provide information, the shareholders may demand that the General Meeting decides on the legitimacy of their demand, or submit, within two weeks, an application to court in proceedings on petition to require the Management Board to provide the information. Shareholders whose shares represent at least 1/20 of the share capital are entitled to present a draft resolution on each agenda item to AS Ekspress Grupp at least 3 days prior to the General Meeting, i.e. until 13th May, 2019, by submitting it in writing to e-mail address: egrupp@egrupp.ee . Shareholders whose shares represent at least 1/20 of the share capital are entitled to request the inclusion of additional items in the agenda of the General Meeting of AS Ekspress Grupp, provided that the request is submitted 15 days prior to the General Meeting at the latest, i.e. until 1st May, 2019, by submitting it in writing to e-mail address: egrupp@egrupp.ee . As at 17th April, 2019, the share capital of AS Ekspress Grupp is 17,878,104.60 euros. The total number of shares is 29,796,841, with each share granting one vote. The right to vote is not granted to AS Ekspress Grupps 17,527 own shares. For the registration of participants in the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, we kindly ask: shareholders who are natural persons to present an identity document (e.g. passport or ID card) and representatives of shareholders who are natural persons to present an identity document and a written document certifying their authorisation; representatives of shareholders who are legal persons to present an extract (or other such document) from the relevant (commercial) register where the legal person is registered (issued no more than 7 days prior to presenting), and the identity document of the representative. In the case of legal persons registered in a foreign country, the extract from the register must be legalised or certified by an apostil, unless stipulated otherwise in international agreements. Transactional representatives of shareholders who are legal persons must, in addition to the aforementioned documents, present a written document certifying their authorisation. AS Ekspress Grupp may also register a shareholder who is a legal person in a foreign country as a participant in the General Meeting if all the required data concerning the legal person and the representative is contained in a notarised authorisation document issued in the foreign country and the authorisation document is acceptable in Estonia. Prior to the General Meeting, shareholders may give notice of the appointment of a representative and the withdrawal by the principal of the authorisation via e-mail to the address egrupp@egrupp.ee or by delivering the aforementioned document(s) to the seat of AS Ekspress Grupp at Parda 6, Tallinn, 6th floor (on business days from 10:00 to 16:00) by 16:00 on 16th May, 2019 at the latest, using the templates available on the homepage of AS Ekspress Grupp, www.egrupp.ee . Information on the procedure of appointment and revocation of the authorisation of representatives is available on the homepage of AS Ekspress Grupp, www.egrupp.ee . Mari-Liis Ruutsalu AS Ekspress Grupp Chairman of the Management Board +372 512 2591 mariliis.ryytsalu@egrupp.ee AS Ekspress Grupp is the leading media group in the Baltic States whose key activities include web media content production, publishing of newspapers and magazines and provision of printing services in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Ekspress Grupp that launched its operations in 1989 employs 1700 people, owns leading web media portals in the Baltic States and publishes the most popular daily and weekly newspapers as well as the majority of the most popular magazines in Estonia. Attachments WASHINGTON While President Donald Trump and his team exulted in release of the Mueller report, Connecticut Democratic lawmakers were culling through its 400-plus pages for unflattering details surrounding its twin conclusions: insufficient evidence of Trump 2016 campaign coordination with Russia, and neither confirmation nor exoneration on whether Trump obstructed justice. Whats demonstrated in powerful and compelling detail in this report is nothing less than a national scandal, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal at a news conference in Hartford. This report is far from the end of the inquiry that this country needs and deserves. It is the beginning of another chapter. Release of the report, with close to 160 pages partly or fully blacked out, capped a tumultuous nearly two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller on whether Trump and his campaign staff conspired with Russian intelligence to disseminate hacked emails aimed at denigrating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and thereby elevating Trump. The report contained more information on the role of New Britain-born Paul Manafort in efforts to win Trump agreement to follow a pro-Russia peace plan in Ukraine, and the worry of Trump communications adviser Hope Hicks, of Greenwich, that emails on the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians were really bad and the result of news reports breaking on them would be massive. While the Mueller report came to no conclusion on whether Trump was liable for prosecution on obstruction, Attorney General William Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded the president was not. In the second of two volumes, the report delves into new details about Trumps early efforts to derail Mueller soon after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself and Rosenstein appointed him to take over the FBIs Trump-Russia probe in May 2017. Trump had just fired FBI Director James Comey, later admitting in a television interview that this Russia thing was among the deciding factors. Trump wanted to fire Sessions immediately after Sessions recused himself, an act that had cleared the way for appointment of Mueller. And after Muellers appointment, the report states, Trump directed his legal counsel, Donald McGahn, to have Mueller fired because of a conflict of interest for which Mueller had already been cleared by the Justice Department. McGahn agonized over the decision but ultimately decided not to follow through because it would be tantamount to the Watergate-era Saturday Night Massacre in which President Richard Nixon fired his two top Justice Department officials before he found one who would fire special counsel Archibald Cox. I was startled by the gangster-like behavior of Trump, said Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Sections of it read like The Godfather. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview that notwithstanding Muellers conclusions, what we know is the Trump campaign had numerous opportunities to alert law enforcement of the interest in manipulating our election by people close to the Russian government. And they didnt. The Mueller report stated that while the investigation could not conclude Trump committed the crime of obstruction, it also does not exonerate him. It also concluded that while Trump campaign officials welcomed Russian efforts to denigrate Clinton through release of hacked emails, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the government Russia in its election interference activities. Mueller said it would be up to Congress to address the question of obstruction. For Democrats including the Connecticut delegation, the shifted terrain also includes whether or not impeachment is appropriate - or possible. Murphy stopped well short of calling for impeachment proceedings, but pointed out that one of the key facts that might have led to Nixons impeachment (had he not resigned first in 1974) was his effort to get the CIA to block the Watergate investigation on national security grounds. Himes said there was little point in pursuing impeachment because while the Democratic-controlled House might vote to impeach, the Republican-controlled Senate would never convict Trump. Im a believer there is nothing in the report, sleazy as it is, that would cause the Senate to turn on Trump, he said. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, also expressed doubt on impeachment. Regardless of the results of the Mueller report, President Trump and his administration give the American people evidence on a daily basis that we need a change of leadership, she said in a statement. However, I believe that change should come through an election rather than impeachment. Murphy said he needed to take time to read the report, but that he believed Barr was acting less like the nations top law enforcement officer and more like Trumps personal lawyer. In a news briefing early Thursday before release of the report, Barr used the phrase no collusion four times in describing Muellers conclusion that neither Trump nor his campaign conspired with Russian intelligence to win the election. No collusion was Trumps frequent mantra over the course of the Mueller investigation. Barr told reporters he would have no objection to Mueller testifying before Congress. Barr last month issued a four-page summary of the Mueller report, which Blumenthal, Murphy and other Connecticut lawmakers charged was insufficient. They said in addition to the full report, Congress should be allowed to see the materials Mueller blanked out because of grand-jury secrecy and unnamed multiple on-going investigations, one of which is the prosecution of Trump adviser and long-time GOP operative Roger Stone. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, also criticized Barr. Despite Attorney General Barrs political spin, the Mueller report details multiple instances in which President Trump attempted to obstruct justice and end the Special Counsels investigation, she said in a statement. At the White House, Trump rejoiced over the report, telling reporters that he was having a good day. He tweeted a photo declaring Game Over in a typeface mimicking the Game of Thrones logo. The section of the report on Hicks has to do with emails preceding the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and a group of Russians, one of whom was described as able to provide derogatory information on Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support to Mr. Trump. Donald Jr.s response: If its what you say, I love it. Hicks is the former Greenwich High School lacrosse-team co-captain who pursued a modeling career and wound up as a close confidante of Trump during his campaign and later at the White House. The report shows her deep angst over the impending email revelations, describing them as really bad. Hicks then played an important role in drafting a statement from Donald Jr., saying the meeting was primarily about Russian adoption. Ultimately Donald Jr. himself released the emails, after the New York Times ran a story about the meeting. The section on Manafort mostly reiterates the New Britain political-family scions interactions with powerful Russian oligarchs and a Russian employee that the FBI deemed was connected to Russian intelligence. Manafort acknowledged turning over Trump campaign polling data to the operative, Konstantin Kilimnik. Manafort is serving seven-and-a-half years for violating tax and foreign-agent-registration laws, and bank fraud. The case against him related to his representation of the Ukraine political party backing Ukraines pro-Russia leader, Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014. At the time Trump appointed him to manage his 2016 campaign, Manafort was in the midst of discussions over a peace plan that amounted to turning the eastern portion of Ukraine into a separate pro-Russia state. Manafort at first told Muellers team he thought the plan was crazy. But he pursued it with Kilimnik even after departing the Trump campaign in August 2016. The report concluded the plan was never presented to Trump or his campaign. The report shows Manafort joined the campaign because he thought it would be good for his consulting business. After Trump won, Manafort let it be known he had no interest in a position in the administration because, again, his Trump connections would be good for business. Hearst Connecticut Media columnist Dan Haar and staff writer Ken Dixon contributed to this story. T he City has every reason to be cheerful. A recent report ranked the UK as the top investment destination in the world, knocking the US off its perch. Its the first time the UK has made the top spot in EYs survey, now in its tenth year. The most attractive sectors for investment were financial services, industrials, retail and consumer products. In 2018 the UK accounted for 10% of global M&A worth a combined $400bn (307bn), making it the second-best year since the financial crisis. More pertinently, the survey showed the UK is holding its own, and that despite mounting geopolitical complexities, the future looks bright. To date, the Brexit hullabaloo has hardly dented the financial services industry, and even the pessimists now concede that maybe only around 10% of business could be lost over the long-term. Why then are so many so gloomy? At the annual City Debate at the Mansion House last week, some of the Square Miles finest, and certainly most expensive brains, met to ponder whether: This House believes that the Citys best days lie ahead. For the motion was Sir Gerry Grimstone, former Barclays chairman and City veteran, backed up by Dr Kay Swinburne MEP, a rare politician who understands financial services. Their argument was that the Citys ecosystem has survived for hundreds of years, that it constantly reinvents itself and that this can-do spirit will ensure it survives hundreds more. Swinburne took Londons booming fintech sector as evidence of how new innovators are leading the world. Against the motion were Lord Myners, former City minister and corporate governance critic, together with Professor John Kay, a long-time and fearless sceptic of the financial sectors contribution to the economy and society. Both were at their most joyless, saying the best days were left behind in the coffee houses and the financing of the great railways of the past. Kay went further, criticising the City for its self-congratulatory behaviour, for destroying the UKs housing market, the moral bankruptcy of its bankers and for practising capitalism without capital. Heady stuff. The room of 200 bankers and industrialists were gloomy too: the pre-debate vote was 45% for the motion, and 55% against. Grimstone and Swinburne swung the room but only by 3% to 48%. You could smell the doom. Yet Andrew Hilton of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, who organised the debate, is more sanguine, arguing the City will thrive because its professionals have a talent for turning anomalies into competitive advantages. Hilton is probably right long-term, as the Citys instinct for survival is second to none. But there was something missing from the debate and its crucial for Londons future reputation. Which is that neither side truly acknowledged the damage that has been done to public trust by the banking scandals that have emerged since the financial crash. In too many cases, its only now that we are getting anywhere close to the full picture of the egregious crimes that were carried out, not just at the top of the Citys banks, but those further down at regional and branch level. By far the most outrageous frauds were those on an epidemic scale against small business owners at RBSs Global Restructuring Group and at HBOS, before being rescued by Lloyds Banking Group. Scandals are still coming out of the woodwork. Word is that the police are to launch new inquiries into alleged frauds relating to Lloyds in Bristol going back years. If the Citys best days lie ahead, the industry must clean up. The only way to do this is for an independent Royal Commission to investigate misconduct in banking over the last two decades, as the Australians have just done. M others Day, Pancake Day, World Sparrow Day, Doris Day if its got a day in it, Ill find some way to celebrate and yet the Easter bank holiday weekend always feels a bit different. Id like to go to the party, but as a non-Christian who knows this time has special meaning for others, and solemn significance for Christians, Im just not sure if Im invited. Or if its even really a party. As a secular schoolchild this was never a problem how could any event in which chocolate features so prominently be a problem? But as an adult of no particular faith (atheist sounds too Richard Dawkins), Im finding I can no longer enjoy Easter without complications. The two whole weeks off school, for instance, are a total headache for working parents; my bastard body mass index will not forgive a single mini egg, and bank holidays mean bupkis when, like 2.4 million Londoners, youre self-employed. All in all, it seems a Jesus-free Easter is like a gluten-free hot cross bun: fine in theory but hard to get hold of outside of N1, and strangely unsatisfying once you do. Nowadays, its the religious part of Easter that moves this godless heathen most. We could mumble something about pagan origins and a celebration of new life and the changing seasons, but Easters joyful mood is clearly something more. The speed with which nearly 1 billion was raised to pay for the resurrection of the fire-damaged Notre-Dame cathedral this week suggests the ongoing importance of the specifically Christian tradition. Devotional art inspires strong feelings in secular society and the culture of religion as distinct from the faith has a value to many people who would hardly regard themselves as Christians, let alone practising Catholics. Or, put another way, two millennia later, and people all over the world are still gripped by the story of a young man who transcended his humble origins to become a leader, got killed by the non-believers, then rose from the dead. His name is Jon Snow from Game of Thrones. And doesnt the thought of an afternoon in church sound simply divine right now? A peaceful place to escape your smartphone and regroup your divided attention by focusing only on the words of the sermon or the image at the altar. That kind of relaxation experience would set you back at least 200 at a high-end spa. So the question is, would this kind of attitude get me spurned by the rest of the congregation? Can I get in on at Easter without making any firm commitments for the other Sundays in the year? Or would that be like wearing the band T-shirt when you can only hum their biggest hit? Until I hear otherwise via abusive tweet or lightning strike Im going to assume Christianity is cool with all the Easter hangers-on. Indeed, this was probably the plan all long, wasnt it? Come for the chocolate eggs, stay for the message of eternal salvation? If so, it seems to be working. When landlord met tenant: not a rom-com Back when When Harry Met Sally was in cinemas, Can men and women ever be just friends? was a conversation starter. Almost 30 years later, when Jayne (patronising landlord) met Kirsty (the befuddled tenants rights activist), the implicit question troubling us all had changed: Can landlords and renters ever be friends? For London renters of yore the landlord was often a largely abstract concept, such as the local council or a housing association. Changing demographics including the rise of private landlords mean these two social groups are much more likely to find themselves together in the office, face-to-face over dinner, or even living at the same address. Maybe youre considering moving in with a home-owning friend, in the hope of mates rates? Or maybe youre keen to invite in a renting pal to help you pay off your mortgage? Dont do it. The rom-com that is tenant/landlord relations may now have a resolution to the Act II complication, but it still hasnt got a happy ending. * The most famous French film festival has a notorious no Cannes do attitude when it comes to gender equality, with only 18 of 180 competition films from the past 10 years directed by women. But if Cannes favourite Quentin Tarantino doesnt finish his latest opus in time for a scheduled premiere next month, then watch out. W hen Boris Johnson urged the Prime Minister to tell the Pharaoh in Brussels let my people go, he was invoking one of the greatest stories in history: the Exodus. Tomorrow, Jews in London and all over the world will recount the tale as they sit down for the Passover meal how the Jews were enslaved in Egypt 3,300 years ago, how they escaped from slavery and how they trekked to freedom under the leadership of Moses. As in most years, this year Passover coincides with Easter, a holy time for millions of Christians, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Exodus is not only a story attached to a religious festival, but it has had a significant impact on the development of our conception of freedom in the West. Back in the 18th century, as the American colonies sought their independence from Britain, many Americans identified themselves with the Jews from the account of the Exodus. Indeed in 1776, one of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, proposed that the seal of the new country should be Moses lifting his stick to divide the Red Sea. Two hundred years later in the US, the story inspired the civil rights movement of the Sixties. The battle cry of African Americans was Let my people go. Their talismanic leader Dr Martin Luther King used the tale in his speeches. In what turned out to be his final address in Tennessee in April 1968, the day before he was assassinated, he told the crowd that his vision was to watch Gods children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. In a spirit of inter-faith co-operation, a leading American Rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel, marched arm-in-arm with Dr King at Selma in 1965. He famously explained afterwards that he felt a religious obligation to take part, and was praying with his feet. Owing to their experience of persecution going back to the Exodus, many Jews strongly supported the civil rights movement and other freedom struggles, such as that against apartheid. It also served as a template for liberation movements in South America in El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero, outraged by human rights abuses in his nations civil war, spoke out on behalf of these victims. He was assassinated while celebrating mass in 1980. And here in Britain religious campaigners have taken the concept of liberty from the Bible and effected change, in cases from abolition of slavery to 20th-century welfare reforms. The Exodus story reminds us of the value of liberty. Around the world it is under threat. Freedom House, in its annual surveys, has shown a decline in global freedom for 13 consecutive years. In Britain freedom of religion is protected, and Christians, Jews, Muslims and all minority groups benefit. As Londoners celebrate Passover and Easter we should cherish the freedoms we have. Review at a glance C ape Town-based Isango Ensemble has made its name taking some of the Wests great classics The Magic Flute, La Boheme and A Christmas Carol and turning them into barnstorming opera-musical spectacles with a strong African flavour. This week it arrived at the Opera House with its 2016 hit A Man of Good Hope, a rags-to-rags tale of a Somali refugee based on the book by Oxford scholar Jonny Steinberg. From the opening tinning of marimbas and thud of soles on timber, its clear its a show that still packs a punch, assaulting the eardrums and tugging the heartstrings. It tells the true story of eight-year-old Asad Abdullahi, who is forced to flee after his mother is murdered by militias in front of him. Travelling through the Horn of Africa, we watch as he is abandoned by relatives, is forced to live in UN camps and begins his career as a street hustler. He marries the beautiful Foosiya: though she wants to get to America, Asad finds himself in post-apartheid South Africa, where as a refugee he becomes a target of ridicule and violence. Eventually his US papers arrive but is it really a happy ending? While theres not a dud note among the 22-strong ensemble, there are standout performances, not least by the youngest member Siphosethu Hintsho, whose poised self-assurance is matched only by his fine dancing skills and comic timing. (A song on how to speak American, complete with gurning, is a particular highlight.) A English sparkling wine is to be showcased by The Ritz as its champagne of the month for only the second time. The Rathfinny Estates 2015 Blanc de Noirs is to be launched at the hotel on May 1 and will be promoted in its bars, restaurants and room service throughout the month, alongside a 2016 Rathfinny rose. London hedge fund boss Mark Driver and his lawyer wife Sarah bought the estate near Lewes, East Sussex, in 2010 and have spent almost a decade planting and preparing the vineyards. It is only the second time that a sparkling wine from outside the Champagne region has been awarded the accolade by the hotel. Rathfinny Estates 2015 Blanc de Noirs / Reinold Aryee The first occasion came in July 2017 when West Sussex-based Nyetimber broke the French monopoly. Giovanni Ferlito, head of wine and beverage at The Ritz, said: When we first offered English sparkling wine it was hard to persuade people to try it but in just a year there has been a big change in peoples perceptions and now they ask for it. I tried the Blanc De Noirs with the winemaker before it was bottled. I realised it was going to be very special and so decided to make it a wine of the month. A nother year has flown by and St George's Day is back upon us. The national day is acknowledged by many Christian churches and is dedicated to St George, the patron saint of England. This springtime celebration is the perfect opportunity for us to mark all things English, and we all know this means more than afternoon tea, Morris dancing and the Royal Family. We might be in the middle of a nationwide lockdown, but nothing's stopping you from toasting England's patron saint from the comfort of your home. So, here's everything you need to know about St George's Day. St George's Day is on April 23 / PA Archive/PA Images When is St George's Day? The Church of England confirmed that the feast of St George will be commemorated on Thursday, April 23. It comes after it was postponed by six days last year due to falling during the Easter break. All major St George's Day events this year have been cancelled, including the main Nottingham pageant that usually attracts crowds of 20,000. Instead, Brits have been urged to fly an England flag in their homes if they want to remember England's patron saint. What is St George's Day? St George's Day is a Christian feast day commemorating Saint George of Lydda, who was executed by the Romans on April 23 more than 1,000 years ago. According to legend, St George was born in Cappadocia, in what is now modern day Turkey. He was a soldier in the Roman army and rose up the ranks to become a member of the Praetorian Guard for the Emperor Diocletian. However, legend states that St George was tortured and later executed by the Romans for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. He became a martyr for early Christians, who later venerated him as a saint. Why do we celebrate St George's Day in England? St George is England's patron saint, although we share him with other places such as Catalonia, Aragon, Bulgaria, Russia and Portugal. He was widely celebrated as a warrior saint, but it wasn't until 1348 that his position was elevated to that of a patron saint after his supposed intervention at the Battle of Crecy. PA Archive/PA Images In 1415, April 23 then became a major national feast day across England. In 1552 all religious banners were abolished, except for those of St George. The myth of Saint George became popular in the 13th century when it was published in a book called The Golden Legend. According to the legend, George slayed a dragon and rescued a princess from being eaten. In their gratitude, the people of the town converted to Christianity. The anniversary of his execution, on April 23, is now celebrated as England's national day. PA Archive/PA Images Is St George's Day a Bank Holiday? Do we celebrate with parades? Unfortunately, St George's Day is no longer a public holiday in England, unlike our Scottish (St Andrew's Day) and Irish (St Patrick's Day) cousins. B ritain's top law enforcement body has launched an attempt to seize thousands of pounds of suspected illicit cash from the niece of Syrias president Bashar al Assad after discovering that she has been living and studying in London. Anisseh Chawkat, whose late father Assef was a feared security chief killed in a suicide bombing, has completed a degree in spatial design at the University of the Arts London and is still living in the capital despite members of her family being subject to international sanctions. Her bank account, understood to contain just under 25,000, has now been frozen so the National Crime Agency can seek a cash forfeiture order that would allow it to seize the money. Syrians will be surprised at the presence in London of a relative of the dictator, pictured, and will likely raise questions about how she was able to obtain a visa and fund herself. Details emerged during a preliminary hearing of the case at Westminster magistrates court. It was adjourned until later this year after the court was told that Ms Chawkat, 22, would be contesting the application to seize her money. No further details were given, but the NCA said its case was based on the fact that Ms Chawkat, whose final-year degree project was on the bond between fashion and architecture at Selfridges Oxford Street store, had no legitimate source of income in the UK and had family members who were on the international financial sanctions list. Exactly when Ms Chawkat arrived in Britain is unclear, but university records show that last year she completed a BA in spatial design at the London College of Communication in Elephant and Castle. The college is part of the University of the Arts, which also includes the London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins. A source said it was known at the London College of Communication that Ms Chawkat was Assads niece and that she had been visited once by her cousin Hafez al Assad, one of the Syrian dictators sons. It was known who she was, but she kept it very quiet, the source told the Evening Standard. She used to change the spelling of her name as well, which was a bit odd. Her cousin [Hafez al Assad] visited her once too. He was quite recognisable. Ms Chawkat, who is said to be not politically involved, is still living in London and taking a Masters degree. Her address was withheld from the media after the court was told by the NCA and her solicitor that disclosure would place her at potential risk from opponents of the Assad regime, including Islamic State supporters. Ms Chawkats mother Bushra is Assads sister and was described in the Economist in 2013 as having a fearsome reputation in Damascus and thought to exercise considerable influence over the Syrian dictator. Bushra was one of 12 Assad family members added to an EU sanctions list in 2012 on the grounds that she was benefiting from and associated with her brothers dictatorship because of her close personal relationship and intrinsic financial relationship to him and other core Syrian regime figures. A travel ban and asset-freezing were imposed as a result. Two years later, Bushra lost an appeal against the sanctions after the European Court of Justice ruled that her decision to move to Dubai following her husbands death could have been prompted by the deteriorating security situation in Syria, rather than an attempt to disassociate herself from her brothers regime. Ms Chawkats father Assef served as Assads military intelligence chief and then deputy defence minister before being killed in 2012 in a rebel suicide bombing outside the National Security Bureau in Damascus. He was placed under EU and US sanctions in 2011 for his role in suppressing demonstrations by those opposed to the regime. HOUSTON, Texas and HASSELT, Belgium, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TrendMiner NV , a Software AG company and provider of the leading self-service advanced analytics software, has announced the release of their second software update of 2019, TrendMiner 2019.R2. This release introduces DashHub, a completely new dashboard and reporting module that provides actionable, visual representation of operational performance data. In addition to DashHub, the 2019.R2 release also includes many new features and enhancements based on user feedback. DashHub Actionable Storytelling with Time-series Data TrendMiner enables process and asset experts to analyze , monitor and predict operational performance through trend analysis of time-series data. Multiple trend views, in combination with specific views of contextual operational performance data, can now be presented via the new actionable dashboard, DashHub. With DashHub, process behaviors related to specific KPIs can be monitored, and trends of key sensor data can be viewed in a quick and convenient way, enabling rapid detection of root causes that can lead to actionable intelligence when issues or losses occur. The user can easily switch between available dashboards or quickly create new dashboards with trend or context item tiles. In addition to the notifications, users can receive based on monitors they have created, dashboards can be used to assess operational performance and prioritize which parts of their process require special attention. From DashHub, users can directly investigate process anomalies, production losses or equipment inefficiencies. 360o View of Your Manufacturing Process DashHub also provides users with greater flexibility. The recently introduced ContextHub brought users the ability to get a full 360 degree view of their manufacturing processes by unlocking all operational events stored in third party systems. Users can now easily jump between the graphical views of TrendHub and the contextual views of ContextHub at will. Context items can be visualized directly within their respective trend views, and conversely, context items in ContextHub can be used to directly access their respective trend views with a simple push of a button. Also new in 2019.R2 is the ability for context item information such as quality results, batch numbers, or results from 3rd party systems to be added through flexible field creation. This additional information can be used to filter data in a way that suits the user, which in turn can help to speed up data analysis activities of subject matter experts. Enhancements driven by our users TrendMiner is designed by engineers, for engineers and we highly value user feedback. In each release we include improvements based on user ideas and suggestions. Some notable enhancements in the TrendMiner 2019.R2 release: Event frames synced from the OSIsoft PI System are now enriched with their corresponding attribute data with additional fields on context items, unlocking visualization, filtering, and sorting capabilities in ContextHub. Extended reporting capabilities by enabling the export of (stacked) trend and scatter plots images that include a list of tags and layers. In ContextHub, more filter options have been added, as well as the ability to configure columns within the table view. The full range of TrendMiner's capabilities, including the new DashHub and multiple enhancements, will serve to further reduce the time and effort it takes to solve equipment and process performance-related issues. It is TrendMiner's goal to help our customers make better, faster, decisions, by giving the power of analytics to the people who can interpret the data. Further information To see TrendMiners functionality in-action and learn how analytics-empowered process and asset experts can help you accelerate your operational performance, please join our free upcoming webinar Integrate to Innovate with Self-Service Industrial Analytics on April 25, 3 CET/8 CDT About TrendMiner TrendMiner , a Software AG company and part of the IoT & Analytics division, delivers self-service data analytics to optimize process performance in industries such as chemical, petrochemical, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, metals & mining and other process manufacturing industries. TrendMiner software is based on a high-performance analytics engine for time-series data that allows users to question data directly, without the support of data scientists. The plug-and-play software adds immediate value upon deployment, eliminating the need for infrastructure investment and long implementation projects. Search, diagnostic and predictive capabilities enable users to speed up root cause analysis, define optimal processes and configure early warnings to monitor production. TrendMiner software also helps team members to capture feedback and leverage knowledge across teams and sites. In addition, TrendMiner offers standard integrations with a wide range of historians such as OSIsoft PI, Yokogawa Exaquantum, AspenTech IP.21, Honeywell PHD, GE Proficy Historian and Wonderware InSQL. Founded in 2008 and now part of Software AG, TrendMiners global headquarters are located in Belgium with offices in the U.S., Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. Media Contact Dawn Fontaine Ripple Effect Communications dawn@rippleeffectpr.com +1-617-536-8887 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/08c27104-3e71-4fc1-9bad-4bc940ccf061 T he mother of a young man who died after being rammed by a BMW car during a suspected gang fight called for an end to street violence today. Council worker Gopinath Kasivisuwanathan, 27, was injured when he was run down during a brawl outside Alperton tube station, in Wembley, in the early hours of Tuesday. He died in hospital that evening. Witnesses told how two groups were fighting with bottles in a running battle along Ealing Road. Police also found belts and poles used as weapons. Today Mr Kasivisuwanathans family paid tribute to the popular and loving Kingston University graduate who worked as a benefit assessment officer for Brent council. Mr Kasivisuwanathan was injured when he was run down during a brawl outside Alperton tube station, in Wembley / Jeremy Selwyn His heartbroken mother Sumitra appealed for an end to the bloodshed on the streets. She said: We want the police to find out who did this and get justice for my son. There is more and more crime in London and it must stop. We have lost so many lives in every community. We want the violence to stop. It cannot be allowed to go on. Ive lost my son and no family should go through this. Mrs Kasivisuwanathan said the family was still in the dark about how he died, adding: He went to work on Monday and in the evening he went to the cinema. We dont know what happened after that. He was a nice guy; very popular and loving. He had a girlfriend and was planning to marry her next year. He had been working for Brent council as a benefit assessment officer for the last six months and loved it. He had lots of friends at work and from university. Brent council leader Muhammed Butt said: Gopinath was a dedicated and highly respected member of our customer services team and will be sorely missed by his colleagues. Friends also paid tribute, with one saying: Weve lost a brother and a strong, hard-working man and family man. He was humble, he was ambitious, he was smart, he had good intentions for everyone. Another added: He was a friendly, joyful person to be around. Friends gathered near the scene of the violence and held a vigil for him, leaving flowers and cards last night. One read: You will be truly missed. Your presence was like the brightest star in the sky. You always had the biggest and brightest smile on your face. I will miss that smile. May God bless you with all the peace and give strength to your family. Sending lots of love your way. A 21-year-old man who was also hit by the car was taken to hospital but later discharged. A 35-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder remains in custody. Eight men aged between 21 and 30 also arrested in connection with the incident have been bailed until mid-May. P olice have released CCTV of a man they are seeking in connection with a "vicious" attack in north London that left a young man in an induced coma for weeks. Met Police officers were called to Bulstrode Street, Marylebone, at around 5.20am on Sunday morning following reports of a man found unconscious. The 23-year-old victim, a student from Spain, was on his way home after celebrating the end of a successful internship. He was approached from behind by a stranger and struck with a "devastating" punch in an unprovoked assault, Scotland Yard said. The victim was kept in hospital in an induced coma for weeks after suffering head injuries, police said in a statement. CCTV recovered by officers showed the suspect search the victims pockets while he lay unconscious, it added. The suspect stole a phone, wallet and cash before leaving the unconscious victim lying in theroad. Police released CCTV of a man wanted in connection with the assault The suspect later entered a nearby hotel and tried to order a taxi to take him from the area. There have been no arrests and enquiries continue. The victim has now returned home to Spain. Detective Karl Lewis, from Westminster Borough, said: "This was a completely unprovoked assault on a young man walking home after a night out. The victim has only just managed to make a full recovery from his physical injuries, however this attack has had a large psychological impact on him. "The man who committed this crime is a violent thug and we are desperate to bring him to justice. I would urge anyone who recognises the man in the CCTV still to do the right thing and call police." Any witnesses or anyone with any information is asked to call police on 101 or contact via Twitter @MetCC. Quote CAD 1817/19Aug 2018. M ore than 500 Extinction Rebellion protesters have been arrested as authorities said 1,000 officers were being deployed each day to demonstrations in London. It comes ahead of a planned protest at Heathrow Airport on Friday, with the Home Secretary warning "the full force of the law" will be used to end their protesters' activism amid plans to disrupt flights at the UK's busiest airport. After speaking to Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, Sajid Javid said: "Let me be clear - I totally condemn any protesters who are stepping outside the boundaries of the law. "They have no right to cause misery for the millions of people who are trying to lead their daily lives. Unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated. "I expect the police to take a firm stance and use the full force of the law." Extinction Rebellion protests across London Officers have been asked to work 12-hour shifts while some had rest days and leave cancelled. Those in the Violent Crime Task Force has been ring-fenced to deal with any violence unrelated to the protests, the force said. The Met said in a statement: "The protesters need to understand that their demonstration is meaning officers are being diverted away from their core local duties that help keep London safe and that this will have implications in the weeks and months beyond this protest as officers take back leave and the cost of overtime." However, despite the stringent stance of law enforcement, the activists have vowed to carry on. Police officers talk to climate change activists at Waterloo Bridge / REUTERS Organisers said they expected even more people to join the protests and a statement, which was later deleted, said: "Easter weekend is tomorrow and thousands more rebels will join. "Police struggle to arrest 350 and there are 10 times that number prepared to be arrested. "The hollowed-out British state is overwhelmed." Crowds have continued to gather in protest / Jeremy Selwyn In communications shared with the Standard they spoke of "reinforcements" arriving on Friday. The organisation also said its network of volunteers was rapidly growing and claimed 4,000 were joining each day. The Met has made the vast sum of arrests, the exact number of which has not been revealed, as demonstrations continue at Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Circus and Parliament Square, with activists being order to continue their action at Marble Arch or not at all. Extinction Rebellion in New York - In pictures 1 /18 Extinction Rebellion in New York - In pictures People participate in a die-in direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion Getty Images People are detained while participating in a direct action with a group protest group called Extinction Rebellion in New York Getty Images People participate in a die-in direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion Getty Images A banner is hung across a roadway while people participate in a direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion in New York Getty Images People participate in a direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion in New York Getty Images People participate in a die-in direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion Getty Images People lock arms across a roadway while participating in a direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion oin New York Getty Images A banner is hung across a roadway while people participate in a direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion in New York Getty Images People are detained while participating in a direct action with a group protest group called Extinction Rebellion in New York Getty Images People hold sign saying "climate emergency" while participating in a direct action with a protest group called Extinction Rebellion in New York Getty Images People participate in a direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion in New York Getty Images People participate in a direct action with a group protest organization called Extinction Rebellion in New York Getty Images People from the "Extinction Rebellion" group rally near City Hall in New York SplashNews.com A protestor from the "Extinction Rebellion" group rally near City Hall in New York SplashNews.com A protestor is detained while participating in a direct action with a group protest group called Extinction Rebellion in New York SplashNews.com People from the "Extinction Rebellion" group rally near City Hall in New York City demanding that governments of all nations act to thwart the negative effects of climate change SplashNews.com People from the "Extinction Rebellion" group rally near City Hall in New York City demanding that governments of all nations act to thwart the negative effects of climate change SplashNews.com People from the "Extinction Rebellion" group rally near City Hall in New York City demanding that governments of all nations act to thwart the negative effects of climate change SplashNews.com Dramatic footage has shown officers marching in huge lines to stop the eco warriors, while they have also been seen picking them up and carrying them away from occupied sites. The arrests are for obstructing the highway and breaching the Section 14 order that prohibits their protests being held anywhere but Marble Arch. A total of 10 people have been charged with those offences. Police arrest a protester at Oxford Circus / EPA A further three people who have been charged by British Transport Police appeared in court on Thursday morning. The activists have also sparked fears of Easter weekend travel chaos with a threat to target Heathrow Airport with disruption. However, the police have promised a "robust response" should they try. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said protests were "increasing in intensity". Warning demonstrators against targeting Heathrow Airport, he said: "Protesters can expect a robust police response. We are determined to keep the airport operating." This came after some activists disrupted the DLR while there were suggestions they could disrupt the London Underground. Protesters have spoke of potential escalation of their actions and urged the Government to meet their three demands. These are: To tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency. To act now with means to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net by 2025. To create a citizens assembly on climate change and ecological justice which would lead Government action. On Friday they challenged Environment Secretary Michael Gove to meet with activists at Parliament Square to find a solution to the issue. He previously said the Government had "got the message" and urged protesters to cease their actions. Protesters also gathered worldwide in cities including Edinburgh and New York. The disruption caused has sparked anger among some Londoners and a YouGov poll of 3561 UK adults suggested public opinion has swung against the protests. T hese are the first pictures of two friends found dead on railway tracks. It is thought they were killed while train-surfing. The bodies of Benjamin Haddon-Cave, 27, and Patrick Bolster, 26, were discovered on the London Overground line between Hackney Wick and Stratford on March 21. Music producer Mr Haddon-Cave, whose sister Jessie Cave played Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter films, was found by officers called to reports of a fire at about 1am. A post-mortem examination established he died from electrocution and thermal trauma. Mr Haddon-Caves sister Jessie, below, played Lavender Brown in Harry Potter Mr Haddon-Caves family said in a statement: He was our beloved son and brother and we are completely devastated. He was an incredibly kind and talented music producer, writer and actor. "He was the middle son of five and we are all utterly heartbroken. His long-standing girlfriend is similarly bereft. The men were found on London Overground lines (file image) / Fiona Hanson/PA Mr Haddon-Cave lived in Clerkenwell. His other sister, Bebe, starred as Wilhelmina Coke in ITVs Victoria. An inquest hearing at Poplar coroners court was told he was identified by sibling DNA analysis. Jessie Cave pictured in 2016 / Dave Benett The body of his friend Mr Bolster was discovered on the tracks next to Stratford station, a mile away. The final-year student in countryside management and conservation at Aberystwyth University was identified by British Transport Police officers from his passport. He died of a haemorrhage and trauma, according to a post-mortem examination. He grew up in Glengarriff, County Cork, Ireland, where his family said he was loved by everyone he met. Ruairidh MacKay, 21, a friend, told the Standard: Paddy was a great laugh and there was never a boring moment in his presence. Despite his short life, he lived it to the absolute max and travelled the world extensively. He probably had more stories under his belt than some do in their seventies. I had the honour to travel with him through Morocco and realised that he was able to make a laugh out of everything, even when it went all wrong. I have never before met a guy like him. With his countless sayings, he has left memories which we can all still laugh about. Aberystwyth University said in a statement that Mr Bolster had been a thoughtful, engaging student, adding: He made many valuable contributions to his course. With his good sense of humour and positive outlook on life, Paddy was always happy to help and support others. He is sorely missed on campus. Y oung people from across the Brexit divide are uniting this morning to launch the first youth-led voter registration campaign, to mobilise turnout in the forthcoming European elections in the likelihood the UK will take part. The registration drive has attracted celebrity support from figures including Gary Lineker, James OBrien, Nish Kumar, Konnie Huq, and Gabby Logan. The campaign, called Vote For Your Future, has been launched by young people from across the political spectrum, including the co-founders of Our Future, Our Choice, a youth wing of the Peoples Vote campaign, and Shakira Martin, president of the National Union of Students, as well as prominent Brexit campaigner Ellie Varley and Dover councillor Callum Warriner. The campaigns clarion call is: Every election is determined by the people who show up. A third of young people in this country are not registered to vote and there are 20 days until the European elections, says comedian Nish Kumar, urging young fans to get registered, get voting. The comedian has previously condemned the leaders of Brexit for having fled the scene, saying on Question Time last year: Nigel Farage is a moron, Jacob Rees-Mogg is the ghost of a Charles Dickens villain, and Boris Johnson has abdicated responsibility in favour of squatting down and curling out a weekly column. He concluded: We are trapped in hell. Most of the campaigns celebrity supporters back a second referendum, including vocal Remainer Gary Lineker and Huq, the former Blue Peter presenter and sister of Labour MP Rupa Huq. Vote For Your Future insists, however, that it represents all sides of the Brexit debate, and argues that it is simply to the benefit of democracy to support efforts to get young people onto the Electoral Register. It is estimated that three-quarters of newly eligible voters would back Remain in a second poll. Polish and spit Polish your smartest shoes: the Government is advertising for butler roles in the Foreign Office again. The successful candidate, the notice reads, must work across a wide scale from the Commonwealth Summit 2018 to a discreet breakfast for ten. Though better still than the opportunity to eavesdrop on discreet breakfasts is the chance to steward the FCOs 3million-valued wine cellar and stocks. Happily, this will involve tasting for quality purposes. Hopeful freebooters be warned, however the job will also include accounting for the stock used after service. -- Julian Assange on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court on April 11 / Jack Taylor/Getty Images Julian Assange has a habit of displaying books relevant to his situation. When he was arrested last week, he was clutching Gore Vidals The History of the National Security State. The Londoner recalls that years earlier, journalists visiting him in the Ecuadorian Embassy spotted he had The Whitehall Mandarin by Edward Wilson, which is set in a world of political and sexual ambiguity. -- STRANGE anonymous notes have started appearing in BBC offices. To the thieving pig, begins one, who stole a large pack of Norwegian smoked salmon from this fridge, while another important notice reads: Please ensure items of clothing are not placed in this staircase. Woolf that turned up in the tomatoes The Second Shelf, the Soho bookshop specialising in rare works by female writers, has come into possession of a first edition of Virginia Woolfs first novel The Voyage Out. The copy, which was owned and signed by Woolfs sister, Vanessa Bell, was discovered in a tomato box in France. A N Devers, owner of the Second Shelf, points out that the family summered in the South of France. Virginia said about Cassis [a town in the Riviera]: Nobody shall say of me that I have not known perfect happiness. SW1A Stella Creasy (below) has renewed her criticism of the Government over abortion laws in Northern Ireland following a statement from minister Harriett Baldwin on Monday. Baldwin said the UK leads the world in our long-term support for comprehensive reproductive health and rights. Labour MP Creasy countered that ministers boasting they are protecting abortion rights around the world because its about safety, seems blind to the fact that this is an admission that they put women in Northern Ireland at risk by refusing to ensure the same rights as in the UK. Abortion rights campaigner: Stella Creasy MP / Ollie Millington/Getty Images -- FORMER Labour MP George Galloway has announced he will support Nigel Farages Brexit Party if the UK takes part in the European elections. Association with such a toxic individual could be electoral poison. Can Farage recover? -- Liam Fox is to be granted the Freedom of the City of London, allowing him the right to drive sheep over London Bridge. Lukes egg hatches a Fucina celebration She's cracked it: Martha Ward / Dave Benett/Getty Images Easter came early at Fucina in Marylebone last night, where voguish illustrator Luke Edward Hall held a VIP dinner to unveil an Easter egg he has designed. Guests included poetry power couple Greta Bellamacina and Robert Montgomery, stylist Martha Ward, and Halls boyfriend, the designer Duncan Campbell. Meanwhile, at Clarendon Fine Art gallery in Mayfair, Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell attended the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year. And at Ralph Laurens flagship store on Bond Street, the all-American brand threw a party with Project Zero, a charity that is committed to saving the oceans. Project Zero was founded by the raffish Tyrone Wood, son of Ronnie, who was unveiling a special Ralph Lauren polo shirt made entirely from recycled plastic. His friend Lady Mary Charteris turned out in support. Quote of the Day A public health risk T he Conservative Party is in "denial" about the scale of violent crime, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has claimed. Analysis of official crime statistics by his party suggested there has been a doubling of attempted murders since the Tories came to power in 2010. The Office for National Statistics recorded 523 attempted murders in April 2010 to March 2011 in England and Wales, but in October 2017 to September 2018 there were 1,040 - a 99 per cent increase. Murders increased by 11 per cent over the same period, and manslaughter rose by 35 per cent. Home Secretary Sajid Javid / PA But infanticide dropped from four in 2010/11 to two in 2017/18. Mr Corbyn said: "The rising scale of violent crime is shocking and clear, but the Tories are in denial. "The Prime Minister continues to claim there is no connection between her police cuts and soaring levels of violent crime. "Theresa May should listen to the people whose lives are being turned upside down by crime and to police chiefs around the country. "As well as recruiting 10,000 more police officers to keep our communities safe, Labour has set out plans for a public health approach to crime. B illions of pounds thrown at preparing Britain for Brexit including a no-deal departure are to be investigated by a powerful group of MPs. The Commons Public Accounts Committee is to examine whether money was wasted as resources were ploughed into trying to get the UK ready to crash out of the European Union. Many MPs despair that more than 4 billion has been diverted to Brexit preparations, and believe it could have been far better spent on public services such as schools, hospitals and fighting knife crime. The committee will also examine how other key government projects were delayed or scaled back as Whitehall was forced to focus so heavily on Brexit. The cost of hiring thousands of staff to prepare the UK for leaving is also set to form part of the inquiry. Committee chairwoman Meg Hillier told the Standard: The true picture wont be known until around six months after Brexit probably, and therell be endless argument about what would have been spent anyway. The number of staff recruited just for Brexit, not even for things the UK will run after/if we leave, thats quantifiable. But its harder to pin down costs of other (non-Brexit) opportunities forgone/slowed down. In a sign of the MPs determination to forensically probe the impact and costs of Brexit preparations, she added: We need figures from the NAO [National Audit Office] as all permanent secs [department heads] paint a positive picture of why and what they spent. Chancellor Philip Hammond was accused by leading Brexiteer MPs, desperate to rush through no-deal preparations, of being slow to open the spending taps to limit the threats of hurtling out of the EU. Loading.... One of the Treasurys key tasks is to ensure robust processes are in place so spending is value for money. Departments are responsible for their own spending and properly justified expenditure, with accounting officers ultimately responsible to Parliament. However, the fiasco over the Department for Transport contracting a ferry company which had no ferries to help Britain cope with a no-deal transportation crisis, and then having to pay 33 million to Eurotunnel to settle a lawsuit, has raised questions over whether huge sums were wisely spent in the run-up to the long-planned March 29 departure date from the EU. But the impact of Brexit on the country goes wider than whether funds were misspent. Ms Hillier said: Well be looking at which (non-Brexit) projects were slowed down or not delivered as a result of the inevitable (and necessary) preparation for no-deal exit. So we will be looking at effectiveness of spending on no-deal (bearing in mind that it will be hard to measure how prepared we are for no deal if no-deal never happens); costs of staff, projects delayed and descoped as a result of Brexit work, and cash cost of preparation. T ory leadership contenders who promise to take on the EU and re-open the Withdrawal Agreement if they take over from Theresa May will "wreck any prospect" of getting a future trade deal, according to Britain's former ambassador to Brussels. Sir Ivan Rogers, who stood down from his role in January 2017, said he was a "little bit surprised" the UK was not further down the exit process as he spoke to BBC Two's Newsnight programme. He said the public still do not know what the Prime Minister thinks, and would not say if he would vote for her deal if he was an MP, saying it was "difficult to see a path through" the current negotiations to a short-term solution. The 59-year-old ex-civil servant also said the Government must "bring the country behind one version of Brexit in the next two to three years - otherwise we're going to re-fight this civil war for the next generation". Asked about why he left his role eight months earlier than when his posting was due to finish in October, he said it would be wrong to "change horse in mid-stream", and he needed to go before the talks started once Article 50 was triggered in March 2017, or stay on right until the final deal was agreed with the EU. Sir Ivan said he was "very happy" to stay on and "deliver the best possible Brexit", adding: "But you do have to feel you've got a receptive audience and I didn't really feel by the Christmas of 2016 that was the case." The former ambassador was asked if he knows what the PM thinks, replying "we all don't know". On who should succeed her as Conservative leader, he said the party will likely want a "true believer" to take over, saying: "If various candidates make pledges as to the future direction of the Brexit talks, what they would do in phase two, that will essentially wreck any prospect of phase two succeeding. "So if people were to give commitments, saying 'when I'm in power, if you give me this job, I will reopen the Withdrawal Agreement', and indicate we can't possibly accept the backstop and take a much more robust and bellicose position with Brussels - well, that leads fairly inexorably to a breakdown of the talks." Asked if he would vote for Mrs May's deal if he was an MP, Sir Ivan replied: "That's an almost impossible question and I'm glad I don't have to answer it in practice. "The reason in the end that I would vote for a Withdrawal Agreement is I don't believe that the alternative of going to no deal is going to be better for the country." Having been accused by Brexiteers of being pessimistic about leaving the EU, he said he was "probably not pessimistic enough in 2016 about where we were going to reach by now", and said in the short-term: "I find it quite difficult to see a path through to how this ends easily." E co-activists have threatened to shut down Heathrow Airport on Good Friday as mass demonstrations in central London look set to enter their fifth day. The organisers of Extinction Rebellion have called on protesters to converge on the airport tomorrow morning, as thousands of holidaymakers prepare fly off at the start of the Easter Weekend. Messages in a WhatsApp group for demonstrators even give directions for travelling to the West London airport from the current protest sites at Marble Arch, Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge and Parliament Square. The group is planning to meet at a petrol station close to Heathrow at 8am, according to messages seen by the Standard. The airport said it is "working with the authorities" to deal with the threat of protests that could see flights disrupted. A spokeswoman said: We are working with the authorities to address any threat of protests which could disrupt the airport. "While we respect the right to peaceful protest and agree with the need to act on climate change, we dont agree that passengers should have their well-earned Easter Break holiday plans with family and friends disrupted. "Passengers should contact their airlines for up to date information on their journeys. Extinction Rebellion protests across London The development will renew pressure on the Metropolitan Police and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to get a grip on the protests, which have paralysed West End traffic since Monday. The Met Police released a statement on Thursday evening saying 1,000 officers were now dealing with the "unacceptable" disruption caused by protesters. The force said the arrest count had increased to 480. Plans to target Heathrow were sent to Whatsapp groups this afternoon on a number linked to activist Robin Boardman, who walked out of an interview with Skys Adam Boulton yesterday. Police arrest a protester at Oxford Circus / EPA The message read: "We have already achieved so much. We have already done so much. We have totally exceeded our own expectations and are having an unbelievably positive effect on the political landscape. You are all totally wonderful. "Tomorrow we raise the bar. We are going to shut down Heathrow. "There is a deep remorse for those whose holiday and family plans will be disrupted tomorrow. It is not our intention to cause further separation. However, the aviation industry needs to be targeted and we are all aware of the deep, structural change that needs to come. Extinction Rebellion at Canary Wharf Station - In pictures 1 /20 Extinction Rebellion at Canary Wharf Station - In pictures Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station in east London as part of the ongoing climate change protests in the capita PA Police remove a woman from the roof of a DLR train at Canary wharf AFP/Getty Images Police remove climate change protestors who had glued themselves to the roof of a DLR train at Canary wharf station AFP/Getty Images The protesters were removed from the train roof at Canary Wharf Reuters Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station BBC This protester also went limp to try and make his removal more difficult AFP/Getty Images Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station PA A climate protester is removed from the top of the DLR train AFP/Getty Images Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station in east London as part of the ongoing climate change protests in the capital PA Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station PA Climate change protestors stand atop a DLR train at Canary wharf station on the third day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Climate change activists demonstrate during the Extinction Rebellion protest, at Canary Wharf DLR station AFP/Getty Images Climate change activists demonstrate during the Extinction Rebellion protest, at Canary Wharf DLR station AFP/Getty Images Climate change activists demonstrate during the Extinction Rebellion protest, at Canary Wharf DLR station Reuters Police detain a climate change activist demonstrating during the Extinction Rebellion protest Reuters In a statement confirming the Heathrow plans, the Extinction Rebellion group said: It may sound frightening but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies. Were running out of time but theres still hope. It came as organisers behind the protest, which has brought parts of central London to its knees, said they are prepared to escalate the group's tactics if their demands "are not met". Police officers talk to climate change activists at Waterloo Bridge / REUTERS Dr Gail Bradbrook, a co-founder of the group, said demonstrations would continue despite the first people being charged over disruption that has seen activists glue themselves to public transport and block bridges and major roads. "It's certainly an option that tactics will be escalated if our demands are not met," she said. Asked about whether key sites Waterloo Bridge, Marble Arch, Oxford Circus and Parliament Square will remain held for two weeks as planned, she said: "It's in the hands of the gods really isn't it? It's up to whether people respond to the call to come onto the streets. "More people are joining us all the time. We're having a fantastic time here. It's how life is meant to be lived with people coming together and actually exerting their political power." Extinction Rebellion protesters wait outside Jeremy Corbyn's house The fourth day of protests began with a challenge to Environment Secretary Michael Gove to meet activists at Parliament Square to find a solution to the issue, while police began charging people. Cathy Eastburn, 51, Mark Ovland, 35, and Luke Watson, 29, were remanded in custody over their alleged involvement in obstructing trains at Canary Wharf station on Wednesday morning. All three indicated a not guilty plea when they appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court. Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he wanted police to use the "full force of the law" against protesters who act illegally. Following a briefing from Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, Mr Javid said everyone had the right to peaceful protest but "I totally condemn any protesters who are stepping outside the boundaries of the law". "They have no right to cause misery for the millions of people who are trying to lead their daily lives. Unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated, he said. Meanwhile Sadiq Khan suggested cuts to police funding were restricting the Met's ability to cope with the demonstrations. The Met's ability to police protests without impacting on core policing priorities - such as tackling knife crime - has been made significantly harder by the huge cuts to Government police funding," he wrote in a letter to Mr Javid. He said he would be working with Scotland Yard to consider whether a claim for a special grant from the Home Office would be justified "to compensate for the costs of policing the current protests". Also on Thursday, Met Police Commander Jane Connors criticised police officers who were caught on camera dancing with protesters. She said: "I'm disappointed by the video and the unacceptable behaviour of the officers in it. S targazers will be treated to a celestial phenomenon this weekend with the Lyrid meteor shower set to light up the night sky. A spectacular show of shooting stars will streak across the sky in a display that will reach its peak in the UK early on Tuesday morning. Between April 16 and 26 each year, hundreds of meteors with long, glowing tails race across the UK sky in a burst of spectacular activity. Astronomers say the rate of shooting stars is about 18 meteors per hour but rare, short "outbursts" see rates of up to 100 per hour. The Lyrids were documented as far back as 687 BC, making them the first ever of the modern meteor showers to be recorded. Lyrid meteors will dazzle at a rate of about 18 meteors per hour ( AFP/Getty Images ) / AFP/Getty Images When, where and how can I see it? Experts claim the meteor shower reaches its peak between April 22 and 23, with the early hours of the morning of the peak day being the best time to see the shower. According to the Greenwich Observatory, this means that the best time to see the Lyrids will be the morning of April 23 - so remember to set your alarm early. The best places to watch the display are open areas, away from street lights. The observatory recommends for people to lie on the ground to get the best view. So Londoners' best chance of seeing the shower will be from one of the capital's large open spaces such as Richmond Park or Hampstead Heath. What is the Lyrid meteor shower? A meteor streaks across the night sky / AFP/Getty Images The Lyrids were named after the constellation Lyra. The shower is sparked when Earth passes through debris from the comet Thatcher. Shards of debris vaporise as they meet the Earths upper atmosphere and create colourful flashes in the night sky. Bill Cooke, NASA meteor expert, told Space.com that patience is key to catching a glimpse of the shower. He said: People say there is some periodicity there but the data doesn't support that. The Greenwich Observatory says it is the oldest record meteor shower still visible today, and was first recorded in 687BC. The flash occurs because the meteors are moving so quickly through the Earth's atmosphere that the air in front of them can't move out of the way fast enough. English Estonian Baltika Group ended the first quarter with a net loss of 1,442 thousand euros. The loss for the same period last year was 982 thousand euros. The result for the first quarter of 2019 includes a negative impact of 117 thousand euros on the new accounting standard IFRS 16. As of 1 January 2019, IFRS 16, Leases, amended the recognition of lease contracts so that the rent payments for the remaining term of the lease period are recognized in the statement of financial position at their present value as both assets and liabilities, and period rent expenses are not recognized in income statement, instead of that the depreciation and interest expense are recognized in the income statement. The impact of the mandatory new accounting standard IFRS 16 on the income statement is shown in the table below. 1Q 2019 Decrease in rent expenses 1,605 Increase in depreciation -1,502 Increase in operating profit 103 Calculated interest expense on lease liabilities -220 Decrease in the net profit -117 In addition, IFRS 16 has a significant impact on the company's various balance sheet assets and liabilities. As at 31.03.19, fixed assets (i.e all lease payments at their present value, up to the end of the contract term) are increasing by 16,577 thousand euros and at the same time short-term lease liabilities increasing by 6,815 thousand euros and long-term lease liabilities by 9,879 thousand euros. The Group's sales revenue decreased by 10% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year and amounted to 9,270 thousand euros. The largest sales channel, retail, sales decreased by 2% and totalled 7,975 thousand euros. Revenue decreased by 5% in both the Estonian and Latvian markets, while sales revenue in Lithuania increased by 6%. For several consecutive quarters, there has been a downward trend in the sales of formal clothing and the men's segment, while demand for dresses and outerwear has increased. The sales revenue of business customers (wholesale, franchise and consignment customers) in the first quarter was 708 thousand euros, decreasing by 58% compared with last year. The decrease in sales revenue of nearly 1 million euros is related to the termination of contracts of franchise partners of Belarus and Ukraine and the decrease in Russian franchise volumes. Another important reason for the decrease in sales revenue was the change in cooperation agreement with Peek & Cloppenburg, a chain of German and Central European department stores, in autumn 2018, and closure of Spanish franchise stores. The sales revenue of the first quarter of the Baltika Group's online store Andmorefashion.com increased by 16% compared to the same period last year and amounted to 544 thousand euros. Monton accounted for 37% of sales in the first quarter, followed by Mosaic with 26%. The most distant countries to which Baltika's brand orders were shipped in the first quarter were Japan, Australia, USA and Canada. The quarter's gross profit was 4,434 thousand euros, lower by 449 thousand euros compared to the same period last year (1Q 2018: 4,883 thousand euros). The decrease in gross profit is primarily due to the decreased sales revenue of business customers. The gross profit margin was 47.8%, the same level as in the first quarter of the previous year (1Q 2018: 47.2%). In the first quarter, Group's marketing expenses were 5 029 thousand euros, decreasing by 98 thousand euros compared to the same period last year. The decrease in distribution costs is primarily related to the recognition of leases in the Group's balance sheet due to the change in accounting policies of IFRS 16 "Leases". Equity As of the end of the first quarter, the equity of the company is negative and the shareholders' meeting on 12 April 2019 confirmed the following resolutions in order to restore equity and comply with the requirements of the Commercial Law: to increase the nominal value of AS Baltika share to 1 euro and to change the existing shares so that for every 10 shares one new share is given, thereafter decrease the nominal value of the share to 0.10 euros and decrease share capital from 4,079 thousand euros to 408 thousand euros to cover the losses. In addition, a decision was taken to increase the share capital by 5 million euros via public offering in August 2019. KJK Fund, Sicav-SIF, the largest shareholder, holding 38.9% of shares of AS Baltika, has confirmed its willingness to subscribe for new shares pursuant to its proportion of holding and according to terms specified in the Prospectus, up to 5,000 thousand euros depending on usage of other participants subscription rights. This means that KJK Fund, Sicav-SIF will also subscribe to shares which it is given additional subscription rights according to the allocation terms specified in the Prospectus and which are not subscribed by other shareholders. The impact of the resolutions confirmed at the General Meeting of Shareholders on the Group's financial position is shown in the pro forma equity table below. 31 March 2019 pro forma entry1 pro forma entry2 pro forma EQUITY Share capital at par value 4,079 -3,672 5,000 5,408 Share premium 0 0 0 0 Reserves 1,107 -1,107 0 0 Retained earnings -5,119 4,779 0 -340 Net profit (loss) for the period -1,442 0 0 -1,442 TOTAL EQUITY -1,375 0 5,000 3,625 1 pro forma entry agenda number 7 of the annual general meeting of shareholders impact: To decrease the share capital in the remaining amount of losses 4,012,972 euros after all reserves have been used to cover these losses by simplified reduction as follows: to decrease the share capital with three million six hundred seventy one thousand five hundred thirty six (3,671,536) euros. 2pro forma entry agenda number 8 of the annual general meeting of shareholders impact: To increase the share capital of AS Baltika by issuing additionally fifty million (50,000,000) ordinary shares with the nominal value of 0.10 euros with the issuance price of 0.10 euros. The share capital of AS Baltika will be increased by five million (5,000,000) euros and the new amount of the share capital is 5,407,949 (five million four hundred seven thousand nine hundred and forty nine) euros. Highlights of the period until the date of release of this quarterly report In March 2019, the Supervisory Board of AS Baltika approved the business plan for 2019 and 2020. The main parts of the operational plan are optimizing the brand portfolio and sales channels, digitalisation and changing the purchasing base. With the transition to an optimized brand portfolio, significant simplification of business processes and dissolving the production in Estonian production units, Baltika Group's fixed costs will be reduced by nearly two million euros over the next 12 months. In March 2019, the Supervisory Board of AS Baltika approved Mae Hansen, the third member of the management board of AS Baltika. She is responsible for implementing the company's 2019 and 2020 business plan. In 14 March 2019 the Supervisory Board decided to present to the general meeting of shareholders the proposal to increase the nominal value of the share to 1 euro and to exchange the existing shares so that for each 10 shares one new share is given, thereafter decrease the nominal value of the share to 0.10 euros and decrease share capital from 4,079 thousand euros to 408 thousand euros to cover the losses in order to implement the 20192020 operational plan and meet the net asset requirement set out in the Commercial Code. In 14 March 2019 Supervisory Board decided to propose to the general meeting of shareholders to increase in August 2019 the share capital by 5 million euros via public offering. In 14 March 2019 Supervisory Board gave the consent to the management board to take a loan of 3 million euros from KJK Fund SICAV-SIF in the next 2 months. The loan was taken into two parts - 1,500 thousand euros was taken in March 2019 and 1,500 thousand euros in April 2019. The loan bears a 6% interest and is repaid from the funds generated from the share emission in August 2019. In 12 April 2019, the Annual General Meeting of AS Baltika shareholders approved the annual report for 2018 and the confirmation of losses. The General Meeting resolved to recall Valdo Kalm, member of the Supervisory Board of AS Baltika. In order to bring the equity into accordance with the requirements of the Commercial Code, the general meeting adopted a decision to increase the nominal value of AS Baltika share to 1 euros and to exchange the existing shares so that 1 new share can be received for every 10 shares, then reduce the nominal value of the share to 0.1 euros and reduce the share capital from 4,079 thousand to 408 thousand euros to cover losses. In addition, a decision was made to increase the share capital by 5 million euros via public offering in August 2019. Consolidated statement of financial position 31 March 2019 31 Dec 2018 ASSETS Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 465 428 Trade and other receivables 1,092 866 Inventories 10,48 10,707 Total current assets 12,037 12,001 Non-current assets Deferred income tax asset 286 286 Other non-current assets 213 287 Property, plant and equipment 18,288 1,878 Intangible assets 529 543 Total non-current assets 19,316 2,994 TOTAL ASSETS 31,353 14,995 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current liabilities Borrowings 15,957 7,829 Trade and other payables 5,907 5,934 Total current liabilities 21,864 13,763 Non-current liabilities Borrowings 10,864 1,165 Total non-current liabilities 10,864 1,165 TOTAL LIABILITIES 32,728 14,928 EQUITY Share capital at par value 4,079 4,079 Share premium 0 0 Reserves 1,107 1,107 Retained earnings -5,119 0 Net profit (loss) for the period -1,442 -5,119 TOTAL EQUITY -1,375 67 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY 31,353 14,995 Consolidated statement of profit and loss and comprehensive income 1Q 2019 1Q 2018 Revenue 9,27 10,343 Cost of goods sold -4,836 -5,46 Gross profit 4,434 4,883 Distribution costs -5,029 -5,127 Administrative and general expenses -598 -595 Other operating income (-expense) 117 -17 Operating profit (loss) -1,076 -856 Finance costs -366 -126 Profit (loss) before income tax -1,442 -982 Income tax expense 0 0 Net profit (loss) for the period -1,442 -982 Total comprehensive income (loss) for the period -1,442 -982 Basic earnings per share from net loss for the period, EUR -0.04 -0.02 Diluted earnings per share from net loss for the period, EUR -0.04 -0.02 Maigi Parnik-Pernik Member of the Management Board maigi.parnik@baltikagroup.com Attachment D onald Trump said "I'm f*****" when Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian collusion and feared it would end his presidency, according to the Special Counsel's report. It is also alleged the president tried to control the investigation and even have Mr Mueller ousted from his position. According to the public copy of the document, Mr Trump expressed his concerns when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions informed him of Mr Mueller's appointment in May 2017. The document stated he slumped back in his chair and said: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm f*****." TODO: define component type apester He then allegedly asked Mr Sessions: "How could you let this happen, Jeff?" The former attorney general is then said to have told the president he let him down. Mr Sessions, who resigned in November, recalled Mr Trump said to him "you were supposed to protect me", or words to that effect, the report said. Special counsel Robert Mueller / AP The document said Mr Trump continued: ""Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. "It takes years and years and I won' t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me." In further accusations, the report said the US president tried to seize control of the Russia probe. Mueller report 'confirms Russian meddling but Donald Trump had no part in it', says US Attorney General It said he also attempted to force Mr Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. The report said that in June 2017, Mr Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to call the acting attorney general to say Mr Mueller must be ousted. He apparently said this need to be done because he had conflicts of interest but Mr McGhan refused. President Donald Trump has hit out at the investigation (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Andrew Harnik / AP Despite that, Mr Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Mr Trump had committed criminal obstruction of justice. In the report, Mr Mueller found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. He wrote: "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges." However, he did not exonerate Trump on the question of whether he committed obstruction of justice. After the document's release, Mr Trump said he was "having a good day" and said that no president should ever have to go through what he did again. He said: "It was called no collusion, no obstruction. "There never was, by the way, and there never will be." T he full Mueller report confirms Russia's government did try to meddle in the 2016 US election but Donald Trump played no part, according to the US Attorney General. Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities", William Barr told a news conference. He also said it did not find any "other Americans" were involved. In regards to obstruction of justice during the investigation, which Mr Mueller did not come to a conclusion on, he said: "The deputy attorney general and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offence." The Mueller report says US President Donald Trump did not collude with Russia, according to the US Attorney General / EPA These comments were made ahead of the publication of the full report, a redacted version of which has now been released. Mr Barr said the report recounts 10 episodes involving Mr Trump that were investigated as potential acts of criminal obstruction of justice. TODO: define component type apester President Trump tweeted a Game of Thrones style image which said: "No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left democrats - game over." Earlier, he used a tweet to claim the investigation into Russian election meddling was "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!". President Trump was a "having a good day" following the release of the Mueller report, adding, "It's called no collusion, no obstruction." "There never was, by the way, and there never will be," he told a gathering of wounded troops at the White House. "We do have to get to the bottom of these things, I will say, and this should never happen ... to another president again." Mr Barr also said President Donald Trump did not exert executive privilege over any information included in special counsel Mr Mueller's report. The White House counsel reviewed a redacted version of the report before Mr Trump decided not to invoke executive privilege. US Attorney General William Barr at Thursday's press conference / AP Mr Barr will also allow congress to view the report with nothing redacted other than grand jury information. Three other categories of information were also redacted in the publicly released report, including information pertaining to ongoing prosecutions and sensitive intelligence sources and methods. Special counsel Robert Mueller / AP In addition, he said that he would allow Mr Mueller himself to testify on the report to Congress. G ay dating app Grindr has gone offline, prompting complaints from hundreds of users. The popular hook-up app has suffered a global outage, with users in the US, Europe and Australia all unable to connect. The problems are thought to have started around 11pm on Wednesday. Users took to Twitter to complain about the outage, with one quipping that due to this there is an influx of gays attending social events away from their telecommunication devices. One man said: Grindr is down... time to get a stable long-term relationship. Downloading Tinder. Another said: If Grindrs server is down then the government should be shut down as well. A third added: Breaking: Gay men around the world are talking to each other in person after Grindr app goes offline. I ndia's largest airline Jet Airways has temporarily suspended all flights after failing to raise enough money to run its services. The airline said its last flight would operate on Wednesday as it was unable to pay for fuel and other critical services to keep operations going. The company said it has been informed by its lenders, led by state-run State Bank of India, that they are unable to consider a request for funding to keep flying. In a statement on Wednesday the airline said it had been forced to ground all its flights "since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming". Indian passengers stand at the Jet Airways ticketing counter for cancelling their tickets / AFP/Getty Images Jet Airways' last flight was scheduled to fly to New Delhi from the northern Indian city of Amritsar on Wednesday night. On Tuesday, Jet Airways' former chairman, Naresh Goyal, reportedly withdrew plans to bid for a controlling stake in the company. Mr Goyal founded Jet Airways in 1992 and saw it soar to become India's largest airline. Creditors of the beleaguered airline have said they are "reasonably hopeful" a bidding process with potential investors for a controlling stakein the airline will save the company. A consortium of 26 lenders led by the State Bank of India released a statement on Thursday following the cash-starved carrier's decision to suspend flight operations. Jet Airways pilots have complained that they have not been paid in four months. They say 20,000 jobs are at stake. Shares in the Mumbai-based airline plunged 30.2 per cent in intraday trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange. T he firefighters and helpers that saved Notre Dame from destruction will receive a medal of honour, President Emmanuel Macron has announced. At a special gathering in the presidential palace, Mr Macron told emergency services and cathedral staff they would receive the decoration for courage and devotion in recognition of their bravery. The French president told his audience of more than 550 people, including 250 firefighters, police officers and members of the Red Cross, they had been exemplary in the eyes of the whole world. Youve been the perfect example of what we should all be, he announced on Thursday afternoon, three days after the blaze that ravaged the 850-year-old cathedral. Thanks to you, who took all possible risks, the worst has been avoided. Paris Fire Brigade tackle Notre Dame Cathedral fire - in pictures 1 /41 Paris Fire Brigade tackle Notre Dame Cathedral fire - in pictures Firefighters battle the blaze at Notre-Dame Cathedral BSPP via Getty Images Firefighters battle the blaze at Notre-Dame Cathedral BSPP via Getty Images Firefighters battle the blaze at Notre-Dame Cathedral BSPP via Getty Images firefighters working outside Notre Dame CathedraL AP A Firefighter rushing at the burning Notre Dame Cathedral AP Paris fire brigade chief Jean-Claude Gallet stands in front of Notre-Dame-de Paris in the aftermath of a fire that devastated the Cathedral Reuters Firefighters battle the blaze at Notre-Dame Cathedral BSPP via Getty Images Firefighters battle the blaze at Notre-Dame Cathedral BSPP via Getty Images Firefighters battle the blaze at Notre-Dame Cathedral BSPP via Getty Images Firefighters battle the blaze at Notre-Dame Cathedral BSPP via Getty Images French firefighters at the scene PA Firefighters work at Notre-Dame Cathedral after a fire devastated large parts of the gothic gem in Paris, France Reuters Firefighters look a fire at the landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral in central Paris as they cross the Archeveche Bridge on the Seine river AFP/Getty Images Firefighters gather near a fire truck as they work to contain a fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Pari AFP/Getty Images French Firefighters check the hoses as they douse a fire that engulfed the roof of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral burns AFP/Getty Images French Firefighters try to extinguish a fire as flames are burning the roof of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris EPA Firefighters douse flames billowing from the roof at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris AFP/Getty Images The Paris Fire Brigade are seen at an entrance that looks into the Notre Dame Cathedral Reuters General view of the interior of the Notre-Dame Cathedral as flames are burning the roof cathedral in Paris, France EPA Firefighters douse flames billowing from the roof at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris AFP/Getty Images A Firefighter uses a hose to douse flames and smoke billowing from the roof at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris AFP/Getty Images A Firefighter uses a hose as Notre Dame cathedral burns AP Flames and smoke are seen billowing from the roof at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris AFP/Getty Images Firefighters stand in an aerial lift after a massive fire destroyed the roof of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France EPA Firefighters work at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France Reuters Firefighters leave Notre-Dame Cathedral after a fire devastated large parts of the gothic gem in Paris, France Reuters Firefighters spray water as they work to extinguish a fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral AFP/Getty Images Firefighters work at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France Reuters Firefighters work at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France Reuters Firefighters secure Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris AFP/Getty Images French Firefighters enter the Notre-Dame Cathedral as flames are burning the roof cathedral. EPA The 12th Century landmark survived total devastation due to the bravery of more than 400 firefighters, who battled through the night to douse the flames. Restoration plans are already underway, supported by donations of an estimated 1bn and rising. Further tributes will be paid to all those who have contributed to saving the Notre Dame, at a rally outside the capitals Hotel de Ville on Thursday evening. Government officials, civil servants and members of the public will attend a ceremony at the seat of the Paris City Council, which will include speeches by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Notre Dame rector Bishop Patrick Chauvet, and Paris fire chief Jean-Claude Gallet. N orth Korea has claimed to have tested-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon. Leader Kim Jong Un was reported to have said "the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army." This would be the first public weapons test since talks in Hanoi between Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump ended without agreement. A report, carried by the Korean Central News Agency, said the "tactical guided weapon" successfully tested in a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" and demonstrated the ability to deliver a "powerful warhead." North Korea made a similar claim last year in what observers saw as an attempt to apply pressure on the US. President Donald Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi. / AP Last week, Mr Kim said Mr Trump needed to have the "right attitude" for talks to continue after the summit between the two broke up in February. A South Korean analyst said that details in the North's media report indicate it could have been a new type of cruise missile. Some in Seoul worry that the North will turn back to actions seen as provocative by outsiders as a way to force Washington to drop its hardline negotiating stance and grant the North's demand for a removal of crushing international sanctions. A TV news program reports North Korea's test-fire of a "new-type tactical guided weapon." / AP A string of increasingly powerful weapons tests in 2017 and Mr Trump's response of "fire and fury" had many fearing war before the North shifted to diplomacy. Mr Trump said last month that he "would be very disappointed if I saw testing." As the diplomacy stalls, there have been fresh reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research centre and long-range rocket site where Pyongyang is believed to build missiles targeting the US mainland. A n electrical short circuit was the most likely cause of the Notre Dame fire, a police official revealed this evening. The French judicial police official, who was speaking anonymously, told the Associated Press that investigators think the short circuit started Monday's devastating blaze. The huge cathedral, including the spire that was consumed by flames and collapsed, had been in the initial stages of a lengthy restoration. The official added investigators still don't have the green light to work in the cathedral and search the rubble for safety reasons. Aerial images of Notre Dame Cathedral fire aftermath 1 /13 Aerial images of Notre Dame Cathedral fire aftermath He said the world-famous monument is still being consolidated with wooden planks to support some fragile parts of the walls. The probe was taking place as France paid a day-long tribute to the Paris firefighters who saved the cathedral from collapse and rescued its treasures. President Emmanuel Macron held a ceremony at the Elysee Palace to thank the firefighters after they battled the fast-moving fire for nine hours. Emmanuel Macron pays tribute to Notre Dame Cathedral Firefighters 1 /10 Emmanuel Macron pays tribute to Notre Dame Cathedral Firefighters President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech to the Paris fire brigade and security forces at the Elysee Palace in Paris. EPA Emergency service personnel walk at the Elysee Palace in Paris after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. AP Chaplain of the Paris Fire Department, Jean-Marc Fournier. AP French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at the Elysee Palace. EPA From left: French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, First Lady Brigitte Macron, Archibishop of Paris Jean-Marc Chauvet and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo attend President Macron's speech. EPA French General Jean-Claude Gallet and Paris Prefect Didier Lallement attend President Emmanuel Macron's speech. Reuters The Paris fire brigade arrives at Elysee Palace. Reuters The Paris fire brigade arrives at Elysee Palace. Reuters He said: "We've seen before our eyes the right things perfectly organised in a few moments, with responsibility, courage, solidarity and a meticulous organisation. "The worst has been avoided." Mr Macron added the firefighters will receive a medal for their courage and devotion. Inside Notre Dame: Images reveal damage after devastating fire The roof was destroyed, but Notre Dame's famous bell towers, rose windows, organ, and precious artworks were saved. Fire officials warned the building remains very fragile and extremely dangerous for construction workers, restoration experts and neighbours. Police, citing "important risks" of collapse and falling objects, officially closed a large swathe of the island in the Seine River on which Notre Dame sits. The area has been unofficially blocked off since the fire. Mr Macron wants to rebuild the cathedral within five years, in time for the 2024 Olympics that Paris is hosting. But experts have said the vast scale of the work could easily take 15 years. P olice in Bangladesh have launched an internal investigation in the case of a student who was burned alive after making a complaint of sexual harassment. The countrys police headquarters announced they had launched a full investigation into alleged failings by staff to prevent the fatal attack. Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, was doused with kerosene and set on fire at her school in the town of Feni, less than two weeks after she filed a complaint against her headmaster for sexual harassment. Ms Rafi issued a statement at her local police station soon after the incident, saying the headmaster of her madrasa an Islamic school had called her into his office and repeatedly touched her inappropriately. As the distressed young woman recounted her ordeal, a policeman filmed her on his phone. In the video, which was later leaked to social media, he can be heard calling the complaint no big deal and telling Ms Rafi to stop hiding her face with her hands. Eleven days after the alleged assault, Ms Rafi went to school to sit her final exams. She was lured to the buildings rooftop where a group of around five people surrounded her and demanded she withdraw her case against the headmaster. When she refused, they set her on fire. The police officer who had belittled the 19-year-olds complaint has been named as Officer in Charge (OC) Moazzem Hossain. He has since been dismissed from his post at Sonagazi Police Station and sued for spreading the recording on social media. Bangladesh police issued a statement on Wednesday saying they had upped their efforts to investigate allegations of staff negligence by forming a special committee of five senior officials. The committee will check whether there had been negligence on the part of police before and after the attack and what can be done to prevent such incidents, said Deputy Inspector General SM Ruhul Amin, who is heading up the investigation. He confirmed that investigators would speak to Ms Rafis family, teachers and students of her madrasa on Thursday, and would submit "a fully unbiased report". Ms Rafi died a Dhaka Medical College Hospital four days after the attack on the school roof, having suffered burns on 80% of her body. Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) chief Banaj Kumar Majumder said the killers had wanted "to make it look like a suicide". However, Miss Rafi was rescued after they fled the scene and was able to give a statement before she died. In the ambulance on her way to the hospital, fearing she might not survive, she recorded a statement on her brother's mobile phone saying: The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime till my last breath.She also identified some of her attackers as students at the school. Her death on, April 10, dominated Bangladeshi media, prompting widespread outcry from the public. Justice for Nusrat: protesters demand action / Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Top government officials, including the countrys Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, pledged justice for the teenager. A polar bear prowling for food hundreds of miles from its usual habitat has stunned residents of a Russian village. Russian media reported Wednesday that the exhausted-looking animal apparently travelled 700 kilometres (434 miles) from Chukotka to the village of Tilichiki on Kamchatka. Environmentalists said the bear could have lost its sense of direction while drifting on an ice floe. "Due to climate change, the Arctic is getting warmer, hunting environment gets smaller and less convenient," said Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace. "The ice is receding, and polar bears look for new ways to survive. And the easiest way is coming to people." Locals were making the bear feel welcome by giving it fish, media reported. Videos posted online showed the animal moving past residents without showing no aggression. Authorities in Kamchatka are preparing a rescue effort later this week. They plan to use a sedative to put the bear to sleep and then airlift it to Chukotka in a helicopter. J ack Whitehall has said he feels more comfortable on stage than in most real life situations. The 30-year-old comedian described himself as awkward socially, and said despite appreciating meetings with fans, there is nothing more nerve-wracking than being approached for a joke at a urinal. Asked if he suffers from nerves, he told A List: In life all the time. On stage not so much. Its the rest of my life thats a problem. Id be more nervous at a urinal stall than I would be on stage - especially if someone asks me to do jokes there. Genuinely they do. Dont come and tell me a joke when Im having a pee. He continued: Sometimes someone will come up and go do you know who you look like? I go who? and they go you look like a fat Jack Whitehall. True story. Why would you say that even if it wasnt me? Thats insulting. Stand up: Comedian Jack Whitehall at The Wigmore / Dave Benett Whitehall has previously faced criticism for offensive gags including one about the Queen in 2012, which he later deemed crass and admitted to regretting. Sylvester Stallone also took offence to Whitehall joking about consoling him on missing out on an Oscar for Creed 2, and most recently Piers Morgan accused him of fat shaming. Whitehall said he is conscious of how easy it can be to offend in a PC culture, especially on social media, but said he struggles with his own filter. Jack Whitehall at The Wigmore 1 /10 Jack Whitehall at The Wigmore Jack Whitehall performs at the launch of the new GREY GOOSE brand platform 'Live Victoriously' Dave Benett Jack Whitehall plays barman as he shakes up some cocktails Dave Benett Jack Whitehall on stage at The Wigmore Dave Benett Clara Amfo DJs at the launch Dave Benett Jack Whitehall mixes cocktails Dave Benett Jack Whitehall surprises guests Dave Benett Jack Whitehall serves up cocktails to fans Dave Benett Jack Whitehall and Clara Amfo pose for the cameras Dave Benett I think I do think about what Im going to say and I dont want to offend, he said. But my filter isnt great so I think Ive got everything offensive out, but actually I havent. Whitehall was speaking at a surprise stand-up gig at London pub The Wigmore to launch the new Grey Goose brand platform Live Victoriously, which also saw him jump behind the bar to serve cocktails. PEMBROKE, Bermuda, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sompo International Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, announced today that, subject to regulatory approval, Mr. Thomas Brazil will become Chief Executive Officer of SI Insurance (Europe), SA, the companys platform for European Economic Area (EEA) insurance business. Mr. Brazil has held significant leadership roles in the European insurance and reinsurance field as both an underwriter and broker. He will relocate from Zurich, Switzerland to SI Insurance (Europe)s headquarters in Luxembourg. Mr. Brazil assumes the role previously held by Mr. Takashi Kurumisawa, who will now join the Sompo International Office of the CEO as Executive Vice President Transactions Strategy and the Sompo International Retail Executive Team, both effective immediately. In his new role, Mr. Kurumisawa will provide coordination focused on the integration into Sompo International of the remaining Sompo overseas businesses outside of Japan, a key strategic initiative for Sompo Holdings, Inc. (Sompo). Prior to joining Sompo International in 2017, he was General Manager of the Global Strategy Office of Sompo for eight years and led the transformation of Sompos overseas business, focused on M&A and integration of acquired companies. Mr. Kurumisawa will be located in New York City, subject to immigration approval. Mr. Christopher Gallagher, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Sompo International Commercial P&C commented, I am very pleased that Thomas has assumed the role of CEO of SI Insurance (Europe). He brings to this role extensive underwriting expertise, a commercial perspective and broad pan-European experience. Europe is a strategic market for our commercial P&C business and SI Insurance (Europe) provides Sompo with a core foundation for additional growth in this region. Thomas will work closely with colleagues in London and across the Continent as we continue to enhance our product offerings to our EEA clients. Mr. Frudd, Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer of Sompo International Holdings and Senior Executive Officer and Chairman of Overseas M&A for Sompo Holdings, Inc. commented, I would like to thank Takashi for his contributions over the past year towards the successful launching of SI Insurance (Europe) and in assisting with the integration of Sompos commercial operations across Europe which now provides Sompo International with broad EEA insurance capabilities.. I now look forward to working with him as we continue to build Sompo International into a truly integrated global platform to deliver both commercial and retail products throughout the world. Mr. Brazil is currently Senior Vice President, and Head of Europe Property Catastrophe Reinsurance at Sompo International. He joined the company in 2012 as a Senior Property Catastrophe Reinsurance Underwriter for the companys European portfolio as well as Africa and the Middle East and was promoted to his current role in 2016. Prior to that, he was a Property Treaty Underwriter in the European market at Aspen Re since 2007 and before that he spent five years at Aon Benfield as a Reinsurance Broker, also focused on Europe. Mr. Brazil holds a BA Honours degree in French, Politics and Economics from Keele University in the UK. About Sompo International Sompo International Holdings Ltd. is a global specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, headquartered in Bermuda. Through its operating subsidiaries, Sompo International writes agriculture, professional lines, property, marine, energy, casualty and other specialty lines of insurance and catastrophe, property, casualty, professional lines, weather risk and specialty lines of reinsurance. Sompo International companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Sompo Holdings, Inc., whose core business encompasses one of the largest property and casualty insurance groups in the Japanese domestic market. We maintain excellent financial strength as evidenced by the ratings of A+ (Superior) from A.M. Best (XV size category) and A+ (Strong) from Standard and Poors on our principal operating subsidiaries. Sompo Internationals headquarters are located at Waterloo House, 100 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke HM 08, Bermuda and its mailing address is Sompo International, Suite No. 784, No. 48 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM 11, Bermuda. For more information about Sompo International, please visit www.sompo-intl.com . Contacts Sompo International Ellen Erhardt Phone: +1 914 468 8072 Email: eerhardt@sompo-intl.com J ohn Travolta left fans yearning for their younger years after he struck his iconic Saturday Night Fever pose four decades after the hit film was released. The Hollywood actor couldnt resist channelling Tony Manero as he celebrated the 1977 album, which has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. He shared a snap of himself holding up a commemorative plaque as he threw his arm up in true disco style to mark the occasion. Travolta, who was once famed for his iconic quiff, showed off his newly shaved head. He captioned the post: Whether youre a brother or whether youre a mother youre stayin alive!! Thank you everyone!! I just received my 16 million certified Platinum U.S. RIAA Award for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, 45 million worldwide! Emotional fans flooded the stars comments, with one writing: Best movie and soundtrack ever, thank you. A soundtrack I still listen to on the daily in the car. Unbeatable, another added. A third said: Soundtrack never gets old. The snap featured Travoltas new bald head which he debuted earlier this year. Loading.... He was widely praised by supporters for embracing his natural look as he welcomed in the New Year with his daughter Ella. Emotional fans flooded the stars comments, with one writing: Best movie and soundtrack ever, thank you. A soundtrack I still listen to on the daily in the car. Unbeatable, another added. Travoltas celebration comes four decades after the release of Saturday Night Fever. The film follows the story of an average-Joe who works at a paint store in the day but dances the nights away. Z ara McDermott has revealed she is no longer in contact with ex-boyfriend Adam Collard following their split earlier this year. The Love Island star, who enjoyed a brief eight-month romance after meeting Collard in the villa last year, said she doesnt feel the need to be friends with her former flame but has insisted there is no drama between them. We arent really on speaking terms, but Im sure if I saw him at an event or anything Id say hello, no drama, she told OK!. We had an amazing experience together but theres not really a need for a friendship between us now. Split: Adam Collard and Zara McDermott parted ways earlier this year / Jeff Spicer/Getty Images McDermott also commented on Collards decision to get his Z initial tattoo changed into NIN after they parted ways. Throwing her support behind the choice, McDermott said: Yeah Ive seen. I think its nice hes turned it into something meaningful. Nin is his name for his Portuguese nan who passed a few years ago, so its lovely really! She added that the relationship really wasnt right after admitting she tried not to see it. Moving on: McDermott has no interest in staying friends with Collard / Instagram: Zara McDermott McDermott revealed she is now dating other people but has no plans to go public with her future relationships. She said: Im in a great place with amazing people around me. The happiest Ive been in a long time. Adam Collard has Zara tattoo altered whilst in Los Angeles with Wes Nelson I am dating but the best thing for me is to keep any dating related stuff out of the public eye. Its nice to share with people but Ive learnt my lesson that relationships are better kept private and between two people. At the time she wrote: I am heartbroken to announce that Adam and I have parted ways. I love him very much and will always have a special place in my heart for him and our time spent together. F ormer X Factor and Britains Got Talent musician Ray Boddington has died a week after being struck by a tram in Manchester. The popular street performer, who was a part of the Piccadilly Rats group, died in hospital surrounded by his family in the early hours of Thursday morning. He was 77. He had been on life support since April 10, when he was hit by a tram in the city centre, but this was withdrawn last week. His heartbroken son Daniel told the Manchester Evening News: All of his family were there, at his bed. My dad would have wanted everybody in Manchester to know that he loved them all. I feel like my heart is shattered. I can't describe the way it feels. Boddington was part of the Piccadilly Rats, alongside founding member Gaz Stanley and friends Tommy Trouble, Alan Jones and Robert Branch. On Thursday, Stanley paid tribute to his late brother with a short statement on his social media account. R I P MY BEST MATE MY BROTHER MY SUPERSTAR I WILL MISS YOU FOREVER GAZ, he wrote alongside a picture of Boddington. Shortly after the accident, Stanley had told MEN: I am absolutely devastated. Over the years I have got really close to Ray he has ended up being like a brother to me. Even though I do the singing, Ray is the most popular by miles. He takes it so seriously it is just great." The former Bit on the Side star, 30, said he is thrilled with the gig as he thanked Ball with trusting him. So excited to finally say im thrilled to be joining Team @bbcstrictly and cant wait to get my big old teeth stuck into hosting #ItTakesTwo alongside the gorgeous @ZoeTheBall, he tweeted. Thanks for trusting me with another one of your babies! Cant wait to get going! #DaDaDaDaDaDaDaaaaaa. His post came hours after he had teased an announcement on Twitter with a gif of shimmering glitter and sequins. The official Strictly Twitter account also shared the big news, posting: Joining Zoe Ball as the co-host of It Takes Two is Rylan! We cant wait to welcome him to the #Strictly family when the show returns on @BBCTwo in the autumn. Ball said: I adore Rylan, hes an absolute wonder, I love his daftness and naughtiness and hes a brilliant live telly host. Hell fit right into our It Takes Two family. Cant wait for this new season to start, its going be a hoot! Clark currently presents Radio 2s Saturday afternoon show, which Ball used to front before landing the Breakfast Show after Chris Evans stepped down. Zoe Ball - In pictures 1 /40 Zoe Ball - In pictures Zoe Ball Breakfast Show in 2019 BBC Zoe Ball during her first day hosting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show in 1997 PA Jamie Theakston and Zoe Ball on 'Live and Kicking' in 1998 BBC Zoe Ball, Jamie Theakston, Jayne Middlemass & Jo Whiley on 'Top of the Pops in 1999 BBC Zoe Ball on the cover of Esquire Magazine in 1997 Esquire Magazine Chris Evans and Zoe Ball with Tony Blair at a Downing Street reception in 1997 Daily Mail Zoe Ball celebrates after she became the first female DJ to present the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show alone PA Zoe Ball launching a new season of CBBC in 1998 Evening Standard Zoe Ball models designer clothes a K Bar, Soho in 1998 Dave Benett Zoe Ball appearing on 'The way they were' in 1999 Zoe Ball and Norman Cook celebaste their wedding in 1999 PA Zoe Ball and Norman Cook as they leave the Portland Hospital, with their five day old son Woody in 2000 PA Zoe Ball with her father Johnny Ball appearing on 'Fame in the Family' in 2000 ITV Zoe Ball at The Brit's in 2000 at London's Earls Court PA Zoe Ball wearing M&S for Sarah Newton in 2002 MS Zoe Ball in 'Class of ....' in 2002 BBC Frank Skinner and Zoe Ball host The Brits in 2002 ITV Zoe Ball and Frank Skinner share a kiss at the end of The Brits in 2002 AP Sara Cox and Zoe Ball arrive for the charity premiere of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones in 2002 PA Zoe Ball the Sketch nightclub in 2003 Getty Images Zoe Ball on Strictly Come Dancing in 2005 PA Zoe Ball arrives at the ELLE Style Awards 2006 Getty Images Zoe Ball arrives at the Tesco Mum of the Year Awards 2015 at The Savoy PA Zoe Ball attending the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2017 held at the Royal Albert Hall Ian West/PA Billy Yates and Zoe Ball in 2017 FameFlynet UK Nadiya Hussain and Zoe Bal present 'Tlhe Big Family Cooking Showdown in 2017 BBC Zoe Ball in 'It Takes Two' in 2018 BBC Zoe Ball in 'It Takes Two' in 2018 BBC Chris Evans and Zoe Ball in 2018 BBC Zoe Ball Breakfast Show in 2019 BBC/Ray Burmiston It Takes Two airs Monday to Thursday on BBC2 and gives fans backstage gossip, analysis and interviews from the BBC ballroom show. Ball was the first person to interview Katya Jones and Seann Walsh last year after their kiss hit the headlines, with Katya cheating on her husband Neil and Walsh on his then-girlfriend Rebecca Humphries. TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Teranga Gold Corporation ("Teranga" or the "Company") (TSX:TGZ; OTCQX:TGCDF) will release its first quarter 2019 financial and operating results on Friday, May 3, 2019 at approximately 6:00 a.m. ET. A conference call and webcast hosted by management will follow at 8:30 a.m. ET to review the Companys results and discuss the quarters highlights. Those wishing to listen can access the conference call and webcast as follows: Date & Time: Friday, May 3, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. ET Telephone: Toll-free +1-877-291-4570 Local or International +1-647-788-4919 Please allow 10 minutes to be connected to the conference call. Webcast: Available on Terangas website at www.terangagold.com/Q12019. Replay: The conference call replay will be accessible for two weeks after the call by dialing +1-416-621-4642 or toll-free at +1-800-585-8367 and entering the conference ID 1368305. Note: The slide presentation will be available for download at www.terangagold.com for simultaneous viewing during the call. About Teranga Teranga is a multi-jurisdictional West African gold company focused on production and development as well as the exploration of approximately 6,400 km2 of land located on prospective gold belts. Since its initial public offering in 2010, Teranga has produced more than 1.7 million ounces of gold at its Sabodala operation in Senegal. Focused on diversification and growth, the Company is advancing construction of its second producing gold mine, Wahgnion, which is located in Burkina Faso, as well as carrying out exploration programs in three West African countries: Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire and Senegal. The Company had more than 4.0 million ounces of gold reserves as of June 30, 2018. Teranga applies a rigorous capital allocation framework for its investment decisions and is focused on funding future organic growth plans responsibly. Steadfast in its commitment to set the benchmark for responsible mining, Teranga operates in accordance with the highest international standards and aims to act as a catalyst for sustainable economic, environmental, and community development as it strives to create value for all of its stakeholders. Teranga is a member of the United Nations Global Compact and a leading member of the multi-stakeholder group responsible for the submission of the first Senegalese Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative revenue report. Contact Information Richard Young President & CEO T: +1 416-594-0000 | E: ryoung@terangagold.com MICHIGAN CITY, Ind., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. | A device for new mothers in crisis, born out of one womans experience as an abandoned infant, is now available at Franciscan Health Michigan City, as the Safe Haven Baby Box received its formal blessing on Tuesday. We are here to acknowledge that every child is beloved of God, said the Most Rev. Donald Hying, bishop of the Diocese of Gary, during the ceremony. Bishop Hying said the Safe Haven Baby Box gives freedom and peace to a mother to hand over her baby, knowing that shes handing this baby over to love, handing this baby over to people that will nurture and care for this baby. Were pleased to offer this new service to our community, a service that demonstrates one of our core values: respect for life, said Franciscan Health President/CEO Dean Mazzoni. The Safe Haven Baby Box is available to new mothers who wish to utilize Indianas Safe Haven Law, which enables a person to give up an unwanted infant anonymously without fear of arrest or prosecution. The anonymity of the Safe Haven Baby Box is a last resort for women in crisis. The baby box at Franciscan Health Michigan City is discreetly located outside the Emergency Department at the hospital, 3500 Franciscan Way, on the northwest corner of Interstate 94 and U.S. 421. The box is in a heated and air-conditioned room with its own ventilation. When the box is used, a silent alarm will sound in the Emergency Department so that staff can immediately tend to the baby. This allows for any mother in this community, 100 percent anonymity. There is no shame. There is no blaming, said Monica Kelsey, founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc. I couldnt be more proud to stand up here today and say that this is the first baby box installation in a hospital in the state of Indiana, and I am so excited. Kelseys creation of her organization was inspired by her own experience. Her biological mother became pregnant after a rape and, after her birth, abandoned her at a hospital. She was adopted and says today, her parents are her biggest supporters. I can tell you every child is wanted by someone, she said. Kelsey has worked to educate others on the Safe Haven Law and introduce use of the baby boxes. So far, shes brought the boxes to four states Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arkansas and she has the goal of making the baby boxes legal in all 50 states by the year 2025. She said that her organization is working to spread the word to the public about the baby boxes through a billboard campaign and social media. In Northwest Indiana, the Safe Haven Baby Boxes have also been installed at the Chesterton Fire Department and the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department, where two babies have been left and rescued, one in 2017 and the other in 2018. For more information about Safe Haven Baby Box locations or to speak to a licensed counselor, call the National Safe Haven hotline at 866-99BABY1 (866-992-2291) ### About Franciscan Health The Franciscan Health healthcare ministry began in Lafayette, Ind., in 1875. Today, Franciscan Health is one of the largest Catholic health care systems in the Midwest with 12 hospital campuses, approximately 18,000 employees and a number of nationally recognized Centers of Health Care Excellence. Hospitals include: Franciscan Health Carmel; Franciscan Health Crawfordsville; Franciscan Health Crown Point; Franciscan Health Dyer; Franciscan Health Hammond; Franciscan Health Indianapolis; Franciscan Health Lafayette; Franciscan Health Michigan City; Franciscan Health Mooresville; Franciscan Health Munster; Franciscan Health Olympia Fields (IL); and Franciscan Health Rensselaer. Attachment Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with the Executive Board of the Union of Vietnamese Associations in Europe in Prague on April 16th. (Photo: VNA) The leader lauded the union for its activities to support the homeland, and expressed his hope that overseas Vietnamese will help the Vietnamese Government further develop the country. The Vietnamese Party and State consider overseas Vietnamese an indispensible part of the nation, and create conditions for them to invest in the homeland, he said. According to UVAE President Hoang Dinh Thang, the union was established in 2016, with an executive board of 30 members from 17 European countries. Over the past two years, the union has joined efforts to organise community activities at the regional level, he said. The union has paid attention to external affairs, he said, adding that it has maintained relations with members of the European Parliament (EP). Representatives of the Executive Board visited the EP twice in Belgiums Brussels and Frances Strasbourg, during which they called on parliamentarians to support efforts of the Vietnamese community in Europe in integrating into host countries and preserving their culture, along with some issues of Vietnameses concern like the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the removal of the European Commission (EC)s yellow card warning for Vietnamese seafood. Thang noted his hope that the Vietnamese Government will roll out better policies to encourage local companies, organisations and individuals to invest in the Czech Republic. The same day, PM Phuc met with Marcel Winter, Honorary President of the Czech-Vietnam Friendship Association. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with Marcel Winter, Honorary President of the Czech-Vietnam Friendship Association.(Photo: VNA) The leader applauded the association for its contributions to the friendship between the two countries, and noted his hope it will continue to coordinate with the Vietnamese Embassy. He described Winter, who has visited Vietnam 48 times and worked hard to assist the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic, as a symbol of the friendship. For his part, Winter expressed his hope that there will soon be a direct flight between Prague and Vietnam. While in the Czech Republic, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his spouse visited the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in the country. (Photo: VNA) While in the Czech Republic, PM Phuc visited the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in the country, during which he urged the embassy to carry forward its role in introducing Vietnams foreign investment attraction policies and helping raise trade between the two countries. The embassy was also asked to protect the rights of Vietnamese citizens in the host country, maintain relations with local authorities and relevant organisations and promote Vietnam to Czech people and businesses. Also on April 16th, PM Phuc met Jiri Smejc, Group Executive Chairman of Home Credit. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) and Jiri Smejc, Group Executive Chairman of Home Credit (Photo: VNA) At the meeting, the leader said Vietnam is pushing ahead with business environment improvement efforts, which have been acknowledged by major international organisations and groups. The Vietnamese Government is ready to remove difficulties facing businesses, including Home Credit, he said. Vietnam will step up cooperation with the Czech Republic in various spheres, the PM stressed, adding this would be an opportunity for Czech investors. Jiri Smejc said since it entered Vietnam in 2005, Home Credit has become the largest Czech investor in the country in personal loans, with half a million customers. The company has decided to expand its investment in Vietnam, which has a stable investment environment, and wants to operate in the banking sector, he said./. BERKELEY, Calif., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- [TechCrunch AI and Robotics] -- Chooch AI (http://Chooch.ai) the leader in training of strong artificial intelligence for visual recognition, today launched the Chooch IC2 mobile software development kit beta (SDK). With this release, Chooch now provides enterprise-grade trainable facial and object identification to mobile applications. To request the iOS SDK beta, please meet the team at the conference or go to https://chooch.ai/sdk/ Software developers can now integrate Visual AI into applications on mobile phones without piecing together a solution, said Emrah Gultekin, CEO and co-founder of Chooch. We offer a complete platform, from autonomous labeling to training, and an API that no other company can provide. Before this, you needed to kluge together different deep learning components such as data collection, labeling, neural network selection, etc. before you can even train a model. Weve bundled these steps into a scalable solution, so you can send visual information into the prediction engine and use the output for your applications in real time. Chooch has been deployed by customers for a wide range of applications on many platforms. Chooch can be rapidly trained to be a visual expert in any field, from types of aircraft parts, to individual human faces, to identifying and counting cancer cells. When Chooch is presented with images or videos that contain perceptions learned by its neural networks, Chooch returns metadata such as a persons identity for security purposes, a product SKU, or the condition of an asset such as a machine part. Chooch can be trained to accurately identify features in any media, like web-based video or images on mobile phones, live drone feeds and medical imagery. The ROI for customers using the Chooch SDK is immediate. e.g., Chooch decreases the speed of facial recognition training to seconds, reduces costs by 80x for tagging visual data and increases revenue by 5x for video advertising. Chooch is demoing Chooch AI at TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics + AI 2019. The introduction of the SDK expands the offering of the Chooch API and Dashboard, extending Visual AI training and computer vision to mobile developers. About Chooch.AI Chooch.AI provides visual AI for the media, e-commerce, security, and medical industries, among others. Chooch performs object recognition and facial recognition by matching data in its neural network perception library which is acquired with machine learning. Its API is compatible with photo or video content from any source such as live streams, apps, web, robots, or drones. Chooch provides a full suit of computer vision services, from data to predictions. Blog Archive Apr 2010 (22) May 2010 (25) Jun 2010 (8) Jul 2010 (12) Aug 2010 (18) Sep 2010 (19) Oct 2010 (29) Nov 2010 (30) Dec 2010 (18) Jan 2011 (13) Feb 2011 (21) Mar 2011 (23) Apr 2011 (19) May 2011 (31) Jun 2011 (36) Jul 2011 (46) Aug 2011 (26) Sep 2011 (12) Oct 2011 (15) Nov 2011 (17) Dec 2011 (7) Jan 2012 (18) Feb 2012 (4) Mar 2012 (12) Apr 2012 (18) May 2012 (10) Jun 2012 (21) Jul 2012 (8) Aug 2012 (15) Sep 2012 (7) Oct 2012 (17) Nov 2012 (20) Dec 2012 (10) Jan 2013 (58) Feb 2013 (59) Mar 2013 (60) Apr 2013 (98) May 2013 (135) Jun 2013 (204) Jul 2013 (293) Aug 2013 (351) Sep 2013 (363) Oct 2013 (348) Nov 2013 (374) Dec 2013 (442) Jan 2014 (547) Feb 2014 (476) Mar 2014 (526) Apr 2014 (527) May 2014 (469) Jun 2014 (408) Jul 2014 (472) Aug 2014 (522) Sep 2014 (443) Oct 2014 (472) Nov 2014 (497) Dec 2014 (536) Jan 2015 (539) Feb 2015 (520) Mar 2015 (582) Apr 2015 (658) May 2015 (679) Jun 2015 (673) Jul 2015 (728) Aug 2015 (803) Sep 2015 (923) Oct 2015 (924) Nov 2015 (802) Dec 2015 (791) Jan 2016 (782) Feb 2016 (835) Mar 2016 (929) Apr 2016 (866) May 2016 (947) Jun 2016 (1044) Jul 2016 (882) Aug 2016 (1035) Sep 2016 (967) Oct 2016 (918) Nov 2016 (854) Dec 2016 (885) Jan 2017 (879) Feb 2017 (777) Mar 2017 (896) Apr 2017 (872) May 2017 (850) Jun 2017 (851) Jul 2017 (971) Aug 2017 (1040) Sep 2017 (998) Oct 2017 (1144) Nov 2017 (1046) Dec 2017 (838) Jan 2018 (873) Feb 2018 (769) Mar 2018 (885) Apr 2018 (809) May 2018 (827) Jun 2018 (820) Jul 2018 (840) Aug 2018 (854) Sep 2018 (844) Oct 2018 (851) Nov 2018 (870) Dec 2018 (912) Jan 2019 (919) Feb 2019 (827) Mar 2019 (957) Apr 2019 (913) May 2019 (1007) Jun 2019 (935) Jul 2019 (950) Aug 2019 (936) Sep 2019 (910) Oct 2019 (920) Nov 2019 (874) Dec 2019 (908) Jan 2020 (941) Feb 2020 (849) Mar 2020 (898) Apr 2020 (848) May 2020 (822) Jun 2020 (789) Jul 2020 (819) Aug 2020 (858) Sep 2020 (841) Oct 2020 (873) Nov 2020 (812) Dec 2020 (780) Jan 2021 (765) Feb 2021 (716) Mar 2021 (819) Apr 2021 (805) May 2021 (815) Jun 2021 (824) Jul 2021 (830) Aug 2021 (832) Sep 2021 (791) Oct 2021 (754) Nov 2021 (683) Dec 2021 (359) The Royal Family wishes a "national reconciliation", this being the objective King Mihai fought for, the Romanian Crown Custodian Margareta told AGERPRES in an interview. Prince Radu, in the same interview asserts that when the country is more divided, the Crown comes forth as "the single one that maintains a certain balance". "King Mihai has earned in the last years some kind of adoration from the people. He relied a lot on contrast. When everybody yelled, he kept silent. When everybody was biased, he was kind with everybody and understood them all. This couldn't but touch the Romanians' souls, because the Romanians do see. We believe they are blind, but they see perfectly, much more than we think they do. And this contrast has been very much in favour of the Crown in the last years," Prince Radu says. Moreover, the Royal Family speaks in the above-mentioned interview about the way it promotes Romania's and the Republic of Moldova's interests throughout the world. Romanian Crown Custodian Margareta and Prince Radu are visiting France this week, their agenda including meetings with representatives of the French Presidency, of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and of the Red Cross. In the beginning of their visit, the two officials attended the opening of an exhibition dedicated to Queen Maria, in Reims. AGERPRES: Your Majesty, the visit to Paris somewhat mirrors the visit Queen Maria paid 100 years ago. What have you learned? Crown Custodian: In a way, yes, and yet we are not in the same position, things are not what they were after the Great War. Anyway, we followed in her footsteps, because it is more interesting, I believe, not to do something theoretical, but something of practical value. After 100 years, we are pursuing what she did in the same places and we can be useful today. Prince Radu: We are pursuing the same goals, in a different reality. AGERPRES: Exactly because you are pursuing the same goals in a different reality, in Reims, Your Majesty spoke about Queen Maria as of an example of what is now called a "soft power". How hard or how different do you believe it would have been for Queen Maria in today's world? Crown Custodian: It is difficult to superpose a person into another epoch. She is different. I acted the way I could. (...) Nevertheless, Princess Diana too was strong, as Queen Maria was and acted the same way we do. We can act with our heart, with our love for the country and act in our century, with the strength we have, with the love we have, with the ideas [we have, ed. n.]. I think it would have been similar, hopefully. Prince Radu: I believe that the loyalty each generation of our family has proven and the love for their country, is similar. She went through terrible moments during her reign and the years she was a heiress princes. No person in this world can remain faithful to a cause without love. Crown Custodian: And passion too. Prince Radu: It is the only fuel that can keep someone up, even in impossible moments. And this is something you may apply to King Mihai, to King Ferdinand, to Queen Elisabeta - Carmen Sylva, another queen who lost her child to the progressive ideas of her country. Carol I, what can I say anymore? Perhaps this loyalty is a given of all generations and hopefully this is how it will be from now on too. AGERPRES: What have you learned about the Romania-France relationship from the meetings you've had so far with French high officials? Crown Custodian: That it is something very strong, the relationship is solid and uninterrupted and this makes me very happy, because it is like a sister country. And it lasted. I felt that during the change in 1989. Support came from France with political aid too. Now it is the same thing and I believe we need each other. AGERPRES: What have you learned about Queen Maria from this visit during which you have followed in her footsteps? Crown Custodian: Perhaps we have learned something from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prince Radu: Details we had no idea about, but we did not learn any new things, because we have built this visit by knowing her steps here. In fact, we believed that this visit should take place after 100 years, retracing her steps, in exactly the same institutions the Queen visited, not only for the visit's historical sense, but for Romania's present and future, as well. There are not many countries in the European Union to have had in France at the beginning of the century such a fantastic presence that has left traces. And it is talked about 100 years on. Her Majesty said about the depth of the relationship between Romania and France. It is an important thing for France, too, not only for us. France is a leader of the European Union, it is a founding member, many people see it as the driving force of the Union and few countries in Europe are so faithful to the cause of the Union and to France as Romania is - also a Latin country, a Christian country, with a thirst of freedom and democracy, on the other side of the continent, where it is important to have a military, politically and economically loyal country the size of Romania. It is no small thing. France is going through very difficult moments, as we are also experiencing complicated moments. Crown Custodian: Romania is an important ally. What's more, we can be very useful for all kinds of things we can accomplish. Prince Radu: In the European Union. Crown Custodian: We have resources, connection points, farther, to the Middle East, to Africa. AGERPRES: You can be Romania's ambassadors... Prince Radu: Of the European Union, in fact. Because, Her Majesty was talking with the officials of the Senate and of the Presidency of the Republic that the European Union due to the internal concerns and all of the current big issues, was not present in the European vicinity as much as it should have been - in Northern Africa, in the Middle East, in Southern Caucasus. There, Romania is like home, because all of these countries Jordan, Israel, all are countries where we go - and we talk from own experiences, not from the ideal to go - we are at home there. Everything is familiar to us. Crown Custodian: You see, one starts with the food, these are the basics, we do have these connections. Prince Radu: And the language, because there are their students who came and studied in Romania, from Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Syria, and we hope Lebanon one day, all those countries are almost related to us through tradition, and if Romania were to go through us or through anybody else on behalf of the Union and talk on behalf of a whole continent to strengthen ties, that would be much more than on behalf of Romania only. AGERPRES: Your Majesty has talked in Her speech in Reims about the way the Romanian Royal House is perceived in Romania, as well as in the Republic of Moldova. Crown Custodian: I saw in the Republic of Moldova - we go there quite often, whenever we can and when there are things to be done - and we felt love for the Crown, because it is the only Crown. One language, one religion and one Crown - these are symbols that go much further, much deeper than divisions. Prince Radu: And the political or state duality. Crown Custodian: And I felt that Queen Maria and King Ferdinand are like parents to this country. We can also continue this tradition and give some kind of hope of completion. I felt a very good, close relationship. Prince Radu: And I believe we should say that it is not only about a kind of feeling, but also about pragmatic things. Several Moldovan governments asked the king, then Her Majesty to represent abroad the desideratum of Moldova to join the European Union. And we, our very generation have completed so far two or three official visits in Europe, alongside for instance the President of the Moldovan Parliament in Belgium, in the United Kingdom, doing exactly as we did for Romania in the NATO years. Crown Custodian: But in a softer manner, because it is another country, we don't have the nationality, the passport ... But we can do more. Prince Radu: For their integration, for the education in the country, for health care, for the foreign policy. There are a lot of things the Crown is inherently doing in the countries where it operates constitutionally, we do not invent anything new. AGERPRES: In Romania, in a society that at first sight looks divided, do you feel that there is still room for admiration for the Romanian Crown? Crown Custodian: Just like that, we do not fall in-between these divisions and for this we do not make various statements and we are there for national reconciliation, in fact this is what my father fought for, the national reconciliation. And we will continue the pledge with him and with the country and we will be there for the tough moments, and for the moments of joy. Prince Radu: (Moments) of doubt. Crown Custodian: All kinds of moments. And we are there. For 30 years I have been there and I will continue to be. I am not giving up. Prince Radu: In fact, curiously, exactly when the country is more divided and radicalized in groups, the Crown stands out the most, it is practically the only one that maintains a certain balance. You know that King Mihai has earned in the last years some kind of adoration from the people. He relied a lot on contrast. When everybody yelled, he was silent. When everybody was biased, he was good to all and understood them all. This couldn't but touch the Romanians' souls, because the Romanians do see. We believe they are blind, but they see perfectly, much more than we think they do. And this contrast has been very much in favour of the Crown in the last years. Crown Custodian: This is why we go into the country often, in small communes, in villages, in schools, in hospitals, with normal people. And the message is the same: we are together. AGERPRES Minister of Public Finance Eugen Teodorovici said on Thursday in Bistrita that starting with the second half of this year Romania will start borrowing from the foreign market "for the coming years" because this could be done under more advantageous conditions for the country. "Romania borrows exactly under market conditions, the same as other states do. The costs are not higher in the case of Romania than for other states and a very important thing: Romania this year will change the logic on government debt. In what way? In the next issue that Romania will make on the foreign markets, we will ensure exactly the financing demand for this year, and from the second part of the year we will finance ourselves as we want and we will impose market costs for the next year. Exactly as any other country does. Until now, Romania has borrowed in the current year for what it had to pay in that year. We have to change this philosophy and borrow already for the coming years, because we can do it at the costs we want as a country, because when we want to borrow we do it only if the price offered is the one that suits us," Teodorovici said. The minister added that the financing strategy is a public one and that the fact that Romania was given a 30-year loan shows investors' confidence in our country. He also said that the loans will cover the budget deficit estimated for this year, but also the maturities. AGERPRES Romania's Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu on Wednesday welcomed US Deputy Assistant Secretary Matthew Boyse, hailing the intensification of bilateral dialogue at political level, reiterating the importance Romania attaches to its strategic partnership with the United States, and highlighting interest for consultation and coordination on all topics of shared interest, according to Romania's Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) Melescanu also underscored the need for the consolidation of the NATO Eastern Flank to be continued in line with the decisions made at NATO level, most recently at the ministerial meeting in Washington earlier this month. The head of Romanian diplomacy highlighted Romania's active part in strengthening the transatlantic partnership between the European Union and the United States of America, as well as in strengthening regional initiatives such as the Three Seas Initiative aimed at strengthening energy cohesion and security. Justice Minister Tudorel Toader on Thursday said he will announce whether he will resign or not as Minister of Justice by the end of the day. "Mrs PM (...), according to the law, cannot ask for my resignation, for to ask for one's resignation is somehow like an order, while resignation is a personal decision, but I could tell how determined was she to put an end to this "interim" period, which is the same as asking for the resignation. I assured her today I will reflect upon it and I will give her my answer by the end of the day - whether I send her my resignation, with my name and surname on it, or I will just wait for the removal request to be implemented," said Toader. On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila informed President Klaus Iohannis about the new proposals for the appointment of the new Ministers from Justice, European Funds and the Minister for Romanians Abroad.At the same time, the Prime Minister sent to the Presidential Administration the proposal to remove the Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader and the resignations of the Minister of European Funds Rovana Plumb and the Minister for Romanians Abroad Natalia Intotero, the Government announced in a press release.Social Democrat MP Eugen Nicolicea has been proposed to become the new Minister of Justice, MP Oana Florea to become the new Minister of European Funds and Tit-Liviu Brailoiu to become the new Minister for Romanians Abroad. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) states that Romania's Ambassador to Islamabad had a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan's Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource Development Minister Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, but they didn't establish any figures related to a possible transfer of workforce from Pakistan, nor any concrete action plans. The clarification comes after news surfaced the media that Romania is to receive 500,000 Pakistani workers to cover for its workforce shortage. MAE said it was a courtesy reception during which the two officials addressed several topics, including Pakistan's employment, considering the the Pakistani side's interest in regulating and making more efficient workforce exports and complying with the relevant legislation. "We mention that they did not establish any figures during the talks regarding a possible transfer of workforce from Pakistan, or any concrete action plan in this respect. In the context, we underline that, according to the legislation in force, respectively the Government Decision No. 34/2019, the quota for extra-community workers for 2019 at the national level is 20,000," MAE said on Thursday. MAE also mentioned that, following the ambassador of Romania's request to Islamabad, the official press release was changed on Wednesday, in order to fairly and correctly reflect the discussions. AGERPRES Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar has filed a retirement request with the Supreme Council of Magistrates. He confirmed the information for AGERPRES. Lazar specified that his term in office as a Prosecutor General ends on April 27.Augustin Lazar had previously applied for a new term in office as prosecutor general, but the Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, rejected his candidacy.Accusations surfaced the media according to which Lazar refused to grant parole to anti-communist dissident Iulius Filip, back when he was a member of the Committee of Liberation Proposals of the Aiud Penitentiary.Later on, Augustin Lazar claimed he didn't know that the files submitted to the Aiud Penitentiary's Committee belonged to political detainees, but he "apologized in the name of the institution" for its controversial practices before 1989. PHOENIX, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The AZ Water Association honored EPCOR USA (EPCOR) with 25 awards during the annual AZ Water Conference yesterday. The awards were given in the categories of safety and operational excellence, bringing EPCORs total number of awards from the AZ Water Association to 132. The awards recognized EPCORs water and wastewater operations in 11 individual Arizona communities. We are honored to receive recognition once again from the AZ Water Association for our commitment to delivering safe, reliable and high-quality water to our customers, said Joe Gysel, president of EPCOR USA. Theres nothing we value more than safety and excellence in operations, and were proud of the hardworking employees across our territories in Arizona who live that commitment every day. EPCORs 25 awards this year were in categories that span all of the companys Arizona operations: water distribution system management, water treatment, wastewater collection system management, and wastewater treatment: Water Distribution System Bullhead City Wastewater Treatment Bullhead City Water Treatment Bullhead City Wastewater Treatment Northwest Valley Water Reclamation Facility Water Treatment Tubac Water Distribution System Tubac Water Treatment Paradise Valley Water Distribution System Paradise Valley Water Distribution System Lake Havasu Water Treatment Fountain Hills Water Distribution System Fountain Hills Wastewater Collection System Anthem Wastewater Collection System Anthem Water Treatment Anthem Water Distribution System Anthem Wastewater Treatment Verrado Water Reclamation Facility Wastewater Collection System Sun City West Water Treatment Sun City West Water Distribution System Sun City West Wastewater Collection System Sun City Water Treatment Sun City Water Distribution System Sun City Wastewater Collection System Agua Fria Water Treatment Agua Fria Water Distribution System Agua Fria The AZ Water Association is an educational, nonprofit organization with a membership of over 2,200 Arizona water and wastewater industry professionals. The organization was founded in 1928 with the mission of preserving and enhancing Arizonas water environment. The associations awards evaluate operations, experience, adherence to regulatory standards and other criteria. For further information, please contact: Rebecca Stenholm Director, Public & Government Affairs EPCOR USA Inc. O 623.445.2424 C 602.390.5662 rstenholm@epcor.com About EPCOR USA Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, EPCOR USAs wholly owned subsidiaries build, own and operate water and wastewater and natural gas facilities and infrastructure in the southwestern United States. EPCOR USA provides water, wastewater and natural gas service to approximately 665,000 people across 44 communities and 15 counties in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. About EPCOR Utilities Inc. EPCOR, through its subsidiaries, builds, owns and operates electrical, natural gas and water transmission and distribution networks, water and wastewater treatment facilities, sanitary and stormwater systems, and infrastructure in Canada and the United States. The company also provides electricity, natural gas and water products and services to residential and commercial customers. EPCOR, headquartered in Edmonton, is an Alberta Top 70 employer. EPCORs website address is www.epcor.com. Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Wednesday evening submitted to President Klaus Iohannis the names of her picks for the offices of justice minister, minister of European funds and minister for Romanians abroad. At the same time, she submitted to the Presidential Administration a proposal to remove from office Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader, along with the resignations of former Minister for European Funds Rovana Plumb and Minister for Romanians Abroad Natalia Intotero, the Government reported in a press statement. Dancila's pick for justice minister is MP Eugen Nicolicea; for the minister of European funds is MP Oana Florea, while Senator Tit-Liviu Brailoiu is her recommendation for the new minister for Romanians abroad. President Klaus Iohannis said Thursday that fundamental laws in a state governed by the rule of law have been modified over the past two years to suit the interest of people who temporarily hold important political positions. "Your strength of character, morality, and professionalism will be tested more than once. I am telling you this because you have to be prepared to face the pressures and attacks by politicians on the justice system. We have been witnessing for two years already how fundamental laws to a rule of law are changing to suit the interests of some arriving temporarily to important political positions. The current context shows us that the progress made with great sacrifices to strengthen the independence of judiciary is not something definitely gained and it requires continuous efforts from of all of us. Keeping Romania on a democratic path depends also on your power to remain loyal to the mission that you have taken up. Each of us has to defend democracy day by day," said the president, who welcomed at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace graduates of the National Institute of Magistracy. Attending the event were also Attorney General Augustin Lazar and Chair of the Supreme Court of Justice and Cassation Cristina Tarcea President Klaus Iohannis considers that the government reshuffle announced by the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) aimed at making things to go "worse", the president announcing that he will give a reply on this issue early next week. "Yesterday, proposals for revocation and proposals of new ministers were sent to Cotroceni [Presidential Palace, ed.n.]. However, upon receiving those letters, I asked myself what is intended by this government reshuffle, because usually a governmental reshuffle is carried out to make the Government better, more effective, more efficient. My first impression is that this government reshuffle is made for things to go worse. Or that is simply unacceptable, it is a first impression I wanted to communicate to the public. I will communicate more about these things at the beginning of the next week, when I will have an explanation on what is likely to happen. Yes, I spoke to Mrs. Prime Minister and told her that she will receive a reply at the beginning of the next week," the president said in a statement to the press. "Things are beginning to gain a dreary outlook, as we have convened a referendum to find out the Romanians' opinion about this PSD assault on Justice. PSD is preparing a government reshuffle that wants to strengthen, this is my impression, the assault on Justice and this doesn't bode well," said Iohannis.The head of state was asked if he will sign the removal from office of Tudorel Toader, and he replied he cannot sign "some documents without evaluating the consequences of the entire government reshuffle.""The revocation of a minister or the resignation of a minister is, ultimately, the constitutional decision of the prime minister, or in case of resignation - of each in part, but I cannot sign any documents without evaluating the consequences of the entire government reshuffle, and that is why I will make some clarifications at the beginning of next week in connection with this reshuffle. My first impression is that it aims to resume the PSD attack on Justice," he said.He also said that he neither discussed nor intends to have a discussion with the Minister of Justice. The event exhibition "Eli Lotar (1905-1969)", devoted to one of the most important photographers of the Paris avant-garde, opened on Thursday evening at the Bucharest Museum of Art Collections. Organized in the opening of the Romanian leg of the Romania - France Season by the National Museum of Romanian Literature in partnership with the Pompidou Center and the Jeu de Paume gallery, the exhibition resumes in an original manner the Eli Lotar retrospective featured at the Pompidou Center in 2017, being a first for Romania. Built mainly on the collections of the Cabinet de la Photographie of the National Museum of Modern Art - Pompidou Center and with the contribution of some private collections, the exhibition brings together about 80 vintage photographs and a selection of 100 documents (books, magazines, letters, negatives, films) illustrating the essence of Eli Lotar's activity. The exhibition offers a comprehensive view of the artist's creation, highlighting the uniqueness of his trajectory and his visual universe, and represents a well-deserved acknowledgment of Eli Lotar's contribution to shaping photographic and cinematographic modernism. Minister of Culture and National Identity Valer-Daniel Breaz said that the fact that the work of Eli Lotar, an artist who is less known in Romania than in France, is now also put into the spotlight in our country is due to the intercultural cooperation of the two countries. In the official's opinion, this is a symbolic exhibition, because it brings together heritage items, and the retrospective of a French artist with Romanian roots, as it is known that Eliazar Lotar Theodorescu is the son of [Romanian] poet Tudor Arghezi. President of the French Institute Pierre Buhler said that Lotar, the artist celebrated through this exhibition, is a figure that is emblematic for both France and Romania. Having an unprecedented character for both France and Romania, the exhibition presented in Bucharest is slightly different from that opened at Jeu de Paume in Paris, which focused on Eli Lotar as a photographer. Here the emphasis is more on the correspondence with his father, poet Tudor Arghezi, so this is about the epistolary relationship between the two, but it is also a relationship that somehow resonates with the relation between art, literature, cinematography, because all these weave together the relationships between culture, between generations, between the past and the present, and I believe this is the deeper meaning of the Franco-Romanian or Romanian-French Season, whatever you would like to call it, to offer a legacy to the future generations, a cultural one, of course, Pierre Buhler said. Precisely 60 years since his passing, we can pay tribute to and appreciation to this son [of the country] - a French citizen, but a Romanian deep to the marrow of the bones - a director highly appreciated in the circles of the Paris cinema industry, as his father Tudor Arghezi once characterized him. Let us bring him home where his father would have wanted to have him, but was unable to. We hope that the interest in Eli Lotar's photographic and cinematographic work will grow and trigger a much needed and continuous recovery of his talent alongside the posterity of the famous contemporaries he has worked with, said Ioan Cristescu, director of the National Museum of Romanian Literature. Eli Lotar (Eliazar Lotar Theodorescu), a French photographer and filmmaker of Romanian origin, is a leading representative of the Paris avant-garde; he is the son of poet Tudor Arghezi, who also presented him with his first camera. Lotar spent his childhood in Bucharest with his father to later "return" to Paris (the city of his birth) in 1924. Here he gets close to photographer Germaine Krull from whom he learns the tricks of the trade, and later to the surrealists, publishing mainly in avant-garde magazines "VU", "Jazz" and "Arts et metiers graphiques" and participating in major international exhibitions such as "Fotografie der Gegenwart", "Film und Foto" and "Documents de la vie sociale". Eli Lotar's photographs and films capture an entire vibrant, spectacular, poetic, decadent and disturbing modernity: images from hospitals and slaughterhouses, scenes from the life of prostitutes, the colorful world of performing arts, Mediterranean landscapes and Greek archaeological sites as they were in the early '30s, the organizers mentioned. The exhibition, which is accompanied by the catalog "Eli Lotar (1905 - 1969)", the volume of letters "Eli Lotar Letters / Lettres (1924 - 1926)" will be open until July 14. AGERPRES The Section for prosecutors of the Supreme Council of Magistracy (CSM) on Thursday approved Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar's request for retirement, as CSM sources told AGERPRES. The decision will be submitted to President Klaus Iohannis, who is supposed to issue a decree on the release from office of the Prosecutor General. The Section for prosecutors of the CSM on Thursday added Augustin Lazar's request for retirement on its agenda as an extra item.Lazar submitted the request for retirement in the context in which his term in office as General Prosecutor ends on April 27.Augustin Lazar had previously applied for a new term in office as prosecutor general, but the Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, rejected his candidacy.Accusations surfaced the media according to which Lazar refused to grant conditional release to anti-communist dissident Iulius Filip, back when he was a member of the Committee of Liberation Proposals of the Aiud Penitentiary.Later on, Augustin Lazar claimed he didn't know that the files submitted to the Aiud Penitentiary's Committee belonged to political detainees, but he "apologized in the name of the institution" for its controversial practices before 1989. Albany, NY, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global ammunition market is characterized by a fairly moderate consolidated vendor landscape, as reported by Transparency Market Research (TMR). Larger, established players are seen focusing solely on acquisition of smaller vendors in the market. Vendors operating in the global ammunition market are leveraging a key strategy in order to gain momentum in the market. This involves gaining orders on a contractual basis from authoritative organizations. This is expected to win rich growth opportunities for vendors in the ammunition market. A key trend leveraged by vendors in this market is the increased spending by governments of defense and security. For instance, the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center awarded a US$41 million contract to Federal Ammunition for supply of MK 318 Mod 0 carbine cartridges for small rifles. Request to View Sample of Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1225 Leading players in the global ammunition market include Hornady Manufacturing Company, Inc., Fiocchi Munizioni, Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos, General Dynamics Corporation, and BAE Systems. TMR predicts that the global ammunition market, estimated to be worth US$11.5 Bn in 2015 is anticipated to reach US$24.8 Bn by the end of 2024. The market is likely to exhibit a 9.1% CAGR over the forecast period of 2016 to 2024. A surge in terrorist activities are likely to be responsible for bolstering the application segment of military in the market. This segment held a leading share of the overall market revenue in 2017. Geography-wise, North America held a key share of the global ammunition market in 2017. The presence of leading vendors in region accounts for the dominance of this region. Request PDF Brochure of Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1225 Unfavorable Political Climate to Drive Ammunition Market Several terrorist attacks have taken place worldwide over the last couple of years, leading to increased concerns about security among the people. The Asia-Pacific, African, and Latin American countries have seen violent acts on numerous occasions. The terrorist threat has rapidly spread to various other North American and European regions. In Europe, the Islamic Terrorist Group that has replaced Al-Qaeda as the world's most wanted terrorist organization, has continued threats. Growing ammunition demand is expected to fuel the global ammunition market on direct account of the surge in international conflicts and the increasing incidences of asymmetric warfare. Request for Custom Research at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CR&rep_id=1225 Military Modernization to Emerge as Key Market Trend Bullets, rockets, and mortars primarily form basic ammunition. These ammos comprise of different components, technologies, and production patterns. Nowadays, modern bullets comprise various technological features, which is an upcoming trend fuelling the global ammunition market. Some of these characteristics are associated with physical parameters such as shape, material, and bullet size. Nowadays, technological advances in personal body love and vehicle protection have exceeded standard weapons. With the exception of large-scale weapons, armor against bullets fired with standard weapons is widely accepted as extremely effective. Ongoing research and development activities in the emerging economies to build a large military capacity are expected to bolster the global ammunition market to a large extent. Request For Discount On This Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=1225 Market Growth Limited by Premises and Peace Treaties The demand for ammunition may be restricted by reduced defense spending by developed countries. While developing economies boost military spending, developed economies such as the United States and Germany are lowering their military spending, which is likely to impact the ammunition market. Since 2010, the US has been one of the world's biggest exporters of weapons and ammunition. The Organization for the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) has cut its military and arms and munitions expenditure. Moreover, most of their allies have reduced their soldiers. In 2013 the military strength of Germany decreased by 1,80,000 while the UK. It cut its military down to 1,74,000 soldiers. These factors may hamper the global ammunition market to some extent. This review is based on TMRs report titled, Ammunition Market (Type - Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) Ammunition, Tracer Ammunition, Incendiary Ammunition, Armor Piercing Ammunition, Other Ammunition; Ammunition - Small Ammunition, Medium Ammunition, Mortar Ammunition, Artillery Ammunition, Shotgun Shells; Application - Commercial, Military, Law Enforcement) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2018 - 2026. Browse Press Release: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/ammunition-market.htm The global Ammunition Market is segmented as follows: Type Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) Ammunition Tracer Ammunition Incendiary Ammunition Armor Piercing Ammunition Other Ammunition Ammunition Small Ammunition Medium Ammunition Mortar Ammunition Artillery Ammunition Shotgun Shells Application Commercial Military Law Enforcement Geography North America U.S. Mexico Rest of North America Europe Italy Germany France Rest of Europe Asia Pacific India China South Korea Japan Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa (MEA) Turkey Saudi Arabia South Africa Rest of Middle East & Africa South America Brazil Rest of South America Browse More Defense Market Research Reports Popular Report by TMR: Airport Digitalization Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/airport-digitalization-market.html Aircraft Weapons Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/aircraft-weapons-market.html Smart Bombs Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/smart-bombs-market.html Aviation Analytics Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/aviation-analytics-market.html About Us Transparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals. Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories. TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision. Contact NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation of Swedbank AB (OTCMKTS: SWDBY) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws. On or around February 20, 2019, it was announced that Swedish and Estonian regulators were investigating reports linking Swedbank AB to a suspected 200 billion ($227 billion) money laundering scandal engulfing Danske Bank, which has expanded to include a probe from U.S. securities authorities. Then on March 28, 2019, it was reported that the Companys CEO had been fired. To obtain additional information, go to: https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/swedbank-ab-loss-form or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at jlevi@levikorsinsky.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut and Washington D.C. The firms attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities and shareholder lawsuits. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. BOSTON, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Partners HealthCare today announced that its Specialty Pharmacy has been accredited by URAC. URAC is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes health care quality through its accreditation, education, and measurement programs. URAC accreditation is based on nationally recognized health care standards that support improvements and innovation in health care management and delivery. Working across the Partners HealthCare system, our program is designed to support patients with complex health conditions through the appropriate management of specialty medications, which are often complicated and expensive, said Michael Carter, RPh, Corporate Director of Specialty Pharmacy. URAC accreditation is a rigorous process and is further recognition of our commitment to the highest standards and continuous quality improvement. The Partners Specialty Pharmacy replaces typical third-party pharmacies by delivering medications directly to patients, securing the medications and supplies at a lower cost. The team also provides medication management guidance and financial assistance services. In just over a year since opening, the Specialty Pharmacy has already saved patients who use the pharmacy services more than $500,000 on pharmaceutical costs. Any pharmacy located in the United States that dispenses specialty drugs to consumers with specific chronic conditions, acute events, or complex therapies, and provides comprehensive patient education services and coordination with the patient and prescriber is eligible to apply for the URAC Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation program. URAC accreditation requires applicants to submit policies, procedures, and other organizational information that is followed by a lengthy review. Partners Specialty Pharmacy dispenses and manages medications that treat complex health conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis. These medications may need special storage and many patients who are prescribed specialty medications may need help understanding how to use these medications. Partners Specialty Pharmacy helps patients manage their medications and provides consistent support to ensure better patient outcomes and quality of life. About Partners HealthCare Partners HealthCare is an integrated health care system, founded by Brigham and Womens Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, that offers patients a continuum of coordinated and high-quality care. In addition to its two academic medical centers, the system includes community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance provider, a physician network, community health centers, home health and long-term care services, and other health care entities. Partners is a non-profit organization that is committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Partners is one of the nations leading biomedical research organizations and is a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information, please visit www.partners.org . About URAC Founded in 1990, URAC is the independent leader in promoting healthcare quality through leadership, accreditation, measurement and innovation. URAC is a nonprofit organization using evidence-based measures and developing standards through inclusive engagement with a range of stakeholders committed to improving the quality of healthcare. URACs portfolio of accreditation and certification programs span the healthcare industry, addressing healthcare management, healthcare operations, health plans, pharmacies, telehealth providers, physician practices, and more. URAC accreditation is a symbol of excellence for organizations to showcase their validated commitment to quality and accountability. Contacts: Rich Copp 617-278-1031 Bridget Perry Partners HealthCare bperry7@partners.org NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Conagra Brands, Inc. (Conagra or the Company) (NYSE: CAG) and certain of its officers and directors. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, and indexed under 19-cv-01805, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities, other than Defendants and their affiliates, who purchased, or otherwise acquired, Conagra common stock from June 27, 2018 through December 19, 2018, inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act). The Exchange Act claims allege that certain defendants engaged in a fraudulent scheme to artificially inflate the Companys stock price. The action is also brought on behalf of all persons or entities who purchased shares of Conagras common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the Companys false and/or misleading registration statement, prospectus and prospectus supplement (the Offering Documents) issued in connection with the Companys secondary public offering commenced on or about October 9, 2018, for the sale of approximately 16.3 million shares of Conagra common stock (the SPO), at $35.25 per share, seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act). If you are a shareholder who purchased Conagra securities between June 27, 2018, and December 19, 2018, you have until April 23, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here to join this class action] Conagra manufactures and markets packaged foods for retail consumers, restaurants and institutions. The Company has a portfolio of well-known food brands including Reddi-wip, Hunts, Healthy Choice, Slim Jim and Orville Redenbachers. Conagra is based in Chicago, Illinois. In January 2013, Conagra acquired Ralcorp Holdings, Inc., a manufacturer of private branded food, for $6.8 billion including debt. After trying and failing to address executional shortfalls and customer service issues, Conagra divested its Private Brands business in February 2016 to TreeHouse Foods for $2.7 billion, recognizing a substantial loss. Less than two years later, Conagra was again acquiring another large publicly traded food service company. On June 27, 2018, Conagra announced the acquisition of Pinnacle in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $10.9 billion (the Transaction). At the time of the Transaction and throughout the Class Period, Conagra represented the merger as a combination of two growing portfolios and a no brainer of a deal that would enhance Conagras multi-year transformation plan and expand its presence and capabilities in its most strategic categories, including frozen foods and snacks. Conagra highlighted their due diligence of the deal, the similar cultures and work ethics of the two companies, and the tremendous synergies of the deal. Specifically, Defendants represented that the Company was acquiring a portfolio of complementary, leading brands as the Pinnacle team has done an absolutely phenomenal job driving innovation and growth here, and that meant a lot to us. In addition, Defendants represented that the Company had a proven track record of executing strategic transactions and will be able to implement a smooth integration process, as weve been very clear-eyed from the beginning of the Transaction. The Complaint alleges that in Conagras Offering Documents and throughout the Class Period, Defendants failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys financial well-being, including the troubled acquisition of Pinnacle Foods, Inc. (Pinnacle). As a result of Defendants wrongful acts, false and misleading statements and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Companys common stock, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages. On or about October 9, 2018, in order to partially finance the pending acquisition of Pinnacle, Defendants effectuated a secondary public offering of 16,312,057 shares of common stock, priced at $35.25 per share. In connection with the SPO, Defendants issued the materially false and/or misleading Offering Documents. The Company received net proceeds of approximately $612 million after underwriters exercised their option of an additional 1,631,206 shares of Conagra common stock. Unbeknownst to shareholders, however, Conagra and its management were aware or recklessly disregarded that the Transaction would not result in the sort of benefits that Defendants had publicly represented. Just a few weeks after the closing of the merger, on December 20, 2018, Conagra stunned the market by releasing its third quarter 2018 results, as well as an update on the performance of the newly merged company, which revealed that Pinnacles performance had been much worse than Defendants had previously represented. In addition, Defendants revealed that Pinnacles three leading brands had suffered sales and distribution losses in 2018 and accounted for the vast majority of Pinnacles current challenges due to self-inflicted subpar innovation and executional missteps. As a result of the disclosure, on December 20, 2018, Conagras stock price fell $4.81 per share to $24.28, or nearly 17%, wiping out over $2.3 billion in Conagras market capitalization. On the next trading day, Conagras stock declined an additional $2.13 per share, or approximately 8.8%. In fact, in three trading sessions, Conagra stock declined $8.13, or nearly 28%, to close at $20.96 on December 24, 2018. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 ext. 9980 English French Unique feature and appearance combinations will give Canadians the chance to celebrate with Kia through two of its most popular models TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After launching in 1999, Kia Canada is celebrating its twentieth year in Canada the best way it knows how with two limited edition models that take the popular Soul and Stinger to even greater heights. Along with the brand being ranked at the top of J.D. Powers Initial Quality Study, 2019 has already been a very positive year for Kia in Canada, winning the AJAC Best Small Car for the all-new Forte, Best Large Car quickly followed by Overall Car of the Year for the Stinger. These new versions of Stinger and Soul will elevate the brand even further with even more great vehicles coming soon. In just twenty years, Kia has grown in Canada from 43 dealers and two products to 194 dealers and a range of vehicles that includes Stinger as AJACs Car of the Year, fantastic small cars, two long-range EVs and a full suite of SUVs that includes the all-new Telluride 8-seater SUV, said Michael Kopke, Director of Marketing, Kia Canada Inc. Offering these two limited edition models of Soul and Stinger is just part of how we are celebrating 20 years in this great nation while we look forward to our future. Available this spring, only 150 units of the 20th Anniversary Kia Stinger will be available with an MSRP of $51,495 a price that adds just $1,500 to the GT Limited model and adds the following: Unique combination of the Ghost Grey exterior and Red Nappa interior Unique 19 Machine Finished Alloy wheels Custom Red Stitched Floor Mats Also available this spring, 200 units of the 20th Anniversary Kia Soul will be available with an MSRP of $24,395 a price that adds just $1,500 to the popular EX model and adds the following: 2-tone exterior colour (white body with red roof) 10.25 Display Audio with Navigation UVO Intelligence Telematics Auto-Dimming Rear-View Mirror Speaker Mood Lamps Dual-Zone Auto Climate Control Gloss Black and Leather Wrap Centre Fascia Unique 20th Anniversary emblem For more information on the entire Kia lineup, please visit Kia Canadas media site at KiaMedia.ca. ### About Kia Canada Inc. Kia Canada Inc. (KCI), established in 1999 and celebrating 20 years in Canada, is a subsidiary of Kia Motors Corporation (KMC) based in Seoul, South Korea. Kias full line of award-winning vehicles offers world-class quality and customer satisfaction through a network of 194 dealers nationwide. The company employs 170 people in its Mississauga, Ontario headquarters, various locations across Canada and at its regional office in Montreal, Quebec. Kias brand slogan "The Power to Surprise" represents the company's global commitment to surpassing customer expectations through continuous automotive innovation. From compact to crossover to industry leading EVs, every Kia delivers an extraordinary combination of precision engineering, outstanding performance, innovative features, and advanced safety systems. Having sold close to one million vehicles, popular Canadian models include Soul, Sportage, Sorento, Forte - winner of 2019 AJAC Best Small Car and Stinger winner 2019 AJAC Car of the Year. To learn more about the Kia advantage, visit kia.ca or Facebook , LinkedIn , Twitter and Instagram . Mark James Corporate Communications Manager Kia Canada Inc. T: 905-755-6251; E: mjames@kia.ca 2 photos accompanying this announcement are available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cd4287b8-1eed-4108-a6fc-240eebbe4795 http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7e92694b-8e87-4591-a16f-6ae6ac6997e0 Rumors of War: Washington Is Looking for a Fight Never before in recent decades has the United States been so belligerent, and that in spite of the fact that there is no single enemy or combination of enemies that actually threaten either the geographical United States or a vital interest. It is depressing to observe how the United States of America has become the evil empire. Having served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and in the Central Intelligence Agency for the second half of the Cold War, I had an insiders viewpoint of how an essentially pragmatic national security policy was being transformed bit by bit into a bipartisan doctrine that featured as a sine qua non global dominance for Washington. Unfortunately, when the Soviet Union collapsed the opportunity to end once and for all the bipolar nuclear confrontation that threatened global annihilation was squandered as President Bill Clinton chose instead to humiliate and use NATO to contain an already demoralized and effectively leaderless Russia. American Exceptionalism became the battle cry for an increasingly clueless federal government as well as for a media-deluded public. When 9/11 arrived, the country was ready to lash out at the rest of the world. President George W. Bush growled that Theres a new sheriff in town and you are either with us or against us. Afghanistan followed, then Iraq, and, in a spirit of bipartisanship, the Democrats came up with Libya and the first serious engagement in Syria. In its current manifestation, one finds a United States that threatens Iran on a nearly weekly basis and tears up arms control agreements with Russia while also maintaining deployments of US forces in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and places like Mali. Scattered across the globe are 800 American military bases while Washingtons principal enemies du jour Russia and China have, respectively, only one and none. Never before in my lifetime has the United States been so belligerent, and that in spite of the fact that there is no single enemy or combination of enemies that actually threaten either the geographical United States or a vital interest. Venezuela is being threatened with invasion primarily because it is in the western hemisphere and therefore subject to Washingtons claimed proconsular authority. Last Wednesday Vice President Mike Pence told the United Nations Security Council that the White House will remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, preferably using diplomacy and sanctions, but all options are on the table. Pence warned that Russia and other friends of Maduro need to leave now or face the consequences. The development of the United States as a hostile and somewhat unpredictable force has not gone unnoticed. Russia has accepted that war is coming no matter what it does in dealing with Trump and is upgrading its forces. By some estimates, its army is better equipped and more combat ready than is that of the United States, which spends nearly ten times as much on defense. Iran is also upgrading its defensive capabilities, which are formidable. Now that Washington has withdrawn from the nuclear agreement with Iran, has placed a series of increasingly punitive sanctions on the country, and, most recently, has declared a part of the Iranian military to be a foreign terrorist organization and therefore subject to attack by US forces at any time, it is clear that war will be the next step. In three weeks, the United States will seek to enforce a global ban on any purchases of Iranian oil. A number of countries, including US nominal ally Turkey, have said they will ignore the ban and it will be interesting to see what the US Navy intends to do to enforce it. Or what Iran will do to break the blockade. But even given all of the horrific decisions being made in the White House, there is one organization that is far crazier and possibly even more dangerous. That is the United States Congress, which is, not surprisingly, a legislative body that is viewed positively by only 18 per cent of the American people. A current bill originally entitled the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act (DASKA) of 2019, is numbered S-1189. It has been introduced in the Senate which will require the Secretary of State to determine whether the Russian Federation should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and whether Russian-sponsored armed entities in Ukraine should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations. The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado and is co-sponsored by Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey. The current version of the bill was introduced on April 11th and it is by no means clear what kind of support it might actually have, but the fact that it actually has surfaced at all should be disturbing to anyone who believes it is in the worlds best interest to avoid direct military confrontation between the United States and Russia. In a a press release by Gardner, who has long been pushing to have Russia listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, a February version of the bill is described as comprehensive legislation [that] seeks to increase economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation in response to Russias interference in democratic processes abroad, malign influence in Syria, and aggression against Ukraine, including in the Kerch Strait. The legislation establishes a comprehensive policy response to better position the US government to address Kremlin aggression by creating new policy offices on cyber defenses and sanctions coordination. The bill stands up for NATO and prevents the President from pulling the US out of the Alliance without a Senate vote. It also increases sanctions pressure on Moscow for its interference in democratic processes abroad and continued aggression against Ukraine. The February version of the bill included Menendez, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina as co-sponsors, suggesting that provoking war is truly bipartisan in todays Washington. Each Senator co-sponsor contributed a personal comment to the press release. Gardner observed that Putins Russia is an outlaw regime that is hell-bent on undermining international law and destroying the US-led liberal global order. Menendez noted that President Trumps willful paralysis in the face of Kremlin aggression has reached a boiling point in Congress while Graham added that Our goal is to change the status quo and impose meaningful sanctions and measures against Putins Russia. He should cease and desist meddling in the US electoral process, halt cyberattacks on American infrastructure, remove Russia from Ukraine, and stop efforts to create chaos in Syria. Cardin contributed Congress continues to take the lead in defending US national security against continuing Russian aggression against democratic institutions at home and abroad and Shaheen observed that This legislation builds on previous efforts in Congress to hold Russia accountable for its bellicose behavior against the United States and its determination to destabilize our global world order. The Senatorial commentary is, of course, greatly exaggerated and sometimes completely false regarding what is going on in the world, but it is revealing of how ignorant American legislators can be and often are. The Senators also ignore the fact that the designation of presumed Kremlin surrogate forces as foreign terrorist organizations is equivalent to a declaration of war against them by the US military, while hypocritically calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism is bad enough, as it is demonstrably untrue. But the real damage comes from the existence of the bill itself. It will solidify support for hardliners on both sides, guaranteeing that there will be no rapprochement between Washington and Moscow for the foreseeable future, a development that is bad for everyone involved. Whether it can be characterized as an unintended consequence of unwise decision making or perhaps something more sinister involving a deeply corrupted congress and administration remains to be determined. Russia recently revealed that its 2015 program to offer para-military training to teenagers had so far gained 350,000 members (and has a goal of one million). The program provides various programs to keep the kids busy and more patriotic. Another reason for the program is to prepare young men for military service. Russia still uses conscription but popular pressure has forced the government to reduce conscript service to one year and because so much of that time has to be spent with training (to turn civilians into useful soldiers) the military gets little practical use out of conscripts. Successful graduates of the para-military training programs can undergo a shorter form of basic training and gain an edge in getting choice assignments. The military hopes to convert many of the para-military trained recruits (especially conscripts) into career soldiers and a source of NCOs and officers. The damage the one-year conscript service did to the military was never officially admitted until recently because senior officers were told that anyone speaking about this publicly would do serious damage to their careers. But, as officers with knowledge of the extent of the damage retired or resigned from the military, more of them spoke openly of the problem. Because of the growing demand for troops to serve in eastern Ukraine and Syria, there was more discussion on the Internet of the negative impact one-year conscripts have inflicted. Denials from the government were no longer working and active duty generals and admirals unofficially admitted it was all true, and that it was actually as bad as much of the Internet chatter implied. It was no secret that the presence of so many ill-trained conscripts in the military discouraged men from joining as volunteers (contract soldiers) and many existing officers and career enlisted men were leaving as well. For years it had been generally believed that the only effective units in the Russian military were the 100,000 or so troops in the Spetsnaz (special operations) and airborne units and even these units took some conscript volunteers and used them for support jobs requiring less training and experience. This lack of time in service is particularly damaging for the air force and navy, which have fewer jobs for unskilled labor. Taking ships to sea is increasingly risky when so many of the crew are conscripts who have to be closely supervised and taught the many basic skills warship crewmen require. The air force is unable to maintain aircraft adequately. That means more aircraft, particularly the many older ones still in service, are crashing. Pilots are not able to fly as many hours as needed to retain skills. This situation has been made worse since 2015 because of the air operations in Syria. Those air operations are a priority and since Syria is a combat zone conscripts cannot be sent there. In any event, Syria is no place for anything but the most skilled and experienced maintainers. That means few of these maintainers are available for the air force squadrons back in Russia, which now fly even fewer hours. The government was eager to keep this conscript crisis quiet because officially admitting it would hamper Russian diplomacy based on threats of large scale military action. East European media openly mocks Russian military threats because of the few effective units Russia actually has. The situation was becoming difficult to hide from the rest of the world. Many Russians and East Europeans regularly crossed the border on business or to visit friends and family and many of those visitors got personal testimony of recent veterans or kin of how bad the problem was and what a bad joke any Russian military threats were. That news slowly spread to Western Europe. Russia has other problems with its actual military capabilities. Government efforts to project the image of a modern, professional and constantly improving armed forces is proving more difficult to sustain. Thus the urgency of making the para-military school program work. During the decades of communist rule, the state had complete control over the media, massive internal security forces and, most importantly, no Internet or smartphones. Those last two items have crippled efforts to persuade Russians and foreigners that Russia was still a major developer and manufacturer of new weapons. The constant stream of press releases detailing new weapons the Russian forces will be equipped with is undermined by the reality, often documented vis-a-vi smartphone video spread via the Internet. The new weapons often do not work at all and even if they do there is never enough money to produce them in the quantities implied. Russian development and manufacturing efforts are still crippled by shortages of cash and talent. Arms exports are hurt by this, especially with competitors like China continuing to produce Russian designs more efficiently (more effective, reliable and less costly in the long run). New gear that does get produced in significant numbers is usually for export customers who have the cash for procurement that the Russian military still lacks. This poverty of money and talent is very visible with the Russian military efforts in Ukraine (Donbas) and Syria. Both are being carried out on the cheap and with as much discretion as possible because these operations are unpopular with the Russian people. They see Russian money and Russian lives being wasted on expensive political games that do the average Russian no good at all. Thus government efforts to mask just how much these operations cost in terms of resources and casualties. Hiding the spending is easier than concealing the number of dead. But the government keeps trying, especially when it comes to improving morale in the military. That is not a new problem and that was why the government tried, in 2013, to revive the old communist era ideological training for troops and increased use of informants and opinion surveys to monitor morale and loyalty in the military. In effect, the government has returned to using the communist era "Zampolit" (political officer.) In Soviet times, every unit commander had a deputy (Zampolit) who represented the communist party and could veto any of the commanders decisions. The Zampolit was responsible for troop loyalty and political correctness. Sort of a communist chaplain. In 2010 the Russian Army reintroduced chaplains, something that the communists did away with in the 1920s. The new chaplains are, however, expected to report on the loyalty of the troops, to church and state. Now, additional officers are being added to handle ideological training and monitoring morale. Not exactly the return of the Zampolit, but a return of most of the Zampolits duties. Like their Cold War era counterparts the Zampolits proved better at reporting the bad news than dealing with it. The reports from the new Zampolits and official troop opinion polls are not encouraging, but they explain why so many young Russians and their parents are so eager to avoid conscription any way they can. Morale has not improved but at least the regular use of opinion surveys showed that the troops were well aware of deceptive press releases about nonexistent new equipment. The troops also knew what low budget charades the operations in Donbas and Syria were. While many details of the surveys could be kept secret, the actual attitudes of the troops could not. No wonder why some Russians are nostalgic for the good old days of communist rule. If you want to see the future, look at China where newly (for the first time in history) modernized Chinese forces are a long-term threat to Russia. In China, there is lots of new gear and plenty to go around. China has a more effective economy and lots more money. China does not have to depend on conscripts and has much better trained troops than Russia. Lacking cash the Russian government is forced to come up with other methods. Many of these new ideas are practices that were widely used during the communist period or even before during czarist times. Para-military training for high school students was used during czarist times when far fewer Russian youngsters got more than eight years of schooling. Teenagers of the aristocracy and wealthy families did attend secondary school and many of these had para-military training. So what is old is new again. The Shia rebels now say they will finally implement the December peace deal that was supposed to reopen the Red Sea port of Hodeida, which is essential for delivering emergency food and other aid to northern Yemen. Iran had persuaded the Shia rebels to stall but that advice lost its appeal as the rebel situation worsened everywhere, not just at Hodeida. Iran had problems of its own at home and elsewhere and as not been able to help much. While the rebels have stolen and stockpiled a lot of food and other aid, their coalition continues to unravel and lack of aid coming through Hodeida is one reason. The rebels seemed unstoppable in 2014 because they could depend on the cooperation or neutrality of many Sunni tribes and all the Shia tribes in the north. That cooperation often came in the form of reliable neutrality. After 2016 there were a lot fewer neutral Sunni tribes and some had turned against the rebels. Key neutral tribes in the northwest (the rebel homeland) are renouncing their neutrality and fighting, or just blocking rebel movement. A key rebel loss has been in the northwest (Hajjah province), which was taken by Saudi forces in 2018 after more than two years of fighting. This province is on the Saudi border and largely populated by Shia. Many Saudis believe Hajjah province should be part of Saudi Arabia. At one time in the 1920s, a decade before the Saudi kingdom was founded, Saudi forces conquered Hajjah province. British threats caused the Saudis to withdraw but the Saudis never forgot. Another reason for the Saudis to take the province is to halt the smuggling that still thrives along the Red Sea coast. Pacifying Hajjah province meant making deals with the Shia tribes to assure them they would not be mistreated. To help with that the Saudis had the experience of the many Shia tribes in southwest Saudi Arabia, who have done much better economically over the decades than their Shia brethren across the border in Yemen. The Saudi pitch was classic Arabian; support the Saudi cause and Saudi Arabia will provide protection and aid. By early 2019 it was obvious to the Shia rebels that the key Shia tribes in Hajjah province had switched sides. The rebels shifted forces from the south to launch an offensive against their new enemy. With Saudi assistance, the Hajjah tribes were able to keep the rebels out. That was a problem for the rebels because Hajjah contained some key routes long used by the Shia rebel tribes inland. This put more pressure on the rebels because this was yet another Saudis success in or near the Shia rebel home province of Saada. This is not a new situation but has been growing worse since 2016 and caused a manpower shortage for the rebels as well as a worsening morale problem. The Shia rebels have become weaker in other respects. Their failure to meet the terms of the December 2018 Hodeida ceasefire backfired. The Arab Coalition brought in food from the less capable Gulf of Oman ports and are working to expand the capabilities of those ports. In the meantime, there was less food aid for the areas once dependent on supplies coming in via Hodeida. The Yemeni government was able to do something about the shortages while the Shia rebels simply made matters worse without helping the rebel coalition or the core rebel Shia tribes back north in Saada province. Iran had no solutions because the blockade was remarkably effective and Iran did not have the resources for anything new and ambitious that could change the situation. The Shia rebels demonstrated that they have fewer and fewer options. The rebels have lost the ability to launch more ballistic missiles at key targets in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The rebels have few if any, ballistic missiles left. Moreover, the Saudis and UAE have been able to shoot down all of the missiles that were going to hit an important area (and not land in an unpopulated area, as many of the missiles have done). Another threat that the rebels pose, but will not admit openly, is that they will try to destroy Hodeida port facilities and food storage sites before they leave the city. Recently the rebels decided that trashing Hodeida was not a practical option. Damaging the port would reduce aid supplies to rebel-held areas and it would obviously be the fault of the rebels. Food would be available from the government, bringing it in via Gulf of Oman ports. Finally, the rebels need the forces concentrated around Hodeida elsewhere. The government and Arab coalition forces are advancing on several fronts and if the rebels dont send reinforcements there will be major losses of territory. The Arab Coalition is also slowly taking apart the legal income sources the rebels had because they captured the national capital in 2014 and held on to it. That meant they maintained control over vital, and profitable (via taxation) industries. One of the most valuable, the telecommunications business, has been generating about $60 million a month in taxes since the rebels seized the capital. The Arab coalition created a rival national telecommunications authority and has persuaded most of the foreign telecommunications firms to abandon the Shia rebels and pay the legitimate government operating from the temporary capital of Aden. The rebels have already lost enormous sums because Hodeida is closed and all those bribes, extortion payments and stolen aid are no longer available. Cholera Abides The 2017 cholera epidemic was never completely suppressed and has revived with about 200,000 new cases so far in 2019. The original 2017 outbreak got out of control because the Shia rebels refused to allow the UN to fly in half a million doses of vaccine early on. The rebels insisted that they be first supplied with ambulances and other medical equipment their fighting forces needed. This delayed the vaccination program and the rebels continued to tolerate contaminated water supplies in areas they controlled. With the deadlock at Hodeida, the rebels had even fewer resources to deal with the water supply problems and growing poverty in their territory. The resurgence of cholera is a very visible example of the problems in rebel territory. The rebels are less prepared to deal with the epidemic than they were in 2017. In mid-2017 it was believed that the epidemic had peaked. It had but many victims were still incapacitated and the conditions that enabled the outbreak were unchanged. By mid-2017 about a million people had been infected in 22 of 23 provinces and about 2,300 died. This all began in April 2017 when living conditions in the capital Saana declined to the point that there was an outbreak of cholera (that is spread by infected water and food). The disease spread from the capital and intensified. This was all because the rebels have not put a priority on maintaining the quality of the water supply. Iran blamed the people fighting the rebels, especially Saudi Arabia. But the main problem was the rebels, who tried to use the cholera outbreak to extort militarily useful aid from the UN and other foreign aid groups. Asking donor states (and private foundations or individuals) for more money doesnt work when the destination is a place like Yemen. Because of the Internet donors can more easily exchange information on the success or failure of their efforts. Yemen most frequently comes up on the losing side because of the rampant corruption and banditry. Islamic Terrorists Feuding And Waiting AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) and ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) are still around but largely keeping their heads down in rural hideouts. Most of these are in central Yemen ( Baida province) and to the east. Anywhere an Islamic terrorist can find a hospitable tribe, they can usually arrange refuge. AQAP has few active members left in Yemen and the only remaining local support is from some separatist Sunni tribes in the south and east. In the south (Shabwa province), Yemeni special operation troops have been finding and raiding the few remaining rural AQAP hideouts there. Since 2017 AQAP has been under heavy attack by the Americans and the Arab coalition and the Islamic terrorists have responded by shifting more of their attacks to the government and Arab coalition forces. AQAP took credit for 273 attacks in 2017 and in the first six months of 2017, some 75 percent of these attacks were against the Shia rebels. But in the second half of 2017 half, the attacks were against fellow Sunnis (government and coalition forces). In 2018 the remaining AQAP are mainly fighting for survival against the government and coalition forces. AQAP is more acceptable to more Yemenis in the south and survives more easily. By mid-2017 Islamic terrorist attacks had declined more than 90 percent versus 2014 and the decline continued into 2018. In the last year, there have been very few prominent AQAP or ISIL attacks in Yemen. AQAP and their tribal allies have reached the point where tribal elders are willing to try convincing armed tribesmen not to work for AQAP. The effort to clear AQAP out Hadramawt, Abyan (Aden) and Shabwa provinces has been going on since late 2016 but became more intense since early 2017 when the United States increased its effort to find and kill key AQAP personnel, especially the many who were based in Shabwa. This was mainly done from the air using UAVs for surveillance and attacks using guided missiles and smart bombs. As a result of the air operations, the remaining AQAP groups became more vulnerable to detection and attack on the ground. There are also some ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) groups out in the hills who will attack AQAP but are currently avoiding government forces. There seem to be only one or two ISIL groups left in this region and not many more AQAP but the search, and the occasional battles, continue. The two Islamic terrorist groups have been attacking each other during the last year, usually via assassination. Bombings attract too much attention and require a lot more effort. Islamic terrorists have long found refuge among Islamic conservative tribes in rural areas of Yemen. The offer of refuge goes away if the government gets determined about searching for Islamic terrorists. In cases like that the Islamic terrorist guests will move on rather than anger their host if the government forces come by and find the tribe harboring Islamic terrorists. Currently, AQAP and ISIL take the long view, that eventually the civil war will be over and it will be possible for Islamic terror groups to again recruit, rebuild and get back into action. April 16, 2019: The government revealed that it had shot down eleven rebel UAVs (equipped with explosives) sent to attack the Yemen parliament which has resumed meeting in the southeast (Hadramawt province). There is still some threat from Iranian UAVs, but while these are smaller and easier to smuggle in there appears to be a limited number of them left in Yemen because of the numerous Arab air raids during 2019 against bases they operate from. While the ballistic missile attacks have been halted there has only been a reduction in the use of armed (with explosives) UAV attacks. Government forces first encountered Iranian UAVs equipped with explosives in early 2018. There were a few successful attacks with these UAVs used as cruise missiles but since late 2018 the coalition has been quick to detect and destroy these UAVs, either in the air or on the ground. April 15, 2019: The government and rebels agreed to implement the terms of the December 2018 deal to demilitarize Hodeida port facilities and adjacent food storage sites. That agreement was to have been implemented in January but the rebels refused to cooperate. The new agreement is supposed to have assurances that aid will go where it is supposed to. The details of which forces will move to where and when have been agreed to but not made public. In the past, the rebels would debate such details endlessly as a delaying tactic. The only thing that gives hope this time around is that the bels have been moving forces from Hodeida to deal with emergencies elsewhere and the rebel supply situation is pretty bad, especially for the civilians they rule over. April 13, 2019: In the southeast (Hadramawt province), the government convened parliament for the first time, in Sayoun city since the Shia rebels seized control of the capital in 2015. The last parliamentary elections were held in 2003 and none have been held since. The Arab Coalition and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) has endorsed the use of members elected in 2003. The government was only able to get 138 members (out of 301) to this parliament, so there is not a quorum (majority of members) present to officially conduct business. Since 2003 about 40 members have died and at least 50 are in rebel-held areas. The whereabouts of the others are unknown, unclear or a member does not want to get involved yet. Since the government has managed to move the Election Commission from Sanaa, it has been possible to make plans for new elections, even if people in rebel-held areas will be unable to vote. April 10, 2019: The coalition carried out airstrikes against two targets in the capital Sanaa. One strike was against a launching area for armed UAVs and another was a building used to modify or repair the Iranian UAVs used for attacks. April 9, 2019: In the south (Dhalea province), a rebel short-range ballistic missile apparently aimed at a populated area in the province, missed and landed in some farmland. With the continued stalemate around the port of Hodeida, the rebels have shifted forces to other areas, like the border of Dhalea province in preparation to retaking one of the first provinces retaken by government forces in 2015. The missile attack was apparently in support of that offensive, which never got going and rebel forces were forced back by a government attack. The rebels lost control of Shaddad Fort Mountain, some key high ground in northern Dhalea province. April 8, 2019: The United States designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization. This includes the Quds Force which supports many illegal, and some legal Iranian and Hezbollah operations worldwide. This terrorist designation means it is more difficult, but not impossible, for IRGC and Quds Force personnel to move around and operate in nations that are not close Iranian allies (like Syria, Lebanon as well as parts of Iraq and Yemen). April 7, 2019: In the north Saudi, air defenses shot down a rebel UAV apparently headed for a target in southwestern Saudi Arabia (Asir Province). April 6, 2019: In the north (Sanaa province), government forced advances closer to the rebel-held capital Sanaa. April 2, 2019: In the northwest (Hodeida province), major fighting broke out between the Shia rebels and government forces in the port of Hodeida. The fighting, which consisted of lots of mortar and artillery shells fired by government and rebel forces, was concentrated outside the city near the airport and Red Sea mills, where foreign aid food supplies are stored. The shelling was over after a few hours and there were no reports of casualties. In the north, Saudi air defenses shot down two rebel UAVs apparently headed for the southwestern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait in Asir province. April 1, 2019: The U.S. revealed that there have been eight American UAV attacks in Yemen so far this year. Two were in January and the rest in March. While the American UAV attacks continue in Yemen the number has greatly declined since 2018, when there were 36 attacks. In 2017 there were 131 attacks and all have been mainly against AQAP and ISIL camps and key personnel in central Yemen. March 23, 2019: In the north (Sanaa province), coalition airstrikes hit two caves outside Sanaa city where the rebels were believed to be storing Iranian UAVs and related equipment. French English Paris, 18 April 2019 (6.00 p.m.) HIGHCO CONTINUED ITS POSITIVE GROWTH TREND IN Q1 2019 WITH 3.1% LFL GROWTH IN GROSS PROFIT AND CONFIRMS ITS 2019 GUIDANCE Solid business growth in Q1 driven by Digital Q1 2019 1 gross profit of 23.17 M, up 11.8% on a reported basis and 3.1% LFL 2 . gross profit of 23.17 M, up 11.8% on a reported basis and 3.1% LFL . Strong growth in digital business: Q1 LFL up 6.5%. Continued positive growth trend in France: Q1 LFL up 3.8%. Slight growth in International business: Q1 LFL up 0.8%. 2019 guidance confirmed Growth in 2019 gross profit higher than growth in 2018 on a like-for-like basis (2018 gross profit: up 2.6% like for like), with a higher share of Digital in the Groups business in 2019 than in 2018 (52.9% in 2018). Slight rise in adjusted operating margin (adjusted headline PBIT/gross profit)3 (2018 adjusted operating margin: 18.3%). ( M) 2019 2018 Reported 2018 LFL2 2019/2018 Reported change 2019/2018 LFL2 change Q1 Gross Profit1 23.17 20.73 22.48 +11.8% +3.1% 1 Unaudited data. 2 Like for like: Based on a comparable scope (i.e. including Useradgents over three months in 2018 and 2019, as of 1 January) and at constant exchange rates (i.e. applying the average exchange rate over the period to data from the compared period). 3 Adjusted headline profit before interest and tax: Recurring operating income before restructuring costs and excluding the cost of performance share plans. Adjusted operating margin: Adjusted headline PBIT/Gross profit. Didier Chabassieu, Chairman of the Management Board, stated, After a strong performance in 2018, HighCo delivered business growth in line with expectations in the first quarter of 2019, mainly driven by digital businesses. This positive trend has enabled the Group to confirm its guidance for 2019 and move forward in its strategy based on digitisation of its businesses and data management. SOLID BUSINESS GROWTH IN Q1 DRIVEN BY DIGITAL The Group posted business growth that remains healthy in Q1 2019 with gross profit of 23.17 M, up 11.8% on a reported basis and 3.1% like for like. With an increase of 6.5% like for like in Q1 2019, Digital remains the Groups growth driver. The share of digital activities in total Group business continued to rise significantly, up from the reported figure of 47.7% in Q1 2018 to 53.4% in Q1 2019. Offline businesses started 2019 with a slight decline of 0.7% on a like-for-like basis. CONTINUED POSITIVE GROWTH TREND IN FRANCE AND SLIGHT GROWTH IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Up 3.8% like for like, France turned in gross profit of 17.7 M in Q1 2019, representing 76.4% of the Groups gross profit. This increase is driven by the strong surge in digital businesses (up 7.6% like for like), with their share of total business rising from 51.9% to 58.8% over the quarter, partly due to the integration of Useradgents mid-2018. International gross profit grew slightly by 0.8% like for like to 5.47 M in Q1 2019, representing 23.6% of the Groups gross profit. In Benelux, gross profit increased 0.7% like for like in Q1 2019 to 5.18 M. Business in Southern Europe continues to follow an upward trend. After showing growth in 2018, the region accounts for 1.2% of the Groups gross profit. 2019 GUIDANCE CONFIRMED In light of the strong performance reported in Q1 2019 and the outlook expected for the months to come, the Group has confirmed its guidance for 2019: Growth in 2019 gross profit higher than growth in 2018 on a like-for-like basis (2018 gross profit: up 2.6% like for like), with a higher share of Digital in the Groups business in 2019 than in 2018 (52.9% in 2018); Slight rise in adjusted operating margin (2018 adjusted operating margin: 18.3%). 2018 ANNUAL REPORT AND 2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HighCos 2018 Annual Report was filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers (French financial markets authority) on 15 April 2019 under No. D19-0333. The report is delivered as the Groups registration document and is available on HighCos website ( www.highco.com ), under Investors>Annual Report. The Annual General Meeting will be held at the head office in Aix-en-Provence on 20 May 2019. A dividend of 0.16 per share for FY 2018, i.e. 14.3% higher than for FY 2017, will be proposed at the meeting, with payment scheduled for 28 May 2019 (ex-dividend date of 24 May 2019). About HighCo As an expert in data marketing and communication, HighCo continuously innovates to work with brands and retailers in meeting the retail challenges of tomorrow. Listed in compartment C of Euronext Paris, and eligible for the long only DSS, HighCo has more than 750 employees and since 2010 has been included in the Gaia Index, a selection of 70 responsible Small and Mid Caps. Your contacts Cecile Collina-Hue Cynthia Lerat Managing Director Press Relations +33 1 77 75 65 06 +33 1 77 75 65 16 comfi@highco.com c.lerat@highco.com Upcoming events Publications take place after market close . Q2 and H1 2019 Gross Profit: Wednesday, 17 July 2019 2019 Half-year Earnings: Wednesday, 28 August 2019 Conference call on 2019 half-year earnings: Thursday, 29 August 2019 Q3 and 9-month YTD 2019 Gross Profit: Wednesday, 16 October 2019 Q4 and FY 2019 Gross Profit: Wednesday, 22 January 2020 HighCo is a component stock of the indices CAC Small (CACS), CAC Mid&Small (CACMS) and CAC All-Tradable (CACT). ISIN: FR0000054231 Reuters: HIGH.PA Bloomberg: HCO FP For further financial information and press releases, go to www.highco.com Donations for the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris High Connexion is teaming up alongside telecoms operators Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR, members of Frances mobile multimedia association AFMM, now to enable people in France to send donations of 5 by SMS to the Fondation du Patrimoine (French heritage foundation) to restore Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral. To give your support, send DON by SMS to 92 500 (only available in France). This English translation is for the convenience of English-speaking readers. Consequently, the translation may not be relied upon to sustain any legal claim, nor should it be used as the basis of any legal opinion. HighCo expressly disclaims all liability for any inaccuracy herein. Attachment MONACO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Costamare Inc. (NYSE:CMRE), announced today that it will release its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 after the market closes in New York on Monday, April 22, 2019. Conference Call Details: On Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. ET, Costamares management team will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results. Participants should dial into the call 10 minutes before the scheduled time using the following numbers: 1-844-887-9405 (from the US), 0808-238-9064 (from the UK) or +1-412-317-9258 (from outside the US). Please quote "Costamare". A replay of the conference call will be available until April 30, 2019. The United States replay number is +1-877-344-7529; the standard international replay number is +1-412-317-0088; and the access code required for the replay is: 10130852. Live Webcast: There will also be a simultaneous live webcast over the Internet, through the Costamare Inc. website (www.costamare.com). Participants to the live webcast should register on the website approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the webcast. About Costamare Inc. Costamare Inc. is one of the world's leading owners and providers of containerships for charter. The Company has 45 years of history in the international shipping industry and a fleet of 78 containerships, with a total capacity of approximately 548,000 TEU, including five newbuild containerships currently under construction. Eleven of our containerships have been acquired pursuant to the Framework Deed with York Capital Management by vessel-owning joint venture entities in which we hold a minority equity interest. The Company's common stock, Series B Preferred Stock, Series C Preferred Stock, Series D Preferred Stock and Series E Preferred Stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols CMRE, CMRE PR B, CMRE PR C, CMRE PR D and CMRE PR E, respectively. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as believe, intend, anticipate, estimate, project, forecast, plan, potential, may, should, could and expect and similar expressions. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Companys belief regarding future results, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Companys control. It is possible that actual results may differ, possibly materially, from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect future results, see the discussion in the Companys Annual Report on Form 20-F (File No. 001-34934) under the caption Risk Factors. Company Contacts: Gregory Zikos - Chief Financial Officer Konstantinos Tsakalidis - Business Development, Investor Relations Costamare Inc., Monaco Tel: (+377) 93 25 09 40 Email: ir@costamare.com Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris This week we released a report on project failings at Greerton, Matua and the Mount. Now I dont look kindly on councillors hanging employees out to dry. Its a politically cheap move played by some of our nations least effective politicians. The reason? Its easier to blame paid staff, who cant fight back, for a councillors lack of leadership. That said, there are times when a genuine failure occurs at staff level, and how the elected council deals with it is a matter of some delicacy. Under the Local Government Act we have only one employee, the chief executive, that employs all the others. Its he/she alone that we hold to account on your behalf. When a failure occurs, the easy route would be to blame the staff involved; however, to publicly castigate someone would invite a personal grievance which would be paid for by you, the ratepayer. So, its better for councillors to take the communitys wrath than deflecting the blame. Last year we employed a new Chief Executive, and thereve been significant changes at senior manager level as a result. Reviews have occurred and were demanding employment consequences. Changes to the building department will restore public confidence. The way council does consultation and projects will change for the better. So much has been going on behind the scenes and my hope is that we end this 2016-19 triennium having made some tough decisions thatll enable the next council to sail smoothly. Get ready to dance the Easter weekend away as Tauranga CBD explodes with some of the hottest jazz, funk, dance and contemporary music of today and yesteryear. The 57th National Jazz Festival starts today, featuring classic jazz and blues right through to swing and funk, which will have you dancing in the streets thanks to a world-class line-up of local and international musicians. Spread across four days, the festival features incredible jazz concerts at the Baycourt Community & Arts Centre, the ever-popular Hurricane Party, a Vintage Car Parade plus a two-day jazz party at the Downtown Carnival, and sunset jazz cruises on Tauranga Harbour. This festival is truly unique and we are confident it will continue to put jazz and Tauranga on the map, says festival director Mandy Ryan. The public excitement has been fantastic and tickets have been selling fast across all shows. There are only limited numbers left, so it will pay to get in quick or miss out. As in previous years, 2019 will showcase an eclectic mix of musicians spanning more than 55 acts performing at eight venues. Headline acts include the Bays very own Hollie Smith, Bella Kalolo paying tribute to the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, living musical legend Kim Paterson, and American alto-saxophonist Dick Oatts combining with The New Zealand String Quartet to celebrate the works of legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker. We are confident we have something for everyone and it has all the makings for a jam-packed Easter of jazz, says Mandy. Make sure you put on your dancing shoes, dress up in vintage or retro, and help us make it memorable. This years National Jazz Festival Tauranga runs from today through to Easter Sunday, April 21. For more information, visit: www.jazz.org.nz or get your tickets from Ticketek or Baycourt Community & Arts Centre Box Office. The 33 finalists in the 2019 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are preparing for the final round of judging. The winners will be announced at a black-tie awards dinner at TSB Arena in Wellington on Saturday, May 11. The finalists represent 11 regions and will compete for prizes worth more than $210,000 and the honour of winning either the 2019 New Zealand Share Farmer of the Year, 2019 New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year or the 2019 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the year title. General Manager Chris Keeping says the 33 finalists are the cream of the crop from all the entries received, and it was a hard-fought battle. It was fantastic to attend all 11 regional finals and feel the excitement of the wins and see the journey each finalist has taken, both professionally and personally, says Chris. Chris says there is a mix of gender, age, farming experience and career backgrounds amongst the finalists. It is very clear that the New Zealand dairy industry is in good health with passionate farmers, managers and trainees with positive attitudes leading the way. Previous Dairy Industry Award winners continue to make an impact within the dairy industry and many are clear leaders. Representing the Bay of Plenty in the Share Farmer of the Year category is Matt Barr and Genna Maxwell who lease a farm in Awakeri with 410 cows. Other notable Bay of Plenty representatives include Janamjot Singh Ghuman, who is up for the dairy manager of the year is a farm manager in Te Puke, and 21 year old Alex Sainty is representing the region in the dairy trainee of the year, who is an assistant manager in Galatea. The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are supported by national sponsors DeLaval, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda Motorcycles, LIC, Meridian Energy, Ravensdown and Westpac along with industry partners DairyNZ and Primary ITO. NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (Bridgepoint or the Company) (NYSE: BPI) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of California, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Bridgepoint securities between March 8, 2016 and March 7, 2019, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased Bridgepoint securities between March 8, 2016, and March 7, 2019, both dates inclusive, you have until May 10, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com . To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here to join this class action] Bridgepoint, together with its subsidiaries, provides postsecondary education services in the United States. The Company was formerly known as TeleUniversity, Inc. and changed its name to Bridgepoint Education, Inc. in February 2004. Bridgepoints academic institutions, Ashford University and University of the Rockies, offer associates, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs in the disciplines of business, education, psychology, social sciences, and health sciences. Bridgepoint offers its programs primarily through online, and also at its campuses. As of December 31, 2017, its institutions offered approximately 1,200 courses and 80-degree programs, with 45,730 students enrolled. As a means of increasing enrollment, the Company formed various corporate partnerships with employers to offer their employees a way to pursue and complete a college degree without incurring any student debt, referred to as the Corporate Full Tuition Grant (FTG) program. In 2017, enrollments in the Companys FTG program accounted for approximately 10% of its total enrollment. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Bridgepoints processes for recording revenue for its FTG program were inaccurate; (ii) Bridgepoint maintained deficient internal controls; (iii) due to the foregoing deficiencies, Bridgepoint was prone to and did commit material accounting errors related to revenue, provision for bad debts, accounts receivable and deferred revenue, which resulted in the overstatement of revenue and expenses; and (iv) as a result, Bridgepoints public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On March 7, 2019, Bridgepoint announced that it had determined to restate the Companys previously issued unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, and advised that those financial statements should not be relied upon, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018. Bridgepoint stated that the processes used for recording revenue for the FTG program portion of its student contracts were not designed with sufficient precision, leading to material accounting errors related to revenue, provision for bad debts, accounts receivable and deferred revenue, which resulted in the overstatement of revenue and expenses. Bridgepoint also identified weaknesses in internal controls. On this news, Bridgepoints stock price plummeted by $3.21 per share, or over 34%, to close at $6.22 per share on March 7, 2019, on unusually heavy trading volume. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com . CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com A section of walkway joining The Strand waterfront with the Matapihi Rail Bridge and Harbourside restaurant area will remain closed over Easter. The wooden walkway was initially closed earlier this week to allow contractors to undertake repairs. The contractors have found that the walkway requires more extensive repairs that initially thought, says a statement issued by Tauranga City Council. Pedestrians are advised to use the footpath on the neighbouring road. Signage will be in place. A vehicle has crashed into a power pole in Welcome Bay. A caller to the 0800 SUNLIVE news hotline says it happened near the Kairua Road and Welcome Bay Road intersection. Power in the area has also gone at as a result of the crash. According to Power Co 224 properties are affected with power going out at around 5.09pm. Power Co says the estimated restoration for power is at 9.30pm. At the scene? Call 0800 SUNLIVE or email photos to newsroom@thesun.co.nz 10.45pm Update: The power cut to more than 1000 homes across Papamoa this evening is expected to be resolved by 2am on Easter Friday, April 19. Power Co report that a site investigation is underway. Earlier: More than 1000 homes in Papamoa have been affected by an unexpected power cut this evening. According to Power Co, 1014 properties at Papamoa Beach are affected, with power going out at around 10.01pm on Thursday night. Power Co says the estimated restoration for power is 3.01am on Friday April 19. Residents of Parton Rd, Longview Dr, Papamoa Beach Rd and Dickson Rd are reporting that the power to their properties is off. The cause of the power cut is as yet unknown. At the scene? Call 0800 SUNLIVE or email photos to newsroom@thesun.co.nz The Western Nebraska Community College board of governors met at the WNCC Sidney campus Wednesday following a celebration of Sidneys Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center is designed to assist start-up businesses toward independence. The Center has three businesses with others that have expressed interest in the program. Following the Centers ribbon cutting, the WNCC Board of Governors met for their April meeting with chairperson F. Lynne Klemke presiding over the meeting. The meeting included a presentation by students from the WNCC campuses supporting a tobacco free policy. The students are seeking a no use or sale of tobacco products on college grounds, or any property owned by WNCC. The effort was funded by a $20,000 grant awarded to the project. The policy would address tobacco, smoking and vaping, according to the presentation. College President Dr. Todd Holcomb said under the policy, anyone who uses the college facilities would have to adhere to college guidelines. The exemption would be uses such as Native American religious services. The board reviewed City Planning Commission reports from Sidney, Gering, Scottsbluff and Hemingford, noting none of the reports have negative impact on the college. The agenda also included resignations and appointments to staff positions. Of the list, one was removed for discussion. Graham Judd, Emergency Medical Services instructor and program director, submitted his resignation. Board members asked why he is leaving so soon after his appointment. He was appointed to the position in May 2018. Hes been here less than a year, Holcomb said. He caught us off-guard, flat-footed and embarrassed. Holcomb said as a personnel issue he could not elaborate in a public meeting on why Judd left his position. Approved resignations include Associate Systems Administrator Neal Brady, Executive Vice President Kim Kuster Dale, Judd and Associate Systems Administrator Loren Moench. Appointments include Laurie Alkire as Honorary Status of Professor Emeritus, Neal Brady as Enterprise Resource Planning Administrator and Moench as Information Technology Associate Director. Gretchen Foster reported on college admissions. She said the office is busy promoting the college. All of us, at some point, are recruiters for WNCC, she said. We do believe were a friendly place. She said there is a difference between selling and promoting the experience. We can sell the atmosphere. We sell WNCC. But were not selling anything. Were working with human beings, she said. As such, she said, sometimes the best encouragement is to guide a student toward a campus that fits their needs, even if it isnt WNCC. As the meeting wrapped up, board members commended Sidney campus administrator Paula Abbott and the staff for the success of the Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. The board was also updated on renovation and construction work at the Scottsbluff campus. The board then met in executive session regarding a Strategy Session Concerning Pending or Threatened Litigation. LINCOLN -- A bill that would expand protections for farmers under the Nebraska Right to Farm Act advanced through the Legislature April 10. LB 227, introduced by Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango, was approved 31-7 after a two-day debate among senators. The Nebraska Right to Farm Act, adopted in 1982, protects farms and warehouses from nuisance complaints by neighbors. These nuisances include dust, noise or odors from these establishments. Nuisance laws affect not only Nebraska, but other states as well. A federal jury awarded $473.5 million to six neighbors of a North Carolina hog farm belonging to Murphy-Brown last August. The neighbors complained about the farms odor and noise, as well as the flies that it attracted. The NRFA protects farms established before a change in the land surrounding them. The bill would continue this protection as long as there has not been a significant change with the farm and it has been in operation for more than a year. Hughes introduced an amendment to the bill that would allow neighbors to file a nuisance lawsuit up to two years after the operation faces a conversion of a farm operation, change in ownership, enrollment in a government program, or adoption of new technology. It doesnt give us everything we wanted, but it goes a long ways toward balancing the interests of all landowners, Hughes said. Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings said LB 227 is important for allowing farms to grow. A 160-acre farm was enough for farmers in the past, he said, but not anymore. The fact of the matter is, we cant keep the best commodity, if you will, that we have in our state, and thats our youth, to stay on the farm unless they have the opportunity to grow, he said. And thats all this is. Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha, who opposed the bill, said the NRFA heavily favors factory farms over rural residents. Im not making a judgment on those businesses, she said. What Im saying is how dare we take the rights away of people to defend their property. Hughes said he wasnt asking for anything new with the bill, but was offering more protections for farmers around the state. This bill is about farm operators like me, he said. The small guys. South Platte Natural Resources Districts (SPNRD) Board of Directors (Board) held its monthly meeting On Tuesday April 9,SPNRD Conference Room in Sidney. Travis Glanz, SPNRD Water Resources Coordinator, presented four routine Pooling Renewal Agreements. After a short discussion the Board voted and the Agreements were all approved. Ryan Reisdorff, SPNRD Water Resources Specialist, gave the Board the 2019 Spring Ground Water Level Report on behalf of Chris Kaiser, SPNRD Natural Resources Coordinator. Over the last 10 years the District has seen a steady increase in groundwater levels. In 2009 the Districtwide Ground Water Management Area Rules and Regulations water allocations were implemented. The partnership between the SPNRD, District residents, landowners, agricultural producers, businesses and communities has shown to be valuable for the District. Combined efforts have led to a 6.29 foot average increase across the SPNRD since the allocation implementation. Reisdorff also spoke about the increased water flow through the Lodgepole Creek. During a show and tell using photos taken over the last few years Reisdorff explained that Lodgepole Creek has water flowing in places that water isnt normally observed. In 1994 30% of Lodgepole Creek had water flow. In 2019 Lodgepole Creek is at 74%. There are 172.84 miles of creek-bed running through the District. The Board also addressed the Western Nebraska Childrens Ground Water Festival Program and Budget. The 2019 Festival scheduled for May 10, 2019 hosts District 4th graders for an all day Field-Trip adventure about water. The Board approved the $1,150 budget. A new educational program and competition called YES, Young Environmental Stewards is in its second year. YES is not an NRD program, but is similar to programs the NRD already supports. YES is a competition for middle school students. Student teams compete against other schools and teams while displaying their knowledge on the environment, soils, range, and management. Sidney Middle School has two teams attending the event for 2019. The Board voted to contribute $350 towards the event and the program. For questions or more information contact the South Platte NRD at 308-254-2377 or visit them online at http://www.spnrd.org. SPNRD Board of Director Meetings are held every 2nd Tuesday of the month. at 5:00 p.m. at the South Platte NRD Conference Room 551 Parkland Drive, in Sidney. The Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce presented Paula Abbott, Western Nebraska Community College campus director, a plaque recognizing the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center. The Center is designed to assist start-up businesses develop toward independence. A year and a half in the making, Western Nebraska Community College held an open house and ribbon cutting for its Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center Wednesday. The center is testiment, said Sidney Campus Executive Director Paula Abbott, to what can be accomplished when people put their heads together to find a solution to a problem. Abbott reviewed how members of the chamber of commerce and Sidney's economic development director got together to see what could be done to help people displaced by layoffs at Cabela's. That brainstorming resulted in the I&E Center, developed to help people stay in Sidney. One of the goals, she told those gathered, was to fill the needs with available resources. "There were a lot of people with need, and there are resources out there to help," Abbott said. "What we needed to do was to develop a way to connect state resources with the people in need." She thanked college President, Dr. Todd Holcomb, for his support when she pitched the idea. "I've pitched a thousand ideas to him, and this is the one he accepted," Abbott said, bringing laughter across the room. The laughter increased when Holcom quipped, "She's not lying!" Abbott also reviewed part of the process in developing the center, where she, Holcomb and other college officials looked at other such operations in the region, picking what they felt was the best from each. "We wanted to make this the best innovation center possible," she said. Trent Santerro from NexGen Outfitters, the first center "client," was among those who spoke, extolling the center's contribution to the company's start up. NexGen used space in the center even before it was completely ready. That jump, he said, were a big piece in the company's start up. "This (college) team did a lot of things that pushed the envelope," Santerro said. "They did things that are not the norm, and it really made a difference." Today, the newly-finished I&E Center, which now occupies the former space held by the long-time cosmetology program, has suites of offices, reception and commons areas, and private conference rooms available. The space is designed to give a boost to those who otherwise don't have a place to start their business. But the professional resources make the big difference. The college has brought in business experts from the state and other areas to provide help to start-ups. There is even a business lawyer, Jeff Shoemaker, himself a recipient of the Center's benefits, to provide guidance. Shoemaker said as a resource and participant himself, he sees what hopefuls are going through. After his layoff, he went to another state and was away from his Sidney home for 250 days. The chance to come back and work in and with the I&E Center gave him the chance to get back home, and also become "part of Sidney's solution." November 23, 1932 April 9, 2019 William Stephen Christy was born to Henry and Irene Christy on November 23, 1932 in Milburn, Nebraska at the home of his grandparents, Steve and Gertie Daily. Bill and his family lived near the small village of Milburn, which was located on the Middle Loup River. When Bill was four years old, they moved to a farm four miles from his grandparents, and from his best friend at the time, Jim Daily. Back then, this meant Bill and Jim would very seldom see each other, after being accustomed to running over a nearby bridge to visit whenever they wanted. As he got older, Bill spent much time at his... Editors Note: The following letter was edited for length. Editor, There are happenings with the City of Sidney City Manager and the City of Sidney City Council that I want you to know about. On Tuesday evening, the 9th of April 2019, a public hearing segment in the normal agenda of the City Council meeting was allowed. The item on the agenda: 4. PUBLIC HEARING re: land and building purchase; and RESOLUTION NO. 20190401 approving said purchase and terms for same. After the publics comments from several people, all of whom questioned why the City wanted this, it was time to... With inspiring comments and anecdotes from Captain Scott Whittaker, the story of Gayle Force continues to bbe one of adventure and intrigue, as well as epitomising Vripacks design philosophy; to create safe, durable yachts with light, elegant and comfortable interiors that make you feel at home, at sea. The Laufers typify the ambitious and visionary clients that Vripacks creative, holistic and collaborative approach attracts, and so despite being in their 70s, the rough conditions only added to excitement. Wayne is an old adventurer, and it wasnt that cold, says Captain Scott, the Captain of the invincible Gayle Force. Captain Scott continues; The coldest we saw was around -26, although with wind it was probably chillier. I think we saw colder in Patagonia! Wildlife abounded, with humpback, fin and blue whales aplenty. Penguins were in their thousands, and every type of seal was sighted. The highlight for Captain Scott, however, were the two nights spent drifting with the ice in the Gerlache Straits. We had amazing evenings there, it was truly beautiful. It felt like something out of Space Odyssey, semi-light out, just watching the ice, silently drifting together. The next phase of the year-long voyage will see Gayle Force heading to Robinson Crusoe Island, before moving on to Galapagos, and Cocos Islands. For both the Laufers and Captain Scott, a key element of the enjoyment is to tie the history of the boat back and to see Gayle Force do what she was built for. In 2003 Gayle Force was the most technologically advanced vessel in under 30m, so its interesting to see what shes doing now, he enthuses. Since 1961, Vripack has been involved in more than 7,400 projects, from the smallest of boats to the largest of vessels, delivering interior design and external styling that is underpinned by pioneering naval architecture. Vripack were instrumental in bridging Patriots history to present day Gayle Force, says Captain Scott. The ability to access history of build and actually work with some of the Vripack team that were on the build, throughout our yard time and chosen modifications, was priceless." Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic to maintain efforts to help boost the European Unions signing and ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). He suggested both sides step up the exchange of experience in legislative affairs, strengthen cooperation between the Vietnam-Czech Republic, and Czech Republic-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians Groups, and bolster collaboration in education-training, science-technology, environment, agriculture, labor and between their localities. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic Radek Vondracek (Source: VNA) The Vietnamese Government leader requested the lower house to continue creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in the country. He also forwarded NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngans invitation to visit Vietnam on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties in 2020 to Radek Vondracek. The host spoke highly of PM Nguyen Xuan Phucs visit, saying that it demonstrates an important development step in bilateral relations. He affirmed the Chamber of Deputies attaches importance to Czech Republic-Vietnam traditional friendship, and totally supports the early signing and ratification of the EVFTA and the EVIPA. He voiced his belief that the early opening of a direct air route connecting Prague and Hanoi will contribute to fostering bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and tourism. He also affirmed to continue facilitating the lives of over 65,000 Vietnamese people in his country, and said he will arrange to visit Vietnam at his convenience./. NEW ORLEANS, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors of pending deadlines in the following securities class action lawsuits: Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (DPLO) Class Period: 2/26/2018 - 2/21/2019 Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: April 25, 2019 SECURITIES FRAUD To learn more, visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-dplo/ . The Boeing Company (BA) Class Period: 1/8/2019 - 3/21/2019 Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: June 10, 2019 SECURITIES FRAUD To learn more, visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-ba/ . CVS Health Corporation (CVS) Class Period: 5/21/2015 - 2/20/2019 Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: April 26, 2019 SECURITIES FRAUD To learn more, visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-cvs/ . Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (BPI) Class Period: 3/8/2016 - 3/7/2019 Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: May 10, 2019 SECURITIES FRAUD To learn more, visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-bpi/ . If you purchased shares of the above companies and would like to discuss your legal rights and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner, Lewis Kahn, toll-free at 1-877-515-1850, via email (Lewis.Kahn@KSFcounsel.com), or via the case links above. If you wish to serve as a Lead Plaintiff in the class action, you must petition the Court on or before the Lead Plaintiff Motion deadline. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC, whose partners include the former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com . Contact: RICHMOND, Va., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smithfield Foods, Inc. has donated more than 42,000 pounds of protein to Feed More . Smithfields contribution was part of the companys 2019 Helping Hungry Homes donation tour. Helping Hungry Homes is Smithfields signature hunger-relief initiative focused on alleviating hunger and helping Americans become more food secure. The donation, equivalent to more than 169,000 servings, will help families fight hunger in Central Virginia. There is a lot of need in Central Virginiaone in seven of our neighbors is food insecure, meaning that nearly 200,000 individuals do not know when or from where they will receive their next meal, said Doug Pick, president and CEO of Feed More. This generous donation from Smithfields Helping Hungry Homes program helps us continue to distribute nutritious food to our neighbors who are struggling to consistently put food on the table. This is the 17th large-scale protein donation made by Smithfield to food banks across the country during its 2019 Helping Hungry Homes donation tour. Since the programs inception in 2008, Smithfield has provided more than 120 million servings of protein to food banks, disaster relief efforts, and community outreach programs nationwide. As a Virginia-based food company, we are passionate about providing this much-needed protein to our neighbors suffering from hunger, said Jonathan Toms, associate manager of charitable initiatives for Smithfield Foods. With this donation, we are honored to further our companys social purpose and to support the vitality of a community we call home. For more information about Smithfield Foods Helping Hungry Homes initiative and a list of upcoming donation events, visit helpinghungryhomes.com . About Smithfield Foods Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathans Famous, Farmland, Armour, Farmer John, Kretschmar, John Morrell, Cooks, Gwaltney, Carando, Margherita, Curlys, Healthy Ones, Morliny, Krakus, and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental, and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com , and connect with us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn , and Instagram . About Feed More Feed More collects, prepares and distributes food to neighbors in need throughout Central Virginia. With a service area that stretches across 34 cities and counties, Feed Mores comprehensive programs and network of nearly 300 agencies helps ensure our communities have access to healthy meals year round. Feed More is a proud member of Feeding America and Meals on Wheels America. Media Contacts: SYRACUSE, NY - Nieleh Peck was scheduled to work the 1 to 10 p.m. Sunday shift at Friendlys Restaurant in Eastwood when her phone rang as she was waking up. It was her manager, crying. Dont bother to come to work, Peck said the manager told her. The restaurants was closed for good, the manager said. "We had no warning - no clue,'' said Peck, who had worked at the Eastwood location for the past year as a cook and server. We really didnt even believe it. Hundreds of workers across Central New York and the Northeast learned Sunday, April 7 that they were out of work when their Friendlys restaurants abruptly closed. In all, 23 corporate-owned restaurants were closed, including four in the Syracuse area: DeWitt, Eastwood, Clay and Oswego Two of Pecks co-workers said they found out they were out of work the same way a phone call from their manager. They also remember she was crying when she broke the news. Even though the restaurant was closed, several workers reported to the Eastwood restaurant on James Street to see what was happening. Stunned co-workers hugged and said goodbye to the people they had been working with, some for years. The closing was a surprise to the workers. Several of Pecks co-workers had just purchased new uniforms. The restaurant had just hired several new employees, Peck said. At one point, a manager asked employees to help clean the restaurant to get it ready to close, Peck said. Some helped, some refused. They were also told not to talk to reporters, several said. Nielah Peck, who was laid off from Friendly's restaurant in Eastwood when it closed abruptly April 7. Peck said the Eastwood restaurant seemed to do a brisk business, particularly in the spring and summer when youth teams would come and get ice cream. But the Eastwood location stopped serving breakfast in December; the DeWitt location continued to offer breakfast, she said. "When that happened, some of us were worried,'' she said, but after that everything seemed OK. Peck said while she was upset, she felt especially bad for the people who have worked there for years. "Im 20, and I know Ill find another job,'' she said. But what about the woman who is 64 and supports her husband who had a stroke? After the closings, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said he believes Friendlys didnt follow the federal rules for laying off people. Schumer said his office found no evidence that the company provided legal notice to employees, nor are any such filings listed on state and federal government websites. Schumer said Friendlys did not respond to inquiries from his office. The senator said its possible Friendlys found a way around the federal WARN Act, which requires businesses with 100 or more employees that lay off 50 or more employees at an individual location to give the workers a warning. Friendlys may have skirted the requirement because its individual restaurants employed fewer than 50 employees, Schumer said. Hannah Arnold, speaking for Friendlys, said the federal and state WARN Acts did not apply to these closures because the number of full-time employees affected at each restaurant was less than 50. She also said although not required by law, the company is delivering severance payments to the affected employees. Three workers interviewed by Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard said they were not offered jobs at other locations as the company originally said would happen. They also said they have not yet received severance pay. ROME, N.Y. -- An aide at the Central New York Psychiatric Center has been charged for faking doctors notes to get extended time off while keeping his job, according to the New York State Inspector General. Shelby Ferguson, 54, of Rome, was a treatment aide at the psychiatric center. He is facing six felony charges for offering a false instrument for filing and criminal possession of a forged instrument. Ferguson allegedly submitted faked doctors notes on three occasions to get time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act between April and September of 2016. He later told an investigator: I turned it in, according to a news release from the IGs office. The FMLA allows employees who qualify to take extended time off from work due to family or medical matters without losing their jobs. Ferguson was arraigned in the Marcy Town Court. Hes due back there on May 9. Syracuse, NY -- Jonathan Mejia, 15, broke into a Near West Side with older, fellow robbers. After the group tied up the downstairs resident, Mejia remained as others went upstairs to confront and kill the man who lived there. Today, Mejias lawyer asked a judge to spare him a lengthy prison sentence and seal the teenagers record. Defense lawyer Charles Keller noted that Mejia cooperated at trial against other culprits and had expressed remorse. But state Supreme Court Justice Gordon Cuffy said he couldnt do it. Significantly -- not insignificantly -- this resulted in the death of someone in their own home, the judge noted in rejecting a youthful offender sentence. Instead, Cuffy sentenced Mejia to a punishment promised at the time of the teens plea many months ago: 3 1/3 to 10 years in prison for burglary. Mejia will spend at least the start of that sentence in a secure facility for juveniles, not adult prison. In total, six teenagers and adults have been successfully prosecuted in the Dec. 12, 2017 home-invasion murder of James Smith Jr. James Smith Jr. Francis Mercado, 16, has taken blame for being the gunman. Michael Smyre, 25, was found guilty at trial of being the mastermind. Theyre each spending 25 years to life in prison. All the others have pleaded guilty to burglary charges in exchange for long prison sentences. The only case remaining is against Tyrone Byrd, who cut a deal in exchange for testifying against the others at trial. But when Smyres trial came around, Byrd refused. Now, his expected 15-year prison sentence will likely be significantly longer. The burglars were looking for drugs and cash at the 311 Merriman Ave. residence during the deadly confrontation. As for Mejia, he received unique treatment due to his young age: 15 years old. That means he wasnt considered an adult under state law. And instead of getting a definite sentence -- say 10 years in prison -- he was required to get a sentencing range -- in this case, 3 1/3 to 10 years. It also made him eligible for youthful offender status, which would have sealed his record and limited his prison sentence to even less. Under law, a judge is required to consider YO even if theres another plea agreement in place. Mejia apologized in court today. I regret everything I did. It wasnt my intention for what happened, he said. I just hope the family can forgive me. It wasnt my intention. That didnt change Cuffys mind. But the judge did offer some parting words for Mejia: I hope you can get yourself together and not be in this situation again, the judge said as Mejia was led out of court. AMBOY, N.Y. -- A Syracuse man was arrested and charged with stabbing a man -- requiring emergency surgery -- after an altercation at a cabin in Oswego County. Shakim Graham, 30, of Syracuse, allegedly stabbed 31-year-old Eric Staring in the abdomen, according to New York State Police. Police responded to a cabin near 68 Little Pond Road in Amboy around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Investigators found that Staring and Graham were involved in a physical altercation that ended with Graham stabbing the victim, police said. Staring was flown via Mercy Flight to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for surgery. A state police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for his condition Thursday. Graham is facing charges including first-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Hes being held at the Oswego County Public Safety Building on a $7,000 bail/ $10,000 bond. As mushroom spores and 80s neon grid graphics flashed wildly onstage, Papadosio jammed through a set that drew influence from so many genres that it was hard to define exactly what kind of music the band made. The band stopped at The Westcott Theater on April 17 as part of its Content Coma Tour, which has spanned the eastern United States, starting in Kentucky and ending in Baltimore, Md. They brought along Cycles as an opener and had local support from Vaporeyes. Vaporeyes opened the night, but only played for about 40 people. The crowd was definitely thin when they came on. The last time they played at Westcott, they opened for Spafford on Feb. 7, and there were a lot more people around for that set, which was made memorable by a bass and drum-driven Happy Birthday sing-a-long for bandmate Jonas Reddy-Nicholson. The band indulged in their signature move: covering songs from video games. For this show, they chose Beneath The Mask from Persona 5, an anime-style role-playing game set in Tokyo. Cycles, originally from Denver, Colo., brought more dreamy, distant and funky jams to the Westcott. Elements of Grateful Dead brightness, jazzy drum lines, high reverb vocals and hard rock guitar solos sent an eclectic sound through the venue. Bassist and vocalist Tucker McClung jumped around, headbanged and beamed so wide his teeth were visible from 50 feet back. Like most jam bands, Papadosio was tight-lipped on the mic, reserving most of their energy for their instruments. They had a traditional five-piece lineup on stage, and effective frontman Anthony Thogmartin bounced between his laptop, the mic and his guitar during the set. If this is your first time seeing us, clearly, we have no idea what genre we are, he said. He wasnt exaggerating. Papadosios live set defied traditional categories, refusing to be neatly placed into a box labeled psychedelic rock or EDM. Instead, they used a wide range of influences to craft an individual sound. Papadosio is part of a small army of bands in the music scene that truly reject classic genre labels. Spotifys Fans also Like algorithm puts Papadosio in the same category as groups including Lotus, Twiddle and The Werks, which plays at The Haunt on April 24. They also brought a massive stage lighting set. Six light panels created a backdrop for the musicians, projecting nature scenes, the bands logo, and flashing graphics that should have had an epilepsy warning on the tickets. The visuals were intense, but they were also very artistic and matched the energy Papadosio brought to the stage which was a chill kind of lit, to put it in Gen Z terms. GEDDES, N.Y. - There are few food combinations as revered and comforting as warm chocolate chip cookies and a cold glass of milk. Now youll be able to get them at the Dairy Building at the New York State Fair, thanks to the arrival of a popular downtown Syracuse bakery. The Sweet Praxis, located at 203 E. Water St. in Syracuses Hanover Square, will be taking over the baked goods stand next to the Milk Bar, formerly home to Corsos Cookies. Among the sweet treats, all baked on site, will be cookies, brownies and their signature item: Paper cones full of warm chocolate chip cookies stacked Jenga-esquely high. The Sweet Praxis will be selling heaping cones of chocolate chip cookies in the Dairy Building at the New York State Fair.Courtesy of The Sweet Praxis Owners Natalie Evans and Jennifer Walls started The Sweet Praxis in 2011, selling baked goods at pop-up shops and the CNY Regional Market. They opened the brick-and-mortar bakery in 2016. We are very excited to begin this partnership with The Sweet Praxis, Fair Director Troy Waffner said in a statement. Natalie and Jennifer focus on customer service and their products are delicious. I know fairgoers are going to love this change. While the booth is new, this is not the first time The Sweet Praxis products have been at the state fair: Strong Hearts Cafe in the International Building have sold the bakerys doughnutsboth on their own and as the buns of their Strong Heart Attack Burger. The International Building will see two new tenants for the 2019 state fair. Dangs Cafe, a Vietnamese restaurant on Syracuses North Side, will be setting up shop, as well as the Buffalo-based Babcias Pierogis, who will be moving from a mobile trailer on the fairs midway to a permanent spot in the International Building. The 2019 New York State Fair runs from Aug. 21 to Sept. 2. Jacob Pucci finds the best in food, dining and culture across Central New York. Contact him at (315) 282-8611, or by email at jpucci@syracuse.com. WASHINGTON -- The Seneca Nation of Indians on Wednesday said it is asking the U.S. Department of the Interior to review a federal arbitration panels recent ruling that the tribe owes New York State $255 million in shared casino revenues. The arbitration panel ruled last week that the state's compact with the tribe called on it to continue sharing 25 percent of its slot-machine revenues with the state, which the Senecas stopped doing in 2017. The tribe contended that its 2002 compact with the state, which allowed the Senecas to open three casinos, did not specify that the tribe had to keep sharing slot money after the deal's 14th year. But the arbitration panel disagreed, saying the compact's language implied that the payments to the state were to continue. Now, though, the Senecas are exercising their right under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to ask the Department of Interior to examine the arbitration panel's ruling to determine if it made the right decision. "The arbitration panel's members, instead of interpreting the clear language of the Nation-State Compact, took it upon themselves to effectively and materially amend the agreed-upon terms of the Compact, and they did so without regard for federal law and required procedures that govern both the Compact and the amendment process," said Seneca Nation President Rickey Armstrong Sr. The Senecas' request is hardly a surprise. The tribe said after the ruling that it would review the decision, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo essentially predicted that the tribe would call for the federal review. "They had said they would honor the arbitration decision, and they signed a contract saying they would honor the arbitration decision," Cuomo told The Buffalo News editorial board last week. "What does that mean? Apparently not much." The Senecas' 2002 compact with the state gave the tribe exclusive gambling rights in the western part of the state and resulted in the construction of casinos in Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Salamanca. Those facilities now employ about 4,000 people. The compact called on the tribe to share slot-machine revenues with the state, and the Senecas said they have sent more than $1 billion to the state since the casinos opened. Armstrong said the Seneca Nation had good reasons to ask for a review of a decision that would limit the amount of revenue the tribe gets to keep from its casinos. "By exercising our right to request that the Department review the amendment, the Nation leadership is fulfilling our obligation to the Seneca people to always defend our sovereignty and the sanctity of our agreements," he said. By Jerry Zremski, The Buffalo News, N.Y. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse has been awarded a massive private grant from one of the worlds biggest banks to kickstart its tech sector, train its workers for 21st century careers and make sure minorities, women and veterans are among those who benefit from huge investments being made in economic development here. Syracuse beat out nearly 250 other cities to win a $3 million grant from JPMorgan Chase -- a major victory for a mid-sized city competing with places like New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. The grant is one of the largest of its kind in city history, and the most significant private investment yet in Mayor Ben Walshs sprawling economic development strategy, dubbed the Syracuse Surge. Officials will announce the grant details during a news conference Thursday morning. For local officials, the money is not only a catalyst for spurring tech industry growth, its validation that their plans to push Syracuses economy into the 21st century are on the right track. You have an independent set of eyes looking in at your community and the direction youre trying to take it and they think its worth investing in, said Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon. Theyve seen every other community of substance throughout our country...that has me more excited than the fact that the moneys coming in." The grant comes with few strings attached and will be used solely for strategic planning, workforce training and programming. None of it will be spent on planned Surge infrastructure, like the massive overhaul of Central Tech into a new countywide high school. The grant was awarded several weeks ago to CenterState CEO, a regional economic development agency. CenterState led a joint application along with the city, the county, Syracuse University, Le Moyne College and the Allyn Foundation. CenterState requested the money to complement the Syracuse Surge, Walshs plan to transform Syracuse into a national leader in tech infrastructure and an active incubator for tech companies. The strategy puts an emphasis on job training, education and connecting small, tech-focused businesses with resources and funding to thrive. In its application, CenterState projects the grant will be used to assist 50 small businesses, increase small business revenue by $20 million over three years, create or retain 100 small business jobs and provide skills training and job placement for 700 people. The average projected salary for someone participating in the training programs created from the grant is $42,000. Among other things, the grant money will be used to scale up CenterStates Work Train program with an emphasis on the tech sector. Work Train partners with businesses to identify skills needed for their workforce, then provides job specific training for residents. The money will also bolster Erie 21, a Le Moyne College initiative geared toward training young people for tech jobs. Primarily, the grant is intended to make sure the expected expansion of the tech economy here benefits people from vulnerable communities -- those who are often under-represented in the tech industry or left behind by past economic development projects. That includes minorities, women and veterans. Walsh said its not enough to just invest in development then hope the new jobs benefit everyone. This money allows the city to train people for the upcoming boom of tech jobs Walsh hopes to spur. It also provides money for community outreach. We were very intentional in talking about these task forces were creating to ensure that those that we want to benefit from this have a seat at the table, Walsh said. We need to engage the community throughout this process. JPMorgan Chase awarded five $3 million grants through its AdvancingCities program this year. Syracuse is the smallest recipient, by far. The other winners are Louisville, Miami, Chicago and San Diego. In all, 254 cities applied for the grants. The company plans to dole out $500 million over five years to foster economic opportunity and drive inclusive growth. A look at the five AdvancingCities winners. Dominic Robinson, vice president of economic inclusion for CenterState CEO, helped organize the six different partners involved in the grant application. Since Syracuse would be competing with major cities nationwide, he said, it was important to present a united front of public officials, major institutions and non-for-profits. We were punching above our weight class, he said. Irene Baker, head of JPMorgan Chases AdvancingCities program, led the selection process for the grants. She said Syracuse managed to get everyone together in one room, and on the same page, when interviewing for the grant. That made a difference. Baker said the selection committee sought cities that could clearly identify a specific issue and demonstrate joint efforts already underway to address it. Syracuses special attention to inclusion and equity in its application helped set us apart. They are bringing a very purposeful equity lens to their planning process, Baker said. Knowing theyre going to have all this infrastructure investment, public and private, in traditionally low income communities and downtown, theyre going about it in a very purposeful, thoughtful way. Both Baker and JPMorgan Chase have ties to Central New York. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was the Syracuse University commencement speaker in 2010. The bank co-founded the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at SU and awarded $13.8 million to the IVMF in 2016 to fund programming. Baker formerly worked in economic development for Gov. Andrew Cuomo. She helped establish his Regional Economic Development Councils. During that time, she met CenterState President Rob Simpson. The grant money will be doled out over three years. Officials said they hope to use it to leverage more money, both public and private, for the Surge. Robinson said Syracuse is poised to become a destination for diverse tech businesses. In 2021, he plans to use grant money to host a tech conference at the Oncenter to showcase Syracuse as a hub for tech founders and entrepreneurs. SYRACUSE, N.Y. Its four days of everything one needs to know about recreational trails. It will include information and in-depth discussions about hiking, biking, kayaking, horse riding and much more. The American Trails International Trails Symposium is set for April 28 to May 1 at the Syracuse Oncenter. The biennial event, which is being held in this state for the first time, is expected to draw 600 to 800 trail workers, professionals and outdoors enthusiasts from across the country and beyond. The groups last trail symposium was held in Dayton, Ohio in 2017. American Trails, based in Redding, Ca., specializes in training and providing resources for all types of trails, said Taylor Goodrich, a spokesperson for the group. During the symposium, the Oncenter will be transformed into a trails wonderland complete with indoor trails, greenway systems and landscaping exhibits. The symposium will also feature numerous educational sessions, featuring 156 speakers, she said. Theyll be talking about what theyre doing, whats working, products, state-of-the art services, policy decisions and funding, Goodrich said. In addition, a host of off-site, trail-related events and opportunities are scheduled in and around Syracuse for attendees including kayaking, mountain biking, horseback riding and hiking. During the symposium we will also be working with many local organizations, Goodrich said. She noted the new Syracuse Bike Share program will be launched and will have a booth in the exhibit hall. All attendees will be given a discount to try it out, Goodrich said. She said theres a lot of exciting thing going on right now in New York, including the Empire State Trail. The Empire State Trail has been touted by Governor Andrew Cuomo as a project that will put New York at the forefront of national efforts to enhance outdoor recreation, community vitality and tourism. Many sections already exist. When completed, the pedestrian/biking trail will be a continuous 750-mile route spanning the state from New York City to Canada and Buffalo, creating the longest multi-use state trail in the nation. Onondaga County Executive J. Ryan McMahon and Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh are scheduled to welcome symposium attendees at the Welcome General Session the morning of April 29. In addition to activities at the Oncnter, the symposium will include a Trails Rock Party at The Most (Museum of Science and Technology) and a Takeover Night at the Blue Tusk. Finally, the symposium is expected to leave the Syracuse area with a new trail. In partnership with the Professional Trail Builders Association and American Trails, a series of workshops as part of the Legacy Trail program will be held, for the purpose of discussing and creating a new local trail possibly at Highland Forest. RICHMOND, Va. - Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe said Wednesday he will not join the crowded field of Democrats running for president, citing the need to raise money and campaign for Virginia General Assembly candidates as his successor, Gov. Ralph Northam, tries to recover from a blackface scandal. My heart was with Virginia, as much as I wanted to run for president, McAuliffe said in a telephone interview. It kept tugging at me. ... I just didnt think I could walk away from Virginia. The 62-year-old Democrat has been publicly mulling a White House bid since leaving the Executive Mansion in January 2018. He originally said he would decide by March 31 but stayed mum as he continued visiting early-primary states. McAuliffe, a native of Syracuse, has spent a lifetime in Democratic politics, most notably as a record-breaking and colorful fundraiser for two of his closest friends: Bill and Hillary Clinton. Socially liberal but friendly toward business, McAuliffe was intentionally out of step with the left-leaning zeitgeist of many 2020 contenders. That could have made him a tough sell to the party's restive liberal base, where some viewed his ties to the Clintons and big-money donors as an unseemly throwback. But McAuliffe tried to make the case that without jobs - and the economic incentives sometimes used to spur their creation - there is no tax base to bankroll social programs. "You can talk about college for all or all these other things you want. What does it all take? It all takes money," McAuliffe said in an interview in March. "Without the economic engine, all the great ideas and plans for the future mean nothing. They're all talk." In recent weeks, friends and confidants have said McAuliffe was waiting to see whether former vice president Joe Biden - a longtime friend - would jump into the race, occupying the same center-left, establishment lane as McAuliffe would have. At least one Virginia lawmaker asked McAuliffe to forgo a bid and focus on helping state Democrats flip the General Assembly. "I said, 'I know we have national issues, but I'm concerned about Virginia right now,' " said state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, recounting a conversation this week when she urged him not to run. It's a message Lucas said she had shared repeatedly with McAuliffe since February, when a racist photo surfaced from Northam's 1984 medical school yearbook page and he acknowledged wearing blackface in a dance contest that year. The controversy has made it hard for Northam to play the leading role that a sitting governor typically assumes for his party - particularly in a crucial election year, when Democrats could win control of the state House and Senate by picking up just a couple of seats in each chamber. Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said he welcomes McAuliffe's assistance in 2019, though he had not asked him to put his presidential ambitions aside. "He could be a really big help to us," Saslaw said before McAuliffe's announcement. McAuliffe, a businessman and entrepreneur, had never held public office when he squeaked past then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II in 2013 to become the state's 72nd governor. Though he ran for governor as a pragmatic dealmaker, the state's GOP-controlled legislature never warmed to him. For four years, they thwarted his marquee campaign promise to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. (By law, Virginia governors cannot seek a consecutive term.) It did not help that he was inexorably linked to the Clintons. Most notably, McAuliffe put up $1.35 million to secure a mortgage for their home in Chappaqua, New York, when the couple left the White House. The Clintons did not help endear him with the left either, at least not lately. Asked earlier this year on MSNBC whether he thought the former president's relationship with Monica Lewinsky would be tolerated today, McAuliffe said, "No, I don't." In 2017, he was praised for the speech he gave after a woman was killed and two state troopers died in a helicopter crash amid white-supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville. "I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today," he said. "Go home. . . . There is no place for you here; there is no place for you in America." His supporters thought he could make a credible run for the White House based on his record as governor - and would be well-suited to withstand attacks from the current president. "His speech after Charlottesville was, I thought, the best, most moving retort to the horror of Donald Trump," said Lynn de Rothschild, a major Hillary Clinton donor. "You can't really knock Terry McAuliffe down." Even McAuliffe's harshest Republican critics acknowledged that he was a tireless promoter for Virginia, leading 35 foreign trade missions and attracting roughly $20 billion in capital investment and 207,000 new jobs. He helped lay the groundwork for Amazon's selection of Crystal City in Arlington as a headquarters site, a project state officials estimate will bring $3.2 billion in tax revenue over 20 years. McAuliffe famously laid out the stakes for the project, saying: Whoever wins this thing is going to run for president. GLENDORA, Calif., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CalPortland announced that it has received the 2019 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award for continued leadership and superior contributions to ENERGY STAR. The companys accomplishments were recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on April 11, 2019. CalPortland is honored to receive the 2019 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award," said CalPortland President/CEO Allen Hamblen. We take great pride in our partnership with ENERGY STAR and are grateful to be recognized for the fifteenth consecutive year. This is a genuine tribute to the ongoing commitment of our employees and our companys comprehensive energy management culture. We are always focused on optimizing energy efficiency, reducing emissions and actively protecting our environment. I am proud of the perseverance of the CalPortland employees who have developed a culture of excellence. These awards reflect our determination to continuously improve." I applaud the 2019 ENERGY STAR Award Winners, said EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Bill Wehrum. Their innovation and leadership enhance Americas economic competitiveness. Reducing costly energy waste improves air quality and public health while protecting the environment. The highest honor among ENERGY STAR Awards is the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award. EPA presents the Sustained Excellence Award to partners that have already received ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year recognition for a minimum of two consecutive years and have gone above and beyond the criteria needed to qualify for recognition. CalPortland has been an ENERGY STAR PARTNER since 1996 and remains dedicated to demonstrating and promoting energy efficiency within the company and to other companies in the construction materials industry. The 2019 national award is the fifteenth consecutive ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award for CalPortland, a feat that has never been matched by any other industrial company. In the past year, the company invested over $100 million to increase its operational efficiency producing an overall energy intensity improvement of over two percent. Key 2018 accomplishments include: Improving energy intensity by 17.5-percent and saving $123 million since 2003. Construction of a new finish mill at the Oro Grande cement plant to increase utilization and efficiency. Most areas of the plant have been upgraded and optimized, including crushing, raw milling, kiln, finish grinding, transport and cement loadout. Construction of two compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations to support CalPortlands new fleet of 118 CNG Near Zero Emission engine ready mix trucks. Leveraged the position of CalPortlands CEO as Chair of the Portland Cement Association to promote and support ENERGY STAR throughout the construction material industry and mentoring more than 11 ENERGY STAR industrial partners. Earning ENERGY STAR certification for the seventh consecutive time for the Rillito Cement Plant and for the second time at the Oro Grande Cement Plant while concurrently accepting the ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry at six new plants and achieving the Challenge at three plants. Promoting ENERGY STAR through advertising, social media, community outreach, school events and magazine articles to directly reach over 113,000 people while generating approximately 59 million impressions. About CalPortland CalPortland Company is a major producer of cement, ready mixed concrete, aggregates, concrete products and asphalt in the western United States and Canada. Founded in 1891, CalPortland remains a leader in the industry through its commitment to quality, safety, customer service, technical excellence and environmental leadership. The company maintains its headquarters in Glendora, California. For more information about CalPortland Company, visit www.calportland.com . About ENERGY STAR ENERGY STAR is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500 rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped save American families and businesses nearly 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity with associated reductions of over 3 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. In 2017 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped Americans save $30 billion in energy costs. More background information about ENERGY STAR can be found at: www.energystar.gov/about . Contact William Larson CalPortland Company info@calportland.com 6268526200 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/74d415df-db94-4ab5-ab82-e102f85b31e6 Service is as much a part of Vicinos Brick & Brew as the food. Our recent Friday evening visit, with children and grandparents in tow, saw the co-owners combine tables and set up high chairs. Our waitress treated us as if we were her only customers, playfully making our kids giggle, while ensuring beer glasses never went dry and juggling her other tables. Vicinos neighborhood pub feel and charm contrasts its location on a busy stretch of Route 11 in Cicero near the village of North Syracuse border. In fact, vicinos is the Italian word for next-door neighbors. The pair of husbands and wives that own the restaurant are longtime neighbors and friends, and they extend the spirit of welcome back to each customer, even if it was their first time visiting. At the menus heart are a dozen 12-inch made-to-order pizzas. Each pizza starts with dough stretched when the order arrives at the open air prep station, located at the rear of the dining room, before baking in a 680-degree brick oven. Finished pizzas have a bit of char on the exterior and a crispy, wafer thin crust. 34 Dinner at Vicinos Brick & Brew, Cicero, N.Y. The signature Vicinos pizza ($15) is topped with pepperoni, smoked gouda and chili-infused honey. We were delighted to see the pepperoni grease cups arrive atop this pie, reminiscent of the pepperoni used on pizzas near where we went to college in Western New York. Rather than laying flat, the meats edges curl upward and the grease pools at the bottom of the pepperoni slice. Though it may not sound appetizing, it offers a concentrated flavor to each bite. Each pepperoni cup also allowed the spicy honey to collect, further punctuating the heat of the chilis. As a spice measure, this pizza would compare to chicken wings ordered with medium Buffalo sauce. The gouda was lost with regard to flavor, as the honey and pepperoni dominated. Featured as a special, the Capone ($13) started with a garlic base and was topped with salami, capicola, prosciutto, kalamata olives, pepperoncini, and three cheeses -- provolone, romano and mozzarella. The pungent olives stood out on each slice, rising above the salty cured meats and cheeses. Veg Out ($12) is the vegetarian offering at Vicinos, with a red sauce base, green bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach and fresh mozzarella cheese. The delicate flavors of the peppers, mushrooms and spinach could not compete with the sharp onion, which was also present in the sauce. Banana peppers stood in for bell peppers on the sausage, pepper and onion pizza ($13). Mild Italian sausage slices mixed in with sliced onions and the banana peppers on the red sauce pizza to create tangy and spicy flavors. Spicy accents were featured throughout the menu, including the starters. Vicinos greens ($9), its rendition of Utica greens, had heat in each forkful thanks to the hot cherry peppers and capicola. The escarole was cooked tender without becoming mushy, though the cherry peppers intensity took over each bite. Fried meatballs ($9) are superior to those cooked in tomato sauce, as the frying oil gives the herbs, cheese and garlic a fuller flavor. The crispy brown exterior and molten-hot interior were evidence these meatballs were fresh from the cooking oil. The accompanying sauce could have used a little extra flavor to keep up with, and properly complement, each meatball. The lemon love cake ($6) was one of the best restaurant desserts we have enjoyed in a long time, if only because it tasted like it came out from a home kitchen. Made by one of the owners mothers, the fluffy lemon cake was sandwiched between a dense sweetened ricotta cheese base at the bottom and a pillowy lemon buttercream frosting at the top. Its a very simple Italian-inspired dessert that delighted everyone at our table who ordered it. The remaining desserts are made by Biscotti Cafe on Syracuses Northside. A basic cheesecake ($6) was available plain or with blueberries and lived up to expectations. The bakerys cannoli cake ($6), featuring layers of chocolate cake and sweetened ricotta cannoli filling, was also on the menu. It was a good dessert hindered by a dry, crumbly texture likely from sitting in a refrigerator a bit too long. Pizzas make up the first part of the Brick & Brew moniker. The latter comes from the extensive beer list, including 21 draft and more than 60 bottled or canned beers, representing a blend between local, regional and national craft brands as well as big-name beers. The restaurant has a Bottoms Up draft system, filling each glass from the bottom and sealing the pint with a magnetic disc. We were delighted to find selections from North Syracuse beermakers IBU Brewery and Full Boar Craft Brewery, as well as Stoneyard Brewing Co. from the Rochester area. Judging by the crowded dining room, bar and waiting area, Vicinos has found a combination of concept, food and service to sustain a business in a location where others have failed before. Details The Restaurant: Vicinos Brick & Brew, 7789 Brewerton Road, North Syracuse, NY 13212 (the restaurant is located in the town of Cicero, but has a North Syracuse mailing address). Reservations? No. Access to Disabled? The interior is cramped, but the staff will assist with navigating people to tables. Parking: There is a moderately-sized parking lot. Credit Cards? Yes Childrens Menu? Yes, as well as plenty of pizza. Vegetarian Options and Allergy Information? Vegetarian options exist. While the restaurant has gluten-free pizza crusts, there is no dedicated gluten-free workspace. Hours: Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Cost: We attempted to sample as much of the menu as possible, and reasonable, for the review. Our total for six, including starters, entrees, drinks, tax and 20 percent tip, was $240.03. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Former left-wing revolutionary Judith Clark was granted parole Wednesday after serving more than 37 years behind bars for her role as getaway driver in a 1981 Brink's armored truck robbery that left two police officers and a security guard dead. "You were wrong. Your behavior was criminal. Your callous disregard for the wellbeing of some, in favor of others, is a disgrace," the parole board wrote in its letter delivered to Clark. "However, this release decision is granted in keeping with applicable factors" including her age, the length of time served, her apologies to victims, her disavowal of radical principles and her accomplishments in prison. Clark was seen by supporters as a symbol of the need for clemency if the prison system was to live up to its ideals as an institution of rehabilitation rather than retribution. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised Clarks behavior as a model prisoner when he commuted her 75-years-to-life sentence in 2016 to make her eligible for parole. The 69-year-old inmate has earned a masters degree, trained service dogs, founded an AIDS education program and counseled mothers behind bars during her time in prison. "We are grateful that the Parole Board affirmed what everyone who has interacted with Judy already knows that she is a rehabilitated, remorseful woman who poses no threat to society," said Michael Cardozo, who represents Clark pro bono as co-counsel with Steve Zeidman. Clark is supposed to be released from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility by May 15, Zeidman said, adding "We hope it's much sooner." She plans to live with a friend in New York City and take a job with Hour Children, an organization that helps incarcerated women and their children rejoin the community. "My great hope is that the Parole Board continues to honor the work people do to transform their lives while in prison and lets more families' loved ones come home," said Clark's daughter, Harriet Clark, in a prepared statement. At her April 3 parole hearing, Clark presented support statements from more than 2,000 people. They included former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, 11 members of New York's congressional delegation and Elaine Lord, a former superintendent of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. A letter signed by more than 70 elected officials said the correctional system exists for rehabilitation as well as punishment. But some law enforcement officials and families of victims opposed her release. The $1.6 million Brink's heist at a mall in suburban New York led to the shooting deaths of Brink's guard Peter Paige and Nyack police officers Edward O'Grady and Waverly Brown. The parole board said it considered the letters in support and opposition of Clark's release, as well as her post-release employment plans and low risk of future offenses. "This perversion of justice is a sad continuation of the deadly assault on police officers happening across our nation and signals to the criminal element that it is open season on cops," Rockland County Executive Ed Day said in a statement Wednesday. "Judith Clark is a murderer and a terrorist," said Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York. "This is not justice." Clark participated in the robbery as a member of the Weather Underground, an organization of violent revolutionaries that grew out of the anti-Vietnam war movement. "I look at the world differently now," Clark said in her letter asking Cuomo for clemency. "Instead of abstract slogans, I see and am moved by flesh-and-blood people." Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said despite being the getaway driver and not at the scene of the robbery and shooting, Clark was sentenced to die in prison. "Since being incarcerated, she has expressed deep remorse for her role and used every opportunity to better herself and those around her." The parole board denied Clarks release in 2017, saying she was still a symbol of violent terroristic crime. A state supreme court judge ordered a new hearing, saying the panel improperly gave more weight to the severity of the crime than to her rehabilitation. But that ruling was overruled by a state appellate court. Bill Kapri, a.k.a. Kodak Black has posted bail and been released from jail in Upstate New York, according to new video from WKBW-TV. UPDATE: Kodak Black has posted bail. He used a fan of cash to hide his face from our camera. https://t.co/AlCrhYZAor pic.twitter.com/NaRGHNG9Em 7 Eyewitness News (@WKBW) April 18, 2019 Kodak Black, 21, was arrested on drug and weapons charges as he tried to cross from Canada into the United States near Niagara Falls, the Associated Press reported. He three other men trying to enter the United States via the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge. Police said he had marijuana and a Glock 9mm pistol that he did not declare inside the Cadillac Escalade he was driving. He was charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana and remanded to county jail. Another car traveling with Blacks group declared two loaded handguns, but not a third that police found in the trunk. Police also found marijuana in that vehicle, and arrested 22-year-old Jeantony Saintmelus, according to WKBW. Bail was $40,000 or $20,000 cash. Workers at the jail described Black as rude to several nurses at the facility. The full Mueller report will be available as a free download, Barnes & Noble says. The bookseller announced Wednesday that its offering The Mueller Report for pre-order online as a free eBook on the Nook reading app. Read the findings of the Special Counsels investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election. Pre-Order the FREE eBook today and it will be delivered to your NOOK Library upon expected release, Barnes & Noble said in an email to customers. U.S. Attorney General William Barr is expected to release a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers 400-page report on Thursday. Mueller concluded his two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election last month and Barr released a four-page summary, but no other details. Barr said Mueller ruled out collusion, but did not draw a conclusion about possible obstruction by Trump. While this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him, Barr wrote. Mueller brought charges against 34 people including Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort, national security adviser Michael Flynn and personal lawyer Michael Cohen and revealed the Kremlins wide-ranging effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. Five former Trump aides or advisers pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in Muellers investigation, including Manafort, Flynn and Cohen. Barr will give a press conference at 9:30 a.m. Thursday before releasing the redacted version of the report. According to The Associated Press, the report will be delivered after the news conference to Congress on CDs between 11 a.m. and noon and then be posted on the special counsels website. Select members of Congress will receive a less-redacted version, the Department of Justice said Wednesday. Barnes & Noble says the version on its website will be a PDF/direct replica of the 400-report, with Barr redactions and all. CNN reports the company said it received strong demand for the report and wanted to make it easy to access the essential reading for all Americans on both sides of the aisle. Oswego, N.Y. U.S. Rep. John Katko said today he had no problem with the way Attorney General William Barr released the Mueller report including Barrs decision to give the White House a look before sending the much-awaited document onto Congress. But Rep. Anthony Brindisi said he wished Barr had released the report to all simultaneously. I would much rather prefer to have the report made public to everyone at the same time, said Brindisi, D-Utica, who represents much of the Mohawk Valley. And Im looking forward to reading the entire report, not just the redacted version. Neither said they had an issue with Barrs decision to hold a press conference before releasing the report to Congress. And Katko, a former federal prosecutor who represents Syracuse, said he didnt see a problem with Barr showing the redacted report to the Trump administration first. What really matters is what the report says, Katko, R-Camillus said. Both answered questions shortly before noon today, before either had a chance to read or glance at breaking news reports about the document. They were in Oswego together for an 11 a.m. ceremony to celebrate an early step toward designating part of Lake Ontario as a federal marine sanctuary. The report was released at 11 a.m. Katko praised the work by special counsel Robert Mueller, noting the investigation included 500 witnesses, 2,600 subpoenas, 30 wire surveillances and 20 prosecutors. After all those efforts and all that time, they didnt find anything, he said, adding that he hadnt seen the report. Katko added the work did make clear that another country tried to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. Russian interference is real and is there, said Katko, who is on the Houses Homeland Security Committee. Weve got to figure out how to stop that going forward. Both congressmen said they plan to spend the weekend reading the report. Brindisi added he wants to see an unredacted version. He also said he hoped the reports findings wont overshadow other issues. What I dont want to see is us get caught up in endless investigations, Brindisi said. I want to work on some of the issues that I hear at town hall meetings. Brindisi says he rarely hears from constituents about Russian interference in the election or investigations surrounding Trump. Instead he says he hears about rising healthcare and prescription drug costs and the opioid epidemic. Those are the things people want us working on, Brindisi said. Katko represents New Yorks 24th Congressional District, which covers all of Onondaga, Cayuga and Wayne counties, and the western half of Oswego County. Brindisi represents the 22nd Congressional District, which covers all of Madison, Oneida, Cortland and Chenango counties and portions of Oswego, Broome, Herkimer, and Tioga counties. The Mueller report appears to be most heavily redacted in its first section, which covers Russias meddling in the 2016 election and examines contacts between Russian representatives and the Trump campaign. The report concludes there was no criminal culpability by Trump aides. Several pages in that first section are almost entirely blacked out. The report's second section, examining possible obstruction by President Donald Trump, appears more lightly redacted. Attorney General William Barr heavily redacted the Mueller report when it comes to the most nefarious details about the Russian Internet Research Agency that used social media to interfere with our elections. Entire pages are blacked out with the words Harm to Ongoing Matter. pic.twitter.com/1UZYpOnMJH Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) April 18, 2019 The Justice Department's careful excisions begin as early as the fourth page of the report. Barr said he was withholding grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to ongoing investigation and the privacy or reputation of uncharged "peripheral" people. In referencing an oligarch who headed up a team of Russian tech experts who used U.S. social media to exploit American political controversies, Justice officials blacked out details about the mans ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Your browser does not support the iframe HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later. More from The Associated Press: WASHINGTON (AP) Public at last, special counsel Robert Muellers report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump had tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Muellers removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. The report said that in June 2017, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call the acting attorney general and say that Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. McGahn refused deciding he would rather resign than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate firings fame. For all of that, Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed criminal obstruction of justice. The Justice Department posted a redacted version of the report online Thursday morning, 90 minutes after Attorney General William Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings. The two-volume, 448-page report recounts how Trump repeatedly sought to take control of the Russia probe. Mueller evaluated 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice, including Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president's directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. The president's lawyers have said Trump's conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mueller's team deemed the episodes deserving of criminal scrutiny. Mueller reported that Trump had been agitated at the special counsel probe from its earliest days, reacting to Mueller's appointment by saying it was the "end of his presidency." As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges." Mueller also said there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge any campaign officials with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. The report included an appendix that contained 12 pages of Trump's written responses to the special counsel. They included no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trump's legal team. Trump told Mueller he had "no recollection" of learning in advance about the much-scrutinized Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Hillary Clinton's campaign. He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made "complimentary statements" about him. Trump said that his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Clinton's private server was made "in jest and sarcastically" and that he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems. Trumps legal team called the results a total victory for the president. When President Donald Trump found out Robert Mueller had been appointed as a special counsel to investigate interactions between his campaign and Russia he predicted it would be the end of his presidency. On May 17, 2017 then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the president about the special counsel investigation, according to the recently released report by Mueller. When Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I am f-----, according to the report, which based its retelling of this conversation on notes taken by Jody Hunt, Sessions chief of staff at the time. Trump reacts to news of special counsel investigation. Trump then became angry, according to the report, and lambasted Sessions for his decision to recuse himself from the investigation. How could you let this happen Jeff? the president said, according to the report. Trump told Sessions that the Attorney General was his most important appointment and said Sessions had let him down. Sessions told investigators Trump told him you were supposed to protect me. Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I wont be able to do anything, the president said, according to the report. Trump added: This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) is raising the alarm bells over the 30 percent cut to Legal Aid Ontario contained in last weeks provincial budget. Legal clinics, one of the key services that receive their funding from Legal Aid Ontario, are under serious threat from the cuts. Clinics not only provide legal services to ONIWG as an organization, they also provide representation to individual injured workers across the province in their appeals to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and its Tribunal. Increasingly, clinics also represent injured workers before the Social Benefits Tribunal, as many people are forced to apply for Ontario Works or Ontario Disability after their WSIB claim is denied or their benefits cut. A 30 percent cut to LAO's budget will ultimately affect the ability of clinics to deliver these services. Legal Aid also funds services related to immigration and refugee law, housing and eviction, and many cultural and linguistic communities that are disproportionately affected by work injury. Many legal clinics are already operating at bare bones to begin with, said ONIWG President Willy Noiles, who served as Chair of the Niagara North Community Legal Clinic in St. Catharines before his election as ONIWG head. Previous administrations have already made cuts to clinic funding, creating staff shortages and bare-bones administration. In order to reduce costs any further, as clinics will be told to, clinic lawyers and community workers will have to be cut. Without a doubt, for those citizens denied legal aid services, it costs the provincial government more in the end. That's why were hoping Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Finance Minister Vic Fedeli will take a sober second look at this particular cut, Noiles stated. Whether its the elimination of immigration and refugee law services that will leave people under threat of deportation, or cuts to other legal aid services that will cause people to fall into homelessness, anything of this magnitude will be devastating to some of the most vulnerable people in Ontario. We need to come together and stop this from happening, Noiles added. For more information, contact Willy Noiles, ONIWG President 289-219-4473 BOSTON, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Centering Healthcare Institute (CHI) announced today that it will implement its evidence-based CenteringPregnancy and CenteringParenting models of group care across five community health centers in New Jersey. CHI has received funding in the amount of $445,000 from The Nicholson Foundation, The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation and The Burke Foundation to improve infant and maternal mortality in the state. This is a collaborative effort with the New Jersey Department of Healths Healthy Women, Healthy Families initiative to improve pregnancy outcomes in high risk populations, address health disparities and reduce Black infant mortality. New Jersey joins a growing number of states that are aggressively prioritizing women and families through the investment in access to Centering, said Angie Truesdale, Chief Executive Officer of CHI. We are excited and honored to be part of this partnership and looking forward to supporting these five sites in improving their birth outcomes and empowering young families. The five sites named are Paterson Community Health Center (Paterson), Alliance Community Healthcare Inc (Jersey City), Henry J Austin Health Center (Trenton), Capital Health (Trenton) and University Hospital (Newark). Centering Healthcare Institute will provide services to support the health centers as they implement or expand the Centering model across their practices. The funding includes implementation support and facilitation training from CHI, leading up to accreditation. The organization will also hire a New Jersey Centering Program Manager to support the sites and program. Its a tragic reality that race determines health outcomes for many New Jersey mothers and babies. Everyone regardless of skin color should be given an equal chance at a healthy, productive life, said New Jersey Health Commissioner, Dr. Shereef Elnahal. The New Jersey Department of Health is grateful for this public-private partnership to address these disparities in maternal and child health. "In New Jersey, the infant mortality rate for Black infants is more than three times that of white infants - an unacceptable disparity," said Shannon Riley Ayers, Senior Program Officer at The Nicholson Foundation. Our ultimate goal in bringing the Centering model to New Jersey is to create a community of practice that changes how prenatal and well-child care is delivered to reduce the disparities in infant mortality rates. CHIs Centering model of care combines health assessment, interactive learning and community building to help support positive health behaviors and drive better health outcomes. With over 100 published studies and peer-reviewed articles, evidence shows that Centering reduces costs, improves health outcomes for mothers and their babies and reduces racial health disparities. By helping mothers to have healthy pregnancies and deliver full-term babies, we can prevent lifelong physical and developmental problems. This is an opportunity for our state to show that we can change our policies and practices to reduce long-standing disparities among populations, said Melissa Litwin, Early Childhood Program Director at The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation. We are honored to be partnering with Centering Healthcare Institute and the New Jersey Department of Health to deliver a best-in-class intervention that directly impacts maternal and child health and supports healthier pregnancies and a strong beginning for babies. Centerings innovative group healthcare model empowers patients and ensures high-quality and equitable care, said Atiya Weiss, Executive Director, The Burke Foundation. CenteringPregnancy is a nationally recognized model of group prenatal care shown to improve a wide range of birth outcomes including lowering risk of preterm births, reducing low birth weights and increasing breastfeeding rates. CenteringPregnancy group care follows the recommended schedule of ten prenatal visits, but each visit is ninety minutes to two hours longgiving patients ten times as much time with their provider team. Patients engage in their care by taking their weight and blood pressure, recording their health data and have private time with their provider for the clinical assessment. CenteringParenting is CHIs pediatric group care model that offers family centered care to parents, caregivers and children who meet with their healthcare team for nine well-child visits over the first two years. Participants are actively engaged in their childs assessment at every visit: tracking growth, development, immunizations and oral health. Health assessments, immunizations and developmental screenings follow the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Bright Futures nationally recognized guidelines. Active participation makes parents more aware of the results and what these health indicators and milestones mean to their childs health, growth and development. About Centering Healthcare Institute CHI is a national non-profit organization, based in Boston, MA, with a mission to improve health and transform the way care is delivered. With over two decades of experience as the go-to resource for group healthcare, CHI has pioneered and sustained the Centering model of group care currently offered across 580 healthcare practice sites impacting close to 70,000 patients each year. The evidence-based Centering model combines health assessment, interactive learning and community building to help support positive health behaviors and drive better health outcomes. CenteringPregnancy and CenteringParenting provide the highest quality of care to families from pregnancy through age two of the child. The CenteringHealthcare model of care is being extended to many different health conditions including groups for asthma, diabetes, opioid recovery, cancer survivors, chronic pain and other patient populations. Visit www.centeringhealthcare.org for more information. About The Nicholson Foundation The Nicholson Foundation is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of vulnerable populations in New Jersey. The Foundations primary goal is to improve outcomes in health and early childhood. Our strategic approach is to transform service delivery systems by informing policy and developing sustainable models that better serve vulnerable populations. For more information about the Foundation, visit http://thenicholsonfoundation.org . About The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation makes grants to pre-selected organizations working in early childhood, aging in place, and medical research. It also funds institutions with historic ties to the Taub family. A continuing focus of the Foundation is on local communities in New Jerseys Bergen and Passaic counties, in areas with the greatest needs, including Henrys home town of Paterson. Why it matters: While there was extensive damage done to the building, the fire at Notre-Dame didnt totally destroy the 856-year-old cathedral. Helping the 400+ firefighters tackle the blaze was Colossusthe Paris Firefighter Brigades 1,100-pound robot. Trying to put out the 15-hour inferno that started at Notre-Dame on Monday presented some unique challenges. US firefighter Gregg Favre explained how old churches have few, if any, passive fire protection systems, and that the heavy 2.5-inch fire hoses are difficult to maneuver and largely ineffective against fires like these. But the biggest concern was the risk of the old timber structure collapsing on top of the firefighters. This option also means placing responders on the inside as the roof is falling down around them. And we aren't talking shingles. This is heavy timber construction. Often 12"x12" in old churches, perhaps bigger in a #Cathedral this old. pic.twitter.com/RwO3N1Qrjw Gregg Favre (@GreggFavre) April 15, 2019 Thankfully, Colossus was on hand to help. The robots design allows it to endure harsh conditions while operating a fire hose, moving heaving equipment, or carrying the wounded to safety. The machine, which is around 5.25-feet long, 2.5-feet wide, and slightly under 2.5-feet tall, can be operated from 1000-feet away. French firm Shark Robotics created Colossus, which, as youd imagine, is waterproof and fire-resistant. The six lithium-ion batteries power two electric motors that can push the robot to 2.2 mph. Its also able to traverse difficult terrain and carry 1,200 pounds. Colossus had other machines helping it fight the Notre-Dame fire. Two dronesa DJI Mavic Pro and a Matrice M210were used to thermally map the building and direct water toward the hottest parts. Utilizing Colossus helped ensure nobody was killed during the fire, though two police officers and a firefighter were reportedly injured, according to the New York Times. A number of companies and individuals, including Apple and Ubisoft, have donated money to help rebuild Notre-Dame. The fund reached one billion Euros ($1.13 billion) after just two days, bringing questions over whether some French donors had ulterior motives such as tax breaks and political influence, and why it has raised so much more than other, arguably more worthy causes. Should the insurance pay for the fire damage, the donations might not even be required. We are heartbroken for the French people and those around the world for whom Notre Dame is a symbol of hope. Relieved that everyone is safe. Apple will be donating to the rebuilding efforts to help restore Notre Dames precious heritage for future generations. Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 16, 2019 A new study sheds light on the pervasiveness of teen dating violence in the United States and why it should not be taken lightly: it can be lethal. On October 2014, an English teenage boy received a sentence of 25 years in prison after stabbing her girlfriend in the back and dismembering her body afterward. While this manner of death is likely rare among dating teens, violence is not. Of the 2,000 women killed from 2003 to 2016, 150 of them were teens who lost their lives to intimate partner homicide. "People think that intimate partner violence among adolescents is less serious than among adults. It's important to highlight that this can really lead to death. It's not something to brush off as 'This is just an argument between kids,'" remarked Avanti Adhia, University of Washington School of Medicine epidemiologist and study author. Jealousy And Guns For the study, the author and her colleagues wanted to find out the proportion of teen homicides due to dating violence, the nature of the crime, and the circumstances that surrounded it. They used the data from the coroners, medical records, and police files across 32 states from 2003 to 2016. Within this period, they identified 2,188 homicides involving people between 11 and 18 years old with a known relationship with their perpetrator. About 7 percent of these adolescent homicides were classified as IPH. 90 percent of the victims were female, while 77.9 percent of the perpetrators were men who were at least 18 years old. Only 62 percent of these killers were the intimate partners of the victims during the commission of the crime. Jealousy was one of the most common reasons for the homicide but so was the perpetrator's desire to establish a relationship with the deceased. Over 20 percent of the deaths happened while the individuals were in a heated argument. Around 6.7 percent revolved around teen pregnancy, while 12 of the cases were due to the accessibility to firearms. In 24 of the reported incidents, the perpetrator killed themselves after committing the crime. Almost 40 percent of these homicides happened in the home of the victims, while over 35 percent occurred in an apartment or residence owned by somebody else. Emotional Imbalance And History Of Abuse While not included in the scope of the study, the researchers outlined some of the possible explanations for teen homicide. These may include emotional instability, such as extreme mood swings, and lack of support. Those involved in IPH are often adolescents who have a history of abuse in their family. Teens who become victims of IPH also often did not approach adults for help. Instead, they tend to reach out to their peers, who, like them, don't have enough social skills or maturity to handle relationship issues such as breakups. Teen dating violence, especially among women, is not new. A 2015 study revealed they are also likely to be victims of sexual and physical abuse. This is the first study, however, to highlight the extreme danger of dating abuse among adolescents, which is a homicide. Besides further exploring the issue, the researchers cited the importance of laws that provide criminal and civil protection for those at risk of IPH. They also push for gun surrender and other legal means to keep the victims safe. "Programs aimed at adolescents involved in IPV should consider the contexts that may put adolescents at increased risk of homicide," said the study now published in JAMA Pediatrics. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Five years ago, a fireball hurtled through the cosmos and slammed into Earth, disintegrating in the atmosphere the way space rocks do. Unbeknownst to anyone, this isn't a regular meteor. This particular meteor's origins, new research reveals, may have been beyond the solar system. It's the first recorded instance of an interstellar space rock making contact with Earth and only the second interstellar visitor to have been discovered. Back in 2017, an elongated space rock dubbed as the 'Oumuamua zipped through the solar system at great speed. Meteor That Hit Earth May Have Come From A Different Star System In a new paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers analyzed more than 30 years of data on meteor events recorded by the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, in hopes of spotting other meteors that may have originated from another star system. The team focused specifically on the fastest meteors on record, since rocks traveling at great speed is less likely to be gravitationally bound to the sun and originate outside the solar system. With this method, they identified one: a 3-foot meteor at an altitude of 11.6 miles above Papua New Guinea and a speed of 134,200 miles per hour. Its trajectory is consistent with origins from outside the solar system. "We can use the atmosphere of the Earth as the detector for these meteors, which are too small to otherwise see," Avi Loeb, chair of astronomy at Harvard University, explains to Space.com. Loeb and study lead author Amir Siraj, a student at Harvard University, found two other meteors at the same speed of the 2014 meteor. However, one proved to be gravitationally bound to the sun, while they were unclear about the origins of the second one. Alien Material Within Interstellar Rocks Finding objects with origins in distant stars is a great step in understanding the world beyond the solar system. In January 2019, Loeb suggested that 'Oumuamua could be an alien probe or some other type of extraterrestrial technology. While Loeb did not make a similar suggestion about the 2014 meteor, the authors did point out in the paper that it's possible for interstellar space rocks to have originated from a habitable region in another star system. If so, interstellar meteors that make their way to Earth may carry inside it tiny life forms or seeds, according to a report from CNET. "You can imagine that if these meteors were ejected from the habitable zone of a star, they could help transfer life from one planetary system to another," Loeb says to Space.com. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. SEATTLE, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Teens from throughout the Seattle region will compete for best startup pitch at TiE Seattles 2019 Young Entrepreneurs Startup Pitch Competition Regional Finals. The annual event, sponsored by TiE Seattle, the local chapter of the largest entrepreneurial network in the world, will take place on Sunday, April 28, from 10 am to 1 pm on the Microsoft Campus. Three finalist teams will compete for a $5000 cash prize. The winning team will also have the opportunity to compete with teens from around the world at the TiE Young Entrepreneurs Global Competition, held in Boston on June 21. The competition is part of TiE Seattle Young Entrepreneurs (TYE), a unique year-round program that guides high school students as they create and launch their first real business while mentored by TiE Charter Members, an exclusive non-profit network whose members give back in terms of time and experience. Students are taught by real-world successful entrepreneurs and business leaders in a one-of-a-kind opportunity not offered by other organizations in the area, taking a business idea and turning it into a prototype in just eight months. The program culminates with the competition and the winning team moving on to compete against other teen entrepreneurs from throughout the world. Finalists include: Team Volunticity, a non-profit that helps high schoolers find volunteer opportunities in their local communities Team ForGift, a platform designed to aid customers in creating personalized, unique gift ideas Team FreeSpace, a platform that helps individuals lease and rent out parking spaces and open lots on an hourly basis Also presenting will be the winners of the 2018 TYE Seattle Startup Pitch competition, Team Zigantic, a mobile validation platform for mobile and PC game developers which recently secured $20,000 in seed funding. The TYE competition is about helping students learn the principles of entrepreneurship, and getting them ready to compete against other students from around the world in this unique, one-of-a-kind program, said Vinita Ananth, Program Chair of TYE Seattle. The intensive training and mentorship by experienced entrepreneurs and business leaders has resulted in the Seattle team consistently placing high against others from all over the globe. Judges include Cameron Borumand, Associate, Ignition Partners and co-founder, Curious Capital; Jennifer Ritzinger, Senior Director, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Imagine Cup, Microsoft; Kelly Wright, Board Director at Fastly, Amperity, and Even, and Instructor, University of Washington Foster School of Business; and Sharmilli Ghosh, President of TiE Seattle. The event is free and open to the public. About the TYE Seattle Program TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE) Seattle, one of the programs offered by TiE Seattle, focuses on teenagers (9th-12th grade levels) who are interested in exploring the challenges and rewards of becoming an entrepreneur. Register now for TYE Seattle Regional Finals competition here . More information about TYE Program in Seattle can be found here . Media Contact: New research reveals that less than half of the patients who are prescribed statins reach the cholesterol level they desire within two years. Statins are medicine prescribed to help lower the level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the blood. According to New Scientist, health experts often recommend statins to patients who are tagged for being at a higher risk of heart disease. The goal is to usually lower LDL cholesterol level by at least 40 percent. Statins Only Found To Work In Half Of Patients In a new study published in the journal Heart, researchers from the University of Nottingham observed data from more than 165,000 patients who were prescribed statins from 1990 to 2016. Findings show that only 49 percent of the participants achieved a 40 percent drop in LDL cholesterol levels within two years. More than 84,000 of these patients recorded a sub-optimal response to the prescription of statins. Furthermore, the patients who did not reach their target level were associated to a 22 percent higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Why Statins Did Not Work On Patients The researchers note that more of the patients with sub-optimal response were prescribed lower potency doses of statins than those who had an optimal response and reached their goals. According to a report from the British Heart Foundation, one potential reason that could have contributed to the dismal numbers may be that some patients are not taking the statins as prescribed. Personalized medications and dosages are also important factors into making sure a treatment will work for a patient. Findings also show that the patients who cut their cholesterol levels by at least 40 percent started out with a higher cholesterol level on average than those who did not reach the target. It's possible that higher intensity statins have been prescribed to these higher-risk patients. "Statins are an important and proven treatment for lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke," Professor Metin Avkiran, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, explains in a statement. "Although this study suggests that not everyone who is prescribed statins manages to reduce their cholesterol sufficiently, it doesn't explain why." She continues that there are many reasons why the statins did not work for these patients, including the dosages, potency, and even discipline of the patients. "If you have been prescribed statins, you should continue to take them regularly, as prescribed," Avkiran urges. "If you have any concerns you should discuss your medication with your GP." Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, agrees, saying that there are plenty of complex reasons for the ineffectiveness of statins. She adds that mixed messaging discouraging the public from statins could even be one of these reasons. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, a spaceflight pioneer who flew on board the Skylab space station and the Space Shuttle Columbia, has passed away. He was 88. The U.S. space agency confirmed that he died on Monday, April 15, in his home in Huntsville, Alabama. No cause of death was divulged to the public. An American Hero Garriott, born in Oklahoma, served as an electronics officer for the U.S. Navy from 1953 to 1956. He also taught electronics, electromagnetic theory, and ionosphere physics at Stanford University. His career at NASA, however, began in 1965 as an astronaut-scientist. He also completed a 53-week flight training at Williams Air Force Base and logged over 5,000 hours of flying time. He flew to space twice. He was a science pilot for the Skylab 3 mission from July 28 to Sept. 25, 1973. He logged nearly 14 hours outside Skylab in three spacewalks, during which his physiological and biomedical metrics were observed. Garriott and his colleagues Commander Alan Bean and Pilot Jack Lousma logged a total of 1,427 hours and nine minutes in space, which is double the duration of any previous flight. They traveled some 24.5 million miles and completed 858 revolutions around Earth on board the United States' first orbital workshop. The crew completed 333 medical experiments to help scientists understand the effects of weightlessness on the human body. His second and final flight was on the space shuttle. He and five other people launched on board the Space Shuttle Columbia on Nov. 28, 1983, for a 10-day mission to carry the European Space Agency's STS-9 Spacelab-1 into orbit. It was the largest crew at the time to fly on board a single spacecraft. During the mission, Garriott operated the first amateur radio station in space. He used the station call W5LFL to connect with 250 ham operators, including his mother. His son, Richard Garriott, a video game developer and entrepreneur, became the sixth space tourist and the first American father-son space travelers. After completing training in Russia, he flew on board the Soyuz TMA-13 in 2008 and arrived at the International Space Station two days later. World Pays Tribute NASA Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester issued a statement to pay tribute to Garriott. He said the late astronaut "set the stage for international cooperation in human spaceflight." In a tweet, Richard described his father as a "practical joker" beneath the Spock-like exterior. Astronaut Owen Garriott was a good friend and an incredible astronaut. I have a great sadness as I learn of his passing today. Godspeed Owen. pic.twitter.com/rT56PQMwJV Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) April 15, 2019 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Food and Drug Administration has ordered a ban on the sale and distribution of pelvic mesh products following claims of injuries inflicted to women. Doctors use surgical mesh to help women suffering from incontinence and a condition known as pelvic organ prolapse or POP. However, several reports have surfaced regarding patients developing side effects such as severe discomfort, permanent incontinence, and an inability to engage in sex. The states of California, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Washington have filed lawsuits against manufacturers on behalf of victims of pelvic mesh complications. They claim that makers did not fully disclose the health risks associated with their products. This led to the FDA putting a hold on the marketing of surgical mesh. "In order for these mesh devices to stay on the market, we determined that we needed evidence that they worked better than surgery without the use of mesh to repair POP," the agency said. "That evidence was lacking in these premarket applications, and we couldn't assure women that these devices were safe and effective long term." What Is Pelvic Organ Prolapse? Pelvic floor disorders continue to be a major concern for many women. In fact, one in every five develops conditions such as fecal incontinence, urinary incontinence, and pelvic organ prolapse, according to Women's Health. Patients who develop POP experience a weakening of the muscles and ligaments supporting their pelvic organs. This causes the organs to drop lower in their pelvis, resulting in a bulge in their vagina (prolapse). The condition commonly occurs in women years after they have given birth. It can also happen following a hysterectomy or after patients enter their menopause stage. While POP develops less frequently compared to urinary or fecal incontinence, the condition does affect as much as three percent of American women. Older women have been shown to be more susceptible to POP compared to younger women. It is also more common among whites and Hispanics than members of other race or ethnic groups. There are also instances where women develop more than one disorder, such as urinary incontinence with POP. Several treatments are available to address pelvic organ prolapse. Patients are recommended a particular procedure, depending on the type of POP they have, their symptoms, their age, and other health issues. Doctors also factor in whether the patient is sexually active. POP sufferers may undergo the following procedures: Pessary Insertion Pelvic floor muscle therapy Changing eating habits Colpocleisis (surgery to close the vagina) Surgery to support the uterus or vagina For sexually active women, doctors recommend undergoing surgery to address pelvic organ prolapse. The procedure sometimes involves using the patient's own body tissue or a surgical mesh to repair POP. The FDA has enforced strict safety guidelines regarding the use of such devices. Issues With Pelvic Mesh Products Some POP patients who received pelvic mesh surgery reported of developing complications, such as pain in pelvis or groin, pain during sex, and persistent vaginal bleeding or discharge. Several consumer protection groups, including Public Citizen, called for a ban against the use of such devices as early as 2011. They believe pelvic mesh products are only injuring many women. Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, welcomed the FDA's decision to stop the sale and distribution of surgical mesh. However, he said the move may have come too late for the thousands of POP sufferers, who were left with irreparable damages because of the devices. In its ban announcement, the FDA said pelvic mesh makers Coloplast and Boston Scientific failed to provide a reasonable assurance that their products are safe and effective to use. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Hackers exploited a Microsoft customer support portal that allowed them to access customers' e-mail accounts on Hotmail, MSN, and Outlook. Microsoft confirmed the breach in an e-mail to TechCrunch, saying that hackers targeted a limited number of e-mail accounts. Microsoft Customer Support Hacked The hackers were able to access the affected e-mail addresses, the names of the folders, the subject lines of e-mails, and other e-mail addresses users communicate with. Microsoft assured that the hackers have not accessed the e-mail contents, attachments, and passwords. However, it recommends that affected users should change their passwords. The tech company also said that they already made solutions to this issue. "We addressed this scheme, which affected a limited subset of consumer accounts, by disabling the compromised credentials and blocking the perpetrators' access," said a Microsoft spokesperson in the e-mail. The breach happened between Jan. 1 and March 28, where the hackers got inside the system compromising the credentials of a customer support agent. Microsoft did not say how the agent's credentials were compromised, or if the agent was its employee or working for a third party that provides support services. Microsoft did not explain either how it discovered the breach on its system. Microsoft Addresses Data Breach The tech firm said that once it identified the compromised credentials, it immediately disabled them. It did not say what data had been viewed by the hackers or why they accessed these e-mails. Microsoft advised its customers to expect phishing or spam e-mails as a result of the data breach. Microsoft said that users should be careful when they receive e-mails that ask for their personal information or payment or unsolicited requests from an untrusted source. Users should also be careful in receiving e-mails from misleading domain names. According to Motherboard, Microsoft has the ability to scan or read e-mail messages. In 2014, for example, it tried to identify a Windows 8 leaker by looking into the e-mail account of a French blogger. Motherboard's source claimed that this kind of access had been used to break into iCLoud-locked iPhones. Hackers need to compromise a target's e-mail or iCloud account to remove Activation Lock from their iPhone. Microsoft also said that it regrets any inconvenience caused by this issue. It assured its users that the company takes data protection very seriously, and it is currently investigating the issue. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASA's Christina Koch is set to make history as she notches the longest single spaceflight by a woman, beating fellow astronaut Peggy Whitson's previous record. The American space agency recently announced its upcoming schedule for its astronauts on the International Space Station. The assignments include Jessica Meir's first-ever spaceflight, Andrew Morgan's extended stay on the ISS, and Koch's record-setting stint in outer space. Longest Single Spaceflight By A Woman Koch joined NASA colleague Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin in their journey to the ISS in March. Unlike most other astronauts, she is slated to stay on the space station until February 2020, clocking in a total of 328 days. The schedule will allow Koch to beat Whitson's record of 288 consecutive days in space, which still stands as the longest tenure by a woman in space as of the moment. Koch's stint will be just 12 days short of retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly's all-time record of 340 days. NASA hopes that Koch's stay on the ISS will give its scientists more data on the potential health effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body. Following Kelly's historic run, he provided NASA with samples of his blood and underwent several other analyses to find out how much his body had changed while he was on his nearly yearlong mission the space station. His health data was then compared with those of his twin brother, former astronaut Mark Kelly, who had stayed on Earth throughout the duration of the experiment. NASA found that long-term spaceflights can result in serious health effects, such as affecting people's cognition and damaging their DNA. The space agency expects to get more information on these adverse effects once Koch and Morgan finish their mission. "Astronauts demonstrate amazing resilience and adaptability in response to long duration spaceflight exposure," explained Jennifer Fogarty, NASA's chief scientist of the Human Research Program at Johnson Space Center. "This will enable successful exploration missions with healthy, performance-ready astronauts." Fogarty said NASA hopes to build on what it has already gathered from previous spaceflights and combine them with information from future space missions. Koch's extended stay on the ISS will provide the space agency will additional data for its Human Research Program, which could be used to support planned missions to the Moon and even to Mars. Who Is Christina Koch? Michigan-native Christina Koch started her career at NASA in 2013. She finished her astronaut candidate training in 2015. She is a graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, located in Durham, North Carolina. She also went to North Carolina State University, where she earned her bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and physics and her master's degree in electrical engineering. Koch's work experience includes serving as a developer of space science instruments, as well as a field engineer for remote scientific research. She was part of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, working as one of the team's electrical engineers. She contributed various scientific instruments used on missions to study astrophysics and cosmology. From 2004 to 2007, she served as a research associate in the United States Antarctic Program. She spent a season at Palmer Station in Antarctica and a winterover season at the AmundsenScott South Pole Station. Koch is currently part of NASA's Expedition 59 and 60 crews, which launched to the ISS last month. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Our ancestors used to be hunter gatherers but eventually transitioned to herding. Researchers have used the salty residue of Neolithic urine from Turkey to know when humans switched from being primarily hunters to herding animals. Ancient Settlement Askl Hoyuk Earlier studies found signs suggesting that the inhabitants of the ancient village of Askl Hoyuk in Turkey kept animals. Animal bones and dung at the site show that the residents of the settlement were among the first people in the world to domesticate sheep and goats. In a new study published in Science Advances, Jordan Abell, from Columbia University, reconstructed the density of humans and animals at Askl Hoyuk over a period of 1,000 years by analyzing urine salt collected from the site. They collected 113 samples from trash piles, bricks, and hearths from different time periods to look for pattern in the levels of sodium, nitrate, and chlorine salt. Urine Salts Indicate Increase In Settlement's Population Analysis revealed the abundance of urine salts increased over time, but the researchers, found that about 10,000 years ago, salt levels increased by about 1,000 times. This indicates a rapid increase in the number of occupants at the site. The researchers in particular found that the population of people and animals that occupied the ancient settlement during this period increased from near zero to about one person or animal for every 10 square meters. More Inhabitants Than Number Of People Settlement Buildings Could Accommodate Although it is not possible to distinguish urine salts from humans and animals, it is still possible to use the urine salt analysis to estimate the abundance of sheep and goat. Over a millenia, the researchers calculated that about 1,790 people and animals lived and peed on the settlement every day. The estimated number of inhabitants though appears to be higher than the number of people that archaeologists think the settlement's buildings would have accommodated. "Dung and midden layers at Askl Hoyuk are highly enriched in soluble sodium, chlorine, nitrate, and nitrate-nitrogen isotope values, a pattern we attribute largely to urination by humans and animals onto the site." the researchers wrote in their study. "We present an innovative mass balance approach to interpreting these unusual geochemical patterns that allows us to quantify the increase in caprine management over a ~1000-year period." 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Two Nintendo Switch models are reportedly in development, the first a "Pro" model that's more powerful to a certain extent than the current Switch, and the other a smaller version that's more portable and inexpensive. However, a new rumor suggests Nintendo has delayed the Pro model due to technical difficulties. Next-Gen Nintendo Switch Delayed According to a report in Japanese publication Nikkei, a more powerful "next-generation" Switch redesign is further off. It's not clear, however, if it's referring to the rumored "enhanced" version of the Switch that The Wall Street Journal says is coming later this year, or an entirely new version of the console altogether. That's an important distinction to make clear, since "enhanced" and "next-generation" are two completely different things. The DS Lite was an enhanced version of the original DS, whereas the DSi was a more significant upgrade in terms of features and specs. It's not clear what Nikkei's report might be referring to. Nikkei suggests in the same report, however, that the cheaper Switch version is coming this fall. This variant will be geared around portable play, but Nikkei says players will still be able to hook it up to a TV, as they would with a current Switch. For the uninitiated, the Switch is a hybrid console that can be played in both handheld and docked mode. It can be taken anywhere then connected to a TV for a more immersive gaming setup. The Switch is also compatible with Labo peripherals, which are a set of cardboard-based accessories that connect to the console to allow for unique, unusual, and downright innovative control schemes. It's not clear if the two rumored Switch models would be compatible with Labo toys. Quality Of Life Elsewhere in the report, Nikkei claims Nintendo has canceled its quality of life projects. In 2014 and 2015, Nintendo said it would apply its unique design philosophy to the growing trend of personal health tracking devices. At the time, it seemed Nintendo was suggesting that it was going to enter the wearable market with health devices akin to an Apple Watch or a FitBit accessory. Then in 2016, Nintendo put that project on hold. Fast forward to December 2018, when Nintendo reportedly contacted major component manufacturers to inform them it was exiting the health business entirely. A source that spoke to Nikkei said the project was canceled because the company wasn't able to make a "Nintendo-like product." 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Not since the exploding Galaxy Note 7 fiasco has Samsung been embroiled in a potentially name-damaging scandal. This time, it's the company's soon-to-be-released Galaxy Fold turn to be in the spotlight. The "first" of anything is bound to have some problems, it's fair to say. The first iPhone, for starters, was impressive but clunky. Yet at that time it was the most innovative mobile device, the herald of an incoming era. That same role is now being played by the Galaxy Fold, Samsung's first foldable device. The Galaxy Fold Is Having Display Issues Early reviews say the device looks and feels like the future. Save for one problem that's now starting to surface. There have been reports of display issues with the Galaxy Fold; the screen on review units appear to be malfunctioning when a topmost protective layer is removed. Some units are reportedly breaking without clear causes. I got this far peeling it off before the display spazzed and blacked out. Started over with a replacement. PSA: There's a layer that appears to be a screen protector on the Galaxy Fold's display. It's NOT a screen protector. Do NOT remove it.I got this far peeling it off before the display spazzed and blacked out. Started over with a replacement. pic.twitter.com/ZhEG2Bqulr Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) April 17, 2019 The screen on my Galaxy Fold review unit is completely broken and unusable just two days in. Hard to know if this is widespread or not. pic.twitter.com/G0OHj3DQHw Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 17, 2019 Naturally, panic has swelled given that the problem seems to be affecting a great number of units out in the wild. The device is out April 26, and some have expressed concern if units meant for general consumers will suffer the same woes. Thankfully, Samsung has spoken up and addressed the issues. As The Verge notes, there are two parts to the story. First, Samsung says that it intends to "thoroughly inspect [affected review] units in person," including the devices that seemed to have had screens break without an obvious case. Second, Samsung has addressed the issue of screens breaking because reviewers had attempted to peel off the aforementioned protective layer on top of the display. While it might look like a screen protector, and the natural impulse is to peel it off, Samsung cautions not to. "The main display on the Galaxy Fold features a top protective layer, which is part of the display structure designed to protect the screen from unintended scratches," Samsung said in a statement. "Removing the protective layer or adding adhesives to the main display may cause damage. We will ensure this information is clearly delivered to our customers." Galaxy Fold Price And Release Date Reports of the Galaxy Fold having display problems came out just days after Samsung gave out sample units. Since then, multiple publications and reviewers have reported issues with the device. Samsung says it performs rigorous tests on the Galaxy Fold's display, and promises the screen would outlast 200,000 folds and unfolds. Of course, in-facility testing is a lot different than real-world usage and is never a guaranteed indicator of how robust a device is. To be fair, though, this is the one of the first products of an entirely new category, and as previously mentioned, it's bound to suffer from a handful of early problems. That's an unfortunate but crucial part of progress, especially so that future foldable devices could have as few issues as possible. Samsung is said to already be developing a new kind of foldable device that's nothing like the Galaxy Fold, so this is likely not the last time customers will see screens bending here and there moving forward. The Galaxy Fold comes out April 26. It costs $1,980. This story is developing, so make sure to check back with Tech Times as we gather more information about the display issues. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. CAMPBELL, Calif., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SWAROVSKI, the world-renowned jewelry brand, has selected Centric Softwares Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury and consumer goods companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals. Founded in Wattens, Austria in 1895, Swarovski is a family-run, independent company which designs, creates and markets high-quality crystal, genuine gemstones and created stones, as well as finished products such as jewelry, accessories, crystal creations, watches and lighting. Headquartered in Switzerland, Swarovskis Consumer Goods Business (CGB) required a new solution to replace two existing PLM systems and streamline its fashion jewelry, watches and accessories collection development. We were working with one system for our technical side and another for our creative side, which proved to be complex and inefficient, says Martin Buchbauer, Director Marketing Operations at SWAROVSKI. Over-customization also had a negative impact. We investigated the possibility of merging both systems but soon realized it wouldnt work with any of our existing PLM systems. We approached Centric to see how they would handle our defined use cases and help us take our collection development process to the next level. Convinced by Centric PLMs performance and the expertise of the Centric team, SWAROVSKI opted to implement Centric 8 PLM for internal users across jewelry, home, watches and accessories, as well as selected external suppliers in Asia. As Buchbauer explains, Centric offers great out-of-the-box functionality, and the Centric team are very competent. They engage and challenge us on ways to improve our systems and processes. Our key users immediately embraced the intuitive and modern interface, which convinced us we were on the right path. Centric PLM will help to manage the complexity of designing, manufacturing and retailing 1,000 new Stock Keeping Units per year across different segments. Were also working on an innovation partnership with Centric on the next Centric PLM releases. Its great to work with a partner who takes our needs into account, Buchbauer concludes. We are thrilled to announce that SWAROVSKI has chosen Centric PLM, says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. This cements our expansion into the jewelry vertical in partnership with one of the worlds most respected jewelry brands. We look forward to partnering with SWAROVSKI now and for years to come. Request a Demo with the following hyperlink: http://www2.centricsoftware.com/l/35842/2018-11-21/rw7kwd About SWAROVSKI (www.swarovskigroup.com) Swarovski delivers a diverse portfolio of unmatched quality, craftsmanship, and creativity. Founded in 1895 in Austria, the company designs, manufactures and markets high-quality crystals, genuine gemstones and created stones as well as finished products such as jewelry, accessories and lighting. The Swarovski Crystal Business is run by the fifth generation of family members and has a global reach with approximately 3,000 stores in around 170 countries, more than 27,000 employees, and revenue of about 2.7 billion euros in 2017. Together with its sister companies Swarovski Optik (optical devices) and Tyrolit (abrasives), Swarovski Crystal Business forms the Swarovski Group. In 2017, the Group generated revenue of about 3.5 billion euros and employed more than 32,000 people. A responsible relationship with people and the planet has always been an integral part of Swarovskis heritage, and is embedded today in the companys well-established sustainability agenda. In addition, the global Swarovski Waterschool education program has reached 500,000 children on the worlds greatest rivers, and the Swarovski Foundation, set up in 2013, works to support atculture and creativity, promote human empowerment and conserve natural resources to achieve positive social impact. About Centric Software (www.centricsoftware.com) From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals around the world, Centric Software provides a Digital Transformation Platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) is a visual, fully digital collection of boards for touch-based devices like iPad, iPhone and large-scale, touch-screen televisions. Centric VIP transforms decision making and automates execution to truly collapse time to market and distance to trend. Centrics flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) plform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, business planning, quality and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB packages extended PLM, including innovative technology and key industry learnings, tailored for small businesses. Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan Global Product Differentiation Excellence Award in Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM in 2018 and Frost & Sullivans Global Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM Product Differentiation Excellence Award in 2016 and 2012. Red Herring named Centric to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Media Contacts: Centric Software Americas: Jennifer Forsythe, jforsythe@centricsoftware.com Europe: Kristen Salaun-Batby, ksalaun-batby@centricsoftware.com APAC: Lily Dong, lily.dong@centricsoftware.com Contact: Beth Law Cochran Centric Software bethcochran@whatsuppr.com 406-579-7909 Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission Two years removed from the 2016 flood, the three worst-affected parishes in the Baton Rouge area have had mixed population changes, with East Baton Rouge falling and Ascension and Livingston growing or rebounding, new census data show. East Baton Rouge Parish continued to see a small decline in population while Livingston's population came back after a fall in 2017. Ascension's population never stopped growing, though modestly, the new data show. The U.S. Census Bureau released its latest population estimates for counties and parishes a minute after midnight Thursday. The data reflect the estimate as of July 1, more than nine months ago. +2 For the 1st time since Hurricane Katrina, census stats show a shrinking New Orleans More than a decade of uninterrupted growth in New Orleans' population that accompanied the recovery from Hurricane Katrina has ended, accordin At that point, Ascension Parish was the fastest-growing parish in the nine-parish Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area both since the flood and since last year. East Baton Rouge and East Feliciana parishes were in a virtual dead heat for the fastest population losses, though small. Ascension was also the fastest-growing parish in the state between 2017 and 2018, slightly overtaking St. Bernard Parish by a hundredth of a percentage point. Livingston was slightly behind in third with growth of 1.1 percent, the data show. Statewide, Louisiana's population fell slightly between 2017 and 2018, though it's still up from 2010, at 4.66 million, according to previously released data. Across the Baton Rouge statistical region, population grew slightly over 2017 but is down slightly since 2016 at 831,411 people. Other parishes in the area are East Feliciana, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana. East Baton Rouge Parish's population fell six-tenths of percentage point since 2017 and 1.1 percent since July 1, 2016, just more than a month before the August 2016 flood inundated tens of thousands of homes in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas and parts of the Florida Parishes. East Baton Rouge's population was 440,956 people as of mid-2018, the latest estimates show. East Feliciana's population, with just 4 percent of East Baton Rouge's population, fell at very similar rates the past two years, standing at 19,035 by mid-2018. Meanwhile, Ascension's population grew 1.3 percent since mid-2017 and nearly 2.6 percent since July 1, 2016, rising to 124,672 people from 121,520 in mid-2016. As population soars, Ascension envisions $1.25 billion in transportation needs over next 25 years GONZALES When former Ascension Parish President Ronnie Hughes went to the public in 2006 to pitch a half-cent sales tax for roads, he pointe Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana parishes were the only other parishes in the statistical area to show population growth since 2016, increasing by 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively. West Baton Rouge had 26,427 people as of mid-2018, while West Feliciana had 15,460. West Baton Rouge grew last year by slightly less than a percentage point but that was enough to rank it seventh in the state in terms of rate of growth year to year. Livingston, which had devastating flooding in Denham Springs, Walker and elsewhere, saw its population drop 1.4 percent between 2016 and 2017, falling from 139,970 to 138,038. In 2018, the parish recovered almost all of that loss, growing to 139,567 people, the new data show. Hidden within the latest information were revisions of old population estimates from prior years. These new changes also had mixed effects on Baton Rouge-area parishes. In East Baton Rouge, the revision cut the parish's population figures further than they had been reported just a year ago. One way of measuring those effects is to consider how the revisions have affected population estimates since the 2010. The new data show East Baton Rouge has grown only 0.7 percent between mid-2010 and mid-2017. The old data had pegged that increase at 1.3 percent. The bottom line is the revisions lowered East Baton Rouge's previously reported population in 2017 by 2,661 people, falling from 446,268 to 443,607. +8 Baton Rouge leaders pushing black community to take part in census; counts determine funding Local leaders are already pushing for Baton Rouge residents to participate in the 2020 census, especially residents of the parish's largely bl Then, the new estimates for 2018 cut the parish's population further, by another 2,651 people. In contrast, the revisions served to boost Ascension's population for prior years compared with what had previously been reported, but only slightly. In 2017, the original data had the parish's population at 122,948. With the revisions, the total for 2017 rose by 80 people to 123,028. The change had the side effect of slightly muting the rate of growth for 2018 that Ascension would have seen had the old 2016 or 2017 population totals remained. Census 'undercount' in 2020 could impact children's health in poorly ranked Louisiana With a 2020 U.S. Census looming, Louisiana officials must begin to prepare to reach thousands of children from low-income families to ensure t A census bureau spokesman said the agency sometimes makes revisions but did not offer a reason why those had been made for the Baton Rouge area or whether they were related to the flood in 2016. Advocate reporter Jeff Adelson contributed to this report. A girl who was captured on a viral video being restrained by two teachers at Ponchatoula Junior High School in March was arrested Wednesday, along with her mother, in what authorities say is an investigation unrelated to the school incident. The 14-year-old girl and her mother, Althea Abron, were arrested when detectives came to serve an arrest warrant on the mother that was related to an identity theft investigation from 2018, as well as another search warrant, said John Williams, a New Orleans-based lawyer representing the family. After video shows white teachers restraining black Ponchatoula student, man accused in bomb threat A 22-year-old man was arrested after police say he called in a bomb threat to a Ponchatoula school Friday, apparently in response to a video c A detective informed him the girl was arrested because of "some actions she took during the arrest of her mother," Williams said. Due to the weather and the holiday, she will not have a bond hearing until Tuesday, he said. Williams said the girl's brother was also taken into custody. Dawn Panepinto, a spokeswoman for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office, confirmed that deputies arrested Abron on Wednesday on counts "not related to the PJHS incident." She said Abron was booked on counts of identity theft, marijuana possession and child endangerment. Panepinto declined to release any information regarding juveniles. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Ponchatoula Police Chief Bry Layrisson confirmed the girl in the video is being held at the Florida Parishes Detention Center for "interfering with an investigation," although he did not know to what investigation this count is related. Layrisson said his agency has concluded its investigation into the incident at Ponchatoula Junior High School. He turned the findings over to Tangipahoa Parish District Attorney Scott Perrilloux, who has not yet decided whether to file charges against the students or teachers involved. The video posted to Facebook by Abron captures the aftermath of a fight between two students at the school, Layrisson has said. It shows two teachers trying to pin the girl down on the concrete, with one of them cursing her as the other drags her by the leg. In the weeks since the March 29 incident, Abron has been outspoken about her concerns about how her daughter was treated at school, telling various news outlets that she would seek justice. She also retained Williams, who said he had put the Ponchatoula Police and Tangipahoa Parish School System on notice of his representation. Williams said he believes the arrest is retaliatory, although he does not have enough information at this time to draw a concrete connection between the incident at the junior high school and the recent arrests. But he said the timing and the fact that the girl is being held in detention are part of what leads him to that suspicion. "It smells of it (retaliation)," he said. East Baton Rouge Parish is putting all jury trials on hold perhaps into June after the state Supreme Court declared Thursday that the parish's jury pool was so flawed that a Shreveport judge must start over from an entirely new jury pool in the capital murder trial of accused cop-killer Grover Cannon. After lawyers and Caddo District Judge Ramona Emanuel had traveled to Baton Rouge last month to begin selecting jurors and alternates, Cannon's defense team discovered that none of the 566 potential jurors summoned was under age 26. A further review of parish jury pool records found that no one born after June 2, 1993, had ever been called to jury service in the parish, due to a computer glitch that rejected periodic updates. The flaw left the jury pool essentially the same since 2011, as even people who moved to East Baton Rouge since then were never added, 19th Judicial District Court Administrator Ann McCrory testified at a hearing last week. 'Mammoth' error: Young Baton Rouge residents, newcomers left out of jury pool since 2011 Ann McCrory, the judicial administrator in East Baton Rouge Parish, acknowledged on the witness stand Wednesday that the buck stops with her. After justices decided Thursday that Emanuel could not proceed with such a limited jury pool, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said all jury trials set in the parish will be put on hold until a new jury pool is in place, likely in early June. "That is the earliest they can get it ready," Moore said. "It obviously sets us back." He said he couldn't immediately say how many trials might be affected since many defendants plead guilty right before trial. Moore also said his office would not oppose any defense motion to continue a trial until a new pool is ready. Many trials, including Cannon's, may be delayed still longer, Moore said, depending on the judges' schedules. Judges in the 19th JDC only allot certain weeks for trials. In its one-page opinion Thursday, the Supreme Court said Emanuel could not use the East Baton Rouge jury pool, calling it "improperly constituted" under two articles of the Louisiana Constitution the right to equal protection under the law, and the right of adult citizens to serve as parish jurors. The ruling wiped out nearly three weeks' worth of jury selection. +2 'I'm kind of baffled': Analysis shows young people excluded from Baton Rouge jury pools When 566 Baton Rouge residents were called up for jury duty last week in a capital murder trial, defense attorneys were quick to spot a racial Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Justice Greg Guidry issued a separate, concurring opinion that made clear he didnt think the constitution required throwing out the jury venire, but that it was warranted both out of an abundance of caution and to prevent a possible waste of judicial resources. The decision arrived as a rebuke to Emanuel, who had pressed forward with the elaborate jury selection process required for death penalty trials, denying repeated requests by Cannon's defense team to suspend the trial given evidence that a whole swath of the populace was left off the rolls. Cannon is accused of killing Thomas LaValley as the Shreveport police officer responded to a domestic call. Pretrial publicity pushed the trial to East Baton Rouge Parish, but only for jury selection. The chosen jurors and alternates will travel to Shreveport to weigh Cannons fate at a trial there. Moore said it wasn't clear whether the outside vendor for the court's jury system had isolated the computer problem that caused the jury pool list to remain stagnant for years. McCrory, the court's administrator, did not immediately return a request for comment. East Baton Rouge Parish court offices were closed Thursday because of bad weather. Dwight Doskey, Cannons lead defense attorney, said the decision will put on hold any prospective case until they manage to correct their system. He said he expected that jury officials would need at least six weeks to install a new jury pool and send out questionnaires, the first stage to creating a group of a few hundred randomly selected people needed for a capital trial. Not answered is whether people already convicted by juries that were chosen from the outdated pool hold a valid claim that their guilty verdicts must also be tossed out. I do not know the result as to people who are filing to vacate their convictions, Doskey said. About 34 jury trials a year were held in the 19th Judicial District, on average, over the six-year period ending in 2016. Nearly all of them took place during the time frame in which jury officials acknowledge the parish jury list was growing ever more stale. Chris Aberle, director of the Louisiana Appellate Project, which handles appeals for indigent defendants, said he expects challenges to previous convictions but hadnt assessed the ruling's impact. Mike Mitchell, public defender in East Baton Rouge Parish, said he also expects numerous legal challenges based on the courts decision Thursday. I believe every case that was tried under this system will likely be challenged, Mitchell said. Staff writer Bryn Stole contributed to this story. When a Baton Rouge man stands trial for allegedly burning down his Jones Creek Road restaurant in 2017 to collect insurance money, prosecutors want jurors to hear that he pocketed insurance proceeds following a 2015 fire at an eatery he owned in neighboring Ascension Parish. Jonathan Marino's attorney, however, is objecting to prosecutors mentioning the October 2015 fire at The Italian Bowl in Prairieville when Marino goes on trial in the March 2017 blaze that destroyed The Cast Iron Kitchen in Baton Rouge. "The State's attempt to introduce evidence of a 2015 fire occurring at the Italian Bowl restaurant is an effort to portray Mr. Marino as a man of questionable or 'guilty' character so that the jury will make the forbidden inference that he is thus guilty of the crime charged" in the Cast Iron case, lawyer James Rothkamm argues in documents filed earlier this month. Marino, 37, was indicted in November by an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury on single counts of arson with intent to defraud and injury by arson. A firefighter was injured in the Cast Iron fire. +2 Owner of burned down Baton Rouge restaurant indicted; already faces arson charges in Ascension A Baton Rouge man charged with burning down his Prairieville restaurant in 2015 to collect insurance money was accused this week of setting fi Marino is charged in Ascension Parish with arson with intent to defraud and three counts of attempted arson with intent to defraud. In documents filed in the Cast Iron case, East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant District Attorney Morgan Johnson said former Italian Bowl employees came forward during the Cast Iron investigation "and stated that they had been propositioned by Marino to start a fire at the Italian Bowl for insurance money." Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up She added that the "employees also observed Marino attempt to start several fires at the Italian Bowl." Rothkamm's court filing describes those people as "likely disgruntled, former employees of Mr. Marino." Johnson said the owner of the building that housed the Italian Bowl said Marino was behind on rent payments when the restaurant caught fire and that Marino was given an eviction notice prior to the fire and ordered to vacate the eatery on Oct. 31, 2015. The Italian Bowl fire occurred Oct. 21, 2015. Marino also was four months past due on rent for the Cast Iron to the tune of $6,600 as of Feb. 19, 2017, and was behind on employee payroll and payments to wholesale food providers, Johnson said in the court records. The fire at that restaurant was March 12, 2017. Johnson said Marino received a $140,000 insurance payment after the Italian Bowl fire. He has $135,000 in fire coverage on the Cast Iron, the prosecutor said, but the insurance company is investigating his claim. He did receive a $12,000 advance, she said. Rothkamm insists there are "virtually no similarities" between the two fires. The Cast Iron fire occurred when the restaurant was closed and allegedly originated in the office area, he said, while the Italian Bowl fire took place during business hours and began in the kitchen. NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP announces that a federal securities class action lawsuit has been filed against BrightView Holdings, Inc. (BrightView or the Company) (NYSE: BV) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of those who purchased or acquired the securities of BrightView pursuant and/or traceable to the Companys Registration Statement and Prospectus (collectively, the Registration Statement) issued in connection with BrightViews initial public offering completed on or around June 28, 2018 (the IPO) at $22.00 per share. Investors who purchased shares of BrightView Holdings, Inc. are urged to contact the firm immediately at classmember@whafh.com or (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774. You may obtain additional information concerning the action on our website www.whafh.com. If you have incurred losses in the shares of BrightView Holdings, Inc., you may, no later than June 14, 2019, request that the Court appoint you lead plaintiff of the proposed class. Please contact Wolf Haldenstein to learn more about your rights as an investor in BrightView Holdings, Inc. ## Follow the firm and learn about newly filed cases on Twitter and Facebook. ## The Complaint alleges that the Registration Statement was false and/or misleading and/or failed to disclose that: a material portion of BrightViews contracts were underperforming and/or represented undesirable costs to the Company; as a result of the foregoing, BrightView would implement a managed exit strategy to end its low margin and non-profitable contracts with customers; this managed exit strategy would negatively impact BrightViews future revenue throughout 2018, and would continue to do so well into fiscal year 2019; and as a result of the foregoing, Defendants positive statements in the Registration Statement about BrightViews business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. Wolf Haldenstein has extensive experience in the prosecution of securities class actions and derivative litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country. The firm has attorneys in various practice areas; and offices in New York, Chicago and San Diego. The reputation and expertise of this firm in shareholder and other class litigation has been repeatedly recognized by the courts, which have appointed it to major positions in complex securities multi-district and consolidated litigation. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions regarding your rights and interests in this case, please immediately contact Wolf Haldenstein by telephone at (800) 575-0735, via e-mail at classmember@whafh.com , or visit our website at www.whafh.com . Contact: Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP Kevin Cooper, Esq. Gregory Stone, Director of Case and Financial Analysis Email: gstone@whafh.com , kcooper@whafh.com or classmember@whafh.com Tel: (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774 Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. A former tenured LSU professor fired in 2015 for using vulgarity, and talking about her sex life and the sex lives of students in her elementary education classes, is urging a federal appellate court to reconsider her case. Teresa Buchanan's civil rights lawsuit was dismissed last year by a federal district judge in Baton Rouge, and last month a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans affirmed the dismissal. +2 Ex-LSU professor's firing over classroom profanity, sex life discussions affirmed by appeals court A former LSU professor was rightfully fired in 2015 for using profanity in her classroom and discussing her sex life and the sex lives of stud Now, Buchanan's attorneys are asking the entire 5th Circuit to rehear the case. The lawyers contend in a rehearing application that LSU's sexual harassment policies are too broad and defective, and that the university fired Buchanan "at least in part, based on constitutionally protected speech." "Punishing speech under a policy that fails to distinguish protected from unprotected expression violates long-established First Amendment standards," her attorneys argue. Buchanan, who worked for LSU for almost two decades, specialized in early childhood education and trained elementary school teachers. Her controversial comments included saying "f*** no" repeatedly in front of students, using a slang word for vagina that implies cowardice, and joking that the quality of sex declines the longer a relationship lasts. In her ruling last year, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick said the LSU Lab School and schools in Zachary, Port Allen and Iberville Parish had either banned Buchanan from their campuses or asked that LSU not allow her to mentor their student teachers because of her conduct and speech. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up +2 LSU professor's lawsuit against university for firing her over remarks dismissed by federal judge In a case that drew national attention and accusations of "political correctness run amok," a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a forme Buchanan claims the salty language was part of her teaching approach. The 5th Circuit panel agreed with Dick that LSU did not violate Buchanan's free speech rights by terminating her because Buchanan was not speaking on a matter of public concern. "Dr. Buchanan's use of profanity and discussion of her sex life and the sex lives of her students was not related to the subject matter or purpose of training Pre-K-third grade teachers," the panel stated. The American Association of University Professors had come to Buchanan's defense. The group was critical of her firing and pledged money for her legal expenses. Her suit was sponsored by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an advocacy group known as FIRE. LSU maintains Buchanan's termination was not only appropriate but also necessary to protect students from her verbally abusive behavior, which the university says created a hostile learning environment for the students she was hired to teach. +2 Ex-LSU prof: firing 'political correctness run amok'; LSU: she created 'hostile learning environment' The war of words between LSU and a former tenured education professor fired by the university in 2015 is heating up in Baton Rouge federal cou Buchanan contends her language was neither directed at any student nor did it disparage students. WASHINGTON Republican members of Louisianas congressional delegation praised the release of special counsel Robert Muellers two-year probe into Russias election interference some viewing it as vindication for President Donald Trumps campaign and others as a step needed to move on to more pressing issues. There is no longer any doubt: there was no collusion with the Trump campaign, U.S. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Jefferson Parish Republican and close ally of the president, said in a statement shortly after the 488-page redacted report was released to the public Thursday morning. Democrats who have been running around for the last two years making outlandish claims about the President and his family ought to apologize to the American people for misleading them and the press about this smear campaign. [RELATED: Click here to see the Mueller report.] The Mueller reports long-awaited unveiling prompted a wave of frenzied analyses. It does not explicitly conclude whether Trump should face obstruction of justice charges. But, like Scalise, Louisiana Republicans who are closely aligned with Trump were quick to declare a win in the hours after its release. U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, said the report proves the whole investigation was a "witch hunt." Mueller report reveals President Trump's efforts on Russia probe; see copy of report Robert Mueller's report reveals President Donald Trump's efforts to seize control of the Russia probe and force the special counsel's removal. "There was no evidence of criminal collusion or obstruction by the President or his campaign," Higgins said. "Democrats, on the other hand, should take a deep breath because the witch hunt they began has now shifted to the frightening reality of possible criminal collusion to corrupt our 2016 presidential election by their own candidate and her allies." U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, an Alto Republican who is currently running for governor, took a jab at Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, whose office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. The report of the Mueller investigation confirms what Ive been saying from day one: There was no collusion and this investigation is a witch hunt, Abraham said. The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, a Baton Rouge Republican, summed up the general reaction nationally and predicted people will interpret the report based on their pre-existing biases. "The reality is that people are going to read and hear what they want," Graves said. "Those that support President Trump will hear 'no collusion;' those that dislike him will extract lines from the report that appear to show inappropriate actions." "Robert Mueller found stupidity, but no crimes committed by the president," Graves said. Some members of the delegation want more time to digest the investigation's findings but generally praised the full release. U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, a Shreveport Republican who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, said he was looking forward to reading the report. For nearly two years, this investigation has been a source of great division in our country; however, my hope is that this report will provide the clarity and peace of mind needed for Congress to move ahead and devote our time, energy and resources to solving Americas most pressing issues, Johnson said. U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said he also plans to review the thick documents findings in more detail. Its important this report is public so Americans can review the facts for themselves, he said. A spokeswoman for Sen. John Kennedy, a Madisonville Republican who serves on the influential Judiciary Committee, said he wants time to read the report before commenting on its contents. Kennedy was vocal in his support for its release and minimal redaction. U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, the only Democrat among the delegation, didn't respond to a request for comment. The Louisiana Democratic Party has unveiled a draft of its delegate selection plan for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, seeking input from Democrats across the state on how it plans to determine who will represent them when they help determine the next Democratic nominee for president. The delegate selection plan is the first step state parties make toward picking the delegation to send to Milwaukee, Wisconsin next July. Louisiana has 57 DNC delegate spots and four alternates. The 45-page working delegate selection plan prioritizes access for historically underrepresented groups, including those based on race, sexual orientation, economic status and disability. It notes that gender non-binary people will not be counted as male or female. Developing a plan that prioritizes inclusivity and embraces all of Louisiana was key this year, LADemos executive director Stephen Handwerk said in a news release Wednesday. Our goal is to see our delegation reflect and represent Louisianas diversity, and I believe this plan is the best first step toward that. While theres still work to do, we want this process to be as open and transparent as possible. The draft selection plan can be viewed on the state party's website, and the public is encouraged to provide feedback. Delegate and alternate candidate statement forms will be available February 13, 2020. Louisianas presidential primary is March 7, 2020. Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Carter Peterson, a state senator from New Orleans, has also held the role of vice chair of civic engagement and voter participation at the Democratic National Committee. In my role with the national party along with serving as state chair, Im so proud of the work our two organizations have done together to ensure Louisiana is fully represented in 2020, she said in a statement. One of the Democratic Partys central initiatives is equal representation and after seeing my teams hard work on this plan, Im confident our delegation from Louisiana will be the most diverse and inclusive delegation yet! The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Southern Republicans prepare to gather in Kenner this weekend for 'Kickoff to 2020' event Hundreds of Republicans will be flocking to the New Orleans area this weekend for for whats being billed as one of the biggest GOP events lea The Delegate Selection Plan is posted online here, and the public is encouraged to submit feedback here. Louisiana Democrats at the DNCs 2016 meeting cheered on the state as one that wouldn't be defined by tragic events like Hurricane Katrina or the deadly officer shooting that rocked Baton Rouge just a week before the gathering in Philadelphia. The rowdy crowd also managed to plug Cajun and Creole cultures, Louisiana's distinct cuisine, hunting traditions and Mardi Gras celebrations. "We will not be defined by any natural disaster nor will we be defined by any act of senseless violence because we are one Louisiana," Peterson proclaimed during the traditional DNC roll call of states. "Louisiana knows that love trumps hate." La. Democrats cast presidential nomination votes during Democratic convention Louisiana Democrats at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday cheered on the state as one that can't be defined by even Most of Louisiana delegate votes (45) went to Hillary Clinton, who would go on to win the Democratic nomination and become the first female presidential nominee of a major party (14 went to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who had already conceded the race). Included in the crowd of delegates around the large Louisiana marker were New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu; former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu; state Reps. Pat Smith, Denise Marcelle, Ted James and Marcus Hunter; and state Sen. Troy Carter, among others -- nearly all cheering and waving signs. Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is running for re-election this fall, served as a superdelegate to the DNC in 2016 but didn't appear to take a center position during the state's roll call. The party later posted a photo of Edwards casting his ballot for Clinton at the convention. All state offices will be closed Thursday as the threat persists of severe weather, which could include high winds, hail and some strong tornadoes. "State officials continue to monitor conditions throughout the state, and this announcement may be updated," Jacques Berry, the director of communication for the Louisiana Division of Administration, wrote in a press release issued Wednesday evening. The National Weather Service in Slidell, as of Wednesday afternoon, is predicting 1-2 inches of rain between early Thursday afternoon and night, as possible straight line winds, tornadoes and hail. +3 Hail, tornadoes, high winds expected as severe weather rolls in to southeastern Louisiana All of southeastern Louisiana is now under an enhanced risk Thursday for severe weather that could include high winds, hail and some strong to Every house meeting set for tomorrow has been canceled. There is supposed to be a big storm coming in #lalege #lagov Sam Karlin (@samkarlin) April 17, 2019 East Baton Rouge City-Parish offices will also be closed Thursday, spokeswoman Rachel Haney said. Clerical and non-essential personnel at the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office have been ordered to not report for work. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The 19th JDC and the East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office will also be closed Thursday. Both offices are also closed Friday for Good Friday. In St. Tammany Parish, president Pat Brister said government offices will be closed Thursday. The St. Tammany Parish Justice Center will also see closures, including the Assessor's Office, 22nd Judicial District Court and the District Attorney's Office closing a noon, the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office closing at 1 p.m. and the St. Tammany Registrar of Voters closing for the entire day. St. Tammany Parish libraries and the parish's STAR Transit will also be closed Thursday. Forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center said there is an enhanced risk of severe weather Thursday, most notably high winds and a 10 percent chance of a tornado with winds of 111 mph or higher. The area under the greatest threat is east of a line from Lake Charles to Monroe, including all of south Louisiana, and eastward into Mississippi and western Alabama. The announcement about state offices comes after many schools in the region canceled with weather threats persisting. Michael Santo, right, with the Order Sons & Daughters of Italy, reaches out to hug Vincenzo Pasquantonio, left, director of the Office of Human Rights and Equity for New Orleans, as New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell watches. Cantrell made a formal apology for the Italian immigrant hangings that took place in 1891. The mayor spoke on Friday, April 12, 2019. The rain that steadily fell from the heavens on April 4 reminded me of the tears that flowed that April 4, 1968 day when my workplace was informed of the Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination and instructed to vacate until further notice. Oh, how well I remember everyone rushing toward the elevators, then going outside to see angry flames and smoke billowing from a distance. Co-workers with cars offered rides to those who couldn't board the already overcrowded buses. I still remember a supervisor, Dottie, and husband Charles sharing that historic ride to safety with me. In addition to the death of King in 1968, the 1960s were plagued with other concerns such as the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali's conflicts, the assassination of U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy, people's rights, flower power, and numerous other social/political issues that still monopolize our daily media activities. A recent edition of The Advocate spoke of ''The Longest Table," in which a diverse group of individuals focused on race relations and life experiences in Acadiana. Those individuals could express themselves vocally, as well as through the use of a survey. Hopefully, those who were usually reticent expressed their true feelings in writing that will be shared with the public. The "Longest Table" article, coupled with The Advocate's "Leaders Call On Community to Love Our Schools," allow us to visualize a meeting of the minds when enough "bulldog tenacity and credibility" are evident. Do we have a meeting of the minds regarding such points of interest as discrimination and civil rights mandates? Is there a possibility that legally right versus morally right interpretations of federal and school board guidelines contribute to the distrust and feelings of discontent that negatively affect our community? At a recent social activity, I had the pleasure of becoming reacquainted with several adults who triggered memories of their high school days. One delightful former student and I shared memories of principal Robert Adamson and his staff. How well I remember being summoned to Adamson's office and looking forward to discussing various issues calmly and respectfully. Most importantly, I treasured the working relationship that existed between Adamson and assistant principal R.B. Jones. Open-minded, credible discussions with Adamson, Jones and Superintendent A.J. Antoine personified the true spirit of integration and fair play for me within an educational environment. The food for thought that I gathered from those gentlemen and a variety of other sources influenced me to the end. Someone, possibly Nelson Mandela, said that people learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally than hate. King advised, "If you can't fly, then run. If you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward." Barbara Spencer retired high school teacher Lafayette When he got the question on his call-in radio show Wednesday, Gov. John Bel Edwards noted that by now, he was expecting to be asked each month when Louisiana would legalize marijuana for recreational purposes. His answer was the same as it always is: He backed legalizing medical marijuana for people suffering from painful medical conditions, but hes just not ready to go there when it comes to recreational use. Turns out a majority of his constituents may be. According to the final installment of LSUs Louisiana Survey, conducted annually by the Manship Schools Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs, 55 percent of the 917 Louisiana adults interviewed in February and March said they back legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, while 42 percent said they oppose a practice that some other states have adopted. Men are much more inclined to back legalized pot, according to the poll, with 65 percent in favor compared to 46 percent of women. Spending at Louisiana's two medical marijuana producers differ sharply in 2018 The two companies authorized to grow medical marijuana in Louisiana spent wildly different amounts on their operations in 2018, new records sh Regionally, the idea is most popular in the metro New Orleans area, with 71 percent in favor. In the northern parts of the state, approval of recreational marijuana is in the low 40s. And heres the least surprising tidbit of all: The results vary widely by age. Eighty percent of respondents 29 and younger said they favor making recreational pot legal. The numbers drop steadily among older age groups, with 67 percent of those between 30 and 49, and 51 percent of 50 to 64 year-olds, in favor. Among the polls oldest respondents, those over 65, only 27 percent approve. More than a decade of uninterrupted growth in New Orleans' population that accompanied the recovery from Hurricane Katrina has ended, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates. New Orleans saw its population shrink by nearly 1,000 people between 2016 and 2018, the first decline the city has seen since tens of thousands of displaced residents began returning after the storm, according to census figures. The drop may mirror a nationwide trend that has seen residents leaving core cities, in part because of the high cost of housing and other necessities, for smaller and cheaper areas, demographers said. And it may also point to weaknesses in the economy of New Orleans and of Louisiana as a whole, which lost 10,840 residents over the course of a year. New Orleans had just over 391,000 residents in 2018, about 80.7 percent of its pre-Katrina population, according to estimates being released on Thursday. Thats about 530 fewer than the year before and more than 970 fewer than in 2016. Those losses are relatively small, but they come after a decade of often rapid growth as residents returned and rebuilt their flooded and storm-damaged homes. They suggest that New Orleans may be returning to the overall downward trajectory it had shown since its population peaked in the 1960s. Up until about 2015, New Orleans saw growth in all three categories used by the Census Bureau for its estimates: a natural increase from births and both domestic and international migration, said Luke Rogers, chief of the bureau's Population Estimates Branch. But in the last three years or so, the natural increase has slowed, the net international migration has slowed a little bit, and the domestic migration has gone net negative, Rogers said. The population also ticked downward for the New Orleans metropolitan area as a whole. The eight parishes the Census Bureau considers as part of that region collectively lost 66 people over the course of a year. The bureau's official definition of the metropolitan area includes Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes. Regional officials tend to exclude St. James when they consider the New Orleans metro area. Using their seven-parish definition, the population actually increased by about 220 people. N.O.'s slowing growth: A look at why city's population gains have fallen to a trickle New census data show that population growth in New Orleans slowed to a trickle last year as the rebound that followed Hurricane Katrina contin Jefferson Parish saw a decline of almost 2,250 people in 2018, about half a percentage point of its population, after losing about 450 people the year before. The parish remains the largest in the metro area, though, with about 434,050 people. On the other side of the ledger, St. Tammany continued the steady growth it has seen for nearly two decades, adding about 2,290 people in 2018 to reach a population of about 258,100. Statewide, Louisiana's population shrank by 10,840, or about a quarter of a percentage point. But more troubling than the overall statewide decline is how much of it was driven by people choosing to leave the state, said Robert Eisenstadt, an economics professor and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. About 27,000 more people chose to move out of the state than into it, a number that was somewhat offset by the fact that more people were born than died. In Louisiana we have a fundamental problem attracting the businesses and the industries that are attractive to populations that are more likely to migrate, Eisenstadt said. When you look at 27,000 people leaving the state, thats got to be a work-related consequence, he said. Census 'undercount' in 2020 could impact children's health in poorly ranked Louisiana With a 2020 U.S. Census looming, Louisiana officials must begin to prepare to reach thousands of children from low-income families to ensure t Similarly, New Orleans saw more people leave than move in. About 1,900 more New Orleanians packed up and moved elsewhere in the U.S. in 2018 than the city was able to attract from other locations. Allison Plyer, the chief demographer for the Data Center in New Orleans, did not have access to the Census Bureau estimates before their public release. But she said previous census estimates, which showed population growth slowing in recent years, were potentially a troubling sign for a city that has few major industries outside of tourism. The population decline comes amid a loss in jobs in industries such as oil and gas, the depletion of federal funds that paid for the post-Katrina recovery, and uncertainty about what new industries can be attracted to the city. It's 14 years after Katrina and several years into a number of economic development policies like trying to develop a digital economy, and the population trends are not positive, Plyer said. We might need to take a harder look at our strategies for growing the economy and diversifying it. The population losses also come as the city is facing an affordable housing crisis that has priced out some people unable to find houses or apartments they can afford. Larger and more expensive cities that have faced their own problems with affordable housing, such as New York City and Los Angeles, have also been seeing people leave in recent years, said William Frey, a demographer and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The Census Bureau population estimates are based on federal records, such as tax returns, that track where people are living, as well as data on birth and death rates. That leaves some room for error, something demonstrated in part with revisions the bureau made to its previous estimates when it released the new numbers this week. Last year, the bureau's estimates showed the citys population leveling out but still increasing slightly in 2017. The agency now believes the city actually lost people that year. Independent of that decline, the Census Bureau also revised its estimates of New Orleans' overall population in recent years, cutting the figures it had previously put out for the years since 2010. The total for 2017 fell by about 1,750. The estimates of annual population loss are based on those new numbers. Millennials fleeing Mississippi at fastest rate in nation; so why not Louisiana? As millennials those born between 1981 and 2000 became the largest generation of Americans, the demographics total U.S. population increa The most accurate figures wont be available until after the next full national headcount in 2020, Plyer said. The 2020 count is going to be the real litmus test, and it relies on everyone being willing to stand up and be counted, she said. It drives representation (in Congress) and more than $800 billion in federal funding over the next 10 years. Tellurian said its Lake Charles natural gas project has been cleared by federal regulators, a major hurdle in the company's three-year quest to build the $30 billion export facility in an industry that has become a top energy priority for the Trump Administration. Tellurian said Thursday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the green light to its Driftwood project and to build a 96-mile pipeline carrying natural gas down from the major pipeline hubs at Gillis and Eunice northeast of the project to the proposed gas liquefication and export facilities on the west bank of the Calcasieu River, south of Lake Charles. Tellurian still has to receive a U.S. Army Corp of Engineers permit and a Department of Energy order for non-Free Trade Agreement exports, but both of those are expected very soon, a company spokesperson said. The company said its final investment decision will then depend on the result of negotiations with potential investors and partners, as well as the terms it can negotiate with banks on debt financing for the project. The Driftwood project, which is expected to support 6,400 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs once complete, won a controversial tax concession last year worth up to $2 billion over its first decade, the largest industrial tax break in Louisiana's history. Tellurians Driftwood LNG project is an important investment in Louisianas future, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy said after the FERC approval. A project like this will support Louisiana families by creating well-paying jobs." The Trump-appointed FERC chairman, Neil Chatterjee, has been an enthusiastic backer of U.S. energy export projects, pushing especially hard on LNG exports. FERC on Thursday also approved Port Arthur LNG, Sempra Energy's proposed export terminal in Jefferson County, Texas; and in February it gave a thumbs up to the Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG project in southwest Louisiana. "The strategic implications of today's historic LNG project approvals will benefit not only the U.S. but the world," Chaterjee tweeted Thursday. "This has been one of (President Trump's) top energy priorities. It's a great day for America and a bad day for Russia!" the latter apparently referring to America's growing role as an energy exporter and rival to Russia, the world's largest gas exporter. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Chatterjee is pushing for at least 10 more LNG export terminal approvals across the U.S., including Mississippi and Florida, according to FERC officials. Tellurian aims to raise $7 billion by selling stakes in its LNG throughput to partners, another $1 billion from private equity investors and $20 billion in project debt financing. Earlier this month, France's Total said it would take a $500 million equity stake in Driftwood, on top of its $200 million direct stake in Tellurian, which went public two years ago. India's Petronet and Switzerland-based commodities trading company Vitol also have said they will invest in the Driftwood project. Tellurian, which was founded by Egypt-born Cherif Souki, who also co-founded Cheniere Energy, is looking to take advantage of low U.S. natural gas prices, the result of vast new discoveries in recent years, and bring them to world markets, especially fast-growing Asian markets. The Driftwood pipeline will give it capacity to carry four billion cubic feet of gas a day to the export facility. Separately, the company is proposing to build pipelines to bring in gas from the giant shale gas fields, the Haynesville in northwest Louisiana and the Permian in Texas. In a presentation to investors this month, Tellurian said it owns nearly 11,000 acres in the Haynesville formation, which gives it control over 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. It aims to grow its Haynesville gas reserves to 15 tcf. Editor's note: The article was updated to correct the location of the Driftwood pipeline. MANCHESTER, Conn., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lydall, Inc. (NYSE: LDL) announced today that it will release its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 after the market closes. A conference call will be held on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time and be hosted by: Dale G. Barnhart, President and Chief Executive Officer; Randall B. Gonzales, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Brendan Moynihan, Vice President, Financial Planning and Investor Relations. Those interested may listen or participate in the conference call by calling 888-338-7142 or 412-902-4181, internationally. In addition, the audio of the call will be webcast live and will be available for replay at http://www.lydall.com in the Investor Relations Section. A recording of the call will be available from 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 1, 2019 through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on May 8, 2019 at 877-344-7529 or 412-317-0088, internationally; passcode 10130798. Lydall, Inc. is a New York Stock Exchange listed company, headquartered in Manchester, Connecticut with global manufacturing operations producing specialty engineered products for the thermal/acoustical and filtration/separation markets. For more information, visit http://www.lydall.com. Lydall is a registered trademark of Lydall, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Somphon Chiwabandit, a 47-year-old native of Thailand, will be surrendered to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal, after being sentenced to time served for harboring and employing illegal aliens at the Covington restaurant, Sticky Rice Thai Cuisine. Chiwabandit pleaded guilty earlier to the charges, admitting that he had provided housing, transportation and employment to two people who were in the country illegally, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. But he also admitted that he had overstayed a business visitor visa for seven years. U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle sentenced him to time served and a $100 special assessment. The company Thai Thai LLC was ordered to forfeit $24,640, was assessed a $400 fee and given a year's probation. The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office and Covington Police Department assisted in the investigation. Homeland Security Investigations agents conducted surveillance on the restaurant as well as a house owned by Chiwabandit and an apartment that he rented. An Arkansas native pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2011 slashing death of a woman in Armstrong Park last week, receiving a 20-year sentence under a deal with prosecutors. Tomarcus Porter, 31, pleaded guilty to killing German national Gisela Graeble-Dagmar on April 11 in front of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Benedict Willard. His conviction came after years of delay caused by a long stay at the state mental hospital in East Feliciana Parish. Porter, who has been diagnosed with bipolar and antisocial personality disorders, was finally found competent for trial in June of last year. He received time for credit served. District Attorney Leon Cannizzaros office said extensive efforts to reach Graeble-Dagmars family to discuss the plea deal were unsuccessful, despite assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice. According to prosecutors, Graeble-Dagmar, 47, had lived in South Florida for about a decade before arriving in New Orleans roughly three weeks before her death to visit a friend. When she and that friend had a dispute, she left to find somewhere else to stay. The last time she was reported alive was on Basin Street on the night of Aug. 7, 2011, when she was seen holding a suitcase next to a man, prosecutors said. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up A man walking his dog next to the Municipal Auditorium found her decomposing body in bushes four days later, according to police. Her throat had been slashed. Tipsters identified Porter, who also goes by Capone, as the man seen standing next to Graeble-Dagmar. Porters DNA was uncovered from underneath Graeble-Dagmars fingernails. However, in one self-written motion to court, he said another man had confessed to killing her. Even if Porter had been acquitted, he could have faced years in prison for charges he picked up after his arrest stemming from battery, criminal damage and contraband allegations at the New Orleans jail. His guilty plea last week also resolved those cases. Doctors reports in the court record said Porter had a long psychiatric history in Arkansas. He spent time in foster care there and dropped out of school after the 11th grade. Porter had never held a regular job before his arrest in the stabbing. Porter was represented by Barksdale Hortenstine of the Orleans Public Defenders. "The treatment available inside jail is bare-bones at best. A lack of knowledge in the treatment and care of mentally ill population leads to further harm and more charges," Hortenstine said in a statement. "The real tragedy is many people each year would still be alive, if poor people in our community had better access to quality mental health care and our families and community were better educated about mental illness and treatment." Embattled Jet Airways halted all flight operations indefinitely on Wednesday after its lenders rejected its plea for emergency funds, potentially bringing the curtains down on what was once India's largest private airline. The carrier, saddled with roughly $US1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) of bank debt, has been teetering for weeks after failing to receive a stop-gap loan of about $US217 million from its lenders, as part of a rescue deal agreed in late March. At its peak, Jet operated over 120 planes and well over 600 daily flights. Credit:AP "The airline has been left with no other choice today but to go ahead with a temporary suspension of flight operations," the company said in a two-page statement late on Wednesday. At its peak, Jet operated over 120 planes and well over 600 daily flights. The airline, which has roughly 16,000 employees, has in recent weeks been forced to cancel hundreds of flights and to halt all flights out of India, as funds have dried up. Live event ticket reseller Viagogo has breached Australian consumer law by misleading the public on ticket prices, availability and the nature of its services. The Federal Court on Thursday found Viagogo - which resold tickets to events including the Australian Open tennis, Ashes cricket matches and Queen concerts - had not made it clear it was not an authorised ticket vendor and that fees of up to 28 per cent of a ticket price could be applied. Australian rock band Gang of Youths has previously said it wanted to "eradicate this business from Australia". Credit:Christopher Pearce Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rod Sims said Viagogos behaviour was very widespread and affected a lot of people. The consumer watchdog, which has received about 3500 complaints about the Switzerland-based ticket reseller in recent years, launched Federal Court proceedings in 2017. Mia Plecic is looking to take her newly launched Her Organics global and she's confident of success for one simple reason: in every nation, there are women who get periods. "If we didn't, we would all be extinct," she says. Her Organics chief executive Mia Plecic wants to take her business global Her Organics is entering the competitive world of tampon delivery with a simple approach. Starting at $9.99 a month, subscribers can receive tampon deliveries without ever having to pay for postage. "Women are living busier lives, we forget to buy those items. We have those moments of, 'oh sh--, I forgot to go to the shops," she says. A LITTLE PIECE OF ASH Kings Cross Theatre, April 17 How many plays dare to deal with death or more precisely, with the relationship between the dead and those they've left behind? The title refers to the cremated remains of Lily, Jedda's mother. Just because she's dead doesn't mean she intends abandoning the grown-up daughter she still calls "Bub". The bond is too tight for that. When she first held Jedda after giving birth, Lily tells us, "I entwined myself in her" and that's how she intends things to stay, death or no death. Megan Wilding and Stephanie Somerville in A Little Piece of Ash. Credit:Clare Hawley A Little Piece of Ash, Megan Wilding's response to losing her own mother, is, impressively, the Gamilaroi artist's first full-length play. Wilding also directed this world premiere (for JackRabbit Theatre), and plays Lily to Stephanie Somerville's Jedda. The story covers a month of Jedda stumbling down the lonely road of denial, anger, grief and acceptance, variously aided and thwarted by her friends. It's a circuitous route to a climax that rocks you back on your heels. While Jedda inches her way toward accepting that voice of her mother that she hears in her head is her mother's voice, much of the interaction with other characters, especially Mendy (Moreblessing Maturure), Chuck (Luke Fewster) and Eddie (Toby Blome), seems peripheral. The exception is her old girlfriend, Ned (Alex Malone), who sows the seed that Lily remains a presence, not just a memory. Increasing numbers of Australians are choosing to vote early, transforming the traditional election day into an "election period," Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers says. Almost a quarter of Australians voted at a pre-poll station in the 2016 election, compared to about 8 per cent in 2007. The AEC does not have a projection for 2019, but Mr Rogers described the growth in early voting as "quite remarkable". There has been "remarkable" growth in pre-poll voting, according to the AEC. Credit:Cole Bennetts "When someone pre-polls once we think they become a permanent pre-poll voter," he told journalists at Parliament House on Thursday. "It's become a thing." Officially, you need a valid reason to pre-poll such as you will be travelling, working or having a baby on election day. Voters need to declare they meet one of the criteria, but Mr Rogers said there was no way for the AEC to confirm they are telling the truth. Three of the four men charged in relation to the murder of former bikie boss Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi have been committed to stand trial, with prosecutors hoping to try them together in the Supreme Court. A day after being denied bail in a bid that saw him criticise the Crown case against him as "weak", Ahmad Doudar appeared via audio-visual link in Central Local Court on Thursday to enter a plea of not guilty to the charge of murder. Mick Hawi was gunned down outside Rockdale Fitness First after he finished his workout in February 2018. Credit:Seven News, AAP His co-accused, alleged gunman Yusuf Nazlioglu, also entered a not-guilty plea to murder via audio-visual link, and will face the Supreme Court along with Mr Doudar on June 17. Moustafa Salami, who is charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder, attended court on bail to plead not guilty. A 26-year-old motorcycle rider has died after suffering critical injuries in a single-vehicle crash in Brisbane on Good Friday. The 26-year-old Cornubia man was assessed by paramedics but a Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said he was not transported to hospital from Bulimba. Paramedics attended a single-vehicle crash at Bulimba on Friday morning. Credit:Queensland Ambulance Service - Twitter "Paramedics transported bystanders to Mater Hospital who were suffering emotional stress," he said. Emergency services were called to the crash, involving a motorbike just before 5.30am on Friday on Lytton Road. Police investigating the impalement of a woman with a 50-centimetre rod are seeking to identify the driver of a white flatbed truck spotted on CCTV and dashcam footage. In February the 60-year-old Laidley Heights woman was driving a rigid truck on the Warrego Highway westbound near Oakey when the metal rod bounced off the road and smashed through her windscreen, impaling her. The woman was impaled by the metal rod that bounced off the road and smashed through her windscreen. Credit:Queensland Police The woman pulled over and called for help, and was flown to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a critical condition. ACHESON, Alberta, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- North American Construction Group Ltd. (NACG or the Company) (TSX:NOA.TO/NYSE:NOA) announced today that it will release its financial results for the First Quarter ended March 31, 2019 on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 after markets close. Following the release of its financial results, NACG will hold a conference call and webcast on Wednesday May 1, 2019, at 7:00 a.m. Mountain Time (9:00 a.m. Eastern Time). The call can be accessed by dialing: Toll free: 1-877-291-4570 International: 1-647-788-4919 A replay will be available through June 1, 2019, by dialing: Toll Free: 1-800-585-8367 International: 1-416-621-4642 Conference ID: 1072404 The live and archived webcast can be accessed at: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1990864&s=1&k=7596D8A395C78CA1C45B494C4FD762BA About the Company North American Construction Group Ltd. (www.nacg.ca) is one of Canadas largest providers of heavy construction and mining services. For more than 60 years, NACG has provided services to large oil, natural gas and resource companies. For further information, please contact: David Brunetta, CPA, CMA Director, Investor Relations North American Construction Group Ltd. Phone: (780) 969-5574 Email: dbrunetta@nacg.ca PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/6e283628-284a-4f46-99ca-71f0e505ba93 The $3 billion allocated for the much-touted East West tollway project in this year's federal budget is nothing more than "the accounting equivalent of baloney", Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas says. Having abandoned hope that the money would be made available for other projects, the Andrews government is now lobbying federal Labor for a massive increase to infrastructure funding for Victoria, should the party win government. Traffic banked up on Alexandra Parade in Melbourne, the site of the long-disputed East-West Link. Credit:Paul Rovere "We would expect federal Labor to make a much more substantial investment in infrastructure for Victoria," Mr Pallas told The Age. Labor's infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese said the party would give Victoria its "fair share" if it wins next month's election. When the temperature inside their home climbs above 40 degrees, Jay soaks a sheet, spreads it over his three-year-old daughter Hayley and turns the fan on high in the hope she will sleep. Sometimes he blocks the drain in the bathroom, floods the small room (which has a waterproof seal) and turns it into a splash pool. Shes only a kid, I want her to have some fun. Jay, with his daughter Hayley, 3, in her bedroom, which has the only fan in the house. Credit:Louise Barker, Sunraysia Daily But the truth is that living without an air conditioner in their public housing unit in Mildura during the prolonged stretches of summer heat, when the temperature reached 47 degrees, is not much fun at all. In an era of climate change, and in the wake of Australias warmest summer on record, housing and health services are urging the state government to revise a 20-year-old law which means people who live in public housing cant apply for air conditioning unless they have a chronic health condition. The search for missing Perth woman Mary Nix has been suspended pending further information. The 69-year-old Lockridge woman was last seen on April 1 in Bassendean, and was reported missing by her neighbours when they became concerned her dogs weren't being cared for. Ms Nix's car was found abandoned earlier this month. Credit:ninevms Her car was later found in a rural area, near Teatree Road, Bindoon, 70 kilometres north of where she was last seen. The search, which went for just over two weeks, involved a number of resources including SES volunteers, the police air wing and the mounted section. The states most dangerous domestic violence offenders will be made to wear electronic monitoring devices under a new trial designed to protect victims using GPS tracking technology. Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister Simone McGurk announced $15.5 million towards a new unit to provide 24-hour electronic monitoring of family violence offenders who have breached violence restraining orders, and 10 new police officers to staff the unit. The monitoring program will be managed by the Department of Justice and and WA Police. The WA government announced $30 million would go towards protecting women and offering more support to victims. Credit:Shutterstock It will be the first time GPS tracking technology will be used for family violence perpetrators, with the trial expected to be up and running within three to four months. GPS tracking is already used to monitor sex predators in Western Australia. Several figures in Australia's far-right movement have been approached by the Victoria Police Counter Terrorism Command in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack. People active in Melbourne's right-wing extremist scene who either contacted politicians or made comments about the attack online have been told by police they face possible criminal charges unless they cease making comments online. Police stand between far-right and anti-racism protesters at a rally in Melbourne in January this year. Credit:Darrian Traynor Extremism experts and police insiders feared Australia would be more prone to far-right violence, and expected the growing community to face intense police scrutiny in the aftermath of Christchurch, in which more than 50 people were allegedly killed by a white supremacist Australian gunman. Neither the Australian Federal Police nor the Victorian Counter Terrorism Command would comment. In recent years HMD Global has cemented itself as king of the mid-range smartphone, with its Nokia-branded devices typically packing slightly slower processors, smartly balanced ZEISS camera lenses and the absolute latest Android software straight from Google. The best of the recent bunch is the Nokia 7.1, a $499 machine that carries many of the benefits of Google's $1200 Pixel 3. But the followup, the Nokia 8.1, pushes closer to flagship territory with a $699 price tag. So, what do you get for the extra money? The Nokia 8.1 is a bigger, faster upgrade from the 7.1 First of all this is a bigger phone, with a 6.18-inch (15.7cm) screen compared to the 7.1's 5.84-inch screen. It's still an LCD panel with a 1080x2280 resolution, so it won't compete with the biggest flagships for sharpness or contrast, but it is still lovely, bright and HDR-compatible. The glass and chrome design is sharp, stylish and comfortable, with lightly curved edges and the chamfered camera loop iconic to Nokia. The bezels around the screen are thin for a phone at this price, giving it the look and feel of something a bit more premium than its price might suggest. The Trang An Complex in the northern province of Ninh Binh Accordingly, VNAT has requested BBC to set up ideas and develop communication campaigns, from which the two sides will associate to mobilize the contribution of human resources in order to achieve high efficiency in promotion work. In recent events hosted by VNAT like ASEAN Tourism Forum, BBCs cooperation and promotion has been hailed for success and efficiency. The discussion and cooperation partially come from the positive effect of efforts to promote Hanois image between the Hanoi Peoples Committee and Cable of News Network (CNN), opening a new way for promoting attractions in Vietnam. Since the tourism promotion plan on CNN was launched in 2017, the American channel has popularized the images of Hanoi through stories on different topics such as culture and sports. The innovative marketing campaign on CNN between 2017 and 2018 helped Hanoi to earn the Best Marketing Campaign Award at the 8th Tourism Promotion Organisation for Asia-Pacific Cities Forum, held in Ho Chi Minh city in June last year. The capital greeted some 1.9 million foreign tourists in the first quarter of 2019, a 15.5% rise over a year earlier, including over 1.3 million foreigners staying overnight, a 12.6% rise./. OKLAHOMA CITY, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chaparral Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CHAP) today announced it will issue its first quarter 2019 financial and operational results with the filing of its Form 10-Q report on Thursday, May 9, before the open of U.S. financial markets. The company will also host a conference call to discuss its first quarter 2019 results that morning at 9 a.m. Central. Interested parties may access the call toll-free at 877-790-7727 and ask for the Chaparral Energy conference call 10 minutes prior to the start time. The conference ID number is 2956609. In addition, a live webcast of the call will be available through the Investor section of the companys website. For those who cannot listen to the live call, a recording will be available shortly after the calls conclusion at chaparralenergy.com/investors . A copy of the Form 10-Q and corresponding earnings release and presentation will be available on the Investor section of the companys website at chaparralenergy.com/investors , as well as the Securities and Exchange Commissions website at sec.gov . About Chaparral Chaparral Energy (NYSE: CHAP) is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company headquartered in Oklahoma City. Founded in 1988, Chaparral is a pure-play operator focused in Oklahomas highly economic STACK Play, where it has approximately 131,000 net acres primarily in Kingfisher, Canadian and Garfield counties. The company has approximately 260,000 net surface acres in the Mid-Continent region. For more information, visit chaparralenergy.com . Miroslava Duma. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Congratulations to whoever had influencer makes appearance on their Mueller report bingo card. Russian mega fashion influencer Miroslava Duma showed up in the 400-page report as someone who passed an invite from the deputy prime minister of Russia to the Trumps. Reporter Kim Bhasin caught the mention and posted the finding on Twitter: Somehow, Mira Duma is mentioned in the Mueller report. She's the founder of fashion site Buro 24/7, but sold her stake last year. Ad sales plummeted after she made offensive racist and transphobic comments.https://t.co/4TnSWRpLQT pic.twitter.com/HsCfgfmDZ6 Kim Bhasin (@KimBhasin) April 18, 2019 In December 2015, Duma gave then-candidate Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump the invitation to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, courtesy of the deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation. The forum was started by Putin, and Duma has been a speaker there twice. Sadly for Duma, the Trumps declined the invitation. How did an influencer end up in the middle of the deputy prime minister and the Trumps? Duma and Ivanka are at least acquaintances a smear campaign against Duma that circulated during New York fashion week included a photo of Duma and Ivanka together, and Ivanka was featured on the Tot, which Duma co-founded but is no longer affiliated with. But Duma is also politically connected in Russia through her father, former senator Vasily Duma, and her husband, an entrepreneur who works with the Russian Ministry of Trade and Industry. This isnt the first time Dumas been embroiled in a messy situation. Last year she made headlines after a couture designer sent her a note including a racial slur. The fallout uncovered other times Duma had been offensive, including a video where she said that men wearing womens clothing should be censored. Many in the fashion industry have disowned her, but shes pivoted to sustainability. On her Instagram, she calls herself the CEO of Future Tech Lab, a sustainable fashion firm, but shes not featured on the labs website (not even under the tab labeled Miroslava Duma). This post as been updated to reflect that Duma is no longer affiliated with The Tot. Glen Ellyn, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- When it comes to Chicagos rich 182-year history, the second city played a surprising role in the works of some of the most well-known American modernist authors. For College of DuPage English Professor Michelle Moore, exploring Chicagos past and connecting it to her love of art and literature led to the interesting discoveries in Chicago and the Making of American Modernism: Cather, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald in Conflict recently published by Bloomsbury Publishing plc. I show how Ernest Hemingway's long forgotten Chicago friends and mentors are actually the most important in that they caused the development of his famous style. I reveal brand new sources for F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and long-forgotten sources for his memorable female characters, including Daisy, she said. Each chapter has new revelations about often read and well-known novels and writers. There's nothing obscure here; in fact, its quite the opposite. Learn more about Chicago and the Making of American Modernism: Cather, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald in Conflict. Moores book offers new insights and revelations about Chicago area history and its influence on several famed writers on both a personal and professional level, including an exploration of Hemingways relationship to Oak Park and Frank Lloyd Wright. For Moore, the inspiration for the book is the culmination of her academic life to this point. Ive been studying, teaching and writing about modernism and literature for years and have presented at conferences focused on several of the writers discussed in the book, she said. When I first moved to Chicago 15 years ago, I became fascinated with the city's rich history and how much of it is unknown and forgotten; even by Chicagoans. This book is the result of these interests coming together. Drawn to an academic life focused on literature through a lifelong passion for reading, Moore earned a bachelor's degree at Dickinson College and both her master's and Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Before joining COD in 2002, she taught at SUNY at Binghamton and Broome Community College in New York. She was named Outstanding Overall Faculty Member at COD for the 2010-2011 academic year. Her work has been published in the Faulkner Journal,Cather Studies Issues 9 and 11, and in Film/Literature Quarterly,as well as contributingchapters in Rape in Art Cinema, Teaching Henry James and the Turn of the Screw and forthcoming Teaching Hemingway in the Digital Age, Moore is currently coediting a book on the work of film director Paul Schrader with COD Associate Professor of English Brian Brems. Moore said that while writing Chicago and the Making of American Modernism provided great gratification in being able to tell the story of Chicagos important role in the birth of Modernism in America, the process was not without its challenges. Archival work takes a great deal of time, patience, and thought. It's like putting together a giant puzzle; you have to first find the puzzle pieces, she said. She said that shes already seen elements of the book work their way into the classroom. Im able to share a deeper view of these writers and their connection to Chicago history and the modernist movement, she said. My students now are getting information in the classroom that has been buried in disparate archives for decades. Attachment COVINGTON, Kentucky, April 18, 2019 - Ashland (NYSE: ASH) today said it plans to report financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) closes Tuesday, April 30, 2019, and to host a webcast with investors the following morning. Ashland plans to issue its second-quarter earnings release at approximately 5 p.m. ET on April 30. At the same time, the company will post a slide presentation in the Investor Relations section of its website at http://investor.ashland.com. The live webcast with investors, which will include an executive summary and detailed remarks, will take place at 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Among those participating in the webcast presentation will be: Bill Wulfsohn, chairman and chief executive officer; Kevin Willis, senior vice president and chief financial officer; and Seth Mrozek, Ashland's director of investor relations. The webcast will be accessible through the Investor Relations section of Ashland's website at http://investor.ashland.com, along with supporting materials. Following the live event, an archived version of the webcast and supporting materials will be available on the Ashland website for 12 months. About Ashland Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a premier global specialty chemicals company serving customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including adhesives, architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, nutraceuticals, personal care and pharmaceutical. At Ashland, we are approximately 6,000 passionate, tenacious solvers - from renowned scientists and research chemists to talented engineers and plant operators - who thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems for customers in more than 100 countries. Visit ashland.com to learn more. C-ASH The distillery is located just south of Belfast in the grounds of the Killaney Estate. The distillery takes its name from the nearby town of Ballynahinch, which translates to town of the island. The Hinch Distillery design has incorporated elements which will both validate the craft credentials and also position the brand as an innovator within the Irish whiskey category. The range includes: Hinch Small Batch, 5 Years Old Double Wood, 10 Years Old Sherry Cask which will be available from mid April and a pot still and peated single malt which will be available later in the year. Marussias (UK) head of marketing, Sarah Gandy comments: Were really excited for the Hinch distillery to join our portfolio of some of the worlds most premium Bourbons, vodkas, rums, gins and liqueurs. It truly compliments all of the premium brands currently in our portfolio and the team are excited to showcase the range to our ever expanding customer base. CALGARY, Alberta, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quorum Information Technologies Inc., a leading provider of dealership and customer management software and value-added services to the automotive industry, intends to release its year end 2018 earnings results after the market closes on Thursday, April 25, 2019. A conference call has been scheduled for Friday, April 26 beginning at 11:00 MT (1:00 ET), at which time Maury Marks, President and Chief Executive Officer and Marilyn Bown, Chief Financial Officer will provide a presentation of the results followed by a question and answer period. Anyone wishing to participate in the call is asked to dial-in using the following numbers and ask for the Quorum Information Technologies Inc. 2018 Year End Results Conference Call. Callers are asked to dial-in 10-15 minutes before the scheduled start time. Details for anyone wishing to participate in the conference call are: Local: 1 (403) 451-9838 Toll-Free North America: 1 (888) 231-8191 A replay of the conference call will be available beginning at 13:45 MT on April 26, 2019 until 21:59 MT on May 10, 2019, and can be accessed by dialing: Local: 1 (403) 451-9481 Toll-Free North America: 1 (855) 859-2056 Password#: 7169819 A replay of the conference call will also be available for at least 30 days following the call on Quorums website, under the Investors section, at www.quorumdms.com . Quorums Year End 2018 Earnings Results investor presentation will also available for download after the press release has been issued under the Investors section on the Companys website at www.quorumdms.com . About Quorum Information Technologies Inc. Quorum is a North American company focused on developing, marketing, implementing and supporting its portfolio of software and services for automotive dealerships that includes: XSellerator TM , a Dealership Management System (DMS) that automates, integrates and streamlines key processes across departments in a dealership, and emphasizes revenue generation and customer satisfaction. , a Dealership Management System (DMS) that automates, integrates and streamlines key processes across departments in a dealership, and emphasizes revenue generation and customer satisfaction. DealerMine CRM, a sales and service Customer Relationship Management system and set of Business Development Center services that drives revenue into the critical sales and service departments in a dealership. Autovance, a sales desking system that increases sales department gross margins and improves customer satisfaction for dealerships. Advantage, a full showroom system for both franchised and independent dealerships and a comprehensive operating system that includes accounting for the independent market. Quorum Information Technologies Inc. is traded on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the symbol QIS. For additional information please go to www.QuorumDMS.com . Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed this release and neither accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Quorum Contact: Daniela Trnka 403-777-0036 TrnkaD@QuorumDMS.com PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/3bf1a4e7-5367-40dc-b01a-219e7a79b465 4-Year-Old Girl Dies in Car, Parents Blame School A four-year-old girl died from being left alone for hours in her familys hot car on April 8 in Hunan Province, China. The girl, nicknamed Qi Qi, was unintentionally left in the car by her father who forgot to drop her off at school because he was distracted by a phone call, according to various Chinese media outlets. Qi Qis parents blamed the school for her death. They said the school failed to notify them in advance when their daughter did not show up in class. Parents Blame the School Qi Qis mother, surnamed Su, recalled sending Qi Qi back to school after the Chinese Qing Ming festival. When she was heading out the door, she was so happy, I tied her ponytail, and she was wearing her school uniform, Su said in a video interview with Hunan Economic Television Station. Qing Ming festival is a traditional holiday in China to honor deceased relatives. On April 8, Qi Qi and her father, surnamed Hu, were driving to school that morning. She was sitting in the back seat behind him. According to the call records from Hus phone, he received a call at 8:46 a.m., the Hunan Economic Television Station reported. The phone call distracted Hus train of thought, and he drove directly to work instead of the school, according to an official statement from the Ministry of Education in Heshan district. Hu locked the doors when he got out of the car, but he forgot that Qi Qi was still in it. He didnt return to his vehicle until the evening, the Ministry of Education said. When Su went to pick up her daughter from the kindergarten at 5 p.m., the school informed her that Qi Qi was absent that day. When I went to pick her up, the kindergarten told me that Qi Qi didnt come to school today, Su told the Hunan Economic Television Station. I said, why didnt you inform me? I thought she got lost. Then Su called her husband. Hu was the first to hear their daughter was missing. [My wife] immediately called me, and asked me where our child was, Hu told Hunan Economic Television Station. I immediately remembered, I need to go look [for her]. Only then did Hu find their daughter in the back of the car, but it was too late. Qi Qi was laying on the floor behind the drivers seat, with her face purple and no vital signs, according to the Hunan Economic Television Station. The temperature reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degree Celsius) that day. Qi Qis parents blamed the school for not contacting them when she did not show up in class. Hu said the school should have been more responsible. Sometimes when we go on vacation and dont come in, the school will always send us a message and ask about our kid. Why was it today that they didnt contact us? Hu told the Hunan Economic Television Station. I think they have a bigger responsibility in this. If they called me, I could have found the problem, Hu said. The local Ministry of Education said on April 10 that the parents and the school reached a settlement. The kindergarten agreed to pay 32,000 yuan ($4,800) as compensation to the family. Alora Benitez, 15, was last seen in a car with her mother and an adult male, both of whom are murder suspects in an ongoing investigation, police said on April 17, 2019. (Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department) Amber Alert Issued for California Teen Last Seen With Murder Suspects Authorities have issued an amber alert in connection with a missing 15-year-old girl believed to be in the company of two murder suspects. Alora Benitez was last seen in Torrance, California, at about 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 17, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said in a statement. Sheriffs officials said Benitez was last spotted in the company of her mother and a man, both of whom are suspected of killing a man. The alleged murder the two are suspected of having committed took place in Carson on Tuesday morning, according to KTLA. Alora Benitezs mother and the adult male are murder suspects in an investigation of a male who was found dead in the front seat of a White Audi that was parked behind 400 Block of East Carson Plaza Drive in the city Carson on (Tuesday), according to the statement. Lt. Brandon Dean told KTLA reporters that the victims cause of death was still pending, while an earlier sheriffs department news release described the crime as a deadly stabbing. Officials said the two murder suspects are considered armed and dangerous. The level of severity of the amber alert is ExtremeExtraordinary threat to life or property. Deputies described Benitez as Latina, 5 feet 2 inches tall, about 100 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Her family is concerned for her safety, the statement added. The teen was last seen with her mother and the man in a white, four-door, 2013 BMW sedan with a Nevada license plate of MARIMAR, officials said in the statement. Authorities have appealed to the public for help locating the missing teen. #AmberAlert Alora Benitez last Seen in a Wht, 2013 BMW 4-door sedan, Nevada Lic. Plate MARIMAR with mother and an adult Male. Both are murder suspects and are considered armed and dangerous. Visit the link for more info https://t.co/ehkfDbW6Rz pic.twitter.com/mS8eMvm7BT LASD Norwalk Station (@NorwalkLASD) April 18, 2019 Facts About Crime in the United States Violent crime in the United States 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, January to June 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 nonreported 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. Attorney General Barr Rules to Deny Bond to Asylum Seekers Who Cross Border Illegally Attorney General William Barr on April 16 struck down a decision that had allowed certain asylum seekers to ask for bond in front of an immigration judge. Barrs ruling expands indefinite detention for migrants who enter the United States illegally and then ask for asylum. The ruling doesnt affect the Homeland Security Departments option to release the migrants on parole for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The United States has faced a growing influx of migrants from the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras with more than 1.4 million caught at the southern border after crossing illegallyhalf a million of them in the past 18 months. Migrants caught at the border would normally be placed in an expedited removal proceeding and quickly deported. Yet the recent migrants have found a loophole: They usually surrender to authorities and request asylum claiming they are afraid to return to their countries. After months, or even years, of onerous proceedings in immigration courts, most of their asylum claims fail, but by then theyve already established their lives in the United States and face a much lower chance of deportation, since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) only has the resources to deport a few hundred thousand illegal immigrants a year. The immigration court system, meanwhile, is faltering with a backlog of more than 850,000 cases. A 2005 decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals, an appeals body for the immigration courts, allowed many of the asylum seekers in deportation proceedings to bond themselves out of detention. In his first immigration ruling since taking the office, Barr overturned the decision, saying the Immigration and Nationality Act stipulates that the asylum seekers in question shall be detained for further consideration of the application for asylum. There is no way to apply those provisions except as they were writtenunless paroled, an alien must be detained until his asylum claim is adjudicated, he said in the ruling (pdf). Immigration courts are separate from the judiciary branch and instead fall under the Justice Department, giving the Attorney General the power to directly decide cases to set legal precedent. Detention Capacity Barrs decision may have a limited effect since the immigration authorities lack sufficient capacity to detain all the asylum seekers who pour in illegally. Moreover, past court decisions have curtailed detention of minors to 20 days, which forces the authorities to release them together with their parent or parents in order to prevent family separation. About two-thirds of the Central American migrants in recent years have arrived as children or adults with children. The decision will have no impact on the unaccompanied children, who are exempt from expedited removal. Most families are also paroled because of a lack of facilities to hold parents and children together. In early March, ICE said the average daily population of immigrants in detention topped 46,000 for the 2019 fiscal year, the highest level since the agency was created in 2003. Last year, Reuters reported that ICE had modified a tool that officers have been using since 2013 when deciding whether an immigrant should be detained or released on bond, making the process more restrictive. Michael Tan, from the American Civil Liberties Union, said the rights group intended to sue the Trump administration over the decision. Barrs decision came after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided to review the case in October. Sessions resigned from his position in November, leaving the case to Barr to decide. Reuters contributed to this report. Baby Nearly Dies After Eating Laundry Pod, Mother Warns of Risk A Rhode Island mother is speaking out to warn other parents about the hazard of a dangerous fad after her baby spent three days on life support after eating a laundry pod. Cotter Cunha was 1 year old when he accidentally ingested a pod he mistook for candy, according to Yahoo News. Two years after the incident, the child still suffers from breathing issues, according to Katelyn Cunha Flores, the mother. Flores rushed her little boy to the hospital in July 2017 after noticing that he had swallowed the contents of a laundry pod, according to the report. I turned around to see what was wrong and I saw his hands were covered in something, Flores said, according to The Mirror. Thats when I noticed the plastic of the pod hanging out of his mouth. The concentrated detergent burned the childs esophagus and stomach lining, The Mirror reported, and caused swelling to the boys respiratory system. The childs airway was swollen so much that doctors had to use a tube designed for a much smaller baby for intubation. Following surgery, the child was placed in the intensive care unit, where he was hooked up to so many machines, Flores told The Mirror, I couldnt even count them all. Cotter was released from the hospital on July 6. The damage to the childs air passages have healed, according to the report, but he continues to have trouble breathing. Rana Duff, who set up a GoFundMe campaign on the familys behalf on July 4, 2017, wrote: Katelyn is pleading with all parents and relatives of small children NOT to use these laundry pods. The convenience is not worth the risk. No matter how careful and attentive you are, all it takes is one small distraction for one short second for someones entire world to be turned upside down. Danger of Laundry Pods Data released by the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported 2,097 cases this year up to March 31, 2019, related to laundry pod exposure in children aged 5 and younger. Highly concentrated single-load liquid laundry detergent can cause serious harm to young children, AAPCC notes. The membrane increasing the soap is designed to dissolve when in contact with moisture, creating a risk of exposure when placed in the mouth or handled by wet hands. The number of laundry detergent packet cases that children under 5 swallowed or bit into hit a peak in 2015, reaching 13,112 incidents, according to AAPCC data. While convenient, laundry detergent packets pose a risk to young children, according to Nationwide Childrens Hospital. The hospital describes the packets as the perfect size and shape to be picked up by toddlers, who may then put it into their mouths. The colorful packets can also look like candy or juice to a young child, according to the hospital. Any kind of detergent can be harmful, but the chemicals in laundry detergent packets are especially concentrated. Children who swallow those chemicals have had trouble breathing, have lapsed into comas, and have had other serious health problems. There have even been a few deaths. Even just touching the chemicals can cause burns and other injuries. The Nationwide Childrens Hospital notes that children younger than 3 years old account for most laundry detergent packet exposures. The National Capital Poison Center advises, If a child bites into a detergent pod, remove it immediately. Wash the childs face and hands. Gently wipe out the childs mouth. The NCPC described the case of a 7-month-old boy who bit into a laundry pod. He began coughing immediately and was taken to an emergency room in an ambulance, the NCPC noted. An hour later, the boy was dead. Autopsy results confirmed the laundry pod ingestion as the cause of death. More than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered on Fuyou Street in Beijing on April 25, 1999, to peacefully appeal for fair treatment. The event was propagandized by the Chinese Communist Party and used as an excuse to launch a brutal persecution campaign that continues today. (Minghui.org) Bait-and-Switch: The Truth Behind Falun Gongs April 25 Mass Appeal in Beijing Many China observers believe the 10,000-strong gathering of Falun Gong practitioners outside Communist Party headquarters in Beijing 20 years ago this month was the catalyst for the massive suppression unleashed soon after. In fact, it was a peaceful and orderly appeal despite the large numbers, but it was portrayed by the authorities as laying siege to the central government and used as an excuse to launch a relentless persecution campaign against Falun Gong. The purpose of the gathering on April 25, 1999, was actually to petition the regime to grant the non-political practice legal status and stop harassing its adherents. The harassment had started as early as June 1996, when the Propaganda Ministry instructed various levels of government to criticize the practice. Later, Falun Gong books were prohibited from being published or distributed, and police in regions across the country had begun to seize books from practitioners and interfere with their group practice sessions. Then, a national magazine based in the coastal city of Tianjin published an article slandering Falun Gong, a traditional meditation practice also called Falun Dafa that had 70-100 million adherents by the late 1990s, according to a government survey This greatly troubled practitioners, as the article had a negative effect on the practice, so some called and wrote to the magazine to request the false report be corrected, while many others went to Tianjin to try to redress the issue in person. On April 23, riot police came to disperse the practitioners using clubs and high-pressure water cannons, and 45 were arrested. This, in turn, caused practitioners to go to appeal at the Tianjin Municipality. There, officials told them to take their concerns to the State Council Appeals Office on Fuyou Street in Beijing. We cannot take responsibility for this matter. Go to Beijing, the Ministry of Public Security already knows about this, an official said, according to Minghui.org, a website that compiles information on the Falun Gong persecution. Word spread rapidly through the Falun Gong community, and in good faith, thousands of practitioners from Beijing and other parts of the country made their way to the appeals office, in what was to become the largest spontaneous public gathering since the 1989 student protests on Tiananmen Square. In Silent Protest When practitioners began arriving on Fuyou Street early on the morning of April 25, some 1,000 public security personnel and plainclothes officers had already been deployed. Some of the officers were talking on their radios, and some were corralling practitioners toward a designated area. When the practitioners approached the appeals office, some were directed across the street to Zhongnanhai, a complex of buildings that serves as the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party and the central government. This put them in a position of surrounding Zhongnanhai. In fact, this tactic was a calculated move that was later used to falsely accuse the crowd of and encircling or besieging the central government in a threatening way. Images captured by ABC showed an orderly assembly of people of all ages stretching for about two kilometers along the tree-lined sidewalks of Fuyou Street and some side streets. Some practiced the slow-moving Falun Gong exercises, while others sat or read. Ample room was left for pedestrians to pass, and the flow of traffic wasnt interfered with; however, police closed the street to traffic soon after the crowd gathered. There was no shouting of slogans or waving of bannersin fact, by all accounts the practitioners took pains to be as unobtrusive as possible, even bringing along bags to hold any litter that might be dropped. No record, film, or plausible account suggests that the Falun Gong practitioners did anything even faintly provocative during the entire episode, which continued for 16 hours. No littering, smoking, chanting, or speaking to reporters, writes author and China analyst Ethan Gutmann in the article An Occurrence on Fuyou Street. Those gathered had three requests: release the arrested Tianjin practitioners; allow Falun Gong practitioners a non-hostile environment in which to practice; and lift the ban on publishing Falun Gong books. A few of the practitioners who gathered at the appeals office were invited inside to speak with then-Premier Zhu Rongji; Zhu later issued an order to release those arrested in Tianjin. Around 9 p.m., a message was passed around among practitioners that the issues were basically resolved and that they could leave. The crowd dispersed as quietly as they had come, unsuspecting that much greater troubles were lurking on the horizon. Terror Campaign Begins Three months later, on July 20, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin illegally outlawed the practice in a move to consolidate his personal power as well as calm the turmoil occurring within the Party at the time. Jiang used the events of April 25 to prove that Falun Gong was both organized and an immediate political threat. But in fact, he had decided to ban the practice before the appeal: he had already established the 6-10 Officean extralegal, secretive, Gestapo-like organizationto oversee all aspects of the persecution campaign. All he had to do now was convince the Communist Party Politburo. In a letter to the Politburo written the night of the demonstration and openly published in 2006, Jiang described Falun Gong as a nationwide religious organization with a worldview inimical to that of communism and Marxism. The CCP does not allow nongovernmental organizations to exist beyond its watch; describing Falun Gong as one made it a valid political target. An hour-long film depicting the demonstration as a terrorist act was released, and state media launched a propaganda blitz portraying the event as a riot. Gutmann said the allegation that the appeal posed a threat to the regime comes down to blatant Party propaganda, but it is a notion that Western media ran with. Because the Western media know so little of Falun Gong, this fiction survives in accounts of April 25. It is repeated in scholarly works on Falun Gong history, and is regarded almost as the movements original sin, he writes. The idea that Falun Gong besieged Zhongnanhai in a threatening way is a direct transmission of the Communist-party line. Whatever you call the demonstration, it was not specifically targeted at Zhongnanhai, much less was it a siege of the compound. Regardless, for the Chinese audience that Falun Gong is trying to reach, the Party still owns the language and the history. The brutal persecution initiated by Jiang was the beginning of a new communist terror campaign the likes of which had not been seen since the Cultural Revolution, and one that has left untold death and suffering in its wake. The crackdown was justified with the myth of a day of infamyApril 25a fiction concocted as a pretext to stage an unprecedented persecution, one that continues to this day, Gutmann writes. April 25, then, was simply the unfolding of an elaborate bait-and-switch, with Falun Gong as the patsy. Attorney General William Barr speaks about the release of the redacted version of the Mueller report as U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (R) and U.S. Acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed OCallaghan listen at the Department of Justice on April 18, 2019. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Barr Explains Conclusion of Mueller Probe: Trump Did Not Collude With Russia On Thursday, Attorney General William Barr said that no member of the Trump campaign, or any other American, colluded with Russia to interfere with the 2016 elections. The comments re-affirm a letter Barr sent to Congress last month in which he had outlined the main conclusions of the nearly 2-year-long investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Special Counsel did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities, Barr said, quoting the Mueller report. Barr said that Russia did interfere in the elections, but that nobody on the Trump campaign colluded with them. [The] Russian government sought to interfere in our election process, Barr said, adding that Im sure all Americans share my concern about Russias efforts in the election. Part of Russias efforts to interfere with the election was the hacking of emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee. Barr said that the Special Counsels investigation found that some of those emails hacked by the Russian government were pushed out through their own channels such as DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0. Barr also said that it was Russia who provided the emails to Wikileaks. No member of the Trump campaign, however, worked with or coordinated with Wikileaks in the release of the documents. Special counsel reports did not find any person associated with the Trump campaign associated in the release of the materials, Barr said. He also said no one on the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia in the hacking. There was no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with the Russian governments hacking, Barr said. Barr also said that he and Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein determined there was no obstruction of justice case based on the information presented by Mueller. He said that he and Rosenstein reviewed the matter through the legal framework used by the Special Counsel, despite disagreeing with some of the legal theories used. Barr also highlighted the fact that the White House fully cooperated with the investigation, even though President Trump felt that the investigation was unfair and originated from his political opponents. The FBI, during the 2016 elections, had launched a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in what appears to have been primarily based on information contained in the so-called Steele dossier, which was paid for by the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Congressional testimonies by FBI and DOJ officials showed that author of the dossier, Christopher Steele, as well as Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPSthe company behind the dossierspread the information to the FBI, DOJ, State Department, Congress, and members of the media through multiple channels. President Trump has called for an investigation on the investigators. Earlier this month, Barr confirmed that spying had occurred on Trumps campaign. Barr also confirmed that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz will conclude his investigation into potential FISA abuse and other matters related to the FBIs investigation by May or June. A redacted copy of the Mueller report is expected to be released later this morning. Barr Says the Bottom Line From Mueller Report Is No Collusion Attorney General William Barr stated again at an April 18 press conference that Robert Mueller, the special counsel, discovered no evidence to establish that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign, said Barr in the morning conference. So that is the bottom line. He delivered his remarks to reporters ahead of the delivery of the Mueller report to Congress. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government-sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes, Barr reiterated. He said that Russian operatives did, in fact, try to influence the election, but they didnt collude with President Trump or Trumps campaign. That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed, Barr noted. Furthermore, the Trump administration didnt invoke executive privilege to block the release of the Mueller report, Barr told reporters. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates, added Barr. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability. Barr also made a reference to the relentless speculation among members of the press. Trump on April 18 responded to the press conference, tweeting, No CollusionNo Obstruction! About an hour later, he tweeted a photo in reference to HBOs Game of Thrones. Game over, it said, adding that its for the haters and the radical left Democrats. Mueller, the attorney general said, examined 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice. However, he said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined the evidence wasnt sufficient to charge the president. Meanwhile, Barr said he is fine with Mueller testifying before Congress. Trumps attorneys also saw the redacted report, the attorney general stated. No Collusion No Obstruction! pic.twitter.com/diggF8V3hl Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 In addition, earlier this week, the presidents personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released, Barr told reporters. That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government Act, which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an Independent Counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. The presidents personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions. Also, he explained that redactions will fall into several categories, including material that is relating to ongoing investigations, material that relates to methods or sources, grand jury material, and items that concerns unindicted persons of interests. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (R) listens while Attorney General William Barr speaks during a press conference about the release of the Mueller Report at the Department of Justice in Washington on April 18, 2019. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images) Barr Slams Reporter Who Claimed He Was Protecting, Being Generous to President Trump Attorney General William Barr responded on April 18 to a reporter who asked him at a press conference why he was being quite generous to President Donald Trump. Barr held the conference on Thursday morning ahead of the release of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report. It was set to be sent to members of Congress before being published online by the Department of Justice later in the day. The back-and-forth came after Barr explained how he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided that Trump didnt commit obstruction, since Mueller didnt make the determination, instead opting to simply present the evidence. After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the special counsels report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the President could amount to obstruction of the special counsels investigation. As I addressed in my March 24 letter, the special counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. Instead, the report recounts 10 episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense, Barr said. After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Barr: Im not sure what your basis is for saying Im being generous to the President. A reporter then brings up his use of the word unprecedented. Is there another precedent for it, Barr asks. No, the reporter answers. OK so unprecedented is an accurate description. pic.twitter.com/5Mkso4BOCR Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 18, 2019 Barr said that he and Rosenstein kept in mind that Trump was facing an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the Presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was, in fact, no collusion. The reporter told Barr that she felt he was being quite generous to Trump, quoting Barr saying the president faced an unprecedented situation and noting he discussed how the president was frustrated with the probe. What do you say to people on both sides of the aisle who say that you are trying to protect the president? the reporter asked. Well, actually, the statements about his sincere beliefs are recognized in the report, that there was substantial evidence for that, so Im not sure what your basis is for saying that Im being generous to the president, Barr said. You said he faced an unprecedented situation, the reporter responded. It just seems like theres a lot of going out of your way to acknowledge Well, is there another precedent for it? Barr interjected. Well, no, the reporter said. Then unprecedented is an accurate description, isnt it? Barr said. Well, yeah, the reporter said. Another reporter asked where Mueller was. Theres a lot of public interest in the absence of the special counsel and members of his team. Was he invited to join you up at the podium? Why is he not here? This is his report, obviously, that youre talking about here today, the reporter said. A report that he did for me as the attorney general, Barr responded. He is required under the regulation to provide me with a confidential report. Im here to discuss my response to that report and my decisionentirely discretionaryto make it public, since these reports are not supposed to be made public. Barr also said that he would not object to Mueller testifying before Congress. From NTD News James Oler leaves court in Cranbrook, B.C., on July 24, 2017. A British Columbia court heard evidence from three former members of a polygamous religious group in the trial of Oler on April 11, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh) BC Child Bride Trial Wraps Up, Judge Reserves Decision A four-day gap in the whereabouts of a mans underage daughter is enough to dispute whether she was removed from Canada 15 years ago, a lawyer argued at the B.C. trial of a fundamentalist Mormon who is accused of taking an underage girl across the border for sexual purposes. James Marion Oler, 54, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bountiful, B.C., is charged with removing his 15-year-old daughter from Canada to Nevada in June 2004 to marry another member of the church, which practices polygamy. Oler, who represented himself, did not call any witnesses or mount a legal defence during his trial. Lawyer Joe Doyle served as a friend of the court to ensure a fair trial. Olers daughter, whose name is protected by a publication ban, was seen in Bountiful on June 20, 2004, and then witnessed four days later in Northern Idaho. Doyle argued that the prosecution did not prove that she was in Canada when Oler received a call on June 23, ordering him to bring his daughter to be married. The religious documents submitted as evidence by Crown prosecutors included marriage and priesthood records. According to those records, Olers daughter was married on June 25, 2004, in Nevada to Warren Jeffs, the church prophet. Jeffs is now serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for two counts of child sexual assault. Doyle called into question the credibility of church records seized by U.S. law enforcement a decade ago, saying some were incomplete or inaccurate, the Cransbrook Townsman reports. He also questioned the validity of priesthood records instructions, teaching, and activities dictated by Jeffs into a handheld voice recorder, a practice confirmed by witness testimony. One of those audio recordings included Jeffs describing a phone call with Oler, where he ordered Olers daughter to be brought to the United States to be married. A witness, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, testified that she and Olers daughter were married in separate ceremonies in Mesquite, Nevada, on June 25, 2004, after traveling together from the U.S. border the day before, according to the Cransbrook Townsman. The witness said she drove with her parents across the border into Idaho, then soon pulled over. They then switched vans, which contained Oler and his daughter. The Crown wrapped up its case Monday, with Special Prosecutor Peter Wilson arguing that the Crown doesnt have to prove that sexual activity took place between the girl and the man she married. The Crown only has to prove that at some point during the unfolding of the events, that the accused intended or subjectively foresaw that (the girl) would be subject to sexual contact, Wilson told a B.C. Supreme Court judge in Cranbrook. He said Oler should have known that the girl would be subject to sexual activity following her marriage based on the nature of church doctrine and the role of women in the faith. Jeffs daughter, Rachel Jeffs, testified that women were taught to obey men, especially ones father or husband, the Cransbrook Townsman reports. She said she was placed in an arranged marriage when she was 18. I knew I didnt really have a choice, she said. They told me I had a choice, but I knew that if I said no, then they would kick me out of the church or I wouldnt have any blessings. And I was told that if I didnt obey I would lose my place in Heaven. This is the second time Oler has been on trial for the charges. He was originally acquitted in 2017 by a judge who wasnt convinced Oler did anything within Canadas borders to arrange the girls transfer to the United States. However, in a unanimous decision, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that proof of wrongdoing in Canada was not necessitated by the law and ordered a new trial. In a separate case, Oler was found guilty of practising polygamy by the B.C. Supreme Court on July 24, 2017. The judge has reserved her decision and tentatively scheduled a ruling in Cranbrook Supreme Court for June 24. With files from The Canadian Press An image made available by Gigarama.ru on April 17, 2019, shows an aerial shot of the fire damage to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on April 16. (Gigarama.ru via AP) Bells of French Cathedrals Ring in Tribute to Notre Dame PARISBells of cathedrals across France rang in a moving tribute on April 17 to Notre Dame as firefighters and experts continued to keep the beloved but weakened landmark under close surveillance. From Sacre Coeur in Paris to the cities of Strasbourg in the east and Rouen in the west, the architectural treasures of France solemnly marked the inferno, two days after it ravaged the gothic cathedral, widely regarded as the soul of France. I just arrived for the first ring of the bells and immediately there was an emotion. Incredible, indescribable, I just cant explain it, said Nadia Pascassio-Comte, in Strasbourg. It was beautiful and sad at the same time. I had tears in my eyes at one point, and I think that this solidarity is magical, it really unites a lot of people. At Saint Sulpice church, the second-largest house of worship in Paris, French first lady Brigitte Macron attended a special service for the annual blessing of the oils during Holy Week, ahead of Easter Sunday. Meanwhile, restoration specialists questioned President Emmanuel Macrons ambitious 5-year reconstruction timeline for Notre Dame, with some suggesting it could take more than three times that amount of time to rebuild the 850-year-old architectural treasure. Even Prime Minister Edouard Philippe acknowledged Wednesday that it would be difficult. This is obviously an immense challenge, a historic responsibility, Philippe said after a Cabinet meeting focused on the restoration. Prominent French conservation architect Pierluigi Pericolo told Inrocks magazine the restoration work could take no less than 15 years. Its a colossal task. Pericolo, who worked on the restoration of the 19th-century St.-Donatien Basilica, which was badly damaged in a 2015 blaze in the French city of Nantes, said it could take two to five years just to check the stability of Notre Dame, which dominates the Paris skyline. Its a fundamental step, and very complex, because its difficult to send workers into a monument whose vaulted ceilings are swollen with water, Pericolo told France-Info. The end of the fire doesnt mean the edifice is totally saved. The stone can deteriorate when it is exposed to high temperatures and change its mineral composition and fracture inside. Macron received some support for his lofty 5-year restoration goal from his presidential cultural heritage envoy, Stephane Bern, who said it was realistic to reopen Notre Dame to the public in time for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. However, he did not indicate whether the reconstruction work would be completed by then. Speaking after a meeting at the presidential palace about the monuments reconstruction, Bern said Macron didnt express his views regarding the rebuilding of the cathedrals lead roof, or whether the frame should be restored in wood like the destroyed one, or in metal or concrete. He also said France would hold an international architecture competition to determine whether the collapsed 19th-century spire would be rebuilt to the same design or a new one. Meanwhile, Notre Dames rector said he would close the cathedral for up to five to six years, acknowledging that a segment of the structure may be gravely weakened. According to a French government official, the building would have burned to the ground in a chain-reaction collapse had firefighters not moved as rapidly as they did to battle the blaze racing through the building. The firefighters acted aggressively to protect wooden supports in the twin medieval bell towers from the flames, averting a bigger catastrophe, said Jose Vaz de Matos, a fire expert with Frances Culture Ministry. If the fire reached this wooden structure, the bell tower would have been lost, de Matos said at a news conference. From the moment we lose the war of the bell towers, we lose the cathedral, because its a chain-reaction collapse. An initial fire alert was sounded at 6:20 p.m., as a Mass was underway in the cathedral, but no fire was found. A second alarm went off at 6:43 p.m., and the blaze was discovered on the roof. No one was killed in the fire, after firefighters and church officials speedily evacuated those inside. Firefighters acted as fast as they could to save the cathedral, said senior fire official Philippe Demay, denying that there was any delay in their response. Despite extensive damage, many of the cathedrals treasures were saved, including Notre Dames famous rose windows, although they are not out of danger. Jean-Marc Fournier, chaplain of the Paris fire brigade, told Catholic broadcaster KTO that the trickiest part was reaching the person who held the security codes to open the safe containing the Crown of Thorns, regarded as Notre Dames most sacred relic. Paris Firefighters spokesman Lt.-Col. Gabriel Plus said that even though they are in good condition, a threat continues to the gables, or support walls, because of the heavy stone statues perched on top of them. The roof no longer holds (the gables) up. They are holding up all by themselves, he said, adding that some statues must be removed to lessen the weight on the gables. The scaffolding that had been erected for a renovation of the spire and roof must also be properly removed because of its weight and because it is now crucially deformed, he added. The Paris prosecutors office said investigators have been able to access some parts of the building, although others remain too dangerous. No indication of a criminal act had been found so far, it said. More than 40 people have already been questioned in the investigation, including workers at the five construction companies who were involved in renovating the church spire and roof. Police also took images of the destruction using drones, in case it is altered by wind or rain. Nearly $1 billion has been pledged for the cathedrals restoration, coming from ordinary worshippers and wealthy magnates, including those who own LOreal, Chanel, and Dior. Bern told broadcaster France-Info that 880 million euros ($995 million) have been raised since the fire. Criticism already has surfaced in France from those who say the money could be better spent elsewhere, on smaller, struggling churches or on workers. Others have criticized the billionaires donations because their pledges make them eligible for huge deductions in taxes. By Sylvie Corbet and Nicolas Vaux-Montagny EDMONTON, Alberta, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alcanna Inc. (the Company or Alcanna) (TSX: CLIQ) announced today that a licensed Nova Cannabis store will open at 499 Queen Street West in Toronto on Saturday April 20, the annual day known as 4/20 in cannabis culture. The store is owned by Heather Conlon, a winner of the Ontario governments lottery process for cannabis retail licenses and will operate under a license agreement to use the Nova Cannabis name. Alcanna will provide Ms. Conlon with operational, marketing and back of house support under a Services Agreement. Alcanna is excited that one of our retail brands is about to open in Ontario. Now that the government of Premier Ford has opened cannabis retail to the private sector and has announced liquor retail will also be widely open for retailers beyond the LCBO and Brewers Retail and a few grocery stores, Alcanna is poised to make major investments to serve Ontarians with our leading retail brands, said James Burns, Vice-Chair and CEO of Alcanna. We have purpose-designed Nova Queen Street to be able to handle a high volume of transactions in an efficient, accessible and customer-friendly manner. We are looking forward to demonstrating what an experienced retailer can bring to Ontarians. When I won the lottery I immediately thought of Alcanna as the partner we wanted to help us in this exciting venture, said store owner Heather Conlon. Our family business Advance Security Systems has done business with Alcanna for many years and we know them to be top of the class operators in all aspects of their business. We had offers from many others, but we wanted to go with experience and integrity and Alcanna was the easy choice. The store is fully stocked and will sell a broad range of cannabis products and accessories, including a Black Market Buster a 3.5 gram package at a price of $24.20, or the equivalent of $6.90 per gram, a price we believe to be equivalent to the black-market price, said Burns. No one should ever have to stay with the black market strictly because of price, he said. With a location on Queen West backing on the famous Graffiti Alley, Nova Cannabis commissioned local graffiti artist Javid Jah to produce 6 original works that are displayed in the store. Novas intention is to rotate the art displays every few months to allow local artists to display their talents. ABOUT ALCANNA INC. Alcanna is one of the largest private sector retailers of alcohol in North America and the largest in Canada by number of stores operating 235 locations in Alberta, British Columbia and Alaska. The Company also operates six cannabis retail stores under the Nova Cannabis brand, with five locations in the Province of Alberta and one in the Province of Ontario. With revenues in excess of $600 million per year, Alcanna processes over 18 million individual retail transactions of beverage alcohol and cannabis. Alcanna's common shares and convertible subordinated debentures trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols "CLIQ" and "CLIQ.DB", respectively. Additional information about Alcanna Inc. is available at www.sedar.com and the Companys website at www.alcanna.com . FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements or information (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as continue, anticipate, "will", "should", plan, intention, poised and similar words suggesting future events or future performance. All statements and information other than statements of historical fact contained in this news release are forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to: the opening of a Nova Cannabis store in Ontario, selection and pricing in the Nova Cannabis store in Ontario, and future potential investments that the Company may make in Ontario. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements, and the assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are made, are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to be correct. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements included in this news release. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual performance and financial results to differ materially from any estimates, forecasts or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the factors described in the Companys public filings (including the Annual Information Form) available at www.sedar.com . Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof. Except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation, Alcanna does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. For Further Information James Burns Vice Chair and Chief Executive Officer Alcanna Inc. (587)460-1026 James.burns@alcanna.com Heather Conlon heather@advancesecurity.com Dave Crapper SVP, Communications Alcanna Inc. Dave.crapper@alcanna.com Ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group at the New York Stock Exchange in N.Y. on April 4, 2016. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) Blackstone to Switch From a Public Partnership to a Corporation NEW YORKBlackstone Group, the worlds largest manager of alternative assets such as private equity and real estate, said on April 18 that it would convert from a partnership to a corporation, in a bid to get more investors into its stock. Blackstone is hoping the move, which will take effect July 1, will boost its share price, which has traded at a discount to traditional asset managers such as BlackRock Inc for more than a decade. Under the so-called C-Corp structure, Blackstone will pay corporate taxes on all its revenue, in exchange for enabling investors such as mutual funds and index trackers to buy the stock. The additional tax burden has become less severe after the headline U.S. corporate tax rate was lowered effective last year to 21 percent from 35 percent. Two other private equity firms, KKR & Co Inc and Ares Management Corp, announced last year they would also make the switch. Removing Restrictions Passive investors such as mutual funds, which are becoming more important as they manage more money, are restricted by their mandates from acquiring the stock of publicly listed partnerships. Private equity firms pay corporate taxes under the partnership structure on the management fees charged to investors, but are mostly shielded from paying these taxes on performance fees. Blackstone said the expanded investor base was worth what it called a modest tax hit. We believe the decision to convert will make it significantly easier for both domestic and international investors to own our stock and should drive greater value for all of our shareholders over time, Blackstone Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement. Schwarzman said on twitter, Since our IPO, our assets under management have increased 6-fold to more than half-a-trillion dollars, driven by exceptional investment performance. $BXs Steve Schwarzman: Since our IPO, our assets under management have increased 6-fold to more than half-a-trillion dollars, driven by exceptional investment performance. https://t.co/50smdTC4Wi pic.twitter.com/eYjUmIj06c Blackstone (@blackstone) April 18, 2019 Blackstone also announced first-quarter earnings on April 18, reporting distributable earningsthe actual cash available for paying dividendsof $538 million in the first quarter, up from $502 million a year earlier. This translated to distributable earnings per share of 41 cents, lower than the 51 cents analysts had predicted on average based on Refinitiv data. Nevertheless, the announcement of the switch to a corporation sent Blackstone shares surging about 10 percent in premarket trading to $39.20. Adding Value Blackstone Chief Operating Officer, Jon Gray said in a video announcing Blackstones conversion to a corporation, Blackstone stock has delivered essentially the same return as the S&P since our 2007 IPO, and significantly outperformed over the last 10 years. However, despite our rapid growth and powerful business model, the stock has traded at a meaningful multiple discount. So weve recently been focused on making changes to drive greater value to shareholders. Watch $BXs Jon Gray discuss Blackstones rising earnings power and strong financial performance in a video announcing Blackstones conversion to a corporation https://t.co/50smdTC4Wi pic.twitter.com/NLhgielO8r Blackstone (@blackstone) April 18, 2019 We believe this will unlock value, as the partnership structure made it too difficult for many of our long-only clients, and major indexes, to own, Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a research note. Fee-related earnings, the amount Blackstone earns from management fees, were up 11 percent year-on-year at $374 million. Blackstone said its assets under management reached $512 billion at the end of March, up 14 percent from a year ago. Blackstone declared a first-quarter dividend of 37 cents per share. At market close on April 18, Blackstone shares finished up 7.49 percent at $38.62. By Greg Roumeliotis NTD News reporter Jeremy Sandberg contributed to this report. Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen gestures while registering as the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) 2020 presidential candidate at the party's headquarter in Taipei on March 21, 2019. Tsai is fending off China to keep Taiwan independent. (Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images) Canada Needs Greater Ties With Taiwan as China Threats Loom, Say Experts Canadas One-China policy detrimental OTTAWATaiwan is a democracy with similar interests and values to those of Canada, and the ties between the two countries should be much stronger, experts say. The problem is that Canadas One-China policy needs to be reviewed in the face of greater China aggression. Given deteriorating relations with China following the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou last December, Canada has increasingly more in common with Taiwan. China seeks to annex the jurisdiction of 23 million and head off foreign intervention in the region. As Canada becomes more acquainted with how China attempts to influence its decision-makers, it can learn from Taiwan, which is experiencing those kinds of threats at an unprecedented level, observers say. Taiwan is a major success story, said former Canadian MP and secretary of state for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour. He noted that Taiwan is one of 30 parliamentary democracies in the world. Kilgour and other Taiwan experts were speakers at an Ottawa event on April 16 hosted by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) public policy think tank to mark the 40th anniversary of the United States Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). While Canada does not have an equivalent of the TRA, the clear messages at the forum were that Canada can benefit from greater relations with Taiwan, it should not be intimidated by China, and its allies can serve as role models on steps to take. Another key point is that the One-China policy is a double-edged sword. Chinas rhetoric uses it to try to keep other nations from interfering with its Taiwan objectives. J. Michael Cole, Taipei-based senior fellow with the China Policy Institute, says Canada has allowed Beijing to dictate its engagement with Taiwan, which has stunted development of the relationship. Its risk aversion. Certain agencies in Canada are absolutely terrified when it comes to engaging with Taiwan, Cole said. No reason why this would have to be so. According to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, Canada is building people-to-people ties with Taiwan within its One-China policy. She supports the Asian democracys participation at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, despite obstruction by China. Strategic Battle Winston Wen-yi Chen, Taiwans official representative to Canada, said his country is at the front line of a battle being fought for freedom and democracy. We are ready and I hope Canada is also ready, Chen said. Like the theme of this event today, Embracing Taiwan, Canada has more options than you realize. A growing number of countriesIndia, Australia, New Zealand, and nations within the EUare gradually starting to engage with Taiwan on trade, cyber, and crime fighting, said Cole. He added that there is less room for China to interfere if Canada engages with Taiwan as part of a multilateral exercise than if it is done bilaterally. Chinas dictating of how Canada deals with Taiwan runs deep. Jonathan Berkshire Miller, senior fellow with the Asian Forum Japan, shared an anecdote in which a Global Affairs Canada official spoke of having received an email saying they not permitted to attend a Taiwan event at the Chateau Laurier. I dont think that should be happening, Miller said. We need to have some kind of legislation which permits contact at all levels. Scott Simon, chair of Taiwan Studies at the University of Ottawa, pointed out that Taiwan has become Canadas 11th-largest trading partnerfifth-biggest in Asiaeven without formal diplomatic relations. Taiwan has one of the largest Canadian expat communities in the world, numbering some 60,000. So far we have operated under the assumption that downgrading relations with Taiwan would bring benefits in our relations with China, Simon said. It has not made them any kinder to Taiwan or to us. In addition to the U.S. tack, another interesting option is to look at Japan as a model for interfacing with Taiwan. The panellists noted that countries fear engaging with Taiwan due to Beijings wrath, but Japan has more experience dealing with China than any other country, says Simon. If anyone needs to be risk averse with respect to Taiwan, its the Japanese, Simon said. China reportedly urges Japan not to move an inch closer to Taiwan in diplomatic circles. Canada can build greater ties with Taiwan, and that would also help foster a greater strategic partnership with Japan. Cole describes Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen as responsible, predictable, and pragmatic in her push for independence. Using economic incentives, control over sources of information, and political subversion, Chinas objective is to divide our society, erode trust in public institutions, and make people question our traditional alliances. The U.S., together with other like-minded countries, can help, said Tsai in a speech commemorating 40 years of the TRA. The military threat from China is very real, and Simon said Canada should remind China that it doesnt endorse its spurious claim to Taiwan. The warning to the rest of the world is that if China annexes Taiwan, it wont stop there. Cole said Taiwans disappearance as a free sovereign state in the Asia-Pacific would embolden Chinas authoritarian regime. Taiwan is a key piece of the puzzle, he said. Former U.S. House speaker Paul Ryan called Taiwan a force for good in the world during a visit to Taipei to mark the 40th anniversary of the signing of the TRA. That very dayApril 15Chinese bombers and warships conducted military drills around Taiwan. Election Interference The panellists at the MLI forum agreed that, if one good thing happened after China detained two Canadians after Mengs arrest, it is that more Canadians are learning the truth about how China operates though the media, which has ramped up its reporting on China. The reputational costs [for China] are huge here, Miller said. Canadas federal election will be held this fall. Taiwan faces national elections next January. The threat of interference in both elections cant be dismissed. Canada would be wise to solicit the counsel of Taiwan on this critical issue, Miller said. Follow Rahul on Twitter @RV_ETBiz Chase Bank Denies Political Motives as Controversy Erupts Over Closed Accounts Chase Bank has closed the accounts of three right-wing personalities, in what appears to have been arbitrary executive decisions that arent based on any official company policy. The bank stated it wouldnt shut a clients account because of political affiliation, and also denied having a hate speech policy. Chase officials refused, though, to comment on the situations of particular clients. The clients themselves also couldnt get an explanation from the bank, or at least one that would square with known facts. Martina Markota The first one known to have an account closed in this manner is Martina Markota. After a recent review of your account, we have decided to end our relationship with you, reads a Jan. 24 letter she received on behalf of her company, Magnum Opus Productions. I called and asked why, she said in a Twitter message. They said they have the right to end our relationship and not tell me why. Markota, a performance artist of Croatian origin, used to perform in New York City until her colleagues learned of her right-wing views, leaving her shunned by the industry. She then worked at the right-leaning Daily Caller as a video producer and reporter, before joining The Rebel, where she reports on arts, politics, and culture. She came under the scrutiny of left-leaning press in 2017, when she appeared in a Daily Caller video with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. Humorous in tone, Pai voiced his views on net neutrality in the video and at the end, danced with the papers staff, which included Markota. Slate then called her a proponent of Pizzagate. The Pizzagate controversy emerged in late 2016 after the publication of emails leaked from the account of John Podesta, who chaired the presidential campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Some people noticed several emails referred to pizza or cheese pizza. Arguing that some of the references seemed out of place, some speculated that the emails referred to child pornography, which is sometimes referred to by code words such as cheese pizza by others on the so-called dark web. Podesta dismissed the allegations. Markota published a video on her YouTube account commenting on the allegations, confirming that, based on her earlier research of the dark web, cheese pizza is indeed a code word for child pornography. Pizzagate also includes other allegations, but Markota didnt comment on those in her video. She said she didnt want to assume her politics had anything to do with Chases move, but found it strange, since her crowdfunded graphic-novel project was just taking off and she had tens of thousands of dollars in the account. She came to the assumption that Chase targeted her politically after she learned other right-wing figures faced a similar situation at around the same time. Enrique Tarrio Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys organization, first received a notice on Feb. 1 that Chase decided to stop processing payments for his online store. Then, he received a letter dated Feb. 4. After careful consideration, we have determined that we can no longer support your banking account(s) and will be closing it on April 1, 2019, it said. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. Tarrio went on to talk to multiple Chase representatives, but to no avail. They told him they couldnt find out why his account was closed. He was told the account was being closed by compliance and that the matter should be brought up with the Chase executive office, according to a recording of the conversations that Tarrio provided to Project Veritas. [Its] so mindboggling to me, Chase Business Manager Marcel Smith Jr. told Tarrio. I see nothing that indicates any reason why the account should be closed. Tarrio was a client of Chase for more than 10 years and nothing looks out of whack as far as the order in which youve been doing your transactions or handing your business, Smith said. Finally, a person from the executive office who identified herself as Nora told Tarrio that the bank observed inconsistent information about his online shop. His website redirected to his online shop, 1776.shop, and Chase has no relationship with the 1776.shop and therefore couldnt conduct required due diligence. Tarrio pushed back, saying the online shop went through a three-month certification process with Chase and the bank set up a checkout page for the online shop on its server. He even had emails with a Chase certification team that listed links to the 1776.shop website, he said. He was told to give Chase his dispute. He did. But his account was closed on April 1 nonetheless. Proud Boys Tarrio, whos of Afro-Cuban ancestry, was in November elected the chairman of Proud Boys, a somewhat satirical drinking club that describes its members as Western chauvinistsa term coined by its founder, comedian and former Fox host Gavin McInnes to mean a proud and unabashed proponent of Western Civilization. Some of its members go to right-wing rallies and events to do free security for conservative speakers, its website says. Some members have been involved in fights with members of violent leftist groups such as Antifa. From short online clips of some of the fights, its sometimes hard to discern who started them. Tarrio was adamant, though, that theres not a single example of a Proud Boy breaking the groups precept of not starting a fight. Get on YouTube, search it all day, youll never find a Proud Boy that goes and initiates something, he said in a February interview with conservative YouTuber Sarah Corriher. I had a New York Times reporter call me today. He was like, Oh, but you guys are violent. And Im like, Thats always what you guys say. Can you give me one example of us starting something? And they could never give me a solid answer. He said that the Proud Boys 100 percent support Antifas right to protest. Were actually there to defend their right to do that, also, he said. But what were not OK with is when they turn violent. Tarrios e-shop sells t-shirts and other merchandise, usually sporting the Proud Boys insignia and slogans, commonly provocative and sometimes involving crude language. One slogan advocates for a death penalty for pedophiles, saying Hang em high. Another depicts the anecdote about former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who in his suppression of communists and socialists is said to have had some people killed by throwing them off a helicopter. Youre next, comrade. Socialists and communists fly free, the slogan reads. The Proud Boys social-media accounts were largely shut down after Oregons Clark County Sheriffs Office said in an August 2018 memo that the FBI considers Proud Boys to be an extremist group with ties to white nationalism. The group contested that description, highlighting the plethora of ethnic and racial backgrounds of its members and repeated disavowals of white nationalism by its leaders. Oregons FBI office clarified in December that the bureau didnt designate the group as extremist and suggested that the sheriffs office misunderstood an FBI presentation that tried to characterize the potential threat from individuals within that group, Special Agent in Charge Renn Cannon told media, The Oregonian reported. By then, however, one of the sheriffs deputies had already been fired for wearing a Proud Boys Girls sweatshirt. Joe Biggs Another one to lose his account was Joe Biggs, an Iraq War veteran who runs an online shop selling merchandise mostly emblazoned with anti-leftist slogans. Register communists, not firearms, says one T-shirt slogan. Deportation saves lives, says another. Chase bank just closed out my account! he said in a Feb. 16 tweet. As his Twitter post received traction with hundreds of retweets, his phone started ringing with calls from Chases executive office. After about hour and a half on the phone, I wasnt able to talk to anybody and get a clear reason as to why they closed my account, he later told the OAN news network. Then, on Feb. 18, he received a call from a Chase representative who told him the bank got a lot of backlash from veteran groups out there. Biggs says the representative told him: Theyre threatening to close their accounts now. Wed like to make it up to you and give you your account back. He still wasnt told why was his account was closed to begin with. Since then, Ive decided to take my business elsewhere and I think thats what we should do, he said. Chase Response The Epoch Times spent nearly two months in regular correspondence with Chase spokespeople, but couldnt get an explanation regarding the account terminations. We cant share information about customers for privacy reasons, but we would never close an account due to political affiliation, spokesman Tom Kelly said in an email. When questioned about whether Chase takes a stand on the issue of hate speech and whether it would cut ties with a client who makes a public comment that could be perceived as hateful, Kelly said, Every situation is different, so there is no point in talking about hypotheticals. When repeatedly asked whether the bank has a hate-speech policy, the spokespeople maintained silence for weeks. Then, on April 16, Project Veritas released a report about Tarrios case. One of its reporters called the Chase media line and asked whether the bank has standards in place that would preempt [business] relationship with anyone such as Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of right-leaning Breitbart News and a former White House chief strategist to President Donald Trump. Oh, definitely, said the representative, who identified himself only as Asran. Definitely, definitely. Chase is not involved with any like, you know, alt-right people or anything. I really cant name names but its basically like we dont get involved with any of that. No, just any business relationships, period. Really? the journalist responded. Okay. So I mean on my end, Im talking about people like Trump supporters for instance. The MAGA, whatever, Make [America Great Again], whatever the hell they, those types of people, I mean individuals. Right, right, Asran responded. I know what you mean, but like I said, the call is being recorded, monitored, so I cant get too political. And say I dont support these people, or this, but you know, any kind of business entity, people like that, no moral character or anything like that, the bank usually doesnt get involved with that. Chases Kelly said there was no Asran working in the banks media relations operations. That number is the switchboard and the call apparently was routed to a call center, he said. Asran was apparently, a customer-service [representative], he said. Another spokesperson, Patricia Wexler, then stepped in: Just to be clear we dont know hes a customer service rep, right? Ive actually not seen any evidence this is an employee. Meaning, we cant confirm it based on what we are seeing. After being pressed again on the issue of hate speech, she replied that theres no hate-speech policy. Hate speech has been commonly cited as a reason for suppression or banning of right-wing users on social-media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook acknowledged that there is no universally accepted answer for when something crosses the line of hate speech. That seems open to interpretation by the overwhelmingly left-leaning workforce of the big tech companies. The companies have faced allegations of political bias in content policing that are backed by a growing pile of evidence. The companies have denied bias. Deplatforming Shutting down opposition by preventing opponents from spreading their message isnt a phenomenon exclusive to the political left, but incidents of it coming from the left have been manyespecially in recent yearsas suggested, for instance, by attempts to disinvite speakers from college campuses that have been documented by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. An Audi A4L 3.2 Quattro is displayed during the Auto Shanghai 2009 show at the Shanghai New International Expo Center on April 22, 2009. (Feng Li/Getty Images) Chinese Protesters Call Attention to Toxic Car Parts, Get Detained by Police Two Chinese citizens who claim they are victims as a result of toxic odors emitted from China-made Audi cars were detained by Shanghai police after they tried to stage a public protest. In late March, a Chinese social-media post went viral, claiming that six people who owned Audi cars manufactured by FAW-Volkswagen developed leukemia shortly after using the car; two of the six people have died. The firm is a joint venture between the Chinese state-owned automaker FAW and the famed German carmaker. The company manufactures Audis at its plant in Changchun City in northeastern China. They all reported a strange odor that emanated from inside the cars. After the post went viral, 3,000 others spoke out about how they developed similar health conditions from toxic parts found in their Audi cars. Two Protesters The 18th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai on April 16. As automakers, dealers, consumers, and media around the world descended upon the city in preparation for the event, two women staged a protest in front of the venue. Local state-run media Qilu Evening News reported that the two women protesting on April 12 were Lin Doudou, 30, a leukemia patient from Yantai City of Shandong Province; and a woman only identified by her surname Tian, wife of Fang Shuai, a 40-year-old Beijing man who died of leukemia. Lin and Tian claimed that she and her husband became sick after using a domestic-made Audi. But the report was soon removed from the newspapers website. Both women were taken by police before they could enter the venue, and detained for several hours at the Xujing Town police station. They have since been released and conducted an exclusive interview by phone with Radio Free Asia (RFA), a U.S.-based media. I dont know how the police found our contact information, and why they detained us, Lin told RFA. We are women without any weapons. Furthermore, Im a patient. I asked the police why did they detain us? They said nothing, and didnt allow us to leave. Lin said she and Tian had planned to protest at the car exhibition because FAW-Volkswagen is one of the exhibitors. Both of them arrived at Shanghai on April 11, but said they heard heavy kicking outside their hotel room door late at night. Both of them became scared that authorities were threatening them, and moved to another hotel. The next morning, when they arrived at the exhibition center, they were detained by police. At the police station, the officers told Lin and Tian that representatives from FAW-Volkswagen wanted to talk with them. Tian said the police brought in seven or eight people they claimed were company reps. However, they did not say anything to Lin and Tian and sat there looking at their cell phones. Eventually, the police allowed them to leave but escorted them to go to the railway station to ensure that they would immediately leave Shanghai. Lins Story According to a report by news portal Sohu, Lin bought an Audi A4L in May 2015, manufactured in March 2015. In January 2018, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Lins doctor and her family then thought of the Audi A4L, which had a strange odor inside. Lin drove her car to an air quality testing center on May 25, 2018, and April 5, 2019. Both tests showed that the air inside her car was unhealthy. The first test showed that the density of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, was 0.17 milligrams per cubic meter, exceeding the national level of allowance for indoor air quality, at 0.10 milligrams per cubic meter. The second test showed that the density of benzene, also a carcinogen, was 0.23 milligrams per cubic meter, exceeding the limit of 0.11 milligrams. I cannot have kids. I dont know when Ill die, Lin told Sohu. Her family has spent more than 1 million yuan ($149,400) for her medical treatment. Meanwhile, Tian and her husband bought their Audi Q5 on Dec. 30, 2014. Fang was diagnosed with leukemia on Aug. 23, 2016. He died in September 2017 after his family spent over 3 million yuan ($448,000) for his treatment. Lin presented Sohu with a database containing the real names of 85 alleged victims she has collected in past monthsall who said they developed cancers after using a domestic-made Audi car. In March, Lin and Tian teamed up with 3,000 victims, seeking redress with the China State Administration for Market Regulation. They have not yet received a response. Meanwhile, FAW-Volkswagen has released a statement saying Chinese regulators have tested its Audi vehicles and found that the formaldehyde and benzene content in the cars were within the national standard range. It is not harmful to human health. People at an internet cafe in Beijing on June 3, 2009. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images) Chinas Largest Stock Image Provider Fined Over False Photo Copyright Claims SINGAPOREVisual China Group Co Ltd, the largest Chinese stock images provider, said on April 18 that a subsidiary has been fined by internet authorities, days after it falsely claimed copyright of prominent images. Internet authorities in Chinas Tianjin City slapped a fine of 300,000 yuan ($44,720) on the company for violating the countrys cyber security laws, Visual China said in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange. On Friday, Visual China, which partners with U.S. photo agency Getty Images, shut its website and apologized after it falsely claimed copyright of images such as the first photo of a black hole and Chinas national flag. The news had caused its shares to slump by the maximum 10 percent daily limit. The topic Visual China apologizes was the most read one on Chinas Twitter-like Weibo platform, with over 250 million views. According to its website, Visual China has over 40 million editorial images and 1.25 million videos. On Thursday, its shares closed 4.4 percent lower, lagging the performance of broader Chinese stock indices. Political control of the internet has tightened in recent times, with demands that companies tighten oversight of harmful information which could range from vulgar to politically sensitive content. Elliot Papageorgiou, the Shanghai-based head of the IP practice at law firm Clyde & Co., said Visual Chinas use of the black hole image was embarrassing due to the photos high profile. By Lee Chyen Yee. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. The stage for the Republican presidential debate, hosted by CNN, at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, Nev., on Dec. 15, 2015. (L.E. Baskow/AFP/Getty Images) CNN Legal Analyst Claims Trumps Frustration Over Mueller Probe is Evidence of Guilt A CNN legal analyst claimed that President Donald Trumps frustration with the years-long investigation that culminated with no evidence establishing collusion between his campaign and Russia was evidence of guilt. Happy people dont obstruct justice. Trumps frustration at leaks and investigation are evidence of guilt, not innocence, Jeffrey Toobin, the legal analyst and a writer for the openly left New Yorker magazine, wrote on Twitter on April 18. Toobins claim came after Attorney General William Barr held a press conference explaining how special counsel Robert Muellers report included information about how frustrated the president was at the lengthy investigation. As the special counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks, Barr said. Nevertheless, Trump cooperated with Mueller and asserted no privilege claims to block Muellers team from any evidence. With Trumps opposition pivoting from collusion claims to obstruction claims, Barr noted that Trumps cooperation with the probe despite his frustration with the unprecedented situation signaled that Trump didnt obstruct. This evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation, he said. Expanding on his thoughts during a segment on CNN, Toobin said: Particularly about the issue of intent. You know, did the president intend to obstruct justice. And the most extraordinary paragraph about the attorney generals statement is the sort of woe is me problem that the president, there were leaks, there were people around, he was frustrated. That was evidence of guilt, thats not evidence of innocence. Happy people dont obstruct justice. National Review editor Charles Cooke was among those responding to Toobins claim. Frustration at being investigated, and about that investigation yielding leaks, is evidence of guilt is not a standard for which anyone who wants to live in a free country should wish, Cooke wrote on Twitter. Frustration at being investigated, and about that investigation yielding leaks, is evidence of guilt is not a standard for which anyone who wants to live in a free country should wish. Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) April 18, 2019 Toobin said in late March that Muellers failure to establish any links between Trump or Trumps campaign and Russia vindicated Trump. Other analysts and journalists also weighed in on the frustration issue. As a legal matter, does sincere frustration with being investigated excuse conduct that might otherwise be indictable? wrote Sahil Kapur, a reporter for Bloomberg. Barr seems to have set a new legal standard for a president who is frustrated with an investigation into his conduct, claimed Jim Acosta of CNN. Anger and frustration can now be the basis for lashing out at a probe of alleged wrongdoing in the White House. Whether obstruction is chargeable derives from the state of mind of the person alleged to have committed obstruction, wrote independent journalist Michael Tracey. So if Trump was motivated by frustration with his inability to govern (rather than a corrupt desire to cover up a criminal conspiracy) thats directly relevant. Whether obstruction is chargeable derives from the state of mind of the person alleged to have committed obstruction. So if Trump was motivated by frustration with his inability to govern (rather than a corrupt desire to cover up a criminal conspiracy) thats directly relevant Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 18, 2019 Left is losing its wig that Barr addressed presidential intent and state of mind (frustration), wrote Kimberley Strassel, a conservative columnist at the Wall Street Journal. But of course intent matters (there was no crime to cover up), and Barr says was Mueller who brought up Trumps frustration and sincere belief this was undermining presidency. Barr seemed to be reminding people of obvious: there is a difference between words/actions. Keep that in mind while reading entire obstruction section. Did president ever do anything to impede investigation? It would seem no. From NTD News Democrat Rage Shows Bill Barr Is Onto Something With Spying Investigation Commentary Attorney General Bill Barr sent chills down the spines of every Democrat in Washington on Wednesday when he asserted, based on well-established facts, that the federal government spied on the Trump Campaign. The apoplectic reactions Barrs straightforward remark inspired among prominent liberals suggest that they know the Democrats have something to hide. I think spying did occur, Barr said after Democrats on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee pressed him to categorically deny the fact. I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal, he added, saying he would be investigating whether the surveillance was adequately predicated. Significantly, though, Barr went out of his way to clarify that I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred, which should have been sufficient to reassure Democrats that he isnt just trying to retaliate for their Russia collusion witch hunt by investigating baseless claims against President Obama or his administration. In fact, Barr even indicated that one of his motivations is to protect the reputations of the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies, since his investigation will either confirm that they acted properly or identify the bad actors who led the agencies astray. The accuracy of Barrs observation that spying took place is unassailable. Weve known for a long time that the FBI secured a FISA warrant to surveil former Trump Campaign aide Carter Page, for instance, and that the application for the warrant was improperly based in large part on an unverified dossier paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and compiled by an FBI informant. Democrats and the mainstream media, however, reacted as though Barr had just accused them of consuming infants as a delicacy, defensively resorting to name-calling and ad hominem attacks. Representative Jerry Nadler, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, for instance, demanded that the attorney general retract his truthful remarks about surveillance of the Trump campaign, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that Barr was going off the rails. Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin was even more unhinged, arguing that Barr should be impeached and calling him Trumps toady. CNN, meanwhile, trashed the attorney general as a conspiracy theorist and a flunky while assuring its shrinking audience of hardcore Trump haters that there is little evidence that spying occurred. These are the same people who called President Trump a nutcase and a liar when he complained that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower. Fixating on the semantics of Trumps reference to wiretapping, the liberal media insisted it was a lie and a conspiracy theory because the claim did not fit the specific definition of wiretapping, but ignored the broader and more important question of whether the federal government had spied on a political campaign. In his testimony on Wednesday, Barr merely confirmed what we already knewthat the Obama administration did, in fact, spy on Donald Trumps presidential campaign. The fact that Barr explicitly acknowledged the possibility that such surveillance could have been perfectly legitimate apparently offered little solace to enraged Democrats, even though they would undoubtedly benefit from a determination that removes the cloud of suspicion from over the heads of Barack Obama and prominent members of his administration. Considering that Democrats spent more than two years investigating collusion that never even took place, it hardly seems excessive for the Department of Justice to exert at least some effort to determine whether proper procedures were followed for activities that we know took place. The lefts irate response to that prospect only reinforces the need for a thorough investigation of the governments surveillance of the Trump Campaign. Did National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, or even Barack Obama himself exploit their power to illegally weaponize Americas intelligence assets against a political opponent? Thats an extremely important question that pertains to the integrity of our entire system of government, but the Democrats seem to be afraid of the answer. Russian collusion did not take place, but domestic spying on a presidential campaign did. Democrats were vehement about the need to investigate the former, but now theyre equally vehement that investigating the latter is utterly unacceptable. Its almost as if they know they have something to hide. Jenna Ellis (@realJennaEllis) is a member of the Trump 2020 Advisory Board. She is a constitutional law attorney, radio host, and the author of The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Harvey and Lisa Johnson enjoyed Shen Yun at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington D.C. on April 17, 2019. (Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times) WASHINGTONDeputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Harvey Johnson said Shen Yuns artistry electrified his senses, while its spiritual message touched the depths of his heart. Johnson said he was enthralled by the beauty of the costumes, dancing, and music, but it was the performances spiritual connection that left the deepest impression on him. This experience was an uplifting experience, very energetic, he said. It really touched my heart. I always leave here inspired. The official and his wife Lisa, who works at the Department of Defense, are fans of the Shen Yun, having watched it many times over the years. [I] love it every year. Seems like every year I catch something new about the act, Johnson said. This year, they attended the performance at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington D.C. on its opening night on April 17. New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts is the premier classical Chinese dance company whose mission is to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture through music and dance. Heavenly Connection Johnson, who heads the offices of resolution management, and diversity and inclusion at the Department of Veteran Affairs, said it was Shen Yuns portrayal of how faith in the divine can inspire people to overcome great suffering that deeply resonated with him. When you see someone suffering and you see someone injured or killed even, and you see that spirit come down, [then] that light shines upon them and brings them backthats what I love. I could watch that all day because I believe thats what the world needs. I think that shows like this that connect us to that light, that spirituality. The official was referring to the stories depicting the suppression of adherents of spiritual practice Falun Gong by the communist regime in todays China. Falun Gong, which surged in popularity in the country in the 1990s, was banned by the regime in 1999. Since then, waves of practitioners have been harassed, imprisoned, tortured, or even killed for their faith. The stories of persecution presented by Shen Yun end in a message of hopethat of goodness overcoming evil and suffering. Johnson was moved by the beauty of this message. It just brought an awareness to the suffering thats going on in China, and other places around the world, he said. You can just see this suffering and its nice to know that theres voice out there for the people who dont have that voice, and then bring it to the masses, so that change can occur. Ripple Effect Johnson said it wasnt just himself who was moved by the performance. I think [Shen Yun] touches everybody who sees it, he said. Thus the positive effect of the show is multiplied across many people, he said, because the people who watch it will then tell other people to come, creating a compounding effect. Thats really the beauty of something like this, Johnson said. After watching the performance, Johnson said he was inspired to make positive changes in his life. It makes you want to be a better person, to really go into yourself and to see, how can I make myself better so that when I go out into the world, I can make the world a better place, so that theres less of the things going on that are negative. So its definitely a ripple effect. With reporting by NTD Television and Sherry Dong. 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. European Lawmakers Call for Sanctions Against Human-Rights Abusers in China BRUSSELSEuropean lawmakers have called for sanctions to be issued against Chinese officials responsible for human-rights abuses and a halt on exports of cyber technology to China. A group of EU parliamentarians published a new draft resolution that was made public on April 18, urging Beijing to stop its persecution of Uyghur and Kazakh minorities, Falun Gong adherents, Tibetans, and Christians. It also seeks an end to arbitrary detentions of members of the persecuted groups, the immediate closure of re-education camps in the Xinjiang region, and for international observers to be allowed entry into Xinjiang and Tibet. The motion, which has been tabled by 57 members of European Parliament (MEP) from five political groups, calls on EU capitals to consider adopting targeted sanctions against officials responsible for the crackdown in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It also urges the EU and global partners to halt all exports and technology transfers of goods and services that are being used by China to extend and improve its cyber surveillance and predictive profiling apparatus. Up to a million Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province are being forced to undergo re-education in prison camps, according to estimates cited by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. European parliamentarians also raised the issue of increased repression of Christians in China, with 7,000 crosses taken down from churches in the past year, and many places of worship razed altogether. The MEPs also asked for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained people, prisoners of conscience, including practitioners of Falun Gong, and for a stop to be put to enforced disappearances. It added that all individuals must be allowed to select a legal representative, have access to their family and medical assistance, and have their cases investigated. The motion notes that freedom of religion and conscience has reached a new low point since the economic reforms of the 1970s, and says China is home to one of the largest populations of religious prisoners anywhere in the world. The EUs foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, warned that the general human rights situation continues to deteriorate, particularly on civilian and political rights and human rights. We have been to the top leaders of the Chinese authorities on human rights and passed on the clear message that for Europeans, human rights are not less important than economic interests, Mogherini said. No other global power is doing this in the world today We will continue to advocate for the respect of human rights in China in a very clear manner. Jo Leinen, an MEP from Germany, pointed to a declaration at the end of last weeks 21st EU-China summit stating that human rights are universal and indivisible, saying the bloc has to demand that be the case. There are very few areas of the world that would actually have the courage to say that, but because of the economic power of the EU, we have to be a standard bearer for human rights and underscore that in discussions, Leinen said. Reinhard Butikofer, a fellow German, said he wished all EU leaders would speak out against human-rights abuses in China. Some European governments, such as Italy and Greece, have been accused of being too close to Beijing. We all know that in the relations between the European Parliament and China, human rights can never be pushed into second place, never can be forgotten, he said. British MEP Charles Tannock added: The EU must continue to robustly act to promote respect for the rule of law and human rights in China. In a joint statement after last weeks EU-China summit, Beijing and Brussels agreed to uphold the U.N. Charter and international law, and all three pillars of the U.N. system, namely peace and security, development and human rights. They also committed to further exchanges on human rights at the bilateral and international levels on the basis of equality and mutual respect, including at the U.N. human rights mechanisms. However, in their motion, the MEPs said the statement didnt go far enough and that in future, if China blocked more committal language on human rights, the EU should refuse to sign a joint declaration and issue its own conclusions instead. Kyah Kendrick, 12, has been found after being reported missing in Nixa, Mo., on April 16, 2019. (Courtesy of Nixa Police Department) Family Reunited With Missing Child Kyah Kendrick The Missouri family of a missing child was relieved to hear he was located and safe after being last seen on the evening of April 16. Nixa Police Department confirmed officers found Kyah Kendrick, 12, at 11:50 p.m. local time, just two hours after he was reported missing on the same night. Kyah Kendrick has been located by Nixa Police. He is safe, thank you to those who provided tips, police said in a Facebook post dated April 16. UPDATE 11:09PM: Kyah Kendrick has been located by Nixa Police. He is safe. Thank you to those who provided Posted by Nixa Police Department on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 Nixa police have FOUND the missing teen that we alerted you about earlier tonight. They say a member of the public who received the alert saw him and called 911. He is safe. Nixa police thank the public for their help in bringing him home safely. Ozarks Independent (@OzarksIndie) April 17, 2019 Police thanked the community for assisting with the investigation. Thank you again for your shares and support information received from the community led to locating the boy and safely returning him home, police said in a Facebook post dated April 17. We would like to thank the community and the Nixa Fire Protection District and Christian County Emergency Services for their service last night. Kendricks parents noticed there was something wrong when they could not find Kyah about 8:50 p.m. on April 16 near the intersection of S. Lantern Hill and Peachum Place in Nixa, 14 miles south of Springfield. Police described the boy as Caucasian with blonde hair, blue eyes, no glasses, about 5 foot tall, and 85 pounds. He was wearing red shorts and a grey Royals t-shirt without shoes. Ozarks Independent: Nixa Police Seek Missing 12-Year-Old Boy https://t.co/HexMHuKTzk SGF News (@sgfnews) April 17, 2019 Another photo of Kyah Kendrick. Still missing as of 10:53pm on April 16, 2019. pic.twitter.com/gtGaHfbeGC City of Nixa (@CityofNixa) April 17, 2019 He was eventually found near Main Street and Highway CC, according to KY3. Exactly how Kendrick went missing remains unclear as authorities would not comment on what had happened. Some question arose as to suspect information, circumstances, etc often times there is very little we can comment on when it deals with juvenile cases or active investigations, police said. In missing children cases, there could be several reasons why they are missing. However, anytime there is a public safety issue with any case or if there is an abduction we would provide suspect and safety-related information to the public as we receive it. We would like to thank the community and the Nixa Fire Protection District and Christian County Emergency Services for Posted by Nixa Police Department on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 The City of Nixa was also staying tight-lipped and reconfirmed what the police had said. UPDATE 11:09PM: Kyah Kendrick has been located by Nixa Police. He is safe. Thank you to those who provided tips. City of Nixa (@CityofNixa) April 17, 2019 Concerned citizens used social media to express their appreciation towards police for helping to reunite the family. Thank you for your dedication to our community and helping keep our kiddos safe, Shelly McMasters Gerster said. So, so, so glad he has been located. Hats off to the Nixa Police Department, Corey Brown said. Nixa Police Department this wonderful news. Great job in finding him, Cheryl Richards said. Thank you for all your hard work, tips, and for answered prayers, Karen Stockton said. On Wednesday, in the morning, at Government House, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC received High Commissioner of the Republic of Fiji to Australia, His Excellency Mr Luke Daunivalu, accompanied by Consul-General of Fiji and Trade Commissioner, Mr Zarak Khan, and First Secretary, High Commission of Fiji, Mr Kartik Pratap. Following, at Government House, His Excellency greeted guests from Jubilee Community Care visiting for morning tea and a guided tour of the House. In the evening, at Government House, Mrs Kaye de Jersey and His Excellency hosted a reception for the presentation of the Girl Guides Queensland Annual Awards, and Mrs de Jersey presented awards and addressed guests. Terry Gou, founder and chairman of Foxconn, looks on during an announcement of seeking the nomination of Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang party to run for the island's presidency, in Taipei on April 17, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) Foxconns Gous Close China Links Could Weigh on Taiwan Election Chances TAIPEIWhile Foxconn chairman Terry Gou enters Taiwans rancorous political arena free of any political baggage, he could yet find himself weighed down by connections to Beijing forged during his pragmatic commercial rise. Gou, 68, announced on April 17 that he would contest Taiwans 2020 presidential election, seeking to represent the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) partya vote that comes after a period of increasing tension between Beijing and the self-ruled island. After building the worlds largest contract manufacturer from scratch over the past 40 years, Gous connections reach as high as Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other senior officials. His $40 billion empire has an extensive Chinese footprint of factories producing components for Apple. The network of Gou, Taiwans richest person, also includes extensive U.S. connections, including a friendship with President Donald Trump. But ties with Taiwans key political and security backer are likely to be overshadowed by his ties to a Chinese leadership that refuses to renounce the use of force to unify with an island it considers a wayward province, some analysts and political figures say. Because he has a lot of wealth in China China has some control over him, said Shane Lee, a political scientist at Chang Jung University in Taiwan. So I think the U.S. government would have to be very cautious about him running for political office. Gou was not available for comment. Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Many ordinary Taiwanese are fearful of the intentions of Beijings Communist Party towards the staunchly democratic island. Tensions were highlighted on Monday again as Chinese bombers and warships conducted drills around the island, prompting Taiwan to scramble jets and ships to monitor the Chinese forces. Some analysts believe that Gous ties with Beijing could turn off ordinary voters, who are likely to have to choose between incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party and a KMT candidate. Hes one of the smartest businessmen in Taiwan, said John Brebeck, a senior adviser at Quantum International, a capital markets advisory firm. The problem is though is that with so much of his business enterprise in China, it may prove a liability for him with the voters, as they may not be sure where his priorities lie. China Ties While most Taiwanese trace their ancestry to China, there remains a clear distinction in society between those who consider themselves native Taiwanese, and those whose ancestors came over more recently, most in a wave of refugees who fled to Taiwan at the end of a civil war in 1949, when nationalist forces lost to the communists. Gous parents were born in China and are part of that generation, though he was born in Taiwan. The Chinese regime has not commented on Gous decision, which has been widely reported in Chinese state media, though mostly citing Taiwanese press reports. However, on Thursday Global Times tabloid, published by the Communist Partys official Peoples Daily, welcomed Gous bid for power. If Terry Gou becomes the leader of the Taiwan region next year, tensions between the two sides will ease, and the situation in the Taiwan Strait, in the short term, is likely to reach a turning point, it said in an editorial. The KMT developed closer ties with Beijing when it last held power, focusing on developing business ties. Under Tsai, who came to power in 2016, ties have deteriorated sharply. China suspects Tsai is pushing for the islands formal independence a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain the status quo with China but will defend Taiwans security and democracy. Gou met Xi in 2014 in Beijing, and he was quoted by Taiwan media in 2017 describing Xi as a great leader. In an interview with the Peoples Daily to mark Chinas 40th anniversary of reforms last year, Gou said he was happy to have witnessed the changes. He talked about how his father was from Shanxi Province and mother from Guangdong, and how he had first visited China in 1987 to trace his familys roots, the first time I had stepped foot on the soil of the motherland. Some in Tsais DPP are already eyeing Gous China links as a weak spot. Yao Chia-wen, a senior adviser to Tsai, told Reuters he thought Gous bid could create problems, given his business. Hes very pro-China and he represents the class of the wealthy people. Will that gain support from Taiwanese? Yao said. By Yimou Lee German Nazi Camp Guard, 92, Charged as Accessory to Thousands of Murders BERLINGerman prosecutors have charged a 92-year-old former concentration camp guard with being an accessory to murder, in what will be one of the last ever cases against Nazi-era war crimes. Hamburg prosecutors accused the man, identified only as Bruno D., of aiding and abetting 5,230 cases of murder during the almost nine months he spent on duty at a concentration camp watch-tower at the end of World War Two. According to Die Welt newspaper, which first reported the charges, the man admitted to prosecutors during a voluntary interrogation last year that he had seen people being taken to gas chambers to be murdered. What good would it have done for me to leave? Theyd just have found somebody else, he told prosecutors, according to the newspaper. I felt bad for the people there. I didnt know why they were there. I knew that they were Jews who had committed no crime. D., who was 17 when he began serving at Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk in present-day Poland, said he had only joined the SS, the paramilitary wing of Adolf Hitlers Nazi party, because a heart weakness meant he was only suited for garrison service. He said he had not been a Nazi sympathizer. With only a handful of people involved in Nazi Germanys genocidal crimes still alive, all in extreme old age, prosecutors are racing against time to ensure at least some justice is done by the victims, including the five million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The case against another nonagenarian former guard at Stutthof, where more than 60,000 people died, was halted last year because the suspect was too infirm to stand trial. Despite his senior age, the accused will be tried by a juvenile court because he was 17 when he worked at the Nazi concentration camp. #WorldNews https://t.co/ocPxRZI93S Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) April 18, 2019 Another, Oskar Groening, known as the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz for his job counting cash stolen from people sent to the most notorious of all the regimes death camps, died last year aged 96 as he waited to begin his sentence. By Thomas Escritt After being apprehended by Border Patrol, illegal immigrants wait to be transported to a central processing center shortly after they crossed the border from Mexico into the United States on Monday, in the Rio Grande Valley Sector near McAllen, Texas, on March 26, 2018. (Loren Elliott/AFP/Getty Images) Immigrant Advocacy Orgs Silent On If Theyll Help Resettle Illegals in Sanctuary Cities A dozen immigration advocacy organizations either stayed silent or declined to comment Wednesday regarding their willingness to work with the Trump administration resettling illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities. President Donald Trump revealed last week that he is considering a new proposal to release detained illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities around the country, rather than in border states. While the plan is of questionable legality, it does have political implications for pro-illegal immigration activists who could be seen as hypocrites if they choose not to accept the immigrants into their communities. Democrats are already fuming over the idea. The President is literally using human beings as pawns in a political game, Sen. Amy Klobuchar tweeted, while Rep. Adam Schiff said the plan is another one of the presidents dangerously hare-brained schemes. However, practically, the plan to drop illegal immigrants who are released from custody into sanctuary cities seems to solve problems on both sides of the aisle: Trump can take some of the heat off border states who are dealing with swelling immigration levels, while Democrats can ostensibly protect illegal immigrants from future deportations by housing them in sanctuaries. Sanctuary cities enact several policies that make it more difficult for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport illegal immigrants, including declining to share the immigration status of detained aliens with federal authorities and ignoring ICE detainer requests on criminal illegals. The Daily Caller reached out to a dozen organizations who advocate on behalf of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers and asked if they would work with the Trump administration to transport immigrants to sanctuaries. Eleven of the organizations did not respond, while one said they would not comment on the issue. Heres the list: Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project: Did not respond American Immigration Lawyers Association: Did not respond Central American Resource Center: Did not respond Pueblo Sin Fronteras: Did not respond RAICES: Did not respond Catholic Legal Immigration Network: Were not going to comment on that. National Immigration Law Center: Did not respond Unidos US: Did not respond Immigrant Legal Resource Center: Did not respond American Immigration Council: Did not respond American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): Did not respond National Immigration Project: Did not respond By Amber Athey In Sowing Chaos, the Media Has Done Russias Work Commentary The TrumpRussia probe came to its official end April 18, at least legally, when Attorney General William Barr outlined his conclusions from the special counsel report that the Trump campaign didnt collude with Russia and that Trump didnt obstruct justice. If this were a sane time in history, the fact that a sitting president didnt collude with a foreign government, and didnt obstruct an investigation into the allegations, would have been considered a good thing. But this wasnt the case on Thursday. There was audible hostility in the voices of reporters when they questioned Barr about his conclusions. Their comments online reflected their thoughts. Maggie Haberman of The New York Times wrote in a tweet, [This] is not a press conferenceits an opportunity for Barr to put a spin on the ball or defend himself. The tone of others was similar. Meanwhile, the talking heads who pushed the TrumpRussia conspiracy for nearly two years signaled they would continue their resistance, with or without facts. They seem intent on increasing the social chaos theyve already perpetuated. And make no mistake. This is all really about chaos. Ideological Subversion The special counsel report explains that Russias Internet Research Agency (IRA) worked on active measures against the United States. Tactics like this go back to the Cold War, and the Soviet Union was extremely adept in their use. Another name for this is ideological subversion. According to the book Love Letter to America, written by the late Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov, under his alias Tomas D. Schuman: This process has many names: psychological warfare, ideological aggression, propaganda warfare, etc. The KGB calls it Active Measures.' Bezmenov explained that these tactics included the use of double standards, overt and covert propaganda, agents of influence, fake international forums, and more. They were used to bring the atmosphere and respectability to Soviet operations, provoke and manipulate mass demonstrations, spread rumors, create forgeries, and manipulate the media. The goal of these tactics was to first demoralize the United States, then destabilize it and bring it to the point of crisis, and then, amid that state of crisis, offer the solution of normalizing the situation under communist control. Ideological subversion works through spreading chaosin society, in culture, and in peoples minds. In a state of chaos, people start to demand a return to order, and this demand is taken advantage of to create new systems of power. The idea is to drive a wedge between the various groups in a society, to incite conflict between them, and to create an air of hostility and hopelessness in the general public as people watch the chaos unfold. A Complicit Press Creating chaos, sowing discord, and manufacturing division are exactly what the legacy news outlets and talking heads of the resistance have been doing for more than two years. Their fake news and use of disinformation have divided this country, led to violence on the streets, and convinced people that their president colluded with a foreign power. Then, when the truth emerged on April 18, showing that all these concerns had been baselessthat Trump had not colluded with Russia, and that Trump had not obstructed justice during this manufactured crisisrather than feel relieved, many of them reacted with bitterness and hatred. Rather than back down from their false narratives, they decided to push them even furthereven calling for Barr to recuse himself. Barr explained during his press conference that Russias IRA worked to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. The IRA had operations that were favorable to the Trump campaign, but it had operations favorable to other candidates as well, including to Bernie Sanders and Jill Steinas a federal indictment against IRA agents shows. The IRA supported conservative groups such as the Tea Party, but also supported left-wing groups like Black Lives Matter, and even Muslim groups calling to Support Hillary. Save American Muslims. The Russian agents also organized protests through these channels, calling for members of the online groups to take to the streets. After the elections, these same agents started using these channels to oppose the Trump presidency. This included the Not my president rally in New York on Nov. 12, 2016, organized by the Russian IRA. Again, the purpose was chaos. The purpose was to divide America. The Russian Bots How many legacy news outlets promoted the Nov. 12, 2016, resistance rally that Russian agents organized? Using the same logic they pushed for two yearsthat Russia allegedly helped Trump, and so anyone that supports Trump is a Russian botdoes their support of that rally mean these outlets are also Russian bots? The key takeaway from details on the IRA operations should be that they were sowing chaos. The agency acted to sharpen antagonisms between political groups on both sides throughout the 2016 presidential election. They encouraged public protests and marches meant to garner mainstream news coverage. And after the election, they encouraged the anti-Trump resistance. The Russian active measures were designed to divide the United States and sow chaos. And the U.S. legacy news outlets have helped them the whole way through. Joshua Philipp is a senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Attorney General William Barr speaks during a press conference on the release of the redacted version of the Mueller Report at the Department of Justice on April 18, 2019. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Its Over: Takeaways From AG Barrs Press Conference on Release of Mueller Report Commentary U.S. Attorney General William Barr, flanked by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, held a press conference on April 18 to address the release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller. The key takeaways: There was no collusion or conspiracy between Russia and President Donald Trump, any member of his campaign, or any American to affect the outcome of the 2016 election, and there was no evidentiary basis on which to assert claims of obstruction of justice. At the beginning of the press conference, Barr noted that although Rosenstein had plans to depart the Department of Justice (DOJ), he asked him to remain. Rod has been an invaluable partner and Im grateful that he is willing to help me and has been able to see the special counsels investigation through to its conclusion, said Barr. That fact should not be lost, as we hear people such as Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) making irresponsible claims that Barr is off the rails and acting like the attorney general of Donald Trump. Shortly after the press conference, Pelosi wrote in a tweet , AG Barr has confirmed the staggering partisan effort by the Trump Admin to spin publics view of the #MuellerReport complete with acknowledgment that the Trump team received a sneak preview. Its more urgent than ever that Special Counsel Mueller testify before Congress. However, its important to remember that the process of accepting the report, redacting certain portions consistent with federal law, and releasing it has been conducted with the assistance, advice, and consent of both Mueller and Rosenstein. Assertions that Barr is running defense for the president are unfounded. Barr has nothing to gain from misrepresenting at 9:30 a.m. the contents of a report that is set to go public at 11 a.m. Collusion/Coordination/Conspiracy The special counsels report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in hacking operations. The report states, Barr said, that the investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. person knowingly or intentionally coordinated with [Russias Internet Research Agencys] interference operation. The special counsel investigation also concluded that no one in the Trump campaign participated in the dissemination of stolen emails. After two years of investigations, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election, but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those efforts, Barr said. After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the special counsels report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the president could amount to obstruction of the special counsels investigation. Obstruction Many observers speculated that statements given by the presidentincluding tweets and public statementsmight have amounted to obstruction of justice, by trying to intimidate or otherwise impact or influence the investigation in his favor. After reviewing the facts and legal theories found in the report, Barr said that he and Rosenstein concluded that there wasnt sufficient evidence of obstruction of justice. And, as the special counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks, Barr said. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the special counsels investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. The threshold for credibly making an obstruction claim, in this instance, is the ability to show that the motives were to obstruct justice. Trumps actions of lashing out were certainly warranted, considering he was unfairly targeted in an investigation into a crime for which he was innocent. His motive was to express anger, not stymie the investigation. And as the report concluded, non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. Additionally, the White House fully cooperated, provided unfettered access to documents and asserted no privilege claims. Redactions/Executive Privilege Also concerning for many raising questions of transparency is the fact that much of the report will be redacted. However, the redactions to the special counsels report were applied by DOJ attorneys, along with attorneys from the special counsels office and officials within the intelligence community. The redactions are their work products. There were no redactions done by anyone outside this group. No one outside this group proposed any redactions, said Barr. The White House also declined to assert privilege over the special counsels report. No material was redacted based on executive privilege. Although it was within their prerogative to do so, the presidents lawyers neither made, nor requested any redactions whatsoever. The president confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the special counsels report, said Barr. Three Versions of Report There are actually three different versions of the special counsels report: the full report (only available to a handful of people within the DOJ), a redacted public report available to the public, and a report with light redactions (blocking only grand jury material) for a bipartisan group of select members of Congress, for the purpose of allowing their function of oversight. So, Congress can make no claims that there were attempts to hide information from them. Whats Next? After nearly three years of media lies and outlandish gaslighting by Democrats, the conclusion is that the president isnt guilty of any of the crimes of which he has been accused. The egg-on-your-face moment for those pushing the false collusion/obstruction narrative cant be overstated. Mueller and Rosenstein were heroes in the minds in the left just a year ago. Now that the outcome of the investigation isnt what theyd hoped, they are seen as pariahs. Pelosi and Democrats will continue to ramp up the rhetoric of a cover-up, incensed that they are no longer able to control the narrative. There is already talk of having discredited former Trump attorney Michael Cohen try to fill in the blanks of redactions in the report. Democrats have already threatened to subpoena Mueller to testify in a hearing and Barr is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The fact remains that this investigation was started under false pretenses, with real crimes likely committed by senior members of the FBI and DOJcrimes that may reach all the way to the Obama White House. There are already several investigations taking place into the origins of the Mueller investigation and spying on the Trump campaign. Barr expects the investigation by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz to be completed by May or June. But, concerning TrumpRussia collusion and the possibility of obstruction, its over. Adrian Norman is a writer and political commentator. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (R) listens while Attorney General William Barr speaks during a press conference about the release of the Mueller Report at the Department of Justice in Washington on April 18, 2019. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images) Less-Redacted Mueller Report to Be Released to Select Members of Congress Attorney General William Barr said he will release two versions of special counsel Robert Muellers report in an effort to accommodate congressional requests. The Justice Department released a redacted version of Muellers report just after 11 a.m. on April 18. The nearly 500-page report details how the special counsel concluded that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. The report also found that the special counsel did not provide enough evidence to substantiate that the president obstructed justice. In his address on April 18, Barr said that he will make available another version of the report with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information or to comply with court orders. This report will only be seen by a bipartisan group of leaders from several Congressional committees and to the Gang of Eightwhich includes the top two Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate. Attorney General William P. Barr Delivers Remarks on the Release of the Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election https://t.co/R6WI0cDXF3 Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) April 18, 2019 These members of Congress will be able to see all of the redacted material for themselveswith the limited exception of that which, by law, cannot be shared, Barr said. Barr explained in his letter addressed to Congress on April 18 that most of the redactions were required to protect grand-jury secrecy or to comply with judicial orders aimed at protecting the release of sensitive discovery information and on orders that prevent the disclosure of information related to ongoing investigations and criminal proceedings including the Internet Research Agency and Roger Stone cases. I believe that this accommodation, together with my upcoming testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, will satisfy any need Congress has for information regarding the Special Counsels investigation, he added. The attorney general has also reiterated his offer to testify before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees on May 1 and May 2 respectively. Barr said he had always intended to accommodate the requests to release the report to the fullest extent possible. But he also said on many occasions that the special counsels report contains sensitive material and information that by law cannot be made public. Weeks before the reports anticipated release, lawmakers and members of the public repeatedly demanded that Barr release the full report unredacted, despite Barrs explanation. Six committee chairs in the House of Representatives wrote to Barr (pdf) on March 25, making the demands while giving him a deadline of April 2. Your four-page summary of the Special Counsels review is not sufficient for Congress, as a coequal branch of government, to perform [its] critical work, the Democratic chairs wrote. The House Democrats sent another letter on April 1 to continue their pressure on Barr and to threaten him with subpoenas for the full report and other materials. They subsequently voted to authorize the chairman to issue subpoenas for Muellers report on April 3, where 24 Democrats voted to give Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) the option to issue subpoenas for the final report, its exhibits, and any underlying evidence or materials prepared for Muellers investigation. Barr Re-affirms No Collusion Finding Also in his remarks on April 18, Barr reiterated that no member of the Trump campaign, or any other American, colluded with Russiaa finding that he had already released in a letter on March 24. Barr said the special counsel did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities, while quoting the Mueller report. He said that Russia did attempt to interfere with the 2016 presidential elections, including efforts like the alleged hacking of emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee, but that the Trump campaign did not have anything to do with it. Read the full special counsels report here: Mueller Report by on Scribd Long-Term Consequences of Mumps Vaccination: Many Unanswered Questions This is Part II of a two-part series on mumps. Part I discussed how mumps vaccination and the flawed mumps component of Mercks MMR vaccine is fostering dangerous mumps outbreaks in adolescents and young adults. Commentary It has been about five decades since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Mercks first mumps vaccine. The company began launching combination MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccines in the 1970s. Coincidentallyor notan infertility crisis has been brewing over roughly the same time period, with dramatic declines in sperm counts and record-low fertility levels. However, few investigators seem interested in assessing whether mumps outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations of teens and young adults could be having long-term effects on fertility or other health indicators. As described in Part I, childhood MMR vaccination has been an unmitigated disaster where mumps is concerned, deferring mumps infection to older ages and leaving adolescents and young adults vulnerable to serious reproductive complications. Public health reports show that the vast majority of mumps cases and outbreaks occur in youth who have been fully vaccinated with the prescribed two-dose MMR series, supporting a hypothesis of waning immunity after the second dose. FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials even admit that mumps outbreaks in the post-vaccination era typically involve young adults, and that vaccination is failing to protect those who are college-age and above. Myopically, many vaccine experts have called for a third MMR doseor even booster dosing throughout adulthoodeven though the FDAs and CDCs own research shows that MMR boosters in college-age youth barely last one year. As alleged in whistleblower lawsuits wending their way through the courts over the past eight years, Merck presented the FDA with a falsely inflated efficacy rate for the MMRs mumps component, using animal antibodies and other fraudulent tactics to fool FDAand the publicinto believing that the vaccine was effective. When infection arises after puberty, however, mumps is no laughing matter, presenting an increased risk of complications such as hearing loss, encephalitis, and inflammation of the reproductive organs. Mumps After Puberty Is No Laughing Matter Around the time that the first mumps vaccine came on the market, the 1967 childrens classic The Great Brain humorously depicted mumps infection in childhood as a mere nuisance. The books young protagonist goes out of his way to intentionally infect himself with mumps so that he can beat his two brothers to the recovery finish lineand he experiences no adverse consequences other than his siblings annoyance. When infection arises after puberty, however, mumps is no laughing matter, presenting an increased risk of complications such as hearing loss, encephalitis, and inflammation of the reproductive organs. About one in three postpubertal men with mumps develop orchitis(inflammation of the testes), which can damage sperm, affect testosterone production and contribute to subfertility and infertility. During a mumps outbreak in England in the mid-2000s, mumps orchitis accounted for 42 percent of all hospitalized mumps cases; the researchers attributed this outcomewhich was the most common reason for hospitalizationto the high attack rates in adolescents and young adults that occurred despite high coverage with two-dose MMR. An analysis of a 2006 mumps outbreak in the U.S. reported that male patients were over three times more likely than female patients to experience complications, due primarily to orchitis. An estimated 5 percent to 10 percent of postpubertal women will develop oophoritis (swelling of the ovaries) following mumps infection. Oophoritis is associated with premature menopause and infertility , but mumps-related oophoritis has garnered little notice. Mumps infections are often asymptomatic or produce nonspecific symptoms such as fever, while cases of orchitis may present with no other mumps symptoms. Nonetheless, public health officials advise clinicians that orchitis is an instant cue to test for mumps virus, and testing often reveals elevated mumps antibodies. In a case report of MMR failure, British clinicians isolated a novel genetic strain of mumps virus from the patients semen two weeks after the onset of orchitis and found mumps RNA in the semen 40 days later; they also noted the appearance of anti-sperm antibodies, with potential long-term adverse effects on the patients fertility. In 2017, researchers who reviewed 185 studies conducted in Western nations found that sperm counts had plummeted by 50 percent to 60 percent between 1973 and 2011an average decrease of 1.4 percent annually. Commenting on this work, one analyst estimated that 20 percent to 30 percent of young men in Europe and North America have sperm concentrations associated with a reduced ability to father a child. Given estimates that as much as 40 percent of reproductive problems have to do with the male partner, there is agreement on the importance of finding and eliminating [the] hidden culprits in the environment that most researchers believe are to blame. An estimated 5 percent to 10 percent of postpubertal women will develop oophoritis (swelling of the ovaries) following mumps infection. Oophoritis is associated with premature menopause and infertility, but mumps-related oophoritis has garnered little notice. MMRs and MMRVs Potential to Impair Fertility Never Studied Merck has not evaluated either of its two MMR vaccinesthe MMR-II and the MMR-plus-varicella (MMRV) vaccinefor their potential to impair fertility. Whether such testing would unearth direct effects on fertility (as appears to be possible with HPV vaccination in women) is thus unknown. However, mumps vaccination undeniably increases reproductive-age individuals risk of mumps infection and, in the process, increases the risk of fertility-altering complications. These facts alone should be attracting far more attention. Unfortunately, because clinicians already tend to underdiagnose mumps infection and underestimate mumps complications, it is likely that they are failing to recognize possible vaccine-induced reproductive health consequences of mumps infection in their adolescent and young adult patients. In one university outbreak, most physiciansdid not suspect mumps, and even when they became aware of the outbreak, diagnosing mumps was not always straightforward. Moreover, although differentiating between vaccine strains of mumps virus and wild types could provide valuable information, few clinicians have the capacity or inclination to perform testing of this type. A Japanese study of cerebrospinal fluid and saliva from patients with mumps complications found vaccine strain in nearly all of the samples and noted the informations importance in helping determine whether the complications were vaccine-related. Those who have sought to understand mumps vaccines poor performance point to a mixture of explanatory factors. These include waning immunity, the high population density and close quarters encountered in settings such as college campuses, incomplete vaccine-induced immunity to wild virus as well as viral evolution such that the vaccine triggers a less potent reaction against todays mumps viruses than those of 50 years ago. However, some also quietly admit that individuals with mild vaccine-modified disease could be perpetuating the chain of transmission. This latter point ought to be raising questions about the logic and wisdom of administering further rounds of MMR boosters during outbreaks while ignoring the problems created by the doses already given. some individuals respond poorly to mumps vaccination and vaccine-induced antibody levels correlate poorly with protection from mumps infection, irrespective of the number of additional doses of mumps-containing vaccine they receive. Most scientists appear to be either resigned to ongoing mumps outbreaks in vaccinated populations or actually accept periodic outbreaks as the cost of doing business. Publications by FDA and CDC researchers reveal these agencies awareness that some individuals respond poorly to mumps vaccination and that vaccine-induced antibody levels correlate poorly with protection from a mumps infection, irrespective of the number of additional doses of mumps-containing vaccine they receive. Considering the effects on fertility, the generally abysmal track record of mumps vaccination and Mercks fraudulent claims about efficacy, it is hard to fathom medical and public health experts complacency about current mumps vaccines and vaccine policies. Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Childrens Health Defense. CHD is planning many strategies, including legal, in an effort to defend the health of our children and obtain justice for those already injured. Your support is essential to CHDs successful mission. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. An image made available by Gigarama.ru on April 17, 2019, shows an aerial shot of the fire damage to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on April 16. (Gigarama.ru via AP) Man and Girl From Viral Photo Taken Before Notre Dame Fire Are Found A father and daughter posed in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral moments before it erupted into flames in a now-viral photo. After several days, they were found. Brooke Windsor, who took the photo, tweeted on April 18 that the search is over, and the photo reached the dad and family. Search to find dad, daughter in viral Notre Dame photo over https://t.co/ZXF3nmMgXp pic.twitter.com/YRqp9L3kJ2 New York Post (@nypost) April 18, 2019 He has chosen to remain anonymous in the wake of tragedy, she said, adding, Thank you to everyone who has shared the picture and for your kind words. Windsor said the father told him: Thanks again for that beautiful photo, we will find a special place for it. Days ago, she wrote, I took this photo as we were leaving #NotreDame about an hour before it caught on fire. I almost went up to the dad and asked if he wanted it. Now I wish I had. Twitter if you have any magic, help him find this. Windsor tweeted the photo and caption on the day of the devastating fire. I took this photo as we were leaving #NotreDame about an hour before it caught on fire. I almost went up to the dad and asked if he wanted it. Now I wish I had. Twitter if you have any magic, help him find this pic.twitter.com/pEu33ubqCK Brooke Windsor (@brookeawindsor) April 16, 2019 The search is over! The photo has reached the dad & family. He has chosen to remain anonymous in the wake of tragedy, and writes: Thanks again for that beautiful photo, we will find a special place for it. Thank you to everyone who has shared the picture and for your kind words Brooke Windsor (@brookeawindsor) April 18, 2019 Since her tweet was posted on April 15, it generated 400,000 likes and 200,000 retweets. Meanwhile, a French official told The Associated Press that the cause of the fire was likely from an electrical short-circuit. French investigators still have not gone inside the church and searched the rubble due to safety reasons, the official said. $1 Billion Raised Nearly $1 billion has already poured in from ordinary worshippers and businessmen around the world to restore the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, after the French president set a controversial five-year deadline to get the work done, according to The Associated Press. Construction teams brought in a huge crane and a delivery of planks of wood to the site Wednesday morning. Firefighters are still examining damage and shoring up the structure after Mondays fire collapsed the cathedrals spire and destroyed the roof. Presidential cultural heritage envoy Stephane Bern told broadcaster France-Info on Wednesday that 880 million euros ($995 million) has been raised in just a day and a half since the fire. Contributions came from near and far, rich and poorfrom Apple and magnates who own LOreal, Chanel and Dior, to Catholic parishioners and others from small towns and cities around France and the world. Pierluigi Pericolo, in charge of restoration and security at the St. Donatian basilica in Nantes, said it could take two to five years just to secure Notre Dame, given its size. Its a fundamental step, and very complex, because its difficult to send workers into a monument whose vaulted ceilings are swollen with water, he said on France-Info. The end of the fire doesnt mean the edifice is totally saved. The stone can deteriorate when it is exposed to high temperatures and change its mineral composition and fracture inside. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Man Caught Walking Into St. Patricks Cathedral in NY With Full Gas Cans, Lighters NEW YORKJust days after flames ravaged the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, a New Jersey man was arrested Wednesday night after entering St. Patricks Cathedral carrying two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters, according to the New York Police Department. Philosophy Professor, Marc Lamparello, 37, had pulled up in a minivan outside the landmark cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, walked around the area, then returned to his vehicle at 7:55 p.m. and retrieved the gasoline and lighter fluid, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller. Marc Lamparello, a Philosophy Professor, arrested trying to set fire to St Patricks Cathedral pic.twitter.com/eM3iag4zlA Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) April 18, 2019 As he enters the cathedral hes confronted by a cathedral security officer who asks him where hes going and informs him he cant proceed into the cathedral carrying these things, said Miller. At that point some gasoline apparently spills out onto the floor as hes turned around. Security then notified officers from the counter-terrorism bureau who were standing outside, Miller said. The officers caught up to the man and arrested him after he was questioned. An individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patricks Cathedral carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters, is something we would have grave concern over, Miller told reporters outside the cathedral. Asked if terrorism was a motive in the incident, Miller said it was too early to say that. Miller noted the incident came two days after the much-publicized fire in Paris Notre Dame Cathedral. This is an indicator of something that would be very suspicious, he said. Three predominantly black churches in Louisiana were burned down between March 26 and April 4. The man told police he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue from 5th Avenue and his mini van had run out of gasoline, Miller said. His basic story was he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue. That his car had run out of gas, Miller said. We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas and at that point he was taken into custody. Its hard to say exactly what his intentions were, but I think the totality of circumstances of an individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patricks Cathedral carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters is something that we would have great concern over, Miller said. His story is not consistent. Around 7:55pm, a man walked into St. Patricks Cathedral in Manhattan with gas cans and lighter fluid, and was subsequently apprehended by @NYPDCT without incident. We thank our partners for their help, and remember if you see something, say something. pic.twitter.com/qEbmklnqzQ NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) April 18, 2019 Miller said the suspect is known to police, who are currently looking into his background. St. Patricks Cathedral was built in 1878 and has installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations. Its wooden roof is also coated with fire retardant. Reuters contributed to this report. Mom Allegedly Abandoned Toddlers Without Food for 9 Days While She Had Fun With Lover: Reports A young mum who was accused of leaving her baby and toddler in a flat for nine days without food or water, which caused one of them to starve to death, has reportedly shown no remorse. Vladislava Trokhimchuk, 23, was also accused of deliberately torturing her 1-year-old son, Danill, and her 2-year-old daughter, Anna, so that she could post photos of them looking ill online to ask people for cash donations, according to a local newspaper Fakty, citing court evidence. She shows 'no remorse' for her son who died Posted by Daily Mail on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 It is most likely she wanted them to look unwell, pale and like be like skin and bones, so she locked them without food and water, reported the local newspaper via Daily Mail. As a result of the alleged abuse, Danill, starved to death, while Anna miraculously survived the alleged abuse that occurred in Kiev, Ukraine. At the time, Trokhimchuk is believed to have been meeting with her lover. During trial on April 16, pictures of the flat where the children were kept were shown to the court. It was described as pure Auschwitz and a torture room for children, as further details about the alleged abuse were revealed. The court heard that the two neglected infants ate wallpaper, plastic covers, and their own excrement to try to survive. Evidence of teeth marks were found on the wall, and they even attempted to escape under the door by tearing at the linoleum on the floor. She showed "no remorse" as she laughed in court. Posted by Daily Mirror on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 Trokhimchuk confessed in court saying, I cannot find an excuse for myself. I always wanted the best for children, according to Daily Mail. I dreamed they would study, live differently than I do, better. That they would have everything. I repent very much. I cannot understand what I did, or that God took my son from me and put me here [in custody]. Speaking about the case, journalist Valentina Mudryk from 1+1 TV channel said Trokhimchus apparent remorse is not to be believed. She knew what she was doing when she left the children in that flat, according to the psychologists assessment, Mudryk said, referring to the assessment that found Trokhimchuk was mentally fit to stand trial. But she feels no remorse, at all. If for the first two months after detention she cried and said she was feeling guilty, now she doesnt answer judges questions about this. She looks calm. Outside the court, she laughs and chats to fellow inmates, who she leads. She does sport, dyes her hair, and lives there like she is in a holiday home, the journalist continued. -, () , https://t.co/LXYEEkSyd2 pic.twitter.com/KSVycZxC57 BBCcCNN (@bbcccnn) February 23, 2017 Recently I saw an engagement ring on her finger. When I asked who it is from, she just hid her hand and said nothing. One of the owners of the apartment Mikhail told the TSN, the channels news program, that he cannot find words to describe what he saw. It is pure Auschwitz, a torture room for children. Of course, we will for certain never live in this flat. We do not have moral force yet to start repairs there too, he said, according to Daily Mail. The other owner, Yulia, said it was horrible to see all this. Nobody heard them screaming it is sinister. We are now entering his room for the first time. It is horrible to see all this. I see these children in my nightmares, she said, according to the news station. Thank God the girl survived, but the boy did not, and for me this flat will be always associated with this horror. Vladislavas lover, Anton Podchapko, is currently on the run, reports say. The trial will continue, according to The Mirror. Description GIS 18 April, 2019: Government is leaving no stone unturned to build the countrys brand image. Our performance regionally and globally is a testimony that the Mauritius International Financial Centre has been successful in building its brand and the sector is here to stay for a long time and has glorious days ahead. The Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mr Dharmendar Sesungkur, made this statement on 16 April 2019 at the National Assembly, in reply to a Parliamentary Question related to the Global Business Sector. The Minister highlighted that relentless Governmental efforts have enabled Mauritius to successfully build its brand and consequently perform well on several global indices. He indicated that Mauritius was ranked 1st in Africa and 20th globally in the Ease of Doing Business Index; 1st in Sub-Saharan countries and 49th globally in the Global Competitiveness Index; 1st in Africa and 39th globally for Best Country for Business by Forbes; 1st in Africa for Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance; 1st in Africa and 8th for the Economic Freedom of the World; and 1st in African Transformation Index. On that score, Minister Sesungkur underlined that Mauritius has a relatively large Global Business Sector with aggregated assets valued at USD 686Bn which is approximately 50 times the size of its GDP. Contribution of the Global Business sector to the GDP of Mauritius, he added, is estimated at 5.7% in 2018/2019 and has produced a year-on-year growth of 4.0%. Mauritius, Mr Sesungkur pointed out, has always had a primary role in channeling capital and foreign direct investment to major economies during the past 25 years, and has built up a strong reputation as an International Financial Centre (IFC). Many investors, he emphasised, have chosen the Mauritius IFC to conduct their business, while adding that the Afrexim Bank has decided to set up their headquarters for the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), in Mauritius. Moreover, with regard to the taxing by India of 100% of capital gains realised by a Mauritius entity, the Minister indicated that whenever a Mauritius Fund disposes its shares in India, as per Article 13 of the amended DTAA between India and Mauritius and clearly stipulated in its Subsection 3A, it gains from the disposal of shares acquired prior to 1st April 2017 and will be exempted of capital gains tax, irrespective of the date of disposal. Our figures show that the value of direct investments in India through Global Business companies has remained more or less stable at USD 117.6 Bn as at June 2018, he added. The Minister underlined that Government is well aware of the strategic importance of the Indian market for the future growth of our IFC and is gearing up efforts to be in the leading position. Over the years, he observed, Mauritius has contributed significantly in respect to investment flows to India, remaining the second largest provider of investment into India, after Singapore. Since April 2000 up to December 2018, the Mauritius IFC has contributed around 32% of the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Equity inflows into India. According to the Minister, it is essential for Mauritius to have a good visibility along with a strong credibility, trust and confidence in order to yield productivity. He emphasised that to resolutely pursue our ambition of becoming a world class IFC of repute, Government has brought vast reforms to build trust and confidence in the Mauritius IFC. In this context, to further enhance the image and reputation of the Mauritius IFC, Government has agreed to make a few additional refinements to the Partial Exemption System following observations made by the Code of Conduct Group (COCG) of the European Union to enable Mauritius restore its reputation as a compliant jurisdiction for the EU. Furthermore, Minister Sesungkur reiterated Governments aim to put adequate financial and other resources to drive future growth and development of our financial services sector. He enumerated some key projects to this end, namely: the elaboration of a vision plan and in this context a Blueprint Report to envision the financial sector for the next 10 years that was launched in 2018; the enlistment of the services of Public Relations Firm Burson Cohne and Wolfe to improve the image and reputation of Mauritius IFC; and, the setting up of a Fintech Committee to build a competitive edge in the field of fintech and blockchain. The Minister also recalled that after the establishment of the regional IMF (AFRITAC) Training Centre in Mauritius, in March 2019, the OECD has set up its Regional Centre of Excellence in Mauritius, which is a testimony of the trust that will surely enhance our international credibility as a Financial Centre. People vote on the first day of early voting in Las Vegas on Oct. 20, 2018. Ethan Miller/Getty Images National Popular Vote Movement Seeks to Make Electoral College Obsolete WASHINGTONA proposal to guarantee that the winner of the national popular vote in future presidential elections becomes president of the United Stateswithout going through the effort of amending the U.S. Constitutionnow has 70 percent of the state-level support its backers say it needs to become a reality. The 70-percent mark was achieved April 3 when New Mexico became the 15th jurisdiction in the nation to enact enabling legislation, committing its presidential electors to vote for the candidate who receives the greatest number of popular votes nationally. Republican officeholders generally favor the current system, which incorporates the power-sharing arrangement between higher-population states and lower-population states that is at the heart of federalism. The system, they reason, prevents smaller states from being dominated by larger states and ensures that whoever wins the presidency enjoys a measure of broad-based support across the country. It does, however, occasionally lead to a president being elected who didnt win the national popular vote. Democrats have long sought to get around the Electoral College, which prevents the United States from political domination at the hands of major population centers, which are controlled by Democrats in so-called blue states. National Popular Vote Instead of amending the Constitution, a very difficult thing to do, a group called National Popular Vote (NPV) wants the states to ignore their own voters and enter into an interstate compact that would hand the presidency to whoever gets the greatest number of popular votes nationally. Rather than abolishing the Electoral College, the plan would require presidential electors in the states and the District of Columbia to vote for the candidate who gets the most popular votes. Constitutional amendments need two-thirds approval of each chamber of Congress, and then ratification by three-quarters of the states. Small states arent likely to go along with a proposal like NPVs that would permanently water down their voting power in presidential elections. The current system came out of the Constitutional Convention that met in 1787 in Philadelphia, and ousted the earlier constitution known as the Articles of Confederation. NPV says its proposal would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Currently, 48 states give all their electoral votes to the candidate who prevails in the popular vote in that state. Nebraska and Maine use a different formula, awarding some of their electors by congressional district. Getting to 270 According to a tally maintained by NPV, enabling legislation has been adopted in 14 statesincluding New Mexico, which enacted the model statute on April 3plus the District of Columbia, representing a total of 189 electoral votes. Those states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Not one is a red Republican state. The plan, NPV claims, would become effective when enacted by several more states with 81 more electoral votes, taking the total to the magic number of 270 out of 538, the absolute majority required to win the presidency in the Electoral College. Getting to 270 wont be easy, but it isnt impossible. In eight states with bicameral legislaturesArkansas, Arizona, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregonone legislative chamber has passed the NPV statute. The Nevada Assembly passed the statute on April 16. The measure now moves to the Nevada Senate. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation and a former Justice Department civil rights attorney, rejects the proposal for popular election of the president. It is an effort to dissolve the Union, he told The Epoch Times. States who sign on are behaving like secessionists in 1861 and are aiming to undo the Union. Ray Haynes, who heads the Institute for Research on Presidential Elections and is a senior consultant to NPV, defended the proposal, saying it was both legitimate and constitutional. The Constitution has only one sentence that addresses the method of populating the Electoral College, he told The Epoch Times. The one sentence in the Constitution on appointing the electors says: Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors He said when the issue was addressed by the Supreme Court in McPherson v. Blacker in 1892, the court ruled: The Constitution does not provide that the appointment of electors shall be by popular vote, nor that the electors shall be voted upon by a general ticket, nor that a majority of those who exercise the elective franchise can alone choose the electors. It recognizes that the people act through their representatives in the legislature, and leaves it to the legislature exclusively to define the method of effecting the object. The framers of the Constitution used words in their natural sense, and where they are plain and clear, resort to collateral aids is unnecessary, and cannot be indulged in to narrow or enlarge the text. Haynes was a Republican member of the California state Senate for eight years and the California Assembly for six years, and was the 2000 National Chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Concerns that the proposal would lead to massive fraud are overblown, Haynes said. First, if critics are concerned about electoral fraud, the current system is much more prone to a focused fraud in a small area It is much easier to conceal a localized fraud fewer people are involved, and fewer fraudulent votes are needed, to completely change the outcome of an entire Presidential election. President Donald Trump speaks during an event recognizing the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride in the East Room of the White House, in Washington, on April 18, 2019 . (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) No Collusion Between Trump and Russia, Special Counsels Report Confirms Special counsel Robert Mueller reached an unambiguous conclusion in the final report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election: Neither President Donald Trump nor any member of his campaign colluded with Russia. The Justice Department released the special counsels report to Congress and the public on April 18, marking a definitive conclusion to the expansive probe of the president and his associates. Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government, Muellers final report states. Attorney General William Barr already summarized Muellers top-line findings in a letter on March 24. In a press conference shortly before the release of the report, Barr told reporters that Trump declined to assert executive privilege to redact any portion of the report. As a result, all of the redactions in the final document were determined by a small group from the Justice Department, Muellers office, and the intelligence community. The special counsel identified two primary efforts by the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Extensive details on each effort have already been made public in indictments Mueller filed against the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and a group of Russian military intelligence officials with the GRU. While the IRA coordinated an illegal campaign to influence U.S. voters via social media, the GRU hacked Democratic targets and published the stolen emails online, the report alleges. In both cases, Mueller did not find evidence to suggest that any American knowingly conspired with Russia. Put another way, the special counsel found no collusion by any Americans in the IRAs illegal activity, Barr said, adding there was no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russian governments hacking. Trump, who has been a fierce critic of the investigation, celebrated the news with a series of Twitter messages. As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION NO OBSTRUCTION! Trump wrote. In brief remarks on the matter at an unrelated White House event, the president also suggested that steps should be taken to prevent a similar investigation from ensnaring future presidents. This should never happen to another president again, Trump said. This hoax should never happen to another president again. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel in May 2017 to take over an investigation the FBI started on July 31, 2016. Rosensteins memo directed Mueller to investigate any links and/or coordination between the Russia government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation, and matters related to obstruction of justice. In addition to the initial appointment order, Rosenstein issued two scope memos outlining the boundaries of Muellers probe. The content of the memos was secret, but is revealed, at least in part, in the final report. Rosenstein issued the first memo on Aug. 2, 2017, authorizing investigations of former Trump-campaign associates Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and George Papadopoulos. The final report revealed that Rosenstein also permitted Mueller to look into allegations that Papadopoulos committed a crime or crimes by acting as an unregistered agent of the Israeli government and four sets of allegations involving Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to President Trump. In the second memo, Rosenstein authorized Mueller to investigate Michael Cohen, Trumps personal attorney; Richard Gates, business partner to Manafort; Roger Stone, a political lobbyist and Trump ally; and two other persons, whose names have been redacted since they were not ultimately charged in the investigation. The memo also describes an FBI investigation, opened prior to the special counsels appointment, into allegations that Attorney General Jeff Sessions made false statements to the United States Senate. The memo confirmed the special counsels authority to investigate that matter. The final report notes that Mueller identified several potential crimes outside the scope of the investigation and referred the leads to other components of the Justice Department and the FBI. Of the 14 referrals, only two are not blacked out from the final report: the Cohen case and the alleged Foreign Agents Registration Act violation by former White House counsel Greg Craig. The information on the 12 other referrals is redacted to protect ongoing investigations. President Donald Trump flanked by Jose Ramos (L) and Lt. Gen. Michael Linnington, both from the Wounded Warrior Project, at the White House on April 18, 2019. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) Now the Tables Have Turned: Trump Campaign Demands Origin of Mueller Probe Investigated Shortly after Attorney General William Barr released the full redacted Mueller report on Thursday, April 18, Trump Campaign Manager Brad Parscale demanded an investigation of the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump. President Trump has been fully and completely exonerated yet again. Now the tables have turned, and its time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump, motivated by political retribution and based on no evidence whatsoever, he said in a statement. Now that the collusion and obstruction conspiracy theories have been exposed for the pathetic hoaxes they always were, the Obama-era DOJ and FBI must answer for their misdeeds and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people, read the statement. Our statement from @parscale on the #MuellerReport The Obama-era DOJ and FBI must answer for their misdeeds and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people. Justice will be served.@TeamTrump pic.twitter.com/DgRSt2d7BV Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) April 18, 2019 Earlier in the day, Barr re-affirmed that no member of the Trump campaign, or any other American, colluded with Russia to interfere with the 2016 elections. He made the remarks during a press conference before releasing the Mueller report to the congressional committees and the public. The Special Counsel did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities, Barr said, quoting the Mueller report. He also said that he and Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein determined there was no obstruction of justice case based on the information presented by Mueller. Attorney General William Barr shuts down a reporter who tried to suggest that he was protecting President Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/rpZEUD9pz2 Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 18, 2019 Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of Republican National Committee (RNC), also asked for the origin of the Mueller probe to be investigated. It is now time to get to the bottom of how an investigation based off of fake and partisan information began in the first place. After two years and over $35 million, American taxpayers deserve answers and the integrity of our democratic process depends on ensuring this never happens again, she stated. This is a complete & total vindication of @realDonaldTrump. The only scandal is the Obama admins repeated failure to act against Russian cyber meddling. Instead, they prioritized spying on the Trump campaign & used a phony DNC-funded dossier as justification. My statement pic.twitter.com/Fd10IKuWTt Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) April 18, 2019 Trump and his legal team declared victory after the Mueller report was released. Im having a good day, too, its called no collusion, no obstruction, he said while addressing the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride at the White House. There never was by the way, and there never will be. This should never happen to another president again, this hoax, it should never happen to another president again, he added. Many Trump supporters also joined the rally on social media to declare victory. Thank you to every Trump supporter who never gave up on him or doubted him. YOU are the champions today, wrote Bill Mitchell, the host of a conservative talk radio show and one of the pundits on Trump, on Twitter. Thank you to every Trump supporter who never gave up on him or doubted him. YOU are the champions today. Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) April 18, 2019 Failure Among a Group of Leaders There During an April 10 hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Barr said that spying on Trump Campaign in 2016 did occur. I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur, he confirmed when Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) asked if he suggested that spying occurred. He also said that he wants to pull everything together from the various investigations at the Capitol and the DOJ and see if there are any remaining questions to be addressed. I havent set up a team yet. But I do have in mind having some colleagues to help me pull all this information together and let me know whether theres some areas that should be looked at, he stated. Real obstruction of Justice Hillary Clinton illegally smashing cell phones and computers with hammers while under subpoena Bill Clinton meeting with AG Loretta Lynch days before Hillary was cleared James Comey leaking information while investigations were ongoing Investigate! Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 18, 2019 Barr clarified that he is not launching an investigation into the FBI, but he thought there was probably a failure among a group of leaders there. Epoch Times reporter Jasper Fakkert contributed to this report. From NTD News Firefighters work with a hose at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, on April 17, 2019. (Francisco Seco/AP Photo) Official: Notre Dame Faced Chain-Reaction Collapse in Fire PARISNotre Dame Cathedral would have burned to the ground in a chain-reaction collapse had firefighters not moved as rapidly as they did to battle the blaze racing through the beloved landmark building, a French government official said Wednesday, April 17. The firefighters acted aggressively to protect wooden supports in the twin medieval bell towers from the flames, averting a bigger catastrophe, said Jose Vaz de Matos, a fire expert with Frances Culture Ministry. If the fire reached this wooden structure, the bell tower would have been lost, de Matos said at a news conference. From the moment we lose the war of the bell towers, we lose the cathedral, because its a chain-reaction collapse. Mondays fire destroyed most of the lead roof of the 850-year-old architectural treasure and caused its spire, which was added in the 19th century, to collapse. An initial fire alert was sounded at 6:20 p.m., as a Mass was underway in the cathedral, but no fire was found. A second alarm was sounded at 6:43 p.m., and the blaze was discovered on the roof. No one was killed in the fire, after firefighters and church officials speedily evacuated those inside. Firefighters acted bravely and as fast as they could to save the cathedral, said senior fire official Philippe Demay, denying that there was any delay in their response. Despite extensive damage, many of the cathedrals treasures were saved, including Notre Dames famous rose windows, although they are not out of danger. Paris Firefighters spokesman Lt.-Col. Gabriel Plus said that even though they are in good condition, a threat continues to the gables, or support walls, because of the heavy stone statues perched on top of them. The roof no longer holds (the gables) up. They are holding up all by themselves, he said, adding that some statues must be removed to lessen the weight on the gables. Scaffolding that had been erected for a renovation of the spire and roof must also be properly removed because of its weight and because it is now crucially deformed, he added. The cathedral is still being monitored closely by firefighters and experts to determine how much damage the structure suffered and what needs to be dismantled to avoid collapse. The experts are scrutinizing the whole of the cathedral, part by part, to identify what is weakened, what will need to be dismantled or consolidated, Plus said. Nearly $1 billion has been pledged for the cathedrals restoration, and French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to finish it in five years, in time for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. We will rebuild the cathedral to be even more beautiful, and I want it to be finished within five years, Macron said Tuesday. Experts, however, have questioned that ambitious timeline for such a massive operation. Even Prime Minister Edouard Philippe acknowledged Wednesday that it would be difficult. This is obviously an immense challenge, a historic responsibility, Philippe said in an address. Prominent French conservation architect Pierluigi Pericolo told Inrocks magazine it could take triple that time. No less than 15 years its a colossal task, said Pericolo, who worked on the restoration of the 19th-century St.-Donatien Basilica, which was badly damaged in a 2015 blaze in the French city of Nantes. He said it could take between two to five years just to check the stability of the cathedral that dominates the Paris skyline. Its a fundamental step, and very complex, because its difficult to send workers into a monument whose vaulted ceilings are swollen with water, Pericolo told France-Info. The end of the fire doesnt mean the edifice is totally saved. The stone can deteriorate when it is exposed to high temperatures and change its mineral composition and fracture inside. Notre Dames rector said he would close the cathedral for up to five to six years, acknowledging that a segment of the structure may be gravely weakened. Pledges for the restoration have come from ordinary worshippers and wealthy magnates, including those who own LOreal, Chanel, and Dior. Presidential cultural heritage envoy Stephane Bern told broadcaster France-Info that 880 million euros ($995 million) has been raised since the fire. The government was gathering donations and setting up a special office to deal with big-ticket offers. Criticism already has surfaced in France from those who say the money could be better spent elsewhere, on smaller, struggling churches or on workers. Prime Minister Philippe said an international competition will be held to see if the spire should be rebuilt. Should we rebuild the spire envisaged and built by Viollet-le-Duc under the same conditions (or) give Notre Dame a new spire adapted to the technologies and the challenges of our times? he said. A huge crane and planks of wood were brought to the site Wednesday morning, even as firefighters were still examining the damage and shoring up the structure. Macron called a special Cabinet meeting on the fire, which investigators believe was an accident possibly linked to the renovation that was already underway. The Paris prosecutors office said investigators have still not been able to look inside the cathedral, because it remains dangerous. More than 30 people have already been questioned in the investigation, including workers at the five construction companies who were involved in renovating the church spire and roof. Police also took images of the destruction using drones, in case it is altered by wind or rain. Neighborhood merchants who depend on tourism to Notre Dame expressed worry about their future. Since the fire, the island that houses the cathedral has been closed to the public and its residents evacuated. No one is talking about us, said Patrick Lejeune, president of an association that represents about 150 employees. The normally bustling streets are now totally closed. I dont have access to my office, he said. The island is considered the heart of Paris, with all distances in France measured from the esplanade in front of Notre Dame. Later Wednesday evening, bells will toll at cathedrals around France in honor of Notre Dame. By Thomas Adamson And Nicolas Vaux-montagny Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson speaks about upcoming education changes at a press conference at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto on March 15, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Chris Young) Over 370 Ontario Teachers Told They Will Not Have Permanent Positions Amid Class Size Changes TORONTOAn Ontario school board has informed nearly 370 teachers that they will no longer have permanent teaching positions in the coming 2019-2020 school yearnews that comes amid provincial changes to class sizes. The Peel District School Board gave surplus notices to 176 elementary and 193 secondary teachers on Tuesday, according to The Globe and Mail. Surplus notices, which are not layoff notices, indicate the number of extra positions for the next year. The cuts are a result of changes to class sizes, cuts in local priorities funding, and other reductions in funding, Carla Pereira, Peel District School Boards director of communications, told CBC. The Ontario government announced last month that class sizes for the upcoming 2019-2020 school year would increase for elementary and secondary school students. High school classes would increase from 22 to 28 students on average while grades 4 through 8 would increase from 23.84 to 24.5 on average. There were no proposed changes for kindergarten students or those in primary grades 1 through 3. At the time of the announcement, Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson said not one teacher would lose their job over the class size increases, and that teaching positions would only be lost through attritionwhen teachers quit or retire but are not replaced. Transitional funds would be made available to school boards to ensure that. A recent Ministry of Education memo said an estimated 3,475 teaching positions would be eliminated across the province by 2022-2023 through attrition resulting from the changes to class sizes, according to CBC, and the total savings from removing those full-time positions would be $851 million. The ministry said it is planning to introduce attrition protection funding to top-up school boards where the change in teachers exceeds leave from attrition and voluntary leave. The government is hoping the attrition protection, which will be in place for four years, will be enough for school boards to phase in the class size changes without requiring teacher layoffs. However, Jamie Robertson, Peel boards superintendent of human-resources support services, told the Globe and Mail that layoffs will likely be inevitable as the funding wont be enough to make up for the budget shortfall. He also said the attrition protection doesnt apply to elementary school teachers. Other school boards have also commented on the issue. According to CBC, Lynn Scott, the chair of the Ottawa District School Board, said the board hopes not to have to lay off teachers in the coming school year. We will certainly find it a little more challenging to organize some of our classes, but how that works out is going to depend on what the rest of our funding looks like, she said at board meeting on Tuesday, April 16. Ottawa District School Board staff told trustees Tuesday night that the class size changes would leave them with between 250 to 300 fewer high school teaching positions, as well as 10 to 20 fewer elementary school teachers, CBC reports; however, Scott said those numbers are a worst-case scenario. The board expects to spend $972 million this year, reports the Ottawa Citizen. The class-size changes will result in $22.4 million less funding by year five, when the changes are fully implemented, according to board budget documents. On Monday, the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School Board handed out 42 surplus notices, and the head of the teachers union said there likely will be layoffs, according to CHCH, a local Hamilton news organization. The Toronto District School Board has previously said it expects 200 elementary school positions and 800 secondary school positions to be reduced due to class size changes. The government has faced fierce criticism over its decision to increase class sizes, as well as some other education changes it has implemented. Thousands of teachers, students, and others rallied at Queens Park earlier this month to protest the changes. Piranhas Found At English Lake Where Children Paddle, Ducks Have Been Disappearing Razor-toothed piranha have been found at a local beauty spot where teenagers swim and toddlers paddle, and where people say the ducks have been mysteriously disappearing. Martinwells Lake lies to the southwest of the small English city of Doncastera long way from the tropical habitat of the piranha in the Amazon rainforest. While Davey White and Lisa Holmes, both 37, enjoyed the spring weather by the lakeside on April 16, they saw a fish floating by the edge of the lake. Holmes, a carer from Doncaster, said White, who is a fisherman got it out of the water. Although hes a keen angler, he wasnt sure what type of fish it was straight away. But then we started looking at it more closely and saw the teeth, we realised it was a piranha. Gulp! A SECOND deadly piranha fish has been found at a lake in Doncaster and there are fears it may have been eating ducklings Posted by Doncaster Free Press on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 They looked up the fish on the internet when they got home. It was quite a shock. We couldnt believe that wed found a piranha fish. The following day, another dead piranha was spotted at the lake by Toni Hooper, 32, who was out walking with her family. Toni Hooper, 32, found a second suspected dead piranha when out walking with her family on Sunday. It sent shivers down my spine, she said, according to the Metro. This is a popular spot among families, dog walkers, and fishermen. Its always busy here, she said. Theres a play park nearby, so you get kids here paddling in the water, teenagers will go swimming here. Not what you expect in Doncaster: suspected piranhas found in UK lake https://t.co/D7u61BNIly The Guardian (@guardian) April 17, 2019 Hooper, who took video and pictures of the discovery, told the Doncaster Free Press, People have been saying for a few weeks that they have been finding it difficult to catch fish in the lake and theres normally loads of ducklings on there too but this year weve hardly seen any. You wouldnt catch me going in the water. The deadly fish can rip apart a human in seconds Posted by Doncaster Free Press on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 The local council warned people not to go in the waterbut only because it is too deep. They are confident that the piranhas cannot cope with even the relatively mild English winter. Gill Gillies, assistant director of environment at Doncaster Council told the Yorkshire Post, Given the natural habitat of piranhas, it is highly unlikely that the fish were alive at any time in the lake. We assume that these were pets that were placed in the lake, something that we would strongly discourage people from doing. Previous studies suggest that piranha cannot survive below around 10 degrees centigrade. The temperature typically dips below freezing periodically during British winters. Shredding a Cow in Seconds Shoals of piranha are often said to be able to strip a carcass to the bone in seconds. According to National Geographic, this has some truth but doesnt reflect typical circumstances. In a historic visit to Brazil, Theodore Roosevelt famously saw a group of piranhas shredding pieces of a cow carcass in seconds, says the National Geographic website. His dramatic account would color popular imagination for years, even though it was based on a manipulated spectacle in which fishermen blocked off a group of the fish and starved them beforehand. According to National Geographic, it is unknown how many species of piranhas exist, with estimates ranging from 30 to 60. Piranhas will eat each other if they run out of food. Its true that local fishermen occasionally have scars from close encounters with them, according to National Geographic. However, there have been reports of attacks and fatalities in recent years. A spate of piranha attacks left 50 people injured in Brazil in 2016, as drought conditions forced them from their natural habitat to waters where holidaymakers were gathered. A 6-year-old Brazilian girl was found dead in 2016 surrounded by piranhas that were devouring her body after her canoe capsized during a storm. It is not clear if she had first drowned or been attacked by the fish. A 6-year-old boy died in 2012 after piranhas devoured the flesh on his forearm near the town of Curua in Brazil. Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza is accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl. He was arrested in Ohio, police said on April 17, 2019. (Lucas County Corrections Center) Police Arrest Illegal Alien Accused of Teens Kidnap and Rape Police in Ohio have arrested an illegal alien accused of kidnapping and raping a 15-year-old New Jersey teen. Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza, 33, was taken into custody after an Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) officer initiated a traffic stop on April 16 over an apparent traffic violation, WTOL reported. Morales-Pedraza, who authorities said entered the United States illegally, is accused of kidnapping the victim in Paterson, New Jersey, and of sexually assaulting her. A state trooper stopped Morales-Pedraza on the Ohio Turnpike for a failure to move over violation, police said, according to the report. During the stop, OSHP says the officer noticed a young female riding with an older male, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a statement. Neither Morales-Pedraza nor the victim were able to communicate in English, according to the report. It was only after police entered the teens information into a database that they discovered she was listed as missing. Besides living in the U.S. illegally, the suspect had also been previously deported, according to state officials cited by WTOL. Morales-Pedraza was booked into the Lucas County Jail. Ariyl Onstott WTOL discussing OSHPs rescue of a possible human trafficking victim: Posted by WTOL NEWS 11 on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 Facts About Crime in the United States Violent crime in the United States 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, January to June 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 nonreported 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. Attorney General nominee William Barr testifies on the first day of his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 15, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Poll: Nearly 40 Percent of Voters Believe Trumps Campaign Was Spied On A recent national poll has found that nearly 4 out of 10 American voters believe President Donald Trumps campaign was spied on during the 2016 presidential election. According to the Politico and Morning Consults National Tracking Poll (pdf), 38 percent of the survey participants said they believe Trump was spied on, while 28 percent said his campaign was not. Meanwhile, 35 percent of the participants said they do not know or had no opinion. The survey, which polled 1998 registered voters between April 12 and 14, found that the responses about spying were also divided by partisan line (pdf) with 57 percent of Republicans saying spying had occurred, while 24 percent of Democrats saying the same. Allegations that the spying had occurred resurfaced last week when Attorney General William Barr testified to Congress that he believes that spying did occur and that he was obligated to make sure that the Obama governments surveillance was legally justified. I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur, Barr said, followed by a moment of silence in the room. The question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated, he continued. And Im not suggesting it wasnt adequately predicated, but I need to explore that. I think its my obligation. Later in the hearing, Barr said, I believe there is a basis for my concern, but Im not going to discuss the basis. Barrs comments last week seemed to have confirmed Trumps allegations. Trump has long accused Obama administration officials of spying on his 2016 election campaign. The officials involved have denied this characterization, saying that the counterintelligence probe, officially launched by the FBI on July 31, 2016, was only aimed at four Americans who were connected to the campaign. In that investigation, FBI officials obtained a spy warrant to monitor former Trump-campaign associate Carter Page. The underlying document the bureau used to obtain the warrant was the Steele dossier, which is a collection of unsubstantiated opposition research claiming Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. The dossier was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons campaign. These allegations of illegal surveillance are among a broader set of allegations that have collectively come to be known as Spygate. Barr said at the April 10 hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee that he intends to form a team to investigate potential surveillance abuses against the Trump campaign. Meanwhile, the Justice Department said earlier this week that it plans to release a redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers final report on April 18. The nearly nearly 400-page-long report contains findings on the probe of allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. Barr previously said the special counsel had no evidence of collusion. The connection between the Mueller investigation and the allegations of spying is the FBIs counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign, which predated the special counsels investigation. Epoch Times Reporter Petr Svab and Ivan Penchoukov contributed to this report. Post-Mueller, Democrats Still See Obstruction, Republicans Say Move On WASHINGTONBefore the Mueller report became public on April 18, Democrats contended President Donald Trump is unfit for office because he obstructed justice, while Republicans insisted that its time to move on from the investigations and allegations. And after Attorney General William Barr released a lightly redacted version of the Mueller Report? Democrats still argued that Trump obstructed justice and should be thrown out, while Republicans say they need to leave the Russia collusion scandal behind and get serious about addressing the nations grave problems. More than anything else in the 448-page report, Democrats pointed to this passage in which special counsel Robert Mueller said: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. That passage was prominent in a statement by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) a few hours after Barrs morning meeting with reporters to discuss his release of the report. The special counsel made clear that he did not exonerate the president. The responsibility now falls to Congress to hold the president accountable for his actions, Nadler said. Nadler added that because Congress requires this material in order to perform our constitutionally mandated responsibilities, I will issue a subpoena for the full report and the underlying evidence, in an apparent reference to the impeachment process. When a reporter asked Nadler, Does that mean impeachment? he replied, Thats one possibility; obviously, there are others. We have to get to the bottom of what happened and take whatever actions seem necessary. At almost the same time, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement that the differences are stark between what Attorney General Barr said on obstruction and what special counsel Mueller said on obstruction. As we continue to review the report, one thing is clear: Attorney General Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice, while Muellers report appears to undercut that finding. The two Democrats also said Congress must have the full, un-redacted report and they want Mueller and Barr to testify on Capitol Hill to answer questions about their actions and conclusions. Move On For their part, Republicans boosted Trump, hailed Barr, and urged a new focus on Congress. I think he has every right to feel good about what weve heard today, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Nothing we saw today changes the underlying results of the 22-month-long Mueller investigation that ultimately found no collusion, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Notwithstanding the partisan echo chamber to do otherwise, I fully approve of how Attorney General Barr has balanced legal requirements with the publics need to know in handling the release of the report, he said. It is time to move on. Americans deserve better than this partisan quest to vilify a political opponent. I urge our Democratic colleagues in the House to put their emotions and opinions aside, and instead use that passion to come to the table and work on real solutions for all Americans, McCarthy said. Impeachment The same pattern was seen April 18 among Democratic and Republican political strategists. Due to the Mueller statement cited by Nadler, Jim Manley, a Washington-based Democrat, told The Epoch Times he sees impeachment as a growing possibility. Id hate to be Speaker Pelosi and her staff right now because, with the release of the report, the push for impeachment is only going to grow. She successfully pushed it aside a while ago. It will be interesting to see if she can do it again, said Manley, who was previously communications director for then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Jimmy Williams, a former senior economic adviser to Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and now a South Carolina-based strategist, told The Epoch Times he has no doubt that the full, un-redacted report should be released to Congress. The American people paid for this report. They deserve to see all of it. Period, Williams said. Asked if he would include grand jury, intelligence sources and methods, and ongoing investigation materials, Williams said, Eventually, yes. At some point, all of these state and lower Justice Department investigations have to conclude. Republicans expect no letup from the Democrats, despite the Mueller report. Democrats will keep making demands. Nothing will ever be enough. They will use the redacted version to attempt to impeach Trump for obstruction, but that will be partisan and pointless, Texas-based campaign strategist Matt Mackowiak told The Epoch Times. Speaker Pelosi has said impeachment must be impeachable. The question now is whether she can hold off her rabid progressive base by holding to that standard, Mackowiak said. Americans for Limited Government President Richard Manning told The Epoch Times that Democrats should never mention the Mueller report again, as it exposes that their entire obsession about Russian collusion as unambiguously false. And while they dont expect Democrats to change their tune, Republicans told The Epoch Times they expect Barr and Senate Republicans to leave no stone unturned in the investigation of the origins of the Russia collusion probes under President Barack Obama. The origin of the Mueller investigation, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses, will now be investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mackowiak said. Hopefully, Attorney General Barr will also fully probe that issue to determine if laws were broken, he said. Manning agreed, saying the Mueller report begs for this investigation, but Mark Fitzgibbons, a Virginia-based Republican marketing expert with American Target Advertising, sounded a cautionary note, saying he worries that Barr will find that the system is so rigged to protect law-breaking within the government that he may conclude the effort is beyond his resources, even as U.S. Attorney General. And if that occurs, he predicted, America is bound to repeat this fiasco one way or another. Contact Mark Tapscott at mark.tapscott@epochtimes.nyc President Trump Responds to AG Barrs Press Conference: Game Over President Donald Trump responded to a press conference by Attorney General William Barr on April 18 about the release of special counsel Robert Muellers redacted report. No Collusion No Obstruction! the president wrote on Twitter. About an hour later, he tweeted a reference to HBOs Game of Thrones. Game over, it read, adding that its for the haters and the radical left Democrats. No Collusion No Obstruction! pic.twitter.com/diggF8V3hl Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 On the morning of Thursday, Barr told reporters in Washington about the redacted Mueller report before it was delivered to Congress. In his March 24 letter, Barr said Mueller didnt find enough evidence to bring a conspiracy charge against Trump or anyone associated with his campaign for working with the Russian government in the 2016 election. Mueller, the attorney general said, examined 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice. However, he said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined the evidence wasnt sufficient to charge the president. Meanwhile, Barr said he is fine with Mueller testifying before Congress. Trumps attorneys also saw the redacted report, the attorney general stated. In addition, earlier this week, the presidents personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released, Barr told reporters. That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government Act, which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an Independent Counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. The presidents personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions. Also, he explained that redactions will fall into several categories, including material that is relating to ongoing investigations, material that relates to methods or sources, grand jury material, and items that concerns unindicted persons of interests. There were no redactions done by anyone outside this group and no one outside this group proposed and no one outside this department has seen the non-redacted report, Barr told reporters. Barr also said he disagreed with some of Muellers legal theories, and he added that Trump faced an unprecedented situation when he came into office, adding that his frustration about the special counsels investigation was a normal reaction. The president was frustrated and angered by the sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, he said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) claimed Barr is engaging in partisan behavior that has triggered a crisis of independence [and] impartiality. Meanwhile, Jerrold Nadler, a Democratic Congressman from New York, said Congress has to hear directly from Mueller. We are now requesting Mueller to appear before [the House Judiciary Committee] as soon as possible, he wrote on Twitter following Barrs remarks. Here Are Barrs Full Remarks: On March 22, 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation of matters related to Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and submitted his confidential report to me pursuant to Department of Justice regulations. As I said during my Senate confirmation hearing and since, I am committed to ensuring the greatest possible degree of transparency concerning the special counsels investigation, consistent with the law. At 11:00 this morning, I will transmit copies of a public version of the special counsels report to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The Department of Justice will also make the report available to the American public by posting it on the Departments website after it has been delivered to Congress. I would like to offer a few comments today on the report. But before I do that, I want to thank Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for joining me here today and for his assistance and counsel throughout this process. Rod has served the Department of Justice for many years with dedication and distinction, and it has been a great privilege and pleasure to work with him since my confirmation. He had well-deserved plans to step back from public service that I interrupted by asking him to help in my transition. Rod has been an invaluable partner, and I am grateful that he was willing to help me and has been able to see the special counsels investigation to its conclusion. Thank you, Rod. I would also like to thank special counsel Mueller for his service and the thoroughness of his investigation, particularly his work exposing the nature of Russias attempts to interfere in our electoral process. As you know, one of the primary purposes of the special counsels investigation was to determine whether members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, or any individuals associated with that campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Volume I of the special counsels report describes the results of that investigation. As you will see, the special counsels report states that his investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the special counsels report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. But thanks to the special counsels thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of president Trump or the Trump campaignor the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter. That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed. The special counsels report outlines two main efforts by the Russian government to influence the 2016 election: First, the report details efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. Following a thorough investigation of this disinformation campaign, the special counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian nationals and entities for their respective roles in this scheme. Those charges remain pending, and the individual defendants remain at large. But the special counsel found no evidence that any Americansincluding anyone associated with the Trump campaignconspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme. Indeed, as the report states, [t]he investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRAs interference operation. Put another way, the special counsel found no collusion by any Americans in the IRAs illegal activity. Second, the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and emails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicizing those emails. Obtaining such unauthorized access into computers is a federal crime. Following a thorough investigation of these hacking operations, the special counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian military officers for their respective roles in these illegal hacking activities. Those charges are still pending and the defendants remain at large. But again, the special counsels report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations. In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russian governments hacking. The special counsels investigation also examined Russian efforts to publish stolen emails and documents on the internet. The special counsel found that, after the GRU disseminated some of the stolen materials through its own controlled entities, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the GRU transferred some of the stolen materials to Wikileaks for publication. Wikileaks then made a series of document dumps. The special counsel also investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts. Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the special counsels report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. Finally, the special counsel investigated a number of links or contacts between Trump Campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign. So that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government-sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes. After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the special counsels report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the president could amount to obstruction of the special counsels investigation. As I addressed in my March 24th letter, the special counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. Instead, the report recounts ten episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense. After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the special counsels legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision. Instead, we accepted the special counsels legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the special counsel in reaching our conclusion. In assessing the presidents actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. president Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the special counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the special counsels investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the president took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. Now, before I take questions, I want to address a few aspects of the process for producing the public report that I am releasing today. As I said several times, the report contains limited redactions relating to four categories of information. To ensure as much transparency as possible, these redactions have been clearly labeled and color-coded so that readers can tell which redactions correspond to which categories. As you will see, most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, such as the IRA case and the Roger Stone case. These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the special counsels Office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases. The redactions are their work product. Consistent with long-standing Executive Branch practice, the decision whether to assert Executive privilege over any portion of the report rested with the president of the United States. Because the White House voluntarily cooperated with the special counsels investigation, significant portions of the report contain material over which the president could have asserted privilege. And he would have been well within his rights to do so. Following my March 29th letter, the Office of the White House Counsel requested the opportunity to review the redacted version of the report in order to advise the president on the potential invocation of privilege, which is consistent with long-standing practice. Following that review, the president confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the special counsels report. Accordingly, the public report I am releasing today contains redactions only for the four categories that I previously outlined, and no material has been redacted based on executive privilege. In addition, earlier this week, the presidents personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released. That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government Act, which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an Independent Counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. The presidents personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions. In addition to making the redacted report public, we are also committed to working with Congress to accommodate their legitimate oversight interests with respect to the special counsels investigation. We have been consulting with Chairman Graham and Chairman Nadler throughout this process, and we will continue to do so. Given the limited nature of the redactions, I believe that the publicly released report will allow every American to understand the results of the special counsels investigation. Nevertheless, in an effort to accommodate congressional requests, we will make available to a bipartisan group of leaders from several Congressional committees a version of the report with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information. Thus, these members of Congress will be able to see all of the redacted material for themselveswith the limited exception of that which, by law, cannot be shared. I believe that this accommodation, together with my upcoming testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, will satisfy any need Congress has for information regarding the special counsels investigation. Once again, I would like to thank you all for being here today. I now have a few minutes for questions. Description GIS - 18 April, 2019: The President and Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) from Nigeria, Mr Samaila Zubairu paid a courtesy call, this afternoon, on the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis. In a statement to the press, Mr Zubairu said that he had a cordial meeting with the Prime Minister and discussions focused on AFCs interest to seek investment opportunities and work collaboratively with Mauritius. Mr Zubairu emphasised that a list of projects has been identified with the Government while adding that the AFC invests in high quality infrastructure assets that provide essential services in the infrastructure sectors of power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport and logistics. According to him, by working together, both AFC and Mauritius will be able to drive the Mauritius-Africa Strategy which is committed towards developing Special Economic Zones in several African countries such as Senegal, Kenya, Mozambique, Ghana, and Madagascar. Established in 2007, t he core mission of the AFC as an investment grade multilateral finance institution is to be the catalyst for private sector-led infrastructure investment across Africa. It acts both as a leading financier and adviser offering project, trade finance and structured debt, greenfield equity, and buy-out capital as well as fixed income products. Putin Spokesman Says He Has More Important Things to Do Than Worry About Mueller Report A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a statement in regard to the release of the long-awaited report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller about whether Russia colluded with President Donald Trump during the 2016 election. It is America that is looking forward to the reports release but we arent. This is not an issue for us, it is not a thing that interests us or causes us concern, Dmitry Peskov, the longtime spokesperson for Putin, told the Russian state-run TASS news agency. All the reports on the matter that have been released so far contain nothing but cursory statements, he claimed before saying that we have more interesting and important things to do. Peskov made the remarks before Attorney General William Barr released the report to Congress. The Kremlin has frequently denied that it attempted to influence the 2016 election. Earlier in April, Putin mocked the Mueller report as complete nonsense, without elaborating, reported The Moscow Times. We said from the start that Mr. Muellers notorious investigation would find no evidence, Putin said on April 9. Therefore, it was clear to us in advance that it would end up as The mountain gave birth to a mouse, as they say. However, in an April 18 conference, Barr told reporters that the Russian government attempted to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election. But, he said, Muellers team found no evidence that Trump colluded with Russia despite rampant speculation to the contrary. Bottom Line The attorney general reiterated that there was no collusion. After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign, said Barr in the morning conference. So that is the bottom line. Regarding the finding that Trumps team didnt collaborate with Russia, That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed, Barr noted. Furthermore, the Trump administration didnt invoke executive privilege to block the release of Muellers report, Barr explained. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates, added Barr. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the presidents personal culpability. Trump on April 18 responded to Barrs historic press conference, tweeting, No CollusionNo Obstruction! About an hour later, he tweeted a photo in reference to HBOs Game of Thrones. No Collusion No Obstruction! pic.twitter.com/diggF8V3hl Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019 Game over, it said. The meme is also for the haters and the radical left Democrats, his tweet read. Regarding the redactions of the Mueller report, they will fall into several categories, including material that is relating to ongoing investigations, material that relates to methods or sources, grand jury material, and items that concerns unindicted persons of interests, said Barr. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies before the House Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 24, 2019. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) Release of Mueller Report Shows The Epoch Times Reporting Was Correct Commentary The release of the long-awaited report by special counsel Robert Mueller confirms reporting by The Epoch Times during the past two years. While other media promoted the false narrative that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 elections, we stuck to the facts. As early as May 2017, just over a week after the appointment of special counsel Mueller, we pointed out that there was no known evidence of collusion in an article headlined: Despite Allegations, No Evidence of TrumpRussia Collusion Found. The article was based on public statements by officials, including those involved in the joint intelligence agency investigation, which was overseen by the office of the Director of National Intelligence, into Russian interference. During the past two years, we have closely followed all developments and found that in the course of the investigations no evidence of collusion had been presented. To the contrary, any time an indictment was made by the special counsel related to Russia, it was made clear by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that no American had knowingly colluded with Russia. Instead, through our reporting, we found a coordinated effort in the creation and distribution of false allegations that Trump colluded with Russia. At the core of these efforts were the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. They had commissioned, and paid for, the creation of the so-called Steele dossier. Authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, the dossier contained numerous unverified allegations that attempted to portray Trump as having been compromised by Russia. We also learned through extensive documentation, including access to unreleased congressional testimonies by FBI and DOJ staff, that Steele had actively spread this false information to the FBI, DOJ, State Department, Congress, and the media. This was done in coordination with Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPSthe firm that oversaw the production of the dossier. The FBI, for example, received the information contained in the dossier not only directly from Steele, but also through the State Department, and through high-ranking career DOJ official Bruce Ohrwhose wife worked for Fusion GPS, as well. Many of the media organizations that had promoted the false allegations of TrumpRussia collusion had early access to the information in the dossier, as well. Steele had testified in UK court documents that he had been instructed by Fusion GPS to provide briefings to media organizations based on the material, singling out The New York Times, The Washington Post, Yahoo News, The New Yorker, and CNN. Separately, David Kramer, a long-time associate of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said in a deposition that he had contact with more than a dozen media personnel about the dossier. It was also Kramer who provided the dossier to Buzzfeed News, which eventually published the report in January 2017. In all this, there was also coordination between high-ranking Obama administration officials. It was former CIA Director John Brennan who, based on foreign intelligence on the Trump campaign, pushed then-FBI Director James Comey to open the investigation into the Trump campaign. We also know that the agents working on the case, such as FBI agent Peter Strzok, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, and then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe were severely biased against Trump. I invite all of you to read our ongoing coverage of the issue, which we now call the Spygate scandal. You can find a comprehensive overview of our content by clicking on this link. Jasper Fakkert is the Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. editions of The Epoch Times. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Rep. Rashida Tlaib Says She Feels More Palestinian in Congress Than Anywhere Else Newly appointed Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, recently proclaimed that she feels more Palestinian in Congress than anywhere else in the world, according to a YouTube video. Tlaib was speaking at the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights when she said, Honestly Ive never felt more Palestinian than I ever felt in Congress. Tlaib said that when she visits her grandmother in Palestine shes recognized more like an American person but when she is in Congress, shes identified as a Palestinian. Even in Palestine when Im visiting my grandmother, Im more Amrikiin [American], to the Palestinians. But Im more Palestinian in the halls of Congress than I am anywhere in the country, in the world. And that just tells you just the fact that they werent ready for us. They really werent, she said. Most of Tlaibs tenure in Congress has been about her advocacy for Palestinian concerns and her regular and failed attempts to construct a coalition to impeach President Donald Trump, according to the Conservative Review. On her first day in office, the Detroit born congresswoman wiped off Israel from her office map. She also supported the Boycott, Disinvestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that works to end international support for Israel against Palestine. Several people who Tlaib openly thanked for her successful congressional campaign have posted explicit pro-terror and anti-Semitic content on social media, including calls for violence, such as kill every Zionist, according to a report by the Israel Advocacy Movement (IAM). The report reviewed the social media posts of several people Tlaib personally thanked in a March 31, 2018, Facebook post. My family and friends did it in Chicago! In less than a week of planning, they really showed their strength and helped our campaign, Tlaib wrote. A special thank you to Ahlam Jbara, Mwafaq Jbara, Maher Abdel-qader, and my amazing Amo Abu Faris, Mufid Issa, who called people in Chicago while he was out of the country. Of the five people Tlaib thanked in her post, four have social media profiles and each one has made posts supporting known terrorists. Ahlam Jbara appears in several photos with Tlaib. She has also posted photos of herself with Rasmea Odeh, a terrorist who was convicted and jailed for 10 years for her role in the murder of two students in the bombing of a supermarket in Jerusalem in 1969. Odehs American citizenship was revoked in 2015 because she concealed her terrorism conviction when applying for citizenship. Reema Ahmed, another person who worked on Tlaibs campaign, liked a cartoon in support of Odeh, and wrote a post in search of a T-shirt emblazoned with a large I support Rasmea graphic. Ahlam Jbara made the selfie photo with Odehs profile image, called Odeh an icon for all social justice fighters, and even baked the convicted terrorist a birthday cake in 2014. Ahlam Jbara also shared a photo glorifying Mohammed Ali, the terrorist who stabbed three soldiers in Jerusalem. Mwafaq Jbara, the second person mentioned in Tlaibs post, posted some of the most extreme content, according to IAM, including hundreds of pro-terror posts. In late March, immediately after special counsel Robert Mueller absolved President Trump of unproven conspiracies of collusion with Russia in 2016 election campaign, Tlaib introduced a resolution in Congress Inquiring whether the House of Representatives should impeach Donald John Trump, president of the United States of America. Epoch Times reporter Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report. Roses have been laid near Notre-Dame-de Paris Cathedral a day after a fire devastated the cathedral in central Paris on April 16, 2019. (Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images) Report: Cause of Notre Dame Fire Is Likely Electrical, Says Official A French official revealed the likely cause of the fire that ravaged the famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. A police official in France told The Associated Press that an electrical short-circuit likely caused the blaze. The official spoke anonymously and didnt reveal their title. French investigators still have not searched the rubble and cannot work inside the cathedral due to safety reasons, the official said. He told AP that the monument is being consolidated with wooden beams to support fragile walls that were damaged in the blaze. On April 18, workers rushed to secure key areas of Notre Dame, including one above its windows, CBS News reported. Workers were seen using a crane to remove statues so as to reduce the pressure on the cathedrals support walls, the report said. They also were securing the support structure of one of the rose windows with wooden planks. Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz, earlier this week, said that an investigation into the cause will be long and complex. French officials have not ruled out arson in the incident. The catastrophic fire at one of the most well-known religious monuments caused heartbreak across France. Much of the wood and lead roof was burned in the fire, and its famed spire collapsed. One firefighter was injured in the fire. Some 50 investigators are involved in the probe, and about 40 people have been questioned so far. They include people who were involved in the restoration of the cathedral, CBS reported. Billionaires Want to Donate Frances richest man, Bernard Arnault, hit out on Thursday at critics of his rush to donate tens of millions of euros to the restoration of Notre-Dame cathedral, saying he would not benefit from tax breaks and branding the sniping as petty, Reuters reported. Luxury goods group LVMH, owner of Louis Vuitton fashions and Moet & Chandon champagne, and its founding Arnault family announced a combined $225 million (200 million euros) pledge hours after a fire on Monday ravaged the Paris landmark. It followed a 100 million euro offer from Arnaults arch-rival Francois-Henri Pinault, the CEO of Gucci-owner Kering, and sparked a frenzy of donations from some of Frances top companies that pushed the funds raised to close to 1 billion euros. But the outpouring also prompted questions from charities, politicians, and commentators about why some corporate donors had offered so much so quickly, including speculation regarding tax break benefits. Some expressed frustration that other disasters had not received similar support. Its an empty controversy, Arnault said. Its pretty dismaying to see that in France you are criticized even for doing something for the general interest. My husband and father-in-law are two generous French citizens, who sincerely understand the importance of this spiritual, cultural and historical treasure from Paris to the world, Pinaults wife, actress Salma Hayek, also stated in defending her husband from criticism. Reuters contributed to this report. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton listens as former President Bill Clinton speaks during the annual Clinton Global Initiative conference at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Ill., on Oct. 16, 2018. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images) Report: White House Wants Investigation Into Hillary Clintons Emails The White House criticized the breathless media coverage of the Russia collusion hoax following the submission of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report to Congress, adding that reporters should focus on Obama administration scandals, it was reported. While the establishment media has breathlessly covered this partisan witch hunt for nearly two years, they refuse to cover the real scandals that plagued the previous Democrat administration, a White House official told the Washington Examiner on April 18. The official made a reference to the email scandal that has plagued former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the administration noted in the Examiners report that former President Barack Obama described the scandal as a mistake but wasnt a national security problem. He made the remarks on CBS News 60 Minutes in 2015. The White House ripped the breathless media coverage of the Russia collusion hoax. Now that its over, the administration says journalists should turn their attention on Obama-era scandals.https://t.co/nWi7TgWP0q Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 18, 2019 According to the Examiner, the White House wants an investigation into the funding of the Clinton Foundation as well as an investigation into FBI agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, who are accused of undermining Donald Trump and helping Clinton during the election. Following Attorney General William Barrs comments to reporters about the release of the report, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said it was a complete and total vindication of Trump before she turned her sights to the Obama administration. It is increasingly clear that the only scandal here is the Obama administrations repeated failure to act against Russian cyber meddling, she said in a statement. Instead, McDaniel added, the Obama administration prioritized spying on a political opponentthe Trump campaignand used a phony DNC-funded dossier as justification. It is now time to get to the bottom of how an investigation based off of fake and partisan information began in the first place, she continued. After two years and over $35 million, American taxpayers deserve answers. She added that the integrity of our democratic process relies on those answers. Mueller Report Muellers team did establish interference from several different groups of Russians, including a group called the Internet Research Agency. The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion, Muellers team concluded. Russian agents carried out a social media campaign that favored Trump and disparaged Trumps opponent Hillary Clinton. Based in St. Petersburg, the agency was funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who is widely reported to have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mueller said. Mueller examined 10 episodes that may have led to obstruction charges against Trump, providing Barr and Rosenstein with facts surrounding each episode but ultimately not recommending charges. Barr and Rosenstein concluded, based on the evidence and other factors, that Trump did not obstruct the investigation, Barr explained at a press conference on April 18. Barr Reiterates No Collusion Barr again told reporters that President Trump did not collude with Russia to influence the 2016 election. After reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign, said Barr in the morning conference. So that is the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government-sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes, Barr reiterated. Epoch Times reporter Zachary Steiber contributed to this report. Then-FBI Director Robert Mueller waits for the beginning of a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Jun. 19, 2013. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Robert Mueller Report Released: Read Full Report on Investigation Into Russian Election Interference The full report submitted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller was released by the Department of Justice on April 18. The report contains light redactions made in compliance with the law, according to Attorney General William Barr. Teams working under Barr and Mueller worked together to make the redactions, the attorney general said. Mueller investigated Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election, including allegations that members of President Donald Trumps campaign colluded with Russians in an attempt to sway the election. Mueller was unable to establish conspiracy or cooperation between members of the campaign, or Trump himself, with Russians, Barr said. Mueller Report by on Scribd Muellers team did establish interference from several different groups of Russians, including a group called the Internet Research Agency. The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion, Muellers team concluded. The agency carried out a social media campaign that favored Trump and disparaged Trumps opponent Hillary Clinton. Based in St. Petersburg, the agency was funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who is widely reported to have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mueller said. Among its operations, the agency bought political advertisements on social media platforms in the names of American persons and entities and staged political rallies inside the United States. The report also claimed that Russians targeted the Democratic National Committees computers, as the FBI did previously, but admitted that no members of the team personally examined the computers as part of the investigation, instead relying on a third party the committee hired. Mueller said that the probe into whether Trump campaign officials coordinated with the Russian government was opened on July 31, 2016, by the FBI. Mueller was appointed in May 2017 to lead the probe by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself. The report also contains information about four Trump campaign members who were charged with crimes, including Michael Cohen, Trumps former lawyer, former campaign head Paul Manafort, and former campaign worker George Papadopoulos. Mueller examined 10 episodes that may have led to obstruction charges against Trump, providing Barr and Rosenstein with facts surrounding each episode but ultimately not recommending charges. Barr and Rosenstein concluded, based on the evidence and other factors, that Trump did not obstruct the investigation, Barr explained at a press conference on April 18. The White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsels investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation, he said. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation. One of the episodes was Trumps firing of James Comey, the FBI Director at the time. Firing Comey would qualify as an obstructive act if it had the natural and probable effect of interfering with or impeding the investigationfor example, if the termination would have the effect of delaying or disrupting the investigation or providing the president with the opportunity to appoint a director who would take a different approach to the investigation that the president perceived as more protective of his personal interests, Mueller wrote. However, he added, the anticipated effect of removing the FBI director would not necessarily be to prevent or impede the FBI from continuing its investigation. As a general matter, FBI investigations run under the operational direction of FBI personnel levels below the FBI director. From NTD News Russia Competes With China for Arms Sales to Pakistan For years, Beijing has been the biggest arms supplier to Islamabad, with defense purchases as a key element of their close ties. Now, Russia is looking to make inroads into the Pakistani weapons market. Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on April 15 that Pakistan has expressed interest in making a huge purchase of Russian military hardware, citing comments from Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of the Moscow-based defense think tank Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. The total invoice could top $9 billion, according to Makienko, who added that Pakistan would likely purchase Russian heavy and medium fighter jets, medium and short-range air defense systems, combat helicopters, tanks, and warships. Makienko named two types of Russian military hardware that would likely be on Islamabads shopping list: the new Russian fighter jet MiG-35 and the heavy transport helicopter Mi-26T2. Pakistani authorities havent confirmed this planned purchase, nor have Pakistani media reported on it thus far. But Makienko noted that given the low-competitive nature of the military market in Pakistan, which is dominated by China, Russia would likely receive extremely favorable terms on the purchase contracts. He added that Pakistan has not made requests such as technology transfer or localization of production as terms for any purchases. China supplied weapons worth over $6.4 billion to Pakistan from 2008 to 2018, making it Pakistans biggest supplier, according to data from the independent arms research institute SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), followed by the United States with $2.5 billion, and Italy with $471 million worth of weapons. Currently, Chinese-made jets make up the bulk of Pakistans fleet of fighter jets: the Chengdu J-7, and JF-17 Thunder. The former was modeled after the Russian jet MiG-21, while the latter was developed jointly by the Pakistani state-owned aerospace company Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and Chinas state-owned Chengdu Aircraft Corp. In 2016, one of the biggest arms deals between China and Pakistan was signed, with the sale of eight Chinese diesel-electric attack submarines manufactured by state-run China Shipbuilding Trading Corporation, to be delivered to the Pakistan Navy by 2028, according to Pakistans English-language newspaper The Express Tribune. Aside from arms sales, there have been other recent signs that Russia and Pakistan plan to enhance their military ties. On March 24, Russias Federal News Agency (FAN) reported comments by Pakistani Major General Asif Ghafoor about expanding defense cooperation between Moscow and Islamabad. Ghafoor said that there could be more military contracts between the two countries, as Pakistan had just received its orders of Russian attack helicopters Mi-35, a purchase made in 2015. A week later, on March 30, unnamed senior officials at Pakistans foreign ministry told local English-language daily newspaper The Nation that Islamabad and Moscow had agreed to exchange high-level visits more frequently, with defense being the main component of growing ties between the two countries. Russia and China are competing for customers for their military equipment worldwide. Russian news agency TASS, in an editorial published on March 29, noted that China was a market competitor in the sale of submarines, citing the case of Thailands navy choosing to buy submarines from China over shipbuilders in Russia, South Korea, and Germany. Thailands English-language daily The Nation, reported in March 2017 that Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha confirmed the purchase of three submarines from Chinabut that the country only paid for two, since the third one would be a free gift. In September 2018, South China Morning Post reported that Thailand dropped the number of submarines purchased to one, after local politicians opposed the deal for its high financial burden. TASS stated that Chinas state-run China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. (CSIC) recently announced that at least eight countries were interested in buying its submarines, including Algeria, Cuba, and Venezuelanews that is unlikely to be joyful for Russian shipbuilders. Graduating U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen take the U.S. Navy oath of office during the Academy's graduation and commissioning ceremonies, Friday, May 24, 2013, in Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Transgender Students Barred From Attending Naval Academy Starting Fall 2020 Transgender students will be barred from enrolling in the Naval Academy at the start of the 2020 school year as the Defense Department starts enforcing Pentagons transgender military policy. The policy, which bars most transgender individuals from serving unless they serve as their biological sex, took effect on April 12. The Defense Department confirmed with the Capital Gazette on April 15 that the academy will implement the policy, effectively banning transgender students from enrolling in the fall 2020 school year and beyond. A Naval Academy spokesperson confirmed the same with The Hill. The spokesperson said, Our understanding is that the policy will go into effect for those students applying to enter the Naval Academy in 2020, beginning with the Class of 2024. Students who are enrolled for fall 2019 are still under the Obama administrations policy, which allowed transgender people to serve and also covered costs incurred for hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery. President Donald Trump promised in 2017 to re-enforce a ban on transgender service members from the military that was lifted by his predecessor, President Barrack Obama, in 2016. After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 .Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 .victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 Groups representing transgender individuals subsequently sued the Trump administration. In those cases, the lower courts issued nationwide injunctions barring the administration from altering course. On Jan. 4, a federal court in Washington (pdf) sided with the Trump administration and lifted one of the four injunctions that barred the Pentagon from enforcing its policy. On Jan. 22, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration and lifted the preliminary injunctions on two other cases, making it another win for President Trump. The Defense Department signed a memo on March 12 to enforce the restrictions. The memo, signed by the No. 2 official at the Pentagon, David Norquist, will allow service secretaries to issue waivers on a case-by-case basis. The @DeptofDefense signed a memo to enforce limitations on #transgender people serving in the #Military. The policy will take effect April 12 and will bar most transgender individuals from serving if they require hormone treatments or transition surgery. https://t.co/jqwA9KfNRA The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) March 13, 2019 According to the departments website, the ban will be exempted for transgender individuals who joined the military before the policy takes effect and for those diagnosed with gender dysphoria who do not undergo medical treatment such as hormones or surgery. The department said the policy does not discriminate based on gender identity but enforces the military standards on all persons, whether or not they are transgender. Persons with a history of gender dysphoriaa serious medical conditionand who have undergone certain medical treatment for gender dysphoria, such as cross-sex hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery, or are unwilling or unable to meet the standards associated with their biological sex, could adversely impact unit readiness and combat effectiveness. For this reason, such persons are presumptively disqualified for service without a waiver, the department stated. In a memo signed by Trump in 2017, he cited military focus and medical costs for reversing Obamas policy. In my judgment, the previous Administration failed to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating the Departments longstanding policy and practice would not hinder military effectiveness and lethality, disrupt unit cohesion, or tax military resources, he said. Reuters contributed to this report. Uncovering the Mystery of Australias Famous Strawberry-Colored Lake Hillier The content is not available due to expiration. File photo, shows a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine on a countertop at a pediatrics clinic in Greenbrae, Calif. (Eric Risberg/AP) Washington State Senate Approves Bills Limiting Vaccine Exemptions The Washington state Senate has passed a bill blocking exemptions from the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) on grounds of personal or philosophical reasons. Lawmakers adopted the new legislation on Wednesday, April 17, according to the Seattle Times. The law prevents parents from exempting their children on personal or philosophical grounds only with respect to the MMR vaccine. Parents in Washington state will still be able to opt out of other school-mandated vaccines on personal or philosophical grounds. Exemptions to the MMR vaccine on religious or medical grounds remain unaffected. Washington is one of only 17 states that permit vaccine exemptions for personal, moral or other beliefs, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. Exemptions for medical reasons are permitted in all states. The bill was introduced amid a Washington state measles outbreak in which 74 people became sick. The outbreak led Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to declare a state of emergency. Vote Breakdown The bill passed 25-22, with Senators voting largely along party lines, the Seattle Times reported. My community is under threat, said Democrat Sen. Annette Cleveland, according to the Times. A vote against this bill is a vote against public health. Our responsibility is to take swift action to prevent the potential for needless suffering, she said, according to KING5. Republican representatives questioned the research into vaccine safety and argued that parents should have the right to decide if their children get vaccinated. We keep hearing science is settled, said Republican Sen. Ann Rivers, The Times reported. Its not settled. Republican Sen. Steve OBan said the passage of the bill is an act of government overreach. We are going to mandate and require that parents who have exercised a choice not to have their children undergo an invasive procedure must now do so, he said, KING5 reported. More than a dozen amendments to the bill were rejected, including one that would have removed immunization requirements for students attending private schools. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news release that 555 individual cases of measles were confirmed between January 1 and April 11 of this year. The CDC added that this is the largest number of cases reported in the United States since the year 2000, when measles was essentially eradicated. Four percent of Washington secondary school students have non-medical vaccine exemptions, the state Department of Health said, according to The Associated Press. Of those, 3.7 percent of the exemptions are personal, and the rest are religious. Vaccination Policy For decades, the U.S. government has made compulsory childhood vaccination one of the cornerstones of its public health policy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all children get two doses of measles vaccine, which the CDC says is about 97% effective at preventing measles; one dose is about 93% effective. Before the measles vaccination program started in 1963, an estimated 3 to 4 million people got measles each year in the United States, the CDC writes. Of these, approximately 500,000 cases were reported each year to CDC; of these, 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 developed encephalitis (brain swelling) from measles. Since then, widespread use of measles vaccine has led to a greater than 99% reduction in measles cases compared with the pre-vaccine era. Countries outside the United States have vaccination policies that range from completely voluntary to aggressive, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). Some countries focus on educating their populace about the benefits of vaccination while leaving the choice to individuals, others offer financial incentives or have made vaccinations mandatory to ensure high coverage rates, the CMAJ notes in the abstract of the study headlined Mandatory vaccinations: The international landscape. Advocacy group Childrens Health Defense notes: Regardless of the policy, no other country requires as many childhood vaccines as the U.S., but the legal edifice shoring up the compulsory childhood vaccine program is surprisingly flimsy. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Making a zero-proof drink at Getaway in Brooklyn. Photo: Liz Clayman The adage that says you can have fun without drinking should come with a disclaimer. You can still have fun without drinking asterisk but it probably wont be at a crowded house party where you dont know anyone else asterisk asterisk or at a happy hour for work when you just want to go home to catch up on Barry while eating some kind of warm carb asterisk asterisk asterisk and it definitely wont happen for you at a sweaty, crowded bar where everyone else is wasted at 2 a.m. I stopped drinking three years ago. The short version of the story is that I had a great time until I didnt. My memory always cheats me a bit here, tries to get me to remember the period before I quit as if I were perpetually two drinks in warm and flushed, the world overlaid with a twinkling filter and brimming with possibility. The reality was more like being stranded at sea in a battered dinghy, floating aimlessly through a dull, constant hangover that was punctuated by the roiling storms of breakups, strained friendships, hospital visits, and, once, puking fully intact penne pasta all over the exterior of a strangers house. When I find myself doing the math of whether or not I can drink and also have the life I want, no matter how much I tweak the formula or run through my calculations again, the answer is a resounding no. But something that always shows up in the losses column is my newfound distaste for hanging out in bars, places where I used to love to while away all hours of the day and night. It may seem obvious and seemingly inconsequential, but if you live in a city and work in an industry in which the go-to social activity is grabbing a drink, bars are largely unavoidable. Its not the drinking I miss as much as the communal experience of sitting around and shooting the shit at some of the only institutions that offer an informal, clearly delineated escape from both the demands of work and the isolation of home. One of the biggest roadblocks to my current enjoyment is that the only nonalcoholic options usually available at bars are seltzer water and fountain sodas. These are not drinks you nurse at the same pace as your imbibing friends; they are drinks you suck down in two minutes. Theyre drinks that say, You should be drinking me out of a pitcher at Chuck E. Cheese. So when I first heard that Getaway, a new alcohol-free bar with an extensive menu, would open in Greenpoint, I was intrigued but skeptical. I knew that mocktails (forgive me) had been growing in popularity recently, and that similar bars were cropping up all over, but the idea of paying $13 for a nonalcoholic drink was inconceivable to me. (In all fairness, the idea of paying $13 for an alcoholic drink was also inconceivable to me.) I was still on alert when I walked in on a recent Friday night and found that Getaway is designed like almost every other new establishment these days: a blue-gray and muted-pink color scheme, the occasional fern, and rounded edges on every bit of decor, all subtly primed for Instagram. The bar's design is subtly primed for Instagram. The Trip to Ikea contains lingonberry, lemon, vanilla, cardamom, and cream. Liz Clayman. The bar's design is subtly primed for Instagram. The Trip to Ikea contains lingonberry, lemon, vanilla, cardamom, and cream. Liz Clayman. My partner, who has been sober for 11 years, and I settled onto two stools at the far corner of the bar. We started with a round of Ginger Spice (spicy ginger, cucumber, grapefruit juice, extra-bitter tonic, club soda, and blackberries) and Lone Wolf and Shrub (rhubarb shrub, lime juice, elderflower syrup, and basil). The former was one of the most complex, exquisite drinks Ive ever had, while every sip of the latter hit with a tangy knockout punch of vinegar. Both were so well executed, so uncannily cocktail-like that, for one of the first times since giving up alcohol, I felt like I was drinking an actual adult beverage. We were so intoxicated by the quality of our offerings that we next opted for the Coconaut (pineapple, coconut milk, cream of coconut, blood-orange flavored Pellegrino, and nutmeg) and Daters Gonna Date (Medjool dates, peanut butter, lime-banana syrup, vanilla, macadamia-nut milk, and Coco Rico soda). I dont want to say it, my partner implored when I asked him to order the second one, but these were indisputably delicious. Still, the experience was less sophisticated adult and more Mitt Romney cutting loose on a Royal Caribbean cruise. Getaway which seats around 25 and advertises itself to passersby with a mysterious 0% sign was about three-quarters full when we went. Small groups of androgynous 20-somethings with tattoos chatted animatedly. A young, beautiful couple occupied themselves by playing cards, which made me immediately muse about whether I should get into playing cards. Getaway is planning on serving small plates soon, but in the meantime a bartender circulated with gratis plates of salted mixed nuts. Aided by a patina of elegance, the whole experience felt wholesome but not saccharine. It wasnt Utah dessert bar as much as all-day Italian cafe. The only thing missing was the aperitivo. For those who, like myself, might balk at the prices, the bottom half of the menu is very compelling. Shrubs and cordials run for $6 and $4.50, respectively, and there are full-service coffee-and-tea options. Most inviting was the extensive array of $4 soft drinks, Fever-Tree tonics, Dona sodas, and my all-time-favorite difficult-to-find aperitif: the alluringly bitter, electrically red Sanbitter. This section also left me wanting more not from Getaway but from other bars. While most typical bars cant devote the time or the money needed to make elaborate, locally sourced, alcohol-free cocktails, Id love to see places reach for a few more niche prepackaged options that extend beyond the usual offerings. I dont know if I would invite a group of drinking friends to hike to Greenpoint for a round of Sanbitters, and its unreasonable to expect that a bar whose entire business model is based on being booze-free would try to accommodate drinkers. Getaway is, however, a reliable gathering place (and for sober people who cant be around alcohol at all, it may be an ideal haven). It will never be exactly the same as a traditional bar, but it can still be fun. Eat like the experts. Sign up for the Grub Street newsletter. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. In a video released on April 14, 2019, WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange (R) has a go at skateboarding while Assistant Stella Morris (L) watches in amusement at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, United Kingdom. (Courtesy of El Pais/YouTube) WikiLeaks Assange Was Skateboarding in Ecuadorian Embassy, Staff Say The controversial advocate for freedom of information, Julian Assange, has been accused of skateboarding while confined inside a South American diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom, where he had been granted asylum for the past seven years. The Ecuadorian Embassy in London released a YouTube video of the WikiLeaks founder on April 14, claiming that it proves that he was skateboarding while staying as a guest of the embassy in Knightsbridge. The footage published by Spanish newspaper El Pais appears to show Assange standing near the door to the corridor and making several attempts to start rolling on a skateboard before stumbling off. Throughout the process, he speaks with a woman identified as his adviser, Stella Morris, who can be seen sitting in an armchair, seemingly amused as she watches Assanges failed attempts. Another part of the video shows Assange with about four visitors in the room on a weekend. An argument appears to start between Assange and a security guard who opens the door and motions for the guests to leave. Nobody moves and eventually, another man enters, who is identified to be Ambassador Carlos Abad Ortiz. He calms everyone down before the group of visitors finally leaves. Since Assange was unable to leave the embassy without being arrested by London police, he received hundreds of requests to visit him at the embassy. Each visit would be processed two days in advance and Ortiz would have to approve each time. Some high-profile guests included pop star Lady Gaga, actor John Cusack, Japanese artist Yoko Ono and her son Sean Lennon, and designer Vivienne Westwood who would often bring Assange something to eat. Assange is reportedly fond of eating meat and drinking red wine. However, the staff at the embassy would complain that the regular flow of visitors disturbed their daily operations. The officials and the diplomatic team were tired of the feature articles and interviews, of Assange and his people using the meeting rooms, one guard told El Pais. The high volume of visitors also created constant security concerns, the most noteworthy being a birthday visit by a drag queen who wore a very elaborate outfit that could have easily concealed a dangerous item that was prohibited in the building. Assange also would hold big celebrations to honor the milestones of WikiLeaks or simply kick a ball around the corridor on his own. The guards were frustrated by what they described to be eccentric behavior on Assanges part. Namely, he would be seen giving television interviews in his underwear, dressed only from the waist up. He was also accused of leaving the bathroom dirty after using it, which was reported to then-Ambassador Juan Falconi. Embassy staff were also unhappy about Assange using an electric cooker to make stews in his small kitchen that was not fitted with a smoke extractor, the newspaper reported. The security guards who protected Assange were contracted former military members. They were paid 2,000 euros ($2,260) a month, plus expenses, by defense and private security company UC Global, which began work at the embassy shortly after Assange claimed diplomatic asylum back in 2012. The business is owned by marine David Morales. It would employ guards for periods of weeks up to several years. The embassy also invested heavily in surveillance technology to protect Assange. An investigation by The Guardian estimated that the Ecuadorian government spent $5 million on protecting and monitoring Assange for seven years. The embassy was filled with cameras, both inside and out, said Txema Guijarro, a Spanish politician who at the time was an advisor for the Ecuadorian government. Assange was always obsessed with the idea that these images could be hacked and that, as such, we were doing the counterintelligence work for the British ourselves. A filing room was converted into a mini command center fitted with monitors, a video recorder, and an independent power supply system. The equipment was so advanced it would allow audiovisual signals to be seen in real time from the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, the person in charge revealed. On April 11, Assange finally left the embassy, carried by three police officers. He had taken refuge in the 300-square-meter (3,229 square foot) apartment on June 19, 2012, after losing a legal appeal to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual abuse. Two months later, Assange was granted indefinite asylum and then Ecuadorian nationality in January 2018. However, living in confinement for so many years took a toll on Assanges mental health. The situation that Assange is in isnt easy because of his emotional state. Throughout the length of his stay, he has gone through different stages in which he was more or less in agreement with the [security and surveillance] procedures but that is an area that does not correspond to him but rather the client, Morales said, according to El Pais. Assange is also believed to have experienced challenges in walking and with his vision due to being confined to the building. His doctor recommended him to look into the distance and the embassy gave him another room where he could see the street, which he was dragged onto after spending 2,494 days in the embassy. Alberta premier-designate Jason Kenney addresses supporters in Calgary on April 16, 2019, after his United Conservative Party won a majority government in the provinces elections. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh) With Kenneys Majority Win, Albertans Go Back to Their Conservative Roots After a four-year hiatus from their traditionally conservative roots, Albertans once again voted in a right-wing government on April 16, giving Jason Kenneys United Conservative Party (UCP) a decisive majority win. A well-known cabinet minister in Stephen Harpers government, Kenney put the kibosh on speculation that he would run for leadership of the federal Conservative Party after it lost the 2015 election. Instead, he decided to return home to Alberta, where the Progressive Conservatives (PC) had been ousted by the NDP. I think Alberta needed him, and I think he answered the call, said Hal Danchilla, a campaign strategist for Kenney. I think he felt that he could contribute in a meaningful way and change where Alberta was heading. Described as a tireless campaigner by his peers, Kenney began his three-year journey to premiership by first getting elected as leader of the embattled PC party in 2016 on a platform of uniting the right. He joined forces with Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean in 2017 to successfully persuade their party members to approve a merger of the two right-wing parties and form the UCP. Later that year, he defeated Jean in a leadership contest and became head of the new party. Putting his full focus on defeating Premier Rachel Notleys NDP in the election, Kenney campaigned on a platform of lowering taxes, implementing deregulation, and fighting to build pipelines to diversify markets for Albertas oil. His campaign culminated in victory on April 16, with his party picking up 38 seats to form a 63-seat majority government. Notleys NDP kept 24 of its 52 seats out of a total 87 seats. Kenney began his victory speech by addressing those most impacted by Albertas ailing economy due to years of low oil and gas prices. To the unemployed, the business owners barely hanging on, the young university and college graduates who cant find jobs, and those who have lost their homes and their hope after years of economic decline and stagnation, he said, We send this message: Help is on the way, and hope is on the horizon. Reiterating his platform promises, Kenney said his government will take on the foreign-funded campaign of special interests seeking to land-lock Canadian energy, launching initiatives to tell Albertas side of the story when the provinces oil is attacked as dirty, and having a public inquiry into the foreign source of funds. To the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Tides Foundation, LeadNow, the David Suzuki Foundation, and all the others: Your days of pushing around Albertans with impunity just ended. Kenney, who has promised to cut business tax to 8 percent from 12 percent and cut the red tape burden by at least one-third, said his government will strive to help create tens of thousands of good jobs by restoring investor confidence. He addressed Quebecors in French, asking for their cooperation in building pipelines for Albertas oil. He closed his speech with his take on the provinces fabric as a community. Alberta is an idea, an idea of a society that believes deeply in the dignity of the human person, and in a great tradition of ordered libertythe idea that strong families, communities, and resilient individuals are more effective at achieving human flourishing than a big, impersonal bureaucratic state, he said. David Taras, a political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said Kenney was able to pick up on the grievances of Albertans over the past few years, especially concerns about the failing economy, and becoming a symbol of change. Symbol of Change Theres a sense of populist grievance, of lashing out at elites, skepticism about Ottawa, oil company executives, the education establishment, Taras said. Kenney is a populist. Hes playing the Western alienation card very well. He became the symbol of change, as last time the NDP were the symbol of change. Taras defines populism as tackling the issues that improve peoples lives. Policy begins with the people. Youre trying to improve the lives of ordinary people by listening to them, and being one of them, he said. Marco Navarro-Genie, a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who says he has been friends with the UCP leader for over two decades, believes Kenneys success at the polls was thanks in part to the fact that he is highly articulate and persuasive. He is a man who can articulate his ideas and his convictions very well, Navarro-Genie said. Navarro-Genie defines populism as a political strategy, where the populist says things that people like because he likes to be liked. While he said there are populistic elements in Kenneys platformsuch as his proposed referendum on Canadas equalization plan that Navarro-Genie said wont change the federally controlled schemehe wouldnt label Kenney a populist. The reason is that he believes Kenneys ideas and policies are based on personal convictions rather than just looking to please people to grow his support base. By his personal conviction, for example, when he was immigration minister, he set out to modify the testing and materials that the federal government distributed to immigrants because he believed it was the right thing to promote a unifying identity in a country, Navarro-Genie said. While that wasnt popular within the ministry, he added, they eventually got behind him and it became a very effective idea. He won them on the basis of his conviction, and on the basis of his persuasive powers. This combination of undated photos released by the Jefferson County, Colo., Sheriff's Office on April 16, 2019, shows Sol Pais. (Jefferson County Sheriff's Office via AP) Young Woman Obsessed With Columbine is Found Dead LITTLETON, Colo.A Florida teenager who authorities say was obsessed with the Columbine school shooting and may have been planning an attack of her own in Colorado just days ahead of the 20th anniversary was found dead on Wednesday, April 17, in an apparent suicide after a nearly 24-hour manhunt. Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader said 18-year-old Sol Pais was discovered by the FBI with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The manhunt had led to the closing of Denver-area schools as a precaution, with classes and extracurricular activities canceled for a half-million students. During the urgent search, the FBI said Pais was infatuated with the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School and made threats against the Denver area ahead of Saturdays anniversary of the attack that killed 13 people. The Miami Beach high school student flew to Colorado on Monday night and bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition from a gun shop in Littleton, not far from Columbine, authorities said. The FBI described her as extremely dangerous. Were used to threats, frankly, at Columbine, John McDonald, executive director of security for the Jefferson County school system, said when the manhunt was over. This one felt different. It was different. It certainly had our attention. Her body was found off a trail not far from the base of Mount Evans, a popular recreation area about 60 miles southwest of Denver, authorities said. McDonald described her trip as a pilgrimage to Columbine and cited her purchase of the shotgun as one reason officials took her as a serious threat. Those two things combined with her fascination of Columbine thats pretty clear and convincing evidence that she was a threat to the school, he said. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said after receiving word that the hunt was over that he and all Colorado parents are hugging their children a little tighter. Authorities said Pais was last seen not far from Columbinein the Jefferson County foothills outside Denverin a black T-shirt, camouflage pants and black boots. Police were instructed to detain her for a mental health evaluation. The sheriff said the sale of the shotgun apparently followed the states legal process. Out-of-state residents who are at least 18 can legally buy shotguns in Colorado. Gun buyers must provide fingerprints and pass a criminal background check. In Pais hometown, Surfside Police Chief Julio Yero asked that the family be given privacy and a little time to grieve. This family contributed greatly to this investigation from the very onset. They provided valuable information that led us to Colorado and a lot of things that assisted in preventing maybe more loss of life, he said. Pais parents last saw her on Sunday and reported her missing to Florida authorities on Monday night, Surfside police said. Authorities gave no details on her threats but said she did not single out a specific school. Columbine and more than 20 other schools outside Denver reacted by locking their doors for nearly three hours Tuesday afternoon, and some canceled evening activities or moved them inside. Jefferson County school officials said events planned to mark the anniversary this weekend will go on as scheduled, including a ceremony at Columbine on Saturday. Two teenage gunmen attacked Columbine on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives. They have inspired cult-like admirers and motivated other mass shooters over the decades. Since Columbine, a growing no notoriety movement has urged news organizations to avoid naming the perpetrators of mass shootings to deprive them of the notoriety they seek. Adam Charni, a Miami Beach High School senior, said Pais dressed in black and kept mostly to herself. He said he was baffled to learn she was the person authorities in Colorado were searching for. Another classmate, 17-year-old Drew Burnstine, described Pais as quiet and smart. Denver-area parents struggled with how to explain to their children why they had the day off school without scaring them. This is definitely a challenge in their generation, and watching my kids learn how to navigate this is really hard. It is really heartbreaking, said Suzanne Kerns, of suburban Arvada, whose children are 8 and 15. By Kathleen Foody And Colleen Slevin Lauren Maillian is the founder and CEO of LMB Group, a strategic marketing and brand advisory company. She was also a founding partner at Gen Y Capital Partners, an early stage venture firm focused on investments in mobile and consumer-facing technology-enabled companies. Impressed? I'm not done yet. When she was just 19, Maillian co-founded a boutique winery that quickly became an internationally recognized award-winning wine brand, making her the youngest self-made winery owner in the country. She did that after she got back from working as a model in Paris and Buenos Aires, Argentina. I probably left out a bunch of other impressive accomplishments, so to get the full story, I suggest reading her bestselling business memoir, The Path Redefined: Getting To the Top On Your Own Terms. As you can tell, Maillian has been busy -- and she's showing no signs of slowing down. I had the pleasure of speaking with her and got insights into not just what fuels her astonishing success, but also her favorite mental and physical practices that we can all use to improve our businesses and our lives. 1. She never stops learning. "In todays digital and Internet of Things era, digital literacy is essential, and I find it not only economically beneficial but also really exciting to stay abreast of the latest tech developments. I make time to stay informed of emerging trends and remain knowledgeable about technology, even if its not my main priority. My focus is developing future-proof strategies, but I work with a team that specializes in various elements of technology (such as coding) to implement that strategy. Surrounding myself with an expert team not only allows me to maintain my primary focus, but also keeps me learning, expanding and sharpening my own skill set. Of course, sometimes you implement new systems or programs and its a swing and a miss, but the benefit of interfacing with new technology is invaluable." Related: Check out Entrepreneur Insider free and exclusive online workshops 2. Harnessing the power of storytelling. "The most challenging and rewarding aspect of my business has been the power of storytelling. Working as a brand strategist for a cannabis company, in particular, has helped me learn how to change the narrative around a product to create immense economic output. The explosion of the cannabis industry is a powerful example of how to effectively change social views, norms and values, and much of that change comes into play through the work that I do. A decade ago, the notion that cannabis could be a legal and blossoming industry with viable companies and marketable products might have been inconceivable to most of us. Through my business, I get to see firsthand that public perception on almost anything can be pivoted with the right storytelling, and with the right people at the helm to tell that story in a new and strategic way." Related: How to Use Storytelling to Sell Your Brand and Vision 3. Finding deeper meaning in her work. "I worked with an entrepreneur who was going through personal tragedy at a time when she was also preparing for business growth. After the loss of a child, she went from being this wealth of information, ideas and excitement about her industry to feeling lost and obviously needing the time to grieve. She didnt have the same passion and love for her business and didnt really know what to do. We were fortunate enough to cross paths and I offered her counsel and advice about her business strategies, but also about how to emotionally cope with her grief and make the space and time to take care of herself. We bonded over the hardship of handling motherhood amidst personal trauma and entrepreneurship and she ultimately decided that her child would not have wanted her to give up. Of course, it took a while for her to get into a rhythm again and feel comfortable proceeding with her business plan, but now shes doing so well and everything she does is really in honor for him. She has seen a tremendous shift and growth in her business, in her revenue, and a lot of it came from simplifying her processes, learning to delegate better, compartmentalizing and prioritizing. In the last two years, her business has been more successful than in the previous eight years combined, and its just an awesome testament to the power of strategy when coupled with support and advocacy. I cant say enough how humbled and appreciative I am to be in a position where I get to meet and help people like her." 4. Embracing a rigorous self-care regimen. "I love working out and I am working with Be Exceptional Fitness to maintain an exercise regimen that challenges and strengthens my mind and body. Starting my day off with intense exercise allows me to clear my mind and release stress and tension. Theres something reassuring and most importantly, empowering, about realizing your physical power and knowing that it translates to your professional power. Self-care for me is ensuring that my in-fit matches my outfit -- strong, confident and capable. Of course, I also enjoy vacations with my family and acupuncture and massage help me to rejuvenate, but that feeling of being exceptional in all that I do definitely comes from my fitness routine. Im a big believer in the notion that the mental skills you develop from fitness are almost always transferrable into every other facet of life. Yes, exercise keeps me sane, it keeps me looking and feeling my best, but it also cultivates a strong sense of discipline and personal accountability that only magnifies my professional persona." Related: 8 Self-Care Tips From Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs 5. Knowing her value. "No one asks men how they balance work and home; no one questions how, or if, they can manage their time and varied responsibilities. I really wish that people would embrace womens ability to work hard in their careers, build great businesses and still create a loving family without sacrificing one aspect for another. I sincerely believe its central to the issue of womens value not yet being fully seen and appreciated in business. Instead of questioning capabilities, men should worry instead about equalizing pay in light of all that women can and do handle on a daily basis. Lets instead equalize tolerance of competing responsibilities. We handle it well." Related: Where Lies the Seed of Achievement - Well it's Desire! Fitting Square Pegs in Round Holes: The Joy of finding Product-Market Fit Is Revised Angel Tax Streamlining the Process or Hampering it? Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved NORWALK Nausea, vomiting, shaking and dehydration would typically wake Ally Kernan around 4 a.m. The Fairfield native was 18 at the time and in the grip of opioid addiction. Most mornings, she would commit petty crimes on the streets of Bridgeport to fund her heroin addiction. That could take hours. By then youre pretty deep in withdrawal because it just gets worse every second, the 27-year-old said. I wouldnt wish withdrawal on my worst enemy. Kernan spent part of her day trying to track down a dealer before chewing on pills or injecting heroin in her car or a public bathroom. Even shooting up was a disaster because you gotta try to find a vein, she said. Id be in withdrawal, shaking, and it would just be this mess. The second I would get high, within a minute, most of the withdrawal symptoms were gone. Youre not sweating your ass off, youre not vomiting, youre able to take a shower and its just do it all over again. A deadly epidemic Statistics paint a grim picture for those struggling with opioid addiction. About 130 Americans die every day from opioid overdoses, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 1,000 people died from opioid overdoses in Connecticut in 2018, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Connecticuts overdose deaths are 1.7 times the national average. To fight the epidemic, local groups such as Connecticut Counseling Centers are working to help people experiencing addiction. See the accompanying fact box for a list of resources. Undiagnosed mental health issues coupled with past trauma from domestic violence may have led Kernan to drug use. Drugs werent offered to me as something bad. They were offered to me as a solution, she said. A lot of the people around me, it worked for them, so I wasnt looking at it like this is going to be a bad thing. It was, this is going to make you not feel the pain that you feel, and this is going to work better than anything youve ever tried. ... I thought, Im not going to get addicted to this. Im going to let this work for me. At 16, Kernan started sniffing pain killers. By 19, she was using heroin. It was cheaper, stronger and more accessible, she said. Eventually, she became physically dependent. Without heroin she couldnt socialize or complete ordinary tasks such as showering and washing her hair. She stayed quiet about her problem and continued to use, suppressing any desire to ask for help. Kernan and her ex-boyfriend stopped paying their rent, which led to eviction and a year of homelessness. Life on the streets brought robberies, assaults and sexual abuse by strangers and acquaintances who set her up. Somehow, some way, it was always related to money or drugs, she said. There were times where we were supposed to go and pick up heavy amounts of drugs and that person that set us up with the dealer would know that we were coming with all that money and set us up for a robbery, she said. At 22, she was homeless, living on the streets of Bridgeport, and at rock bottom. Then she was arrested. In 2014, she was convicted of conspiracy to sell narcotics, possession of narcotics and possession with intent to sell. On April 1 of that year, she began an eight-month sentence at York Correctional Institution in Niantic. The worst part about lockup was a feeling of being trapped 24 hours a day, seven days a week, she said. Most of the corrections officers were male, something difficult for Kernan, given her history of abuse at the hands of men. Not all corrections officers were bad, she said. But some were like the biggest perverts you could possibly imagine and as a female you already deal with that so much in society, she said. But there, youre trapped. The people that do go and tell on someone either magically end up in segregation the next day, or nothing happens. Its sad for the people that want to do their job correctly. Road to recovery Although life behind bars was traumatic for Kernan, its how she began her recovery. After her release, she joined a church with an addiction ministry, attended 12-step meetings and utilized a detox facility. Group and individual therapy were also a part of her recovery. Now a project leader for TurningPointCT, a Norwalk-based online resource supporting Connecticuts young adults and teens with their mental wellness and recovery, Kernan encourages anyone whos struggling to reach out for help. She celebrated three years of sobriety on Dec. 2. Her mother, Sarah Massa, said one of the hardest things was watching others judge her daughter throughout the recovery process. I would like people to stop with the labels, Massa said of words such as addict. Stop with the stigma because you dont know whats going on. Its mean, and its hurtful and its so unfair, because it could be your child. Shes more than that ridiculous label. Kernan said one way the state could work toward combatting the epidemic is by putting more peer support specialists in schools. You can make some bad choices but that doesnt mean you deserve to continue suffering or suffering more, she said. You dont have to sit there and be ashamed of what you went through. You can learn from it and own it. tatiana.flowers@thehour.com NORWALK Rene Soto opened his eponymously named gallery on Wall Street less than a year ago with a dream of supporting other artists and establishing a creative community space. Now, those efforts are being honored. This week, Soto was named as one of nine 2019 Connecticut Arts Heroes the only honoree from Fairfield County by the Connecticut Office of the Arts. The honorees are being recognized for their work in, for and through the arts. Ive always been in the arts because Im an artist and I want to support other artists, too, Soto said. I cant ask for more, Im so happy. Soto emigrated from Guatemala, where he was a gym teacher, eight years ago after the death of his mother and brothers and settled in Fairfield County. Since his childhood, he harbored a love for the arts but lacked an outlet. For much of his life, he had no access to art supplies. When he arrived in Connecticut, art became a way of dealing with the trauma of his past. Art has saved my life in many ways, Soto said in a 2018 interview. When I have nightmares sometimes, I go to paint and I make horrible things through the painting. Its the best way to show things you cant say. All the stress goes away. Soto also used art to build connections in the community, especially linking creative people who have come to the area from Central and South American countries. He created a bilingual magazine, called Latin Colors, and in May 2018 opened up the Rene Soto Gallery. Hes hosted art exhibitions, dance classes, poetry readings and live music, as well as educational classes to expose children to art. Soto has donated his work to organizations like the Ronald McDonald House, the Stamford Senior Center, Caring with Grace and the Domestic Violence Crisis Center. Hes also helped coordinate efforts to beautify the Wall Street neighborhood, commissioning an artist last fall to paint a utility box outside of the Wall Street Theater. What I love about him is that he sees the neighborhood as a canvas and he wants to see it beautified in whatever way he can contribute to that, said Marc Alan, a member of the Wall Street Neighborhood Association and the Arts Commission and director of marketing and publicity at Factory Underground. Hes a great team player. He really comes ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work and thats what I really admire about him. Soto was nominated for the award by Angelica Gorrio, who heads the Peruvian dance academy Marinera Connecticut, whose classes are sometimes taught at the gallery. I met him about three years ago and Ive seen him grow and (Ive seen) his struggles. It hasnt been easy, Gorrio said. Art is a language itself. Art is a way to relieve. He has been through it and he also helps people through art. Gorrio found out about the awards and filled out the short application in March. In response to a question about Sotos relevance, the theme of this years awards, Gorrio wrote: Todays culture is divided politically, but at the Rene Soto Gallery, those barriers are broken with the global language of arts. Rene is a true example of what unity, hard work and dedication to the community really means. All recipients of the award will meet May 1 at Infinity Hall in Hartford for a reception, at which Gorrio will present Soto with his award. In the meantime, Soto plans to continue his work community building. Hes currently showing the work of the Santiago Cabrera, who came to America from Guatemala in 1999. At the end of the month, hell grace the cover of Latin Colors Magazine. On May 2, he will be one of two honorees at Lives Blossom A Celebration of the Stamford Senior Center. And later in May, hell take part in a fundraising effort to make Stepping Stones Museum for Children bilingual. Im thankful for everything thats happened in my life right now, Soto said. This is something that I would like to tell people: fight for your dreams, work hard for them and believe in whatever you think is correct and try to share things with others and do something in the community for arts and culture. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 NORWALK For the past few months, Lucille Weldon has been trying to figure out where visitors to her neighborhood could park. Weldon, who lives on Orchard Street, said that parking was taken away last fall from one side of the street, leaving few options. We have our driveways, yes, for our parking, but if we had a visitor or a relative come and stay, we have nowhere for them to park, she told the Traffic Authority on Monday. Parking was restricted in part, due to the fact that emergency vehicles would have trouble accessing the street which has the large Waypointe apartment buildings on the end close to West Avenue, according to a letter to the Traffic Authority from Assistant Fire Chief Chris King. If cars were parked on both sides, it would limit the use of our aerial devices, King wrote, explaining that with those kids of of buildings, multi-story apartments, the apparatus is very important. He recommended that parking remain only allowed on one side of the street. If cars were legally allowed to park on both sides, we would be limited in how we would normally attack fires and perform rescues, he wrote. However, Weldon argued that the street became narrow at the end near West Avenue when the sidewalks were redone with the apartments and that her end was wide enough to accommodate parking on both sides. I guess theyre thinking that the emergency vehicles would have to get in where the big apartment buildings are now, and I understand that, but it doesnt help the residents, the homeowners on the other end of the street, she said. These apartment buildings, they have parking to accommodate the residents and their visitors we dont have that same privilege. Mayor Harry Rilling, a member of the Traffic Authority, said he would look into the issue and visit the street to see if some accommodation could be made for parking near the end where Weldon and others live. Ill also take a look at the road see what the different widths are and how that might impact it, he said. He also said he would speak with King and other officials about the feasibility of allowing some parking on the other end of the street. Weldon said she would really appreciate it because the homeowners back there arent always taken into consideration. I cant have any visitors because theres nowhere for them to park, she said. Thats not fair. We were not thought about at all when they put those apartment buildings there. Thats what I want someone to consider. kelly.kultys@hearstmediact.com Job Archive July 2021 (524) June 2021 (681) May 2021 (698) April 2021 (659) March 2021 (688) February 2021 (615) January 2021 (700) December 2020 (714) November 2020 (671) October 2020 (631) September 2020 (690) August 2020 (713) July 2020 (713) June 2020 (690) May 2020 (713) April 2020 (690) March 2020 (713) February 2020 (667) January 2020 (713) December 2019 (713) November 2019 (687) October 2019 (711) September 2019 (689) August 2019 (711) July 2019 (707) June 2019 (688) May 2019 (2002) April 2019 (1979) March 2019 (2039) February 2019 (1689) January 2019 (2259) December 2018 (2111) November 2018 (1935) October 2018 (1993) September 2018 (1918) August 2018 (39) July 2018 (72) June 2018 (44) May 2018 (76) April 2018 (65) March 2018 (16) February 2018 (32) January 2018 (201) December 2017 (352) November 2017 (381) October 2017 (600) September 2017 (1211) August 2017 (1655) July 2017 (1590) June 2017 (1506) May 2017 (1903) April 2017 (1965) March 2017 (1417) February 2017 (1808) January 2017 (1807) December 2016 (1593) November 2016 (1377) October 2016 (1408) September 2016 (1317) August 2016 (1499) July 2016 (1505) June 2016 (1421) May 2016 (1392) April 2016 (1340) March 2016 (1476) February 2016 (1396) January 2016 (1474) December 2015 (1409) November 2015 (1367) October 2015 (1478) September 2015 (1443) August 2015 (1468) July 2015 (1465) June 2015 (1410) May 2015 (1058) April 2015 (1269) March 2015 (1133) February 2015 (1155) January 2015 (1154) December 2014 (1156) November 2014 (1268) October 2014 (81) During her visit to the Philippines, RoK Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee met her Philippine counterpart, Ramon Lopez. At their talks, the two ministers agreed to negotiate on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the goal of finalising the details in time for the summit between the RoK and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this November. Among ASEAN members, the Philippines is the RoK's fifth-largest trading partner. The bilateral trading volume between the two came to USD15.6 billion in 2018. Earlier, the RoK signed FTAs with with Vietnam and Singapore, and is currently conducting free trade negotiations with Malaysia and Indonesia./. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ida Ayu Prasastiasih Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 18, 2019 Bullying physical and verbal intimidation and violence are not merely playground scuffles. The violence and the imbalance of power between victims and perpetrators becomes a time bomb if they are not addressed immediately and thoroughly. Many studies have shown that victims of bullying can potentially experience lifelong mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, while bullies can continue with their aggressive and delinquent behavior. Today, we are again seeing bullying cases that involve underage victims and perpetrators. We are faced with the dilemma of enforcing the law and Law No. 35/2014 on child protection. An outraged and shocked public has demanded law enforcement agencies and other institutions to ignore the perpetrators age to ensure justice for Audrey, the latest victim in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, who is being treated for severe injuries she suffered when she was assaulted and tortured by fellow high school students. A petition to punish the perpetrators, reportedly all girls, has garnered over 4.5 million signatures, surpassing the original target of just 400,000 signatures. Those who signed the petition were furious about the perpetrators apparent disregard for the victims pain. In 2017, we were also shocked by the junior high school students who tortured a fellow student at Thamrin City shopping center, in the heart of the capital. That same year, cases of bullying of ethnic, racial and religious minorities also occurred among adults in Jakarta. Elementary school children reportedly bullied a classmate who they thought resembled imprisoned former Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, who was convicted for blasphemy following massive public pressure. In 2018, an elementary school student in Kediri, East Java, was also bullied and sustained severe head injuries. None of these horrible cases ended with any deterrent effect for the perpetrators, because they were settled through peaceful reconciliation and noncriminal punishments. This is a grave problem for the future of this nations generation, far beyond the general election. This is why #JusticeForAudrey demands that the law be upheld to redress mental and physical damage Audrey has sustained, as well as the trauma her family is going through, not to mention the other bullying victims who have remained silent, likely out of fear. The law on child protection obliges the local government and relevant institutions to immediately provide protection to children who have experienced physical or mental abuse. The 2012 law on the juvenile justice system also stresses that all legal cases involving children must prioritize their interests. However, articles 5 and 6 of this law lean toward restorative justice and diversion, emphasizing settling conflicts in a familial manner and focusing on recovery, not justice through legal punishments. This law seems to prioritize a peaceful settlement rather than providing a deterrent effect for the perpetrators, and thus seems to underestimate bullying. To end legal vagueness, it is time for a new policy and a legal umbrella on bullying that prioritizes overcoming all forms of bullying. This could begin with handing down legal punishments to the perpetrators of bullying to firmly show them that what they have done is wrong and a violation of the law. There are at least three urgent factors here. First, raise public awareness that bullying is a serious problem that has a terrible impact on the victims future. Second, develop a much-improved policy on bullying as a reference for related institutions to provide justice, not just reconciliation between the victims and perpetrators and hope that the victims mental injury from bullying can heal over time. Third, the new policy on bullying would provide a foundation to improve school services to ensure that students are protected from potential bullying, as well as to make parents aware that educating children is the responsibility not only of formal institutions, but also of parents at home and in the family environment, to nip bullying in the bud. This is a grave problem for the future of this nations generation, far beyond the general election. The state has the opportunity at least to stop the dark cycle of bullying. Guarantee protection and assistance to help the victims of bullying to heal, and take firm action against the perpetrators. This country is not a place for delinquent kids who can do whatever they want to their peers. *** The writer is pursuing a masters at the School of Government and Public Policy-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 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 (Agence France-Presse) Thu, April 18, 2019 10:09 974 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87339975b 2 Science & Tech Women,men,psychological,character,Science,infidelity Free You can't hide your lying eyes: Scientists have revealed that women can judge whether a man is likely to be unfaithful just by looking at his face but men are less able to spot a cheating woman. Researchers at the University of Western Australia took a group of 1,500 people and showed them pictures of 189 Caucasian adults (101 men and 88 women), having first asked them if they had been unfaithful to their partners. Respondents were then asked to rank these faces on a scale of one to 10, where one is "not at all likely to be unfaithful" and 10 is "extremely likely" to play the field. The result, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, was that "both men and women were accurate in assessing men's, but not women's, likelihood to cheat and poach". They cited research showing that 70 per cent of people across more than 50 cultures report an attempt to poach someone else's partner and 60 per cent saying they were successful. The results were "not as expected", the scientists admitted. Men were able to spot potential poachers among other men but even when other women were judging, the female of the species was inscrutable. "Taken together, both men and women showed above-chance accuracy for men's faces but not women's faces. Therefore, perceived unfaithfulness may indeed contain some kernel of truth in male faces," the scientists wrote. What makes women suspect men might sleep around? Read also: CEO of cheating website says he's faithful husband According to the survey, it mainly boils down to perceived masculinity, although the researchers came up with another unexpected result, suggesting it's not the best-looking men that play away the most. "Surprisingly, even though more attractive men were rated as more unfaithful, they were less likely to engage in actual mate poaching," the study said. Despite the findings, one of the scientists involved in the report cautioned against jumping to conclusions on a first date. Although men are marginally more likely to betray infidelity with their features, it is still difficult to spot possible cheats from one individual's face, said Dr Yong Zhi Foo. "If we are to rely solely on our first impressions to detect cheaters/poachers, then we will make substantial errors," Dr Foo told Agence France-Presse. "Our results must not be taken to mean that first impressions can be used in any everyday situations," he added. Topics : Women men psychological character Science infidelity Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 18, 2019 07:00 974 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873395b7b 1 Art & Culture Australia,Australian-Embassy,photo-exhibition,Islam,exhibition Free A photo exhibition that highlights the complete story of the presence of Islam in Australia opened at the Jakarta History Museum in West Jakarta on Monday. Titled "Boundless Plains: The Australian Museum Connection", the public exhibition initiated by the Islamic Museum of Australia features a host of historical photographs mapping the presence of Islam in the neighboring commonwealth country over the last 200 years. From the earliest cultural exchange between a sailor from Makassar, South Sulawesi and the native Yolngu in northern Australia, to the immigrants from around the world who now call Australia home, visitors will be able to see the full picture of a pivotal period in the countrys history. Founded in 2010, the Melbourne-based non-profit Islamic Museum of Australia aims to showcase rich artistic heritage involving the history of Muslims in Australia and abroad. Read also: The top 10 art exhibitions to see in 2019 Islam is a big religion in Australia and it grows rapidly at around 20 percent, Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Gary Quinlan said in a statement. The exhibition shows that similar to Indonesia, Australia draws its power from its melting pot of various peoples and cultures, he added. Jakarta History Museum head Sri Kusumawati said she expected the exhibition to be a worthwhile learning opportunity for the public. Jakarta History Museum is thrilled to collaborate with the Australian Embassy for this exhibition. I hope it will create further opportunities for cultural and tourism partnership between Indonesia and Australia, Sri said. The exhibition is slated to run until April 30. (rfa/kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Julie Charpentrat (Agence France-Presse) San Francisco, United States Thu, April 18, 2019 12:08 974 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87339f94a 2 Science & Tech Qualcomm,Apple,royalties,patent Free Apple and American microchip manufacturer Qualcomm said Tuesday they have agreed to "dismiss all litigation" against each other worldwide in what had been a sprawling battle over royalty payments. The last-minute settlement cut short a courtroom clash between the tech giants just as it was getting underway in California. For two years, the companies had fought a multi-front brawl that could have required Qualcomm to pay billions. The news sent Qualcomm's stock price soaring more than 23 percent on Wall Street, its best one-day performance in nearly 20 years. The deal includes a six-year license agreement with the option to extend for two years, and a payment to Qualcomm from Apple, the companies said. At the heart of the battle were the royalties Qualcomm charges for its patented chips, which enable smartphones to connect to mobile networks. Apple accused Qualcomm, which holds the most patents for chips, of taking advantage of its dominant position to charge exorbitant amounts for its chips or access to its patents. Qualcomm denied the allegations and accused Apple of abusing its position and of taking legal action to negotiate prices down. "I believe both Apple and Qualcomm got deeper into this than they wanted to," analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said in a statement. "This settlement should be good for the wireless industry as companies should feel free to invest in research, get paid a fair price for those inventions, and consumers take advantage of those innovations at a very rapid pace." Several hours after the deal was announced, Intel said it was withdrawing from the 5G smartphone modem business, without indicating whether its decision was a cause or consequence of the agreement its rival signed with Apple. Read also: Apple pays $7.50 to Qualcomm for each iPhone Recent defeats for Qualcomm The stakes had been especially high for Qualcomm, given that it earns a significant chunk of its revenue from royalties paid by manufacturers for its patented technology. Apple had argued that Qualcomm's royalty demands meant it was effectively insisting on payment for innovations by Apple -- such as touch ID or Apple Pay -- that Qualcomm "had nothing to do with." Apple said it had been overcharged by billions as a result and, following its initial US lawsuit, the iPhone maker filed two more suits in China on the same basis. Qualcomm counter-sued. Also in early 2017, the US Federal Trade Commission sued Qualcomm for alleged antitrust law violations in the sale of certain components and licenses to smartphone makers, including Apple. In April 2017, it was forced to pay $815 million to Canada's Blackberry in a royalties dispute. And since 2015, through both convictions and settlements, it has paid high antitrust fines in China, South Korea, Taiwan and the European Union. This has led to contradictory legal rulings. In March, a US court ruled in Apple's favor, a few hours after a judge of the same court ordered a partial ban of iPhone imports. Meanwhile, by the end of 2018, Qualcomm had secured a ban on the sale of certain iPhones in China and Germany -- again for patent violations. Topics : Qualcomm Apple royalties patent Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Shanghai, China Fri, April 19, 2019 01:03 973 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733c02c3 2 Lifestyle Mercedes-Benz,China,consumer Free German auto giant Mercedes-Benz apologized Tuesday over the ordeal of a Chinese car buyer who alleged mistreatment by an authorized dealership in a viral video that triggered consumer outrage. The woman, whose name has not been revealed, has said she purchased a new Mercedes from an authorized dealer in the northern city of Xi'an only to discover afterwards that it was leaking oil on the showroom floor. A video was posted showing her sitting on the hood of a car in the showroom and angrily accusing sales staff of dodging her demands for a refund. The woman also alleged in later media interviews that she originally wanted to pay cash for the car but was pressured by the dealership into taking out a loan that came with high fees. "We're very sorry for whatever happened," said Hubertus Troskas, a board member and head of China operations for Daimler, Mercedes' parent group. "We have reached an agreement with the customer and she will continue to be a Mercedes customer," he added, speaking to journalists on the opening day of the Shanghai Auto Show. But the irate buyer said in a Chinese media interview posted on Monday that she would continue to refuse any settlement offer by Mercedes, saying she wanted the matter fully investigated by consumer protection authorities first. Daimler, as well as government authorities in Xi'an, have already announced investigations. Read also: Dolce & Gabbana shows that marketing blunders know no borders "This is nothing we approve of. We go by the law," Troskas said on the opening day of the Chinese auto show. "There is good consumer protection in China and we want all of our dealers to work to the letter of the law and the ethics of our brand," he said. "We clearly have to apologize. That has not been dealt with properly." The woman has alleged that when she requested a refund, the dealership first offered to repair the leak, and then to install a new engine. Her complaints have sparked a flood of supportive online comments by Chinese web-users, with many relating their own consumer horror stories. The episode is the latest in a series of cases to show foreign brands the power of Chinese netizens. Last year, Mercedes-Benz apologized for "hurting the feelings" of China's people after its Instagram account used a quote by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who is vilified as a separatist by Beijing. Also last year, Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana apologized to Chinese consumers after its products were pulled from lucrative Chinese e-commerce platforms over an Instagram post by the brand that was seen in China as culturally offensive. And hotel group Marriott's website in China was shut down by authorities after a customer questionnaire listed Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong as separate countries, angering Beijing. Marriott apologized and change the wording. Global carmakers have gathered for the Shanghai Auto Show amid a rare sales slump in the world's largest vehicle market stemming from a range of economic and trade factors. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 18, 2019 13:28 974 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733a3dec 1 Business energy,mining,policy,elections,WoodMac,comments Free The presidential and legislative elections will not lead to a change in energy policy and will not improve the investment climate in energy and mining, according to global energy think tank Wood Mackenzie (WoodMac). In a press statement WoodMac research director Andrew Harwood said state-owned oil and gas holding company Pertamina was on track to take over expiring production sharing contracts. The government will continue to prioritize the energy sovereignty policy to curb costly oil imports that supply about half of domestic oil demand. This suggests that restrictions on crude exports will remain in place, he said. Furthermore, the think tank believes efforts to improve the investment climate in the sector are too little, too late as many big companies have exited or scaled back in Indonesia. Slow progress in projects of national strategic importance such as the transfer of the Rokan PSC and approval of the Abadi LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas] development has given mixed signals to investors, he said. Meanwhile, Hugo Brennan, a senior political analyst at WoodMacs sister company Verisk Maplecroft added that the country will go ahead with the plan to ban exports of unprocessed minerals. The incoming administration will likely implement a full ban on the export of unprocessed minerals, which is to take place in 2022, he said. Brennan further said the government would continue its preferential treatment policy with state mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) as part of the governments effort to turn Inalum into a global miner. He believed that the next government would force foreign miners to divest in the mining sector, a policy that would deter greenfield investment. All eyes will be on how Freeport McMoRan operates the Grasberg copper mine as now it only holds a minority stake, he said. (bbn) Topics : energy mining policy elections WoodMac comments Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 18, 2019 Tens of millions of voters turned up at polling stations on Wednesday in what observers dubbed the largest one-day election in the democratic world. Voters got to choose a president and vice president, as well as legislative representatives at the subnational levels on the day. Some 195 million people were declared eligible to vote and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies-Cyrus Network indicated that voter turnout reached 82 percent. Some people had their own way of enlivening the day and to lure voters to show up at polling stations. 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 Irakli Metreveli (Agence France-Presse) Tiblisi, Georgia Thu, April 18, 2019 22:10 973 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733bdee0 2 World #SaudiArabia,#AsylumSeeker,Saudi-Arabia,sisters,asylum,Georgia Free The Saudi women began posting tweets about their situation on Tuesday, initially not revealing their identities. Wafa Alsubaie, said in a video that their father and brothers were already in Georgia and searching for them. "We fled oppression from our family because the laws in Saudi Arabia (are) too weak to protect us," she said. The UNHCR's Georgia office said on Facebook that anyone "requesting international protection in Georgia has access to a fair and effective asylum procedure". Saudi Arabia is one of the world's most restrictive countries for women. In a similar case in March, another two Saudi sisters aged 20 and 18 who were marooned in Hong Kong arrived in a safe third country after securing humanitarian visas as they sought sanctuary from an abusive family. At the beginning of the year, 18-year-old Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun drew global attention with her dramatic escape from an allegedly abusive family, gaining refugee status in Canada. Many Saudi women who flee overseas have spoken to media and rights groups of persuasive and coercive tactics used by Saudi officials and family members to pursue those who escape. Industry Minister Airlangga Hartanto has said that a draft regulation concerning the so-called superdeduction tax will be implemented for manufacturing companies that run vocational schools teaching 36 skills. The superdeduction tax is a fiscal incentive involving a 200 percent tax allowance proposed by the ministry for such companies. "We have listed 36 competencies in the draft. We will finalize the regulation with the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs," he said during the Indonesian Industrial Summit 2019 in Tangerang, Banten, on Monday, as quoted by kontan.co.id. Airlangga said 16 vocational skills fell into the general category: industrial electronics, installation of electric power utilization, machinery, welding, casting, industrial mechanical maintenance, metal instrumentation and metal fabrication. Also included in the category are process control expertise, mechanical control, industrial automation, mechatronics, industrial chemistry, chemical analysis, audio video repair and maintenance and heavy equipment maintenance and repair. Airlangga said the other 20 skills were divided into five categories: automotive, furniture, shipbuilding, textile and garment and industrial logistics. He said that in the automotive category, the fiscal incentive would be implemented for businesses that offered education programs on maintenance and repair of light vehicles, motorcycles, electronic design, repair of automotive bodies and manufacturing of automotive industry components. He added that in the furniture category, the required competencies were product manufacturing and design. Companies running education programs on shipbuilding design, ship construction, ship welding, ship electrics and ship machinery were also entitled to the incentive, he said. Airlangga said the textile and garment category included programs on design, yarn manufacturing, fabric manufacturing, garment production and textile chemistry. Lastly, in the industrial logistics category, the regulated competencies were warehousing logistics, transportation and warehouse management. (ars) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rachmadea Aisyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 18, 2019 13:21 974 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733a3a50 1 Business manufacture,GDP,growth,industry,Industry-4-0,industry-ministry,economic-growth,Jokowi,Airlangga-Hartarto Free The government is not buying arguments that the manufacturing sector is shrinking even though its percentage contribution to the economy has declined over the past few years. The manufacturing sector remains the largest contributor to GDP. However, its percentage contribution to GDP reached 19.86 percent last year after struggling to remain at the 20-percent mark. Vice President Jusuf Kalla has sought to shed light on the situation, saying the declining percentage should not be prematurely perceived as a sign the country was experiencing deindustrialization. Our [manufacturing] sector is growing at 5 percent per year. It is growing, not contracting, Kalla said during the 2019 Indonesia Industrial Summit (IIS) recently. Between 2014 and 2017, [its contribution to GDP] was 21.3 percent on average. The term deindustrialization has garnered more attention following claims made by presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who argued the countrys manufacturing sector was in decline and was being left behind by its peers. Kalla added that the government was committed to boosting manufacturing through the implementation of President Joko Jokowi Widodos road map on the fourth industrial revolution, titled Making Indonesia 4.0. He said technology and data control were the keys to getting ahead in todays industrial race with the rise of automation, but that people would remain the backbone of the economy. We are not like those developed but aging countries, as we have a large workforce thanks to our demographic bonus [...] Physical work will remain relevant, as we need workers who can ensure [our] consumption [continues], said Kalla. Indonesias working age population, or those aged 15 to 44, was projected to reach just over 200 million in 2030, or approximately 68 percent of the population, giving the country the highest number of productive aged citizens in Southeast Asia, the National Development Board (Bappenas) said. At the same time, global consulting firm Mckinsey has estimated that Industry 4.0. would contribute an additional US$121 billion to GDP by 2025 if implemented properly. Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto said the Making Indonesia 4.0 road map would promote the manufacturing sector and boost its contribution to GDP to 25 percent. In addition, he said the sector would provide jobs to more than 11.5 million people and increase economic growth by 1 to 2 percent by 2030. We can develop manufacturing through technological advancement, increased investment, human resources development and providing fiscal incentives to encourage research and development, Airlangga said. To encourage local manufacturers to implement Industry 4.0, his office has rolled out the Indonesia Industry 4.0 Readiness Index (INDI 4.0), a self-assessed measurement that determines the scale of Industry 4.0 implementation by companies. The INDI 4.0 is measured from a scale of zero to four, with four indicating that a company has fully incorporated Industry 4.0-related technologies in its production. More than 300 companies have participated and assessed themselves for INDI 4.0 [...] On average, most companies scored 2.5 to 2.6, so we hope that some of them will hit 4.0 in the future, said Airlangga. Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said the declining percentage contribution of manufacturing to GDP was understandable given the increased contribution of more progressive sectors. We are living in an era where the elements of service, tourism, digitization and so on have deeply impacted our lives, so it is no problem if the manufacturing sector [contribution to GDP] never reaches 30 percent again, Darmin said on the sidelines of the IIS. He cited Bank Indonesias latest Prompt Manufacturing Index (PMI), which measured the manufacturing sector to be at an expansive level of 52.65 percent in the first quarter of 2019, owing to increases in demand in preparation for Aprils elections and the Idul Fitri holiday in June. This index also foresees that our manufacturing sector will still be perceived positively in the next [second] quarter [...] so the PMI will improve, said Darmin. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 18, 2019 12:13 974 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733a00c5 1 Politics 2019-elections,ballot-paper,ballots,KPU Free The General Elections Commission (KPU) has been called on to investigate and make a decision on whether to carry out a revote, following reports of the discovery of marked ballots in several areas on Wednesday. KPU commissioner Hasyim Asy'ari said the commission had received the reports. The KPU at district or city level should resolve this. Its possible to hold a revote if the Elections Supervisory Agency [Bawaslu] recommends it, but not all [the ballots] only those that were marked before voting, Hasyim said on Wednesday. Antara reported that 10 marked ballots for the presidential election were found by the Yogyakarta Bawaslu at polling station 41 in Tamantirto, Kasihan subdistrict, Bantul. The ballots were marked in favor of the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno candidate pair. A Yogyakarta Bawaslu official, Sutrisnowati, said the marked ballots were found by voters at the polling station Four marked ballots for the presidential election were also found in Soak Baru subdistrict, Musi Banyuasin district, South Sumatra, in favor of the Joko Jokowi Widodo-Maruf Amin candidate pair. Musi Banyuasin KPU head Maryadi Mustofa confirmed the discovery. We have been working with Bawaslu and the police. The ballots have been declared as damaged," he said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday. However, Maryadi said he could not speculate if the marked ballots were intentional or not. "It's the police's authority to investigate the motive," he said. Tangerang Bawaslu in Banten also reported the discovery of one marked presidential election ballot in Cipondoh Makmur district. On Wednesday, a video showing marked ballots that were discovered in Surabaya, East Java, went viral on Twitter. The video was uploaded by @ShahabHelda at 11.44 a.m. TKP surabaya . Kalau sudah begini, mau percaya siapa? #JagaTPSKawalHasilSuara pic.twitter.com/0m6d6cTKHd Helda Shahab (@ShahabHelda) April 17, 2019 The account owner said the incident took place at a polling station in Ampel district. However, an official of the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) at the polling station said the ballots were not intentionally marked, but only damaged because the hole in the ballot box was too small. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 18, 2019 16:05 974 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733b2c43 1 Politics Good-Friday,Monas,Prabowo-Subianto,Prabowo-Sandiaga,church,2019-presidential-election,#2019PresidentialElection Free Supporters of presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Uno plan to gather around the National Monument (Monas) on Friday afternoon to celebrate the peaceful election held two days earlier. Campaign team spokesman Andre Rosiade said on Thursday that his team was currently planning the event, and that the gathering would take place after Friday prayers at Istiqlal Mosque. "[The event] is only to celebrate the fact that the election was held peacefully, because we are feeling grateful for it, Andre told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. On Wednesday night, Slamet Maarif, the chairman of an organization calling itself 212 Rally Alumni, which has backed the Prabowo-Sandiaga ticket, called on all supporters to gather at Istiqlal Mosque and Monas for prayers, after claiming earlier that their presidential hopeful had won the election, a view shared inside the challengers camp and reported by some surveys and volunteers in the regions. According to messages spread through social media, such as Whatsapp groups, the camp plans to hold a "victory celebration" at Monas starting 7:30 p.m. The possibility of such a plan has caused some concern about the security of Good Friday services at nearby churches. Andre denied any knowledge of such a plan. Despite the rumors, the Jakarta Cathedral and the GPIB Immanuel church, which are located near Istiqlal Mosque, will conduct their Good Friday services as planned. Jakarta Cathedral spokeswoman Susiana Suwadie expressed hope that the mass would proceed without any disruption. Meanwhile, the chairwoman of the GPIB Immanuel Church Assembly, Rev. Michiko Pinaria Saren, said her concerns were more about the traffic. She said she would inform the congregation about possibility traffic disruption. If the event will be held, it will certainly have an impact on access to the church, which will be stagnant or totally jammed, she told the Post. On Thursday, Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said he had yet to receive any notification about the Prabowo camps plan for a celebration at Monas. (das) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar Thu, April 18, 2019 14:45 974 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733af10e 1 National bali,cultural-heritage,artworks,identification,regulation Free The Bali administration is drafting a regulation to identify and protect the province's cultural assets from piracy. Bali is known for our cultural wealth. Unfortunately, we dont know exactly how rich we are, so we need to register our cultural heritage, our assets, and protect them, said Bali Governor Wayan Koster. The administration's legal team has prepared a draft Bali gubernatorial regulation to protect all cultural objects and creative work that belong to Balinese communities and individuals. We need to protect [cultural work] to prevent anyone else from laying claim to them, said Koster, adding that many cultural heritage objects and creative work had economic value and could be commercialized. He said Bali had a bad experience in 2009, when the Pendet dance was featured in an advertisement promoting Malaysia. In another incident, a business owner took an old jewelry design from Celuk, Sukawati, and reproduced it for mass commercial sale. This led to the collapse of many artisan jewelers in Celuk, which was famed for its traditional jewelry. We should manage many [cultural assets], as Bali is known for its culture, including dance, music, paintings, architecture, sports, cuisine and many other things, said the governor. The planned regulation obliges the Bali administration to facilitate copyrighting all Balinese heritage objects, as well as provide funding for local artists and craftsmen that produce such objects. The draft regulation had been finalized and was ready to submit to the Home Minister for approval. The Law and Human Rights Ministry has also agreed to ease the process of registering copyright, Koster said. Bali province would own the copyright to any heritage objects and creative work whose original creator was unknown. If the creator of a creative work has passed away, [the provincial administration] will assist the creator's family with [copyrighting] the work, he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Victor Mambor (The Jakarta Post) Thu, April 18 2019 Papua province plans to open an export route for the 13 million people in 14 Pacific countries for agricultural products such as Wamena coffee, Governor Lukas Enembe has said. He said he welcomed the central government initiative to push economic growth in the provinces agricultural sector. Enembe made the comment in response to a visit from the Agriculture Ministrys head of agricultural produce quarantine, Ali Jamil. Papua has to be the gateway to ASEAN and Pacific countries, he said on Monday. 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 Apr 18 2019 1:00 pm A New York State Supreme Court judge in Albany has invalidated the State Education Department (SED)s recently enacted guidelines for evaluating the education provided at private schools. Agudath Israel of America, one of the plaintiff groups that challenged the SED guidelines in court, welcomed the ruling as a major victory in the battle to preserve the educational autonomy of yeshivos and other nonpublic schools. Under New York State law, nonpublic schools must offer education that is at least substantially equivalent to that which is offered in local public schools. This law, which was enacted in the late 1800s, never gave yeshivos or other nonpublic schools any serious difficulties, as it was widely understood that the nonpublic schools offered a superior education in the yeshiva community, through an intensive dual academic program of religious and secular studies. However, the State Education Department on November 20, 2018 promulgated new Substantial Equivalency Guidance and Tool Kits, establishing timelines by which each nonpublic school in New York State must be proactively visited and evaluated by its local public school district. Among other things, the new SED guidelines require schools to comply with an extensive checklist of specific courses that must be taught at each grade level, and in some cases even the amount of time that must be devoted to those courses. Recognizing that the new SED guidelines would constitute an unprecedented intrusion on the independence of the yeshiva community, Agudath Israel joined with PEARLS, Torah Umesorah, five major yeshivos and a group of parents in bringing a lawsuit challenging the legal validity of the new guidelines on several grounds most notably, that the Commissioner of Education had not followed the state-mandated procedure for promulgating a new rule or regulation, thereby depriving interested parties an opportunity to have full input in the process, and thereby nullifying the new guidelines. Similar lawsuits were filed by two other plaintiff groups: one representing the states independent school community, the other representing the Catholic School community. Earlier this week, on April 15, New York State Justice Christina L. Ryba held a hearing on the three plaintiff groups motion for a preliminary injunction, through which they hoped to stay enforcement of the new guidelines during the pendency of the lawsuits. In her ruling today, Justice Ryba went a step further: she ruled definitively that the new guidelines were null and void, as the Commissioner of Education had failed to comply with the statutory requirements governing the promulgation of new rules and regulations. Agudath Israels executive vice president Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel hailed the courts ruling. Strict enforcement of the new regulations would have wreaked havoc in many if not most yeshivos in New York. There is nothing more important to the yeshiva community than the independence of our educational institutions. Todays ruling preserves that independence, and will allow parents to continue sending their children to yeshivos secure in the knowledge that fundamental chinuch-related decisions will be in the hands of yeshiva leaders rather than government bureaucrats. Boruch HaShem!. Rabbi Zwiebel lauded the work of Avi Schick of the law firm Trautman Sanders, who represented the Jewish plaintiff groups in the court proceeding, and whose expert counsel has guided the yeshiva community since the onset of the challenge to the yeshivos independence. He also thanked the Orthodox Union for its effort to submit an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in support of the plaintiffs; and he singled out for special praise his Agudath Israel colleagues Avrohom Weinstock, Esq. and Ami Bazov, Esq. for the work they did on this matter, including the submission of affidavits in the court proceeding. Apr 18 2019 10:00 am [COMMUNICATED] Number One in Patient Satisfaction for 5th consecutive year Every year, Israels Health Ministry conducts a Patient Satisfaction survey among all the countrys hospitals. The very latest results published in February 2019, show that once again, Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center has topped the table with a satisfaction score of 85%.Expressing his delight that the hospital has been voted #1 in patient satisfaction for the 5th consecutive year, CEO Shlomo Rothschild said: From the day we opened, we have striven to offer a patient experience that is second to none. I want to congratulate our entire staff for once more succeeding in fulfilling this goal. Chaim Fachler, head of PR at Mayanei Hayeshua, noted with pride that the hospitals excellent level of service is maintained even as the ongoing ambitious expansion programme means that Mayanei is now catering to the medical needs of more than 250,000 residents in the Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, Givataim, petach Tikva and Givat Shmuel region. To view our website click HERE. To donate please click HERE In January 2019, Alex Berenson, a novelist and former New York Times reporter, released Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. The book suggested heavy marijuana use could trigger psychosis and increase violent behavior effects Berenson claimed Big Marijuana didnt want users to know. The book marked the return of reefer madness, the sensationalistic warning that marijuana use will result in insanity. Tell Your Children, a deliberate reference to the original title of the 1936 film Reefer Madness, received positive coverage from the New Yorker and Mother Jones for what some called its troubling truths. Yet other outlets, including the Rand Corp., the New Republic and Drug Policy Alliance, argued that Berenson was using junk science. And the book re-energized debate over what many have claimed is cannabiss inevitable march toward national legalization. Tell Your Children reignites a long-held concern about cannabiss public safety. But in relying on sensationalism over science, it has become just the latest use of alarmist claims and attention-seeking to upend a serious public policy dialogue. As a result, rather than contributing to a meaningful discussion about pot and its public health consequences, good and bad, Tell Your Children provokes emotional outcry rather than a rational debate on the issue. Tell Your Children isnt alone. Both supporters and opponents of legalization are quick to use sensationalism to prove their points, stunting the pursuit of real research needed to determine cannabis social effects. Berensons book focuses on the health effects of marijuana, particularly on mental health. He argues that, as increasingly potent cannabis is more widely available, problems with psychosis and mental illness will increase. He also claims that Big Marijuana, which includes legalization advocates like the Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Policy Project, downplay the negative effects of the drugs use and argue instead that the real harm from cannabis come from the laws against it. In making those arguments, Berenson draws a parallel to the cigarette industry and the persuasive propaganda Big Tobacco put forward in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. In the mid-20th century, Big Tobacco was engaged in a commercial, cultural and scientific battle to convince the medical establishment and public that its product was healthful and therefore innocuous. This message became increasingly difficult to sustain, however, as smokers grew ill in greater numbers. But rather than admit defeat, the industry employed scientific research to change the conversation. It pointed its finger at genetics or social factors as the primary causes of tobacco-related ailments, rather than tobacco per se. These hazy obfuscations worked for a while, but ultimately, because nicotine is a legal substance and can be studied with relative ease, real scientific data was collected showing the clear connection between nicotine use and the development of certain forms of cancer. Despite the efforts of the tobacco industry to manipulate the data, the truth came out, and it hurt business. Cigarette consumption rates have fallen, from 42 percent of adults in 1965, to just 14 percent of adults today. The science behind marijuana is different, however. Because the federal government believes the drug has no medical value and a high potential for abuse, its difficult to gather concrete scientific data on cannabis effects. For example, the Drug Enforcement Administration requires researchers to keep cannabis in an alarm-controlled, locked container that is physically attached to a floor or wall. The government will not accept foreign studies of the drugs effects. And, without purchasing the drug on the black or white market, its hard to access enough samples of the federally approved substance to do blind studies. Still, that hasnt prevented the same kinds of major claims that surrounded cigarettes from invading the supposedly objective science around cannabis, both for and against the drug. Some have advised caution. In 1968, articles in the American Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric News asserted the dangers of pot. The writers disapproved of its use because a shortage of evidence would not allow for an informed decision of the drugs hazards. These publications also suggested there was already enough evidence underpinning its dangers. Some physicians went further, commenting: Our purpose is to establish scientific proof of marihuanas ill effects. Others disagreed. Stanley Yolles, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, testified to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1969 about marijuanas negligible medical dangers. The same year he wrote an article for The Washington Post entitled Pot Is Painted Too Black, Yolles argued that scientific and medical facts were totally disregarded when it came to marijuana laws. I know of no clearer instance in which the punishment for an infraction of the law is more harmful than the crime, he said. A half-century later, its obvious we still need to enhance the evidence about evidence when it comes to drugs, science and policy. Because without it, we are left grasping at the few studies that do emerge, including sensationalist works like Berensons. The result? Fearmongering and uncertainty, rather than science, triumphs. For Alan Leshner, former head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse and onetime member of the U.S. National Science Board, there is a unique disconnect between the scientific facts and the publics perception about drug abuse and addiction. Or, as the British psychopharmacologist David Nutt has put it, emphasis ought to be placed on evidence, not exaggeration. Its valuable to think critically about the rise of Big Marijuana, consumerism and public health. We have not reached firm determinations about the safety and efficacy of cannabis. The basic science and addiction studies are nowhere near definitive. Not surprisingly, those in the cannabis industry want us to believe it isnt harmful and it ought to be considered a therapy or medicine; they will profit from its sale. And writers like Berenson want us to believe the drug is deeply harmful and problematic, for book sales if nothing else. Until we have real, concrete evidence like the statistics that pulled the rug out from Big Tobaccos 50-year-old campaign we will be left with sensationalism and little else. This is no way to develop public policy, no matter how trendy the ideas may seem. Dufton received her PhD in American studies from George Washington University. She is the author of Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America. Richert is the George Urdang Chair in the history of pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Strange Trips: Science, Culture, and the Regulation of Drugs. After Songkran, Phuket water reductions continue to stretch reserves until rains return PHUKET: After 270,000 litres of water being used over the Songkran holidays, Phukets three main reservoirs are left with 2.82 million cubic metres (m3) of water, which the islands Irrigation Office chief is adamant will be enough to see residents through until the annual southwest monsoon rains return. weathernatural-resources By Tanyaluk Sakoot Thursday 18 April 2019, 05:32PM Water mains are being laid to boost supply from Bang Wad from a private water source in Kathu. Photo: PWA Water mains are being laid to boost supply from Bang Wad from a private water source in Kathu. Photo: PWA Water mains are being laid to boost supply from Bang Wad from a private water source in Kathu. Photo: PWA Somsawat Chaisinsod, Director of the Phuket Provincial Irrigation Office, confirmed to The Phuket News today (Apr 18) that the latest water levels, recorded today (Apr 18), show that the islands three main reservoirs Bang Wad reservoir in Kathu, Bang Neow Dum reservoir in Srisoonthorn and Khlong Kratha reservoir in Chalong havea total of 2.82mn m3 of water in store. When full, the three reservoirs have a total capacity of more than 21.72mn m3 of water. Bang Wad reservoir in Kathu the islands main water reserve now contains just 0.94mn m3 of its 10.2mn-plus m3 capacity, Mr Somsawat said today. Bang Neow Dum contains about 0.91mn m3 of water of its 7.2mn m3 capacity, and the Khlong Kratha reservoir currently contains about 0.97mn m3 of water of its 4.32mn m3 capacity, Mr Somsawat added. Just one week ago, on Friday (Apr 12), the PPIO reported that the three reservoirs contained 3.09mn m3 of usable water: Bang Wad contained 1.10mn m3, Bang Neow Dum contained about 0.99mn m3 of water, and Khlong Kratha contained about 1.00mn m3 of water. The water is enough to last 33 days. Mr Somsawat noted last Friday. (See story here.) However, Mr Somsawat today said, The water we have now is enough to last 39 days. Asked how that was possible, Mr Somsawat admitted his office was now reducing the volume of water released from the reservoirs in order to make the water reserves last. The rain over the weekend has not helped to add water (to the reservoirs) at all, he added. Because we are now decreasing the volume of water being released from Bang Wad, I expect the water reserves to cover the whole drought through to the end of May, Mr Somsawat said. Meanwhile, Phuket Waterworks Authority (PWA) Chief Graison Mahamad told The Phuket News today, Extra water is coming soon. Mr Graisorn last week confirmed to The Phuket News that he had acquired rights to use water from two privately owned sources. The two private water sources will provide a total of about 4,800m3 of water about 2,400m3 from each water source per day, Mr Graison said today. The laying of water pipes from one water source to the pump station at Bang Wad will be finished and the water will be ready for releasing for public use next week, before Wednesday (Apr 24), he said. The water will be fed to the PWA pump station at Bang Wad, and from there will be used to directly serve residents in Kathu, Wichit and Chalong, Mr Graisorn said. The water from the other private source is already being used to serve businesses and residents in areas including Srisoonthorn, Baan Manik and Cherng Talay, Mr Graisorn added. We started using the private water source to serve these areas on Tuesday (Apr 16), he said. The water is good enough quality for general household use, and this extra water has allowed us to increase the volume of water supplied to 120m3 per hour, Mr Graisorn explained. The extra water is being released directly to residents and businesses. This water is good quality, and there is no need to put in Bang Neow Dum reservoir before pumping it back out for people to use, he added. King cobra female caught in Patong, 30 eggs missing from nest PHUKET: Patong firefighters are concerned that a male king cobra remains at large in a residential area at the northern end of the busy tourism town after catching a female king cobra in Kalim this morning (Apr 18). patonganimals By Waranya Prompinpiras Thursday 18 April 2019, 02:40PM The female king cobra was easily caught, but her male partner is still missing as are her 30 baby king cobra eggs. Photos: Patong Municipality Fire Dept While catching the snake, the firefighters were told that a nest of 30 snake eggs had already been removed from under the house where the female was caught. The whereabouts of those 30 king cobra eggs is now unknown. The Patong Municipality Fire Department was called to the house, in Soi Prabaramee 7, at 10:10am, one of the firefighters, who asked not to be named, told The Phuket News. The call made by Patong Councilor Manas Islam on behalf of a local resident, he said. The owner of the house told us that while he was building his own fence yesterday (Apr 17), he found a snake nest with 30 eggs under the concrete floor behind his house, the firefighter explained. He said that he immediately took all of the snake eggs out from the nest, but he did not explain what he did with them, he added. The house owner also saw the female snake and quickly called his local councilor, asking him to call the correct officers to come and catch the snake, the fireman added. It took us about 15 minutes to catch the snake. We needed to use a hammer and a drill to break open the concrete floor so we could catch it, he explained. The female king cobra will be released back into the wild, but away from houses, the fireman said. I think there is a male king cobra still around, as we still have not been able to find it. King cobras usually stay in pairs when mating and rearing eggs ready for hatching. I told the house owner to call us immediately if he sees another snake near his house, he added. The fireman also urged anyone who sees a snake near their house in Patong to call the Patong Fire Department on 076-342688. Meanwhile, Piyawat Sukon, Chief of the Khao Phra Thaew Non-Hunting Area Conservation Centre in Thalang, told The Phuket News that he will not investigate where the king cobra eggs disappeared to. I understand if local residents find snake eggs around their homes, that they will be afraid and are likely to have destroyed them. But I will not go to check about the eggs because there is a lot of people in that community and I do not want to have problems with the local residents. I dont want to use the law against local residents because I know everyone is afraid of finding snake or king cobras around their homes, he said. Regardless, Mr Piyawat confirmed that the king cobra is a protected wild animal in Thailand. The species has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2010. I strongly suggest that anyone who finds a snake or snake eggs to please inform specialists to catch it. And if you do not know where to release the snake, you can bring it to me at at the Khao Phra Thaew Non-Hunting Area Conservation Centre in Thalang. I will release it into the forest for you," Mr Piyawat said. Maya Bay closure indefinite, national park chief confirms PHUKET: The Chief of the Hat Nopparat Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, Worapoj Lomlim, today denounced reports that he is considering keeping May Bay closed to tourists for at least five years, and stressed that no estimate of when the world-famous bay will reopen has been considered at this stage. tourismenvironmentmarinenatural-resources By Tanyaluk Sakoot Thursday 18 April 2019, 06:01PM Some areas will need a lot longer to recover from environmental damage. Photo: Hat Nopparat Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park I never said that Maya Bay might be kept closed for up to five years to recover. Nothing has changed. I ask other media to fix their facts, Mr Worapoj told The Phuket News this afternoon (April 18). The news reports making the claims circulated in the Thai media last night. I dont know how this news came to be published in this way, because I do not have the authority to declare Maya Bay open or closed, he said. Mr Worapoj confirmed that the marine ecosystem within the bay is recovering from environmental damage caused by years of heavy overtourism, which saw thousands of visitors trample the sands and damage the corals each day. The ecological system in Maya Bay is getting better. It has improved very much now that is has been closed (since June 1 last year, see story here). Blacktip reef sharks have returned and the corals are continuing to regrow, he said. Asked when he believed Maya Bay might reopen to tourists again, Mr Worapoj said, Everything depends on how well the bay recovers naturally. I cant confirm when it will reopen. As I said, it is not within my power to reopen it, he repeated. Soldier dies after motorbike hits power pole in Thalang PHUKET: A man has died after he lost control of his motorbike and crashed into a power pole in Thalang in the early hours of this morning (Apr 18). accidentsdeathpolicetransport By Eakkapop Thongtub Thursday 18 April 2019, 01:18PM The accident happened on Thepkrasattri Rd in Srisoonthorn in the early hours of Thursday morning (Apr 18). Photo Eakkapop Thongtub The accident happened on Thepkrasattri Rd in Srisoonthorn in the early hours of Thursday morning (Apr 18). Photo Eakkapop Thongtub The accident happened on Thepkrasattri Rd in Srisoonthorn in the early hours of Thursday morning (Apr 18). Photo Eakkapop Thongtub The accident happened on Thepkrasattri Rd in Srisoonthorn in the early hours of Thursday morning (Apr 18). Photo Eakkapop Thongtub Police found Thanapol Udonpol lying unconscious at the foot of a power pole in Thalang next to his motorbike. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Police found Thanapol Udonpol lying unconscious at the foot of a power pole in Thalang next to his motorbike. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The man was identified as 24-year-old Thanapol Udonpol, a light infantry soldier. Pol Maj Kraisorn Bunprasop of Thalang Police was notified of the accident at about 4:30am and arrived at the scene in front of Lipon Ice Factory in Moo 6, Thepkrasattri Rd in Srisoonthorn, to find Mr Thanapol lying unconscious with blood on his face at the foot of a power pole. Next to him was a black Yamaha Fino motorbike with its rear wheel up against the wall. Witnesses told police that Mr Thanapol was heading north from Heroines Monument when he lost control and veered onto the footpath before colliding with the power pole. He suffered a broken neck and severe head injuries and was reported to have died at the scene. Police believe he had fallen asleep on the motorbike. A helmet was found next to his body. He was taken to Thalang Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The motorbike was taken to Thalang Police Station as police awaited the arrival of his relatives. Suspect arrested after British tourist raped on Koh Phi Phi KRABI: A member of a boat crew has been detained and charged with the rape of a British tourist on Koh Phi Phi. crimetourismsexpolice By The Phuket News Thursday 18 April 2019, 06:59PM Deputy police spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen today (Apr 18) announced the arrest of the man 23-year-old Trirat Changsanan on Wednesday on the island, off the coast of Krabi. The suspect was apprehended after police examined security camera recordings and other evidence. The victim, a 21-year-old Briton whose name is being withheld, filed a complaint with police on the island on Monday alleging sexual assault. She said she could not remember the attacker as the assault occurred while she was drunk and asleep outside a hotel restaurant on Loh Dalum beach, Pol Col Krissana said. CCTV footage inspected by police correlated with the victims account of what had happened as she explained that she was out drinking with an Irishman she had met until 1am when the bar they were at closed. The pair then started walking back to their hotels but stopped outside a beachfront guest house called Phi Phi Green House, in front of which were restaurant tables and chairs belonging to the guest house. As they were too intoxicated to continue, they decided to sleep on the floor in front of the guest house. The Irishman later left to return to his hotel. At approximately 3am, Trirat approached the woman while she was asleep and proceeded to cut her shorts off with a knife and removed her bikini shorts. He then began to sexually assault her. The woman awoke and pushed Trirat away as he spoke about having sex with her. He then fled. At 10am that morning, the Brit filed a complaint at the local police station but was unable to provide much detail of what took place so police began investigating. They took the woman to see a doctor to examine signs of physical abuse. In addition, CCTV footage led them to the identification of the suspect who has now admitted to assaulting the woman but denies rape. National police chief Gen Chakthip Chaijinda expressed his condolences to the tourist and ordered police and relevant agencies to assist in bringing justice as well as supporting the victim through the healing process. Trirat has been charged with violent sexual assault and is being remanded in custody while the case unfolds. Watertown police chief debunks TikTok school violence threat There have been no threats identified in South Dakota and there's "no reason to believe these are credible in any way," Chief Tim Toomey said Its a scenario many parents of young children are familiar with: an upset stomach and a trip to the doctor. Gastrointestinal issues in children arent uncommon, but recent research has found that such symptoms in young children could be a red flag for problems with emotional health later in life. Researchers from Columbia University found that children who experienced adversity early in their life were more likely to experience problems with their gastrointestinal system when compared with their peers. This was then found to have implications for the childs mental health. We found that children who had been exposed to caregiving adversity in their early lives (institutional care abroad, before international adoption) had higher levels of gastrointestinal symptoms than their non-adversity exposed peers, for example stomach aches and pains, constipation, funny feelings in the stomach. Importantly, those gastrointestinal symptoms were also associated with higher levels of anxiety, experienced concurrently, and were predictive of anxiety two years into the future, Bridget Callaghan, author of the study and a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Psychology at the Columbia University told Theravive. In undertaking their study, the researchers looked at the development of children who had been in institutional care before international adoption and experienced extreme levels of psychosocial deprivation. Previous studies have established separation of parents and child could result in mental health problems. In rats, separating children from their parents results in fear and anxiety, interferes with neurodevelopment and also changes the microbiome. The researchers examined data from 115 children who were adopted from orphanages or foster care before aged two. They also examined data from 229 children who were raised by their biological parents. The children who were raised in orphanages or foster care were found to have higher levels of stomach aches, vomiting, nausea and constipation. From the children studied, eight children aged seven to 13 were selected from the group who had been adopted, and eight others were selected from the group raised by their biological parents. The researchers then collected stool samples, brain images and behavioural information for the children. Gene sequencing was used to see what microbes were present in each childs stool samples. Those who were adopted were found to have a noticeably different microbiome than the children who were raised by their biological parents. The brain scans showed that certain activity within the brain was linked to certain bacteria in the gut. The children who were raised by their biological parents had a more diverse microbiome which is linked to an area of the brain that assists in regulating emotions. We are well aware that stress hormones can influence brain development, and are associated with increased mental health risks. A less appreciated fact is that stress hormones are also intricately connected with the gastrointestinal system. High levels of stress can change our intestinal transit time (making us constipated, or have diarrhea), make our immune system overreact to bacteria in our gut, and are associated with what bacteria survive and flourish in the gut. In other words, stress and adversity is linked to every level of the brain-gut-microbiome axis, Callaghan told Theravive. Studies in rats and mice have also shown us that manipulating certain bacteria in the gut can influence brain development, as well as anxiety and depression symptoms. So we have a lot of smoking guns that link adversity, the gut microbiome, and mental health, but we are still trying to understand how all of these pieces fit together in humans, and how this might operate across development. Callaghan and her colleagues are furthering their research in a larger-scale study involving 60 children living in New York City. They expect to have their results later this year. We are currently trying to establish the generalizability of the findings to different samples, and making some very good progress on that front. Another area we are working on, is attempting to understand the mechanisms underlying the link between adversity, gastrointestinal symptoms, the microbiome, and anxiety in humans. This involves more studies in human samples, but also working with non-human animals to better understand what is going on at the molecular and circuit level, she said. Knowing how generalizable the findings are will help us to make concrete recommendations to gastroenterologists, pediatricians, and psychiatrists. One of the exciting future implications of these data, and others like it, are the manipulations of gastrointestinal bacteria might eventually be helpful as an aide in treating mental health problems like anxiety and depression; the data from rodent studies is really promising here, as are some studies in adult humans. Although there is a long way to go before we learn how to properly and responsibly harness the potential of this system, we are making headway. TORONTO - Canadas communications companies need to continuously update their networks and that means they need a regulatory environment that creates incentives for investment, Rogers chief executive Joe Natale said Thursday. Our networks are a living, breathing organism. And they need constant growth and investment, Natale told shareholders of Rogers Communications Inc., owner of one of Canadas biggest wireless networks. He added that the industry needs the right policies to ensure the right investments are made for the long term after noting that Rogers has spent $30 billion on wireless networks over 35 years. Regulation will never be a substitution for innovation . . . At its worst, it is a barrier that stops innovation, and investment, in its tracks. The comments seemed like a message to the federal government, particularly Innovation minister Navdeep Bains, who recently announced a new policy direction for telecommunications in February. The proposed policy, which is going through an approval process, signalled a lower priority for investments in telecom networks and a higher priority for lowering prices through a wider range of competition. That was followed by a CRTC announcement in March that it was beginning a review of Canadas mobile wireless market with the preliminary view that there should be more opportunity for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). Natale said Thursday in an interview Rogers agrees with the philosophical direction of increasing telecom affordability for Canadians if its underpinned by investment and investment returns for the people who are making the investment. Create an environment with a light regulatory touch, create an environment where there are incentives for people to enter the market . . . and I think you can have the best of both worlds. He said MVNOs which buy capacity on mobile networks from other companies that have built their infrastructure may have led to lower consumer prices in some countries but reduced investments and network quality. Earlier Thursday, Natale told analysts that Canadas wireless industry experienced an unusually slow first quarter, with subdued promotional activity in January and February, but suggested the pace will pick up as the year progresses. Overall, we have confidence in our long-term growth plans, and remain on track to deliver on our healthy outlook for 2019. We continue to see robust growth opportunities. It may not be as high as Q4 (2018) . . . but still very healthy growth overall. Several of the companys financial metrics fell short of analyst estimates in the first quarter. On an adjusted basis, Rogers said it earned $405 million or 78 cents per share for the quarter ended March 31, down from an adjusted profit of $477 million or 90 cents per share a year ago. Revenue totalled nearly $3.59 billion, down from $3.63 billion in the same quarter last year. The wireless division accounted for $2.189 billion in revenue during the first quarter. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 94 cents per share and revenue of $3.72 billion, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon. Rogers reported 23,000 net additions to its post-paid wireless services down from the year-earlier net addition of 95,000 postpaid subscribers. The consensus estimate had been for the net addition of 84,000 postpaid subscribers. Last week, rival Shaw Communications Inc. said its mobile arm which only has networks in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia had a net gain of 64,700 postpaid subscribers. Analyst Aravinda Galappatthige of CanaccordGenuity said in a research note to clients that 2019 growth may be a lot more moderated than in 2017 and 2018 and more competition from Shaws Freedom Mobile, especially in the West. He said CanaccordGenuity has lowered its estimates to the lower end of the Rogers 2019 guidance range and lowered its price target for Rogers stock to $70 per share from $75 per share. Rogers stock closed Thursday at $68.90 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after falling $2.04 or 2.9 per cent. Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI.B) The Curse of La Llorona Starring Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen and Roman Cristou. Written by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis. Directed by Michael Chaves. Opens Friday at theatres everywhere. 93 minutes. 14A Jump scares are the easiest way to spot a horror hack at work. Used judiciously and creatively, they can add a pleasurable shiver to the spine. Employed indiscriminately to bludgeon the senses, as they are in the steaming load of hackitude that is Michael Chaves The Curse of La Llorona, the effect is like a snotty kid repeatedly hitting you with a Nerf bat. This is what happens when franchise greed is put ahead of storytelling basics. The film is the latest instalment of what is (hysterically) called The Conjuring universe, incorporating elements of producer James Wans better and scarier films, some of which he directed. This ones about a 17th-century maternal wraith from Mexico who intersperses weeping with murdering and who somehow ends up in the Los Angeles of 1973. No satisfying reason is given why La Llorona (Weeping Woman), condemned to eternal grief as punishment for drowning her two sons in a fit of marital rage, is now preying upon two L.A. single moms, constantly leaping out of the shadows at them. La Llorona (rhymes with My Sharona) dresses all in white like the bride of Frankenstein, with a face that suggests shes the moodier kin of the title hag in The Nun, another part of Wans world. The main threatened mom is Anna, played by Linda Cardellini, who should by rights be getting better gigs on the strength of the Oscar-winning Green Book. Anna is a widowed social worker, often forced to choose between family life and her job, trying her best to raise her preteen kids Sam (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) and Chris (Roman Christou). Anna isnt the most observant of souls. Despite being constantly warned by priests, other parents, her children and her own damned eyes that some kind of kid-snatching fiend is on the loose, she dismisses it all as a folk tale. She has a bad habit of leaving her fearful kids on their own, and she mostly shrugs when they start getting what look like cigarette burns on their arms, which suggest La Llorona is a nicotine addict as well as a sadist. Meanwhile, director Chaves just keeps chucking stuff at the screen. The jump scares, never terrifying, quickly become annoying. The picture goes completely loco during the hellzapoppin finale favoured by producer Wan, as a defrocked priest turned ghostbuster named Rafael (Raymond Cruz), brings his bag of tricks to Annas home to confront La Llorona. As Rafael threw everything from holy water to magical seeds to La Lloronas own tears at the advancing wraith, I started wishing I could hasten the process by setting ablaze the small bunch of herbal sage yet another spook-chasing remedy provided by Warner Bros. publicity reps to attendees at a preview screening. But that would have been a scary and dangerous thing to do, and it would have clashed with the unscary and bootless antics on the screen. The newspaper reported this morning that it has looked into the criminal records of newly elected Members of the Parliament in 20122019, finding that six of the eight lawmakers with a criminal history were elected from the ticket of the Finns Party. EIGHT OF THE NEWLY ELECTED Members of the Finnish Parliament have had run-ins with the law in recent years, according to Helsingin Sanomat. The time period for the analysis was chosen due to the availability of electronic information on court decisions. Jukka Makynen (PS), who won a seat on Arkadianmaki from Vaasa, was handed a fine after being found guilty of assault for punching a man in the face who approached him in a restaurant to talk about politics. I was convicted, and you can have many opinions about that without knowing the background. I dont want to comment on it in any way. Im just looking ahead, he stated to Helsingin Sanomat. Sebastian Tynkkynen (PS), who was elected to the Parliament from Oulu, was found guilty of ethnic agitation for posting a series of writings disparaging Islam and Muslims on Facebook in mid-2016. Tynkkynen has alleged that the verdict was political and indicated he is considering bringing the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Convictions of ethnic agitation are also found in the criminal records of Teuvo Hakkarainen (PS), a soon-to-be third-term Member of Parliament from Central Finland, and Jussi Halla-aho, the chairperson of the Finns Party. Hakkarainen has also been found guilty of assaulting and sexually harassing a fellow Member of the Parliament. Ano Turtiainen (PS), who won a seat in the Parliament from Southern Finland, has filed an appeal against a fine issued on him for public incitement to an offence. Turtiainen in December 2015 described attempts to burn down reception centres as elimination missions that are crucial for protecting our independence and security. He will appear before the Eastern Finland Court of Appeal in Kuopio in May 2019, according to Helsingin Sanomat. The sixth representative of the populist party with a conviction from the seven-year period is Jussi Wihonen, who has been found guilty of causing a traffic hazard for speeding. Niko Pyrhonen, a populism researcher at the University of Helsinki, said to Helsingin Sanomat the convictions may also reveal something about the supporters of the Finns Party. People who feel like [they have been treated unfairly] may think that a candidate with a conviction knows what its like to get kicked in the head by the system, he explained to the newspaper. Halla-aho and Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, the party secretary of the Finns Party, did not respond to several requests for comment from Helsingin Sanomat. The Finns Party is not the only party with lawmakers with criminal convictions. Antti Kaikkonen (Centre) was found guilty of misuse of a position of trust and handed a five-month suspended prison term in a case revolving around campaign contributions made by Youth Foundation, a housing service provider with ties to the Centre Party. Antti Rinne, the chairperson of the Social Democrats, has been fined for failing to comply with advance notification requirements when ordering work stoppages as the head of Trade Union Pro in 2011. Aleksi Teivainen HT WINNIPEGA semi-trailer truck driver from British Columbia who was involved in a Manitoba collision that killed two people has pleaded guilty to a pair of careless driving charges. Gurjant Singh, who is in his mid-20s, was initially charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and criminal negligence causing death, but both counts were stayed at his Wednesday court appearance. Singh was fined $3,000 and given a one-year driving prohibition. The August 2017 collision happened at the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Yellowhead Highway, just west of Portage la Prairie. Police said at the time that a truck carrying pipe and heading west on the Trans-Canada appeared to run a red light before it collided with a car going south on the other highway. The people in the car a 19-year-old woman from the Rural Municipality of Alonsa, Man., and a 17-year-old boy from Portage la Prairie died at the scene. OTTAWAPolice say an Edmonton man has been charged with second-degree murder following a shooting in Ottawa early Thursday. Officers say they were called to York Street, in the ByWard Market area, on reports of a shooting around 2 a.m. They say they found an injured man and took him to hospital, where he died. He has since been identified as 25-year-old Emilio Jimenez. Police say Anas Mujber, 24, was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder. They say the investigation continues. Read more about: About 150 people showed up Wednesday night for the first public meeting of #BlockSidewalk, a citizens group which opposes a 12-acre development on Torontos waterfront by Sidewalk Labs. Group co-leader Melissa Goldstein called the turnout at the Ralph Thornton Community Centre an encouraging sign. I am very happy with the turnout. We didnt know how many people we could expect. This is very exciting and I think its only going to get bigger from here, Goldstein said. Councillor Paula Fletcher attended the meeting even though the proposed Quayside development at Parliament St. and Lake Shore Blvd. isnt in her ward because of recent signals that Sidewalk Labs, a sister company to Google, wants to dramatically expand the scale of the project into the adjacent Port Lands, as first reported by The Star in February. Sidewalk Labs has very clearly and publicly stated that they dont think they can manage their 12 acres without leveraging 350 acres in the Port Lands. I think the public thought the original deal is, Youve got 12 acres to show us what a smart city would look like, Fletcher said. I think a lot of people feel a little cheated because that was never part of the plan, to take on the Port Lands rather than just the 12 acres. Its very strange how this has all rolled out. I would have to say this is not how we do things in Toronto, Fletcher said, noting development plans in the Port Lands, including a 90-acre park and a 25-acre housing project, are already well underway. Read more: Civil liberties group launches court action to stop Quayside, says Canadians should not be lab rats The Alphabet of Sidewalk Labs plan for Torontos waterfront Waterfront Toronto frustrated over Sidewalk Labs publicly speaking on financial plans, board chair says Goldstein also hailed a recent decision by Waterfront Toronto, the tri-level government agency that oversees development of the citys waterfront, to take over the public consultation process once Sidewalk Toronto releases its master innovation and development plan. Thats expected within weeks, and Waterfront Toronto is promising to release the full document publicly within seven days of receiving it. Waterfront Toronto is taking control of (public consultations) and it is going to be a process where people will be speaking to the people that have the authority to make decisions on the publics behalf, Goldstein said. Group co-leader Bianca Wylie said Sidewalk Torontos claims of having consulted 20,000 people so far is practically meaningless. Many people thought when they went to Sidewalk Toronto meetings that they were talking to Waterfront people, Wylie said. Sidewalk Labs won a request for proposals issued by Waterfront Toronto in 2017, and followed up with a plan development agreement in July 2018 that would transform the Quayside land into a high-tech, sensor-laden community. But in February, the Star revealed the company wants to go well outside the original plan to include as much as 350 acres in the 600-acre Port Lands area. Wylie said that public concerns must take precedent over the desires of a large international company. We should be doing (development) on our timeline, not because were rushing because Google is here and they want to do something in Toronto. Thats the wrong reason, Wylie told the audience. Wylie also noted that members of the public have major concerns about how data would be collected by Sidewalk Labs as part of its plan for a futuristic community, saying theres a policy vacuum and a lack of legislation to protect personal privacy. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Toronto resident Lester Brown recently filed an application with the Superior Court of Justice to block the existing agreements between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, citing privacy issues. Read more about: Melanie Lepp recently walked into a Toronto courtroom to defend her decision to violate the citys off-leash bylaw. Although unsuccessful, the visually-impaired Leslieville womans battle for a safe and accessible place to freely run her dog is just getting started. Earlier this month, Ontario justice of the peace Mark Conacher found Lepp, who is legally blind in one eye and totally blind in the other, guilty of running her German Shephard, Semper, off-leash at Greenwood Park, but imposed a fine of $0. On Dec. 1, 2017, a bylaw officer gave Lepp a $261 ticket for what she calls an act of civil disobedience. I wanted my day in court. If I let this drop, it wouldnt become an issue the city has to deal with, said Lepp, who about three years ago stopped using the local green spaces dog park because her energetic dog cut his paws on the pea gravel surface. Around that time, she also lost her footing on the uneven ground and fell, breaking her cane in half. I didnt want to step away. I want (Greenwood Dog Park) fixed, said Lepp, adding she knows she shouldnt be breaking the law but felt it was more important to draw attention to the fact the local off-leash area is not feasible. I dont think dogs should be running off-leash (in public places). I just want the park to be safe, said Lepp, who was greeted by dog park advocate Eric Code and a handful of dog owners before her April 9 hearing. Code said they came out to support Lepp because he and others feel its essential the right balance be found for all park users. He also said the time is now to review Torontos People, Dogs and Parks Off-leash policy, which was approved in January 2010. The answer is to replace our outdated policy with a more comprehensive strategy, Code said. It makes no sense to make dog parks people wont use. Criminal defence lawyer Ari Goldkind contacted Metroland Media Toronto in early 2018 after reading an article about Lepps situation and offered pro bono legal services. Goldkind, a fellow dog owner/lover with a special interest in defending the rights of blind people, expected an uphill battle in defending Lepps actions, but said she made an absolutely principled decision to fight her ticket. He said given the nature of the violation, he had great respect for Conachers wise decision and thought process, and that the justice of the peaces hands were essentially tied. Further, Goldkind said he appreciated Conacher taking into consideration the important principles about how the city and/or the province treats differently abled people as well as Lepps great dignity and the honest and compelling manner in which she delivered her evidence. Perhaps Ms. Lepps predicament will spur a slow-moving city into taking faster action so that all dog lovers, whether visually impaired or not visually impaired, will be able to use these crucial and vital spaces in the city for our beloved best four-legged friends, Goldkind, who previously ran for Toronto mayor, told the Beach-East York Neighbourhood Voice. Toronto-Danforth Councillor Paula Fletcher also attended court on April 9, testifying that the pea gravel surface at Greenwood Dog Park is not desirable as it poses difficulties for people with mobility issues and for dogs paws. Everyone should have access to Torontos parks and that includes dog off-leash areas. The use of pea gravel makes these areas a no-go zone for many people with mobility issues, the Ward 14 representative said in an April 8 release. Many residents also complain pea gravel hurts dogs paws. There are better options and we need to start using them to make our parks more inclusive. Fletcher has since put forward a motion to city council calling for an amendment to the 2019 Parks, Forestry and Recreation capital budget for the installation of accessible artificial turf at the Greenwood Park Dog off-leash area. Her motion also calls on the parks department to take a closer look at several dog parks in other cities to see if options for innovation and design can be incorporated in Torontos off-leash areas. In a written statement, the citys Parks, Forestry and Recreation division said it has a continuous dialogue with dog owners on their thoughts and suggestions about potential alternative surface materials for dog off-leash areas, but said pea gravel is the most appropriate material for Greenwood Parks off-leash area due to drainage issues. The city has developed criteria that guides the selection of surface material which includes: intensity of use, site drainage, maintenance demands, capital costs and topography. Site-specific location conditions in parks are factors that determine the type of surface material that will be used. When drainage is an issue, pea gravel is the most effective material based on previous experiences maintaining off leash areas in the city, the division said in an email, adding staff would continue to work with the community to address their concerns. As for Lepp, she said shes prepared to file a human rights complaint against the city if Torontos public dog parks continue to remain inaccessible. Victims of violent crimes will get significantly less compensation after proposed changes in the provincial budget, including capping awards for pain and suffering at $5,000, advocates say. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board currently provides victims of violent crime with up to $25,000 to cover therapy, lost wages, medical bills, funeral expenses and intangible costs for pain and suffering. According to the boards 2017-18 annual report, pain and suffering accounted for almost $33 million of the compensation claims it paid out in a year that saw 3,569 cases resolved at a hearing. By comparison, if each of those cases had resulted in a maximum payment of $5,000, the board would have paid out less than $18 million. Compensation for pain and suffering accounted for 95 per cent of the boards payments in 2017-18. In the provincial budget released this month, the Ford government proposed dissolving the board, which conducts hearings in person, electronically or, increasingly, in written form, and moving to an administrative model to improve efficiency. The budget also proposed increasing the total available funding for one victim to $30,000. But by also limiting the maximum amount for pain and suffering to $5,000 the category where the board had the most discretion to consider the impact of the crime most victims will be denied access to the majority of the funding, said Deepa Mattoo, the legal director of the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, which serves women who have been abused. The number of choices and options of what people can do when they experience violence is being taken away from Ontarians, Mattoo said. They are whacking, at a minimum, $13 million out of the hands of victims, but the reality is it will be much more, said lawyer David Shellnutt. His client, a victim of human trafficking, was recently awarded the maximum amount of $25,000 entirely for pain and suffering money that she has told him will be life-changing for her future, helping her go back to school and support her two children. Upon hearing about the proposed changes Shellnutt, who was seriously assaulted in January, rushed home and filed his own compensation application for himself and his partner. He does not know if those, or the claims he is currently working on for clients, will be affected by the $5,000 cap. This isnt tailgating or drinking in the park; this is serious. It affects peoples lives, he said. Does a traumatized person who is unable to submit their application right now need to force themselves to do that to get it in by some timeline we dont even know? Shalini Konanur, the executive director of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, said most of her clients do not have receipts for therapy bills or medical bills to be reimbursed the compensation they seek instead is for pain and suffering after violence that can span several years. She recalled one client who left a relationship after 20 years of abuse. She didnt access medical services, she didnt go to counselling, she doesnt have receipts. She has the real, true pain and suffering of being a victim of horrific violence. That was where the amazing part of the scheme was. That they could take that into consideration, she said. We only work with low-income clients so the impact of the awards are huge upon their lives, she added. The changes may also disproportionately affect women, who the board says file almost two-thirds of the applications. The proposed changes seem to be about simply reducing the amount of money available for victims, Konanur said. And taken along with a number of other recent decisions by the provincial government including a lower-than-hoped increase in funding for rape crisis centres, and cuts to legal aid for immigrants and refugees, social assistance and supportive housing it feels like a death by thousand cuts for victims of crime, she said. While the board works much faster than the criminal or the civil system, Konanur acknowledged that the average wait of 11 months for a hearing is still too long. However, she said a solution should be possible without scrapping the whole system and starting again. The board also offers interim funding for therapy prior to issuing a decision, and that can be extremely helpful said lawyer Gillian Hnatiw, who often files compensation claims for victims of sexual violence. For many victims, the board hearing and decision offered them a sense of justice and validation that they did not get from the criminal justice process, Hnatiw said. She noted that victims can make a claim without having made a police report, and that a criminal conviction of their attacker is not required. Financial compensation for victims not only helps in immediate, practical ways and prevents increased costs in the future it also sends a message that victims are valued members of society and that their recovery is important to the wider community, said sexual violence prevention educator Farrah Khan. With total lump sum payment awards per applicant of up to $30,000 (including up to $5,000 for pain and suffering), and periodic payment awards for a single occurrence of up to $365,000, Ontario provides the most generous compensation for victims of crime in Canada, said Jesse Robichaud, a spokesperson for the Attorney General of Ontario. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board declined a request for an interview Paul (Smiley) Evans, 48, was awarded the full $25,000 in compensation, in part for pain and suffering, after a 2012 shooting left him partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair. That money helped him in supporting his children, he said. Capping the amount for pain and suffering at $5,000 is crazy, he said, considering the many ways his life has been impacted in the years since the shooting, including the need for constant pain management. The proposed changes make him worry for other victims of crime, and especially victims of gun violence, considering the record number of shootings in Toronto in the past year. It can happen to anyone, he said. Its going to be harder for (victims) now. Read more about: Saying he didnt want to insult the intelligence of the jury, a defence lawyer is admitting his client attacked a 65-year-old grandmother with a metal bar and killed her, but insists the offence was manslaughter, not second-degree murder. This is a huge distinction, lawyer Greg Leslie said during his closing address Thursday, acknowledging for the first time during the trial that Shou Chen, 75, was responsible for the death of Xian Liu. The prosecution alleges Chen was talking to Liu, whom he knew from work, when he suddenly assaulted her outside Wallace Emerson Community Centre on Oct. 15, 2014, just after 10:00 a.m. Shou Chen not finished in his attack returned to his bike, picked up a heavy metal pipe and struck Liu while she was lying injured and bleeding on the ground, delivering the final, fatal blows, Crown attorney Monica Gharabaway said in her final arguments. The accused had intent to kill, she continued. That is clear from his return to the bike to get a weapon to ensure Mrs. Lius death. But Leslie told the jury that Gharabaway and co-counsel Karen Simone had not proven Chen intended to kill Liu. Why would he leave his bike, with the victims blood and his palm print, at the murder scene, Leslie asked. (That) is more consistent of a person who has committed an assault, not a person who has committed a murder. Nor did Chen discard his bloodied clothes, he noted. The defence lawyer also disputed the prosecution scenario that it was a two-staged attack that lasted 22 seconds. Nearby, his grey-haired client slumped forward in the prisoners box with his eyes closed, listening to a Cantonese dialect translation through black headphones. Read more: A man in his 70s bludgeoned a 65-year-old family friend with a metal pipe, Crown says as Toronto murder trial opens Leslie argued the evidence showed Chen was already wielding the steel bar when he attacked Liu for unexplained reasons, and that the violence lasted only nine seconds. Gharabaways closing address which followed Leslies because he did not call any evidence included arguments, unnecessary as it turned out that anticipated the defence lawyer might suggest Lius son was mistaken in his identification of the accused. During his cross-examination of Wan Peng Mei, Leslie had suggested he had mistakenly identified Chen from video surveillance footage. Leslie also asked Mei if he knew Chen had suffered from any mental health issues. The response was no. Gharabaway also dismissed as fanciful and ridiculous a number of scenarios the defence put to a pathologist witness, such as whether the accused might have fallen on top of the victim, holding the bar just right to inflict some of the deeper injuries to her forehead that fractured her skull in multiple places, and that maybe the accused caused some of the other injuries to (the victims) face by propping himself up with the bar resting on her face in an attempt to get up. Leslie asserted in his closing address that not all of Lius facial injuries were consistent with someone being struck by a metal pipe, and that they may have been caused by punches and kicks. Superior Court Justice Kenneth Campbell is scheduled to give his jury instructions next Wednesday before deliberations begin. The Durham police chief and members of his leadership team have been accused of corruption, abuse of power and coverup by veteran officers who have filed complaints to the province. Among the allegations sent to Ontarios solicitor general: Senior command threatened two officers with trumped-up accusations of misconduct in attempts to intimidate or dig up dirt on those who had fallen out of favour with the management, two officers complaints allege. A high-ranking officer lied on the stand to cover up for the chief, and was then given a promotion to deputy chief, one complaint alleges. A lawyer representing Durham police Chief Paul Martin said the allegations are false and defamatory. For some time now, a handful of disgruntled individuals within (or formerly within) the DRPS have been proffering baseless allegations to try to destroy the reputations of members of the forces management and command, lawyer Sean Dewart said in written responses to questions from the Star. Ontarios solicitor general has asked for an independent police watchdog, the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, to look into the allegations, which have not been proven. The commission has started a review to determine whether a full-blown investigation is warranted. The complainants are longtime officers with Durham Regional Police Service, Canadas 10th largest municipal police force, which patrols the region east of Toronto, including the cities of Oshawa and Pickering. One is a recently retired inspector whose responsibilities included presiding over internal disciplinary proceedings. Another is a veteran sergeant who says she received glowing performance reviews until she complained about a bosss harassment. A third is the former president of Durhams police union. Dewart said most of the allegations have already been investigated and dealt with. He added that Durham police officials are constrained from responding on personnel matters. Durham police will co-operate with the police commissions review, said Dewart, who is also representing several other senior Durham officers named in the complaints, including Deputy Chief Dean Bertrim, former deputy chief Uday Jaswal and chief administrative officer Stan MacLellan. He is also representing the law firm Johnstone & Cowling, which does legal work for the police force. In one complaint, Durham police Sgt. Nicole Whiteway alleges the police brass demanded she dish out unsavoury information about other Durham police employees in order to resolve what she said were baseless internal discipline charges against her. Whiteway, a veteran cop whose mother was the first female deputy chief in Durham, had seen her relationship with the police force deteriorate in recent years. She filed an internal complaint in 2016 accusing an inspector of abusive and misogynistic behaviour. While that was under investigation, she says officers tried to drum up information to discredit her complaint. She alleges officers tasked with taking her suicidal ex-husband to the hospital instead interrogated him in an attempt to get dirt on Whiteway. Then, in 2017, she learned she was the focus of a new investigation by Durhams professional standards unit, Whiteway says in her complaint to the province. Her ex-husband, who had been charged for assaulting Whiteway, had told the police force that she had stolen money and jewelry when she went to his apartment to pick up some belongings, according to her complaint. It was a false accusation, Whiteway says, an attempt by her ex to get her to withdraw domestic assault charges (the ex has since pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with a weapon, one count of assault and two counts of uttering death threats). Whiteway claims she and her lawyer tried to resolve the theft allegation but Durham police was dragging its heels, suggesting that she could be of assistance such that (Whiteways) charges would not be a problem. Then, in August 2018, she received a text message from then deputy chief Uday Jaswal, who oversaw the professional standards unit investigating her, Whiteways complaint says. He wanted to meet. At a small-town coffee shop called Deadly Grounds Cafe, she alleges Jaswal confirmed to me in no uncertain terms that the DRPS did not think I stole anything and that we could come up with some kind of informal resolution. She says the deputy chief asked if she had access to a video filmed at a bar where he was allegedly drunk and acting inappropriately. He then fished for personal details about the other deputy chief, Chris Fernandes. It seemed to me that (Deputy Chief Jaswal) was looking for dirt on Fernandes of a sexual nature, her complaint says. After the meeting, Whiteway alleges Jaswal and a lawyer from Johnstone & Cowling, which is retained by Durham police, again pressed her, through her lawyer, for information on Fernandes. Jaswal and the lawyer also wanted information on a human resources manager who had taken a photograph of a whiteboard in Jaswals office on which he listed people he was targeting, Whiteway claims. Whiteway said she refused to play along. I was no longer prepared to be toyed with, used or extorted for political purposes, Whiteway says in her complaint. Disillusioned by her treatment by the police service, Whiteways parents, both former Durham officers, recently returned their formal retirement uniforms to a local precinct. My family is disgusted with what the DRPS has become and will no longer allow the crest of the organization in our family home, her complaint said. In a statement, Dewart, the lawyer representing Jaswal and the law firm, said, These serious and scandalous allegations are false and defamatory. As deputy chief, Jaswal was responsible for enforcing professional standards, the statement reads. He understands the importance of such matters and the effects such matters have on individual officers. He takes those responsibilities extremely seriously. The allegations are a smear by a disgruntled employee facing disciplinary charges, made when the deputy chief cannot provide a proper response to the merits because her disciplinary proceeding is ongoing, Dewart said He said Jaswal, now a deputy chief with Ottawa police, would welcome the chance to respond in the appropriate forum. Chris Fernandes retired from Durham police in November. His lawyer said Fernandes will not comment on the case but will co-operate with an investigation if asked to do so. In a separate complaint to the province obtained by the Star, the former president of the Durham police association alleges he was threatened with accusations of misconduct in an attempt to silence dissent. In early 2016, Randy Henning says he received a letter from Durham polices lawyers accusing him of bribing and coercing witnesses to come forward for a labour grievance concerning Rob Wallington, a civilian who managed Durham polices strategic planning unit. The grievance accused Durham police of failing to protect employees from Wallingtons harassment. The accusations in the lawyers letter were false, Hennings complaint said, adding that the letter was withdrawn after an arbiter ordered the police service to explain the allegations. This was just another form of intimidation, says Henning, who retired from the police force earlier this year. The lawyer representing Durhams senior officials disputes Hennings allegations, calling them false and defamatory. He said it would be improper for the police force to comment on a matter that has long been in the hands of an independent arbiter. That grievance was recently settled, a lawyer for the union confirmed. The terms are not public. The Star first reported on Wallington after learning that a 2013 investigation by an outside law firm had substantiated several internal complaints of workplace harassment. Durham police began a second investigation after the union brought new complaints. Its findings, detailed in a confidential report obtained by the Star, have never been publicly released until now. The investigator, a lawyer retained by Durham police to review the allegations, concluded that Wallingtons conduct was disrespectful and at times, appalling but it did not constitute workplace harassment. Among the investigators findings: He made jokes to subordinates about another employees makeup, likening her to a drag queen, and made cracks that a stain on her clothing was from her husbands semen. He mocked an employees physical disability by imitating her limited use of her hands and would wince to colleagues when the employee accidentally banged her wheelchair into office furniture. He made a stabbing gesture when describing the director of the regions victim services program, who had scars from surviving a violent attack. He received consensual oral sex from a subordinate inside his office. He referred to two female staffers who had originally complained about his conduct as bitches. Through a lawyer, Wallington refused to comment. He had been on leave from the police force since March 2016. That year, he made nearly $155,000, according to Ontarios salary disclosures. He retired in late 2018. A third complaint to the province alleges a high-ranking officer received a promotion after lying under oath to cover for the chief. In April 2018, Dean Bertrim, then a superintendent, was testifying at the internal disciplinary proceedings against two officers. Lawyers for the officers argued that Durham police committed an abuse of process by violating a law requiring the chief to review a written report that establishes reasonable grounds before approving a disciplinary proceeding. The investigative report in the case, the officers lawyers pointed out, wasnt finished until 48 days after the charges were approved. On the stand, Bertrim said he had given Chief Martin a partial report, according to a decision from the case. Under questioning that day, though, Bertrim said he had no notes from his meeting with the chief. A copy of the draft report he said he had presented no longer existed, he testified. The officer presiding over that hearing, Insp. Bruce Townley, was so troubled by Bertrims testimony that he ruled there had been an abuse of process by Durham brass, and stayed the charges. There was no report just some supporting documents because the police had rushed to lay the charges before the limitation period expired, Townleys decision said. In his recent complaint to the province, Townley says Bertrims testimony appeared simply designed to cover up for the chief. Townleys complaint says Durhams police board and Chief Martin were fully aware of Bertrims false testimony. Yet, in November 2018, the Durham police board appointed Bertrim as one of the forces two deputy police chiefs. Bertrim has been shown favoritism for covering for the chief in the above noted discipline matter, Townleys complaint claims. A lawyer representing Bertrim and other senior Durham police officials called Townleys allegations false and defamatory. A deputy chief is appointed by the police services board, not the chief. Every candidate must undergo a rigorous screening process that includes a written application, multiple interviews, reference checks and executive testing, lawyer Sean Dewart said. A retired Durham police officer cited Townleys ruling in a complaint to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), asking the agency to investigate Bertrim for his alleged deceit. (The OIPRD is a different police oversight agency from the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, which is currently looking into the allegations detailed in this article. The Star has obtained a copy of the OIPRD complaint but the name of the individual who submitted it has been removed.) The OIPRD has since closed the complaint file against Bertrim without taking any action, though a spokesperson said privacy laws prevent the agency from explaining why. Townley retired from Durham police at the end of February after more than 30 years on the force. In his complaint before the OCPC, he says he was shortlisted for a deputy chief position in 2014 but passed over. Townley said he never complained and continued to do his job, as would be expected. But Townleys relationship with senior command frayed over his final year. A friend and her two teenage children were gruesomely murdered, and while Townley worked the case and comforted the victims family, he says he received no support from senior command. He told Durham brass he was disappointed and the chief then accused him of insubordination, he alleges. Over the following months as he combated post-traumatic stress, he says senior command gave him work with unrealistic deadlines in a very transparent plan to overload me and then suggest I was a poor performer. Townley said he filed a complaint accusing the chief and a deputy chief of bullying and harassment, which was given to the Niagara Regional Police Service to investigate. A lawyer for Durham police officials said Niagara officers thoroughly investigated these allegations and found them to be unsubstantiated. Read more: Province calls for probe into alleged misconduct by senior Durham police officers Durham cops allegedly grilled female officers suicidal ex instead of taking him to hospital after she complained of workplace harassment Two top Durham police officials accused of harassment In May 2018, Durhams police board announced that it was giving Chief Martin a three-year contract extension. The then chair of the board said it was an expression of total confidence in (Martin) and his leadership style. The announcement, Henning says in his complaint, came just hours after he finished providing the board with examples and documents showing alleged misconduct by senior officers. By giving the chief an extension, the board members showed they truly did not care what was going on in the service they are sworn to oversee, Hennings complaint says. The chair of the board said he will not comment until the commission has finished its preliminary review. In the days after a Boeing 737 Max 8 jet plunged into Indonesias Java Sea last October, company officials said they were moving quickly to update plane software suspected in the crash. Six months and a second Max 8 disaster later, Boeing has yet to submit its fix to regulators. Last week, pilots and its airline customers left a Federal Aviation Administration meeting with no idea when the grounded model would fly again. Weve taken off our watches and put the calendars in the drawer, American Airlines pilot Dennis Tajer said after the meeting. Whats taking so long? Fixing software, it turns out, is no easy task. Any time you change software code, its a major issue, said Clint Balog, an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor who studies the interaction between humans and computers in planes. If you change even one small thing in a code, it can have downstream implications. The jets anti-stall device, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, has now been implicated in Octobers Lion Air crash and last months Ethiopian Airlines disaster, which occurred while the software fix was underway. An update turns out to be more complicated than Boeing anticipated, both politically and technically. In a video message Wednesday night, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the company had finished its last test flight and was prepared to move forward with certification. The goal, he said, is to make the 737 Max one of the safest airplanes ever to fly. His company needs to convince the now heavily scrutinized FAA as well as skeptical international regulators that the fix is safe and capable of being used in the Max 8 without requiring costly flight-simulator training for pilots, as the company has promised customers. That could prove tricky in the current environment, said Richard Aboulafia, an aircraft consultant and vice president at Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. I suspect the time spent so far is less about creating optimal software and more about proving to regulators that its OK, Aboulafia said. The tradition of non-U.S. aircraft regulators deferring to the FAAs judgment calls is hanging by a thread. The system now has many agencies who are determined to show that they have independent oversight. Cracks are already showing. On Wednesday, a day after an FAA-appointed pilot boards recommended that the U.S. not mandate simulator training for the Max 8, Canadas transport minister said the training should be required no matter how long the planes remain grounded. Complicating Boeings task is the increasingly complex interplay between artificial intelligence, hardware and humans, aerospace and computer experts say. Software engineers need to ferret out ripple effects and unintended consequences, said Eric Feron, an aerospace software engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology. You have to look at the way the human is going to operate the plane. You have to consider the interactions with hardware, and other software, he said. We want to be sure, if we can be sure, that we have no negative interactions between software systems. MCAS proved vulnerable to those kinds of interactions. It relied on data from just one piece of hardware a sensor that malfunctioned before putting a plane into a dive that pilots didnt see coming. The use of software, artificial intelligence and automation systems continues to expand, not only to fly planes but to drive cars (and even decide who gets parole or a mortgage). When designed well, such systems can prevent fatigue and help humans make better decisions. Risks emerge when they arent designed to manage the back-and-forth between human and machine, particularly when automation changes in ways the user doesnt expect. In the case of the Max 8, pilots initially werent told the MCAS existed. Human-AI teams perform better than either alone, but when the AI is updated its behavior may violate human expectations, according to a January paper published by researchers at Microsoft Corp., the University of Washington and the University of Michigan. The system cant be the same and also have a new button, said Walter Lasecki, a University of Michigan professor and one of the studys co-authors. If you add a new button, you have to teach people how to use it. Balog, the Embry-Riddle professor, said aircraft automation introduces complications such as complacency, with pilots relying too much on computers, as well as a lack of transparency, where pilots dont know what the computers are doing or why. I believe in the pilot understanding what is going on in the cockpit, he said. Many pilots distrust software, said John Barton, who flies the Max for a major airline. Software by definition gets in between pilots and the airplane, he said in an email. Most pilots would prefer to fly the airplane mechanically, where we can feel whats actually going on with the flight controls and with the airplane. Unlike rival Airbus, Boeing has preferred to give pilots, not automation, the final word on flying its planes. The MCAS software on its Max 8 was an exception. According to Boeing, the software helped the Max 8 handle like earlier 737s. With a bigger engine, positioned differently, the Max 8 nose can tilt up more than pilots expect, risking a stall. The MCAS system was designed to push it back down automatically. That proved disastrous when malfunctioning sensors on the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights incorrectly assumed the plane was aimed so high it was in danger of stalling, and pointed it down. The resulting crashes killed a total of 346 people. The 737 Max should have been grounded after the first crash, said Tom Demetrio, a Chicago lawyer who is suing Boeing on behalf of Lion Air families. That was the time to tell airlines, do not fly this plane until you hear from us that we know the cause and the cause has been corrected, he said. Boeing has said it began working on its software fix immediately, but that the work proved more complicated than initially thought, since the software hovers in the background of critical flight controls. But some Boeing critics said the company might have moved faster if the first crash hadnt involved Lion Air, a young airline with a history of maintenance and other troubles. There were just so many factors that contributed with Lion Air, said Hans Weber, an aerospace engineer with FAA experience. Then came the March 10 disaster, which involved widely respected Ethiopian Airlines. Two days later, Boeings Muilenburg said the company had been working for months on software enhancements designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer. On March 13, the U.S. joined the rest of the world in grounding the Max 8. Two weeks after that, Boeing unveiled its software fix to hundreds of pilots and airline executives in Seattle, saying the company would submit it to the FAA by months end, a timeline the company walked back within days. In his video message Wednesday night, Muilenberg said the company had completed 120 test flights, spending 203 hours in the air checking the reworked system. The updated software will assess readings from two sensors, turn itself off if they dont agree and nudge the planes nose down if they do. To test the new system and convince regulators, the company ran computer models subjecting the fix to multiple speeds, angles and potential human or machine failures in the lab, in simulators and in a jet outfitted with flight-test equipment. To Weber and Teal Groups Aboulafia, the fix only highlights the original softwares flaws. In retrospect, Aboulafia said, there were some bad calls. Read more about: BISHOFTU, Ethiopia - Dozens of relatives of the 157 people who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash have gathered to end 40 days of mourning according to Ethiopian Orthodox tradition. Families held victims photos or flags representing their 35 nationalities. Many wore black. The March 10 crash occurred shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi in neighbouring Kenya. I lost my wife here by this terrible accident, Eyassu Teshome said. I havent told my children yet. They are asking me all the time about their mother but I dont have words to tell them what happened. I tried to convince them that she left to be with God. Bayu Demisse, the husband of an Ethiopian Airlines hostess, said that we have an 11-month-old baby so you can imagine the feeling. RIO DE JANEIRO - President Jair Bolsonaro is calling in an unusually strong military presence to control an annual demonstration in the capital by Brazilian indigenous rights activists. The decree published Wednesday in the official gazette calls for National Guard forces to supplement the local military police forces used in previous years. It did not specify how many would be called in. Thousands of indigenous people gather each April to demand recognizition of the rights and lands. In 2017, demonstrators clashed with authorities, with police using tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse the protesters who responded with arrows. Bolsonaro has called for opening indigenous lands to greater mining and commercial development and has been skeptical of granting indigenous people special rights. The Left Alliance, in particular, has come under criticism for having its high-profile members stand as candidates in both elections. Merja Kyllonen (Left Alliance), who won a seat in the Finnish Parliament on Sunday, told Kainuun Sanomat before the elections that if she is elected to both parliaments she will return from Brussels to Helsinki. A DEBATE HAS ERUPTED over the tendency of political parties to nominate the same candidate for election to both the Finnish Parliament and the European Parliament. Hanna Sarkkinen, a deputy chairperson of the Left Alliance, was announced as a candidate in the upcoming elections yesterday, despite her already securing a seat in the Finnish Parliament. Im running primarily to campaign for the party and help it to an election victory. This is a joint effort, she admitted to Kansan Uutiset on Wednesday. Sarkkinen told Helsingin Sanomat that she does not yet know whether she would take up a seat in the European Parliament. Both Kyllonen and Sarkkinen are reportedly canvassing for Silvia Modig, who was announced as a candidate in the upcoming elections a day after she failed to win re-election to the Finnish Parliament. Sounds like theyre purely fishing for votes, Ilkka Ruostersaari, a professor of political science at the University of Tampere, commented to Iltalehti. He pointed out that such a nomination strategy makes sense for parties but not necessarily for voters. Theyre using what I suppose could be called rabbits. When the whole country is one electoral district, you need well-known candidates. With their help, you try to raise the tally of the whole party to make sure at least someone gets through. Not all voters may know that Kyllonen, for example, has promised [not to take up a seat in the European Parliament]. The Left Alliance is hardly the only party to nominate the same candidate for election to both the Finnish Parliament and European Parliament. The party with the highest number of such candidates is the Green League, according to Helsingin Sanomat. Also Teuvo Hakkarainen (PS) is vying for a seat in the European Parliament, despite winning re-election to the Finnish Parliament on Sunday. The European Parliament elections are held across the European Union on 2326 May 2019. Aleksi Teivainen HT Source: Uusi Suomi RIO DE JANEIRO - Police in Brazil have again arrested a farmer convicted of ordering the 2005 assassination of American missionary Dorothy Stang. Regivaldo Pereira Galvao was detained this week after Brazils supreme court overruled a May 2018 injunction that had blocked him from serving his sentence in the killing. He was taken to prison Thursday. Back and forth rulings in the judiciary have mostly kept Galvao out of prison since he was convicted in 2010 of hiring two ranch hands to kill Stang. She worked as an environmental activist throughout Brazil, often in opposition to powerful agricultural and ranching interests. The two men shot Stang to death as she was walking to a community meeting to discuss protections for the Amazon. Prosecutors alleged Galvao ordered the killing because of Stangs activism. CARACAS, Venezuela - As Venezuelas reliance on Russia grows amid the countrys unfolding crisis, Vladimir Putins point man in Caracas is pushing back on the U.S. revival of a doctrine used for generations to justify military interventions in the region. In a rare interview, Russian Ambassador Vladimir Zaemskiy rejected an assertion this week by U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton that the 1823 Monroe Doctrine is alive and well. The policy, originally aimed at opposing any European meddling in the hemisphere, was used to justify U.S. military interventions in countries including Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Grenada, but had been left for dead by recent U.S. administrations trying to turn the page on a dark past. Its hard to believe that the U.S. administration have invented a time machine that not only allows them to turn back the clock but also the direction of the universe, the 66-year-old diplomat told The Associated Press this week. In an example of how the Cold War-like rhetoric on all sides of Venezuelas crisis has quickly escalated, the ambassador compared hostile comments by Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to those of the al Qaeda leaders behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Their obsession in imposing their will, in this case on Venezuelas internal affairs, reminds me of the declarations of the leaders of al Qaeda, who in carrying out the attack on the Twin Towers also tried to position themselves as the only bearers of the truth, said Zaemskiy, who was senior counsellor at Russias mission to the United Nations on 9-11. The history of humanity has shown that none of us are. Those specific, written remarks were prepared ahead of the interview. While the Trump administration led a chorus of some 50 nations that in January recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuelas rightful leader, Putin has steadfastly stood by Nicolas Maduro, sending planeloads of military personnel and blocking condemnation of his government at the U.N. Security Council. In a speech this week commemorating the anniversary of the disastrous CIA-organized invasion of Cuba in 1961 by exiles opposed to Fidel Castros revolution, Bolton warned Russia against deploying military assets to prop up Maduro, considering such actions a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. What the U.S. considers Russias destabilizing support for Maduro hit a high point in December when two Russian bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons touched down in Caracas. Then, last month, dozens of uniformed personnel arrived to service Sukhoi fighter jets and an S-300 missile system. Zaemskiy said such military co-operation is perfectly legal and has been taking place for years ever since the U.S. in 2006 banned all arms sales to the South American country. But he said the alliance has taken on added importance as the Trump administration repeatedly insists that a military option to remove Maduro remains on the table. He was unwilling to say how far Russia would go to thwart an eventual U.S. attack, saying that as a diplomat hes an optimist. I firmly believe that in the end reason will prevail and no tragedy will take place, he said. The soft-spoken, bookish Zaemskiy has specialized in Latin America since his days working for the Soviet Union and was posted to Washington for the first of two U.S. tours when the Cold War ended. Because of his strong Spanish and English, he was a note-taker at the U.N. in September 2000 when Maduros mentor and predecessor Hugo Chavez met Putin for the first time. He said he recalls Chavez complaining to the newly elected Putin about the need to raise oil prices, then near three-decade low. The two petroleum powers gradually cemented a political, military and economic alliance over the next few years as oil prices surged to an all-time high, bringing riches to both. Western diplomats describe Zaemskiy as an astute and affable interlocutor who even U.S. diplomats and leaders of the opposition are known to consult. Hes also the dean of foreign diplomats in Caracas dwindling diplomatic community, having presented his credentials in September 2009 a few weeks before another staunch government ally, Cuban Ambassador Rogelio Polanco. The aquamarine-colored Russian Embassy, where Zaemskiy also lives, was a mid-century mansion purchased in the 1970s from a wealthy military colonel trained in the U.S. It lies in the shadow the hilltop U.S. Embassy, whose flagpole has been bare since the last American diplomats pulled out of the country last month amid a feud with Maduro over its recognition of Guaido. He acknowledged that with hyperinflation raging and many goods in short supply, Venezuela is in a very difficult situation. Echoing Maduro, he blamed U.S. sanctions, as well as the stifling of private investment. His first tour in Venezuela as a protocol officer came from 1976 to 1979, when modern skyscrapers paid for by a flood of petrodollars transformed Caracas skyline even as many outside the capital lived in what he described as a semi-feudal state. Zaemskiy said the legacy of Chavezs economic and political revolution that it restored dignity to the poor remains intact. Its perfectly clear to me that the economic situation of the country has deteriorated a great deal, he said. The way forward is to open more opportunities for the private sector, which still has a big role to play in the country and should be allowed to demonstrate that seemingly a veiled criticism of Maduros constant squeeze on private businesses. To break the current stalemate, he urged something the governments foes have so far rejected: burying the past and starting negotiations, perhaps with the mediation of the Vatican or U.N. The U.S. and opposition insist that past attempts at dialogue have only served to give Maduro badly needed political oxygen while producing no progress. The lack of confidence is a problem on both sides, which is why they should think together on some innovative ways to create reassurances in this process, he said. To simply reject the possibility of dialogue and repeat that the only way forward is the end of usurpation as the opposition says, wont lead anywhere. Despite such outward care for Maduro, some have questioned the depth of Russias support. Russia is major investor in Venezuelas oil industry, but those interests have been jeopardized since the Trump administration in January imposed sanctions on state-run oil giant PDVSA and even went after a Moscow-based bank for facilitating its transactions. At the same time PDVSA last month moved its European headquarters to Moscow from Lisbon, Gazprombank said it was pulling out of a joint venture with the company, Russian state media reported. The core value of Russias association with Chavismo is a challenge to U.S. prerogatives in its supposed backyard, said Ivan Briscoe, the head in Latin American for the Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank . That said, Russian diplomacy is nothing if not realistic. They know Venezuela is plunging into an economic abyss with tragic humanitarian consequences. When the moment comes and tensions reach a height, they are likely to help negotiate a settlement, but will aim to exact the highest price they can. ___ Follow Goodman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APjoshgoodman RIO DE JANEIRO - A second man has died following a mistaken military shooting of a family car that has roused protests in Brazil. Relatives tell Brazilian news website G1 that Luciano Macedo died Thursday in hospital. Macedo was collecting recycling materials when soldiers opened fire on a familys sedan in Rio de Janeiro. Authorities say they confused the car with a similar one reportedly used in a robbery. Driver Evaldo dos Santos Rosa died at the scene. Macedo was shot while trying to help those injured in the sedan. Ten of the 12 soldiers involved in the shooting are in military custody while the case is investigated. BAUTA, Cuba - Just after 8 a.m., Pura Castell got in line behind about 100 other people waiting for a chance to buy frozen chicken legs. For two hours she leaned on her cane watching people leave the state-run market with their 5-pound limit. The chicken ran out at 10 a.m. while the 80-year-old Castell still had 20 people in front of her. She returned the next morning, but no chicken. Then, relief. A neighbour told her that chicken had arrived at the government store that distributes heavily subsidized monthly food rations. Her household of three was due three pieces, either thighs or drumsticks. Ive taken care of myself my whole life, said Castell, a retired janitor. I dont just sit on my hands. Im worn out but I walk all over town. After two decades of relative stability fueled by cheap Venezuelan oil, shortages of food and medicine have once again become a serious daily problem for millions of Cubans. A plunge in aid from Venezuela, the end of a medical services deal with Brazil and poor performances in sectors including nickel mining, sugar and tourism have left the communist state $1.5 billion in debt to the vendors that supply products ranging from frozen chicken to equipment for grinding grain into flour, according to former Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez. Stores no longer routinely stock eggs, flour, chicken, cooking oil, rice, powdered milk and ground turkey, among other products. These basics disappear for days or weeks. Hours-long lines appear within minutes of trucks showing up with new supplies. Shelves are empty again within hours. No one is starving in Cuba, but the shortages are so severe that ordinary Cubans and the countrys leaders are openly referring to the special period, the years of economic devastation and deep suffering that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cubas Cold War patron. Its not about returning to the harshest phase of the special period of the 90s, Communist Party head Raul Castro said last week. But we always have to be ready for the worst. Two days later, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said cutbacks were necessary because: This harsh moment demands we set clearly defined priorities in order to not return to the worst moments of the special period. The Trump administration is working hard to push Cuba toward economic crisis. Washington has sanctioned Venezuelas oil industry and the shipping companies that move Venezuelan oil to Cuba. On Wednesday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton announced further measures against Cuba and its allies, including a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send their relatives on the island and new restrictions on travel to Cuba. The troika of tyranny Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua is beginning to crumble, he said. The move followed the announcement a day earlier that lawsuits would now be permitted against foreign companies doing business in properties seized from Americans after the islands 1959 revolution. The policy could deal a severe blow to Cubas efforts to draw foreign investment. A senior Trump administration official said the economic pressure on Cuba was aimed at forcing the socialist government to stop helping its allies in Venezuela and Nicaragua. The U.S. has accused Cuba of sending soldiers and spies to both countries to strengthen their leaders against protests and potential defection. Cuba denies that. Were going to make sure they cannot afford subsidized adventurism, subsidized subversion of democracy outside of their borders, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about U.S. policy toward Cuba. At an extraordinarily vulnerable time in their history, theyre going to have to refocus on the domestic needs, their domestic pressures. Despite some market-oriented reforms over the last decade, Cuba is one of the last countries on Earth to maintain a Soviet-style economy, with most business run by the state. That economy is afflicted by deep inefficiency and corruption. Many state employees demand bribes to provide services to the public. Others spend only a few hours a day at their jobs, spending the rest of their time doing informal private work or selling supplies stolen from their office, warehouse or factory. Despite a highly educated and generally well-qualified workforce, Cubas industrial sector is dilapidated after decades of underinvestment. The country produces little of value on the global market besides rum, tobacco and the professionals who earn billions for the government working as doctors, teachers or engineers in friendly third countries. The agricultural sector is in shambles, requiring the country to import most of its food. Economy Minister Alejandro Gil said Saturday that Cuba would spend $5 billion on food and petroleum products this year. Over the last 20 years, many of those billions came from Venezuelas socialist government, which has deep ties to Cubas and sent nearly 100,000 barrels of oil daily for years. With Venezuelas economic collapse, that has roughly halved, along with deep cutbacks in the economic relationship across the board. And the news has been bad in virtually every other sector of the Cuban economy. Nickel production has dropped from 72,530 metric tons in 2011 to 50,000 last year, according to Rodriguez, the former economics minister. The sugar harvest dropped nearly 44%, to a million tons. The number of tourists grew only 1%, with many coming on cruise ships, a relatively unprofitable type of visitor. Overall GDP growth has been stuck at 1% for the last three years. Meanwhile, under agreements Castro struck to rehabilitate Cubas creditworthiness, the country is paying $2 billion in debt service to creditors such as Russia, Japan and the Paris Club. State-run stores that sell low-quality Chinese household goods at double or triple their price outside the country are facing competition from vendors in Panama, Guyana, Mexico, Haiti and even Russia, where Cubans fly in, fill suitcases with goods, and return to sell them at a profit. That overseas shopping has become a vacuum sucking precious hard currency out of Cuba. Economist Omar Everleny Perez said he estimated that Cubans spent more than $2 billion a year buying products overseas. With less cash on hand, theres been even less in the state-run stores. The manager of the butcher shop where Castell waited for chicken last week said she needed 80 boxes of chicken to fill that days demand and only 40 arrived. Fears of a return to darker times are growing. During the special period we had it bad, like everyone. Even when we had money we couldnt buy anything, said Castell, a mother of six. It was really rough, blackouts, no food at all, I dont want to go back to that, said Ariadne Medina, a 47-year-old worker in a private restaurant who was waiting to buy chicken behind Castell. Independent experts say a return to the depths of the special period is unlikely. Cuba does business with dozens of nations, hosts nearly 5 million tourists a year and Cubans can travel freely to dozens of countries on direct flights to the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Expatriates send billions home in annual remittances. The new government is trying to halt the deterioration, but its a tough assignment, Perez said. Its going to take resources and time. ______ Follow Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP ______ Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed from Washington. BERLIN - A former Nazi guard has been charged with 5,230 counts of accessory to murder at the Stutthof concentration camp during the final months of World War II, German prosecutors said Thursday. Prosecutors in the northern city of Hamburg said Thursday that the 92-year-old suspect, whose name they didnt release, is accused of assisting in the malicious and cruel killing of mainly Jewish inmates through his work as an SS guard at the camp between August 1944 and April 1945. Prosecutors said the man, who was aged 17-18 at the time and would therefore be tried as a juvenile, was a little wheel in the machinery of murder which saw thousands of people shot dead, poisoned or starved toward the end of the war. German daily Die Welt reported that the suspect, who it identified as Bruno Dey, acknowledged to investigators he was aware of the camps gas chambers and saw bodies taken to the crematoriums, but denied being a supporter of Nazi ideology and expressed regret for the fate of Jews. German prosecutors have charged a number of aging former concentration camp guards in recent years. There have been some convictions but in several cases the defendants poor health has prevented them going on trial. BENTONVILLE, Ark. - The son of an Arkansas congressman has been sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to drugs and weapons charges. James Phillip Womack was sentenced last week in northwest Arkansas. The 31-year-old is the son of Republican Rep. Steve Womack, who represents northwest Arkansas 3rd Congressional District. The younger Womack was arrested last year on multiple charges, including possession of methamphetamine or cocaine. His attorney, Shane Wilkinson, says his client is just a young man that has an addiction. The congressman said in a statement that he loves his son unconditionally and that he respects the decision of the court. MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - Middlebury College has cancelled a lecture by a conservative Polish speaker out of safety concerns two years after the school was the site of a rowdy protest. Middlebury made the announcement Wednesday, hours before member of the European Parliament and philosopher Ryszard Legutko was to appear. The Vermont college cited an assessment of the schools ability to respond to potential security and safety risks around both the lecture and the protest students had planned in response. The student-run newspaper had described Legutko as a critic of LGBTQ activists, multiculturalism and liberal democracy. A 2017 speech by conservative author Charles Murray was disrupted by demonstrations and a subsequent confrontation in which a Middlebury professor was injured. Murray is a social scientist who critics say uses pseudoscience to link intelligence and race. NEW YORK - Earth, meet Polo. Polo Ralph Lauren on Thursday launched a version of its iconic polo shirt made entirely of recycled plastic bottles and dyed through a process that uses zero water. David Lauren, the youngest son of the companys founder and its chief innovation officer, told The Associated Press ahead of the announcement that the new shirt is part of a broader strategy of fresh environmental goals throughout the manufacturing process. Every day were learning about whats happened with global warming and whats happening all around the world, and our employees and our customers are really feeling that its time to step up and make a difference, Lauren said. The Polo isnt the first of its kind. Smaller brands around the world are using repurposed and recycled materials. In announcing Earth Polo, Ralph Lauren committed to removing at least 170 million bottles from landfills and oceans by 2025. The shirts are manufactured in Taiwan, where the bottles are collected. Each uses an average 12 bottles. The shirts are produced in partnership with First Mile, an organization that collects the bottles turned into yarn and, ultimately, fabric. The new fibers will also be used for existing performance wear already made of polyfibers, which are popular for their ability to wick away moisture. The Earth Polo went on sale Thursday, ahead of Mondays Earth Day, at RalphLauren.com and retail stores around the world. It comes in styles for men and women in green, white, navy and light blue. The shirts are not more expensive than other Polos. Ralph Lauren has taken on environmental initiatives over the years, but its putting into place a more significant strategy aimed at changing both its corporate culture and how it thinks about the clothes it produces. The effort includes a new supply chain and sustainability officer, Halide Alagoz, who said more details will be released in June. At the moment were refreshing our approach and framework around sustainability, she said. Among the companys other goals: the use of 100% sustainably sourced cotton by 2025 and 100% recyclable or sustainably sourced packaging materials by the same year. Other fashion powerhouses are also getting more aggressive on the environment. Late last year, Burberry and H&M were among fashion stakeholders to sign on to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP24, in Poland. The charter contains a vision to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Ralph Lauren is not a signatory but is exploring the call to action. As for Earth Polo, a huge threat facing oceans today involves trillions of tiny plastic and chemical-covered non-plastic microfibers that flow from washing machines through drain water, placing smaller fish and other sea life, such as anemones, at risk. Alagoz said Ralph Lauren is working with experts who say the impact of turning a plastic bottle into recycled microfiber is much less than that bottle ending up in the ocean. The broader question of biodegradability of such fibers remains unresolved. For Polo Earth, the story is about recycling and reusing, Lauren said. Theres so much out in the world that is not good for the environment. Whatever materials we can turn into threads, well start looking at other opportunities, he said. Right now, were trying to make sure that what we produce is as good for the environment as possible, or at least helps clean up another problem. Are we creating a new problem? I think were creating solutions, or at least trying to find solutions. BOSTON - Former Vice-President Joe Biden attended a rally of striking supermarket workers in New England on Thursday, arguing that workers arent being treated with enough respect. Biden spoke at the gathering of unionized Stop & Shop employees outside a store in Bostons Dorchester neighbourhood. The 76-year-old Biden, mulling a run for the Democratic nomination for president, said workers at the supermarket chain are not being treated across the board with dignity. Weve got to start recognizing what people do, because it matters to everybody, Biden said. It matters whether or not they feel respected. And Im sick and tired, Im sick and tired, of the way were not being treated. Run Joe Run signs were scattered around the union crowd as chants of 2020 and Uncle Joe! rang out when Biden made his way to talk. Biden called President Donald Trumps tax cut a scam, and said Wall Street, bankers and CEOs did not build America. You built America! Biden said to the union crowd. We built America. Ordinary middle class people built America. United Food and Commercial Workers union members at 240 Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut went on strike on April 11 to protest what they call cuts to health care and take-home pay in the companys latest contract proposal. Stop & Shop, a division of Dutch company Ahold Delhaize, says it is offering across-the-board raises and excellent health care benefits that beat industry standards. NEW YORK - Sen. Amy Klobuchar agreed on Wednesday to become the second Democratic presidential candidate to hold a town hall meeting on Fox News Channel, and others are soon to follow. Sen. Bernie Sanders was the first to venture onto Fox this week. His Monday town hall reached 2.55 million viewers, the biggest audience of any such event in the 2020 campaign cycle, despite not being aired in the prime time hours when most people are available. One of Fox News most loyal viewers, President Donald Trump, indicated on Twitter that he wasnt happy seeing Sanders on his screen. Fox says its looking forward to hosting Klobuchars next town hall. Meanwhile, Pete Buttigiegs campaign confirmed that it is in talks with Fox about a town hall. Jenn Fiore, an aide to Julian Castro, said that campaign is in the process of scheduling one. Sen. Cory Booker also said hes considering one. During an appearance in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Wednesday, Beto ORourke said that while he disagrees with the practices of Fox News, he will appear on the network. He said he wasnt sure whether it would be on a town hall or some other program. I dont write anybody off in this country for their choice of cable programming, ORourke said. The Democrats have had to weigh possibly angering a liberal base that holds Fox News in contempt versus reaching a large audience, many of whom wouldnt be likely to see them in action elsewhere. Before the newfound interest, Fox News faced the prospect of watching the Democratic nomination process from the sidelines. The Democratic National Committee announced in February, and reaffirmed this week, that it would not hold any of its upcoming candidate debates on the network. On Twitter, Trump has seemed like a spurned man. He tweeted Tuesday that it seemed very strange to see Sanders on Fox. Trump, who rarely complains about Fox, also said that many of his supporters couldnt get into the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, event that was stuffed with Sanders fans. Fox has said it reached out to various political and local groups in the Bethlehem area to help fill the audience for the Sanders town hall. Besides the president, Fox News also has to wonder how the large number of his fans in its audience will take to the Democratic visits. The online activists Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, who often appear as commentators on Fox under the name Diamond and Silk, tweeted that it was sickening to see Bernie Sanders on a Fox News town hall disparaging our president. Fox did receive praise for its handling of the Sanders town hall from some unlikely sources, including panelists on MSNBCs Morning Joe, which has been relentless in its criticism of Trump. The Klobuchar town hall will be held May 8 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The hour-long event will have a similar blueprint to Sanders session: Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will be the anchors, and it will start at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. ____ Associated Press writers Alexandra Jaffe in Des Moines, Iowa, and Will Weissert in Fredericksburg, Virginia, contributed to this report. Cisco Systems Inc., headquartered in San Jose, CA, is one of the primary manufacturers of network equipment that keeps the internet operating. Cisco released their updated Forecast and Trends White Paper Feb. 27. They predict global IP (Internet Protocol) data traffic by 2020 will reach a staggering 4.8 sextillion bytes (ZB) or 4.8 trillion gigabytes. It is said our human brain has about 3 gigabytes (3GB) of information/data storage space. Our brain also has 100 billion neurons, each having 10,000 connections passing signals to each other through as many as 1,000 trillion synaptic links. When we take this into account, most computational neuroscientists believe the brains actual storage capacity is from 10 terabytes (10TB) to 2.5 million gigabytes or 2.5PB (petabyte). But, I digress. When we look at the enormous amount of digital internet data out there, one can easily be overwhelmed with the numbers. Each day, 2.5 quintillion bytes or 2.5 exabytes (2.5EB) of digital data is generated over the internet. It would require 10 million Blu-ray discs to hold this amount of data. I was surprised to learn the amount of data created by US companies each year alone could fill 10,000 Libraries of Congress. The continued growth of devices working interactively or autonomously over the internet include smartphones, smart cars, smart wearables, smart home devices, digital cameras; internet-connected refrigerators, ovens, toasters, and other appliances; and many different kinds of IoT (Internet of Things)-connected devices. Next year, an estimated 220 million smart cars with built-in IP capability will become part of the digital landscape, having direct internet connectivity. The following internet statistics are worth noting: There are 4.35 billion internet users as of March 2. One-hundred percent of Icelands citizens use the internet. 2019 online sales will reach $3.5 trillion. Worldwide, nearly 2 billion people will be making online internet purchases this year. This year, an estimated 80 percent of US internet users will transact an online purchase. Every day, more than 3.5 billion Google searches are performed. Internet/Web bots (web robots or software applications running automated tasks) now account for 52 percent of all internet traffic, while 48.5 percent comes from you and me (humans). More than 49 percent of all online sales occur on Amazon. Businesses and consumers using IoT devices will save an estimated $1 trillion by 2020. Smartphones account for more than 70 percent of YouTube viewing. Every 60 seconds, 510,000 comments are posted and 136,000 photos uploaded using Facebook. Twitter has more than 69 million users in the US. More than 500 million tweets/messages are sent every day on Twitter. As of December 2018, 1.95 billion websites were active on the internet. The worlds first website, created by Tim Berners-Lee, was activated Aug. 6, 1991. It is projected, by the year 2022, the internet will have added 1.5 billion new users, bringing the total global internet user count to 5.85 billion. The same year, the worlds population is forecast to be nearly 8 billion. The internet continues to grow exponentially, and more of the devices we use in our daily lives at home, in our car, and at our workplace are being connected to it. At some point in 2020, the world will have more than 50 billion smart, internet-connected devices collecting, analyzing, and sharing data. Be sure to visit my weblog at https://bitscolumn.blogspot.com. FLINT, Mich. - A Canadian man convicted of terrorism for nearly killing a Michigan police officer while yelling God is great in Arabic was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, after boldly declaring that he only regretted not having a machine-gun during the knife attack. Amor Ftouhis statements stunned U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman, who said hed been wrestling very hard with a decision about whether to allow the Tunisia native a chance to someday be released from prison. Leitman said the remarks persuaded me beyond any shadow of a doubt that a life term was appropriate for the 51-year-old Ftouhi, who moved to Montreal in 2007. He was crystal clear today: If he had the opportunity to kill more people, he would, the judge said. Ftouhi drove 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometres) from Montreal to the airport in Flint, Michigan, where he repeatedly stabbed Lt. Jeff Neville in the neck in June 2017. Investigators said Ftouhi wanted to take Nevilles gun and start shooting people at Bishop Airport. Ftouhi legally entered the U.S. at Champlain, New York, and arrived in Flint five days later. He tried but failed to buy a gun at a gun show and instead bought a large knife. Do I regret what I did? Never, Ftouhi told the judge inside a federal courtroom in Flint. I regret I didnt get that machine-gun. I regret I didnt kill that cop. Ftouhi said he had a good education and many skills but felt discrimination in Canada because he wasnt a white Christian. He pledged allegiance to his Muslim faith and said western countries and Arabic countries should be cursed if they dont rule according to Allah. He was convicted in November of terrorism and two other crimes. Neville survived the attack but has lost feeling on the right side of his face. He retired from the airport police department because of post-traumatic stress disorder. He picked the wrong Americans to attack that day, Neville told Leitman, referring to fellow officers and witnesses who saved him and pounced on Ftouhi. He should never walk the streets as a free man again. Ftouhis attorney, Joan Morgan, argued for a 25-year prison sentence in solitary confinement, saying it would effectively be a life term because of Ftouhis age. The judge praised Morgans work but repeatedly challenged her over the recommendation, especially after Ftouhis courtroom remarks. Morgan said Ftouhis mental health had deteriorated at the time of the attack and has slipped even further during 22 months in custody awaiting trial and sentencing. People change. ... He is more than what his actions were, Morgan said. ___ Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap PORTSMOUTH, Ohio - In a story April 18 about an attack on a prison guard, The Associated Press erroneously reported the sentence for Greg Reinke. He was sentenced to 32 additional years, not 32 additional months. A corrected version of the story is below: Inmate pleads guilty in stabbing attack on prison guard A three-time killer serving life sentences has pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder and other charges in an attack on an Ohio prison guard and has been sentenced to 32 more years in prison Associated Press A man already convicted in three slayings and serving a life sentence has pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder and other charges in an attack on an Ohio prison guard. Casey Pigge was sentenced to 32 more years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday in the Feb. 20, 2018, attack on Matthew Mathias. Pigge and co-defendant Greg Reinke had planned their attack on the correction officer at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, prosecutors said. They said Mathias was stabbed with shanks that Pigge made of pieces of metal from the inmates beds, the Chillicothe Gazette reported. Mathias was stabbed 32 times as he was escorting the two inmates to the prison infirmary, according to prosecutors. He has numerous internal injuries and still hasnt returned to work. Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman told the judge Wednesday that Mathias still has to go through more surgeries as he continues his recovery. The brutality of this ranks up there with the worst Ive seen, Tieman said. Im hopeful that this case will bring to light some of the things that our law enforcement personnel have to deal with in the prison system, and some good can come of this. Pigge appeared to show no remorse in court Wednesday, the newspaper reported. He told the judge more was being made of the crime because it involved a guard and not inmates. So it is what it is, he said. Theres always two sides to a coin. Reinke and Pigge are both on a hunger strike at the Ohio State Penitentiary, the states supermax prison in Youngstown, alleging mistreatment, according to Sara French, a spokeswoman with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. She has denied they are being mistreated. As of breakfast Thursday, Reinke had missed 18 meals, and Pigge had missed 9 meals as of Wednesday night, French said. Pigge, 31, previously has been convicted of three separate killings, including strangling a fellow inmate on a medical transport bus. Reinke pleaded guilty last month to the same charges in the attack on Mathias and was also sentenced to an additional 32 years behind bars, Assistant Scioto County Prosecutor Joe Hale said Thursday. Reinke also was sentenced last month to 54 more years for using a shank to repeatedly stab handcuffed prisoners after slipping his own handcuffs in 2017. Reinke, 38, was already serving a life sentence for aggravated murder for a fatal 2004 shooting in Cleveland. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Pigge and Reinke are on hunger strikes at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, not at the Lucasville prison. MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A doctor who prescribed more than 4 million opioid pills, including to a pregnant woman who later died, is one of more than 30 medical professionals in Tennessee charged with illegally prescribing and distributing millions of painkillers, federal authorities said Thursday. U.S. Attorneys Michael Dunavant, in Memphis, and Don Cochran, in Nashville, held separate news conferences detailing allegations against doctors and nurse practitioners. The health care workers were indicted on federal charges stemming from a sweeping investigation by the federal Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force, launched last year by President Donald Trumps administration. Dunavant said 16 medical professionals have been charged with illegally distributing opioids and other painkillers in west Tennessee. Cochran said nine were charged in middle Tennessee. Another eight medical professionals were charged in the Knoxville-based Eastern District of Tennessee, they said. A total of 60 people, including 53 medical professionals who wrote 350,000 prescriptions and distributed 32 million pills, have been charged nationally, authorities said in first announcing the charges Wednesday. They said most of those charged were from the five states targeted by the strike force: Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. Cochran said 650 people died from prescription opioids in Tennessee in 2017. He said those deaths arent really a good indicator of the problem, because a lot of people who go on to heroin and even more dangerous things like fentanyl start with prescription opioids. Earlier this year, attorneys in the Middle District of Tennessee filed a civil case that temporarily stopped two pharmacies in Clay County from dispensing controlled substances. The county has a population of less than 8,000 people and the pharmacies dispensed 1.5 million opioids, Cochran said. Two people have died, and numerous others were hospitalized for overdoses shortly after obtaining drugs from the pharmacies, Cochrans office said. In west Tennessee, which is mostly rural with the exception of the Memphis area, those charged include Dr. Thomas Kelly Ballard III. Ballard, who runs Ballard Clinic in Jackson, is charged with several crimes, including unlawfully dispensing controlled substances and distributing a drug resulting in death or serious bodily injury. The former charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years, and the latter of at least 20 years. An Associated Press reporter who called the Ballard Clinic for comment reached a voicemail that noted the office is only open on Tuesday and Wednesday. The voicemail did not accept messages. Online court records did not show on Thursday if Ballard had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. Prosecutors allege in an indictment that Ballard prescribed 4.2 million opioid pills, sometimes in dangerous combination with other drugs such as benzodiazepines. They said Ballard sold opioids to known addicts and to a pregnant woman, who later died. She was not identified. Ballard, 61, often used his power to prescribe controlled substances to convince purported patients to allow him to kiss, hug, grope, or otherwise inappropriately touch them, the indictment said. In their investigation, authorities interviewed confidential informants and analyzed records that showed doctors or pharmacies were distributing unusually high numbers of pills. Patients travelled great distances to get their cocktails of controlled substances from a clinic in the rural town of Bells, the indictment said. The west Tennessee district borders Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri and includes the intersection of Interstate 40 and Interstate 55. That makes it easier for people to travel to find illegally prescribed drugs in the region, Dunavant said. Dunavant noted that only five of the medical professionals practice in Memphis. Eleven defendants are from mostly rural parts of the region. A former state district attorney in rural west Tennessee, Dunavant said there may be a perception in rural communities that illegal opioid distribution will go unnoticed. If youre a small-town doctor and youre the sole practitioner in a small town, where everybody relies on you for medical treatment and for your pill, nobodys going to do anything to you, right? Dunavant said. Thats wrong. ___ This story has been edited to clarify the sentences Ballard faces if convicted. ___ Loller reported from Nashville. HONOLULU - All Nippon Airways has completed a test flight of a new wide-body aircraft with its arrival in Hawaii. The Japanese airline completed the first of two tests when the Airbus A380 Flying Honu touched down Wednesday at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, according to news reports. The four-engine jet arrived from Tokyos Narita International Airport around 7:45 a.m., followed by a blessing ceremony for the aircraft that was painted to look like a giant turtle. The test flight carried two pilots, three airline employees and three passengers from the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, an equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration. The state Department of Transportation says it is very happy Hawaiis largest airport is the 11th in the U.S. that is able to accommodate the double-decker planes, which will seat about 520 passengers. It is double-decker, you have to be able to have a jet bridge on the second and third levels of the plane, so two gates here in Honolulu are able to accommodate the A380, said Tim Sakahara, a transportation department spokesman. The test was another step toward All Nippon Airways 2020 goal of doubling the number of seats on flights connecting Honolulu and Tokyo. The airline currently offers three daily flights between the cities on Boeing 787 aircraft, which carry 200 to 250 passengers. Honu Hawaiis green sea turtle was chosen for the aircrafts name to symbolize good fortune and prosperity and the companys support of Hawaii conservation efforts, the airline said. LOS ANGELES - Police said Thursday that theyve broken up a band of scooter-riding robbers from the San Francisco Bay Area who busted into 40 cars over the weekend in Los Angeles. The thieves travelled to Hollywood and used ride-sharing scooters to hit dozens of cars near the tourist-heavy Hollywood and Highland intersection, site of the TCL Chinese Theatre. The scooters give then mobility, and in Hollywood on a weekend night with as busy as it gets, the scooters allow them to manoeuvr through the community almost at will, Los Angeles police Capt. Cory Palka told KNTV . Surveillance video of one of the thefts provided by LAPD shows a man ride a scooter to the back of a car, bust out its window, grab a bag inside and pass it to another man on a scooter before the two zip away. The Hollywood area may be an attractive target because of all the tourists, he said. Oftentimes tourists, people new to community, dont lock cars and are prone to becoming victims, he said. Palka said such thefts are an ongoing issue and that thieves have been taking stolen items up to Oakland to sell them on the street. Palka said five arrests have been made and that the LAPD and Oakland police have paired up on the ongoing investigation. DALLAS - A medical examiner says the grandson of actor Clark Gable died of an accidental drug overdose. The Dallas County Medical Examiners office says an autopsy found Clark James Gable III was killed by a combination of the opioids fentanyl and oxycodone, and the sedative alprazolam. It ruled his death an accident. Gable died in February. The 30-year-old lived in Dallas and hosted the reality TV show Cheaters, which featured confrontations with people suspected of infidelity. He is survived by his fiancee and their infant daughter. Gables death was the latest in a national opioid crisis that the Centers for Disease Control says claimed 48,000 lives in 2017. The manufacturer of Oxycodone last month agreed to pay $270 million to settle one of thousands of lawsuits blaming it in the crisis. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A powerful New Mexico regulatory authority is requiring the states largest utility to bill Facebook $39 million for a new transmission line construction for its data centre a move the social media giant says it was not expecting. The Public Regulation Commissions on Tuesday ordered the Public Service Company of New Mexico to charge Facebook for nearly half the cost of the $85 million transmission project for its New Mexico data centre that opened this year, the Albuquerque Journal reports . Commission members, who voted 5-0 to approve the order, contend that the utility cannot bill ratepayers for the transmission project because the line will not benefit retail customers. It only helps Facebook and wholesale electric operators who need the transmission capacity to supply renewable energy to other markets, the commission said. But the Menlo Park, California-based Facebook said that the ruling could affect its long-term operations in the state, raising costs and putting in doubt plans to use 100 per cent renewable energy to run the facility, Facebook said. The company sees the bill as a significant deviation of our understanding of the terms and conditions of its contract with the utility and added that the bill is creating uncertainty around the long-term costs of our operation in New Mexico, Bobby Hollis, head of energy and site selection for the Facebook subsidiary Greater Kudu LLC, wrote in a March 29 letter to the commission. State officials and economic development professionals have said the decision could hurt New Mexicos efforts to attract more large companies. Its unclear how the utility will respond to the order. It has 30 days to file a motion for a rehearing, or it could appeal the commissions decision to the state Supreme Court. Public Service Company of New Mexico representatives did not immediately return emails seeking comment. Facebook in February opened its data centre in New Mexico, where the company has said servers have begun storing many of the videos, photos and other media that its 2.3 billion users have posted to the social network. The data centre is one of seven such sites for Facebook, and includes six buildings for data storage. It is located on a patch of desert at the edge of Los Lunas, New Mexico, just beyond the edge of Albuquerque. The proposed high-voltage line would transmit electricity produced by a 166-megawatt wind farm being built by Avangrid Renewables to supply Facebooks data centre. Under a special service contract between the utility and Facebook that the commission approved in 2016, no ratepayers are supposed to be affected by any renewable generation systems managed by Public Service Company of New Mexico to supply the Los Lunas data centre. That contract comes out of a new green energy tariff that the commission authorized to allow the utility to supply renewable electricity directly to customers such as Facebook with special rates negotiated between Public Service Company of New Mexico and those large-scale consumers. ___ Information from: Albuquerque Journal, http://www.abqjournal.com BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota and the developer of the Dakota Access oil pipeline settled a lawsuit over the Texas companys ownership of ranchland in the Plains state where corporations arent allowed in the farming industry. The deal awaiting a judges approval involves a business structure that technically keeps the land tied to Energy Transfer Partners. However, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem told The Associated Press on Thursday that the setup is proper and legal and he is not opposing a recent motion filed by ETP attorney Lawrence Bender to dismiss the case. The corporation has divested itself of the land in question, and so there is no longer a complaint to be had against them, Stenehjem said. ETP subsidiary Dakota Access LLC in September 2016 paid an undisclosed price for about 12 square miles of private ranchland in an area where thousands of pipeline opponents gathered to protest in 2016 and 2017. The company cited the need to protect workers and help law officers monitoring the demonstrations against the $3.8 billion pipeline thats now moving North Dakota oil to a shipping point in Illinois. A Depression-era law in North Dakota prohibits large corporations from owning agricultural land in order to protect the states family farming heritage, with certain exceptions. ETP denied violating the law and said it planned to transfer ownership of the land once the pipeline work was done. It reached a deal with Stenehjem that allowed it to keep ownership until July 2018 to help maintain the safety of pipeline workers. When the deadline passed and ETP still owned the property, Stenehjem sued , asking the court to fine ETP at least $25,000. In March, the developer formed the 1806 Ranch family farm limited liability company to hold legal title to the property, Bender said in court documents. ETP vice-president Greg Mcilwain is listed on the warranty deed as the 1806 Ranch president. Bender said in court documents that the structure complies with an exception to the farming law that allows for corporations or limited liability companies to comply. That exception requires at least one person with the company to live on or operate the farm. A federal judge last year in a separate, unrelated lawsuit ruled the operator need not live on the property but could manage from afar. ETP did not respond to a request for comment on how the land will be used. The company has said previously the land has been leased for agricultural purposes. Stenehjem said the company has several options, including leasing out the land, hiring people to operate a farm or ranch, or leaving the land idle and just let the pheasants reside there. ___ Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Thursday announced endorsements from seven black lawmakers in the critical early voting state of South Carolina, a show of force in the first place where African American voters feature prominently in next years primary elections. Sanders 2020 campaign made the announcement just ahead of a Spartanburg town hall meeting with members of the states Legislative Black Caucus. The backing represents the biggest number of black lawmakers to back a 2020 hopeful to date in this state, which holds the first primary in the South. The support is part of Sanders attempt to turn things around in South Carolina, where his 47-point loss to Hillary Clinton in 2016 blunted the momentum generated in opening primary contests and exposed his weakness with black voters. Sensing the coming defeat, Sanders left South Carolina in the days leading up to the states 2016 vote, campaigning instead in Midwestern states where he hoped to perform better. Sanders, a senator from Vermont, has taken a different approach this time, working to deepen ties with the black voters who comprise most of the Democratic primary electorate in the state and pledging to visit South Carolina much more frequently. Our Revolution, the organizing offshoot of Sanders 2016 campaign, has an active branch in the state, holding regular meetings and conferences throughout the state. Sanders addressed the group last year. The campaign recently hired a state director and, according to adviser Jeff Weaver, is putting together a much stronger team on the ground, much earlier in the process. Last month, Sanders made his first official 2020 campaign stop in this state, holding a rally at a black church in North Charleston. Attracting a mostly white crowd of more than 1,500 that night, Sanders recounted many of the efforts of his previous presidential campaign, noting that some of his ideas had since been adopted by the Democratic Party and supported by other candidates vying for the partys nomination. On Thursday, the pews of Mount Moriah Baptist Church were filled with a diverse crowd of several hundred as Sanders took to a lectern and addressed his ideas for criminal justice reform, issues that he said disproportionately affect the African American community. We understand that we are just denting the surface, Sanders said, going on to discuss racial discrepancies in arrests for traffic violations and marijuana possession. I think a new day is coming. Applauding Sanders attention to the needs of the black community, Spartanburg Councilman Michael Brown reminded the crowd of Sanders participation in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and encouraged him to stay the course in terms of his efforts to reach out to the black voters here. Thank you, sir. Keep the conversation going, Brown said. Remain unapologetic in what you have to say because your message is resonating in our community and throughout this land. The South Carolina lawmakers endorsing Sanders are state Reps. Wendell Gilliard, Cezar McKnight, Krystle Simmons, Ivory Thigpen and Shedron Williams. Hes also being backed by state Reps. Terry Alexander and Justin Bamberg, both of whom backed Sanders in 2016 and served as national surrogates for his campaign. ___ Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP GATLINBURG, Tenn. - Most campgrounds, picnic areas and roads in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are opening just in time for Easter weekend. The partial government shutdown over the winter caused a small delay in facilities openings at Americas most visited national park. But spring opening day for a majority of facilities is scheduled for Friday. The remaining facilities will open between now and Memorial Day weekend. Superintendent Cassius Cash says in a news release that staff has been working hard to hire seasonal employees, de-winterize water treatment and waste water systems, and clear fallen trees and limbs. More information about specific facility openings and park events is available on the parks website at http://www.nps.gov/grsm . The park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border had more than 11.4 million visitors last year. MINNEAPOLIS - The Latest on the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed woman who had called 911 (all times local): 5:10 p.m. The partner of a former Minneapolis cop charged in the shooting death of an unarmed woman is explaining why he didnt shoot when the woman approached the officers squad car. Matthew Harrity testified Thursday at the trial of Mohamed Noor, who faces murder and manslaughter charges in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor shot the dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia minutes after she summoned officers with a 911 call about a possible sexual assault behind her home. Harrity was driving their squad car. He described hearing a thump on the vehicle that startled him and being aware of a presence on his left. He testified he was still trying to make sense of the situation when Noor shot Damond. Pressed by prosecutor Amy Sweasy, Harrity said his training was not to shoot without knowing what a target was and analyzing the threat. He said he had not yet made that analysis. ___ 4:55 p.m. The partner of a Minneapolis police officer charged in the shooting death of an unarmed woman says he loved working with the accused former officer and felt he always had his back. Matthew Harrity is a key witness in Mohamed Noors trial in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor shot and killed the dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia when she approached the officers car just minutes after calling 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. Harrity said he feared for his life after hearing a thump on the officers car that made him think of an ambush. Both officers pulled their guns but only Noor fired. Harrity cried at points during his testimony and said that he and Noor had worked well together. He said, I loved working with Officer Noor. ___ 4:40 p.m. The partner of a Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman is explaining why he didnt tell other officers at the scene about a thump on the officers squad car he says he heard right before the shooting. Officer Matthew Harrity is a key witness at the murder and manslaughter trial of Mohamed Noor. Noor fired a single shot in July 2017 that killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond, when she approached the officers squad car minutes after calling 911 to report a possible rape behind her home. Harrity testified Thursday that he feared an ambush after hearing the thump. In explaining why he didnt mention the thump in the aftermath of the shooting, Harrity said he was required to give only a brief public safety statement at the scene. Harrity says he knew from training that he would be giving a full statement in days to come. Ruszczyk Damond was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia and her death sparked anger in both countries. Noor was fired from the Minneapolis police force after being charged in her death. ___ 12:50 p.m. The partner of a former Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an unarmed woman says he was startled by a thump on the officers squad car and feared a possible ambush. Officer Matthew Harrity is a key witness at the trial of Mohamed Noor. Noor killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond with a single shot as she approached the officers squad car in July 2017. Damond was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia who had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. Defence attorneys have said Noor was reacting to a noise and feared an ambush when he fired his weapon. Harrity was driving the police SUV. In his testimony Thursday, he described a glimpse of something to his left, then hearing something hitting the car and some sort of murmur. He said he immediately drew his gun. Harrity said thats when Noor fired. ___ 11:27 a.m. The partner of a Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an unarmed woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape near her home is describing the moments before the shooting. Officer Matthew Harrity is a critical witness in the trial of Mohamed Noor. Noor killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond with a single shot as she approached the officers squad car in July 2017. Harrity testified Thursday that he and Noor were rolling down the alley behind Damonds house searching for anything related to the 911 call of a woman in trouble. Harrity testified he had pulled the hood off his guns holster in case he needed to draw it. Asked why, Harrity said he considers every call a threat until its not. His testimony is continuing. NEW ORLEANS - The Latest on severe weather moving across the United States (all times local): 12:31 a.m. Alabama authorities say a woman has been killed after strong storms knocked down a tree onto her mobile home in St Clair County. The St. Clair County Sheriffs Office tells WVTM that a tree fell on a home on U.S. Highway 231 in Pell City just before 8 p.m. Thursday. Emergency crews responded and found the woman dead inside. The woman has been identified as 42-year-old Monica Clements. Authorities said Clements 10-year-old son suffered minor injuries. Sheriff Billy Murray said in a news release that the Sheriffs Office is deeply saddened by this tragic accident and our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time. ___ 9:30 p.m. A second man has been reported dead in Mississippi due to a storm system moving across the South. WLBT-TV reports that 24-year-old Kenderick Magee was killed Thursday while driving in the storm. Amite County Coroner Campbell Sharp says Magees car crashed near the rural town of Gillsburg in southwest Mississippi, killing Magee. Neshoba County Coroner John Stephens tells local media that a driver was killed Thursday afternoon when his car hit a downed tree on a highway south of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Officials have not released that drivers name. ___ 8:30 p.m. One person has died in Mississippi from a storm system moving across the South. Neshoba County Coroner John Stephens tells local media that a driver was killed Thursday afternoon when his car hit a downed tree on a highway south of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Stephens is not yet releasing the mans name. The Neshoba Democrat reports widespread damage in the county, including a collapsed wall at a medical clinic, downed traffic signals and canopies, and trees on houses. Damage from the storm system was reported in at least 24 of Mississippis 82 counties. Damage reports were also increasing Tuesday evening in Alabama. Utilities report more than 100,000 electrical outages across the two states. ___ 6 p.m. A utility pole has fallen and hit two vehicles as stormy weather moved into the New Orleans area. WVUE-TV reports that the pole fell just before 2 p.m. Thursday during windy weather in the suburb of Harvey. That knocked out power to about 1,500 customers in the area for much of the afternoon. Two minor injuries were reported among occupants in the vehicles. ___ 4:40 p.m. National Weather Service forecasters say they believe multiple tornadoes have hit the southern half of Mississippi as a storm system moves east. No injuries have been reported and damage reports remain scattered. Weather Service meteorologists will survey later seeking to confirm twisters. People huddled in hallways, stairways and basements across southwest Mississippi and the Jackson metropolitan area for much of Thursday afternoon, as tornado sirens wailed, winds howled and rains poured. Utilities reported more than 50,000 electrical outages statewide, with trees blocking roads and highways in many places. Local news outlets report a school bus carrying preschoolers was briefly trapped between downed trees on a road near Utica. Two cars were flipped in a Walmart parking lot in Clinton, near Jackson. Emergency management officials say they received multiple reports of trees falling on houses in rural, southern Hinds County, which includes Jackson. ___ 2:15 p.m. Heavy winds and power outages are being reported as a storm system moves across Louisiana and Mississippi. The National Weather Service reported gusts of 60 mph (97 kph) in Natchez, Mississippi, on Thursday afternoon as the storm system moved across the Mississippi River from Louisiana. Utilities report about 13,000 customers without power across central Louisiana and another 10,000 without power in southwest Mississippi. Trees were reported down in multiple locations throughout the region. A spotter confirmed a tornado on the ground southwest of Jackson. Dozens of schools and colleges dismissed students early as tornado watches were issued. There was also a band of power outages in east Texas stretching from Tyler south to nearly College Station. The same system produced tornadoes and hail earlier in North Texas, the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. ___ 11:45 a.m. Forecasters are warning about tornadoes and other violent weather as a storm system moves into the southeastern United States. The National Weather Service issued a series of tornado warnings about a front pushing eastward from Texas on Thursday. Strong storms covered much of Louisiana. A tornado watch reached from coastal Louisiana into central Mississippi, and more weather alerts are likely. Flood warnings reached as far north as central Indiana. The same system produced tornadoes and hail earlier in North Texas, the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. ___ 9:55 a.m. Severe thunderstorms rumbled across North Texas, the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas, producing several tornadoes and unleashing widespread hail. Seven tornadoes were reported across the Plains from the northeastern Texas Panhandle to southeastern Kansas. Strong winds hit elsewhere Wednesday evening, toppling utility poles and trees and downing power lines in parts of North Texas. No significant structural damage has been reported. The National Weather Service received numerous reports of hail pelting the storm-struck areas. Egg-size hail was reported about 60 miles (95 kilometres) northwest of Fort Worth. The storms were expected to move Thursday into the Deep South. Dozens of schools in Mississippi and Alabama dismissed students early as a precaution. The threat comes days after dozens of tornadoes from East Texas to Georgia left at least nine dead. WASHINGTON - The World Trade Organization handed the United States a win Thursday in a trade dispute with China, ruling that Beijing did not fairly administer quotas on U.S. wheat, rice and corn. The WTO, the Geneva organization that oversees the rules of global trade, found that China had not been transparent, predictable or fair in managing so-called tariff rate quotas on U.S. grain exports. The import tax, or tariff, is higher on U.S. grain shipments that exceed the quota. The case, started by the Obama administration, is not directly related to a larger U.S.-China trade standoff: President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports in a dispute over Beijings aggressive drive to challenge U.S. technological dominance; China has retaliated by targeting $110 billion in U.S. products. The two countries are in talks to settle their differences. The decision Thursday was the second U.S. victory over China this year in a trade dispute over agriculture. In February, the WTO ruled that China unfairly subsidized its grain producers. This second important victory for the United States further demonstrates that President Trump will take all steps necessary to enforce trade rules and to ensure free and fair trade for U.S. farmers, said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. The Administration will continue to press China to promptly come into compliance with its WTO obligations. China can appeal Thursdays decision. PARKLAND, Fla. - Alex Rozenblat can still hear the cries of a wounded boy calling for help as she hid from the gunfire that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year. Talking to therapists at the school in Parkland, Florida, didnt help. Each session had a different counsellor, and she found herself rehashing traumas she had already expressed. She would rather turn to her friends, who understand what she went through. There is slight pressure to get better as quickly as you can, and since its been a year, everyone thinks that you are better, the 16-year-old said. The mental health resources after a school shooting range from therapy dogs and grief counsellors at school to support groups, art therapy and in-home counselling. But there is no blueprint for dealing with the trauma because each tragedy, survivor and community is different. Many survivors dont get counselling right away sometimes waiting years making it difficult to understand the full impact. The struggle is getting them to seek help in the first place. In the two decades since the Columbine High School massacre, a network of survivors has emerged, reaching out to the newest victims to offer support that many say they prefer to traditional therapy. As the anguish festers, the danger grows, illustrated by the recent suicides of two Marjory Stoneman Douglas survivors and a father whose young child died in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. It changes the community, said psychologist Robin Gurwitch, a trauma specialist at Duke University Medical Center. Grief, troubling memories and emotions can bubble up any time for survivors and even community members who didnt see the bullets fly, she said. They can hit on anniversaries of the tragedy, birthdays of victims, graduations and new mass shootings, Gurwitch said. The trauma can even rush back with a song, favourite meal, video game or fire alarms. Theres never a time limit. We dont get over it. We hope we learn to get through it and cope, Gurwitch said. Survivors of the Columbine attack, which killed 12 Colorado students and a teacher on April 20, 1999, started The Rebels Project, which is part of a loose nationwide network of survivors of mass attacks. The groups reach out after each shooting. They held a packed meeting for survivors and parents in Parkland this month, describing how they have learned to cope over the years through therapy, exercise and hobbies and assuring the Florida community that their pain is normal. We are one family, said meeting organizer Mike Dempsey, a survivor of 9-11 and the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. What helped me after 9-11 was that Oklahoma City bombing survivors drove all the way up to New York to help us. They werent mental health professionals, but they were able to offer comfort and outreach and just to let us know: Weve been through this. Rozenblat refuses to talk about the Parkland shooting. If she feels anxious during the school day, she holes up in a TV production classroom because there are no windows for a gunman to shoot through. Her mother worries. Alex had been an honours student but now struggles with schoolwork. Shes also started hanging around a new group of friends, said her mother, Lissette Rozenblat. She schedules therapy appointments, but Alex often makes excuses to postpone or cancel. The family bought a therapy dog and is trying to get Alex into art therapy. The common theme among parents ... almost all of our kids dont want to talk about the incident, Lissette Rozenblat said. Some students who were not physically wounded minimize their trauma and dont seek help because they try to convince themselves they were lucky, said Columbine survivor Heather Martin, who co-founded The Rebel Project. You cant measure trauma in that way, Martin said. Still, she said people need to seek help when they feel ready, not when others think they should. Victims often receive compensation for longer-term care, but many in recovering communities, especially those may have seen horror but avoided injury, say theres still not enough help to go around. Stoneman Douglas math teacher Kimberly Krawczyk said no typical school counsellor no matter how well-intentioned or trained can fully help students or staff who survived a mass shooting. These kids have seen as much as soldiers who have been in battle. They survived gunfire. They walked over bodies. They had classmates who were right next to them who got shot, Krawczyk said. Teachers also are dealing with their own trauma and insecurities, she said. We dont all have our marbles back in our bags yet, but we are in charge of those children. That gravity is a lot of responsibility, and for some teachers, it is too emotionally overwhelming, Krawczyk said. Managing long-term mental health effects poses unique challenges in each town touched by tragedy, but experts agree that isolation is a red flag and keeping victims connected to family, friends and community is critical. Dr. April Foreman, a psychologist on the board of the American Association of Suicidology, called treating mass shootings a profound lifetime health care issue but stressed that a majority of those who have suicidal thoughts recover. Marjory Stoneman sophomore Julia Brighton said shes attempted suicide four times in the year since she watched the gunman shoot through the window of her English class, killing three friends. Despite an outpouring of community support and a bevy of mental health services, Brighton said she still felt ashamed to seek help. After months of therapy, she said she realized theres nothing to be afraid of because it made me a better person in the long run. ___ Slevin reported from Denver. Associated Press Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report. WASHINGTON - In a sweeping two-year investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller identified numerous contacts between President Donald Trumps campaign officials and Russians. But the evidence that his team uncovered during the Russia probe that shadowed Trumps presidency didnt rise to the level of a chargeable crime, he said. At a Thursday morning news conference, Attorney General William Barr took great pains to repeat the presidents rallying cry that there was no collusion. But a redacted version of the special counsels report that was released publicly later Thursday provides detailed and nuanced examples of the encounters. Heres a look at what the Mueller report did and didnt find with respect to collusion: RUSSIAN CONTACTS A main focus for Mueller was a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between a Russian lawyer and members of the Trump campaign including the presidents son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Emails leading up to the meeting promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. The report details other contacts as well, including meetings between the campaign and the Russian ambassador and dealings between Kushner and a Washington-based think-tank with strong Russian ties. And immediately after the November 2016 election, the report says, Russian government officials and prominent Russian businessmen began to make inroads into the new administration, and the most senior levels of the Russian government encouraged these efforts. The report did not find criminality in those contacts, however. In the Trump Tower meeting, for example, the report notes that to charge Trump Jr. and Kushner, who were campaign novices, prosecutors would have to show that they had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful. The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with a ban on foreign contributions, which the information on Clinton could be considered. ___ PAUL MANAFORT Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted in Washington and Virginia of crimes related to years of Ukrainian political consulting work as part of Muellers investigation. But the report says that the investigation could not establish that he co-ordinated with the Russian government on its election interference efforts. The report does detail that he shared Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate the U.S. says has ties to Russian intelligence, and that the two men met secretly during the campaign to discuss a peace plan that Manafort acknowledged to the special counsels office was a backdoor way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine. The report said that both Manafort and Kilimnik believed the plan would require candidate Trumps assent to succeed, if he were elected. Still, prosecutors did not identity evidence of a connection between Manaforts sharing polling data and Russias interference in the election, the report says. ___ THE RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR Mueller determined interactions between Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Trump campaign officials including former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April 2016 and at the 2016 GOP convention were brief, public, and non-substantive. Prosecutors found no evidence that Kislyak conversed with Trump or Sessions, then an Alabama senator, after a speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington or that he would have had an opportunity to do so. At a meeting in Sessions office in September 2016, Sessions recalled Kislyak saying that the Russian government was receptive to the overtures Trump had laid out during his campaign, but none of the attendees remember discussions of election interference or a request that Sessions convey information to Trump. Kislyak invited Sessions to further discuss Russia relations over a meal at his residence, but his aide advised against it, saying she had assessed Kislyak was an old school KGB guy. Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation after news became public that he had spoken with Kislyak twice during the campaign. He drew the presidents ire after removing himself from the investigation and ultimately resigned at the presidents request in November. Trumps first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned after lying about contacts with Kislyak. ___ GOP PLATFORM Trump campaign officials met with Kislyak during the week of the Republican National Convention but those interactions were brief and non-substantive. During meetings before the convention, a senior campaign policy advisor diluted a proposal that wouldve amended the Republican Party platform about providing U.S. arms to Ukraine. Muellers report said the investigation did not establish that the efforts to dilute the platform came at the behest of candidate Trump or Russia. ___ WIKILEAKS Muellers report provides an in-depth look at exchanges between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks during the campaign. In one encounter, WikiLeaks sent Trump Jr. a message on Twitter about an anti-Trump website that was about to launch and gave him the password. Several hours later, the eldest Trump son emailed campaign staffers about the message, saying he tried the password and it worked. In others, the anti-secrecy group asked for help promoting their links and told Trump Jr. they had just released another batch of emails stolen from former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Some parts of Muellers 448-page report that reference WikiLeaks were blacked out in order to protect ongoing criminal investigations. Attorney General William Barr said Thursday that any co-ordination between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks wouldnt amount to a crime because WikiLeaks publications of stolen emails damaging to Hillary Clintons campaign wasnt illegal as long as the group didnt work with the Russian hackers who stole the data. ___ ERIK PRINCE AND THE SEYCHELLES Questions have long surrounded a mysterious meeting between Blackwater USA founder Eric Prince the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and a Russian official in the Seychelles, islands off the coast of east Africa. The report flags discrepancies between what Prince and Trump strategist Steve Bannon said about the meeting. Prince met with Kirill Dmitriev, who headed a Russian sovereign wealth fund, in January 2017, as Trump was preparing to take office and the Russian government was seeking contacts with the incoming administration. Dmitriev reported directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the report. In interviews, Prince told investigators that he had briefed Bannon on the meeting, but Bannon denied they ever discussed it. Bannon said he would have remembered such a discussion and objected to the meeting. The report says that investigators could not iron out the conflicting accounts by reviewing communications, in part because text messages between them were missing. Phone provider records showed that Bannon and Prince had exchanged dozens of messages, including two that Prince sent within hours of the meetings with Dmitriev, but the investigators could not find the messages on their phones. Prince denied deleting messages and Bannon said he did not know why the messages were missing. ___ Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Desmond Butler contributed to this report. CONCORD, N.H. - More than a dozen wild bee species critical to pollinating everything from blueberries to apples in New England are on the decline, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of New Hampshire wanted to understand if the documented declines hitting honeybees and bumblebees were also taking a toll on the lesser studied bee species in New Hampshire. So they examined 119 species in the state from a museum collection at the college dating back 125 years. Writing in the peer-reviewed journal Insect and Conservation Diversity this month, Sandra Rehan and Minna Mathiasson concluded 14 species found across New England were on the decline by as much as 90 per cent. Several of them are leafcutter and mining bees, which, unlike honeybees, nest in the ground. We know that wild bees are greatly at risk and not doing well worldwide, Rehan, assistant professor of biological sciences and the senior author on the study, said in a prepared statement. This status assessment of wild bees shines a light on the exact species in decline, beside the well-documented bumble bees. Because these species are major players in crop pollination, it raises concerns about compromising the production of key crops and the food supply in general. Bees have been on the decline for more than a decade across the globe, and scientists have blamed a range of factors including insecticides called neonicotinoids, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply. Bees are critical pollinators, and about a third of the human diet comes from plants that are pollinated by insects. Greg Burtt, who owns Burtts Apple Orchard in Cabot, Vermont, said he relies heavily on wild pollinators to produce crops. The 9,000-tree orchard covers 10 acres and has been around for a decade. Making sure that pollinators in the area are healthy and doing well is definitely something were concerned about, Burtt said. Jeff Lozier, a bee expert from the University of Alabama who did not take part in the research, called the study interesting and said the findings are a critical step in expanding research into lesser known species of bees. He did, however, caution that researchers studied only bees in New Hampshire and depended upon bees in a museum that were not collected for the purpose of large scale population surveys. The most important use of the data in my view is in providing a baseline set of hypotheses for groups of species that are potentially declining or stable across a much greater set of species than is usually examined, which can then be investigated in more detail to determine why they may be changing, Lozier said in an email interview. This study doesnt really determine the why quite yet, but gives us a reference point for further study. Rehan said she hopes the study will inspire other researchers to take a closer look at these rarely studied bee species, including understanding why they are declining. While the museum collection couldnt pinpoint whether possible causes such as urban development or pesticides are behind a drop in their numbers, it did hint a one possible cause: climate change. The study found that half of those bees on decline were now more prevalent at higher elevations like the White Mountains than in southern areas near sea level like the coastal areas of New Hampshire. As they shift northward, some of the species may not have the access to the same kinds of flowers and plants. They have nowhere else to go, Rehan said. That is the biggest concern. As for saving these species, Rehan said, some clues could come from wild bees that are faring better. Eight species studied from the collection have seen their numbers increasing in New Hampshire. Researchers could use the success of these wild bees to develop management strategies for those faring worse, Rehan said. They are not all declining, and that is important to point out, she said. Its not so hopeless. There are some bees still faring well. We still have to do better by the bees, but some bees are doing OK. ___ Associated Press writer Lisa Rathke contributed from Montpelier, Vermont. The Government of Ontario has cut one-third of legal aid funding. Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) funds legal representation for those individuals whose annual income is less than $17,000 in other words, the most impoverished in our society. As a result, with some exceptions, LAO will not be in a position to fund refugee and immigration matters as of this week. The administration of justice is provincial responsibility. Defending the cuts, the attorney general states there are two stakeholders that must always be front-of-mind: the clients LAO serves and the taxpayers who pay the bills. But neither stakeholder is served by the cuts. The cuts certainly do not serve legal aid clients. Legal aid assists people dealing with immigration, criminal, family, and child protection issues. Many refugees rely on legal aid after fleeing dire circumstances, with little command of English. It is often difficult for claimants to explain their narrative on forms with lines, boxes and words in a language they do not understand. They know the danger they are fleeing, but may not be able to explain in legal terms what has transpired or what they fear. Regardless of the merits of the claim, the task of gathering evidence, understanding the legal tests to be met, and making oral submissions is unmanageable for many refugees. I am intimately aware of the personal trauma and the language, economic and mental health hurdles they must overcome. So many of the most deserving will not be able to navigate the complex system without adequate funding. The cuts also do not serve taxpayers. Government-funded lawyers are screened for quality by LAO and accept government funding for cases, which is much less than the market value of their services. Without adequate funding, many will be forced to represent themselves, or retain the representative who quotes the lowest price, regardless of competence. The court system will be further weighed down with subsequent appeals in these matters to fix the damage caused by initial subpar representation. Particularly vulnerable claimants may seek to cobble together additional finances by relying on exploitative work or on the black market. They may also be forced to sideline their basic needs, such as food and housing. Afraid and unable to navigate our complex system, some may go underground. These cuts will not save taxpayers money over time, but will only download costs to other parts of the legal, health care and social systems. Helping people when they are most in need is sound social and economic policy; in the case of refugees, it is an investment in the future contributors to our society. Warda Shazadi Meighen is a refugee and human rights lawyer. She is an adjunct professor of refugee law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Read more about: OTTAWAA new poll suggests many Canadians support the idea of a huge public spending blitz to address climate change, similar to what politicians in the United States have dubbed a Green New Deal. A majority of respondents to an online poll by Abacus Data 61 per cent said they either support or somewhat support such a proposal, described as a massive government jobs program and investment in clean energy, green technology, and electrification. The poll question said this Green New Deal would aim to move Canada to 100 per cent clean energy by 2030 and make it so Canada produces and consumes the same amount of carbon emissions by 2050, meaning the country would be carbon neutral by mid-century. Seventeen per cent of respondents opposed such a plan. Nine per cent said they were unsure and 13 per cent said they didnt have enough information. Support from respondents inched up to 66 per cent when asked how they feel about the plan if it requires corporations and the wealthy to pay higher taxes. Because it is kind of more conceptual and forward-thinking, youll probably see a little bit higher of a support number, said Ihor Korbadicz, executive director of Abacus Data. It doesnt make it a less valuable gauge, he added. I think theres broad consensus on the part of Canadians that we need to do something on the topic of climate change. It comes up again and again in the polling were doing. The online poll included a random sample of 2,000 Canadian adults who were invited to complete the survey from April 4 to 7. The margin of error for a comparable, probability-based random sample of the same size is plus or minus 2.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20. The survey was commissioned by North99, a left-leaning advocacy organization that positions itself as a progressive response to right wing and white supremacist groups that find audiences online. The conversation among politicians has revolved around pollution pricing, but climate change is an existential challenge and requires a solution that matches its scale. Canadians know we need a much broader mobilization against climate change, North99 co-director Taylor Scallon said in a statement on the poll. The Green New Deal is a proposal championed by some Democrats south of the border, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and several candidates for the partys presidential nomination. The basic idea named after U.S. president Franklin Roosevelts program of public works and social programs during the Great Depression is for transformative government spending to create jobs, build clean infrastructure, retrofit buildings and support green technology. The pitch is premised on the October report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which called for rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society in order to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. While it has some support from figures on the left, the politics of climate change in Canada has centred mostly on the federal governments policy to enforce a minimum carbon price across the country. After the United Conservative Party victory in Albertas provincial election Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces a band of opposition from the Rockies to the Ottawa River. Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has vowed to dismantle Canadas carbon pricing scheme, though he has not revealed how he would tackle Canadas emissions reduction commitments if he wins the general election this fall. Meanwhile, the Liberal government in Ottawa maintains Canada will meet its target under the Paris Agreement to fight climate change, which is to reduce national emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. As of 2017, Canadas emissions were 2 per cent below what they were in 2005, according to the national tally submitted this week to the United Nations. To close that gap, Ottawa enforced a minimum carbon price across the country this year, which will rise from $20 per tonne of emissions to $50 per tonne in 2022. The federal government is also phasing out coal-fired electricity by 2030, when it aims for 90 per cent of electricity in Canada to come from emissions-free sources. At the same time, the Liberal government has earmarked millions for green technology and infrastructure. On Wednesday, the government held events to tout the $300-million rebate program announced in this years federal budget to encourage Canadians to buy zero-emission vehicles. Ottawa has also devoted $1 billion to the Green Municipal Fund, which is mean to help retrofit buildings to make them more energy efficient. Earlier this month, federal scientists released a report that said Canada is warming at twice the global average because of climate change, and that action to reduce emissions can only mitigate the severity of the consequences, which are likely to include disappearing Arctic ice and permafrost, rising sea levels in coastal cities and more frequent floods, heat waves, summer water shortages and wildfires. Read more about: It was a joke that only his fathers old friends would really get. Popping in for a surprise visit with veterans of Pierre Trudeaus government at a lunch this week in Ottawa, Justin Trudeau said he had come up with the campaign slogan for the election later this year. The Land is Strong, Trudeau announced. The room exploded in laughter, said Tom Axworthy, who served as principal secretary in the first Trudeau government, and remembers well the disastrous slogan of the 1972 campaign, when Liberals almost lost power after just one term in office. Just four years after Trudeaumania had swept the land in 1968, Canadian voters granted Pierre Trudeau only a bare minority government. In fact, the parallels between then and now are more than fodder for political comedy. Liberals with long memories have been wondering whether this second-generation Trudeau government is also headed for a 1972-style punishment at the polls this fall. Some of the ingredients of that 1972 disaffection also swirl around Justin Trudeau: a perception that Liberals are a little too comfortable in office, out of touch with the mood in some parts of the country, and a little too fond of empty phrases like the land is strong. The current prime minister, putting jokes aside, did warn the lunch group this week against making too many parallels. As he departed, Justin Trudeau said he would need their help in the coming election. He said he had a lot to do, and unlike my father, I actually like campaigning. All those veterans of the Pierre Trudeau years were in Ottawa this week for a special event to mark the 37th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the hallmark achievement of the senior Trudeaus last term in office. At an afternoon forum organized by Massey College and Carleton University, as well as at a reception later, dozens of the major players in the 1980-82 national-unity dramas told war stories from Pierre Trudeaus struggle to get Canada its own constitution and Charter of Rights. Former prime minister Jean Chretien,who was justice minister in those pivotal days, made an appearance and shared his battle tales. One recurring thought, which came from several who spoke, was how this moment in the life of Canada was a unique alignment of people and forces and not very likely to happen today. A 1972-style bounce from majority to minority for Trudeau Liberals? That may be a real possibility. But an epic, existential debate about the soul and values of the nation? It just couldnt happen in 2019, many of the constitutional veterans agreed. Sen. Pamela Wallin was a journalist in those years, working for this newspaper and then for CTV while the constitutional negotiations were underway. What she marvels at today, in retrospect, is the breadth and depth of the constitutional conversations of those years within the media but also the public at large. I do not think this process could have unfolded and come to a conclusion today, she said, citing social media and the short attention span that runs rampant everywhere. Back in the 1980s, Wallin said, the premiers and other negotiators talked to reporters directly and extensively, not through their staff, or email or posts on Twitter. They dined and drank together after long days of talks, and the media owners poured huge resources into covering a story that the bosses saw as nothing less than the future of Canada. No such resources or story seems to exist today in Canadian politics. Two of the star storytellers at the session were former ministers Monique Begin and Judy Erola the only two women in the cabinet at the time. Long before Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott was this powerhouse duo of female ministers, who also went toe-to-toe with a Trudeau, but stayed in cabinet and won. Begin recalled how all the men in cabinet were delighted when a deal was finally struck in November 1981 about a new charter, which included a notwithstanding provision that would allow provinces to override some rights, including equality rights of women. Erola told Pierre Trudeau that her job no longer made sense. There is not much point in being minister for the status of women when women have no status in this country. She sought time to get a change of mind from the premiers. Pierre Trudeau asked how she intended to do this when he could not. Not me, she said, the women of Canada. They did over two weeks, women were mobilized to protest and march and put pressure on the premiers, and by the end of November, women won equality protection. The same equality that Justin Trudeau boasts today, in other words, was sown in another Trudeau government, with big help from the only two women in a decidedly gender-unbalanced cabinet. Again, Erola and Begin spoke about how people had been mobilized in a very low-tech, but personal way through word of mouth and telephone. We had only good old Bell Canada, Erola said. There were no texts, no Twitter. We didnt even have fax machines. Essentially, the constitutional war stories told at this weeks session revolved around what populism looked like in Canada before the world was digitally connected; the harnessing of social-media power before there was social media. So much was built on personal connections and real relationships, Axworthy said later, reflecting on what hed heard all through the presentations of the day. Did he think that the politicians of today could pull off a similar feat? Very likely not, Axworthy said. We almost didnt. It was fragile enough as it was. Justin Trudeau was only a child while all this drama was taking place 10 years old when the Queen came to Canada in April 1982 to make the new constitution official. When he spoke to the old Liberal veterans at lunch on Wednesday, much of the reminiscences revolved around events in his childhood. He didnt take part in the afternoon panel discussions, but if he had he might have taken away some insights from the time, Axworthy said. A lot of the discussion focused on political risk-taking and just how much Pierre Trudeau gambled when he embarked on the negotiations for a new constitution and charter. The constitutional battles of the early 1980s showed how an individual, in this case Pierre Trudeau, can shape the course of events, Stephen Azzi, head of Carletons School of Political Management, told the group. Axworthy described how the charter was Pierre Trudeaus single-minded focus. He left other ministers to handle the day-to-day machinery of government, devoting all his energy and considerable brainpower to the constitutional quest. He knew it was his last term in office, so he wasnt worried about re-election. That was the big difference between 1982 and 1972, Axworthy told me later. In early days of power, despite the huge expectations that vaulted him into power, the Pierre Trudeau government was more focused on the internal workings of government and going back to the people for a second mandate with a steady-as-she-goes approach. That may sound familiar to Justin Trudeau. But his father got from the 1972 debacle to the 1982 achievement by rekindling enthusiasm and ambition in government and in the public at large, Axworthy says. To achieve great things, youve got to take great risks. It could be that the days of big national projects in Canada are over. As Albertans were voting over the past week, the constant refrain was about how no one can seem to even get a pipeline built anymore. The old-fashioned, low-tech populism around the constitutional debates of the 1980s has morphed into the chaos, extremism and cacophony of digital populism in 2019. But while 1982 may never be revisited in Canada again except in conferences such as the one this week a repeat of the 1972 election looms as a distinct possibility for another Trudeau in power. Well know that history is repeating itself if anyone starts talking about the land being strong. Susan Delacourt is the Stars Ottawa bureau chief and a columnist covering national politics. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Marta Bedard comes from a family of teachers mom, sister, aunts and essentially grew up in her mothers elementary classroom in Peel Region. After leaving a career in public relations to become a teacher herself, Bedard spent years as a supply before finally landing a full-time position at Bramptons Turner Fenton Secondary School last June. Now less than a year later Bedard could be out of a job. Its obviously devastating, said Bedard, who is eight months pregnant and now facing additional worries about her young familys future. You work your entire career to get to the point of stability as a teacher, and thats taken away from you. Bedard is among the 176 elementary and 193 high school teachers who have received surplus notices from the Peel District School Board. Another 30 early childhood educators have also been told there is no job for them come September. It is the first time in several years that Peel has had to send out such notices, and while some will be recalled, the board says teacher layoffs are unavoidable this fall given the provincial governments boost in class sizes and cuts to funding and local grants. Read more: I endured Harris-era education cuts in high school. And now my son will go through the same Editorial | So much for Fords promises on education Peel school board warns of teacher layoffs this fall While other boards have also sent out more surplus notices than in the past, Peel is the first to openly question the promise of Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Lisa Thompson that no teacher will be out of a job that all losses will be through attrition. On Wednesday, Thompson said what we are hearing about coming from Peel Region is a routine process that is happening in every school board across Ontario as they look at who is retiring, resigning or returning. The fact of the matter is, what we are hearing about these recent weeks is a routine, absolute process that is done year in and year out. She also reiterated that there will be no involuntary job loss. And we actually pointed to the fact in the budget that were so committed to this we actually are investing $1.6 billion, weve tagged that for attrition protection. However, Peel has said the governments math doesnt add up, given retirements there are lower than usual and its unlikely the transitional funding to ease the job losses will make up for other cuts. Boards will learn their annual grants by the end of the month. When pressed by reporters, Thompson also refused to say if she considers it a job loss if a teacher is laid off from a full-time position but supply teaches. A spokesperson for Thompson later said both part-time and full-time positions are very important jobs that are critical to the success of our education system. All teaching positions receive wages and benefits based on agreements with the local school board. The province wants to increase class sizes by an average of one student from Grades 4 to 8, and from an average of 22 to 28 in high school over the next four years. It estimates some 3,500 teaching positions will be phased out over that time, though others have calculated the losses will be closer to 10,000. The Peel boards Jamie Robertson, superintendent of human resources support services, has told the Star that I honestly cant see that there wont be layoffs. I definitely do believe there will be layoffs. The 369 notices to Peel teachers that have been sent out are surplus to region, meaning they do not have a placement in a school for this fall. While some will be recalled, on average only about 300 teachers retire in any given year 200 elementary and 100 secondary but so far, the numbers are significantly down, Robertson said. Nobody knows for sure exactly what the number of layoffs will be across the province, said Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association. This is a process we undergo every year every board has their own timing, she said. But its looking like, across the province, we are not going to be able to recall all teachers, unless there is additional funding in the budget. We are concerned about that people keep being told that no jobs will be lost, but we are not confident in that. NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles urged Thompson to be more clear with school boards and with Ontarians to clear up the current confusion. At the end of the day, if teachers are becoming part-time or occasional teachers versus full-time, it still means less adults, less teachers in our classrooms and less one-on-one time for students, Stiles told reporters. In the legislature, former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne, the MPP for Don Valley West, asked about the implications of bigger class sizes, and urged Thompson to let boards know grant levels so they can plan. Wynne was then heckled by Finance Minister Vic Fedeli, who said we are cleaning up your mess. During question period, Ford said school boards are going to get their budget. Theyre going to be hiring back the teachers, because not one single teacher will lose their job. Not one single teacher. He noted the province is spending an additional $700 million on education, as revealed in last weeks provincial budget. Most of the increase is due to a bump in enrolment, as well as the governments child-care rebate. Other boards have warned the PC government of high-school classes ballooning to 46 students to offset smaller classes like special ed, or technology and the loss of programming as teachers leave. The board in the education ministers own riding has questioned its ability to even offer the core curriculum with the loss of teaching jobs. Others have noted with fewer teachers comes fewer extracurriculars. Bedard, who began supply teaching in 2013 and was hired into a permanent position as an English teacher last June, said over the years she has run extracurriculars even co-writing, producing and directing a school play volunteered with the breakfast club and helped organized the prom. At Turner Fenton, she said about 11 teachers received surplus notices on Tuesday. Two other teachers in my department were affected, she said. We were able to lean on each other for the rest of the day. The staff at our school was just outstanding and able to support us, and let us know they were there for us. Going home, however, was tougher. I had to tell my husband what happened, and having all these unknowns what happens next, what happens to our family ... There were lots of tears, said Bedard. We really have no idea what the fallout is going to be when I come back from maternity leave. Albanian President Ilir Meta (R) meets with Zhang Qingli, vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, who heads a visiting delegation of the CPPCC National Committee, in Tirana, Albania, April 16, 2019. (Xinhua/Chinese Embassy in Albania) TIRANA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Albanian President Ilir Meta has met with a delegation of Chinese political advisors here in the country's capital. The delegation was led by Zhang Qingli, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). During the meeting on Tuesday, Zhang conveyed to Meta the cordial greetings and best wishes from Chinese President Xi Jinping. Zhang said this year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Albania. He sincerely hoped that the traditional friendship between the two countries will last forever. China cherishes the political mutual trust with Albania and is willing to work with the Albanian side to continue implementing the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and take the opportunity of jointly building the Belt and Road to push for more achievements in China-Albanian friendly cooperation, said the vice chairman. Meta spoke highly of the friendly relations between the two countries and extended his congratulations on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. He thanked China for its valuable support to Albania, and expressed the wish to further strengthen high-level exchanges between the two countries, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and inject new impetus into the relations between Central and Eastern European Countries and China. Zhang also met with Deputy Speaker of Albanian Parliament Vasilika Hysi and members of the Albania-China Parliamentary Group of Friendship. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] The provincial New Democrats have complained to Elections Canada that the Progressive Conservative governments mandatory gas pump stickers may violate federal campaign laws. NDP MPP Taras Natyshak has written to Canadas chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault about the Tory-blue decals that will soon appear at every gasoline station in Ontario under threat of fines of up to $10,000 a day. The stickers highlight the impact of the federal Liberal governments carbon-pricing measures on gasoline, but they do not mention the offsetting rebates Ottawa is sending back to those affected. I am writing to you concerning what I believe could be a violation of Canadas election advertising rules, wrote Natyshak (Essex). As you are aware, Part 16, section 319 of the Canada Elections Act, 2000 defines elections advertising as: the transmission to the public by any means, during an election period, of an advertising message that promotes or opposes a registered party or the election of a candidate, including one that takes a position on an issue with which a registered party or candidate is associated. The New Democrat MPP is concerned the 20-by-15-centimetre stickers will still be on pumps during the campaign period this fall. Read more: No details on how province will enforce gas-pump stickers Tories launch radio ads attacking federal Liberals carbon tax Opinion | Fords gas pump campaign a scandal thats going to stick In recent weeks, the premier of Ontario has announced his intention to force Ontario gasoline retailers to display anti-carbon tax notices on their gas pumps, wrote Natyshak. These stickers are clearly advertising within the definition of the Act. They are also, clearly, partisan in their aim. In the words of the premiers colleague, Minister of Energy, Mines, Northern Development and Indigenous Affairs Greg Rickford: Were going to stick it to the Liberals and remind the people of Ontario how much this job-killing, regressive carbon tax costs. Premier Doug Fords Conservatives are spending $30 million, including about $1 million on a court challenge, highlighting the difference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal government over the levy. If the government of Ontario is taking an official position to promote both Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party of Canadas position on carbon pricing, and these stickers will, indeed, be on full display across the province for the duration of the election period, then Elections Canada must take action to enforce the Canada Elections Act, 2000. This is clearly election advertising as defined by the Act. The MPP wants the federal Tories to either assume the total costs of the production and enforcement of these stickers across the province of Ontario as a campaign expense, or the government of Ontario can register themselves a third Party under the act. Rickford defended the stickers on Thursday, insisting the Tories are merely countering the federal Liberal governments claims about carbon pricing. This is a job-killing, regressive carbon tax. We wont stand for it, said the minister, criticizing federal postcards that tout the rebates to families. We think that a sticker at a gas pump with some public notices is an important way of letting the people of Ontario know how much this tax scheme is going to cost them. His office said about 25,000 stickers would be printed one for each pump in Ontario at a cost of $4,954. They will be manufactured by Astley Gilbert and there will be additional distribution and enforcement costs. The Canadian Fuels Association, which represents the industry, has declined to comment. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner warned the Tory decals are misleading because they dont explain the federal rebates or the skyrocketing cost of insurance rates due to climate change. Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie Read more about: The top U.S. communications regulator urged the rejection of China Mobile Ltd.'s application to provide telecommunications services in the American market, opening another front in the trade fight between the world's biggest economies. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday he was scheduling a vote May 9 on a measure to deny the application of China Mobile USA, described as a Delaware-registered subsidiary that is indirectly controlled by the Chinese government, on national security grounds. "We comply with all applicable laws in the course of operations and have not engaged in any behavior that causes 'substantial and serious national security and law enforcement risks,"' China Mobile said by email Thursday. "We will wait for the official application result and may take follow up actions." Parent company China Mobile is the world's largest mobile phone operator by customers, with about 899 million subscribers. China Mobile is seeking approval to be listed as a "common carrier" that would enable it to carry international voice traffic between the U.S. and foreign countries, and to connect that traffic with the U.S. telecommunications network. China Mobile told the agency it wouldn't provide domestic telephone or mobile services in the U.S. "Safeguarding our communications networks is critical to our national security," Pai said in an emailed statement. "After reviewing the evidence in this proceeding, including the input provided by other federal agencies, it is clear that China Mobile's application to provide telecommunications services in our country raises substantial and serious national security and law enforcement risks." The White House's concern focused on Chinese law that requires companies to cooperate with state intelligence agencies, which the U.S. has said could be used for economic espionage or intelligence activities. China Mobile's size and technical resources make it particularly vulnerable to such demands, the government said. China Mobile told the government it wouldn't be required to comply with such requests and said it "is no more vulnerable to exploitation" than any other U.S. or foreign carrier that uses "best-practices" measures. The FCC staff read both the government filing and China Mobile's responses and recommended that the commission reject the request. The move didn't surprise China Mobile investors as expectations were low to begin with, said Kevin Chen, an analyst at China Merchants Securities HK Co. "Right now, investors are more focused on China Mobile's domestic progress on 5G rather than their overseas expansion," Chen said. Pai, an appointee of President Donald Trump, urged his colleagues on the commission, which has a Republican majority, to deny the application first filed in 2011. Pai has circulated a draft order to fellow commissioners following a recommendation in July from the U.S. intelligence community and Executive Branch agencies that the bid be denied. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a branch of the Commerce Department, urged the FCC to block China Mobile's application, saying its entry into the market "would pose unacceptable national security and law enforcement risks." Should the commission vote to reject China Mobile's application, the company can ask a federal court to review that decision. The FCC is still considering whether to allow Huawei Technologies Co. to operate in the U.S. and is awaiting a recommendation from the White House. The move against China Mobile comes as Trump is pressing to end a trade war with China that has enveloped a range of goods including agricultural products and medical equipment, and has rattled financial markets. High on the list of Trump's priorities as he tries to close a trade deal with counterpart Xi Jinping is making sure China faces consequences if it doesn't live up to its promises. Yet in pursuing that goal Trump may also be giving China a new cudgel to use on American companies and striking another blow to the international rule of law. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the U.S. has made its own commitments to China and agreed that both sides will be subject to an enforcement mechanism. "This will be a two-way agreement in enforcement,'' Mnuchin said Monday, after saying over the weekend that the U.S. would be open to "certain repercussions." --With assistance from Bloomberg's Jinshan Hong. WASHINGTON - Architecturally speaking, it is, in fact, a zoo out there. "Animals are ornaments on buildings all around us, often hidden in plain sight," says Caitlin Bristol, the curator of "Animals, Collected" at the National Building Museum. The exhibit, which opens Saturday, showcases more than 125 objects from the museum's permanent collection - drawings, models, photographs, building materials, catalog ads - that represent dozens of different species of animals. "It's designed like a cabinet of curiosities," Bristol says of the show. "It's an opportunity to delve into the symbolism and why these animals were chosen to embellish buildings and monuments." Here, Bristol describes five of the objects. - Weather vane sheep In 1883, Massachusetts-based L.W. Cushing and Sons' weather vane catalog offered a variety of designs: stallions, roosters, pigs, grasshoppers and, as seen here, sheep. The company specialized in copper and gold leaf weather vanes that could be ordered in a variety of sizes depending on the building where they'd be placed. "They ranged from $5 to $200, which would have been a lot in 1883," Bristol says, adding that patriotic designs, such as eagles and Lady Liberty, were particularly popular at the time. "We don't ever think about having a catalog of architectural decorations anymore, but this was a way you could customize your own house or business in a small way." - Owl sculpture It must have been a real hoot the day four 12-foot-tall owl sculptures were affixed to the corners of Chicago's Harold Washington Public Library. The owls were designed in the 1990s by artist Raymond Kaskey and based on a 4-foot maquette - or preliminary model - that's on display in the exhibit. One of the owls, which continue to hover above downtown Chicago streets, clutches a handful of documents, while another peruses an open book. "Owls, since the time of the ancient Greeks, have been a symbol of wisdom and knowledge," Bristol says. "It makes perfect sense to have them on a library." Kaskey, who's based in Brentwood, Maryland, is known for his works inspired by animals, classical mythology and allegory. He sculpted the bronze lions at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, as well as the eagles that fly under the arches at the National World War II Memorial. - Circus dog drawing We think of a "dog and pony show" as an over-the-top presentation - but in the late 1800s, the phrase was literal for the Gentry brothers of Bloomington, Indiana, who ran a circus that featured 40 ponies and 80 dogs. The act, which became the largest traveling circus in the country, was a source of great pride for the brothers' hometown. When the Henry B. Gentry Building was erected in Bloomington - named for the mastermind behind the show, who went on to invest in local real estate - it paid homage to the circus via plaques designed by the Chicago-based Northwestern Terra Cotta Co. (The building burned down in the '20s.) A 1907 workshop drawing of one such panel, featuring two fancy dogs, will be on display in the exhibit. "That was a really fun discovery - like, why are these dogs in top hats?" Bristol says. "It's an example of how this architectural ornamentation had a very personal, direct relationship to the client." - Sea animal sculpture Donald Miller's sea animal sculpture was supposed to become a gate at the National Cathedral - an eye-catching way to celebrate "the creation of the world and diversity of animals," Bristol says. But it never progressed past the model phase. Miller carved it in plaster in the 1970s, but it proved too expensive for the cathedral to cast in bronze. "They loved it, but it didn't work out," Bristol says. The exhibit includes a photograph of Miller's model, which is one of several objects featured in the exhibit that never came to fruition, including unsuccessful competition entries. "That process of choosing the design of what's going to go on your building - there are multiple entries" and not all can prevail, Bristol says. "It's fun to see what could have been." - Gargoyle wrapping paper The octagonal, Hobbit-like dwelling that now houses Open City at the National Cathedral was formerly used as a gift shop run by All Hallows Guild, a women's volunteer group, until 2015. There, visitors were likely to spot pen-and-ink sketches of the cathedral by guild board member Babs Gaillard, whose drawings appeared in materials like tour maps and newsletters - and on gargoyle wrapping paper that was sold in the early 1980s. The wrapping paper featured six different gargoyles that exist as sculptures on the cathedral. "There's a dragon - she called it a 'happy face monster,' but I think it looks like a dragon," Bristol says. "And there's an owl wearing a graduation cap and holding a diploma, a horned fish, a frog, the Greek god Pan holding a flute and a master carver gargoyle. I can't imagine actually using it, but it's a really cool wrapping paper." --- IF YOU GO: National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW, Washington, D.C.; Sat. through July 2020, $10. WASHINGTON - A new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, "Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence," tells a story that ends 99 years ago, with the 1920 ratification of the constitutional amendment lifting voting restrictions on the basis of sex. But where to begin that tale? Historically minded museumgoers may be surprised to discover that the show's earliest artifact dates from 1832. Rather than start with the famed 1848 convention of women's rights advocates at Seneca Falls, New York - the first such convention in the United States - the show opens with a page from an abolitionist newspaper, the Liberator, that features an engraving of an enslaved woman. There's an argument for starting this narrative that early, but it's a complicated one - as is the show itself. "Votes for Women" marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment (passed by Congress in 1919 but not ratified until the following year), and yet it's more than a simple celebration of a milestone. Curator Kate Clarke Lemay takes care to clarify some of the ways in which the promise of women's suffrage was left unfulfilled long after 1920. Lemay works for the museum and the Smithsonian's American Women's History Initiative, a web-based project whose stated goal is to "amplify women's voices to honor the past." With "Votes," Lemay ties the U.S. suffragist movement to other contemporaneous struggles. Some of them, like the abolition of slavery, are clearly related to women's quest for self-determination. Others, notably the temperance campaign against alcoholic beverages, may not seem relevant today, yet they are inextricably intertwined with the suffrage movement. The exhibition fills six galleries and an adjacent hallway with more than 120 images and artifacts. Many are photographic portraits, but there are also banners, posters, publications, illustrations, film clips - even a set of dishes embellished with the motto "Votes for Women." Among the drawings on view are a few by Charles Dana Gibson, the illustrator whose sunny depictions of (relatively) emancipated young women came to be known as "Gibson girls." But there are also cartoons that mock free-thinking and free-acting females. Thomas Nast depicted 1872 presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull as nothing less than "(Mrs.) Satan" for championing an early brand of sexual liberation dubbed "free love." Other women's enthusiasms of the era were bicycles, as well as less restrictive clothing. Although neither seems worth notice today, both drew a considerable response at the time, including the "The New Costume Polka," a song dedicated to Amelia Bloomer, who endorsed the pantaloon that was soon named after her. Including such examples of long-forgotten controversies gives the show some lighthearted appeal and should serve to entertain visitors who just want a quick browse through the Bad Old Days. But a more complete reading of the text-heavy "Votes for Women" is a somber undertaking indeed. The show doesn't downplay difficulty and conflict. As Lemay writes in her introduction to the excellent and extensive catalogue, "It is critical to consider whose stories have been forgotten and overlooked, and whose have not been deemed worthy to record." In theory, the 19th Amendment extended the vote to all American women, but in practice, many restrictions remained: poll taxes, literacy requirements and other limits designed to disenfranchise members of minority groups. And a lot of well-to-do white suffragists were just fine with that. The abolitionist movement may have helped empower white women to organize and lecture, yet black women, American Indian women and Asian American women often found their own similar efforts unsupported. That's the significance of the year 1832: It's the year the Female Anti-Slavery Society was founded, in Massachusetts - by and for African Americans. The show includes 18 portraits of women of color, including such civil rights activists as Mary Church Terrell and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Also here is Rep. Patsy Takemoto Mink, who became the first nonwhite female member of Congress (representing the state of Hawaii) in 1965. Such accomplishments could be seen as following the instructions of the two vintage banners in the show that read: "Forward Out of Darkness" and "Failure Is Impossible." But all around those slogans is evidence that achieving votes for women just wasn't that easy. --- IF YOU GO: "Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence" National Portrait Gallery, Eighth and F streets NW; npg.si.edu. Dates: Through Jan. 5, 2020. Admission: Free. As Jewish tradition, participants in Passover seders ask the question: "Why is this night different from all other nights?" This year, the answer for at least 1,500 people will be: Because it's their first seder ever. A slate of prominent Jewish organizations are drumming up first-time attendance at seders across the country - based on the belief that acquainting new people with the beloved Jewish seder ritual can help reduce anti-Semitism. After all, who doesn't enjoy a seder? The program is the brainchild of Marnie Fienberg, a resident of northern Virginia whose mother-in-law Joyce Fienberg, 75, was one of 11 worshipers killed at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue in October, when a gunman rampaged the synagogue in an anti-Semitic attack. Devastated, Fienberg cast about after the attack for ideas. What could she do herself to reduce bias against Jews, which only seems to be increasing in America today based on hate crime statistics? She hit upon an answer in her memories of Joyce: the seder. Joyce's seders were boisterous affairs, with her famous Passover popovers (think matzah balls, but baked not soupy) and an abundance of guests. Joyce, a researcher, and her husband, a statistician, loved to travel, Fienberg said; they eventually visited every continent but Antarctica. Wherever they went, they made friends, whom Joyce kept in touch with for decades after. She always had foreigners at her seders, and her husband's students from far away. Jewish and non-Jewish guests, friends old and new, a house full of inquisitive people debating politics and religion - all of it presided over by Joyce, who joyfully prepared for the seder for weeks. Seders like that, Fienberg thought, would be a meaningful introduction to Judaism for people who did not know much about the religion and might believe negative stereotypes about its followers. Fienberg made it her goal to get as many non-Jews to seders as possible this year. She called her program "2 for Seder," inviting Jewish households across North America to include at least two new non-Jewish guests at their ritual meal. More than 730 families signed up, in 41 states and Canada. On the program's website, Fienberg updated a daily count. As of Wednesday morning, two days before the seder, Pennsylvania was leading with 108 seders, with New York close behind at 94. Fienberg says she knows it sounds idealistic, that Jews inviting their non-Jewish acquaintances to a dinner full of Hebrew blessings could ever blunt the hatred of extreme anti-Semitism. But she believes these hundreds of seders can indeed prevent some violence. "Conceivably, someone's going to say something to my neighbor, something negative about Jews. Well, he's got the data now. He can say, 'I've experienced this myself. You are wrong. You need to reconsider this trash coming out of your mouth,'" Fienberg said. "I think if you have 1,000 people this year, and next year a different thousand people, over and over again, that's how education works. That's how good ideas spread and grow." Fienberg worked for more than 15 years as a consultant for the Department of Homeland Security and then for NASA, and had just finished her contract in October, when her mother-in-law went to the Pittsburgh synagogue where she proudly served as a greeter at the entrance and was murdered. Fienberg didn't go back to work. She has devoted herself full-time to "2 for Seder," and she has visions of making the program far bigger next year. She imagines a database for interested non-Jews to sign up to be hosted in a stranger's home for seder, not just Jews inviting their acquaintances. This year, she got dozens of Jewish organizations to sign on to her idea. The Anti-Defamation League helped promote the project, as did synagogues and community centers across the country that encouraged members to participate. She loved watching as new sign-ups came in, strangers saying they would be opening their homes to non-Jewish guests in honor of a woman they never knew. Rabbi Evan Ravski of Fairfax, Virginia's Congregation Olam Tikvah helped Fienberg create a packet of instructional materials to send to every family who signed up for "2 for Seder." He said Passover is the perfect holiday for introducing Judaism: a participatory, in-home activity; an emphasis on educating the young and old alike through storytelling and symbol; themes of struggle and liberation. "The seder is really an educational tool whether you're Jewish or not Jewish. It's a ritual, it's a home ritual, that's designed to inspire people to ask questions," Ravski said. "The whole thing is designed to make us ask questions, and to engage in those discussions." This year, Ravski said, he is sure the 1,500 non-Jews participating in "2 for Seder" will hear frank discussions of anti-Semitism around the table. "We know it's going to come up. It's where we feel the most pain," he said. "I don't think that there's a Jewish household, or there are very few Jewish households, where Pittsburgh is not still in the front of our minds." At Fienberg's home, where she co-hosted the seder with Joyce for the past decade after Joyce stopped hosting it in Pittsburgh, she still has her great-great-grandmother's matzah cover and Joyce's mother's seder plate that they always used. But now they're joined by other artifacts: five boxes of letters and crafts mailed by well-wishers after the murders that Fienberg still can't bear to sort through; a quilt made for her by a Pittsburgh church that chokes her up just to talk about. "It was the softest, most beautiful quilt you ever saw. Their note said, 'We're wrapping you in love.'" "I can't even touch it," she said. "In the end, I want Joyce to be with us. I can't acknowledge it that way." Joyce's heirloom seder plate will also go untouched this year. "I can't do a seder without Joyce. I can't. I can't do it. It's too painful," Fienberg said. She'll be leaving town, going to relatives in Chicago for the holiday. There, on Friday night, she'll hear the age-old question - Mah nishtana halayla hazeh mikol haleilot? Why is this night different from all other nights? - with a haunting new answer. And because of Joyce's example, so painfully missing on that night, thousands of people will hear new insights in the ancient words too. As Swedish prosecutors consider re-opening a probe into rape allegations against Julian Assange, it sets up a test of just how tangled the post-Brexit legal system is about to become. British police arrested Assange, 47, last week, ending his seven-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. American authorities promptly asked the U.K. to extradite Assange to face charges related to the disclosure of secret government documents. An extradition request from Sweden could delay that case if British authorities decide to prioritize a nine-year-old rape allegation that originally sent Assange into hiding. Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange in 2010. He fought the extradition up to the U.K. Supreme Court, where he lost in 2012. While he was out on bail in that case, Assange sought asylum in Ecuador's embassy. As the years dragged on, Swedish prosecutors dropped the investigation because it had become impossible to pursue the probe in his absence. After Assange's arrest last week, a lawyer for one victim asked the Swedish prosecutor to re-open the investigation. "I will of course continue to fight for my client to receive justice and reparation," the lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, said by email. "Not many people think about the issue that there's a plaintiff, a woman, who has lived with trauma now for many years." Lawyers for Assange didn't reply to emails seeking comment. The rape case relates to a woman who said Assange had sex with her while she was asleep, according to a 2011 London court ruling. Assange has always maintained the relationship was consensual. If Sweden does seek Assange, U.K. Home Secretary Sajid Javid would choose which request to address first. The secretary would have to weigh factors including the seriousness of the offenses and the date each warrant was issued, according to U.K. extradition law. Last week, more than 70 U.K. lawmakers, mostly from the opposition Labour party, signed a letter urging Javid to prioritize any Swedish request over the U.S. "We must send a strong message of the priority the U.K. has in tackling sexual violence," according to the letter, written by Labour MP Stella Creasy and signed by lawmakers including the Independent Group's Anna Soubry and Jo Swinson of the Liberal Democrats. Diane Abbott, Labour's shadow home secretary, later replied to the letter to say the British government should extradite Assange to Sweden to face rape charges if the country makes a request. Assange previously fought going to Sweden because he feared proceedings there would lead to a U.S. extradition request. Since the Americans have made a request in the U.K., he may no longer have a motivation to stay away from Sweden. "The risk of being extradited from Sweden to the U.S. isn't larger than from the U.K." said Sven-Erik Alhem, a former chief public prosecutor in Sweden. The U.K. may find the Swedish option compelling. A rape charge would be serious and would have a deadline in August 2020 when the statue of limitation will limit prosecution. Extradition to Sweden could also be much speedier if Assange is processed under current European Union rules, according to Thomas Garner, an extradition lawyer at Gherson. Still, no matter how fast the process goes, it could collide with the U.K.'s exit from the European Union. If the British Parliament approves the current withdrawal agreement, then the U.K. will maintain the status quo through the end of 2020. That's likely enough time to deal with any Swedish request even if it were drawn out in court. But if there's a no-deal Brexit, all bets are off. The political confusion would open up a litany of opportunities for Assange's lawyers to challenge the legal standing of Sweden's extradition request, according to Rebecca Niblock, a partner who specializes in extradition at Kingsley Napley. "The whole Brexit thing is bad for lawyers in the long term, but in the short term we're quite excited about all the things we'll be able to argue," Niblock said. Once in Sweden, Assange would have multiple legal avenues to challenge his extradition to the U.S., all of which would take time, according to Nick Vamos, a partner at law firm Peters & Peters who was previously head of extradition at the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service. For Sweden to extradite Assange to the U.S., the country would need consent from the U.K. Assange could fight both Sweden's attempt to extradite him, as well as the U.K.'s consent. "It would just create legal complexity, which creates legal delay, which may be to his advantage," Vamos said in a phone interview. The longer Assange delays, the more likely it is that U.K. politics could shift in his favor. If Sweden tried to extradite Assange to the U.S. it would need consent from the secretary of state. For now, that's Javid, an Assange critic. Any extradition to the U.S. would also need to be approved by the Swedish government. By the time Assange makes his way through the Swedish courts, that could change. Javid's replacement could be the Labour Party's Abbott, who spoke out against the American pursuit of whistle blowers. WASHINGTON - The Justice Department plans to release a lightly redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's 400-page report Thursday, offering a granular look at the ways in which President Donald Trump was suspected of obstructing justice, people familiar with the matter said. The report - the general outlines of which the Justice Department has briefed the White House on - will reveal that Mueller decided he could not come to a conclusion on the question of obstruction because it was difficult to determine Trump's intent and some of his actions could be interpreted innocently, these people said. But it will offer a detailed account of his alleged conduct - analyzing tweets, private threats and other episodes at the center of Mueller's inquiry, they added. Attorney General William Barr plans to hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference to address "process questions" and provide an "overview of the report," a senior Justice Department official said. The report will be delivered on discs to Capitol Hill between 11 a.m. and noon, the official said, and will be posted on the special counsel's website thereafter. Those who spoke to The Washington Post for this report did so on the condition of anonymity, citing the matter's supreme sensitivity. Thursday's rollout plan - and news of the White House's advance briefing, which was first reported by ABC News and The New York Times - led to political uproar Wednesday, with Democrats suggesting the attorney general was trying to improperly color Mueller's findings before the public could read them. "This is wrong," Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter. More for you Poll: Russia questions linger While the report's light redactions might allay some of their concerns, Democrats are likely to bristle at any material that is withheld. What the Justice Department and Trump's lawyers might view as modest, lawmakers might see as overly aggressive. The redacted version of the report is expected to reveal extensive details about Trump's actions in office that came under scrutiny, but it is unclear how much the public will learn about how the special counsel's team investigated the Kremlin's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and Russian contacts with Trump associates. Barr also is likely to face scrutiny over the Justice Department's talks with the White House - which could help Trump and his attorneys hone their attacks on the report in advance. Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's lawyers, has said he is preparing a counterreport to Mueller's findings, and in a recent interview said his document would explain from the president's viewpoint every episode that could be considered obstructive. Giuliani and others have long feared Mueller's findings on obstruction, viewing them as potentially more damaging than anything Mueller found on the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians. Mueller did not find a conspiracy between Russians and Trump or his campaign, Barr said in a brief letter of the special counsel's conclusions shared with Congress late last month. Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's attorneys, told The Washington Post, "We do not discuss conversations that we may or may not have had with the president." A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to address questions about its briefings to the White House, the report's redactions or Mueller's findings on obstruction. Trump had also apparently been briefed in advance of the planned news conference, which he revealed Wednesday during a radio appearance, which was confirmed later by a Justice Department spokeswoman. Barr will appear alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the spokeswoman said, and he planned to take questions. Barr has faced intense scrutiny from the public and lawmakers on Capitol Hill for his handling of Mueller's report. The Thursday news conference could give him an opportunity to address his critics - and perhaps provide them fresh ammunition. It is sure to be watched closely by Trump, an avid TV viewer whose relationship with his attorney general will almost certainly be colored by Mueller's findings and what Barr says about them. Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said the White House did not ask the Justice Department to hold the news conference scheduled for Thursday, but she declined to discuss White House and Justice Department interactions about the report. "It's the Department of Justice's decision to hold the news conference," Kupec said. She said that doing so is "in the interest of transparency." Trump told the Larry O'Connor show on WMAL that he was pondering having his own news conference. "You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a news conference. Maybe I'll do one after that; we'll see," Trump said. A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment but said Mueller will not be at the news conference. Already, Democratic lawmakers and pundits have alleged that Barr seems to be taking steps to mitigate the political damage Mueller's report might do to Trump, and some members of Mueller's team have told associates they are frustrated by the limited information he has released about their work. A senior White House official said Trump has praised Barr privately for his handling of the report and compared him favorably with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who Trump grew to loathe over his recusal from what would become Mueller's investigation. Since the special counsel's office closed its investigation late last month, Barr and his team at the Justice Department have been reviewing the final report to determine how much of it can be made public. The Justice Department has said it plans to release the document with four categories of information shielded from public view: material from the grand jury, material that reveals intelligence sources and methods, material that is relevant to ongoing investigations, and material that could affect the privacy of "peripheral" third parties. Each redaction will be color-coded so readers know the reason material is being shielded, Barr has said. Any redactions could be controversial, and Democrats have said they won't be satisfied unless they are given the entire, unfiltered document. It is likely House Democrats will attempt to subpoena it, sparking a legal battle that could last for months or even years. Barr has so far disclosed only what the Justice Department terms Mueller's "principal conclusions." In a four-page letter to lawmakers, he declared last month that Mueller did not find that anyone on Trump's campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, and that the special counsel declined to reach a conclusion on whether Trump had sought to obstruct justice. Barr wrote that he and Rosenstein then reviewed the evidence and did not find it sufficient to make an obstruction case. Barr offered only a few quotes from Mueller's report, leaving a curious public with many more questions than answers about what his 22-month investigation had found. White House officials are concerned about damaging testimony from a number of senior aides, particularly former counsel Donald McGahn and former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, according to current and former officials. Their testimony, according to people with knowledge of it, gave a clear, detailed breakdown of some of the most controversial incidents, from the firing of James Comey as FBI director to attempts to oust Sessions. McGahn spoke with the special counsel for dozens of hours, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department generally avoids holding news conferences - or offering any specific information - about cases it closes without charges. In 2016, then-FBI Director Comey was criticized for bucking that principle and declaring at a televised news conference that he was recommending no charges after the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. He took no questions. In an October 2016 piece written for The Washington Post, Barr seemed not to strenuously object, as many other legal commenters did, to what Comey had revealed. "The two critical facts conveyed to the public in July were that the investigation was completed and that, based on that completed investigation, no prosecution was warranted. Disclosing these facts did not run afoul of the policy against commenting on investigations while they are underway," Barr wrote. "There is nothing wrong with conveying such facts; in cases of overriding public interest, it is done all the time, as for example in the House banking scandal and the so-called Iraq-gate matter during the 1992 election." The next year, though, he wrote in another Washington Post column that Trump was right to fire Comey because Comey had "crossed a line that is fundamental to the allocation of authority in the Justice Department" with the July announcement. "While the FBI carries out investigative work, the responsibility for supervising, directing and ultimately determining the resolution of investigations is solely the province of the Justice Department's prosecutors," he wrote. "With an investigation as sensitive as the one involving Clinton, the ultimate decision-making is reserved to the attorney general or, when the attorney general is recused, the deputy attorney general. By unilaterally announcing his conclusions regarding how the matter should be resolved, Comey arrogated the attorney general's authority to himself." At his confirmation hearing in January, Barr publicly distanced himself from Comey's approach. "If you're not going to indict someone, you don't stand up there and unload negative information about the person," Barr said. "That's not the way the department does business." Barr is likely to be pressed long after Thursday to answer questions on Mueller's investigation. He is expected to testify before the House and Senate Judiciary committees in early May, and he has said he is willing to discuss with lawmakers providing more information if they are left unsatisfied by Thursday's release. The Justice Department also revealed in a court filing Thursday in the criminal case against longtime Trump friend Roger Stone that it plans to let a "limited number" of lawmakers and their staff review a Mueller's report "without certain redactions, including removing the redaction of information related to the charges set forth in the indictment in this case." - - - Josh Dawsey, Felicia Sonmez, Tom Hamburger and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report. EDWARDSVILLE - Kristen Woods, a Southern Illinois University Edwardsville junior majoring in corporate and organizational communications, unknowingly greeted Student Employee of the Year officials and well-wishers with the same politeness and efficiency she routinely displays as a general office clerk in the Kimmel Student Involvement Center. It was only after a bouquet of red and white balloons came through the door, that she began looking around for the intended recipient. Woods, of Red Bud, was surprised on April 15 with the news that she is the 2019 Student Employee of the Year, an honor given by the Office of Student Financial Aid. Approximately 1,800 SIUE student workers were eligible for the award. The award recognizes Woods for her dependability, courtesy, professionalism and ability to exceed expectations. It came with a plaque and a $500 SIUE scholarship. The National Student Employment Association has declared April 14-20 as National Student Employee Week. This is a pinnacle award. Were here to celebrate the best of the best, said Denise Cobb, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. We want to congratulate Kristen for representing herself and the University so extraordinarily well. Having a gem like Kristen reflects on the success of the entire campus. Kristen is the perfect person to greet the students and staff who visit our office, and she always does so with a smile, said Vivian Rodgers, office support associate for the Kimmel Student Involvement Center, who nominated Woods. Kristen is always willing to help with projects and often takes the initiative to change practices that may be outdated or could be done more efficiently, Rodgers continued. Although she is a student, Kristen does not treat her position as just a student job. She approaches her role and responsibilities with great care, commitment and work ethic. Kristen far exceeds the expectations of her position. She has great autonomy and is an excellent self-starter. I am so excited. It shows that I do care about this job, said Woods, who has worked at the Kimmel Student Involvement Center for the past two years. For me, its more than just showing up for work. Sometimes my tasks can be tedious, but that doesnt mean they are not important. First runner-up was Cody Rettinghouse, of New Athens. Rettinghouse works for Learning Support Services. Corey Wachter, of Elizabeth, was second runner-up. Wachter works for Campus Recreation. Rettinghouse and Wachter are both third-year School of Pharmacy students. EDWARDSVILLE The states longest serving circuit judge has been off work, but drawing a salary of more than $200,000 for at least seven months, several sources say. Circuit Judge Andreas Andy Matoesian, 81, has been absent from work due to apparent illness since August, sources said, and other judges, notably Chief Judge David Hylla, have been filling in, according to his bailiff, Joe Simonds, who spoke on record. His wife, Julia Matoesian, said Wednesday her husband has been ill, but did not say if he would ever return to his duties. He is the longest sitting judge in the state. He is very happy being a judge, she said. Julia Matoesian is a former assistant states attorney. She said her husband was not available to speak to The Telegraph, but she said he has been in communication with Chief Judge Dave Hylla. Hylla could not be reached for comment, despite several attempts by a reporter. Hylla has the authority to address the matter of Matoesians long absence, according to Supreme Court rules. Those rules say: Subject to the overall authority of the Supreme Court, the chief circuit judge shall have the authority to determine, among other things, the hours of court, available leave time to which a judge is entitled, and to instruct the way in which a judge on the bench is expected to behave. In the exercise of this general administrative authority, the chief judge shall take or initiate appropriate measures to address the persistent failure of any judge to perform his or her judicial duties. Another seciton of the rules states: A chief circuit judges administrative role includes the authority, and the responsibility, to address the persistent failure of any judge to perform his or her judicial duties. Such failure may be due to, among other things, professional incompetence, poor case load management, or chronic absenteeism. Depending on the facts involved, the expectation is that the chief circuit judge will take or initiate appropriate action to remedy the situation. It shall be the duty of the chief judge to provide counseling, if deemed necessary or appropriate, and to report violations of the Canons to the Judicial Inquiry Board. In the 2016 election, Matoesian earned 69% voter approval for retention in Madison County and 70% voter approval in Bond County. He had not created a committee for his retention campaign this election cycle. Julia Matoesian allegedly improperly rescinded driving privilege suspensions Madison County Circuit court in 2015, acccording to documents in a federal lawsuit. The admission was a part of a court settlement of an age discrimination suit filed by Julia Matoesian. The states attorneys office claimed that she was fired for improperly handling the suspensions. She claimed it was because she was 75 years old. Narcisa Symank, an attorney for Madson County States Attorney Gibbons in his official capacity, wrote in a court document that he realized she rescinded suspensions improperly. That same day, Mr. Gibbons was visiting with the Honorable Andreas Matoesian, as happened often, on at least a weekly basis, Symank wrote in her statement. Mr. Gibbons had, for over a decade, considered Judge Matoesian a close personal friend and mentor. She wrote that the judge said, Im assuming Julie is safe. In response, Mr. Gibbons, caught off guard and unsure of what to say, said, That is something we are going to have to talk about, according to Symank. The personal friendship of Judge Matoesian and Mr. Gibbons ended that day, Symank stated GRANITE CITY Ways to find opportunities in Madison County are part of the discussion during a brainstorming session on economic development by local leaders Wednesday morning at America s Central Port in Granite City. About 20 people from throughout the county attended the session, sponsored by Madison County Community Development. Our goal is to come together and identify some things we can work on county-wide, said MCCD Director Trudy Bodenbach. I dont really have pre-conceived notions of what well come up with. Since Ive been here (as director) Ive had lots of conversations with these people individually, and a lot of them are saying there is more of a need to work together. There are all kinds of things and opportunities going on, moderator Mary Sue Love, an associate professor with SIUEs Managing and Marketing Department. What we want to do is explore questions that matter. The day started with plotting the strengths and weaknesses of the county. Location and transportation-related issues were among the strengths, along with the cost of living, the education system and healthcare. The impact of tourism and the proximity of Scott Air Force Base were also discussed. The proximity of the St. Louis region was discussed as both a positive and negative. On the positive side it provides jobs and cultural opportunities, but also creates issues by promoting a negative self-image in the Metro East. Another issue is that there are smaller groupings of communities in Madison County, including the Collinsville area, Granite City area, Riverbend and Highland. Thats a big swath of communities, Love said, adding there is a need for some shared goals. John Keller, president of the RiverBend Growth Association, said the meeting went a long way to establish commonalities, among the various communities. He also said it was not finished. This is part of a process, he said. It was a great beginning to it. The goal is to bring all of the communities together to brainstorm, so its not going to happen in one meeting. Were going to be meeting again. He also emphasized the issue of self-perception, something he often talks about. He said local residents and officials have a perception of negative to neutral, but people looking at this area from the outside tend to be neutral to positive. We sometimes are our own worst enemy, Keller said. Part of the discussion was on the negative image Metro East residents have regarding taxes, but when you look at other states and different taxes they have, it brings your effective rates pretty darn close. What were hoping to do is find a couple of goals for the county so we can collaborate together, Love said after the first break. So far there are so many ideas, we just need to coalesce on the one or two that will help us move forward. She said part of the key is to look for opportunities. Where well really coalesce is taking those strengths and figuring out how to move them into opportunities, and looking at those weaknesses and seeing if we can convert them to opportunities as well, she said. ALTON A former Godfrey man pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Darnell S. Johnson, 45, pleaded guilty after he was accused in the January 2018 of shooting a former girlfriend in the mouth. In exchange for his plea, the prosecution agreed to the sentence and dropped a charged of aggravated battery with a firearm. Both charges are Class X felonies, punishable by a prison term of between six and 30 years. Johnson will have to serve at least 85 percent of his term. Johnson was caught Feb. 5, 2018, in Houston after he was charged Jan. 23 with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. Bail was set at $1 million. Police said the suspect and alleged victim were in separate cars at the intersection of Sering and Hillcrest avenues when Johnson shot the woman in the mouth. The woman drove to her mothers home in the 2600 block of Yager Avenue, where her mother call police. The suspect then fled. A court document claims the victim and Johnson lived together in Houston. The document claims he threatened her with an AK-47. The attorney prosecuting the case claimed he battered her to a point at which she had to go to a hospital for treatment. The attorney claimed that, while the victim was working in a Houston hospital, Johnson battered her inside the hospital and stole her car. Authorities recovered the vehicle, and the victim fled to Alton with her children. Johnson has a history of domestic violence. He was accused in a sworn statement in 2007 of punching a female victim in the head, causing her to fall, then continuing to punch her in the face. He was also accused of threatening to kill the petitioner, who was described as his girlfriend. She also claimed he broke her ribs twice, blackened her eye and choked her to the point of passing out. The petitioner in that case is not the same woman who was shot Jan. 22, 2018. In the same request for an order of protection, he was accused of hitting her in the head and throwing a brick at her. He was also accused of sending her messages that he was coming after her. After those events, he was charged with two counts of misdemeanor domestic battery. The charges were reduced to simple battery, to which Johnson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a $500 fine. He also has convictions for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful possession of a weapon, misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor harassment. RICHMOND, Va. - Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe said Wednesday he will not join the crowded field of Democrats running for president, citing the need to raise money and campaign for Virginia General Assembly candidates as his successor, Gov. Ralph Northam, tries to recover from a blackface scandal. "My heart was with Virginia, as much as I wanted to run for president," McAuliffe said. "It kept tugging at me. . . . I just didn't think I could walk away from Virginia." The 62-year-old Democrat has been publicly mulling a White House bid since leaving the Executive Mansion in January 2018. He originally said he would decide by March 31 but stayed mum as he continued visiting early-primary states. McAuliffe said he came to his decision reluctantly, still relishing the notion of going toe-to-toe with President Donald Trump. Just last week, McAuliffe created a buzz by saying in a speech and on Twitter that he'd dispatch Trump - a onetime campaign donor - like the 280-pound alligator he wrestled in a 1980 fundraising stunt. "I had full intentions of running," McAuliffe said in an interview with The Washington Post. "But after February, when we began to have the issues that we had in Virginia, people began to call. . . . 'We're really in a bad way. We really need your help.' " He also acknowledged that, given the size of the Democratic field, it would be "hard to break through with the Virginia message." McAuliffe has spent a lifetime in Democratic politics, most notably as a record-breaking and colorful fundraiser for two of his closest friends: Bill and Hillary Clinton. Socially liberal but friendly toward business, he was intentionally out of step with the left-leaning zeitgeist driving many 2020 contenders, which could have made him a tough sell to the party's restive liberal base. But McAuliffe tried to make the case that without jobs - and the economic incentives sometimes used to spur their creation - there is no tax base to bankroll social programs. "You can talk about college for all or all these other things you want . . . It all takes money," McAuliffe said in March. "Without the economic engine, all the great ideas and plans for the future mean nothing." In recent weeks, confidants said McAuliffe was waiting to see whether former vice president Joe Biden - a longtime friend - would run, occupying the same center-left, establishment lane as McAuliffe would have. At least one Virginia lawmaker asked McAuliffe to forgo a bid and focus on helping state Democrats flip the General Assembly. "I said, 'I know we have national issues, but I'm concerned about Virginia right now,' " said state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, recounting a conversation this week when she urged him not to run. It's a message Lucas said she had shared repeatedly with McAuliffe since February, when a racist photo surfaced from Northam's 1984 medical school yearbook page and he acknowledged wearing blackface in a dance contest that year. The controversy has made it hard for Northam to play the leading role that a sitting governor typically assumes for his party - particularly in a crucial election year, when Democrats could win control of the state House and Senate by picking up just a couple of seats in each chamber. McAuliffe said he would be laser-focused on that goal between now and the November election. McAuliffe, a businessman and entrepreneur, had never held public office when he squeaked past then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II in 2013 to become the state's 72nd governor. Though he ran as a pragmatic dealmaker, the GOP-controlled legislature never warmed to him, thwarting his marquee campaign promise to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. (By law, Virginia governors cannot seek a consecutive term.) It did not help that he was inexorably linked to the Clintons. Most notably, McAuliffe put up $1.35 million to secure a mortgage for their home in Chappaqua, New York, when the couple left the White House. In 2017, he was praised for the speech he gave after a woman was killed and two state troopers died in a helicopter crash amid white-supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville. "I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today," he said. "Go home. . . . There is no place for you here; there is no place for you in America." His supporters thought he could make a credible run for the White House based on his record as governor - and would be well-suited to withstand attacks from the current president. "His speech after Charlottesville was, I thought, the best, most moving retort to the horror of Donald Trump," said Lynn de Rothschild, a major Hillary Clinton donor. "You can't really knock Terry McAuliffe down." Even McAuliffe's harshest Republican critics acknowledged that he was a tireless promoter for Virginia, leading 35 foreign trade missions and attracting roughly $20 billion in capital investment and 207,000 new jobs. He helped lay the groundwork for Amazon's selection of Crystal City in Arlington as a headquarters site, a project state officials estimate will bring $3.2 billion in tax revenue over 20 years. McAuliffe famously laid out the stakes for the project, saying: "Whoever wins this thing is going to run for president." - - - Linskey reported from Washington. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke came to northern Virginia on Wednesday to whip up enthusiasm for Virginia's General Assembly elections, hoping to re-energize blue voters buffeted by scandals in Richmond. During the final leg of a two-day state tour, the former congressman from Texas said a Democratic takeover this fall of the narrowly divided state legislature would inspire voters around the country ahead of the 2020 presidential election - just as the state party's victories in 2017 ignited enthusiasm for last year's midterms. "2019 sets the stage," said O'Rourke, 47, during an appearance in Fairfax County with about 200 voters and Democratic officeholders and candidates. "The country rests on the shoulders of those here today. We want to do everything we can do help you by bringing attention and focus, within the commonwealth and from without, on the importance of these next elections." O'Rourke was a welcome distraction for a state Democratic Party rocked by controversies over blackface appearances by Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring and by sexual assault allegations facing Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax. Campaign finance disclosures this week showed lackluster fundraising by those three officials, and former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe is being urged by some in his party to forgo a White House run in order to help candidates at home. O'Rourke, who earned a reputation as a prolific fundraiser during his losing 2018 challenge of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, mostly sidestepped the scandals during nine stops in Virginia. At each appearance, he drew large, cheering crowds of people eager to take a selfie. Some said they were curious to gain a deeper understanding of the youthful-looking, charismatic candidate who alternated between English and fluent Spanish during his speeches and, at one point, high-fived an infant. "I want to see more than flash," said Deana Beyer, 73, of Dumfries. Although O'Rourke has said he will target rural and disaffected voters who may have backed President Donald Trump in 2016, his Virginia tour was concentrated in bluer parts of the state. In Fredericksburg, about 50 miles south of Washington, he veered away from an earlier call for Northam to step down, saying the fates of the governor and his deputy should rest in voters' hands. "These two men hold positions of public trust," he said during a morning stop with Joshua Cole, a Democrat seeking to unseat Del. Bob Thomas in November. "They have both made their statements to the citizens of Virginia, and I think it should be up to the citizens of Virginia to make that decision." Republicans control both the Virginia House of Delegates and the state Senate by two-vote margins. After historic gains two years ago, Democrats are hoping to win the majority this year. For the most part, those who showed up Wednesday to hear what O'Rourke had to say agreed that the party needs to move past the scandals. During a town hall discussion inside a Tex-Mex restaurant in Dumfries, the conversation ranged from the presidential hopeful's plans for gun control to how to keep immigrant families from being separated at the U.S.-Mexico border and how to stop the effects of climate change. In answer to a question about police shootings of unarmed black people, O'Rourke laid part of the blame on Trump, citing his rhetoric demonizing blacks and immigrants, and his recent retweeting of an inflammatory video suggesting that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is black, condoned the 9-11 terror attacks. "It's not just the rhetoric," O'Rourke said. "It's not just the words. It is the violence and the policies and the dehumanization and the torture that followed." Del. Haya Ayala, D-Prince William, who was at the Dumfries event, called O'Rourke's appearance "an injection of enthusiasm." "We've had some bumps and bruises here," Ayala said, referring to the Democratic scandals in Richmond and to Trump's policies. "But we're ready for change." Some voters and party activists who have been trying to build early momentum for November said it has been a struggle this year. Cher Muzyk, 44, said voters at times were apathetic when she and other volunteers knocked on doors in search of support for local candidates. "Whatever will inspire people to come out and vote, if that's presidential candidates coming out to Virginia, I support it," she said. In Alexandria, Amaryn Clare, 66, lined up with about 75 others for a chance to take a photo with O'Rourke after he entertained questions about gun control, cybersecurity and immigration from a crowd of about 200 people gathered inside a supporter's sprawling backyard. Clare said she likes O'Rourke but isn't sure he or other presidential candidates who plan to visit the state can do enough to help Democrats overcome the stigma of the problems in Richmond. The scandals "won't deter me, because I'm too interested in making sure the state becomes Democratic," she said. "But it is does drain enthusiasm, unfortunately." - - - The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson contributed from Fredericksburg. New York health officials issued summonses to parents of three children Thursday for not vaccinating their children against measles, a violation of the city's emergency order mandating immunizations to control a surging outbreak. The adults face civil penalties of $1,000 if an officer upholds the summons at a hearing. Health officials identified three children who were exposed to the severe respiratory virus but were not vaccinated by Friday, violating the order. Skipping the hearing or not respond to the summons will result in a $2,000 fine. The children are in three households. During the outbreak, the city has mandated vaccinations for people living in four hard-hit Zip codes in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section, home to tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Health officials also confirmed 359 cases as of Wednesday, an increase of 30 cases in two days. Because measles' incubation period is long - seven to 21 days - health officials said they expect the outbreak to get worse before it gets better. "However, we can turn the tide by people getting vaccinated, especially before Passover, when families and communities gather," said New York's Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot. As part of the Health Department investigation, disease detectives trace where each infected person went while contagious and everyone they may have interacted with. If investigators find an unvaccinated child who could have been exposed to measles, that child's parents could be subject to fines, officials have said. During a meeting Wednesday, the city's health board said it would be seeking civil, not criminal, penalties against the parents. Earlier in the week, a group of Brooklyn parents filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court, seeking to stop the city order. The plaintiffs say the order is unlawful because there is insufficient evidence of a measles epidemic or a dangerous enough outbreak to justify extraordinary measures, such as forced vaccination or criminal penalties. The measure is the broadest vaccination order in the United States in nearly three decades. The nation has a long history of mandatory vaccinations dating back to a 1905 Supreme Court case that upheld Massachusetts' authority to require vaccination against smallpox during an epidemic after a man defied an order to be vaccinated. The case laid the foundation for public health laws in the United States. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, has said the city has sweeping emergency authority for such orders during a public health emergency. Health officials also announced Thursday that they closed four additional schools for noncompliance with measles vaccine requirements. Earlier in the week, officials closed a Williamsburg child care program for repeatedly not providing access to medical and attendance records, violating the emergency order. The order requires child care programs to exclude unvaccinated students and staffers and to maintain medical and attendance records on site. That child care program reopened Thursday. ALBANY For the 10-year anniversary of the state Senate coup crisis, the Capitol Confidential podcast is doing a deep dive into the players and politics that shaped this historic struggle for power in Albany. The story begins after the 2008 elections, when Democrats took control of the state Senate for the first time in decades. But their slim majority seemed to collapse when Republicans wooed two renegade Democrats to their side and staged a parliamentary ambush that kicked off a five-week constitutional crisis. Dressed in black and holding protest signs, 40 members of the SIUE Faculty Association (SIUE FA) marched through the universitys annual Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day, April 17, in the Morris University Center. Keeping with the tropical theme, faculty surrounded each administrator and sang a version of the Beach Boys tune Help Me, Rhonda, ending with Help us get a contract now! SIUE FA President Kim Archer explained, We have been negotiating this contract for 25 months. We had to wait 21 months just to see the administrations first complete salary proposal. We felt it was time to let our community know that SIUE is failing its faculty. Mark Poepsel, Vice President and an Assistant Professor of Mass Communications, added, A one-day appreciation event is nice, but its not the same as negotiating a fair contract with us, or valuing our efforts and sacrifices for our students with a fair salary. Average SIUE faculty salaries are $10,000 or more below the salaries of their equally qualified and experienced peers at SIU-Carbondale, UI-Springfield, Western Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Northern Illinois, and Governors State. However, SIUE holds a $27 million cash reserve, which grew every year since 2012. It would cost SIUE only about $255,000 per 1 percent raise for the entire faculty. Its more expensive to live in the Metro East, and especially Edwardsville, than in Carbondale, Charleston, Macomb or DeKalb, said Poepsel. Expenses keep going up, but the administration seems to care more about increasing its savings account than investing in its people. We lost 8 percent earning power during the budget impasse. That means it cost my family thousands of dollars for me to keep working here. Holding up a sign reading, You Cant Put Students First When You Put Faculty Last, Brian Henderson, Secretary of the SIUE FA, added, People dont know that we still have vacant faculty positions after the budget impasse. Our salaries are so low now, new faculty wont come here. That affects course offerings and the quality of students education. I hope SIUE administration will hear us loud and clear today, Archer said. Our faculty union is trying to protect whats great about SIUE, and faculty are the backbone of the university. After 25 months, were getting impatient and frustrated. WASHINGTON - Built on a hill in southeast Washington, D.C., the new $5 billion headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security has a commanding view of the nation's capital, a sentry post meant to symbolize DHS' role as protector of the United States. But as thousands of DHS employees relocate to the new campus this month, the agency's mission is shifting under President Donald Trump. Fixated on the surge in border crossings, Trump has been purging the department's leadership. The shake-up, critics say, has accelerated DHS' transformation under Trump from an agency primarily focused on counterterrorism to one defined by its immigration enforcement efforts and increasingly embroiled in some of the White House's most controversial initiatives. "I want people to look at that the DHS seal and be reminded that this is the agency of the government that is here to protect them," said Jeh Johnson, who ran DHS during President Barack Obama's second term. "But I fear they look at it now and see the agency that separated children from their parents." Several of the senior DHS leaders who gathered to cut the ribbon last week at the new campus - the largest federal construction project in Washington since the Pentagon - will not be staying long enough to work there. In a span of six days, Trump pushed out Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen; her deputy Claire Grady; the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ronald Vitiello; and the director of the Secret Service, Randolph "Tex" Alles. The upheaval also left the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection - the country's largest law enforcement agency - with leaders in acting roles. The firings came so fast that senior GOP leaders publicly pleaded with the president not to sack anyone else, while rattled DHS officials resorted to dark humor about the location of their new offices on the former grounds of St. Elizabeths Hospital, the government's first mental institution. The president's willingness to jettison so many DHS agency heads at once would have been unthinkable more than a decade ago, critics say, when the department was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Successive presidents have sought to reassure the public by quickly filling vacancies at the department and moving nominees swiftly to senate confirmation. It's DHS' immigration enforcement agencies - ICE, CBP and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, whose director may be the next to go - that have Trump's attention right now. Trump was long frustrated with Nielsen's inability to reduce border crossings, but the final straw came earlier this month when she traveled to Europe to attend a Group of 7 summit and meet with counterterrorism and cybersecurity officials. DHS officials say they had apprised the White House of Nielsen's plans, but the president was livid when he learned she had traveled to London, insisting she should be focused on the border. After an angry call from the White House, Nielsen hurried back to Washington, but by then her job was already imperiled. White House aides say Trump believed she wasn't sufficiently focused on the border nor "tough" enough to deliver the results he wanted there. Trump made his top border security chief, Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of DHS. A longtime official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, McAleenan has a background in counterterrorism and aviation security. Nielsen's expertise was cybersecurity, and her nomination to lead DHS was widely viewed as a recognition of its growing importance in the DHS threat index. She occasionally raised the topic with Trump, but aides say his questions fixated usually on the border - and occasionally on disaster recovery, if a topic was in the news. Trump largely cares about two parts of the DHS mission - immigration and disaster recovery - according to three current and former administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share candid views of the president. "When Trump thinks of DHS, he immediately thinks of the border," one senior White House official said. A former senior administration official said Trump sometimes called cybersecurity "the cyber" and said that dealing with it, or talking about it, would only get you in trouble. He has occasionally joked to aides that the world would be better without computers and other devices after hearing about potential attacks and hacks - and would grow bored during lengthy technological briefings about cybersecurity from Nielsen, former Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert and others. Trump's impatience with DHS is shared by senior adviser Stephen Miller, who has argued to White House aides that DHS should be reorganized and that it doesn't make sense to have so many different parts under one umbrella. Miller has occasionally likened the agency to the deep state and has said to administration officials that many of the people in the vast-ranging agency are not on board with the president's agenda, calling the agency a "total problem." The White House, and Miller, did not respond to requests for comment. Senior DHS officials say the president's focus on immigration enforcement has not undermined their work on counterterrorism, cybersecurity and other efforts. "We are laser-focused on the daily threats we face," said David Glawe, a former FBI agent and counterterrorism specialist who is DHS' top intelligence official. As the third largest agency in the U.S. government after Veterans Affairs and Defense, DHS has been unwieldy since the days that it was kludged together from nearly two dozen separate bureaus, agencies, and offices. Its structure hasn't gotten any simpler, nor has the range of threats it has to address. "Chaos at the top of the agency and throughout the senior leadership hurts the overall mission," said Lisa Monaco, who served as Obama's homeland security adviser and, before that, held the top national security position in the Justice Department. The department has been without a permanent deputy secretary for more than a year, Monaco said, a position that traditionally is responsible for ensuring that the department's many different components all work together. "As complex an enterprise as the department has become . . . you really need steady leadership at the top," she said. From its inception in 2002, the Department of Homeland Security had a muddled cyber security mission. It was supposed to coordinate the federal government's efforts to mitigate threats to critical infrastructure, including power grids and communications networks. But it was rarely clear if the department was taking the lead on those issues or playing a supporting role. "On cyber, it certainly struggled in the early years," said Chris Painter, who served as the State Department's top coordinator for cybersecurity. "It tried to do everything and didn't do anything particularly well." But the department seemed to find its stride as it refined its mission to focus on protecting U.S. civilian computer networks and acting as a liaison on security issues between companies and the government, Painter said. Experts have praised the Trump administration and Nielsen for establishing the new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the department. It's meant to focus on threats to power grids, communications networks and other critical systems, and it's led by a director with a background in security in the government and the private sector, Christopher Krebs. "We are acutely dialed into our mission," said Krebs in an interview, adding that his agency now has more than 2,200 full-time federal employees working on cyberdefense. Obama administration officials said that the department deserves credit for raising awareness among state and local governments about possible hacking of election systems. But with the departure of Nielsen, Painter said there aren't enough senior leaders who understand the cyber security issue and have the clout to shape policy. "If you don't have someone in the leadership role who cares about this issue, it does very much risk being sidelined," he said. The Coast Guard's role in DHS under the Trump administration has also been complicated by the department's expanding desires on the southern border. The administration requested $750 million for a new polar icebreaker - a top request of the Coast Guard's - in its fiscal 2019 budget. But the funding sat in limbo for months, as House Republicans sought to spend $5 billion to build Trump's proposed border wall by cutting funding from a variety of other DHS programs. Congress ultimately approved $655 million to begin building the polar ship, the first of six the Coast Guard wants. It isn't clear whether the service will receive money for the others in the future. Michael Leiter, who was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, said that the department had "come a long way" on its cyber security mission and is now "a key player in protecting infrastructure in a way no one else in the U.S. government does," because of its interactions with the private sector. But like Painter, Leiter worried that the cyber mission could fade in relevance without a strong leader at the deputy or secretary level who believes in its importance. The same goes for the department's counterterrorism mission, Letier said, which is extensive and primarily aimed at securing the commercial aviation system and ports of entry. Leiter said the Trump administration has been "obsessively myopic" about the threat of terrorists coming across the border with Mexico. "The southern border is the least of their counterterrorism concerns," Leiter said. By placing the resources and focus of the department, particularly U.S. Customs and Border Protection, too much on one place where the threat is low, the administration risks being taken surprise elsewhere. "The political rhetoric and president's statements make me extremely concerned these other missions are not getting the leadership focus and resources," Leiter said. Michael Daniel, a former cybersecurity coordinator at the White House, said the department is performing a necessary cybersecurity function, which is to look across many sectors of the economy and the government and think about the issue in a holistic way. He said that the intense focus on security at the southern border risks the department's ability to think in the long term. "When any issue in an administration becomes overly dominant, it takes up all of the policy time. It dominates the conversation and drives out other issues that at least certainly warrant discussion," said Daniel, now the president and CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance, a nonprofit organization that shares threat information. "Am I worried about DHS' ability to respond to something bad happening in cyberspace? No. They will accomplish that mission," Daniel said. But, he added, "the turmoil at the top of DHS, and turmoil in the administration in general, that begins to have an impact on more long term policy issues. It becomes more difficult to propose new legislation or new regulations or new policies." --- The Washington Post's Dan Lamothe contributed to this report. Why do we have to keep opening old wounds, removing Confederate statues, debating reparations for slavery, acknowledging history's injustices? Let's start with the story of Sgt. William A. Butler, an African American soldier who fought in the French countryside of the Champagne region on an August night in 1918. This was during World War I, a brutal conflict we rarely talk about, a war that only rates a dinky little gazebo on the Mall, the one with the mustard gas and terrible trenches. A German raiding party had just rushed those American trenches and ripped through them in a bloodbath of slashing knives and blunt clubs. The young Americans who weren't killed were taken prisoner. Butler, a slight, 27-year-old from rural Salisbury, Maryland, was nearby and knew the raiding party would have to pass him on their escape. He waited until they were close to him, so close, then he unleashed his own, personal version of German hell. Newspaper reporter Herbert Corey said Butler came "a-roaring and fogging, through the darkness with his automatic, and nobody knows how many Germans he killed." The final count was 10 dead Germans, according to World War I historian Emmett J. Scott. But that wasn't it. Butler also took a German lieutenant prisoner, freed all the American prisoners and hustled them back to the safety of the trenches. His exploits were incredible, especially for a man who had endured Jim Crow racial oppression and segregation his whole life. Butler did return to a hero's welcome in America. There was a parade in New York and then a ceremony with more than 5,000 New Yorkers cheering "themselves hoarse" as 23 men were awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the American Distinguished Service Cross, according to the New York Tribune. He was the first in line to be honored before that crowd because the War Department decided he was the most heroic of them all, even among the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the "Hell Fighters," none of whom were ever captured.After the way he fought in World War I, William Butler's race shouldn't have mattered. But it did. "Bill Butler, a slight, good-natured colored youth, who until two years ago was a jack-of-all trades in a little Maryland town, yesterday came into his own as a hero among heroes," the New York Tribune reported. Butler was at the top of the list of men nominated for the Medal of Honor when the U.S. government began handing those out in 1919. The men who understand war knew what he'd done. But to the United States? The country he was ready to die for? He was black, so no Medal of Honor for him. So as our nation reluctantly - even violently - reckons with the way we remember our past, knocking some men off their pedestals is as important as elevating the ones who should have been there all along. One of Maryland's senators, Chris Van Hollen, wants America to finally honor Butler. The Democrat introduced the World War I Honor Valor Review Act this week, legislation that would require the Defense Department to look at forgotten black war heroes like Butler. Congress did this for World War II and forward, but now they want to look even further back. "The fact that the heroism of African American soldiers was ignored, that it was overlooked is obviously jarring," Van Hollen said. If this bill passes, and it's one of the few things on Capitol Hill that has bipartisan support and will likely breeze through, more men like Butler will finally be honored. But all of them, like Butler - who hung himself in his Washington, D.C., home in 1947 and is now buried in Arlington National Cemetery (with a typo on his tombstone) - are dead. And will a posthumous award mean anything at this point? Like the reparations that Georgetown University students voted this week to pay to the families of the 272 slaves that the university sold in 1838, like the Confederate statues we're removing and the schools we are renaming, is it worth digging up the past? Yes. Because it's never too late to go back and understand and acknowledge our past as it really was. Because it's crucial to see that was once legal was also immoral. And because there are thousands of William A. Butlers among us today. The job applicants who have identical resumes but different skin color. The drivers who get pulled and the ones who sail past. The children who get suspended and the ones who don't. The more local historian Linda Duyer, who researches and records the forgotten history of African Americans in Salisbury, read about the heroics of Butler, the more appalled she was. "I just couldn't understand why no one really knew this," Duyer said. "This hero, right here, and he wasn't recognized. I gradually got angrier and angrier the more I read. It must have been so horrific for him at the time. There was a lynching in Salisbury in 1931." It's about acknowledging all of this. "You can never go back in time," Van Hollen said. "But it's about a reckoning with the racist history," he said. "It's still our opportunity to do the right thing." CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere,formerly Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) is a majorinternational humanitarian agency delivering emergency relief and long-terminternational development projects. Founded in 1945, CARE is nonsectarian,impartial, and non-governmental. It is one of the largest and oldesthumanitarian aid organizations focused on fighting global poverty. WADE HUSING, Chariho, Wrestling, Junior; Husing, finished unbeaten in the South County Invitational and placed first at 120 pounds. Three of Husings wins were pins. Chariho finished second as a team. DANTE WILK, Westerly, Boys Basketball, Senior; Wilk, scored 23 points and had eight assists as Westerly opened the season with a victory over longtime rival Chariho. Wilk also contributed five rebounds. Vote View Results Competition chiefs have shied away from a break-up of Britain's biggest bean counters following a review into the failing audit market. Regulators have said forcing the Big Four accountants to split into separate consulting and audit companies would be overcomplicated. Instead, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has called for 'operational separation', where audit chiefs do not get a share of profits from consulting and must answer to their own distinct board. Spilling the beans: HBOS bank was given a clean bill of health by KPMG before it collapsed in 2008 But critics said the CMA had missed 'a golden opportunity' to reform the industry following heavy lobbying by the Big Four. It comes after an outcry over conflicts of interest following a string of scandals. Firms have failed to spot a huge black hole at Tesco, the near-collapse of the Co-op Bank and the failure of outsourcer Carillion. Accounting blunders HBOS bank was given a clean bill of health by KPMG before it collapsed in 2008 Deloitte was fined 3m for a failure to manage conflicts before the collapse of MG Rover A 326m accounting error at Tesco was missed by PwC in 2014 KPMG overlooked a 1.5bn black hole at the Co-op Bank in 2014 PwC was fined 5.1m in 2017 for missing problems at accountant RSM Tenon Last year KPMG was fined 3.2m over a scandal at law firm Quindell All the Big Four worked for Carillion without highlighting problems Deloitte was fined 415,000 by Malaysian regulators over scandal-hit auditor 1MDB The consultancy arms of KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and Ernst & Young earn huge profits from large companies where auditors are also supposed to be carrying out independent book-keeping checks. Critics claim it means the auditors are unlikely to ask tough questions of management. The CMA said: 'Given the difficulties with an immediate global structural split, the CMA is recommending an operational split.' The CMA has said the arrangement should be reviewed after five years to see if it is working. Ministers will now decide whether to implement the proposals. Prem Sikka, an accountancy professor at the University of Sheffield, said: 'The CMA's report has been incredibly diluted and it is disappointing. 'This was a golden opportunity and the CMA had good intentions, but it's really caved in to lobbying by the Big Four and their corporate lawyers, and to political pressure.' Chief executive of the Management Consultants Association (MCA) Tamzen Isacsson warned however that regulation could 'undermine' the UK's position as a leader in consulting services. 'Our members are committed to the highest standards,' Isacsson said. 'The UK is a leading centre in the world for consulting services and we need to ensure that regulation does not undermine this position for a sector which is worth over 10billion to the UK economy and supports over 500,000 jobs across the UK.' She added: 'Structural break ups of companies would be impractical to manage and we are pleased to see this is not a recommended proposal, given these are massive global organisations and this would undermine our position globally.' The City watchdog has issued a stark warning over the treatment of customers to the firm targeting Provident Financial, in one of the most bitter takeover battles the City has seen for years. Andrew Bailey, head of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said that he will not tolerate efforts to exploit the Provvy's 2.4m customers if the bid by rival Non-Standard Finance succeeds. NSF, run by the Provvy's 70-year-old former boss John van Kuffeler, has pledged to boost the lender's profits. Hostile bid: NSF, run by Provident Financial's 70-year-old former boss John Van Kuffeler, has pledged to boost the lender's profits But its plans, and the hostile nature of the bid, have sparked fears of a squeeze on vulnerable borrowers. In a highly unusual intervention, Bailey told the Mail that the FCA will use its powers to stop that. He said: 'We're not going to tolerate seeing a reversion to some of the practices that were there in the past. We're not saying you can't do this deal, it's not for us to do that. 'But don't price this deal on the basis of assuming you can go back to some of the processes of the past.' Mini bond crackdown Regulators are preparing a crackdown on high-risk bonds at the heart of a scandal over collapsed savings firm London Capital & Finance (LCF). Financial Conduct Authority boss Andrew Bailey has major concerns about mini-bonds, which let savers lend cash to small firms, including those turned down for credit by the banks. LCF promised returns up to 8 per cent but after it went bust it emerged funds had gone to just 12 firms, in what administrators described as highly suspicious transactions. Bailey is worried savers are not given enough warning they could lose all their cash. Van Kuffeler ran the Provvy for 22 years before leaving in 2013. The FCA started to regulate doorstep lending the following year, and brought in tough rules to protect borrowers from abuse. Van Kuffeler then set up NSF in 2015. It is much smaller, with only 180,000 customers. Bailey's warning doubles down on a letter sent to van Kuffeler by the FCA in which it warned him not to put customers at risk. MPs are also increasingly concerned. Stella Creasy, of Labour, wrote to City minister John Glen to ask what sanctions could be used to punish the Provvy if it changes its approach to customers under new management. It comes amid a vicious war of words between the Provvy and NSF. This week, Provvy chairman Patrick Snowball said his rivals offered a 'dreadful deal', adding, in a letter to shareholders: 'It is more of a coup d'etat than a hostile takeover, spearheaded by a management at NSF with a track record of value-destructive acquisitions and facilitated by powerful shareholders.' In response, NSF claimed: 'The Provident board is determined to deflect from its history of self-inflicted wounds and incompetence its defective leadership, customer failings, destruction of shareholder value, erosion of shareholder trust and strategic vacuum. It reveals an extraordinary disregard for some of its largest shareholders.' Three of the Provvy's biggest shareholders who control more than 50 per cent of the stock back NSF, which is seeking support from 90 per cent of investors, although it could reduce this target to get the deal over the line. The Provvy has been embroiled in a mis-selling scandal over a product sold by its Vanquis credit card arm, and was forced to give 169million back to customers. It is also being probed by the FCA over sales tactics at Moneybarn, its car finance division. NSF insists it will comply with all FCA rules. Provvy shares fell 1.4 per cent, or 7.2p, to 509.6p and NSF dipped 1.5 per cent, or 0.8p, to 51.5p. Windfall: Asos co-founder Nick Robertson has pocketed 15.3m after selling 410,000 shares Asos co-founder Nick Robertson has pocketed 15.3million after selling 410,000 shares at 372p each. Despite the huge sell-off, he still has a 5.5 per cent stake in the online fashion firm, worth 178.5million. Robertson, 51, co-founded Asos in 2000 with his business partners Andrew Regan and Quentin Griffiths, and served as chief executive of the business until 2015. A year later he was forced to sell 70million worth of shares to fund the divorce settlement with his ex-wife, Janine. The payout was equivalent to almost a third of Robertsons 220million net worth at the time. According to The Sunday Times Rich List, Robertson is now worth 372million. In 2011 he was awarded an OBE for services to fashion retailing. Nick Beighton took the reins from Robertson in 2015 after joining Asos as chief financial officer six years earlier. Asos Shares have tumbled by 38 per cent over the past year amid investor concerns that management is struggling to run the business amid a major overseas expansion Robertson has been a non-executive director at the business since stepping down. The sale comes after Asoss half-year profits plunged 87 per cent to 4million. Shares have tumbled by 38 per cent over the past year amid investor concerns that the management is struggling to run the business amid a major overseas expansion. Asos shares increased 3.4 per cent, or 128p, to 3889p yesterday. Marks & Spencer has slashed prices on almost 500 of its most popular food items as it scrambles to win back customers and arrest its declining sales. The High Street chain has dramatically cut prices across products such as chocolate eggs and legs of lamb, in time for Easter. A bottle of Limestone Coast Sauvignon now costs 7 compared with 10 a year ago, with a family pack of salmon fillets reduced from 13 to 11. It is also selling 20 per cent more Easter eggs for 5 and under compared to last year. Marks & Spencer has dramatically cut prices across products such as chocolate eggs and legs of lamb, in time for Easter ...but Lidl is cheapest for Easter LIDL has been named the cheapest supermarket for Easter. The discounter came out top in a Good Housekeeping survey of how much it costs to feed eight people Easter lunch. Each basket consisted of a 2kg leg of lamb, a bag of potatoes, peas, carrots, mint sauce, hot cross buns and two bottles of Prosecco. At Lidl, the cost came to 20.71 or 2.59 per person. Rival Aldi was close behind at 21.63 and Morrisons third cheapest at 24.89. Of the 10 surveyed, Waitrose was the most expensive at 37.03. Head of food Stuart Machin said M&S is trying to be 'special and relevant, with prices to shout about'. It is the latest move by chief executive Steve Rowe and chairman Archie Norman to revive fortunes by attracting more families. M&S's food business, which has long been the jewel in its crown, has struggled in recent years as shoppers are lured by bargains at German rivals Aldi and Lidl. The price cuts mean that the cost of an Easter lunch for eight people at M&S is now 3.03 lower than a year earlier, at 34.18, making it cheaper than Sainsbury's and Waitrose. Good Housekeeping magazine, which carried out the price comparisons of Easter lunches across 10 supermarkets, called the reductions 'a deliberate price-cutting move'. Machin said: 'We're in the early stages of our transformation plan to broaden the appeal of our food to family-age customers and make M&S more relevant, more often. 'You can see this shift in our marketing campaign. M&S is no longer positioning itself as special and different but special and relevant, with prices to shout about.' The wide-ranging reductions are part of a drastic overhaul of the food division. It has bagged a 1.5billion deal with Ocado to launch an online grocery delivery service for the first time, and the retailer is planning to open larger M&S Food supermarkets to attract more families. Critics believe it is paying too much for the tie-up, which spells the end for Ocado's 19-year partnership with Waitrose. Some Ocado customers have already threatened to leave, complaining that M&S is more expensive than Waitrose. Norman brought in former protege Machin last year to revive the struggling food business. The pair worked together at Asda and Australian supermarket Target, where Norman is still chairman. In an effort to make the upmarket grocer more accessible, Machin has plastered food prices on M&S's advertisements for the first time and struck a sponsorship deal with the family television show Britain's Got Talent. He recently revived its famous 'This is not just food, this is M&S Food' advertising campaign, 12 years after it was first launched. And he has also increased portion sizes, bringing in family-size shepherd's pies and pizzas. It is understood that Machin wants to increase M&S's food sales by a third over the coming years. Celebrity approval: Kylie Minogue is a fan of Parisian haircare firm Christophe Robin Online beauty business The Hut Group has snapped up a haircare brand used by stars such as Kylie Minogue. Parisian firm Christophe Robin, which sells luxury natural products including hairbrushes for 84 and hair masks for 58, has been bought in a deal thought to be worth 50m. A buying spree has seen The Hut Group snap up luxury beauty brands such as Espa, Grow Gorgeous and Illamasqua. It is one of the UK's fastest-growing technology companies, with sales of 736million in 2017. It provides the website infrastructure for online beauty retailers such as Lookfantastic and Glossybox. Matthew Moulding, chief executive, said: 'Natural beauty products are continuing to take the industry by storm and combined with the brand's expertise in luxury haircare, this is an exciting time for us to invest in the brand, product development and people, to deliver the next stage of growth.' Christophe Robin, thought to have made 13million in sales last year, makes a third of its sales through websites owned and operated by The Hut Group. It is owned by colourist Christophe Robin who counts French actress Catherine Deneuve and pop star Kylie Minogue (pictured) among his clients. Car dealer Pendragon, owner of the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone brands, has swung to a loss after costs escalated. It was hardly the start that chief executive Mark Herbert hoped for after he joined this month. Although total group revenue was up 1.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, Pendragon made a loss of 2.8million a massive 10million below its expectations. Although total group revenue was up 1.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, Pendragon made a loss of 2.8m a massive 10m below its expectations As investors slammed on the brakes, pushing shares down by 9.7 per cent, or 2.45p, to 22.7p, Herbert, along with new chief financial officer Mark Willis, announced a review of prospects. Russ Mould, analyst at AJ Bell, said: 'You know a profit warning is bad when a company launches a review. This indicates a continuing reluctance on the part of UK consumers to splash out on big ticket items, amid economic and political uncertainty, unless prices are cut.' Pendragon has chosen to prioritise its place as the UK's biggest car dealer, cutting prices to entice customers rather than watching them slip away. Its five-year plan to double second-hand car revenue by 2021 now hangs in the balance. Investors must wait until June for more news, when Herbert is due to release the results of his review. Stock Watch - Serica Energy The North Sea oil and gas firm Serica celebrated a surge in profits last year, after a series of acquisitions which industry analysts have hailed as 'transformational'. Serica bought interests in the Bruce, Keith and Rhum fields in the North Sea, and saw its profits jump 337 per cent to 57.3million. Chief executive Mitch Flegg said the firm was still on the lookout for new opportunities after a year of 'incredible achievement'. Shares climbed 22.8 per cent, or 26p, to 140p. Major supplier Bunzl, which provides businesses around the world with items ranging from disposable coffee cups to safety gear, suffered its worst day of trading in almost 30 years. Shares dipped 9.3 per cent, or 237p, to 2314p as it admitted revenue growth rate is slowing, blaming mixed macroeconomic and market conditions, especially in North America, where performance was squeezed by a lack of sales growth and the higher price of goods. Bunzl, which has historically been keen to expand through buying new businesses, also announced that it had snapped up Netherlands packaging supplier Coolpack. Its performance weighed on the FTSE 100, although top riser Tui (up 4.5 per cent, or 37p, to 852.6p) helped to pull the blue-chip index back to end the day up 0.02 per cent, or 1.40points, at 7471.32. Meanwhile the FTSE 250 was boosted by private hospitals firm Mediclinic, after it said that it had met expectations for the year ending March 2019. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said the business had 'handled admirably' the headwinds it had faced in some markets. The comments came as a pat on the back for new chief executive Ronnie van der Merwe, who has been leading a turnaround of the South African firm. Shares jumped by 7.8 per cent, or 23.7p, to 327.5p. GB Group beat expectations with ease, as it announced profits for the year ending in March would be up 20.6 per cent to 31.7million. The credit-scoring and identity-checking business gained significant new customers, and shares rose 14.8 per cent, or 81p, to 630p. A new deal for Learning Technologies Group, which offers online workplace learning and recruitment services, caused its shares to leap. The firm has bought Breezy, a recruitment software business, for up to 13.8million. LTG's shares climbed by 15.2 per cent, or 10p, to 76p. But Carclo, which makes plastic parts for car lights and medical devices, fell 20.7 per cent, or 5.75p, to 22.1p. It was suffering from backlogs, as customers increased their orders to stockpile for Brexit. As activity on London's stock market finally begins to heat up Turkey-focused gas producer Valeura Energy, which is aiming to frack near Istanbul where there are no restrictions on the controversial extraction method, is to float in London this month. It is already listed on Canada's Toronto exchange, valued at 143million. Shopping centre operator Intu has sold a 50 per cent stake in its Derby mall. Pictured, one of its other ventures Under-pressure shopping centre operator Intu has sold a 50 per cent stake in its Derby mall to the investment firm Cale Street for 186 million. The Kuwait-backed retail investor enters into the joint venture as Intu looks to cut debt through disposals and part-disposals. In its latest annual report, Intu said that it had net external debt of 4.87 billion as it swung to a 1.17 billion loss. Hammerson and Peel Group walked away from takeover bids for the company last year. Intu Derby, in the centre of the city, attracts 22 million shoppers a year. Marmite owner Unilever is squeezing supermarkets by raising prices. In a bumper set of results that sent shares close to record levels, the Anglo-Dutch giant said revenues rose 3.1 per cent to 10.7 billion in the first three months of the year. This was largely due to higher prices rather than an rise in the number of products being sold a sign that supermarkets and other retailers are being squeezed. Marmite owner Unilever is squeezing supermarkets by raising prices New boss Alan Jope, who replaced Paul Polman in January, warned of price increases for shoppers even as supermarket chains fight for customers. He said: 'We don't like passing on price increases to consumers. We like our brands to offer amazing quality and very good value, so our first reflex is to try to cover cost increases. 'The supermarket chains, like us, are not keen to take prices up. Supermarkets run on very slim margins so if we're passing along price increases, ultimately they do end up being reflected to consumers.' Unilever, which supplies the UK's major supermarkets with brands such as Magnum ice cream, Domestos and PG Tips, saw revenues in Europe up 2.6 per cent, and 7.6 per cent in emerging markets including South-East Asia and Brazil. Shares rose 2.9 per cent, or 125.5p, to 4503.5p and it will pay a quarterly dividend of 35.46p a share. Unilever, which sold its spreads business, including the Flora brand, for 5.9 billion last year, said 1.9 per cent of the rise in revenues came from higher prices, with 1.2 per cent from an increase in the volume of goods sold. Jope said the price increases had occurred largely within its homecare division, which includes brands such as Persil and Cif. New boss Alan Jope, who replaced Paul Polman in January, warned of price increases for shoppers even as supermarket chains fight for customers Graham Spooner, analyst at The Share Centre, said: 'Investors will be pleased with the increase in the quarterly dividend but will be hoping it can boost sales growth something analysts have been increasingly concerned about.' Unilever, which operates a dual-listed structure in the UK and Netherlands, suffered a humiliating climbdown last year when it had to abandon plans to move its headquarters to Netherlands. Jope refused to say whether the company was committed to keeping its base in the UK. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'Now comes the hard part. Jope needs to find a way to stop the sales growth slowing down, and adapt Unilever for the new era of retail where online shopping and the rise of discounters are driving down prices.' The number of complaints made about financial firms fell in the last six months of 2018 for the first time in two years, figures from the City regulator show. A total of 3.91million complaints were reported to the Financial Conduct Authority in the second half of last year, down 5 per cent on the first six months. Some 4.13million complaints were made between January and June. The amount of redress paid out also fell by 12 per cent over the second half of 2018, from 2.57billion to 2.26billion. Financial firms are required to report all complaints made to them to the Financial Conduct Authority. The City regulator publishes the complaints twice a year Gripes about payment protection insurance fell by 8 per cent between the first and second halves of last year, but PPI still accounts for two in five complaints, with companies paying out 1.99billion to those claiming they had been mis-sold PPI. However, that too is a smaller amount than the 2.31billion paid out to claimants in the first six months of 2018. The FCA said there was a change in reporting which allowed firms to exclude PPI complaints from the figures where it was established that the complainant had not purchased a PPI policy from the firm. PPI payouts for upheld claims about mis-selling were an average of 1,886, with the average consumer who had a complaint about banking or credit cards upheld receiving 164. The other most complained about products were current accounts, complaints about which comprised 15 per cent of all consumer complaints, credit cards, which accounted for one in 10, and motor insurance, which accounted for 7 per cent. The number of complaints about credit cards and motor insurance increased in the second half of last year, by 10 and 13 per cent, respectively. Complaints about financial products Product Complaints in first half of 2018 Complaints in second half of 2018 % change % closed within three days PPI 1,719,259 1,581,849 -8% 7% Current accounts 691,395 604,894 -13% 70% Credit cards 349,501 386,195 +10% 62% Motor insurance 252,044 283,664 +13% 53% Other general insurance 224,403 223,883 0% 53% Source: Financial Conduct Authority The percentage of complaints upheld about banking and credit card products increased from 53 per cent in the first half of 2018 to 56 per cent in the last six months of the year. As well as upholding a higher percentage of customer complaints, firms also dealt with complaints quicker, according to the FCAs figures. The percentage of complaints closed within three days increased to 37 per cent from 35 per cent over the course of the year. Overall, 3,181 financial firms received at least one complaint in the second half of last year. 228 reported more than 500, and these firms accounted for 98 per cent of all complaints. Under procedural changes in June 2016, all complaints made about financial firms must be reported to the FCA, even ones resolved by the end of the following day. Total paid out by product group Product Payout in first half of 2018 Payout in second half of 2018 PPI 2,314,589,665 1,989,994,576 Banking and credit cards 141,164,495 133,326,148 Pensions 21,275,067 36,932,894 Home finance 17,587,520 18,325,977 Insurance excluding PPI 51,708,142 46,669,946 Investments 27,503,976 32,092,361 Source: Financial Conduct Authority Perhaps unsurprisingly given their size and range of services, four of the UKs major high street banks were the most complained about firms in the second half of last year; Barclays, Lloyds Bank, its stablemate Bank of Scotland, and HSBC. Barclays received 412,136 total complaints over the last six months of 2018, with the other three all receiving more than 300,000 each. Barclays was also the most complained about firm when it came to banking and credit cards, ahead of HSBC and Santander. Barclays received more than 235,000 complaints, HSBC 204,000 and Santander nearly 121,000. More than 60% of the PPI complaints were upheld in 2018, while the amount paid out to pension complainants boomed in the second half of last year, increasing by 15million However, just 48.6 per cent of complaints about Barclays banking were upheld, compared to 56 per cent for HSBC. Only 40 per cent of Santanders complaints were upheld. Aviva, Prudential Assurance and Royal London received the most complaints relating to pensions, with Aviva receiving 11,078 complaints, Prudential 7,439 and Royal London 4,100. Aviva and Prudential were also two of the three most complained about firms when it came to investments, behind Aegon. Aegon received over 6,200 complaints, Aviva over 4,500 and Prudential 3,750. Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: 'It is encouraging to see that complaint figures have dropped and firms are dealing with complaints more quickly. 'We expect firms to continue to focus on ensuring their customers are well-served and that they respond quickly where consumers complain.' With summer festivals fast approaching Sian Gabbidon, winner of the last series of BBC television show The Apprentice, is hoping to take a slice out of the poolside party business market with the launch of a new swimwear collection. Following her victory, in which she beat 15 other candidates, she received 250,000 investment from business mogul Lord Sugar. Her brand - Sian Marie - faces stiff competition in the fashion swimwear business with famous celebrities having launched or lent their names to collections, including models Abbey Clancy, Liz Hurley, Heidi Klum and Kendall Jenner. But this hasn't stopped her from powering ahead to unveil her own SS19 Tropical Goddess collection, now modeled by Hayley Hughes from Love Island and actress Michelle Keegan, who recently wore Sian's 'The Athena' bikini while on holiday in Barbados. Swimmingly: Sian Gabbidon won The Apprentice and 250k backing from Lord Sugar Since winning The Apprentice, Sian, 26, says she's been busy building her team in Leeds and taking the business structure from small to large scale and into mass production. She told This is Money: 'Alongside this I also designed, sampled, shot and launched our summer swimwear range - with a huge celebrity party at Sheesh restaurant.' The swimwear pieces, which can be bought at sianmarie.com, range from 45 to around 65 and come in a large range of colours and prints. The price range sits comfortably between some other celebrity backed ranges. Abbey Clancy has launched her own collection through retailer Lipsy with prices starting from 38, while swimwear from the Elizabeth Hurley Beach collection, is more expensive with prices starting from 138 and up. Sian says her designs are for women aged 25 to 34 who want to make a statement by the pool or at festivals. Hayley Hughes from Love Island models costumes from Sian Gabbidon's new Tropical Goddess range The Tropical Goddess collection showcases multi-way and reversible styles, and The Athena two piece featured on the final episode of The Apprentice currently retails for 49. Sian says: 'The Tropical Goddess collection offers girls beautifully fitting swimwear pieces, by allowing customers to select different sizes for the top and bottoms, whilst still being stylish and statement making. 'The collection is perfect for when you want to enhance your curves to make you feel your best. The collection caters to all bodies and will pull you in at all the right places. The swimwear pieces, which can be bought at sianmarie.com , range in price from 45 to around 65 But celebrities won't be her only target audience. She said: 'We are working on retailer orders which will be announced and available to purchase very soon, as well as opening our very first three day pop up shop experience at the Trinity in Leeds... and much more.' Sian says the business now has a full detailed plan in terms of how Lord Sugar's investment will be used. She adds: 'Moving into mass production means we have allocated pockets of money to produce our product - but marketing is also key and will be an area that we invest in to get the product in front of our customer.' Sian says many of her swimwear pieces are reversible with multi-way styles that allow the customers to 'make it their own' She says there are a number of ways that her brand differentiates from others in the market. 'Our designs and prints are completely unique and cannot be found elsewhere - alongside this I also use a lot of reversible and multi-way styles within my collection to allow the customers to 'make it their own' and switch it up when the time is right. She's putting all her energy and focus on the swimwear business and has revealed to This is Money that she has no plans on doing any other ventures. Lord Sugar poses with 2018 The Apprentice winner Sian Gabbidon and models wearing bikinis from Sian's collection Sian admits that moving into mass production was a huge challenge in itself but that she has surrounded herself with the right expertise. 'I have surrounded myself with the right people for the job with key industry knowledge alongside what I already knew. 'We've managed to turn everything around very quickly and within the next week we will have a seamless process in place.' She advises any budding entrepreneur to just 'go for it' but to be patient. 'Anyone can call themselves an entrepreneur but to be a success takes time. 'In business you have to be heavily invested in your product or service, it won't happen overnight and you will hit a range of hurdles throughout your journey. 'But if you genuinely want to be successful you will always find a solution and you will make it happen.' 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[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. There is not enough analysis data for Newnorth Projects. 3.5 Community Rank Outperform Votes Newnorth Projects has received 48 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Newnorth Projects has received 43 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Newnorth Projects has received 52.75% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Newnorth Projects and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe NNP will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe NNP will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Vedanta Ltd. is a natural resource company, which engages in the exploration, extraction, and processing of minerals, oil, and gas properties. It operates through the following segments: Copper, Aluminum, Iron Ore, Power, and Oil & Gas. The Copper segment focuses in custom smelting and also include a copper smelter, a refinery, a phosphoric acid plant, a sulphuric acid plant, a copper rod plant, and three captive power plants. The Aluminum segment comprises refinery and a captive power plant at Lanjigarh and a smelter, a thermal coal based captive power facility at Jharsuguda both situated in the State of Odisha in India. The Iron Ore segment explores, mines, and processes iron ore, pig iron, and metallurgical coke. The Power segment consists 600 MW thermal coal-based commercial power facility at Jharsuguda in the State of Odisha in Eastern India. The Oil and Gas segment involves in the exploration and development and production of oil and gas. The company was founded by Dwarka Prasad Agarwal on June 25, 1965 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Masco: A&J Gummers, Airex 3 LLC, Arrow Fastener, BEHR PAINTS IT! INC., BSI Holdings, Behr (Beijing) Paint Company Limited, Behr Paint (Beijing) Commercial Co. Ltd., Behr Process, Behr Process Canada Ltd., Behr Process Corporation, Behr Process Paints (India) Private Limited, Behr Sales LLC, BrassCraft Manufacturing Company, Brasstech Inc., Bristan, Bristan Group Limited, Cambrian Windows, ColorAxis Inc., Davenport Insulation Group, Delta Faucet (China) Co. Ltd., Delta Faucet Company, Delta Faucet Company India Private Limited, Delta Faucet Company Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Delta Faucet Company of Tennessee, Diversified Cabinet Distributors Inc., Duraflex, Duraflex Limited, Erickson Framing, Glass Idromassaggio, Guy Evans Inc., Hans Grohe Pte. Ltd., Hansgrohe, Hansgrohe A.B., Hansgrohe A/S, Hansgrohe AG, Hansgrohe Armature Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Hansgrohe B.V., Hansgrohe Brasil Metals Santitarios Ltda., Hansgrohe CS s.r.o., Hansgrohe Deutschland Vertriebs GmbH, Hansgrohe Handelsges.mbH, Hansgrohe Inc., Hansgrohe India Private Ltd., Hansgrohe International GmbH, Hansgrohe Japan K.K, Hansgrohe Kft., Hansgrohe Ltd., Hansgrohe N.V., Hansgrohe Pty Ltd, Hansgrohe S. de R. L. de C. V., Hansgrohe S. a r.l., Hansgrohe S.A., Hansgrohe S.A.U., Hansgrohe SA (Pty) Ltd., Hansgrohe SE, Hansgrohe Sanitary Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Hansgrohe Sanitary Products W.L.L., Hansgrohe Sp. z.o.o., Hansgrohe Wasselonne S.A., Hansgrohe d.o.o., Hansgrohe ooo, Hansgrohe s.r.l., Hot Spring Spa Australasia Pty Ltd, Hot Spring Spas New Zealand Limited, Huppe B.V., Huppe Belgium S.A., Huppe GmbH, Huppe Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., Huppe S. a r.l., Huppe S.L., Huppe Spolka z.o.o., Huppe s.r.o., IDI Group inc, Inrecon, Jet Acquisition LLC, Kichler Lighting LLC, L.D. Kichler Lighting Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Landex of Wisconsin Inc., Liberty Hardware Asia Co. Ltd., Liberty Hardware Mfg. Corp., Liberty Hardware Retail & Design Services LLC, Masco Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Masco Building Products Corp., Masco Cabinetry Hong Kong Limited, Masco Canada Limited, Masco Capital Corporation, Masco Chile Limitada, Masco Corporation Limited, Masco Corporation of Indiana, Masco Europe Inc., Masco Europe S. a r.l., Masco Europe SCS, Masco Framing Corp., Masco Germany Holding GmbH, Masco HD Support Services LLC, Masco Home Products Private Limited, Masco Home Products S.a r.l., Masco Retail Sales Support Inc., Masco Singapore Pte. Ltd., Masco WM Support Services LLC, Mascomex S.A. de C.V., Masterchem Industries, Masterchem Industries LLC, Mercury Plastics LLC, Milgard Manufacturing, Mill's Pride, Mirolin Industries Corp., My Service Center Inc., NCFII Holdings Inc., Newport Brass, Oz Acquisition LLC, Peerless Sales Corporation, SCE Unlimited, Service Partners, Shanghai Hansgrohe International Trading Co. Ltd., SmarTap, SmarTap A.Y. Ltd., Tapicerias Pacifico SA de CV, Tempered Products Inc., Texwood Industries, The Faucet-Queens, The GMU Group, The L.D. Kichler Co., Tvilum, Vapor Technologies Inc., Vapor Technologies Shenzhen Co. Ltd., Watkins Distribution UK Limited, Watkins Europe BVBA, Watkins Manufacturing Corporation, and Wellness Marketing Corporation. Next May, Geneva will host a number of important auctions of fine timepieces from Christie's, Phillips and Sotheby's.The number of lots is huge so here we only highlight some of the pieces that attracted our attention and provide you with the links to the detailed on-line catalogue of each auction.In itsappointment (May 11 & 12, 2019),will present numerous lots with the highlight of the most complicated watch created by master watchmaker George Daniels.With an estimate of no less than CHF 1.5 million, this Grand Complication Pocket Watch is the only timepiece made by Daniels that features an instantaneous perpetual calendar with retrograde date and minute repeater, both mechanisms to Daniels own design.The layout of the engine-turned dial, the yellow gold case and the gilt movement - all entirely hand made - show the artistry of the maker, combining the majority of the complications incorporated in his earlier watches; moonphase, differential screw mechanism for the power reserve, bimetallic centigrade thermometer, Daniels keyless pendant and bow, Co-axial 1-minute tourbillon, and annual calendar with kidney cam and equation of time indication.The Grand Complication was retained by Daniels for his personal use and was never sold during his lifetime, further underscoring the special significance of this watch.Moreover, this extraordinary watch also incorporates the Daniels Co-axial escapement, a feature which adds historical importance to it.The co-axial escapement, invented by Daniels in 1975, is considered as one of the greatest innovations in horology of the past 250 years. It is a modification of the lever escapement with some features of the detent escapement avoiding the sliding friction of the lever escapement, making lubrication of the pallets theoretically unnecessary and thereby minimizing one of the shortcomings of the traditional lever escapement.11, 12 May 2019, Genevawill be held on May 12 and will focus on both vintage and modern horology.A timepiece that you might have not seen before is the Patek Philippe Reference 531 that was created for Richard Bordenache in 1938 and executed to his design.Its 33 mm yellow gold case frames a dial, unmistakably Art Deco, that features an enamel inscription stating This timepiece was made by Patek Philippe & Co to the design of Mr Richard Bordenache 1938.Born in 1905 Richard Bordenache was a leading figure in Romanian Architecture. Studying in the Romanian School in Rome, he went on to design numerous buildings in Romania following the styles that had influenced him in France and Italy.This rare timepiece has an estimate of CHF 25,000 - 50,000.12 May 2019, GenevaOn May 13, at theauction,will be offering 254 watches spanning the early 19th century to the present day.The top lot of the sale, with an estimate of CHF 1,000,000 to CHF 2,000,000, is the extremely rare pink gold Rolex reference 6062 Stelline triple calendar with moon phase and the celebrated star dial. The production for this reference was extremely limited scholars estimate the number to be around 50 cased in pink gold, however only around 10 featuring this particular star dial.Introduced at the Basel Fair in 1950, the reference 6062 is one of only two Rolex models from the period to feature a calendar complication with moon phase. The other is the reference 8171 Padellone. Unlike the ref. 8171, the ref. 6062 was housed in the iconic Rolex Oyster case, which protects both movement and dial from moisture and dust. The mid-century Oyster case is 36 mm in diameter.Another top lot, but in the pocket watch section, is the historically important personal watch of Patek Philippes co-founder Jean-Adrien Philippe (1815-1894).Consigned by his descendants, it features Jean-Adrien Philippes famous design for the two-train independent centre seconds movement and is one of the first ever to be made according to Swiss patent no. 1017, dating May 1889 (estimate CHF 50,000-100,000).Mr. Philippe invented the first mechanism for watches which allowed them to be wound and set by means of a crown rather than a key and was rewarded by a Gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, in 1844. A year later, in 1845, he patented his invention and founded with Antoine de Norbert Patek the watchmaking company Patek Philippe.13 May 2019, Geneva Organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the event featured 700 booths of enterprises from 40 provinces and cities nationwide. They brought together businesses from 15 countries and territories, including Japan, the Netherlands, India, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Cambodia, Kenya, Afghanistan, Australia, Madagascar, Nepal and Russia. Addressing the opening ceremony, Nguyen Minh Tien, director of the Department for Economic Cooperation and Chief of the National Coordination Office of National Target Programme on New Rural Development said the events look to advertise standout new handicraft products and souvenirs made by handicraft villages in the country. They provide an important platform for promoting trade with a view to improving the competitiveness of handicraft villages products and spurring production and domestic and overseas sale, he said. Handicraft production earned over US$2 billion in export value and generated jobs for nearly 1.5 million rural labourers in 2018. Approved by the Government, the OCOP programme has been carried out efficiently across the country. The OCOP International Trade Fair and Lifestyle Vietnam 2019 will last until April 20. They are expected to welcome over 1,600 foreign customers from 47 countries and territories. WASHINGTON Edward McDonough, the embattled long-time Democratic elections commissioner in Rensselaer County, appeared a step closer to getting his lawsuit against a county special prosecutor reinstated after justices of the Supreme Court on Wednesday took issue with the claim that McDonough was too late in filing it originally. Why would we care about how long it would take to seek redress from that prosecutor? said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, addressing Thomas OConnor, lawyer for prosecutor Youel Trey Smith. Prosecutorial wrongdoing that shocks the conscience requires a legal remedy so that the victim of that conduct would not be deprived of a day in court because of a hastily imposed statute of limitations, Sotomayor said. The case, McDonough vs. Smith, began as a voter-fraud investigation whether McDonough was complicit in a scheme to forge more than 50 absentee ballots for Troy City Council Democratic candidates in the 2009 Working Families Party primary election. McDonough claimed that Smith, the prosecutor brought in for the trial after the regular prosecutor was disqualified, fabricated evidence against him. He filed a civil rights suit in U.S. District Court in Albany in 2015. The court turned him down, as did the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City. The appeals court ruled that the statute of limitations begins to run when the plaintiff learns of the fabrication, not at the end of the prosecutorial process that resulted in McDonoughs acquittal. Its decision was at variance with ones in similar cases in three other federal appellate circuits. As it often does, the Supreme Court appeared to accept the case in order to resolve the conflict. Its decision is expected by the end of June when the court recesses for the summer. The appeals court said that since more than three years had elapsed since the first trial when fabricated evidence allegedly was used McDonough missed the deadline. So the argument Wednesday before the Supreme Court justices had less to do with the merits of McDonoughs claim or the culpability of Smith, the prosecutor, and more to do with the hair-splitting legal standard that should be applied to the time limitation. This case has my head spinning, said Justice Samuel Alito early on in the argument. Mine too, replied Neal Kaytal, former U.S. solicitor general under President Barack Obama who represented McDonough. Kaytal argued that it hardly matters which amendment to the Constitution is applied on McDonoughs behalf because they swim to exactly the same result. I'm not sure they swim to the same result, Alito said. Im pretty sure they dont swim at all, Justice Neil Gorsuch chimed in, evoking laughter in the pillared court chamber. Kaytal argued that to set the clock ticking early on in the prosecution process would wreak havoc in the courts, with defendants suing prosecutors before the case against them is fully resolved. The Trump administration joined in the case on the side of McDonough, agreeing with Kaytal that favorable termination an acquittal is the correct juncture to set the clock ticking. OConnor, representing Smith, argued that McDonough was trying to embroider a fabricated evidence case out of the malicious prosecution claim that the lower courts dismissed. By doing so, OConnor agued, McDonough hoped to keep his case alive. He called McDonoughs legal logic tortured, saying he hasnt really set forth a discrete constitutional claim. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. But a number of the justices in addition to Sotomayor came down on OConnor for glossing over the wrong suffered by McDonough. Chief Justice John Roberts told OConnor that forcing defendants to sue while still under prosecution might force them to give up their rights. A falsely accused defendant is already in a pretty dire place, said Roberts. And I can certainly see that suing the people who are trying to prosecute you may not be the best strategy. Justice Stephen Breyer picked up on the same theme, saying to OConnor that forcing a defendants to sue that early on in the proceedings against them doesnt make sense. You're going to mix up many cases, Breyer said. There's a pure policy reason for saying however you characterize this suit, wait till the case is over until you bring it. In a telephone interview after the hearing, OConnor said this case is a little confusing, and the justices appeared very anxious to resolve in a uniform manner some of the issues involved. I think theyre frustrated they havent found right way to do that. I have no idea what the disposition of the case will be. OConnor said Smith was innocent of charges of either malicious prosecution or fabricating evidence. McDonough was not at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Brian Premo, McDonoughs original trial and appellate lawyer, was not able to be at the Supreme Court either. But after talking to fellow lawyers and reading the transcript, he felt confident of McDonoughs chances of prevailing. If a prosecutor fabricates evidence to frame a person, why would you ever split a hair on timing? he said. Albany Some advice for Democrats in the state Assembly: The next time you're handed a chance to help the children and spouses of dead soldiers, don't hesitate. You wouldn't think the advice would be necessary, since helping Gold Star families is the right thing to do both politically and morally. And yet, Assembly Democrats managed to blow this one, embarrassing themselves and all of New York in the process. At issue was a bill, proposed by Assemblyman Stephen Hawley, a Republican from Batavia, that sought to cover SUNY and CUNY tuition and room and board for the children of military veterans who were killed or disabled while serving, even if they didn't die during combat. Last week, Democrats voted to block the bill. Why? Well, Democrats came up with lame excuses about the cost and the timing of the legislation. But here's the truth: They just didn't care enough about veterans to push it through and didn't want to pass anything initially proposed by Republicans. In other words, Albany politics at its worst. The bill was submitted for 11 straight years and, despite passing twice in the state Senate, never went anywhere. So it isn't as though the current batch of Assembly Democrats were uniquely at fault. This has been a long-term disgrace. But this time around, their failure received national attention, thanks to veterans organizations and a certain someone in the White House. "In New York State, Democrats blocked a Bill expanding College Tuition for Gold Star families after approving aid for illegal immigrants," President Donald Trump tweeted last week to his 60 million followers. "No wonder so many people are leaving N.Y. Very sad!" Trump was referring to $27 million provided by Democrats to help the children of undocumented immigrants go to college. Now, that spending, part of a state Dream Act, was also the right and moral thing to do. But helping families who arrived illegally while declining to help kids who lost a father or mother to military service leaves the impression that Assembly priorities are way out of whack. I say that, by the way, as someone who is sometimes annoyed by the ways politicians pander to and patronize veterans. One example is a proposal, now dead, that would have allowed veterans to avoid paying at parking meters in Troy. That's just silly. But letting all Gold Star families know they will never have to worry about college costs is real, substantive help that goes beyond what's offered by the state's Excelsior program, which covers tuition for some students but not room and board. It tells those families that while we can never make up for their loss, we will have their backs. But Assembly Democrats weren't interested. That's particularly strange because Democrats, including many of the 2020 presidential candidates, are increasingly pushing for debt-free college. Hawley's bill wasn't conservative. It aligns with liberal principles. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. And still, Assembly Democrats weren't interested. That led to predictable partisan bickering. State Sen. Robert Ortt, a Republican sponsor of the measure, said Deborah Glick, the Manhattan Democrat who chairs the committee that killed the bill, should "be ashamed of herself." In response, Glick accused Ortt of "a cheap shot." But as the backlash and anger grew, Senate Democrats scrambled this week to introduce a version of the bill. Then, on Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo stepped in and did the right thing. The governor expanded an existing scholarship program so that it completely covers college costs for families of all military veterans killed, wounded or missing in action. More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at cchurchill@timesunion.com or 518-454-5442. See More Collapse Speaking by phone after the governor's move, Hawley noted that support for his bill and the governor's move should be bipartisan "whether you're upstate or downstate, Assembly or Senate, Republican or Democrat." Hawley didn't say "whether you're Trump or Cuomo," but he could have. In any event, the governor said on Wednesday that his move will go into effect immediately and cost the state "several million dollars." It will be money well spent. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill We knew the Kalalau Trail, the classic hike on Kauai's Na Pali Coast, could be treacherous. After all, the wettest place on on Earth is on Kauai. Add water and the Kalalau becomes the world's longest Slip 'N' Slide. So we prepared accordingly. Trail runners with good tread for me. Hiking boots with good tread for her. Trekking poles for both of us. Mud and gravity, do your worst. We were ready. Although we got up early, the AV club beat us to the trailhead. A group of frat bros apparently planning to make a movie were gearing up with professional video cameras, stabilizer rigs and extra-long selfie sticks. Some packed Bluetooth speakers on their backs so they could share their taste in music with the world as they hiked. Thankfully, Katy Perry and Dr. Dre kept the volume down as we climbed up. That's the thing about Kauai. It's such a beautiful place that it's hard not to be in a good mood, even in the rain and ankle-deep mud. And happy travelers are usually respectful of others. Kauai offers visitors an assortment of wonders to put a smile on your face. The guidebooks say there is no place on Earth like it, and that's no exaggeration. But it's not cheap. You can spend several hundreds of dollars a night at many of the better resorts. The fancier restaurants rival San Francisco's in prices, but often not in quality. If you want to take a helicopter tour of the island billed as the best way to see the Na Pali Coast expect to shell out $200 per hour and up. But there are dozens of places you can go for free where you can have Kauai almost to yourself. For example, everyone visits the spectacular Waimea Canyon overlook, but relatively few hike the spur trails off the canyon. Or Glass Beach in Hanapepe Bay. Probably because of its industrial surroundings, the beach was deserted before a couple of trinket hunters showed up. There were a few people relaxing on sprawling Kekaha Beach on the western shore, but they were spread out by hundreds of yards. You could yell out to your nearest neighbors down the beach, and they wouldn't hear you. I body-surfed alone in the warm water until a gang of teenage boogie boarders, fresh from school, arrived by pickup truck. They tumbled out and bolted to the surf to join the haole (white guy tourist) bobbing in the waves. For lodging, we went the Home Away/ VRBO route and reserved rooms with kitchenettes or kitchen privileges at homes in Princeville in the north and Kalaheo in the southwest. Cooking meals instead of eating out every night is a good way to cut back on expenses. On the other hand, don't expect many bargains at supermarkets. Like all of Hawaii, Kauai imports much of its food, which of course drives up prices. I grudgingly paid $7 for a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter. No wonder one of my SFGate colleagues, who often vacations in Kauai, always makes the Costco in Lihue his first stop after landing in Kauai. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Among the reviews (averaging 4-1/2 stars) at this Costco: "Definitely bring your costco membership when you go to Kauai and are staying at a place with cooking facilities." Not that you'll want to cook everything you eat, of course. You'd miss out treats like JoJo's in Waimea, which serves the best shave ice on the island. While our first Home Away rental, in Princeville, was a unit adjacent to the host's quarters, our second stay was a room in a single-family home. We shared the kitchen with our host, a friendly, 60-something woman with her own landscaping business and lots of stories to share. Two days before we were to leave the island, she told us that she had to leave the next morning for a two-week trip to Australia. We assumed she wanted us to at least lock up and hide the key under one of her many planters, but she told us not to bother. A friend would stop over in a few days to check the place. So she left her home in the hands of strangers, who in turn left it unlocked, while she went on vacation for two weeks on a continent 5,500 miles away. No worries. That's Kauai for you. For a tour of Hawaii's emerald isle, including some-off-the-beaten-path attractions, click on the above slideshow. In 1972, at age 29, Franklin held a two-night live recording session at a Los Angeles church. After a string of mainstream hits, Franklin had come to make a gospel record, and it was a real happening. Gospel star the Rev. James Cleveland and the captivating Southern California Community Choir accompanied Franklin, who alternated between standing up to sing and sitting behind a piano. Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts sat among the congregation, as did Franklin's father, pastor and performer C.L. Franklin. The late Sydney Pollack, then a young Hollywood hotshot, came with his mutton-chop sideburns and camera to shoot a Warner Bros. film from the sessions. The Franklins were from Detroit, but in every other sense Aretha was coming home, to the church and to gospel, the genre in which she learned her unparalleled power of projection. And she was coming home a star. You hear it in the confidence she brings to the title song and to Marvin Gaye's "Wholy Holy."The way she artfully stretches out notes into melisma tells us none of this can be contained in a mere syllable. Not her belief in God, nor her talent, and certainly not the two combined. Franklin belts and outright yells (always on key) but also reaches a higher range than was characteristic of later parts of her career. In "Amazing Grace," Franklin's vocals are pristine and elastic, her control of her instrument absolute. The album that resulted, "Amazing Grace," became a best seller in 1972, when a film did not accompany its release. The movie's journey to the screen has been nearly biblical in length and degree of calamity involved. Pollack shot plenty of footage, and seemed poised to tap his inner D.A. Pennebaker. But he had failed to use a clapper to help sync sound and picture, leaving editors lost during post-production. The footage sat for years until record-turned-movie producer Alan Elliott spearheaded a long process of syncing using new digital technology. Pollack gave his blessing before he died, but Franklin, emphatically, did not. The film was ready years ago, but Franklin blocked it. Elliott reportedly reached a deal for the movie's release only after Franklin's death last year, with her family members. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Is Elliott respecting Franklin's wishes by releasing the film? That might be a matter of interpretation. But it's hard to fault him while watching "Amazing Grace," an important document that without Elliott might have been lost to time. It's an important document, but not among the great music documentaries. It lacks the interviews and insight necessary to put the recording sessions into proper context, in terms of history and Franklin's career. But that voice will bring all viewers closer to their higher powers. FAMILY FUN The Empire State Aerosciences Museum has you covered for spring break. Kids and families can get tours of the Glenville museum and hop aboard some historic military and civilian airplanes. They can also ride in the museum's Simulated Reality Vehicle. Visitors can experience what it's like to take off, fly and land a plane with the museum's flight simulators, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day during spring break week. A retired U.S. Navy pilot will demonstrate flight gear and talk about aircraft carrier flight operations at 11 a.m. on Thursday. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. $5-$20. The Empire State Aerosciences Museum, 250 Rudy Chase Drive, Glenville. 518-377-2191; esam.org MUSIC Rapper and MTV host Justina Valentine is living her best life lately. Valentine, a cast member on MTV's "Wild N'Out," was recently in Cancun for MTV's spring break coverage and worked the crowd with "Jersey Show" actor Vinny Guadagnino. She also interviews couples on MTV's "Ex on the Beach" reunion shows airing this month. Valentine, known as the "Queen of Wildstyle," is best known for her singles "Candy Land," "All The Way," and "Unbelievable." She'll share the stage with Aaron Christopher, CASSIDI, Liah and Livi when she comes to town this week. 6 p.m. Wednesday. $20. Jupiter Hall, Crossgates Mall, Guilderland. 518-556-3350; jupiterhallalbany.com THEATER Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The Phantom is coming to Schenectady this week and he'll be in town for a while. The U.S. tour of "Phantom of the Opera, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, is one of the largest tours in North America, boasting an orchestra and a cast of 52 people. The show opens Wednesday at Proctors and runs through May 5. Quentin Oliver Lee, who performed on Broadway in "Prince of Broadway" and was part of "Porgy and Bess" national tour, stars as the Phantom. Eva Tavares, who performed in "West Side Story" and "A Little Night Music," plays Christine. Trista Moldovan, who played Christine in the 10,000th performance of "Phantom" on Broadway in 2012, plays Carlotta in the touring production. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 1:30 and 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. $25-$115. Proctors, 432 State St., Schenectady. 518-346-6204; proctors.org THEATER Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" is a classic romantic comedy that translates well on stage, in the cinema and on television. The play, starring Robert Redford, opened on Broadway in 1963 and ran through 1967. Redford starred with Jane Fonda in the hit 1967 movie, and was a TV series in 1970. A revival of the play hit Broadway in 2006 and toured in Britain in 2012. Home Made Theatre stages its version of the play, starring Alex Benson and Nick Casey, which opens on Saturday. The play runs through May 5. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $24-$27. Home Made Theater, Spa Little Theater, 19 Roosevelt Drive, Saratoga Springs. 518-587-4427; homemadetheater.org We climbed 16 flights of slippery, icy stairs in an abandoned apartment building the iron railings long ago pilfered, balcony doors stuck open until we reached the roof and peered over the ghost town of Pripyat, the once-hailed Soviet "futuristic city" where Chernobyl nuclear plant workers and their families lived. Thirty-three years after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion, Pripyat's broad boulevards are crowded with tangles of overgrown trees. Its once gleaming buildings are dark and brooding windows gone, interiors looted, hallways littered with crumbling books. It was twilight, and from our rooftop perch, the only light we could see came from the silver dome encasing the Chernobyl reactor, lit up as if it were still on fire. Someone in our group blasted music from an iPhone, and suddenly a dozen Americans broke out dancing. We were among the only humans in this deserted city. "What else do you do at the end of the world?" someone yelled. Welcome to the apocalypse vacation: a weekend in Chernobyl. Ever since the Ukrainian government opened Chernobyl to tourists in 2011, the number of annual visitors has climbed. Last year, the government reported nearly 72,000 visitors, up from 50,000 the year before. "Travel to Ukraine has become cheap," said Sergii Ivanchuk, owner of SoloEast, a company that last year shuttled nearly 12,000 tourists to the site of the infamous nuclear disaster. "We don't have Crimea anymore, and less and less people are interested in religion and churches," he added. "But we have cheap beer and Chernobyl!" In the early morning of April 26, 1986, when this area belonged to the Soviet Union, nuclear reactor No. 4 exploded during a safety test at this power plant north of Kiev. The deadly accident, initially cloaked in Soviet secrecy, spewed radioactive fallout over much of Europe. More than 115,000 people were evacuated from a 1,000-square-mile area known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Years later, stories and photos from Chernobyl continue to stoke the world's curiosity horses born with eight legs, giant catfish found in the waters near the plant, octogenarian "self-settlers" who seemingly thrived after returning to the Exclusion Zone. Even now, interest in Chernobyl shows no signs of ebbing. Journalist Adam Higginbotham's book, "Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster," hit shelves earlier this year, and HBO's new drama miniseries "Chernobyl" debuts May 6. I first visited Chernobyl in late October 2016, not long before a massive silver containment shield designed to prevent radiation leaks was rolled over the crumbling sarcophagus encasing reactor No. 4. A hundred yards from the sarcophagus, our Geiger counters shot off readings several times higher than the suggested safe levels; our guide discouraged us from lingering. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Two years later, I stood in the same spot across from the infamous reactor now covered by a shiny arch and the levels on my Geiger counter were only slightly elevated. I'd returned to the Exclusion Zone because this time I wanted to sleep in Chernobyl. How many people can say that? Two-day guided tours cost $200 to $300 a person for a group of 12 and include an overnight stay in a hotel in the town of Chernobyl, about 12 miles from the reactor. Day excursions are available too. Dozens of companies run trips to the area. Tour buses, often painted with gas masks and radiation symbols, pick up customers from Kiev's Independence Square. I'd brought along 11 students from Syracuse University where I teach journalism after convincing university officials and the students' parents that our visit would be no more dangerous from a radiation standpoint than a dental X-rays. At night, outside our hotel, packs of dogs yelped and howled. About two-thirds of the Exclusion Zone is a wildlife reserve, populated by increasing numbers of wolves, foxes, lynxes, wild pigs, deer and moose. Along the route, our driver stopped and pointed to a pale orange lynx crouched and staring at us in the snow a few yards from the road. "We are the strangers here," our guide said. "This is like a planet without people." Albany Sheriff A Berne man is facing a felony charge after Albany County sheriff's deputies said he choked a woman with a towel until she was unconscious. Deputies arrested Travis S. Richardson, 28, and charged him with felony strangulation as well as two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, one count of misdemeanor assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal mischief. New York State Police/Kevin A. Fisher BALLSTON SPA - A Glens Falls man who pleaded guilty to criminal sexual acts with a 12-year-old girl was sentenced to 15 years in state prison in Saratoga County Court. County Judge James Murphy III sentenced Kevin A. Fisher, 44, of Thornberry Drive on Wednesday for the sexual acts committed in Halfmoon during March and April 2018. The Independent Investor: The Cost of Rebuilding God's House Sometimes a tragedy can bring people together. In the case of the devastating fire that swept Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral, the world wept. But even before the fire was completely extinguished, the business community was already making plans to rebuild the 850-year-old edifice. The price tag will likely be in the multibillion-dollar range. A preliminary assessment of the damage thus far includes two-thirds (about 100 meters) of the roof and the destruction of a spire, which the world witnessed on television. At least a 62-foot expanse of stained-glass windows was also severely damaged. What we don't know as of yet, is how the 800-pipe organ, one of the largest in the world, fared through the fire. Much of the art work has been saved thanks to the 400 firefighters, who, in addition to battling the blaze, carried artwork and priceless relics, such as Christ's crown of thorns, to safety. In a stroke of luck, an additional 16 ancient religious statues had already been removed last week for cleaning. Many architects worry that the fire could have weakened the stonework of the cathedral. Hand-carved over 200 years of construction, the ancient stone can turn to dust in extreme heat through a process called calcination. Pouring cold water on that hot stone can also cause it to weaken and crack. The two rectangular bell towers were saved, despite the fire's spread into one of them, and credit for that accomplishment should go to the French firefighters, who battled the blaze for 15 hours. Before the last smoke cleared, business leaders were already pledging their support to re-build. Within 24 hours of the disaster, two of France's richest men pledged 300 million euros to re-build the historic landmark. By Wednesday morning, that total has climbed to 450 million euros with the largest donation made by the LVMH Group. LVMH owns Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Christian Dior and has pledged 200 million euros ($226 million). The Pinault Family, which controls Kering, a French luxury brand that owns Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, chipped in an additional $113 million ($100 million euros) But the economic blow will go far beyond the damage to the cathedral itself. Over 50,000 visitors per day (an estimated 13 million a year) make the pilgrimage through the dark, candle-lit interior of the church and into its crypt. Although the cathedral is free to enter, it costs 8.50 euros to experience the tower and an additional 6 euros to explore the crypt. I did both on my last excursion to Notre Dame and it was well worth it. If I assume only half of those tourists are like me and are willing to pay the additional charges, it still comes to as much as $225 million per year in revenues. But maintaining those hallowed halls is not cheap. Basic renovations cost in excess of $4.5 million per year. There are also estimates that just conducting essential structural work in the future would require almost $200 million, and that was before the blaze. The cathedral has survived more than its fair share of misfortune through the years. It was a target of protest during the French Revolution, for example, when it sustained considerable damage. Twenty-eight statues of biblical kings in the cathedral were pulled down with ropes and decapitated by mobs. Its bells were once melted down for artillery cannon. At one time, it was used as a warehouse. Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor in 1804 and saved the church from demolition after centuries of decay and neglect. Restored by Napoleon and once again used as a place of worship, the church thrived. In 1909, Joan of Arc was beatified there. Through the years, this premier example of Gothic architecture has been rebuilt and/or reconstructed many times. It appears that much of the present damage occurred in that part of the building that had been restored in the 19th century. The truly old parts of the church constructed in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries escaped damage. It could have been another lucky break or maybe the silver lining in this dark cloud of misfortune. UTICA A SUNY Polytechnic Institute student from Hudson has died nearly two weeks after sustaining a head injury that police believe was caused by a medical event, university officials said. Fardush Sultana was a civil engineering student and member of the cross country team at SUNY Poly's Utica campus at the time of her death. She was 20. Sultana was found in her residence hall dorm room on April 8 with a serious head injury that University Police believe she had sustained two days before. At the time, they weren't sure how she had come to be injured, and issued a campus bulletin urging community members to be vigilant and to report any suspicious persons to police. With help from State Police, University Police ultimately determined that Sultana had not been the victim of a crime, but rather had suffered the injury due to a medical event. "This is consistent with statements the student made to emergency room staff on Monday evening," they said, referring to her April 8 trip to St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica. On Thursday, Interim SUNY Poly President Grace Wang announced that Sultana had died. "As we struggle to understand this significant loss, it is important that we come together as one campus community and take time to be there for one another," she said. "While we grieve, each of us will experience a range of feelings and responses." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Sultana was "very active" in the SUNY Poly community, Wang said, citing her involvement with the Black and Latino Student Association, the After Hours Activity Board and the Office of Residential Life. She was a daughter, sister and friend who "touched many lives," she said. The Student Government was scheduled to host a candlelight vigil in her honor Thursday night at the Campus Center. CHAMPLAIN, N.Y. - There's no wall or checkpoint or regular guard at the end of Roxham Road, just a footpath to the border. In recent years, this trail has been the busiest unauthorized crossing into Canada, a well-known back door for tens of thousands of people seeking asylum in a country that projects itself as a haven for refugees. Canada has largely tolerated their arrival. But with an increasingly close election on the horizon, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - a global figure of welcome for refugees - is signaling plans to crack down. And they're asking the United States to help. The irony is not lost on those who track immigration: The Trudeau government wants the United States to help tighten enforcement on Canada's southern border, just as the Trump administration is pressing Mexico to tighten enforcement on the U.S. Southern border. It's not clear the United States will agree. The Trump administration has sharply reduced U.S. refugee admissions and has tried to keep asylum seekers from entering from Mexico. "I suspect that President [Donald] Trump will be inclined to make Trudeau sweat over this," said Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington. Canada has made a formal request to the United States to amend a 15-year-old border treaty between the countries. A spokeswoman for the State Department declined to provide details, saying the department does not "discuss internal and interagency deliberations." The idea behind the treaty, known as the Safe Third Country Agreement, is that Canada and the United States are equally open to refugees. Under the terms of the deal, which took effect in 2004, asylum seekers who try to enter Canada at an official border crossing are sent back to the United States. But there's a loophole: Those who cross the border at an unauthorized point of entry can proceed into Canada and file their claim. One Canadian proposal would close that loophole: An asylum seeker who entered at an unofficial crossing would be escorted to an official port of entry and bounced back to the United States. A spokeswoman for Bill Blair, Canada's minister of border security and organized crime reduction, said he hopes a renegotiated treaty will "encourage people to cross at regular points of entry to maintain the security and the integrity of our borders." Spokeswoman Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux declined to outline what other proposals might be on the table. "It would not be appropriate to negotiate the terms of a bilateral treaty through the media," she said. Separately, the treaty is being challenged in Canadian federal court. Three immigrant rights groups argue the United States should not be considered a "safe" country for refugees. The Trudeau government, meanwhile, is proposing changes that would prevent individuals who have filed asylum claims in other countries from filing a claim in Canada. The United States and Canada share the world's longest undefended border. Most of its 5,500 miles run through rural farmland or forest. Advocates for asylum seekers say changing the policy won't stop them from walking across the long, mostly empty, frontier. It will simply encourage them to find more remote, more dangerous places to enter - possibly with the help of criminal networks. "The main beneficiaries would be the smugglers," said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, one of the groups challenging the agreement. "We put our hope in the United States refusing to come to the table," she said. Trudeau has been an outspoken advocate for refugees. Shortly after his election in 2015, he went to Toronto Pearson International Airport to welcome the first of some 40,000 Syrian refugees admitted to Canada. "Irregular" entries, as Canada calls them, have also increased. About 40,000 people have entered at Roxham Road and other unauthorized crossings in the last two years. They are Haitians, Nigerians and, increasingly, Venezuelans and Colombians. Many enter the United States on tourist visas with plans to come to Roxham Road and cross into Canada. If stopped by a police officer, they need only say that they intend to claim asylum, and they are allowed to pass. Asylum seekers who enter at an unauthorized crossing aren't penalized for it. But there has been a backlash. Critics have taken to calling irregular crossers "illegal" - echoing language used by immigration critics in the United States and Europe. Opposition leader Andrew Scheer blames Trudeau for the increase in such crossings. The Conservative Party leader says those who enter at Roxham Road and similar crossings are hurting "legitimate refugees and immigrants." Canada holds its federal election in October. Trudeau and his Liberal Party, once considered favorites, have seen their approval ratings fall amid a leadership scandal. Naomi Alboim, a former Ontario deputy minister for immigration, sees asylum seekers becoming a wedge issue in Canada. "Immigration has become a highly politicized issue where it wasn't really a partisan issue at all," said Alboim, who teaches at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Advocates for immigrants have opposed renegotiating the treaty - especially now, while the Trump administration is tightening refugee rules, and the legal challenge remains undecided. In the lawsuit, a woman from El Salvador says she and her daughters received rape and extortion threats from gang members back home but were turned away from Canada under the terms of the Safe Third Country Agreement. Their lawyers argue that they would not, in fact, be safe in the United States. The case, which is still making its way through Canadian courts, includes filings from the Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International and the Canadian Council of Churches. Sean Rehaag, who teaches law at York University in Toronto, says the argument has merit. "The reality is that there are some people who meet the refugee definition . . . in Canada, who would not meet the refugee definition as it's understood in the United States," he said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Canada is much more likely than the United States to accept claims based on sexual and domestic violence or gang persecution, Rehaag said. Asylum seekers are aware of these differences and plan accordingly. Neighbors in this borderland say closing the trail won't keep asylum seekers out. Instead, some warned, it will send them to more dangerous crossings. Concern for their safety is largely why the Roxham Road crossing came to be in the first place. A Ghanaian woman died of hypothermia in 2017 attempting to cross the border from remote Noyes, Minnesota, to Emerson, Manitoba, and two men lost fingers to frostbite crossing into the same province. The incidents raised public awareness of the risks of crossing. Migrants used to take those risks in Upstate New York. Curtis Seymour, a taxi driver in Plattsburgh, said he would drop would-be migrants at small roads or along railway tracks, often under the cover of darkness, so they could move north undetected. "They knew there was railroad tracks up there that goes into Canada," he said. "They'd get off at one of the little bars there or restaurant or whatever, and wait until dark. "It's crazy, you know. Some of them are scared right to death." Then Roxham Road became known as a safe crossing, and migrants mostly stopped sneaking through fields or dense woods. "It seemed like the Canadians realized that they had to organize something to make there be a safe process," Janet McFetridge said. The American woman drives to Roxham Road most days to help out. If the unauthorized crossing is closed again, locals say, there are plenty of other places migrants could try - but they'd likely be more dangerous. Martin Bechard lives on a small road outside Champlain that's similar to Roxham Road: It nearly reaches the border, but there's no official checkpoint. Still, it's under heavy surveillance. To cross undetected, he said, people would have to venture off paths - in winter, through deep snow. Some of the land was recently clear-cut and is hard to navigate. "You'd have broken legs in there," he said. "It's very rough terrain." Erica stepped out of a taxi at the end of Roxham Road and glanced up the slushy trail. The Colombian woman, who declined to give her full name, said her 17-year-old daughter was raped in their home country, and they could not go back. She researched the refugee policies of different countries, and then journeyed north to the border. "I chose Canada," she said in Spanish. She brought her 17-year-old and 5-year-old daughters and a plastic folder full of the documents they hope to use to build their asylum case. She said people back home were looking for them. "We cannot go back to Colombia," she said. They dragged their suitcases north. SCOTIA A local man suffered only a cut to the face when a tree collapsed on Sunnyside Road and crushed his moving car Thursday morning, police said. Emergency workers gave the man medical care at the scene but he refused hospital treatment, telling police he wanted to get back to work. ICE can no longer arrest undocumented immigrants inside New York courthouses unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. The New York State Office of Court Administration (OCA) signed its new rule change Wednesday, making New York the first state to do so. Lucian Chalfen, OCA's director of public information, said the agency felt it "would be an appropriate change in policy" after the release of an 80-page report by more than 100 organizations last week that documented how ICE courthouse arrests impact the criminal justice system. As ICE arrests at New York courts increased in the past two years, crimes reported by undocumented immigrant victims and witnesses willing to testify decreased, the report said. "Our goal has been, is and continues to be the safe and efficient operation of the State's court system," Chalfen said. "Hindering the public's access to our facilities is antithetical to our mission." More for you Immigrants in or near Capital Region courts increasingly fear ICE arrests The directive signed by Michael Magliano, department chief for the office of the chief administrative judge that oversees OCA, stated that ICE must obtain a judicial warrant to make an arrest or observe an individual inside a New York courthouse. The warrant has to be signed by a federal judge with a probable cause that the target for arrest is deportable, then reviewed by a New York state court official, a supervisor, and the local judge. The directive reaffirmed previous OCA policy that required law enforcement officials to identify themselves and inform judges if a defendant in their court is a target. OCA policy applies to state courts at the city level and above. Town and village courts still make their own rules. Nathalie Asher, acting ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations executive associate director, said New York's policy imposes obstacles to federal immigration law enforcement and singles out one federal agency for disparate treatment. "This policy will significantly undermine public safety and overlooks the basic point that federal law allows for the arrest of removable aliens based on administrative rather than judicial warrants," Asher said. ICE makes most arrests with administrative warrants signed by immigration enforcement officials. "Ultimately, this policy increases the likelihood that criminal aliens will avoid detection and accountability for their immigration violations at the expense of the safety and security of the general public," she said. ICE's policy directive last year said courthouse arrests "are often necessitated by the unwillingness of jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE in the transfer of custody of aliens from their prisons and jails." The directive said the agency targets aliens with criminal convictions, deportation orders or who entered illegally after being removed. It also tells officers not to conduct collateral arrests like picking up a companion of a defendant and to avoid arrests in public places in the courthouse and inside non-criminal courts like family court. While ICE's tactics aren't clear, court dockets are public record, so if ICE is keeping track of certain persons, the agency can show up on their day in court. Advocates also speculate court officers in some cases contact ICE, especially in incidents when a person was arrested and did not have a scheduled court hearing. Andrew Wachtenheim, supervising attorney at New York City-based legal advocacy organization Immigrant Defense Project (IDP), said in reported cases ICE agents gathered information in courtrooms before making an arrest inside or outside a courthouse. OCA's rule change will also place restrictions on surveillance in court. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Courthouse arrests in the Capital Region Below is a sample of courthouse arrests that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement have made in the Capital Region. These reports were collected by the Immigrant Defense Project. Click on the map points for more details about each arrest. Use the filter to select a court. Source: The Immigrant Defense Project Cathleen F. Crowley / Times Union Although courthouse apprehensions are now off-limits, ICE can still make arrests near courts. A bill pending in the state legislature would also prohibit ICE arrests surrounding court buildings. Advocates said court arrests impede the criminal justice system by scaring undocumented immigrants who are crime victims, perpetrators or witnesses away from courts. "We wanted to be able to signal to immigrants that we care about access to justice and be able to go into courts and know you won't just be picked off by an ICE agent that is sitting next to you," said Terry Lawson, director of the family and immigration unit at the Bronx Legal Services. "It doesn't matter what your immigration status is if the judiciary can't function." An IDP report in January documented a 1,700 percent increase in ICE arrests inside and nearby New York courthouses since 2016. While most cases were in New York City, the Times Union reported there were at least 18 incidents documented in the Capital Region last year. For the first time, cases were reported in Fulton and Rensselaer counties. The spike in courthouse arrests mirrors an expansion of immigration enforcement priorities under President Donald J. Trump. In fiscal year 2018, ICE arrested more than 158,500 individuals - an increase from just over 143,400 the year before. Most - 66 percent - were convicted criminals while 21 percent had pending criminal charges. The rest were arrested for breaking civil immigration law. The follow-up report that influenced OCA's decision was released the same day as a New York City public hearing on ICE court arrests. In the report, immigration lawyers, defense attorneys and prosecutors, including Albany District Attorney David Soares, spoke out. "The activities of ICE (are) compromising our ability to hold accountable perpetrators who prey upon victims from vulnerable immigrant communities," Soares said. "Courthouses should be safe spaces for everyone." ALBANY A planned New Jersey fundraiser for Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy has been called off after details about the event were first published by timesunion.com on Tuesday. McCoy's campaign had confirmed a May 15 event was planned, and initially said it was being organized by members of the New Jersey Democratic Committee. But Wednesday, after the story was published in the Times Union, McCoy's campaign said the New Jersey committee had been surprised to learn they were attached to such an event and the "Whiskey & Cigar Night" planned at a restaurant in Montvale, N.J., has now been canceled. McCoy campaign spokesman Matt Cannon amended his earlier explanation of how the abortive fundraiser had been organized: Instead of the New Jersey Democratic Committee, Cannon said it had been initiated by Maser Consulting, a national engineering firm with offices in New Jersey and Albany. Maser's name is not on the invite, which says the event was to be "paid for by Friends of Daniel P. McCoy." McCoy said Wednesday that the invitation he shared with a handful of people recently was a "draft" and that he was trying to get people's opinions about the event. The county executive said an employee at Maser is a friend of his, and wanted to do something to support McCoy's campaign. McCoy said the employee's name is Maurice, but he couldn't remember his last name as "it's difficult to pronounce." The employee is S. Maurice Rached, senior principal and division director of traffic and transportation for Maser Consulting in New Jersey. The event was only supposed to be for up to 30 people, McCoy said. "(Rached) really likes my policies and what I'm doing." "It was supposed to be a tiny event, nothing big," McCoy said. Brian Curtis, general counsel at Maser, stressed the event was preliminary - despite the invitation listing a date, time, restaurant and $150 ticket price. Curtis said the consulting firm has no business before Albany County. "It was meant as a friendly gesture that's all it was," Curtis said. Cannon said it was Maser who told McCoy's campaign that New Jersey Democratic Committee Chairman John Currie would attend the event. Curtis said he couldn't comment on any information about the New Jersey Democrats as he hadn't spoken with them about the fundraiser. Cannon said Currie and the New Jersey Democratic Committee never knew they had been offered as VIP attendees, and were surprised to learn about it after the Times Union's story was posted online Tuesday afternoon. The Times Union tried to get comment from the New Jersey Democratic Committee on Tuesday, but was referred to a public relations firm that did not return a call or email. That firm, Vision Media, also did not return a call on Wednesday. "My understanding is the chair wasn't fully committed to it," Cannon said Wednesday. "Once the word is out, they're not a part of it." The Times Union, however, was alerted to the fundraiser's cancellation Wednesday not by McCoy's campaign, but by a blog post on the New Jersey Globe authored by David Wildstein a prominent Republican and former administrator at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2015 in connection with the "BridgeGate" scandal that engulfed former Gov. Chris Christie's administration. Wildstein, the Globe's editor in chief, contacted Cannon on Wednesday for comment, and quoted him as saying, "I don't know how that draft invite got out. ... An invitation was extended to Currie and the draft was to show how it would look if he did attend." In a subsequent interview with the Times Union, Cannon amended that statement, too: He acknowledged that it was McCoy himself who had emailed the invitation to people. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Cannon said Wednesday that the invitation, which required an RSVP to the McCoy campaign by May 7, had not been sent out yet to invitees before the event was scuttled. Wildstein's blog post noted that Currie was facing criticism from home-state Democrats perplexed about why their party chair would spend time raising funds for a New York county leader instead of on their own competitive elections. "The idea that Currie was raising money for a New York candidate would likely have caused him some trouble in New Jersey, where he is in a tough race for re-election for another term as Democratic state chairman," Wildstein wrote. While McCoy has been a prolific in-town fundraiser since first being elected in 2011, it is unusual for him to have a fundraiser in a different county let alone a different state. As of the January campaign filings, the county executive had $211,329 in the bank, with no opponent facing him for re-election in November. More for you McCoy to fundraise in New Jersey Asked why Maser Consulting had been organizing a fundraiser for McCoy, Cannon on Wednesday referred back to comments he made to the Times Union a day earlier referencing McCoy's new role as president of the County Executives of America. "We've met (Maser) before," Cannon said. "My understanding is we've never worked with them. They reached out about doing an event; apparently they have the relationships with the (New Jersey) state party." The consulting firm's website shows one Albany project Maser has done, "to provide subsurface utility investigation and designation services in areas of planned construction" at the University at Albany. "As I understand it (the fundraiser) was all very preliminary," said Curtis, the attorney for Maser Consulting. "I'm not sure how it developed into any kind of controversy." Washington Many Americans aren't ready to clear President Donald Trump in the Russia investigation, with a new poll showing slightly more want Congress to keep investigating than to set aside its probes after a special counsel's report left open the question of whether he broke the law. About 6 in 10 continue to believe the president obstructed justice. The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds greater GOP confidence in the investigation after Attorney General William Barr released his letter saying special counsel Robert Mueller found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia but didn't make a judgment on the obstruction question. The poll also indicates that Americans are mostly unhappy with the amount of information that has been released so far. They'll get more Thursday, when Barr is to release a redacted version of the report. Overall, 39 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, roughly unchanged from mid-March, before Mueller completed his two-year investigation. But many Americans still have questions. The poll shows 35 percent of Americans think that Trump did something illegal related to Russia largely unchanged since the earlier poll. An additional 34 percent think he's done something unethical. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Still, the poll suggests Barr's summary helped allay some lingering doubts within the GOP. Among Republicans, more now say Trump did nothing wrong at all (65 percent vs. 55 percent a month ago) and fewer say he did something unethical (27 percent, down from 37 percent a month ago). Poll respondents expressed more confidence that the investigation was impartial. The growing confidence since March was driven by Republicans: Three-quarters now say they are at least moderately confident in the probe, and 38 percent are very or extremely confident, up from 46 percent and 18 percent, respectively, in March. However, 61 percent of Americans say they believe the Justice Department has shared too few details so far with the public, and 55 percent think it has shared too few with Congress. The poll shows that 53 percent say Congress should continue to investigate Trump's ties with Russia, while 45 percent say Congress should not. SARATOGA SPRINGS Saratoga County is the bright spot for the Capital Region as its continuing population growth is the force behind the regions modest addition of new residents in 2018, the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday morning show. But even the countys addition of 1,061 residents last year wasnt enough to stave off the fall of the five-county Albany-Schenectady-Troy metropolitan area from 63rd to 64th as it switched spots with Knoxville, Tenn. Since 2013, the region has dropped from 61st largest as more people live in the South and West. What were see is undeniably the pattern of growth in the Northeast. Most of it is decline by migration patterns, said Sandra Johnson, a demographer with the Census Bureau. Just 17 of New Yorks 62 counties added residents in 2018, according to the estimates. Its a story of modest population decline particularly across upstate. Only the large metropolitan areas upstate and downstate have had a trend of gaining residents. The states population fell by 48,510 people in 2018 to 19,542,209. Saratoga, Schenectady and Rensselaer were among the counties growing. Saratoga was ranked second statewide in growth in numbers, adding 1,061 residents to reach 230,163 residents; Schenectady was seventh with 536 new residents to reach 155,350; while Rensselear was 12th adding 181 people to hit 159,442. Albany County lost 600 people to drop to 307,117, ranking it 52nd in population change and Schoharie County has 139 fewer residents with 31,097 putting it at 28th. Saratoga County is driving the regions growth, Johnson said. Projecting out to the 2020 Census next April 1, from 2010 through 2017, the Capital Region should not expect to see a rapid surge in population, said Mark Castiglione, executive director of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission. The region has seen about 1.4 percent population growth since 2010. The elements that could feed population growth are there, Castiglione said. These include a highly educated workforce, expansion in medical and high-tech companies as demonstrated by Regeneron Pharmaeuticals in East Greenbush and GlobalFoundries in Malta, inexpensive energy and moderate living expenses. Saratoga County's available land for development and low property taxes make it attractive to new residents. We have growth of sprawl without population growth, Castiglione said about the housing situation. The region will have to look to appeal to those entering the job market and develop employment tracks from its universities and colleges to keep younger adults here instead of heading elsewhere, he said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Nationally, 1,739 of the 3,142 counties added residents, while 12 counties had no change and 1,391 counties lost population. The Census Bureau in its new 2018 county population estimates said counties with the largest numeric growth are all located in the South and the West and that the 10 fastest growing counties all experienced positive domestic migration. Since the 2010 Census, only Saratoga County has seen more people moving in to its communities. Its the only county of the five that form the core metro area to see more people coming from other areas of the U.S. than leaving. In 2018, Saratoga County again was the only county with more domestic immigration, adding 759 residents. Albany lost 1,671 residents; Rensselaer, 118; Schenectady, 83; and Schoharie 66. Those departing residents are heading South and West. The same trend has held since the 2010 Census. All five counties continue to be a magnet for international immigrants. Each of the five counties saw more babies born than older residents die in 2018 by slight margins. Saratoga Countys growth was responsible for the slight rise of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area in 2018 to 883,169 reflecting an increase of 1,039 residents over 2017. Knoxville, Tenn. metro added 7,512 people to squeak ahead of the Capital Region by 140 people, reaching 883,309. The greater Capital Region area of 10 counties Albany, Columbia, Fulton, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren and Washington add just 145 residents for a population of 1,171,593. Known as the Albany-Schenectady Combined Statistical Area, it remains the 46th most populous of 171 such regions. BALLSTON SPA The Saratoga County Planning Board approved a key zoning change Thursday that will allow the Saratoga Hospital to undertake controversial plans to expand in a mostly residential neighborhood on the west side of Saratoga Springs. Senior Planner Michael Valentine said the county was only following the city's recommendation to approve the 18 zoning amendments, one of which is the source of dispute because it would transform a residential area into one zoned institutional, where the hospital wants to expand. The change would let the hospital advance a plan to build a 75,000-square-foot medical office building with a 300-car lot. "This is about the zoning," said Valentine, who said his job to was to recommend approval of the amendments to align with Saratoga Springs' 2015 comprehensive plan. "We do not have a hospital plan before us." Regardless, many from the hospital, including their attorney, Matthew Jones, along with opposing residents were moved to jam into the standing-room only meeting. Jones spoke about the history of the city's comprehensive plan and that the recommendations to change the zoning come from the city's consultants, Camiros Ltd. The attorney for the neighbors Claudia Braymer also spoke. Valentine said the days leading up to the vote, letters and emails for and against changes to the Saratoga Springs zoning plan poured into the planning department. He said he received about 120 letters and emails, all zeroed in on one zoning amendments, to change the zoning on 8.54 acres at the end of Myrtle Street. "(The letters) don't mean beans to us," Valentine said. "If this came before a judge, he would say the board should not be swayed by public opinion." The project, which will back up to homes on Birch Run and face those on Morgan and Myrtle streets, was blocked in 2016 by residents who cited concerns with traffic, noise, lighting and flooding. Yet the fight has been revived now that the Saratoga Springs City Council and now the county approved the zoning amendments. The city will now seek approval from its planning board. Many of the letters were in response to hospital Vice President Kevin Ronayne's call to employees, volunteers and supporters to write letters to the planning department. Ronayne also provided a form letter for hospital supporters to use. The letter, the hospital suggests, reads in part: "I know there is opposition by a group of residents near Saratoga Hospital, hoping to further delay or deny any approvals the hospital needs. "However, this project is bigger than one small group it has the potential to affect people across the county who rely on its only hospital. I am one of those people, and I trust Saratoga Hospital to do the right thing, for all of the right reasons." Peter Hopper, spokesman for the hospital, said the hospital has many friends and supporters "who understand the community benefits" of the project. "They have told us they believe the hospital is in the best position to make decisions about how to best provide patient care," Hopper said. "And they trust Saratoga Hospital to make the best decisions that affect the patient care we provide for the entire community we serve, now and in the future." Neighbors who have been battling the building are criticizing the hospital for recruiting staff and supporters to lobby the planning board on behalf of the project. "I surprised and disappointed the hospital would undertake a commercial campaign to assault the planning process even further than they have," said Tim Holmes, who lives in the Birch Run neighborhood that borders the property. "The hospital needs to learn to be a responsible corporate citizen. It's very concerning and pretty disdainful." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Dennis Hultay who lives on Collins Terrace echoed that sentiment in a letter to the planning board members calling the hospital plan "urban sprawl." Braymer said the change to zoning would only benefit the hospital. "Given that the proposed area to be rezoned is adjacent to low-intensity, residential neighborhoods on the edge of the city, it does not make sense to turn this area into a more intense zoning district," Braymer said. "We are also disappointed that the hospital has not shown a sincere desire to work with the neighbors to address their concerns about the proposed medical office building in that area." Hospital President and CEO Angelo Calbone did reach out to the neighbors last month asking them to consider the new building, which would be located next to the medical center's main campus. "Yes, we have an obligation to this neighborhood," he wrote. "At the same time, Saratoga Hospital has an obligation to the entire community this hospital is committed to serving." He said the building would accommodate 250 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants who provide care across more than 30 specialties. It would also save the hospital $750,000 per year, Calbone said. He also cautioned neighbors that "one way or another, the assumption must be that the property at the top of Myrtle Street will be sold and ultimately developed." Hopper said that the hospital encourages the dialogue with the neighbors. "We respect the right of all members of the community to be informed and to voice support or opposition for matters that affect us all," he said. "We all benefit from informed, objective discussions. The small group of people who oppose the medical office concept have made their opinions known, in a wide range of public forums." He also acknowledged that Thursday's approval "needs to move forward to make our concept a reality." ALBANY While the state's workforce has steadily declined over the past decade, the level of overtime pay has surged during that period, increasing to nearly $787 million last year and marking the highest level in a decade, according to a state comptroller's report. The 18.1 million hours of overtime recorded last year by the state's workforce marked a 3.4 percent increase in overtime pay $25.7 million from 2017. The State Police, due to their higher rate of pay than other agencies, had the "highest average biweekly overtime earnings" among larger agencies. ALBANY The state's plan to toll drivers entering a busy commercial district in Manhattan will likely impact upstate New York farmers and businesses that deliver products to that area of the city. Business advocacy groups are closely watching deliberations over the congestion pricing plan approved in the 2020 state budget, and say they will seek carve outs or reduced rates for trucks that regularly enter the lower Manhattan zone. New York is the first major U.S. city to approve congestion pricing, and has tasked a panel to create a traffic reduction program similar to those in London and Singapore to fund the city's troubled subway system. To enable the legislation's passage, lawmakers assigned the difficult decisions to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a six-member "traffic mobility review" board, which has yet to be appointed. A flurry of interest groups are already seeking exemptions, from bus companies to cab drivers and delivery trucks. The statute designates the boundaries of the district. It also exempts emergency vehicles and provides a tax credit to residents of the district who earn less than $60,000 a year. Steve Ammerman, a spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau, said that the bureau intends to engage with the congestion pricing board to advocate for an exemption or reduction in congestion pricing tolls for farm trucks. "Transportation costs into the city can be expensive when you consider tolls, fuel and time that it takes to deliver food or participate in the green markets," Ammerman said. "Farms provide a valuable service to the people of New York City through the availability of New York grown food, and we hope this will be taken into account as the congestion pricing structure is developed." According to early projections, by 2021 drivers of trucks and other commercial vehicles could pay between $11 to $25 to enter the business district, with most of the revenue routed to the city's ailing Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Tolls may vary depending on the day and time of delivery. Combined with the other costs of driving into New York, commercial drivers may pay up to $133 per trip for tractor trailers, according to a breakdown by the conservative watchdog group Reclaim New York. There are at least 14 farmers markets located within the congestion pricing zone, extending south of 61st Street, according to a map from GrowNYC Greenmarkets. GrowNYC director Michael Hurwitz said the green market produce is sourced from approximately 230 farms. About 70 percent are in New York, primarily based in the Hudson Valley. Hurwitz said it's too early to tell how the toll system will impact New York farms. But if congestion pricing results in less traffic, it will be easier for farmers to make deliveries. However, "our farmers do not have the luxury of raising their prices," Hurwitz said. "Obviously, if the cost to them getting into the city increases exponentially, you'll see fewer farmers driving into New York City." The New York State Business Council is seeking a discount or exemption for any companies that regularly send vehicles into the district to provide products and services to businesses within the congestion zone. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "Our big thing is that, at any given time, there are hundreds of businesses that are delivering things to that district that need to be there," business council spokesman Patrick Bailey said. "Medical supplies are not something that can be delivered in a cab. You can't put fresh produce on a subway car." Katherine Eagan, owner of the Duanesburg-based Cason Transport, said the trucking company sends five to six truckloads of over-sized construction equipment and materials like gravel, dirt and concrete into Manhattan each day. "It's going to be something that we pass on to our consumer and ultimately people are going to be paying more for everything," Eagan said. Others in the trucking industry are considering a boycott of New York City, she added. Proponents of congestion pricing cite a report by the Partnership for New York City exploring the negative economic impact of traffic congestion on companies that conduct work within the business district. A spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office pointed to the governor's Wednesday comments on New Jersey truckers and commuters who say they will be doubly tolled: once to enter the city, and a second time to enter the business district. Cuomo said that New Jersey's concerns are no different than those of residents from the outer boroughs of Manhattan who may have business in the congestion pricing zone all factors to be considered by the panel of experts. "There's no difference for a New Jersey person or Brooklyn, Queens," Cuomo said. "How do you adjust for the factor that some people pay no toll to get into the Central Business District, some people just pay the toll, some people pay a higher toll than other people paid to come in? That is what the MTA has to rationalize." MassWildlife Offers Tips for Dealing With Aggressive Turkeys Wild turkey doing the strut. BOSTON The state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife is offering some tips for dealing with aggressive wild turkeys. A woman in Cambridge was recently injured when a flock of turkeys began pecking at her legs; aggressive turkeys have also been reported and recorded in in Foxboro and Brookline There's more room for humans and turkeys to co-exist in the Berkshires but residents should still be aware of turkey behavior if there's an encounter. MassWildlife says: March through May is breeding season for wild turkeys and as a result, there is an increase in turkey activity all across the commonwealth. Some turkeys may be seen acting aggressively by pecking, following, or exhibiting other intimidating behavior towards people. Males will puff out their feathers, fan their tails, and "strut their stuff" while gobbling and making other vocalizations. This behavior is common during the breeding season and other times of year when turkeys are establishing social dominance or status within the flock. Wild turkeys live in flocks organized by pecking order. Each bird is dominant over or "pecks on" birds of lesser social status. Turkeys may attempt to dominate or attack people that they view as subordinates, and this behavior is observed most often during breeding season. They may also respond aggressively and peck shiny objects like windows or automobiles, interpreting their own reflection as an intruding turkey. MassWildlife urges the public to avoid feeding wild turkeys. Aggressive behavior toward people occurs when turkeys have become overly comfortable in the presence of humans, usually over several months or even years, in areas where turkeys are fed. Never intentionally leave out food like bird seed or corn in attempts to help or view turkeys. Avoid using bird feeders, as fallen bird seed attracts turkeys and other wild animals. For those who enjoy viewing songbirds, MassWildlife recommends planting native plants and shrubs or adding a water feature to attract birds. "The best thing you can do to prevent conflicts with turkeys is to stop feeding them," said Dave Scarpitti, MassWildlife turkey biologist. "Feeding turkeys, whether intentional or not, can cause turkeys to act tame and may lead to bold or aggressive behavior, especially in the breeding season from March through May. Once this behavior is established, it can be very difficult to change." People are encouraged to scare or threaten bold turkeys with loud noises or water sprayed from a hose. A leashed dog may also be an effective deterrent. Mylar tape, balloons, or pinwheels can be used in and around your property as a deterrent to turkeys; however all these techniques may have variable success for turkeys that have become highly habituated around people. For more information on how to prevent problems with aggressive turkeys, check out MassWildlife's Tips for Wild Turkey. [April 18, 2019] Alteryx Amplifies the Thrill of Gaining Data-Driven Insights Across the Middle East and Africa IRVINE, Calif. and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Alteryx Inc. (NYSE: AYX), revolutionizing business through data science and analytics, today announced it is expanding its footprint in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) with the opening of its new office in Dubai. Located in Dubai Internet City, the Alteryx MEA office was officially opened by Dean Stoecker, chairman and CEO of Alteryx, who welcomed more than 250 executives at the launch event held at the V hotel, Al Habtoor. Stoecker also spoke at the sixth annual Smart Data Summit in Dubai earlier this week. As a part of its investment in the region and continued global expansion, the new office will further support the success of current and prospective customers as they evolve their data analytic requirements as part of their digital transformation initiatives. Alteryx recently reported 96 percent year-over-year (YoY) growth in international markets for the full year 2018, which accounted for 29 percent of overall revenue as of Dec. 31, 2018. Speaking on the occasion, Abboud Ghanem, regional vice president, Middle East and Africa at Alteryx commented, "We are seeing a surge of interest in advanced data analytics within the Middle East and Africa with government-backed programs, such as Smart Dubai, a city-wide initiative to transform Dubai into the world's smartest and happist city. Successful digital transformation is dependent on enabling collaboration between all data workers both within and across organizations. With the opening of our Dubai office, we look forward to supporting local customers and partners as they Alteryx their data into actionable insights." The company has a proven track record of working with MEA brands, including the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Al Futtaim Private Company and Dubai Electricity, and Water Authority in the UAE (DEWA). These organizations are already gaining knowledge from data by enabling data producers to analyze for insights and make data-driven decisions. "Alteryx offers immense value as we continue to move away from manual processes and harness the power of data analytics within the Public Pension Agency," said Hussein Alasmari, PPA Governor's Advisor for information technology at the Public Pension Agency, the Saudi Arabian agency that disburses pensions to the country's retired civil employees and military personnel or their beneficiaries. "Our ongoing use of data analytics through the self-service Alteryx Platform is helping to revolutionize decision making and portfolio analysis. Separating the wheat from the chaff in financial data with Alteryx takes moments, not weeks, as traditionally has been the case with manual operations. Alteryx helps us quickly and efficiently analyze vast amounts of fiscal data associated with investment funds and unearth valuable insights, which can help add value for our customers." Although many struggle with turning that data into actionable insights that drive business results, IDC reports spending on business intelligence (BI) and analytics software in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to reach $42.24 million this year1. The firm also reports finance and government sectors continue to be the biggest spenders with healthcare, utilities and retail being amongst the fastest growing vertical markets over the forecast period of 2018-2022. This reflects a growing demand for analyzing large volumes of granular data that is helping to reinvent industries across the MEA region as they take advantage of the collected data in today's digital economy. This trend is also in line with the UAE Vision 2021's strategic objective of creating a smart, innovation-driven and knowledge-based economy. 1IDC, The UAE Business Intelligence and Analytics Software Market 2018-2022 Forecast and Trends, Manish Ranjan, November 2018 About Alteryx, Inc. Revolutionizing business through data science and analytics, Alteryx offers an end-to-end analytics platform that empowers data analysts and scientists alike to break data barriers, deliver insights, and experience the thrill of getting to the answer faster. Organizations all over the world rely on Alteryx daily to deliver actionable insights. For more information visit www.alteryx.com. Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alteryx-amplifies-the-thrill-of-gaining-data-driven-insights-across-the-middle-east-and-africa-300834375.html SOURCE Alteryx, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Andersen Global Expands Africa Presence; Signs Collaboration Agreement in Economic Hub of South Africa Andersen Global is excited to announce the addition of its first collaborating firm in South Africa. Tabacks Attorneys and Corporate Law Advisors, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, has signed a Collaboration Agreement with Andersen Global, an international association of member and collaborating firms. South Africa marks the tenth country in Africa in which Andersen Global has a presence. Led by Chairman David Woodhouse, Tabacks has a team of 27 lawyers who offer legal assistance and commercial advice to a diverse clientele in construction, manufacturing, energy, mining, explosives, retail, hospitality, logistics, pharmaceutical, property and banking industries. The firm is considered a leading law firm in South Africa, and its practice areas include competition law, commercial law, mining, employment law, environmental health & safety law, tax and litigation. "The global economy is rapidly changing, which brings unique challenges to corporate and ommercial law," said David. "We help our clients navigate this uneasy environment by tailoring our professional solutions. Coupled with our team's depth of expertise, our success is also the result of our focus on the basics: best-in-class, seamless service, and a promise to bring a passion to everything we do. We look forward to collaborating with individuals who share this same commitment." "South Africa has been the traditional business hub for Africa, and although other regions are expanding, it remains the headquarters for many companies, which makes it a very important market to us and our global clientele," remarked Mark Vorsatz, Andersen Global Chairman and Andersen Tax LLC CEO. "The Tabacks Partner group has a very strong, impressive chemistry, which I believe is a testament to how committed they are about their services and business. We look forward to having strong colleagues in Johannesburg." Andersen Global is an international association of legally separate, independent member firms comprised of tax and legal professionals around the world. Established in 2013 by U.S. member firm Andersen Tax LLC, Andersen Global now has more than 4,000 professionals worldwide and a presence in over 138 locations through its member firms and collaborating firms. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005003/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Arrow Electronics to Host First-Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call Arrow Electronics (News - Alert), Inc. (NYSE:ARW) announced that the company will host a conference call to discuss first-quarter 2019 financial results on May 2, 2019, at 1:00 PM ET. The live conference call is accessible by telephone at 1-877-791-0231 (toll-free) or 1-647-689-6624 for participants outside the United States and Canada. The conference ID is 9594003. The conference call will also be available via webcast. To access the live webcast, visit investor.arrow.com. <> Audio replay of the call will be available through May 16, 2019. The replay numbers are 1-800-585-8367 for the United States and Canada and 1-416-621-4642 for callers from other countries. The conference ID is 9594003. The webcast replay will also be available at investor.arrow.com. Arrow Electronics guides innovation forward for over 200,000 leading technology manufacturers and service providers. With 2018 sales of $30 billion, Arrow develops technology solutions that improve business and daily life. Learn more at fiveyearsout.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005096/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Christie's 2019 Art+Tech Summit: The A.I. Revolution Presented by Hyundai On June 25th, Christie's New York will host the 2019 Art + Tech Summit: The A.I. Revolution, affirming their commitment to lead the conversation about the intersection of technology, art and the art market. Produced in conjunction with Christie's Education and presented by Hyundai, the Summit will bring together thought leaders, industry experts, and artists for a series of lectures and panel discussions that will explore the impact of artificial intelligence (A.I.) on all aspects of the art world. The Summit will include a public exhibition on view from June 26-28 at Christie's Rockefeller Galleries. The exhibition will present the New York debut of Yugen, a moving-image artwork created by filmmaker and artist Martha Fiennes which features the actor Salma Hayek Pinault. Yugen explores the boundaries of a radical new media in which art and A.I. are combined to fuse new posibilities of creative expression. This exhibition is made possible with generous support by Gucci. The exhibition will include an immersive presentation of The TRANSFER Download, showcasing artworks in emerging technologies by six artists, curated by Kelani Nichole. A selection of Hyundai cars will also be on view in a specially curated experience. Topics addressed during the conference will include: the impact of A.I. on collecting and museums; the legal, ethical and social implications of A.I.; data analytics; and a discussion of trends and predictions about the future of this emerging technology. Participating speakers are from: Google (News - Alert), Hyundai ARTLAB, Pace Gallery, MIT Technology Review; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Museum, and many more. Artists include Robbie Barrat and Martha Fiennes. Guillaume Cerutti, CEO of Christie's comments: "As the world's leading art business, Christie's is at the forefront of the conversation about the intersection of art and technology. For our second annual Art+Tech Summit, we are honored to bring together leading experts, influencers, and creative minds, who are redefining the art world with respect to technology, and changing the way art is created, experienced, and circulated." Wonhong Cho, Executive Vice President, Hyundai Motor, remarks: "As a technology company, it is our responsibility constantly to question and reflect upon the meaning of humanity amid the 4th industrial revolution. We believe that our mobility technology should be distilled into meaningful human exchange and cultural experiences. It is our hope that this Art+Tech Summit will provoke respectful debate and lead people to imagine a more inclusive and sustainable future." Further information, including the full speaker list and agenda together with details of ticket payment and venue location, is available here https://www.christies.com/art-and-tech Yugen: http://www.yugen.art Yugen was produced by Tendercapital and SLOimage Ltd. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005437/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Citizens to Host Officials During Rural Broadband Initiative Breakfast FLOYD, Va., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizens, a communications service provider in Virginia, will host a Rural Broadband Initiative Breakfast on Thursday, April 18th. The breakfast will include a round table meeting with US Representative Morgan Griffith, FCC members, regional and local economic development officials and Citizens representatives. Participants will be discussing the issues of high speed connections in rural communities including Gigabit Fiber to the Home (FTTH) now being offered in Floyd County by Citizens. The media is invited for a press conference at 10:00am at Citizens located at 220 Webbs Mills Road. Rural communities have become heavily dependent on broadband internet access as it is required for economic growth and development, job creation, Telehealth, as well as being an educational necessity. Citizens Fiber to the Home (FTTH) project currently relies on the Alternative Connect America Model (A-CAM) for 32% of their funding. A-CAM and Universal Service Fund (USF) subsidies are imperative to the deployment of broadbandin rural America. "We are excited to have the opportunity to share with lawmakers, FCC officials and economic development representatives the issues surrounding broadband internet access in rural areas," commented Craig Sapp, CEO for Citizens. "At Citizens, we are exceeding the A-CAM requirements as we continuing planning for the future deployment of FTTH and ways we can make service affordable for all income levels." For more information please go to the following links: https://citizens.coop/fiberexpansion/ https://citizens.coop/citizip-fiber-pricing/ https://citizens.coop/download-simulator/ Contact: Lori Saltus, Customer Relations & Marketing Email: [email protected] Telephone: 540.745.9568 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/citizens-to-host-officials-during-rural-broadband-initiative-breakfast-300834662.html SOURCE Citizens [April 18, 2019] Discover Recognized as the Best Employer for Asian Pacific Americans Discover has been recognized by the Asia Society as the overall best employer for Asian Pacific Americans. The 2019 Best Companies for Asian Pacific Americans Awards is in its tenth consecutive year honoring companies at the forefront of attracting, developing and retaining Asian Pacific American employees. This year, Discover was recognized in the following categories: 2019 Winner: Overall Best Employer for Asian Pacific Americans 2019 Most Innovative Practices: Asian Pacific American Employee Resource Groups 2019 Most Innovative Practices: LGBT Asian Employees "At Discover, we are passionate about fostering a collaborative and high-performing work environment for all our employees and believe diversity and inclusion leads to stronger innovation, growth and success," said Sara Breyfogle, executive sponsor of the Asian Professionals employee resource group at Discover. "This recognition from the Asia Society reflects our ongoing commitment to encourage diversity in the workplace." Discover offers a range of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to assist with career development, provide mentorship programs and foster an inclusive community within the company. The Asian Professionals at Discover (APAD) ERG has more than 1,500 employee members across six chapters and is open to all employees. The group strives to share the rich variety of Asian cultures with employees through lunch and learns, keynote speakers and cultural events, such as celebrating the South Asian Celebration and Lunar New Year. The Asian Pacific American Employer Awards are based on the results of the 2019 Asian Pacific American Corporate Survey, a national benchmark study about the growth, development and advancement of Asian Pacific American employees in Fortune 500 and other large companies. Finalists and winners are selected based on a statistical analysis of internal employee surveys distributed to Asian Pacific Americans, scores from a panel of expert judges and the 2019 Asian Pacifc American Corporate Survey. Discover will be formally honored at the 2019 Diversity & Marketing Leadership Summit on May 15 at the Asia Society in New York City. Asia Society is a leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among people, leaders and institutions of Asia and the U.S. in a global context. "We launched this summit nearly a decade ago, to shine a light on the challenges and opportunities Asian Pacific Americans face in the workplace," said Tom Nagorski, Asia Society's Executive Vice President. "While challenges for APA employees persist, we've also seen real progress being made by Fortune 500 and other multinational companies, both in creating an inclusive workplace for APA employees, as well as providing opportunities for APAs to advance into leadership positions. Asia Society commends all of this year's winners for their commitment in these areas, and we hope that others will follow their lead." For more information about Discover and career opportunities with Discover, please visit www.jobs.discover.com. About Discover Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a direct banking and payment services company with one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the company has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company issues the Discover card, America's cash rewards pioneer, and offers private student loans, personal loans, home equity loans, checking and savings accounts and certificates of deposit through its direct banking business. It operates the Discover Global Network comprised of Discover Network, with millions of merchant and cash access locations; PULSE, one of the nation's leading ATM/debit networks; and Diners Club International, a global payments network with acceptance around the world. For more information, visit www.discover.com/company. About Asia Society Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. Across the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, the Society provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future. Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution with major centers and public buildings in New York, Hong Kong, and Houston, and offices in Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and Zurich. For more information, visit https://asiasociety.org/global-talent-initiatives. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005056/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] EarlySense to Serve as Technology Engine for Improved Sleep Projects in Japan RAMAT GAN, Israel, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EarlySense, the market leader in contact-free continuous monitoring solutions across the care continuum, today announced the launch of its advanced sleep sensor and sleep analysis engine into "Real Sleep," a healthy sleep service jointly developed by KDDI Corporation, the second largest telecom service provider, and NeuroSpace Inc. The sensor is integrated into the France Bed LOOPER RP-5000SE mattress, and will connect to "Real Sleep," a new addition to KDDI's "au Home" suite of smart services. This integration connects the Real Sleep app with the EarlySense sensor and sleep analysis platform, accurately measuring the user's sleep score, sleep times, sleep depth and other measures to quantitatively analyze sleep quality. Neurospace's sleep experts then use the analysis as the basis for advising users on how to improve their sleep. "Integrating EarlySense's proprietary home sensor and analytics SDK and API's into our Real Sleep program allows us to utilize the most sensitive and accurate sensor on the market to help our users improve sleep efficiencies," said Takanori Kobayashi, CEO of NeuroSpace. "With this cutting-edge sensor, we are able to expand our personal sleep improvement programs and significantly advance their performance, helping provide personalized expert sleep advice to better resolve sleep issues. "Simultaneously we are honored to participate in significant collaboration with EarlySense, in terms of cooperative research and development between Japan an Israel. We would like to not only improve people's sleep conditions but also play a role in enhancing sleep quality." "We are excited to see our home sensing and analytics technology serve such a central role in new sleep improvement programs in Japan," said Yfat Scialom, VP International Sales and Marketing of EarlySense. "Sleep plays a vital role in good health and wellbeing, and we are proud to provide the core technology that can improve users' sleep processes. "We are proud to support KDDI's goal of 'integrating telecommunications and life design (through) exciting new ideas that help support and enrich the lives of our customers through au HOME services,' as stated in the company's recent announcement." Customers who purchase the France Bed LOOPER RP-5000SE mattress are able to utilize the embedded EarlySense sensor by purchasing the Real Sleep and "au Home" programs. The "au Home" program is available for 790 per month, with the additional sleep "Advice" option available for 300 per month. About NeuroSpace Inc. NeuroSpace provides Japan's largest domestic corporations with sleep-improvement programs to help promote healthy corporate management and maximize productivity. They also apply state-of-the-art technology, proprietary sleep measurement devices and analytical algorithms to joint research and development projects with sleep technology ventures. About EarlySense EarlySense is the global leader in contact-free, continuous monitoring solutions for the healthcare continuum. Used worldwide in hospitals, post-acute care facilities, and homes, EarlySense assists clinicians in early detection of patient deterioration. The solution has been proven to help prevent adverse events, including code blue events which are a result of cardiac or respiratory arrest, preventable ICU transfers, patient falls, pressure ulcers, and hospital readmissions. EarlySense's FDA-cleared solutions leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytics to provide actionable health insights and improve clinical outcomes. The company has partnered with leading global technology companies including Hill-Rom, Philips, Welch Allyn, Mitsui and Beurer. EarlySense is based in Ramat Gan, Israel and Woburn, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.earlysense.com. Follow EarlySense on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Media Contact: Goel Jasper Finn Partners +1-929-222-8002 [email protected] Company Contact: Hila Peleg +972-54-527-3117 [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/earlysense-to-serve-as-technology-engine-for-improved-sleep-projects-in-japan-300834529.html SOURCE EarlySense [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] U.S. Issues First Map Showing Golan as Israeli Territory Stand for Israel | April 18, 2019 Three weeks after the Trump administration recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the U.S. issued the first map including the territory as part of Israel. The map also marks the area of the West Bank as Israeli-occupied until its final status is determined in upcoming peace talks. Senior advisor to President Trump, Jared Kushner, announced that the long-awaited Middle East Peace Plan will be unveiled in June when the new Israeli government is in place. The Palestinian Authority has already rejected the plan, saying that once the U.S. moved its embassy to Jerusalem, there was nothing to talk about. Recent reports indicate that the Palestinian Authority has been waging a campaign of arrests and intimidation against Palestinian students because of their political affiliations. After a massive fire destroyed the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris earlier this week, Israeli leaders and French Jewish leaders offered their condolences and support. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin tweeted, Our hearts are with the citizens of France. Israeli scientists at Tel Aviv University have successfully engineered and printed a 3-D heart, complete with cells, blood vessels, chambers, and ventricles. The technology represents a major medical breakthrough for the future of organ transplants. This weeks Israel in the News Perspective features the Fellowships President Yael Eckstein on remembering slavery while celebrating freedom. [April 18, 2019] HR Path Raises 100 Million Euros and Targets a Global Leadership in Services Dedicated to Human Resources HR Path, an innovative French technology company covering the entire field of human resources, announces that 100 million have been raised through the support of ANDERA Partners. This historic investment - unprecedented for any French HR company - will fuel HR Path's rapid expansion into international markets and strengthen its status as a key player in the HR field. A real French success story, HR Path was born when two French HR consultants, Francois Boulet and Cyril Courtin, met in 2001. Forming an immediate friendship, the team identified an opportunity to create a technology system that serves all functions of personnel management from one single platform. Thus, forming a new global HR superpower that affectively combines key-business acumen and cutting-edge technology, to offer the best HR services to any size business. The end-to-end control of the value chain, particularly designed to manage multidisciplinary teams, allows HR Path to serve the HR performance of companies like no other player in the market. The range of services offered by HR Path guarantee its customers a personalized and always responsive solution to their problems, from HR transformation consulting, to maintenance and outsourcing, through the implementation of software solutions and the management of the software change. HR Path is currently the main integrator of Cegid, Oracle (News - Alert) Cloud for HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, HR Access, Sage and Talentsoft. At the same time, HR Path has developed its own software suite: PoweHR to address payroll management, time management, talent management, including the public sector and a decision tool. From promising start-up status to an international scale-up, HR Path is a success story of entrepreneurship made in France. In 18 years, the young company headquartered in Paris has won the trust of some 1,200 customers including 85% of the SBF 120, mid-market, SMEs and public sector entities. Currently present in 14 countries on 5 continents, HR Path employs more than 800 employees and has turnover of 95 million euros with growth of more than 30% over the last fiscal year. The two prior fundraising events in June 2015 and March 2017 - EUR 10 million and EUR 30 million respectively - enabled it to change the scale and to assert itself as a major European player in the field of human resources, and more particularly in the digital transformation of the HR function. Thanks to the support of the ANDERA Partners investment fund and the banking pool composed of Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole Ile-de-France and Banque Palatine, this third round of financing, where the 100-million-euro amount is among one of the most important recent fund raisings in French Tech, confirms the continuation of HR Path's exponential growth. HR Path intends to continue its international expansion by strengthening its territorial network in the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe, and, depending on opportunities, in other territories where it is already established. With both organic and external growth, the goals of HR Path are to: - Reach a turnover of 130 million euros in 2020, and 240 million euros within 5 years - Increase its workforce - Become the world leader in global solutions for human resources "Reactivity, agility, adaptability: we often hear these words, but with HR Path, we wanted to give them concrete meaning, without setting limits. Because this adventure is also proof that French entrepreneurship knows how to be dynamic and conquering, creating jobs and able to shine internationally," said Francois Boulet and Cyril Courtin, founding partners of HR Path. "We have been following the HR Path group and its leaders for several years now and are impressed by the growth trajectory in France and abroad, as well as by the solid entrepreneurial partnership that Francois and Cyril have built. At the heart of the Winch Capital fund strategy lie financing and supporting the change of scale of French champions wanting to become world leaders in their market: we are delighted to finance and support this new HR Path growth cycle, say Antoine Le Bourgeois and Francois-Xavier Mauron, Managing Partners of Andera Partners. Concerning HR Path HR Path, an expert and a major player in Human Resources, helps companies for whom human capital is essential in their digital transformation. Advise, Implement & Run are the 3 business lines of HR Path which contribute to the corporate HR performance. Founded in Paris (France) in 2001, its 800 talents support more than 1200 clients in 14 countries. To this date, its turnover is of 95 million. More information : www.hr-path.com Discover the HR Path Foundation (in French) Concerning Andera Partners Created in 2001 as part of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, Andera Partners is a leader in investments in unlisted companies in France and internationally. It manages nearly 2.3 billion in investments in life sciences (BioDiscovery), growth and buyout capital (Winch Capital in mid-caps and Cabestan Capital in small-caps) and sponsorless mezzanine debt (ActoMezz). Andera Partners is 100% owned by its teams and places service to entrepreneurs and respect for partners at the heart of its concerns. The company is also a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), which encourage the adoption of best environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. Based in Paris, Andera Partners is an AMF-approved asset management company that employs 64 people, 44 of whom are investment professionals. It is structured as a partnership and managed by a board of 10 partners. Thanks to the performance of its funds, the diversity of its services and its organisational model, Andera Partners stands apart from other companies in its markets, where it is recognised as a major player. www.anderapartners.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005122/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Joyn Bio Opens New Plant Sciences Facility to Accelerate Testing of Engineered Microbes for Agriculture WOODLAND, Calif., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Joyn Bio, the ag-biotech company engineering microbes for more sustainable agriculture, today announced it has signed a long-term lease within Bayer's Vegetable Seed Facility in Woodland, California. The space will become home to Joyn's plant sciences team, where they will accelerate ongoing research and in planta evaluation. Additionally, Joyn has appointed Bayer Head of Research and Development for Crop Science, Dr. Robert Reiter, to its board of directors. The new lease reflects the rapid progress Joyn has made toward its vision to make modern agriculture approaches more sustainable using synthetic biology. In just 18 months, the R&D team in Boston developed microbial leads that are ready to move into greenhouse and micro plot testing. Engineered to reduce the amount of traditional chemical fertilizer required to meet the growing demand for crops like corn, wheat and rice, Joyn's microbes enable plants to partially fulfill their nitrogen needs, offering growers a reliable and sustainable alternative. Many estimate that by 2050, farmers must increase food production by 70 percent to meet the needs of the growing global population, and Joyn's solutions will help growers meet this demand without the environmental burden. The Woodland site offers the resources, capacity and scale needed to evaluate microbe performance in commercial crop plants. "The agriculture industry is long overdue for innovation that offers growers high-performing, affordable and sustainable microbial solutions. Opening the doors to a new space dedicated entirely to research and testing is a milestone in our journey toward offering farmers alternatives that address some of their biggest challenges," said Dr. Mike Miille, CEO of Joyn Bio. "We have made immense strides in microe development since our founding less than two years ago and more advanced testing is the next step in making our mission a reality. We look forward to joining the Woodland community and continuing our efforts to leverage synthetic biology for more sustainable agriculture practices." The new facility with 12,500 square-feet of lab, office and greenhouse space is a significant expansion from Joyn's current tenancy in the Bayer CoLaborator in West Sacramento. The Woodland location complements Joyn's existing operations at Ginkgo Bioworks in Boston, where Joyn uses the Ginkgo foundries for biological engineering to develop nitrogen-fixing bacteria based on Bayer's library of more than 100,000 proprietary microbial strains. Between Northern California and Boston, Joyn is now better equipped to leverage the unique resources of its two parent companies, Bayer and Ginkgo, respectively. This month, Joyn also welcomed Bayer Head of Research and Development for Crop Science and industry veteran, Dr. Robert Reiter, as its newest board member. Reiter brings nearly 30 years of experience in discovering, developing and delivering innovative R&D approaches in crop science. As a member of Bayer's executive leadership team, Reiter oversees the crop science research and development pipeline, leading thousands of scientists in building world-class agricultural solutions with the goal of helping farmers grow enough safe and affordable food while protecting the planet. "This technology is expanding the way the industry thinks about sustainable agricultural and the deep expertise Joyn's team brings to the table, coupled with Bayer's extensive knowledge in microbial products, gives them a real advantage in this space," said Dr. Robert Reiter, Head of R&D, Crop Science at Bayer. "The need for agricultural practices that are good for both the planet and farmers is coming into clearer focus every day. I'm thrilled to be a part of building those solutions." Visit the website for more information on Joyn Bio and to see current job openings. About Joyn Bio Joyn Bio is bringing synthetic biology to agriculture for better ways to feed the world. An independent company backed by agriculture and synthetic biology leaders Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks, Joyn engineers microbes to improve naturally occurring processes like nitrogen fixation, bringing growers more reliable solutions for crop protection and nutrition without the environmental tax. Joyn Bio brings together leading scientists with diverse backgrounds at its two sites in Boston, Massachusetts and Woodland, California. For more information, visit www.joynbio.com . Media Contact Jordyn Lee [email protected] 347-382-9732 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/joyn-bio-opens-new-plant-sciences-facility-to-accelerate-testing-of-engineered-microbes-for-agriculture-300834016.html SOURCE Joyn Bio [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Long Beach Public-Private Partnership Announces City's First Startup Accelerator Long Beach has announced plans for its first ever startup accelerator, signaling that the city aims to become a destination of choice for tech-based innovators. The announcement was delivered by Mayor Robert Garcia, California State University Long Beach (CSULB) President Jane Conoley and Sunstone Management Founding Partner John Shen at the annual Long Beach Regional Economic Forum, emphasizing that the innovative public-private partnership is set to strengthen the area's entrepreneurial ecosystem and attract top talent. The first of its kind in Long Beach, the university-affiliated accelerator awaits final city approval but is expected to welcome its first cohort of entrepreneurs by August 2019. The accelerator will prepare early stage tech-startups to successfully secure funding as well as provide valuable resources, including physical space for participating entrepreneurs to develop capacity, technical assistance with seed-round funding and a network of investors to identify and finance opportunities with capacity to scale. Sunstone, an international diversified capital management and investment firm based in Long Beach, will act as the primary private funding partner and house the new accelerator. Sunstone's John Shen, recently appointed to the city's Economic Development Commission, stated, "We are thrilled to be a part of this new local project that will have wide-reaching economic benefits for the city and fo entrepreneurs across the country. We want to provide a comprehensive pathway for startups to secure seed-round funding and access to potential investor networks." John Keisler, the City of Long Beach's director of economic development, remarked: "Today's tech entrepreneurs are transforming our economy across every industry. The Long Beach Accelerator will put our city on the map for potential entrepreneurs and drive growth for years to come." Wade Martin, director of CSULB's Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, added, "Each partner brings a particular set of resources and competencies needed to launch and sustain this innovative new collaboration. CSULB is committed to nurturing and mentoring the entrepreneurs of the future." About Sunstone Management Sunstone Management, with subsidiary Sunstone Venture Capital Fund, is a diversified private capital management and investment firm offering comprehensive wealth management solutions to high net worth clients worldwide, in particular U.S. new-immigrant families. Focusing on investments in U.S. based small businesses and lower middle markets, its offerings are carefully structured to meet targeted investor goals ranging from short term senior debt products to longer term, equity, growth capital, and venture capital investment strategies. About CSULB Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship The mission of the CSULB Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE) is to provide programming and guidance for innovators and entrepreneurs that leads to success. The IIE is a central hub for innovators and entrepreneurs in Long Beach, with programming and services to support long-term economic growth that is inclusive and sustainable for our diverse community. About the City of Long Beach Home to approximately 470,000 people, the multiple award-winning and innovative City of Long Beach offers all the world-class amenities of a large metropolitan city while maintaining a strong sense of individual and diverse neighborhoods nestled together along the California coast. As a full-service charter city, Long Beach is home to the Queen Mary, Aquarium of the Pacific, several museums and theaters, a highly-rated school district, Long Beach Airport, the Port of Long Beach, as well as many award-winning City departments such as Health, Parks, Recreation and Marine, Development Services and more. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005562/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Progressive Care Inc. Garners Coverage in MedTruth MIAMI, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD), a personalized healthcare services and technology company, today announced that it has garnered media coverage in MedTruth in an article titled, Three Alternative Ways to Recover from Opioid Addiction. It is important to keep alternative methods in the forefront for individuals who are taking opioids to address the pain they are experiencing, said S. Parikh Mars, CEO of Progressive Care Inc. In addition to the alternatives that Progressive Care provides, there are other alternatives that can be sought out in hopes to lower individuals dependence on opioids and fight the epidemic. In the article titled Three Alternative Ways to Recover from Opioid Addiction , published April 10, 2019 in MedTruth, Mars explains that the alternatives to recovering from opioid addiction depends on what kind of pain the patient is experiencing. Mars says, You want to identify the source of your localized pain and treat it right in that area. The methods of alternatives can be taken in combination. There are a lot of things that I would want to stress at this point is that these alternatives can be more effective for that pain. In terms of opioids, we shouldnt be looking at strength, we should be looking at effectiveness. Every person feels pain differently and the opioids isnt the only answer for that. We need to be thinking about a nuance approach to pain and if a doctor prescribes you a pain cream from a reputable pharmacy that might work better for that pain and give someone a better quality of life than an opioid ever could, we must be open to new solutions. In the article Mars explains three different methods that can be used as an alternative to opioids. The three methods highlighted are acupuncture, mindfulness & meditation, and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Safe and natural ways to ease pain include acupuncture, chiropractic care, and massage. These three methods are proven to release dopamine endorphins to improve bodily functions. By focusing inwards, meditation can create a healthy alternative to painkillers. A study on JAMA concluded that people with chronic back pain saw improvement after 26 weeks of practicing meditation. With chronic pain, comes emotional pain as well. Extreme pain can take a toll on someones emotional well-being. CBT offers treatment with depressive thoughts and allows patients to focus their negative feelings elsewhere. Progressive Care works to provide patients with alternatives to opioids. One of the ways they do this is with customized compound lotions to relieve pain quickly while also reducing the patients dependence on opioids. Progressive Cares 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 18, 2019] QuickBridge Releases Traditional vs. Alternative Lenders White Paper QuickBridge, a privately-held, leading financial services firm offering small business loans to businesses nationwide, is providing business owners with a new educational resource. QuickBridge's "Traditional vs. Alternative Lenders: What to Expect in the Lending Process" white paper details the differences borrowers experience when applying for a loan with an alternative lender compared to a traditional bank. Alternative lending has emerged as a mainstream financing option for small businesses. According to a study by the 12 U.S. Federal Reserve Banks, approximately 24 percent of small business loan applications were processed by online lenders in 2017. This marks a 3 percent uptick from the prior year and happens at a point when more businesses self-identifying as credit risks are seeking funding. The new QuickBridge white paper explains the differences between Traditional vs. Alternative Lenders in respect to: Preparing for the loan application process Filing an application Getting qualified Typical loan options Consulting services Funding usage Obtaining and repaying loans Relational banking Starting and growing a business requires a variety of skills, from operations management to negotiation and decision-making abilities. Add creative,analytical, and communication skills to the mix, and an owner's bandwidth is stretched to the limit. QuickBridge is committed to helping educate small business owners through its topic-specific white papers. The new white paper's comparative look at the two lending processes will give owners an easy-to-grasp overview of their funding options. "This white paper was created to provide a simple, straightforward explanation of the funding options available to small businesses, so they can make better-informed choices," said QuickBridge President Ben Gold. "We want all small businesses to feel empowered and confident in their borrowing decisions, no matter who they choose to fund their cash flow needs." Download the complimentary "Traditional vs. Alternative Lenders: What to Expect in the Lending Process" white paper at https://www.quickbridge.com/blog/traditional-vs-alternative-lenders-white-paper/. For more information on QuickBridge, go to: www.quickbridge.com. About QuickBridge Founded in 2011, Quick Bridge Funding LLC (stylized as QuickBridge) is a privately-held financial services firm headquartered in Irvine, California with a satellite office in New York City. QuickBridge provides small business loans and short-term working capital loans for small to mid-sized businesses nationwide. QuickBridge ranked two consecutive years on the Inc. 500 list and is a previous Business Intelligence Group and Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) award winner. Visit quickbridge.com. Products offered by Quick Bridge Funding, LLC and affiliates are business loans only. The products are provided by third parties and subject to lender approval. Loans to customers in California are made or arranged pursuant to a California Finance Lenders Law License. License number: 603 J292. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005054/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Statement by the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi Updating the Government's Plan for a Decision on the Trans Mountain Expansion Project OTTAWA, April 18, 2019 /CNW/ - The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Natural Resources, today issued the following statement on the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project's review process and the plan for a decision: "The Government of Canada remains steadfast in its commitment to do things differently on TMX, moving the process forward in the right way and following the guidance of the Federal Court of Appeal. This means ensuring that consultations are not only meaningful but also open and transparent. It is in this spirit that I want to provide Canadians with an update on the progress made to date. "The February 2019 National Energy Board (NEB) Reconsideration Report marked an important milestone. Delivered on time, the report concluded that the project is in the Canadian public interest and should be approved, subject to 156 recommended conditions and 16 new, non-binding recommendations to the federal government. "We also continue to make real progress in the Phase III consultations. Consultation teams continue to meet with potentially impacted Indigenous group. This process includes engaging in meaningful, two-way dialogue to discuss and understand prioriies of the groups our teams meet and to offer responsive accommodations, where appropriate. I also continue to build relationships with Indigenous groups, and I want to thank them for their time and such thoughtful conversations. "The Government has consistently said that a decision would only be made on the project once we are satisfied that the duty to consult has been met. Through this process, Indigenous groups have told us that more time is needed to complete the Phase III consultations. "To meet this obligation, to respond to what we have heard from Indigenous groups, and with advice from Federal Representative Justice Iacobucci, the Governor in Council (GiC) has extended the deadline so that a decision on TMX can be made by June 18, 2019. Our goal is to make a decision at the end of this period. This provides the time required to respond to what Indigenous groups are telling us and to conclude the Phase III Crown consultations before the GiC decision. "Our plan provides clarity and certainty both for the communities engaged in this process and for all Canadians and this would not be possible without the extensive work completed to date. Moving forward, our focus will remain on fulfilling our duty to meaningfully consult before making a decision on the project. We know how important this process is to Canadians, and we will continue working hard each day to get it right." Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan ( http://twitter.com/nrcan ) NRCan's news releases and backgrounders are available at www.news.gc.ca SOURCE Natural Resources Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Theator Raises $3M Seed Round to Enhance Surgical Performance and Reduce Medical Errors With Artificial Intelligence SAN MATEO, California and TEL AVIV, Israel, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Theator, the AI-powered surgical decision support company, announced today the close of a $3M funding round led by StageOne, iAngels and KdTVC. Theator is helping surgeons enhance capabilities and reduce medical errors by leveraging machine learning and computer-vision to identify, optimize and scale dissemination of best practices. While most companies at the intersection of healthcare and AI are working on static images such as x-rays and CTs for diagnostics, Theator is working to leverage video - a critical missing piece in the sector. "Lack of access to objective and widespread data on surgery is a major cause of often life-threatening errors. Today, much of the lack of access to quality care stems from surgery being mostly subjective, still taught and performed as an apprenticeship," said Dr. Tamir Wolf, Co-Founder and CEO of Theator. "Quality of care and outcomes vary greatly depending on the surgeon's 'intuition,' gained from one's particular experience, which is somewhat limited and varies. Theator leverages machine learning and computer vision to analyze surgeries and compile a usable database that can help dramatically reduce biases in surgical procedures." Minimally invasive surgery is performed millions of times annually, yet procedures are not recorded routinely. Still, there is a growing understanding in the surgical community that video assessment is crucial for improving performance and optimization continuity of care. In sports, there is widespread utilization of video analytics as a means to enhance performance, yet to date, this has eluded the field of surgery. This presents a unique opportunity for real-time human surgical support and later, intelligence for robotic platforms Theator just announced the launch of its first product - a platform called Minutes - at the annual meeting of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). Minutes provides intelligently edited versions of surgical procedures covering surgical steps and outcome-critical components. Hours-long procedures can be reviewed in minutes, helping surgeons prepare and review procedures. AI-powered algorithmic analytics can also inform surgeons on their performance. Videos will be stored in a repository where surgeons access palatable, actionable footage as they prepare for procedures and retrieve crucial information post-operatively to debrief and improve patient care. "We are strong believers that computer vision and machine learning will change surgery forever," said Yoav Samet, Managing Partner of StageOne and incoming Board Member of Theator. "Identifying best practices to make surgeons better is just the beginning. Eventually, AI-driven insights will enable autonomous robotic platforms. Theator is creating the roadmap that will ultimately aid such platforms navigate complex surgical procedures, and StageOne is proud to support this vision." "We are in the midst of an AI spring where we see AI infiltrating more and more industry sectors. In health tech, we will see significant changes not only in clinical data management but also in the patient interface, as these functions will be able to leverage huge amounts of information gathered and analyzed on a global scale by health care institutions," said Mor Assia, Founding Partner and Co-CEO of iAngels. "We are confident that Theator's AI powered solution will be transformative for the way physicians learn to master surgical techniques and reduce errors, making patient outcomes markedly better." About Theator Theator is building a SaaS platform to provide surgeons with AI-powered decision support tools. Theator is helping surgeons improve performance by leveraging machine learning and computer-vision to identify, optimize and scale dissemination of best practices. The company's long-term vision is to enhance surgeon performance in real time and build the future cognitive base to enable autonomous surgical robotic platforms. Launched in April 2019, Theator's first product, Minutes, is a highlight reel and analytics tool providing intelligently edited versions of surgical procedures. These are presented to surgeons in a palatable and actionable form in order to help prepare and debrief, quickly and efficiently, using AI-powered algorithmic insights. For more information visit www.theator.io . For more information: Tamir Wolf [email protected] +1-646-935-9217 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/theator-raises-3m-seed-round-to-enhance-surgical-performance-and-reduce-medical-errors-with-artificial-intelligence-300834514.html SOURCE Theator [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Wells Fargo & Company Annual Meeting of Shareholders Wells Fargo (News - Alert) & Company will hold its 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on April 24, 2019, at 10:00 a.m., CDT, at the Grand Hyatt DFW, 2337 South International Parkway, Dallas, Texas. A live, listen-only audiocast of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be available at: https://engage.vevent.com/rt/wellsfargobankna~042319_am Shareholders and others can also listen to the meeting by conference call by dialing 1-800-616-1920 in the U.S. and Canada or +1-210-874-7306 for international participants. Please dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the meeting and when prompted please enter conference ID 4684443. About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,700 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 33 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 262,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune's 2018 rankings of America's largest corporations. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005227/en/ [April 17, 2019] Adjust Puts an End to in-App Bot Attacks With New Standalone Unbotify Product SAN FRANCISCO and BERLIN, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Adjust , the industry leader in mobile measurement and fraud prevention, today announced the launch of its new Unbotify product to end in-app bot fraud. Contrary to mobile ad fraud, in-app bot fraud does not target an app's marketing budget but attacks its business model after an install. Bots can be programmed to carry out various in-app events, and because they mimic human behavior, this type of fraud has become one of the hardest to detect and fight. "Bots can affect all apps in a number of ways, across every vertical. They can attack gaming apps' communities or ruin their virtual currency economy, steal credit card data or scalp limited edition items from e-commerce businesses, and spam users on dating apps," explained Paul H. Muller, Co-Founder & CTO at Adjust. "Unbotify's product adds another arrow to Adjust's quiver, and forms the foundation of our next-generation in-app fraud protection tools." Unbotify is a bespoke, individually-tailored solution, which uses biometric sensor data to build machine learning models based on real users' behavior. By learning an app's natural user-flow, the solution can distinguish btween humans and bots. The Unbotify solution will be available separately from Adjust's Fraud Prevention Suite, which stops ad fraud - performance-based fraud that directly steals ad money from an app's marketing budget. Because it is a standalone product, Unbotify can be implemented alongside Adjust's or other vendors' attribution service. "In-app bot fraud isn't just a monetary issue - it has knock-on effects on user experience, retention, in-app analytics, and breaches that compromise users' data and scar a brand's reputation," commented Yaron Oliker, Co-Founder and CEO at Unbotify. "Our behavioral-biometrics solution detects bots in real-time and offers the best possible insurance to protect the user experience." Unbotify's research estimates that some of today's biggest mobile apps lose around 10% of their revenue to bot fraud - and with the global app economy expected to surpass $120 billion by the end of 2019, bots seriously compromise apps' success. The launch follows Adjust's acquisition of Unbotify in January. The cybersecurity and AI startup was named by Fast Company as 'Israel's most innovative company in 2017 ' and listed as one of Gartner's ' 2018 Cool Vendors in Advertising '. Unbotify's bot-deterring solution is used by some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies in the e-commerce, social, search and gaming verticals across the U.S. and Europe. Unbotify's acquisition forms a bigger part of Adjust's commitment to fighting fraud on a global scale. The companies' shared mission is to provide the most robust solution to one of the major problems of application security today stopping malicious bots. About Adjust Adjust is the industry leader in mobile measurement and fraud prevention. The globally operating company provides high-quality analytics, measurement and fraud prevention solutions for mobile app marketers worldwide, enabling them to make smarter, faster marketing decisions. Adjust is a marketing partner with all major platforms, including Facebook, Google, Snap, Twitter, Line, and Tencent. In total, more than 25,000 apps have implemented Adjust's solutions to improve their performance. Founded in 2012, today Adjust has global offices in Berlin, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Paris, London, Moscow, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Mumbai and Singapore. Adjust recently acquired data aggregation platform Acquired.io and award-winning cybersecurity and AI startup Unbotify . In February 2019, the company formed a strategic partnership with Adways, Japan's leading mobile marketing agency. These moves are part of Adjust's goal to unify advertisers' marketing efforts and build the best-in-class measurement and fraud prevention suite. Contact info: Lennart Dannenberg Head of PR at Adjust Email: [email protected] Phone: +49-162-248-3473 SOURCE Adjust GmbH [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 17, 2019] Glance Technologies Reports First Quarter 2019 Results VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glance Technologies Inc. (CSE:GET / OTCQB:GLNNF / FKT:GJT) (Glance or the Company) ?today announced financial results for the three month period ended February 28, 2019. Overview Glance realized its first ever net income in Q1 2019. Glances net income was $4,816,906 or $0.04 per share in Q1 2019. A significant contribution to this result was an increase in the value of Glances investments combined with a decrease in its expenses. Glances working capital as at February 28, 2019 was $11,204,000 and it has no long-term debt. During the quarter, Glance continued to focus on developing its recently announced innovations including Real-Time Bill and Order-from-Table. Glance launched Real-Time Bill to the public in the first Quarter of 2019 and anticipates launching Order-from-Table soon. Subsequent to the quarter, Glance also announced its upcoming Order-From-Bar product. All of these innovations utilize Glances proven anti-fraud technology to protect merchants as well as leveraging Glances powerful promotion and loyalty platform to help increase sales and loyalty. Glance has received strong interest from many of its signed merchants and new prospects to adopt these new features and is currently rolling out Real-Time Bill to these merchants. Glance believes these new capabilities significantly improve the value proposition of its platform to both consumers and merchants and thus believes they increase our revenue potential. Glance has increased its sales team and is focused on signing up new merchants with these products and targeting its marketing efforts around merchants adopting these features. We are convinced that products like our Real-Time Bill, Order-From-Table, and Order-From-Bar are the future of paying and ordering, says Desmond Griffin Glance CEO. We believe they have the potential to disrupt the industry, including leapfrogging the adoption technologies such as chip and PIN machines in the US. Q1 2019 Financial Highlights (all figures are rounded to the nearest thousand): Net income increased to $4,817,000 or $0.04 per share, compared to a Comprehensive loss of $4,869,000 or $(0.04) per share in Q1 2018, which was an increase of $9,686,000. Revenue of $43,000 in fiscal 2019 decreased 96% from $1,174,000 in Q1 2018. In the previous year, a $1 million royalty was received. As anticipated, licensing revenues have fluctuated significantly due to changes made to existing license agreements. A review was also carried out over the recognition periods of the licensing agreements. Operating expenses of $1,925,000 decreased 63% from $5,224,000 in Q1 2018, reflecting the efficient spend on operations this quarter. Working capital at February 28, 2019 was $11,204,000 (November 30, 2018: $6,962,000) and no long-term debt ($nil at November 30, 2018). Overall, the Company continues to work to reduce costs in many categories and has made significant changes to better utilize its cash resources going forward. Costs incurred on operating activities were approximately $1.7m in Q1 2019, compared to $4.9m in Q1 2018. We have continued to focus on spending efficiency and we expect some of the recent changes we have adopted to be reflected in further cost reductions in future quarters. Q1 2019 Highlights: Launched the Real-Time Bill feature. Previewed its new Order-From-Table feature. Filed a provisional patent for Blockchain Technology with USPTO. The Companys complete financial results for the first quarter of 2019 are available in its Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements and Managements Discussion and Analysis, each of which are filed with Canadian securities reglators at www.sedar.com . Outlook Management intends to pursue a number of technology, product, sales and marketing initiatives to continue to drive growth in 2019. The Companys strategic priorities include: Grow monthly recurring revenue through a tiered Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription model by adding new merchants and consumers, and generate new revenue from advertising, promotions and consumer fees for premium features; Rollout Glances new Real-Time Bill feature broadly to existing and new customers; Launch and rollout Glances upcoming Order-From-Table broadly to existing and new customers; Continue to develop Glances Order-From-Bar product; Expand our footprint through both direct sales and joint efforts with our business partners; and Investigate new geographic markets for Glance Pay. IFRS The operational and financial information in this release is based on the consolidated figures in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) and with the exception of information on investments and behaviour of markets, quarterly financial statements are reviewed by the Companys independent auditors. About Glance Technologies Inc. Glance owns and operates Glance Pay, a streamlined payment system that revolutionizes how smartphone users choose where to shop, order goods and services, make payments, access digital receipts, redeem digital deals, earn great rewards & interact with merchants. Glance offers targeted in-app marketing, geo targeted digital coupons, customer feedback, in-merchant messaging and custom rewards programs. The Glance Pay mobile payment system consists of proprietary technology, which includes user apps available for free downloads in iOS (Apple) and Android formats, merchant manager apps, a large-scale technology hosting environment with sophisticated anti-fraud technology and lightning-fast payment processing. For more information about Glance, please go to www.glance.tech . For more information, contact: Laura Burke Desmond Griffin Chief Financial Officer Chief Executive Officer 778-819-1352 833-338-0299 [email protected] [email protected] Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: may, "believe", thinks, "expect", exploring, expand, could, "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", plan, pursue, "potentially", projected, should, will and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. These forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, relate to, among other things, the discussion of Glances business strategies and its expectations concerning future operations (including advancing its technological roadmap); the expectation that products like our Real-Time Bill, Order-From-Table, and Order-From-Bar are the future of paying and ordering; that there is strong interest from many of its signed merchants and new prospects to adopt the Companys new product features; the expectation that Glance will sign up new merchants with its new features and will target its marketing efforts around the launch of new features and merchants adopting those features; that Glance continues to work to reduce costs in many categories and will better utilize its cash resources going forward, the expectation that some of the recent changes the Company has adopted will be reflected in further cost reductions in future quarters; the expectation that Glance will launch its new product features over the coming months, improve its capacity for monetization, the expectation that Glance will grow monthly recurring revenue through a tiered Software-as-a-Service subscription model by adding new merchants and consumers, and generate new revenue from advertising, promotions and consumer fees for premium features; the expectation that Glance will roll out its new Real-Time Bill feature broadly to existing and new customers; the expectation that Glance will launch and rollout its upcoming Order-From-Table feature; that Glance will continue to develop its Order-From-Bar feature; and Glances plans to expand into new vertical markets through both direct sales and joint efforts with our licensing partners. Although Glance considers these forward-looking statements to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, among other things, the risk that Glance is unable to continuously add new merchants as planned, risks related to expansion, both internationally and in North America, risks related to unforeseeable expenses, and risks related to Glances licensing partners, and risks that the Companys software and applications may contain security problems, security vulnerabilities, or defects in design or manufacture, including bugs and other problems that could interfere with the intended operation of its software, and risks associated with the adoption and development of blockchain platforms. The forward-looking information in this press release is also based on certain estimates, forecasts and projections, as well as expectations, beliefs and assumptions, including, among other things, that Glance will be able to achieve its business objectives, that Glance will be able to develop proprietary software to implement its plans, Glance will be successful in obtaining and retaining clients and licensees for its software, and that Glance will be able to expand its operations successfully in new markets. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements in this press release, see the section entitled Risk Factors in the most recent Annual Information Form and Prospectus of Glance, which may be accessed through Glance's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Glance cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by Glance is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking information, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] L-com Launches Right-Angle USB 3.0 Cable Assemblies with Female Connectors IRVINE, Calif., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- L-com, an Infinite Electronics brand, and a preferred manufacturer of wired and wireless connectivity products, announced today that it has introduced a new line of right-angle USB 3.0 cable assemblies with female connectors. L-com's right-angle USB 3.0 cable assemblies are designed to address high-speed data applications in tight spaces. Adding to an already extensive offering of right-angle USB 3.0 cables with male connectors, these new assemblies feature molded female connectors which can be used to extend existing male USB 3.0 cables. Three versions are offered with up right-angle, down right-angle and horizontal right-angle cable exits on the male end of the assembly. Features include 30-micro-inch gold-plated contacts, fully shielded cable and connectors and off-the-shelf lengths of 0.5, 0.75 and 1 meter. "This new addition to our existing right-angle USB 3.0 cable line is a great solution for extending standard male USB 3.0 cable runs while upporting up to 4.8 Gbps data rates. By offering a wide variety of cable configurations off-the-shelf, we can meet our customers' requirements for any application," said Brian Gates, Product Manager. L-com's new USB 3.0 cable assemblies with female connectors are in stock and available for immediate shipment. For more information about this release, please contact: Peter McNeil L-com 17792 Fitch Irvine, CA 978-682-6936 About L-com: L-com, a leading manufacturer of wired and wireless connectivity products, offers a wide range of solutions and unrivaled customer service for the electronics and data communications industries. The company's product portfolio includes cable assemblies, connectors, adapters, antennas, enclosures, surge protectors and more. L-com is headquartered in North Andover, Mass., is ISO 9001: 2008 certified and many of its products are UL recognized. L-com 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. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/873787/Right_Angle_Cable.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/430629/L_com_Global_Connectivity_Logo.jpg SOURCE L-com [April 18, 2019] Alankit Collaborates With MCGM to Provide e-Governance Services to 1 Crore Citizens MUMBAI, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Alankit Limited, a leading e-Governance provider in India excels at expeditious delivery of e-Governance solutions to millions of citizens in the country. Alankit LTD. has entered into collaboration with Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to facilitate the delivery of various e-Governance services to Indian citizens at 25 different locations in Greater Mumbai. These centres would facilitate issuance of Certificates/Licenses- Birth and Death Certificates, Marriage Certificate, hawker license, Building and Factories, Property Tax Collections etc. also will offer services like enrolment and correction of Aadhaar. On this tie-up, Ankit Agarwal, Managing Director, Alankit LTD., said, "Good Governance is every citizen's fundamental right an our vision is to provide all government to citizen services accessible to the common man in their locality to ensure efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at affordable costs. Successful e-Governance service delivery must be user friendly to create real accessibility for the common citizen, the poor and the backward, thereby fulfilling the vision of our Digital India." This collaboration will help citizens find solutions for their e-Governance needs under one roof. About Alankit Limited Alankit, a market leader and eminent name in the industry today, is a more than two-decade-old conglomerate, having diversified operations in the vital segments like e-Governance, Financial Services, Healthcare and Insurance Broking. Alankit Limited, the flagship company of the group, stands strong as the leading e-Governance service provider of the country. It is listed on both the premier exchanges of the country; National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (BSE). With its headquarter at Delhi, Alankit banks upon its team of professionals, which help facilitate operations through a wide Pan India network of 21 regional offices, spread out at 6120 business locations in 673+ cities, catering to over 21 million customers. Media Contact : Somdev Mukherjee [email protected] +91-7340049133 Concept Public Relations . [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] India Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Software Market to Reach $86.7 Million by 2023 NOIDA, India, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market intelligence report by BIS Research, titled 'Global Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Software Market - Analysis and Forecast, 2018-2023', the global anti-money laundering software market was estimated at $868.0 million in 2017 and is expected to reach $1.77 billion by 2023. It is estimated that the AML software market in India, which accounted for approximately 4.09% of the global market in 2017, will reach $86.7 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 15.71% during the forecast period (2018-2023). (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/495163/BIS_Research_Logo.jpg ) Browse 52 market Data Tables and 104 Figures spread through 220 Pages and in-depth TOC on 'Global AML Software Market' The growth in the AML software market in India can be significantly attributed to the factors such as regulatory compliance requirements of financial institutions with international regulatory bodies along with increased volume of wired transactions. Money laundering has been a key concern since the early 90s and it continues to be a significant challenge for economies across the globe. Over the past decade, significant threats of terrorism due to the act of money laundering have become a major concern for regulatory bodies (outside India) such as Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Money laundering is the process of showing illegally acquired money to appear as legal. The act of money laundering generally involves three steps that are placement, layering, and integration. India, with an AML index score of 5.28, ranks 68th in the list of 129 countries provided by the Basel Institute of Governance, which is an independent non-profit competence centre working to strengthen quality of governance, counter corruption and other financial crimes. The risk score is based on 14 indicators and provide an indication of the countries that are complying with the regulations and have least number of financial frauds. The score 1 is considered as the best score and implies that the country is complying with the standards and has witnessed the least number of frauds. BIS Research Report: https://bisresearch.com/industry-report/anti-money-laundering-software-market.html Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 came into existence in 2005, due to persistent problems with money laundering activities that the country had been facing despite India having one of the robust anti-money laundering systems. The government of India ensures that the financialinstitutions comply with the foreign-exchange laws, transaction reporting requirements, and KYC norms. The government has taken measures such as the demonetization in 2016 targeting the shell companies in the country to curb the money laundering activities in India. Such initiatives by the government are expected to play a major role in defining the future of money laundering in India. In the Hawala method, a common money laundering method in India, an individual can access or transfer money from one location to another without the involvement of an authorized person. Also, the Hawala method of transferring money occurs at different foreign exchange rates, as stated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The key features of this system include transferring value without moving funds. India has always been a target of several terrorist groups and these groups launder money using Hawala. The most common methods for laundering money in the financial institutions have been opening multiple bank accounts, purchasing bank checks with cash, and routing funds through complex legal structures. India had 9,600,000 currency transaction reports registered in 2013-2014. According to Yash Agrawal, Analyst at BIS Research, "The adoption of analytics and machine learning in AML is increasing the adoption of anti-money laundering software in crypto currency market and emerging economies. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in AML along with KYC are the major factors which are expected to create lucrative opportunities for the market in the next five years. The market is packed with advancements in anti-money laundering systems, in order to promote digital currency activities. Additionally, cloud-based solutions are expected to witness a significant growth during the forecast period, owing to the lower cost of implementation than that in the on-premise deployment models." Request for a Sample: https://bisresearch.com/requestsample?id=682&type=download The market report provides a detailed analysis of the trends influencing the market, along with a comprehensive study of the future trends and developments. It also includes a competitive analysis of the leading players in the industry, including corporate overview, financials, financial summary, and SWOT analysis. The overall market has been segmented by software type along with deployment type. The report also includes a comprehensive section on the geographical analysis which has been segmented into four major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest-of-the-World (RoW). The key companies offering AML software solutions in India include Infrasoft Technologies Ltd., 3i Infotech, and Surya Software Systems Private Limited, among others apart from global key vendors such as Oracle Corporation, NICE Actimize, and SAS Institute Inc. Key Questions Answered in the Report What was the revenue generated by the global AML software market in 2017 and what will be the estimates by 2023? Which software type, such as transaction monitoring software and currency transaction reporting software are expected to dominate the AML market in the coming years? Which deployment model, such as on-premise or cloud-based, is adopted in the current market and what is the future outlook? What are the new strategies adopted by the existing market players to make a mark in the industry? What are the major driving forces that tend to increase the demand for the global AML software market during the forecast period, 2018-2023? What are the major market drivers, challenges, and opportunities in the global AML software market? Which region is expected to dominate the global AML software market during the forecast period, 2018-2023? What are the major factors inhibiting the growth of the AML software market? What is the consumer outlook and challenges for the AML software market? Who are the key market players in India and what is the market share in 2017? and what is the market share in 2017? What is the supply chain for the global AML software market? About BIS Research: BIS Research is a global B2B market intelligence and advisory firm focusing on those emerging technological trends which are likely to disrupt the dynamics of the market. With over 150 market research reports published annually, BIS Research focuses on high technology verticals such as 3D Printing, Advanced Materials and Chemicals, Aerospace and Defence, Automotive, Healthcare, Electronics and Semiconductors, Robotics and UAV, and other emerging technologies. Our in-depth market intelligence reports focus on the market estimations, technology analysis, emerging high-growth applications, deeply segmented granular country-level market data, and other important market parameters useful in the strategic decision-making for senior management. What distinguishes BIS Research from the rest of the players is that we don't simply provide data but also complement it with valuable insights and actionable inputs for the success of our clients. Contact: Bhavya Banga Email: [email protected] +91-120-4261540-44 BIS Research Inc. 39111 PASEO PADRE PKWY STE 313, FREMONT CA 94538-1686 Visit our Blog @ http://bisresearch.com/blog/ Connect with us on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bis-research Connect with us on [email protected] https://twitter.com/BISResearch [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] NetCents Technology Begins Processing for First Charity Partner: HS Aware VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 18, 2019 /CNW/ -- NetCents Technology Inc. ("NetCents" or the "Company") (CSE: NC) (Frankfurt: 26N) (OTCQB: NTTCF) is pleased to announce that it has begun processing cryptocurrency transactions for its first charity partner, HS Aware. NetCents is a strong believer about being able to invoke change. Change not only on its business side but more importantly throughout our communities with initiatives that positively impact people's lives. On March 7th, the Company launched its Charity Impact Initiative and we are proud to announce our first charity partnership with HS Aware. NetCents is providing all registered charities and non-profits free cryptocurrency processing. Any charity that signs up through this initiative is able to accept donations and sell their merchandise and tickets with zero processing fees. Interested charities can visit https://net-cents.com/partners#partners-form to learn more and sign up. "HS Aware is excited to remain an innovator in the non-profit space by now accepting cryptocurrency donations to fund our future initiatives and events," stated Maria Goguen, President of HS Aware. "We've had a lot of interest to begin accepting donations in crypto to further support the HS community and now through this partnership, we are able to. We are thankful for any and all support members of the community want to give." HS Aware regularly lobbies and liaisons with the government and medical organizations, hosts events bringing awareness and support to HS (Hidradenitis Suppurativa), and provides an open and safe space for HS patients to discuss living with HS. Founded in Canada, HS Aware is the largest Canadian community and has increased its footprint globally as one of the largest non-profits in the world representing HS with a community of over 15,000 active supporters worldwide. Through their marketing initiatives, HS Aware reaches hundreds of thousands of people globally and engages with tens of thousands of people on a monthly basis. Through their partnership with NeCents, HS Aware will now accept donations to help fund and grow their outreach, community, and engagement efforts globally. About HS Aware HS Aware is a non-profit dedicated to people living with (HS) and is the premier Canadian community representing the voice of patients living with HS living. HS Aware was established to increase disease awareness among patients, health care professionals, caregivers, government agencies, and other stakeholders in Canada and around the world. http://hsaware.com/ https://www.facebook.com/IAMHSaware/ About NetCents NetCents Technology Inc, the transactional hub for all cryptocurrency payments, equips forward-thinking businesses with the technology to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency processing into their payment model without taking on the risk or volatility of the crypto market. NetCents Technology is registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FINTRAC, which ensures our consumer's security and privacy. For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.net-cents.com or Investor Relations at [email protected] On Behalf of the Board of Directors NetCents Technology Inc. "Clayton Moore" Clayton Moore, CEO, Founder and Director NetCents Technology Inc. Suite 1000 1021 West Hastings Street Vancouver BC V6B 0C3 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company 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" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.net-cents.com or Investor Relations at [email protected] , 604 676-5249 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netcents-technology-begins-processing-for-first-charity-partner-hs-aware-300834133.html SOURCE NetCents Technology Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Racketeering Lawsuit Filed by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP Alleges Czech Oligarch Defrauds US Hedge Fund and Former Partner Out of Over $1 Billion New York hedge fund, Kingstown Capital Management L.P, and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on 10 April 2019 in the Southern District of New York against Radovan Vitek, a Czech real estate mogul with business interests throughout Europe, whose fortune Forbes magazine estimates at $3.5 billion. Represented by litigation powerhouse Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, the hedge fund Kingstown Capital Management L.P and Czech investment firm Investhold Ltd allege that Vitek ran an elaborate criminal enterprise that defrauded the plaintiffs out of more than US $1 billion. According to the complaint, Berlin's largest commercial real estate landlord, Vitek engaged in racketeering activity including wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, and other crimes and amassed his wealth at the expense of the plaintiffs, according to the complaint. His commercial interests span multiple jurisdictions including the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Croatia and UK. The complaint alleges that Vitek was aided and abetted by private Czech bank J&T Banka, as well as Luxembourg-based real estate development company ORCO Property Group, S.A., and ORCO Germany, now known as CPI Property Group, whichhas an US $8 billion real estate portfolio across Europe and nearly 4,000 employees. After Kingstown Capital established a substantial interest in ORCO Property Group, Vitek "secretly took control of ORCO through a series of shell companies and straw owners," according to the complaint. Individuals that are named as "straw owners" include ORCO's former Chief Executive Officer Jean-Francois Ott and Vitek's mother, Milada Mala. The complaint states that "Vitek stripped ORCO of its most valuable real estate assets, using his effective control over the company to cause ORCO to sell real estate at distressed prices to other entities that Vitek secretly controlled." The complaint adds, "Vitek's scheme, which was carried out for nearly a decade and involved numerous investments and entities, was made possible by J&T Banka, a.s., and its affiliates. J&T Banka . . . financed nearly every one of Vitek's fraudulent schemes, and was a willing participant in Vitek's crimes." Matthew L. Schwartz, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner and former federal prosecutor who represents the plaintiffs, said: "Today's lawsuit painstakingly lays out the existence of a massive, decade-long fraudulent scheme perpetrated by Vitek and his co-conspirators that made him a billionaire with one of the world's biggest property empires. We look forward to justice being done and for the opportunity to present our evidence in open court." The complaint states that in 2017, the Luxembourg financial regulator known as the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier launched an investigation into Vitek, Ott, and CPI Property Group and found that "Vitek and Ott had 'acted in covert concert,' secretly controlled ORCO, and therefore violated Luxembourg and European law." The plaintiffs are now seeking far greater penalties against the defendants for alleged violations of several statutes including the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The defendants "reached deliberately and repeatedly into the United States, and New York in particular, to perpetrate their crimes," the complaint states. A link to the complaint filed on 10 April 2019 is here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005253/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Creative Technology Company Splash Worldwide Launches NEON Consulting Strategic Independent Technology Advisors Will Specialize in Marketing Technology Optimisation, Utilization and Effectiveness LONDON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Splash Worldwide is excited to announce the launch of NEON Consulting, a specialist Marketing Technology consultancy. NEON will advise clients on the implementation, optimisation and effectiveness of their investment in marketing technology. As one of the world's leading creative technology companies, Splash Worldwide already provides brands with a global platform and creative production services to help manage and optimise the delivery of content as part of global marketing activation. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/873696/Splash_Worldwide_Stonebridge_and_Yates.jpg This expertise in marketing technology solutions for the world's leading brands provided an insight into a rapidly changing technology landscape and an increasing demand amongst its clients for help navigating these changes through independent strategic advice. This independence, agnostic of any specific marketing technology vendor, will be a key foundation of NEON Consulting. NEON Consulting will be led by Sam Yates, a marketing technology consultant with 20 years' experience delivering solutions for brands and businesses throughout the world. "Under-utilization and complexity are just two of the many reasons why marketing technology investments can go fallow, and still, the opportunities for effectiveness and efficiency have never been greater," began Yates, who helped launch Team 6ix in 2015 (and will remain a strategic partner), and also spent over 10 years as a Project Director for Tag Worldwide. "With brands needing to deliver better communications faster, we have the proven ability to help them make the best decisions and unlock their platform's full potential." Leveraging decades of experience in assessing and implementing marketing and advertising technologies, NEON Consulting's product and service offerings will focus on four areas crucial to clients: strategic services, procuring marketing technology, implementing technology and on-boarding within organizations, and providing a managed service for clients. "Technology may only be one piece of the puzzle in terms of marketing campaign optimisation and distribution, but its importance cannot be overstated," Splash Worldwide CEO Paul Stonebridge explained. "Sam has led us and many of our clients to greater understanding of the means for leveraging the full potential of various systems, resulting in making campaigns smarter and faster than ever before. Bringing these capabilities to market for our clients is a great honor." Yates' enthusiasm for providing expert advice often in challenging scenarios is contagious. "Sometimes, genuinely independent advice is all that's needed to make seemingly complicated technology investments pay off," he added. "In short, these are challenging but immensely important areas of business, and we are deeply passionate about making massive impacts for our clients." To learn more about NEON Consulting, please visit http://www.neonconsulting.tech. About NEON Consulting NEON Consulting is Splash Worldwide's independent strategic enterprise specializing in helping the world's biggest brands maximize their technology investments supporting marketing campaign optimisation, localization and distribution. Established in London in 2019, the consultancy diligently supports Splash Worldwide's mission of unleashing creativity for everyone, everywhere. To learn more, visit http://www.neonconsulting.tech. About Splash Worldwide Splash Worldwide (https://www.splashworldwide.com) is a creative technology company that unleashes creativity for everyone, everywhere. With multi-disciplinary insight, creative, production, technology, consulting and innovation teams, we collaborate with clients to create impactful content and distribute it within the right ecosystems. Our offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Singapore serve the world's largest brands and bridge the gap from concept to delivery. NOTE TO EDITORS: Images to accompany this story available here: http://www.darnellworks.com/splashww/neon.html Contacts: Roger Darnell DWA for Splash Worldwide +1.828.424.7698 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] CBD Life Sciences Subsidiary Enters Into Negotiations to Enter Japanese Market SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- CBD Life Sciences Inc. (OTC:CBDL) is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, LBC Bioscience has entered into negotiations to distribute its line of products in Japan. The negotiations are anticipated to close within the next two weeks with an initial order of $250,000. Japans market for CBD products is growing at almost 100% year-over-year with annual supplement sales valued at over $10 billion. Japan's consumer economy is very health conscious, sophisticated, comprised of an aging population with an early adoption of CBD nutraceuticals. We are very excited about this opportunity to enter the Japanese market, commented Lisa Nelson, President & CEO of CBD Life Science. The Japanese have embraced the benefits of CBD and we want to be on the forefront providing quality products to this aggressive expanding market, continued Ms. Nelson. About CBD Life Sciences Inc. CBD Life Sciences Inc. is a publicly traded company having its common shares quoted on the OTC Markets under the symbol CBDL. The Companys main focus is to identify, evaluate and acquire undervalued opportunities with the objective of increasing shareholder value. The acquisition of LBC Bioscience Inc. is the first in the CBD space and the company is actively searching for additional opportunities within this emerging sector. About LBC Bioscience Inc. LBC Bioscience Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CBD Life Sciences Inc. LBC is developing and marketing a line of cannabidiol based organic products such as hemp drops, massage oils, recovery pain relief creams, anxiety and sleep solutions, supplements, edibles, and a full line of pet products. In addition, LBC is in the process of developing an anti-aging skin product line. LBCs products can be viewed and purchased on the companys website at www.lbcbioscienceinc.com. Contact Information Investor Relations Ten Associates LLC 11529 N. 120th St. Scottsdale, Arizona 85259 USA Telephone: 480-326-8577 Contact: Thomas E. Nelson Email: [email protected] Forward-Looking Statements Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. See Optium Cyber Systems, Inc.'s filings with OTC Markets, which may identify specific factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Safe Harbor Statement This release includes forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and reflects management's current expectations. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. Some of these factors include: general global economic conditions; general industry and market conditions, sector changes and growth rates; uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; increasing competition; availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of services; changes in the economy; changes in laws and regulations, including codes and standards, intellectual property rights, and tax matters; or other matters not anticipated; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Professional Services Company Selects Zayo for Connectivity A professional services company has selected Zayo Group (News - Alert) Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) for an IP-VPN solution. The solution will support secure, high-performance connectivity between more than 30 of the customer's locations in Canada. The solution leverages Zayo's pan-Canadian fiber network, providing the customer with an end-to-end virtual private network over the Tier-1 IP backbone. Professional services firms are increasingly upgrading their offices and remote sites from public internet to dedicated connectivity to support the secure transmission of data between multiple corporate locations. Zayo's managed IP-VPN provides a cost-effective and reliable way to ensure mission-critical traffic reaches its destination quickly and securely. "Zayo's account team and ability to provide a unified solution across Canada was a competitive differentiator," said Tyler Coates, senior vice president of Enterprise at Zayo. "We look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with this long-standing customer." For more information about Zayo, visit zayo.com. About Zayo Group Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) provides communications infrastructure solutions, including fiber and bandwidth connectivity, colocation and cloud infrastructure to the world's leading businesses. Customers include wireless and wireline carriers, media and content companies and finance, healthcare and other large enterprises. Zayo's 130,000-mile network in North America and Europe includes extensive metro connectivity to thousands of buildings and data centers. In addition to high-capacity dark fiber, wavelength, Ethernet and other connectivity solutions, Zayo offers colocation and cloud infrastructure in its carrier-neutral data centers. Zayo provides users with flexible, customized solutions and self-service through Tranzact, an innovative online platform for managing and purchasing bandwidth. For more information, visit zayo.com. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements. Words, and variations of words such as "believe," "expect," "plan," "continue," "will," "should," and similar expressions are intended to identify our forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements will be achieved and actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. For additional information on these and other factors that could affect our forward-looking statements, see our risk factors, as they may be amended from time to time, set forth in our filings with the SEC (News - Alert), including our 10-K dated August 24, 2018. We disclaim and do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement in this press release, except as required by applicable law or regulation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005163/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Murj First to Put Cardiology Clinics in Control with Murj Certified Service Partners Program SANTA CRUZ, Calif., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Murj, the digital healthcare company providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) management, announced today the Murj Certified Service Partners Program, designed to bring choice to cardiology clinics who want to consider outsourcing remote cardiac device management. Murjs Certified Service Partners Program makes it easier for cardiac clinics to adopt Murj and remote care, regardless of their staffing model. The Murj Certified Service Partners announced today are some of the most respected and experienced service providers in the industry, including Equis Consulting Group , Prep MD , Cardiac RMS , and Heartwatch Solutions . These partners bring extensive remote service management experience, managing in excess of 100,000 cardiac device patients nationwide. Remote care is the recommended standard of care for implantable cardiac device management, based on improved clinical and economic outcomes, said Michael J. Mirro, M.D., FACC, FHRS, FAHA, Indiana University School of Medicine and Murj Scientific Advisor. Yet many clinics lack modern software and qualified staff to make the transition to remote care. I applaud Murj and these service providers for making remote care a possibility for any staffing model. Remote data management burdens will only grow - and sophisticated software and qualified staff are paramount to deliver this critical patient care. For too long device management software has been provided by service and device companies who lack the necessary focus and expertise to develop truly great software. Murj is the only company 100% dedicated to cardiac device management software; this focus enables Murj to deliver unmatched workflow flexibility-- routing remote device tansmissions to internal staff or remote service provider staff instantly. Device clinics now have the confidence and control to use the staffing model that works best for them, either their internal staff or any Murj Certified Service Partner. The Murj Certified Service Partners Program is for remote service vendors who are trained to use the Murj platform, have demonstrated superior clinical skill and a proven track record of outstanding customer service, use IBHRE (International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners) certified staff, offer transparent billing and commercial practices, and non-solicitation of customer staff. Great software, great devices and great services are three completely different business objectives; the industry has never seen a single vendor excel at all of them, said Reed Gaither, chief operating officer, Murj. We are pleased to be 100% committed to great software, and with todays announcement, we are unveiling those great service providers likewise committed to their craft -- great service. For more information about the program, contact Murj at [email protected] . About the Partners Equis , in business since 2012, provides qualified human assets, completing overwhelming amount of checks for clinics teams, providing important device information, working within their EMR. Their highly trained technicians review, summarize, and triage each test/interrogation, providing clinically appropriate, customized notification, supporting timely and informed patient management. PrepMD , a Boston-based company, provides training and staffing solutions, including remote monitoring services to device clinics. PrepMD also delivers corporate training to manufacturers and government agencies such as the FDA. Since 2009, PrepMD has trained and placed over 350 cardiac device specialists nationwide. Cardiac RMS , an award-winning CIED remote monitoring service provider, partners with practices to best care for remote patients and manage clinic workflow. Their exclusive IBHRE-device certified staff triage reports using a physician-driven Remote Care Protocol to create clinically actionable reports with interpretations for review and billing. More information at cardiacrms.com . Heartwatch Solutions are IBHRE-certified cardiac device specialists and CCI- certified cardiographic technicians, familiar with all device manufacturers. They triage remote monitoring transmissions, providing physicians with accurate and timely information, improving patient care and satisfaction, and decreasing office burden and overhead. About Murj Murj is reimagining cardiac implantable electronic device management with a transformative, cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service platform for all cardiac devices. Murj meets the challenge of unprecedented device data growth with hyper-efficient clinical workflow, unrivaled patient insights and deep clinical analytics; uniquely empowering clinicians to deliver superior patient care. Visit www.murj.com . Products and companies mentioned may be trademarked or copyrighted by their respective companies. Murj Contact Maxine Bingham Director of Marketing Communications (408) 368-2583 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Presearch Launches Browser Extension for Private Search on Chrome, Firefox, and Brave Browsers TORONTO, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) -- Presearch (www.presearch.io), the open, decentralized search engine that rewards community members for their usage, contribution to, and promotion of the platform, today released the Presearch Browser Extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Brave browsers. The Presearch Browser Extension lets anyone search privately, without sharing or compromising their personal data. The new Presearch Browser Extension connects users to the Presearch engine along with more than 80 resources, including Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, and Facebook. Presearch rewards users in the companys cryptocurrency token, PRE, for searching through its website or browser extension, and for referring new users. Presearch has more than 1 million registered users and 250,000 monthly active users. The Presearch Browser Extension was developed in response to significant community demand. Now anyone can use the Presearch browser extension to access not only Presearchs engine but several other websites, making search easier than ever before. The Presearch community has grown to more than a million members in under a yer, showing that searchers want change; more choice, more privacy and more rewards, said Colin Pape, founder of Presearch. The new browser extension makes it even easier to switch to Presearch and start earning cryptocurrency when you search. We developed the extension because the community kept requesting it, and were grateful to all who are helping improve Presearch as it continues to grow and evolve. Presearch is advised by Anthony Di Iorio, Co-Founder of Ethereum and Founder of Decentral; Rich Skrenta, Founder and CEO of Blekko (acquired by IBM Watson); and Addison Cameron-Huff, a leading technology lawyer in the blockchain industry. The Presearch Browser Extension is available on Chrome and Brave browsers here, and on Firefox here. To access Presearch on the web, please visit www.presearch.org. PRE tokens earned through Presearch can be used to purchase advertisements on the platform. ABOUT PRESEARCH Presearch (www.presearch.io) is building an open, decentralized search engine that rewards community members for their usage, contribution to, and promotion of the platform. Presearch does not store searches or identifying information, and allows users to select their preferred search engines from more than 80 options including Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, and Facebook. Presearch is available as a browser extension on Chrome, Firefox, and Brave browsers. MEDIA CONTACT: Transform Group, [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] CrowdStreet Crosses $500 Million Invested Online in Commercial Real Estate Deals PORTLAND, Ore., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CrowdStreet , Inc., a technology provider with an online marketplace for direct equity investment in commercial real estate (CRE), today announced that in March it crossed the $500 million threshold in total online investments with a record number of new individual investors. The news accompanies a record quarter with over $75 million invested. Breakdown of Recent Results: Q1 ended with more than $525 million invested on the CrowdStreet Marketplace since inception (April 2014- March 2019 ) invested on the CrowdStreet Marketplace since inception (April 2014- ) Approximately $11.9 billion of property value transacting through the Marketplace since inception of property value transacting through the Marketplace since inception Fastest fundraise - one sponsor raised over $4 million in offers in just over an hour in offers in just over an hour The inaugural fund of the CrowdStreet Blended Portfolio raised over $9 million from 198 investors in two months from 198 investors in two months Investment performance - 12 realized offerings on CrowdStreet to date have generated a 31.7% average XIRR and 1.6x average realized equity multiple (April 2014- March 2019 )* The company also recently expanded its leadership team with the appointment of Gaylyn Sher-Jan as chief people officer, Brent Hieggelke as chief marketing officer and Tony Lai as vice president of customer success to support the company's rapid expansion. Sher-Jan will be focused on organizational development and human resource optimization, Hieggelke is focused on expanding the company's fast-growing investor base and expanding the brand, and Lai is focused on ensuring an optimal experience for the sponsors/developers launching offerings on the Marketplace. "Crossing over the $500 million mark is a significant milestone that cleary demonstrates that online investing in commercial real estate is here to stay," said Tore C. Steen, CEO of CrowdStreet. "Investors on CrowdStreet can now choose between directly investing in a variety of commercial real estate asset types, investing in a diversified portfolio of Marketplace assets by making one investment in the CrowdStreet Blended Portfolio, or getting personalized advice with our Private Managed Accounts service." The quarter also included CrowdStreet supporting Motley Fool's new real estate investment advisory service launch: "Motley Fool has launched a new subscription service called Mogul, by Millionacres that focuses on real estate investing," said Austin Smith, director of Millionacres. "This service discusses and presents subscribers with real estate investment opportunities that includes some commercial real estate offerings from the CrowdStreet Marketplace." Winner of the 2019 "Rising Star" Category in the annual Oregon Technology Awards , CrowdStreet's technology helps investors gain access to investment opportunities outside of the traditional avenues of the stock market, which may allow them to diversify their investment portfolios and better distribute risk, while fundamentally transforming real estate investing through technology. CrowdStreet is helping to create a community where individual investors and CRE firms can work together to maximize wealth through commercial real estate. Sponsors who raised capital on the CrowdStreet marketplace in the quarter included Feldman Equities, KBS, and Driftwood Hospitality. Through both its Marketplace and software solutions, more than 112,000 investors, along with 275 commercial real estate operators and developers, are currently on the CrowdStreet platform. About CrowdStreet CrowdStreet operates an award-winning online commercial real estate investment marketplace that gives accredited investors access to institutional-quality offerings. CrowdStreet technology allows sponsors to raise capital through online syndication and manage their investors, both on the Marketplace and with a SaaS solution. CrowdStreet is helping to create a community where individual accredited investors and CRE firms can work together to build wealth through commercial real estate. For more information, please visit www.crowdstreet.com. PR Contacts: Melissa Hourigan (National) Fabric Media [email protected] 720-608-1919 Cary Brazeman (Real Estate) CRELIX Marketing [email protected] 310-205-3590 *Results are based on realized transactions to date, based on information provided to CrowdStreet by the sponsors of the investment or other sources. Due to the fact that CrowdStreet was formed in 2014 and many investments have an expected holding period that is longer than the period during which CrowdStreet has been in existence, the information above may not be an accurate representation of overall performance of investments on the Marketplace. Furthermore, if a project is not performing well, realization may be delayed. Past performance is not indicative of future results. You should not invest unless you can sustain the risk of full loss of capital. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/crowdstreet-crosses-500-million-invested-online-in-commercial-real-estate-deals-300834458.html SOURCE CrowdStreet [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Eaze and Code for America Announce First-of-its-Kind Partnership to Help Clear 250,000 Criminal Records In celebration of the 4/20 holiday, cannabis platform Eaze and Code for America today announced a first-of-its kind partnership to help clear 250,000 criminal records through the nonprofit's Clear My Record program. To kick off the partnership, Eaze will donate $4.20 for every delivery on April 20, up to $100,000, to Code for America's "Justice at Scale" campaign to support the clearance of an estimated 250,000 low-level, drug-related criminal records. Eaze and Code for America will also explore ways the company can provide engineering support to clear millions of low-level records across the United States. The partnership gives Eaze customers the ability to help address widely-acknowledged errors from the War on Drugs and reduce the negative impact of cannabis-related convictions while celebrating legal cannabis during 4/20 week. "Technology can help address the devastating impact of the War on Drugs," said Jennifer Lujan, Director of Social Impact at Eaze. "Partnering with Code for America has an immediate impact, and is just one way we can all work together to create an equitable and sustainable industry." Code for America's Clear My Record technology opens the door to automatic record clearance at scale. Using the tol, governments are now able to read criminal records and determine eligibility for thousands of convictions in just a few minutes, as opposed to weeks, months, or even years. In California, Code for America is focused on the hundreds of thousands of individuals eligible for expungement under Proposition 64; beyond that, Code for America is focused on helping millions of people nationally get a fresh start. "Millions of Americans are eligible to clear their records, but the process of record clearance is complicated and costly," said Evonne Silva, Senior Director, Criminal Justice and Workforce Development, at Code for America. "Our partnership with Eaze will help open the door to jobs, housing and opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Californians by making record clearance automatic." Eaze's social impact efforts include partnerships with Oakland's Hood Incubator and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, $1 million to support the Bay Area's cannabis industry, and an ongoing 25% discount for all U.S. veterans. ABOUT EAZE Eaze and Eaze Wellness are cannabis marketplaces that connect adult consumers with licensed retailers and products. We are on a mission to enhance safe access to legal cannabis, educate people about cannabis as a tool for wellness, and drive smart cannabis policies. Learn more at www.eaze.com/about. ABOUT CODE FOR AMERICA Code for America believes government must work for the people and by the people in the digital age, starting with the people who need it most. They build digital services that enhance government capabilities and help others do the same across all levels of government. Code for America has goals of clearing 250,000 eligible convictions nationwide by the end of the 2019 and a 21st century government that effectively and equitably serves All Americans. For more information about Code for America, go to codeforamerica.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005169/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Engagedly Partners with Purdue University Global To Provide Tuition Benefit to Its Clients Engagedly, the St. Louis-based leader in performance management and employee engagement software, today announced a partnership agreement with Purdue University (News - Alert) Global that provides a tuition benefit program for its own employees and those employed by its more than 250 client organizations. The partnership aligns with Engagedly's mission to develop people and strengthen workforce skills training. While helping clients measure employee performance, the company also is supporting their business success by offering their employees tuition assistance toward educational advancement and a college degree. Among the firm's clients are Experian, Signature Bank, Chick-fil-A, Meltwater and YWCA. Purdue Global, a public, nonprofit online institution of higher education, specializes in serving the needs of working adult learners, offering associate's, bachelor's and master's degree programs including business, information technology, cybersecurity, accounting and finance. "Many organizations focus on recruiting new talent, but we want to help support the development of the resources they already have," said Sri Chellappa, President of Engagedly. "We are passionate about continuous employee performance improvement and engagement. We believe this tuition benefit will support employees in the pursuit of expanding their skill set, earning their degrees and advancing in their careers. As their performance improves, our clients will improve along with them. Our partnership with Purdue Global fits with our thesis of employee development for the digital generation." Chaellappa said Engagedly chose to partner with Purdue Global because of its demonstrated ability to help working adults acquire and apply knowledge, skills and abilities while earning their degrees conveniently, affordably and quickly. Dr. Betty Vandenbosch, chancellor of Purdue University Global, said, "We're proud to partner with an industry leader like Engagedly and help their clients with their performance goals by providing their employees with the skills they need to succeed. We're confident in our ability to provide an excellent student experience and to support each employee in their journey to professional growth." Vandenbosch said Purdue Global is well-positioned to help organizations of all sizes create education benefit programs to accommodate employees' busy schedules, built on real-world requirements, enabling adult students to learn at their own pace and in many cases receive college credits for previous work experience. About Engagedly Engagedly is a leading global provider of performance management and employee engagement software and services based in St. Louis, MO with offices in India, Australia and the UK. Engagedly's platform contains many features, such as Goal Setting, Manager Feedback, Peer Praise, Idea Generation, Knowledge Sharing/eLearning, Rewards, Objectives Alignment (OKR) & Social Performance. The extremely customizable and user-friendly interface is perfect for any company looking to better engage employees and increase performance. About Purdue University Global Purdue University Global is the extreme personalization online university, providing students the competitive edge to advance in their chosen careers. It offers a hyper-tailored path for students to earn an associate's, bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree, based on their work experience, desired pace, military service, previous college credits, and other considerations - no matter where they are in their life journey. Purdue Global serves approximately 29,000 students, most of whom earn their degree online. It also operates 14 locations in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Maryland, Maine, Missouri and Wisconsin. Purdue Global is a nonprofit, public university accredited by The Higher Learning Commission. It is affiliated with Purdue University's flagship institution, a highly ranked public research university located in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue University also operates two regional campuses in Fort Wayne and Northwest, Indiana, as well as serving close to 6,000 science, engineering and technology students at the Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI) Indianapolis campus. For more information about Purdue Global, please visit www.PurdueGlobal.edu. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005419/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] GetSwift Welcomes Finality of Only One Class Action GetSwift Limited (ASX: GSW) ('GetSwift' or the 'Company'), announced on 17 April 2019, the High Court of Australia dismissed an application filed by Squire Patton (News - Alert) Boggs (AU) for special leave to appeal the decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. On 20 November 2018, the Full Court upheld the judgment of the Court at first instance, holding that only one class action should proceed. That proceeding was the Webb Proceeding. As a result of the High Court's decision, the judgment of the Full Court is now final and only the Webb class action proceeds. In dismissing the application for leave, the High Court ordered the costs against the party bringing the application, such that the Company will recover some of the costs associated with the application for leave. Separately, the Federal Court has determined that the Webb proceeding and the ASIC proceeding will be heard consecutively, and the ASIC proceeding will be heard first, commencing in June 2020. he trial in the Webb proceeding is now scheduled to commence after the ASIC proceeding has concluded and presently will not start before 17 August 2020. The Company maintains its claim in the Webb proceedings that at least Squire Patton Boggs (AU) are a concurrent wrongdoer, by virtue of which the Company says any liability against the Company ought to be reduced. As previously advised, the Company strongly disputes the allegations made against it, including any alleged loss, and is vigorously defending the proceedings. The Company will continue to robustly pursue all legal options to protect shareholder interests. The Company will continue to keep shareholders informed of developments. About GetSwift Limited Technology to Optimise Global Delivery Logistics GetSwift is a worldwide leader in delivery management automation. From enterprise to hyper-local, businesses across dozens of industries around the globe depend on our SaaS (News - Alert) platform to bring visibility, accountability, efficiency and savings to their supply chain and "Last Mile" operations. GetSwift is headquartered in New York City and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:GSW). For further background, please visit GetSwift.co. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005449/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] SANS Targets Zero Day Attacks at Denver Cyber Security Training Event BETHESDA, Md., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SANS Institute, the global leader in cyber security training and certifications, today announced SANS Rocky Mountain 2019 (#SANSRockyMountain) taking place July 15-20 in Denver, CO. The event features courses and evening talks addressing some of today's most complex cyber security issues. Included on the agenda is a keynote by SANS Fellow and Enclave Forensics COO David Hoelzer (@it_audit) "Finding Attacks and Compromises Before Day Zero." Hoelzer explained, "At Enclave, we are constantly dealing with customers who are reacting to breaches and other 'zero day' threats where the attackers have been active in their systems for months. In our opinion, a major reason that this continues to be the normal state for information security is that while, as an industry, we have claimed to embrace Defense-In-Depth, the latest iteration of which is Zero-Trust Networking, we fail to act as though we actually believe in this security practice. This talk will start with the assumption that we will be, or already have been, breached. I'll cover meaningful tools and activities that we can engage in now to significantly move the needle when it comes to detecting and reacting. In other words, we're going to talk about finding the unknown zero-day threats before zero-day arrives." In addition to his evening talk, Hoelzer will teach SEC503: Intrusion Detction In-Depth. This course delivers the technical knowledge, insight, and hands-on training security professionals need to defend a network with confidence. Students will learn about the underlying theory of TCP/IP and the most used application protocols, such as DNS and HTTP. The knowledge gained will help students to intelligently examine network traffic for signs of an intrusion. SANS Rocky Mountain 2019 features courses covering cyber defense, ethical hacking, penetration testing, cloud security, digital forensics, and security management. In addition to SANS classroom training, attendees can test their security skills at the Core NetWars Experience, DFIR NetWars Tournament, and the Cyber Defense NetWars Tournament. For a complete list of courses and evening talks, or to register for SANS Rocky Mountain 2019, visit: https://www.sans.org/rocky-mountain-2019 About SANS Institute The SANS Institute was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. SANS is the most trusted and, by far, the largest provider of cyber security training and certification to professionals at governments and commercial institutions world-wide. Renowned SANS instructors teach over 60 different courses at more than 200 live cyber security training events as well as online. GIAC, an affiliate of the SANS Institute, validates a practitioner's qualifications via over 30 hands-on, technical certifications in cyber security. The SANS Technology Institute, a regionally accredited independent subsidiary, offers master's degrees in cyber security. SANS offers a myriad of free resources to the InfoSec community including consensus projects, research reports, and newsletters; it also operates the Internet's early warning system--the Internet Storm Center. At the heart of SANS are the many security practitioners, representing varied global organizations from corporations to universities, working together to help the entire information security community. (https://www.sans.org) View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sans-targets-zero-day-attacks-at-denver-cyber-security-training-event-300834674.html SOURCE SANS Institute [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Tenable Integrates with Google Cloud Security Command Center COLUMBIA, Md., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tenable, Inc. , the Cyber Exposure company, today announced the integration of Tenable.io for vulnerability management in the Cloud with Google Cloud Security Command Center (Cloud SCC). This provides organizations with enhanced visibility into their cloud assets, both public and private, delivered via a single dashboard. Cloud-focused organizations can now confidently manage Cyber Exposure across the entire modern attack surface and reduce cyber risk in their environments. Cloud SCC is a security management and data risk platform for Google Cloud Platform (GCP), that helps security professionals gain visibility and control over their cloud resources and detect and respond to threats. Data collected by Tenable.io is fed into Cloud SCC via Tenables GCP asset connector, giving security teams a unified view of all cloud-based assets in their environments. Security teams can now mitigate threats to cloud resources by effectively identifying ephemeral assets with the connector and feeding that information into the platform to assess for vulnerabilities. Tenabl is committed to helping organizations embrace the benefits of the cloud in a secure fashion, said Ray Komar, vice president of technical alliances, Tenable. Our expanded partnership with Google Cloud will provide security teams with holistic visibility that reflects live changes in digital workloads. This is a critical first step in practicing Cyber Exposure and a cornerstone of modern business. Tenable.io is a core component of the Tenable Cyber Exposure platform, which uniquely provides the breadth of visibility into cyber risk across IT, cloud, IoT and OT environments and the depth of analytics to measure and communicate cyber risk in business terms to make better strategic decisions. Tenable.io has won a number of industry awards, including Best Vulnerability Management Solution at the 2019 SC Awards, Best Vulnerability Management Solution at the 2018 SC Awards Europe, Best Security Software and Most Innovative Security Product from the Info Security Product Guide's 2018 Global Excellence Awards. For more information about the Tenable.io connector for Google Cloud SCC, visit the Google Cloud SCC Services Marketplace . About Tenable Tenable, Inc. is the Cyber Exposure company. Over 27,000 organizations around the globe rely on Tenable to understand and reduce cyber risk. As the creator of Nessus, Tenable extended its expertise in vulnerabilities to deliver the worlds first platform to see and secure any digital asset on any computing platform. Tenable customers include more than 50 percent of the Fortune 500, more than 25 percent of the Global 2000 and large government agencies. Learn more at www.tenable.com . Contact Information: Cayla Baker [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Government of Canada invests in clean technology and Indigenous economic growth in British Columbia VANCOUVER, April 18, 2019 /CNW/ - The forestry sector is an important part of Western Canada's economy and creates jobs, business, and export opportunities, especially in rural and Indigenous communities. Today, the Honourable Joyce Murray, President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD), announced a combined total of more than $4 million towards two projects that will stimulate economic growth and is expected to create more than 300 jobs through innovations in the forestry sector. The University of British Columbia (UBC) will receive $2.38 million towards the research and testing of clean technologies that generate renewable natural gas (RNG) from forest residues. This project will use clean technology to produce affordable fuel that can be used to power pulp mills or sold to export markets. The project is expected to create 238 jobs as mills adopt innovative RNG technology. FPInnovations' Indigenous Forest Technical Support Program will receive $1.65 million to improve the competitiveness of Indigenous businesses in the forestry sector. Funding will help Indigenous forestry companies facing technical, human or financial resource challenges to gain expertise and knowledge through practical plant visits and workshops. The project aims to enhance their opportunities for success, and is expected to create 100 new jobs and maintain 300 existing jobs. These and other emerging technologies and business processes offer new ways of generating social, economic, and environmental value for Canadians from our forest resources. Canada's Innovation and Skills Plan aims to build an economy in which Canadians have access to high-quality jobs and Canadian businesses are well-placed to participate in a rapidly evolving and competitive global marketplace. Quick Facts In 2016, the forestry sector exported $13.7 billion worth of products, accounting for 34 per cent of all provincial exports. Over 80 per cent of Indigenous communities are in forested areas. UBC anticipates that the sector will benefit from $84 million in additional revenue as pulp mills retrofit operations to adopt RNG production. FPInnovations anticipates that the project will attract $10 million in new capital investment for manufacturing capacity. Quotes "The Government of Canada is laying the foundation for Canadians to become more competitive and succeed in the global economy. Today's investments in the University of British Columbia and FPInnovations build on our competitive advantages and will result in a more robust forestry sector, boosting economic growth, and creating good, middle-class jobs for Canadians." -The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada "British Columbia's forestry sector is one of our economic strengths and supports middle class jobs across the province. We're investing to support the sector through clean technology initiatives, Indigenous inclusion and sector sustainability will help ensure that the industry continues to thrive and prosper for generations to come." -The Honourable Joyce Murray, President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government "B.C.'s forests have tremendous potential as a source of clean, renewable materials and energy as well as jobs, and UBC is supporting the BC Pulp and Paper Bio-Alliance to achieve that vision. This new investment will accelerate the research and testing that is bringing that vision to life and ultimately help achieve carbon reduction targets for B.C. and Canada." -Professor Santa J. Ono, UBC President and Vice-Chancellor "FPInnovations welcomes the commitment of Western Economic Diversification Canada and the Province of B.C. in supporting the sustainable growth of Indigenous forest sector businesses by co-funding FPInnovations' Indigenous Forest Sector Technical Support Program. Furthermore, FPInnovations is proud to contribute toward solving environmental challenges through the development of new clean technologies." -Stephane Renou, President and Chief Executive Officer, FPInnovations Additional Links The University of British Columbia UBC BioProducts Institute FPInnovations West at a Glance Summer 2018 Clean Technology Toward a Western Canada Growth Strategy Stay Connected Follow us on Twitter: @WD_Canada, @ISED_CA WD Homepage WD Toll-Free Number: 1-888-338-WEST (9378) TTY (telecommunications device for the hearing impaired): 1-877-303-3388 IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ANY PRINTED VERSION AND THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, THE ELECTRONIC VERSION WILL PREVAIL SOURCE Western Economic Diversification Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] The Landing Announces a New Level of Living SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A Peak Experience There's an effortlessness at The Landing that comes from connection to one of San Francisco's original neighborhoods, to a variety of commute options just blocks away. A sense of purpose born out of thoughtful design. Where the day begins with rooftop yoga at sunrise over the Bay and ends with stargazing after work. Currently under construction and slated to officially open in May 2019, The Landing is a mid-rise, with 263-residences and built into the landscape of Potrero Hill at the corner of 22nd and Texas Streets. The building offers one-, two- and three-bedroom residences as well as a full suite of amenities and services that make home to work to home again a seamless affair. Connected to the Creative Pulse Located just 2 blocks from the 22nd Street Caltrain station, the Muni Metro Light rail, and main freeway entrances, The Landing is well poised for a carefree commute. Oracle Park and Chase Arena are just a quick uber away. Countless new-wave restaurants, bars, and coffee shops feed cravings nearby at all hours of the day and night. In nearby Mission Bay, some of the city's largest employers are just a quick ride north. Airbnb Friendly As an exclusive perk, The Landing will allow residents the opportunity to share their homes on Airbnb up to 90 days, with helpful tools to do so thrugh the building's own native app. "Home sharing is happening all over the city and at The Landing we want to ensure that it is easy for our residents and their guests," explains Roman Speron, Align Residential's President. "We believe our unique partnership with Airbnb will offset the costs of living for residents, allowing for more leisure time and savings so that our residents can travel themselves more freely." Next Level Living One of San Francisco's longest buildings at 600 feet in length, The Landing offers residents a private, half-acre rooftop park along with an array of amenities that add up to one seriously elevated personal refuge. Think 24-hour functional training and HIIT Fitness center, instructed fitness classes, co-working space and a private coding room, and an interactive gaming and theatre lounge. Additional on-site services will include fee based housekeeping, dry cleaning, dog walking, pet grooming and more. Visit us at https://thelandingsf.com/. Jennie Fix (530) 680-6292 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-landing-announces-a-new-level-of-living-300834711.html SOURCE The Landing [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Arizona's Element Wheels Honored by Newsweek as Newsweek America's Best Companies for Customer Service 2019 CHANDLER, Ariz., April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Newsweek Media Group, in partnership with analytics from Statista, is proud to announce that Element Wheels of Chandler Arizona has been named to Newsweek's inaugural 2019 list of America's Best Companies for Customer Service in the category of Tire and Wheel Manufacturer's (Online). America's Best Companies for Customer Service were selected based on an Independent survey from a vast sample of more than 20,000 U.S. customers who have either made purchases, used services, or gathered information about products or services in the past three years. Customers were asked whether they would recommend brands to friends or family; they were also asked to assess brands in the following areas: quality of communications, technical competence, range of services, customer focus, and accessibility. A tota of 132,954 customer evaluations were collected. Robert Chang, Owner and President of Element Wheels said, "We are so honored to receive this award noting Element Wheels as one of America's Best Companies for Customer Service among online tire and wheel manufacturers. Our promise to our customers, since 2003, has been to offer them uncompromising customer service, the largest selection of aftermarket wheels, and the most intuitive site to simply find a nice set of custom wheels for any passenger vehicle on four wheels." Element Wheels offers more than 300 models of stock and custom wheels, concave wheels, staggered wheels for cars and trucks and for any budget. Element Wheels also offers the convenience of fast and free shipping on all custom wheels and tire packages anywhere in the U.S. Media Contact: Robert Chang, Owner/President, Element Wheels, 2125 N. Nevada St., Chandler, AZ 85225 USA, 480-966-9044. Web: www.elementwheels.com Email: [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arizonas-element-wheels-honored-by-newsweek-as-newsweek-americas-best-companies-for-customer-service-2019-300834749.html SOURCE Element Wheels [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Government of Canada invests in clean technology for greenhouse pest management SDTC investment will help greenhouse tomato growers increase crop yields NORTH VANCOUVER, BC, April 18, 2019 /CNW/ - A strong economy and a clean environment go hand in hand. That's why the Government of Canada is supporting the development of technologies that lead to less pollution, healthier communities and the creation of well-paying middle-class jobs. The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, announced an investment of $3 million to increase the crop yield of greenhouse growers. This investment in Ecoation Innovative Solutions Inc. supports an autonomous AI-powered platform for pest management and yield prediction technology that will increase the crop yield of greenhouse tomato growers while reducing spoilage and eliminating the need for pesticides. Ecoation's technology uses autonomous robots, light and laser-based chemical measurement and machine learning to detect early signs of stress in plants in large-scale farms and greenhouses. This technology allows growers to find and fix their crop problems faster. It will also result in lower greenhouse gas emissions and chemical consumption. This project received investment and support from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), which helps Canadian entrepreneurs accelerate the development and deployment of globally competitive clean technology solutions. This investment will contribute to maintaining 25 jobs at Ecoation and creating 23 additional ones. Investments in clean technology are part of the Government's Innovation and Skills Plan, a multi-year strategy to position Canada as a global leader in innovation and create good middle-class jobs right across the country. Quotes "We are boosting growth in Canada's clean technology sector to foster the growth of Canadian technologies and companies. The technology developed by Ecoation will have a positive economic and environmental impact on the ever-growing farming industry." "The future of innovation is in clean technology. There are opportunities to make money and create jobs in industries all across Canada. That's why the government is making clean tech a priority. We are securing Canada's international leadership position today so all Canadians can reap the benefits of this fast-growing market now and into the future." The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development "With a rapidly increasing demand for food production, farmers are actively seeking environmentally and economically beneficial ways to increase crop yield. SDTC is investing in Ecoation's technology because it provides greenhouse growers with a chemical-free means of improving their yields through early plant-stress detection." Leah Lawrence, President and CEO, Sustainable Development Technologies Canada "At Ecoation, we believe access to clean food is a human right. Our made-in-Canada technology democratizes healthy eating. Our platform captures and digitizes the knowledge of growers and translates the signals of stressed plants before symptoms become visible. We use robotics and AI to expand growers' presence and push their knowledge beyond the boundaries of time and geography. Through this platform, we can pinpoint issues at the earliest stages and eliminate the need for pesticide applications. Ecoation merges the art and science of food production. We are extremely honoured to receive this investment, which will enable us to take our Canadian technology to the global stage while creating more jobs and opportunities here in Canada." Dr. Saber Miresmailli, Founder and CEO, Ecoation Innovative Solutions Inc. "The information gathered by the Ecoation robot would be extremely helpful for increasing efficiency and reducing risks within our operations in Delta. We would highly endorse this as being a valuable project for the future sustainability and profitability of the greenhouse industry in Canada." Casey Houweling, Proprietor, Houweling Greenhouses Quick facts The world is taking notice of Canada's clean technology leadership: 12 Canadian companies were recently recognized on the 2019 Global Cleantech 100 list. Of those, 10 have received support from Sustainable Development Technology Canada. That's 10% of the world's leading clean tech companies. clean technology leadership: 12 Canadian companies were recently recognized on the 2019 Global Cleantech 100 list. Of those, 10 have received support from Sustainable Development Technology Canada. That's 10% of the world's leading clean tech companies. According to the BC Greenhouse Growers' Association, growers lose up to 10% of their crops to pests and diseases each year. Ecoation's technology enables growers to find and fix their crop problems faster, minimize loss and gather more insight about their crops, thereby increasing yield. The technology also enables more robust yield prediction that further reduces spoilage and brings economic benefits to growers. SDTC has invested over $1 billion in more than 300 companies, creating 12,000 well-paying jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 13.8 megatonnes annually. in more than 300 companies, creating 12,000 well-paying jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 13.8 megatonnes annually. Budget 2017 set aside more than $2.3 billion to boost growth in Canada's clean tech space. That's the largest public investment ever committed to this area in Canada . to boost growth in clean tech space. That's the largest public investment ever committed to this area in . Clean tech companies can get advice from a team of experts from across government through the Clean Growth Hub. The Hub provides a single, easy point of contact for connecting with clean technology programs and services. Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on Twitter: @ISED_CA Follow Sustainable Development Technology Canada on Twitter: @SDTC_TDDC SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Bell Canada issues layoff notices while outsourcing Wireless to the Home project TORONTO, April 18, 2019 /CNW/ - Unifor cries foul at Bell Canada's decision to layoff technicians and outsource major Wireless to the Home project. "By issuing layoff notices with one hand and contracting out work with the other, Bell is continuing its long history of job erosion at Bell Canada," said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. "The launch of a program like Wireless to the Home should be good news for people who work at Bell, but instead the company chose to exclusively hire non-union contractors." On Thursday, April 18, 2019, 76 technicians received layoff notices from Bell Canada across Ontario and Quebec. Bell's Wireless to the Home project is a large-scale investment connecting rural Cnadians with wireless high-speed internet, launching first in Ontario and Quebec. The federal government provides funding to Bell for many rural projects, likely including this one. Federal government investment needs to support good jobs. "Canada's telecommunications sector should support good jobs, where you don't have to worry if your job will be outsourced or eliminated even in times when the company is thriving," said Renaud Gagne, Unifor Quebec Director. "All Canadians should have access to high-quality and affordable internet services, but there is no reason why Unifor members can't lead the way in getting Canadians connected." Employees of Bell Canada and Bell subsidiaries have long campaigned for fairness and respect at work, against contracting out and other forms of job erosion. The union is currently preparing to launch a campaign that in part is focused on opposing the contracting out of the Wireless to the Home project, to ensure the long-term viability of good jobs in the telecommunications sector. Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future. SOURCE Unifor [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] SchoolMint Becomes Software Answers Certified Partner, Providing Families and Administrators with End-to-End Integrated Enrollment Management Solutions SchoolMint and Software Answers are pleased to announce that they have formed a strategic partnership. School organizations will now be able to take full advantage of SchoolMint's end-to-end student enrollment platform and the Software Answers student information system. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005649/en/ Ohio K-12 school organizations will benefit from SchoolMint's comprehensive suite of strategic enrollment management solutions that streamline School Choice, Application + Lottery management, and the student registration processes for administrators and families alike. Stakeholders and participants in the enrollment processes will experience optimization of data for SchoolMint's award-winning software platform through a direct API system integration with Software Answers, ensuring enrollment data is transferred securely and seamlessly between systems. "We are excited to be a certified partner for Software Answers. The rigorous certification process our team completed was met with high marks and accolades from our new partner and we look forward to joining them in serving the K-12 community in the Buckeye state with best-in-class solutions," commented Jinal Jhaveri, CEO at SchoolMint. "We are excited about the ne partnership we have with SchoolMint. The features the system offers for application and lottery management are exactly what our customers are looking for," said Paul Chaffee, President at Software Answers. "They provide an excellent service that helps school districts better meet the needs of their student population." About SchoolMint SchoolMint Inc. is dedicated to helping educators create bright, sustainable futures. Serving over 4 million students and more than 10,000 schools across the country, SchoolMint is the leading K-12 provider of solutions for strategic enrollment management, student behavior improvement - HeroK12, and school safety - SureWatch. SchoolMint is transforming application & lottery management, registration/re-enrollment, tardy tracking, and positive behavior reinforcement to make school operations more efficient and fiscally sound. With products that put the family experience first, while generating powerful insights, the company is helping all schools across the K-12 landscape attract, enroll, and engage students. Their industry-leading SchoolFinder and Common App products are bringing equity to school choice and search, and their innovative solutions are making unified enrollment, school climate, and culture improvement, and other student-centric ideals possible. SchoolMint is backed by BV Investment Partners and has U.S. offices in San Francisco, Miami, and New York. Learn more at SchoolMint.com. About Software Answers Software Answers, innovators of ProgressBook, is a premier provider of solutions that support student/classroom management and academic achievement for K-12 school districts. The ProgressBook Suite serves the entire school community-administrators, teachers, students, and parents-with six fully-integrated modules. ProgressBook Suite includes the following applications: StudentInformation, GradeBook, ParentAccess, SpecialServices, DataMap, and VirtualClassroom. ProgressBook is used by more than 740 school districts nationwide and more than 75% of the Ohio public schools. The company is headquartered in Brecksville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. For more information, visit www.ProgressBook.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005649/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Announces Investigation on Behalf of Party City Holdco Inc. Investors (PRTY) Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces its investigation on behalf of Party City Holdco Inc. (NYSE: PRTY) investors concerning the Company and its directors' and officers' possible violations of state laws. If you purchased Party City stock, would like to lern 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 888-773-9244 or Garth Spencer, of GPM, 230 Park Avenue, Suite 530, New York, NY 10169 at [email protected] or at 212-682-5340. 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/20190418005746/en/ [April 18, 2019] Canada and B.C. to bring clean energy to the Peace Region VANCOUVER, April 18, 2019 /CNW/ - Investing in infrastructure that brings clean electricity to Canadian businesses, including those in remote and northern communities, helps create good middle-class jobs, a low-carbon economy and greener communities. The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Natural Resources, on behalf of the Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, was joined by the Honourable John Horgan, Premier of British Columbia, and Chris O'Riley, president and chief operating officer of BC Hydro, to announce federal funding for the Peace Region Electricity Supply (PRES) project. Electricity demand in the South Peace Region is increasing due to natural gas exploration and development. To meet current and future demand, BC Hydro will expand the existing transmission infrastructure by building two parallel 230 kilovolt power lines between the future Site C Substation near Fort St John and the existing Groundbirch Substation, located about 30 kilometres east of Chetwynd. Once complete, industries and businesses in the Peace Region will have access to a cleaner supply of energy to power their operations, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 2.6 megatonnes per year. The Government of Canada is providing up to $83.6 million for this project through the Investing in Canada Plan, while BC Hydro is providing the remaining $205.4 million. Quotes "Transitioning to cleaner electricity is essential to protecting the environment, creating more sustainable communities and building a clean future for our kids and grandkids. This important project will encourage Canadian businesses to transition to renewable energy, boosting the economic growth in the Peace Region and promoting a greener way of life for all British Columbians." The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Natural Resources, on behalf of the Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities "Working with our federal partners, we are delivering the clean energy communities, businesses and industry need, while meeting our CleanBC goals. This investment helps B.C. build a low-carbon economy that includes all sectors and provides more opportunities for people." The Honourable John Horgan, Premier of British Columbia "We know the gas industry is a primary driver for electricity demand in the South Peace Region. The PRES project will ensure we can reliably provide electricity to our industrial customers who want to powe their facilities with clean energy significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions." Chris O'Riley, President and Chief Operating Officer of BC Hydro Quick facts Budget 2019, Investing in the Middle Class , is the federal government's plan to create more well-paying jobs, put home ownership within reach for more Canadians, help working people get the training they need to succeed, support seniors and lay the foundation for national pharmacare , is the federal government's plan to create more well-paying jobs, put home ownership within reach for more Canadians, help working people get the training they need to succeed, support seniors and lay the foundation for national pharmacare With many municipalities across Canada facing serious infrastructure deficits, Budget 2019 includes a one-time top-up of $2.2 billion to the federal Gas Tax Fund to help address short-term priorities in municipalities and First Nations communities. facing serious infrastructure deficits, Budget 2019 includes a one-time top-up of to the federal Gas Tax Fund to help address short-term priorities in municipalities and First Nations communities. The federal Budget 2019 builds on the Investing in Canada Plan, under which the Government of Canada is investing more than $180 billion over 12 years in community infrastructure across the country. Plan, under which the Government of is investing more than over 12 years in community infrastructure across the country. $26.9 billion of this funding is supporting green infrastructure projects, including $5 billion available for investment through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. of this funding is supporting green infrastructure projects, including $5 billion available for investment through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Investing in green infrastructure that helps communities cope with the intensifying effects of climate change is an integral part of Canada's transition to a more resilient, low-carbon economy, which is among the commitments made under the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. transition to a more resilient, low-carbon economy, which is among the commitments made under the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. Helping industry move to clean, renewable energy, like hydroelectricity, is part of the CleanBC climate action plan to power B.C.'s growing economy and make life better for everyone. The LNG Canada project will generate $23 billion in government revenues bringing new resources for health care, schools, child care and services for the people of B.C. It will create up to 10,000 jobs for people during construction and 950 permanent jobs in Northern B.C. once operations are underway. in government revenues bringing new resources for health care, schools, child care and services for the people of B.C. It will create up to 10,000 jobs for people during construction and 950 permanent jobs in Northern B.C. once operations are underway. BC Hydro anticipates opportunities for apprentices working on the project and procurement opportunities for small-to-medium-sized businesses. The project will also provide social and economic benefits for Indigenous groups through training, employment and procurement opportunities. 98% of the power generated by BC Hydro is clean, renewable energy. Associated links Investing in Canada Plan Project Map: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/map Federal infrastructure investments in British Columbia: https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/investments-2002-investissements/bc-eng.html Investing in Canada: Canada's Long-Term Infrastructure Plan: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/icp-publication-pic-eng.html CleanBC: https://cleanbc.gov.bc.ca/ Peace Region Electricity Supply: https://www.bchydro.com/energy-in-bc/projects/pres.html Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Web: Infrastructure Canada SOURCE Infrastructure Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] MarineMax to Webcast Fiscal Second Quarter 2019 Results MarineMax, Inc. (NYSE: HZO), the nation's largest recreational boat and yacht retailer, today announced that the Company will hold a webcast to review its second quarter of fiscal 2019 results on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. To access the webcast, please visit the investor relations section of the Company's web site: http://www.marinemax.com. The on-line replay will be available for a limited time beginning within one hour of the conclusion of the call. The Company will release its second quarter of fiscal 2019 financial results prior to the market open on Thursday, April 25, 2019. During the call, it is possibe that the Company may make public disclosure of material nonpublic information and may make forward-looking statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and financial condition. About MarineMax Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, MarineMax is the nation's largest recreational boat and yacht retailer. Focused on premium brands, such as Sea Ray, Boston Whaler, Hatteras, Azimut Yachts, Ocean Alexander, Galeon, Grady-White, Harris, Bennington, Crest, MasterCraft, NauticStar, Scout, Sailfish, Scarab Jet Boats, Tige, Yamaha (News - Alert) Jet Boats, Aquila, Aviara, and Nautique, MarineMax sells new and used recreational boats and related marine products and services as well as provides yacht brokerage and charter services. MarineMax currently has 67 retail locations in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Texas and operates MarineMax Vacations in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. MarineMax is a New York Stock Exchange-listed company. For more information, please visit www.marinemax.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190418005670/en/ [April 18, 2019] Japan Plant Factory Association Announces Innovative approach to sustainability with Plant factories with artificial lighting (PFAL) NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Plant Factory is a facility that aids the steady production of high-quality vegetables all year round by artificially controlling the cultivation environment (e.g., light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and culture solution), allowing growers to plan production. Japan leads the world in the cutting-edge technology contained in plant factories and it continues to motivate entrepreneurs and start-ups. In the book "Smart Plant Factory: The next generation indoor vertical farms," Toyoki Kozai has tried to provide readers with an accurate understanding of plant factories. The book presents an overview of the role of plant factories in the 21st century. Furthermore, it comprises of a lucid description of the concept, characteristics, methodology, design, management, business, recent advances and future technologies of plant factories with artificial lighting (PFAL) and indoor vertical farms. According to the Shift, indoor farming is the future of urban farming as it allows vertical farms that grow all crops, in any place, at any time. It has been observed that there is an emerging interest around the globe in smart PFAL R&D and business and this book tries to cover smart solutions in PFAL et al. In another book, "Light-Emitting Diodes, the readers can gain insight into the latest theories, technologies, and applications of LEDs based on III-V semiconductor materials. Jinmin Li and G.Q. Zhang describe the latest developments of LEDs with spectral coverage from ultra-violet (UV) to the entire visible light wavelength. The book is a highly recommended read for all the researchers and students working with semiconductors, optoelectronics, and optics. It delves into the various novel ways LEDs can be used, for example, the benefits of LEDs in healthcare and wellbeing or the innovative solutions LEDs can provide in horticulture and animal breeding. The foreword of the book is written by Hiroshi Amano, one of the 2014 winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on light-emitting diodes. Overall, the book is an interesting, thought-provoking read. In a research paper, "Benefits, problems, and challenges of plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs), T. Kozai has discussed the potential and actualized benefits of the PFAL, the current unresolved problems of PFALs and the challenges for the smart PFAL. According to the Kozai, the global and local trilemma on foods, resources, and environment can be solved with the help of PFALs. According to Kozai et al., the benefits of the PFAL are high resource-use efficiency (RUE), high annual productivity per unit land area, and the production of high-quality plants without using pesticides. However, high initial investment, electricity, and labor costs remain a challenge which has further led to a limited number of profitable PFALs. Kozai suggests that it is vital to understand the concepts behind the benefits and the methodology before designing and operating a PFAL to actualize the potential benefits of the PFAL. In addition to the above, a considerable amount of systematic research, development, and marketing with the appropriate vision, mission, strategy, and methodologies is also crucial. The research on PFALs shows that actualization of potential benefits is relatively easy compared to a greenhouse in which the energy and material balance and the plant-environment relationship is much more complex. Hence, the straightforward approach with respect to the PFAL is helpful. Press Contact: Amy R Fife +6567621498 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/japan-plant-factory-association-announces-innovative-approach-to-sustainability-with-plant-factories-with-artificial-lighting-pfal-300834967.html SOURCE Toyoki Kozai [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] NASA Recognizes Apollo 10's 50th Anniversary Through Long-Lasting Partnerships HOUSTON, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA's Johnson Space Center, in collaboration with Space Center Houston, its official visitor center, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 10 mission on Thursday, April 25, with a day of activities capitalizing on the mission's unique call sign for the Lunar Lander of Snoopy. Media are invited to attend the unveiling of a specially designed Peanuts art installation in front of Space Center Houston at Talon Park (under the T-38 astronaut training aircraft) with the Snoopy character in attendance. Apollo 10 was the fourth human mission in the Apollo program, and the second to orbit the Moon. Launching May 18, 1969, it served as a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing, testing all of the components and procedures, enabling the Apollo 11 landing two months later. The Apollo command module used the call sign of the Peanuts cartoon character Charlie Brown, while the lunar module was named for his dog and sidekick, Snoopy. Apollo 10 Commander Tom Stafford, Lunar Module Pilot Gene Cernan and Command Module Pilot John Young adopted the Peanuts characters as Apollo 10's semi-official mascots. The association led to a decades-long award of distinction for employees who have contributed significantly to human spaceflight safety, known as the Silver Snoopy Award. NASA and Peanuts Worldwide once again are joining forces to collaborate on educational activities that share the excitement of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with a new generation of explorers and thinkers. The collaboration, formalized though a Space Act Agreement, provides an opportunity to update the Snoopy character by Charles M. Schulz, for space-themed programing with content about NASA's deep space exploration missions, 50 years after its initial collaboration began during the Apollo era. Activities at Space Center Houston begin Thursday morning, and will include launch of the Peanuts Global Artist Collective, the unveiling of "The Heavens and the Earth," art installation featuring a retired International Space Station (ISS) training module mockup wrapped in an original Charlie Brown and Snoopy motif created by renowned artist Kenny Scharf. Students and the public will be able to engage in STEM activities developed by Peanuts, participate in the unveiling ceremony of the International Space Station training module and participate in Space Center Houston's Thought Leaders series later that evening. Thursday, April 25 (all times Central) 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. : Students from Houston Independent School District (HISD) will participate in Apollo 10 and Peanuts STEM Activities. Schools in attendance, Davila and Wesley Elementary, are part of a partnership between the JSC Office of STEM Engagement and HISD, under the Magnet School Assistance Program (MSAP) grant received from the U. S. Department of Education. : Students from Houston Independent School District (HISD) will participate in 10 and Peanuts STEM Activities. Schools in attendance, Davila and Wesley Elementary, are part of a partnership between the JSC Office of STEM Engagement and HISD, under the Magnet School Assistance Program (MSAP) grant received from the U. S. Department of Education. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. : Peanuts Pop up labs featuring STEM activities will be open to the public. : Peanuts Pop up labs featuring STEM activities will be open to the public. 1-2:30 p.m. : Retired ISS training module unveiling begins and photo opportunities outside in front of Space Center Houston (Talon Park under the T-38 astronaut training aircraft) with the Snoopy character. : Retired ISS training module unveiling begins and photo opportunities outside in front of Space Center Houston (Talon Park under the T-38 astronaut training aircraft) with the Snoopy character. 7 p.m. : Space Center Houston "Though t Leader Series" with Apollo 10 Commander Tom Stafford Media wishing to participate in person or reserve an interview opportunity must contact Space Center Houston at 281-244-2139 by 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 24. Just as Apollo inspired a generation, NASA continues to inspire with feats of science and exploration today. By bringing together the capabilities and resources of our international and commercial partners to return to the Moon and on to Mars, we will demonstrate to people around the world the power of a unified purpose. For more information about NASA's STEM Engagement programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stem For more information about Space Center Houston, visit: https://spacecenter.org For more information about the Peanuts Global Artist Collective, visit: http://peanutsglobalartistcollective.com NASA Johnson Space Center news releases and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to [email protected]. In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes). This will add the email address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list. The system will reply with a confirmation via E-mail of each subscription. Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-recognizes-apollo-10s-50th-anniversary-through-long-lasting-partnerships-300834989.html SOURCE NASA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 18, 2019] Mobi724 Global Solutions Announces Management Change and Closes a Loan From Investissements Quebec MONTREAL, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MOBI724 Global Solutions Inc. (MOBI724) or the Company) (TSX-V:MOS) (OTCQB:MOBIF), a global Fintech company offering a fully integrated suite of multiple Card-Linked Offers and Rewards, Digital Marketing and Business Intelligence and Payment Solutions announces that Rachel Girard, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is leaving the company effective today to pursue other opportunities and Allan Rosenhek, presently a Board Member of MOBI724, will assume the position of interim CFO. Mr. Rosenhek, co-founder of Mobi724, has served as an executive in Bell Mobility Investments, Telus, and Glentel among others, being a key figure in strategy, including merger and acquisitions, divestitures, strategic alliances and investments. He played an important role in growing Glentel (acquired in 2015 by BCE and Rogers) into one of the world largest Cellular Retail Conglomerates and as President & CEO he repositioned and successfully exited a Location Based Mobile Advertising Company KnowledgeWhere (acquired by Liberty Media). He began his career as a practicing lawyer with Simkin Gallagher and Ladner Downs (now Borden Ladner Gervais) specializing in Mergers and Acquisitions and Taxation. Mr. Rosenhek is the founder of a boutique investment bank and also severs on the Board of Hope For Prisoners, a reentry program that provides the formerly incarcerated with long-term support and services as they work to reclaim their lives, families and standing in the community. He holds an M.B.A. from the Richard Ivey School of Business, an LL.B. from the University of Manitoba Law School and a B.A. from the University of Manitoba. Mobi724 also announces, that, its wholly owned subsidiary, First Equity Strategy LLC (FES), has concluded a $221,600 loan with Investissement Quebec collaterized against FESs development of e-business tax credits (CDAE Loan) for the 2018. The Loan shall bear interest at prime rate plus two percent (2%) and will mature on December 31, 2020 unless repaid earlier in accordance with the terms and conditions of the CDAE Loan. The Company is announcing that the private financing group with whom the Company entered into a letter of intet for a secured revolving credit facility (Credit Facility) in an amount up to $0.5M, previously announced on January 16, 2019 has completed the due diligence, and the parties intend to proceed with the signing of the agreement. The Credit Facility is conditional upon receipt of final approval from the Company's existing creditors, final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and other customary conditions. Completion of the Credit Facility is expected to be finalized in May 2019, as approvals are obtained. Net proceeds raised from the aforementioned transactions will be used to finance ongoing obligations of the Company and general working capital. Marcel Vienneau, the CEO of Mobi724 said: In Q1 2019 we completed a financing strategy with our team and external parties to secure the Companys accelerated growth in multiple markets. I want to thank Allan for assuming the role of CFO. He is a co-founding partner and a stakeholder in the Company, and I look forward to working with him to execute MOBI724s financing plan to continue our growth. About Mobi724 Global Solutions Inc. We enable smart transactions anywhere. MOBI724, a global Fintech company, offers a fully integrated suite of multiple Card-Linked Offers and Rewards, Digital Marketing and Business Intelligence and Payment Solutions (including a mobile EMV compliant payment platform), which work with any payment card, on any mobile device and at any Point of Sale. MOBI724 provides turnkey solutions for card associations, card issuers, banks, retailers, manufacturers, offer providers, to create, manage, deliver and track and measure incentive campaigns worldwide in real time. The company captures value from big data to deliver seamless and personalized user experiences for the benefits of all parties in the ecosystem. MOBI724 headquarters are in Montreal, Canada, and the company presently has operations in North and Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia Pacific. Legal Disclaimer Certain statements in this document, including those which express management expectations or estimations with regard to the Companys future performance, constitute forward-looking statements as understood by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are, of necessity, based on a certain number of estimates and hypotheses; while management considers these to be accurate at the time they are expressed, they are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and risks on the commercial, economic and competitive levels. We advise readers that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other known and unknown factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Investors are advised to not rely unduly on the forward-looking statements. This advisory applies to all forward-looking statements, whether expressed orally or in writing, attributed to the Company or to any individual expressing them in the name of the Company. Unless required by law, the Company is under no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events, or other circumstances. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release does not constitute a solicitation to buy or sell any securities in the United States. For further information, please visit www.MOBI724.com or contact: Investor Relations: Marcel Vienneau President/CEO MOBI724 Global Solutions Inc. T: 514-394-5200; E: [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] With a bigger cover display, improved design and innovative Flex Mode, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the best foldable phone yet and a productivity powerhouse. With a bigger cover display, improved design and innovative Flex Mode, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the best foldable phone yet and a productivity powerhouse. Update: Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 3 with a more durable design, water resistance S Pen support and improved multitasking. See our Galaxy Z Fold 3 review in progress. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is a quantum leap better than the original Fold. And it needs to be for the high price. The front display is a lot bigger, 5G is standard, and the unsightly notch on the inside is gone. Plus, this foldable is more durable than the first Fold. Samsung has further innovated to make this phone-tablet hybrid a lot more versatile, thanks to a new Flex Mode. Plus, the multitasking is better for running up to three apps at the same time, and several apps have a dual-pane view for enhanced productivity. The Galaxy Z Fold 2s cameras are not as advanced as what you'll find on the Galaxy S21 Ultra (especially the zoom) and the design is pretty hefty. Plus, Samsung is reportedly prepping the Galaxy Z Fold 3 for a launch that's tipped for August, a sequel that may offer S Pen support along with other upgrades. But if you're in the market for a foldable phone now, the Z Fold 2 does a very good job of justifying Samsung's high asking price. It's no wonder why we named this the best foldable phone in our Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for phones. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: What I like (Image credit: Future) Bigger front display makes a huge difference: The cover display has grown to 6.2 inches, which means you dont have to use the internal display to get stuff done. The exterior screen is narrower than typical phones, though. The cover display has grown to 6.2 inches, which means you dont have to use the internal display to get stuff done. The exterior screen is narrower than typical phones, though. Apps finally make the most of tablet-size screen: For example, in Gmail youll see your list of emails on the left and the body of messages on the right, and Slack will display contacts on the left and messages on the right. The iPhone can't do this. For example, in Gmail youll see your list of emails on the left and the body of messages on the right, and Slack will display contacts on the left and messages on the right. The iPhone can't do this. The multitasking is better: Its pretty easy to create app pairs to launch three apps at once. I also like that you can drag and drop content from one window to another in certain apps. Its pretty easy to create app pairs to launch three apps at once. I also like that you can drag and drop content from one window to another in certain apps. Flex mode adds versatility: Thanks to the cam mechanism in the hinge, you can open the display at various angles. Flex Mode is there to take advantage of that. For example, in the camera app, youll see the live previous up top and controls down below. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: What I don't like The main display is smudge prone: Although the Ultra Thin Glass on the 7.6-inch screen is more durable and has a better feel, it picks up smudges quickly. And, yes, the crease is still noticeable. Although the Ultra Thin Glass on the 7.6-inch screen is more durable and has a better feel, it picks up smudges quickly. And, yes, the crease is still noticeable. Limited zoom: I can live without the Galaxy S21 Ultra's 108MP sensor, but having just 2x optical zoom on a $2,000 phone when you can get 10x on the Note is a bummer. I can live without the Galaxy S21 Ultra's 108MP sensor, but having just 2x optical zoom on a $2,000 phone when you can get 10x on the Note is a bummer. No water resistance: When it started to drizzle outside I took the Z Fold 2 indoors because there is no water resistance promised for this device. When it started to drizzle outside I took the Z Fold 2 indoors because there is no water resistance promised for this device. This is a hefty device: At 9.9 ounces, the Z Fold 2 is heavier than the original Galaxy Fold (9.5 ounces) and I felt a bit of strain after several minutes of typing. Then again, you are getting a phone and tablet in one. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: Price and availability Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 specs Price: $1,799 OS: Android 10 Main display: 7.6 inch inches 120Hz (2208 x 1768 pixels) Cover display: 6.2 inches 60Hz (2260 x 816 pixels) CPU: Snapdragon 865 Plus RAM: 12GB Storage: 256GB Rear cameras: 12MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide, 12MP telephoto (2x optical/10x digital zoom) Selfie cameras: 10MP (cover), 10MP (main display) Battery: 4,500 mAh Battery life: 10 hours 10 minutes Size: 6.2 x 2.6 x 0.66 inches (closed); 6.2 x 5 x 0.27 inches (open) Weight: 9.9 ounces The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 release date was September 18, 2020. It's available for sale through multiple carriers as well as unlocked. When it debuted the Galaxy Z Fold 2 cost $1,999 for 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. Note that a microSD card slot is not included and there are no other capacities available. These days, after a permanent $200 price cut, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 sells for $1,799. (That could be a sign that Samsung is looking to clear out stock in advance of the anticipated launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 later this year.) To put the Z Fold 2's price in context, Microsoft charges $1,400 for its Surface Duo phone. To see how similar these two foldable devices are, check out our Microsoft Surface Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 face-off. If you're looking for Galaxy Z Fold 2 deals, the phone has been discounted as low as $999. So it can pay to look for sales on this foldable phone. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is available through all of the major carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile (Sprint), as well as unlocked. Samsung offers the Galaxy Z Premier Service for the Z Fold 2, which includes on-demand concierge support from dedicated experts. In addition, Z Fold 2 owners can get a membership to FoundersCard, access to a prepared meal from a Michelin star restaurant and access to a various golf clubs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: Design and durability (Image credit: Future) The Galaxy Z Fold 2 immediately makes a better impression than the Galaxy Fold because of its larger exterior display. You no longer feel like you're operating Android through a peep hole, and that's because the cover screen has grown from 4.6 inches to 6.2 inches. The interior display is also bigger at 7.6 inches for the Galaxy Z Fold 2, compared to 7.3 inches for the previous model. Even better, the ugly notch on the main screen is gone, replaced by a small cutout for a selfie camera. Samsung also made several enhancements fo the Galaxy Z Fold 2 to improve durability and usability. This includes a sturdier new Ultra Thin Glass display, which is designed to provide a better touchscreen feel than the plastic screen Fold, and a Hideaway hinge that uses sweeper technology to prevent dust and dirt from entering the phone. In a third-party test by YouTuber JerryRigEverything, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 survived having dirt thrown on it, which suggests that the new hinge works better than on the original model. (Image credit: Future) Similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 5G, the Galaxy Z Fold 2's hinge uses a CAM mechanism that allows you to position the screen in multiple positions. And while there's still a gap between the two sides of the phone when closed, it's narrower than before. (Image credit: Future) The Galaxy Z Fold 2 comes in two colors: Mystic Bronze and Mystic Black. But you'll be able to add some flair in the form of four hinge color options if you order through Samsung.com. Options include Metallic Silver, Metallic Gold, Metallic Red and Metallic Blue. Measuring 6.2 x 2.6 x 0.66 inches when closed and 6.2 x 5 x 0.27 inches when open, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is slightly shorter but wider than its predecessor. It's also heavier, as the Z Fold 2 weights 9.9 ounces, compared to 9.48 ounces for the original model. I definitely felt a bit of strain after using the phone several minutes and typing out messages. Another bummer: The Galaxy Z Fold 2 doesn't offer water resistance, so you can't get it wet as you can with other flagship phones. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: Display (Image credit: Future) In addition to a larger size, the 7.6-inch main display on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, so you should enjoy smooth scrolling and overall performance compared to the 60Hz rate on the Galaxy Fold. Plus, because the panel is adaptive, it's smart enough to dial the rate down or up based on the content on screen. The cover display on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 does not offer a 120Hz refresh rate, but it's still a heck of a lot better than what the first Fold featured. Measuring 6.2 inches, this OLED screen is big enough to perform pretty much any task, and you can still instantly resume what you were doing on the main display when you unfold the device. Just keep in mind that the aspect ratio on the Z Fold 2's cover display is narrower than most phones, so typing can feel a bit cramped. Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: Software and Flex Mode (Image credit: Future) One of the complaints we had about the Galaxy Fold is that many of the apps just felt like blow-up phone apps in tablet mode. But Samsung is addressing this drawback with the Galaxy Z Fold 2. For example, in Gmail I could see my messages on the left and the body of emails on the right. And in Slack my contacts were on the left and messages on the right. You need to flip the Galaxy Z Fold 2 display's orientation to landscape mode to see these changes, but it makes a huge difference in productivity. And it makes the Galaxy Z Fold 2 feel more laptop-like. Samsung also promises an optimized viewing experience in Microsoft Office and YouTube. (Image credit: Future) The Galaxy Z Fold 2's Flex Mode gives this foldable phone a lot of versatility. The idea is that you can have controls or settings on one side of the display and content on the other for maximum productivity. (Image credit: Future) I really enjoyed using Google Duo in Flex Mode, as it lets you set the phone down in a laptop-like position and have a video call with the other person without having to hold the device. It's something I immediately wished my iPhone could do. Samsung says that Flex Mode is supported by several Samsung apps, including Camera, Video call, Gallery, Video player, Clock and Calendar. And Google is supporting Flex Mode with YouTube as well as Google Duo. Samsung is working with third-party developers as well to create Flex Mode optimized apps. (Image credit: Future) Another key Galaxy Z Fold 2 upgrade is multi-tasking. With the improved Multi-Active Window feature, you can open up to three apps at the same time and can quickly create presets called App Pairs that you launch with just a tap. I tried this with Slack, Twitter, and Spotify as well as YouTube, Photos and Messages, and it was very cool to launch three apps at once.You can also quickly re-arrange the layout with a tap or drag an app from one window to another. Even cooler, you can also drag and drop content from one window to another. I had no problem dropping a photo from the Gallery app into an outgoing message. However, it didn't work with the Google Photos app. Multiple Samsung apps support Drag and Drop, as does Microsoft 365, Gmail, Chrome and Google Maps. Samsung's App continuity feature is also on board from the original Galaxy Fold. The idea is that you can start an app on the cover display, open the main display and pick up right where you left off. This worked in most apps, but the Sky Force 2 game forced to me restart the app when moving to the bigger canvas. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 cameras (Image credit: Future) It's a bit strange to say this, but the $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 2 represents a step down from the $1,300 Galaxy Note 20 when it comes to the cameras. You don't get a 108MP main sensor, a 5x optical zoom or a 50x Space Zoom, but you do get three capable shooters you can use in a variety of ways. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 features a 12MP main wide-angle camera, a 12MP ultra-wide angle camera with a 123-degree field of view and a 12MP telephoto lens with a 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. (Image credit: Future) The fun really starts with the camera features that are unique to the Galaxy Z Fold 2. For example, Dual Preview lets subjects see how they're going to look using the front display while you're taking the shot. You can also take higher quality selfies with the rear cameras. All you need to do is fire up the camera on the cover display and then press a button in the top right corner, then the Z Fold 2 will invite you to unfold the device and you'll see a live preview. (Image credit: Future) Another perk: you can prop up the Galaxy Z Fold 2 in what looks like laptop mode and it will keep your subject in focus when shooting video using a feature called Auto framing. Thanks to Flex Mode, you can also review recent pictures on the bottom half of the screen while maintaining the live preview in the top half. (Image credit: Future) The Z Fold 2's camera did a fantastic job capturing a close-up of these yellow and violet flowers. You can make out fine details in the petals and even fine droplets of water when you zoom in. (Image credit: Future) I also took this selfie using the rear 12MP camera and the Z Fold 2's cover screen as the viewfinder. The blue in my shirt pops, and the surrounding trees and grass look vibrant. You simply can't do this on an iPhone. Image 1 of 2 (Image credit: Future) Image 2 of 2 (Image credit: Future) As expected, the 10x digital zoom proved disappointing compared to the more powerful Space Zoom on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. As we zero in on the tree and hanging flower baskets, there's a fair amount of grain. It's certainly passable, though. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 did a fairly good job in this portrait shot, artfully blurring the photos in the background. The bokeh effect is better on the Z Fold 2 than the iPhone 12. However, my face is a bit more blown out in Samsung's shot. In this shot of fall decorations, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 delivers a brighter overall image, and you can make out lots of detail in the turkeys. The iPhone 11 Pro Max does a better job rendering the hay but overall I give the edge to Samsung here. The Galaxy Z Fold's 2 Night mode worked well in this shot taken in near darkness of a wall hanging. However, the iPhone 11 Pro Max's Night mode captured a considerably brighter image of the scene. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: Performance (Image credit: Future) The Galaxy Z Fold 2 sports a Snapdragon 865 Plus processor along with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage (UFS3.1). So we would expect similar performance to the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. On Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 scored 3,193 on the mult-core portion. The Note 20 Ultra with the same chip scored a slightly higher 3,294 and the Asus ROG Phone 3 hit 3,393. The iPhone 11 Pro was fastest with 3,500. On the GFXBench graphics test, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 scored 1,461 frames on the Aztec Ruins (High Tier) off-screen benchmark, compared to 1,455 for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and 1,657 frames for the iPhone 11 Pro. Overall, the Z Fold 2 offers smooth performance, but I noticed minor software glitches at times. The YouTube app view didn't change I switched screen modes at one point, but restarting the app resolved the problem. In terms of 5G, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz flavors, so you should have no problems tapping into 5G networks where there is coverage. I didn't see the best results in central New Jersey. On AT&T's network the Galaxy Z Fold 2's download speed hit only 22 Mbps, but on T-Mobile it was a much higher 122 Mbps in the same location. Because the Z Fold 2 also supports Ultra Wide Band technology, you can leverage Samsung's Nearby Share features to quickly share files with other compatible devices, which thus far only includes the Note 20 Ultra. Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: battery life and charging (Image credit: Future) The Galaxy Z Fold 2 packs a 4,500 mAh battery, which should be able to get you through most of the day. The Galaxy Fold had a slightly smaller 4,380 mAh, so this is a step up. On our battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits of screen brightness, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 lasted 10 hours and 10 minutes on the 60Hz display setting. That's not enough to make our list of best phone battery life, where are the handsets last longer than 11 hours. But given the size of the Z Fold 2's display that's pretty good endurance. As expected, the battery life dropped on the Z Fold 2 with the display set to 120Hz (adaptive), with the phone lasting 9 hours and 5 minutes. Anecdotally, the battery life on the Z Fold 2 is pretty solid. I started using the phone at 10 am and after a day of heavy usage it had about 18% juice left at 10 pm. The Z Fold 2 supports 25W fast charging, as well as fast wireless charging and PowerShare reverse charging. But we didn't see the best results in our testing. After 30 minutes the Z Fold 2 was at 46% and we would expect 50%. By comparison, the Note 20 Ultra hit 56% in the same amount of time. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: Verdict (Image credit: Future) Note that a Galaxy Z Fold 3 is rumored to launch this summer. It's expected to include a faster processor, S Pen support and perhaps an under-display camera, among other upgrades. So you'll probably want to hold off until mid-August until you make a move. Overall, though, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the quintessential example of a company listening to its customers and delivering a wide range of improvements they asked for. Even at its reduced $1,799 price, this is a phone that's still very much for early adopters. At least the Z Fold 2 seems a lot less like a prototype and more like a viable product. The front display on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 alone is a huge upgrade. I also really like Flex Mode and the versatility that gives this phone. Being able to prop up the device at various angles really makes the Z Fold 2 feel like a brand new type of device. And while the Mult-Active window multitasking requires a bit of a learning curve, it maximizes productivity. If you want a more powerful phone and better cameras, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is the better option, but Apple doesn't have anything nearly as innovative in its lineup to take on the Z Fold 2. An iPhone Flip could be on the way at some point, but we doubt it will be anytime soon. Overall, I am really impressed with what Samsung has accomplished with the Galaxy Z Fold 2. This is clearly the best foldable phone yet and a sign of great things to come in the category. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Microsoft refused a contract in which the company would have installed its facial recognition technology into the cars and body cameras of California police officers, Reuters reported this week. The company reportedly worried that the California law agency, which wasn't named, would use it in a way that would violate human rights. Facial Recognition & Human Rights Abuse Unlike some other companies in the technology industry, Microsoft worried that its surveillance technology would lead to women and minorities being disproportionately held for questioning, for the simple reason that the police database on which the facial recognition AI would be trained contained mostly faces of white males. In general, the more data used to train machine learning systems, the more accurate the system becomes. But even then 100% accuracy is not guaranteed. It gets much worse when you also lack sufficient data to train the AI models with high accuracy for the intended goal. Speaking at a Stanford University conference on human-centered artificial intelligence, Microsoft president Brad Smith, whos been leading the company in a more pro-human rights direction over the past few years, said that the California police wanted to run a face scan of everyone they stopped. The company declined the contract and told the police representatives that this technology is not the answer. In the conference, Smith added that Microsoft also rejected another offer to install its facial recognition systems in a capital city from an unnamed country that the nonprofit Freedom House had deemed not free. According to Reuters, Smith said the technology would have suppressed freedom of assembly. Smith also said in the conference that companies need a commitment to human rights, which he believes is increasingly critical as rapid technology advances allow governments to conduct blanket surveillance, deploy autonomous killer robots and take other steps that may be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. Fox News host says UMKC should be shut down following protests Prominent Fox News host Tucker Carlson and conservative pundit and podcaster Michael Knowles lambasted UMKC in a television segment last Friday. The two were expressing their ire over protests against Knowles during his speech on campus last Thursday. During the event, one protestor, who was subsequently arrested, sprayed a combination of non-toxic household chemicals at Knowles. Check so-calledfrom a Republican aligned TV network frustrated with the response that downplays a lavender oil assault against one of their commentators. Here's the UNews report that's better than most: Why hasn't KC elected a Latino to the City Council in almost a generation? She is not an American citizen, even though since age 5 the only home Frida Sanchez, 19, has known is Kansas City. Sanchez, a DACA recipient, is working with The Kansas/Missouri Dream Alliance to encourage young Latinos to get out the vote. Actually, the preferred nomenclature isnow among the NEXTGEN but we still admire the thought and history contained in this column . . . Even if it pushes petty identity politics on a community that has changing demographics and is spread out throughout KCMO and unable to participate in this town's backward council district geopolitics.Read more: Help Clean Up Kansas City Anonymous hotline helps investigators catch illegal dumpers KANSAS CITY, Mo. - People throwing their trash where it doesn't belong is a problem that keeps piling up around Kansas City, Missouri. The area of 29th Street and Poplar Avenue has become a popular dump site. "This is a fantastic spot, because there's one way in, one way out," KCMO Illegal Dumping Investigator Alan Ashurst said. Kansas Law Man Creeper Suspected Leavenworth foster father sentenced to prison for sex crime against child in his care Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers most wanted fugitives. Updated August 23, 2017. A 38-year-old foster father from Leavenworth was sentenced Tuesday to 4 years in Kansas prison for a sex crime involving a child, according to the Leavenworth County attorney. Floyd Hardin Jr. had pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent liberties with a teen. Kansas City Searchers For Creeper Jackson County police request public's help in locating convicted child rapist JACKSON COUNTY, MO (KCTV) - Police are requesting the public's help in locating a convicted child rapist. 51-year-old Clarence Hamilton is currently wanted by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office for failing to report as a sex offender. His first sex offense happened in Jackson County and involved the rape of a 13-year-old girl. KCPD Hero In Death KCPD detective who took his own life saves over 70 lives through organ donation KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Officers face danger every day in the line of duty, and off-duty, the danger continues. First responders are more likely to take their own lives than to be killed on the job. It's a reality that KCPD Det. Chris Garcia's family knows all too well. Have You Seen This Meth Town Bad Hombre??? Independence police request public's help in identifying subject INDEPENDENCE, MO (KCTV) - Police are requesting the public's help in identifying a subject. Independence police are trying to identify a subject in reference to ongoing criminal investigation into theft of a motor vehicle. The theft occurred at a business located in the 4500 block of S. Nolan Road. Golden Ghetto Headshrinker Case Overland Park Psychiatrist Accused Of Having Sex With A Patient Loses His License An Overland Park psychiatrist has lost his medical license after state regulators alleged he had sex with a patient, exploited a patient relationship for financial gain and continued to practice after his license was suspended in 2018. Under a consent order entered Tuesday, Brian Patrick Lahey waived his right to a contested hearing and agreed to an indefinite suspension of his Kansas license. Kansas City Rescue Today Bystander climbs through window, stops thief from stealing KC man's car KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A bystander helped save a man's car from a parking lot thief, but it wasn't that easy to get the car back. Kansas City police said officers responded to a disturbance around 4:30 p.m. Sunday involving a stolen car. Search For TIPS Continues Investigation into missing Lee's Summit woman's disappearance ongoing LEE'S SUMMIT, MO (KCTV) -- Someone knows something. That's what's giving one Lee's Summit family hope that their missing 21-year-old daughter will return safely soon. Jacy Deaver disappeared 15 days ago. She was last seen leaving the group home she lives in around 5 p.m. on April 2. Heroic Local Lady Profile Project CommUNITY: Local mother channels pain of loss to help others Hide Transcript Show Transcript KMBC 9 NEWS IS TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CYCLE OF CRIME AND VIOLENCE IN KANSAS CITY PART OF WHAT WE CALL PROJECT COMMUNITY LARA: PART OF THIS PROJECT IS HIGHLIGHTING PEOPLE WHO ARE WORKING TO BREAK THE CYCLE. WE CALL THEM OUR COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS. Gunfire Tonight In KCK 1 shot in abdomen at James St. and Central Ave. sustains life-threatening injuries KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) - One person has life-threatening injuries after being shot in the abdomen on Wednesday evening. Kansas City Police dispatch said that a shooting victim was in a private vehicle at 14th and Genesee when they flagged down an officer to get an ambulance. A glimpse from around the metro on the topics of Springtime shootings, police action and law enforcement notes. Checkit:Developing . . . The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests doubt the 6-month-old priest abuse investigation is going forward. "It's gone nowhere and that's unacceptable," said Jim McConnell, who heads up the Kansas City chapter of SNAP.Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's statement said the investigation is active. I'll tell you what: The old guy still has it. Michael Smith has been in the restaurant business for a very long time. His resume includes stints running fine dining kitchens in France and working under lauded chefs like Chicago's Charlie Trotter. Royals hit Anderson after ChiSox SS flips bat; benches clear CHICAGO (AP) - White Sox youngster Tim Anderson was drilled by a fastball two innings after emphatically spiking his bat to celebrate a home run, sparking a benches-clearing fracas with the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. Anderson chucked his bat toward Chicago's dugout while admiring his two-run shot off Brad Keller in the fourth. The home team offers a glimpse at their growing frustration and gets physical with division rivals. Take a look at what turned out to be a "When I Last Saw Jesse:" A hauntingly true story At around 2 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2006 sophomore Jesse Ross disappeared while attending a Model UN conference in Chicago. Over 13 years later local filmmaker Brian Rose shares Ross's unsolved case in his documentary "When I Last Saw Jesse." Utilizing 16mm film allows the movie to present grainy images creating a haunting aesthetic throughout. Maybe the only student movie worth seeing this year . . . A longtime missing person's story focused on a heartbreaking case that endures. Take a look: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Within hours of posting a photo of a man suspected of violating women's privacy at a department store, Lenexa police said he was identified. Police tweeted a photo shortly before 9 a.m. of a man accused of taking pictures and/or videos of women in a department store changing room. Realtor.com SOURCE: Realtor.com Want to live in a 12,360-square-foot "massive provincial French country home" without leaving Kansas City?It's only going to cost you $9.25 million.According to Realtor.com, the most expensive listing in Kansas is a "completely redone" five-bedroom, six-bathroom estate in Mission Hills that has "endless customized features.""It's completely redone from top to bottom," listing agent Sam Shaoul told Realtor.com. Kansas City Power Couple Biz Winning First couple of KC Dapper Rap launching first-of-its-kind coworking space for city's urban core A new self-style space in Midtown is expected to offer hair, beauty and wellness entrepreneurs an opportunity to cowork under one roof without the burden of securing financing or paying for utilities, said Lauren Euston. Local Expertise On Paris Blaze Art expert reflects on fire-damaged Notre Dame Cathedral Eva Reynolds recently visited the 13th century basilica, calling the experience once in a lifetime. "I remember going there and I couldn't leave, it was just su... Retail Harsh Times Hit Met Town Retail closures leave Independence struggling to get tax revenue INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Zach Walker became the Independence city manager in 2016, and he says he's been watching the decline of retail stores since. "CNBC forecast that through April of this year, over 6,000 stores nationwide had already closed. That's in excess of the total number that closed in all of 2018," Walker said. Car Fun Foiled By Rains Could be several months before flood-damaged Lakeside Speedway opens KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -- The track is still flooded at Lakeside Speedway, but it's certainly come a long way from where it was three weeks ago. Pete Howey just bought the track in 2013 and is keeping very positive about the mess the flooding left behind. Important Raytown Rescue Raytown firefighters push person home after electric wheelchair stops working RAYTOWN, Mo. -- Firefighters with the Raytown Fire Protection District are winning hearts all over for a recent kind deed they did. A video posted to their Facebook page shows that a group of firefighters stepped in and helped push someone home when their electric wheelchair stopped working. Show-Me Secret Cash 'Dark Money' Groups Spent Millions To Influence Missouri Voters, Report Finds The report from Maplight found independent groups spent $15 million to influence the 2018 state elections in Missouri. It also found that more than 10% of independent spending in candidate races, and more than 35% of spending in campaigns for ballot measures came from groups that are not required by law to disclose their sources of funding. TKC Favorite Link: Beater Road Trip Makes It To Kansas By Way Of Good Luck My $500 Postal Jeep Made It 1,000 Miles to Kansas but I'm Scared of the Rocky Mountains The Rockies are coming, and I'm worried. Driving my $500 Postal Jeep-a vehicle that I found with a weak pulse and then nursed back to life-on flat roads is one thing, but trying to ascend and descend steep, long grades will challenge this 1976 postal Jeep in ways it's likely never been challenged, on roads for which it was not designed. Rising Tide Of Angst Army Corps takes heat in wake of Missouri River flooding GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) - The federal agency that manages dams along the Missouri River received stern criticism from several U.S. senators Wednesday during a hearing held in Iowa to examine the massive spring flooding this year that caused more than $3 billion in damage in the Midwest. Good Deed From The Kansas Guv Kelly signs National Guard counseling bill Gov. Laura Kelly has signed a bill that protects the identities of Kansas National Guard members who undergo counseling. The legislation signed by the governor on Wednesday is designed to encourage service members to seek help if needed. It will exempt counseling-related notes and records from open records requests and court proceedings. Show-Me Vaporware Land Hack?!?! Study: Some land along Hyperloop route is private property KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Reality is setting in as new details surface about the proposed Missouri Hyperloop between Kansas City and Saint Louis. Many are praising the project for its potential to transform high-speed travel. However, some property owners along the proposed route could be concerned about information in a newly released study. BBQ Makeover Follow-Up Business booming for KCK BBQ restaurant after "Queer Eye" appearance KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -- Queer Eye has completely changed Jones BAR-B-Q. Crowds are normal now with fans and regulars waiting for the chance to get their hands on this now world-famous BBQ. "It's always been busy, but nothing like this," Deborah Jones, who is one of the owners at Jones BAR-B-Q, said. Kansas City Sneeze-y Thursday Breezy, cooler temperatures ahead for Thursday If you have tree pollen allergies - today is not going to be a good day. At 49-years-young J-Lo is still working the pole and inspires this quick look at pop culture news . . .Closer to home we play a bit of catch-up and share this bevy of local news that's still worth a peek . . .is the #TBT song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . During January-February, export value of Vietnamese shrimp fell year-on-year by 15.2% to US$373.6 million. Accounting for 20.5% of total export turnover, the EU secured its position as biggest buyer of Vietnamese shrimp. Within the EU, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany were the top purchasers. White-leg shrimp continued to occupy a key position in this market, making up 82% of total shrimp shipments. Spending US$67.7 million on Vietnamese shrimp in the period, Japan was the second largest buyer. Experts have said that shipments to the East Asian country have shown audacious signs from the outset of the year, with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) taking effect from January, and completion of tax reduction progress under the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA). Local firms may bolster exports to the market as Japan has applied a zero percent tariff on Vietnamese seafood. Meanwhile, China ranked third by spending US$62.3 million on Vietnamese shrimp. Currently, Vietnam is the sixth largest shrimp supplier for China with 5.7% of the market share. VASEP eyes more than US$4 billion in shrimp exports this year thanks to free trade agreements. It said the shrimp sector would make a breakthrough in exporting to 28 EU countries enjoying low import tariffs once the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement takes effect for an estimated export value of US$1 billion. editorial@tribune.com New Delhi, April 17 Civil aviation regulator DGCA has ordered a special audit of private carrier IndiGo due to re-occurring glitches and non-reporting of incidents with its A320 Neo fleet. Accordingly, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered a special safety audit of IndiGo after several lapses of non-reporting and irregular reporting of IndiGo A320 Neo incidents come to light. The last such lapse was reported by IANS on April 12, when IndiGos Delhi-Mumbai flight had to perform a mid-air turn back manoeuvre on April 10. That time, sources privy to development had said the manoeuvre was performed after excessive vibration was noticed from aircrafts engine number two. However, an airline official said the aircraft suffered a bird hit en-route from Delhi to Mumbai. According to sources, the DGCA has also sent show-cause notices to IndiGos COO and head of engineering. Currently, airworthiness and air safety teams of the DGCA are conducting complete review of engineering and maintenance processes, a source said. The three-day audit was started on Monday. On its part, IndiGo said confirmed that an ongoing DGCA audit was being conducted combined with the annual main base audit. IndiGo has received a limited number of show-cause notices. IndiGo has responded accordingly and we can only comment on this matter after we have a discussion with the DGCA on this matter, the airline said in a statement. More than 18 cases of mid-air engine failures or problems have been reported in the A320 Neos operated by IndiGo and GoAir since January, industry sources said. Excessive vibration resulting in midair turn backs has emerged as the most common and serious safety issue with the P&W engine powered Neos of late. IANS A320 Neo engine woes rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, April 18 Jet Airways lenders on Thursday said they are reasonably hopeful of a successful bidding process for stake sale, a day after the cash-starved carrier suspended its operations. The announcement from the lenders came early in the morning ahead of market opening. The lenders after due deliberations decided that the best way forward for the survival of Jet Airways is to get the binding bids from potential investors who have expressed EOI (Expression of Interest) and have been issued bid documents on April 16, a statement said. A consortium of 26 lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI), with 51 per cent stake in the debt trapped airline, has invited bids from potential suitors. Lenders are reasonably hopeful that the bid process is likely to be successful in determining fair value of the enterprise in a transparent manner, it said. Banks on Wednesday rejected an immediate Rs 400 crore demand of Jet Airways compelling it to ground operations. PTI editorial@tribune.com Varinder Singh Tribune News Service Jalandhar, April 17 Jalandhar has emerged as the Asias biggest medicare hub with over 800 super-specialty, multi-specialty centres, nursing homes and clinics largest on per capita basis as compared to any other city of Asia. Besides catering to people of Punjab, people suffering from serious ailments and hailing from J&K and western parts of Himachal also come here for treatment. Moreover, nearly 40-45% patients who come here for treatment comprise NRIs from the USA, Canada, the UK, Italy, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Of late, patients from Pakistan and Afghanistan have also started coming to the city for treatment. The cost factor is one of the major reasons for the NRIs to come here for treatment. If some medical procedure costs around Rs 10 lakh in Indian currency in the West, it would not cost them more than Rs 2 lakh here. Moreover, the NRIs have an advantage of talking to their doctor in their native language and support of their Punjab-based relatives. Besides this, as compared to the West, there is no waiting list for patients in any big or medium-scale hospital. So, when it comes to medical tourism in India or Asia, Jalandhar turns out to be their number one choice, said Dr SPS Virk, scientific director, Virk IVF Centre. The biggest factor behind the emergence of Jalandhar as the hub for medicare is availability of quality medicare facilities at reasonable rates. The facilities pertain to cardiac ailments, In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment, spinal surgery, cataract, dental, hip replacement and prostate problems. The Jalandhar unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) has around 2,500 members on its rolls in the city alone. Dr Raman Chawla, managing director, Apex Hospital, said, There are over 20 super-specialty hospitals situated within 2 km of Bhagwan Mahavir Marg, starting from the BMC Chowk to Kapurthala Chowk. Like New Yorks Wall Street, Londons Fleet Street, Bhagwan Mahavir Marg has earned a reputation of being the Medicare Street of Punjab, said Dr Chawla while talking to The Tribune. Dr Harish Bhardwaj, president, IMA (Jalandhar unit), said the city started shaping up as a major medical hub of not only India but Asia around 20 years ago when top professionals had started setting up their multi-specialty and super-specialty centres in the city. There are around 3,000 members of the IMA in Jalandhar district. Of this, around 2,500 are from the city and 250 of these 2,500 doctors are serving as government doctors and the rest are working in the private sector, he said. Bone specialist Dr Jashneev Kapoor and his wife Dr Pooja Kapoor, a child specialist, said there was no state-of-the-art equipment or technology which was not available in Jalandhar now. He said if all nursing homes operating in the city and its outskirts are included, it will cross the 800-mark. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 17 Three miscreants, all drug addicts, were arrested by the UT police for snatching cash and documents from a resident of Dadu Majra Colony, in Sector 38 on Tuesday night. According to the police, complainant Mukesh Kumar said he was returning home on his scooter when the miscreants, riding a motorcycle, intercepted him near the Sector 38 chowk. They took away his documents and Rs 3,000 in cash. As they made a bid for the victims mobile phone, he raised the alarm following which some pssersby gathered at the spot. Afraid they would be caught, the miscreants fled, abandoning their motorcycle. Soon the police arrived there too. A team of the Maloya police traced the motorcycle owner, leading to the arrest of suspects Deepak (34) and Sarabjeet (23), both residents of Jujhar Nagar in Mohali district, and Deepak (23) of Dhanas in Chandigarh. The motorcycle is registered in the name of Sarabjeets mother, said a police official. editorial@tribune.com Kaveesha Kohli Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 17 Jet Airways has temporarily suspended all flights from the Chandigarh airport, beginning tomorrow. The airline was currently operating six flights between Delhi and Chandigarh. The decision is part of the suspension of all Jet Airways international and domestic flights as the State Bank of India (SBI), on behalf of the consortium of lenders, turned down the airlines request for emergency funds. The cash-strapped airline had previously suspended flights operating from Chandigarh to Jaipur and Lucknow as it scaled down its operations. According to a senior employee, Jet Airways was also set to launch a Chandigarh-Mumbai flight, beginning April 26, which will not happen now. The employee said they had not received any communication from the company regarding the employment status of the staff, who were expected to report to work at the usual time tomorrow. The airline will inform all guests about the temporary suspension of flight operations via a text message or email on the contact details listed in their bookings. Jet Airways sincerely and profusely apologises for the disruption in the travel plans of all its guests, reads a press note issued by Jet Airways. Gaurav Sahni, GM, Corporate Communications, said the refund process would be initiated for all passengers, who contact the airline. There will be no across-the-board refund proceedings. Pravin Sawhney Pravin Sawhney Strategic Affairs Expert SPEAKING at a recent seminar, the Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, while referring to the February 26/27 Balakot air spat, raised the critical war-winning issue. He said: Did they (Pakistan Air Force) succeed in their objective? The answer is a clear No, as the attack was thwarted, while we achieved our objective in Balakot. This is the main argument. This is the wrong argument. If the Indian Air Force (IAF) had followed the correct argument, it would not have lost seven lives in the Mi-17V helicopter on the morning of February 27 when the air exchange was going on. Since the helicopter was not hit by Pakistani fire, it is reasonable to suspect that it went down by friendly fire. The correct argument is that the IAF breached Pakistan-controlled airspace on February 26 for hitting non-military targets in Balakot. These were tactics (battle). The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) struck the next morning and also breached India-controlled airspace. This was done by the PAF in order to maintain balance at the operational (war-fighting or campaign) level of war. The operational level of war is where tactical battles in a particular area or theatre are given a coherent design and tackled as a whole. Moreover, since escalation was not the motive of the PAF either, it goes to its credit that they managed to miss military targets in the area which has extremely high density of Indian Army troops. Destruction of Indian Army installations would have compelled the Modi government to escalate, resulting in war, which neither side wanted. The success in war between India and Pakistan depends on the operational level of war. A country can be successful at the operational level of war because of good higher defence management, firepower, joint training and mindset despite fewer numbers in terms of manpower and equipment, which is the case of the Pakistan military vis-a-vis the Indian one. Since air power, given its reach and flexibility, is central to success at the operational level, PAFs quick retaliation was expected to maintain its air power credibility. Yet, the IAF was not prepared for the inevitable. Had it been ready, the IAF would have seized control of airspace management after its February 26 strike, since it is its responsibility in war. The air corridors would have been marked and assigned, and all ground-based air defence networks (of the Air Force and Army) would have followed war protocols, waiting for the enemys counter-airstrike. Clearly, no one told the ill-fated helicopter not to take off on a routine peace-time flight, and the ground air defence observers, too, were caught on the wrong foot. The issue, thus, is about tactics and operational level of war. The Pakistan military, learning from the Soviet Union, has always given importance to the operational level. This is why in the 1965 and 1971 wars, despite being more in bean-counting of assets, India never won in the western sector. Proof of this are the ceasefire line and the Line of Control, which otherwise would have been converted into international borders. The situation, regrettably, remains the same today. Separate doctrines of the Army and the Air Force, and with each service doing its own training is evidence that no amount of modernisation would help if the focus of service chiefs remains on tactics. For example, after the Balakot operation, a senior Air Force officer told me that the PAF would not last more than six days. He believed in tactical linear success. What about the other kinetic and non-kinetic forces which impact at the operational level? This is not all. Retired senior Air Force officers started chest-thumping about the Balakot airstrike having set the new normal. Some argued that air power need not be escalatory, while others made the case for the use of air power in counter-terror operations like the Army. Clearly, they all were talking tactics, not war. Had India retaliated to the PAFs counter-strike, what it called an act of war, an escalation was assured. It is another matter that PM Narendra Modi had only bargained for the use of the IAF for electoral gains. Talking of tactics, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa spoke about relative technological superiority. Perhaps, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman would not have strayed into Pakistani airspace if his MiG-21 Bison had Software Defined Radio (SDR) and Operational Data Link (ODL). The SDR operates in the VHF, UHF, Ku and L bandwidths and is meant to remove voice clutter. The ODL provides the pilot with data or text, in this case from the ground controller. The officer, separated from his wing-man, and without necessary voice and data instructions, unwittingly breached the airspace and was captured by the Pakistan army. There are known critical shortages of force multipliers in addition to force levels in the IAF. Surely, the IAF Chief cant do much except keep asking the government to fill the operational voids. But, he could avoid making exaggerated claims since his words would only feed the ultra-nationalists, and support the Modi governments spurious argument of having paid special attention to national security. The same is the case with Rafale and S-400. These would certainly help, but would not tilt the operational level balance in Indias favour. For example, the IAF intends to use S-400 in the offensive air defence role rather than its designed role of protecting high-value targets like Delhi, for which it was originally proposed. For the protection of high-value targets, the Air Headquarters has made a strong case to purchase the United States National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS). This is ironic, because while S-400 can destroy hostile ballistic missiles, NASAMS cant do so. It can only kill cruise missiles and other aerial platforms. The thinking at the Air Headquarters is that since there is no understanding on the use of ballistic missiles especially with Pakistan both sides are likely to avoid the use of ballistic missiles with conventional warheads lest they are misread and lead to a nuclear accident. So, NASAMS may probably never be called upon to take on ballistic missiles. Given the direction of the relationship between the India and Pakistan, this assumption may not be the best to make when procuring prohibitively expensive high-value assets. G Parthasarathy G Parthasarathy Former Diplomat Public attention is now focused predominantly on tensions and developments across our western borders. These developments, commencing with the Pulwama attack and the airstrike on Balakot, have resulted in an overheated political environment, amidst a bitterly contested national election campaign. The sad reality of Indian politics is that while attention is almost exclusively focused on our western borders, we overlook what is happening across our eastern land and maritime borders. About 5,800 km of Indias land borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh extend across Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. All these states have faced, or continue to face trans-border terrorist and separatist challenges. Armed separatist groups in the Northeast recently united under the banner of a so-called United Liberation Front of Western South Asia. These groups include the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K), Kamtapur Liberation Organisation and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Assam). They were forced out of bases in Bangladesh a decade ago, after Sheikh Hasina assumed office. Her predecessor, Begum Khaleda Zia, had a close relationship with the ISI and permitted Indian separatist groups to act freely on Bangladeshi soil in collaboration with Bangladeshi extremist and terrorist outfits like the Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat ul Mujahideen. These separatist groups have, however, continued to operate from Myanmar, along and across Myanmars borders with Chinas Yunnan province. Their cadres move freely across the Myanmar-China border and receive support and safe haven in Yunnan. China also provides havens to separatist groups from Myanmar, like Kachin Independence Army, Arakan Army and United Wa State Army. Beijing uses these ties as leverage to obtain Myanmars cooperation in economic and infrastructure projects. The Myanmar army has, however, acted firmly against the NSCN (Khaplang) in recent months, compelling the separatist outfit to desist from cross-border activity after raiding its bases. Moreover, strict restrictions have been placed on the movement of NSCN (K) leaders and cadres in Myanmar. The Myanmar army has taken similar tough action against the ULFA, recently killing a senior leader, Jyotirmoy Asom, during an attack on its base. Likewise, armed members of NSCN (K), based near Myanmars borders with India, have been moved away from the border and confined to camps. Myanmar is acting strongly to cooperate with India, thereby facilitating New Delhis peace process in Nagaland. The crackdown by the Myanmar army on its Rohingya population in Rakhine province is now the focus of global attention. An estimated 1.1 million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, where they live in difficult conditions. Rohingya, in smaller numbers, have also fled to countries like Indonesia and India. China and Japan have pledged substantial assistance for the repatriation and resettlement of Rohingya, who are also receiving relief supplies and assistance from Western countries and UN organisations. Myanmar has faced scathing criticism by countries across the world and by groups like the OIC, for the plight of the Rohingya. The issue has not been taken to the UN Security Council, as any call for sanctions against Myanmar will likely be vetoed by China and Russia. A continuing presence of Rohingya in Bangladesh will, however, be exploited by radical Islamic groups in Bangladesh and by Pakistan to destabilise the Sheikh Hasina government. It will also undermine peace and security in Indias Northeast. The entire region in western Myanmar bordering India and Bangladesh also faces new challenges, posed by hundreds of insurgents of the Arakan army, who are moving into areas along Myanmars borders with Mizoram and Manipur. The armies of India and Myanmar are mounting coordinated operations to deal with this threat. This area is of particular importance to India. A major strategic project, the Kaladan corridor, linking Mizoram and other landlocked Northeastern states to Myanmars port of Sittwe, located in the Bay of Bengal, is being built through it with Indias assistance. This corridor provides the Northeast direct access to the Bay of Bengal at the port. China is, meanwhile, building a road, rail and energy corridor in Myanmar, linking its landlocked Yunnan to the Bay of Bengal port of Kyaukpyu, not far from Sittwe. This Chinese transportation and energy corridor is seen as exploitative in Myanmar, where demonstrations have been held against the Myitsone dam, because of ecological concerns. The bulk of the electricity generated will be utilised in China. There have also been instances in recent days, when the Arakan army, which has links with China through Kachin Independence Army, has attacked Myanmar workers engaged in the construction of the Kaladan corridor. China is not comfortable at the prospect of an India-built port near its own corridor. Chinas larger strategic aim is to secure unchallenged the use of Myanmars territory for access to the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. A serious threat to regional stability across our eastern borders could arise from growing tensions within Bangladesh and across the coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal. Such tensions will grow unless the issue of the return of the Rohingya to Myanmar is addressed expeditiously. The impact of this refugee crisis is being felt not only in Myanmar and Bangladesh, but also in neighbouring ASEAN countries like Indonesia. sanjiv@tribunemail.com A Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment on the failure of successive governments to honour a hero of the freedom movement has made it clear that time has come to ask what your country can do for you. The order, questioning the treatment of martyr Bakshish Singhs sacrifice by the state, came after the court was told that the claim of the revolutionarys family for the return of 33 acres confiscated by the British in 1916 was declined in 1988 by offering a meagre compensation of Rs 13,000. Though the compensation after the court order stands enhanced to Rs 25 lakh per acre, in sync with the lands market value, the fact remains that over 70 years of Independence have failed to liberate the country from the shackles of a colonial mindset that refuses to act rationally and believes in legal hairsplitting while compensating a martyrs kin. The market value, in lieu of land confiscated, was paid by the authorities concerned in at least two cases of other freedom fighters, while Bakshish Singhs legal heirs were given short shrift. The government needs to turn selfless towards the sacrifices made in the past for the present, especially after being rapped repeatedly by the courts. In a similar case, the High Court asserted that a freedom fighter must be tossing in discomfort, wherever he is, apparently thinking that the nation had forgotten his sacrifice. The government of independent India has, undoubtedly and rightly, been focusing on projecting the laurels of the nations heroes. It gave the country a war memorial. The Bench, in its order, noted that Rs 150 crore were spent on erecting the memorial. The powers that be now need to travel beyond history books and go back in time for effectively bringing to the present the reality of sacrifices made by the heroes, who gave up their life for something bigger than their own self, and salute them by giving their kin their due. The nation, while expressing gratitude, must always remember that the utmost appreciation is not in uttering words, but living by them, as John F Kennedy said. editorial@tribune.com Pradeep Sharma Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 17 Former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and SAD president Sukhbir Badal are set to spice up the election campaign of the BJP for the first time in Haryana. The father-son duo is set to be star campaigners for the BJP in certain Lok Sabha seats in which there is a sizeable Sikh electorate. A detailed programme for their campaigning, especially with senior leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, will be chalked out soon, BJP sources said here today. The sources said the duo would specifically be requested to campaign on the Lok Sabha seats in the GT Road belt Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Sonepat where the Sikh electorate could be a deciding factor. The two leaders would also campaign for the BJP in Sirsa, which borders Punjab. The SAD, an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Punjab, had an electoral alliance with the INLD in Haryana for a long time because of the close family ties between INLD founder Devi Lal and Badal Senior. In fact, sitting INLD MP from Sirsa Charanjit Singh Rori was a SAD legislator in the Haryana Assembly at one point of time. Till the last Assembly poll, the SAD and the INLD had a formal alliance. Despite the SAD-INLD alliance in Haryana, the BJP had tied up with the SAD in several neighbouring states such as Punjab, Delhi and Uttarakhand. However, in recent times the ties between the Devi Lal and Badal clans have been far from cordial on account of the changing political equations between the BJP and SAD and the INLDs dwindling mass base after the split in the party. Recently, Badal Senior was present at Gandhinagar when Amit Shah filed his nomination papers, indicating that the SAD wanted the alliance with the BJP to be more broad-based. This was followed by SAD vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder sharing stage with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at Narwana where the latter termed the SAD as the BJPs natural ally. They also announced their resolve to continue the alliance for the Assembly poll later this year. Likely to cover GT Road belt shalender@tribune.com Parveen Arora Tribune News Service Karnal, April 17 Haryana has 89 monuments and sites being preserved by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) responsible for archaeological research and conservation of monuments but one has been declared a missing monument. Kos Minar at Shahabad (Kurukshetra) is a missing monument, according to ASIs reply to an RTI query by Panipat-based activist Amit Rathee, who had sought information about the maintenance of ASI sites and monuments along with their status in Haryana. The ASI has no information on how and when the monument disappeared. An official, however, said the Kos Minar might have been demolished by the people. The ASI spent Rs 9.18 crore on the maintenance of these sites between April 1, 2015, and February 28, 2019. The RTI reply said six sites the ruined fort of Prithviraj Chauhan in Hansi; ancient mounds 1, 2, 3 and 4 at Rakhigarhi, Hisar; Ther mound in Sirsa; Theh Polar at Siwan in Kaithal; ancient site Khokrakot in Rohtak; and ancient mound at Naurangabad in Bhiwani have been encroached upon and cases are pending in the HC. editorial@tribune.com Geetanjali Gayatri Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 17 The state Congress is clear on one thing: it needs no partners in Haryana. The Congress has already declared candidates for six out of 10 seats. The remaining four candidates are likely to be declared shortly. The state leadership insists that the delay in declaring the candidates for the Sonepat, Karnal, Hisar and Kurukshetra seats has nothing to do with the talks of an alliance, but it is being said that the Congress wanted to avoid the situation of dropping the candidates later if an alliance had worked out. Haryana Congress campaign committee head Bhupinder Singh Hooda downplayed a meeting between Haryana general secretary in charge of the party affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad and AAPs Sanjay Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday by claiming that it was a regular meeting. We are confident of going it alone in the Lok Sabha elections. But it should be kept in mind that ours is a national party. If an alliance is forged at the central level, the party might can end up having an alliance in Haryana. The state Congress will not enter into any alliance all by itself, Hooda said, adding the delay in declaration of candidates for the four seats had nothing to do with the talks of an alliance. State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, too, maintained that the party was in a winning position all by itself in Haryana and did not need an alliance partner. We will go it alone. This is what has always been conveyed to the Congress central leadership, Tanwar said, adding that the remaining four candidates could be declared in a couple of days. Meanwhile, sources said todays meeting of two senior leaders of the Congress and AAP in New Delhi could not end on a settlement on an alliance. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Shimla, April 17 Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today demanded immediate ban on election campaigning of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. In a statement issued here, he accused Rahul Gandhi of violating the Model Code of Conduct by referring to Prime Minister as chowkidar chor hai. He said the BJP submitted memorandums to the Chief Election Commissioner through all Deputy Commissioners of the state, condemning the statements of Rahul Gandhi. Thakur said Rahul himself has been accused of scams and is on bail and stated that calling the PM as thief is an insult to 130 crore people of India. He claimed that Rahul made a reckless effort to misuse the name of the Supreme Court. However, on the BJPs contempt petition, the Supreme Court has made it clear that the court has not made any comment against the PM. The Supreme Court has issued notice of contempt of the court to the Congress President. He said Rahul, his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, brother-in-law Robert Vadra and several other national level Congress leaders are on bail. Such tainted politicians have no moral right to call the Prime Minister a thief. Mandi: The CM urged voters of Darang Assembly segment in Mandi district to support BJP candidate Ramswaroop Sharma in the Lok Sabha elections on May 19. He addressed a public meeting at Shibabdar, where around 35 Congress families joined the BJP in the presence of the CM. editorial@tribune.com Suhail A Shah Anantnag, April 17 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday called the Governors rule in the state as jungle raj where injustices were being done with people. Yahan jungle ka kanoon chal raha hai (here law of the jungle prevails), Mehbooba told reporters in the Shangus area of Anantnag district where she addressed a party workers meet. She is canvassing for herself for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on the Anantnag seat, commencing on April 23 and to be conducted in three phases. On Tuesday, a Subdivisional Magistrate and his employees were beaten up by the Army. The Jamaat-e-Islami has been banned and our highway has been closed. If this is not injustice, what is it then? she asked. The PDP president said the situation was worrisome and urged her workers to ensure her victory. It is only our party that can represent the true sentiments of Kashmiri people, Mehbooba said. Later, in Anantnag, she, while talking to reporters, accused the security forces of using chemicals to mutilate the bodies of militants and disfigure them. I was asked to stop handing over bodies of militants to their families when I was the Chief Minister. I resisted then but its the Governors rule now, Mehbooba said. The former Chief Minister said under the Governors rule, some chemical was being used to disfigure and mutilate the bodies of militants so that their faces are unrecognisable. They do not want people to turn up at the funerals to see faces of militants. Hence, the chemicals are being used, she added. Addressing workers at Dak Bungalow in Anantnag onWednesday, the PDP president urged the police to let go young boys arrested for stoning her cavalcade on Monday. I urge the police to leave them alone. These are my people and if they have the right to garland me, they have also the right to throw stones at me if they are upset, Mehbooba said. editorial@tribune.com Dinesh Manhotra Tribune News Service Jammu, April 17 Over 16 lakh voters are going to decide the fate of 12 candidates for the prestigious Udhampur-Doda parliamentary constituency for which the polling will be held on Thursday. Prominent among those in the fray include sitting Lok Sabha member and Union minister Jitendra Singh, Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan founder Lal Singh and Panthers Party chairman Harsh Dev Singh. While the National Conference is supporting the Congress candidate, the PDP has not fielded any nominee from the seat. Tilak Raj Bhagat from the BSP is also contesting the election. The authorities have taken preventive steps to ensure smooth and peaceful elections on 44 polling stations situated on the Zero Line along the International Border (IB) with Pakistan. Although 18 panchayats of the Hiranagar and Madeen blocks of Kathua district are situated along the IB, 44 polling stations have been termed highly sensitive as these are vulnerable to shelling from Pakistan. Of the total 2,710 polling stations, 285 are situated in the erstwhile Doda district, which was once hotbed of militancy. They have been categorised as critical. While elaborate security arrangements have been made for these polling stations, a contingency plan has been made for 44 polling stations situated along the IB. We have already drafted a plan to shift polling stations to safer places in case of any misdemeanour from Pakistan on the polling day, Ashwani Kumar, Assistant Returning Officer for the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat told The Tribune. Apart from making elaborate security arrangements for these 44 polling stations, a plan has been formulated to shift these to safer places in case of any emergency, he said, adding that safer places had already been identified. Bharat Bhushan, sarpanch of Babiya panchayat, situated along the IB, said two polling stations Ladwal and Krol Krishana comprising over 100 voters, were highly vulnerable as these were situated in firing range of Pakistan. Shelling from Pakistan is a routine affair in our panchayat, he said, adding, There is much enthusiasm among border dwellers but the authorities should ensure safety and security of the people. The polling station at Middle School, Londi, is a stones throwfrom the IB. Chak Dolma, Kandwal, Chachwal and many other polling stations are situated on the Zero Line and conducting peaceful elections in these stations is a difficult task for the authorities. Six districts in constituency rchopra@tribunemail.com Jammu, April 18 Nearly 65 per cent polling was recorded in Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency, while the turnout was low in Srinagar seat with nearly 15 per cent voters exercising their franchise till 5 pm on Thursday in the second phase of general elections in Jammu and Kashmir, according to poll officials. No major untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. However, there was a protest by a group of displaced Kashmiri migrants in Jammu after some of the members found their names missing in the voters list at a special polling station. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 64.78 per cent polling, with Udhampur district registering the highest of 72.2 per cent till 5 pm, poll officials said. Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency recorded nearly 15 per cent polling, with highest 21 per cent polling recorded in Shia dominated Budgam district till 5 pm, they said, adding polling has been peaceful so far. Polling concludes at 6 pm. In the 2014 election, Srinagar witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country at 25.86 per cent whereas Udhampur witnessed 70.9 per cent polling. Over 29.81 lakh people in the two seats are eligible to vote to decide the fate of 24 candidates, including former Chief Minister and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister Jitendra Singh who are contesting for Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies respectively. For migrant voters of Srinagar constituency, 26 polling stations were set up with 21 in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in New Delhi. Out of 4,700 eligible to vote, 2,100 voters exercised their franchise. Kashmiri migrants demanded a probe into missing of names in the voters list at a special polling station here. A group of people also staged protest for not setting up polling station at Talwara (Reasi) for over 600 migrant voters. No polling station was setup at Talwara migrant camp for voting. We have 673 votes here. DC Reasi first promised us polling station but later refused. We were told that buses will be given to us for ensuring voting at our places, but no vehicles were sent, a migrant leader told reporters. The protesters raised slogans against district authorities of Reasi and the Election Commission. Voters in border districts of Kathua and Udhampur turned up in large numbers at polling booths this morning to exercise their franchise, officials said. The family members of senior RSS leader Chanderkant Sharma, who was killed along with his PSO by terrorists in Kishtwar last Tuesday, cast their votes at Kishtwar after performing the post-death rituals on 10th day. Surikant Sharma, elder brother of the deceased RSS leader, demanded that the killers be arrested and hanged to death. Authorities on Thursday ordered suspension of two poll officials including a presiding officer for dereliction of duty in Kishtwar. A newly-married couple was seen in their wedding finery at a polling station in Udhampur town. The enthusiastic couple said youths should come out to vote. There was a problem with EVM at a polling station in Ramban district but it was later rectified. Raj Devi, 95, voted at a polling station in Chenani in Udhampur district. Police and paramilitary personnel were deployed in strength in and around polling stations in all three districtsSrinagar, Budgam and Ganderbalof the constituency, the officials said. Separatists had called for a shutdown in the three districts against the Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, authorities snapped mobile internet services in these districts as a precautionary measure. The mobile internet service has been suspended as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order, an official said. The BSNLs broadband service was working, but its speed has been decreased. In Srinagar, Abdullah is pitched against political greenhorns Aga Moshin of the PDP, Irfan Ansari of the Peoples Conference and Khalid Jehangir of the BJP. In Udhampur, prominent contestants include four Rajputs: Union Minister Jitendra Singh seeking re-election on a BJP ticket, Dogra dynasty scion Vikramaditya Singh fighting as a Congress candidate, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan founder Choudhary Lal Singh and National Panthers party chairman Harsh Dev Singh. Udhampur parliamentary seat has 16, 85,779 electors and with 2,710 polling stations. Srinagar constituency has 12,95,304 registered voters and 1,716 polling stations. PTI editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 17 National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah on Wednesday accused PDP president Mehbooba Mufti of failing to deliver on the promises she made during the 2014 Assembly elections and alleged that she could not protect the interests of the state as a Chief Minister. Mehbooba failed to deliver on every promise she made during her election campaign in 2014. The disenchantment among the youth is a direct consequence of her failure to protect the interests of the state, Omar said while addressing an election rally at Shangus in south Kashmir. Omar said Mehboobas calling herself a chowkidar now is a mockery of the term itself as she has failed to perform her duties as CM. We didnt see her protect the interests of the state and its people then. Her claim of projecting herself as the messiah gets deflated by thousands of youth who continue to bear the scars both at physical as well as psychologically levels inflicted on them during her tenure, he said. Omar reiterated his commitment to do away the Public Safety Act if his party comes to power. I made the undertaking to scrap the PSA in one of my public meets which was welcomed by people across the state. Unfortunately, Mehbooba and her party opposed it revealing the dual nature of their Kashmir-centric policies, he said. Omar said he was committed to remove the PSA from the state if voted to power with a strong mandate. We will take no time to obliterate it from the papers. The move will provide respite to hundreds of families who are yearning to see their children. Needless to say, it will go a long way in infusing a sense of security among our people, he said. shalender@tribune.com Srinagar, April 17 National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday urged the Governors administration to revoke the biweekly ban on civilian traffic on the national highway, saying it should not be made a point of prestige. He said the ban had not proved helpful to security forces but had caused inconvenience to people. Addressing a public meet at Sholipora village in Budgam district, Omar said the ban had put people under unnecessary duress. This move is unreasonable and devoid of logic. In fact, the Army and the police have distanced themselves from having such an arrangement. I urge the Governor to rollback the order immediately, he said. Omar also expressed concern over the decline of civilised political discourse. We are witnessing a steep fall in the level of civility in the political discourse during the ongoing election campaign. There should be no place for any hate speech or personal attacks. I hope the Election Commission takes rigorous action against such people who surpass the ambit of civility and decency, he added. Its the prime duty of the EC to ensure that model code of conduct is thoroughly adhered to. It should take tough measures in this direction to ensure that the usage of illicit money in the election is stopped. TNS editorial@tribune.com Jaipur/Bhopal/Ahmedabad, April 17 A total of 53 persons were killed as rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning hit several parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra overnight, officials said today. The unseasonal rains and storm also caused damage to property and crops in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Rajasthan witnessed the maximum casualties with 25 people killed in rain-related incidents, followed by Madhya Pradesh (15), Gujarat (10) and Maharashtra (3). Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to twitter to express anguish over the loss of lives in the rains in Gujarat and announced relief. Soon afterwards, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath hit out at the PM, accusing him of being concerned only about his home state. The PMO in a tweet later said: PM @narendramodi has expressed grief at loss of lives due to unseasonal rains and storms in MP, Rajasthan, Manipur & various parts of the country. An ex gratia of Rs2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in MP, Rajasthan, Manipur & various parts of the country has been approved from the PMs National Relief Fund. Rs50,000 each for the injured has also been approved. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the government was closely monitoring the situation in rain-hit areas and was ready to provide all possible help. Ashutosh Pednekar, Rajasthan Principal Secretary of State Disaster and Relief Department, said five persons died in Udaipur, four each in Jaipur and Jhalawar, two each in Jalore, Bundi and Rajsamand, and one each in Baran, Bhilwara, Alwar, Pali, Hanumangarh and Pratapgarh. Compensation of Rs4 lakh each has been announced for the families of victims. Another official said damage to crops was being assessed. CM Ashok Gehlot tweeted: Deeply pained by loss of lives due to unseasonal rains and storms in various parts of the country, including Rajasthan. My thoughts and prayers are with bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of those injured. The department has predicted storm accompanied with high velocity winds and lightning at a few places in the next 24 hours. In MP, rains claimed three lives each in Indore, Dhar and Shajapur, two in Ratlam and one each in Alirajpur, Rajgarh, Sehore and Chhindwara districts. Nath expressed grief over the deaths and charged that Modis concerns were limited to his home state Gujarat. Modiji, you are the PM of the country and not of Gujarat. In MP also, more than 10 persons were killed. But you have confined your feelings to Gujarat. Though your party has no government here, people live here also, Nath said in a tweet. The BJP accused Nath of doing politics over the loss caused. Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani announced Rs2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. In Maharashtra, a 71-year-old woman, a 32-year-old man and a temple priest died when lightning struck them. OC/PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, April 18 High voter turnout marked polling in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday covering 95 constituencies in 11 states and Puducherry, with both the Union Territory and Manipur clocking a percentage of 80. The Srinagar seat in Jammu and Kashmir recorded a percentage of only 14.8. Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 while in Puducherry it was 80.47. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said in Delhi that the overall turnout in the second phase was 67.84 per cent. Except for a few sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal and Manipur and EVM glitches in some seats, polling was by and large peaceful. Tamil Nadu registered 63.73 per cent polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 67.08 per cent in bypolls to 18 assembly constituencies. In Madurai, polling took place till 8 pm in view of the local temple festival. Paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam to disperse crowds. An estimated 61.84 per cent turnout was reported in the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which is witnessing a direct contest between the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the BJP. Dakshina Kannada recorded the highest turnout of about 72.97 per cent, while the lowest was reported in Bangalore Central constituency with 45.34 per cent, poll officials said. Puducherry registered 80.5 per cent polling in the election to the lone Lok Sabha seat while in the byelection to the Thattanchavady assembly segment, 76 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. Srinagar, which in 2014 witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the country at 25.86 per cent, saw 12.43 per cent polling, with highest 17.1 per cent recorded in Shia-dominated Budgam district till 3 pm. No untoward incident was reported during polling which was being held amid tight security due to militant threats and a boycott call by separatists in Kashmir. Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency recorded 70 per cent polling. Polling was also held in 10 seats in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat in Manipur besides 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha. Polling in Tamil Nadus Vellore LS seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls. Isolated incidents of violence in West Bengal Isolated incidents of violence, road blockades, bombings and police firing marred polling in the three Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal with 76 per cent of voter turnout recorded. Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to control a mob, who threw stones at them in Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra area, a senior EC official said. A reporter and a cameraperson of a local news channel were allegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in Raiganj constituency. CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj, Md Salim, claimed his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur. Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, however, described the voting as more or less peaceful with a few isolated incidents reported from places in the three seats. In Manipur, voting was stalled in two polling booths of the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency after violence broke out over alleged proxy voting and dispute among election agents. In one of the booths at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality in Imphal East district, unidentified men stormed into a polling station around 11.30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that proxy voting was being carried out in the station, Chief Electoral Officer PK Singh said. In the other booth in the same area, a scuffle broke out between the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3pm, derailing the voting process. Sources in the election office said re-polling was likely in the two booths. An average 57.22 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in 10 constituencies of Maharashtra. Around 69 per cent polling was recorded in Chhattisgarhs three Lok Sabha seats, all having Naxal presence, amid tight security. According to police, except for an IED blast triggered by Maoists in Mohla-Manpur assembly segment of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, no other untoward incident was reported in the poll-bound areas. About 64 per cent voters exercised their franchise in five Odisha Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats, some of them in Naxal-affected areas. In Assam, Nowgong recorded the states highest polling of 75.71 per cent, followed by Mangaldoi and Silchar with 75.07 per cent and 71.79 per cent, respectively. In Karimganj, the figure was 71.41 per cent and Autonomous District witnessed the lowest voting at 69.51 per cent. The five seats in Bihar saw an estimated 62.52 per cent voting. The Election Commission put the overall voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh at 62.30 per cent. Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23. PTI gspannu7@gmail.com New Delhi, April 18 Some loaders have pledged ornaments of their wives, some engineers have sold vehicles and many have defaulted on their monthly payments. They are among the 22,000-odd employees of the now wingless Jet Airways. As hundreds of employees, highly-skilled as well as semi-skilled, assembled for a silent appeal in the national capital on Thursday afternoon, hope was in the air despite an uncertain tomorrow. From being clueless on how to find money for their childrens school and college fees, to paying rent for their accommodations, staff are looking for answers and for most, the answers lie in immediate funding from lenders. I cant believe that I dont have work today... Hope the airline flies again, Chandrasekar Mandal, who has served the airline for 24 years, told PTI. Mandal, who is a supervisor of loaders at the airport here, has stories of many of his colleagues struggling to cough up money to meet their expenses, including for college admission of their wards. Sunil Kumar, a driver who has also put in 24 years, said it was becoming difficult to manage daily requirements, adding that many of his colleagues have pledged their wives ornaments to raise money. With prayers on their lips for funds to restart the airline, many employees are optimistic about turning around things provided enough support is coming. About Thursdays gathering at Jantar Mantar, a place known for hosting demonstrations, senior pilot Rohit Chaudhary said the employees gathering is not a protest but a silent appeal for reviving the airline. Chaudhary has been associated with Jet Airways for 21 years and his wife is also a pilot with the carrier for 16 years. According to a senior pilot, one of the reasons for the airlines downfall was possible lack of transparency in communications between the airline management and the government on funding. Manish, an engineer who has been with the carrier for 19 years, said he did not have any clue that the airline would suspend operations. He also said that some people have sold their vehicles and withdrew their fixed deposits. Quite a few employees did crowd funding for their colleagues in dire need, including for one who is bed ridden, Ritheshan engineer with 17 years stint at the airlinesaid. Loaders and drivers, working on contract, are also bearing the financial brunt with mounting salary dues. One of them, Rajeev Kumar, said paying tuition and admission fees are becoming difficult and that most have taken loans. Not just meeting expenses, some employees staying on rented accommodations have been asked to vacate by their landlords in the wake of the airline crisis, according to Vaishali, who is in the commercial department. Besides impacting the lives of employees, there is also the cascading effect on others in the aviation business. The shutting down of operations is also negatively impacting travel agents and businesses of outlets at airport, according to Abhijit Angolkar, station manager of the airline here. He has been with the carrier for 26 years. Jet Airways would have completed 26 years of services in May. With substantial number of employees having been with Jet Airways for around 20 years, getting another job is also not easy considering the age factor and the job market situation. A rival airline was offering only around half the salary amount that was paid to a loader at Jet Airways, according to Srinivas, who is into the administration department. Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association (Jamewa) president Ashish Kumar Mohanty said that funds should be immediately given to the airline as efforts should be first made to save existing jobs and then look at generating jobs. Taking to the street, the harried employees are waiting to be heard as reflected in a placard, Hear our cry, Let 9W fly. 9W is the code for Jet Airways flights. PTI pardeepdhull@gmail.com Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, April 18 Talk of a secret deal between Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has demoralised the Pune unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party after the latter cancelled a rally in Baramati earlier this month. Pawars daughter Supriya Sule, who won from Baramati in 2014, is contesting again and the Maharashtra BJP had made it a prestige issue to get her defeated in what is seen as the pocket borough of the Maratha strongman. In 2014, Sule had scraped through with a margin of 80,000 votes defeating Mahadev Jankar of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh which is part of the National Democratic Alliance. BJP leaders in Maharashtra felt that Sule may have well been defeated had Jankar contested under the lotus symbol. Jankar, who is Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries, however, refused to quit the RSP and the BJP fielded Kanchan Kul wife of RSP MLA from Daund Rahul Kul. Kanchan is contesting on the BJP symbol and workers of the saffron party were upbeat of a major upset in Baramati. Till Modis rally scheduled for April 10 was cancelled without any explanation. BJP workers in the area now fear that Pawar may have struck a deal with Modi. Both leaders are known to share a close bond and Modi had dropped in last year at an event organised at Baramati to felicitate Pawar for his long innings in politics. Modi had even hailed Pawar as his guru in politics and credited the Maratha leader with advising him on a number of policies when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. With BJP workers dropping out of the campaigning, Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil has stepped in to boost their morale. After a meeting at 2.15 am, Modiji asked me to call Deven(dra Fadnavis) and told him that Pawars daughter must be defeated at any cost, Patil said at a meeting of party workers earlier this week. Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar is working overtime in Baramati to ensure his daughters victory. Apart from keeping close tabs on her campaign, he has also addressed multiple rallies in the constituency. rchopra@tribunemail.com Lucknow, April 18 Brisk voting was seen in all eight of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday which went to the polls in the second phase of the staggered Lok Sabha elections. In the first four hours of the polling till 11 am, 24.3 per cent of polling was reported. Both the BJP and the SP-BSP-RLD alliance are contesting all the eight seats--Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Fatehpur Sikri, Nagina, Amroha, Mathura and Agra. While the BSP has fielded candidates on six seats, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal are contesting from one seat each. The Congress is also in the fray in all eight constituencies. There are 85 candidates in contention, including actor-politicians Hema Malini of the BJP (Mathura) and state Congress chief Raj Babbar (Fatehpur Sikri). Uttar Pradesh Minister SP Singh Baghel is contesting from Agra. A total of 1,40,76,635 people in these constituencies are eligible to vote. The voting started at 7 am amid tight security. Chief Election Officer L Venkateshwarlu said a total of 1,121 polling stations had been installed with digital cameras, 781 with video cameras and 1,614 were being web monitored. A total of 19,367 electronic voting machines (EVMs), 19,348 control units and 20,527 VVPATs have been used. However, EVMs malfunctioning disrupted polling in many booths. EVMs were replaced at Mathura, Bulandshahr and Amroha. In Fatehpur Sikri, voters created a ruckus at booth nos 201 and 54 where polling was on hold for more than 30 minutes due to EVM glitches. The polling was going on without any untoward incident, said Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police OP Singh. IANS shalender@tribune.com Tribune News Service NEW DELHI, APRIL 17 China today once again reiterated that the stalemate over designating Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist is moving towards a resolution. Isolated in the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the issue, Beijing has issued statements of this nature with no timeline in the past as well. This time, China denied it was served an ultimatum by three permanent members of the UNSC US, UK and France to change its position by next week. I dont know where you get such information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in Beijing. Chinas position is very clear. This issue should be resolved through cooperation, he added. On listing Azhar, Chinas position remains unchang-ed. We also stay in communication with relevant parties. The matter is moving towards the direction of settlement, he had observed. Officials from the Ministry of External Affairs say Chinas isolation is evident from the fact that UNSCs four out of five permanent members and all 10 of its non-permanent members have approached the Indian Permanent Representative in New York, Syed Akbaruddin, to express their solidarity with India on the listing of Masood as a global terrorist. The solitary exception is China, which has four times blocked moves by the UNSC to sanction the JeM chief, who, New Delhi says, is behind the Pulwama and other grave terror attacks. Earlier this month, China had similarly attempted to wriggle out of a spot after France, UK and the US were exasperated by its stonewalling. The trio directly moved the UNSC (instead of a UNSC sub-committee as in the past), but China tried to be reasonable by claiming that positive progress was being made on the issue. China had also taken on these countries by claiming that it was not a good move to move the UNSC directly. Today also, China refrained from mentioning India but criticised the relevant parties for forcing a new resolution through the UNSC. No visa to Gen JJ Singh New Delhi: China has stalled a visa to former Army Chief General JJ Singh (retd), most likely because he had served as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh over which Beijing lays claim. It led him to miss a build-up conference to the Second Belt and Road Summit. In 2010, India had cancelled military exercises with China after it denied a visa to its GOC-in-Chief, Northern Command. TNS. shalender@tribune.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 17 The ongoing saga of Congress and Aam Aadmi Partys elusive alliance spilled over to Haryana today with top leaders meeting in the capital to discuss the matter. AICC general secretary in charge of Haryana Ghulam Nabi Azad met AAPs alliances incharge Sanjay Singh today. Though he dismissed it as a mundane meeting between two Rajya Sabha MPs, its timing wasnt lost on anyone. I dont know who is talking about a Haryana alliance in Delhi. There is no such thing right now, Azad said. Sanjay Singh, however, blamed the Congress for no headway in talks. In order to stop BJP, we were ready for an alliance, but Congress is not in a mood for any coalition or compromise. Its sad. The meeting came barely three days after Congress president Rahul Gandhi and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal had a public spat. Gandhi said the Congress was open to offering four Lok Sabha seats to AAP in Delhi and keeping three for itself. Congress political line so far has been that there can be no alliance with AAP beyond Delhi because such alliances are not practical. AAP is insistent on a comprehensive and reasonable understanding beyond Delhi. In that context, todays meeting troubled several Haryana Congress leaders in contention for the remaining four seats in the state. AAP wants a Congress-JJP-AAP pact in Haryana, seat understanding in Chandigarh, space in Punjab and Goa. Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who heads the state LS poll coordination committee ruled out any immediate talks of alliance with AAP in Haryana but left the door ajar. Top leaders privately wondered how the Congress that fought INLD for decades could ally with its split faction. Buzz is AAP wants Karnal seat for itself and three seats for the JJP. Nothing special It was a courtesy meeting (with Sanjay Singh). MPs keep meeting each other. Whats special about that? Ghulam Nabi Azad, Cong leader Dont need it We dont need any alliance in Haryana but if the party takes a call in national interest on any alliance, we will see. Bhupinder Singh Hooda, ex-cm, Haryana editorial@tribune.com Manas Dasgupta Himmatnagar, April 17 Prime Minister Narendra Modi today warned voters in Gujarat that voting for the Congress even by mistake would mean leading the country to destruction and Gujarat would be its first target. Beginning the second leg of his election campaign in Gujarat from Himmatnagar, the district headquarters of Sabarkantha in north Gujarat, Modi mostly played on the son of the soil theory, issuing emotional appeal to vote for the BJP only to enable your son to serve the country for five more years and contribute in its rapid progress. Painting the Congress as anti-Gujarat and anti-Gujarati, Modi said the people in the state should not make the mistake that it was Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patels Congress. This is post-independent Congress which has made use of abusive language against its opponents its main weapon like bullets were for the British government against the freedom fighters, he said. This is the Congress that stands by the corrupt, support the anti-national and want to disarm the Army to help the countrys enemies, he cautioned. You will become a sinner if you vote for such a party even by mistake and while voting be very careful that you have pressed the lotus button, Modi said. This election will decide whether the nationalist forces will rule the country for the next five years or the supporters of secessionists, Modi said, adding that if the Congress was given the power back, it will lead the country to total destruction. The Congress election manifesto itself had made Pakistan happy because it had promised to weaken the Indian Army and support the anti-national elements in J&K, Modi claimed. The Congress dhakosla patra had made it clear which direction the party would take if voted to power, towards sure and certain destruction of the country, he added. Enumerating the welfare measures of his government, Modi asked the audience, Dont you feel proud at the way your son has devoted himself to work for the betterment of the country? Claiming that his government had developed the country in the past five years four times more than the Congress governments did in the past 70 years, Modi said the Congress was not prepared to enact a law to punish the rapists and ensure safety of women which his government did. Meanwhile, Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, also on two-day election campaign in Gujarat, ridiculed the Modi governments lopsided development model and questioned what benefit the country could derive from construction of toilets when people were going to sleep empty stomach and open bank accounts when they had no money in pocket. IN Maha, PM says Rahul abused backward castes pardeepdhull@gmail.com New Delhi, April 18 The Congress on Thursday questioned the Election Commission order suspending a high-ranking poll official deputed to Odisha for allegedly checking the Prime Ministers chopper and said EC rules do not exempt PMs vehicle from being checked. The Opposition party accused the EC of bias after it suspended Karnataka cadre IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin for what the poll panel said was dereliction of duty with regard to SPG protectees. The Congress also wondered what Modi was carrying in his helicopter that he did not want India to see. An official was suspended by ECI for doing his job of inspecting vehicles. The rule cited governs the use of official vehicles for campaigning. It DOES NOT exempt PMs vehicle from being searched, the Congress said on its official Twitter handle. What is Modi carrying in the helicopter that he doesnt want India to see? it added. The Congress said instead of checking all flights of leaders, the EC was acting against its officials. After the case of the mysterious box being moved from Modis chopper, wed have expected the Election Commission of India to investigate every flight. But suspending an official who did this reeks of bias, the party said in another tweet. According to an EC order, IAS officer Mohsin was suspended for actions contrary to the instructions of the Commission concerning SPG protectees on April 16 the day SPG-protectee Prime Minister Modi visited Sambalpur in Odisha to address an election rally. There have been instances where during polls EC was allowed to check convoys of both current & the former Congress President. SPG protectees cant be frisked personally. Why suspend an officer for checking PMs chopper? What message is being sent? Law is special for some? senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel tweeted. PTI Image Credit: Madan Mitra Facebook New Delhi/Kolkata, Apr 18 (IBNS): Bangladeshi actor Gazi Abdun Noor, who was caught in the middle of a row for participating in a Trinamool Congress rally, has been asked to leave India, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sources said. "One more Bangladeshi actor, Ghazi Abdun Noor, who attended a political rally in Dum Dum, West Bengal, has been asked to leave India. In any case, his visa had expired. Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his overstay in contravention of visa validity," MHA sources said. Noor participates in Trinamool rally Noor is in the news for campaigning for West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lodging a complaint with the Election Commission. Noor, who played the role of Raja Rajchandra in popular Bengali serial Rani Rashmoni, was found with Trinamool leader Madan Mitra who was campaigning for his party's Lok Sabha candidate from Dum Dum, Saugata Roy. In his Facebook page, Mitra shared a few images and a video where Noor could be seen. However, Noor claimed the images shared by Mitra were not recently clicked. Though he admitted to have been present in the rally, the young actor said he didn't speak a word supporting the Trinamool. "I do have a very good relation with Madan Mitra on a personal level for a long time. He had helped me for treating my ill mother. The pictures which have been shared by him on Facebook are from "Khuti Pujo" (a ritual before erecting pandals for Durga Puja) last year. The video which has been shared by Madan da is the latest one. I had no vehicle to go to Dakshineswar when Madan da offered me a lift. I agreed. Later I found there was a huge gathering. But I did not participate in the rally and didn't speak a word in favour of the Trinamool despite having multiple microphones out there. To me, India is important and I am not in favour of any political party," Noor told IBNS. But in a live video of Mitra, Noor was heard saying that he would be present to meet people at 4 pm on Apr 12. The videos now have been removed by the Trinamool leader. Before Noor, Ferdous Ahmed was in trouble India has asked Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed to leave the country immediately as he was found electioneering for the Trinamool Congress, which is headed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Union Home Ministry also asked for a report from the Bureau of Immigration after Ferdous Ahmed's presence at a Trinamool roadshow at Raiganj in north Bengal triggered controversy before the second phase polling for three Lok Sabha seats in north Bengal on Apr 18. The Bangladeshi actor, who was on a business visa, was also blacklisted by the Indian government and has been asked to immediately leave the country. Ferdous, a popular name in Bangladesh, campaigned for Trinamools Lok Sabha candidate Kanaia Lal Agarwal from Raiganj in North Dinajpur district. However, when asked about the Bangladeshi actor, Agarwal said: "I've no idea about the specific rally you are talking about where Ferdous Ahmed or any other actor, actress took part." amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 18 A law student has moved the Supreme Court to secure right to vote for prisoners who are currently debarred from exercising their franchise. Petitioner Aditya Prasanna Bhattacharyaa student of National Law School of India University, Bangalorechallenged Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which says: No person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police. A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi wanted to know why he was interested in prisoners rights. Before we entertain this petition under Article 32, filed as public interest litigation, we would like to know more about the petitioner; his interest in the subject matter and why he has picked up this particular cause to be raised and that too by an Article 32 petition, it said in a brief order. The above query of ours, we make it clear, has no connection with the merits of the contentions raised, the Bench said posting the matter for further hearing after two weeks. Contending that Section 62(5) of RPA was broadly worded and affected even undertrial prisoners and those detained in civil prison, the petitioner pointed out that persons on bail were allowed to vote. The provision violated right to equality guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution as it was discriminatory. There is no conceivable object that the classification envisaged by the impugned provision seeks to achieve. Even if decriminalization of politics is said to be the object..., it cannot be conceived how the impugned provision, which deprives prisoners of their right to vote, has any nexus at all with decriminalisation of politics, which is concerned with the right to contest of candidates with criminal antecedents, the petitioner submitted. The petitioner submitted that similar provisions curtailing prisoners right to vote had been struck down by Supreme Courts of Canada and South Africa and the European Court of Human Rights. shalender@tribune.com London, April 17 Vijay Mallya on Wednesday failed to convince a UK High Court to dismiss an order related to money in one of his London bank accounts, dealing a blow to the embattled liquor tycoons efforts to prevent a consortium of Indian banks getting access to nearly 260,000 pounds. In one of the many legal cases being faced by the 63-year-old liquor tycoon in the UK, Master David Cook ruled that an interim debt order in favour of SBI and other banks seeking access to funds in the ICICI UK bank account should remain in force but that the application to make it final should be adjourned until after the hearing of Mallyas pending bankruptcy petition. The funds in the account will meanwhile remain frozen as part of the worldwide freezing order in favour of the Indian banks last year. Mallyas lawyers had argued for dismissal of the interim order on a number of grounds, including a claim that it was a deliberate ploy to prevent Mallya reasonable living expenses. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Lucknow, April 18 BSP supremo Mayawati on Thursday accused UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of blatantly violating the 72-hour EC ban on canvassing and the poll body with turning a blind eye to the violations. The former chief minister also claimed that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were nervous and jittery about their poll prospects. Hitting out at Adityanath, Mayawati charged that the UP chief minister was deriving political mileage by visiting temples and having food outside the house of a Dalit. In a tweet, Mayawati said, By blatantly violating the ban imposed by the Election Commission, UP Chief Minister Yogi (Adityanath) is visiting temples in various cities and doing a drama of having food outside the house of a Dalit. He is deriving electoral mileage by broadcasting them on media, but the Election Commission is lenient (meharbaan) on him. Why? The EC on Monday imposed a 72-hour campaigning ban on Adityanath for making communal remarks at a recent election meeting in Meerut. The ban came into force from Tuesday morning. Mayawati said, If the Election Commission continues its leniency (meharbaani) and turns a blind eye, then it will be impossible to have this election free and fair...The BJP leadership is hell-bent on forcing itself (manmaani), as it had been doing till now. The BSP chief also slammed the BJP leadership. Today, voting is being held for the second phase of the general election, and the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are nervous and jittery like the Congress was feeling in the last Lok Sabha election. The real reason for this is the mindset, which is against the poor, labourers, farmers, Dalits, backwards and Muslims, she said. PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com New Delhi, April 18 In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court has given a ray of hope to people on death row who develop severe mental illness post-conviction, saying their health condition would now be a mitigating factor for appellate courts for sparing them from the gallows. An accused could till now take the plea of legal insanity under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to avoid criminal prosecution and the defence was made relatable to the moment when the crime is committed. A three-judge bench headed by Justice N V Ramana spared a condemned prisoner, who has not been identified in the verdict owing to his mental condition. He was given death penalty in a barbaric rape and murder of two minor cousins in Maharashtra in 1999. It, however, took note of barbaric and brutal manner of commission of the crime and awarded the jail term to the convict for remainder of his life with the direction to the government to ensure proper mental health care to him. The bench, also comprising Justices M M Shantanagoudar and Indira Banerjee, was faced with complex questions concerning relationship between mental illness and crime and as to how culpability of a convict can be assessed if he develops mental condition after the court finds him guilty. Delineating directions to be followed by appellate courts on sentencing mentally-ill accused, the bench said: The postconviction severe mental illness will be a mitigating factor that the appellate Court, in appropriate cases, needs to consider while sentencing an accused to death penalty. The assessment of such disability should be conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of qualified professionals (experienced medical practitioners, criminologists etc), including professional with expertise in accused persons particular mental illness. To prevent misuse of the directions, the top court said the burden would be on the accused to prove by a preponderance of clear evidence that he is suffering with severe mental illness. The accused has to demonstrate active, residual or prodromal symptoms, that the severe mental disability was manifesting, it said. The court said the state government would be at liberty to offer evidence to rebut such claim of insanity or mental illness. The court in appropriate cases could set up a panel to submit an expert report on the claim of mental illness of convicts, it said. Test of severity envisaged...predicates that the offender needs to have a severe mental illness or disability, which simply means that objectively the illness needs to be most serious that the accused cannot understand or comprehend the nature and purpose behind the imposition of such punishment, it said. To understand the phenomenon of post-conviction mental illness, the bench took note of the reports of the World Health Organisation and the International Red Cross. It is well acknowledged fact throughout the world that, prisons are difficult places to be in. There are multiple circumstances such as over-crowding, various forms of violence, enforced solitude, lack of privacy, inadequate health care facilities, concerns about family can take a toll on the mental health of the prisoners, it said. It assessed the inclusion of post-conviction mental illness as a determining factor to hold that a case does not fall under the category of the rarest of the rare warranting the award of death penalty. The mental disorders, for sparing the death row convicts from the gallows, would generally include schizophrenia, other serious psychotic disorders, and dissociative disorders with schizophrenia.. The convict, in the present case, was awarded death penalty by the trial court in the twin rape and murder case and both the high court and the apex court upheld the sentence. The review plea against the apex court verdict was also rejected. The apex court entertained the second review plea and passed the slew of directions on sentencing of convicts who develop mental conditions post convictions. PTI gspannu7@gmail.com New Delhi, April 18 No raids but a verification exercise was carried out by a joint team of Income Tax and police officials at the premises of DMK leader Kanimozhi in Tuticorin on April 16, the Election Commission said on Thursday. The poll panel has sought a report of the incident by tonight from the special expenditure observer deployed by it in Tamil Nadu, officials said. The action was taken under Section 131 of the Income Tax Act (power regarding discovery and production of evidence). It was a verification exercise and not searches, the ECs Director General (Expenditure), Dilip Sharma, told reporters here. The commission has sought a report from the special expenditure observer, Madhu Mahajan, and it is expected to be sent by tonight, he said. The I-T officials, accompanied by local police and election surveillance teams, conducted an inquiry after they were informed by the Tuticorin collector that there were reports of some cash being stocked at the location, officials had earlier said. Nothing objectionable was found and the teams returned after conducting the inquiry that was allowed by Kanimozhi after the officials showed their official IDs, a senior I-T officer said. Kanimozhi had called the action as undemocratic. Following information about the searches on Tuesday, a large number of DMK workers had gathered in front of Kanimozhis house. DMK president MK Stalin had said in a statement that the raids were an outcome of fear of a damning defeat, for BJPs candidate Tamilisai Soundararajan in Tuticorin. This is murder of democracy, Stalin had said and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has buried the autonomous feature of the EC through such actions. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, April 18 As polling for Phase Two of the Lok Sabha elections began on Thursday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the youth to cast their vote. Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha polls start today. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise, he tweeted. On election days, Modi usually takes to Twitter urging people to turn up at polling stations. I hope more youngsters head to the polling booths and vote, he said. Polling began on Thursday morning for 95 Lok Sabha seats spread across 11 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry with Tamil Nadu witnessing contest in 38 constituencies. Voting was also under way in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha and in 18 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. PTI shalender@tribune.com Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 17 Putting to rest speculation, the BJP today fielded controversial Hindutva leader Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh against an equally controversial Congress leader Digvijay Singh within hours of her joining the party. The BJP also replaced Vidisha MP and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who has voluntarily opted out, with state leader Ramakant Bhargav. The decision to field Pragya, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, has already drawn criticism. Belonging to Bhind district, she is known for making provocative statements and has long been associated with the Sangh, the BJPs ideological fountainhead. Pragya replaces sitting Bhopal MP Alok Sanjar, who said he would ensure her victory. No allegation was proved against her. A woman was harassed. Now it is the time for revenge, he said. Meanwhile, Digvijay Singh, one of the key proponents of the Hindu terror theory that the BJP wants to destroy with the help of Sadhvi Pragya, welcomed her candidature, saying he hoped she would like the peaceful, educated and civilised atmosphere of the city. As someone who has often been accused of playing the minority card, Singh recently said his party had decided to give away the land meant for Congress Zila Committee in Bhopal to the Ram Mandir trust. Singh may have been trying to woo Hindu voters in the constituency that has been sending a saffron leader to Parliament since 1989, but the BJP believes Pragyas presence will not just influence Bhopal but also adjoining areas in its favour. Earlier, there was speculation that the BJP might field Union Minister Uma Bharti, who too has voluntary opted out of the 2019 electoral fray. As someone who had defeated Singh from the constituency, Bharti she had kalready done her part in removing him from power and now the people would defeat him. About 4.5 lakh of the 18 lakh voters of the city are Muslims. Pragya said she was waging a dharmayudh against Singh. In the past decade, Pragya and Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit have been portrayed as the saffron terror face by the Congress-led UPA government for their alleged role in the Malegaon blasts. Six persons were killed and 100 injured when an explosive device went off near a mosque in Malegaon on September 29, 2008. The blast was allegedly carried by right-wing outfit Abhinav Bharat. Pragya was given a clean chit by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), but the trial court refused to discharge her from the case. The court dropped the charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against her and she is now being tried under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. She was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in 2017. In Sagar, the BJP has replaced sitting MP Laxmi Narayan Yadav with Raj Bahadur Singh. In Guna, the party has fielded KP Yadav against Congress strongman and sitting MP Jyotiraditya Scindia. The party is yet to open its cards for Indore, where sitting MP, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, recently made public her displeasure over the suspense around her candidature. Mahajans rival, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who was considered a strong contender for Indore, has also said he would not contest the Lok Sabha elections. One of my all-time favorite movies is the 1998 blockbuster hit, Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith. Toward the end of the movie, Smith is sitting on the couch and watching the news with his on-screen wife, played by Oscar winner Regina King. The soundbite from the fictional news coverage comes from a fictional congressman who says: We knew that we had to monitor our enemies. Weve also come to realize that we need to monitor the people who are monitoring them The next line is spoken by Regina Kings character, Well, whos gonna monitor the monitors of the monitors? My absolute favorite line in this movie! Her question rings true to so many issues today from local to national and even international issues. Lets think about her question in context to our Indianapolis Public School Board. The purpose of our school board is not unlike other school boards, and that is to: Govern the public K-12 school system and ensuring accountability for student outcome and performance Represent the diverse beliefs and values of the community Hire and evaluate superintendent Monitor budgets Listen and act on concerns from the community Advocate on important K-12 policy issues for students To sum up those bullet points, the school board monitors the monitors. They monitor the performance of the leadership, the schools outputs, the educators and act on the communitys concerns. But whos gonna monitor the monitors of the monitors? Whos holding them to the fire? Whos ensuring that little Black boys and Black girls in our school system receive the critical education needed to progress them to the next phase in life college? Thats where we come in. Thats our job as a community. Collectively as a community of public citizens, or parents or regular common folk we have a right to monitor the monitors. Even if you dont currently have a child in the Indianapolis Public Schools system, you have a right to advocate for better schools, safer learning environments, rigorous curriculum and quality teachers a better educated community means increased economic growth and stability. We have the right to hold them accountable when the school board doesnt live up to our expectations. After all, members of the school board are elected officials. For many years now, IPS has diversified the portfolio of school types by adding charter and innovation schools. The board has also intentionally diversified the board itself to be more inclusive of the varying cultures and opinions that reflect the diversity of Indianapolis. Follow the money Think of it like this the school board is partially responsible your childs education because they make the decisions on how to spend the money allotted to public education. They make the decision on which schools undergo construction, details of the curriculum and salary increases for teachers. Most of us arent elected school board members, so how can we get involved in what the board does? 1. Attend meetings. You can access their meetings calendar here. Get to know what topics will be covered and understand policy matters up for discussion. If youre unable to physically attend a meeting, you can watch IPS proceedings usually streamed live from the ISP Facebook page. 2. Rally for change in public education at the Indiana Statehouse to influence policymakers who influence education legislation. 3. Utilize your influence. Share educational resources with parents, students and community leaders on your social platforms. 4. Volunteer directly within the Indianapolis Public Schools 5. Run for office. If the direction of the school board isnt what you expect it to be, be the change you want to see. 6. Vote in the next election. Learn what school board commissioners platforms are. Understand how they plan to improve Indianapolis schools. Choose the candidate that best matches your views for refining education. Heres why it matters What should we advocate for? Unfortunately more than 15,000 students in IPS attend D- or F-rated schools. In fact, IPS received a D grade in accountability from the Indiana Department of Education since 2013. A D grade. In accountability. What exactly does school accountability mean? The letter grades represent how well the school system aligns with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The grade takes into account graduation rates, student performance on state tests and other factors. Advocate that the school board improve our accountability to ensure our youth are properly educated and college-ready. Its no surprise that many of the failing schools are located in neighborhoods that serve low-income and minority students. In our city, 44 percent of the IPS students are Black and only 19 percent of teachers are Black. Study after study has indicated that Black students academic success is dramatically increased when they are taught by teachers who look like them. Again, no surprise. But for any nonbelievers a study released in 2018 by Johns Hopkins concluded that Black students in K-12 education who have just one Black teacher are 13 percent more likely to go to college. Advocate for teacher diversity in IPS. This is why you, me, we all of us should advocate for better schools, better education, and why we should hold our school system accountable. WE are the monitors of the monitors. Our children deserve better than a D-rated school system. Our students deserve to be adequately prepared for college and beyond. Our students deserve access to higher education. Because of parents, teachers; advocate groups such as The Mind Trust, StandUp, UNCF; individuals such as Indianapolis own, Dr. Nate Turner and his Raising Supaman Project; programs such as the Parent Involvement Educator program improvements are happening in our schools. Its often said that parents dont have the tools they need to advocate. Below is a list of websites with advocacy tools and resources. UNCFs Grasstops Toolkit tips and tools to help you advocate to alleviate long-standing achievement gaps in education. Volunteer with Stand for Children Indiana theyre looking for passionate volunteers with an interest in ensuring all children graduate from school prepared for and with access to college. Attend a community conversation or other event sponsored by The Mind Trust. These events allow you to learn about ways you can improve educational opportunities in the city. Connect with your local UNCF office to learn about opportunities. The UNCF Indianapolis office not just provides African American students with scholarships to schools, the office has also been deeply involved in helping to pass the most recent 2018 Operating and Capital Referendum which helped to fund teacher raises, services to special needs students, and classroom safety. Change for anything takes time, but the lives and the future of our citys future is at stake. In 2018 the board underwent an election and subsequently three new board members took office. Together, lets let them know that the future of our city is in their hands high quality education should be their highest priority. Our children deserve it. Cassandra Anderson is the Indianapolis community engagement manager of K-12 Advocacy at United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and a board member of Ignite Achievement Academy. Follow Cassandra on Twitter at @CAndersonIndy. rchopra@tribunemail.com Chennai, April 18 Tamil Nadu recorded 39.49 per cent voting till 1 pm in 38 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state, with Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin among the early voters. Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said the state recorded 39.49 per cent voting till 1 pm, with Namakkal registering the highest of 41.56 and Kanyakumari the minimum of 37.2 per cent. In the bypolls in 18 Assembly segments, the polling percentage was 42.92. Sahoo said the polling exercise has been going on peacefully all over the state. As many as 384 EVMs and 692 VVPATs were changed spread over 66,167 polling stations across Tamil Nadu over technical issues, he said. Sahoo said that even if voters did not have the voters slip, they could still vote since it was not one of the 12 documents mandated for voting. The slips were only meant to identify the electors polling station and their serial number on poll rolls, he said. Meanwhile, chaotic scenes unfolded at the Koyambedu bus terminus here when a considerable number of commuters arrived to travel to their native districts on account of continuous holidays till Sunday (Friday is a holiday for Good Friday). Operation of inadequate buses was the reason for the chaotic situation, they claimed. Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin waited in queues at Edappadi in Salem district and Chennai, respectively, and cast their vote. After casting his vote, Stalin alleged that there has been distribution of cash and accused the Election Commission of being an ally of central and state governments. Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, DMKs Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi and Karti Chidambaram of Congress are among key contenders. Radhakrishnan told reporters in Kanyakumari: This is a massive democratic festival which will decide the fate of India. I have exercised my franchise...A silent revolution is happening. AIADMK leader and state minister D Jayakumar said 13 per cent voting in the morning is a joyous thing. This shows there is a wave for Amma and MGR, he said, exuding confidence that the AIADMK-BJP combine would emerge victorious. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dhinakaran alleged malfunctioning of EVMs is an achievement of the Modi government. CPI national secretary D Raja expressed confidence that people were voting for the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu as they wanted to see the end of the BJP government at the Centre. Dayanidhi Maran voted here along with his family members. Besides 38 of the total 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state, excluding Vellore, bypolls to 18 Assembly segments are also under way. Polling stations were teeming with enthusiastic voters even before 7 am when polling began and the Chief Minister was among the early electors in his native Salem district. While senior Congress leader P Chidambaram voted at Kandanur in Sivaganga district, Dhinakaran execised his franchise along with his family here. Top actor Rajinikanth and popular stars Vijay and Ajith Kumar voted in Chennai. BJPs Tamil Nadu unit chief Tamilisai Soundararjan and actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan also cast their votes here. DMDK chief Vijayakanth, his wife and party leader Premalatha and Pattali Makkal Katchi chief S Ramadoss voted in Chennai and Tindivanam, respectively. The states electorate is 5.84-crore (after deducting the 14.26 lakh voters in Vellore) strong. Adequate security arrangements, with the deployment of over 160 companies of central police forces and one lakh state police personnel, have been made. In the run-up to the polls, election authorities had seized over Rs 129 crore cash, gold and other precious metals with a total value of over Rs 284 crore from all over the state. Tamil Nadu has a total of 67,720 polling stations and 7,780 booths have been categorised as critical and vulnerable where more Central Armed Police Forces personnel, and micro-observers were deployed. Measures like webcasting and videographing of proceedings are also in place. As many as 1,50,302 ballot units, 89,160 control units and 94,653 VVPAT which allows the electors to cross check the votes they have cast for seven seconds are available. Every constituency has one all-woman polling station. While polling is being held between 7 AM and 6 PM in 37 constituencies, it has been extended by two hours until 8 PM in Madurai Lok Sabha segment, due to the Chithirai festival, which marks the grand entry of Lord Kallazhagar into the Vaigai river. PTI shalender@tribune.com New Delhi, April 17 Tech giants Google and Apple have removed TikTok from their app stores after the Supreme Court refused to stay Madras High Court order asking the Centre to prohibit the download of the Chinese social media platform. A search for video-sharing platform TikTok on Googles Play Store and Apples App Store did not show the app. The government on Monday had asked Google and Apple to comply with the HC order that had banned popular mobile app TikTok, according to sources. The two companies did not respond to e-mails seeking their views. While users may not be able to download TikTok from the app stores, people who have already downloaded it will be able to continue using the app on their phones. Any existing user of TikTok who has the app installed on the smartphone can share it with any seeker through apps like ShareIt. Once the app is shared, the user can install the app and become a new user, research firm techARC founder and Chief Analyst Faisal Kawoosa said. He added that there is a need for a holistic approach to get rid of such increasing digital menace, which cannot be absolved by technology and/or legal recourse alone. The HC, on April 3, had directed the Centre to ban TikTok app. In its order, it had said it was evident from media reports that pornography and inappropriate content were made available through such mobile applications. It had also directed the media not to telecast video clips made with TikTok. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is popular among youngsters in the country. It allows users to create short videos and then share them. In a statement, TikTok said it has faith in the Indian judicial system. PTI Allows dubbing Social media platform TikTok allows users to dub and alter voices on recorded videos Highly popular among youngsters, users can create short videos on the app and share these on the social media Madras HC banned it citing media reports of pornography, inappropriate content 120 million monthly active TikTok users in India, claims the company vermaajay1968@gmail.com Jupinderjit Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 17 Harjinder Singh Kaka Sran, son of a driver and AAP candidate from Ferozepur, has seen drug abuse from close quarters in the death of his younger brother. Prof Tejpal Singh from Ludhiana has a PhD in organisation and working of model jails, besides being a student leader in Panjab University. Anandpur Sahib candidate Narinder Singh Shergill is the three-time president of the Punjabi University Students Union. From a retired judge, an ex-soldier, a doctor, professors, student leaders, a sarpanch to a small land-holding farmer, the Aam Aadmi Party has tried to give ticket to different sections of society. The party has entered the poll arena claiming that their candidates in Punjab have rose from the ground and are well-versed with common peoples problems and this will make a difference in the Lok Sabha elections. Our Davids will beat Goliaths, said Bhagwant Mann, MP and state president. The AAP promised to pick leaders from the masses and five years after the party fought first elections, our team of volunteers is ready, he added. Learning from the debacle in the 2017 Assembly elections and the infighting, the AAP has trusted in its own team this time. The only exception is ex-Congress MLA Harbans Kaur Dullo, wife of former president of the Punjab Congress, Shamsher Singh Dullo, who has been given ticket from Fatehgarh Sahib. From Patiala, the AAP has chosen Neena Mittal, who belongs to a business family of Rajpura. She was also a ticket contender for the 2017 Assembly elections. She got into reckoning on the basis of her social work and street protests on civic amenities and other issues. The party has given two more seats to women leaders. Talwandi Sabo MLA Baljinder Kaur from Bathinda and Harbans Kaur Dullo from Fatehgarh Sahib. Barring four candidates, rest all are under 50 years with almost half of them being less than 40 years old. The party has given ticket to an ex-soldier Manjinder Singh Sidhu, a national-level shooter, from Khadoor Sahib. Peter Masih from Gurdaspur had left AAP in favour of Sucha Singh Chhotepurs Apna Punjab Party but returned to get a ticket from Gurdaspur. He had played role in installation of hand pumps for poor families in several villages. Justice Zora Singh (retd), party candidate from Jalandhar, had inquired into the sacrilege incidents during the SAD-BJP tenure. He was cold-shouldered by the Akalis and his findings were not followed or implemented. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Amritsar, April 17 Prior to announcing its candidate for the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP today opened its main election office in Amritsar and two more in Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur. The Amritsar office will monitor the proceedings of the other two offices. Haryanas Cabinet Minister and Lok Sabha election incharge of Punjab BJP Capt Abhimanyu and BJP state chief Shwait Malik were present during the inauguration. The BJPs representative will be declared by the designated team shortly. It can be any BJP worker, they said. When asked about the BJPs policy on approaching deras for garnering vote, Capt Abhimanyu said, During elections, the candidates have the right to knock every house to approach the voters. Even the house with the Congress flag on its top will be no constraint for us. Capt Abhimanyu viewed that there was a total contrast of ideology between the BJP and the Congress. On one hand, the BJP intends to abort Article 370 and Article 35-A by introducing amendment in the Constitution to bring Jammu and Kashmir to the mainstream, whereas the Congress bats for preserving it to let Jammu and Kashmir a separate state, he added. The Amritsar office will be headed by former mayor Bakshi Ram Arora, who will coordinate with the offices of Hoshiarpur and Pathankot (for Gurdaspur). pardeepdhull@gmail.com New Delhi, April 18 The National Commission for Women (NCW) has issued a show-cause notice to Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta and asked him to take action against police officers who reportedly refused to register a complaint of a rape survivor. Citing a media report, NCW member Soso Shaiza said the commission is seriously concerned about the reported police apathy in the matter and negligence shown by the police despite the provision of zero FIR in the law. The media report said the SHO bickered with the victim over jurisdiction of where the complaint must be registered. Considering the gravity of the matter, it is requested that strict action be taken against erring officials and a detailed action taken report be sent to the Commission at an early date, Shaiza said. PTI editorial@tribune.com Tribune Reporters Chandigarh, April 17 Following reports of damage to wheat crop in various parts of the state due to rain and dust storm, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today ordered a special girdawari for the assessment of crop loss. An official press release said the CM ordered urgent steps to ascertain the extent of the damage to the crops so that due compensation could be awarded to the affected farmers at the earliest. In his directive to the departments and officials concerned, the Chief Minister asked them to immediately commence the process of conducting the girdawari. In Sangrur, heavy rain and hailstorm have damaged the harvested wheat and likely to affect the standing wheat too. Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori has ordered assessment of damage and sought reports from across the district. Heavy rain and hailstorm in some villages have caused damage to wheat and it will further increase the worries of already indebted farmers of the district, said Darbara Singh Chajla, Sangrur district general secretary of the BKU Ugrahan. Some farmers alleged that due to lack of covered space in grain markets, their harvested wheat got drenched, while others alleged that the authorities did not make any temporary arrangement to cover their wheat lying in the grain market despite their requests. The state government has failed to make required arrangements for farmers in grain markets and todays rain has again exposed lack of facilities. Had the authorities arranged tarpaulins, hard earned wheat crop could have been saved, said Govind Singh Chajli, state vice president of the Mukti Mazdoor Morcha. Sangrur DC Thori said he had directed all Sub-Divisional Magistrates of the district to prepare detailed reports of losses. I will get detailed reports from all SDMs by tomorrow evening. After analysing all reports, we will send that to the government for further action, the DC added. In Muktsar, the ripe wheat crop has already got flattened in a number of villages. We were anticipating a bumper crop this year, but the rain at the time of harvesting has dashed our hopes. Now, the cost of harvesting will also escalate as the combine harvester owners will demand more money because the wheat has flattened in some patches, said Ranjit Singh, a farmer from Gurusar village. Meanwhile, power failure due to the rain and winds has also irked the residents. On the other hand, PSPCL officials claimed that a number of electricity wires had snapped as trees were uprooted by the winds. In Abohar, farmers efforts to plug breaches that developed yesterday in six sub-canals emanating from Gang (Bikaner) Canal suffered a jolt as hailstorm and heavy rain lashed the border district for the third consecutive day on Wednesday. The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited engineers could not make power supply normal even after 48 hours. Supply that went off at 8 pm on Tuesday and restored by 7.30 am on Wednesday was shut at 11 am again for four hours and again shut at 4.45 pm when hailstorm lashed the subdivision. The PSPCL claimed to have utilised Rs 24.5 crore funds to upgrade its grid sub-stations, besides the 220 kV main station, but consumers had no relief. The power supply could not be restored till the filing of this report. Drinking water supply also stood suspended. Fresh spell of rain aggravated the situation in residential colonies in Abohar which stayed inundated for the past two days. In Sriganganagar, six minors (sub-canals) that emanate from Gang Canal developed breaches ranging from 20 to 30 ft. Breaches in GG minor, LNP minor, PS minor, Ridmalsar minor, Karniji minor and Sameja minor submerged wheat and mustard crops spread over hundreds of acres. In Patiala district, the downpour left the farmers a worried lot. Wheat stems, which are to be harvested in a few days, were flattened. The farmers claimed that they suffered huge losses. rchopra@tribunemail.com Ndjamena, April 18 Around 50 Boko Haram fighters had been killed in an attack on a multi-national force in northeastern Nigeria, a military spokesperson said on Wednesday. Two Chadian soldiers belonging to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MMF), an anti-Boko Haram force combining soldiers from Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, died in the assault at Cross Kauwa on Tuesday, Colonel Azem Bermandoa said. Eleven other soldiers were injured. Fifty-two members of Boko Haram have been killed. Chadian forces have recovered a vehicle equipped with a heavy weapon and several small arms, Bermandoa said. Boko Harams nearly 10-year insurgency has its epicentre in northeast Nigeria, but has spilled over into Chad, Niger and Cameroon. It has left more than 27,000 people dead and about 1.8 million others homeless. In late February, more than 500 Chadian soldiers entered Nigeria to aid the Nigerian army in the fight against the jihadist group. On Sunday night, seven Chadian soldiers were also killed in a Boko Haram attack in the town of Bouhama in Chad. AFP monicakchauhan@gmail.com Paris, April 17 Pledged donations from French billionaires, companies and ordinary citizens for the restoration of fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral are approaching 900 million euros after just two days, a reflection of the landmark's resonance in the national psyche. But the outpouring has prompted questions from charities, politicians and commentators about why some of the business donors have offered so much so quickly, including speculation about how they might benefit from tax breaks on the donations. People on social media, both in France and abroad, have expressed frustration that other disasters - from the Syrian and Iraq refugee crisis to the Grenfell Tower fire in London - have not received anything like the same degree of support. The first major donation to Notre-Dame came from Francois-Henri Pinault, the billionaire head of luxury goods group Kering that owns fashion brands Gucci and Saint Laurent. Pinault, 56, a celebrity figure in part because he is married to actress Salma Hayek, pledged 100 million euros ($113 million) as the blaze was still raging - a decision dictated by emotion, a spokeswoman for his family's holding company said. Hours later, his great rival Bernard Arnault, France's richest man and the head of Louis Vuitton owner LVMH, announced he was donating 200 million euros, moved by the alarming pictures on TV, according to a group spokesman. The Bettencourt-Meyer family, the largest shareholder in L'Oreal, followed suit a while later, pledging a combined 200 million euros alongside the global cosmetics group. Brand and reputation experts said the quick response by some of France's most recognisable corporate titans made sense, especially since the disaster involves a national symbol. Adrian Palmer, the head of the marketing and reputation faculty at the Henley Business School, said all three billionaire families and their companies were closely aligned with the nation, and benefit from reinforcing the link. "These brands stand for France and they sell around the world, so anything that puts the France brand at the centre of people's minds is going to help them and how they are regarded," he said. "It creates positive associations in people's minds, that they are generous, caring and good." Online, LVMH's announcement of the donations was met with a host of comments on Twitter, from France and abroad, suggesting the money might be better spent in Africa or combatting climate change than rebuilding a cathedral. Others suggested the generosity was little more than smart marketing. Palmer said that even from a non-marketing point of view, early offers of support could be beneficial for a company's political positioning. All three firms are broadly supportive of President Emmanuel Macron and want to be seen as helpful with backing for his calls to rebuild. "Macron has been facing protests," he said, referring to the "yellow vests" street demonstrations against the high cost of living that have rocked France for months. "In a sense the disaster at Notre-Dame has become a unifying issue, so they want to show they are aligned." Tax breaks Still, there has been blowback. Charitable donations benefit from a 60 per cent tax deduction in France, which prompted immediate suggestions by critics that Pinault, Arnault and the others were being less magnanimous than initially appeared. "It's the public that will end up bearing the cost," said Gilles Carrez, a member of parliament for the centre-right Les Republicains party, who sits on the finance committee. The Pinault family, which was at odds with Macron last year on issues of tax and the president's policies towards the poor, said in a statement on Wednesday it was renouncing any tax advantage it might get from its donation. LVMH - which had benefited from large tax breaks to build the Louis Vuitton Foundation in western Paris - dismissed the notion it was merely trying to boost its image. "The only thing at issue here is to try and raise as much funding as possible to address this urgent issue, and that goes beyond any tax or accounting calculations," the LVMH group spokesman said in response to questions from Reuters. The Bettencourt-Meyer family has declined to comment on its donations. All three companies and the families behind them are already closely associated with the arts and cultural giving in France, which makes their rapid collective offer of half a billion euros to support a 12th-century Gothic masterpiece less surprising. "No doubt big brands want to genuinely demonstrate their empathy and show support to the re-building of an artefact that is not just a building but a cultural symbol," said Keith Glanfield, a professor at Aston Business School. "By some this may be seen as no more than a cynical attempt to sell more product." From the gut On Twitter and Facebook, and in the auditorium of the European Parliament, the question was less about whether they and others should give, and more about why such generosity was going towards an old building hit by a disaster in which no one died. "We are very attached to where Father Pierre's funeral was held," said the Abbe Pierre Foundation, a homelessness charity named after a priest whose 2007 funeral at Notre-Dame was attended by then-President Jacques Chirac. "But we are equally committed to his cause. If you could contribute even one percent of the amount to the homeless, we would be moved," it said on Twitter. Speaking to European lawmakers on Tuesday, teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said she did not want to diminish the Notre-Dame fire, but wished there was an equal outpouring of support to combat issues such as climate change. Markus Renner, a professor of brand management in Switzerland and the founder of the International Brand and Reputation Community, said he was surprised to see Pinault, Arnault and the Bettencourts give so much so quickly. "Why not wait and find out how much is needed and then step forward?" he said, pointing out that the billionaires and companies could have given the money silently, but chose not to. "It seems to be a little bit tactical and very much from the gut," he said, adding he doubted whether German companies would step up so promptly if Cologne cathedral burnt down. If the fire ends up being covered by insurance, the charitable donations may not end up being needed to finance the restoration. Reuters rchopra@tribunemail.com Islamabad, April 18 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will embark on a four-day visit to China next week to attend the Belt and Road Forum and hold bilateral talks with the Chinese leadership on the new phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other issues of mutual interest, the Foreign Office announced. The Foreign Office said Khan would be visiting China from April 25 to 28 to attend the 2nd Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, Dawn news reported on Thursday. He would also hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang and the two countries would sign several MoUs and agreements to enhance bilateral cooperation, it added. Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing, speaking at an event here on Wednesday, said: The Prime Minister (Imran Khan) is going to China next week and on that occasion, our leaders jointly working with him will elaborate the next stage of CPEC. Ambassador Jing said the two sides had also agreed on involving the third-party partners in CPEC projects. All countries are welcome to participate in Pakistans economic development, he said, adding that CPEC projects are inclusive, open, and all-embracing. Last November, Khan visited China for the first time after he became Prime Minister in August that year. IANS pardeepdhull@gmail.com Jakarta, April 18 Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared victory on Thursday in the race to lead the worlds third-largest democracy, saying unofficial results showed his ticket had got 54 percent of the popular vote in Wednesdays election. Earlier, National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said smooth and safe polls would not be disrupted by demonstrations, and warned of arrests. If there are any illegal or unconstitutional actions that threaten public stability and security, (authorities) will take firm action, he said. We wont tolerate it. I urge everyone against mass demonstrations, whether its to celebrate or to express dissatisfaction at the results, Karnavian added. This years campaign was punctuated by bitter mudslinging and a slew of fake news onlinemuch of it directed at the presidential contenders. Authorities said on Thursday they had seen a spike in false reports and hoaxes, with some calling for chaos in the streets and for Indonesians to commit violence in response to the results. However, the capital Jakarta was quiet on Thursday after as many as 190 million voters in the Muslim-majority country cast ballots in the one day pollwhich featured a record 245,000 candidatesto elect a new president, parliamentarians and local legislators. While official results are not due until next month, a series of so-called quick counts by pollsters, which are based on samples, showed Widodo between 9-11 percentage points ahead. Quick counts have been reliable indicators in past elections, but Widodo held off declaring victorywhile his rival Prabowo Subianto insisted he was the archipelagos next leader. The former generalwho has close ties to the Suharto dictatorship, which collapsed in 1998 -- earlier warned he would challenge the results in court if he lost and stage street protest over allegations of voter fraud. We will not use illegal tactics because we have won, Subianto said on Wednesday. For those who defended (my rivals), Im still going to defend you. Im the President of all Indonesians. The 67-year-old, who has long had his eye on the countrys top job, lost to Widodo in 2014 and then mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to that election. Online, the retired military man was pilloried by social media users who poked fun at his repudiation of the unofficial results and for kissing the ground as he declared himself president. We honestly feel sorry for Prabowo, not because hes lost the election (again) but because he is surrounded by people who made him a zombie who cant differentiate between reality and illusion, said one Twitter user with 1,65,000 followers. National newspapers called for reconciliation, with top-selling Kompas saying Lets Unite, while Tempo declared it One More Time for Widodo. Financial markets cheered, with the Jakarta composite stock index and rupiah currency both higher. We expect official results in May to confirm President Jokowis re-election as indicated by the quick count, said Priyanka Kishore at Oxford Economics in Singapore, using Widodos nickname. But she added that an infrastructure-pushing Widodo would still face challenges boosting annual growth of about five percent in Southeast Asias biggest economy, as it racks up trade deficits and contends with softer commodity prices. We do not think that beyond a short-term boost to sentiment, Jokowis re-election alters Indonesias economic fortunes materially, Kishore said. Agencies amansharma@tribunemail.com Washington, April 18 Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 US presidential polls, according to Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe which did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with Moscow, Attorney General William Barr said on Thursday. The special counsels report states that his investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities, Barr told reporters at a crowded news conference here. Briefing reporters on the details of the recently concluded Mueller investigations, a copy of which was now headed to the Congress and a redacted version also being made public, Barr said the report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in American elections. But thanks to the special counsels thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter. That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed, he said. Commenting on the 400-page report, Trump said Russia probe was a hoax. No collusion, no obstruction, Trump said. There never was, by the way, and there never will be. And we do have to get to the bottom of these things...This hoax. It should never happen to another president again. The report details efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. Following a thorough investigation of this disinformation campaign, Mueller brought charges in federal court against several Russian nationals and entities for their respective roles in this scheme. Those charges remain pending, and the individual defendants remain at large, Barr said. But the special counsel found no evidence that any Americans including anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme, he said. The report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU (Russian intelligence agency) to hack into computers and steal documents and emails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicising those emails, he said. Asserting that obtaining such unauthorised access into computers is a federal crime, he said following a thorough investigation of these hacking operations, Mueller brought charges in federal court against several Russian military officers for their respective roles in these illegal hacking activities. But again...there was no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russian governments hacking, Barr said. Barr said after nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, Mueller confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes. After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the special counsels report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the President could amount to obstruction of the special counsels investigation, he said. Mueller did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. Instead, the report recounts 10 episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offence, he said. After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense, Barr said. Barr said Mueller acknowledges that there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fuelled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the special counsels investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims, he said. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation,he said. Mueller was chosen to head the investigation in 2017 following concerns from US intelligence agencies that Russia had tried to tip the election in Trumps favour. Earlier on Thursday, President Trump said the Mueller probe was Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats, tweeted Trump, who refers Clinton as Crooked. Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler said he has sent a letter to Mueller - requiring his testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee by May 23. We cannot take Attorney General Barrs word for it. We must read the full Mueller report, and the underlying evidence, Nadler said. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Seoul, April 18 North Korea said on Thursday it no longer wanted to deal with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and said he should be replaced in talks by someone more mature, hours after it announced its first weapons test since nuclear talks broke down. The Norths official KCNA news agency quoted senior foreign ministry official Kwon Jong Gun as warning that no one could predict the situation on the Korean peninsula if the United States did not abandon the root cause that compelled North Korea to develop nuclear weapons. The statement came shortly after North Korea announced that leader Kim Jong Un had overseen the testing of a new tactical guided weapon, which KCNA said has a peculiar mode of guiding flight and a powerful warhead. It was the Norths first weapon test since talks in Vietnam between Kim and US President Donald Trump in late February broke down over conflicting demands by North Korea for sanctions relief and by the United States for North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme. KCNA gave no details on the weapon that was tested on Wednesday but tactical implied a short-range weapon rather than the long-range ballistic missiles that have been seen as a threat to the United States. KCNA quoted Kwon, who is in charge of US affairs, as saying the Vietnam summit, the second between the two leaders, showed that talks could go wrong whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in. I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled, Kwon said. Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the United States, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us. While Kwon did not elaborate on why North Korea felt compelled to develop nuclear weapons, it has long spoken of the need to defend itself from what it sees as US aggression. Kim said last week said the breakdown in talks risked reviving tensions and he gave a year-end deadline for the United States to change its attitude. Despite the failure of the Vietnam summit, Trump has stressed his good relationship with Kim. Kwon also said the two leaders were on good terms, even as he castigated Pompeo for fabricated stories as part of a publicity stunt. He did not elaborate. Kwon said Pompeo had made reckless remarks hurting the dignity of our supreme leadership, apparently referring to him agreeing to the characterisation of Kim as a tyrant at a US Congressional hearing last week. US government officials were not immediately available for comment on the call to replace Pompeo. Useful reminder Earlier, Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam Universitys Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the newly tested weapon was likely a short-range cruise missile that could be launched from the ground, sea and air. Kim oversaw the test of an unidentified tactical weapon in November. Experts said in November Kim wanted to shift the mainstay of the Norths conventional military power from a nearly 1.3 million-strong army to high-tech weapons. The young leader said last April that he would stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles because the nuclear capabilities of North Korea, which has tested nuclear devices six times, had been verified. This does serve as a useful reminder of one critical fact: Chairman Kim Jong Un never promised to stop testing all weapons in his military arsenal, just nuclear weapons and ICBMs that have the potential to hit the US homeland, said Harry Kazianis of the Washington-based Center for the National Interest. A US official said that, according initial information, US forces did not detect a missile launch from North Korea. Checks were underway, said the official. Referring to the test, a White House official said: We are aware of the report and have no further comment. South Koreas presidential Blue House declined to comment on the test, referring questions to the defence ministry. It said it was analysing the nature of the weapon and North Koreas intentions. Kims visit to the testing site came after he visited the North Korean Air and Anti-aircraft Force on Tuesday, according to KCNA. Kyungnam Universitys Kim Dong-yub said the latest test appeared to partly be a message to the United States that North Korea would not bow to sanctions. Its also an internal message to the North Korean people and to the military to instil trust in their own security by reinforcing conventional weapons, he said. Satellite images from last week showed movement at Yongbyon, North Koreas main nuclear site, that could be associated with the reprocessing of radioactive material into bomb fuel, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the United States said on Tuesday. US national security adviser John Bolton said in a Bloomberg News interview on Wednesday the United States needed to see a real indication from North Korea that theyve made the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons before a third summit between Trump and Kim. Reuters monicakchauhan@gmail.com New York, April 18 A US woman who worked for Air China at the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport here has pleaded guilty to acting on behalf of the Chinese government by placing unscreened packages on a flight from New York to Beijing. Ying Lin was working at the direction of Chinese military personnel stationed at Beijing's permanent mission to the UN, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said on Wednesday. Lin, a naturalised US citizen, worked for Air China from 2002 till 2015 at JFK and then at Newark Liberty International Airport through April 2016. She could face up to 10 years' imprisonment when sentenced, The Washington Post reported. This case is a stark example of the Chinese government using the employees of Chinese companies doing business here to engage in illegal activity," Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said in a statement. Covertly doing the Chinese military's bidding on US soil is a crime, and Lin and the Chinese military took advantage of a commercial enterprise to evade legitimate US government oversight." It is not known what was in the packages sent to Beijing. In exchange for her help, the Chinese government provided her tax-exempt purchases of discounted liquor and electronics available only to diplomats and free contracting work at her residence, according to court documents. Lin was secreting packages through some of the country's busiest airports, using her work with the Chinese government to thwart our security measures," said William F. Sweeney, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI's New York Field Office. We believe this case isn't unique and hope it serves as an example that the Chinese and other foreign governments can't break our laws with impunity." IANS shalender@tribune.com Jakarta, April 17 Indonesian President Joko Widodo has won a second five-year term, preliminary election results showed Wednesday, in a victory for moderation over the nationalistic rhetoric of his rival, Prabowo Subianto. Vote counts from five independent survey groups showed Widodo with a clear lead over Subianto, a general during the era of the Suharto military dictatorship who warned Indonesia would fall apart without his strongman leadership. The so-called quick counts from reputable survey organisations that use a sample of polling stations have been reliable in past elections. With an average of 80 per cent of sample polling stations counted, the five survey organisations showed Widodo winning 54-56 per cent of the vote, a modest improvement on his 2014 showing. Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority nation, is an outpost of democracy in a Southeast Asian neighbourhood of authoritarian governments and is forecast to be among the worlds biggest economies by 2030. A second term for Widodo, the first Indonesian president from outside the Jakarta elite, could further cement the countrys two decades of democratisation. Addressing jubilant supporters a few hours after polls closed, Widodo said he was aware of his lead and called for the nation to reunite after the divisions of the campaign. From the indications of the exit poll and also the quick counts, we can see it all, but we must be patient to wait for the official counting from the Election Commission, he said. Subianto, who also lost to Widodo in the 2014 presidential election, had not yet conceded defeat. He said his campaigns exit poll and quick count showed that he had won but urged his supporters not to cause chaos. His campaign team has alleged massive voter list irregularities, but analysts say the claims are absurd and designed to undermine the election. The balloting was a huge logistical exercise with 193 million people eligible to vote, more than 800,000 polling stations and 17 million people involved in ensuring the polls ran smoothly. Helicopters, boats and horses were used to get ballots to remote and inaccessible corners of the archipelago. Conservative opponents had tried to discredit Widodo, a furniture exporter whose political career started as a small city mayor, as insufficiently Islamic. Widodo tried to neutralise the not-a-real-Muslim whispers with the selection of Maruf Amin, the leading Islamic cleric in Indonesia, as his running mate, though he risked alienating progressive and moderate supporters. Pre-election polls consistently gave a lead of as much as 20 percentage points to Widodo, widely known by the nickname Jokowi. Ive voted for Jokowi because five years in office was not enough for him to complete his brilliant programmes for infrastructure, health and education, said Eko Cahya Pratama (43), after voting in Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta. For me, this country is better to be managed by a man with a clean track record rather than a dirty one in the past, he said. After the results became clear, hundreds of Widodo supporters marched through downtown Jakarta, some holding aloft a giant red and white Indonesian flag. Widodos campaign highlighted his progress in poverty reduction and improving Indonesias inadequate infrastructure with new ports, toll roads, airports and mass rapid transit. The latter became a reality last month in chronically congested Jakarta with the opening of a subway. A strident nationalist, Subianto ran a fear-based campaign, highlighting what he sees as Indonesias weakness and the risk of exploitation by foreign powers or disintegration. His ultra-nationalist tactics preceded President Donald Trumps polarising rhetoric by several years and the party he founded in 2008, Gerinda, is officially known as the Greater Indonesia Movement. He has long been dogged by his dismissal from the military in 1998 after soldiers under his command kidnapped student activists, 13 of whom were never seen again. I promised that we will work for the good of the country, Subianto said after voting. If its chaos or not, its not coming from us. But I guarantee that we dont want to be cheated anymore. AP Joko Widodo President Joko Widodo (57), a former furniture salesman, who launched his political career as a small-city mayor, and then as governor of Jakarta. He is running on his own record for a second term Widodo had to fend off smear campaigns suggesting he was anti-Islam, a communist or in debt to China Jokowi, as he is popularly known, also inherited an economy coming off a commodities boom, and faced an obstructive parliament Prabowo Subianto Former special forces commander Prabowo Subianto (67), has long harboured ambitions for the top job and has cultivated a strongman image and ties with hardline Islamist groups in the hope of boosting his chances In 2014, Prabowo, the head of the Great Indonesia Movement party, came within 6 percentage points of beating Widodo Prabowo comes from an elite political family. His father was one of Indonesias most prominent economists, serving in the cabinets of both presidents Sukarno and Suharto. The latter was his father-in-law Prabowo has fired up his rallies with warnings the country is at the mercy of unspecified foreign powers and on the verge of fragmentation Open wallets to woo voters Indonesia has some of the worst money politics in Southeast Asia, according to researchers. Handouts of cash and gifts, anti-graft advocates and politicians say, lead to rampant corruption as successful candidates recoup election expenses, and more, once elected. Envelopes, usually stuffed with cash ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 rupiah ($1.42 to $7.08), are commonly doled out to voters. Though small amounts, the overall cost can be huge over a six-month campaign. Breakdancing, holograms to win over youth People aged 17 to 35 account for more than a third of the electorate. Both Widodo and Prabowo ramped up efforts to appeal to them, deploying everything from holograms, campaign messaging in comic strips, and breakdancing. Social media election battle This election has been fought out over social media as never before. So-called buzzer teams have proliferated, named for the buzz they aim to create, to spread propaganda on behalf of both Widodo and Prabowo, sometimes with fake accounts. The Attorney General has asked the court to provide an interpretation of the law to determine whether or not Watson Duke is in violation of the Tobago House of Assembly Act and the Integrity in Public Life Act. The High Court is to adjudicate in the matter of the interpretation of the Tobago House of Assembly Act; the Integrity in Public Life Act and the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago between the Attorney General and the Tobago House of Assembly, Watson Duke and Farley Augustine. Richard Samuels had been in and out of prison so many times he was getting tired. Hed been imprisoned in the Midwest, in Indiana and Illinois, and down South, in Georgia and Florida, for charges including burglary and fraud. Samuels spent 26 years in prison and got out for the last time in 2014 after serving 8 1/2 years of what was originally a 25-year sentence. It was during that stretch in prison his seventh total when Samuels said he had an epiphany. Something needed to change. He got an associates degree in general studies and almost completed a bachelors degree while in prison. A year after he got out, Samuels started Growing Indy, which has training and recovery services for people going through re-entry. Samuels, 58, participated in a re-entry edition of the Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE), a simulation developed by Think Tank and put on by the Marion County Commission on Youth on April 12. The simulation showed social workers, parole officers and others who played current inmates, returning citizens and friends and family what some of the many challenges are for people coming out of the countrys prisons and jails. All were asking for, as people who have been involved in the criminal justice system, is a fair playing field, said Samuels, who has a 30-year-old daughter and 31-year-old son. Allow me to rise and ascend to the heights of making the type of money that I can take care of my family. In real life, Samuels didnt spend more than eight months at a time out of prison. Finding any job that would hire someone with a criminal record was difficult, never mind finding a job that paid a decent wage. He didnt get one of those until after he left prison for the final time. He worked his way up to executive director at Community Action of Greater Indianapolis. But even then, Samuels said someone leaked his record to a significant funding source, and he stepped down to avoid the controversy. Society didnt see me, Samuels said. I was invisible. Thats the thing, and thats what this is all about, to show you there are people out there who need to be viewed and need to feel that they are invested in. At the end of last year, about 47,000 of Indianas residents were behind bars, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. The majority 26,000 were in state prisons. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at least 95% of all state prisoners will be released at some point. From there, its back to a reality where people want to help ex-offenders get acclimated, but poverty, along with a web of bureaucracy that doesnt give enough helpful information to those who need it, leave people coming out from behind bars feeling like they never really left confinement. At a re-entry job and resource fair April 4 at Eastern Star Church, Richard Holcomb was looking for any job, but he would prefer something with food if he could be picky. Holcomb, 48, got out of Hamilton County jail about three months ago. It was his third time in jail. He signed a plea for residential entry, and its hard to get a job with that on your file, he said. Holcomb, a father of four, estimated he had applied to 100 jobs since getting out. He said hes heard back from some employers, but he hasnt gotten past an interview yet. If I can get a job, thats gonna help me out a lot, Holcomb said. When I didnt have a job, thats when I was getting in trouble. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits public and private employers from discriminating against job-seekers on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity or religion, but its protections for people with a criminal record are weak. Employers can discriminate against those people, with the stipulation that discrimination has to be applied uniformly. Indiana does have a so-called second-chance law, passed in 2013, which allows people to petition to seal or limit access to their criminal record. The law has five categories, ranging from arrests that didnt lead to a conviction to violent or sexual felonies. Laura Hester, a talent acquisition consultant for Caito Foods, was set up at the front of the room at the job and resource fair. She said Caito Foods, which specializes in fresh produce, works with organizations such as Public Advocates in Community re-Entry (PACE) and Flanner House to offer employment opportunities to people with criminal records. A lot of people dont get those opportunities, Hester said. I think if youre coming out of the system and not having an opportunity, its good for people to be able to have something to look forward to. What Samuels and Holcomb experienced during the gap between their imprisonment, when they couldnt find a decent job, is typical, and research suggests its a significant factor in recidivism. The adult recidivism rate in Indiana was 33.9% in 2017, the lowest rate since at least 2012, according to the Indiana Department of Corrections. (That means 33.9% of offenders released in 2014 returned within three years of their release date.) In a paper published in October 2018, Amanda Agan of Rutgers University and Michael Makowsky of Clemson University found the average minimum wage increase of 50 cents nationally between 2000 and 2014 reduced recidivism within one year by 2.8%. Just as employment can be hard to find with a criminal record, so too are assistance programs. Drug felons in Indiana are currently banned from receiving help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), though Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill last year to lift that ban, effective Jan. 1, 2020. In order to collect unemployment in Indiana, a worker must have been fired from a job at no fault of their own. At the re-entry COPE training, participants also got the experience of navigating different agencies and organizations, some of which are an extension of the criminal justice system, such as probation and parole, and others that provide services and assistance. In a debriefing session afterward, many remarked how frustrated they got when it wasnt clear where they should be or when they had to spend too much time waiting in lines. That was perhaps stressful in the moment, but no consequences remained when the whistle blew to signal the end of the last 15-minute month. In the real world, though, that everyday stress has ramifications. Cameual Wright, medical director for CareSource in Indiana, volunteered at the training and said the risk of a formerly incarcerated person dying within the first couple weeks of being released is about 12 times higher than normal because of increased rates of suicide, homicide and even heart attacks. I think theres a tendency to minimize their challenges and say, Well, they just need to get a job, or they just need to follow their parole restrictions, or whatever the case may be, Wright said. But I think what this simulation highlights is you have to worry about housing. You have to worry about food. You have to worry about clothes. You might have to reunify your family. Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick. Richard Holcomb (right), 48, talked with Patsy Pitts (left), a family support services specialist at Fathers and Families Center, at a re-entry job and resource fair April 4 at Eastern Star Church. Holcomb has been out of jail for about three months and wants to work with food, though he said he would take any job at this point. (Photo/Tyler Fenwick) President Trump has summoned Joseph Welch from the grave. Welch stood up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1954 when the demagogic Wisconsin Republican smeared Welchs associate, Fred Fisher, as a communist sympathizer. When McCarthy persisted, Welch earned his way into every Bartletts by saying, Have you no decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? McCarthy had none and neither does his heir in slime, Donald John Trump. The latest proof is Trumps attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Democrat. Omar, whose true talent may be sloppy, irresponsible speech, clumsily referred to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by saying some people did something, which, taken out of context, shockingly trivialized mass murder. Predictably, her remarks were indeed taken out of context, first by the journalistically squalid New York Post and then by the object of its affections, the president of the United States. The New York tabloid put a picture of the burning Twin Towers on its cover with the virtually neon headline, Heres your something, and then, 2,977 people dead by terrorism. The New York Post is Trumps virtual brain trust. So it was no surprise that Trump followed up with a tweet declaring WE WILL NEVER FORGET along with a video showing Omar saying the offending words and segueing to images of Lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks. The White House was instantly criticized for that tweet as yet another attempt by Trump to incite hatred. Quickly, a good chunk of the flash mob that has materialized to seek the Democratic presidential nomination came to her defense without any of them suggesting that she think before she opens her mouth. She has, after all, said some doozies. Its all about the Benjamins baby, she tweeted back in February, implying that overwhelming congressional support for Israel is bought by Jewish money. She apologized for the tweet. But then she told a D.C. audience that American supporters for Israel are pushing for allegiance to a foreign country. That was a shockingly dumb remark that Congress could not bring itself to condemn on its own. Instead, it subsumed into a general condemnation of everything vile: bigotry directed at African Americans, Native Americans, and other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants and others. It is that and others that managed to render the whole exercise both silly and offensive. Here is a fact: Omar was elected by 267,703 people in Minnesota. Here is another: There are 327.2 million people in America. Omar is a first-term congresswoman, chairperson of no committee, and should matter little. That she does matter is partly attributable to her being a political exotic and partly to her gift for offensive statements. If you listen to the entirety of her remarks about the 9/11 attacks, even if you want very much to find them offensive, you will come away uncertain. The supposedly clear case dissolves under scrutiny. Actually, it was not Omar who denigrated those terrorist attacks. It was first Rupert Murdochs New York Post and then his Fox News and finally Trump. They were the ones who exploited this horrid crime for political purposes. They are intent on making Omar the face of the Democratic Party a caricature thats thoroughly leftist, repellently anti-Semitic, frighteningly non-white and terrifyingly non-Christian. The end is nigh. As Trump has repeatedly shown, he has no shame and he has no empathy. His continuing feud with the quite dead John McCain seems out of Shakespeare some deranged character haranguing the ghost of an old foe. Trumps inability to appreciate how intensely McCain suffered as a prisoner of war in Vietnam evinces a meanness and moral rottenness that shames both himself and the many in his party who look the other way. But in the way a Typhoid Mary can spread a disease but is immune to it, so is Trump immune to shame. He has, though, infected the Republican Party. It has to know that Trump is exploiting the horror of 9/11 to rally the faithful for his reelection effort, but it says nothing. The party has become a kind of horror film, Republican after Republican arising from a swamp the living dead, marching toward political survival, lacking only a soul. Ilhan Omar is both as important and unimportant as Fred Fisher, the young lawyer that McCarthy attacked and Welch defended. They were both meant to represent larger forces communism in Fishers case and Islamism in Omars case but they came instead to represent something their antagonists did not intend: victims of a shameful abuse of political power. Richard Cohens email address is cohenr@washpost.com. Higher education pursuit is a must achieve for most if not all African students, and one of the essential job application requirements for most countries. But while pursuing higher education is gaining importance across different spheres and in job requirements, the quality of education is also a critical factor that needs consideration. As such, the best universities in Africa are not only the ones that provide regular curriculum programs but those that have proven themselves as the hubs of excellence in both academia and innovation. Image: unsplash.com Source: UGC Scaling the academic ladder has never been easier for Africans as it is in the twenty-first century. Many universities both public and private have sprung up in different places including in small towns where none existed. Besides, African universities have produced some of the best alumni who impact society and drive the desired change, a common phenomenon across the board. The criteria for joining universities has also undergone numerous changes over time to accommodate more scholars, not only fostering their academic performances but also developing their talent and abilities. However, some institutions have already proven to be better than others, based on their capacity to deal with change as well as the quality of professionals they let out to the society. Top 50 best universities in Africa Here is a list of the best universities in Africa ranked based on different parameters including their size, academic prowess, and resources among others. 1. University of Pretoria (UP) Africa ranking: 1 | World ranking: 358 UP is a public, non-profit institution located in Pretoria South Africa. It was established in 1908, and to date remains the top university in Africa both infrastructure-wise and in the quality of exchange programs they undertake with other international universities. The institution has an estimated population of about 45,000 students pursuing bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in various disciplines. For over 111 years, the institution has upheld its dignity as the hub of academic excellence in Africa and allows admission to not only locals but also international students who qualify for enrollment. Apart from being the first in Africa, the university is also competitive in the global scene that is mostly dominated by institutions from developed countries. READ ALSO: List of best colleges in Kenya 2019 2. Riara University Africa ranking 2. Riara University is one of the best private universities in Kenya that was born out of a sincere desire to provide a holistic approach in higher education in 1974. The prestigious university is uniquely positioned to implement creative approaches via academia collaboration to alter students' ideologies to think globally. Its concept goes beyond the classroom and syllabus-based learning as it reaches out to provide stimulation and motivation for self-development and capacity for life-long education. Riara University is a prestigious institution uniquely positioned to implement creative approaches via academia collaboration to alter students' ideologies to think globally. Photo: Riara University. Source: UGC Riara University, being a well-endowed institution of higher learning offers various programmes. One can go for undergraduate, diploma, certificate, and short courses offered by the university. According to edurank.org, the institution is among the top 74% of universities in the globe, which shows its commitment to holistic education. Riara University contacts: Location: Mbagathi Way Address: P.O. Box 49940 00100, Nairobi Phone number: (+254) 703 038 000 Emails: info@riarauniversity.ac.ke | admissions@riarauniversity.ac.ke. 3. University of Cape Town (UCT) Africa ranking: 3 | World ranking: 346 UCT was established in 1918 and is situated in Cape Town, South Africa. It admits between 20,000 and 25,000 students and is overseen by more than 4,000 members of staff who work both full and part-time. Among the academic qualifications offered include pre-bachelor degree programs including diplomas and certificates. It also offers masters and doctorate degrees under different disciplines. Currently, the university is a century old but still maintains its highly selective and competitive admission criteria including entrance level examinations for both local and international students. It is a member of the DHET, South Africa and the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD-EQUIS). 4. University of Witwatersrand (WITS) Africa ranking: 4| World ranking: 374 WITS is a public institution that was established in 1922 and is situated in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was officially accredited by the Department of higher education becoming a fully-fledged university with an enrolment population of about 30,000 students and more than 5,000 members of staff. WITS offers multiple programs both in the undergraduate, masters and doctorate degrees as well as in diplomas and certificates. It has institutional accreditation from the DHET, South Africa. Other programmatic accreditations include Council of Higher education, Association of MBAs, Engineering Council of South Africa, Royal Institute of British Architects and the South African Council for the Architectural profession. 5. University of Johannesburg (UJ) Africa ranking: 5| World ranking: 447 UJ is a public non-profit higher learning institution found in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was officially accredited by DHE, South Africa in 2005 to offer programs including undergraduate degrees, and postgraduate degrees. Its motto, Service through Knowledge, is one of the key identifiers of the institution which has risen to be one of the most admired centres of higher learning both locally and globally. Population-wise, it is home to more than 45, 000 students and more than 5,000 members of staff. Its membership and affiliations include Universities of South Africa (USA), and Association of African Universities (AAU). 6.University of Stellenbosch (US) Africa ranking: 6 | World ranking: 624 The US is a public non-profit institution located in Stellenbosch town, South Africa. It is fully accredited as an institution of higher learning by the DHE, with branches in three different locations across the country. Currently, it is home to more than 25,000 students undertaking different degree programs from bachelors to a doctorate in various disciplines. Its accreditations include DHET, South Africa and EFMD-EQUIS. Furthermore, its a member of AAU, USA, CHEC, and NADEOSA. 7. North-West University (NWU) Africa ranking: 7 | World ranking: 661 NWU was founded in 2004 as a public institution located in the city of Potchefstroom, North West. Currently, the student population is about 70,000 students comprising of both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Its affiliations include AAU, ACU, and HESA. As competitive as it is, the campuss acceptance rate is between 60 and 70 per cent becoming one of South Africas most competitive colleges. 8. University of the Western Cape (UWC). Africa ranking: 8 | World ranking: 995 UWC is a state-run centre for higher learning. It was accredited as a fully-fledged university in 1959 to provide acceptable courses towards degrees in undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Others include pre-bachelors certificates such as diplomas, certificate programs, and foundation or associate degrees. With an acceptance rate of 50 - 60 per cent, it is averagely one of the strictest centres of higher learning. The population index of the campus stands at about 45,000 students and 1,500 members of staff. Its affiliations include ACU, CHEC, HESA, IAU. READ ALSO: Top National secondary schools in Kenya 2018 9. University of Nairobi (UoN). Africa ranking: 9 | World ranking: 1071 UoN is the best university in Kenya. It is located in Nairobi, the capital city, with countrywide branches in major towns including Kisumu, Kikuyu, Upper, and Lower Kabete, Parklands and Chiromo. It was officially accredited as a fully-fledged public university in 1970 by the Commission of University Education in Kenya. As the top-ranking institution, it adopts a strict admission policy with between 40 and 50% acceptance rate for all admission applications. Its memberships and affiliations include ACU and AAU. The current student population is about 60,000 with a staff population of about 5,000 members. Image: uonbi.ac.ke Source: UGC 10. Cairo University (CU) Africa ranking: `10 | World ranking: 1116 Established in 1908 CU is the best public university in Egypt and relatively competitive in the continental rankings. It is located in Cairo the capital city of Egypt and is fully recognised by the Ministry of Higher education. CUs friendly selection criteria keeps admission rate at about 90-100%. It offers programs ranging from bachelor degrees to doctorate degrees in various fields of study. Its affiliations and accreditations include UNIMED. The population consists of about 280,000 students and nearly 12,158 members of staff working both full and part-time. 11. American University of Cairo (AUC) Africa ranking: 11 | World ranking: 1210 AUC is a private university endorsed by the Ministry of higher education of Egypt. It ranks as the second-best university in the country and remains one of the most competitive both locally and internationally. Located in Cairo, the university admits about 5000 students for programs including bachelor degrees, postgraduate degrees, and diplomas. Its endorsements and affiliations include the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, state of Delaware, NAQAAE, AMBA, EQUIS, ABET, CSC. 12. University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Africa ranking: 12 | World ranking: 1261 UKZN was founded in 2004 as a public institution of higher learning and is recognised by the DHE of South Africa. The current enrolment is about 50,000 students undertaking a variety of courses and programs in all levels of higher learning. Other than local students, it also accepts international students and partners with other universities to provide exchange programs. UKZNs memberships and affiliations include the AAU, USA, NADEOSA and institutional accreditation by DHET of South Africa. 13. University of Lagos (UNILAG) Africa ranking: 13| World ranking: 1385 UNILAG dates back to 1962 when it was founded, and to date remains the best university in Nigeria with an estimated student population of about 60, 000 learners comprising of both undergraduate and postgraduate learners. It is located in Lagos Nigeria, the capital city of the country. Its memberships and affiliations include ACU, AAU, NUC, and ICAN. At 57 years since its inception, the university has built up its reputation not only to be a leader in the countrys rank but also as an educational and research hub in the continent. Thus, it maintains a selective admission procedure to determine the applicants who qualify for the limited slots. 14. Rhodes University (RU) Africa ranking: 14 | World ranking: 1429 RU is a private learning institution and also one of the oldest universities in the country and on the continent having been founded in 1904. The DHET, South Africa recognises the public university located in Grahams town, Eastern Cape. Despite its medium size comprising of about 7,000 students, RU has risen to compete not only locally but continentally as a leader in the provision of quality education and research for different disciplines from the bachelors level to the doctorate level. Its accreditations and memberships include AAU, ACU, HESA, and IAU. 15. Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Africa ranking: 15 | World ranking: 1443 TUT was established in 2003 as a public university in the urban region of Pretoria, Gauteng. TUTs strategic location has provided it with both a viable ground for growth and attract students from all walks of life. The current estimated population is 45,000 students and about 1,500 members of staff attending to daily programs. Its affiliations and accreditations include USA and NADEOSA. For the 16 years since its inception, the campus follows a strict qualification procedure to allow only the deserving applicants both locally and internationally. 16. Mansoura University (MANS) Africa ranking: 16 | World ranking: 1526 MANS was established in 1972 to serve the interest of the public as an accredited institution of higher learning located in the City of Mansoura, Dakahlia. Its growth has seen the emergence of branches in different locations including, Damietta branch. It is recognised by Egypts Ministry of Higher Education and offers different degree and certificate programs including bachelors degrees, masters and doctorate degrees, and boasts of a high population of above 50,000 students. For its 47 years of existence, the campus has adopted a highly selective admission criterion that only allows those who qualify based on their past academic performances. Its accreditations and affiliations include FUIW and MHE, Egypt. 17.University of Ilorin Africa ranking: 17 | World ranking: 1590 UoI was established in 1975 to serve the public interest through offering recognised merit-based higher education for the people of Nigeria. Located in the City of Ilorin, the institution has all the potential for a growing university. At only 44 years of existence, it has since scaled up to accommodate more than 50,000 learners and around 3,000 members of staff. Some of the affiliations and memberships include AAU, FUIW, IAU, NUC, and AWAU. Moreover, it accepts both local and international applicants with qualifications as provided in their academic portal. The degrees offered range from undergraduate to doctorate with competitive selection criteria for all applicants. 18. Universiteit van die Vrystaat (University of Free State - UFS) Africa ranking: 18 | World ranking: 1646 Established in 1904 UFS is 115 years old. It is located in Bloemfontein, Free State and offers different degree programs for both undergraduates and postgraduate studies. Being a public university, it has attracted a large number of applicants and entrants with the current student population at above 40,000 learners. Its memberships and affiliations include AAU, NADEOSA, and the USA. UFS accepts both national and international applicants who are interested in pursuing higher learning in their facility but follows strict selection criteria to deter the non-qualified and uphold its high stature. 19. Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Africa ranking: 19 | World ranking: 1688 CPUTs establishment dates back to 2005 through the merger between Peninsula Technicon (1962) and Cape Technikon (1920). It is a public university located in Cape Town, Western Cape. The estimated student population is above 45,000 learners and offers a wide range of courses in different disciplines both undergraduate and postgraduate. Its memberships and affiliations include Association of African Universities (AAU), Universities South Africa (USA), Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC), and International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA). It accepts applications from eligible international students seeking to pursue their higher education. READ ALSO: Education in Kenya: facts and statistics 19. Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Africa ranking: 19 | World ranking: 1692 The Kaduna based campus was established in 1962 as a public university and ranks third nationally. Currently, the university is home to more than 30,000 learners pursuing different fields of studies including pre-bachelor courses such as diplomas, certificates, and associate degrees. With 56 years of existence, ABU is the third best university in Nigeria but has a somewhat friendlier selection criterion, with an acceptance rate of 90-100% for applicants. Its memberships include Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN), Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), and the Council of Legal Education (CLE). 20. University of Khartoum Africa ranking: 20 | World ranking: 1787 Based in Metropolis Khartoum, UK is an accredited public university with an estimated population of about 30,000 learners and staff. It offers different areas of study in the bachelors category that are recognised by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Sudan. Its affiliations include Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW). Interested international students seeking to pursue both undergraduate courses are welcome to apply. 21. University of Ghana (UG) Africa ranking: 21 | World ranking: 1862 UG is the best university in Ghana. The university has grown tremendously to accommodate a vast number of learners both local and international. The student population stands at about 50,000 learners and offers courses that are recognised by the National Accreditation Board, Ghana. The campus is large both in size, student population, and the number of courses it offers including pre-bachelors certificates and diplomas, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate programs. With a stunning 71 years since its inception, the university has adopted strict admission criteria with only about 30-40% acceptance rate. Its memberships and affiliations include Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), Association of African Universities (AAU), International Association of Universities (IAU), League of World Universities (LWU), Council for International Educational Exchange (CIEE), and International Student Exchange Program (ISEP). 22. Nelson Mandela University (NMU) Africa ranking: 22 | World ranking: 1910 NMU is a product of a merger between Port Elizabeth Technikon and Vista University (1981), and University of Port Elizabeth (1964). It was officially founded in 2005 and accredited by the DHET of South Africa. NMU is an iconic university since it was stated in honour of the African Icon and Nobel Prize winner, Nelson Mandela. As a public university, it currently boasts of being an educational centre for more than 30,000 students from both the national and international admissions. Furthermore, it observes a selective admission process with only 50-60% acceptance rate for all applicants. Its memberships include Association of African Universities (AAU), and Universities South Africa (USA). 23. Makerere University Africa ranking: 23 | World ranking: 1982 Makerere is the best campus in Uganda established in 1922 and is located in Kampala city, Central region. The Ugandan National Council of Higher Education has accredited the university as a public university capable of providing both undergraduate and postgraduate courses for both local and international students. The enrollment is estimated at above 60,000 students and serves a bigger portion of the countrys elite. Furthermore, it accepts applications from all interested scholars both from East Africa and internationally. 24. University of Fort Hare (UFH) Africa ranking: 24 | World ranking: 1997 UFH was established in 1916 as a public university based in Alice town, Eastern Cape. It was accredited by the DHET, South Africa to provide advanced learning including undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It is a medium-sized college accommodating slightly over 10,000 students and members of staff. It is a member of the Association of African Universities (AAU), and Universities South Africa (USA). 25. Universidade Agostinho Neto (UAN) Africa ranking: 25 | World ranking: 2030 UAN is the best university in Angola. It is a non-profit public institution located in the urban setting of the large city of Luanda. It was established in the year 1962. It also has branch campuses in Benguela, Huila, Huambo, and Kwanza-Sul. Officially chartered by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Angola, it has enrolled between more than 20,000 students for undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The institution has a selective admission policy based on the entrance examination. The admission rate range is 30-40% making this Angolan higher education organisation a very selective one. International applicants are also eligible to study here. READ ALSO:Cheapest IGCSE schools in Kenya 26. Universidade Metodista de Angola (UMA) Africa ranking: 26 | World ranking: 2065 UMA is a private higher education institution founded in the year 2007. It is located in Luanda the capital city of Angola and is recognised by the countrys Ministry of Higher Education Science and Technology. It has a student enrollment range of between 8,000 and 8,999. Affiliated with the Christian Methodist religion, offering courses and programs leading to officially recognised higher education degrees in several areas of study. The admission rate range is 50-60% making this Angolan higher education organisation an averagely selective institution. It accepts international students. 27. Universidade Catolica de Angola (UCAN) Africa ranking: 27 | World ranking: 2135 UCAN is a for-profit private higher education institution located in the suburbs of Luanda city. It was founded in the year 1997 and is officially recognised by the countrys Ministry of Higher Education Science, Technology and Innovation. It is a medium-sized coeducational institution affiliated with the Catholic religion. UCAN offers courses and programs leading to officially recognised higher education degrees such as pre-bachelor degrees (i.e. diplomas, certificates, and foundation or associate degrees), bachelor degrees, and master degrees in several areas of study. It has a selective admission policy based on scores of an entrance examination. With an admission rate of between 50-60%, international students are welcome to apply for enrollment. UCAN is a member of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU). 28. Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Africa ranking: 28 | World ranking: 2168 OAU is a non-profit public college offering higher education learning programs. It is located in Ile-Ife, Osun Nigeria. OAU is a fully accredited and acknowledged by Nigerias National Universities Commission. The total student population averages at above 30,000 and offer a wide variety of programs including undergraduate and postgraduate studies and also pre-bachelor programs. Its establishment dates back to 1962, and since then it has maintained a steady performance with competitive selection criteria. It is a member of Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). 29. Durban University of Technology (DUT) Africa ranking: 29 | World ranking: 2169 Durban University of technology was founded in 2002 as a public university located in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. The student population is about 30,000 learners and offers multiple programs for all levels of higher education including bachelor, masters and postgraduates as well as other pre-bachelor courses such as diplomas and associate programs. With more than a decade in existence, DUT maintains strict selection criteria with only 40-50% of applicants clinching acceptance spots. It is a member of Universities South Africa (USA). 30. University of Nigeria (UNN) Africa ranking: 30 | World ranking: 2251 UNN was established in 1960 as a public institution for higher learning. It is situated in Nsukka, Enugu state of Nigeria. The campus is a huge research and learning centre, with more than 60,000 scholars enrolled for both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. It is also accredited by the NUC Nigeria as a centre for higher learning. The strict selection criteria mean that only 40-50% of all applicants get the chance to join UNN every admission cycle. UNN is a member of the Association of African Universities (AAU). 31. Universite Kasdi Merbah de Ouargla (UOUARGLA) Africa ranking: 31 | World ranking: 2274 UOUARGLA is the best university in Algeria established in 1988 as a public institution located in the town of Ouargla. It is also approved by the Ministere de l'Enseignement Superieur et de la Recherche Scientifique, Algerie (MHESR), Algeria. It is a learning centre for more than 30,000 students who undertake various courses including undergraduate and postgraduate programs. For 31 years, the university has maintained tight admission criteria to all entrants, allowing only highly qualified applicants. READ ALSO: List of top 5 Kenyan secondary schools for your child 32. University of Ibadan (UI) Africa ranking: 32 | World ranking: 2321 UI was established officially in 1948 as a public university located in Ibadan, Nigeria. It is recognised by NUC, Nigeria and is a learning centre for more than 30,000 student undertaking various courses both undergraduate, postgraduate as well as pre-bachelor degrees. The admission criteria entail that applicants take an entrance exam, but only 40-50% of applicants get the admission chance. Its memberships and affiliations include the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), COREN, NMA, and NBA. It also accepts international students. 33. Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) Africa ranking: 33 | World ranking: 2322 UEM was established in 1962 as a public institution for all peoples of Mozambique pursuing higher education. As the best university in the country, it has attracted over 50,000 learners taking different programs both in the undergraduate and the postgraduate studies. It was officially accredited by the Ministry of Education and Human Development, Mozambique and has maintained a good run as a centre of excellence for 56 years. Its affiliations include Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), Association of African Universities (AAU), and Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW). It accepts applications from outside both in Africa and worldwide. 34. The German University of Cairo (GUC) Africa ranking: 34 | World ranking: 2355 GUC is a private university established in 2003 as a centre of higher learning. Located in New Cairo, GUC has attracted more than 5,000 students who pursue different courses, both in undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It has already received Accreditation by the MHE, Egypt and has been operational for 16 years. As a private institution, it maintains a strict policy for admission of entrants with only 50-60% getting admission chances every admission cycle. International students are also eligible for admission chances. 35. Kenyatta University (KU) Africa ranking: 35 | World ranking: 2368 KU was founded in 1985 as a public university located in the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. It has an extensive network of branches across Kenya including Mombasa, Nakuru, Kitui, Ruiru, Embu, Dadaab, Nyeri, Kericho, and Kiambu. It is officially approved by the CUE, Kenya and has an enrollment of more than 50,000 students pursuing various courses in pre-bachelor degrees (diplomas, certificates, foundation or associate degrees), bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees. The acceptance rate at KU is currently 90-100%, making it one of the friendliest admission criteria in Kenya. It is affiliated to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Also, KU accepts international students. Image: ku.ac.ke Source: UGC 36. University of Biskra (UMKB) Africa ranking: 36 | World ranking: 2419 UMKB dates back to 1983 when it was given the charter as a centre for higher learning by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Algeria. It is located in the busy city of Biskra. The enrollment population is about 35,000 students, offering numerous degree courses and programs for both undergraduate and postgraduate education. The 36 years of existence has seen it create and maintain excellent selection criteria, accepting the best. International applicants are also welcomed to seek admission. 37. Addis Ababa University (AAU) Africa ranking: 37 | World ranking: 2434 AAU was established in 1950 as an institution of higher learning for the public. The institution is recognised by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education and is allowed to offer both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. It is located in Addis Ababa the capital city of Ethiopia and is a learning centre for over 48,000 students. Other than locals, AAU also accepts international applicants who wish to take any of their courses. However, it maintains strict selection criteria where only candidates with the acceptable threshold marks will get admission. Its memberships include Association of African Universities (AAU), African Vertual University (AVU), and Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). 38. Alexandria University (AU) Africa ranking: 38 | World ranking: 2440 AU was established in 1942 as a state-run public university located in Alexandria, Egypt. For over 77 years, it has grown a great deal to have branches in different locations and a student population of about 45,000 learners. Accredited officially by Egypts Ministry of Higher Education (MHE), AU offers numerous courses from pre-bachelors, bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees. The current selection only allows 80-90% acceptance rate. Furthermore, international students can also apply for admission. Its affiliations and memberships include the Association of Arab Universities (AArU), AAU, and AUF. 39. University of Botswana (UB) Africa ranking: 39 | World ranking: 2501 UB was established in 1964 as a state-run centre for higher learning located in Gaborone, Botswana. With 55 years, it has grown to have other branches including in Maun and Francistown. The Botswana Ministry of Education and Skills Development approved the institution to provide both undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs. So far, it has admitted more than 20,000 scholars under various faculties and programs. UB is an affiliate and member of ACU and AAU. Furthermore, it accepts applications from international students with some already enrolled. 40. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Africa ranking: 40 | World ranking: 2507 NKUST dates back to 1951 and is one of the best and oldest institutions of advanced studies in Ghana. As a state-run institution, it has grown both in enrollment data and the size of the campus. It has a student population of about 30,000 learners with branches in Accra and Sunyani. Ghanas National Accreditation Board approves of its activities and programs in all categories from pre-bachelor degrees, undergraduate bachelor and postgraduate degrees. Its 68 years of existence has seen it develop strict acceptance criteria with only 30-40% of all applicants making the cut. Furthermore, interested international applicants are eligible and should apply for slots. KNUSTs memberships include ACU and AAU. 41. University of Tlemcen (UABT) Africa ranking: 41 | World ranking: 2514 Universite Abou Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen (UABT) was established in 1974 as a non-profit centre for higher learning located in Tlemcen, Algeria. It is accredited by the MHESR of Algeria to offer courses leading to recognised bachelor degrees. In its years of existence, UABT has grown both in size and population wise to the current enrollment of more than 45,000 students both from local and international applications. To date, it upholds a strict admission selection criteria with only students attaining the threshold pass mark receiving admission letters. 42. University of Reunion Africa ranking: 42 | World ranking: 2615 Universite de la Reunion was established in 1960 as a state-run public institution of higher education located in Saint-Denis. It was accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, France, and offers course leading to recognised bachelor degrees. The university has a student population of about 15,000 learners under different faculties. For 59 years, the institution has upheld high standards in its selection and admission criteria for all applicants. READ ALSO: List of best colleges in Kenya 2019 43. Ain Shams University (ASU) Africa ranking: 43 | World ranking: 2708 ASU was established in 1950 as a state-run centre for higher learning located in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt. It was officially recognised by Egypts MEH and allowed to offer course leading to the bestowment of bachelor degrees, masters and even doctorate degrees in 1950. The current student population is about 20,000 learners. Its affiliations and memberships include AAU and Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW). International applicants are also allowed to apply for various programs. 44. University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) Africa ranking: 44 | World ranking: 2713 UDSM dates back to 1970 when it was founded as a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. With over 49 years of existence, the campus has grown tremendously in creating a new branch in Iringa. It is recognised by the Tanzania Commission for Universities, as a centre for higher learning. USDM offers various courses for learners leading to recognised degrees both in undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Its 49 years of existence has seen it develop strict admission criteria with only 70-80% clinching admission slots every admission cycle. Interested international students are allowed to apply for a course of their choice. It memberships and affiliations include ACU and AAU. 45. Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) Africa ranking: 45 | World ranking: 2,722 NUST was founded in the year 1985. It is a non-profit public institution of higher learning located in Windhoek, Namibia. NUST was officially accredited by Ministry of Education, Namibia in the year 1990 to offer programs including undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees, and even doctorate degrees. Currently, it enrols between 10,000 and 14,000 students annually, and it has more than 500 members of the academic staff. In an academic year, local students pay from as low as 1,000-2,500$ for undergraduate programs and $7,500-10,000 for postgraduate. It boasts of contributing mainly to the countrys economy. NUST remains competitive in Namibia and Africa. 46. Sudan University of Science and Technology (SUST) Africa ranking: 46 | World ranking: 2,731 SUST was founded in the year 1990 in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the most prestigious, largest national University in Sudan and a major learning and research centre in the country. It has enrolled nearly 65,000 students in more than 200 programs. This institution also has branch campuses in Bahri and Omdurman. It is accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Sudan to offer programs including undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees, and even doctorate degrees. SUST absorbs about 19,000 students annually and has 1500 members of academic staff. International students are welcome to this institution. 47. University of Bejaia (UB) Africa ranking: 47 | world ranking: 2810 UB was established in the year 1983 as a non-profit public higher learning institution located in the large town of Bejaia, Algeria. Officially recognised by UAMB in 1992 to offer programs including undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees, and even doctorate degrees, it has two campuses with over 30 research laboratories approved by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The university teaches in French, Arabic and Tamazaght reflecting Algerias broader language mix. It has over 45,000 students, and it hosts a research centre for Innovation and Technology, Transfer and Food Technology. The university has been advocating for ways to curb climate change. International students are welcome to join UB. 48. Universidade Tecnica de Angola (UTANGA) Africa ranking: 48 | World ranking: 2,818 UTANGA was established in the year 2007 in the large city of Luanda, Angola. It is a for-profit private higher learning institution and accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Angola. It offers undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees and doctorate degrees. With over 15,000 students admitted annually, the admission criteria in the country are least selective, with the admission rate of 90-100%. Quality education is the primary focus of this institution. It has over ten research laboratories and is rapidly expanding. It is offering an open door for admission to interested international students. 49. Universite Constantine (UC) Africa ranking: 49 | World ranking: 2831 The Universite Constantine Formerly known as the University of Mentouri was established in the year 1969 as a non-profit public institution of higher education and is located in the suburban settings of Constantine, Algeria. UC was officially accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Algeria, to offer programs including undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees, and even doctorate degrees. It has over 45,000 students maintains a selective admission policy based on students' past academic record and grades. It majorly focuses on business courses. It has contributed a lot to the economy of the country. International applicants are eligible to apply for enrollment. READ ALSO: List of aviation schools in Kenya Source: Tuko - The president said Raila has never told him he is interesting in vying for the presidency again in 2022 - Uhuru said he has also never told the ODM leader or anyone that he is planning to remain president even after 2022 -DP Ruto and his allies have on a number of occasions alleged the former premier is scheming to dismantle the Jubilee party President Uhuru Kenyatta has come to the defence of Opposition leader Raila Odinga over persistent claims that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader is scheming to destroy the Jubilee party ahead of the 2022 presidential race. Uhuru revealed the former prime minister has never told him he is planning to take another stab at the the presidency again as most Kenyans may have been made to believe. READ ALSO: William Ruto insists Raila out to sink Jubilee party's ship ahead of 2022 presidential race President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday, April 17, came to the defence of Opposition leader Raila Odinga over claims the ODM leader was planning to destroy the Jubilee party. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Ruto anaswa akidanganya kwa kunukuu mstari usiokuwepo katika Biblia Speaking during the the inaugural AfroChampions Boma forum on African infrastructure financing and delivery on Wednesday, April 17, the president stated all they have been discussing with Raila is how to improve lives of Kenyans. "He (Raila) has never told me he wants to be president in 2022. And I have also never told him I want to president in 2022. What we have been talking about are issues affecting our people," he said in reference to numerous claims made by Deputy President William Ruto and his political allies. Deputy President William Ruto and his political allies have on numerous occasions accused Raila Odinga of plotting to destroy the Jubilee party. Photo: TUKO. Source: Original READ ALSO: Opposition leaders accuse Ruto of disrespecting Uhuru through attacks on Raila The DP and his allies has on a number of occasions accused Raila of plotting to destroy the Jubilee party using the March 2018 peace pact popularly known as the handshake, with the president as an excuse. On September 30, 2018, Ruto told the ODM party leader to desist from causing confusion in the Jubilee party in the name of the handshake. We know what the handshake deal entails because we initiated it before President Uhuru Kenyatta entered into a deal with you (Raila). We are very clear on what it is not. Therefore, do not bring confusion, the DP said when he was addressing residents of Majaoni in Kisauni where he had gone to issue title deeds. READ ALSO: Stop using handshake to bring confusion in Jubilee - Ruto warns Raila And speaking during the Pastoralists Leadership Summit in Garissa on March 1, 2019, Ruto alleged Raila was meddling in Jubilee's affairs with the aim of wrecking the party. "He is a master of propaganda and that is known. He is the same person who told his friends that he opted to work with Jubilee as part of his scheme to dismantle this party. He should know we have a shortage of fools," he said. READ ALSO: William Ruto claims Raila told friends he was planning to break Jubilee party On March 15, 2019, the DP once again accused the Opposition chief of trying to hijack Jubilee's unity agenda and destroy the ruling party using the handshake and went further to warn they would not allow him to rock Jubilee's boat. Let us stay focused. We will not allow them to hijack our unity agenda and destroy our party so that we go back to politics of ethnicity and divisions, Ruto said during the launch of ISO accreditation for Tabaka Mission Hospital Medical Testing Laboratory in Kisii county. These are just some of the instances where the DP accused the former prime minister of trying to bring down the Jubilee party, claims that his boss has now dismissed as untrue. Do you have a life-changing story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Uhuru insists the handshake is there to stay during state of the nation address - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko Breaking News Latest A man was forced to run for his dear life on Wednesday, April 17, after he was busted carrying male genitals in a plastic bag at Bondeni village in Sirare, Tanzania. According to a police report, the gonads are believed to belong to a Migori man whose privates were chopped off sometimes in February 2019. READ ALSO: Migori man assaults wife for allegedly speaking in Swahili Kenya Police Station. Police in Migori are looking for suspect who was found with male genitals. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Jamaa apewa kichapo na mkewe kwa kukataa kumwambia ni mrembo The unknown suspect came face to face with residents' wrath upon noticing he was carrying some strange stuff. " The chopped off male private parts were recovered at Bondeni village in Sirare area within the republic of Tanzania by OC CID Sirare Tanzania after the same were handed over to him by members of the public who also noticed the same after it was dropped by a man who was carrying it in a plastic container in a black paper bag," the police said in a report. It is believed the genitals were being transported to an unknown destination by the said individual who dropped the privates and escaped immediately he realised that police were hunting him. "It was dropped by a man who was carrying it in a plastic container in a black paper bag and ran away when he was stopped after being suspected of what he was carrying," added the police. The same was photographed and preserved at Migori County Referral Hospital awaiting DNA analysis as authorities launched a manhunt for the suspect to ensure he is brought to book. TUKO.co.ke, however, could not immediately ascertain the reason as to why the suspect allegedly chopped off the victim's reproductive organs. Story by Enock Ndayala, TUKO.co.ke correspondent in Migori county. Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Follow us on Telegram: Tuko news The Kenyan Man With No Penis | TUKO TV Source: Tuko.co.ke 'It's not what you have it's how you use it'. By Jeff Murphy, April 16, 2019 Charm City photo caption and credit: Mr. C at the morning meeting of the Rose Street Community Center in the heart of East Baltimore. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Andre Lambertson. WARRENSBURG, MO KMOS-TV and Capitol Cinema join the Independent Television Service documentary series Independent Lens to present a special community screening of the feature film Charm City at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 24. In concert with the film, attendees are encouraged to bring canned goods for local distribution, and learn about local community services before the event. The event is free, and registration is available at www.capitolcitycinema.org/indie-lens. Directed by Marilyn Ness and co-produced by Katy Chevegny, Charm City was filmed over a violent three-year period when Baltimores nickname never seemed less apt. Charm City profiles a group of police, citizens, community leaders and government officials who, with grit, fury and compassion, are grappling with the consequences of violence and trying to reclaim their citys future. On the streets of Baltimore, shooting is rampant, the murder rate is approaching an all-time high and distrust of the police is at a fever pitch. With nerves frayed and neighborhoods in distress, dedicated community leaders, compassionate law enforcement officers and a progressive young city councilman try to stem the epidemic of violence. Filmed during the lead up to, and aftermath of, Freddie Grays death in police custody, Charm City is a powerful cinema verite portrait of those surviving in, and fighting for, the vibrant city they call home. Marilyn Ness (Director/Producer) is a two-time Emmy, Peabody, and DuPont Award-winning filmmaker, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She produced Cameraperson (dir. Kirsten Johnson), which premiered at Sundance in 2016, was released by the Criterion Collection, and was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Awards. Katy Chevigny (Producer) is an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Big Mouth Productions. Most recently, she produced Dark Money, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and she directed one of the storylines in Kartemquin Films documentary series Hard Earned, which explores the lives of five American families struggling to get by in today's economy, and won a 2016 Alfred I. DuPont Award. Eintracht overturn 4-2 deficit to beat Benfica Lacazette eases Arsenal nerves in Naples Slavia go out in a blaze of glory at Chelsea Valencia finish off neighbours Villarreal Highlights from midnight wherever you are Quarter-final second legs Napoli 1-0 Arsenal (agg: 3-0) Highlights: Napoli 0-1 Arsenal The Gunners are through to the last four for the second season running after Alexandre Lacazette's fine first-half free-kick settled this tie as a contest. Napoli created more openings before and after the only goal of the night but Petr Cech was never stretched. Valencia await. Valencia 2-0 Villarreal (agg: 5-1) Highlights: Valencia 2-0 Villarreal Left-back Toni Lato scored his first senior Valencia goal with a composed first-half strike in abysmal conditions. Debutant right-back Andrei Ratiu's error led to the opener, and Dani Parejo's wickedly deflected free-kick sealed his side's second-leg win after the interval. Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 Benfica (agg 4-4, Frankfurt win on away goals) Highlights: Frankfurt 2-0 Benfica Goals from Filip Kostic and Sebastian Rode helped Frankfurt overturn a 4-2 deficit. The home side were straight on the front foot and were rewarded when Filip Kostic scored after Mijat Gacinovic had hit the post. Sebastian Rode fired in after the break after a pass from the excellent Ante Rebic, sealing an away-goals win. Chelsea 4-3 Slavia Praha (agg: 5-3) Highlights: Chelsea 4-3 Slavia Praha Chelsea scored four before the break and equalled Atletico Madrid's competition record of 15 games unbeaten. Pedro Rodriguez struck the first and last goals of a thrilling opening half in which Olivier Giroud grabbed his competition-leading tenth of the campaign. Slavia made Maurizio Sarri's men toil, though, thanks to two wonderful efforts from Petr Sevcik after the interval. Semi-final first legs: Thursday 2 May Arsenal v Valencia Eintracht Frankfurt v Chelsea Semi-final second legs: Thursday 9 May Valencia v Arsenal Chelsea v Eintracht Frankfurt Final: Olympic Stadium, Baku, Wednesday 29 May Eintracht Frankfurt/Chelsea v Valencia/Arsenal All kick-offs 21CET Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko says that the problems in the army that existed in 2014 differ much from the current ones. When someone talks about the current problems in the army, I think that the problems in 2014 and the current ones differ much. Compared with the beginning of 2014, the number of military units (brigades, regiments, separate battalions, etc.) has increased by 44 (from 99 in 2014 up to 143 in 2018). In particular, the number of military combat units has grown by 33," Muzhenko said in an interview with the Fakty newspaper. Over past five years, about 80 types of weapons and military equipment have been put into service, more than 150 types have been approved for under-control operation; about 2,500 units of new or modernized weapons and military equipment have been supplied to the troops; the serviceability of more than 16,200 units of weapons and military equipment has been restored, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted. He reminded that Ukrainian troops had received domestic anti-tank missile systems "Corsar" and "Stuhna", unmanned aerial vehicles "Aist" and "Furia" and armored vehicles last year and already this year. Muzhenko said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are able to protect the country against external threats and deter aggression in Donbas but noted that "we need the support of the international partners, of course." Our path towards NATO is unchanged, and we constantly declare this, he reminded. Ol Speaking at the event, PM Phuc said he hopes that after the forum, businesses of both sides will continue maintaining their connectivity and meetings to seek partnership opportunities. He added that Vietnamese and Czech firms should further promote partnership in broader areas, pledging that the two governments will back them in the work. Noting that Vietnam and the Czech Republics economies are more supplementary than competitive, the Vietnamese Government leader held that the bilateral partnership will grow with greater efficiency in the future. He said that Vietnam has political and social stability, strong tropical agriculture, and a rapidly growing processing-manufacturing sector with wide export markets, adding that the local business environment has been much improved, drawing nearly 28,000 FDI projects with a total capital of over US$345 billion. Vietnam ranked 77th out of the 137 countries on the global competitiveness index in 2018. In early April of 2019, S&P Global raised the countrys sovereign rating to BB with a stable outlook. So far, Vietnam has signed and implemented 12 FTAs, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, said the PM, adding that Vietnam is working with the EU to speed up the signing and ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which is an important foundation for the promotion of trade ties between Vietnam and the EU, including the Czech Republic. Furthermore, Vietnam has a young workforce with a nearly-100-million-strong market, which is of great potential for investors and business from the Czech Republic to explore, he stated. Czech PM Andrej Babis underscored the contributions by the Vietnamese community to socio-economic development in the European country and the growth of bilateral partnership. He expressed his delight at the expanding bilateral relationship, adding that he hopes the EVFTA will be signed before the upcoming European Council election, thus opening up more chances for EU and Czech Republic enterprises to soon increase trade and investment partnerships with Vietnam. The Czech PM proposed that business communities of both sides strengthen import-export activities between the two countries, affirming that the two governments will create optimal conditions for the launching of a direct air route linking Hanoi and Prague in 2019. He said that leaders of the two countries discussed the simplification of procedures for granting visas for citizens of both sides to visit each others countries. He stressed that Vietnam is a huge and promising market for Czech firms to invest in and operate production activities. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent 16 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas, according to the press service of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. Sixteen trucks from the mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross to the temporarily occupied territories crossed the Novotroitske checkpoint," the report says. It is noted that trucks were carrying 295 tonnes of humanitarian cargo consisting of food, hygiene items, agricultural and construction supplies. iy The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is praying for the presidential election to be fair and transparent so that everyone can make a free choice. Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine - His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epifaniy said this at a meeting with Presidents wife Maryna Poroshenko, the official website of the head of state reported. "We must preserve the freedom and integrity of Ukraine in order to have a future. After all, without a free and integral state, the Ukrainian people have no future," Metropolitan Epifaniy said. The primate emphasized that Ukrainians should appreciate the current achievements. According to him, Ukraine has managed to localize the wound in the east due to the efforts of Ukrainian defenders, volunteers and authorities. They managed to localize this wound in the east, so that the public doesnt feel this war, which is continued there. People do not understand that they can lose freedom, for which our society paid with the blood of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred during the Revolution of Dignity, the primate noted. "We will believe in the best and pray to God for Ukraine to win," Maryna Poroshenko noted. ish 04/17/2019 Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu LOWELL, Mass. The largest graduating class in UMass Lowell history will receive advice from a newly elected congresswoman and two internationally renowned educators. Setting a record for the most graduates for the 12th consecutive year, more than 4,000 members of the class of 2019 will be celebrated at three ceremonies on Friday, May 17 at 10 a.m. and Saturday, May 18 at 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell. Since 2007, UMass Lowells enrollment has increased 57 percent and this is the first year that the university has held three ceremonies to accommodate all of the graduates and their friends and families. At Saturdays morning ceremony, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, elected in November 2018 to succeed Niki Tsongas in representing Massachusetts Third District, will serve as Commencement speaker. At the afternoon ceremony on Saturday, graduates will be addressed by Jack Wilson, president emeritus of the University of Massachusetts system, founder of UMass Lowells Jack M. Wilson Center for Entrepreneurship and UMass Lowell distinguished professor of higher education, emerging technologies and innovation. The Commencement address at Fridays ceremony will be delivered by UMass Lowell Distinguished University Professor Meg Bond, director of the UMass Lowell Center for Women and Work, professor of psychology and an internationally recognized scholar on issues of gender equality in the workplace. Graduates at each of UMass Lowells Commencement ceremonies will hear from leaders in education, entrepreneurship, gender equity and government. We are honored to have them address our Class of 2019, said UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, who will preside over the three ceremonies and is a two-time graduate of the university. At the morning ceremony on Saturday, students will receive bachelors degrees from UMass Lowells Francis College of Engineering, Kennedy College of Sciences and Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences. At the afternoon ceremony, bachelors degrees will be presented to graduates of the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Manning School of Business. All 2019 graduates can say that they are graduating in the same class as Oprah Winfrey, who received an honorary doctor of humane letters from UMass Lowell in November at the Chancellors Speakers Series event, A Conversation with Oprah Winfrey. The event raised $3 million including a $1.5 million gift from Winfrey for student scholarships and recognized the first of UMass Lowells Oprah Winfrey Scholars. Commencement will also feature the presentation of honorary degrees to Wilson and Gerald and Joyce Colella of Seabrook Beach, N.H., and Naples, Fla., who met and earned bachelors degrees at UMass Lowell. Gerald Colella '78 is chief executive officer of MKS Instruments Inc., of Andover, a $2 billion technology and solutions provider to the semiconductor and industrial technology markets that he has guided to a 300 percent increase in revenue and successful billion-dollar acquisitions, including of Newport Corp. Joyce Colella 77, a Lowell native, has dedicated many years to education, including as an elementary school teacher in Lowell and southern New Hampshire prior to her retirement and as a member of the College of Education advisory board. Together, the couple has generously supported the Manning School of Business and other university initiatives, and recently established a scholarship for students in the College of Education. In 2014, they received the Distinguished Alumni Award at Commencement. In addition to honorary degrees, UMass Lowell will present the Distinguished Alumni Award, Chancellors Medal for Outstanding University Support and Chancellors Medal for Public Service and Civic Engagement. The Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to Brian Rist 77 of Fort Myers, Fla., executive chairman of Florida-based Storm Smart Industries, the largest manufacturer and installer of hurricane-protection products in the U.S., and native of Stoughton. Rist holds a bachelors degree in operations management from UMass Lowell and is earning his MBA through the universitys award-winning online program. Earlier this year, he and his wife, Kim, made a $5 million donation to the Our Legacy, Our Place campaign for UMass Lowell, the largest single gift to UMass Lowell in its history. Kim Rist will be presented with the Chancellors Medal for Outstanding University Support at Commencement. In addition to their gift to the campaign, the couple established the Rist Families Endowed Scholarship and support other university programs. The Chancellors Medal for Public Service and Civic Engagement will be presented to Jack OConnor and Therese OConnor of Lowell. Jack OConnor is founder of OConnor School Portraits, one of the largest individually owned businesses of its kind in the U.S., and co-founder of Commencement Photos Inc., which annually photographs graduates at more than 400 colleges and universities around the nation. Therese OConnor has devoted more than 35 years to community work around the Merrimack Valley, including serving on the boards of organizations and the UMass Lowell String Project and founding the Women Working Wonders Fund. With her husband, who also serves on numerous boards of local organizations, OConnor has been a loyal supporter of UMass Lowell and its students through funding scholarships. UMass Lowell will recognize the honorees and top student award winners at the annual Commencement Eve Celebration on Friday, May 17 at 5:30 p.m. at University Crossing, 220 Pawtucket St., Lowell. Since 2008, the benefit has raised millions of dollars for student scholarships. For more on Commencement, visit www.uml.edu/commencement. UMass Lowell is a national research university located on a high-energy campus in the heart of a global community. The university offers its more than 18,000 students bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs, vigorous hands-on learning and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be leaders in their communities and around the globe. www.uml.edu South Sudanese refugee Queen Chandia scans the field, then bends down to inspect the green shoots struggling out of the earth. This land in Uganda is not hers, but the rice germinating in it is. Thanks to generous neighbours, Queen grows enough to support 22 refugee children in her care. Rice is so profitable for me right now, says Queen, 34, who fled conflict in South Sudan and found refuge in Uganda as a young child in the early 1990s. Those other crops Im just planting to supplement the food were given. But rice Im using as my income-generating business. Queen did not always grow rice. She has spent most of her life growing maize, sorghum and peanuts on her plot in Oliji, a settlement in a region of northern Uganda that is now home to more than one million South Sudanese refugees. As waves of violence hit her country over the years, Queen took in refugee children at her farm orphans and unaccompanied minors who had nowhere else to go. They joined her own three children and became part of her family. Before long, Queen found herself mother of 22 children. We share everything with the refugees." God has seen I have that heart of motherhood, says Queen, who has taken it upon herself to pay the childrens medical and school fees, and to see to it that they are properly fed, clothed and looked after. That could be the reason why he has sent all these children to me. Queen received food assistance from the World Food Programme and grew crops on land borrowed from her Ugandan neighbour. She sold any excess crops but, with maize and sorghum prices falling, Queen was struggling to make ends meet. Then, in 2014, everything changed. Queen was selected to take part in a Promotion of Rice Development (PRiDe) project, an initiative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that aims to promote rice production among refugee and Ugandan farmers. Rice is a priority crop for Uganda. Growing it means refugees can contribute both towards the local economy and help the country meet its development targets. For Queen, it was also a golden opportunity to secure her income. Rice is a food crop and a cash crop, explains Minoru Yoshino, chief advisor of the PRiDe project, which has trained more than 50,000 farmers since it launched in 2011. [Growing it] improves both food security and livelihoods for refugees and Ugandans. One of Queen's children on the farm land that belongs to her at Oliji Settlement. UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni Queen, who fled conflict in South Sudan, tends to her crops in Uganda. UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni Queen has taken in 19 orphaned and unaccompanied refugee children. UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni Queen's children help out on her land at Oligi settlement, where she grows rice. UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni Children take a break for lunch after helping their mother Queen. UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni Queen travelled to a site outside Kampala where she learned how to grow rice. Training with a group of fellow refugees and Ugandans, Queen learned how to prepare the land and sow in straight lines, making harvesting and weeding much easier. At the end of training, the group were given a bag of rice seed to sow. However, Queen did not have space on her plot. She approached farmer Samuel Lagu, a Ugandan also on the training program, who agreed to donate a third of his land to her and two other refugees to grow rice. For him, the gesture was natural. See also: New clinic and schools save lives and build futures in Zambia We share everything with the refugees, says Samuel, whose own experiences of receiving help as a refugee in South Sudan in the 1980s inspired him to return the favour. We are not going to refuse them, they are our brothers. I give land to refugees because they have no land here in Uganda. Now we know how to sow, to weed, to harvest, to store, to dry very well, he continues. That training came through the refugees, together with the refugees, thats why now we are working with them. Now we know how to sow, to weed, to harvest." Queen now spends every weekend with her children at Samuels farm, tending to two acres of rice fields. Many of Samuels neighbours have given land to other refugees in individual arrangements where no rent changes hands. For Queen, as for Samuel, sharing land comes naturally. Its easy, we are sharing, we are birds of a feather, explains Queen, who says closely-related cultures, language, customs and ways of life also help to foster the tight relationship between the South Sudanese and Ugandans. If not for the border, we are the same people. JICAs rice project is one example of a development partner working with the government and UNHCR to support both refugees and host communities in Uganda. This approach aims to foster peaceful coexistence between groups and is part of a wider response to refugee movements known as the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, or CRRF. Since the training, Queen has seen her overall yields double. With land and rice to grow on it, she has been able to diversify into livestock, keeping pigs, goats and sheep. She is planning to buy a cow with the proceeds from her next crop. The extra income from rice has also allowed Queen to build a house for the children and keep all 22 of them in school. In return, they help out on the farm at weekends and during holidays. Now Queen looks to the new generation she has fostered to one day take up the farming baton. When I see my rice, as good as it is, I become somehow happy, says Queen, adding that she hopes her children will pass on all they have learned from her about farming. I hope what we are doing here my children are also learning. Im really teaching teachers. Ukraine reduces wheat flour exports by 23% in Q1 China, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore were major buyers. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Polish PM: "Buying Russian gas means buying weapons from Putin" Poland has not come to terms with Germany on Nord Stream 2. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Russia bans exports of oil, petroleum products to Ukraine The Russian Federation is also expanding the ban on the imports of some Ukrainian goods. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukraine's central bank comments on court ruling to roll back PrivatBank nationalization The ruling has not entered into force and will be appealed, the statement says. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Lutsenko shared details about his meeting with the U.S. ambassador way back in 2017. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has admitted that U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch did not give him a do not prosecute list, which he had previously stated. "The meeting [with the ambassador] took place in the PGO [Prosecutor General's Office], at this very table in January 2017," Lutsenko told the Ukrainian TheBabel online publication. "She was accompanied, so was I. Mrs. Yovanovitch was interested in Vitaliy Kasko's case. The fact was that Mr. Kasko's mother got registered for official housing [in Kyiv], while she had never left Lviv. That had signs of abuse." Read alsoThe Hill: Top Ukrainian justice official says U.S. ambassador gave him a do not prosecute list Lutsenko recalled Yovanovitch insisted Kasko was an outstanding anti-corruption activist, and "the criminal case discredited those who were fighting against corruption." "I shared the details and explained that I could not open and close cases on my own. I listed some so-called anti-corruption activists under investigation. She said it was unacceptable, as it would undermine the credibility of anti-corruption activists. I took a piece of paper, put down the listed names and said: 'Give me a do not prosecute list.' She said: "No, you got me wrong.' I said: "No, I didn't get you wrong. Such lists were earlier drawn up on Bankova Street [the presidential administration's address, Lutsenko meant the Yanukovych administration], and now you give new lists on Tankova Street [the former name of Sikorsky Street, where the U.S. Embassy is located]. The meeting ended. I'm afraid the emotions were not very good," Lutsenko gave the details of his meeting with the ambassador. As UNIAN reported, Lutsenko told Hill.TV early in March 2019 that when he first met with U.S. Ambassador Yovanovitch in Kyiv, she allegedly gave him a list of people who should not be prosecuted. In addition, Lutsenko complained that his office had not received $4 million, which the U.S. government should have provided as support. Kolomoisky moved from Switzerland to Israel in September 2018. Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoisky says he is going to return to Ukraine if Volodymyr Zelensky wins the Ukrainian presidential elections. Answering a question whether he is going to return if Zelensky becomes president, Kolomoisky told journalists of the Schemes: Corruption in Detail program, a joint project of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and UA:First: "Well, of course. I was going to return even earlier, but now there are all sorts of cases ... To avoid [speculation] amid the election campaign... I had plans to return to Ukraine between the first and second rounds, even before the first round. But as a political struggle is getting fierce, to avoid confusion, a mess, I've made up my mind to stay here quietly, not to irritate anyone in Ukraine." Read alsoKolomoisky explains why Poroshenko should not become president again Kolomoisky has been living in the city of Herzliya, Israel, since September 2018. When asked why he moved there from Switzerland, the businessman referred to "family reasons." As was reported, the latest poll by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, KIIS, says presidential candidate, showman Volodymyr Zelensky is set to win the second round of elections scheduled for April 21. Some 72.2% of Ukrainians who intend to cast their ballots and have already made up their choice are ready to vote for Zelensky, while 25.4% of those are willing to support incumbent president Petro Poroshenko. If Russia agrees to the peacekeeping mission, it will have three months to withdraw its forces from Ukraine, according to Hrymchak. Deputy Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Yuriy Hrymchak, has said hope remains that the Normandy Four summit will be held June 6, 2019. He also recalled the statement of President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, who claimed that Russia lost $150-170 billion over international sanctions imposed as a result of Moscow's failure to comply with the Minsk Agreements on Donbas settlement, according to Obozrevatel. Hrymchak noted a new package of restrictions was being prepared, targeting Russia, which will be boosted if the Kremlin refuses to allow UN "blue helmets'" deployment in the Ukrainian Donbas. Read alsoPoroshenko: Putin may be invited to Normandy Four to decide on withdrawal of troops from Donbas If Russia does agree to the deployment of UN peacekeepers throughout the entire territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (including those occupied by Russian proxy forces), the policing mission will need from three to six months before the military peacekeeping contingent enter, according to the ministry's calculations. During this initial period, international interim administration will be formed while the aggressor state will have three months to withdraw its forces from Ukraine, according to Hrymchak. All Russia is waiting for is chaos. Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces Gen. Viktor Muzhenko has said Russia may turn Donbas hostilities into a full-scale war within an hour. "The peculiarity of the Russian-Ukrainian war is that within an hour (!) it may turn into a full-scale conventional conflict involving land, sea, aviation components, and special operations forces. The deployment of Russian troops (they have formed strike groupings along the Ukrainian border, including in Belarus and in the occupied Crimea) is organized in such a way that they may launch active military missions without any special training," he said in an interview with the Ukrainian daily newspaper Fakty. Muzhenko believes Russia is waiting for chaos to emerge in Ukraine to go for a full-scale offensive. Read alsoUkrainian defense minister tells of U.S. military assistance "According to our calculations and according to those of NATO, these units are 70% ready for combat action. The only question is how the developments in our country allow Russians to act. If there's chaos, this would be the most favorable period to launch such actions," the general said. Muzhenko believes the interests of the Russian Federation are much broader than the seizure of Crimea and parts of Donbas, and the Russians are trying to restore the territory of the former Soviet Union and become a global player in geopolitics. In addition, according to Muzhenko, Russia needs Ukraine's industrial defense potential to ultimately increase its own capabilities. "We have enterprises that supplied components, parts, weapon systems for the Soviet, and then Russian army. Russia is lacking them now, and this is the reason why their rearmament programs are dragging. This is about missile systems, power-plant units, engines for ships and helicopters of relevant classes, which we manufacture. So they have a number of serious motivations for offensive aggressive actions," Muzhenko added. If elected president, Zelensky is not going to sign the law on amnesty for the militants of the so-called "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics." Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky has said Donbas does not need to be granted any special status. "I think this is a huge story, and it will take us long to get out of this criminal situation. Perhaps, it will be precisely information war that will help us here. I really hope to return these people information-wise to the state of mind of realizing that Ukraine needs them, they need Ukraine, and they are, too, Ukrainians. But a lot of humanitarian steps will have to be done, plenty of things. See, there's a fence that has been set up. What do our politicians say? Build a wall, and so on... It was built, but of bricks. It's even worse. It seems there is no wall, but it is scary anyway, information-wise. Those people in those territories who don't receive pensions... And the fact that we don't talk to them is the worst thing," he said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine. Read alsoZelensky says coalition with ex-Party of Regions, Poroshenko off the table Zelensky also said that, if elected president, he is not going to sign the law on amnesty for the militants of the so-called "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics." In addition, he does not believe that Donbas should be granted any special status. The presidential candidate said his team wanted to create a separate large European media portal that will broadcast in Russian, "which will be broadcast throughout Europe, which will say true things and report on events in Ukraine they [people in Donbas] want to hear." Zelensky said Ukraine needs to "send an impulse and lend a helping hand" to Donbas residents, letting them know "you are hostages." Turchynov says Russia should be recognized as a state sponsoring terrorism. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov has said Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces (GRU) should be recognized as terrorist organizations, and Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. According to him, on April 17, at a joint briefing of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, "irrefutable evidence was provided about the participation of the FSB and the GRU in organizing terrorist attacks on the territory of Ukraine," the NSDC's press service reported. "The security structures of our state exposed an intelligence network created by the secret services of the aggressor state that is responsible for a series of terrorist attacks in the territory of Ukraine, explosions and assassinations, in particular, of the SBU and the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine," he said. Read alsoMan who tried to kill security operative in car blast alive contrary to earlier reports SBU According to Turchynov, operatives of Russia's secret services have been detained, and their confessions testify to the purposeful organization by Russia's FSB and military intelligence of terror acts in Ukraine. "According to the evidence obtained, responsibility for the organization of terror and sabotage on the territory of Ukraine is borne by FSB Director, General Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of the FSB counter-intelligence operations department General Dmitry Minaev, and chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Vice Admiral Igor Kostyukov. The NSDC secretary stressed that criminal cases were opened against all those involved in the organization and execution of terrorist attacks. In addition, these individuals should be included in the Interpol base as terrorists, as well as to the sanctions lists. Read alsoSBU accuses Russian FSB general of organizing assassination of Ukrainian intelligence operatives "Similar crimes of Russia's secret services were exposed also outside our country, in particular, the use of military poisonous substances in the territory of the United Kingdom, etc.," he reminded. "All these criminal acts give grounds for recognizing the secret services of the Russian Federation, in particular, the FSB and the GRU, as terrorist organizations, and Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism," Turchynov added. The presidential election hopeful is aware of the fact that the law provides for a short timeframe for such a move. Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky has commented on whether he intends to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, if elected president. Zelensky is aware of the fact that the law provides for a short timeframe for such a move. "I am afraid I won't have enough time. I will not be breaking the law. If we succeed in six months before the next [parliamentary] election when we have the right to dissolve parliament...," he said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine. To the journalist's clarifying question whether he would dissolve the parliament if he had enough time, Zelensky said: "We'll consider this, yes. You understand it's in our interest." As UNIAN reported, on April 10, member of the Batkivschyna parliamentary faction, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement Activities Andriy Kozhemiakin said the information had been spread in the Verkhovna Rada about the possibility of holding early parliamentary elections in July this year. Read alsoZelensky reveals plans for Donbas On April 14, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko said there were no constitutional grounds for the early termination of the Verkhovna Rada convocation. On April 15, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy said the parliament would work until the end of October. "Parliament will continue its work, and the government will continue its work, too, until the end of October. We have a well-considered plan for the development of the economy and raising social standards for Ukrainians. Both the Ukrainian parliament and the Ukrainian government will work on this program, regardless of the outcome of presidential elections," he said. He stressed "no one can prevent" the parliament from implementing the reform package. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for October 27, 2019. The presidential candidate also believes gambling could be legalized within a single selected city. Ukraine's presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky says it is possible to legalize medical marijuana, as well as prostitution, within limits of a certain Ukrainian city. "Medical marijuana I think that this is normal [to legalize it] it's sold in droplets. By the way, I consulted Yevhen Olehovych Komarovsky [a leading Ukrainian pediatrician] on this matter. Yes, I support legalization of such droplets," he told the RBC Ukraine news agency on April 18. As for the legalization of prostitution, Zelensky said there should be an opportunity to "sell sex for money" within a certain Ukrainian city. "Sex for money? Honestly, guys, I think we have the opportunity and I'll answer all the previous questions here to set up 'Las Vegas' [in the country]. The society would not mind, as taxes would be paid. Why not give an opportunity to a certain city or territory and open it all there," he added. Read alsoZelensky calls Putin "enemy" At the same time, the presidential candidate believes that in his hometown, Kryvyi Rih (in Dnipropetrovsk region), "guysn wouldn't understand" such an idea, hinting at the fact that it is an industrial hub. Zelensky also believes that gambling can be legalized within a certain city. "Yes, it's about giving an opportunity, taking it all and moving it there. Please, go hang out there. This won't be a closed area. As a result, any abandoned city can be developed in such a way. And here you go," he said. Earlier, Ukraine's Acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun stood up for the legalization in Ukraine of medical cannabis. In her opinion, the access of some patients to cannabis-based drugs will realize their right to medical care. Read alsoZelensky reveals plans for Donbas As was earlier reported, the petition to legalize the use of cannabis for medical and scientific purposes in Ukraine gained over 25,000 votes on the parliament's website. The authors of the petition require legal regulation of patients' access to cannabis preparations for the treatment of chronic pain, epilepsy, anorexia, post-traumatic syndrome, immune system diseases, arthritis and rheumatism, asthma, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's chorea, herpes, ulcers, weight loss during AIDS, diabetic neuropathy, various forms of sclerosis, etc. Half of the respondents believe the new president's team should be given at least a year to show positive results. Almost half of Ukrainians expect an improvement in the situation in the country after the presidential election, while a quarter of respondents in the poll have no hopes for positive change. "Some 48% of respondents expect an improvement in the situation in the country after the presidential election. Other 25% have no hopes for [positive] change, while another 10% expect deterioration," according to a survey conducted by the Rating sociological group. The poll says most of those who believe in the optimistic scenario after election are residents of the south and east, as well as younger respondents, and voters supporting presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky. Half of the respondents believe the new president's team should be given at least a year to show positive results. Despite this, a quarter of respondents want the see the achievements in six months, another 14% want to see them in a quarter, and 8% expect immediate changes. Read alsoFresh poll: Zelensky would get 58% of vote in runoff, Poroshenko behind with 22% Younger respondents, the residents of the south and the center are among those who are ready to wait for a year or longer to see the achievements of the next president. Some 76% of respondents say the situation where their relatives or friends support another candidate in this election is normal. At the same time, 9% consider this situation to be a mistake, but they will not try to influence their choice. The same number of respondents will be convincing their relatives to change their mind. Such respondents are for the most part among those supporting Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent president (22%). Some 28% of Ukrainians are convinced this election rather united the country, while 24% believe the split has intensified. At the same time, a third of those polled claim this presidential election has neither split nor united Ukraine. "Most of those who see consolidating processes are among Zelensky's supporters (38%), while every fifth of them sees the possibility of a split. But among Poroshenko's supporters, one-third sees a split in the election, and only 17% sees unification," the report says. The poll was conducted on April 12-16 through personal formalized (face-to-face) interviews. The sample population is represented by age (18 and older), gender, type of settlement, and region. Some 3,000 respondents were interviewed. The margin of error does not exceed 1.8%. It is not yet known when the judges may return to the consideration of this issue. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine has decided not to consider the constitutionality of the lustration law. "Today, the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine have withdrawn the issue on the constitutionality of the lustration law from the agenda," a source in the Constitutional Court told UNIAN. He also added it was not yet known when the judges might return to the consideration of this issue. Read alsoJustice Ministry elects Ukraine's main lustrator As UNIAN reported earlier, the Law on Lustration came into force on October 16, 2014. It applies to a person who was serving for at least one year as a top official from February 25, 2010, to February 22, 2014, and those government officials who held the position from November 21, 2013, to February 22, 2014, and have not resigned from their posts. These people will not be able to work in government agencies in the next 10 years. The Constitutional Court considered the case on the constitutionality of a number of provisions on the lustration law according to the motions of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and 47 lawmakers. Two motions of the Supreme Court and one motion of 47 lawmakers were combined into one constitutional procedure. On March 22, 2016, the Constitutional Court moved to the consideration of the case behind closed doors. No casualties were reported among Ukrainian troops. Russia-led forces mounted eight attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, in the past 24 hours. "No Ukrainian Army casualties were reported in the past day. According to intelligence reports, two invaders were killed and another five were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on April 18, 2019. Read alsoOSCE again spots clusters of heavy weapons in Russia-occupied areas of Donbas During the period under review, Russian occupation forces opened fire from 82mm mortars, weapons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms to attack the Ukrainian positions near the villages of Mykolaivka, Vodiane, Pisky, Pavlopil, Lebedynske, Shyrokyne, and Novoselivka Druha. "Since Thursday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near the town of Svitlodarsk, using tripod-mounted man-portable antitank guns and heavy machine guns. One Ukrainian soldier was wounded. Data on enemy losses are being verified," the report said. One Ukrainian soldier was wounded. Russia-led forces have violated the Easter ceasefire in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, four times since Thursday midnight. "Despite the announced Easter ceasefire, the enemy has violated the truce four times, using proscribed weapons, 82mm mortars, in one instance," the press center of the Joint Forces Operation said in an evening update on Facebook on April 18. Read alsoOSCE again spots clusters of heavy weapons in Russia-occupied areas of Donbas "Armed formations of the Russian Federation also opened fire from grenade launchers of various systems and large-caliber machine guns to attack our positions," the update said. Ukrainian positions near the village of Pavlopil in the Skhid (East) sector came under 82mm mortar fire twice, while anti-tank grenade launchers were used near the village of Pisky. In the Pivnich (North) sector, the enemy mounted two attacks on Ukrainian positions, using anti-tank grenade launchers and large-caliber machine guns near the town of Svitlodarsk. Anti-tank grenade launchers were used to shell Ukrainian troops near the village of Krymske. One Ukrainian soldier was wounded in action on April 18. Ukraine's Joint Forces fired back, information about the enemy's losses is being verified, the update said. The situation in Donbas is under control, it added. Based in San Francisco, California (U.S.), OLLY Nutrition was co-founded in 2014 by Eric Ryan, who also previously co-founded home and personal care products company method. Established as a B Corp, OLLY Nutritions mission is to make nutrition delightfully easy as it believes good health is the foundation of happiness. OLLY is known for its gummy vitamins and supplements, and also sells protein powders and snack bars. We are delighted to welcome OLLY Nutrition to our portfolio of brands. OLLY is a strong, innovative brand in the fast-growing health and wellbeing space, and nicely complements our businesses in Beauty & Personal Care and Foods & Refreshment. OLLYs focus on making nutrition delightfully easy aligns closely with Unilever values and our continued commitment to improving peoples wellbeing, said Amanda Sourry, President of Unilever North America. Eric Ryan, co-founder of OLLY, stated: We are thrilled to work with Unilever to grow the OLLY brand and amplify our mission, culture and commitment to helping people feel happy inside out. OLLY will continue to be based in San Francisco and managed by Eric Ryan, who will assume the role of Chief Growth Officer, exploring further opportunities in the health and wellbeing area; and Gerry Chesser, current COO of OLLY, who will take on the role as CEO of OLLY. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Opinion Policies Editorials are longer opinion pieces that are written by a group of community members recruited across campus who address relevant issues on a local, national and international level. Editorials are research-based. The purpose of the Editorial Board is to promote discussion concerning relevant issues in the community while advising on possible solutions. Topics are chosen via relevancy and interests of the members, which are then discussed by the Editorial Board in order to reach a general consensus concerning the topic or issue. Feedback policy If you have a grievance concerning the content or argument of the Editorial Board, please contact either Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or the Editorial Board as a whole (editorialboard@iowastatedaily.com). Those wanting to respond to editorials can also submit a letter to the editor through the Iowa State Daily website or by emailing the letter to Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or Editor-in-Chief Sage Smith (sage.smith@iowastatedaily.com). Column Policy Columns are hyper-specific to opinion and are written by only columnists employed by the Iowa State Daily. Columnists are unique because they have a specific writing day and only publish on those writing days. Each column undergoes a thorough editing process ensuring the integrity of the writer, and their claim is maintained while remaining research-based and respectful. Columns may be submitted from community members. These are labelled as Guest Columns. These contain similar research-based content and need to be at least 400 words in length. The following requirements should be met: first and last name, email and relation or position to Iowa State. Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions. Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020 Currently there is a political and legal tiff between the Philippines and China regarding the continuous presence of a swarm of fishing boats near China-claimed Zhongye Dao but Philippines-occupied Pag-asa also known as Thitu. Some think this is in response to Philippine efforts to upgrade its facilities there. This tiff is significant because the process and the outcome may set a legal and political precedent for their relationship regarding their many other disputes in the South China Sea and others disputes as well. The Philippines and China have territorial, jurisdictional and behavioral disputes in the South China Sea. The Philippines filed a complaint against China under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. The panel set up under the Treaty ruled against China regarding its historic claim to maritime space there. It also ruled that none of the features in the Spratlys are legal islands capable of generating a 200 nautical mile (nm) Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). It further determined that several of the features that were built up and occupied by China including Mischief Reef and Subi are low tide elevations and not claimable as territory by any nation. However, the panel did not rule on sovereignty disputes over high tide elevations. The claims of China to them remain just as valid or invalid as those of the Philippines and other claimants. According to the Philippines, the presence of about 275 Chinese vessels near Thitu between January and March 2019 violated its sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction. It filed a diplomatic protest to this effect. Joseph Felter, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia said, Chinas activities are of concern. It seems to be somewhat aggressive and provocative and we feel that theyre unnecessary and unwarranted. The West and its media have painted this particular situation as a clear case of Chinese intimidation of the Philippines. But the situation is much more complicated. Thitu is an above high tide feature meaning that it is a legal rock and entitled to a 12 nm territorial sea. China claims and occupies Subi Reef about 16 nm to the west. It is a low tide feature not entitled to a territorial sea [see map]. Indeed, it cannot be claimed as territory by any nation. Source: CNN Philippines That means that Chinas sovereignty claim to it is invalid and that Subi lies within the Philippines EEZ and on its continental shelf. But Subi also lies within the territorial sea of Sandy Cay three high tide sandbars between Thitu and Subi. In effect, Sandy Cay extends the territorial sea of Thitu by another 12 nm. Both China and the Philippines claim these sandbars outright as their sovereign territory, and because they are situated within Thitus 12 nm territorial sea. If China were the sovereign of either Thitu or Sandy Cay, or both, it would validate both its claim and occupation of Subi. But if China gains sovereignty over these sandbars, the Philippines then will lose much of its claimed territorial sea to the west of Thitu because the median line between the sandbars would be the theoretical legal boundary. China may be taking these actions to demonstrate its sovereignty over Sandy Cay and only indirectly, involves Thitu. In 2017, the Philippines began to build fishermens shelters on these sandbars. China objected and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the shelters to be dismantled and the construction to stop. The reason was that the nonbinding 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), which is still operative as the parties try to negotiate a more formal binding Code, forbids inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reef, shoals, cays... China claimed that the Philippines had violated this agreement. China may have feared this was about to happen again and formed a fishermens blockade to prevent the access of Philippine fishermen to Sandy Cay, and from fishing in what it considers its territorial waters emanating from it. So, this current dispute may not be directly about sovereignty over Thitu or even the Philippines construction activity there. Nevertheless, the latter might be considered a violation of the DOC that stipulates that the parties will exercise self restraint that would complicate or escalate disputes and effect peace and stability, and its November 2018 reaffirmation by Duterte and China President Xi Jinping. Moreover, China may have tried to prevent the construction there because it feared that the Philippines would allow the US military to use it. China is wrong to allow its fishermen to fish in the Philippines EEZ without its permission and to harass or block Philippine fishermen from fishing there. This violates the international arbitration panel ruling and the DOC. But if Chinas vessels are exercising freedom of navigation in the Philippines EEZ, including anchoring, that is legal if provocative like US activities in Chinas EEZ. Moreover, there are other possible explanations for the massing of Chinas fishing vessels in the area. But it appears that the massing and harassment is taking place within the 12 nm territorial sea around Thitu or Sandy Cay. That means it is a territorial dispute and both have the right to defend their claims. But their behavior should be restrained as agreed in the DOC. So far this has been an uneasy standoff. But there are several things that could go wrong. If China attempts to blockade, or worse, attack Philippine troops and civilians on Thitu, it would likely draw an equally confrontational and aggressive response from the Philippines and perhaps the US. Observers suggest that the US was sending this message when it sailed a fighter-jet carrying warship the USS Wasp in the vicinity of disputed Scarborough Shoal during the recent US-Philippines Balikatan exercises. But this is highly unlikely. Chinas leaders are neither that impulsive nor impatient. If either the Philippines or China were to try to occupy the Cays, Duterte would come under tremendous pressure from his opposition to do something to either defend its fishermen or prevent China from occupying the features. Apparently Philippine navy vessels and aircraft patrol the area. If Chinese militia, or worse, Chinese coast guard or naval assets were to clash with or harass Philippine naval assets or soldiers there, this could trigger a call for US military assistance. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has famously declared to the Philippines that we have your back in the South China Sea. Moreover, the US Navy has hinted that in certain circumstances it will treat Chinas maritime militia as naval vessels. US Admiral John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations, has called for a more muscular approach to countering Chinas use of paramilitary force. As Randall Shriver, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, says We are more interested in what the activity is and what the mission is of a particular hull, not the color it is painted. However, it should be remembered that the US takes no position on conflicting territorial claim in the South China Sea and this presumably includes territorial seas around disputed territories. Duterte has warned Beijing to leave Thitu alone and threatened military action in response to any Chinese aggression. But so far, the Philippines has taken a measured approach, perhaps reflecting the complications of the issue. According to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Penelo, We will ask them first, if they acknowledge such fact as determined by us. Number 2, ask them why they are doing it. Number 3, we will politely ask them not to not to do what they are doing. As British China expert Tim Collard suggests, If the region comes to fear that expressions of friendship with China will be seen as weakness and attract aggressive behaviour it will only increase tensions in the long term and may lead to the involvement of other major powers. So, the stage is set for compromise or conflict. The choice is in the hands of leadership in Beijing and Manila. Meanwhile, the outcome and any precedents set are being carefully watched in all concerned countries. (@ChaudhryMAli88) New research finds that household dust hosts microbes that can break down cancer-causing environmental chemicals Islamabad (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th April, 2019) New research finds that household dust hosts microbes that can break down cancer-causing environmental chemicals. However, the byproducts of this degradation may also harm health.Our households are riddled with all kinds of microbe, some of which are good and some of which are dangerous. From our dishwashing sponges to our toothbrush holders, there are plenty of places in our homes where these tiny microorganisms can hide.In particular, the dust that settles on our furniture and other surfaces contains a wide variety of fungi, as well as bacteria from theStaphylococcus and Streptococcus families.Although such bacteria may harm our health particularly if we have a weak immune system new research finds that the microbes present in household dust also have an additional role: They help break down harmful environmental chemicals.Specifically, a new study found that these dust bacteria can degrade phthalates, which belong to a class of chemicals that research has linked with cancer and other conditions.Dust microbes fight off harmful chemicalsThe Primary purpose of phthalates is to soften plastic and vinyl to make it more flexible. There are phthalates in almost every household and consumer product, from blinds, wallpaper, and shower curtains to plastic toys, detergents, and food packaging.Researchers do not yet fully understand the health impact of phthalates, but existing studies have suggested that these chemicals disrupt the endocrine system. Experts believe that one particular phthalate, called Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), causes cancer.Bope explains the motivation for the new study, saying, "[W]e know that [phthalates] can be degraded in other systems like aquatic systems and soils but we have high exposure to them indoors, so it was important for us to see if biodegradation was actually occurring in the indoor environment."To find out, the researchers analyzed a piece of carpet from a randomly chosen household in Massachusetts, other pieces of carpet from three households in Ohio, and dust samples that they collected from the vacuum cleaners of the same homes.Lab analyses revealed phthalates and microbes, as expected. Specifically, the researchers found the cancer-causing DEHP in higher concentrations than other phthalates.Then, the researchers stored the pieces of carpet at different humidity levels to examine the interaction between the microbes and the phthalates.They found that higher humidity levels helped the dust microbes multiply, noting that the higher the humidity and the number of microbes, the more phthalates these microbes degraded. However, breaking down the otherwise harmful phthalates may cause more health hazards, explain the researchers."We could see that the phthalates were degrading, but the byproducts of that degradation could be even more harmful," reports study co-author Sarah Haines. Belgium launches a huge state campaign on Facebook in order to dissuade future refugees from seeking asylum in the country, Belgian Minister of Social Affairs, Public Health, Asylum and Migration Maggie De Block told journalists BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2019) Belgium launches a huge state campaign on Facebook in order to dissuade future refugees from seeking asylum in the country, Belgian Minister of Social Affairs, Public Health, Asylum and Migration Maggie De Block told journalists. "This campaign will be focused on certain groups, such as Palestinians and Moroccans. This is the largest campaign ever conducted in Belgium," the minister said. She added that many refugees believed that obtaining asylum in Belgium was a sure thing, which did not correspond to reality. As a result, numerous asylum applications put pressure on the country's services, hospitality and asylum system. According to the Office of the Belgian Commissioner General for refugees and stateless persons, 2,765 people filed applications for international protection in Belgium in January 2019. This number is 120 percent more than in December 2018, when only 1,253 people asked for asylum. The most of the asylum seekers came from Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, the Office's data showed. Up to 23,443 refugees applied for protection status in 2018 in Belgium, the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) coordinated by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles said in its 2018 report. Europe has been experiencing a migration crisis since 2015 due to the influx of thousands of migrants and refugees fleeing crises in their home countries in the middle East and North Africa. These migrants are trying to reach EU states using various routes, including via Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. The Dominican Republic is preparing an exhibition and presentation of its enterprises in Moscow to demonstrate its export opportunities and facilitate its trade with Russia, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Russia Jose Manuel Castillo Betances told Sputnik on Thursday MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2019) The Dominican Republic is preparing an exhibition and presentation of its enterprises in Moscow to demonstrate its export opportunities and facilitate its trade with Russia , Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Russia Jose Manuel Castillo Betances told Sputnik on Thursday. "A large delegation of Dominican companies headed by the Dominican Republic Export and Investment Center and joined by the Dominican-Russian Chamber of Commerce, will present a wide range of national products in 50 economic regions of Russia," the diplomat said. He added that Dominican companies involved in food, medicine, textile, footwear, electronics, tourism and other industries will be represented in the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Representatives from Russian regions will also join the event. They are due to "show their achievements and business proposals to entrepreneurs from the Dominican Republic," according to the ambassador. (@FahadShabbir) A battlegroup based in Lithuania that includes military forces from four other European nations had launched a series of exercises near the Belarus border, NATO announced in a press release on Wednesday WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th April, 2019) A battlegroup based in Lithuania that includes military forces from four other European nations had launched a series of exercises near the Belarus NATO announced in a press release on Wednesday. "NATO's multinational battlegroup in Lithuania began exercise Eager Leopard in Pabrade on Wednesday (17 April 2019)," the release stated. "The exercise mobilizes around 650 troops, including Czech, Dutch, German and Norwegian forces." The battlegroup will conduct three training sequences of 36 hours, testing defensive and offensive tactics, beginning in the city or Pabrade, less than ten miles away from Lithuania's border with Belarus, according to the release. NATO has deployed four multinational battlegroups to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as part of a military buildup in response to tensions with Russia that surfaced after a 2014 referendum in which Crimea's residents overwhelmingly voted to rejoin Russia. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Tehran considers accusations by Bahrain in connection with the alleged participation of Iranian officers in the activities of a terrorist cell groundless, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th April, 2019) Tehran considers accusations by Bahrain in connection with the alleged participation of Iranian officers in the activities of a terrorist cell groundless, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. On Tuesday, 139 people were sentenced to jail by a Bahraini court for forming terrorist cells with support from Iran, according to media reports. The citizenship of 138 of them was also revoked. "We condemn the charges brought against our country, and we believe these allegations are baseless and unfounded," the ministry's spokesman Abbas Moussavi said in a statement. Since 2011, the Sunni authorities in Bahrain have been facing a struggle with an opposition movement led primarily by Shias, who form the majority in the country. The opposition calls for political freedom, equality and a parliamentary system that operates independently of Bahrain's Sunni royal family. (@ChaudhryMAli88) ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th April, 2019) A safe zone has been "de facto" established between Turkey and Syria right up to the city of Manbij in Syria, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Thursday. "Currently a 'de facto' safe zone has been established within the Turkey-Syria border through to Manbij city," he told reporters. Manbij, a city with some 100,000 people, is located in the northeast of Aleppo province in northern Syria, some 18 miles west of the Euphrates river and is currently the only area still controlled by Kurdish militias on the west bank of the Euphrates. Kalin added that Turkey stands for the earliest possible implementation of the Manbij roadmap, and calls for making Kurdish militias leave the east of the Euphrates. Ankara also "expects the continuation of the process of withdrawing American troops from Syria." Last December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara was ready to launch an offensive against the Kurdish militia in then Kurdish-controlled Manbij. However, following a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump, the Turkish president said that the operation had been postponed. Trump himself announced the withdrawal of US troops from Syria after the same call. Washington and Ankara have long been at loggerheads over the status of Syrian Kurds. Also Turkey criticized the United States for delivering military supplies to Kurds in Syria. Turkey has repeatedly conducted operations against the Kurds. In March this year, Ankara announced its operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is designated by Turkey as a terrorist group, however, without revealing the targeted area. Back in 2018, Turkey led Operation Olive Branch in majority-Kurdish Afrin district in northern Syria. US President Donald Trump discussed the crisis in Venezuela during his conversation with Pope Francis on Wednesday, the White House said in a press release WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th April, 2019) US President Donald Trump discussed the crisis in Venezuela during his conversation with Pope Francis on Wednesday, the White House said in a press release. Trump in a tweet earlier in the day said he discussed the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris during his call with the pope. The president did not mention that Venezuela was discussed. "The President and the Pope also discussed alleviating the suffering of the Venezuelan people and leading the country to a democratic transition," the release said. The South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) has said that the people of South Sudan have grievously suffered the force of the crucifixion through a war that has devastated the country from 2013. "His Holiness Pope Francis kissing the feet of our Leaders, as if to say, I serve you, now serve your people in South Sudan was the very message of Easter. It was epitomised by an act of sacrifice that broke the darkness of our captivity, his crucifixion for our sins." - South Sudan Council of Churches English Africa Service Vatican City The force of Crucifixion South Sudan has grievously suffered the force of the crucifixion through war, as South Sudanese have turned against each other, discarding the truth, while bringing people to the point of self-doubt. The night has been at its darkest, the religious leaders say in their Easter pastoral message. Embrace the new peace agreement The religious leaders are now urging the people of South Sudan and their political leaders to wholeheartedly embrace the new peace agreement as a commitment made to God and as a way of starting anew. The Revitalised Agreement of the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) is like a vow made to God, We are saying that Peace is good; Reconciliation is possible, and Unity is better, reads the Easter message in part. The SSCC message adds, In the South Sudan National Anthem, we have vowed to protect our nation. Surely, we make this vow each time we sing the national anthem. A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God to do something good ... possible and better Pope Francis kissed the feet of South Sudans rival leaders The Easter pastoral message reiterates the words of Pope Francis when he recently met South Sudans President, Salva Kiir Mayardit and other South Sudan Vice president-designates, at the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican. During that meeting, Pope Francis begged the leaders of South Sudan to stay the course of peace. At that meeting, Pope Francis in an extraordinary and unprecedented move then knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan's rival leaders humbly encouraging them to steer the country towards peace. The leaders of the South Sudan Council of Churches also attended the closed two-day retreat in the Vatican for South Sudans political leaders. The South Sudan Council of Churches is an ecumenical body comprised of seven member churches and associate churches in South Sudan. SSCC has a strong legacy of peacebuilding, reconciliation and advocacy. The Easter message is jointly signed by the SSCC Chair, Peter Gai Lual; the Catholic Archbishop of Juba, Paulino Lukudu Loro; the Archbishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Justin Badi Arama as well as the Presiding Bishop of the Africa Inland Church, Bishop Dr Arkanjelo-Wani Lemi Jeberi. American President Donald Trump expresses his closeness to the Pope after the fire at the Paris Cathedral of Notre Dame Pope Francis received a phone call on Wednesday afternoon from the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who, referring to the devastation of Notre Dame Cathedral, expressed his closeness to the Pope on behalf of the American people. Alessandro Gisotti, interim director of the Holy See's Press Office, made the declaration in a Tweet on Wednesday evening. Send to Email Address Your Name Your Email Address Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Email check failed, please try again Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. For the past 25 years, Chinese investments in Vietnam and bilateral trade between the two nations has grown steadily despite issues such as the South China Sea and increasing cooperation between Vietnam and countries such as US, India, and Japan. The Chinese mainland has emerged as the eighth largest investor in Vietnam, with the actual FDI much higher if we include their affiliates in Hong Kong and Macau. Over 60 percent of all Chinese FDI focuses on manufacturing and processing, with a majority of the investment focused on labor-intensive industries. Trade agreements Both countries are parties to the ASEAN China FTA, which created the largest free trade area in the world. Apart from ASEAN China FTA, both countries are currently negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which includes the ASEAN member states, and the six states with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements, which include Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. RELATED: Pre-Investment Advisory Services from Dezan Shira & Associates Bilateral trade Trade volumes between the two nations have increased significantly in the last few years. Vietnamese exports to China increased at a faster pace in comparison to its imports. According to Chinese statistics, its exports to Vietnam grew by an average annual rate of 18 percent during 2010-2016, and its imports from Vietnam grew by 26 percent. Major imports Over 70 percent of Chinese imports into Vietnam are intermediate goods such as machinery, electrical and electronic products, textiles and fabrics, base metals and minerals, and chemicals. In the last 2-3 years, other goods such as plastic and clothing products for consumer purposes also accounted for a small part of Chinese imports in Vietnam. In the first seven months of 2017, China has emerged as the largest exporter to Vietnam at US$ 31.59 billion, an increase of 15.3 percent compared to the same period in 2016. The below information is the percentage share of different product in total imports. Major exports Major Vietnamese exports to China include machinery, electrical and electronic products which account for more than half of the total exports. Other products include food items, cotton, fuel, and oil products. Vietnams exports in the first seven months of 2017 stood at US$ 15.62 billion. The below information is the percentage share of different product in total exports. RELATED: Japans Investments in India Unveil Growing Economic Partnership Chinese FDI in Vietnam Chinas first FDI in Vietnam was in 1991 when a Guangxi enterprise (China) joint ventured with a Vietnam group to open Hoa Long restaurant in Hanoi. Since then, Chinese FDI has increased, although not consistently. For example, Chinas FDI in Vietnam in 2012 was US$ 312 million, while in 2013; it rose to US$ 2.3 billion. Chinas 2016 FDI in Vietnam accounted for 7.7 percent of the total FDI at US$1.88 billion. Cumulative FDI As of March 2017, the cumulative Chinese FDI stood at US$ $11.19 billion for 1,616 active projects. The average capital per project was US$6.9 million, much lower than the overall average. Chinese investment is mostly in the processing and manufacturing industry, accounting for 61.4 percent of total investment capital, followed by production and distribution of electricity, gas, and water, and air conditioning at 18.2 percent and real estate at 5.6 percent. Binh Thuan province attracted the most FDI, with total registered investment capital of US$2.03 billion, for only seven projects, accounting for 18.1 percent of the total FDI from China. Market entry strategy for FDI firms As much as 80 percent of all engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts in Vietnam are awarded to Chinese contractors, accounting for 18.4 percent of total registered capital to be in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT), build-transfer (BT), and build-transfer-operate (BTO) contracts. In a close second, joint ventures, business cooperation contracts, or joint stock companies account for 15 percent of the total registered capital. In terms of FDI, investments from affiliates in Macau and mostly Hong Kong have outweighed FDI from the Chinese mainland. Commercial presence There are numerous ways to establish a commercial presence in Vietnam. Representative Office This is the most common form of presence in Vietnam for foreign companies, particularly those in the first stage of a market entry strategy. A representative office cannot conduct commercial or revenue generating activities. Limited-liability Company It may take the form of either: A 100% foreign-owned enterprise; or A foreign-invested joint-venture enterprise between foreign investors and at least one domestic investor. Joint-stock Company A joint-stock company is a limited liability legal entity established through a subscription for shares. By law, this is the only type of company that can issue shares. A joint-stock company may be either 100 percent foreign-owned or a joint venture between both foreign and domestic investors. Partnerships A partnership can be established between two individual general partners. Business Cooperation Contract (BCC) A BCC is a cooperation agreement between foreign investors and at least one Vietnamese partner in order to carry out specific business activities. Public and Private Partnership Contracts A Public and Private Partnership (PPP) contract is an investment form carried out based on a contract between the government authorities and project companies for infrastructure projects and public services. Major FDI projects Overall, the Chinese mainland is the eight largest investor in Vietnam, with the US$1.76 billion Vinh Tan 1 power plant being the biggest investment. In addition, other major projects include the US$400 million Viet Lan Tire Plant in Tay Ninh province and the US$337.5 million Vietnam-China Mining and Metallurgy project in Lao Cai province. In the textile industry, Texhong Group built a US$300 million fiber plant in Quang Ninh Province in 2013. To further their investments in 2014, they also started building the Texhong Hai Ha Industrial Zone with a total investment of US$215 million and another US$300 million for a few more textile plants in the zone. Some of the other major projects in Vietnam include the Hung Nghiep Formosa Dong Nai Textile Limited Company project in Nhon Trach Industrial Park, Viet Luan tire project in Tay Ninh province, Tan Cao Tham rubber processing plant, the Vietnam-China Mining and Metallurgy project in Lao Cai province, the Thai Nguyen iron and steel plant extension, the Cat Linh- Ha Dong urban railway project, and the Da River water pipeline project. RELATED: China India Business Relations Robust Despite Border Hype Vietnams Competitive Advantages Vietnams current competitive advantages are very similar to that of Chinas around 10 to 15 years ago; low wage, low-tech, and export-focused manufacturing. As China moves up the value chain, Vietnam is taking its place and emerging as an alternative for investors. Major advantages in Vietnam include: Low minimum wages According to Trading Economics, the average minimum wage in 2016 in Vietnam was US$136/month, while in China it was much higher at around US$300/month. Wage difference has led numerous labor-intensive industries such as textiles and footwear to shift their manufacturing hubs to Vietnam; Trade agreements Chinese investors increased their investments in the last few years in the anticipation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was unfortunately canceled under the new US administration. However, while China pushes for their own China EU FTA, the EU Vietnam FTA is expected to be ratified, hopefully by next year, offers investors an alternative way to reach the EU market; Infrastructure and connectivity Vietnam has over 100 ports throughout the country, with major ports being the Hai Phong, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. In anticipation of growing exports, ports in Vietnam are currently undergoing upgrades to increase capacity. In addition, the railway infrastructure also is a major component of the economy. In the first quarter of 2017, 166,200 tons of freight was shipped by rail on the trans-border line, which was a 66.2 percent increase from the same period last year, and a 12-year record. Around 60 percent of the rail network in Vietnam are in the Northern provinces, with several new railway lines proposed to increase the connection between the North and South. RELATED: China India Business Relations Robust Despite Border Hype The need to do more In the last two decades, Vietnam has implemented numerous investor-friendly reforms to attract investments, but going forward it needs to do more. The country needs to develop their support industries and move up the value chain. The government has introduced incentives policies for the development of support industries and aims to meet 45 percent of local production demand by 2020, and 70 percent by 2030. Vietnam also needs to move up the value chain and not just highlight itself as an alternative to China. The country lacks R&D investments and high-skilled labor and needs to make changes in the education sector, IP protection laws, and high-tech investor-friendly policies for a sustainable growth. As of now, manufacturers investing in Vietnam still have to rely on the Chinese mainland or other neighboring regions for high-tech production processes. Future of bilateral relations Going forward, China has to focus on their existing projects in Vietnam to gain consumer confidence to be successful in the Vietnamese market. Recent China-backed projects in areas such as urban railway, metals, textiles, and energy have suffered from quality concerns, delays, and cost overruns leading to public scrutiny. In spite of numerous geopolitical differences, both countries will continue to focus on increasing economic cooperation. Vietnam is seeking more investments in high-tech industries, support industries, renewable, clean energy, and tech transfer; however, China will be pushing for a more balanced trade and Chinese companies will continue to invest in industries such as agriculture, aviation, environment, high technology, transport, tourism, and healthcare. Economic exchanges will continue to act as a stimulus for the revival of bilateral relations. Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN, and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide. An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017 An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017 will provide readers with an overview of the fundamentals of investing and conducting business in Vietnam. Compiled by Dezan Shira & Associates, a specialist foreign direct investment practice, this guide explains the basics of company establishment, annual compliance, taxation, human resources, payroll, and social insurance in this dynamic country. Managing Contracts and Severance in Vietnam In this issue of Vietnam Briefing, we discuss the prevailing state of labor pools in Vietnam and outline key considerations for those seeking to staff and retain workers in the country. We highlight the increasing demand for skilled labor, provide in depth coverage of existing contract options, and showcase severance liabilities that may arise if workers or employers choose to terminate their contracts. Firemen help victims of a tourist bus that crashed in Canico, on the Portuguese island of Madeira. At least 28 people were killed. (RUI SILVA/AFP) Televised images showed the bus had spun off the road, apparently having flipped several times, before crashing into a house at the bottom of a slope. "Horrible news come to us from Madeira," a German government spokesman tweeted after the deadly crash. "Our deep sorrow goes to all those who lost their lives in the bus accident, our thoughts are with the injured," he added. A survivor of the crash is helped to safety. (AFP/RUI SILVA) Filipe Sousa, mayor of Santa Cruz where the accident happened, said 17 women and 11 men were killed in the crash, with another 21 injured. A doctor told reporters another woman died of her injuries in hospital. A man receives medical assistance after a tourist bus crashed in Canico, on the Portuguese island of Madeira. (RUI SILVA/AFP) "I express the sorrow and solidarity of all the Portuguese people in this tragic moment, and especially for the families of the victims who I have been told were all German," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told Portuguese television. He said he would travel to Madeira overnight. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa added on Twitter that he had contacted German Chancellor Angela to convey his condolences. "It is with profound sadness that I heard of the accident on Madeira," he wrote on the government's Twitter page. "I took the occasion to convey my sadness to Chancellor Angela Merkel at this difficult time," he added. Firemen stand next to the wreckage of a tourist bus that crashed in Canico, on the Portuguese island of Madeira. (RUI SILVA/AFP) The regional protection service in Madeira confirmed 28 deaths in the accident that happened at 6.30pm (1730 GMT), while hospital authorities said another woman later died of her injuries. The bus had been carrying around 50 passengers. German tourists were killed in the accident in Madeira. (AFP/RUI SILVA) Regional government Vice President Pedro Calado said it was "premature" to speculate on the cause of the crash, adding that the vehicle was five years old and that "everything had apparently been going well". Judicial authorities had opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident, the Madeira public prosecutor's office told the Lusa news agency. Medical teams were being sent from Lisbon to help local staff carry out post-mortems on the dead. Often called the Pearl of the Atlantic, Madeira hosts thousands of tourists each year, attracted to its sub-tropical climate and rugged volcanic terrain. The signing of the memorandum of understanding between Prague airport and Bamboo Airways The forum was organised by the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic together with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the occasion of the visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and members of the local government to the Czech Republic. "We also support the Vietnamese airline to establish a direct air route from Vietnam to Prague. This direct air route can promote trade and tourism between the two countries," said the Czech Prime Minister at the forum. He considered Vietnam a huge market, saying that It is certainly no coincidence that US President Donald Trump has visited Vietnam twice in his term of office. I have not been there yet, but I told Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that when he starts flying Bamboo Airways, I would like to fly there. News portal iDNES cited Prime Minister Andrej Babis as saying he would be "very happy" if this connection started in Christmas. Speaking at the signing ceremony, PM Phuc said he strongly supported Bamboo Airways to open a direct air route linking Vietnam and the Czech Republic to boost the development of tourism and labour sectors, promoting traditional trade and relations between the two countries. The E15 daily paper cited a Vietnamese representative on the Czech Government Council for National Minorities confirmed that discussions are underway, and all parties are very interested in launching the route, wanting to open it as soon as possible. Under the memorandum, Prague airport one of the largest airports in Eastern Europe will apply various incentives for Bamboo Airways in the approval of flight schedules, market research and promotions, policies on take off and landing, and passenger service fees. "The Czech Republic has a very large Vietnamese community, but travellers who want to fly from Vietnam must endure prolonged connecting flights. With the new direct air route, Bamboo Airways aims at contributing to bilateral tourism and trade exchange, boosting economic development in general for the two countries," Duong Thi Mai Hoa, vice president cum deputy general director of Bamboo Airways, said. Dubbed the "heart of Europe," direct flights linking the Czech Republic and Vietnam will be an important premise for Bamboo Airways plan of expanding its international routes to Eastern Europe in particular and the European market in the future, she added. The Czech Republic is home to nearly 70,000 Vietnamese, the third biggest diaspora of foreigners in the country after Ukrainians and Slovaks. It is the third largest Vietnamese community in Europe, after France and Germany. However, the current lack of direct flights from Vietnam to the Czech Republic results in passengers having to catch connecting flights that may last from 14 to 19 hours, transiting to at least one European city, such as London, Stockholm, Zurich, Amsterdam or Dubai. Upon the operation of the Vietnam-Prague direct air route of Bamboo Airways by the wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliner, travelling time from Vietnam to the Czech Republic is expected to be reduced to just 12 hours. According to Prague Radio, Vietnam agreed in June 2017 during an official visit to Hanoi by Czech President Milos Zeman to open a direct air route to the Czech Republic and offer visa waivers to its citizens for up to 15 days. Bamboo Airways, founded by the Vietnamese conglomerate FLC Group as a hybrid airline, has announced major aircraft purchases in recent months in preparation for launching long-haul flights. By the end of this year, its fleet is estimated to rise to 40, including Airbus A321 Neo and Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Bamboo Airways also announced its first charter flights to the Republic of Korea and Japan earlier this month. The domestic property market showed stable development in the first quarter of this year.- Photo danangz.vn So said experts at a press conference on the first-quarter performance of Vietnams property market held by the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS) in Hanoi on Tuesday. According to VARS, the national real estate market continued its stable development. Potential real estate markets have appeared in some northern and central provinces such as Cao Bang, Bac Can, Hoa Binh, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Lam Dong and Binh Thuan. The market saw investment flow to provinces and cities neighbouring Hanoi and HCM City such as Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen in the north and Long An and Dong Nai in the south. The VARS also said some localities experiencing stagnation in the real estate market may recover in the second quarter. Property supply will increase sharply compared to the first quarter as projects get permission to develop from State management agencies. The main supply continues to be apartment products, primarily affordable and mid-end units. The volume of transactions will also increase sharply compared to the first quarter because of high supply. Real estate prices may increase slightly in all segments. Nguyen Van Dinh, the Vietnam Real Estate Associations deputy general secretary, said some places has seen rumours and misinformation pushing up prices, creating local bubbles in Quang Nam, Da Nang and Van Don, but development in those markets was controlled. Local authorities have paid attention to State management of investment activities and trading of real estate services in Van Don and Quang Ninh to ensure sustainable development of the property market, according to the association. Nguyen Hoang Nam, general director of Grandhome, said Van Don is a market with great potential for economic and tourism development, making it attractive for investors. Nam said approved plans will make Van on one of the most attractive tourist destinations in Asia. Van Don has attracted investment from many of the countrys large real estate developers such as CEO, Vin Group, FLC, Sun Group, BIM and HD Mon. Phu Quoc in Kien Giang Province is also considered an emerging market. Dang Duc Gioi, general director of the Special Zone Real Estate Development Joint Stock Company, said Phu Quoc is expected to show sustainable growth in coming years. Land prices are expected to increase by 3-5 per cent and the market is likely to secure more long-term investments. The nation has two other notable potential markets: Khanh Hoa and Da Nang. Experts said their strength is due to investment from the State budget and domestic and foreign real estate developers to create quality urban infrastructure. The potential for investment in residential and resort developments in the two localities is still high despite a recent slowdown caused by policies that have led investors to transfer some of their work to neighbouring provinces. inh said that in the first months of the year, demand for real estate increased in Hanoi and HCM City even as supply decreased. Housing property prices have increased slightly. The two markets had a number of hot areas, but the situation was under control. John Davison, CEO of Zuellig Pharma, speaking at the meeting The $600,000 project aims to support the Vietnam Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), initiated by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in 1981 with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The nations public health programme has since benefitted millions of women and children. Ensuring the highest standards of cold chain for vaccines will further contribute to the success of the EPI. Under the recently-signed agreement, Zuellig Pharma will contribute the innovative eZCooler, a temperature-controlled packaging solution to maintain product quality during transportation, therefore expanding access to vaccines in the country, particularly in remote areas. Zuellig Pharma will also co-operate with NICVB and NIHE to provide training to employees of the Medical Prevention Departments in six provinces on international standards and Goods Storage Practices for cold chain supply management and usage of the eZCooler. As outlined in the EPI plan, the MoH has goals to improve the proportion of vaccination in areas that are at high risk of outbreaks, and in areas which are geographically difficult to reach, such as remote, mountainous or island areas. In view of this, Zuellig Pharma will contribute eZCooler with three capacities (8 litre, 12 litre, and 96 litre) in the six northern provinces of Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, Ha Giang, Son La, and Yen Bai. To meet the goal of the EPI, we faced many challenges such as access to local health centres in remote areas, changes in temperature through different seasons and regions, and limited transport systems in remote areas. The importance of maintaining the cold chain to protect the prescribed temperatures during transport is crucial in helping to ensure the integrity and quality of pharmaceuticals as well as patient safety. We highly appreciate the support from Zuellig Pharma Vietnam to share the innovative eZCooler technology to benefit the Vietnamese community. It definitely creates a premise for the sustainable development of the cold chain supply chain in Vietnam, said Doan Huu Thien, director of NICVB. Marc Franck, chief executive of Zuellig Pharma Vietnam, said, According to Business Monitor International, Vietnams healthcare expenditure was estimated at $16.1 billion in 2017, representing 7.5 per cent of its GDP and the figure will grow at 12.5 per cent a year to $22.7 billion by 2021. Vaccines and cold chain products make up a significant part of this expenditure. Zuellig Pharma is honoured to contribute our innovative solutions to this project to ensure that everyone in the country has easy access to vaccines. We have been entrusted by companies around the world to undertake the supply of pharmaceuticals for nearly a hundred years in Asia and 19 years in Vietnam. Today, we are happy to be able to share our expertise and technology with the Vietnamese government and will work closely together with all parties to make healthcare more accessible in the country." About eZCooler eZCooler is a sophisticated new packaging solution that ensures the integrity of temperature-sensitive products to the last mile of transportation. The solution is designed and manufactured using a single insulation system to maintain a specific pharmaceutical temperature for up to five days, making healthcare more accessible to places across Asia, especially in remote or rural areas. It is essential that vaccines are stored continuously at a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius. Any deviation or interruption in the cold chain from production, storage, transport, and use can potentially damage the integrity of vaccines, resulting in reduced efficacy and safety in treatment. Other advantages of eZCooler that outweigh traditional cold chain storage solutions with foam containers include: Rigorous compliance with regulations: By restricting the storage temperature of a product to an allowed threshold, eZCooler allows pharmaceutical products in transit to be stored at the manufacturer's required temperature and for close guidance by medical authorities throughout the entire cold chain. Ensures product integrity: All six sides of eZCooler have vacuum insulation panels to ensure a stable internal storage temperature no matter the external environment and without any reliance on external energy sources. Environmentally friendly: By completely eliminating the use of disposable foam containers and replacing them with the reusable eZCooler, the project will contribute to reducing waste and carbon emissions. Economically friendly: With regular maintenance, the eZCooler can continue to provide temperature-controlled transportation for vaccines for years. Customizable volumes: eZCooler is developed in a range of sizes, which are suitable for the volumes required by each destination. Upcoming draft report puts pressure on Zuellig Despite recent dialogues, the Ministry of Health remains suspicious over the illegal distribution of pharmaceuticals in the country by Zuellig Pharma Vietnam, with further action ... Zuellig Pharma on MoHs drug radar The Ministry of Health is sounding the war horn for a charge against distribution of pharmaceuticals under the cover of providing preserving services by some ... The signing ceremony between Schneider Electric and Hai Nam took place on April 17 in Ho Chi Minh City Accordingly, Hai Nam will become a strategic partner to distribute Schneider Electrics products, especially in data centres. Information and data have become important resources for enterprises in the era of Industry 4.0. Technology factors can directly affect the way businesses collect, receive, monitor, process, and operate information flows to enhance their speed, accuracy, and cost-efficiency. Therefore, data centres and data storage and processing infrastructure play an increasingly significant role in meeting the evolving requirements of high availability and stability. To facilitate the goal, enterprises should pay more attention to energy efficiency and conservation in their data centres. In this context, Schneider Electric IT Vietnam has teamed up with Hai Nam in distributing electrical equipment and energy management products, especially in data centre segment. The tie-up not only meets the pressing need for information and data management, but also reflects Schneider Electric's commitments to accompany Vietnamese enterprises in the 4.0 era. Hai Nam has been a partner of Schneider Electric in the past decade. The company is the specialist in designing, manufacturing, and providing services of electrical switchboards and automation. Hai Nam focuses on low and medium voltage products with a strong footprint in Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, as well as Japan, Australia, Russia, and Ukraine. The company has a team of over 450 highly skilled people and state-of-the-art facilities. This, coupled with its long-term partnership and strong vision, helps the company to implement large projects in both local and international markets. Thus, Hai Nam has received Elite Partner status from Schneider Electric. The Elite Partner accreditation is the highest of the four certifications granted by the APC by Schneider Electric channel partner programme. It is determined by the competence of the partner, concentration, and commitment level including continuing education requirements, business plan, and annual sales. Under the agreement, Schneider Electric IT Vietnam will gradually hand over the distribution and business activities of its key products like electrical equipment data centre solutions to Hai Nam. Meanwhile, Hai Nam will build on its local understanding and creativity to become a reliable partner of Schneider Electric IT Vietnam. The company will be in charge of distributing Schneider Electric's APC-branded products, namely UPS System, Rack & Accessories System (RAS), Precision Air Conditioning, and Data Centre solutions, among others. The co-operation is expected to boost the implementation of IoT-enabled architecture and the EcoStruxure platform in data centres. It also gives customers better access to international-standard products in line with local market conditions, thereby maximising the energy management process and promoting operational efficiency. At the event, Schneider Electric IT Vietnam and Hai Nam also introduced their latest products and solutions in data centres for partners and customers. Morgan Yvon Charles Duarte, general director of Schneider Electric IT Vietnam, said, Selecting Hai Nam as the strategic partner to distribute energy products and solutions in Vietnam is part of Schneider Electrics development plan. The co-operation will help both companies better exploit their potential to support small- and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam in managing energy and operating systems, allowing them to reach economic and technological breakthroughs. Hai Nam has a factory covering an area of 17,500 square metres in Saigon Hi-tech Park in Ho Chi Minh City's District 9. After 20 years of development, Hai Nam has developed five factories in Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar with international standard production lines. With a team of highly skilled engineers and workers, Hai Nam specialises in total power and automation solutions. To ensure high quality prooducts, Hai Nam has both ISO 9001:2008 Certified Quality Control System and ISO 14001:2015 Certified Environmental Management System. Our manufacturing is fully compliant with IEC Standard. The company also achieved ASTA type-test certification. Hai Nam has become a leader in manufacturing electrical switchboards in both local and foreign markets and a reliable partner of Schneider Electric. The company is serving 500 customers across 10 countries and territories. To meet the rising demand of data and automation, Hai Nam expands its technical infrastructure businesses with products and services of Modular Data Center. Hai Nam makes a difference by bringing the best to customers. Industry 4.0 has changed consumers' shopping habits Customers attending the event had the opportunity to buy a wide range of products from many prestigious US brands at discount prices of up to 90 per cent. In addition, US Express also organised the Order 4.0 talk show to introduce its services of purchasing sale-off branded items from the US, organized a lucky draw, and a reverse auctionof branded products from VND0. The US is known as the birthplace of global brands and its goods, supplies, and utensilsare widely loved by consumers, including Vietnamese. However, the purchasing of authentic US goods and shipping time remains an obstacle for consumers as many US e-commerce websites block access or charge membership fees. Moreover, the payment and shipping stages are quite complicated. With the desire to help Vietnamese consumers purchase US goods easily from the comfort of their home, US Express was born to improve cross-border e-commerce with high-technology solutions on an automated platform. By a few simple clicks or taps, Vietnamese consumers can now easily buy the products that they love, pay automatically, and follow the shipping process through the US Express site. From the beginning, US Express has been co-operating with Amazon, the world-leading e-commerce giant selling more than 400 million products on its platform and received hyper-positive responses from consumers. Three months later, US Express was completely connected to the Costco supermarket system, the largest warehouse in the US that only provides services to its members. While usual members have to pay $60-120 per year for membership fee, Vietnamese consumers are not subject to this fee when placing orders through US Express. Binh Do, co-founder of US Express, introducing the company model Recently, US Express has expanded its strategic partnership with Nordstromrack and HauteLook. Nordstrom Rack is the retail arm for sale-off products of Nordstrom Inc., a US-based fashion and beauty retail group founded in 1901 in Seattle, Washington. Many well-known brands such as Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, and Calvin Klein choose to distribute their products in Nordstrom stores. In 2011, Nordstrom bought HauteLook, a website founded by a group of fashion lovers. HauteLook regularly offers sale off programmes of up to 75 per cent from a series of prestigious fashion brands. While most companies provide order services from the US connect to Amazon only, US Express focuses on technology development and now has connected to six US e-commerce platforms already. Moreover, we have warehouses, offices, and human resources in the US to ensure the most optimal shipping process. In the future, US Express targets connecting to 40-50 brands to become the leading cross-border e-commerce platform in Vietnam, said Chien Pham, CEO of US Express. As a cross-border e-commerce platform, usexpress.vn is a pioneer in integrated technology solutions in the whole procurement process to provide a convenient shopping experience from foreign countries for Vietnamese users. US Express embraces the mission to connect with the global e-commerce market by helping Vietnamese users easily approach e-commerce platforms in the world without any barriers. US Express aims to become the leading e-commerce platform in Vietnam by 2020. One of the rose windows below the damaged roof of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is seen on Apr 16, 2019, a day it was devastated by a fire. (Photo: AFP/Amaury Blin) "The supply of craftsmen with the skill to work so much stone, so much timber, so much lead, so much glass for the windows is something which the industry in the whole of Europe may well be challenged to meet at the present moment," Francis Maude, director at the Donald Insall Associates architect firm, told AFP. "There are other very large projects which are facing the same limitations," he said, giving the example of the Houses of Parliament where his firm is also working. Maude's firm was called upon by the British royal family to help restore Windsor Castle following a fire in 1992 that also shocked the country. The fire began in the Queen's Private Chapel when a curtain was ignited by a spotlight pressed up against it. It spread to the State Apartments, including St George's banqueting hall, and engulfed Brunswick Tower. There were no casualties, also thanks to the quick reaction of the castle's own small fire brigade. The restoration work began in 1995 and was completed in 1997, costing 36.5 million (US$47.7 million) at the time. As part of the renovation, a specially commissioned stained-glass window was installed in the medieval surrounding depicting a firefighter battling the blaze. The castle's grandest rooms were restored to their former state while others were modernised, and the issue of how faithfully to stick to the original design is likely to be the source of "big discussion" when rebuilding the iconic Parisian cathedral. "There will be some who think the only way we can restore Notre-Dame is to make it exactly the same as it was before," said Maude. Alternatively, restorers could draw inspiration from the rebuilding of Reims Cathedral after World War One, when a fire-resistant steel roof was installed. STONEWORK AT RISK Maude pointed out that "there has already been a process of change at Notre-Dame" with the 19th century restoration work done by French architect Viollet-le-Duc, and that carefully selected parts of the church could be modernised, making it more efficient and less at risk of future fires. But it is likely to be many months before the mammoth cleaning-up process ends and an assessment made on which parts of the 850-year-old Gothic masterpiece can be salvaged. "One particular difficulty which I can imagine is the cathedral being largely constructed of limestone," warned Maude. When limestone is exposed to temperatures of over eight hundred degrees centigrade, it "decays through chemical reaction ... and it's then rather difficult to use it again," he said. "I can imagine that there's going to be a lot of the historic surface of the stonework lost but there may be stone buried deeper within the walls which can be capped." "A SYMBOL OF RENEWAL" The cathedral's relatively bare interior should count in its favour, compared to Windsor Castle, where centuries of redevelopments led to a complex web of empty spaces behind the walls. Money does not appear to be an issue, with billionaire donors already pledging hundreds of millions of euros. The director said he would be "delighted to be invited" to help in the restoration, which he believes could end up revitalising the UNESCO world heritage landmark. "It can be a symbol of renewal," he said of the fire. "There's also an opportunity in some parts of a rebuilt Notre-Dame to have a new expression of an artistic temperament for our own times." Cambodias ruling party is preparing for local elections to be held in May, but few Cambodians appear to be paying much attention to what has become largely a sideshow after the Cambodian Peoples Party banned the main opposition two years ago and handed their jobs to loyal officials. In Treuy Koh commune, Kampot province, five seats are up for grabs. Pov Son, the CPP commune chief for the past 20 years, believes his colleagues will all vote for the ruling party, adding, They have to vote for CPP since they are the members of CPP. More than 4,100 constituencies are being contested in total across the countrys 25 regions, but only the incumbent 11,500 commune councilors, many of whom were installed by the CPP in 2017, are eligible to vote. Prior to its dissolution by the Supreme Court, the former opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party held about 43 percent of the seats. Since then hundreds of former opposition officials defected to the CPP amid reports of coercion. The CNRP had majorities in some regions, including the capital Phnom Penh, where it held 53 percent of the council positions. While councilors have some degree of devolved influence, they are not empowered to the extent that district and provincial officials are to form and implement policy. The councilors from provinces, cities, and districts have the power to set up plans, meet to set up plans for the governor to implement, he said. Chea Chiv, a former CNRP official from Battambang province, said the election will have no legitimacy following his partys dissolution. It is a one-party election and incomplete. There is no need to have an election, wasting the national budget. [The CPP] can set it up without an election, he said, adding that the ruling partys actions were like riding a wild horse handsfree. For many, this election will be another reminder of the CPPs consolidation of power since 2017. Prime Minister Hun Sen launched an extensive crackdown on independent media, civil society activists and the opposition party ahead of the national election in 2018, which critics labeled the death of democracy. But Cambodians are largely indifferent to the vote, given that they have no say in the outcome. Soth Pov, 48, a laborer at a local salt producer, said he had not heard there would be an election. When is the election? he asked. Since the crackdown on dissent, a climate of fear has spread in rural Cambodia as ruling party officials grew increasingly paranoid of suspected plots to oust Hun Sen, labeling opposition party supporters terrorists. Chhaom Chanthy, another Treuy Koh villager, remains wary of discussing politics in public. I am afraid of talking about this, he said when asked about the election. I am just a normal citizen; it is hard to talk. However, he said he wants to see the ideas of the countrys leaders challenged. It [Cambodia] cant progress if there is only one [party], he said. Special counsel Robert Mueller's report on his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election released on Thursday indicates that President Donald Trump sought to force Mueller's removal. The redacted version of the more than 400 page report released by Attorney General William Barr said that in June of 2017, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to tell him Mueller must be dismissed due to conflicts of interest. "McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre," the report said. The Saturday Night Massacre refers to President Richard Nixon's firing of key law enforcement officials in October 1973 during the Watergate era. Shortly before the report went public,Barr told reporters it exonerates President Trump of colluding with Moscow and said that later, after assuming power, Trump had "no corrupt intent" to obstruct the probe. Barr said that when Trump took office in January 2017, he "faced an unprecedented situation" and was "frustrated and angered" at the outset "by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks." Yet Barr, a Trump appointee as the country's top law enforcement official, said the president "took no act that in fact deprived" Mueller of "documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation." Barr concluded,"Apart from whether [Trump's] acts [as president] were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation." The attorney general said Trump's lawyers were shown an advance copy of the Mueller report in recent days but were not allowed to make any changes. He said the president's lawyers made no attempt to assert executive privilege about White House conversations to delete any material from the report. Barr detailed extensive Russian interference in the U.S. election three years ago. But Barr said Mueller "found no evidence that any Americans including anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government," either in a disinformation campaign through social media accounts in the U.S. aimed at helping Trump defeat his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, or in the hacking of computers at the Democratic National Committee to steal and then release emails damaging to Clinton. "After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes," Barr said. An hour before Barr spoke, Trump launched an 11th hour attack on the Mueller report, calling his 22-month investigation "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!" and in a second all-caps tweet claiming it was "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!" As he often has, Trump contended that "crimes were committed" not by him, but by Clinton, other opposition Democrats and "Dirty Cops," his derogatory description of high-level law enforcement officials he claims were scheming to keep him from becoming the 45th U.S. president. "Youll see a lot of very strong things come out" in the report, Trump told a radio interviewer on Wednesday. With the release of the report, Congress and the American people will for the first time see for themselves in detail what Mueller examined as he and his team of federal investigators and prosecutors worked to determine whether Trump's campaign or its associates worked with Russia to help him defeat Clinton, the former secretary of state.In addition, Mueller probed whether Trump sought to thwart the probe. No decision on obstruction Late last month, in a summary of Mueller's findings, Barr said the special counsel had concluded that Trump had not colluded with Russia, but reached no decision on whether he had obstructed justice. With Mueller not making a decision on the obstruction issue, Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided that no obstruction charges against Trump were warranted. Barr told reporters it was his prerogative to make the decision to not charge Trump. Barr has redacted sensitive portions of the report that came from secret grand jury testimony or U.S. intelligence sources, but officials said the section on obstruction was only "lightly redacted," likely leaving a detailed examination of Trump's public tweets and the private actions he was suspected of taking to undermine the Mueller probe. News accounts say that Mueller was stymied in deciding whether Trump obstructed justice because he could not always determine the intent of his remarks and actions after becoming president. Trump answered questions in writing during the investigation but did not face Mueller's prosecutors face to face, with Mueller and the White House unable to reach an agreement for Trump's live testimony. Mueller's report said prosecutors didn't subpoena Trump because it would have created a "substantial delay" at a "late stage" in the investigation.It said the special counsel viewed Trump's written answers as "inadequate." Opposition Democrats protested that Barr held the news conference before the report was made public, saying it was an attempt to spinMueller's findings into a favorable view of Trump's role. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said in a statement they "believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling" of the Mueller investigation was for Mueller himself to testify publicly before congressional panels "as soon as possible." Moments after Barr finished speaking, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler called for Mueller to testify before his panel no later than May 23. U.S. intelligence agencies in early 2017 assessed that Russia, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, carried out a campaign to undermine the U.S. vote and had a clear preference for Trump to win. The issues covered in the report are certain to endure in U.S. political discourse in the short-term, with Barr scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1, followed by an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee the next day. Looking to the longer-term, it is highly unlikely the investigation will fade to irrelevance before the next presidential election in November 2020. In one measure of public demand for the information, several publishers are offering people the ability to purchase printed copies of the report, and pre-orders alone on Amazon's website ranked among its top 100 in book sales before the report was released. What have long been public are the legal ramifications of Mueller's probe. Five Trump campaign associates pleaded guilty or were convicted of a range of offenses and a sixth is awaiting trial, some for lying about their contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign or just before he took office in January 2017 and some for offenses unrelated to Trump. In addition, Mueller also charged 13 Russian nationals with trying to influence the 2016 election by tricking Americans into following fake social media accounts with material favorable to Trump and against his opponent, Clinton.Another dozen Russian military intelligence officers were charged with the theft of emails from Democrat Party officials. None of the Russians is ever likely to face a trial in the United States because the two countries do not have an extradition treaty. Americans burned a record amount of energy in 2018, with a 10% jump in consumption from booming natural gas helping to lead the way, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. Overall consumption of all kinds of fuels rose 4% year on year, the largest such increase in eight years, a report this week from the agency said. Fossil fuels in all accounted for 80% of Americans' energy use. That's despite increasingly urgent warnings from scientists that humans are running out of time to stave off the harshest effects of climate change by cutting harmful emissions from consuming coal, oil and natural gas. A 2018 National Climate Assessment involving scientists from 13 government agencies and outside experts warned that climate change already "presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy, and the natural systems that support us.'' Last month was the second hottest March globally on record with an average temperature of 56.8 (13.8 degrees Celsius), nearly 2 degrees warmer than the 20th century average, behind only March 2016, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Alaska had its warmest March by far, nearly 16 degrees above normal and 3.7 degrees warmer than the previous record set in 1965. This week's report says the 2018 weather led Americans to turn on their furnaces and air conditioners more often last year. With the U.S. shale oil and gas boom helping make natural gas increasingly affordable, and with more power plants running on natural gas, natural gas consumption by the national electrical grid rose 15% from 2017, the energy information agency said. Solar power, coal Renewable energy consumption also hit a record high, led by a 22% jump in the use of solar power, the agency said. However, coal consumption fell for a fifth straight year nationally, flailing in market competition against natural gas and renewables despite pledges from candidate and then president Donald Trump to bring back the coal industry and coal jobs. The Trump administration has played down any peril from climate change Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler said last month that "most of the threats from climate change are 50 to 75 years out.'' Trump and his government have encouraged increased oil, gas and coal development in the country overall, saying they want the U.S. to be independent and globally dominant in energy production. As tensions escalate between Turkey and the United States over the procurement of Russian missiles, Ankara is looking to NATO, which it sees as taking a more nuanced stance on the controversial weapons purchase. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's warning this month that Turkey's future in NATO could be at risk if Ankara takes delivery of Russian S-400 missiles drew an angry response from Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. "We are one of the members. We are a country that has a say in all decisions," Kalin said. "Therefore, we will not allow the questioning of Turkey's position in NATO." Washington claims the S-400 missiles, which are due to be delivered in July, pose a security threat to NATO military systems in Turkey in particular, America's latest fighter jet, the F-35. Russia is developing the S-400 system to counter the F-35's stealth technology. U.S. warning While America is warning of far-reaching military and financial sanctions if the Russian missile system is delivered to Turkey, analysts say NATO appears to be taking a different stance. "We have to make a difference here between Turkish-NATO relations and Turkey-American relations," said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara's Middle East Technical University. "Bilaterally [between Turkey and the U.S.] speaking, it's not a good [situation], but concerning NATO, there isn't a problem." "There is not one sentence from the NATO secretary-general that Turkey cannot buy this [S-400] system," he added. "NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg tells Turkey every ally has the right to buy any system; however, the political consequences, the strategic consequences, of such a purchase, he does not say anything. So the Turks are confused [about] whom to believe, the Americans or NATO." This month, Stoltenberg again refused to be drawn into the controversy over Turkey's S-400 purchase, reiterating his stance that it was a "national decision of each NATO ally to determine on its own." Stoltenberg appears to be seeking to position NATO as an honest broker in resolving the dispute. "We see that this is an issue which has created disagreement between allies, and NATO provides a platform for allies to address issues like this," he said. With Turkey devoting military resources to many NATO theaters of operation, from Afghanistan to Kosovo, analysts suggest the military alliance will be wary of being drawn into the increasingly bitter dispute between Ankara and Washington. Regional role Turkey's geographical importance bordering many of the world's most unstable regions and its preparedness to play an active role were acknowledged this month at a NATO gathering at the Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya. Turkey "sees itself as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East," said Madeleine Moon, head of the NATO Parliament Assembly, "which gives it a leading role in promoting security and stability" in the Middle East and North Africa. While Ankara is deepening its ties with Moscow, it's also stepping up its support of NATO efforts to counter Russian influence. "Turkey relations with Moscow are very close, so there is an antagonism there [with its Western allies]," said Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat. "But also at the same time, although the rhetoric is very harsh against some allies, Turkey's participation in NATO exercises in the Baltic Sea and Black Sea is at unprecedented levels and quality." Selcen offers two explanations for the apparent contradictory foreign policy of Ankara toward NATO and Western allies. "Either there is some sort of disconnect or lack of coordination between the Turkish presidency and national defense ministry," Selcen said, "which is, in today's Turkish national regime, quite improbable, or Ankara is trying to extract some flexibility from Washington, which is not forthcoming." Turkey's more robust approach toward its NATO partners could be threatening a new quarrel within the alliance. According to reports, Ankara is set to veto Macedonia's NATO membership unless Skopje extradites Turkish nationals wanted in connection with the failed 2016 Turkey coup. Turkey's future in alliance Turkey's stance toward some NATO members and its deepening ties with Moscow are leading some to question the country's future within the alliance, a fear Turkish presidential adviser Gulnor Aybet appears happy to stoke. "If the United States continues to approach Turkey with a zero-sum game then the doors, which are currently open for the future of relations, could turn toward another partner, and that is Russia," Aybet said this month during a panel discussion in Washington. However, international relations professor Bagci said it's essential to look beyond the political rhetoric and understand that the decades-long strategic importance of NATO to Turkey remains unchanged. "Russia is not an alternative [to Turkey]. Turkey will not look to Russia as a most trusted ally. It is not the case and will not be," Bagci said. "Turkey always uses Russia as a balance of power, as leverage. Turkey will not leave NATO unless NATO leaves Turkey. Then, Russia is an alternative." A report released Thursday concludes disdain for journalists throughout the world has increased during the past year, due primarily to the behavior of authoritarian leaders. The 2019 World Press Freedom Index report, conducted by Reporters Without Borders, said "authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media," resulting in a "hatred of journalists" that has "degenerated into violence, contributing to an increase in fear." The United States' ranking in the annual index of press freedom declined for the third time in three years, a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's regular threats to reporters and his inflammatory remarks about the media, the report said. The U.S. ranked 48th among the 180 nations and territories that were surveyed, maintaining a descent that started in 2016. For the first time since the report started in 2002, the United States was included in a category of countries where the treatment of journalists is described as "problematic." The report said while a deterioration of the press freedom climate in the U.S. predated Trump's presidency, the first year of his time in office "has fostered further decline in journalists' right to report." The report cited Trump's repeated declarations of the news media as an "enemy of the American people," attempts to deny White House access to "multiple media outlets," regular use of the term "fake news" in retaliation to critical reporting, and calls to revoke the broadcasting licenses of "certain media outlets." It noted that hatred toward reporters prompted a gunman to murder four journalists and another employee last June at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland just east of Washington. The gunman had mental health issues and was angry with the newspaper for reporting about his pleading guilty to criminal harassment in 2011. "Amid one of the American journalism community's darkest moments, President Trump continued to spout his notorious anti-press rhetoric, disparaging and attacking the media at a national level," the report said. European countries once again occupied most of the spots at the top of the index. Norway topped the list for the third consecutive year, followed by Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark. The United Kingdom ranked 33rd, rising seven spots since last year. But the report said the U.K. "remained one of the worst-performing countries in Western Europe," noting its more favorable ranking was due to the sharp deterioration of press freedom in other countries. The countries at the bottom of the list were dominated by Asian countries. Turkmenistan ranked 180, topped by North Korea, Eritrea, China and Vietnam in ascending order. The Americas experienced the most pronounced regional deterioration worldwide, primarily due to the decline of the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The European Union and the Balkans registered the second largest regional deterioration, followed by the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific. The findings are based on responses to an 87-question survey that assesses pluralism, media independence and censorship in each country. Government policy was not evaluated. Responses were provided by media representatives, sociologists and attorneys around the world. Their feedback was integrated into a database of reported abuses and violent acts against journalists. To access the report in its entirety, visit https://rsf.org/en/ranking_table. YAOUNDE - Anne Nzouankeu contributed to this report. Cameroon was once the 12th largest coffee producer in the world, but it is now in 31st place, after production sank from 156,000 tons in 1990 to barely 25,000 today. While exports still dominate, Cameroon is looking to domestic coffee consumption to help boost production. One of the ways the government is promoting Cameroon coffee is through the annual coffee festival in Yaounde. WATCH: Cameroon Organizes Coffee Festival to Boost Consumption Cameroons coffee drinkers sample locally made Robusta and Arabica coffees at a tasting village set up in the capital. Among the visitors is 34-year-old Cyrille Yaouba. He says tasting the coffee today can make him to want to drink more in the future and that he thinks the coffee is very good. Cameroon trade minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana says the annual coffee event, Festicoffee, aims to encourage Cameroons 24 million people to drink more of the bean to help boost production. An increase in coffee consumption, he says, will make Cameroon produce more. Cameroon can produce more, he says, if it can persuade the large domestic market to buy coffee and be prepared to satisfy them. Industry insiders such as Pierre Andre Jr. of the Torrecam coffee factory blame a severe drop in coffee prices for discouraging coffee farming. Cameroonians have to look for local solutions to their problems, he says. Local consumption of coffee should be part of their habits, and he does not know why people have the tendency to behave as if they are afraid of the coffee their country produces. Junior says that Cameroon, which is still Africas seventh largest coffee producer, is also looking outside the main export markets in Europe to regional ones. The industry will be targeting neighboring markets in Nigeria, Gabon, Congo and Chad, he said. The markets are promising and can purchase about 90% of Cameroons coffee, Junior says, adding that the Cameroon market for now is consuming just 10% of what they produce. Cameroon authorities hope to grow the market by encouraging the 300,000 government workers to drink more coffee. The theme of this years coffee festival: Lets Act in Favor of Cameroon Coffee. A coalition of opposition political parties Thursday called on Egyptian voters to reject proposed constitutional amendments that would allow President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to stay in power until 2030. The Civil Democratic Movement, which includes liberal and left-leaning parties, held a news conference to decry the amendments, calling them an assault on democracy and urged people to break the barrier of silence and participate in the referendum by voting No. We want people to go and say no, said Abdel-Aziz al-Husseini of the Karam party. A three-day nationwide referendum that starts Saturday was apparently designed to maximize turnout. The dates were announced less than 24 hours after parliament, packed with el-Sissis supporters, overwhelmingly approved the proposed changes that also set to further enshrine the militarys role in politics. The opposition also said they were banned from hanging banners in the streets to call on voters to reject the amendments and said they have only used social media to reach out to people. The changes to the constitution are seen by critics as another step back toward authoritarianism. They come eight years after a pro-democracy uprising ended autocrat Hosni Mubaraks three-decade rule, and nearly six years after el-Sissi led a popular military overthrow of the countrys first freely elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, after protests against his rule. Hopes dashed Khaled Dawood, an opposition leader and former head of the liberal Dostour, or Constitution party, said if the referendum passes, our dream and hope to have a president who is elected once every two terms have come to an end. Unfortunately, the Egyptian regime is not learning the lessons of 2011 revolution or experiences in Algeria and Sudanese, he said in reference to recent mass uprisings in Sudan and Algeria that led to the downfall of longtime rulers. In general terms, the amendments extend a presidents term in office from four to six years and allow for a maximum of two terms. But they also include a special article specific to el-Sissi that extends his current second four-year term to six years and allows him to run for another six-year term in 2024 potentially extending his rule until 2030. "Legalizing dictatorship" El-Sissi came to power in 2014 after removing his predecessor, Egypt's first freely elected civilian president Mohamed Morsi who hails from the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Following Morsis ouster, authorities waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that left hundreds of protesters dead and thousands in jail while freedom of expression and the media were eroded. Political analyst Hassan Nafaa told The Associated Press that the proposed amendments amount to legalizing dictatorship in the constitution and that will have dangerous repercussions on the political system when all doors for freedom of expression are sealed. The adjustment will lead to absolute dictatorship, he added. "Do the right thing, vote yes!'" read signs and banners draped on buildings across Cairo. There is no noticeable public opposition. The pro-government advertising is calling for constitutional changes that could allow Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to stay in office until 2030. Egyptians outside of the country will begin casting ballots Friday, and voting will begin nationally Saturday less than a week after parliament approved the measure. If passed, the amendments also would deepen presidential powers and military presence within communities. The presidential term would be increased from four to six years and Sissi would be allowed to run for a third term in 2024. Supporters of the referendum have hailed the vote as a national duty. At his barber shop in downtown Cairo, Mahmoud el-Batal says he is proud to support the president with his vote. "If Egypt needs me, I will step up," he explains. But some analysts say the vote is simply a power-grab in a country where political diversity has dissolved almost completely. "It is a volatile situation, an angry nation and a disappointed nation," says Hisham Kassem, a veteran Egyptian publisher and analyst. But organized opposition is almost non-existent, with many leading public figures, businesses and media houses firmly in league with the current government. "There is no real political leadership across the country," he adds. "There is no Mandela." Moving backward? Critics of the amendments say that vote will be another step back toward the days of Hosni Mubarak's three-decade long authoritarian rule. Overthrown by the military after a nationwide uprising in 2011, Mubarak's rule was followed by Mohammed Morsi, who was democratically elected but polarized the nation. Sissi led a military takeover, ousting Morsi before being elected president in 2014. Sissi won the presidency again in 2018, but no legitimate opposition participated, according to Kassem. "He's basically staying in power by arresting everyone who criticizes him," he adds. As he weaves through Cairo traffic Wednesday, Ahmed Faraag, a 50-year-old taxi driver, says he doesn't plan on voting. Like many Egyptians, corruption and years of economic crises have disillusioned him. "There is no point in participating in this referendum or any elections," he complains. "The results are known before it happens." Actual changes? Officials have promised to announce the results by April 27 and say they will implement the constitutional reforms swiftly if the measure passes. "We will be employing these changes the day after the results are known if the majority approves it," explains Lasheen Ibrahim, chairman of the National Election Authority at a press conference in Cairo. And while the amendments are lengthy, most of the items will not affect public life, according to Ziad Akl, a senior researcher at the Al Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo. "There are absolutely no significant changes except for one factor, which is the presidential term," he says. Akl says he expects low voter turnout, even though public discourse has focused mainly on encouraging people to vote. "There has been mass campaigning over the past couple of weeks to get Egyptians to mobilize and participate in the constitutional amendments," Akl explains, "without actually mentioning what the constitutional amendments are about." Many of the amendments pertain to the government's structure, creating new positions and increasing the number of presidential appointees. The Egyptian military, which already wields tremendous economic and political power in Egypt, also will increase its role in criminal justice, if the referendum passes. Egyptian officials have called on the public to reject calls for a boycott, but Faraag, the taxi driver, says he won't give up his shift to wait at the polls for what he sees as a vote with only one possible outcome. "The government is just wasting time and money," he insists. A German-led bid to step up efforts to combat sexual violence in conflicts has run into resistance at the U.N. Security Council, diplomats said Wednesday, just days before Nobel laureate Nadia Murad is to appear before the U.N. body to issue a call for justice. Germany is pushing for the adoption of a draft resolution next Tuesday during a council debate that will feature Nobel Peace Prize winners Denis Mukwege and Murad, a Yazidi human rights activist. Murad, who was held by the Islamic State fighters for months after they overran her home town in northern Iraq in 2014, is expected to call on the council to take action against perpetrators of sexual violence. The German-drafted resolution would establish a working group of the Security Council that would develop measures to address sexual violence and strengthen prevention, according to the draft text seen by AFP. It would encourage commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions set up by the United Nations to address rape and other sexual crimes in their investigations of human rights violations in war zones. The measure would also urge U.N. sanctions committees to apply targeted sanctions against rapists and other perpetrators of sexual violence. U.N. diplomats said negotiations on the text were complicated, with Russia, China and the United States raising objections. Russia has questioned the need for the working group while the United States has taken aim at references to the International Criminal Court, which it does not support, and those that deal with reproductive health for rape survivors, according to diplomats. "There are several outstanding issues with the United States, Russia and China," said a diplomat. Some council members argued that the working group could undermine the U.N. envoy for sexual violence, Pramila Patten, who has been tasked by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with stepping up action to prevent the use of rape as a weapon of war. France, which backs the German draft, had proposed that there be an alert mechanism set up for cases of mass rape during conflicts. A Greek anarchist group on Thursday claimed responsibility for exploding a grenade outside the Russian Consulate in Athens in March. In a statement on anti-establishment website Indymedia validating the hit, the group calling itself "FAI/IRF Revenge Plot" accused Moscow of torturing arrested anarchists. They dedicated the attack to Mikhail Zhlobitsky, a 17-year-old anarchist killed in a suicide bombing at the regional offices of federal security service FSB in Arkhangelsk in October. The Athens grenade explosion on March 22 caused no injuries. The consulate was closed at the time. Domestic far-left outfits regularly carry out acts of violence against diplomatic missions in Greece. FAI/IRF is associated with the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, a Greek anarchist group, several of whose members are serving long prison terms for letter bomb attacks. The British-led Nekton scientific mission on Thursday completed a seven-week expedition in the Indian Ocean aimed at documenting changes beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. Little is known about the watery world below depths of 30 meters (yards), the limit to which a normal scuba diver can go. Operating down to 450 meters with manned submersibles and underwater drones off the island nation of the Seychelles, the scientists were the first to explore areas of great diversity where sunlight weakens and the deep ocean begins. The oceans' role in regulating climate and the threats they face from global warming are underestimated by many. Scientific missions are crucial in taking stock of underwater ecosystems' health. Principal scientist Lucy Woodall called the mission massively successful, saying that members believe they have found evidence near several coral islands of a so-called rariphotic zone, or twilight zone, located between 130 and 300 meters deep. The rariphotic zone has been shown in a number of papers in the Atlantic and Caribbean but has never previously been shown in the Indian Ocean, Woodall said, adding that months of analysis will be needed to confirm the discovery. In this twilight zone that sunlight barely reaches, photosynthesis is no longer possible and species that cannot move toward the ocean's surface rely on particles falling from above for sustenance. Woodall also said she was excited to see vibrant communities of fish during the mission. We're seeing schools of small fish - that middle of the food chain - but we're also seeing a large number of big predators - the sharks and all the other fish predators as well that are there. So this shows that protection works, she said. With the expedition over, the long work of analysis begins. Researchers conducted over 300 deployments, collected around 1,300 samples and 20 terabytes of data and surveyed about 30 square kilometers (11.5 sq. miles) of seabed using high-resolution multi-beam sonar equipment. Woodall estimated her team will need up to 18 months of lab work to process and make sense of the data gathered during the expedition. The data will be used to help the Seychelles expand its policy of protecting almost a third of its national waters by 2020. The initiative is important for the country's blue economy, an attempt to balance development needs with those of the environment. On Sunday, President Danny Faure visited the Nekton team and delivered a striking speech broadcast live from deep below the ocean's surface, making a global plea for stronger protection of the beating blue heart of our planet. For Nekton mission director Oliver Steeds, Faure's visit was a win for the ocean. I hope our ability to broadcast live from the ocean has helped put the oceans back on the map in the boardrooms, the corridors of power and in the classrooms, Steeds said. That's where the decisions need to be made to fundamentally secure our future and the improved management and conservation of our ocean. He said mission members hope that nations across the Indian Ocean will have the political will to improve the management and conservation of their waters. It's been an extraordinary aquatic adventure, Steeds said. We're delighted that so many people around the world have been following our progress but it only really matters if the Seychelles can continue to take a lead on the world stage as a beacon of hope for ocean conservation. This is the first of a half-dozen regions the mission plans to explore before the end of 2022, when scientists will present their research at a summit on the state of the Indian Ocean. The U.N. labor agency says existing methods of protecting workers from accidents and disease are not good enough to deal with new occupational hazards arising from changes in the nature of work. The International Labor Organization (ILO) is calling for revisions to address physical and psychological problems stemming from the changing job world. In a new report, ILO estimates find 2.78 million workers die from occupational accidents and work-related diseases each year. It says more than 374 million people are injured or fall ill every year through work-related accidents. The cost to the world economy from work days lost is nearly four percent of global Gross Domestic Product. The ILO's report warns the changes and dangers posed by an increase in technology could result in a worsening of that situation. It says new measures must be implemented to deal with the psycho-social risks, work-related stress and non-communicable diseases resulting from new forms of work. It says digitization, artificial intelligence, robotics and automatization require new monitoring methods to protect workers. Manal Azzi, an ILO Technical Specialist on Occupational Safety and Health, says that on the one hand, new technology is freeing workers from many dirty, dangerous jobs. On the other, she says, the jobs can raise ethical concerns. She told VOA surveillance of workers has become more intrusive, leading them to work longer hours, a situation that may not be ethical. Also, different monitoring systems that workers wear. Before, you would punch in, punch out. Now, you could wear bands on your wrist that show how many hours you are actually working in a production line. And, there is even discussion of introducing implants, where workers can be continuously surveyed on their production processes, she said. Azzi said a host of mental problems could be introduced by new work environments. The report also focuses on changes in demographics. It says employers have to adapt to the physical needs of older workers, who may need training to safely operate equipment. Another area of concern is climate change. The ILO is positive about the green jobs being introduced. But it says care must be taken to protect people from warmer temperatures that increase risks, including air pollution, heat stress, and newly emerging diseases. In the past, creating a safer working environment focused on the prevention of risks. Authors of the report say the ILO today needs to anticipate the risks. They say new skills and information about safety and health in the workplace have to be learned at an earlier age. Before young people apply for a job, they say, they should know their rights. The power of knowledge, they say, will help protect employees in the workplace. With 800,000 followers, the Instagram page of the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force was among the most popular pages of Iranian officials on the photo-sharing website. The Instagram comments, public appearances, travels and promotional posters of Qassem Soleimani who as head of Quds commands the vaunted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) outside Iran were shared on the Instagram page, which is one of the only major social media sites that has not been blocked by Iran. On April 16, a day after Washington's designation of the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization came into effect, Soleiman's page, along with the Instagram pages of several other IRGC commanders, were blocked. "Sorry, this page isn't available," a message on the page reads. "The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed." An Instagram spokesman said it was operating "under the constraints of U.S. sanctions laws." "We work with the appropriate government authorities to ensure we meet our legal obligations, including those relating to the recent designation of the IRGC," the spokesman said. Iranian media reported that the English-language Instagram page of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the page of judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi were also blocked. Khamenei's Persian-language Instagram page, with 2.5 million followers, remains available. Khamenei's English-language page was back up on April 17. 'Take reciprocal actions' The blockages were condemned in Tehran and prompted renewed calls from hard-liners for a blocking of Instagram, the second most popular social media platform in Iran after the communications app Telegram, which was blocked last year. "When you tear out a man's tongue, you aren't proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you FEAR what he might say," Communications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahrom wrote on Twitter, blocked in Iran since 2019, quoting the cult TV series Game of Thrones. Other hard-liners, including Hossein Allah Karam, a leader of the paramilitary Ansar-e Hezbollah group, blacklisted by the U.S. for human rights abuses, also agreed that the time had come for the Islamic Republic to block Instagram. "Social media sites use any opportunity to harm national interests. We need to be ready to confront these plots and take reciprocal actions," Allah Karam was quoted as saying by Iranian media. "Under the current conditions it is needed more than ever to filter these social media sites in support of the IRGC," he said, adding that "the blocking of hostile social media sites such as Instagram will [prevent] them from doing what they want." The conservative chairman of the parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Alaeddin Borujerdi, said he would stop posting on Instagram to protest the blocking of the pages of Khamenei and the IRGC commanders. In a video posted on Instagram, Borujerdi said the "unwise move" reflected "the depth of America's hostility" toward the Islamic establishment. To block or not to block? Iranian hard-liners have long called for tighter Internet censorship, including the blocking of Instagram. Earlier this year, Javad Javidnia, secretary of Iran's state committee on online censorship and deputy state prosecutor in charge of cyberaffairs, was quoted by domestic media as saying that the country was ready to block Instagram once the authorities agreed. The move has been opposed by the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who came to power in 2013 promising people more freedom and less censorship. Iran blocks tens of thousands of websites, including news sites and social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but many Iranians access banned sites through virtual private networks and other anti-filtering tools. Ivanka Trump was in Ivory Coast Wednesday as part of a tour of the African continent to promote a U.S. initiative to encourage women's employment in developing countries. Trump met with female cocoa farmers at an agricultural cooperative before speaking at a summit in the capital. Esha Sarai reports. Ivanka Trump, U.S. President Donalds Trumps daughter and senior White House adviser, spoke Wednesday to a summit of women entrepreneurs in the Ivory Coast. Societies that empower women to succeed are more peaceful and more prosperous. And this is evident in all the research that we see," Trump told an auditorium full of female business owners, community organizers, politicians and students. Her appearance at the Women Entrepreneurs Financial Initiative (WeFi) summit in Ivory Coast was Trumps last stop on a four-day tour of Africa to promote a $50 million initiative signed by her father in February that is aimed at encouraging womens employment in developing countries. WATCH: Trump Announces $2 Million for Women in Ivory Coast Cocoa Industry We launched WGDP, the Womens Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, in February of this past year. It is the first ever whole-of-government approach to womens economic empowerment in the developing world, and the goal is to empower 50 million women by 2025, she said at the summit. The WGDP is one of many international funding projects that will work with the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank to distribute money to projects throughout the continent. Backbone of African economies Its very known that women form the backbone of African economies ... yet theyre very much marginalized in terms of their access to most productive resources, from land to finance to acquiring information, Vanessa Moungar, director of Gender, Women and Civil Society at the African Development Bank, told VOA. Moungar gave the example of one specific program, Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), which was developed to bridge the gap between men and women in how they gain access to capital. The summit touted successful businesswomen speakers and panels, mixed with representatives like Moungar to discuss the potential of women in business on the continent. Change for the better And many left the conference feeling inspired about their future. From what Ive heard today, I do believe that things are going to change for the better, Tatou Dembele, who owns the food marketing company Ivorian Food, told VOA. I believe that there is a strong will to help women in their own businesses. I believe this is the most important thing and we need to focus on that, whether or not we receive or might receive so much money or less money, Dembele added. $2 million for cocoa Earlier Wednesday, at a cocoa farm about 100 kilometers from Abidjan, Trump announced a $2 million commitment to help women in Ivory Coasts cocoa industry. Speaking at Cayat, a cocoa cooperative in the town of Adzope, Trump said the $2 million, promised by USAID and private chocolate companies, would go toward savings associations, which are a popular way for businesswomen to gain capital in the West African country. Cayat is an example of one company that was able to grow through use of a savings association. It is a company, however, in an industry largely run by women, but where women are still outearned by men. Oftentimes women are left out of the decision-making process. Women do a lot of the work, but women often dont have the ability to own land, Tim McCoy, vice president of country relations for the World Cocoa Foundation, told VOA. So what were seeing here is a change in that and an example of women really taking responsibility and exercising really amazing leadership, he added about Cayat. Thanks for allowing us to highlight a best-in-class example, Trump told an audience of Cayat employees after touring the facilities Wednesday. Trump was received warmly both in the town and the cocoa cooperative. Dozens of people wearing shirts with Trumps photo lined the streets to greet her. We are ready to work with them, Adingra Yawa, a Cayat employee, told VOA after Trumps announcement. We want our children to be able to go to school. We want to be happy like other women. An Iranian court has held an appeal hearing for a jailed Iranian journalist and rights activist who faces a 12-year prison sentence for her social media criticisms of Irans judiciary. A report by Irans semi-official ISNA news agency quoted a lawyer for journalist Hengameh Shahidi as saying he and his client appeared in court for the Tuesday hearing. Mostafa Tork Hamedani told ISNA that the presiding judge announced the end of the appeals process for Shahidi and pledged to issue a ruling soon. The report gave no other details of the hearing. Iranian authorities detained Shahidi last June and sentenced her to 12 years in prison in December, pending an appeal. Earlier this month, the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) quoted an unnamed former colleague of Shahidi as saying the journalist was in poor health after nine months in solitary confinement at Tehrans Evin prison. CHRI cited the source as saying authorities were treating Shahidi harshly in retaliation for her 2018 social media posts criticizing Irans then-judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani and demanding that he release a report on his performance. Hamedani posted a complaint on Twitter last month about what he said was the Iranian judiciarys repeated postponement of Shahidis appeal hearing and prolonging of her solitary confinement. CHRI said the hearing originally had been scheduled for January and March this year. CHRI said Shahidis December sentence also included two-year bans on membership of political groups, social media activities and leaving the country. Shahidi is a past contributor to a news site run by the reformist Etemad Melli (National Trust) Party. She also was an adviser to the partys founder, Mehdi Karroubi, when he competed in Irans disputed 2009 presidential election. Karroubi has been under house arrest since 2011. Iranian authorities previously jailed Shahidi from 2009 to 2012 for alleged national security offenses related to the 2009 election and its aftermath. She also was detained in Iran for several months in 2017 on suspicion of illicitly collaborating with overseas-operated media sites. This article originated in VOAs Persian Service. Several key figures associated with President Donald Trump have pleaded guilty or were convicted of a range of offenses as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe: Paul Manafort: Trump's 2016 campaign chairman is in the early stages of a 7 1/2-year prison term after being convicted and pleading guilty in two cases linked to financial corruption from his years of lobbying for pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. Michael Flynn: Trumps first national security adviser pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with Russias then-ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, just before Trump assumed power, and is awaiting sentencing. George Papadopoulos: The low-level foreign affairs adviser was jailed for 12 days after he pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his Russia contacts. Rick Gates: A business associate of Manaforts and his deputy on the Trump campaign, Gates was a key witness against Manafort at his trial, after pleading guilty to conspiring with him in financial wrongdoing from their years as lobbyists for Ukraine. He is awaiting sentencing. Michael Cohen: Trumps one-time personal attorney pleaded guilty to helping Trump make $280,000 in hush money payments to two women, an adult film actress and a Playboy model, to keep them quiet before the 2016 election about alleged decade-old sexual encounters they claimed to have had with Trump. Cohen, headed soon to prison for a three-year term, also admitted lying to Congress about the extent of Trumps efforts during the 2016 campaign to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow, a time when candidate Trump was telling voters he had ended his Russian business ventures. Roger Stone: The long-time Trump adviser and friend is awaiting trial on charges that he lied to Congress about his contacts with the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in conjunction with the release of emails hacked by Russian operatives from the computers of Democratic officials that were damaging to Trumps 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. A large group of Democratic presidential contenders is off to an early and intensive start in 2019, even though the first caucus and primary votes will not come until next February. But some experts are already predicting that the race for the party nomination could be one of the longest and nastiest in years. Nearly 20 Democrats have jumped into the 2020 election battle so far, and many face the daunting task of trying to boost their name recognition and raise money. Among the latest Democrats to officially announce a presidential bid was South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. "The forces changing our country today are tectonic, forces that helped to explain what made this current presidency even possible," Buttigieg told supporters at his kickoff event this week in South Bend. "That is why this time it is not just about winning an election. It is about winning an era." Buttigieg has risen from relative obscurity to being a contender in recent polls in the early contest states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Biden leads the pack The latest Morning Consult survey has former Vice President Joe Biden leading the Democratic pack at 31 percent support, followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 23 percent, California Sen. Kamala Harris at 9 percent and Buttigieg tied at 7 percent with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Biden has yet to officially announce and is expected to do so in the coming weeks. Like many of the Democratic contenders already in the race, Harris has focused much of her attention on President Donald Trump. "We cannot afford to have a president of the United States who stokes the hate and the division. We can't," Harris told supporters this month at a rally in Iowa. Struggling to get noticed Among those working to gain visibility in the crowded Democratic field are New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Rep. Eric Swalwell and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who officially launched his campaign with a rally in his home state in early April. "I am running for president to first and foremost try to bring this country back together!" Ryan told supporters. In addition to Biden, others who may enter the race soon include Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton. Eventually, the number of Democratic contenders could go to 20 or beyond. Even though Democratic voters have lots of choices, they seem most eager to find someone who can beat Trump, according to pollster John Zogby. "Whom do they do it with? Do they do it with a progressive candidate or a mainstream candidate? That is one question. Do they do it with an older traditional candidate or a young face?" he asked. One dynamic expected to play out in the race ahead is the ideological divide within the Democratic Party. A Gallup survey in January found that most Democrats see themselves as liberal. Fifty-one percent in that Gallup Poll chose the liberal label, while 34 percent called themselves moderate and 13 percent said they were conservative. WATCH: Long, Ugly Battle Likely Ahead for Democratic Candidates It could get rough Some experts predict that a large field lacking a clear front-runner is a recipe for a long and potentially nasty campaign. "I think it will be one of the most negative campaigns we have ever seen in a Democratic primary. We are already seeing this," said Jim Kessler of Third Way, a center-left public policy group. "Because you have got 15 or 16 candidates out there who feel like, 'Unless two or three of them [other contenders] are really dragged down, I have absolutely no chance.' " In order to set themselves apart, some of the Democratic contenders are less focused on Trump and more interested in bringing lasting change to the country. It's a theme often sounded by Booker, Warren and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, among others. "I think Democrats are going to run on inequality and economic growth, and that is what they should be running on because those are the issues really facing the country that have not been dealt with," said Brookings Institution expert Elaine Kamarck. The familiar and the new For the moment, the Democratic primary battle seems to be between some familiar and experienced contenders like Biden and Sanders and a group of younger, dynamic candidates that includes Harris, Buttigieg, O'Rourke and Booker. Sanders appears to be having some success building on his failed White House bid in 2016, when he lost out to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after a long and difficult campaign. Sanders led the Democratic pack in fundraising for the first quarter of 2019, drawing $18 million. Harris was in second place, raising $12 million, followed by O'Rourke, $9.3 million; Buttigieg, $7 million; and Warren, $6 million. Fundraising numbers are often seen by strategists and analysts as an important indication of a candidate's strength, especially in a crowded field like the one shaping up for Democrats in 2020. View from Trump world Trump's re-election campaign has also been busy collecting donations, raising $30 million in the first quarter, a notably large sum for an incumbent president this early in an election cycle. Trump and his Republican allies have already signaled they will try to brand the Democrats as "socialists" and will focus on sweeping plans to expand government health care and tackle climate change that some Democratic candidates have endorsed. Trump does face a Republican primary challenge from former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld. Weld told CNN on Wednesday that he has a strategy "to win, not just to weaken anybody." Weld, who has a long record as a moderate in a party that now leans solidly to the right, said his focus will be to defeat Trump in New Hampshire, the state that will hold the first primary next February. Trump won the New Hampshire primary in 2016, a significant moment in his march to the nomination. In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump predicted that he would likely face either Biden or Sanders as the Democratic nominee in 2020: "It will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two finalists to run against maybe the best Economy in the history of our Country (and MANY other great things)!" A 37-year-old man was charged Thursday with attempted arson, reckless endangerment and trespassing after he walked into St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on Wednesday with two full gasoline cans, lighter fluid and lighters, police said. The incident occurred two days after a massive fire severely damaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, causing global shock and sorrow. That blaze was most likely the result of an accident though a major investigation is under way. A New York City Police Department official said Marc Lamparello was charged with second-degree attempted arson, second-degree reckless endangerment and trespassing on Thursday after he entered the Roman Catholic cathedral in midtown Manhattan just before 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) on Wednesday and was confronted by a security guard. As the man turned to leave, gasoline spilled onto the floor and the guard alerted police officers stationed outside. Lamparello is a resident of New Jersey and a faculty member in the philosophy department at the City University of New York, according to the university's website. Local media reported that he has previously been arrested in New Jersey for trespassing. He has no arrest record in New York, a New York Police Department official said. It was not immediately clear if Lamparello had a lawyer. Officers caught up with Lamparello on Wednesday and he was taken into custody after questioning, said John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism for the NYPD. "An individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patrick's Cathedral carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and lighters, is something we would have grave concern over," Miller told reporters. Asked if terrorism was a possible motive in the incident, Miller said Wednesday it was "too early to say that." But, alluding to worldwide publicity about the Notre Dame fire, he added: "This is an indicator of something that would be very suspicious." Lamparello's alleged arson attempt comes only a few weeks after a man was arrested and charged with arson and hate crimes for burning down three predominantly African-American churches in Louisiana between March 26 and April 4. Lamparello told police he was taking a short cut through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue from 5th Avenue to return to his van, which had run out of gasoline, Miller said. When police checked the vehicle they found it was not out of fuel, at which point the man was arrested, he said. "He is known to police and we are looking into his background. We don't know what his mindset was, what his motive was." St. Patrick's, a neo-gothic church across from Rockefeller Center, has stood in the heart of Manhattan since 1879 and is considered one of the most important symbols of the Catholic Church in the United States. Speaking at the seminar discussing business opportunities between Vietnam and Malaysia in the automotive sector held in Hanoi on April 18, the diplomat said that the rise of VinFast - Vietnams first fully-fledged carmaker under the countrys largest private conglomerate Vingroup - has made the domestic automobile manufacturing industry more attractive, opening great opportunities for manufacturers and component suppliers to discover the auto market in Vietnam. As the use of cars in Vietnam is still low compared to other countries in the region, the Malaysian ambassador stated that it is the chance for 15 Malaysian automobile enterprises coming to Vietnam this time to explore the opportunity together with their Vietnamese partners, thus establishing a strategic business relationship in the promising field. Hoang Quang Phong, Vice President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also expressed his hope that the enterprises of the two countries would take advantage of development opportunities and exchange experience in the fields of auto components and parts which is the strength of the Malaysian side. Luong Duc Toan from the Department of Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that every year Vietnam still imports over US$3 billion worth of components and spare parts for automobile assembly and car repair. In the last two years, Vietnams auto industry has developed quite rapidly. In 2018, Vietnam produced and assembled over 250,000 vehicles. The products meet about 70% of domestic demand. Currently, there are over 40 enterprises involved in automobile assembly and production in Vietnam and most of them are small and medium sized enterprises, with design capacity of producing and assembling about 800,000 vehicles a year, but they are producing below the design capacity. Toan said that Vietnam has huge potential to develop the automobile industry, however, it must attach itself to the regional and global value chains. Therefore, the immediate priority for the industry is to deeply participate in this value chain, Toan suggested, pointing to three main focuses, including the healthy development of the automobile market, maintaining and promoting the domestic production and assembly of cars, and developing supporting industries to server the automobile sector. Policy solutions also need to be developed in support of the above three groups of solutions. Special counsel Robert Mueller investigated 11 instances in which he suspected that President Donald Trump had obstructed justice by trying to thwart his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but ultimately decided he could neither bring charges nor exonerate Trump. The 448-page report released Thursday concludes there is no evidence that Trump or his campaign aides coordinated with Russians to interfere on behalf of Trumps 2016 presidential election campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton. While the investigation documented many links between people with ties to the Russian government and individuals involved in the Trump campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges, Mueller wrote. However, the report cites numerous efforts by an angst-ridden Trump to derail or impede the federal probe of suspected Russian meddling in the campaign. Mueller found that in June 2017 Trump asked White House Counsel Don McGahn to pursue Mueller's removal by the Justice Department in the midst of the prosecutor's investigation, but that McGahn refused the president's directive. Mueller said that McGahn feared that the prosecutor's dismissal would provoke a U.S. constitutional crisis reminiscent of the 1973 Saturday Night Massacre at the height of the Watergate scandal when President Richard Nixon fired top Justice Department officials. In other instances, Mueller investigated Trump's firing of former FBI director James Comey, who led the Russia investigation before Mueller's appointment; efforts to force then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take control of the investigation after he had already recused himself; dangling a possible pardon of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for financial crimes he has been sentenced to prison for, and demands that McGahn deny that he had asked him to seek Mueller's ouster. WATCH: Mueller Report Raises New Questions About Trump Obstruction The report said Trump's attitude toward Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney, changed from "praise" to "castigation" after Cohen admitted that he lied to Congress about pursuing construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow long after Trump was telling voters in early 2016 that he had ended his Russian business ventures. The report said that Trump at first publicly asserted that Cohen would not turn against him and privately passed messages of support to him. "But after Cohen began cooperating with the government in the summer of 2018, the president publicly criticized him, called him a 'rat,' and suggested that his family members had committed crimes," the report said. Mueller said, however, he could not reach a definitive decision on the obstruction issue. Attorney General William Barr reiterated Thursday as the report was released that no obstruction charges are warranted. Mueller said in his report that "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment." "The evidence we obtained about the president's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred," Mueller said. "Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Part of Muellers problem in reaching a decision on obstruction of justice was Trumps refusal to participate in a face-to-face interview with prosecutors. Instead, the president would only agree to provide written responses to questions posed by the prosecutors, under pre-arranged ground rules. Muellers final report contains 12 pages of Trumps written responses. Mueller's report said prosecutors didn't subpoena Trump because it would have created a "substantial delay" at a "late stage" in the investigation. But it said Mueller and his team of prosecutors viewed Trump's written answers as "inadequate." In early 2018, after news organizations reported about Trump's order to McGahn to seek Mueller's ouster by the Deputy Attorney General and his refusal to comply, the Mueller report said the president told McGahn "to dispute the story and create a record stating he had not been ordered to have the special counsel removed." When Trump raised the issue again, questioning why McGahn had told Mueller about his demand to dismiss the prosecutor, "McGahn refused to back away from what he remembered happening and perceived the president to testing his mettle, according to the report. From the start of Trump's presidency in January 2017, Mueller portrays a besieged White House. Mueller said Trump "reacted negatively" to Mueller's May 2017 appointment by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to take over the Russia investigation after Comey's firing. Trump told advisers that it was "the end of my presidency," the report said. At a news conference shortly before the report went public, Barr told reporters that it cleared Trump, campaign officials and any Americans of conspiring with Moscow. While Mueller declined to clear the president of obstructing the probe, Barr said he and Rosenstein had reviewed the report's evidence and determined that Trump had not committed an obstruction offense. Barr asserted that Trump was motivated by "frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks." In addition he said the president provided access to campaign and White House documents and allowed aides to freely testify. Barr concluded, "Apart from whether [Trump's] acts [as president] were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation." As the special counsels report was being released, Trump declared in the White House East Room that Im having a good day, too. Its called no collusion, no obstruction. Opposition Democrats protested that Barr held the news conference before the report was made public, saying it was an attempt to spin Mueller's findings into a favorable view of Trump's role. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said in a statement they "believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling" of the Mueller investigation was for Mueller himself to testify publicly before congressional panels "as soon as possible." Moments after Barr finished speaking, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler called for Mueller to testify before his panel no later than May 23. U.S. intelligence agencies in early 2017 assessed that Russia, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, carried out a campaign to undermine the U.S. vote and had a clear preference for Trump to win.. The issues covered in the report are certain to endure in U.S. political discourse in the short-term, with Barr scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1, followed by an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee the next day. Looking to the longer-term, it is highly unlikely the investigation will fade to irrelevance before the next presidential election in November 2020. In one measure of public demand for the information, several publishers are offering people the ability to purchase printed copies of the report, and pre-orders alone on Amazon's website ranked among its top 100 in book sales before the report was released. What have long been public are the legal ramifications of Mueller's probe. Five Trump campaign associates pleaded guilty or were convicted of a range of offenses and a sixth is awaiting trial, some for lying about their contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign or just before he took office in January 2017 and some for offenses unrelated to Trump. In addition, Mueller also charged 13 Russian nationals with trying to influence the 2016 election by tricking Americans into following fake social media accounts with material favorable to Trump and against his opponent, Clinton. Another dozen Russian military intelligence officers were charged with the theft of emails from Democrat Party officials. None of the Russians is ever likely to face a trial in the United States because the two countries do not have an extradition treaty. One year has passed since thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets in protest against a decision by the government of President Daniel Ortega to reform the country's pension system. The protests led to some of the worst violence in Nicaragua in recent years, and the Central American country has yet to recover. Cristina Caicedo Smit has this report. Juhyun Lee and Cindy Saine contributed to this report. SEOUL North Korea is demanding that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo no longer take part in any further talks involving its nuclear weapons program. Kwon Jong Gun, a senior official in the Norths foreign ministry, says Pyongyang wants someone who is more careful and mature in communicating, according to a report by the official KCNA news agency. When asked about the development, a State Department spokesperson said "The United States remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation." On Wednesday, North Korea announced that it had tested a new tactical guided weapon, the latest display of Pyongyang's military capabilities. KCNA said Kim Jong Un supervised and guided the Wednesday test, calling it an operation of very weighty significance. The KCNA report did not elaborate on the type of weapon tested, but the phrase tactical suggests it is not a ballistic missile. Still, the test could be seen as a warning to the United States, amid an impasse in talks over North Koreas nuclear program. Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day, and that his regime is becoming frustrated with Washingtons lack of flexibility in recent negotiations, says Harry Kazianis, director of Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest. A U.S. military official said late Wednesday the Pentagon is aware of the reported test, but has no further comment. North Korea has not carried out a nuclear or long-range missile test for well over a year, since Kim began talks with the United States and South Korea. Instead, the North has carried out smaller provocations. In November, Kim oversaw the test of what KCNA also referred to as a newly developed high-tech tactical weapon. U.S. officials later played down the significance of that test. Stalled talks Nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea have been stalled since a February meeting in Hanoi between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump ended in no deal. Trump wants Kim to completely abandon his nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief. Kim has only offered limited steps toward denuclearization. Kwon Jong Gun warned Thursday that no one can predict the situation on the Korean Peninsula if the United States does not give up the root cause that led the North to seek nuclear weapons. Last week, Kim said he was open to another summit with Trump, but warned he would only give the U.S. until the end of the year to change its approach to the negotiations. A North Korean official said last month that Kim is considering resuming missile tests and pulling out of the talks with the United States. What did North Korea test? It isnt clear the weapon North Korea tested Wednesday was even a missile KCNA referred only to a tactical guided weapon. Regardless, the weapon doesnt appear to have been nuclear-capable, since usually such arms are referred to as strategic, rather than tactical. The design indexes of the tactical guided weapon, whose advantages are appreciated for the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead, were perfectly verified at the test-fire conducted in various modes of firing at different targets, KCNA said. It is likely to be a new cruise missile with a limited range, says Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea specialist at Seouls Institute for Far Eastern Studies. If it is a cruise missile, then it has no relevance with the current sanctions. Existing sanctions only apply to ballistic missiles. Increase in provocations? Even though North Koreas latest test is not likely a ballistic missile, it is still meant to send a message to Trump, said Vipin Narang, a nuclear expert and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The test amounts to calibrated signaling to remind us where things can go if we dont moderate our negotiating position, Narang says. It isnt clear how Trump will respond to North Koreas latest test. Earlier this week, Trump said talks with North Korea are moving along just perfectly. Meanwhile, commercial satellite photos from last week showed increased activity at North Koreas main nuclear site, according to a U.S. research organization. The Center for Strategic and International Studies noted the presence of five specialized railcars at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. In the past, these specialized railcars appear to have been associated with the movement of radioactive material or reprocessing campaigns, the report said. Also Wednesday, Kim carried out a public inspection of a military unit for the first time in several months, reviewing a flight exercise of the Korean Peoples Army. Kim is expected to meet next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin. With U.S. negotiations stalled, Kim is likely to push Putin to provide economic aid and sanctions relief. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin are to meet later this month in Moscow. The Kremlin announcement was made Thursday after North Korea said it tested a new tactical weapon armed with a "powerful warhead." The Kremlin did not provide details of the Putin-Kim summit, but said it had planned the meeting for months. Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump have held two summits as part of an ongoing effort to denuclearize North Korea, but the efforts have stalled. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier U.S. presidential advisor Fiona Hill met in Moscow with her Russian counterpart, Yuri Ushakov. The U.S. State Department said the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, was also in Moscow. Russia and North Korea have relatively warm relations and Putin has long expressed a willingness to meet with Kim. The last meeting between the leaders of the two countries occurred in 2011, when Kim's father, the late Kim Jong Il, met in Siberia with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The remains of precious religious objects lay charred on the church floor, black and smoldering after a devastating fire. But this wasn't Notre Dame, the Catholic cathedral known as the "Heart of Paris," parts of which collapsed in flames this week as millions watched in horror on broadcast news. This was three small Baptist churches in rural Louisiana. While these churches in a stubbornly segregated part of America's South were destroyed by suspected arson over several days, they received scant attention on the news landscape. (The 21-year-old son of a local sheriff's deputy has been charged with arson and hate crimes.) "I think it's a question that we all have to ask ourselves: Why is it that we can be more moved by the destruction of a beautiful but inanimate object rather than, say, the death of refugees in the Mediterranean or elsewhere? Or the continuing and growing problems of climate change, and the deaths of animal species?" asked Nick Jubber, a travel writer in London who lived in Paris. The Twittersphere agreed. After an overnight of collective grief and social mourning over the 850-year-old Paris cathedral, people started to talk about priorities. "My heart is broken over the loss of Notre Dame," tweeted Megan Romer of Lafayette, Louisiana, just south of the parish where the Baptist churches burned. "If you are going to donate money to rebuild a church this week, I implore you to make it the black churches in St. Landry Parish. "I am not saying this to minimize any suffering. Loss is loss and it all hurts," Romer continued. "But if you happen to be reading this, remember that famous history isn't the only history. Imagine the courage it took to build and fill a black house of worship in postbellum rural Louisiana. AND NOW." While Notre Dame receives about 30,000 visitors a day as one of the biggest attractions in the world, the predominantly black Louisiana churches receive little tourism attention or dollars. Instead, tourists in that part of Lousiana come to admire the plantations constructed before the Civil War by wealthy white landowners who built their sizable fortunes on generations of enslaved black people. Besides the Louisiana churches, people worldwide noted the outflow of money going to Notre Dame, while, in their eyes, other parts of the world were burning. Three French "billionaires have pledged 600+ million euros for the Notre Dame reconstruction in less than 12 hours," tweeted Iman. "Let that put into perspective how easily billionaires could end world hunger, poverty, lack of access to healthcare/clean water/education but choose not to." "The 800-year-old Keriya Aitika mosque in China's Xinjiang province was also razed to the ground by the Chinese (government), the latest in a string of historic mosques destroyed," tweeted Kaveh Akbar. "Pray for these histories, too." "Masjid Al-Aqsa got burned and there's not media coverage??! But Notre Dame fire is on every news channel??? Ok," lamented @Salmaabellaa, referring to a fire at Islam's Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. When others with significant social media followings tweeted about the inequity, the Baptist churches were no longer anonymous. A GoFundMe account asking for donations to restore the churches raised close to $1.5 million by Wednesday afternoon EST. Nearly 27,000 donations were made worldwide to the Seventh District Baptist Association, a 149-year-old nonprofit religious organization comprised of 60 Baptist churches in southwest Louisiana, which includes the three churches affected by the recent fires, the GoFundMe webpage states. "As we hold Paris in our thoughts today, let's also send some love to our neighbors in Louisiana. Three historically black churches have burned in recent weeks, charring buildings and scattering communities. If you can, contribute to rebuilding funds " tweeted former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Jubber explained that the outpouring for the Catholic cathedral is because Notre Dame "is just as alive as any person and, perhaps, more so because it's been there and present through so much history, it has this living force that gives it this emotional power. It feels like more than just a building its so permanent. I never would have imagined that Notre Dame would have burned. It seemed like something that was always there. It was always something so stable. "It will never be the same," said Jubber, who recently published "Epic Continent: Adventures in the Great Stories of Europe." "There may seem something perverse about this display of grief when species are falling extinct on a regular basis, and we're increasingly faced with the effects of climate change. But it reflects a truth that is increasingly apparent: We look to the past for our collective identity." Pakistan warned Thursday that an escalation in hostilities could derail U.S.-led peace efforts in Afghanistan, although it apparently refrained from condemning Taliban insurgents for unleashing their annual spring offensive in the neighboring country. The Taliban announced the new offensive last Friday amid expectations their ongoing direct peace talks with U.S. interlocutors would discourage the insurgent group from going ahead with this year's spring operations, which mark an intensification in the Afghan war, now in its 18th year. U.S. chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad swiftly condemned the insurgent move, saying it would not advance Afghan peace efforts. He also called on Pakistan, Qatar and other nations to do the same. The two countries, along with Russia, China and Iran, are known for maintaining ties with the Taliban. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal, when asked Thursday to respond to Khalilzads remarks, noted that chances of peace in Afghanistan have become brighter in the wake of direct U.S.-Taliban talks. But he avoided denouncing the insurgent offensive. Pakistan believes that all sides must give peace a chance and continue the dialogue, which is the only way to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan. There is a danger that any increase in hostility has the capacity to derail the peace process, Faisal told a weekly news conference in Islamabad. The spokesman noted that Pakistan has arranged the ongoing U.S.-Taliban talks by bringing the insurgent group to the negotiating table. "This has been acknowledged by the U.S., he added. Islamabad has long maintained that continued use of military force against the Taliban or attempts to treat the insurgent group as a "non-Afghan entity would not help find a political settlement to years of bloodshed in Afghanistan. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while testifying before a Congressional committee last week, defended the Trump administrations dialogue with the Taliban. With respect to why we are talking to the Taliban, they control a significant amount of resources. And to get the reconciliation we need, to take down the violence level, the Taliban are going to have a say, Pompeo said. U.S. and Afghan officials have until recently blamed Pakistan alone for covertly sheltering Taliban leaders and helping them in sustaining cross-border insurgent activities in Afghanistan charges Islamabad denies. In recent years, however, Moscow, Beijing, Doha and neighboring Iran have increased their contacts with the Taliban. Afghan officials have also regularly accused Tehran in recent years of arming the insurgent group. Russia hosted an international conference last November where it also invited Taliban delegates and representatives of the Afghan government. Moscow claimed the event as a major success for its diplomacy because it was the first time insurgent officials appeared in a public gathering since a U.S.-led foreign military coalition ousted the Taliban from power in 2001. Ukraine's new president could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of his country within months and get cheap gas and major investment from Russia if he does a deal with Moscow, the Kremlin's closest ally in Ukraine said. Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine's Russia-leaning opposition, outlined the prospect in an interview before a presidential election runoff in Ukraine on Sunday, which polls show political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy should easily win. He said the Kremlin was keen to know more about Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old Russian-speaking TV comedian who has no political experience, to understand if he is someone it could strike a deal with, something it failed to do with incumbent Petro Poroshenko. "They don't have any expectations in Moscow," he said. "They want to see what happens afterward, who will be in his [Zelenskiy's] entourage, and what he will do and with whom." A Ukrainian citizen, Medvedchuk does not represent Russia, but his words carry weight due to his close friendship with President Vladimir Putin and track record as a channel between the two nations. Medvedchuk said he had known Putin for 19 years, that the Russian leader is godfather to his daughter, and that he had held talks with Putin in Moscow as recently as two weeks ago. The Kremlin has made clear it will be glad to see the back of Poroshenko but has not commented on Zelenskiy, saying only that it is watching candidates' statements closely and hopes any new president can implement a peace deal on Donbass, eastern Ukraine, which has been under separatist control since 2014. The Kremlin did not immediately respond when asked if Medvedchuk was acting on its behalf or if the outlines of his proposal were in line with its own thinking. Testing the waters Medvedchuk, who said he had met Zelenskiy only once, "eight or nine years ago," and had no contacts with him, appears to be testing the waters however. Medvedchuk was head of then-Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's administration until 2005. He has brokered prisoner exchanges between the two countries and held talks in Moscow last month with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about gas prices. At that meeting, he said he and an ally secured a pledge of a 25 percent discount for Russian gas if Kyiv agreed to resume direct gas purchases from energy giant Gazprom instead of via European countries as it has done since the end of 2015. Russia's main focus is returning separatist-held Donbass to Kyiv on its own terms. This could help Moscow win some relief from sanctions imposed by the European Union over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and its backing for the pro-Russian Donbass uprising. Poroshenko balked at what he saw as the unfavorable terms of the so far unimplemented Minsk peace deal agreed upon at a 2015 summit with Russia, France and Germany. That deal called for Donbass to be given a special status and for an amnesty for separatist fighters, among other things. So far, Zelenskiy has said he wants peace in the east and to breathe new life into stalled talks, while saying he would not implement parts of the Minsk deal either. For now, said Medvedchuk, Zelenskiy was on the wrong policy track. But he said there was hope he might alter his stance once elected, after he'd had a chance to immerse himself in the subject. "Maybe he'll come round to the idea that for the sake of peace you need to do this," said Medvedchuk. "Nobody is talking about having to make concessions or give something back. We're talking about the need to return people and territory." Putin might be willing to release 24 captured Ukrainian sailors as a goodwill gesture, Medvedchuk said, adding that billions of dollars of Russian money would flow into Ukraine's economy if economic ties between the two neighbors, which have been disrupted by sanctions, were restored. "We're not saying that we have to kiss or hug each other again. We're talking about restoring pragmatic economic relations," he said, adding that Ukraine had lost $20 billion a year in exports to Russia because of Kyiv's turning its back on Moscow after Russia's actions in 2014. Need to talk Medvedchuk's pitch to patch up ties with Moscow is unpalatable for many Ukrainians who view Russia as a strategic enemy, particularly in the Ukrainian-speaking west of the country. But it has support in the Russian-speaking southeast and is designed to appeal to those weary of a five-year-old war estimated by the United Nations to have killed over 16,000 people. Some EU countries have suggested they would be ready to lift sanctions on Russia if pro-Russian separatists handed Donbass back to Ukrainian government control. Other countries favor sanctions relief only if Moscow returns Crimea as well. An agreement on how to implement a peace deal over eastern Ukraine could be reached "within several months" and implemented on the ground within "six to eight months," said Medvedchuk, saying any talks on the matter should include Kyiv, Moscow and the two pro-Russian separatist breakaway territories. "We could do it all within a few months. We need to sit down and talk. It [the detail in the Minsk accord] has already been spelled out. We just need to determine the order of doing things." That would entail the Ukrainian parliament's enacting several laws and approving a change to the constitution. Medvedchuk said he would advise Zelenskiy on the subject if asked and that his party, Opposition Platform for Life, which is second in the polls, would potentially be ready to cooperate with Zelenskiy in parliament on a case-by-case basis after elections in October. Zelenskiy has indicated he would not want to form a coalition with Medvedchuk's party and has not said if he would be ready to work together on an ad hoc basis. In the meantime, Moscow's standoff with Kyiv is deepening. Russia's Medvedev said on Thursday that he had signed a decree limiting Russian exports of some coal, crude oil and oil products to Ukraine in response to a recent Ukrainian embargo on some Russian goods. Cold economic logic now dictates the need for a rapprochement with Moscow, said Medvedchuk. "If we don't do it and continue with this anti-Russian policy and hysteria, our economic life will deteriorate further," he said. More than 150 million voters are casting their ballots in the second phase of India's massive general elections. Thursday's round of balloting covers more than 90 parliamentary constituencies across a dozen states, including the troubled Indian-controlled Kashmir region, where more than 40 Indian security forces were killed in a suicide car bomb attack back in February. New Delhi responded by sending fighters jets across the border into Pakistan to conduct airstrikes on an alleged training camp operated by the Pakistan-based outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group, which reportedly claimed responsibility for the Kashmir attack. The airstrikes pushed the two longtime nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war, but it boosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public standing. Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party are considered the favorites in this election, but are facing growing discontent in rural districts because of plunging farm incomes. As many as 900 million of India's 1.3 billion citizens are eligible to vote for thousands of candidates competing for 543 seats in the India's lower house of Parliament. The election, which began last Thursday, will be scattered over six weeks in the world's most populous democracy. Voting will conclude May 19, with the final results announced May 23. Powerful regional parties that could play the role of kingmaker if Indias ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party fails to win a clear majority were in the spotlight as millions voted in the second phase of the countrys staggered election. Polling was also held in Srinagar, the main city of Indian Kashmir amid heavy security and a boycott call by separatist leaders. But unlike the rest of the country where voters queued early in long lines to beat the scorching summer heat, polling booths in the restive regions summer capital wore a relatively deserted look. Internet services were shut down and police in riot gear patrolled the streets. Over 155 million voters were eligible to cast ballots across 12 states for 95 parliamentary seats in the 545 member house in Thursdays round of polling. Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to vote in large numbers. I am sure all those whose seats are polling today will strengthen our democracy by exercising their franchise, he tweeted. With the BJP unlikely to repeat the clear mandate he won five years ago, opposition parties are hoping to halt Modis return to power by forming an alliance if they win enough seats. Their ambitions depend heavily on how regional heavyweights perform in electorally significant states like Tamil Nadu in the south, where 38 seats were up for grabs in Thursdays round. The focus was also on half of the 28 seats being contested in Karnataka, another southern state where the BJP hopes to make up for losses it could suffer in its northern strongholds. The BJP has warned of political instability if an opposition alliance comes to power and mocked these parties for lacking a common ideology. It has also stitched up alliances with some small parties. India has been governed by coalitions led by either the Congress or the BJP for decades until Modi secured the first single party parliamentary majority in 30 years in 2014. But his five-year-rule has seen a growing chorus of criticism from opponents who accuse him of seeking to impose a Hindu majoritarian agenda on the country and undermining its secular ethos. Undoubtedly this is Modi versus the rest, says Satish Misra at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. The contest is between Modis vision of India based on the fundamentals of Hindutva and strong leadership versus the liberal left of the center policies which focus on weaker sections of society. In a no-holds-barred campaign, Modi has played to the BJPs nationalist, Hindu base and brushed aside criticism that he is using recent hostilities with Pakistan for electoral gain as he plays on national security concerns. If farmers die, then it is an election issue, but when soldiers die then it is not an election issue? How can that be? he told a television interviewer this week. The Congress party on the other hand has attacked his economic record flagging the need to address rising unemployment and alleviate rural distress. It is promising a cash handout to 20 percent of Indias poorest families. Polling was cancelled in one seat in Tamil Nadu after the Election Commission, which conducts the polls, said it found evidence of bribing voters. Political parties in India have long been accused of distributing cash, gifts and even gold in return for votes Tamil Nadu this year topped the list of unaccounted cash seized with a record haul of $ 30 million during raids and vehicle checks in the last month. There will be five more days of voting until May 19 and counting of votes will take place on May 23. Results are expected the same day. After two decades of relative stability fueled by cheap Venezuelan oil, shortages of food and medicine have once again become a serious daily problem for millions of Cubans Just after 8 a.m., Pura Castell got in line behind about 100 other people waiting for a chance to buy frozen chicken legs. For two hours she leaned on her cane watching people leave the state-run market with their 5-pound limit. The chicken ran out at 10 a.m. while the 80-year-old Castell still had 20 people in front of her. She returned the next morning, but no chicken. Then, relief. A neighbor told her that chicken had arrived at the government store that distributes heavily subsidized monthly food rations. Her household of three was due three pieces, either thighs or drumsticks. Ive taken care of myself my whole life, said Castell, a retired janitor. I don't just sit on my hands. I'm worn out but I walk all over town. Shortages of food, medicine After two decades of relative stability fueled by cheap Venezuelan oil, shortages of food and medicine have once again become a serious daily problem for millions of Cubans. A plunge in aid from Venezuela, the end of a medical services deal with Brazil and poor performances in sectors including nickel mining, sugar and tourism have left the communist state $1.5 billion in debt to the vendors that supply products ranging from frozen chicken to equipment for grinding grain into flour, according to former Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez. Stores no longer routinely stock eggs, flour, chicken, cooking oil, rice, powdered milk and ground turkey, among other products. These basics disappear for days or weeks. Hours-long lines appear within minutes of trucks showing up with new supplies. Shelves are empty again within hours. No one is starving in Cuba, but the shortages are so severe that ordinary Cubans and the country's leaders are openly referring to the special period, the years of economic devastation and deep suffering that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's Cold War patron. It's not about returning to the harshest phase of the special period of the `90s, Communist Party head Raul Castro said last week. But we always have to be ready for the worst. WATCH: Venezuelans Struggle With Water Shortages Cutbacks necessary Two days later, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said cutbacks were necessary because: This harsh moment demands we set clearly defined priorities in order to not return to the worst moments of the special period. The Trump administration is working hard to push Cuba toward economic crisis. Washington has sanctioned Venezuela's oil industry and the shipping companies that move Venezuelan oil to Cuba. On Wednesday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton announced further measures against Cuba and its allies, including a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send their relatives on the island and new restrictions on travel to Cuba. The troika of tyranny Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua is beginning to crumble, he said. The move followed the announcement a day earlier that lawsuits would now be permitted against foreign companies doing business in properties seized from Americans after the island's 1959 revolution. The policy could deal a severe blow to Cuba's efforts to draw foreign investment. Soldiers and spies A senior Trump administration official said the economic pressure on Cuba was aimed at forcing the socialist government to stop helping its allies in Venezuela and Nicaragua. The U.S. has accused Cuba of sending soldiers and spies to both countries to strengthen their leaders against protests and potential defection. Cuba denies that. We're going to make sure they cannot afford subsidized adventurism, subsidized subversion of democracy outside of their borders, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about U.S. policy toward Cuba. At an extraordinarily vulnerable time in their history, they're going to have to refocus on the domestic needs, their domestic pressures. Despite some market-oriented reforms over the last decade, Cuba is one of the last countries on Earth to maintain a Soviet-style economy, with most business run by the state. That economy is afflicted by deep inefficiency and corruption. Many state employees demand bribes to provide services to the public. Others spend only a few hours a day at their jobs, spending the rest of their time doing informal private work or selling supplies stolen from their office, warehouse or factory. Despite a highly educated and generally well-qualified workforce, Cuba's industrial sector is dilapidated after decades of underinvestment. The country produces little of value on the global market besides rum, tobacco and the professionals who earn billions for the government working as doctors, teachers or engineers in friendly third countries. The agricultural sector is in shambles, requiring the country to import most of its food. Economy Minister Alejandro Gil said Saturday that Cuba would spend $5 billion on food and petroleum products this year. Over the last 20 years, many of those billions came from Venezuela's socialist government, which has deep ties to Cuba's and sent nearly 100,000 barrels of oil daily for years. With Venezuela's economic collapse, that has roughly halved, along with deep cutbacks in the economic relationship across the board. And the news has been bad in virtually every other sector of the Cuban economy. Nickel production has dropped from 72,530 metric tons in 2011 to 50,000 last year, according to Rodriguez, the former economics minister. The sugar harvest dropped nearly 44%, to a million tons. The number of tourists grew only 1%, with many coming on cruise ships, a relatively unprofitable type of visitor. Overall GDP growth has been stuck at 1% for the last three years. Meanwhile, under agreements Castro struck to rehabilitate Cuba's creditworthiness, the country is paying $2 billion in debt service to creditors such as Russia, Japan and the Paris Club. State-run stores that sell low-quality Chinese household goods at double or triple their price outside the country are facing competition from vendors in Panama, Guyana, Mexico, Haiti and even Russia, where Cubans fly in, fill suitcases with goods, and return to sell them at a profit. Overseas shopping That overseas shopping has become a vacuum sucking precious hard currency out of Cuba. Economist Omar Everleny Perez said he estimated that Cubans spent more than $2 billion a year buying products overseas. With less cash on hand, there's been even less in the state-run stores. The manager of the butcher shop where Castell waited for chicken last week said she needed 80 boxes of chicken to fill that day's demand and only 40 arrived. Fears of a return to darker times are growing. During the special period we had it bad, like everyone. Even when we had money we couldn't buy anything,'' said Castell, a mother of six. It was really rough, blackouts, no food at all, I don't want to go back to that, said Ariadne Medina, a 47-year-old worker in a private restaurant who was waiting to buy chicken behind Castell. Independent experts say a return to the depths of the special period is unlikely. Cuba does business with dozens of nations, hosts nearly 5 million tourists a year and Cubans can travel freely to dozens of countries on direct flights to the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Expatriates send billions home in annual remittances. The new government is trying to halt the deterioration, but it's a tough assignment, Perez said. It's going to take resources and time.'' The new North American free trade pact would modestly boost the U.S. economy, especially auto parts production, but may curb vehicle assembly and limit consumer choice in cars, a hotly anticipated analysis from the U.S. International Trade Commission showed on Thursday. The ITC report is a crucial step in the push for Congress to consider ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was signed by President Donald Trump and the leaders of the other two countries last year to replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. The report estimates that annual U.S. real gross domestic product would increase by 0.35 percent, or $68.5 billion, on an annual basis compared with a NAFTA baseline, and would add 176,000 U.S. jobs, while raising U.S. exports. The ITC's estimates are for year six of the trade deal, once it is fully implemented. The trade deal's success or failure in Congress could be determined by how it is expected to affect the U.S. auto industry, a sector that steadily drained jobs to Mexico under NAFTA. The USMCA deal contains much tighter regional content rules, requiring that 75 percent of a vehicle's value be sourced in North America versus 62.5 percent currently, and 40 to 45 percent produced in high-wage areas, namely the United States and Canada. Auto industry employment would rise by 30,000 jobs for parts and engine production, but U.S. vehicle assembly would decline. U.S. vehicle prices would rise up to 1.6 percent, causing consumption to fall by 140,000 units per year, or about 1.25 percent of 2017 sales, the report said. The report overall was more positive than initially anticipated by economists, who said the traditional economic models used by the ITC to measure previous trade deals would result in minimal gains for the United States. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Reuters that he was pleasantly surprised by the results, which used different modeling methods that he called "accurate and well done." "Their estimate is a lot closer to what we think USMCA will do than I expected," Hassett in a telephone interview. "This is very strong argument for passing the USMCA." Concerns not alleviated But some key Democrats were not swayed from their demands for improvements to the enforcement of new labor standards before they consider USMCA. Democrats control the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, chairman of the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, said that he had already believed the trade deal needed changes before it could be considered by the House. "Nothing in this report alleviates those concerns," he said. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee said, "The administration shouldn't squander the opportunity to lock in real, enforceable labor standards in Mexico." The ITC report said Mexican union wages would rise by 17.2 percent if the labor provisions agreed to in the USMCA were enforced. Even so, Mexican factory wages would remain far below those in the United States. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, praised the report for highlighting benefits beyond tariff reductions. "Many of the significant improvements in USMCA are reducing non-tariff barriers and implementing rules and fair practices that will help U.S. workers, jobs and businesses tremendously over the coming years," Grassley said in an emailed statement. Dueling analyses The U.S. trade representative's office had prepared a separate analysis of the USMCA's automotive benefits that industry officials had described as a rosier alternative view of USMCA aimed at limiting any potential damage from the ITC report. USTR estimated that the trade deal would create 76,000 automotive sector jobs within five years as automakers invest $34 billion in new plants to comply with the regional content rules. The total includes about $15 billion in projects already announced. USTR officials said their analysis was based on plans disclosed by automakers to the trade agency for compliance with the new agreement's tighter rules of origin. "They have verbally committed to us that they intend to comply with the rules," a senior USTR official said. "And they have told us that this is not going to have significant upward pressure on vehicle prices." But the ITC report said some automakers may decide not to offer vehicles that would be too expensive to bring into compliance with the deal, reducing consumer choice in the U.S. auto market. The trade group representing Detroit automakers Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler said it viewed the USTR analysis as more accurate than the ITC's. The ITC "underestimates the longer-term investments and increased U.S. auto parts sourcing that will be made in our sector as a result of the certainty and predictability the USMCA will deliver," Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, said in a statement. The USMCA deal will also lead to new access for U.S. exports of dairy, poultry and egg products to Canada and U.S. imports of sugar and sugar-containing products from Canada, the ITC said. The ITC's forecast estimated total U.S. dairy product output would increase by $226.8 million, or 0.1 percent. U.S. agriculture and food exports overall would increase by $435 million. The main protest group camped out in Khartoum since the ouster of former President Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese Professionals Association, called for a mass rally Thursday. Protesters are demanding that the transitional military council, which replaced Bashir and says it has been detaining symbols of his regime and subjugating loyalist forces, allow for a civilian transitional government. Thousands of protesters responded to calls by the Sudanese Professionals Association to rally on Thursday in central Khartoum. Protesters flooded streets leading to Sudans army headquarters, calling for Sudans Transitional Military Council to allow a swift return to civilian rule. SPA co-founder Mohamed Naji says they are demanding the military deliver power to the people. He says they called for a civilian presidential council, but with military representation, to fulfill the Sudanese revolutions demands. The SPA has urged all parties to nominate leaders for a civilian transitional council. The demonstrators were divided into groups of doctors, lawyers, journalists, bankers and engineers. Protester Mohamed Ahmed is with the doctors committee. He says they will stay in the sit-in until the revolutions demands are fulfilled, and they wont go back (to their homes) before this happens. The protesters have been camped in front of army headquarters since April 6, refusing to disperse even after the military said last week it had ousted former President Omar al-Bashir. Sudans military says it placed Bashir under house arrest, but reports on Wednesday quoted sources saying he had been moved to a federal prison. On Wednesday night, Sudans military council said it had detained Bashirs brothers, Abdullah and Abbas, as part of efforts to remove symbols of what it called a corrupt regime. The military council announced also the dissolution of security forces loyal to Bashir, saying they would come under the authority of the army and police. Despite the reported arrests, protesters such as Mai Noor remain skeptical. She says they heard that Bashir is in jail, but they dont want him to be sent to another place. They want a public trial for all the crimes he committed in Darfur, says Noor, for the genocide and killing protesters. The council on Monday gave Sudan 15 days to allow a civilian-led transitional government or face suspension in the African Union. Sudans protests began in December when fuel and food shortages led to price hikes and calls for Bashir to step down. And then a military coup that removed him from three decades in power. Nadia Taha contributed to this report. WASHINGTON Ousted President Omar al-Bashir and his government restricted popular social media platforms during protests against his government, but millions of Sudanese found ways to circumvent the restrictions and rally others to protest peacefully. On the night of April 8, just three days before Bashir would be deposed, Sudanese native Sara el-Hassan had her eyes glued to Facebook and Twitter. Live video from Khartoum was streamed to her computer screen at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, and information was flowing through her Twitter timeline. Social media was the most effective way for her to connect with fast-moving developments back home. El-Hassan said it kept Sudanese inside and outside the country connected, but it also kept them safe and informed. "I don't think this revolution would have happened without social media, in my personal opinion. It has been an integral part of the resistance movement, whether it be through sharing information, coordinating, people coming together to sharing the news of what is happening on the ground and getting it to be covered by news outlets," el-Hassan told South Sudan in Focus. Platforms blocked NetBlocks.org, a social media monitoring platform, reported during the course of Sudan's revolution that social media platforms were continuously blocked in Sudan even as the protests intensified. Users defied the ban by using virtual private network internet circumvention tools. Last Thursday, NetBlocks reported Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp and other social media platforms were fully restored the same day the military announced Bashir's ouster. Social media proved to be crucial because the state had a tight grip on conventional forms of media, according to some local journalists. With a ranking of 175 out of 180, Sudan is one of the least free countries globally, according to this year's World Press Freedom index. Reporters without Borders, which published the index, said journalists and media were among the "leading victims" of the crackdown during antigovernment protests since December. In January, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Sudan's government revoked credentials for six foreign journalists, a move CPJ said was an attempt to "muzzle the press" during the period of unrest. Alternative ways Alawia Muktar, a journalist in Sudan, said the former government's repression of the press meant journalists like her had to find alternative ways to receive and disseminate information. "The social media played a very big role in the Sudanese uprising-revolution because Sudan's main media were blocked to report about the protest. Even the international media were not allowed to report," Muktar told South Sudan in Focus. Translations from Arabic were also done in real time by native Arabic speakers on Twitter and Facebook in order to share developments to a wider audience. Sudanese Translators for Change translated Tweets and Facebook messages to inform organizers and the world at large. Social media was also used to combat fake news or misinformation, according to Isma'il Kushkush, a Sudanese reporter and former acting East Africa bureau chief of The New York Times. He said this time, it was also used for security purposes. "It used to be that many activists would approach the usage of social media without paying much attention to the importance of security, and that is how many were tracked down in previous years. This time, there was greater attention to the importance of maintaining security," Kushkush told South Sudan in Focus. Greater freedom Since the military announced the end of Bashir's rule last week, many Sudanese have said they are already enjoying greater freedom, including freedom of expression. El-Hassan said she hopes this is the new normal. "Sudan has been living in darkness. The NCP regime, the Bashir regime, has really capitalized on disconnecting Sudan from the rest of the world. No one really knows who we are or what we're going through, except for the little snippets that make their way out. But day to day, nobody really knows the reality of Sudanese people's lives," El-Hassan told VOA. The fight for a free and inclusive Sudan continues, according to el-Hassan, who said the revolution is not just about ousting the government, but about overhauling Sudanese society. Although the special counsel's 448-page report into Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign does not fully exonerate President Donald Trump he is certainly taking it that way. "I'm having a good day, too," Trump declared in the White House East Room as the report was released. "It's called no collusion, no obstruction." Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month investigation, while not concluding Trump committed any crime, also states specifically that it does not exonerate him. During the Thursday morning event with wounded military veterans, as bulletins flashed across television screens detailing the findings contained in a redacted version of the report, Trump said, "This should never happen to another president again, this hoax." Later in the day, Trump tweeted: "I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted. I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to. I had the RIGHT to use Executive Privilege. I didn't!" After arriving at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to begin his three-day Easter weekend, Trump again took to Twitter, claiming: "Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President. He was told about it and did nothing!" Trump then claimed, "Most importantly, the vote was not affected." The president's lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, Jay Sekulow, Jane Raskin and Martin Raskin, say in a statement, "The results of the investigation are a total victory for the President ... it is clear there was no criminal wrongdoing." His attorneys also characterize the special counsel's report as demonstrating Trump acted properly when he fired James Comey from his position as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mueller's report says the special counsel found "substantial evidence" that Trump's firing Comey was due to the FBI director's "unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation" and the investigation determined Congress can make a determination on whether this constituted obstruction of justice by Trump. The president was not interviewed by the investigators. Instead he submitted answers to written questions which the special counsel's office considered "inadequate." But the report says the special counsel did not pursue an interview with Trump that would have been restricted to certain topics because that would have caused a "substantial delay." Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, called the special counsel's lengthy and intensive investigation "a political proctology exam." Speaking to reporters outside the West Wing early Thursday afternoon, she predicted the aftermath of the Mueller report may go in a different direction than of that many of the president's opponents had desired. "Let's investigate the investigators," Conway said. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is calling on countries to repatriate thousands of wives and children of Islamic State militants in Syria, who are living in dire conditions in the al-Hol camp in al-Hasakeh governorate in northeast Syria. More than 75,000 people who fled Islamic State's last stronghold in Baghuz are living in overcrowded, desperate conditions in al-Hol Camp. Women and children comprise 90 percent of the population. Among them are more than 11,000 foreign women and children, including those born of a foreign father or mother. Governments have expressed reluctance to repatriate their nationals, who left their countries of origin to join the Islamic State militant cause in Syria. But Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis Panos Moumtzis said all member states have an obligation under international law to repatriate their own nationals. He said no one should be rendered stateless. Moumtzis is appealing to states to accept the children who have the nationality of their foreign mother or father. He said children should be treated first and foremost as victims. Children have special rights for protection that apply in all situations, he told VOA. "This has to be irrespective of the children's age, sex, and including any perceived family affiliation," he said. "The perceived family affiliation should really not affect the determination of the best interests of the child.So, it is really a special plea for the children." The U.N. children's fund estimates there are about 2,500 children living with their mothers in a separate area of the al-Hol camp. Moumtzis said women are being kept apart from the rest of the population to reduce tensions. He said there is hostility toward them because of their suspected involvement with IS fighters. He said the area where the foreign women and their children are staying is more restricted than the rest of the camp. The United Nations, he added, has not been allowed to access the area, which is run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces. He said the International Committee of the Red Cross is one of a few organizations allowed to go in and out. The United Nations, he said, provides the ICRC with life-saving supplies, which they distribute to the residents. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, is helping thousands of people displaced by Cyclone Idais floods in Malawi return home and restart their lives. In March, the cyclone, which also hit central Mozambique and Zimbabwe, forced nearly 100,000 people in southern Malawi from their homes. Government officials want to close evacuation camps in May, but many residents say they still lack basic supplies needed to return home. This is where the UNHCR stepped in. Ajaniya Kamenya is among the survivors of Cyclone Idais flooding, which killed over 70 people and affected nearly one million others in southern Malawi. She vividly recalls March 8 when the storm hit. She says the house collapsed, and one wall fell on her son-in-law, almost killing him. They fled to an evacuation camp and took him to a hospital. Kamenya lost all her property to flooding and endured tough conditions at Nkhulambe evacuation camp in Phalombe district, for nearly five weeks. She is now thinking of returning home with help from the United Nations refugee agency. Kelvin Sentala, the Assistant Protection Officer for UNHCR, says hundreds of household are receiving assistance. For now we are distributing in three districts. In Nsanje we are targeting 1,000 households, In Chikwawa 500 households and in Phalombe here, 500 households. But I must also mention that we brought in 10,000 items, but we are also flying in another 20,000 items that will target 4,000 households in other districts, Sentala said. The UNHCR is distributing family tents, plastic mats, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, solar lamps and flashlights, blankets, kitchen utensils and other items. Beneficiaries like Kamenya appreciate the help, but still struggle to feed their families. She says her maize crop was washed away by floods. So she will have to work on other peoples farms to get food. Harris Kachale, the Director of Disaster Response and Recovery in Malawis Department of Disaster Management, says the government will continue to distribute relief items to the floods survivors even after they return home. We will be supplying them [relief items] for three months. But we also have plans to provide them with seed and fertilizer so that they should grow crops. We know if they grow now, by the end of three months they will have something to rely on, Kachale said. Malawis Ministry of Agriculture Authorities said this week that 100,000 households whose crops were washed away like Kamenyas will receive free maize seed, potato vines and ground nuts so they can grow food to eat. Democratic and Republican lawmakers had sharply differing reactions to Thursday's release of special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted Russia report and what steps, if any, Congress should take next. Investigators determined no one on Trump's campaign knowingly conspired with Russians in Moscow's 2016 election interference, however they declined to exonerate the president on charges that his actions obstructed justice. In a statement, Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe described Mueller's report as "a lot of nothing: no collusion, no obstruction" and accused Democrats of "an effort to smear the president." Democrats, meanwhile, pledged to continue examining Trump's actions. "The special counsel made clear that he did not exonerate the president, and the responsibility now falls to Congress to hold the president accountable for his actions," the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, said at a news conference. "Congress must get the full unredacted report, along with the underlying evidence uncovered by special counsel Mueller." Democrats highlighted portions of the Mueller report documenting contacts between Trump's inner circle and foreign operatives bent on damaging the president's 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, by hacking and releasing sensitive emails from her campaign. They also noted the report's documentation of instances where Trump sought to thwart the Russia probe. "Mueller shows collusion, but perhaps not criminal collusion," California Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman tweeted. "Collusion in dissemination [of emails], but not in the hacking. And Mueller show lots of criminal obstruction." Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania tweeted that a thorough examination of the Mueller report "will not change what we already know: Russia attacked our election in 2016, [and] President Trump and his closest aides and allies welcomed that attack." "This report is far from the end of the inquiry that this country needs and deserves," Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said. Republicans, meanwhile, focused on the special counsel's bottom line: no recommendation of charges against Trump. "Nothing we saw today changes the underlying results of the 22-month-long Mueller investigation that ultimately found no collusion," House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement. "Democrats want to keep searching for imaginary evidence that supports their claims, but it is simply not there." That view was echoed by the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "The special counsel's 22-month investigation found no Americans conspired with Russia to interfere in our elections and Democrats' accusations of criminal obstruction are unfounded," Georgia Rep. Doug Collins said in a statement. Earlier in the day, Nadler released a letter requesting that Mueller testify before the panel "as soon as possible." At a news conference, Attorney General William Barr indicated he had no objection to Mueller appearing before Congress, a stance some Republicans applauded. "If Mr. Mueller were to testify, it could give Congress and the American people another opportunity to better understand the facts and conclusions he reached during his investigation," Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said in a statement. Some lawmakers urged the American people to weigh in, as well. "I'm reading it [the Mueller report]. More importantly, the American people should read the report for themselves and draw their own conclusions," Maryland Democratic Senator Ben Cardin tweeted. Cardin noted that the report contains alarming information about Russian efforts to undermine American democracy. "We have an obligation to protect our country from Russia and others who would want to do us harm, including trying to twist our system for their own purposes," he said. Inhofe echoed the concern. "[T]he Mueller report did remind us of Russia's clear and persistent efforts to disrupt our democratic process," the Republican senator said, accusing Moscow of a continuing "effort to sow discord and distrust" within the American electorate. The United States is implementing tough new measures to crack down on Cuba and to discourage its support for President Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela. In a major policy reversal, the Trump administration is allowing U.S. citizens to sue foreign companies and individuals who use property in Cuba confiscated from them decades ago by the communist government of then-Cuban leader Fidel Castro. VOA's Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department. Special Counsel Robert Muellers report on Russian interference in the 2016 election concludes that Moscow used two main operations to try to impact the vote: a social media campaign that favored then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and disparaged his opponent Hillary Clinton, as well as a hacking effort targeting Clinton that published stolen documents. While the investigation resulted in numerous guilty pleas by former Trump campaign associates for a variety of financial and other crimes, it did not find that any campaign officials knowingly conspired with Russian authorities to swing the election. However, the report did not exonerate the president of wrongdoing. Presidential testimony? The report details President Trumps actions toward the FBI and Special Counsel investigations that he routinely decried as a witch hunt, as well as the legal reasoning for whether or not his actions constitute obstruction of justice. The presidents lawyers declined requests for investigators to interview the president in person. Instead, they offered written answers to their submitted questions. WATCH: Mueller Report Raises New Questions About Trump Obstruction The Special Counsel team wrote, We viewed the written answers to be inadequate. But at that point, our investigation had made significant progress and had produced substantial evidence for our report. The team said that instead of waging a potentially lengthy legal battle to force the president to testify, we determined that the substantial quantity of information we had obtained from other sources allowed us to draw relevant factual conclusions on intent and credibility. After detailing the presidents actions and potential legal exposure, the report ultimately declines to conclude whether or not the president committed a crime.It does suggest that Congress should be the ultimate venue for determining a presidents actions are impeachable. The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the Presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law. Russia campaign links Investigators said they established that Russia believed it would benefit from a Trump presidency, and the Trump campaign believed it would benefit from the Russian hacking efforts. More than 100 pages of the report detail the numerous links and meetings between campaign officials and Russian individuals, starting soon after Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015. These links include Donald Trumps business discussions for a Moscow high rise tower that predated his presidential campaign, the contacts among various Trump campaign officials and Russian officials before his election victory, as well as the infamous June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower that involved Russian-government-linked authorities and top campaign officials. "Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the Campaign. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the Campaign officials shied away," the report said. After Trump won the election, investigators examined meetings involving former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and Trump allies including Steve Bannon and Erik Prince. Investigators detailed the substance of these meetings, but they said there was not enough evidence to support criminal charges. Among other things, the evidence was not sufficient to charge any campaign official as an unregistered agent of the Russian government or other Russian principal. 11 episodes scrutinized for obstruction The report did not offer the president exoneration on obstruction of justice charges. Nearly half of the report focuses on Donald Trumps actions during the course of the investigation and whether he abused his position to try to thwart the probe of his campaign. It highlights 11 separate episodes, including Trumps efforts to curtail the Special Counsels investigation and the termination of former FBI Director James Comey, which raise legal questions about the presidents conduct. The evidence we obtained about the President's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. The scrutinized episodes include the president asking subordinates to take steps to remove the Special Counsel and directing aides to take action to prevent the public disclosure of evidence. They also include the presidents public statements about members of his team who are under investigation. The report says the presidents actions included public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation. As the war in Yemen continues to inflict suffering on its millions of civilians, a Yemeni graffiti artist is taking her art to the streets of Sanaa to draw images of war and hunger in the conflict-torn country. Haifa Subay, 28, is weaponizing her art to disseminate messages of peace at home and to try to bring the world's attention to the toll that war has taken on Yemenis, particularly women and children. "I wanted to send a message of peace, a plea to stop the fighting and alleviate the suffering caused by the ongoing war," Subay told VOA from her home in Sanaa. Subay said her art campaign focuses on various humanitarian and social consequences of the conflict, including famine, land mines, displacement, child soldiers, child marriage and domestic violence against women. She chose Sanaa's most populated areas to make sure her striking art is seen by as many people as possible. 'Just a Leg' One of her popular works, called "Just a Leg," shows a one-legged boy who is holding his amputated leg, the result of a land mine accident. Another artwork, "Child of Bones," portrays a mother holding her malnourished son. "All of my murals are of real people and real situations," Subay said, and each one "has a story behind it representing an aspect of the conflict. My favorite mural is of the child victim of land mines holding a leg he lost in an explosion." The war in Yemen started in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in support of the internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-aligned Houthi rebels staged a takeover of Sanaa and large swaths of Yemeni territory. Since then, the conflict has morphed into a proxy war between neighboring Saudi Arabia and Iran. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a database tracking violence in the country, the conflict has, since early 2016, caused 67,600 deaths; 7,000 of those victims were civilians. The United Nations has warned that Yemen is facing the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis, with two-thirds of all districts in the country in a "pre-famine" state and an estimated 80 percent of the population in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Yemeni women The agency said women and girls are paying the heaviest price in the conflict, with many being prevented from going to school or even having access to public spaces. According to a report released in February by the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), the conflict has forced about 4.3 million Yemenis to flee from their homes, with almost half of the displaced being women and girls under age 18. "With limited shelter options, displaced women and girls tend to suffer most from lack of privacy, threats to safety and limited access to basic services, making them ever more vulnerable to violence and abuse," UNFPA reported. As a female artist, Subay said she wanted to use her work as a tool to express women's suffering due to the war and their abilities to make positive change when they are given an opportunity. "When I started painting on the walls of my city, some people were surprised by seeing a woman drawing graffiti on the street. But my illustrations of war touch the hearts of every Yemeni," Subay told VOA. "With time, the gazes of surprise have turned into support and encouragement," she said, adding that she has been able to change the attitude of many toward women's abilities. Similarly, she hopes her murals can also help promote peace and respect for civilian lives as warring sides seek a compromise to end over four years of war. Peace talks The Saudi-backed government and Iran-backed Houthis reached a U.N.-backed cease-fire agreement in December that demanded all parties pull back from the main ports and parts of the strategic city of Hodeida. The agreement, however, fell short of its goals as the parties started accusing each other of using the cease-fire to prepare for war. The U.N. on Monday said efforts were under way to get the warring parties to the negotiating table again. "I hoped for a peace that alleviates the suffering of Yemenis, but my hope is fading as the conflict is deepening my people's agony. ... My country's grave suffering is a wound in my heart," Subay said. U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will hold a news conference Thursday morning regarding special counsel Robert Muellers report, the Justice Department announced. A redacted version of the nearly 400-page report by Mueller, on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election that was aimed at helping Donald Trump win the presidency, will be delivered to Congress between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. EDT (UTC 1500-1600). Democrats: Barr spinning report Democratic lawmakers immediately criticized the announcement, saying Barr was trying to spin the reports findings before its release. Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jerrold Nadler of New York held a news conference late Wednesday to say Barr is taking unprecedented steps to spin the report. Nadler said Barrs decision to hold a news conference before Congress has received the report will again result with the report being presented through his own words. He said it appeared that the attorney general is waging a media campaign on behalf of President Donald Trump rather than working in the interest of the American people. White House conversations Nadler was reacting to a report by The New York Times that White House lawyers have had numerous conversations with Justice Department officials about the report. The Times, quoting unnamed sources, said the conversations have helped the White House prepare its rebuttal and strategize its response. The Justice Department and the White House declined to comment on the report. Nadler said he will probably find it useful to call Mueller and his team to testify before his committee. In a radio interview Wednesday, Trump floated the idea that he, too, may hold a news conference. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a press conference, maybe Ill do one after that, well see, Trump said in an interview with WMAL Radios Larry OConnor. Russia investigation Mueller investigated the Trump campaigns contacts with Russia and whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe. Sparring over the report in advance of its release has been rampant. Barr released a four-page summary of Muellers findings three weeks ago, saying the prosecutor had concluded that Trump and his campaign did not collude with Russia to help him win but had reached no conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice. But with Mueller not reaching a decision on the obstruction issue, Barr and Rosenstein decided no obstruction charges against Trump were warranted. One of the dominant stories in the two-year presidency of Donald Trump moves into a new phase Thursday with the public release of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into allegations of election collusion and obstruction of justice. Attorney General William Barr commented about Muellers report at a morning news conference, with copies being sent a short time later to Congress and then posted online. Congress and the American people will for the first time see for themselves in detail what Mueller examined as he and his team of federal investigators worked to determine whether Trumps campaign or its associates worked with Russia in its efforts to interfere with the 2016 election that brought Trump to power. U.S. intelligence agencies in early 2017 assessed that Russia, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, carried out a campaign to undermine the vote and had a clear preference for Trump to win. Lightly redacted People familiar with the 400-page Mueller report who spoke to the The Washington Post and The New York Times said the document released Thursday will be lightly redacted and go into great detail about the various allegations of Trump obstructing the federal investigation into Russias election-related activities. Barr has released a short letter with his summary of Muellers findings, most notably that Trumps campaign did not collude with Russia and that in Barrs opinion the information from Mueller did not show enough to support charges the president obstructed justice. The Mueller report would have been scrutinized in great detail even without Barrs letter, but many will be looking to see how his conclusions appear when compared to the more complete underlying information that will be available to the public. Congressional Democrats are expected to use subpoena powers to demand the full report. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Wednesday that assuming the report is heavily redacted, his committee would most certainly issue subpoenas in very short order. Barr will be joined at his news conference by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who for much of the Mueller investigation was the one overseeing the probe at the Department of Justice. No one from Muellers team will take part in the briefing. Trump said Wednesday he was considering holding his own news conference Thursday. Speaking on The Larry OConnor Show on the local radio station WMAL, Trump said, Youll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a news conference. Maybe Ill do one after that; well see. Spinning the report Nadler and the heads of key House committees strongly objected to the way the reports release is being handled, saying Barrs media appearance is unnecessary and inappropriate, and appears designed to shape public perceptions of the report before anyone can read it. They called for Barr to cancel his news conference. But Georgia Congressman Doug Collins, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, defended Barr, accusing Democrats of trying to spin the report. In addition, The New York Times reported Barr consulted with White House lawyers in recent days about the report, which helped Trumps legal team in its preparations to respond to the release. Nadler, along with the heads of the House intelligence, oversight, financial services and foreign affairs committees, said in a letter, There is no legitimate reason for the department to brief the White House prior to providing Congress a copy of the report. These new actions by the attorney general reinforce our concern that he is acting to protect President Trump, they wrote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the attorney general had thrown out his credibility with a single-minded effort to protect Trump. The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin, she said on Twitter. This is not the end Whatever Congress and the public learn Thursday, the issues covered in the report are certain to endure in U.S. political discourse in the short term, with Barr scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1, followed by an appearance at the House Judiciary Committee the next day. Nadler has also said he will "probably find it useful'' to call Mueller and his team to testify before his committee. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a statement early Thursday calling for that to happen. "We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsel's investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible. The American people deserve to hear the truth," the Democratic leaders said. Looking to the longer term, it is highly unlikely the investigation will fade to irrelevance before the next presidential election in November 2020. In one measure of public demand for the information, several publishers are offering people the ability to purchase printed copies of the report, and pre-orders alone on Amazons website ranked among the sites top 100 in book sales before the report was even released. What have long been public are the legal ramifications of Muellers probe. Trump associates in jail Some of the closest figures in Trumps orbit pleaded guilty or were convicted of a range of offenses, often for lying about their contacts with Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign or just before he took office in January 2017. Trumps first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with Russias then-ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, just before Trump assumed power, and is awaiting sentencing. A low-level foreign affairs adviser, George Papadopoulos, was jailed for 12 days after he pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his Russia contacts. Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort is in the early stages of a 7-year prison term after being convicted and pleading guilty in two cases linked to financial corruption from his years of lobbying for pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. Rick Gates, a business associate of Manaforts and his deputy on the Trump campaign, was a key witness against Manafort at his trial, after pleading guilty to conspiring with him in financial wrongdoing from their years as lobbyists for Ukraine. He is awaiting sentencing. Trumps one-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to helping Trump make $280,000 in hush money payments to two women, an adult film actress and a Playboy model, to keep them quiet before the 2016 election about alleged decade-old sexual encounters they claimed to have had with Trump. Cohen, headed soon to prison for a three-year term, also admitted lying to Congress about the extent of Trumps efforts during the 2016 campaign to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow, a time when candidate Trump was telling voters he had ended his Russian business ventures. Long-time Trump adviser and friend Roger Stone is awaiting trial on charges that he lied to Congress about his contacts with the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in conjunction with the release of emails hacked by Russian operatives from the computers of Democratic officials that were damaging to Trumps 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. In addition, Mueller also charged 13 Russian nationals with trying to influence the 2016 election by tricking Americans into following fake social media accounts with material favorable to Trump and against Clinton. Another dozen Russian military intelligence officers were charged with the theft of the emails from the Democratic officials. None of the Russians is ever likely to face a trial in the U.S. because the two countries do not have an extradition treaty. Juhyun Lee contributed to this report. SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA North Korea has tested a new tactical guided weapon, the latest display of Pyongyangs military capabilities, state media reported Thursday. Kim Jong Un supervised and guided the Wednesday test, calling it an operation of very weighty significance, the official Korean Central News Agency said. The KCNA report did not elaborate on the type of weapon tested, but the phrase tactical suggests it is not a ballistic missile. Still, the test could be seen as a warning to the United States, amid an impasse in talks over North Koreas nuclear program. Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day, and that his regime is becoming frustrated with Washingtons lack of flexibility in recent negotiations, says Harry Kazianis, director of Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest. A U.S. military official said late Wednesday the Pentagon is aware of the reported test, but has no further comment. North Korea has not carried out a nuclear or long-range missile test for well over a year, since Kim began talks with the United States and South Korea. Instead, the North has carried out smaller provocations. In November, Kim oversaw the test of what KCNA also referred to as a newly developed high-tech tactical weapon. U.S. officials later played down the significance of that test. Stalled talks Nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea have been stalled since a February meeting in Hanoi between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump ended in no deal. Trump wants Kim to completely abandon his nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief. Kim has only offered limited steps toward denuclearization. Last week, Kim said he was open to another summit with Trump, but warned he would only give the U.S. until the end of the year to change its approach to the negotiations. A North Korean official said last month that Kim is considering resuming missile tests and pulling out of the talks with the United States. What did North Korea test? It isnt clear the weapon North Korea tested Wednesday was even a missile. KCNA referred only to a tactical guided weapon. Regardless, the weapon doesnt appear to have been nuclear-capable, since usually such arms are referred to as strategic, rather than tactical. The design indexes of the tactical guided weapon, whose advantages are appreciated for the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead, were perfectly verified at the test-fire conducted in various modes of firing at different targets, KCNA said. It is likely to be a new cruise missile with a limited range, says Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea specialist at Seouls Institute for Far Eastern Studies. If it is a cruise missile, then it has no relevance with the current sanctions. Existing sanctions only apply to ballistic missiles. Increase in provocations? Even though North Koreas latest test is not likely a ballistic missile, it is still meant to send a message to Trump, said Vipin Narang, a nuclear expert and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The test amounts to calibrated signaling to remind us where things can go if we dont moderate our negotiating position, Narang says. It isnt clear how Trump will respond to North Koreas latest test. Earlier this week, Trump said talks with North Korea are moving along just perfectly. Meanwhile, commercial satellite photos from last week showed increased activity at North Koreas main nuclear site, according to a U.S. research organization. The Center for Strategic and International Studies noted the presence of five specialized railcars at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. In the past, these specialized railcars appear to have been associated with the movement of radioactive material or reprocessing campaigns, the report said. Also Wednesday, Kim carried out a public inspection of a military unit for the first time in several months, reviewing a flight exercise of the Korean Peoples Army. Kim is expected to meet next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin. With U.S. negotiations stalled, Kim is likely to push Putin to provide economic aid and sanctions relief. MHONDORO-NGEZI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will in coming weeks name two new investors who will develop separate platinum mining projects west of the capital as the country ramps up mining output in an attempt to ease a severe dollar shortage, the mines minister said on Wednesday The southern African nation has the second largest platinum deposits after South Africa and hopes to transform its economy by boosting investment in the mining sector. Winston Chitando said the two investors would be confirmed in the next few weeks, joining a sector where Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum already operate. Chitando, who was speaking at a function in Mhondoro Ngezi, 100 km west of Harare, where Cypriot Investor Karo Resources was giving an update on its $4.2 billion mining project, declined to give details. Zimbabwe has been introducing investor-friendly policies as part of President Emmerson Mnangagwas ambitions to transform the country into a middle-income economy by 2030. Last month, the government said it would scrap the controversial indigenisation law under which foreign companies are restricted to owning only 49 percent of their Zimbabwean operations. The mines ministry is also in talks with the Chamber of Mines about reviewing and streamlining mining taxes to make them more competitive, the president of the industry body said last week. Chatando said Zimbabwe expected mining export revenues to rise by nearly a third to $4.2 billion this year, stepping towards a target of $12 billion by 2023. The two new mining ventures would be situated in the Mhondoro-Ngezi platinum belt where Karo intends to start production next year and where Implats has the countrys biggest mining operation, Chitando said. Phoevos Pouroulis, CEO of Karo, said at the same function that exploration work was ahead of schedule and the company expected to confirm the underground platinum resources by the end of the year. Pouroulis is also CEO of South African miner Tharisa, which last year bought a 26.8 percent stake in Karo and a majority holding in a Zimbabwean chrome operation. Zimbabwes platinum is found on the Great Dyke belt, which stretches for more than 500 kilometers and contains an estimated 96 million ounces in platinum group metals, including platinum and palladium. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) Photo: Vulture The true-crime podcast universe is ever-expanding. Were here to make it a bit smaller and a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows, and each has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the noteworthy and the exceptional. Each week, our crack team of podcast enthusiasts and specialists will pick their favorites. To read the last edition, click here. Murder Under the Midnight Sun: The Fairbanks North Star Borough Serial Killer As of 2014, Alaska had 51 serial murder cases on their hands. Before we knew that, but while serial killer Robert Hansen was terrorizing Anchorage, there was another dude killing women in the states Fairbanks North Star Borough. The host of Murder Under the Midnight Sun unearths true crime stories youve probably never heard of, unless youre from Alaska, which makes this podcast a great listen for people who think theyve heard everything. Thomas Bunday, the serial killer in question, had the public so panicked and law enforcement so turned around that they sought out the advice of police in Atlanta, who had recently caught Wayne Williams (the Atlanta Child Killer). What they learned are some lessons we can all appreciate: 1) Dont depend too much on a criminal profile. 2) If you have a heart murmur, you might be able to use it to cheat on a polygraph test. 3) You can totally murder a lot of people and then go home to your family like everything is chill. And in case you need another reason to listen, Bob Ross has a connection to this case. (Yes, THAT Bob Ross.) Chanel Dubofsky Case Closed: The Funeral and the Van The second season of Macmillans true-crime podcast is based on Michael Fleemans book Crazy for You, about the murder of an Atlanta businessman named Rusty Sneiderman in 2019. I wasnt familiar with the case or the entire title of Fleemans book (A Passionate Affair, a Lying Widow, and a Cold-Blooded Murder), but thanks to the heavy foreshadowing in the first two episodes, I wasnt entirely surprised by the revelation that Hemy Neuman the boss of Sneidermans wife, Andrea was somehow connected to the mysterious van that Sneidermans murderer drove off in. I also appreciated the detail that Hemy had the chutzpah to attend Sneidermans funeral and take part in the Jewish ritual of shoveling dirt on top of the coffin. Even if he wasnt tied to the murder of the person in the coffin, hed still been making advances on the dead persons wife! An extreme shonde! What I like about Case Closed is its publishing bona fides its hosted by Charlie Spicer, executive editor at St. Martins Press, who has an incredible career in the true-crime-nonfiction genre, alongside Fleeman, who knows all of the ins and outs of the case. (The first season was co-hosted by author Shanna Hogan, and was based on her book Secrets of a Marines Wife.) Case Closed is being released weekly on iTunes, and the entire season is available on Stitcher Premium for subscribers. Jenni Miller Unclaimed: Yonkers Jane Doe Unclaimed is a podcast about Does, or the unidentified dead. Each episode examines the circumstances around a disappearance, and talks about efforts to identify the person in question. In the case of Yonkers Jane Doe, whose body was discovered in Yonkers, New York, in 1992, theres an actual recording of her killer confessing to her murder (kind of he claims he blacked out and that when he woke up, she was dead). Unfortunately, he didnt know her name and hes also dead now. In addition to interviewing Detective John Geiss of the Yonkers Police Department, Unclaimeds host, Karen Binder, talks to forensic artist Carl Koppelman, who creates facial reconstructions of the unidentified dead, about how exactly he does that (it turns out that being dead does a lot of weird stuff to your face), and about how his work led to the identification of Tammy Jo Alexander (Cali Doe). If you spend a lot of time on NamUS, or youre looking for a true-crime podcast that takes things to the next level, give Unclaimed a listen. Chanel Dubofsky Criminal: The Mail Honestly, you really cant do wrong with Radiotopias Criminal and its host/co-creator Phoebe Judge, and this weeks episode is no exception. The sexual harassment of Sarah Garone began when she was just 13, with a lewd printout in the mail, and it continued on and off until she was well into adulthood. It started out with dot-matrix printouts of porn and escalated to email hacking and worse. Now a freelance writer, Garone talked with Judge about her chilling experience and how investigators finally got to the bottom of this extremely creepy crime. Its also interesting because the sort of internet-based harassment and stalking Garone experienced was still a gray legal area, and in many ways still is. Jenni Miller They Walk Among Us: Season 3, Episode 40 Photo: mage 1.0.9 This case of intercontinental stalking (nicknamed the Manacled Mormon case) is so strange, Im rather baffled as to why Ive never heard of it before. (Perhaps you have?) As a student at Brigham Young University in the 1970s, Joyce McKenney showed early signs of inappropriate behavior toward men going so far as to allegedly stalk Osmond Brother Wayne until he became engaged to another woman and she lost interest. McKinney then set her sights on a new target: fellow student Kirk Anderson. What began as a consensual relationship between the two eventually devolved into kidnap and rape, with McKinney following Anderson all the way to England to supposedly free him from the bondages of Mormonism (and force him to impregnate her). This is the first part of a two-part episode, and it will be interesting to hear how this case played out in the courts, given the less-than-enlightened gender politics of the 70s. Amy Wilkinson Though the central alien trio in Roswell are all orphans, Michael is the only one who grew up without parents. When Max and Isobel were chosen, Michael was not. While they grew up with human parents who loved them, hes never had a home or a family or anything that felt like safety, and hes learned to survive that way. For the briefest moment with Alex he thought maybe he was safe until Jesse Manes showed up with a hammer to violently disabuse him of that notion and ever since, hes been on his guard, using his scars as armor like Liz uses her red lipstick. In tonights penultimate episode, he thinks maybe hes found safety again, when hes briefly reunited with his biological alien mom barely five minutes before shes vaporized into dust. Honestly, how dare this show? Before we fully delve into the emotional trauma of Michaels story line, lets check in with Isobel, whos reeling from the realization that her husband violated her body to commit the first of his 14 murders. When you put it that way, its yeah, Im going to just reiterate that all of these people should be in therapy now and forever. Noahs betrayal turns out to go even deeper than we realized after Isobel was attacked by the desert drifter in 2004, her traumatized and dissociative state was what allowed Noah to invade her brain. Every time she was triggered, she gave him more room to bond. Bleugggh. To be fair to Noah and this is perhaps the only time I will ever write that he had his own trauma. Unlike Max, Isobel, and Michael, who were in the upper deck of the Titanic section of the spaceship when it crash landed, Noah was down in steerage where the pods were flimsy and the stasis non-functional. As a result, he heard every miserable second of the genocide that ensued as Project Shepherds men slaughtered every alien they could. It sounds terrible, but my sympathy well for Noah ran dry pretty fast once he started trying to manipulate Isobels brain again, suggesting they could go back to the way things were and pretend this all away. Isobel takes a hard pass on that, and gives Max the green light to kill Noah. Meanwhile Alex, Michael, and Kyle take a road trip to Caulfield, the abandoned prison that turns out to essentially be Guantanamo for innocent people or more accurately, innocent aliens. There are dozens of elderly aliens who survived the crash, all of them shuffling around in varying stages of dementia after decades in captivity, and their bodies are covered in bruises, track marks, and other evidence of torture. Michael is horrified, feeling an instant connection to the prisoners, while Kyle realizes that his fathers cancer was caused by an interaction with one particular alien, Subject N38, who seems to be essentially radioactive. Even worse? He deserved it, Kyle says, deeply disturbed to realize that his father must have signed off on what was happening at Caulfield. And now for the full assault on our emotions: Michael realizes that the elderly woman gazing sadly at him from one of the cells is his mother, and tries desperately to smash the glass, which sets off the buildings self-destruct quarantine protocol. Alex refuses to leave without him (I dont look away, Guerin!) so Michael tries to force him to leave by telling Alex he doesnt love him, and though clearly upset, Alex doesnt budge. At that moment, Michaels mom forges a momentary psychic connection with him, in which we get a pretty heartbreaking glimpse of the smiling young mother and son they could have been. She told me she loves me, and to run, says a shaken Michael, crying and holding onto Alex, who finally drags him out just before the building explodes. Given what hes just been through, Michael doesnt respond kindly when he arrives home to find Max about to use the serum to kill an already weakened Noah. Michael refuses to let another alien die, but as he approaches Noah with the antidote, Max points a gun at him. As if hed ever lift a finger to harm either of his siblings. Nobodys buying it, Max! Other Notes: There is a long list of options, but I think Noah calling Max Maximo may be the thing that I hate most about him. Liz is serving up Crash Browns and Flying Sauce at the diner again now that her studys funding has been cut. Its both sad for her (I have three degrees) and a joy for us, because the nostalgia factor of that uniform never gets old. You do run hot, Guerin. Mm-hmmmmm. Is there anything Alex Manes is not perfect at? Hes a master hacker, a decorated soldier, and he can casually disarm a man holding him at gunpoint. And I am not necessarily complaining. Also he has a beagle! So according to Noah, the three-point symbol is a map. A map to their home planet? Or maybe to the locations of other crash landings on earth? Other key plot news: during a run-in with his brother, a fellow soldier and anti-alien zealot crafted in their fathers image, Alex learns that Project Shepherd is literally building a wall! This wall is in space, and its a thermobaric ordinance designed to protect the earth from alien threats, but its probably also going to put a real dampener on Michaels plans to leave the planet. When she caught a glimpse of your truth, she was too smart to love you. When Rosa was pulling away from Isobel in those flashback scenes to 2008, she was actually pulling away from Noah and his sinister obsession with her. She may not have known exactly what was going on, but she had good enough instincts to know something was off, and Noah killed her for rejecting him, another supernatural moment on this show that reflects a real and painful truth. Oof, poor Cam deserved better than this. Its not really surprising that underneath all of her steely talk about Max being just a scratching post shes developed feelings for him, but her taking the fall for what happened outside the gala is rough. Its also not particularly satisfying that this is all the payoff were going to get to her connection with Manes, and apparently to the Charlie storyline too. Jedis are psychic. Ive never actually see Star Trek. Wow, Kyle. Wow. The biggest unresolved question at the end of this episode (aside from Excuse me, Max, why in the holy hell are you pointing a gun at Michael?) is why certain aliens like Max, Isobel, and Michael were protected during the crash while others, like Noah, werent. Social stratification? Random luck? Frauleins, flatulent Frenchmen, and pigeon wagers, oh my! This is how memories are made. After a year and a half of planning and fundraising, four members of the Wahkiakum High School German Club and five chaperones traveled to Germany for an adventure that will stay with them forever. The four students, Seth Kuljis, Michael Mellis, Michael Martin, and Kaleo Silva, were accompanied by teacher Don Cox and his wife, Bob and Diane Garrett, and Kuljis' great aunt, Barbara. There were no plans to join a tour, and their first challenge came after they'd arrived at the Frankfurt airport and made their way to the train station. While Kuljis used language skills learned in Cox's German classes to help get sustenance for Bob Garrett, Cox found himself confused by the train system. A young woman wanting to practice her English walked over to help. Cox spoke to her in German, wanting to practice too, and between them, they sorted out that he wanted the white lines for arrivals and yellow ones for departures. The group took a bullet train from Frankfurt to Freiburg in the southern part of Germany, where they had plans to stay in a hostel. "We immediately ran into problems because the youth hostel had somehow gotten confused on the reservation arrangements," Cox said. The adults were fine, but the reservation had gone awry for two of the students. Their hosts initially offered to put them in a room with two women. The boys might have thought that was a terrific idea, but Cox? "I put the kibosh on that pretty quickly!" It all went down hill from there, as they say. "I think the most humorous thing to me was getting to a hostel in Freiburg and then finding out I was going to have to stay in a room with a random stranger for three days and then finding out that it was worse than I thought it was going to be," Silva said. The boys ended up sharing a room with a French cook named Martin, who Silva described generously as "unpleasant." Martin was an assault on all their senses. He would turn on the light at 2 a.m. when he returned from his evening's frivolities, and he'd do it without apology. He snored loudly, coughed and sneezed throughout the night, and woke up every half hour to blow his nose. Worst of all, he was flatulent. Thankfully, the boys had the days to take their minds off those few nights. Using Freiburg as a base camp, they spent one day in the city, traveled to Switzerland the next, and spent their final day wandering in the Black Forest. Another bullet train took the group of nine north to Heidelberg, where they spent another three days. They saw Heidelberg Castle, explored the city, and went to the Sinsheim technology museum. "The boys really liked their experience at the technology museum," Cox said. "It was full of airplanes and cars and world war equipment. It was an amazing museum." Originally, a cruise on the Neckar River was planned, but when they discovered they'd arrived before opening day, they went bowling and saw Shazam, dubbed in German, instead. The students had to buy their own plane tickets and get a passport, and the German Club raised over $2,000 from concession sales, a big rummage sale, donations, and from the sale of pens that Cox makes himself. The money that the German Club raises pays for all the in country expenses. Mellis and Martin each raffled off a cord of wood to help pay for their plane tickets. Cox teased Mellis. "He was the only one who was able to make a girlfriend on the trip," Cox said. The fraulein was heard telling her friend about her newest friend as they passed, "That's my boyfriend!" Then she grinned at Mellis and said "Hi Cowboy!" The food was a hit, but the boys also enjoyed the Sinsheim technology museum and the Heidelberg Castle. "I really liked Heidelberg Castle," Kuljis said. "It was really cool. The history was cool, how it started out so small and then expanded over time. All the different additions. You can see this facade from the 1500s and another from the 1600s and see the difference. Kuljis's great aunt Barbara was one of the chaperones. She insists she never gets lost, but the boys are not so sure. "We were walking home from one of our trips," Kuljis said, "and she decides to go off on her own. We chased her as she went off in the wrong direction. She goes to different countries all the time. How does she make it back from these countries she goes to? How is she making it back alive?" Mellis was tickled watching Michael Martin chase pigeons. They have Silva to thank for Martin's antics. "I told Michael that if he could catch a pigeon with his bare hands and bring it back to me alive before we left, I would give him 10 euro," Silva said. "If he didn't catch a pigeon he owed me five euro. "Finally, I think even you got too embarrassed by his antics and called it off," Cox said. "We wondered what people thought of this group walking down the street with this guy trying to catch all these pigeons," Kuljis said. That wasn't the only thing that Michael Martin got up to. On a bridge where lovers left padlocks declaring their enduring love, Michael set about trying to pick locks. Fortunately he failed and all that love survived another day. This is the fifth time I've done this," Cox said. "We hit the ground running. These guys were active, engaged. They wanted to experience this. On the downside, we were on a bullet train with Germany breezing by and they were looking at their phones." The boys had a good time. They got to practice their German language skills, and they built up some confidence and hope to travel again. Two years from now, when the German Club heads overseas again, some of them would like to chaperone. Skamokawa News WET/CHANGES COMING--We have certainly had some wet and breezy days lately, which also came with some heavy squalls of hail, but thankfully, our forecasters are telling us that we're supposed to be getting some sunshine for several days. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I truly hope that's one forecast that's spot on, as these April showers are getting a bit depressing! SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from April 18-24 are Linda Mahitka, Max Schmitz, Marie Allen, Alyssa Braman, Susan McClain Kuhn, Jeri (Terpsma) Pierce, Nancy Granger, Mike Lawrence, Tawnya Paine, Esther Cothren, Peter Vik, Jared Vik, Fern Holmes, Lisa Cothren, Eric Bergseng, Rochelle Wallin, Steven M. Doumit, Seth Doumit, Sarah Doumit Agidins, Delaney Doumit, Emma Helms, Macie Helms- Masterson, Rachael LaBerge, Nathan Frink, Gwen Good Ronninghaug, Glenn Palmer, Sue Shane Edminster, Joel Peterson and 67'ers Greg Lloyd and Sandra Davis. Those celebrating anniversaries this week are Ed and Nancy Granger and Mr. and Mrs. Mike Walker. May all your special days be memorable. ADDITIONS--It won't be long and our family will add another anniversary to the list, as Dawn Pedersen Macchione and Obed Rodriguez became engaged recently while on the west side of the Mississippi. No wedding date has been announced yet, but we want to send them our hearty congratulations on their engagement. I have to tell you that the "sparkly" on her finger was just about as impressive as the Grand Canyon in the background of her engagement photo! Also, we've got a couple new babies on the way, as Gabriel and Annie Pedersen will welcome another little boy to their family the third week in May. Their new son will be joined by their son, Luke, so I hope he enjoys his new role in the family as the big brother. Krystal Ellison Zickefoose and her husband, Jonathan, are expecting a new baby soon as well, so, we're happy to see that the Jonas Pedersen clan is still continuing to grow. BINGO THIS FRIDAY--It's time to win your ham dinner or maybe some other prizes, as Easter Bingo will take place at the Wahkiakum County Fairgrounds this Friday evening beginning at 6 p.m. You'll be playing bingo in the nicely heated Youth Building and you could possibly be the winner of the grand prize, which is a 42-inch flat screen TV and tickets are a dollar apiece for that; cool! Cards are three for $10. Come down and have some fun and support your local fair at the same time. MOVIE NIGHT--The free movie night at the Community Center in Cathlamet will be a comedy suited for everyone, and it will begin at 7 p.m. Besides the movie being free, there is free popcorn and you're allowed to bring your own snacks. The center is located to the right of the Cathlamet Market on Main Street and everyone is welcome to attend these movies, but children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Please be sure to check inside to find out if the movie being shown that week is appropriate for the youngsters. There appears to be a whole host of new folks in our area, so if I sound like I'm repeating myself, it's not because I don't think you regulars don't know about these things, but it's for the newer folks to our area who are just trying to figure out where they can go and what they can do and where various things are located. EASTER HUNT AND MORE--This Saturday is a big day for all you kids, as the Wahkiakum Lions Club's annual Easter Egg Hunt will take place at Skamokawa Vista Park at 11 a.m., and you don't want to be a minute late, as once that whistle blows, those kids scour the fields for those eggs and pick them clean in no time! As always, there will be prize eggs in the different sections as well, so rain or shine, be here and enjoy a bit of fun. There are three different age categories and sections for this Easter Egg Hunt and they are: starting with the tiniest kids up to age 3; then 4 to 7 year olds and lastly 8 to 11 years olds. Have fun rain or shine! FAIRGROUNDS--So after the WLC hunt at Vista Park, be sure to head over to the county fairgrounds and enjoy a lunch there, as well as a carnival that's sure to be enjoyed by the kids. Then, according to Lore Twiet, there will be another Easter Egg Hunt, and this one even includes one for the adults, and that starts at 3 p.m., so that should be fun! It's going to be a hoppin' good time to be in Skamokawa over the next Friday and Saturday! FOS--Don't forget, a new art exhibit is being shown in the River Life Interpretive Center at the historic Redmen Hall/Central School building in Skamokawa, milepost 29. Also, that evening, the "Skamokawa Swamp Opera" will hold a fund raiser there at 7 p.m., so it will be a fun evening at the hall! WCHS NEXT MONDAY--If you'd like to volunteer as a docent at our local museum, the Wahkiakum County Historical Society would love to have you show up at the museum at 65 River Street in Cathlamet on Monday, April 22 at 1 p.m. Curator, Kari Kandoll, will be there to train you on the various duties that you have and how things are done and where things are. This training is for those who have been docents before, as well as newcomers. There have been a few changes, so it's nice to get everybody on the same page as the museum opening is coming soon. Please don't be intimidated by the things to do because most of it is pretty doggone easy, and there's a very nice booklet there to help remind you in case you were to forget something. Being friendly is a big plus, as we certainly want to welcome others into our gem of a museum, and with a little luck, they'll not only love it, but help support it by making a donation to it! While the name would suggest it is a county entity with county money for support, it is not, so the financial burden is all on WCHS. If you'd ever like to help out, please send your donation to the above address. SK. WATER MTG--For all of you concerned about the proposed water line extension plan by the PUD, don't forget that next Thursday, April 25, there will be a public meeting held at the Skamokawa Grange Hall at 6 p.m. If you have any questions or concerns, now is the time for anyone who is currently on that system or might be impacted by the expansion of it, to show up. Be sure to spread the word to your friends and neighbors, just in case they haven't heard about it. GREAT SEND OFF--This past Sunday, April 14, friends, family and community members came together at the River Mile 38 Brewery for a wonderful send-off party for our local gal, Miss Evelyn Clark, the current reigning Miss Washington, as she heads to Reno for the Miss USA competition. It was elbow to elbow in the brewery as well wishers signed in, had a bite to eat, had a tasty piece of cake and got to pose with pictures with Evelyn. What a great party and I know she really appreciated the showing of support from everyone. We wish this hard working, gorgeous (inside and out) young woman only the best in her quest on becoming the next Miss USA. You can bet that if it were up to us, she'd be the winner. Go Evelyn! NICE PARTY--Stephanie Olsen was the guest of honor at a terrific birthday party this past weekend at the Duck Inn lounge, complete with live music. With lots of friends and family around, the super spunky, on the go, fun loving Stephanie was able to celebrate seven decades like a 21 year old, so kudos to her! Sherrolin Powell celebrated her big 7-0 birthday with a trip to Bandon, OR, so it's looking like the ladies know how to enjoy these milestone birthdays. SO TRAGIC--As this week began, we saw the horrendous pictures of the distruction caused to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris due to a massive fire. It was truly heart breaking to see parts of that historic structure going up in flames. As of this writing they had saved the towers and main part, so I hope that stays true as the day comes to an end. It was sad that there appeared to be so few fire hoses pouring water on this massive structure, as even here in our neck of the woods, we have multiple tankers and trucks show up for a small house fire. I'm sure there were more that we couldn't see, but still, it makes one think about where one builds a home, or where one currently lives and how ready and prepared we truly are in case something like that happened here. Ask yourself a couple of questions: Have I done all I can to remove the excess fuel from around my home, like having wood piles off your porches or away from an entryway? Are there hydrants nearby? If no hydrants, are there alternative water sources close by, such as a creek, stream or river that could be used? Do you have enough room for access to your home for a fire truck or other fire fighting equipment? Do you have fire alarms in your home and fire extinguishers too? With summer coming on, this might be a good time for all of us to think about protecting our own homes and surroundings, as none of us are immune to these kinds of disasters. HEAVY HEARTS--This week began with very sad news, as a Cowlitz County police officer, Justin DeRosier, lost his life in the line of duty. Our hearts go out to the family members, two of which were his wife and five month old daughter. We also feel for his fellow officers, who are also his family and with a force that's not had an officer involved death in 165 years, it's bound to be even more impactful. Words cannot fully express how badly we feel for this fallen officer's immediate family, but they certainly have my sincerest sympathies. I believe we are all relieved that the suspects in this case have been captured and dealt with in such a timely manner. Random discovery took place in grounds of Rome's Corsini palace. Rome archaeologists have presented the well-preserved remains of a ancient Roman workshop with large-scale furnace, or kiln, used in the commercial production of glazed ceramics and tableware, at Palazzo Corsini in the city's Trastevere district. The hidden treasure, complete with earthenware bowls, pots and kitcheware, was discovered under the lawn in the grounds of the 18th-century Palazzo Corsini which, in addition to hosting the Accademia dei Lincei, a prestigious science academy, is home to Galleria Corsini, Italy's national gallery of ancient art. The site dates from the first to the third century AD, possibly even to the fifth century, and archaeologists say that one of the most important aspects of the find is that it shows a "continuum of four, five centuries." Archaeologists uncovered brick walls, a brick-lined channel - possibly to regulate the flow of water into Trastevere from the Gianiculum hill - and scores of amphorae from Spain. They also found ancient lamps and items made of bone, including clasps and hair clips that still partially function, suggesting the presence of other artisan workshops.The extraordinary find came about completely by chance about a year ago when workers were searching for a place to install the cistern for the palace's anti-fire sprinkler system. Instead they stumbled upon the remains of a ancient complex whose intact state after almost 2,000 years has astonished archaeologists.The find, described as "unique", is all the more unusual given that the complex has lain undisturbed over the centuries in an area that has been continually occupied since ancient times. The excavation was made possible thanks to the allocation of 100,000 from Rome's archaeological superintendency however the vice-president of the Accademia dei Lincei Roberto Antonelli says "a financier" would be required to make the project visible to the public on a permanent basis. The precious discovery will soon be reburied, for its protection, but in the meantime the public has a few days to glimpse into an ancient world. But Fritz said the ongoing U.S. trade disputes have had an impact on grain shipments, which dropped 7 percent in the quarter. Fritz said its important for Congress to act soon to approve the new North American trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico. He also hopes the trade dispute with China can be resolved. Limestone is a key building element of the structure, and stone is susceptible to damage from heat and water. There may have been some damage to the stone, even the places that currently appear to be intact . . . because of the weaknesses of the material, Martini said. Thats a big unknown. . . . I dont think anybody knows the extent of that damage. Theres an argument for starting this narrative that early, but its a complicated one as is the show itself. Votes for Women marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment (passed by Congress in 1919 but not ratified until the following year), and yet its more than a simple celebration of a milestone. Curator Kate Clarke Lemay takes care to clarify some of the ways in which the promise of womens suffrage was left unfulfilled long after 1920. This is not part of some kind of concentrated affirmative-action effort at least not entirely. Even the shows about white people are getting awfully specific these days when it comes to matters of identity and individuality: HBOs recently canceled Crashing, for example, was indeed another dramedy about a male stand-up comedian, but he was a practicing Christian with values that contradicted his chosen milieu. Hulus Shrill is about an overweight woman discovering the exhilarating power in self-worth. Netflixs Special is about a gay man with cerebral palsy and an active sex life. Stare hard enough, or skim quickly enough, and you could see either damnation or deliverance in the report. The takeaway for President Trump and his supporters was spelled out in black and white: The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. But then there was the part about how the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, and how Trump engaged in efforts to curtail the Special Counsels investigation. On the day of Muellers appointment, in May 2017, for example, White House aides said Trump reacted calmly to the news. In fact, according to Muellers report, Trumps first reaction was anything but calm. According to notes taken by an aide, Trump responded by saying, Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im fucked. . . . This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. Violence against journalists is routine in some parts of the world, as are campaigns of government intimidation and online harassment, the group said. It said only 24 percent of the nations in its survey could be classified as good or fairly good in their treatment of the press, a slight decline from last year. As part of that agreement, the company admitted to making the hush-money payments to influence the election. Also as part of the arrangement, the company said it would not commit any crime for three years. Doing so could result in prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this office has knowledge, according to the agreement. She enjoys the challenge. You are standing on a boat that is moving, trying to capture a clear photo of an animal that is also moving, she said. Its super hard. Shes paid such careful attention, she estimates she can identify 350 whales just from seeing their patterns. Shes also seen the same whale in different places around the world. When I see a whale often, I give it a nickname, she said. There is one that I call Heart String. She has a marking that looks like a heart pendulum. On Monday, law enforcement agencies in Florida were warned about Pais, who lived with her parents in an upscale Surfside neighborhood about two blocks from the beach. By Tuesday morning, that information was passed on to the FBI, which began retracing the young womans footsteps. They found that she had purchased three one-way tickets from Miami to Denver: one for Monday, one for Tuesday and one for Wednesday. Pais had been on the Monday flight. She was already in Colorado. Just below those well-known schools was Lund University, with four of the worlds richest people. It is in Sweden. I had never heard of it, even though it is 211 years older than Harvard. The University of Mumbai, the University of Munich, the University of New South Wales and the University of Arkansas each had at least two graduates on the Forbes list. Officials also announced Wednesday a number of locations on higher ground in the town that people could use in the event of a flood. They are in talks with property owners to give the public access to those high points. The county also will provide businesses with signs showing how to access the points. The incident occurred around 1 a.m. at the officers home in Clinton, Prince Georges police spokeswoman Christina Cotterman said. Police were called to the 5000 block of Abilene Drive after an officer reported accidentally shooting himself, she said. It is my solemn duty to call a special session of the General Assembly in order to elect a successor to Speaker Busch, Hogan said in a statement. As we close a significant chapter in our states history, we will continue the critical work that Mike Busch dedicated so much of his life to doing. Among the other bills signed into law was a measure to increase the penalties on hate crimes and several legislative proposals from Hogan, including a bill that classifies human trafficking as a violent crime and another that increases the penalties for someone who is convicted of a drunken- or drugged-driving offense at least three times. Mr. McCord continued to deliver allegations of misconduct at high levels. In a May 1973 memorandum to Senate and other investigators, he wrote that he and the other burglars were pressured to falsely testify that the Watergate scheme was executed at the behest of the CIA an account that would have exculpated the reelection committee and one that he refused to give. Holmes was one of five siblings, each born about a year apart, who grew up in a close family in Capitol Heights, just over the District line in Maryland. The family home was a few blocks from where his sister had last seen him Saturday. Their father died in 1969, their mother in 2017. Their father was in the Air Force; the couple is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.